New York: The coronavirus outbreak could kill 100,000 to 200,000 Americans, the US government's top infectious-disease expert warned as smouldering hotspots in nursing homes and a growing list of stricken cities heightened the sense of dread across the country.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made the dire prediction of fatalities on CNN, adding that millions in the US could become infected.

By midafternoon on Sunday, the US had over 135,000 infections and 2300 deaths, according to the running tally kept by Johns Hopkins University, though the true number of cases is thought to be considerably higher because of testing shortages and mild illnesses that have gone unreported.

Worldwide, more than 710,000 infections were reported, and deaths topped 33,000, half of them in Italy and Spain, where hospitals are swamped and the health system is at the breaking point.
By IANS

NEW DELHI: Ace boxer and Rajya Sabha MP Mary Kom on Monday made contributions towards fight against coronavirus pandemic. The 37-year-old said she has given her consent for release of Rs one crore from her MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) Fund towards the relief efforts amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Taking to Twitter, Mary Kom also announced that she was donating her one-month salary to Prime Minister's National Relief Fund. She posted the pictures of both the letters and said: "Lets #StayHome #StayHomeStaySafe #IndiaFightsCorona."

Earlier in the month, the ace Indian boxer had found herself in a controversy after she broke the 14-day quarantine protocol which has been put in place by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the governments across the world.

Mary Kom, who had competed in the Asia-Oceania Olympic qualifiers in Amman, Jordan, had returned home March 13 and was supposed to be in self-isolation for a minimum of 14 days amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

However, on March 18, she attended the breakfast hosted by President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

ALSO READ| Virat Kohli, Anushka Sharma contribute to PM-CARES Fund for fight against COVID-19 pandemic

Former India opener and BJP MP Gautam Gambhir has also released Rs one crore out of his MPLADS Fund towards the relief efforts amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has so far claimed 29 lives in the country.

Various other sportspersons and organisations have contributed towards funds established for fight against coronavirus pandemic. More than 1000 confirmed coronavirus cases have been reported so far in India, which is under a 21-day lockdown since March 25.
Award winning dancehall artiste, Stonebwoy, has distributed free hand sanitizers to people in and around Ashaiman to prevent the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19).



Were giving out free sanitizers at the BHIM shop located at Ashaiman as our own way of contributing to stop the spread of COVID-19, Stonebwoy told Daily Guide.



The dancehall artiste, who is also the CEO of BHIM Nation, has asked residents of Ashaiman to contact BHIM shop for free hand sanitizers.



He urged Ghanaians to be supportive of each other during the COVID-19 outbreak.



According to him, the world is in its challenging time hence people need to stand together to fight the virus that does not discriminate between race and origin.



He added that Ghanaians should, however, not neglect the directives given by health officials.



Stonebwoy, last Saturday, won the Best African Reggae/Dancehall Entertainer award at the 38th International Reggae and World Music Awards (IRAWMA) held at the AC Marriott Hotel in Kingston in Jamaica.









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Standard Chartered is delighted to announce the appointment of Yvonne Gyebi as Head, Retail Banking. She will be responsible for leading the strategic business growth agenda for the retail business of the bank.



Yvonne joined the Bank in 2011 and has held various senior roles in Retail Banking. Prior to her appointment she was the Country Head, Commercial Banking and most recently, Value Centre General Manager for Retail Distribution, Priority and Digital Banking, where she deployed strategies to improve balance sheet growth and worked closely with the Regional and Country Digital Banking teams to implement the digital strategy including mobile client acquisition.



She started her banking career in 2005 as a Management Trainee through the Young Professional Programme with Ecobank. She is a graduate of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and holds an MBA in Finance & Information Systems from A.B Freeman School of Business, Tulane University in the United States.



Speaking on the appointment, Mansa Nettey, CEO Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Limited said, I am glad to welcome Yvonne to the Management Team. She is joining at a pivotal time in the Banks growth. As a bank, we are making banking easy and simple for our clients. I am confident that she will contribute to the acceleration of our digital agenda that is transforming our Retail Business.



Commenting on her appointment, Yvonne said, I am elated and look forward to improving the banking experience for our clients and commit to providing innovative solutions in line with our digital agenda that will make banking simpler and meet the lifestyle needs of our clients.



With almost 15 years experience in banking, she brings a considerable wealth of experience and depth to the role.

Source: Standard Chartered Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A Kashmiri political activist has denounced Pakistan for raking up the Kashmir issue at a critical time when the whole of the is fighting COVID-19 pandemic.

On Sunday, Pakistan's Foreign Office made public the contents of a letter written by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to the UN Secretary-General and the president of the United Nations Security Council on March 9 regarding what he described as the "dire" humanitarian situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sajjad Raja, Chairman of National Equality Party JKGBL, said all the sufferings of the Kashmiri people are due to Pakistani involvement in Kashmir and Pakistani sponsored 'Jihad' (holy war) and infiltration.

"It's ridiculous that when the whole is advising their citizens to stay at homes and self-isolate them in an effort to combat the outbreak of COVID-19, Pakistan is demanding that people in Kashmir Valley should roam free. This is yet another proof that Pakistan has no care for the lives and welfare of the people of Kashmir and she only plays to promote her heinous agenda in Kashmir," said Raja.

Sajjad Raja, who hails from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), further said that in Pakistani occupied areas of Jammu and Kashmir very stringent isolation rules have been imposed and Prime Minister of PoJK has even issued a warning that a curfew will be imposed to keep the people indoor, but in Kashmir Pakistan wants people to get out of their homes.

He added, "Theses double standards of Pakistan are now fully exposed and the pays no attention to Pakistani propaganda."

Sajjad Raja said that there were no human rights issues in Kashmir prior to 1989 when Pakistan started sending in armed militants and 'jihadis' (armed terrorists) into Kashmir Valley from Pakistan and this infiltration turned the Valley into a battlefield between Pakistani extremists and the defenders of democratic and secular values.

He said while Pakistan is writing a letter to the United Nations demanding to end the COVID-19 restrictions in Kashmir, in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, Police in Kotli have killed a youth named Zeeshan for violating the restrictions imposed by the government.

Sajjad Raja demanded a full inquiry into the circumstances which led to the death of a youth in Kotli and warned that all police officers involved in the killing of the youth must immediately be arrested and brought to justice.

He said that the police have refused to lodge FIR against the police officers and they are trying to bury the issue.

Sajjad Raja has warned that if the case is not registered against the Kotli police officers for the murder of Zeeshan, the National Equality Party will raise this issue at all international forums and will not let the issue die out.

The political activist said that Pakistan has turned the areas of Jammu, Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan under her occupation into a living hell and people have no constitutional, political, democratic, religious, civil and basic human rights there.

"Comrade Iftikhar has been imprisoned for 90 years, Baba Jan for 70 years and their many colleagues for over 50 years only for demanding the financial compensation to the victims of Attabad Lake and Pakistan is demanding to release the prisoners in Kashmir," said Raja.

"These double standards will not prevail anymore and the people of Jammu and Kashmir will never tolerate Pakistani involvement and interference into their affairs," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 22:14:11|Editor: huaxia

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A countdown clock shows the adjusted time remaining for the postponed Tokyo Olympic Games outside Tokyo station, in Tokyo on March 30, 2020. The Tokyo Olympic Games has been rescheduled to July 23 to August 8, 2021, organizers of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games announced on Monday. (Xinhua/Du Xiaoyi)

HONG KONG, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 infections in Japan rose to 1,926 on Monday as the country released the rescheduled date of the postponed Tokyo Olympics, while Indonesia recorded the highest death toll in Southeast Asia with 122 cases.

Japan's health ministry and local governments said 1,926 people had been infected with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Japan as of 6:30 p.m. local time on Monday, although Japan's top government spokesperson "categorically denied" a lockdown of cities was imminent.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were postponed last week over the growing COVID-19 pandemic, will be held from July 23 to Aug. 8 next year, Japan's local media reported.

The Indonesian government said on Monday the death toll of COVID-19 in the country climbed to 122, the highest in Southeast Asia, with the total number of confirmed cases jumping to 1,414.

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has sent a letter to Indonesia's central government to request a regional quarantine imposed in the city, local media reported.

Meanwhile, China will send a team of medical experts to the Philippines to help fight COVID-19, Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian said.

Huang said the main task of the medical expert team is to help the Philippines by providing technical advice on epidemic prevention and control, as well as sharing medical treatment experience.

Thailand's Ministry of Public Health on Monday reported 136 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the caseload in the country to 1,524.

A total of 37 people have died of the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia as of Monday with 156 newly confirmed cases, bringing the total to 2,626.

Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said the ministry was working to expand the number of beds and the next two weeks will be crucial to "flattening the curve" of new cases.

The Australian government has announced a six-month wage subsidy package to support the economy amid the COVID-19 crisis, taking the total value of economic stimulus measures beyond 200 billion Australian dollars (123.2 billion U.S. dollars).

Social gatherings have been limited to two people in key Australian states, as the number of COVID-19 cases nationally passed 4,000 and virus-related deaths reached 18.

Two Chinese foundations, the Jack Ma Foundation and the Alibaba Foundation, have donated medical supplies including N95 masks and test kits to Myanmar.

In India the death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 29 on Monday as the number of confirmed cases reached 1,071.

According to the Indian health ministry, 100 people have been discharged from hospitals after showing improvement.

Also on Monday South Korean President Moon Jae-in said his government decided to provide each four-person household in the bottom 70-percent income group with 1 million won (820 U.S. dollars) in its emergency disaster relief package over the COVID-19 outbreak.

South Korea reported 78 more cases of COVID-19 compared to 24 hours ago as of midnight Monday local time, raising the total number of infections to 9,661.

The Lao government has decided to close all international checkpoints for passengers exiting and entering Laos, with goods transport still permitted.

The measures were imposed from Monday to April 19 and changes could be made in accordance with further announcement.

The ninth COVID-19 case in Laos has been confirmed on Monday.

New Zealand reported 75 new confirmed and one probable case of COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the total number of confirmed and probable infections to 589.

There have been no additional deaths related to COVID-19 after the death of a woman in her 70s on Sunday, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield from the Ministry of Health told a press conference.

Vietnam's Ministry of Health on Monday confirmed six new cases of COVID-19 infection, all related to a Hanoi-based hospital, bringing the total in the country to 194.

The six patients are all Vietnamese workers having provided services to Bach Mai Hospital, where several staff and patients have been confirmed to be infected.
DENVER, March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pax8 , the best place to buy cloud solutions, today announced that it has received a 5-Star rating in its 2020 CRN Partner Program Guide . This annual guide identifies the strongest and most successful partner programs in the channel today, offered by the top technology suppliers for IT products and services. The 5-Star rating recognizes an elite subset of companies that offer solution providers the best partnering elements in their channel programs.



Pax8 is enabling the partner community to adapt and thrive in the modern channel through the Wingman Partner Program, said Ryan Walsh, chief channel officer at Pax8. We are honored the program has received elite, five-star status from CRN for the fourth consecutive year. As we help our partners navigate the changing IT landscape and re-imagine new business opportunities, we will continue to provide the tools and the roadmap to enable their long-term success.

The Wingman Partner Program simplifies the cloud buying journey for partners. The company delivers this through billing, automated provisioning, enablement training, leading PSA integrations, access to best of breed vendors, resources, and more. Pax8 offers education and enablement in the Mission Briefing and Bootcamp events and through tools like award-winning Pax8 Stax empowering partners to unlock more up-sell and cross-sell opportunities.

The Channel Companys research team analyzed each vendors partner program to compile this guide. Each was scored based on several factors, including investments in program offerings, partner profitability, partner training, education and support, marketing programs and resources, sales support, and communication. Based on that assessment, the partner program with Pax8 stands among the top technology suppliers in the IT channel, providing excellent value and support for solution providers.

With the speed and complexity of technology today, solution providers need partners that can keep pace and support their growing business, said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. CRNs Partner Program Guide features insight into the strengths and benefits of each companys program to identify those that truly support and drive positive change within the IT channel.

The 2020 Partner Program Guide will be featured in the April issue of CRN  and online at www.CRN.com/ppg .

To learn more about Pax8, please contact us at (855) 884-PAX8, email info@pax8.com , or visit www.pax8.com .

About Pax8

Pax8 is modernizing how partners buy, sell and manage cloud. As a born-in-the-cloud company, Pax8 simplifies the buying journey, empowering its partners to achieve more with cloud technology. The companys technology displaces legacy distribution by connecting the channel ecosystem to its award-winning transactional cloud marketplace. Through billing, provisioning, automation, industry-leading PSA integrations, and pre and post-sales support, and education, Pax8 is a proven disruptor in the market. In 2018, Pax8 was ranked number 68 on the Inc. 5000 and in 2019, the company was ranked number 60. If you want to be successful with cloud, you want to work with Pax8. Get started today at www.pax8.com .

Follow Pax8 on Facebook , LinkedIn , and Twitter .

About The Channel Company

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. To learn more, visit www.thechannelco.com .

The Channel Company logo is a trademark of The Channel Company, LLC (registration pending). All rights reserved.
Voter information for 4,934,863 Georgians has been published on a hacker forum over the weekend.

According to the data breach notification service Under the Breach, on Saturday a file containing voter information for more than 4.9 million Georgians, including deceased citizens, has been published on a hacking forum.

Georgia has 3.7 million citizens, but the voting population is around one third.

Data were included in a Microsoft Access database file of a 1.04 GB.

Exposed personal information includes full names, home addresses, dates of birth, ID numbers, and mobile phone numbers.

Under the Breach shared the database with the online media outlet ZDNet that analyzed it and confirmed the presence of 4,934,863 records, many of them belonging to deceased voters.

The database contained 4,934,863 records but was not kept up to date, as it also included details for millions of deceased voters  as can be seen from the screenshot below. reads the post published by ZDNet.

The user that published the file on the hacker forum claims it was originated from official government portal voters . cec . gov . ge , which is the government service that allows voters to verify and update their registration records.

At the time it is not clear how data was obtained by the users that published it.

Similar incidents already occurred in the past, in September experts discovered a huge data leak affecting Ecuador, maybe the largest full-country leak, that exposed data belonging to 20 million Ecuadorian Citizens.

In August 2019, voter information of more than 14.3 million Chileans, which accounts for nearly 80% of the population, was exposed on the internet due to an unsecured Elasticsearch database.

Pierluigi Paganini

( SecurityAffairs  Georgians voters, hacking)

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 30

By Elchin Mehdiyev  Trend:

The term of benefits for contributions to mandatory health insurance (MHI) for people working in the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan has been extended until January 1, 2022, Trend reports on March 30.

This issue was reflected in the proposed amendment to the law on medical insurance, which was discussed at plenary meeting of the Azerbaijani Parliament held on March 30.

To date, this deadline has been envisaged until January 1, 2021.

After discussions, the proposal was put to the vote and adopted.
President Moon/ Yonhap



By Do Je-hae



The government will provide up to 1 million won ($820) in disaster relief money per family as a part of measures to ease the financial burden of lower-income households struggling with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The government will draw up a supplemental budget bill in the coming weeks to deliver the cash relief.



President Moon Jae-in announced the measure while presiding over the third Emergency Economic Council (EEC) meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. This is the first time for the government to introduce a policy to financially support people's living costs during a national crisis.



The central government, in cooperation with local administrations, will provide the 1 million emergency payment to families with four or more members in the bottom 70 percent of the gross income index. A one-person household will receive 400,000 won, a two-person family, 600,000 won, and a three-member household, 800,000 won. About 14 million households will be eligible to receive the money, according to Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki.



Some local government chiefs such as Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung had called on the government and the National Assembly to consider a financial relief program for all citizens. But the government has decided to provide the emergency aid money to only a certain fraction of the population  those with lower incomes.



"This was not an easy decision. We went through a lot of meetings and discussions. Everyone in this country has suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic and participated in the quarantine measures. Every citizen deserves to be rewarded for their suffering and efforts," Moon said at the start of the meeting.



"However, the government needs to conserve as much in financial resources as possible to prepare for the unending economic shock and to respond quickly to job insecurity and corporate liquidity crises. For those who are more economically capable, I ask them to understand and make concessions for those who earn less."



The program will be financed through a second supplemental budget, in addition to the 11.7 trillion one which already gained National Assembly approval earlier this month. The government plans to request 7.1 trillion won; and with another 2 trillion won from local governments, the total amount of the relief fund will be 9.1 trillion won.



"The most important thing is prompt payment of the emergency disaster aid money. For this, we will quickly submit a second supplementary budget bill and seek to have it processed by the National Assembly this month after the general election, so the money can be provided before mid-May," Moon added.



In addition, low-income households, small business owners and the self-employed will either get reductions in or suspensions of monthly payments to four social insurance categories and electricity bills. The continuous monthly payments of four social insurances  the national pension, national healthcare insurance, employment insurance, and industrial accident compensation insurance  have been considered a huge burden for people struggling with reduced or stagnant wages amid the economic crisis triggered by COVID-19.



With the April 15 general election only weeks away, the opposition parties have not been actively supportive of the government's move to provide monetary aid, because they believe it would help the ruling bloc win more voter attention. However, they cannot actively oppose the move, either, because they agree on the need to support financially struggling citizens.



Moon's approval rating has been picking up due to rising public support for his response to the pandemic. A Realmeter survey published Monday showed that 52. 6 percent said he was doing a good job, a 3.3 percentage point increase from the previous week.


Concurs repetat pentru selectarea unei companii sociologice, care sa efectueze un studiu tematic "Barometrul opiniei publice in domeniul schimbarilor climatice"
Washington: President Donald Trump said the United States would not pay for security protection for Britain's Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, who, according to media reports, have settled in Los Angeles.

Trump wrote on Twitter that "now they have left Canada for the US however, the US will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!"

Heading for Los Angeles: Harry and Meghan. Credit:Getty Images

In January, the couple said they would step away from their royal duties.

However, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said they had no plans to ask the US government for help with security costs.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has reported fourteen new cases of coronavirus in the country, taking the total number of infections to 111.

According to the NCDC, nine new cases were confirmed in Lagos while five new cases were confirmed in Abuja.

READ ALSO: FULL SPEECH: Buharis Nationwide Broadcast On Coronavirus

Of the 111 cases confirmed in the country, one death has been recorded.

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NCDC said, Fourteen new cases of #COVID19 have been reported in Nigeria; 9 in Lagos and 5 in FCT

As at 09:30 pm 29th March there are 111 confirmed cases of #COVID19 reported in Nigeria with 1 death.
Piers Morgan once again hit out Prince Harry and Meghan Markle over the royal couple's decision to move to another country.

Morgan, known as one of those journalists who regularly blasts Harry and Meghan, dropped another tweet to denounce the two after they left the mansion they rented in Vancouver Island to travel to Los Angeles.

In a now-deleted Twitter update, the 54-year-old Good Morning Britain broadcaster shared a link of the article by the Sun's Dan Wooton about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex' relocation along with the caption: "Oh jeez...there goes the neighborhood."

A source confirmed this news to People, saying that the family-of-three no longer resides in the island due to coronavirus scare in Canada.

Previously, Morgan and his Good Morning Britain co-host Susanna Reid talked about the latest travel of Meghan and Harry to the U.K. and the fact that they did not bring their son Archie with them.

"Susanna [Reid] and Charlotte [Hawkins], on this issue of if Archie doesn't come on this trip - and we don't know for sure, maybe he will come - if he doesn't come... isn't it a bit odd?" the 54-year-old Piers asked his co-host.

Although Morgan also noticed the "odd" move, it has been clarified a long time ago that the royal couple's decision to leave their 10-month-old son was also due to the coronavirus scare.

However, despite doing all these things for their well-being and safety, Prince Harry and Meghan's latest bombshell revelation caused most of the journalist's 7.2 million followers to criticize the two as well.

Netizens Shared Their Thoughts

Although the reason behind the deletion of the tweet is still unknown, the comments on the tweet still exist up until now.

One follower said, "I like Harry but I just don't know why he is doing this. Such a shame. #ClapForTheNHS."

"I thought they were not moving here as long as Trump is President," another one wrote, referring to the time when Prince Harry called President Donald Trump "a president with blood on his hands" in a prank call by Russian hoaxers.

Meanwhile, even Meghan uttered something negative about Trump, saying that she would not move back to LA while Trump is president. The Duchess of Sussex also blasted the president back in 2016 for being "divisive" and a "misogynist" on Comedy Central's "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore."

In addition, mostof Morgan's followers posted a query about who will shoulder such expensive and abrupt move of the Sussexes.

To recall, the palace announced that Prince Harry and Meghan will "no longer receive public funds for Royal duties" as they have quit the royal family. As soon as their HRH titles were stripped from them, they lifted a burden from the taxpayers since the people no longer have to fund them.

In addition, the Sussexes' website already stated that Prince Charles' income from the Duchy of Cornwall will provide them 95 percent of their income. Meanwhile, the remaining 5 percent will no longer come from the taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant.
Pilot of helicopter that crashed heralded for 'miracle' landing

The crew of a Hagerstown-based helicopter and the juvenile patient they picked up in Chambersburg, Pa., are OK after a crash near Philadelphia.
Multilateral institution Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday announced a USD 100 million funding for the Indian infrastructure sector through the government-promoted NIIF.

The Manila-based body will be investing in the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund's (NIIF) fund of funds which will ensure that the actual money invested will be a few times more than the USD 100 million.

The investment announcement comes at a critical time for India, as the already sagging economic growth is feared to be taking a heavy hit due to the coronavirus pandemic.

ADB's commitment to NIIF fund of funds during these extraordinary and challenging times is highly meaningful, NIIF's managing director and chief executive Sujoy Bose said.

He added that the commitment should be seen as reflective of ADB's confidence in the continued growth and potential of the Indian economy, its skilled private equity fund managers and the large pool of determined entrepreneurs who seek capital to grow and strengthen their companies.

ADB's investment in NIIF will help catalyse institutional capital into domestic private equity funds in India, thereby contributing to greater availability of long-term growth financing for private sector companies and leading to the creation of quality jobs, social infrastructure development, and economic growth, its Vice President Diwakar Gupta said.

Bose said ADB has been funding Indian private equity funds for over two decades now, and added the latest move will help NIIF commit money to private equity fund managers who may be struggling to raise money from overseas sources.

The total size of NIIF's fund of funds has now grown to USD 700 million, with ADB's commitment, an official statement said, adding that the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has also committed money to the corpus.

So far, it has made commitments to three funds aggregating to over Rs 2,600 crore or USD 350 million, the statement said.

These three funds are engaged in investments in diverse areas including green energy and climate; middle-income and affordable housing, and entrepreneur-driven mid-market growth companies operating across diversified sectors, it said.

The NIIF said its ability to crowd-in investments has also been established as these three funds have raised USD 1.1 billion from other sources.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
These are challenging times for public policy, and theres great potential value in technology that enables communities to monitor and reward sheltering in place, for as long as policy demands. - Congressman Jim Cooper.

Hytch Rewards, a technology solution that incentivizes smarter mobility decisions, today announced Shelter in Place, a new feature for its popular mobile app. Designed to encourage behavior that will limit the spread of COVID-19, Shelter in Place will pay daily cash rewards to sponsored U.S. residents who self-quarantine at home.

As a growing number of states issue recommendations or legal orders for citizens to shelter in place, the Hytch platform will give employers and governments greater ability to confirm and manage compliance in a positive way. The cash rewards delivered through the app, which tracks a users location, are being funded by employers, governments and brands that care about the well-being of their employees and communities.

Employers can offer Shelter in Place rewards to:



Encourage employees to engage in safe and healthy habits that benefit themselves, their family, their team and community

Ease the financial burden of being furloughed or having to telework

Ensure that work-from-home team members actually are at home

Governments and corporate brands can offer cash rewards to incentivize sheltering in place for larger groups and populations.

Until now, the Hytch Rewards app has primarily been used to reward commuter behavior that reduces traffic congestion and emissions, or that encourages carpooling in areas with limited public transit. With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, many commuters are needing to become housebound.

What America needs right now is to flatten the curve of COVID-19 infection, said Mark A. Cleveland, co-founder and CEO of Hytch Rewards. National smartphone data tells us some regions are doing better than others at social distancing, and we at Hytch believe rewards can be a highly effective tool for influencing human behavior. Our partners decide what those cash rewards will be, and even if theyre minimal, they still have a positive impact.

Among the first employers to partner on the Shelter in Place initiative is the office of U.S. Congressman Jim Cooper, from Hytch Rewards home state of Tennessee.

Were offering a small daily reward via the Hytch app to thank my staff for working hard for my constituents, from home, said Cooper. These are challenging times for public policy, and theres great potential value in technology that enables communities to monitor and reward sheltering in place, for as long as policy demands.

Another supporter of the initiative is Greater Nashville Technology Council, an advocacy group for Middle Tennessees $7.5-billion emerging tech industry.

I respect the quick response from Hytch to leverage their platform for rewarding a different type of good behavior, said Brian Moyer, GNTCs president and CEO. This is a great example of the innovation from greater Nashvilles tech sector as we focus on solutions for containing COVID-19.

As a contribution to coronavirus response efforts, Hytch is waiving all set-up and monthly fees for any U.S. state or local government, or private employer of any size that joins the Shelter in Place program before April 10. There is no minimum contract. Potential partners can learn more at http://www.hytch.me/shelter-in-place-rewards.

About Hytch

Hytch Rewards is a mobility incentive platform that gives users access to cash rewards and carbon zero transportation in sponsored areas. Employers and communities use Hytch to connect people to job opportunities and critical services, engage employees in corporate social responsibility initiatives, and promote the habits of sharing a ride, walking, biking or using mass transit. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, Hytch was recognized as the Nashville Technology Councils Emerging Company of the Year, and has received the Tennessee Governors Environmental Stewardship Award, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservations Sustainable Transportation Award, and the Nashville Entrepreneur Centers NEXT Award as Social Enterprise and Sustainability Startup of the Year. To learn more, visit

http://www.hytch.me or email press@hytch.me for media inquiries.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: As India battles the deadly coronavirus pandemic, a fake news 'infodemic' is also spreading on WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms with numerous false claims, including about an impending emergency declaration and an extension of the lockdown period.

While official agencies and several private fact-checkers kept on promptly debunking the fake news, the full-hoaxes and half-truths continued unabated, including by some fraudsters trying to mint some easy money by circulating fake bank account details for contributions to the government relief funds.

A lot many also fell prey to an "early April Fool" prank on Monday wherein a document was circulated on social media, disguising itself as a government announcement about an extension of lockdown beyond the 21-day period.

The Indian Army also had to debunk fake news about an impending emergency declaration in April.

"Fake and malicious messages are circulating on social media about likely declaration of emergency in mid-April and employment of Indian Army, Veterans, NCC and NSS to assist the civil administration.

It is clarified that this is absolutely fake," the Army's Additional Directorate General of Public Information tweeted.

The government also debunked rumours about plans for extending the ongoing 21-day lockdown period, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 to fight the coronavirus crisis.

The clarification by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba came after hundreds of thousands of migrant labourers undertook long journeys from major urban centres on foot to their homes in the last five days, reflecting their struggle for survival due to job losses following the lockdown.

In a tweet, the government's Press Information Bureau said: "There are rumours & media reports, claiming that the Government will extend the #Lockdown21 when it expires. The Cabinet Secretary has denied these reports, and stated that they are baseless."

Interacting with social welfare organisations, Prime Minister Modi also asked them to counter misinformation and superstition on coronavirus.

ALSO READ | Kolkata woman arrested for posting fake news on WhatsApp group

PIB's Fact Check Twitter handle also asked people to "be cautious of fake account details circulating on the pretext of PM CARES Fund".

Delhi police's cybercrime unit had on Sunday detected a fake Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ID created with a motive to cheat donors of the newly launched PM CARES Fund to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

Anyesh Roy, DCP (cybercrime) said in a tweet that the fake UPI was created with the ID pmcare@sbi, which is similar to the correct ID pmcares@sbi.

The State Bank of India has also been briefed about the fake ID and the bank has blocked it, a police official said.

The matter is under investigation and efforts are being made to identify the accused, he said.

Another 'fake news' debunked by the authorities included a message doing the rounds that the Home Ministry has decided to make it a punishable offence if anyone posts anything related to the coronavirus on social media.

There are also a number of other such misinformation being circulated including about the COVID-19 treatment and on ways to avoid getting infected from the deadly coronavirus.

"There is no scientific evidence to prove that inhaling hot water steam kills #Coronavirus. Remember: Respiratory hygiene, social distancing and washing hands are effective measures to prevent #Covid19 Let's spread facts, not fear and contribute to #IndiaFightsCoronavirus," PIB Fact Check tweeted.

Among private fact-checkers, Boom FactCheck tweeted that a "misleading" infographic has been shared thousands of times in multiple Facebook posts with a nine-day timeline of the symptoms of the novel coronavirus.

It also debunked another "fake" message claiming several areas in Mumbai, including Mohammed Ali Road, having been blacklisted and put under the control of the army.

Another misleading message claimed that a state government in India has recommended that the juice of bitter gourd, a vegetable often used in traditional medicine, is an effective treatment for the novel coronavirus.

This one has also been found to be false.

On social media, several people including some senior journalists, fell prey to an old prank video from Jakarta, which went viral after being presented this time as being from Goa and as an "innovative way to make people stay indoors".

Fact checker SM Hoax Slayer said, "A Prank video is viral, tweeted by few media houses and journalists claimed to be recent and from Goa. It shows a man wearing a ghost looking suit jumping suddenly in front to a motorcycle on a bridge because of which the rider gets afraid, turns around and leave and the pillion rider climbs the bridge whom the prankster follow."

The fact-checking website found that the prank video was neither from Goa, nor related to the lockdown or the coronavirus outbreak at all.

The video was found to be almost a year old from May 2019 and it originated from Jakarta, Indonesia.

After being corrected by SMHoaxSlayer, some people and organisations tweeted a correction in reply to their wrong tweet, while few others deleted the original tweet.

Fact-cheking website AltNews debunked a viral audio clip, presented as a conversation between two persons, with one of them claiming that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has asked India to extend the lockdown from April 15 to June 15.

AltNews said its investigation found the claim to be totally fake.

Interestingly, the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had said in February itself, "We are not just fighting an epidemic; we are fighting an infodemic."

Several other countries are also dealing with an increased flow of fake news relating to the coronavirus.

The UK has set up a rapid response unit within the Cabinet Office which is working with social media firms to remove fake news and harmful content.

The UK's anti-fake news unit is also dealing with up to 10 false coronavirus articles a day.

On Sunday, the Indian High Commissioner to the UK, Ruchi Ghanashyam, also appealed to Indian citizens stranded in the country due to the coronavirus pandemic to beware of fake news doing the rounds about Air India evacuation flights planned next week.

Few days ago, another viral message had re-surfaced about all calls getting recorded and platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter being monitored with the start of the lockdown period, but it was found to be fake.

Boom FactCheck found that the viral message has been doing the rounds on social media since as far back as 2017.

It also found the message to be referring to one 'Ministry of Internal Regulation', which does not exit in India.

Police in various parts of the country has also begun taking action in such cases.

In Kolkata, a woman was arrested on Monday for allegedly sharing fake information pertaining to COVID-19 on WhatsApp.

She had apparently claimed in her post that 15 people have tested positive for novel coronavirus in New Alipore area of the city and that the state government was suppressing the information.

An officer said the Kolkata Police has also been keeping any eye on social media to prevent circulation of fake news.

In Himachal Pradesh, a journalist has been booked for reportedly spreading fake news regarding plying of buses amid the lockdown.

A 30-year-old man was arrested in Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday for uploading a fake and alarmist Facebook post in the name of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in connection with the lockdown, according to the police.

Similar arrests have been made in Mizoram and some other parts of the country as well, while Maharashtra Police's cyber unit has registered 36 FIRs across the state against those spreading fake news about coronavirus on social media.
A stack of medi-visors at the Royal Mint, in Llantrisant, Wales, where workers have been preparing PPE for NHS staff (PA Images via Getty Images)

NHS workers are hiding masks and calling in sick because of fears over equipment shortages in the battle against coronavirus, doctors have claimed.

Hospital staff are taking the drastic measures amid a reported shortage of the personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to treat sufferers of COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.

The news comes as the head of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) revealed that one in four NHS doctors are off work sick or in isolation.

Professor Andrew Goddard, president of the RCP, said that roughly 25% of the doctor workforce is off, either with coronavirus or because a family member or housemate is ill.

At the moment, we think its more doctors self-isolating with family members, though there are some off sick themselves, he said.

This is really impacting a lot in emergency departments and London is in a much worse position than elsewhere at the moment, but it will come to other places. Birmingham is also struggling.

Prof Goddard said hospital wards across England are going from normal wards to Covid wards very quickly.

Asked about the pressure on intensive care units, he said: Some hospitals are really at the limit. Within London its very, very difficult at the moment, you cant underestimate how difficult it is.

He said it was unclear whether the 25% off work would be a rolling number or whether it could ease as testing of NHS staff increases and people come out of isolation.

Of course the worry is we will lose more people to Covid-related illness, he added.

A hospital consultant became the first frontline NHS worker to die from coronavirus at the weekend, amid reports the government was warned three years ago that the health service would struggle to cope with a pandemic.

On Sunday, communities secretary Robert Jenrick said 170m masks, 42.8m gloves, 13.7m aprons, 182,000 gowns, almost 10m items of cleaning equipment and 2.3m pairs of eye protectors were being delivered to frontline staff.

Story continues

He said: Every single GP practice, dental practice and community pharmacy has had a PPE delivery. All care homes, hospices, and home care providers have, or will shortly, receive a delivery.

Read more: NHS doctor pleads for more coronavirus protective equipment

However, one doctor told the Press Association news agency that staff are hiding equipment out of desperation.

An obstetrician at a hospital in London said protective gear is being kept under lock and key by senior staff.

There is some, but now were in a situation where people are having to hide them and store them for their own staff, the obstetrician, who chose to speak anonymously, said.

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She added: There is not enough kit. PPE is locked away in our hospital and only one person has got the key because people are panicking.

So, some people are going in and grabbing some of the stuff because they want to walk around with a mask.

A fleet of ambulances outside the makeshift NHS Nightingale Hospital at London's ExCeL (AFP via Getty Images)

What people are doing is they are hiding them because they dont want just anyone grabbing the kit, so the bottom line is there is not enough kit.

She said their actions were out of sheer desperation, there is just not enough.

The obstetrician added: Our bosses are having to store a certain number. We are working in a hospital where there are key workers  including orderlies, porters, healthcare assistant  they have a right to be protected too.

Watch the video below

Our orderly was walking around the ward yesterday with a sleep mask over her face  an eye mask over her nose and mouth as a make-shift mask.

Theyve said she doesnt need a mask because shes not in contact with COVID patients but so many patients are asymptomatic. We should be managing patients as though everybody has it.

Another frontline NHS doctor, who also worked for the government in west Africa during the Ebola crisis, told PA some fellow workers are claiming to be sick as they fear the PPE provisions are inadequate.

Read more: Coronavirus outbreak in UK 'starting to slow down'

All my colleagues are quite nervous  some people are going off sick because they dont feel safe, the doctor, who asked to remain anonymous, said.

Others are seeking placement elsewhere so they are not frontline, again because of the lack of PPE.

A sign outside a pub in Nottingham thanking the NHS and key workers during the coronavirus outbreak (PA Images via Getty Images)

The closed WhatsApp groups are awash with fear, anger and confusion around the issues regarding PPE.

A junior doctor at the Royal Bolton Hospital in Greater Manchester said PPE was the main concern for health workers.

He said: I just think at the moment the main thing from a healthcare worker is our concerns about PPE.

You wouldnt send a soldier out without the necessary equipment so why are healthcare professionals not being provided the adequate PPE?

Another junior doctor in Norfolk said: Theres not enough, theres nowhere near enough.

There is such a shortage, so we feel like its inevitable were going to get sick. Infection control tells you one thing, the government are advising another thing, theres so much conflicting advice.

The World Health Organisation has warned that the chronic shortage of PPE is threatening our collective ability to save lives.

Coronavirus: what happened today

On Friday, WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: When health workers are at risk, were all at risk.

The Department of Health and Social Care said it has issued millions of pieces of equipment and set up a national helpline so those in need can ask for more.
Scientist Heather Daniell, 38, founded award-winning snack brand, Salad Crisps, in 2019. She lives in Wimbledon and enjoys spending time with her horses, retired police-dog and cat.

I always loved horses, so as a teenager I got a part-time job at a stables so I could learn to ride.

As an adult, I finally got my own horse, Ben, a seven-year-old bay. When he became unwell, I called the vet, who said Ben had ulcers. He was treated with antacids, but the vet told me he shouldnt eat much sugar or starch because that could irritate his stomach.

Thats when I discovered that nearly all horse food  as well as cat and dog food  is held together with unhealthy sugars and starch.

Heather Daniell, 38, (pictured) who lives in Wimbledon, revealed the inspiration behind her snack brand, Salad Crisps

As Im a super-nerd  I did a PhD in organic chemistry at Oxford  I started experimenting in my kitchen to create a better food for Ben. I was also working long hours as an energy consultant.

One night, I was standing in front of the vending machines at work trying to find something healthy to eat. I realised human snack foods are just as highly processed and use the same starch binders as Bens.

After months of research, I found an all-natural ingredient nobody had realised could work as a binder for multi-ingredient foods.

Ive filed two patents for my process (for human and pet foods), but essentially, until now, if you took a Greek salad and dehydrated it, youd end up with a powder.

But with my process, the result is a salad turned into a crisp. All the nutrients remain intact and it counts as one of your five a day.

No oil is added, so each pack is under 91 calories. Theyre gluten-free, too.

The method is so unique that no existing snack-food manufacturers could make it. I dug into my savings and built my own factory in Sussex powered by 100 per cent renewable energy. We only launched in late spring 2019, but in December, sales increased by 200 per cent.

Were in talks with major supermarkets, but until the coronavirus crisis is over, these are on hold. However, in recent weeks, our online sales have skyrocketed, and we keep selling out.

As the icing on the cake  or dressing on the salad crisp  we won the 2019 Innovative Snacks Challenge against 400 global start-ups. Plus, were about to launch a range of Puddings as Crisps in the next couple of weeks  and they will all be under 100 calories, so you can snack guilt-free.
Mumbai: Bollywood actor Rajkummar Rao is doing his bit to fight the coronavirus pandemic. He has contributed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's relief fund, Chief Minister's (Maharashtra) relief fund and Zomato Feeding India to help feed families in need.

Rajkummar doesn't want to reveal the amount, but tweeted on Sunday: "It's time to stand together & to help our administration in this fight against Coronavirus. I've done my bit..Donated to #PMReliefFund #CMReliefFund and to #ZomatoFeedingIndia to help feed families in need. Please support in whatever way you can. Our Nation Needs Us. Jai Hind."

Its time to stand together & to help our administration in this fight against Coronavirus. Ive done my bit..Donated to #PMReliefFund #CMReliefFund and to #ZomatoFeedingIndia to help feed families in need. Please support in whatever way you can. Our Nation Needs Us. Jai Hind  Rajkummar Rao (@RajkummarRao) March 29, 2020

Some of his followers even praised him for not revealing the amount.

"This is ideal example of charity. Reason behind this charity is pure care. no show off at all....Showing charity amount for publicity is nt good. Feeling proud of you @RajkummarRao for your charity work," one Twitter user wrote.

Another wrote: "Well done Rajkummar for not showing how amount u donated hats off man."

Many Bollywood celebrities have come forward to support Modi's PM CAREs fund. Actor Akshay Kumar has announced that he will donate Rs 25 crore to the fund.
Dav Pilkeys words and drawings have entered the imaginations of millions of children. Now the bestselling author of the Dog Man and Captain Underpants series will be welcoming readers inside his mind through Dav Pilkey at Home, a collaboration between the author, the Library of Congress, and Scholastic.

The free online video series, which came about because of the impact of the new coronavirus, will be streamed every Friday morning beginning at 8 a.m. ET, beginning April 3. Pilkey will take to the LOCs and Scholastics websites, which go live on April 1, along with social media channels, to share drawing lessons and read-alouds with young readers. Each show will be accompanied by content drawn from the librarys collections, as well as tips from Pilkey for children to act out scenes from his Dog Man books and for creating new characters of their own. Viewers will be able to access the videos any time after they are first streamed, as well.

With many communities in lockdown and with schools, libraries, and bookstores temporarily closed nationwide and around the world, we have been inundated with requests from teachers, librarians, and parents for materials or content featuring Dav Pilkey and his books, said Scholastic Trade president Ellie Berger. We are grateful to Dav Pilkey for the amazing new content he has created which we know will bring joy, inspiration and comfort, and encourage kids to be creative and have fun.

Pilkey took an early interest in supporting children during the outbreak. Last month, he posted a short video on Instagram for children in Asia, telling them, I know that a lot of you have been going through a really difficult time lately, and encouraging them to try to keep reading great books, write your own stories, try to be as creative as possible during this difficult time.

The author may be uniquely poised to understand the challenges children are facing under quarantine. As a child, Pilkey was often separated from his classmates because of his dyslexia and ADHD. In his time alone, he used his imagination to begin creating comics that later evolved into Dog Man and Captain Underpants.

Pilkeys videos are just one part of a swiftly expanding set of offerings from the LOC and Scholastic during the outbreak. On March 20, Scholastic hosted the first of an ongoing series of book festivals through Scholastic at Home. At the same time, the publisher created a website to teach children about the coronavirus, and also made curricular resources free through Scholastic Learn at Home.

While the doors to the Library of Congress are temporarily closed, its librarians, educators, and curators are creating a number of new online initiatives for young readers. In the coming weeks, the library plans to share family activities that draw from the librarys vast collections, including videos of author conversations from the National Book Festival.

The Library of Congress is delighted to join forces with our friend Dav Pilkey and the nimble team at Scholastic to bring you Dav Pilkey at Home, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden told PW. Our hope is to combine Davs artistic gifts and charisma with the wealth of knowledge in our collections. We know that Davs message of Do Good and the Librarys message of Engage, Inspire, Inform are natural partners and will bring children, parents, and teachers many happy and fruitful moments during this difficult time.

Viewers can find Dav Pilkey at Home beginning April 1, at:

 Twitter for Library of Congress

 Facebook for Library of Congress

 Library of Congress

 Facebook for Scholastic

 Twitter for Scholastic

 Dav Pilkey at Home

 Scholastic Learn at Home
WATERLOO --- A Waterloo man is facing weapons charges after police found a shotgun and meth over the weekend.

Martin James Paradine, 37, was arrested for felon in possession of a firearm and possession of methamphetamine and marijuana. Bond was set at $15,000.

Waterloo police were called to his apartment at 437 Edwards St. on Saturday night following an argument with a roommate over money.

Police pulled over Paradines vehicle as it was leaving the scene, and officers found meth, a syringe and a glass pipe in the vehicle. They also found a double-barrel Gold Hibbard shotgun in his closet at the apartment, according to court records.

Paradine is prohibited from handling firearms because of a 2014 theft conviction, police said.

Photos: Missing children in Iowa

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London: US President Donald Trump has offered his opinion on the future of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, insisting the United States government won't pay for the couple's security if they live in the United States.

Responding to reports that the couple has moved to California, Trump tweeted on Sunday: "I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the US however, the US will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!"

Harry, grandson of Queen Elizabeth II and sixth in line to the British throne, married the American actress Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle in May 2018, in a ceremony watched by millions around the world.

But the couple later said they found scrutiny by the British media which they said tipped into harassment intolerable.

In January they announced they planned to quit as senior royals, seek financial independence and move to North America. The split becomes official at the end of March.

Since late last year, Harry and Meghan have since been based on Canada's Vancouver Island.

Last month, Canadian authorities said they would stop paying for the couple's security once they ceased to be working royals.

Mary-Liz Power, a spokeswoman for Canada's public safety minister, said in February that "the assistance will cease in the coming weeks, in keeping with their change in status." Power said that as duke and duchess of Sussex, they have been considered "internationally protected persons" who warranted security measures under international treaty.

Unconfirmed reports say the couple and their 10-month-old son Archie recently flew to Los Angeles, where Meghan was raised.

Representatives for Meghan did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Sunday.
Joining the list of reruns on Doordarshan is another cult classic from the golden era of Indian television, superhero show "Shaktimaan", veteran actor Mukesh Khanna, who featured in the titled role, has revealed.

Earlier, it was announced the cult hit mythological series "Ramayana", "Mahabharat", Shah Rukh Khan-starrer "Circus" and "Byomkesh Bakshi", featuring Rajit Kapur, will be re-telecast on the national broadcaster and its sister channels during the 21-day lockdown to combat the spread of coronavirus.

Khanna took to Twitter on Sunday to share the

"Getting to watch two epics of our country 'Ramayan' and 'Mahabharat' in one day was a matter of great happiness for the 135 crore people who are under lockdown. Sit at home and enjoy. There could not have been a bigger good

"But I'd like to add something to this happy for my 'Shaktimaan' fans, that 'Shaktimaan' is also going to come very soon," he said in the video clip.

However, the actor-producer didn't disclose the date and time of the show's re-run, he asked fans to wait for the announcement.

Khanna, who was already a household names thanks to his role as the duty-bound Bhishma in BR Chopra's "Mahabharat", found another fan base among children in the late 1990s as Shaktimaan and his alter ego "Pandit Gangadhar Vidhyadhar Mayadhar Omkarnath Shastri", a photographer for the newspaper Aaj Ki Aawaz.

"Shaktimaan" aired on DD 1 from 1997 to 2005.

It was later translated into different languages and aired on different channels.

The show was followed by "Shaktimaan: The Animated Series" in 2011, and a television film titled "Hamara Hero Shaktimaan" in 2013.

There are reports that Khanna is working on a sequel to the show and will start working on a follow-up after the lockdown.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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A 68-bed field hospital will be constructed by Tuesday in the city's iconic Central Park to help enhance New York City's medical capacity to treat the rapidly increasing coronavirus cases.

Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters on Sunday that Mount Sinai Hospital, working with a relief organisation named Samaritan's Purse, is creating the 68-bed field hospital in the sprawling Central Park.

"Very important, in Central Park, we're going to be using every place we need to use to help peopleSo, this is the kind of thing that you will see now as this crisis develops and deepens, he said that the Central Park Conservancy, the city's Parks Department and the Mayor's Office all worked together to get this done with Mount Sinai and Samaritan's Purse.

The hospital should be operational by Tuesday, he said.

Crews started construction of the long, white medical tents in the park's East Meadow lawn. The field hospital has been specially designed as a respiratory care unit.

New York has become the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the US and the state passed a grim milestone of recording 1,000 deaths due to the COVID19 pandemic on Sunday.

Deaths due to COVID19 in the state went from 728 to 965 in just one day.

At 237, this was the largest one-day increase in number of deaths since the coronavirus outbreak began. By the end of the day, the death toll in the state had crossed 1,000.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US stood at 142,356 and 2,493 people have died in the country, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Over 7,000 additional coronavirus cases in New York State were recorded, bringing statewide total to 59,513, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

de Blasio said that the number of coronavirus cases in the city alone were 32,308, "a stunning number. And we have lost, and this is so painful, 678 of our fellow New Yorkers.

That means in the last 24 hours from this morning to Saturday morning, we lost 161 more people in this city. People of all walks of life, every kind of New Yorker.

In an interview to CNN, the Mayor said that New York City only has enough medical supplies to last through the week.

We have enough supplies to get to a week from today with the exception of ventilators. We're going to need at least several hundred more ventilators very quickly," de Blasio said.

"But we have otherwise the supplies to get to next Sunday. We are going to need a reinforcement by Sunday, April 5th in all categories, especially ventilators but in other areas as well. And personnel is becoming more and more the issue.

Cuomo has said that as the state tries to reduce the spread of the virus, it is also preparing for the worst.

We are expanding hospital capacity so that the system is not overwhelmed during the "apex" of the virus the point at which the number of cases is at its high point, he said, adding that a 1,000 bed temporary hospital is opening at the sprawling Javits convention center Monday, and other temporary hospitals are being built in partnership with Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Three COVID-only facilities are also planned. The USNS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship, will arrive in New York Harbour on Monday, staffed with 1,200 medical professionals.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi, March 30 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) here on Monday said it had filed a charge-sheet against 12 people, including then Superintendent, in the case of alleged irregularities in Himachal Pradesh's pre-matric and post-matric scholarship schemes.

The CBI charge-sheet named six government officials of Directorate of the Higher Education, Shimla.

The people named in chargesheet included Arvind Rajta, Dealing Hand or Superintendent; Mala Mehta, DDO-cum-Assistant Director; Shriram Sharma, Surinder Mohan Kanwar, Ashok Kumar and Virender Kumar (all Superintendent-cum-DDO).

The CBI has also named Saroj Sharma and B.S. Sandhu, both Campus Directors of the K.C. Group of Institutions Pandoga, Una; Hitesh Gandhi, Vice Chairman; Prem Pal Gandhi, Chairman (Both owners of the group of institutions); Kiran Choudhary, officiating principal, and Surinder Pal Singh, Head Cashier at the Central Bank of India, Nawanshahr, Punjab.

The CBI had registered the case on the request of Himachal Pradesh government and further notification from the central government on May 7, 2019 under sections of criminal breach, cheating by impersonation, forgery, forgery of court record or public register and using forged documents.

The CBI had also registered a case for alleged misappropriation of Rs 220 crore scholarship funds meant for Schedule Caste, Schedule Tribe, Other Backward Classes and minority community between 2013-14 and 2016-17.

It was alleged the income or caste certificates of alleged students were not genuine. The CBI had also conducted searches at 21 private institutes in May, 2019.
Dinesh Singh By

The Covid-19 crisis looms over almost all nations and India is no exception. The potential harm that it can cause to a nation or civil society at large is deeply distressing. In any case, like all dark clouds, this cloud too brought with it the proverbial silver lining. Let me explain. Innumerable universities around the world have been forced to shut down their regular in-person teaching activities and in a bid to ensure that students do not get cut off from the learning process, most of these universities have been compelled to take recourse to online teaching.

This is a golden opportunity to set the ball of online and distance learning rolling. I have been advocating the value and need of online and technology-based learning for the last 15 years and more. There are many advantages to it and it is a necessity for many reasons. Yet, to my deep distress, I find this has not had the kind of acceptance it should have been accorded. Perhaps, I need to explain why this is such a necessity. My conviction on the virtues of distance education was ignited in 1992 when I took part in an illuminating experiment. For reasons that are not relevant I was drawn into it as an unwilling participant, but I became a firm convert within the first few days of the experiment.

The experiment involved offering six live lessons to the entire nation on the basics of calculus. The lessons were offered in an interactive manner in the following sense. I could not see my audience but students in a dozen select schools across India could speak to me live and ask questions as well as interrupt me for any clarifications. I enjoyed the whole experiment and at its conclusion I went away with the impression that I had acquitted myself in a respectable manner. To my utter surprise, in about a months time, I was recalled to the TV studio and introduced to what was termed jokingly as my fan mail. I came across sacks and sacks of letters from almost all parts of India and to my pleasant surprise they carried fulsome praise. In addition, the thing that bothered me was the continuous refrain in the letters requesting that the lectures not be discontinued. Their main reason for such a requestas the letters explainedwas the inadequate quality of what was available to them at the local level. That was the first time I encountered the true power of technology-based learning. I had barely used any high-end technology. The only real technology was the use of satellite-based live TV transmission and the fact that a select number of schools had the facility of interactivity, albeit in a limited sense.

I wrote with coloured markers on chart paper with a camera hanging over my head and one placed so as to face me. The disturbing aspect of the experience was my discovery of the fact that the quality of face-to-face learning in so many of our schools across the nation was abysmally poor. Yet at the same time, the remedy to this problem was also staring me in the face. Of course, I could not pursue the matter in any sense for years but it lingered in my mind for a long time. If this episode is not enough to convince anyone of the power of tech in enabling learning, then nothing will. I have consistently heard this refrain across geographical boundaries that there are quality issues with technology-based learning. To this I have many rejoinders. To begin with, how many of us have had really rich and rewarding experiences during our days of formal learning while seated in classrooms? Yet we have persisted with it for over hundreds of years without trying to make attempts at finding alternatives until the last few decades. As technology makes rapid advances, the solution is getting easier and better. Even if a technology-based offering may not be able to match the experience of being in a classroom with a gifted teacher, it will certainly help provide succour to so many students who have to get by with poor teaching quality. I must also hasten to add that the meaning and shape of online and technology-based learning has evolved to extraordinary levels since those early days of my experience with teaching calculus. The power and variety of the technology now available is mind-boggling.

This allows a lesson to be embedded with enormous interactivity and inputs. Let me narrate a couple of experiences. A few years ago, a distinguished mathematician in the US, at my urging, decided to teach an online courseto students across Indiain an advanced area of maths. He was using a technology platform that allowed audio and textual transmissions in a live mode between him and his students. In addition, every lesson was automatically recorded and put up online after editing and with embellishments if needed. This colleague was teaching the same course in person to students at his university. It turned out that the performance of the online students, when scientifically measured, was far better than those of the face-to-face learners.

Here is another experiment that I conducted a few months ago. I handed well-equipped laptops to two indifferent undergraduates of Delhi University who had never handled data or probability theory. I gave them some simple introduction to the use of Excel and introduced them to the vast bank of resources available on the internet. Each week, I would offer them problems in data analysis that increased in complexity over time, but I refused to teach them. Now, they are capable of conducting animated simulations in probability theory. They are entirely self-taught using the power of the web. And what are the teachers of Delhi University up to in these hard times of no face-to-face teaching? They are mechanically uploading straightforward notes in textual form for students to learn when, as my experiment shows, we teachers are increasingly becoming redundantunless we change into mentors. I am hoping India shall, perforce, under the influence of the Covid-19 crisis, truly harness the power of technology for learning purposes.

Dinesh Singh

Former Vice-Chancellor, Delhi University, and Adjunct Professor of Mathematics, University of Houston Email: reachingdinesh@gmail.com
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Politicians, who are usually accused of paying lip service to various causes and eyeing photo ops, are quietly helping the poor and the harassed migrant workers who are stuck because of the Covid-19 lockdown.

While many politicians have ordered their party cadres to ready food packets for the poor, some like UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh are busy preparing meals for those in distress.

See, its a global scare. We all need to do whatever we can to help the poor. So, while the cadres have set up community kitchens, I too thought of doing my bit by cooking food for the poor. There cant be a bigger satisfaction than feeding the hungry, Singh says.

Swatantra Dev has also donated his two months salary along with Rs 10 million (Rs 1 crore) from his MLA fund.

Samajwadi Partys national spokesman Rajiv Rai has directed medical shops in Mau and Ballia in eastern UP to provide medicines to the poor, even if they are unable to pay.

If any poor person comes to you for masks or medicines and is genuinely unable to make payments, please send the bill to me and I will make the payment, Rai has told the owners of medicine shops.

UP basic education minister Satish Dwivedi connects with the masses of his Itwa assembly segment on Facebook daily.

I am told that many are still overcharging people, be it for rations, essentials or medicines. This is happening despite clear directions of the state government, and efforts being made by chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who is monitoring the situation round the clock, holding meetings late into the night, he says.

I am told even vegetables are being sold for lot more than what they should be. I have taken note of this and surely things would be set right, Dwivedi adds.

Another minister Mohsin Raza too has been connecting with people on Facebook.

Devmani Dwivedi, the BJP lawmaker from Lambhua in Sultanpur, has penned a poem to make people aware of the dangers that the virus poses and the need for a joint, coordinated effort against it.

In Fatehpur, Congress workers have set up a community kitchen. In Etawah, the Congress cadres are distributing fruits to migrant workers on their way to villages. In Agra, Congress district chief Manoj Dixit has started serving morning tea to passers-by.

Our party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi has set up a WhatsApp group, which she is monitoring and accordingly providing help on the basis of feedback she is getting, says UP Congress leader DP Singh.

The Samajwadi Party cadres under the direction of party chief Akhilesh Yadav are active across the state. You can check with migrant labourers coming into UP from Delhi if they have met with people wearing red caps who have offered them food, besides making them aware of the need to maintain social distancing, says Samajwadi Party leader IP Singh.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leaders have also been using their MLA and MP funds to help boost health infrastructure.

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During this time, at least one of the intensive care doctors called me every day to discuss the various options they were exploring. Because of changing conditions within the hospital due to the influx of coronavirus patients, I could tell the doctors were being particularly careful and sensitive about using otherwise-normal procedures for fear of further contaminating my wife or others in the ICU. I had the distinct sense that the doctors were being very creative in trying to come up with options. I also knew that the longer it took to wean my wife from the ventilator, the less likely her chances of a successful recovery. When they called me to tell me they successfully removed the ventilator and my wife would be fine, I was overjoyed.
The European Commission says it has reallocated more than 140 million euros ($154 million) to help Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine in their fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement on March 30, the commission said it would also "redirect the use of existing instruments" worth up to 700 million euros ($772 million) to help the six countries of the EU's Eastern Partnership program mitigate the socioeconomic impact of the crisis.

"These are very difficult times not only for the EU, but for our partner countries as well," Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi said.

The EU is "responding both to the immediate needs of the health systems, as well as longer term needs to the most vulnerable groups in society and small and medium-sized enterprises."

The commission said it would support the supply of medical devices and personal protective equipment, such as ventilators, laboratory kits, masks, and goggles worth 30 million euros ($33 million) to the health systems of the six countries in the coming weeks.

The funds would also be used to support the training of medical and laboratory staff, as well as awareness-raising measures to the populations.

The redirected funds worth 700 million euros will be used mainly to provide liquidity in the six countries, including through "working capital, trade finance, or moratoria on debt service," and to help smal and medium-sized enterprises access credit and boost their businesses after the crisis.
Welcome to week two of my quarantine Homeland recaps! (Quarancaps? Coronacaps?) This time around I baked cookies before I watched this episode, which I found really helped to soften the blow of, well, you know. And if you don't know, I'd suggest stepping away from this screen to bake some cookies before you continue reading.

We open this episode (which is titled "Threnody(s)," apparently a word for lament  please tell me I'm not the only person who had to Google that) with Haqqani in his prison cell, reading what I assume to be a tiny Q'uran before his execution. I think we all knew what was going to happen with this storyline, but I didn't imagine it would go down quite like this. Haqqani gets strapped up in front of the firing squad  Jesus metaphors abound  and simultaneously, in the White House, President Hayes is trying to use Max's hostage situation (the video has now gone viral) to postpone the execution. He manages to get a 24-hour stay and that's probably the first legitimately productive thing Hayes has done so far. During this phone call with G'ulom, Hugh Dancy sits by and looks handsome. That's not so essential to the plot, but eye candy is appreciated during this quarantine.

Carrie and Yevgeny are still keeping watch over Max and Jalal, and even though Saul reassures her that the hostage situation is a top priority for the government, she doesn't seem very soothed. She was right because Saul hangs up the phone and immediately implores his team, "Tell me we've got a plan." Their plan is to "marshall resources in Islamabad." CIA jargon! In all seriousness, they'd like to send an extraction team to Max on foot and Hayes is flummoxed again. Sam Trammell's worried face is getting a lot of mileage. Also getting a lot of mileage: My distaste for Dancy's character's actual personality. It turns out he's not into things like rescuing Americans who sacrificed themselves for the greater good.

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There isn't much time to ponder that, because Kabul G'ulom decides he doesn't actually feel like waiting 24 hours  he's going to execute Haqqani now. Saul stands by helplessly as the firing squad ravages Haqqani not once but twice. In a disturbing tableau, he rises after the first four bullets to the chants of his followers inside the jail. What Haqqani's death means for everyone else on the show: All hell is going to break loose. The power structure in the Taliban is now entirely up for grabs and Jalal doesn't need Max to negotiate. He shoots him before ditching the compound with his henchmen and we, the viewers, are subjected to a highly upsetting death in an already highly upsetting time (we mean off-screen, of course). Max is gone in a flash and I need more cookies.

Sifeddine Elamine/SHOWTIME

Carrie calls Saul and, rightfully so, gives him a verbal lashing for the government's mismanagement of Max's capture. She's correct that they could have (and should have) done more for him, but any casual armchair psychologist will recognize the signs of projection here. All these years, Max has been doing whatever Carrie asked him to do without question, and it was her request for the black box that got him killed in the end. When this is all over, she's going to have a lot of guilt to sort through. She's starting to repent now, by holding vigil alongside his body until the extraction team shows up.

For Jalal's part, his first course of action after his father's execution is to interrupt a meeting of Haqqani's followers and completely derail their original plan to keep the peace agreement alive. Firooz, who was with Haqqani right up until his arrest, is trying (in vain) to rouse support for peace when Jalal swoops in, all charismatic leadership, brandishing the RPG that he claims took down the president's helicopters. The claim of double-assassination is enticing enough to bring all the Taliban members gathered to the other side, despite Farooz's doubts that Jalal is actually behind the crash. (Friendly reminder that the black box is still out there somewhere).

As Carrie and Yevgeny wait for Saul and the rescue team to arrive, Carrie comes to the realization that I've been having (not to pat myself on the back, but to pat myself on the back), which is that her relationship with Max was far more transactional than it should have been. During her entire time in that Russian jail, she never once mentioned him to Yevgeny  that's not so great. Her subsequent breakdown leads her into Yevgeny's arms and we see a little something sparking in the midst of all that grief. How gross/exciting.

Back at the ranch (a.k.a. the White House), John Zabel (Dancy) is scheming  he calls up an old friend and asks for her to find dirt on Wellington that he can use to, essentially, blackmail his coworker. The dirt: A recording of Jalal's earlier speech to the Taliban, RPG-brandish and all. What it means: They have proof (or "proof" because there's still a lot of doubt over these claims) that G'ulom executed the wrong man. Zabel takes it straight to the president  without mentioning that the footage is unverified  and the president takes it straight to the airwaves. He offers a threat to Pakistan (an ally!) that they must extradite Jalal Haqqani or else. A POTUS who goes off-script with dangerous information ... I wonder what that's like?

Saul ships off with the extraction team to collect Max's body and welcome Carrie back to the station, a mission that we all should have known was doomed from the outset. Especially when Carrie assures Yevgeny, as the helicopter approaches, "Saul will be there for me." Homeland loves a foreshadow! The Russians stick around to observe, a decision that proves disastrous for Saul and probably also disastrous for Carrie  as the soldiers, acting against Saul's orders, attempt to arrest her on-site, she (understandably) flips out, assumes that Saul tricked her into surrendering (and subsequently lied about working together to find the black box going forward), and goes running into the safety of Yevgeny's Jeep.

I'm not sure what's more heartbreaking, Carrie's belief that Saul betrayed her or Saul's helplessness in convincing Carrie that he didn't. The exchange is almost heartbreaking enough to make a person forget how many times this show has relied on their changing loyalties for plot points.

Related content:
Tough market conditions have driven commercial insurance premiums on Iqaluit condominiums through the roof, adding to the burden of condo owners, many of whom are already experiencing financial hardships brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.

The sharp rise in commercial insurance costs is largely a result of what local insurance brokers said, insurance companies being scared out of the city by [catastrophes, including] structural fires and the effects of climate change.

Already, condo owners said that their premiums have more than doubled in the past few years. In 2016, for instance, the commercial insurance for a 10-unit condo was about $18,000. This year, the cost exceeds $50,000, which is a 178% jump in just half a decade.
Fresh off the success of their Facebook Live concert last week, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood are hosting another coronavirus benefit straight from their Studio G home studio.

And this time the show dubbed -- Garth & Trisha Live! -- will be a primetime special broadcast live on CBS.

'We're seeing how big things can be when we all do them as one. In addition to the special, we and CBS will donate $1 million to charities to be determined, combating the COVID-19 virus,' the married country music duo shared in a joint statement.

COVID-19 crisis: Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood are hosting another coronavirus benefit straight from their Studio G home studio that will air on CBS

The network is calling the special 'an intimate concert for viewers looking for the comfort and shared joy of music during this difficult time.'

By employing a minimal crew at their home studio, the event adheres to the social distancing mandate issued by health officials around the world.

The idea for the follow-up concert came after CBS learned the duo's Facebook Live broadcast last Monday garnered more than 5.2 million viewers live or during the time Brooks had it posted.

Rousing success: The couple's Facebook Live broadcast last week garnered 5.2 million viewers live, which caused some interruptions in service, or during the time Brooks had it posted

Fan friendly: Brooks and Yearwood will be taking song requests for the concert on their weekly Facebook Live show -- Inside Studio G -- on Monday, March 30

In fact, the massive traffic for the webcast caused temporary interruptions in service for Facebook Live.

'After we saw Garth and Trisha crash Facebook, we reached out to them about bringing this Studio G to a larger audience in a safe and exciting way,' Jack Sussman, CBS' Executive Vice President, Specials, Music and Live Events, explained in a statement.

Brooks and Yearwood will be taking song requests from fans for the concert on their weekly Facebook Live show -- Inside Studio G -- on Monday, March 30.

Then, two days later, Garth & Trisha Live! will air Wednesday, April 1 at 9 p.m. ET (and tape delayed for the Pacific time zone) on CBS.

Garth & Trisha Live! will air Wednesday, April 1 at 9 p.m. ET (and tape delayed for the Pacific time zone) on CBS.

The list of home performances, amid the growing coronavirus pandemic, have been increasing with each passing day, and includes such artists as James Blake, Miquel and the duo Chloe X Halle, just in the past week.

Elton John is holding a star-studded benefit dubbed -- Fox Presents the iHeart Living Room Concert For America concert -- on Sunday, March 29.

Lady Gaga, Ellen DeGeneres, Melissa McCarthy and Ken Jeong are among the high-profile people lending their support for the event.

The list of artist who will all perform at their homes includes Alicia Keys, Dave Grohl, Billie Eilish, Billy Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Mariah Carey, Sam Smith, Tim McGraw, Backstreet Boys, H.E.R., and Camila Cabello.

The concert airs on Sunday, March 29 at 9 p.m. ET,/6 p.m. PT on Fox and will be streamed on iHeartMedia radio stations and the iHeartRadio app.
As the coronavirus (COVID-19) swept through Asia, Europe, and North America early this year, medical experts warned that it was just a matter of time before other continents, including Africa, would start to report cases. For Tanzania, that day came on Monday 16th March 2020, when the Minister for Health, Ummy Mwalimu, reported the first case of COVID-19 in the country.

That first case, a female, had travelled from Tanzania to Belgium on 3rd March and returned on the 15th March. She took a taxi to Arusha town where she locked herself in a room to self-quarantine but later called government officials who took her for treatment. The minister said the patient was being treated in isolation and was doing fine.

The news quickly spread in the country, and normal life seemed to change overnight. In Dar-es-Salaam and other major cities, people rushed to shops to stock up on food items, drinks and other essentials.

In pharmacies, the depletion of masks and hand sanitizers was drastic. Entrepreneurs took advantage of the situation and in one night these products, which were not popularly known in the country before, hit skyrocket prices. The price of hand sanitizers, for example, rose from US$1 for a 100ml bottle to $7. A box of gloves was going for up to $20 while masks were completely out of stock.

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa shut down all primary and secondary schools, colleges and other institutions of higher learning for one month to help curb the spread of the deadly virus.

Across the country, meetings and conferences have been cancelled. Almost all public building spaces now have sanitizers and buckets of chlorine-treated water and soap for washing hands.

Citizen journalism has been on the rise in the country, along with rumours and myths about COVID-19. The mainstream medias consistency in communicating facts, figures and other key messages about the virus has helped people understand the disease better, but more is still required.

Government officials have continued to educate citizens on the virus. The Health ministry has issued a hotline number for people to call in case of symptoms, and President John Magufuli has asked Tanzanians to help stop the disease from spreading.

All the progress we are making can be brought to a halt by this disease which is killing many people around the world, said the President.

President Magufuli is also engaging in social distancing. When he recently met with an opposition leader, instead of the normal handshakes and hugs, the two politicians tapped their respective feet to each other, prompting others to follow suit.

To help children to learn from home, the UNIC is also sharing global learning platforms provided by UNESCO.

Economists warn that the social and economic impact of COVID-19 will be huge. Small businesses are starting to feel the heat. For example, Ms. Hassan, a food vendor, fears that the spread of the virus could kill her business.

This disease is very bad; I am losing my customers very fast. I depend on selling food to pay my rent and feed my family. I dont know how I will survive if people dont come to buy because of this coronavirus, said Ms. Hassan. She is not alone in this predicament. Many other small-scale traders across the continent are facing this uncertainty.

As Tanzanians heed the call to stay home, the more their lives continue to change. What is clear though, is the need for more factual information to curb the fear and panic, and to debunk myths about the virus.
REUTERS

Just hours after it was confirmed that New Yorks coronavirus death toll has shot up to over 1,000 people, President Donald Trump has predicted that the state will be fine because hes heard stories that it has more than enough ventilators to go around.

The president appeared on Fox & Friends on Monday, a day after he officially abandoned his hope of reopening the U.S. economy by Easter after his aides successfully persuaded him to keep federal guidelines on social distancing in place through the end of April. In a 54-minute phone call broadcast on air, the president dismissed concerns that New York could be overwhelmed, and took credit for the rising popularity of its governor, Andrew Cuomo.

I think New York should be fine based on the numbers that we see. They should have more than enough [ventilators], Trump told the Fox News morning hosts. Im hearing stories that theyre not used or not used them right. We find anywhere from 2 to 4,000 that have been sent and arent used. Weve done a job. Now, were still getting more ventilators... after this is over theyll be selling ventilators for a dollar a piece, well have a lot of them.

Cuomo and Trump have repeatedly clashed over ventilators, with Cuomo telling CNN last Friday that Trumps assessment of New Yorks situation was incorrect and grossly uninformed. Cuomo has called for 30,000 ventilators, explaining that state hospitals had only 4,000 in the system at the beginning of the outbreak. Trump has previously said that he didnt believe the state would need anywhere near that number, and clearly hasnt yet been persuaded otherwise.

Asked specifically about Cuomo, whose popularity has shot up during the outbreak, Trump told Fox & Friends that it was down to him. One of the reasons his numbers are high on handling it is because of the federal government, Trump said. We give him ships, we give him ventilators, we give him all the things that were giving him... One of the reasons hes been successful is because weve helped make him successful.

Story continues

Trump was also asked about the nationwide pandemic situation, and why he has suddenly decided to step back from his plan to loosen social-distancing guidelines and reopen the economy. In a chilling answer, the president said it only dawned on him Sunday how many people might die if lockdown measures were lifted, even though that has been known for weeks.

If we didnt shut it down... I used to say, a lot of people said, could you just have kept it going? Like the flu, a bad case of the flu, a really bad case, Trump said. And the answer came in yesterday through Dr. Fauci and Deborah Birx... If we did that, if we just kept business as usual and didnt do anything to stop or impede it, 2.2 million people could have died.

Trump went on to say: The federal government has done far more than if anybody else was president. If Sleepy Joe was president, he wouldnt even know whats going on. You know that. I mean everybody knows that.

At the end of the interview, before Trump headed off for a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the hosts begged permission to ask one last question. How can we pray for you? Ainsley Earhardt asked. The Bible is clear, we need to pray for our leaders and we are praying for you. Many in this country are clinging to God right now.

Trump said receiving Earhardts prayers was a great honor.

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An employee at Tesla's sprawling battery plant outside of Reno, Nevada, has tested positive for COVID-19 according to internal communications obtained by CNBC.

KRNV NBC Reno previously reported on the matter on Sunday.

Tesla's vehicle deliveries report for the first quarter of 2020 is expected within a week. Despite direct impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on its operations in Shanghai and the U.S., the company has yet to withdraw its prior guidance, which said it should comfortably exceed 500,000 vehicle deliveries in 2020.

A memo sent to Panasonic North America employees who work in the Gigafactory on March 29 said the infected Tesla employee was sent home on Saturday, March 21, after being on-site for an hour and feeling ill. It also specified, "Tesla has a safety protocol for this scenario; this has been activated and includes 14-day quarantine for particular employees identified by their EHS team and certain cleaning measures."

The cleaning measures are of particular importance in containing COVID-19, as scientists have found that the COVID-19 coronavirus remains viable on copper surfaces up to four hours, on cardboard surfaces up to a full day, and on plastic and stainless steel for as long as two to three days.

Tesla sent a similar update to its employees overnight on March 28, according to two people who work there but asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak with press.

These people told CNBC the infected Tesla employee was sent home on the same day that Tesla and Panasonic implemented temperature-screening measures at the plant.

Panasonic had already announced plans on March 20 to wind down to minimum basic operations and suspend battery cell production there two weeks, and has granted employees 2 weeks of additional paid time off during the suspension.

After Panasonic's decision, Tesla's side of the Gigafactory stayed fully operational for about a week. Tesla finally told the county on March 26 that it also plans to reduce the number of workers at the Gigafactory by around 75%.

Panasonic could not immediately be reached for comment. Tesla did not reply to requests for further information.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk appears to have changed his tune about the novel coronavirus in recent days as some of his own employees have been infected at both Tesla and SpaceX.

On Twitter, he previously wrote that the "panic" about the pandemic was "dumb."

Musk tweet 1

In an e-mail he sent to all employees at Tesla, Musk later wrote: "My frank opinion remains that the harm from the coronavirus panic far exceeds that of the virus itself." He also incorrectly claimed that children are "essentially immune" to the virus in a tweet.

Musk tweet 2

More recently, Musk began to share research about potential but still unproven treatments for COVID-19, and to praise medical equipment makers like Medtronic.

Musk tweet 3

He has also promoted his own efforts, procuring and distributing ventilators to hospitals that need them, and promised that his companies would begin to produce ventilators, as well, donating rather than selling them all.

Tesla shares finished down 2.4% on Monday on an otherwise mostly positive day for tech stocks and the market overall.
New Delhi, Mar 30 (UNI) The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Monday decided to contribute one days basic pay (As on April 2020) of its employees towards Prime Ministers Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situation (PM CARES) Fund for the combat efforts in Indias fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

The Delhi Metro has around 14500 employees at present, the DMRC said in a statement.

DMRC as an organisation has always contributed in nation building. This small gesture in these testing times for the nation is another step in helping people and mobilisation of resources which are required on urgent basis to contain the spread of pandemic in India.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 22:15:42|Editor: Wang Yamei

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PYONGYANG, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday slammed U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for seeking international pressure against Pyongyang and threatened to withdraw from further negotiations between the two sides.

The Foreign Ministry's new department director general for negotiations with the United States, said in a statement -- without providing his name -- that his country would chart its own course amid stalled talks over its nuclear program.

In the statement, which was carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the official accused Pompeo of encouraging other countries to continue to apply diplomatic and economic pressure against Pyongyang during a press conference last week following a video conference by the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven industrialized nations.

U.S. President Donald Trump recently "sent our leadership his personal letter carrying a sincere aid plan" to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas Pompeo criticized the DPRK, thereby countering the U.S. president, according to the statement.

The foreign ministry official went on to say "the initiative for dialogue that the U.S. has proposed to earn time and create an environment favorable for its president was seriously damaged," and Pompeo's words "led us to lose will for dialogue."

"However great and strong the friendly relationship between the leaders of the two nations, it cannot change the U.S.' hostile policy against us," and a resumption of dialogue which has been much touted by the U.S. side "is nothing but a decoy to keep us from going our own way," the statement added.

The official also said Pyongyang has lost interest in holding dialogue with Washington, and has become more zealous for projects "aimed to repay the U.S. with actual horror and unrest for the sufferings it has inflicted upon our people."

Talks on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula between the DPRK and the United States have been stalled after the Hanoi Summit between their leaders held February 2019 failed to reach an agreement.
Several eminent Indian-American groups in the United States have raised funds and deployed volunteers to help community members, including first responders, health workers, students and labourers in America and India, which have been majorly affected by the novel coronavirus outbreak that has infected over 6,00,000 people globally.

IMAGE: A sign thanking healthcare workers is pictured near an emergency triage tent at Harborview Medical Center as efforts continue to help slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Seattle, Washington . Photograph: Jason Redmond/Reuters

The COVID-19 pandemic has infected over 1,40,000 people and claimed 2,475 lives in the US.

In India, the confirmed coronavirus cases crossed the 1,000-mark and the death toll reached 27.

SEWA International, a leading Indian-American non-profit organisation, has so far raised more than $250,000 for its COVID-19 relief efforts.

It is using the money to buy personal protective equipment's, in particular facial masks and surgical masks, to donate free to the local law enforcement officials and hospitals in some of the hot spot areas like New York, who have run out of these essential items.

It has built a team of 500 volunteers, who have been manning its helpline to address the concerns and questions of Americans in distress due to coronavirus.

Its volunteers are helping more than 300 families, many of whom are elderly or those of the doctors engaged in treatment of the COVID-19 patients, with their daily groceries and masks, said Sree N Sreenath, president of the SEWA International.

Taking it to the next level, Sreenath, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Case Western Reserve University, said that the non-profit body is organising a Sewa Sankalp campaign starting Monday to bring together on one platform over 1,000 service organisations in the US to pool ideas, collaborate and build confidence in the community.

Sreenath said that a Sewa team is working with volunteers in many of its 43 chapters to produce handmade masks.

The team consists of a retired Professor of Design at Fashion Institute of Technology, medical technologist to ensure quality control and acceptability mask designs acceptable to major hospitals across the US have been procured and a procurement specialist as right material is being procured from India as material is in short supply in the US. The team is ramping up its production from 2500 ramping to up to 10,000 masks a week, he said.

Joining the call of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, New York-based hotelier couple K K and Chandra Mehta on Sunday announced to donate Rs 1 crore to the PM's Citizenship Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARE).

The couple has also donated another Rs 11 lakh towards distribution of masks and food packets for local police officials and newspaper hawkers in their home state of Rajasthan.

Based out of Tampa in Florida, Chandrakant Patel said that he is distributing food packets to 300 families in his home State of Chhattisgarh.

"I will be doing this for next three months, he said.

IT entrepreneur Amit Banerjee from Boston said that he is sponsoring 20 labourers for three months in Bengaluru.

New York-based, Jagdish Sewhani, said that he is working with other Indian Americans to provide relief to labourers in big cities like New Delhi and Mumbai, who have lost their jobs due to the nationwide lockdown.

It's inhumane to see the scenes that we have been witnessing on television screens for the past two days in New Delhi. It's time that we all pitch in our resources for them, he said.

Officials of Patel Brothers  which has a chain of popular Indian grocery stores across the US  said that they are working with local authorities to distribute free perishable items and other grocery items to the people in need. Out of abundance of caution, Patel Brothers have announced to close its grocery stores for the next 10 days.

Federation of Indian Associations have been distributing food packets to the needy in New Jersey.

Various Sikh Gurudwara and Sikh organisations have opened community kitchen and have been distributing free food to the homeless, hospital staffs and local law enforcement officials in various parts of the country, including Seattle, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Indianapolis-based Gurinder Singh Khalsa from Sikhs Political Action Committee said that he has been distributing homemade facial masks to local law enforcement officials and first responders in Indiana.

Bihar and Jharkhand Association of North America or BAJANA has started a video awareness campaign for people back home.

It has been recording video messages from its doctors in local languages of Bihar and Jharkhand asking people to stay indoors, self-quarantine and other does and don'ts.

We are also working on to get more videos from USA doctors and sending to our villages, said Alok Kumar from Bihar and Jharkhand Association of North America.

According to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre, more than 32,000 people have died of coronavirus and 684,652 have been infected globally.
[March 30, 2020] NOTICE TO KAYNE ANDERSON MLP/MIDSTREAM INVESTMENT COMPANY (KYN) INVESTORS - KlaymanToskes commences investigation on behalf of KYN Investors Who Sustained Losses in Excess of $100,000 as a Result of a Recommendation from their Financial Advisor

KlaymanToskes ("KT (News - Alert)"), http://www.klaymantoskes.com, announces an investigation on behalf of investors who sustained losses from the purchase of Kayne Anderson MLP/Midstream Investment Company (NYSE:KYN) ("KYN") a Master Limited Partnership ("MLP"). KYN closed at 13.09 on February 21, 2020, prior to the significant market event that was precipitated by COVID-19. Today, KYN trades at 3.49, or more than 73% lower than its market value on February 21, 2020. This product may have been marketed and sold to customers who were risk averse, such as retirees or other conservative investors, that were seeking income and capital preservation and were not explained the potential risks. MLPs are investment vehicles available only to the real estate and natural resource sectors. MLPs offer the tax advantages of partnerships with the advantage of being traded on the open market. Unfortunately, MLPs may become risky during times when certain sectors of the economy are hit hard. The real estate markets and markts in natural resources, especially the energy sector, can see significant swings often causing investors to shoulder the losses. These are risks that should be explained by brokerage firms and financial advisors prior to recommending these investments. Investors may seek damages for violations of sales practice rules and regulations, as set forth by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in arbitration.



The sole purpose of this release is to investigate the sales practices and financial misconduct of brokerage firms and financial advisors in connection with the sale of KYN to their customers. Investors who purchased these investments are encouraged to contact Lawrence L. Klayman, Esq. of KlaymanToskes at (561) 542-5131, or visit our website at www.klaymantoskes.com. About Klayman & Toskes, P.A.

KT is a leading national securities law firm which practices exclusively in the field of securities arbitration and litigation, on behalf of retail and institutional investors throughout the world in large and complex securities matters. The firm represents high net-worth, ultra-high-net-worth, and institutional investors, such as non-profit organizations, unions, public and multi-employer pension funds. KT has office locations in California, Florida, New York, and Puerto Rico. Destination: https://klaymantoskes.com/notice-to-kayne-anderson-mlp-midstream-investment-company-kyn-investors/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005374/en/

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Tollywood actor Prabhas has donated Rs 50 lakh to the Corona Crisis Charity (CCC) formed by South megastar Chiranjeevi to alleviate the distress of the daily wage workers of the Telugu film industry. With the latest contribution, Prabas total donation stands at Rs 4.5 crore, reported Hindustan Times quoting a statement issued by the actor.

Prior to this, Prabhas had given Rs 4 crore to fight the deadly virus. Of the total amount, Rs 3 crore had gone to Prime Minister Narendra Modis National Relief Fund, while Rs 50 lakh each were given to the Chief Minister Relief Funds of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, respectively.

Another Telugu star Allu Arjun had announced a sum of Rs 1.25 crore for the welfare of those affected due to the coronavirus pandemic in states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Telangana.

In the video, he said, the COVID-19 has taken the world by a storm and has changed our everyday lives. In times like this, people like doctors, nurses, the military, the police and many other sectors have made great contribution to our society. Drawing inspirations from them, even I would like to do my small part. With all humility, I would like to announce, Rs 1 crore 25 Lakhs to the people of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala.

Actor Chiranjeevi too had pledged to donate Rs 1 crore to the Corona Crisis Charity.

Several other actors which include Varun Tej, Ravi Teja, Vishwak Sen, Sai Dharam Tej and Sharwanand also extended their helping hands and contributed to Corona Crisis Charity.

In India, the COVID-19 has infected over 1000 people, and has killed over 25 people.

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Melissa Lawrence took goods worth 83 from the store

A young mother was under stress when she stole household goods from a supermarket, a court has heard.

Melissa Lawrence (24) was arrested after she took a knife set and food worth 83.

Judge David McHugh adjourned the case for payment of compensation to the shop.

Lawrence, of St Finian's Grove, Lucan, pleaded guilty to one count of theft.

The offence happened at Lidl, on the Maynooth Road in Leixlip, Co Kildare, last August 27.

Giving evidence, Garda Sergeant Maria Callaghan told Blanchardstown District Court that the accused went to the shop at around 3.47pm on the day in question.

She selected household items worth 83 before passing all points of payment, the court heard.

Sick

She left the store without paying and was later identified as having stolen the goods.

She was arrested and interviewed, but the property was not recovered.

Lawrence knew what she did was wrong and wanted to pay for the property she took, her solicitor William Cadogan told the court.

She had been under stress at the time, he said.

There was a lot of family stress at home and she had a sick child, the court heard.

Mr Cadogan asked the judge to be as lenient as he could in the circumstances.

Judge McHugh adjourned the case and said he wanted the money to be paid to the shop before finalising matters.

He did not indicate the likely penalty.

The defendant, who was not required to address the court, was remanded on continuing bail.
But Sanders has given no indication that he is preparing to do that. He recently said he wants to debate Biden in April. His team announced it is expanding digital organising efforts ahead of the New York primary, which on Saturday was moved from April 28 to June 23. And Sanders has signalled a strong desire to use his campaign megaphone to advocate for liberal policies like Medicare-for-all - which allies said are more crucial than ever because of the public health crisis. Some people close to Sanders voiced confidence that the senator would stay in the race until the July convention, though they said they had received no final word on his plans. Others close to the senator have sounded less certain of that, noting only that he continues to be a candidate at the moment. 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders at a November rally in North Carolina. Credit:AP One of the people close to Sanders - who, like the others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect internal deliberations - said Biden would have to make significant policy and personal overtures to Sanders to potentially persuade the senator to leave the race, and to win the trust of his followers. On Wednesday, Sanders delivered a fiery address on the Senate floor excoriating his Republican colleagues for trying to reduce the financial support some workers could get in a coronavirus bill. "Oh my word, will the universe survive?" a gesticulating Sanders wondered aloud, suggesting sarcastically that giving struggling workers a bit more would be devastating.

For many loyal supporters, the address was a stark reminder of why they feel it's important for him to stay in the contest. "This is why @BernieSanders should be President of the United States," the activists known collectively as "People for Bernie" tweeted to 228,000 followers. Some Democrats, including veterans of the 2016 contest, said they see signs of hope that the party can avoid the intraparty viciousness that marked that race. Sanders has a much better relationship with Biden than he did with Clinton, they noted, and for the moment he has ceased direct attacks on the former vice-president. Plus, they added, the Clinton-Sanders fight was a more than year-long bout that left deep battle scars. "Last time, it was a two-way race - it was person on person. And that just made for more conflict. Here, there was a lot of conflict, but it flew in 15 different directions. Among the final run of candidates, it went every which way," said Mark Longabaugh, a top Sanders strategist in 2016 who worked in 2020 for Andrew Yang, one of the many rivals Biden and Sanders fended off. Sanders argued in a Thursday radio interview with "1A," a program broadcast on NPR, that the postponement of upcoming primaries because of the pandemic makes this race "very different than 2016." He ticked through steps his campaign has taken to adapt to a landscape he said had "changed very profoundly."

Although Sanders personally is not waging a scorched-earth campaign against Biden, some of his most visible supporters continue to rail against the former vice president's policy ideas and question his cognitive abilities - a trend that worries party leaders. Loading "Biden begins to ramble an incoherent point about being proud of some people, but stops himself mid-sentence on air and just ends the thought," tweeted Shaun King, an activist who supports Sanders and has introduced him at events. He was commenting Tuesday on TV interviews Biden had done about the coronavirus. Trump allies have launched similar strikes on Biden. Senior Democrats have expressed concern in recent days that Sanders is once again obliquely giving his supporters permission to continue to question Biden's fitness as the Democratic nominee. "There is growing anticipation for him to start to help," said one senior Democratic strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak more frankly about the concerns. "For his movement to be successful, he needs to find the right way to land the plane at Joe Biden international airport."

Inside the Biden campaign, apprehension peaked during the last debate, when Sanders went beyond the policy discussion that he said he was seeking and moved instead to attack Biden's honesty and question whether his current promise to protect Social Security could be trusted. After the debate, Anita Dunn, a senior Biden adviser, punched back by comparing Sanders to "the kind of protester who often shows up at campaign events on live television." For some Clinton alumni, the debate brought back bad memories of the spring contests last cycle. In April 2016, the Sanders campaign was pushing videos of Clinton talking about her "wonderful donors" and campaign ads that talked about Washington politicians who are paid "over $200,000 an hour for speeches" from Wall Street firms. Those messages became central themes in Trump's campaign against Clinton, who he called "corrupt" all the way through the general election. Former vice-president Joe Biden speaks during a virtual press briefing on a laptop computer in Arlington, Virginia. Credit:Bloomberg Clinton defeated Sanders in New York in mid-April, a defeat that made it nearly mathematically impossible for Sanders to overtake her lead in delegates. But he continued his campaign. Clinton in June won the California primary, closing off Sanders' path to the nomination for good, yet he did not endorse her for another five weeks. Shaping the party platform that would be ratified at the convention was one Sanders' main goals in keeping the campaign alive, Longabaugh recalled.

"He talked about wanting to move the party and move it to the left. That was one of the objectives of his presidential candidacy, in addition to trying to win. I think the platform became his mechanism for doing that," Longabaugh said. "He also had millions of supporters who had contributed to his campaign and travelled to other states to campaign. He felt they deserved a chance to cast a ballot for him." Loading Many Sanders supporters argued that they made real efforts to work together with the Clinton team at the convention. One indicator of high-level cooperation: The Sanders officials and Clinton's aides worked out of the same workspace. Sanders also made another key concession to avoid discord, according to Longabaugh: not escalating a fight over trade, Medicare-for-all and convention "superdelegates" during negotiations among party insiders. Nomiki Konst, a liberal strategist, was among the Sanders delegates placed on the platform committee. Over two hot days in an Orlando hotel ballroom, their mission was to get as much of the Sanders agenda as possible into the platform. They managed to influence the document with ideas such as a $15 dollar minimum wage. "When the California primary was over, we knew he'd lost the nomination, but getting more delegates meant that we had more members of the platform committee," Konst said.

Some Sanders allies say their goal is similar this time, and they are publicly urging Sanders to stay in the race to gain leverage over the proceedings. "A political party is supposed to be a place where you actually debate. There are huge differences here," said Larry Cohen, a Sanders friend who heads a nonprofit aligned with the senator. "There needs to continue to be a reform movement in this party, not a coronation." Supporters of both Clinton and now Biden, however, say they dramatically moved in Sanders' direction during the campaigns. Clinton adopted liberal policies in 2016 to reach out to Sanders' backers; Biden more recently has adopted programs that Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others have proposed, and he has rhetorically invited Sanders' supporters into his campaign. Among the moderates, there remains a frustration that the Sanders forces demand that the winning primary candidates conform to his views, and not the other way around. They suggest the situation is even more dire this year than in 2016, given the party's antipathy toward Trump.

Biden, for his part, has sought to strike a welcoming posture toward his former Senate colleague. Both teams remain in touch on the coronavirus crisis and its effect on the economy, according to one Biden adviser. It is their personal dynamic - they are two men of similar ages who both served in Congress and who associates said genuinely hold each other in high regard - that gives some Democrats hope for averting the ugliness of 2016. Loading "I sense that there is a personal respect that he has for Joe Biden that he did not extend to Hillary in 2016, so I assume that that will extend some guard rails," said Brian Fallon, who worked as press secretary for Clinton's campaign. The bigger challenge, Fallon said, will be reining in Sanders supporters while their candidate extends his presence in the race. Scott Brennan, a Democratic National Committee member from Iowa, expressed hope that the party's divisions will not repeat because Biden "doesn't generate the same sort of fevered hatred" from Sanders allies that Clinton did.
Rewired, a robotics focused venture studio that invests in growth-stage technology ventures, is seeking to add new artificial intelligence and robotics investments to its portfolio.

Based in London in the United Kingdom and Lausanne in Switzerland, the studio is funded by investors including the Cascade Global multi-family office and the Kohli Ventures investment vehicle of Tej Kohli. Cascade Global is also an investor in the Rewired.GG sister fund, which in 2019 became Europe largest esports investor when it invested 34m in an esports team.

Rewired seeks to make investments of between $5m and $30m attaining a substantial or majority position as an investor, and then providing long term funding and expertise.

The portfolio currently encompasses innovations in machine learning, robotics, bionics, smart sensors, mapping and localization in the UK and USA. Backed ventures include Aromyx and Open Bionics.

The studio has also made two new appointments in its Swiss office to support future deal flow.

Laurent Bischof has joined Rewired as a Board Director. In 2016 Laurent co-founded Bloom, the first AI platform dedicated to strategic analysis of social networks. He also has over 15 years of venture capital experience.

Marc-Olivier Bertholet has joined Rewired as a special advisor with over 20 years of international biotech and MedTech experience.

FinSMEs

30/03/2020
Three top entrepreneurs share some of the mistakes they made on their entrepreneurial journey and what they learnt from their missteps.

********************************

Raisa Ocholla, CEO and founder, the African Thrillist Ecotours

I am a better listener now.

After many years abroad, I came home to start my business. Prior to coming home, I did everything from being a bartender, a supermarket attendant, a computer programmer to being a flight attendant for Emirates. But I yearned for something fulfilling. That is why I came back home and started a tour company.

Mistake 1: Not having separate checking accounts.

Being a one-man show, it was easier to just use my personal account for my business. After a while, I could not keep track of all the money movement and I ended up not having a clear record of how my business was doing. I have since learnt to separate my personal and business finance.

I attended a couple of workshops and classes like Centonomy and Africas Pocket to give me the relevant knowledge on how to go about it. Keeping good records year-long will give you proof of your business expenses if you get audited. I also got apps like bookkeeping, to ensure a percentage of my profits goes to scale up my business. Of course, I also learnt how to pay myself first.

Mistake 2: Being a serial entrepreneur

I was bubbling with ideas and couldnt commit to the vision all the way through. An idea at inception requires all focus and attention to go from 0 to 1. I had to discipline myself to focus on one business at a time, giving a minimum of 10 hours a day of work because this is a newborn that needs extra attention to mature into a fruitful and solid venture.

Mistake 3: Having a rigid business model

I wasted a lot of time not listening to experts and clientele. I wasnt very agile in my thinking at that time. Having just arrived, I targeted visitors from Europe and other cold areas to introduce them to Kenyas beautiful weather.I had to learnt to adjust my approach and create packages for people based on their budgets and time. I now work with local clients to show them hidden treasures in Kenya. Adjusting my product scope has resulted in more sales.

Muthuri Kinyamu, co-founder Of Turnup.Travel Global Limited

We realised that we shouldnt be working just to pay the bills

Before launching Turnup.Travel, I was part of a Kenya Tourism Board domestic marketing campaign dubbed The Great Migration as a team leader and ambassador. I have spent the past seven years building startups, events and managing relations for early and growth-stage companies setting up or expanding into or across the continent.

Mistake 1: I did not invest in the right team members

When you fail at something, say your product doesnt scale to the level you expected, revenues slump, or your rate of growth stalls, great teams use their shared experience to figure out what went wrong and develop a solution that generates results even better than previously thought possible. I may not have been very keen on my teams at the start. Success is contingent on teams that are persistent, trust each other and learn from their failures. I now make sure to recruit through my networks to get people aligned with my vision. I also ensure I do not overextend my terms and conditions to make sure my team is happy and comfortable.

Mistake 2: We did not bring in relevant trained personnel

I did not have a tourism background but ventured without that expertise. I was able to learn eventually but it was hard. You need to get the best people in at the start. I am aware that as a startup you are sometimes forced to work with what you have and on occasion you dont have the budget for employing people, but if you can, start with experienced team members.

Mistake 3: I did business only to cover bills.

My business partner and I were just two clueless young people running a highly seasonal business. Financial management was grossly overlooked. We always felt like we had money or were making money but we didnt really know. We felt we had no reason to worry since rent and utilities were always paid but in the end, a lot of wastage was happening. We would always ask What have we not paid today? Tell the other one we will pay later. Financial reporting earlier in the business helps you get a better picture and understand the business better. I would advise startups by the second year mark to have an accountant. This will also help them get into corporate business or even government procurements.

Ashley Kibali, CEO and founder of Seventy-Two Media Group

No shame in asking for advice

When I started out in 2014, it was only a high school film training project. That opportunity turned to film festival organising to now a content production company. Seventy-Two Media is a media company that produces and distributes African content. I was passionate about creating easy access of premium African content, especially family-based content.

Mistake 1: Making rash decisions

Knowing what to do and when is crucial in business. I made plenty of premature decisions to release a festival or project to the public without analysing the timings. I thought having a good idea was enough and I could go public. My experience has taught me to plan backwards and prioritise projects that are timely to solve a current relevant need within the market space. I have also learnt in this that not all great ideas are worth implementing immediately. Others are meant to be kept aside for years/months later.

Mistake 2: Working in isolation

When running a startup, its easy to make all decisions alone. I used to think running a business was a matter of passion, drive and hard work. I made losses and suffered unnecessary damage from not consulting other entrepreneurs who have been doing this for a while. I have now learnt to have a network of connections from bloggers and journalists to local business people and entrepreneurs to advise, correct and teach me.

Mistake 3: I allowed myself to work with no clear strategy

I made this mistake in 2019. We did a film and animation festival and put all our personal savings and investments in it without a clear plan for our sustainability and movement. One of the festivals made bad losses, we didnt get the financial grants that we were expecting and that took me down to zero. After this, I have learnt to separate business from social impact projects. Along with that, I plan ahead of time, work with what I have in hand, not money that I expect will come.

Courtesy/ Hustle
In Breaking Bad, Saul Goodman is depicted as a criminal lawyer who will stop at nothing to make money. While he seemed completely crooked at first, Better Call Saul has given fans a deeper look at Saul Goodmans past as Jimmy McGill. Fortunately, he isnt as scummy as his original portrayal lead fans to believe.

In an interview with Variety, Bob Odenkirk discussed his roles as Jimmy McGill and Saul Goodman. Having played Saul in both series, theres one minor detail about his character that doesnt make sense to Odenkirk.

Bob Odenkirk | Tommaso Boddi/WireImage

Next season will be the last of Better Call Saul

As season five comes to a close, fans are eager to see what will become of Saul Goodman in the sixth and final season. Knowing who Saul Goodman is in Breaking Bad, theres only a little bit of time left for his evolution to complete.

Having played the role of Saul Goodman for the last 10 years, Odenkirk is looking forward to seeing how Better Call Saul leads fans into the series that is Breaking Bad. Despite having to become Saul, Odenkirk is left in the dark when it comes to the details of the shows upcoming season. In his Variety interview, Odenkirk said he is excited for the writers to answer questions like, Where is Kim in Breaking Bad? and How does Saul learn to speak Spanish?

This Breaking Bad moment doesnt sit right with Bob Odenkirk

In the 2009 episode of Breaking Bad aptly titled Better Call Saul, we meet Saul Goodman, the lawyer Badger hired after he was picked up by the cops for selling drugs.

After a long day of lawyering, Saul leaves his office with his secretary, Francesca Liddy. As theyre exiting the strip mall building, Saul says, Hey Francesca, how bout I follow you home? After Francesca denies him and is out of earshot, Saul utters, God, you are killing me with that booty.

Odenkirk told Variety: The one thing that doesnt fit yet is when his assistant is walking away in the first scene, and he makes some wisecrack about wanting to grab her ass. Why would he do that? I dont understand. Saul was never the most straight-laced character, but it does seem unlikely of him to make a pass like that at Francesca.

Sauls relationship with Kim Wexler in Better Call Saul

In Better Call Saul, Saul goes by his given name, Jimmy McGill most of the time. Jimmy is in love with Kim Wexler, a fellow lawyer who spends a lot of her time keeping Jimmys morality in check. Throughout Better Call Saul, weve seen Jimmy and Kims relationship blossom. Now that hes coming into his own as Saul Goodman, it seems as though their relationship is starting to fall apart.

Since Kim was nowhere to be found in Breaking Bad, fans understand that its only a matter of time before Kim either breaks it off with Jimmy once and for all or ends up dead as a result of Saul Goodmans actions.

Could the comment Saul made about Francescas booty be a cry of longing from a desperate man seeking companionship? Perhaps well see more of this side of Saul develop in the final season of Better Call Saul.
Two people who tested positive for coronavirus in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar on Sunday are nationals of France and Ivory Coast, who had come to the city with 12 others as part of their visit to religious places, district officials said.

Nine close contacts of these two positive patients have been sent for institutional quarantine and their samples have been dispatched for testing, they said.

Police and district administration are looking for the remaining people, who had come in their contact.

"A group of 14, including the two patients, had come to India from Mauritius recently. They first stayed in Delhi and then travelled to Mumbai, Chennai. They again went back to Delhi," a district official said.

"On March 14, all of them came to Ahmednagar by train and stayed at a religious institution in the city," he said.

On March 26, they came to Jamkhed in the district, he added.

"The district administration received information about their presence at a religious institution for offering prayer. All the 14 people were taken to the hospital and their samples were sent for testing. The results of five samples were received today and two were found to be positive," the official said.

"While one of them is a French national, another one is from Ivory Coast," he added.

The Ahmednagar police have booked the trustees of the religious institution for not informing the administration about the presence of foreign nationals at their place.

With these two cases, the total number of coronavirus positive patients in Ahmednagar has gone up to five, the official said.
Carteret Mayor Dan Reiman announced on Monday he has tested positive for coronavirus and remains in self-isolation at home as he recovers.

I was tested last week and I received the results this morning, nearly seven days later, which is a long time to wait for results but it shows the importance of self-quarantining and following the advice of the CDC and Governor Murphys executive orders to help stop the spread of the virus, Reiman wrote on Monday.

Reiman was exposed to the virus early last week, and has been self-quarantined since then, he said. He later developed minor symptoms including a cough and fever, and was first diagnosed with a seasonal respiratory infection.

Additional testing showed that he was positive for the coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, Reiman said. He is one of at least 15 confirmed cases within Carteret Borough, and one of over 13,000 within New Jersey.

Reiman says his case was mild. A week after testing positive, he is left with only a cough.He said he announced his diagnosis publicly to help reduce the stigma.

Instead, impacted individuals need to share that information with family, friends and others to stop the spread, Reiman said.

Although he has been cleared by a doctor to return to work, Reiman said he will work from home for the rest of the week out of an abundance of caution.

The mayor praised the doctors who treated him, and called on the community to remain strong during the pandemic.

Although the challenges presented by the Coronavirus have become personal to myself and many others, I am confident that our strength as a borough, state, and national community will ultimately define our victory over this global pandemic, Reiman said.

Reiman is among the first New Jersey mayors to disclose he has the coronavirus. A Jersey City councilman previously said he tested positive, and a South Jersey mayor lost her grandmother to the virus.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

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Major conferences held by the two largest Protestant denominations in the country have joined the long list of events canceled by coronavirus.

Last week, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) called off its annual meeting scheduled for June 9-10, its first cancellation since World War II 75 years ago. The week before, the United Methodist Church (UMC) announced it would have to push back its quadrennial General Conference another year after its venue, the Minnesota Convention Center, canceled events through mid-May.

While members understand the circumstances, the decisions still come as hard news. Besides the denomination-wide fellowship and morale-building that happens at these gatherings, they are the vehicle for important decision-making affecting churches and ministries.

Leaders from both denominations say the delay puts some business on holdbut in most cases, the votes can wait. That includes the long-anticipated decision over how the UMC could split over irreconcilable differences on LGBT issues.

UMC split delayed

Postponing the UMC conference to 2021 gives leaders more time to deliberate their disunion. In January a group of traditional and progressive denominational leaders agreed on the Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation, which proposed allowing conservative congregations to break away and form a new body. Rather than voting on the protocol in May, delegates will hold off until the 2021 General Conference.



Many UMC churches had already begun to discuss whether to stay or gowith exiting churches keeping their buildings and taking $25 million to form the new denomination under the proposed protocolbut its unlikely any could afford to jump the gun and leave before the rescheduled vote takes place.

I am confident that there are congregations that are frustrated, disappointed, and even angry at the delay, said Keith Boyette, president of the Wesleyan Covenant Association (WCA) and one of the leaders who helped develop the protocol. There is not a vehicle for them to depart the denomination in the absence of the protocol thats not very costly.

Even if churches stay put for the time being, some worry individual members may not.

The primary concern I have is that there are a lot of people who are going to say, Im not willing to wait any longer, Jay Brim, a lay delegate from Texas, told UM News.

Mark Tooley, president of the Institute for Religion and Democracy, said postponing the vote on the protocol gives churches more time to discuss and plan for the future.

The general conference was also the chance for United Methodists to elect new members of its Judicial Council and approve the budget for the next four years.

While the election is delayed, the budgets needed to be approved so ministries could continue operating into 2021. On Friday, the General Council on Finance and Administration extended the same apportionment calculations approved by the 2016 General Conference for another year, with some concern that ministries would need even more funding under the demand of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Southern Baptists and sexual abuse

In the case of the SBC, the work around its highest-profile issue in recent yearscombatting abusegoes on regardless of whether the whole convention assembles or not. Churches and state conventions will continue to train through its Caring Well curricula, and the credentials committee will keep evaluating reports of churches that disregard denominational standards on sex abuse, race, or theological issues.

After the committee gathered in February, just one church was removed from fellowship for a blatant violation: employing a known sex offender whose victims were pre-teen girls. Its possible that at the June annual meeting, where motions can be made from messengers on the floor, someone could have challenged the efficacy of the committee, which only evaluates claims submitted to it and has no investigative authority or power.

Though mishandling sexual abuse has already been grounds for dismissal from the denomination because it violates the Baptist Faith and Message, the SBC will have to wait for the second of two consecutive votes to confirm a constitutional change to call it out explicitly.

That, as well as the rest of the business on this years SBC docket, will be moved to the 2021 convention, which is scheduled for June 1516, 2021, in Nashville.

The Executive Committee, which is tasked with deciding on convention business in between annual meetings, will have the option to vote to approve the annual budget at its next meeting, currently scheduled for September.

And while convention-wide voting cannot take place anywhere outside the in-person annual meeting, some other elements of the 2020 gathering may be shared in different formats. The annual reports given by missional entity heads and seminary presidents will be compiled into a digital PDF to be shared in June, for example, and some related gatherings will take place over livestream instead.

But right now, most Southern Baptists are more worried about the state of their churches and communities under the coronavirus outbreak than anything that would have happened in a convention center in June.

The work continues, said Amy Whitfield, associate vice president for convention communications. They have everything they need to do their jobs, and they are already on it, with state conventions, local churches, and denomination-wide entities rallying resources and aid.

SBC President J. D. Greear, whose would have ended at this years meeting but will extend until 2021, urged churches to consider using the funds designated for sending pastors to the Annual Meeting to instead alleviate some of the financial strain for others, like helping a bi-vocational pastor or church planter make payroll.

Other denominations annual meeting plans

The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is still waiting see the intensity and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic before making a decision on its general assembly, scheduled for June 16-19 in Birmingham.

The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel (ICFG) canceled its Global Summit and Foursquare Connection 2020, scheduled for the end of May in Denver.

The Anglican Communion has postponed until next year its decennial Lambeth Conference to be held in Canterbury, England. The conference brings together bishops from around the world.
Another Alabama factory has temporarily shut down its operations due to a worker testing positive for coronavirus.

FreightCar America announced its Colbert County manufacturing plant closed Saturday after one employee tested positive for COVID-19, according to the TimesDaily.

The company plans for all employees to return April 7 after cleaning is completed. Some employees may return sooner, the company said in a news release. FreightCar America will continue to receive material shipments during the hiatus.

Although we have already taken extraordinary measures in our facilities to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, out of an abundance of caution and to reduce the risk of secondary or tertiary exposure, we are temporarily suspending railcar production, FreightCar America President and CEO James Meyer said.

FreightCar America designs and builds several types of railcars. Opened in 2008, the Cherokee facility has seen operations by FreightCar since 2013, when it subleased 25 percent of the plant from Navistar. In 2018, FreightCar announced the acquisition of Navistars assets. Last year, the company closed its Roanoke, Va. plant and shifted the work to Cherokee.

Hyundai suspended work at its Montgomery plant earlier this month when an employee tested positive for coronavirus. The automaker plans to resume work there April 13.
National Bank spends US$76.8 mln on March 23-27 to support hryvnia

13:00, 30.03.20 1662

The central bank reduced interventions in the past week.
Mixed messaging around face masks has been at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic as Canadians try to arm themselves with the correct personal protective equipment when venturing out of the house.

Global perspectives on the use of masks in public are divisive. While some countries like the Czech Republic urge theyve been able to slow growth of coronavirus by making masks mandatory for every person leaving their home, hospitals in Toronto are facing a shortage and have begun to solicit them from the general public. Hospitals in Vancouver and Ottawa have told staff to limit themselves to two surgical masks per shift.

Meanwhile, Michael Garron Hospital in Torontos east-end went as far as telling volunteers to sew masks for the general public.

Right now, Canadians are being asked by their federal and provincial governments to only go out when in need of essential services, to work (if theyre required), or to the doctor. However, many arent sure if they need to gear up with a mask when they leave the house.

Despite the rumours, both the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have been clear on their messaging  unless youre symptomatic, you do not need to wear a mask.

The website for the Public Health Agency of Canada also states the use of a mask is not recommended for preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Dr. Bonita Bodani specializes in pediatrics in Regina and Toronto and believes that while masks may provide some protection, in some cases, they can do the opposite.

Wearing a mask can give a false sense of security and actually increase your risk of contracting the virus if not used and disposed of properly or not replaced frequently, she said.

When masks become damp, Canadians should remove them and dispose of them immediately.

The only time Canadians are advised to wear a mask out in public is when theyre experiencing symptoms such as a dry cough, fever, difficulty breathing or pneumonia in either lung. With someone whos ill, a mask can reduce spread.

Story continues

The mask acts as a barrier and helps stop the tiny droplets from spreading when you cough or sneeze, messaging on the site reads.

The virus can also be airborne and remain dormant on inanimate objects for a large period of time.

Dr. Bonita Bodani says Canadians can opt to put on a face mask when they know they'll be in close proximity with others when accessing essential services, but recommends good hygiene practices as the best solution.

Dr. Bodani also recommends that if youre forced to come in close-proximity to others, where you cant adhere to the two metre or six feet recommendation, a mask is recommended.

The grocery store, other essential services or enclosed spaces, you can wear a mask to provide some protection of possible transmission to yourself, she said.

How to wear a mask properly

First things first, before putting on a mask, you will need to either wash your hands with soap and water for 30 seconds or use alcohol-sanitizer.

Next, figure out which side of the mask is facing outwards (usually its the coloured side). Following that, place the mask over the bridge of your nose, and loop it around your ears.

Still life of a face mask on red background

After its secured on your ears, slightly pinch the nose and pull the bottom of the mask around and under your chin to create a seal.

It is essential that the mask covers the nose and chin to prevent aerosols from entering any openings.

After youre done with the mask, remove it from behind your ears and avoid touching the front and dispose of it. Finally, wash your hands or use hand sanitizer.

The best way to protect yourself

Surgical masks are not a solution by themselves, and instead Dr. Bodani recommends Canadians continue to follow the WHO and the Public Health Agency of Canadas recommendations to continue physically distancing.

The best safety measure to protect yourself from droplet transmission is to stay at home and isolate and avoid any human interaction, she said.

Instead of opting for masks and trying to secure sanitizer, Dr. Bodani recommends using soap and water.

Wash your hands frequently, do not shake anyones hands or hug anyone. Avoid touching your face, she said.

Dr. Bodani believes if Canadians can buy into social and physical distancing and continue to wash their hands and practice good hygiene, the use of masks will be rendered effectively minimal.

If you practice these other safety measures, the use of masks will only provide little additional protection, she said.
New Delhi: One of the most widely celebrated festivals of Navratri began on March 25 amid the coronavirus lockdown. The devotees, in such a situation, cannot throng temples to offer prayers, but at home, the celebrations are in full swing. People observe fast and pray to Maa Durga during the nine-day long festival. Chaitra Navratri this year ends on April 2 with Ram Navami celebrations.

All nine forms of Maa Durga are worshipped during the festival and on Day 6, devotees offer prayers to Maa Katyayani. She is the second name of Goddess Parvati, Adi Parashakti or Amarakosha, as per the Sanskrit lexicon. She is also hailed as the fierce avatar of Maa Durga as per some beliefs.

Maa Katyayani is associated with the red colour, something which is also linked to Goddess Durga. According to Skanda Purana, Devi Katyayani came into being from the spontaneous anger of the gods to kill the demon - Mahishasur. She mounted on a lion that Goddess Parvati offered to her and killed Mahishasur in her fierce avatar. That is why Durga is also known by the name Mahishasurmardini. This is celebrated widely across the globe as Durga Puja. It coincides with the Sharad Navratri which falls during September-October.

The legend of Mahishasur and how the goddess killed him is the most popular one associated with the origin of Maa Katyayani, who put an end to evil and helped the gods from the clutches of this demon.

Goddess Katyayani mounts on a lion and has three eyes and is four-armed.

Chant these Maa Katyayani mantra for marriage issues:

           

Katyayani Mahamaye Mahayoginyadheeshwari

Nandgopsutam Devipatim Me Kuru Te Namah

Katyayani Mantra:

   

Om Devi Katyayanyai Namah

Devi Katyayani Stuti:

           

Ya Devi Sarvabhuteshu Ma Katyayani Rupena Samsthita

Namastasyai Namastasyai Namastasyai Namo Namah

Benefits of chanting Maa Katyayani mantra:

It is believed that if someone's marriage is getting delayed, Maa Katyayani's mantra chant removes all the hurdles, Manglik Dosha from the horoscope. If married, then this mantra can ensure a happy married life. Couples, who are in love and yet to get the consent of their parents for marriage can also chant the mantra for marrying the partner of their choice.

Legends:

As per popular beliefs, Devi Katyayani was born to Rishi Katyayan, who hailed from the Katya lineage-linked to Vishwamitra originally. The sage Katyayan was an ardent Durga follower and performed austere penance to please the goddess as he wanted her to be born as his daughter. Later, Maa Durga, pleased by his tap and dedication reincarnated as Katyayanithe daughter of Katyayan.

In other texts, such as the Kalika Purana, it is stated that because Rishi Katyayan first worshipped the goddess, she came to be known as Katyayani.

There are several temples of Devi Katyayani in the country and Katyayani Vrat (fast) is also observed by the women, who wish to have a husband of their own choice. Earlier beliefs also link it to the legend which says Gopis would observe the fast, singing Lord Krishna's praises and pray to Maa Katyayani with devotion in order to seek Krishna as their partner.

Khadga is her weapon and she holds a lotus in one of her hands while the other hand stays always stays in Abhayamudra or Varadamudra for blessings.

Jai Mata Di!
An overseas man has reported a NSW woman to federal police after she allegedly sent unsolicited child sexual abuse material and offered a child for sex over a WhatsApp message thread.

The 35-year-old woman was arrested at her Armidale property on Thursday, after the man lodged a tip with the Australian Federal Police. It stated that the two were engaged in an ongoing conversation on the encrypted messaging platform when the woman allegedly sent the man child abuse material, before offering the same child to the man for sexual abuse.

The man and the woman were engaged in a messaging thread on WhatsApp before she allegedly sent unsolicited child abuse material. Credit:Bloomberg

The woman was subsequently charged with using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material and producing child abuse material for use through a carriage service.

She did not apply for bail at Armidale Local Court on Friday, however bail was formally refused. She will next appear at the same court on April 8.
The Nigeria government has announced 20 new cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country.

The new cases were announced in three states  Lagos, Kaduna and Oyo  and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

This brings the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 131.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said the breakdown of new cases were 13 in Lagos, four in FCT, two in Kaduna and one in Oyo State.

The Oyo State case is believed to be Governor Seyi Makinde.

Although the NCDC has a policy of not identifying patients who test positive, PREMIUM TIMES reported how Mr Makinde earlier on Monday announced he had tested positive to the virus.

The NCDC provided information on the new cases on its official Twitter handle, saying as at 09:00 pm 30th March there are 131 confirmed cases of #COVID19 reported in Nigeria with 2 deaths.

READ ALSO:

The second death had earlier been reported by the health minister, Osagie Ehanire, on Monday.

Neither Mr Ehanire nor the NCDC provided more details of the death.

Break down

The break down of cases by states shows that Lagos remains the epicentre for the disease in the country.

Data from NCDC show that Lagos State leads with 81 cases, followed by 25 in Abuja, Ogun  3, Kaduna  3, Oyo  8, Edo  2, Bauchi  2, Enugu  2, and Osun  2. Ekiti, Rivers and Benue states have one case of the infection each.

Restrictions

With the increasing number of confirmed cases, President Muhammadu Buhari addressed Nigerians for the first time on the COVID-19 pandemic on Sunday.

He listed, among others, the ban of movement in Lagos, Ogun, and Abuja from Monday night to prevent the spread of the disease.

After Mr Buharis speech, the health minister said the government will thoroughly intensify contact tracing to identify those who might have been exposed to COVID-19 from a positive patient.

Most of the confirmed cases in Nigeria are persons who have visited countries with a high burden of the disease or those who had contact with such returnees.

Mr Ehanire reiterated that the government will use this containment period to identify, trace and isolate all individuals that have come into contact with confirmed cases.

We will ensure the treatment of confirmed cases while restricting further spread to other states, he said.
An Oxfam sign on a wall in Haiti as the charity warns over the need to ramp up health spending in poorer countries. REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares?

A UN agency has called for a $2.5 trillion emergency package to prevent a looming financial tsunami in developing economies hit hard by the coronavirus.

Calls are growing for global leaders not only to prevent millions of deaths in the poorest countries, but also to alleviate the enormous economic damage in the developing world.

Oxfam called for $160bn of immediate debt cancellation for poor countries in a report on Friday, freeing up cash to invest in often weak public health systems. It said urgent action was needed to prevent the biggest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War.

Now the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is demanding advanced economies match their unprecedented stimulus packages at home with support for less rich countries abroad.

Read more: Coronavirus will wipe 15% off GDP in the UK

Many have been hit hard by dramatic economic shockwaves from the pandemic as global demand has dried up and panic has hit stock markets.

Developing countries have suffered from capital flight, growing bond spreads, currency decline and falling earnings from tourism, commodities and other exports, according to an UNCTAD report on Monday.

Investors pulled $59bn out of debt and equity markets in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Philippines, South Korea, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey between late February and late March. The outflows are more than twice levels seen in the same countries in the immediate aftermath of the global financial crisis in late 2008.

UNCTAD is calling for $1tn of debt relief, a $1tn helicopter money drop through special drawing rights at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a $500bn Marshall Plan of health and related aid.

Read more: Low-paid womens jobs leave them most at risk from COVID-19

It also urges the IMF to accept capital controls as a legitimate tool to halt declines in currency and asset prices, in what would be a radical break from the economic orthodoxy of recent decades.

Story continues

Advanced economies have promised to do whatever it takes to stop their firms and households from taking a heavy loss of income, said Richard Kozul-Wright, UNCTADs director of globalization and development strategies.

He added: But if G20 leaders are to stick to their commitment of a global response in the spirit of solidarity, there must be commensurate action for the six billion people living outside the core G20 economies.

Jose Maria Vera, Oxfam Internationals interim executive director warned healthcare resources in many countries were heavily overstretched before the coronavirus threat emerged.

Mali has three ventilators for every million inhabitants, and Zambia has one doctor for every 10,000 people, she said.

We know from Oxfams experience of fighting ebola that with rapid action, this disease can be stalled and its catastrophic impact stopped. Without urgent, ambitious and historic action, we could easily see the biggest humanitarian crisis since World War Two.
Internet industry body IAMAI on Monday flagged concerns around a recent Health Ministry circular which mandates, among other provisions, that drugs be delivered to patients located within the same revenue district where the company holding the license to sell is located.

The circular dated March 26 lays down conditions like a person licensed to sell and deliver drugs will have to submit an e-mail ID for registration with the licensing authority if prescriptions are to be received through email, and that drugs be supplied at the doorstep of the patients located within the same revenue district where the company holding the license to sell is located, the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) said in a statement.

In case of chronic diseases, the prescription will be valid for medicine delivery only if it is presented to the drug retailer within 30 days of its issue. In acute cases, the prescription will be valid only if it is presented to the licensee within seven days of its issue.

"...this could adversely impact the delivery of medicines by making it difficult for them to deliver medicines, even though by definition medicines fall under 'essential services' as allowed by the government under lockdown," the statement added.

IAMAI said online sale of drugs is often facilitated by online marketplaces that are digital platforms facilitating online transactions between customers and sellers.

The services of the platforms may include facilitation of payments, collection, transport or last-mile delivery of the drugs to the customers, or any combination of services therein.

"The platforms, as digital service providers, are essentially intermediaries and are not expected to hold license in Form-20 or Form-21 under the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945. Such licenses are held by businesses engaged in the actual act of selling drugs and medicines," IAMAI said.

"The notification fails to take into consideration the role played by digital intermediaries as it only recognises agencies with license under Form-20 or Form-21 to engage in the act of online sales and distribution of medicines," it added.

IAMAI said the provision to allow medicines to be delivered only if available within the same revenue district will likely deprive customers from being able to access important medications if they are not available in the same area as the customer.

Citing an example, IAMAI said a customer looking for a specific medicine in Delhi can only be provided the medicine by an online pharmacy if it is available in its Delhi stocks or with Delhi pharmacies connected to the platform, even though the same medicine may be available in another neighbouring city.

According to IAMAI, the provision under notification barring the supply of drugs outside the revenue district where the licensee is located defeats the premise of e-commerce and the concept of 'One Nation, One Market'.

"This direction is against the interest of general public at large and against the notion of 'access to medicines for all'. The said provison does not leave any alternative for the general public in case medicines are not available with the same revenue district," IAMAI said.

It also defeats the real benefit of online transactions that helps match supply-demand across geographical borders and helps facilitate logistics and supplies at a pan-India level, it added.

The industry body also expressed reservation about the chronic disease prescription not being more than 30 days old.

"Chronic medication is required by patients over long term, and in these circumstances (under lockdown) it is unreasonable to expect them to get a new prescription each month," it said.

IAMAI suggested that the notification must give due recognition to online marketplaces and the role played by such platforms in facilitating and realising online transactions of drugs and medicines by excusing them from any licensing for their activities.

The geographical restriction on sales of drugs, especially in times of the present crisis, should be revoked to allow digital services bring greater efficiencies in supply chain logistics of essential commodities like medicines, it added.

Also, the time period restriction on the validity of prescription for chronic diseases should be relaxed considering the present exigencies under general lockdown.

IAMAI also urged that all forms of digital communications including social media platforms, e-mail and other forms of digital communications be given validity for the sharing of prescriptions.

"The present dilemma created by the notification regarding sale of drugs based on conditions highlighted is against the premise of the e-pharma industry and creates immediate concerns given the emergency arising due to pandemic COVID-19. IAMAI hopes that the industry concerns are given due consideration before the implementation of the suggested provisions," it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Luxembourg will receive a new military satellite in the to participate in the NAOS space observation programme.

The expensive acquisition received the green light in 2018 - but officials had largely underestimated the true costs of the satellite. They initially set the budget at 170 million.

Last week, the government presented the Chamber of Deputies with a second draft bill that, if passed, would increase the budget for the military satellite to 350 million.

When they presented the project and its estimated costs in 2018, officials explained, they believed that the required antennas and management systems could be installed at the military headquarters in Diekirch. They later realised that this was not possible - the management and maintenance of the satellite need to be outsourced to Redu in Belgium.

The maintenance of the satellite costs around 30 million per 10 years while the rent costs in Redu will amount to 50 million.

Minister of Defense Francois Bausch will present the draft bill in greater detail to the Chamber of Deputies this Monday afternoon.
KNOWLEDGE (read education) is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family, once said the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan.

His school of thought was that it is important because it gives a different perspective on life and establishes a personal opinion after one analysing a situation.

It helps a society to develop socially and economically while keeping pace with latest technologies used in different areas like health, economy, military and other business, and this is the exact realm Tanzania envisions.

With that in mind, the countrys education system, whether we like it or not, must be addressed critically to accommodate latest developments, otherwise we shall lag behind.

Although there have been a lot of improvements within the education sector, there are still loopholes which must be addressed by all institutions, education stakeholders and citizens without leaving the burden to the government.

Though, the government should invest more in education, because by doing this, it improves the sector to groom many educated people, who will fight poverty.

However, the major support should start from the grassroots with parents seeing the essence of educating their children and fighting all sorts of hindrances like early marriages among the girl-child and child labour.

It will be a waste of time and resources for the government to invest money in educating a people, who are impregnating school girls, and employing children to sell their wares in streets.

This is a collective responsibility that must start right from the family level up the hierarchy. Parents should remember that children are good at imitating what they do and for that matter, once a parent starts displaying high degree of irresponsibility, his/her kid will follow suit.

Going by Winston Churchill school of thought, the price of greatness is responsibility, the benefits of responsible behaviour will help your child throughout her life and from good grades to successful romantic relationships, responsibility can positively impact virtually in every area of your childs life.

If we must build a responsible community that creates an environment where education flourishes, it is our responsibility as parents to lead by example.

On this note, parents must know that bad parenting would lead his son/ daughter to suffer from low self-esteem, become aggressive, anti-social, and always show hostile behaviour.

You can imagine the impact of these issues on your child as he/she grows older.
Veteran Nollywood actress, Joke Muyiwa has taken to social media to gush over the arrival of her new grandchild.

The Yoruba actress welcomed her first grandchild days ago, not long after she turned a year older.

Read Also: Toyin Abraham shows off the cakes she got for her birthday (Photos)

Unable to contain her joy, the actress took to her IG page to share photos of the baby in series of Instagram posts.

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Another Thespian has been added to the family. The best birthday gift ever. It feels good to be a grandmother. @iamthespis made me proud. 

Big congratulations to the actress and her family.
I know how difficult this news can be, especially about this very young child, the governor said. Upon hearing it, I admit that I was immediately shaken. Its appropriate for any of us to grieve today. Its especially sorrowful for the family of this very small child for the years stolen from this infant. We should grieve. ... We should grieve for a sense of normalcy we left behind just a few short weeks ago."
Some Covid-19 patients might be capable of transmitting the virus even after all symptoms of the disease disappear, a new study has found, and recommended that the quarantine period for seemingly cured people be extended to avoid any possibility of infection.

The findings hold significance for India, which is not only struggling to tamp down on quarantine breakers but also has one of the lowest rates of testing in the world. Many experts say the low testing rate has left the government with inadequate data on the scale of the infection spread.

The study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine on Friday by researchers from China and the US, examined patients treated at the Chinese PLA General Hospital in Beijing between January 28 and February 9. The patients studied had a median age of 35.5 and were mild Covid-19 cases.

For the study, the researchers collected throat swab samples from the patients discharged after their recovery and confirmation of negative viral status by two consecutive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

The most significant finding from our study is that half of the patients kept shedding the virus even after resolution of their symptoms, said Dr Lokesh Sharma, department of medicine, Yale School of Medicine. More severe infections may have even longer shedding times.

The primary symptoms in these patients included fever, cough, pain in the pharynx and difficult or laboured breathing.

For these patients, the time from infection to onset of symptoms (incubation period) was five days among all but one patient. The average duration of symptoms was eight days, while the length of time patients remained contagious after the end of their symptoms ranged from one to eight days.

If you had mild respiratory symptoms from Covid-19 and were staying at home so as not to infect people, extend your quarantine for another two weeks after recovery to ensure that you dont infect other people, said Lixin Xie, professor, College of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing.

The paper noted it was unclear whether similar results would hold for more vulnerable patients such as the elderly, those with suppressed immune systems and patients on immunosuppressive therapies, and called for more research.

This finding about the shedding window  the time period in which a person can shed the virus and therefore spread the infection  holds special significance for countries such as India, which are still in the initial phase of the outbreak but are hampered by poor healthcare infrastructure and monitoring.

The main importance of these finding is that patients needs be monitored for viral negative status [two consecutive times, separated by at least 24 hours] after resolution of the symptoms. This is the standard protocol followed by most of the countries, said Sharma.

But he admitted that such protocol could be tricky in South Asian countries including India, where testing facilities have been limited. In these cases, patients should remain quarantined at home or at hospital [which can be difficult] even after the resolution of symptoms for at least two weeks to ensure that they do not spread the virus, he added.

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NEW YORK  A nurse with asthma, a grandfather with cancer and a homeless man with no known family are wracked with coronavirus-induced fevers. They are struggling to breathe, and a ventilator could save their lives. But who gets one when there arent enough to go around?

Health care workers are dreading the prospect of such dire scenarios as U.S. hospitals brace for a looming surge in patients who need breathing machines and other resources that could soon be in critically short supply.

That has meant dusting off playbooks theyve never before had to implement on how to fairly ration limited resources during an emergency.

I pray for their good judgment and their capacity as they make very difficult choices, said Erik Curren, whose 77-year-old father died this month from respiratory complications related to the virus after becoming infected at an assisted living home in Florida.

Harrowing scenarios already are unfolding in country after country hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, including Spain, where one nursing home official said sick residents are dying after being unable to get into overflowing hospitals.

Like much of the rest of the world, ventilators that help people breathe are in particular demand across the U.S., given the respiratory problems common among people severely ill with COVID-19.

As many as 900,000 coronavirus patients in the U.S. could need the machines during the outbreak, according to the Society for Critical Care Medicine. Yet the group estimates the country has only 200,000, many of which already are being used by other patients.

In New York, the U.S. epicenter of the outbreak, one city hospital has already logged 13 coronavirus deaths in a single day and officials are setting up hundreds of hospital beds in a sprawling convention center as cases climbed past 30,000 in the city.

In preparation, health officials across the country are reviewing guidelines from sources including state governments and medical groups on how to ration limited resources in emergencies.

The general principle spanning those plans: Bring the most benefit to the greatest number of people and prioritize those with the best chance of recovery. But exactly how thats determined is fraught.

Automatically excluding certain groups from receiving ventilators, such as those with severe lung disease, invokes ethical issues, said Dr. Douglas White at the University of Pittsburgh. Many hospitals seeking guidance on COVID-19 in recent weeks have adopted a policy he devised without such exclusions, he said.

Guidelines previously developed by New York states health department exclude some seriously ill people from receiving limited ventilators in major emergencies, but note that making old age an automatic disqualifier would be discriminatory. The plans go on to add, however, that given the strong societal preference for saving children, age could be considered in a tie-breaker when a childs life is at stake.

Recommendations published this week by German medical associations in response to COVID-19 also say age alone shouldnt be a deciding factor. Among the situations where they said intensive care should not be provided if availability is in short supply: if the patient would need permanent intensive care to survive.

The crushing emotional burden of carrying out potentially life-and-death decisions is why the guidelines typically designate separate triage teams to make the call, rather than leaving it to the doctors and nurses providing bedside care.

This is a really terrifying decision  you dont want any doctor or nurse to be alone with this decision, said Nancy Berlinger of the Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute.

Having separate teams make decisions also is intended to ensure patients get a fair shot at care regardless of their race, social status or other personal factors.

Berlinger noted that underlying social inequities can still persist  for example, poorer people tend to be sicker  but that those are deeper injustices that cant be remedied in the throes of a pandemic.

Another grim calculation that experts say hospitals could make is how long a patient might need a hospital bed or ventilator and how many more lives the machine might otherwise save. That would help forestall an even more wrenching decision many doctors in the U.S. likely have never faced  whether to take a patient off a machine to free it up for others.

The norms dont apply in the current crisis and taking precious resources away from one patient to save others in a pandemic is not an act of killing and does not require the patients consent, said a paper addressing the COVID-19 emergency published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The authors noted that patients and their families should not be shielded from the realities and should be warned in advance of the possibility their loved one could be taken off a machine.

Hospitals should also prepare alternatives for those who dont make it to the top of the list for limited resources, such as stocking up on morphine, said Philip Rosoff of Duke Universitys Trent Center for bioethics.

Its not yet known how dire the crisis in the U.S. will get. Last week, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coordinator for the coronavirus response, sought to calm fears, noting theres no evidence yet that a hospital bed or ventilator wont be available for Americans when they need it. Even in New York, she said, beds are still available in intensive care units and a significant number of ventilators arent being used.

But whats happening overseas has health care workers around the world preparing for worst-case scenarios.

In France and Spain, hospital and nursing officials say nursing home residents who come down with symptoms of coronavirus are not necessarily admitted to intensive care.

In hard-hit regions, they are hospitalized only when there is a chance to save them, said Marc Bourquin of the French Hospital Federation.

Jesus Cubero, general secretary of AESTE, an association of nursing homes, said some residents end up dying after being unable to get into full hospitals.

In northern Italy, Dr. Luca Lorini at the Pope John XXIII hospital in hard-hit Bergamo, compared how patients are being triaged to people waiting for an organ transplant.

One heart and 10 people who are waiting for a heart transplant. Who gets the heart? The one who has the greatest chance of living better and longer with that heart, he said.

In the U.S., the rapidly multiplying cases is creating fear that hospitals could soon be overwhelmed.

The fact that were in a situation that one day we may not have enough ventilators is terrible and unacceptable, said Zachary Shemtob, whose husband has been sedated and on one of the machines at NYU Langone hospital since testing positive for the virus.

Curren, the Virginia man whose father died of COVID-19 last week, said he wouldnt fault health-care workers for any of the agonizing decisions they may have to make in coming weeks  and trusts that they have the training to do so.

These people are doing a fantastic job under war-time conditions, he said.

___

Hinnant reported from Paris and Winfield reported from Rome. Trisha Thomas in Rome, Aritz Parra in Madrid, Jim Mustian in New York and Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami contributed.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Kevin Tung Nguyen, who co-founded the San Francisco-based K-Source, a software firm with over 200 employees, and Ivylish  a business operating to support orphans and disadvantaged children in developing countries, returned to Vietnam in 2015.

Kevin Tung Nguyen (right) attends the Forbes Under 30 Summit Asia 2019 in Hong Kong. He is among four Vietnamese start-ups to be honoured by the Forbes magazine. Photos courtesy of Kevin Tung Nguyen

He believed hell be of more meaningful use in his homeland.

Kevin, who graduated from the University of Arizona and then earned a masters degree in management at Stanford University, came back to support a friend, who was at the time the co-founder of Icare Benefits, which aims to improve the living standards of workers around the world through the Icare Benefits programme.

He worked on a project called Ivycare, providing personnel to the Icare programme. In 2017, he rolled out JopHop and started to work on it as an independent recruitment service firm: one that uses Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to simplify and streamline the recruiting process for human resource managers.

I believe Viet Nam is a labour market full of potential, Kevin said.

The young Vietnamese generation are no less vibrant, active and dynamic than their international peers, he said, but their biggest problem is future career orientation.

They just study and take the exams, after graduation they will find something not right, and when they want to change professional path, they dont know what to do, he said.

Meanwhile, the problem for employers, Kevin said, is the fact that most of the recruitment companies now perform the process of recruiting talented people in the traditional way, using human resources to do the smallest jobs, from filtering CVs to sending interview reminders to candidates.

JobHop was born to address these problems.

It focuses on tackling the critical timing and fit problems for both recruiters and job seekers by using artificial intelligence (AI), data science, and blockchain, in the context of Viet Nams increasing demand for highly-skilled and qualified workers.

For those who seek jobs, JobHop quickly became a bridge connecting candidates with businesses in the market. JobHop's AI technology automates the CV/resume quality assessment, so candidates can know which job they are more suited to and then can make their own career decisions easily.

They can track the entire recruitment process on JobHops job application and receive interview reminders, as well as job-oriented content which are personalised using big data analytics.

For recruiters, JobHop is an even greater stride.

Unlike traditional head-hunters or online job boards, the matchmaking platform utilises AI-powered solutions to analyse, evaluate and connect job seekers and businesses more efficiently.

JobHops AI was created to replace humans perfectly. JobHop optimises repetitive jobs, eliminating prejudices and limits of information of the labour market when people do manual CV screening, Kevin said.

With this technology, AI can screen and connect more than 50,000 CVs per day based on job descriptions and recruitment criteria of each enterprise and provide quick and effective hiring results, but more economically.

Employers will find suitable candidates in the shortest time with much lower cost than traditional recruitment channels, he said.

In addition, the superiority of JobHop comes from three important points: Job Score, HOP Score and Match Score. These scores are calculated basing on the information provided by employers and candidates using the app.

Job Score reflects the attractiveness of the job in the market that employers target.

With Job Score, you will easily know if the job and you are meant to be, Kevin joked.

HOP Score represents the "personal brand value" of each candidate. The score evaluates candidates' behaviour with employers and related parties.

This score will be converted into employees salary, making it easy for candidates to negotiate with the employer during the interview.

The Match Score element is a scale that measures the suitability of a CV and a job description. The higher the Match Score, the higher the candidate's match to the job.

With these three factors, JobHop wants to give the job market the most objective view of suitability, eliminating sentimental assessments which are not based on accurate assessment of candidates or jobs, Kevin said.

Going further, he believed with the application of high technology in the organisation, managers can honestly and objectively assess the performance of each employee. Reasonable management tools will help effectively control the workload of each employee.

Over the last two years, it has helped more than 300 customers, connected candidates with over 80,000 jobs, and received many positive reviews from top employers in Viet Nam.

In the near future, it aims to become the most reliable link between the Vietnamese workforce and reputable international businesses. JobHop also hopes to work closely with MoLISA to create a technological ecosystem that not only fosters smarter recruitment but also greater collaboration between todays new generation of talent, non-profit organisations, and especially social enterprises, ultimately aiming to alleviate the imbalance between worker supply and demand in Viet Nam.

Start-up in VN

Kevin hopes that in the future, his start-up will grow to more than 100 employees. The IT section is expected to consist of three groups: the AI team focusing on algorithms, supervising training, data labeling; the Engineer team; and the Product Design team.

We still have a lot of difficulties ahead, but being successful as a start-up is not a matter of a day or a night, he said.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Viet Nam is one of the fastest growing markets and holds huge opportunities for young entrepreneurs.

Taking the chances in an extremely fast growing environment like Viet Nam will be much more interesting than in a saturated market like other developed countries, especially when there are many problems in the country that need to be addressed, Kevin said.

The human factor is the premise for the success or failure of a start-up. If one selects a companion with inexperienced and unstable expertise, she or he will quickly come to an end, he said.

Besides, any business that wants to survive and develop for a long time needs to set up a technology team to help them solve important issues such as online sales, online communication, website building and customer information data storage, as well as privacy.

The second and most difficult problem of any start-up is raising capital. In addition to a plan with specific data and commitment to payback, start-ups also need to prove their growth potential in the domestic or international market.

The market is changing every day in any field and choosing to be a start-up means continuously facing challenges. However, if you know how to solve the problem and wisely watch the market, I believe any difficulties will pass and the business will develop in a positive direction, he said.

In his opinion, one should only found a start-up when she or he has: some years of experience going to work for a firm with good, competent leaders; a certain amount of savings that they can risk investing; and finally a social and business network that is wide enough to have potential customers or partners.

If one starts his career in technology, the revenue and the potential for rapid growth in your technology product will solve all other problems. Starting a business at an early stage, one must understand that customers do not pay for the company's products or services because of their state-of-the-art technological innovations, but because of the positive experience the company brings.

In the early stage, the founder's experience, passion and sales ability are the most important factors to be invested, he said.

Kevin Tung Nguyen is one of the young people in the Forbes' 30 Under 30 Asia list for 2019.  VNS

Khanh Linh - Thu Van

Overseas Vietnamese scientist helps develop biotechnology in Vietnam Nguyen Quoc Binh returned to Vietnam from Canada, accepted an invitation to help HCM Citys leaders lay a foundation for the biotechnology sector.
A fake student-made campaign is urging people to stay at home amid the coronavirus pandemic with billboards that spoil the streaming network's most popular shows  and people think it's a brilliant tactic.

Seine Kongruangkit and Matithorn Prachuabmoh Chaimoungkalo, known as Brave, of the Miami Ad School Europe in Hamburg, Germany, came up with the idea as a last resort to try and keep people around the world from going outside when nothing else seems to work.

The clever spec campaign, which is not affiliated with Netflix in any way, features cheeky spoilers to binge-worthy shows such as Stranger Things, Love is Blind, and Narcos.

Don't look! A clever spec campaign that spoils Netflix shows such as Narcos for those who refuse to stay inside is being praised after it was shared online last Thursday

Bright idea: Seine Kongruangkit and Matithorn Prachuabmoh Chaimoungkalo, known as Brave, of the Miami Ad School Europe, came up with ads, including this Stranger Things spoiler

'The best way to stop the spread of Covid-19 is to #staythef**khome, but some people still think its okay to go out and chill, spoiling it for us all,' the spec ad reads. 'So we took an extreme measure: we spoil their favourite Netflix shows.'

One billboard spoiling Stranger Things says: Jim Hopper dies. Then he doesn't.'

Another ruining Love is Blind reads: 'Only two couples say 'I do'. And no, Kenny and Kelly aren't one of them.'

Another reveals: 'The good guy doesn't win in Narcos.'

It's that good: The fake campaign is not affiliated with Netflix, but many thought it was real. This digital billboard ruins a major plotline in the horror series Kingdom

Seriously? Another reveals Kenny and Kelly don't end up saying 'I do' on Love is Blind

Say it isn't so: This spoof billboard features a major Money Heist spoiler

Kongruangkit, a fifth quarter student at the school, and Prachuabmoh Chaimoungkalo, a recent graduate, told Forbes they came up with the idea when they returned home to Thailand earlier this month and realized the government wasn't adequately warning the public about the dangers of the coronavirus pandemic.

As of Monday morning, there were more than 755,500 confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide and over 36,800 deaths, according to John Hopkins University.

The spec campaign was launched last Thursday and quickly went viral. The video and digital billboards were so well done than many assumed they were part of a real campaign.

Matthew Kobach, the head of social media at the New York Stock Exchange, tweeted images of a few of the fake billboards on Sunday, writing: 'Spoiler alert: A Netflix spec ad that encourages people to stay home by putting up billboards of spoilers from their original programming.'

Going viral: Matthew Kobach, the head of social media at the New York Stock Exchange, tweeted images of a few of the fake billboards on Sunday

Not ours: Netflix commented on the billboards, making it clear that the company had nothing to do with them

Many people love the idea and wished it were real, with fans saying it's 'brilliant.'

'Brilliant? Evil?' one person asked. 'Genius,' another replied.

'This is some devilish fun. Were holding your favorite shows hostage,' someone else commented.

A few Twitter users pointed out that sharing the ads online defeats the purpose, while others noted it's not fair to essential workers who have to leave the house.

Netflix also commented on the billboards, making it clear that the company had nothing to do with them.

Thoughts: Many people love the idea and wished it were real, with fans saying it's 'brilliant.' Oothers noted it's not fair to essential workers who have to leave the house

'Love the Stay At Home message but #NoSpoilersFromNetflix. These ideas are part of a student project  a creative idea, if we say so ourselves  but they're not real and not from Netflix,' the streaming service tweeted.

Kongruangkit and Prachuabmoh Chaimoungkalo told BoredPanda that they actually pitched the idea to Netflix Singapore, but they got turned down because the network doesn't want to spoil its shows for customers.

Instead of giving up on the idea, they decided to publish it elsewhere. It took just three days for Prachuabmoh Chaimoungkalo to write the copy and Kongruangkit to make the video with the billboards before it was posted on Ads of the World.

'We had no intention of misguiding people,' Kongruangkit said. 'But also a bit sad that Netflix got all the credit when actually its our student project and credits are all of our assets for us to get real jobs.'
Spain has become the third country to surpass China in coronavirus infections after the United States and Italy.

With a population of only 47 million to Chinas 1.4 billion, Spains tally of infections reached 85,195 on Monday, a rise of 8% from the previous day.

It also reported more than 800 new deaths, for an overall toll of more than 7,300.

The health systems in Italy and Spain have been crumbling under the weight of caring for so many desperately ill patients at once.

(PA Graphics)

Spain and Italy make up more than half the worlds death toll from the virus that has upended the lives of billions and devastated world economies.

At least six of Spains 17 regions were at their limit of ICU beds and three more were close to it, authorities said on Monday.

Crews of workers were frantically building more field hospitals.

Reducing the pressure on the ICUs will be important for considering de-escalation measures, said Dr Maria Jose Sierra, who took over on Monday as the health emergency centres spokesperson after its director tested positive.

Nearly 15% of all those infected in Spain, almost 13,000 people, are health care workers.

In hard-hit Madrid, flags were hoisted at half staff for an official mourning period.

During a minute of silence, Madrids Puerta del Sol central square was empty as bells tolled.

Spanish Royal Guard soldiers disinfect a hospital to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus in Madrid (Bernat Armangue/AP)

Italy, meanwhile, is seeing a continued slowdown in the rate of its new confirmed coronavirus cases while registering a record number of people cured as it enters its third week into a nationwide lockdown.

Another 812 people died in the last day, bringing Italys toll to 11,591 and maintaining its position as the country with the most dead.

Overall, Italy added 4,050 new infections on Monday, bringing its official total to 101,739 and keeping its place as the European epicentre of the pandemic and second only to the US.

Epidemiologists say the real number of Italys caseload, however, is as much as five to 10 times more than the official number, but that those cases are not being counted because Italy is only testing people with severe symptoms.

Story continues

Of those infected, 14,620 have been declared cured, including a record 1,590 in the past day.

In Japan, organisers said the opening ceremony for the Tokyo Olympics will take place on July 23 2021.

Last week, the IOC and Japanese organisers postponed the Olympics until 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The rescheduled closing ceremony will take place on August 8.

Tokyo organising committee president Yoshiro Mori said a spring Olympics was considered but holding the games later gives more space to complete the many qualifying events that have been postponed by the virus outbreak.

We wanted to have more room for the athletes to qualify, Mr Mori said.

IOC, IPC, Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee and Tokyo Metropolitan Government announce new dates for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 https://t.co/QITtT5dcl8 pic.twitter.com/DHi4u74ZXa  Olympics (@Olympics) March 30, 2020

In the US, in a stark reversal of his previous stance, President Donald Trump extended federal guidelines recommending that Americans stay home for another 30 days until the end of April to slow the spread of the virus.

The turnabout came after Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said up to 200,000 Americans could die and millions become infected if lockdowns and social distancing did not continue.

We want to make sure that we dont prematurely think were doing so great, Dr Fauci said.

The US now has more than 143,000 infections and 2,500 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University, while three-quarters of a million people around the world have become infected and over 35,000 have died.

Moscow went on its own lockdown on Monday as all of Russia braced for sweeping nationwide restrictions.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has asked all citizens to stay at home, and Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin began enforcing a strict lockdown for all city residents except those working in essential sectors.

The extremely negative turn of events we are seeing in the largest European and US cities causes extreme concern about the life and health of our citizens, Mr Sobyanin said.

He said an electronic monitoring system will be used to control residents compliance with the lockdown and warned we will steadily tighten the necessary controls.

Moscow, a city of 13 million, accounts for more than 1,000 of Russias 1,836 coronavirus cases.

A man walks along an empty road in Rome following Italys lockdown (Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP)

Cases across Africa rose closer to 5,000 in 46 countries. Zimbabwe began a three-week lockdown on Monday and more cities across the continent were shut down.

Chinas National Health Commission on Monday reported 31 new Covid-19 cases, among them just one domestic infection.

At the peak of Chinas restrictions, some 700 million people were in areas ordered to stay home, but those rules are easing.

New York state remained the epicentre of the US outbreak, with the vast majority of the deaths in New York City.

A US Navy hospital ship with 1,000 beds arrived in New York to help relieve the crisis gripping the city.

The USNS Comfort  also sent to New York City after 9/11  will be used to treat non-coronavirus patients while packed hospitals deal with those with Covid-19.

(PA Graphics)

But infections were spiking not only in cities but in Midwestern towns and Rocky Mountain ski havens. West Virginia reported its first death, leaving only two states  Hawaii and Wyoming  with none linked to Covid-19.
The apps employ GPS data and geofencing to alert authorities of users breaching preset virtual geographical boundaries

Mumbai: Civic bodies are facing one of the toughest tasks during the coronavirus lockdowns: to ensure that people that have been asked to home-quarantine adhere to the restrictions on their movement. The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) has developed two smartphone apps that can help.

One of the apps is called CORONTINE and uses GPS-enabled geofencing to create a virtual geographic boundary. When users of the app leave this preset quarantine zone, the app alerts authorities.

The other app, called SAFE, which was being used by IIT-B students to mark attendance, has been repurposed to keep a check on quarantined individuals.

Users of the SAFE app are asked to take photos of themselves periodically using the app and upload it. The app records the time and location data of the place and uses facial recognition software to verify the person uploading the data. This enables monitoring agencies to check that the person is staying within the boundaries of the quarantine zone.

The two apps were developed by students and alumni of IIT-Bombay along with software professionals, within the span of a week.

Several people who returned to India from abroad or who have been in physical contact with persons with travel history to COVID-19 affected countries have been asked to isolate themselves in their homes. Even when they do not show any symptoms of the infection, they could be carriers of the virus.

IIT-B has written to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) telling the civic body how their technology can help officials track such persons, using minimal human manpower.

We are waiting for a reply from the civic body, an IIT spokesperson said.

The Maharashtra government, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the NITI Aayog and other state and city authorities have also been approached to adopt the apps to make their monitoring error-free.
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Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 23:11:26|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BANGKOK, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's Ministry of Commerce said on Monday that it will extend the ban on chicken egg exports and continue handling distribution of locally made surgical masks in an attempt to cushion continuing local shortages.

"The hoarding of chicken eggs has continued and therefore eggs are still in short supply domestically, so the Ministry of Commerce has decided to extend the ban on egg exports for 30 more days," said Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit.

The initial seven-day ban on egg exports was due to expire Tuesday.

About 41 million chicken eggs were produced commercially each day, and up to 1 million of them had until recently been exported each day, Jurin said.

The minister said the ban on exports would end when the supply could meet domestic demand.

"Same goes to the shortage of surgical masks, especially for medical personnel," said Jurin. "The ban on exports of surgical masks would end when the supply could meet domestic demand."

"Thailand's local factories can make about 2.3 million masks a day. However, all of mask distributions will be regulated by the Public Health Ministry and the Interior Ministry," Jurin said.

Jurin also said he will seek a budget from the Cabinet meeting to subsidize the production of surgical masks by local factories, to allow them to maintain production in the wake of rising cost of raw materials.
Washington, March 30 : The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US has increased to 142,502, the highest in terms of infections globally, according to the latest tally from Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE).

The CSSE data showed that at least 2,5506 people have died due to the disease in the country, of which 776 were recorded in New York state, the epicentre of the pandemic in the US, reports Xinhua news agency.

The state has also accounted for over 59,000 of the confirmed cases, the data revealed.

Speaking at a White House press briefing on Sunday, President Donald Trump said that the national social distancing guidelines aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus will be extended to April 30.

"On Tuesday, we will be finalizing these plans and providing a summary of our findings, supporting data and strategy to the American people," Trump said.

The President also said "modeling suggests" that the peak of the COVID-19 mortality rate in the US "is likely to hit in two weeks", adding that he hopes the nation will be on its way to recovery by June 1.

Also speaking at the White House briefing, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned that it was "entirely conceivable" that more than 1 million people in the nation could be infected with the coronavirus, and 100,000 deaths were possible.

"The number I gave out is, you know, based on modeling," he told reporters. "What we're trying to do is not to let that happen." The social distancing guidelines, originally designed to last 15 days and due to expire Tuesday if not extended, advises Americans to avoid non-essential travel, prevent gatherings of 10 people or more, and the elderly to stay at home, among other steps.

Scott Gottlieb, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, called the extension a "prudent, public health minded, courageous decision".

"April will be a hard month," Gottlieb said in a series of tweets on Sunday.

"We need to stick with measures until we see sustained decline in cases." According to the CSSE update, the global number of coronavirus cases including the US, now stood at 142,502, with 33,997 deaths.

Italy currently has the highest number of deaths at 10,779.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Syria opposition demands an examination for signs of the novel virus in regime-run prisons, voicing concerns that the regime may leave prisoners to die reports Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

The head of the of the Syrian Opposition and the Revolutionary Forces (SMDK) expressed concern on Thursday that the Syrian regime may leave prisoners to die if they contracted coronavirus, calling for the inspection of regime-run prisons for possible COVID-19 cases.

Anas al-Abde urged the international Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to lead an examination for signs of the virus in regime-run jails, in a statement released on the SMDKs website.

In his statement, addressed to ICRC President Peter Maurer, Abde expressed worry that thousands of prisoners locked up by the regime are at risk to catching and spreading the disease.

This plague can spread to prisons. The regime may use this situation for its own interest and get rid of the prisoners (by letting them die), al-Abde said.

There are at least 500,000 detainees inside regime-run prisons since the war in Syria began in 2011, according to opposition sources. There are also about 130,000 Syrians in detention centres.

The ICRC has expressed concern that there is a high risk the virus can spread into prisons. In a statement release on its website, the NGO highlighted that conditions in prisons, especially over- crowding, lack of air conditioning, bad infrastructure and poor hygiene all contribute to the spread of the virus.

Damascus has so far only reported one case of COVID-19 but fears are high that the virus could spread rapidly among the war-battered countrys most vulnerable communities.

Earlier this week, Human rights groups warned of a catastrophe if the novel coronavirus hits the Syrian regimes overcrowded and squalid prisons, where inmates are routinely denied medical care.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have long documented abuses in the prisons of President Bashar al-Assads regime, including executions, torture and starvation.

If the novel coronavirus spreads in security branches or prisons this will lead to a major humanitarian catastrophe, said Diana Semaan, Syria researcher at Amnesty International.

Over the past nine years, we have found that security forces and the heads of the security branches do not provide any kind of medical care for even illnesses considered simple to treat compared to the coronavirus.

The tens of thousands of prisoners are routinely packed into small overcrowded cells in conditions especially ripe for the spread of disease and denied adequate food, medical care and ventilation, rights groups say.

While no outbreak in a Syrian prison has so far been reported, fears were compounded on Sunday after the regime in Damascus announced the countrys first coronavirus case.

Syrias conflict has killed more than 380,000 people and displaced millions from their homes since starting in 2011 with anti-government protests.

It has also ravaged the economy and laid waste to much of the countrys infrastructure, including the health sector.

The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
A leopard was shot dead by foresters in Assam's Jorhat district on Monday after it seriously injured three persons including a BSF personnel and a forest guard, officials said.

The female leopard came out of Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary and attacked a resident of Doah Gayan Gaon when officials tried to cage it, a forest department official said.

After the foresters failed to trap the animal, Jorhat Divisional Forest Officer Darvinder Suman sought help from Wildlife Trust of India's Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) at Panbari in Kaziranga National Park, the official said.

CWRC officials tried to tranquilise the leopard but missed their targets twice, following which the feline attacked forest guard Nikibur Zaman and BSF jawan Ram Kekh, Suman said.

The injured persons have been admitted to the Jorhat Medical College and Hospital, the DFO said.

When all efforts to trap the leopard failed, it had to be shot down, officials said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An elderly Tibetan man and his son were detained in the Tibet Autonomous Region at the end of last year for listening to teachings by exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, RFAs Tibetan service has learned.



Jampa Dorje, 75, and his son were taken into custody by Chinese police on or around Dec. 30, 2019, in Chamdo (in Chinese, Changdu) prefectures Dzogang (Zuogong) county, Geshe Jampaa Tibetan monk living in south Indiatold RFA on Monday.



[They] were detained on a charge of listening to His Holiness the Dalai Lamas teachings on their mobile phone, and also for speaking to their daughters who are living in exile, Geshe Jampa said, citing local sources in Dzogang.



Jampa Dorje, also known as Jampel, and his son are members of the Borchung Tsang family and live in the Chinwa village of Tongpar township in Dzogang, Geshe Jampa said, adding, The county authorities picked them up at their home in Chinwa for questioning.



When news of the two mens detention was conveyed to Dorjes daughters in India, they broke down and cried in despair and disappointment, Geshe Jampa said.



For fear of retaliation and worse treatment for their father in detention, his daughters are now refraining from saying anything more, he added.



Though Chinese authorities quickly blocked outside communication links with Dorjes family, a second source later learned that Dorje and his son were eventually freed after showing a good attitude while in custody.



However, the authorities also warned them that given the nature of their crime, they could have faced up to five years in jail, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



After taking down the phone numbers of all of Dorjes family members, the authorities forced the elderly villager and his son to sign a document promising never to repeat the offense of receiving their daughters phone calls or listening to the Dalai Lamas teachings, the source said.



Regarded by Chinese leaders as a dangerous separatist, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet into exile in India in the midst of a failed 1959 national uprising against rule by China, which marched into the formerly independent Himalayan country in 1950.



Displays by Tibetans of the Dalai Lamas photo or public celebrations of his birthday and calls for his return have been harshly punished in the past, and authorities frequently search mobile phones belonging to Tibetans for images of the exiled spiritual leader or other politically sensitive content.



Reported by RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.
The cases at Parris Island, S.C., emerged following a wave in testing over the weekend, a defense official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. One official said there are at least 20 positive cases, and another said there are believed to be a few dozen but fewer than 50.
Medical staff at one of the country's most prestigious hospital groups have described their anger and sense of betrayal at hospital leaders' assertions that there is enough protection to go around - while the hospital bosses are hiding away in their million-dollar Florida vacation homes.

Staff at Mount Sinai's New York hospitals have painted a bleak picture of lives put at risk by shortages that leave staff with just one mask, one gown and one pair of gloves for an entire 13 to 16-hour shift in wards filled almost exclusively with COVID-19 patients.

Speaking to DailyMail.com on the condition of anonymity, they told how they consider themselves 'cannon fodder,' as they fight for their own and patients' survival without vital protective equipment at the COVID-19 crisis epicenter.

Their testimonies come in the wake of the revelation that two of the health group's most senior executives are sitting out the COVID-19 crisis in the sun-drenched luxury of their Florida vacation homes.

Health network president Dr Arthur Klein, 72, is currently holed up in his waterfront condo near Palm Beach, while CEO Ken Davis is tucked up in his $3.4million, six-bedroom home on a Palm Beach country club.

New York's Mount Sinai hospital workers tell DailyMail.com that their lives are put at risk by shortages of masks, gowns and gloves

While doctors and nurses at Mount Sinai West hospital in Manhattan have been on the frontlines of New York City's war against the coronavirus, top leaders Dr Kenneth Davis and Dr Arthur Klein are away in gated communities in the Sunshine state

Dr Klein's Florida condo in Florida includes a pool. Davis claimed he and Klein have been in talks with China to get supplies to New York

Davis made a staggering $6million in 2018 and is staying in his six-bedroom mansion near Palm Beach. On Friday, Dr Davis claimed that his own doctor instructed him to stay in Florida as he is above the age of 70

There are eight Mount Sinai centers in New York with 7,200 physicians and 3,815 beds.

Last week Davis, also 72, told New York State Governor Cuomo that his New York hospitals have, 'all the PPE they need.' Dr Peter Shearer, Chief Medical Officer at Mount Sinai Brooklyn doubled down that assertion in an interview on CNN the following day.

Asked directly if there was any shortage of PPE in his hospital he said, 'No.'

When asked for comment, Mount Sinai spokesman Jason Kaplan insisted that staff were provided with necessary PPE.

'The safety and protection of all Mount Sinai staff and patients is always  and will always be - our absolute top priority, but especially during the COVID-19 crisis... we always provide all our staff with the critically important PPE they need to safely do their job,' Kaplan said.

'We know how challenging these conditions are, and how scared people have become but we are doing everything humanly possible to calm these fears and protect our staff and patients.

Mount Sinai board co-chairs Mr. Richard A. Friedman & Mr. James S. Tisch issued a statement in support of Davis. They said,

Dr. Davis is an incredibly hard working and committed leader in the world of healthcare... Any suggestion that he has not been personally engaged on every issue and working around the clock for his system and his staff is absolutely incorrect.'

However, medics have reacted with anger and disbelief. According to one, 'To see people claim on TV that everything is okay, and we are not suffering due to lack of PPE made us all so upset.

Kious Kelly, 48, died at Mount Sinai West hospital in Manhattan on Tuesday night, a week after he was admitted upon testing positive for coronavirus

'We understand that this is a crisis and we are prepared to do what we have to, but we want to know the truth. Do we have enough PPE? Is there is a breakdown in communication? Or is that just a lie? Because we don't have it on the wards.'

Last week Mount Sinai West assistant nursing manager Kious Kelly died from the virus and images emerged of staff using trash bags to improvise gowns. And, according to staff, the situation at the Brooklyn outpost is no better.

One registered nurse  one of several to have tested positive for COVID-19 at Mount Sinai Brooklyn said simply, 'We feel like cannon fodder. We are putting ourselves and our families at risk every day. The upper level management are consistently lying about the circumstances that we, on the wards, are going through.'

They said, 'We have one mask, one gown and one pair of gloves for a 13-hour shift there are issues obtaining facial shields at all and often no plastic scrub caps at all.'

Nurses told DailyMail.com that they are issued with a single mask at the beginning of a shift. If one is not immediately available a unit manager or supervisor must be called to unlock the cage in which PPE is kept on each floor and each individual mask must be signed for.

One said, 'We have been taught for years that masks are contaminated within two hours.'

Nurses are calling out sick every day with one estimating that between 15 and 20 per cent of the staff have now tested positive for COVID-19.

They said, 'It's got to the point where we don't even get tested unless you're really sick. The assumption at this point is that we are all exposed.'

Those who are sick say that they have been informed that they will received only 7 days quarantine pay and that if they are not back at work after that then they must contact pay roll to find out how much sick pay they have accrued.

Hospital staff arrive at Mount Sinai West Hospital in New York. 'To see people claim on TV that everything is okay, and we are not suffering due to lack of PPE made us all so upset,' one hospital worker says

This is how bodies are transported from the hospital building to the refrigerated trailer truck outside Mount Sinai in Brooklyn. There are an estimated 30 bodies inside the truck

One nurse who has tested positive for COVID-19 told DailyMail.com that the pressure to return to work swiftly was detrimental to both the physical and mental well-being of hospital staff.

They said, 'I'm very aware that seven days is pretty much around the time when we see patients either feel better or rapidly decline and very quickly need intubated. It's frightening and worrying about pay is an anxiety I'm trying very hard not to focus on.'

Describing the hospital in which she worked as a 'virus bomb,' another noted that in a long standing career she had 'never heard of any coworkers catching the flu from a patient or any of the MANY other contagious things we treat normally and are always present in the hospital.'

Under normal circumstances staff change PPE with each patient room entered and according to the contagion level and contact guidelines of any given condition.

But now, as the wards buckle under the strain of hundreds of desperately ill patients all suffering from COVID-19, such practices have been abandoned.

Plastic bins that once held gloves, masks and gowns outside treatment rooms housing multiple COVID-19 patients sit empty.

One nurse told DailyMail.com that she had been forced to tape up tears in her gown and medcap and that the few staff who have fitted N95 masks are trying to protect them by placing disposable masks over them during their shifts, as repeated cleaning with bleach has left many torn and compromised.

Another told of staff 'battling one another for gowns,' and 'stealing' the PPE from other floors leaving some medics with nothing.

Dr Davis has been staying at his six-bedroom mansion, $3million mansion near Palm Beach for weeks. Last week Davis told New York State Governor Cuomo that his New York hospitals have, 'all the PPE they need'

Klein has been lodging at his condo in Palm Beach since earlier in the month as well

Staff say that they have been appealing for help and equipment for weeks. Many have called the CEO's office and written to the governor himself.

One Brooklyn based medic said that nurses, managers, supervisors, respiratory therapists and doctors have all tested positive at their hospital and claimed that one doctor is now on a ventilator.

They are not the only hospital group to be struggling under the extraordinary load brought about by the pandemic.

A supervisor at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in Manhattan was last week forced to ask surgeons to volunteer in the intensive care unit of the hospital as half of the staff there had been struck down by the virus.

This photo posted to Facebook shows three nurses at Mount Sinai West wearing black garbage bags as makeshift protective gowns

Workers are pictured moving corpses into a refrigeration truck outside Mount Sinai Hospital in the Queens, New York

Two nurses in city hospitals have died. Those remaining to work in them describe their environment as a 'a petri dish' and one nurse who contracted COVID-10 while working at a Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx last week said that he felt like he and his colleagues were 'just being sent to slaughter.'

Emergency services have not fielded so many calls since 9/11, with New York City dispatchers receiving 7,000 911 calls on Thursday alone as the number of people infected by the virus in New York City climbs to more than 30,000.

Pictures of bodies being forklifted onto a refrigerated truck, the extension of the morgue at Brooklyn Hospital in Fort Greene, provided sobering visual proof of the realities being faced by medical staff in hospitals across the county's hotspots each day.

Medics at Mount Sinai Brooklyn told of similar scenes. A freezer truck parked on a side-street behind the hospital's main building serves as the extension of their, now full, morgue.

According to one, 'The freezer truck I'm guestimating at this point has over 30 bodies in it as the morgue is full.'

On the units themselves overhead announcements of codes  when a patient has 'crashed' losing vital signs  are happening 'every 15 to 25 minutes.'

A shortage of PPE is also leading to delays of doctors being able to enter rooms to provide urgent care in such situations as multiple professionals may be needed and there are no gowns, masks or gloves for them to grab.

One nurse said, 'As you're working you see transporters carrying bodies in a body bag on stretchers out of different units. Just to give you an idea, last time one of my patients died and I had to wrap a body was about a year ago.

'Yesterday alone I saw three during my 16-hour shift. Obviously more than that are dying throughout the hospital.'

Hospital staff carry supplies outside Mount Sinai West Hospital in New York - the epicenter of the coronavirus

Overtime pay has been almost doubled from approximately $65 an hour to $100 an hour as staff shortages and fear have seen uptake on overtime hours dwindle.

Nurses and doctors who work with disaster agencies are now traveling to New York to provide much needed back up to, 'exhausted and unprotected,' staff.

One nurse said, 'For those of you that are oblivious to this I beg you to open your eyes, crawl out from under your rock and practice self-isolation and social distancing.

'You think it's easy for us nurses [and doctors] who have constant contact with infected and dying patients and all I want is a hug from my mom or best friend and siblings, but I can't do that. I can't see them. It's so darn hard. And it can last for months. But it is our duty to stay vigilant. The war has just begun.'
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Borough President James Oddo has partnered with District Attorney Michael McMahon to launch a campaign called Hiya Neighbor, encouraging Staten Islanders to check on the senior citizens in their neighborhood, while practicing social distancing in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Hiya Neighbor links the citys Strive for Five Challenge, which asks New Yorkers to look out for each other and continue social connections while working through COVID-19, to Staten Island.

The Strive for Five Challenge is encouraging every New Yorker find five people to check-in with by phone, video, chat or social media each day for the next 30 days. It was created to help people who are isolated, live alone, are in recovery, or who are feeling anxious or fearful.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

A population that really concerns us right now in the wake of this coronavirus outbreak is our elderly friends and family members, as we unfortunately know that this virus has the potential to be very dangerous to them, Oddo said. "I am asking neighbors to check in with the older adults on your block. Give them a call, ring the bell and jump back 6 feet to say hello, do your part to make sure everything is OK. We will get through this, but we have to work together to do so.

Staten Islanders are encouraged by Oddo and McMahon to participate in both the Strive for Five challenge and Hiya Neighbor to ensure that Staten Islanders maintain a sense of community -- #alonetogether.

COVID-19 has impacted every American in one way or another, however its effects are felt most acutely by elder Americans, particularly those who live alone. The Hiya Neighbor campaign encourages Staten Islanders to check in on those who may be struggling getting basic supplies, battling loneliness, or are just missing out on their daily activities." noted McMahon.

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More than 50 inmates are on the run in Iran following a prison break Sunday in which four guards were arrested, Irans state news agency said.

"Some prison guards were summoned and four of them were arrested and others released on bail," Mojtaba Shirouzbozorgi, a judicial official in Kurdistan province, told state-run IRNA.

Of the 74 inmates who escaped the prison in the city of Saqqez on Friday, 20 have either turned themselves in or have been captured. The agency said the 54 escapees were nonviolent offenders serving one-year sentences.

Authorities have also recently tamped down prison riots in Hamedan, Lorestan and Tabriz provinces amid widespread pressure for the prisons to protect its inmates from the outbreak.

The prison break in Saqqez comes as Iran is reportedly preparing an amnesty to mark the Persian new year, or Nowruz. Iran will release roughly 10,000 prisoners to reduce the number of prisoners in light of the sensitive situation in the country, a judiciary spokesperson said.

To keep the virus from spreading in its overcrowded jails, Iran has temporarily released or pardoned about 100,000 detainees in the past month. Largely not included in that group are security prisoners, who tend to be dual nationals.

The family of Siamak Namazi has called for his release from Evin prison in northern Tehran. According to the familys attorney, the dual Iranian-American citizen, who in 2016 was sentenced to 10 years in prison, is sleeping just a few cells down from another prisoner who tested positive for coronavirus.

Last week, the family of Bob Levinson, a former FBI agent missing in Iran since 2007, announced they believe he died in Iranian custody sometime before the coronavirus outbreak. Iran has since denied having any knowledge of Levinsons whereabouts.

We don't know when or how he died, only that it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the family said in a statement.

Iran registered more than 100 fatalities due to the virus on Monday, pushing its death roll to 2,757. The country  one of the hardest hit in the world  has recorded 41,495 cases of the coronavirus since February.

This story contains reporting from Agence France-Presse.
Twinkle Khanna is keeping a positive outlook in life as she sits on an armchair, gazing at the sea with her injured foot resting on a chair. The actor-turned-writer has shared a glimpse of her foot in a cast and mentioned how she isnt losing on anything as she stays indoors amid lockdown due to coronavirus outbreak.

Sharing the picture from her sea-view residence, she wrote, And taking advice from @karankapadiaofficial the kids have played Tic-Tac-Toe on my cast. Silver lining-Never been a better time to break a leg because where was I going to go anyway :) #TheUpsideOfLockDown. There are colourful marks drawn by her kids on the cast.

Twinkle had left her fans worried when she shared a video of her returning from the hospital. In the video, her actor husband Akshay Kumar was seen driving the car, whom she called her driver from Chandni Chowk, with Twinkle on his side, who was sitting with her newly-bandaged foot. She had written, Deserted roads all the way back from the hospital. Please dont be alarmed, I am not about to kick the bucket because I really cant kick anything at all! #sundayshenanigans.

She had started off the video, saying, It is 10:31 AM on a Sunday morning and the roads are deserted. She later panned the camera to the drivers seat where Akshay is seen well protected, wearing a mask. Later giving us a view of the road, she mentioned that they are on their way back from the hospital and was quick to say, No, I dont have coronavirus, people go for other reasons, like me being unusually clumsy.

Talking about Akshays recent contribution of Rs 25 crore to Prime Minister Narendra Modis PM-Cares fund, she had further said, So this Sunday my husbands pocket is lighter, our hearts have never been full and my foot is bloody broken.

Also read: Kanika Kapoor pens emotional post after testing positive for Covid-19, says I hope my next test is negative

The man makes me proud. When I asked him if he was sure as it was such a massive amount and we needed to liquidate funds, he just said,  I had nothing when I started and now that I am in this position, how can I hold back from doing whatever I can for those who have nothing. https://t.co/R9hEin8KF1  Twinkle Khanna (@mrsfunnybones) March 28, 2020

On Saturday, Twinkle had revealed what urged Akshay to donate such a whopping amount. She had tweeted, The man makes me proud. When I asked him if he was sure as it was such a massive amount and we needed to liquidate funds, he just said, I had nothing when I started and now that I am in this position, how can I hold back from doing whatever I can for those who have nothing.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Local hospitals are struggling with a shortage of nurses as the number of COVID-19 patients multiplies in Bexar County.

That isnt part of the new reality brought on by the coronavirus. Hospitals, clinics and physician practices have had a hard time hiring enough nurses for at least the past two decades.

But the strain could get much worse in the weeks ahead, as hospitals rotate nurses and send some into 14 days of quarantine to prevent the spread of the virus.

Before the pandemic, state health officials estimated a shortage of nearly 16,000 registered nurses over the next decade.

Yet theres help on the way. Hospitals are tapping retired RNs, school nurses and nursing instructors, as well as those who assist in elective surgeries.

We are getting calls from retired nurses who want to come back into the workforce and help, said Cindy Zolnierek, CEO of the Texas Nurses Association. I think we are going to see redeployments to help fill the gaps.

Now, will that be enough? I dont know.

Kristen Lemus, chief nursing officer for six area hospitals in the Baptist Health System, said administrators have started to recruit retired nurses.

The system, owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., continues to hire nurses  in addition to its other recruitment efforts  and to pay nurses overtime when necessary to cover shifts.

Other local hospitals arent ready to sound the alarm.

Palmira Arellano, spokesperson for Methodist Healthcare System, said its nine area hospitals are staffed appropriately right now.

With most elective surgeries canceled, administrators can shift nurses and other personnel as needed within the Methodist system, which is co-owned by Tennessee-based HCA Healthcare and local nonprofit Methodist Healthcare Ministries.

The nursing chief at University Hospital, Bexar Countys taxpayer-funded public hospital, said administrators there have it covered.

Tommye Austin, University Health Systems chief nurse executive, said officials havent recruited retired nurses yet because the system has enough nurses to staff up or down, depending on the number of patients being treated.

University Hospital has the normal capacity to treat about 600 patients a day, but because elective surgeries have been suspended, the hospitals census is down to 400 patients.

University employs about 2,800 nurses and operates a Level I trauma center  which takes in some of the most severe emergency cases  in the South Texas Medical Center.

Administrators keep 300 nurses on standby, 75 of whom are full-time nurses who sub in when co-workers are sick or on vacation. Patient coordinators and charge nurses, who essentially manage the hospitals wards, can also take patients in a pinch.

The concern with bringing in retired nurses during a surge, theres no one available to train them, Austin said. I couldnt take a nurse thats been out of practice for three to five years and put them to work in the hospital.

Nursing educators  the ones who teach students in hospital settings  are likely to be tied up with their own patients during an all hands on deck situation.

When Austin was hired in May 2017, one of her jobs was to beef up the systems nursing program. That included hiring 10 percent extra each year, knowing that nurses who were close to retirement age would need to be replaced.

Southwest General Hospital, a private 325-bed facility owned by Steward Health Care in Dallas, did not respond to requests for information on nursing staff levels.

On March 21, Gov. Greg Abbott granted the Texas Board of Nursings request to suspend several rules in an attempt to ease the statewide nursing shortage.

Cynthia ONeal, associate dean for undergraduate studies at the UT Health San Antonio School of Nursing, said the governors waiver allows students in their final year of a nursing education program to finish on time, even if they are unable to put in the required number of hours at a hospital or clinic.

Nursing students were working with patients at University Hospital until two weeks ago, when UT Health and the hospital administration decided to shut down the clinical program because of the pandemic. The aim, in part, was to conserve the hospitals limited amount of personal protective equipment, such as face masks and gowns, amid a global shortage of medical supplies.

Students who arent finished with in-hospital clinical hours will now be able to go online for simulated clinical learning or virtual training.

Its really helping students stay on track, ONeal said.

The regulation change also allows recent graduates of nursing and vocational nursing programs to practice with temporary permits for up to six months, instead of the usual 75 days.

In addition, Abbotts order streamlined the process for retired nurses to reactivate their licenses by waiving the fee, continuing education requirements and an exam. The fee ranges between $54 and $149.

With these actions, Texas is taking an important step to meet that need, Abbott said. Nurses are essential to our ability to test for this virus, provide care for COVID-19 patients and to continue providing other essential health care services.

On ExpressNews.com: UIW creates fast-track nursing degree program

The federal government has taken similar steps, waiving penalties and extending deadlines, in addition to announcing plans to allow doctors to practice telemedicine across state lines to treat COVID-19 without getting licensed in each state.

Texas Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox

Darlene Nelson, a retired nurse in San Antonio, said putting new nurses into the field treating severely sick COVID-19 patients could lead to more cases of burnout or could overburden the nurses already working on the front lines.

One way to ease the burden on nurses is for hospitals and clinics to develop creative staffing plans, said the nursing associations Zolnierek. Shes heard, for example, that some hospitals are discussing whether to change the way nurses are scheduled to limit the amount of traffic coming into and out of the hospital.

Generally, nurses dont work more than three 12-hour shifts in a row as a guard against fatigue, but some facilities are considering scheduling nurses to work more days consecutively, while giving them longer periods to rest.

Laura Garcia covers the health care industry in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her stories and more local coverage on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | laura.garcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @Reporter_Laura
The Khed-Shivapur toll plaza, located on the Pune-Satara highway (NH4) 20 kilometers from Pune city, has police deployed around the clock. Since the lockdown began, a number of people have been trying to cross the toll plaza. As the district and state boundaries have been shut, those without adequate permissions or valid reasons, have been stopped.

Police officials from the Rajgad police station which comes under the Pune rural police department, have been guarding the check post. According to officials, there are 30 police personnel, three officials and a senior police inspector working in shifts at this check post. There is also a state health department medical team at the check post along with two ambulances in case of an emergency.

Our policemen have been stationed here since the lockdown began and we are strictly monitoring vehicular movement. Those who do not have a valid reason and permissions are not allowed to cross the plaza. Only the essential commodities and medical emergency vehicles are allowed to cross it from both the sides. Daily several private vehicles come in with people travelling along with their families. They often give various personal reasons and start an argument with us. But we are following the orders, doing our duty and for safety reasons, none of them are sent ahead, said Dattatrey Darade, senior police inspector incharge at Rajgad police station.

Some policemen also come along with the families, but we strictly deny them permission to cross, as the rule is same for everyone. Also, we have made a quarantine facility ready at nearby Nasrapur village, if we find anyone who has home quarantine mark trying to leave. Till now no one has been sent there, but the arrangements have been made, added Darade.
This honor underscores the hard work, innovation, and commitment our team has put into building solutions that support our partner institutions missions in higher education.

Inc. magazine today revealed that SPOL is No. 135 with a growth rate of 97 percent on its inaugural Inc. 5000 Series: Florida List, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing Florida-based private companies. The company also appeared on the Inc. 5000 list in 2019.

SPOLs partner institutions in higher education realize that its platform is essential to supporting a transparent budget process and data-driven collaboration. As the definitive leader in software innovation for institutional effectiveness, SPOL provides its partner institutions a structured platform to navigate business disruptions, like the COVID-19 virus, to avoid misappropriation of critical funding.

Its very special to be recognized by Inc. and among our peers in the Florida business community, said Andrew Davies, CEO of SPOL. This honor underscores the hard work, innovation, and commitment our team has put into building solutions that support our partner institutions missions in higher education.

The companies on this list show stunning rates of growth across all industries in Florida. In 2018 alone, they employed more than 56,000 people and added $12.6 billion to the Florida economy.

The listed companies demonstrate just how much the small-business sector impacts Floridas economy, says Inc. editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. Across every single industry, these businesses have posted revenue and growth rates that are beyond impressive, further proving the tenacity of their founders and CEOs.

About SPOL

SPOL helps colleges and universities improve institutional effectiveness and better prepare students for success. The companys integrated software platform encompasses planning, accreditation, assessment, credentialing, and budgeting. SPOL powers higher education institutions to harness big data to generate actionable reporting and real-time visualizations, fostering continuous improvement and institutional excellence. 100% of institutions using SPOL have achieved reaccreditation. For more information, visit https://spol.com.

About Inc. Media

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.
C hancellor Rishi Sunaks latest bazooka of government aid for workers hit by the coronavirus lockdowns was aimed at the self-employed.

While he said it covered 95% of people in the UK who derived their main income from self-employment, there have been widespread complaints about those who remain ineligible. Particularly among those above the 50,000 income level who are excluded.

The situation is a fraught one for the millions of people who are only part-self employed, are owner-employees of their businesses, or who have moved in and out of self-employment.

The complexities of the sector, and messiness of peoples modern day working arrangements have inevitably made it far more difficult to draft a grant than the one for furloughed workers on PAYE.

Londoners in particular are seeking guidance because of their relatively high earning power.

To help them through the quagmire, PWC UK tax partner Aidan Sutton took time out of what is proving a horrendously busy end-of-tax year to help out our readers with some practical advice.

Tamanna Rahman

Producer/director of current affairs documentaries

Lives in Chingford

Ive been self-employed for two years although this year  2019/20  Ive been on a mix of PAYE and self-assessment. Ive just returned from Cuba and am self-isolating so am out of work.

My question is this:

In my latest self-assessment I went over the 50,000 profit level, which is very unusual for me. The year before it was more like 30,000 and I dont have a return for the year before that.

How will the government work out how much I would get?

Hi Tamanna

First, you need to have continued your trade into 19/20 which it sounds like you have.

Second, HMRC will take an average of the two years prior to that (17/18 and 18/19) to determine if your average income is less than 50,000. If that is the case (which it sounds as if it is) HMRC will probably determine that you are eligible.

////////////////////

Andrew Wilson AKA Villem

Drum and bass artist, DJ, teacher and mastering engineer.

Im a full time musician and earn my living through live concerts, teaching, music royalties, sample packs and mastering.

My live gigs have disappeared, which equates to half of my total income. Its too early yet to tell what will happen to my other revenue streams at this early stage in the virus crisis. Please can you advise me if theres anything I should be applying for now?

Hi Villem

Firstly, Im assuming youre self-employed, in which case the question is whether your average profits from self-employment have been below 50,000 for the relevant three years. Thats 2016/17, 17/18 and 18/19.

It might be worth having a look to establish that before making your next plans.

If you are below the 50,000 threshold, then HMRC should be contacting you directly to tell you to apply for the self-employed scheme.

Failing that, there are business interruption loans and also local authority grants that you could explore.

In the worst case, you will need to look at whether you qualify for universal credit or other benefits.

Hopefully your earnings will keep coming in from the some of the non-live music work you do to help tide you over.

////////////////////////

Dr Stephanie Hare,

Independent researcher and broadcaster

Camden.

I am falling through the cracks in the government's support scheme for coronavirus.

I set up a limited company in August 2018 and am the sole director and the sole employee. I have a range of clients and a range of activities, including broadcasting on the BBC. I'm also publishing my first book this year on technology ethics. I work from home and the London Library (when it was open!)

According to the government's scheme for self-employed workers, I could, in theory, put myself on furlough as an employee. However, I would only be entitled to 80% of my salary, NOT my dividends. Most people in my situation pay themselves a minimal salary in order to invest in the business, especially in the early days (e.g. me, now at 18 months from when I formed my company). I had a successful year last year and so lived off my dividends, as my salary is minimal and certainly not something that I could live off of for months.

But even if I could somehow manage to live off 80% of my salary, I still can't do this and accept the government's support, because if I put myself on furlough, I'm not allowed to work for the next 3 months. That's the deal in exchange for accepting government support.

Yet as the sole director of my limited company, I must work -- to liaise with HMRC, my accountants, my insurers, my lawyers, my clients, and of course, to pay the bills.

Under the government's support scheme, I would not be allowed to try to hustle up new business. This is an odd contrast to the support scheme for self-employed people who do not have a limited company: they are allowed to receive 80% of their salary through government support AND to keep working.

The only option I seem to have is not to request any government support and to try to keep working, during a pandemic, when all my work has been cancelled for March and the months ahead.

So my questions are these:

:: Do I understand my situation correctly: I cannot access any support from the government as the sole director and sole employee of a limited company? And that this absence of support is different to the support given to other self-employed workers, to say nothing of the support being given to employed workers?

It is correct to say that you will not be eligible for help for the self-employed because you are employed. The job retention scheme for employers is available to all employers so you could explore eligibility for that scheme.

::Is the only option for me therefore to try to drum up work...during a pandemic, in a country on lockdown or is there any chance that the government might adjust its position to include workers in my position?

It is difficult to say at this stage whether the government will introduce any further measures to deal with specific situations but they have signalled an intent to support all businesses and workers through this crisis.

::Will the government make it easier for people to create or update their will so that a solicitor and witnesses can observe the signature over the internet, since we cannot safely conduct this transaction in person?

I understand that the Law Society and others are discussing with government whether wills can be witnessed electronically. The Stamp Office have already put in place coronavirus measures which mean that certain documents do not have to physically stamped for the time being.

//////////////

Cheryl Wilson

Day 12 of self-isolating in Chesham, Bucks

I worked for the NHS for 10 years as a paediatric speech and language therapist until August last year, when I left in order to accommodate school runs with our 4-year-old starting school.

I had done a little self-employed work in recent years, so have previous tax returns. However, this self-employed work was not my main income until late 2019.

Is there any way my change in circumstances might be taken into account when claiming for loss of income?

Hi Cheryl.

In your situation, to qualify for these grants you need to meet one of two tests.

Either

You had a majority of self-employed vs employed income in 2018/19 and that self-employed income was less than 50,000

OR

You had a majority of self-employed vs employed income in the last three tax years and the self-employed income averaged less than 50,000.

If you can establish either of those, then you could be eligible. Hope that helps, and good luck with the self-isolating!

//////////////

Michael Lebor

Filmmaker and videographer

Hackney

I earn over the threshold of 50k per year. Had I earned 49,999 in those years I would be entitled to 7500 over the next three months and more if the situation continues. As it stands because I earn over 50,000 I am entitled to nothing apart from statutory sick pay of 95 a week. Quite a big difference! So there are people out there who would average just 1p more than someone else and they will have no entitlement to any money at all. Is there anything at all I can claim?

Im afraid Michael that as a self-employed individual you would not be eligible for Statutory Sick Pay. The government website lists other areas of support which are available, most notably the availability of the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and Universal Credit.

People who are PAYE could earn 5million a year and still get paid 2500 a month from government help. It makes absolutely no sense at all. So I guess my main question would be, is this correct?

Yes, in relation to the limit for profits and availability of the grant.

Can I submit a tax return after the 5th of April and will this be taken into account to work out my average earnings for the past three years?

No, because the assessment is based on the profits according to your filed tax returns up to and including the 18/19 tax year.

Unfortunately for me, the years of 17/18 and 18/19 were my best years of my whole 15 years as a self employed filmmaker/videographer but the current year dating back to April last year has been very poor in comparison but that will not be taken into account.

Making videos is absolutely impossible under lockdown of course because I can't be in the same room as anybody else and if this goes on for a few months I will have to leave my flat and go and live with my mum, at the age of 40 with a 5yr old child!

Some people bizarrely think that self-employed people pay less tax. We pay exactly the same tax as everyone else but we don't get sick pay or holidays and we have to pay an accountant to do our tax returns.

Thats one youll have to take to the Chancellor  ed

//////////////

Jodie Philips-Green

Graphic designer from Hammersmith, age 35

Ive been freelance for two years and have a very regular contract but the client has dropped my services during this period of disruption.

How will HMRC work out how much I get?

If you qualify, you will receive a taxable grant of 80% of your average taxable profits for the tax years 2016/17;2017/18 and 2018/19. This is capped at 2,500 per month for three months.

But Ive not been self-employed for three years. Does that mean I dont qualify?

No. If you dont have three years of records  as you clearly wont  the amount will be based on the average you made for the years when you have been self-employed. Rishi Sunak was asked this question on Thursday at the press conference and said that this should not affect eligibility as long as HMRC have at least one tax return to review.

If my profits are always over 50,000 will I get anything?

If your trading profits for 2018/19 or your average trading profits for the three years were over 50,000 then Im afraid you will not be eligible to receive a grant.

Im a bit disorganised and havent submitted my tax return for 2018/19 yet. Have I blown my chance of getting the grant?

No, if you submit your 2018/19 tax return before 23rd April 2020 then you will still potentially be eligible

/////////

Senol Dervis

Martial arts personal trainer

Based in Southfields

The Chancellor said self-employed people will get a one-off payment in June. Is this right?

Yes, the Chancellor said that those self-employed people who qualify will receive their payment in early June. Rishi Sunak did say in his press conference on Thursday afternoon that despite the complexities they will work to bring that date earlier if they can.

Will we have to pay tax on this?

Yes, it is a taxable grant

I usually have to pay an advance tax payment by the 31st July, which will be a little under 700 this coming July. Am I going to have to make this payment?

Only if you can afford to pay it. Self-assessment instalments due on 31 July may be deferred until 31 January 2021 if you cannot.

I took the governments instructions to fill in online forms for universal credit and council tax assistance. Wandsworth council said we should get 12.99 a week but we are still waiting to hear how much universal credit. How long until we get a response, and when are we likely to receive payments?

Local authorities have had a massive spike in inquiries for universal credit so it may take some time to receive a response. When you are registered, there is a process for receiving an advance on universal credit which, if applicable, would mean you do not have to wait for five weeks for your first payment.

How do we apply for the self-employed grants, and do you have any advice on doing so?

You do not apply now. HMRC will come to you based on the records they hold; your earlier submitted tax returns and so forth. They will then invite you to apply online.

Is there any assistance for paying rent to the gym where I teach?
He has offered a 3,000 reward for information leading to their capture

A fitness firm boss has offered a 3,000 reward to catch masked raiders who broke into his house before attacking him with a hammer and a machete.

Jonathan Hair, 38, was repeatedly stabbed and his English bulldogs were also hurt by the three robbers who burst into his Wearside home.

The businessman, who founded women's fitness chain Skinnypigs said he was met with the 'surreal' sight and first thought he was being pranked by his friends coming home from the pub.

A fitness firm boss has offered a 3,000 reward to catch masked raiders who broke into his house before attacking him with a hammer and a machete

But within seconds one of the men was swinging a machete towards him, forcing him to grab hold of the attacker's wrist to stop the blows.

'They were shouting demanding me to tell them where the money was,' Mr Hair told the Sunderland Echo.

'They said they were going to cut my toes off, then he immediately start swinging at them.

He added that a second man then began to hit him over the head with a hammer, as the assailant armed with a machete cut his legs 'to ribbons'.

Jonathan Hair, 38, was repeatedly stabbed and his English bulldog was also hurt by the three robbers who burst into his Wearside home

'They were all dressed in black with balaclavas but they wouldn't let me look up so maybe they thought I'd recognise them.

The men continued to hit Mr Hair, slashing his fingers and causing him to lose 'a lot of blood'.

Mr Hair said that he then revealed he had received money from his sick father which he was using for a mortgage deposit, and that it was in the living room.

Mr Hair said that he then revealed he had received money from his sick father which he was using for a mortgage deposit, and that it was in the living room

When the intruders fled with the 4,000, Mr Hair says he climbed upstairs to use his phone to call the police but struggled because of cuts on his hands and fingers.

He was found by neighbours on the bathroom floor who immediately called an ambulance.

The raid, on January 23, coincided with him collecting takings from his Skinnypigs franchisees, which are run all over the North East of England.

Mr Hair is recovering from his ordeal, but said his bulldogs Pork and Chop were still shaken by the brutal attack

The businessman believed the gang turned up with weapons knowing he was a strong fitness instructor.

Mr Hair is recovering from his ordeal, but said his bulldogs Pork and Chop were still shaken by the brutal attack.

Mr Hair has offered a 3,000 reward for information which leads to the conviction of his attackers.

Northumbria Police said three men aged 37, 32 and 22 have been arrested on suspicion of aggravated burglary and have been released under investigation following the January 23 attack.

Anyone with information is asked to call 101.
Around 3:30pm on Sunday, Subedar Khan, the in-charge of Delhi governments newly set up shelter home for migrant workers in East Delhis Ghazipur, is seen earnestly trying to reason with a group of men who were walking out of the facility, with their bags, after a meal.

You will be stuck if you try to move out of Delhi. The inter-state bus service is being stopped. Why do you want to risk your life by travelling in crowded buses? Dont you know about the virus? Khan told the men, who worked as masons in Delhi. He also handed them a pamphlet that listed the Dos and Donts to avoid the spread of Covid-19.

What will we do here when our families and friends have left for the village, one of the men retorted, before the group dismissed Khans suggestion and walked out of the Ghazipur shelter that has been set up in a Delhi government school.

The facility, despite being a walking distance from the Delhi-UP border, which on Saturday saw tens of thousands of migrant workers trying to cross to neighbouring states, had only had three occupants till 5pm on Sunday. It has a total of 21 shelter rooms - with the first floor for women and the ground floor for men.

Later in the evening, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, in a digital press conference urged all landlords not to pressure tenants to pay monthly rents. If authorities find that landlords are pressuring tenants for rent, strict action will be taken, Kejriwal said.

At another shelter inside a Delhi government school in Patparganj, which also came up overnight, there was zero-occupancy, when HT visited the facility. Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday expressed his disappointment with the low occupancy rates and said, On the first day, only seven-eight people turned up. We hope that more will come and take advantage of these arrangements.

The Patparganj facility, unlike the one at Ghazipur, had no banners informing people about the availability of shelters.

Bipin Rai, member of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), which is the nodal agency to provide temporary shelters for the homeless, said that the overall occupancy in all the 225 schools, which were converted into shelters, has been dismal. These schools were readied after the CM announced about them on Saturday. But, very few people have come. However, our 234 night shelters, which are open throughout the year, are full and around 9,000 people use it during the night. The day occupancy of the shelters is over 7,000, he said.

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Billionaire George Soros uses his political-philanthropic private foundations' global network to induce chaos to change the capitalistic democratic systems that prevailed since the end of WWII. Soros aims to reshape the world according to his purported wily Open Society philosophy, which evolved after the collapse of the Soviet communist system. He tested his ideas in Eastern Europe before moving to the rest of the world and on to his major target, the United States of America.

Soros's open-borders agenda and his efforts to create a global "open society" have suffered a setback due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, but his ambition to change America from within, and meddling in the domestic affairs of nation-states where his OSF operates, has not ebbed. Rest assured that Soros, who thrives on chaos, takes advantage of the distraction caused by the pandemic to advance his political goals in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Over the last three decades, Soros used the massive spending of his private International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO), to spur political activism in progressive left-leaning/radical organizations, academic institutions, and media outlets, along with large campaign contributions. He combined this formula with his market manipulations to produce fundamental disruptions and changes in the political landscape of many countries, including the U.S., affecting domestic and international markets, policies, and even the presidency.

When Steve Kroft interviewed Soros on 60 Minutes in December 1998, he asked the famous speculator whether he felt any complicity in the financial collapses in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, and Russia. Smiling, Soros responded: "I don't feel guilty because I am engaged in an amoral activity which is not meant to have anything to do with guilt." His amoral behavior is not limited to finance. "I cannot and do not look at the social consequences of what I do," he replied arrogantly.

Professing to be an "amoral" financial speculator has earned Soros the image of a maverick. His generous handouts did wonders to blind the political, media, academic, and social elites and afforded him the respectability and credibility he needed to advance his sociopolitical disruptive agenda, remodeling countries, especially the U.S., to whatever he deems an "open society."

To increase the spread of and maximize the influence of his disruptive ideas, Soros has been using his charities to fund progressive socialist/globalist groups. He endowed his flagship charity, the Open Society Foundations (OSF), which operates as an INGO, with more than $19.5 billion and an operating budget of $1.2 billion for 2020. It is the "world's largest private grant-making" political entity, which, according to its website, operates in more "than 120 countries," distributing "thousands of grants every year" to local NGOs and individuals who claim to be independent and sometimes even non-partisan, to "promote" the OSF's "values."

As of this writing, there are 197 countries in the world and 10 million NGOs worldwide (!). Many of them operate in collaboration with tens of thousands of INGOs. (Last available data from 2013 stated there were more than 40,000 INGOs.)

It is important to note that "INGOs are not elected bodies, are not founded on the principle of representation, and are not accountable to the public," as pointed out by Dr. Raphael Ben-Ari, an expert on NGOs and international law. INGOs have no legal recognition or guidelines, and their often biased "fact-finding" reports are rarely questioned by the media or even "national courts and international tribunals and institutions."

The short- and long-term aggregate influence of Soros's private INGO, and its network of thousands of local NGOs, is multidimensional and grows exponentially.

Soros's global network is exceptionally complex and notoriously opaque. Transparify, which rates global think-tank transparency, classified the OSF as "highly opaque," with the rating of "0."

Soros already spent at least "$32 billion of a personal fortune" in propagating his progressive "open society" creed through an intricate and disruptive web that would put the 'black widow' spider to shame.

In January 2020, Soros chose the World Economic Forum in Davos to announce his most ambitious initiative, the "most important and enduring project" of his life, the Open Society University Network (OSUN). He pledged $1 billion to create what "the world really needs": an international platform for teaching and research that existing universities all over the world would be able to join, among other things, "to fight dictators and would-be dictators."

How would the scholars at the OSUN identify "would-be dictators"? Easily. According to Soros, "[a] perfect way to tell a dictator or a would-be dictator if he identifies me as an enemy."

Soros's latest self-styled global academic venture comes on top of his OSF's contribution of $407,790,344 in gifts and commitments to higher education since the year 2000, as reported by the Media Research Center in January 2020.

Soros created the OSUN, a "new kind of global educational network," to serve as a global indoctrination organ to fight "climate change" (the Left's new religion) and to "educate against nationalism" and other topics close to his heart, so his "Open Society" doctrine of radical socialist political activism endures and spreads after he's gone.

Soros's new OSUN is set to function as a "thought" feeder to and enforcer of his Open Society doctrine, which functions as a clarion call for resistance and revolutions, evoking some of Karl Marx's and Leon Trotsky's ideas on permanent revolution.

The OSF's press release announced that the OSUN would join forces with other Soros-funded universities: his Vienna-based Central European University (CEU) and Bard College in upstate New York, with campuses in New York City, Boston, California, Germany, and Russia; Al-Quds University in the West Bank; Arizona State University; the American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan; BRAC University in Bangladesh; and others.

Soros's OSF calls for and funds NGOs and individuals for training to organize protests and large-scale demonstrations and teaching resistance techniques. They also call for and support activities against nationalism; Judeo-Christian values and traditions; and, of course, capitalism.

Soros's foundations also support fighting global warming, and for "global social justice," transgenderism, population control, and free abortion, to mention but a few.

The billions Soros had spent already made deep inroads into predisposed academic institutions and led to significant modifications in our social discourse and political conventions. If the past is any indication, with billions more left to the OSF and his other foundations, Soros's radical socialist legacy will continue fueling political, economic, and social turmoil long after he is gone.

The 89-year-old Soros, whose goal, as the British daily Guardian described it, is to "push the world in a cosmopolitan direction in which racism, income inequality, American empire, and the alienations of contemporary capitalism would be things of the past," is now in a hurry to leave an even grander legacy.

Soros, who vehemently opposes Donald Trump, failed to foresee the latter's successful run to the White House, thus shorted the equity market, losing nearly $1 billion. Since then, he pledged to use all available means to overthrow Trump, whom he calls an "imposter" and his administration a "Danger to the World," out of office.

Soros and his family and their foundations are pouring money into election campaigns of Democrat candidates to all offices, especially district attorneys. They also fund advocacy groups that function as "echo chambers" for candidates for the 2020 elections. The candidates' main qualification is adherence to Soros's progressive- socialist, anti-law enforcement, open borders, illegal migration, sanctuary cities, gender and racial rights, social justice, climate change, etc.

Soros's bottomless funding of such candidates led U.S. attorney general William Barr to warn that the liberal billionaire has been bankrolling radical prosecutor candidates in cities across the country. "There's this recent development [where] George Soros has been coming in, in largely Democratic primaries where there has not been much voter turnout and putting in a lot of money to elect people who are not very supportive of law enforcement and don't view the office as bringing to trial and prosecuting criminals but pursuing other social agendas," he told Martha MacCallum, on The Story on Fox News, in December 2019.

The chaos following the breakout of the coronavirus pandemic that tanked the financial markets and shut down the U.S. economy is a crisis Soros will not waste to attack Trump. According to the Washington Free Beacon, Soros has already given "$3 million in contributions" to Priorities USA Action  the Democratic Party's largest super PAC. The money is used to flood Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin with ads attacking Trump's handling of the pandemic. How much did Soros contribute to help fight the pandemic?
New Delhi, March 30 : In the wake of the nationwide lockdown to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, the government on Monday provided sops to the farmers for repayment of loans.

The government has extended the benefit of 2 per cent interest subvention (IS) to banks and 3 per cent prompt repayment incentive (PRI) to all farmers up to May 31 for all crop loans up to Rs 3 lakh given by banks which have become due or are becoming due between March 1, 2020 and May 31, 2020.

An official statement said that due to the restrictions imposed on movement of people, many farmers are not able to travel to bank branches for payment of their short term crop loan dues.

Moreover, due to restrictions on movement of people and difficulty in timely sale and receipt of payment for their produce, the farmers may be facing difficulties in repayment of their short term crop loans falling due during this period.

To address this problem being faced by the farmers, extension of these benefits will help the farmers repay such loans up to the extended period at 4 per cent per annum interest without attracting any penalty.

The government is also providing concessional crop loans to farmers through banks with 2 per cent per annum interest subvention to banks and 3 per cent additional benefit on timely repayment to farmers thus providing loans up to Rs 3 lakh at 4 per cent per annum interest on timely repayment.
The gold price has hit record highs in several currencies in recent days, including the pound, Canadian dollar, South African rand, and Australian dollar.

It has also recovered much of the ground lost in US dollar terms when investors sold heavily to cover losses elsewhere in the market. That selling is now abating, and the buyers are coming in for gold again, seeking the traditional safe haven.

This means that companies that find and produce gold are set to benefit too, a process which is already getting underway.

Ariana Resources does not expect disruption to production from its Kiziltepe mine

For those that are able to continue production and development work, a high gold price combined with ongoing low fuel prices means that the opportunities for wider margins are considerable.

Among those companies who have already made this explicit is Ariana Resources, which said on March 19 that while precautionary measures have been taken against the spread of coronavirus at its operations, no disruption to production from its Kiziltepe mine is expected.

Indeed, Ariana has recently reiterated its guidance for production of 18,000 ounces of gold equivalent this year.

Separately, but as clear proof of concept to any investors that are still sceptical, the company has just taken delivery of a maiden 1.6million dividend from its local operating subsidiary Galata Madencilik.

That dividend related to the 2019 operational year, so, with operations now well up and running, it is reasonable to expect that 2020 will generate a similar payout at some point further down the line.

The company's plans were well laid out in the operational update released to the market in the middle of March, in which point Ariana spoke of monthly ore production rates of around 20,000 tonnes, a total annual throughput of ore through the mill of 205,000 tonnes, and an average gold grade per year of over 2.5 grams per tonne.

The company is well-known in the London mining scene as one of those that quietly gets on with the job. It has been notable that while many have fallen by the wayside over the years, Ariana has been one of the few that has been able to transition successfully from explorer to producer and retain its independence.

The trick now will be for it to grow, and there are already plans afoot for more regional exploration in Turkey, as well as a foray out to nearby Cyprus.

Ariana's share price has reflected this success, having more than doubled over the past five years. But the recent coronavirus chaos has seen them drop away from their February highs and create what could be seen as a buying opportunity.

Having said all that, however, for investors interested in gold, why is it worth looking at a company like Ariana, rather than just taking a speculative position in a gold ETF?

The answer is that the leverage to the upside is greater. With a gold ETF you don't get the benefits to margin of lower oil prices and higher gold prices  all you get are the daily moves in the price itself.

A rise in the gold price such as we have seen in the past couple of weeks, as gold moved from below $1,500 an ounce to above $1,600 amounts to a rise of slightly less than 7 per cent.

On the other hand though, Ariana's share price has been enjoying much bigger swings, and as the recovery of the gold market and the realisation that gold price strength is here to stay sinks in, the upside is likely to be significant.

After all, as Ariana's managing director Dr Kerim Sener pointed out in a recent interview, all the economic modelling that was done in relation to production from the company's Kiziltepe mine assumed a gold price of $1,300. Anything above that, he said, is just 'cream'.

Now factor in the lower input costs arising from a lower oil price, and the margins look set to be chunky to say the least.

So, although it may be a little while yet before the next dividend rolls in to the company's coffers, don't expect investors to sit on their hands waiting for it to happen.

Instead, as the massive programmes of money printing that are now underway around the world start to have an impact, the likelihood is that more and more people will look to place their capital into gold.

Those that are looking for that extra bit of upside could do a lot worse than consider a company with a strong track record of competence, existing cashflow, and significant upside.
As we can all feel, the world at this moment seems extraordinarily fragile, the couple wrote on Instagram. Yet we are confident that every human being has the potential and opportunity to make a difference  as seen now across the globe, in our families, our communities and those on the front line  together we can lift each other up to realise the fullness of that promise.
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A nearly empty Times Square is seen in New York City's coronavirus lockdown on March 29, 2020.

Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

There is some evidence that the spread of coronavirus is slowing around the world.

The rate of increase in new cases in Spain, Italy, the UK, and the US has seen recent declines, evident in new data from Sunday, March 29.

It could be an early sign of nations starting to get a handle on their outbreaks.

In an optimistic analysis, the total number of cases will continue to rise, but more slowly. But there is still a long way to go.

Deaths  which tend to lag new cases  will likely continue to increase even if a corner has been turned.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Related Video: Inside London During COVID-19 Lockdown

After weeks of lockdowns and travel bans, it appears that the rate of increase in new cases of coronavirus are beginning to slow in some of the hardest-hit nations around the world.

Here are charts from the data-tracking site Worldometer showing the progress of outbreaks in western European nations, which have been wrestling with outbreaks for several weeks:



New coronavirus cases in Italy declined over the weekend.

Worldometers



The above graphic shows how new coronavirus cases in Spain are beginning to decline.

Worldometers



The rate of new coronavirus cases in the UK appears to be declining as of Monday, March 30, 2020.

Worldometers

All three have seen a similar trajectory  a peak and then a recent decline.

It is difficult to judge from this data alone, because the time period for the declines in new cases are too small. But some experts in those countries also sound optimistic.

In Italy, at a government press briefing on Sunday, Professor Luca Richeldi said that only 50 people that day needed to be taken to the ICU, compared to around 120 on the previous two days.

He said he took it as a sign that Italy's harsh lockdown is working.

In the UK, the influential epidemiologist Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College, told the BBC's "Today" program on Monday that "we can see some early signs of slowing in some indicators."

He said to "look at the numbers of new hospital admissions today, for instance, that does seem to be slowing down a little bit now. It's not yet plateaued as the numbers are increasing each day but the rate of that increase has slowed," Ferguson said.

Story continues

He warned that deaths will likely continue to increase, since people with even fatal infections tend to spend several days in the hospital before dying.

There are still many reasons to be cautious

The UK is also behind the other outbreaks in Europe, having only put its people under lockdown a little more than a week ago. So the impact of isolation likely hasn't impacted new case counts yet.

The case data is also choppy  Italy last week appeared to be registering a decline, only to go on surge back towards a record before dropping again.

In New York City, which last week became the epicenter of the US outbreak, the city also recorded its smallest daily case increase in a week.

Farzad Mostashari, founder of health care startup Aledade, and former national coordinator for health information technology at the Department Health and Human Services, tweeted Saturday that there "*may*" be "early signals" that "infections in NYC slowed."

In the wider US, however, the picture continues to look bleak.

Even President Donald Trump, who has consistently downplayed the threat posed by the virus, on Sunday abandoned his hope of reviving the US economy by Easter.

Instead, he said, the country should regard it as a "very good job" if its death toll can be kept as low as 100,000.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A Welsh farmer has said her business is 'devastated' and 'hanging in the balance' after a dog attack on her pedigree Jacob sheep.

Esther Howie, who farms in Anglesey, described her 'huge shock' when she found the flock badly injured in an attack that happened in January.

The Howie family moved to a holding near Rhosmeirch seven years ago and have invested a significant amount of money into improving and maintaining the land.

Both Esther and her husband Neil also work extra jobs to support their life-long dream of having a smallholding.

Esther already had a flock of pedigree Jacob sheep when they moved to the island and has since added a few Shetland sheep into the mix.

"I went up for my usual visit during my lunch hour at work and noticed that a mule ewe - my landladys adopted pet lamb that now lives with us - had fresh blood coming through her fleece, she said.

Not sure what had happened but suspecting the sheep had been attacked, Esther checked the field: It looked like one of the lambs had been attacked, but weve never had any experience of this to date.

The gate into the field is locked and it is the only entrance. The field runs parallel to the A55 so there would be no reason for anyone to be in there," she said.

"I thought maybe the ewe had been caught in the hedge or fence somewhere and injured herself.

"I walked the full perimeter of the field checking for fleece in the hedges - knowing that this was going to be unlikely as we had only recently had them cut.

About two thirds of her way around she found a large area of grass in the centre of the field that was strewn with clumps of fleece.

Esther added: I contacted the police and was quite shaken that this could have happened in a seemingly safe and protected area. I had 11 ewes in that field - 4 of them had injuries - significant injuries that I couldnt treat with a bit of spray alone.

I realised I was going to have to bring these ewes back to the holding to shear the fleece where they had been attacked and properly clean and treat the wounds.

"It took me a whole day to deal with these four ewes - my husband had to leave his work for the afternoon to come and help me move them, said Esther.

The decision was made to bring all of the ewes out of the field for the time being. It was not an easy decision for Esther to make as the fields at the main holding were waterlogged and not able to sustain the additional livestock.

By the time she arrived to pick up the ewes, they had been attacked again.

We were absolutely horrified at what we found - the dog had obviously been back," she said, "One ewe had been attacked and left stranded on her back, another was severely injured and was hiding in the back of the field shelter.

Bambi was our one and only pet lamb and the last of the offspring from the matriarch of my flock - Delores - who had passed away a few months earlier at the grand old age of 17.

"It was simply awful. There was nothing the vet could do for Bambi, her injuries were too severe and we had put her to sleep.

Instead of returning to her day job, Esthers time was now spent treating wounds, trying to contact the police and a visit to the knackers yard to have Bambis body disposed of.

Instead of returning to her farming day job, Esthers time was spent treating wounds

There was little more that could be done at this stage. Mornings for Esther now had to start even earlier than normal to fit in cleaning wounds before work.

The sheep that had been left upside down also had significant injuries so there was a trip to the vet for her and daily antibiotic and pain killing injections to administer.

Her injuries were severe but the vet and I decided we would try and give her a chance. She was still lively and eating which is always a good sign. Sadly though she didnt make it, said Esther.

The injuries had cut off the blood supply to the tissue in the ewes tail and backend and it started to turn necrotic. A week later it was agreed with the vet to have her put down as well.

She wasnt in lamb this year but I had chosen her for lambing next year as my second generation shetland -Jacob crossbreeds. Losing her was a great blow! added Esther.

A quick back of the envelope calculation highlighted that between time taken away from work, vets fees, additional feed cost and medication, the incident had already cost over 1600 - and they werent nearly through it.

Esther said: Besides the obvious pain and distress caused to the ewes themselves, I really cant afford to treat anymore injuries or lose anymore of my stock.

"This has affected almost half my breeding stock and has knock-on consequences far beyond the loss of life itself.

I have invested a huge amount into developing the smallholding and have finally been able to see a point where my dreams of developing the business here are becoming a reality - now this is all hanging in the balance, she said.

Figures show that livestock worrying cost farmers 1.2 million last year as irresponsible owners continue to allow dogs to roam free in the countryside.
The shuttered Earth Fare grocery store in Summerville is among a handful of locations being eyed to reopen soon.

A new group of investors has a verbal agreement to reoccupy the North Main Street space, CEO Bethany Turon said Monday.

The areas growth and the strong local customer support make Summerville an appealing prospect for the grocers revival, Turon said. The store is expected to reopen this summer, she said. The company also has an agreement to add Boone, N.C., to the revived chain.

The company also plans to reopen a store in its home base of Asheville, N.C., as well as others in Roanoke, Va., and Athens, Ga.

The company gave no indication that the darkened South Windermere store on Folly Road in West Ashley is among those slated to reopen.

Strong shopper loyalty makes it possible to bring the Earth Fare name and business model back, said Randy Talley, one of the co-founders of Earth Fare who is also an investor in its revival.

The customers that loved Earth Fare wanted it back, Talley said.

At its peak, the chain had 55 locations, including six in South Carolina, but slower-than-expected sales at its more recently opened sites helped put it into a credit crunch, Talley said.

They ran out of cash, Talley said.

The revived Earth Fare is more likely to be a chain of about eight stores across the Southeast. Stores will be refocused on the basics: organic and natural items and brands with no artificial ingredients or preservatives, Talley said.

The stores with longstanding ties to their communities, such as Summerville, always did well with customers, Turon said. The suburban Charleston store opened in 2015 as the anchor of Summerville Marketplace Shopping Center.

Columbia was another strong S.C. market for the grocer, and the company continues to be interested in reopening its Devine Street store location, she said.

In a precursor to the announcement that a deal is near on the Summerville location, last week an auction of the fixtures and equipment inside the Earth Fare location in Summerville was abruptly halted.

In an email to clients on March 25, Judd Grafe of Minnesota-based Grafe Auction said, "Late yesterday, a new tenant and landlord reached an agreement to purchase the assets of the upscale organic supermarket in Summerville and reopen the store. We are excited that they will be opening a grocery store in the location and employing many displaced workers. As a result, we have canceled the auction at this location."

The store is owned by Gramling Brothers Real Estate & Development of Charleston, which confirmed that it took part in buying the assets.

"We are part of a group that purchased the FFE (fixtures, furnishings and equipment)," said Mikell Harper of Gramling Brothers.

Harper said late last week that it made more sense financially to keep the equipment inside the store rather than allowing it to be sold off to the highest bidder.

"We are preserving the value for a new tenant," he said. "We are now part owners, and we believe its best use is a grocery store. We want to try to keep that."

When the two Charleston-area Earth Fare stores closed, petitioners began angling to bring Trader Joe's to the sites, but the California grocery chain has said it is not looking to take over any of the shuttered Earth Fare locations.

The group of investors aiming to reopen some of the Earth Fare stores tried to purchase one of the closed locations in South Asheville, but it was outbid by Texas-based Whole Foods, according to the Asheville Citizen Times.

Turon, the new CEO, told the periodical several people inside and outside of the company wanted the stores to reopen and they hope to make that happen in about three months. The investors bought the rights to the Earth Fare name and the internet protocol address.

The group estimates it will cost about $1 million per store to stock and reopen them, including reinstating utilities and upfitting delis.

Earth Fare operated three other stores in South Carolina in Greenville, Fort Mill and Rock Hill, but they are not among those currently slated for reopening.
A Polish cardiologist has been banned from treating patients in the UK amid the coronavirus outbreak after he was branded a risk to the public due to his poor command of English.

Dr Tomasz Fryzlewicz, 61, had moved to the UK in 2006 from his home city of Krakow in Poland and worked at various NHS hospitals as a locum and also in a non-clinical role analysing echocardiogram data for clinical trials.

However the heart doctor, who qualified in medicine 35 years ago, was reported to the General Medical Council in 2014 after repeatedly failing English language tests under the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), which tested him on his speaking, listening, reading and writing.

At the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, Dr Fryzlewicz, from Plymouth, pleaded with a disciplinary panel to let him return to medical practise but he was instead suspended for 12 months after he condemned GMC investigators as 'bureaucrats' and accused them of 'persecuting' him and engaging in a 'witch hunt.'

Dr Tomasz Fryzlewicz (pictured), 61, from Plymouth, was reported to the General Medical Council in 2014 after repeatedly failing English language tests under the International English Language Testing System (IELTS)

Since 2015, Dr Fryzlewicz, from Plymouth, has either been working in hospitals under supervision or not at all after he failed his re-sits and failed to improve his English skills to a required standard.

The doctor is currently claiming taxpayer funded jobseekers allowance after complaining of not finding a medical post due to a lack of supervisors.

Although he declined to take part in the Manchester hearing, which was held over Skype due to the Covid-19 lockdown, he sent an email which read: 'The truth is that I am not perfect in the English language.

'English isn't my native language and it is easy to use this fact as an accusation against me. It does not matter that through my work I save lives and help British patients.

'I have collected many references from my colleague consultants and patients during my hospital work that my English language skills are good enough for work in the NHS hospitals.

'What is very important is that when I came to Great Britain, I showed to the GMC my academic IELTS certificate, passed at 6 points.

'They stated that it was not any problem, they took this certificate to their files and gave me the full unrestricted registration for practice. In the meantime, there have been no concerns about my English language during my work in hospitals.

'Next, after a few years, the GMC bureaucrats have been persecuting me because they wanted the academic IELTS exam version passed at 7.5 points. It shows their complete irresponsibility for their actions and contempt for a doctor's life.

'I can work in a hospital under supervision but I have to have a supervisor and a Responsible Officer. I have contacted medical agencies but they couldn't arrange for a Responsible Officer and I have not found one myself so I have had to go on the job seekers' allowance.'

The doctor said he had passed an English language proficiency test at Plymouth University and added: 'I have been continuing my efforts through self-study of the English language, reading books, newspapers, watching BBC and listening to Radio 4.

Previous hearings heard that Dr Fryzlewicz was offered a post in cardiology at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford (pictured) but the offer fell through after he sent emails in broken English

'In the meantime, I read in newspapers that many hospital operations are suspended and patient queues are longer and longer because of lack of doctors. I have references from consultants with whom I worked that they would be more than happy to work with me in the NHS hospitals.

'I have provided efforts to improve my English language skills and I ask the the present MPTS panel to sum up the situation, considering and weighing the adverse impact on patients, who have been unable to be treated by a qualified doctor cardiologist for many years. The GMC is not effectively fulfilling its duty on public health.

'It will be a shame and fault for all of us if we cannot overcome the problems created by the GMC, hoping for a positive result to the treatment of 'English language disease'.'

Previous hearings were told that Dr Fryzlewicz had been fired from the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow and University College London Hospital due to concerns about his language skills before being offered a post in cardiology at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

That offer fell through after he sent various emails in broken English in which wrote of sending 'a massage' and adding: 'I still don't get answer and nobody contact with me. Once more I sent this information and please contact with me.'

He first took the IELTS test in October 2014 and was required to get a minimum score of 7.5 but only got an overall mark of just 5.5.

He then took another test of his own volition but only scored 6.5.

He re-sat again the following year but only got 5.5. Fryzlewicz later pledged to begin 250 hours of English lessons and agreed to work under the supervision of a consultant but was still unable to attain a score of 7.5 in his IELTS exam despite repeated reviews of his performance.

Terence Rigby, lawyer for the GMC, said: 'There remains no satisfactory evidence that Dr Fryzlewicz has improved his knowledge of English to the required standard.

'He appears not to have completed another IELTS test, nor has he provided evidence of any equivalent qualifications demonstrating sufficient proficiency in English.

'There is no evidence before the Tribunal that it would be appropriate for Dr Fryzlewicz to return to unrestricted clinical practice.'

Suspending Fryzlewicz, panel chairman Ian Comfort said: 'The Tribunal remains concerned with Dr Fryzlewicz's attitude and level of insight.

'In his email correspondence, he does not appear to understand the importance of why the GMC persist in requesting that he undertakes the appropriate test to demonstrate that he now has the necessary knowledge of English Language to practise medicine safely.

'The Tribunal has not been provided with any up to date testimonial evidence that Dr Fryzlewicz's command of the English language is satisfactory.

'Balancing the public interest with Dr Fryzlewicz's interests, the Tribunal is of the opinion that patients require doctors to have the necessary knowledge of English in order to treat them safely.'

He added: 'The purpose of the sanctions is not to be punitive, but to protect patients and the wider public interest, although they may have a punitive effect. Dr Fryzlewicz does not fully understand or accept the reasons for the restrictions on his registration, namely that he does not have the necessary knowledge of English and the impact this has on patient safety.

'A period of suspension is the highest sanction available to it when considering a case relating to deficient English language.

'But it would allow Dr Fryzlewicz's to gain insight and obtain the necessary level of English language and send a signal to the profession that doctors are required to have the necessary knowledge of the English language to practise medicine safely.'

Dr Fryzlewicz will face another review hearing next year.

Previously, only doctors from outside the EU could have their language skills tested by the GMC but this was reviewed following the case of a Nigerian-born German doctor who injected a patient with a lethal dose of morphine, in part due to his poor English whilst on his first shift as a locum doctor in 2008.
My prayer for all of you this Friday is this  That you find God in some of this frozen, unexpected, and chaotic time that has been thrown your way. That those of you with families might find a quiet time to come together with God. And finally, to all of you who, like me, are spending these days alone, that you take a few moments to find God in the silence and when you can, phone a fellow parishioner to see how they are.
One of the largest shareholders in struggling department store Myer has said it would "make sense" for the retailer to use the coronavirus shutdown as an opportunity to permanently shutter or shrink more stores across the country.

Veteran stockpicker and head of Wilson Asset Management, Geoff Wilson, told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald Myer would be better off closing more stores in an environment where consumers, especially younger Australians, focus on saving money rather than spending it.

Geoff Wilson says Myer should use the coronavirus closures to expedite the store restructuring process. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

"It would make sense for Myer management to take the opportunity to rationalise the store portfolio," he said.

Wilson Asset Management holds a 7.7 per cent stake in Myer and Mr Wilson said the retailer would have to tackle some "permanent changes to consumption" once the economy starts to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
The goal of opening up the U.S. economy by April 12 didnt last long  social-distancing guidelines have been extended to April 30. (Want this in your inbox each morning? Sign up here.)

The crisis in manufacturing

President Trump took office promising a renaissance in manufacturing. But when the coronavirus crisis required ramping factories to make ventilators, the White Houses ability to gather the power of American industry crumpled, the NYTs David Sanger and Maggie Haberman write.

Automakers have retooled plants to build ventilators, but received mixed messages from the administration, which last week invoked emergency powers to compel the production of the lifesaving machines. Mr. Trump criticized G.M. and Ford for perceived delays on Friday, before praising them on Sunday.

 G.M. partnered with Ventec, a ventilator specialist, to accelerate production by using the carmakers plant in Indiana. The two were deep in round-the-clock preparations when Mr. Trump accused the carmakers C.E.O., Mary Barra, of wasting time.
The government is asking schools across Britain to stay open through the Easter holidays to look after the children of key workers who will still be needed in the fight against coronavirus.

All schools were closed to most children from March 20, with millions told to stay at home in a bid to beat the pandemic, piling pressure on struggling families.

The only pupils still expected to attend school are those seen as vulnerable, alongside the children of key workers so they can continue to work.

The Easter holidays are rapidly approaching, and children are due to begin their break in England and Wales on April 6, in Scotland on April 3, and in Northern Ireland on April 9.

But guidance published by the government states that schools should stay open, if possible, for this period to ensure key workers can still get to their jobs, as the country continues to battle the deadly pandemic.

It reads: 'Where possible, we would encourage childcare providers, schools and colleges to continue to look after critical workers' children and vulnerable children throughout the Easter holidays.'

An empty classroom at Manor Park School and Nursery in Knutsford, Cheshire, on March 24

Plans are also being drawn up to open 'hub' schools which will allow pupils to go to a school within three miles of their home - but not necessarily their normal one.

For example, in Kent about 50 'hub' schools are expected to open during the Easter holidays  compared to more than 500 which were still open last week.

'Skeleton' schools are now catering for about 10 per cent of pupils, while emergency measures are being introduced to help poorer families access free school meals.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said: 'Teachers are playing a vital part in the fight against this virus. By keeping schools open they are helping protect the NHS and save lives. We owe them and all school staff a huge debt of gratitude.'

Earlier this month, Boris Johnson urged parents not to leave children with their grandparents, because the elderly are the most susceptible to the disease.

The Prime Minister also said on March 18 that all exams such as GSCEs and A-Levels due to take place in May and June will be cancelled.

A sign outside the closed West Bridgford Infants School in Nottingham is pictured today

In Wales, teachers have already been urged to do what they can to keep schools open for NHS staff and carers during the two-week Easter holidays.

And there are plans in Northern Ireland for 'hub' schools in some areas to take pupils from a number of other schools over the Easter holidays for key workers.

The Welsh education minister Kirsty Williams has praised all school staff for keeping more than 700 schools open during the coronavirus epidemic.

The children of key workers can continue to go to school even though many of their schoolfriends will be staying at home due to the UK-wide lockdown.

The minister said she was not asking school staff to put themselves at risk and urged teachers to follow Government guidance to make schools safe.

She also confirmed that the provision of assistance to families of children in receipt of free school meals would include the Easter school holiday period.

Northern Ireland's Department of Education said 1,172 children of key workers and vulnerable children attended 580 different schools on one day last week.

The country's education minister Peter Weir had asked parents to send their child to school only as a 'last resort' - advice which appears to be being followed.

It comes as the head of the Royal College of Physicians revealed around one in four NHS doctors are off work sick or in isolation.

Meanwhile Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister's chief adviser, has become the latest person in Westminster to self-isolate after developing symptoms.

He joins Boris Johnson, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty, who are all in self-isolation due to the virus.
NEW YORK and TARTU, Estonia and TALLINN, Estonia, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Glia, a leading Digital Customer Service platform, announced Microsoft Corporate Vice President Phil Sorgen has joined its Board of Directors effective January 7th, 2020. Sorgen is an expert in driving digital transformation for commercial enterprises.

"With rapidly accelerating growth and category creation, Glia has an exciting mission ahead of it," said Sorgen. "I look forward to lending my knowledge of digital transformation and my experience in helping enterprises capitalize on emerging market opportunities to support Glia in its quest to become the premier Digital Customer Service platform."

"Phil has a tremendous perspective on how to grow and scale successful technology businesses," said Dan Michaeli, Co-Founder and CEO at Glia. "Thanks to his experience leading industry-aligned teams in many verticals including financial services, his depth of knowledge around go to market strategy, and his strength in business consulting, he fully understands what a business like ours needs to be successful. His contribution to the board will be highly valuable as we continue our focused execution."

This key addition to the board of directors caps off a 2019 in which Glia had substantial success and growth across the entire enterprise as well as recognition by industry leaders.

Funding. In March, Glia announced they had raised $20 million in additional funding led by Insight Venture Partners, joined by existing investors. This brought Glia's total fundraising to $29 million with Insight Venture Partners joining the previous roster of investors such as Tola Capital, Wildcat Capital Management, Grassy Creek, and Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator

Awards . Glia continued its track record of winning key industry awards and recognition at events in the Americas and EMEA, including several best in show awards:

. Glia continued its track record of winning key industry awards and recognition at events in the Americas and EMEA, including several best in show awards: Best in Show, Finovate Europe ( London , February 2019 ), marking the 5th time Glia has won Best in Show at a Finovate event

, ), marking the 5th time Glia has won Best in Show at a Finovate event

Best in Show, Credit Union National Association Governmental Affairs Conference ( Washington D.C. , March 2019 )

, )

Best in Show, Finovate Spring ( San Francisco , May 2019 ), marking the 6th time Glia has won Best in Show at a Finovate event

, ), marking the 6th time Glia has won Best in Show at a Finovate event

Best in Show, Credit Union National Association Technology Council Conference ( Chicago , September 2019 ), marking the 2nd time Glia has won Best in Show at a CUNA event

, ), marking the 2nd time Glia has won Best in Show at a CUNA event

Best in Show, Finovate Spring ( New York , September 2019 ), marking the 7th time Glia has won Best in Show at a Finovate event

Product . Glia launched many product features and enhancements to increase functionality and performance in 2019, with two major product additions:

. Glia launched many product features and enhancements to increase functionality and performance in 2019, with two major product additions: Glia's AI Management module provides the framework to provision, measure, and manage AI-driven Virtual Assistants to converse with customers, and Operator Assistants to guide agents. Virtual Assistants automate the resolution of many customer inquiries with chat and CoBrowsing, and recognize when to hand off to an agent, with full context, for the best possible customer experience

module provides the framework to provision, measure, and manage AI-driven Virtual Assistants to converse with customers, and Operator Assistants to guide agents. Virtual Assistants automate the resolution of many customer inquiries with chat and CoBrowsing, and recognize when to hand off to an agent, with full context, for the best possible customer experience

Glia Applets provides a unified agent desktop which grants customer service representatives access to their applications in a tabbed interface, and also provides different display modes to accommodate representatives' styles and workspace. Tabs can be expanded, minimized to simplify CoBrowsing , or popped out and moved around as needed. Agents' view preferences persist across sessions and are completely context aware.

which grants customer service representatives access to their applications in a tabbed interface, and also provides different display modes to accommodate representatives' styles and workspace. Tabs can be expanded, minimized to simplify , or popped out and moved around as needed. Agents' view preferences persist across sessions and are completely context aware.

Glia's SMS Gateway enables organizations to achieve a new level of customer communications. Businesses can reach their customers in the palm of their hands and delight them with interactive engagements, providing their customers the opportunity to seamlessly switch to even richer media such as voice or video with CoBrowsing with just one tap

Industry Recognition . Glia was highlighted by industry analysts in key industry reports:

. Glia was highlighted by industry analysts in key industry reports: How To Build A Modern Agent Desktop And Transform Customer Service Experiences (Forrester), by Kate Leggett with Daniel Hong , Sarah Dawson , Peter Harrison

(Forrester), by with , ,

The Gartner Customer Service Technology Vendor Guide (Gartner), by Simon Harrison , Olive Huang , Drew Kraus , Melissa Davis , Nadine LeBlanc , Jim Robinson , Steve Blood , Anthony Mullen , Brian Manusama , Jim Davies

Hiring. Glia more than doubled the team globally across the United States and Estonia , and expanded the executive team with key hires including industry veterans Steven Kaish as SVP of Product Marketing; Phil Brown as SVP of Global Alliances; Parag Rajpal as VP of Finance; and Nathan Meeks as VP of Strategic Initiatives. In addition, Glia moved to new offices in both New York and Tallinn in order to support the organization's continued scale across all functions, from engineering, to product, to customer solutions, to sales, to marketing

Re-Brand. Formerly known as SaleMove, the company re-branded as Glia in February 2019 . From the ancient Greek for "glue", Glia are the most numerous cells in the brain that provide physical and nutritional support for neurons. In short, your glia are the infrastructure which allows for all of the communication to take place in the nervous system. Just like the glia in the brain, Glia the company provides the infrastructure for companies to connect with their customers using Messaging, Video, CoBrowsing and AI

About Glia

Glia provides digital customer service technology that is reinventing how businesses support clients online. Glia's solution enriches customer touchpoints on web, mobile, or phone calls with communication choices (from messaging to video chat), on-screen collaboration, and AI-enabled personalized experiences. Banks, Credit Unions, Insurers and Fortune 500 enterprises use Glia today to quickly maximize customer satisfaction, decrease handle times, and improve conversions. Headquartered in New York City, Glia is backed by leading venture capital investors including Insight Venture Partners, Tola Capital, Wildcat Capital Management, Grassy Creek, and Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator. For more information, visit www.glia.com .

Contact:

John Fernandez

917-771-0102

[email protected]

SOURCE Glia

Related Links

www.glia.com


Taliban attacks in Afghanistan's north and south have killed at least 11 Afghan soldiers and policemen, the country's Defense Ministry and a provincial official said on Monday.

The violence comes even as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani last week announced his 21-member team to negotiate peace with the Taliban, only to have his political opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, reject it as not inclusive enough.

The Taliban have not claimed responsibility for the latest attacks.

According to the Defence Ministry, the insurgents targeted a military checkpoint in a multi-pronged attack in the district of Argandab in southern Zabul province on Sunday night, killing at least six troops.

In northern Baghlan province, at least five members of the security forces were killed and six others were wounded when their checkpoint came under a Taliban attack on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Pulikhomri, said Mabobullah Ghafari, a provincial council member.

That attack also took place on Sunday.

On Monday, a sticky bomb attached to vehicle detonated in the capital of Kabul, wounding at least four people, said Firdaus Faramraz, spokesman for the Kabul police chief.

Afghanistan's political turmoil and the rivalry between Ghani and Andullah have impeded each step toward talks with the Taliban - negotiations that were supposed to come next under a peace deal that Washington signed with the insurgents last month.

The deal calls for the eventual withdrawal of all 13,000 US soldiers from Afghanistan in exchange for guarantees from the Taliban that they would fight other militant groups, including the Islamic State group.

The deal has been touted as Afghanistan's best chance yet of ending its relentless wars.

But Ghani and Abdullah, who also declared himself president in a parallel inauguration ceremony earlier this month, have been locked in a power struggle that has prompted Washington to say it would cut USD 1 billion in assistance to Afghanistan if the two couldn't "get their act together".

The Taliban are to send 10 representatives to the US-led coalition base in Bagram, north of Kabul, to oversee the release of their prisoners.

That release is also part of the deal signed with the US that calls for the release of 5,000 Taliban and 1,000 government personnel and Afghan troops held captive by the Taliban.

Jawed Faisal, spokesman for the Afghan National Security Adviser's office said Monday that Afghan officials and the Taliban agreed during a video conference that the Taliban should send their technical team to Kabul for face-to-face discussions on the release of Taliban prisoner.

The International Committee of the Red Cross would provide assistance in this matter, Faisal added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Italy's coronavirus death toll passes 10,000. Many are asking why the fatality rate is so high

(CNN)  When Antonia Mortensen was pulled over by police while driving recently in Milan, the northern Italian city where she is staying, it wasn't for a traffic offense. It was to instruct her fellow passenger to sit in the back of the car and to check that both were wearing face masks.

"We were told we cannot both sit in the front," said the CNN journalist, who was on her way to hospital with her partner to visit a sick relative.

"We have a special certificate giving us permission to go to the hospital," she said, adding that the relative does not have coronavirus.

Such are the tight restrictions on Italians now living in the deadliest hotspot of the global coronavirus pandemic.

Italy's death toll is now the highest in the world at 10,023. Fatalities passed the grim milestone on Saturday, with an increase of 889 since the last figures were released on Friday, according to Italy's Civil Protection Agency.

With 92,472 confirmed cases, Italy appears to have the highest death rate on the planet. Compare it to China, the epicenter of the pandemic, which has a roughly similar number of confirmed cases at 81,997, but under a third as many deaths, at 3,299, according to Johns Hopkins University and Medicine.

Indeed Italy now has the second-highest number of confirmed cases in the world after the United States, which stands at 105,470. But the US has a fraction of the deaths, at just over 1,700.

As Italy enters its sixth week of restrictions, many are asking: why does its death rate seem so much higher than other countries?

Experts say it's down to a combination of factors, like the country's large elderly population which is more susceptible to the virus, and the method of testing that's not giving the full picture about infections.

Distorted numbers

Italy's number of confirmed cases is "not representative of the entire infected population," said Dr. Massimo Galli, head of the infectious disease unit at Sacco Hospital in Milan. The real figure was "much much more."

Only the most severe cases are being tested, added Galli, and not the entire population -- which in turn, skews the death rate.

In the northern Lombardy region, which has the majority of cases, about 5,000 swabs are being carried out daily, said Galli. He added this was "much lower than needed, with "thousands of people waiting for diagnosis at their home."

A major obstacle for health workers carrying out tests, was limited protective gear available, he said.

In a stark warning to other countries, Galli said: "We have a national healthcare system that works very well, especially in Lombardy -- but even our system has been hit by this.

"Miracles have been done in multiplying the numbers of beds in hospitals," said the health expert. But medicine "has been lacking -- and this is a big problem that will be felt by other countries."

Elderly at risk

Another factor in the seemingly high death rate is Italy's elderly population, which is the largest in the world behind Japan.

The average age of Italian patients who have died after testing positive for the virus was 78, the country's Health Institute said Friday.

Galli said that until now, Italy's public healthcare system was able to keep a lot of elderly people with pre-existing medical conditions alive.

But these patients were in "a really fragile situation that can be broken by a virus like coronavirus," he added.

Still, there have been some stories of hope. Like 102-year-old Italica Grondona, who recovered from coronavirus in the northern city of Genoa after spending more than 20 days in hospital, doctors who treated the woman and her nephew told CNN.

'We nicknamed her Highlander -- the immortal," said doctor Vera Sicbaldi. "Italica represents a hope for all the elderly facing this pandemic."

Severity of sanctions

Meanwhile, some experts have questioned whether Italy's restrictions have gone far enough in halting the virus spread.

China's Wuhan city was the first to impose a sweeping lockdown on its 11 million citizens back in January, with all flights, trains and buses canceled and highway entrances blocked.

Now, more than two months later, officials in the pandemic epicenter are looking to ease those restrictions as new cases dry up. Italy meanwhile, is steadily ramping things up.

Italians now face steep fines of up to 3,000 euros ($3,350) for defying government orders of only going outside for essential items like food, Reuters reported.

But Dr. Giorgio Palu, former president of the European and Italian Society for Virology and a professor of virology and microbiology of the University of Padova, told CNN that the Italian measures are "not so forceful or strict like the Chinese ones."

"But this is the best you can do in a democracy," he added, pointing to the draconian restrictions implemented by China's communist state.

That said, "some constitutional rights are taken from us," Palu said of Italians' freedom. "We can't have public gatherings now."

But with the death toll continuing to rise, Italy's restrictions don't look like easing up any time soon.
ROME (Reuters) - The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy climbed by 756 to 10,779, the Civil Protection Agency said on Sunday, the second successive fall in the daily rate.

The number of fatalities, by far the highest of any country in the world, account for more than a third of all deaths from the infectious virus worldwide.

Italy's largest daily toll was registered on Friday, when 919 people died. There were 889 deaths on Saturday.

The total number of confirmed cases in Italy rose on Sunday to 97,689 from a previous 92,472, the lowest daily rise in new cases since Wednesday.

Of those infected nationwide, 13,030 had fully recovered on Sunday, compared to 12,384 the day before. There were 3,906 people in intensive care, up from the previous 3,856.

Lombardy, the hardest hit Italian region, reported a rise in deaths of around 416 on Sunday.

More than 662,700 people have been infected by the novel coronavirus across the world and 30,751 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

(Reporting by Giulia Segreti)
President Donald Trump said hes concerned oil prices have fallen too far and called Vladimir Putin on Monday to discuss Russias oil-price war with Saudi Arabia.

The leaders, who also talked about the spread of the coronavirus, agreed to discussions on oil between energy officials in the two countries, according to the Kremlin. The White House had no immediate comment and didnt release a summary of the call.

The U.S. president has earlier said he does not want to see the energy sector wiped out after Russia and Saudi Arabia both went crazy and launched into a conflict that depressed oil prices.

I never thought Id be saying that maybe we have to have an oil increase, because we do. The price is so low, Trump said in an interview on Fox & Friends.

Crude oil futures tumbled as much as 7.7% in New York, touching an 18-year low.

The Trump-Putin call came at the request of the U.S. and was prolonged, according to the Kremlin, which didnt specify how long it lasted.

Trumps view on the the dispute marks a shift from earlier this month, when he likened the plunge in oil prices to a tax cut for Americans. The U.S. president spoke to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on March 9 about the dispute.

Trump has long argued that improving relations between Washington and Moscow could help solve international disputes. The president said he wanted to discuss trade with Putin, though he said he expected the Russian president to raise objections to U.S. sanctions. State-run Tass quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that Putin didnt ask Trump for sanctions relief on the call.

Oil tumbled earlier to its lowest point in nearly two decades, heading for the worst quarter on record as coronavirus lockdowns cascaded through the worlds largest economies, leaving the market overwhelmed by cratering demand and a ballooning surplus. The slump in demand has shut refineries from South Africa to Canada.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates consumption will drop by 26 million barrels a day this week. Meanwhile, Riyadh and Moscow are showing no signs of a detente in their supply battle as Saudi Arabia announced plans to increase its oil exports in the coming months, despite U.S. warnings against flooding the market.

Some analysts argue Russias motivations extend well beyond oil and are complicated by the federations anger over U.S. sanctions and opposition to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline linking Russia to Germany. And the price for getting Russia to back down could be too high.

Russias concerns with the U.S. go beyond market share. Putin is frustrated with sanctions and may be more interested in punishing the U.S. than Saudi Arabia, said Dan Eberhart, a Trump donor and chief executive of drilling services company Canary LLC. If Trump wants an agreement with Putin, he may have to promise to ease up on sanctions. I am not sure he can deliver without the backing of congress.

Rosneft PJSC over the weekend sold its assets in Venezuela to the Russian government, a move that shields the Russian oil giant from further U.S. sanctions while keeping Moscow behind the regime of Nicolas Maduro. Fears of broader sanctions have grown after the U.S. in recent months slapped restrictions on Rosneft trading companies for handling business with Venezuela.

Talks between members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies broke down in early March as Russia refused to sign on to larger production cuts proposed by Saudi Arabia. The failure to reach an agreement prompted the Saudis to unleash a price war which, combined with the devastating effect of the virus pandemic, caused the market to crash.

Global demand is slumping by as much as 20 million barrels a day, about 20%, as billions of people go into lockdown to slow the spread of the virus. The outlook remains dire, with traders, banks and analysts forecasting a huge oversupply as governments effectively shut their economies.

Oil industry leaders, trade groups and some Republican senators have pressed the Trump administration to seek a diplomatic solution with Saudi Arabia. Six senators from oil-producing states last week urged Secretary of State Michael Pompeo to take a tougher stance against Saudi Arabia, while highlighting several powerful tools at our disposal, including sanctions, tariffs and other trade restrictions.

Trump would have better success pressing Saudi Arabia than Russia since they are dependent on the U.S. for protection, intelligence and arms sales, Eberhart said.

On the coronavirus, the two sides expressed concern about the scale of its spread, according to the Kremlin. The leaders discussed steps they were taking to fight the virus and potential areas of cooperation.
Bringing people onto a ship is inherently risky, Capt. Patrick Amersbach, commanding officer of the medical personnel aboard the Comfort, said in a telephone interview from the ship. So we have to be overly cautious.

But within the striking white and red hull of the Comfort, some of the crew members say they are scared that they are tempting fate by dropping anchor in New York harbor. As of a week ago, the crew had not been informed of the screening procedures for patients coming aboard, other than temperature checks, according to one person aboard the Comfort familiar with the situation.

He added that there was some talk of conducting X-ray examinations  in an effort to check the lungs for evidence of the virus  but it is unclear if those are proceeding.

Navy officials acknowledge that it will be extremely difficult, yet paramount, to ensure no one with coronavirus gets on board. The ships crew will not be allowed off the ship; there will be no visits into Manhattan and of course no trips to bars or restaurants for takeout. Ship personnel will be doing temperature checks and scans and are still working on additional ways to screen patients before they are allowed on board, officials said.

With 12 operating rooms, 1,000 hospital beds, radiology services, a laboratory, pharmacy and CT scanner, the Comfort is its own fully-staffed hospital. It responded to the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, and showed up off the coast of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. It has even been to New York before, when, in the days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Comfort provided aid and medical help largely for emergency medical workers.

It floated in the Arabian Sea during the Iraq war in 2003, receiving and treating injured Marines and soldiers. Treating combat wounds is its main function. The ship, a refurbished oil tanker that was commissioned in 1987, has never before been involved in a response to an infectious disease pandemic, Captain Amersbach said.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The number of people hospitalized for coronavirus in Onondaga County has increased tenfold over the last week as the severity of the pandemic worsens locally.

Its been 14 days since the outbreak of Covid-19 reached Onondaga County. On Monday, March 16, we learned of the first positive case here. The same day, officials shut down schools, closed bars and dining rooms and opened a dedicated coronavirus testing site. Since then, the number of known cases has reached nearly 200 and one person in Onondaga County has died.

There were 20 people in local hospitals with the virus as of Sunday afternoon. Seven of those people are fighting for their lives in critical condition. A week ago, just two people were in the hospital with the illness.

The spike in hospitalizations mirrors an increasing spread of the virus throughout Central New York. Dozens of new cases are discovered daily and the number of people in mandatory quarantine has grown to more than 500. At the same time, some people are starting to recover. Five people were released from isolation over the weekend.

As of Sunday afternoon, there were 194 known cases of the virus in Onondaga County. A week ago, there were 13 cases. Two weeks ago, there was just one.

The increasing numbers are a result of an increase in testing. In all, more than 3,000 people have been tested in Onondaga County. The majority tested negative.

The pace of testing, however, has slowed over each of the past three days. Thats good and bad news. It could mean fewer people are getting sick thanks to social distancing policies. It could also mean people are heeding officials advice and staying home rather than going to a doctor. Experts say less testing will make it harder to keep track of the virus.

A testing triage center established at the Syracuse Community Health Center two weeks ago was one of the first of its kind in the state, according to County Executive Ryan McMahon. More than 300 people got tested the day it opened, March 16. Last Friday, fewer than 100 people were tested there.

Problems at the facilitys lab in Virginia meant people were waiting more than a week for results. Some never came at all and people were asked to get re-tested.

Those problems have been fixed. The testing site hired a new lab in Pittsburgh last week. Results typically come back in about two business days now.

Overall New York has tested residents at a higher rate than any state except Washington. New York has tested one in every 160 residents.

Statewide, more than 1,000 people have died from the virus, including 237 people between Saturday and Sunday. Thats fueled by New York City, where the disease has spread rapidly among a dense population.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo accepted Army engineers to build temporary hospitals. President Donald Trump deployed a Navy hospital ship to the city to provide extra beds.

The brutality of the disease in New York City may have spared upstate, where spread and the death toll are, so far, more manageable.

There are 14 counties in New York with more confirmed cases than Onondaga -- 11 of them are downstate. Three upstate counties have more cases: Erie (414), Monroe (223) and Albany (205). McMahon has said Onondaga Countys numbers account for a region of about one million people, since the local hospitals serve a huge swath of Central New York and the North Country.

Cuomo has suggested he may start shipping downstate patients to upstate hospitals, where theres extra space and equipment right now. As the surge continues to spike in New York City, that possibility becomes more and more likely, though upstate counties are beginning to see a spike of their own.

McMahon said he wants to make sure Central New York hospitals can tend to local patients first, but would accept others if asked.

Were all New Yorkers and were all Americans, he said.

Hospitals here have yet to see a surge of coronavirus cases. Theyre nowhere near full and have cleared about one-third of their beds. All elective surgeries have been canceled and all visitors banned as hospitals try to increase capacity in case they need it.

The county has designated Manley Field House as an overflow site in case the rate of hospitalized patients continues to increase.

Sunday, President Donald Trump extended a series of stay-at-home policies to last through the end of April in an effort to slow the rate of spread of the virus.

Gov. Cuomo has said the state is expecting a surge in cases in the next two to three weeks. He kept schools closed until at least April 15 and postponed the April 28 presidential primary, signalling the shutdown in New York will last through the next month.

Cuomo said in New York thousands will die. Nationwide, White House officials predicted around 200,000 deaths from the virus.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS
On Jan. 21, a Chinese government agency issued a stark warning about the emerging novel coronavirus: anyone who deliberately delays and hides the reporting of cases out of his or her own self-interest will be nailed on the pillar of shame for eternity.

Were still waiting for Chinese President Xi Jinping and some officials in Wuhan to show up on that pillar.

That dramatic Jan. 21 warning came the day the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the first case in the U.S.

It came seven days after the World Health Organization announced that Chinese authorities reported no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.

It came 22 whole days after Wuhan doctors, including, Li Wenliang, were reprimanded as rumormongers for trying to warn about the virus.

It came long after the lies and secrets of Chinas authoritarian government had allowed a mysterious illness infecting a couple dozen people to explode into a worldwide pandemic that has now sickened more than 723, 000 people, killed more than 34,000 and caused untold economic destruction.

China committed one of the worst cover-ups in human history, Texas Congressman Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Axios in an interview.

Hes right. Theres no question that China failed to learn from the deadly SARS outbreak 17 years ago. It seemed more interested in containing information than containing the virus.

So why are Chinese authorities earning praise in some quarters? Some are even suggesting that authoritarian governments, with their draconian lockdowns, are better suited to put down a pandemic than democracies, fraught with freedom of movement and independent thought.

The idea that Chinas response bought the world time, which some countries squandered, has come from many corners: an epidemiologist in London, a Harvard economist on NPR. And curiously, President Trump has been crowing about Chinas hard work at containing the spread. He stopped using the offensive term Chinese virus, and has managed only faint criticism lately of Chinese secrecy.

Last week, Trump tweeted that he and Xi Jinping are working closely together to fight the virus. Much respect! he wrote in a post liked more than 328,000 times.

Just because the U.S. government seriously botched its response, producing a test that didnt work and then failing to make a functioning one widely available, China is not off the hook for causing the global crisis in the first place.

Each time the U.S. or another Western country messes up, it creates an opening for Chinas propaganda machine to push its fanciful narrative: a skilled, orderly, high-tech response made possible only through the wonders of communism.

China is trying to play the hero in Italy and other hard-hit countries, touting its donations of ventilators and dispatching of experts. In truth, China is selling the ventilators and any good deed is a ploy to pave over its part in the bodies mounting around Milan, Madrid and Tehran. And now New York.

Authoritarianism is not a secret sauce for solving this pandemic. China may have an easier time controlling people, but the problem-solving abilities of authoritarian regimes are nothing compared the problem-making tenants of secrecy and oppression.

Who does appear to have a secret sauce?

South Korea, a flourishing democratic republic.

Although Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong have all had success limiting cases, South Korea is held up as a gold standard for flattening a steep coronavirus curve with transparency and public cooperation  and without draconian lock-downs or economy-crushing shutdowns.

South Korea has an intricate system developed after SARS in 2003 that involves quick response, frequent testing, tracing contacts of the infected, enforced quarantines, temperature checks and screening passengers.

Its clear that countries seeing the most deaths are those that downplayed the threat in the beginning and reacted late. China was one. The United States is another.

Rather than hopping aboard Chinas propaganda wagon, Americans should demand that our leaders learn from their dire mistakes so that, unlike the Chinese, we are not doomed to repeat them.
EXPERT OBSERVER

This week, historic negative economic outcomes were seen in both Europe and the US. Financial markets instead focused on the wave of stimulus announced, particularly in the US.

Of the data released, the first focus for markets was the Markit PMIs for key developed nations. Whereas the shock ex-China to date has been concentrated in manufacturing, services were hit hard in the March preliminary reading. In Japan, the service PMI fell from 46.8 in February to 32.7 in March; in the US, a similar decline was seen from 49.4 to 39.1; while in Europe, the loss was a staggering 24pts from 52.6 to 28.4  a very unfavorable comparison to the GFC low of 39.2 in 2009.

While severe, these shocks pale in contrast to the deterioration seen this week in US initial jobless claims. As we flagged last week, the first few weeks of the US contagion have seen a never-before-seen increase in US unemployment. Following the 71k increase in the last report to 282k claimants, in this update a further 3 million new claimants were reported, taking initial claims to 3.28 million. Prior to this outcome, the historic peak was 695k back in 1982.

Note that while the 2020 initial outcome is almost five times the scale of the 1982 peak, the labour force has only grown 50% since. Moreover, this weeks outcome will not be a one off. It is still early days in this crisis; job losses have been staggered; and there have been numerous reports of claim backlogs to be assessed. Clearly the US is facing into an immense shock.

It is not surprising then that the US Congress has responded with a stimulus package also of historic proportions ($2 trillion). This will include support to all low and middle-income households in the form of cash handouts; extended unemployment benefits; loans to small business which can be forgiven in time if the funds are used for certain purposes such as keeping on staff; as well as loans to support large business cash flow.

These are significant measures, but are unlikely to materially reduce the shock coming to their economy. This is in part because the stimulus will only partly offset the loss of income from job loss and as confidences decline will hit discretionary spending hard. But primarily it is because the US COVID-19 case count continues to rise rapidly, meaning the country is nowhere near a point of stabilisation which it can begin to recover from. Highlighting this, the New York Times today reported that the US now has more confirmed cases than China experienced. Moreover, the global state of affairs also remains dire, with severe cases continuing to increase rapidly across Europe.

The shock to growth coming from abroad is also having a clear impact on Australia and New Zealand. But more pressing is the domestic spread of COVID-19. The current situation for our two nations has been summarised this week by Westpac Group Chief Economist Bill Evans and New Zealand Chief Economist Dominick Stephens. For Australia, further detail on the expected depth of the deterioration in our labour market and economy was also released by Westpac Economics, as was our forecast of the implications for the Federal Governments fiscal position and government debt.

For our labour market, given the implementation of stricter restrictions on our economy, we now anticipate a rise in the unemployment rate to a peak of 11% by mid-2020, to be sustained through the September quarter. This will come as a result of the loss of over 800k jobs and as the economy contracts by 4.0% over the year to September 2020. As the economy is restored to a more normal footing in the September and December quarters, activity will bounce and the unemployment rate fall  we believe to 8.8% end-2020 and 8.0% end-2021.

Still, that is a much weaker end point than anticipated prior to COVID-19. Hence, not only will the recession of 2020 hit the Governments fiscal position, but there will also be a lasting impact. On top of this shock to activity and Government revenue is the cost of stimulus, to steady the economy amid immense uncertainty.

In summary, we anticipate a deterioration in the Federal budget from balance in 2018/19 to a 4.5% of GDP deficit ($90bn) in 2019/20 and a deficit of 8% of GDP ($160bn) come 2020/21. In 2019/20, 2ppts ($40bn) comes as a result of policy stimulus while 2.5ppts ($50bn) is due to the apparent cyclical deterioration. The 2020/21 deficit of 8% of GDP meanwhile includes 3ppts ($60bn) from policy stimulus and 5ppts ($100bn) is due to cyclical deterioration. As a result, the supply of government securities on issue will rise by $250bn to $820bn (40% of GDP) by June 2021.

ELLIOT CLARKE is a senior economist at Westpac
As the State of Michigan has taken precautions to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the nation is suffering with a shortage in blood donations, and organizations including the Versiti Blood Center of Michigan have seen over 130 blood drives canceled over the next several weeks. In these uncertain times, when blood donations are vital for the continued health of our community, Midland Center for the Arts and the Midland Rotary Club have stepped up to host a blood drive from 1 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 8. The blood drive will take place at the arts center, 1801 W St. Andrews, Midland, MI 48640.

This partnership with Versiti Blood Center of Michigan will result in hundreds of lives being saved, thanks to the generosity of those able to donate, said Terri Trotter, Midland Center for the Arts president & CEO. We have an empty facility right now and are thrilled to be able to use our space to help provide this vital service. And we are grateful for the partnership of Rotary in helping to encourage blood donations.
By Laman Ismayilova

No secret that fairy tales enrich a child's imagination and cultural literacy. Fairy tale characters brilliantly illustrate what the stories are teaching us.

Azerbaijan Ministry of Culture and Soz (Word) literature have launched a joint project for young readers.

As part of the campaign "Evd qal evd yarat" (Stay home, create at home), celebrities please little book lovers with Azerbaijani fairy tales on social networks. The project brought together politicians, famous public and art figures.

If you want to join the camping, share your creative activities on Facebook with the hashtag # EvdQalEvdYarat until April 30. The Cultural Ministry and portal "Creative Azerbaijan" will award the authors of the most-liked posts.

Soz (Word) literary project aims to promote works of national poets and writers and increase attention to literature.

The project is important from the point of view of propaganda of Azerbaijani culture. Soz project is headed is famous poetess Nigar Hasanzade.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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Linkedin Andrew Sheng (The Jakarta Post) Beijing  Mon, March 30, 2020 16:23 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e60ada 3 Opinion pandemic,leadership,China,COVID-19 Free

One of the upsides of the lockdown is that one gets to read books that you should read, but never had the time for. Former deputy chairman of Indias Planning Commission, Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwahlias new book Backstage: The story behind Indias high growth years, is an illuminating inside picture about how leaders emerge at a time of crisis.

I will review his book in a forthcoming article, but his brilliant quote of Italian political philosopher Machiavelli is spot on for this age of pandemics:

At the beginning, a disease is easy to cure but difficult to diagnose, but as time passes, not having been treated or recognized at the outset, it becomes easy to diagnose but difficult to cure. The same thing occurs in affairs of state. By recognizing from afar the diseases that are spreading in the state (which is a gift given only to a prudent ruler) they can be cured quickly. But when they are not recognized and left to grow to the extent that everyone recognizes them, there is no longer any cure.

Prescient words indeed. It reminds us that disease and pestilence was as prevalent in 15th century Italy as it is for the world today.

The United States - the most technologically advanced nation with the finest medical expertise  will have more COVID-19 cases than China, where the epidemic broke out last December. The coronavirus is about to take down not just the powerful and the rich, but the global economy.

Make no mistake, the battle against COVID-19 is a war, as damaging as physical war. This is because it is first and foremost an emotional war, not just financial, economic, social and geo-political. Stress levels are the highest I have ever known, at the individual, community, national and geo-political level. Bad emotions worsen decisions.

When a member of the family makes a mistake that impacts the whole family, any parent would know the most important thing to do is not to blame, but what to do. A crisis is an event. Bad things happen. Blame can come later. But it is immediate action that can prevent more damage.

In making parallels between fighting conventional warfare and war on pandemics, US General George Casey quotes 5th century BC Chinese strategist that the leader must have clear mind and pure hearts. But few of us have clear minds and pure hearts, because it is so easy to blame someone else as evil. No one is truly objective, since we are all emotionally involved. Every day, the lives of ourselves, our family, friends and community are at stake. And any of us can go any day.

This COVID war is so fundamentally different because instead of being able to hug and share our worries with our loved ones, we must keep our social distance. Our hearts are torn because grandparents cannot hug their grandchildren. We stand helpless to see our friends being isolated in hospitals upon infection.

The fog of emotion clouds our judgement and our ability to act. The blame game is an emotional salve that may assuage our anger, but will truly block effective action, which is to work together to fight the common enemy  COVID-19.

How do we stop the COVID onslaught? Learn, adapt and act fast. Time is not on our side. Blame, dither and die. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. In this war, we have to learn to work with people we do not like in order to survive.

There are three lessons why China, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Israel have been effective in controlling the spread of COVID-19 cases so far. First, everyone learnt the lessons from SARS, not just at the professional and bureaucratic level, but the populace also understood the need of social discipline in time of epidemics. Second, their effectiveness is not about authoritarianism, but ability to test, trace and contain. All these economies have very good technology with bureaucracies that know how to apply them. Third, the communities come together as one (however imperfectly), rather than displaying individualism at the expense of many.

What are the priorities in this COVID-war?

First, we cannot win any battle if the front-line troops are dying. We must make sure that the doctors, nurses, hospital staff and all members providing essential services are provided with personal protective equipment (PPEs). These heroes are putting their lives and their families health at risk for the good of the community and we must salute and cherish them. But give them the best available. It is a sin to ask a nurse to work when they have to recycle used masks and gowns!

Second, no amount of hospital beds is enough if we do not enforce social distancing. One super-spreader will overwhelm any hospital with patients in a matter of weeks. We can understand the young wanting to party to relax, but they are putting other lives at risk. Once we lose our invaluable doctors and nurses, we have no more defense line.

Third, the toughest choice is between life versus livelihood. Nobel Laureate Paul Romer and Harvard Provost Alan Garber puts the stark choice as: If we keep up our current strategy of suppression based on indiscriminate social distance for 12 to 18 months, most of us will still be alive. It is our economy that will be dead.

Yes, the old free-spending economy that created excess consumption funded by excess debt may be dead or flat on its back. Over the longer term, we must rebuild the system into one that is more caring for nature and society. This we must do.

General Caseys advice is well worth taking: To succeed in our VUCA world, leaders have to control what they can, influence what they dont control, and prepare for what they cant control.

The long march to recovery and reform is a long-haul process. Very tough decisions have to be made. Inevitably mistakes are made. But we survive if we learn, adapt and come together as a community, not as narcissistic individuals. The leader that does not understand this will not survive.

***

Adjunct professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing and University of Malaya. Views expressed are his own.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.

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This article appeared on the China Daily newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
As the country is under lockdown to curtail the spread of COVID-19, different ed-tech platforms have seen a surge in enrolment with professionals signing up for upskilling and schools and colleges using them to finish pending syllabus.

Illumnus, an ed-tech startup by IIT Bombay & BITS Pilani alumni, has witnessed more than 1200 per cent growth in users since the lockdown, Illumnus Founder and CEO Akash Singhal told PTI here.

He said, the company's Collaborative Learning Management System (C-LMS) provides premier educational institutions with their internal digital learning network, simplifying the communication flow among students and teachers even after school hours.

The company is already affiliated with 14 institutions globally and is looking at affiliating with up to 150 schools and universities by the end of July, he added.

We are a startup that was formed with the objective of creating and curating the best platform for propagating amongst individuals, breaking all social constraints of classroom learning. Therefore, this initiative is to support the entire sector in the country, without letting COVID-19 affect our teaching system, he added.

Co founder of Great Learning, an ed-tech company for working professionals, Hari Krishnan Nair opined that the lockdown has been a turning point for e-learning platforms as many professionals as well as students are utilising this current situation to upskill themselves.

We have witnessed 100 per cent growth in users during the three and a half weeks. With high quality courses in association with universities, we are seeing an uptick in enrolment from across the globe, he added.

However, in India the men ratio among students is 60:40 and in professionals it is 80:20, he pointed out.

Coursera Managing Director, India and APAC, Raghav Gupta said comparing the past 30 days with the preceding 30 days, there has been a 445 per cent increase in enrolments in Public Health content on the platform overall -- almost 150-800 per cent increase in affected countries.

In India there has been 416 per cent increase in enrolment in public health related courses, he added.

There has been a daily growth of 54 per cent in overall registration for different courses in India in March, he added.

Coursera has provided impacted universities and colleges free access to its course catalog through the 'Coursera for Campus' platform through which universities and colleges can sign up to provide their enrolled students with access to more than 3,800 courses and 400 specializations.

Akhil Shahani, Managing Director of the Shahani Group, which runs a range of colleges in areas like business, media, real estate, finance among others, said the only way to make online accessible to all is to increase the number of smartphone users.

However, there are three major hindrances to the adoption of online learning, the first is that many rural areas in India do not have good internet connectivity, so cannot access online education.

The second hindrance is that a majority of online education is in the English, which only 10 per cent of India's population understands. It is imperative to have more educational content available in vernacular languages.

"The third is that many employers do not consider online degrees to be credible for entry-level job hiring. Students still need to go to colleges with physical classrooms to be taken seriously by recruiters, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The two women were arrested over videos shot during the curfew and posted on social media

Egypt's public prosecutor ordered on Sunday evening the release on bail of a female social media influencer and another woman arrested for violating a nighttime curfew imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Mawada Eladham, who has 1.5 million followers on Instagram, posted a series of videos of her driving around after curfew hours. One of the videos shows her and another woman stopping vehicles in an eastern Cairo suburb during curfew hours and asking drivers for their licenses while mockingly telling them to go home.

The two women were accused of violating the curfew and inciting others to do the same, disturbing public order, endangering social safety, and harming social peace, according to a statement by the public prosecutors office.

The two women have been released on EGP 20,000 (approximately $1,300) bail each, the statement said.

The prosecutor also ordered their social media accounts be blocked.

A nationwide curfew from 7pm to 6am has been in effect since 24 March and is set to last till 7 April, which is part of a series of measures over the past two weeks to stem the coronavirus outbreak.

The authorities have warned that those who break the curfew are subject to penalties under the countrys emergency law, which range from a fine of EGP 4,000 ($253) to imprisonment.

The country has so far detected 609 coronavirus cases, including 40 fatalities.

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Its one thing to continue to have tons of people living day by day, and another to have thousands dying of this every day, said Jesus Silva Herzog, a professor of government at the Tecnologico de Monterrey, a university in Mexico.

On Tuesday, Mexican officials, citing a shift in the outbreak, announced a stricter set of protocols, canceling events drawing more than 100 people and calling for the suspension of employment requiring workers to commute to an office.

Over the weekend, the Lopez Obrador administration began urging Mexicans to stay home. And late Monday, officials tightened restrictions even further, ordering the shutdown of all non-essential activities. But many Mexicans cannot work from home, or forgo work for weeks.

Mr. Meneses, 43, who has sold hamburgers and hot dogs from his cart for 19 years, said he was less worried about contracting the virus than he was about the financial effects of the pandemic.

His business has already cratered. His sales are down about 50 percent from two weeks ago and still falling.

If the authorities force street vendors to shut down, Mr. Meneses said, he does not know what he will do to support his wife and three daughters. Maybe start pawning possessions, he said.

The family has no health insurance.

For us, its a luxury to get sick, he said.

In some countries in the region, when governments have tried to impose restrictions to fight the virus, poor workers have rebelled  and been met with force. In Peru, more than 21,000 people, including street vendors and other laborers in the informal economy, have been detained for not complying with the governments orders to stay at home.
Eight new COVID-19 cases have



been confirmed in Karnataka, taking the total number of the affected in the state to91, the Health department said here on Monday.

The state government asked all those in home quarantine to send selfies with their GPS coordinates every one hour to it, failing which they would be sent to mass quarantine centres.

"Three people of the same family from Hosapetehave confirmed for COVID-19 today. Total number of infected in Karnataka has increased to 91.

They have been admitted at isolated ward," state Health Minister B Sriramulu tweeted late in the evening.

Earlier in the day the department in a bulletin had said 88 COVID-19 positive cases had so far been confirmed in the state, which includes three deaths and six discharges.

Of the 79 active cases, 78 patients in isolation at designated hospitals are stable and one is on ventilator,it had said, adding six out of total of 88 cases were transit passengers who landed at airports in the state and were being treated in hospitals in Karnataka.

Though details about three new cases mentioned by the Minister are awaited, among five cases confirmed bythe department earlier, all are contacts of a patient already tested positive.

While one of them, a 13-year-old male resident of Tumkur, is the son of a COVID-19 patient, the other four men, ranging in age from 24 years to 34 years, were from Nanjanagud in Mysuru and worked in the same pharmaceutical company, where the patient who recently tested positive, despite no travel or contact history, had worked.

Contact tracing has been initiated for all the cases, the department said.

Among the 91 positive cases. 41 were from Bengaluru, 12 from Mysuru, eight from Chikkaballapura, seven from Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada, three each from Kalaburgai, Davangere, Udupi abd Ballari, two from Tumakuru, and one each from Kodagu and Dharwad.

All the six discharged patients are from Bengaluru, while one death each was reported in Kalaburgari, Bengaluru and Tumakuru.

Meanwhile, Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar in a release said all persons under home quarantine should send their selfies clicked on an app to the government, every one hour from home.

The selfie or photo will have GPS coordinates so the location of the sender would be known, he said.

If those home quarantined failed to send selfies every one hour (except between 10 PM to 7 AM), then they would be shifted to government created mass quarantine facilities, he said.

Such action would be taken even if wrong photos are sent, he said



Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Monday said ending of the 21 day nationwide lockdown depends on how strictly people follow it, as he urged them to follow the curfew and maintain social distancing.

Earlier, education minister Suresh Kumar said the government had warned private educational institutions of legal action if they do not postpone the admission process and collection of fees for the next academic year, in the wake of the lockdown to fight COVID-19.

Aimed at controlling the spread of virus, the state government on Monday decided to give a push for localised purchase of essential commodities like vegetables and groceries in the city where in people come by foot to buy things and don't use vehicles.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Peter Levine of Nanuet, New York refused to let his son back in the house after the college student partied in Texas for spring break.

Flickr / Peter Stevens

A New York father refused to let his college-age son back in their Nanuet home after the student traveled to South Padre Island for spring break.

Peter Levine, 51, told the New York Post that he tried to encourage his 21-year-old son Matt to come home early from the trip, but to no avail.

"I was aggravated. The news here was getting worse and worse," the elder Levine said.

According to the 51-year-old father, he didn't want his son to enter their home because Matt's elderly grandparents live in the house, and he didn't want them to be exposed to the virus.

So Levine sent Matt and his friends back to their on-campus apartment and didn't even let them inside to use the bathroom.

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A New York father refused to let his 21-year-old son back into their home after the Springfield College student traveled to South Padre Island, Texas for spring break.

Peter Levine, 51, told the New York Post that he tried to get his 21-year-old son Matt to return from his vacation early.

Related Video: What COVID-19 Symptoms Look Like, Day by Day

"I spoke with him every day and told him that maybe they should come home. I was aggravated. The news here was getting worse and worse," the elder Levine said, adding, that Matt sent "pictures of him and his friends congregating outdoors and listening to live music."

According to the 51-year-old, he finally told his son that he and his friends couldn't stay at the family home in Nanuet, New York after their trip as previously planned. "His grandparents live here and there is no need to expose them to god knows what he had been exposed to," Levine said.

Once Matt and his friends returned from South Padre Island, Levine told his son there was "no chance" that he'd be coming to pick them up from the airport, and that they'd have to make their way back to the Nanuet home via a car service.

"They got out of the car near our driveway and I said, 'Stay right there! Do not go any further!'" the 51-year-old said of the group's return to Nanuet to pick up Matt's car. The group then faced a two-and-a-half-hour drive back to their on-campus apartments in Massachusetts, but Peter Levine still wouldn't allow them inside the home.

Story continues

"I love my son, but they were not sleeping here," he told the Post. "I said, 'If any of you have to pee, we have some bushes.' Two of them took me up on it."

Luckily for Matt, his father had already filled the trunk of his car with bags of groceries and even placed an envelope with $300 on the driver's seat.

But it seems unlikely that Matt will be able to return home anytime soon. "Their lease ends in June and none of the parents want them home. It's too risky," Peter told the Post.

Insider
A palette of colours on a silver plate: that is what the world's first colour photograph looks like. It was taken by French physicist Edmond Becquerel in 1848. His process was empirical, never explained, and quickly abandoned. A team at the Centre de recherche sur la conservation (CNRS/Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle/Ministere de la Culture) has now shone a light on this, in collaboration with the SOLEIL synchrotron and the Laboratoire de Physique des Solides (CNRS/Universite Paris-Saclay). The colours obtained by Edmond Becquerel were due to the presence of metallic silver nanoparticles, according to their study published on 30 March 2020 in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

In 1848, in the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, Edmond Becquerel managed to produce a colour photograph of the solar spectrum. These photographs, which he called "photochromatic images", are considered to be the world's first colour photographs. Few of these have survived (1) because they are light-sensitive and because very few were produced in the first place. It took the introduction of other processes (2) for colour photography to become popular in society.

For more than 170 years, the nature of these colours has been debated in the scientific community, without resolution. Now we know the answer, thanks to a team at the Centre de recherche sur la conservation (CNRS/Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle/Ministere de la Culture) in collaboration with the SOLEIL synchrotron and the Laboratoire de Physique des Solides (CNRS/Universite Paris-Saclay). After having reproduced Edmond Becquerel's process to make samples of different colours, the team started by re-examining 19th century hypotheses in light of 21st century tools. If the colours were due to pigments formed during the reaction with light, we should have seen variations in chemical composition from one colour to another, which no spectroscopy method has shown. If they were the result of interference, like the shades of some butterflies, the coloured surface should have shown regular microstructures about the size of the wavelength of the colour in question. Yet no periodic structure was observed using electron microscopy.

However, when the coloured plates were examined, metallic silver nanoparticles were revealed in the matrix made of silver chloride grains -- and the distributions of sizes and locations of these nanoparticles vary according to colour. The scientists assume that according to the light's colour (and therefore its energy), the nanoparticles present in the sensitised plate reorganise: some fragment and others coalesce. The new configuration gives the material the ability to absorb all colours of light, with the exception of the colour that caused it: and therefore that is the colour that we see. Nanoparticles having properties related to colour is a phenomenon known to physicists as surface plasmons (3), electron vibrations (here, those of the metallic silver nanoparticles) that propagate in the material. A spectrometer in an electron microscope measured the energies of these vibrations to confirm this hypothesis.

###

This work was supported by the SACRe programme at the Universite PSL, the Observatoire des Patrimoines de Sorbonne Universite and the CEA and CNRS's national network for transmission electron microscopy and atom probe microscopy.

Notes:

(1) Only a few dozen images of this type produced by Edmond Becquerel and then Niepce de Saint Victor are conserved in museum archives.

(2) For example, see: https://news.cnrs.fr/articles/the-birth-of-color-photography

(3) This phenomenon, which explains the colours of objects as old as the Roman Lycurgus Cup, is studied today by physicists who hope for applications like ultrafast microprocessors and the improvement of various detector types.
Eight residents of a North Jersey nursing home have died of the coronavirus, and family members of residents say they had no idea there even was an outbreak.

Wanaque Mayor Dan Mahler announced the outbreak at the Lakeland Health Care Center in a letter shared Sunday night. Family members of residents say this is the first theyve heard of the severity of the infection.

The nursing home is on lockdown, and the state Health Department has been alerted, Mahler said. But family members of two residents at the home say they had no idea there was a coronavirus outbreak, and they have not been able to reach their loved ones.

The state Health Department did not respond to NJ Advance Medias request for more information. Lakeland Nursing Home did not respond to emailed questions. A receptionist who answered the phone said no one was available for comment Monday afternoon.

Anthony Gesimondo, whose mother, Marie, lives at Lakeland, says nurses at the facility called him on March 21 when one patient tested positive for coronavirus, but found out about the eight deaths in the mayors letter. The deaths were not previously included in reported town totals.

A nurse told him Sunday night after the letter was published that Marie Gesimondo doesnt have a fever, but thats done little to assuage his concerns. Gesimondo tried to call back again Monday for more information, but says a receptionist hung up on him twice after placing him on hold.

This is getting out of control. You call me when one person tested positive but eight people drop dead and you dont say anything? he said. He last heard from his mother about a week ago.

Its been over a week since Jodi Shaw last heard from her brother-in-law, Danny, a longtime resident of Lakeland. She says a receptionist told her Monday afternoon that Danny is fine, but that several hours later a nurse told a family friend that Danny is sick.

(Nurses) havent said if its COVID-19 or not, but he sounds sick like that, Shaw said, adding that Danny has been given IV fluids and is waiting for a special medication to arrive.

Speaking through tears, Tom Fox, the family friend who says he considers Danny Shaw a younger brother, told NJ Advance Media he hasnt spoken to Shaw in nearly ten days.

Ive called and called and Ive tried and made every attempt to get through (to the nursing home) except for standing outside the windows throwing rocks at them, Fox said.

Both Fox and Gesimondo say theyve been told by building staff there are issues with phone lines in patients rooms.

Calling Lakeland a hell-hole to begin with, Shaw says her family would take Danny home in a heartbeat if they were able to care for him. The 59-year-old is cognitively impaired and was diagnosed with Parkinsons recently.

She says recent problems at the nursing home shines a light on the fact we are so dependent on the (infection rate) numbers we are getting, and here we find out the numbers can be so far off the mark.

Eight deaths is a pretty significant number to not report, Shaw said.

Lakeland Nursing Home is not the only facility to be hard-hit by the coronavirus. At least 43 of New Jerseys 375 nursing homes have had a patient test positive, and a Woodbridge nursing home was evacuated after all 79 of its patients were exposed and at least 11 were sickened. At least two St. Josephs patients have died.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

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(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Perhaps it was too much to hope that the closure of Gaza would help protect it from the spread of the coronavirus. Last week, officials announced that two Gaza residents who had recently returned from Pakistan had tested, and that they had infected seven others.

Its hard to think of anywhere else in the world where this virus could take a greater toll, per capita, than the strip. Over 1.85 million Palestinians are crammed into a mere 141 square miles, a population density similar to many megacities. Most are refugees or their descendants. Living conditions have been poor since 1948, but deteriorated significantly after the Hamas takeover of the territory in 2007, the war with Israel in 2008, and the subsequent blockade by Israel and Egypt.

In 2018, the UN said the Gaza healthcare system was on the brink of collapse due to a combination of underdevelopment, damage by Israeli attacks and the myriad negative consequences of the closure of the territory for more than a decade.

Palestinians in Gaza are already highly susceptible to illnesses because of widespread unemployment and poverty, food insecurity, lack of adequate potable water, the inability to treat sewage and frequent power outages. Gaza is one of the worst places imaginable to get a serious disease, with a mere 70 ICU beds available. If the coronavirus spreads there, the healthcare system lacks the necessary tools, including tests, personal protective equipment and ventilators.

Gaza residents can ask for Israels permission to go to the West Bank for treatment, but thats usually denied; besides, the West Bank may be overburdened as well. Its hard to imagine many Palestinians from Gaza being allowed access treatment in Israeli hospitals.

Egypt, too, is unlikely to be able or willing to help much. The government in Cairo already regards the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza as a serious potential threat to its security. Egypt would like a solution to address Gazans basic human needs without unduly strengthening Hamas, which much of the world considers a terrorist organization.

Story continues

Israel, too, has been cognizant of the threat that intolerable living conditions in Gaza could pose to its security. International and Arab donors have been willing to finance aid and reconstruction.

But the Palestinian Authority has shied away from any agreement to return it to nominal power in Gaza and oversee a wide-ranging humanitarian program unless Hamas disarms. PA President Mahmoud Abbas says hes not willing to tolerate a replica of Hezbollah in Lebanon where the government has all the responsibility but Hezbollah, because of its Iran-backed militia, welds all the power.

The interim and highly imperfect solution has been for Israel to allow Hamas patron, Qatar, to dispatch cash to Gaza on a quarterly basis,. to pay public employees and keep most people fed. But thats not going to do much to combat a coronavirus epidemic.

Hamas is clearly alarmed. It recently called off planned mass protests for March 30, and has quarantined 1,700 Gazans. It is also pleading for international aid and support. The UN Special Coordinator Nickolay Mladenov has expressed specific concern about Gaza and the coronavirus, but no specific measures or funding have been announced.

A major outbreak could force all parties to reconsider the status quo of semi-permanent closure in Gaza. Israel and Egypt might see their worst fears about instability and chaos on their borders realized. Hamas would be overwhelmed, and could even be overthrown. And the PA may face overwhelming pressure from its own public to act.

Abbas will be the key, since a Palestinian alternative to Hamas is essential to oversee any assistance. All other parties will have to find a way of pressuring him to say yes to a risky agreement with Hamas, while making sure that he has the financial, diplomatic and political backing he needs to make it work and prevent Hamas from emerging the big winners.

Relations between the PA and Israel have hardly ever been worse, particularly given Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus proposalsapparently endorsed by President Donald Trumpfor more Israeli annexation in the West Bank. Yet the coronavirus has been enough of a common threat to prompt unprecedented cooperation, to try to contain the spread of the virus on both sides of this bitter divide.

In their own self-interest and to prevent a humanitarian calamity, all partiesincluding Hamas, the PA, Israel, Egypt and international donorsmay yet be forced by the pandemic to finally develop a new arrangement for Palestinians in Gaza.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Hussein Ibish is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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San Francisco has reduced its jail population by nearly 25% in March to create distance between inmates and staff and prevent the coronavirus from taking hold, a problem that has grown dire in other jails and prisons across the country.

On Saturday morning, there were roughly 840 people in custody in San Franciscos jails, said District Attorney Chesa Boudin, down from about 1,100 on March 4, the day California declared a state of emergency because of the global pandemic.

While some of the inmate reduction is due to declining crime rates following the Bay Areas shelter-in-place order, criminal justice leaders in the city have been working to free inmates early and detain only the most dangerous people in response to the outbreak.

What were trying to do ... is ensure that the jail is only being used for people who present such a serious risk of physical violence that they cant be safely released, Boudin said. The difficult decisions that we make in the criminal justice system during this moment of crisis have the very real potential to save countless lives.

To date, no inmates in San Francisco have tested positive for COVID-19. One sheriffs deputy at the jail, though, has tested positive.

The often cramped conditions in many jails have posed problems in other places. In New York City, at least 132 inmates and 104 jail staff had tested positive for the virus as of Saturday. Chicago is grappling with a similar outbreak in its jails.

San Francisco is trying to get ahead of the problem by prioritizing early release for elderly people and those who have severe underlying medical conditions. Some inmates who have served almost all of their sentence are also being considered for release, as are those detained for lower-level crimes. The courts can instead place such people on home detention or probation

Anyone who poses a risk to public safety will not be considered for early release, Boudin said.

The district attorney, the public defender and the courts are following the advice of city public health leaders, who recommended on March 24 that San Francisco keep its jail population between 700 and 800 people to protect inmates, staff and the public from an outbreak that could spread beyond jail walls.

The most effective strategy to mitigate transmission is social distancing, Dr. Lisa Pratt, director of jail health services, said in a letter to criminal justice leaders Tuesday. I urge you to move quickly and creatively to continue to divert people from jail and remove incarcerated people from this dangerous congregate setting as much as possible during this time.

Scores of staff come into San Franciscos jails each day for work. While inmates are screened when theyre booked into the facility, the agency is unable to identify and treat asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic carriers of the virus, who can pass it onto others, according to the letter.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto said his office has worked to ready the jails to prevent the spread of the coronavirus by regularly checking on vulnerable inmates and providing everyone with hand sanitizer. Because San Francisco has one of the lowest incarceration rates in the country, it has been able to more easily implement social distancing policies than other places with more crowded jails.

In a letter to San Franciscos public defender last week, Miyamoto said the city must also consider crime victims when trying to reduce the jail population. But he told The Chronicle that the efforts so far have focused on low-level, low-risk inmates.

Were not releasing serious violent felons right now, Miyamoto said. Were not at that point, luckily, and we wont get to that point any time soon.

Joaquin Palomino is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jpalomino@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JoaquinPalomino

Editors note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described a sheriffs deputy who tested positive for coronavirus.
For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.

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WASHINGTON  A flu pandemic was ravaging the world, killing indiscriminately in almost every country, including more than 600,000 deaths in the United States. The states were in a panic, but there was almost no call for broad federal assistance  at least, not one heeded by the president.

Woodrow Wilson did not address the nation on the subject of the pandemic of 1918-19 a single time. He did not call for Congress to act, and he did not summon the nation to unite. He had another battle to fight in trying to bring World War I to a close, even though the flu killed far more people.

While his posture on the flu seems passive, even reckless, in a modern light, Wilsons approach to war demonstrated an entirely different view of federal power than President Donald Trumps approach to the current pandemic. Wilson fully exploited the authority of the federal government, compelling rationing, propaganda and nationalizing the railroads, all directed at defeating Germany, not the virus.

The country, after all, was already accustomed to 100,000 deaths a year from the flu. There was a limited public health infrastructure. Use of vaccines remained uncommon, and therapies were often primitive. It wasnt that Wilson was restrained about using federal power; he simply had less precedent to lean on, and a much higher priority in the war effort.

Trump has framed his fight against the pandemic as a war, and himself as a wartime president. But rather than fully lever the power of the federal government, he has increasingly put responsibility on the states, reigniting the kind of tension the nations founders wrestled with more than two centuries ago.

The feud with states boiled over Thursday when Trump got into a contentious exchange with several governors. States are demanding more sweeping help from the federal government to battle an insidious challenge the founders never knew existed  a global public health crisis. It calls into question how well a system of federalism  where power is legally shared between a national government and the states  can work when the needs are so urgent and the politics so polarized.

The virus has seeped into states blue and red, hitting Louisiana as hard as its hitting California, and there are stark warnings coming from swing states like Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania, too.

Most presidents before Trump have stipulated to dealing with problems on a national level with national coordination, said Jeffrey Engel, director of presidential studies at Southern Methodist University. Trump, he said, for philosophical and political reasons, is taking a narrow view of what is his responsibility.

So even though Trumps sense of federalism has historic precedent, and could be said to be closer to what the founders considered the proper division between states and the federal government  with the former having the lead responsibility for citizens health and immediate well being  it is entirely out of step with almost every response weve seen from presidents facing crises in anyones living memory.

Still, Trump has in other contexts threatened to use federal power, as he did when he proposed intervention to stem homicides in Chicago, an improvisational foray on which he did not follow through.

When the country was founded, no one could have envisioned the speed and smallness of the world today. Yellow fever could be contained by isolating a city. It would have required nearly half a year to travel from Philadelphia to Wuhan, China, in 1787 instead of the single, air-carried, globalized day that it does now, Engel said.

Given the speed and danger involved in issues large and small the founders never could have considered, I think the current pandemic requires a unified federal response, Engel said.

One of the clearest measures of that would be Trump putting the Defense Production Act in full force to compel production of critical supplies. Wilson (during World War I) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (during World War II) did so without a law as the foundation for their action. On Friday, after repeatedly saying that he would spur private production through persuasion, Trump in effect ordered General Motors to make ventilators. GM, Trump said, was wasting time. But the company was already on that path.

No historical comparison is precise, but Trump and Wilson are the only American presidents to face serious national pandemics. The men were opposites in almost every way.

Wilson, a Southerner, was an intellectual, president of Princeton; Trump, a New Yorker, became president as a novice politician who said he relied on gold-plated instincts. Wilson wrote a book about constitutional government; Trump wrote The Art of the Deal. Wilson believed in deploying federal power, and he was also an avowed internationalist; Trump, who arrived in the presidency with limited ideological mooring, has renewed his call for stronger borders and immigration restrictions.

But Trump has also made clear that he believes states should shoulder responsibility. There is no mistaking his approach with Harry S. Trumans the buck stops here view of accountability.

Governor Inslee, thats the state of Washington  And you know, hes always complaining, Trump told Fox host Sean Hannity on Thursday. And your governor of Michigan, I mean, shes not stepping up.I dont know if she knows whats going on. But all she does is sit there and blame the federal government. She doesnt get it done. And we send her a lot.

Wilson used another approach. He definitely took a national viewpoint that the federal government was supreme to the states, said Thomas Knock, a Wilson biographer and scholar. He and Theodore Roosevelt reinvented the presidency that way.

Wilson pushed for the Federal Reserve, the Federal Trade commission, child labor laws and an eight-hour work day for railroad workers. During the war, he nationalized the railroads. The federal government had never played such an enormous role in the economy.

He knew the federal government really was supreme over the states and that was the best way to transform American in light of the new industrial age, Knock said.

In his book, Constitutional Government in the United States, Wilson said, The question of the relation of the states to the federal government is the cardinal question of our constitutional system. At every turn of our national development we have been brought face to face with it, and no definition either of statesmen or of judges has ever quieted or decided it.

It cannot, indeed, be settled by the opinion of any one generation, because it is a question of growth, and every successive stage of our political and economic development gives it a new aspect, makes it a new question.

But when the flu started to sweep through the country in 1918, Wilson  a wartime commander-in-chief  did not see it for the threat it was. In that time, Knock said, there was a common expectation that the flu would kill Americans into the six figures and the pandemic came in waves.

I dont think it was much of a priority, Knock said. There was no precedent for that kind of public health role at the time.

There is now. And it is testing the notion of federalism in ways not seen for more than half a century, with conflicts on open display almost daily  and, sometimes, evolutions in real time.

On Friday, Trump, through his seeming directive to GM and his signing of the governments largest relief effort, took a step toward an evolving view  perhaps even a Wilsonian one.

___

Michael Tackett, a deputy Washington bureau chief for The Associated Press, has covered American politics since 1986. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tackettdc
 Flash

The first batch of medical supplies from China, 12.5 tons in total, arrived on Sunday at the Zagreb airport, the Croatian government said, calling it "another example of high-quality cooperation" between the two countries.

Another 10 tons of Chinese protective equipment arrived in Frankfurt on Saturday and will be transfered to Croatia later Sunday.

Chinese Ambassador to Croatia Xu Erwen said that China is ready to share its experience on prevention, control and treatment of COVID-19 with Croatia, provide medical supplies, and strengthen international cooperation in the fight against COVID-19.

"China will always stay with the Croatian government and people to overcome the current difficulties until the final victory," the Chinese embassy said in a press release on Sunday.

Croatia confirmed 713 cases of COVID-19 as of Sunday afternoon since the first case was reported on Feb. 25. Six patients have died.

Health Minister Vili Beros said on Sunday that Croatia's defense against the novel coronavirus will be significantly strengthened with China's help.
Hungary's parliament endorsed a bill on Monday giving nationalist premier Viktor Orban the sweeping new powers he says he needs to fight the new coronavirus pandemic. Critics at home and abroad have condemned the "anti-coronavirus defence law", saying it gives Orban unnecessary and unlimited power and is a means of cementing his position rather than battling the virus. After declaring a state of emergency on March 11, the new law gives Orban the power to indefinitely rule by decree until the government decides the emergency is over. It removes the current requirement for MPs to approve any extensions to decrees. Elections cannot be held either during the emergency period. It also introduces jail terms of up to five years for anyone spreading "falsehoods" about the virus or the measures against it, stoking worries for press freedom. The measures come into effect as of midnight on Monday. The parliament, where Orban's Fidesz party enjoys a dominant two-thirds majority, passed the bill by 137 votes to 53. "At the end of the emergency, all powers will be fully restored" to parliament, said Orban after the vote, dismissing opposition fears of a long-running period of rule-by-decree. The vote marked another controversial milestone in Orban's fractious decade in power. Since the self-styled "illiberal" nationalist won power in 2010, he has transformed Hungary's political, judicial and constitutional landscape. The 56-year-old has frequently clashed with European institutions, NGOs and rights groups, with Brussels suing Hungary for "breaching" EU values -- charges fiercely denied by Budapest. The EU's Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said Monday the European Commission "evaluates the emergency measures taken by Member States with regard to fundamental rights". This was "particularly the case for the law passed today", he added. Among the international bodies expressing concern over the bill before it became law were the UN human rights office, the Council of Europe, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Orban has given short shrift to criticism of the coronavirus law, accusing critics of alarmism and telling "European nit-pickers" to let Hungary defend itself against COVID-19. - 'Imaginary demons' - Justice Minister Judit Varga told foreign reporters last week that the constitutional court could provide oversight, while parliament could revoke the decrees at any time. The opposition were "fighting imaginary demons and not dealing with reality," she said. A government spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs said Monday that the decrees were also time-limited by the pandemic itself, which "hopefully ends one day". Last week, opposition MPs warned they did not trust Orban not to abuse indefinitely granted special powers. They refused to support fast-tracking the bill without time deadlines. Many cited a so-called "state of crisis caused by mass migration" that Orban's ruling Fidesz party declared in 2016 and which remains in place, despite migration numbers to Hungary having fallen sharply since then. - 'Principles of democracy' - Akos Hadhazy, an independent MP, told AFP that Orban did not need any "extraordinary empowerment" as his party already controlled parliament. Instead, he said, the ruling party had set a "trap for the opposition". Pro-government media had accused the opposition of encouraging the virus by rejecting the bill. "Beyond further increasing his power, Orban's goal was to present a bill that cannot be supported by opposition MPs, so that they can be blamed throughout the emergency for not supporting the government in times of crisis," said Andras Biro-Nagy, an analyst at the Budapest-based Policy Solutions think-tank. "National unity is not Orban's way of doing politics," he told AFP. The fiercely anti-immigration Orban has blamed migration for bringing the virus to Hungary, saying "primarily foreigners brought in the disease". The first two confirmed coronavirus cases in the EU member state of 10 million were Iranian students. Hungary has since reported a total of 447 cases with 15 deaths. More than 13,300 tests have been carried out, the government said Monday. "The press and non-governmental organisations now have a particularly important role to play in controlling the government," said a statement after the vote by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee refugee rights group.
SYRACUSE, NY -- Onondaga Countys confirmed total coronavirus cases continued to climb Monday to 228 -- up 34 from a day ago -- but the number of life-threatening cases held steady at seven for the third straight day.

In the best news so far, 41 people who were infected with the virus have now recovered, County Executive Ryan McMahon said Monday. That means that there are now 186 active infections -- the 228 overall infections minus the 41 recoveries and one death a week ago.

But McMahon warned that we are still in full-frontal combat on the virus. None of the social-distancing rules or other precautions will change in the near future.

In fact, even if the pandemic was under control in Syracuse -- which McMahon wasnt going to say it was on Monday -- the community would need another two to three weeks of strict social distancing after that point to stop the spread.

Current hospitalizations crept up slightly overnight, from 20 to 23 patients. Patients of all ages have been hospitalized: at least one person in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s has been admitted for treatment, McMahon said.

Three more people were released from the hospital overnight. That means a total of 10 people who were hospitalized at some point have since recovered enough to go home.

In total, there have been a total of 34 people hospitalized at some point with the virus, according to county figures: 23 currently hospitalized, 10 released and one who died.

The most troubling cases are those seven people who remain in critical for a third straight day. Those are the people who are likely to most need to be on life-saving ventilators.

McMahon said the county has acquired about 70 ventilators -- a number he feels comfortable with given current hospitalizations. By comparison, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has estimated the state will need a total of 40,000 ventilators to handle the surge in need, mainly in the New York City area.

In Onondaga County, there have been 3,215 tests with results so far, with 228 positive and 2,987 negative, McMahon said. There are still 375 tests awaiting results.

The percentage of positive tests has crept up to 7 percent of the total tests.

A higher percentage of positives was found in the past day: there were 34 new cases confirmed from among 229 tests -- a rate of nearly 15 percent.

McMahon said he hoped that percentage of positive tests would go down again, saying that positive tests were often returned sooner than negative tests.

The countys health commissioner, Dr. Indu Gupta, said the 41 recoveries so far was good.

Its a good sign, she said. Its a hope."

McMahon noted that there are fewer active cases today -- 186 than on Sunday, when more than 190 cases were still active.

Infected people who are considered recovered have not needed fever medication for three days and have had the virus for at least seven days, Gupta said.

People who are quarantined for any reason must remain in in quarantine for 14 days before release.

Of the total confirmed cases so far:

128 females

100 males

7 are under 19,

48 in their 20s,

35 in their 30s,

35 in their 40s,

40 in their 50s,

36 in their 60s,

19 in their 70s

7 in their 80s.

1 in their 90s

The breakdown by community of total cases:

City of Syracuse - 70

Clay - 29

Camillus - 17

Cicero - 17

Salina - 17

DeWitt - 15

Onondaga - 12

Manlius - 11

Pompey - 11

Geddes - 7

Lysander - 7

Skaneateles - 4

VanBuren - 3

Lafayette - 2

Otisco - 2

Fabius - 1

Marcellus - 1

Spafford - 1

Tully - 1

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

Onondaga Countys coronavirus outbreak: Heres where we stand after 14 days

Updated list: Which CNY restaurants are open for takeout or delivery

CNY patients shunning home care workers over coronavirus fears

Coronavirus: Upstate NY will see rolling apex of cases, Gov. Cuomo says

Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at ddowty@syracuse.com or 315-470-6070.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 17:48:52|Editor: Wang Yamei

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HANOI, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's Ministry of Health on Monday afternoon announced that three more COVID-19 patients had recovered in the southern Ho Chi Minh City, bringing the total cured cases in the country to 55.

The three patients, including a Czech male and two Vietnamese females, are all in stable health condition and will receive medical monitoring for another 14 days, Vietnam News Agency reported Monday.

On Monday alone, 30 COVID-19 patients were declared to have recovered from the disease in Vietnam.

Vietnam has confirmed 194 COVID-19 cases and reported no death from the disease as of Monday. There are 3,215 suspected cases quarantined and over 75,000 others in quarantine for medical observation in the country, according to the health ministry.
PR-Inside.com: 2020-03-30 18:05:13

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TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / March 30, 2020 / GlobeX Data Ltd. (OTCQB:SWISF) (CSE:SWIS) ("GlobeX" or the "Company"), the leader in Swiss hosted cyber security and Internet privacy solutions for secure data management and secure communications, is pleased to announce that it has partnered with its reseller in the USA, Guard Street Partners LLC ("Guard Street") in the launch of a new Remote Workforce Cybersecurity Secure Business Solutions Package. The business solutions package will include DigitalSafe, the Company's Swiss hosted secure cloud solution and communications suite, which includes a secure document management and collaboration cloud tool, a password manager and a secure email all in one. The launch of the new business solution is in direct response to the COVID-19 outbreak as the US business workforce is forced to work out of their home, with unsecured internet connections.The Remote Workforce Cybersecurity Business Solutions Package consists of a set of solutions for businesses and their employees covering all sectors and business sizes from SMBs, SMEs to Enterprises. The business solutions packages consist of the following features:DigitalSafe Swiss hosted secure email which includes encrypted end to end SecureSend proprietary technology, secure password management and secure storage and collaboration tool for the business owner and remote employees.Email security that includes phishing email warning alertsNetwork vulnerability alertsAccess to cyber incident response specialists in the event of a cyber-attackAccess to cyber liability insurance policyThe Remote Workforce Cybersecurity Business Solutions packages created by Guard Street and GlobeX are available through Guard Street and include DigitalSafe for both business owners and their employees.Vince Mazza, CEO of Guard Street Partners LLC said: "We're thrilled to be working with GlobeX Data on this new business security package which includes DigitalSafe. Since over 90% of cyber-attacks originate through email, businesses and their employees need the best possible security in this area. An organization's employees, digital assets and reputation are extremely valuable. Everything an organization needs to protect these assets is conveniently available through one company, starting with this new package. We're excited to work with a company of the caliber of GlobeX Data, who shares our commitment to providing world-class solutions." Alain Ghiai, CEO of GlobeX Data said: "With a sharp increase in office employees working from home in unsecured networks, there is a sharp increase in demand for secure business solutions for remote workforce. The sharp increase in business email cyber-crime and attack targeting businesses prompted Guard Street and our Company to come up with a suite of business solutions, covering everything from email communications, document management, network security and a cyber liability insurance, to help small and large businesses and their employees all over the United States. According to the website siliconangle.com , the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued a new warning that hackers are currently targeting users of Microsoft Office 365 and Google G Suite in so-called Business Email Compromise attacks ("BEC"). The warning issued on March 3, noted that the scams were costing U.S. businesses billions of dollars. We understand businesses are under tremendous strain, and we are here to help them protect their data and communications from cyber criminals." About GlobeX Data Ltd.GlobeX Data Ltd. is a Cybersecurity and Internet privacy provider of Swiss hosted solutions for secure data management and secure communications. The Company distributes a suite of secure cloud-based storage, disaster recovery, document management, encrypted e-mails, and secure communication tools. GlobeX Data Ltd. sells its products through its approved wholesalers and distributors, and telecommunications companies worldwide. GlobeX Data Ltd. serves consumers, businesses and governments worldwide.About Guard Street Partners LLCGuard Street is a cybersecurity company based just outside of Chicago, Illinois and is dedicated to assisting clients with cybersecurity risk management, quantifying the cybersecurity need, risk mitigation, providing email security, vulnerability detection and prevention and emergency assistance. Guard Street offers services that minimize unwanted exposure and that protects against external threats by detecting data loss. Organizations can suffer regulatory fines, loss of intellectual property and reputational damage when digital risk is left unmanaged. Guard Street's full cybersecurity suite protects organizations and employees world-wide. For additional information, go to https://guardstreet.com or call 1-800-811-9130.On behalf of ManagementGLOBEX DATA LTD.Alain GhiaiPresident and Chief Executive Officer+1.416.644.8690corporate@ globexdatagroup.com For more information please contact GlobeX Data at corporate@ globexdatagroup.com or visit us at https://globexdatagroup.com For more information on DigitalSafe visit us at: https://digitalsafe.com Forward Looking InformationThis news release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). All statements other than statements of present or historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "achieve", "could", "believe", "plan", "intend", "objective", "continuous", "ongoing", "estimate", "outlook", "expect", "project" and similar words, including negatives thereof, suggesting future outcomes or that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guarantees of future performance. GlobeX cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond GlobeX's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the future of the Company's business; the success of marketing and s
Statement by the Tanaiste on the repatriation of Irish citizens from Peru

Statement

"A flight organised by the Irish Government departed Lima this evening, Sunday 29 March, at 8pm (Irish time) with over 100 Irish passengers and their families on board, and will transfer on to Dublin tomorrow. As part of our shared global commitment to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, the flight also carried a number of British and EU citizens.

We are facilitating the return of a further group of Irish citizens from Lima shortly.

This has been a complex undertaking, given tight restrictions across the country and in airports and airspace. Our Embassy arranged for the transfer by road of many of our citizens from remote parts of Peru to the airport in Lima.

I spoke with Perus Foreign Minister on Thursday, and I would like to thank the Peruvian authorities for facilitating the departure of our citizens.

Sincere thanks are also due to our EU and British partners for their close cooperation on this work.

Our Embassy is in ongoing contact with a small number of Irish citizens who remain in Peru, and continues to provide all possible consular assistance.

I have spoken to our Ambassador and thanked him and all the staff of my Department at home and abroad who are working hard to help citizens across the globe.

The Department is currently working to assist over a thousand citizens abroad. This is a 24 hour operation - we are working closely with the aviation industry and transport sector, and with our EU and British partners, to explore all options for helping our citizens to return home.

ENDS

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29 MARCH 2020

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Maharashtras tally of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients climbed to 215 on Monday morning as 12 more tested positive in the state, state health department officials said. Among the 12 new cases reported from the state, five patients are from Pune, three in Mumbai, two in Nagpur and one each in Nashik and Kolhapur.

In Pune, of the five new cases, two are from a slum in Gultekdi Market Yard. The city administration has expressed fear of more people coming into contact with these patients because of the slums high population density.

While the two new cases in Nagpur had come into contact with a businessman, who had tested positive a few days ago after his return from Delhi.

Saamana, the mouthpiece of the ruling Shiv Sena, has attacked the ally-turned-rival the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its editorial on Monday morning for indulging in partiality amid these challenging times due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Marathi daily, edited by state chief minister Uddhav Thackerays wife Rashmi Uddhav Thackeray, wrote a hard-hitting editorial. The prime opposition party is acting against national unity and has lost its social responsibility. When other parties donated one months salary of their legislators to the chief ministers fund, the BJP has directed its MLAs [members of legislative assembly] and MLCs [members of legislative council] to deposit the salary drawn from the state government in the partys relief fund. The party has done partiality even in these challenging times, the editorial said.

On Sunday, CM Thackeray said in an address, which was streamed live, that it is an emergency-like situation. The number of cases has started rising and it will rise even further. However, we want this spike to be restricted  this is the phase when cases will start multiplying. ..If we can stop its spread, it can be contained and we will win this war. Its time for everyone to shoulder their responsibilities, he said. He also warned that pneumonia cases could rise and urged private hospitals to be more careful.

Police are also taking action against those who are stepping out of their homes, defying the 21-day nationwide lockdown that started on March 25. Two truck drivers were booked at Seweri and Charkop in Mumbai on charges of illegally carrying migrant workers. Similar action was taken against many vehicles running on national highway in Dhule, north Maharashtra.

The state administration has received complaints of violation of social distancing at a vegetable market that was shifted from Dadar to nearby grounds.

Mumbaikars are flocking to the markets set up at Somaiya Ground in Sion and Backbay Ground in Bandra on Monday morning. Police have ordered the vendors to ensure customers stand in queues while maintaining adequate distance. Less than 100 truckloads of vegetables and fruits were allowed to the city on Monday because of the restrictions on the movements of the goods vehicles at the APMC [Agricultural Produce Market Committee] market in Vashi, said an official from the state control room at Mantralaya, the administrative headquarters of the state government.

The state government has opened over 160 centres to provide a meal at Rs5 per plate for the homeless and migrant workers, who have been stranded in Maharashtra because of the lockdown.

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This is the remarkable moment neighbours from opposite sides of a dock staged a colourful light-filled 'isolation disco' with one another during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Residents at Smith's Dock in North Shields, near Newcastle, played the same song as households across the river in South Shields, as both sides enjoyed a party while safety at home.

The idea was started by friends Scott Miller and Graham Moralee, who began shining torches at night as a way of communicating during the lockdown.

It has since been embraced by neighbours across the river and this weekend they put on a stunning, vibrant display, dancing to identical tunes at 8.30pm every night.

Aerial footage of the heartwarming moment was captured on Friday and has since been shared online, with other neighbourhoods now vowing to join in with the disco.

This is the remarkable moment neighbours from opposite sides of a dock staged a colourful light-filled 'isolation disco' with one another during the COVID-19 lockdown (pictured)

Residents at Smith's Dock in North Shields, near Newcastle, played the same song as households across the river in South Shields, as both sides enjoyed a party while safety at home (pictured)

Aerial footage of the heartwarming moment was captured on Friday and has since been shared online, with social media users (above) praising the idea

Graham said: 'At Smith's Dock in North Shields, me and my neighbour Scott Miller have started an isolation disco each night at 8:30pm.

'Organised through our Facebook residents group, we all dance to the same tune for five minutes at our windows and have a good old light disco.'

It comes after the UK government warned that everyone should stay inside and only venture out for work, food and medicine if absolutely necessary.

The isolation disco (pictured) was started by friends Scott Miller and Graham Moralee, who began shining torches at night as a way of communicating during the lockdown

It has since been embraced by neighbours across the river (pictured) and this weekend they put on a stunning, vibrant display, dancing to identical tunes at 8.30pm every night

Brits were also told to only enjoy one exercise outside a day in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Graham and fitness instructor Scott have since created a Facebook group to encourage other neighbourhoods to enjoy the isolation disco.

A staggering 14,000 people have already joined the public group, with many promising to dance along and flash their lights at 8.30pm tonight to the selected song, Dancing On My Own by Robyn.

Writing on the group, Scott said: 'So what started as a little joke between myself and Graham has grown into something beautiful in these dark days.

Graham and fitness instructor Scott have since created a Facebook group to encourage other neighbourhoods to enjoy the isolation disco (pictured)

A staggering 14,000 people have already joined the public group, with many promising to dance along and flash their lights at 8.30pm tonight to the selected song, Dancing On My Own by Robyn. Pictured: The isolation disco on Friday

However, in a later Facebook post, Scott did admit that he would now only be joining in with the disco (above) on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday after some people failed to stay indoors

'Lifting everyones spirits and bringing a little colour into our lives. Its grown so much in the last few days. Get your community involved and spread the happiness.'

He added: 'So during lockdown well post a very short playlist on here everyday and then at 20.30 you grab a torch or bike light and dance around youre living room.

'Were encouraging everyone to remain indoors and stay safe. Not too loud either, be mindful and respectful with your neighbours. Its about bringing community together through a little dance and music.'

Speaking to Chronicle Live, Scott recalled how the isolation disco began, explaining how the friendly neighbourhood was missing their social events and parties because of the lockdown.

Reaction: Social media users (above) praise the isolation disco footage, with one saying it appeared to be a 'great way to build the community spirit'

'I live in the apartment buildings on the waterfront and Graham up in the townhouses,' Scott said. 'So we were entertaining ourselves one evening just after the lockdown began by flashing torches at night.

'Were all really friendly with one another at Smiths Dock and quite often have parties and events in each others homes, so things quickly escalated beyond shining our torches into creating a silent rave.

'We mentioned our plans on our community Facebook page and we had lots of people up in the townhouses and apartments also join in.'

However, in a later Facebook post, Scott did admit that he would now only be joining in with the disco on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday after some people failed to stay indoors.

He wrote: 'So even though I asked people to stay indoors, a few people gathered outside of my apartment to watch, in little groups and in their cars.

'Thats defeating the purpose of this group. So as a result Ill only be joining you on a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Please, please stay at home. #protectthenhs. Post your videos and join in.'
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-31 00:54:28|Editor: xuxin

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An airplane carrying medical supplies donated by China to Uzbekistan arrives at an airport in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, March 30, 2020. China donated protective medical supplies to Uzbekistan to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday. The medical supplies include surgical gloves, infrared thermometers, medical goggles and fast test kits. (Chinese Embassy in Uzbekistan/Handout via Xinhua)

TASHKENT, March 30 (Xinhua) -- China donated protective medical supplies to Uzbekistan to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday.

The medical supplies include surgical gloves, infrared thermometers, medical goggles and fast test kits.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has become a global challenge. The Chinese government and people will continue to stand and work with Uzbekistan in fight against the disease," Chinese Ambassador to Uzbekistan Jiang Yan said in a speech during the donation ceremony.

"Some provinces, cities, enterprises and individuals in China will also donate protective medical supplies to Uzbekistan through their respective ways," she said.

"I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Chinese side for donating protective medical supplies," said Chief Sanitary Doctor Bahrom Almatov, who is also director of the Agency for Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance under the Ministry of Health of Uzbekistan.

"I believe that with the strong support of the international community, including China, Uzbekistan will be able to achieve the final victory in the fight against pandemic," he added.

Uzbekistan has reported 149 confirmed cases of COVID-19, most of them in Tashkent.
_________

The word adjutant has appeared in eight articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Feb. 28 in The True Story of the First Woman to Finish Special Forces Training by John Ismay:

In 1980, when Wilder, then an intelligence officer, entered the U.S. Army Special Forces Officer Course, she had already been serving in the special-operations community for four years. It was normal for soldiers serving in her position to go through the course back then.

Wilder got an intelligence-officer job with the Fifth Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg in North Carolina in 1978 because she had the one qualification that was required: She was a graduate of the Airborne School. As a jump-qualified military intelligence officer, Wilder was sent to the John F. Kennedy Institute for Military Assistance at Fort Bragg and assigned as its adjutant. She quickly learned the ins and outs of all the Armys regulations regarding special operations, and found nothing stating that Special Forces training was male-only.
Gov. Tom Wolf has extended the closure of schools and businesses across Pennsylvania and has issued stay-at-home orders for four more counties, including Dauphin and Cumberland.

In a news conference Monday, Wolf said schools and businesses that arent life-sustaining will be closed indefinitely. His initial order closing schools and companies had been targeted to expire April 6.

Im going to leave the date indefinite," Wolf said. "Were going to keep our schools and businesses closed as long as we need to keep them closed to keep Pennsylvania safe.

Right now, it isnt safe, Wolf said.

Wolf now has called for stay-at-home orders for Dauphin, Cumberland, Schuylkill and Carbon counties, which means 26 counties are now under such orders. The stay-at-home orders for the new counties take effect at 8 p.m. tonight.

All 26 counties will remain under stay-at-home orders until at least April 30, which is consistent with new guidelines on social distancing issued by the White House, Wolf said.

You can watch live online here starting at 2 p.m.

Wolf and State Epidemiologist Dr. Sharon Watkins of the Pennsylvania Department of Health provided an update on the coronavirus and efforts to mitigate the virus in Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 693 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Monday. That brings the statewide total to 4,087. The state now says there are 48 fatalities.

Cases have now been reported in 59 of Pennsylvanias 67 counties. The new cases reported Monday mark another one-day high.

The governor said he empathized with those who are frustrated because they cant go to work and are unable to see loved ones.

I know this isnt easy to hear, Wolf said. We humans are built to want to work, to learn to socialize.

For those counties under stay-at-home orders, residents are permitted to make essential trips to the grocery stores, drug stores and gas stations, among others. Those working in life-sustaining businesses are able to go to work.

The governor said he knows itll be hard to stay home as spring fever hits, but it is necessary. He did clarify that people should feel free to walk around their neighborhoods to get some fresh air and exercise.

Wolf was asked why he hasnt extended his stay-at-home order across Pennsylvania. He said the state has tried to target counties where cases are concentrated and has not wanted to do more than is necessary.

We always have the option of moving to a statewide stay-at-home order, Wolf said.

The governor was asked about the states process of reviewing petitions by companies who say they are life-sustaining businesses and should remain open. Wolf said some companies that initially were told to shut down have been granted waivers to open.

Some companies have complained the waiver process is not consistent. Thousands of businesses have applied for permission to stay open.

Were doing what we can to make sure those waivers are handed out in a consistent fashion, Wolf said. But he added, From time to time we have made mistakes.

At this point, Wolf said state officials have been able to meet the demand for ventilators. He said hed like to get another 1,000 to 1,400 ventilators in the state and were trying to do that.

The governor said the federal government started a bit place but is doing what they need to do. He said the federal government is playing a supporting role for the states and he views the government as backing us up.

The federal government is doing its best," Wolf said. "It started from a place that was not that great and its catching up.

Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine did not participate in the press conference. Wolf said he had given Levine a well-deserved day off as she has worked constantly throughout the crisis.

I suggested she take the day off, Wolf said. She is. Shes exhausted.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.

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Relaxing compliance requirement for foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), markets regulator Sebi on Monday allowed scanned copies of documents for renewing registration in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.

The relaxation has been given till June 30, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a circular.

In light of the recent event pursuant to the COVID-19, a need has been felt for temporary relaxations with respect to compliance requirements for FPIs, it added.

Accordingly, the regulator has decided to grant the relaxations in a situation where FPIs are not in a position to send original and/ or certified documents.

Sebi has asked depository participants and custodians to process the request for registration, continuance, KYC and any other material change on the basis of scanned version of signed documents (instead of originals) and copies of documents which are not certified, received from e-mail IDs of their global custodians or existing clients where these details are already captured in records or e-mail IDs of new clients received from domains which are duly encrypted.

It, further said, these documents can be uploaded on KRAs (KYC registration agencies) and other intermediaries may rely on the papers.

Under Sebi guidelines, an FPI applicant needs to submit duly signed application form including KYC details and supporting documents and applicable fees. Further, copies of all the documents submitted by the applicant should be accompanied by originals for verification.

In case the original of any KYC document is not produced for verification, then the copies should be properly attested by entities authorized for attesting the documents.

Sebi said, the temporary relaxations shall be applicabletill June 30, 2020.

The regulator has asked depository participants and custodians to ensure to obtain the original and/or certified documents within 30 days from the deadline.

Intermediaries should undertake necessary due diligence including that required for regulatory and risk based approach towards compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) requirements while processing these documents based on scanned copy, it noted.

In case required documents for registration or KYC are not received by the deadline, Sebi said the accounts of such FPIs will be blocked for any fresh purchase.

Further, in case documents are still not received within three months of the deadline, depository participants and custodians will have to report these cases to Sebi for appropriate action.

In a separate circular, Sebi has relaxedthe timeline for compliance with certain requirements for portfolio managers.

It has decided to extend the timelines by two months for monthly reporting to Sebi by portfolio managers for the periods ending March 31 and April 30.

The circular will come into force with immediate effect.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Brookfield Town Hall will remain closed this week as a company deep cleans the building.

The closure is also in compliance with the recommended 14-day isolation period after a person who tested positive for the COVID-19 virus was in Town Hall. The building was already being cleaned daily. Employees will return April 6.

The town also announced a blood drive will be held April 7 at Brookfield High School to help address the blood shortage. Community Development Manager Greg Dembowski and Superintendent John Barile with his team, developed a way to safely conduct a blood drive, First Selectman Steve Dunn announced.

School officials are also helping out by donating supplies to the towns first responders.

The town has supplies on order, but some are delayed, Dunn said. We will return the supplies to the schools as soon as possible.
Retired emergency medicine consultant, Chris Luke who has returned to the frontlines during the Covid-19 crisis, has said that he thinks the health care service will be changed for the better by the emergency.

There is no doubt that tele-consulting will become a normal thing in (general practice), he told Newstalk Breakfast.

Dr Luke also told of how preparations have been ongoing for the anticipated surge in in Covid-19 cases with reconfigured emergency departments.

There are no longer curtains around beds in wards and there are also triage tents outside the hospital where he works in Cork. There has been a great deal of preparation.

Dr Luke also welcomed the

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The health service will be irrevocably changed by the crisis, he said. While there has been a serious drop in farm injuries and industrial accidents, he was concerned that people may not be attending hospital because of coronavirus worries.

Meanwhile, the Health Minister will meet top officials today to arrange

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There are now 17 clusters of the coronavirus in nursing homes across the state.

Simon Harris says he is very worried about the prevalence of the illness among older people.

Yesterday it was announced that 10 more people in Ireland had died after contracting Covid-19.

It brings the death toll since the beginning of the outbreak to 46.

There have also been 200 new confirmed cases of the virus in the country  bringing the total to 2,615.

[snippet1]987600[/snippet1]
PERTH, Western Australia, March 29, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Perseus Mining Limited (Perseus or the Company) (TSX & ASX: PRU) is pleased to announce details of its updated Life of Mine Plan (LOMP) for its Edikan Gold Mine in Ghana, West Africa. An executive summary is provided below. Full details of the Edikan Gold Mine Life of Mine Plan are included in the Companys market release dated March 30, 2020 which is available for download from www.perseusmining.com, www.asx.com.au and www.sedar.com.



The LOMP covers the period from July 1, 2020 and is based on the Companys revised mining strategy that was implemented in January 2019 involving use of a single mining contractor, mining at a reduced rate of total material movement. Costs, recoveries, mill throughput rates and run times have been updated to reflect recent performance.



The LOMP is based on the revised Ore Reserves reported on February 20, 2020 which included Proved and Probable Ore Reserves as at December 31, 2019 of 45.7 million tonnes of ore, grading 1.10 g/t gold and containing 1,608 kozs of gold.



Ore loss and dilution included in the estimate of Ore Reserves is based on recent mine to mill reconciliation results. Comparisons of ore tonnes and grade by Edikans Mineral Resource models relative to ore tonnes and grade delineated by grade control, indicate that the Mineral Resource estimates on which the Ore Reserves are based are reliable predictors of ore tonnes and grades.



The Esuajah South Underground mine has been included in the LOMP, employing a sub-level stoping under rock fill (SURF) mining method. Development capital of US$31 million has been assumed.



Gold production averages 212,000 ounces/annum over Edikans currently estimated mine life of 6.2 years from July 1, 2020, including gold production of approximately 231,000 ounces/annum on average over the next 4 years. The altered production profile relative to the previous LOMP is largely due to the addition of Esuajah South Underground and a significantly larger AG Open Pit.



Total estimated gold production of 1,307,000 ounces over the life of mine is 95% higher than the amount estimated for the corresponding period in the previous LOMP. The substantial increase is largely due to the addition of Esuajah South Underground and a much larger AG Open Pit.



Forecast weighted average all-in site costs, including all direct production costs, royalties, waste stripping costs and sustaining capital expenditure (AISC), are in the range of US$870-US$890 per ounce over the remaining life of mine. This represents a 5% decrease in average AISC relative to the previous LOMP, over the corresponding period. Forecast sustaining capital costs (including the cost of site rehabilitation) of US$37 million or US$28 per ounce are included in the AISC estimate.



Edikans revised LOMP forecasts strong positive after-tax cash flows totalling approximately US$356 million (or A$0.51per share at an A$:US$ exchange rate of 0.60), assuming a flat spot gold price of US$1,300 per ounce for the remaining mine life.



The revised LOMP should be read in conjunction with, and added to, previously published production and cost guidance for the Half Year ending June 30, 2020.

To discuss any aspect of this announcement, please contact:

Managing Director: Jeff Quartermaine at telephone +61 8 6144 1700 or email jeff.quartermaine@perseusmining.com ; Media Relations: Nathan Ryan at telephone +61 4 20 582 887 or email nathan.ryan@nwrcommunications.com.au (Melbourne)

Caution Regarding Forward Looking Information

This report contains forward-looking information which is based on the assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management of the Company believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, but which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made by the Company regarding, among other things: the price of gold, continuing commercial production at the Edikan Gold Mine and the Sissingue Gold Mine without any major disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise, development of a mine at Yaoure, the receipt of required governmental approvals, the accuracy of capital and operating cost estimates, the ability of the Company to operate in a safe, efficient and effective manner and the ability of the Company to obtain financing as and when required and on reasonable terms. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all factors and assumptions which may have been used by the Company. Although management believes that the assumptions made by the Company and the expectations represented by such information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking information will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, the actual market price of gold, the actual results of current exploration, the actual results of future exploration, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be evaluated, as well as those factors disclosed in the Company's publicly filed documents. The Company believes that the assumptions and expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the Companys ability to carry on its exploration and development activities, the timely receipt of required approvals, the price of gold, the ability of the Company to operate in a safe, efficient and effective manner and the ability of the Company to obtain financing as and when required and on reasonable terms. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Perseus does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Competent Person Statement

All production targets for the Edikan Gold Mine referred to in this report are underpinned by estimated Ore Reserves which have been prepared by competent persons in accordance with the requirements of the JORC Code. The information in this report that relates to Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves for the Esuajah North deposit at the Edikan Gold Mine was first reported by the Company in compliance with the JORC Code 2012 and NI43-101 in a market announcement entitled Perseus Mining Updates Mineral Resources & Ore Reserves released on 29 August 2019. The information in this report that relates to the Mineral Resources for the Edikan deposits (other than the Fetish, AFG, Bokitsi South, Esuajah North and Esuajah South deposits) was first reported by the Company in compliance with the JORC Code 2012 and NI43-101 in a market announcement released on 29 August 2018. The information in this report that relates to Ore Reserves for the Edikan deposits (other than the Fetish, AFG, Bokitsi South, Esuajah North and Esuajah South deposits) was first reported by the Company in compliance with the JORC Code 2012 and NI43-101 in a market announcement entitled Perseus Mining Updates Mineral Resources & Ore Reserves released on 29 August 2018. The above-mentioned deposits have been updated for mining depletion as at 31 December 2019 in a market announcement Perseus Mining Updates Edikan Gold Mines Mineral Resource & Ore Reserves released on 20 February 2020. The information in this report that relates to the Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve estimates for the Bokitsi South and Esuajah South underground and to the Ore Reserve estimates for the Fetish and AFG deposits at the Edikan Gold Mine was first reported by the Company in compliance with the JORC Code 2012 and NI43-101 in a market announcement Perseus Mining Updates Edikan Gold Mines Mineral Resource & Ore Reserves released on 20 February 2020. The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affect the information in those market releases and that all material assumptions underpinning those estimates and the production targets, or the forecast financial information derived therefrom, continue to apply and have not materially changed. The Company further confirms that material assumptions underpinning the estimates of Ore Reserves described in Technical Report  Central Ashanti Gold Project, Ghana dated 30 May 2011 continue to apply.
Burma AA Raids Rice Shipment Intended for Displaced Villagers in Myanmars Chin State

Local residents at an IDP camp in Rakhine State in September 2019. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy

YANGONThe Arakan Army (AA) looted part of a shipment of 100 sacks of rice intended for more than 1,700 displaced Chin villagers in Paletwa Township on Sunday, but returned most of it after media reports about the incident were published, according to the Chin State government.

AA fighters stopped a truck transporting the rice from Samee to Paletwa, where it was to be supplied to 1,771 displaced people on Sunday morning. The shipment was arranged by a community-based committee in Paletwa that is working to bring extra food into the township.

The rice was bought by the Chin State government and local civil society organizations for displaced persons in Paletwa some two months ago, but clashes delayed delivery.

The fighting between the AA and the Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) has displaced thousands of Paletwa Township villagers; a total of 1,771 are now sheltering in Paletwa town, and 2,945 are in Samee town, also in Chin State.

After the committee lost contact with the three men who were in the truck bringing the rice to Paletwa, Chin State Minister of Municipal Affairs, Electricity and Industry U Soe Htet told The Irrawaddy on Sunday that the AA had stolen the rice.

According to committee chairman U Sein Tun Hla, the AA phoned him at around 2 p.m. the same day and asked him whether the rice was really intended for civilians. He said the AA called him back in the evening and asked him to sell 20 bags of rice to AA members in the area, who are also struggling to pay for food at current prices, which have risen sharply this year due to the fighting in the area. He said he agreed to the request.

However, the AA members did not pay for the 20 bags of rice up front, saying they would contact the committee and pay for it later, he said.

The AA then allowed the three men to pass, along with the truck and 80 bags of rice at around 5.30 p.m. They arrived in Paletwa on Monday morning.

U Soe Htet, the Chin State minister, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that the AA at first drove the rice truck into the forest. Later, after the media started reporting on the incident, the armed group said it only did so in order to question the drivers.

The transport committee and displaced people are so happy that they can keep bags of rice, so they dont blame the AA for taking some. We are satisfied, whether or not they pay [for the rice]. We are happy that some [food] can be transported now; none could be transported previously, U Soe Htet said.

Fierce clashes have been going on between the Myanmar military and the AA since Feb. 5 along the Kalandan River in Paletwa and Rakhine States Kyauktaw Township, effectively blocking food supplies to Paletwa.

We ran out of rice in February. The price of rice even went up to 100,000 kyats [about US$72] per bag. But we could not afford it. We are hoping for some aid. We are suffering a severe food shortage. I would like to appeal to both sides, because we are experiencing real hardship, said U Kyaw Kyaw, who is sheltering along with some 500 displaced persons in Meeza Village in Paletwa.

On March 23, the Myanmar government declared the AA a terrorist group and an unlawful association, saying its actions pose risks to the public and disrupt law and order, peace and the stability of the country. The AA has said it is fighting for self-determination and autonomy for Rakhine people.

The Central Committee for Counterterrorism also declared the AA a terrorist group, and the Tatmadaw has said it would take legal action against anyone who has ties to the group, under the Counterterrorism Law.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

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New Delhi: Gujarat administration has said that it would scale-up healthcare infrastructure and measures to provide for migrant workers after clashes between a section of these workers and the police led to the arrest of over 90 of them in Surat on Monday amid the 21-day nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak.

The state has reported 60 Covid-19 positive cases and six deaths to date. Gujarat has the sixth-highest number of both Covid-19 positive cases and fatalities.

Clashes broke out on Monday after a group of over 500 migrant workers in Surat defied the lockdown and took to the streets in a bid to get back to their native places, while the police tried to stop them from leaving.

On Sunday, the Centre had reminded states that the responsibility of preventing the movement of people across their boundaries during the lockdown rests with them. The Centre will hold the respective state police department and district magistrates to account for any lapses.

Gujarat government officials said that measures are in place to ensure that migrant workers are looked after during the lockdown. The state government had instructed all industries, business houses and other firms to ensure effective implementation of the nationwide lockdown, which came into effect from March 25, and not allow their staff and labourers to travel outside. Sufficient lodging and boarding facilities were arranged to ensure labourers could remain indoors, said an official, requesting anonymity.

The official said migrant labourers from adjoining states, who work predominantly in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors, and also as craftsmen were provided help by the government and the non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The vulnerable sections of the society, who dont have ration but means of cooking, are being provided ration kits, the official said. The government has ramped up screening facilities, said a second official amid concerns over the current testing rate of about 100 a day.

A 1,200-bed hospital in Ahmedabad, a 500-bed facility in Surat, another 250-bed hospital each in Rajkot and Vadodara, respectively, have been made operational on an immediate basis. Helpline numbers for enquiries or grievances related to Covid-19 and to provide food and shelter to migrant workers from other states and to shelter people from Gujarat stranded in other states have started, said a second official.

Gujarat claims to be the first state in the country to set up a dedicated 2,200-bed hospital to treat Covid-19 patients, including 1,583 and 635 beds in government-run and private sector, respectively. The state is increasing its facilities to test 1,200 samples a day in six government laboratories and four private ones. Besides, it claims to have 2,360 ventilators, of which 660 are in public hospitals and the rest in the private sector.

A statewide health survey is being conducted by over 10,000 female health workers and 4.46 crore people have, so far, been covered for early detection of Covid-19, the second official said.

The chief minister (Vijay Rupani) is supervising the states response to the pandemic through the CM dashboard that connects him with the remotest local administration and doctors. He is speaking to the quarantined and infected people, and also on-ground medical staff such as doctors, nurses and paramedics over the phone using the JanSampark service, said the first official.

The state administration claims it has 21 lakh metric tonnes of foodgrains available, which is sufficient for another year, and over 17,000 fair price shops are also operational.

The total distribution coverage of foodgrains in March is 82%, or 54 lakh ration cardholders out of a total of 65.62 lakh ration cardholders. Free food will be made available in April at an estimated cost of around Rs100 crore, said the first official. Those people, who dont have ration cards or documents, will also get free ration as a mamlatdara gazetted officer of the state governmentat a taluka level have been authorised to distribute 10 kilograms per head under the Anna Brahma scheme.

The state government has also given relief to large and small industrial units from paying their electricity bills during the 21-day lockdown to lessen the economic downturn on the industry.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Smriti Kak Ramachandran Smriti covers an intersection of politics and governance. Having spent over a decade in journalism, she combines old fashioned leg work with modern story telling tools. ...view detail
YARDLEY BOROUGH >> The Yardley Borough Police Department report the following incidents and arrests: WARRANT (DOMESTIC ASSAULT) >> At approximately 7:55 p.m. on January 11 a victim fleeing a domestic assault in her vehicle was entering the parking lot at police headquarters when her car was struck by another vehicle. The striking vehicle fled prior to police arrival. A follow-up investigation...
A senior PSNI officer has said it "beggars belief" that a pipe bomb device was left outside a house in west Belfast.

Police attended the scene in Lagmore Grove on Friday night.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the occupants of the property and nearby residents were not evacuated. They were instead advised to stay at the back of their homes while Army technical officers made the device safe.

Chief Inspector Gary Reid said: "The device was subsequently taken away for further examination and I can confirm that it contained component parts which, had the device been detonated, would have made it viable."

Mr Reid said officers hunting the perpetrators were working to establish a motive and the circumstances surrounding the incident.

"It is clear whoever is responsible has no respect, or regard, for the valuable police resources that were diverted away from other community priorities," he said.

"It beggars belief, that given the unprecedented challenges we as a police service face in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic that there are still reckless individuals out there determined to put the lives of others at risk as they did in Lagmore Grove.

"This is already a stressful and worrying time for people so, if ever there was a time for this type of senseless activity to stop, it is now."

Mr Reid also appealed for anyone with information regarding the incident to come forward.

Sinn Fein councillor Danny Baker condemned those responsible.

"This was a senseless act and shows little regard for the community, our key workers, emergency services and health workers," he said.

"I appeal for anyone with any information to bring it forward to the PSNI.

"These reckless actions are in stark contrast to the efforts of workers carrying out essential work.

"Those responsible offer nothing, only disrupting the efforts of our emergency services to help those in most need at this time of crisis.

"Our key workers are already under immense pressure as they work while the rest of us remain home in our battle against Covid-19."
China's central government has ordered all cities to step up identifying the coronavirus sufferers who show no symptoms in a bid to prevent a second wave of infections.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang urged officials to ramp up testing suspected 'silent carriers' and intensify the monitoring, tracking, quarantine and treatment efforts imposed on them.

Even though the number of daily cases has dropped to zero in Wuhan, where the epidemic emerged in December, the city is not counting in asymptomatic infections, sparking public fears that they can be a ticking time bomb for a fresh crisis.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has urged officials to ramp up testing suspected 'silent carriers' to prevent a second wave of infections from occurring. China has recorded 630 'imported cases'. A medical worker is pictured taking a swab sample from a person in Wuhan on Monday

A recent study projects that at least 59 per cent of the people who have contracted the virus in Wuhan showed mild or no symptoms.

This means tens of thousands of patients, who can potentially spread the contagion unnoticed, may have fallen under the radar and were not included in the government's official count.

But Dr Zhong Nanshan, Beijing's chief medical advisor on the coronavirus, has pushed back at the claims.

He told state media CGTN on Sunday that no evidence showed there were a large number of asymptomatic cases in Wuhan or China because the number of daily infections had not been increasing.

Chinese Premier Li ordered authorities to increase their surveillance over asymptomatic cases at a meeting today, according to a government report.

His directive came after the central government yesterday said that the country 'has largely blocked the transmissions'.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (pictured in 2019) today demanded officials start testing the close contacts of all coronavirus patients, including recorded asymptomatic sufferers

China's top coronavirus expert claims a second outbreak is 'unlikely' Dr Zhong Nanshan, Beijing's chief medical advisor on the coronavirus, today hit back at speculation that China would see a second wave of infections. Dr Zhong claimed that a rebound was unlikely. He told state broadcaster CCTV: 'I suspect that in our country, the epidemic would not have a second peak'. He stressed that the new cases would likely be confined in small groups of people due to the country's public-based epidemic-control efforts. 'Under such strong and vigorous measures, I don't believe a major outbreak would happen,' he said. Advertisement

Premier Li, who oversees the national efforts of fighting the virus, demanded officials start testing the close contacts of all coronavirus patients, including recorded asymptomatic sufferers.

The endeavour would help the country's economy and social development return to normal as early as possible, Premier Li said.

The leader instructed authorities to strengthen the testing efforts at the border to prevent people from bringing the virus back to the country from abroad.

China has so far reported 630 'imported cases' and temporarily barred most foreigners from entering the country to stem the trend.

Premier Li also warned officials not to cover up new cases.

'All regions must persist in publishing information with transparency. [They are] forbidden from covering up or underreporting their cases in pursuit of a zero-cases report,' a statement said.

Dr Zhong Nanshan, Beijing's chief medical advisor on the coronavirus, said on Sunday that no evidence showed there were a large number of asymptomatic cases in Wuhan or China

China has been criticised for its slow response and initial cover-up of the epidemic.

One local doctor who sounded the alarm of the virus was punished by police for 'spreading fake news'. The medic later died of the disease after contracting it at work.

Michael Gove yesterday suggested that China was to blame for the government's slow response and the lack of mass testing for coronavirus in the UK.

Chinese secrecy slowed the UK's response to the coronavirus crisis, the Cabinet minister claimed.

Ministers and senior Downing Street officials have warned there will be a reckoning with China over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Pictured, people wearing face masks arrive at a railway station in Wuhan on the first day of inbound train services resumed

The news comes after a report suggested that the coronavirus has killed 42,000 people in Wuhan, more than ten times the official death toll.

Some 500 urns have been handed out to grieving families every day from seven separate funeral homes all serving the city, Radio Free Asia revealed.

According to China's National Health Commission, 3,304 people have died of the coronavirus across the country, including 2,547 in Wuhan.

The coronavirus pandemic has so far reached more than 200 countries in the world, killed more than 34,800 people and infected over 734,000.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 00:29:40|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Here are the latest developments on the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in China:

-- Noting that 693 imported cases from 42 countries have been reported by the end of Saturday, Mi Feng, a spokesperson for the National Health Commission, said the possibility of the epidemic spreading remains relatively high on the Chinese mainland.

Mi added that local transmission of COVID-19 has been basically blocked, with the number of existing domestic cases having dropped below 3,000.

-- Medical experts from the Union Hospital affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan held a video conference with their counterparts in State University of New York Upstate Medical University Saturday, sharing experience of COVID-19 prevention and treatment.

-- Hubei has realized complete disposal of its previous medical waste and wastewater, and achieved total treatment of newly-added waste within 24 hours.

-- A total of 7,098 people who work or live in Beijing took 12 high-speed trains back to the capital from Wednesday to Saturday, after the lockdown of Hubei was lifted.

-- The Jack Ma Foundation and the Alibaba Foundation announced Sunday donations of essential medical supplies to seven more countries, namely Azerbaijan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

The Fosun Foundation, based in Shanghai, also donated a batch of face masks to two hospitals in Sardegna, Italy this week, in response to a local doctor's call for support in mid-March.

-- The Chinese mainland reported 45 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Saturday, 44 of which were imported and one domestic case in Henan Province. Five deaths and 28 new suspected cases were reported on the mainland, with all the deaths in Hubei Province.

-- The overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 81,439 by the end of Saturday, including 75,448 patients who had been discharged after recovery, and 3,300 people who died of the disease.

-- Wuhan continued to report no new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Saturday.

-- Domestic passenger flights resumed operations Sunday in Hubei except for Wuhan, with cargo flights restoring operations in all airports across the province.

-- Wuhan on Saturday reopened its subway and railway station following more than two months of suspension.

-- A China-Europe freight train carrying medical supplies, among others, left Wujiashan railway container center station in Wuhan at 10 a.m. on Saturday, heading for Germany, which marked the service resumption of China-Europe freight trains in the city.

-- Hubei had removed all 1,450 highway checkpoints, except 51 others in Wuhan, to lift outbound traffic curbs as of Friday.
The officials and staff of the Supreme Court registry have decided to donate up to three days' salary to the PM CARES fund in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

According to a circular issued by Registrar (cash and accounts) Rajesh Kumar Goel, all gazetted officers will donate three days' salary, non-gazetted employees will donate two days' salary and group "C" employees will donate one day's salary to the Prime Minister Citizens' Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situation (PM CARES) fund.

The contribution of the employees will be deducted from the salary of March.

"We are all in the know of the pandemic (COVID-19), which has engulfed the entire world, posing serious challenges for millions of people worldwide and India is no exception. At a time when the coronavirus is posing severe health and economic problems for our country, it is imperative to contribute by donating generously for the cause of humanity," the circular said.

It added that most of the officers and officials have already expressed their desire to contribute for this noble cause and therefore, it has been decided that the they may contribute by way of donation to the PM CARES fund.

The circular said the contribution will, however, be voluntary and those who do not wish to contribute have to intimate the top court by 10 am of March 31.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Richard Holden is MP for North West Durham.

Tesco Extra Car Park, Consett

What a fortnight it has been. Last week, as Westminster wound down to an early recess, the talk from colleagues and the phone and email chatter from constituents was the same: bet you didnt think this would be what we/you would be dealing with three months after being elected. Theyre right. I didnt imagine that wed be staring down the barrel of a global pandemic as we passed the first 100 days.

Members of Parliament are almost all naturally social creatures ,and when they return to their constituencies for most it feels like returning to be with friends: cisiting local businesses, holding surgeries, popping round to see people. Instead, this time, Im making a couple of notes for my column while sat in a car park with a boot full of shopping as I socially distance from the people who elected me, for at least the best part of a month and almost certainly much longer.

There is a sense that life has taken an odd turn. But while the flood (were seeing three or four times as many) of emails from constituents doesnt cease, there is a strong sense of something different here is the constituency compared to when I was in Westminster last week.

What do you feel is different about North West Durham, compared to other places in the country? is something Ive been asked since I was elected, as another way of political people and journalists asking: why did it swing so hard away from Labour in your neck of the woods?

Now were in a real national crisis, a part of an international crisis, that question is one I reflected on as I perused the (pretty full, except for dry pasta) shelves of my local big Tesco  as any fan of AFC Consett will know theres also a little one in Blackhill.

Here, on the ground, away from the jostling for position and the flavour of the month nature of the Westminster and London bubble, things are different. The aspiration is for success for yourself and for your family, but there is a broader aspiration for your community to succeed, too. Ours is a pretty inclusive largely civic community based on place. Somewhere where you can belong not only to a friendship group or network of mutual interests, but also to a community, a place, a county and a country.

The local response to Coronavirus reflects this, too. Its not just about you or even you and your family getting through, its about the whole of local society coming through it together. Dozens of local community networks sprang into action before central organisations even considered volunteering. Thats not to say that theres no-one who isnt totally isolated  there are  there are just fewer, due to the nature of the community.

There is also a sense of something else, too, that is cutting through, especially since the broader social distancing measures a week ago. The nation feeling like it is coming together. Theres a commonality and national feeling about Downing Street for the first time in a very long time. A clear view of our national NHS getting resources to where there is need now, like the large temporary hospitals, in the knowledge that they will come to us if (more likely when) it gets worse in our area too.

What was astonishing to me last week was that, after repeatedly coughing across the dispatch box towards the Prime Minister, Health, Scottish and Home Secretaries on Wednesday, Jeremy Corbyn didnt get it. At a moment when communities are stepping up, when the country and our NHS are stepping up to levels never seen before, Corbyn stepped into it.

His departure interview with the BBC showed a level of unearned self-regard and distain that I havent seen since I was a swaggering intellectually and morally superior teenager myself. It was probably the worst television interview I have seen a politician give: attempting to use a moment of not only national crisis but of national fear to talk himself up left me dazed. Adrian Mole with no redeeming features. Here was the leader of the party who had recently lost an election saying that the people were wrong and he was right.

Opposition should be so easy. In crisis setting, you show youre up to governing and support the Government where you can. When youre not in crisis, when the Government does something wrong or inept you show youre better than them. Its simple.

However, Corbyn and his fellow travellers need to be right all the time. Its why they dont understand the communities they represented for so long. In order to get along as part of a local community or even a family, youve got to be willing to get along with people and win people over who you might often disagree with to a common cause. For Corbyn and his acolytes, the common cause is their own sense of righteousness and no-one can be won over to that.

Within a month, well have a new opposition. Politically, if this crisis has shown anything so far, its that the governing party understands the people who elected it a damn sight better than the opposition who it rejected do. To take over as an opposition leader at this time will be very challenging, but it will change the whole domestic dynamic. Well see if the new Labour leader is able to put himself or herself into the shoes of their average voter Labour lost across North of England  theyll either sink or swim pretty quickly. If its the latter, politics will be very different when we emerge from this crisis.

Finally, given my mum is currently working in an small community hospital and is having to self-isolate from my dad and grandma (dads her carer) Id just like to add a little tribute to those who are working in the caring professions and ask everyone to #StayHomeSaveLives.
Microsoft has launched a News Bar app, which is a taskbar that shows the latest news and can be pinned to your desktop.

The application is currently in beta and is listed on the Microsoft Store.

The News Bar works just like the normal Windows taskbar and includes updates on the latest news based on your interests and your region, and it can also be configured to monitor stock prices.

The News Bar brings you the latest news from the Microsoft News network of over 4,500 of the worlds most respected journalism brands, Microsoft states in its description for the app.

In addition, you can configure it to provide you with up-to-date information throughout the day on your favourite stocks.

If you want to focus, dont worry, you can minimize the News Bar at any time and then bring it back when youre ready for it again, Microsoft said.

The app is currently in beta on the Microsoft Store and is limited to certain regions until its official launch.

Windows 10 users in the United States are able to download and try out News Bar, although the beta version of the app is not yet available in South Africa.

Updated design

The beta launch of News Bar follows Microsoft teasing a reworked interface for its Windows 10 operating system.

Microsoft outlined a number of upcoming changes to the operating systems interface, including a reduced emphasis on Live Tiles in the Start Menu.

Under the new interface design, Live Tiles will be converted into standard icons with backgrounds that adapt to the chosen colour theme or the users wallpaper.

In addition to the Live Tile revamp, several new accessibility settings are displayed, including the ability to scale size and select from a wide range of colours for the mouse pointer.

Additionally, the overhauled design will allow users to snap program windows to the border of the screen for improved multitasking.

Now read: Critical security flaw discovered in Windows 10
Despite being under stay-at-home orders to curb the spread of the coronavirus, it was a violent weekend in Philadelphia with several shootings.

Three people were shot, two fatally, on Sunday, prompting police to implore the citys residents to follow the stay-at-home order, NBC 10 is reporting.

And according to Action News 6 ABC, another man was shot and killed early Monday while riding a train.

Just before 4:30 p.m. Sunday, a 22-year-old man died after he was shot four times in the back, once in the torso and once in the right leg by an unidentified gunman on the 4700 block of Paschall Avenue, NBC 10 reports.

About two hours later, another 22-year-old man was killed after he was shot several times in the chest, according to reports.

And earlier that day around 3 p.m., a 31-year-old man was critically injured when he was shot several times, reports indicate.

This prompted Scott Drissel, commanding officer for the citys 12th District, to take to Twitter to urge people to stop the violence and stay home.

2 shootings in the 12th District today when people should be home! I really cant comprehend what people dont understand about this! Watch Netflix/tv/spend time with your loved ones. STAY HOME. Follow the directions of city, state and federal officials! Stop the foolish violence  Scott Drissel (@PPDScottDrissel) March 29, 2020

Stay home, he wrote, voicing his frustration and dismay. Stop the foolish violence.

Around 11:45 p.m. Sunday, a man and a woman were injured when they were shot in their car in on the 7300 block of Elmwood Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia, Action News 6 reports.

Then around 12:50 a.m. Monday, a 41-year-old man was killed when he was shot in the head on SEPTAs Market-Frankford line in the citys Kensington section, Action News 6 is reporting.

Police are searching for four suspects who left the train after the apparent robbery, reports indicate. Investigators are reviewing video surveillance.

No arrests have been made in any of these shootings.

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Linkedin Chang May Choon (The Straits Times/Asia News Network) Seoul  Mon, March 30, 2020 07:00 654 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e33aa2 2 Entertainment South-Korea,K-Drama,Itaewon-Class Free

A sociopath. An ex-convict. A transgender. A high school dropout. And a dark-skinned biracial guy.

All the social misfits one can think of in South Korea have come together in Itaewon Class, a drama that celebrates diversity and the underdogs in a country widely seen as homogenous.

Set against the backdrop of Seoul's "most international" neighborhood of Itaewon, the drama has won praise for its realistic portrayal of subjects such as prejudice against foreigners, misbehaving scions of the chaebol (Korean for conglomerate), and discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

Itaewon Class just ended its run at home last Saturday, March 21, with a rating of 16.5 per cent for its finale, making it the second most watched drama on cable channel JTBC, after Sky Castle. It is the top-ranked drama on Netflix in both South Korea and Singapore.

Actor Park Seo-joon plays the main character Saeroyi, a high-school dropout and ex-convict, who opens a pub in Itaewon in hopes of beating his enemy - the founder of a food conglomerate whose arrogant son caused Saeroyi's expulsion from high school and killed his father in a car accident.

In real life, chaebol scions have got into trouble for drink-driving, assault, smuggling drugs, and flying into a rage over how nuts are served on a flight.

In the drama, Saeroyi ends up hiring four other people - a former cellmate, a transgender, a sociopath, and a biracial man - to help him in his journey to become a successful businessman.

JoongAng Ilbo newspaper described Saeroyi as a typical heuksujeo (Korean for mud spoon) , referring to someone who struggles to make ends meet as he lacks rich and powerful parents with connections in high places.

"The fact that he still manages to succeed gives viewers a sense of catharsis," it added.

Read also: Korean dramas turn to black magic for success

Culture critic Jeong Duk-hyun said the drama, which is based on a popular webtoon, shows how the younger generation are pursuing their own future based on their own standards. He added that it is "refreshing" to see how the main characters manage to turn social pressure and difficulties around.

Itaewon provides the perfect setting for the drama to unfold.

Once a booming town due to the presence of a United States army base, which has since moved out, Itaewon is now known for its melting pot of restaurants serving all kinds of international cuisine and vibrant nightlife.

There is a row of gay bars and dance clubs.

Itaewon is also home to many foreigners residing in Seoul, with some 40 embassies based in the area. About two million foreigners live in South Korea, accounting for four per cent of the 50 million population.

The foreigners in Itaewon create an exotic ambience, said Shim Bong-soon, 55, who runs a business in the area. "People visit Itaewon because they think Itaewon is exotic," she told The Sunday Times.

Prejudice against foreigners is among the once-taboo topics tackled in the drama.

For instance, Koreans assume foreigners in their country speak English. But, in the drama, Toni Kim, who is half Korean and half Guinean, always has to explain why he only speaks Korean and French, not English. His story brings to mind Korean-Nigerian model Han Hyun-min, who grew up in Itaewon and does not speak English.

Cross cultural marriages are also frowned upon in South Korea - which is reflected in the drama.

The inclusion of a transgender chef, who is saving up money for sex reassignment surgery, is also deemed a timely reflection of attitudes towards them in real life.

Transgenders made the news in the country recently when one withdrew from Sookmyung Women's University after getting flak for enrolling in the prestigious school, while another was discharged from the army after undergoing sex reassignment surgery.

Critic Jeong Suk-hui said Itaewon Class shows how diverse South Korean society has become.

"From transgender to ex-convicts, sociopath and single mum, it was really interesting to see all these characters in the same drama. Isn't this how our society is like now?" she said.

Topics :

This article appeared on The Straits Times newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
- Journalist Larry Madowo appeared on Citizen TV where he was interviewed about the coronavirus pandemic

- The former NTV news anchor talked broadly about steps taken by USA in combating spread of the virus

- Despite sharing amuch, Many Kenyans were concerned about his new accent in which he would be heard saying cirry instead of city

Former NTV news anchor Larry Madowo has became the talk of town after he appeared for interview with Victoria Rubadiri on Citizen TV discussing about the coronavirus pandemic.

The journalist who spoke to Rubadiri via Skype moved to the United States over two years ago to advance his studies.

READ ALSO: Wacheni kutoa mchungu yenu na wananchi, Gavana Lee awaambia maafisa wa polisi

READ ALSO: Coronavirus in Kenya: 7 more test positive for infection

Recently, he moved out of New York city over fear of the dreaded coronavirus which he sai had been spreading across the city five times more than other cities in America.

On Sartuday, March 28, he was interviewed by Rubadiri during the 9pm news and talked broadly on the major strategies that the US was taking to combat spread of the virus.

"There is a lot of messaging to social distance in the US. The medical facilities in the US could be strained due to high numbers of infections," he said.

READ ALSO: Murang'a senator Irungu Kang'ata wants his travel allowance channeled to coronavirus fund

Despite sharing much on how the US was dealing with the virus, the journalist also took issue with the manner in which the police were implementing the curfew in Kenya.

"I was horrified watching people being brutalized by police as the curfew took effect yesterday. We cannot have police, who are Utumishi Kwa Wote beating up Kenyans. How do we justify that?," he posed.

Of concern to Kenyans was was the manner in which the former BBC Africa reporter was pronouncing words with the American accent.

READ ALSO: Yvonne Mugure: Kenyan who tested positive for COVID-19 in US says she lost her sense of smell

Larry would be heard struggling to maintain the local accent but occasionally got himself off with American accent in which he pronounced words such as city as "cirry", saying thirty as "thirry", among many others.

It is this accent that has granted him a top spot on Twitter trends with many admiring his accent as others took issue saying it was the usual show off normally exhibited by people from his community.

Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly.

Source: TUKO.co.ke
David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada is not planning for the moment to use troops to help combat a spreading coronavirus outbreak, although the option remains on the table, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Sunday.

All 10 provinces have declared states of emergency and ordered people to stay home. The number of cases rose to 6,280 from 5,655 on Saturday, while the death toll climbed to 63 from 61, according to a tally of provincial announcements compiled by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Quebec - where 8.5 million people are spread across a landmass the size of Western Europe - said on Saturday it was restricting access to eight remote regions with often patchy access to healthcare.

Quebec is also stationing police on the border with the United States to ensure returning travelers know they must go into isolation.

Trudeau was non-committal when asked about deploying troops to help Quebec or other provinces.

We are prepared for all kinds of different situations. Of course Canadians know very well that members of the armed forces are always ready to help when they are needed, he said.

For the time being, no one has made specific requests about this and there are no plans now to carry out operations in Canada with the armed forces, he told a daily briefing, later adding that we are not closing the door to any scenario.

Almost half the people in Canada with the coronavirus are in Quebec, where Premier Francois Legault said on Sunday that the incidence of new cases appeared to be stabilizing. Dont give up, he exhorted people who might be tired of staying indoors.

Quebec pork processor Olymel said on Sunday it was closing a hog slaughter plant in the town of Yamachiche for 14 days after nine employees tested positive for the coronavirus. The plant employs 1,000 people.

An Alberta packing plant halted cattle slaughter on Friday after a worker was diagnosed with the respiratory disease.

Trudeau also said Ottawa would spend more than C$200 million ($145 million) on additional help for vulnerable people such as the homeless, women and children fleeing violence, as well as counseling services for the young.

Trudeau was speaking outside his Ottawa residence, where he has been staying since his wife, Sophie, tested positive for the coronavirus.

Sophie, who said on Saturday she had received the all clear, has moved to the prime ministers official summer residence across the river in Quebec with the couples three children, Trudeau said.

Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Peter Cooney
World oil prices dropping

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NEWS.am daily digest: 12.01.22

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Traction Programme to showcase 8 startups during the Digital Demo Day

Azerbaijan uses artillery and UAVs, 3 Armenian soldiers wounded

NEWS.am daily digest: 11.01.22

Austrian Chancellor confirms plan for mandatory COVID-19 vaccination in February

Armen Sarkissian and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev discuss situation in Kazakhstan

Gulf, Iran and Turkey FMs to visit China

20 pregnant women with COVID-19 die in Azerbaijan in year

Armenia hands over wanted US citizen to United States

Economy ministry: Organizing of accommodation and public catering increased by 61.1% in Armenia

Armenia parliament speaker expresses condolences on European Parliament President death

Azerbaijan opens fire toward Armenia village sector, one soldier wounded

Shoigu: CSTO peacekeepers deployed in Kazakhstan thanks to Syrian and Karabakh experience

Azerbaijan official pledges to remove Armenian toponyms from Google Maps

UN offers two plans to help Afghans totaling $ 5 billion in 2022

Armenia attorney general travels to Moscow on working visit

Azerbaijan MOD blames Armenian side for soldiers death

Dollar drops in Armenia

Shirak Province captives families hold protest outside Armenia government building

Rolls-Royce sales rise to record high in 2021
Linda Lusardi has been discharged from hospital after battling COVID-19.

Her devoted husband Sam Kane took to Twitter to share the good news on Sunday evening, penning: 'So blessed to be spending tonight with my beautiful girl at home by my side.

'God bless the NHS. So happy to have her home.'

Back home: Linda Lusardi has been discharged from hospital after battling COVID-19

He was sure to add the hashtag: '#StayAtHomeAndStaySafe'

Celeb pals chimed in to show their support.

Actress Kym Marsh posted, 'Omg!!! This is wonderful news!!!!' as dancer Kristina Rihanoff remarked: 'Mate so happy you are both doing better. Load of love from our family!'

Sam, 51, had provided fans with an update about his wife, 61, on Saturday, posting to Twitter: 'My beautiful girl @lusardiofficial is getting better and stronger by the minutes. Huge thanks to all of the NHS staff who have given everything to help this happen.

Her devoted husband Sam Kane took to Twitter to share the good news on Sunday evening, penning: 'So blessed to be spending tonight with my beautiful girl at home by my side'

He added: 'God bless the NHS. So happy to have her home'

'Youre truly awesome. #StayAtHomeAndStaySafe Thank you so much for all your amazing messages.'

The former Page 3 girl is recovering from the virus, which has so far claimed the lives of 34,009 across the planet, 1,228 of those Brits, after revealing she had been struck down with symptoms a week ago.

Sam, who fell ill along with his wife, has praised the National Health Service for their incredible work while updating followers on Linda's condition.

Step by step: Sam, who fell ill along with his wife, has praised the National Health Service for their incredible work while updating followers on Linda's condition

Updates: He has kept fans abreast of the situation online

Worrying: The former Page 3 girl is recovering from the virus, which has so far claimed the lives of 34,009 across the planet, 1,228 of those Brits, after revealing she had been struck down with symptoms a week ago

All the best: The post, shared on Saturday evening, was met with a wave of encouraging responses from followers - among them Loose Women panellist Nadia Sawalha

Linda and Sam's daughter Lucy had previously lauded NHS staff for helping her parents through their respective coronavirus battles.

She wrote on Instragram: 'I would like to say a personal thank you to all the wonderful staff that nursed my amazing dad back to health and all the staff currently looking after my beautiful mum, helping her recover from this awful virus...

'You're all incredible. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.'"

Sweet: Linda and Sam's daughter Lucy (pictured with Linda in 2018) has lauded NHS staff for helping her parents through their respective coronavirus battles

'You're all incredible. Thank you from the bottom of my heart."Lucy, who is in a relationship with Noughts and Crosses actor Jack Rowan, shared her statement shortly after Sam revealed Linda had 'beaten' the virus'.

On Thursday night, Sam posted a statement that assured followers that, despite still having 'a long way to go', she looks to be through the worst of it.

He said: 'My beautiful girl has dropped her oxygen intake today which is amazing news. Shes still got a long way to go but these baby steps are on a roll now.

Praise: She issued her statement after the Clap For Carers tribute, which saw people up and down the country honour the NHS by standing outside their house applauding

Fighting through: Linda has 'beaten' coronavirus, according to her husband Sam

'I truly believe shes beaten the virus now and her body is concentrating on healing itself after the battle. Shes a fighter and she will win this. Your messages and prayers are incredible.

'Your support has been so strong and wonderful and I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart. The most enormous Thank You to all of the NHS staff who continue to help get my girl back to health. Youre all angels.

'To all of our close and dear friends who have sent so much love and support and helped over and above. I love you all. Thank you. Ill keep you posted. #StaySafe.'

He said: 'My beautiful girl has dropped her oxygen intake today which is amazing news. Shes still got a long way to go but these baby steps are on a roll now. 'I truly believe shes beaten the virus now and her body is concentrating on healing itself after the battle'

Of the Clap For The NHS that took place on Thursday night around the UK at 8PM, he added: 'What a truly stunning moment that was. Hearing so many people cheering and sending absolute love to the people who are saving so many lives. Right now, was spellbinding.'

Before the event,the actor, 51, took to Facebook to share the post urging the public to show their support for the NHS workers who are on the frontlines.

Writing on top of the post explaining the event, Sam said 'well this made me cry.'

Showing our gratitude: The #ClapForCarers event will see the public clap in their homes to say thanks to the medical professionals at the frontline of the coronavirus crisis, on Thursday at 8

Taking to Facebook on Wednesday, Sam revealed that his wife's oxygen and low blood pressure were 'still a problem,' but she was feeling 'at least a little brighter' than she had just the day before.

It comes just a day after Sam revealed that Linda had been placed on oxygen and needed 'all the help she could get,' after she rushed to hospital with COVID-19.

In his post Sam said: 'I have the angels with me helping to heal my girl. Along with all of your amazing love and prayers she appears, so very slowly to be at least a little brighter in her self.

'The oxygen is still a problem as is her blood pressure is low but she isnt moving backwards. Thank God. There is still no major change to report just yet but she did say shes feeling a tiny bit stronger.

Troubling: Linda's oxygen and low blood pressure 'are still a problem' as she continues to battle coronavirus, her husband Sam Kane revealed on Wednesday

'As long as its moving forward. Thats all that matters to me. Thank you again for all of you love, prayers and positivity. Your energy is helping so much. I will be forever grateful. Please keep sending. She will win this. Shes amazing. Thanks you.'

On Wednesday Sam revealed that Linda had been placed on oxygen and a drip as she continued to battle the deadly virus.

The former glamour model was rushed to hospital with the virus last Friday, and recently admitted she was left in tears while being 'at death's door' with COVID-19

In a post Sam said: 'No real change in Linda today, Im afraid. Shes been the same since last night.

'Still on oxygen and still on a drip, very poorly. Shes eating and drinking regularly. Just needs her oxygen levels to start taking care of themselves before the next big push can happen.

'Shes still far from well and nowhere near out of the woods. Send your thoughts, Your love, your prayers and your positivity to her. She needs all the help she can get right now.

'Shes fighting and she is winning. Thank you for all of your amazing and kind messages. So much love. Sam.'

Health battle: It comes just a day after Sam revealed that Linda had been placed on oxygen and needed 'all the help she could get,' after she rushed to hospital with COVID-19

Latest: Sam took to Facebook on Tuesday to share another update on his wife's health, saying that she's still 'far from well'

It comes just hours after Linda praised the 'amazing' NHS for their care of her as she revealed she and Sam still have 'a long way to go.'

Both Linda and her husband Sam, 51, were hospitalised on Friday after developing COVID-19 symptoms earlier in the week.

After Sam revealed she had 'turned a corner' with the virus on Monday evening, Linda took to Twitter to thank the NHS and her followers.

She said: 'Just wanted to say thank you for all your kind words. My @samkane1968 went home from hospital today to carry on recovering.

We both tested positive with the virus. I still have a way to go yet The NHS staff have been amazing Their kindness keeps making me cry. Love to you all.'

Grateful: Just hours earlier Linda praised the 'amazing' NHS for taking such good care of her as she revealed she and Sam still have 'a long way to go' (pictured June 2018)

She said: 'Just wanted to say thank you for all your kind words. My @samkane1968 went home from hospital today to carry on recovering'

Stronger: As Linda recuperates in hospital, Sam gave fans an update on her condition on Tuesday

As Linda recuperates in hospital, Sam gave fans an update on her condition on Tuesday.

Taking to Twitter, he wrote: 'Shes getting stronger by the day. Still aways to go but all in the right direction. Thanks angel. Stay safe.'

To another fan, Sam added: 'Poor girl has been to hell and back. Shes making small steps but shes recovering. Shes still away from being right but Im sure out of the woods now." and said to someone else: All on the right path thank God. Xx'

Tough: Sam added that Linda has 'been to hell and back' but is now recovering

On Monday, Sam confirmed Linda had been 'taken to death's door after developing coronavirus symptoms.

Sam, 51, posted on Facebook, begging the public to take the self isolation and self distancing rules seriously as he said: 'I cant stress enough that this is not just a flu bug. Ive watched this take my girl to deaths door.'

Sam wrote on Monday: 'I cant stress enough that this is not just a flu bug. Ive watched this take my girl to deaths door.'

'Ive felt it take me there. Its a cruel, vile, remorseless, relentless, dark sickness. It was like three hands. One thats strangling you. One pushing your face down as it does. The other one ripping your heart out of your chest and it just doesnt stop... for days'.

'Youre totally helpless and in its grasp. Its nothing like flu,' he continued before pleading with those not adhering to government rules to stop going out.

'Please stop going out. Passing this around will mean it just takes longer till were back to normal. Please stay safe people. Two weeks away from anyone else outside your family should see this gone. Its that simple. Please stay in.'

Update: Sam posted on Facebook, begging the public to take the self isolation and self distancing rules seriously as he said: 'I cant stress enough that this is not just a flu bug

The day before Sam confirmed he had tested positive for COVID-19, telling his Facebook followers that he had no idea where the couple had contracted the virus.

'Well. Its official. I am positive for CoronaVirus. I dont know if Im happy or gutted. Probably a bit of both. I hope its a one time thing coz I dont want this again,' the former actor wrote.

He added that Linda hadn't received her results yet, but he was 'certain' she had the virus.

'I dont know Lindas result yet but regardless of the test, Im certain that she has it too. Were told a lot of tests taken come back negative as the testing process is so sensitive. They tell me that tests, in a lot of cases, are false negatives. Kinda and I both had text book symptoms. God knows where we got it. But we did.

'Cruel': Its a cruel, vile, remorseless, relentless, dark sickness,' Linda's husband wrote of the illness which has seen them both hospitalised

'The NHS staff have been beyond incredible. The work and care they are giving at the front line with so little resources is astounding. Theyre fearless. The debt of gratitude I owe them for getting my girl back to a sense of normality will be owed for the rest of my life.'

'Please take care of yourselves. Isolating is the only way now. This has to be stopped and only we can do it. Take care of yourselves. Stay safe. Xxx'

Earlier in the day Sam wrote that he had good news for Mother's Day, telling his friends: Linda, I believe has turned a corner today. Thank God. Shes not out of the woods just yet but she appears, to my untrained eyes to have gotten over the worst.'

Positive: The day before Sam confirmed he had tested positive for COVID-19, telling his Facebook followers that he had no idea where the couple had contracted the virus

Feeling better: Earlier in the day Sam wrote that he had good news for Mother's Day, telling his friends: Linda, I believe has turned a corner today'

'She is feeling a little better. She is eating and drinking. Functioning slowly but well. Her vitals were all normal last night. She had an uncomfortable night but its been better than most nights lately. Thank God.'

'Thank you so much for your love and support. I honestly dont know where wed be without it. From the bottom of my heart. Thank you. This is the best Mothers Day Gift we could have hoped for. God bless you all. Please stay safe. Xxx'

On Friday Sam posted to confirm that he and his wife had been hospitalised after showing symptoms and were about to be tested.

'Very ill': Sam Kane posted on Facebook on Friday afternoon that the couple had been hospitalised and would be tested for the virus 'very soon'

'To all who know us. Linda and I have been taken to hospital and will be tested for Covid 19 at some point very soon,' Sam wrote on Facebook.

'We are both stable but very ill. Thank you for all of your messages of support. Could I please ask that you hold off from any messaging at this time.'

'Your concern means the world to us. Prayers and positivity in abundance please if you have time. Thank you all. Stay safe. Xxx'

Update: Linda took to Twitter on Thursday afternoon to reveal that the couple had symptoms writing: 'Sam and I have had COVID-19 symptoms and are in isolation'

Linda took to Twitter on Thursday afternoon to reveal that the couple had symptoms writing: 'I want to thank you all for your good wishes. Sam and I have had COVID-19 symptoms and are in isolation so we do not spread it to anyone else.

'We are taking it one-day-at-a-time, thats all we can do. But let me tell you weve never felt this ill, EVER!

'I wouldnt wish this on anyone. So stay safe everyone and follow the advice of the experts - please take care of yourselves, loved ones and each other xx'

Unwell: The former Page 3 girl suggested she was positive on Wednesday evening while responding to a fan request for a celebrity video message, ironically to a relative under quarantine in Spain

On Wednesday, the former Page 3 girl, 61, revealed she was struggling with coronavirus symptoms as recorded cases of the highly contagious virus continue to rise across the United Kingdom.

She revealed she had symptoms while responding to a fan request for a celebrity video message, ironically to a relative under quarantine in Spain. Replying to the fan, Linda wrote: 'Sorry Kerry. I am extremely ill with Corona at the moment.'

Wishing her well, one follower commented: 'Sending you all our love and hope you feel better soon love you very much.'

While another wrote: 'Get well soon Linda take care and rest up.'

Happy family: Linda married former Brookside and Emmerdale actor Samuel Kane in 1998; the couple are parents to two children - daughter Lucy, 24, and son Jack, 21

Reaching out to the star, a third added: 'Wishing you a very speedy recovery.'

Linda married former Brookside and Emmerdale actor Samuel Kane in 1998; the couple are parents to two children - daughter Lucy, 24, and son Jack, 21.

She shared images of herself enjoying a night out with her oldest child and her actor boyfriend Jack Rowan, best known for his roles in Peaky Blinders and controversial new drama Noughts and Crosses, as recently as March 6.
Alasdair Smith, chief executive of Scottish Bakers, explains how businesses are dealing with the coronavirus challenge.

It has become a cliche to say the current Covid-19 crisis has challenged us all in ways unimaginable over only a few weeks. But following the first week of the most drastic limitations on our public freedom ever experienced by our society, we can reflect on some heroic efforts from our Scottish bakers to keep up with the demand for our daily bread, savoury snacks and sweet treats.

Yes, the sector has been hit hard by retail closures, driven primarily by a collapse in footfall as a result of the lockdown rather than an inability to continue producing and serving, while at the same time adhering to social distancing guidance.

But the flip side is of a sector supporting each other where possible, adapting daily to fluid demands, and resilience in wholesale markets.

Larger businesses like Dunfermline-based Stephens have closed their retail shops, but continue to manufacture for wholesale.

Managing director Andre Sarafilovic said: We are continuing to supply our convenience store partners, so our customers can still get their favourite Stephens products, but we cant wait to open our doors again when it is safe to do so.

Stanley Johnstone, of Dumfries-based wholesale business Express Bakery, has seen a shift in demand.

Many of my customers have closed, he said, but Im getting strong support from Tesco and other retailers. Im also a long-term supplier to the NHS and Im totally committed to keep going with that for as long as possible.

We understand the importance of keeping vital, local supply lines open for essential bakery products at this time

The reigning Scottish Baker of the Year, Inverness-based Harry Gow, made the difficult decision earlier in the week to focus on wholesale production to ensure adequate supplies of fresh goods were getting through to the many retail stores they supply. But the strong link they have with their customer base has led them to innovate.

We understand the importance of keeping vital, local supply lines open for essential bakery products at this time, so we came up with a solution and decided to dust down the classic Harry Gow delivery van, said David Gow

We are offering a delivered package at 12.50, which includes bread rolls and butteries. For now, these deliveries will be offered to those staying in the Inverness area only to help us gauge uptake against our capacity so that we can avoid any disappointment.

Some of Scottish Bakers smaller members are also going above and beyond the call of duty.

Keptie Bakery has three retail stores in Angus and all shops continue to trade with strict implementation of social distancing. Husband and wife team Jane and Allan Eaton are going above and beyond the normal call of duty to keep their customers happy too.

[Baker] Alan is working all the hours available to keep production going, says Jane, while I spend my mornings until about 2pm delivering goods to those who cannot get out to the shops. Its really important to us that we support our community.

We are in uncharted territory as we move into week two of the lockdown, and we must not forget those businesses that have felt the only viable option is to mothball operations and furlough their workforce. I sincerely hope that the financial support measures being made available will protect the trade until the crisis is behind us.

Meantime, Scottish Bakers is doing everything it can to maintain the flow of information to members, while I know that our members, in turn, will support each other wherever possible to keep our noble and ancient Scottish baking tradition alive.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Monday that he had spoken to his Indian counterpart, S Jaishankar, among nearly 20 other foreign ministers over the weekend as he announced a new plan to charter special flights to bring back British nationals who find themselves stranded in the COVID-19 worldwide travel lockdown.

The senior UK Cabinet minister, who led the daily briefing from Downing Street, said the UK government had struck a deal with airlines to evacuate British nationals from certain priority countries where commercial routes are non-operational.

India will be among the priority countries after Raab said that the GBP 75-million government initiative would focus on countries where large numbers of British travellers find themselves stranded due to travel restrictions.

"This is the greatest global challenge in a generation. An unprecedented number of British people are trying to get home," said Raab, the second in command to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who remains in self-isolation after testing positive for coronavirus last week.

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said charter flights are already up and running to Ghana and Tunisia, with India and South Africa to be added to the list this week.

"We are negotiating intensely with countries around the world to secure permissions for return flights where airspace has been closed," the FCO said.

Once special flights have been arranged, these will be promoted through the UK government's travel advice and by the British Embassy or High Commission in the particular country.

British travellers who want a seat on the flight will book and pay directly through a dedicated travel management company.

"This is a worrying time for many British citizens travelling abroad. We've already worked with airlines and governments to enable hundreds of thousands to return home on commercial flights, and we will keep as many of those options open as possible," said Raab.

"Where commercial flights are not possible, we will build on the earlier charter flights we organised back from China, Japan, Cuba, Ghana and Peru. The arrangements agreed today will provide a clearer basis to organise special charter flights where Britons find themselves stranded. Our priority will always be the most vulnerable," he added.

These flights will be run by British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and EasyJet, among other airlines who have signed up to the deal.

The will come as relief to thousands of British travellers currently in India who have been petitioning the UK government to fly them out of the country, which remains under strict lockdown to control the coronavirus pandemic.

"The UK must act now using whatever means possible to get these British citizens back on UK soil," urges an online petition on Change.Org calling to "Repatriate UK citizens stuck in India", which attracted nearly 50,000 signatures within days.

The daily briefing on Monday came as the total number of people who have died due to the deadly virus in the UK reached 1,408, a hike of 180 over the previous day.

More than 9,000 people who have tested positive for coronavirus are being treated in hospitals across England, according to NHS England chief Sir Simon Stevens.

Meanwhile, thousands of EasyJet and Virgin Atlantic airline staff are being offered work at the new 4,000-bed NHS Nightingale Hospital being speedily built at the ExCel conference centre in East London.

Those who sign up will support nurses and clinicians at the coronavirus field hospital, the NHS said.

Virgin Atlantic said furloughed or forced leave staff who helped would be paid through the UK government's Job Retention Scheme.

NHS England said many airline staff were first aid trained and already had security clearance. Virgin Atlantic said it had written to about 4,000 employees, while EasyJet said it had contacted 9,000 of its UK-based staff half of whom are first aid trained.

Travel restrictions and a slump in demand because of the pandemic have grounded thousands of their fleet along with other global airlines.

Earlier, Boris Johnson said the British public appeared to be obeying the restrictions set out by the government to slow the spread of the virus and hailed their efforts in a video posted on Twitter.

"Thanks to everyone who has been staying at home. By delaying the spread of the disease we can reduce the pressure on our NHS, and that's how we hope to save many thousands of lives," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Bank of England is today facing mounting pressure to stop British banks paying out dividends worth billions of pounds to make sure the sector has as much cash as possible to lend to coronavirus-hit businesses.

UK banks are expected to pay out an estimated 7.5 billion in dividends in the coming weeks.

But financial experts are urging Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey to block the payouts to shareholders.

They believe the move is necessary to ensure the banking sector has all of the financial firepower required to keep struggling businesses afloat.

The world's 'bank for central banks', the Bank for International Settlements, has called for a 'global freeze' on bank dividend payouts.

However, should such a move be implemented by the Bank of England it would likely prompt shareholder fury given that banking executives have been issued with bonuses in recent weeks.

The Bank of England, pictured on March 20, is under pressure to halt British bank dividend payouts

Agustin Carstens, the head of the Bank for International Settlements, has called for a 'global freeze' on bank dividend payouts to ensure banks have as much cash as possible to lend to businesses during the coronavirus crisis

Agustin Carstens, the general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, said banks need to be in a position to help 'firms at the edge of the precipice'.

He said issuing dividend payouts would harm their ability to fulfil that task because they would be reducing the amount of capital in their war chests.

Writing for the Financial Times, Mr Carstens said: 'Central bank interventions to quell the crisis need to reach the individuals and businesses who are ultimately affected.

'The last mile of this channel is not yet in place and needs to be bridged urgently.'

Mr Carstens said that 'banks should be part of the solution' during the coronavirus crisis and 'not part of the problem'.

He added: 'Now is the time to draw on the accumulated balance sheet buffers that were built while the sun was shining.

'To boost lending capacity further, we need a global freeze on bank dividends and share buybacks.'

The European Central Bank has already told banks in EU member states not to issue dividends until October at the earliest.

The ECB said in a statement issued on March 27: 'To boost banks capacity to absorb losses and support lending to households, small businesses and corporates during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, they should not pay dividends for the financial years 2019 and 2020 until at least 1 October 2020.'

Sir John Vickers, the former chairman of the Independent Commission on Banking, said 'dividend payouts by banks should now be totally out of the question'.

Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England pictured in February, will have to act quickly if he is to stop the payouts given that some are due to start at the end of the week

He called for the Bank of England to 'put a stop to them... at once', according to comments reported by The Times.

Some bank dividends are due to start being issued at the end of the week so the Bank of England will need to move swiftly if it is to halt the process.

Chief executives of numerous big UK banks are expected to meet today to discuss the crisis and the sector's response to it, with dividend payments likely to be on the agenda.

Critic have questioned why the world's central banks have not acted in unison on the issue to impose a global ban on bank dividend payouts.
(Natural News) Some survivors of COVID-19 in China are testing positive again for the coronavirus, raising concerns that a second infection by the virus is possible. Some experts  both local and international  are also questioning the accuracy of diagnostic tools used in China, as reports of false negative results have been circulating since last month. This latest development calls into question the Chinese governments announcement of no new coronavirus cases since March 18, as Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak that has now become a pandemic, prepares to lift quarantine measures and re-open the city next month.

According to phone interviews conducted by NPR with four Chinese nationals who tested positive for a second time, many of them appear to be asymptomatic carriers, meaning they no longer have symptoms associated with the coronavirus. These people were discharged from the hospital over the past few weeks after their conditions had improved, and their test results came back negative. However, recent tests conducted as a prerequisite for them to receive medical care for other health concerns showed that they were once again positive for the coronavirus.

As per Chinas prevention guidelines for COVID-19, the government does not include people who test positive for a second time in their daily new case count. Neither does it consider asymptomatic cases as confirmed coronavirus cases, so these are excluded from official counts.

I have no idea why the authorities choose not to count [asymptomatic] cases in the official case count. I am baffled, one of the four interviewees, a front-line doctor in Wuhan who recovered from the disease but has recently retested positive, told NPR.

Retesting positive for the coronavirus after recovering: Is it due to faulty diagnostics or a second wave of cases?

Speaking in anonymity  as the Chinese government has been detaining those who criticize its handling of the coronavirus crisis  four people from Wuhan confirmed that many survivors, including themselves, are now being isolated and put under medical observation after recent test results, which had previously returned negative, said they were once again positive.

According to data from several quarantine facilities in Wuhan, which is where these people are currently being isolated, up to 10 percent of patients discharged from hospitals test positive again after a few weeks. While many of those who retested positive are now asymptomatic, they werent so when they first caught the virus.

All four of those interviewed by NPR said that they had fallen ill after getting infected. One of them, who said he exhibited only mild symptoms, was quarantined in a makeshift treatment center but was later released after his symptoms disappeared. The other three, two of which are medical doctors, were hospitalized and later discharged after making successful recoveries.

When they tested positive for a second time, none of them were showing any signs of coronavirus infection.

As fears of a possible second wave of infection stir concern among Chinese citizens, virologists say that a re-infection is highly unlikely. They believe it is too soon after recovery, but they say this without certainty. The nature of the virus, after all, is still poorly understood by scientists. And so far, it is also still unclear whether these recovered patients, who tested positive for a second time, are once again infectious.

But if a re-infection is improbable, then recovered patients may be retesting positive for the coronavirus due to faulty diagnostics. Back in January, ophthalmologist Dr. Li Wenliang, who tried to warn the medical community of a possible outbreak the previous month, said in his Weibo post that he had started showing symptoms on January 10. He was hospitalized three days later but repeatedly tested negative for the coronavirus for weeks. He was only diagnosed correctly with COVID-19 on January 30, but died eight days later on February 7, according to BBC News.

Wang Chen, a director at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, also admitted that the diagnostic tools used to test for COVID-19 have low accuracy. According to Wangs estimates, viral RNA tests used in China could only accurately identify positive cases 30 to 50 percent of the time, reports NPR.

On the other hand, Dr. Jeffrey Shaman, a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University, told the news outlet that these diagnostic tests, which amplify fragments of the virus genetic material, are also liable to give false positive results. This is because the RNA they detect could come from residual virus from the initial infection. Recent reports suggest that the coronavirus can remain inside the bodies of recovered patients for a median of 20 days.

Asymptomatic carriers may still spread the coronavirus

Hospitals in Wuhan continue to see new coronavirus cases each day, reported Bloomberg on Wednesday. According to its source Caixin, an independent Chinese news outlet, four new cases of domestic transmission were reported earlier on Monday, signaling that the epidemic in Wuhan is far from over. A local health official also said that he had seen up to a dozen new cases a day, all of which were symptom-free.

But the Wuhan Health Commission was quick to suppress any fears. In a statement released on March 23, it said that only a few of the asymptomatic cases eventually develop symptoms, while the majority are self-cured. The commission also said that new asymptomatic patients are being quarantined in specialized wards for 14 days, and would only be counted as confirmed coronavirus cases if they develop symptoms within the isolation period. The commission does not believe asymptomatic carriers can transmit the virus to others.

But despite the authorities efforts to assuage growing concerns, there are those who do not buy their narrative. According to one of the doctors who spoke to NPR, what health officials are saying is that they havent found proof of symptom-free carriers transmitting the virus to others yet. He believes its not the same as saying they are not truly infectious.

If they really are not infectious, then there would be no need to take them back to the hospitals again, he said.

Numerous studies have also found evidence that asymptomatic people can still infect others. In February, Chinese researchers described how a 20-year-old woman from Wuhan, who never developed any symptoms associated with COVID-19, infected five of her relatives whom she visited in another city. The woman tested negative on January 26, tested positive on the 28th, then tested negative again on February 5 and 8. None of her infected relatives had traveled anywhere or had contact with a coronavirus patient, suggesting that their infection was due to asymptomatic transmission. While the woman remained symptom-free, the five people she infected were hospitalized due to fever and respiratory symptoms.

Another study, published on March 4 in Science China Life Sciences, reported 24 cases of asymptomatic infection, all of whom were identified by screening their close contacts. While five eventually developed symptoms like fever, cough and fatigue, 12 only showed abnormalities in their chest scans and the other seven remained symptom-free. Nevertheless, these asymptomatic patients were able to infect family members, some of whom developed severe pneumonia.

Sources include:

NPR.org

MedicineNet.com

BBC.com

DeccanHerald.com

Bloomberg.com

JAMANetwork.com

Link.Springer.com
As gyms have close around Australia due to the new coronavirus restrictions, exercise products are in demand.

Retail giants including Harvey Norman, Kmart and Kogan are selling fitness equipment for bargain prices.

From as little as $11, a range of essential gym equipment can be purchased to replicate a gym circuit at home - and some will deliver to you within 24 hours.

Regardless if gym goers prefer cardio or weights training, the same home routine can be replicated at home while in isolation if the correct equipment is used

Kettle bells - $11 for eight kilograms

Kmart Australia is selling a range of gym equipment to suit different fitness needs from as little as $11.

The budget retail giant is selling eight kilogram kettle bells for only $11, which can be used to multiple exercises including kettle bell swings, two-arm rows and lunges.

This type of resistance weight helps strengthen and tone muscle groups when training, particularly the core, legs and arms.

The budget retail giant is selling eight kilogram kettle bells for only $11, which can be used to multiple exercises including kettle bell swings, two-arm rows and lunges (pictured)

Individual dumbbells - $24 for ten kilograms

Also from selected Kmart stores customers can purchase individual or sets of dumbbells at budget prices.

For $24 each, fitness enthusiasts can buy one single ten kilogram dumbbell, which is one of the most versatile pieces of gym equipment.

The rubber coating and hexagonal shape is designed for stability as different Kmart dumbbell weights can be stacked on top of each other without moving.

Due to the demand, some Kmart store locations have sold out of stock while others are only offering online purchases.

For $24 each, fitness enthusiasts can buy one single ten kilogram dumbbell, which is one of the most versatile pieces of gym equipment

A 15 Minute Home Workout Without Equipment 10 x Tuck Jumps 15 x Snap Push-Ups 10 x X-Jumps 20 x Jump Lunges 20 x Bent-Leg Raises Rest for one minute and repeat again for seven minutes Source: DOLLY Video Advertisement

Yoga mat - $28

While working out at home it's a good idea to use a yoga mat to ensure your hands, back and joints are supported while doing exercises such as push-ups, sit-ups yoga poses or stretches.

Despite the influx of demand Harvey Norman currently have eco friendly exercise mats available through online purchases only.

For $28 the slim but tough product is made from non-toxic materials to provide gentle support for your joints.

The yoga mat is eight millimetres thick and has a two-sided non-slip surface for added convenience.

Despite the demand Harvey Norman currently have eco friendly exercise mats available through online purchases only (pictured)

While working out at home it's a good idea to use a yoga mat to ensure your hands, back and joints are supported while doing push-ups, sit-ups yoga poses or stretches

Resistance bands - $20 to $44

If free weights, dumbbells and kettle bells aren't preferred, customers can choose to use resistance bands instead.

Harvey Norman are selling SKLZ Pro Bands starting at $20 for the lightest weight and lowest resistance to $44 for the highest resistance.

According to the product description, the bands help enhance your speed and forward acceleration while being easier to transport than weights.

Harvey Norman are selling SKLZ Pro Bands (pictured) starting at $20 for the lightest weight and lowest resistance to $44 for the highest resistance

Fitness Exercise Bike - $283

Cardio customers may also choose to purchase the Harvey Norman Lifespan Fitness Exer-60H Exercise Bike online for $283, which is far less compared to competitors.

This specific product has eight levels of resistance and a multifunctional LCD screen to display the time, distance travelled, calories burnt and speed.

The bike features in-motions handle bars and a fitness bike pedal making the cardio piece an ideal all-round exercise product to target both the upper and lower body.

When purchasing online customers can buy the Harvey Norman Lifespan Fitness Exer-60H Exercise Bike (pictured) for $283, which is far less compared to competitors

Treadmill - $797

Harvey Norman are also selling an Action Treadmill for under $1,000, which is quite rare for a high quality piece of fitness equipment.

Retailing for $797, the 1.5 horsepower motor enables the user to reach a maximum speed to 16 kilometres per hour.

The product includes an auto-include function, display monitor, two speaker systems and multiple pre-set training programs.

Similarly to many other Harvey Norman fitness products, the treadmill is only available to purchase online.

Priced at $797, Harvey Norman are also selling an Action Treadmill (pictured) for those who prefer cardio exercises

Portable Plate Trainer - $89.95

Online retail giant Kogan is also selling a Portable Gym Trainer Plate for $89.95 (pictured)

Online retail giant Kogan is also selling a Portable Gym Trainer Plate for $89.95, which combines resistance bands and a plate in one convenient product.

A multitude of exercises can be carried out using the item as each anchor point is rigorously tested to withhold resilience for the ultimate workout.

The brand describes the product as a 'portable gym' as it can be used at home or at other outside locations.

The item is also lightweight and can be used to complete both upper body and lower body exercise routines.
Morocco launched a platform to assist SMEs willing to transform their industries to produce protective equipment to counter coronavirus.

Industry and Trade Minister Moulay Hafid El Alamy shared on his twitter account a link to a website dedicated to small businesses that want to redirect their production to manufacture equipment and products that are necessary to the fight against coronavirus.

Several textile factories are now producing protective masks with a view of reaching a production capacity of 2.5 million masks. These masks will help protect health workers, security staff and will be available in the market for all citizens as well, according to a post shared by the minister.

An ethanol factory that was burned down was restored in a week and resumed functioning last March 23 with a production capacity of 240 hectoliters daily of the substance that is key to making sanitizers.

The government had stepped in to control the prices of sanitizers, which are now available for a maximum price of 15 dirhams per 50 milliliters.

As part of a rescue plan, a special fund created to back Moroccos response to coronavirus offered compensations to workers in the formal and informal sector as well as tax and loan deferrals for struggling companies.
Its good that they can respond (by email), but for certain things its so crucial that I get them done in time, Zhang said. Im one of the only people in my family that can speak English, so I basically have to do everything by myself now, which kind of sucks ... and if I get any rejections, theres no emotional support for me as well now."
Outspoken Ghanaian actress Lydia Forson has expressed her opinion on the President's directive for a partial lockdown.



Lydia who has acknowledged the governments relentless efforts in containing the spread of the deadly Coronavirus, believes the lockdown directive issued by the president was not well thought through.



Expressing her thoughts on social media, the Perfect Picture actress said, there are so many grey areas in President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's new directive.



"While I appreciate the efforts the government is putting in to control this pandemic; I believe this #lockdown was not fully thought through. So many grey areas, loopholes, misinformation, and confusion. Like some people have already run away to other regions," she tweeted this on March 29, 2020.



President Nana Akufo-Addo declared a partial lockdown of Accra and Kumasi effective 1am on Monday, March 30, 2020.



The lockdown which affects Accra, Tema and Kumasi will last for two weeks. The decision, according to the President is to help curb the spread of COVID-19 which has led to four deaths and infected some 137 people.



President Nana Akufo-Addo made the declaration in a national address delivered on Friday, March 27, 2020.



Ghana has a seen a rapid increase of 152 cases in the last 3 weeks with 5 deaths, 2 recovered cases and one person in critical condition.





Source: Eugene Osafo-Nkansah/Peacefmonline.com









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Digital Editor
Kartik Aaryan To Donate Rs. 1 Crore To PM- CARES Fund, Virat-Anushka And Shilpa Shetty Also Pledge To Support
By Guy Faulconbridge and Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain on Monday named Ken McCallum, a career spy who led the response to the attempted murder of Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal, as the new head of its MI5 domestic intelligence agency.

McCallum, who has worked in MI5 for 25 years, rose through the ranks working across the agency's main fronts from Northern Ireland to countering Islamist militants and ensuring the safety of the 2012 London Olympics.

Then, after former Russian double agent Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found poisoned with a Soviet-developed nerve agent known as "Novichok" in 2018, McCallum led the agency's response to the attempted murder, MI5 said.

"Our people - with our partners - strive to keep the country safe, and they always want to go the extra mile," McCallum said in a statement.

"Having devoted my working life to that team effort, it is a huge privilege now to be asked to lead it," he added.

Britain blamed Russia for the attack in which a British citizen died. Russia denied any role, though Western powers expelled dozens of Russian spies working under diplomatic cover.

Skripal, a former officer in Russian military intelligence (GRU), betrayed dozens of Russian agents to British intelligence.

Andrew Parker, who retires at the end of April, has led MI5 since 2013. He stayed on longer than is usual to ensure a stable transition during Britain's exit from the European Union which took place on Jan. 31.

SPIES IN SPOTLIGHT

During Parker's watch, MI5 had to contend with a spate of deadly militant attacks in the United Kingdom including the 2017 Manchester suicide bombing which killed 22 people, and attacks on Westminster and London Bridge the same year.

The Manchester suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, was known to the authorities but not under active investigation when he blew himself up in the foyer of the Manchester Arena after an Ariana Grande concert. A later inquiry said both MI5 and counter-terrorism police had missed chances to prevent the attack.

Story continues

MI5, established in 1909 to counter German espionage ahead of World War One, is tasked with protecting British national security. Its main job is currently countering international terrorism though it is also a counter-intelligence agency.

It employs about 4,000 people.

MI5 said one of McCallum's top priorities was enabling the agency to seize the fast-moving opportunities provided by technology, including machine learning.

"Ken McCallums expertise and leadership will be crucial to ensuring that the Security Service remains agile and creative in the face of new and emerging threats to our security," said Mark Sedwill, the Cabinet Secretary.

He helped deepen MI5's partnerships with the MI6 foreign spy service and the GCHQ eavesdropping agency and has worked on secondment with the business ministry on digital issues as well as a non-executive director of the Nuclear Decomissioning Authority.

In 2017, he was appointed deputy director general of MI5 with responsibility for all of MI5's operational and investigative work.

McCallum grew up in Glasgow and has a degree in Mathematics from Glasgow University. He enjoys mountain hiking.

(Editing by Michael Holden and Stephen Addison)
EasyJet Grounds Entire Fleet Due to CCP Virus

EasyJet announced it has grounded its entire fleet of planes and said it cannot give a date for when they will restart.

The budget airline said in a March 30 statement it made the move due to the unprecedented travel restrictions imposed by governments globally due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since emerging in central China late last year, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus has spread around the world, infecting more than 720,000 and killing at least 34,000, also sparking widespread travel restrictions and lockdowns.

EasyJet said in the release it had already cancelled most services save for some rescue flights, which would stop running on Sunday.

The last of these rescue flights were operated on Sunday, March 29, the airline stated. We will continue to work with government bodies to operate additional rescue flights as requested. At this stage there can be no certainty of the date for restarting commercial flights. We will continuously evaluate the situation based on regulations and demand, and will update the market when we have a view.

In an earlier statement, EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren said that these are unprecedented times for the airline industry.

Significantly reducing our flying programme is the right thing to do when many countries have issued advice to their citizens not to travel unless it is essential and the aircraft groundings will also remove significant levels of variable costs at a time when this remains crucial, he said.

EasyJet said it has flown 650 rescue flights so far, bringing over 45,000 people home.

The air carrier said it would lay off its 4,000 UK-based cabin crew for two months, meaning they wont work from April 1 but will get 80 percent of their average pay under a state job retention scheme.

Lundgren said he was working tirelessly to make sure the airline was well positioned to overcome the challenges of coronavirus.

I am extremely proud of the way in which people across EasyJet have given their absolute best at such a challenging time, he said, BBC reports.

According to the BBC, the air carrier was encouraging customers affected by the cancellations to opt for vouchers.

Customers on cancelled flights can transfer to an alternative flight free of charge or receive a voucher for the value of their booking online or claim a refund through our contact centre, EasyJet told BBC.

We are experiencing higher than average wait times so we would thank customers for their patience and assure them that these entitlements will be available long after their cancelled flight has flown.

EasyJet is based out of Londons Luton Airport and operates a fleet of over 330 planes.
DOYLESTOWN, Pa., March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Diverse Biotech, Inc. www.diversebiotech.com has announced it has signed an initial partnership agreement with The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University Medical Center to study its potential new therapeutic candidates in glioblastoma. The research will be performed in animal models of the disease to evaluate the efficacy and tissue distribution of Diverse Biotech's new drug compounds.

"We are honored to be partnering with this world-renowned center for the study and treatment of brain cancer. Glioblastoma is a disease with a large unmet patient need. Our team at Diverse Biotech wants to develop and study new drugs that could change the standard of care in this disease," said Stella Vnook, Diverse Biotech's Chief Executive Officer.

"We are excited to be collaborating with Diverse Biotech and to evaluate their cannabidiol compounds in our GBM models. One of the main goals of our lab is to find new therapies that might improve the outcomes for patients living with this disease. Preclinical testing of novel agents is the first step in this process," said Steve Keir, DrPH, MPH, MMCI, Research Professor and Director of Translational Research at The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center, Duke University.

About Diverse Biotech

Diverse Biotech is a US-based biopharmaceutical company, focused on medical discoveries and the development of new molecules for the treatment of cancer and other debilitating diseases. Our focus is on discovering and developing novel therapeutics utilizing cannabidiol (CBD) as a core component, to which we combine other molecules through advanced chemistry to develop completely new chemical entities that are designed to be more efficacious and less toxic. Our initial focus is on hard-to-treat oncologic disorders including basal cell carcinoma and other dermatological cancers, pancreatic cancer, and glioblastoma, in which existing therapies have proven largely unsuccessful thus far and for which there is significant unmet need.

Further information about Diverse Biotech can be found at www.diversebiotech.com.

Contacts:

Brian Longstreet

Chief Business Officer

Diverse Biotech, Inc.

+1-908-917-5699

[email protected]

SOURCE Diverse Biotech, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.diversebiotech.com


Now 'Shaktimaan' returns amid coronavirus lockdown

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Mumbai, Mar 30: Joining the list of returns on Doordarshan is another cult classic from the golden era of Indian television, superhero show "Shaktimaan", veteran actor Mukesh Khanna, who featured in the titled role, has revealed.

Earlier, it was announced the cult hit mythological series "Ramayana", "Mahabharat", Shah Rukh Khan-starrer "Circus" and "Byomkesh Bakshi", featuring Rajit Kapur, will be re-telecast on the national broadcaster and its sister channels during the 21-day lockdown to combat the spread of coronavirus. Khanna took to Twitter on Sunday to share the news.

"Getting to watch two epics of our country 'Ramayan' and 'Mahabharat' in one day was a matter of great happiness for the 135 crore people who are under lockdown. Sit at home and enjoy. There could not have been a bigger good news. "But I'd like to add something to this happy news for my 'Shaktimaan' fans, that 'Shaktimaan' is also going to come very soon," he said in the video clip. However, the actor-producer didn't disclose the date and time of the show's re-run, he asked fans to wait for the announcement.

Doordarshan to re-telecast 'Ramayan starting tomorrow

NEWS AT 3 PM, MARCH 30th, 2020

Khanna, who was already a household names thanks to his role as the duty-bound Bhishma in BR Chopra's "Mahabharat", found another fan base among children in the late 1990s as Shaktimaan and his alter ego "Pandit Gangadhar Vidhyadhar Mayadhar Omkarnath Shastri", a photographer for the newspaper Aaj Ki Aawaz. "Shaktimaan" aired on DD 1 from 1997 to 2005. It was later translated into different languages and aired on different channels.

The show was followed by "Shaktimaan: The Animated Series" in 2011, and a television film titled "Hamara Hero Shaktimaan" in 2013. There are reports that Khanna is working on a sequel to the show and will start working on a follow-up after the lockdown.
New York  Gov. Andrew Cuomo said again today that Upstate New York hospitals will be called on to help stressed facilities in the New York City area as the coronavirus pandemic continues.

"We have hospitals in Upstate New York that are experiencing none of this, where they have staff capacity, they have bed capacity," Cuomo said today during a press briefing in New York City. "We need you now, here, in this fight and engaged."

Cuomo said last week that if downstate sites become overwhelmed, they could eventually transfer patients to Upstate cities. He said that would be a last option and hasnt provided any details on when or how it would happen.

As coronavirus patients cram NYC hospitals, Syracuse hospitals still have 300 empty beds

Could Upstate NY hospitals get downstate patients amid coronavirus? Maybe, Cuomo says

Downstate NY feels coronavirus worst; it may have saved Upstate lives

But he spoke today of dramatically increased coordination and cooperation among hospitals throughout the state.

A command center to handle centralized purchasing and distribution of supplies to facilities statewide should be up and running tomorrow, Cuomo said. The state continues to stockpile needed equipment for use when the virus peaks in the next two to three weeks.

The command center will also help distribute patients more evenly across multiple facilities to help avoid any single hospital getting stretched beyond its limits, said Kenneth Raske, president and CEO of the Greater New York Hospital Association, which represents many private hospitals in the state. The association has been involved in planning the statewide response.

Cuomo also wants hospitals to coordinate on distributing staff members where they're most needed.

"No one hospital has the resources to handle this," he said. "There has to be a totally different operating paradigm where all those different hospitals operate as one system."

The New York City area, including Westchester County and Long Island, currently has the vast majority of coronavirus cases in the state. But Cuomo has said he expects a rolling apex that will eventually hit Upstate New York too.

Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon has said hes willing to help downstate hospitals as long as local facilities are able to care for their own patients first.

Over 1,200 people have now died as a result of coronavirus in New York, up from 157 just one week ago.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

Coronavirus in NY: Deaths surge again to over 1,200 total

Updated list: Which CNY restaurants are open for takeout or delivery

CNY patients shunning home care workers over coronavirus fears

Only 1 county out of 62 in New York state reporting no coronavirus cases

Coronavirus: Upstate NY will see rolling apex of cases, Gov. Cuomo says

Cuomo extends coronavirus stay-at-home order past Passover, Easter

Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-282-8598
Published on 2020/03/29 | Source

A pictorial of Kim Soo-hyun, who is starring in "It's Okay to Not Be Okay" was released.

Advertisement

The actor caused a great stir when he made a special appearance in dramas "Hotel Del Luna" and "Crash Landing on You" after his military service.

This pictorial was taken for the fashion magazine ELLE, introducing new collections. Kim Soo-hyun is dressed in light materials, expressing spring with his unique softness and coziness.

According to sources, despite the weekend photo shoot, he was so cool and professional about his work and appealed to the staff on site.

The pictures of Kim Soo-hyun can be seen in the April issue of ELLE and the website.

___________

"It's Okay to Not Be Okay" is directed by Park Shin-woo, written by Jo Yong, and features Kim Soo-hyun, Seo Ye-ji, Oh Jung-se, Park Gyu-young, Kim Joo-hun, Park Jin-joo. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2020/06/20~Upcoming, Sat, Sun on tvN.
Interior Minister Ambrose Dery has described as unnecessary, the desperation by some residents of Accra and Kumasi to stock up some basic household essentials and food items ahead of a partial lockdown in parts of the country.



He expressed surprised at the behviour of the hundreds of residents who stormed various major markets and supermarkets within Accra and Kumasi Saturday morning to stock-up foodstuff and toiletries among other essential supplies, to hunker down for the next two weeks.



For him, their action clearly demonstrates a misunderstanding of President Nana Akufo-Addos declaration of a partial lockdown in Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Kumasi.



Ive just gone around a few places today and there appears to be a misunderstanding about some of the things; the rush to buy things, the rush to buy food is totally unnecessary, he told the parliamentary press corps on Saturday.



He wondered why people were busily doing panic buying ahead of lockdown which begins from 1:00 a.m. Monday as there is the flexibility for people in the affected areas to get those basic essentials as and when they need them.



the measures have made it possible that you can go to the market and buy food and wherever food is sold, Mr Dery reiterated and noted that shops and markets selling those items will be opened so the rush before the deadline is unnecessary.



Footages and reports from our reporters showed many of the people crowded themselves in markets and shops to buy what they needed for the period while others crammed themselves in commercial vehicles without any form of protective gears.



Social distancing, which has been touted as the best approach to break the cycle of the virus transmission was blatantly disregarded by the thousands of people who moved out in town for various businesses.



The mad rush for LPG caused many gas filling stations within the Accra metropolis to choke as people queued in the scorch sun for hours to fill their cylinders.



Filling stations, gas stations are unnecessary crowded, Mr Dery observed, noting they will remain open.



He said is very dangerous for people to go with that crowd because it will cause fires. All I can tell you is that these measures are well thought out by the president. The security will do its work.



Meanwhile, the Minister has questioned the decision by some banks which normally work on Saturdays, to close their branches yesterday.



According to him, he received complaints that from some people who were paid their salaries Friday before 4:00 p.m. but have been successful in making withdrawals.



He said banks are exempted from the lockdown.









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Of Laredos 32 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 12 of those patients are in the hospital, one is pregnant and one is intubated, on a ventilator, Laredo Health Director Dr. Hector Gonzalez said Sunday. This person is in their 60s, he said.

In Laredo there are 57 ventilators available for adults and eight for children, with more in reserve, Gonzalez said.

Ventilators are one of the best weapons in the fight against COVID-19. In the most serious cases, people can become too sick to breathe on their own and can die if their lungs arent assisted by the oxygen-pumping machines.

A study by the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University said that across the U.S., nearly 65,000 people could need ventilators during a moderate pandemic. But if the coronavirus pandemic rises to the level of the 1918 Spanish Flu, more than 742,000 Americans could need the machines to survive.

The total number of existing machines in the United States is a fraction of that: an estimated 160,000 ventilators at most.

If hospitals run short, there are just 16,600 ventilators in the federal governments emergency stockpile, the Center of Public Integrity recently reported.

READ MORE: Laredo City Council approves mandatory coronavirus lockdown

A state plan for the years 2012-2016 reported that Texas emergency stockpile stood at 428 ventilators. Neither the governors office nor state health department responded to requests for more current figures.

In Laredo, Gonzalez notes that many of the positive cases are occurring in clusters. Five local couples are infected with novel coronavirus.

Around one set of positives we have seven members who are positive, ranging from (age) 17 to 67 around that cluster. Reinforcing the transmission of this virus  is close, sustained contact, daily, Gonzalez said.

The city was expecting to receive a supply of rapid tests late Sunday or Monday. They hope to test-run drive thru testing Monday, which will be available to Laredoans who have a prescription from their doctor.

Internally we will initiate a process for us to test out how the system is going to work before we go live with the public, said Emergency Management Coordinator Steve Landin. ... Its got to be systematic, its got to be precise, otherwise were creating more issues for ourselves.

Rapid tests take a finger prick and 15 minutes to complete, Landin said. But they only confirm a negative. If a patient tests positive for COVID-19 through the rapid test they will need to be given a CDC-approved confirmatory test before they are officially considered positive.

The rapid test has a 93% validity and is a good indicator, Gonzalez said.

Mayor Pete Saenz said with these last five cases ending up in the hospital, it appears that Laredo is reaching a point they have been preparing for, he said.

I think were seeing now what is its full potential here. I plead and I pray that this pandemic may spare us its full fury. I also plead and pray for your patience and full cooperation in following the preventive, established guidelines that are now in place, Saenz said. ... This too will pass, but for now we must stay home, all of us.

Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina stressed the importance of maintaining ones mental health during these tough times: exercise and find extracurricular activities to numb the mind, he said.

Spread the love and not the virus, Tijerina said.

Laredo police issued three citations on Saturday, one at a park and two at private residences that were holding gatherings, said Police Chief Claudio Trevino. Under the city and countys emergency orders, no gatherings with people from outside ones own household are permitted.

As of 5 p.m. on March 29, a total of 228 persons have been tested for COVID-19; 89 of those tests have resulted negative, 32 have resulted positive, 107 are pending and three have recovered.

The San Antonio Express-News contributed to this story. Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.com
NEW YORK - Macy's, Kohl's and Gap Inc. all said Monday they will stop paying tens of thousands of employees who were thrown out of work when the chains temporarily closed their stores and sales collapsed as a result of the pandemic.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/3/2020 (653 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A cyclist passes Macy's in Herald Square, Monday, March 23, 2020, in New York. Macy's stores nationwide are closed due to the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

NEW YORK - Macy's, Kohl's and Gap Inc. all said Monday they will stop paying tens of thousands of employees who were thrown out of work when the chains temporarily closed their stores and sales collapsed as a result of the pandemic.

Macy's said the majority of its 125,000 employees will be furloughed this week and that it is transitioning to an "absolute minimum workforce" needed to maintain basic operations. Macy's said it has lost the bulk of its sales due to the temporarily closing of more than 600 stores starting March 18.

Kohl's, based in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, said that the furloughs will apply to 85,000 of its 120,000 employees at stores and distribution centres. It will continue to ship products and do curbside pickup from most stores with a limited number of staff.

Gap's spokesman Sandy Goldberg said the furloughs affect nearly 80,000 out of 129,000 employees across all brands, including Banana Republic and Old Navy.

The furloughed workers will continue to collect health benefits.

The moves are bad news for an economy in which the retail industry supports one out of four workers. It is also perhaps the most dramatic sign that even big name retailers are seeing their business evaporate and that the $2 trillion rescue package passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump last week may have limited impact.

FILE - In this Monday, March 23, 2020 file photo, a man crosses the street in front of Macy's, in New York. Macy's is furloughing most of its 130,000 workers beginning this week as its sales have collapsed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The company said Monday, March 30 that it will be moving to an absolute minimum workforce" needed to maintain basic operations. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

Nordstrom said last week it was furloughing a portion of its corporate staff. And shoe company Designer Brands Inc., which operates DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse, furloughed 80% of its workers, effective this past weekend.

Analysts expect more furloughs to come as retailers scramble to pay their employees from fast-dwindling cash reserves. Labor is the single biggest monthly fixed cost for retailers, according to investment research firm Cowen & Co.

The furlough of workers will have negative consequences for an economy in which the retail industry supports one out of four workers.

This could push us further into a damaging recession that will last longer than the duration of the crisis," said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail.

More than 190,000 stores, including J.C. Penney and Neiman Marcus, have temporarily closed, accounting for nearly 50% of the U.S. retail square footage, according to Saunders. Discounters, grocers and wholesale clubs that sell essential items like groceries remain open, although they have their own challenges of keeping up with shoppers who continue to stockpile canned goods, paper towels and other staples.

According to a recent report by Cowen & Co, department stores have enough cash to make it to about five to eight months with their stores temporarily closed. Macy's and Kohl's, however, have enough for five months, Cowen said. J.C. Penney and Nordstrom are better positioned at eight months of available liquidity, according to Cowen.

When announcing the temporary closures, most retailers said they would keep paying their workers but they were looking at a two-week timetable. That moment has now passed and the furloughs have become increasingly necessary as the coronavirus rapidly spreads.

The big question is how much of these furloughs will lead to permanent layoffs. Rent the Runway, a pioneer in fashion rental, confirmed earlier Monday, that it was laying off its retail store staff and said it may not be able to reopen its stores that temporarily shuttered earlier this month. Its online subscription service still continues to operate.

Swedish retailer H&M said earlier this month that it may be forced to permanently layoff some its employees after temporarily shuttering 3,441 of its 5,062 stores globally.

Coresight Research's Deborah Weinswig now forecasts a new record high of 15,000 stores will close this year, up from her original prediction of 8,000  all because of the viral outbreak. Analysts believe that already ailing stores with heavy debt loads may have to dramatically close more stores or be pushed closer to bankruptcy.

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Even before the pandemic, traditional retailers, particularly department stores and mall-based clothing stores, had been struggling to reinvent themselves as shoppers shift more of their purchases online and embrace experiences like cooking classes and subscription services. Now, the pandemic has forced people to stay home and clamp down on spending for non-essential items like clothing.

Macy's said that there won't be as many furloughs in its online operations, which continue to operate. Employees who are enrolled in health benefits will continue to receive coverage with the company covering 100% of the premium.

We expect to bring colleagues back on a staggered basis as business resumes," Macy's said.

To survive in the meantime, Macy's, Kohl's and others have taken steps to preserve their cash. That includes suspending their dividend, drawing down their lines of credit, freezing hiring and spending, and cancelling orders. Macy's said Monday it is now evaluating all financing options.

________

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Doctors and nurses have been warning for weeks that without adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), clinicians on the front-line were putting their lives at risk.

It is, of course, a tragedy that a health worker such as consultant Amged El-Hawrani has died from the coronavirus.

But sadly, it is all but certain he will be the first of many who succumb while trying to help others.

It is an outrage that there have been horrendous shortages, mistakes and confusion around PPE, for it risks destabilising the NHS effort to tackle the virus. A clinician is pictured wearing a mask and gloves at a coronavirus testing station

And my belief is that unless we urgently address the lack of PPE then many could die needlessly.

Clinicians know that there is a risk in doing their jobs. They accept that they do not have an option to work from home like the majority of the public, and their work puts them directly in the firing line of the virus.

But the least we can do as a nation is ensure that they are as well protected as possible.

It is an outrage that there have been horrendous shortages, mistakes and confusion around PPE, for it risks destabilising the NHS effort to tackle the virus.

At the moment we are sending doctors, nurses and other clinical staff into a potentially deadly working environment.

It is, of course, a tragedy that a health worker such as consultant Amged El-Hawrani has died from the coronavirus. But sadly, it is all but certain he will be the first of many who succumb while trying to help others

There are reports that the Government had actually stockpiled PPE but when they came to check it, they found much of it was too old to be of any use. It seems no one ever really thought it would be needed  until it was.

Whats more, documents that have recently surfaced suggest officials at the Department of Health and Social Care resisted expert advice to ensure there was enough eye protection  eyes are a known entry point of the virus  in case of a pandemic such as this, arguing that it would be too expensive.

There is now a mad scramble to get adequate protection for workers on the front-line.

And if more doctors and nurses die, front-line staff may feel so unsafe that they start to refuse to come to work. That would be catastrophic in an NHS already stretched gossamer thin because of staff sickness,

There have been reports of staff having to buy their own kit. Nurses at the Royal Free Hospital in London tied clinical waste bags around their legs as improvised protection while staff at North Middlesex Hospital have been wrapping plastic aprons around their heads.

It has amounted to a PR disaster for the Government, but it is a matter of life and death for staff on the ground.

Many staff have also become suspicious that there have recently been changes to official advice about the level of protection necessary, meaning they are now wearing less protective gear than recommended by the World Health Organisation when dealing with patients.

Doctors and nurses have been warning for weeks that without adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), clinicians on the front-line were putting their lives at risk. Medical equipment is pictured above outside London's Excel centre, converted into NHS Nightingale Hospital

On the ground, it feels very muddled and confused. I say that as someone who works on the wards and has had patients who have tested positive for the virus.

How can it be right that we are not protected when we see our charges at close quarters where they can cough over us  especially when we are all told to stand more than six feet apart?

The Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Jenny Harries, said on March 20 that the country has a perfectly adequate supply of PPE. Many staff beg to disagree.

The Department of Health says that in recent days more than 15million face masks have been delivered to the front-line, including 24.6million gloves and 1.9million sets of eye protection. Tragically for some, this response has come too late.
The death toll from the new coronavirus in Maharashtra rose to 10 on Monday, while the count of COVID-19 patients climbed to 220 with 17 new additions, a state health official said.

Among the deceased is an elderly man who died here on Saturday, while his test report, which turned out ot be positive, was receiverd on Monday, he said, adding the other fatality was reported from Pune earlier in the day.

With as many as 17 more persons testing positive for coronavirus in Maharashtra on Monday, the number of COVID-19 patients climbed to 220 from 203 on Sunday, the official said.

Out of these 17, eight are from Mumbai, five from Pune, two from Nagpur, while one each from Nashik and Kolhapur, he said.

The state also reported the death of two more persons due to the new coronavirus. Of these, an 80-year-old man died in a private hospital of Mumbai on March 28, but his sample tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, he said.

"The second person is a 52-year-old male patient from Pune. The Mumbai patient was suffering from high BP and cardiac ailment, while the Pune based patient was suffering from diabetes and high BP.

"With this, the total number of deaths in Maharashtra rose to 10, the official said.

"The patient from Pune was on ventilator support due to acute respiratory distress syndrome. He died of multiple organ failure on Monday, said a Pune civic body official.

This was the first coronavirus death reported from Pune.

Of the 10 deaths reported so far in the state, seven were in Mumbai and one each in Navi Mumbai, Buldhana and Pune.

On the other hand, state health officials have discharged as many as 39 COVID-19 patients after recovery.

Of the 220 coronavirus positive patients, 92 are in Mumbai and 43 in Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad and rural area, 25 in Sangli, 23 in Thane region, 16 in Nagpur, five in Ahmednagar, four in Yavatmal, two each in Satara and Kolhapur, and one each in Aurangabad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Gondia, Jalgaon, Buldhana and Nashik, he said.

So far, 4,538 people have been quarantined in various parts of the state of which 3,876 tested negative, while 220 have tested positive



The figure of home quarantined people is 19,161 while 1,224 people are in institutional quarantine, the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A doctor in New York has left a heartbreaking goodbye message to her children in case she dies of coronavirus in the fight against the disease.

Dr Cornelia Griggs is working on the front lines of the coronavirus epidemic in New York City, which has become the epicentre of the outbreak in the US.

In an emotional post on her Twitter page, Dr Griggs left a message for her children in case she falls victim to the virus while working during the pandemic.

My babies are too young to read this now. And theyd barely recognise me in my gear. But if they lose me to Covid I want them to know Mommy tried really hard to do her job. #GetMePPE #NYC, she wrote.

The doctor posted the message alongside a photo of her in head to toe protective gear.

The tweet has gone viral with more than 100,000 retweets and 500,000 likes.

New York state is the worst hit in the country by the pandemic, with over 59,000 cases and 965 deaths recorded as of Monday, according to CNN.

The state now accounts for roughly a quarter of the 100,000 infections in the whole US.

New York City remains in an unprecedented state of emergency, as 98 people in New York City died on Sunday, raising the citys death toll to nearly 800.

As a result of the virus, the citys healthcare systems have been completely overrun and are struggling to cope with the number of hospitalised patients.

On Monday, authorities gave the go-ahead for the construction of a field hospital in Central Park to help services cope with the number of patients.

The doctors GetMePPE hashtag refers to the ongoing strain within the state of supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) to healthcare professionals. PPE helps to protect workers against infection when treating patients.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo assured healthcare workers in a press conference on Wednesday that hospitals have plenty of PPE for staff members for the immediate future.

However, medical workers continue to criticise the government and insist that there is not an adequate enough supply to follow guidelines where there are a lot of risks involved.

Last week, 48-year-old nursing manager Kious Kelly died at a Mount Sinai New York hospital of Covid-19, according to reports.

Staffers alleged to The New York Post that his death was connected to PPE shortages. A spokesperson for Mount Sinai has strongly denied the claims.

A picture of nursing staff wrapping themselves in bin bags as makeshift gowns at the same Mount Sinai hospital where Kelly worked also went viral online.

In a statement to The Hill, a spokesperson said the hospital system always provides all our staff with the critically important PPE they need to do their job.

If an individual does not have their proper PPE, they do not go on the floor, period. Any suggestion otherwise is simply not accurate, the spokesperson said.

The number of cases of the novel coronavirus has surpassed 690,000 worldwide, according to The World Health Organization.
YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. 1 out of the 58 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Armenia has been registered in the Armed Forces, Healthcare Minister Arsen Torosyan said at the Cabinet meeting.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan asked whether the cases in the Army are included in todays number of infected people, the minister responded: Yes, one case.

Earlier 5 soldiers of the Armenian Army tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19). Currently, the total number of servicemen infected with COVID-19 is 6.

None of the servicemen has pneumonia and coronavirus symptoms. Only one soldier has mild fever.

Defense ministrys spokesperson Shushan Stepanyan informed that the new soldier, who tested positive for coronavirus, has been quarantined from the very start.

The 6 confirmed cases are connected with the first case that was confirmed in a non-combat military base.

The soldier is hospitalized and is in satisfactory condition.

No new soldiers have been quarantined.

Many quarantined Armenia servicemen return to active duty after testing negative for COVID19

58 more cases of novel coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia today, bring the total number of infected people to 482.

30 patients have recovered.

So far, 3 death cases have been reported.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Oxfam distributing hygiene kits to people in Yemen amid the coronavirus crisis. Photo: Wael Algadi

Oxfam today called for a package of nearly $160 billion in immediate debt cancellation and aid to fund a Global Public Health Plan and Emergency Response and help prevent millions of deaths as a result of the coronavirus.The five-point plan of this Global Public Health Plan and Emergency Response would enable poor countries to take action to prevent the spread of the disease and build up the capacity of health systems to care for those affected.

The pandemic has caused widespread suffering in rich countries, overwhelming some of the best healthcare systems in the world. However, with the disease now spreading to many poor countries where high levels of poverty and inequality threaten to accelerate the disease, the public health challenges are even greater. Nearly three billion people across the developing world do not have access to clean water, while millions more do not have access to adequate healthcare and live in crowded slums or refugee camps where social isolation is impossible. As women make up 70 per cent of health workers and carry out most unpaid care work, it will hit them the hardest.

Jose Maria Vera, Oxfam International Interim executive director, said that in Mali there are three ventilators per million people. In Zambia, there is one doctor for 10,000 people. We know from Oxfams experience of fighting Ebola that with rapid action, this disease can be stalled and its catastrophic impact stopped. But we must act now and, on a scale never seen before, he said. Without urgent, ambitious, and historic action, we could easily see the biggest humanitarian crisis since World War II.

The Imperial College London estimates that in the absence of intervention, the coronavirus could have led to 40 million deaths in the coming year. Oxfam calculates that doubling the health spending of the 85 poorest countries, home to nearly half of the worlds population, would cost $159.5 billion. This is less than 10 per cent of the US fiscal stimulus to fight coronavirus. While some donor institutions have begun to increase funding, the scale is not anywhere near the immense size of the challenge.

Oxfam is working with local partners, ministries of heath, and key UN agencies in 65 countries to respond to the crisis and help save lives. In Coxs Bazaar, Bangladesh where over 855,000 Rohingya are living in makeshift camps, Oxfam is already scaling up preventive measures like soap distribution and handwashing stations at communal facilities to help 70,000 refugees. In Zaatari camp, Jordan  the largest Syrian refugee camp in the world  Oxfam has already started teaching hygiene and hand washing awareness for 2,000 children and aims to reach 78,000 people with water, hygiene,and sanitation. In Burkina Faso, which holds a population of 780,000 internally displaced persons (IDP), Oxfam is currently working in some of the largest IDP areas ensuring that both host communities and displaced people have access to safe, clean water. To meet the desperate humanitarian need now emerging, all governments must step up and fully fund the UN Global Humanitarian Response plan.

Oxfam is calling for the G20 and other national governments to tackle the virus head on by agreeing on an ambitious Global Public Health Plan and Emergency Response. The five-point plan calls for:

Huge investment in prevention. Public health promotion, community engagement, access for humanitarian workers and provision of clean water and sanitation, especially handwashing;

10 million new paid and protected health workers, together with urgent funding and equipment for local responders and humanitarians already on the ground;

Healthcare must be free. All fees for health should be removed, and free testing and treatment delivered;

Governments must requisition all private facilities. Governments must requisition all healthcare capacity in their countries, ensuring that all facilities, private and public, are directed towards fighting this virus and meeting all other essential healthcare needs;

Vaccines and treatments must be a global public good. A global agreement must be reached that vaccines and treatments, when ready, will be made rapidly available to everyone who needs it, free of charge. The profits of pharmaceutical corporations cannot be put ahead of the future of humanity.

Vera added It is understandable that national leaders are focused on helping their own citizens, but G20 leaders must also find the space for supporting poor nations too. We can only beat this pandemic if we act in solidarity with every country and for every person. No one is safe until we are all safe.

Vietnam

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc attended the G20 emergency video summit on March 26. Vietnam was invited to this year's summit as the current ASEAN Chair.

In the spirit of global and regional solidarity, co-operation, and co-ordination, affirming Vietnams determination and commitment to combating COVID-19, the Vietnamese government offers $200,000 in medical aid to help Laos and Cambodia fight the coronavirus.
Two senior Delhi government officers were suspended by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Sunday (March 29) for dereliction of duty during the 21-day nationwide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 24 to curb the spread of coronavirus COVID-19. The MHA also issued show-cause notice to two other se ior officers for lapses during lockdown.

The MHA said in a statement that the Additional Chief Secretary of the Transport Department and the Principal Secretary of Finance, GNCTD & Divisional Commissioner were suspended with immediate effect, while show-cause notice has been issued to Additional Chief Secretary of the Home and Land Buildings Departments and SDM Seelampur for "failing to ensure public health and safety during the lockdown.

"It has been brought to the notice of the competent authority that the following officers, who were responsible to ensure strict compliance to the instructions issued by Chairperson, National Executive Committee, formed under Disaster Management Act 2005 regarding containment of the spread of Covid-19, have prima facie failed to do so," the MHA said.

"These officers have failed to ensure public health and safety during the lockdown restrictions to combat Covid-19. Due to the serious lapse in performance of their duties, the competent authority has initiated disciplinary proceedings against the following officers," added the MHA statement.

On Sunday (March 29), the Union Health Ministry said that the total number of coornavirus cases in India has climbed to 1024, including 48 foreigners, and the death toll at 27. The Joint secretary of Health Luv Agarwal confirmed that in the past 24 hours as many as 106 coronavirus cases have been reported with six deaths.

Maharashtra and Kerala continue to remain the worst affected states with 203 and 202 cases of infections, respectively. Also, the most number of deaths has been reported from Maharashtra. While in the national capital, 23 new COVID-19 positive cases were recorded on Sunday which is the biggest jump in a day. The total number of cases rose to 72 with two deaths.
MIDLAND, MI - Dow Chemical is expanding its efforts to fight the novel coronavirus by shifting production at some of its plants around the world to making hand sanitizer, including its facility in Auburn, Michigan.

Midland-based Dow previously committed to donating $3 million to the WHO and others and directed a plant in Stade, Germany to produce hand sanitizer. As of Monday, the company has expanded its hand sanitizer production to sites in Auburn; South Charleston, West Virginia; Hortolandia, Brazil and Seneffe, Belgium.

The five facilities will produce an estimated 200 tons of sanitizer per week at maximum output, according to a news release. This equates to more than 880,000 eight-ounce bottles, which will be donated to health systems and governments, including the Great Lakes Bay Regions Transforming Health Regionally in a Vibrant Economy, or THRIVE, according to the release. The company expects to make its first deliveries this week.

The Auburn facility alone can make up to 7 tons per week, or 30,000 bottles, according to the release. The company will continue producing hand sanitizer for about four weeks before reassessing.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is quoted in the companys news release.

This action from Dow and its hardworking employees will help us protect more Michigan families and slow the spread of COVID-19 in our state," Whitmer said in the release. "Im proud to work with Dow and every business that steps up during this time to protect Michigan families.

Read more:

Dow Chemical pledges $3 million to support coronavirus fight

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer approves $150M for coronavirus relief, vetoes other spending as economy slumps

Monday, March 30: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan
Journalism has a vital public role during the coronavirus crisis, a political representative has said.

Eamonn McCann, a People Before Profit councillor and journalist, said factual information was needed now more than ever.

It comes after several Northern Ireland newspapers suspended publication in recent days.

The Bangor Spectator, the Newtownards Chronicle and the Mourne Observer will close for several weeks. Newsquest, one of the UK's biggest local news providers and owners of The Impartial Reporter, announced that it intends to put a significant number of employees on leave.

Mr McCann, a member of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), said: "It is a sad irony that the threat to jobs in journalism is higher now than ever.

"The fall in demand for products of all sorts has seen advertising revenue plummet. Widespread lay-offs are threatened.

"This comes on top of a series of blows in the past few years. The NUJ has fought hard to protect members. But against a bleak economic background, it hasn't been possible to prevent redundancies."

Mr McCann fears the "hammer-blow" of the coronavirus pandemic has now put some other titles at risk.

He added: "Many people can be sharply critical of the local media, but at the same time value what they do. A community which loses a local paper will be poorer as a result."
Amid the rising coronavirus cases in India, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Sunday urged the people of the country to adopt digital mode of payment as part of social distancing to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

To contain the spread of the infection, the government, as a precautionary measure, announced a 21-day lockdown period to enforce social distancing. The government has also constantly appealed to the public to maintain social distancing by following the lockdown.

In a video message to the Indian citizens, RBI chief Das appealed to public to use every precautionary measure, including digital banking, to maintain a social distance.

In the video message, Shaktikanta Das said, "We are going through a very difficult time due to the spread of coronavirus. At this point in time, we should take all precautionary measures. One major way of protecting ourselves from coronavirus would be to use all kinds of digital payments including debit cards, credit cards, and various mobile apps. Pay digital, stay safe."

The total number of coronavirus cases in India jumped to 1024 on Sunday (March 29), including 48 foreigners. A total of 27 people have lost their lives in India due to coronavirus.

Maharashtra and Kerala continue to remain the worst affected states with 203 and 202 cases of infections, respectively. Also, the most number of deaths has been reported from Maharashtra. While in the national capital, 23 new COVID-19 positive cases were recorded on Sunday which is the biggest jump in a day. The total number of cases rose to 72 with two deaths.
The value that an insurance company placed on a stolen gold bar might play a key role in how much the thieves must pay for restitution.

In 1980, treasure hunter Mel Fisher pulled Gold Bar 27 from the wreckage of a Spanish galleon that had sunk during a hurricane in 1622. He displayed it to millions at his museum in Key West, Fla.

Richard Steven Johnson and his lookout man Jarred Alexander Goldman swiped the bar from its display case in 2010. Johnson sawed off pieces of the bar when he needed cash until all of it was gone. Goldman says he never got the $2,000 that Johnson promised him for the heist.

But Goldman did get a 40-month prison sentence and an order (joint and severable with Johnson) to reimburse Axa Art Insurance and the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum $570,195.43. Johnson was sentenced to 63 months.

A dispute over the length of Goldmans sentence and the amount of the restitution brought the saga of Gold Bar 27 to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

The appellate court ruled Thursday that District Court Judge Jose E. Martinez in Miami erred by failing to accurately determine the replacement value of Gold Bar 27. While the court did not say how much that should be, it did direct the lower court to take note of the amount that Axa Art Insurance paid on the claim: $101,165.01.

Today we take this golden opportunity to reaffirm that in a case like this one, where the loss is of a unique artifact for which market value cannot fully compensate, courts must use replacement cost in determining restitution, Circuit Judge Rosenbaum said in a unanimous panel opinion.

Judge Martinez had determined that Gold Bar 22 was a priceless work of art. He stated after Goldman objected to his sentence that he would have given him 40 months regardless of the artifacts value.

The 11th Circuit did not take issue with the length of the sentence and rejected Goldmans motion to reduce it, but found that Judge Martinez could have been more careful in calculating the amount of restitution.

For one thing, the judge had made a $10,000 calculation error in Goldmans favor. That wasnt the main point. The appellate panel said the evidence in the record simply did not support his determination that Gold Bar 27 was worth $556,000. (The restitution order included other costs paid by Axa Art Insurance in addition to the value of the gold bar.)

The court noted that the museum had calculated the bars value by using a point system developed by the Mel Fisher Investor Division. The museums president and chief executive officer, Melissa Kendrick, could not say how the amount of points assigned to an artifact were determined nor could she say why 8,178 points had been assigned to Gold Bar 27.

Kendrick did say that few gold bars have the pedigree of Gold Bar 27. The treasure from the Spanish galleon Santa Margarita was a part of a lift a gold bar exhibit that was the centerpiece of the museums marketing. From 3 to 4 million visitors had reached into its plastic case over the years to touch the gold bar and feel its weight.

Axa Art Insurance took a more market-based approach to determine the current market value of Gold Bar 27, as required under the terms of the policy. The insurer identified five auctioned gold bars from another Spanish ship, the Atocha, and found they sold at an average of 45 percent of their melt value.

That would make Gold Bar 27 worth $63,228.13. But Axa added 45 percent to the value for Gold Bar 27 because it had been salvaged from the more famous Santa Margarita. Then it tacked on another 15 percent for the artifacts notoriety and iconic value. The end result: $101,165.01.

Current market value, of course, is not the same as replacement value. The 11th Circuit said it had determined in a 1999 case, U.S. v. Shugart, that when a loss involves a unique item or when no ready market exists, courts should determine the replacement cost to assign value, not the market cost.

Doing so is an inexact science, the panel acknowledged. Still, the court said it was error to accept the museums estimate of value without further inquiry.

That leaves the district court with some work to do on remand. The appellate court said prosecutors might be able to present evidence that the Mel Fisher Investment Divisions point system established a reliable replacement cost. On the other hand, Axas calculation may provide a better valuation.

Its components appear to attempt to account for what would seem to be all the necessary considerations, the court said.

Photo courtesy of Mel Fisher Treasures.
BCNP Consultants, founded back in 2002, is a consultancy company specialized on the branches Biotech, Chemistry, Nanotech and Pharma. BCNP is initiator and organizer of the European Chemistry Partnering (ECP), connecting start-ups and SME with Corporates and Investors. BCNP brings client together with new potential customers (BCNP connect) and offers market analyses, technology scouting and business planning for making strategic decisions (BCNP Strategy). BCNPs customers appreciate the simultaneous understanding of technology and economy. Holger Bengs, chemist and founder of BCNP, and Tobias Kirchhoff, business chemist and head of the Cologne office, are the VCW regulars table organizers for Frankfurt and Cologne.
By Online Desk

A Class 11 city student has launched an effort to bring free groceries to the doorsteps of senior citizens to help them see through the COVID-19 lockdown.

Aided by Aranya Foundation and friends, Arnav Rathore, who studies in MCTM International School, Mylapore, is reaching out to those who may not be able to access essential services.

Rathore along with his friends will home deliver essential commodities such as rice, pulses, spices, cooking oil, sugar and milk powder for seven days (for two persons) free of cost. "While doing so, we will be following all the government guidelines," Rathore said.

The students are targeting the areas of Mylapore and RA Puram to start with.

"This is a testing time for all of us. The COVID-19 epidemic has caused our cities to be under lockdown and lifestyles have been compromised. In spite of everything the government is doing, more help is needed," Arnav said.

If you or anyone you know is in need, you can reach these COVID warriors here:

WhatsApp: 9818316654

Phone: 9444352542

Email: chennaiseniorfoodhelp@gmail.com.
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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo begged healthcare workers from other states to 'come and help us now' as the coronavirus death toll for the state of New York rose to 1,218 - an increase of 253 in a day - and the number of cases rose to more than 66,000.

Cuomo spoke at the Javits Center, a makeshift hospital in Manhattan that will begin accepting patients on Monday.

There are 2,500 beds there and the USNS Comfort - a Navy ship which docked in New York Harbor on Monday morning - will also accept another 1,000 patients. None will be being treated there for coronavirus; instead, the field hospitals will accept patients with other illnesses in order to free up the beds in the struggling hospital system.

Cuomo made an impassioned plea that the 'front line of the battle' is in the hospitals. Already, doctors and nurses are becoming overwhelmed and overworked because of the virus and the city needs reinforcements.

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Gov. Cuomo is calling on healthcare workers to come to New York to help alleviate the crisis on the healthcare system

A member of the Brooklyn Hospital Center helps a person who was tested for COVID-19 put an object in a biohazard bag

'The front line of the battle is in the healthcare system. That is where this battle is fought. It's that simple. You know exactly where the enemy is going to attack,' he said.

He called the doctors and nurses 'the soldiers' of the war on coronavirus, then went on: 'We need to recruit more healthcare workers. Share healthcare professionals, within this state and within this country, as governor of NY I am asking healthcare professionals across the country; if you don't have a crisis in your community, please come help us in NY now.

'We need relief. We need relief for nurses working 12 hour shifts one after the other after the other. Please, and we will return the favor.'

Elsewhere in his press conference, Cuomo rebuked President Trump for politicizing the incident.

NY STATE NUMBERS 66,497 positive cases 9,517 hospitalized 2,352 ICU 4,204 released from hospital 1,218 deaths in NY Advertisement

He called on the president to put politics aside, calling it 'inappropriate' to be exhibiting partisanship at a time when the entire nation is in the throes of a crisis.

There have been repeated calls for Cuomo to toss his hat into the ring for the looming November presidential election. He dismissed the notion on Monday, saying he had 'never' planned on running and does not plan to now.

The Javits center was constructed in five days and now has the capacity for 2,500 patients. There are also makeshift field hospitals elsewhere in the city, including one in Central Park.

Cuomo praised the National Guard troops and US Army Corps of Engineers for building it so quickly and said: 'This is a transformation I don't think anyone could anticipate. I want to thank the government for everything they've done.

'It will become operational today receiving the first few patients, we'll start to run the facility then take it from there.'

He is warning other states against falling into the trap of thinking they are immune to the virus.

'There is no American that is immune. What is happening to New York is not an anomaly. In many ways, it's the canary in the coal mine.

'What you see us going through here, you will see happening all across this country. We believe that we're dealing with this pandemic at a level intensity that no one has seen before,' he said.

'We've dealt with some really deadly illnesses. We dealt with the Ebola virus, that's not what this is. It tends to be the people who are acutely ill who have the most problems.

'The situation is painfully clear now; there's no question as to what we're dealing with there's no question to grief or loss of life. There's no question of what we must do,' he said.

The first thing was public response and staying at home. Cuomo fumed that he was still seeing 'too many people' in the streets of New York City.

A patient is loaded into an ambulance in New York City as the coronavirus pandemic exploded

'Stay at home. When I issued the stay-at-home order, it wasn't, "it would be nice if you did." Stay at home! If you leave the house, you're exposing yourself to danger and others to danger.

'I know the isolation can be boring and oppressive. It is better than the alternative. Stay at home. That is the best option. If you are out, no proximity. 6ft distancing.

'You want to stay away from places that are dense. Still, in New York City, you have too many places with too much density. I don't know how many different ways to make the same point,' he said.

All of the city's hospitals, whether they are public or private, will now work together to share resources and supplies.

The Navy ship the USNS Comfort arriving in New York City on Monday bringing with it 1,000 more hospital beds to New York's crippled system

The Navy ship arriving in New York City on Monday morning bringing with it 1,000 hospital beds

Cuomo said the entire country 'had been playing catch up from day one' and that others needed to start planning ahead now for what come their way.

'If you wait to prepare for the storm, it is too late. You have to prepare before the storm hits you. How do you know when you're doing to get there? You don't. There's no crystal ball but there is science, data, health professionals who have studied this virus.

'We now have months of data. Listen and follow the data,' he said.

He shot back at President Trump for suggesting that masks and vital pieces of protective equipment were going 'out the back door' in New Jersey and said the president 'did not understand the basic concept of planning'.

Cuomo hit back at Trump for suggesting PPE equipment was going 'out the back door'

'We are creating a stockpile. For someone to say, "well the warehouse has equipment in it, you shouldn't be using it today"... that defies the basic concept of planning and the basic operation that we have to have working not just in the state but in the country.

'If you are not preparing for the apex, you are missing the entire point of the operation. It is a fundamental blunder to only prepare for today.

'That's why, in some ways, we are where we are. We've been behind the virus from day one.

'You have the scientists and data projections showing you the curve. Prepare for the high point of the curve and do it now. When are you going to do it, the night before?' he said.

Cuomo also dismissed the notion that he would run for the Democratic presidential nomination, as many have urged him to, and said it was neither in his ambitions in the past nor on his mind now.

'As far as the president's comment about having a political contest with me - I am not engaging the president in politics. My only goal is to engage him in partnership. This is no time for politics. I am not going to get into a political dispute with the president, I'm not running for president I was never running for president, I said from day one, I'm not running for president now. I just want partnership to deal with this.

'If you're doing the right thing by NY I'll say it. If he's doing the wrong thing, I'll say it. But I'm not going to engage in politics. It's inappropriate, counter-productive and anti-American. Forget the politics. We have a national crisis. We are at war.

'There is no red and blue. It's red white and blue. So let's get over it and lead by example,' he said.

Earlier, he called for people to abandon politics, partisanship and division, saying: 'There is no time for that, not in this state, not in this nation.

'This is a deadly serious situation and frankly it's more important than politics and partisanship, if there is division at this time, the virus will defeat us.

'If there was ever a moment for unity, this my friends is it.'
Madrid: Spain's total number of coronavirus cases rose to 85,195 on Monday from 78,797 on Sunday, the country's health ministry said, as the infections surpassed those reported in China, at 81,470 according to the latest data.

The death toll from the virus in Spain rose to 7,340 on Monday from 6,528 on Sunday, the ministry said.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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K Ezhilarasan By

Express News Service

TIRUCHY: While cattle in other villages feed on grass and hay, those in Athavathur Santhai are feasting on cucumbers. They owe their good fortune to a farmer who could not send his cucumber crop to market due to the lockdown. A handful of people on two-wheelers enter the roadside farmhouse of M Muruganandam  the cucumber farmer  in Athavathur Santhai village, 10 km from Tiruchy. They collect cucumbers in bags and feed them to their cattle.

Muruganandam took a bank loan of Rs 25 lakh and erected two polyhouse tents, each covering an area of 1,000 square metres, a few months ago. He adopted the modern polyhouse technology and drip irrigation to cultivate cucumbers. He harvests around a tonne of cucumber every day using daily wagers and sends them to the Ottanchathiram market in a rented load vehicle. From the market, the cucumbers are taken to Kerala and Karnataka. A tonne of cucumber fetches him Rs 15,000 but due to the lockdown, in the past four days, he has suffered Rs 60,000 in losses.

On Sunday, he engaged daily wagers to harvest cucumbers as they had been jobless for the past four days. The cucumbers piled up in his farmhouse as they could not be sent to market due to transport restrictions and lack of demand. Traders were unwilling to buy from him for the time being. Muruganandam said, It is summer and cucumbers usually sell like hotcakes in normal times. Even though the cucumbers I cultivated are not being eaten by people, it is heartening to see cattle enjoying them.

Only tender cucumbers have market value. If harvesting is delayed, we would not be able to eat them. As these cucumbers could not be taken to market because of the lockdown, we allowed the villagers to take them for their cattle free of cost. What would we do with them otherwise? His brother Balasubramani cultivates Jaathi Malli flowers on another of portion of their land and sells to Gandhi Market traders. His business has also been hit as there are no takers for flowers with temples closed and family events cancelled.
Rome: Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's government prepared Italians for a "very long" lockdown on Sunday that would only be lifted gradually despite its economic hardship and traumatic impact on daily lives.

The message from ministers and health officials came as Italy's world-topping toll rose by 756 -- well bellow Friday's record of 969 -- and the rate of coronavirus infections slowed to under six percent for the first time.

Yet the government appeared more focused on the nearing April 3 deadline to lift a national lockdown that had never been tried by a Western democracy -- and has since been replicated across Europe and the United States.

"The measures expiring on April 3 will inevitably be extended," Regional Affairs Minister Francesco Boccia told Italy's Sky TG24 television. "I think that, at the moment, talking about re-opening is inappropriate and irresponsible. We all want to go back to normal. But we will have to do it by turning on one switch at a time." Italy is effectively sacrificing almost all forms of business activity to fight the pandemic that first emerged in China last year.

Deputy Finance Minister Laura Castelli said that the government's initial 25 billion euro ($28 billion) rescue package for affected families and companies might have to be quadrupled in size. "In my opinion, at least 100 billion (euros) will be needed," Castelli told the La Stampa daily.

Italy's death toll now stands at 10,779 and the number of officially registered infections is just under 100,000.

But officials brushed aside various data suggesting that both rates were slowing and that Italy might have already lived through the worst. "We are in the midst of a pandemic," Health Minster Roberto Speranza told reporters. "It would be a mistake to let our guard down." Government medical adviser Luca Richeldi warned that data pointing to a slowdown "are a reason for us to be even stricter.

"We are in a very long battle," said Richeldi. "Through our behaviour, we save lives." Ministers are expected to decide on the length of an extension in the coming days.

Conte has the right to keep the lockdown -- in full or in part -- until the existing state of medical emergency expires on July 31.

But there is nothing preventing his government from declaring a new one should restrictions be needed into the second half of the year.

Conte has indicated that he would like to see most measures lifted by June. Yet the strains on Italian society imposed by measures that might have seemed unimaginable just weeks ago are gradually starting to show.

The starkest example came when armed police began guarding entrances to supermarkets in Sicily after reports of looting by people who could no longer afford food.

Newspaper stories about growing discontent in one of Italy's least-developed regions appeared to be at least partially behind Conte's decision to make another TV appeal to the nation on Saturday.

Conte used it to announce a food voucher programme that will cost the government another 400 million euros ($445 million). "We know that many suffer but the state is there," Conte said.

But this is only a stop-gap measure designed to help families cover grocery costs of between 25 and 50 euros on a one-time basis.

Projections from several global banks and think-tanks in the past week point to Italy's economic output shrinking by seven percent this year. Those numbers are based on the assumption that the lockdown will not be extend far beyond April.

.
After a chaotic council election night, when a website crash meant few results were uploaded by the Electoral Commission of Queensland, results are slowly trickling in statewide.

Brisbane LNP lord mayor Adrian Schrinner has already claimed victory, winning his first lord mayoral election in his own right, and his primary challenger, Labor's Pat Condren, has conceded.

Voting at the Ipswich Central State School. Credit:Albert Perez/AAP

While the ECQ does not expect to have complete results for days, if not weeks, the Greens are already celebrating a strong showing in Brisbane that shaved down the LNP's lead in many wards and beat Labor in several.

Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate is also set to return for a third term, while Redland City mayor Karen Williams is neck-and-neck with her challenger, engineering consultant Claire Richardson.
Project developer STC-Swiss Town Consult will finalise its third deal in the first quarter of the year with the sale of the Max & Moritz residential project. The project development in Vienna's 23rd district will go to Munich-based Wealthcore Investment Management GmbH, which acquired it for its special fund Wealthcore

Photos: Expressiv



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[March 30, 2020] Droplet Microfluidic Screening and Sequencing Can Vastly Expand the Universe of New Antibody Therapeutics

Scientists at HiFiBiO Therapeutics, in a multi-year collaboration with researchers at ESPCI Paris - PSL and other organizations, have conducted experiments to illuminate immune system activity at the cellular level with the CelliGO platform, a novel droplet-based microfluidics technology that can facilitate the identification of potent antibodies with unique functional activities for therapeutic purposes, including antibodies against difficult targets. The proceedings are detailed in an article in Nature Biotechnology. One can think of the immune system as a complex, constantly changing army with a reserve of billions of antibodies trained to recognize and fight the various pathogens it encounters. When the body's own defenses face a new kind of threat that it has difficulties combating, medical science can arm the immune system by lending it therapeutic antibodies customized to help fight that new threat. However, current technologies limit the number of effective therapeutic antibodies that scientists can discover and enlist for help. The CelliGO technology can vastly expand the pool of novel antibody candidates by rapid high-throughput screening of millions of antibody-producing B cells. This deep immune repertore mining approach enables the identification of more diversified therapeutic candidates, increasing the options to choose from to develop effective new treatments.



"Our CelliGO platform has evolved into an innovative and robust solution for screening millions of B cells from a variety of species within a short period of time to discover potentially superior functional antibodies from the deepest immune repertoire," said Annabelle Gerard, PhD, Senior Director of Technology Advancement and External Innovation for HiFiBiO Therapeutics and lead author of the Nature Biotechnology article. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, HiFiBiO has deployed the same CelliGO technology in an intensive effort to rapidly search for SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies. The voluntary humanitarian collaboration with leading hospitals and other institutions was designed to screen blood samples from recovered patients to advance a pipeline of antibody drugs to treat the virus. HiFiBiO is open to additional collaborations that identify neutralizing therapeutic antibodies and investigate viral effects on immune responses through single-cell analysis and patient immune response profiling.

"Our industry-leading single-cell technology platform enables us to provide comprehensive immune profiling analysis and discover large numbers of high-quality biotherapeutic candidates in an unprecedented way. In this time of urgent medical need, we are mobilizing quickly to collaborate with the scientific and medical community to identify new partners and scale our capabilities in order to accelerate the delivery of life-changing new therapies to patients," said Liang Schweizer, PhD, President and CEO of HiFiBiO Therapeutics. For more information on HiFiBiO's open-innovation partnerships, please visit www.hifibio.com/partnerships. About HiFiBiO Therapeutics HiFiBiO Therapeutics is an emerging multinational biotherapeutics company mobilizing the human immune system to combat disease. The company integrates deep-rooted biological expertise with its comprehensive single-cell profiling technologies to discover and accelerate a pipeline of antibody drugs to treat cancer and autoimmune disorders. In addition, HiFiBiO Therapeutics aspires to address unmet medical needs around the world through open-innovation partnerships with industry and academia. The company features a strong global footprint with cutting-edge laboratories on three continents in Cambridge, Mass., Paris and Shanghai. For more information, please visit www.hifibio.com. HiFiBiO Therapeutics, the HiFiBiO Therapeutics logo and CelliGO are trademarks of HiFiBiO and its affiliates. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005604/en/

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Kochi, March 30 : The Kerala High Court on Monday granted parole till April 30 to all prisoners in Kerala who are either undertrials or remand prisoners, provided they are sentenced to less than seven years imprisonment.

According to reports on the 54 jails in the state there are 8600 prisoners and this move could benefit around 1000 prisoners.

However, habitual criminals will not get the benefit of this parole.

The court took this as a special case to reduce the crowding in jails in the wake of the coronavirus and as Kerala is one state that has been badly affected.

The court however directed that all such prisoners who go on parole, have to first report to their nearest police station and remain in their homes.

In case of any violation, the police can arrest such people and put them back in jail.
At least 93 migrant labourers have



been arrested in Gujarat's Surat city for allegedly defying the nationwide lockdown and attacking police, an official said on Monday.

Situation became tense in Ganesh Nagar and Tirupati Nagar localities late Sunday night after nearly 500 migrant workers residing there came on roads, demanding transportation facility to reach their native places, Deputy Commissioner of Police Vidhi Chaudhari said.

A number of people hailing from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar live in Surat's Pandesara area, where both the localities are situated, and work in powerlooms and textile processing units here, another police official said.

"When the police were trying to convince them to remain indoors, they started pelting stones at the security personnel. Several police vehicles were damaged in the stone pelting," Chaudhari said.

The police fired 30 teargas shells to disperse the crowd, said Chaudhari, whose official car was also damaged in the incident.

While some miscreants were arrested on Sunday night, some others were held on Monday, she said.

"We have lodged an FIR against a mob of 500 people and arrested 93 of them. They were charged under sections for rioting, attacking police, damaging public property and also under provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act for defying restrictions," the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Forty-three prisoners were on Monday released from the Muzaffarnagar district jail on parole in a bid to decongest the jail and enure that the crowded prion does not turn into a breeding ground for the spread of coronavirus infection.

The jail inmates were released on eight-week parole on recommendation of a prison committee, said Muzaffarnagar Jail Superintendent A K Saxena.

He said the prison committee had made its recommendation in accordance with the Allahabad High Court direction to the Uttar Pradesh government to decongest overcrowded prisons to stem the coronavirus spread.

A total of 2,272 prisoners are lodged in the district jail, which houses prisoners from the adjacent Shamli district, which has no jail.

The prisoners were released a day after a 70-year-old woman serving life term in the district jail here died of heart failure on Sunday.

The woman had died a day after another prisoner had died of kidney failure, Saxena had said on Snday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a fresh order, West Bengal government on Sunday asked authorities of every district to make adequate arrangements of temporary shelters for the poor people and migrant workers.

The order was issued by state Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha, citing a directive of the Ministry of Home Affairs for effective implementation of the lockdown measures.

"Adequate arrangements of temporary shelters and provision of food etc shall be made by the district administration for the poor and needy people, including migrant workers stranded due to lockdown measures in their respective areas," the order said.

"District administrations should explore the option of involving NGOs/civil society/other voluntary organisations to support and augment the services," it said.

The order further stated the migrant people and those having come from abroad, "and already under home/institutional lockdown", should be put under strict surveillance and in case of violation of home quarantine, they should be taken to the nearby quarantine centres of the state and kept there for 14 days.

The people who manage to move into the state despite these restrictions would have to be kept in the nearest government quarantine facility for a minimum period of 14 days as per standard health protocol, the order, which was described as "additional directives", stated. The order followed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's instruction to officials on March 27 to open 27-night shelters for the homeless in Kolkata.

Banerjee had also assured that the administration will do everything to mitigate the inconvenience of migrant workers from other states stranded in West Bengal due to the lockdown.

The order further said all employees, in industries- shops-commercial establishments, should make payment of wages of their workers on the due date and there shouldn't be any deduction for the closure period. It said landlords can't demand payment of rents from the migrants for one month and cannot force labourers and students to vacate their premises.

Also read: Coronavirus in India: Another patient dies in West Bengal, death toll at 2

Also read: Coronavirus in India Live updates: COVID-19 confirmed cases soar above 1,170; death toll past 30-mark
HALIFAXNova Scotias police watchdog is investigating the death of a 28-year-old man in the Halifax area who was jolted with a stun gun.

The Serious Incident Response Team says Halifax Regional Police were dispatched to a residence in Dartmouth to help a man who was harming himself.

The independent agency says officers entered the dwelling to ensure the mans safety, but the man became unco-operative.

Thats when police used a conducted energy weapon to subdue the man, who was taken to a hospital and later died.

The Serious Incident Response Team has assumed responsibility for the investigation.

Interim director Pat Curran says its not clear whether the polices use of a Taser led to the mans death.

You cant conclude from that, at this point, that theres any reason to believe that the police have been the cause of (the mans death), Curran said. Obviously, we dont know that. But, this person was doing themselves very serious harm.

Halifax police issued a statement of their own Monday, accusing the media of misrepresenting the case.

Some media stories and news headlines have prematurely drawn the conclusion and left the impression that the deployment of a conductive energy weapon caused the death of the man, the statement said.

The investigation is in the early stages and there are many facts to be determined.

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Nollywood actress, Eniola Badmus has taken to her Instagram page to give an update on her present health condition after she was called out on social media penultimate week.

Information Nigeria recalls the actress was dragged for not practising self-isolation as she had paid a visit to fellow colleague, Funke Akindele-Bello just three days after she returned from the United Kingdom, one of the high-risk nations with coronavirus.

The 42-year-old actress came out to announce her health condition via Instagram on Monday and she said she does not have any symptoms yet.

Read Also: Nigeria Records Second Death From Coronavirus

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Some observers say even the October schedule looks ambitious & even if it does take place, there will be a visible impact on the participation. But few are also hopeful the festival will bounce back

The ongoing coronavirus crisis has affected industries across the globe and has forced most industry events to be pushed back. One of the biggest in this list would be the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, scheduled for June but now will take place in October. The big question now is - will this impact the nature of the festival or its participation?

exchange4media took this query to several frequent Cannes attendees from the Indian adland. We spoke to them on the festivals decision to create a contingency plan for October, the impact the shift by four months could have, the threat of the pandemic on the nature of the festival, ad industry business dynamics and more.

While some industry observers hinted that given the current situation even the October schedule looks ambitious, others suggested that participation in the festival and the number of delegates attending the event will have a visible impact.

Read on to find out what our admen had to say:

Rohit Ohri, Group Chairman & CEO, FCB India



The key challenge is we dont know what the entry deadline is. Hypothetically, can you imagine having a Cannes in October then again in June? Well have a big problem in 2021. I have a feeling that entries might close in May and they might do the judging in October. The impact will be felt by the Cannes committee and not as much by the Indian or global ad industry.

Ajay Gahlaut, MD and CCO, Publicis India



As of now, there is too much uncertainty because of the COVID-19 threat. One doesnt know how long the lockdown will last and when will the world emerge from the crisis in its entirety.

As far as the Cannes Lions Festival is concerned, Im sure this pandemic will have some effect. While the enthusiasm to participate should be there, Im not sure how many agencies will want to spend on the awards after taking a hit to their bottom lines. This year might see a lot of agencies staying away from the show. People, too, will be wary of travelling so soon after the crisis. I think it will take a while before the world recovers from this unprecedented epidemic and returns to business as usual.

Tarun Rai, Chairman and Group CEO, Wunderman Thompson, South Asia



There are too many pressing issues as we step into a new week of the lockdown. There are also too many questions regarding the virus. Europe has crossed the 3,00,000 mark in Covid-19 cases. The US has crossed 1,00,000! When will this end? What is going to happen to other parts of the world, including India?

I personally think Cannes Lions, like the Japan Olympics, should be postponed by a year. Even if we conquer the virus quickly, I believe the money that gets spent on the award entries, registration and travel to Cannes, can be better deployed. Unless, of course, the Cannes Festival decides on a different format. An on-line Awards Show. Then we may consider it, once again.

Anil K Nair, CEO, VMLY&R INDIA



The coronavirus pandemic qualifies as a force majeure and therefore has to be dealt with by all concerned. It will be a blow to the many teams that have been preparing their entries and cases, but I guess everyone can live with this delay. I believe agencies and clients have more things to worry about given the open-endedness of this pandemic and would be more than glad not to be distracted from the task of steadying their various ships. I am not aware if they have extended entry dates and if yes then one can hope to see some interesting COVID-19 related interventions.

But all said, I think everyone will bounce back and celebrate this year's Cannes with more gusto, provided we see the back of this pandemic by then.

Sumanto Chattopadhyay, Chairman and CCO, 82.5 Communications

It has seemed obvious for a while that such festivals would get postponed if not cancelled.

Those agencies which registered or sent entries early, before the gravity of the situation became apparent, will naturally be distressed if they do not get a refund. 82.5 was following a wait-and-watch policy, so we have not sent entries or registered delegates. I think Cannes Lions should give at least a partial refund, if possible. But, if the fine print covers them in such black swan events, then they are legally not bound to. I think the world is being forced to adjust rapidly to this 'new normal', so we will only know once the dust settles - what shape or form Cannes Lions will take in the future.

Rajdeepak Das, MD & Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett, South Asia

Firstly, I think Cannes is an annual ritual that every adlander looks forward to. The festival getting postponed due to COVID-19, although necessary, is disappointing too and the change of dates will surely have some repercussions. However, this is an unprecedented time in our lives and as partners to brands we are all learning everyday how to best handle this crisis. But it is more important now than ever for the industry to step up and use the power of creativity to make a positive and impactful difference. Cannes being one of the industrys biggest knowledge sharing platform will give us a chance to review, learn and understand how everyone pulled through these trying times, making the event even more important this year.

Narayan Devanathan, Group Executive & Strategy Officer, Dentsu Aegis Network, South Asia

We just heard from the IOC and the government of Japan that for the first time in its 124-year history, the Summer Olympics has been postponed by a year. And this is the optimistic scenario. Now see the postponement of the Cannes Lions Festival in that context. The silver lining here is that the Cannes Lions is only being postponed. Will that hamper participation? I think, as with many, many aspects of our lives, this crisis is making us ask fundamental questions about ourselves. What is really important? And can we count advertising festivals among them? My answer, actually, is yes. Once we come out of this crisis, well have a significant global downturn to deal with, plenty of austerity measures, cuts to advertising spending across the board. You know what might actually help then? Trivial as it may seem in that context, a festival of creativity can be a good reminder to look up from the trenches and reach out again to what were capable of when we explore the power of ideas.

Satbir Singh, Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Thinkstr



Seeing how the pandemic is developing, the worst is clearly not over in Europe with the situation in Spain and Italy continuing to be grave. Add to that, the situation in the US is deteriorating fast as well. We are hoping our 21-day lockdown will arrest the slide in India. In view of all this, I believe even October looks very ambitious at the moment. The world will take a while to gain momentum, not just economically but emotionally as well. Id think participation, both in terms of entries and delegates, will be lower than average if the festival does happen in October.

Subhash Kamath, CEO & Managing Partner, BBH

At this stage, theres no way knowing when this pandemic will be behind us. So Im not even sure if the Cannes Festival will happen in October. Its honestly not a priority right now. Peoples safety and trying to manage work from home is all one is focused on. Award shows will come later, whether in 2020 or the next year.

Pratik Hatankar, Head - Innovations & New Initiatives, Tonic Worldwide



A 4-month shift for Cannes Lions will surely change things. Advertising is a very versatile industry, so I have no doubt that it will adapt to the weather. Cannes is all about celebrating creativity. There will be many agencies and brands looking forward to discussing and awarding creative work in the new world context. I believe Cannes 2020 being delayed will not hamper its footfalls and entries in 2021.

Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)
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The federal government says the wage subsidy for businesses struggling with the economic effects of the coronavirus  which was boosted to 75 per cent last week  will be available to all type of businesses.

Over the past few weeks, youve had to get creative to keep money coming in andnd in some cases, youve had to make the difficult decision of letting your employees go, said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, during a news conference.

For people to get through this tough time and for the economy to rebound, people have to keep their job, so we announced the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business says the announcement brings relief to employers and employees.

The decisions to make the wage subsidy widely available to employers of all sizes and structures is the right approach given the unique nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Dan Kelly, president of CFIB, in a release.

The wage subsidy is the single best measure to help Canada prepare for a quick recovery the minute the emergency phase of the pandemic is over.

A business with revenue down at least 30 per cent qualifies for the subsidy, including non-profit organizations and charities. The number of employees will not determine eligibility.

But Kelly says the requirements might be too stringent.

While it is reasonable for government to require evidence of a financial impact on businesses in order to qualify for the program, CFIB has heard from several businesses with very small margins, where even a modest reduction in sales can require significant changes in their staffing levels, said Kelly.

The subsidy applies to the first $58,700 per employee, maxing out at $847 a week and backdated to March 15th.

The Prime Minister urged employers to top up the remaining 25 per cent of employee wages if possible, and warned businesses not to take advantage of the subsidy.

And if you think this is a system you can game or take advantage of, dont, said the Prime Minister.

Story continues

There will be serious consequences for those who do.

The Department of Finance wasnt able to provide further details. The Prime Minister says Finance Minister Bill Morneau will have more on the cost of the program Tuesday.

Jessy Bains is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on Twitter @jessysbains.

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The European Union will provide the assistance package to Ukraine in the sum of 80 million to facilitate the influence of crisis with coronavirus on the healthcare system, lives of people and economy as the Delegation of the EU to Ukraine reported.

We stand by Ukraine in these extremely difficult times. With this support package, we aim at saving lives and strengthening societal resilience. We support the Ukrainian response to a spike in health and social assistance needs as well as the protection of businesses and jobs. We know we need to act quickly and efficiently in reinforcing government and civic action, Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi said.

First of all, the aid package will aim at the support of the healthcare system, including the financial contribution of the WHO for its work in Ukraine.

The entire Eastern Partnership region will get 30 million, including 20 million to meet the most immediate needs, proportionally the largest part of funds is provided for Ukraine. It will allow to purchase necessary medical means and equipment and strengthen the capacity of the healthcare system to respond to the disease outbreak. Ukraine will be able to use the new EU Initiative for Health Security, which aims to strengthen the readiness of epidemiologists and frontline health staff and consultations of the specialists of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Secondly, the funds will be spent for support of the economy, particularly, small and medium-sized enterprises by the provision of liquidity, including through the international financial establishments.

The EU is already working with IFIs and relevant financing institutions from EU Member States as TEAM EUROPE in order to facilitate, simplify and accelerate the uptake and reinforcement of existing credit lines and support programmes to SMEs, self-employed and other economic operators, the message said.

The commission will also provide 500 million of guarantees planned within the European Fund for Sustainable Development for the facilitation of the provision of liquidity in the countries-neighbours of the EU, including through working capital, trade finance, or moratoria on debt service.

At bilateral level in Ukraine, we are accelerating the launch of a new SME support programme (20 million) under the 2020 EU budget, with a new 10 million made available for lending in hryvnas for SMEs. A programme in support of small farms of 25 million comes in addition to the 26 million allocated already in 2019, the message noted.

Thirdly, the funds will be spent for support of people who are most affected by the crisis, in cooperation with civic partners. The first stage takes place on the attraction of at least 2 million from regional and bilateral tools to form the quick societal relief package in such spheres as protection of people belonging to vulnerable groups, the transition to online education, support of cultural and creative industries and continuation of cultural life online, fight against disinformation and strengthening of community resilience.

In the east of Ukraine, the aid provides the procurement of protective suits for doctors and disinfectants as well as support to volunteers who deliver food and medicines to the older persons.

As we reported, in Ukraine, the number of patients, infected with Covid-19, has increased to 480. In the past 24 hours, 62 new cases have been registered.
OTTAWAThe federal government has promised to pay the wages of hundreds of thousands of Canadian workers in an extraordinary move to help nurse the economy through the COVID-19 crisis.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday that Ottawas promised wage subsidy program  originally meant as a modest measure to help small businesses  will now apply to all firms, big and small, that have suffered a sharp revenue loss because of the impact of the virus.

Its a dramatic expansion of the program and comes as the ranks of Canadas unemployed swell by the day and the prospect of a prolonged economic shutdown well into April to contain the virus.

This is about making sure that people are still getting paid whether they work for a business that employs 10 people or a 1,000 people, Trudeau said during his daily briefing.

The government unveiled new criteria Monday to determine which firms will be eligible. Any business that has seen a drop of 30 per cent or more in revenue will be able to get a wage subsidy of 75 per cent to help keep workers on the payroll, Trudeau said. It will also apply to non-profit organizations and charities.

The program will cover 75 per cent up to a salary of $58,700, paying up to $847 a week and will be backdated to March 15.

In light of the programs new, more generous terms, the prime minister urged employers to rehire employees who have already been laid off because of the widespread closures across the economy and where possible, to top up wages to cover the remaining 25 per cent.

He also warned employers not the game the program and said there would be consequences for those who do.

This unprecedented situation calls for unprecedented action and it calls for good faith and trust between everyone involved, he said.

If there is abuse, there will be severe consequences for anyone who takes advantage of the system and therefore takes advantage of Canadians, Trudeau said.

When first unveiled earlier this month, Ottawa promised to pay just 10 per cent of a workers wage and only small- to medium-sized firms were eligible, sparking criticism from business groups that it was too low to alleviate job losses.

On Friday, the government raised the subsidy to 75 per cent and Mondays move opened it to more companies.

Its a substantial wage subsidy and it looks like its broadly applied and those were the most important criteria, said Dan Kelly, president and CEO of Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which had pushed for changes.

If governments can cover the wage bill for a period of time or a large chunk of it  then the business itself has a fighting chance, Kelly said.

He said businesses are keen to see the detailed criteria. And he cautioned that some firms forced to close up shop completely wont have the financial resources to cover wages while waiting for Ottawa to reimburse them.

Even with the promise of 75 per cent down the road, if you have no money from which to pay it, its not going to offer you much help, he said.

Still, Kelly said he was encouraged that the government seems to be using an honour system and not requiring detailed paperwork upfront to access the subsidy. Getting this sped up fast is super, super critical, he said.

Even under the best-case scenario, he warned that the economic disruption caused by COVID-19 will see thousands of businesses go under.

Trudeau was unable to say what the cost of the program might be. Finance Minister Bill Morneau would have additional details on Tuesday, he said.

When first announced, the cost of the wage subsidy program was estimated at $3.8 billion. Now it could be 10 times that amount.

These costs keep climbing but I can assure people that our focus right now is on making sure that Canadians keep their jobs even if theyre not working at them right now, Trudeau said.

The prime minister made the announcement on a day when his government was originally scheduled to be delivering its budget. In a speech just over three weeks ago, Morneau boasted that the countrys debt-to-GDP ratio was expected to continue trending downward.

Now the government is spending on the fly with a promise to work out the costs later.

In a Friday briefing note, Scotiabank economist Rebekah Young estimated the cumulative price tag on deficit spending could top $140 billion or almost seven per cent of GDP with debt levels approaching 40 per cent of GDP.

The wage subsidy program alone could cost at least $42 billion over three months, perhaps higher given Mondays changes, she said in an interview. Were looking at tens of billions, said Young, director of fiscal and provincial economics at the bank.

She cautioned that it may also be hard for the government to suddenly withdraw its wage supports until the economy shows true signs of a rebound. Even if the virus is over in three months  which I think few scientists think will happen  its really difficult to pull stimulus suddenly, Young said.

But the price tag of not acting would certainly be higher in terms of its cost on the individuals, businesses and the overall economy.

Theres that potential of just totally devastating the economy, Young said.

She noted that household and corporate debt levels have swelled since the 2008 financial crisis, making them all less able to weather a financial upset, raising the spectre of financial ruin if the government did not provide a lifeline.

You could have a lot of households going bankrupt and a lot of businesses going insolvent, she said.

The promised funding isnt about stimulus. Its about helping Canadians survive, she said. This is more aboutbridge financing to make sure no one gets evicted, that they can pay the rent and they can pay their essentials, Young said.

Former Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page called the emergency subsidy sizable. He estimated the total fiscal cost to come in around $25 billion, noting that while the federal government had not released the official numbers, that total would be consistent with the governments estimates for the previous 10 per cent wage subsidy.

Page said he expects more Canadians to be unemployed thanks to COVID-19 than the peak of the 2008-09 financial crisis.

The number of unemployed increased by 500,000 in the 2008-09 financial crisis. We are likely facing a larger increase in unemployed (now), Page said.
Covidcare for All would also cover the cost of Covid-19 treatments for people who are insured. Insurance companies would be barred in return from hiking premiums, which might otherwise spike as much as 40 percent next year.

The United States also needs to ramp up its support to businesses. Since containing the epidemic requires government-mandated economic shutdowns, it is legitimate to expect the government, in return, to shelter businesses from the economic disruptions. To keep businesses alive through this crisis, the government should act as a payer of last resort. In other words, the government should pay not only wages of idled workers, but also essential business maintenance costs, like rents, utilities, interest on debt, health insurance premiums, and other costs that are vital for the survival of businesses in locked down sectors. This allows businesses to hibernate without bleeding cash and risking bankruptcy. Denmark was the first nation to announce such a program; it is being emulated by a growing number of countries, including Italy.

In the United States, calls to support businesses have been met with excessive skepticism so far. To be sure, the congressional relief package includes $350 billion in help for small businesses, but the program is complex, limited in scope and only a fraction of eligible businesses are likely to use it.

A liquidationist ideology seems to have infected minds on both the left and the right. On the right, opposition to government grants to businesses is grounded in the view that markets should be left to sort out the consequences of the pandemic. Let airlines go bankrupt; shareholders and bondholders will lose but the airlines will restructure and re-emerge. The best way government can help is by slashing taxes, according to this view. The relief package includes more than $200 billion in tax cuts for business profits.

This view is misguided. There is nothing efficient in the destruction of businesses that were viable before the virus outbreak. The crisis cannot be blamed on poorly managed corporations. Government support, in the case of a pandemic, does not create perverse incentives. Bankruptcies redistribute income, but in a chaotic and opaque way. And while bankruptcy might be a way to deal with the economic fallout of the pandemic for large corporations, it is not well adapted to small businesses. Without strong enough government support, many small businesses will have to liquidate. The death of a business has long-term costs: The links between entrepreneurs, workers and customers are destroyed and often need to be rebuilt from scratch.

On the left, a popular view contends that the government should help people, not corporations. It holds that big corporations acted badly before the crisis  buying back their shares, paying C.E.O.s exorbitant salaries  and should not be bailed out. If they are, in this view, they should be subject to strict conditions, like swearing off share buybacks, reducing C.E.O. pay, and a $15 minimum wage for their employees.

The concerns underlying this view are understandable. Inequality has surged since the beginning of the 1980s. This crisis, however, is unlike the financial crisis of 2008-9. The firms seeking aid today bear no direct responsibility for the disaster that threatens their survival. If the government mandates a shutdown for public health reasons, why should it attach any conditions to temporary financial support for directly affected industries?
DUBLIN (Reuters) - EU leaders will find a solution to a dispute over so-called 'coronabonds', or common EU bonds, to protect the euro zone's weakest members in the coming weeks, Ireland's finance minister Paschal Donohoe said on Monday.

"I ultimately do believe some kind of solution will have to be found" to make the burden of countries like Italy and Spain "sustainable over many generations," Donohoe told Newstalk radio.

"If the human cost is unbearable, we need to find some way in which the economic cost is bearable. And I do believe in the coming weeks within the European Union some way will be found to respond back to that need," he said.

(Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
Raising corporate value should be top priority



Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Won-tae has defended his control over management of Hanjin KAL, the group's holding company, in a feud with his elder sister Cho Hyun-ah. During the firm's shareholders meeting Friday, 56.67 percent of shareholders supported the reappointment of the chairman as an executive director.



The shareholders also elected six new directors recommended by Cho Won-tae's side while turning down seven nominees proposed by a three-party alliance involving the heiress, activist fund Korea Corporate Governance Improvement (KCGI) and mid-sized builder Bando Engineering & Construction. As a result, the proxy war ended in a complete victory for the chairman.



Although Cho Won-tae beat his sister this time around, the sibling feud is expected to continue as the alliance has vowed to "do whatever it can to pull Hanjin Group out of the crisis and bring it back to normal." That is why the current management, including Chairman Cho, should reflect on why the country's 13th-largest conglomerate has been in this mess to such an extent as to be mired in a sibling dispute, and turn over a new leaf.



Hanjin Group has been accused of embezzlement, breach of trust, smuggling and aberrations involving owner-family members such as the "nut rage" incident in 2014. Such incidents tarnished the group's image and dented the value of its affiliates. But the board of directors has been merely a rubber stamp, failing to check the family's "imperial management." So it's somewhat regrettable that the anti-chairman alliance failed in its attempt to get even one director elected in the shareholders meeting.



The alliance claims it wants to introduce a professional management system into the logistics-centered conglomerate, but the system doesn't automatically guarantee success. Cho Hyun-ah should refrain from personal attacks and emotional confrontation although she continues to fight over who controls the group. The most important thing for the brother and sister is to raise the corporate value of the group.




The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta is expected to address Parliament later today [Monday, March 30] on the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the country.

Two weeks ago, he presented a fiscal impact analysis to the House and outlined various sectors of the economy expected to take a hit from the pandemic.

Today's address is expected to touch on the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme announced by President Akufo-Addo and details of external support government expects to help tackle the outbreak of the virus.

Background

President Nana Akufo-Addo earlier instructed Mr. Ofori-Atta to conduct an economic impact assessment of potential lockdown measures on the country, according to the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.

The President has instructed the Minister responsible for Finance to build the economic impact assessment which he did about two or three weeks ago and even presented parts of it to Parliament, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah said to the press on Wednesday afternoon.

But he has also instructed him to work out the implications of any further measures on the economy and how to put in place economic measures, what people call a stimulus programme to ensure that these measures do not adversely hurt the economy.

The Information Minister added that all things being equal, once he is done, he [the Finance Minister] will brief the nation through Parliament on the economic measures being used there.

Money to fight COVID-19

President Akufo-Addo, while delivering an address to the nation on Wednesday, 11th March, 2020, noted that he had directed the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, to make available the cedi equivalent of US$100 million to enhance Ghana's Coronavirus preparedness and response plan.

This amount, according to President Akufo-Addo, is to fund expansion of infrastructure, purchase of materials and equipment, and public education.

Ghana has also turned to the International Monetary Fund for financial support to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Ghana has turned to the International Monetary Fund for financial support to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic.

---citinewsroom
Epidemics, like other natural disasters, have generated real headaches for religious leaders through history. Especially for the three monotheistic religions, where the concept of a one-only-God prevents believers from putting the blame on bad gods or on the devil. The priests, the rabbis and the imams need to explain why the disaster has happened, and why good people were hurt by God.

Since many of these religious leaders have no clue as to why, some of their answers can be quite dangerous. Behavior adopted by zealots who defy instructions by authorities irritates rational people, who worry about the consequences of such conduct and fear that they will be infected by those who disobey orders.

Still, looking at the larger picture, all this could help bring about important new developments in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

While the No. 1 anti-coronavirus instruction all over the world is Don't gather, keep a distance of a meter or two from one another, wear masks! the main message of the religious zealots is Keep praying together. Whatever you try doing will not change anything, because the disaster is a God-given phenomenon, and only begging God may change things for the better.

Big wall posters in the Jerusalem Mea Shearim ultra-religious neighborhood call upon residents to breach instructions by authorities against mass meetings and to instead gather to pray. The danger here is obvious: Those who are not confining themselves to their own neighborhood might easily infect people outside their narrow streets. In their case, it is not a matter of negligence or economic difficulties involved in distancing themselves from others or because they live in densely populated housing; they simply don't believe that the recommendations by the experts have anything to do with COVID-19.

Ultra-Orthodox Health Minister Yaakov Litzman said in an interview March 22, We are praying and hoping that Messiah will come by Passover time, and I am sure the Messiah will save us, just like God saved us in Egypt.

On the Palestinian side, a group of religious zealots who returned a few days ago from a Muslim event in Pakistan infected their neighbors in the Palestinian territories. The news about the coronavirus cases generated great criticism against the religious leadership, which allegedly dismissed the order to quarantine people who arrived from abroad for two weeks, calling upon believers to ignore the requests of more moderate imams that mosques be shut down and that public prayer not be held.

The coronavirus is triggering doomsday theories in Christianity. John's vision, in the last apocalyptic book of the New Testament (The Book of Revelation), offers a description of the end of the world as a result of epidemics and destruction. Some Christian preachers are now using the coronavirus epidemic in order to point at doomsday. Their followers are encouraged to believe that nothing can be done to prevent the epidemic, since this is the wish of God.

Prophecies that the world would be destroyed in 1666, or later on  in 2000 or even 2012  were obviously proven false, but this has not convinced believers that the religious interpretation of today's events are just another false prophecy. They don't obey official orders and endanger those around them. The efforts of theologians  such as Ulrich Lehner at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana  to refute such theories are often uphill battles.

Jewish resources such as the Talmud mention that before the appearance of the Messiah, there will be plague all over the world, and the sinister people will die then. In the Jerusalemite Talmud (tractate Kiddushine 84), Rabbi Hanina is quoted as saying that once in 60 or 70 years, a big plague is sent by God to the world, and many people die. For Rabbi Hanina, they are not necessarily the bad people, but those who are selected by God for his own reasons. Human beings should not ask questions about Gods decisions.

Many religious leaders offer different explanations for the phenomenon of the epidemic, but with one common denominator: There is nothing you can do about the plague, other than (in some versions) pray to God.

In the past, rationalists criticized religious zealots mainly for preventing the participation of women in the labor market, or preventing their kids from learning core studies such as English and mathematics. Today, criticism is now focused on the behavior of zealots and how this directly impacts the larger society during the coronavirus pandemic. The Palestinian street is angry with those worshippers who are not refraining from praying shoulder to shoulder. The Israelis were outraged when they saw, on TV, an ultra-religious wedding party with men dancing very close to each other, defying the most important demand by the Health Ministry.

A Palestinian journalist told me about a popular saying in the streets of Ramallah these days, Nature is much more dangerous than our neighbor. He said people in the West Bank are well aware of the close cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority on fighting the coronavirus threat. Obviously, they understand that the Israeli assistance stems from Israelis' own interest and not from a sudden burst of love for the Palestinians. Still, the journalist believes that in the aftermath of the pandemic, we may discover interesting and intertwined changes within Palestinian society: secularization and also openness to renew dialogue with Israel.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30)  A temporary liquor ban is in place in Manila City starting Monday after residents were caught partying during the enhanced community quarantine.

The Manila Public Information Office said Mayor Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso signed an executive order strictly banning the selling and distribution of alcoholic drinks during the country's fight against COVID-19. The business permits and mayor's permit of businesses who violate the ban will be revoked.

The order was issued after residents were caught violating social distancing and curfew guidelines. Some were also caught drinking outside their homes.

"Kahapon may mga lasing, may mga nagka-karaoke pa, tambay sa kalsada, nagpaparty-party pa. Ngayon, para wala na kayong dahilan para makahanap ng alak. Ipininagbabawal na po at binabawi pansamantala ang pribilehiyo sa mga tindahan na nagtitinda ng alak," the local executive said in the statement.

[Translation: We found people drunk, using the karaoke, hanging out in streets and partying. Now you can't buy liquor. We are temporarily banning the sale of alcoholic drinks.]

Other Metro Manila cities that imposed a liquour ban are Mandaluyong, Quezon City, and Muntinlupa.
Editors note: This post includes updates related to COVID-19 and its effects on Albuquerque and the rest of the state.

PICTURES





UPDATES

5:32 p.m.

UNM Hospital launches two clinical trials

As the toll of cornovarirus continues to climb, the University of New Mexico Hospital announced this week that it will launch two clinical trials in an effort to find a cure.

One of the trials will be for COVID-19 patients with pneumonia symptoms and another trial for patients without those symptoms.

Patients at the hospital who have tested positive for the virus with pneumonia symptoms may be offered remdesivir, an antiviral drug created to fight the Ebola and Marburg viruses, Dr. Richard Larson, the executive vice chancellor and vice chancellor for research at the UNM Health Sciences Center, said in a news release.

The drug is manufactured by Gilead Sciences, Inc.

We are working actively with Gilead to have this in place by the end of the week, said Dr. Michelle Harkins, who is the lead on the study. I have one patient on the drug now and am looking to enroll more.

Read more >>

 Ryan Boetel

4:17 p.m.

2 more coronavirus deaths in NM, 44 new cases

The coronavirus death toll in New Mexico has climbed to four after two women, one in her 70s and one in her 90s, died on Monday, according to state health officials.

New Mexico added 44 new positive cases to its list on Monday, bringing the total to 281. Officials say that 26 people have recovered from the virus, and 24 are currently hospitalized for COVID-19.

According to the Department of Health, the two women died in Bernalillo County on Monday, and both had underlying medical conditions.

The latest positive tests include 16 new cases in Bernalillo County, bringing its total to 117. There are also five new cases each in Sandoval and San Juan Counties, three each in Santa Fe, Torrance, Valencia and McKinley counties, two in Chaves County and one each in Dona Ana, Rio Arriba, Socorro and Taos counties.

 Katy Barnitz

4:10 p.m.

APS lessons coming to TV

Albuquerque Public Schools classes are coming to the small screen.

Daily educational segments, which are targeted for K-5 students, will air on New Mexico PBS-TV starting on April 6.

Called APS @Home, the supplemental lessons will be broadcast on channel 5.1 from 8 a.m. to noon on weekdays. It will also simultaneously air on KENW in Portales and KRWG in Las Cruces.

A schedule of classes can be found at aps.edu.

The daily lesson plans will be broadcast each day, and will then be available later for individual on-demand lessons. These supplemental learning videos feature APS educators in short segments, supporting a variety of subjects and grade levels, including English language arts, math, visual and performing arts, physical education, and more, the district wrote in a news release.

APS will also be posting lessons to its YouTube channel.

-Shelby Perea

3:41 p.m.

Clerks seek emergency court action for all-mail voting

More than two dozen of New Mexicos county clerks asked the state Supreme Court on Monday for an emergency order that would allow them to move to a mail-in election for the June 2 primary.

The clerks said they otherwise face an impossible choice  putting voters and election workers lives at risk or violating their oath of office.

The state of New Mexico faces a public health emergency unprecedented in modern times, the clerks said in an their emergency petition, filed Monday.

An attorney for Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, New Mexicos chief election officer, also signed onto the petition.

The 27 clerks  mostly Democrats but also including five Republicans  argued that poll workers are scared to work and that election sites, such as schools, are already closed with no plans to re-open.

Read more >>

 Dan McKay

3:25 p.m.

President Trump says NM will get requested Army hospital

In a telephone conversation between President Donald Trump and governors today, the president told Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham that he will grant her request for a U.S. Army field hospital in Albuquerque.

The governor had asked the federal Department of Defense for the 248-bed hospital last week, citing concern about New Mexico hospitals ability to absorb a surge of novel coronavirus cases.

During the phone call today, Lujan Grisham brought up the request and said her office had not yet received word on the hospital from U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

In response, Trump told the governor well build you that hospital as quick as we can, according to a transcript of the conversation from CBS News. He also apparently directed aides to look into the issue.

Read more >>

 Dan Boyd

1:34 p.m.

NM CARES Act guide available

U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich have released a guide to help small businesses and non-profits access funding included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act signed into law by President Trump last week.

The new law included $377 billion in small businesses aid.

Udall and Heinrichs guide offers information about major programs and initiatives that will be available through the U.S. Small Business Administration, a news relesase from the senators offices said. The full guide is available at www.tomudall.senate.gov.

 Gabrielle Porter

11:53 a.m.

MDC inmate tests positive for COVID-19

A 39-year-old man in the custody of the Metropolitan Detention Center tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend, causing several other inmates and staff members to be quarantined, according to a Bernalillo County spokeswoman.

Spokeswoman Tia Bland wrote in a news release that the man was booked into the jail on Thursday and was not showing any symptoms of the virus at that time.

Two days after arriving at MDC, the jail was informed that the inmates mother was hospitalized and tested positive for COVID-19, Bland wrote in the release. The inmate had been caring for his mother prior to being booked in MDC. After learning of this information, the jail moved the inmate into an isolation cell and proceeded with a 14-day quarantine of inmates in two housing pods where the exposed inmate had been housed.

Read more >>

 Elise Kaplan, Katy Barnitz

10:53 a.m.

Navajo Nation cases jump to 128 as curfew kicks in

The number of cases of COVID-19 on the Navajo Nation jumped to 128 Sunday as the tribes president announced a nightly curfew on the reservation.

Although residents were ordered to stay at home more than a week ago, President Jonathan Nez held a town hall on Sunday afternoon and said a nightly curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. would begin today.

The order applies to all residents, except those facing an emergency or those heading to or from a job deemed essential.

We are doing our best to keep people safe, but the government cant do everything and thats why everyone needs to stay home as much as possible, Nez wrote in a release announcing the order. Every person is responsible for taking precautions to preserve their own health. This curfew is an added measure to protect our Navajo people, especially our elderly and high-risk.

There have been no deaths reported since the first two were announced on Friday.

The 13 new cases announced Sunday night is an 11 percent increase in the number of Navajo Nation residents who have tested positive for the virus.

This brings the rate of infection on the reservation to more than three times that of New Mexicos, and likely much more.

Thats because the Navajo Nation, which extends into Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, has a reported population of about 350,000, but not all tribal members live on the reservation. The 128 reported cases bring the rate of infection to about 36 per 100,000 members.

New Mexico has 237 total cases in a reported population of a little more than 2 million  a rate of infection of about 11 per 100,000 residents.

Ninety-nine of the Navajo cases are on the Arizona side of the reservation, while 24 are in New Mexico and five in Utah.

The Navajo tribal leadership has expressed ongoing concern about supplies and resources on the reservation.

We dont have enough doctors, nurses, first responders, hospital beds, ventilators, and other resources to treat everyone, Vice President Lizer wrote in the release. We have to do our part by preventing the spread of the virus.

Read: Public health order announcing the curfew

 Robert Browman

10:30 a.m.

Delegation backs governors request for combat support hospital

The New Mexico congressional delegation wrote letters to Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Peter Gaynor to support New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams request for the deployment of a fully equipped combat support hospital to Albuquerque.

They also voiced support for the mobilization of basic expeditionary airfield resources units to assist communities under strain to meet the demands of a surge in COVID-19 patients.

Public health experts in New Mexico predict that resources will soon be exhausted and it is imperative that the state acquire additional beds and resources before it reaches a critical mass of infections, the lawmakers wrote.  A CSH or medical tent facility would provide much-needed resources to bolster the State of New Mexicos ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 Scott Turner

10:06 a.m.

Kirtland places restrictions on commissary, base exchange and Shoppette

Kirtland Air Force Base Installation Commander Col. David Miller raised the health protection level at the base last week to prevent the spread of COVID-19, adding restrictions to some of the facilities.

Services such as the base exchange, the commissary and the Shoppette are closed to many people, including retirees living off base.

I understand the restrictions to the commissary, base exchange and Shoppette are frustrating for retirees and others that are accustomed to having access to these services, Miller said, but it is a necessary one to reduce person-to-person contact, and virus transmission, in order to preserve our vital Kirtland missions.

The directive restricts access to those locations to active duty, retired personnel employed at Kirtland, base residents and their respective dependents. The base pharmacies remain open to all eligible.

 Scott Turner

9:07 a.m.

Pictures: Distance learning in New Mexico

Recent stories about NM schools:

 Access to technology varies across school districts

 NM public schools to stay closed for rest of year

 Eddie Moore

6:57 a.m.

Grieving families in limbo as virus limits gatherings

The COVID-19 pandemic is leaving many grieving families with an awful choice: Postpone services indefinitely or scale them down as public health officials urge people to avoid crowds in order to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Tom Antram, president of French Funerals and Cremations, said his biggest concern is lingering grief.

Theyre not getting a chance to fully gather together to have that goodbye. Its important to have an opportunity to grieve, he said.

Antram said roughly half the families he has been dealing with are choosing to bury or cremate their deceased relatives and to postpone services. In the meantime, he said, the company is offering no-cost grief counseling. Its unknown of how long this will last, so even postponements are question marks, he said.

Some have chosen to hold services amidst the quarantine.

Read more >>

 Matthew Reisen

6:05 a.m.

Juvenile Justice Center closed for cleaning

The Juvenile Justice Center will be closed until Tuesday after a construction worker there was sent home with a fever Thursday, according to a Second Judicial District Court news release.

The facility closed soon after it learned about the workers illness in order to allow time for a thorough cleaning of the building, the court announced Friday.

The construction project is on hold until the county is assured that the worker and others that he or she may have been in contact with do not have coronavirus. Five county employees who had contact with the worker have been asked to self-quarantine.

Court operations at the Second Street facility are expected to resume Tuesday. In the meantime, any necessary Childrens Court proceedings will take place in the downtown state District Court building.

 Katy Barnitz

6:05 a.m.

New chart: Reported status of COVID-19 cases in NM

On Saturday, the New Mexico Department of Health reported the number of people who have recovered from COVID-19 in the state. Its 26.

This number, along with those for hospitalizations and deaths, allowed the Journal to build a chart to show the current breakdown of cases in New Mexico.

The chart is published, along with others used to track the status of the pandemic in the state, in the State Tracking section of the Coronavirus in New Mexico page.

 Robert Browman
Bhutan on Monday announced that the quarantine period will be extended for 21 days with effect from March 31 in view of coronavirus cases in the landlocked country.

The official Twitter account of Bhutanese Prime Minister said: "The government decides to increase the quarantine period to 21 days starting tomorrow. This is to ensure the highest preventive measure."

Bhutan so far has reported four positive cases of the coronavirus as per the Johns Hopkins University.

The first case in the Himalayan country was reported on March 5. He is a 76-year old tourist from the United States and had visited Assam before arriving in Bhutan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Supermarket chains statewide will implement more rules to separate shoppers based on tougher restrictions ordered Sunday in Norwalk to battle the coronavirus.

Were trying to do the best we can to make sure people are safe, said Wayne Pesce, who runs the West Hartford-based Connecticut Food Association, an industry group that promotes retail grocers and their suppliers.

Pesce, after consulting Monday afternoon with several of his members, such as Big Y, ShopRite and Stop & Shop, said all agreed to halve the maximum occupancy of their stores and ask families to send only one representative to do the household shopping.

The new policies mimic ones announced by Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling Sunday to try to enforce even more social-distancing in that city, where the number of diagnosed virus cases had surged to 226 with five deaths.

I understand that families, especially those with young children, are experiencing cabin fever staying at home, Rilling had said. However, taking the entire family out to a store to get out of the house during the outbreak is unnecessarily dangerous to both your family and everyone else in the store.

Pesce said he discussed the measures over the weekend with Rilling and state Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, and while his association was supportive, stores preferred a more consistent statewide approach.

Wed rather have it on a state level than go town by town, Pesce said. From our perspective it gets really difficult when the mayor of Stamford decides, We should be doing something in Stamford as well, and its not exactly the same thing theyre doing in Norwalk.

Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, during his daily live Facebook address on the pandemic Monday, suggested he may this week announce restriction similar to those in Norwalk.

Thats a good idea, Ganim said of Rillings approach. Im trying to keep pace again with best practices  I know its hard, especially if youre a senior and carrying a lot of stuff.

Rilling on Sunday said exemptions would be made for single parents, caregivers and other situations where it is not feasible to leave a person at home.

In contrast to big city Democratic elected officials such as Rilling and Ganim, Orange First Selectman James Zeoli, a Republican, said, Last I checked I was not in charge of grocery stores.

I have not experienced crowding or shopping difficulties. They are having far more problems down in lower Fairfield County and I can understand trying anything to held stop or slow the spread, Zeoli said.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, also a Republican, on Monday said limiting the number of people per household who may do the shopping is a good idea, but challenging to enforce.

I can see why people would want to do that, Boughton said. My question is: how do you police that? Who enforces that? Youre on private property and you cant put a cop or cops at every supermarket in the city.

Danbury has at least 10 major supermarkets in addition to smaller, corner stores, Boughton said. He said the city has been reaching out to owners individually to encourage them to reduce overcrowding, and that Trader Joes has limited the number of people who can be inside at once.

Pesce said customer cooperation will be imperative, particularly when it comes to the designated family shopper rule.

Theres no way a retailer is going to be able to enforce it, he said.

In the case of reducing store capacity, Pesce said, certain markets may cut back on shopping carts.

We know how many people are in a store (at the same time) based on the carts, Pesce said. So when we run out of carts to get into the store, you might potentially need to wait for a cart.

But Pesce also emphasized he did not expect that would result in long lines. He said the so-called panic buying that resulted in packed supermarkets a few weeks ago has subsided.

This is not going to cause long lines every day in the stores. Its not, Pesce said.

Duff believed having uniform shopping rules all around the state during the pandemic would be for the best.

Fairfield County right now is the hot zone but were going to see over the next few weeks the virus will continue to spread over the state and we need better safeguards for people who are out and about shopping or doing things for their families, Duff said.

Pesce in an interview earlier Monday had suggested his association would approach Gov. Ned Lamont about issuing an executive order about the new guidelines. But later in the day Pesce said that was not necessary.

Everybodys waiting to see the results and how well people are doing social-distancing, Pesce said. I dont think we need a governors edict.

Rillings order was intended not just to apply to the supermarkets, but to other retailers such as Home Depot and pharmacies.

Timothy Phelan, president of the Connecticut Retail Merchants Association, also spoke with Rilling and Duff over the weekend. Phelan represents large brands, including Home Depot, Rite-Aid, CVS, Walgreens, Costco and Target. He said his members in Norwalk are doing everything they can to make sure theyre abiding by (Rillings order) and doing the best for their customers and their employees.

But, Phelan said, the Merchants Association was not yet at the point of applying the Norwalk model across Connecticut.

I can only tell you my members are constantly reviewing the situations in their stores and are constantly updating and evolving their policies, Phelan said. But he noted if other municipalities follow Norwalks lead then a statewide approach would be preferable.

Its always better when you have a system wide set of rules to go by .. than having to make each individual town come up with their own, Phelan said.

Pesce said there also was talk in Norwalk about making store aisles one-way, but that there was no agreement among supermarkets about whether to universally adopt that policy as well.

Some retailers have gone and done it. Others have said, Were not sure we want to create that confusion in our stores because we cant police it and nothing tells us it works, Pesce said.

Tom Cingari, Sr., whose family operates ShopRite supermarkets in Stamford, Norwalk and Danbury, said he was on his hands and knees Monday morning helping the manager of his Norwalk location affix blue tape to the floors to steer customers one way.

Were experimenting with it (at that Norwalk site), Cingari said. It came up in conversations and if it helps, and we see positive results that its working toward the goals that were intended, of course well roll it out.

Meghan Bell, a spokesperson for Stew Leonards, said that supermarket chains Norwalk location will monitor customer flow, particularly during peak hours, to ensure that we are in compliance with the city.

Our team members are also moving center-aisle displays so that there is more room in the aisle for our shoppers, Bell added. We have put physical markings on the stores floor to encourage social distancing while shoppers are at the service bars and at check out.

In New Haven, Nicas Market, a small grocer, began restricting the number of customers a few weeks ago to 10 at a time.

Please take turns to go inside during busy times, reads a sign at the front door. Be safe and stay healthy.

On Monday, every minute or two a customer would tentatively approach the front door. Periodically a Nicas employee came out and said, Its OK, you can go in now.

A lot of our customers are pleased that were doing our best to keep people safe, said Marisol Ortega, the store supervisor.

She noted Nicas is also offering curbside pick-up for customers who call in their orders and dont feel comfortable coming in.

Ortega said sometimes its tricky for the employees to monitor everybody who wants to come inside. Every 20 minutes or so were cleaning all the surfaces. At that time we also do a count on the number of customers who are inside.

Reporters Randall Beach, Julia Perkins, Pam McLoughlin and Alex Soule contributed to this story.
Press Release

Outside trading hours - Regulated information* - Public disclosure of inside information

Brussels, 30 March 2020, 7.15 a.m. CEST

In line with ECB recommendations, KBC Group withdraws final dividend over 2019 profit and cancels proposed share buy-back

Fully in line with the European Central Bank recommendation that at least until 1 October 2020 no dividends are paid out and no irrevocable commitment to pay out dividends is undertaken by the credit institutions for the financial year 2019 and 2020 and that credit institutions refrain from share buy-backs aimed at remunerating shareholders, the KBC Board of Directors has decided :

to withdraw the proposal to the Annual Shareholders' meeting of 7 May 2020 to declare a final total (gross) dividend over 2019 profit of 2.5 EUR per share (after an interim dividend of 1 EUR per share was paid in November 2019 already)

to evaluate in October 2020 whether all or part of this withdrawn final dividend should as yet be paid out later this year (2020) in the form of an interim dividend

to cancel the proposed share buy-back program of 5.5 million shares

in deviation from what was announced in the press release of 13 February 2020 at the occasion of the 4th quarter 2019 results publication.

In light of the worldwide travel restrictions and social distancing recommendations by Health Authorities, the KBC Group Board of Directors also decided

to organise this year's General Meeting of Shareholders in a virtual way. More details will be communicated as soon as the relevant legislative amendment has been adopted and published in Belgium.

to postpone the Investor Day which was planned in Prague (the Czech Republic) on 17 June 2020. A new date for the Investor Day will be communicated in due time.





Johan Thijs, CEO KBC Group comments today's exceptional circumstances :"Today we find ourselves in unprecedented circumstances. The world is currently facing a devastating challenge, in the form of the corona virus that is spreading rapidly around the globe and that is profoundly changing our ways of living and working for each and everyone of us. The economic impact of the corona-pandemic on the economy is still very uncertain, but it is widely expected that the impact will be significantly negative. The cost of repairing the global economy will be very significant too. Governments and central banks have already taken a number of supporting measures. End of last week also the European Banking Federation and the European Central Bank made further recommendations. We believe that also financial institutions need to show solidarity and we want to take our responsibility in helping to solve this crisis. As always we adopt a very cautionary and conservative stance, even if our solid capital and liquidity positions allow the group to weather extreme scenarios."

KBC Group boosted a very solid solvency and liquidity position at the end of 2019:

KBC's CET1 ratio of 17.15% implies a solid 9.10% capital buffer versus the current theoretical SREP ratio of roughly 8.05% (as a result of the announced ECB and National Bank measures which provided significant temporary minimum capital relief).

NSFR and LCR liquidity ratio's amounted to 136% and 138% respectively, both well above the regulatory requirement of 100%.

Johan Thijs continues: "Amid all uncertainty and even in these very difficult times, I want to reassure you that one thing remains unchanged: our customers remain at the heart of our business.Also in these bad times, we want to continue to actively support the communities and economies in which we operate and to ensure that our customers and all other stakeholders benefit from our activities, something which our employees are even more committed to in their day-to-day work. I would like to take this opportunity to explicitly thank our customers and stakeholders for their confidence and our staff for their relentless efforts in these challenging times. Above all, I want to wish everyone also a good health."

For more information, please contact:

Viviane Huybrecht, General Manager, Corporate Communication/Spokesperson, KBC Group

Tel +32 2 429 85 45 - E-mail: viviane.huybrecht@kbc.be

Kurt De Baenst, General Manager, Investor Relations

Tel +32 2 429 35 73 - E-mail: kurt.debaenst@kbc.be

* This news item contains information that is subject to the transparency regulations for listed companies.





KBC Group NV



Havenlaan 2 - 1080 Brussels







Viviane Huybrecht



General Manager



CorporateCommunication /Spokesperson



Tel. +32 2 429 85 45



Press Office



Tel. +32 2 429 65 01 Stef Leunens



Tel. +32 2 429 29 15 Ilse De Muyer



Tel. +32 2 429 32 88 Pieter Kusse







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Britain may be in lockdown but no one has told our wild animals.

Many of them are venturing out because the world has suddenly grown more peaceful.

Across the UK, anecdotal reports suggest that nature is breaking cover, with more sightings of weasels, golden plover, oystercatchers and tawny owls.

Moles have been seen venturing above ground near normally well trodden footpaths around the University of East Anglia in Norwich and in fields in Bristol.

Moles have been seen venturing above ground near normally well trodden footpaths around the University of East Anglia in Norwich and in fields in Bristol (stock image)

Naturalists have suggested that the increase in sightings may partly be because people are paying more attention to wildlife on their daily exercise walks.

In addition, the reduction in traffic and aircraft noise has allowed us to hear birdsong that is normally drowned out by the din.

As fewer walkers and dogs disturb wild areas, sightings of stoats, weasels and deer on once heavily walked tracks have increased, according to experts at Holkham National Nature Reserve in Norfolk. Larger numbers of sparrowhawks have also been seen.

Across the UK, oystercatchers, sandwich terns and ringed plovers have been spotted on undisturbed beaches and are expected to start nesting. Birdwatcher Duncan McCollin saw a pair of oystercatchers along with 20 golden plover at Northampton Washlands.

Across the UK, anecdotal reports suggest that nature is breaking cover, with more sightings of weasels, golden plover, oystercatchers and tawny owls

Ryan Brock, a PhD student in biology at the University of East Anglia, spotted a mole on campus above ground hunting for worms.

He tweeted: 'Social distancing day three: Went birding around Uni of East Anglia campus and stumbled across this mole foraging! Very cool to witness.'

Matthew Oates, an author and naturalist, said he heard a tawny owl recently and it prompted him to write a poem, which concluded: 'I heard the owl's wings pass over, For the first time since childhood.'

But experts fear the temporary reduction in human activity outdoors could lead to problems in the future.

Birds that lay eggs on the sand may think currently quiet beaches are safe nesting areas, but once the lockdown is over they could become busy again and put the nesting birds in peril.

Elsewhere in the world, nature's comeback has been more dramatic, with wild animals exploring empty city streets.

Wild boar have descended from the hills around Barcelona, and wild turkeys have been seen strutting along the streets of Oakland in California.

A puma turned up in the centre of the Chilean capital Santiago, while in India social media has gone wild about footage of a stag scampering through the streets of the northern city of Dehradun.
When the pandemic first hit New York, medical workers changed gowns and masks each time they visited an infected patient. Then, they were told to keep their protective gear on until the end of their shift. As supplies became even more scarce, one doctor working in an ICU said he was asked to turn in his mask and face shield at the end of his shift to be sterilized for future use. Others are being told to store their masks in a paper bag between shifts.
Count of known COVID-19 cases

Numbers updated 3:50 p.m. Monday March 30

Missouri: 13 deaths, 1,031 known cases. The state health department reports 366 cases in St. Louis County, and St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson said there were 139 in St. Louis city. The St. Charles County Health Department is reporting 51 cases.

Illinois: 73 deaths, 5,057 confirmed cases. Cases include 36 in St. Clair County, 13 in Madison County and three in Monroe County.

National: At least 156,391 New York Times database. At least 2,897 patients with the virus have died.

Worldwide: There have been 693,224 confirmed cases worldwide, and 33,106 confirmed deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
SARS-CoV-2 doesnt survive on print or tissue paper for more than 3 hours, a new study by the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong has found.

The study, which is yet to be published also found that the virus doesnt remain infectious on cloth or treated wood after a day. Strangely, a significant level of infectious virus could be detected from the outer layer of a surgical mask even 7 days after the virus was introduced to the surface during the study.

Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic

SARS-CoV-2 is very stable on smooth surfaces and continues to be infectious for days together. Infectious virus was not found on glass or bank notes treated with the virus after day 4 and after day 7 on stainless steel and plastic.

This can however be countered with use of disinfectants. No infectious virus could be detected 5 minutes after disinfecting a surface with soap and water. Overall, SARS-CoV-2 can be highly stable in a favourable environment, but it is also susceptible to standard disinfection methods, the study published in its preprint version in Medrxiv said.

Scientists conducted this study by incubating SARS-CoV-2 in a virus transport medium for 14 days and then tested its infectivity on various surfaces. The virus is highly stable in lower temperatures but sensitive to heat, the study revealed. At 4 degree C for example it was found to be most stable but when incubation temperature was increased to 70 degree C, the virus was inactivated in only 5 minutes.

Its best to disinfect all surfaces during an outbreak like this. Hypochlorite is best for disinfection but because it may not be available to common people at the moment just use any disinfectant or soap and water. I have been using soap and water at my house. The hospitals and health care workers have access to hypochlorite. I am sure surfaces are being disinfected regularly at hospitals, said Dr Shobha Broor, former head of microbiology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

In a correspondence published on Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1 in The New England Journal of Medicine, scientists said that SARS-CoV-2 was more stable on plastic and stainless steel than on copper and cardboard and viable virus could detected up to 72 hours after application on them.

The University of Hong Kong study also revealed SARS-CoV-2 is extremely stable in a wide-range of pH values at room temperature. This means that washing anything in water will not help unless its washed in hot water or with a disinfectant. The key takeaway from this study is that bleach and ethanol are extremely effective in inactivating the virus. We knew this always but the study reinforces that our current understanding is correct, said Amit Singh, associate professor, Centre for Infectious Disease Research, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.

The World Health Organisation has already addressed the question whether it is safe to receive a package. WHO said: Yes. The likelihood of an infected person contaminating commercial goods is low and the risk of catching the virus that causes COVID-19 from a package that has been moved, travelled, and exposed to different conditions and temperature is also low.

There is a study from 2011 on the H1N1 virus which led to the 2009 outbreak which says that the virus does not survive on porous surfaces like paper, cloth or tissue for very long. But it can stay up to 48 hours on surfaces like steel, plastic, glass, aluminium, copper etc. This is simply because the protein envelope of the virus disintegrates easily in dry, porous surfaces. The virus may last only for about 4 hours on such surfaces. This is based on evidence from the H1N1 flu epidemic, said Dr Amit Singh, associate professor, Centre for Infectious Disease Research at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) had told HT on March 24 after reports that people are not availing newspapers out of the fear of contracting the infection.

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The city of Midland Health Department is currently conducting their investigation on one new confirmed case of COVID-19 in Midland County, bringing the overall case count to 13.

The 13th confirmed case is a male in his 20s, who was tested by a private provider. The male is self-isolating at home. The source of exposure is related to travel within the United States.
Public Health England says the two key symptoms of Covid-19 are a new and continuous cough and/or a high temperature.

The World Health Organisation says other indicators include fatigue, aches and pains, a blocked nose, sore throat and diarrhoea.

But now some UK doctors are calling for an urgent addition to the list: sudden and complete loss of smell.

New data gathered by ENT UK, which represents ear, nose and throat specialists, suggests this inability to smell  and often taste  may be the very first symptom and can start within hours.

Doctors are warning that a loss of smell may be a sign of coronavirus (stock image)

Many people appear not to develop any further signs, making a full recovery without even realising they had Covid-19. They are thought to be mostly healthy young adults whose immune systems react sufficiently to the virus to contain it within the nose, preventing it spreading to the lungs, where it can cause potentially fatal pneumonia.

As a result, warns ENT UK, some Covid-19 patients are not being identified as infected or advised to self-isolate  and may well be spreading the virus to others.

I have seen a huge increase in the number of patients attending my clinic with a sudden loss of smell, says Professor Nirmal Kumar, president of ENT UK and an ear, nose and throat specialist at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust.

Its up to about four patients a week, mostly under 40 and with no other Covid-19 symptoms. I usually see no more than one a month.

Professor Kumar is advising patients with no obvious explanation for their loss of smell to self-isolate for at least seven days in case they have Covid-19, even though this is not the current government recommendation.

But doctors are also raising the alarm because one of the first-line treatments for anosmia (complete loss of smell) or hyposmia (partial loss of smell) is a week-long course of steroid tablets.

These drugs help dampen down any inflammation that might be pressing on the olfactory nerves  those in the head that process smell signals to the brain. But steroids also suppress the immune system. So ENT specialists now fear patients with hidden coronavirus may find it harder to recover from the infection if doctors prescribe steroids for their smell loss.

ENT UK says there is good evidence from abroad that the number of Covid-19 patients who experience this symptom is significant. In a statement sent to Public Health England in mid-March, it said: In Germany, it is reported that more than two in three confirmed cases have anosmia.

And in South Korea, 30 per cent of patients testing positive for Covid-19 have had anosmia as their major presenting symptom.

Up to 40 per cent of cases of anosmia are caused by a viral infection of the airway as a result of a cold, flu or sinusitis  an infection of the narrow tubes in the nasal cavity. But it usually develops after an infection.

With Covid-19, smell seems to be affected right at the outset, says Dr Tony Narula, a past president of ENT UK.

The ENT UK is leading calls for loss of smell and taste to be identified as a key symptoms of a coronavirus infection (stock image)

Normally, when you get a cold or flu virus, you get a blocked nose and lose some smell because you cant get air (which carries smells with it) into the nostrils, he says.

With Covid-19 its different. The virus seems to strike directly at the olfactory nerve at the roof of the nose, just between the eyes.

One reason so many people are suffering is that this nerve is not covered in protective tissue, so the virus attacks it and causes inflammation which stops smell signals reaching the brain.

Dr Narula recently saw a young patient who complained of sudden loss of smell. Worried that it might be a tumour pressing on the nerves connecting the olfactory nerve to the brain, he ordered a scan of the patients head.

After it came back clear, the patient was told there was no obvious explanation and that his sense of smell would probably return within weeks.

About ten days later, says Dr Narula, I started to hear reports of Covid-19 patients turning up with anosmia, and emailed my patient to inform him.

He had since flown abroad, where he felt unwell and tests had confirmed he had coronavirus.

A person is tested for coronavirus at the Chessington World of Adventures drive-in facility

Dr Narula says most Covid-19 patients fully recover their smell within four to six weeks, and the loss of taste many patients also report is actually caused by problems picking up odours. Taste buds, mostly found on the tongue, are not affected by the virus.

Around 80 per cent of taste is actually due to smell, from aromas at the back of the mouth circulating into the nose, he says.

We are concerned that we have been highlighting this issue for the past two weeks and Public Health England is still not listing sudden loss of smell as a symptom. We need to get the message out there.

A spokesman for Public Health England could not say if anosmia would be added to the official list of Covid-19 symptoms.
Shamed Aston Villa star Jack Grealish has issued a grovelling apology after admitting that he made the 'stupid' decision to party at an ex-team-mate's flat during the coronavirus lockdown.

Police are investigating reports of a 70,000 Range Rover crashing into parked cars in a Birmingham suburb on Sunday morning. Soon afterwards, images appeared on social media of Grealish apparently in the area, in conversation with another man. The previous day, Grealish had urged his social media followers not to leave their homes in an attempt to slow the spread of the pandemic.

On Monday afternoon, Grealish  who said he had accepted an invitation to visit a friend  posted a video on Twitter apologising for his actions but did not mention the car crash.

Jack Grealish took to social media on Monday evening to apologise for his behaviour

The white Range Rover is pictured after the crash in the Dickens Heath area of Solihull

Grealish is pictured walking away, close to the scene of a Range Rover crash on Sunday morning in a Birmingham suburb

'I just wanted to do a quick video message to say how deeply embarrassed I am by what has happened this weekend,' Grealish said.

'I know it is a tough time for everyone at the moment being locked in doors for so long and I got a call off a friend asking to go round to his.

'I stupidly agreed to do so. I don't want anyone to make the same mistake that I did so I urge everyone to stay at home and follow the rules and guidelines that we have been asked to.

'I know for a fact I'll be doing that in the near future now. Obviously, I urge everybody to do the same.

'I hope everyone can accept my apology and we can move on from this and in the near future we can be out enjoying ourselves again once this has all boiled over.'

The Aston Villa captain, who earns 45,000 a week, was photographed coming out of an estate in the suburbs of Birmingham shortly before police arrived on Sunday.

An image of a man resembling Grealish, wearing odd footwear, circulated on social media, claiming he was near the incident

Police are investigating the crash involving the white Range Rover on Sunday morning

Grealish, 24, was seen leaving Dickens Heath, close to a luxury flat owned by former team-mate Ross McCormack, with an unzipped backpack and a sky-blue hoodie.

The crash in the early hours of Sunday morning near Solihull came shortly after the midfielder had warned people to 'stay at home' during the coronavirus crisis.

A witness told MailOnline: 'They went to collect their possessions before leaving the scene before the police arrived. We were watching and my partner saw them leaving the building and head off down the road quickly.'

The midfielder has previously been seen arriving at the Aston Villa training ground in a similar white Range Rover.

Aston Villa also issued a statement on Monday evening to announce that Grealish had been fined for his poor behaviour, with the money going to charity.

Grealish is the club captain of Aston Villa and has been with his boyhood club since 2001

'Club captain Jack Grealish has accepted that his decision to leave his house was wrong and entirely unnecessary,' the club said in a statement.

'It breached the government guidelines which are clear and should be adhered to by everybody.

'The player will be disciplined and fined with the proceeds donated to The University Hospitals Charity in Birmingham.'

Grealish was pictured with former player Tony Capaldi, an ex-team-mate of McCormack's at Cardiff City, with locals claiming they had attended a party at McCormack's house on Saturday night.

A witness told MailOnline: 'We live near the estate he stayed partying overnight, his car was parked in the street all night.

'The commotion outside when he was hitting cars was tremendous, and the estate security guard saw him reverse into a van and hit a Mercedes causing significant damage to all cars.'

The white Range Rover was pictured damaged after reports of a crash with parked cars

A neighbour told The Sun: 'The party had been going on all night. It was unbearable. The noise had only stopped a short while when, just after 8am, there were a series of almighty collisions which reverberated through the flats.

'Outside, Jack Grealish was stood next to his car rowing with a security guard. It was strange to see an England ace looking so unkempt and dishevelled. He looked unsteady and confused.'

A West Midlands Police spokesman said: 'We were called to Waterside, Dickens Heath, just before 10am yesterday (March 29) to reports that a Range Rover had crashed into two parked cars in the street.

'The driver left his details with a member of the public at the scene before leaving on foot.

'Arrangements have now been made to obtain more details around the circumstances of the collision from the driver.

'Anyone with information has been asked to get in touch, via Live Chat at west-midlands.police.uk quoting log 643 of March 29.'

Current government advice during the coronavirus crisis states that citizens should leave their homes only to shop for basic necessities, to exercise once a day, for any medical need, or travelling to work if they cannot work from home.

The 24-year-old has established himself as a key man for Villa and is currently club captain

On Saturday, Grealish appeared to echo that advice as he posted a video for his Twitter followers pleading with them to stay at home.

'To help save lives, you must stay at home,' he said.

'Only leave your house to buy food, buy medicine or for exercise and always remember to stay at least two metres apart. This is urgent. Protect the NHS. Stay home. Save lives.'

As with the rest of the Premier League, Villa's players are currently following fitness programmes at home, with their Bodymoor Heath training ground closed.

Grealish joined his boyhood club at the age of six and has worked his way up the ranks to become a key player for the Midlands outfit. He is a target for Manchester United after enjoying a fine season with Villa.

On Monday morning Piers Morgan slammed Premier League star Grealish after the incident.

'He had a lot to say last week,' the Good Morning Britain presenter said, talking about the 24-year-old's social media post.

Piers Morgan slammed Grealish after he flouted coronavirus lockdown rules at the weekend

'It was really good until you go to your mates. What are you thinking to Jack? What happened to being sensible.

'It doesn't help when an England star, a role model, breaks the rules. Shame on you.'

Former Tottenham and Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp, also speaking on the ITV programme, said: 'I have been his biggest fan. Every time I talk about him I say he should be in the England team.

'If I was a manager of the big teams I would buy him up. But this is no excuse. This is absolutely stupid. I can't believe what he has done, he needs to be punished for sure.'
Crazy Rich Asians star Nico Santos revealed on Twitter that his stepfather has passed away of coronavirus and that his mother is also fighting COVID-19.

The Filipino actor paid tribute to his stepfather Sonny, whose death he called devastating, and also shone a grim light on the reality of mourning during self-isolation - saying he cant hold my mother as she mourns her husband.

Referring to his stepfather as Tito Sonny (Tito is the Filipino word for uncle), he shared a picture of him and his mother.

The Superstore actor wrote, My Tito Sonny passed away yesterday after losing his battle with COVID-19. He was a kind, caring man. Friendly to a fault.

He always greeted strangers walking past him with a chipper Good Morning! and a big smile. He had a great laugh that filled the room with joy, he continued.

My mom is also fighting COVID-19. For the time being, she has not required hospitalisation. The loss of my stepfather is devastating but what has gutted me is that this pandemic has kept my family apart, he continued.

We were unable to be with him during his last days, he revealed, I cant hold my mother as she mourns her husband. I cant hug my brother as he contemplates a world without his father.

"I cant wipe away the tears from my nephews eyes as they wonder why their Lolo [grandfather] Sonny isnt here anymore.

He thanked people for their prayers, love and assistance and asked them to send healing energy to my mom.

Two Sundays ago, Santos asked people to send prayers, positive thoughts and energy to his family but did not reveal his parents COVID-19 diagnoses - calling for everybody to stay safe and stay home.

Rest in Peace Tito Sonny. You will be in our hearts forever, he wrote.

According to a Sunday evening report, there are over 139,000 cases of coronavirus in the US and over 2,425 have died from the disease.

While initially President Donald Trump called for social distancing until the end of this month, it has since been extended to April 30 to help contain the spread of COVID-19.

In the UK, there have been over 19,784 cases and 1,200 coronavirus-related deaths.
NMB Bank has urged its customers and general public to comply with the government directives in the fight against corona virus pandemic in the country.

The NMB Banks Acting Managing Director, Ruth Zaipuna made the call in Dar es Salaam over the weekend after the bank handed over a dummy cheque worth 100m/- to the Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa as support to the government in the fight against the deadly corona virus.

I advise my fellow Tanzanians, our customers and the public to seriously follow government directives and advice on how to protect themselves from corona virus including taking into account their hygiene and washing hands regularly and changing the way we great each other, she said.

She said the bank has positively responded by joining force with the government to battle against the COVID-19 (coronavirus) for the safety and good health of Tanzanian people.

As a bank we have decided to join hands with the government in the fight against the pandemic by contributing 100m/- to be used in the fight against coronavirus, Zaipuna said.

NMB Bank provides a suite of financial services and products to retail customers, farmers, SMEs, corporates, institutions and the government.

The bank has 225 branches, over 6000 agents Wakala and more than 800 ATMs across the country and is represented in all districts of Tanzania.

NMB has over three million customers and employs over 3,000 staff. It is listed at the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange and its largest shareholders are the strategic partners Rabobank with a 34.9 per cent share and the Tanzania government with a 31.9 per cent share.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) on Sunday cautioned against working on a fourth relief package to stem the economic fallout from the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, concerned that Democrats would attempt to insert progressive policy legislation.

Im not sure we need a fourth package. And before we go to start drafting a fourth package, Id like these three packages we just put out  remember, its more than $2 trillion, the largest we have ever seen  to take care and get this economy moving, McCarthy said on Fox News Sunday Morning Futures.

What concerns me is, when I listen to Nancy Pelosi talk about a fourth package now, its because she didnt get in the things that she really wanted to change: the election law, a Green New Deal, expand  make us pay for Planned Parenthood, and expand what youre seeing for sanctuary cities, McCarthy continued. Those are the things why this bill was held up for a week, but those are the things that we stopped.

Congresss $2.2 trillion relief package was passed by the House and signed by President Trump on Friday, after a week of partisan wrangling over provisions pushed by Democrats. Democratic requests included carbon-emissions caps for airlines, mandatory diversity reports for corporate boards, a $15 minimum wage, and other proposals. Republicans slammed the proposals during negotiations over the bill.

Democrats have now decided to allow Speaker Pelosi to block [the bill] through proxies here in the Senate so that she can rewrite the bill with a ton of crap that has absolutely nothing to do with the public health emergency that we face at this moment, Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) said on Monday on the Senate floor.

More from National Review
No talks with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine: That has been a mantra for leaders in Kyiv throughout the six-year war that has killed more than 13,000 people in the Donbas and displaced more than 1 million.

Now, that may be changing.



In talks in Minsk on March 11, a tentative deal was struck that would give the separatists in Donbas a voice in the negotiating process established under the largely unimplemented cease-fire and settlement accords signed in the Belarusian capital in 2014 and 2015.



It is unclear whether the plans set out that day in March will be implemented. There is angry pushback from opponents of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy -- and even from some of his allies: Several members of his Servant of the People party, which holds a majority in parliament, voiced concern over the proposal.



And it wasn't the only new idea that was floated in Minsk. Another platform would promote "dialogue," not only on the Donbas but also on Crimea, which Russia seized a month before the war in the Donbas started, as well as other potential problem spots in Ukraine, including western Ukrainian areas where ethnic Hungarians are seeking a stronger voice.



Another factor is the fast-moving coronavirus crisis: A follow-up meeting scheduled for March 25 was postponed amid concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic.



RFE/RL takes a look at what happened in Minsk on March 11, and what it may mean for the future of Ukraine, Russia, and the only war in Europe.



New Negotiators



Mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), two new figures took part in the meeting of what is formally known as the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG): Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy's new chief of staff, and Dmitry Kozak, Russian President Vladimir Putin's new point man on Ukraine.



Yermak, a former film producer, raised his profile by playing a key role in a major prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia late last year. But his appointment on February 11 raised eyebrows in Ukraine among those who feared it could signal a softening of the government's stance on Russia.

Kozak, a deputy head of Putin's administration, was also appointed on February 11.

He replaced Vladislav Surkov, a long-influential Kremlin insider who made waves with highly provocative comments about Ukraine shortly after his departure.

The main thing to come out of the meeting was the proposed creation of an Advisory Council with seats allotted to "authorized representatives" of the Russia-backed separatists.

While Moscow spoke of a breakthrough, Kyiv was mostly mute on what had transpired until Ukrainian media broke the silence by publishing the "protocol" agreed in Minsk.



The Council



According to the protocol, the Advisory Council would include 10 representatives of Ukraine and 10 representatives of the Russia-backed forces that hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Joining them would be a member each from Russia, Germany, France, and the OSCE. According to the text agreed in Minsk, the main purpose of the Advisory Council would be "to conduct and develop proposals for political and legal solutions towards the settlement of the conflict."



The Controversy



Ukraine has long considered the leaders of the separatist forces as puppets of Moscow -- some of them have been Russian citizens -- and had ruled out talks with them.



After the Minsk meeting, Yermak denied that any concessions had been made.



"We have pledged to pursue agreement on several issues, most notably constitutional reform in the area of decentralization and local elections, with representatives of particular parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine" -- official wording for the areas outside government control, sometimes known by the acronym ORDLO -- within the Tripartite Contact Group.



"No direct talks  no question about it! We are talking about creating a platform where citizens of Ukraine, who live today in both controlled and uncontrolled territories, can communicate," Yermak said.

This assurance was met by skepticism by opponents of any talks involving the Russia-backed separatists. To those Ukrainians, "It's not important who exactly will represent the ORDLO: whether they are Putin's men or not, whether they are fighters or not, whether they are in uniform or not," said Maria Kucherenko, an analyst at the Kyiv-based Center for Civil Society Studies.



"The problem is that by announcing that there will be some type of council with the participation of the ORDLO within the Tripartite Contact Group, [officials have gone] against the logic of what the Tripartite Contact Group is: Russia, Ukraine, and the OSCE," she said.



Another Platform?



The proposed Advisory Council was in the spotlight, but another new idea apparently emerged from the March 11 meeting in Minsk: Another potential space for dialogue with Donbas would be offered through a National Platform for Reconciliation and Unity.



Serhiy Syvokho, an adviser to the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said that, in addition to the Donbas and Russian-controlled Crimea, Ukraine faced tensions elsewhere, including in parts of the west where ethnic Hungarians have voiced frustration especially over language rights. He said that, elsewhere, amber miners have largely taken the law into their own hands.

When Syvokho was due to unveil the proposal to the public in Kyiv on March 12, he was greeted by furious nationalists, some of whom threw the former comic to the ground.



Ukrainian police said 15 people were arrested on March 12, some of whom were identified as members of National Corps, a nationalist group founded by Andriy Biletskiy, who established the controversial Azov volunteer battalion at the start of the conflict with Russia-backed separatists in 2014.
The March 24 Tuesday Opinion essay by Tim Searchinger, Anthony LaMantia and Gordon Douglas, The U.S. faces two disastrous scenarios. Theres a third option, was extremely important. The three authors pointed out that the current approaches to stemming the coronavirus pandemic involve plunging the economy into a deep recession and generating millions of unemployed. They argued convincingly for a third option: massive testing of nearly everyone for the virus. This would allow those who tested negatively to return to work and thus mitigate the economic costs of the virus. The implementation of this option would obviously require a huge increase in the production of testing equipment, but this should be possible if the federal government coordinated with the private sector in an effort akin to the Manhattan Project in World War II to produce the atomic bomb.
BRIDGEPORT  Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim announced on Sunday that he approved an emergency plan with the state Department of Emergency Management to use Webster Bank Arena as the site for hospital overflow.

The activation of this plan will provide hospitals in Connecticut with an Alternate Care Site for patients if there is a surge, or patient overflow due to Coronavirus, a press release from Ganims office said.
There has been a spate of attacks on emergency workers. (PA Images)

Englands top nurse has blasted at attackers of NHS staff as idiots who are putting lives at risk following a spate of assaults on emergency workers.

Ruth May said they were being spat at or attacked for their ID badges, which provide benefits from companies looking to support medics during the coronavirus outbreak.

Her criticism comes after a hospital worker suffered a fractured cheekbone after being punched in the face in Salford on Sunday.

A 27-year-old man has been charged with assault in connection with the alleged attack on the 50-year-old staff member, who needed treatment but has been discharged.

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

Live: Follow all the latest updates from the UK and around the world

Fact-checker: The number of COVID-19 cases in your local area

6 charts and maps that explain how COVID-19 is spreading

May said: Our NHS and social care staff are pulling out all the stops in the face of an unprecedented global health threat, so I am shocked at some of the stories I am hearing of NHS staff being assaulted, spat at or attacked for their ID badges.

I was deeply moved by the country coming together to clap our carers last week and the many stories of generosity from businesses and members of the public, but these inspiring displays of gratitude are at risk of being overshadowed by the stupid behaviour of an idiotic few who are putting lives at risk.

So I am calling on the public to respect and listen to NHS staff, because you may be needing them very soon  please stay at home, wash your hands and save lives.

The Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust and University College Hospital in London have emailed staff to warn them not to wear their IDs after some were mugged for their badges.

The Royal College of Nursing has also warned its members not to travel in their uniforms to avoid being attacked.

The Crown Prosecution Service said an assault on an emergency worker is punishable by up to 12 months behind bars.

Story continues

A 24-year-old man was Tasered on Saturday in Haringey, north London, after police said he was deliberately coughing saliva at officers.

They were driving when the man started shouting and making rude gestures towards them, police said.

Read more: Inside Londons new Nightingale hospital for coronavirus victims

When the firearms officers stopped to speak, they said he shouted that he had coronavirus before deliberately coughing saliva all over them.

Police say he then attacked the officers before they Tasered and arrested him on suspicion of public order offences and assault on an emergency worker. He was bailed until April.

Officers in Brighton were also allegedly spat at on Saturday when they arrested a man following a report of criminal damage at a block of flats.

They arrested Peter Davy, 65, who police say spat at them. Davy, of Albion Street, was set to appear at Brighton Magistrates Court on Monday accused of three counts of assaulting an emergency worker.

He is also charged with using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause fear of violence and using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

Daniel Shevlin, 27, was charged with assault and an offence under the Public Order Act following the alleged incident at Salford Royal Infirmary on Sunday.

Shevlin, of no fixed address, was due to appear at Manchester and Salford Magistrates Court on Monday.

Coronavirus: what happened today
Actor Ajay Devgn has shut down the false conjecture about the health of his wife and actor Kajol and their daughter Nysa, amid the coronavirus pandemic. He took to Twitter to reassure fans that the two are hale and hearty.

Thank you for asking. Kajol & Nysa are absolutely fine. The rumour around their health is unfounded, untrue & baseless, he wrote.

Thank you for asking. Kajol & Nysa are absolutely fine. The rumour around their health is unfounded, untrue & baseless  Ajay Devgn (@ajaydevgn) March 30, 2020

Just a few days ago, Nysa returned home from Singapore, after her school was reportedly closed due to the coronavirus outbreak. Kajol was clicked with her daughter at the international airport in Mumbai.

A report in Newstrack claimed that Nysa tested positive for coronavirus after she showed symptoms and was rushed to the hospital by Kajol, but now, Ajay has confirmed that there is no truth to the news.

Currently, Ajay, Kajol and their kids Nysa and Yug are in self-isolation at their residence in Mumbai. Just a few days ago, Kajol shared a glimpse from her life in quarantine. Sharing a stunning selfie on her Instagram account, she wrote, Day 9 of quarantine and its a wonder how much better a stick of lipstick and a wash of mascara make u feel! #lipit #smilemore #takeadeepbreath #shakeitup.

Ajay was set to be seen in a special appearance in Rohit Shettys cop drama Sooryavanshi, headlined by Akshay Kumar. The film was scheduled to release earlier this month but has been indefinitely delayed due to the coronavirus crisis which led to a shutdown of theatres across the country.

Also read: Kangana Ranaut says she sneaks out after dates: I cant sleep on the same bed with someone else

The makers of Sooryavanshi announced in a statement, We have been as excited as you are to present the film to you and your family, but due to the recent outburst of the Covid-19 (coronavirus), we, the makers, have decided to postpone the release of your film Sooryavanshi, keeping in mind the health and safety of our beloved audience... And therefore, Sooryavanshi will be back for you just when the time is right... After all, safety comes first... Until then, keep the excitement alive, take good care of yourself and stay strong... We shall pull through this

Follow @htshowbiz for more
A nurse at a Bihar hospital begs the prime minister for her life as the state's medical staff continues to treat suspected COVID-19 patients without protective safety kits.

M I Khan reports.

Kindly note the image has been posted only for representational purposes. Photograph: Reuters

Julie Kumari, a staff nurse at the Patna-based, government-run Nalanda Medical College and Hospital, took to social media to urge Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi to please save her and the hospital staff from likely death.

Julie and her colleagues work in the hospital's isolation ward without basic safety kits, N95 masks and alcohol-based sanitisers.

'Please, please, Modiji, hamari suniye. Hum marne wale hai. Aapne ye kaisa kit diya hai? Is se corona marij ka elaj kaise hoga? Hum nahi bach payenge (Please, please, Modiji, hear us. We are going to die. What kind of kit have you given us? How can we treat patients like this? We won't survive.)'

An emotional Julie, in her video message from the hospital's isolation ward for suspected coronavirus patients, requested Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to save her and her colleagues by immediately providing personal protective equipment and N95 masks.

She also questioned the quality of the common safety kit (for surgical operations and the HIV kit) given to them by the health department authorities.

'Iski quality (referring to the common safety kits) jaisi hai woh humein corona se kisi angle se nahi bacha sakta hai. Please, please hamari request suniye. Thali bajane se hum logon ka manobal nahi badhega. Hum kaise duty karen, apni jaan gawa ke (The quality is so poor that it will not save us from the coronavirus. Please, please hear our request. Mere applause won't bolster our confidence. How can we do our duty when we fear that we may die?)'

'We are doing our duty despite the risk to our lives,' Julie added. 'But we also have families; we have children. Please provide us with a quality safety kit.'

Dozens of hospital staff nurses gheraoed the hospital superintendent on March 27, demanding safety kits.

They expressed solidarity with Julie and unhappiness over threats by the authorities of action against her for revealing her fears and the lack of quality personal protective equipment and N95 masks.

Citing the lack of necessary safety equipment, 83 junior hospital doctors have demanded that they be quarantined.

In a letter to the hospital superintendent, the junior doctors association vice-president Dr Ranvijay Bharti said there is a lack basic facilities for doctors treating suspected coronavirus patients.

"The facilities are not adequate. If junior doctors treating suspected coronavirus patients get infected, their own life will be in risk. Who is responsible for that? We have requested the hospital to keep us away treating suspected cases," Dr Bharti said.

The Nalanda Medical College and Hospital is the second largest hospital in Bihar and the state health department has decided to turn it into a special hospital for coronavirus patients with 100 beds being reserved for suspected cases.

One hospital doctor said, "When we demanded N95 masks and PPE, the hospital authorities told us we don't have to worry since we are not involved in the treatment of coronavirus positive cases. But we insisted because no one knows who is infected; since only two labs are testing here, the results are coming slowly."

IMAGE: Dr Bineeta Choudhary's post which has now been deleted. Photograph: Kind courtesy Dr Bineeta Choudhary/Facebook

Julie is not the first Bihar-based medical staffer to take to social media to demand basic safety kits while doing her duty.

Amid fear of the likely spread of COVID-19, Dr Bineeta Choudhary of the Patna Medical College and Hospital, revealed -- much to the embarrassment of the state government -- that doctors have been forced to treat suspected coronavirus cases without basic safety kits.

The Patna Medical College and Hospital is the largest health centre in Bihar.

'Suicide squad#working in emergency @ patna medical college and hospital, bihar... We are being given HIV kit instead of PPE.. This is how we are supposed to fight against corona and this is now we are going to treat patient!! This is actually a suicide that we hv choosen for ourself.. Once we are infected, we will be infecting others too.. No facilities no equipment no management more over no sanitiser just empty bottles as you can see in pic!!' Dr Choudhary posted on Facebook on March 25.

Dr Choudhary, a resident doctor at the Patna Medical College and Hospital, accused the hospital's superintendent of shocking lack of concern.

'Where the medical superintendent is more worried about his lunch with CM of bihar then thinking abt us n we are being threatened for FIR if we deny to do duty in this situation, lets suicide happily while doing our job sir Narendra Modi', Dr Choudhary alleged.

After her post went viral on social media, many people questioned the Nitish Kumar government's claims about its fight against COVID-19.

Dr Choudhary has now deleted her post, apparently under pressure from her superiors, and in her new post, is downplaying her previous statement.

'I hope my post will be taken in a positive way to uplift management of PMCH. Hoping for quick action regarding all basic things required in management, after all this is best college of Bihar where people come with hope to survive n for a healthy life, we are healers, let's just ensure not to become a carrier of corona.'

Meanwhile, doctors at the Patna AIIMS are wearing helmets while visiting wards because of the lack of PPE and N95 masks.

However, hundreds of doctors, nurses and staff in government-run hospitals in Bihar are still examining and treating suspected coronavirus cases without basic safety facilities, As a result, doctors are threatening to resign and are requesting to be sent into quarantine.

Last week, doctors at the Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital threatened to boycott work. Some reportedly said they would resign if basic safety kits like the N95 mask and PPE are not provided to them when they are asked to treat suspected coronavirus cases.

In Samastipur district, the lack of PPE saw a medical team wearing raincoats to protect themselves while examining recently-arrived migrant workers.

A doctor, who was part of the medical team that visited half a dozen villages in Shivaji Nagar, said they had to examine suspected cases without being provided with the N95 mask, safety kit and gloves.

'In a bid to protect ourselves from a likely infection, we were forced to wear raincoats instead,' he said, adding, that the doctors covered their faces with common masks they personally purchased from the market.

In another alarming case, the superintendent of the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Bhagalpur district asked doctors to work without N95 masks and PPE after junior doctors demanded basic safety kits for treating suspected corona cases.

According to a health staffer at the hospital, after the doctors protested against having to work without a safety kit, the N95 mask and alcohol-based sanitisers, the superintendent discussed the matter with senior officers from the health department through video conferencing. He then instructed the doctors to work without the safety kit.

In an official letter, the hospital superintendent informed doctors there was no need to wear the N95 mask and PPE while working in the emergency ward. He also stated that doctors can work with a normal mask and gloves in emergency ward.

He warned doctors to continue their duty and threatened that if they did not, they would be reported to the principal secretary of the state's health department in Patna.

"There are no safety kits and N95 masks and gloves for us, but have been forced to examine suspected coronavirus cases," a doctor revealed, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Till date, Bihar has reported 9 confirmed coronavirus cases, including one death, confirms Dr Pradeep Das, director of the Patna-based Rajendra Memorial Research Institute, where the state's COVID-19 tests are conducted.
YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. The government of Armenia has approved a new coronavirus relief package that will provide assistance to pregnant women.

Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Zaruhi Batoyan said at the Cabinet meeting that pregnant women who are unemployed as of March 30, 2020 and whose spouse has lost his job in the period from March 13th to March 30, 2020 are eligible for the assistance program.

Those eligible will receive a 100,000-dram single payment in assistance.

PM Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that pregnant women are also eligible to simultaneously benefit from other assistance programs.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
KV Navya By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Chennai is going to be the first city in India to geographically map people with fever symptoms. The Greater Chennai Corporation has developed an app -- GCC Corona Monitoring -- that can map people having fever symptoms as well as people under home quarantine and areas where crowds gather and social distancing is not followed. The app will be launched within a week, confirmed official sources.

"In every other city in the country, the government is only monitoring people under home quarantine actively. But there might be a cluster of people in one particular area showing fever symptoms. Since everyone is locked inside their home, nobody knows even if the person next door is suffering from fever. This can be a major reason for community spread," said M P Azhagu Pandia Raja, Research Fellow,

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Greater Chennai Corporation, who conceptualised and designed the application.

CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES

Once launched, people residing within the limits of the Greater Chennai Corporation can download the app. If anyone is having fever symptoms, they can click on that option. "Then they will have to share a photo from their home, through which we will get their geographical location. As more people in the city notify us, we can immediately find unusual clusters with fever symptoms and send corporation workers there," explained Azhagu.

The app can also geotag people under home quarantine. Those under home quarantine must download the app and send their location. "Here, we will check the geographical distribution and since these will be high alert areas, we can channelise more of the corporation's resources.

Though it has not been launched officially, corporation workers who are going on daily inspections to these houses are asking the quarantined public to download the app. Already 1,000 people have downloaded it and sent their locations," Azhagu said. Currently, there are more than 21,000 people in home quarantine in the city.

The last option on the app is to notify the civic body about crowds in an area. Anyone can click a picture of a group if they come across one (in a market, meat shop, outside a restaurant) and send it through the app. "Corporation workmen will immediately come to clear the crowd. Priority will be given to the areas where there is already a cluster of quarantined or fever symptom cases," said Azhagu.

Since Google Playstore is taking down applications related to COVID to stop the spread of fake news, this app will be released on the GCC's official website. It is currently developed for Android users and the IOS user app is almost completed. A team of volunteers from Mr Cooper developed the app.

Civic body officials say they believe these analytics will help the city recover faster than other cities.
Occurred on March 25, 2020 / Teton Pass, Wyoming, USA



Info from Licensor: "Teton pass is closed to trailer traffic October through April every year. This truck stopped halfway up the pass and had to put chains on to continue up, law enforcement was already on scene, the only way to get the truck up and over the pass to safety was to have a Teton county sheriff pull it with a chain up to the summit. Blocking traffic for only a few minutes, however, the traffic backed up all the way to the Idaho state line. Thanks to the quick thinking of the sheriff everything flowed smoothly. I was up there to ski and so I saw the whole thing unfolding and decided to grab a quick video."
The IRS is preparing to send most Americans one-time stimulus relief checks in response to the coronavirus pandemic. But the bill excludes many financially vulnerable groups from receiving checks.

Individuals earning up to $75,000 will receive a check for $1,200, while couples earning up to $150,000 will get $2,400. Additionally, parents will receive $500 for each child under 17. That leaves out anyone 18 and older, who can still be claimed as dependents on another person's tax return.

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In fact, people who can be claimed as a dependent, even if they are not, are not eligible for a payment, Janet Holtzblatt, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, tells CNBC Make It in an email.

"A taxpayer is allowed to claim a full-time student between the ages of 19 and 24 as a dependent, so the parent will not get $500 for a college student, nor can the college student generally claim $1,200," says Holtzblatt. The parent will still receive their $1,200 check, if eligible.

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Experts predict that coronavirus will have profound impacts on the financial futures of young Americans. Not only are some left out of receiving stimulus relief checks, but young people, ages 16 to 24, will also be disproportionately affected by coronavirus layoffs, according to the Pew Research Center, since nearly half work in service-sector jobs, and make up 24% of workers in higher-risk industries overall.
JEREMIAH GRAHAM, Chariho, Boys Basketball, Junior; Graham scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in a victory over Cranston West. Graham is averaging 13.1 points per game.

JESSE SAMO, Westerly, Boys Basketball, Sophomore; Samo made a baseline game-winning shot with 0.8 seconds remaining as Westerly beat Central by two points in overtime. Samo made four 3-pointers in the game and scored 21 points. He is averaging 10.9 points per contest.

KEITH ZARDIES, Wheeler, Boys Basketball, Sophomore; Zardies scored 15 points and made seven steals as Wheeler beat Putnam. The 15 points was a season high. Zardies is averaging 10.1 points and 3.9 steals per game.

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Dubai, March 30 : Indian businessman Ajay Sobhraj, founder and Chairman of Dubai-based Finja Jewellery, has donated a building he owns to be used as a quarantine centre for the treatment of people infected with the novel coronavirus, it was reported.

In a letter addressed to the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) titled "To Support and Give Back to the City That Cares", Sobhraj who has called Dubai his home for 25 years, has donated the fully-equipped building in Jumeirah Lake Towers to be used in the country's fully integrated strategy against the pandemic, reports Gulf News.

The 77,000 sq.ft property can accommodate up to 400 people.

The building has undergone all necessary maintenance, including deep cleaning, sanitisation and air conditioning servicing, to ensure the facilities meet the required health and safety standards, according to a statement issued by the Dubai Media Office.

In his letter, Sobhraj said: "I believe that in such challenging times, it is imperative for the community to come together and support the country we reside in to overcome this pandemic.

"I am extremely pleased to offer my assistance to the government during this critical period and support the city that has continued to contribute to my success and growth for the past 25 years." The UAE has so far reported 570 confirmed coronavirus cases, with three deaths.

The country is currently amid a 10-day national sterilisation program aimed at sanitising all public facilities, streets, public transportation and metro service, as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Government and central banks around the world are throwing everything they can conceive of at the economic fallout from the coronavirus. Will that be a lifeline for zombie companies or will the pandemic sound their death knell?

Back in 2017, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development created a stir when it published a paper entitled The Walking Dead? Zombie firms and productivity performance in OECD countries.

A zombie at Melbourne's annual zombie shuffle in 2016. Credit:Arsineh Houspian

The thesis of the paper  and of subsequent research by the OECD and the Bank for International Settlements  was that there were reasons to suspect that companies that were otherwise non-viable had been kept afloat by actions taken by central banks and others in response to the financial crisis in 2008.

The survival of those companies may have, it posited, crowded out growth opportunities for more productive companies. In effect, the open-ended supply of credit at unprecedented low interest rates had frustrated a central element of market capitalism, what Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter termed "creative destruction".
In the hours after Broadway shut down for 30 days to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Off Broadway closures followed in a wave  show upon show postponed or suspended or prematurely ended.

Ars Nova was one of those companies, going dark the same night that Broadway did, and for the same length of time. On March 12, after just two previews, it paused production of the music-theater piece on its Greenwich Village stage, Heather Christians Oratorio for Living Things, and halted all activity at its headquarters in Hells Kitchen, an incubator for emerging artists and their work.

Then, on March 23, Ars Nova  which has been a launching pad for artists including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Annie Baker and Billy Eichner  took what its managing director, Renee Blinkwolt, called a calculated leap of faith. While much of Off Broadway has adopted a wait-and-see posture toward productions slated for late spring, or postponed them without announcing new dates, Ars Nova took the concrete step of canceling the remainder of its season, which was to have ended June 30.

In doing so, it promised to pay in full each person who had been scheduled to work during that time: staffers, artists, independent contractors. The opening night photographer for Oratorio, or an usher for an April 10 performance? On the list. It adds up to an estimated 223 people, for a total of about $685,000  such a hefty price tag for a company with a $3.7 million budget that Blinkwolt chuckled wryly when she spoke it aloud.
PRINCETON, N.J.--While some are relying on friends and neighbors to help them get groceries, the poor may need to put themselves at risk for COVID-19 by venturing out on public transportation to get supplies. Depending on where they live, they may trust no one else to help out.

This is true in areas with the highest levels of income inequality, according to a paper to be published in Nature Human Behaviour, where the poor are less likely to rely on their community for support due to shame or embarrassment.

Look at New Haven, Connecticut, as an example. Part of the city is a wealthier University area, and the other part is primarily low-income. It would be rare, the research suggests, for someone from the lower-income areas to ask those in the University section for help -- especially now as the coronavirus continues to spread.

The findings illustrate why policymakers and researchers should move beyond a sole focus on helping low-income individuals and instead look at ways to develop stronger communities.

"If I'm poor, it exacerbates my need to rely on community, but what does it mean if I don't trust my community? It means that there is no way for me to get what I need without putting myself in danger. This can have disastrous long-term effects among the poor," said study lead author Jon Jachimowicz, assistant professor of business administration, at Harvard University.

"Our work shows that hardship increases for low-income individuals by reducing their ability to rely on their community as a buffer against financial and other related difficulties," said co-author Elke Weber, Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment and professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. "This suggests that stimulus measures designed to address the economic and social fallout of the coronavirus should focus on reducing the existing income and wealth gap in our country."

The study was an interdisciplinary effort led by psychologists and economists using data analysis strategies across disciplines.

The team also included co-lead author Barnabas Szaszi of Eotvos Lorand University, Marcel Lukas of Heriot-Watt University, David Smerdon of the University of Cambridge, and Jaideep Prabhu of the University of Cambridge.

The researchers conducted eight studies looking at more than one million people across the United States, Australia, and Uganda. Their work included an instrumental variable analysis, lab experiments, online studies, and field work.

In the first four studies, the team established empirical support for their hypothesis that greater income inequality hits the poor the hardest. Their findings were as expected: Across all countries, the greater the economic inequality, the harder the financial hardship for those with the lowest incomes.

In the next four studies, they investigated the main driver behind this effect, finding strong evidence supporting their claim: Higher economic inequality weakens the perception of a community buffer, which is a key source of support for low-income people.

The researchers estimated this lack of support comes at a cost $6,587. This means that a person earning $36,587 in New Haven, where there is greater income inequality, experiences the same financial hardship as someone making $30,000 in a more homogenous income area like Princeton.

So, why do low-income people feel they can't ask community members for support? Many people hit by money problems worry about what others would think, so they don't ask for help. The researchers actually found that the higher the income inequality in an area, the more distrustful the poor are of those in their community.

Other factors are also perpetuating cycles of poverty in these places. One is a person's need to display his or her wealth for reasons of status through physical objects like a fancy car, which further indebts them. In other cases, people overwhelmed by destitution may resort to negative behaviors like taking out payday loans to cover the bills, which only worsens their financial situation.

All of this supports the strengthening of local communities, the researchers said. Programs like the YMCA are extremely beneficial, and community investment funds could further empower towns with the greatest income disparity. Infrastructure also matters; a city's walkability can bond neighbors together. In light of COVID-19, stimulus bills could help address some of these issues, while financially helping the most vulnerable.

"At a time when the coronavirus crisis puts a premium on cooperation and community support, our policymakers need to be aware of the social and economic conditions that eat away at such support, especially for the most vulnerable among us, the poor," Weber said.

The results do not shed light on how economic inequality affects people at median income levels, so the researchers encourage further work in this area. It is possible that the availability of liquid assets and other kinds of wealth could help in times of need, the researchers said.

###

The paper, "Higher Economic Inequality Intensifies the Financial Hardship of People Living in Poverty by Fraying the Community Buffer," will appear online in Nature Human Behaviour on March 30.
But some actuaries are predicting costs are likely to be much lower. One actuary said insurers have told him that they have no plans to raise rates sharply because they do not think the pandemic will change their predictions about ongoing medical expenses once it has run its course.
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Linkedin Paul Ricard (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France  Mon, March 30, 2020 13:02 654 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e4a9a0 2 Health France,health,coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic,drugs,malaria,malaria-drug-chloroquine,chloroquine Free

The controversial French professor who believes the anti-malaria drug chloroquine can help beat the coronavirus, has claimed that a new study he has conducted confirms its "efficiency" at combating the virus.

But several other scientists and critics of microbiologist Didier Raoult, who heads the infectious diseases department of La Timone hospital in Marseille, were quick to cast doubt upon his findings.

They said the testing was not carried out in a controlled study and that the results were purely "observational".

Dr Raoult, whose theory has been taken up by US President Donald Trump, said his new study of 80 patients showed that four out of five of those treated with the drug had "favorable" outcomes.

He had earlier reported that after treating 24 patients for six days with hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin, the virus disappeared in all but a quarter of them.

The research has not yet been peer reviewed nor formally published in a medical journal.

No stranger to controversy, the colorful scientist with shoulder-length blond hair and grey beard, insists that the Chinese pulmonary expert Zhong Nanshan observed a similar pattern.

Read also: Malaria drug chloroquine no better than regular coronavirus care, study finds

Results questioned

Raoult's critics have pointed to problems with the protocol of his testing and worrying side effects of the drug.

Fakemed, a group of scientists against fake news in health, lambasted the 68-year-old professor.

After Raoult released his latest findings on the internet over the weekend, Professor Francois Balloux of University College, London, tried to dampen talk that the drug could be a silver bullet.

"No, (this is) not 'huge' I'm afraid," he said on Twitter.

"This is an observational study (i.e. not controlled) following 80 patients with fairly mild symptoms. The majority of patients recover form #COVID19 infection, with or without #Hchloroquine and #Azithromycin treatment."

Statistician Tim Morris of the university's clinical trials unit was even more scathing.

"If hydroxychloroquine turns out to be useful," he tweeted, "it's a shame that this group will be praised as heroes and prophets instead of held to account for the misinformation and self-promotion they've been churning out at a critical time."

Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, which is often sold as Plaquenil, have been hailed as a potential "gamechangers" by Trump, but US government experts are as yet unconvinced, with Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, calling the results so far "anecdotal".

At least one person has already died in the US after self-medicating with a non-pharmaceutical version of the drug used for cleaning fish tanks.

Read also: What is chloroquine and could it cure the coronavirus?

Fears of shortages

Fears have also being raised that stockpiling of the drug will deprive people who are already being treated with it for malaria, lupus and certain types of arthritis.

Dr Philippe Gautret, who was part of the team behind Raoult's latest findings, admitted that they only used the combination of drugs on "patients who had not been showing signs of being seriously ill after admission" to the hospital.

"Our strategy was precisely to treat them at that stage to stop the disease getting to a more serious stage," he told AFP.

"A doctor can and must think like a doctor and not like a methodological researcher," Raoult wrote in an article for the French Le Monde daily, defending his methods.

According to his latest study, 65 of the 80 patients treated improved and were discharged from hospital in an average of less than five days. One patient aged 74 was still in intensive care and another aged 86 died.

But his critics say such results were fairly typical of the virus.

Two Chinese studies have shown that "10 days after the start of symptoms, 90 percent of people who have a moderate form (of the disease) have a controlled viral load," epidemiologist Dominique Costagliola, of the French health research institute Inserm, told AFP.

The fact that they got these results using hydroxychloroquine "does not make the case for its effect," she said.
Open source

Serhiy Sivokho was fired from position of an advisor to the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC). The press service of the Defense Council Apparatus reported this, as Detector Media writes.

As of March 24, 2020 (date of inquiry) Serhiy Sivokho ceases to be an adviser to the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. We also inform that Maksym Tkachenko, as of March 24, 2020, also does not hold the position of an advisor to the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, the message says.

Serhiy Sivokho became the Adviser to the Secretary of the NSDC on reintegration and reconstruction of Donbas on October 21, 2019. Maksym Tkachenko took office on October 23.

Earlier, Serhiy Sivokho said that "a hybrid war is ongoing in Ukraine, one of the ways of which is the initiation of internal conflict and its support by the Russian Federation."
Grenoble, March 30th, 2020 -- To fuel its growth and to support its growing number of users looking for ultra-low power semiconductor IPs and design platforms, Dolphin Design has appointed a sales representative to take care of its interests in Taiwan and Japan.

Shui Shou Wang is Taiwanese and has 22 years of international experience in the semiconductor domain. He started his career in Japan, then several years later he worked for many big EDA groups all over the world, and finally specialized in developing IP provider markets.

Through these varied positions, he has built a strong expertise and a wide picture of the whole value chain: engineering for EDA, IC design, production and test, project management, top management, marketing and sales.

His last position led him to cooperate with major IP and EDA vendors to provide a global offering to help fabless companies for IC design and manufacture.

This mix of knowledge and expertise is fully aligned with the growth strategy of Dolphin Design, evolving from a leading provider of low-power semiconductor IPs to a provider of consistent energy efficient design platforms.

We are confident that Wangs expertise and knowledge of Taiwanese and Japanese semiconductor markets will provide higher quality support. He will specifically help us support fabless makers who are looking for design solutions which can improve, in a cost-effective and safe manner, the Energy Efficiency of their next SoCs. said Frederic Renoux EVP of sales at Dolphin Design.

What really excites me, is to help businesses become market leaders. After an in-depth study of Dolphin Designs offering, I am convinced that they can become the #1 semiconductor IP provider, because their differentiated offering matches the needs of the next generation devices. I really want to use my knowledge of Japanese and Taiwanese markets to make them reach this target. said Shui Shou Wang.

For more information: shuishou.wang@dolphin.fr

About Dolphin Design

Headquartered in France, Dolphin Design, previously known as Dolphin Integration, is a semiconductor company employing 160 people, including 140 highly qualified engineers.

Their IP clusters, available for various technological processes and optimized for the best Energy Efficiency, feed their tailored, scalable and modular Power Management and MCU subsystem platforms to deliver fast and secure ASICs, either designed by, or for, their clients.

Alongside their clients, now exceeding 500 companies, they focus on human, inventive and long-term collaborations to bring products and devices, powered by innovative and accessible integrated circuits that minimize environmental impact, to the hands of billions of people every day. In consumer markets including IoT, AI and 5G, and in high reliability markets, they unleash SoC designer creativity to deliver differentiation.

Tell them your biggest dream. Dare the impossible. They tech it on.






A New York City subway driver was killed and several other people were injured early Friday in a fire on a train that is being investigated as a crime, officials said.

Fires were reported at three other stations nearby at the same time, police said.

We are investigating it as a criminal matter, Deputy Chief Brian McGee said, adding that no arrests have been made.

The fire killed a motorman who was helping passengers to safety, officials said, and came the day after two of his fellow New York City Transit employees fell victim to the coronavirus.

As all of you know, this has already been a devastating week for New York City Transit, said Sarah Feinberg, interim president of the agency that runs the citys buses and subways. And this is another horrific moment for our family.

A train had just pulled into the 110th Street station in Harlem, near Central Park, around 3 a.m. when a transit worker saw smoke and fire in one of the cars, said McGee, who joined Feinberg at a news conference at the scene.

The motorman and another transit employee successfully evacuated passengers from the train, Feinberg said. The motormans body was found on the tracks, McGee said.

The 36-year-old motorman was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and pronounced dead, police said. His name was not immediately released.

Fires were also reported at around the same time at three nearby stations  86th Street, 96th Street and 116th Street, McGee said.

The most important thing that I need is for witnesses to come forward, he said, urging New Yorkers to call a police tip line.

Nine other people were injured, a lower number than some earlier reports had indicated, Feinberg said. Early numbers are wrong and well have to see how it plays out, she said.

The fatal fire occurred a day after two other New York City Transit employees died of COVID-19, according to their union.

Bus driver Oliver Cyrus, 61, and train conductor Peter Petrassi, 49, were killed by the virus Thursday, Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Tony Utano said.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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The Morrisons, a family from Cleveland, have been serving orphans and vulnerable children in Uganda for 10 years now and have lived in Uganda for the last year and a half. Last week, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the government of Uganda closed the only international airport, land borders, and stopped much of the day-to-day activities. Because of the current restrictions, the Morrisons are unable to leave their house and have been locked in for nine days now.

Unfortunately, Ugandans havent been educated well on the coronavirus and many of them blame westerners for bringing the virus into the country. Because of this, xenophobia is a great concern and there has been violence toward westerners already. Also, the Morrisons oldest son has asthma and wouldnt have access to adequate medical care should they contract the coronavirus.

The Morrisons have been trying to evacuate for over a week now but have been unable to get on one of the few flights the Ugandan government has allowed in to repatriate U.S. citizens and their last chance to evacuate is on a commercial flight being allowed in early next week for U.S. citizens. However, tickets for them to get to Atlanta or Chattanooga will be close to $3,000 per person. The Morrisons need funds immediately in order to book this only chance for them to evacuate. If they arent able to get out on this flight, it could be weeks or months before they have another chance to leave. And the situation in Uganda is getting worse every day.

Please consider giving toward the $25,000 needed immediately, which will buy their plane tickets and help them rent a place to stay for the mandatory two-week quarantine they face when they arrive. Please also pray for their safety and for the people of Uganda as they deal with the growing number of coronavirus cases in an already vulnerable country.

To support bringing the Morrison family home, click here.
Iran is running out of excuses against accusations that they are supplying UAVs, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to Iran-backed groups in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon for attacks on Israel, Yemen and anyone who opposes Iranian aggression. These weapons are built with Iranian components that are deliberately made with key components lacking any visible evidence that they were manufactured in Iran. A lot of effort is put into this. But Iran sometimes uses the same unmarked components in weapons that are clearly labeled as Iranian.

Despite all those deception efforts UN and other investigators have been collecting components from debris of Iranian (labeled or unlabeled) UAVs and missiles that functioned properly and exploded as well as some that were captured or crashed near Iranian territory. The UN and Saudi Arabia have put many of these components on public display and the U.S. has also displayed captured Iranian arms shipments or missile components recovered from weapons that have crashed. One of the common items found in all these cases are unmarked (no indication of manufacturer or national origin) gyroscopes. These miniature devices are common in all manner of UAVs and missiles. Gyroscopes of the type Iran is supplying are available on the commercial market but only the model Iran denies producing is showing up in systems, used by Islamic terrorists as well as systems that are clearly marked as Iranian. This was the result of Iran trying to save some money by not manufacturing a similar gyroscope clearly marked as Iranian for systems that are officially Iranian. That was false economy there because dozens of these gyroscopes have been collected from crashed or exploded systems. There is always debris, even when a system explodes and many small components, like these gyroscopes, survive intact. Iran denounces this evidence as an American conspiracy but no one except Iran and their allies are accepting this. A growing number of these Iran-backed groups are recognized by the UN and other organizations as international terrorists.

The gyroscopes have been collected in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Afghanistan. One of the earliest examples was found in 2016 when an Iranian UAV crashed in Afghanistan and U.S. forces seized it and photographed/scrutinized the components. In later years the gyroscope kept showing up in other countries. The gyroscope is a unique design not available from any Western, Chinese or Russian manufacturer. It is of no identifiable (by markings) country but all the evidence points to Iran, especially since the mystery gyroscope shows up in UAVs that Iran proudly claims are Iranian made from Iranian components.

Some of these unidentified UAVs and missiles also contain other components that indicate Iranian origin even though the Iranians claim that they were produced locally by Iranian backed groups. That explanation falls apart when you look at pictures of the local product and the Iranian made model it is based on. Differences are often minimal. Some of these UAVs and missiles are built with some local materials like sheet metal but the design is clearly Iranian and key components, like the gyroscopes, are not from any commercial supplier but smuggled in by Iran. The unmarked gyroscopes have one thing in common, they are found in locally built systems of Iran-backed groups.

The most telling evidence comes from Iranian arms shipments captured from the smugglers who are paid to get them into Yemen or Gaza. In addition to Iranian weapons clearly marked as Iranian made, there are often quantities of Iranian components, including the mystery gyroscopes. Iran dismisses all this as an American or Israeli plot to defame Iran. Yet in Iran, the Quds Force, a special section of the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) is praised for the extensive support it provides for Iran-backed rebel and terrorist forces throughout the region. It is no secret in Iran that Quds provides technical as well as tactical and organizational help to these groups carry out attacks using rockets, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes against Quds Force operations in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Gaza to halt Iranian shipments of these guided weapons or components, from reaching Hezbollah stockpiles of unguided rockets in Lebanon. Iran has developed upgrade kits that make these rockets much more accurate. Those upgrade kit shipments contain more of the mystery gyroscopes.
Some senators had wanted to put a provision in the coronavirus bill to protect patients from surprise out-of-network billing  either a broad clause or one specifically related to coronavirus care. Lobbyists for hospitals, physician staffing firms and air ambulances apparently helped ensure it stayed out of the final version. They played what a person familiar with the negotiations, who spoke on condition of anonymity, called the Covid card: How could you possibly ask us to deal with surprise billing when were trying to battle this pandemic?

Even without an E.R. visit, there are perilous billing risks. Not all hospitals and labs are capable of performing the test. And what if my in-network doctor sends my coronavirus test to an out-of-network lab? Before the pandemic, the Kaiser Health News-NPR Bill of the Month Project produced a feature about Alexa Kasdan, a New Yorker with a head cold, whose throat swab was sent to an out-of-network lab that billed more than $28,000 for testing.

Even patients who do not contract the coronavirus are at a higher risk of incurring a surprise medical bill during the current crisis, when an unrelated health emergency could land you in an unfamiliar, out-of-network hospital because your hospital is too full with Covid-19 patients.

The coronavirus bills passed so far  and those on the table  offer inadequate protection from a system primed to bill patients for all kinds of costs. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act, passed this month, says that the test and its related charges will be covered with no patient charge only to the extent that they are related to administering the test or evaluating whether a patient needs it.

That leaves hospital billers and coders wide berth. Mr. Cencini went to the E.R. to get a test, as he was instructed to do. When he called to protest his $1,622.52 for hospital charges (his insurers discounted rate from over $2,500 in the hospitals billed charges), a patient representative confirmed that the E.R. visit and other services performed would be eligible for cost-sharing (in his case, all of it, since hed not met his deductible).

This weekend he was notified that the physician charge from Emergency Care Services of New York was $1,166. Though covered by his insurance, he owes another $321 for that, bringing his out-of-pocket costs to nearly $2,000.

By the way, his test came back negative.

When he got off the phone with his insurer, his blood was at the boiling point, he told us. My retirement account is tanking and Im expected to pay for this?

The coronavirus aid package provides a stimulus payment of $1,200 per person for most adults. Thanks to the billing proclivities of the American health care system, that will not offset Mr. Cencinis medical bills.

Elisabeth Rosenthal, a former New York Times correspondent, is the editor in chief of Kaiser Health News, the author of An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back and a contributing Opinion writer. Emmarie Huetteman is a correspondent at Kaiser Health News.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

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A six-year-old boy has died after he was found unresponsive in a stream near his home.

The child, named locally as Louie Fang, was reported missing by his parents only minutes after he wandered off from his home in Ballina, Co Mayo.

He had been playing on waste ground at Rehins Fort when he fell into the stream near a fast-flowing river.

Rescuers managed to take him from the water and administered CPR before he was rushed to hospital.

The accident happened at about 1.30pm yesterday.

The child was pronounced dead at Mayo University Hospital, Castlebar, at around 6.30pm.

Tragic

Superintendent Joe Doherty, head of the Ballina District, expressed his sympathy to the family and the local community for what he described as "a tragic accident".

He said immense praise was due to civilians and members of the rescue services as well as to garda personnel who took part in the rescue operation.

A search involving local gardai and residents immediately swung into action after the alarm was raised.

They walked the banks of the River Moy at the back of the housing estate.

Th child was found in an unresponsive state about an hour later in a stream leading to the river.

Local Independent councillor Mark Duffy said the town was "devastated".

He said the boy's parents are well-known locally and own the local Ocean Palace Chinese restaurant.

"It's absolutely tragic," he told The Herald last night. "The whole town is devastated.

"With everything else that's going on, it's a very difficult piece of news.

"Anyone who has heard the news is stunned. To make matters worse, the community cannot physically come together to support the family."

One local mother spoke of her distress.

"It's unspeakable. A beautiful boy from a beautiful family. There are no words for this. It's a nightmare," he said.
By David Saleh Rauf

South Carolina education officials on Monday were to start placing hundreds of school buses equipped with Wi-Fi in low-income neighborhoods around the state to serve as mobile hotspots for students.

The idea of delivering internet connectivity to students via buses is not newthe Austin Independent School District in Texas, for example, is putting Wi-Fi on hundeds of its buses to smooth the way for remote learning. But South Carolina is widening its focus statewide in seeking to use Wi-Fi-enabled buses during extended closures caused by the coronavirus.

As of Monday, school districts in South Carolina had submitted requests for 550 buses, said state Department of Education spokesman Ryan Brown, and somewhere around 300 were ready to be deployed.

Were going to place the buses in high-poverty and rural areas, said Brown. Theyll be in areas where they can be accessed easily. Parents can drive up or students can ride their bikes and access the internet within a certain range.

Schools are closed in South Carolina through March 31, but Brown said he expects that to be reevaluated this week with an eye toward extending that date. The state education department started putting the buses into neighborhoods now so students who dont have internet connectivity can download materials ahead of classes restarting in some form, he said.

South Carolina has bought 3,000 school buses since 2015, all outfitted with GPS tracking, Wi-Fi hardware and air conditioning, said Brown. But only a few larger districts have activated internet service for the buses, so said school officials have been busy calling AT&T and Verizon to say Hey, we need the service now.

The buses have modems, Brown said, but were having to hook the service up to them.

While all 3,000-district buses already equipped with modems are being mobilized for the project, Brown said he doesnt expect many more requests aside from the 550 already identified through a statewide survey that school districts filled out last week. (Side note: An estimated 1,300 buses are also being used for meal delivery.)

Were filling requests as they come in, he said, noting that demand may top out around requests for 600 buses. Were also seeing less of a need since providers like Comcast and Charter are offering free internet for 60 days, so I dont anticipate well have to deploy all 3,000 of those buses.

Photo: Alex Dubon, left, assists Austin Independent School District foreman Daniel Webb, right, with installing a WiFi hotspot in a school bus.. The Austin Independent School District is installing WiFi on all school buses to act as hotspots during extended school closures. Districts around the country are making similar efforts, and South Carolina has a state plan. -- Julia Robinson for Education Week
NEWS FLASH

The Macedonian government has issued a tender call for an airline to operate rescue flights for stranded Macedonians across Europe. The country closed its airports for commercial flights to stem the outbreak of the coronavirus Covid-19. Passengers taking these services will be obligated to pay for their ticket within fifteen days of their arrival in Skopje. The government has requested for flights to be operated from Berlin (for 377 passengers), Bonn (for 355 travellers) and Munich (for 183 passengers) to Skopje. Any airline can participate in the tender. Bids must be submitted by noon March 27, 2020. The state has already secured a rescue flight from Zagreb and Malta to Skopje, which will be operated tomorrow by Wizz Air. The services will be operated by an A320 jet.




An elderly couple from Northamptonshire has issued a plea "just to get some fresh air" after spending the past nine days stuck in a cramped cabin on a coronavirus-infected cruise ship.

Jenni and Tony Wills, aged 74 and 80, have run out of toothpaste, are running low on toilet paper and only received a change of bed sheets on Sunday after a 10-day wait.

"It has been pretty tough so far," Mrs Wills said in a video message shared with Sky News from aboard the Zaandam cruise liner off the coast of Panama.

"To have only half an hour's fresh air in 10 days, that is the thing that is killing us all, just to get some fresh air."

She is among more than 1,200 passengers, including around 225 Britons, split between the Zaandam and its sister ship the Rotterdam after four patients on the Zaandam died.

The cause of death has not been made public, but two others tested positive for COVID-19 .

Both vessels have spent the past few days in limbo, with their final destination in doubt after a Florida mayor suggested he did not want the Zaandam "docking in my community".

Over the weekend, hundreds of guests were transferred from the Zaandam to the Rotterdam after passing temperature checks.

Mr and Mrs Wills, who live in the village of Earls Barton, say they had been made to believe they would be among those moved.

The couple had already packed their bags, but Mrs Wills' mention she had suffered a mild cold over a week ago appears to be the reason they have remained on the Zaandam, where at least 130 passengers and crew have flu-like symptoms.

In a positive step, Holland America Line - which operates the ships - announced on Sunday night the Panamanian government had finally granted permission to both ships to pass through the Panama Canal towards Florida, where they hope to dock.

Permission had initially been denied because of health concerns.

"We know this has been a bumpy road and a bumpy ride but you guys have been great in terms of being supportive of the crew, being supportive of one another," said Orlando Ashford, president of the company, in a video posted on its Facebook page.

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He said the vessels "can make our way through the canal and work our way towards the next part of our journey, which is getting you to a place where you can make your way home".

Mr Ashford did not specify where on the US coast the Zaandam and the Rotterdam would be allowed to come alongside.

The plan had been for the Zaandam to head to Fort Lauderdale but its mayor, Dean Trantalis, said over the weekend he found this to be "deeply troubling" and suggested the vessel should instead go to a Navy base elsewhere on the eastern seaboard.

"Until I am fully briefed by the Trump administration and am comfortable with their plans, I cannot support the Zaandam docking in my community," he said.

The elder daughter of Mr and Mrs Wills has been closely tracking her parents' plight.

They have been at sea since 7 March, where they caught the cruise ship from Argentina.

"My father has regular medication," said Beccie Atkinson, 49, from Wandsworth, London. "They did manage to send him some generic tablets."

However, she said her parents feel as though they are not receiving clear information from the captain of the ship.

Unable to leave the cabin, the couple's meals are left outside their door, though the food is not particularly appetising, the daughter said.

There is also little to keep them occupied. The air conditioning has made their eyes dry, which makes reading difficult. They have run out of paper to do puzzles on and only one of their two pens work.

"They have dice and try to play Yahtzee," Mrs Atkinson said.

Also, friends they had made in nearby cabins have transferred to the Rotterdam so they no longer have anyone to speak to - other than the odd phone call home.

"It is like they are on a desert island," Mrs Atkinson said.

"They are very stoic, very stiff-upper-lip people generally and morale has been good. Of course they have not laughed it off, but they have been very accepting," she said.

"I think suddenly the realisation that [they] have been a week without any fresh air and without any sign of getting fresh air Repatriation and everything else, that seems the least of their worries.

"In terms of the here and the now, [they] want to be able to speak to people, [they] want information and [they] want air."
Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit has donated Rs one crore each to the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund and Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund of Tamil Nadu, the Raj Bhavan said on Monday.

The donation made from the Governor's Discretionary Grant has been done to assist the Centre and state in their fight to tackle the spread of Coronavirus, the release said.

"As a part of shouldering the responsibility along with the Government of India and the Government of Tamil Nadu at this critical situation," the Governor has donated Rs.1 crore each, it added.

In addition to this, Purohit has donated his one month's salary to the PM-CARES Fund, it said, recalling he had made a similar contribution to Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund also.

He has also appealed to the people of Tamil Nadu to contribute generously to the PM-CARES Fund and CMPRF, it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
DETROIT  It has seen its population plummet, houses fall to ruin, and the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation. Now another crisis has descended on Detroit: the coronavirus.

In less than two weeks, 35 people with the coronavirus have died in Detroit. The police chief has tested positive for the virus, and more than 500 police officers are in quarantine. On Sunday morning, the citys downtown, a center of Detroits post-bankruptcy resurgence, was quiet and mostly deserted.

The coronavirus has landed on this citys doorstep, its unwelcome arrival a sign of the outbreaks growing reach across America to cities far from the coasts and not as densely populated as New York. But the virus could place a unique burden on Detroit, a city of 670,000 people where three of 10 residents live in poverty, a large number have asthma and other chronic diseases, and hospitals are already overwhelmed. It is a city that has seen more than its share of crisis, and now finds itself staring at yet another.

Residents have been shaken by the number of people falling ill from the virus, including a well-known community activist, Marlowe Stoudamire, who died last week at the age of 43. He had attended a neighborhood pancake breakfast on March 6 where several police officers apparently were exposed.
Three crew members from the Ruby Princess cruise ship, which has been linked to more than 100 coronavirus cases, have been taken to hospital.

NSW Police were called to the ship moored off Botany Bay about 6.30pm on Sunday following reports three people needed medical care on board.

Three Ruby Princess cruise ship crew members were taken to hospital on Sunday night. Credit:Kate Geraghty

One patient was in a critical condition, while the other two were in serious conditions. They were taken to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

"Anyone who has to come off, comes off at my approval," NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said on Monday morning.
MASON  Mason County Judge Jerry Bearden called the state health department last week with a critical request: Could the county be added to the list of those in need of extra medics?

It got real quiet. The guy said, Ill call you back. He calls me back and says, We dont even have a list, Bearden said, leaning back in his office chair. Three stuffed deer heads stared down from the walls.

Bearden was hoping the state had a pool of medics to help in case any of his five Emergency Medical Services workers became ill or had to be quarantined.

As the novel coronavirus and the panic that accompanies it has spread in urban areas, Mason County remains one of the 136 counties in the state  out of 254  with no confirmed cases.

But the disease is slowly marching out of the cities. When Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statewide shutdown of bars and restaurants recently, he said there were no cases in 200 counties.

GOOD NEWS: Because we need more of it, submit your story and we may feature it in an upcoming article

Several people have been tested in Mason, but the tests all came back negative.

Cases are beginning to pop up in counties adjacent to Mason. Llano County next door has two. And the number of known cases in San Antonio, Masons closest big city, went from a handful to more than 150 in just a couple weeks.

So rural officials such as Bearden are looking ahead, attempting to prepare their small, isolated communities for the looming threat.

The urban areas have a big problem. Here, I can kind of keep my eye on it, Bearden said.

In these remote counties more than 100 miles northwest of San Antonio, there are no shelter-in-place orders and no highway signs telling residents to stay at home. Retail stores are still open, and its mostly business as usual at the small grocers. Neighbors often live hundreds of yards away from each other  a natural social distancing.

Were already spread out quite a bit, and people are used to being somewhat independent. You know, they like sitting on the front porch, watching the sunset. I find it to be delightful, to not feel like I have to be somewhere running all the time, Mason Mayor Brent Hinckley said.

On ExpressNews.com: Get the latest update on coronavirus and a tracking map of U.S. cases

Abbotts executive order two weeks ago closed gyms, temporarily shut schools and allows only takeout or delivery at restaurants for all counties in the state. He stopped short of calling for a statewide shelter-in-place, saying it would be unfair to rural counties that have yet to report a confirmed case.

Its not clear how much would change if Mason County ordered nonessential employees to work from home. Many of the jobs here are already considered essential  farmers, hunters, first responders and government employees. The majority of residents are self-sufficient ranchers with freezers full of meat from livestock they slaughtered or deer they hunted.

Surrounded by ranches and fields of bluebonnets, the county seat is a tiny cluster of homes around a town square and an old fort built as a defense against indigenous tribes in 1851. The town has a population of 2,200. Its website reminds residents that theres a $15 fine for leaving out animal traps and asks them to donate to Meals-on-Wheels by contacting Vickie or Celeste  no further information provided.

Its a different situation out here. When youre west of I-35, they kind of forget about you. But were here, Bearden said.

West of 35 is a popular mantra out here, referring to the sprawling ranch lands west of San Antonio.

They dont have the panic vibe here. Theyre so nice to each other. It doesnt have that argh feeling, said Darla Hinton, a Wimberley resident who was passing through Mason in her motor home.

But the town has taken some preventive measures. It hired four new part-time EMS workers. It temporarily suspended its weekly livestock auction, which typically drew a large crowd. Officials formed an emergency management committee of just under 10 people  the maximum recommended by the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control  that meets weekly.

The businesses at the town square are suffering under the public health disaster. Retail shops are open but have few customers.

On ExpressNews.com: Layoffs, closures as San Antonio restaurants, bars face new reality

City and county leaders say theyre confident that when the pandemic reaches Mason, the tight-knit community will take it seriously.

Theres an understanding theres a lot of elderly people in town. Thats always been the case, and I think we all understand the virus is much more deadly to those people, Hinckley said. Were a community here.

Its coming for us

The area has long struggled with access to medical care. The coronavirus will exacerbate the problem.

I keep telling people Im not worried about the virus, Im worried about the medical care, said Hinckley, whose family moved to the area in 1852. Because weve already started seeing those effects. An ambulance, when theyre taking someone with a potential of corona, thats six hours its out.

The EMS team operates two ambulances. The nearest hospitals are 30 or more miles away, in Brady and Fredericksburg. The four part-timers hired this month are living at a shuttered bed-and-breakfast owned by Hinckley.

It takes hours to sanitize the ambulance. The two in the county are barely enough to cover regular emergencies  much less a predicted surge in coronavirus cases. The county has a helicopter pad for emergency lifts to the hospital, Bearden said, and most residents pay for additional insurance that helps cover the cost of air ambulances.

Im seriously concerned that if my EMS people get ill or have to be quarantined, how are we going to take care of our citizens? Bearden said.

Until a few years ago, Mason didnt have a local doctor. Now it has one full-time doctor, operating out of a community health clinic thats part of a consortium called Frontera Healthcare Network.

On ExpressNews.com: Hospitals prepare for worst-case scenario

Mason and Menard are the most vulnerable because were the only health care provider there besides EMS. Were the first line of defense, said Cam Kleibrink, executive director of the Frontera network.

The Mason clinic has shut its doors and requires people to call ahead for an appointment. The medics are increasingly using a telemedicine app to assess patients.

Several people at Masons clinic have been tested for COVID-19. The clinic follows CDC advice and recommends patients first get tested for the flu and strep throat to rule out other possible infections. Some patients also drive to a hospital in Fredericksburg for a more comprehensive test.

Thats just what were doing now. If you dont do that and theyre negative (for coronavirus), you wasted a COVID test, and we have very, very limited supply, Kleibrink said.

Stories about people fleeing big cities for rural communities to escape the coronavirus hotbeds have been circulating  another concern for local residents trying to preserve their health.

I dont want to sound ugly to anybody, but we are having a lot of people leaving the cities and coming out here, Bearden said. You know: Uncle Toms got a cabin out here, so were bringing the kids, cause theyre out of school, and were bringing the four-wheelers  and were bringing our possible contamination out here.

Stay at home, and dont come to Mason County! Bearden added half-jokingly.

Wary of outsiders, the city issued an order Monday barring Greyhound buses from stopping in Mason, said John Palacio, the city administrator.

Still, residents and officials say they know the coronavirus arrival is inevitable  they just hope it doesnt hit too hard.

Its coming for us, said Angela Crouch, owner of Willow Creek Cafe and Club, which had to lay off 15 people. Were just later.

Soon were going to have the same problems as the urban areas, Bearden said. The only thing is, we dont have access to the solutions.

Too ornery to die

Sharron Robison rotated rhythmically in the revolving chair on her porch while her three grandkids splashed in a neighbors kiddie pool beside her. She held a can of Lone Star in a koozy.

A label with a green three-digit number was on the door, indicating they live in affordable housing.

I cant afford my rent, and its a struggle to pay my utilities a lot, she said. Things are so expensive. Its like $100 is what $20 used to buy. You go out now and a $100 is just, she snapped her fingers, like that!

The pandemic has posed a problem for her family already, and it threatens to get much worse for low-income families. In Mason County, only 18 percent of people have a bachelors degree or higher, according to the Census Bureau. Last year, the median household income was $55,726.

Last week, President Donald Trump signed a $2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package that will send $1,200 checks to millions of Americans, plus $500 for each child under age 16. The benefits are reduced for those earning more than $75,000 and are phased out entirely for those earning more than $150,000.

Hinckley said he laughed at the idea that $75,000 in income was a marker of need. He said hes never made that much money.

He also dismissed the notion that the cure for the virus  closing businesses and causing economic strife  could be worse than the disease.

On ExpressNews.com: Cash to provide relief from coronavirus is on the way

The reality is, around here, we have been dealing with that tough cure for generations. People have been dealing with financial hardship forever. In todays generation, its several extra zeros, but you still struggle with drought, you still struggle with raising cattle, Hinckley said.

With schools closed, Robison is in charge of caring for her grandchildren  ages 6, 10 and 11 Monday through Friday while their father works. She has no Wi-Fi, no television and no working computers for the children to do their schoolwork. She has a bad knee and a bad back that make it hard for her to keep up with them  especially the speedy, mischievous 6-year-old named Lathan but called Bubba.

I refuse to get caught up in all this insanity, she said of the pandemic. I think this is a bump in the road. Ive had some hills, a mountain. I had one mountain, thats it. But it passed. This too will pass. It all does.

She climbed that mountain three years ago, when the childrens mother  her daughter  died unexpectedly.

Her son-in-law, who works at a steel pipe store in Fredonia, 20 miles from Mason, had his hours cut after Abbotts executive order. Hes the sole source of income for the kids, and hes been a big financial help to Robison, often helping her pay for gas, utility bills and minutes on her phone.

We dont have a lot of money to get stuff, said Jancie, 11, settling into a chair beside her grandmother. We cant spend a lot of money, so if he loses his job, there wont be money coming in and hell have to go into his savings account. And then its just, how long will it last?

She said they had to go to H-E-B the other day, and they were nervous for their grandmothers health amid the pandemic.

I told them Im too ornery to die, Robison chuckled.

Robisons flip phone started to ring, and she stared at the unknown number, hesitant, before answering. It was a teacher from the kids public school.

Hi, this is Ms. Watson, I was just calling to see if yall need anything, the teacher said. Do the girls have access to the internet?

Robison thanked Watson for the snacks and food the school is providing the children even though the buildings closed. Watson offered to provide a Chromebook for 10-year-old Taylee.

Robison mouthed the question to her granddaughter, who nodded vigorously.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio homes are now classrooms as coronavirus shuts schools

Well wed just love that, thank you, Robison said. Youre one of Tays favorites.

When she ended the call, she was grinning.

Well wasnt that neat? Thats one of the reasons I love living here, she said.

Theres nothin easy. Life dont come easy. But youve got to suck it up and go on. Do the best you can. Be grateful for what you do have. Im glad theyre all healthy and well, and ornery like me.

Silvia Foster-Frau covers immigration news in the San Antonio, Bexar County and South Texas area. To read more from Silvia, become a subscriber. sfosterfrau@express-news.net | Twitter: @SilviaElenaFF
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urging him to keep the borders between Kerala and Karnataka open for the movement of patients and goods. After writing to the Prime Minister, Vijayan also had a phone conversation with PM Modi in order to keep the borders open at Mangalore and Coorg between the two South Indian states. Vijayan in a statement said, after he spoke to PM Modi and briefed him on the issue, Home Minister Amit Shah called him and assured him of action.

READ | Coronavirus: Centre Sets Up 11 Response Groups With PMO & Cabinet Secretariat Members

READ | Centre Takes Up Worker Migration With States; Holds Them Responsible For Ensuring Lockdown

National borders also sealed

This decision comes after a Covid-19 patient from Kerala who wanted to enter Karnataka for treatment was not allowed to do so as the borders had been sealed, the patient later succumbed to the virus on Sunday. Since Thursday night Karnataka had closed the border routes as a precautionary measure to stop the spread of the virus as Kerala has the highest number of Covid-19 cases in the country.

After PM Modi's imposition of a nationwide lockdown, the individual state governments also sealed their borders. Not only the state governments but the Central government also closed national borders to friendly neighbouring countries such as Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan to prevent any import of the virus from these countries. The Indian government has also suspended domestic and international flights in the country in order to contain the spread of the virus.

READ | Gambhir Calls mass Exodus Of Migrant Workers 'unfortunate', Questions AAP's Relief Claims

READ | UP CM Yogi Adityanath Assures People Of Basic Amenities & Health Facilities Amid Lockdown

The nation has witnessed a swell in Coronavirus cases as the number of infected individuals crossed the 1000 figure mark. As on March 29, the number of Covid-19 positive cases stands at 1024, of which 27 have succumbed to the virus while 95 have been recovered and discharged according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. While the figure seems large, it is much less as compared to other developed nations that have become the victims of the fast-spreading virus. Countries such as the US, Italy, Spain, France, Iran have witnessed death toll in thousands while India's death toll stands at 27.
Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba is convinced that the visa-free regime between Ukraine and the European Union will remain valid despite the closure of borders in Europe due to coronavirus pandemic.

The visa-free regime will remain valid. If the Schengen area is formally or essentially lost, I think it will be irreparable damage to the EU. But we will actively work with our partners to ensure that, under any scenario, the freedoms that Ukrainian citizens received in relations with the EU, primarily the freedom of movement, are preserved, the diplomat said in an interview with the Yevropeyska Pravda online media outlet.

He acknowledged that the coronavirus pandemic had somewhat slowed Ukraine's relations with the EU, but Ukraine did not remove EU relations from the list of priorities.

And my favourite industrial visa-free regime [the signing of the Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Goods] remain in place. In general, my position is very simple: You can postpone a war but never a lunch. I mean that we must work in strategic areas even amidst the crisis, the minister said.

Kuleba also rejected the possibility of cancelling this year's EU-Ukraine summit.

"The summit cannot be cancelled by definition. If worst comes to worst, the date may be postponed, but it will take place in any case, the foreign minister stressed.

ol
The Virginia Department of Health's morning update Monday showed that Henry County has its first positive patient for the COVID-19 virus.

The West Piedmont Health District has not provided information about the patient's status or location.

Virginia's overall case number has surpassed 1,000, to 1,020. Deaths rose by three from Sunday to 25. Some 136 have been hospitalized.

The report will be updated.
Publicans whose livelihoods are under threat from the coronavirus lockdown are rallying against the 'unethical' practices of Britain's major pub groups.

Firms such as Ei Group, Punch Taverns and Marston's are refusing to waive rents charged to self-employed tenants who run their pubs.

Most pub rent agreements are defined by how much profit the pub makes, and local boozers are losing money after being ordered by the Government to close their doors.

Last orders?: Firms such as Ei Group, Punch Taverns and Marston's are refusing to waive rents charged to self-employed tenants who run their pubs

Deferring collection will leave tenants with a huge bill to repay when their pub finally does reopen, having had no income for months. Ed Anderson runs three pubs in Cheltenham, two leased from Marston's and the third from Stonegate, the owner of Ei Group.

He said: 'Between all three pubs I have to pay 14,000 per month to the pub groups. I have about 150,000 due, including rent, over the next three months, not including wages.'

Pub tenants last night launched a social media campaign, calling on the pub groups to waive rents, using the hashtag #NoPubNoRent.

Marston's has said it is doing all it can to support tenants, including crediting them for all opened cask and keg beers which they can no longer sell. It denied it would ask tenants to repay all their overdue rent in one lump sum.

An Ei spokesman said the firm was 'working with our publicans', and a spokesman for Heineken's Star Pubs & Bars said: 'We are, and will continue to do, everything we can to help our pubs.'
Donbas conflict Open source

On March 29, Russian armed gangs violated the ceasefire in Donbas 13 times. The enemy opened fire from Minsk-banned weaponry, as the Joint Forces Operation HQ reported.

11 attacks took place in Donetsk region. 120 mm mines hit Pavlopil. Pro-Kremlin mercenaries used 82 mm mortars to shell Vodyane and Bohdanivka. Grenade launchers were used in the attacks there as well. In Berezove, militants fired grenade launchers and heavy machine guns. In Starohnativka, Taramchuk, Avdiivka and near Butivka coal mine, the enemy opened fire from underbarrel grenade launchers and small arms.

Ukrainian forces returned fire from the weapons at their disposal.

In Luhansk region, the enemy fired 82 mm mortars, mounted anti-tank grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms.

No casualties were observed among Ukrainian forces.

As of March 24, 2020, not a single case of Covid-19 was reported in the Ukrainian army. Colonel Andriy Halushka, the Deputy Commander of Medical Forces said so as quoted by ArmiaInform.

"Currently, 130 servicemen are staying home on self-isolation. These are the people who returned to Ukraine from abroad or contacted people who are now on observation", Halushka said. According to him, Medical Forces received 10,000 express tests; they will be redistributed among all military clinic centers, garrison and mobile hospitals in the area of Joint Forces Operation. Previously, regional centers received 20,000 respiratory masks.
Victoria Beckham has announced she will donate 20 per cent of all sales from her fashion label and beauty brand to struggling food bank charities amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The former Spice Girl, 45, was forced to shut her flagship store in London's Dover Street during lockdown but with the high-end fashion label still taking online orders, she has made the generous decision to donate to charities on the frontline of the crisis.

Along with her eponymous clothing brand, the star has also pledged sales from her new make-up line, Victoria Beckham beauty - with the donations from both businesses going to UK charity The Trussell Trust and US charity Feeding America.

Wow: Victoria Beckham has announced she will donate 20 per cent of all sales from her fashion label and beauty brand to struggling food bank charities amid the coronavirus pandemic (pictured last month)

In a statement on her website, she wrote: 'We are committed to caring and supporting those on the front lines of the COVID-19 relief efforts  words can't describe how thankful we all are for the bravery and hard work of everyone who is making significant sacrifices to keep us safe. We are in this together.

'At Victoria Beckham and Victoria Beckham Beauty, we firmly believe that during these uncertain times, feeding yourself and your family should not be one of those uncertainties.

'We are committed to helping the most vulnerable people in our communities: the nurses and healthcare workers who are sacrificing their own health to treat and care for others; the teachers who are continuing to support their classrooms; mothers and children, many of whom are now at home, balancing full-time jobs and home schooling; and the elderly, who are at greatest health risk and unable to go out to shop for themselves.'

'Above all, we stand behind the women who are supporting other women through this challenging time.

Good cause: Along with her eponymous clothing brand, the star has also pledged sales from her new make-up line, Victoria Beckham beauty - with the donations from both businesses going to UK charity Trussell Trust and US charity Feeding America

'This commitment is also why starting 25th March, we will be donating 20% of sales from victoriabeckham.com and victoriabeckhambeauty.com to Feeding America in the US and The Trussell Trust in the UK.

'Feeding America is a non-profit organisation in the United States. It is a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that feeds more than 46 million people through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other community-based agencies.

'Every $1 donated to Feeding America provides 10 meals to people in need.

'The Trussell Trust works to stop UK hunger and poverty by supporting a network of over 1,200 food bank centres to provide emergency food and compassionate, practical support to people in crisis. Even 10 gives a parent the peace of mind that their family will not go hungry tonight.

Fashion forward: The former Spice Girl, 45, was forced to shut her flagship store in London's Dover Street during lockdown but with the high-end fashion label still taking online orders, she has made the generous decision to donate to charities on the frontline of the crisis

'Thank you for your support and loyalty as we navigate this uncertainty together  we truly value you, our community, more than ever.'

A close source to the Beckhams told MailOnline on Sunday that there's a feeling of camraderie and support at the fashion company - with Victoria currently working from home in the Cotswolds as the UK's lockdown continues.

Victoria is still busy while on lockdown, last week marking her new working from hoke set-up with a classic Posh Spice throwback.

The mother of four shared a snap to mark the occasion on Tuesday, of her working at a computer.

She declared in the caption: 'For as long as this is our new normal we will make it positive.'#TeamVB is WFH. And for those of us with kids we are also all working around a classroom schedule Keep smiling!' she wrote.

Go for it: In a statement on her website, she wrote: 'We are committed to caring and supporting those on the front lines of the COVID-19 relief efforts (pictured March 2019)

Victoria and husband David, 44, are parents to Brooklyn, 21, Romeo, 17, Cruz, 15 and Harper, eight.

While their eldest is in lockdown in the US with his actress girlfriend Nicola Peltz, Victoria and David are caring from the UK with the rest of the family.

Victoria took to her Instagram Stories to show sweet footage of David leading an art class for Romeo, Cruz and Harper on Monday, the first day of no school for millions across the UK.

Victoria revealed that David was moonlighting as an art teacher for the day, with his heavily tattooed arms in shot.

She proudly showed off her husband getting stuck in with their daughter's creation, writing alongside one video: '@davidbeckham has some teaching skills.'

Working it: Victoria is still busy while on lockdown, last week marking her new working from home set-up with a classic Posh Spice throwback

Later, Victoria filmed Harper using an Ipad to practice her math skills with the help of digital games.

The family also took part in a nationwide applause in honour of NHS workers during the coronavirus lockdown on Thursday.

Victoria and Harper also FaceTimed with nurses who were working at King's Hospital in London on Friday.

The fashion mogul was in good spirits as she posed in a photo beside her little one who smiled brightly as they chatted with the NHS staff.

Gushing about the occasion, Victoria wrote on the photo of their chat: 'Face Time with the nurses at King's hospital in London today x'

She captioned the snap: '#TeamVB is WFH. And for those of us with kids we are also all working around a classroom schedule Keep smiling!'

On Thursday, Victoria shared a video of husband David leading the applause along with their children as the family took part in the Clap For Carers initiative.

As they applauded, Victoria said behind the camera: 'So us Beckhams are clapping to show our thanks to all the people working for the NHS, the doctors the nurses, keeping us safe, working so so hard.'

The Clap For Carers campaign, which started online, has been staged because 'during these unprecedented times they need to know we are grateful', the organisers said.

It followed similar moves in Italy and Spain - which have the world's highest death tolls - which created astonishing scenes earlier this month as they applauded from terraces in the countries' cities

Supportive: On Thursday, husband David led the applause along with their sons Romeo, and Cruz, and their daughter Harper as the family took part in the Clap For Carers initiative




Chutzpah is a Yiddish word meaning incredible audacity. The most famous example is the man who murders both his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he's an orphan. Neither Prince Harry nor Meghan Markle is Jewish, and it's doubtful if they even know the meaning of the word "chutzpah," but they've sure got it  and Trump was not amused.

One of the things that was immediately obvious about Meghan Markle was that she was "woke." That is, in keeping with her "B" level actress status, she eagerly copied all the political shibboleths of the big leftist stars in Hollywood.

In 2019, before Harry and Meghan announced that they were abandoning the duties of being British royals so they could have more fun and money being expatriate royals, some people in Britain were disturbed by Meghan's refusal to stay out of politics. Her activist instincts came out in the famous  or infamous  British Vogue edition hat Meghan guest-edited:

MEGHAN was accused of wading into politics  and breaking royal protocol  by creating a special "left-wing" edition of Vogue. The Duchess, 37, used her stint as guest editor on the magazine to promote socialist pals including Trump haters and anti-royalists. On the cover she lauds 15 women known for Leftie views. They include New Zealand's PM Jacinda Ardern who wants a debate on axing the Queen as head of state, and actress Jameela Jamil who once mocked the monarch's breasts. Also in the group is author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who called for Meghan, not Charles, to be the next Head of the Commonwealth. A foil "mirror" takes the place of one picture so readers can reflect on how they too can "effect change".

Worse, all of this leftist meshugas (Yiddish for craziness) was rubbing off on Prince Harry. The young prince who once cared most about polo and military affairs was suddenly going around speaking in apocalyptic terms about climate change and his responsibility to have only two children:

What we need to remind everybody is: these are things that are happening now. We are already living in it. We are the frog in the water and it's already been brought to the boil. Which is terrifying.

That wasn't a one-off. Just two weeks ago, Harry talked to Russian pranksters while under the impression he was talking to Greta Thunberg. During the call, he criticized President Trump about climate change:

In another extract published online, Harry is said to remark of climate policies in the US: "I think the mere fact that Donald Trump is pushing the coal industry so big in America, he has blood on his hands."

Meghan doesn't like Trump, either. In 2016, she went onto The Larry Wilmore Show to say how much she loved Hillary and to blast Trump as "misogynistic and divisive":

It was no surprise, therefore, when the couple was first looking about for a place to relocate after quitting the royal family, that Meghan told her friends that the U.S. was a non-starter as long as Trump was in the White House:

[S]taunch Democrat Meghan, who has openly been critical of Mr Trump and missed the President's state visit to the UK last year, has said that she will not move to the US while he is in charge.

That promise had a short shelf life. It turns out that the lure of home (Markle grew up in Los Angeles) and Hollywood was too strong. The ex-royals have moved to Hollywood  a decision that might have been driven by Canada's refusal to fund their security needs.

On Sunday, Trump made it clear that American taxpayers also won't be paying for the ex-royals' security needs.

I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2020

Trump is correct. We Americans owe Harry and Meghan nothing. This is especially true because Harry and Meghan plan to make billions thanks to their former royal connections. Therefore, it's the height of chutzpah for these grifters to ask a president whom Meghan has openly insulted to draw on American money to give them security guards.
Supertanker rates are surging again, for a second time this month, as a growing global glut is making more traders and companies look to charter carriers to store oil at sea and sell at a later date to profit from the market structure, shipbrokers tell Reuters.

In addition, the Saudi pledge to start flooding the market with oil as early as this week is also driving up freight rates for very large crude carriers (VLCCs).

Earlier this month, the Saudi-Russian oil price war sent supertanker rates surging as the shipping market felt that there would be a supertanker supply crunch in the coming oil supply deluge.

The other reason for sky-high tanker rates was that traders and the trading arms of oil majors are looking to charter tankers for floating storage as the oil market structure has flipped to contango. This is the market situation in which front-month prices are lower than prices in future months, pointing to a crude oil oversupply and making storing oil for future sales profitable.

The contango has further widened in recent days as oil demand everywhere in the world flops, and traders are scrambling to secure storage at sea to profit from the current low oil prices.

The run on supertankers during the massive glut and the Saudi supply surge sent supertanker rates for the route from the Middle East to China jumping to $180,000 a day on Monday. Thats double from the $90,000 a day rate in the middle of last week, and up from the $125,000 a day rate on Friday, sources at shipbrokers told Reuters.

Almost all the spot [tanker] deals right now have floating storage tied into them - thats the only way to make money. Youre not going to make money trading the cargo now, Ashok Sharma, managing director of Singapore-based shipbroker BRS Baxi, told Reuters.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Ryanair has extended its limited schedule of flights out to Thursday, April 9.

More than 90% of the airline's fleet has been grounded due to the coronavirus.

It is operating a number of limited flights for the next 10 days for emergency reasons.

Ryanair says all of its aircraft are disinfected on a daily basis, while passengers are required to comply with social distancing guidelines on board.

A spokesperson said: "Ryanair will operate these flights daily or weekly and all details can be found on the www.ryanair.com website.

"All these aircraft are disinfected daily. With low loads, social distancing will be optimised on-board and we ask all passengers to cooperate fully with our crews who are doing their best in difficult times to maintain vital links to/from Ireland and to/from the UK to facilitate our passengers and their families to deal with emergencies that may require urgent travel over the coming days and weeks.

"Ryanair apologises sincerely for the unprecedented grounding of our aircraft fleet, and any schedule disruptions this may have caused, but we must all work together with EU Governments to minimise the impact of Covid-19 on our citizens and our health services."

[snippet1]987600[/snippet1]
A British Airways plane comes in to land at Heathrow Airport (Steve Parsons/PA)

The Government will work with commercial airlines to help stranded Britons get home, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has announced.

The Foreign Office has set aside 75 million to charter flights to get those stuck abroad home from areas where commercial routes are no longer running.

In areas where commercial flights can still run, the Government will work with airlines to get people home.

Speaking at the daily Downing Street press conference, Mr Raab said: I can today announce a new arrangement between the Government and airlines to fly home tens of thousands of stranded British travellers, where commercial flights are no longer possible.

He added: Under the arrangements that we are putting in place we will target flights from a range of priority countries, starting this week.

Virgin, easyJet, Jet2 and Titan Airways signed a memorandum of understanding negotiated by the Foreign Secretary and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps on Monday.

British Airways has said they will work with Government to get people home and other airlines are expected to join.

Mr Raab said airlines would be responsible for getting passengers home where commercial routes remain an option.

That means offering alternative flights at little to no cost where routes have been cancelled, and it means allowing passengers to change tickets  including between carriers.

NEWS: Partnership between the UK Government and airlines to fly home stranded British travellers.  Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) March 30, 2020

So for those still in those countries where commercial options are still available: dont wait. Dont run the risk of getting stranded. The airlines are standing by to help you  please book your tickets as soon as possible, he added.

Further information is available for travellers on the Governments foreign travel advice website.

The announcement comes as airlines face intense financial pressures as passengers stay at home.

On Monday, easyJet grounded its entire fleet of aircraft.

The Luton-based carrier said parking all 344 of its planes removes significant cost as the aviation industry struggles to cope with a collapse in demand.

Under the arrangements that we are putting in place we will target flights from a range of priority countries, starting this weekDominic Raab

The move came as Scottish regional airline Loganair said it expects to ask the Government for a bailout to cope with the impact of the pandemic.

As part of the Governments repatriation efforts, airlines will be expected to transport passengers with pre-booked tickets home, offering them alternatives where routes are cancelled and allowing them to change tickets, including between carriers.

Where commercial routes do not exist, the Government will provide up to 75 million financial support to enable special charter flights  operated by the partner airlines above and others  to fly to priority countries to bring back UK residents.

Earlier on Monday two repatriation flights from Peru landed at Heathrow airport.

We were promised a new strategy on repatriations today, but for the hundreds of thousands of Brits stranded abroad and their families back home it was just more of the sameEmily Thornberry

At the start of the crisis, the UK Government also chartered flights for stranded Britons to get them home from the then epicentre of the outbreak in Wuhan, China, alongside other European governments.

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry criticised the Governments efforts, saying: We were promised a new strategy on repatriations today, but for the hundreds of thousands of Brits stranded abroad and their families back home it was just more of the same.

More reliance on commercial flights, which, for too many British travellers based in too many locations, are simply not an option at present. More vague promises about charter flights, but none of the commitment or urgency other countries like Germany have put into this.

More expressions of support for our Brits abroad, but no answers to any of the specific problems they are raising, from the loss of travel insurance and accommodation to dwindling supplies of medicine and money.

We need a comprehensive and fully-funded strategy to bring our British nationals home, using every option at the Governments disposal, and to give them all the practical support and help they need in the interim. That is not what we got today, and that is not good enough.
She's currently in quarantine amid the coronavirus pandemic.

And, Emily Ratajkowski shared a bubble bath with her BFF Josh Ostrovsky, commonly known as The Fat Jewish, while drinking wine from a can in a fun throwback photograph shared to her Instagram page, on Monday.

While their faces were covered in face-masks, the model, 28, and her longterm friend balanced bubbles on top of theirs head while taking sips of their beverages from his new brand DrinkBabe.

Fun times: Emily Ratajkowski, 28, shared a bubble bath with her BFF The Fat Jewish while drinking wine from a can, in a fun throwback photograph shared to her Instagram page

The bombshell, who is self-isolating with husband Sebastian Bear-McClard, 32, and pup Colombo, captioned the snap: 'Quarantine inspo @thefatjewish @drinkbabe.'

During her self-isolation, the supermodel has sent pulses racing with a number of racy pictures, including modeling her own brand of underwear.

'Home in lace sets,' the brunette beauty captioned her latest lingerie snaps, taken at her home on Saturday.

Amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic, she flaunted her phenomenal physique in a tiny black thong and lacy bra.

Captivating: 'Home in lace sets,' the brunette beauty captioned her latest lingerie snaps, taken at her home on Saturday

Despite her glossy gram and perpetually sensual pout, she recently dubbed 2019 'one of the hardest years' and shared some of her inner turmoil.

'This pic was taken toward the end of last year. 2019 was one of the hardest years of my life. My mom was really sick, I was battling a serious depression and everything felt very uncertain.

'2020 is definitely giving last year a run for its money but I'm happy to say that I've have learned how to take better care of myself,' she wrote.

'I don't generally like to get too personal on here and I'm far from having shit figured out but these were some of the notes I scribbled down on New Year's Eve.

'I wanted to share them and a little piece of my story in case they might make any of you feel less alone in the anxiety or confusion or fear you could be experiencing right now... (& yes quite was meant to be quiet!).'

Behind-the-scenes: Despite her glossy gram and perpetually sensual pout, she recently dubbed 2019 'one of the hardest years' of her life

The Blurred Lines model, who was recently named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, is currently a dog mom-of-one to her beloved 80 lbs Husky-German Shepard.

Emily and Sebastian celebrated their two-year wedding anniversary in February.

The pair married after only a few weeks of dating, at the end of February 2018, in a New York City courthouse.
Share markets in Asia and Europe, and oil prices resume falls after latest warnings of viruss spread.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  Stocks in Asia and Europe, and global energy prices, dropped sharply on Monday as investor enthusiasm over extensive government and central bank stimulus packages gave way to fresh concerns over the global economy while coronavirus infections climbed.

Investors said they are concerned over the long-term economic effects of measures to prevent people from coming into close contact with each other.

With the desperate [virus containment] measures taken, its very unlikely that well go back to what it was before once this is all over. I know the market bounced before the economy does, but I think investors have yet to price in the full economic impact, Gerald Ambrose, chief executive officer of Aberdeen Standard Islamic Investments in Malaysia, told Al Jazeera.

After posting a 17 percent surge last week, Japans Nikkei 225 index fell 1.57 percent. Among Asias other large share markets, Chinas Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.9 percent, Hong Kongs Hang Seng Index shed 1.32 percent, while South Koreas Kospi Index was little changed with a 0.04 percent decline.

Singapores Straits Times Index tumbled 4.45 percent, leading losses in Asia, despite its central banks attempt to give the economy a boost by guiding the value of its currency lower. Shares next door in Malaysia fell 1.1 percent.

In Europe, Germanys Xetra DAX index was down 1.8 percent, while UK stocks were down 2.7 percent, and in Paris, the CAC 40 was 3 percent lower in early trade.

Policy reversal

On Sunday, United States President Donald Trump said his administration would extend social distancing guidelines until April 30, reversing his call last week for the US economy to return to normal by Easter in mid-April.

Also over the weekend, Trumps top infectious diseases expert, Anthony Fauci, said the coronavirus pandemic could cause between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths in the US.

The US has 139,000 confirmed infections from the coronavirus, more than any other country, while more than 2,400 people have died from the respiratory illness caused by the pathogen.

Trump signed a $2 trillion government stimulus package into law last week, as governments in Europe and across Asia rolled out huge spending plans to protect workers and businesses from bearing the brunt of the virus containment measures.

The stimulus will of course help to cushion the impact of COVID-19-induced slowdown on the economy, but the fear level is still very high. When fear subsides, perhaps the impact of the stimulus will become more apparent, Choo Swee Kee, chief investment officer at TA Investment Management, told Al Jazeera.

Still, those efforts will not reverse the rapid deterioration in the real economy as the world comes to a near standstill, a situation some countries are saying may last for much of this year, analysts said.

Oil prices slump again

Economists are increasingly convinced that the world will enter a recession this year, which typically means the economy will shrink for at least two consecutive quarters.

Oil prices fell, plunging to their lowest levels in 17 years at one point on Monday as hopes of a truce between Saudi Arabia and Russia vanished amid a price war between tthe top producers. The resulting increase in oil supply has coincided with a collapse in demand as global economic growth slows, keeping prices depressed.

Brent crude slumped 8.9 percent to $22.70 per barrel on Monday, while US West Texas Intermediate fell 5.8 percent to $20.26 per barrel.

Saudi Arabia said on Friday it was not in discussion with Russia to stabilise crude prices despite rising pressure from the US.
(Photo : Screenshot From AMD Ryzen and Radeon Official Facebook Page) Tired of Poor-Performance Laptops? Acer's Ryzen 4000 Series Laptops is Coming Soon!

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) has graduated to a global pandemic, most industries have urged people to work from home. With that, demands for computers and laptops increases! Luckily, today is perfect timing as Acer has announced an option to choose their Ryzen 4000 series!

Acer's new groove Swift 3

Acer is adding another option to choose Ryzen 4000 series processor for a brand new twist on their already stellar performing laptops! After announcing that the new Swift 3 would get their AMD chips back at the CES, the company has then announced that the Aspire 5 will be joining the party.

Regarding the other specs of the laptop, there are not so many major changes in the existing model aside from the processor itself. The standing specs of the Swift 3 are that it weighs only 2.6 lbs, which is relatively light for a laptop and that it can survive for about 11.5 hours on a full charge on top of a fast-charging Acer battery.

Read Also: [Graphic Artist Essentials] How to Pick the Perfect Graphics Tablet for Working from Home

The Acer Aspire 5

This Aspire 5 gets a whole 6-core AMD Ryzen 5-4500U mobile processor along with the famous Radeon graphics that help app-loading function much smoother when multitasking. The model's massive storage holds a capability of 2TB worth of data on its HDD.

Ryzen is a feared name in the gaming world as it is capable of handling heavy graphics as well as strong gameplay that should open a new market for the Aspire 5.

Acer's share in the market

This Taiwanese brand has made its way into the United States as one of the most reliable and best-performing providers of PCs, laptops, and other tech-related hardware that have become a familiar go-to for users in the United States and across the world.

Predator is one of their most popular brands when it comes to gaming units ever since competitive gaming becomes even more popular, and e-Sports started to become a recognized sport around the world. The popularity of the Predator brand has grown side by side with gaming as they have made themselves visible in many e-sport tournaments as major sponsors and contributors.

Read Also: Did Apple Intentionally or Accidentally Leak Their Own iPhone Update?

The upcoming Swift 3 and Aspire 5

The upcoming Swift 3 will be made available this April with a starting price of $630, but the Aspire 5 will be available later on in June for the price of $520. These upcoming units should be made available soon to provide an upgraded piece of technology, especially in this time when people are advised to stay at home.

Acer holds many awards for a great number of their product like the 2015 award for the Aspire R 11, the CES Innovation Awards for the Aspire R13, the BC Award for the Chromebook C740, the Design Award for the Aspire Switch 10 V, and even the Computex d & I Awards 2015 for the Aspire E15.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Maglaras has determined that captive insurance companies owned by health care providers may be able, in some cases, to play a significant role in property claim recovery, depending upon the amount of the loss, and the strength and availability of a captives surplus.

As health care facilities rise to meet the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, these health care facilities are suffering significant daily loss of revenue as they are mandated to reallocate resources to dealing with the outbreak...at the expense of ambulatory and elective surgery revenue.

Property policies written for health care institutions frequently contain broad limitations on business interruption coverage caused by the cascading effect of dealing with the coronavirus.

Health care facilities are quickly realizing that business interruption claims caused by the COVID-19 crisis may be difficult to collect on, unless physical loss or damage to property can be substantiated, said Michael Maglaras, Principal of Michael Maglaras & Company. Were now actively engaged with four health care systems in freeing up excess surplus in order to contribute to business interruption losses not covered by standard commercial property policies.

Maglaras has determined that captive insurance companies owned by health care providers may be able, in some cases, to play a significant role in property claim recovery, depending upon the amount of the loss, and the strength and availability of a captives surplus.

We first encourage health care providers to determine the amount of commercial property business interruption and time element coverage that may be available for decontamination costs, communicable disease cleanup, and interruption by communicable disease, added Maglaras. But we are very busy speaking daily with health care systems about how they can use their captives existing surplus to augment property insurance coverage availability.

This process does not involve declaring dividends from a captive, but does involve the manuscripting of supplementary business interruption and time element coverage to assist in reimbursing expenses directly tied to loss of revenue.

Even in the case of claims tied directly to business interruption by civil authority, we can create supplementary coverage sources to partially pay business interruption losses, provided that these additional balance sheet liabilities do not compromise reasonable ratios of existing equity to long-term liabilities, added Maglaras.

Maglaras noted that he is busy moving captives owned by tax-exempt U.S. health care providers, which have had a long offshore domicile history, back to the United States.

Theres virtually no reason for a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt health care provider to own a captive domiciled outside the United States anymore, said Maglaras. Perhaps this terrible COVID-19 crisis will convince U.S. health care executives that a U.S. domicile for their captives now makes more sense, not only from the standpoint of innovation and creative solutions...but also from the standpoint of optics.

To learn more about Michael Maglaras & Company: http://www.michaelmaglaras.com.
BEIRUT  Months after hundreds of thousands of people descended on Martyrs Square in Beirut to protest Lebanons sectarian political class, security forces forcibly destroyed the last few remaining tents in the city center on March 27. The reason given was the implementation of a curfew from 7 pm until 5 am, the latest measure enacted in Lebanon to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.

They didnt warn us before. They attacked suddenly, artist and protestor Hady Ezzeddin told Al-Monitor. Ezzeddin had been camping in Martyrs Square for months, but said he was forced out during the March 27 raid. I feel upset about what happened, and I feel surprised.

Yet even before the forced eviction, Ezzeddin had been one of only 50 or 60 demonstrators left in the squares, according to his own count. Most activists, however, have moved on in the wake of the nationwide lockdown announced by the Lebanese government that culminated in the closure of the Beirut airport and seaports on March 18. As the crisis deepens, Lebanons once-boisterous protest movement is left to find new, creative ways to reach and engage the public amid a viral outbreak that has made it almost impossible to hold large-scale street demonstrations.

Limited protests had continued prior to orders issued by Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab on March 21 allowing security forces to police social-distancing and isolation measures. Now protest organizers are relying on virtual gatherings and seminars to spread their message, and many have volunteered to disinfect neighborhoods and to provide vital support within their communities across the country.

Despite the tactical difficulties presented by the public health crisis, activists have remained focused on highlighting what they see as the government's inadequate response to the COVID-19 outbreak as well as Lebanons severe economic decline. Some believe that the squeeze of the compounding crises will soon drive people back into the streets.

The coronavirus is a challenge for the protest movement in terms of us not being able to move, to mobilize people in the streets, and even to inform people about anything related to the political situation, Zeina Helou, an independent researcher and activist involved in several protest groups, told Al-Monitor. Now [people are] more in survival mode.

Tarek Serhan, a protest veteran, told Al-Monitor, Basically, when the virus thing started, we all began to focus on brainstorming, considering the [method] of protest we will use. Serhan has been actively protesting since the 2015 demonstrations driven by the nationwide waste crisis.

On March 10, activists organized a human chain around the Palace of Justice in Beirut to protest the politicization of judicial appointments, but unlike past actions, the demonstrators wore masks and gloves and stood at a distance from one another to lessen the risk of possibly transmitting the coronavirus. After the government began urging people to stay at home, however, Serhan remarked, the movements focus shifted to social media, with activists live-streaming political discussions and educational sessions about the virus and its political dimensions, staging social media campaigns and conducting donation drives.

Even the meetings of the groups have been changed, even the seminars we used to do in the square in downtown [Beirut], Serhan said. He added that many activists have also been trained by the Red Cross in case things get worse.

Helou, a former secretary-general of the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections, stated that despite the changes, activists have continued to engage in social assistance efforts to support those most vulnerable during the crisis, especially in places like the Chouf district and in Tripoli, Lebanons second largest and poorest major city.

Mohammad Shouk is the head of the Defenders of the City, a security and conflict-resolution group that started in Tripoli and now has branches across Lebanon. The group's original purpose was to protect demonstrators in Tripolis protest camp, but with the coronavirus crisis, it began sanitizing Tripolis neighborhoods using equipment it purchased.

Naturally its a very big burden, but what can we do? Shouk remarked. We arent in a situation where we can do otherwise. He said the Defenders had also distributed more than a thousand food rations to those in need in Tripoli and the neighboring district of Akkar. Group members are providing bread on a near-daily basis to the poor in Tripoli.

Helou further remarked, Obviously this crisis has exacerbated the needs of people and the difficult situation they were facing even before the coronavirus, with a lot of people falling below the poverty line, even before, as a result of the economic situation and the failure of the government to provide any sort of basic needs  education, healthcare, etc.

Lebanon had already been hit hard by multiple economic and fiscal crises before the coronavirus arrived, and with the country lacking a social safety net, the viral outbreak seems poised to push Lebanese workers and business owners to the brink. On March 24, a Beirut taxi driver, apparently frustrated at his inability to earn a living during the crisis, set his car on fire after reportedly being fined for violating the new social isolation measures.

The countrys health care system is in an increasingly dire state, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. All hospitals, public and private, face supply shortages and are unable to import equipment like ventilators, which are vital in caring for patients suffering from COVID-19.

Serhan said that a major goal of the protest movements messaging during the coronavirus crisis is to remind people of how the government had deepened their suffering even before the coronavirus arrived in the country, while also criticizing the state for what he claimed was its lackluster response during the first few weeks of the outbreak.

According to Mike Azar, a senior financial adviser in Lebanon, people are likely to grow angry, and rightly so, given the current situation.

Theres this big intersection between the health crisis we're facing now and the financial crisis, Azar told Al-Monitor. Because at the end of the day you need money to be able to build up your health care system, you need money to be able to support people who are going to be sitting out of work for a while until we get through this.

Azar added, People are starting to realize how lack of planning, which is fundamentally a lack of accountability by the political system, has a direct effect on their lives.

But Sam Derbas, who had been active in demonstrations in Tripoli, admitted that because it is difficult to tell how long the coronavirus crisis will last, the future of the protest movement remained unclear in his view.

The protest started to die before the virus, Derbas told Al-Monitor. Before the quarantine, Beiruts downtown looked empty while only Tripoli had plenty of people.

Yet Helou said that going forward, despite the destruction of the protest camp, activists might become more aggressive in targeting Lebanon's clientelist political system.

Some demonstrators stated they even felt reinvigorated by the evening raid on March 27.

What the government did tonight may motivate others like it motivated me to go back to the streets after the quarantine finishes, one participant in the protest movement, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons, told Al-Monitor.

According to Serhan, despite the current lockdown, demonstrators are trying to plan events for the near future, like a march of cars. In the event that the outbreak soon tapers off, he said, protest groups are preparing for a potential resurgence of the movement in April and May.

Although his plans to occupy the square were upended, Ezzeddin said he was still confident the Lebanese revolution would continue, however long the current crisis lasts.

Many people, theyve already lost everything  their job, their [daily] life  and the [coronavirus] is making the situation worse, Ezzeddin said. So I think after the corona[virus] they must come to the street. They have no choice.
Press Release

March 30, 2020 Gatchalian to BIR: relax certain fringe benefit

tax rules for MSME employees Senator Win Gatchalian called on the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to be more liberal in applying certain rules on fringe benefit tax for the duration of the enhanced community quarantine. This will encourage Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in giving additional benefits to their employees so they can stock up on necessities while they stay indoors. These benefits can come in the form of allowances, grocery items, or any financial assistance equivalent to one month pay. The lawmaker said although fringe benefits or any perks given to rank and file employees are not subject to fringe benefit tax, the tax code requires employers to pay 35% fringe benefit tax on the benefits given to managerial and supervisory employees. Gatchalian pointed out that MSMEs might think twice in giving additional benefits to all of their employees given the hefty fringe benefit tax. He tells the BIR that these employee benefits can actually be advantageous on the part of the employers because it will ensure the health of their staff during and after this time of health crisis especially if they want to retain the same workforce and won't need to train a new set of employees. Under the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC), if the benefits are given for the convenience of the employer, it is exempt from fringe benefits tax of 35%. "I appeal to the BIR to do its share and consider these employee benefits so that small and startup businesses can have the reason to provide for their employees", said Gatchalian. "Marami sa mga empleyado sa bansa ay nagtatrabaho sa mga maliliit na negosyo. Kung hindi natin sila tutulungan at bibigyan ng ayuda, lalabas at lalabas sila ng kanilang mga bahay para maghanapbuhay dahil natatakot sila na kapag hindi sila pumasok sa trabaho ay baka hindi nila matanggap ang sweldo nila. Maliwanag na ang ganitong sitwasyon ay lumalabag sa panuntunan ng gobyerno na mahinto ang pagkalat ng nakamamatay na virus", Gatchalian shared. The senator said relaxing the rules on fringe benefit tax will encourage more employers to release their employees' benefits at this crucial time, including 13th month pay and others. MSMEs account for 99.56% of total businesses in the country and considered as the backbone of our economy, that is why Gatchalian said it is important to look after the welfare of their employees to keep the economy running.
Rocket Aid, an Online Conference Fundraiser for Lawyers People in our society are at risk, with wage and food uncertainty suddenly a critical issue. Rocket Aid hopes to help with these concerns.

Rocket Matter, a leading legal practice management, billing, and payments company, today announced Rocket Aid, a virtual conference for lawyers. This online networking and CLE event will not only help lawyers connect in this time of social distancing, but it will also generate much needed assistance for people most affected economically by the coronavirus.

Sponsors of Rocket Aid include 3545 Consulting, Above the Law, Atticus, Dialpad, and NetDocuments, which are helping with the content, promotion, and execution of the virtual conference.

Rocket Aid will stream live, online on April 16th and 17th, from 10am to 4pm EST each day. The content will cover cutting-edge topics on running an online practice, ways to generate more revenue, and embracing modern tools that will help law firms adapt and thrive in a changing world. In addition to attending educational sessions, participants will have the ability to network during face-to-face virtual happy hours and breakout sessions.

This virus is hitting us all differentlywhile experts say that most of us will likely escape major sickness, everyone is affected one way or another, says Larry Port, CEO of Rocket Matter. In the case of lawyers, were beginning to see them lose their jobs as law firms lay people off. Those who are employed cant go to the office, attend court, get paid, attend CLEs, and even network with one another. Meanwhile other people in our society are also at risk, with wage and food uncertainty suddenly a critical issue. Rocket Aid hopes to help with these concerns.

Rocket Aid will charge a $25 registration fee which will be donated directly to United Ways COVID-19 Fund, Pro Bono Net, as well as Feeding America, a charity network of more than 200 food banks. Register online here.

Rocket Aids content is mostly in place already, but the conference has a call for speakers for panels and additional suggested talks. Planned sessions include the following:



Panel: COVID-19 and Law Firm Operations: What are We Learning?

Session: Remote Lawyering Overview: The Tools You Need

Session: Hidden Gems of Office 365

Session: How to Increase Profits and Sanity by Running a Lean Law Firm

Session: Saying Adios to Billing Headaches and Hola to Increased Profitability

Session: A 12-Month Plan for Going Paperless

Session: Cybersecurity for the Remote Lawyer

Panel: COVID-19 Coverage and How to Think About PR

Panel: Remote Technology Dos and Donts

Panel: Staying Sane While Working Remote

Mini-session: An Economic Outlook for Lawyers During and After COVID-19 (non-CLE)

Mini-session: Setting Up an Ergonomic Home Office (non-CLE)

Rocket Matter is also looking for speakers for mini 3- and 6-minute sessions on their remote successes as well as lawyers who would like to offer their thoughts on panels. To apply for a speaker position, please apply here.

Links

Main Event Page: http://www.rocketmatter.com/rocketaid

Registration Page: http://www.rocketmatter.com/rocketaid-registration

Call for Speakers: http://www.rocketmatter.com/rocketaid-speakers

About Rocket Matter

Rocket Matter helps law firms offer better client service and also increase revenues by more than 20%. The company was the first cloud-based legal practice management software on the market, landing its first client in 2007. It has been a leader ever since.

Rocket Matter helps law firms transition from their legacy software to the most powerful, easy-to-use time and billing software in the industry. Also, when law firms want to make more money, go paperless, or increase confidence in their trust accounting, Rocket Matter helps them achieve those goals. With award-winning customer service based in the United States, its no wonder thousands of law firms swear by Rocket Matter.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region's COVID-19 count reached 170 on Monday with 47 people testing positive for the novel coronavirus, officials said.

While 29 of the new infections are in Mumbai, the rest 18 are from other parts of MMR, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation officials said.

Also, an 80-year-old man, who suffered from acute respiratory distress, succumbed to COVID-19 at a private hospital here, taking the death toll in MMR to eight, including six in Mumbai, said the civic body's release.

He was a known case of hypertension and ischemic heart disease, and had tested positive for COVID-19 on March 29, the release added.

The sprawling region consists of Mumbai city and parts of adjoining districts of Thane, Raigad and Palghar.

The release said on Monday, 206 people were checked at OPDs in the metropolis and 61 people admitted for suspected exposure.

One COVID-19 patient was discharged after recovery, taking the number of such persons in MMR to 15, the BMC release said.

"There were 18 new cases detected during tests conducted between March 24-28. As these 18 cases are included in the list today, there appears to be a rise in cases. It is mainly due to vigorous contact tracing by the health teams and enhanced testing in public and private labs," the release said.

The civic body said, as a containment measure, its teams and police had surveyed areas where COVID-19 patients reside, including 1 lakh houses and 3.87 lakh people.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PLANS for an equestrian cross-country course on farmland near Woodcote have been approved.

The Hildred Partnership, a family-owned farm business based in Wallingford, has been granted planning permission to convert an

11-hectare field between Tidmore Lane and Oxford Road, which has previously served as the Woodcote Rally site.

The facility will have between 80 and 100 jumps, which can be moved, and will meet British Eventing standards. There will be a permanent water obstacle with the appearance of a pond to ensure it fits with the surrounding landscape.

Nine neighbours objected, saying the development would not meet the statutory requirement to conserve or enhance views of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and it would affect two houses nearby.

They also said the farm could attempt to reclassify the land as brownfield before seeking permission to build houses.

Concern was also raised about the potential danger of the proposed access near the junction with the busy A4074.

Woodcote Parish Council also objected and said that if the plans were approved, then it should be for only five years in order to gauge the impact.

Oxfordshire County Council, the highways authority, was initially against the scheme but backed down after the Hildred Partnership agreed to improve visibility at the entrance.

The Chilterns Conservation Board said the development would conserve views of the AONB as long as it remained low key.

There were also 13 letters of support saying there was no similar facility in the area so it would reduce the number of journeys on roads surrounding the village.



South Oxfordshire District Council, the planning authority, said the two houses wouldnt be affected as they are more than 70m from the water jump and on the other side of the road and the course wouldnt use floodlights.

The partnership, which also runs the pick-your-own farm off Wallingford Road, Goring, says the scheme is needed to offset economic problems affecting the farming sector.

The course would be in use during the day from February to October and all sessions would be booked in advance with no walk-up admissions.
By Akbar Mammadov

The US administration has ended funding for removing land mines in Azerbaijans occupied Karabakh region.

As the last year, this year the Trump administration did not recommend providing financial assistance to the so-called Nagorno-Karabakh regime for humanitarian purposes. Trump and his entourage did not include this issue in the budget for the next two years, political analyst Zaur Mammadov wrote in his Facebook page.

This year, as the last year, the Armenian Diaspora took actions to prevent the decision of the Administration in Congress. More than 75 congressmen have already said they will vote in favor of aid. I remembered that last year this figure was 90, Mammadov said.

The analyst stressed that the funds allocated for mine clearance in Karabakh are used by the political elite there for their own interests. Over the years, demining process has not been carried out by the Armenians, only by Azerbaijan through ANAMA, and really great work is being done.

In the meantime, according to the Armenian media, the real reason behind the United States' move to suspend its demining assistance to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region is reportedly the Armenian sappers' presence in Syria.

It should be noted that U.S. officials made the decision to halt their support of the program in spring of 2019, which led a months-long battle between the federal government and pro-Armenia members of Congress who fought to get the funding restored.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Photo by David Zorrakino/Europa Press via Getty

By Judith Graham, Kaiser Health News

A wrenching conflict is emerging as the COVID-19 virus storms through U.S. communities: Some patients are falling into a no mans land between hospitals and nursing homes.

Hospitals need to clear out patients who no longer need acute care. But nursing homes dont want to take patients discharged from hospitals for fear theyll bring the coronavirus with them.

Its a huge and very difficult issue, said Cassie Sauer, president of the Washington State Hospital Association, whose members were hit early by the coronavirus.

Each side has legitimate concerns. Hospitals in coronavirus hot spots need to free up beds for the next wave of critically ill patients. They are canceling elective and nonessential procedures. They are also trying to move coronavirus patients out of the hospital as quickly as possible.

The goal is to allow hospitals to reserve beds for the most severely ill patients by discharging those who are less severely ill to skilled nursing facilities, Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said a few weeks ago as the federal agency relaxed rules restricting which Medicare patients can receive nursing home care.

Nursing homes are alarmed at the prospect of taking patients who may have coronavirus infections. The consequences could be dire. The first nursing home known to have COVID-19, the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington, saw the virus spread like wildfire. It killed 37 people.

Were looking at case fatality rates of 30, 40, 50% in nursing homes when coronavirus gets introduced, said Christopher Laxton, executive director of AMDAthe Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, which represents nursing home medical directors.

Fears extend to patients with other conditions, such as strokes or heart attacks, whove been in the hospital and do not have COVID-19 symptoms but could harbor the virus.

In its most recent guidance, the American Health Care Association, an industry trade group, said nursing homes can accept patients who are COVID negative or do not have symptoms. If someone has symptoms such as a dry cough or fever, they should be tested for COVID-19 before being admitted to the facility. If someone is COVID positive, they should be kept only with other COVID positive residents.

Story continues

Three Nuns Left to Handle Nearly 100 Seniors Presumed to Have Coronavirus in NJ Care Home

But nursing home doctors worry this doesnt go far enough. According to a resolution by the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine, nursing homes should not have to take patients known to have the coronavirus unless they have two negative tests that are 24 hours apart, OR 10 days after admission AND no fever for 72 hours. A new AMDA resolution echoes this caution.

We have an obligation to our patients to draw the line, said Dr. Michael Wasserman, president of the California association. Increasing the number of COVID-19 positive residents in facilitieswhether these facilities have patients with the virus or notraises the risk of infecting the uninfected and dramatically increasing the number of deaths.

For their part, hospital leaders say an emphasis on testing before discharging patients is impractical, given the shortage of tests and delays in receiving results.

Many nursing homes are requiring a negative COVID-19 test even for patients who were in the hospital for nothing to do with COVID, said Sauer in Washington state. We dont agree with this. Its using up very limited testing resources.

Nowhere are tensions higher than in New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said 73,000 extra hospital beds will be needed within weeks to treat a surge of COVID-19 patients. Hospitals in the state have 53,000 beds.

On Wednesday, the New York State Department of Health issued an advisory noting: No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the NH [nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19.

Speaking on behalf of nursing home physicians, AMDA voiced strong opposition, calling the policy over-reaching, not consistent with science, unenforceable, and beyond all, not in the least consistent with patient safety principles in a statement.

Some nursing homes are sending residents with suspected coronavirus to hospitals for evaluation and then refusing to take them back until tests confirm their negative status.

Essentially, theyre dumping patients on hospitals and saying, Too badyoure stuck with them now, said a consultant who works closely with hospitals and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Others want to do their part to serve COVID-19 patients. It is our obligation to keep the health care system flowing, said Scott LaRue, president of ArchCare, the health care system of the Archdiocese of New York.

LaRue has no illusions about keeping the coronavirus out of ArchCares five nursing homes, which, combined, have 1,700 beds.

In New York City the virus is everywhere, he said. That means it has to be managed, not avoided. Our intention is to take COVID-19 stable patients and move them to a single floor at each nursing home, he said.

That will happen under two conditions, LaRue said. First, ArchCare will need sufficient personal protective equipmentgowns, masks and face shieldsfor its staff. Currently, the system cant get face shields. It was due to run out of gowns by Wednesday.

Second, ArchCare will need to test whether its protocols for managing COVID-positive patients are working. Those include putting patients in isolation, monitoring them more closely, limiting the number of people who can go in, and ensuring that staff use personal protective equipment and are trained properly.

So far, only one of its nursing home patients is known to have COVID-19.

We wont know for 14 days if the steps were taking are working, LaRue said.

Do I Have Coronavirus? A Symptoms Primer.

But its unrealistic to expect other nursing homes to follow suit.

I would be surprised if 10% to 15% of skilled nursing facilities in the U.S. could take a COVID-positive patient and treat that patient safely while ensuring that other residents in the home are safe, said David Grabowski, a professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School.

In a new commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Grabowski calls for establishing centers of excellence to care for patients recovering from COVID-19 and building temporary capacity in hot spots where the need for post-hospital services is likely to surge.

Thats beginning to happen. On Tuesday, Cuomo announced that a field hospital being built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to house overflow coronavirus patients at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City would include 1,000 beds for patients who dont need acute care services.

On Wednesday, a unit of Partners HealthCare, a large Massachusetts health care system, announced a new center for patients recovering from COVID-19 on the fourth floor of Spaulding Hospital for Continuing Care, a long-term care hospital in Cambridge. The center, set to open soon, will have 60 beds and accept patients from Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Womens Hospital.

In the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, Allina Health, which operates 11 hospitals, is partnering with Presbyterian Homes & Services to convert a 50-bed skilled nursing home to a step-down site, said Dr. Emily Downing, a vice president of Allina Health. The goal is to help COVID-19 patients recover so they can return to nursing homes or senior living communities.

Katie Smith Sloan, president of LeadingAge, which represents not-for-profit nursing homes, home care agencies and assisted living centers, said she was hearing about nascent plans to reopen closed nursing homes for COVID-19 patients. Government agencies need to make financing available to build extra capacity to care for these patients, she said.

As for patients who need less intensive care or who need to be quarantined after the hospital to ensure they arent infectious, other options exist.

King County has bought a hotel and is leasing another and is looking at what are now empty ambulatory surgery centers or a Christian summer camp in the area, said Sauer of the Washington State Hospital Association.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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Virginia Governor Ralph Northam on Monday issued an order to residents stay at home until June 10, part of expanded efforts to curtail the coronavirus pandemic that continues to spread across the country.

I want to be clear: Do not go out unless you need to go out. This is very different than wanting to go out, the Democratic governor said in announcing the order.

Northam noted that some of our beaches and other recreational areas were literally packed over the weekend, and warned that, everyone who is gathering in a crowd is putting themselves and others at risk.

The Virginia order goes into effect immediately and will remain in effect until June 10 unless the governor cancels it sooner. Violators can be punished by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

Hours earlier, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced a similar unprecedented order, requiring residents to stay home except for essential trips such as grocery shopping or obtaining medical care. The order goes into effect at 8 p.m. on Monday and will remain active until the state of emergency is over. Violators can be charged with a misdemeanor offense with penalties up to a year in jail or a $5,000 fine.

We are no longer asking or suggesting that Marylanders stay home. We are directing them to do so, said Hogan, a Republican. Every single Marylander can be a hero just by staying home.

Residents may also leave their homes for other specific purposes including working essential jobs, exercising while practicing social distancing, caring for relatives and others in need, tending to livestock or pets, visiting their businesses for minimal tasks, or visiting government buildings for necessary reasons.

Hogan admitted the order will be devastating to the state budget, saying the order could perhaps drain the entire rainy-day fund.

Were talking about nationally, 25 percent unemployment. Revenues should be down dramatically, he said.

At least 1,413 people in Maryland have been infected by the coronavirus.

More from National Review
GUEST OBSERVATION

The queues of unemployed people outside Centrelink offices in recent days are reminiscent of the dole queues seen across Australia during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

At that time, most states provided inadequate food vouchers rather than cash to people in the form of income support payments. This made it particularly difficult for renters, many of whom were unemployed due to the mass closure of factories, to continue to pay rent.

In NSW, lower-income areas of Sydney were particularly badly hit by unemployment, and because the working class was a renting class, this quickly translated into homelessness.

For example, male unemployment reached 38.9% in the then-working class suburb of Newtown by 1933, well above the NSW average of 32% and three times the rate in the affluent suburb of Vaucluse.

Tent cities sprang up in Sydneys Domain and on the outskirts of the city in suburbs like La Perouse, such as the ironically named tent city, Happy Valley. Although this is likely to underestimate the numbers of homeless at the time, the 1933 census reported

33,000 people [were] travelling in the hope of work and 400,000 [were] living in shelters made of iron, calico, canvas, bark, hessian and other scavenged materials.

State Library of New South Wales

COVID-19 and assistance for renters

There are distinct parallels between the severe economic downturn of the 1930s and the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 crisis in terms of mass business closures and worker layoffs.

The Australian government has estimated that one million Australians could become unemployed as a result of the coronavirus. However, it is not clear if this comprises only those who will be directly affected by business closures or includes people impacted by the flow-on effects.

Taking into account the current unemployment rate, an additional one million Australians would bring the rate to 13% of the Australian workforce, from my own estimates.

Although the increase in Centrelink payments announced by the Morrison government will help those workers suddenly without jobs, additional measures are needed to protect people who cant pay their rents and are faced with possible eviction

The National Cabinet is working on a range of strategies to assist renters, including preventing landlords from evicting tenants directly impacted by the coronavirus and offering tax relief to landlords who reduce or waive rents.

But these need to be supplemented by strong legislative measures, such as the amendment passed by the NSW parliament this week that empowers the housing minister to ban evictions for renters for six months.

Emergency laws to protect renters are also currently being debated in Tasmania.

JOEL CARRETT/AAP

Staving off homelessness in the Great Depression

There is precedent for legislative reform of this kind from the Great Depression.

In response to the mass numbers of job losses in NSW, the government at the time, led by Premier Jack Lang, passed two pieces of legislation aimed at providing relief for renters. This legislation was very significant, as it was the first of its kind that afforded tenants across NSW any serious amount of protection.

One of the bills, passed as the Reduction of Rent Act 1931, reduced rents state-wide by 22.5% and made leases that did not acknowledge this reduction illegal.

The other piece of significant tenancy reform was the Ejectments Postponement Bill 1931. This bill prohibited eviction from a dwelling house without an order of the court. If the court could be shown the rent could not be paid, the tenancy could be extended indefinitely.

In his second reading speech, William McKell, minister for justice in the Lang government, described the bill as a bona fide effort to provide against hardship due to unemployment.

As honourable members are aware, there is a large amount of unemployment, and there are many very deserving and reputable people who, unfortunately, are not able to pay their rent. It is a tragedy that people of that type, with their families, are being evicted from their homes, and the Government is desirous of preventing as far as possible evictions of that character.

Though the government was committed to helping renters, McKell clearly distinguishes between the deserving and undeserving unemployed in his speech, an unhelpful way of thinking that is still with us today.

Although it is not known how many evictions the reforms of 1931 prevented, the new laws were undoubtedly a boon for renters, given the news coverage of the time. Landlords and their representatives complained about the impact the laws had on their ability to evict tenants.

In fact, the Real Estate Institute noted the financial hardship the Ejectments Postponement Act was placing on landlords.

Hundreds of cases have been reported to the Real Estate Institute, where the owners of houses, dependent on rents for their livelihood, have been refused possession, and have also been refused relief under the dole system, on the grounds that they are property owners.

Unfortunately for renters, these reforms were relatively short-lived. The Lang government was sacked by the NSW governor in May 1932 and replaced in the next election by the more conservative United Australia Party and Country Party coalition government.

This change in government saw the passage of the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1932, which repealed the Ejectments Postponement Act 1931. The rent reduction law was also made more favourable to landlords.

The interests of landlords were prioritised over those of unemployed renters, a salutary lesson to present governments not to let ideology and vested interests get in the way of needed reforms that will benefit a significant portion of the population during a crisis not of their making.

Vanessa Whittington, PhD Candidate, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The last time Peter John Dario saw his father alive was on 14 March at the entrance to a hospital in Edison, New Jersey. An employee took him away in a wheelchair, telling Dario and his mother gently but unequivocally that they could not go in the building.

In a fog of worry and confusion as he watched his fathers diminished silhouette disappear through the door, Dario forgot to say goodbye.

Five days later, his father, Peter Dario, died of respiratory failure from an infection caused by the coronavirus. He was 59. None of the members of his large family  several of them now also sick with Covid-19  were at his side.

Of all the ways the coronavirus pandemic has undermined the conventions of normal life, perhaps none is as cruel as the separation of seriously ill patients and their loved ones, now mandated at hospitals around the world.

Hospitals in all 50 states and dozens of countries are barring visitors. Lobbies are bare, visitor parking lots empty, flower deliveries stopped. The number of accessible entry points has been reduced, and security guards and staff are posted at those that remain to turn away patients relatives and friends.

Its a heart-wrenching thing to do, said Dr Laura Forese, executive vice president and chief operating officer of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York. But its for everyones protection.

At most hospitals, exceptions are being made only for patients receiving end-of-life care, hospitalised children and pregnant women in labour.

Last week, after NewYork-Presbyterian discovered that multiple pregnant and postpartum patients in its labour and delivery unit had Covid-19  with minimal or no symptoms  it barred all visitors, including partners. Mt. Sinai Hospital System followed suit. But on Saturday night, following an outcry from expectant parents, Gov Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order requiring all medical facilities licensed by New York state to allow one support person for patients who are in labour.

Clinicians and hospital staff said keeping families away had been among the darkest experiences of their professional lives. The restrictions run contrary to a hospitals desire to keep patients and families together, not only for the salutary effect of something as simple as a handheld or a chair pulled close to a bed, but because having a relative present can ease the workload of a medical team. It can also provide crucial information that a confused patient may not be able to offer.

Hospitals are receiving frequent requests for leniency, especially for patients in intensive care units.

This isnt easy, but we have to deny the vast majority of them, said Dr Shereef Elnahal, president and chief executive of University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, which is, like other hospitals, managing the requests on a case-by-case basis.

Temporary hospitals, like this one in California, have been set up all over the US and will not allow family visits (Getty)

The restrictions raise distressing questions, especially when it comes to end-of-life visits. How close to the end of life must a patient be to merit a visitor? Is near death the right time? Why not earlier, when a patient is healthier and of sound mind?

As is happening in Italy and elsewhere around the world, people like Peter Dario are dying alone, despite hospital exceptions for end-of-life visitors.

Peter Dario, who had diabetes and was on dialysis, started to look sick at the beginning of March, said his daughter Marsha Dario, a nurse. His mother-in-law, who also lives in the household, was already sick with Covid-like symptoms.

When Marsha Dario picked her father up from dialysis 7 March, he was weak, dizzy and vomiting. She told him he needed to go to the hospital. But he refused.

His condition worsened. Struggling to breathe a few days later, he finally agreed to go to the hospital  but only if his wife, Luzviminda Dario, came too. Although his wife was sick by then as well, she went. They were inseparable, said Peter John Dario, his son.

The day after he was admitted to John F. Kennedy Medical Centre, Peter Dario lay unconscious, intubated and on a ventilator. Three days later, on the night of 19 March, the hospital called the family to say his fever had spiked and he was unstable. Finally, a nurse said one family member would be allowed in. The previous day, Luzviminda and Marsha Dario had received positive test results for the coronavirus and were in quarantine at home, so Peter John Dario rushed to the hospital. While he was being screened at the entrance for the symptoms of coronavirus infection, his father died.

Medical workers around the world are struggling to source enough protective equipment for themselves let alone patients families and friends (AFP) (AFP via Getty Images)

Just as difficult is the prohibition of visits with patients who have other grave illnesses or are undergoing risky surgery.

This month, Brittany Sanchez was at home in Las Vegas getting her two small children ready for bed when she had a seizure and collapsed.

She was taken by ambulance to Valley Hospital Medical Centre in Las Vegas. A scan revealed a brain tumour so aggressive that Sanchez needed immediate surgery.

Her mother, Heather Last, stayed at the hospital with her for two days, then went home to pick up a few things and feed the pets, only to get a call from Sanchez telling her that the visiting rules had changed and that she could not return.

The next morning, her parents went to the hospital anyway. A security guard refused to let them enter the building.

Heather said theyd have to call the police on her to keep her from going in, her father, Don Last, said. Eventually, both were allowed in.

A few days later, Sanchez was flown on a medevac jet to the University of California, San Francisco Medical Centre for a major neurosurgical procedure. UCSF, too, was in lockdown, and Sanchezs parents were not allowed in the hospital.

The surgery would be complex and dangerous. There was a reasonable chance she was going to have a problem, said Dr Mitchel Berger, the neurosurgeon who performed the procedure. Berger tried and failed to persuade his hospital to make an exception to the no-visitor rule.

Sanchezs father was beside himself. The night before the surgery, he sent Berger a text.

You will have my daughter Brittanys life in your hands tomorrow, he wrote. I expect you to treat her as if she were your own daughter. I will never forgive myself that I was not able to hold her hand through this. Bring her back home to me whole.

The surgery lasted nearly seven hours. As soon as he was finished, Berger went to find the Lasts, who were waiting outside the hospital. From 6 feet away, he told them the surgery had gone well and apologised again for being unable to allow them in.

They said they knew it wasnt my fault but that I just couldnt imagine what it would be like to be in that situation, he said. And theyre right. I couldnt imagine it.

Some hospitals are buying iPads to give to patients for virtual visits. Others are helping patients speak with their family and friends over FaceTime.

Just as the Dario family was absorbing the news of Peter Darios death, tragedy swept through the household again. On Monday, Cresenciano Victolero, Luzviminda Darios 86-year-old father, weak and short of breath, was rushed to the same hospital where his son-in-law had died. No one was allowed to visit.

On Wednesday, a nurse called to say they were unable to maintain his blood pressure. A granddaughter headed to the hospital. Victolero died while she was en route.

But they held pronouncing him until she got there, Marsha Dario said. The nurse cried with her.

New York Times
A federal judge on Monday blocked the state's emergency ban on abortions during the coronavirus outbreak.

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel said the ban violates a woman's right to choose as outlined in the 14th Amendment. He granted a temporary restraining order as abortion providers seek a permanent injunction.

"Regarding a woman's right to a pre-fetal-viability abortion, the Supreme Court has spoken clearly," Yeakel wrote. "There can be no outright ban on such a procedure."

The decision was issued as abortion providers move to overturn parts of an emergency order from Gov. Greg Abbott postponing non-essential surgeries during the outbreak. Attorney General Ken Paxton, a fellow Republican, had threatened to criminally prosecute health care workers who provided abortions, which he deemed non-essential.

For subscribers: Texas abortion ban has patients, clinics scrambling for options

Paxton said the measure would free up hospital beds and medical supplies as the state ramps up its response to the virus. Most abortions are not performed in hospitals, but officials said those in freestanding clinics and surgical centers still use protective gear now in high demand.

We are disappointed in the courts decision, a spokesman for Paxton said in a statement. Well seek appellate review promptly.

The ruling is the first in a series of lawsuits that abortion providers and advocates have filed in states that have imposed similar temporary restrictions. Earlier on Monday, Planned Parenthood and others announced lawsuits in Ohio, Iowa, Alabama and Oklahoma.

Texas Take: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

Louisiana and Mississippi have also moved to prohibit abortions during the pandemic.

Doctors and staff reported patients in tears last week as their appointments were cancelled, some begging for pills to end their pregnancies on their own. Providers said they had discussed sending women to clinics in other states, but worried that travel was not safe, let alone a viable option for those already struggling from the financial fallout of the outbreak.

Many people are already financially insecure and futures are uncertain," said Amy Hagstrom Miller, who oversees abortion clinics in Texas and is one of the plaintiffs. "We applaud todays ruling, which will allow us to do what we do best, provide safe and compassionate abortion care to those who need it.

The ban had sought to prohibit all abortions through much of April, including medication abortions, in which a woman is given pills that terminate her pregnancy. Providers said they don't normally use any of the protective gear now in demand for medication abortions, and had limited their use of disposable masks for surgical abortion in recent days as the virus spread.

In a brief filed Monday, attorneys for Paxton said that even if providers use less gear, "they are still using (personal protective equipment) that instead could be used for health care workers on the front lines."

"Even one extra mask could save the life of a physician or nurse," they wrote.

The restraining order lasts at least through April 13, when a hearing has been set for a preliminary injunction.
The coronavirus is spreading quickly in Americas jails and prisons, where social distancing is impossible and sanitizer is widely banned, prompting authorities across the country to release thousands of inmates in recent weeks to try to slow the infection, save lives and preserve medical resources.

Hundreds of Covid-19 diagnoses have been confirmed at local, state and federal correctional facilities  almost certainly an undercount, given a lack of testing and the viruss rapid spread  leading to hunger strikes in immigrant detention centers and demands for more protection from prison employee unions.

A week ago, the Cook County jail in Chicago had two diagnoses; by Sunday, 101 inmates and a dozen employees had tested positive for the virus. A nearby Illinois state prison reported a coronavirus-related death on Monday, and Michigan prisons had 78 positive tests. The Rikers Island jail complex in New York City had 167 confirmed cases among inmates by Monday. And at least 38 inmates and employees in the federal prison system have the virus, with one prisoner dead in Louisiana.

Its very concerning as a parent, said William Brewer Jr., whose son is serving time for robbery in Virginia. Hes in there sleeping in an open bay with 60 other people. Theres no way they can isolate and get six feet between each other.




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Two Democratic state representatives in Ohio have filed a bill in the General Assembly that would require insurers that provide business interruption insurance to cover losses that arise from viruses and pandemics, regardless of whether their policies contain exclusions for such risks.

House Bill 589 would be in effect only during the state of emergency ordered by Gov. Mike DeWine on March 9, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bill was filed by Rep. John M. Rogers, District 60, and Rep. Jeffrey Crossman, District 15. It states in part: every policy of insurance insuring against loss or damage to property, which includes the loss of use and occupancy and business interruption, in force in this state on the effective date of this section, shall be construed to include among the covered perils under that policy, coverage for business interruption due to global virus transmission or pandemic during the state of emergency.

HB 589 would apply to businesses located in Ohio, that have 100 or fewer eligible employees, and have been issued an insurance policy that includes coverage for business interruption.

The legislation provides for reimbursement to individual insurers that pay claims for business interruption that arise out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Money for the reimbursements would be available through a newly created Business Interruption Insurance Fund, which would be funded by assessments to insurers engaged in the business of insurance Chapter 3937. of the Revised Code, the bill states.

The Ohio bill is similar to ones that have been filed in other states, including Massachusetts (SD 2888) and New Jersey (A-3844). The New Jersey bill was set for a vote on March 16 but was subsequently withdrawn.

Though there has been significant discussion around the topic of business interruption coverage and the business closures that have been ordered as a result of the COVID-19 nationwide health emergency, the insurance industry seems is in general agreement that BI coverage does not apply in cases were losses arise from a pandemic. Insurers point to, among other things, the physical damage trigger in most BI policies, as well as exclusions for pandemics and viruses.

Dean Fadel, president of the Ohio Insurance Institute said in an email to Insurance Journal that the trade organization is opposed to HB 589.

The COVID-19 pandemic will not impact tornadoes, hurricanes, theft, vandalism, home fires and auto crashes. The ability of insurers to pay those claims would be jeopardized by House Bill 589 because extending business interruption insurance coverage where it was never intended would likely wipe-out a number of Ohio insurance companies, Fadel wrote.

He said the bill could potentially negatively impact the ability of small businesses to receive approval for loans and grants provided through the Small Business Administration (SBA), because of the administrations prohibition against double-dipping on the same loss.

Fadel added that the OII was cautiously optimistic that HB 589 would not gain significant traction in the General Assembly.

In a statement released by the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), President and CEO Charles M. Chamness said calls for the insurance industry to provide coverage for perils that are excluded in a business interruption policy are misguided.

If elected officials require payment for perils that were excluded, never underwritten for, and for which no premium was ever collected, catastrophic results will occur and we may deal with a second crisis: insurance insolvencies and impairments. There will also be irreparable harm done to contract law, and the impact of this will be felt by every business in America, Chamness said.

At least two high-profile lawsuits have been filed by restaurants in different states challenging the denial by their insurers of business interruption coverage after the restaurants were forced to close by local and state authorities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A lawsuit has been filed against The Hartford by Thomas Keller, owner of the French Laundry and the Bouchon Bistro in the Napa Valley community of Yountville, seeking a declaration that the owners commercial insurance policy covers losses caused by a statewide business shutdown ordered to prevent the spread of coronavirus. A similar suit was previously filed against a Lloyds of London insurer by the Oceana Grill in New Orleans.

By press time, Ohio Reps. Rogers and Crossman had not replied to emailed requests for comments about their bill.

Related:

Topics Carriers COVID-19 Ohio
The US Department of Justice is investigating several senators for highly profitable stock transactions they made in the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, apparently after being briefed on how badly the US and its economy might be hit.

According to CNN, which spoke to sources familiar with the inquiry, the department is co-ordinating with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to establish whether the senators investment behaviour was above board.

The inquiry, still in its early stages, has already seen the FBI reach out to North Carolina senator Richard Burr, who was the first to incur criticism for selling stock in companies that were later badly hurt by the markets disastrous plunge in March.

While it is usual practice for the FBI and SEC to investigate stock trades whenever questions about their propriety are publicly raised, there is particularly intense attention on the senators transactions, which have drawn condemnation from across the political spectrum.

Mr Burr, head of the senates Intelligence Committee, sold thousands of dollars in stocks in February  apparently after he and other senators were briefed on forecasts for the pandemic, but before the full scale of what was coming was made public.

He was further embarrassed by a leaked recording in which he warned a private audience of wealthy constituents that the coming outbreak could be akin to the 1918 pandemic, again before he expressed the same sentiments publicly.

Also under scrutiny for her investments is Kelly Loeffler, the junior senator from Georgia and the wealthiest members of Congress. She too was party to the January briefing, and had sold more than $1m in stocks by the end of February. Her husband is the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.

It is reported that both senators pulled millions of dollars out of companies before the public was aware of what was likely to happen. The reports have drawn bitter condemnation from across the political spectrum.

Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has demanded that Mr Burr resign. Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang tweeted: If you find out about a nation-threatening pandemic and your first move is to adjust your stock portfolio you should probably not be in a job that serves the public interest.

And on the other side of the aisle, Fox Newss Tucker Carlson said of Mr Burrs investment behaviour that there is no greater moral crime than betraying your country in a time crisis and that appears to be what happened.

Both Mr Burr and Ms Loeffler have rejected accusations that their behaviour was improper. In a statement to CNN, a lawyer for Mr Burr said the senator welcomed a thorough review of the facts. The law is clear that any American  including a Senator  may participate in the stock market based on public information, as Senator Burr did.

When this issue arose, Senator Burr immediately asked the Senate Ethics Committee to conduct a complete review, and he will co-operate with that review as well as any other appropriate inquiry.

Ms Loeffler, meanwhile, has dismissed accusations she used inside information on the epidemic to guide her financial decisions as ridiculous and baseless, claiming she was only informed about the highly profitable transactions three weeks after they were made.

In 2012, Mr Burr was one of only three senators to vote against the STOCK act, which prohibits members of Congress and their staff from using nonpublic information to manage their stock portfolios. Mr Burr dismissed the time spent debating the act as ludicrous given that laws against insider trading were already in place.
Covestro ensures steady production and supply despite difficulties

By:Wu Qiong | From:english.eastday.com | 2020-03-26 12:19

As Covestros biggest investment project beyond Germany, the Covestro Integrated Site Shanghai (CISS) at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park mainly produces polycarbonate, polyurethane raw materials and coating raw materials for the Asia Pacific region. As polycarbonate is one of the raw materials for epidemic prevention supplies such as goggles and infrared thermal imagers, the CISS has been continuously busy since the Spring Festival this year, leveraging its own cutting-edge expertise to contribute to the fight against the epidemic.

(CISS)

As a company producing key supplies for the epidemic prevention and control in Shanghai, Covestro has increased the productive capacity of some related products since the very beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. At the same time, by coordinating with its downstream manufacturers, the company has also donated to the front line a total of 150,000 pairs of protective goggles and 2,000 thermometers made from its polycarbonate materials.

(Protective goggles given away to medical institutions in Wuhan)

As the pandemic prevention and control is still salient, there has been a high demand in epidemic prevention equipment.

In another case, Covestro fulfilled a rush order for polycarbonate and thermoplastic polyurethanes from Hikvision, which needed the materials to produce infrared thermometers, which are in huge demand. During the emergency, staff from different departments worked together and managed in four hours to allocate the inventory, go through the financial procedures and complete the application for zero customs clearance fee. The first batch of supplies was delivered to the client in only 28 hours, including the delivery distance of 1,300 km.

Such speed is inseparable from Shanghai's support for enterprises, said Holly Lei, president of Covestro China. After the epidemic broke out, the Shanghai government issued 28 policy measures to support businesses; the transportation authority also rolled out several measures to facilitate freight transportation in the Yangtze River Delta; and the Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park also offered help to the company to solve its logistics and warehousing personnel shortage.All these have been a strong boost for us to fight against the epidemic and resume our normal production.

According to Lei, Covestros business involves thousands of logistics operators and drivers, including those working for its upstream and downstream companies. Amid the epidemic, all those personnels health declarations had to be collected and verified, a demanding job for Covestros logistics and security departments. Thanks to the administration committee of the Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park, thousands of personnels entry permissions could be dealt with immediately and smoothly.

On February 10, Covestro restarted operation and production like many other foreign companies in Shanghai. However, due to some logistics issues, there was some shortage in raw materials and barrels, somewhat affecting the production progress. As such, the production plan was modified five to six times, reducing production volumes on part of the production lines while ensuring customer demands.

At CISS, a shortage of staff happens sometimes because returning employees to Shanghai need to undergo home quarantine. To ensure the minimum number of people in normal production are available, according to Zhu Huifeng, deputy team leader of the coating raw material production line, the daily maintenance team in his department act as backup for the production team. Each production team has also selected three members to form a backup team. Once there is one member under quarantine, backups will be on duty right away. Special rooms have also been prepared for employees who feel uncomfortable at work.These are all attempts and efforts to make resuming work as smooth as possible in this special time period. We always believe that there are always more solutions than difficulties, said Zhu.

In order to ensure continuous production, emergency response policies have been delivered to employees in a timely manner through digital channels.

Accounting for around one fifth of Covestros global sales, China is the second largest market for the world-leading supplier of high-tech polymer materials. So far, the companys production bases in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Qingdao, and Tianjin have fully resumed production, and all staff at CISS has been back to their posts.2020 is full of challenges for enterprises, but we see local governments in China are controlling the epidemic through various measures. We believe that the difficulties are temporary. Covestros investment in China is long-term. We have also seen a long-term market demand for high-tech plastics, so our confidence and commitment to the Chinese market will not change, added Holly Lei.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 22:57:02|Editor: xuxin

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A man wearing a mask rides a bike on the street in Colombo, Sri Lanka, March 30, 2020. Sri Lanka has so far confirmed 122 COVID-19 patients, out of which 14 have recovered and been discharged from hospital in recent days, while 104 others are under observation in the designated hospitals across the country. The country remains under an islandwide curfew imposed on March 20 in a bid to prevent the further spread of pandemic. (Xinhua/Tang Lu)

COLOMBO, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Government Information Department said on Monday that a 64-year-old male who was under treatment for COVID-19 passed away, raising the death toll from the virus to two in the island country.

The department said in a statement that the patient had been under treatment at the Negombo General Hospital on the outskirts of capital Colombo.

The patient had earlier on Monday shown a chest-related illness after which he tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. Then he was rushed to the Negombo Hospital where he died a few hours later, the statement said.

This is the second death reported in Sri Lanka from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) after a 60-year-old COVID-19 patient died at the National Infectious Disease Hospital near Colombo late Saturday.

Sri Lanka has so far confirmed 122 COVID-19 patients, out of which 14 have recovered and been discharged from hospital in recent days, while 104 others are under observation in the designated hospitals across the country.

The country remains under an islandwide curfew imposed on March 20 in a bid to prevent the further spread of pandemic.
On Saturday, GNTC gathered its supply of ventilators used in its Respiratory Care program to donate to the Georgia Emergency Management Agency

As the number of COVID-19 cases continue to rise there has also been an increased demand for medical supplies such as ventilators, hospital masks and gloves. So on Saturday, Georgia Northwestern Technical College gathered its supply of ventilators used in its Respiratory Care program to donate to the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

According to Zenia Bratton, director of the Respiratory Care program and assistant dean of Health Technologies at GNTC, the donation of the colleges five ventilators came about through a coordinated effort between the Technical College System of Georgia and GEMA. GNTC police officers were called on to gather the ventilators and bring them to a GEMA location where they will be distributed to assist hospitals with the growing number of COVID-19 cases.

GEMA called Saturday morning to request our ventilators and GNTC officers went to the college within a few hours, said GNTC Police Chief Chad Cardin. Lieutenant Gary McConathy took a load of Medical Gloves and N95 masks this past week after Dean of Health Technologies Frank Pharr was able to collect them from all of our campuses.

Georgia Northwestern Technical College donated 600 N95 masks and 20,800 gloves said GNTC President Dr. Heidi Popham. All of this was coordinated through TCSG working with GNTC Police Chief Cardin, faculty and staff.

We are saddened that the situation is at the point that the ventilators at GNTC are needed but, we are glad they will be utilized in such an important way, said Dr. Popham. We are hopeful these ventilators will assist in saving precious Georgia lives.
Their tumultuous 'marriage' finally ended at their final vows on Monday night.

But it appears there's still plenty of drama to come for Married At First Sight's Mishel Karen and Steve Burley in the upcoming reunion episodes.

On January 14, the pair looked apprehensive as they flew into Sydney Airport separately to film the two-part season finale, six weeks after splitting up.

Reunited: Married At First Sight's Steve Burley (left) and Mishel Karen (right) looked tense as they flew into Sydney Airport separately on January 14 to film the reunion episodes

Steve, 51, was first to land in Sydney after flying in from Melbourne.

He charged through the airport and looked tense, presumably nervous about coming face to face with his ex-'wife' again after she dumped him.

The barbershop owner failed to crack a smile as he walked through the terminal.

Enjoying the single life? Steve, 51, was first to arrive after flying in from Melbourne. He didn't look excited to see Mishel again after she dumped him at their final vows

Cheer up! The barbershop owner failed to crack a smile as he walked through the terminal

Mishel landed an hour later after jetting in from Brisbane.

The 49-year-old police worker kept her sunglasses on as she went to collect her luggage, and also looked apprehensive about the reunion.

She then flagged a taxi and went to her hotel in Chatswood. Producers kept Steve in another hotel on the other side of Sydney to avoid them seeing each other.

A near miss! Mishel, 49, landed an hour later after jetting in from Brisbane. She kept her sunglasses on as she walked through the terminal to collect her luggage

It's not over yet! She then flagged a taxi and went to her hotel in Chatswood. Producers kept Steve in another hotel on the other side of Sydney to avoid them seeing each other

During their final vows on Monday, Mishel accused Steve of 'wasting her time' after he repeatedly told her he loved her despite their complete lack of physical intimacy.

'I have felt the least attractive, least sensual I've ever felt in my whole life spending the time with you and listening to you remind me that you have no attraction,' she said.

Walking away, Mishel threw away her wedding ring and said: 'It's empowering to take back my strength, to take back my voice as a woman.

'I actually deserve someone that desires me and wants me. I'm very free now. I feel like, "Oh, drop the ring! I'm free!"'

Married At First Sight continues Tuesday at 7:30pm on Channel Nine

Mixed messages: During their final vows on Monday, Mishel accused Steve of 'wasting her time' after he repeatedly told her he loved her despite their complete lack of physical intimacy
Twice a day, Shira Blumenthal has become a calming presence for her followers who join her for Facebook Live knitting sessions while they're practicing social distancing.

It's about having that opportunity not only to talk to someone, but see someone," she told TODAY. "Im cooped up in my apartment in Manhattan with my two cats. I am quarantining and havent seen any people and its hard for me."

Blumenthal hosts her live knitting sessions on the Lion Brand Yarn Facebook page. Blumenthal is the fifth generation in her family to work in the business.

For her, knitting is "like therapy."

"I have always turned to it in times of stress," she said.

And it's sorely needed right now during the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, which has created uncertainty around the world.

I really feel more than ever, this is one moment in life when we are all feeling the same thing, this blue thread that is going through all of us," she said. "Being scared, stressed, tired. Happy to be with your family, but also like, 'Oh my, Im with my family!'"

Shira Blumenthal.

Before the coronavirus, Blumenthal had built a community through her #HatNotHate movement. The New Yorker said she was severely bullied in fourth grade. As an adult, she was inspired to do something to help others.

#HatNotHate asks people to knit blue hats, the official color for anti-bullying, and then donate them to schools. Last year, Blumenthal collected more than 23,000 hats. This year, she set her goal at 100,000.

With those hats, they went to over 60 schools in over 30 states. We were able to communicate these hats were made with love and children are being seen and heard and we can all be kind to each other," she said.

During the coronavirus shutdown, Blumenthal plans to have some celebrity guests join her to talk as she knits. On her first week of Facebook Lives, Blumenthal was joined by Vanna White, who is an avid knitter.

Story continues

Vanna White is a fan!

I have known Vanna pretty much my whole life. She was on 'The Johnny Carson Show' a long time ago and my father reached out because she said she loved to crochet. He sent her yarn," Blumenthal said. She said the "Wheel of Fortune" star is "the sweetest person ever."

On March 30, Blumenthal will be joined by "Saturday Night Live" star, Melissa Villasenor, who has also been knitting on her Instagram Live account.

While Blumenthal is happy to give tutorials on knitting, she's equally grateful to anyone who wants to tune in and watch or spread the word about #HatNotHate to someone who knits and may want to donate a hat.

Based on Centers for Disease Control guidance, she said #HatNotHate is still accepting donations.

"COVID-19 is thought to be spread mainly from person-to-person, and while it may be possible for someone to get COVID-19 by touching a contaminated surface or object, this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads," said a bulletin on the #HatNotHate site.

While people are stuck inside, she said she hopes her Facebook Live broadcasts help people feel a sense of community and know that they're not alone. Knitting certainly isn't a requirement for joining.

People just need a fun, funky 30 minutes of their day," she said. "And we're able to give that to them."
A madrasa in Maharashtra housing 54 children has been facing difficulty in providing basic facilities with limited funds during the ongoing lockdown to contain COVID-19 outbreak, the apex child rights body NCPCR said on Monday.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) said it received a representation from Darul Uloom Shamsiya and Jamiya Tilawatus-Salihat regarding pending release of funds under the Madrasa Modernization Scheme.

Around 150 students are enroled in the madarsa in Osmanabad, but at present only 54 are living there.

The madrasa has not received funds due to which arranging for basic facilities during the lockdown has become difficult, the representation told the NCPCR.

NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo, in a letter, asked the collector and district magistrate of Osmanabad to immediately provide ration for the children and issue passes to the cooks engaged in the institution.

"Regular medical check-up of the cooks may be conducted. At the same time, expedite the process and ensure that the funds are immediately released and basic entitlements of these children are provided to them uninterrupted," the letter said.

India is currently under a 21-day lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Reliance Industries Ltd. on Monday Monday pledged Rs 500 crore to the PM-CARES fund, in addition to of India's first exclusive coronavirus hospital, meals to the needy, and provision of protective gear to healthworkers and caregivers.

Reliance Industries Ltd. on Monday pledged Rs 500 crore to the PM-CARES fund, in addition to the setting up of India's first exclusive coronavirus hospital, meals to the needy, and provision of protective gear to healthworkers and caregivers.

Last week, Reliance Industries had also announced a contribution of Rs 5 crore each to the governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat to support their fight against COVID-19, said a company statement.

"Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) today announced a donation of Rs 500 crore to PM-CARES Fund in response to the call by the Prime Minister to support the nation's fight against the coronavirus onslaught," said the press release.

The company is also continuing its multi-pronged, on-the-ground efforts, said the statement.

"RIL continues its round-the-clock, multi-pronged, on-the-ground effort to do its bit to ensure the nation remains prepared, fed, supplied, safe, connected and motivated to fight and win against the unprecedented challenges brought upon by the coronavirus pandemic", the statement added.

"We are confident that India will conquer the coronavirus crisis sooner rather than later. The entire Reliance Industries team is with the nation in this hour of crisis and will do everything to win this battle against COVID-19," the statement quoted Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of RIL as saying.

Follow LIVE updates on the coronavirus outbreak here

As the nation comes together to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, all of us at Reliance Foundation stand in solidarity with our countrymen and women, especially those on the frontlines to whom we pledge our full support. Our doctors and staff have helped set up India's first COVID-19 Hospital and are committed to supporting the government in exhaustive screening, testing, prevention, and treatment of COVID-19," said Nita Ambani, Founder Chairperson of Reliance Foundation.

The need of the hour is to support marginalised and daily wage communities, she said adding that "through our meal distribution programme, we aim to feed lakhs of people daily across the country.

Earlier this month, RIL had announced a number of measures to contribute to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, including continued pay to temporary workers, setting up a 100-bed dedicated COVID-19 hospital and ramping up face-mask production. The company has also said it will provide free fuel to notified emergency response vehicles across the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday thanked the Ambanis for their contribution to the fund and acknowledge the efforts of the Reliance team in the fight against the disease.

The entire Reliance team has been making effective contributions in the fight against COVID-19. Be it in healthcare or assisting people, they have been active. I thank Mukesh & Nita Ambani Ji for contributing to PM-CARES and for their other work towards defeating Coronavirus. https://t.co/XEcmW6eNmx  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 31, 2020

(Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd which publishes Firstpost)
PR-Inside.com: 2020-03-30 22:06:16

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HALIFAX, NS / ACCESSWIRE / March 30, 2020 / Namibia Critical Metals Inc. ("Namibia Critical Metals" or the "Company") (TSXV:NMI) today announced it intends to complete a non-brokered private placement in the amount of up to $350,000 consisting of units offered at a price of $0.12 per unit ("Private Placement") representing a 20% discount to the closing price of the common shares of the Company on March 27, 2020. Each unit will consist of one common share and one warrant. Each whole warrant will be exercisable for one common share at a price of $0.18 for a period of 18 months. A maximum of 5,833,333 common shares of Namibia Critical Metals will be issued pursuant to the Private Placement (assuming full exercise of all warrants). The Private Placement is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV").The proceeds of the Private Placement will be used primarily to fund working capital and general corporate purposes. The common shares and warrants of the Company issued pursuant to the Private Placement will be subject to a four-month hold period.About Namibia Critical Metals Inc.Namibia Critical Metals holds a diversified portfolio of exploration and advanced stage projects in the country of Namibia focused on the development of sustainable and ethical sources of metals for the battery, electric vehicle and associated industries. The Company also has significant land positions in areas favourable for gold mineralization.The Lofdal Heavy Rare Earth Project is the Company's most advanced project having completed a Preliminary Economic Assessment in 2014 and full Environmental Impact Assessment in 2017. An application has been made for a mining licence at Lofdal. The project is now in joint venture with JOGMEC who are funding the current $3,000,000 drilling and metallurgical program with the objective of doubling the resource size and optimization of the process flow sheet.At the Erongo Gold Project, stratigraphic equivalents to the sediments hosting the recent Osino gold discovery at Twin Hills have been identified but not yet sampled. Detailed soil surveys are planned over this highly prospective area.The Epembe Tantalum-Niobium Project is also at an advanced stage with a well-defined, 10 km long carbonatite dyke that has been delineated by detailed mapping with over 11,000 meters of drilling. Preliminary mineralogical and metallurgical studies including sorting tests (XRT), indicate the potential for significant physical upgrading. Further work will be undertaken to advance the project to a preliminary economic assessment stage.The Kunene Cobalt-Copper Project comprises a very large area of favorable stratigraphy ("the DOF") along strike to the west of the Opuwo Co-Cu-Zn deposit. Secondary copper mineralization over a wide area points to preliminary evidence of a regional-scale hydrothermal system. Exploration targets on EPLs held in the Kunene project comprise direct extensions of the DOF style mineralization to the west, sediment-hosted cobalt and copper, orogenic copper, and stratabound Mn and Zn-Pb mineralization.Earlier stage projects include the Grootfontein Project which has potential for magmatic Cu-Ni mineralization, Mississippi Valley-type Zn-Pb-V mineralization and Otjikoto-style gold mineralization.The common shares of Namibia Critical Metals Inc. trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "NMI".Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.For more information please contact -Namibia Critical Metals Inc.Don Burton, PresidentTel: +01 (902) 835-8760Fax: +01 (902) 835-8761Email: Info@ NamibiaCMI.com Web site: www.NamibiaCriticalMetals.com The foregoing information may contain forward-looking information relating to the future performance of Namibia Rare Earths Inc. Forward-looking information, specifically, that concerning future performance, is subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the appropriate securities commissions.-30-SOURCE: Namibia Critical Metals Inc.
An employee at a McDonald's restaurant in western Sydney has tested positive for coronavirus.

Staff at the Gregory Hills store in Sydney's far south-west are reportedly 'angry and confused' that they weren't all notified of the positive diagnosis immediately, ABC reported.

Only 20 of about 100 employees were told that a co-worker had been tested.

NSW Health said the store will remain open and all 20 staff who came into close contact with the infected person have been quarantined.

Pictured: Gregory Hills McDonald's in Sydney's far south-west, where an employee was diagnosed with COVID-19

Staff at the store are reportedly scared to come back to work following the diagnosis

But an employee, who chose to remain anonymous, told ABC other members of the team were concerned about going into work amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said while the company made the decision not to notify other employees of the diagnosis to avoid causing unnecessary panic, he was hurt to have found out about the situation from other staff members while working a shift last night.

'I left the shift shaking, I was so scared,' he said.

'There's a lot of workers who are really, really angry at [McDonald's] for not telling us.'

The employee said he knew of staff who had called in sick for upcoming shifts after learning of the case.

He also disputed claims made by James Rickards, director of corporate relations for McDonald's, that the infected staff member had worked with a handful of employees who were all being quarantined.

Just 20 of the 100 employees at the McDonald's restaurant were deemed at risk of developing the contagious respiratory infection. Those who were notified are now self-isolating

McDonald's customers are still able to enter the stores to order takeaway menu options using the kiosks, but can no longer dine in due to Prime Minister Scott Morrison's social distancing policies

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

'The person [who tested positive] was sent home last Friday and the person who came in to cover their shift used the same headset for drive-thru and they haven't been told to stay home,' the anonymous staff member said.

The McDonald's store insists it is following all protocols and advice from NSW Health, and will continue to maintain a strict sanitising and cleaning regime.

A spokesman for the Australian fast food chain told Daily Mail Australia there has been no suggestion the staff member contracted the virus while at work.

'There is no suggestion the crew member was exposed to COVID-19 in the restaurant,' the spokesman said.

'Upon receiving notification of the diagnosis from the NSW Department of Health, we immediately commenced notifying all employees who may have been in contact with the individual during their shifts.'

The spokesman said NSW Health are allowing the store to continue trading due to the frequency and standard of the santisation procedures.

'The health and safety of our people and our customers is our priority and McDonalds Australia implements strict cleaning, quality control and hygiene procedures throughout every shift at each of our restaurants.'

There are currently 4,165 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, including 18 deaths

Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week introduced a ban on dining in at restaurants throughout the nation to slow the spread of the deadly respiratory virus.

In response, fast food chains were forced to close their in-store services, now offering limited drive-thru and delivery options for customers instead.

McDonald's customers are still able to enter the stores to order takeaway menu options using the kiosks, a spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia when the changes were introduced.

The restrictions were introduced in a bid to slow community transmission of coronavirus, and have since been tightened twice more, including placing limits on weddings, funerals and banning gatherings of more than two people.

Cases of COVID-19 in Australia soared to 4,165 by Monday afternoon, including 18 fatalities.

Just one week ago, when the restrictions were first introduced, there were 1,642 known cases of coronavirus in Australia.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are spending tens of billions to prop up their economies during the coronavirus crisis and oil price slump but the scaling back of state projects is blunting the impact.

The pain felt by the tourism, retail, hospitality and logistics sectors due to global travel disruptions and closure of most public venues is spreading to the contracting and oil services industries in the Arab world's biggest economies.

Saudi Arabia last week announced suspension of work on the third phase of a $100 billion expansion of the Grand Mosque in Mecca over coronavirus fears. Two days earlier, construction giant Saudi Binladin Group said in an internal note, seen by Reuters, that two employees on the project had been infected.

Riyadh-based MOBCO Civil Construction sent a memo to staff in the Saudi cities of Riyadh, Mecca and Medina notifying them that it plans to cut wages between 25% to 50% due to "unforeseen circumstances of COVID-19", according to the internal document dated March 25, which was seen by Reuters.

MOBCO, a medium sized firm that handles commercial, residential and infrastructure projects, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

A source at a major Gulf contracting firm, who declined to be identified due to sensitivities around discussing business plans, told Reuters he has not seen any new Saudi projects awarded in the last two months.

"There are a lot of concerns, though work has not been suspended in the project we have now," a Saudi contractor, who also asked not to be identified, told Reuters, voicing fears the state-backed project could be at risk.

"These workers eat, drink and sleep in the same place. If one only is infected, the whole project will stop," he said, adding that it was too costly for contractors to halt work unless there is a government directive to do so.

REVENUE SQUEEZE

State spending in the energy producing Gulf is the main engine of economic growth. Saudi and UAE authorities have announced nearly $70 billion in stimulus to ease the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. Fitch Ratings said this accounted for more than 10% of the UAE's GDP and over 4% of that of Saudi Arabia.

The stimulus consists largely of monetary and off-budget measures, for example loan repayment holidays to distressed businesses and individuals.

But there is a limit to how much money governments, who rely heavily on oil export income, can inject as oil prices tumble to 17-year lows. A supply battle between Riyadh and Moscow is exacerbating the impact of an unprecedented drop in demand as governments put countries on lockdown to stop the virus' spread.

Even giant state oil firms have tightened belts, with those of Abu Dhabi and Kuwait issuing directives for cost cuts.

Abu Dhabi's energy department last week postponed the announcement of winning bids for a solar power plant and said it was monitoring energy prices and supply chains.

Yousef al-Benyan, chairman of the business group of the Group of 20 economies, told Reuters small and medium businesses were most vulnerable to the coronavirus outbreak, whose impact he said could spill over to 2021.

"That's where the regulators are trying to come up with support packages to help those SMEs to retain their work focus ... and in order not to have an implication on jobs," said Benyan, who is also chief executive of Saudi Basic Industries.

CASH FLOW

Job losses are not unusual during Gulf slowdowns - both Saudi Arabia and UAE saw big reductions during the last oil price slump in 2015 when state spending was slashed.

Bankers said liquidity is the biggest immediate challenge.

"Across the region we have spoken to every single customer across all sectors in the last 10 working days from a commercial banking perspective. The key thing is the concern around liquidity  have I got enough cash to trade," said Daniel Howlett, head of HSBC's commercial banking, MENA and Turkey.

Mazin Al Khatib, CEO of Nostalgia Classic Cars in Dubai, told Reuters his firm is negotiating a bridge loan to help cover operating costs but may still need to take painful decisions.

"I'm worried about the salaries at the end of the month, a lot of orders got cancelled, a lot of orders that were almost about to be done were delayed," Khatib said.

Hathal al-Utaibi, chief executive of Riyadh-listed Alandalus Property, agreed the main challenges for the retail industry were managing cash flow and servicing loans.

"It goes without saying that the Q2 2020 financial results for many companies will reflect the business challenges of this period," he told Reuters.

Saudi Arabia could see its 2020 deficit widen to 16.1% from a previous projection of 6.4% if oil prices average $40, according to Arqaam, a securities firm. At $30, the deficit would hit 22.1%, it said -- roughly $170 billion, according to Reuters calculations.

The kingdom's debt-GDP ratio was around 20% in 2019 and according to rating agency S&P it will rise to nearly 34% in 2020 and about 36% in 2021.

S&P expects the fiscal deficit of the government of Abu Dhabi, the richest of the UAE's seven emirates, to increase to 7.5% in 2020, compared to 0.3% in 2019.

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Washington: Crude oil has reached a 17-year low due to the Corona outbreak and the ongoing price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia. Brent crude oil, which is important for India, has reached a price of $ 23 per barrel. The coronavirus is increasing in havoc all over the world. 199 countries of the world are under the grip of Corona.

Funds donated by companies will be considered as expenditure incurred on CSR head

According to the Worldometer, a total of 7,21,902 people are infected with corona worldwide, while 33,965 people have lost their lives. Most worrying is its rapid spread in America. A senior American scientist has even warned that it could kill 1 to 2 lakh people in America. In the US, over 1.40 lakh people have been infected with Corona.

Corona impacting stock market, Sensex opens with red mark today

Due to the outbreak of this virus, the entire world's stock markets have also collapsed. America's West Texas Intermediate crude has reached $ 20 per barrel with a 5.3 percent fall. Similarly, London's Brent crude, which is considered a benchmark for India and other international markets, slipped 6.5 percent to $ 23 a barrel.

Corona: RBI Governor's Appeal, 'Avoid Cash Transactions, Perform Digital Transactions'
A billboard welcoming Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ahead of his visit to Badiraguato, in Sinaloa state, February 15, 2019.

REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

Mexico's president defended his brief meeting and handshake with the mother of imprisoned drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said corruption was a bigger threat to Mexico than a 92-year-old woman he said "deserves my respect."

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

MEXICO CITY/BADIRAGUATO, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday defended his weekend handshake with the mother of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, calling her a "respectable old lady" and seeking to cast his critics as the principal menace to the country.

In a 30-second video posted on Twitter on Sunday, Lopez Obrador could be seen approaching Maria Consuelo Loera's car, parked on a dirt road on the outskirts of Badiraguato, a mountainous municipality in the northwestern state of Sinaloa.

Surrounded by onlookers, Lopez Obrador told Loera she need not get out of the car, they shook hands and after a brief exchange he told her he had "received her letter."

Guzman was for years boss of the Sinaloa Cartel, a powerful criminal organization blamed for the deaths of thousands of people in Mexico ranging from rival gang members, ordinary citizens, police and members of the armed forces.

Critics on social media asked what kind of message the encounter, videotaped by part of the entourage that regularly accompanies the president on weekends, was meant to send.

Questioned about the meeting at his regular morning news conference, Lopez Obrador was unrepentant and quickly blamed "adversaries" for trying to make a "scandal" out of it.

"Sometimes, because it's my job, I have to shake hands with white-collar criminals who haven't even lost their respectability, how am I not going to greet an old lady who leaves her hand outstretched?" he told reporters.

Story continues

In the video, Lopez Obrador could also be seen talking to one of El Chapo's lawyers, Jose Luis Gonzalez Meza.

Lopez Obrador said Loera, a "respectable old lady," wrote to him to ask for help in getting permission from US authorities to visit her son, who is in a maximum-security US prison.

"This depends on the United States government, the US embassy. I believe that for humanitarian reasons she should be allowed to go with caregivers, sanitarians, doctors," he said.

The leftist leader said "conservative" opponents, were trying to use the encounter to hurt him.

Accusing them of hypocrisy, he said the corruption he identifies as their legacy is a much bigger threat to the country than a 92-year-old woman "who deserves my respect."

After questions by reporters about the meeting, Lopez Obrador promised to publish the letter from Loera, saying: "We have nothing to hide ... there's nothing that can embarrass us."

Consuelo Loera, mother of the Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, leaves the US embassy after requesting a humanitarian visa so she can visit her imprisoned son, in Mexico City, June 1, 2019.

REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Guzman shipped tons of drugs around the world and twice embarrassed the Mexican government by escaping from prison.

Captured for a third time in 2016, he was extradited to the United States in 2017 and sentenced to life in prison by a US judge last year after his conviction on multiple drug charges.

The Sinaloa Cartel caused Lopez Obrador's government considerable embarrassment last October, when security forces briefly surrounded and captured the notorious drug lord's son Ovidio Guzman in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa. Cartel gunmen responded with prolonged bursts of gunfire in the streets after Ovidio's arrest.

To avoid bloodshed, the government ordered Ovidio's release, sparking widespread criticism of Lopez Obrador's security policy, and angering some military leaders.

Lopez Obrador saw Guzman's mother on a visit to a rural area of Sinaloa where the government was building a new road that would pass near El Chapo's birthplace. The president said he went to meet Loera after hearing she wanted to greet him.

The 66-year-old, who has flouted the advice of his own government not to engage in physical contact during the coronavirus crisis, dismissed the suggestion that he should not be shaking hands with an elderly woman at risk of contagion.

He said it would have been "disrespectful" not to take her hand  even as two state governors Lopez Obrador had recently met with said over the weekend they had coronavirus.

"I am not a robot," he said. "I have feelings."

(Reporting by Jesus Bustamante and Raul Cortes in Mexico City; writing by Anthony Esposito and Drazen Jorgic; editing by Dave Graham and Tom Brown)

Read the original article on Business Insider
Ronn Torossian

Most chief marketing officers have temporary plans in place to connect with consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The growing question among many is just how long coronavirus will be aroundand are brands prepared to manage a prolonged pandemic?

More and more governors are ordering their citizens to stay home unless absolutely necessary. On the other hand, some health officials are predicting the pandemic could be over in two months. President Donald Trump himself recently said much of America would be back to work by Easter (he has since backed away from that plan, and extended federal social distancing guidelines until April 30). Some U.K. officials believe the pandemic wont be over until next year.

Irrespective of the predictions, the consensus among marketers is that ecommerce will be stronger than before regardless of when the pandemic ends. Marketers should devise future strategies with that in mind. Brands thatve been delaying investments in attending to deficits in their technology would be wise to do so sooner than later. Acting now will afford them with the tools needed to move forward and adjust more quickly when the crisis is over.

Partnering on cause-related marketing with one or more relevant partners now may be one of the best strategies to maximize existing budgets while connecting with new customers and maintaining the loyalty of existing ones.

Technology

Many businesses now required to have their employees work from home werent prepared for this eventuality. Most employees, understandably, never had or needed to work remotely. Some didnt have laptops to take home. So now, while companies are purchasing or renting laptops and their IT techs are preparing their companies for remote capabilities, other near-term questions need to be addressed: does the company have the bandwidth and capacity to handle virtual meetings? With so many employees working remotely, is security adequate?

Amazons recent announcement that it will be hiring 100,000 temporary workers in anticipation of increased demand shouldve sent a strong signal to marketers that some companies are in for the long haul. And if online shopping accelerates as predicted by some, are brands equipped to handle the flood? The founder of ecommerce company Netalico said one of his clients already experienced a 2,000 percent increase in online sales the week of March 9 alone.

Supply chain

Some U.S. companies began thinking about relocating their manufacturing facilities in 2018 after the Trump administration placed tariffs on goods manufactured there. Most remained but a growing number are reconsidering relocation in light of COVID-19.

Messaging

Short term or long, the consensus now is that any messagingeven after the pandemic is over, whenever that may beneeds to be sensitive to not offend. Satoru Wakeshima, Chief Engagement Officer at New York marketing firm CBX told Adweek that includes avoiding pictures of large crowds and picnics.

Bottom line

Many companies will still sustain losses during the pandemic and can only plan on keeping them as low as possible. On the brighter side, if China is any indication, there are signs of recovery beginning to occur. By some accounts, the pandemic may end sooner rather than later, and the chances of economic recovery in that case are promising according to some observers.

***

Ronn Torossian is CEO and Founder of 5W Public Relations, a leading digital PR and influencer marketing agency.
SHELTON  The number of positive coronavirus cases in Shelton jumped six over the weekend, bringing the city to 24 overall, including one confirmed COVID-19 related death last week.

Overall, Connecticuts COVID-19 infections shot up by 31 percent on Sunday, with 469 confirmed in the hours after President Donald Trump approved the states request for a disaster declaration that will help pay for some of the efforts at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

As of late Sunday afternoon, 1,993 people in the state had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and there were 34 fatalities. On Saturday there were 1,524 confirmed infections and 33 fatalities.

The Naugatuck Valley Health District (NVHD) last week warned that community spread/transmission is now occurring in the Valley. People have been infected with the virus, including some who are not sure how or where they became infected. Please practice social distancing and stay home as much as possible.

Gov. Ned Lamonts executive orders have shuttered all schools until at least April 20, and closed all nonessential businesses, until further notice. Lamont said Tuesday that schools may remain closed until the fall.

NVHD officials work closely with the state Department of Public Health, local hospitals and outpatient healthcare providers to identify persons under investigation who are Valley residents.

The NVHD defines a person under investigation as anyone who has been identified as someone who may have the virus that causes COVID-19 or who was under investigation but tested negative.

The state Department of Public Health now publishes a report at www.ct.gov/coronavirus that breaks down positive COVID-19 cases by town.

The NVHD release states that the physician who ordered the coronavirus test for the patient and health district staff will contact individuals who test positive for COVID-19.

Those individuals will remain in quarantine at their homes, stated the NVHD release. Individuals who reside in the same household as a laboratory confirmed positive case will also be required to self-quarantine at their home. Health department staff will work with the patients to investigate and determine if additional individuals need to be notified or require 14-day self-monitoring periods at home. If an individual is inpatient or in a healthcare facility, that facility will lead the investigation.

brian.gioiele@hearstmediact.com
Sanaa, March 30 (IANS) Yemen's Houthi militias have claimed responsibility for the cross-border botched attacks on Saudi Arabia.

On Sunday, a spokesman for the militias said othat missile and drone attacks hit "sensitive targets" in Riyadh, Jizan and Najran, without giving further details, reports Xinhua news agency reported.

Earlier in the day, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said the the country's air defences intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched by the Houthi militias towards "civilian targets" in Riyadh and Jizan on Saturday night.

The escalation came days after the Houthis welcomed a call by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a ceasefire between the Yemeni rival parties.

Guterres called on the Yemeni warring parties to focus on reaching a negotiated political settlement and do everything possible to counter a potential outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi group seized control of much of the country's north and forced the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.

The Saudi-led military coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict on March 26, 2015 to support Hadi's internationally-recognized government.

--IANS

ksk/
In a spike, as many as 17 people tested positive for coronavirus, the highest so far in a single day in Tamil Nadu and there are totally 67 positive cases, Chief Minister K Palaniswami said here on Monday.

The tally, which stood at 50 on Sunday saw fresh cases from a couple of regions in Tamil Nadu.

The new cases include 10 from Erode, Palaniswami told reporters at the Secretariat here adding additional personal protective equipment like N-95 masks for the health personnel have been ordered.

The 10 men from Erode have a travel history to Delhi, he said.

A government release said they had contact with two Thailand nationals who are being treated at Perundurai Medical College Hospital in Erode District.

Further, the release said, of the remaining seven new cases, four were Chennai-based 'family contacts' of a US returnee who had tested positive.

Being treated at a private hospital here, the four persons include two women, a 15-year old girl and 20-year old man.

A 25-year old man is a family contact of a positive patient he has been admitted at the Government Rajaji Medical College Hospital in Madurai.

The other two new positive people are a 50-year old woman from downtown Broadway here and a 42-year old man of Karur district with a travel history to Delhi.

They are being treated at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital here and at the Karur Government Medical College Hospital respectively.

The Chief Minister said migrant workers stranded in Tamil Nadu have already been provided food and shelter apart from medical help, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
DAKAR (Reuters) - The mural stretched over 10 metres of wall in Senegal's seaside capital Dakar shows a giant pair of hands reaching out for sanitiser, and a woman in hoop earrings and a facemask coloured blue, red, gold and green. It is the work of RBS CREW, a collective of graffiti artists who have offered up their spray cans in the cause of public health. Black and yellow block letters spell out the message 'Together against COVID-19,' referring to the disease caused by the coronavirus.

DAKAR (Reuters) - The mural stretched over 10 metres of wall in Senegal's seaside capital Dakar shows a giant pair of hands reaching out for sanitiser, and a woman in hoop earrings and a facemask coloured blue, red, gold and green.

It is the work of RBS CREW, a collective of graffiti artists who have offered up their spray cans in the cause of public health.

Black and yellow block letters spell out the message "Together against COVID-19," referring to the disease caused by the coronavirus.

"A big thank you to the caregivers," reads another message scrawled out like a graffiti tag, next to the government's health hotline on the high school wall.

"As Senegalese we have a duty, a responsibility to raise awareness," said Serigne Mansour Fall, the 33-year-old head of the collective who goes by the name "Mad Zoo".

"Especially as the majority of the population is illiterate, as artists, we can communicate through visuals," said Fall, whose past work has focused more on Dakar street life and Malcolm X.

Senegal had reported 119 cases and no deaths as of Friday. Figures reported across Africa are still relatively small compared with parts of Asia and Europe, but the World Health Organization has warned the continent's window to act is narrowing.

That, said Fall, makes it even more important to encourage prevention measures and head off false information, including one online rumour that only white people can catch the disease.

Other murals painted around Dakar by the collective show people washing their hands with soap and water and sneezing into their elbows.

Each year for the past decade, Dakar has also hosted the Festigraff festival, which bills itself as the leading graffiti festival in Africa and attracts artists from around the world.

RBS CREW was set up in 2012 with the goal, according to its website, of making messages ring out "like blasts of gunfire".

(Reporting by Estelle Ndjandjo and Christophe Van Der Perre; Writing by Juliette Jabkhiro; Editing by Aaron Ross and Andrew Heavens)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Carer advocates and unions are demanding the disability sector be given access to aged care-style retention bonuses and basic personal protective equipment amid warnings some workers would be no worse off if they were receiving the boosted dole payment.

The federal government's response to the COVID-19 outbreak included a $234.9 million retention bonus to shore up numbers of critical aged care workers in residential and home care, with payments of up to $800 after tax per quarter.

Opposition NDIS spokesman Bill Shorten said the Morrison government needed to immediately extend an aged care-style retention bonus to disability workers. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

However, disability carers, many of whom are low paid, have not received a similar payment, despite their frontline work with vulnerable people who may have health issues affecting their immune system or respiratory capacity or lack the cognitive ability to follow social distancing rules.

Heath Services Union national secretary Lloyd Williams said incentives to do paid care work were at their lowest point in decades.
The coronavirus pandemic is making people do things they would have never contemplated. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday evening refuted one of the most famous contentions of Margaret Thatcher, one of his partys former prime ministers.

There is no such thing as society, Thatcher said in 1987 as part of her set of beliefs that aimed for free markets and a small state. Instead of planning and regulating business and peoples lives, she believed the governments job is to get out of the way.

In isolation after testing positive for coronavirus, a slightly hoarse Johnson appeared in a video clip, hailing thousands of retired doctors and health professionals returning to the front-line of the National Health Service, besides lakhs of volunteers registering to help.

Contradicting Thatchers endorsement of pure individualism, Johnson said: We are going to do it, we are going to do it together. One thing I think the coronavirus crisis has already proved is that there really is such a thing as society.

Some commentators believe the pandemic is Johnsons Churchill moment: he in charge at a time when the United Kingdom is facing a major national crisis, just as Winston Churchill famously led the country during World War II.

Johnsons aides insist he continues to lead the governments response to the pandemic, chairing meetings through video-conferencing from inside the prime ministers residence in Downing Street.

He said: Thank you to everybody whos now coming back into the NHS in such huge numbers. Just this evening I can tell you we have 20,000 NHS staff coming back to the colours.

Its a most amazing thing. And thats in addition to the 750,000 members of the public who have volunteered to help us get through this crisis.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 30

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

As part of the global response to the coronavirus outbreak, the European Commission stands by Eastern partner countries and has reallocated 140 million for the most immediate needs in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Armenia, Trend reports citing the European Commission.

In addition, the Commission will also redirect the use of existing instruments worth up to 700 million euros to help mitigate the socio-economic impact of the coronavirus crisis.

Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi said: These are very difficult times not only for the EU, but for our partner countries as well. We are doing all we can to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on human lives and livelihoods. We are responding both to the immediate needs of the health systems, as well as longer term needs to the most vulnerable groups in society and small and medium-sized enterprises, which are the backbone of the economies in the six countries.

At the request of the partner countries, the Commission will respond to immediate needs by supporting the supply of medical devices and personal equipment, such as ventilators, laboratory kits, masks, goggles, gowns, and safety suits. The European Commission is working with the World Health Organisation (WHO), and is deploying 30 million to ensure these necessary supplies are jointly purchased and effectively distributed to the health systems of the six countries in the coming weeks. In addition, the funds will support national health administrations to train medical and laboratory staff and carry out awareness raising measures to the wider population.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 12:24:33|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States has topped 140,000, according to the latest tally from Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE).

As of Sunday night, the country has registered more than 142,000 confirmed cases, with 2,489 deaths, an interactive map from the CSSE showed.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday at a press briefing at the White House that the national social distancing guidelines aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus will be extended to April 30.

"On Tuesday, we will be finalizing these plans and providing a summary of our findings, supporting data and strategy to the American people," Trump said.

The president also said "modeling suggests" that the peak of the COVID-19 mortality rate in the United States "is likely to hit in two weeks," adding that he hopes the nation will be on its way to recovery by June 1.

Speaking at the White House briefing, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned that it's "entirely conceivable" that more than 1 million people in the nation could be infected with the coronavirus, and 100,000 deaths are possible.

"The number I gave out is, you know, based on modeling," he told reporters. "What we're trying to do is not to let that happen."

The social distancing guidelines -- originally designed to last 15 days and due to expire Tuesday if not extended -- advises Americans to avoid nonessential travel, prevent gatherings of 10 people or more, and the elderly to stay at home, among other steps.

Scott Gottlieb, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, called the extension a "prudent, public health minded, courageous decision."

"April will be a hard month," Gottlieb said in a series of tweets on Sunday. "We need to stick with measures until we see sustained decline in cases."

New York State has had both the most cases and the most deaths in the country, which have exceeded 59,000 and 960, respectively, according to the CSSE update.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo tweeted on Sunday that the state is directing its non-essential workforce to continue to work from home until at least April 15.

Globally, the number of COVID-19 cases has surpassed 721,000, with more than 33,000 deaths. Italy is the only nation that has reported over 10,000 deaths.
CHICAGO  As the state continues to build on its robust response to the coronavirus pandemic and prepare for increased demand across the states health care system, Gov. J.B. Pritzker revealed the Care Comes First action plan.

The plan is a series of efforts led by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services to expand medical coverage for residents across the state.

My team is doing everything in our power to make sure all of our residents can access the health care they need in these trying times, Pritzker said. That is why weve applied for waivers with the federal government to expand Medicaid availability during this period.

The state has submitted two federal waivers requesting increased flexibilities around Medicaid coverage. If approved, the flexibilities will ensure that individuals, whether uninsured or insured, can receive Medicaid coverage for treatment if they have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

Illinois has also taken steps to request from the federal government the authority to make Medicaid available to cover the costs to treat COVID-19 for every uninsured resident, regardless of income. An additional request seeks authority for Medicaid to help cover out-of-pocket expenses for insured residents, as a secondary payer for COVID-19 treatment costs.

In an effort to fast track Medicaid enrollment, the state also has requested approval from the federal government to remove time-consuming verification processes, such as numerous co-payments, spend-downs and asset verifications. The state also is streamlining processes, such as more telephone assistance to help residents obtain information and complete applications as quickly as possible.

Additionally, the state is working to simplify Medicaid enrollment for providers to expand access, including a request to allow any medical provider licensed in Illinois to bill Medicaid. Site visits to join and revalidation to remain in the program are suspended by the state, as well as minimum staffing levels for most facilities.

Quicker and expanded access to treatment and medications has remained a priority for Illinois. As a result prior authorization rules are suspended, and existing authorizations remain for most services. The state is seeking authority from the federal government to allow Illinois to expand telehealth and alternate settings for a range of services, including allowing prescribers not enrolled in Medicaid to write prescriptions.

Lastly, to promote social distancing and observance of stay-at-home orders, the state is seeking authority to provide home-delivered meals and temporary housing for those experiencing homelessness through Medicaid coverage.

For more information for clients, provider notices, waiver or state plan submissions, and corresponding fact sheets visit https://www.illinois.gov/hfs/pages/coronavirus.aspx .
Instead of finding the next Tamiflu, the team started testing whether stem cells can be used to boost a person's immune system to ward off COVID-19 pneumonia.

When news of the coronavirus emerged from Wuhan, China, Kunlin Jin, PhD, and a team of international researchers quickly joined forces to fight the mysterious disease.

Dr. Jin relied on his more than 20 years of knowledge about stem cells to work with an international team driven to save lives. He used the messaging app WeChat to bridge the distance between his laboratory at The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, and experts in China.

"A lot of people are trying find the answers," said Dr. Jin, who spends most of his time working alongside graduate students on stem cell therapies to fight strokes at the HSC Institute for Healthy Aging.

Dr. Jin and his colleagues used a 21st century solution to address an unfolding pandemic. Instead of finding the next Tamiflu, they started testing whether stem cells can be used to boost a person's immune system to ward off COVID-19 pneumonia.

Dr. Jin said early findings are promising, and their international effort to test this treatment continues as a long-term study with more patients in China.

"I am proud to be part of the team I work with to fight COVID-19," Dr. Jin said. "Our study showed that intravenous infusion of clinical-grade human mesenchymal stem cells is a safe and efficient approach for treating patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, including in elderly patients displaying severe pneumonia."

Dr. Jin and his colleagues worked in real time. He said they had a sense of urgency because the outbreak "posed great threats to global public health."

As part of the experimental treatment, stem cells were injected intravenously into the bloodstream of seven patients in Beijing who were severely sick. Three patients were injected with a placebo, the study states.

The people tested were patients at YouAn Hospital in Beijing, Dr. Jin said. Testing began on Jan. 30, according to the study.

The seven patients who received stem cells were successfully treated and were discharged from the hospital within 14 days, Dr. Jin said. Of the patients who received the placebo, one died, one became severe and the third had Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS).

Before stem cells can be used in the United States to fight the virus, there would have to be clinical trials in this country and approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The team's findings will be included in the upcoming April 2020 issue of Aging and Disease." The article is titled: "Transplantation of ACE2-Mesenchymal Stem Cells Improves the Outcome of Patients with COVID-19 Pneumonia."

As international headlines about the virus evolved, research and clinical colleagues from several countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, South Korea, China and Russia pooled their expertise.

The team is made up of medical researchers who meet at conferences and often discuss science, aging and health-related issues. They work together as part of the International Society on Aging and Disease, which was founded by Dr. Jin.

When coronavirus strikes, it can result in a virus-induced cytokine storm - the term used when the immune system is so triggered that fluids fill the lungs and tissues are damaged.

"This is thought to be one of the main reasons why the COVID-19 pneumonia actually kills an individual - this storm of activity trying to fight the virus," said David P. Siderovski, PhD, Professor and Chair Pharmacology & Neuroscience in HSC's Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

"No specific drugs or vaccines are available to cure the patients with COVID-19 infection," according to the journal article. "Hence, there is a large unmet need for a safe and effective treatment for COVID-19 infected patients, especially the severe cases."

Additionally, finding antivirals for patients with COVID-19 is a difficult task, Dr. Siderovski said.

"When HIV broke in the 1980s, we scrambled to make AZT (azidothymidine)," he said, adding that researchers are trying different ideas to combat the virus. "There is a desperate need for anything - anything experimental, anything that could be tried off the shelf to address COVID-19 pneumonia."

###
A kind-hearted Instagram influencer is paying the rent of two followers whose incomes have been disrupted by the Coronavirus crisis.

Jenna Lee, 27, from Dallas, Texas, usually posts sizzling photos of her curvy figure to over 835,000 Instagram followers.

Not content with being a successful model and Instagram influencer, Jenna is also an outspoken advocate for mental health awareness - however in light of the worsening coronavirus pandemic, the star wanted to offer more than emotional support and advice to her followers.

Helping hand: Instagram influencer Jenna Lee is being praised online after she offered to pay rent for two of her followers who are financially struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic

Kindness: The 27-year-old is best known for posting sizzling photos on her Instagram, however she put her influence to good use last week when she made the offer

Speaking out: Jenna posted a video on her Instagram in which she asked for followers to nominate themselves or anyone they know who is struggling during these hard times

Jenna branched out into philanthropy last week by extending a helping hand to two lucky people, offer them one months rent paid for by her.

One of the lucky recipients of Jenna's generosity is Tess, a mother of two who works in the service industry.

She was so excited, it made me so happy, said Jenna of the moment she told Tess the good news.

The second winner, a furloughed automotive engineer named Matt, is a single father of four children  a 10-year old boy, a pair of eight-year-old twins and a six-year-old boy.

Jenna has posted videos of herself speaking with the grateful recipients to her Instagram page.

The offer began with an Instagram video in which Jenna announced how the relief effort would work.

'Im looking to pay your rent this month,' she began the clip. 'Yes, you guys have always supported me, so my way of giving back is to support you.

Spreading a message: ''Im looking to pay your rent this month,' she said in a video post. 'Yes, you guys have always supported me, so my way of giving back is to support you'

Inspiration: Jenna urged her followers not to be embarrassed about nominating themselves

Awareness: The Dallas-based online star also called for other people who are not experiencing financial hardship to help others where they can

A message of hope: Jenna explained that she wanted to help someone who was in need of a 'miracle' during these tough times

'The people Im looking to help are: if you have completely lost your job due to the coronavirus, or if you are still having to go into work and are unable to quarantine because you feel if you stop going to work you cant pay your bills.'

She added: 'I want to pick someone who is truly just looking for a miracle. This is my way of giving back. Lets all help and support each other when we can.'

In the caption she gave further information about the offer, while urging her followers not to be 'embarrassed' about coming forward if they are in need of help.

PLEASE SHARE!! I will be paying 1 persons rent this month!' she wrote.

If the #coronavirus has caused you to lose your job OR youre unable to quarantine because you dont have the option to stop working (and you wish to quarantine) then please nominate yourself or someone you know in my comments with your story and specifically how youve been struggling.

The more details the better. Im looking to help someone thats in desperate need of help. I will DM you for further information to make sure that your situation is legit and will ask for proof of how much your rent is.

Done! The two people chosen by Jenna are both single parents, whose rent she paid for a month via Venmo, the online payment app

Chosen: Mother-of-two Tess is one of the people who Jenna picked. The hardworking parent has a service industry job and has been left struggling because of the pandemic

Communication: Jenna shared grabs from her conversation with Tess, whose monthly rent is $1,066 - which the influencer paid

Heartwarming: During a video chat with Jenna, Tess was left in tears by the online star's kindness and generosity

Please do not be embarrassed to nominate yourself we are all struggling right now so youre not alone. Money will be sent via Venmo or PayPal before the 1st.

'Im not partnering with a company Im just doing this myself to give back.'

Jennas fans praised her for her act of kindness, with one writing: Omg youre amazing! A true hero!

Another added: So proud of you for doing this!

One commented: Wow its an amazing gesture Jenn. Youre so sweet. Hope someone gets your help. God bless you.

'This is incredible of you,' another follower chimed in. 'What a wonderful heart you have. Thank you for being one of the good people.'

Jenna's generous campaign was described by one follower as being 'the kindest act I ever witnessed'.

Family first: The other person selected is Matt, a father-of-four who lost his job as an automotive engineer

Giving thanks: 'Thank you again you're the best,' Matt wrote after receiving the payment from Jenna over Venmo

Telling his story: Jenna also spoke with Matt via video chat, and asked him questions about his experience, as well as his family

The influencer prides herself on being an advocate for kindness and positivity, and her Instagram bio describes her, fittingly enough, as a spreader of positive vibes.

She also describes herself as being a 'lover of comedy and random acts of kindness'.

And in another Instagram video posted last week, the influencer urged other online stars to get involved in the coronavirus relief effort, as well as those who are still in a position to offer aid to those who have been left unemployed as a result of the pandemic.

'If your business has not been affected, or youre in a position where you can help others I strongly urge you to start your own #covidrentrelief campaign as a tremendous amount of people are suffering right now,' she wrote alongside the video post.

'I will share any posts I see, or that you have tagged me in regarding starting your own campaign. Calling you out online models & influencers lets do this together!!'

The worldwide lockdown in response to the COVID-19 panic has already broken US records for unemployment claims.
 Close Governor blasts Trump for months of delay and withholding equipment: 'He does not understand the word federal'

Donald Trump has said he hopes the US is starting to see light at the end of the tunnel while New York, the epicentre of the countrys coronavirus outbreak, reported a potential "plateau" of cases, as a grim streak of hundreds of deaths appears to have levelled rather than continue to spike.

On Monday, the number of Covid-19-related deaths in the US eclipsed 10,500, including the nation's youngest victim, a one-day-old newborn in Louisiana.



The president optimistic comments came in stark contrast to those of US surgeon general Jerome Adams, who warned Americans to brace for levels of tragedy similar to the September 11 attacks and the bombing of Pearl Harbour in the week ahead, as states continue mitigation efforts and prepare for several more weeks of quarantine and stay-at-home measures.

In a press conference attacking his predecessor Barack Obama, Democrats, reporters and a US Navy captain who alerted officials to a potential coronavirus outbreak on his ship before he was fired for doing so, the president dismissed an inspector general report that outlined the shortages of critically needed medical supplies in US hospitals.

The president also said he has considered "getting involved" with Captain Brett Crozier's case, and said that the captain's emailed letter "shows weakness."

The president said: "We don't want to have letter-writing campaigns where the fake news finds a letter [and] gets a leak. We don't want that."

Mr Trump continued to push for a controversial malaria drug that officials in his own administration have warned is not clinically proven to safely combat the virus. Despite warnings from Dr Anthony Fauci and the federal Food and Drug Administration, the president and his chief trade adviser Peter Navarro have insisted on administering the drug.

Mr Navarro has reportedly clashed with Dr Fauci about the drug's efficacy, though he told CNN he's qualified to measure the drug's effectiveness, despite not having a medical background.

On Monday, Dr Fauci was hesitant to say that mitigation efforts are showing signs of working across the US, but early results in hard-hit areas like New York are starting to show decreasing numbers of hospitalisations requiring ventilator support. He said: "You never want to think about declaring victory prematurely."

He said that health officials may be "overshooting" the models using initial data that showed as many as 200,000 deaths.

Meanwhile, a Democratic primary election in Wisconsin scheduled for 7 April cannot be postponed despite pleas from lawmakers and a last-minute push from the state's governor, which was overruled by the state's Supreme Court. The decision sends the election into chaos, with a drastic shortage of poll workers and an electorate that has been ordered to stay home under threat of the virus.

Ballots include thousands of local races in addition to a crucial race between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders for the party's nomination to face the president in November.

Follow live updates
Photo credit: Gareth Cattermole - Getty Images

From Oprah Magazine

On Friday, photos were released showing Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson back in the United States, driving in Los Angeles in their SUV, following their quarantine in Australia.

The couple were the first celebrities to disclose that they had tested positive for the virus, which they contracted while they were in Australia, where Hanks was filming a movie.

On Saturday, Hanks took to Twitter to share an update about his and Wilson's return home and their ongoing plans to shelter in place and practice social distancing as the coronavirus continues to spread across the U.S.

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are out of quarantine for the coronavirusbut that doesn't mean they're out of isolation.

The couple returned to the United States this week and were photographed in their SUV in Los Angeles on Friday.

On Saturday, Hanks shared an update about his and Wilson's returnand their ongoing coronavirus protocolon Twitter.

"Hey, Folks...We're home now and, like the rest of America, we carry on with sheltering in place and social distancing," he wrote. "Many, many thanks to everyone in Australia who looked after us. Their care and guidance made possible our return to the USA. And many thanks to all of you who reached out with well wishes. Rita and I so appreciate it. Hanx."

Hanks and Wilson's message is an important one and a reminder that even people who may have had and recovered from the coronavirus still need to continue with social distancing and sheltering in place as we work to control the spread of the virus.

For more stories like this, including celebrity news, beauty and fashion advice, savvy political commentary, and fascinating features, sign up for the Marie Claire newsletter.



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Outlander The Ballad of Roger Mac Season 5 Episode 7 Editors Rating 5 stars * * * * *  Previous Next  Photo: Mark Mainz/Starz

By now all Outlander fans should know that when an episode starts off with gratuitous shots of shirtless Jamie, something awful is on its way. Those rockhard Colonial Abs are meant to soften the blow of impending tragedy. Unfortunately, all the Colonial Abs in the world could not distract us from the heartbreak that goes down in The Ballad of Roger Mac. In most episodes, just seeing Jamie have to grapple with wearing an actual red coat as he fights against his Scottish brothers would be brutal enough (it is unnatural), but here that is just an appetizer to the devastation. Guys, Murtagh is dead. Roger has been hanged. No one is okay. We havent had an installment of Outlander this tragic in quite some time. This ones going to leave a mark.

Weve known for a while that Murtagh probably wasnt going to make it out of this Regulator Rebellion business alive. And with last weeks gut-wrenching rejection from Jocasta (my wounds are still raw!), his death felt more imminent than ever  he had said his good-bye, for all intents and purposes. Still, the way that our beloved Silver Fox goes out is a shock to the system. Like Jamie, its easy to be in denial.

Its not like Jamie doesnt try his hardest for a different outcome. When Governor Tryon and the Kings Army roll up with a legit cannon and a boatload of artillery, Jamie tries to explain that the Regulators are mostly farmers with knives and pitchforks. Tryon couldnt care less. When the Regulators send over a petition of demands that could lead to a truce, Jamie tries to get Tryon to consider it, but Tryons just like, LOL thats so cute but no way in hell. Youd think people would at least humor Jamie on his goddamned 50th birthday, but no. He goes from satisfying birthday sex to being continually reminded that hes probably going to be responsible for his godfathers death. Theres not even cake, you guys. This is a terrible birthday!

Not only does Jamie have to deal with Tryons troops just aching to murder some Scots  Im sorry, put down a rebellion  but he also has to deal with some in-fighting amongst his own militia, because Jamie can never have enough problems to deal with at any given time. While hes handing out pins of fabric for the men to wear so they arent confused with Regulators out on the battlefield, and trying to teach the young Findlay boys that in war you can never waver, who should stroll on in but Isiah Morton. Wanting to stand and fight with your men is nice and all, but Jamie and Claire risked their lives to allow him to escape with the love of his life Alicia Brown during their stint in Brown Town, and now hes back. The Browns who joined the militia are not pleased. As if Jamie doesnt have enough on his plate!

Jamie deals with all of this stress by taking a quick bath in a river and then cutting open his hand and using the blood to call on the guidance of his uncle, his war chief, his murder victim, Dougal MacKenzie. Its called self-care, guys. Look it up. As Jamie is growing increasingly pained by the thought of fighting the Regulators, there is one last glimmer of hope to put a stop to this battle before it even begins, and it arrives on horseback: Bree.

Bree rides into the army camp with some interesting information. Once she heard where the battle was to take place  Alamance Creek  she couldnt shake the feeling that she had heard of it before. And then it hit her: She studied this battle in a history class: The militia handily wins and many believe it is the spark that leads to the American Revolution. Regardless of what changing the outcome of this battle could do to history, they need to warn Murtagh that if the Regulators go through with this battle, they will lose and it will be devastating.

Its Roger who volunteers to go. The warning has to come from someone who Murtagh not only knows, but knows is from the future. Regardless of if Roger keeps Jamies little white surrender handkerchief of truce thing with him in case things get dicey, theres just no way this excursion doesnt end badly. It is Roger MacKenzies way.

Roger finds Murtagh in the middle of delivering a fiery speech. Ive never had to talk someone out of going to battle before, but like, Im pretty sure nothing you say is going to deter the guy whos screaming his blood will soak this ground! with just hours to go. Roger tries his best, though, and it looks like Murtagh does in fact bring up retreat to his top guys, but this ball is already halfway down the hill, you know? No one is giving up and Murtagh wont abandon his men. So, Roger begins his sad trek back to the Kings Army camp, hoping to get there safely before the battle begins. On his way, he runs into Morag MacKenzie, his ancestor and the woman he helped survive Bonnets Boat Ride From Hell. Roger cant help himself, I guess, because he runs up to her as if they are best buds, so he can check on her and also warn her that her husband fighting with the Regulators isnt a good idea. Unfortunately, when he goes to hug her good-bye, her husband walks up, gets the wrong idea, realizes Roger is with the Kings Army, and Roger ends up with the butt of a rifle to his face. I dont know guys, does Roger just love getting captured by hostile groups? Could the man find a new hobby?

Meanwhile, Jamies back at camp trying not to barf while Tryon forces him to wear a red coat. This is truly the most offensive thing Jamies ever had to do  a man who has murdered, BTW  and you can see on his face that a little piece of his soul has died. Dang, even when Claire spots him standing there in his red coat she knows immediately how cruel this is to do to him. And then, with one swoony sentiment about how there may come a day when [he and Claire] shall part again, but it will not be today, Jamie is gone. They march into battle. THIS IS HAPPENING.

Honestly, I wish the Brown Town Clowns knew we had much more pressing matters to attend to in this episode instead of their little misogynistic family drama. Alas, I should mention that during the battle Isiah Morton gets shot in the back and it was clearly by a Brown Towner and not an enemy Regulator. When Claire calls the Head Mr. Brown out on that while shes fixing up both Morton and Brown in the medic tent, he gets offended that a woman would talk to him like that and so crushes up her one vial of penicillin. Ugh, that was supposed to help EVERYONE. He is the truest of dicks.

The battle at Alamance proceeds as both predicted and foretold by history. The Kings Army dominates the Regulators and it ends pretty quickly. As things draw to a close, Jamie is still out in the woods in battle mode. Eventually, he comes upon a Regulator he knows, but the guy isnt having Jamies talks of peace. He goes to shoot Jamie  but is stopped! He is knocked unconscious by Murtagh! Murtagh saves Jamie! But before Jamie can walk over to his godfather to thank him, one of the Findlay boys follows Jamies orders and does not waver  he immediately shoots Murtagh in the chest. It happens so fast, it is almost unbelievable.

A distraught Jamie lays his godfather against a tree, but its apparent the guy is too far gone to help him. He tells Jamie that he saved him because he would never betray the oath he made to Jamies mother, even when Jamie asked. He tells Jamie not to be afraid, it doesnt hurt a bit to die. And then he touches his godsons face and he dies. Jamie refuses to give up on him. He gets help to drag Murtagh to Claires tent and screams at her: Do something! Save him! Claire has the awful job to look at her husband and tell him she cant. Ugh, friends. Friends. Gather around for a virtual hug because this scene  Sam Heughan, my lord!  is GUTTING. You cannae leave me, Jamie cries out at Murtaghs body. But the man is gone. Like, I know Im in a vulnerable state right now because of [motions all around], but full disclosure: Im tearing up as I write this. Yes, our TV Murtagh lasted much longer than Book Murtagh, but it is still far too soon. (Emotionally speaking, that is; story-wise, TV Murtaghs arc in America has really worked.) Outlander wont be the same without him (or Duncan Lacroix!). Even though I was preparing myself, this really fucking sucks.

Jamie leaves the tent and rips into Tryon for massacring these men, tells him that his debt has been repaid and he no longer has duty to the King, and then he tosses that red coat on the ground, for good measure. Tryon is pissed but he cant do much about it at the moment.

Jamie is reeling from, you know, losing the greatest man hes even known, etcetera, etcetera, but he can barely wallow in his grief before he spots Bree bawling at some trees because Roger has still not returned. Jamie, Claire, Bree, and some of the Frasers Ridge men set out looking for him amongst the Regulator prisoners, but cant find him. Then, they happen upon some Redcoats following Tryons orders to execute any of the prisoners the Regulators were holding at that time. They see several men hanging from a tree with hoods over their heads  and then Jamie spots the white handkerchief of truce he handed Roger sticking out of one mans pocket. Roger has been hanged. They go to bring his body down as Bree watches in horror and it cuts to black. A tragedy for another day, perhaps?
Gee had found that ICE operations appeared deficient based on protocols reported March 15, and she ordered the administration to make every effort to promptly and safely release migrant children. Her order covered minors at ICEs family residential centers in Texas and Pennsylvania. Gee said the Office of Refugee Resettlement appeared compliant with CDC guidelines at shelters for about 3,600 unaccompanied minors who crossed the border alone and are housed until they can be placed with a parent or guardian. She ordered the ORR to report on the release of children only in states with 3,000 or more covid-19 cases.
A Chinese government-backed company drained the Australian supplies of Personal Protective Equipment including masks to China amid the coronavirus outbreak in January and February.

The Greenland Group, which manages high-end real estate projects in Sydney and Melbourne, facilitated the transport of masks, hand sanitizer, antibacterial wipes, and essential medical supplies to China, The Chronicle reported.

Though the bulk supplies to China were not illegal, the equipment which was delivered included the items that have been in short supply for Australian citizens as well as health professionals.

Three million surgical masks, 500,000 pairs of gloves and bulk supplies of sanitizer and wipes were bought up in Australia and other countries where Greenland operates.

According to The Chronicle, As coronavirus locked down Wuhan, the company put its normal work on hold and instructed staff in Australia, Canada, Turkey and elsewhere to source supplies.

They were accumulated at Greenland's Sydney headquarters and sent to China over weeks in January and February.

Greenland deployed its HR staff members, contract managers, and others away from their desks to go out and amass as many of the items as possible.

Coronavirus which emerged in China has so far claimed the lives of 30,000 lives. Before spreading to the world, the coronavirus became epidemic in China claimed over 3,500 lives in the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Communication Bureau of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has directed its communication officers and other party communicators in areas affected by the partial lockdown of Accra, Ashanti and parts of Central regions as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic to suspend in-studio discussions on radio and TV stations forthwith.



In a press statement issued by the communication officer Mr. Sammy Gyamfi, the National Communication Bureau of the NDC hereby directs all members of the Partys communication Team at the Branch, Constituency, Regional and National Level in the Ashanti Region, Greater Accra Region and the Awutu/Senya East Municipality of the Central Region to strictly adhere to this directive.



It advised regional communication officers in the affected areas to engage the media via phone interviews, Skype calls and other new media platforms for communication purposes.



As directed by the flag-bearer and Leader of the NDC, H.E. John Dramani Mahama, Regional Communication Officers in the other Regions not affected by the lockdown, are to ensure that communicators who are deployed for in-studio media discussions, as a matter of compulsion, wear face masks, use hand sanitizers frequently, ensure social distancing and strictly observe all the WHO precautionary protocols during panel discussions on radio and TV stations.



Read full statement below;



ATTENTION: ALL COMMUNICATION OFFICERS AND COMMUNICATORS OF THE NDC



NDC SUSPENDS IN-STUDIO DISCUSSIONS IN LOCKDOWN REGIONS AND AREAS



In view of the announced partial lockdown of the Ashanti Region, Greater Accra Region and parts of the Central Region as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Communication Bureau of the the NDC hereby directs all Communication Officers and Communicators of the party in the affected areas to suspend in-studio discussions on radio and TV stations forthwith.



All members of the Partys communication Team at the Branch, Constituency, Regional and National Level in the Ashanti Region, Greater Accra Region and the Awutu/Senya East Municipality of the Central Region are to strictly adhere to this directive.



Regional Communication Officers in the affected areas are advised to engage the media for the adoption of Phone Call interviews, Skype Calls and other new media platforms for communication purposes.



As directed by the flag-bearer and Leader of the NDC, H.E. John Dramani Mahama, Regional Communication Officers in the other Regions not affected by the lockdown, are to ensure that communicators who are deployed for in-studio media discussions, as a matter of compulsion, wear face masks, use hand sanitizers frequently, ensure social distancing and strictly observe all the WHO precautionary protocols during panel discussions on radio and TV stations.



The National Communication Bureau is keenly monitoring the COVID-19 situation in the country and will review this directive as and when necessary.



Meanwhile, Officials and Executives of the National Secretariat of the party, shall be operating from their homes during the pendency of the lockdown and will be available for engagements with party officers and members through phone calls, SMS and whatsapp messages.



Lets all stay safe at this critical time. The party needs all of us alive.



SIGNED,

COMRADE SAMMY GYAMFI

(National Communication Officer)







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Most doctors and paramedics leading the fight against COVID-19 in Kashmir on Monday voiced concern over inadequate medical infrastructure, and said there is a lack of manpower to deal with the pandemic if it intensifies in the valley.

Doctors treating COVID-19 patients claimed they are stretched and unable to get proper rest. Some medical workers also complained of shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Dr Suhail Nayak, president of Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK), said there is an urgent need for staff that can run ICUs and high-dependency units.

"I believe that even after these restrictions and lockdown, the COVID-19 cases will rise. I have no doubt that the government is focused on the COVID-19 battle, but the doctors are facing certain problems. For example, we lack manpower the real manpower, which is trained to run the ICUs and high-dependency units," he said.

He said while it is the duty of doctors and health workers to fight this war, they need protection.

"The first and foremost being the PPE. I feel if the government does not arrange PPEs and cannot ensure continuous supply, we will lose this battle in the hospitals within ten days some doctors may die or resign from service as there is a psychological impact. The PPE is of utmost importance for the delivery of healthcare services in this crisis," he added.

On whether the locally-made PPE can work, Nayak said proper PPEs cannot be replaced with unscientific clothing and instead of helping, such things can boomerang.

"Raincoat, polythene or fabric is not PPE. PPE is scientifically designed and accredited. If the doctors and other staff are made to wear the local ones, then it will be the government's responsibility if someone gets infected or dies," he said.

Asked if hospitals in Kashmir have enough ventilators, the DAK president said there are only 97 ventilators in the valley.

"The government has to purchase (ventilators). But there is a limiting factor, which is that if you purchase one lakh ventilators, then you need to have two lakh doctors to utilise those ventilators. You cannot buy ten cars for one driver. You need drivers for the cars.

"Similarly, ventilators need doctors for them to be utilised round the clock. We should not purchase so many ventilators that they lie in stores unutilised. At this critical juncture, we have to utilise the limited resources in a proper way so that this battle is won," he said.

A senior nurse at a super specialty hospital here, who declined to be identified, stressed on the need for a proper defence mechanism for healthcare workers against the invisible threat of coronavirus.

"Our hospital is a referral clinic. We get patients from across the valley, including those who have a travel history. We cannot refuse treatment to anyone, but there should be a proper defence mechanism.

"We are given a tissue-gown, a simple mask and not N95 or triple-layer mask. We share one sanitiser among 14 persons and it has to be used for a week before we get a refill on returning the empty bottle. In the given circumstances, we do not know what we are dealing with, we are exposed," she said.

A senior doctor at one of the designated coronavirus hospitals, who did not wish to be named, said lack of manpower poses the biggest challenge in the fight against coronavirus.

"We are facing a severe scarcity of staff because we are only a few doctors who are at the forefront. If you see the other departments, for example we have anesthetics or even in the department of medicine, resident doctors and others are working. They work for a day and get six days off, for anesthetics it can stretch up to 14 days," he said.

"But those resident doctors or others who are working at the forefront and come in contact with COVID-19 patients have to work daily. It is a health hazard. If, God forbid, something happens to one of us, then the whole lot will be off for two-three weeks. Then who will look after the patients?" he asked.

The doctor said security in hospitals was another issue.

"See, some people run away from hospitals. Some may have genuine issues and some may not, but they are running away. Some are roaming around in hospitals. If any of them tests positive (for coronavirus), then you can imagine how many could be infected," he said, demanding proper security in hospitals.

Asked whether the doctors at the hospital have proper PPE and there is adequate supply, the doctor said, "As of now, we have adequate PPE."



"I do not know what the position will be after 15 days, but right now we have adequate protection kits," he said, adding that the available resources should be used judiciously.

Principal of Government Medical College, Srinagar, Dr Samia Rashid also said adequate PPEs are available.

"As of now, we have an adequate supply. The government is providing supplies," she said.

However, Rashid also rued the lack of manpower.

"We have to manage with whatever manpower we have. We are short of people. The government has asked us to recruit people, but nobody is coming forward," she said.

The number of coronavirus cases in India rose to 1,071 and the death toll climbed to 29 in India on Monday. Jammu and Kashmir has reported 31 coronavirus cases so far, including two deaths, according to the Union Health Ministry.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Perhaps youre disappointed because you cant celebrate the way were used to. But do you also remember matzo, the unleavened cracker we eat because Jews rushed out of their homes before their bread could rise? The entire holiday is rooted in glorifying a moment when life unfolded in very unexpected ways  and human beings found meaning, even liberation, in it.

The Bible includes various relevant mentions of Passover: One, in Exodus, of the Feast of the Passover, and several others (in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy) of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. Historians believe these were originally maintained by two distinct segments of Israelite society, for whom spring meant slightly different things. For the seminomadic part of the community, it was a signal that it was time to start moving again; but before doing so they would sacrifice a lamb to ward off evil spirits that might block their path. For the settled folks, it was an agricultural holiday, a joyful welcoming of the incoming spring harvest.

Most scholars believe the two holidays were eventually combined in 622 B.C.E.  when, on the orders of Josiah, the king of Judah, a national celebration emerged, which had at its heart a pilgrimage to the Temple and the killing of a Paschal lamb. Intended or not, the process looks poetic in hindsight: Elements were taken from each of the previous commemorations  the sacrifice from the former, the joy from the latter  and a Jewish future was made.

It didnt last. Or rather, the Temple didnt, but Passover certainly did. After Jerusalem was sacked in 586 B.C.E., the Jews were forced out of Judea into what became known as the Babylonian Exile, taking with them this powerful reminder that a people who had been brought out of exile to freedom might once again retrace that journey.

More than 2,500 years later, the Passover Seder has not simply survived. It is now, by a long shot, the most popular Jewish religious observance. And what it is, essentially, is an agglomeration of a long and global inheritance. The basic order of the evening stretches back to the third or fourth century; we end the night with a set of group songs from the 15th century; some of us whip one another with scallions during the song Dayenu, a tradition designed by Persian Jews; and we all make different kinds of charoset, the sweet paste meant to signify the mortar used by the Jewish slaves. Italian Jews use eggs. Gibraltan Jews make theirs with the dust of ground bricks. And African-American Jews incorporate sugar cane, and cocoa powder, the crops of American slavery.
Guwahati/Agartala, March 30 : The governments in the northeastern states, while to contain the coronavirus pandemic, on Monday urged states where students, workers and others from the region are stranded in view of the nation-wide lockdown to accord them all assistance, officials said.

Meanwhile, Union Development of Northeastern Region (DoNER) Minister Jitendra Singh said that cargo flights are being used exclusively for transporting medical equipment and emergency goods, besides other essential items to northeastern states, in the wake of lockdown situation.

According to an official release, the Minister said that the Civil Aviation Ministry has approved the initiative taken by the airports of the northeastern region.

"This would go a long way in reassuring the people of the northeastern region that even at this hour of trial, they are receiving as much attention as any other part of the country," the release said as saying by the minister.

In another significant step, in pursuance to Supreme Court's order, different state governments of the northeastern region have taken several steps to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Jails.

Also, the five-day long Durga Puja (Basanti puja) is being observed in an extremely low-key manner to maintain social distancing norms.

The Assam government has requested various state governments in the country to take care the students, stranded people and workers of the northeastern region.

"The Assam government wants that the students, stranded people and workers of the northeastern region should not return to the region to avoid the spread of the novel coronavirus," an Assam Health and Family Welfare Department official, who did not want to be identified, said.

A large number of people including students from the northeastern states had to go to other states for education, jobs and medical treatments.

Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonowal on Monday visited Bongaigaon and Barpeta districts to assess the ground situation.

Guwahati Police Commissioner Munna Prasad Gupta said that the city residents are following the lockdown norms well.

Assam's Principal Secretary, Education, B. Kalyan Chakravarthy said that mid-day meal has been served to over 40 lakh school students by the department maintaining the social distancing and proper hygiene.

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb also wrote to his counterparts in many states for providing food, accommodation, security and health services to the people of Tripura stranded in their states.

Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma said that the Tata Trusts headed by Ratan Tata had constituted a fund of Rs 1,500 crore and the state government had sought help from this fund.

"We have sought 100 ventilators, 50,000 personal protective equipments, one lakh N95 masks, 50,000 sanitisers and other materials. We were assured by the Tata Trusts officials that they would consider our requests," Dev Varma told the media.

Meanwhile, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Sadar, Ashim Saha decided to shift the seven major markets, mostly vegetable sellers, to the nearby play grounds and big fields to maintain the social distancing.

In Aizawl, Mizoram Chief Secretary Lalnunmawia Chuaungo said that instructions have been given to take care the Mizos stranded in different parts of the country by the Mizoram Bhavan authorities in Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati and other places.

A Mizoram Home Department official said that at the instance of Chief Minister Zoramthanga and Home Minister Lalchamliana, 28 Mizos, including 11 children, who had gone to Myanmar to visit their relatives and were then stranded between India and Myanmar borders for two nights, were brought back to the state.

"The returnees have been quarantined at the Champhai Deputy Commissioner's office," the official said.

In Meghalaya, Lok Sabha members -- Vincent H. Pala and Agatha K. Sangma on Monday allotted Rs one crore each from their MPLADS fund to meet the expenses to deal with the Covid-19.

A health official in Shillong said that over 7,700 people, who recently returned to the state, have been under quarantine and over 40 samples examined so far, all of which tested negative for the nCoV.

The official said that work is also in progress to create a 500 isolation beds (200 in Shillong and 300 in Tura) for suspected and possible confirmed Covid-19 patients in the state.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
The extraordinary scale of this new wage subsidy will be a relief to many but a warning to all about the damage to come from the coronavirus crisis.

Only the most extreme threat warrants an expense so large to pay a basic wage  yes, too basic for some  to millions of workers who would otherwise lose their jobs.

The astonishing question is whether it will be enough. The truth is nobody can know whether this mammoth spending can end after six months or will have to continue.

Scott Morrison warns that some economies could collapse and some nations could "fall into chaos" from the impact of COVID-19, a dire outlook no doubt informed by the horror show in some of the projections for the spread of the virus.
Bay Area political events that are happening online during the coronavirus pandemic:

TUESDAY

Heather Knight: Chronicle columnist talks about covering San Francisco politics during a pandemic. Hosted by Mannys. 1 p.m. Register here for a Zoom link.

WEDNESDAY

Armed forces role? Is there a role for the U.S. military to play in the pandemic response? A conversation with Seth Moulton, who served in the Marines and is now a Democratic congressman from Massachusetts. Hosted by Mannys. 3 p.m. Join here.

Rep. Jackie Speier: Peninsula Democrat holds a telephone town-hall meeting. 4 p.m. Information is here.

THURSDAY

Rep. Eric Swalwell: East Bay Democrat holds Facebook Live Q&A with Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at Stanford University School of Medicine. 1:30 p.m. Join here.

APRIL 9

Shahid Buttar: House Speaker Nancy Pelosis challenger in the November election in conversation with Michelle Meow in a Commonwealth Club online event. Noon. Join here.

Tom Steyer: Former Democratic presidential candidate on what he learned from his campaign. Hosted by Mannys. 5 p.m. Join here.

To list an event, please email Chronicle politics editor Trapper Byrne at tbyrne@sfchronicle.com
Tribal officials opened a series of checkpoints Sunday to limit travel on the Crow Reservation and the spread of COVID-19 in tribal communities.

One checkpoint was to stop out-of-state residents from entering tribal lands, and another checkpoint was to determine the nature of business someone might have coming onto Crow Tribe land, Tribal Chairman Alvin "A.J." Not Afraid said Sunday afternoon.

"If the business isn't recreational, we are kindly asking them to either carry on or turn around," Not Afraid said.

For now, the plan is to maintain the checkpoints until April 10.

Big Horn County announced on Monday that they are discouraging non-residents from traveling to Big Horn County for recreational purposes. The announcement was made out of concern for spread of COVID-19 in Big Horn County. The announcement was included in a press release from public information officer Rhonda Johnson. The county is "asking for the cooperation and goodwill of non-residents whoa re considering traveling to Big Horn County for recreational purposes."

"Big Horn County is extremely limited in medical resources," Johnson said. "Many of our residents live below the poverty line and face barriers to accessing medical care. Our two hospitals struggle to keep adequate staff in normal times and we have no intensive care units in our county."

Not Afraid said he wasn't aware of any major issues relating to the checkpoints, which were being operated by the tribe.

"One of the officers at the checkpoint told me they would ask the vehicle operators or the drivers, are they aware of the governor's order? And are they aware of Bighorn County's order? And are they aware of the tribe's order? And then they just educate them about it," Not Afraid said. "A good majority of them would say 'Oh, we didn't know that,' and then they would turn around, according to one of the officers I talked to this morning."

In a Facebook Live video Sunday afternoon Not Afraid discussed COVID-19 as it relates to the Crow Tribe. During the 26-minute video, Not Afraid said at one point that the tribe was seeing people coming from out of state to the reservation, not necessarily because of recreation, but because of its lack of COVID-19 cases.

"We do have people who are coming with campers, just staging up with campers, and we professionally and kindly ask them to keep moving on down the road," Not Afraid said.

Speaking later, Not Afraid said that he was aware of three such recent incidents as of Saturday.

A prohibition on "non-local recreation" due to COVID-19 concerns was included in an executive order issued Friday by Not Afraid that said it was "essential, to the maximum extent possible, that individuals stay at home or at their place of residence." The order includes travel exemptions for providing essential services, care of family members and meeting essential needs, like grocery shopping. The executive order from Not Afraid also said the Bighorn and Pryor Mountains would be closed for the duration of the order.

Not Afraid said the tribe asked Friday for the closure of the visitor centers at the Little Bighorn Battlefield and the Bighorn Canyon Recreational Area.

Gov. Steve Bullock's stay-at-home order did not forbid outdoor recreation, but his office was encouraging limitations to recreation.

Montanans should avoid unnecessary travel per the governor's directive and do any outdoor recreating close to home, Bullock's communications director Marissa Perry told Lee Montana newspapers.

Sunday morning the state of Montana was reporting no confirmed COVID-19 cases in Big Horn County, which overlaps with much of the Crow Reservation. In neighboring Yellowstone County, the state was reporting 26 confirmed COVID-19 cases Sunday morning, the second highest total in the state.

"We don't have any cases on the reservation, and we hope to keep it that way," Chief Operating Officer Karl Lee Little Owl told The Billings Gazette Sunday morning at a checkpoint near the Two Leggins Bridge.

The Crow Reservation is not the only jurisdiction in Montana trying to reduce the risk of visitors contributing to the spread of COVID-19 within its borders.

On Saturday, the Park County Health Department asked people to abide by travel restrictions to Cooke City-Silver Gate. A letter outlining the request and signed by Park County Health Officer Dr. Laurel Desnick has been posted to the county's website.

"The Park County Health Department is requesting that anyone who is not a permanent resident or a provider of essential services avoid all travel to the Cooke City/Silvergate area at this time. This includes both single-day and overnight visitors," Desnick wrote.

"We recognize the hardship and disappointment this may cause," his note continued. "However, at this time, increased tourism and travel, even day trips outside of your home area where others may congregate, puts our citizens and resources at unnecessary risk."

The Park County Health Department announced Thursday night that the county had its first confirmed COVID-19 case. Sunday morning the county was listing two confirmed cases, a man and woman in their 50s. Neighboring Gallatin County had a state high 58 cases by Sunday morning.

In northeast Montana, the Glasgow Courier newspaper reported Friday that the Valley County Health Officer had issued an order requiring anyone arriving in the county to quarantine for 14 days.
A Nobel Prize-winning scientist from Stanford University has claimed the coronavirus epidemics devastating Italy and New York are finally slowing down.

Professor Michael Levitt, who accurately predicted how many cases and deaths would be predicted in China, said Italy and New York are now 'on the mend'.

They are two of the worst-hit places in the world, with a combined 157,000 cases out of the global total of 736,000.

Italy became the epicenter of the world's crisis after China got its situation under control but the US - with a population five times the size - has rapidly taken its place.

And New York is the most badly affected state there, with more confirmed cases (59,513) than any entire country outside of Italy (97,689), Germany (62,457), China (81,439) or Spain (85,195).

Professor Levitt said Italy had 'turned a corner' and its numbers of new daily cases seem to support his claim, having levelled off and hovered around 5,000-6,000 per day for the past 10 days.

New York's situation is less certain - its new daily case count has plateaued for the past three days at just above 7,000 per day but rose fast before that. This week will be pivotal in revealing how the outbreak there could continue.

An intensive care patient is pictured in a hospital in Cremona, Italy, where medical services are overwhelmed by the numbers of patients with coronavirus

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning, Professor Levitt said: 'New York City, which everyone is so sad about, is actually turning.

'New York City has passed its midpoint and this truck called COVID that was speeding towards the wall is no longer accelerating, it's put the brakes on and this means that... New York is on the mend.

'In the UK there aren't enough numbers and there are too many separate outbreaks.

'Italy, on the other hand, has turned the corner; Switzerland has turned the corner.

'You'll be reading soon enough [about] Italy being on the mend, Switzerland on the mend.

'We hope, but we're not sure yet, that Spain has also joined this select club of people who have passed the midpoint.'

Statistics appear to back up Professor Levitt's claim about Italy.

There were fewer new cases diagnosed yesterday, March 29 (5,974), than there were eight days ago on March 21 (5,986).

Italy was the first country outside of China to go into a national lockdown and has been devastated by the fast-spreading virus

WHO IS PROFESSOR MICHAEL LEVITT? Dr Michael Levitt, 72 Dr Michael Levitt, 72, is an American, British, South African and Israeli professor of structural biology at Stanford University in California. He runs a laboratory there and has been a biology professor since 1987. In 2013 Dr Levitt received the Nobel Prize for chemistry along with Martin Karplus and Arieh Warshel for their work into 'the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems'. Explaining their discovery Dr Warshel said: 'In short what we developed is a way which requires computers to look, to take the structure of the protein and then to eventually understand how exactly it does what it does.' The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, has spiked proteins on its surface which some scientists believe could be the reason it's so infectious. Advertisement

And between those two dates, the number of new cases each day has been between 4,789 and 6,557, showing a steady increase in positive tests.

In the same time in New York, meanwhile, the number of daily new cases more than doubled from 3,111 to 7,195.

And the number of new cases has been above 7,000 for three days in a row, suggesting it could increase again before it starts to level out.

Both Italy and New York have been crippled by the coronavirus outbreaks which have hit them.

Hospitals in the north of Italy, particularly the Lombardy region around Milan, have been overloaded with intensive care patients and lifesaving treatment has had to be rationed.

And in New York footage has emerged of dead bodies being loaded into the back of a lorry with a forklift, while a makeshift morgue is being set up in Central Park.

Professor Levitt hit headlines for saying that the predictions of virus experts appeared to be blowing the impact of the coronavirus out of proportion.

He said strict social distancing and lockdown measures, which have been put in place around the world, would effectively slow down the spread of the illness.

'What we need is to control the panic,' he said last week, 'we're going to be fine.'

Speaking to China Daily News in late February, Dr Levitt said he believed the rate of the growth had already reached its peak and made the prediction that China would see 3,250 deaths from coronavirus, with 80,000 set to be infected.

Now, more than a month on, his prediction is proving accurate.

China, with a population of 1.4 billion, had counted 81,439 cases as of March 30 and had 3,300 deaths.

More than 721,000 people have now tested positive for the coronavirus around the world, and at least 33,881 have died

A 38-year-old nurse at a Manhattan hospital shared this image yesterday of the inside of one of the refrigerated trucks lined on either side with the dead bodies of covid-19 victims

Professor Levitt said the numbers in the UK are not high enough to be able to predict what stage the nation is at in its outbreak.

He said 'small numbers are unreliable'.

Professor Neil Ferguson, a leading disease expert at Imperial College London, agreed that it was hard to say how Britain's epidemic was progressing.

Speaking on Radio 4, Professor Ferguson said: 'We think the epidemic is just about starting to slow in the UK right now... it is the result of the actions people have taken and governments have taken.'

He said the number of deaths was a reliable indicator of an outbreak, but gave the picture from two to three weeks ago.

'In the UK we can see some early signs of slowing in some indicators,' he said. 'Less in deaths as deaths do lag by a long time... but if you look as the number of new hospital admissions per day for instance, that does seem to be slowing down a little bit now.'

Professor Ferguson stressed the rates of hospital admissions had 'not yet plateaued' but the rate of increase looked to be slowing.

He also said the epidemic was spreading at different rates in different parts of the country.

'It is quite clear across the country, the epidemic is in different stages in different parts of the country,' he said.

'In central London it could be as many as three per cent to five per cent of the population has been infected - maybe more in individual hot spots. In the country as a whole in the UK, maybe two per cent or three per cent.'

He said antibody tests, currently in final stages of validation, would be 'critical' to the understanding of the epidemic, adding they would 'hopefully' be available in days.
By Trend

The number of deaths from coronavirus in Italy fell for the second consecutive day on Sunday but the country still looked almost certain to see an extension of stringent containment measures, Trend reports citing Reuters.

The Civil Protection department said 756 people had died in the last day, bringing the total to 10,779 - more than a third of all deaths from the virus worldwide.

There were 133 fewer deaths than the 889 deaths reported on Saturday, when the numbers fell from a record high of 919 on Friday.

While the total number of confirmed cases rose to 97,689 on Sunday from a previous 92,472, it was the lowest daily rise in new cases since Wednesday.

But despite hopes by Italian officials that the downward trend would continue, it appeared increasingly likely that restrictions on all but essential activities that were due to expire on Friday would be soon officially extended.

The measures that were due to expire on April 3 inevitably will be extended, Regional Affairs Minister Francesco Boccia told Sky TG24 television.

He said the timing would be decided by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and the government based on data from the medical and scientific community.

I think that it would be inappropriate and irresponsible to talk of re-opening (schools and production sites), Boccia said.

Italian media have reported that the extension could last for a further two weeks until about April 18.

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As a result, teams are already in action, getting meals to those who need them most. In a little more than 72 hours, our city has risen to the challenge. Its part of a major new cross-city plan to bring councils, charities and businesses together to make sure no one has to go hungry in our capital.

Lockdown is tough for those with secure jobs, warm homes and close families.

Imagine what it is like if you are living rough, or are elderly and/or unable to leave the place where you live because you are at a particularly high risk of losing your life to coronavirus.

For the homeless, empty streets make it harder than ever to get food. Travel restrictions make it difficult for all of us to visit those in need. There are reports of people not being able to eat.

The Food For London Now appeal was launched with a 350,000 grant from the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund and has already raised 200,000 more from business and foundations, including 14,000 generously donated by members of the public through our virginmoneygiving.com page.

Its been backed on Twitter by celebrities including Emma Watson, Rob Brydon and Rita Ora.

All the money raised goes to The Felix Project, the biggest distributor of surplus food from supermarkets, shops and restaurants. It is joining forces with the capitals two other largest distributors  FareShare and City Harvest  to create a supply network that covers every part of London.

Hubs will be set up in each London borough where surplus food will be put into food parcels, ready to go out to those who need it.

The next few weeks are going to be hard for everyone and will, sadly, bring many stories of loss and distress.

The right response is to stand together to overcome it  and, at the Evening Standard, we are proud to play a part by backing Food For London.

Its a brilliant start and we hope that its going to keep on growing. We thank everyone for their generosity so far and ask for more support for this important cause.

Donate at virginmoneygiving.com/fund/FoodforLondonNOW

Testing times as we wait

The number of people being tested each day for coronavirus is growing fast. But it needs to grow faster still. Everyone agrees with that, including ministers.

The NHS needs medical professionals on the front line, not self-isolating at home and unable to find out if they have been infected.

So its no surprise that people are looking enviously at Germany, which has tested four or five people for every one who has had a test in Britain. Why cant that happen here?

First, ramping up production of test kits isnt easy. As Simon Clarke, a professor of microbiology at the University of Reading, explains for the Evening Standard today, there is a risk of ordering large numbers of test kits that arent reliable.

Thats happened in Spain. Germany, which makes many of the tests, had a head start.

Second, theres still a lot thats not known about the disease. Tests for antibodies could soon show if people have suffered from coronavirus  but we dont yet know if they can become reinfected.

Explaining uncertainties and difficulties such as these is a challenge.

Governments want to talk about success. But the right advice for ministers is to be open about the challenge, even when testing is falling short of what we all want.

Listen to today's episode of The Leader podcast:

The piano man plays on

From virtual classical concerts to singalongs, the music wont stop just because we cant get together to perform it.
U p to 200 prisoners are set for early temporary release in Northern Ireland as the country attempts to curb the coronavirus outbreak.

Although there is yet to be a confirmed case of coronavirus in the regions prisons, justice minister Naomi Long said she considers it necessary to release some prisoners early in anticipation of any inmates testing positive and strained staffing levels.

Last week, the Department of Justice said 163 prison officers out of a 1,200-strong workforce are self-isolating due to Covid-19.

Ms Long described the decision as a significant one which should only be taken when there is no alternative.

Such a move is contrary to the ethos of the justice system and will cause distress to victims and their families, she said.

Boris Johnson thanks public for staying at home during coronavirus crisis

However, in the context of the pandemic we are facing, and to ensure as far as possible the safety and wellbeing of staff and those in our care, it is, I believe, an appropriate and reasonable step.

Ms Long said she anticipates the release of fewer than 200 individuals. Each will be assessed against criteria, she said.

There are currently 1,521 prisoners in Northern Ireland.

Prisoners serving a life sentence, detained under the Mental Health Act, those serving a sentence for a terrorist offence and those deemed a risk are among those who will not be eligible for early release.

The World on Coronavirus lockdown 1 /60 The World on Coronavirus lockdown Getty Images A UK government public health campaign is displayed in Piccadilly Circus Reuters Chinese paramilitary police and security officers wear face masks to protect against the spread of the new coronavirus as they stand guard outside an entrance to the Forbidden City in Beijing AP A usually busy 42nd Street is seen nearly empty in New York AFP via Getty Images Bondi Beach, Australia Getty Images Military vehicles cross Westminster Bridge after members of the 101 Logistic Brigade delivered a consignment of medical masks to St Thomas' hospital Getty Images View of the illuminated statue of Christ the Redeemer that reads "Thank you" as Archbishop of the city of Rio de Janeiro Dom Orani Tempesta performs a mass in honor of Act of Consecration of Brazil and tribute to medical workers amidst the Coronavirus (COVID - 19) pandemic Getty Images Rome AFP via Getty Images An Indian man paddles his bicycle in front of a mural depicting the globe covered in a mask, as India remains under an unprecedented lockdown over the highly contagious coronavirus Getty Images Aerial view of the empty 9 de Julio avenue in Buenos Aires in Argentina AFP via Getty Images A view of an empty Grand Canal Reuters Las Ramblas, Barcelona, Spain Getty Images Aerial view of the empty Central cemetery in Bogota, Columbia AFP via Getty Images The facade of the Palacio de Lopez (seat of the government palace) AFP via Getty Images Miami, Florida AFP via Getty Images Aerial view of the empty Simon Bolivar park in Bogota AFP via Getty Images An LAPD patrol car drives through Venice Beach Boardwalk AP Venice Beach, California Getty Images Los Angeles, California Getty Images Surfers Paradise is seen empty in Australia Getty Images Many shops stand shuttered on the Venice Beach boardwalk Getty Images Empty escalators are seen at a deserted train station during morning rush hour after New South Wales began shutting down non-essential businesses Reuters A nearly empty Times Square in New York AFP via Getty Images Caracas AFP via Getty Images Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador AFP via Getty Images A general view of an unusually quiet Midland Park in Wellington, New Zealand Getty Images A general view of an unusually quiet Civic Square at lunchtimein Wellington, New Zealand Getty Images A policeman rides his motorcycle wearing a face mask in front of a closed shopping mall in Buenos Aires, Argentina AFP via Getty Images Florida Keys AP The historic Channel 2 Bridge closed to fishermen, bikers and pedestrians in Florida Keys AP The Beach on Scenic Gulf Drive near Seascape Resort in south Walton County, Florida sits empty of tourists AP Surfers Paradise is seen empty in Australia Getty Images A deserted Rajpath leading to India Gate in New Delhi AFP via Getty Images A general view is seen of a closed Luna Park in Sydney, Australia Getty Images A general view is seen of a closed Luna Park in Sydney, Australia Getty Images Empty roads are pictured following the lockdown by the government amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Kathmandu, Nepal Reuters An empty New York Subway car i AFP via Getty Images The empty pedestrian zone is seen in the city of Cologne, western Germany, AFP via Getty Images Place de la Comedie in the city of Montpellier , southern France AFP via Getty Images An empty street in Kuwait city AFP via Getty Images A building is covered by the Portuguese message: "Coronavirus: take precaution" over empty streets in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil, AP A general view shows an empty street after a curfew was imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters Parliament of Canada is pictured with empty street during morning rush hour AFP via Getty Images A near empty beach on Southend seafront in England PA Near empty Keswick town centre in Cumbria, England PA

These individuals will be subject to a number of NIPS applied conditions including a curfew, a requirement to follow all Public Health Agency guidance during the current emergency period, a ban on victim contact, an alcohol ban and a ban on having any engagement with the media, she said.

It is important to note that prisoners released under Rule 27 may be recalled to prison at any time, whether release conditions have been broken or not.

The minister added: The challenges over the coming days will be great and in closing it is right that I pay tribute to the staff of the Northern Ireland Prison Service who on our behalf are providing a vital public service in the most difficult of circumstances.

The work of prison staff is seldom seen but it should never be underestimated.

Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie supported Ms Longs announcement.

He said he was satisfied that the decision was made in full knowledge of the vital importance of protecting the safety of the general public.

Of course some questions will arise, not least how you enforce an alcohol ban when the individual is confined to their home, and how will they play catch-up with the benefits system in such a short period of time, he said.

These are issues to be answered when the time comes, but for now the justice minister has the support of the Ulster Unionist Party in taking this action.
Healthcare workers have rightfully been dubbed as the 'frontline soldiers' in the battle against coronavirus. However, irrespective of the country they belong to, most medical professionals have found themselves on the losing side of the battle against Covid-19 in the past few months.

Many such workers have, unfortunately, paid the price for the shortcomings of an overstretched healthcare system of their respective countries with their own health (both mental and physical) as well as their lives.

According to a list published by National Federation of Orders of Surgeons and Dentists, 50 doctors have died of coronavirus in Italy so far and approximately 5,000 medical professionals have been infected. Most of the initial cases of healthcare professionals contracting the virus happened due to the lack of protective gears.

Last week, Spain's health ministry reported that nearly 14 per cent of their confirmed cases (approximately 5,400 people) are healthcare workers. In the United States, which is by far the worst-hit country, sources claim that almost 60 positive cases of coronavirus in healthcare workers have been found.

Close to home also, medical professionals have been badly affected. An octogenarian doctor died of Covid-19 in Mumbai last week, marking the first doctor death due to the disease in India. Apart from him, nine other doctors have contracted the virus. A nurse from Gurugram and a ward boy from Bihar have also been infected and the numbers will continue to rise if India doesn't prioritise the health of medical professionals, thereby ensuring better public health.

Fear Factor

Despite the lockdown, India has seen a consistent surge in Covid-19 cases. So far, 1,024 people have tested positive, out of which 27 people have lost their lives. However, the biggest concern of medical professionals at this point is neither the fragile state of Indian healthcare system nor the growing number of patients that can potentially surpass hospital capacities, as it has in Italy and the United States.

All they fear now is the possibility of contracting the virus. "Since the news of doctors testing positive began doing rounds, there has been a sense of fear among doctors and nurses treating coronavirus patients," said Dr Parthiv Sanghvi, former secretary of IMA Maharashtra who is currently an honorary surgeon at a BMC-run hospital in Jogeshwari East. The hospital has been identified as a Covid-19 isolation ward. "It is only natural to fear the virus, it has affected several doctors so far. One of my colleagues tested positive recently. He is currently on a ventilator in the isolation ward," he added.

Although the deceased Mumbai doctor is said to have contracted the virus from his relatives, in India, there have been several cases in which healthcare workers have contracted the virus while treating patients.

In Uttar Pradesh, a 25-year-old resident doctor tested positive for Covid-19 after coming in contact with a coronavirus patient. A similar thing happened to the ward boy in Bihar, and another doctor in Mumbai. A Karnataka doctor also tested positive for the same reason.

It isn't just doctors, there is also panic among paramedical workers, nurses, ward assistants and cleaners. Nowadays, healthcare workers are viewing every patient as a potential coronavirus patient, who can infect them. It is a very sad reality, said Hemant Deshmukh, Dean of Mumbais KEM Hospital. Almost a hundred patients are rushing to KEM Hospital every day, with symptoms of cold, cough or fever, because it is a testing centre for coronavirus.

Everyone thinks that they have coronavirus these days," said Deshmukh. "Under such circumstances, the only thing that we can do is to teach healthcare workers to take utmost care of themselves," he added.

Protecting loved ones

Apart from the fear of infecting oneself, health workers are also worried about transmitting the disease to family members, especially ageing parents, and young kids. "A nagging thought that worries me is that my father is a diabetic and he may get exposed to the virus because I go home from a hospital that is treating coronavirus patients currently. People like him are at greater risk," said Mariya Baby, a nurse at a Delhi hospital.

Baby works at a cancer ward and even though she doesn't deal with Covid-19 patients directly, it still makes her very anxious. Another nurse, Alby Matthew, who also works in a Delhi hospital said that she hasn't seen her family in weeks because of the pandemic.

"Ever since the coronavirus pandemic broke out, I have only seen my family on video calls and Whatsapp photos," she said.

Mathew, who lives in a hostel, has been advised by her hospital authorities to not visit home over the weekends until 'the situation eases out'. But, she isn't complaining

"The only silver lining in this situation is that I am at least reducing my father's chances of being exposed to the virus," said Matthew.

Low pay, long shifts, and discrimination in society

"The doctors who have been specially recruited for treating coronavirus patients by the corporation are being paid Rs 80,000 per month for an eight-hour duty. I don't know if you call that a lot, especially when such a life risk is involved for them in doing their jobs," said Sanghvi.

Since the outbreak, our shifts have been changed from 6 hours to 12 hours, which has been taking a toll on our health, pointed out nurse Alby Matthew. "It is an exhausting task to pull off such a long shift. However, the relief is that after the 12-hour shift we get the next day off. This reduces our chances of exposure, and also gives us time to rest," she added.

Media reports from the United States, Italy, Spain and France, however, claim that doctors and nurses in those countries have no resting privileges currently. They work graveyard shifts, fight exhaustion and mental health issues to provide care to the affected patients. In an incident that brought the mental health fallout of the crisis into sharp focus, an Italian nurse working at a hospital in Lombardy took her life last week after she tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Reports also claim that when these doctors are in the hazmat suits, they cannot eat or take a washroom break for almost 6 hours at a stretch. Many have stopped returning home too, as they do not want to put their loved ones in harm's way. However, the most challenging thing for them so far has been to decide whom to offer hospitalisation and whom to send back home as the number of beds is limited.

While things are not as bad in India, medical professionals here are facing another peculiar phenomenon. Several of them have been ostracised from society and many have been forced to vacate their flats because landlords are prejudiced and they fear that a doctor increases the changes of coronavirus because his job entails that he deals with the virus every day.

Slow response, playing catch-up

India's response to the pandemic was reactive rather than proactive. When initial cases were reported, neither doctors nor hospital authorities were prepared to handle the situation, despite the fact that by then coronavirus had cost several lives and infected many in other countries, posing a global threat.

Dr Raman Sharma, Senior Professor at Department of Medicine, SMS Medical College and Hospital, Rajasthan said, "On the evening of March 3, when an Italian patient tested positive in Rajasthan, we formed a high-level board to decide on the kind of treatment we should offer to the patient."

"It was a really challenging task because we had never treated such a patient before, and had no idea what treatment to offer. The patient had co-morbidities and was quite sick so we quickly devised a treatment strategy based on the work done by researchers in the past and led with that," he added.

When cases of coronavirus began surging in India, the biggest complaint from several medical professionals on social media platform, as well as to hospital and health department authorities, was that they do not have proper personal protection equipment (PPEs).

Doctors working in isolation wards in Patna wrote to the secretary of Health Department stating that they do not have basic equipment like N95 masks and were serving without protective gears. According to a report published in The Outlook last week, doctors in Punjab had also written a letter stating that things as basic as sanitizers, gloves and masks were not being provided to them. An AIIMs doctor's letter pointing out lack of PPE had also gone viral more than a week ago.

However, India has since then scaled up healthcare logistics. Doctor Sanghvi said, "The doctors and nurses who are working in the isolation ward in my hospital has not complained about lack of personal protection equipment in hospitals. Anyone who is dealing with coronavirus patients, be it the ward boys or cleaners are being given proper protection."

Director of Medical Education and Research, Maharashtra, Dr TP Lohane said, "There are different kinds of PPE depending on what kind of patient is being examined. If a patient who has no signs of fever is being examined then the health worker will only have to wear a triple-layered mask. Those who are treating patients with fever should use N95 masks and HIV disposable suit. Only those offering treatment to coronavirus positive patients need hazmat suits."

Lohane claimed that so far the need for hazmat suits have been met in Maharashtra, and more are currently being manufactured.

"In Kasturba Hospital for Infectious diseases, many coronavirus positive patients are currently being treated and despite the fact that healthcare workers of three different shifts come in contact with them each day, the total number of hazmat suits required so far has been only around forty-five."

Maharashtra, as of now, has had six confirmed deaths, and 193 positive cases of Covid-19, which is the highest number any state has in India. However, the availability of equipment hasn't been an issue yet. Of all coronavirus cases, only a small per cent are severe enough to require hospitalsation, and an even smaller number require ventilator treatments, said Lohane pointing out that there are enough ventilators as on now, to treat the patients.

"It has been more than eight days that we have set up new factories where workers are making 5,000 hazmat suits every day. We have almost 21,000 such suits ready now and are distributing them according to the needs of the people. So, we are trying our level best to give everyone PPE," said Lohane.

Lohane also said that all medical professionals of Maharashtra will complete receiving training on dealing with Covid-19 by March 31.

Scaling Healthcare infrastructure

Needless to say that central, as well as various state governments, are making efforts to tackle this public health emergency, but what will determine India's success rate in fighting coronavirus will be the speed with which India comes up with logistical solutions to offer affordable healthcare, and manage its medical staffs and equipment. Another important factor, of course, is how the virus spread in future.

While many ad hoc, not peer-reviewed researches have suggested several gloomy outcomes for India, how things play out will only be known after the lockdown, when the government take stock of the situation.

In India, the doctors to population ratio are 1:1,800 which is much lower than the minimum recommended by WHO which is 1:1,000. Furthermore, in rural areas, there may be just one doctor for a much larger population and hospitals without any infrastructure to accommodate coronavirus patients. How feasible is it, in such cases, to transfer those affected in rural areas to city isolation centres if the spread of the virus continues in future? The total number of ventilators in India is also approximately at 40,000, which may not be enough if new cases continue to arise. It would also require a qualified healthcare professional to operate ventilators, who also may not be available.

As far as healthcare workers in India are concerned, there is a huge untapped workforce in doctors who have a private practice. They can be a great asset if we face tough times ahead. Sunita Manglik, a family physician from Mumbai, is one of the many doctors who are currently offering voluntary advice on coronavirus on helplines. "Our OPDs are currently shut, so we are trying to help in whichever we can in the battle against coronavirus," said Manglik, adding that this is the time for doctors to come together to help.

Protecting healthcare workers

India followed in China's footsteps in announcing a complete lockdown for a 21-day period but so far, it has not taken any lessons from the country in protecting its healthcare professionals.

After 1,300 healthcare workers contracted the virus in Wuhan, and took it home, infecting a much larger population, China took some drastic measures to ensure the safety of its healthcare workers. For starters, they were asked to live in isolation, away from their families, and made to wear hazmat suits at all time.

A medical professional told CNBC that in places like Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea too, medical professionals were far less impacted than in countries like Italy, and United States, because they were made to undergo mandatory symptom checks every time they reported for duty, and anyone who has symptoms was immediately sent home. Such methods should be implemented in India too, to ensure that those who are risking their lives to save others, can also stay protected.
(Free) Fostering Entrepreneurship in Georgia (Directions in Development)

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Job creation and productivity growth are at the forefront of the global development agenda. The central challenge today for the government of Georgia is to find sources of long-term economic growth, particularly through private sector development. This study seeks to identify determinants of high-growth entrepreneurial activity. The stusy uses data from the new 2012 World Bank Entrepreneurship Survey conducted to gauge new firm growth in the formal sector in Georgia and...

Fostering Entrepreneurship in Georgia (Directions in Development)

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US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed during a phone call on Monday to have their top energy officials meet to discuss slumping global oil markets, the Kremlin said, as Trump called Russia's price war with Saudi Arabia "crazy."

The agreement marks a new twist in global oil diplomacy since a failed deal earlier this month between the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia to cut production ignited the price war between Russia and OPEC's de facto leader Saudi Arabia.

In a phone call, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump agreed to talks between their top energy officials. Credit:AP

The fallout from the coronavirus pandemic also helped to send oil prices into a historic tailspin, threatening higher-cost drillers in the United States and around the globe with bankruptcy.

"Opinions on the current state of global oil markets were exchanged. It was agreed there would be Russo-American consultations about this through the ministers of energy," the Kremlin said in a readout of the call.
Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here.
The City of Laredo and Webb County have confirmed the first death in Laredo related to COVID-19.

READ MORE: Of 32 confirmed cases, one Laredo patient on a ventilator, another pregnant

A 70-year-old woman who had previously tested positive for COVID-19 and who had an underlying health condition was being treated in intensive care at Laredo Medical Center when she succumbed to the disease on Sunday ,March 29, 2020.

I and the entire Laredo community offer our most sincere condolences and our support to the family during this difficult time, said Mayor Pete Saenz. In one way or another, everyone is affected by this virus and so we must continue to take this seriously. I stress the importance of staying in your home and following the health guidelines set forth by our local health department and the CDC. Even if youre symptom-free, you may still harbor the virus and pass it on to someone who is more at risk of developing complications. For the safety of everyone in our community, please stay home and limit your exposure until we are all able to beat this pandemic. We are all in this fight together and we will get through this.

Death, under any circumstance is a difficult thing to face, said Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina. This is a tragedy that our whole community will be emotionally affected by. I want the family to know that I grieve alongside them, that our community grieves with them. I am praying that they know they are loved by us all. We are one community and one collective grieving heart.

The entire City of Laredo Health Department also sends their condolences and offers support and counseling for family members during this time, said Health Department Director Hector Gonzalez, MD, MPH. We thank the doctors, nurses and entire staff at LMC for their service and commitment to the health and safety of our residents.

The City of Laredo Health Department is reminding the public that it is conducting contact investigation on persons who have tested positive to determine possible exposure to others. If the health department has not contacted you there is no need to take any action at this time. However, if someone is sick they need to stay home. In households with a positive person, there should only be one dedicated caregiver. Other family members must stay apart and practice good hygiene and social distancing. The positive person should be in a dedicated room and must wear a mask and not gather with other family members. The caregiver should also wear a mask when providing care. This is extremely important as evidence points to strong clustering among positive persons. Stay home if you are sick and call your doctor. Do not go to the office, call your doctor first. If it is an emergency, call 9-1-1.

As of 9:30 p.m. on March 29, a total of 228 persons have been tested, 89 of those tests have resulted negative, 32 have resulted positive, 107 are pending, 3 have recovered, 11 remain in the hospital, and 1 has passed.

In order to safeguard legally-protected information, the City of Laredo is not publically releasing personal or identifiable information regarding any cases as it relates to COVID-19 testing, results or monitoring.

READ MORE: Drive-thru coronavirus testing sites to open in Laredo as soon as Sunday

Please continue to do your part in preventing the spread of all diseases. Follow the guidelines below:

Follow the City and County order to stay at home and practice social distancing.

Wash your hands often

Wear a mask if possible

Avoid touching your face

Avoid close contact with people who are sick

Stay home when you're sick

Cover all coughs and sneezes

Clean frequently-touched surfaces

Visit www.cityoflaredo.com/coronavirus.html for up-to-date information regarding COVID-19.
Prince Charles is now out of self-isolation and in good health after testing positive for coronavirus.

On Monday, a spokesperson for the royal issued an update regarding the 71-year-olds health, saying: Clarence House has confirmed today that, having consulted with his doctor, The Prince of Wales is now out of self-isolation.

The prince was in isolation for a total of seven days and is now said to be in good health and operating under the current standard government and medical restrictions that apply nationwide.

The Duchess of Cornwall remains in self-isolation as per the governments guidelines, which advises that those with symptoms must self-isolate for seven days, while family members without symptoms must do so for 14 days.

Last week, Clarence House confirmed that the Prince of Wales was self-isolating at home in Scotland after displaying mild symptoms of Covid-19.

The Duchess of Cornwall, 72, who did not have the virus, was also staying at the Birkhall residence but was separating herself from the prince.

A Clarence House spokesperson said at the time: He has been displaying mild symptoms but otherwise remains in good health and has been working from home throughout the last few days as usual.

The Duchess of Cornwall has also been tested but does not have the virus. In accordance with government and medical advice, the prince and the duchess are now self-isolating at home in Scotland.

The tests were carried out by the NHS in Aberdeenshire where they met the criteria required for testing.

It is not possible to ascertain from whom the prince caught the virus owing to the high number of engagements he carried out in his public role during recent weeks.

Following the announcement that Prince Charles had tested positive for the coronavirus, Buckingham Palace confirmed that Queen Elizabeth II was in good health.

The Palace spokesperson said: Her Majesty The Queen remains in good health.

The Queen last saw The Prince of Wales briefly after the investiture on the morning of 12th March and is following all the appropriate advice with regard to her welfare.
A doctor accused of ignoring quarantine orders claims his group was told they could leave the airport and catch their domestic flights home.

Glen Lo, a radiologist from Perth, was one of 77 Australian health workers stuck on board the Roald Amundsen cruise ship off the coast of Chile after the country banned vessels from docking on March 15.

After days stranded at sea and 10 days marooned on the Falklands, the doctors paid thousands of dollars for a series of charter flights to Santiago, then a plane to Sydney, where they landed on Friday.

NSW Police claimed 33 of the doctors, who were part of a medical and dental conference on the 10-night cruise, disobeyed orders to quarantine in Sydney.

Some 27 of them boarded planes back to their home states, with the other six caught at the airport, police said.

'I'm disappointed to hear medical professionals chose to ignore rules in place to save lives and protect the most vulnerable in our community,' NSW Police Minister David Elliott said.

Dr Glen Lo arrived in Sydney Airport on Friday night after being stranded on a cruise ship, and claims he were told he and his husband could fly home to Perth and self-isolate there

The radiologist from Perth (left) and his husband (second from left) were stuck on a cruise ship off South America and evacuated to Sydney on Friday via Chile

Returning travellers are now forcibly quarantined at hotels in the cities in which they arrive in Australia, instead of going home to self-isolate.

However, Dr Lo said the group was let out of Sydney Airport after their plane arrived from Santiago in Chile, not whisked to a hotel.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the new rules on Friday, but they did not come into force until 11.59pm on Saturday - 26 hours after the plane landed.

Dr Lo, 40, said he and his husband Daniel Scarparolo were handed returned traveller forms that told them to go home and self-isolate for 14 days.

'We were allowed to leave. Under armed police guard they let us walk out of the building... we were told to go home,' he wrote in a blog post explaining the 'shambolic' episode.

Dr Lo said they arrived at 10pm on Friday and spent an hour on the tarmac, then until 3am waiting at baggage claim (pictured) and being processed

They all filled out this isolation declaration card that notified them that they must self-isolate for 14 days. On it they filled out the home address at which they intended do so

Photos Dr Lo posted showed they filled out a form stating how they would get to their hotel, what their final destination was, and their onward flight details

They arrived at 10pm on Friday and spent an hour on the tarmac, then until 3am waiting at baggage claim and being processed.

Photos Dr Lo posted showed they filled out a form stating how they would get to their hotel, what their final destination was, and their onward flight details.

Dr Lo and Mr Scarparolo, a writer, walked across the road to the Rydges Hotel to spend the night before their 10.45am flight to Perth.

'We were almost home. We would get to cuddle our cat. I was planning on telling work  all three radiology jobs  that I wanted to self-isolate for a month,' he wrote.

'Our neighbours had offered to buy our groceries. The end was in sight.'

But as they tried to leave the next morning for their flight home, Border Force officers in the lobby told them they couldn't leave.

'You can't check-out. Go back to your room,' Dr Lo wrote that they said. He retrieved a room key and they went back upstairs.

'The red swipe card is now sitting useless under a pile of towels. We haven't left our rooms and we aren't allowed to,' he wrote.

The radiologist was particularly annoyed that the doctors were soon after handed public health orders falsely claiming they were not cooperating.

'I am satisfied that Glen Lo is not complying with the advice and directions of clinicians/will not comply with the reasonable advice and direction of clinicians,' it read.

Dr Lo was particularly annoyed that the doctors were soon after handed public health orders falsely claiming they were not cooperating. He shared a photo of the order and underlined all the parts he believed to be 'lies'

The medics had been aboard the Roald Amundsen and Scenic Eclipse Antarctic cruises (pictured) for a medical convention before coronavirus got out of control and they couldn't find a port that would take them

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

Dr Lo shared a photo of the order, which also claimed their 'behaviour' made them a risk to public health, and underlined all the parts he believed to be 'lies'.

'How have I not complied with advice? I have done nothing but follow the orders of NSW Police and Border Force since we landed 12 hours ago,' he wrote on Twitter.

The order, signed by a NSW Health medical adviser, also claimed authorities were 'satisfied on reasonable grounds that he has been exposed to COVID-19 and is at risk of developing the COVID-19'.

This was despite the conference and cruise being to Antarctica, which has no coronavirus, and then being quarantined on the Roald Amundsen.

Dr Lo claimed that night they were woken up at midnight to sign new orders as the original ones had the wrong expiry date.

'I've never met [the doctor who signed the letter]. Or the NSW [chief medical officer]. They must have a tough job, to have so willingly ditched their colleagues under a bus like this,' he wrote.

'But, reading the comments on Twitter and on Facebook, I'm not surprised. When people are scared they stop thinking.'

Dr Lo said he and his colleagues never had a problem with self-isolating, and merely followed directions of police and Border Force to head home.

'I want to be in quarantine. I want ScoMo to have the balls to lockdown,' he said.

'I will sit in this hotel room for as long as it takes to prove I am not sick. Unless of course it's dirty and I get sick. And die. Young people are dying.'

The couple and many of their colleagues have since been moved (pictured on the transfer bus) to the Swissotel in the Sydney CBD where hundreds of overseas arrivals are quarantined

Dr Lo and his husband Daniel Scarparolo on the Falklands Islands where they were marooned for 10 days trying to organise a charter flight home

The couple and many of their colleagues have since been moved to the Swissotel in the Sydney CBD where hundreds of overseas arrivals are quarantined.

Dr Lo in an earlier post hit out at critics who hurled abuse online at his colleagues saying they should have come back earlier.

The couple left on February 25, before it was clear coronavoris would turn into a pandemic, and sailed around Antarctica for two weeks.

Dr Lo said he wanted to go home as soon as the news turned bad, but the ship was unable to find a port that would take them.

Other doctors on the trip said they were given the same instructions to head back to their homes interstate instead of being held in Sydney.

Jenny Dowd, an obstetrician, said she was met by half a dozen police officers at Melbourne Airport when she got off her domestic flight.

'We asked two or three times if we could go home and the NSW police told us yes, multiple times,' she told The Australian.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said the medical professionals may not be charged for ignoring quarantine orders

'The police were very clear, and they said we could go, so I got on the plane. You can imagine my shock when I was met with federal police upon arrival in Melbourne. I felt like a criminal.'

Respiratory and sleep physician Glenn Rice-McDonald said the ship's doctor gave all 77 of them a letter stating there were no known or suspected coronavirus cases on board, or anyone showing symptoms.

'We were on the ship for a prolonged time with nobody being sick,' he told the ABC.

Dr Rice-McDonald said he had numerous patient he had hoped to have telehealth appointments with from self-isolation whom he couldn't see while stuck in a Sydney hotel away from his patient files.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller in a press conference on Sunday said the medical professionals may not be charged for ignoring quarantine orders.

'I am disappointed,' he said.

A couple quarantined at the Crown Promenade Hotel in Melbourne wave from the window on Monday. They are among 1,600 forced into isolation on the first day of the new policy

All passengers arriving in Australia will be required to quarantine at designated hotels for two weeks to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Pictured: police and army personnel at Sydney International Airport to help escort passengers to the hotels

'My understanding is that the orders hadn't been served on them at the time. So we may not be able to issue them with infringements.

'We are looking at that. But doctors should know better. I mean, we all really know now how serious this is.'

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said he was 'bitterly disappointed', and Police Minister David Elliott also piled on.

'No one is above the law. The majority are doing the right thing but for those who choose to flout the rules, they face a fine or even jail time,' he said.

Mr Morrison even said the doctors 'did the wrong thing' and 'law enforcement authorities will be following up'.

The group were among 290 people on board the flight from Santiago to Sydney on Friday night.

Mr Fuller said the group of medical professionals had all been contacted and were in isolation either in the hotels in Sydney or at home.

A NSW police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia 'there may be a chance the doctors may not receive a fine.

'This decision has not been finalised at this stage.'
Patna, March 30 : The migrant labourers returning to Bihar has posed a big challenge to the state government -- to keep them in 14-day isolation to contain coronavirus spread.

Over 45,000 people had reached the UP towns bordering Bihar and more than 100,000 were expected by evening, said a Bihar Disaster Management Department official, here on Monday.

Pratyam Amrit, Principal Secretary of the Disaster Management Department, said, "Six camps have been set up along the Bihar-UP border. By Monday, we are expecting 1.30 lakh people to reach the borders. We are looking to provide them food and make arrangements for their stay during the quarantine period." The state government, he said was taking all precautionary measures even before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the 21-day lockdown on March 24. After emergence of Covid-19 cases in the state, the government had made arrangements even in the rural areas to provide food and shelter and screen villagers for infection, he added.

But the influx of workers from Delhi has created serious problem the state government. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has expressed displeasure at the migrant workers being sent back to Bihar.

"People from other states are being registered at the disaster border relief camps. Their health is being checked. After food and rest, they are being provided buses by the Transport Department in the district headquarters. Arrangements have been made to send them, " said another official.

The process could continue for two-three days, he added.

Principal Secretary Deepak Kumar said arrangements were being made to send Biharis coming from outside to their villages. "All the Block Development Officers, Head of panchayats and sarpanches have been asked to monitor the situation and follow quarantine and social distancing norms," Kumar said.

Those who had returned from abroad after March 10 were being investigated. The government has a list of 1,790 such people.

The Chief Minister after high-level meetings have ordered one-month's ration free to 1.68 crore cardholders and payment of three months' pension to all pensioners.

A control room has also been set up at Bihar Bhawan in Delhi to help people.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
A Chinese infectious disease expert says theres an increasing number of asymptomatic CCP virus cases, which raises fears of community spread.

He said its one of the most difficult to handle viruses the world has ever seen.

Even after 14 days of infection they may display sickness but can still infect others, increasing the risk of community transmission.

NTD refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Partys coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.
Will Gross has a home for the buffalo to roam, where the elk and the beefalo play.

OK, thats not exactly how the old folk song goes, but it does describe the menagerie of wild animals and meat-producing hybrids that the 57-year-old Gross raises on his familys 1,300-acre farm just off the Interstate 72 and U.S. 67 interchange south of Jacksonville.

Its been lively times out here sometimes. Youve got to watch it because they are wild animals, Gross said. If you are handling, loading or moving them you could get some injuries. You gotta go out there every day to make sure they are on the right side of the fence.

Gross, a lifelong Jacksonville resident, took over the operation of the farm from his late father, veterinarian William Gross, who had a passion for the west and wanted to raise American Bison.

He was always singing a country western song and looking off into the horizon when he went on his veterinary calls, Gross said. It was his idea to cross a bison with my grandfathers black Angus herd about 1960 to produce beefalo. When I grew up there were already bison and beefalo here.

Now, surrounded by an 8-foot fence to keep the frisky animals in, Gross farm features several American bison, one of which likes to play by rolling giant bales of hay down the hill. A herd of elk includes males with magnificent antlers who emit a chilling bugle call during the mating season. And a herd of beefalo looks exactly like what it is  a group of cattle with mostly Angus features and bison head lumps and fur.

The higher percentage bison, thats 60 to 70 percent, are very curious. They will follow the tractor around or even let you pet them while they are sticking their nose up waiting for food, Gross said. Out in the pasture, the lower percentage ones, most of those guys are docile like cattle but you have to watch them because they still have enough buffalo in them that they get nervous in close quarters.

Gross raises the specialty herds of beefalo, bison and elk for meat and has a steady list of clients who want the leaner and healthier steaks, roasts and burgers that come from the animals. Beefalo and bison meat is more expensive than standard beef because the animals are completely grass-fed and take longer to reach marketable weight, and because of the special provisions required to raise them.

Theres more risk involved, a higher investment in your fencing and feeders. If we buy feeders from a farm and home store they are scrapped in a year because they use them like toys, Gross said. So I get LP tanks and cut them into thirds to make the feeders, which are three-eighths-inch steel and that way they dont tear them up.

Gross was nearly torn up himself during a 1990 encounter with a bison bull that crashed through the fence and evaded all capture efforts. It wasnt safe to have a wild bison running around Morgan County, so Gross borrowed a high-powered rifle and had to shoot the animal 12 times before it finally went down  or so he thought.

He got up and hit me as I was standing by the truck. It broke about a half-dollar-sized piece of my skull open, Gross said. So I delivered him to Jones Meat & Locker and then went to the hospital and got sewn up.

That bison ruggedness makes its way into the beefalo and it results in hardy animals that are very adaptable.

They are very robust animals, as soon as they are born they start nibbling on hay. They are not just milk-takers, they are also immediate pasture eaters, Gross said. The bison gives them great energy and all of the things that come with a buffalo.

Gross said one of the main questions people ask him is, what does bison or beefalo meat taste like?

A bison steak has no fat in it but its just as tender as an Angus steak if its been cooked right. Its more robust, its not gamey, most people say it tastes like supercharged beef, Gross said. A lot of people like the lean beefalo meat, but I also have people that dont care for it. Most people have the burgers, they are juicy and when you cook them on a charcoal grill, not a gas grill, they are awesome.

While bison and beefalo may be an acquired taste, Gross has not yet acquired the taste for the product at the other end of the spectrum, meat substitutes like the Impossible Burger

A lot of people distance themselves from the whole meat market, butchering thing, they dont like the killing of animals. But guess what, thats what keeps us alive, Gross said. If other folks can go to the plant-based stuff and be happy, well, good for them.

Besides the 1,300 acres south of Jacksonville, Gross and his siblings still own the 1,500 acres in Kansas that their ancestors homesteaded after the Civil War. The Kansas property is all pasture land leased by ranchers for grass-feeding cattle.

Gross said hes happy with having been raised in an environment where seemingly exotic animals were the norm. He worked in manufacturing for a while, but since returning to the farm Gross hasnt looked back.

My father started this as a hobby and I would not have traded that upbringing for anything. I have been able to do a lot of things from what I learned out here on the farms,Gross said. You couldnt not like animals being around my father and my family.

.

If you have a suggestion about someone who should be profiled, send their name and any contact information available to communitynews@myjournalcourier.com.
On Friday, the World Socialist Web Site reported on the implications of the UK government refusing to act on the extensive prior knowledge they had of catastrophic National Health Service (NHS) failings during a flu pandemic.

The Sunday Telegraph has now run a full-page article in which government sources admit that its austerity measures and cuts to the NHS have resulted in preventable deaths.

In 2016, Theresa Mays Conservative government and health authorities held Exercise Cygnus, a three-day training exercise intended to determine readiness for a novel respiratory influenza pandemic. It was aimed to test coordination between hospitals, health authoritiesthose tasked with tracking the diseaseand central government. To this day, the results of the report have never been made public. However, the British governments then-chief medical officer, Professor Sally Davies, told a health conference, World Innovation in Health, that it killed a lot of people.

The Telegraph reports, Ministers from across government were seated, ashen-faced, in the Cabinet Office briefing room when epidemiologists from Imperial College London detailed the scale of the epidemic enveloping Britain. But it was not the pandemic itself that was causing those gathered in Whitehall to blanch but the nations woeful preparation. The peak of the epidemic had not yet arrived, but local resilience forums, hospitals and mortuaries across the country were already being overwhelmed.

There was not enough personal protective equipment (PPE) for the nations doctors and nurses. The NHS was about to fall over due to a shortage of ventilators and critical care beds. Mortuaries were overflowing, and it had become terrifyingly evident that the governments emergency messaging was not getting traction with the public.

This painted the scene when Exercise Cygnus was run in October 2016, but, The modelling for the outbreak was prepared by the same team that is tracking the all-too-real Covid-19 pandemic now.

The Telegraph, as the de facto house organ of the Conservative Party, was able to solicit comments from senior former government sources over Cygnus.

A senior former government source with direct involvement in the exercise said the findings were deemed too terrifying to be revealed. Others involved cited national security concerns. There has been a reluctance to put Cygnus out in the public domain because frankly it would terrify people, said the former senior government source yesterday.

The source added, Its right to say that the NHS was stretched beyond breaking point [by Cygnus]. People might say we have blood on our hands, but the fact is that its always easier to manage the last outbreak than the one coming down the track. Hindsight is a beautiful thing.

This has nothing to do with hindsight. The likely impact of present pandemics was well known, with the Telegraph admitting, The only significant difference between the drill and the pandemic we now face is that Cygnus was assumed to be the H2N2 influenza virus, while COVID-19 is a coronavirus.

The article makes clear that the NHS was unable to deal with the outbreak of a pandemic because of the savage and relentless austerity programme designed to make the working class pay for the trillion pound bailout of the banks organised by the Labour government in 2008 and continued by Tory-led governments ever since.

The brutal assault on the social right to health care was made clear in official circles by Cygnus, including a chronic lack of the basic resources to fight a pandemicventilators, Intensive Care Unit beds and personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff.

The Telegraph writes that Cygnus revealed significant gaps in the NHSs surge capacity  These gaps, which included a shortage of ICU beds and PPE, came at a time of austerity. Jeremy Hunt, the then health secretary, and Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, were cutting NHS bed numbers at the time rather than adding capacity. Dame Sally Davies, then chief medical officer, faced similar financial constraints.

Not only was nothing done in the face of the impending catastrophe Cygnus revealed, but austerity was stepped up. As the Telegraph comments, Projected shortages of PPE and ICU beds were not filled with bulk purchase because of cash constraints

A senior former government source declares, Throwing money at the problem was not necessarily the solution. The NHS eats up money. Its a bottomless pit  We were in a time of austerity and it wasnt easy.

The year before Exercise Cygnus, the Tories general election manifesto outlined plans to strip the NHS of a further 22 billion in efficiency savings. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt spent most of 2016the year Cygnus was carried outensuring there was no backdown in the face of the national strike by 50,000 junior doctors opposing the imposition of an inferior contract. By the end of 2016, 13,000 beds had been cuts from the NHS in just six years, cutting capacity by 5 million patients a year.

The newspaper cites an academic directly involved in Cygnus and the current pandemic, who comments, These exercises are supposed to prepare government for something like thisbut it appears they were aware of the problem but didnt do much about it.  All the flexibility has been pared away so its difficult to react quickly. Nothing is ready to go.

Concrete examples of the absence of any preparation were cited by the New Statesman magazine March 16. It noted that the governments three main plans for dealing with a pandemic, Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy, Health and Social Care Influenza Pandemic Preparedness and Response and Pandemic Influenza Response Plan were tested and failed, yet these documents were not rewritten or revised.

It points out, They share a glaring shortcoming: not one of them mentions ventilators Nearly a decade after the first of these documents was written in 2011, The government does not have a stockpile of ventilators, as the documents made clear and [Health Secretary Mike] Hancock has confirmed.

All three of the plans refer to stockpiles, but only of antivirals, antibiotics and PPE for NHS staff.

It is clear that the Johnson government was prepared to allow tens of millions of people to be infected by COVID-19, resulting in many deaths, via its declared policy of achieving herd immunity. This was only preventedwith the government forced to introduce social distancing and a lockdown to prevent the spread of the virusdue to the interventions of concerned scientists and widespread public revulsion.

The New Statesman notes that the Tories expected between 60 and 80 percent of the population to contract coronavirus, or between 40 and 53 million people.

The 2018 Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, SPI-M, predicted that 4 percent of cases would require hospitalisation and that a quarter of those hospitalised would need a ventilatorat least 1 percent of all cases, or 400,000 to 530,000 people. That would therefore range from requiring 60,000 ventilators per week to more than 100,000. Yet due to NHS cuts, the UK at that point had just 5,000 ventilators.

That government mouthpieces speak of people concluding that the ruling elite has blood on its hands has enormous significance. The pandemic is revealing the class divisions in society as never before, along with the murderous implications of the ruling elites money-mad agenda of self-enrichment.
Owing to the Coronavirus outbreak in the country, Kartik Aaryan has joined the film fraternity in donating generously to PM Narendra Modis Relief Fund as he has pledged a sum of Rs 1 crore. Kartik took to Twitter to share this news with his followers and well-wishers.



He wrote, It is the absolute need of the hour to rise together as a Nation.

Whatever I am, whatever money Ive earned, is only because of the people of India; and for us, I am contributing Rs. 1 crore to the PM-CARES Fund. I URGE all my fellow Indians also to help as much as possible.





It is the absolute need of the hour to rise together as a Nation.

Whatever I am, whatever money Ive earned, is only because of the people of India; and for us I am contributing Rs. 1 crore to the PM-CARES Fund.

I URGE all my fellow Indians also to help as much as possible  https://t.co/AzTT3lWHtr  Kartik Aaryan (@TheAaryanKartik) March 30, 2020





In fact, Kartik has also urged everyone to contribute to the fund in whatever capacity they can. Well, people are appreciating the actor for donating money graciously and lauded him for being a self-made star. People are calling him a true deshbhakt for his big gesture.





A newcomer like him has surpassed the donation amount as compared to established actors like varun. So proud of you.  Chinmay Mangal (@ChinmayM385) March 30, 2020





salute to u.. being a self made star, u had to do a lot of struggle n hard work to earn this much amount. It needs big heart to donate 1cr at this stage of ur career. Kudos.  Appy (@Akshay__Devotee) March 30, 2020





Good job Kartik!!



Izzat badd gayi hai tumhare liye

Baat sirf paiso ki nahi



Baat niyat ki hoti hai!!  RiseOfBurnol (@RiseofBurnol) March 30, 2020





Asli deshbhakt kartik aaryan .  sanyasi princu (@aboywithbrains) March 30, 2020





dil jeet liya bhai  Shivam mishra (@Shivamm79774443) March 30, 2020





@narendramodi

Many Thanks for your great contribution at this need of the hour..



Whole #India is fan of yours after that #Corona Video of yours n now we will keep remembering you



May God Bless you for a bright career ahead into #Bollywood



Keep Contributing .. #JaiHind pic.twitter.com/lBasLccmWa     (@saktisagar83) March 30, 2020





Great great job kartik u said correctly, whatever u earned is because of people of India, not only u but also many heros..but many won't have this much great heart to give in return... awesome man...  Sahithya Reddy (@Sweetie_Tweetz) March 30, 2020

A while back, Kartik Aaryan also shared a monologue wherein he urged people to practice social distancing in Pyaar Ka Punchnama style and the monologue actually became a hit among the masses.





Not just Kartik Aaryan, Akshay Kumar and Kapil Sharma have donated for the people of the country. Seeing the situation in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had imposed the 21-Day lockdown which will end on April 14 and he has been requesting everyone to pitch in for the fund. MensXP requests everyone to come forward and help the country as the government is in dire need of funds and also adhere to the guidelines laid down by the PM as we continue to stay in quarantine for our own safety.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 22:02:39|Editor: huaxia

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RAMALLAH, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Palestinians on Monday marked the 44th anniversary of Land Day with symbolic events amid the lockdown imposed to fight the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

During this year's celebrations, the annual marches were replaced by raising the Palestinian flag on rooftops and balconies, in order to avoid gatherings with a growing number of COVID-19 cases.

Meanwhile, Palestinian factions and officials issued statements reiterating their commitment to the full national rights to self-determination and the fight against injustice.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee, said in a video message that Land Day is an opportunity to remind the world that Palestinians are still ready to defend their rights.

"The anniversary of Land Day is a sorrowful memory that reminds us of Israel's theft of our lands and killing of those who defended the lands ... It is also a reminder of how much we love Palestine," she said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye said the main concern for the Palestinians is to consolidate their resilience and protect their resources in the face of Israeli settlement activities.

Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki also said in a statement that despite the current complicated global situation, Palestinians are committed to their right to self-determination.
The mortal remains of Sardar Tian Singh, the lone Indian who was among the 25 people killed in a terrorist attack on a gurdwara in Kabul last week, have been brought to India, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Monday.

The Union Housing and Urban Affairs minister said the perpetrators of the heinous attack have to be brought to justice.

Puri on Twitter said the mortalremains of Singh were brought back to India due to timely and tireless efforts of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Vinay Kumar and other MEA officials.

"Attended the cremation of Sardar Tian Singh Ji who lost his life in the heinous terror attack on a Gurudwara Sahib in Kabul on 25 March 2020. I offer my condolences to his family & friends. Satnam Waheguru," Puri said in another tweet.

The minister said "these unfortunate deaths and the impunity of these attacks are a grim reminder of the persecution which religious minorities face in some countries in our neighbourhood".

"... the world needs to act now. The perpetrators of this heinous attack have to be brought to justice," Puri said.

On March 25, the terrorist attack on a gurudwara in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul had killed 25 people and injured eight.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tony Perkins slams churches still gathering during pandemic, calls action defiance of common sense

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Family Research Council President Tony Perkins slammed churches that have continued to gather as the coronavirus pandemic explodes across the county, calling their action a defiance of common sense.

Reacting to a recent report by The Christian Post about 43 members of The Life Church of Glenview in Illinois falling ill and at least 10 of them later testing positive for the coronavirus after a revival service earlier this month, Perkins said it was irresponsible and should not be treated as an example of defending religious freedom.

At this point, holding public church gatherings in the midst of a public health crisis is not a defense of religious freedom  it is a defiance of common sense and the care of your congregation. Spread the Good News, not the virus! tweeted Perkins, whose organization works "to advance faith, family and freedom in public policy and the culture from a Christian worldview."

Perkins' tweet came a day after Katherine Stewart, author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, argued in an op-ed in The New York Times that it is the religious rights hostility to science that has crippled the United States response to the new coronavirus.

Donald Trump rose to power with the determined assistance of a movement that denies science, bashes government and prioritized loyalty over professional expertise. In the current crisis, we are all reaping what that movement has sown, Stewart wrote.

This denial of science and critical thinking among religious ultraconservatives now haunts the American response to the coronavirus crisis, she said before pointing to a number of high-profile Trump supporting pastors who have defied the wisdom of scientific experts on the virus.

She pointed to Guillermo Maldonado, a self-described apostle who hosted President Trump earlier this year at a campaign event at his Miami megachurch, who urged his congregants to show up for worship services in person.

Do you believe God would bring His people to His house to be contagious with the virus? Of course not, Maldonado said.

Rodney Howard-Browne of The River at Tampa Bay Church in Florida also mocked people concerned about the disease as pansies, she noted. In a sermon that was livestreamed on Facebook, Tony Spell, a pastor in Louisiana, noted, Were also going to pass out anointed handkerchiefs to people who may have a fear, who may have a sickness and we believe that when those anointed handkerchiefs go, that healing virtue is going to go on them as well.

In an appearance on Fox News, Perkins called Stewarts op-ed hate-filled and bigoted while suggesting it was politically motivated.

Its reprehensible that The New York Times would allow this hate-filled, bigoted rant in their paper at a time of national crisis when people are dying. It appears that they cannot put politics aside to work for the well-being of the nation. They are more interested in criticizing President Trump and his supporters than they are containing the coronavirus, he said.

He also argued that it is liberals who have trouble with science and not Christians.

They are the ones that have a problem with the design of a defined male and female. Christians dont have a problem with science. In fact, while theyre attacking Christians, its the Christians that are out there serving the first responders. In fact, many of the first responders are Christians. Like my daughter whos an evangelical whos working in the hot zone in the ER  who volunteered to work with the coronavirus patients, he said.

Preliminary research on the response of churches to the coronavirus viewed by The Christian Post Monday shows that a majority of churches have responded to the coronavirus by closing.

A minority of churches and other religious organizations across the country have continued to defy warnings to limit gatherings or shut them down altogether to help in stemming the spread of the new coronavirus.

In places like New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio says defiant religious organizations will now be shut down if they fail to obey the order to temporarily stop gathering.

"If you go to your synagogue, if you go to your church and attempt to hold services after having been told so often not to, our enforcement agents will have no choice but to shut down those services," de Blasio warned. "I don't say that with any joy, it's the last thing I'd like to do because I understand how important people's faiths are. We need our faiths in this time of crisis but we don't need people to endanger others.






T he directors of a New York funeral home say they have worked non-stop for a fortnight as the Covid-19 pandemic surges through the city, sending the local death toll spiralling upwards.

In an interview with Sky News published on Monday, Joseph Nuefeld said coronavirus had created an explosion of demand for the Gerard J Nuefeld funeral home's services.

"People are unfortunately passing away in big numbers," Mr Nuefeld told Sky. "I'm trying to accommodate them as best I can I think we had about 12 services scheduled.

"And shortly after I left the office, within two hours, I had three more services. And then this morning, as soon as we came in, we put on three or four more services."

New York City declares state of emergency

More than 1,000 people in have now died in New York state after contracting Covid-19, with New York City alone reporting 776 deaths by Sunday evening, city officials said.

Most of the deaths have happened in the span of just a few days.

Among the many people to have already lost a loved one to the outbreak is Robert Lugo, a distraught patron of the funeral home on behalf of his 80-year-old grandmother.

"My grandmother died alone," Mr Lugo told Sky.

"We didn't even see her and couldn't touch or talk to her," he added.

"We couldn't give her that boost of morale to say, hey, you know, you got to come out of this. We need you to come out of this. There was nothing."

New York's usually bustling streets have fallen silent amid the Covid-19 pandemic / Reuters

Amid New York's crisis, the US government's top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, has warned the US in its entirety could yet face "millions of cases" of Covid-19 in the weeks and months to come as new virus epicentres emerge in other key cities such as Detroit, New Orleans and Chicago.

Speaking to CNNs State Of The Union show on Sunday, Mr Fauci warned an outbreak on that scale that could result in between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths nationwide.

The US leads the world in recorded coronavirus cases - with more than 143,000 confirmed Covid-19 infections - but Italy, Spain, China, Iran and France have all suffered higher death tolls.

US President Donald Trump has been widely criticised for his management of the outbreak, with critics accusing him of downplaying the severity of Covid-19 and not acting quickly enough to curtail it.

Mr Trump had floated the idea of imposing a quarantine on New York, but U-turned on such a plan over the weekend after outcry from state officials.

The US president had previously said he was considering isolating the east coast city along with nearby New Jersey and Connecticut in a bid to stem the coronavirus crisis.
All jokes aside, residents of Drainage District 6 in Jefferson County can still feel a little better about the coming hurricane season with a lawyer instead of an engineer taking the fifth seat on the board of directors. The districts new general manager, Joe Majdalani, is an engineer with decades of experience, and other engineers have been hired by the district in the recent shakeup.

Because the engineering component has been addressed, County Commissioner Everette Bo Alfred decided to appoint attorney Anthony Malley III to the board instead of an engineer as he had previously intended. Thats OK because Malleys expertise will also be needed by the board to help protect DD6 residents from floodwaters.

(Malley) also brings the ability to discern information, Everette said last week. Frankly, with all the different floods and other things weve had when it comes to flood mitigation, there may be someone wanting to sue the drainage district. It gives him a chance to look at the decisions from his profession, advise, make good decisions and understand where were going.

With Malleys appointment, the five-person board has a good variety of experience. Two board members own businesses  a property management company and a wrecker service  another is a legal-settlement planner and the other is a former Jefferson County tax assessor. The boards mission is to provide oversight to the DD6 staff, which again, is now headed by a professional engineer in Majdalani.

Majdalani was hired after former GM Richard LeBlanc resigned last year when DD6 workers were seen doing cleanup work after Imelda at the homes of a supervisor and three other employees. That ethical breach and the continued threat from flooding should provide all the motivation the board needs to focus on providing the best drainage possible to district residents.

DD6 had a low profile in recent years, but there is clearly no room for complacency now. The board and staff should have been fully focused on serving taxpayers after Harvey in 2017, and Imeldas floodwaters increased that urgency. Southeast Texans could be facing a period of more storms and more intense ones because of climate change, and we have to be ready for that threat. The last two storms brought so much water that some flooding was inevitable, but no home- or business owner is going to accept any level of damage. Better drainage, more culverts and more detention ponds will help protect them as much as anything.

Southeast Texans have been grappling with the coronavirus disruptions in recent weeks, but the official start of the hurricane season is just two months away. Weve had two storms in two years, and were all hoping that well be spared this year. But we have to be as prepared as possible for whatever awaits. The new DD6 board should roll up its sleeves and deal with that reality.
Donald Trump went on a tirade against Nancy Pelosi Monday morning, claiming there's 'something wrong with the woman' and insisting that she's a 'sick puppy' for holding up the economic stimulus package for a week.

'Well you know, it's a sad thing. Look, she's a sick puppy in my opinion. She really is. She's got a lot of problems and that's a horrible thing to say,' he said of the House Speaker.

Trump's attack was in reaction to a question during a Fox & Friends interview Monday about Pelosi blaming him for not handling the coronavirus crisis in a timely manner, and claiming while he 'fiddles, people are dying.'

'Dr. Fauci said the other day, if those people came in, if I didn't do that [closed borders], you would have had deaths like you would have never seen before, and you know, she doesn't mention that and that was early and don't forget she was playing the impeachment game,' Trump asserted.

'Her game where she ended up looking like a fool,' the president added of Pelosi.

Donald Trump blasted Nancy Pelosi for being a 'sick puppy' and 'fool' as he went on a tirade against the House Speaker Monday morning

Trump also made the coronavirus outbreak an election issue Sunday morning, claiming Republicans need to win back the House after he says Democrats got 'junk' into the economic stimulus package

Trump asserted that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was behind getting 'some bad things' into the bill that he says were completely unrelated to relieving businesses and Americans from the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak

He also attacked San Francisco, which Pelosi represents, for being a 'slum.'

'You hear Nancy Pelosi, whose, you know  somehow there's something wrong with the woman because she knows what we've done. And then you look at San Francisco, how her area where she lives has become like a slum, it's a slum and she should focus on that,' Trump asserted.

'Of course she lives in a beautiful house over the ocean, but her area that she's in charge of has gone from being one of the best in the whole country, it's become a slum, and they don't do anything about it. They leave it there,' he continued in bashing Pelosi' leadership in San Francisco, adding that the federal government might 'take over that area.'

'All she did was focus on impeach, impeachment. She focused on impeachment and she lost and she looked like a fool, and frankly, it unified our party. And I have to say this  it's never pleasant  but my poll numbers are the highest they've been because of her so we'll see how it turns out but she should never say a thing like they said,' he continued.

Ahead of the Monday morning phone interview on Fox News, Trump made the phase three economic relief package that he signed Friday an election issue, as he blamed Democrats for putting 'some bad things' in the legislation.

'Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats delayed the Workers Help/Stimulus Bill by over a week, trying to add real 'junk' into the Bill. Got some bad things, having nothing to do with those affected by the Virus, included,' Trump tweeted.

'Republicans need their votes until we WIN BACK THE HOUSE IN 2020!' he asserted, claiming the GOP can't get anything passed without Democratic approval because they hold the majority in the House.

It is still unclear how elections will be impacted as coronavirus continues to rock the nation, and primary elections have been delayed as Parties weigh implementing full mail-in or remote ballot casting.

The president's attack against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Monday comes after she issued an attack against him Sunday morning for his handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Trump's tirade against the House Speaker came after she blamed Trump on Sunday of exacerbating the coronavirus crisis in the U.S. 'As the president fiddles, people are dying,' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused of the president Sunday morning

The U.S. death toll from coronavirus surpassed 2,500 on Monday after skyrocketing over the weekend from 1,000 to 2,000 in the deadliest day yet

Democrats, Republicans and the White House have been forced to work in swift, bipartisan strokes to address the growing coronavirus crisis and help stimulate the economy and provide relief to suffering Americans.

The House passed a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package on Friday and Trump signed it into law shortly after. Not even 24 hours later, however, the U.S. death toll from coronavirus doubled, reaching 2,000 this weekend.

Even though the package was signed Friday, the GOP-controlled Senate first proposed the phase three massive relief bill on Sunday, but it was blocked two times first by Democrats before it was finally passed almost a full week later.

Pelosi, who represents San Francisco, blasted the president on Sunday for exacerbating the coronavirus crisis, claiming he denied the severity of the virus and delayed assistance for too long as the cases and deaths from coronavirus in the U.S. continue to skyrocket.

'As the president fiddles, people are dying,' she asserted on CNN's State of the Union Sunday morning.

'What the president  his denial at the beginning was deadly,' the House Speaker said. 'His delaying of getting equipment to where  it continues  his delaying getting equipment to where it's needed is deadly.'

'And now, I think the best thing would be to do is to prevent more loss of life rather than open things up so that  because we just don't know,' she continued, referencing Trump's sentiments that he wants to end state-wide lockdowns as early as Easter to get the economy back up and running.

'We have to have testing, testing, testing  that's what we said from the start  before we can evaluate what the nature of it is in some of these other regions, as well,' she continued. 'I don't know what the purpose of that is.'

.@SpeakerPelosi says the President downplaying the severity of #coronavirus is deadly."



As the President fiddles, people are dying. We just have to take every precaution. #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/y8bFNbaPJy  State of the Union (@CNNSotu) March 29, 2020

Pelosi also insinuated doubt over the information Trump was receiving from scientists and how much of that he is sharing with the public.

'I don't know what the scientists are saying to him,' the California Democrats lamented. 'What did he know and when did he know it? That's for an after-action review.'

In the days ahead of the death toll surge, Trump suggested relaxing federal guidelines for states and areas less affected by the virus  but Pelosi says this is a bad idea.

'This is such a very, very sad time for us. So we should be taking every precaution,' she told CNN's Jake Tapper.

U.S. markets have been extremely shaky since the outbreak, fluctuating immensely as hopes of economic relief packages went in and out over the last few weeks. Some days the Dow fell 2,000 points and others it recovered just as much.

Unemployment claims also reached an all-time-high last week when 3.3 million people filed for benefits  shattering the record-low unemployment levels reached under Trump.

Despite the criticism over his handling of the coronavirus outbreak from Democratic lawmakers, Trump's approval rating has surged to the highest of his presidency since the pandemic rocked the nation.

A poll released Friday from The Washington Post and ABC News showed Trump's approval rating bumped up to 48 per cent, the first time that particular poll tracked the president having a bigger approval than disapproval.
Supportive words from the UAE, coronavirus fears rise, regime attack thwarted in Idleb province, sophisticated anti-air weapons for the opposition and a Syrian man dies in Italy. Catch up on everything that happened over the weekend.

1. Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed expressed support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a Friday tweet, as it deals with the coronavirus outbreak, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported. Five cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Syria since Sunday, with rights groups deeply concerned about populations already pummelled by regime forces. The Crown Prince added he discussed COVID-19 updates with Assad and, assured him of the support of the UAE and its willingness to help the Syrian people.

2. The head of the of the Syrian National Coalition expressed concern on Thursday that the Syrian regime may leave prisoners to die if they contracted coronavirus, calling for the inspection of regime-run prisons for possible COVID-19 cases. According to the coalition website, Anas al-Abde urged the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to lead an examination for signs of the virus in regime-run jails, in a statement released on the SMDKs website. This plague can spread to prisons. The regime may use this situation for its own interest and get rid of the prisoners (by letting them die), Abde said.

3. Reports surfaced of the Turkish military transporting a US-made air defense system to the Idleb Governorate in northwestern Syria. According to Al-Masdar, the Turkish military sent a US-made MIMi-23 Hawk medium-range air defense system to the Idleb Governorate on Friday. Following these initial reports, video footage of the Turkish military transporting this air defense system through the Idleb Governorate was released on social media by opposition activists.

4. Turkish-backed forces on Saturday thwarted a Syrian regime attack in the southern region of Idleb province, a rebel source told Zaman al-Wasl. Fierce clashes were reported early on Saturday as the armys elite units seek to seize the villages of Sfouhn and al-Fatira in the Jabal al-Zawiya area. Turkey, which backs rebels opposed to Bashar al-Assad, agreed a ceasefire with Russia three weeks ago. Moscow supports Syrian regime forces.

5. Syrian and Russian coordination committees on the Return of Syrian Refugees affirmed that the US exploits the humanitarian situation in the al-Rukban Camp and transports equipment to terrorists under the pretext of medical and humanitarian aid deliveries to the besieged people in the camp, SANA reported. The US side seeks to make use of the spread of the coronavirus and tries to exert pressure on the UN to pass shipments and equipment to the terrorists under the pretext of medical and humanitarian aid to the besieged persons in the camp, the two committees said in a joint statement. The statement added that the humanitarian situation in the camp is an outcome of the illegal occupation of this part of Syria by the US.

6. A spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Peter Stano, has stressed that humanitarian and medical aid is allowed even under sanctions. According to Aki News Agency Stano said, In principle, when sanctions are economic and have to do with banning exports, food and medical aid are exempt and this is applicable to the current situation of the coronavirus outbreak, adding, Companies and concerned parties should be aware of this issue.

7. A 32-year-old Syrian psychiatrist died from COVID-19 on Friday in Italy, relatives said. According to Zaman Al Wasl, Dr. Iyad al-Deqer tested positive for coronavirus two weeks ago, before his death on Friday in the Italian city of Piacenza, south of Milan.

This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
Abdisalan Hassan, Nugaal region governor, killed after al-Shabab bomber rushed to his vehicle and detonated explosives.

A local official in northeastern Somalia has been killed in a suicide bomb blast claimed by the al-Shabab armed group, according to police and medical sources.

Abdisalan Hassan Hersi, governor of Nugaal region, succumbed to his wounds after being rushed to hospital in Garowe, the capital of Puntland where the blast occurred Sunday.

The doctors tried to save the governors life, but unfortunately he died from his injuries, Mohamed Weli, a police officer in Puntland, told AFP news agency by phone.

He was in a critical condition when he was admitted to hospital, Mohamed added.

A source at the hospital, who did not wish to be identified, said the governor died less than an hour after being admitted to the intensive care ward.

He was badly wounded in the blast, and he had little chance of surviving such serious injuries, the source told AFP.

A former police commander and a civilian also wounded in the blast were being treated in hospital, officials said on Monday.

Several witnesses described the attacker running at the governors vehicle before detonating a suicide vest, triggering an explosion.

Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-linked armed group fighting to overthrow Somalias internationally recognised government, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement.

The group was driven out of the capital, Mogadishu, in 2011 and lost most of their strongholds, but still control vast swathes of the countryside.
North Carolina now has widespread community spread of COVID-19, therefore, they are moving to a different phase of response efforts and is further increasing the population-based community reduction strategies, according to the health department. The goal is to decrease the spread of the virus among the population, especially those at highest risk, so that fewer people need medical care at the same time.

In addition, the county is implementing strategies to try to save supplies and critical workforce so that health care workers and first responders can care for people with more severe symptoms during the outbreak.

For those with mild symptoms, treatment is to focus on managing symptoms, stay hydrated and stay at home and isolated away from others as much as possible within the home. A test will not change how mild symptoms are managed.

The health department said new control measures that started today are:

 Residents are encouraged to call their medical provider if they have symptoms consistent with COVID-19 but they do not need to come out to be tested since it may spread the illness to others in the community, including those at higher risk of complications and health care workers.
Stormont's health committee is looking into whether it is possible for the Assembly to challenge and review Northern Ireland's new abortion laws.

It comes after DUP MLA Alex Easton raised the matter at the health committee meeting on Thursday - the day after the new legal framework for abortion in Northern Ireland was published by the Northern Ireland Office.

Under the new legislation, from tomorrow, abortion services will be available without restriction in Northern Ireland until the 12th week of pregnancy.

The service will also be available up until 24 weeks if the continuation of the pregnancy would involve a risk to the woman's physical or mental health greater than that of termination, while there is no time limit in cases of severe foetal impairment or fatal foetal abnormality, or if there is a risk of death or grave permanent injury to the pregnant woman.

The controversial changes have come about after Westminster intervened last year while there was no Assembly in place, following extensive legal wrangling on the issue.

Speaking after last Thursday's sitting of the health committee, Mr Easton said: "We want to see whether the Assembly can do something to challenge what Westminster are doing, what powers we have to change things now the law is in place.

"We have asked the clerk of the committee to check whether we can overturn what Westminster has put in place. I think the timing is a bit mischievous, that it is happening during the coronavirus outbreak, I think it has been done deliberately at this time.

"Some of the changes are horrendous. Babies can be aborted up to 24 weeks, which is a fully formed baby who can survive outside the womb."

During the committee meeting last Thursday, UUP MLA Alan Chambers warned that given the current circumstances, with a lockdown in place to slow the spread of coronavirus, it may be difficult to progress the matter despite the fact he has been inundated with emails from constituents.

He said: "The reality is if yesterday was the start date of that legislation, it's law - I don't know what the procedures are for changing it and it's very difficult because the Speaker has placed restrictions on private members bills and all sorts of things. I can't see how, I don't want to give people false hope."

Paula Bradshaw, Alliance Party health spokeswoman, said: "As Mr Easton well knows, access to safe abortion services is a requirement arising from legislation initially passed in the UK Parliament last summer, with the date of April 1 set in consequent regulations agreed by the UK Government three months ago. The requirement for services and information for pregnant women, particularly those enduring crisis pregnancies, has never been more profound than during the current health emergency in which pregnant women are an at-risk group.

"It is mischievous and unbecoming to engage in political games at this time. The Health Committee's job, if it is to have a role at all, is to ensure the legislation and regulations are implemented and pregnant women have access to services on the same basis as everywhere else in the UK and Ireland."
U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Mass., plans a second telephone town hall to update folks on the coronavirus pandemic and the medical, as well as governmental, response.

Its set for 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 31, at phone number 866-383-2731. Neals guest will Dr. James Lederer of Berkshire Health System in Pittsfield which is the parent of Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington and North Adams Campus of BMC .

Callers will get a chance to ask questions of Neal and Lederer. The congressman, who chairs the powerful House Committee on Ways and Means, had a similar event on March 18 with Dr. Mark Keroack, president and CEO of Baystate Health.

Neal also hosted an in-person round table with hospital leaders from across his district on March 6, before restrictions meant to stop the spread of the virus made such meetings impossible.

Lederer will brief listeners on what is being done in Berkshire County to combat COVID-19. He serves as chief medical and chief quality officer for Berkshire Health System. He is trained and board certified in infectious diseases from the University of Tennessee  Memphis, according to a news release.

Neal, D-Springfield, plans to talk about the passage last week of the CARES Act. The CARES Act is the $2.2 trillion economic stimulus and stabilization program that will -- among other things -- proved Americans with $1,200 checks in order to boost a sagging economy.

Other provisions will put more money into businesses and into the health care system.

Neal told reporters on a conference call Saturday said he expects this legislation passed Friday  the third new law passed in response to the coronavirus pandemic  will be followed by a fourth and possibly a fifth bill providing another stimulus payment and, he hopes, an infrastructure building program.

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In Saturdays instalment of Roald Dahls classic story, dentists wife Mrs Bixby received a magnificently luxurious mink coat from her lover as a farewell gift.

Unable to explain away such an expensive garment to the dull dentist, she came up with a brilliantly clever plan to fool her husband AND keep what was rightfully hers 

Darling, she said as she bent over and kissed her husband. Did you miss me?

Cyril Bixby laid down the evening paper and glanced at the watch on his wrist. Its twelve and a half minutes past six, he said. Youre a bit late, arent you?

I know. Its those dreadful trains. Aunt Maude sent you her love as usual. Im dying for a drink, arent you?

The husband folded his newspaper into a neat rectangle and placed it on the arm of his chair.

Then he stood up and crossed over to the sideboard. His wife remained in the centre of the room pulling off her gloves, watching him carefully, wondering how long she ought to wait.

He had his back to her now, bending forward to measure the gin, putting his face right up close to the measurer and peering into it as though it were a patients mouth.

There had been a time when she thought they were wonderful, those Edwardian jackets with high lapels and six buttons down the front, but now they merely seemed absurd. So did the narrow stovepipe trousers

It was funny how small he always looked after the Colonel. The Colonel was huge and bristly, and when you were near to him he smelled faintly of horseradish. This one was small and neat and bony and he didnt really smell of anything at all, except peppermint drops, which he sucked to keep his breath nice for the patients.

See what Ive bought for measuring the vermouth, he said, holding up a calibrated glass beaker. I can get it to the nearest milligram with this.

Darling, how clever.

I really must try to make him change the way he dresses, she told herself. His suits are just too ridiculous for words.

There had been a time when she thought they were wonderful, those Edwardian jackets with high lapels and six buttons down the front, but now they merely seemed absurd. So did the narrow stovepipe trousers.

You had to have a special sort of face to wear things like that, and Cyril just didnt have it.

His was a long bony countenance with a narrow nose and a slightly prognathous jaw, and when you saw it coming up out of the top of one of those tightly fitting old-fashioned suits it looked like a caricature of Sam Weller. He probably thought it looked like Beau Brummell.

It was a fact that in the office he invariably greeted female patients with his white coat unbuttoned so that they would catch a glimpse of the trappings underneath; and in some obscure way this was obviously meant to convey the impression that he was a bit of a dog. But Mrs Bixby knew better. The plumage was a bluff. It meant nothing.

It reminded her of an ageing peacock strutting on the lawn with only half its feathers left.

Or one of those fatuous self-fertilising flowers  like the dandelion. A dandelion never has to get fertilised for the setting of its seed, and all those brilliant yellow petals are just a waste of time, a boast, a masquerade.

Whats that word the biologists use? Subsexual. A dandelion is subsexual. So, for that matter, are the summer broods of water fleas. It sounds a bit like Lewis Carroll, she thought  water fleas and dandelions and dentists.

Thank you, darling, she said, taking the martini and seating herself on the sofa with her handbag on her lap.

And what did you do last night?

I stayed on in the office and cast a few inlays. I also got my accounts up to date.

Now really, Cyril, I think its high time you let other people do your donkey work for you. Youre much too important for that sort of thing. Why dont you give the inlays to the mechanic?

I prefer to do them myself. Im extremely proud of my inlays.

I know you are, darling, and I think theyre absolutely wonderful. Theyre the best inlays in the whole world. But I dont want you to burn yourself out. And why doesnt that Pulteney woman do the accounts? Thats part of her job, isnt it?

She does do them. But I have to price everything up first. She doesnt know whos rich and who isnt.

Mink! he cried. Real mink! At the sound of the magic word she opened her eyes quick, and at the same time she actually started forward in order to clasp the coat in her arms

This martini is perfect, Mrs Bixby said, setting down her glass on the side table. Quite perfect. She opened her bag and took out a handkerchief as if to blow her nose.

Oh look! she cried, seeing the ticket. I forgot to show you this! I found it just now on the seat of my taxi. Its got a number on it, and I thought it might be a lottery ticket or something, so I kept it.

She handed the small piece of stiff brown paper to her husband, who took it in his fingers and began examining it minutely from all angles, as though it were a suspect tooth.

You know what this is? he said slowly.

No dear, I dont.

Its a pawn ticket.

A what?

A ticket from a pawnbroker. Heres the name and address of the shop  somewhere on Sixth Avenue.

Oh dear, I am disappointed. I was hoping it might be a ticket for the Irish Sweep.

Theres no reason to be disappointed, Cyril Bixby said. As a matter of fact this could be rather amusing.

Why could it be amusing, darling?

He began explaining to her exactly how a pawn ticket worked, with particular reference to the fact that anyone possessing the ticket was entitled to claim the article. She listened patiently until he had finished his lecture.

You think its worth claiming? she asked.

I think its worth finding out what it is. You see this figure of fifty dollars thats written here? You know what that means?

No, dear, what does it mean?

It means that the item in question is almost certain to be something quite valuable.

You mean itll be worth fifty dollars?

More like five hundred.

Five hundred!

Dont you understand? he said. A pawnbroker never gives you more than about a tenth of the real value.

Good gracious! I never knew that.

Theres a lot of things you dont know, my dear. Now you listen to me. Seeing that theres no name and address of the owner...

But surely theres something to say who it belongs to?

Not a thing. People often do that. They dont want anyone to know theyve been to a pawnbroker. Theyre ashamed of it.

Then you think we can keep it?

Of course we can keep it. This is now our ticket.

You mean my ticket, Mrs Bixby said firmly. I found it.

My dear girl, what does it matter? The important thing is that we are now in a position to go and redeem it any time we like for only fifty dollars. How about that?

Oh, what fun! she cried. I think its terribly exciting, especially when we dont even know what it is. It could be anything, isnt that right, Cyril? Absolutely anything!

It could indeed, although its most likely to be either a ring or a watch.

But wouldnt it be marvellous if it was a real treasure? I mean something really old, like a wonderful old vase or a Roman statue.

Theres no knowing what it might be, my dear. We shall just have to wait and see.

I think its absolutely fascinating! Give me the ticket and Ill rush over first thing Monday morning and find out!

I think Id better do that.

Oh no! she cried. Let me do it!

I think not. Ill pick it up on my way to work.

But its my ticket! Please let me do it, Cyril! Why should you have all the fun?

You dont know these pawnbrokers, my dear. Youre liable to get cheated.

I wouldnt get cheated, honestly I wouldnt. Give it to me, please.

Also you have to have fifty dollars, he said, smiling. You have to pay out fifty dollars in cash before theyll give it to you.

Ive got that, she said. I think.

Id rather you didnt handle it, if you dont mind.

But Cyril, I found it. Its mine. Whatever it is, its mine, isnt that right?

Of course its yours, my dear. Theres no need to get so worked up about it.

Im not. Just excited, thats all.

I suppose it hasnt occurred to you that this might be something entirely masculine  a pocket-watch, for example, or a set of shirt-studs. It isnt only women that go to pawnbrokers, you know.

In that case Ill give it to you for Christmas, Mrs Bixby said magnanimously. Ill be delighted. But if its a womans thing, I want it myself. Is that agreed?

That sounds very fair. Why dont you come with me when I collect it?

Mrs Bixby was about to say yes to this, but caught herself just in time. She had no wish to be greeted like an old customer by the pawnbroker in her husbands presence.

No, she said slowly. I dont think I will. You see, itll be even more thrilling if I stay behind and wait. Oh, I do hope it isnt going to be something that neither of us wants.

Youve got a point there, he said. If I dont think its worth fifty dollars, I wont even take it.

But you said it would be worth five hundred.

Im quite sure it will. Dont worry.

Oh, Cyril, I can hardly wait! Isnt it exciting?

Its amusing, he said, slipping the ticket into his waistcoat pocket. Theres no doubt about that.

Monday morning came at last, and after breakfast Mrs Bixby followed her husband to the door and helped him on with his coat.

Dont work too hard, darling, she said.

No, all right.

Home at six?

I hope so.

Are you going to have time to go to that pawnbroker? she asked.

In Saturdays instalment of Roald Dahls classic story, dentists wife Mrs Bixby received a magnificently luxurious mink coat from her lover as a farewell gift. The author is pictured above

My God, I forgot all about it. Ill take a cab and go there now. Its on my way.

You havent lost the ticket, have you?

I hope not, he said, feeling in his waistcoat pocket.

No, here it is.

And you have enough money?

Just about.

Darling, she said, standing close to him and straightening his tie, which was perfectly straight. If it happens to be something nice, something you think I might like, will you telephone me as soon as you get to the office?

If you want me to, yes.

You know, Im sort of hoping itll be something for you, Cyril. Id much rather it was for you than for me.

Thats very generous of you, my dear. Now I must run.

About an hour later, when the telephone rang, Mrs Bixby was across the room so fast she had the receiver off the hook before the first ring had finished.

I got it! he said.

You did! Oh, Cyril, what was it? Was it something good?

Good! he cried. Its fantastic! You wait till you get your eyes on this! Youll swoon!

Darling, what is it? Tell me quick!

Youre a lucky girl, thats what you are.

Its for me, then?

Of course its for you. Though how in the world it ever got to be pawned for only fifty dollars Ill be damned if I know. Someones crazy.

Cyril! Stop keeping me in suspense! I cant bear it!

Youll go mad when you see it.

What is it?

Try to guess.

Mrs Bixby paused. Be careful, she told herself. Be very careful now.

A necklace, she said.

Wrong.

A diamond ring.

Youre not even warm. Ill give you a hint. Its something you can wear.

Something I can wear? You mean like a hat?

No, its not a hat, he said, laughing.

For goodness sake, Cyril! Why dont you tell me?

Because I want it to be a surprise. Ill bring it home with me this evening.

Youll do nothing of the sort! she cried. Im coming right down there to get it now!

Id rather you didnt do that.

Dont be so silly, darling. Why shouldnt I come?

Because Im too busy. Youll disorganise my whole morning schedule. Im half an hour behind already.

Then Ill come in the lunch hour. All right?

Im not having a lunch hour. Oh well, come at one thirty then, while Im having a sandwich. Goodbye.

At half past one precisely, Mrs Bixby arrived at Dr Bixbys place of business and rang the bell. Her husband, in his white dentists coat, opened the door himself.

Oh, Cyril, Im so excited!

So you should be. Youre a lucky girl, did you know that? He led her down the passage and into the surgery.

Go and have your lunch, Miss Pulteney, he said to the assistant, who was busy putting instruments into the steriliser.

You can finish that when you come back.

About an hour later, when the telephone rang, Mrs Bixby was across the room so fast she had the receiver off the hook before the first ring had finished. I got it! he said

He waited until the girl had gone, then he walked over to a closet that he used for hanging up his clothes and stood in front of it, pointing with his finger.

Its in there, he said. Now shut your eyes.

Mrs Bixby did as she was told. Then she took a deep breath and held it, and in the silence that followed she could hear him opening the cupboard door and there was a soft swishing sound as he pulled out a garment from among the other things hanging there.

All right! You can look!

I dont dare to, she said, laughing.

Go on. Take a peek.

Coyly, beginning to giggle, she raised one eyelid a fraction of an inch, just enough to give her a dark blurry view of the man standing there in his white overalls holding something up in the air.

Mink! he cried. Real mink!

At the sound of the magic word she opened her eyes quick, and at the same time she actually started forward in order to clasp the coat in her arms.

But there was no coat. There was only a ridiculous little fur neckpiece dangling from her husbands hand. Feast your eyes on that! he said, waving it in front of her face.

Mrs Bixby put a hand up to her mouth and started backing away. Im going to scream, she told herself. I just know it. Im going to scream.

Whats the matter, my dear? Dont you like it? He stopped waving the fur and stood staring at her, waiting for her to say something.

Why yes, she stammered. I... I... think its... its lovely... really lovely.

Quite took your breath away for a moment there, didnt it?

Yes, it did.

Magnificent quality, he said. Fine colour, too. You know something, my dear? I reckon a piece like this would cost you two or three hundred dollars at least if you had to buy it in a shop.

I dont doubt it.

There were two skins, two narrow mangy-looking skins with their heads still on them and glass beads in their eye sockets and little paws hanging down. One of them had the rear end of the other in its mouth, biting it.

Here, he said. Try it on. He leaned forward and draped the thing round her neck, then stepped back to admire. Its perfect. It really suits you. It isnt everyone who has mink, my dear.

No, it isnt.

Better leave it behind when you go shopping or theyll all think were millionaires and start charging us double.

Ill try to remember that, Cyril.

Im afraid you mustnt expect anything else for Christmas. Fifty dollars was rather more than I was going to spend anyway.

He turned away and went over to the basin and began washing his hands.

Run along now, my dear, and buy yourself a nice lunch. Id take you out myself but Ive got old man Gorman in the waiting-room with a broken clasp on his denture.

Mrs Bixby moved towards the door. Im going to kill that pawnbroker, she told herself. Im going right back there to the shop this very minute and Im going to throw this filthy neckpiece right in his face and if he refuses to give me back my coat Im going to kill him.

Did I tell you I was going to be late home tonight? Cyril Bixby said, still washing his hands.

No.

Itll probably be at least eight thirty the way things look at the moment. It may even be nine.

Yes, all right. Goodbye. Mrs Bixby went out, slamming the door behind her.

At that precise moment, Miss Pulteney, the secretary assistant, came sailing past her down the corridor on her way to lunch.

Isnt it a gorgeous day? Miss Pulteney said as she went by, flashing a smile.

There was a lilt in her walk, a little whiff of perfume attending her, and she looked like a queen, just exactly like a queen in the beautiful black mink coat that the Colonel had given to Mrs Bixby.

Mrs Bixby And The Colonels Coat was first published in 1959 and is taken from Cruelty: Tales Of Malice And Greed, by Roald Dahl, published by Penguin and available in paperback at 8.99, ebook and audiobook.  The Roald Dahl Story Company Ltd
LET EM STARVE MENZIES POSES AS CHRISTIAN SAINT

Communism, said Mr Menzies in his policy speech, has nothing in common with the Christian gospel of love and brotherhood.

Menzies whole life, of course, has been one shining example of Christian love and brotherhood.

Here are a few examples: 

LET THEM STARVE

In Wesley Church. Melbourne on 3rd May 1931, in the midst of the depression, Menzies said: Rather than that we should fail to pay our honest debts to our bondholders, I would prefer to see every man, woman and child in Australia die of starvation in the next six months.

PROUD OF KOREA

Menzies stated he was proud of Korea. This means he agrees with the Christian general MacArthur, who, as he gazed on the dead bodies of Koreans at Inchon, on 17th September 1950, said: Thats a good sight for my old eyes.

GAS OVEN MURDER

I thought myself it was a great thing for Germany to have arms, said Menzies according to the Telegraph, 12th December 1933. This policy of arming Hitler led to the murder of millions of people, including the mass killing of civilians in gas ovens.

ATOM BOMB TORTURE

The terrible death and torture of millions of civilians was advocated by Menzies at a Sydney Town Hall meeting when, answering an interjector, he advocated solving the Berlin crisis by using the atom bomb.

GREAT SELF-SEEKER

Menzies colleague W M Hughes described Menzies Christian character when he called him the great self-seeker, the man behind the scenes in every intrigue, the fountainhead of every whispering campaign, the destroyer of unity.

PROFITS FROM DEATH

Menzies has admitted in Parliament that his friends are shareholders in the big monopolies now making swollen profits from the dead bodies in Korea and the drive to world war.

It is because Communists oppose this drive to war that Menzies attacks them. Communists can be proud that they are singled out for attack by a man with such a record.

This article originally appeared in Tribune in April, 1951.
Chairman Of The Board, Paa Kwasi Yankey

30.03.2020 LISTEN

Zeepay, a leading African fintech giant that operates as a mobile financial services company from Ghana, covering an additional 20 other African markets and still growing, has been granted a license to operate a full Electronic Money Issuer service otherwise known as Mobile Money by the Bank of Ghana.

The service will allow Zeepays subscribers to operate the full bouquet of mobile money services such as Cash In, Cash Out, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Transfers, Payments and Digital Termination of Remittances (DTR).

What this means is that Zeepay customers can now send and receive money across over 150,000 agent network available and also perform other related services out of Zeepays full bouquet such as - remittances, micro insurance, auto insurance, mortgage remit, airtime top up, bill payment and pension collections all in partnership with third parties - such as insurance companies, banks, and pension trustees amongst others.

Chairman of the Board, Paa Kwasi Yankey mentioned that the new Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) license will enable Zeepay to extend its current services within the Mobile Financial Services Industry.

He reiterated that, Bank of Ghanas approval is a historic landmark, considering that Zeepay is the first Non-Bank Financial Services to be so issued. He further intimated this is also a testament of the President Akuffo-Addo led administrations commitment to empowering Ghanaians and start-ups.

I am excited and believe that this landmark approval will open doors for Zeepay across the African continent - where we have significant operations in countries such as Uganda, Mozambique, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Cameroun, Ivory Coast, Guinea amongst others.

Andrew Takyi-Appiah, Managing Director noted that since 2014 when Zeepay embarked on this journey, the company has never stopped to innovate- from being the first to introduce Tap & Pay services to mobile money, PoS acquiring for mobile money wallets and digital termination of remittances to mobile wallets.

We are deeply humbled and grateful to the Bank of Ghana for this approval. Especially to the Leadership of Bank of Ghana. We will like to express our gratitude to our shareholders Kwame Achampong-Kyei, Zoe Phillips, Paa Kwasi Yankey and Aaron Sackey for all their relentless support and our partners the likes of MoneyGram, Small World, Thunes, RIA, DMA Consulting, Barclays Bank, GTBank, Access Bank, ADB bank, FAB Bank, Bank of Africa and all our Board members; including John Gely and Patrick of MoneyGram, Natasha and Nick Day of Small World and Robert Kotei of RIA and AB, Sandra Yao and Djibril and others for believing in us.

Mr. Takyi-Appiah further mentioned that Central Banks in Africa should follow the lead of Ghana and go a step further to recognize such approvals in their markets through Passporting like it's done in Europe. Where Zeepay is regulated across all 28 countries through similar Passporting arrangements from the United Kingdom.

The approval will enable Zeepay improve last mile access to financial services for over 20million Ghanaians while offering safety, convenience and significant cost savings. We look forward to exciting times ahead, where in partnership with banks, insurance companies, fintechs, application service providers and pension fund managers amongst others, we offer mobile financial services products to our large pull of over 2million users across Ghana.

Head of Commercial at Zeepay, Dede Quarshie further expressed the companys gratitude and profound appreciation to the central bank and the payment systems team for their tremendous support.
New Delhi, March 31 : The Reserve Bank on Monday notified that some categories of government securities will be opened fully for non-resident investors, and will continue to be open for the domestic investors.

At present, G-secs are not fully opened for subscription by non-resident investors.

The RBI, in a notification on Monday, said: "A reference is also invited to the announcement made in the Union Budget 2020-21 that certain specified categories of Central Government securities would be opened fully for non-resident investors without any restrictions, apart from being available to domestic investors as well." "Accordingly, it has been decided, in consultation with the Government of India, to introduce a separate route viz., Fully Accessible Route (FAR) for investment by non-residents in securities issued by the Government of India." "These directions shall come into effect from April 1, 2020." In another notification, the RBI said that it shall notify the government securities that shall be eligible for investment under the FAR.

"These securities will continue to be eligible for investment by residents. 'Specified securities', once so designated, shall remain eligible for investment under the FAR until maturity," the notification said.

"... In addition, all new issuances of Government securities of 5-year, 10-year and 30-year tenors from the financial year 2020-21 will be eligible for investment under the FAR as 'specified securities'. The Reserve Bank may add new tenors or change the tenors of new securities to be designated as 'specified securities' from time to time." Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced in the Union Budget that NRIs will be allowed to invest in certain categories of G-secs.
Police in southern Vietnam arrested two men who had escaped from quarantine facilities in Kien Giang and Tay Ninh Provinces over the weekend.

Bui Ngoc Thuan, 27, from Kien Giangs Ha Tien Town, is a hired worker in Cambodia. He was sent to a quarantine camp when he returned via the Ha Tien International Border Gate last Friday.

That night, he escaped the facility, took a taxi and a motorbike taxi ride back to see his and his wifes families.

Authorities noticed and visited his house the next morning to convince him to cooperate with quarantine rules. But Thuan refused to listen and started throwing stuff from inside his house. He was later arrested by the police.

Thuans wife and his mother had also been sent to a quarantine camp.

Thuan initially acknowledged his misconduct but continued to protest Sunday afternoon, failing to comply with the rules, so he has been placed under close monitoring.

Local officials said Thuan and his relatives are in stable health. They are looking for the taxi, motorbike taxi drivers, and asking those whod come in contact with Thuan to quarantine themselves at the facility.

They are also making an official record of his violations for further action.

Earlier, in Tay Ninh Province, officials said a Vietnamese man quarantined on return from Cambodia has escaped and not been tested for Covid-19.

Nguyen Van Cuong, deputy director of Tay Ninh Province's Department of Health, said that he has sent an urgent notice to local and nearby authorities to look for 29-year-old Le Van Vu of Soc Trang Province.

Vu was found missing at a quarantine facility in Ben Cau District Sunday morning. He had entered Vietnam from Cambodia via the Moc Bai International Border Gate on March 19. He made a medical declaration and was taken to the quarantine camp in Ben Cau District.

On Sunday morning, local authorities discovered that Vu had fled the camp. His swab samples had not been tested for the Covid-19 virus.

Police later found him in Saigons Tan Phu District Sunday evening and took him back to the quarantine camp. Details of other follow up actions taken were not available immediately.

Tay Ninh Police are still looking for another man, Nguyen Thanh Nam, 28-year-old from Hanoi, who escaped from a province's quarantine camp on Sunday afternoon before receiving any Covid-19 tests.

Nam was put in quarantine after entering Moc Bai border gate in Tay Ninh from Cambodia on March 20.

A few days ago, Hanoi police had caught another quarantine escapee after she boarded a plane to the U.K. In that case, authorities were criticized for imposing a paltry fine of VND10 million ($423) on the 25-year-old woman, a resident of Hanoi's Long Bien District. Shed been quarantined after having direct contact with a Covid-19 patient. Several other cases of cases of people trying to escape quarantine camps have been reported.

Vietnam has recorded 194 Covid-19 infections so far. Of these, 25 have been discharged from hospitals.
The Delhi University on Monday proposed to contribute one day's salary of its staffers to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) in the wake of coronavirus outbreak.

The university has also formed a task force to take stock of the situation arising due to the coronavirus pandemic and to make recommendations towards academic and administrative responsibilities in the emerging circumstances.

The Delhi University said enormous financial resources will be required by the Centre to combat the emerging situation and to help fellow citizens.

"The university has proposed to contribute one day's salary of teaching and non-teaching staff to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF)," it said in a statement.

"In this context, a mobile app is being developed so that employees who wish to contribute more to PMNRF in such unprecedented circumstances can do the needful," the statement said.

To provide learning support to the students, DU has integrated Google Services to the university's domain.

Two major apps -- Google Classes and Google Hangout -- have been integrated which can be used by all the faculty members to teach the students, using their email to access, according to the statement.

The university said it has made arrangements to provide all basic amenities to students staying in hostels.

"Mess facility is operational in university-maintained hostels," the statement said.

The World University Services (WUS) Health Centre at North Campus has facility of doctors, paramedics and ambulance available round the clock.

The WUS Health Centre at South Campus, East Delhi (Dr BR Ambedkar College) and West Delhi (Shivaji College) have doctors and paramedics.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Spanish government this weekend opted to impose stricter confinement measures on residents of Spain in a bid to halt the spread of the coronavirus. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Saturday the halt of all non-essential activities starting today, Monday March 30, until Thursday April 9, both inclusive. April 10 is a national holiday in Spain for Easter Friday.

The measure, which was approved on Sunday at an extraordinary Cabinet meeting, is aimed at limiting as much as possible the circulation of persons and thus flattening the curve of infections. Here is a list of questions and answers about the new rules, which will go into effect from today.

Which activities are considered to be essential?

Essential services are those considered necessary for the maintenance of basic social functions (health, security, social and economic wellbeing of citizens), or the efficient working of the institutions of state and public administrations, such as the health sector, security forces, telecommunications and the power sector. The royal decree that was published late on Sunday night includes an appendix with 25 points that detail the activities that will continue to function.

Among them, are those that were already included in a number of articles from the March 14 royal decree that put the state of alarm into place: retail establishments selling foodstuffs, drinks, and essential products and goods; pharmacies, doctors, opticians and stores selling orthopedic products or health products; press and stationery; IT and telecommunications vendors; pet food vendors; commerce sold online, via phone, or correspondence; launderettes; food-delivery businesses; activities needed to guarantee the power supply; and companies related to petroleum and natural gas derivatives.

Whats more, all companies that supply products and services to these essential activities, such as those that guarantee the stock of foodstuffs and drinks, hygienic products and medication, will continue to operate.

Also operational will be banking services, lawyers and notaries, as well as telecommunications, audiovisual and essential IT service companies, trash collection, cleaning services and organizations that offer protection and attention to gender violence victims, or those who assist dependants or the disabled.

What will happen to employees?

The paralyzation of non-essential activities does not mean that workers will not get their salaries. They will continue to be paid as normal by their companies under a system of paid recoverable leave. When the emergency situation is over, they will work the hours they missed on a gradual basis.

What happens if activity cannot be interrupted at once?

In Article 5, the decree recognizes that companies can continue working today, Monday, in the case that it is impossible to immediately interrupt activity. The text details, however, that this situation is permitted with the only aim of carrying out the essential tasks in order to make the recoverable paid leave effective and ensuring activity can be restarted after the said time period.

Does the measure affect home working?

Labor Minister Yolanda Diaz explained on Sunday after the Cabinet meeting that home working is not affected by the measure. Thats to say, that in cases where employees can work from home, they should continue to do so.

What about employees whose jobs have been suspended?

A wide range of companies in Spain have already temporarily suspended their workers jobs using a mechanism known in Spanish by the initials ERTE. Finance Minister and government spokesperson Maria Jesus Montero and the labor minister specified that the paid recoverable leave plan will not affect employees who are already remote working, those who have been subject to an ERTE, those who are off work due to temporary incapacitation or paternity or maternity leave, those who work in essential services or those who work in activities that have had to close as a result of the declaration of the state of alarm.

When will the hours missed have to be worked?

Diaz said on Sunday that the efforts to overcome the crisis would have to be made both by companies and workers. She clarified that while companies would have to guarantee the salaries of their workers, employees, for their part, would have to pay back the hours not worked before December 31. We are talking about 15 days, but in reality they are eight working days, Diaz explained, given that Thursday and Friday of Easter week are holidays in most of Spains regions.

These are not obligatory vacation days, Diaz added. We will let each sector negotiate how it will manage the payback of the hours. These are days that must be returned, and there is a time frame to do so up to December 31, 2020.

How will the hours be paid back?

The labor minister did not specify how many workers will be affected by the measure, and said that the hours must be paid back in accordance with Article 34 of the Workers Statute: respecting daily and weekly rest breaks, and being compatible with the right to conciliation. As such, she added that negotiation mechanisms have been created with the main unions and representatives from each sector to decide how to organize the payback. Smaller companies that have no union representation will be dealt with on an ad hoc basis.

Can ERTEs no longer be filed?

Diaz explained that the new measure does not mean that companies will no longer be able to file ERTEs. In cases where workers are subject to an ERTE to reduce their working day (i.e. where activity is not completely suspended), the hours that were being worked will now be covered by this recoverable paid leave.

English version by Simon Hunter.
YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. Young people who are heavy smokers are facing a potentially fatal outcome in the event of contracting the novel coronavirus, Armenias healthcare minister Arsen Torosyan has warned.

He was speaking at the Cabinet meeting in response to PM Nikol Pashinyans question on the global death rate from the virus and if rumors on young fatalties are true.

Torosyan said the statistics varies from country to country, depending on the given countrys lifestyle. For example, if we were to have a 30-year-old patient who smokes 3 packs of cigarettes a day, then we will potentially be unable to save this patient, and we will have a young fatality, he said.

Speaking about the statistics in neighboring countries, Torosyan that they have unconfirmed reports that in one of the neighboring countries there are a large number of patients below the age of 40 who are on ventilation devices. We must clarify the health condition of these patients. If its what I was talking about, meaning they lead an unhealthy lifestyle, then they are potentially at-risk, Torosyan said.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
Hyderabad, March 31 : Alarm bells began to ring loud late on Monday night, with a cryptic tweet by Telangana Chief Minister's Office announcing the death of six people due to COVID-19.

After it emerged that all six of the COVID-19 fatalities in Telangana had attended a religious congregation at Nizamuddin in the national capital, the state has intensified its efforts to locate all those who returned from the event and trace their the contact trail.

The tweet from the Telangana CMO stated, "Six people from Telangana who attended a religious congregation at Markaz in Nizamuddin area of New Delhi from 13-15 March succumbed after they contracted coronavirus. Two died in Gandhi Hospital while one each died in Apollo Hospital, Global Hospital, Nizamabad and Gadwal." It is believed that the deceased had come in contact with many people before they were tested positive and isolated. Identifying the contacts is a herculean task for the state government considering the time and distance that the deceased had travelled before they were contained.

While the authorities have identified and quarantined some of the people who had come in contact with the deceased, the possibility of many people not coming forward to own up is very strong.

The state government is seeking cooperation from all those persons who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat at the Markaz mosque in Nizamuddin between March 13 and March 15.

As per a statement issued by the state government on Monday, some of the attendees at the congregation have their origins in Telangana.

Earlier on Monday evening, the state medical departments media bulletin had stated that six people have tested positive for COVID-19 while one person died of the infection.

The state's first COVID-19 fatality had taken place on Saturday.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
LANSING, MI - Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is investigating an Ann Arbor-area cleaning supply business on suspicion of price gouging in sales of hand sanitizer amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Nessels office on Friday, March 27 petitioned for investigative subpoenas requiring A.M. Cleaning & Supplies LLC, 4659 Washtenaw Ave. in Pittsfield Township, to provide information related to product sales. Washtenaw County Circuit Judge David Swartz has approved the request, Nessel announced Monday.

Eleven people filed complaints alleging store owner Anthony Marshall raised prices on products such as Purell hand sanitizer eight-fold, according to the attorney generals petition. On March 7, the store posted a message on Twitter advertising Purell at $60 for a 12-ounce bottle, $40 for an 8-ounce bottle and $20 for a 4-ounce bottle, according to the petition.

The petition also showed that on March 3, the store tweeted that the same-sized bottles were priced at $7.50, $5 and $2.50, respectively.

If proven, the price hikes would be a violation of the Michigan Consumer Protection Act for charging the consumer a price that is grossly in excess of the price at which similar property or services are sold, according to the attorney generals office.

Legal recourse is not the preferred option, but my office will take any necessary steps to determine whether reports of price-gouging are valid, Nessel said in a statement. Businesses must play by the rules and if a company is breaking the law, we will hold it accountable. Michigan consumers looking to buy products they need or to protect their health during this pandemic will not be subjected to excessively high prices.

A message seeking comment was left with Marshall.

In a letter to the attorney generals office included as an exhibit in Nessels court filing, Marshall claimed a photo posted to social media misrepresented the actual pricing of his products.

I decided to break apart the 8 packs and sell them at their individual marked prices of $7.50, $5.00, and $2.50, but the photo in question was taken when the shelves were in the middle of being restocked and it is misleading of actual prices because the bottles in the photo LOOK LIKE they are on the shelf as being sold individually, but for 8 pack pricing, Marshal wrote. Once the shelf was fully restocked, the price tags were changed to reflect their individual prices of $7.50, $5.00, and $2.50, therefore, the re-posting of actual prices. I want to make it clear that I was not trying to sell individual bottles of Purell at the prices listed in the photo and that the negative reviews and complaints that you received have come from online people, that have not been actual customers and are only responding based on that 1 misleading photo.

Also included as an exhibit in Nessels court filing was a photo of a receipt provided by a customer who purchased a 12-ounce bottle for $36. Based on similar complaints and conflicting statements from the store, Nessels office sent the store a cease and desist letter on March 11.

After Nessel warned Michigan businesses on March 12 that coronavirus-related price-gouging was unacceptable, her office has received more than 2,000 complaints statewide. That includes 1,121 complaints made through the Consumer Protection tip line and just under 1,000 filed online, the attorney generals office said.

Consumers can file a complaint online or by calling the Consumer Protection tip line, 877-765-8388. Hours of operation are between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Read all of MLives coverage on the coronavirus outbreak at mlive.com/coronavirus.

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores.

Read more on coronavirus in Michigan:

Monday, March 30: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Michigan coronavirus numbers now at 6,498 -- up 1,012 cases

5 new COVID-19 cases in Livingston County after weekend spike
The only right decision is to send everyone who returns to observation

Viktor Lyashko Open source

The total polymerase chain reaction testing of all people who returned from abroad is economically unreasonably as 112 Ukraine TV channel reported citing Deputy Healthcare Minister and Chief Sanitary Inspector Viktor Lyashko.

Why we do not hold the total testing? There is no sense as there is such term as the incubation period. It will not be grounded economically and epidemically, he noted.

Lyashko added that the only decision, in this case, is the observation of everyone who comes to Ukraine.

Yesterday, the government ordered to oblige everyone returning to Ukraine to pass observation in the place determined by the regional state administrations. Moreover, the regulation obliges to self-isolate each contact person. If self-isolation cannot be provided at home, they will be sent to observation, Lyashko added.

As we reported, in Ukraine, the number of patients, infected with Covid-19, has increased to 480. In the past 24 hours, 62 new cases have been registered.
Nigeria has tested over 2,000 people for COVID-19, an official has said, with less than 10 per cent testing positive.

The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu, also said the agency was working to track about 6,000 people who have been in contact with persons who tested positive to COVID-19.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how a total of 111 people have tested positive to the virus, as of Sunday night, according to the NCDC.

Mr Ihekweazu spoke on Monday morning on Channels Television, several hours after President Muhammadu Buhari addressed Nigerians about the disease and the administrations effort to combat it.

Mr Buhari, as part of the measures to check the spread of the disease, announced a lockdown of Lagos and Abuja, the two most affected states by the virus, as well s Ogun, due to its proximity to Lagos.

Currently, Lagos has 68 cases; Abuja  21, Ogun  three, Ekiti  one, Oyo  seven, Osun  two, Enugu  two, Edo  two, Bauchi  two, while Benue, Kaduna and Rivers have one case respectively.

Health minister Osagie Ehanire, hours after the presidents speech, said the lockdown will allow the government to trace those who have been in contact with those who have tested positive to COVID-19.

Osagie Ehanire [PHOTO CREDIT: @TheglobalhintC]

Mr Ihekweazu reiterated a similar view, adding that the confirmed COVID-19 cases are expected to rise.

In the short-term, the numbers of confirmed cases of COVID-19 are expected to keep rising, but NCDC also expect to be able to get on top of this, Mr Ihekweazu said.

We expect cases of COVID-19 to rise as we improve capacity to detect and test. Our laboratories are activated to function 24/7.

Chikwe Ihekweazu, CEO, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

We appeal to Nigerians to work with us in compliance with the measures instituted by the president, he added.

The NCDC chief said there was a need to prevent further transmission of the virus. He noted that the presidents speech was a call for Nigerians to come together.

He added that the measures that have been implemented would work in curbing the spread of the virus.

He, however, appealed to Nigerians to bear the few weeks of pain that would come.

The NCDC boss said that Nigeria has been lucky not to have had too many severe cases of COVID-19.

He disclosed that NCDC has currently tested well over 2,000 people and has also increased the number of laboratories in its network.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the NCDC increased the number of its testing laboratories from five to six, a figure expected to rise to seven by Monday.

Everyday NCDC are improving the turnaround time, Mr Ihekweazu said.

We are being bogged down by people who do not require the test. So we have to manage demand. We have to focus on those who need it the most.

The duration between testing and results depends on several factors. But it is between 24 to 48 hours. Our target is to get results out in 12 hours, he said.

The NCDC chief said that the success of the measures put in place to contain COVID-19 would depend largely on the willingness of Nigerians to work with the NCDC team. He added that the laboratories being used for testing would soon be increased.

President Muhammadu Buhari

Our team is working round the clock to improve turn-around time for testing in all our six molecular laboratories.

We aim to scale up to 13 labs in the next three weeks. In progress- Abakaliki, Maiduguri, Kano, Sokoto, Port-Harcourt, Jos and Kaduna States, he said.

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The NCDC chief said that the laboratories would also provide diagnostic support for a number of states in the country.

He acknowledged not knowing if people who recover test positive again. He added that there were a lot NCDC and the world does not know yet about the disease which has caused thousands of deaths globally.

He, however, added that the NCDCs ability to check the spread of COVID-19 will depend on all Nigerians.

Our goal is to mobilise all available resources to tackle COVID-19. We remain grateful for the support we have received so far from stakeholders and partners, he noted.

AIR/SH
EAST LANSING, MI  Despite some early pushback, social distancing appears to be taking hold in East Lansing, the home of Michigan State University.

So much so that the East Lansing Police Department is starting to miss one of its most tedious jobs.

You know its bad when we miss getting called to the bars to check fake IDs, the department tweeted on Sunday, adding the hashtag #socialdistancing.

You know its bad when we miss getting called to the bars to check fake IDs..#SocialDistancing  East Lansing Police (@EastLansingPD) March 29, 2020

Bars and restaurants across Michigan have been closed since March 16 when Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued a sweeping executive order to temporarily close dine-in services while also shutting down theaters, fitness centers and various other public spaces in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in the state.

In-person classes at Michigan State, and at schools across the state, have been moved online.

Ironically, college towns like East Lansing likely contributed to the order. Footage of students trying to get into East Lansing bars showed lines stretching around the block in the early days of the virus arrival in Michigan, prompting many to call for the shutdown of bars and restaurants.

Whitmers order was issued a few days later, so those fake IDs are currently worthless. East Lansing police will have to find something else to do for the time being.
Amid the ongoing Coronavirus crisis, Mumbai's Charkop Police on Monday arrested two persons for illegally hoarding around 10,000 bottles of hand sanitisers for black marketing. The accused arrested by the cops are a resident of Kandivali and were arrested under multiple sections of The Essential Commodities Act.

"The worth of hand sanitisers is Rs 10,28,500. There were 7,500 bottles of 500 ml and 2,300 of 100 ml," said the police.

READ | Hyderabad Police arrests 3 for the illegal sale of duplicate hand sanitisers

Hyderabad Police arrests 3 for illegal sale of duplicate hand sanitisers

Earlier on Sunday, the Hyderabad Police arrested three persons for illegally selling duplicate hand sanitisers amid the Coronavirus crisis. According to reports, the police also seized around 188 bottles of duplicate instant hand sanitiser liquid worth Rs 20,000.

As per the official release from Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Chakravarthy Gummi, the sleuths of Commissioners Task Force, South Zone Team, Hyderabad, along with Mirchowk and Bhavani Nagar Police conducted a joint operation and busted duplicate hand sanitiser sellers at Murad Mahal Road and Sara Medical, Mirchowk, Hyderabad respectively on March 27.

According to the official release, the accused have been identified as Mohd Shakeeluddin, Syed Azher Hussain, Abdul Wajid, and Mohd Abdul Wasey.

READ | Coronavirus LIVE Updates: India at 'local transmission' stage; total cases at 1071

Coronavirus crisis in India

As of date, over 1071 positive cases have been reported of the pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) and at least 29 deaths have been reported to date. India has suspended all visas and barred travel from Afghanistan, Philippines, EU, UK, China, Malaysia and mandatory 14-day quarantine from several other countries and a complete nationwide lockdown till April 14 has been imposed.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a relief package for the poor and the affected persons due to the deadly Coronavirus. According to the minister, the package is worth Rs 1.7 lakh crore, under the Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Yojana. Meanwhile, India has also closed the India-Pakistan border and restricted passenger movement at the border with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Myanmar.

READ | Coronavirus outbreak: Punjab distilleries supply free sanitiser to hospitals

READ | Huge stock of masks, sanitisers seized in Mumbai; 10 held

(With inputs from ANI)
Alex DeCaria has turned his basement into his classroom where he records his lectures and plans to teach his meteorology classes for the remainder of the spring semester.

Sitting down there, all alone inspired the Millersville University meteorology professor to write a song parody to Eric Carmens, All By Myself.

Eight months ago, I didnt need a microphone. A Zoom account was an unknown. Those days are gone. All by myself ..., sings DeCaria.

Yes, they are gone, or at least for the rest of the spring semester.

All 14 state-owned universities, which include Millersville and Shippensburg, like other colleges and universities across Pennsylvania and the nation have or are transitioning away from in-person instruction to online learning for the rest of the semester to help slow the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

This decision has forced the state universities professors and students alike to make some adjustments that were unforeseen and in some cases, unwelcome for the sake of their health and safety during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Graduating seniors at nine universities so far  Bloomsburg, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown, Millersville, Mansfield, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, and West Chester universities  have learned their May commencement has been postponed. Other activities and sporting events that traditionally happen in the final weeks of an academic year are now cancelled.

With campuses shut down for the last half of the semester, students have or soon will receive word about refunds on a prorated portion of room and board and student fees payments. Thats a decision that isnt easily made for university officials, who say they know its the right thing to do.

But finding as much as a $100 million systemwide to provide refunds causes a significant financial blow to their budgets.

Meanwhile, instruction through solely online methods has resumed or is set to start on Monday. Students received prolonged spring breaks to give faculty a week to prepare for the switch to remote instructional methods.

Shippensburg University was among the universities that resumed its spring semester last Monday.

So far, its been semi-smooth, said Dylan Smith, a Shippensburg University marketing major. I feel like a lot of the professors dont know whats going on either. So they are constantly updating and emailing us different things. But for the most part, in terms of switching to online classes, it was pretty easy.

But the sophomore student, who now goes to class at a table in the living room of his parents Middlesex Township home, added: Personally, I would prefer to learn face to face because I learn a whole lot easier in physical classes rather than doing it online.

Shippensburg University sophomore Dylan Smith of Silver Spring Township says the transition to fully online-classes this week has gone semi-smooth in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak but prefers face-to-face instruction.

All by myself

DeCaria, a self-described Luddite, is a stranger to social media. He said his only access to it is through his wifes Facebook account. Hes never been a fan of online learning either. But he spent time this past week in his basement doing some trial runs of synchronous meetings with students to get ready for classes to resume on Monday.

He sat down there preparing to teach his 300 level courses to meteorology majors with no one around. The prospect of only seeing his students on a computer screen prompted Eric Carmens 1970s ballad, All By Myself, to keep running through his head. His wife showed him a video of a professor somewhere else doing a parody to Gloria Gaynors disco classic, I Will Survive," which got him thinking that he might try his hand at writing his own song parody.

I thought about singing just the chorus of that for my students when I started an online course," he said. "Then I thought I could probably rearrange the words and rewrite the whole song. So it kind of came to me quickly.

He intended the video to be an icebreaker for students in his online meteorology classes once classes resume today. But it began making the rounds in family and university circles, he said.

Millersville University officials posted it on the schools website. It drew more than 20,000 views as of Friday morning. Among those who saw it were former and current students, including graduating senior Grant Carlton, who responded by created his own video parodying the song, DeCaria said.

"I think my students are surprised I even know how to play an instrument, he said.

As for teaching courses on atmospheric dynamics and cloud dynamics along with two other classes remotely, even he wasnt sure he could pull that off when the university announced it was going fully online. With the help of support from the universitys IT staff and colleagues, DeCaria said he has found its going better than he had feared.

What I decided to do with my classes is I dont think you can replicate a lecture course online the way I do it so Im prerecording each lesson maybe for 30 minutes hitting the highlights using Zoom and annotate it, he said.

We are still meeting synchronously but my hope is that the students will come to the synchronous meeting prepared having watched the prerecorded lecture and reading the notes and materials, he said. "Hopefully the synchronous meetings will be more for questions and answers and clarifications.

Hes also revised his course syllabuses to assign more weight to homework and quizzes and less on the final exam when it comes to grading his students. DeCaria remains optimistic that students will still gain knowledge from his classes using this different format.

I am doing everything I can to make this a meaningful experience and not a waste of time," DeCaria said. "Im not going to lie. I dont think its going to be exactly the same. Its going to be a struggle trying to get the same level out of what they would get as though I had them in the classroom for the whole semester. But I dont think they are going to be greatly disadvantaged.

Missing college life

For students like Smith, outside of preferring to be sitting in class and instead having to cope with connection glitches that arise when a lot of students log into Zoom at the same time for a class, theres the loss of social interaction with other students.

It s tough," he said. I have a couple of friends in a couple of my classes and we would always get together and do homework and help each other with quizzes and stuff like that. Its a little more difficult now because weve mostly resorted to texting and sometimes we use our own Zoom calls to converse with each other and do homework.

He misses campus life outside of his classes, too.

Its nice to have human interaction with other people, Smith said. I just feel it improves the overall quality not only of education but life.

Kim Garris, a spokeswoman for Shippensburg University, said the university community is working at reviving some of the social interactions virtually. She said students there love Bingo so they are working on developing a virtual Bingo game students can play. They also are trying to create some virtual activities to help graduating seniors celebrate the end of their college career.

Any kind of way we can connect our way of life, were trying to connect it virtually, Garris said.

Regardless, Smith said, I would much prefer to be on campus. Not that I dont love being home but everythings got its up and down.

His mom, Tracy, is especially happy with only one complaint, he said.

Theres got to be more food stock in the house.

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.

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A n NHS worker has been left with a fractured cheekbone after getting punched in the face at a hospital, police have said.

Greater Manchester Police were called to at Salford Royal Infirmary on Sunday at 1.50pm to reports of an employee getting hit.

A man has been charged with assault and remains in custody in connection with the alleged incident.

The staff member  a man in his 50s  required treatment for a fractured cheekbone but has since been discharged, police said.

Police were called to Salford Royal Infirmary after an incident involving in which a member of staff was allegedly assaulted / Google Maps

A force spokesman said Daniel Shevlin, 27, of no fixed abode was charged with Section 20 assault and an offence under Section 4a of the Public Order Act.

He is due to appear at Manchester and Salford Magistrates Court on Monday.

Meanwhile, a Brighton man has been charged after three police officers were allegedly spat at by a man claiming to be infected with coronavirus.

Peter Davy, 65, is charged with three counts of assaulting an emergency worker, using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause fear of violence and using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

In London, a man was Tasered after allegedly attacking officers in a car.

Metropolitan Police firearms officers said on Twitter that they had Tasered a suspect for deliberately coughing saliva over officers in Seven Sisters Road in Haringey.

They were driving along at around 4.20pm on Saturday when a 24-year-old man began to shout and make rude gestures towards them.

When the firearms officers stopped to talk to him, they said he shouted that he had coronavirus before deliberately coughing saliva all over them.

He then began to physically attack the officers, it is claimed, before he was Tasered and arrested on suspicion of public order offences and assault on an emergency worker.
To commemorate International Womens Day 2020 (under the theme Each for Equal), the STEMi Makers Africa in collaboration with the U.S. Consulate General, Lagos and MainOne Communications organized the inaugural i-be-lady-o in Nigeria.

The I-be-Lady-o Workshop program is an expression of STEMi Makers Africa and the STEMi Women initiative to raise young girls and women participation in STEM, learning outcomes and retention in STEM careers, it happened in the first week of March.

This project is an outgrowth of the organization where they offer an extensive range of career and personal development talk, enlightening discussions and inspiring conversations from trailblazing Advocates in Science and Technology who are speaking out to challenge the status quo.

The program was held at the U.S Consulate General, Walter Carrington, Victoria Island in Lagos. Amanda Obidike , the Strategy Lead of STEMi Makers Africa shared that the i-be-lady-o Summit is meant to correct the negative perceptions that females develop in STEM fields and to improve focus by motivating women to explore typically male-dominated fields. She said reducing the gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education areas could help reduce the skills gap, increase employment, help productivity of women, and reduce occupational segregation. Ultimately this would foster economic growth via both higher productivity and increased labor market activity.

Alice Seddon, the Country Consular Coordinator of the U.S Consulate General in Lagos gave a Keynote address encouraging participants to celebrate themselves as women who are breaking the barriers and participating in STEM. She said whether at home or abroad, promoting women in the STEM fields is a priority of the U.S Government.

The Summit brought together a variety of influential women in STEM, offering the participants an opportunity for valuable networking and mentorship. The program had Engineer Charlotte Essiet, the Director Corporate and Regulatory Affairs of AOS Orwell Oil and Gas Limited; Dr. Ibukun Afolabi, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Covenant University, Otta; Engineer J.O Maduka, the First Female COREN Engineer in Nigeria and Yewande Thorpe, a Senior Associate in Marketing and Communications, Africa Finance Corporation.

The rest are Mojolaoluwa Aderemi Makinde, Head of Brand and Reputations for Google, Sub-Saharan Africa; Tinuola Ipadeola, Head of Corporate Services and Development, MainOne Communications; Ugo Okafor, an Architect, Design Director, and Prototype Engineer; Anthonia Agbonifo, the Executive Director of Food Concepts Plc and the Chicken Republic.

Key Partners of the event were the USA Consulate General  Lagos, MainOne Communications, Chicken Republic, TheAfricanDream.net , ThisDay Live, Google, and Calal Global.

Source: STEMi Makers Africa
Gov. Ralph Northam delivers the State of the Commonwealth address at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Va., on Jan. 8, 2020. (Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

Virginia Orders Residents to Stay at Home, Limits Gatherings

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam issued a stay-at-home order on Monday, saying there will be no more gatherings of greater than 10 people.

Northam said the new restrictions are intended to stop the spread of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus.

I want to be clear: Do not go out unless you need to go out. This is very different than wanting to go out, Northam said in a news conference. This has been a suggestion to Virginians. Today, its an order, he added.

The order came after Virginias beaches and other recreational areas were literally packed with people despite the pandemic, Northam said.

The governors order closed Virginias beaches to everything except for exercising and fishing. Campgrounds were also shut down, and all colleges and universities were told to stop in-person classes.

The stay-at-home order allows people to leave their homes for groceries, essential items, banking, medical care, and more.

We are at the beginning of a period of sacrifice, added Northam in the news conference. This is an unprecedented and difficult time; it will be hard for people, and I understand that. But I have faith in you as Virginians. We need everyone to take this seriously and act responsibly.

A paramedic walks next to a makeshift morgue set outside Lenox Health Medical Pavilion as the CCP virus outbreak continues in New York, on March 29, 2020. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

Anyone who doesnt comply could be charged with a misdemeanor.

As of Monday afternoon, Virginia has recorded around 1,000 confirmed cases of the CCP virus, leading to around 25 deaths.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan issued a similar declaration on Monday.

This is a deadly public health crisis, Hogan said in a news conference. We are no longer asking or suggesting that Marylanders stay home. We are directing them to do so.

The governor said the order includes restrictions on traveling outside of the state as well as riding on public transportation. Any person who knowingly and willfully violates the order will face misdemeanor charges, he said.

Marylanders need to know that, unfortunately, we are only at the beginning of this crisis and it is going to get considerably worse before it gets better, Hogan said. I realize this is incredibly difficult on everyone in our state, but I want people to know that we have been through difficult challenges before and that we are going to get through this together.

Marylanders can go out to get groceries and other essential items, seek medical care, go to the bank, and perform other duties. People can go on walks by themselves or with others with whom they reside.
People dine in a restaurant on March 27, 2020 in Stockholm during the the new coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND

While the rest of Europe imposes severe restrictions on public life and closes borders and businesses, Sweden is taking a more relaxed approach to the coronavirus outbreak. Unlike its immediate neighbors Denmark, Finland and Norway Sweden has not closed its borders or its schools. Neither has it closed non-essential businesses or banned gatherings of more than two people, like the U.K. and Germany. Sweden's response to the outbreak is being overseen largely by the country's Public Health Agency. It has taken a conspicuously different approach to the coronavirus from its international peers, trusting the public to adopt voluntary, softer measures to delay the spread of the virus.

This apparently laissez-faire approach has attracted criticism both from within Sweden, from a group of epidemiologists, as well from other countries which are locking down public life to curb the outbreak. The Public Health Agency's lead epidemiologist, and a key figure in Sweden's national response to the coronavirus, is Anders Tegnell. He told CNBC that although his country's strategy to tackle the virus was different, the aim was the same. "My view is that basically all European countries are trying to do the same thing  we're trying to slow down the spread as much as possible to keep healthcare and society working ... and we have shown some different methods to slow down the spread," he told CNBC Monday.

People visit the cherry blossoms trees at Kungstradgarden in Stockholm on March 28, 2020, during the the new coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. Jonathan Nackstrand | AFP | Getty Images

"Sweden has gone mostly for voluntary measures because that's how we're used to working," Tegnell added. "And we have a long tradition that it works rather well." He said the agency had explained to the population why social distancing was needed, "and so far, it's been working reasonably well." Sweden has 3,700 confirmed cases of coronavirus and has recorded 110 deaths, the latest data from the Public Health Agency shows. In contrast, Italy, the epicenter of Europe's outbreak, has almost 100,000 cases and over 10,000 deaths, the latest data showed Sunday. Meanwhile Spain, the second worst-hit country in Europe, has close to 80,000 confirmed cases and 6,500 deaths. The U.K., considered to be around two weeks behind Italy in terms of the outbreak, has recorded almost 20,000 cases and 1,228 deaths from the virus. "The incline (in infection and death rates) in Sweden is less steep than in many countries and that's exactly what we're trying to achieve," Tegnell said, adding that opinion polls showed the Swedish public were overall in favor of the agency's approach. Tegnell didn't rule out more stringent measures in Sweden, however, telling CNBC that if there was a sharp increase in cases, the government and Public Health Agency would have a "big discussion on what other measures we can take." This weekend, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said that isolating Stockholm could happen if the outbreak worsens, but that such measures are not currently being discussed. He had previously insisted that successfully combating the spread of the virus was largely dependent on individual behavior.

Life carries on

Sweden has not completely diverged from the rest of Europe. In a similar way to its neighbors, Sweden's government has advocated working from home if at all possible, avoiding non-essential travel and the elderly are advised to avoid social contact. Of course, advice to wash hands regularly has also been promoted. Restaurants, bars, cafes and nightclubs have been told to offer seated table service only. And as of Sunday, gatherings of more than 50 people are banned (the country had initially suspended gatherings of more than 500 people). It has also closed universities and colleges, but schools with students under 16 years old remain open. As such, compared to elsewhere in Europe, life in Sweden feels eerily normal, Stockholm residents say. "Being both an expat and an educator at a secondary school in Stockholm, I feel conflicted," Erik, a teacher at school in Stockholm, told CNBC Sunday. "I still need to go into work, on a crowded bus, to teach my students who are advised to keep coming into school. We are all set up for distant learning, but secondary schools are not closing any time soon," he said. He added that some colleagues were brushing off concerns about coronavirus saying, "It's just the flu, I'm more worried about the start of the pollen season," and he also referred to the "great trust" Swedes have in their public institutions.

People walking at Strandvagen in Stockholm. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND

Tom, an Englishman who works in construction in Stockholm, said he was impressed that the country remained so calm. "Besides the obvious social media influences, I think if they would have enforced harsher initiatives like other countries there would have been more panic," he said. "People have been good in accommodating small changes in their lives to help stop the spread, and have been very helpful to each other ... To be honest, Sweden has behaved exactly as I would have expected the Swedes to behave." Stockholm residents acknowledged that there has been a decline in activity in the city, and yet social life continues. "On Friday evening, when I went on my way home, I saw loads of groups of both young and middle-aged people hanging out on one of the central squares in Stockholm. It amazed me," Erik said. "Whether the Swedish strategy is based on science, reluctance to limit people's freedom, or on trust that citizens will do what is needed, is not clear to me, at all."

Tide turning?
Chhattisgarh police registered a case against a Congress legislator on Sunday in Bilaspur city for violating prohibitory orders during the lockdown to stop the spread of Covid-19 disease.

Dipanshu Kabra, Bilaspur inspector general of Police (IGP), said while speaking to HT Civil Lines police got information on Sunday morning Pandey was distributing ration to a large number of people at his residence.

Police rushed to the spot that found a crowd which was a serious threat to life and could spread coronavirus. As we all know that section 144 has been imposed in every district of Chhattisgarh, this gathering was a clear violation, Kabra said.

Also read: Politician in Chhattisgarh asks nurse to vacate house over Covid-19, booked

He said a first information report (FIR) was filed against the member of legislative assembly under sections 269 and 188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Investigation in the case is going on, Kabra said.

Pandey said he was helping poor people affected by the lockdown in the past few days and was ensuring social distancing norms were being followed.

However, when I spotted a huge crowd outside my official residence for collecting ration today, I immediately called up the police, he claimed.

Police have registered 36 cases for violation of locking down, quarantine and hiding information about foreign travel in the last 24 hours.

There are seven Covid-19 patients in the state so far.

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Today

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy in the afternoon. High around 60F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy early with partial clearing expected late. Low 39F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
A six-year-old boy has died after he was found unresponsive in a stream near his home.

The little boy, named locally as Louie Chen, was reported missing by his parents just minutes after he wandered off from his home in Ballina, Co Mayo, yesterday.

He had been playing on waste grounds at Rehins Fort when he fell into the stream, near a fast-flowing river.

Rescuers managed to take him from the water and administered CPR prior to his removal to hospital.

The incident occurred about 1.30pm yesterday in sunny but cold weather conditions.

The boy was pronounced dead at Mayo University Hospital, Castlebar, at around 6.30pm.

Superintendent Joe Doherty expressed his deepest sympathy for the tragic accident to the boy's family, who run a restaurant in Ballina. He said immense praise was due to members of the public and the rescue services as well as gardai who took part in the rescue operation.

A search involving local gardai and residents immediately swung into action after the alarm was raised. They combed the banks of the River Moy at the back of the Childers Heights housing estate.

About an hour later, the boy was found in an unresponsive state in a stream leading to the river.

Local councillor Mark Duffy said the town was devastated by the tragic news.

He said the boy's parents wre well-known locally as businesspeople.

"It's absolutely tragic," he told Independent.ie "The whole town is devastated.

"With everything else that's going on, it's a very difficult piece of news," he said. "Anyone who has heard the news is stunned."

One local mother spoke of her horror at the tragedy.

"It's unspeakable. A beautiful boy from a beautiful family. There is no words for this. It's a nightmare.

"Everyone is devastated. How do you even begin to understand something like this? How do you explain this to children? To his little friends?"
[March 30, 2020] PhosAgro Welcomes Decisions of Local and Regional Authorities to Promptly Implement Stringent Quarantine Measures in Cities and Towns Where it Operates

MOSCOW, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- PhosAgro (Moscow Exchange, LSE: PHOR), one of the world's leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, welcomes the decisions of regional and local authorities in the Vologda and Murmansk regions on the prompt introduction of strict quarantine measures in the cities of its presence, namely in Cherepovets, Kirovsk and Apatity, and expects similar measures to be taken in Balakovo and Volkhov (in the Saratov and Leningrad regions, respectively). PhosAgro CEO Andrey Guryev has previously called on regional authorities to urgently introduce strict quarantines and restrictive measures in the cities where the Company operates to curb the spread of the infection, in line with measures that are usually introduced in emergency situations: "We consider this to be the only right decision given the current epidemiological situation. It will reduce the risks of further exponential growth of the incidence rate in cities and is aimed at ensuring the uninterrupted operation of enterprises that are systemically important and critical for the economy of the regions and the entire country. In addition, the accumulated experience in the application of operating regulations during the pandemic can be scaled up for their use in other cities and regions," Mr Guryev said. PhosAgro, in turn, has taken and continues to take comprehensive preventive measures to combat the spread of coronavirus in facilities and cities where it operates. The Group's facilities have established emergency response offices, which are managed by PhosAgro's central headquarters. Mr Guryev is in charge of the Company's central headquarters; he is also head of a similar emergency response office of the Russian Association of Fertilizer Producers and is co-chairman of the Coordination Council of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs for combating coronavirus. In addition, Mr Guryev takes an active part in the work of the Coronavirus Response Alliance. Given the increased epidemic risk, PhosAgro Group's enterprises operate under special security arrangements. Due to their importance for the country's food security, special operating regulations and a scheme for reserving key personnel have been devised to ensure continuous full-cycle performance under any scenario of epidemic spread. Special arrangements for all other employees to switch to remote work have been made in advance. Employees who are involved in the continuous operation of production facilities and who ensure the safe operation of particularly hazardous production facilities, are undergoing medicalmonitoring, including body temperature measurement using contactless thermometers. They are being compensated for petrol costs when using personal vehicles, and coronavirus tests have been bought to test for the virus. In corridors, employees passing through turnstiles must keep a distance of at least 1.5 metres from each other.



Streaming thermal imagers have been purchased for installation in commonly used areas. Regular cleaning with disinfectants is carried out at checkpoints, in operator rooms and in sanitary facilities. UV recirculators have been installed in administrative and residential buildings. All employees of the Company have been provided with masks. In addition to masks, the Company has sufficient reserves of respirators, anti-infective suits, antiseptic and disinfectants. Transport that carries employees to their shifts have been equipped with disinfecting agents, and all drivers, conductors and passengers are required to wear medical masks. To reduce crowding on the most popular routes, the number of buses has been increased.

PhosAgro coordinates its activities to counteract coronavirus with regional and city headquarters and actively participates in the development and implementation of comprehensive prevention programmes in the cities where it operates, including strengthening the dissemination of information on the prevention and control of coronavirus. The Company is providing assistance to medical institutions in the cities where it operates, helping to improve their readiness for the pandemic. Medical institutions have been provided with the necessary equipment and protective equipment to fight coronavirus. In particular, the Company purchased 12 oxygen concentrators for the Apatit-Kirov city hospital, in addition to artificial respiration devices, large batches of disposable syringes, blood vials and biomaterials, 500 filter half-masks and more than a thousand disposable infectious protection suits, 42 overalls, 80 protective glasses, and 148 Taikem chemical protection suits. Another 713 such suits will be given to the hospital by the end of the month. The Company is also considering purchasing special medical furniture, bed linens, utensils, detergents, disinfectants and personal protective equipment. The Company is buying tests and reagents for rapid testing. For example, together with the Russian Direct Investment Fund, PhosAgro is implementing a pilot system for introducing a new rapid testing system. Recently, the first batch of express tests was delivered to Kirovsk and Apatit, where employees of the Company's mining and processing facilities live. About PhosAgro PhosAgro (www.phosagro.com) is one of the world's leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers in terms of production volumes of phosphate-based fertilizers and high-grade phosphate rock with a P2O5 content of 39% and higher. PhosAgro's environmentally friendly fertilizers stand out for their high efficiency, and they do not lead to the contamination of soils with heavy metals. The Company is the largest phosphate-based fertilizer producer in Europe (by total combined capacity for DAP/MAP/NP/NPK/NPS), the largest producer of high-grade phosphate rock with a P2O5 content of 39% and one of the leading producers of MAP/DAP globally, one of the leading producers of feed phosphates (MCP) in Europe, and the only producer in Russia, and Russia's only producer of nepheline concentrate (according to the RAFP). PhosAgro's main products include phosphate rock, 39 grades of fertilizers, feed phosphates, ammonia, and sodium tripolyphosphate, which are used by customers in 100 countries spanning all of the world's inhabited continents. The Company's priority markets outside of Russia and the CIS are Latin America, Europe and Asia. PhosAgro's shares are traded on the Moscow Exchange, and global depositary receipts (GDRs) for shares trade on the London Stock Exchange (under the ticker PHOR). Since 1 June 2016, the Company's GDRs have been included in the MSCI Russia and MSCI Emerging Markets indexes. More information about PhosAgro can be found on the website: www.phosagro.com. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/phosagro-welcomes-decisions-of-local-and-regional-authorities-to-promptly-implement-stringent-quarantine-measures-in-cities-and-towns-where-it-operates-301031870.html SOURCE PhosAgro

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View of Brooklyn office of NYS Department of Labor as unemployment claims in USA soared to 3.3 million in week ended March 21 because of COVID-19 pandemic. Lev Radin | Pacific Press | Getty Images

Europe and China are outpacing the U.S. in shoring up their labor markets amid the historic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, according to economists. U.S. unemployment figures published last week showed that an unprecedented total of 3.28 million Americans had filed unemployment claims during the week ending March 21, as the true extent of the impact from nationwide shutdowns became startlingly apparent. "While the near-term drop in output may be similar on both sides of the Atlantic, unemployment will likely surge by less in Europe where generous employment subsidies encourage labour hoarding in a crisis, thereby reducing the number of near-term job losses," Berenberg projected in a note Friday.

Chief Economist Holger Schmieding, Senior Economist Kallum Pickering and European Economist Florian Hense said that one of the lessons learned from the global financial crisis in 2008 was that targeted support for under- or unemployment can limit the number of dismissals, even in the event of a sharp economic downturn. "Partly due to Germany's 'Kurzarbeitergeld' subsidy for reduced working hours, German employment fell by just 1% during the GFC of 2008/09, despite a 7% peak-to-trough plunge in real GDP (gross domestic product). In the U.S., where output contracted by just 4%, employment fell by a much bigger 5.4%," the note highlighted.

Employment subsidies vs. labor hoarding

Berenberg calculations estimated that if German employment had responded to the country's fall in GDP to the same degree as U.S. employment did to the fall in its output, it would have declined by around 1.9 million jobs instead of a mere 400,000 in 2008. In the past couple of weeks, Germany, the U.K., France and others have deployed some form of employment subsidy policy. In the U.K., for instance, companies will receive up to 80% of a furloughed employee's wages. However, Berenberg economists characterized the U.S. policy response, aimed at encouraging "labor hoarding" through such initiatives as tax credits to firms which retain employees, as "less generous." The latest German employment figures are due on Tuesday and are also expected to be eye-catching, but Schmieding anticipated that this could be down to the surge in people receiving the benefits of the subsidy scheme, rather than a marked rise in the number of unemployed.

As strict coronavirus lockdowns continue to decimate demand and supply, GDP contractions for the second quarter in most advanced economies look set to sharply exceed those seen during the financial crisis. However, the more aggressive employment subsidies across Europe, Berenberg projected, will see euro zone unemployment rising from 7.4% to a peak of 10.0% this fall, while the U.S. is expected to surge from 3.5% in February to 11.6% in the second quarter before beginning a modest decline. "By encouraging firms to retain their workers while authorities tackle the coronavirus medical emergency, Europe is increasing the likelihood that economic activity can get back to normal more quickly once the containment restrictions are lifted step by step," Berenberg concluded, contending that this approach also limits the risk of a protracted downturn caused by a more persistent shock to demand from high unemployment.

China hiring picks up

Hiring in Europe has diminished sharply as confirmed cases of the coronavirus across the continent continue to escalate, particularly in the worst affected countries such as Italy, Spain and France. But in China, the original epicenter of the outbreak, hiring has begun to steadily pick up as new cases of the virus have supposedly slowed to a trickle, with industrial production reopening across the country, in contrast to the exponential growth seen elsewhere in the world. "About two weeks after we saw hiring growth contract in China, it fell to a low of -45% year-on-year," LinkedIn Senior Economist Mariano Mamertino said in a research note Friday. "Hiring has slowly started to rebound as containment of the virus takes effect, but it is still hovering at -24% year-on-year as people go back to work."
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey must carry on producing and "keep wheels turning" through the coronavirus pandemic to support exports and sustain the supply of basic goods, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, as the number of confirmed cases topped 10,000.

Ankara has taken strict measures to limit social contact to prevent the spread of the virus since the first case was confirmed nearly three weeks ago. But the government has so far fallen short of enforcing a nationwide stay-at-home order.

The number of confirmed cases in the country rose to 10,827 on Monday, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said, while 168 people have died from the disease.

Speaking after a Cabinet meeting, Erdogan said Turkey must keep producing and repeated a call for citizens to impose their own quarantine.

"Our most important sensitivity here is to continue production to sustain the supply of basic goods and support exports," he said.

"Turkey is a country that needs to continue production and keep the wheels turning under all conditions and circumstances."

Erdogan also launched a campaign to collect donations from citizens for those in need, saying he was donating seven months of his salary to the cause and that the effort had already drawn $11 million (8.88 million).

Turkey has placed 41 residential areas under quarantine in order to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the president said.

Ankara has halted all international flights, limited domestic travel, closed schools, bars and cafes, suspended mass prayers and sport matches to counter the outbreak. The main opposition has called for a stay-at-home order.

(Reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen, Ezgi Erkoyun and Ece Toksabay; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Jonathan Oatis)
(Alliance News) - Quadrise Fuels International PLC said Monday its interim loss widened due to higher administrative costs and a one-off warrant charge.

Quadrise develops MSAR, which it promotes as a low-cost alternative to heavy fuel oil.

For the six months tot the end of December, Quadrise reported a pretax loss of GBP3.1 million, widened from GBP1.7 million the same period the year before.

This was due to higher administration expenses of GBP1.1 million from GBP739,000, and a charge of GBP881,000, as 40.2 million share warrants were issued to three different investors over the period.

Quadrise does not currently produce revenue.

During the period, Quadrise signed an agreement with a Morocco-based unnamed chemicals and mining group to conduct a pilot trial for MSAR, as well as provide engineering studies for larger trials in one of the client's facilities.

Although all work and testing for the trial have been completed, and equipment is in place in Morocco, the trial has been delayed due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

To make up for this, Quadrise has brought forward the engineering studies for the next phases of the overall programme, however payment for the studies is dependent on the success of the pilot trial.

"Quadrise continued to progress a range of business development and project opportunities in the period, underlining the advantages of our strategy of pursuing a diversified range of projects. We are particularly excited by the progress made in Morocco where we have an agreement to undertake a pilot trial which could lead to paid-for engineering studies, with commercial revenues expected to follow the successful conclusion of these trials," said Chair Mike Kirk.

"We have already taken action to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 restrictions imposed by the client and we and the client look forward to commencing the on-site activities as soon as it is safe for us to do so," Kirk added.

Shares in Quadrise Fuels International were down 4.5% at 1.60 pence on Monday afternoon in London.

By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Chattanooga Police officers were dispatched to a local hospital Sunday at 4:45 p.m. on a report of a person shot.

Police said a 14-year-old boy who had a gunshot would was taken to the hospital by a private vehicle. His injuries are not life-threatening.

The exact location on the shooting has not been determined by police. They are asking for anyone with information regarding this incident to call 698-2525 or submit a tip via the CPD Mobile App. They may remain anonymous.
Cancun looters trying to make off with shopping carts arrested by police

Cancun, Q.R.  Quintana Roo Police in Cancun have arrested a group who were reportedly looting from a Walmart chain, Bodega Aurrera.

The group of looters were spotted by store staff Saturday around 9:30 p.m. as they were attempting to push several shopping carts of items outside the store. Two men and one woman from the group were arrested after a call was placed to 911.

The group were looting a Walmart Bodega Aurrera in Region 259 in the Las Palmas subdivision of Cancun. They were found with merchandise valued at more than 5,900 peso, which was recovered by employees and security personnel.

Authorities say in testimonies collected that several people entered the store as customers and filled their carts with merchandise. Rather than paying, they headed toward the doors where they pushed security agents and employees who came to the aide of the stores security personnel.

The store was immediately shut down, which allowed employees to recover the three shopping carts, however, they say at least four other shopping carts were successfully pushed outside with looters making off with the merchandise which is estimated to have had a value of at least 15,000 peso.

Head of Public Security, Alberto Capella addressed the arrests on social media saying We have warned them and today we confirm it. These subjects attempted to extract merchandise. They were detained flagrantly and immediately, who published photos of the looters. The two men and woman were placed at the disposal of the Office of the Prosecutor.
London, March 30 : Police broke up a "massive karaoke" party with 25 adults and children in England's Derbyshire country despite the ongoing lockdown across the UK due to the coronavirus pandemic, the media report said on Monday.

Officers were said to be "in absolute shock" about the gathering in Dover Street, Normanton, on Saturday night, which defied the lockdown rules put in place to stop the spread of coronavirus, reports the Metro newspaper.

Derbyshire Police posted photos of the party on social media, showing a table covered in food and drink and large speakers in use.

The force said that "strong words of advice" were given to all those inside and the party was dispersed but no further action was taken.

The police said in tweet on its official handlt: "Officers have just attended an address in absolute shock to find 25 adults and children having a massive party with speakers and karaoke.

"It is clear people are still having complete disregard for the government advice and rules." The party came at the end of the first week of the nationwide lockdown, said The Sun newspaper in a report.

Brits have been told to stay home for at least three weeks except for "very limited purposes" - but police across the UK revealed they have been forced to break up gatherings as some people continue to flout the rules.

As of Monday, the UK has reported 19,784 confirmed coronavirus cases, with 1,231 deaths.
People Before Profit Councillor, journalist and activist Eamonn McCann speaks about the value of local journalism and threat to its future in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

He says: "Journalists have played a vital role in recent weeks providing the public with factual information needed now more than ever.



"It is a sad irony that the threat to jobs in journalism is higher now than ever.



"The steep fall in demand for products of all sorts has seen advertising revenue plummet. Widespread lay-offs are threatened.



"This comes on top of a series of blows in the past few years. The NUJ has fought hard to protect members. But against a bleak economic background, it hasnt been possible to prevent redundancies.



"The hammer-blow of the coronavirus pandemic has now put a question mark against the very future of a number of titles in Derry and Donegal, as well as across the rest of island. Journalists fear further loss of valued colleagues.



"Journalism differs from many other industries in that workers tend to have a close relationship with the communities around them as well as with those they work alongside.



"Many people can be sharply critical of the local media, but at the same time value what they do. A community which loses a local paper will be poorer as a result.

"Some of our local 'papers are strong and will survive. But others are at real risk.

"It is for these reasons that the wider public, not just those who work in the media, should support journalists in striving to keep titles alive and save jobs in journalism for the next generation.



"Journalists are no more entitled to their jobs than anyone else. But we do play a vital role, which has been highlighted as never before over the course of the coronavirus disaster.



"The NUJ is in talks with government in both Dublin and London about the need for support to see newspapers survive. It is reasonable to ask citizens in general, and their political and other representatives, to voice their support for the union as it tries to save valuable jobs and the valuable role which NUJ members play."
Business organizations said they were pleased with details announced Monday about the federal governments proposed wage subsidy, but also said more information is needed fast.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau elaborated Monday on a wage subsidy first announced last Friday. He said the subsidy will apply to large and small businesses as well as charities, and will cover 75 per cent of the first $58,700 of an employees salary. That works out to a maximum of $847 a week, Trudeau said.

Businesses will need to demonstrate a 30 per cent loss of revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic in order to qualify.

Were already hearing from members who feel 30 per cent may be a big hill, said Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

He said its reasonable for the government to implement a test for businesses to show that the pandemic is having an impact on them, but that 30 per cent loss may be too high a bar. He pointed out that there have been businesses that are not so much struggling with major losses of revenue, but with skyrocketing expenses, as the price of supplies goes up.

The government is open to feedback, Kelly said, and I think the government will need to be open to a variety of tests.

The business community had been urging government to implement a wage subsidy similar to some countries in Europe that have also been dealing with massive job losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Liberals had initially announced a 10 per cent wage subsidy for small businesses, which was roundly criticized as too low.

Trudeau then announced the 75 per cent wage subsidy on Friday. Business leaders say a substantial wage subsidy offers the best chance for a business to rebound once the pandemic is over, as it allows businesses to keep employees on the payroll rather than push workers onto EI.

I think it averted a lot of layoff decisions that were pending this week, said Karl Littler, senior-vice president of public affairs at the Retail Council of Canada.

The president and CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, Rocco Rossi, said a wage subsidy also ensures that the money gets into employees pockets faster than the EI system.

He said the mechanism to make this all happen still needs to be spelled out, such as how money for the subsidy will flow from government to employers. More details were expected to be announced Tuesday.

The quicker this all happens, the more confusion is eliminated and the more efficiency is created, he said. The system is already being overwhelmed by a lack of clarity.

Trudeau repeated Monday that payments will be retroactive to March 15. He urged companies eligible for the subsidy to rehire employees who have already been laid off, and also asked businesses to pay the 25 per cent not covered by the subsidy if theyre able to do so.

And if you think this is a system you can take advantage of or game, dont. There will be serious consequences for those who do, Trudeau said at his daily briefing to reporters outside his home in Ottawa on Monday.

The estimated cost of the subsidy is also expected to be revealed Tuesday.

The federal bailout package to date is now valued at more than $200 billion, including $52 billion in direct spending, $85 billion in tax deferrals for individuals and businesses, and $65 billion in loans. Last week, TD Economics estimated the increased wage subsidy could add $25 billion in direct spending to the total.

With files from The Canadian Press

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NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Monday said everyone needs to be ready for the impact of coronavirus outbreak on the country's economy as business activities have come to a standstill.

He said the country's economic situation looks "grim" and according to experts, the GDP would come down to two per cent.

Taking to Facebook for a live interaction with people of the state, the former Union minister asked citizens to stop unnecessary expenditures and stay at home to contain the spread of the deadly viral infection.

"We should be ready to brace the impact of looming economic crisis over the country as all types of business activities are suspended. People need to do away with their unnecessary spending habit for the next coming weeks as the country's economic situation looks grim," he said.

"I also appeal to people to stay at home and prevent the spread of coronavirus infection. Otherwise, police will have to use force to keep them indoors," he said.

To a question from a Facebook user on the economic crisis, Pawar replied, "Almost all types of business activities have come to at standstill. This situation will have a long lasting impact on our economy. Experts have said our GDP would come down to mere two per cent."



"We need to take things seriously, especially the youth who are found venturing out on streets without any valid reason. People's cooperation is important," he said.

He also said that the Maharashtra government's "mature approach" should not be considered as its weakness.

Pawar's party is an alliance partner of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government, which also comprises the Shiv Sena and the Congress.

"The state government has enough stock of food grains. I have spoken to Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal regarding its distribution to maximum number of people," the NCP chief said.

There are some people who do not have ration cards, but the government will try to reach out to all the needy people and ensure supply of food grains, he said.

Owners of sugar mills have also been asked to make arrangements of food and shelter for the labourers, engaged in harvesting the crop, in the mill premises for next two-three weeks as the workers cannot return home due to the lockdown, the former Union agriculture minister said.

There are nearly 170 sugar mills in the state which employ over one lakh sugarcane cutters who travel from Marathwada to western Maharashtra for work between November and April every year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former Vice President Joe Biden, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, speaks during a virtual press briefing on a smartphone in this arranged photograph in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., on Wednesday, March 25, 2020.

"Here's the Deal." Joe Biden now has a podcast.

As the coronavirus pandemic forces it to suspend in-person campaign events, Biden's presidential campaign launched an audio show on Monday called "Here's the Deal." The episode, the first in what the campaign describes as a series of discussions on pressing topics, features a coronavirus question-and-answer session between the former vice president and his ex-chief of staff and Obama administration Ebola czar Ron Klain.

In the episode, Klain criticized the Trump administration for its delays in ramping up testing  considered a core weapon against COVID-19. Biden ran through his plans to encourage development of more hospital sites and production of protective medical equipment and ventilators, along with his proposals to boost Social Security benefits, forgive a chunk of student loan debt and expand family and medical leave during the crisis.

"We're going to beat this. I have overwhelming faith in the American people," Biden said near the end of the 21-minute podcast.

The new offering underscores the lengths the Biden campaign has gone to stay relevant as coronavirus developments swallow up interest in the 2020 presidential campaign. Biden finds himself stuck in limbo, unable to extend his wide pledged delegate lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders as most states that have not voted push back their primaries until June. Sanders has said he is reevaluating his campaign but has remained in the race.

Biden and Sanders have resorted to video streams to get their message out while they pause in-person campaigning (though Sanders' digital transition had fewer hiccups). They stand at a decided disadvantage to President Donald Trump, who has participated in a series of extended government press briefings, photo opportunities and media interviews to detail his administration's response to the pandemic. His 2020 campaign has also canceled its rallies temporarily.

Trump called into the Fox News show "Fox & Friends" for 54 minutes on Monday. The president has chatted with his favorite news channel a few times recently, as Trump last week joined in a Fox town hall on the coronavirus and was interviewed on "Hannity."

Since notching primary wins over Sanders in key states such as Michigan, Washington, Florida and Illinois, Biden has tried to project himself as a general election candidate. Asked at a virtual news conference last week if he would participate in a primary debate if the Democratic National Committee held one in April, Biden said, "I think we've had enough debates. I think we should get on with this."

Sanders, whose campaign has said he would join in a potential debate, has also used his standing to get his priorities across in the Senate. On Wednesday, he threatened to hold up a $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill after four Republican senators pushed to dial back the expanded unemployment benefits included in it. The Senate passed the legislation unanimously that night, and Trump signed it Friday after House approval.

Biden leads Trump by about 6 percentage points in an average of recent general election polls, according to RealClearPolitics. The Democrat has also narrowly led the incumbent in the latest surveys of the pivotal states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin  though most of those were taken early this month.

Trump's approval rating has ticked higher during the crisis, though it is unclear if the trend will hold as the economic damage from the pandemic continues to take its toll.

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.
[March 29, 2020] Taiwan's First Digital Bank Implements Fully-Integrated Kamakura Risk Management Solution

SINGAPORE, March 29, 2020 /CNW/ -- After doing a comprehensive vendor evaluation, Next Commercial Bank (NCB), Taiwan's first digital bank, has implemented Kamakura Corporation's suite of solutions to manage risk. The bank believes that a modular and integrated solution offers distinct advantages over disparate systems by saving costs and increasing transparency and efficiency. NCB is one of the first institutions in the digital banking space to augment its digital offerings with a robust and advanced technology enterprise risk management infrastructure platform. Mr. Kung-Ho Chang (Chief Risk Management Officer, NCB) said, "After extensive evaluation and due diligence, NCB felt that Kamakura's integrated ERM system was best suited to provide the holistic and dynamic perspective the bank needs to address of its regulations and requirements. The selection of Kamakura's suite of Credit Risk, Market Risk, FTP, ALM, IRRBB, Basel III LCR and NSFR solutions was based on the company's well-integrated and advanced solution, which encompasses balance sheet management as well as regulatory requirements." Dr Matt Yu, Kamakura's Managing Consultant of Professional Services for Asia-Pacific, said, "One key factor for choosing Kamakura as an integrated risk management system was that unlike other risk management solutions, it allows banks to use the same variables for stress testing scenarios and new business assumptions, generating holistic risk metrics. In addition, by subscribing to Kamakura Risk Information Service (KRIS), NCB has access to default probabilities for more than 40,500 corporate institutions in 76 countries and 180 sovereignsinformation the company updates daily." Frances Cheng, Vice President and Director of Professional Services for Asia Pacific said, "The bank was also impressed by Kamakura's professional approach and the deep expertise of its international, regional, and local consulting staff. And Kamakura's platform, by performing one-time data extraction and reconciliation of the bank's exposure before generating the risk metrics, provides the bank a coherent approach to strategic analysis and reporting. The platform is based on common data architectures and is supported by strong governance of data hierarchy, traceability and lifecycle, yielding optimal business value for a digital bank." Kamakura's unique offering of a complete, advanced ERM solution is essential for banks to actively manage cash flow and accurately assess the margins of internal business units. It is user-friendly and flexible in its configuration, allowing users to configure simulations intuitively on a day-to-day basis. Dr. Clement Ooi, Kamakura's President, Asia-Pacific Operations said, "We are happy that NCB is now able to manage its risk by running simulations in multiple scenarios, integrated with a dynamic view of the rest of its balance sheet profile. The bank will be able to incorporate risk metrics into both its short-term and long-term planning strategies. Kamakura's KRIS credit information will help NCB to manage risks inherent in credit portfolios and to optimize credit investment decisions, complementing Kamakura's integrated balance sheet soution."



Kamakura's portfolio management system includes data elements to capture the characteristics of all financial products, whether in a digital or a mainstream banking environment. By viewing its entire exposure within a single table and a single database, any bank can easily create reports, analyze results, and generate risk metrics. It provides everything a bank would want in a gaining a holistic and integrated risk management solution. About Kamakura Corporation

Founded in 1990, Honolulu-based Kamakura Corporation is a leading provider of risk management information, processing, and software. Kamakura was recognized as a category leader in the Chartis Report, Technology Solutions for Credit Risk 2.0 2018. Kamakura was named to the World Finance 100 by the editor and readers of World Finance magazine in 2017, 2016 and 2012. In 2010, Kamakura was the only vendor to win two Credit Magazine innovation awards. Kamakura Risk Manager, first sold commercially in 1993 and now in version 10.0.5, is the first enterprise risk management system for users focused on credit risk, asset and liability management, market risk, stress testing, liquidity risk, counterparty credit risk, and capital allocation from a single software solution. The KRIS public firm default service was launched in 2002. The KRIS sovereign default service, the world's first, was launched in 2008, and the KRIS non-public firm default service was offered beginning in 2011. Kamakura added its U.S. Bank default probability service in 2014. Kamakura has served more than 330 clients with assets ranging in size from $1.5 billion to $3.0 trillion. Current clients have a combined "total assets" or "assets under management" in excess of $26 trillion. Its risk management products are currently used in 47 countries, including the United States, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Russia, Ukraine, South Africa, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and many other countries in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. To follow risk commentary by Kamakura on a daily basis, please follow:

Kamakura CEO, Dr. Donald van Deventer (www.twitter.com/dvandeventer)

Kamakura President, Martin Zorn(www.twitter.com/riskmgrhi)

Kamakura's official twitter account (www.twitter.com/KamakuraCo). About Bank Next Commercial Bank

Next Commercial Bank, led by Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom, became the first financial services firm in Taiwan to be issued a digital banking license by the Taiwanese financial authorities in July 2019. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/taiwans-first-digital-bank-implements-fully-integrated-kamakura-risk-management-solution-301030161.html SOURCE Kamakura Corporation

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(Sharecast News) - London stocks looked set for a muted open on Monday despite a downbeat session in Asia, as investors continued to mull the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

The FTSE 100 was called to open four points lower at 5,505.



Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said: "Asian stocks kicked off the week on a mixed note. The ASX 200 gained 4.95%, Nikkei fell 2.76%, as Hang Seng (-1.29%) and Shanghai's Composite (-1.59%) traded in the red.



"US and European stock futures were flat-to-positive however, hinting that investors are undecided on the direction they would take at the opening bell. The hesitation suggests that we may see a soothed volatility across the equity markets, although the energy-heavy FTSE 100 will likely remain under the shadow of a 5% drop in oil prices as a result of the cancellation of whatever was left from the Easter holiday plans."



In corporate news, budget airline easyJet said it was grounding its entire fleet in response to "unprecedented" travel restrictions and lockdowns imposed by governments in response to the coronavirus pandemic.



The company said it had reached agreement with the Unite union on furlough arrangements for its cabin crew. The deal would be effective from April 1 for two months and meant that crew will be paid 80% of their average pay through the government's job retention scheme.



Shopping centre owner Hammerson pulled its final dividend and guidance as government lockdowns forced many of its tenants to shutter their stores.



Smith & Nephew has withdrawn its annual financial guidance after the spread of Covid-19 made it clear business would not return to normal as early as it expected.



In the first quarter underlying revenue growth was about 8% lower than a year earlier. Second-quarter revenue and the trading margin for the first half will also be substantially down, the company said.




Credit: CC0 Public Domain

An artificial intelligence tool accurately predicted which patients newly infected with the COVID-19 virus would go on to develop severe respiratory disease, a new study found.

The work was led by NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University, in partnership with Wenzhou Central Hospital and Cangnan People's Hospital, both in Wenzhou, China.

Named "SARS-CoV-2," the new virus causes the disease called "coronavirus disease 2019" or "COVID-19." As of March 30, the virus had infected 735,560 patients worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, the illness has caused more than 34,830 deaths to date, more often among older patients with underlying health conditions. The New York State Department of Health has reported more than 33,700 cases to date in New York City.

Published online March 30 in the journal Computers, Materials & Continua, the study also revealed the best indicators of future severity, and found that they were not as expected.

"While work remains to further validate our model, it holds promise as another tool to predict the patients most vulnerable to the virus, but only in support of physicians' hard-won clinical experience in treating viral infections," says corresponding study author Megan Coffee, MD, Ph.D., clinical assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Disease & Immunology within the Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

"Our goal was to design and deploy a decision-support tool using AI capabilitiesmostly predictive analyticsto flag future clinical coronavirus severity," says co-author Anasse Bari, Ph.D., a clinical assistant professor in Computer Science at the Courant institute. "We hope that the tool, when fully developed, will be useful to physicians as they assess which moderately ill patients really need beds, and who can safely go home, with hospital resources stretched thin."

Surprise Predictors

For the study, demographic, laboratory, and radiological findings were collected from 53 patients as each tested positive in January 2020 for the SARS-CoV2 virus at the two Chinese hospitals. Symptoms were typically mild to begin with, including cough, fever, and stomach upset. In a minority of patients, however, severe symptoms developed with a week, including pneumonia.

The goal of the new study was to determine whether AI techniques could help to accurately predict which patients with the virus would go on to develop Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome or ARDS, the fluid build-up in the lungs that can be fatal in the elderly.

For the new study, the researchers designed computer models that make decisions based on the data fed into them, with programs getting "smarter" the more data they consider. Specifically, the current study used decision trees that track series of decisions between options, and that model the potential consequences of choices at each step in a pathway.

The researchers were surprised to find that characteristics considered to be hallmarks of COVID-19, like certain patterns seen in lung images (e.g. ground glass opacities), fever, and strong immune responses, were not useful in predicting which of the many patients with initial, mild symptoms would go to develop severe lung disease. Neither were age and gender helpful in predicting serious disease, although past studies had found men over 60 to be at higher risk.

Instead, the new AI tool found that changes in three featureslevels of the liver enzyme alanine aminotransferase (ALT), reported myalgia, and hemoglobin levelswere most accurately predictive of subsequent, severe disease. Together with other factors, the team reported being able to predict risk of ARDS with up to 80 percent accuracy.

ALT levelswhich rise dramatically as diseases like hepatitis damage the liverwere only a bit higher in patients with COVID-19, researchers say, but still featured prominently in prediction of severity. In addition, deep muscle aches (myalgia) were also more commonplace, and have been linked by past research to higher general inflammation in the body.

Lastly, higher levels of hemoglobin, the iron-containing protein that enables blood cells to carry oxygen to bodily tissues, were also linked to later respiratory distress. Could this explained by other factors, like unreported smoking of tobacco, which has long been linked to increased hemoglobin levels? Of the 33 patients at Wenzhou Central Hospital interviewed on smoking status, the two who reported having smoked, also reported that they had quit.

Limitations of the study, say the authors, included the relatively small data set and the limited clinical severity of disease in the population studied. The latter may be due in part to an as yet unexplained dearth of elderly patients admitted into the hospitals during the study period. The average patient age was 43.

"I will be paying more attention in my clinical practice to our data points, watching patients closer if they for instance complain of severe myalgia," adds Coffee. "It's exciting to be able to share data with the field in real time when it can be useful. In all past epidemics, journal papers only published well after the infections had waned."

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

More information: Xiangao Jiang et al. Towards an Artificial Intelligence Framework for Data-Driven Prediction of Coronavirus Clinical Severity CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.63, No.1, pp. 537-551, 2020, Xiangao Jiang et al. Towards an Artificial Intelligence Framework for Data-Driven Prediction of Coronavirus Clinical Severity, Vol.63, No.1, pp. 537-551, 2020, DOI: 10.32604/cmc.2020.010691
NEW YORK  Attorneys for jailed NXIVM leader Keith Raniere said they learned he is considered an inmate at high risk for serious illness from COVID-19.

But now that's not so clear.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say the disgraced guru is simply in an age group that the Centers for Disease Control initially considered at high risk from the coronavirus pandemic, but no longer does.

The 59-year-old Raniere, known to his disciples as Vanguard, is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn. The former Halfmoon resident awaits a possible life sentence on May 21 in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn for his conviction on sex trafficking, forced labor and racketeering charges for his crimes while operating the cult-like personal growth organization based in Colonie.

At least one MDC inmate has tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by novel coronavirus, according to a letter sent by Ranieres attorneys to Senior U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis on March 26.

Raniere attorneys Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos told the judge in the letter that on March 26 the federal public defenders office informed them Raniere was a  'high risk for serious illness from COVID-19 under the Center for Disease Controls definition of the term.

___

38 positive for coronavirus at Rikers, NYC jails

Raniere sentencing postponed until May 21

NXIVM's Raniere wants new trial, claims women lied about plans to sue him

Full coronavirus coverage

___

The lawyers told Garaufis their repeated attempts to calls Raniere at the jail have gone unanswered. The MDC, their letter noted, ceased legal visits in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawyers said they had one 40-minute call with Raniere on March 16. They said they requested another call a week later which they were told was forwarded to the appropriate department but went unfulfilled.

They asked the judge to order the Bureau of Prisons to provide any information identifying Raniere as a high risk inmate. The lawyers said Raniere told Geragos he received a medical exam related to several health issues on March 17 but by March 23 had not received any follow-up on it.

The judge agreed to order the Bureau of Prisons to release the records to Ranieres lawyers by 3 p.m. on Monday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Hajjar informed the judge in a letter late Monday that she contacted the legal counsel for the MDC and was told Raniere's high-risk designation was "solely due to his age (59) and not due to any medical condition." The prosecutor said based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bureau of Prisons updated its list of high-risk inmates to include only those inmates 65 years or older

"Based on the updated criteria, the defendant is no longer on the list of at-risk inmates," Hajjar wrote.

Asked if Raniere's designation was simply because of his age, Agnifilo told the Times Union: "The answer is we dont know the basis for the designation. That is why I wanted the full medical records. If there is a basis for a motion of some sort based on the records, well make that motion."

Raniere's sentencing was set for April 16 but moved to May 21 because of a 30-day prohibition on lawyer visits with inmates at MDC prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Raniere's lawyers were unable to speak to him to prepare for their pre-sentencing recommendation to the judge.

The Bureau of Prisons website said 19 inmates and 19 staff members at their facilities have tested positive for COVID-19.

Last June 19, a jury took less than five hours to convict Raniere following a nearly two-month trial of sex trafficking, forced labor and racketeering charges that included underlying acts of money laundering, child exploitation, possession of child pornography, identity theft, obstruction of justice, and wire and visa fraud.
The YouTuber who angered people across the world when he appeared to lick a rail on a New York City subway in the midst of coronavirus crisis claims he used a fake tongue to pull the stunt.

Princezee, whose real name is Zeeshan Ali, declared that he would never 'lick a d**m pole' but described the video and his style comedy as being 'absurd.'

'The content that resonates the most and got me to where I am today is the public reaction, bringing out emotions,' he explained to Insider. 'If it's happy, even if it's dramatic, it always works.'

The incendiary video seemingly showing Princezee licking the rail was filmed on March 1, the YouTuber claimed, 'way before New York was shutting down and starting to panic.'

Scroll down for video

Princezee, whose real name is Zeeshan Ali, declared he would never 'lick a d**m pole' but described the video and his style comedy as 'absurd'

This 'Moron' who licked newyork subway rod in '#CoronaVirusChallenge ' now in hospital with #Coronavirus



The so-called 'coronavirus challenge' began after few TikTok international influencers shared clips of themselves licking toilet seats in public places pic.twitter.com/CT8wmGX3eI  Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) March 25, 2020

The first coronavirus case that was confirmed in the Big Apple was a woman in Manhattan on March 1. New York went into lockdown on March 20.

There are currently 36,221 cases of people with coronavirus in the city. 790 people have died.

Princezee initially posted the video to his more than 300,00 followers on his now private Instagram on March 18.

The video was picked up by WorldStarHipHop where it then was shared by the likes of Piers Morgan and sites across the world.

The incendiary video seemingly showing Princezee licking the rail was filmed on March 1, the YouTuber claimed, 'way before New York was shutting down and starting to panic'

Princezee initially posted the video to his more than 300,00 followers on his now private Instagram on March 18. The video was picked up by WorldStarHipHop where it then was shared by the likes of Piers Morgan and sites across the world

It has been viewed more than 3 million times across various platforms.

The prankster decided to release the video more recently because he believed it would prompt more of a reaction. But he asserts he would never actually try to expose anyone to COVID-19.

'I don't want to be spreading the coronavirus to anyone, and I know I'm not going to lick a d**n pole,' he said. 'I'm smarter than that, with all that's happening.'

Since the video's latest round of infamy, Princezee shared that he has been receiving death threats in his direct messages.

But he appears to be taking most of the heat in strides, retweeting people's comments and adding witty retorts to some.

The prankster decided to release the video more recently because he believed it would strike more of a reaction. But he asserts he would never actually try to expose anyone to COVID-19

'It's just interesting to see people focus on my content when there's bigger problems in the world,' he said. 'I don't know, I'm just trying to make people laugh. I feel like that's just my constant, my job.

'I don't mean any harm to anybody, and I don't mean to scare anybody, but this is my type of content... I've been through so much sh** in the past. I just came to a point where I'm like, I'm just going to live me and I'm going to do me until I die.'

Various YouTube personalities and social influencers have taken to posting variations of them licking various objects during the coronavirus pandemic.

Some have actually tested positive for the virus while others have been charged with making terroristic threats.

There are 36,221 confirmed coronavirus cases in the city and 790 people have died

Larz, a 21-year-old 'influencer' from California, claimed that he had been hospitalized with COVID-19 just days after sharing a clip of himself licking a public toilet bowl.

The video showed Larz licking the toilet and was captioned: 'RT (retweet) to spread awareness for the Coronavirus.'

Cody Pfister, 26, of Warrenton, Missouri, uploaded a video of him licking toiletry products at Walmart to Snapchat on March 11 and was charged on Tuesday with 'knowingly causing a false belief or fear that a condition involving danger to life existed.'

Warrenton police said they had received complaints from around the world including the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands and said it takes these concerns 'extremely seriously.'
(TNS)  Strapped for financial resources and without billion-dollar endowments to tap, community colleges across Massachusetts have been scrambling to adjust thousands of courses to the new, remote reality wrought by COVID-19.While their better-funded, four-year counterparts have largely had web-based classes up and running for at least a week now, many of the states 15 community colleges are just beginning online instruction Monday.We didnt have the ability to just flip a switch, said Tom Sannicandro, director of the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges. This was a lot of work.The Massachusetts community college system serves some 150,000 students from Cape Cod to the Berkshires. Many are students of color, more than half are low-income, and plenty are supporting families of their own, Sannicandro said.They dont all have the technology they need to move remote, he said. Some dont have computers at home. Some are using phones only. Some areas that are in the Berkshires and the Pioneer Valley dont even have broadband.Over the past couple weeks, officials have scrambled to purchase laptops and Wi-Fi hotspots for students and have worked to find ways to continue classes remotely by web, phone or even by mail  resurrecting the correspondence courses of yesteryear. The college presidents have also held daily phone calls to assess their needs.Its been amazing and inspiring the way the faculty and the presidents and the students have all stepped up to really make this education available, Sannicandro said.But the technology, IT infrastructure upgrades and deep cleans across campuses have already cost the colleges a combined roughly $17 million, Sannicandro said. Its estimated that price tag will grow to $45 million through the summer when also accounting for lost revenue.Community colleges are already strapped in terms of financial resources, said Valerie Roberson, president of Roxbury Community College, adding that in trying to keep costs low for students, We dont have a lot of resources to be able to make the investments that we need.Just 15% to 20% of RCCs courses were offered online before coronavirus hit. While some face-to-face classes already had online components  a big advantage for students and faculty alike  both groups often lacked the technology for a full digital reboot.Try writing a paper on your cellphone, Roberson said. Thats where the computer is going to be really important.Roberson estimates roughly 1,000 students  about half the enrollment at RCC, where more than 80% of the students are low-income, more than half have children and upward of 60% work part-time  lack the resources to continue their coursework. RCC has been soliciting donations to help students get access to laptops and hotspots, but so far has only been able to fulfill about 25% of that need, she said.The world changed almost overnight, Roberson said. Its a challenge but Im really glad to see how many of our faculty and staff have just done whatever we can to continue to be that lifeline for students.Not every class is able to go virtual, though. Some labs and clinical work have simply been postponed, with officials hoping against hope that by May, perhaps, well be able to get them into those labs, said Lane Glenn, president of Northern Essex Community College, which has campuses in Lawrence and Haverhill.NECC also runs the largest police academy in Massachusetts, plus emergency medical and health care programs that Glenn said are vital to fighting the pandemic.If that training stops, guess what? A few months from now we dont have the first responders to continue to respond to this crisis, Glenn said. Community colleges cannot simply close our doors and wait until this goes away. Were right there on the front lines.
FLINT, MI-- National Guard Sergeant First Class Andy Kohtala was part of the unit that served Flint during its water crisis.

Now hes back helping out at the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan during the global coronavirus crisis.

Kohtala and other service members of the National Guard are helping to distribute food and other critically important resources, according to the city.

The National Guard is also staffing food banks in Ann Arbor, Comstock Park and Pontiac. Approximately 10 Michigan National Guard members will be serving at each site.

Michigan National Guard to staff food banks, while restaurants can sell groceries as part of coronavirus response

As of Wednesday, March 25, the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan is closed to additional volunteers.

Were trying to limit the amount of outside people coming into the facility out of the recommendations from the governor at this point," Kara Ross, president and CEO for the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan, previously said.

The states Stay Home, Stay Safe order doesnt apply to people volunteering for agencies providing for people in need. The National Guard is filling in the need for more volunteers at the food bank, according to a press release.

It unknown how long the National Guard will remain in Flint, Kohtala said.

As of right now, were being told at least for another three weeks, Kohtala said. Further out than that, were not sure of right now.

Kohtalas division serves four different facilities in the state.

Honestly, I dont know of a pandemic like this during any of our lifetimes, Kohtala said. Its crazy times right now.

Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley thanked Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for providing the service members to the city in the press release.

"This is Michiganders helping Michiganders, Neeley said. We have gaps to fill and the National Guard is filling those vital areas for us. We are thankful for the service of Michigan National Guard as well as all of our first responders and others who are continuing to serve the residents of Flint.

Neeley also thanked all nonprofit entities and their volunteers who are providing for the health, safety and welfare of Flint residents.

During this crisis, we also are seeing that there are many angels living among us. We are a strong community and I am proud to see so many people step up to care for one another, Neeley said.

The food bank tripled its mobile pantry availability last week to fill the gaps in services as cases of the coronavirus spread throughout the state.

Many people are temporarily unemployed or have been laid off following Whitmers order that people who are not in the essential workforce remain at home.

Were seeing so many more people this week compared to last week now out of jobs and theyre going to need resources, food and other help in their community, Ross said.

Meals for kids are no longer hot or prepared meals, Ross said. Families are given a box that includes eight breakfasts and eight lunches. The group has switched to using mobile pantries primarily to prevent large groups of people from congregating in one place.

People can find a food pantry through the organization here.

However, people can still help through donations to the food banks website, Ross said.

All pantries and partners are still considered essential services, but they continue to take additional measures to take precautionary measures as advised by the state, Ross said. The organizations also has over 700 partners between 21 counties.

Read more here:

Complete coverage at mlive.com/coronavirus

How you can donate medical supplies to mid-Michigan hospitals

Eastern Michigan food bank multiplies services as unemployed population rises

Flint schools food distribution sites cut from 24 to 7
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is suspending state hiring and vetoing previously-planned state spending in a budget bill as the state anticipates reduced revenues due to the economic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis.

Whitmer signed two supplemental budget bills to secure $150 million in new funding to respond to the coronavirus pandemic but vetoed $80 million in other planned budget items. The governor also took additional steps to conserve resources by ordering the temporary suspension of government hiring and restricting all discretionary spending by state departments and agencies.

The governor said the world has changed since the supplemental bills were negotiated earlier this year. Legislative leaders and the state Budget Office agreed vetoes were needed to save tax dollars due to the incredible toll COVID-19 will likely have on Michigans economy, Whitmer said at a Monday press conference.

Its too early to determine the exact impact on state revenues, and knowing there is potential for a significant loss in revenue, now is not the time to sign a bill for supplemental funding for anything other than dollars that can be utilized to help our COVID-19 response, Whitmer said.

The bills add funding to the current budget year, which runs Oct. 1, 2019 through Sept. 30.

House Bill 4729 included $125 million for coronavirus response, including sending $50 million to the Department of Health and Human Services to be distributed to critical health care providers and putting $35 million in a specially-designated coronavirus response fund.

Senate Bill 151 included $25 million for coronavirus response, which the governor approved. Of that, $10 million will go to state departments responding to coronavirus and $15 million will be set aside to address additional coronavirus needs as they arise.

The governor vetoed, however, an additional $80 million in funding included in SB 151 after coming to an agreement with House and Senate leaders. As passed by the House and Senate, the bill included $180.6 million in general fund dollars as part of $312.3 gross spending.

Per the state budget office, all spending in SB 151 was vetoed except the $25 million for coronavirus response efforts and the following:

$31 million for court-ordered legal settlements within the Michigan State Police and Department of Corrections

$19 million to pay down liabilities in the Venture Michigan Fund program that save the state at least $23 million (net $4 million)

$14 million for legally required reimbursement of locals for presidential primaries

$7 million General Fund/$48 million Gross to boost hospital outpatient rates as they respond to the virus

$4 million to ensure critical oil and gas inspections continue

$8 million to authorize spending for dedicated federal and restricted funds

Cuts include $15 million set aside for the Pure Michigan program and a number of smaller appropriations to local communities for things like libraries, event centers, museums and downtowns.

Where there are unplanned expenditures or potential addition to operations, were going to stop all of that because we know weve got to be really conservative right now, Whitmer said. We know the toll that COVID-19 is going to take on our state economy and on our ability to meet the needs of the budget.

Leaders of both parties in the state legislature celebrated the new funding related to coronavirus.

Residents across the great state of Michigan need to know that the Executive and Legislative branches of state government are working together to do whatever is necessary to ensure an effective response to COVID-19," read a joint statement.

The statement was signed by Whitmer, Senate Majority Leader Mike Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake; Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint; House Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering; and House Democratic Leader Christine Greig, D-Farmington Hills.

Whitmer said the state has already expended more than $80 million to secure vital medical supplies for hospitals that are being overwhelmed by the rising number of COVID-19 cases.

The funding secured more than 20 million N95 masks, 2,000 ventilators, nearly 9 million ounces of hand sanitizer, 255,000 boxes of gloves, 2.4 million gowns, 2,000 beds, 210,000 testing supplies, 3,000 thermometers, 185,000 face shields, 22,000 cartons of disinfecting wipes, and other needed supplies.

Michigan received 112,000 N95 masks from FEMA with another 8,000 on the way. The shipment is helpful at this moment, Whitmer said, but more theres a much greater need.

She said one Detroit-area hospital goes through around 10,000 masks per day. Ten N95 masks are used every day in the course of treatment for one patient.

Meanwhile, the number of confirmed cases continues to rise daily. There were 5,486 confirmed cases and 132 deaths as of Sunday.

Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun said no one can say exactly when the cases will reach their peak, but its likely "several weeks weeks away.

Whitmer urged Michiganders to stay in their homes in the meantime. She reminded residents that an executive order requiring people to stay in their homes until April 14 prohibits associating with neighbors and holding family gatherings.

PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops ) and when you go into places like stores.

Read more on MLive:

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Doctors on front lines of Michigans coronavirus crisis: It seems like the sky is falling

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Monday, March 30: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Coronavirus cases in Michigans prisons double over weekend

TCF Center alternate care facility to include 2 floors, 900 beds once completed, officials say

Gov. Whitmer downplays tensions with Trump on CNN, Meet the Press appearances
It was drawn directly from memory, Mr. dePaola told the Boston Globe. I get chills  the hair is already standing up on the back of my neck  when I think of that drawing, he said. They had just taken her body away, and my grandmother hadnt remade the bed, but had taken the sheets off. Just this white space with white light. And then I knew she was gone.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30)  A young doctor helping in the fight against the novel coronavirus was among eight people who died after a plane on a medical evacuation flight caught fire on Sunday while taking off at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

The 33-year-old Dr. Cenover Nicandro "Nicko" Bautista was one of the frontliners at the Mandaluyong City Medical Center.

The Agusta WW24 aircraft carrying the group caught fire Sunday, just before 8 p.m. An American national, a Canadian national and six Filipinos including Bautista perished in the flight. The Filipinos also included a flight medic, a nurse, and three flight crew.

Hours before the incident, Bautista posted on Facebook that he can't wait for the COVID-19 crisis to be over. The doctor said he is afraid but he knows he is needed in the fight.

His sister, Ria, described him as a strong and determined man. During their last conversation, she said he was in high spirits and still found ways to make things light despite being at the forefront of the COVID-19 fight.

"Kaya niyang magbiro kahit sobrang ang serious na ng mga nangyayari, nagagawa pa rin niyang tumawa. He's a source of strength to think he's my younger brother. Tapos siya ang nag-aalaga sa sister namin, pamangkin," she reporters.

She said they had plans to gather again as a family once the Luzon-wide lockdown is lifted.

Philippine Medical Association Vice President Dr. Benito Atienza on Monday said Bautista was assigned to accompany a patient on board the ill-fated flight.

"He was assigned to one patient coming from the province. The patient wants to be transferred to Japan because there is a COVID patient in the previous hospital where the patient was admitted. Kapag nag-transfer tayo ng patient, dapat may isang doctor, nurse," he told CNN Philippines' The Source.

Investigation on the incident is still ongoing, but an initial statement from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said the aircraft reportedly encountered a technical problem while rolling for takeoff on Runway 06/24. The Manila International Airport Authority said the accident happened at the end of the runway as the aircraft was taking off.

The entire fleet of charter airline Lionair has been grounded after one of its medical evacuation aircraft caught fire while it was taking off at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines spokesperson Eric Apolonio on Monday said the order covers all seven of Lionair's planes and helicopters "while investigation is ongoing."

CNN Philippines' Gerg Cahiles contributed to this report.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 30

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Bulgarias Bulgartransgaz EAD has been informed by Association Consortium Arkad of a fatal work accident along the route of Balkan Stream, Trend reports citing the company.

In the lands of Gostilya village, Dolna Mitropoliya municipality, Pleven region, on 28.03.2020, in the course of the construction and installation works, at the 374 km of the route, a pipe layer truck fell into a trench when maneuvring on the building site, reads the message.

The operator of the pipe layer is a 62-year old Italian who died on the way to hospital. All activities in the section have been suspended.

The implementation of the works on site continues under the strict control of Association Consortium Arkad provided the declared state of emergency in the country and in line with all measures announced by the National Operational HQ, said the company.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
OTTAWA - The COVID-19 pandemic ended the secret handshakes and deal-making in the world's power corridors, but Canada's campaign for a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council is full steam ahead.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 29/3/2020 (654 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The COVID-19 pandemic ended the secret handshakes and deal-making in the world's power corridors, but The Canadian Press has learned that Canada's campaign for a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council is full steam ahead. The UN Security Council holds a meeting at United Nations headquarters, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Mary Altaffer

OTTAWA - The COVID-19 pandemic ended the secret handshakes and deal-making in the world's power corridors, but Canada's campaign for a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council is full steam ahead.

Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne and International Development Minister Karina Gould confirmed the continuing campaigning in separate interviews with The Canadian Press this past week.

They say Canada's voice on the world's most powerful decision-making body is needed more than ever because of the big decisions that lie ahead in managing the pandemic and its aftermath.

Canada faces tough competition from Norway and Ireland for the two available seats for a temporary two-year term that would start next year.

Both countries are viewed widely as having an advantage because they spend far more than Canada on international development to poor countries and have far more military personnel deployed on UN peacekeeping missions  two key issues for UN member countries.

Champagne and Gould say that Canada's international stature has grown because of its response to the COVID-19 outbreak, which so far includes a $50-million foreign aid package, but some ex-diplomats say Canada needs to spend more in that area to win votes.

"The UN Security Council is the body that determines how the world reacts to issues of global security and instability," said Gould, adding that it has never been more important to have a "rational voice" on the 10 rotating, non-permanent members of the council.

"It just demonstrates why it is important for Canada to sit on the UN Security Council. That campaign carries on, but in a different way."

After taking part in a teleconference with fellow G7 foreign ministers this past week, Champagne said Canada's membership in that exclusive club of leading nations would help it in the ongoing UN campaign.

"Canada has been chairing or organizing a number of calls with G7 countries," he said. He said Canada has "a voice that is much needed in the world where we need to co-operate, co-ordinate and work together. I think Canada brings something unique to the table.

"I think more and more countries want to see their voice amplified through Canada."

That includes during the pandemic itself, he said, "but also once we will be in the post-COVID world (we) will need countries like Canada to be there."

Canada's international credibility has also risen in recent months because of the role it has taken in leading the quest to get answers from Iran about its January downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane, as well its recent completion of a new North American trade deal, said Colin Robertson, a seasoned ex-diplomat.

"The new responsibilities of middle-power status, especially G7 and G20 membership, differentiates us from Norway and Ireland," said Robertson, vice-president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.

Canada's shortfalls in peacekeeping and foreign aid remain a crippling factor in the UN bid, but the COVID-19 crisis gives it an opportunity to make up for it that, said Stephen Lewis, Canada's UN ambassador in the 1980s.

Canada received negative reviews for its "brief peacekeeping mission in Mali" and for pulling out earlier than the UN wanted, said Lewis, who remains active in UN circles as one of the leaders of an international organization trying to stamp out abuse by peacekeepers.

"Although Canada may consider that trivial, it registers deeply with the international peacekeeping community around the world, countries whose vote Canada would want," said Lewis.

That can be rectified by giving cash  "several hundred million"  to the African Union for its peacekeeping operations and increasing its foreign aid contribution to COVID-19 well beyond the current $50 million, which Lewis calls, "woefully inadequate." He said Canada's fair share would be $140 million at minimum.

"The government espouses generosity: in fact, they're begrudging pretenders," said Lewis.

Spending matters more than ever, especially during the pandemic, and especially in Africa where 54 of the UN General Assembly's 190-plus countries hold a crucial bloc of votes in the Security Council election, said Bessma Momani, an international affairs expert at the University of Waterloo.

So far, Canada's $50-million pledge looks modest, and individual African countries will want more, she said.

"If I were an African government expecting COVID-19 to knock on my door any minute now, maybe if you're choosing between Norway and Ireland, I would use that as leverage ... If you want me to vote, where's my help?" said Momani.

Canada should campaign to address a more pressing need at the Security Council  the fact that it has been missing in action in combatting the pandemic, according to the Canadian-led World Refugee Council. Its leading members include former UN ambassadors Allan Rock and Paul Heinbecker, and Lloyd Axworthy, Canada's foreign minister when the country last served on the council two decades ago.

"The Security Council's silence is a troubling symptom of the deep dysfunction that has beset its 15-member body in recent years," the group said in a statement.

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"As Canada campaigns for one of those seats in this year's election, it should pledge in its platform to bring the Security Council back to life and face up to its responsibilities."

The pandemic raises questions about whether the General Assembly, whose members are to hold a vote in June, will be able to meet to hold an election.

The Security Council has been meeting recently via video conference so it is conceivable that the General Assembly could convene that way in June, said Adam Chapnick, a Royal Military College professor and author of a new book on the Security Council.

"That said, there is a real chance that this pandemic will be significantly worse (at least in the global south, where it is only beginning) in a few months, so I suspect that we will be in unprecedented territory by the time the meetings are supposed to be held," Chapnick said.

"Still, I can't imagine that an election won't be held, because the seats do have to be filled."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 29, 2020.
Stottler Henke Associates, Inc. (http://www.stottlerhenke.com) today announced the award of a contract with the U.S. Navy to customize and demonstrate a critical chain and critical path scheduling capability for surface ship maintenance operations. Stottler Henkes solution is based on its Aurora intelligent planning and scheduling system, combined with built-in Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) capabilities.

During the project, a series of demonstrations and Government tests will verify the systems ability to solve large, resource-constrained scheduling problems, generate numerous reports and displays to provide an integrated picture of the Navys surface ship maintenance demands, support tens of thousands of users, and provide system administration tools. If the evaluation is successful, the Navy is expected to contract Stottler Henke to develop and deploy a customized, operational version of the system at naval shipyards, regional maintenance centers, and ship facilities.

Navy ship maintenance is extremely labor and resource intensive, and ship maintenance schedules must satisfy complex constraints. For example, many maintenance operations require different combinations of limited resources such as maintenance shops, equipment, and maintenance teams with specific skills and certifications. Large parts are removed from the ship and transported to specialized maintenance shops where they are reconditioned or repaired. Other work is performed on board in small spaces, so spatial reasoning is needed to schedule those tasks.

The US Navy has successfully used the Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) methodology to manage other operations efficiently, so they desire a ship maintenance scheduling software system that supports CCPM. The Critical Chain method consolidates per-task safety margins into a smaller number of aggregate safety margins. By allocating safety times strategically, organizations achieve higher throughput. Also, CCPM provides organizations with greater visibility into how their projects are performing, and it provides global metrics to guide and motivate all parties to do what is best for the entire organization. For this project, Stottler Henke is teaming with Main Sail LLC who contributes expertise in Critical Chain Project Management and Theory of Constraints.

Like complex operations at many organizations, management of Navy ship maintenance requires resource-constrained scheduling of tens of thousands of activities, which is beyond the ability of ordinary CCPM software. Stottler Henkes solution for the Navy is based on Aurora-CCPM which combines Stottler Henkes Aurora intelligent planning and scheduling system (http://www.stottlerhenke.com/products/aurora) with the added power and flexibility of multi-project Critical Chain Project Management.

Aurora is the worlds leading planning and scheduling system that uses artificial intelligence to generate efficient solutions to complex, highly constrained scheduling problems. Most other systems use simple rules to schedule activities and assign resources to carry them out. Often, these schedules and resource assignments are far from optimal. Aurora outperforms conventional software because it uses artificial intelligence technologies to encode and apply extensive scheduling knowledge.

We are delighted that the US Navy is evaluating Aurora software for managing their extensive ship maintenance operations, says Richard Stottler, president, Stottler Henke. Auroras artificial intelligence scheduling technology will improve the Navys readiness, save taxpayer dollars, and enable superior operations management, as already seen by the US Air Force, aircraft manufacturers, and many industries, continues Stottler.

Aurora scheduling software was originally developed to help NASA tackle difficult, mission-critical scheduling problems with complex constraints by incorporating the judgment and experience of expert human schedulers. NASA used Aurora at Kennedy Space Center to schedule International Space Station payload and Shuttle processing activities. The Boeing Company uses Aurora to help them manage aspects of building the Boeing 787 Dreamliner commercial airliner. Other Aurora software users include Pfizer, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Korea Aerospace Industries, Massachusetts General Hospital, Bombardier Learjet, Alaska Airlines, the US Air Force, and the US Navy. Aurora was featured in NASAs Hallmarks of Success video series which showcases successful spin-off technologies.

Founded in 1988, Stottler Henke Associates, Inc. applies artificial intelligence and other advanced software technologies to solve problems that defy solution using traditional approaches. The company delivers intelligent software solutions for education and training, planning and scheduling, knowledge management and discovery, decision support, and autonomous systems. In 2012, Stottler Henke, in a White House ceremony, was awarded the prestigious Tibbetts award, which honors small businesses for the economic impact of their innovations and their contribution to Government research and development needs. Stottler Henke was the subject of a NASA Hallmarks of Success video profile for its work developing and commercializing advanced scheduling and training software systems. US Government agencies have designated eleven Stottler Henke systems as Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) success stories. Stottler Henke received a Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning award for innovative technology. Stottler Henke was named one of the Top 100 companies making a significant impact on the military training industry by Military Training Technology magazine for 2016 and eleven previous years. Stottler Henke received a Blue Ribbon from Military Training Technology magazine, recognizing it as a company that leads the industry in innovation. In 2018, MS&T magazine, the leading simulation and training publication for defense, named Stottler Henke as a finalist for its small business of the year award. Email: info@stottlerhenke.com. Web: https://www.stottlerhenke.com.
Hailing from the plains of Kangundo, Machakos County, Rita Mutheu never envisioned becoming a fierce defender for womens rights.

She had her light bulb moment in 2014 when she came across a viral video of a woman being stripped in broad daylight for allegedly dressing indecently at a bus station in Nairobi.

Mutheu and other women she met on the Facebook platform, Kilimani Mums, started the My Dress My Choice Campaign which trended worldwide as women and rights activists condemned the brutal act.

Today, Mutheu is a womens rights activist and co-founder of HER (Health, Empowerment & Rights) VOICE, a non-governmental organization that seeks to end Gender-Based Violence by influencing behavioural change by instilling values to promote positive masculinity.

The mother of two spoke to Nation about her journey.

Did you always envision yourself as a human rights activist or was this something you stumbled upon or picked up later?

It had not consciously envisioned myself as an activist until that day when I stumbled upon a video of a woman being stripped in a bus stop in Nairobi and decided to act. We met at PAWA 254 and this is how the My Dress My Choice campaigns started.

You played a big role in these campaigns. Give us a sneak peek of the campaign and protests?

I never thought it needed so much planning. It was only after a meeting with Boniface Mwangi, the founder of PAWA 254, that we realised how much needed to be done before the actual protests. We had to get a permit, prepare campaign material, mobilise the public and also submit a petition.

It would have been pointless to march without submitting a petition. Overall, the protests were very successful as they attracted the attention of both local and international media.

How did HER VOICE, come about, and what are you currently doing with the outfit?

After the protests, people felt that we had a voice, and there was so much that we could do. I founded HER VOICE alongside eight women from the original Kilimani Mums group.

We aim to create safe public spaces where men, women and children live in peaceful coexistence.

What are some of the challenges of being a women rights activist in Kenya, and what are some of the lessons youve learnt along the way?

The society that we live in is mostly patriarchal. Some people do not take it kindly that we are fighting for womens rights.

The meaning of feminism has been misconstrued, yet we know there are also men who have undergone certain abuses and violations which we also stand against.

Funding has also been a challenge. However, we have found ways of fighting for human rights even without necessarily having funding.

This is because, for most of us, we do it for the passion. In the future, we hope to create an open safe house and anyone willing to come on board and support such a project would be welcome.

The most important lesson I have learnt is to lose everything but never lose hope. Despite the challenges, we keep fighting.

What is your ideal world for both men and women in Kenya?

My ideal world would be a place where men, women and children can work and coexist cohesively. I hope to see a world where there is respect for all genders. It is important to note that if the fight for women is to end, men at all levels also need to come on board.

Women cannot win alone. There have also been incidences where men are the victims of abuse. We also condemn such incidences.

Tell us about some of the notable achievements and recognition youve received from your work?

I am the 2018 PEPFAR Champions for Change Award Winner (PEPFAR is a US government initiative). After the protest, the sexual bill was amended and has been implemented. Stripping is now a punishable offence by the law.

What should we expect from you in future?

We are hoping to push for more case prosecutions and particularly those that relate to rape against minors. We are hoping to fight for stricter regulations on this.

We also hope to continue fighting gender-based violence, to protect victims of that violence, and mostly influence behaviour change by promoting values that promote peaceful coexistence.
OTTAWACanadas military has mobilized 24,000 troops to be ready to assist civilian authorities as they grapple with the spread of COVID-19.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that military personnel are ready to respond to any calls for help from the provinces but so far, there have been no formal requests for assistance.

The Canadian Armed Forces has been gearing up to support our efforts and our communities as we fight COVID-19, Trudeau said Monday.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said the military has been told to draw up plans around three priorities  help efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19; provide support to vulnerable communities; and assist provinces, territories and municipalities with logistics.

Sajjan said that the Canadian Army has up to 10 regular force units across the country ready to go. These immediate reaction units are ready to support any request for assistance. They can play a critical role in providing humanitarian support and delivering supplies, he told a briefing Monday.

At the same time, those troops can also respond to any natural disasters such as floods or forest fires.

Sajjan said that special attention is being given to Indigenous and remote communities  in part through special Canadian Ranger patrols  that could be especially vulnerable to an outbreak.

Gen. Jonathan Vance, the chief of defence staff, said personnel are self-isolating to avoid catching the virus.

Weve got good plans in place and weve got the troops sequestered, staying as healthy as possible so we can mount several thousand people at the same time, if we need to, Vance told reporters.

We are going to be able to respond either with specialist capabilities like medical, logistics, engineering for a short duration event or for longer duration events, depending on what the need of the provinces is, he said.

Were also looking at significant responses in the event that communities start to suffer multiple events, including floods, forest fires, inside a COVID environment where the Armed Forces will be able to put in place necessary support to critical infrastructure, logistics as well as some medical support, Vance said.

The military is continuing domestic and overseas operations but with changes to help protect personnel. That includes postponing planned troop rotations to overseas operations, putting a halt to training and putting plans for leave on hold.

And because recruitment has almost come to a standstill, Vance says that retirements may be voluntarily delayed to preserve our strength.

In the United States, the military there has deployed hospital ships to New York and Los Angeles, sent medical personnel and field hospitals to hard-hit cities and engineers are helping with the conversion of hotels and other facilities into temporary hospitals.

Read more about:
The 360 shows you diverse perspectives on the days top stories and debates.

Whats happening

In the dictionary, the word essential has a simple definition. Merriam-Webster defines essential as an adjective meaning of the utmost importance.

The coronavirus outbreak is proving that, in practice, deciding whats essential is much more complicated. States and cities across America have mandated that all nonessential businesses close to help stem the spread of the virus. The bulk of the exceptions to these restrictions are clearly of utmost importance: hospitals, pharmacies, grocery stores, etc. The lists vary from place to place, with some surprising businesses being allowed to remain open.

Two of the most debated businesses that have been deemed essential in some places are marijuana dispensaries and gun shops. Several states have allowed all pot retailers to stay open, while others are allowing sales only for medicinal use. Gun stores have been shuttered in a handful of states, and in others they have been allowed to stay open. The federal government recently added gun stores to its list of critical services, but the decision is ultimately up to individual states.

Why theres debate

Recreational marijuana is legal in 11 states and Washington, D.C., albeit sometimes with restrictions on commercial sales. In those states, advocates say cannabis products provide relief for people with a long list of conditions, including anxiety, depression and other mental health issues that could be triggered by the stress of the pandemic.

These advocates argue that limiting sales only to medical marijuana could mean those who lack the resources to get a prescription will go without treatment for an indeterminate amount of time. Others argue that closing legal pot vendors would open a market for illegal drug dealers who could be coronavirus superspreaders.

Beyond the typical criticism of legalized marijuana, some medical experts say it may be dangerous to promote use of smokable products at the same time that a virus causing severe respiratory illness is being spread through the population.

Story continues

Gun rights supporters say closing firearms retailers violates their Second Amendment freedoms. Though states appear to be on sound legal ground in shutting down the shops, that could change if the closures are challenged in court, experts say.

Others say citizens should have the right to buy guns to protect themselves should police forces experience any disruption because of the pandemic. Like marijuana, there are also concerns that shutting down legal retailers could lead to guns being sold on the black market without proper tracking or background checks.

Critics say guns arent necessary to carry out social distancing protocols, and allowing people to stock up on weapons out of fear risks escalating the countrys already pervasive gun violence problem. We dont live in the Wild West, where people are dependent on guns for food, the mayor of San Jose, Calif., said when ordering all gun stores shuttered.

Whats next

As the virus spreads across the country, new states may be forced to wrangle with the question of what to do about marijuana and gun sellers in the near future. The National Rifle Association has filed a lawsuit challenging Californias gun store closures that could inform decisions by other governors, depending on how it is decided.

Perspectives

Marijuana

Marijuana is necessary treatment for a variety of mental health conditions

Theres a great number of people with conditions like anxiety who medicate those conditions with cannabis. And a lot of folks are going to be suffering heightened degrees of anxiety and other types of emotional disruption given everything that's going on.  Steve DeAngelo, marijuana dispensary owner, to ABC News

Closing dispensaries will lead to unsafe illegal sales

Not surprisingly, black-market pot dealers have also been doing a brisk business during the crisis, and unlike legal sellers, they feel little need to abide by official orders.  Dan Levin, New York Times

Smoking marijuana presents unknown health risks

Some medical experts question the wisdom of allowing uninhibited access to marijuana during a massive public health crisis. They worry that customers flocking to pot shops could spread the virus, that stoned customers will engage in risky behavior and that smoking pot will worsen the lung damage for people who do become infected.  Natalie Fertig, Mona Zhang and Paul Demko, Politico

Pot shouldnt be treated as a cure-all for the mental health impact of current crisis

What worries me is the fact that many people seem to be relying too much on the anxiety relief effects of cannabis to ease fears. Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, I do hope people stay healthy by exercising more and by protecting themselves with face masks and hand sanitizers. Theres nothing wrong about having some weed, but we should not rely solely on it.  Dwight K. Blake, AmericanMarijuana.com editor in chief, to High Times

Limiting sales to medicinal marijuana will harm a lot of people

Because many people who use marijuana for therapeutic purposes dont necessarily jump through the hoops needed in order to become officially certified as patients, recreational businesses are also seen as crucial access points that need to stay open.  Tom Angell, Forbes

People should have access to products that make them feel good in stressful times

Lets be honest, a lot of us could use some high times right now.  Tracey Anne Duncan, Mic

Guns

People have the right to protect themselves, especially in times of crisis

Law-abiding citizens want the right to buy a gun, especially in the midst of a pandemic.  If shortages become more severe or if lots of police fall ill, chaos may very well ensue. People would rather be safe than sorry.  John R. Lott Jr., National Review

The Second Amendment protects the right to purchase firearms

Those who think suspending a constitutional right is acceptable because a virus is a health threat are truly mixing the proverbial apples and oranges to suit their own agendas. Gun dealers and their customers will do the right thing. Nobody is looking to make this situation worse. At the same time, citizens must be allowed to exercise their rights, especially during a national emergency."  Alan Gottlieb, gun rights advocate, to Washington Free Beacon

Guns arent necessary to survive the outbreak

Unless you plan on shooting those little coronaviruses one by one, no, gun shops are not providing an essential service during a pandemic. They are profiting from the marketing of fear  get armed now before the desperate hordes invade your neighborhood in search of toilet paper!  Scott Martelle, Los Angeles Times

Closing gun shops could lead to more dangerous black market sales

Even some gun control advocates say it might not be wise to shut down federally licensed firearms dealers, whose sales require background checks. That could force buyers to use a website or seek a private sale that doesnt require a check, making it more difficult to trace a firearm if its used in a crime.  Lisa Marie Pane and Jim Vertuno, Associated Press

The Constitution doesnt prevent gun stores being closed as part of a larger shutdown

The Second Amendment limits a states ability to impose special restrictions that apply only to gun dealers, but gun shops still must pay taxes, obey zoning regulations, and so forth. For this reason, if the governor of a state issues a broad order closing a states nonessential businesses, and that order does not single out gun shops for inferior treatment, gun stores typically should be bound by that order.  Ian Millhiser, Vox

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Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Getty Images
President Trump said on "Fox & Friends" Monday morning that he's planned to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Russia-Saudi rupture on oil policy that's helping to push prices lower.

What he's saying: "Im talking to him about that among other things, because you know, getting along with Russia is a good thing," Trump said in a response to a question about pain in the oil-and-gas industry.

Why it matters: The three-year-old Saudi-Russia agreement on supply management collapsed in early March, putting further pressure on prices already pushed steeply downward because the coronavirus has frozen so much travel and economic activity.

The vow to discuss the topic with Putin comes as U.S. officials are also pressing Saudi Arabia to back off plans to boost supplies to the already flooded market , but that initiative has yet to show results.

but that initiative has yet to show results. The price and demand collapse is creating severe financial pressure on U.S. producers, who have already been announcing steep cutbacks.

But, but, but: Global demand is undergoing such an unprecedented collapse that any potential changes in Russia and Saudi supply decisions are likely to have only a limited effect.

The big picture: A Goldman Sachs note this morning offers a window into the unprecedented crisis facing the oil industry.

Their analysts now estimate that global oil demand has fallen by 26 million barrels per day  a 25% cut in consumption.

Worsening physical constraints on storage mean that at least 900,000 barrels per day have been halted, or "shut in," and it's growing by the hour. One problem for the sector is that shutting in wells can significantly and permanently damage them.

That will affect the industry's ability to supply the market once demand normalizes. "[W]e believe the upstream sector could lose as much as 5.0 million b/d of oil supply capacity," they note.

Threat level: Bloomberg reports that pipeline operators are asking oil companies to scale back production "in the clearest sign yet that a growing glut of crude is overwhelming storage capacity."
C rowds of people ignored social distancing rules in New York as they gathered to watch the arrival of a US Navy hospital ship brought in to help the fight against coronavirus.

The 1,000-bed vessel was welcomed to as a beacon of hope amid a desperate fight against the pandemic in the city, where hospitals have been overrun with patients suffering from COVID-19.

New York state accounts for almost half the United States more than 152,000 cases and more than 40 per cent of its more than 2,800 deaths and people are now living under social distancing guidelines to combat the spread of the virus.

Despite this, people were seen gathering near the Hudson River to cheer the US Navy ship Comfort, a converted oil tanker adorned with giant red crosses, as it sailed past the Statue of Liberty on Monday.

The USNS Comfort passes Manhattan as it enters New York Harbour / REUTERS

Some bystanders chanted, "Trump, Trump, Trump," as the huge vessel neared the Midtown Manhattan pier where it docked.

"It's a wartime atmosphere and we all have to pull together," said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. He said preparations for the ship, including dredging, took eight days, much less than the two weeks initially expected.

The Comfort will treat non-coronavirus patients, including those who require surgery and critical care, the Navy said.

The United States has the most confirmed cases in the world.

People watch the arrival of the USNS Comfort in New York City / REUTERS

US health officials are urging Americans to follow stay-at-home orders and other measures to contain the spread of the virus, which first broke out in China and has infected about three-quarters of a million people around the world.

To ease the pressure in New York, construction of a 68-bed field hospital began on Sunday in Central Park, and the white tents being set up evoked a wartime feel in an island of green typically used by New Yorkers to exercise, picnic and enjoy the first signs of spring.

The makeshift facility, provided by the Mount Sinai Health System and non-profit organization Samaritan's Purse, is expected to begin accepting patients on Tuesday but will not take walk-ins, and admissions and transfers will be managed by Mount Sinai, mayor de Blasio said.

New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo told a news conference the state might have to step in to close playgrounds in the country's most populous city.

He said official efforts to reduce the numbers of people in those public spaces had not been successful.

Mayor De Blasio said the death toll in his city would rise if Washington did not provide more assistance soon. Sunday is D-Day, we need help by Sunday," he told CNN.
[March 30, 2020] Sumo Logic Offers Free Cloud-Based Data Analytics to Support Work From Home and Online Classroom Productivity

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sumo Logic , the leader in continuous intelligence , today announced a number of free analytics solutions and resources to help support enterprises and the broader community during the coronavirus pandemic. The company unveiled a bundle of SaaS apps designed to help IT and security teams ensure critical business applications are up, running and secure. In addition, Sumo Logic is offering its Continuous Intelligence Platform for free to all educational institutions to provide disruption-free learning to students globally. Lastly, the company launched a new series with best-selling author Shawn Achor on how to shift to more positive mindsets amidst uncertainty.

Improving WFH Productivity

Most organizations have a majority of their employees working from home (WFH) to maintain social distancing and safety. Remote access, VPN, endpoint security and SaaS solutions are the lifeblood for enterprises to keep employees engaged and productive. Sumo Logic is offering a new Work-From-Home solution that helps IT and security teams ensure the visibility, reliability and security of mission critical business apps. The bundle solution includes a number of existing Sumo Logic and partner apps including: SSO - Auth0, Duo, Okta, One Login, Azure Active Directory

- Auth0, Duo, Okta, One Login, Azure Active Directory Remote Access - Cisco Meraki, zScaler Web Security

- Cisco Meraki, zScaler Web Security Endpoint Security - CrowdStrike Falcon, Carbon Black, Cylance

- CrowdStrike Falcon, Carbon Black, Cylance Productivity Apps - G Suite, Office 365, Salesforce, Slack The new solution is available as a 90-day free trial and will also be available through Sumo Logics partner ecosystem, and will include customer support to help set up and optimize within any enterprise environment. Powering the Online Classroom

During these tough times, schools and higher education institutions have shifted to online classes to continue to provide children with crucial learning. Sumo Logic believes these services are critical to intellectually challenging students, while providing them a positive utlook and keeping them safe during the coronavirus pandemic. In an effort to support these schools and colleges and keep their online environments up and running, Sumo Logic is offering its cloud-based continuous intelligence platform free of cost to enable IT teams to provide disruption-free learning to children globally.



Mindset Reset Podcast Series

The current global health crisis is affecting everyone and it can be challenging to stay positive and mentally strong to meet the uncertainty. Sumo Logic has partnered with Shawn Achor, happiness researcher and New York Times best-selling author, to deliver a four-part series focused on helping adjust our mindset in this current climate. The Mindset Reset series will launch March 30. We are all experiencing an unprecedented situation that is no doubt impacting our mental and emotional health and people deal with these challenges differently, said researcher and New York Times best-selling author of The Happiness Advantage and Big Potential, Shawn Achor. I was thrilled when Sumo Logic approached me with the idea of the Mindset Reset series as I think its so important to find positive ways to adapt our mindset to tackle the uncertainty, change, anxiety and stress many of us are feeling right now.

Sumo Logic, a recognized expert in building and operating multi-tenant, distributed cloud systems, is the industrys first continuous intelligence platform to natively ingest, index and analyze structured and unstructured data together in real-time. Every day the Sumo Logic Continuous Intelligence Platform delivers tens of millions of insights to customers who rely on continuous intelligence across the entire application lifecycle to more effectively build, run and secure their modern applications. Additional Resources Read our blog to get a closer look at our WFH SaaS Apps

our blog to get a closer look at our WFH SaaS Apps Subscribe to the Mindset Reset podcast series

to the Mindset Reset podcast series Sign up for a Sumo Logic free trial About Sumo Logic

Sumo Logic is a leader in continuous intelligence, a new category of software, which enables organizations of all sizes address the data challenges and opportunities presented by digital transformation, modern applications, and cloud computing. The Sumo Logic Continuous Intelligence Platform automates the collection, ingestion, and analysis of application, infrastructure, security, and IoT data to derive actionable insights within seconds. More than 2,000 customers around the world rely on Sumo Logic to build, run, and secure their modern applications and cloud infrastructures. Only Sumo Logic delivers its platform as a true, multi-tenant SaaS architecture, across multiple use-cases, enabling businesses to thrive in the Intelligence Economy. Founded in 2010, Sumo Logic is a privately held company based in Redwood City, California, and is backed by Accel Partners, Battery Ventures, DFJ Growth, Franklin Templeton, Greylock Partners, IVP, Sapphire Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, and Tiger Global Management. For more information, visit www.sumologic.com . Sumo Logic is a trademark or registered trademark of Sumo Logic in the United States and in foreign countries. All other company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Any information regarding offerings, updates, functionality, or other modifications, including release dates, is subject to change without notice. The development, release, and timing of any offering, update, functionality, or modification described herein remains at the sole discretion of Sumo Logic, and should not be relied upon in making a purchase decision, nor as a representation, warranty, or commitment to deliver specific offerings, updates, functionalities, or modifications in the future. Media Contacts

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Sumo Logic

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Georgia will impose a general quarantine and a nighttime curfew to fight the coronavirus pandemic, the Black Sea nation's prime minister announced Monday.

"The dynamics of the growth in new cases (of the COVID-19 disease) is alarming," Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia told a conference.

"We are declaring a general quarantine as of 8 am (0400 GMT)" on Tuesday, during which people will only be permitted to leave homes for essential shopping, he said.

Gakharia said a "curfew from 9 pm to 6 am" will also be imposed nationwide.

The ex-Soviet country of some 3.7 million people has so far reported 100 cases of COVID-19. As of Monday, there were no fatalities, and 18 people have recovered.

Other new measures would include a ban on public gatherings of more than three people, and a suspension of public transport, except for taxis.

Body temperature screening check-points will be set up in the streets of all major cities.

Georgia's medical authorities have said the country's hospitals are coping with the current scale of the pandemic, but warned of an imminent "exponential increase" in new cases.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
All over the world, except in China, the place where it all began, the COVID-19 pandemic is making its relentless way through the population. So far, it has caused nearly 34,000 deaths  and the situation in the US is still worsening with over 142,000 cases and 2,489 deaths. In Australia, the number of cases has climbed to 4,093, with 16 fatalities.

As healthcare systems gear up to meet the challenge of ten times as many patients without adequate critical care beds, personal protective equipment (PPE), or sufficient staff, various research initiatives are taking shape to protect those on the frontline. At present, there is neither a vaccine or medicine that can treat exposed healthcare workers effectively. Many of them are out sick or in quarantine, adding to the human toll as well as placing a greater strain on the healthcare services.

Thousands of doctors and other healthcare professionals are known to have been infected already in various parts of the world, and many have died. This is the inevitable outcome of repeated and close exposure to infected cases, often without proper PPE.

Testing the power of the BCG vaccine

But now, the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Australia's Melbourne is preparing to begin a clinical trial to test whether the time-honored tuberculosis vaccine, BCG, will produce durable immunity against the SARS-CoV-2, better known as the novel coronavirus.

The BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guerin) vaccine is designed to protect against tuberculosis. First used in 1921, and is still administered to over 130 million infants around the world, in locations where tuberculosis is still rampant, for this purpose. However, the mechanism of action shows that it has a broader effect on human immunity, boosting the strength of the immune response to a number of new infections.

The red pop mark of BCG vaccine on the baby shoulder. Image Credit: Nym_Pleydell / Shutterstock

The unique immune-enhancing effects of the BCG vaccine are due to its ability to activate innate immunity, the body's first line of defense against intruders. This includes viruses and bacteria, which are met and disposed of before they even meet more specific immune barriers, in many cases. Having been used for over a century, its low incidence of severe side effects is a definite plus point. The most serious of them is the occurrence of a small granuloma at the site of injection, which fades into a small scar.

The BCG vaccine is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the safest and most effective medicines needed in a health system.

What are the unique benefits of BCG?

Researcher Professor Nigel Curtis points out that as a result of this activity, people who have had the vaccine are much more resistant to respiratory disease. After BCG immunization, people who do become infected by a virus show much lower viral loads in their blood compared to the unimmunized.

It is not, however, a specific antidote to the virus. Due to the eradication of tuberculosis in Australia, the BCG isn't currently available in the country. If the vaccine does work, it will be produced in large quantities to protect high-risk groups against the virus, such as the elderly.

Getting the vaccine will not alter or hinder the benefits of other medications that are currently being tried out against the virus, says Curtis. Virologist Professor Bill Rawlinson says, "It's a really great idea to trial alongside things like new antiviral medications and very important public health interventions that help prevent the spread."

The BRACE trial

The multicentre trial will be designed to meet the highest scientific standards as well as for the innovative use of existing vaccines to meet the COVID-19 threat. It will include 4,000 people working in various hospitals around the country and is planned to begin in the coming week if possible. Half of them will receive the vaccine, and differences between the groups will be assessed using an app.

The follow up will last six months and is intended to pick up early signs of COVID-19 and also to evaluate how severe the symptoms are in people who become infected following BCG vaccination.

The BRACE trial, as it is called, will build on earlier research indicating that BCG brings down the level of viruses similar to the SARS-CoV-2 in infected people. The hope is that this will result in fewer and less intense symptoms of COVID-19 in healthcare workers who are vaccinated with BCG.

Speaking of the generous gifts that have made this rapid research effort possible, Professor North says, "Using rapidly sourced and immediately deployable funds, these trials will allow the rapid advancement of the most promising candidates to clinical practice, giving us the most number of shots on goal against COVID-19 as possible."

Similar trials are ongoing in Germany, Spain, and the US.

What will the BRACE trial prove?

Researcher Professor Kathryn North A. C. says, "This trial will allow the vaccine's effectiveness against COVID-19 symptoms to be properly tested, and may help save the lives of our heroic frontline healthcare workers." In fact, they say it could be useful as an "off-the-shelf vaccine that works against different viruses" to protect against widespread infection in future pandemics as well. And, says Professor Curtis grimly, "This has really alerted to the world that we are always just a few weeks away from a pandemic."

Repurposing an older drug

Another approach is medication. An antiviral drug called remdesivir initially developed to fight the outbreak of Ebola in 2009, but not pressed into service because of its ineffectiveness, has gained a potential new lease of life. The drug is being trialed across the world in several clinical settings, from a 79-year-old Italian man who was confirmed to have COVID-19, was treated with remdesivir, and subsequently had a negative test, to 13 patients who were infected onboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess. The Italian was described by politician Giovanni Toti as the "first real case of coronavirus cured."

Remdesivir is also one of the drugs being tested in the massive trial being initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO) to test out the four most promising drugs for the treatment of COVID-19  which also includes malarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, and the HIV medications lopinavir and ritonavir.
India is in "local transmission stage" of coronavirus and the total number of confirmed cases at 1071, Health Ministry said on Monday.

"The country is still in the local transmission stage and if it reaches the community transmission stage, the Health Ministry will admit it," , said Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary in Health Ministry.

He also said automobile manufacturers like Maruti, Tata, Mahindra and Mahindra were being involved in production of ventilators. "They are in talks with the Health Ministry and have held meetings over the same," he said.

He said total number of confirmed coronavrius cases in the country has reached 1071 and the number of deaths have gone up to 29 in the country.

R Gangakhedkar of Indian Council of Medical Research said that 38,442 tests have been conducted till now, of which 3,501 were done yesterday.

"It means we are still at less than 30 per cent of our testing capacity," he said,, adding that 1,334 tests have been done in private labs in the last three days.

PS Srivastava, an official from Home Ministry, said that Home Secretary had on Sunday given directions for ensuring food and shelter to the stranded workers and full wages by employers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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As more and more people are looking outside for exercise and recreation, trails across the country are becoming increasingly crowded. Trails near Los Angeles, Chicago and the Bay Area have closed in response to crowds so large that social distancing becomes all but impossible.

Other governments, like ones close to our home office in Colorado, have issued warnings that if trail users continue to neglect the rules of the off-road, additional trails will be closed. In an effort to stem the tide of bad trail manners and keep trail access open, trail runners are urging one another to be polite and follow directions.

Remember that running is a privilege and should be treated as such, and that environmental considerations are as important as ever. Whether youre a trail veteran or are a first-timer in need of a primer, heres a guide to trail etiquette and stewardship in the age of coronavirus.

Safety First

The coronavirus pandemic is an issue of life and death for many people, and your behavior should reflect that, on and off the trail. Make sure youre keeping your trail runs chill and avoid as much risk as possible. Now is not the time to go for a technical, off-the-map ridge scramble or sustain an injury. Healthcare systems are already stretched in many areas, and trail runners should not add to that burden. Stick to runs that are within your regular routine.

Follow all CDC social-distancing guidelines, and do not run in groups. If you see people not complying with social distancing, kindly explain what it is, and that continued trail use depends on everyone doing their best to respect those guidelines. Its possible that people not complying are simply unaware and could be new trail users, so practice compassion and kindness.

If you need to recreate and you love our outdoors do it in communities close to your home, said Colorado Governor Jared Polis in response to his stay at home order. This pandemic is not a vacation.

Dont go out if you feel sick or have been in contact with those who have. Stay as close to home as possible, because the farther you travel, the more potential you have to spread the virus.

If you need to recreate and you love our outdoors do it in communities close to your home, said Colorado Governor Jared Polis in response to his stay at home order. This pandemic is not a vacation.

Know Before You Go

Plan ahead, even if youre going to an area youve run in 100 times. Make sure your activity complies with local guidance, such as shelter in place or lockdown orders, and that its close enough you can get there with minimal travel. Check your local public land managements website to be sure the trails are open, and what closures might be in place. If parks are closed, dont go. Be sure that trail conditions are good, as running on muddy trails can cause erosion.

Make sure that your workout plans fit the time and terrain youre aiming for, and dont try to throw down a sick tempo run uphill through prime-time Boulder trail traffic. Avoid crowded trailheads, and use this as an opportunity to spread out to less popular spaces.

Pack It Out

Even if your local parks and trailheads are open, be aware that services might be limited due to coronavirus. You might need to use the bathroom ahead of time, and be prepared to pack out trash. At all times, comply with Leave No Trace principles.

Right Of Way

As more people take to the trails, its key that runners stay aware of their surroundings. If you listen to music, leave one ear open or the volume low enough that you can hear whats happening around you. Politely give people warning if youre going to pass them, and let them know which side youll be passing on.

Mountain bikers should yield to all pedestrians, and pedestrians should yield to equestrians (thems the rules!). Typically, hikers should yield to trail runners and downhill traffic should typically yield to uphill traffic (the thinking here is that its less cumbersome to stop moving downhill than it is to pause while youre hustling up).

On singletrack, it can be tough to give everyone the six feet of social distance that they need, so make sure you give people plenty of warning that you need to pass them. If youre being passed on a slope, move the uphill side of the trail to avoid stepping on the critical edge, which is the downhill part of the trail thats prone to erosion and can narrow over time.

Since most singletrack is less than six feet wide, you might have to step off the trail slightly to allow others to pass (avoid running off-trail, as that will make it harder to prevent environmental damage than simply stepping off) and avoid stepping on delicate plants or soil. Stable rocks, if you can find them, are a safe bet. If you feel that trails are too crowded to pass safely, consider running at a different time or in a different place.

Remember, you cant catch the coronavirus from a smile, and its important to be friendly and wave as we share the trails. Were in this together, lets support each other out on the trails.

It might feel like theres suddenly a lot more folks occupying your home turf, but it bears remembering that we are the crowds. Being a runner, or a frequent trail user does not give you any additional privilege compared to a first-time user. Rather, it gives you the tools and responsibility to practice good communication and trail stewardship. Trails are shared spaces, and everyone should feel welcome for safe, outdoor activity.

Remember, you cant catch the coronavirus from a smile, and its important to be friendly and wave as we share the trails. Were in this together, lets support each other out on the trails.

Zoe Rom is Assistant Editor at Trail Runner , host of the DNF Podcast and a trail running coach. She enjoys podcasts and pizza.
At least 26 people from Mizoram, including 11 children, were rescued and brought back to India after they got stranded on a bridge along the India-Myanmar border which has been sealed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, officials said on Monday.

The 26 people, most of them from Aizawl, had gone to neighbouring Myanmar to meet their relatives much before the international border was sealed on March 22.

As they were returning home on Saturday night, Myanmar Army allowed them on the bridge over river Tiau along the international border but Assam Rifles personnel refused to allow them to enter Mizoram as the border was sealed, Champhai District Additional Deputy Commissioner Mark Lalthanliana told PTI.

The Assam Rifles jawans said they will allow the 26 persons to enter only by the orders of the Union Home Ministry, he said.

The bridge connects Zokhawthar in Mizoram's Champhai district with Rih in Myanmar.

Timely intervention by Mizoram Home Minister Lalchamliana and Transport Minister T J Lalnuntluanga, also the MLA of Champhai North constituency under which Zokhawthar falls, led to the rescue of the stranded people, the official said.

They were brought back to Zokhawthar around 10 pm on Sunday and placed under quarantine at the District Panchayat Resources Centre in Keifantlang area in the district, he said.

Residents of Zokhawthar provided the stranded people with tarpaulin and food during their stay on the bridge, the official said.

Mizoram shares a 510-km international border with Myanmar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and other health care providers (HCPs) transitioned their clinical practice to telemedicine in the last few weeks. As recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) cautioned that older adults, 65 years or older, were at a higher risk for illness with the virus, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) broadened access to telehealth services so that beneficiaries can receive a wider range of services from their doctors without having to travel to a health care facility. This was allowed on a temporary and emergency basis through the 1135 waiver authority and Coronavairus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act. Prior to the pandemic, the only Medicare beneficiaries that qualified for telehealth services had to be seen in an originating site in two circumstances: 1) a county outside the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) or 2) a rural Heath Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) in a rural census tract. Examples of originating sites include a physicians office, hospital, or skilled nursing facility (SNF).

This was a boon to all health care providers because, as we all know, illness does not stop for a pandemic. I work at a heart hospital in Oklahoma City, which employs approximately 90 cardiac and vascular surgeons, interventional cardiologists, electrophysiologists, non-invasive cardiologists, anesthesiologists, and pulmonologists. In addition to serving the greater metropolitan area, we have more than 60 outpatient clinics across the state of Oklahoma, which is largely rural. In the locations where do we not have clinics, it is not unusual for patients to drive 2 to 4 hours for a clinic visit in one of our two city or rural locations. Through all our hospital-based and rural clinics, we serve approximately 100,00 patients.

As there became an urgency to limit patient flow in our hospital due to COVID-19, our top-notch IT department quickly enabled our electronic medical record (EMR) to communicate with a telemedicine platform which met all HIPAA, GDPR, PHIPA/PIPEDA, & HITECH requirements (there are various telehealth app and websites such Doxy.me, Zoom, and Google Hangouts to name a few). CMS will currently pay for a telemedicine visit with an established patient and states on their website, Human and Health Services (HHS) will not conduct audits to ensure that such a prior relationship existed for claims submitted during this public health emergency. Many commercial insurance companies are following suit, including one of the largest payors in Oklahoma, Blue Cross Blue Shield, who has waived in-network co-pays for telemedicine.

My typical clinic day as an electrophysiologist (EP) consists of 4 to 6 new patients and 20 established patients. My medical assistants and staff converted my existing clinic into a telehealth clinic by calling our patients and seeing if they had smartphone capabilities (iPhone, Android, iPad, laptop for example). Through our EMR, we switched the outpatient office visit to telemedicine and sent the patient a text with a link to accept our invitation to a telehealth visit. To ease the transition, I only did telehealth visits with established patients. We also advised patients that if they were able, to weigh themselves and obtain a blood pressure and pulse at home with a blood pressure cuff on the day of their visit.

On the clinic day, my medical assistant called the patient 10 minutes prior to the appointment and inputted the vital signs, review of systems, and medication reconciliation into the EMR. Once complete, the patient received a text with a link to enter my virtual waiting room. I also received a text stating that the patient was ready to be seen. I clicked on the link on my laptop to start the call, and we initiated a video telehealth visit. I did twelve telehealth visits during my first clinic, and the success was amazing. Short of laying hands on them, I was able to truly assess how they were doing and deliver lab and test results. As an EP, I discussed their recent device transmissions, monitor results, and arrhythmia symptoms. Dare I say the visit was more intimate and, as a colleague of mine noted, cozy. We were seeing these patients in their homes, where they have let their guard down and are most vulnerable. Seeing them in their natural environment helped me be a better clinician as I had more insight into their home life. Many spoke not only about their clinical symptoms but about their concerns about COVID-19, both the health and financial implications. Most importantly, our patients were so grateful that they had the ability to communicate with their physicians in a time of isolation.

Oklahoma has 77 counties, of which 76 are designated HPSAs. Even though our practice has extensive outreach, we could ultimately serve more patients with these new telemedicine rules, especially after the pandemic subsides. There are still many challenges posed in telemedicine, including maintaining a patients privacy, the security of protected health information, and making appropriate plans of care consistent with an in-person visit. In Oklahoma alone, there will have to be a major expansion of broadband infrastructure to make what I am proposing even feasible. While not all fields of medicine are suited for telehealth and I will continue to see new patients in person to establish a trusting relationship, our own hospitals telehealth experience with cardiovascular patients has been quite a feat. HCPs across the country have been like the Autobots from the Transformers: we transformed and rolled out with telehealth when our patients were being attacked by the coronavirus.

The innovations in telemedicine and relaxations of CMSs policies have created an atmosphere in which health care providers are thriving and doing what we do best: taking care of our patients. Health care providers should implore the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Trump administration to continue the current CMS telehealth guidelines after the calamity has resolved. They should set an example for commercial insurance companies and lead the way for facilitating patient care. For a large majority of patients, this is the future of medicine, and I foresee this technology becoming mainstream and more widely expected by patients, insurance companies, and used throughout the medical field. This is the new reality in our current dystopian world. And telemedicine is here to stay.

Subha Varahan is a cardiologist.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
After I was told Id been exposed to the novel coronavirus, I tried to follow the best medical advice. I started working from home. I socially isolated. And I self-monitored for signs Id been infected.

Or, at least, I tried to.

Covid-19 symptoms seem pretty clear. The dry cough and difficulty breathing. Fatigue. And the fever.

To track all that, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people who may have been exposed take their temperature twice daily. As someone who covers the outbreak, I understand the soundness of this advice. Theres a nationwide shortage of coronavirus diagnostics, so health care providers are trying to reserve tests for people who have been exposed, are symptomatic or are at clear risk of dangerous complications.

What the C.D.C.s guidelines dont note: Taking your temperature can be surprisingly difficult.

Especially because, like most of my 20-something friends, I dont own a thermometer. (I do have a candy thermometer, but those arent useful here. A meat thermometer wouldnt be, either.) I called my local CVS. They were sold out. Another friend told me he had checked four stores in our neighborhood and come up empty-handed. My twin brother was able to find one  but he lives in Connecticut, almost 400 miles from me.
Belarusian: BAJ calls for immediate release of Siarhei Satsuk and drop of criminal charges

On March 25, 2020, at about 16:30, Siarhei Satsuk, member of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, journalist and editor-in-chief of the online publication "Ejednevnik" (EJ.BY), was detained. The detention was made by the staff of the Financial Investigation Department of the State Control Committee.

The pretext for the detention was the money Satsuk had allegedly received for EJ's investigative journalism more than a year ago. These funds are incriminated as a "bribe" under part 2 of article 430 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (receiving a bribe, punishable by imprisonment for three to ten years).

Siarhei Satsuk is known as a journalist and editor engaged in investigative journalism. One of his high-profile investigations was a series of articles in EJ.BY about corruption in the health care system of Belarus. Later, a number of high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Health Care were convicted of corruption.

In August 2019, Siarhei Satsuk told BelaPAN that he had received threats because of his journalistic activities. The detention of a well-known journalist and subsequent interrogation of EJ's staff can lead to intimidation of journalists and the development of self-censorship in the media covering socially significant issues (including corruption and the spread of coronavirus in Belarus).

The Belarusian Association of Journalists calls on the authorities of the Republic of Belarus:

- to immediately release Siarhei Satsuk and drop criminal charges against him;

- comply with the guarantees provided to journalists by the Belarusian legislation and international obligations of the Republic of Belarus, stop harassment, intimidation and other aggressive actions against journalists for performing their professional duties.

Adopted by the Board of the Belarusian Association of Journalists
Eight more people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Madhya Pradesh, informed the Dean of Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, Indore on Monday.

Seven of these new cases have been reported from Indore and one has been reported from Ujjain.

The total number of COVID-19 positive cases in the state now stands at 32.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had earlier reported a total of 1024 confirmed COVID-19 cases in India and 27 deaths due to the deadly virus.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Lucky I stocked up on toilet paper, because Married At First Sight's final vows ceremony sure as hell gave me the s**ts.

After weeks of pulling strings until their fingers bled, the producers took Sunday off, safe in the knowledge their PR puppets could finally stand on their own two stumps.

Missing in action were the relationship experts, who made like a deadbeat dad on the Friday before 'his weekend' and disappeared completely.

Someone check the TAB.

...how boring I am: After weeks of pulling strings until their fingers bled, MAFS producers took Sunday off, safe in the knowledge their PR puppets could finally stand on their own two stumps

When last we left our reality-turned-Instagram stars, they were finally preparing to leave the experiment.

KC and Drew

Last night! On the last night before they left the experiment, KC told Drew she wasn't feeling confident he was into her. 'Stiff upper lip!' he said, before going back to sleep

It was late at night when KC suddenly jolted out of her marital hotel bed.

'Ouch!' she screamed. 'Drew, Drew, wake up! I have an ouch!'

'My eyes are closed, but I'm listening,' he lied.

'Well, it's just that whenever I bring up my doubts about your feelings, I never really get the, "No babe, it's fine!" from you?'

KC proceeded to pour her heart out to Drew for a good 45 minutes, before realising he'd been asleep for a good 43.

All byyy myseeeelf: Drew retreated to his favourite rock in Cairns, where he spent the next three weeks writing 'music', followed by one week of dabbling in 'poetry'

Connie and Jonethen

Fool me three times: 'Jonnie has written "leave" three times and we're still here!' cheered Connie, who was still convinced she was on Survivor

'Jonnie has written "leave" three times and we're still here!' cheered Connie, who was still convinced she was on Survivor.

The next morning, she spoke to producers about all the regrets she had during the experiment.

'I think to myself all the time, "If only you did this, if only you didn't do that,"' she began, clutching a hefty list in her hands.

'Janine!' the head producer yelled into the corridor. 'Cancel my two o'clock!'

If only: But the positivity didn't last, and Connie found herself pouring her heart out to producers. 'Janine!' the head producer yelled into the corridor. 'Cancel my two o'clock!'

Stacey and Michael

True underdog story: Despite the cheating, lies and backstabbing, Michael and Stacey were leaving as the experiment's strongest couple

Despite the cheating, lies and backstabbing, Michael and Stacey were leaving as the experiment's strongest couple.

'Wow, I really didn't see that coming!' said John Aiken in an interview from his home, which is conveniently located in the Channel Nine car park.

'Wait a sec, sorry,' said the respected psychologist, clearly distracted by a noise coming from the dumpster - or 'lounge room' - behind him.

[Off-camera] 'Trisha! I can see Froot Loops here, but I don't see my powdered milk!? Don't tell me you've been in Eveleigh trading with that flea Colin Fassnidge again?'

'Well, stringer cheese and a pack of NRL trading cards won't get me my bloody breakfast, Trish!'

Since You've Been Gone What did the couples get up to while they were away from each other? Drew spent his time away writing bad poetry. He's since been advised to pivot into writing kids' books.

KC spent her time away sitting at the beach - until she found out the beach had s**t reception and went home instead

Stacey was spotted at Adelaide's equivalent of Coogee Pavilion, just in time for the daily drink specials - not that she was paying.

Michael swore off drinking, except for weekends. Oh and light beers '100 per cent don't count'

Connie spent two weeks screaming 'WHY!?' into the bathroom mirror

Jonnie set the world record for 'most DMs slid into in two weeks' Advertisement

Since you've been gone: Weeks later, Stacey was spotted hitting up the daily drink specials at Adelaide's equivalent of Coogee Pavilion - not that she was paying

The Final Vows

Wonder what will happen? The final 45 minutes were dedicated to the reading of excruciatingly generic and predictable vows

The final 45 minutes were dedicated to the reading of excruciatingly generic and predictable vows.

I quickly became bored and took some creative licence in my note taking - so keep that in mind before you bombard me with calls and emails. You know who you are.

Michael

Michael's vows: 'Stacey, when we met, I was a juvenile 34-year-old boy. Then you saw my softer side, which didn't help at all'

Michael: 'Geez, wow. Stacey, where do I start?'

Stacey: 'At the beginning.'

Michael: 'Yeah, that's how it starts, so shut up!'

*Clears throat*

Michael: 'Geez, wow. Stacey, where do I start? The past few months have been intense.

Bank on it: 'But three weeks later, I left my phone open to go to the bog and you saw my bank balance... The rest, as they say, is history'

'When we met, I was a juvenile 34-year-old boy. Then you saw my softer side, which didn't help at all.

'But three weeks later, I left my phone open to go to the bog and you saw my bank balance... The rest, as they say, is history. Does this make any sense?'

Stacey: 'Ye...'

Michael: 'Stop interrupting!'

Michael: 'Does this make sense? Me have heart of snake, you have brain of elephant. Me never forgive, you never forget?'

Stacey: 'Oh, right. Well, no then.'

'But I didn't get your BSB. What was it again?' Stacey asked. Michael's decision: STAY

Stacey

Stacey's vows: 'Michael. It hasn't always been easy, but you've been there for me when I needed you most. So thanks for rocking up when my card got declined at David Jones yesterday arvo'

Stacey began: 'Michael. It hasn't always been easy, but you've been there for me when I needed you most.

'So thanks for rocking up when my card got declined at David Jones yesterday arvo.

'As the experiment went on, you made me feel comfortable and safe. But it wasn't until I ordered the Eastern Rock Lobster with Herb Butter at Rockpool and you didn't bat an eyelid that I knew this could be something special.

'Now three months later and my feelings - and shoe collection - have never been stronger.

'Sure, you may have a drinking problem and cheated on me with Hayley, but as far as I'm concerned, you're money!'

You're money! 'Sure, you may have a drinking problem and cheated on me with Hayley, but as far as I'm concerned, you're money!' Stacey's decision: STAY

KC

KC spent three hours getting dressed for the MET Gala - before running out of time and throwing on a bed sheet

KC spent three hours getting dressed for the MET Gala - before running out of time and throwing on a bed sheet.

She said: 'Wow. Drew. Who would have thought just a few months ago I was a failed actress living in LA?

'Now I'm a failed actress on national TV.

MET my match: 'Wow. Drew. Who would have thought just a few months ago I was a failed actress living in LA? Now I'm a failed actress on national TV.'

'Even at times when you frustrated the crap out of me, I couldn't help but falling for you.'

'I want to try together outside of the experiment. Will U B my ride or die?' she concluded, in a line stolen from the Fast and the Furious.

Hop on! 'I want to try together outside of the experiment. Will U B my ride or die?' she concluded, in a line stolen from the Fast and the Furious. KC's decision: STAY

Drew

You're my strength: 'KC, while I may not yet be falling for you, I do want to really thank you. I'd also like to thank Muscle Max protein powders, for giving me the strength to carry on,' Drew said in Married At First Sight's first ever #SponsoredFinalVows

'KC, while I may not yet be falling for you, I do want to really thank you. I'd also like to thank Muscle Max protein powders, for giving me the strength to carry on,' Drew said in Married At First Sight's first ever #SponsoredFinalVows.

'I love that you have opened yourself up to me, almost as much as I love the sweet taste of banana and honey in Muscle Max's new range of pre-mix smoothies.

He's smooth! 'I love that you have opened yourself up to me, almost as much as I love the sweet taste of banana and honey in Muscle Max's new range of pre-mix smoothies'

'You haven't been willing to move to Cairns, and my soft toy housemates have made things difficult - although not nearly as difficult as deciding which Muscle Max product to spend my 10 per cent discount code on.

'Use code "Muscles At First Sight" at checkout.'

Not ready to move in together, Drew and KC insisted they would try to make it work long distance - and not just because it's a condition of his new Muscle Max deal.

To the Max: Not ready to move in together, Drew and KC insisted they would try to make it work long distance - and not just because it's a condition of his new Muscle Max deal. Drew's decision: STAY

Connie

Connie's vows: 'When I first entered the experiment, I was an introvert with no self-esteem. We saw first hand the havoc that can wreak on a relationship'

I haven't covered these two all season, so I'll keep this brief.

'When I first entered the experiment, I was an introvert with no self-esteem. We saw first hand the havoc that can wreak on a relationship,' Connie said.

'You tried to leave, but I wouldn't let you. Lawyers call that kidnap, I call it true love.

Not so fast! 'You tried to leave, I wouldn't let you. Lawyers call that kidnap, I call it love. The judge also called it "kidnap", hence why we're doing our final vows at Goulburn Correctional'

'Turns out the judge also called it "kidnap", hence why we're doing our final vows in a caravan at Goulburn Correctional.'

'Our journey may be coming to an end, but my non parole period is just beginning.'

See you on the other side: 'Our journey may be coming to an end, but my non parole period is just beginning.' Connie's decision: LEAVE

Jonethen

Whatever: I can't understand Jonnie at the best of times. He was going on about how Connie had 'exploded into a massive fiery bird' during the experiment

I can't understand - or spell - Jonethen at the best of times. He was going on about how Connie had 'exploded into a massive fiery bird' during the experiment.

'Thanks for tonight!' Connie said in a text message later that night.

Three minutes later, the message changed from 'sent' to 'seen' and that was the last they ever spoke.
The family of Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammad on Monday promised to give N2million to anyone with information on the whereabouts ...





The family of Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammad on Monday promised to give N2million to anyone with information on the whereabouts of Alhaji Adamu Duguri, the governors elder brother who was kidnapped by unknown gunmen.





NAN reports that the N2m reward was offered in a statement in Bauchi on Sunday by Alhaji Adamu Barde, on behalf of the family.





Duguri was abducted by gunmen in Bauchi State at about 7:30pm on March 25.





The police had while confirming the incident said Duguri was kidnapped at a tailors shop in Unguwar Jaki area of Bauchi State.





However, Barde while soliciting for information leading to Duguris return appreciated everyone for their prayers and love.





He said The family wishes to announce the sum of N2m payable to whoever provides information leading to Adamu Mohammeds safe return.




Coronavirus Won't Delay Digital Tax Work, OECD Says

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

30 March 2020

The OECD has said that it is continuing to forge ahead with the development of new international tax rules for the digitalized economy.

The OECD said that although it has made changes to working arrangements, COVID-19 will not stymie progress towards delivering a solution to the tax challenges of the digitalized economy by the end of this year.

In a March 17, 2020, statement, the OECD said: "Due to the developing coronavirus (Covid-19) emergency, the OECD has implemented a range of precautionary measures at its Paris headquarters. These measures are consistent with announcements by the Government of France, the OECD's host country, on steps being taken to contain the epidemic, and include full teleworking for staff and suspension of all physical meetings on-site."

"The OECD Secretariat team is working full steam on the project and meetings with delegates are being held remotely. The Steering Group, the Task Force on the Digital Economy and other Working Parties will continue holding virtual meetings in the coming weeks, on schedule. The working methods will be adapted to allow all countries to fully participate."

"All participants continue working towards reaching a political decision on the key components of a multilateral consensus-based solution at the G20/OECD Inclusive Framework on BEPS plenary meeting scheduled for July 1-2, 2020, in Berlin, Germany."

The digital tax work involves two workstreams:

As part of "Pillar One", states will negotiate new rules on where tax should be paid ("nexus" rules) and on what portion of profits that should be taxed ("profit allocation" rules). This work seeks to ensure that multinational enterprises conducting sustained and significant business in places where they may not have a physical presence can be taxed in such jurisdictions.

Pillar Two (also referred to as the "Global Anti-Base Erosion" or "GloBE" proposal) calls for the development of a coordinated set of rules, including on a minimum effective tax burden for multinationals, to address ongoing risks from structures that allow MNEs to shift profit to jurisdictions where they are subject to no or very low taxation.
F oreign Secretary Dominic Raab has announced a 75 million fund to help "tens of thousands" of Brits stuck abroad during the coronavirus pandemic get home.

Mr Raab said the Government will be offering "alternative flights" at "little to no cost" to UK travellers who are trying to get home where routes have been cancelled.

Speaking at the daily Covid-19 press briefing on Monday, he asked Brits abroad where commercial tickets were still available to "please book your tickets as soon as possible".

He said that the 75 million fund would be used to "keep costs down and affordable" to those seeking to return to the UK.

Dominic Raab at the Covid-19 briefing / Sky News

Mr Raab said: "I can announce a new arrangement between the Government and airlines to fly home tens of thousands of stranded British travellers, where commercial flights are no longer possible.

Partner airlines include British Airways, Virgin, easyJet, Jet2 and Titan and this list can be expanded.

Under the arrangements that we are putting in place we will target flights from a range of priority countries, starting this week.

The Foreign Secretary said there had been unprecedented demand on the department's helplines but confirmed staffing had been tripled to help deal with the onslaught of calls.

The call centre was available for those who could not find the advice they required in the Governments online travel advice or from British embassies, he said.

I know it has been difficult to get through for some travellers, he said. To give you an indication of the sheer volume, on average we normally receive 1,000 calls a day to that call centre.

Last Tuesday, we had nearly 15,000, the highest on record. So we boosted our resources, we have redeployed people to our call centre, weve tripled our capacity.

Yesterday, the call centre answered 99 per cent of calls and helped thousands of British travellers get the answers they need.

Mr Raab said an unprecedented number of British travellers were trying to return to the UK  which he estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands.

170 million pieces of personal protective equipment have been provided to hospitals, PHE said / PA

He said around 150,000 British nationals had been helped back from Spain, while 8,500 were brought back from Morocco and 5,000 from Cyprus.

Weve not faced challenges like this in getting people home from abroad on this scale in recent memory, he added.

Mr Raab said he was feeling terrific after three fellow Cabinet members were forced to self-isolate, including the Prime Minister, following a positive test for coronavirus or showing symptoms.

He said Boris Johnson had shown vigour at the daily Covid-19 Government meeting on Monday.

The Prime Minister chaired the 9.15am meeting and was full of vigour and was giving us the leadership we need, and we are a united Cabinet team in terms of getting the country through this crisis, the Secretary of State said.

NHS Nightingale Hospital - In pictures 1 /33 NHS Nightingale Hospital - In pictures Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA General view of the new NHS Nightingale Hospital via Reuters Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Medical equipment is labelled and prepared for use by NHS staff at the ExCel centre PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Medical equipment is labelled and prepared for use by NHS staff at the ExCel centre in London PA Natalie Forrest, Chief Operating Officer of the Nightingale Hospital at the ExCel centre PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA The new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA AP The new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA The new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA The new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA Work being carried out at the new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA Work being carried out at the new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA Worker at the new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA

Yvonne Doyle of Public Health England said 170 million items of personal protective equipment (PPE) had been delivered to hospitals and clinics.

But she added that there was certainly an acknowledgement that people need more of this.

Getting supplies to the frontline is absolutely critical to ensure that people feel safe.

It comes alongside a refresh of the guidance to ensure that people are clear what equipment should be used in what circumstances, Prof Doyle said.

Making a presentation on the latest data, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said the number of people being admitted to hospital with coronavirus is going up in a constant amount.
Coronavirus is taking the biggest toll on dividends in modern times, with more than 4.3 billion of payouts postponed or cancelled so far, and big distributors  such as oil majors  still to decide.

Preserving capital in times of strife is critical, particularly for banks, because of their key role in supporting the smalland medium-sized firms that are the backbone of the economy.

So far, however, the lenders are not having a good crisis. With 5.9m small businesses in the UK, we cannot be surprised that there are long delays in reaching account managers by telephone.

A step in the right direction: The high level of pay and bonuses among bosses has long been a national scandal and needs scrutiny

What is distressing is the message received when connections are made. The demands for personal assets as collateral, when the Government is indemnifying most of the loan for 12 months, is irresponsible.

It will destroy businesses. As well as axing dividends, boards need to go a step further. The high level of pay and bonuses among FTSE350 bosses has long been a national scandal and needs scrutiny.

Among the top 100 bosses, the ratio of CEO rewards to ordinary workers is 167:1. With a few exceptions, such as BA-owner IAG's chief executive Willie Walsh, and the boss of shoe company Kurt Geiger, Neil Clifford, there has been silence about changing salary and bonus arrangements.

If ever there was a moment for the upper echelons of British business to show that shareholders, employees and bosses are engaged in the battle against Covid-19 together, it is now.

It should be a condition of access to any loans through the Bank of England's 330 billion Covid Corporate Financing Facility or the smaller corporate interruptions scheme, operated by the British Business Bank  which allows firms to borrow up to 5m  that the bonus slate is wiped clean of incentive plans. Directors' remuneration should be pared back to basic pay.

Honourable CEOs should consider going even further. There has been talk, from Boris Johnson and others, of turning a health emergency into an opportunity by creating a better society. Britain's corporate leaders have a chance to consign the much resented fat-cat label to the dustbin of history. They should show the right stuff and do it.

Easy money

Stelios Haji-Ioannou is the ultimate activist investor. The founder and biggest shareholder in Easyjet never loses an opportunity to unsettle management.

With the carrier now fully grounded and flight crews being offered to provide services for Covid-19 patients at the emergency Nightingale Hospital in London, Stelios may not have chosen the most opportune time to launch an assault.

In a rather ruthless technique, he is proposing to sacrifice a non-executive director every seven weeks at a series of rolling general meetings starting on April 1. There is something to the Stelios argument that this is not the right moment for Easyjet to expand its fleet by spending 4.5 billion on 107 Airbus aircraft to be purchased between 2020-23.

He argues the contract is unenforceable since coronavirus has effectively triggered 'force majeure', which technically allows contracts to be invalidated. Courts might disagree.

Support for his advice might be greater if he had decided to redeploy some or all of the 60m dividend recently paid to him and his family to assist the company and its staff in its hour of need.

It is, of course, up to him how he uses his resources. In this time of stress for management and workforce, the Easyjet founder might have been better advised to engage on the Airbus front quietly, rather than wasting time and money on noisy dissent.

Grand designs

Britain's creative and design industries are often overlooked in the grand scheme. So it is good to see that they are responding positively to the desolation all around.

Elton John and other high profile musicians are doing their bit to lift the spirits with the iHeart Living Room Concert for coronavirus charities.

There are large numbers of unsung composers and performers without concerts and work. PRS for Music (the old Performing Rights Society) is offering members 1,000 grants to help see them through the health emergency.

On a separate front, Britain's newest creative hub, the Design District on Greenwich Peninsula in London, is pressing ahead with an opening later this year. It will host 1,800 innovators, fashion designers and arts workers in affordable work-spaces in 16 buildings on a two-and-a-half acre campus.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 18:14:07|Editor: Wang Yamei

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CAPE TOWN, March 30 (Xinhua) -- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Monday that China's strict lockdown and social distancing policies have been effective in keeping its nationals safe from the COVID-19.

Ramaphosa made the remarks after 114 South Africans, who were repatriated from Wuhan, China, were allowed to return home on Sunday after testing negative for the virus at the end of their 14-day quarantine in a ranch resort in Polokwane, Limpopo Province.

The experience of the South Africans in Wuhan has demonstrated the effectiveness and the necessity of a state lockdown, said Ramaphosa.

"It was due to the draconian actions that the Chinese government took to contain the disease in the city of Wuhan, that all of our people were able to return uninfected and healthy," Ramaphosa said in his weekly presidential address to the nation.

"It is important that this lockdown and all other emergency measures are both strictly adhered to and consistently enforced," he said as South Africa entered into the fourth day of a 21-day national lockdown designed to contain the rapid spread of COVID-19.

"It shows that if we cooperate with health authorities in doing what we have to do, we won't be just saving our own lives but those around us too," he added.

In his speech, Ramaphosa also expressed his appreciation to China in assisting the repatriation of the South African nationals.

As of Sunday, South Africa has recorded 1,280 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with two related deaths.
In a video posted to Twitter on Sunday - the second he has posted from his time in self-isolation - the Prime Minister said he wanted to update his followers on the latest steps the Government is taking to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

He said that the response to a request for NHS volunteers had been "amazing", adding: "We are going to do it together."

UK landmarks light up blue for NHS staff fighting coronavirus 1 /25 UK landmarks light up blue for NHS staff fighting coronavirus The Shard in London is lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks to the hardworking NHS staff fighting against coronavirus Tower Bridge in London is lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks to hardworking NHS staff PA Tower Bridge in London is lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks to hardworking NHS staff The London Eye is pictured lit blue in support of the NHS Reuters London's Piccadilly Circus saluting local heroes during Thursday's nationwide Clap for Carers NHS initiative to applaud NHS workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic PA Selfridges lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks to the hardworking NHS staff fighting coronavirus on the frontline PA Fulwell Windmill in Sunderland is lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks to the hardworking NHS staff fighting coronavirus PA MediaCityUK in Manchester lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks to hardworking NHS staff PA Northern Spire Bridge in Sunderland is lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks to hardworking NHS staff PA Belfast City Hall is lit up in support of the NHS Reuters The SSE Arena, Wembley, is seen with a lit up sign for the Clap For Our Carers campaign REUTERS Tawstock Court in Barnstaple lit up in blue PA Ashton Gate, the home of Bristol City FC is lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks PA Wembley stadium is seen lit up blue REUTERS Wembley Arch in London is lit up in blue PA The Lowry lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks to the hardworking NHS staff who are trying to battle coronavirus. PA The Tyne Bridge in Newcastle is lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks to the hardworking NHS staff PA People applaud infront of big screen in Piccadilly Circus during the Clap For Our Carers campaign Reuters The Shard in London is lit up blue

He said: "We have 20,000 NHS staff coming back...it's the most amazing thing, and that's of course in addition to the 750,000 members of the public who have volunteered to help us get through this crisis.

"We are going to do it. We are going to do it together. One thing I think the coronavirus crisis has already proved is there really is such a thing as society."

Margaret Thatcher famously once said: "They are casting their problems at society. And, you know, there's no such thing as society."

Mr Johnson also said Government policy to stay at home remains unchanged, in order to delay the spread of the virus and reduce the pressure on the NHS at the "critical peak moment".

He said: "I want to thank everybody who has been complying with our instructions to stay at home. We have already seen massive falls in railway usage, I think down about 95 per cent, bus usage down about 75 per cent - people really trying to work from home if they possibly can. And that's what we want. Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.

"Again, I want to thank everybody in the NHS, I want to thank all our public sector workers."

Matt Hancock tests positive for coronavirus

Mr Johnson took the opportunity to also thank workers in the private sector, including supermarket staff and businesses "who help to keep our country going".

He also thanked pharmacists for their vital work looking after members of the public during the pandemic.

"I think how important it is that our pharmacists are not only dispensing vital medicines but also very often reassurance to the customers they interact with, so thank you to our wonderful pharmacists for everything that you are doing," he said.
At a time when stock markets are in a tizzy around the world, the Indian corporates are actively raising capital through infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs). About seven-eight deals are in discussion stage right now, says a Mumbai-based investment banker, especially after the government waived the dividend distribution tax (DDT) that was announced in the recent budget.

Reliance Industries (RIL) has been in discussion with global funds to sell stake in Jio's optical fiber InvIT.

RIL earlier negotiated with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and GIC of Singapore.

Reports say that the global investors including Brookfield, Omers, Mubadala and ADIA are in early stage discussions with Tata Power to invest around $500-600 million in its renewable energy InvIT.

Mindspace Business Parks REIT, which is backed by real estate developer K. Raheja Corp. and private equity investor Blackstone, filed the draft prospectus for its Rs 1,000 crore initial public offering (IPO), making it the second REIT to attempt a listing on the Indian bourses. The IPO will be tough in this market scenario.

Bengaluru-based developer Embassy and Blackstone had launched India's first public REIT, Embassy Office Parks REIT, in a Rs 4,750-crore IPO in March.

Power Grid Corp's InvIT, through which India's central transmission utility proposes to raise from the public about Rs 10,000 crore by listing specific units backed by a pool of assets, may be delayed because of the size of the issue.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) plans to raise Rs 40,000 crore through InvIT and it has been gearing up to place its first set of road projects with an InvIT in May.

Lenders to bankrupt Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) want to offload some of the company's poorly performing road assets into an InvIT by April.

IRB Infra, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), IDPL and Oriental Structural Engineering have raised money from public and private investors for road assets through their InvITs. IndInfravit completed acquisition of Sadbhav's road assets for Rs 6,300 crore.

Canadian Pension fund CDPQ has been considering to launch its InvIT with road assets worth Rs 2,400 crore.

India's biggest road asset investor Cube Highways and Infrastructure has been in talks with CDPQ, ADIA and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board to sell part of its operational road assets through an InvIT.

A year back, Brookfield bought East West Pipeline (EWPL), earlier known as Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure, for a valuation of Rs 13,000 crore ($2 billion). Brookfield also bought Reliance Jio's telecom tower assets at a $7-8 billion valuation.

Experts suggest that InvITs may become a better option compared to other investments in the short to medium term. "With some recent changes made to the regulation by SEBI over the past several months, there is an expectation that the investment in InvITs is likely to grow manifold in the coming 12-24 months. InvITs offers pre-tax annual return of 11-12 per cent over the next four-five years. In comparison, the equity market has fetched 8-9 per cent annualised return in the last five years," said Vishal Seth, Managing Director, Financial Reporting and Transaction Advisory, Protiviti Member Firm for India. InvITs are viewed as high dividend paying investments, said Seth.

Recently, the market regulator SEBI revised investment norms and permitted to fast-track rights issue by REIT and InvITs without filing the draft offer document. Also, in the last Budget, the government removed tax hurdle for private placement of InvITs, putting them at par with publicly listed InvITs. The budget also accorded tax pass through status to private unlisted InvITs. This status was available only to publicly listed InvITs.

The private unlisted Invit was introduced by SEBI in 2019, but did not get the same tax treatment as the listed ones. In this year's budget, the centre had proposed dividend distribution tax (DDT). The Centre made last week amendments in the Finance Bill 2020, which exempted the dividend earned by unit holders in REITs and InvITs.

In July 2019, SEBI had announced multiple relief measures for investment in InvIT -- a) leverage limit (the proportion of borrowed money that can be invested in the InvIT) raised to 70 per cent from 49 per cent (except for private unlisted trusts), b) reduction in the investment threshold per lot to Rs 1 lakh from Rs 10 lakh, c) making it compulsory for InvIT to invest not more than 10 per cent of the fund in under-construction projects and d) mandatory distribution of at least 90 per cent of free cash flows once in six months.

Around $2 billion has been invested by mutual funds in InvITs during 2019. Credit rating agency ICRA estimates that Rs 2 trillion worth InvITs are likely to hit market over the next five years.

Also Read: Coronavirus impact: Supply chain disruption to cost auto industry Rs 6,080 crore

Also Read: Coronavirus scare: Foreign tourist arrivals growth hit record low in February

Also Read: Coronavirus: Govt denies lockdown extension, says 'no such plan'
Murray-Bruce buries his wife

Senator Ben Murray-Bruce and his children buried his wife of 41 years, Evelyn on Saturday, March 28th.

He shared photos from the funeral on Twitter and wrote; We are made from earth, and we return to earth. Today, we buried my beautiful wife, and mum to our beautiful children and grandchildren, Evelyn Murray-Bruce.



Late Mrs Murray-Bruce died on March 20th after battling cancer.

See more photos from her funeral below:
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Gov. Cuomo on Saturday postponed April 28 primary elections for president and Congress until June 23 to limit the spread of coronavirus  leaving City Hall, local elections officials and the governor with freighted decisions to make about filling two empty local seats.

Cuomos executive order bumps until that June date a nonpartisan special election to fill the Brooklyn City Council seat vacated suddenly earlier this year by Rafael Espinal.

Still yet to be made is a call about when to schedule a vote to determine the next Queens Borough President, a position that opened with the inauguration of Melinda Katz as district attorney in January. Mayor Bill de Blasio canceled a March 24 special election as part of a larger shutdown of many city services.

A spokerson for Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that the mayor has recommended that the governor schedule both special elections for June 23, and for the winners to serve for the remainder of the term until the end of 2021.

This would mean the primaries scheduled for that day would not be necessary, said DemocracyNYC spokesperson Luis Feliz Leon on Sunday, and will hopefully minimize voter confusion. DemocracyNYC is de Blasios voter engagement initiative.

The mayors recommendation hews to advice from the city Campaign Finance Board, which in a March 23 open letter implored state and local lawmakers to hold a special election for the Brooklyn Council and Queens borough president seats on June 23, eliminating the primaries.

Holding a single election to fill both of these vacancies is the most straightforward response  for voters and for candidates - in these extraordinary circumstances, wrote Campaign Finance Board Executive Director Amy Loprest.

About Ballot Access

The shift adds to the uncertainty and complications candidates for both seats already faced as theyve tried to campaign and raise funds in the midst of a crisis demanding social distancing.

The move also raises unexpected questions  including what becomes of public matching funds already doled out in the Brooklyn special election by the city Campaign Finance Board.

Leon, the mayors spokesperson, says thats a matter for the Campaign Finance board. Yet a board spokesperson said that the balls in the mayors court.

The matching funds program provides $8 for every dollar raised up to $175 for donations from city residents for candidates who receive at least 75 contributions from within the district and pull in $5,000 or more.

Darma Diaz, a Democratic district leader for Bushwick and Cypress Hills and one of six candidates whove filed to run for the 37th District Council seat, says her campaign is still waiting for the Mayors Office to communicate an official gameplan.

It still doesnt give us a layout of what thisll look like, said Diaz, the candidate christened by the Brooklyn Democratic Party to replace Espinal, said of Saturdays executive order.

Diaz is the sole candidate to have qualified for matching funds so far. She has received $93,062 from the board, according to campaign filings submitted on Friday  more than the $84,000 raised in private funds from all the candidates combined.

For Rick Echevarria, eliminating the primary could doom his campaign. After initially putting his hat in for April 28, the community organizer decided to exit the special election race and focus his resources on the June primary. In the meantime, hes been investigating price gouging on health and safety supplies in the district.

Echevarria sees political motives behind de Blasios recommendation. The reason that is happening is because the mayor is supporting a candidate in this race, he told THE CITY Sunday. Thats the only intent and purpose of that suggestion. To keep me out of the race. This is about ballot access.

Open Questions

Mayoral spokesperson Leon said that candidate eligibility is a question for the Board of Elections.

A spokesperson for Sandy Nurse, a community organizer who dropped out of a bid for the 54th Assembly District to join the special election, did not respond to inquiries on Sunday. The campaign had previously indicated it was awaiting the text of the governors order rescheduling the special election.

Nurse has raised $34,000 through March 23 and has a little more than $11,000 remaining.

A third candidate for the special election, Misba Abdin, could not be reached for comment. He has brought in about $25,000 and has less than $3,000 remaining.

City Hall will coordinate with the governor and announce a decision soon for the municipal elections to fill the vacancies for Queens Borough President and City Council District 37, Jose Bayona, a spokesperson for the Mayors Office, told THE CITY on Saturday.

A spokesperson for the city Board of Elections declined to comment pending further information.

Waiting on Cuomo

The picture remains even fuzzier in Queens.

The governors executive order does not address the special election for Queens borough president. But if the mayors recommendation is implemented, voters will be asked on June 23 to choose the candidate who would fulfill the rest of Katz four-year term through 2021.

Queens candidates said that they were awaiting an announcement from de Blasio.

Former Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley, one of six in the running, said she agreed with the Campaign Finance Board recommendation to hold one election.

James Quinn, one of the candidates and previously a longtime prosecutor in the Queens District Attorneys Office, emphasized that Cuomos executive order would need to be boosted by a mayoral decision.

The governors office did not respond to THE CITYs inquiries about the special election for Queens Borough President.

Election attorney Sarah Steiner questioned whether the omission of the Queens borough presidents contest from Cuomos executive order was an oversight. She added that a mayoral order is not necessary.

The governors emergency powers give him the right to override any law in New York State, including New York City, Steiner said.

Hot Meals and Wellness Checks

Despite the turmoil, the Governors executive order to delay the election was well-received by Brooklyn special election candidates, all of whom had been struggling to connect with potential voters amid the public health crisis.

Diazs campaign has been delivering hot meals and doing wellness calls on district residents. Its been an opportunity to offer the community my expertise and to send the message that were in this together, she said.

Nurse, who had advocated for postponing the election, took to social media to share her campaigns struggles to carry on business as usual.

We are suspending petitioning and moving into digital/phone organizing. Its a great way for us to check up on people in the neighborhood, see what they need, and figure out a safe way to get folks things. Make sure you wash them hands yall! https://t.co/YhoRmI34Tg pic.twitter.com/82Gz4NCeHh  Sandy Nurse (@NurseForNYC) March 13, 2020

On Friday, she told THE CITY that her campaign strategy had pivoted primarily to phonebanking and providing community resources, such as connecting constituents with local organizations and hosting public safety town halls on social media.

The bottom line, she said, is our community isnt thinking about an election right now.

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The coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent lockdown has affected everyone. But in an endeavour to support the government in its efforts to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus, stakeholders in every sector have come forward to lend a helping hand.

Stakeholders in the real estate sector too have chipped in with contributions. While some realtors have come forward to donate money, masks, meals and even sanitisers, there are others who have stepped forward to support the city traffic police.

Realtors apex body CREDAI's Gujarat chapter has donated Rs 5 crore to Chief Minister Relief Fund to fight against coronavirus infections.

CREDAI Gujarat tweeted that it has "donated Rs 5 crore towards Chief Minister Relief Fund to fight against COVID-19".

DLF Foundation, the CSR arm of realty major DLF, has donated Rs 5 crore to Haryana CM's relief fund and is also distributing dry ration, cooked meals, face masks and sanitisers to migrant workers affected by the nationwide lockdown.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

"The COVID-19 has disrupted normal life and business in India and across the world. The need of the hour is to protect all sections of society in the country and to keep them safe and protected. Rs 5 crore has been donated to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund in Haryana," it said.The organisation in coordination with the district administration is providing cooked meals to more than 60,000 migrant labourers in Gurugram and Manesar," DLF Foundation said in a statement.

DLF Foundation has also donated 50,000 face masks, 3 lakh examination gloves and sanitisers to the district authorities in Gurugram, while 25,000 face masks have been given to the municipal authorities in Faridabad.

For Delhi and Noida, DLF Foundation in coordination with the district administration and other authorities provided meals for nearly 25,000 migrant workers on March 29.

Bengaluru-based Embassy Group too has stepped forward to support the city traffic police.

"Identifying the zones around Embassy Manyata Business Park, Embassy Tech Village, Embassy Icon and Embassy Paragon, Embassy Group has set up four hydration stations where the police personnel can take refreshing time breaks. The stations are equipped with drinking water, refreshments and toilet stops," Embassy said in a statement.

In addition, Embassy Group has procured hand sanitisers, disposable masks and nutritional snacks. These items have been handed over to the headquarters and will be distributed daily over the next 8 days to the 44 stations and their 3,800-person task force.

"With our police and healthcare professionals at the forefront of controlling the spread, felt that it was our duty to support them in performing their duties. I would like to request other companies and Bangalore's citizens to come forward to join us in helping out," said Aditya Virwani, Chief Operating Officer, Embassy Group.

Naredco-Uttar Pradesh president R K Arora has handed over cheque of 10 lakh to district magistrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar for Covid-19 pandemic relief fund.

Gurugram-based M3M Group is providing relief materials to 5,000 daily wage workers till the lockdown.

"Tulip Infratech has taken the initiative and performing its Corporate Social Responsibility in terms of providing food, shelter, sanitation and medical facilities to all its site and maintenance workers," said Praveen Jain, CMD, Tulip Infratech.

Lodha Group has ensured food supply arrangements for tens of thousands of workers who are currently staying at their sites. The group is also ensuring medical welfare while the nation battles with the pandemic.

"In this situation of a national crisis each part of the society has to look beyond contractual obligations and deliver towards the betterment of society. The workmen may not be working during lockdown but their food and medical welfare is an essential requirement and Lodha Group is doing all it can to ensure that these needs are met," said a company spokesperson.

Godrej Group said has earmarked a fund of Rs 50 crore for community support and relief initiatives.

"This is an initial outlay and we hope to supplement it over time," the company said in a statement.

The company has ensured that its project sites across 8 cities are sanitised frequently, and have health screenings and adequate food and hygiene supplies. It has also set up isolation facilities at labour accommodation sites.

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The Federation of Egyptian industries stated that factories were granted conditional exemption from the government during the partial curfew for their trucks and workers buses.

In a statement issued on Sunday following the meeting between Mohamed El-Sewidi, the head of the federation, and Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on Saturday, it was revealed that Madbouly ordered no restrictions be imposed on factories trucks and workers buses during the curfew on the condition truck drivers have the receipts and bills of goods they are delivering as well as a letter with bus drivers showing the planned route from and to the company or factory.

The statement added that it was agreed with the government that factories resume their work in a way that doesn't affect productivity during curfew hours.

On Tuesday, Egypt imposed a partial curfew from 7 pm to 6 am daily nationwide to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the country. Medical and media professionals are exempted from the curfew as long as they have their official syndicates' IDs.

Egypt has officially registered 656 coronavirus cases, including 41 deaths.

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New Delhi, March 30 : Two persons have died of suspected COVID-19 in Delhi's Nizamuddin area from a group of people who had come from various parts of the country and abroad to take part in Tablighi Jammat, a religious gathering of the Muslim community.

Of the two elderly persons who died, one was from Tamil Nadu and the other belonged to Kashmir. All the participants aged over 60 had been admitted to various hospitals in Delhi. Out of them six people have been found to be coronavirus positive.

Shoaib Ali, the spokesman of Tablighi Jamaat, however, said, "We have no information of anybody testing positive for coronavirus." Admitting that two persons have died, Ali said that one of them Masgir, 63, complained of fever and cough and was taken to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital on Saturday. He was from Tamil Nadu.

"But they have not given us any report whether he died of coronavirus or not," he said.

Shoaib Ali also denied that the death of the second person was due to coronavirus.

"On March 6, an elderly person, 65, from Sopore, Kashmir, had come to participate in Tablighi Jamaat in the Nizamuddin area. He died of a heart attack in Kashmir last week," Ali said. However, according to reports in the Kashmir media, he was coronavirus positive.

However, Ali confirmed that the entire area has been cordoned off and about 2000 people have been quarantined and are being tested for coronavirus in this thickly populated area of South Delhi.

This is the largest single group being tested for the highly contagious COVID-19, which is transmitted easily from person to person.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
As officials scramble to supply hospitals with much needed protective equipment for doctors and nurses fighting the novel coronavirus on the front lines, hospital leaders around the country warn that they are running low on another critical supply: money.

Hospitals have taken a significant loss of revenue as they cut back lucrative elective procedures to free up resources to treat COVID-19 patients. At the same time, they are pouring money into efforts to fight the virus like buying personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies, providing child care for staff and overtime pay, transforming units to COVID-19 wings for treatment and setting up drive-thru testing sites, hospital officials told ABC News.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week called the combination a "double whammy." For hospital systems across the country the costs are astronomical and state officials told ABC News they fear some facilities do not have enough cash to keep up.

The $2 trillion stimulus package President Donald Trump signed on Friday afternoon, which awards nearly $100 billion to hospitals to fight the coronavirus, is a boost many hope will alleviate some of the financial burden and prevent hospitals from closing their doors.

"We cant print money, so we have to have the financial support coming in." LeRay Brown, the CEO of One Brooklyn Health System, told ABC News. "Without that funding I dont know how long we can continue."

One Brooklyn Health System, which operates three hospitals in New York City where the virus has hit hardest in the U.S., projects they will need to spend an additional $30 million per month in order to respond to surge needs in their area, Brown said, including the nearly $8 million they will lose per month by cutting out elective surgeries. Purchasing nearly 300 additional beds in order to increase hospitals capacity by 50% -- which they have been mandated to do under an executive order signed by Cuomo -- will cost $5 million alone.

Story continues

The hospital system, which is crucial for low-income individuals in the area, is already caring for over 200 patients who either have the virus or are awaiting test results. Meanwhile, it only has two weeks cash on hand, Brown said.

PHOTO: A view of Interfaith Medical Center along Atlantic Avenue, July 25, 2013 in New York. (Bebeto Matthews/AP, FILE)

One doctor on the front lines said they feel hospitals are being overlooked in the national dialogue about the extreme toll the pandemic has taken on the U.S. economy.

"I think there's been so much national focus on bailing out the airlines, but I think what people don't realize is that the hospitals are in extreme financial trouble over the COVID-19 crisis," a physician at a top Boston area hospital told ABC News. "I feel like people -- nobody's talking about that. Everybody thinks hospitals are doing fine. If we don't bail out the hospitals, we're going to lose the very lifelines that we have -- the front lines that we have -- to fight this thing."

What to know about coronavirus:

How it started and how to protect yourself: Coronavirus explained

What to do if you have symptoms: Coronavirus symptoms

Tracking the spread in the U.S. and worldwide: Coronavirus map

During the signing of the stimulus bill, Trump did acknowledge the challenge hospitals are facing, saying more than $100 billion is going to "support our heroic doctors, nurses and hospitals" and that hospitals will get "the money they need."

American Hospital Association President and CEO Rick Pollack called the legislation an "important first step forward," but warned that "more will need to be done to deal with the unprecedented challenge of this virus."

MORE: Who would get what and when from the $2 trillion relief package

Hospital leaders in numerous states echoed the dire concerns about their facilities and the urgent need for an infusion of funding.

Andy Carter, the president and CEO of the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP), said there is a "legitimate credible threat" that some hospitals in his state would close without immediate financial support.

An HAP spokesperson told ABC News the federal package was "encouraging," but warned there was no "clarity" on how much aid would be distributed to hospitals in the state -- or when.

"We caution that some of our members have estimated, and nationwide accounts validate, that hospitals are facing a financial free-fall," the spokesperson wrote, explaining that a "preliminary analysis" shows that losses for hospitals in Pennsylvania alone could rise to more than $1 billion per month.

In Ohio, President of the Ohio Hospital Association Mike Abrams said he could think of two hospitals that he "worries a lot about," and could "think of many more" that will be in equally precarious situations if aid does not come soon. The TriHealth system, based in Cincinnati, has already cut 20% of senior leader's pay in order "be fully prepared for the surge in demand," Chief Executive Officer Mark Clement said in a statement, as reported by Cincinnati.com.

Jeff Tieman, president and CEO of the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, explained the increase in costs are especially significant for rural hospitals that were already "under serious financial stress" even before the pandemic began in the state of Vermont, which has one of the oldest populations in the country,

Minnesota-based health system M Health Fairview, which recently converted one of its hospitals to a COVID-19 specialized-care facility, is anticipating a cut of more than a third of its revenue due to loss of volume in outpatient areas, spokesperson David Henke told ABC News. As a nonprofit group that operates on a extremely tight margins -- with net operating margin for last fiscal year at just 0.2% -- Fairview faces significant financial challenges as a result of the pandemic, Henke said.

"Our focus right now is providing the care our patients and our community need," Henke told ABC News. "However, the reality is M Health Fairview, like many health care systems across the country, is facing unprecedented challenges as a result of this public health crisis."

(MORE: Inside the coronavirus 'Ground Zero': Elmhurst Hospital in New York City)

And the financial crunch is a reality hospitals across the financial spectrum are dealing with.

"Even the hospitals who are well resourced are really worried," Abrams told ABC News. He estimates the fiscal impact on Ohio hospitals would amount to a loss of $1.2 billion per month. "It is effecting everyone negatively, whether you are a huge system that is well resourced or a small system that was hanging on nervously."

The Hospital for Special Surgery in New York said the cost of scaling back their capacity by 90% in order to brace for a surge and transforming their facilities, coupled with the loss in revenue, amounted to "hundreds of million of dollars," CEO Lou Shapiro told ABC News.

PHOTO: A man sings on a corner of the French Quarter in New Orleans, on March 26, 2020. (Emily Kask/AFP via Getty Images)

In Louisiana, where the number of positive cases and deaths is skyrocketing, Baton Rouge General Hospital has also backed away from its outpatient business as it doubles down on its COVID-19 response while continuing to provide essential care for those having heart attacks, strokes, diabetes or cancer.

Completely letting go of the highly lucrative elective surgery has caused a big financial strain on the system, its CEO Stephen Mumford told ABC News. Mumford said on Thursday there were less than five surgeries, all of which were emergent surgeries.

"When you go from a hospital that does 40 to 50 surgeries a day to a hospital that does two to three, it really is going to hurt us," Mumford said.

"But the reality is, we can't worry about that right now," Mumford said. "We're a community hospital and we've got to take care of the community patients that are coming in."

Tune into ABC at 1 p.m. ET and ABC News Live at 4 p.m. ET every weekday for special coverage of the novel coronavirus with the full ABC News team, including the latest news, context and analysis.ABC News' Ali Dukakis contributed to this report.

In the middle of the coronavirus crisis, some hospitals fear financial ruin originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Photo: Matthew Egan/Flickr

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A different type of intensive care model is being developed in hospitals to cope with people who are seriously ill with Covid-19, the HSEs chief operations officer has revealed.

Anne OConnor said there is going to be a lot of pressure on hospitals and community services over the coming weeks.

Ms OConnor said they are still in the space where they have more than 2,000 beds and around 170 intensive care beds.

There is concern because the demand for the intensive care beds doubled over the past week and hospitals will be unable to cope if some of the worst-case projections are realised.

Ms OConnor said the HSE has secured a significant number of ventilators and has a good supply chain.

Every hospital has a surge plan in place, said Ms OConnor, and the health authority has been looking at capacity within the health systems in terms of beds and staff.

However, in scaling up, they are not maintaining a traditional view of intensive care units.

We are working on a model that allows us to scale up critical care capacity, Ms OConnor said on RTE radio.

What we are looking at is how we can have ventilated beds in hospitals where they might not have been previously.

The health authoritys chief operations officer said one of the key challenges is to make sure they have enough staff for all of the critical care beds.

The HSE is working on a staff absenteeism rate of around 20%, but testing for Covid-19 will be prioritised for staff so they can get back to work quickly.

Private hospitals will be used soon to treat public patients who do not have Covid-19, said Ms OConnor.

Under the worst-case scenario, the peak number of patients requiring intensive care a day will be 546 by April 13.

However, some experts believe this scale of cases is unlikely to happen because of the measures announced by the Government.

Tom Ryan, a consultant in intensive care, said Ireland is just at the beginning of the coronavirus curve.

We know that we are just at the beginning and we expect to see larger numbers of patients being admitted to hospitals in the coming weeks for treatment for the virus, said Dr Ryan of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association.

The HSE and our hospitals are working tirelessly to prepare for the anticipated demands on our services, reconfiguring our wards and increasing our ability to ramp up capacity as required, especially our critical and intensive care resources.
Dedicated hospitals to treat coronavirus patients in Leh and Kargil have been made functional from Monday, the administration announced.

Dr Tashi Motup and Dr Abdul Jalil would be in-charge of the dedicated COVID-19 hospitals in Leh and Kargil respectively, Commissioner/Secretary Health UT Ladkah Rigzin Samphel said in a press conference.

Samphel said officials of Rapid Reaction Team from Delhi visited Leh to review COVID-19 preparations.

During their survey, the officials visited the containment area of Chuchot Gongma, interacted with the family members of the patients, reviewed the arrangements of police and other departments.

They also met the three patients under hospital quarantine who had recovered from COVID-19.

The officials' report appreciates the documentation and overall preparation in regards to COVID-19, he stated.

The process to stock medical equipment to carry on for up to three months and bettering the medical facilities in regards to COVID-19 has begun, the official said.

Nodal Officer for Ladakhi students outside UT Ladakh Sumera Shafi had received about 127 calls and about 16 mails from students in Aligarh, Banglore, Delhi, J&K, Punjab, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu, Nagpur, Roorkee and Dehradoon and patients with their grievances, he said.

The students are advised to remain in their respective hostels/rental spaces and to first contact the nodal officer or the designated Liaison Officer of their regions for any query, Samphel said.

He further said that they can contact Shafi on 8447523725.

Responding to a query on wrong information on total count of 16 positive cases in Ladakh, Samphel reaffirmed that initially there were 13 positive cases out of which three patients had recovered and are under hospital quarantine.

There are 10 active positive cases in Ladakh, he said.

He appealed to the people to visit the official Department of Health & Family Welfare of the Union Health Ministry for correct data.

He also sought cooperation from all sections of the region including rural areas of Ladakh to make the lockdown successful by staying at home.

Meanwhile, in order to ensure sanitisation of Leh town, the district administration through the municipal committee carried out sanitisation of various places such as Raj Niwas, Chief Medical Office, Police Station, all bank ATM kiosks at Leh Main Bazaar to Skalzangling, general stores, government offices by spraying Sodium Hypochlorite.

All buses, bus stands, ration depots and shops are scheduled for sanitisation on Tuesday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
MBABANE  The Ministry of Health will today test pupils and teachers of a school in the Hhohho Region for COVID-19.

This follows that confirmed case number nine, is a teacher at the school. The teacher is said to have returned from Durban, South Africa, where he shared a hotel with people who were from the OR Tambo International Airport. Upon returning to the country, in the second week of this month, the teacher interacted with pupils and his colleagues while he had flu-like symptoms. This was before he tested for the coronavirus. During this interaction, there is suspicion that some of people could have contracted the disease. Following the return of his results on Friday, the Senator Lizzy Nkosi-led Ministry of Health started contact-tracing of the people the teacher could have interacted with.

Developments

Nkosi said today, personnel from the ministry would be taking swabs of the teachers and pupils so that their samples could be sent to South Africa and get tested for the coronavirus.

She said once the tests were done, the ministry anticipated to have the results back on Thursday or Friday as it took a number of days for them to return to the country. In the interim, she said those who would be tested were going to be requested in self-quarantine for 14 days. During this period, Nkosi said all the suspected carriers of the virus would be advised to stay at home and not visit neighbours. They should stay at home and practise safe hygiene. They should not panic but rather follow the hygienic etiquette when sneezing or coughing as laid down by the World Health Organisation (WHO), she said. WHO preaches that people should wash their hands for a minimum of 20 seconds and cover their nose with an elbow or tissue when sneezing or coughing while avoiding touching their face (nose, mouth and eyes).

Meanwhile, the head teacher of the school where the pupils and teachers will be tested today was informed of the developments by the Ministry of Health. The head teacher said after being informed that the teacher had tested positive for the coronavirus, she informed the office of the regional education officer (REO), who was working with the Ministry of Health in containing any further spread of the coronavirus. He called to inform me and I reported it to my superiors so that they could deal with it. On the other hand, a teacher at the school where the patient who tested positive for COVID-19 works, said they had been with the teacher subsequent to his trip to South Africa. The teacher further said their colleague reported not to be feeling well as he had flu-like symptoms and the day after, he did not show up as he went to hospital.
Deepika Padukone has shared yet another example of maintaining productivity in the times of lockdown due to coronavirus outbreak. The actor has shared a picture of a label printing machine and several tiny paper slips with names of various grocery items typed on them.

Sharing the picture of the slips to be put up on boxes with the particular ingredient, she wrote, Season 1:Episode 6. You know...In case it wasnt clear enough...#wannabemariekondo Productivity in the time of COVID-19! The slips had names of ingredients like Poha, Besan, Rajma, Red Chana, Red Masoor Dal, and others. She also mentioned famous Japanese organising consultant Marie Kondo and termed herself a wannabe Marie Kondo.

Her fans were impressed by her new idea of organising things at home while making good use of her time during isolation. Another commented, Thats amazing. One more who too opted for a similar task, wrote, Did the same!

Deepika had earlier cancelled the fifth episode of her quarantine series in which she had planned to post a video of her washing utensils. As actor Katrina Kaif had share a similar video, Deepika had written, I regret to inform you that Season 1:Episode 5 stands cancelled because @katrinakaif stole my idea!Hmmff!!! #PlagiarismInTheTimeOfCovid19.

Her episode 4 showed her post a workout which was however, followed by a chocolate treat. She had kickstarted the productivity series with a glimpse of her arranging her wardrobe. She then took out time for self-care and preparing fruit juice for herself.

Also read: Deepika Padukone says Ranveer Singh sleeps 20 hours a day, is easiest person to live with during lockdown

Many other Bollywood celebrities are currently staying at home to avoid the spread of novel coronavirus which has affected more than 1070 people in India. Today is the sixth day of the government imposed 21-day lockdown, aimed at curbing the spread of the highly contagious infection.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is poised to roll back ambitious Obama-era vehicle mileage standards and raise the ceiling on damaging fossil fuel emissions for years to come, gutting one of the United States' biggest efforts against climate change.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/3/2020 (653 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FILE - This Dec. 12, 2018, file photo shows traffic on the Hollywood Freeway in Los Angeles. President Donald Trump's is expected to mark a win in his two-year fight to gut one of the United States' single-biggest efforts against climate change, relaxing ambitious Obama-era vehicle mileage standards and raising the ceiling on damaging fossil fuel emissions for years to come. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is poised to roll back ambitious Obama-era vehicle mileage standards and raise the ceiling on damaging fossil fuel emissions for years to come, gutting one of the United States' biggest efforts against climate change.

The Trump administration is expected to release a final rule Tuesday on mileage standards through 2026. The change  making good on the rollback after two years of Trump threatening and fighting states and a faction of automakers that opposed the move  waters down a tough Obama mileage standard that would have encouraged automakers to ramp up production of electric vehicles and more fuel-efficient gas and diesel vehicles.

"When finalized, the rule will benefit our economy, will improve the U.S. fleets fuel economy, will make vehicles more affordable, and will save lives by increasing the safety of new vehicles," EPA spokeswoman Corry Schiermeyer said Monday, ahead of the expected release.

Opponents contend the change  gutting his predecessor's legacy effort against climate-changing fossil fuel emissions  appears driven by Trump's push to undo regulatory initiatives of former President Barack Obama, and say even the administration has had difficulty pointing to the kind of specific, demonstrable benefits to drivers, public health and safety or the economy that normally accompany standards changes.

The Trump administration says the looser mileage standards will allow consumers to keep buying the less fuel-efficient SUVs that U.S. drivers have favoured for years. Opponents say it will kill several hundred more Americans a year through dirtier air, compared to the Obama standards.

Even "given the catastrophe theyre in with the coronavirus, they're pursuing a policy that's going to hurt public health and kill people," said Chet France, a former 39-year veteran of the Environmental Protection Agency, where he served as a senior official over emissions and mileage standards.

"This is first time that an administration has pursued a policy that will net negative benefit for society and reduce fuel savings," France said.

Delaware Sen. Tom Carper, the senior Democrat on the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, called it "the height of irresponsibility for this administration to finalize a rollback that will lead to dirtier air while our country is working around the clock to respond to a respiratory pandemic whose effects may be exacerbated by air pollution.

"We should be enacting forward-looking environmental policy, not tying our countrys future to the dirty vehicles of the past," Carper said.

In Phoenix, Arizona, meanwhile, resident Columba Sainz expressed disappointment at the prospect of losing the Obama-era rule, which she had hoped would allow her preschool age children to break away from TV indoors and play outside more. Sainz reluctantly limited her daughter to a half-hour at the park daily, after the girl developed asthma, at age 3, at their home a few minutes from a freeway.

"I cried so many times," Sainz said. "How do you tell your daughter she can't be outside because of air pollution?"

Trump's Cabinet heads have continued a push to roll back public health and environment regulations despite the coronavirus outbreak riveting the world's attention. The administration  like others before it  is facing procedural rules that will make changes adopted before the last six months of Trump's current term tougher to throw out, even if the White House changes occupants.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has been the main agency drawing up the new rules, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

The standards have split the auto industry with Ford, BMW, Honda and Volkswagen siding with California and agreeing to higher standards. Most other automakers contend the Obama-era standards were enacted hastily and will be impossible to meet because consumers have shifted dramatically away from efficient cars to SUVs and trucks.

California and about a dozen other states say they will continue resisting the Trump mileage standards in court.

Last year, 72% of the new vehicles purchased by U.S. consumers were trucks or SUVS. It was 51% when the current standards went into effect in 2012.

The Obama administration mandated 5% annual increases in fuel economy. Leaked versions of the Trump administration's latest proposal show a 1.5% annual increase, backing off from its initial proposal simply to stop mandating increases in fuel efficiency after 2020.

The transportation sector is the nation's largest source of climate-changing emissions.

John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing automakers, said the industry still wants middle ground between the two standards, and it supports year-over-year mileage increases. But he says the Obama-era standards are outdated due to the drastic shift to trucks and SUVs.

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The Trump administration standards are likely to cause havoc in the auto industry because due to expected legal challenges, automakers wont know which standards they will have to obey.

"It will be extraordinarily disruptive," said Richard J. Pierce Jr., a law professor at the George Washington University who specializes in government regulations.

States and environmental groups will challenge the Trump rules, and a U.S. District Court likely will issue a temporary order shelving them until it decides whether they are legal. The temporary order likely will be challenged with the Supreme Court, which in recent cases has voted 5-4 that a District judge cant issue such a nationwide order, Pierce said. But the nations highest court could also keep the order in effect if it determines the groups challenging the Trump standards are likely to win.

"Were talking quite a long time, one to three years anyway, before we can expect to get a final decision on the merits," Pierce said.



Krisher reported from Detroit.
All arrivals from abroad will be told to quarantine themselves for two weeks starting Wednesday.

Foreign tourists will be quarantined at a government-run facility at their own expense, which authorities hope will reduce their numbers to practically zero without an outright ban. So far only students from China and travelers from Europe and the U.S. were required to quarantine themselves.

Foreign visitors who come here to sign contracts, make investments or engage in other important business, or attend international conferences or public and humanitarian engagements may be exempt. But they will be required to install self-diagnosis apps on their smartphones and contact health officials once a day.


Australians are now banned from social gatherings of more than two people after Scott Morrison announced stricter lockdown measures on Sunday.

The Prime Minister also urged those over 70 to stay at home and ordered the closure of playgrounds, skate parks and outdoor gyms.

How people adhere to the new rules will have to be enforced by each state, and penalties for breaches vary wildly.

So how much will you be fined in your state?

QUEENSLAND

While Queensland Police said they would issue on-the-spot fines of more than $13,000 for those breaching social distancing measures or quarantine orders.

In Queensland thus far, no more than 10 people - other than residents - will be allowed inside a home at any one time, with homeowners and occupants now obliged to ensure they and visitors practice social distancing as much as possible.

Breaches in NSW will fall under the Public Health Act and carries fines up to $11,000 or six months in jail (crowds pictured flocking to Bondi Beach on March 20)

While Queensland Police said they would issue on-the-spot fines of more than $13,000 for those breaching social distancing measures or quarantine orders (stock)

Queensland Police now have powers to issue infringement notices for breaches of quarantine directions of up to $13,345 for individuals and $66,672 for businesses.

All passengers arriving on international flights in Queensland, who are returning home or passing through, will be held in local hotels for 14 days, under new quarantine measures that came into effect at midnight on Saturday.

Officers can also issue on-the-spot fines of $1,334 for individuals and $6,672 for businesses that fail to abide by state health directions.

'These compliance checks will continue around the clock to ensure members of the community abide by those notices,' it said.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the additional restrictions must be followed to stem the increase of cases.

VICTORIA

Meanwhile in Victoria on Monday premier Daniel Andrews said the state had recorded 821 cases as he announced a stage three lockdown.

Outdoor gatherings of more than two people will be banned across the state from midnight, drawing on-the-spot fines of more than $1,652.

Victoria's chief health officer Brett Sutton said people must listen to authorities to stop people dying.

Police said they've conducted more than 1400 checks on businesses and individuals across the state as of Sunday morning.

FINES FOR BREACHING SOCIAL DISTANCING IN EACH STATE Queensland: On-the-spot fine of $1,334 or a fines up to $13,000. New South Wales: Fines up to $11,000 or on-the-spot fine of $1,000 Victoria: $1,652 on-the-spot fine Tasmania: On-the-spot fine from $700-$1,000 and other fines up to $16,800 Western Australia: On-the-spot fines of $1,000 Northern Territory: On-the- spot fines of $1,099 ACT: Fines up to $8,000 South Australia: On-the-spot fine of $1,000 Advertisement

These checks included 139 on returning travellers to ensure they were in self-isolation, of these, 128 people were home and 11 were not.

Four people in Victoria have died from the virus, 29 are in hospital and four are in intensive care.

NEW SOUTH WALES

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Sunday night confirmed the state would enforce the new rules around social distancing.

'Following national cabinet, NSW will move quickly to enforce additional restrictions on gatherings to slow COVID-19,' she said.

In New South Wales breaching the social distancing guidelines falls under the Public Health Act.

A breach of the Public Health Act carries a maximum fine of $11,000, six months in jail or a $1,000 on-the-spot fine.

Meanwhile in Victoria individuals can face on-the-spot fines of more than $1,600 (pictured: Brighton Beach, Melbourne)

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

South Australia has also implemented on the spot fines of $1,000 for individuals found in breach of the guidelines. Businesses could be slapped with fines of up to $5,000.

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said a strong message had to be sent.

'This will send a very strong message that people who don't comply will face a stiff penalty,' he said.

'The principal objective here is to ensure that people who are required to self-quarantine, who we believe are at risk of spreading the infection, comply with those obligations.'

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Meanwhile in Western Australia residents could also be slapped with a $1,000 on-the-spot fine for breaching rules and businesses $5,000.

Premier Mark McGowan said the strict guidelines were about 'saving lives' and protecting the community.

The strict fines are in response to the growing cases of COVID-19 in Australia as the death toll reaches 18

Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein warned residents they could be fined up to $16,800 if they are caught flouting the rules (pictured: Hobart airport)

TASMANIA

On Friday, Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein warned residents they could be fined up to $16,800 if they flouted the social distancing rules.

Residents could also face on-the-spot fines of

He said it made no sense to shut down businesses and risk people's livelihoods if others were going to gather in large groups on the weekend.

ACT

In the ACT individuals face on-the-spot fines from $700 to $1,000 of fines up to $8,000.

Meanwhile businesses could be slapped with huge fines of up to $40,500 if they are found in breach.

NORTHERN TERRITORY

Police in the Northern Territory Police warned residents they will be fined $1,099 if found to be in breach of social distancing rules.

Prime Minister Scott said the states 'aren't mucking around' when it comes to enforcing the new rules.

'They're very, very serious. And states like New South Wales and Victoria will move further down onto those two person rules, is my understanding,' he said.

'But states and territories will make their own announcements about those issues.'
The Centre on Monday informed the Delhi High Court that it has made efforts to provide appropriate medical and other assistance to the 581 Kashmiri students who have been stranded at a medical college in Bangaldesh.

Central government standing counsel Jasmeet Singh informed a bench of justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Navin Chawla that nodal officers are making all efforts to ensure that none of the Indian citizens face any problem in any country.

The submissions come while hearing a plea by advocate Gaurav Bansal, who had sought direction to the Ministry of External Affairs to evacuate Indian medical students stranded in Bangladesh.

Bansal through this plea also sought to appoint nodal officers in all the Indian Embassies and make public their contact numbers and email address so that Indian citizens outside the country can contact them and seek help in this time of global health emergency. He had, through his plea, also said that details of the students representatives should be given to the nodal officers.

Following this, the bench asked the Centre to file a status report while also directing to ensure that students are getting the basic amenities.

During the hearing, the bench also sought to know from the petitioner how he got in contact with the students on which he informed that several students were reaching out through Twitter and WhatsApp.

The matter would be next heard on April 3.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Healthcare major Apollo Hospitals on Monday said it has launched 'Project Stay I' with 500 rooms in select hotels across the country in the first phase with light medical supervision for quarantine.

This effort is aimed at creating isolation and quarantine facilities and reducing the burden on hospitals providing acute care.

Joining hands with partners including HUL, SBI and OYO, Apollo Hospitals plans to scale this capacity to up to 5,000 rooms where patients can stay in isolation.

'Project Stay I' (Stay Isolated) is a part of its 'Project Kavach' announced last week by Apollo Hospitals Group Chairman Prathap C Reddy to fight the VOVID-19 pandemic.

"Apollo along with our partners commits to add up to 5,000 rooms where patients can stay in isolation.

These will be 5,000 telemedicine medically supervised beds so that those who are in isolation stay in isolation and don't spread the infection to others," Apollo Hospitals Group Joint MD Sangita Reddy said.

CHECK OUT COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES HERE

Isolation is not possible in many Indian homes where 5-7 people stay in the same room and where they share a bathroom, she said.

"So we realised for those who can't afford, there was need to find capacity to cover the cost, and HUL, SBI and Deutsche Bank have come forward and said for those who cannot afford it they will cover the cost of care," she added.

"Apollo Hospitals is not charging for the the telemedicine network or our medical supervision. Only the medicines will be charged at actual costs and the MRPs," Reddy said.

As part of phase 1, Apollo Hospitals is launching around 500 rooms in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi which will be scaled up to 5,000 rooms across other cities in successive phases on the basis pf further assessment, she added.

"Project Stay I will help to 'Break the chain' and is expected to help over?10,000 patients in a month and prevent over 50 lakh infections," Reddy said.

For the 'Project Stay I', initiative Apollo Hospitals has partnered with hospitality chains such as Lemon Tree Hotels, Ginger Hotels and OYO and online restaurant guide and food ordering platform Zomato.

Apart from them, leading entities such as HUL, State Bank of India and Deutsche Bank have also joined hands in the initiative.

The objective is to create isolation and quarantine facilities away from the main hospitals in cities across the country and reduce the burden on hospitals providing acute care.

"The steps taken by the Government of India in screening, testing and keeping high risk individuals in state quarantine facilities to prevent the extensive spread of the disease is indeed commendable.

However, with increase in the scale and scope of testing, the number of positive cases are expected to increase," Reddy said in the media conference call.

There will also be a rise in the number of individuals requiring to be quarantined due to contact with COVID-19 patients.

This will put a huge load on the government facilities for quarantine.

This is the time for the private sector to step up to the challenge to aid, augment, and support the government, she added.

The model is envisaged to have a combination of self-paying and CSR funded customers, Apollo Hospitals said.

On the development, HUL Chairman and MD Sanjiv Mehta said: "Isolation facilities are extremely important to curb the spread of this virus.

As Hindustan Unilever we are delighted to partner with organisations like Apollo Hospitals, State Bank of India, Oyo, Lemon Tree and many more to help create isolation facilities." This will help in augmenting the quarantine system already put in place by the government, he added.

Biocon Chairperson and MD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said: "We have a very small window of opportunity to really make a success of lockdown, of quarantine and making sure we don't get overwhelmed in terms of the need for critical care."

"'Project Stay I' is a very important initiative that is being embarked upon. This is a model that needs to emulated by all the hospitals and hotels put together," she added.

OYO Founder & Group CEO Ritesh Agarwal said: "Our partnership with Apollo Hospitals has been developed to ensure we utilise capacity where possible to create highly sanitised pay per use quarantine facilities under the guidance and supervision of medical professionals." This is an unprecedented situation which requires all of us to find new ways to work together and rise to the occasion, he added.

Highlighting the need of the initiative, Deutsche Bank India Chief Country Officer Kaushik Shaparia said: "We've seen with other countries that people needing intensive medical care can very quickly outrun the available facilities.

This partnership is a step towards addressing that challenge and the model provides an excellent way by which to respond quickly to people in need and curtail further spread of the disease."

On their role in 'Project Stay I', Zomato Co-Founder & COO Gaurav Gupta said: "We are glad to team up with Apollo Hospitals and other service providers for 'Project Stay I' and lend our services to make sure people in isolation have access to good food.

We are enabling our network for the supply and employing our logistics capabilities to facilitate daily meals."

Stating that Lemon Tree Hotels has been in the forefront in partnering with government on fight against COVID-19 pandemic, Lemon Tree Hotels President Vikramjit Singh said: "From the beginning of this crisis, Lemon Tree has supported state governments in offering quarantine accommodation and we are now happy to partner with Apollo Hospitals on 'Project Stay I'."

Lemon Tree Hotels believes it is extremely important for the private sector, especially hospitality, to play an active role in helping the government control this pandemic, he added.
New Delhi: The government on Monday denied as baseless rumours and media reports claiming it will extend the 21-day countrywide lockdown imposed last week to halt the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

There are rumours and media reports, claiming that the government will extend the lockdown when it expires. The Cabinet Secretary has denied these reports, and stated that they are baseless, the governments Press Information Bureau (PIB) said on Twitter.

Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba, who is the senior-most civil servant, told a news agency that he is surprised to see such reports. There is no such plan for extending the lockdown, said Gauba.

A Union home ministry official, who did not wish to be named, echoed Gauba and added they are focussed on containing the spread of virus, procuring the necessary medical equipment, streamlining the movement of essential items and identifying the patients.

The governments clarifications came as hundreds of thousands of migrant workers left jobless because of the lockdown, which is due to end on April 15, have fled to the countryside. The workers have defied the lockdown and left cities such as Delhi for their homes on foot in absence of public transport.

India has reported a smaller number of coronavirus cases and deaths compared with the US, Italy, which are among the hardest hit, and China, where the pandemic originated from. Experts have warned the cases could soon surge in India and overwhelm its public healthcare system. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the lockdown last week saying it was the only way of stopping the pandemic.

Modi on Sunday apologised to the public for imposing the lockdown, calling it harsh but necessary to win the battle against the pandemic.

The PIB separately on Monday said the government has placed orders for 21 lakh PPEs (personal protective equipments), coveralls after 11 manufacturers have cleared quality tests. Currently, it added, these manufacturers are supplying 6-7,000 coveralls per day and this is expected to go up to 15,000 daily.

Further, an order for one million PPE kits from Singapore has been placed. A South Korean supplier having tie ups in Vietnam and Turkey has also been identified for 20 lakh PPE kits. Similarly, two domestic producers are supplying 50,000 N95 masks daily and increasing their capacity to 1 lakh daily, the PIB added.

The PIB said supply orders have also been placed abroad for the supply of ventilators. Suppliers in China were also being approached for sourcing 10,000 ventilators, it added.
Twenty five fresh coronavirus cases have been reported in Delhi on Monday, which takes the total number of cases in the national capital to 97, said the health department.

Meanwhile, over 2,000 delegates, including from Indonesia and Malaysia, attended the Tabligh-e-Jamaat congregation in Nizamuddin West from March 1-15, officials said on Monday as the south Delhi neighbourhood was virtually sealed following fears that some people may have contracted Covid-19.

At least 100 people were also tested for the disease. The results are expected on Tuesday.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said intense patrolling on Delhi's borders has been initiated to prevent movement of migrant workers in the national capital during the ongoing 21-day lockdown period.

He said an alarming situation had arisen after a large number of people gathered in Kaushambi bordering Delhi's Anand Vihar over rumours that buses were stationed there to take migrant workers to their home states, PTI eported.

The situation is under control now but some people are still trying to enter Delhi. Therefore, patrolling has been intensified in border areas of the city, the chief minister said.

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[March 30, 2020] Sony Bank Launches New Service "English online banking"

TOKYO, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Bank Incorporated today announced the launch of a new English-language online banking service, aiming to provide foreign residents in Japan a seamless, hassle-free way to open a bank account and conduct everyday banking in English. As of June 2019 (*1), the number of foreign residents in Japan has grown to 2.82 million, up 7.3 percent from the previous year, and these numbers are expected to increase further. Meanwhile, according to an online survey (*2) of foreign residents conducted by Sony Bank, 60 percent of respondents indicated that they were dissatisfied with banking procedures in Japan. The most commonly cited reasons for this lack of satisfaction included complicated paperwork and procedures, the need for hanko seals, and a lack of language support. When askedwhat services they would like from banks in Japan, the top response from foreign residents was the need for online banking and being able to conduct everyday banking transactions without having to visit the bank in person. These results reaffirmed that there is potential for Japanese banks to provide more user-friendly services aimed at foreign residents in Japan, with seamless English banking systems and support services.



Taking into account Japan's internationalization and needs of the expatriate community, Sony Bank decided to establish a new English smartphone app that would take the hassle out of opening an account in Japan and allow account holders to make everyday banking transactions online. The new service makes banking simple for non-Japanese residents, including a dedicated English smartphone app that uses cutting-edge OCR technology (*3) to make the account opening process quick and easy, without the need for complicated paperwork. Sony Bank is committed to meeting our customers' diverse needs and making their banking experience convenient and easy.

Overview of English online banking

1. OCR Open Account App for foreign residents in Japan

2. User-friendly English website (https://moneykit.net/en/)

3. Seamless smartphone banking site

4. Live chat and email support in English Sony Bank's new English online banking includes products and services such as yen and foreign currency deposits, fund transfers, foreign currency remittances, and the Sony Bank WALLET (debit card with Visa functionality). Please refer to the official website for full details. (*1) Source: Ministry of Justice "Foreign Residents Statistics(Formerly Foreigner Statistics)Statistical Table" (*2) Source: Opinion Poll on Japanese Bank. (Sony Bank survey, March 23, 2020) (*3) Optical Character Recognition function that reads handwritten or printed characters with an image scanner or digital camera and converts them into character data. URL: https://moneykit.net/en/info/info200330_01.html View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sony-bank-launches-new-service-english-online-banking-301031447.html SOURCE Sony Bank Incorporated

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Weather Alert

...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 5 AM EST THURSDAY... ...WIND CHILL WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM FRIDAY EVENING THROUGH SATURDAY AFTERNOON... * WHAT...For the Winter Weather Advisory, light glaze of ice accumulation is possible. For the Wind Chill Watch, dangerously cold wind chills possible. Wind chills as low as 30 to 40 below zero. * WHERE...Portions of central, northeast and northwest Vermont and northern New York. * WHEN...For the Winter Weather Advisory, until 5 AM EST Thursday. For the Wind Chill Watch, from Friday evening through Saturday afternoon. * IMPACTS...Plan on areas of slippery road conditions this evening from pockets of freezing drizzle. The dangerously cold wind chills could cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...A period of light freezing drizzle this evening should transition to snow showers by early Thursday morning. Lowest wind chills will be between 2 AM and 10 AM Saturday. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Slow down and use caution while traveling. Monitor the latest forecasts for updates on this situation. Please allow extra time if travel is necessary. &&

...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 5 AM EST THURSDAY... ...WIND CHILL WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM FRIDAY EVENING THROUGH SATURDAY AFTERNOON... * WHAT...For the Winter Weather Advisory, light glaze of ice accumulation is possible. For the Wind Chill Watch, dangerously cold wind chills possible. Wind chills as low as 30 to 40 below zero. * WHERE...Portions of central, northeast and northwest Vermont and northern New York. * WHEN...For the Winter Weather Advisory, until 5 AM EST Thursday. For the Wind Chill Watch, from Friday evening through Saturday afternoon. * IMPACTS...Plan on areas of slippery road conditions this evening from pockets of freezing drizzle. The dangerously cold wind chills could cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...A period of light freezing drizzle this evening should transition to snow showers by early Thursday morning. Lowest wind chills will be between 2 AM and 10 AM Saturday. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Slow down and use caution while traveling. Monitor the latest forecasts for updates on this situation. Please allow extra time if travel is necessary. &&
Cuba, a small island in the Caribbean is helping the countries across the globe to battle against Coronavirus. According to reports, Havana has sent thirteen brigades of 39 doctors and nurses to Andorra. Cuba has till now reported 139 cases of COVID-19 infection and three deaths. Around 28,000 health officials are working abroad in more than 60 nations as a part of bilateral agreements as for March 29.

Read: Cuba Welcomes Cruise Ship With COVID-19, Others Seek Ports

Read: Cuba Opens Annual Fair For Key Cigar Sector

Andorra has till now reported 334 cases of infection and six deaths from the pandemic. Cuba has not only assisted Andorra but has also provided medical staff to other affected areas such as Venezuela, the Caribbean nations, Latin America and Lombardy, the hardest-hit area in Italy, international media reported. Till now, the small nation has dispatched 13 contagions of doctors, nurses as well as medical equipment till now across the world.

Half a million ready to help

The latest assistance marked the first time experts from Henry International Medical Brigade, which was created in 2005 to help Americans after Hurricane Katrina, working in European nations to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. This comes as the Cuban health ministry reportedly claimed that over half a million Cuban medics have expressed their desire to extend necessary support to nations battling the Coronavirus pandemic.

Read: Cuba Doctors Arrive In Italy To Help In Virus Fight

Meanwhile, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel says the country is temporarily barring tourists in order to prevent the introduction of more cases of Coronavirus. Diaz-Caneland Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said in an announcement on state television that only residents of the island would be allowed to enter for the next 30 days starting Tuesday.

Diaz-Caneland Marrero said exceptions would be made for people involved in commercial importation, like crews of merchant ships, and for tourism industry workers who need to help tourists leave the country. Marrero said there were about 60,000 tourists in Cuba as of Friday evening. The Cuban economy is heavily dependent on tourism, which had already slowed dramatically due to U.S. sanctions tightened by the Trump administration.

Read: Cuba Bars Tourists For 30 Days Over Virus Fears

(with inputs from agencies)
KENOSHA  An employee at a local grocery store has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, according to a message to customers on social media.

Woodmans, 7145 120th Ave., announced on its Facebook page Sunday that the employee recently tested positive for the virus.

It is our understanding they are recuperating at home under their doctors care, and we wish them well in their recovery, the statement reads.

Woodmans officials said they have been in contact with the Kenosha County Division of Health and are cooperating in all ways we can in their investigation and with their recommendations. The company also stated that theyve cleaned the areas that the employee worked in multiple times, and moved to additional heightened cleaning protocols.

Officials said that, in an effort to reduce the chance of spreading the virus from surfaces, staff had increased cleaning throughout their stores during the day in addition to their normal full store nightly cleaning procedures. These include cleaning high touch surfaces, such as carts, door handles and checkout registers, where Plexiglas has been installed. The stores will also continue to offer free cleansing wipes for customers to wipe down carts prior to use, according to the statement.

We have reminded all employees of the importance of good hand washing or use of alcohol-based sanitizers, to clean regularly used surfaces with disinfectant spray, to cover their coughs and sneezes with a tissue and most importantly, we have told them to stay home if they are sick, the statement reads. Woodmans maintains various forms of leave for our employees who are sick and we encourage them to utilize this leave.

Social distancing policies for guests and employees also are in effect with notices and announcements reminding them of the importance of eliminating close contact.

For the full announcement, visit Woodmans Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WoodmansFoodKenosha/photos/a.388009137901543/2805768849458881/?type=3.
As India continues the battle against the deadly Coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Monday, spoke to the members of various social welfare organisations via video conferencing and discussed India's fight against the pandemic.

Earlier on March 24, the Prime Minister had interacted with the medical fraternity including doctors, nurses, and lab technicians from all over the country via video conference. He has also appreciated the selfless work done by the medical professionals in dealing with the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed 29 lives in India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also stated that the entire nation saluted these heroes during the 'Janata Curfew' and once again he acknowledged their service to the nation.

"He said that it is important to acknowledge the contribution of the family members of the medical fraternity also, for being their pillars of support," a release from the PMO on March 24 had said.

READ | Coronavirus LIVE Updates: Govt dismisses 'lockdown extension' reports; total cases at 1071

PM Modi announces 21-day pan-India lockdown

Amid the rising Coronavirus cases in India, PM Modi on March 24 announced a 21-day lockdown in the country starting at midnight on Tuesday. He said that 21 days were necessary for breaking the transmission cycle of the pandemic. The 21-day curfew applies to all states, districts, and villages - irrespective of whether they are currently under curfew or not.

"From midnight across the country, there will be countrywide lockdown in India. Complete restriction of leaving out from the residence. All districts, villages will be locked down. This is curfew only -a stricter curfew than Janta curfew. We have to bear economic consequences because of this. But to save every Indian's life at this time is my and the government's responsibility," said PM Modi.

READ | Baba Ramdev goes through his immunity & lung capacity Yoga exercises on Janta Curfew day

Coronavirus crisis in India

As of date, over 1071 positive cases have been reported of the pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) and at least 29 deaths have been reported to date. India has suspended all visas and barred travel from Afghanistan, Philippines, EU, UK, China, Malaysia and mandatory 14-day quarantine from several other countries and a complete nationwide lockdown till April 14 has been imposed.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a relief package for the poor and the affected persons due to the deadly Coronavirus. According to the minister, the package is worth Rs 1.7 lakh crore, under the Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Yojana. Meanwhile, India has also closed the India-Pakistan border and restricted passenger movement at the border with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Myanmar.

READ | Sri Sri Ravi Shankar lauds decision on 21-day national lockdown, demonstrates meditation

READ | Sadhguru offers Isha Yoga premises to Tamil Nadu Govt during COVID-19 crisis

(With inputs from ANI)
While cases of COVID-19 rise across the world, most of the world headed indoors to wait it out. But there are people who do not have this luxury - the homeless are stranded on the streets, with nowhere else to go. These moving pictures show how the homeless and daily wage earners are more vulnerable to starvation, than the virus.
Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

The global industrial protective clothing market size is expected to reach USD 22.57 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 13.7% during the forecast period. Increasing awareness pertaining to health and safety of workers across various industries, including chemical, construction, and manufacturing is likely to drive the growth.

Favorable regulatory scenario to minimize occupational hazards at the workplace is expected to be the key factor positively influencing the market growth. Furthermore, rapid industrialization and urbanization in developing economies, which demands higher workforce, is expected to fuel the demand for industrial protective clothing over the projected period.

Rising health concerns owing to exposure to harmful emissions and smoke coupled with increasing mishaps, particularly in oil and gas and mining industry are likely to support the product demand. Increasing number blue-collar workforce in construction and manufacturing industries is further projected to propel the demand for protective clothes over the forecast period.

The market players engage in continuous R&D to produce multi-functional protective clothing, with high durability to cater to the growing demand. Furthermore, the companies emphasize on manufacturing clothing which can comply with the guidelines given by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), in order to sustain in the market.

To request a sample copy or view summary of this report, click the link below:

https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/industrial-protective-clothing-market

Further key findings from the report suggest:

Demand for durable protective clothing is expected to reach USD 11.50 billion by 2025, on account of the re-usability and superior heat and chemical resistance properties of the product

Chemical defending garments is expected to expand at a CAGR of 13.9% over the forecast period owing to rising concerns regarding workforce health safety against harmful and hazardous substances and radiations in chemical and nuclear industries

Demand for disposable chemical defending garments is expected to witness significant growth on account of their rising demand in chemical laboratories and R&D centers

North America accounted for 41.4% of the global market share in 2018, as the industries in the region need to comply with the stringent regulations and guidelines given by the authorities such as OSHA, NFPA, and ASTM

Growing application industries such as construction, mining, chemical, and food in Asia Pacific is expected to drive the industrial protective clothing market over the forecast period

In 2018, Germany accounted for the highest market share in Europe, on account of well-established manufacturing facilities for automotive, chemical, and power generation sector

Technological advancements to introduce multilayers and coatings with attractive designs is likely to be the key factor defining success for the market players

Grand View Research has segmented the global industrial protective clothing market on the basis of product, application, and region:

Industrial Protective Clothing Product Outlook (Volume, Million Square Meters; Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

Durable

Disposable

Industrial Protective Clothing Application Outlook (Volume, Million Square Meters; Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

Flame Retardant Apparel

Chemical Defending Garments Radiation Protection Particulate Matter

Clean Room Clothing

Mechanical Protective Clothing

Limited General-Use Clothing

Others

Industrial Protective Clothing Regional Outlook (Volume, Million Square Meters; Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

North America US. Canada Mexico

Europe Germany UK. Russia Spain Italy

Asia Pacific China India South Korea Japan Singapore Australia

Central & South America Brazil Argentina

Middle East & Africa Saudi Arabia UAE



About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.
Seven of the evacuees from Iran who landed in Jodhpur recently, besides three others, were tested positive for the coronavirus infection in Rajasthan on Monday, taking the total number of infected people in the state to 69, said officials.

Seven evacuees who landed at Jodhpur airport in two batches recently have been tested positive for coronavirus on Monday, said Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Rohit Kumar Singh.

Two other people, including the mother and son of a man, who returned from Oman recently, too have tested positive for coronavirus, he said.

The third patient is the one who had visited a private hospital in Bhilwara where three doctors and nine nursing staffers were initially tested positive, said Singh.

The total number of coronavirus positive cases in the state has risen to 62, excluding seven Iran evacuees, he said.

Rajasthan is under lockdown since March 22 and a massive survey and screening is underway to detect suspected coronavirus carriers, officials said.

Two batches of people, evacuated from Iran, had landed at the Jodhpur airport in Rajasthan recently.

After preliminary screening of the evacuees, mostly pilgrims, at the airport, they were taken to the Army Wellness Facility set up at the Jodhpur Military Station.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Caitlyn Jenner attends the Open Hearts Foundation 10th Anniversary Gala at SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills on February 15, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Paul Archuleta/Getty Images)

Caitlyn Jenner came out as a transgender woman in 2015 at the age of 65, but her son Brandon wishes she'd been able to do it a lot sooner for the sake of her happiness and their relationship.

In an interview with The Observer, Brandon explained that she had begun to transition following on from her divorce from his mother Linda Thompson in 1986, but went on to have some surgeries reversed as Caitlyn decided "it wasn't the right time".

He told the publication: "As her son, I wish my dad had been able to transition sooner, not only because I think she would have been happier, but because I think we could have built a stronger relationship earlier. Now, Im making up for lost time."

Read more: Caitlyn Jenner is no longer talking about politics

Caitlyn Jenner and Brandon Jenner pose for a photo at the Brandon Jenner Record Release Party For "Burning Ground" on November 19, 2016 in Malibu, California. (Photo by Earl Gibson III/Getty Images)

Brandon also detailed how the relationship between his parents fell apart when Caitlyn began to date Kris Jenner, whom she went on to have daughters Kendall and Kylie with.

He shared: "[His mother, Linda] had worked hard to accept that the reason [Caitlyn] couldnt be with her was because he was working towards transitioning. When he started dating Kris Jenner, whom he would go on to marry, that line of reasoning fell apart.

"It was tremendously painful. The effect of my parents souring relationship was that I didnt see my father more than half a dozen times between ages eight and 25."

The Olympic athlete came out as a transgender woman in an April 2015 interview with Diane Sawyer, before her iconic "Call me Caitlyn" Vanity Fair cover was released months later.

Brandon was the first of Caitlyn's children she told about her transition, and he noted he was "so happy" for her.

The 70-year-old has since gone on to star in her own reality series and has made many TV appearances including being a contestant on Im A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! in 2019.

One of her stranger cameos has seen her recently pop up in BBC show All Round to Mrs Browns.
ALBANY  The Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York delivered over 19,000 pounds of food Monday to the Times Union Center, where it will be divided for distribution to families under mandatory and precautionary quarantine due to coronavirus.

The state's National Guard will deliver the food, which includes pasta, peanut butter, soup, canned vegetables, rice, pork, chicken, apples and eggs, among other items, said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy. The deliveries are expected to start Tuesday.

In addition to giving meals to people in quarantine, the 25 National Guard members on the assignment will also provide food to senior citizens and people who cannot afford to buy food, McCoy said.

"Thank you to all the guard members that have volunteered to step up and go out into the community, not just here in the Capital District but through the whole state and especially downstate to get them ready for whats coming," he said.

McCoy made the announcement at his daily news briefing on coronavirus cases in the county. He said cases rose overnight to 199 from 187 on Sunday. Fifteen people are currently hospitalized with the virus, he said, and seven of them are adults in intensive care units. The county announced its first death over the weekend  a man in his 70s with underlying medical conditions died at St. Peter's Hospital.

McCoy said 559 people are now under mandatory quarantine, up from 505 on Sunday, and 223 are under precautionary quarantine, down from 233 on Sunday.

Latest coronavirus-related cancellations, postponements

The latest coronavirus numbers in NY

Sign up for the Times Union coronavirus newsletter

Full coronavirus coverage

Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen again reminded the public that the lack of widespread testing for coronavirus is masking the number of actual cases in the county.

"It leaves us a little bit in the dark about how this is evolving in the county," she said.

McCoy said he will "hopefully" have news on community testing to announce in the coming days.

Whalen said it's hard to predict when the Capital Region will see a peak in cases, but that it's probably safe to assume it will occur in the week or so after New York City hits its peak, which has been predicted for one to two weeks from now.

"This remains a very active situation," she said. "I don't think people understand that we have not yet reached where we could be in the coming weeks, so the important message is to stay home and to avoid contact with others, especially if you are in the vulnerable groups."

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Help for small businesses

McCoy also announced Monday that the governor's office has agreed to let industrial development agencies (IDAs) issue quick loans and grants to help small and medium-sized businesses get through the mandatory shutdowns that have put them out of work. He said he's already working with the county Legislature, IDA and Capital Resource Corporation to get a relief program up and running quickly.

It's unclear how much relief may be granted, but in a letter sent to the governor on Thursday McCoy requested waivers for IDAs to issue direct loans to businesses of up to $50,000 each.

McCoy said Monday that he spoke to several companies who noted that the application process alone for relief through the Small Business Administration has been time-consuming, and the fear is that money could take weeks or months to flow out.

"The SBA has over 25,000 people that applied," McCoy said. "How quickly are they going to move through the red tape to get the money in peoples hands? Because people need the money today. They dont need it tomorrow, they need it today. So thats one thing were trying to address through all this is to make sure the money gets out quicker."

The hope, he said, is that the grants will be a raft that enables businesses to keep more employees on, especially those who live paycheck to paycheck.

"This is going to help us be a little bit quicker to get money out there, to keep these businesses going, maybe have them employ a few more people to help work in the kitchens and get food out into the community," he said.
All of a sudden, Moscow is under lockdown and residents are told they will soon need the state's permission to leave their homes. Amid concerns about the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is talk of confusion behind the scenes. What's going on? Current Time Executive Editor Kiryl Sukhotski joins host Steve Gutterman to discuss.
Philip W. Anderson, an American physicist whose explorations of electronic behavior in solid materials like glass, crystals and alloys led to a Nobel Prize and deepened sciences understanding of magnetism, superconductivity and the structure of matter, died on Sunday in Princeton, N.J. He was 96.

His daughter, Susan Anderson, confirmed the death.

Anderson was the pre-eminent condensed-matter theorist of his day  a day that lasted for over 50 years  and his fingerprints are everywhere, Nigel Goldenfeld, a physics professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said by email.

Condensed-matter, or solid-state, physics focuses on the properties of solids and liquids with high densities of atoms that constantly interact with one another; by contrast, particle physics deals with subatomic particles. Much of Dr. Andersons most influential work concentrated on randomly structured, or disordered, materials that lack the regular crystalline composition of most matter.

He was particularly interested in the behavior of electrons within these disordered materials, which include certain kinds of semiconductors. In 1958, he published a paper in which he showed how electrons in disordered materials can either move freely or become fixed in a specific position, as if stuck in glue, depending on the degree of disorder. His finding of how electrons behave when trapped, or localized, became known as Anderson localization, and was subsequently extended to the properties of light and sound waves.
Theres been a lot of discussion in recent days about whether gun sellers should be deemed an essential business as the country desperately tries to limit social contact and mitigate the impact of the coronavirus global pandemic. Some view continued access to firearms as essential to protecting themselves against an anticipated breakdown in the social order amid shortages of food and toilet paper.

The important conversation is not about whether gun dealers have a constitutional right to remain open during a national emergency (at least one court has ruled that gun shops are not life-sustaining), but rather whether embracing gun ownership is a prudent way to protect your family.

While we all want to keep our families safe, the facts are clear: Guns do not make us safer, and they wont help protect us from the coronavirus. Some people feel safer with a gun, but the truth is that they or one of their family members are more likely to be killed by that gun than to be protected from a criminal assault.

Thats what happened in Albuquerque last week, where police reported that a 19-year-old killed his cousin with a gun he felt was necessary for protection amidst the crisis. Very presciently, his mother forbade him from having guns at home; the shooting occurred at the cousins home.

During this time of escalating stress and anxiety, the dangers that guns bring to the home will be magnified. The evidence is overwhelming: Access to firearms in the home is associated with increased rates of homicide and suicide, as well as unintentional death and injury, particularly of children.

Every day, eight children and teens are injured or killed in the U.S. due to unlocked or unsupervised guns in the home. Contrary to their parents beliefs, most children know where guns are hidden in the home. With schools closed and children at home, the risk of unintentional gun death and injury will be higher.

Multiple studies have found that access to a gun in the home increases the risk of suicide. Over 80 percent of child firearm suicides use a gun belonging to a family member. Guns are up to 11 times more likely to be used in a suicide than for self-defensive use. During a time of significantly heightened anxiety over economic security, it is likely the risk of suicide will increase. Adding more guns to the mix is not prudent.

Women are five times more likely to be killed when a domestic abuser has access to a firearm (and there is no clear evidence that having a gun protects female victims from their abusers). Under the current circumstances, when large numbers of people are confined to their homes and levels of stress are increasing dramatically, increased access to firearms will put women (and their children) who are in abusive relationships at higher levels of life-threatening risk.

The argument for deeming gun sellers as essential is presumably based on protecting the right to self-defense. But studies show that the widespread use of firearms for protecting against criminals is a myth. Based on data from the National Crime Victimization Study, fewer than 1 percent of crime victims use a gun for self-defense. More important, using a gun for self-defense is no more effective than other measures, such as calling 9-1-1 for help. But a gun in the home does have dangerous unintended consequences, being more likely to cause an unintentional shooting, an unprovoked assault or homicide, or a suicide, than they are for the rare occasion that it is used in self-defense.

For those who do have firearms in their home, or know others who do, its important to be sure they are unloaded and securely stored. All guns should be securely stored regardless of whether others live in the home to protect the guns from unauthorized access or being stolen (about 380,000 guns are stolen each year; many end up as crime guns). In Connecticut its the law that all firearms must be securely stored when there are children in the home under age 18, when an individual prohibited from owning guns resides in the home, or when there is reason to believe an individual in the home is at risk of harm to themselves or others.

If a child is going to someone elses home, parents should always ask if there is a firearm in the house, and if so to be certain that it is stored locked and unloaded. The question should be asked for all children, including older teens whether they are hanging out with friends or going to a home for work such as babysitting.

In the coming months all of us will be under extraordinary stress. For some, that could lead to considerations of suicide. The presence of firearms in the home increases the risk of suicide by orders of magnitude. If you know someone with access to firearms who may be at risk of imminent harm to themselves or others, and voluntary efforts to prevent access have not worked, call 9-1-1, explain the situation and ask to get an extreme risk protection order (ERPO). If the threat is imminent, the police can apply for a protection order to remove the firearms. You can learn more about using an ERPO to prevent firearm suicide at bit.ly/cagvedfund_erpo_brochure.

The facts are clear, guns do not make us safer; they are not the cure to protect our families during these uncertain times.

Jonathan Perloe, a Greenwich resident, is communications director for CT Against Gun Violence.
NEW YORK, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Financial expert and leader of The Hajdari Group, Zaim Hajdari (https://www.thehajdarigroup.com/) recently spoke out concerning the widespread economic fears that investors and private citizens have shared with him. Along with the most prominent banks and governmental financial authorities of New York, The Hajdari Group has echoed a call for calm and stability in stormy financial waters. The Hajdari Group is a boutique financial investment firm that recently gained notoriety for its innovative and unique Sharia-compliant investment package  InvestHalal  which is currently overseen by some of the most revered Muslim scholars in New York City.

"These are extraordinary times, absolutely  no one can deny that," said Zaim Hajdari. "I've been in the investment business for decades, and none of us have ever seen anything quite like this. It's certainly reminiscent of 2008, with the financial markets in a dangerously powerful flux. But there is a simple and profound truth that I just cannot stress enough right now: America can weather this storm. We are a resilient people and our markets are some of the toughest on the planet. Those very markets have been through worse and survived. And I have absolute confidence in the American system. We will lead the pack, and drive the global economy back into prosperity much sooner than people realize."

There are many questions being asked about the state of healthcare at this time, but some of the most pressing inquiries have to do with the economy. These questions include: Will this recession last a long time? Could it turn into a depression? And what exactly are federal governments doing worldwide, in addition to the Federal Reserve here in the U.S., to mitigate the damage that has already occurred?

Hajdari said: "Much depends on healthcare responses and outcomes in the U.S. right now. I think we can safely say that general profits and growth will be severely depressed for the second quarter of 2020. We've all begun to come to grips with that. But Congress has already agreed and voted on a major relief package, which has calmed market fears significantly, along with the Fed injecting liquidity. And if the U.S. can get a handle on the country's pandemic crisis by early summer  and there are many hopeful indications that is already happening  then I think we'll begin to see an upturn before 2021."

As far as long-term economic speculation goes, Hajdari remarked: "As a financial advisor, you do your best  with a trained eye, experience, and the data available  to give your clients the most secure advice possible; and all within reasonable time frames. No one can precisely predict how bad this market will get, but I think we can safely assume that multiple factors are contributing to a quick bounce back, including: speedy marshalled global responses to the pandemic, multiple governments working to mitigate economic effects, healthcare innovations, and consumers who understand and have begun to adjust their risk tolerance for the long term. Fears are just that: fears. And though they can shake a market in alarming ways, most investors understand that solid, reliable investing takes a long-distance view. And that's a simple but important truth that I try to impart to my clients. I tell them: 'I understand you're nervous, but let's look at your risk tolerance; let's see what your portfolio does right, and what we can adjust with the goal of making it perform better. And let's do that with the understanding that all of us are in this game for the long term.'"

The Hajdari Group has a new branch office on Staten Island, and is currently taking appointments for free consultations now.

Disclaimer: The foregoing content reflects the opinions of The Hajdari Group and is subject to change. Content provided herein is for informational purposes only and should not be used or construed as investment advice or a recommendation regarding the purchase or sale of any security. There is no guarantee that the statements, opinions or forecasts provided herein will prove to be correct.



Past performance may not be indicative of future results. Securities investing involves risk, including the potential for loss of principal. There is no assurance that any investment plan or strategy will be successful, or that markets will recover or react as they have in the past.

About The Hajdari Group

The Hajdari Group ("Hajdari Group") is a registered investment advisor. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Hajdari Group and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure.

Contact:

Zaim Hajdari, President

212-381-0050

[email protected]

SOURCE Hajdari Group

Related Links

https://www.thehajdarigroup.com


If there is one drug that has been most discussed globally in recent weeks, it is hydroxychloroquine.

US President Donald Trump on April 6 requested India to ease export restrictions on the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol and warned of retaliation if India refused. The issue, as it seems, has the potential to become political as India needs the drug as well.

Latest on this story: COVID-19 | India to supply hydroxychloroquine, paracetamol to other badly-affected nations

On the contrary, the age-old inexpensive anti-malarial drug was almost forgotten by Western countries, but is still used widely in many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, which are endemic to malaria, has now made a huge comeback.

Chloroquine was first synthesized in the 1930s. Hydroxychloroquine, the less toxic version of chloroquine, has been in use since the 1950s.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

Why its sudden popularity?

A study by French researchers headed by Professor Didier Raoult of Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire (IHU), Marseilles on March 16 reported that after treating 24 patients for six days with hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin, the virus disappeared in all but a quarter of them. The research has not yet been peer-reviewed nor formally published in a medical journal. Many experts called the study too small and anecdotal.



HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine. The FDA has moved mountains - Thank You! Hopefully they will BOTH (H works better with A, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents).....

 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2020

But this tweet by US President Donald Trump calling hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as the 'biggest game changer' in the history of medicine has brought the drug to the centre stage.

India too recommended hydroxychloroquine as prophylactic for its healthcare workers and high-risk individuals to prevent novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, infections. People have been running to pharmacy stores to stock up on hydroxychloroquine. With drug stores running out of Hydroxychloroquine, the government ensured the drug is only available on prescription and warned chemists of stringent action if the drug is sold without valid prescription.

Despite expert reservations on the drug's effectiveness and side-effects, the US Food & Drug Administration issued an Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) to Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to allow hydroxychloroquine sulfate and chloroquine phosphate products donated to the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) to be distributed and prescribed by doctors to a hospitalised teen and adult patients with COVID-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible.

How effective and safe is hydroxychloroquine?

To be sure to establish the effective is hydroxychloroquine, we need to test the drug against in a large randomised controlled clinical trial. This could take several months for results to be conclusive.

A second study by researchers from Shanghai University in China has cast doubts on effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine. The study published last week was done on 30 patients hospitalised for COVID-19.

The study couldn't find any significant difference between the patients who received hydroxychloroquine and those who got placebo or dummy pill.

Interestingly, the Chinese study though very small in sample size was random and controlled making it more reliable.

Also, previous studies of hydroxychloroquine have found the drug to cause heart damage and toxicity if taken in higher dosages.

Many experts told Moneycontrol that the French study is at best anecdotal, and needs much larger clinical trials on patients to test the effectiveness of the drug.

Trials are underway

Despite the contrarian views among experts. Hospitals in US have started adding hydroxychloroquine as part of their treatment protocols for COVID-19. Multiple clinical trials are underway in US, Australia, and other countries to establish whether the drug works or not.

To be sure, physicians are scrambling to treat COVID-19 patients in the absence of any approved drug or vaccine. Researchers are testing available drugs to see if they are any use against the disease.

As a goodwill gesture pharma companies have started donating hydroxychloroquine in large amounts to the government.
The battle over business-interruption losses is heating up.

Legislators in at least three states  New Jersey, Ohio and Massachusetts  have proposed bills to require that insurers pay out for certain claims related to Covid-19. The American Property Casualty Insurance Association is pushing back, arguing that the the costs arent covered under current policies and can threaten the stability of the sector. It estimates that business-continuity losses for small firms could total as much as $383 billion a month.

Businesses across the U.S. including many restaurants have been forced to limit operations as cities and states try to fight the spread of the coronavirus. Thats fueled a record number of jobless claims and led small business groups to urge the government to act. James Eldridge, a Massachusetts state senator, said the bill in his state is an attempt to protect small businesses including restaurants.

Without some form of financial relief  whether its from the insurance industry, whether its from the government  many of these restaurants are not going to come back, Eldridge said in a phone interview. Thats going to make all of us worse off, including the insurance industry, which will have fewer clients.

A New Orleans restaurant, Oceana Grill, is already pursuing legal action against underwriters at Lloyds of London. It is seeking a declaratory judgment after a civil-authority order by Louisianas governor and actions by the citys mayor to restrict gatherings at restaurants.

A New Jersey bill, currently on hold, would require insurers to cover certain business-interruption claims for companies with 100 or fewer in-state full-time employees. Ohio followed with a similar measure. And the proposal in Massachusetts would cover businesses with 150 or fewer employees and require insurers to pay out  even if policies included language to exclude losses from virus-related issues.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, a group of state regulators, said the policies were generally not designed or priced to provide coverage against communicable diseases. Daniel Rabinowitz, a lawyer who runs Kramer Levins insurance practice, said the move to force insurers to cover losses they had excluded would be extraordinary and might face challenges.

It would be unprecedented for policy makers and lawmakers, on sort of a wholesale basis, to take a whole set of policies that have already been written and say, Were going to invalidate language in there, not even so much because its abusive or unconscionable, but just because it doesnt suit the current needs,' Rabinowitz said in an interview. It would be harmful to just our whole understanding of contracts and predictability.

The American Property Casualty Insurance Association said many commercial policies exclude losses caused by viruses, and should be honored.

If policy makers force insurers to pay for losses that are not covered under existing insurance policies, the stability of the sector could be impacted and that could affect the ability of consumers to address everyday risks that are covered by the property casualty industry, David Sampson, president and chief executive officer of APCIA, said in an emailed statement.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
A beauty guru is helping people to avoid going out to stores in search of skincare by offering up quick and easy recipes for face masks that can be made in the safety of your home using just a few basic kitchen ingredients.

Dubai-based entrepreneur and influencer Huda Kattan revealed two different mask recipes - both of which are completely natural and use a total of four ingredients.

But despite the limited ingredient list, Huda, 36, gushes that the masks will help to transform your complexion, leaving you with brighter, radiant skin, while also improving texture and tone.

Skincare guru: Beauty guru Huda Kattan has revealed two recipes for DIY face masks that she says will completely transform your skin, and use just four kitchen ingredients

Easy as can be: The 36-year-old says that the two masks will completely transform the tone and texture of the skin thanks to the natural enzymes in the fruit ingredients

Evidence: Huda says she learned how to mix up her own face masks from her mother, who loves making natural skincare in the kitchen

'My mother is the queen of DIYs and she taught me so much about being crafty in the kitchen!' Huda told DailyMail.com. 'This is one of my favorite DIY skincare hacks that anyone can do at home.'

The first mask that Huda suggested is a papaya and honey mixture that uses just those two ingredients and takes just ten minutes to work some magic on your skin.

'Papaya is the hero ingredient in this mask,' she explained. 'It contains the enzyme papain, which gently buffs away dead skin that can cause your skin to look dull and block your pores.

'It also helps hydrate and brighten the skin, as well as fights against aging free radicals, working to improve overall tone and texture in minutes.

'Honey is also an amazing ingredient. Its a natural humectant and has anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, so it can help to reduce redness and swelling and fight bacteria.'

Search your cupboards: One of the masks calls for papaya and raw honey, while the other sees Huda mixing pineapple with raw honey and oats

Blend it well: Both mask recipes call for you to blend the fruit until it is smooth and runny, before mixing in the other ingredients

To mix up the mask, the beauty guru - who has several of her own brands, including makeup label Huda Beauty and skincare line Wishful - advises that you take two or three slices of papaya and put it in a blender to get a soft, runny consistency. Then mix in one tablespoon of raw honey and apply the formula to your face.

Leave it on for ten minutes, then wash the mixture away with warm water before following it with your favorite moisturizer.

If you're looking for something even speedier, Huda has another option: a pineapple and oat mask that she shared on her Instagram account.

Much like the papaya recipe, this mask requires just a handful of ingredients: ten chunks of pineapple, one tablespoon of raw honey, and one tablespoon of oats.

Blend the pineapple until you get that smooth, runny texture, before mixing in the oats and the honey in a small bowl.

Huda Kattan's DIY papaya and honey face mask INGREDIENTS: 2 or 3 slices of papaya 1 tablespoon of raw honey METHOD: Blend the papa until it is smooth and runny. Stir in the honey and mix well. Apply the mixture to cleansed skin and leave it on for ten minutes, before rinsing the mask off with warm water. Advertisement

Huda Kattan's DIY pineapple and oat face mask INGREDIENTS: 10 chunks of pineapple 1 tablespoon of raw honey 1 tablespoon of oats METHOD: Blend the pineapple until it is smooth. Stir in the honey and oats and mix well. Apply the mixture to cleansed skin and leave it on for two to three minutes, before rinsing the mask off with warm water. Advertisement

Smooth and bright: Huda praises both the pineapple and papaya enzymes for their transformative properties, revealing how she used the ingredients to boost her own skin

Entrepreneur: The Dubai-based beauty guru recently launched her own skincare brand, Wishful, a sister label to her wildly popular beauty line, Huda Beauty

Apply that mixture to your face and leave on the skin for just two to three minutes, before rinsing it off with warm water.

According to Huda, the mask will leave you with 'instantly smooth and radiating skin in a few minutes' - without any need to run out to a store.

Pineapple and papaya are actually key ingredients in one of Huda's most recently-released products, the Wishful Yo Glow Facial Enzyme Scrub, which uses enzymes from both fruits to improve the texture and tone of the skin.

'Pineapple enzyme (Bromelain) has been one of THE best things I've ever used for my skin,' she said of the ingredient. 'It helps with inflammation, gently exfoliates, reduces dark spots and soothes skin. I am OBSESSED!'

The papaya, meanwhile, 'smooths skin and increases clarity for a radiant glow'.

Huda revealed while launching the product in February that she had used it in order to deal with her acne scarring, writing on Instagram that the scrub had 'completely re-texturized my skin, helped with acne scars, reduced my pores and made my skin so smooth and soft'.
Three people were arrested following a disturbance at a house in Allenwood, which resulted in a man presenting at Naas Hospital with stab injuries.

According to gardai, at approximately 11.25am on Saturday morning, March 28, gardai from Naas and Clane responded to a call to a house near Allenwood. They found that extensive damage had been caused to a car and a house after an alleged altercation.

A man in his 30s had already made his way to Naas Hospital with stab injuries, which were non life-threatening.

The scene at the house was preserved for technical examination.

Gardai arrested a man in his 20s and a woman in her 30s at the scene. Another man in his 30s was arrested when he was stopped in a car nearby. A machete was also recovered in the car stopped.

The three arrested were all detained under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act at Naas Garda Station. They were charged in relation to the incident and appeared at a Special Sitting of Naas District Court this morning, Sunday.
The six-year-old boy who died tragically in Mayo yesterday has been named as local child Louis Chen.

He was found in a stream close to his home in Rehins Fort, Ballina yesterday afternoon, after being reported missing.

He was pronounced dead in Mayo University Hospital, where a post-mortem will take place.

The child's family are well known in the area, where they run businesses.

Local councillor Mark Duffy says the community will support the grieving family - despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

One thing we do well in Ireland is grieve our loved ones who have passed, said Mr Duffy.

Given the ongoing circumstances we face in society at the moment that can be difficult and that can be a challenge.

All we can do in the Ballina community here is be with the family in spirit.

Mr Duffy added that the young boy was taken far too soon.

Its just extremely tragic circumstances.

I think there is a lot of shock and sadness in the area at the moment.
Idaho governor signs bill banning most abortions if Roe is overturned

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Idaho will ban most abortion procedures if the United States Supreme Court overturns the landmark 1973 decision Roe v. Wade, according to a newly signed law.

Idaho Governor Brad Little signed Senate Bill 1385 last week, which will be triggered if the Supreme Court decides to allow states to decide whether or not to allow for abortions.

Earlier this month, SB 1385 received strong support in the state legislature, being passed by a vote of 27-7 in the Senate and 49-18 in the House of Representatives.

Every person who performs or attempts to perform an abortion as defined in this chapter commits the crime of criminal abortion, read SB 1385 in part.

Criminal abortion shall be a felony punishable by a sentence of imprisonment of no less than two (2) years and no more than (5) years in prison.

The ban exempts abortions performed due to rape, incest, or if a woman is facing a medical emergency in which the baby cannot be saved. It also prohibits criminally punishing the woman seeking an abortion.

Republican state Senator Todd Lakey, the sponsor of the bill, championed the legislation as a measure that will eventually save lives.

We dont know when the Supreme Court will change. But it may happen in the nine months when were not in session. The ability to take action is a question of time, stated Lakey, as reported by Life News.

If this bill can save the life of one unborn child, then it is worth it. It becomes effective without a need for future legislative action.

The pro-life group Idaho Chooses Life supported the legislation, arguing that it will eventually begin instructing a new generation of Idahoans that the taking of innocent life is wrong.

In fact, it is a crime. It says to all Idahoans that the State of Idaho rejects the contention that preborn children do not matter, stated the group.

Critics of SB 1385 included the Idaho chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which argued the legislation would damage access to womens health.

This legislation would prevent Idaho women from accessing safe and long-held legally protected abortion care, which is a critical component of their health and dignity, as well as independence, freedom, and social and economic equality, stated the ACLU of Idaho.
Domestic abuse victims are permitted to leave home to escape their partners or ask for help during the coronavirus lockdown, the home secretary has clarified.

Priti Patels announcement comes after police reported there had already been a rise in abuse since the crisis began, while the national domestic violence helpline has received more calls.

The government has brought in strict social distancing rules to curb the spread of the pandemic, with people instructed to remain in their homes except for exercise once a day and to shop for essential supplies.

The home secretary acknowledged the restrictions were even more difficult for those whose home is not the safe haven it should be.

I am acutely aware that the necessary guidelines about social distancing and self-isolation may leave the victims of hidden crime, such as domestic abuse and child sexual abuse, feeling especially isolated, vulnerable and exposed, Ms Patel wrote in her column in the Mail on Sunday.

But my message to every potential victim is simple: we have not forgotten you and we will not let you down. And my message to every perpetrator is equally as simple: you will not get away with your crimes.

She drew attention to the fact the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is still operating in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ms Patel added: Whilst our advice is to stay at home, anyone who is at risk of, or experiencing, domestic abuse, is still able to leave and seek refuge. Refuges remain open, and the police will provide support to all individuals who are being abused whether physically, emotionally, or otherwise.

As we come together as a nation to fight this virus, it is important we do not close our eyes to the threats other people, particularly, women, are facing.

Campaigners around the world say domestic abuse has surged as social isolation measures have been rolled out. China saw a threefold increase in cases of domestic abuse reported to police stations in February in comparison with the year before.

Refuge, the UKs largest provider of shelters for domestic violence victims, has released advice for people up trapped indoors with their abusers. The charity advised victims to keep their mobile phones with them and charged up and to try to avoid the kitchen, garage or places in other places in home which have items that could used as weapons.

Police in Cumbria have urged postal workers and delivery drivers to be on the lookout for potential indications of abuse.

 Nurse uses video chat to let daughter say farewell to mother dying of coronavirus

Every week in the UK two women are murdered by a current or former partner.

Conservative government austerity measures have been blamed for a chronic shortage of spaces in domestic abuse refuges, with local authority spending on such centres cut from 31.2m in 2010 to 23.9m in 2017, forcing several to close their doors in recent years.

Charities recently told The Independent they are offering online support to domestic abuse victims forced to isolate with their partners after concerns violence could soar under social isolation measures.

Frontline service providers warned self-isolation could be a dangerous for women trapped inside with their abuser whose behaviour may be aggravated by the chaos and uncertainty of the pandemic.

Anyone who requires help or support can contact the National Domestic Abuse Helpline which is open 24/7 365 days per year on 0808 2000 247 or via their website https://www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk/
Last month, Dewey pleaded no contest to manslaughter and a gun charge for fatally shooting Fowler during broad daylight near 27th and Holdrege streets after a disagreement that started two blocks away.

As part of a plea deal, prosecutors reduced a second-degree murder charge to manslaughter  a killing without malice upon a sudden quarrel  and dropped two other charges.

Police said that day Dewey and another man went to 27th and Potter streets to buy drugs, but the man with the drugs wasn't there. As they left, Fowler, who lived in the area, began yelling at the man with Dewey, then followed on foot as they drove away.

At a red light at 27th and Holdrege, Dewey fired at Fowler, hitting him in the head, police say.

They arrested Dewey that night.

At Monday's sentencing, Byrd called it a senseless murder, saying Fowler didn't pose a threat to anyone.

"All Mr. Dewey had to do was simply drive away. But instead he pulled a gun and fired not once, not twice, but at least three shots at Mr. Fowler," Byrd said.
Parliamentary elections delayed nearly two years, were finally carried out. This was the first of two rounds. There will be a second round of elections in April. Participation was low, mainly because of fears of violence from Islamic terrorists or from disease (coronavirus). Despite all that most eligible voters could vote. Most of the 19 million people in Mali dont have to deal with the Islamic or tribal terrorism found mainly in thinly populated central and northern Mali. Everyone knows about this problem and how it has spread from the north to central Mali in the last five years. The main reason for the spread of this violence is corruption. It has been a problem ever since Mali became independent after the French left in 1960. It is a problem common throughout Africa and many other parts of the world.

The foreign aid donors have been putting more and more pressure on the notoriously corrupt Mali politicians to back off on plundering the foreign aid. A favorite ploy of corrupt African politicians is to blame foreigners for all the problems the local politicians have caused. The corruption is perpetuated because senior politicians share the looted aid with their followers. To make matters worse, the most corrupt politicians try to avoid criticism by blaming foreign interference by peacekeepers (who are mostly African) and the special French counter-terrorism force (which is entirely French) for somehow causing all that is wrong with Mali. There are 12,000 peacekeepers up north and 5,000 French troops operate throughout the region against Islamic terrorists. The peacekeepers and French troops are welcome up north and that is one of many differences between northern and southern Mali.

The thinly populated northern two-thirds of the country has a population of less than three million, which is about 16 percent of the population. The north was very poor in the best of times, and several years of Islamic terrorist violence there halted tourism (a major source of income, especially in the three major cities up there) and the movement of many goods.

There are also ethnic and tribal differences to contend with. The Tuareg majority in the far north are more Arab than African and the peace deal with them was stalled for over a year because the black majority in the south did not want to even consider granting as much autonomy as the Tuaregs demanded. The two groups have always been at odds but were only united in the same country by the colonial French in the 19th century. Like most African countries, dividing the nation is not an acceptable option and the colonial borders are considered sacrosanct. The current mess began when France took swift action in January 2013 by leading a military operation to clear Islamic terrorists out of northern Mali. Aided by Chad and a growing number of other African peacekeeping contingents, this effort continues and is somewhat open-ended. The French acted because in 2012 Tuareg tribal rebels (with the help of al Qaeda affiliated Islamic terrorists) in northern Mali chased out government forces and declared a separate Tuareg state. The Mali army mutinied (because of a lack of support from the corrupt government) down south and took control of the capital. The army soon backed off when neighboring nations threatened to intervene. The elected government was soon back in charge and more corrupt than ever.

Lots of corruption often produces rebels and in Moslem majority nations that often means Islamic terrorist groups. There are several of these in Mali and the largest of them is JNIM (Jamaah Nusrah al Islam wal Muslimin, or Group for the support of Islam and Moslems). This is an al Qaeda coalition formed in early 2017 to consolidate the many separate Islamic terror groups in Mali. In part, this was a reaction to the growing threat from ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant), which is hostile to everyone who is not ISIL and will attack or recruit from the JNIM members like AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), Ansar Dine, FLM and several other smaller groups. Another reason for the merger was to make it easier to pool resources, especially information and practical advice, and coordinate with other Islamic terror groups in the region. This reduces friction and destructive feuding. Making a coalition like this work is always difficult, especially considering the importance of ethnic differences. The FLM is Fulani (the largest local tribal contribution) while the other groups are largely Tuareg, or Arab, and some have a lot of foreigners. Note that JNIM did not absorb all of AQIM groups in the area, just local groups that had long been identified with al Qaeda. The income from the drug trade keeps a lot of these factions in business and the Islamic terrorists know that business and religious fanaticism do not mix and keep it that way. Those groups that did not went broke and withered to nothing.

Meanwhile, the Islamic terror groups evolved with more radical JNOM members joining more radical groups like ISIL, which is universally hated by other Islamic terrorists and Moslems in general. Recently Malian ISIL members released a video on the Internet in which the group pledged allegiance to Abu Hamza al Qurayshi, the new ISIL leader. By 2018 there were two ISIL provinces in central Africa. The smaller one was ISGS (Islamic State in Greater Sahara), which showed up in 2018. ISGS is currently active in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. The other, slightly older and larger, ISIL province was ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province). ISWAP was actually a faction of the Nigerian Boko Haram Islamic terrorists who had been around since 2004. ISWAP personnel is mostly in northeastern Nigeria as well as smaller numbers in Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon.

There are also a lot of tribal conflicts in central Mali but these have been active for decades and are made worse by corruption. As long as Mali suffers from the high levels of government and bad government, there were be Islamic terrorism and the threat of separatism succeeding, as it did in 2012-13 up north. France wont always be willing to move in the deal with the problem.

The counter-terror operations by France, the G5, UN peacekeepers and the Mali Army has been successful but it has only suppressed Islamic terrorist and tribal violence, not eliminated it. There are fewer large scale terror attacks or tribal raids. But there is still lots of low-level activity that does not kill but rather intimidates and extorts financial and other support for the armed groups.

March 29, 2020: The parliament elections were finally held, for the first time since 2013. The national election for the 147 parliament seats was supposed to be held in 2018 but was delayed several times because of the growing incidents of Islamic terrorism in central and north Mali as well as tribal violence in central Mali. A more recent complication was the appearance of coronavirus/covid19 cases in Mali. There are at least 20 people known to have it. The covid19 threat was a recent one, even though the disease has been ravaging China for four months. There has been little of the virus in Africa so far. Despite all the problems, 98 percent of 12,500 voting stations were able to open. In addition to this, several hundred thousand internal refugees were not able to vote.

March 25, 2020: The government announced that the first two cases of coronavirus (covid19) had been discovered. The two patients had recently returned from France, where they caught the disease (which takes up to two weeks to make the patient fell ill). A nationwide curfew (from 9 PM to 5 AM) was declared and people who thought they may have covid19 should seek testing. Within a few days, 20 confirmed cases were found. The virus is not expected to be as large a problem in Africa as in the rest of the world. Thats because Chinese researchers found, and other scientists confirmed, that Africans are less likely to catch covid19 because they have one fifth as many cellular receptors in their lungs than Chinese. That difference enables covid19 to cause breathing problems more. Other researchers found that this genetic difference was most helpful for Africans and most harmful for East Asians. People in other parts of the world have less resistance to covid19 than Africans.

Lung damage is the most frequent cause of death among covid19 victims. So far Africa, with 18 percent of the world population has only suffered less than one percent of the covid19 infections. Africans are not immune, just less likely to get infected or suffer the breathing problems that cause most covid10 related deaths. Such genetic differences are common and account for some ethnic groups having different health problems, or advantages. For example, Africans are more prone to have sickle cell anemia. This genetic mutation helps those with it to resist the deadly effects of malaria but also brings with it a high risk of blood disorders. Many of these genetic differences are useful with no bad side effects. That would include the unique eyelid structure of East Asians, which provides more protection from fine sand driven by high winds. Those sand storms still regularly blow into China from the Gobi Desert. Covid19 is feared in Africa because if you are exposed to it there is still a ten percent chance you will catch and suffer ill effects that are similar to flu. Being sick for a week or so is something to be avoided.

In the north (outside Timbuktu), Islamic terrorists of ISGS (Islamic State in Greater Sahara) ambushed a convoy carrying Soumaila Cisse, the most powerful opposition leaders in parliament. He was accompanied by 11 associates, bodyguards and drivers. One bodyguard was killed and two wounded during the ambush. The killers released four men and took the seven others somewhere else. Cisse was campaigning for the parliament elections. No ransom demand has been received yet, probably because the ambushers didnt expect to capture a major politician and are now trying to figure out what they can demand for his release. ISGS has been around since 2018 and is currently active in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. This is the group that has been under heavy attack for most of 2019. The main reason for that is the ISIL strategy of inflicting lots of casualties on the Mali army and destroy soldier morale and willingness to fight or even remain in the military. This is not a new tactic and the battles with ISIL up north are something of a bloody endurance contest.

March 24, 2020: The EU (European Union) agreed to provide $126 million over the next four years to keep the G5 (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger) counter-terrorism force going for another four years. In 2017 the EU and France agreed to create and finance the G5 Force of 5,000 troops from the five African nations involved, That support will be based on what has already been established for the French counter-terrorism and UN peacekeeping forces in the area.

March 23, 2020: In the northeast (south of Gao), in the tri-border area where the borders of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso meet, 1,700 French, 1,500 G5 and 1,500 Mali troops completed a 20 day operation to sweep the area for known or suspected Islamic terrorists camps and bases. Using nearly 5,000 soldiers, with air support, for this operation is the latest of several operations like this carried out in the last few months. The Islamic terrorists in the area know they are facing a very large force that has air support, so the usual tactic of ambushes defending a fortified position with a large force is not an option. The latest operation cleared areas in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, in part to demonstrate that the Islamic terrorists could not depend on escaping across borders as they had in the past. The entire counter-terror force was mechanized and the vehicles available included nearly a thousand armored ones. While the enemy fled when they realized they were under attack, or about to be, they had to abandon a lot of weapons, vehicles, equipment (tents, electronics, generators) and supplies (ammo, food, medical). The captured vehicles included 80 motorcycles. These are a favorite mode of transportation for scouts or raiders. The bikes can move faster, get into more kinds of off-road terrain and are harder to spot from the air. The French have Reaper UAVs, fighter bombers and two armed helicopters, plus transport helicopters, available.

March 19, 2020: In the north (outside Gao), JNIM and al Qaeda cooperated in a three pronged attack on an army base that left 29 soldiers dead and five wounded. The attackers looted the base of weapons, vehicles and other portable equipment and then left before reinforcements showed up.

March 15, 2020: The growing Islamic terrorist activity in neighboring Burkina Faso is forcing many Mali refugees from similar violence in Mali to move back to Mali. There are over 700,000 refugees in Burkina Faso, more than three times as many as in Mali and the 25,000 of them are from Mali. But in the last month at least ten percent of the Mali refugees in Burkina Faso have gone back to Mali. Apparently there will be more returning.

March 14, 2020: Two foreigners (from Canada and Italy) who were kidnapped by Islamic terrorists in Burkina Faso during 2018, escaped and made it across the border into Mali where they encountered some peacekeepers. The two were moved to the capital and arrangements made for them to return home. No ransom had been paid. The two lived in Canada and were on their way to Togo, to work on a foreign aid project, when they were taken.

March 12, 2020: Islamic terror coalition JNIM called on the government to negotiate a peace deal, but only after French troops left Mali. The government is not inclined to accept those terms because it as the French intervention in 2013 that ended a military coup and Islamic terrorist led separatist rule of northern Mali.

March 1, 2020: In central Mali (Mopti region), five soldiers were killed when Islamic terrorists fired several RPG rockets at parked vehicles near a checkpoint. The attacked then fled but were tracked and an airstrike killed or wounded several of them.
Around half of the clergy in a Catholic diocese spanning four counties are cocooning as a result of new Government restrictions aimed at combating the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fr Brendan Quinlivan said today 34 of the 70 priests in the Diocese of Killaloe are over the age of 70 and and are cocooning in line with new Government measures aimed to minimising the spread of the Coronavirus.

Diocesan spokesman, Fr Quinlivan said that a number of those priests are fully retired and a few are in nursing home care.

The diocese stretches from Loop Head on the Atlantic coast in west Clare to Kinnity in Co. Offaly and takes in parts of Co. Tipperary and Co. Limerick.

One of those cocooning at his Ennis home is former Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh who said today that cocooning for formerly busy priests aged over 70 across the country is "traumatic" for them.

Now fully retired from priestly duties, Dr Walsh said: For some priests over 70 who were still working, I would expect it is traumatic when you would find yourself almost not needed anymore.

The world hasnt stopped because we dont have public masses and it is a reminder to us and a humbling experience for us that we dont seem to be needed and the world is churning on without us being very busy.

Fr Quinlivan stated that there is "great sadness" amongst priests that they have been compelled to close the doors on churches to parishioners and suspend public masses across the diocese.

He said: The instruction came in on Saturday afternoon to go and shut the church and it really broke my heart to lock the church. All the previous two weeks when I went over to it, there were candles lighting in it, there was a steam of visitors in and out.

Closing the doors of the church really, really broke my heart and it goes against everything of having an oasis of place for people to go where they might find some bit of calm."

It is a terrible, terrible thing and so hard for people who find going to the Church so important.

Fr Quinlivan added that morale amongst those priests cocooned is quite good.

He said: The clergy by and large are solitary people by nature but the restriction on priests on the visitation on the sick and housebound - that would do a lot of harm to the clergy as they would really be torn by this incredible sense of duty they have and the responsibility to act in line with public health authorities."

That would be very difficult - their sense of duty and obligation but also their sense of responsibility - as far as anything that would be affecting their morale - that would be affecting it.

Fr Quinlivan stated that he has been broadcasting masses daily on Facebook Live.

He said that before the virus outbreak, he would have maybe 30 people in the church at a weekday mass and the number of views on his daily mass on Facebook Live would be 80 to 90.

He said: It is about reminding the people we are still there.

Last week, Fr Quinlivan stated that he celebrated three funerals last week and they were very, very difficult.

He said: The sense of people sitting apart in the church and sitting apart at the funeral masses is really anathema to Irish people to celebrate a funeral like that.

The three people in question were incredibly social people and they were involved in organisations in the parish. They would have played cards with neighbours and it would really have been the antithesis of the life they lived to have that experience for the family.

Dr Walsh said that the cocooning is an opportunity for priests to reflect on what priesthood is about in modern times and to reflect on our priorities again.

He stated: Some of us got the impression that we should be busy all the time and Im not sure that is the function of a priest and I think the function of a priest ideally is reflecting Christian witness.

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ALBANY  In a world without a pandemic, volunteers for local political campaigns would be knocking on doors, organizing fundraising dinners, visiting senior centers and talking up their candidates to friends over coffee or beer.

Welcome to the world of political campaigns during a pandemic.

Under the rules of social distancing and pandemic precautions, theyre left to working the phones, setting up virtual town halls, sending Facebook messages and email blast and trying to figure out how to run a political campaign when you cant meet with voters in person.

As two progressive campaigns wages primary efforts to try to upset Democratic incumbents in the Albany County District Attorneys office and the 108th Assembly seat, theyre battling more than just a lack of name recognition. Theyre fighting to get their name and message out there when nearly all of the worlds attention is focused on the novel coronavirus outbreak.

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Campaigns face two tasks  finding ways to reach voters and then get their attention, said Michael Malbin, a professor of political science at Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the University of Albany.

In general, local campaigns against an incumbent can only succeed if the challenger can stand out or find another way to get to voters, Malbin said.

Once youre on the ballot, you need to figure out a way to generate news, he said.

One solution local campaigns have struck upon is combining efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus with traditional voter outreach.

Instead of door-to-door campaigning, Matt Toporowski, an attorney challenging District Attorney David Soares, has asked his staff and volunteers to deliver meals and other supplies to families in need or in quarantine. The campaign has also been making and distributing homemade hand sanitizer with aloe vera, glycerine and rubbing alcohol.

"We have the organizational structure so were going to use that to help address the coronavirus outbreak, he said. In my opinion, the district attorneys office should be vocal on these issues. If we can go back to grassroots campaigning we will but right now thats not possible.

Albany County Legislator Samuel Fein is trying to oust Assemblyman John McDonald. Fein, whose campaign staffers have also been handing out homemade hand sanitizer, said his campaign is still been reaching out to as many voters as possible. Part of that effort includes more virtual town halls, which he has held previously on his campaign's Facebook page. The next one is scheduled for March 31.

People are worried about whats going on, he said. They dont know how theyre going to cover their losses while they cant work. I think people want action and an appropriate government response to this crisis.

To that end, Fein has called for expansion to unemployment insurance, a rent freeze, mortgage forbearance and other measures to help.

Local races in general tend to not draw as much as attention as high profile races, making it more difficult for a challenger to stand out.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

But incumbents certainly arent safe, Malbin said.

If you have a network of support who can be reached to elect you, you can mount a serious challenge, he said. I wouldnt dismiss people who are outside challengers.

The McDonald and Soares campaigns have taken slightly different approaches than their opponents as they all head toward primary day on June 23.

McDonald, a four-term incumbent from Cohoes, said last month he wouldnt do any campaigning until the state budget passed. The state was already facing a $6 billion deficit before the coronavirus outbreak.

He also canceled a May 7 fundraiser due to uncertainty over when the state would allow public gatherings again.

My focus is primarily on doing my job as a legislator, he said. People are hurting  They dont want to listen to someone bloviating about how great they are.

Before the virus outbreak, Soares had planned a series of town halls to discuss the effects of states criminal justice reforms. The coronavirus outbreak and subsequent shutdown of public gatherings put those plans on hold and deprived him of a valuable opportunity to push his message of a being a tough-on-crime district attorney who balances smart reform.

Instead his campaign has focused on calling people at home. Soares has been posting short videos on Facebook, urging people to follow the guidelines around the coronavirus outbreak and to stay healthy.

And though the states courts have nearly ground to a halt during the pandemic, hes relying on the public approving of his work as district attorney. He recently signed onto a letter from a group of prosecutors from 17 states calling on states to adopt mitigation strategies during the COVID-19 outbreak, including releasing elderly prisoners early. He and Ulster County District Attorney David Clegg also announced their support for a bill that would reform the states parole system to reduce the imprisonment of some parole violators.

Were still going about the business of protecting the community, he said.
The Ministry of External Affairs on Monday pledged to donate Rs 1 crore to the relief fund announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help fight the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

On Saturday, Modi announced setting up of the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES) to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

Political leaders, corporates, defence personnel, employees of PSUs such as Railways and Bollywood personalities were among a cross-section of organisations and people announcing their contribution to the fund.

"We stand together in this fight. #TeamMEA pledges to contribute around ? 1 Crore to #PMCaresFund launched by PM @narendramodi to support Government's efforts to fight #COVID19 pandemic," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted on Monday.

The Army, Navy and the Indian Air Force as well as employees of the Defence Ministry have decided to donate one day's salary totalling around Rs 500 crore.

The Union government has set up a public charitable trust under the name 'PM CARES Fund' in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Modi is the chairman of the trust and its members include the defence minister, the home minister and the finance minister.

India has recorded a total of 1,071 positive cases of coronavirus and 29 deaths so far.

Globally, the virus has infected more than 700,000 people and claimed more than 32,000 lives.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BUTTE COUNTY, Calif.  The Butte County Sheriffs Office announced the arrest of a Palermo man for unlawful sexual contact with a minor, an investigation that began in September 2019.

23-year-old Jagvir Singh of Palermo was arrested on October 8, 2019, in Sacramento by the Butte County Sheriffs Office. After the arrest, Singh admitted to deputies of traveling to Chico to meet with a minor victim and having unlawful sex with the victim, according to deputies.

Singh was arrested for three felony counts of unlawful sex with a minor, and an additional three felony counts of contacting a minor with the intent to have unlawful sexual intercourse, deputies said.

However, authorities said Singh later posted bail and was released from jail. During the court proceedings, a Butte County Superior Judge issued an order preventing him from contacting the minor victim.

Detectives said they received information on March 25, 2020, that Singh had contacted the previous minor victim and was with that person at an unknown location. Authorities obtained an arrest warrant for him and located the victim and Singh in the Paradise area on March 25.

Detectives said it was determined that Singh had taken the victim to a local motel and had unlawful sexual contact with the victim. At the time of his arrest, Singh was in possession of $19,000 and stolen identification cards. Evidence indicated that Singh was planning on leaving California with the victim, according to authorities.

Further investigation revealed that Singh had moved to the Palermo area and was living at a home in the 7000 block of Lincoln Blvd. for several months. A search warrant was obtained and detectives located additional evidence at the home, on March 27, according to deputies.

A Butte County Superior Court Judge reviewed a declaration documenting Singhs March 26 arrest and set Singhs bail status as no bail until Singh attends further court proceedings.

Deputies said this investigation is ongoing. Anyone with additional information is asked to contact Detective Brian Parsons at 530-538-7671.
BANGALORE, India, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The advent of nanotechnology-based biosensors is one of the factors that is largely attributing to the growth of the Global Biosensors Market. Early and accurate diagnosis of the disease is important for patient recovery and survival. In recent years, demand for portable, cost-effective and user-friendly devices with quick response time has increased considerably.

"The global Biosensors market size is projected to rise from USD 20563.24 million in 2018 to USD 38156.56 million at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.23% by the end of 2025."

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The Global Biosensors Market is expected to show growth opportunities in sectors like the food industry, environmental monitoring, bio-defence and in developing countries. However, biosensors technology has seen a slow rate of commercialization in recent years due to the high price of biosensors and competition from the healthcare sector alone. Commercialization of biosensors for non-medical applications, such as military, biodefense, fermentation control, environmental monitoring, is a challenge for industry players due to limited R&D and positive outcomes.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/360I-Auto-4M30/global-biosensors-market-premium

TRENDS INFLUENCING THE BIOSENSORS MARKET SIZE :

One of the major trends influencing the global biosensor market is the favourable government policies aimed at improving proteomics and genomics. For example, National Information and Communication Technology Australia (NICTA) is expected to advance its research into data mining, networks and embedded systems to be used in this area.

Another major driver for the biosensor market is the growing demand for point-of-care testing. The demand for point-of-care testing is growing due to the rising demand for portable and integrated devices. Furthermore, it allows physicians to identify the cause of the illness for immediate treatment. Therefore, the growing demand for point-of-care testing will minimize healthcare costs and help to produce reliable and timely outcomes from clinical studies.

REGION WISE BIOSENSORS MARKET SHARE :

POC diagnosis is the fastest-growing application for biosensors in North America . Growth is majorly due to a rise in the target patient population. In addition, technological advancements such as the introduction of miniaturized diagnostic equipment with fast and reliable results and growing consumer penetration of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) are also expected to drive market growth over the forecast period.

. Growth is majorly due to a rise in the target patient population. In addition, technological advancements such as the introduction of miniaturized diagnostic equipment with fast and reliable results and growing consumer penetration of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) are also expected to drive market growth over the forecast period. The Asia Pacific is predicted to have the highest growth rate in the forecast period closely followed by Latin America . Some of the main factors contributing to the growth of the biosensor market in Asia-Pacific and Latin America are the presence of high unmet medical needs for target diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and other infectious diseases, rising patient awareness and continuously growing healthcare spending in the region.

On the basis of Type, the Global Biosensors Market is studied across

Embedded Device

Sensor Patch.

On the basis of Product, the Global Biosensors Market is studied across

Non Wearable Biosensors

Wearable Biosensors.

On the basis of Technology, the Global Biosensors Market is studied across

Electrochemical Biosensors,

Nanomechanical Biosensors,

Optical Biosensors,

Piezoelectric Biosensors,

Thermal Biosensors.

On the basis of Industry, the Global Biosensors Market is studied across

Biodefense,

Environmental Monitoring,

Food & Beverages,

Home Diagnostics,

POC,

Research Lab.

"Sysmex Corporation the potential growing player for the Global Biosensors Market"

The key players profiled in the Global Biosensors Market are

Abbott Laboratories Inc

F.Hoffman La-Roche AG

Medtronic Inc

Siemens AG

Universal Biosensors

ACON Laboratories Inc.

Bayer Healthcare AG.

Biacore Life Sciences

Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc

Biosensors International Pte. Ltd.

DuPont de Nemours, Inc.

Ercon

LifeScan Inc

Nova Biomedical Corporation

Sysmex Corporation

Others

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Biosensors Market By Geography

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

LAMEA

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SIMILAR REPORTS

1. Glucose Biosensors Market Research Report

The global Glucose Biosensors market size is estimated at USD 3,220.7 million in 2020, is projected to hit USD 3578.7 million by the end of 2026, rising at a CAGR of 1.5% in 2021-2026.

Glucose biosensors are instruments that calculate glucose concentrations in diabetic patients by means of a sensitive protein that relays the concentration through fluorescence, an alternative to amperometric glucose sensing. The increase in the incidence of diabetes worldwide is projected to be a key driver of market growth.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-31X1177/global-glucose-biosensors

2. Bioelectronics and Biosensors Market Research Report

The global Bioelectronics and Biosensors market size amounted to USD 16,500 million in 2017 and is projected to hit USD 32,200 million by the end of 2025, rising at a CAGR of 10.0% between 2018 and 2025.

This study analyzes the market size of Bioelectronics and Biosensors by players, countries, product types and end industries, the historical data for 2013-2017 and the forecast data for 2018-2025. Furthermore, this report analyzes the global competitive market environment, market drivers and trends, opportunities and threats, risks and entry barriers, distribution channels, distributors and Porter's Five Forces Analysis.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-1K256/bioelectronics-and-biosensors

3. Wearable Biosensors Market Research Report

The wearable biosensors help track various health parameters, such as pulse rate, blood pressure, heartbeat and others. Increasing understanding of maintaining a safe and healthy lifestyle accelerates the demand for wearable biosensors market size.

This study focuses on the volume and value of Wearable Biosensors at global, regional and company level. From a global viewpoint, this study reflects the overall market size of Wearable Biosensors by evaluating historical data and potential prospects. Regionally, this study focuses on a variety of main regions: North America, Europe, China and Japan.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-28M1065/global-wearable-biosensors

4. Smart Biosensors Market Research Report

Biosensors are analytical instruments used to identify chemical and biological substances in the human body. Smart biosensors are easy to use, fast, accurate and efficient than conventional analytical methods.

This research report categorizes the global Smart Biosensor market by top players/brands, country, size and end-users. The study also explores the global market status of Smart Biosensor, the competitive environment, market size, growth rate, future trends, market drivers, opportunities and challenges, distribution channels and distributors.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-13H461/global-smart-biosensors

5. Sensors Market Research Report

The global sensors market size was estimated at USD 138,965.0 million in 2017 and is expected to hit USD 287 billion by 2025, rising at 9.5 per cent CAGR from 2019 to 2025.

Sensors have penetrated in almost every industry, but are most commonly used in consumer electronic goods, followed by automotive and IT & telecommunications. Smartphones integrate sensors such as accelerometer, gyroscope, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor and temperature detector to keep track of parameters. The rising number of smartphones is expected, in turn increasing the growth of sensor market size.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/ALLI-Manu-2J16/sensors-market

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The Wyoming attorney general on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to deny Dale Wayne Eatons request for appeal, arguing that Eaton did not preserve his ability to appeal his case on the basis of ineffective assistance at trial.

The 75-year-old Eaton  once Wyomings only death row inmate  in February asked the countrys highest court to take his case, arguing that his trial attorney did not properly investigate his competence to stand trial. And although a federal appeals court ordered five years ago that he be re-sentenced, Eaton has not yet returned to Natrona County District Court to receive a new fate.

Prosecutors last year indicated in the state court that they intend to again seek Eaton be put to death for the 1988 kidnapping, rape and murder of a teenage woman. That proceeding, though, has remained on hold while Eaton seeks review of his case by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In February, Eaton asked the court to take his case, arguing that his mental competency to stand trial was not properly determined in lower courts. Although appeals courts already found that Eaton was not properly assisted during the phase of his trial that resulted in a sentence of death, in the latest request, Eatons lawyers argued that no court has fully determined whether his trial lawyers harmed his case by failing to investigate his competence before the trial began.

The attorney generals response argues that Eatons claim to ineffective assistance of counsel was not properly preserved independent of the federal courts rulings on the death-penalty phase of the trial. By failing to maintain that Eaton had a separate ineffective assistance claim, the state lawyers argue, he waived his right to the appeal.

Although Eaton argued that his case is demonstrative of a split between federal circuit courts  and therefore in need of resolution by the U.S. Supreme Court  on whether appellants can waive their right to a fresh consideration of their case on appeal, the government in its Monday filing argued that Eatons case does not actually typify the issue.

There is no question that the Wyoming Supreme Court adjudicated Eatons guilt-phase ineffective assistance of counsel claim on its merits, wrote Attorney General Bridget Hill and Deputy Attorney General Jenny Craig, who supervises the offices criminal division. Therefore, even if this Court were to consider this claim as Eaton requests, the outcome of Eatons case would not be affected by this Courts decision.

Eatons case dates back decades. It was in 1988 that law enforcement found the body of Lisa Marie Kimmell, who had disappeared while driving from Colorado to Montana, in the North Platte River.

Authorities for a decade were unable to find the teenagers killer. In 1998, though, after Eaton was convicted in a separate case of assault and sentenced to the Wyoming State Penitentiary, authorities collected Eatons DNA and learned it linked him to Kimmells body. In 2002, law enforcement unearthed Kimmells car on Eatons property in Moneta, about an hour west of Casper.

In 2003, the Natrona County District Attorneys Office charged Eaton with Kimmells death, and in early 2004 jurors convicted him of first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and first-degree sexual assault. Days later, the jury found Eaton should be put to death. It was in 2014 that a federal appeals court threw out Eatons sentence. He remains incarcerated as he awaits a new sentencing hearing.

While Eatons case remains in limbo, nobody else currently faces a death penalty case. Although state legislators have in recent years cited the cost of death penalty prosecutions in their attempts to end capital punishment, those efforts have failed. This year, an introductory vote on the issue failed narrowly.

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A near-deserted Regent Street in London, England, on March 26, 2020. According to the latest daily figures a total of 578 people have so far died across the UK after testing positive for the covid-19 coronavirus.

The lockdown in the U.K. to stop the coronavirus outbreak could last for up to six months, government officials warned Sunday, as the U.S. and other European nations also announced prolonged restrictions on public life.

Speaking at the U.K.'s daily press conference on the latest coronavirus news, the U.K.'s deputy chief medical officer said a lockdown could last, in some form, for months.

"Over time, probably over the next six months, we will have a three week review," Jenny Harries said, "We will see where we're going."

"We need to keep that lid on and then gradually we will be able to hopefully adjust some of the social-distancing measures and gradually get us all back to normal. So I think three weeks for review, two or three months to see whether we've really squashed it. But about three to six months ideally, and lots of uncertainty in that, but then to see at which point we can actually get back to normal."

Harries said that if the measures were extended then it's not to say that the U.K. "would be in complete lockdown for six months," but she added that it was also plausible that the measures could be extended beyond that six-month mark.

The U.K. is entering its second week of national lockdown, while other European countries have endured longer restrictions amid rising death tolls. Italy and Spain are the worst hit countries; in Italy, the total number of confirmed cases is nearing 100,000 (the death toll as of Sunday was 10,779 people) while in Spain there are just over 80,000 confirmed cases and 6,803 deaths.

The number of confirmed cases in the U.K. rose to 19,784 on Sunday, with the death toll standing at 1,228, as of Saturday.

The U.K. is thought to be several weeks behind Italy in terms of infections, although it is hoping that lockdown measures can stop the spread of the outbreak and limit a hit on the country's overstretched health service. Brits are currently advised not to leave their homes unless they need to buy food, or for exercise once a day.

It was confirmed last week that Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock have both contracted the virus; Johnson insisted he would remain in charge of coordinating government while self-isolating at his official residence in Downing Street. The country's chief medical officer also said he was experiencing symptoms of the virus last week.
A grassroots-led movement is rehousing the nation's frontline health workers to prevent them from transmitting COVID-19 to family at home.

Find-a-bed, a volunteer organisation that started to shelter people who lost their homes in the bushfires, is fielding calls to find accommodation for medical staff, while doctors and nurses are taking to social media to search for temporary housing to protect vulnerable relatives.

Nurse Saphran Eckersley is moving out of home to prevent potentially transmitting COVID-19 to her family members.

One nurse has resorted to sleeping in her garage to keep a safe distance from her elderly and infirm father, the Herald has been told.

Another nurse, Saphran Eckersley, who works at Liverpool Hospital, said that although she had not yet come into contact with anyone who had been diagnosed with coronavirus, she had chosen to isolate herself from her family and her partner.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday transferred Gautam Buddh Nagar District Magistrate B N Singh for failing to control the spread of coronavirus, after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited the hotspot of the deadly infection in the state.

Announcing Singh's transfer, Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary R K Tiwari told reporters here that a departmental inquiry has also been initiated against him.

Suhas LY has been posted as the new District Magistrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar, the chief secretary said, adding that "he has left for Noida to take over charge".

"District Magistrate BN Singh has been removed and attached to Board of Revenue. Departmental inquiry has also been initiated against him. The Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner has been asked to initiate the probe against him," Tiwari said.

Singh has been removed for his failure in carrying out works to control the spread of coronavirus, he said, adding that he wrote a application for leave and leaked it to the media, which amounts to indiscipline.

Adityanath on Monday pulled up officials in Gautam Buddh Nagar for not being able to contain coronavirus from spreading in the district, which has recorded 38 COVID-19 cases so far, highest in the state.

Sixteen new coronavirus positive cases were reported in UP on Monday, taking the total tally in the state to 88, officials said in Lucknow.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Fut Kheun has been keeping a close watch on the water levels at the Sesan II reservoir, in the remote Srekor commune of Stung Treng province. The ethnic Kreung villager is living close to the water at the reservoir, two years after ethnic minority communities were forced from their homes to make way for the 400MW Sesan Dam reservoir. Fut Kheuns family is among the 60 that have rejected government compensation and have chosen to remain close to their ancestral lands. Since then, Fut Kheun and other villagers have had to keep a constant eye on the water levels, attempting to restart their traditional practices, even though their familial lands and the graves of their ancestors now lay below hundreds of feet of water. It has been a few years and the water level doesnt remain stable. It increases and decreases, he said, adding this made it hard to find a suitable location to restart their community.

The Sesan II dam was highly controversial and a leaked government-commissioned study had warned of a devastating impact on the Mekongs fisheries and ecosystem. Fish stocks were expected to drop 9.3 percent across the Mekong Basin, according to a study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the U.S.



At the time, Prime Minister Hun Sen and his government downplayed the environmental impact and approved the $816-million project. The Chinese-funded dam, run by the Royal Group, has wreaked havoc on Lao and Kreung ethnic communities, who, two years later, are still attempting to restore their way of life. The villagers have kept watch of the waters to make sure that they can settle down in newly-created villages. Villagers here said they are attempting to build a new community, comprising homes, a pagoda, and a site to pray to their ancestors and spirits. The communities follow animist-Buddhist traditions and villagers have already prayed for their ancestors to follow them to the new village site. We want to be together so it is easy to communicate and help each other when someone gets sick or passes away, said Kheun, outside his under-construction house. A majority of the Lao and Kreung indigenous minority villagers who lived in the villages, now submerged by the reservoir, accepted compensation from the government to move to new villages. About 800 other families - all belonging to various hill communities from four villages near the Srepok and Sesan Rivers in Stung Treng Province - reluctantly accepted the governments offer, after years of protesting in vain against the construction.



Villagers described the resettlement area as lacking in basic infrastructure and felt the government was not concerned about their well-being. Worse, the resettlement area is cut off from the river, a key source of fish, occupation and transportation for the villagers. The resettlement sites also lack any job opportunities, increasing desperation among families who agreed to move.

Khorng Orn is one of the villagers who decided to stay near his old village. He lost around five hectares of land to the dam project, and that he was living a life of misery now.



There was little opportunity to fish and their rice fields were flooded by the reservoir. Khorng Orn said he was lucky if he could catch three big fish a day, adding that villagers at the resettlement site were unable to fish because there were far from the river.



Environmental activists had warned of a heavy environmental and socio-economic impact beyond just the 33,000-hectare reservoir, because the dam is at the confluence of the Sesan and Srepok Rivers and would block fish migration from the Mekong River.



And while the last two years have been far from easy, Khorng Orn said he was attempting to start a new life at the makeshift village they were building.



We will restart life here since we have built house. It will be wonderful, said Khorng Orn.



Mom Saroeun, Stung Treng provincial governor could not be reached for comment.
Building products manufacturer Quinn Industrial Holdings has temporarily laid off and granted a leave of absence to 600 members of staff.

After the Irish and UK governments last week announced new restrictions to slow the spread of Covid-19, the Co Fermanagh-based company has closed or substantially scaled back all operations that require physical attendance and were not included in the published list of essential businesses.

A spokesman said: Staff of impacted facilities, approximately 600 staff, will be furloughed or placed on temporary lay-off and paid in accordance with the relevant Government support scheme applicable to their roles.

(PA Graphics)

QIH recognises this is a very challenging disruption for staff and their families but it is necessary and unavoidable if we are to protect one another from this global pandemic and safeguard the lives of the most vulnerable in our community.

All QIH directors are also taking take a 50% reduction in salary at this time.

He added that because packaging is a key product for the food sector, Quinn Packaging has not been impacted and will continue to operate while adhering to all best practice hygiene and physical distancing guidelines designed to safeguard our staff, customers and the broader community.

The companies that make up QIH were formerly owned by Sean Quinn, who was once Irelands richest man.

Sean Quinn (Brian Lawless/PA)

His empire collapsed in 2012 and he lost control of his portfolio of businesses. He was later employed as a consultant at his former companies, but left that role in 2016.

Following the collapse of his empire, businessmen backed by three investment funds bought its manufacturing companies in December 2014  the firms are run by former associates of Mr Quinn.

He returned as a consultant, but left QIH in 2016 amid tension between him and the management team.

QIH director Kevin Lunney was kidnapped and badly beaten last September after being abducted from outside his home in Co Fermanagh.

He suffered knife wounds to his face and neck and had one of his legs broken in two places in a sustained attack, before being dumped at a roadside across the border in Cornafean, Co Cavan.

Mr Quinn has repeatedly condemned the attack on Mr Lunney and said the incident ended any desire he had to return to the Quinn Group.
T he Duke of Cambridge is said to be seriously considering returning as an air ambulance pilot to do his bit in the fight against coronavirus.

Prince William, who spent two years flying medics to emergencies from 2015, is reported to have said he now wants to get back in the cockpit.

Despite privately revealing his desire to return to the frontline amid the Covid-19 crisis, his royal duties may prevent it, The Sun reported on Monday night.

A source told the newspaper: He knows the whole country is doing its bit and he wants to help."

Prince William at London's Air Ambulance gala at Rosewood London on Thursday / Chris Jackson

They added: But its complicated as he was originally grounded from the job so that he could become a senior working royal.

Buckingham Palace said it would not be commenting on the report when approached by the Standard.

The NHS is currently seeing around 1,000 additional patients admitted to hospital each day amid the coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world.

Some 9,000 Covid-19 patients are currently being treated in hospitals in England, up from around 6,200 on Friday.

Coronavirus in numbers: UK deaths pass 1,400

William is currently one of only a few senior royals currently carrying out official duties.

Prince Charles is recovering after being diagnosed with Covid-19, Andrew stepped back amid the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have have quit their roles in favour of independence from the Royal Family.
On March 27, 2020 the House of Representatives passed the 2+ trillion dollar bill, the CARES Act, in an effort to rescue the US economy and the millions of Americans economically impacted by the shutdown of the majority of Americas commerce due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Included in the CARES Act is the Paycheck Protection Program for businesses with fewer than 500 employees, along with self-employed individuals with employees, allowing them to borrow money for payroll, rent, or mortgage and utilities, as well as debt obligations during the coverage period from February 15, 2020 through April 30, 2020.

Register Now

Join us on April 1 at 3PM EST for a webinar on Understanding the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and How it Affects your Business featuring Trent Bryson, CEO of Bryson, along with Thomas (TJ) Chaves, SVP, SBA Division Manager of Sunwest Bank who will give you helpful advice on navigating the PPP, answering key questions such as:
On March 18, Beth Purvis was due to have a 19mm tumour removed from her right lung. The operation was part of a four-year ordeal to keep her advanced bowel cancer at bay.

But a week before she was due to have her potentially life-saving operation, Beth received a phone call to tell her it had been cancelled, along with all other scheduled operations, to free hospital beds for coronavirus patients.

Speaking to Good Health on the day she should have been undergoing surgery, Beth, 40, a legal assistant from Essex, was tearful and frightened.

Beth Purvis, 40, a legal assistant from Essex, was meant to have a 19mm tumour removed from her right lung

She had prepared meticulously for this day, arranging childcare for 11-year old Joseph and Abigail, ten, so her husband Richard, a painter and decorator, could carry on working while she was in hospital.

I understand the hospital needs to free up beds and keep intensive care beds available. But that doesnt make it easier to deal with, she says.

I feel drained trying to juggle everything  educating the children at home, working, and dealing with the emotions around not having the operation. The fear about what could happen if I dont get it in time is paralysing.

Beth had bowel cancer diagnosed in 2016 and has had three operations and 26 rounds of chemotherapy.

She had been in remission for 14 wonderful months before a new tumour was found in her right lung in January.

Although my life expectancy was uncertain after secondary tumours were found, there was stability in knowing there were treatment options  this operation was a lifeline, she says. But because of Covid-19, I have no idea what will happen next or if there will be any treatment because the expertise, resources and equipment are needed elsewhere.

But the potentially life-saving operation was cancelled to free up hospital beds for COVID-19 patients. Ms Purvis is pictured with her children Joseph and Abigail and her partner Richard

A fortnight ago, Sir Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, advised hospitals to suspend all elective operations from April 15 for at least three months.

About 700,000 people a month undergo some form of non-urgent surgery, which includes cataract ops, hernia repairs and hip and knee replacements.

All will now be postponed as the NHS prepares for coronavirus infections to peak; most patients wont be given alternative dates yet, as no one is sure when the crisis will end.

NHS England hopes this move will free around a third of our 100,000 hospital beds for coronavirus patients.

But while having a hip replacement op cancelled may leave a patient in pain for longer, for some cancer patients like Beth, indefinite postponement could be a matter of life and death.

Sir Simon said cancer treatment and other urgent care would continue as normal.

But a week ago, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust was the first to announce it was cancelling chemotherapy and routine cancer operations for a fortnight. Other trusts are expected to follow suit as they are forced to prioritise who will get treatment.

Ms Purvis said the NHS decision to cancel her operation left her tearful and frightened

An NHS England guide published earlier this month warned hospitals: We need to consider the small possibility that the facility for cancer services may be compromised due to a combination of factors including staff sickness and supply chain shortages.

It suggested that doctors categorise patients into priority groups 1-6, with top priority for chemotherapy, which is seen as curative therapy with a high [greater than 50 per cent] chance of success.

MYTHBUSTER: WE DEBUNK THE COVID-19 HOAXES CIRCULATING ONLINE This week: Sunbathing will keep you safe Vitamin D does have a role to play in your immune system, says Dr Andrew Birnie, a consultant dermatologist at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Trust. But there is no evidence to suggest that higher or lower vitamin D levels play a role in the outcome of a Covid-19 infection. As for UV killing the virus? Again there is no evidence to suggest that. This idea that sunlight kills certain germs is not something thats established medical practice. It is worth noting that anyone who is out enjoying the sun should be applying sunscreen and not thinking its a safety measure against Covid-19. Anyone on social media trying to distract from the established message of handwashing, alcohol gel and social distancing is putting peoples lives at risk. Advertisement

If a patient is receiving palliative cancer therapy with little chance of surviving more than a year, they will be given the lowest priority.

For surgical cancer patients, the lowest priority is where surgery can be delayed for ten to 12 weeks with no predicted negative outcome. Emergency cancer surgeries will be given priority.

Another reason why some cancer treatment is being delayed is to reduce the chance of those with a compromised immune system because of their cancer therapy catching Covid-19, as the symptoms would be far more serious.

Beth does not fit the criteria for emergency cancer surgery, and is terrified about the delay.

So many things rush through my mind, she says. We dont know if this is a new tumour or one that was left behind last time and is growing. We wont know until Ive had a biopsy  and that has been postponed too.

With my history, I cant afford to have a delay like this. I dont know if the tumour will still be operable at the end of the crisis.

Beth was 34 when, in April 2014, her symptoms began with constipation, diarrhoea and bleeding. My GP said it was irritable bowel syndrome, with the bleeding probably due to an anal fissure [a small tear in the anus caused by frequent diarrhoea or constipation], she recalls.

But her symptoms continued until April 2016, when she felt a bulge protruding from her back passage. I thought it was a rectal prolapse [where part of the bowel pushes through] and I went to A&E, she says.

Beth was referred to a colorectal surgeon for tests  and three months later, further examinations revealed a tumour.

Being so young, I wasnt expecting it to be cancer, she says.

Ms Purvis had prepared meticulously for her operation and arranged childcare for her children

Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK. More than 42,000 cases are diagnosed each year, and 16,000 patients die. What causes it is unclear but some factors increase the risk, such as age (50 and over), a family history and an unhealthy lifestyle.

But Beth didnt have any of these risk factors. I ride horses, Im not overweight and Im very fussy about what we eat, she says. Her bowel cancer was stage 3, meaning it had already spread.

It was in six lymph nodes in my abdominal wall but I was told it was still curable as I was otherwise healthy, she says. I had surgery and six months of chemotherapy. Then I moved on.

But in November 2017, a scan showed cancer growths on both Beths lungs. Genetic tests also showed I have a mutation called BRAF, which usually means the cancer is aggressive, she says.

They said surgery wouldnt help, as the cancer would just grow again. I was given six months to three years to live, and offered palliative chemotherapy to limit tumour growth. You cant process that kind of news.

The chemo made Beth so sick she decided to stop treatment. I felt so ill I couldnt get out of bed, let alone look after the children or work, she says.

But, amazingly, the tumours in Beths lungs didnt grow. After nine months without chemo, as the cancer hadnt progressed, the surgeons felt I might benefit from having the tumours removed after all, she says. I was elated.

In September 2018, Beth had surgery to remove the tumours in her lungs. Afterwards, I got up and was active very quickly and I recovered really well, she says.

I understand the hospital needs to free up beds and keep intensive care beds available. But that doesnt make it easier to deal with, Ms Purvis said

She had 14 months of remission before a routine scan in January this year revealed a 19mm tumour at the bottom of her right lung.

Surgery to remove this offered Beth the hope of being cancer-free. It is heartbreaking to have the operation cancelled, she says. Surgery worked last time.

Cancer charity helplines report calls from concerned patients in a similar position.

Professor Charles Swanton, chief clinician at Cancer Research UK, said: The complete picture of how Covid-19 will affect cancer care is not yet clear.

Case-by-case treatment decisions will have to be based on patient risks and benefits. In-patient hospital care, including after surgery, may expose cancer patients to the virus, and we know some of them are at higher risk of complications from viral infections.

Beth spoke to her oncologist on the phone last week.

Her view was the surgery would be too risky for me right now, she says. We are going to review the position in four weeks and assess the risks of possibly starting less aggressive chemo, which I dread.

Im begging people to listen to the official advice and stay at home. Because cancer patients need this crisis to be over as soon as possible.
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Officials in Los Angeles and San Francisco are setting up spaces for people infected with coronavirus to isolate away from their family members as California braces for a surge in infections.

At a press conference on Sunday, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti warned that the city's coronavirus outbreak is expected to ramp up as more tests are administered, threatening to overwhelm healthcare systems with patients.

He urged infected people not to rush to hospitals unless they have severe symptoms and asked the city's four million residents to think about how they will separate themselves from family members while quarantining at home.

'Don't just take social distancing seriously, I hope each and every one of us take isolation seriously too,' Garcetti said as he described the strategy as the next phase in the fight against the pandemic.

The mayor acknowledged that physical distancing may be hard for people living in tight quarters and said local officials were working to set up safe quarantine spaces for them at hotels and in recreational vehicles.

Up north in San Francisco, similar measures are being taken for people who are under self-quarantine but do not have a place to isolate themselves.

In a statement Friday, city officials announced they have secured leases for some 300 hotel rooms to house infected people and are working on obtaining additional rooms.

Officials in Los Angeles are setting up spaces for people infected with coronavirus to isolate away from their family members as California braces for a surge in infections. RVs that will be used as temporary housing for infected patients are seen at a beach in El Segundo in Los Angeles County

In San Francisco, similar measures are being taken for people who are under self-quarantine but do not have a place to isolate themselves. In a statement Friday, city officials announced they have secured leases for some 300 hotel rooms to house infected people. Pictured: A man in a mask passes by the Palace Hotel in San Francisco

Californians endured a weekend of stepped-up restrictions aimed at keeping them home as much as possible while hospitals and health officials scrambled Sunday to ready themselves for a week that could see a dramatic surge in coronavirus cases.

Testing among the state's 40 million residents has stepped up significantly after a slow start.

Officials have warned the increase will bring with it a rapidly expanding number of cases.

As of Monday, more than 6,200 people had tested positive for coronavirus and 132 had died across the state of California.

To combat an expected shortage in hospital beds, Garcetti is asking hotel and motel owners to provide rooms for Angelenos who are homeless or who need to isolate with coronavirus.

He said he believed those rooms would be paid for by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

'The owners will be paid by the city for the rooms. We're not asking them to donate the rooms,' Garcetti said. 'We believe these expenses will be reimbursed by FEMA.'

The Mayor asked anyone willing to provide rooms to fill out a form at Coronavirus.LACity.org/Rooms.

As of Monday more than 151,000 people in the US have tested positive for coronavirus and 2,787 have died. Of those, 6,388 infections and 132 deaths were reported in California

'Don't just take social distancing seriously, I hope each and every one of us take isolation seriously too,' Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (pictured) said at a press conference

Californians endured a weekend of stepped-up restrictions aimed at keeping them home as much as possible while hospitals and health officials scrambled Sunday to ready themselves for a week that could see a dramatic surge in coronavirus cases. Pictured: A man and his son walk along an empty Santa Monica beach on Sunday

A couple walk down a boardwalk on a mostly deserted Santa Monica beach on Sunday

Officials set up vehicles at the Dockweiler Beach RV Park near El Segundo in Los Angeles County last week to house people who need to isolate due to coronavirus

A tag in the front window of one of the RVs indicates it was rented by Los Angeles County

The city of San Francisco has already been offered more than 11,000 rooms at local hotels that have emptied out due to coronavirus, according to District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney.

'Most hotel rooms in San Francisco are empty right now. There are only three to five percent of the rooms are occupied, which means tens of thousands of empty rooms right now,' Haney said.

In the Friday statement announcing leases on 300 rooms, officials said: 'The City continues to negotiate hotel leases to support additional populations, including: Seniors and vulnerable adults in Laguna Honda Hospital and others in congregate facilities who can be in hotel rooms with a relatively low level of care; COVID-19-exposed and COVID-19-positive frontline health care workers and other first responders; and vulnerable populations who are living unsheltered on the street (age 60+ and those with underlying health conditions).'

The Emergency Operations Center and Human Services Agency is working on negotiating the costs of the rooms, which will be covered by the city with some funding from state and federal grants.

'There is a huge range in terms of cost per night. Some are 30 bucks a night, some are as high as $250-300. The average about $100 or close to $100,' Haney said, adding that the cost is worth it.

'If we don't prevent people from getting sick, either by leaving them in shelters where the virus can spread quickly, or having them out on the streets, thats going to cost a lot more money than being preventative or proactive.'

Anand Singh, President of Unite Here Local 2 labor union, said employees would work at the hotels on a volunteer basis.

He said the program could help alleviate economic hardship in the hospitality industry, where thousands have been laid off due to coronavirus.

'Nine-thousand of our members work in hotels and the cuts have been quite deep. We see closures occurring almost on a daily basis, so well over 80 percent of our members in hotels are currently laid off,' Singh said.

He said the union is negotiating to make sure workers receive training, protective masks and other gear to protect their health and noted that hotel staff would not be asked to care for medical patients.

'We want to make sure our members working in that space are not unduly exposed, there's no risk of exposure to people who are under quarantine,' said Singh.

California officials have warned that a recent increase in testing will bring with it a rapidly expanding number of cases in the state. Pictured: A pedestrian crosses Cable Car tracks on a quiet Powell Street in San Francisco on Sunday

A man wears a mask while walking through a nearly empty Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco

California hospitals stock up on ventilators to brace for influx of critical patients as beaches and state parks are closed to slow the spread of coronavirus

California was stocking up on ventilators and fixing outdated ones in anticipation of a shortage at hospitals in the coming days.

Governor Gavin Newsom said Saturday that the federal government sent 170 broken ventilators from the national stockpile.

Despite saying he did not wish to blame federal government, Newsom was eager to highlight his initiative in sending the ventilators to be refurbished at Bloom Energy on Saturday, a fuel cell maker in San Jose.

'Rather than lamenting about it, rather than complaining about it, rather than pointing fingers, rather than generating headlines in order to generate more stress and anxiety,' Newsom said, 'We got a car and a truck and we had those 170 brought here to this facility and they are quite literally working on those ventilators right now.'

Newsom added: 'That's the spirit of California. That's the spirit of this moment. Take responsibility. Take ownership and take it upon ourselves to meet this moment head on.'

In Southern California, people were kept off beaches and hiking trails that normally would have been swamped with visitors during this sunny weekend.

A stay-at-home order restricts people to all but essential outside activities such as buying food and including only outdoor exercise such as walking or running near home that doesn't put them within six feet of another person.

Officials closed California's 280 state parks to vehicular traffic on Sunday, citing overcrowding.

'This was the first time that we saw across Southern California our iconic beaches and trailheads, the parks that define who we are, the views that greet us at our best and worst moments weren't there except in our imaginations,' Garcetti acknowledged while thanking residents who heeded orders to stay home.

All beaches in Los Angeles County have been closed to the public as lawmakers plead with cooped-up Californians to spend a second weekend at home to slow the spread of the virus

A man jogs in front of closed-off store fronts in Venice Beach on Sunday

The US Naval Ship Mercy enters the Port of Los Angeles on Friday to help with the nation's COVID-19 response efforts. The 1,000-bed vessel accepted its first patients on Sunday

Signage lets people know of the Sierra District California State Park parking lot closures in Nevada City on Saturday. The closures are intended to help discourage large groups of people gathering in high traffic places due to the coronavirus

In Northern California, cloudy, drizzly weather led many to stick to the order but the restrictions could be tested soon with dry, warm weather forecast for the coming week.

San Francisco's subway and light rail system will be closed beginning Monday, with buses replacing light rail service. Rail ridership dropped by more than 90 percent when the city virtually came to a standstill.

For most people, the 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.

Pedestrians cross an empty Powell Street in San Francisco on Sunday

Union Square in San Francisco sits empty on Sunday as residents were urged to stay inside

Light traffic is seen on Highway 101 in San Francisco on Sunday

Nursing homes are ravaged by coronavirus clusters as residents are locked into their rooms

Senior homes in Burbank and Yucaipa reported three deaths this weekend in potential outbreaks.

Vernon Robinson, a resident of the Alameda Care Center in Burbank, died Thursday in the hospital after his wife, Willa, said he had tested positive for COVID-19. The 81-year-old had Alzheimer's disease and underlying heart and lung conditions.

'That's not the way I wanted him to leave here,' Willa Robinson, 71, told The Associated Press. 'He deserved more.'

Willa said she last saw her husband healthy on March 13 - the day before the nursing home prohibited visitors.

She brought him his favorite meal of baked chicken, garlic mashed potatoes and carrots and left with their customary farewell.

'I love you,' she told him. 'I love you more,' he replied.

She sat outside his hospital room Monday for two hours and watched through a glass window as he struggled to breathe. 'I just prayed and asked God to get him out of his misery,' she said.

He died four days later, leaving her to mourn her husband of 55 years alone in quarantine.

'Nobody can come to me,' Willa said.

Elizabeth Tyler, who represents both assisted-living facilities, said two residents have died from COVID-19 at the Alameda Care Center. She said five other residents and 10 employees have also contracted the virus.

Tyler said the Burbank nursing home had taken the two residents who died to the hospital for symptoms that were believed to be related to other health issues. She said once the facility learned of the positive tests, families of the other residents were contacted.

In Yucaipa, a city of about 53,000 in the foothills of the San Bernardino mountains, Tyler said an 89-year-old woman who lived at the Cedar Mountain Post Acute nursing home died from the virus Thursday.

San Bernardino County public health officials said 12 elderly residents at the home have tested positive in the county's first cluster of COVID-19 outbreak.

The US Naval Ship Mercy, a 1,000-bed medical vessel, enters the Port of Los Angeles on Friday and accepted its first patients on Sunday

Staff work in a ventilator refurbishing assembly line at Bloom Energy campus in Sunnyvale, California, on Saturday. Bloom Energy is a fuel cell generator company that has switched over to refurbishing ventilators as an increasing number of patients experience respiratory issues as a result of COVID-19, caused by the new coronavirus

A new field hospital in Indio, California with 125 beds will help ease the burden on the local hospital system

Number of people attending crisis kitchen at Los Angeles' Skid Row triples as charities say they are overwhelmed and fear worse is coming

The number of people visiting Los Angeles' notorious Skid Row for free meals has tripled since the city went on lockdown two weeks ago.

Skid Row is home to 5,000 homeless people  3,000 of whom sleep in shabby tents or wrapped in blankets on the sidewalk itself.

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti said the city would add thousands of temporary shelter beds to get the population off the streets to protect them from coronavirus on March 19.

But photos taken exclusively by DailyMail.com reveal there has been no decline in the number of rough sleepers in the area, while local charities say they are being overwhelmed by the extra demand  which comes as donations decline.

Georgia Berkovich, of Skid Row's Midnight Mission which provides three meals a day to the area's homeless, says the crisis has seen the numbers coming to them for food shoot up.

She said: 'Around this time of the month, we would normally see 400 to 600 a meal, sometimes as it gets closer to the end of the month, we might go as high as 1.000 a meal.

'This week, we've been seeing 1,700 a meal. We're still serving three meals a day but we're seeing three times the number of people.'

Large crowds could also be seen outside other Skid Row non-profits, including The Weingart Center and Fred Jordan Missions, at mealtimes when DailyMail.com visited last Wednesday and Thursday.

The spike in demand for free meals came as it was announced that 3.3 million people had signed up for unemployment benefits nationwide last week.

Governor Gavin Newsom said last week that 1 million of those claims were made in California alone  parts of which have been shut down for weeks.

But for California's 151,000 homeless community, life has continued as normal despite the lockdown - and in spite of official attempts to help.

The number of people visiting Los Angeles' notorious Skid Row for free meals has tripled since the city went on lockdown two weeks ago, DailyMail.com can disclose

Skid Row is home to 5,000 homeless people  3,000 of whom sleep in shabby tents or wrapped in blankets on the sidewalk itself

But photos taken exclusively by DailyMail.com reveal there has been no decline in the number of rough sleepers in the area, while local charities say they are being overwhelmed by the extra demand  which comes as donations decline

In Los Angeles, which is home to 60,000 homeless people, Mayor Eric Garcetti has announced plans to spend $20 million on 1,600 extra shelter beds, with a further 6,000 to be delivered by the American Red Cross.

Garcetti has also said he plans to put santizer stations around the city and increase the number of Porta Potty units available for the homeless to use.

In a statement released on March 18, he said: 'We are taking immediate, urgent action to slow the spread of COVID-19 by helping people who are experiencing homelessness come indoors.'

But when DailyMail.com visited Skid Row, hundreds of homeless people could be seen out on the street  virtually all with little or no protective equipment.

Some were clustered chatting together in groups, while others were slumped over in doorways or passed out under quilts on the sidewalk.

Most shocking of all were the crowds that gathered at mealtimes outside the missions, crammed in on the sidewalk and far less than the recommended six feet apart.

Approached by DailyMail.com about what the city is doing to control the crowds of people on Skid Row, a member of Garcetti's public affairs team said she had no explanation but would ask a member of the operations team to reach out with further information.

At the time of publication, DailyMail.com was still waiting for a response.

Large crowds could also be seen outside other Skid Row non-profits at mealtimes when DailyMail.com visited last Wednesday and Thursday

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti said the city would add thousands of temporary shelter beds to get the population off the streets to protect them from coronavirus on March 19

LA, Chicago, Detroit and other urban areas look to crisis in New York City as a warning as they brace for an onslaught of coronavirus cases

The US currently leads the world in coronavirus infections with 151,000 cases and 2,787 deaths as of Monday afternoon, according to public data reviewed by DailyMail.com, though the true number of cases is thought to be considerably higher because of testing shortages and mild illnesses that have gone unreported.

The government's top infectious-disease expert warned Sunday that the coronavirus outbreak could kill 100,000 to 200,000 Americans as smoldering hotspots in nursing homes and a growing list of stricken cities heightened the sense of dread across the country.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made the dire prediction of fatalities on CNN, adding that millions in the US could become infected.

The number of cases in the likes of Michigan and Illinois were becoming a concern

New York City remains the epicenter of the nation's outbreak, with more than 36,000 cases and 790 deaths.

But several other cities including Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans, Miami and Boston are now being monitored as potential hotspots, threatening to push the overall case count in the US higher and higher.

'Every metro area should assume that they will have an outbreak equivalent to New York,' Dr Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus response coordinator, told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday morning.

Birx has previously said that the White House task force anticipates challenges in areas that have not yet seen widespread outbreaks.

On Sunday she said the Trump administration is working hard to push supplies such as ventilators out to affected areas to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed - as many across the country are already complaining of dangerous shortages.

'Hospitals are so busy taking care of the people who are ill, they can't be spending time doing inventory,' Birx said. 'We need to help and support that.'

'The sooner we react and the sooner the states and the metro areas react and ensure that they have put in full mitigation ... then we'll be able to move forward,' she added.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has expressed similar concern for new hotspots.

Dr John Brooks, head of the CDC's Epidemiology Research Team, said that the US is still 'in the acceleration phase' of the pandemic and that all corners of the country are at risk.

'There is no geographic part of the United States that is spared from this,' he said.

Some experts have said that outbreaks in other parts of the country could be even more devastating than the ones seen in New York City because they are less prepared.

'I'm worried that New York might not be the worst-case scenario when you think about other states that have even older and less-healthy populations, and fewer hospital beds available,' Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has developed modeling tools designed to help public officials prepare for the spread of COVID-19, told The Washington Post.

LA, Chicago and Detroit were expected to take on an influx of new hospital patients as cases increase
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 17:30:57|Editor: huaxia

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A race against the #coronavirus! Seven Chinese medical experts have been working in Cambodia for more than a week to aid the country's battle against #COVID19. Find out what they have done. #FightVirus
The daily rate of new coronavirus infections in Australia has dropped in recent days. The nation's death toll remains lower than countries such as Italy and the United States, and government medical officials have suggested we are starting to "flatten the curve".

Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said on Monday he was "cautiously optimistic" that social distancing and border security had been introduced early enough to limit the number of cases. NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said it was "pleasing we've seen a stabilisation of case numbers" after a third consecutive daily drop in new infections.

Can Australians be excused for thinking they wont be hit as badly as other parts of the world?

The short answer is "not just yet". Experts warn it is too soon to say whether restrictions on social gatherings, domestic and international travel and business activity will prevent a sharp rise in the spread of the virus.

UNSW Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, an infection control expert and adviser to the World Health Organisations COVID-19 preparedness group, said Australians need to be very careful about being too optimistic about the recent slowdown.
30.03.2020 LISTEN

The COVID-19 or the new Corona Virus is different. In this virus, we have an enemy that is invisible and sometimes deadly, and the task is harder.

About a century ago the Spanish flu pandemic killed an estimated 50 million people, more than the combined total casualties of World Wars I and II. Our understanding of disease transmission and treatments is far ahead of our position in 1918, but this new coronavirus has shown the limits of our ability to deal with major disease outbreaks.

Advice to protect ourselves is clear: wash your hands well and often, self-isolate if you feel unwell, maintain social distance by avoiding crowded and public spaces and, if your symptoms worsen, contact medical services. Only by following this advice rigorously can we hope to stem the tide of new infections.

For now, however, the virus is spreading and, on the frontline between a nervous public and those responsible for directing national responses, the healthcare workers on whom we all depend can easily be forgotten.

During the Ebola outbreak six years ago, the World Health Organisation estimated that health workers were between 21 and 32 times more likely to be infected with Ebola than people in the general adult population. In West Africa, more than 350 health care workers died while battling Ebola.

Doctors, nurses, carers and paramedics around the world are facing an unprecedented workload in overstretched health facilities, and with no end in sight. They are working in stressful and frightening work environments, not just because the virus is little understood, but because in most settings they are under-protected, overworked and themselves vulnerable to infection.

The risk to doctors, nurses and others on the front lines has become plain: Italy has seen at least 18 doctors with coronavirus die. Spain reported that more than 3,900 health care workers have become infected,

We need a whole-of-society resolve that we will not let our frontline soldiers become patients. We must do everything to support health workers who, despite their own well-founded fears, are stepping directly into COVID-19s path to aid the afflicted and help halt the viruss spread.

In sub-Saharan Africa as elsewhere, pressure on the healthcare workforce will intensify in the coming months. A recent survey of National Nurses United (NNU) members in the US, revealed that only 30% believed their healthcare organization had sufficient inventory of personal protective equipment (PPE) for responding to a surge event. In some parts of France and Italy, hospitals have run out of masks, forcing doctors to examine and treat coronavirus patients without adequate protection.

The situation in poorer countries will be worse. Demand has far outstripped supplies. In Kenya to enable health workers to do their jobs safely we will dedicate resources to providing gowns, gloves, and medical grade face masks, and also arm them with the latest knowledge and information on the virus. As partners the Government of Kenya, the United Nations and the international community are determined to explore every avenue to ensure all the possible support for the health workers.

Evidence indicates that coronavirus can survive on some hard surfaces for up to three days, but it is also easily killed by simple disinfectants. Health workers need the back-up of ancillary staff to increase the frequency and rigour of cleaning light switches, countertops, handrails, elevator buttons and doorknobs. Such measures can give much-needed reassurance to stressed care givers and protect the public too.

Like soldiers, health workers also face considerable mental stress. It is often forgotten that as humans, they feel the sorrow of loss when their patients succumb to the virus. They too have families, and so will also naturally be fearful that the virus might reach those they love most.

Whenever possible we will ensure that healthcare workers have access to counselling services so they can recharge before moving on again, given that this could be a long, drawn out battle.

We need to also use accurate information as a means of defence. Misinformation can cause public panic, suspicion and unrest; it can disrupt the availability of food and vital supplies and divert resources - such as face masks - away from health workers and other frontline workers whose need is greatest.

COVID-19 will not be the last dangerous microbe we see. The heroism, dedication and selflessness of medical staff allow the rest of us a degree of reassurance that we will overcome this virus.

We must give these health workers all the support they need to do their jobs, be safe and stay alive. We will need them when the next pandemic strikes.

Mr. Mutahi Kagwe is the Cabinet Secretary for Health in Kenya and Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya

For more information on COVID-19, visit www.un.org/coronavirus
Police in Shinyalu, Kakamega County, Kenya are searching for a man who allegedly killed his younger brother following a quarrel over Sh160.

Shinyalu OCPD Robert Makau said the suspect, 31, went into hiding after killing his brother, 23, in a fight sparked by money on Saturday, March 28.

The two brothers quarreled and fought on Saturday morning over the money.

The younger brother was seriously injured during the fight and was announced dead on arrival at the Mukumu Hospital.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping on March 26 attended a special Group of 20 (G20) summit via video conference from Beijing to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic.

It marked the first time for the mechanism to hold a video conference for G20 leaders, and was also the first major multilateral event attended by the Chinese President since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Xis attendance will help promote international cooperation on combating COVID-19, enhance coordination among G20 countries, stabilize global economy, share Chinas experiences and schemes, and showcase Chinas responsibility as a major country.

Political commitment at the G20 means strong solidarity that can help us to move forward and fight this pandemic in the strongest way possible, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The pandemic is exacerbating globally, and almost every country has reported cases of infection to the WHO that total nearly 400,000. How to make emergency plans, launch coordinated actions, curb the spread of the virus and promote scientific cooperation remains urgent affairs of the world. Besides, countries around the globe should also work on vaccine development and therapeutic schemes, as well as make overall plans on the supply of medical and protective materials.

The spreading pandemic is exerting severe impacts on politics, economy and society. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that A global recession  perhaps of record dimensions  is a near certainty. What he said echoes the concerns of many. Now, the international society is casting its eyes on G20 members, hoping they could help the world out with joint responses.

To face severe challenges calls for enhanced spirit of solidarity and cooperation. It was the solid partnership upheld by G20 members that brought the global economy back to stability and recovery from crumbling down after the 2008 financial crisis. Now, the world is expecting them to stand out again, shoulder the historic responsibility, and unite all that can be united to prevent the pandemic with utmost efforts and maximumly relieve the impacts.

Representatives of the G20 leaders vowed to counter the pandemic with active international cooperation, and the G20 finance chiefs and central bankers agreed during their televised meeting to develop a joint G20 Action Plan in response to COVID-19. The G20 special summit on COVID-19 is just another evidence of the efforts made by such frequent, multi-field and high-level meetings, showcasing the mechanisms leadership in bravery and cooperation, and injecting confidence for the international society to curb the virus and safeguard global development.

Virus knows no borders and ethnicity and can only be defeated by the concerted efforts of all mankind. In the frequent phone calls with foreign national leaders, Xi explained the vision for a community with a shared future for mankind upheld by China, and introduced the Chinese schemes to promote international cooperation on epidemic control and resist the impacts on global economy. He demonstrated the pursuit for common good of a major country, and is highly recognized by the international society with active response.

As an important G20 member, China advocates cooperation under the UN and G20 frameworks and supports the WHO to play its due roles. It also champions the promotion of global health governance and enhancing macroeconomic coordination, so as to stabilize market, ensure growth, and guarantee livelihood, as well as maintain the openness, stability and security of the global supply chain.

Foreign leaders said they are willing to conduct bilateral health cooperation with China and jointly work to enhance coordination under G20, WHO and other multilateral frameworks, in a bid to defeat the virus and cope with the impacts from the pandemic on global economy.

Xis attendance at the G20 special summit on COVID-19 further presented the significance of Chinese experiences and schemes for the world.

The spread of the novel coronavirus in China, in which Wuhan was a a major battlefield, has been basically cut off, and the country is gradually recovering its economic and social orders. Chinas prevention and control measures have set references and won valuable time for the world to combat the virus.

China has held a total of nearly 20 televised meetings to share its experiences with over 100 countries from Southeast Asia, South Asia, Middle and East Europe, Africa, Latin America and Caribbean, and South Pacific, as well as international organizations including the ASEAN, European Union, African Union, Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Caribbean Community.

By recovering and expanding the production of epidemic prevention supplies, China has also guaranteed the materials needed to combat the virus both at home and abroad.

China is making concrete practices to build a community of common health for mankind by its effective actions, as well as responsibility.

The joint efforts to overcome difficulties in the past indicate that partnership is the most valuable asset of the G20. At the critical moment of combating COVID-19, G20 members should take the responsibility to safeguard the well-being of the people around the globe, further carry on the spirit of partnership, act to protect lives and stabilize economy, and enhance solidarity, cooperation, and coordination, so as to light up the shared world with the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind.
Seven jurisdictions in the Bay Area plan to extend the current shelter-in-place order due to the novel coronavirus pandemic until at least May 1.

The jurisdictions that plan to extend the order, currently slated to expire April 7, are Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and the city of Berkeley.

Additional details about the extended order will be released when the order is finalized in the next day or two.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a statewide program Monday to expand the number of active health care workers as hospitals and medical centers face overwhelming numbers of novel coronavirus patients.

Newsom called on people like recently retired medical professionals, medical and nursing students and medical disaster response team members to join the California Health Corps.

He estimated that the state's pool of licensed medical personnel could grow by as many as 37,000 through the corps.

The initiative is open to most medical professionals or soon-to-be medical professionals who are not currently practicing in the state's fight against the coronavirus, including respiratory therapists, behavioral health experts, pharmacists, EMTs and certified nurses.

State officials will help corps applicants with licensing and certification if necessary, Newsom said.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed asked residents on Monday to prepare to stay home through May 1 amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The announcement comes as the city has now reported 374 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with six fatalities.

Breed said more details about the shelter order's extension, in conjunction with other Bay Area counties, would be released Tuesday.

The number of confirmed cases in the city includes nine health care workers and two residents at Laguna Honda Hospital, a long-term care facility, all of whom are in stable condition, the city's Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax said.

The University of California at Berkeley said Monday that its Innovative Genomics Institute is creating a pop-up novel coronavirus diagnostic lab with the capacity to process more than 1,000 patient samples per day.

More than 50 volunteer scientists from UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco and UC's local corporate partners are launching the lab to bolster the Bay Area's coronavirus testing capacity outside of local public health departments.

The scientists hope the lab's robotic and analytical equipment can analyze patient nasopharyngeal swabs in less than 24 hours.

The lab will begin testing viral samples this week with the goal of being accredited by the federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments program by next week. The lab will begin testing samples from UC Berkeley students, staff and faculty, with plans to eventually assist other testing centers in the East Bay.

Test turnaround in the Bay Area has, in some cases, taken a week or more for commercial labs due to a dearth of test kits and changing guidelines on who can be tested and when. Public health officials have stressed the need for large-scale testing to prevent the virus' spread and to know who is and isn't infected.

A judge on Monday denied a defense motion asking that Ghost Ship master tenant Derick Almena be released from Santa Rita Jail in Dublin because his health is deteriorating and the novel coronavirus pandemic has made the conditions at the jail unsafe.

Almena, 49, is charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter for a fire at the Ghost Ship warehouse in the 1300 block of 31st Avenue in Oakland's Fruitvale district the night of Dec. 2, 2016, that killed 36 people.

A lengthy trial for Almena and co-defendant Max Harris, the warehouse's artistic director, ended last Sept. 5 with jurors deadlocked 10-2 in favor of convicting Almena and acquitting Harris of all charges. Harris was released from custody later that day but Almena remains in custody in lieu of $750,000 bail.

Alemana's second trial was scheduled to begin on Monday with pretrial motions, with jury selection to follow next week, but it's been postponed because California Supreme Court Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye has suspended all jury trials for 60 days, through May 22.

A pedestrian who was killed when a driver who appeared to be under the influence struck him and three other pedestrians in East Oakland on Sunday night was identified by the Alameda County coroner's bureau on Monday as 29-year-old Desmond King of Oakland.

Police said King and three other men were standing outside 5450 Bancroft Ave. at 6:51 p.m. Sunday when a gray 2013 Chevrolet Malibu traveling west on Bancroft swerved into a car parked along the north curb and then struck the men.

Paramedics responded to the collision but King was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.

The other three men, ages 39, 45 and 50, were transported to a hospital. Two of them are in stable condition but the other is in critical condition, police said.

The driver of the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu, later identified as a 29-year-old Oakland man, fled the scene after the collision but officers were able to locate and arrest him a short time later, according to police. His name hasn't been released.

A staff member at Salinas Valley State Prison was confirmed with a positive case of the novel coronavirus, according to a prison spokesman.

Prison spokesman Alan Meyer did not offer any other details Monday. He did not release the position of the staff member, or when the staff member was tested for the COVID-19 virus.

Santa Clara County reported three more deaths from the novel coronavirus and 202 additional known confirmed cases Monday.

The previous count was 25 deaths and 646 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease, but by Monday, the county had confirmed 28 deaths and 848 cases, the largest surge in confirmed cases to date.

Several Santa Clara County buildings in San Jose were put on lockdown Monday morning after reports of a firearm nearby turned out to be just a pellet gun, the county sheriff's office said.

Sheriff's deputies responded to a report of a man carrying an assault rifle at 9:38 a.m. near West Hedding and Spring streets, and found the man with what appeared to be an assault-style rifle at a nearby homeless encampment.

The deputies set up a perimeter and locked down the county's administrative facilities at the Santa Clara County Civic Center, the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice, the county's Main Jail and the sheriff's office.

After an investigation, deputies determined the man was in possession of a legally owned pellet gun and no arrests were made, according to the sheriff's office.

The Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District announced on Monday that it will modify its service beginning on Tuesday in the wake of declining ridership because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

AC Transit, which serves parts of Alameda and Contra Costa counties, said its modified service will be similar to its current Sunday service, although arrival times will be different than on Sundays.

For local service, many lines will operate with minor time changes from the Sunday schedule and weekday-only local lines, including supplemental service, won't operate.

For transbay service, lines F, NL, O and 800 will continue to operate but weekday-only transbay lines, including supplemental service, won't operate.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
In the tabloid fondness for sensation, recent headlines have cast Microsoft's inspirational leader Bill Gates in the role of a mythical seer.

They claim that he predicted some five years ago that something like coronavirus would undo the global stock markets and would shut down great economies. But of course, Gates is far too smart to have suggested that anything like that is preordained. What he did say in 2015 at the height of the Ebola crisis in West Africa was that it was only a matter of luck that Ebola did not spread to the great cities of the world and if anything was going to kill 10 million people over coming decades it was more likely to be a virus than a war, "microbes not missiles".

Collapsing markets around the world have now shown the accuracy of his perception, but the world will sometime have to get back to what it does. We may not have a grip on normality just now, but the bad times will pass and the age-old practice of picking decent stocks into which our modest savings can be invested, will return.

In these better times, I fancy I may take another look at the Franco-Italian group EssilorLuxottica. This group was created after Europe's largest-ever cross-border merger between the French eye-glass producer Essilor International and the Italian group Luxottica, which makes and sells traditional glass frames.

The merged group has annual revenues of 17bn, and is valued by the market at 47bn, with a net profit of 1bn. Its brands include Ray-Ban, Oakley, Bulgari and Michael Kors.

The merger capped a half century of empire building by the Italian billionaire Leonardo Del Vecchio but has been bedevilled by a power struggle between both merged companies. Del Vecchio owns 36pc of the enlarged group and is its largest shareholder. Along with its branded products, Luxottica markets brands like Prada, Chanel and Ralph Lauren under license in its 7,000 shops trading under names like Sunglass Hut, LensCrafters and Pearle Vision. The French part of the merger is the giant Essilor, the world's largest maker of eyeglasses. It too has a number of brands like Varilux, the world's first to produce eyeglasses for near, long and intermediate vision.

While combining both companies should have been straightforward, the boss of Essilor, Hubert Sagnieres and Del Vecchio do not see eye-to-eye. The 83-year-old Del Vecchio still has an appetite for the cut and thrust of business. As a result early last year tension erupted over plans to hire a CEO. A truce was agreed by dividing out responsibilities between both companies until the end of 2021. To some observers the problem is a culture clash between the entrepreneurial spirit of Luxottica and the managerial one of Essilor.

A sign of the truce was that both sides agreed to acquire the Dutch eyewear retailer GrandVision for 7bn, with its 7,200 stores in 40 countries, mainly in Europe. Analysts are of the opinion that the deal has strategic merit, however it does carry regulatory risks and recently the EU launched an enquiry to be completed by July.

Last year things were further shaken up when it saw the arrival of a US activist fund Third Point. Since then the fund has naturally been muttering about poor governance and deadlocked board, and called for change obviously to suit them. The bitter governance row further alarmed some shareholders when it failed to have two new independent directors appointed to the board.

Apart from the difficulties at senior level in the company it is in a strong position with 15pc of the world market for spectacles and more than 50pc of the sun-glass market. Results for the half year saw revenue grow 7pc and strong free cash flow. In a sign of confidence it also saw the resumption of bolt-on acquisitions in Europe, Latin America, US and China.

EssilorLuxottica is a good company but with a price earnings multiple of 45, its shares are a bit rich.

Nothing in this section should be taken as a recommendation, either explicit or implicit to buy any of the shares mentioned.
Although the launch of the iPhone 12 is still months away, leaks and rumours about the device still appear to be coming thick and fast. The last month has seen new leaks reveal information about a new design for the iPhone 12, but also about the hardware the upcoming series could pack.

The latest reports suggest Apple could enhance the iPhone 12's Augmented Reality capabilities, by equipping these series with a new iPad Pro with LiDAR ( short form for Light Detection and Ranging) sensor. Interestingly, the sensor was first seen on the iPad Pro launched earlier this month, and will now make its way to the new iPhones in 2020.

This information comes courtesy of 9To5Mac which claims Apple is planning to include LiDAR sensors in the iPhone 12 series smartphones. The report claims that the hint of this can be found in the iOS 14 code which contains evidence of a new app, called Gobi, that focusses on AR capabilities using LiDAR sensors.

The application will see users map their environment and then use it in a way that would enable them to view more information about products around them. This will result in the more real-world usage of AR technology, which so far has been mostly restricted to the gaming world.

Apart from this, there have been other reports about the iPhone 12 too which claim to reveal quite a lot about the device. Earlier, we've read about how Apple is planning to make drastic design changes to the iPhone 12 as it plans to do away with the notch on the upcoming smartphone. This would fall in line with previous reports that Apple is looking to introduce a refreshed design with its new iPhones.

To remind our readers, Apple introduced the notch on the iPhone X and has since used it in two more iPhone generations. While the prediction about Apple doing away with the notch on the iPhone 12 may appear as a logical step, several reports in the past few weeks have hinted that it may not be for this year.

Noted Apple analyst, Mincg-Chi Kuo recently claimed that the iPhone 12 could also get support for new camera technology, sensor-shift image stabilisation. Kuo has claimed that the aforementioned technology will make its way to the top-end 6.7-inch iPhone in 2020 with the new image stablisation technology seeing the actual image sensor move slightly. This in effect will help it handle movement and vibrations in a similar way to how optical image stabilization allows a camera's lenses to move.
Gov. Kay Ivey released a video this morning urging people to stay at home as much as possible because of the coronavirus pandemic but did not issue any new orders, such as a statewide shelter-in-place order that many governors have.

These are uncertain times for sure, Ivey says on the video. So now, and for the foreseeable future, please consider staying safe at home."

Staying at home does not mean inviting all your friends over, the governor said. It means avoiding interaction with others as much as possible.

Todays video follows up on Fridays statewide health order from Ivey and State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris that tightened restrictions on gatherings and closed some categories of businesses. Alabama public schools are also closed for the remainder of this academic year. Ivey said she did not issue a shelter-in-place order partly because of the effect on the economy.

I have the responsibility to look statewide and in this case, one size does not fit all, the governor said Friday. We cant print enough money in Washington D.C. to bring businesses back to life. Individually, if people want to impose their own shelter in place, they do not need my permission to do so.

Alabama House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, and Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, last week called for a statewide shelter-in-place order.

More than half the states have statewide shelter-in-place orders, according to the New York Times.
A sign directs patients toward a NHS 111 Coronavirus Pod outside University College Hospital in London, UK, on March 5, 2020. (Isabel Infantes/AFP via Getty Images)

British Surgeon Dies After Contracting CCP Virus

A surgeon has become the first front-line National Health Service (NHS) worker in Britain to die after contracting COVID-19.

The University Hospitals of Derby and Burton say Amged El-Hawrani, 55, died at the Glenfield Hospital in Leicester on Saturday.

El-Hawrani worked as an ear, nose, and throat surgeon at the Queens Hospital Burton.

A statement made on behalf of El-Hawranis family said he viewed his role as a doctor as one of lifes most noble pursuits.

Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, says El-Hawranis death is not just an individual human tragedy but a stark reminder to the whole country that we all must take this crisis seriously.

Britain has reported 19,522 confirmed cases of the disease and 1,228 deaths, after an increase of 209 fatalities as of 5 p.m. local time on Saturday compared with the previous day, the health ministry said.

The important thing is this is a moving target, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jenny Harries said.

If we do well it moves forward and comes down and we manage all our care through our health and care systems sensibly in a controlled way and that is what we are aiming for, she told a news conference.

This is not to say we would be in complete lockdown for six months but it means that as a nation we have to be really, really responsible and keep doing what we are all doing until we are sure that we can gradually start lifting various interventions.

Her warning came as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote to 30 million households in Britain urging them to stick to strict rules to prevent the publicly funded NHS from being overwhelmed by a surge in cases.

We know things will get worse before they get better, Johnson said. At this moment of national emergency, I urge you, please, to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.

The number of tests being carried out has hit 10,000 a day, senior minister Michael Gove said and authorities are trying to acquire more ventilators.

Britain has placed an order for thousands of the devices to be made by a consortium of companies including Ford, Airbus and Rolls-Royce.

The repurposing of industry echoes Britains Second World War effort, with housing minister Robert Jenrick saying that all parts of the country are now on an emergency footing as strategic coordination centers are established.

This is an unprecedented step in peacetime, he said.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The international medical team that accomplished the world's first documented drone delivery of insulin for a patient living in a remote community described the project in an ENDO 2020 abstract that will be published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

The 16-minute test flight from Galway, Ireland, to the Aran Islands about 12 miles off the west coast of Ireland took place Sept. 13 last year, according to the drone project's principal investigator, Derek O'Keeffe, M.D., Ph.D., a consultant endocrinologist at National University of Ireland Galway. O'Keeffe said that after severe storms disrupted healthcare access in Ireland in recent years, they wanted to find a solution for future disasters when people with diabetes in remote regions may be stranded for days without their lifesaving diabetes medicines.

"We now have the drone technology and protocols in place to deliver diabetes medications and supplies in an actual disaster if needed," he said. "This is a milestone in improving patient care."

The large autonomous (self-flying) drone flew "beyond visual line of sight" during commercial flight operations in regulated airspace, O'Keeffe said. The project team's yearlong planning required approvals from aviation, pharmaceutical and clinical regulatory agencies.

Endocrinologist Spyridoula Maraka, M.D., M.S., of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, Little Rock, said the team had to address several healthcare delivery issues to send a prescription medicine via an unmanned aircraft operating a 4G cellular network using GPS waypoints.

"Insulin can be outside the fridge for hours, but it can't be exposed to extreme heat, so we put it in an insulated parcel with temperature monitoring en route," Maraka said. "We also put a security lock on the parcel in case the drone did not arrive at the right place."

Because legally a pharmacist must dispense a prescription drug, she arranged for a pharmacist to dispense the insulin and another diabetes medication, glucagon before loading them to the drone for delivery.

Another unique aspect of the project, according to Maraka, is that the drone returned with a blood sample collected from the patient for monitoring blood glucose control (HbA1c). "We wanted to find a way to monitor glycemic control remotely," she said. "It was the full circle of care, which has not been done by drone before."

Maraka stressed that this ability for remote diagnostics could save lives. "A patient with type 1 diabetes could develop life-threatening diabetic ketoacidosis after more than one day without insulin," she said. "A blood specimen would allow us to properly diagnose and treat the condition."

Explore further South Korea tests drone delivery in remote regions
Sen Richard Burr (R-N.C.) takes a phone call during the weekly Republican policy luncheon in Washington on Sept. 25, 2018. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Sen. Burr Promises Cooperation With Any Investigations Amid Reported Probe Into Stock Sales

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) on March 30 promised to cooperate with any investigations into the stock sales he made after receiving closed-door briefings about the threat from the CCP virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus.

Alice Fisher, an attorney representing Burr, said in a statement that Burr would welcome a review of the sales, which amounted to between $628,000 and $1.7 million.

Burr previously asked for the Senate Ethics Committee to examine the sales, Fisher noted, and he will cooperate with that review, as well as any other appropriate inquiry.

Senator Burr welcomes a thorough review of the facts in the matter, which will establish that his actions were appropriate, she added.

Neither Ethics Committee Chairman Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) nor ranking member Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) immediately returned repeated requests by The Epoch Times for comment.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) at a Senate hearing in Washington, on Sept. 27, 2017. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

The statement came after an anonymously sourced report claimed the FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were examining sales made by Burr and other lawmakers in January and February. A SEC spokesman declined to comment to The Epoch Times, while the Department of Justice didnt respond to a query.

SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said during an appearance on CNBCs Squawk Box on March 30 that people shouldnt make stock sales with private information.

Anyone who is privy to private information about a company or about markets needs to be cautious about how they use that private information, Clayton said. Thats sort of fundamental to our securities laws, and that applies to government employees, public officials, etc., and the STOCK Act codifies that.

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK Act) bars members of Congress from using non-public information for making a private profit, including insider trading.

Burr said in a statement earlier this month that he relied solely on public reporting to guide my decision to sell the stock.

Jay Clayton, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, testifies during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 8, 2019. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

An independent review, though, is warranted to ensure full and complete transparency, he said in a letter to Lankford.

The public reports include a health and science report from CNBCs Asia bureaus, Burr said in a statement.

Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and some other lawmakers who sold stocks around the same time have said that they werent aware of the sales until afterward.

Loeffler said in a statement that investment decisions for her portfolio are made by third-party advisers. She wasnt informed of the sales and purchases until Feb. 16, three weeks after they were made.

Feinstein said in a statement that shes held all of her assets in a blind trust during her career in the Senate.
Haryana on Monday reported three fresh coronavirus cases. Three women from Sirsa, Hisar and Faridabad tested positive, taking the total number of cases in the state to 24, said Dhruv Chaudhary, nodal officer for Covid-19.

Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak, late on evening confirmed two positive cases. While the Sirsa woman was said to be 38 years old, details of Hisar woman were yet to be confirmed till the filing of this report. Both of them are the first confirmed corona patients of their districts.

Chaudhary said the Sirsa woman and her husband came to PGIMS on Monday. The Hisar woman is currently admitted in a local civil hospital, he added.

The samples of Sirsa womans husband will be taken on Tuesday. Both of them have been kept in isolation here. We will ask Sirsa and Hisar health officials to seal the lanes near the patients houses, he added.

In Faridabad, a 54-year-old woman, whose husband worked in a company in Noida which was frequently visited by foreign nationals, tested positive. Faridabad civil hospital doctors said while the report of her husband was still awaited, the woman got herself admitted to a private hospital there.
President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act Friday to force General Motors to start producing ventilators.

In a presidential memorandum directed at just one company, Trump authorized the Secretary of Health and Human Services to require General Motors to accept, perform, and prioritize Federal contracts for ventilators.

Earlier in the day, Trump lashed out at the company and its CEO, Mary Barra, accusing the company of charging too much and moving too slowly in its effort to produce mechanical ventilators. As usual with this General Motors, things just never seem to work out, Trump tweeted. They said they were going to give us 40,000 much needed Ventilators, very quickly. Now they are saying it will only be 6000, in late April, and they want top dollar. Always a mess with Mary B.

Trump also appeared to order GM and perhaps Ford to start producing the medical equipment, though in doing so he referred to an auto plant GM no longer owns: General Motors MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio, or some other plant, and START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!! FORD, GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!!!!!!

The background: General Motors has been in negotiations with Ventec Life Systems to form a joint venture that would have the capacity to produce as many as 80,000 ventilators, but according to a report in The New York Times Thursday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency balked at what could be a $1 billion price tag. (It's not clear yet what the government will be paying under Trump's order.)

Perhaps not coincidentally, Trump downplayed the need for more ventilators on Thursday night in an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News. I dont believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators, he said in an apparent reference to a request made by New York state. You go into major hospitals sometimes, and theyll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden theyre saying, Can we order 30,000 ventilators?

Story continues

The deeper background: Trump said more than a week ago that would invoke the Defense Production Act, a 1950 law that gives him the power to coordinate the production of goods needed to respond to a national emergency such as the coronavirus epidemic. But until today he had declined to order any companies to start producing desperately needed equipment, saying he prefers to allow private companies to meet the demand for medical supplies on a voluntary basis.

Along with several key public and private White House advisers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had reportedly lobbied Trump to oppose the use of the act, and the president has recently suggested that he sees federal coordination of private production as something akin to socialism. "Call a person over in Venezuela," Trump said Sunday. "Ask them how did nationalization of their businesses work out. Not too well."

Instead, Trump said that the countrys industrial base is mobilizing at a level not seen since World War II on its own, while claiming that [w]ere getting what we need without putting the heavy hand of government down. In a statement Thursday, the White said the response from private industry has been overwhelming, fulfilling government-identified needs faster than anyone thought possible.

Facts on the ground say otherwise: A growing chorus of critics have argued that the country is falling well short of meeting the needs of the hospitals dealing with a surge of patients. More than 100 former national security officials sent Trump a letter this week asking the president to use his authority under the DPA to increase the supply of medical goods, since private efforts without more extensive government support are proving far from sufficient to meet the current and anticipated needs.

More broadly, the signatories said, the government needs to step in and play a central organizing role in the middle of a national emergency. Beyond questions of supply, the private sector lacks the ability to process incoming requests, prioritize the most urgent needs, and coordinate with other companies absent more concerted government involvement, they wrote. That is precisely what the DPA is designed to do.

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(Newser)  The pandemic that has launched a massive, unplanned experiment with distance learning has created extraordinary hurdles for schoolchildren left behind by the digital divide, per the AP. School districts and governments are now racing to give the millions of US students without home internet a chance of keeping up. Nationwide, nearly 3 million students make do without home internet because of the high costs of service and gaps in its availability. The disadvantaged students are more likely to be students of color, from low-income families or in households with lower parental education levels. The nation's largest school districts, including Los Angeles and New York, are spending millions of dollars to provide devices and internet connections for students. Smaller districts are finding ways to boost wireless internet in school parking lots and distribute hot spots.

story continues below

Still others are sticking with paper assignments and books because the digital equity issues are too much to overcome. "What we're seeing is a widening of the achievement gap, so that children who are in well-funded districts were able to immediately pivot to online learning strategies, because the infrastructure was already in place," said Maura McInerney, legal director of the Education Law Center, which advocates for disadvantaged students. "In sharp contrast, underfunded districts, who did not have these resources and their children do not have access to Chromebooks, for example, are scrambling to address the educational needs of students." Read the full story for more, including the plight of a South Carolina mother limiting her own phone usage to leave enough data for her daughter's homework.

(Read more coronavirus stories.)
Dallas pipeline operator Energy Transfer will proceed alone with the proposed Lake Charles LNG export terminal after Royal Dutch Shell has decided to leave the multibillion project.

Shell said Monday that it will continue to support Energy Transfer with the bidding process for a general contractor but will begin a phased exit. The announcement comes a week after Shell cut $5 billion from its 2020 capital spending budget during the current oil crash.

"This decision is consistent with the initiatives we announced last week to preserve cash and reinforce the resilience of our business," Shell Integrated Gas and New Energies Director Maarten Wetselaar said. "Whilst we continue to believe in the long-term viability and advantages of the project, the time is not right for Shell to invest. Through the transition, we will work closely with Energy Transfer."

Delays: Energy Transfer seeks five-year extension for Lake Charles LNG

Lake Charles LNG was developed as an import terminal, but that changed when the shale revolution resulted in record natural gas production in the United States. A federal December 2015 permit authorizes the proposed terminal to produce 16.45 million metric tons of LNG per year.

Negotiations with Shell, one of the top producers and traders of LNG in the world, delayed the project for years. Energy Transfer and Shell ultimately signed a March 2019 deal to split costs and responsibilities for the project. Energy Transfer remains committed to the project and will take over as lead developer, Executive Vice President Tom Mason said.

We remain in discussions with several significant LNG buyers from Europe and Asia regarding LNG offtake arrangements as well as, in some cases, a potential equity investment in the project, Mason said. In light of the advanced state of the development of the project, we remain focused on pursuing this project on a disciplined, cost efficient basis and, ultimately, the decision to make a final investment decision will be dependent on market conditions and capital expenditure considerations.

Fuel Fix: Get daily energy news headlines in your inbox
The Minority in Parliament has lambasted the Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul for suggesting that they boycotted the parliamentary sitting last Saturday due to their unwillingness to participate in a debate on the Coronavirus outbreak in Ghana.

Speaking on the floor today [Saturday], Dominic Nitiwul described the boycott of the Minority as unpatriotic.

Mr. Speaker, as a house and as a country, if the absence of my colleagues really comes to pass, that this very important national exercise we do not come and we do not make a single comment on this floor then Mr. Speaker, we as a Parliament are letting the nation down.

Mr. Speaker everywhere around the world, nations are coming together to fight this Coronavirus. People are putting politics aside. In fact politics can wait. Mr. Speaker, nothing is more important than putting politics aside and fighting Coronavirus which is an invisible enemy. Mr. Speaker for the NDC to boycott Parliament at this time is uncalled for, unpatriotic and a stab on the back of Ghanaians.

The Minority in a response to Mr. Nitiwul, however, clarified that their absence in Parliament had absolutely nothing to do with turning our backs on a Coronavirus economic mitigation debate.

Indeed, no such Coronavirus economic mitigation debate took place in Parliament on Saturday neither did the Finance Minister make any related presentation to the House on the day in issue.

The Minority explained that their absence was because they felt Parliament was being abused by the ruling majority for narrow political gain as their only motivation was to accumulate days for the Electoral Commissions Constitutional Instrument on the December 2020 elections to mature. 

This the NPP majority was pursuing without recourse to the health and safety of Members of Parliament during these times when it is crucial to contain and limit the spread of a COVID-19 pandemic. A disease which has proven to be no respecter of persons and has infected many MPs across the world including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and several of his colleagues and some 23 MPs in the Iranian Parliament out of which two have already died. Speaker of Parliament rebukes Minority over handling of COVID-19 memo

The Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye had earlier rebuked the Minority over its handling of a memo recommending to Parliament the adoption of a bipartisan national response plan to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Although the memo was addressed to the Speaker, Oquaye insisted that, at the time the document was circulating on social media, his office had not been served.

After rebuking the Minority Leader, the statement further insisted that the issues contained in the said memo are issues that have to be dealt with using due process. The interest of the citizens and the nation should remain paramount.

But in a response, Haruna Iddrisu insisted that the said memorandum was delivered on Friday.

---citinewsroom
Dhanbad In the time of social distancing to combat coronavirus, the Indian Railways has developed a wash basin in which the water tap and the soap dispenser are mechanically operated without touch.

The East Central Railway (ECR) spokesperson said the modified wash basin had been developed by the Barwadih Wagon Care Centre of the Dhanbad Division.

To use the modified basin, a person will have to press the lever by foot and water and soap will be dispensed. "An easy to make and easy to use system has been developed by our innovative staff," the ECR official said and added, it could help contain the Covid-19 spread.

The railway has suspended the passenger, mail and express trains on March 24 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation on Tuesday announced the 21-day nationwide lockdown.

Only freight train services are being run to ensure supply of essential items across the country.

The IR is also making masks, sanitisers, aprons, medical beds, IV stands, stools, modified wash basins and other medical equipment at its production centres.

On Sunday, the number of Covid-19 patients in India reached 979 with 25 deaths across the country.
By Trend

Some slowdown in business activity caused by the need to take urgent measures to fight the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) can certainly affect the country's insurance market, Chairman of the board of the Azerbaijan Insurers Association (AIA) Azer Aliyev told Trend.

Most obviously, at first, the indicators for collecting premiums will decrease. In general, in the conditions of certain critical situations arising in the economic space, the insurance sector suffers first of all. This is because the insurance costs fall primarily under the sequestration as expenses not related to the satisfaction of primary and urgent needs, Aliyev noted.

However, this is not a reason to give up. It is during this period, when many, observing the special quarantine regime, are in isolation, that the insurance community must promptly prepare a plan for switching to a remote mode of operations. Those challenges that face society in the context of the spread of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), cause concern about tomorrow, the well-being of their and their loved ones, the chairman said.

Aliyev noted that under these conditions, the activities of insurance companies should be aimed at creating new insurance products that can meet the needs of customers in new changed conditions, as well as expanding online sales, adding that right now its important to convey a message to the public, which says: "Only with insurance you can protect yourself from existing risks and confidently look to the future".

Digitalization in the Azerbaijani insurance sector is at the level that such types of compulsory insurance as compulsory motor third-party liability insurance (OSAGO) and insurance against industrial accidents and occupational diseases are already carried out in electronic format, without paper documentation. The electronic platform of many insurance companies allows the issuance of insurance contracts for voluntary types. So, travel insurance has long been issued in many companies in this format, said the chairman.

According to Underwriting Director in Azerbaijans AtaSigorta insurance company Nigar Ibrahimova, the company switched to issuing insurance certificates for comprehensive motor vehicle insurance (CASCO) in electronic format. In trun, Gala Sigorta insurance company launched a mobile application on compulsory insurance.

We are not making bright plans, but we are optimistic about the future! I am sure that in this difficult situation, the entire insurance community of Azerbaijan will be able to unite and demonstrate solidarity with the people, Aliyev concluded.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Australias federal government today announced a $130 billion bailout of the countrys corporate giants, on top of two previous pro-business packages worth close to $200 billion. Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday said the package would be bigger than anything youve so far seen.

The lions share of the bailout, which involves the government subsidising the wages paid by companies by up to $1,500 per fortnight per employee, will go to the largest corporations. This includes the construction, mining, manufacturing and logistics firms that have so far kept workers on the job, often in unsafe conditions, despite the mounting number of COVID-19 infections.

By contrast, a health support package announced by the government yesterday amounted to just $1.1 billion, mostly to divert patients into telehealth services. Just $400 million has been allocated for mental health services, domestic violence programs and emergency food relief.

This funding will be inadequate to prevent the already overstretched public health system from being engulfed in coming weeks, as has happened in the United States, Italy and Spain. Today, Australias officially-confirmed COVID-19 cases surged over 4,000, even though testing is still strictly restricted. It is only nine days since the total reached 1,000.

The stark discrepancy between the economic and health packages epitomises the response of Australias bipartisan national cabinet of federal, state and territory leaders to the coronavirus crisis, like the Trump administration in the US and other capitalist governments around the world.

Nothing was done to prepare the increasingly under-funded public health systems for the pandemic, despite years of warnings internationally that such events have become inevitable. Even now, governments are failing to implement measures that should have been instituted weeks ago to halt the spread of the virus, above all, mass testing and the isolation and timely treatment of infected people.

Instead, the entire preoccupation of the political establishment has been to shore up the profits and wealth accumulation of the corporate elite and the banks, even as they sack or layoff thousands of workers.

Governments at all levels, after decades of enforcing austerity measures and insisting there was no money for adequate public health and other social services, are making virtually unlimited funds available to big business. After years of proclaiming the supposed wonders and invincibility of the capitalist market system, they are rushing to rescue the financial markets via massive state intervention.

As was the case with the bailouts conducted during the 200809 global financial breakdown, governments plan to ensure that the vast sums handed to the financial oligarchy will be gouged out of the working class by way of intensified labour exploitation and the further cutting of social programs in the coming period.

The government has responded to the demands of big business for a wage subsidy scheme along roughly similar lines to that in the UK and a number of other countries. Although backdated, the scheme will do little or nothing to help the estimated one million workers, contractors and self-employed people already thrown out of work. Instead, the handouts will mostly benefit large companies that have not yet decimated their workforces.

Wage subsidies, no matter how generous, are unlikely to reverse most of the job losses inflicted this month. Over the past week alone, major retail chains have closed stores and laid off an estimated 50,000 workers, adding to the jobless toll that has produced Great Depression-like lengthy queues at the governments Centrelink welfare offices.

Under the governments plan, banks will also funnel cash made available by the Reserve Bank of Australia to extend loan repayment deferrals to the largest companies. Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh announced today that 98 percent of businesses now would be covered, and up to $250 billion worth of loans.

Like the Liberal-National governments earlier stimulus packages, the latest corporate handout has the full support of the Labor Party and the trade unions. Federal Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese said a wage subsidy was vital to minimise the impact on employees and to give businesses certainty.

Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus welcomed the news too, while saying the subsidy should apply to casuals, sole traders and visa workers. Meanwhile, in every industry, the unions are working hand-in-glove with the employers to cut workers pay and conditions in order to generate profits.

As it has since January, the government is downplaying the COVID-19 danger and the lack of official preparations. Yesterday, Morrison claimed that the national cabinets social distancing measures were starting to flatten the curve of the pandemic, despite doctors and health experts warning that it is far too early to make such claims.

Even with a daily growth rate of around 10 percent in the recorded cases, within weeks the demand could outstrip the combined resources of the public and private hospitals, which have just over 2,000 intensive care beds between them. This is the result of decades of funding cuts. Since 1977, despite an ageing population, the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people has halved from 8.1 to 3.9, one-third of which are in for-profit private hospitals.

A study published by the Medical Journal of Australia last week warned that, on the basis of a realistic clinical scenario consistent with international data, the impending demand for ICU beds could overwhelm capacity in even the largest Australian hospitals in the near future.

At the same time, the governments are exploiting the crisis to introduce draconian and authoritarian measures to enforce an intensifying quarantining and social distancing regime. While many of the isolation measures may have become necessary, because of the failure of the same governments to take the precautions and steps needed to curb the pandemic in the first place, they are being imposed in the most heavy-handed, police-state manner.

Yesterday, the national cabinet decreed that no more than two people can gather or be with each other in public, except for household members, and that police would enforce the rule, backed by heavy fines and/or imprisonment.

As of midnight last Saturday, residents returning from overseas faced airports full of security guards, police and soldiers, who herded them onto busses to be placed in 14-day quarantines in hotel rooms. Army personnel also began knocking on the doors of earlier arrivals to demand to know if they are adhering to self-isolation orders.

As with the mobilisation of the military during the summer bushfire catastrophe, these scenes are designed to accustom the public to the sight of troops on the streets. This is under conditions of deepening political discontent and signs of working-class resistance to the dictates of employers, such as last Thursdays walkout by Coles warehouse workers in Melbourne over unsafe conditions.

In an attempt to quell the rising unrest, the national cabinetthe majority of whose members are from the Labor Partyyesterday announced a six-month moratorium on evictions of residential tenants who cannot pay their rents because of the massive layoffs.

Regardless of such stop-gap concessions, the entire social order is increasingly discredited. Millions of working-class households, renters and heavily-indebted mortgage holders face extreme hardship over coming months, while the wealthy benefit from government handouts and seclude themselves in mansions or rural retreats.




Haiti - Technology : Distance education soon available





The Ministry of National Education informs educational agents in particular and the population in general, that it is finalizing the establishment of a digital platform of Educational Resources and Learning to allow students to continue to take distance courses in the basic and secondary programs.



To this end, Pierre Josue Agenor Cadet, the Minister of National Education organized a working meeting with the heads of the technical departments concerned, General Directorate and members of his Cabinet in order to speed up the implementation process of this platform which will allow the school population to continue learning, despite the Covid-19 pandemic.



Minister Cadet stressed that it is essential that children can continue their learning in order to preserve their right to education. While being aware of the digital divide in Haiti which can limit the impact of this action, he remains convinced that digital technology cannot be overlooked.



This teaching platform should be online very soon for the levels of education : Pre-school, Fundamental and Secondary.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Two Bethlehem men, both on parole from previous violent crimes, were arrested Sunday and charged with an armed robbery that led to a shot being fired, city police say in court papers.

Quentin Maurice Wimberly, 32, of the 600 block of Itaska Street, and Justin Noel Hale, 31, of the 100 block of East Washington Avenue, were arraigned Monday morning before District Judge Robert Weber on charges of robbery, conspiracy and related offenses. Each were ordered to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $200,000 bail, court records show.

The incident began Sunday afternoon when Wimbery was visiting with three people in 421 Wyandotte St., police said. He left for a short time and returned about 4 p.m. with Hale; they both were armed, police said. Hale told one of the three people, If you do not give me the money, Im going to ... kill you, police reported.

Hale knew that one of the three victims had $3,700 from an insurance settlement, police said. Two of the victims were struck in the head with firearms and jewelry was grabbed off the neck of one and a cellphone stolen from the other, police said. The cash was taken as well, police said.

The victim who reportedly had money followed Wimberly and Hale outside and began to walk around, soon seeing a black Audi circling the area, police said. Later, the victim saw Hale outside 422 Cherokee St., at which point Hale fired a shot, but it missed the victim, police said.

Two of the victims walked toward St. Lukes University Hospital and they saw Wimberly and Hale following them in the Audi, police said.

The victims called 911 and police pulled over the Audi in the 500 block of Seneca Street, police said. Wimberly got out the passenger side and tossed a gray Taurus revolver, police said. Wimberly and Hale tried to run away but were arrested, police said. A silver Smith & Wesson semi-automatic was found near the other gun, police said. The weapons matched the descriptions of guns carried by the suspects during the robbery, police said.

Wimberly had $1,500 when he was taken into custody, police said.

Wimberly, who had three criminal cases from 2010 including two aggravated assault counts, was released Jan. 3 of this year from state prison after a series of parole violations led to him serving much of his maximum 10-year sentence in the assault and robbery cases, records from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections show.

A charge of attempted homicide was withdrawn in a plea deal, records show. One of those robbery cases involved the shooting of an Easton man in the back, police said at the time. Hale had a 2007 felony robbery conviction, police said. Neither was allowed to carry firearms, police said.

In addition to the robbery and conspiracy charges, Wimberly and Hale are facing counts of theft, receiving stolen property, terroristic threats, recklessly endangering another person, simple assault and two firearms violations, police and records said.

Their preliminary hearings are tentatively scheduled 9 a.m. April 6 in District Judge Nancy Matos Gonzalezs South Bethlehem courtroom.

Anyone who may have witnessed any part of Sundays crime is asked to call city police at 610-691-6660.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Health Minister Marta Temido said at the daily press conference that lethality rate is "in the largest of 70 years -- 7.9 percent."

"According to the data we have now, the maximum incidence of the infection will be postponed until the end of May," she added.

"This indicates that the containment measures that we have all taken, such as staying at home except to go to work, are being effective," she explained.

To contain the spread of the pandemic, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa declared on March 18 a state of emergency, which will last until April 2.

The president has said that he could extend the state of emergency for another 15 days after consultations with government officials, political parties and health professionals scheduled on March 31.
Ramdev-led Patanjali Ayurved on Monday announced a contribution of Rs 25 crore and setting up of five quarantine centres with a total capacity of 1,500 beds across the country to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

The camps would be set up in Haridwar (Uttrakhand), Sadhupul (Himachal Pradesh), Modinagar (UP), Kolkata (West Bengal) and Guwahati (Assam).

Besides, the employees of Patanjali Ayurved, Patanjali Dairy and Ruchi Soya (the company acquired recently) and other group companies would also donate one-day salary in the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situation Fund (PM-CARES Fund), according to a statement by the company.

"Yogi Ramdev has announced contribution of Rs 25 crore in the Prime Minister's relief fund," said the statement.

It also said that Rs 1.50 crore from salary of staff of Patanjali Ayurved, Patanjali Dairy and Ruchi Soya will be contributed to the fund.

It would also work in research for finding solution to the pandemic, it said.

"Our volunteers and followers would will also render medical and health assistance in fight against COVID-19," it added.

According to the latest updates from the health ministry, the total number of coronavirus positive cases touched 1,071 and death toll stood at 29.

A total of 92 new cases and four deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Midlander John Marsh, who just turned 74, has had to alter his plans. He continues to see his mother, Sarah Marsh, who turns 95 on Monday, every day taking the two and a half mile drive from his Midland home..

He delivers a hot meal, sometimes home cooked, other times her favorites -- Arby's fish sandwiches or Burger King Whoppers -- and they visit for a quick minute while standing 6 feet apart either on the porch or in the garage. Last week on Wednesday, when Midland temperatures topped 50 degrees, John pulled out the lawn chairs onto the deck and they talked about a few things, including the Great Depression, which she lived through.

John said his mother is concerned more about him, as he has a lung condition.

On Monday, John and his family hopes to bring her a special delivery of some birthday cake and more.

"We're going to stand outside and sing, maybe make her a banner," he said. "We're trying to plan something. We told her and she understands and said, 'We'll do it later.'"

Later will be when John and his mom pick back up their normal routine -- watching "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune" every night together, and sometimes "The Lawrence Welk Show."

"Not my favorite," John said, "but I got to do that with her."

Julie Atkinson is working 10 to 12 hours a day on the first floor at the Midland County Services Building, processing as many of the 200 types of documents her office receives electronically and by USPS, FedEx and UPS.

Atkinson is Register of Deeds, a publicly elected position to an office in charge of all sorts of legal documentation, which includes recording, indexing and maintaining records of all deeds, mortgages, liens and much more.

The county building is closed to the public as well as all employees except for those deemed essential, which includes the public health department, the administrator's and the prosecutor's office.

Atkinson is not considered essential by the county, but per a legislative mandate by the federal government, she has to keep the office open.

"I'm coming to a building where the parking lot is sparse because most people are working from home," she said. "Everyone here is working behind a locked door, you don't pass anyone in the hall, everything is dark."

Her work is manageable, she said, when her office of four other workers is intact.

But now, working by herself, she has been able to record 330 documents in the past three days. She said sales documents take priority.

"Sales still are very brisk," she said. "We are getting all kinds of deeds (new and re-financed mortgages). I'm not sure if they were already in the pipeline when this happened or if people are still trying to live their lives. There is a lot of refinancing in the works -- why wouldn't you want to take advantage of lower rates?"

Another major task, which occurs this time every year, is part of the property foreclosure process. Atkinson said there are over 600 certificates of forfeiture in the queue just waiting to be processed. That's when land from past-due property taxes in their second year begin the process of being forfeited to the county.

She is able to process some of those every day as well.

"I'm doing the best I can for the people of Midland County," she said, adding she gets lots of appreciative emails from attorneys, banks and mortgage companies thanking her for remaining open.

In another part of Midland, Ed Parsey answered his telephone on Friday and announced to the caller, "The wife and I are quarantined." They aren't sick, but they are following the governor's orders to stay in.

The Dow Chemical Co. retiree said the stay-at-home order has changed a dinnertime routine for him and his wife, Mary Lee, but other than that they are fine.

"We went out to dinner every night," he said. "We stay close to home. We go to the movies, we miss that."

Parsey said they are quite comfortable, and are occupying their time with new television programs, printed puzzles, and lots of telephone calls with out-of-town family.

His son, who lives in Fort Wayne, sent the couple an iPad.

"I've never used an iPad in my life," he said. "We now have FaceTime. I'm trying to figure out how to use the iPad so I can FaceTime with my grandkids. And I'll figure it out."

Parsey said he's found new programs to watch on TV, including shows on On Demand and Public Broadcasting Service.

"There's a lot of programs on public TV that are great," he said.

He prefers not to watch too much of the national programming, especially news about the coronavirus, which focuses so much on death.

"The thing that is really disappointing is it's become so political," he said. "This is not the time for politics. This is the time for people to come together. It's time to get away from politics. Let's move forward."

His hero, he said, out of all of this is Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the administration's physicians who provides televised daily updates.

During his life of 84 years, Parsey said he has never seen anything like the coronavirus pandemic.

Growing up in Canada during World War II, he remembers rationing for flour, sugar and gasoline and remembers ration coupon books.

At breakfast on Friday, he said he and Mary Lee talked about coronavirus.

"It will get better. It will just take time," he said.

And when it does get better, Parsey said he can't wait until he can get back to Big Boy, where all his friends are and the wait staff is known by first names. He's thinking a bowl of the restaurant's soup and half a sandwich sound pretty good.
(RNS)  As Christian churches cancel in-person services to avoid contracting or spreading the novel coronavirus, many have rushed to embrace virtual Communion: Some celebrate via livestream; others encourage parishioners to bring their own bread to Zoom videoconference meetings; and at least one United Church of Christ minister is upping the frequency of his online Communion because our people need normalcy.

But with churchgoers still holed up in their homes to avoid infection for weeks and even months to come, Christian leaders are starting to ask: Is Communion appropriate for cyberspace?

Clergy have expressed a variety of opinions on the topic in recent weeks, sparking debates  including among leaders within the same tradition.

Some challenge whether it should (or can) occur at all. For traditions such as Catholicism, where physically engaging with the Eucharistic bread and wine has long been a core part of the faith, parishioners have mostly taken to watching livestreams of priests celebrating Mass alone with the expectation of eventually returning to church to participate in the sacrament.

In the meantime, the Archdiocese of New York is encouraging believers to recite a prayer as an act of spiritual communion, which leaders defined as an ardent desire to receive Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament and lovingly embrace him at a time or in circumstances when one cannot receive Him in sacramental Communion.

Similarly, last Friday (March 20), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America issued guidelines discouraging online Communion, suggesting instead that parishioners fast from the practice during the pandemic.

We recommend that we do not urge people to employ virtual Communion, that deacons, pastors, and bishops use this time as a teaching moment about the Lutheran understanding of the Word of God, and that we make use of the Service of the Word and Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Night Prayer and Responsive Prayer, the recommendations read.

Others have shifted their stance as the effects of the global COVID-19 outbreak drag on.

Leaders of Presbyterian Church (USA) initially suggested in early March that pastors should avoid performing the ritual online, pointing to resources that presumed in-person Communion as the norm. But on Friday (March 27), the PCUSAs Office of the General Assembly did an about-face: It published a new advisory opinion condoning the use of virtual Communion in the event of an emergency  a category that includes a global pandemic.

In emergency circumstances there may be situations in which the pastoral needs of that moment require that the church take actions that run contrary to normal practice, the opinion reads. During an emergency or a pandemic in which the church is unable to gather or advised not to gather in person for reasons of public health, a congregations session may determine that this includes observing Communion online.

Some dont appear in a hurry to come down either way. A representative for the Episcopal Church said denominational leaders are currently working on theological reflections regarding online worship, with the intention of publishing them in the coming days.

Meanwhile, the United Methodist Church is drawing upon past debates to draw new conclusions. UMC leaders formed a task force specifically to address the subject of online Communion in 2014 that produced guidance for pastors pointing out issues with the practice and recommending that clergy strive to keep the practice grounded in the physical world.

But with the onset of COVID-19 and calls for social distancing, Bishop Kenneth Carter of the UMCs Florida Conference  who chaired the task force  has now given permission for clergy in his region to take the sacrament online.

We have given that permission with the guidance that this is an extreme situation to meet pastoral and missional needs, he told Religion News Service on Friday. He noted that UMC bishops in Ohio have also granted clergy in their regions permission to conduct online Communion, which they described as a symbolic way of allowing the body of Christ to share in the Lords Supper.

Carter said the practice not only helps church leaders to maintain Christian community in a time of mass isolation, but also aids people who may be hospitalized or quarantined, making it impossible to physically participate in the sacrament.

Besides, he said, churches were doing it anyway.

This was not driven by denominational officials handing down an edict, he said. It came from congregations.

Still, the allowances come with caveats. Carter was quick to note that he permitted the practice in Florida, knowing that there are some who simply do not see this as an appropriate expression of community.

And in Ohio, bishops insisted that permission to conduct online Communion in the midst of a global pandemic is not a license to continue this practice when life returns to normal.

There also remains some ambiguity across traditions as to what kind of online Communion is permissible. Some ministers simply broadcast themselves breaking bread and drinking wine, for instance, whereas others have encouraged those watching to join them in their own way.

But for now, Carter said, his priority is meeting the spiritual needs of fellow Christians.

Ive tried not to function like a regulatory agency, he said. This is a crisis.

READ THIS STORY AT RELIGIONNEWS.COM.

Article originally published by Religion News Service. Used with permission.

Photo courtesy: Religion News Service/Robert Cheaib/Creative Commons
President Donald Trump is expected to relax ambitious Obama-era vehicle mileage standards and raise the ceiling on damaging fossil fuel emissions for years to come, gutting one of the United States' single-biggest efforts against climate change.

The Trump administration is expected to release a final rule Tuesday on mileage standards through 2026, watering down a tough Obama mileage standard that would have encouraged automakers globally to ramp up production of electric vehicles and more fuel-efficient gasoline vehicles.

Trump's Cabinet heads have continued a push to rollback public health and environment regulations despite the coronavirus outbreak riveting the world's attention.

Tearing up legacy: The Trump administration will abandon an Obama rule that car manufacturers have to increase fuel efficiency by 5 per cent each year

Pollution: Opponents say move by the Trump administration will kill hundreds more Americans a year through dirtier air, compared to the Obama standards

The administration - like others before it - is facing procedural rules that will make changes adopted before the last six months of Trump's current term tougher to throw out, even if the White House changes occupants.

The Trump administration says the looser mileage standards will allow consumers to keep buying the less fuel-efficient SUVs that U.S. drivers have favored for years.

Opponents say it will undercut the Obama administration's legacy effort to cut climate-damaging fossil fuel emissions, and will kill hundreds more Americans a year through dirtier air, compared to the Obama standards.

In August 2018, the Trump administration proposed freezing fuel economy standards at 2020 levels through 2026, reversing Obama-era standards that called for about 5% annual increases.

The new rules, which must be finalized by April 1 in order to revise the 2022 model year requirements, is a jump over the initial proposal but will still result in significantly lower overall fleet fuel efficiency, environmentalists said.

Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler said on Twitter on Monday that the final rule will raise U.S. fleet fuel economy, reduce air pollution and 'make new vehicles more affordable.'

California and 22 other U.S. states plan to challenge the rewrite. They previously challenged the Trump administrations decision to revoke Californias authority to set stiff vehicle tailpipe emissions rules.

Court battles will leave automakers in limbo. The fate of vehicle emissions standards may rest on who wins the Nov. 3 presidential election. Democratic candidate Joe Biden vows to toughen fuel economy standards to ensure '100% of new sales for light- and medium-duty vehicles will be electrified.'

U.S. Senator Tom Carper, the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, said, 'This legally flawed rule means more uncertainty and more litigation. This rule will not provide regulatory relief to automakers, it will do just the opposite.'

The Obama standards, adopted in 2012, sought to raise fuel efficiency standards to an estimated 46.7 mpg by 2026, which officials had said would save motorists $1.7 trillion in fuel costs and eliminate 2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide over the life of the vehicles but cost the auto industry about $200 billion over 13 years.

Carper said earlier this year the draft proposal would result in a 40.5 mpg average for the combined fleet by 2030.

A draft final proposal circulated by the administration this year proposed to increase requirements by about 1.5% per year. It is not clear what additional compliance flexibilities the administration will include.

John Bozzella, who heads an automotive trade representing nearly all major automakers including General Motors Co, Volkswagen AG and Toyota Motor Corp, said automakers would review the final rule when published.

'A lot of the planning for these model years has already been done,' Bozzella said, adding policymakers should now look at longer-term requirements beyond 2026.

Ken Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, called the expected final regulation 'a massive transfer of tens of billions of dollars from drivers to oil companies, as consumers will spend more on gasoline due to less efficient cars.

The standards have split the auto industry with Ford, BMW, Honda and Volkswagen siding with California and agreeing to higher standards.

Most other automakers contend the Obama-era standards were enacted hastily and will be impossible to meet because consumers have shifted dramatically away from efficient cars to SUVs and trucks.

The transportation sector is the nation's largest source of climate-changing emissions.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Finance Minister Josh Frydenberg during Question Time in the House of Representatives in Canberra, Australia, on March 3, 2020. (Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images)

Australia Tightens Rules for Foreign Investors as Pandemic Drags Down Economy

'We want to stop any predatory behaviour that is not in the national interest'

The Morrison government has granted the treasurer powers to block all foreign bids for Australian companies under tighter investment rules sparked by the Chinese Communist Party virus pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will be able to block any overseas takeovers after the threshold to intervene was temporarily slashed from A$1.2 billion to zero.

It comes amid concerns cashed-up foreign predators could target Australian businesses following major losses on the share market and a weaker Australian dollar.

Frydenberg denied the move was aimed at Chinese state-owned enterprises, saying that U.S. investment in Australia far outstripping that of communist China.

We want to stop any predatory behaviour that is not in the national interest, he told 3AW radio on Monday.

Chinese firms invested A$13 billion in Australia last year, while U.S. companies made investments worth A$58 billion.

Read More Australia Says No Such Thing as Private Chinese Company, Will Guard National Interest

But Liberal backbenchers and independents have raised concerns that Australian companies could be exposed after company values slumped in stock exchange carnage.

Chinese companies bought Australian medical supplies in recent weeks with the CCP virus sparking a surge in demand.

The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Partys coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.

Frydenberg said national security, competition issues, tax concerns and the investors character would shape any decision to block foreign investment.

This is a precautionary, temporary measure to increase our visibility and scrutiny over all foreign investment proposals to ensure that theyre in the national interest, he told ABC radio.

He said foreign investment had served Australia well, with one-in-10 local businesses benefiting.

We want that foreign investment to continue in Australia, not just during the coronavirus crisis, but also in the days and months and the years after, the treasurer said.

Under the old rules, companies from countries with free trade agreements could make scrutiny-free bids for Australian assets with a value of less than A$1.2 billion.

Now all overseas offers will have to get the green light from the federal treasurer regardless of the sector or nation involved.

The measure will remain in place for the duration of the crisis.

Related Coverage Australian Politician Warns of Mass Foreign Buy-Up Amid Weak Dollar

Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers said Labor would support the move in principle.

This sounds like a sensible step in uncertain times, he told AAP.

By Matt Coughlan
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced several actions to increase access to medical supplies and bring more health care workers to the front lines of the states ongoing battle against the coronavirus COVID-19.

Whitmer and Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun said there is a growing need for more personal protection equipment, hospital beds, ventilators and qualified health care personnel. The number of confirmed cases in Michigan has dramatically grown since the first cases were discovered on March 10, and Khaldun said there are no signs that the number of new cases discovered each day will drop any time soon.

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Our current models suggest we are likely several weeks away from a peak in the number of cases here in Michigan," Khaldun said.

The goal of our response has been to slow the spread of the disease as much as possible, particularly so we protect our most vulnerable and so that we do not overwhelm our hospitals. Unfortunately, we know that several of our hospitals in the state, particularly in Southeast Michigan, are at capacity.

Whitmer signed an executive order Sunday to relax medical practice laws in an effort to bring more health care workers into the fight against the coronavirus. It temporarily suspends provisions in the states Public Health Code to give qualified health care professionals more flexibility in treating COVID-19 patients and supporting doctors, at the discretion of health care facilities where they work.

The governor said her order gives hospitals more flexibility in managing physician assistants, nurses and other health care providers to address a growing number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Michigan.

At a Monday press conference, Whitmer made an appeal for retired doctors and former health care practitioners to consider coming back and helping out. The state launched a website to assemble health care volunteers at michigan.gov/fightcovid19.

We expect a great need for additional medical support in the coming days, Whitmer said. Please. Sign up now.

Khaldun said theres no question that there is a shortage of medical professionals in Michigan, including nurses and acute care physicians dealing with the highest risk patients.

We are aggressively loosening the scope of practice laws, calling for volunteers and also are going to be looking across the state for medical professionals working in areas where they might not be as hard hit right now to perhaps volunteer, Khaldun said.

Khaldun said hospitals are expanding their capacity as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases rises each day. There were 5,486 confirmed cases of the infectious respiratory illness and 132 deaths as of Sunday.

The state is still in need of medical equipment, including ventilators and personal protective gear for health care workers, Whitmer said.

Michigan received a shipment of supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile last weekend, but the governor said it wont last long.

Michigan received 112,000 N95 masks from the national stockpile, with another 8,000 on the way, Whitmer said. However, she said one Detroit-area hospital can go through 10,000 masks in just one day.

Private businesses have assisted the state in accumulating medical supplies as well. Whitmer said the state spent $80 million to secure 20 million masks, nearly 9 million ounces of hand sanitizer, 255,000 boxes of gloves, 2.4 million gowns, more than 2000 beds 210,000 testing kits, 3,000 thermometers 185,000 face shields 22,000 cartons of disinfecting wipes and other supplies.

Theres also a large need for ventilators, Khaldun said. The large and costly machines help critically ill patients who cant breathe on their own by pumping air directly into their lungs.

Khaldun said an additional 5,000 to 10,000 ventilators will be needed in the coming weeks. The state has around 1,700 right now, she said.

Michigan hospitals have begun to develop emergency policies that would be implemented in case of shortages. A policy at Henry Ford Health System states patients who have the best chance of getting better will be first in line to access the breathing equipment.

We know were on the upslope right now of cases, we know our hospitals are going to need more beds, Khaldun said. Were going to need thousands of more ventilators and a lot of people are going to get sick.

FEMA is establishing a temporary care center at TCF Center in Detroit. Khaldun said patients who are not critically ill will be served at that facility, and other alternative treatment sites are being worked on.

Whitmer said she sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper requesting a federal directive to build temporary hospitals with the help of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

People who arent medical professionals can also use the states volunteer page to find places to donate blood and supplies in their local community.

Michigan needs you, the website states.

Whitmers order allows medical students, physical therapists, and emergency technicians to work under the supervision of doctors as respiratory therapist extenders" operating ventilators and performing other tasks. It also maintains several types of medical certifications that were set to expire throughout the emergency.

The order also reinforces an existing law that protects hospitals and health-care workers from liability for taking necessary steps to protect Michiganders during an emergency.

Michigans dedicated health care professionals continue putting their lives on the line every day during this unprecedented crisis, and we must do everything we can to empower them to do their jobs, Whitmer said.

PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops ) and when you go into places like stores.

Read more on MLive:

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer approves $150M for coronavirus relief, vetoes other spending as economy slumps

In Michigans coronavirus crisis, testing may not matter for sick individuals. But for public health, its key.

Doctors on front lines of Michigans coronavirus crisis: It seems like the sky is falling

Michigan state Rep. Issac Robinson dies

Monday, March 30: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Coronavirus cases in Michigans prisons double over weekend

TCF Center alternate care facility to include 2 floors, 900 beds once completed, officials say

Gov. Whitmer downplays tensions with Trump on CNN, Meet the Press appearances
Weyerhaeuser Company WY has been focusing on optimization of the timberlands portfolio. The company had earlier sold Michigan timberlands to Lyme Great Lakes Holding LLC  a subsidiary of The Lyme Timber Company LP  for $300 million.



Recently, Weyerhaeuser announced that it has sold 630,000 acres of Montana timberlands to Southern Pine Plantations for approximately $145 million in cash. It anticipates minimal tax liability related to the same.



The transaction, which was announced in December 2019, does not impact Weyerhaeusers three manufacturing facilities located in Montana. The Northern region, which includes Montana timberlands, encompasses a diverse mix of hardwood and softwood acres.



Operating Initiatives to Boost Performance



Weyerhaeuser  one of the world's largest private owners of timberlands  remains focused on operational excellence that includes merchandising for value, harvest and transportation efficiencies, along with flexing harvest to capture seasonal and short-term opportunities. Also, it focuses on optimizing silviculture spend, reducing growth costs, and improving log and hauling efficiencies across all geographies.



Over the last few quarters, the company has been registering lower profits due to volatility in various markets served. In 2019, the Timberlands segments net sales declined 12% year over year. Reduction in average sales realizations for domestic and export logs, and seasonally lower domestic sales volumes in the West resulted in the decline. Adjusted EBITDA also declined 24.6% from 2018.



For first-quarter 2020, the company expects sequentially higher earnings and adjusted EBITDA in the Timberland segment. Shares of Weyerhaeuser have declined 43%, comparing unfavorably with the industry's 36.8% fall.











Nonetheless, its focus on operational excellence is likely to drive performance going forward. The company had achieved $42 million of improvements in Timberlands in 2018, which was within the $40-$50 million target, for a cumulative total of $214 million since the initiation of the plan. In 2019, it achieved more than $100 million of additional operational excellence improvements. The figure came in higher than the companys expectation.



Zacks Rank



Weyerhaeuser  which shares space with Universal Forest Products, Inc. UFPI, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation LPX and Trex Company, Inc. TREX in the Zacks Building Products - Wood industry  currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.



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General Electric factory workers protested on Monday in an act of solidarity to demand the company use its factories to produce ventilators for use in the fight against the coronavirus.

As the peak of coronavirus infections and deaths is still nearly two weeks away, GE workers have demanded the company convert its jet engine factories to begin producing ventilators.

Vice News reported that workers at the companys Massachusetts aviation facility stood six feet apart and held a silent protest. Union members at the Boston headquarters marched six feet apart and said the company should retrofit its spaces to fight the pandemic.

The protests come days after GE announced it would lay off 10 per cent of its domestic aviation workforce, resulting in job losses for nearly 2,600 workers. In addition to the layoff, the company also said it would temporarily lay off half of its maintenance workers in hopes it would save the company $50m to $1bn.

GE, which fulfils defence contracts for the US government, would be among the companies set to receive a federal financial bailout from the multi-trillion dollar coronavirus stimulus package.

The companys healthcare division already manufactures ventilators and is one of the nations largest providers of the machines. Members of the Industrial Division of Communications Workers of America believe other factories under the GM umbrella could be converted to produce the devices.

If GE trusts us to build, maintain and test engines which go on a variety of aircraft where millions of lives are at take, why wouldnt they trust us to build ventilators? IUE-CWA Local 860004 President Jake Aguanaga said during a press conference.

A spokesperson for General Electric told The Independent: GE is working around the clock to increase production of much-needed medical equipment. GE Healthcare has already doubled ventilator production capacity, with a plan to double it again by June, in addition to partnering with Ford Motor Company to further increase ventilator production. We continue to explore additional opportunities to support the fight against COVID-19, while continuing to support mission-critical work for our customers as well.

The push by the workers to build ventilators comes at a time when the life-saving machines are in short supply. President Donald Trump recently enacted the Defense Production Act to compel General Motors to redirect part of their manufacturing capacity to produce ventilators for beleaguered medical staff overwhelmed by the spread of the coronavirus.

Ventilators are desperately needed at hospitals in New York, California, Washington State and Florida. They soon will be in short supply from the East Coast to the West Coast, from Puerto Rico to Hawaii, from Alaska and Illinois to Texas, CWA President Chris Shelton said.

Richard Bransons rocket company, Virgin Orbit, is also on track to begin building mass-producible ventilators as soon as April, pending an approval on the companys design.

The New York Times reported Sunday that public health officials anticipated ventilator shortages more than a decade ago and enacted a plan to build a fleet of new machines to accommodate possible viral outbreaks. The company the government contracted to build the machines was bought out by a larger firm and the machines were never built.

In a Fox and Friends interview Monday morning, President Donald Trump said he ordered federal officials to ship ventilators directly to hospitals in need.

Mr Shelton questioned why, when the country is facing an unprecedented healthcare crisis and shortage of life-saving medical equipment, one of the nations largest builders of the equipment would choose to lay off its workforce.

Most Americans are not aware that the best ventilators are already made by General Electric within the companys healthcare division, Mr Shelton said. Our country depends on these highly skilled workers and now theyre wondering why they are facing layoffs instead of having the opportunity to use their unbelievable skills to help save lives.

UPDATE 31.03.20: A previous version of this article reported that General Electric factory workers had "walked off" their jobs as part of a protest calling for the company to use its factories to produce ventilators. We have been asked the clarify that in fact, the protest took place outside of working hours. The article has been amended to reflect this.
Mindfulness courses, vegan and patisserie masterclasses and managing workplace violence and aggression were among nearly 300 training programmes and sessions offered to politicians and staff in Leinster House over the past 15 months.

The courses cost 251,859 last year and provided a wide choice of services for TDs, senators, their political staff and civil servants working in the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Stresses

A number of mindfulness courses were run for staff in Leinster House to help deal with the stresses and strains of political life.

Irish sign language, Irish and French classes are offered as a matter of routine.

Pre-retirement planning was also organised for seven TDs and senators last month, three days after the election ended their political careers.

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Eight-week "Mindfulness for Members" courses were offered to the politicians, starting in January and September of last year and run by a company called Mindcul.

For the January course, 20 TDs and senators expressed an interest in attending, and there were 62 participants over the two months of the course.

For the second course, interest levels plummeted and only seven politicians were interested in attending, with low turnouts recorded during the eight weeks.

The Oireachtas also ran a series of courses on "Non- Violent Crisis Intervention" last September to teach staff how to de-escalate situations that threaten to turn nasty.

Other courses offered to TDs and senators included a deaf awareness training seminar provided by irishdeaf.com.

One politician expressed an interest in that course last March and they did attend.

A "Dignity at Work" session last April proved more popular, and of the seven TDs and senators who signed up for the course, all attended,

Other educational activities were poorly attended, according to records released under Freedom of Information.

A "Managing Conflict" course had three people registered but no participants.

Courses this year included two vegan masterclasses for catering staff to reflect the growing interest in meat and dairy-free lifestyles in the wider community.

A patisserie masterclass - to upskill two people from the Dail bar and restaurant - was also provided.

Sixteen people attended a talk on how the Oireachtas Communications Unit supports transparency and access to information.

Some of the more specialised courses included "Presenting Difficult Messages", "Speed Reading Skills" and "Telephone Techniques".
O ne of Europes most wanted murder suspects has been extradited to the UK nearly 17 years after fleeing the country.

Christopher Guest More Jr, 42, was arrested in Malta last summer over the brutal killing of a Cheshire father on June 19, 2003.

Brian Walters, 44, was tortured and beaten to death in front of his two adult children at Burnt House Farm in Tabley, near Knutsford.

Guest More Jr was arrested in Malta on June 6, 2019, after being added to Europes most wanted list.

A spokesman for Cheshire Police said the 42-year-old arrived back in Britain on Sunday.

He has since had several court appearances on the island as part of the extradition process," the spokesman confirmed.

"Cheshire Constabulary has liaised extensively with the Crown Prosecution Service, the attorney generals office, the state advocates office in Malta, Malta police force and Maltas correctional services agency throughout the process.

Guest More Jr appeared at Warrington Magistrates Court on Monday, where he was remanded in custody to appear at Chester Crown Court on Tuesday.

Former undercover BBC researcher James Raven, 60, Otis Matthews, 41, and John Wilson, 69, are serving life sentences after being convicted of Mr Waters murder.
With coronavirus outbreak shifting its base from China to Europe, more than 20,000 retired National Health Service (NHS) workers in the United Kingdom have agreed to return to help fight the global pandemic. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who after being tested positive for the disease put himself under self-isolation, took to his official Twitter handle to thank the retired health workers for deciding to return to help the country fight the outbreak.

Read: 'They Must Pay!': Trump Tells Prince Harry & Meghan Markle To Cough Up For Security In US

In a video message posted on Twitter, Johnson expressed gratitude to the 20,000 NHS staff for coming back, which includes doctors and nurses and he also thanked the 7,50,000 members of the public group who have agreed to volunteer to help the country get through the crisis. In the 2.2-minute long video message, Johnson thanked the pharmacists for not only dispensing vital medicines but also reassuring the customers they interact with. Johnson further informed that the railway usage in the country is down by 95 per cent, while the bus usage is down by 75 per cent.

Read: Twitter Removes Jair Bolsonaro's Posts Citing Public Health Information Violation

Thanks to everyone who has been staying at home.



By delaying the spread of the disease we can reduce the pressure on our NHS, and that's how we hope to save many thousands of lives.#StayHomeSaveLives pic.twitter.com/kxdqItMYSE  Boris Johnson #StayHomeSaveLives (@BorisJohnson) March 29, 2020

Read: 'Have Seen Things That I've Never Seen Before': Trump Expresses Shock Over Images From NY Hospital

Coronavirus outbreak

The United Kingdom has so far recorded more than 1,228 deaths from the 19,522 confirmed coronavirus cases in the country. There are currently 18,159 active cases in the country, of which 163 patients remain under critical condition. The United Kingdom has successfully treated more than 135 people since the disease first broke out in December 2019.

Read: Shocker: 140,000 Infected And 2,400 Dead, Trump Says Peak US Death Rate Still 2 Weeks Away

COVID-19 has claimed more than 33,900 lives across the world and has infected more than 7,23,000 people globally since it first broke out in December 2019. China was the most affected country until last week before Italy and Spain surpassed it to record the most number of deaths anywhere in the world due to COVID-19. The virus is believed to have originated from a seafood market in China's Wuhan city, the epicentre of the disease, where animals were reportedly being traded illegally.

Read: Coronavirus: Trump Extends 'social Distancing' Guidelines In US; Says 'death Rate To Peak'

(Image Credit: AP)
This article is written for those who want to get better at using price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We'll apply a basic P/E ratio analysis to Fujian Holdings Limited's (HKG:181), to help you decide if the stock is worth further research. Based on the last twelve months, Fujian Holdings's P/E ratio is 22.29. That corresponds to an earnings yield of approximately 4.5%.

Check out our latest analysis for Fujian Holdings

How Do You Calculate A P/E Ratio?

The formula for P/E is:

Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price  Earnings per Share (EPS)

Or for Fujian Holdings:

P/E of 22.29 = HK$0.185  HK$0.008 (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2019.)

(Note: the above calculation results may not be precise due to rounding.)

Is A High P/E Ratio Good?

The higher the P/E ratio, the higher the price tag of a business, relative to its trailing earnings. That isn't a good or a bad thing on its own, but a high P/E means that buyers have a higher opinion of the business's prospects, relative to stocks with a lower P/E.

How Does Fujian Holdings's P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers?

The P/E ratio essentially measures market expectations of a company. The image below shows that Fujian Holdings has a higher P/E than the average (11.8) P/E for companies in the hospitality industry.

SEHK:181 Price Estimation Relative to Market March 30th 2020

Its relatively high P/E ratio indicates that Fujian Holdings shareholders think it will perform better than other companies in its industry classification. Clearly the market expects growth, but it isn't guaranteed. So investors should always consider the P/E ratio alongside other factors, such as whether company directors have been buying shares.

How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios

Probably the most important factor in determining what P/E a company trades on is the earnings growth. When earnings grow, the 'E' increases, over time. And in that case, the P/E ratio itself will drop rather quickly. And as that P/E ratio drops, the company will look cheap, unless its share price increases.

Story continues

Fujian Holdings's earnings per share were pretty steady over the last year. But over the longer term (3 years), earnings per share have increased by 67%.

Don't Forget: The P/E Does Not Account For Debt or Bank Deposits

It's important to note that the P/E ratio considers the market capitalization, not the enterprise value. In other words, it does not consider any debt or cash that the company may have on the balance sheet. Theoretically, a business can improve its earnings (and produce a lower P/E in the future) by investing in growth. That means taking on debt (or spending its cash).

Such expenditure might be good or bad, in the long term, but the point here is that the balance sheet is not reflected by this ratio.

Fujian Holdings's Balance Sheet

Fujian Holdings has net cash of HK$56m. This is fairly high at 26% of its market capitalization. That might mean balance sheet strength is important to the business, but should also help push the P/E a bit higher than it would otherwise be.

The Verdict On Fujian Holdings's P/E Ratio

Fujian Holdings's P/E is 22.3 which is above average (9.0) in its market. Recent earnings growth wasn't bad. Also positive, the relatively strong balance sheet will allow for investment in growth -- and the P/E indicates shareholders that will happen!

When the market is wrong about a stock, it gives savvy investors an opportunity. As value investor Benjamin Graham famously said, 'In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine. We don't have analyst forecasts, but you might want to assess this data-rich visualization of earnings, revenue and cash flow.

Of course you might be able to find a better stock than Fujian Holdings. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have grown earnings strongly.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Among the many impacts of the Coronavirus crisis, one is that many hotels are sitting empty. Another is that ending rough sleeping has additional importance, in order to prevent the spread of the disease. The good news is that the first difficulty offers the potential to help with the second.

Luke Hall, the Minister for Local Government and Homelessness, has written to council leaders to outline the plan. He says:

Our strategy must be to bring in those on the streets to protect their health and stop wider transmission, particularly in hot spot areas, and those in assessment centres and shelters that are unable to comply with social distancing advice. This approach aims to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on people facing homelessness and ultimately on preventing deaths during this public health emergency. Given the nature of the emergency, the priority is to ensure that the NHS and medical services are able to cope and we have built this strategy based on NHS medical guidance and support.

As well as for those sleeping rough, it will seek alternative accommodation for those who are in accommodation where it is difficult to self-isolate, such as shelters and assessment centres.

Hall asks councils to proceed with urgently procuring accommodation for people on the streets if you have not already done so  MHCLG will support you to do so if you are struggling to procure sufficient units. Councils are also asked to get the social care basics such as food, and clinician care to people who need it in the self-contained accommodation. It is likely that you will need to utilise your commissioned homeless services to provide support to people in this accommodation and we urge you to work with the commissioned and non-commissioned sector to make sure there are adequate levels of support provided. They are also given responsibility for if possible, separating people who have significant drug and alcohol needs from those who do not.

The Minister adds:

We know that this requires funding. Last week, the Government announced 1.6bn for local authorities to respond to other COVID-19 pressures including for services helping the most vulnerable, including homeless people. This grant will cover all costs incurred in the first phase of the response, but we will keep future funding need under review. To support our understanding of what authorities or additional funding is likely to be required we will be working with local authorities to develop an ongoing assessment of costs.

Robert Jenrick, the Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary tweets:

Major hotel chains must play their part in supporting the vulnerable during the #coronavirus emergency. Hotels that provide rooms for the #homeless or could do so, should remain open. They are not being asked to close. This is a national effort.

A lot of progress has already been made. Over a week ago the Mayor of London, together with the London boroughs and the Government, secured 300 hotel rooms in which rough sleepers can self-isolate over the coming weeks. The deal is with Intercontinental Hotels Group, owners of Holiday Inn, to block-book the rooms in two London hotels for the next 12 weeks.

The Government had already announced in February to end the blight of rough sleeping.

How effective will the initiative be? There are over 100,000 hotel rooms in London alone. So only a very small proportion would be needed. Some companies might be concerned about the safety of their staff. But that is why separating those with particular difficulties  mental illness, drug addiction, alcoholism  should help.

Obviously for the rough sleepers, getting the specialist help they need. But also that the hotels willing to take those whose behaviour is challenging would be offered the extra help needed to ensure good order is maintained.

Nor will it be a great difficulty finding the rough sleepers. Sometimes it is called a hidden problem. But mostly the authorities  the police and the Council housing teams  have engaged with rough sleepers and have a reasonable level of knowledge of their circumstances.

The biggest difficulty is likely to be with those who are resistant to being helped. This is the point that is ignored by those who simply claim that the number sleeping rough shows that society, the Government, is uncaring.

Each case is different. The BBC interviewed Kris, a Big Issue vendor. He is accepting hotel accommodation as he cant get another money to live on with fall in the number of sales he can achieve. They also spoke to Darren who is also taking up the offer of a bed for the night  but reluctantly, as it means being separated from his dog.

Danny Kruger, the Conservative MP for Devizes, tweets that every rough sleeper in Wiltshire has been contacted and all but three have accepted accommodation. Wiltshire had 18 of them in the last snapshot.

So if Krugers figures are reflected elsewhere that would be encouraging. One unknown is how many will stay in a hotel for a night or two but then decide to go back on the streets.

Should force be used for those who insist on continuing to sleep on park benches and alleyways? Such actions would make a compassionate policy that has broad support rather more authoritarian and controversial. Nor would rounding up the rough sleepers be a role that the police would be likely to relish.

There is a more positive aspect to this. Some of those who have been able to drift along, living on the streets, have been sustained by being given money, food, or payments for the Big Issue. With the streets empty and the income sources removed, a tough but better choice is being forced upon them. In order to have food they are also going to have to agree to a bed to sleep in. That may also set them on course to accept the more complicated assistance they need. Perhaps for some of them, the Coronvirus crisis will mean that their personal crisis ends and a more fulfilled life can begin.
Security Guard (two positions), Rome, Italy

Organization: United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)

Country: Italy

City: Rome, Italy

Office: WFP Rome

Grade: G-3

Closing date: Thursday, 16 April 2020

WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles

Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance

The United Nations World Food Programme is the worlds largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. The mission of WFP is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger in our lifetimes. Every day, WFP works worldwide to ensure that no child goes to bed hungry and that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.

WFP Security Team (SECH) at our headquarters in Rome, Italy, is looking to fill two local positions of Security Guard at the G3 level.

Please note that this vacancy announcement is being issued externally and internally for a local position in Rome, Italy

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

These positions are found at WFP Headquarters (WFP). Job holders report to the Security Assistant (G4 or G5). Job holders may be required to augment other units within the section when necessary, and to report for duty on short notice in the event of an emergency. Security personnel is required to know UNSMS policy including Use of Force policy.

JOB PURPOSE

The incumbent might be required to:

travel to the field

wear uniform

report for duty with short notice and be ready on call

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

Provide security receptionist service to staff and external visitors including issuance of building passes and screening of persons and belongings in line with WFP premises access procedures.

Provide accurate information through telephone, emails etc., to support effective communication and management of information.

Control and monitor movements of persons and vehicles to/from WFP premises using security equipment, to maintain a safe and secure environment for WFP staff and visitors.

Conduct regular and accurate checks of premises, and maintain continuous surveillance against fire, water leakage, deposit of dangerous objects or any other actions that could cause damage to WFP premises or injury to staff, to ensure compliance with safety procedures.

Assist in facts gathering and reporting of all incidents on WFP premises that involve a breach of security procedures, injuries and theft, etc., to support informed decision-making.

Follow and implement WFP standard emergency procedures in case of incident/emergency, to ensure prompt and adequate response

Liaise with the local administration, police authorities, fire services and other emergency services, to optimize the security and safety of visitors, WFP staff and premises.

Supervise and provide guidance and on-the-job training to other Guards, to ensure high standards of performance.

Performs other duties as required.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Education:

Completion of secondary school education . Security Guard training.

Language:

Fluency (level C) in Italian (non-mother tongue candidates will be tested).

Fluency (level C) in English (non-mother tongue candidates will be tested).

Experience:

Three or more years of experience in the police or military forces, private security company or UN or other International Organizations.

Knowledge & Skills:

Good knowledge of essential security requirements and procedures.

Tags emergency situation receptionist security guard trainings vehicles

Ability to detect and identify dangerous objects and knowledge of how to deal with such objects.

Ability to use fire equipment, metal detectors and other equipment.

Ability to apply use of force continuum as appropriate

Ability to remain calm in emergency situations.

Ability to provide immediate intervention and assistance in case of fire or other emergencies.

Ability to coordinate work of others and provide guidance.

Ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing and ability to respond to enquiries and provide reliable information or direct staff to alternative source of information.

Physical fitness on duty and training in self-defense techniques.

High sense of responsibility and alertness; emotional stability and neatness.

Courtesy, tact and the ability to work and deal effectively with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Good knowledge of the city where the office is located.

Willingness to attend security trainings and comply with UNSMS standards.

Other Post requirements:

Must possess a valid driving license

Desirable Requirement:

Knowledge of the use of weapons and self-defense tactics

Any UNSMS certification and weapon license

Applican ts may be:

Italian nationals holding a valid passport and/or identity card OR

EU citizens holding a valid passport and/or identity card; AND with confirmed registration from the Italian authorities OR

Non-EU citizens holding a valid Italian Resident Permit.

Terms and Conditions

WFP offers a competitive compensation package which will be determined by the contract type and selected candidates qualifications and experience.

Please visit the following websites for detailed information on working with WFP.

http://www.wfp.org Click on: Our work and Countries to learn more about WFPs operations.

Deadline for applications: 16 April 2020

VA Reference No: 119828

Female applicants and qualified applicants from developing countries are especially encouraged to apply

Candidates must reside within commuting distance of WFP Headquarters at the time of application.

The selected candidates will be required to attend and pass the relevant language testing in English and Italian (as required) before any confirmation of appointment is issued.

WFP has zero tolerance for discrimination and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status.
TEL AVIV (Reuters) - The U.S. Food & Drug Administration has authorised the start of a mid-stage trial by U.S.-Israeli NeuroRx and Relief Therapeutics <RLFB.S> for the use of Aviptadil to treat Acute Respiratory Distress in coronavirus patients.

The companies said on Sunday they are recruiting study sites and pharmacies to begin a phase 2 trial. The FDA issued a "study may proceed" letter 24 hours after their investigational new drug application.

NeuroRx is a privately held drug development company. Relief, headquartered in Geneva, previously partnered with Biogen <BIIB.O> to develop Aviptadil for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension.

Aviptadil is a patented form of Vasoactive Intestinal Polypeptide that has previously shown promise in treating Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), the companies said.

Coronavirus death is primarily caused by ARDS, in which severe inflammation causes the lungs to fill with fluid.

"Should this trial demonstrate efficacy, we have sufficient drug substance in the freezer to treat more than 1 million people," NeuroRx CEO Jonathan Javitt said.

(Reporting by Tova Cohen, Editing by Ari Rabinovitch)
Announcement by Tripoli governments justice ministry comes as country reports eight cases of coronavirus infections.

Libyan authorities have announced the release of more than 450 prisoners as part of measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus that has infected at least eight people in the country.

A statement released by the internationally recognised governments justice ministry on Sunday said officials decided to free 466 detainees from correctional facilities in Tripoli.

The detainees were in pre-trial detention or had qualified for conditional release, the statement added.

The North African country reported its first case last Tuesday, a 73-year-old man who had returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia in early March.

Five cases have also been recorded in the western city of Misrata.

The statement added that other measures aimed at reducing the overpopulation of prisons will follow, including amnesty for elderly or ill prisoners and those who have served over half their sentences.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) commended the justice ministrys move as a positive first step, but said authorities should do more to mitigate the risks of a major COVID-19 outbreak.

HRW said in a statement that Libyan authorities need to be prepared to limit the spread of the virus in overcrowded detention facilities and shelters for displaced people.

Libya has been in a state of chaos since the 2011 overthrow of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

Since April 2019, forces loyal to eastern-based Khalifa Haftar have been fighting to seize the capital in an offensive that has killed hundreds and displaced 150,000 people.

In a statement on Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that ongoing violence in many parts of the country risked compromising response efforts in areas with already weak or collapsing health infrastructure.

Both the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) and the rival eastern-based government under the control of Haftar have taken preventative measures against the spread of the virus, including closing schools, some businesses, markets and even private clinics.

On Sunday, the GNA announced an extended curfew from 2pm local time (12:00 GMT) until 7am starting from Monday.
The US Food and Drug Administration issued an Emergency Use Authorization to Abbott Labs' toaster-sized coronavirus test on Friday, dubbing it 'a game-changer' amid the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the country.

The point-of-care test, which yields accurate and reliable results within 5 minutes, is expected to be delivered to urgent care clinics in the coming week.

According to the Illinois-based medical device maker's website, the test can deliver results within positive results within the first five minutes. Negative tests take up to 13 minutes to process.

The company revealed it is ready to deploy more than 150,000 testing equipment on their page on March 18. The coronavirus test named m2000 RealTime system is reportedly being used in numerous hospitals and medical center labs in 18 different states including Illinois and New York.

The medical manufacturing company said they scaled up production in hopes of having over a million tests done by the end of March.

The m2000 system can process hundreds of tests in a day. Using a molecular testing technology, the testing system identifies the presence of the virus by targeting small amounts of it in the sample until there's enough for detection.

The machine can only be used to detect Influenza A&B, Strep A, and respiratory syncytial virus.





Read More:



Other companies have also received authorization from the FDA, allowing the unapproved equipment to be used during public health emergencies.

Cepheid, a California-based company known for its numerous testing equipment, has also received authorization last week. Cepheid's testing equipment yields results within 45 minutes.

Another California-based company named Mesa Biotech announced it also received authorization for a palm-sized test that can give accurate results within half an hour.

The United States is currently struggling as the continuous rise of COVID-19 cases have depleted the medical supplies needed to treat coronavirus patients.

The US President Donald Trump recently extended the lockdown measure in the country after cases reached an all-time high of over 140,000. The United States now has the most number of cases in the world with Italy following closely after at 97,000 cases.

Health officials also reported 237 new deaths on Thursday, bringing the total number of fatalities nationwide to 2,489.

Trump announced the extension despite strong demand from conservative backers who urged the president to ease lockdown protocols. The decision came after medical experts presented him with data that predicts 2.2 million Americans could die if he lifts the stay-at-home policy in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, New York has reported more than 52,000 cases since local health authorities discovered the first COVID-19 victim in the state almost a month ago.

Health experts warn the public to observe proper hygiene measures as they believe the outbreak in the state of New York is just the beginning of the long battle ahead.

"The disease does not care if you're in a big city, small city," Jonathan Fielding, a professor in residence at the University of California said. "Everbody is at risk."
Lt Governor on Monday warned district magistrates and deputy commissioners that strict action could taken against them for any laxity during the ongoing lockdown, a day after the Centre suspended two senior Delhi government officers for "serious lapses" in duty.

The lieutenant governor also told them to send anyone found roaming without an e-pass or a valid reason to district shelters set up by the administration.

Baijal held a meeting with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy and the officers via a video link, and asked them to strictly enforce the 21-day to curb the spread of the virus.

No one will be allowed on streets except for availing essential services, the LG Office said in a statement later.

On Sunday, the Centre suspended Additional Chief Secretary (Transport) Renu Sharma and Principal Secretary (Finance) Rajeev Verma, who also holds the post of divisional commissioner, for failing to strictly comply with the directions issued to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

The cause of the suspension was not immediately clear but thousands of migrant workers had gathered on the Delhi-UP border on at least two days to go to their native places.

The LG Office said inter-state borders be totally sealed and only essential supplies be allowed and the entire supply chain for essential services has to be maintained.

But no congregation can be allowed under any circumstances, the LG told the officers.

"If people are found on road without curfew passes, they will be picked up and sent to nearest shelters for quarantine," he said.

"District commissioners and deputy commissioners should sensitise the staff at the lowest level for the success of the lockdown," the LG said.

Delhi has reported 72 cases of the novel

According to the Union health ministry, 92 fresh cases and four deaths have been reported in the country since Sunday, taking total cases to 1,071 and the number of deaths to 29.
Mayank Singh By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Indias maritime combat force Navy has chipped in with an innovation that will support in the fight against the scourge of Novel Coronavirus (COVID19).

Personnel from the Naval Dockyard at Vishakhapatnam have succeeded in innovating a device with which one Oxygen cylinder can be used for multiple patients.

A typical Oxygen providing facility at hospitals feeds only one patient.



The Navy on Monday communicated, Personnel have designed an innovative Portable Multi-feed Oxygen Manifold (MOM) using a 6-way radial header fitted to a single cylinder.

"This innovation would enable one Oxygen Bottle to supply six patients concurrently thus enabling critical care management to a larger number of COVID patients with the existing limited resources," added the Navy.



The assembly has been tested and manufacturing has also begun. "The preliminary trials of the entire assembly were conducted at Medical Inspection (MI) Room at Naval Dockyard, Visakhapatnam which was followed by rapid trials at the Naval Hospital INHS Kalyani wherein the portable MOM was successfully set up within 30 minutes," Navy added.

FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES HERE



After successful trials at Naval Dockyard, Visakhapatnam, Navy has commenced manufacturing of 10 portable MOM with two 6-way radial headers catering for 120 patients at makeshift locations.



The entire set up was made operational by the creation of a Fine Adjustment Reducer and specific adapters of requisite dimensions for connecting the Oxygen cylinder and the portable MOM.



As per the Navy, during the ongoing COVID19 pandemic, ventilator support will be required for about 5-8 per cent of patients with symptoms whereas a large number would require Oxygen support. The existing facilities are not adequate to cater for such large requirements.

As for the necessity, Navy said, "A need was felt to design a suitable portable arrangement that could provide Oxygen through masks to a number of needy patients using a single-cylinder during emergencies which is the need of the hour.
Deaths in the US from Covid-19 crossed 2,000 on Sunday, including at least 965 in New York State alone, but US President Donald Trump has had second thoughts about a quarantine of the New York region. Instead, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention merely issued an advisory against non-essential travel in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Sure, some states have said travellers from New York have to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine, but the absence of lockdown in one of the Sars-CoV-2 viruss known hot spots is puzzling. New York State now has at least 59,000 cases and neighbouring New Jersey around 11,000.

Experts have blamed poor and inadequate testing, poorer leadership, and an unwillingness among people to practice social distancing and self-isolation for the USs problems, which seem far from over. Last week, a data analytics firm released heat maps of mobile phones on a Florida beach where Spring Break parties were being hosted  you read that right, Spring Break parties  and then tracked those phones as they made their way across the country (see page 6). To get on with life as if nothing has changed may be a sign of bravery and fortitude at times of war (or even terrorist attacks); to do so at a time when a highly contagious virus is ravaging the country is a sign of idiocy.

Which is why it is important that India get its hands around the migrant workers crisis. The 21-day lockdown  Sunday was Day 5  will be of no use if this issue isnt handled properly. While some states have managed to convince migrant workers to stay behind, others have not. As a result, anything between several tens of thousands and a few hundred thousand migrant workers have flouted the lockdown to travel back home  typically to rural and backward areas where the quality of health care isnt very good. States that have allowed migrant workers to travel back to areas in their hinterland need to have an effective quarantine and tracking mechanism in place. It will be difficult, but it is required and the ministry of home affairs order to this effect, issued on Sunday, is welcome (see page 1).

This is a critical week for India. The number of cases crossed 1,000 on Saturday. If the trajectory of Covid-19 cases in other countries is any indication, this is the point when the curve starts trending upwards, sharply, in terms of number of cases. Indias promptness in scanning travellers, restricting and then entirely barring international travellers from entering the country, and announcing a nationwide lockdown (include complete cessation of train and air travel) till the middle of April should start kicking in now, hopefully flattening the curve. And as this writer has repeatedly said, India should use this time, which it has bought at a significant price, to strengthen its health care infrastructure  both hard and soft. For instance, some experts have suggested using final year MBBS (undergraduate medical), and nursing students to augment the strength of doctors and nurses (see page 1). It is a good idea  and easy to implement.

India should also use this time to learn more about the enemy. Is the strain of Sars-CoV-2 infecting people in India still the same indicated by initial studies? What explains the emergence of hot spots affected by the virus? Why is the death rate in Italy as high as it is (almost 11%)? How does the virus react to heat and humidity? Why is it that Germany has a high number of infections (60,659) but only 482 deaths (a death rate of 0.8%)?

Some of these answers could hold the key to keeping India safe.
Hundreds gathered at the Christian Open Door church in Mulhouse, close to Frances border with Germany and Switzerland.

The date was February 18, 2020.

As usual, some had traveled thousands of miles to attend the highpoint of the churchs year.

But this time, in the tightly-packed congregation, someone was carrying the coronavirus.

Their presence triggered what became Frances biggest COVID-19 cluster.

The French authorities have linked around 2,500 confirmed cases to this one prayer meeting.

Church leaders say 17 people who caught coronavirus at the gathering have since died.

Michel Vernay, an epidemiologist with the national public health agency, later described it as a time bomb.

But back when the gathering ended, no one was reporting any flu-like symptoms, according to a church spokeswoman.

Frances tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases at that time was stable at just 12.

There was little public alarm about the disease.

Then cases of the virus began to appear among the congregation.

Eventually, around a dozen of the church founders own family fell ill.

His grandson Jonathan Peterschmitt told Reuters that COVID19 had eemed far off at the time of the gathering.

Worshipers also unwittingly carried the disease far and wide; to Burkina Faso, French Guyana, Corsica and Switzerland.

One of them was the meetings star preacher: Pastor Mamadou Karambiri.

Back in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, he and his wife fell ill on March 1 and tested positive.

At the end of their self-imposed quarantine, Karambiri told his followers

That the coronavirus is a satanic plan to destroy the world.

But that, God is watching over us and he will lead the people out.
At a pharmacy in a south Delhi colony, customers were standing outside the store with a one-metre distance between each other on Sunday. One of the customers handed over his debit card to the pharmacist but wasnt allowed to enter the PIN himself. He had to announce the four-digit code to the pharmacist at the counter who made the transaction and handed over the card with his gloved hands.

Another customer wanted the pharmacist to speak to the customers employer because he could not pronounce the name of the medicine he wanted. Please ask your employer to message us. We cannot speak on your mobile phone with him, the pharmacist said. The man appeared puzzled and disappointed because he couldnt get the medicine his employer needed. Other customers explained to him that sharing phones was not possible anymore because of the spread of Covid-19. There are several such instances of how daily life has changed one of them being grocers throwing bags of grain at customers to ensure minimal contact.

We will not be the same again after the lockdown lifts. Not only because of the devastating economic impact of the lockdown but because SARS-CoV-2 infections will continue to affect us. The new normal for several months will be to maintain social distance in everything we do, maintain personal hygiene and get used to relatively slow life in cities.

Sociologists expect better hygiene practices to develop among the population, but some also worry whether these practices can be carried out in urban slums or even rural areas with little access to water or soap.

The first and most positive behavioural change is likely to be the maintenance of cough hygiene as people realise that coughing into the crook of their arm is good for them and others.

Rarely have we been mindful of others when we sneeze or cough; that might change. We may begin to realise that how others behave will keep us healthy. This may lay the groundwork of an enduring policy for public health where everybody matters and no wall is high enough to protect classes and people from each other, Dipankar Gupta, a sociologist, said.

However. the question is how such behaviour will be practised in slums, where around 24% of the urban population in India lives, according to a World Bank estimate. The government should have made a specific policy for densely populated areas by now because the infection will spread there. How the future unfolds for them will depend on those policies, Dr T Jacob John, veteran virologist, emeritus professor at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, said.

Amita Baviskar, a sociologist who specialises in social inequality and environment, said, Everything depends on who is this we we are talking about. A middle class we has access to water, exercises the choice of who they wish to socialise with, lives in a way you can maintain distance with people, has the flexibility of how he or she wants to work. The middle class is already secluding themselves and may continue to do so by maintaining a physical distance. But this middle class is also extremely dependent on plumbers, electricians and domestic workers. These needs will dilute the extent to which disease can be controlled.

There is scientific evidence to back the need to continue social distancing. A study by Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, University of Oxford & Nuffield College, the UK, which is yet to be printed, has said the demographic and social structure of Italy has made it vulnerable to the onslaught of Covid-19. Italy has the second-highest population of old persons with 23.3% of its population over the age of 65, compared to 12% in China. Italy is also characterised by extensive intergenerational contact, with most children living with parents and grandparents. Children travel for work to cities and come back home to live with elders.

A 2007 study reviewing the public health interventions of the 1918 influenza pandemic found cities in which multiple interventions like closing of schools and theatres, and social distancing were implemented at an early phase of the epidemic had peak death rates nearly 50% lower than those that did not.

Humanity is no stranger to this kind of epidemic but every age expects its relationship with nature and disease will be different. I find that somewhat arrogant. Its very difficult to say how we will behave socially, Satish Deshpande, a professor of sociology at Delhi School of Economics, said.

The health ministry has launched a psycho-social-behavioural helpline on Sunday which has a toll-free number08046110007 and is supposed to address peoples mental health concerns.
This is the moment Mexican President President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador shook hands with Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's mother during a visit to the family's hometown in northwestern Mexico on Sunday.

A 30-second video posted on Twitter shows Mexico's leader walking over to Maria del Consuelo Loera, who is seated on the passenger side of a SUV parked on a dirt road.

'I'll greet you, don't come out. Greetings,' said Lopez Obrador as he was surrounded by dozens of onlookers on the outskirts of Badiraguato, a mountainous municipality in the state of Sinaloa, long a stronghold of the Sinaloa Cartel.

'Don't come out. I already received your letter,' the Mexican president said without elaborating during the brief exchange with the mother of the country's most infamous drug trafficker.

Maria del Consuelo Loera shakes hands with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

Numerous people criticized Lopez Obrador on Twitter for greeting El Chapo's mother and for shaking hands with the woman, especially at a time when Mexico is promoting social distancing measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus

The video then shows Lopez Obrador having a chat with one of El Chapo's lawyers, Jose Luis Gonzalez Meza after the lawyer reached out for his arm.

A Reuters witness said Loera was waiting for Lopez Obrador near the hamlet of La Tuna, birthplace of El Chapo.

The president was on an official visit with the state governor.

During Monday's press briefing at the National Palace in Mexico City, Lopez Obrador said he would 'handle the process' of making sure Loera travels to the United States to visit El Chapo in prison.

'Like all mothers, I still don't know a mother who accepts her son's guilt,' Lopez Obrador said. 'She told me that she has not seen him in five years and that she does not want to die without seeing him and asks me for support to see him and I will do the process. This I would do for any human being.'

Numerous people criticized Lopez Obrador on Twitter for greeting El Chapo's mother and for shaking hands with the woman, especially at a time when Mexico is promoting social distancing measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Lopez is visiting Badiraguato [El Chapos hometown] on the exact same day of Ovidios [El Chapo's son] birthday??? one Twitter user @RiosCorona1 wrote. I have always believed that coincidences do not exist... much less in politics. Did he go sing him happy birthday?

Today Lopez Obrador transcended all possible limits, @ANDROMACO64 wrote. The greeting of El Chapo's mother is an insult to the citizens, to his voters, to the armed forces, to the navy and, of course, to the victims of drug trafficking. There is absolutely no justification.

Lopez Obrador received a letter from El Chapo's 91-year-old mother in February 2019 during a visit to Badiraguato.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told El Chapo's mother during their brief exchange that he had received a letter she had written him. But Mexico's president did not got into details

Maria del Consuelo Loera reached out last year to Mexico's president seeking humanitarian visas for her and her two daughters to visit El Chapo. She is pictured above during her June 2019 visit to the United States embassy in Mexico City

Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman is serving a life sentence in super maximum facility prison in Colorado

A week before her lawyer handed the letter to Lopez Obrador, Loera told Univision she was interested in talking directly to the Mexican leader so that he could help her seek permission from the U.S. government to travel to see her son.

'Of course, I miss him a lot and I want to see him,' she then said. 'My request is that they allow me to go and see him, and that he is transferred here to Mexico.'

The U.S. government granted her and her son's two sisters, Armida and Bernarda Guzman Loera, in June.

El Chapo is serving a life sentence in super maximum facility prison in Colorado.

In October, Mexican officials detained Ovidio Guzman, 30, the son of El Chapo, after shootouts with drug gangs broke out in the streets of Culiacan.

However, he was released a short while later, drawing public criticism of security policy.
Pennsylvanias Gov. Tom Wolf has ordered K-12 school buildings to remain closed through an indefinite period of time as part of the commonwealths ongoing efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The governor made this announcement on Monday afternoon along with announcing stay-at-home orders extended now though April 30 to four more counties  Cumberland, Dauphin, Carbon and Schuylkill counties in addition to the 22 previously under such orders. Wolfs school closure order extends the one he issued last week that indicated schools would remain closed through at least April 6.

In the meantime, schools are required through an emergency school law enacted on Friday in response to the COVID-19 outbreak to make a good faith effort to resume education for students through alternate means although the states 180-day school year mandate was waived.

Susan Spicka, executive director of Education Voters of PA and a former Shippensburg Area School Board member, said, The emergency school code legislation that was signed into law last week provides clarity and certainty for Pennsylvanias educational system. Todays announcement that the closures will be extended indefinitely allows school leaders and educators to make long term plans to ensure the continuity of education for students. While some well-funded school districts will seamlessly pivot to online education, under-resourced districts and districts in areas where families have limited access to high speed internet will face many challenges as they work to meet students needs.

Several schools started up their distance education programs on Monday although many teachers had been sending out enrichment lessons to students to maintain a continuity of education for days prior to that.

Monday was the first day of distance learning at West Shore School District.

On behalf of the school board, administration, and our entire staffhave a great first day of Distance Learning! Moms, dads, caregivers, and all who are doing their best for the children of our District, we are here to support you. We are in this together! #WestShoreProud pic.twitter.com/siWISrrL4U  West Shore S.D. (@WestShoreSD) March 30, 2020

Middletown Area School District plan to issue iPads to all elementary students this week. Its older students already have school-issued devices at home. But the district said teachers will not be grading assignments, at least for another week. Central Dauphin School District has loaned laptops to students who didnt have access to one and indicated on the districts website, it plans to begin rolling out classes next week.

As Spicka indicated, some districts have not been able to resume classes remotely.

About that, Wolf said, "We are working on a plan to make sure we have a way to provide an education for the kids who are not getting an education for the next two months. The hope is we have that in place in the next few days ... so by the time we start next week, we will have an alternative to the brick and mortar schools there now.

School buildings have been closed since March 16 over COVID-19 concerns.

Many colleges and universities across the state have made the decision to switch to fully online classes for the rest of the spring semester, including the 14 state universities, Penn State, Pitt and Temple universities.

* This story was updated to include Education Voters of PA executive director Susan Spickas comment.

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.

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NEW YORK (AP)  The coronavirus outbreak could kill 100,000 to 200,000 Americans, the U.S. government's top infectious-disease expert warned on Sunday as smoldering hot spots in nursing homes and a growing list of stricken cities heightened the sense of dread across the country.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made the dire prediction of fatalities on CNN, adding that millions in the U.S. could become infected.

By evening, the U.S. had over 135,000 infections and 2,400 deaths, according to the running tally kept by Johns Hopkins University, though the true number of cases is thought to be considerably higher because of testing shortages and mild illnesses that have gone unreported.

Worldwide, more than 710,000 infections were reported, and deaths topped 33,000, half of them in Italy and Spain, where hospitals are swamped and the health system is at the breaking point.

New York state  where the death toll closed in on 1,000, up by more than 200 from the day before  remained the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, with the vast majority of the deaths in New York City. But spikes in infections were recorded around the country, not only in metropolitan areas but in Midwestern towns and Rocky Mountain ski havens.

This is not going to get better soon, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

The virus is moving fast through nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other places that house elderly or otherwise vulnerable people, spreading like fire through dry grass," Cuomo said.

Since the U.S. saw its first major outbreak of the coronavirus earlier this month  centered at a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington  a stream of facilities have battled infections among residents and staff.

A week ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 147 nursing homes in 27 states had patients with COVID-19. The problem has only worsened since.

In Woodbridge, New Jersey, an entire nursing home relocated its residents after two dozen were confirmed infected and the rest were presumed to be. In Louisiana, at least 11 nursing homes, largely in the New Orleans area, have reported cases. In Mount Airy, Maryland, a death linked to the virus was recorded in a home where 66 people were confirmed infected.

Residents' loved ones are being kept away to try to slow the spread of the virus.

I have a feeling that I very likely may never see my mother again, said James Preller, whose 94-year-old mother, Ann Preller, is a resident at Peconic Landing, a retirement community near Greenport on New York's Long Island where seven have died in the past two weeks.

Brian Lee of Families for Better Care, an advocacy group for those living in long-term care facilities, said in a nursing home, "when we see an outbreak thats uncontrolled, its practically a death sentence. But he also said the way residents are being walled off from the outside world is as much of a concern as the virus itself.

In New York, the virus is overwhelming some of the city's poorest neighborhoods, with data showing high rates of infection in densely packed areas with big non-English-speaking populations.

Dr. Craig Smith, who heads the surgery department at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, said the hospital will probably be forced into apocalyptic scenarios in the coming weeks in which ventilators and intensive care unit beds will need to be rationed.

Yesterday tried my soul, he wrote in an online posting.

Worry for the poorest was being echoed around the world.

In India, a lockdown covering the country's 1.3 billion people has put untold numbers out of work and left many families struggling to feed themselves. Tens of thousands in New Delhi were forced to flee their homes, with no way to pay the rent, journeying back to their native villages. Women in saris held babies on their hips. Others toted their belongings in bags normally used for cement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologized for the hardships that the lockdown brought but said, These tough measures were needed to win this battle.

Though the U.S. leads the world in reported cases, five other countries have higher death tolls: Italy, Spain, China, Iran and France.

Italy reported more than 750 new fatalities Sunday, bringing the country's total to nearly 10,800. But the number of new infections showed signs of easing, with officials expressing cautious optimism that the most severe shutdown in the industrialized West is showing results.

Italys civil protection agency said more than 5,200 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, the lowest number in four days, for a total of almost 98,000 infections.

29 Signs of the times during the coronavirus outbreak

Spain moved to tighten its lockdown and ban all nonessential work as it hit another daily record of almost 840 dead. The country's overall official toll was more than 6,500.

Spains health emergencies chief, Fernando Simon, said the number of people in intensive care units keeps rising and hospitals are at their limits in several regions.

That is why we have to strictly apply the control measures, he said.

Egypt shut its beaches as cases in the Mideast surpassed 50,000. Police in the Philippines stepped up arrests of quarantine violators, and more tourists were evacuated from Mount Everest and the Indonesian island of Bali.

Poland is considering delaying its May 10 presidential election. Russia ordered borders to close on Monday, Moscow all but confined its 12 million residents to their homes, and the head of the Russian Orthodox called on believers to stay away from churches and pray at home instead.

A prominent French politician with the virus died, the country's first death of a senior official.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and lead to death.

About 150,000 people have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins.

President Donald Trump on Saturday backtracked on a proposal to quarantine New York and neighboring states amid criticism and questions about the legality of such a move. But the CDC issued a travel advisory urging all residents of New York City and others in New York state, New Jersey and Connecticut to avoid all nonessential travel for 14 days.

Shocking as that is, it stopped short of the restrictions imposed in Europe or elsewhere. Parisians are fined if they try to leave the city, South Africans can't buy liquor, and Serbians are upset over a ban on walking their dogs. In Italy, burials are being held with only one family member.

Some U.S. states began to try to limit exposure from visitors from harder-hit areas. Rhode Island National Guard troops went door to door in coastal communities to find New Yorkers. Florida is setting up checkpoints to screen visitors from Louisiana.

As others tightened controls, China continued to ease its restrictions, following the ruling Communist Partys declaration of victory over the coronavirus. Flights from Hubei province at the epicenter of the country's outbreak resumed Sunday.

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___

Sedensky reported from Philadelphia. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Joseph Wilson in Madrid; Colleen Barry in Milan; Angela Charlton in Paris; Joe McDonald in Beijing; Geir Moulson in Berlin; Vanessa Gera in Warsaw; Jacquelyn Martin in Mount Airy, Maryland; Jonathan Drew in Durham, North Carolina; and Marina Villeneuve in Albany, New York.
Scientists in Sweden have innovated a method of treating blindness using embryonic stem cells to produce retinal cells. The team at Karolinska Institutet and St Erik Eye Hospital reported this week in the paper published in the journal Nature Communications, their approach of using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing to amend retinal cell production so the generated cells can hide from the bodys immune system, protecting them from becoming rejected.

Image Credits: hispan / Shutterstock.com

Age-related macular degeneration impacts a third of over 65s

By the age of just 65, roughly a third of people have developed some kind of eye disease that impairs vision. The most common cause of blindness in this age group is age-related macular degeneration which causes sufferers to gradually lose central vision.

The condition currently impacts around 11 million people in the US, a figure which is expected to rise to 22 million by 2050. Around the world, as many as 196 million are living with the condition, which is predicted to grow to 288 million by 2040.

With age-related macular degeneration, the rods and cones of the eye (known as the photoreceptors), begin to die following the death and degeneration of the retinal pigment epithelial (RPE cells) that provide nourishment to the photoreceptors.

Scientists regard the transplantation of new RPE cells generated from embryonic stem cells as a potential future treatment for the condition, which could improve the quality of life of millions.

Preventing transplant rejection

Scientists at the Karolinska Institutet teamed up with those at St Erik Eye Hospital to develop a new way to combat age-related macular degeneration of the eye. They identified markers on the RPE cells surface, which they demonstrated can be used to isolate and purify the RPE cells.

The team used their findings to create a robust, new protocol which sees embryonic stem cells differentiating into RPE cells. They showed their method to be effective, and importantly, free of contamination of any other cell types.

The team is now planning a clinical study in which they will investigate the efficacy of the method, to prepare for this, the scientists have started to produce RPE cells using their established protocol.

One challenge the team is up against is in preventing the RPE cells produced by stem cells from being rejected. This happens when antigens present in the donor tissue differ to that of the patient, triggering an immune system response. To tackle this, a number of research teams have been working on developing universal cells that do not generate an immune system response.

The Swedish team has also been successful in developing a method to overcome this limitation by creating embryonic stem cells that go undetected by the immune system. To do this, the scientists used the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technique to remove certain molecules from the cell surface, preventing the immune system from recognizing them. These stem cells were then observed to successfully differentiate into RPE cells.

Further to this, the team also demonstrated that the RPE cells produced using their approach retained their character and did not go on to develop mutations. They also proved that their modified stem cells were significantly less likely to trigger a rejection response than regular RPE cells.

A new therapeutic approach

While the research is still in the preliminary stages, the evidence that has initially been collected demonstrates the potential method the team has developed for generating universal RPE cells that could be used to effectively treat age-related macular degeneration of the eye.

Given that there is currently no cure to the condition, and the only treatments available are those that slow down the progression of the disease, this work is significant in that it potentially provides a new, more effective therapeutic approach.
Persons under home quarantine are directed to send their selfies to the Karnataka government in every one hour, failing which they will be shifted to the state quarantine centres, said Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar on Monday.

"All persons under home quarantine shall send their selfies to the government on a mobile application in every one hour. Failing to do so, teams will reach such defaulters and they will be liable to be shifted to quarantine centres made by the government," he said.

The home quarantine persons will be given an exception for taking selfies during the sleeping time from 10 pm to 7 am.

"There will be an exception in this order for sleeping time, from 10 pm to 7 am," he said.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Karnataka climbed to 88 on Monday after five more persons tested positive for coronavirus.

Of the five, one is a close contact of an earlier confirmed patient and the others are workers of a pharmaceutical company in Mysuru, from where a person had tested positive, the state health department said.

The country is under a 21-day lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, which according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has infected 1,251 people so far.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
While the deadly coronavirus pandemic has gripped the entire world, India has made every possible effort to evacuate as many Indian nationals as possible from virus hit nations such as China, Iran and Italy among others. Indian Air Force and Air India carriers are being deployed for the evacuations.

However, the Executive Pilots Association of Air India has written a letter to the Ministry of Civil Aviation complaining about the sub-standard quality of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) provided to the crew during their recent evacuation operation to bring back citizens from coronavirus hit countries.

READ | 'No Decision On Extending 21-day Coronavirus Lockdown': Govt Sources Put Rumours To Rest

READ | Coronavirus LIVE Updates: India At 'local Transmission' Stage; Total Cases At 1071

Our pilots&cabin crew are given substandard ill-fitting PPE that tear easily on rescue flights. Sanitizers aren't given in sufficient quantities&disinfection processes are short of industry best practices:Executive Pilots Association,Air India in letter to Civil Aviation Ministry pic.twitter.com/vjIfKfmf3h  ANI (@ANI) March 30, 2020

During our recent rescue flights, the protective equipment being provided to the flight crew has been failing with an alarming frequency or has been plagued with other issues: Indian Pilots' Guild (IPG) in a letter to Chairman & MD of Air India. #COVID19  ANI (@ANI) March 30, 2020

READ | Delhi Govt Calls For FIR Against Nizammudin Markaz's Maulana Over Lockdown Violation

READ | BMC Bans Burial Of COVID-19 Bodies; Conditions Applied After NCP Neta Intervenes

The letter also mentioned that the protective equipment provided to the flight crew has been failing with an alarming frequency or has been plagued with other issues. The letter has also mentioned that hand sanitizers are not given in sufficient quantities, adding that the disinfection processes are not being followed properly to ensure safety of the staff and crew during rescue operations.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, several rescue operations have been carried out by the Indian government to bring back stranded Indians from foreign nations. One of the first rescue operations was from Wuhan, China where the virus is said to have originated. Other evacuation operations were included trips from Rome and Milan in Italy to rescue hundreds of stranded Indians. Recently, 113 passengers stranded at Kuala Lumpur airport of Malaysia were brought back by the Indian government on March 23.
Government suspends international flights after complete lockdown since five coronavirus cases were confirmed.

Nepal has been under a complete lockdown for the past week after five coronavirus cases were confirmed.

Thousands of tourists had been stranded after the government suspended international flights to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Al Jazeeras Raheela Mahomed has more.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 00:19:54|Editor: huaxia

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WUHAN, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Medical experts in China's Wuhan held a video conference with their counterparts in State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University Saturday, sharing experience of COVID-19 prevention and treatment.

The conference was hosted by Lawrence Chin from SUNY's Upstate Medical University, and joined by over 90 doctors in New York.

The two sides exchanged views on topics including early identification, early diagnosis, imageological examination, drug use, hormone therapy, immune adjustment, plasma exchange and ECMO treatment.

As one of the major battlefields in combating COVID-19, hospitals in Wuhan have accumulated rich clinical treatment experience which they would like to discuss and share with American counterparts, said Hu Yu, president of the Union Hospital affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

It was the eighth video conference held by the Wuhan hospital, which has shared its COVID-19 treatment experience with universities and hospitals in countries including Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
There are no Covid-19 tests in the occupied Donbas, the official added.

Russian occupation authorities in eastern Ukraine's Donbas have been concealing from locals the realities regarding the spread of coronavirus, says Vice Prime Minister, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov.

"No, there are no such tests [to detect coronavirus in the occupied Donbas and Crimea]. Occupation authorities are hiding the real picture from the outside world and from citizens living in these territories," Reznikov told RBC-Ukraine.

Reznikov added that, according to his information, if someone contracts a virus or dies in the occupied territories, they call it A (H1N1) flu."

Read alsoZelensky: All Ukrainians who'll return home will be under two-week observation

"That's as if it was supposedly swine flu, but with a lethal outcome. We dont know what the epidemiological situation really is there, but there is a fact that the 'border' between the occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions has been locked. They do realize that they need to put themselves on a lockdown, but the question whether the move was made too late," added Reznikov.

As reportedearlier, it was only on March 28 that came the first report on a confirmed coronavirus case in the occupied areas of Donbas.




Pastor Enoch Adeboye

The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, (RCCG), Enoch Adeboye, has reiterated that the current COVID-19 outbreak will end soon.

He made this known on Sunday while revealing that only those whose time have come will be killed by the deadly virus.

According to Premium Times, Adeboye, who addressed his congregation across the globe via a live broadcast on Sunday, with the topic, Peace, be still, said only those whose time had come would be fatalities in the current plague.

There is no reason to fear, only those whose time has come will go (die), the former lecturer said inter alia.

He also said: If Jesus is in your boat, no matter the storm, it will never sink. If he is in your marriage, it cannot sink. He hates loneliness, barrenness so if your marriage is facing any of these storms, invite him and remind Him of His promise.

If its your business going through a storm, God has promised you will spend your days in prosperity and pleasure. Call Him into your business and he will turn the tide. If it is your health, remind Him that He said I am the Lord that healeth thee. The conclusion of the matter is, if He is not in your boat when the storm comes, what happens? God knows those who are His and when the storm comes, they will be exempted. It is only in the family of God that there is security when trouble comes.

Mr Adeboye had last Sunday revealed how God told him earlier in the year that the world would experience a compulsory holiday, hence his earlier call to church members to undertake a 50-day fast in January.

I am also on a compulsory holiday. I was supposed to be in four nations this April for ministers conferences and Holy Ghost services but now I cannot go. All I do now is wake up in the morning, eat a good meal and enjoy the day. Is that not a good thing, he said in his latest televised broadcast, Sunday.

He also took a swipe at those who criticised him for saying God knew about the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak urging the congregation to just pray for them.

Reading from Mark 4, 35-41, Luke 5, 1-7, Prov 1, 24-27, Psalms 35 v 27, Mr Adeboye said the present siege over the world would soon be over after God intervenes and lessons have been learnt by mankind that God is in control.

He dismissed insinuations in some quarters that the present siege could be a biological weapon released in error by unnamed nations.

So dont fear. Enjoy the compulsory holiday. I am enjoying mine. When God has proven His point in both the big and small nations and He intervenes, the plague will stop, Mr Adeboye said.

The Bible says by His stripes, we are healed. Before he went on the Cross of Calvary, Jesus took 39 stripesthat means Jesus ensured our healing from every known disease and even took an extra stripe to take care of others that were unknown including coronavirus, he also said.

The church, like many others across the nation, has stopped physical services, and resorted to online services in line with the directives of many governments to halt mass gathering.

The directives were given as a means of curbing the coronavirus which has shown no sign of abating.
Brian Zupanick, 39, was ready to do whatever it took to make sure his partner of 10 years, John Giarratano, got the proper treatment when he began to show COVID-19 symptoms earlier this month. Giarratano, 42, was admitted to the hospital on Friday, March 13th after being diagnosed with pneumonia, though Zupanick knew deep down it was something more once he was sent to the ICU. Zupanick opens up about how hard he had to fight to save his partners life as testing was delayed for weeks, and how difficult it was to know Giarratano was fighting for his life without being able to see his loved ones. He also has a GoFundMe for Giarratanos medical bills here.



Thursday, March 5th is when it all started.

We were getting ready for bed, and John said that he was chilly. I asked him if he had a fever; he said he felt fine and woke up feeling well the next day. But that night, he started to chill again, so we checked his temperature. It was 101.

At the time, we were watching everything that was unfolding on the news. People getting sick, mixing up the flu with COVID-19. It seemed the best course of action was to stay home if you have fever, cough, body aches, and only go to the ER if you have trouble breathing. John didnt have any cough, didnt have any congestion. He just literally had a fever and body aches.

His fever eventually went up to 103.5, so he went to Urgent Care. They ran a flu panel on him, which came back negative. They did an X-ray and said it could be pneumonia and that he might want to go to the emergency room, where they could confirm it.

He was having more difficulty breathing by the time we got to the hospital. This was the beginning stages of everything that was happening, so although he was in isolation for suspected COVID-19, they still let me see him.

I dressed in the appropriate gear, I dropped off some fresh clothes, rubbed his feet and legs for a little bit because he was sore, spent some time with him. Then I said, Bye, and that I loved him.

Story continues

The next day, he called me to say, Im really scared. I cant breathe at all. I was concerned because Johns like a rock. He never gets sick. He has no preexisting conditions. They ran panels and got results back on everything except COVID-19.

The hospital soon went into lockdown and no visitors were allowed anymore. By that point, John was getting worse. His breathing became really labored. It just moved so quickly. He called me. He was trying to talk, but he was so out of breath, he couldnt even say the words. He just said, Cant breathe. The heart doctors here, ICU too. And then he hung up.

I went into a huge panic, because I couldnt be there. Medical staff were doing their best to try to answer the phone calls, but by the time I had information, it was hours after the fact. When they called me, they said his heart was under an enormous amount of stress because he wasnt getting any oxygen from his labored breathing. His oxygen levels were just plummeting. They managed to kind of stabilize him on a CPAP machine at 100 percent oxygen. That seemed to be okay until he couldnt breathe on the machine anymore.

One night, I was sleeping, and he had texted me, Let him put the pipe in. The next day, they confirmed John went into acute respiratory distress. And within 24 hours, he went to ICU and was then transferred to the critical care unit. They had him intubated and his oxygen level was at 100 percent, it was maxed out. If they moved him even five inches, the oxygen saturation levels would just plummet.

Meanwhile, his COVID tests still hadnt come in. He was going downhill. I was frustrated and the doctors and the nurses were also. No one knew where the test was, so I called the lab myself. I tracked down the test in North Carolina; the New Jersey lab couldnt process it, so they forwarded all the other specimens along with his to North Carolina. That lab was inundated with specimens, and his kept getting pushed.

RELATED: Voices from the Coronavirus Crisis

We were running out of options waiting for this test, and his health was getting worse. I called the lab again and I was like, What is going on with this test? My partner is going to die waiting for it. He cannot start treatment without a positive result. They said they might have the results by March 20th or 21st; I said, Hes going to be dead and hung up.

I hung up because they couldnt help me. I decided to reach out to the president of Mount Sinai. I emailed him, thinking he wouldnt respond, but I figured Id try because I didnt really have an alternative and needed help.

Brian Zupanick

Within seven minutes, the president of Mount Sinai responded to me. He had Johns COVID-19 test expedited and then I got a phone call from the administrator saying that the head of infectious disease approved treatment without the test, and he started it immediately. I was so thankful.

John then received the treatment, and his levels seemed to come up just enough to keep him alive. He was still very critical to the point where the last option was to get him to Mount Sinai for an ECMO machine that oxygenates the blood, because there really wasnt any other way to keep him alive.

They had a window of opportunity to transport him to the main hospital. I had a conversation with his family too, because its a big decision. We agreed that we needed to take the risk to transfer him.

He got there safely, and luckily, he didnt need that machine. He started to show improvements. After a few days, he was critically stable and they were working with his ventilation settings to test his body and to see how he responds.

Recently, I learned that John was strong enough to be taken off the ventilation. I cant tell you how happy I was hearing that, I just cried and cried with relief and joy. Im thankful to Mount Sinai South Nassau, and Mount Sinai Manhattan medical staff that I consider heroes.

I still cant go to the hospital to visit. Ive been self-quarantining after all this happened, though my test came back negative. I just want to see him now, I dont care.

Unless youre living it, or have a friend or family member whos experiencing it, you might not really understand the severity of it  which is understandable to a certain extent, but there comes a time when you have to just kind of wake up and say, Its enough. This is dangerous.

People also dont think about the fact that all of these family members, like me, cant even see their loved ones. That fact alone can make it extremely stressful, and you add everything else on top of that, its truly a nightmare. Im going over two weeks of not being by his side through all of this, and now hes awake and I still cant see him.

When youre on the opposite end of it and you have a loved one in there, and doctors are trying everything to keep the inflammation down, to keep the oxygen high enough just to keep their organs alive  and youre on the opposite end of that phone call  things become very real. It should be taken seriously and everyone should be terrified.

As told to Morgan Evans

MORE VOICES FROM THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS:




President Donald Trump announced the extension of federal coronavirus guidelines such as social distancing on Sunday.

The extended national policy comes after a federal infectious disease official issued a warning as US fatalities climbed past 2,500.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), echoed the warning. He predicts over 100,000 to 200,000 Americans could die due to the global pandemic.

Trump acknowledged 15 days of quarantine wasn't enough after hearing the measure prevented the deaths of over 2.2 million people. At a recent briefing, he revealed he expects the peak in death rate in the United States to hit in two weeks.

The announcement came after Trump said he hoped to lift the quarantine orders in the country this coming Easter. He also expressed concern about the economic fallout that keeping businesses closed would bring.

The quarantine policy is voluntary, however, many states have issued their own shelter-in-place orders that led to the closing of many schools and businesses.

The Trump administration is expected to share further data and plans on Tuesday.

Read the latest COVID-19 news:

The United States currently has more coronavirus cases than any other country in the world with more than 142,000 cases as of writing. The grim news comes after US health officials reported a new high for fatalities on Thursday where 237 died due to coronavirus complications.

In a recent report, sixty-six residents of a long-term care facility in Maryland tested positive for COVID-19. Governor Larry Hogan said he expects Maryland to resemble New York in the next two weeks as their tally continues to grow past the previously reported 1,239 cases.

Non-essential businesses and schools remain closed in Maryland.

Meanwhile, New York's death toll surged past 1,000 on Sunday less than a month after state authorities reported the first case.

The first known victim of COVID-19 in the state involved a health care worker who had just returned from Iran. The second case, which involved a lawyer from New Rochelle, was discovered two days later.

On March 10, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo had declared the New Rochelle suburb as a 'containment area', forcing local authorities to close all schools and places of worship. The state also saw its first death due to the coronavirus the same day---a mere nine days after the state's first reported case.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said COVID-19 cases could hit 160 million to 210 million by the end of the year, with 21 million cases needing hospitalization, and 1.7 million dead.

Authorities are now scrambling to keep bed spaces open for COVID-19 victims as cases continue to rise. Former Louisiana Secretary of Health Dr. Rebekah Gee said beds are necessary to save the lives of patients. She also believes the US has yet to see the peak of the crisis.

The Trump administration is now airlifting medical supplies from around the globe in a bid to curb the diminishing supply of personal protective gear and other medical equipment.

A flight from Shanghai recently carried millions of surgical gloves, as well as thousands of N-95 masks, landed in the country on Sunday. Medical authorities expect 20 other shipments of medical supplies over the coming weeks.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday announced intensified door-to-door screenings to fight the COVID-19 outbreak in the country which is in a 21-day lockdown.

Three South Africans have died in the last three days and there are 1,326 confirmed infections, Ramaphosa said in a live address.

Expressing concern that there were many South Africans who were not taking the lockdown seriously, Ramaphosa said a new project will be launched wherein 10,000 staffers will visit homes to test for COVID-19.

Those found to be positive will be advised to self-isolate, or be referred to hospitals or special facilities set up for treatment, dependent on the seriousness of each individual case.

Ramaphosa said there were people who believed the coronavirus threat was not real.

"Some people may think this disease is something that doesn't concern them and that it will never affect them; that it is something they only read about in newspaper (and) social media, or see reports about on television.

"But it is very real and it poses a great danger to every one of us. It infects the rich and the poor; the young and the old; black and white; those who live in the cities and those who live in the rural areas. Let us not make the mistake of thinking that this is somebody else's problem," he said.

The president cautioned those who were not heeding the lockdown rules.

"Every time you violate the regulations the government has issued, or try to get around the rules, you are putting yourselves and others at risk," Ramaphosa said.

The president said the government is aware of the "great disruption" that the lockdown has caused to citizens at all levels.

"But we all know that it is absolutely necessary to save the thousands, or tens of thousands of our people," he said, noting that the disease was spreading rapidly across the globe.

On the 114 South Africans who were evacuated from Wuhan in China, the originating point source of COVID-19, Ramaphosa said the group should give the country hope.

"They were able to go through an 81-day lockdown," the president said, of which 51 days were in Wuhan.

Ramaphosa also thanked the generous donors who contributed significant amounts to a solidarity fund aimed at assisting the needy during the lockdown.

The donors include the founder of Chinese online company Alibaba Jack Ma who provided a billion Rands (USD 56.7m), and South African media giant Naspers which contributed 1.5 billion Rands (USD 83.5m).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Coronavirus Diaries is a series of dispatches exploring how the coronavirus is affecting peoples lives. For the latest public health information, please refer to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions website. For Slates coronavirus coverage, click here.

Last week, they locked the doors and sealed them with yellow tape, giving this residence for 100 old people the appearance of a crime scene. Then they posted the signs announcing that no one from the outsidenot family, not friends, not vendors, not anyonecould enter.

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The visitors used to give shape and focus to our otherwise formless days. Yesterday, I had to check the dateline on my New York Times to remind myself of the day of the week. How could we know it was Monday without water aerobics and posture class? Wednesday was always tai chi with Eric, who told anecdotes about his time in China. Thursday there were lectures, often given by the former music critic of the Rocky Mountain News. Friday I could always count on a visit from one of my husbands former students, who picked me up for lunch and an afternoon running errandsessential help, since these days I have trouble reading the labels on boxes and cans at the supermarket. Her stories about her weeks activities gave me welcome views of the outside world.

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The family visits, of course, were the most important; even when it wasnt our own grandchildren running in the halls or standing raptly in front of the huge aquarium, their presence always lifted our spirits. My daughter used to pick me up after work at least once a week and take me to her house. Over a home-cooked meal (a vast improvement over the institutional food I had been eating), we would watch Rachel Maddow or The Crown, catch up on each others news, or just hang out. When we said good night, I always got a sustaining hug. Now we settle for a FaceTime chat at the end of the day.

The restrictions arrived gradually. First, the corporate health officer announced that she would not be coming personally to tell us what changes were going to be made to protect us from the virus; she did not want to track in anything dangerous. Then we were told that the facility would no longer offer transportation to movies, concerts, restaurants, hair salons, or the homes of friends. Since most of us no longer drive, that retinue of white cars, parked outside the main entrance, had been our lifeline to the outside world. Anyhow, weve been told, now theres nowhere to go. Even doctors arent seeing usand this group usually sees lots of doctors. Everything now happens over the telephone. Not even the mailman can cross the threshold anymore. He leaves the mail at the main desk to be sorted by the staff, wearing gloves.

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This was always a quiet place. You never heard raucous laughter in the hallways or any loud rock music emanating from our rooms, the way it did back in happier days when we had teenagers at home. But there were lots of conversations when we could still come together at meals. Yesterdayor was it the day before?they closed the dining rooms to further limit potential contagion. Now they bag up our food in brown paper sacks, which we can pick up at carefully staggered times. No more than 10 people can congregate anywhere at once. One of the high points of the day is the appearance under the apartment door of the purple sheet of paper listing the next days food options. Touching is forbidden, of course. One of the residents had been incapable of passing anyone without giving a hug. Not now.

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The powers that be are trying to keep us entertained with little pop-up workshops. I considered spending an afternoon learning how to make a velvet headband, until I reminded myself that neither of my granddaughters would ever let such a thing near her gorgeous long hair. They show moviesdocumentaries, operas from the Met, classic films, and recent Oscar winners. But youd better get there in plenty of time, because the 11th person to enter the room will be barred.

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Even at the best of times, this is not a jolly place. Reminders of fragilitywheelchairs and walkers and canesare everywhere. The sound of an ambulance siren triggers a collective shiver, as everyone holds their breath and hopes the sound wont stop at the front door. When it does, someone is in serious trouble. People are constantly disappearingoff to the hospital or rehab, or too unwell to leave their apartments. Even the apparently healthy fall apart before your eyes. Someone comes to a meal without her teeth. Someone else begins retelling an old story that wasnt funny the first or second time. Someone cant figure out exactly where he is, and then he is removed to the other sideout of independent living and over to assisted living, with extra attention and a separate dining room, or memory care, where you go when you dont know who anyone is, including yourself. And frequently, of course, people diehardly surprising in a population whose average age is pushing 90.

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As the news comes in from around the country, I am reminded that our restrictions here are not that different from everyone elses. Everyone is separated from friends and family. Everyone is missing out on familiar activities. Everyone is worried about the survival of that little place down the street. I wonder if the manicure salon within walking distance, staffed by young Korean women, will be able to hold on and if the staff can speak enough English to advocate for themselves.

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And I wonder about the people here. Already, gaps are appearingstaff not showing up, managers staying home with a sick family member. Trying times. For me, and I think many of us in this most susceptible segment of the population, the most trying aspect is the exacerbation of the feeling we already often have: that we are a burden, particularly on our adult children but on the larger society too. Now we really are a burden. All we can do is not get sick. Not go to the hospital. Not call a doctor. And so I wash my hands. And then I wash them again. I sing Happy Birthday twice. And I feel useless.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has assured investors of seamless trading during the 14 days lockdown to stem the spread of coronavirus in the country.

The exchange gave the assurance in a statement issued in Lagos by its Head of Corporate Communications, Olumide Orojimi.

Mr Orojimi said the exchange would sustain remote trading activities at normal hours and days in line with the guidance provided by the World Federation of Exchanges.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the federal government has announced restriction of all movements in Lagos and Ogun States as well Abuja for an initial period of 14 days.

He noted that the exchange was very supportive of the steps aimed at flattening the rising curve of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria.

Since the outbreak of this pandemic, financial markets, particularly the capital markets around the world, have seen levels of volatility that are only comparable to the global financial crisis of 2007/2008.

To maintain the integrity of our market and in order for us to continue to stimulate economic growth, we activated our business continuity plan on March 23.

Through this activation, we have: continued trading during normal hours and days by providing remote trading access for Dealing Member Firms.

The ability of our financial and money markets to continue to operate during this crisis is a testament to a well-functioning economy, he said.

Mr Orojimi said the Minister of Finance and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria had received presidential approval to include the financial system and money markets in the list of exempted services from the lockdown.

Given this new pronouncement, we will sustain our remote trading activities at normal hours and days, in line with the guidance provided by the World Federation of Exchanges.

To comply with government directive, we have activated the second phase of our business continuity plan that will see our essential staff move into a secured accommodation close to our offices with adequate arrangements for healthcare and other matters necessary to their wellbeing.

Access to our offices will be restricted to these essential staff who will ensure smooth remote trading and provide remote technical support to Dealing Members.

We will also continue to provide remote access to listed companies and issuers during this period.

While we hope for a quick end to this pandemic, we encourage everyone to maintain precautions, take responsibility for others by observing social distancing and practicing personal hygiene.

Most importantly, we advise that you comply with guidelines issued by relevant health agencies of government towards curtailing the spread of the virus in our beloved country, he said.

(NAN)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Tristate area residents have been urged to refrain from all non-essential domestic travel in the coming weeks in a move that appears redundant given that stay-at-home directives had already been issued by the affected states.

After initially considering a 14-day quarantine of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, President Donald Trump instead urged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to enact a strong travel advisory for the New York metropolitan area.

On the recommendation of the White House CoronaVirus Task Force, and upon consultation with the governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, I have asked the @CDCgov to issue a strong Travel Advisory, to be administered by the governors, in consultation with the Federal Government. A quarantine will not be necessary, Trump tweeted on Saturday.

Shortly after, the CDC issued the domestic travel advisory for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, asking residents to abstain from any non-essential travel over the next two weeks.

The CDC urges residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to refrain from non-essential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately. This Domestic Travel Advisory does not apply to employees of critical infrastructure industries, including but not limited to trucking, public health professionals, financial services, and food supply, according to the CDC.

CRITICAL EMPLOYEES

The critical infrastructure employees not impacted by the travel advisory include select workers in the following industries:

Communications

Chemical

Critical Manufacturing

Commercial Facilities

Dams

Defense Industrial Base

Emergency Services

Energy

Financial

Food & Agriculture

Government Facilities

Healthcare & Public Health

Information Technology

Nuclear Reactors, Materials & Waste

Transportation Systems

Water

For more information regarding essential workers who are exempt from the travel advisory, visit the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency website.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

However, the advisory appears redundant given that tristate area residents had already been advised to stay home by their respective governors, with the exception of essential workers.

STATE ADVISORIES

On Friday, March 20, the Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the New York State on PAUSE executive order mandating that 100% of the states non-essential businesses close or have their employees work remotely. Non-essential gatherings, regardless of size, are also barred under the measure.

Since then, Cuomo has continued to hammer home the significance of self-isolating, including during his news conference on Monday.

When I issued the stay-at-home order, it wasnt, It would be nice if you did. It is a mandate," said Cuomo. Stay at home. If youre a non-essential worker, stay at home

If you leave the house, youre exposing yourself to danger. If you leave the house, youre exposing others to danger. You can leave the house, go home, and infect whoevers at home. So stay at home, he continued.

On the same day New York announced its stay-at-home orders, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont issued a similar executive order titled Stay Home, Stay Safe.

At this critical time it is essential that everyone just stay home so we can contain the spread of this virus while keeping essential services running, Lamont said. I know that this will be disruptive to many and will bring many daily activities to a halt, but the only way we will be able to mitigate the impacts of this public health emergency is to take measures like this.

A day later, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy followed suit with an executive order directing all New Jersey residents to stay at home with limited exceptions.

From day one, weve made a commitment to be guided by the facts and take any action necessary to protect the health and safety of New Jerseys nine million residents, Murphy said. We know the virus spreads through person-to person contact, and the best way to prevent further exposure is to limit our public interactions to only the most essential purposes. This is a time for us all to come together in one mission to flatten the curve and slow -- and eventually halt -- the spread of coronavirus.

On Sunday morning, Mayor Bill de Blasio responded to the federal travel advisory, saying that the government must walk a fine line that limits the spread of the virus while also allowing families to be together during these trying times.

Weve got to be mindful of families who at this crucial moment want to reunite, whether that means (people) coming back to New York, or leaving New York... de Blasio said in an interview with CNN. Weve got to be really respectful in the middle of a crisis that families have the right to be together."

Moments prior to de Blasios interview, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, explained the reasoning behind the advisory.

What you dont want is people traveling from that area to other areas of the country and inadvertently and innocently infecting other individuals," Fauci said.

He said that both he and Trump felt a mandated quarantine wasnt appropriate, instead opting for a strict travel advisory that excludes essential workers.

"You dont want to get to the point where youre enforcing things that would create a bigger difficulty, morale and otherwise, when you can probably accomplish the same goal, said Fauci.

IF YOU TRAVEL, PREPARE TO SELF-ISOLATE

New Yorkers who elect to travel in spite of the state and federal advisories are being urged to self-isolate upon arrival at their new destination.

On Tuesday, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White Houses coronavirus response coordinator, asked all those leaving New York City to self-isolate for two weeks after traveling.

To everyone who has left New York over the last few day, because of the rate of the number of cases, you may have been exposed before you left New York, Birx said.

The announcement came following an executive order from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that required all travelers arriving in the state from New York to self-isolate for 14 days to avoid spreading the virus.

I think like Governor DeSantis has put out today, everybody who was in New York should be self-quarantining for the next 14 days to ensure that the virus doesnt spread to others, no matter where they have gone. Whether its Florida, North Carolina or out to the far reaches of Long Island, Birx said.

***

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A globe-trotting story about the Eternals vs. Deviants in the 500 Year War
Indian Rupee is trading at an all-time low after the US Dollar index breached 103 on safe haven buying. The lockdown because of coronavirus will affect Indian economy badly and our equity market is the second-most corrected market in the world after Brazil.

So, the Indian currency is feeling the heat and that is why we have seen swift depreciation of the rupee. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been trying to intervene and has sold nearly $3 billion in Forex Market to curb volatility but we feel, going ahead, until the market recovers, we may see Indian rupee remain under ...
Mankind Pharma on Monday said it is donating Rs 51 crore to CM relief funds of various states in order to help them fight the coronavirus pandemic.

With growing number of COVID-19 cases in India, the company joins the fight by donating Rs 51 crore to CM relief funds to manage this disaster, Mankind Pharma said in a statement.

The funds would be utilised for procuring ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPE) and medicines for the states reporting maximum number of positive cases, it added.

The company said it will be working closely with various state governments including Kerala, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka, among others.

"Being the leading pharma company of India, we would like the fund to be utilised for providing protective equipment to medical front-line warriors and ventilators to those who have already caught the virus," Mankind Pharma Chairman R C Juneja said.

The number of coronavirus cases in India have already crossed the 1,000-mark.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
UN in Kenya in lockstep with the government to fight the novel coronavirus on all fronts. The number of coronavirus cases in Kenya has jumped to at least five (by 19 March) after the government confirmed more cases. President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced a raft of proactive measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

Barely three months into the COVID-19 outbreak, stock markets have plummeted, and global supply and production systems have wobbled. Across the world, panicked shoppers have cleared shelves of hand sanitizer, soap, and tinned food as if preparing for a siege.

The message by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that as we fight the virus, we cannot let fear go viral is absolutely pertinent. And the people of Kenya can count on the United Nations Country team as an ally in this fight.

Global pandemics are a new threat to humanity. The number of new diseases per decade has increased nearly fourfold over the past 60 years, and since 1980, the number of outbreaks per year has more than tripled.

Factors such as climate change, rising populations, and increased travel have made humans more vulnerable today than they were 100 years ago. An infection in one corner of the world can make its way to the most distant corner within a day.

In sub-Saharan Africa, there are genuine fears over how health systems will cope. Most are ill-prepared and ill-equipped to implement public health measures such as surveillance, exhaustive contact tracing, social distancing, travel restrictions and educating the public on hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette.

These are the basic steps that will delay the spread of infection and relieve pressure on hospitals, even as support is sought for costlier solutions such as personal protective equipment, ventilators, oxygen, and testing kits.

For countries in Africa and other areas where health resources are limited, a little-understood pandemic such as COVID-19 is a challenge that requires a whole-of-society response. While science creates the tests and will eventually develop a vaccine, the most effective immediate responses to pandemics depend more on simple actions we can all carry out than on pharmaceutical-based solutions.

Flattening the COVID-19 curve will also be aided by accurate information. Rising public panic and hysteria is stoked by the difficulty in sifting fact from rumour, speculation and inaccurate information. One of the problems of the age of social media and citizen journalism is that it provides a forum for everyone, and enables the dangerous fiction that anyone with an opinion is an expert. In such circumstances a rational, science-driven narrative is difficult to sustain.

Getting ahead of COVID-19 by ensuring that only accurate information and scientific guidance takes control of the narrative is crucial. It is for this reason the United Nations Country Team in Kenya is offering communications support  amongst other initiatives - to the Ministry of Health in its current commendable response to the problem. Everyone will benefit if they heed the wise counsel of CS Mutahi Kagwe. For example, he emphasizes the importance of frequent and thorough hand washing. Hand washing saves lives and is the best defence against communicable diseases.

Though microbes are evolving millions of times as fast as humans, and humans have little or no immune protection against new flu strains, the scientific understanding of the risk of pandemics, and our ability to predict the next pandemic before it even happens, is better than ever.

It is now known, for instance, that most new infectious diseases originate in animals, including SARS from bats and some strains of influenza from birds. Factors that include close proximity to live animals, poor hygiene in relation to meat and live animals at markets, overcrowding, and bushmeat consumption can allow pathogens to jump the species barrier to humans.

These scientific advances are being deployed to find more comprehensive solutions such as vaccines. Widespread access to such vaccines confer immunity to individuals and even herd immunity for populations. Vaccines work and have saved countless lives.

Countries in Africa must also take the fight to the pandemic through simple but effective measures for detecting, testing, isolating and mobilizing their people to mitigate transmission.

With simple, fact-informed hygiene measures as the main weapon, the continent can slow the viruss spread and flatten the curve. And the UN family in Kenya is in lockstep with the Government of Kenya to fight COVID 19 on all fronts.

Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations resident coordinator to Kenya.
The driver of an Amish buggy is protected from the rain by an umbrella as they transport milk cans between Heuvelton and DeKalb in April 2018 along State Route 812. Christopher Lenney/Watertown Daily Times
(TNS)  June 2 is shaping up to be the Super Tuesday of postponed primaries. Pennsylvania will join 11 states and the District of Columbia in voting that day, after rescheduling its primary due to the coronavirus.Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday signed a bill moving the primary back five weeks to allow enough time for people to register to vote by mail, for polling locations to shift and to give election officials time to prepare for an election in unprecedented circumstances.The law authorizes county election officials to close and consolidate polling places without the usual court approval. (Officials had asked for that flexibility, as theyve lost polling places and poll workers to coronavirus concerns.) Election officials will also now be able to begin processing absentee ballots earlier instead of after 8 p.m. when polls close, which could have meant elections would take days to call.With Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland and D.C. also voting June 2, its been dubbed the Acela Primary.While the moves are unlikely to derail former Vice President Joe Biden from winning the Democratic nomination, it does mean hell need more time to clinch it. Meanwhile, the delay could hurt some candidates running for the state legislature who have limited campaign resources they now need to stretch. For election officials, its a welcome extension to prepare for an election that keeps voters and poll workers safe.June 2 is now second only to Super Tuesday in the number of delegates up for grabs in one day. With few delegate-heavy primaries before June 2 (Wisconsin votes April 7), it also seems likely Sen. Bernie Sanders will stick around, as hes indicated, despite a narrow path to victory.Sanders said this week he would attend an April debate if the DNC schedules one, though Biden signaled he wouldnt. I think weve had enough debates. I think we should get on with this, Biden told reporters Wednesday on a teleconference.For Biden, a shifted primary schedule gives him more time to continue focusing on the pandemic and to build up a digital operation that has already shifted to virtual fundraisers, news briefings and television appearances, broadcast from a studio set up in Bidens Wilmington, Del., finished basement.Sanders campaign said it has the money to continue campaigning in Pennsylvania through June 2. And while virtual events can reach people across states, Pennsylvania director Brooke Adams said the campaign is still focused on virtual organizing at the neighborhood level.Candidates running to be their partys nominees in congressional and state races tend to have smaller budgets that now need to last longer.It changes things significantly, said Cathy Spahr, a Democratic candidate for an open state House seat in Delaware County. Theres a momentum that goes with the race to the primary and it kind of slows that momentum down. Plus, you then have to cut through the noise of the fear  because people are afraid and rightfully so.Now that a date has been set Spahr said she can at least decide when to send out mailers or conduct polls. Shed looked into booking a printer but didnt want to risk putting the wrong date on fliers.One advantage incumbents at both the state level and in the U.S. House of Representatives have is the ability to mail constituents communications related to COVID-19 in the days leading up to the election. The U.S. House previously had a strict rule prohibiting mass mailings from members in the 90 days before an election. The chamber eased those restrictions for coronavirus-related communications only. Pennsylvanias state House passed a resolution Tuesday loosening its 60-day restriction on online communication, if its related to the virus.Andy Meehan, a Republican who is running against incumbent Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., sees that as an unfair advantage. Even if the mailers arent about the campaign, theyre reaching constituents on the key issue and are signed by a member of Congress up for reelection, Meehan said.Its just another one of these kind of baked in the cake type of things that benefit incumbents, Meehan said.Meehan added that he thinks the primary delay actually benefits his lesser-known candidacy.This gives me more time to reach people and theyll be better informed as opposed to getting out of their bunker on April 15  theyre getting their lives back together not thinking about who to vote for.So far coronavirus has affected turnout only in the Illinois, Arizona and Florida primaries; results were mixed. Illinois reported a steep drop while Arizona and Florida, due in large part to early voting and use of mail-in ballots, reported an increase. Moving Pennsylvanias primary gives voters more time to sign up to vote by mail, which is now open to all voters. (Previously, Pennsylvanians needed an excuse to vote absentee).The deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot is 5 p.m. the Tuesday before the election, online or via mail. Voters can return the ballot until 8 p.m. on election day. Voter registration closes 15 days before the election.The Pennsylvania Democratic Committee said in an email to supporters Friday that it would launch a campaign this weekend to get people to register to vote by mail.Whereas vote by mail once was thought to benefit lower-income voters who tend to support Democrats, its also something older voters, a large portion of the GOP base, might take advantage of given the virus impact on the elderly.Theres no downside for engagement with vote by mail, said Christopher Borick, a professor of political science at Muhlenberg College. I think traditionally the idea was its an advantage to the Democratic Party but given the realities now and effects [of coronavirus] on older voters I dont know if its as clear as it once was.With more time, Borick said, the hope is also that Pennsylvanians feel safer venturing to the physical polls, increasing turnout.Election officials in Southeastern Pennsylvania had been pleading with legislators to delay the primary. The extra five weeks means they can stock up on supplies to run polling places safely, such as gloves, masks and hand sanitizer, currently in high demand and scarce.It also gives lead time to get paper and envelopes to meet the demand for mail-in ballots or for the possibility of an all-mail election, said Philadelphia Deputy City Commissioner Nick Custodio.Staff who were preparing for April 28 can return to nonessential status for a few weeks, staying home and practicing social distancing.It allows for a possibility that life could to return to normal, Custodio said. Our regular poll workers will feel comfortable working and we can reschedule their training. Polling places will open back up for business and will allow us in on Primary Day.
Six persons from Telangana who attended a religious prayer meeting in Delhis Nizamuddin area earlier this month died of coronavirus on Monday to take the toll in the state to eight in the last 48 hours.

An official press release from the chief ministers office late Monday night said six persons who attended a religious prayer meeting from March 13 to 15 at Markaz in Nizamuddin area in Delhi succumbed on Monday.

Of them, two persons died in Gandhi Hospital, one each in Apollo, Global Hospital, Nizamabad and in Gadwal, the CMO release said.

Earlier, an official bulletin from the state medical health department said another person died late on Sunday night. On Saturday, another 74-year old man who was suffering from pneumonia and diabetes, was declared brought dead to a private hospital and he tested positive after his death.

The CMO statement said special teams headed by district collectors had identified the persons who had come in contact with these six deceased persons and shifted them to hospitals. They were being tested and treated.

Since those participated in Markaz prayers were inflicted with coronavirus, all those participated in the prayers should inform the officials concerned. The government would conduct tests and offer treatment to them free of cost, the statement said.

The government appealed to all those who had gone for the Markaz prayers in Delhi should inform the authorities. Anyone who has information about them also should alert the government, it said.

The Delhi government has quarantined 200 people in the Nizamuddin area and has launched a massive contact tracing after the mosque gathering.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Monday urged the social welfare organisations to support the government amid the coronavirus epidemic.

Interacting with representatives of social organisations through video link, Modi said the nation was facing an "unprecedented crisis and needs their service and resources like never before."

These organisations, he said, could play a huge role in arranging basic necessities for the poor, and by dedicating their medical facilities and volunteers to serve patients and the needy.

The nation needed both short- and long-term vision to overcome the challenge, he said.

Observing that people have been seen gathering and flouting social distancing norms in the name of belief, Modi urged them to help counter superstitions, beliefs and misinformation.

The Prime Minister noted the nation was displaying immense resilience, grit and patience in facing the Covid-19 challenge that has claimed 29 lives and infected over 1,000.

Recalling Mahatma Gandhi's words that serving the poor and downtrodden is the best way to serve the nation, the Prime Minister praised the dedication and commitment of the participating organisations to serve the humanity.

Prime Minister said these organisations had three distinct specialities -- humane approach, massive reach and connect with people and a service mindset -- due to which they were trusted implicitly.

The representatives of social welfare organisations praised the Prime Minister for navigating a complicated situation with dexterity and lauded the pro-active measures, which had been effective in controlling the coronavirus spread.

Pledging their support for the PM-CARES fund, they said their workforce would be dedicated to the cause of serving the nation.

Modi reiterated the importance of spreading awareness, helping the poor and needy with arranging basic necessities, medical facilities and dedicating volunteers to the cause.

He stressed the importance of medical and scientific advices and countering misinformation.

Advisor to the Prime Minister, and the NITI Aayog CEO also participated in the interaction.
A private software company in Tiruchirappalli has donated humanoid robots to a government hospital in the city for delivering medicines to patients at COVID-19 isolation wards.

"The robots will be used if the district administration gives the permission to do so," said the Hospital's Dean. Four of these robots are currently ready for use.

The move is aimed at lending a helping hand to healthcare professionals who are at the frontline in the battle against the highly contagious coronavirus.

Hazards include pathogen exposure, long working hours, psychological distress, fatigue, and occupational burnout, put health workers at risk of getting the infection.

Meanwhile, the total coronavirus cases in the country rose to 1024 in the country with 27 deaths. While 95 patients have been cured/discharged across the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A policeman, gun in hand, talks to one of the Italian Waiter's Club owners. Credit:The Age Archvies

A man armed with two shotguns was holding 20 people hostage in a city restaurant early today.

First published in The Age on March 31, 1978

The man burst into the Italian Waiters Club in Meyers Place, off Bourke Street, about 1:15 am with the guns held at a taxi driver.

Seconds earlier he fired three shots in the air after forcing the driver to stop outside the building.

Early today ambulances, the dog squad and about 100 police were standing by. The block was cordoned off.

At 2:50 am the gunman released the cab driver.

The driver told police the gunman had no intention of coming out or releasing the hostages.
For nearly three years, chef T.J. Steele refused to offer delivery at Claro, his Michelin star restaurant in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn.

He ignored the constant entreaties from online delivery companies like Grubhub and DoorDash, which were sometimes sent to his personal email address. Creating a delivery operation would have required a time-consuming overhaul of the menu. It just wasnt worth the effort.

But because of the coronavirus, Steele has had to make some compromises to stay in business. He has signed up with Grubhub and Caviar, another delivery service. He has created a menu that eschews complex, hard-to-deliver items like tuna tostada in favor of homey offerings like chicken  a food he never thought he would serve. (He has always preferred turkey.)

Steele has also had to get used to seeing delivery drivers mishandle his carefully assembled dishes. And he has learned to package certain orders in foil containers so the dishes do not have to be removed from their delivery vessels to be heated in the oven.

Before, we were a Michelin star restaurant where people would have a bunch of mezcals and hang out for a while and spend money, Steele said. Now were sending chips and salsa and soup to people.

Before the coronavirus made delivery a necessity, restaurants across the country  from mom-and-pops to major chains like McDonalds  were slowly beginning to reinvent themselves as logistics operations, using software to track orders on different delivery platforms or experimenting with containers and menu items designed to travel.

Now, what began as a steady evolution is taking place at warp speed, as even chefs and owners who had long resisted delivery, like Steele, adapt to the pandemic.

One day this month, Grubhub added more than four times as many restaurants to its app as it had on its previous record day. Demand has also spiked for Ordermark, a company in Los Angeles that provides hardware to help restaurants manage delivery orders. Last year, an average of roughly 300 restaurants signed up in a month. In March, more than 1,000 have joined.

Oftentimes, the restaurants werent set up for delivery  they dont really have menus that are designed for takeout or delivery, said Alex Canter, the chief executive of Ordermark. Theyre having to quickly make adjustments. And for those restaurants, its a life-or-death situation.

Even as deliveries have ballooned the past few years, their quality has been inconsistent. Often, the food arrives cold and soggy, in ripped paper bags or crumpled pizza boxes. Many restaurants consider delivery apps a necessary evil because of the large third-party commissions. And some restaurants lack the infrastructure to execute a successful delivery business.

Matt Le-Khac had always envisioned his restaurant in Brooklyns Williamsburg neighborhood as a gathering spot  a place for people to share Vietnamese food in an intimate setting, with Vietnamese radio hits playing in the background. He never planned to offer his sauteed mushrooms and grilled shrimp lollipops on Grubhub or Uber Eats.

But this month, Le-Khac converted the restaurant, Bolero, into a delivery and takeout operation, with a line of four tablets set up at the bar like a command center. Where he once stored dishes, he started keeping paper bags and plastic to-go containers. He also rewrote the menu, removing an intricate jellylike dish that would fall apart in transit and modifying a beef item to make it work for delivery.

The transition was painful. Sales fell 70%. His staff of 20 had to be cut down to just two. And Le-Khac had to give up control over the dining experience.

Im not expecting the delivery guy to explain that this sauce goes with this beef wrapped in betel leaf, he said. So we mark the sauces. Once the customer receives the delivery, they can piece together what goes with what.

The coronavirus has devastated the restaurant industry in the United States, especially the independent businesses, which make up about two-thirds of the dining landscape. Analysts estimate that 75% of independent restaurants that have been closed to protect Americans from the virus wont survive the crisis.

The first question that most restaurants are facing is, Do I even try?  said Scott Landers, a food delivery consultant. Places with big front of house, if they dont get rent reduction, its going to be a really difficult economic calculus even if you can do delivery.

Some restaurants were already refining their delivery operations, which better prepared them to weather the shutdowns in cities like New York and San Francisco.

Mexicue, a chain in New York, Connecticut and Washington, D.C., recently unveiled a streamlined delivery program, complete with eco-friendly packaging engineered to keep its tacos intact, as well as new menu items.

The delivery operation was planned months ago as a supplement to Mexicues dine-in service, which accounted for more than 80% of the chains business. Now, rather than temporarily shutting down, Mexicue is relying on delivery to survive.

We thought thered be demand out there, said Thomas Kelly, a co-owner of Mexicue. A lot of people who were finding themselves at grocery stores with empty shelves or with a pantry full of ingredients and needing a little break from cooking.

For years, the major chains have recognized the importance of delivery, which could make up as much as 60% of restaurant sales by 2030, according to some analysts estimates.

At Shake Shack, the logistics of delivery have helped shape how the chain designs new burgers and sandwiches at its test kitchen in Manhattan. Well say, We love it  but will the sauce fall off if it gets delivered?  Mark Rosati, the chains culinary director, said in an interview before the pandemic hit. These are questions were starting to ask a little more as we create food.

Last year, online orders accounted for about 20% of Chipotle Mexican Grills sales. That was partly because two of the chains most popular items  burritos and burrito bowls  travel relatively well. Its tacos, however, are a different story.

If theyre all wrapped together in foil and put at the bottom of the bag, they can get a little mashed up, said Chris Brandt, the chief marketing officer at Chipotle.

So for the past few months, a team of about 10 employees has worked on developing improved packaging for the tacos, collaborating with experts from the fashion and footwear industries.

Not long ago, it would have been hard to imagine a burrito chains seeking advice from shoe executives. But the rise of digital ordering has spawned a whole universe of delivery consultants and entrepreneurs. Ordermark provides hardware and consulting. Toast, a Boston company, makes point-of-sale equipment for restaurants. And in Los Angeles, ChowNow designs apps for restaurants that want to avoid hefty commission fees.

For Landers, the consultant, mastering the logistics of food delivery has become something of an obsession. Before the pandemic, he would order from the delivery apps about twice a week, not unusual for a New Yorker. More unusual was what he did once the deliveries arrived: stick a thermometer into his food.

My wife would get to the point where she was like, Can we eat now?  Landers said.

Since the pandemic forced restaurants to close their dine-in areas, he has offered free consulting sessions to owners who are trying to improve their delivery operations. And he has warned clients to keep a close eye on the economics.

Make sure that youre not losing two or three dollars on every order, he said. Because youll just go out of business even faster.

At Bolero, Le-Khac said he was not sure whether he would continue offering delivery and takeout. It might not work financially, he said. And with New York now the epicenter of the pandemic, hes concerned about the safety of his employees.

Last week, he closed the restaurant to regroup and consider the implications of continuing to offer delivery. The margin of error is so small right now, Le-Khac said.

If he decides to reopen, he said, hell probably switch from plastic containers to paper ones.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Some unscrupulous people are trying to make money by creating fake Unified Payments Interface (UPI) IDs of PM-CARES.

Several online payment apps now show the option of donation for Prime Ministers Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund, which is meant to provide money for essential services amid the coronavirus outbreak.

However, some unscrupulous people are trying to make money by creating fake Unified Payments Interface (UPI) IDs of PM-CARES. The government is spreading awareness on fake UPI IDs being circulated on the various social media platforms.

The country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) too has cautioned people about it. The bank retweeted a post by PIB Fact Check on fake UPI IDs doing the rounds.

"Beware of Fake UPI ID being circulating on the pretext of PM CARES Fund. #PIBFactcheck: The correct UPI ID of #PMCaresFunds is pmcares@sbi," read the tweet.

Beware of Fake UPI ID being circulating on the pretext of PM CARES Fund.#PIBFactcheck: The correct UPI ID of #PMCaresFunds is pmcares@sbi#PMCARES #IndiaFightsCorona pic.twitter.com/eHw83asBQ9  PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) March 29, 2020

Delhi Police also took to Twitter to alert people of such fake ids. The police wrote, Please note, the correct UPI ID of PM CARES Fund is pmcares@sbi Thanks to alert citizen @bishwesh0604 for getting a fake UPI ID pmcare@sbi blocked. Legal action has been initiated."

Follow LIVE updates on the coronavirus outbreak here

A user had also alerted SBI about fake accounts and urged the bank to take action. In its reply, SBI thanked him for notifying them and said that they have alerted their UPI team.

Thank you notifying us about this Fraud UPI ID. We have immediately alerted our UPI team and they are on the job to block the same. We sincerely appreciate your alertness.  State Bank of India (@TheOfficialSBI) March 28, 2020

Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week announced the creation of a relief fund (PM-CARES) where citizens can contribute in the fight against novel coronavirus.
During a conversation with Armenian News-NEWS.am, second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyans attorney Hayk Alumyan said he has filed an appeal with the demand to declare failure by the court to examine the motion to release Robert Kocharyan through personal pledge and postponement of examination of the appeal for an uncertain period of time as unlawful.

During my press conference, I informed that the other attorneys and I are preparing to file an appeal, and we did. We believe the courts are violating Mr. Kocharyans right, particularly under Paragraph 4 of Article 5 of the European Convention, Alumyan said.

On March 17, the court didnt hold the trial over the case of Robert Kocharyan during which it was supposed to examine the motion to release Kocharyan through personal pledge. The motion has been filed by former Prime Ministers of Armenia Vazgen Manukyan, Khosrov Harutyunyan and Karen Karapetyan and former Prime Minister of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic) Anushavan Danielyan.
Forty-three years after he escaped crazed kidnapper Edwin Eastwood, Robin "Rob" Smith can still recall the fear he felt that night.

It was before dawn on February 15, 1977, at a campsite in the South Gippsland bush and Mr Smith prayed that the wrist chains he was loosening would not clink and wake Eastwood.

Humble hero: Rob Smith vividly recalls his 1977 kidnapping ordeal. Credit:Joe Armao

As he crept away, he hoped not to snap sticks underfoot lest he get a bullet in the head.

Mr Smith had to walk a few metres  from the tree he had been chained to, to a van to hide behind  exposed to the sleeping Eastwood and his gun.
: The Amara Raja Group has offered a total of Rs five crore to the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister's Relief Fund to fight the coronavirus pandemic, a government official said here on Monday.

The Amara Raja group, which has presence in the automotive battery business and infrastructure among others, also offered Rs one crore for the Telangana CM Relief Fund in the government's efforts against the deadly virus.

The Group Chairman Galla N Ramachandra Naidu accompanied by his daughter Ramadevi handed over a DD for Rs 5 crore to Chittoor district Collector Dr Narayana Bharath Gupta today, the official said.

The group also donated Rs one crore to the Telangana government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Urging people to use the time of lockdown to make themselves better, actor Kangana Ranaut on Sunday shared the story of her initial days in Bollywood and the challenges she faced at that time. In a video message that the actors team posed on Instagram, she is seen sitting and talking about her life.

Kangana began the video by giving her best wishes to everyone on the fifth day of Navratri and then shifted the topic to self-isolation and of being bored at house during lockdown.

This time is not bad time, do not think of it like that. Bad times are actually good times. Friends, I was 15 or 16 when I ran away from my house, and I used to feel like I could grab the stars with my hands. After I left my house, I was a film star and a drug addict within 1.5 - 2 years of it, the 33-year-old actor said.

My life was so messed up, I was with certain type of people from whom only death could have saved me. All of this happened in my life only at the time when I was only a teenager, she added.

The actor then went to talk about a friend of hers who according to her changed her life for the best by introducing her to spirituality. At the moment a very good friend came into my life who introduced me to Yoga and gave me a book Rajayoga which have very good processes. After that I took Swami Vivekanand as my guru and under his guidance I groomed myself a lot, she said.

I would have been lost in the crowd if those challenging times didnt come in my life. Without the spiritual guidance, I wouldnt have been able to develop my will-power, I wouldnt have been able to sharpen my intellect or groom my talent or develop my emotional health, she added.

The Queen actor then explained the concept of Brahmacharya and said, Brahmacharya is not celibacy or just about celibacy, Brahmacharya has many good processes. So, all I want to say is that make use of this time. Bad times are the only good times, she added.

The actor who is from Indias hilly state of Himachal Pradesh is currently back home with her family, like many other Bollywood celebrities.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 30, 2020) - Capital Partners Corporation ("Capital Partners") today announced that it has nominated four highly qualified nominees (the "Nominees") for election to the Board of Directors (the "Board") of DealNet Capital Corp. ("DealNet" or the "Company") at the Company's 2020 annual general meeting scheduled for May 7, 2020, in accordance with the Company's Advanced Notice By-Law. Capital Partners is the owner of 14,602,726 common shares of the Company (representing approximately 5.14% of DealNet's issued and outstanding shares) and its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Steven Small, previously served as Executive Chairman of DealNet from July 2015 until March 2018. In addition, Municipal Home Service Inc., the owner of 10,854,028 common shares of the Company (representing approximately 3.82% of DealNet's issued and outstanding shares) has agreed to support the Nominees. Each Nominee is committed to overseeing DealNet for the benefit of all shareholders.

"Since 2018, DealNet has failed to create value for its shareholders," said Capital Partners CEO, Dr. Steven Small. "Shareholders have invested their hard-earned money hoping that DealNet would succeed. Unfortunately, DealNet has floundered and languished and shareholders simply are not seeing the returns that all of us deserve. Long-term value creation and the associated increase in share price and liquidity can and must begin today and I am fully confident that renewing the Board by adding new and highly qualified directors will lead to rapid improvements at DealNet."

Success for DealNet Requires Change

Capital Partners believes that change in the boardroom is required if shareholders are to expect improved results. The Nominees all have relevant operating experience that will provide immense value to DealNet. They bring best practices and expertise from successful consumer finance businesses and experience in finance, corporate development, corporate governance and the capital markets.

Capital Partners believes these Nominees are well positioned to provide DealNet with the Board leadership and oversight it needs to help the Company realize its vision and potential for its shareholders.

"Upon election to the Board, Capital Partners' Nominees intend to focus on shareholder value and commence an immediate review and enhancement of all internal and management support systems," shared Dr. Steven Small. "The renewed Board will use their decades of experience to assess multiple avenues of increased origination of new business to optimize DealNet's current lagging path to profitability. This will entail scrupulously assessing business operations and management structure and performance. We will implement structures to optimize corporate performance and to support and empower the valued and high performing incumbent individuals who currently diligently strive to serve DealNet and its stakeholders."

Capital Partners' Nominees are:

Gary Goodman , a Chartered Accountant and experienced public company director who earned his ICD.D professional independent director designation at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Business;

, a Chartered Accountant and experienced public company director who earned his ICD.D professional independent director designation at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Business; Mark Silver , the President of Optus Capital Corporation, Chairman of the Board of Atrium Mortgage Investment Corporation, Founder of Direct Energy and National Home Services and an experienced public company director;

, the President of Optus Capital Corporation, Chairman of the Board of Atrium Mortgage Investment Corporation, Founder of Direct Energy and National Home Services and an experienced public company director; Shail Silver , the Chief Executive Officer of Toronto Developers Ltd., a leading provider of equipment financing to Ontario's home building community; and

, the Chief Executive Officer of Toronto Developers Ltd., a leading provider of equipment financing to Ontario's home building community; and Steven Small, CEO of Capital Partners, former Executive Chairman of DealNet, co-founder of Element Financial Corporation and an experienced public board member who earned his ICD.D professional independent director designation at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Business;

Full bios for the Nominees are as follows:

Gary Goodman

Gary Goodman currently sits on the Board of Trustees & chairs the Audit & Risk Committee of Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust. Previously, Mr. Goodman was Executive Vice-President of Reichmann International Development Corporation and International Property Corporation between December 2007 and June 2010. Mr. Goodman has also held the roles of CFO (December 2001 to November 2006) and President and CEO (from December 2006 to December 2007) of IPC US REIT which was sold to Behringer Harvard in December 2007 for an aggregate value of US$1.4 billion. Prior thereto, Mr. Goodman also served as a Director and Senior Vice President of Olympia & York Developments Limited, as well as a Director of Campeau Corporation, Trilon Financial Corporation, Huntingdon Capital Corporation ( Chair of the Board), Catellus Corporation, Brightpath Early Learning Inc. and Brinco Mining. Mr. Goodman is a member of the Advisory Board of Vision Opportunity Fund, a limited partnership that invests in real estate securities. Mr. Goodman became a Chartered Accountant (Gold Medalist) in 1967 and has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto. He is also a graduate of the Directors Education Program, which is jointly developed by the Institute of Corporate Directors and the Rotman School of Management of the University of Toronto.

Mark Silver

Mark L. Silver is President of Optus Capital Corporation and also Chairman of the Board at Atrium Mortgage Investment Corporation. Mr. Silver was founder and Chief Executive Officer of National Home Services ("NHS"), a leading provider of home services in Canada with over 300,000 customers and which was sold to Reliance Home Comfort in 2014 for $505 million. Mr. Silver has made significant real estate investments in both development stage and income producing properties in the residential, commercial and industrial sectors over his 35 year business career. Mr. Silver was a founding partner and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Energy which was sold in 2009 to Just Energy Group Inc. He co-founded Direct Energy Marketing and grew the company's revenues to over $1.3 billion before the company was sold to Centrica PLC (also known as British Gas) in 2000.

Shail Silver

Shail Silver held multiple roles at Universal Energy Group and NHS, a division of Just Energy Group between 2005 and 2014. These roles included Vice President of Business Development at NHS and President of Just Eco Savings, a division of Just Energy Group. NHS was sold to Reliance Home Comfort for $505 million in 2014. Mr. Silver founded Toronto Developers Ltd. in 2014 and currently serves as CEO and director. Toronto Developers Ltd. is a leading provider of consumer equipment financing to Ontario's home building community. Mr. Silver sits on the Innovation Committee for Kids Help Phone. He is also an IFR licensed pilot and graduate of the University of Western Ontario.

Steven Small

Dr. Steven Small is the CEO of Capital Partners Corporation. A serial entrepreneur, Dr. Small has extensive investor, founder, executive and director experience including in the lease finance and investment sectors. Dr. Small was a cofounder and director of Newcourt Credit Group which became the world's second largest independent global asset finance business. Dr. Small was also a co-founder and the Executive Vice Chairman of Element Financial Corporation, a multi billion dollar asset finance firm and served as Executive Vice Chairman of Hampton Financial Corporation, a boutique investment dealer and wealth manger. Dr. Small was previously the Executive Chairman of Dealnet and was instrumental in growing its consumer finance portfolio from $1.9 million to over $175 million during his tenure. Dr. Small earned the designation of ICD.D from the University of Toronto's Rotman Management School program for the Institute of Corporate Directors. Dr. Small's career began as a practicing Anaesthesiologist having earned degrees and designations including D.D.S., B.Sc.D (Anaesthesia) and Fellow, American Society of Anesthesiology and a Diplomat of the American National Board of Anesthesiology. During his healthcare career he was Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Anaesthesia at the University of Toronto Faculty of Dentistry.

The information contained in this news release does not and is not meant to constitute a solicitation of a proxy within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Shareholders are not being asked at this time to execute a proxy in favour of the Nominees. In connection with the Company's annual meeting to be held on May 7, 2020, Capital Partners may file and mail a dissident information circular in due course in compliance with applicable securities laws.

Capital Partners has engaged Dentons Canada LLP as legal advisor.

Forward Looking Statement

This news release contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements and information, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding activities, events or developments that Capital Partners expects or anticipates may occur in the future. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "may", "will", "expect", "intend", "plan", "estimate", "anticipate", "believe" or "continue" or similar words and expressions or the negative thereof. There can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which these forward-looking statements are based will occur or, even if they do occur, will result in the performance, events or results expected. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements contained herein, which are not a guarantee of performance, events or results and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual performance, events or results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Readers are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including those risks and uncertainties detailed in the continuous disclosure and other filings of DealNet, copies of which are available on the System for Electronic Document Analysis ("SEDAR") at www.sedar.com. We urge you to carefully consider those risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Unless expressly stated otherwise, the forward-looking statements included herein are made as of the date of this news release and Capital Partners disclaims any obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable law.

Contact Information

Capital Partners Corporation

1-866-395-0507

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/53933
The Andrews government believes Victoria has reached a stage of social and economic shutdown that will enable the health system to withstand the COVID-19 pandemic and avoid a large-scale loss of life.

Sources in the Department of Premier and Cabinet confirmed that, unless the rate of infections dramatically rises, the stage-three restrictions which came into force at midnight on Monday will be the new normal for Victorian life while the virus runs its course.

The Victorian government believes the level of restrictions in place should be enough to get the state through the crisis. Credit:AAP

Although it is likely that further businesses will be forced to shutter their operations as the local epidemic unfolds, Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday shifted his rhetoric from previously warning that further restrictions were inevitable.

Asked whether an additional shutdown stage would be required, Mr Andrews indicated this would only become necessary if people failed to observe the current regime or the number of new infections started to climb.
Students at the University of Limerick (UL) are urging the university to refund rent to students who leave campus accommodation early due to the coronavirus outbreak.

UL has told students they can claim their deposit back early but that rents paid for the rest of the semester will not be refunded.

It is in stark contrast to other universities, including University College Cork (UCC), which told students they will get pro-rata refunds if they leave campus accommodation.

UL has 2,850 beds in on-campus village residences. Some 700 students are still living there.

UL Students Union issued a statement urging UL to "issue refunds" to students who have opted to leave campus:

The University of Limerick is the only university in Ireland not offering refunds to students for their on-campus accommodation. This position is simply untenable.

"The University of Limerick must show a duty of care to its students during the Covid-19 pandemic. Refunding students for their unused accommodation would take a significant financial burden off students this year."

A university spokesperson said that on-campus accommodation "has remained open and operational".

Extended seven-day-a-week support services have been established to "continue to enable students to live in their homes".

"We continue to examine all issues in light of the rapidly changing circumstances of this global Covid-19 crisis," they added.

Universities have taken a range of approaches in handling student accommodation in the context of the crisis.

Trinity College Dublin (TCD) was roundly criticised after it closed its campus accommodation with just 24 hours notice. The decision was made in the context of eight students contracting the coronavirus.

University College Cork (UCC)

University College Cork (UCC), on the other hand, requested that any student who was in a position to do so to return home. They "will receive a pro rata refund of their accommodation fee" from the date of their departure, the university said.

However, it also said those students "with a legitimate reason for remaining" in campus accommodation may do so.
The Ogun State Government said it has extended the closure of its borders till Monday night in alignment with the directive of the Federal Government concerning the restriction of movement within and outside its borders.

Governor Dapo Abiodun in a statement said the border closure that was supposed to take effect on Sunday night has been extended till Monday night.

Abiodun said the adjustment came following the broadcast of the President Buhari concerning restriction of movement in Lagos and Ogun States as well as the Federal Capital Territory Abuja mostly impacted by COVID-19.

He said, Consequently, as against the earlier announced border closure with neighbouring states and the Benin Republic from midnight of Sunday, 29th of March, 2020, the order has been extended to all forms of movement within and outside the State.



This will take effect from 11 pm on Monday 30th of March, 2020 as announced by the President in his broadcast.

Movement is restricted within and across our borders with neighbouring states and the international border with the Republic of Benin, effective from 11 pm on Monday.

The only exceptions to this restriction are as announced by the President.

The general public is, once again, enjoined to comply with this directive in the overall interest of all.

Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
Pakistan Army has deployed troops across the country, including Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), to assist civilian authorities in containing the spread of coronavirus.

"Troops have been deployed to aid civil authorities under Article 245," Said Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar, spokesperson of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

The deployment was approved by Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa on the request of the Interior Ministry.

According to the government notification, only hospitals, shops selling food items, medical stores, and food and medicine manufacturing industries will remain open. All schools should remain closed, it added.

As many as 12 people have succumbed to Covid-19, and 25 have recovered.

As many as 557 people are infected in Punjab, 469 in Sindh, 138 in Balochistan, 188 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 107 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 39 in Islamabad and two in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Through Title 32, the letter said, the activations are federally funded, which would save these states from acute financial burden, standardize the (federal) benefits and entitlements across all those who become activated, and would most importantly keep those soldiers and airmen under their governors oversight.
SOFIA -- The leader of a pro-Russian political party in Bulgaria has been charged in Sofia with spreading false information about the coronavirus that could cause panic.

Kostadin Kostadinov, the chairman and founder of the Revival Party, confirmed to RFE/RL on March 30 that he had been indicted on the charges.

Earlier on March 30, the Sofia district prosecutor's office announced it had indicted "K.K., a leader of a political party," who claimed that emergency public-health measures in Bulgaria were "propaganda for diversion and are not in the interest of the citizens."

Prosecutors said the suspect also made misleading allegations of a lack of emergency supplies in Bulgarian government reserves.

Kostadinov told RFE/RL that he had also been accused of saying that Bulgaria did not have sufficient medical resources to meet the needs of hospitalized patients.

Kostadinov and his Revival Party have sought closer ties between Sofia and Moscow and have campaigned to distance Bulgaria from the European Union and NATO.

In Bulgaria's last elections in 2017, the Revival Party received just over 1 percent of the vote -- falling short of the tally needed to win seats in parliament.

With reporting by Boris Mitov of RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service in Sofia
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (March 30, 2020)--Researchers led by biomedical engineers at Tufts University invented a microfluidic chip containing cardiac cells that is capable of mimicking hypoxic conditions following a heart attack - specifically when an artery is blocked in the heart and then unblocked after treatment. The chip contains multiplexed arrays of electronic sensors placed outside and inside the cells that can detect the rise and fall of voltage across individual cell membranes, as well as voltage waves moving across the cell layer, which cause the cells to beat in unison in the chip, just as they do in the heart. After reducing levels of oxygen in the fluid within the device, the sensors detect an initial period of tachycardia (accelerated beat rate), followed by a reduction in beat rate and eventually arrhythmia which mimics cardiac arrest.

The research, published in Nano Letters, is a significant advance toward understanding the electrophysiological responses at the cellular level to ischemic heart attacks, and could be applied to future drug development. The paper was selected by the American Chemical Society as Editors' Choice, and is available with open access.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death worldwide, with most patients suffering from cardiac ischemia - which occurs when an artery supplying blood to the heart is partially or fully blocked. If ischemia occurs over an extended period, the heart tissue is starved of oxygen (a condition called "hypoxia"), and can lead to tissue death, or myocardial infarction. The changes in cardiac cells and tissues induced by hypoxia include changes in voltage potentials across the cell membrane, release of neurotransmitters, shifts in gene expression, altered metabolic functions, and activation or deactivation of ion channels.

The biosensor technology used in the microfluidic chip combines multi-electrode arrays that can provide extracellular readouts of voltage patterns, with nanopillar probes that enter the membrane to take readouts of voltage levels (action potentials) within each cell. Tiny channels in the chip allow the researchers to continuously and precisely adjust the fluid flowing over the cells, lowering the levels of oxygen to about 1-4 percent to mimic hypoxia or raising oxygen to 21 percent to model normal conditions. The changing conditions are meant to model what happens to cells in the heart when an artery is blocked, and then re-opened by treatment.

"Heart-on-a-chip models are a powerful tool to model diseases, but current tools to study electrophysiology in those systems are somewhat lacking, as they are either difficult to multiplex or eventually cause damage to the cells," said Brian Timko, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Tufts University School of Engineering, and corresponding author of the study. "Signaling pathways between molecules and ultimately electrophysiology occur rapidly during hypoxia, and our device can capture a lot of this information simultaneously in real time for a large ensemble of cells."

When tested, the extracellular electrode arrays provided a two-dimensional map of voltage waves passing over the layer of cardiac cells, and revealed a predictable wave pattern under normal (21 percent) oxygen levels. In contrast, the researchers observed erratic and slower wave patterns when the oxygen was reduced to 1 percent.

The intracellular nanoprobe sensors provided a remarkably accurate picture of action potentials within each cell. These sensors were arranged as an array of tiny platinum tipped needles upon which the cells rest, like a bed of nails. When stimulated with an electric field, the needles puncture through the cell membrane, where they can begin taking measurements at single cell resolution. Both types of devices were created using photolithography - the technology used to create integrated circuits - which allowed researchers to achieve device arrays with highly reproducible properties.

The extracellular and intracellular sensors together provide information of the eletrophysiological effects of a modeled ischemic attack, including a "time lapse" of cells as they become dysfunctional and then respond to treatment. As such, the microfluidic chip could form the basis of a high throughput platform in drug discovery, identifying therapeutics which help cells and tissues recover normal function more rapidly.

"In the future, we can look beyond the effects of hypoxia and consider other factors contributing to acute heart disease, such as acidosis, nutrient deprivation and waste accumulation, simply by modifying the composition and flow of the medium," said Timko. "We could also incorporate different types of sensors to detect specific molecules expressed in response to stresses."

This work was supported by grants from Tufts Collaborates, the Department of Defense (W81XWH-16-1-0304), the American Heart Association (Grant-in-Aid 16GRNT27760100) and the Tufts Summer Scholars Program. The research was performed at the Tufts Micro- and Nanofabrication Facility.

First author of the study was Haitao Liu, visiting scholar at Tufts University School of Engineering, Co-authors included Ning Hu, also a visiting scholar; Rotimi Bolonduro and Breanna Duffy, both PhD candidates; undergraduates Akshita Rao and Jie Ju; Zhaohui Huang of the School of Materials Science and Technology at China University of Geosciences; and Lauren Black, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Tufts.

Liu, H., Bolonduro, O.A., Hu, N., Ju, J., Rao, A.A., Duffy, B.M., Huang, Z., Black, L.D. and Timko, B.P. "Heart-on-a-chip model with integrated extra- and intra-cellular bioelectronics for monitoring cardiac electrophysiology under acute hypoxia" Nano Letters (9 March 2020); DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c00076

### About Tufts University Tufts University, located on campuses in Boston, Medford/Somerville and Grafton, Massachusetts, and in Talloires, France, is recognized among the premier research universities in the United States. Tufts enjoys a global reputation for academic excellence and for the preparation of students as leaders in a wide range of professions. A growing number of innovative teaching and research initiatives span all Tufts campuses, and collaboration among the faculty and students in the undergraduate, graduate and professional programs across the university's schools is widely encouraged.

###
Finance minister of Germany's Hesse state, Thomas Schaefer, committed suicide apparently after expressing "despair" over how to handle the economic fallout from the fast-spreading coronavirus, an official confirmed on Sunday.

Schaefer, 54, was found dead near a railway track at Hochheim, near Frankfurt on Saturday. The Wiesbaden prosecution's office said they believe he died by suicide, Al Jazeera reported.

"We are in shock, we are in disbelief and above all we are immensely sad," State governor Volker Bouffier said in a recorded statement.

Police and prosecutors said factors, including the questioning of witnesses and their own observations at the scene, led them to conclude that Schaefer killed himself.

Hesse is home to Germany's financial capital Frankfurt, where major lenders such as Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank have their headquarters. The European Central Bank is also located in Frankfurt.

A visibly shaken Bouffier recalled that Schaefer, who was Hesse's finance chief for 10 years, had been working "day and night" to help companies and workers deal with the economic impact of the pandemic.

"Today we have to assume that he was deeply worried," said Bouffier, who is also a close ally to Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"It's precisely during this difficult time that we would have needed someone like him," he added.

Schaefer belonged to Merkel's centre-right CDU party and is survived by his wife and two children.

The killer bug has so far infected over 60,000 people in Germany while nearly 600 have succumbed to the contagious infection.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(Newser)  Prince Harry and Meghan Markle won't be receiving government-funded protection after their reported move to California, President Trump warned Sunday. They had no intention of asking for it in the first place, a spokesperson for the couple tells NBC. The spokesperson says the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have made privately funded security arrangements. The couple had been living in Canada, where a security arrangement partially funded by Ottawa was set to expire March 31, when they officially step down as senior royals. People reports that the couple and son Archie have been living in a "secluded compound" in Los Angeles, Meghan's hometown. Paying for security is unlikely to be a problem: The couple have an estimated net worth of $30 million, and Meghan already has a post-royal job. (Read more Royal Family stories.)
NASA's next mission to Mars will carry what is meant to become the first aircraft to fly on another planet, and that experimental helicopter just spun its blades on Earth for the last time.

The Mars Helicopter is scheduled to launch in July with the new Mars rover, now dubbed Perseverance, as an add-on project to the primary Mars 2020 mission. NASA is still striving to meet that launch date despite continuing closures enacted to slow the spread of the serious respiratory disease COVID-19 caused by a new coronavirus.

All the components of the Mars 2020 mission are currently undergoing their final prelaunch tests at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Among those components are the cruise stage vehicle, which recently finished a test to confirm its mass properties, NASA said in a statement , and the helicopter.

Related: In photos: NASA's Mars 2020 rover mission to the Red Planet

The recent tests on the helicopter included spinning its blades for the last time before launch, during which it reached 50 rotations per minute in the testing airlock, according to the statement. If all goes well, the blades will next spin on Mars sometime in 2021, after the mission touches down in February .

Meeting the summer launch window for Mars 2020 is one of NASA's highest priorities even as much of the agency's centers have closed to on-site work in an attempt to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. Because of the tricky alignment of Mars and Earth, if the agency misses the launch window this summer, it will need to wait two years before it can try again. A Mars mission shared by the European Space Agency and Russia has already met that fate .

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels . Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook .
New Delhi, March 30 : IT major HCL Technologies on Monday said that the coronavirus pandemic is unlikely to have a major impact on its business as its exposure to the severely-affected sectors is not significant.

"While the impact on this quarter's numbers is yet to be quantified, we don't expect it to be significant. Our exposure to the more impacted verticals is not significant. Booking during this quarter has largely been on track as significant part of closures happened in January," the company said in a statement.

It said that its business model is a healthy mix of recurring product revenues, managed services and discretionary spend led professional services. From a vertical perspective, our exposure to verticals like oil and gas, travel and hospitality, high-end retail is in single digits.

"We recognize our investments in risk management systems and processes over the last several years are helping us to minimize the short-term impact and to be adequately prepared for the medium term, if it gets worse. We are also confident our business model will help us to emerge stronger in the longer term as it has been built for resilience during tough times," it said.

The company said it has been monitoring the COVID-19 outbreak since late January and had invoked its Business Continuity Plan and Risk Management Framework quite early to minimise the impact on its employees and clients.

"The situation arising out of this outbreak and its rapid spread across the world is unprecedented and is extremely dynamic. The economic impact is visible with varying degrees of intensity across multiple countries where we operate," said the company.

HCL said that it has a "well-defined and structured" pandemic policy in place which is resilient, pragmatic and accords paramount importance to employee safety and health and client commitments.

As of today, 76 per cent of its India-based employees and 92 per cent of its employees in other geographies are enabled to work from home.

"It is noteworthy that we have not witnessed any outages or major disruption in operations with this newer format of work from home delivery," it added.
Landra Gould, widow of senator Harry M. Reid, pays respects at his casket at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll/Bloomberg News)

The former Senate majority leader was remembered as a pragmatic dealmaker who became a political force across two presidencies.
UK based publisher Future has shut down the long-running Official Xbox Magazine (OXM). As reported by Eurogamer, the monthly print magazine was scrapped last week alongside five other non-game publications.

The magazine was almost two decades old, with the very first preview issue of OXM having been released during E3 2001 -- the same year the original Xbox arrived in North America.

Future indicated the decision was down to financial pressure caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and said it's working to keep layoffs to "an absolute minimum."

"Like many organizations right now, we find ourselves being forced into making difficult decisions. We have a duty of care to all our staff during this time and our focus is on protecting the business for them and for our customers," said the company.

"We have introduced a raft of measures to keep the numbers of lay-offs to an absolute minimum, including significant pay cuts for our executive team and board. Whilst the decline in retail footfall impacts our magazine business, we are well placed with significant digital audiences and diversified revenues to continue delivering on our customers' changing needs at this time."
Back in May 2016, Meghan Markle was yet to meet her prince when  as a star of the TV drama Suits  she appeared on an obscure late-night US chat show.

The womens rights firebrand held forth on the awfulness of Donald Trump, then the Republican Partys presumptive nominee for the presidency.

Not only was he divisive and misogynistic but he had made it easy to see that you dont really want that kind of world he is painting for us, she complained.

Meghan, at the time living in Toronto while filming her TV series, warned that Mr Trumps election would be so terrible that I might just stay in Canada and not come back to the US.

Meghan snubbed Mr Trump when he came to the UK for a state visit. Although Prince Harry at least deigned to meet The Donald, he appeared lukewarm, writes TOM LEONARD

Fateful words. Nearly four years later, she has been offered the same choice and, it appears, leapt at the chance of fleeing over the border. Even though it meant quitting liberal Canada  under the benign administration of her friend Justin Trudeau  for life under the politician she most detests in Los Angeles.

President Trump has already shown he inherited his Scottish-born mother Marys adoration of the pomp and ceremony of the Royal Family, not to mention her love for the Queen, but he hasnt exactly rolled out the red carpet for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

In a tweet on Sunday he put the kibosh on any hope they may have had of the US footing the bill for their protection. I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen and the United Kingdom, wrote Mr Trump. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the US. However, the US will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!

Although the Sussexes quickly put out a statement insisting theyd never intended to ask Washington for help and have their own privately-funded security arrangements, thank you, it left the impression that they had yet again failed to do proper planning.

The couple really shouldnt have been surprised that the president should try to rain on their parade in the sunshine state.

In a tweet on Sunday President Trump put the kibosh on any hope they may have had of the US footing the bill for their protection, writes TOM LEONARD

After all, Meghan snubbed Mr Trump when he came to the UK for a state visit  and a snub it was, whatever was said about her being excused royal duties as she was on maternity leave.

Although Prince Harry at least deigned to meet The Donald, he appeared lukewarm. He missed a lavish state dinner at Buckingham Palace for the president and earlier the same day, during a visit to the Royal Picture Gallery, witnesses said he noticeably hung back from standing  and being photographed  with Trump, chatting instead with his daughter Ivanka.

At the time, Mr Trump brushed aside their differences  although he made clear he knew all too well that the duchess had attacked him. She was nasty to me, he said in an interview, and thats OK for her to be nasty, its not good for me to be nasty to her and I wasnt.

Shes doing a good job, I hope she enjoys her life... I think shes very nice. It was a generous, high-minded response which anyone who knew anything about Mr Trump didnt believe for a second was sincere.

Mr Trump now has their future in his hands. Not paying for the couples protection could only be the start of his payback, writes TOM LEONARD

Hes made no secret of where his sympathies lie when it comes to Megxit. In an interview in January, he said the Queen had been hurt by the couples sudden announcement, adding: I dont think this should be happening to her.

Prince Harry, disciplined by years of royal caution about political views, has let slip little about what he thinks of Mr Trump.

Unfortunately for him  very unfortunately given he was shortly to move to the US  he let down his guard during a prank call from Russian hoaxers posing as the teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg and her father.

Meghan Markle in Toronto in 2016

He laid into the presidents environmental policy: The mere fact that Donald Trump is pushing the coal industry is so big in America, he has blood on his hands.

Mr Trump now has their future in his hands. Not paying for the couples protection could only be the start of his payback.

Under US law, as the spouse of an American citizen, Harry does not have automatic right to citizenship. He is probably not eligible to apply for an A1 visa, the preserve of diplomats and government officials.

He would have to go through the tedious process of securing a Green Card  that gives the right to live permanently and work in the US.

To do so, he would have to persuade officials (who under the Trump administration have tightened the process considerably) that he is a successful businessman with talents of use to the US, or else an alien of extraordinary ability. The process usually requires gushingly supportive letters from prominent people.

However, the decision as to who gets a Green Card remains notoriously arbitrary.

Taxation may be another area where US federal officials could  if they chose  put the couple through the wringer as they work towards being financially independent.

Although it has been reported that the couple moved to LA in part to avoid Meghan having to pay taxes in both the US and Canada, it will still be complicated.

Wherever they live, US citizens face being taxed on their worldwide income by the countrys Internal Revenue Service. If Prince Harry also takes citizenship, the US taxman will be able to scrutinise every aspect of their financial affairs in the UK, including any contributions they received from Prince Charles and other royal relatives.

The president may yet give the Sussexes plenty more to complain about.
While times may be uncertain as the coronavirus spreads, one thing is for sure: Houston is filled with great employers.

Do you know a company that empowers its employees to make decisions and appreciates their contributions beyond just the bottom line? A company that fosters a culture of collaboration and goes the extra mile to support its employees and the community, too? A company that adapts to the needs of its customers and employees in any circumstance?

Let us know.

The Houston Chronicle will recognize standout employers in its annual Top Workplaces report this fall.

To nominate a company, go to www.chron.com/nominate or call 713-429-0375. Anyone can make a nomination  from employees to customers to top executives. The deadline is May 8.

Awards are based on surveys analyzed by Energage, the Chronicle's research partner for the project. Last year, more than 73,000 local workers participated in the survey.

Energage, which conducts Top Workplaces surveys for 50 newspapers, surveyed more than 2 million employees at more than 7,000 organizations in 2019. This years survey will be the 11th report for the Chronicle.

Any organization with 50 or more employees in the Houston metro area is eligible to participate. The contest is open all types of employers: public, private, non-profit and government employees.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Top Workplaces 2019: Workers choose Houstons best employers

Workplaces are evaluated by their employees using a short 24-question survey. Companies will be surveyed during April through June.

The Top Workplaces contest comes as many companies are navigating new territory, with more employees working at home or business being disrupted by the coronavirus. Teachers are going online to teach classes and health care workers are heroically serving our community.

In times of great change, it is more important than ever to maintain a connection among employees, said Eric Rubino, Energage CEO. When you give your employees a voice, you come together to navigate challenges and shape your path forward based on real-time insights into what works best for your organization. The Top Workplaces program can be that positive outcome your company can rally around in the coming months to celebrate leadership and the importance of maintaining an employee-focused culture, even during challenging times.

Last year, the Chronicle recognized 150 organizations that employ nearly 135,000 people across a variety of industries. he Top Workplaces shared a common philosophy: recognizing their workers as their most important assets and the key to their success.

The winners included Insperity, a human resources services and business solutions company as the top large workplace; The Morgan Group, an apartment development and management company as the top midsize winner; and Improving, a custom software development and consulting firm as the top small company.

This years report will be published in November. We hope to see you on the list.

katherine.feser@chron.com

twitter.com/kfeser
(Natural News) After seeing cases of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) explode in nearby New York, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo issued an executive order mandating that any visitor from The Empire State be placed in a 14-day quarantine.

Whats more, to enforce her order, she ordered the Rhode Island National Guard to go door-to-door in coastal areas to inform any New York residents who had come to the state of the mandatory quarantine order.

As part of her crackdown on New York, Raimondo also instructed Guard troops and state patrol officers to inform visitors from New York at checkpoints around the state they are required to self-quarantine or face penalties.

The New York Times reported:

Police officers were watching Rhode Islands highways, bridges and bus stops. National Guard troops were trudging through resort towns with clipboards, knocking on doors. They were all hunting for fleeing New Yorkers and their telltale Empire State license plates.

The states are increasingly finding themselves pitted against one another, as they bid for scarce medical equipment, angle for federal aid and demand that nonresidents self-quarantine.

Raimondos orders, though, went farther than any other governor, at least so far. In addition to being fined, New Yorkers who continually break self-quarantine orders could also face arrest and jail time.

Thats a law  thats an order, Raimondo, a Democrat, said Saturday. It comes with penalties. Its not a suggestion.

The Times said she sent troops and officers to all main highways coming into the state, as well as Amtrak stations and the main airport, in order to stop people coming from New York State and inform them of her order.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) of Florida followed suit; he said his administration would establish a checkpoint on Interstate 95 near the Georgia line to stop New York drivers and tell them to self-quarantine for 14 days.

This is the way pandemics work

I want to be crystal clear about this: If youre coming to Rhode Island from New York you are ordered into quarantine. The reason for that is because more than half of the cases of coronavirus in America are in New York, Raimondo said Saturday, noting further that her actions were not meant to be discriminatory.

Except that they are, and they were.

The moves drew ire from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who called them reactionary and unconstitutional. He threatened to sue the small state if the policy wasnt rescinded, adding that we can work it out.

I understand the goal  but theres a point of absurdity, and I think what Rhode Island did is at that point of absurdity, said Cuomo, also a Democrat. We have to keep the ideas and the policies we implement positive rather than reactionary and emotional.

By Sunday, Raimondo had repealed her original order insofar as it applied only to New York. So she reissued another order and expanded it to all out-of-state residents, according to the Democrat & Chronicle.

The paper reported that Cuomo thanked Raimondo for reversing the policy. We thank them for their cooperation, he told reporters.

However, Raimondo made it clear that Cuomos reading of her action wasnt exactly right, noting she made her decision to expand her order before speaking with the New York governor.

If he feels its important for him to take credit, go ahead, she said. Im going to keep working here to keep Rhode Islanders safe.

Her actions come as Trump administration health officials warned anew Sunday that they expect tens of thousands more Americans to get sick from coronavirus.

The presidents top coronavirus task force doctor, Deborah Birx, said Sunday every city in the U.S. will face an outbreak.

This is the way pandemics work, and thats why we all are deeply concerned and why weve been raising the alert in all metro areas and in all states. No state, no metro area will be spared, she said.

Sources include:

WashingtonExaminer.com

DemocratAndChronicle.com

NYTimes.com
By Express News Service

KOLKATA: West Bengal reported a second COVID-19 death after a 44-yr-old woman died in a north Bengal hospital on Monday. The death toll rose to two in the state with 22 people testing positive for COVID-19 till date.

The woman from Kalimpong in Darjeeling district had recently returned from Chennai, where she had flown for the treatment of her daughter on March 7. After her daughters release from the hospital, she had spent another 10 days at Chennai. She had fever on March 18.

"The woman and her daughter returned Siliguri via Kolkata in a private operators flight on March 19. She spent the day at her brothers house and next day, headed towards Kalimpong in her private car. She went to a local doctor in Kalimpong with symptoms of fever and underwent medical tests, said an official of the state health department.

The woman went to Siliguri with respiratory problems and she was admitted to ICCU at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital on March 26. The woman died around 2 am on Monday.

The womans daughter has been asked to quarantine herself.
HCL Technologies Ltd (HCL) has been monitoring the Covid-19 outbreak since late January and had invoked its Business Continuity Plan and Risk Management Framework quite early to minimize the impact on its employees and clients. The situation arising out of this outbreak and its rapid spread across the world is unprecedented and is extremely dynamic. The economic impact is visible with varying degrees of intensity across multiple countries where we operate.

HCL has had a well-defined and structured pandemic policy in place which is resilient, pragmatic and accords paramount importance to employee safety & health and client commitments. We are actively engaged with our clients and have executed the client-specific and HCL internal operations-centric Business Continuity Plan that ensures continuity in delivering to our client and employee commitments. HCL is constantly reviewing the situation at hand with utmost priority and fully complying with all government advisories and recommendations. Given the extended nature of this situation, we have looked at ensuring that we put in medium-term sustainable measures in place to ensure continuity of all our operations and client deliverables. We have been successful in achieving this as of today. A large number of our clients have expressed their deep appreciation of our efforts and speed at which we have been able to achieve the current state.

As of today, 76% of our India-based employees and 92% of our employees in other geographies are enabled to work from home. In certain geographies, a limited set of our employees are working from our offices, wherever it is permissible by the government and local authorities. It is noteworthy that we have not witnessed any outages or major disruption in operations with this newer format of work from home delivery. We would like to use this opportunity to thank our clients, industry bodies and government officials who have been very supportive in our efforts so far.

Likely Impact on business

While the impact on this quarters numbers is yet to be quantified, we dont expect it to be significant. Our exposure to the more impacted verticals are not significant. Booking during this quarter has largely been on track as significant part of closures happened in January.

Our business model is a healthy mix of recurring product revenues, managed services and discretionary spend led professional services. From a vertical perspective, our exposure to verticals like Oil & Gas, Travel & Hospitality, High-End Retail is in single digits.

We recognize our investments in risk management systems and processes over the last several years are helping us to minimize the short-term impact and to be adequately prepared for the medium term, if it gets worse. We are also confident our business model will help us to emerge stronger in the longer term as it has been built for resilience during tough times.

Our wishes of safety and best of health to everyone out there and we hope and pray for the earliest end to the crisis. Keep a safe distance.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005242/en/
Mrs Kafilat Ogbara, a Chieftain of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in Lagos, in this recent chat with Olanrewaju Adesanya bares her mind on the ravenous Coronavirus pandemic, taking the world by the storm and sending jitters down the spine of the worlds economic base. Excerpt:

New cases of COVID 19 are being recorded daily, where do we go from here?

We saw it coming, and now its here already, a lot of developed nations could not even contain it so we dont expect anything super from Nigeria, it is a pity we could have prevented it, but the government is doing all it can to stop further spread.

I think we need to do more, unlike the ebola case, government has failed in taking proactive measures to prevent this. As it is now, we need all hands on deck to contain it, government bodies, corporate organisations, individuals, we all have to come together to stop this. As individuals we should invest in the test kits, join the government in the awareness campaign, within our estate, we can ensure people get tested before they are allowed into our compounds and when we discover any case we should call any of the free toll numbers.

I can tell you for free that this thing is more than what is being reported in the media, a lot of people already contacted this thing who have not been tracked and they are infecting others everyday.

We need to follow the instructions given by medical practitioners, we need to wash our hands regularly, keep our environment clean, stay at home, if you must go out at all make it a selective outing, we need to ensure we use one stop shops where we can get all our things and return home immediately, this thing is everywhere now, you can see it in high places, the son of a former Vice President, Chief of Staff to the President are some of those infected already so, its no longer a joke.

Government also need to discentralise these isolation centres, we have halls that we use for Owambe parties government can use those facilities for now in each Local Government.

Would you support the position of the wife of the President that as long as the parents still go out and come back to make contact with their children we are still not serious about it, therefore, everyone should stay at home?

Of course, she is right because, of what meaning is it when children stay at home and the parents goes out, get exposed to all manner of things out there, come back and still make contact with their children, it doesnt make any sense.

However, the government must also make it comfortable for people to stay at home, we are asking people to stay at home, how safe is it for a family of seven inside one room, there are houses where fifteen people stay in a room in this Lagos, it is easy for us to say people should stay at home, but do you know the condition of their houses.

People even look for small space to lay their heads and when the day breaks they are out again, we need to make things easy for this set of people, they are our people ,we are one family, this is already being done in other countries, government is already giving incentives for people to stay indoor, food items are being distributed, payments of rent stopped and so on, Nigeria government need to do something to make staying at home easy for the people.

You asked people to stay at home, there is no electricity, the house is hot, some depends on water vendors for their daily water use, if the vendors stays at home there would be no water for them to use for their hygiene, some only have access to decent toilet facilities in their place of work and now that you ask them to stay indoor what happens. I think government need to look beyond this elitist policies and realise that there are downtrodden Nigerians who cannot survive without going out to vend for their daily living. What are the provisions government is making to ensure a level of palliative for this kinds of people who must always go out to look for money to feed their children?

All these still boils down to what people have been saying about bad leadership, poor governance. I am an APC Chieftain, yes, but truth be told, things are not the way it should be, we dont even have the right data to do all these, we dont have the number of people who are old and young, how many people are employed, how many are unemployed, peoples telephone number, account details and so on, with all these data, it would have been easier to reach out to the people but in the absence of that, if the government can still work with the Local Governments, they know how to get the people at the grassroots.

We know how we go from house to house to meet people when we want votes, we know how to reach every house when we want to collect our levies, we can always device means to reach out to the people if we actually want to as government.

Do you think the government has been proactive enough in handling this issue?

I am one of the people who has been clamouring for a shut down before now, asking that our borders be closed but you can see from the calibre of people coming back into the country in recent time the reason why the government refused to shut down the airspace before now. They were waiting for family members to arrive before they would close the airspace, they are putting the lives of over 200 million Nigerians at risk because of their family members. I am speaking as a Nigerian now not as an APC Chieftain or a politician . Before we have the index case, we were hearing how it was spreading everywhere, yet, we were still allowing flight to come into Nigeria from those high risk countries. They kept telling us they have this electronic devices that could test people from afar off and I wonder why the device could not pick the cases we have now who came in through the Airport.

Most of the cases we have now, the people affected called by themselves not even that they were detected by the government, so, if they had not called they would be spreading it everywhere, it is pathetic, I think the government failed in this area, thats my opinion.

I think this is an opportunity for us to reflect as a nation, for instance, like the NAFDAC DG told us, we are at a risk now because most of the drugs we use are imported from China and some other high risk countries, it is time for the government to begin to look inward and see how we can be independent in these essential areas like education, health, drugs and so on.

What do you wish Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his 68th birthday?

Asiwaju is not just our leader, he is a global phenomenon, a mentor and a visionary leader, he is a man with foresight, he is somebody I admire a lot, we look up to him, he has taken Lagos to an enviable height, with this level of social, economic and political stability.

I wish him many more years in good health, sound mind, joy and happiness, not only for him, his wife too, senator Oluremi Tinubu. I wish him happy birthday.
A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday asking it to consider releasing prisoners above the age of 50 years on "emergency parole or interim bail" amid the menace of coronavirus.

The PIL was filed by lawyer and activist Amit Sahni.

The petition asked the top court to consider releasing prisoners above the age of 50 years, who have ailments and pre-existing medical conditions (like high blood pressure, heart disease, lung disease, cancer or diabetes) on "emergency parole or interim bail".

The Supreme Court had last week asked all State governments to release undertrial prisoners, who are facing charges attracting less than seven years imprisonment, to reduce overcrowding of jails amid the ongoing coronavirus scare.

The country is under a 21-day lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, which according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has claimed the lives of 29 people and infected a total of 1071 people as on Monday morning.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three crew members on the cruise ship at the centre of a coronavirus scandal have been ferried off the vessel and taken to hospital with serious COVID-19 symptoms.

The Ruby Princess has become a major coronavirus source across Australia after more than 100 infected passengers were allowed off the ship without any checks.

The ship is floating off the coast of Sydney with more than 1,100 crew quarantined on board.

Scroll down for video

Pictured: A crew member is taken to an ambulance by health workers in protective clothing on Sunday night. Three cruise ship employees have been taken to hospital from the coronavirus-stricken Ruby Princess with serious COVID-19 symptoms

The three employees are not Australian nationals but needed 'better care' than they could receive on the cruise ship, NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said

The ship docked in Sydney Harbour (pictured at Circular Quay on March 19) and more than 100 infected travellers were allowed to disembark the ship without any checks

New South Wales authorities on Monday confirmed three crew members had been ferried off the ship on Sunday night and taken to hospital.

Chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said the trio - who are not Australian nationals - were evacuated with the help of police.

'There were three patients where it was assessed that they needed to be unloaded from that cruise ship and receive better care,' Dr Chant told reporters on Monday.

'We've always indicated we'd put the lives of the crew-members above everything else.'

Dr Chant has previously said the ship was well-prepared to contain any infections on board.

The crew members were taken ashore by a police launch boat in an hours-long operation after the Ruby Princess anchored near Botany Bay.

A spokesman for the Carnival cruise company said the three crew members were suffering acute respiratory symptoms, and thanked authorities for transferring the passengers 'on humanitarian grounds'.

The number of confirmed Australian cases from the Ruby Princess cruise ship had jumped to 215 by Sunday night.

As of Sunday evening, there are 1,918 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in New South Wales including 26 patients in intensive care units.

13 of those patients are requiring ventilators, NSW Health said.

In the wake of the Ruby Princess fiasco, NSW has banned all cruise ship passengers from disembarking until new protocols are in place.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller says no one will leave the Ruby Princess unless they have his personal approval.

The three affected crew members were brought ashore in the hours-long operation by a police vessel (pictured) at Botany Bay south of Sydney on Sunday night

'Anyone who has to come off, comes off at my approval,' Mr Fuller told reporters on Monday.

'Three people needed medical attention and we facilitated the removal of those three people.'

Two Ruby Princess passengers - a 77-year-old woman in NSW and a 75-year-old woman in Queensland - died after contracting COVID-19.

Australian Border Force chief Michael Outram last week said the decision to disembark passengers without adequate checks was the responsibility of NSW Health and the federal agriculture department.
Bollywood veteran Anupam Kher on Monday shared an evocative poem on life at the time of a health crisis situation. Taking to Twitter, he shared a short poem in Hindi that roughly translates to "Quiet city, every person has become a prisoner in the township. Today, life is expensive, and the wealth has become cheaper."

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       ,



   

     :)  Anupam Kher (@AnupamPKher) March 30, 2020

India under lockdown

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown in the entire country effective from midnight of March 25 to deal with the spread of coronavirus, saying that "social distancing" is the only option to deal with the disease, which spreads rapidly. The 21-day curfew is applicable to all states, districts, and villages - irrespective of whether they were earlier under curfew or not.

Further, India has also closed the India-Pakistan border and restricted passenger movement at the border with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Myanmar.

Read: Now, Tamil Nadu to introduce robots to the Coronavirus fight; here's what Zafi will do

The Coronavirus crisis

As of date, India has reported over 1,000 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19. Out of all the states, Kerala and Maharashtra have reported the most in the country. Meanwhile, over 27 people have died so far due to the deadly virus.

Read: COVID-19: ITBP distributes rations to stranded migrant workers in Himachal amid lockdown

Presently, there are around 721,412 confirmed cases of COVID-19 which has led to the death of around 33,956 people. Meanwhile, around 151,004 people have reportedly recovered. The US is at the top of the charts with respect to Coronavirus cases, with over 1.2 lakh infected.

Read: Subramanian Swamy demands suspension of Delhi govt: 'Can't afford two during lockdown'

Read: Sham! Nations bulk-return faulty Coronavirus gear & tests imported from Covid source China
Canada is responding to a health crisis of historic proportions just as it should, by rolling out support at an equally unprecedented scale and pace.

The initial emergency support measures recently announced by the federal government will help millions of Canadians in the early days of record-level job losses and economic upheaval. All levels of government will need to follow up with additional aid while continuing to make saving lives their top priority.

Economists expect COVID-19s economic fallout will surpass the 2008 Great Recession and the federal governments deficit will exceed $100 billion this year.

The single biggest priority right now is protecting the health and security of Canadians, but any plan for our nations recovery will eventually need to ask, how are we going to pay for this?

Its a question Conservatives have used for years to discourage investments in public services such as healthcare and childcare  exactly the life-and-job-saving programs that Canadians have come to appreciate more in the past few weeks.

Progressive economists and advocacy groups such as Canadians for Tax Fairness have responded by illustrating how a more sustainable economy can be funded by requiring the very wealthy and the extremely profitable corporations to pay their fair share.

An unprecedented economic crisis is not the time to hike taxes on businesses, but it is a long-overdue opportunity for government to plug the many holes in our financial and tax systems that can be exploited by wealthy individuals and profitable corporations to avoid contributing to the very resources they benefit from.

While the Liberals promise to finally tax profitable foreign online giants in Canada may seem like ages ago, it is more relevant than ever in todays pandemic.

Companies such as Netflix and Amazon, which pay little to no taxes in Canada, are seeing sales soar in an increasingly online world. The very companies poised to profit in this crisis will contribute little to paying for it.

Even corporate billionaire owners, such as Amazons Jeff Bezos, who promote philanthropy in the absence of fair corporate and personal income taxes, have been relatively inactive on the charitable front in this crisis.

Charity doesnt pay the bills of the millions of hard-working and tax-paying Canadians who dont know if theyll be able to make rent or feed their family in a few days. A handful of large, profitable corporations will make a killing in the coming months as thousands of small and medium-sized businesses  the lifeblood of Canadas economy  will be shuttered within weeks.

The growing discrepancy between the wealthy and those struggling to get by has never been starker. Previous calls for a wealth tax, which the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated could raise $70 billion over 10 years, should also be revisited.

Then there are the lost revenues from hundreds of billions tucked away in tax havens. This week will mark four years since the Panama Papers scandal broke, revealing hundreds of Canadians with wealth hidden in offshore accounts.

While other countries have made significant progress tracking tax dodgers, cracking down on corrupt individuals, and recuperating millions from the Panama leaks, there hasnt been a single conviction in Canada.

Its time to fix the flaws in our system that have unfairly resulted in the most vulnerable workers carrying a heavier burden and facing a greater risk than the most privileged among us.

Many unknowns surround this health pandemic, making it difficult to predict when Canada could begin to recuperate. Can the virus be controlled, will there be a second wave, how will our trading partners and supply chains be affected? The only certainty is that a recovery will take more than several weeks.

If Canadian households and businesses receive the appropriate help in the meantime, we can not only get through this catastrophe, but rebuild a stronger society where everyone contributes to our security against future threats.
The number of people in the UK who have died after testing positive for coronavirus has risen to 1,408 after it claimed 180 more lives.

NHS England said the number of people who have died in England had risen by 159, bringing the total to 1,284.

The patients were aged between 32 and 98 years old and all but four, aged between 56 and 87 years old, had underlying health conditions.

The number dead in Wales rose by 14 to 62, health officials said, while Nicola Sturgeon announced six more had died in Scotland, taking the total to 47.

In Northern Ireland, The number of people who have died has risen by one to 22, health officials said.

Official figures for deaths from coronavirus could be pushed further upwards on Tuesday by a change in the way numbers are gathered.

The figure released by the Office for National Statistics will include cases where patients die in their own homes, as well as those who are being treated in hospital at the time of their deaths.

Prime minister Boris Johnsons official spokesman said: Daily figures are for those deaths which take place in hospitals in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

From tomorrow, the ONS will be publishing weekly data for death registrations which would include people who die in the community.

It would be necessary for a medical professional to be satisfied that one of the contributory factors for a death was coronavirus in order for it to be registered that way.

The increase comes amid questions about whether the official toll accurately reflects the number of deaths seen in hospitals.

On Sunday, Englands deputy chief medical officer, Dr Jenny Harries, said there is a time lag in the number of deaths tallied up as officials check the numbers and speak to families.

For example, a tally of the NHS data updated on Sunday said 11 people had died after testing positive for Covid-19 in hospitals run by Kings College Hospital trust, but the trusts own website, updated on Friday, said 33 patients who had tested positive had died.

Asked about disparities in figures at a press conference in Downing Street, Dr Harries said: We have to make sure that when were reporting the family is content and knows and all our data is absolutely accurate.

She added: There is always a time lag for us to check and evaluate that the data across the system is linked.

We do not want to be misreporting data and then having to correct it. The public would not have confidence if we were doing that.

As we have sadly had to register more deaths, that time period takes longer.
Boris Johnsons most senior aide is facing fresh allegations he flouted lockdown rules by taking a sightseeing trip on Easter Sunday.

The prime minister is facing mounting calls to sack Dominic Cummings amid claims he made several trips to see his family in County Durham, while the country was being told to stay at home.

Ministers vociferously defended Mr Cummings after it emerged he had made the 260-mile journey, insisting he had obeyed the rules by staying in one place while there.

However, an eyewitness told The Observer and the Sunday Mirror he had seen Mr Cummings on 12 April, 30 miles from Durham in Barnard Castle.

Another eyewitness said they saw the prime ministers most trusted aide in Durham on 19 April, days after he had been photographed returning to Downing Street.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 30 December 2021 Sunrise at Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 29 December 2021 The Very Revd Dr Robert Willis, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, looks at Becket, a six month old red-billed chough as he visits Wildwood Wildlife Park in Kent on the anniversary of the murder of Thomas Becket PA UK news in pictures 28 December 2021 Troops of the Household Cavalry are seen reflected in a puddle during the changing of the Queens Life Guard, on Horse Guards Parade, in central London PA UK news in pictures 27 December 2021 A pedestrian walks past a winter sale sign outside a John Lewis store on Oxford street in London Getty UK news in pictures 26 December 2021 Riders take their bikes through the snow near Castleside, County Durham PA UK news in pictures 25 December 2021 Patrick Corkery wears a santa hat and beard as waves crash over him at Forty Foot near Dublin during a Christmas Day dip PA UK news in pictures 24 December 2021 People stand inside Kings Cross Station on Christmas Eve in London Reuters UK news in pictures 23 December 2021 Christmas shoppers fill the car park at Fosse Shopping Park in Leicester PA UK news in pictures 22 December 2021 The sun rises behind the stones as people gather for the winter solstice at Stonehenge. Getty UK news in pictures 21 December 2021 People take part in a winter solstice swim at Portobello Beach in Edinburgh to mark the solstice and to witness the dawn after the longest night of the year PA UK news in pictures 20 December 2021 An auction employee displays poultry to buyers and sellers attending the Christmas Poultry Sale at York Auction Centre in Murton PA UK news in pictures 19 December 2021 Joao Moutinho of Wolverhampton Wanderers looks on during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Chelsea at Molineux Getty Images UK news in pictures 18 December 2021 Freight lorries queuing at the port of Dover in Kent PA UK news in pictures 17 December 2021 Newly elected Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan, bursts 'Boris' bubble' held by colleague Tim Farron, as she celebrates following her victory in the North Shropshire by-election PA UK news in pictures 16 December 2021 Brussels sprouts are harvested by workers as they prepare for the busy Christmas period near Boston in Lincolnshire PA UK news in pictures 15 December 2021 Lewis Hamilton is made a Knight Bachelor by the Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 14 December 2021 The Royal Liver Buildings surrounded by early morning fog in Liverpool PA UK news in pictures 13 December 2021 People queue outside a walk-in Covid-19 vaccination centre at St Thomas's Hospital in Westminster Getty Images UK news in pictures 12 December 2021 People take part in the Big Leeds Santa Dash in Roundhay Park, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 11 December 2021 People arrive at a Covid-19 vaccination centre at Elland Road in Leeds, PA UK news in pictures 10 December 2021 Stella Moris speaks to the media after the US Government won its High Court bid to overturn a judges decision not to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange PA UK news in pictures 9 December 2021 Camels are lead around Salisbury Cathedral during a rehearsal for the Christmas Eve Service PA UK news in pictures 8 December 2021 Margaret Keenan and Nurse May Parsons, a year after Margaret was the first person in the UK to receive the Pfizer vaccine PA UK news in pictures 7 December 2021 Snowfall in Leadhills, South Lanarkshire as Storm Barra hits the UK with disruptive winds, heavy rain and snow PA UK news in pictures 6 December 2021 A person tries to avoid sea spray on New Brighton promenade in Wallasey as the UK readies for the arrival of Storm Barra Getty UK news in pictures 5 December 2021 People release balloons during a tribute to six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes outside Emma Tustin's former address in Solihull, West Midlands, where he was murdered by his stepmother PA UK news in pictures 4 December 2021 People walk through a Christmas market in Trafalgar Square Reuters UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 A pedestrian carries a dog as they dodge shoppers on Oxford Street in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 2 December 2021 Duchess of Cambridge inspects a Faberge egg at the Victoria and Albert Museum Getty UK news in pictures 1 December 2021 Meerkats at London Zoo with an advent calendar PA UK news in pictures 30 November 2021 Workers put the finishing touches to the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree ahead of the lighting ceremony later in the week PA UK news in pictures 29 November 2021 Home Secretary Priti Patel is greeted by a police dog at a special memorial service for Met Police Sergeant Matiu Ratana Getty UK news in pictures 28 November 2021 Riyad Mahrez of Manchester City battles for possession with Aaron Cresswell of West Ham United during a match at the Etihad during snow Manchester City/Getty UK news in pictures 27 November 2021 Residents clear branches from a fallen tree in Birkenhead, north west England as Storm Arwen triggered a rare red weather warning AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 An aerial picture shows a worker using a quad bike and trailer to transport freshly harvested trees at Pimms Christmas Tree farm in Matfield, southeast England AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 26 November 2021 A shopper browses Christmas trees for sale at Pines and Needles in Dulwich, London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 November 2021 A murmuration of hundreds of thousands of starlings fly over a field at dusk in Cumbria, close to the Scottish border PA UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 A pedestrian carries a dog as they dodge shoppers on Oxford Street in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 24 November 2021 Migrants are helped ashore from a RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) lifeboat at a beach in Dungeness, on the south-east coast of England, on November 24, 2021, after being rescued while crossing the English Channel. AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 23 November 2021 The coffin of Sir David Amess is carried past politicians, including former Prime Ministers Sir John Major, David Cameron and Theresa May, Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Home Secretary Priti Patel and Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the requiem mass for the MP at Westminster Cathedral, central London PA UK news in pictures 22 November 2021 The scene in Dragon Rise, Norton Fitzwarren, Somerset where police have launched a murder probe after two people were found dead Tom Wren/SWNS UK news in pictures 21 November 2021 London-based midwife Sarah Muggleton, 27, takes part in a 'March with Midwives' in central London to highlight the crisis in maternity services PA UK news in pictures 20 November 2021 Police officers monitor as climate change activists sit down and block traffic during a protest action in solidarity with activists from the Insulate Britain group who received prison terms for blocking roads, on Lambeth Bridge in central London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 19 November 2021 A giant installation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson made from recycled clothing goes on display at Manchester Central, as part of Manchester Art Fair, in a 'wake-up call for the Prime Minister to tackle textile waste' PA UK news in pictures 18 November 2021 The scene at a recycling centre in Stert, near Devizes in Wiltshire after a large blaze was brought under control. The fire broke out on Wednesday night the fire service has said and local residents were advised to keep windows and doors shut due to large amounts of smoke PA UK news in pictures 17 November 2021 The sun rises over South Shields Lighthouse, on the North East coast of England PA UK news in pictures 16 November 2021 ancer Maithili Vijayakumar at the launch of 2021 Diwali celebrations at St Andrew Square in Edinburgh PA UK news in pictures 15 November 2021 Forensic officers work outside Liverpool Women's Hospital, following a car blast, in Liverpool Reuters UK news in pictures 14 November 2021 Wreaths by the Cenotaph after the Remembrance Sunday service in Whitehall, London PA UK news in pictures 13 November 2021 Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, is ending his hunger strike in central London after almost three weeks. Ratcliffe has spent 21 days camped outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London without food. He began his demonstration on 24 October after his wife lost her latest appeal in Iran, saying his family was caught in a dispute between two states PA

Earlier, Downing Street had described the first trip as essential, saying Mr Cummings needed his familys help to care for his young son because his wife was sick with coronavirus and he feared he was next.

Cabinet ministers lined up to defend Mr Cummings, saying he had put his family first and accused critics of trying to politicise the issue.

Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, used the daily Downing Street press conference to suggest that Mr Cummings had not broken lockdown rules because he had stayed put upon arrival in Durham.

But Robin Lees, 70, a retired chemistry teacher, told the papers he had seen Mr Cummings in Barnard Castle on Easter Sunday.

Mr Lees compared him to Catherine Calderwood, Scotlands former chief medical officer, who stood down after visiting her second home twice during lockdown.

Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP have written to Sir Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary, calling for an inquiry into Mr Cummingss decision to travel from London to Durham.

They want the probe to include when the prime minister was made aware Mr Cummings had left the capital.

Senior Tories also expressed concern that Mr Cummings's behaviour could encourage others to flout the rules, jeopardising the governments plans to gradually lift the lockdown.

The Independent can reveal that senior MPs are set to question Mr Johnson over Mr Cummings later this week, as pressure grows on the prime minister to explain what he knew about the trip under lockdown.

Parliament is in recess until June, meaning Mr Johnson will not have to face MPs at Prime Ministers Questions.

But members of the Commons Liaison Committee, which is made up of the chairs of other select committees, said they expected Mr Johnson to be questioned about Mr Cummings when he makes his first appearance before them later this week.

Pete Wishart, an SNP MP who sits on the committee and is a member of the "quad" which organises its business, said: If nothing has changed and Dominic Cummings is still in post by Wednesday, it would be very surprising if this was an issue that was not raised.

Another member of the committee said: Im sure one of my colleagues will crowbar the Cummings question in.

In a statement defending Mr Cummings, Downing Street said his trip had been essential to ensure his young son was properly cared for. After an offer of help from his sister and nieces, he travelled to a house near to but separate from his extended family.

A spokesperson for No 10, said: "Yesterday [Friday] the Mirror and Guardian wrote inaccurate stories about Mr Cummings. Today [Saturday] they are writing more inaccurate stories including claims that Mr Cummings returned to Durham after returning to work in Downing Street on 14 April. We will not waste our time answering a stream of false allegations about Mr Cummings from campaigning newspapers."

There was confusion about the involvement of police, however. No 10 also said that at no stage was Mr Cummings or his family spoken to by the police.

On Saturday night Durham Police took the unusual step of confirming they had spoken to Mr Cummingss father.

Steve White, the police and crime commissioner for Durham Police, a former head of the Police Federation in England and Wales, said it was "most unwise" for Mr Cummings to have travelled when "known to be infected".

The SNP accused No 10 of a "cover up" after reports some in Downing Street knew Mr Cummings had made the 260-mile journey during lockdown.

Former Tory cabinet minister David Lidington, Theresa Mays de facto deputy prime minister, told Newsnight: "There's clearly serious questions that No 10 are going to have to address, not least because the readiness of members of the public to follow government guidance more generally is going to be affected by this sort of story."

Professor Neil Ferguson, the epidemiologist whose modelling prompted the lockdown, quit as a government adviser for flouting the rules when he was visited at this home by his lover.

At the time Mr Hancock, the health secretary, said he was "speechless" and that he backed any police action against Mr Ferguson.

Sir Ed Davey, acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, called for Mr Cummings to quit over the allegations, while a spokesperson for Labour said: "The British people do not expect there to be one rule for them and another rule for Dominic Cummings."

Asked by reporters on Saturday if he had considered his position, Mr Cummings said "obviously not".
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Two of Canadas major arts organizations have teamed up to announce an Emergency Relief Fund for authors financially affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

The fund starts with $150,000 and will distribute grants of $1,500 to writers who have seen their income evaporate due to cancelled contracts or appearances.

Financing is being supplied by the Writers Trust of Canada, the Writers Union of Canada and RBC.

Writers, whether veterans or novices, cobble together income from a variety of sources, said Charlie Foran, Writers Trusts executive director. This leaves them especially vulnerable during a public health crisis the magnitude of COVID-19.

Writers rely on events including book tours, lectures, performances, festival appearances and school visits for a portion of their income and, within days, all of those events were cancelled, leaving many self-employed writers in economic crisis.

The Writers Union organization also recently conducted a survey of its members and found that, to date the authors surveyed project a total loss because of the COVID-19 crisis exceeding $1.68 million and that individual writers on average are citing a loss of $3,267.

These losses will increase as the crisis continues, and TWUC will continue to track them. Many professional writers, the union said, are left struggling to buy groceries or medication or pay the rent.

To put this into perspective, writers made an average of just $9,380 in 2017 from their writing alone, according to numbers released by the Writers Union.

The crushing economic blow from COVID-19 comes at a time when writers are already imperiled by regulatory failure around copyright licensing, says John Degen, executive director of The Writers Union of Canada. And yet more than ever, the work of Canadas authors are desperately in demand by teachers and students. We hope our contribution will inspire others to donate to keep authors working.

If youre a writer, applications to the fund can be made through the Writers Trust website at writerstrust.com. Applications are due by April 9 with payments expected to go out within a week.

To be eligible, writers must meet criteria that includes minimum publishing thresholds and detailing a loss of income that exceeds the $1,500 grant amount.

According to a release, another round will follow later in April, and subsequent rounds will be added as additional funds are raised. The organizations are looking for large-scale funding partners and point out that 100 per cent of all donations will go to writers in need.

If youre in a position to donate, you can do that at writerstrust.com/donate.
SUNNYVALE (BCN)

Bloom Energy, a Sunnyvale-based company that usually works on "next generation energy solutions" and related technologies, is refurbishing 170 medical ventilators, and is among many businesses partnering with the state to assist Californians as COVID-19 continues to spread.

Gov. Gavin Newsom's office said the ventilators being refurbished are from the federal stockpile, and they were not working. They recently came to the Sunnyvale facility, where the Bloom Energy production facility was transformed into one that refurbishes ventilators. They are expected to be loaded for shipment back to the Los Angeles area on Monday.

"Across our state, companies big and small are stepping up to meet this moment, and assist our efforts to respond to this crisis," Newsom said in a release. "California has always been a leader in innovation, and to see this innovation and these incredible resources being used to ensure the people on the front lines of COVID-19 have the resources they need to save lives embodies California's giving spirit."

Newsom, along with San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, toured the Bloom facility on Saturday.

At the onset of the pandemic, California had approximately 7,500 ventilators across its hospital systems. The state set a goal of adding an additional 10,000 ventilators; as of Saturday, the state has added 4,252 ventilators, approximately 1,000 of which needed to be refurbished.

Bloom is one of more than 350 businesses and manufacturers in California that offered to re-tool their facilities to make medical supplies and essential products during the coronavirus crisis. Others include The Gap and St. John Knits making masks, gowns and scrubs for hospital workers, and Anheuser-Busch and other distilleries adapting to produce hand sanitizer.

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The city of Pflugerville took further precautions on Monday amid the coronavirus pandemic, closing Lake Pflugerville until further notice.

In a news release, the city said overcrowding at the lake has put the public in danger. The closure, which begins noon Monday, includes the lake, fishing piers, pavilion, restrooms and trails surrounding the lake.

"If the City continues to see overcrowding or lack of social distancing in other parks, they will also be closed," the release says.

HOUSTON UPDATES: Dave Ward pleads for prayers for his wife, Metro suspends Park-and-Ride

The action comes as the number of known coronavirus cases climbed from 179 to 200 in Travis County on Sunday, according to local health officials. Travis County data show nine of those cases are in Pflugerville and two are in the Wells Branch area.

On Friday, the county confirmed a woman older than 70 died, marking the county's first coronavirus-related death.

Also on Friday, the Pflugerville school district told parents that a staff member at Pflugerville High School tested positive for COVID-19. The staff member, who is not a teacher, showed no symptoms relating to coronavirus until the last weekend of spring break and had no contact with students or staff since March 14, according to the statement. The staffer's health care provider believes the person could have been within a contagious period of the virus the week before spring break, the statement says. District staff asked that school staff and students monitor their health and immediately inform their health care provider if they begin feeling ill.

Pflugerville Mayor Victor Gonzales said the city is providing regular updates through the city website and advocating social distancing. Like many other cities, he said future City Council meetings will be held through a virtual platform, and the city has scaled back non-essential services in all departments.

Like many other Central Texas residents, he and his wife worked from home last week, with him in a front office area and her in the master bedroom. He works as a senior account manager for Office Depot, while his wife is employed with the state. He said they rarely cross paths during the workday, though they met in the kitchen once for lunch. "(It's been) no different than working at the physical office," he said. "As a matter of fact I feel I have been more productive."

Gonzales encouraged residents to adhere to Travis County's shelter-in-place order, and asked that they support local small businesses. "My message to Pflugerville: please stay home during this time, enjoy the sunlight when you have the opportunity in a safe arena of space, be compassionate (toward) your neighbors, and support your local businesses that are trying to hang on by a thread until this pandemic subsides," he said. "We will survive this challenge as a community."

___

(c)2020 Austin American-Statesman, Texas

Visit Austin American-Statesman, Texas at www.statesman.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Migrant workers who returned to their homes from different cities were forced by district administration to "take bath" in groups with disinfectants before they were allowed to enter the district border. Read more

Here's more top news of the day:

1) 5-Star Hotels In Delhi, UP To Isolate Doctors Treating COVID-19 Patients; Govt To Bear Cost

Representational Image

Doctors at Lok Nayak and GB Pant Hospitals will be put up at Lalit, a luxury hotel a few kilometres away. Delhi government has booked 100 rooms in the hotel and will fund their stays, according to an order from health minister Satyender Jain. Read more

2) Delhi's Nizamuddin Area Cordoned Off After 200 Coronavirus Suspects Who Attended An Event At Mosque Taken To Hospitals

BCCL

At least 200 people, suspected to have developed symptoms for coronavirus, from Delhi's Nizamuddin area have been taken to different hospitals for the test. Read more

3) No More Rain And Slight Dip In Air Quality As Delhi Remains In Lockdown Due To Coronavirus Threat

INDIATIMES

After Delhi had a good air day on March 28, something we have not since August last year (AQI below 50), the city's AQI went up a bit a day later to 62 according to the Central Pollution Control Boards daily bulletin. Read more

4) With A Name That Rhymes With Coronavirus, Villagers In UP's Karauna Are Facing A Tough Time

Representational Image

Villagers in Karauna are facing a situation they had never dreamt of. With a name that rhymes with the coronavirus pandemic, villagers in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur district are troubled. Read more

5) A Coronavirus Lockdown Hero - Health Officer Continues Performing Duties Despite News Of Mother's Death

The man got the news of his mother's death, but while he did want to be at her side then and there, he knew he had a job to do. His job is to ensure that homes, streets, and markets in the area are sanitized as it's necessary to do so to combat the outbreak. Read more
[March 30, 2020] Sarah Zhang, Founder and CEO of Points Technology, was invited to attend World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2020 in Davos

DAVOS, Switzerland, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sarah Zhang, founder and CEO of Points Technology, was invited to attend World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2020, held from January 21 to 24 in Davos, Switzerland. The theme for Davos 2020 is Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World. A new paper, Reimagining Digital Identity: A Strategic Imperative , which Sarah Zhang participated as a co-author, was officially released by World Economic Forum at Davos. The paper outlines the risks involved for businesses and consumers in the digital management of personal information. China and Davos have a long history. As early as 1979, after the Reform and Opening up, China received an invitation from Davos for the first time. Since then, an increasing number of Chinese citizens have appeared at the Davos Forum, and more points of view from China have been presented to the world through the Davos Forum. It is the second time that Points Technology has appeared at the Davos Forum. In July 2019, Points Technology won the "Technology Pioneer Award" from the World Economic Forum, which was previously awarded to Google, Wikipedia, Palantir and Ripple back in their start-up days. Sarah Zhang is serving as a member of World Economic Forum Global Future Coucil of Financial & Monetary System, where she has contributed to multiple publications and initiatives in data-based new business models and digital currencies.



At the Davos Forum, Sarah Zhang also discussed with leaders from all walks of life, for instance, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and blockchain, how cutting-edge technologies promote the sustainable development of world economy and social improvement in the era of digital economy. The paper Reimagining Digital Identity: A Strategic Imperative was co-authored by the high-level international political, academic, technological and non-profit organizations, such as the British government, Stanford University, Google, Points Technology and internet and digital address distribution organizations. This paper points out that the risks involved for businesses and consumers in the digital management of personal information. The World Economic Forum believes this paper provided a framework and insights for managers to rethink how to deal with digital identity in their businesses.

Along with the development of digital economy, more companies hope to achieve greater business value by mining data as a new type of asset. On the other hand, data privacy and security has raised great attention. At the regulatory level, more stringent laws and regulations have been introduced to regulate the use of data by enterprises and the privacy of users. Through the confidential computing framework based on the trusted execution environment (TEE) and blockchain technology, Points Technology help clients to make data available but invisible. Points Confidential Computing framework is based on TEE and other encryption technologies. It makes data usable but not visible to ensure data privacy, security and compliance. At the same time, relevant records of data sharing are documented and traced by blockchain. Points Confidential Computation thus can be the underpinning technology for Open Banking, Government-led Data Sharing Initiatives and privacy-perserving cross-marketing campaigns. Just after their Davos trip, Points Technology announced a mult-million USD series A financing, backed up K2VC, a leading venture capital firm in China. In spite of the challenges and uncertanities in the global economic environment, Points Technology will continue to research and develop new products and advance the fields of private AI and enterprise grade distributed ledger. Media Contact Information:

Doris Guo

+86-185-1500-2421

[email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sarah-zhang-founder-and-ceo-of-points-technology-was-invited-to-attend-world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2020-in-davos-301031482.html SOURCE Points

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For the past five years, Mia Marino's job as a clothing store manager has provided her with "really great" raises that helped her buy a two-bedroom home in Athens, Georgia, in January, she said. But Marino's bosses furloughed her two weeks ago because of the coronavirus outbreak, leaving her to consider temporary work.

She applied to Instacart, a same-day grocery delivery app that announced last week it is hiring 300,000 workers nationwide over the next three months to accommodate the glut of shoppers hunkering down at home.

"I thought it would be a nice way to make a couple extra bucks," Marino, 53, said.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

But as she weighs whether to start the new job, potentially thousands of Instacart shoppers, who are considered independent contractors, began striking Monday for guaranteed protections. They are calling for the company to provide hand sanitizer and wipes, and so-called hazard pay of an extra $5 an order.

The Silicon Valley upstart has more than 200,000 contracted workers making multiple trips to grocery stores and delivering items to people's homes.

The Instacart shoppers aren't alone in their efforts to win added benefits. Hundreds of Amazon warehouse workers in California's Inland Empire delivered a petition to their management team Sunday night demanding improved benefits, cleaner facilities and better notification as positive coronavirus cases continue to surface.

"The fact of the matter is we work with so many people every single day that we are in constant danger," according to the petition.

Tech

About 100 Amazon warehouse workers on Staten Island, New York, also walked off the job at noon Monday over a "lack of safety protocols," while a network of employees of Whole Foods Market, which is owned by Amazon, are calling for a "sick out" Tuesday if their demands aren't met, including for hazard pay, guaranteed paid leave if a worker must self-isolate, and for health care coverage for part-time and seasonal workers.

Story continues

While health care workers remain on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, laborers at grocery stores, warehouses and for delivery services have found themselves thrust into essential positions that are keeping the economy chugging.

This growing movement of gig workers, contractors and hourly wage earners who are asserting themselves is part of a shifting economy, labor experts say. As large chunks of the American economy remain shut down and many businesses face an uncertain future, a new crop of winners and losers will emerge.

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"Many of the workers who had been really disrespected and their jobs had been heavily degraded during past crises have suddenly been put in a position where the American public sees them deserving of respect and decent wages," Rebecca Kolins Givan, an associate professor at Rutgers University's School of Management and Labor Relations, said.

"What we're seeing right now are workers demanding and winning some temporary wage increases," she added. "Many grocery workers have secured $2 an hour of additional hazard pay. They're actually able to increase their wages, even though there's this precipitous increase in unemployment."

But how long and lasting of an effect this will have on these workers' wages, and what it means for the broader labor market, remains to be seen, Givan added.

In a statement Sunday, Instacart said it plans to distribute new health and safety supplies for its full-service workers, known as shoppers, and launched a default system for when customers are asked on the app if they want to tip, "ultimately helping shoppers earn higher, more consistent tips."

Instacart President Nilam Ganenthiran added that the company has already instituted retroactive sick pay for in-store shoppers nationally if they are affected by the coronavirus and bonuses between $25 and $200 for hourly workers to boost their pay.

All this comes as the company says its order volume has soared by more than 150 percent year-over-year.

The Gig Workers Collective, a labor activism group working with Instacart shoppers, responded that the strike is "still on" and that the company did not act on the demand for hazard pay. "The average pay per order is well under $10. Workers should not be risking their lives for pocket change," the collective wrote.

Instacart workers have attempted national boycotts and changes in the past to no avail.

Amazon, meanwhile, said accusations made by workers at its Staten Island warehouse are "simply unfounded" and that it has increased deep cleanings and made safety supplies available. The tech giant did not immediately respond to a request about the warehouse workers' petition in California and the Whole Foods "sick out."

Amazon and Instacart are among a range of retail and service companies that have announced hiring sprees in recent days and are offering incentives to attract new employees. Walmart said it will bring on 150,000 temporary workers and pay special cash bonuses to hourly workers totaling $550 million.

Meanwhile, 7-Eleven wants to supplement its workforce by 20,000, while Dollar General aims to hire 50,000 workers by the end of April. CVS also wants to add 50,000 workers and provide bonuses of up to $500 for pharmacists, store employees and managers.

Image: US-VIRUS-HEALTH-EPIDEMIC (Frederic J. Brown / AFP - Getty Images)

This sudden expansion comes as more than 3 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits  a staggering number that economists fear could signal the country is only in the beginning of a bleak economic downturn.

After the deep recession that came in the wake of the housing crisis over a decade ago, low-wage jobs saw the strongest employment growth, with workers snapping up fast food and retail positions.

American workers' wages have remained largely stagnant with the decline of unions and because of employers' decisions, Givan said, although lower-wage employees have seen recent increases, thanks to more states raising their minimum wages.

Nearly 7 million workers started the year with higher wages, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, with many who were poised to see their pay go up between $150 and $1,700 per year on average depending on their state.

But with millions of Americans facing furloughs and layoffs, what happens to wages in the long term could be crushing for those who can only collect unemployment or benefits from a federal government stimulus for so long.

Politics

The coronavirus has walloped nearly every industry, especially leisure and hospitality, Sung Won Sohn, an economist at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, said.

"Even if the lockdown eases, the service jobs, like in restaurants and hotels, will be slow to increase. It could take years, not months to return to the previous levels," he said, adding, "What happens when the helicopter money from Washington stops? Unfortunately, the good old days of a tight labor market and rising wages are behind us."

Workers, such as Angel Rosario Jr., who lost his security manager job at a restaurant and bar in Chicago amid the coronavirus shutdown, are scrambling to find new income streams. Food delivery apps such as Grubhub and UberEats weren't taking new delivery workers, Rosario said, but he has found success with Postmates, a similar delivery platform.

Rosario, who is also pursuing acting, with roles on "Chicago Med" and a Chance the Rapper video, is now making money as a percentage from each delivery, which might amount to a few dollars per order. It's sustainable for a little while, he said, but far from what he was earning before.

"If I stick around late night, tips are a little better," he said. "I'm just trying to make something."
Help India!

The 21 days countrywide lockdown India has implemented to curb spread of deadly Coronavirus is a heavy blow to the nations informal sector. The lockdown, experts suggest, has extended vulnerability because the informal sector employs more than 90% of Indias total workforce, with more than one-third of Indias workers comprising of the sector and contributing half of the GDP in Asias third-largest economy. It has been predicted that the COVID-19 outbreak could impact Indias overall economic growth up to 0.9% (close to 1%) through trade, hotels and transport channels between 2019-20 and 2020-21.

TwoCircles.nets Musheera Ashraf interviewed Chennaiah Poguri Garu, the national coordinator for Informal Sector Workers Union associated with NAPM (National Alliance of Peoples Movement), to discuss the situation of workers and their fate in the face of the pandemic. Poguri Garu is also an honorary president of National Centre for Labour, an apex body of unorganised workers in India.

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What major challenges have emerged for the informal sector workers during the COVID Pandemic?

For the day to day wage earners, the wages are already very meagre. The major challenge for them now is hunger. Restrictions are necessary but before the restrictions, the state should have made some arrangements for these workers. They cant even go out because of the fear of police. Another challenge for them is that they have been travelling miles on foot to reach their native places because there are no public services or arrangements for them, their poor health adding up to their vulnerability.

How bad it would affect unorganised workers especially from minorities and marginalised communities?

The lowest income groups including Adivasis and Dalits are the worst affected. If something happens to them, we dont have relief facilities for them. The government takes the least interest in minorities and marginalised. They also wont take care if they get affected because government have been already trying to isolate them through legal systems for years. Prima facie, no proper plans have been prepared for them which reflects the political will of the government.

India has already moved from stage 2 to stage 3 of the pandemic. Is social distancing possible for daily wage workers?

Social distancing is impossible for them as they live in houses confined to a few feet. These workers are most vulnerable to this crisis because they even dont have proper resources for knowledge and research. For the government, people are not the primary concern but publicity is. Ideally, the welfare should start bottom to top but the government thinks from the top-level up to the upper-middle class. Topmost people are the only priority. Unorganised workers vulnerability increases in either way.

As per the National Health Survey, Indias health infrastructure is ill equipped to handle a bigger crisis and informal sector labourers are the most exposed to bad hygiene and malnutrition, making them vulnerable to the virus. What is being done to create awareness and reduce the panic among them?

If the informal sector workers get affected it will be a disaster but even if they are not affected, they are under a similar crisis. They are facing the bigger crisis in fact as they dont have access to food. The government has created a greater panic by not attending to the basic needs of the daily wage workers which is increasing due to the third-degree treatment by the police. The Andhra government has announced to provide 5kg of rice and some amount of money but that is promised for a week from when the lockdown was announced. The kind of assumption made by the government that people would have already stored food for a week itself is inhuman and worrisome for this class.

The migrant workers who have migrated in search of work are travelling back on foot to their native place. This puts them in greater risk to get exposed to the virus, what steps can be taken to provide them security?

The situation of the migrant workers is terrible. They have been walking from Karnataka to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and some from Hyderabad to Vishakhapatnam which probably will take 3-4 days. They cant stay back in the city because they wont survive without work and they are not even allowed to go out in search of food as they will be beaten up by the police.

The state should shelter them wherever they are and they should not be forced to leave. Providing basic food and temporary shelter with proper care should be the priority. They have to be treated as humans rather than people from different states. These workers are not allowed to go for work because of the pandemic so they should be given 50% of the minimum wage.

Most of the daily wage workers hardly earn anything to save making the majority of the poor population in India. Can the pandemic outbreak lead to an increase in the level of poverty in India?

Poverty has been increasing ever since demonetisation. Poor has become poorer already. There was no employment for 6 months because of the lack of cash initially. There are 124 types of unorganised workers including rickshaw pullers, carpenters and so on, who contribute to 93% of the workforce of the country. Government has not come out with a single proper policy in these times and despite a lockdown there is no long term plan for this community about what should be done and what will happen after April 14. This section of society is most vulnerable and forced to die. They should at least be provided with the grains so that they can cook food.

Government has advised the private sector to ensure that salaries to their employees are paid during these times, but the fate of unorganized labourers is still undecided. Can any modification in welfare schemes for the informal sector be productive in these times?

The state is responsible for the employment of the informal sector but people looking after resources must be given an upper hand. For example, as per the Forests right act those who are living in the forest should own the forest resources and the government should have least interference. If the laws are implemented rightfully even adversities like Corona will not be able to affect people as they will be self-sufficient and well secured with value-based food and income. In MNREGA, as per the law if the government is not able to provide employment then they should be given 50% of the minimum wage. For the construction workers also, the money of welfare board should be paid to be them. The fund which is for such sectors should be made available to them now. The farmworkers should be allowed to go for work with proper precautions, otherwise, there will be shortage of food.

RBI Governor says India is relatively insulated from the global value chain and to that extent impact on India will be less. Are the informal sector workers capable of helping the countrys economy to stay afloat in this situation?

The global market chain has never helped informal sector workers in urban areas to get benefits. The ones in power have only used their labor to expropriate the resources. India is the biggest market but our government is equally responsible for pushing our informal sector including our agriculture workers to urban cities where they are insecure. If there would have been no corporate interference, then the informal sector would have done wonders even in this situation. The government should have acted in the earlier stage to combat Corona as well as to control the situation of working class.

Why is the sector which employs almost 93 per cent of the workforce reflecting out to be the most neglected one?

This sector has always faced negligence. Special economic zones have been created for MNCs, not Indians. Privatisation is done for personal benefits and not human welfare. Sadly, the governments have always given least attention to them.

What do you think the central government should do, that would bring immediate relief to unorganised sector workers?

The central government doesnt seem to have a will to do anything for this section. The government has not lent any support yet. People are under panic and the government has no resources extension to the labor class. If the required actions are not taken, then people will answer back in their own way at the right time. The chauvinistic and conservative government will have to see the response of the people later.
The Malayalam film technicians forum, FEFKA is launching an initiative named Annam in association with the Ernakulam District Administration.

As per the FEFKA announcement, Annam is a combined effort by the productions boys, food and catering segment and the drivers union. The plan is to provide food for those who have been stuck alone in their houses or streets due to lockdown and also to tourist workers, who have come from other states.
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A 51-year-old Belfast man allegedly raped a schoolgirl and blackmailed another into sending him naked images after posing online as a teenage boy, a court has been told.

He is also accused of making threats to kill and forwarding the photos to friends of one victim he contacted through social media.

The defendant, who is not being named for legal reasons, used a fake profile to "catfish" young girls and achieve sexual excitement, it was claimed.

He appeared at Belfast Magistrates' Court on Monday on a total of 13 charges linked to a suspected campaign on dates between July 1, 2019 and March 28, 2020.

The alleged offences include two counts of rape, threats to kill, attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming, causing a child to watch sexual activity and sexual communication with a child.

He is further accused of sexually touching a girl unable to refuse due to a mental disorder, harassment, blackmail, possessing and distributing indecent images of a child.

The defendant was arrested after Derbyshire Police raised concerns about the potential grooming of a number of girls aged between 13 and 14, the court was told.

A detective claimed he had disguised himself as a 13-year-old boy on Instagram and Snapchat to obtain indecent images.

One alleged victim believed she was in a relationship with him and planned a meeting in England, according to police.

District Judge George Conner was told the man sent videos from porn sites in return, pretending it was him featured in the clips.

Threats were allegedly issued to one girl if she didn't continue providing him with images.

Police claimed he warned: "I'm going to come to your school, **** you in your school skirt and kill you."

The court heard some images received from one girl were then sent on to as many as seven other girls.

Referring to interviews with the accused, the detective submitted: "He said he would catfish young girls to obtain sexual gratification."

It was claimed that he poses a significant risk to children.

A defence solicitor described her client as vulnerable, suggesting that he may not have understood what he said during police interviews.

However, Judge Conner ruled that the defendant must be remanded in custody due to concerns about any further offences.

Refusing bail, he said: "These are very serious charges, dealing with some of the mist vulnerable people we have in our community."
Hungarys parliament has handed prime minister Viktor Orban sweeping new powers to rule by decree, as the countrys governing party extends its authority in managing the coronavirus pandemic.

Under the new measures, which have no time limit, Mr Orban now has the right to bypass Hungarys National Assembly on any law, effectively placing the country under his sole command.

The legislation has triggered criticism by the Hungarian opposition, human rights groups and the Council of Europe, Europes main rights forum, given its lack of timeframe.

I dont know of another democracy where the government has effectively asked for a free hand to do anything for however long, said Renata Uitz, a professor of comparative constitutional law at Central European University in Budapest.

David Vig, Amnesty Internationals Hungary director, said this is not the way to address the very real crisis that has been caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Orban secured the extra powers on Monday after the Hungarian parliament, where the prime ministers Fidesz party has a two-thirds majority, passed the law with 137 votes to 52.

The bill allows the government to indefinitely extend the countrys state of emergency and the attached rule-by-decree powers, according to a draft of the bill posted on the parliament website. Normally such extensions would need approval by Hungarys parliament.

It has also introduced jail terms of up to five years for distorting facts and spreading misinformation that hampers the governments efforts to contain the outbreak, raising concern that it could lead to censorship.

Justice minister Judit Varga dismissed all criticism of the new powers as unfounded, saying the laws scope is limited and envisions only necessary and proportionate measures to fight Covid-19.

Zoltan Kovacs, an international spokesman of the Hungarian government, said: Each and every country is trying to use the best methods and measures according to their own needs and framework.

That is what Hungary is doing.

Critics have said the legalisation may allow Fidesz to extend the countrys current emergency measures  which have placed all by-elections and referendums on hold  for as long as the effects of coronavirus are felt.

Mr Orbans track record suggests he may not give up the powers quickly. After first announcing a state of emergency for mass immigration following the 2015 refugee crisis, his anti-immigrant party has repeatedly renewed the legislation, even as the number of asylum seekers arriving in Hungary has fallen.

Timea Szabo, an opposition lawmaker from the Dialogue for Hungary Party, said that there was no trust in the government.

If you look at the past 10 years, theyve used their power to curb democracy and the rule of law, he said. So we need some kind of guarantee that theyre not going to do that again.

If all the countries in Europe could introduce similar laws with a time limit, then I believe that a Hungarian government should do that as well.
Spain and Italy demanded more European help as they fight still-surging coronavirus infections amid the continents worst crisis since World War II. The new nations account for more than half of the worlds death toll, and are still seeing over 800 deaths a day each.

Experts say, however, that virus toll numbers across the world are being seriously under-represented due to limited testing and political decisions about which bodies to count. Unlike the U.S., France and Italy do not count deaths that take place in nursing homes or in homes among their virus numbers  even though nursing homes are known to be key coronavirus incubators around the world.

Worldwide infections surpassed 660,000 mark, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

VENEZUELA

Opposition leader urges unity

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido called for the creation of a national emergency government of diverse political leanings to fight the spread of the coronavirus with the assistance of $1.2 billion in international loans. Speaking in a video released on Twitter, Guaido said the unity government would not be headed by Nicolas Maduro, Venezuelas president who was indicted this week in the U.S. on narco-terrorism charges. But in a show of reconciliation, Guaido, who is recognized as Venezuelas lawful leader by the U.S. and almost other 60 countries, said opponents of Maduro need to be realistic and be prepared to share power.

SWEDEN

Nation an outlier in virus restrictions

The streets of Stockholm are quiet but not deserted. People still sit at outdoor cafes in the center of Swedens capital. Some still greet each other with hugs and handshakes. The coronavirus pandemic is not keeping Swedes at home even while citizens in many parts of the world are sheltering in place. Swedish authorities have advised the public to practice social distancing and to work from home, if possible, and urged those over age 70 to self-isolate. Yet compared to the lockdowns imposed elsewhere in the world, the governments response allows a liberal amount of personal freedom.

SRI LANKA

Villages sealed off to contain spread

Sri Lankan authorities have sealed off two villages as a part of stringent measures designed to contain the spreading of the coronavirus. The number of confirmed cases in the Indian ocean island nation has now risen to 115 with one fatality. The villages of Atalugama and Akurana were sealed off after several COVID-19 patients were reported from those areas. More than 6,00 people have been arrested and 1,533 vehicles seized for violating curfew.

CANADA

Prime ministers wife recovers

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus wife said Saturday that she has recovered from being ill from COVID-19 disease caused by the new coronavirus. Sophie Gregoire Trudeau said she received clearance from her doctor and Ottawa Public Health. Trudeaus office announced on March 12 that she had tested positive for the coronavirus after she fell ill upon returning from a trip to London. The prime minister and his family have been in self isolation at home since then. He and their three children havent shown symptoms.

RUSSIA

Borders to close

as crisis escalates

Russia will temporarily shut all its borders Monday after the number of coronavirus infections increased sharply in the past week.

Nonessential businesses in Moscow were closed. About two-thirds of the 1,534 coronavirus infection cases reported in Russia occurred in Moscow.

PHILIPPINES

Thousands violate quarantine rules

Nearly 50,000 people have violated quarantine regulations and night curfews and officials say police will make more arrests in the fight against the coronavirus. Police Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said 49,333 violators have been apprehended in the two weeks since the main northern island of Luzon and other regions were placed under a month-long lockdown. Authorities will look for detention centers big enough to allow social distancing among the arrested. There have been 1,418 cases and 71 deaths.

SERBIA

Pet owners irate over walk ban

Pet owners in Serbia are furious over the populist governments decision to ban even a brief walk for people with dogs during an evening curfew to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.

Chronicle News Services
Harbor Springs school board authorizes May bond proposal

During Monday's meeting, the board unanimously adopted a resolution to authorize the bonding proposal, with the election scheduled for Tuesday, May 3.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 01:33:37|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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DHAKA, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Overseas Chinese Association in Bangladesh (OCAIB) has made donations of medical supplies to support Bangladesh Police in fighting COVID-19 in the country.

The supplies including medical masks, medical protective clothing and testing reagents, were handed over to Inspector General of Bangladesh Police Mohammad Javed Patwary by President of the Overseas Chinese Association in Bangladesh Zhuang Lifeng during a ceremony on Sunday in Dhaka.

In his speech, the Bangladesh Police chief said, "We are very much delighted and we feel honored to receive such a token of our friendship. So far, China is the pioneer in fighting successfully against the fatal disease COVID-19."

"Here, together we can stand against the menace of this virus," he said, adding China has been a trusted friend of Bangladesh for a long time.

Zhuang Lifeng said that not long ago when COVID-19 was raging in China, the Bangladesh government and Bangladesh civil society provided support to China. The overseas Chinese who live and work in Bangladesh cherish this friendship.

Now Bangladesh is facing the epidemic challenge, OCAIB has quickly organized member companies to purchase these batches of urgently needed supplies, and provide support to the Bangladesh police officers who are on the front line, he said.
Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has written a strongly-worded letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on the exodus of tens of thousands of migrant workers from the national capital Delhi over the weekend that forced the Centre to ask bordering states to seal their borders and look after the migrants. The missive was sent after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah expressed grave concern over exposing the migrants to health hazard during lockdown to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

A home ministry official said the letter was sent on Sunday evening after Home Minister Amit Shah chaired a high-level meeting and called up Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal to deliver explicit instructions that no migrant movement should be allowed. The exodus, Shah told them, defeated the very purpose of the national lockdown.

It is learnt that PM Modi and Home Minister Shah had spoken to Delhi chief minister Kejriwal earlier.

Also Read: This lapse could impose a heavy cost: Lt Guv Baijals missive to Arvind Kejriwal

Upset at the Delhi Government allowing the use of DTC buses to cart migrants to the UP border, Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla also told the Delhi chief secretary to place two senior IAS officers under suspension for lapses in enforcing the lockdown.

Watch | Can Centres 7 steps control migrant crisis amidst lockdown?

Also read | States told to stop, shelter migrants walking back home amid lockdown

The exodus of migrants had forced the Centre to order states to quarantine all the migrants who had exited Delhi in state-run facilities for 14 days before they are allowed to go home.

It is going to be a massive exercise was completely avoidable, a second home ministry official said, adding that there was concern within the government that the country may have to pay dearly for the lockdown violation.

The official said Anil Baijals missive to Arvind Kejriwal, which echoes this sentiment, conveys the Centres displeasure at the Delhi governments inability to provide basic facilities and reassurance to the migrant workers that their needs would be taken care of.

It also makes the point that the Delhi government had a free hand to implement the lockdown and had all the powers that it needed, the official said. The pointed reference to the Kejriwal governments powers is seen to allude to a long-standing tug-of-war between the central and Delhi government over the distribution of powers to run the affairs in the national capital.

Also read | Migrant workers headed home to first spend 14 days in govt-run quarantine: Centre

For the future, the second home ministry official said, Lt Governor Anil Baijal had asked the Delhi government to persuade migrant workers in a humane manner to stay put or move to government-run shelter homes where the state would make all basic facilities available.

Baijal is also learnt to have reiterated the Centres instructions that require states and union territories to ensure that employers pay the workers their dues without any deductions on account of the lockdown and the consequent loss of workdays.

Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Dev has already ordered the Delhi Transport Corporation, which runs a skeletal bus service, to make sure that it only ferries government employees on essential duty and other people carrying valid passes or identification cards.

Also read: Small steps could have prevented migrant exodus from Delhi | Opinion

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Flared natural gas is burned off at Apache Corporations operations at the Deadwood natural gas plant in the Permian Basin in Garden City, Texas, on Feb. 5, 2015. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Will US Oil Production Leadership Survive the Pandemic?

Falling demand, rising production threatens energy independence

Commentary

One of the victims of the CCP virus may be the U.S. oil industry.

With lockdowns across the globe spreading as quickly as the pandemic, oil prices have fallen to 17-year lows, dipping briefly down to $20 per barrel. Crude oil prices have bounced back up a bit, to between $21 and $26 per barrel, depending on the source. But thats subject to change quickly.

However, with over a billion people sheltering in place around the world for at least the next several weeks, the market has cratered. Travel and transportation for all but the most critical materials and foods are at a near-standstill.

Thats led to the steep drop-off in demand.

Oil Prices to Stay Low?

In fact, demand for oil has fallen so sharply that some experts expect prices to continue to decline for the next several months. The oil industry may be witnessing the lowest quarter for prices ever. Prices may well stay low as well, due to the price war that Russia and Saudi Arabia are engaged in at the moment. Both producers are fighting for market share.

If that falling price trend continues, its not at all clear that the U.S. shale oil industry, known as fracking, will survive. The potential for fracking to go away as a cost-effective source of energy isnt new; its been a possibility for years, as we mentioned last October. Still, it has played a major role in making the U.S. energy independent, accounting for 80 percent of U.S. oil and natural gas production. Its also a key part of U.S. foreign policy.

Fracking Remains Expensive

That said, the shale oil extraction industry is capital-intensive and debt-laden. With plunging prices, production has already been cut in some areas. It may not be too long before layoffs come about and companies go bankrupt. The break-even price point for fracking varies, but some experts say a range of $45 to $55 per barrel is necessary for fracking companies to make a profit.

Were nowhere near those prices at the moment. But the pressure will likely increase on oil companies to cut back on fracking for a few compelling reasons that go beyond price and profitability, as if that werent reason enough.

Fracking Is Controversial

The fracking process itself remains controversial. Fracking extracts oil from shale rock through a process in which high-pressure steam and other substances are forced into the shale rock deep underground. This high-pressure injection of liquid fractures the shale and releases both oil and natural gas that otherwise remain trapped within the rock.

That in itself is problematic. Its more expensive to extract oil by fracking than it is to simply drill a hole in the ground and strike a massive underground ocean of crude oil. As more vast oil fields are discovered, such as the Leviathan field discovered by Israel in the eastern Mediterranean, the worlds oil supply will continue to increase, potentially keeping prices lower than before, when oil cartels controlled both supply and pricing. Going forward, fracking producers may find it impossible to compete on a production-cost basis.

There are environmental concerns with fracking as well. Engineers use underground water reserves, called aquifers, combined with toxic chemicals to fracture the shale and extract the oil. This process results in polluting the water table, putting local communities in a potential water-shortage situation.

There is also the issue of earthquakes in fracking zones. This is a controversial issue becauseat least to someits apparent that fracking causes earthquakes. Many of the areas in the fracking regions of the country have seen a mild increase in seismic activity, while others have seen a dramatic rise in temblors, where little or none was known of before.

This includes states in the middle and eastern portions of the United States such as Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. The fracking-triggered earthquakes are believed to be caused by the fracking process itself, which is believed to disturb the existing stabilizing pressure balance of underground faults, resulting in movement of the faults.

Frackings ROI Is Risky

Additionally, according to some industry experts, a suitable return on investment in fracking is becoming more difficult to achieve as time goes on. Thats due to not only the cratering market prices, but also because much of the easy fracking fields in well-known places such as the Permian Basin have been exhausted.

This means that even more difficult shale oil sites will have to be put into play. But with fracking becoming even more capital intensive with diminishing returns and rising debt loads, finding investors wont be as easy as it was. It may just be that the industrys best days are behind it.

Even without the market price for oil crashing as it has, frackings days could be numbered. Thats due to an expected problem of where and how to store the surplus oil thats being produced around the world.

A Drive to End US Oil Dominance?

But also, the continuing war of production between Saudi Arabia and Russia is leaving the world awash in a glut of oil. And it may well be that the main goal of the SaudiRussian price war is to drive U.S. fracking out of business. That would be in both nations interests.

Nonetheless, this race to the bottom of oil prices combined with expanding sources and the pandemic-related cratering of demand is pushing prices through the floor. All of these factors may well reshape the worlds oil supply map once again if it drives U.S. producers out of the market.

On the other hand, over the past several months, the world has become much less stable, and much more unpredictable. Fracking may become considered a national security issue, much the way medical supplies and pharmaceuticals have become.

It doesnt seem likely that the Trump administration will allow the United States to become dependent on the Saudis or the Russians for oil any time soon.

James Gorrie is a writer and speaker based in Southern California. He is the author of The China Crisis.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Brian McCabe created a home obstacle course for his daughter.

Facebook/Brian McCabe

A father from Chicago created an indoor obstacle course for his daughter to complete during the coronavirus pandemic.

Personal trainer Brian McCabe has been posting workouts online for adults, but he's also encouraging parents to keep their children active.

A video posted on Facebook shows McCabe's three-year-old daughter Ayaana crawling under an easel, jumping through a ladder drawn on the floor, kicking a ball, and climbing over the sofa as part of the course.

Other parents shared clips of their own obstacle courses in the comments.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

If you thought keeping yourself active and busy while staying at home due to the coronavirus pandemic was hard enough, spare a thought for the parents who have the added challenge of occupying their children.

With many parks and playgrounds closed, and excursions limited in many countries, parents are getting creative to find ways for their children to burn off some of those seemingly endless energy supplies.

One such parent is Brian McCabe, who created an indoor obstacle course for his three-year-old daughter Ayaana.

The Chicago-based personal trainer posted a video on Facebook of his creation, encouraging other parents to do the same.

Dressed in a tutu, little Ayaana can be seen completing the course with impressive speed and skill.

She crawls under an easel, spins over a stool, moves precious rolls of toilet paper from one side of the corridor to the other, bounces on a bumblebee space hopper, jumps through a ladder on the floor, kicks a ball, crawls over the sofa, bounces on a mini trampoline, and completes the course by jumping into a bean bag.

Just watching the workout is enough to bring most people out in a sweat, but Ayaana makes it look easy.

Other parents have posted videos of their own versions in the comments, showing children crawling through tunnels, whizzing down slides, and climbing in and out of tents.

Read the original article on Insider
President Donald Trump signed into law the stimulus package that will greatly benefit New Mexicans from individuals to small businesses according to a recently published article.

COVID-19 has negatively impacted the national and global economic status of almost all countries around the world. This leads many businesses to shut down its operations temporarily and employees were laid off or furloughed as well.

To address this problem, President Trump signed into law the stimulus package that will greatly benefit its citizens. This law will help New Mexicans from individuals to small businesses while the country is facing global health and economic crisis.

HOW MUCH MONEY NEW MEXICO WILL RECEIVE AND WHERE DOES THAT MONEY GO?

New Mexico will receive an amount of $1.25 billion. The money "targeted primarily to New Mexico as a state government and local/municipal governments" according to New Mexico Senator Tom Udall.

However, big cities like Albuquerque will have to apply directly to the federal government for funding because of their population size. Mayor Tim Keller said that the city will get an amount between $100 million and $150 million. Meanwhile, all other small municipalities will apply for funding directly to the state of New Mexico.

WILL IT EXPAND UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE?

Yes! The law will expand its unemployment insurance to cover more New Mexicans and provides additional benefits in this time of global health and economic crisis. The following are the expansion under the law:

It will increase unemployment benefit by $600 per week and laid furloughed workers will receive full pay for four months.

The law also makes sure that employees regardless of the place of their work and employees of small, business, large businesses, those in the gig economy, and as well as the self-employed are fully protected.

The law will also allow the furloughed employees the chance to work again with their employers once this crisis is over.

WILL THEIR BE FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR WORKERS?

Yes! The following are the benefits that workers and members of the family will receive under the law:

An amount of $1,200 will be directly paid to an individual in New Mexico, $2,400 for couples, while an amount of $500 will be given to every child in the family.

The payment is available for those who are earning $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for those who are married.

It is also important to take note that the amount is phased out for those who are above income cap.

There are many queries as to how much a person will be taxed later and when will it start. In another recently published article, they answered and explained the commonly asked questions about the stimulus package.

HOW WILL IF FINANCIALLY HELP SMALL BUSINESSES?

The law is also concern for those who belong in small businesses. To make sure the local economy will still run after the crisis, the following are the financial support under the stimulus package:

An amount of $377 billion is intended for small businesses and that includes an amount of $10 million in Payment Protection Program loans for small businesses that have more than 500 employees.

The good news is the loans will be converted into grants if the employers maintain their previous payroll through Dec. 31, 2019.

These are just few of the benefits that people living in New Mexico will receive amid the global health and economic crisis. This support will somehow help them while the country is still in crisis and businesses are still close.

Read related articles:
A n artist known for leaving positive notes for strangers is sending posters to NHS employees during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Notes to Strangers project was started by artist Andy Leek in 2015 after he experienced mental health issues and decided to give people walking down the street something positive to look at in their daily lives.

The 34-year-old has now temporarily switched to creating posters for health care employees in a project entitled Notes To NHS Staff.

More than 1,300 posters have been sent to hospitals across the country for workers to post in break rooms, kitchens, corridors and offices.

Notes to Strangers 1 /40 Notes to Strangers The power of honesty @nickmastrini A kind of sexy @tomerspungin A bit of love from London @basmaabughazaleh The right kind of energy @lousical GPS at Heart @mrroythomas Don't stress @oberongoldstar Being wonderful @knowingalice/@gnapokittt/@gooutsidethelines/@futurerust_ Be talented @lewinworld Risk taker @mrroythomas Nothing wrong in weirdness @littlesimonwest Rolling with Rowling @becky.hugs Be creative @suewalder Words on the street @kimikat16 Work isn't everything @notestostrangers Unliminted energy @notestostrangers Daydream believer @notestostrangers Reconnect @notestostrangers Be brave @notestostrangers Speak to real people @notestostrangers Create time @notestostrangers Don't be a show off @notestostrangers Amazing people are all around you @notestostrangers Strengh shows character @notestostrangers Walk forward @notestostrangers Something good is about to happen @notestostrangers Off to the races @notestostrangers Crazy risks @notestostrangers Listen to your heart @notestostrangers Effortless at being cool @notestostrangers Time is money @notestostrangers

Mr Leek, from London, said the project was focused on helping and appreciating NHS staff, who he described as incredible.

Messages on the poster include: Youre part of a beacon of hope, You mean the world to us, Keep making tea, You do something amazing, We are privileged to have you and Caring is pretty close to magic.

Speaking to the Standard, he said: "The project is about, for and inspired by NHS staff. They are the best of us. Extraordinary people who risk their physical and emotional well being to pick us up when we fall, regardless of age, wealth or race.

"These people willingly donate a portion of their souls to help complete strangers. They were doing this before Covid, they are doing it during it and they will be doing if after.

"If I make and send 5,000 posters throughout the coming months, I will still have done but a tiny fraction of what a single NHS staff member does in a single shift."

Mr Leek said the creative community can help just as much as businesses during the pandemic.

"I do believe that art has the power to help humans though, especially emotionally," he added. "So if there are any artists / creative / entrepreneurs reading this - what can you do to use your brilliant minds, talents & energy to try and help in some small way?

"The government has called for business to help in tangible ways - equipment, food & volunteers etc. I believe the creative community can help in intangible ways."

Hundreds of NHS staff have signed up to receive notes since the project began in February.

A Yeovil Hospital nurse said she was grateful for the posters and the NHS is "run on kindness".

Writing on Instagram, she said: "Sometimes working within the NHS can be a thankless job, but we continue and do our best in the most difficult of circumstances.

"Being appreciated is nice, to all my colleges and those that have supported me since qualifying, Im so grateful for you. Sharing your knowledge, offering your kindness and support after hard shifts.

"The NHS is run on kindness, thank you Andy for these notes."

Another health care worker added: "Thank you Andy for these.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo emphasized the importance of "partnership" over "partisanship" in his daily news briefing Monday, announcing 253 more deaths of the novel coronavirus in the state since Sunday as health-care workers continue to brace for an apex that experts believe is still weeks away.

There are 66,496 confirmed cases in New York and a total of 1,218 deaths. Nearly 10,000 people are hospitalized, Cuomo said, and more than 4,000 have been discharged.

The governor, a Democrat, said there's "no doubt the rate has slowed," but daily intubation is "way up."

"The situation is painfully clear now," Cuomo said. "There's no question [as to] what we're dealing with. There's no question as to the consequences. There's no question to the grief and loss of life. And there's no question to what we must do."

Cuomo reiterated a mandate he has been repeating for weeks: "Stay at home."

"I don't know how many different ways to make the same point," he said, threatening to close New York City's playgrounds if residents don't take social distancing seriously.

The governor said the "soldiers in this fight are our health-care professionals." He made a desperate plea for help to health-care professionals across the country. "If you don't have a health-care crisis in your community, please come help New York now," Cuomo said. "We will return the favor."

Reporters at the briefing asked Cuomo to address President Donald Trump's remarks at Sunday's White House briefing, asserting something sinister is happening with personal protective equipment.

"I don't know what that means, I don't know what he's trying to say," Cuomo said. "If he wants to make an accusation, let him make an accusation."

The governor emphasized a message of unity, but added he was not afraid to "tangle" with Trump when necessary.

"I am not engaging the president in politics," Cuomo said. "My only goal is to engage the president in partnership. This is no time for politics. You know, lead by example."

Also Monday, California hospitalizations have doubled in the past four days, and the state's intensive care unit load has tripled, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced.

There are 597 ICU patients and 1,432 hospitalized statewide. The state has about 5,800 coronavirus cases, Newsom said in a news conference.

To respond to the surge in hospitalizations, Newsom announced that the state was creating a new "California health corps" as a way of recruiting medical students and retired doctors for the front line.

The state estimates that about 37,000 people fall under the categories of medical professional retirees, those seeking new licenses and medical and nursing students. Newsom said he is hoping "thousands" will heed the call.

"If you know people that you think are willing to contribute their time and energy in a compensated way to go, tell them to go to this new website so we can meet the health-care surge," Newsom said of a newly launched website to enlist health-care workers.

Newsom also signed an executive order to allow health-care facilities to staff at least an additional 50,000 hospital beds.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will provide $25 million in stipends if staffers need accommodations for such things as transportation and child care, Newsom said.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., discussed Democrats' plans for a Phase 4 coronavirus measure during a conference call with reporters.

Pelosi said the legislation will include a focus on infrastructure, Occupational Safety and Health Administration protections for front-line workers and funding for the District of Columbia, among other things.

The District of Columbia was classified as a territory in last week's coronavirus legislation, which reduced by more than $700 million the amount the city will receive.

Pelosi also sounded a pessimistic note when asked about the potential for remote voting in the House, noting that it's not possible without discussion in the House and changing the rules.

"So let's not waste too much time on something that's not going to happen," Pelosi said.

Earlier Monday, the Food and Drug Administration has given emergency approval to a Trump administration plan to distribute millions of doses of anti-malarial drugs to hospitals across the country, saying it is worth the risk of trying unproven treatments to slow the disease in seriously ill coronavirus patients.

There have only been a few, very small anecdotal studies that show a possible benefit of the drugs, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, to relieve the acute respiratory symptoms of covid-19 and clear the virus from infected patients.

And health experts warned the drugs' well-known side effects could become more commonplace with much wider use. In particular, they say, patients with existing heart problems or taking certain drugs such as anti-depressants that affect heart rhythm are at risk of a fatal episode.

In Louisiana, on the three-week anniversary of the's first coronavirus case, which was March 9, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced that the number of infections in the state rose by 485 in the past 24 hours to 4,025 as of noon Monday, and deaths climbed by 34 to 185.

New Orleans remained the epicenter in the state, with 1,480 total cases and 86 deaths.

Edwards, a Democrat, said that earlier Monday, he participated with other governors in a videoconference with President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and the coronavirus task force. Trump "acknowledged our need for ventilators, and made a commitment that they will send ventilators to Louisiana," Edwards said. However the president did not specify a number nor offer a timeline for delivery, he added.

Ventilators remain the state's "most pressing need" as the virus threatens to overwhelm the state's medical capacity, according to Edwards. Despite having ordered 14,000 ventilators from federal and private sources in the last several days, the state has received fewer than 200. Under current trends of infections and hospitalizations, the state could run out of ventilators in the New Orleans region by April 5 and hospital beds by April 12.

Edwards said he thanked Trump for extending the recommendation for social distancing through April 30 and said he intended to extend the state's deadline of April 12 to April 30 as well.

In Italy, an additional 812 people have died, officials there said, bringing the country's total number of deaths linked to the outbreak to 11,591.

Monday's death toll was up slightly from Sunday, when 756 people were confirmed dead, but down from Friday, when Italy recorded 919 deaths, the highest daily death toll of any country since the outbreak was first recorded in China late last year.

An additional 1,648 people in Italy were diagnosed with the coronavirus, officials said Monday, bringing the country's total number of confirmed cases to 101,739. That's down from 3,815 new cases Sunday.

In a glimmer of hope for the country, Angelo Borrelli, who is leading Italy's coronavirus response, told reporters that Italy had determined that an additional 1,590 had recovered from the virus, the highest number of recoveries since the first case was recorded in February.

Experts have predicted that the number of new cases will slow dramatically because of the country's intense restrictions on movement that have confined most people to their homes.

On Monday night, the Italy's health minister announced in a short statement that the country was extending its lockdown until "at least" Easter.

The extension comes as little surprise to Italians, who have been bracing for a lengthy interruption. Virologists have indicated that Italy will most likely need to restrict movement for months to contain the virus. Last week, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said he was "confident" that Italy could go back to some version of daily life before the end of July.

When Conte first announced the nationwide lockdown March 10, the measures were set in place through April 3.

- - -

The Washington Post's Siobhan O'Grady, Chico Harlan, Christopher Rowland and John Wagner contributed to this report.
Spending 10 minutes to complete a census form brings in thousands of dollars for local schools, roads, food assistance programs, emergency services and more.

Population counts from the census determine federal funding and the number of governmental representatives an area receives. Businesses also use that information to pick locations, according to the U.S. Census Bureau website.

According to ICountNM, the website of the Statewide Complete Count Commission, for every New Mexican not counted in the census, the state loses $37,450 over the next 10 years.

Rio Rancho would lose more than $27.7 million in 10 years if just 1 percent of the citys population went uncounted, according to the website. Sandoval County would lose close to $42.4 million under the same circumstances.

I want to remind people how important it is that they participate in the census, because of the resources it inevitably brings to the city, said Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull, adding that the community would be underfunded if people didnt return their census forms. Get out and be counted.

Census Day is April 1. So, people should fill out their census forms based on who lives in their home on that day.

This year for the first time, people can respond to the census online or via phone, as well as by mail or talking to a census-taker in person.

According to the Census Bureau website, as of Thursday, 32.6 percent of people in Rio Rancho and 27.3 percent of people in Sandoval County had completed their census forms. Nationally, 30.2 percent of residents had participated, according to the website.

Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Census Bureau moved back its schedule for collecting data. Now, people can respond to the census online or via phone until the counting time ends Aug. 14.

Ninety-five percent of U.S. households will get an invitation to participate, including instructions for using the online form and a phone number to call for help, in the mail, according to the Census Bureau. Census-takers will hand-deliver paper questionnaires in places where most residents dont get mail at home, covering almost 5 percent of households, and will ask for responses in person from a little more than 1 percent of households in remote areas, according to the website.

Theyll also count homeless people, people in group quarters like dorms and people living in transitory quarters like RV parks this spring. According to the bureau website, from May 28 through Aug. 14, census-takers will visit households that havent responded to obtain information.

Completing your census is easily done online in just a few minutes, and it is so important to assure our community receives the optimum funding for our population, said Sandoval County Commission Chairman Dave Heil in an email. The numbers are used to determine the distribution of state and federal funding that helps with roads, assistance for seniors, schools, 911 emergency systems and much more. Please take a few minutes to complete your census input.

The census form asks for basic information about people living in a household and should take 10 minutes or less to complete. It does not contain questions about finances, education, immigration status or personal information such as Social Security numbers, although it does ask for birthdates.

The Census Bureau conducts separate economic and demographic surveys.

By law, the Census Bureau must keep information submitted confidential and release it only as statistics, not in a way in which individuals can be identified.
Quantzig, a leading analytics advisory firm that delivers customized analytics solutions, has announced the completion of its free resource on e-reputation analysis. The rise of digitalization over the past few years have witnessed the growing popularity of social media networks. Today most successful businesses believe that social media tools are one of the most valuable resources for online reputation management across platforms. Many brands spend a much longer time managing their social media networks than other sites. Regardless of what we might say, brands can't ignore the importance of establishing their presence on social media networks. However, quantifying sentiments is not an easy job, but advanced sentiment analysis solutions can be leveraged in such cases.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005598/en/

Three Ways to Evaluate the Impact of E-Reputation (Graphic: Business Wire)

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The position your brand holds in its category and the competitive and advertising weight is what the share of voice tries to find out. Share of voice determines the percentage of messages that may concern a brand in relation to the total number of messages for all the competitors. Such calculations demand strong solutions like sentiment analytics to collect and analyze all the essential messages. Leveraging web and social media analytics solutions can help you to take your online reputation to the next level. Contact us to know more about our tailored sentiment analysis solutions.

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A new female osprey has been spotted visiting a nest at a wildlife reserve in Perthshire.

The ringed female, identified as NC0 originally from Loch Ness, made a fleeting appearance on Saturday at the Scottish Wildlife Trusts Loch of the Lowes Wildlife Reserve.

She then spent more time at the nest on Sunday and Monday along with LM12  a male who in that time made several attempts to breed with her.

Birds can take time to build a relationshipSara Rasmussen, Perthshire ranger

Sara Rasmussen, the trusts ranger in Perthshire, said: LM12 and NC0 are still fairly unsure of each other.

He has shown some defensive signs but there have also been attempts at mating.

Birds can take time to build a relationship and so far they arent sharing fish in the same way that established pairs do.

There is still some chance that LF15 will return this week.

If she does it will be very exciting to see what plays out and whether she is able to reclaim her nest from NC0.

A mystery female osprey passed through @LochoftheLowes this afternoon. Were still hoping to see LF15 any day. pic.twitter.com/O8rI06WJWE  Scottish Wildlife Trust (@ScotWildlife) March 28, 2020

Ospreys returned to the UK around the 1960s and there are now an estimated 300 pairs breeding each summer.

While the pair were settling together on Sunday afternoon, another osprey  thought to be a male  dived towards the nest at speed.

Despite initial fears, Ms Rasmussen said: This is a fantastic reminder that there are lots more ospreys around and they are jostling to find nests where they can breed.

At some points in previous years weve seen upwards of half a dozen birds over the nest at Lowes in a single day.
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These are not ordinary days and they require extraordinary decisions. Thus, as I have said, I intend to examine the formation of a national emergency government, declared Blue and White leader Benny Gantz March 26 upon his election as speaker of the Knesset, with the support of the right/ultra-Orthodox bloc.

The move led to the breakup of Blue and White and paved the way for Gantz and his party, Hosen LIsrael or Israel Resilience, into a government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Who remembers now that on the day after the general election Gantz declared, I wont serve in a government led by a man under indictment?

We must admit the truth that Netanyahu has proven that thanks to the global coronavirus crisis, politically, the number 58 is somehow greater than 62. Netanyahu has succeeded in forming a government with himself at the top without 61 mandates for the right/ultra-Orthodox bloc, mostly because he has managed to identify the weak links in the center-left-Arab bloc: Knesset members Orly Levy-Abekasis, Yoaz Handel and Zvi Hauzer.

While these three lawmakers entered the Knesset on center-left lists and thanks to the voices of center-left voters, they vehemently opposed the formation of a minority government headed by Gantz and with the support of the Joint List. Thus they contributed to the creation of the conditions that allowed Gantz to join a government headed by Netanyahu, in contrast to the repeated declarations of Blue and White candidates that they wouldnt serve in a government with someone who is criminally indicted. It's an absurd performance: While Gantz holds a mandate from the president to form a government, he conducts negotiations for a government headed by Netanyahu.

The news of the Blue and White split and Gantz joining Netanyahus government shocked the Arab public and members of the Joint List. After all, the Joint List achieved a record voter turnout, winning 15 seats in the last election; it enjoyed an impressive voting rate among the Arab public, its highest in the past two decades at 64.8%. The Arab public hung great hopes on Gantz and on the opportunity to form a center-left government that would send Netanyahu home. Thus, the Joint List unanimously recommended to President Reuven Rivlin that Gantz be charged with forming a government.

Gantz decision to join the next Netanyahu government greatly disappointed the Arab community, where people once again argue that Israeli politics is Jewish politics, as if there were no Arabs in the country and no significance to the number of mandates gained by the Joint List.

Theres no doubt that Gantz joining the Likud government caused great disappointment among the Arab public, explained author and publisher Odeh Bisharat in conversation with Al-Monitor. The voting rate in the Arab community rose because [voters] believed they have an opportunity to impact the political map in Israel. Gantz move is tough blow to their hopes.

Its too early to know how Gantz decision will influence the political picture in the Arab community, but it seems that he greatly damaged the will of many Arab citizens to be a part of Israeli society and participate in the political game. Gantz move only strengthens the growing consensus among Arab citizens in Israel that every vote for the Zionist parties on the center-left is a potential vote for the formation of a right-wing government, explained journalist Mohammad Magadli in conversation with Al-Monitor. Gantz also proves that the vote of Arab citizens for Arab representatives keeps their vote in the right camp: the camp opposing the Likud and Benjamin Netanyahu.

On the other hand, journalist Wadea Awawdy clarified, This is a big challenge for the Joint List in light of the failure of its campaign that claimed it has the power to send Netanyahu home and that theres a difference between Blue and White and the Likud. In the end, it turned out that they are all the same. Theres no doubt that some people and streams among the Arab public will use this opportunity to attack the Joint List and to argue that theres no place for the Arab public in the political game in the Knesset, and thus we have to recalculate the route.

Here lies the great challenge for anyone who seeks to court the Arab vote in the future: how to convince the Arab public that its voice is meaningful and that it is part of the political game, even though since the second Yitzhak Rabin government Arab parties have not been an influential factor in shaping the leadership in Israel. For this to be achieved, two things must happen.

The first is that the Joint List should conduct itself with full transparency and stop functioning as an exclusive club of four parties. The Arab public should be allowed to influence the composition of the Joint List, including the inclusion of new names, even those serving Knesset members find threatening. After all, in a political world without Netanyahu the Joint List will have few tools to get out the Arab vote.

The second is the integration of Arab candidates in Jewish parties. The center-left should learn that Arab citizens and candidates are its only chance to create a revolution and to gain control of the government, just as Likud Prime Minister Menachem Begin identified the potential in Jews from Arab lands and established an alliance with them.

Since the Joint List finds it difficult to draw media attention to issues that arent foreign affairs, in my opinion, its important that its members cooperate with opposition parties on domestic issues. Increasing exposure on these issues will gain points for them among their voters, explained attorney Amjad Shoufany from Ilabun in a conversation with Al-Monitor.

There is another person who has benefitted from the breakup of Blue and White: Yair Lapid. After eight years in the political field, Lapid has finally succeeded in establishing himself as an alternative to the Likud and Netanyahu, thanks to Gantz move. Lapid tried every way to get to the top such as shaking off Arabs, excluding Arabs from his party, disguising himself as right-winger and joining the Blue and White platform, but none of it worked. His maintained his spine and did not join Netanyahus government, in contrast to his former ally.
A Rhode Island police officer just reminded the world that while the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, can claim lives, shut down cities, and change life as we know it, it cant take away kindness.

The Warwick Police Department received a call on Friday night from a community service organization alerting authorities that an 87-year-old woman had no food in her home.

Officer Jill Marshall, who works with the departments Community Services Division, volunteered to conduct a welfare check and found the elderly woman, who was living with her disabled son, had nothing to eat.

Officer Marshall offered to go food shopping for the familyand their cat.

The officer asked for her grocery list and then went shopping, the Warwick Police Department posted on Facebook.

With the generosity of the market and members of the public who overheard the story, the officer was able to return with everything in the list.

Marshall had visited a local grocery store, which donated $25 to help cover the cost of groceries. When other people in the store heard of what Marshall was doing, they donated enough money to buy $100 worth of food for the family.

I was ready to use my own money to help them but the generosity of those shopping and (grocery store) Shaws paid for her list. I would have never left them and make them wait for food. Thats just not humane, Marshall told CNN.

I felt grateful and appreciative for those who overheard me and just pulled out their wallet to help. When I saw how happy and relieved her and her son were it truly made my night. I cant express how good that felt.

By Sunday, more than 230 cases of the CCP virus and at least two deaths were reported in Rhode Island. The global pandemic has forced millions of people to distance themselves from family and friends, and has left grocery stores short on food and supplies.

NTD contributed to this report.

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The migrants are not given medical exams while in U.S. custody, which is one of the reasons agents are able to send them back to Mexico so quickly, according to one Customs and Border Protection official who, like the others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the process because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
New Delhi, March 31 : Amid lockdown when even Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded efforts for sanitation workers to tackle the COVID-19 scare, the Union Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel along with his son reached Bhopal to voluntarily sanitise the streets.

Patel accompanied by his son Prabhal Singh Patel realised that there was shortage of sanitation workers in the area and hence decided to help in.

"I always wanted to help in some ways, but then my father told me there was a space for manpower in sanitation. We applied with the DM's office to volunteer and once it was approved me and my father went with the workers," Prabal Patel told IANS.

The two not only spoke to residents and sanitation workers regarding the problems faced by them, but also sanitised roads and did fogging in an area of Bhopal.

In a video shared on Twitter, Patel and his son are seen carrying fogging machine and sanitising entry doors of a government residential complex in Madhya Pradesh's capital.

Patel then also went to hospitals and other institutions to check on health care facilities in the city.

The total number of coronavirus positive cases in India has reached 1,071 on Monday, including the foreign nationals, with 942 active cases, the Union Health Ministry said.

The Health Ministry said in the 10.30 a.m. update that 29 deaths have been reported in India so far, with highest eight from Maharashtra, followed by Gujarat, having five reported deaths.

"A total of 100 patients have been cured and discharged," the Health Ministry said.
Australians will be able to have a consultation with their doctor via telephone or video after the government expanded its telehealth services amid the coronavirus crisis.

The move is part of the $1.1billion funding boost by the government which will see Medicare subsidies for telehealth offered to the entire population during the pandemic.

The government has also doubled the bulk-billing incentive for GPs during this time.

It comes as the number of confirmed cases continues to rise, with 4,220 Australians now infected and 18 people dead.

But there are still many questions around how the consultations will work. Who specifically can access it? How you can get your prescriptions? And who foots the bill?

Daily Mail Australia has created a guide for those wondering how to navigate the new health system.

Australians will be able to have a consultation with their doctor via telephone or video after the government expanded its telehealth services amid coronavirus crisis

A spokesman from the Australian Medical Association said that some patients will still have to visit their GP in person but most will not

What is telehealth and how does it work?

Telehealth means patients can speak with a doctor or nurse without leaving their homes.

Mainly, it means they won't have to risk their health by sitting in a waiting room with patients who could potentially be carrying the coronavirus, a spokesman from the Australian Medical Association told Daily Mail Australia.

The service is offered for visits to GPs, psychologists, midwives, nurses, psychiatrists, paediatricians, speech pathologists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists for services for children with developmental delays.

Healthcare professionals can do the consultation over the phone or video services with FaceTime, Zoom or WhatsApp.

How do I get my prescription?

A spokesman from the Australian Medical Association told Daily Mail Australia some GPs will fax or emailing the prescription through. Doctors can also leave a script or doctors note at the reception for you to pick up

GPs will remain open, however, if you are suspected of having the coronavirus, some GPs may refuse to see you in person

The AMA spokesman said the way you get you prescription will vary from practice to practice.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

Some GPs will fax or emailing the prescription through. Doctors can also leave a script or doctors note at the reception for you to pick up.

Can I use it for a repeat prescription?

The AMA spokesman said that while the telehealth service will not be available for all consultations, getting a repeat prescription should be fine.

'In some cases, you will have to visit your GP in person, but this measure means you can do so safely, without any risk of contracting the virus,' he said.

Can I still visit the GP in person?

Yes. GPs will remain open, however, if you are suspected of having the coronavirus, some GPs may refuse to see you in person.

The AMA spokesman urged residents to call ahead if they are showing symptoms of the coronavirus.

Who foots the bill?

Telehealth services are currently a free, however, the AMA spokesman said that may change by the end of the week.
In the American state of Louisiana, a Christian preacher defies authorities worried about the spread of the novel coronavirus and insists on holding a service that draws 1,000 people. In Pakistan, a gathering of nearly a quarter of a million Muslims in late February, held despite warnings of coronavirus, has been pinpointed as a super-spreader of the virus across the world. Jewish temples in Israel, identified as one of the hotspots for the spread of coronavirus, finally agreed to shut just a few days ago, well into an outbreak that is rapidly spreading across the country.

Religious extremists across the world, and in nearly every faith, are contributing to a global pandemic by refusing to abide by scientific advice and hold off on gatherings. Whether in the Iranian shrine city of Qom or the Bible Belt of the United States, the zealots are sometimes even touting their hocus pocus as cures to the pandemic.

All too often governments worried about alienating pious supporters are buckling to their pressure. Pakistani officials, for example, advised but did not order the organisers of the five-day Tablighi Ijtema gathering near Lahore to cancel the gathering. Organisers refused to heed them, drawing tens of thousands of religious scholars who later may have seeded the outbreak across the planet.
Amber Heard failed to bring home a win after a judge declined her appeal against Johnny Depp.

On Friday, Judge Bruce D. White gave Depp the signal to proceed with his defamation lawsuit after he rejected Heard's request to stop the case.

The 56-year-old "Pirates of the Caribbean" actor first filed the lawsuit a year ago in Virginia, which has "more flexible" defamation laws than in any country.

"Defendant's Demurrer is sustained as to the fourth statement listed above, but it is overruled as to the other three statements," Fairfax (VA) County Chief wrote in a lengthy opinion letter for the lawyer of both sides.

"Further, Defendant's Plea in Bar regarding the statute of limitations is denied. Counsel shall prepare an Order reflecting the Court's ruling and forward that Order to the Court for entry," the statement continued.

This came after Heard's side declared that the actress' column online "was about her and what happened to her after she came forward" and not fundamentally about the allegations against Depp.

The Virginia judge seconded it and highlighted the part where Heard wrote about receiving death threats and even being followed by paparazzi on the rare occasions when she left her home.

Judge White dismissed Heard's request and trashed her lawyers' claim that a one-year statute of limitations makes the case invalid.

According to the judge, Depp filed the suit within four months of the article's publication in 2016, making it valid.

What The Op-Ed Stated

The said 2018 Washington Post opinion piece was penned by the "Aquaman" actress to talk about female victims of domestic violence -- and it dragged Depp's name into a negative light in the end.

Heard created the headline "Amber Heard: I spoke up against sexual violence -- and faced our culture's wrath. That has to change."

Although she did not mention his name in the said op-ed, Depp knew that she was referring to him. It resulted to financial and career losses for the actor, including his role in the award-winning film franchise "Pirates of the Caribbean."

"I want to ensure that women who come forward to talk about violence receive more support," Heard wrote in the end. "We can work together to demand changes to laws and rules and social norms - and to the right, the imbalances that have shaped our lives."

Fans Asking For #JusticeForJohnnyDepp

Depp's fans continue to fight with him by sharing their opinions online.

One fan wrote, "#JusticeForJohnnyDepp Amber Heard assaulted Johnny Depp when his children were in the house: 'I saw Amber lunge at Johnny, clawing, tugging and aggressively pulling him."

"Unfortunately, this won't bring his reputation back. There are idiots out there, despite the calls being released, that still believe and repeat this woman's lies," another netizen sadly wrote.

Meanwhile, most of his fans congratulated him and hoped for him to win this battle. But his victory might be out of sight since his scheduled trial on March 23 got canceled by High Court Judge Andrew Nicol due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Carnival workers, police and spectators help to pull a truck to safety. Credit:Staff photographer

The barking roused members of the carnival troupe who fought the blaze till the Fire Brigade arrived.

A dog's barking helped avert loss of life as fire swept through carnival tents at Alexandria early yesterday.

First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on April 1, 1973

But exploding cylinders of liquid petroleum gas, fixed to the rear of caravans housing the carnival staff, fed the flames which destroyed a whole row of sideshow stalls.

"This is the little fella who saved us all," said Colin Geahig, cradling his six-month-old silkie terrier, Sooty, in his arms.

Colin runs the "Spear-a-Card" stall with a partner at the carnival owned by Mr E. Short.

Caravans destroyed

At about 2.15 am, Colin said "Sooty" woke him when he jumped on to his bed, barking furiously.
Several parts of the country have not been overwhelmed by coronavirus cases yet, but hospitals are sitting in what they view as the calm before the storm.

The bottom line: Health care workers in these relatively quiet areas are urging people to stay home for the foreseeable future so they don't become the next coronavirus hotspot.

What we're hearing: Workers in areas that haven't tallied large numbers of coronavirus cases know more are coming, and they want their communities to take social distancing seriously.

Ohio was among the first states to shut down businesses and urge people to stay at home, which has helped keep cases manageable, said Robert Wyllie, the head of medical operations at Cleveland Clinic. The hospital system projects peak COVID-19 cases will come within the next four to eight weeks, and cases likely will consume at least half of the system's beds, Wyllie said.

Michael Ring, a cardiologist at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, sits on the opposite end of the state from Seattle. Their staff are delaying almost all procedures because they "don't want patients to come to the office," he said on a conference call last week.

The Montana Hospital Association asked for a shelter-in-place declaration last week, and Gov. Steve Bullock issued it a day later.

The big picture: The Trump administration has not issued a national order for people to stay at home, but providers think it's time to do so.

"It makes more sense to do it as a nation as opposed to some states doing and some states not," Wyllie said. "To be effective, we should all do it together."

Go deeper: Doctors and nurses urge public to stay home
Hundreds of independent restaurants across Canada have come together to launch a coalition called SaveHospitality.ca, which outlines what needs to be done to save the countrys dining industry, as well as caterers, farmers, food shops, construction companies, breweries and wineries affected by the restaurant shutdown.

John Sinopoli of the Ascari Hospitality Group, which runs the Ascari restaurants in Leslieville and King West and has laid off 97 people so far, says he got the idea for the group as a way for banks and governments to understand what needs to be done now, as well as to help restaurants reopen when the pandemic is over.

The coalition would like there to be a freeze on rent payments for the upcoming Apr. 1 due date as well as a cash infusion from the federal government to businesses immediately so they can pay employees, landlords and suppliers for the duration of the shutdown, as well as have money to reopen.

That would allow the restaurants to stay open, continue paying taxes and contribute to the economy. Right now, Sinopoli says they are working on a formula to determine how much money different restaurants would need to stay afloat, based on factors such as size, type of service and number of employees.

It costs less for governments to pay us now, because how can we afford deferrals down the road? The lions share of our coalition members dont even have the money to reopen their restaurants. Its not like a store where inventory can sit for weeks; we have to retrain staff, clean the place, order food, spend a day or two prepping ingredients. It takes time to get a restaurant ready, said Sinopoli.

Others who helped shape the plan, he said, include Andrew Oliver from the Oliver and Bonacini hospitality group, business partner Eric Joyal and Dyson Forbes of Forbes Wild Foods and the Food and Wine Industry Navigator, a popular Facebook group for those working mostly in Torontos restaurant industry.

The hospitality industry contributes a massive amount to the labour force and GDP. If half of the restaurants close, thats money not going back into the economy. This is a team effort with landlords, banks and governments, because no one wants to see us fail.

The SaveHospitality.ca site lists how many people from each member business was laid off since the province called for its restaurants and bars to shutter (with the exception of doing takeout) on Mar. 16. For example, chocolate-maker Soma let go 50 employees, Pizzeria Libretto is down 213 employees, and restaurant giant Oliver and Bonacini laid off more than 1,900 people.

Nicki Laborie of Reyna, which has temporarily closed its locations in Yorkville and Corktown, as well as a catering space that launched in February, says that doing takeout and delivery ends up costing her more money in keeping the kitchens running. Laborie says 95 people were laid off at her company, and the goal of the coalition is to show that restaurants have a different set of considerations when it comes to funding.

Its not that restaurants are more important than other industries; its that there are different levels to it, she says. When people can go out again, maybe well be busy in the first month, but then diners will realize they have no money left and wont go out.

My rent is over $40,000 a month for my three places. If the rent is deferred for three months, Im also stuck paying $100,000 of extra rent when diners arent going out as much.

How am I expected to survive?
Bahrain-based Gulf International Bank BSC has hired Deutsche Bank AGs CEO Jamal Al Kishi to become the new CEO of the parent company, Gulf International Bank B.S.C, Bloomberg reports.

Al Kishi will also become the deputy group CEO, GIB said in a statement seen by Bloomberg.

Al Kishi has been Deutsche Bank AG since 2017. He will help the lender to develop the right business structure and source talent across the group to effectively execute our strategy for robust sustainable growth, said Abdullah Alabdulgader, GIB group chairman.

GIBs ability to attract such high caliber individuals reflects our unique standing and growth ambitions, Alabdulgader added.

GIB, established in 1975, is owned by Saudi Arabias Public Investment Fund. It is a Middle Eastern merchant bank with a focus on the oil and gas industry. It has branches in New York, London and also in Riyadh and Jeddah.
New Delhi, March 30 : As global recession seems inevitable with demand shock becoming much larger than the initial supply shock, governments must ensure that workers get paychecks and firms receive enough cash flows to avoid bankruptcy, else the present health crisis will turn into a mega financial crisis within no time, a new report from London Business School has warned.

Government spending should be now and as large as the predicted economic costs, focusing directly on cash disbursement to firms and households, said the report titled 'The economics of a pandemic: the case of Covid-19'.

The immediate tasks at hand must be to ensure households delay mortgage/rental payments and have cash-on-hands, workers receive paychecks even in quarantine or if temporarily laid off; firms have enough cash flows (to pay workers and suppliers), especially small and young businesses and can avoid bankruptcy.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Kristalina Georgieva, the new coronavirus has taken the world economy to a recession, that will be as bad or worse than the financial meltdown of 2009.

The LBS report said that governments must support financial system to avoid the health crisis becomes a financial crisis.

"Central banks should provide financial backing to the government, not just through their own reserves but also by printing money if necessary. Global shock needs global response. No country has fiscal capacity to stand alone," the findings showed.

To avoid a financial meltdown, governments must start from health expenditure.

"Invest in testing and expansion of supply. Too late now for the first peak but still time to contain the second peak in the fall of 2020," said the report.

Use a coordination of fiscal and monetary interventions to maximize and multiply impact and provide financial backing to each other policy and be global -- interconnected society and economy requires global coordination.

"Government spending should be now and as large as the predicted economic costs, focusing directly on cash disbursement to firms and households," it added.

The IMF chief has said that though in recession, a recovery is very much possible in 2021 if the virus is contained across the globe.

"We do project a recovery in 2021. In fact, there may be a sizeable rebound but only if we succeed in containing the virus everywhere and prevent liquidity problems from becoming a solvency issue," Georgieva said.
Congress has passed, and President Trump has signed, a $2-trillion economic stimulus package  the largest of its kind  designed to send money directly into Americans pockets while also aiding hospitals, businesses and local governments struggling during the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition to providing many Americans with a one-time payment of up to $1,200, the bill includes $500 billion in loans to struggling businesses, $377 billion in loans and grants for small businesses, $150 billion for local, state and tribal governments facing a drop in revenue and $130 billion for hospitals dealing with an onslaught of patients.

Under the expanded unemployment program, assistance would be available to people who had the promise of a job that was postponed or canceled because of the coronavirus threat and to those whose workplaces closed because of it.

 Coronavirus checks: How much money will I get? When? Direct deposit or mail? (update)

So who qualifies for the stimulus? The short version: All U.S. residents are eligible as long as they have a work-eligible Social Security number and meet the income requirements.

- The Internal Revenue Service will base the payments on a persons adjusted gross income on his or her 2018 tax return (or their 2019 return if filed). It is a persons wages, dividends, capital gains and other income minus 401(k) payments, student loan interest and other deductions. The figure can be found in Box 7 on a persons 2018 federal 1040 tax return or Box 8b on 2019 returns.

- All Americans with an adjusted gross income below $75,000 (or $150,000 for a married couple) would receive the full amount: $1,200 per adult or $2,400 for a married couple, plus $500 per dependent child.

-People with no income are eligible for the same amount  $1,200 per adult and $500 per dependent child.

- People whose income is entirely from nontaxable, means-tested programs  such as Supplemental Security Income benefits  are eligible.

- People who have been listed as a dependent on someone elses tax return  such as a young adult  are not eligible to receive a payment.

- Americans who make between $75,000 and $99,000 (or married couples making between $150,000 and $198,000) are eligible for a portion of the payment. The rebate amount is reduced by $5 for each $100 in income over $75,000 (or $150,000 for a married couple.) The amount per child is not adjusted by income, but is only available to parents with income of $99,000 or less and married couples with income of $198,000 or less.

Some more information on the payments:

- The payments are not taxable, according to a Senate aide.

- Payments could arrive in as early as three weeks for people who have already set up direct deposit with the IRS, which is about 50% of Americans, according to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Others may have to wait weeks or even months to see their money because it will take the IRS longer to get the paper checks printed. Prepaid debit cards may be sent out as an alternative.

--By Los Angeles Times Staff, Los Angeles Times

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But Sanders has given no indication that he is preparing to do that. He recently said he wants to debate Biden in April. His team announced it is expanding digital organizing efforts ahead of the New York primary, which on Saturday was moved from April 28 to June 23. And Sanders has signaled a strong desire to use his campaign megaphone to advocate for liberal policies like Medicare-for-all  which allies said are more crucial than ever because of the public health crisis.
North Korea on Sunday test-fired two more projectiles that are presumed to be short-range ballistic missiles. It was the fourth missile launch this month alone. The North has apparently been hit as hard as many other countries by the coronavirus epidemic but is in deep denial and is wasting its sparse resources on missile launches instead. More than 100 North Korean soldiers are thought to have died of the disease. The commander of the U.S. Forces Korea has said, "What I do know is that their armed forces has been fundamentally on lockdown for about 30 days, and only recently have they started routine training again." Some data suggest that the North's food imports from China in January and February of this year declined 90 percent compared to November and December of 2019 after the North closed its borders, and food prices have surged 30 to 40 percent. That shows just how tough living conditions are for the average North Korean.

Even U.S. President Donald Trump and the UN Security Council have pledged aid to fight the virus. Trump sent a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un promising to cooperate in fighting the epidemic, while the UNSC authorized support from Switzerland. International aid agencies are sending diagnostic kits and disinfection products to North Korea. They are all extending a helping hand because they know how dire the shortage of necessary products in the North is.

But Kim has responded by test-firing more missiles. The North used mobile launchers, allowing them to be fired just 20 seconds apart to an altitude of 30 km and a distance of 230 km. The interval between firings was similar to previous tests, but the altitude has apparently been lowered, so now they are harder for South Korean and U.S. forces to shoot down.

The North Korean regime has resorted to provocations in a time of unprecedented global crisis in order to keep its people in line. It has shown little concern for food shortages that are killing them and the suffering of those infected with coronavirus. The true face of the Kim Jong-un regime is the ugliest in the world.


We are honored to be collaborating with Chef Rick Bayless, said Anthony Kingsley, Local and Sustainable Product lead at US Foods. US Foods has a long-standing commitment to helping our restaurant operators as they support our communities, and that has never been as important as it is today.
The Alameda County Public Defender has condemned actions taken Saturday by the Judicial Council of California he views as dramatically restricting speedy trial rights in California during and after the COVID-19 coronavirus emergency.

"The right to a speedy and public trial is the bedrock of the U.S. Constitution and is one of the founding principles of this country," said Alameda County Public Defender Brendon Woods in a statement Sunday.

"Losing that, especially after the emergency has passed, is something that should alarm every single person in California. If you're going to take such extraordinary measures of denying people due process rights then you also have to take the extraordinary measure of releasing them as well," Woods said.

During a special emergency meeting Saturday, the Judicial Council of California unanimously voted to approve temporary emergency measures to continue "essential court services," such as protecting the rights and needs of the accused in a safe way while guarding the health and safety of the public, court employees, attorneys, litigants, judicial officers, law enforcement, and staff and inmates in detention facilities during a time when many courts are closed in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The specific measures include extending the 10-court-day period for holding a preliminary hearing and the defendant's right of release to 30 court days; extending the time period in which a defendant charged with a felony offense shall be taken before a judicial officer from 48 hours to not more than seven days; extending the time period for holding a criminal trial by more than 30 days; and extending the time period to bring an action to trial by more than 30 days.

The council's actions were spurred by Gov. Gavin Newsom's emergency order empowering the Judicial Council and the state's chief justice, Tani Cantil-Sakauye, to take temporary action to enable the courts to conduct business and continue to operate while responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. In her statement on Newsom's order, Tani Cantil-Sakauye expressed her appreciation and assurance that "we will assume this responsibility with utmost care and judiciousness."

Woods, the Alameda County Public Defender, said Sunday the Judicial Council's measures were too overreaching.

If adopted in Alameda County, the action will cause more people to remain in custody at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin for longer periods of time. That will increase the risk of COVID-19 infections at the jail, Woods contends.

"I understand this is a national crisis, but we went from 0 to 120 miles an hour in one moment," Woods said. "If we're going to go down this road of denying people their speedy trial rights, then we should talk about releasing them on no-cash bail or some other form of release, such as electronic monitoring."

In Alameda County, courts restricted operations on March 17 and are scheduled to lift the emergency order and reopen April 3, however it is extremely likely they will remain closed longer. Special courts are running twice a week for arraignments and daily for preliminary hearings in felony cases where defendants have not given up their speedy trial rights.

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Singapore based SVOD platform, HOOQ which was a joint venture between Singtel, Sony Pictures Television and Warner Bros. has filed for liquidation according to media reports.

The OTT platform announced the news on Friday 27th March citing failing to grow rapidly and escalating operating costs led to the decision. The platform has been in the video on demand (VOD) streaming market for 5 years and has undergone several structural changes to keep pace with the changing OTT environment but is no longer able to provide sustainable returns to the investors.

In a statement from HOOQ, the spokesperson stated, global and local content providers are going direct, the consumers willingness to pay in emerging markets and increasing content costs all led to an unsustainable environment for the platforms growth.

The firm has failed to raise additional capital from investors. HOOQ has raised $95 million till date including $70 million that were pumped in 2015 by its main investors.

The company will hold a meeting with shareholders and creditors on April 13th.

Read More: OTT player, Viu shuts India operations to focus on other markets
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 00:58:15|Editor: huaxia

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SHANGHAI, March 29 (Xinhua) -- A total of 153 Taiwan compatriots stranded in Hubei Province due to the COVID-19 outbreak flew to Taiwan on board the flight CI504 of Taiwan-based China Airlines, which took off from Shanghai Pudong International Airport Sunday night.

Due to the fact that Taiwan authorities do not allow direct flights from Hubei's capital city of Wuhan to Taiwan, many Taiwan compatriots remaining in Hubei made overnight trips to Shanghai to take the designated flight.

Many Taiwan compatriots had to give up their chances to return to Taiwan considering the inconvenience for the elderly and children to travel to Shanghai.

According to the Taiwan affairs office of Hubei, about 870 remaining Taiwan compatriots had applied to fly back to Taiwan from Wuhan, with around 290 Taiwan compatriots having applied for health certificates for leaving Hubei.

The Shanghai airport, the immigration inspection authorities and the customs authorities have all provided assistance to facilitate Taiwan compatriots' trips.
A group of Republican lawmakers from the Oklahoma House of Representatives are asking the Oklahoma Municipal League (OML), Oklahoma Municipal Assurance Group (OMAG), CompSource Oklahoma and self-funded municipalities to cover and provide workers compensation benefits to any first responder testing positive for COVID-19.

The lawmakers sent a letter to the above-named groups that reads:

As Oklahomans face the global COVID-19 pandemic, we are continuously reminded of the bravery of our first responders and the sacrifices our first responders make. Most of us are doing our part in confronting this virus by staying sheltered at home with our families. Our first responders, on the other hand, report to the front lines day after day, facing danger and uncertainty head on. With the spread of COVID-19, they not only put themselves, but also their families, in harms way. This reminder is only magnified when we know our first responders are responding to emergency calls without proper personal protective equipment (PPE).

OML, OMAG, and CompSource Oklahoma work together to provide first-dollar workers compensation benefits to first responders and municipal employees. Many of the larger municipalities cover their first responders via self-funded and partially self-funded workers compensation programs. All of these programs are ultimately taxpayer funded.

In recent days, there has been confusion throughout the state on what happens if one of these first responders contracts COVID-19. OML, OMAG, CompSource Oklahoma and all partially self-funded and self-funded municipalities should cover and provide workers compensation benefits presumptively to any first responder testing positive for COVID-19.

We call on OML, OMAG, CompSource Oklahoma, and self-funded municipalities to grant first responders who have contracted COVID-19 the presumption that they were exposed to the virus on the job. Such a presumption would not be unusual and is supported by the national shortage of PPE first responders have faced due to the sudden and unprecedented nature of the spread of this virus.

Without this equipment and with the delay of testing capabilities early on, they have faced and continue to face heightened exposure to the virus in the course of their duties. First responders have had no way of knowing at which point in their duties they may have interacted with an infected individual, especially an asymptomatic individual, which might lead to the contraction of COVID-19.

Finally, Oklahomans value the service and sacrifice of our first responders, especially during crises. That should be reflected in our policies and procedures when it comes to making sure our first responders are compensated and cared for when we need each other most.

Sending the letter are State Reps. Scott Fetgatter, R-Okmulgee; Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow; Mark Lawson, R-Sapulpa; Marcus McEntire, R-Duncan; and Josh West, R-Grove.

Source: Oklahoma House of Representatives

Topics COVID-19 Legislation Workers' Compensation Oklahoma
Mumbai: Domestic stock markets fell on Monday tracking a selloff in global peers as the number of coronavirus cases increased the world over.

The S&P BSE Sensex index dropped to as low as 28,708.83 down 1,106.76 points from the previous close - during the session, having started the session down 589.04 points at 29,226.55.

The broader NSE Nifty benchmark declined as much as 326.65 points to hit 8,333.60 at the weakest level of the day.

Losses in financial, automobile and metal stocks pulled the markets lower, but gains in consumer goods and pharma shares limited the downside.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said the world is in the face of a devastating impact due to the coronavirus pandemic and has clearly entered a recession.

After hitting a low of 28,708.83, the 30-share BSE barometer was trading 855.82 points or 2.87 per cent lower at 28,959.77.

Similarly, the NSE Nifty fell 245.30 points, or 2.83 per cent, to 8,414.95.

Bajaj Finance was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, tanking up to 8 per cent, followed by M&M, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, ONGC, HDFC Bank and Kotak Bank. On the other hand, TCS, Tech Mahindra, HUL, Axis Bank and ITC were the top gainers.

According to traders, investors across the globe are jittery over the rising number of COVID-19 cases and the economic fallout of the worldwide lockdowns.

The number of COVID-19 cases in India surged past 1,000 over the weekend, according to health ministry log.

Deaths around the world linked to the pandemic crossed 30,000 over the weekend.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba believes that Russia should focus on the de-occupation of Crimea and Donbas

Ukraine will not relax or ease sanctions against Russia due to the spread of Covid-19. This was stated by Ukraines Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba during a briefing.

He added that sanctions would be lifted only if the Russian aggression was ceased.

"The sanctions have been imposed in response to the Russian aggression against our country, and their softening or lifting should be tied to its progress in stopping the aggression and de-occupation of Crimea and certain regions of Donetsk and Luhansk regions," Kuleba said.

He also added that Russia needed to focus on the de-occupation of Crimea and the regions of Lugansk and Donetsk regions, rather than "trying to get sanctions against them lifted under the pretext of coronavirus."

Kuleba had earlier stated that Russia tried to manipulate the COVID-19 pandemic in order to get EU sanctions against it removed.

As we reported earlier, on March 26, a Russian guided-missile boat invaded Ukraine's exclusive offshore zone at the Odesa gas field.

Flags of the aggressor country were raised on self-lifting floating drilling rigs "Ukraine" (renamed the "Crimea-1") and "Tavrida".
Shares of Abbott India surged 19 per cent to hit a new high of Rs 16,869 on the BSE on Monday in an otherwise weak market on report that Abbott Laboratories, USA, the ulitmate holding company, has received the approval to launch 5-minute coronavirus (COVID-19) test for use almost anywhere. Abbott India is a subsidiary of Abbott Laboratories of USA.

According to a Bloomberg report, Abbott Laboratories is unveiling a COVID-19 test that can tell if someone is infected in as little as five minutes, and is so small and portable it can be used in almost any health-care setting. Abbott has ...
For Jammu and Kashmir, the ongoing shutdown can end hopes of an economic resurrection.

While the rest of the world is discussing the coronavirus pandemic and the possible economic slowdown due to it, Jammu and Kashmir is preparing for yet another lockdown  this time due to the disease.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused panic in Jammu and Kashmir, as it means another spell of suffering. For an economy that has already collapsed, the ongoing shutdown can end hopes of an economic resurrection.

The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) has said that businesses had suffered losses of about Rs 18,000 crore due to the clampdown following the abrogation of Article 370.

We have already suffered financially due to recurring lockdowns,and there is a need for capital infusion. Our survival is solely dependent on the revival of economy, Sheikh Aashiq, president of KCCI, said.

Aashiq added, Our delegation met the Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 15 March in Delhi. We submitted a report to the ministry, which stated that businesses cumulatively lost around Rs 18,000 crore. The finance ministry has assured us of a comprehensive revival package that will give a boost to businesses in the Valley. We are very optimistic."

This year, Kashmir saw a harsh winter, and the Valley remained covered in snow for about four months. There is no rabi harvest in the region due to the harsh weather.

Follow LIVE updates on the coronavirus outbreak here

An economics graduate studying in the Kashmir University, said, "People in Kashmir are used to consuming things economically. But it is difficult for a population of around eighty lakh to sustain itself in a lockdown for such a long time."

Tourism contributed over 5 percent of the GDP of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. The situation since 5 August, 2019 has led to large-scale losses.

A high-ranking official said, In 2018, more than eight lakh tourists visited the Valley, while up to July 2019, more than five lakh tourists had arrived. However, the lockdown may have cost the Valleys economy around Rs 100 crore.

However, the official added, Since tourism sector all over the world is in recession due to the current health emergency, we cannot complain about our losses right now.

A similar situation exists for the agricultural sector. Official reports reveal that the apple harvest for 2018-19 was more than the previous years yield. However, most of the harvest has either been left to rot in the fields, or has been stuck in supply trucks. All components of the agricultural sector have been affected, including horticulture, floriculture and orchards.

Haseeb Drabu, former finance minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said, The current lockdown will damage the economy of Jammu and Kashmir more than any other state of Union Territory. As domestic markets are closed, people can't sell their products or crafts."

Drabu further said, "The economy will also be adversely affected by the loss of income for daily wagers, reduced industrial production and business crashes. Infusion of capital has become impossible."

Due to the disturbed law and order situation, the government has been unable to attract investors.

The Centre has proposed a Budget outlay of over Rs 1 lakh for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir for 2020-21. However, there was no mention of any revival package.

On this, Drabu said, "This Budget does not seem grounded in the reality of Kashmir. On the expenditure side, there are pending liabilities and payments, which makes the Budget operationally impractical vis-a vis Kashmir."

Another cause for concern was that banks gave no concessions to debtors during the seven-month lockdown. It was only on 29 March that several banks, including the J&K Bank, announced a three-month moratorium on term loan installments following an RBI directive.

Ayaz Bhat (name changed) sold his house to repay loan installments to the Jammu and Kashmir Bank. I had taken a huge loan of Rs 50 lakh from the bank to establish my hotel business. I had no option but to sell my house," he said.

Drabu, who had earlier headed the J&K Bank, said that the moratorium should have been extended to those affected by the lockdown imposed ahead of the abrogation of Article 370.

So far, 27 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Kashmir. If the government allows for testing at private clinics, compensating for the tests will add to the government's financial burden.
A warm winter in Russia has seen deaths from alcohol poisoning fall after drinkers ditched vodka, according to experts.

Just over 600 people died from alcohol poisoning in January, a 37 per cent drop compared to the same month last year.

Average temperatures in Moscow in the winter just gone were around 42.8 - more than 20F higher than usual.

There is a direct correlation between an increase in temperatures and a decline in drinking spirits, according to the head of Russia's consumer protection union.

A warm winter in Russia has seen deaths from alcohol poisoning fall after drinkers ditched vodka in favour of wine, according to experts (file photo)

Pavel Shapkin told the Moscow Times: 'As a result, the negative effects of alcohol consumption have dramatically decreased.'

The most recent winter in Russia was the warmest since records began in 1891, according to state meteorologists.

Mr Shapkin's union previously reported a slight decline in vodka sales between 2019 and 2018.

In Moscow, the average winter temperature was above freezing for the first time.

Conditions were so out of the ordinary that officials had to import snow for New Year's Eve celebrations.

Moscow winter temperatures are normally around 21.2 (-6C).

Just over 600 people died from alcohol poisoning in January, a 37 per cent drop compared to the same month last year

And although alcoholism is still a huge problem in Russia, vodka consumption has declined by 43 per cent since 2003, according to the World Health Organisation.

Factors including restrictions on alcohol sales, higher taxes and a promotion of a healthy lifestyle by teetoal president Vladimir Putin were all reasons behind the decline, the WHO said.

By contrast, former leader Boris Yeltsin was regularly seen drunk in public.

During a visit to Ireland, Yeltsin was so drunk that he could not get off his plane.
Opinion Article

30 March 2020

From the 2020 Chinese Spring Festival, Covid-19 spread in China. Hubei Province was the first and worst-hit area. Successively, the contagious virus reached cities and towns all over the country within a few days. The Chinese government quickly responded to the outbreak, initiated various measures and policies to help people pull through. Nevertheless, the pandemic paused economic activities, resulting in a huge impact especially on the tertiary industry, including the travel, hotel, and catering industries. HVS combines existing market information and our own survey results, as well as the historical data of SARS in 2003, to dialectically determine the impact and provide an outlook on Chinese hotel industry.

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1. The Outbreak of COVID-19

The Outbreak of COVID-19 had a huge impact on the Chinese hospitality industry;

Overall occupancy level dropped by 89%, from the beginning to mid January, then stayed around 10% until the end of February;

In February, all major Chinese cities had a YoY RevPAR decline of more than 85%.

2. Survey Overview

498 responses were used for the analysis, including responses from 124 hotel investors/owners and 374 hotel operators;

All hotel performance data are dated between the middle of January and the end of February;

The hotels that the operators represent: 40% closed, 40% partially open, 20% open; Upscale, upper upscale and luxury categories register a major drop with average occupancy levels below 10%; Most hotels did not suffer from liquidity problem.

The hotels that the investors represent: 40% of the hotels had an 80-100% decrease in revenue compare to last year.



3. Strategies and Methods

The government and the stakeholders offered financial aids and other helps to the hotels;

The hotels should react quickly to the situation, adjust both long-term and short term strategies, in aspects such as cost control and employee arrangement.

4. Looking back at SARS

What happened during SARS is not directly comparable, but is of reference value;

2020 china hotel occupancy predictions: If the domestic situation can be brought under control within the first quarter, then the decline of overall occupancy in 2020 would be approximately 3.5 percentage points. If the imported confirmed cases keep rising, making the situation unclear or even worse, then the overall occupancy decrease in 2020 would be approximately 5.5 percentage points or more.



5. Recovery and Investment Outlook
People who fail to comply with the new laws to combat the spread of Covid-19 in Northern Ireland could face fines of 60 or prosecution and fines up to 5,000.

Sweeping new powers to combat the spread of the coronavirus came into force in Northern Ireland at 11pm on Saturday night, March 28.

They compeledl the closure of certain premises and prohibit anyone from leaving home without a reasonable excuse.

Gatherings of more than two people are also banned.

Penalties ranging from fixed penalty notices to fines of up to 5,000 are being introduced to enforce the new powers.

The emergency regulations bring Northern Ireland into line with restrictions announced by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The Stormont Executive said it has agreed to adopt the powers in response to "the serious and imminent threat to public health posed by Covid-19".

"These are extraordinary powers for any government to have to introduce, but we are living in extraordinary times," said First Minister Arlene Foster.

"We are asking the people of Northern Ireland to make fundamental changes to how they live their lives.

"But we are doing this to keep you safe, to flatten the curve of the Covid-19 infection so that the health service has the capacity to deal with those who need their help the most.

"We know the enormity of what we are asking of the public, but it is proportionate to the threat we all face from this deadly virus. No one is immune."

Chief Constable Simon Byrne said: We will continue to police with the cooperation of our community providing the best possible service to the public, while also rightly protecting our officers and staff.

He explained "if required Police will enforce this legislation and issue a penalty notice of 60. The issuance of a PND in the first instance is not in itself a criminal offence  the Police do not want to criminalise people, we simply want to ensure that people follow the regulations.

For those who continue to disregard the NI Executive directions, the fine can be doubled each time and summary prosecution can be sought for those who refuse to pay or comply. The 60 fine can fall to 30 if paid within 14 days. If a person has already received a fixed penalty notice, the amount will increase to 120 and double on each further repeat offence."

Also read: Are there any frogs left in Leitrim?
Description

GIS 30 March, 2020: The Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, announced that the sanitary curfew which started on 23 March at 20 00 hours will be extended till 15 April 2020 at 20 00 hours following an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases which now stands at 128 with three deaths reported. The Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, announced that the sanitary curfew which started on 23 March at 20 00 hours will be extended till 15 April 2020 at 20 00 hours following an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases which now stands at 128 with three deaths reported.

He was speaking during a televised press conference, this evening, whereby he observed that this decision has been taken in a bid to protect the population at large from being exposed and added that the situation is alarming owing to non-respect of the confinement rules as well as the curfew order by certain citizens.

However, he reassured the population that in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic in Mauritius, Government is taking all necessary actions in the best interest of one and all. Thus, he announced that all supermarkets and shops will be reopened as from Thursday 02 April 2020 to allow citizens to acquire essential foodstuffs during the confinement period but under strict conditions of a minimum risk of contamination, he added.

On this score, he pointed out that the Government along with the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry are working on the appropriate modalities regarding the operations of the supermarkets and shops which will be disseminated to the public tomorrow 31 March 2020. He further appealed to the public at large and the retailers to abide rigorously to the set rules. He nevertheless cautioned that the situation will be monitored on a daily basis and in case of non-respect of those regulations Government will have to reconsider its decision and take severe actions.

Regarding law and order, the Prime Minister reiterated his full support to the police force as to the diligence demonstrated in delivering their duties so as to ensure that people are abiding the confinement and curfew order. He also warned that the police will be adamant to those breaching the law.

He again urged the population to demonstrate a sense of responsibility and solidarity by complying with the confinement instructions by staying at home as he stressed that it is through confinement that the country can win the battle against the Covid-19 virus for the betterment of one and all.

Prime Minister Jugnauth also called upon those who are showing suspected signs of Covid-19 symptoms to come forward for a test so as to break the transmission chain and also to avail of appropriate treatment. This, he highlighted will help reduce the risk for further spreading of the virus.
Houston Methodist Hospital doctors were all ready to go, but even they were a bit surprised late Saturday afternoon when word came down from the Food and Drug Administration.

They could transfuse the blood plasma from a former COVID-19 patient into one severely ill at the moment.

The Methodist team sprang into action, using just-donated blood from a Houston-area individual whose symptoms had gone away weeks ago but whose antibodies to the coronavirus were now at optimal levels. By Saturday night, the plasma was coursing through not just one but two COVID-19 patients in intensive care at Methodist.

With that, the Houston hospital became the nations first to enlist convalescent serum therapy, a century-old idea, against the virus now spreading throughout the U.S. Methodist transfused the patients less than a week after the FDA announced it would facilitate use of the experimental therapy because of the expanding public health crisis.

Kudos to the FDA, said Dr. Eric Salazar, a physician scientist at Methodists Research Institute who is leading the research effort. They responded very rapidly.

On Sunday, Salazar said it is too early still to assess whether the transfused blood is helping the patients. But he said doctors are hopeful.

That Methodist was the first to test the approach came as something of a surprise after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo suggested last week it would happen there soon. After the FDA announcement, he said patient recruitment for plasma donations would begin in a matter of days, focused initially on the heavily hit New York City suburb of New Rochelle.

In reality, Methodists team was pushing the effort just as furiously.

The use of convalescent serum therapy dates back as far as the 1918 Spanish Influenza, when it was enlisted on quite a few patients with encouraging results. The approach also was used for the measles, mumps and polio in the first half of the 20th century before it became less relevant with the advent of vaccines and antiviral drugs.

Though study of the idea that immunity can be transferred from a healthy individual to a sick one using convalescent plasma has met with varied results, a number of researchers think its worth reviving given the absence of any proven treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

Its really a tried and true approach that has its limitation but has been shown to work in principle, said Vineet Menachery , a virologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Transfusing antibodies that bind and inhibit the virus from growing in the blood definitely can reduce the viral load in patients.

UTMB showed convalescent serum therapy worked in experiments with mice infected with SARS, the new virus closely related cousin that in 2013 and 2014 spread globally . Doctors in China have used the approach in a small number of COVID-19 patients and suggested in a journal article last week that its been beneficial.

Methodist had already submitted an application for a larger trial using the approach before the FDA announcement came down Tuesday that the agency would consider emergency uses. At that point, it began contacting former patients who had volunteered to the donate their blood.

There didnt figure to be as many strong candidates here as New York, just because the coronavirus began spreading there a few weeks before it started hitting Houston, important because donors arent eligible for the research for some time after being infected.

We are only at the point now that many of our potential donors plasma would be mature enough to use, said Dr. James Musser, chair of Methodists department of pathology and genomic medicine. Thats roughly 3 to 4 weeks after their initial diagnosis, including two weeks in which theyre symptom free. Thats when their antibodies are at maximal level.

But one such former patient met the criteria last week. Methodist doctors collected and processed the individuals blood Saturday, the day they applied to the FDA for emergency use of the therapy. With unusual speed, the agency fast-tracked the approval.

On Sunday, Salazar and Musser expressed their gratitude to the donor. They said they were lucky the FDA acted so quickly.

Musser said they expect to be ready to do more transfusions later this week as more donors blood becomes ready. Salazar said that more than two-thirds of Methodist patients  roughly 250 have tested positive for COVID-19 at the system's hospitals  may meet the criteria for donation.

Donors each give a quart of blood plasma in a procedure much like donating whole blood.

This is not the first revival of convalescent serum therapy. In the past two decades, its been used for SARS in 2003, swine flu in 2009 and Ebola in 2014.

Theres no guarantee of its effectiveness, say researchers.

There is no playbook for treatment, said Menachery. Its success can depend on blood variability from person to person, and the kinetics of whens best to give it are unclear, though sooner is better. If its given late in the disease, sometimes too much damage has already already done.

A playbook is what the new research aims to produce. Besides emergency uses approved on a case-by-case basis, Musser expects that the FDA will lump all the non-emergency trials being proposed by researchers into one umbrella trial that pools resources and findings.

Its really remarkable how everyones come together on this in such a grassroots fashion, said Musser. Its all hands on deck.

todd.ackerman@chron.com
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Linkedin Adrian Wail Akhlas and Esther Samboh (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 30, 2020 16:14 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e5d047 1 Business state-budget,2020-state-budget,COVID-19,coronavirus,budget-deficit,Indonesia,healthcare,medical-equipment,social-spending,stimulus-package,MSMEs,incentives,explainer,#PostScript Free

The government is finalizing a new state budget designed to battle the health and economic aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including widening the state budget deficit to beyond its legal limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has rallied ministers and regional administrations to refocus their budgets on health care, the disbursement of social funds and economic stimuli to cope with COVID-19.

Actually, from the total spending, which is currently estimated at Rp 2.5 quadrillion, we can afford it, but if there are so many changes we need to adjust accordingly, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said on March 20.

To reprioritize for the handling of COVID-19, we are continuously exercising options so that on the one hand our state budget can respond quickly but without deliberately creating a credibility crisis for our own state budget.

President Jokowi has revealed that the government and the House of Representatives are in talks to raise Indonesias budget deficit cap to finance more needs to fight COVID-19, which has never exceeded its self-imposed limit of 3 percent of GDP.

On March 23, the chairman of the House budget committee (Banggar), Said Abdullah, said the government should raise the budget deficit ceiling to 5 percent of GDP, meaning that Indonesias state budget could be increased by hundreds of trillions more rupiah.

So far, the government has prepared a total of Rp 158.2 trillion (US$9.77 billion) to finance the healthcare sector, safeguard individuals, workers and businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes the first and second stimulus packages worth Rp 10.3 trillion and Rp 22.9 trillion, respectively.

The Jakarta Post has compiled a list of funds allocated by the government for medical needs, workers, households and businesses to cope with COVID-19 based on information from the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister and the Finance Ministry as of March 30.

The government has issued regulations to support these spending plans for related ministries, government agencies and local governments. The regulations include Presidential Instruction No. 4/2020 on refocusing activities, budget reallocation and procurement to speed up the handling of COVID-19.

The Finance Ministry went as far as issuing technical guidance to speed up budget proposals, on top of many other finance ministerial regulations to accommodate the change in government spending.

The government may need far more funds to counter rising rates of infection and the virus economic impact on workers, said Bank Permata economist Josua Pardede. With the planned stimulus, combined with the 2.5 percent budget deficit projection, the government still has room for Rp 52 trillion to Rp 69 trillion if they need to take more drastic measures.

Bahana Sekuritas economist Satria Sambijantoro estimated that if the government allowed its budget deficit to widen to 3.5 percent of GDP, spending could be increased by around Rp 334 trillion.

[] even after accounting for zero growth in state revenues, which we view as quite sufficient to cushion the economy from the COVID-19 outbreak, Satria said.
More than 10,000 migrant workers, mostly from Assam, are stranded in Mizoram due to the nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of novel coronavirus, a senior police officer said on Monday.

Mizoram Inspector General of Police (Headquarters) John Neihlaia told PTI that most of the migrant workers are employed in industries and unorganised sectors.

Home Minister Lalchamliana said the state government will provide food and shelter to the stranded migrant workers as per the Centre's directive.

The Home Department has instructed all district-level task forces on COVID-19 to monitor relief measures for migrant workers in their respective areas, he said.

Expenses for relief measures would be borne from the state exchequer, which would be later recovered from State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), the home minister said.

Lalchamliana said the Union Home Ministry authorises states to use their respective SDRF for providing relief to migrant workers.

Around 940 migrant workers have reported to the state government so far, Home Department officials said.

The Union Home Ministry had written to the states asking them to set up relief camps for migrant workers, they said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PRINCE ALBERT, SASK.Police in Saskatchewan say they are investigating the killing of three people, including a seven-year-old boy.

Officers were called to a home in Prince Albert on Sunday afternoon where they found the bodies of a man and a woman, both 56, and the boy.

A five-year-old girl was sent to hospital in Edmonton in critical condition.

Police say they do not believe it was a random attack.

They would not give any information about a suspect or whether anyone was in custody.

But they say they do not believe the public is at risk.

Read more about:
As Napas public school system works to overhaul its method of electing board members, it faces a problem unanticipated when the process began  collecting opinions and advice from a populace literally unable to weigh in face to face during the coronavirus epidemic.

The Napa Valley Unified School District board confronted this difficulty Thursday night, during a meeting that included the second of four scheduled hearings on an area-based voting system in which board members will be chosen only by voters living in each trustees vicinity in Napa, American Canyon, Yountville and surrounding territories.

With a statewide shelter-at-home order prohibiting public assemblies, trustees conducted their meeting as a videoconference from their homes instead of at NVUSDs Napa headquarters. Although the Zoom conferencing software allowed residents to listen in and speak to the board for up to three minutes online  with Spanish and Tagalog translators standing by  school officials received only one public comment: from Scott Rafferty, the attorney whose petitions left both NVUSD and the city of Napa scrambling to retool their voting rules in time for the November election to avoid complaints of diluting minority influence.

Such a paltry response when a shutdown of most public activities makes attending government meetings impossible has thrown a wrench into district leaders attempts to draw up boundaries that properly reflect south Napa Countys communities, trustees warned.

With two more public forums on area-based voting still set for April and May, district leaders face high hurdles in getting all the public input they seek, according to trustee Elba Gonzalez-Mares.

We know where people like to walk, where people like to shop, what parks they go into, she said during the virtual board meeting. All of that makes a difference. Its sad we wont be able to get into that level of detail.

The move to remake school-board elections began Jan. 15 when Rafferty, a Walnut Creek lawyer representing the Napa County Progressive Alliance, filed a petition with NVUSD declaring that its existing voting system waters down the influence of minority groups in violation of California election law. While school board members must live in and represent one of seven geographic areas, voters from all parts of the district may cast ballots for all trustee seats.

Under the California Voting Rights Act, Raffertys petition began a 45-day period for the school district to pass a resolution to adopt area-based voting, followed by 90 days to hold four public forums to guide the redrawing of its voting map, in a process that would run through late May.

NVUSDs board approved the move toward area voting in February, but the arrival of COVID-19  for which a vaccine reportedly is a year or more away  quickly choked off public gatherings in California, culminating March 20 in a statewide directive to shelter at home to slow the virus spread. By Thursday, Napans were in their seventh day under orders to leave home only to buy food and necessities or work in certain essential jobs  orders that forced local governments to move their meetings from the boardroom to the internet.

To keep the area-voting issue in the public eye, Tamina Alon, the demographer working with NVUSD on its new voter area maps, suggesting using the districts social-media feeds to publish draft maps and information as well as to garner suggestions from residents. Board members in turn recommended that Alons Oakland-based firm Q2 Data & Research LLC develop between two and four maps with different boundaries to give Napans a sense of which zones they may vote in starting in the fall.

Trustee Jose Hurtado took the suggestion further, calling on the school district to publicize the voting overhaul on local radio stations and in newspaper letters to the editor.

We can use our personal contacts to get the word out, he said. This is the communitys opportunity to make a difference in their childrens education. Its a time to step up, make sure your voice is heard. After all the hubbub lets do something; lets get this community moving.

Under California Voting Rights Act rules, the Napa school district must publish a draft version of its new voting-area map before the final two public forums, which had been scheduled for April 23 and May 7 before the coronavirus emergency. NVUSD can adjust map boundaries based on comments taken at those meetings before the board casts a final approval vote.

A goal of the mapping project under state voting law is to create seven voting areas with 16,506 residents each, one-seventh of the districts population, according to Tamina Alon, a demographer with Oakland-based Q2 Data & Research LLC working with NVUSD. Each voting zone is allowed to have up to 5 percent more or fewer residents than its target population, amounting to 825 people, she told the board.

Voting zones would be required to cover a community of interest, which a NVUSD document says can be be based on a school, an areas shared culture or heritage, or other common social and economic interests that should be included within a single Trustee Area for purposes of fair and effective representation.

Editors Note: Because of the health implications of the COVID-19 virus, this article is being made available free to subscribers and non-subscribers alike. If youd like to join us in supporting the mission of local journalism, please visit napavalleyregister.com/members/join/.

You can reach Howard Yune at 707-256-2214 or hyune@napanews.com

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A New Jersey couple have been charged with violating a ban on gatherings to stop the spread of coronavirus by hosting a massive party in their yard.

The event with 50 people on their front lawn is one of five gatherings police in the Jewish community of Lakewood have broken up in just two weeks.

Eliezer Silber, 37, and Miriam Silber, 34, on Sunday were charged with five counts of child endangerment and violating Gov Phil Murphy's executive order that outlaws all social gatherings, including parties and weddings.

The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said police were called to the Silbers' home on Alamitos Drive on Sunday following complaints a crowd were blocking a street.

Eliezer Silber, 37, and Miriam Silber, 34, were charged with five counts of child endangerment and violating Gov Phil Murphy's ban on gatherings after police found 40-50 people on their front lawn on Alamitos Drive in Laekwood, New Jersey

Responding officers found 40-50 guests, including children, milling about on the family's front lawn and in front of their house.

Police dispersed the crowd and issued summonses to the homeowners, who will be required to appear in court at a future date to answer the charges against them.

'As I have previously stated, it is my sworn duty to protect all of the residents of Ocean County. That obligation applies across the board,' stated Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer. 'My Office will prosecute any individual who defies or breaks the law, State of Emergency or otherwise. Everyone must respect and follow the law.'

Just hours later, police in Lakewood had to break up another event involving dozens of people, reported NJ.com.

Cops responded to Bais Horaah, a school for talmudic study, early Monday morning and found 35 people gathered inside.

'After several unsuccessful attempts by the Officers to clear the building, the crowd was eventually dispersed,' police and prosecutors said in a statement.

Cops responded to Bais Horaah of Lakewood, a school for talmudic study on Madison Avenue, early Monday morning and broke up a gathering of 35 people

Building owner David Gluck, 42, and building manager Abraham Haberfeld, 32, were each charged with maintaining a nuisance.

Last month, Lakewood police dispersed three weddings hosted by members of the city's burgeoning Orthodox Jewish community for breaching the state's social distancing rules.

William Katzenstein, 39, last week was issued a summons after around 40 guests gathered to celebrate nuptials.

The wedding was broken up and the guests were asked to leave.

News of Orthodox Jewish residents flouting the governor's ban on gatherings has led to anti-Semitic threats.

Last week. several residents of Lakewood, New Jersey, have called the police after witnessing large gatherings at private homes in violation of a statewide ban which was enacted to help stop the spread of the coronavirus

'We understand that everyone's daily routine has been effected by the coronavirus and our state's effort to isolate and contain the spread of this outbreak,' Ocean County Prosecutor Billhimer said.

'It's not easy. We understand how difficult it is change your way of living. We are all adapting as best we can. We all need to recognize the vital role we all have in flattening the curve of this outbreak. Stay home, practice social distancing and please be considerate of the risks our men and women in law enforcement are facing every day.'

The governor has also made a point of telling New Jersey residents that abuse towards any community will not be tolerated.

'Folks are using a couple of examples like that to extrapolate and start blaming, vilifying communities. In this case, our Jewish brothers and sisters,' he said.

'Regardless of how you worship. Regardless of your ethnicity, race, who you love, your gender, we are one family. We rise and fall as one family,' Murphy said.

'There is a special place in hell for the very small minority of individuals' who scapegoat, bully or vilify another community,' the governor continued.

In mid-March, two New Jersey residents were charged after hosting large crowds at events in their homes, including a pop-up wedding.

Across New Jersey, at least 161 people have died of coronavirus infection. Statewide, there have been 13,386 confirmed cases.

Eliyohu Zaks, 49, was summonsed by police after authorities said he hosted a pop-up wedding in his home on Spruce Street in Lakewood, according to the Asbury Park Press.

The event was attended by more than 50 people.

Another local resident, 43-year-old Shaul Kuperwasser, was also cited by police after a large crowd was seen gathering at his home two weeks ago.

Lakewood officials said they have received dozens of angry phone calls from local residents who have reported mass gatherings, according to Patch.

The authorities said they are acting with a sense of urgency after Lakewood reported a confirmed 371 cases of coronavirus as of Monday.

Across New Jersey, at least 161 people have died of coronavirus infection. Statewide, there have been 13,386 confirmed cases.

The recent sightings of public gatherings have already exacerbated long-running tensions in Lakewood, where a large Orthodox Jewish population has relocated in recent years.

As wedding halls were ordered to shut down, residents simply moved the ceremonies to backyards on their residential properties.

Orthodox community leaders in Lakewood said that all 200 local synagogues and 130 yeshivas in the area have either shut down completely or limited prayer to small groups.

'This is a very concentrated close-knit community,' Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg told NJ Advance Media.

'Many day-to-day activities and religious customs are done in group settings, so it's a bit of a learning curve.

Rabbi Abe Friedman, a chaplain for the State Police and a member of the governor's interfaith advisory council, told New Jersey 101.5 most Lakewood residents are following Murphy's order but it is difficult for some Jewish residents who are used to gathering together for prayers three times a day.

'This is a community, I believe, gathers and lives tight knit. The average family with five to eight children. Then when they grow older, marry off and then they have children, so the average household has about 20, including their own children, grandchildren and a son- or daughter-in-law,' Friedman said.

'It's very difficult to pull the plug on the routine of daily prayer and say 'you've done this for the past 10, 20, 30, 50 years. Now just go home pray at home with no other people with you,'' Friedman said.
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In Latin America, countries have been ramping up their containment measures, some more drastically than others.

Strict containment measures such as night-time curfews are in force across several Latin American countries, but other nations are taking a less drastic approach in their fight against the coronavirus.

Honduras has extended its nationwide curfew until at least mid-April.

Venezuelas opposition leader is calling for more humanitarian aid to be allowed into the country, where the outbreak could be particularly devastating.

And cases have been rising in Mexico.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is recommending that people stay home, but the call is not mandatory.

Al Jazeeras Manuel Rapalo reports from Mexico City.
An 84-year-old wife has melted the hearts of millions after writing one love letter nearly every day to her 90-year-old husband who was critically ill and hospitalised during the coronavirus outbreak.

Huang Guoqi, from the Chinese city of Hangzhou, penned a total of 45 touching letters in the space of 55 days after the hospital imposed a lockdown, barring all visitors to the ICU to prevent the spread of the virus.

Her husband, Mr Sun, suffers from respiratory failure and dementia and has been hospitalised since last year.

Granny Huang was finally able to visit grandpa Sun again last Thursday at the Hangzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese medicine after the hospital lifted a 55-day lockdown

Granny Huang gave her husband a new love letter as well as a kiss through her face mask

Ms Huang, known among medics as 'granny Huang', also has a respiratory disease and stays in the same hospital. Her condition is less serious and therefore has been assigned to an ordinary ward.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, granny Huang would come to visit her husband, affectionately known as grandpa Sun, at 2pm every day with his favourite fruit, the kiwifruit.

Although the hospital imposed visiting restrictions on February 1, granny Huang was not deterred.

She continued to wait by the gate of the ICU wards on the dot daily to ask a nurse to give grandpa Sun a letter and a bowl of kiwifruit.

During the lockdown, granny Huang, also a patient in the hospital, continued to wait by the gate of the ICU wards on the dot daily to ask a nurse to give grandpa Sun a love letter

Apart from the letter, she would bring a bowl of kiwifruit, which is grandpa Sun's favourite fruit

She used a pen and paper, the simplest way of communication, to express her love for her partner and encourage him to stay strong.

One of the notes wrote: 'Dear husband, I am well. Please don't worry about me. Our sons and grandsons are all at home Please follow the nurses' orders and cooperate with them for the treatment so that you can recover as soon as possible to enjoy a family reunion.'

Another one cited a romantic Chinese poem to help Ms Sun keep up his spirit. It read: 'Dear husband, I am using the famous lines from an ancient poet to tell you how much I have missed you. I hope you can receive the treatment with peace of mind. You can boost your immunity by refraining from feeling anxious and reserve your energy.'

Whenever grandpa Sun received granny Huang's letter, he would read it over and over again before folding the letter carefully and hid it under his belt for safekeeping.

Speaking to Chinese video outlet Pear, granny Huang said: 'I feel the love from the family, and from me as his spouse, can provide important support to him.'

Whenever grandpa Sun received granny Huang's letter, he would read it over and over again before folding the letter carefully and hid it under his belt for safekeeping, medics said

The letter on the left cited a romantic Chinese poem to help Ms Sun keep up his spirit. It read: 'Dear husband, I am using the famous lines from an ancient poet to tell you how much I have missed you. I hope you can receive the treatment with peace of mind'

After nearly eight weeks of separation, granny Huang was finally allowed to meet grandpa Sun after the hospital lifted the visiting restriction last Thursday.

She wore a face mask and protective clothing and waited excitedly in front of the ICU department at 2pm sharp  with a bowl of kiwifruit in hand.

After being shown to grandpa Sun's bed, granny Huang gave him a new love letter and a kiss through her face mask.

'My dear husband, I have come to see you. We have not seen each other for more than 50 days,' granny Huang said to grandpa Sun before praising his good spirit and 'chubbier cheeks'.

The hospital said in a social media post that grandpa Sun tried 'very hard' to recover during the lockdown by doing a series of exercises under the instruction of doctors

Apart from reading granny Huang's letters, grandpa Sun tried 'very hard' to recover during the lockdown by doing a series of exercises under the instruction of doctors, according to medics at the Hangzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese medicine, who documented the beautiful story.

The medical team said it was granny Huang's love that kept grandpa Sun going in such a difficult period.

'[We] hope you two can live together for a long time. Add oil, granny Huang and grandpa Sun,' the hospital said in a social media post.
I watch as Gov. Pritzker and Mayor Lightfoot are telling us daily that they are not satisfied with the way the federal government is responding to Illinois needs during this crisis. It certainly has to be Trumps fault. Chicago is a sanctuary city and has fought the federal government as they try to enforce the law. Also, pot is illegal according to the feds, but Illinois is selling it. They want to run the state the way THEY want to run it, without interference from the federal government, until they need them.
KYODO NEWS - Mar 30, 2020 - 20:57 | All, Japan, World, Coronavirus

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party called Monday for a 60 trillion yen ($556 billion) stimulus package to help households and small businesses survive the fallout from the new coronavirus outbreak after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned of a prolonged battle.

Abe has pledged to compile the "boldest-ever" package that would exceed the 56.8 trillion yen stimulus at the time of the 2008 global financial crisis. His administration plans to finalize the details by early April and secure funding in an extra budget for fiscal 2020.

The LDP is proposing that fiscal spending should be around 20 trillion yen, compared with the 15 trillion yen in the stimulus package formulated in the aftermath of the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

The coronavirus outbreak that began in China late last year has already dealt a blow to a weakening economy hit by a consumption tax hike in October from 8 percent to 10 percent. Opposition lawmakers, along with some within the LDP, have been stepping up calls for lowering the tax rate to reduce the burden on struggling households.

Abe, who went ahead with the twice-delayed tax hike, has sounded negative about lowering it now, casting doubt over its effect.

In its recommendations, the LDP aims to give benefits worth over 10 trillion yen, equivalent to a 5 percentage point cut in the consumption tax rate. Such benefits include cash handouts to households, and subsidies to small and midsized companies and freelancers.

The proposals came after Abe unveiled a plan to give cash to households during a press conference on Saturday, though he said the government would limit eligibility after some lawmakers stressed the need for a nondiscriminatory cash handout scheme.

To expand financial support to small and midsized companies, Abe pledged to provide loans with no interest or collateral at private financial institutions.

The LDP said over 40 trillion yen is needed to ensure companies can have access to funding and to give subsidies to firms that keep jobs despite the difficult business environment.

The compilation of the supplementary budget comes immediately after parliament approved Friday a record 102.66 trillion budget for fiscal 2020 from April.

Restoring Japan's fiscal health, the worst among major developed economies, is being put on the backburner to cope with spending needs in a crisis situation.

Japan has so far avoided an explosive increase in coronavirus infections. While a recent surge in infections in Tokyo has raised alarm, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga reiterated Monday that the situation does not call for a state of emergency declaration.

The number of infections in Japan has surpassed 2,600, including about 700 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined near Tokyo in February.

Once a state of emergency is declared by the prime minister, local governors can request that residents stay home and restrict the use of schools and other facilities where large numbers of people gather.

To contain the spread of COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, Japan will step up border control measures in the coming days.

Japan is planning to place an entry ban on foreigners who have recently been to the United States, China, South Korea and most of Europe, government sources said.

The measure would apply to foreign nationals who have been to any of the listed regions within 14 days of arriving in Japan.

All Japanese returnees and foreigners who have traveled outside the banned areas will be asked to self-quarantine for 14 days and watch for symptoms of COVID-19, according to the sources.

Some areas of China and South Korea such as Hubei Province and Daegu as well as more than 20 European countries had already been subject to an entry ban imposed by Japan.

Coronavirus cases have surged in the United States, which has overtaken Italy and China to become the country worst-hit by the pandemic that has killed more than 33,000 globally, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University of the United States.

Other parts of Europe such as Spain and Germany have also been heavily impacted.
Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne turned himself in to authorities on Monday afternoon and was charged with unlawful assembly and violation of a public health emergency order

The pastor of a Florida megachurch has been arrested after he continued to hold Sunday services with hundreds of people in defiance of government orders put in place to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne turned himself in to authorities on Monday afternoon and was charged with unlawful assembly and violation of a public health emergency order.

His bail was set at $500 and he was released after posting bond.

His arrest came after hundreds of worshippers attended a service on Sunday at The River at Tampa Bay Church after the conservative evangelical pastor vowed never to close despite the deadly pandemic.

The service came on the same day President Donald Trump extended lockdown measures across the United States as he urged Americans to stay home until the end of April to slow the spread of the deadly virus.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has also put in place an executive order that limits faith-based gatherings to 10 people or less.

A livestream of the service at The River at Tampa Bay Church on Sunday showed hundreds of members crowding into the church.

Some churchgoers made an effort to separate their chairs from their fellow worshippers but the majority were not six feet apart like the government's guidelines recommend.

Scroll down for video

Hundreds of worshippers attended the service at The River at Tampa Bay Church on Sunday after its conservative evangelical pastor, Rodney Howard-Browne, vowed never to close

A livestream of the service at The River at Tampa Bay Church on Sunday showed hundreds of members crowding into the church

At one point during the service, dozens of worshippers stood shoulder-to-shoulder and some even embraced, as they sang together at the front of the church.

Pastor Howard-Browne walked through the crowded church at various points during his sermon.

'They are trying to beat me up, you know, over having the church operational but we are not non-essential,' he could be heard telling the congregation.

Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a news conference Monday that he negotiated with the pastor's attorney to turn himself in to authorities.

Chronister said his command staff met with The River at Tampa Bay Church leaders about the danger they are putting themselves - and their congregation - in by not maintaining appropriate social distancing but Howard-Browne still held the services.

Sheriff's deputies had even placed a digital sign on the road near the church driveway that said 'practice social distancing' as a deterrent.

'Shame on this pastor, their legal staff and the leaders of this staff for forcing us to do our job. That's not what we wanted to do during a declared state of emergency,' Chronister said.

'We are hopeful that this will be a wakeup call.'

The pastor - who first came to the US from South Africa as a missionary in 1987 - publicly defended his decision to keep the church open, saying they had put measures in place to disinfect the space.

'We brought in 13 machines that basically kill every virus in the place and if somebody walks through the door it's like, it kills everything on them. If they sneeze, it shoots it down at like 100mph,' he said in a video on his YouTube channel.

'It'll neutralize it in split seconds. We have the most sterile building in, I don't know, all of America.'

Some churchgoers made an effort to separate their chairs from their fellow worshippers but the majority were not six feet apart like the government's guidelines recommend

At one point during the service, dozens of worshippers stood shoulder-to-shoulder and some even embraced, as they sang together at the front of the church

Howard-Browne isn't alone in refusing to curtail in-person worship services despite public health orders designed to stop the virus from spreading.

Some churches in hard-hit Louisiana and Ohio also remained open for worshippers this past weekend.

The Life Tabernacle Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana held its regular service on Sunday with preacher Tony Spell hugging members of the congregation.

More than 1,000 people attended the service where seven people were baptized.

'We're free people. We're not going to be intimidated. We're not going to cower,' he said, according to the LA Times. 'We're not breaking any laws.

The Solid Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio also held its regular service with dozens of cars spotted in the church's parking lot.

Local health officials have already urged the church to cease services after receiving complaints from residents concerned about the lack of social distancing.

'As Christians we are charged by Jesus Christ to obey the laws of our land. Therefore, if the laws of our nation should ever change with respect to our First Amendment right to assemble, thereby restricting us from having our church doors open, we will willing comply,' the church said in a statement.

'If there has ever been a time in the history of our world when we all need God's help, it is now. For that reason, we believe that the doors of Solid Rock Church should remain open.'

Pastor Howard-Browne also walked through the crowded church at various points during his sermon

The River Church is shown Monday, March 30, 2020, in Tampa, Fla. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office has warned the megachurch about violating a safer-at-home order in place to limit the spread of coronavirus. The church is continuing to hold Sunday church services despite warnings for social distancing in order. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned over the weekend that up to 200,000 Americans could die and millions become infected if lockdowns and social distancing did not continue.

There are currently 4,950 confirmed coronavirus cases across Florida and 60 deaths.

Meanwhile, Pastor Howard-Browne and his Florida-based church have also previously said they will not close down despite the virus continuing to spread because they believe they're an essential service.

'This church will never close,' he said during a service two weeks ago. 'The only time the church will close is when the Rapture is taking place.

He said that his sermons and the Bible school would still go on because his congregants aren't 'pansies'.

Pastor Howard-Browne had even previously urged his congregants to shake hands despite the government advising people to avoid contact with others.

'Well I know they don't want us to do this, but just turn around and greet two, three people,' he said at a previous service. 'Tell them you love them, Jesus loves them.

'Listen, this has to be the safest place. If you cannot be saved in church, you in serious trouble.'

In a statement on the church's website, they compared their services to the hospitals and law enforcement during the pandemic.

'In a time of national crisis, we expect certain institutions to be open and certain people to be on duty. We expect hospitals to have their doors open 24/7 to receive and treat patients. We expect our police and firefighters to be ready and available to rescue and to help and to keep the peace,' they said.

'The church is another one of those essential services. It is a place where people turn for help and for comfort in a climate of fear and uncertainty. Therefore, we feel that it would be wrong for us to close our doors on them, at this time, or any time.

'The River at Tampa Bay is doing, and will do, everything in our power to support the efforts of our wider community by cleaning and sanitizing surfaces and take any other recommended measures to protect our people and keep them healthy and safe.

'If anyone is either not feeling well or would prefer to take the precaution of remaining at home for their own health, we encourage them to do that and to continue to watch the services online.'

Prior to the escalation of coronavirus cases in the United States, Pastor Howard-Browne vowed to stop the disease from spreading like he did with the Zika virus.

He claimed he would stop the virus by cursing it from Florida in the name of Jesus.

'We are doing the same thing with the coronavirus,' he said in February 24 online video.

'We do not need it on these shores, and somebody said 'Well, what about the rest of the world?'

'I mean, I can't be responsible for every city, or whatever.'

The pastor was among those invited to pray with President Trump at the White House in 2017.
President Trump brushed aside allegations that China  as well as Russia and Iran  are spreading misinformation about the origin of the coronavirus during a 64-minute call with "Fox & Friends" on Monday, telling the hosts that "every country does it."

Why it matters: Multiple verified Chinese government Twitter accounts have promoted different conspiracy theories, and Chinese foreign ministry deputy spokesperson Zhao Lijian suggested that the virus come from a U.S. military lab, Axios' Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian reports.

China's ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, told Axios' Jonathan Swan that he stands by his belief that it's "crazy" to spread such rumors about the virus.

The country's strategy is a clear departure from Beijing's previous misinformation tactics and signals its increasingly aggressive approach to managing its image internationally after the first outbreak in Wuhan.

The exchange: The president criticized the Washington Post instead of addressing the misinformation campaigns, suggesting without evidence that the paper spreads false information.

"They do it, and we do it. And we call them different things, and, you know, I make statements that are very strong against China, including the 'Chinese virus,' which has been going on for a long time. I mean, I wouldn't say they were thrilled with that statement," Trump said.

"Hey, every country does it," he added on the topic of misinformation.

Host Brian Kilmeade pushed Trump on the topic, saying, "I believe they're doing it. Mr. President, you know that China has already done this."

The big picture: China has also embarked on a massive humanitarian relief campaign and is giving other countries fighting the coronavirus medical supplies, accompanied by a major propaganda blitz.

China's campaign is in part to deflect blame for its early coverup of the epidemic and to show itself a more reliable partner to countries than the U.S.

A plane from Shanghai arrived in New York Sunday morning carrying 12 million gloves, 130,000 N95 masks, 1.7 million surgical masks, 50,000 gowns, 130,000 hand sanitizer units, and 36,000 thermometers.

Go deeper: Trump suggests keeping coronavirus death toll to 100,000 would be sign of success
The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has directed Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Ahafo, Bono, and Bono East Regions to close down markets in their jurisdiction for a disinfection exercise.



The exercise would be undertaken in 43 markets in Ahafo Region, 125 markets in Bono Region and 78 markets in Bono East Region from March 30, 2020.



The move was in pursuant to the directives from President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to the Ministry to coordinate with the MMDAs to enhance the conditions of hygiene in markets across the country.



A statement signed by the Minister, Hajia Alima Mahama and copied to the Ghana News Agency said, a number of activities have been initiated including the disinfection of markets, public education and sensitization of market women on COVID-19.



It urged the MMDAs to collaborate with market queens and leaders to undertake the exercise.

The statement said the markets would be opened on Tuesday, 31st March 2020 for business.



It called on the Coordinating Councils of the three regions to coordinate and ensure compliance with the above directives by the MMDAs in the regions.



The Ministry requests the cooperation of the public, especially our traders and all persons conducting businesses in the markets, in all this all-important exercise.

Source: GNA









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Interviews with refugees, their attorneys and international aid workers have revealed a coordinated strategy to deny lifesaving care to HIV positive asylum seekers by the US and Mexican governments by using the Remain in Mexico programformally known by the falsely titled Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).

After being sent back to Mexico, they face a growing shortage of medication due to sweeping cuts imposed by the government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO). Now, they must also contend with a coronavirus epidemic, without the medication they need to maintain their compromised immune systems.

In one example recounted by the Washington Post, Daniel, a 20-year old man, applied for asylum after his home country of Venezuela ran out of his medication as a result of the international embargo placed on it by the Trump administration. After his T-cell count fell below the 200 mark that indicates full-blown AIDS, he fled to the US, where he was turned away at the border. He was given a date for an asylum hearing several months out. Daniels skin turned yellow from jaundice as he waited without medication in Piedras Negras, Mexico.

At the hearing, his lawyer presented these facts, along with volumes of medical paperwork as evidence and pleaded for a medical exemption as stipulated by the MPP. In its MPP Guiding Principles, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) says refugees with known physical/mental health issues are not amenable to the programmeaning they should await their hearing in the US rather than being sent back to wait in Mexico.

However, in the absence of clear guidelines, it is extremely rare in practice for a CBP agent to determine that an immigrant has a known physical or mental health issue. Agency spokesman Matthew Dyman claimed that such guidelines granting exemptions cannot be formalized because if specific medical issues guaranteeing exemptions were to be standardized and made public, they would be exploited by human smugglers.

Daniels attorney, Scott Weaver, explained that his client faced certain death if he remained in Mexico. The applicant seeks parole because he is HIV positive and can no longer obtain the medication he needs to survive in Mexico. Officials quickly ruled against him and sent him back to Mexico.

Over 60,000 asylum seekers have been turned away since the Remain in Mexico policy was initiated by the Trump administration in January 2019. Many are fleeing persecution from governments and criminal gangs seeking to scapegoat individuals with HIV and other medical conditions.

Fernanda, whose story appeared in the same Washington Post report as Daniels, fled her home in Honduras after she contracted HIV from the father of her child. Thugs from a local drug gang showed up at her house, making threats and accusing her of intentionally trying to infect members of the community. Like Daniel, she was turned away at the US border and told to wait in Mexico for months until her hearing.

US officials would not advise her on how to obtain medication in Mexico, and she soon ran out. Because of the experience that caused her to flee, she is afraid to ask other immigrants in her shelter, or Mexican officials, for help. Im worried that people here will find out that I have HIV, and then what will happen? Will they kick me out or come after me? I thought the US agents would understand, that they would allow me to get help in America. But they sent me back here and I didnt know what to do. Her immune system is starting to fail and she is experiencing flu-like symptoms.

The screening process completely disregards physical and mental health needs, Kathryn Hampton, an officer with the asylum program at Physicians for Human Rights, told the Post. These are medical conditions that can deteriorate until someone dies because they dont get the care they need.

Obtaining HIV drugs in Mexico is difficult, and cuts to health services by the AMLO government have made it nearly impossible even for many Mexican citizens. HIV in Mexico is once again a time bomb that will explode, Aram Barra of Open Society Foundations told the International AIDS Society conference last year in Mexico City. Last month, HIV patients in Mexico City protested a shortage of antiretroviral drugs in front of the national palace.

Before the cuts imposed by AMLO, immigrants could obtain medicine through Seguro Popular, a public health insurance option. That program has been eliminated and replaced by one that blocks access for most migrants, according to the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.

The Mexican Health Ministry claims that it provides HIV medication to migrants for three months while they await their US asylum hearings. But in many cities on the border and in rural areas, treatment can be difficult to find. Three months also falls far short of the need faced by most migrants. Many asylum seekers wait in Mexico for six months or more.

The dangers to HIV positive asylum seekers will be compounded by AMLOs callous response to the coronavirus, which rivals that of US President Donald Trump in terms of ignorance and recklessness. He has called the virus a fad and refused to take any measures to halt the spread of the disease in Mexico.

In near-daily rallies and public appearances, AMLO openly defies the recommendations of medical experts, assuring Mexicans that there is nothing to worry about, encouraging them to live life as usual. He told one audience last week that he was not afraid of the coronavirus because his unparalleled level of honesty and integrity would protect him.

The US government sending refugees with life-threatening medical issues into such conditions amounts to nothing less than a policy of mass murder. The denial of medication and assistance to migrants seeking asylum parallels efforts to deny life saving measures to the elderly and infirm suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

Making matters even worse for HIV positive asylum seekers, the US is phasing out the MPP in favor of a set of informal agreements with other safe third countries that will afford even less protections.

Until the Central American country suspended the flights on March 17 over fears of COVID-19 being spread from the US, the Trump administration had been shipping refugees to Guatemala on cargo planes, often in the dead of night, and without providing any information to the immigrants. They were told merely that their case was being transferred.

Until the program was suspended at least 1,000 Hondurans and Salvadorans were put on planes and did not learn they had left the United States until they landed in Guatemala.

The transfers were done with so much secrecy and informal documentation that attorneys and doctors were not able to track sickened immigrants once they leave. Theres no way to know who is placed in these programs, Linda Rivas, executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, explained to the Post. Thats the terrifying thing to me. We arent even able to fight for them.

The other safe third countries that have signed agreements with the US are Honduras and El Salvador which have yet to begin accepting the asylee flights. Together with Guatemala, the three countries are known as the northern triangle, and they supply almost all of the asylum seekers in North America.
During Jesus life, many recognized and accepted Jesus as the prophesied Messiah (or Christ), Son of God, and anointed King of Israel. Others questioned Jesus authority or rejected him as the Messiah altogether. When used, the title of King of the Jews would have had both political and prophetic implications for both Jews and non-Jews living in Israel at the time.

The True King of Israel

Prior to the birth of Jesus, the people of Israel had experienced a tumultuous relationship with God as a result of their disobedience and sin. God had made them His chosen people (Exodus 7:6) and treasured possession (Deuteronomy 7:6), going all the way back to the covenant made with Abraham (Genesis 17:6-7) and Jacob, renamed Israel (Genesis 28), and He had established Himself as their rightful king and sovereign ruler. However, in the days of the prophet Samuel, the Jews rejected God as their God and demanded that Samuel provide for them an earthly king, similar to the kings who ruled over the surrounding nations (1 Samuel 8:5, 19).

Rejected as king (1 Samuel 8:7), God nonetheless gave the people what they wanted, a temporary line of human kings, who would rule over them until Israels captivity in Babylon. Some of these kings served the Lord faithfully and were upright, virtuous leaders, Most, however, were selfish, corrupt, and spiritually bankrupt rulers who plunged Israel into an era of sin and idol worship.

After Saul had disobeyed the Lord and been rejected by God as king (1 Samuel 15), God anointed David (1 Samuel 16) and promised that out of Davids line, a new, anointed king would come to redeem Israel and establish his rightful place on the throne of Israel (2 Samuel 7:12-16; Isaiah 11:1-5). This, of course, was the prophesied Messiah, who the gospels confirm was Jesus, a descendent of David (Matthew 1:1, John 7:42).

Not to be discouraged or dissuaded by Israels rejection, Gods plan would introduce a new covenant that would see Gods love and forgiveness extend to all the world, not just the Jews (John 3:16).

For generations, the Jews anticipated the arrival of their Messiah and the coming king (Micah 5:2; Isaiah 9:6-7; Psalms 22:27-31). Unfortunately, they were so accustomed to the leadership of earthly kings, they envisioned a Messiah whod come as a political ruler, revolutionary, or royal lord, not a lowly, humble servant and son of a carpenter (Zechariah 9:9; Isaiah 53:4; Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; Matthew 21:1-7). They also didnt anticipate that Gods kingdom would be a spiritual, heavenly realm (John 18:36).

But as God had proven with the anointing of David, for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 6:7).

This is why many in Israel, namely the Pharisees and religious leaders, rejected Jesus as the promised Messiah and cornerstone (Psalms 118:22) or mocked him as king during his crucifixion (Mark 15:32; Luke 23:29). As it is written, he came to his own and his own did not receive him (John 1:11).

Though some would recognize and accept Jesus as Messiah (Luke 19:38; Matthew 16:16), many in Israel would reject their king once again.

Ironically, most references to Jesus as the King of the Jews in the gospels come from non-Jews.

The Anointed One

Shortly after Jesus birth, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem seeking the Messiah, asking King Herod, Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him (Matthew 2:2). Its likely that the magi also thought of the Jewish Messiah as a future political ruler, which may account for why they presented Jesus parents with offerings of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, expensive gifts indicative of kingly worship (Matthew 2:11).

Having heard the magi refer to the child as the King of the Jews, King Herod, a regional ruler of Judea given authority by the Romans, assembled his chief priests and scribes, who affirmed the connection to Old Testament prophesies of the Messiah (Matthew 2:4-6). This is why Herod reacted so quickly to seek out the child and destroy him, fearing any potential threat to his political power (Matthew 2:7-23).

Later in Jesus life, the gospels tell of a woman who poured expensive perfume over the head (Matthew 26:6-13) and feet (Matthew 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; Luke 7:36-39) of Jesus, using her hair to anoint him. This show of respect and adoration, recorded in all four gospels, not only pointed to Jesus death and eventual burial, which he himself confirmed, it also reflected the anointed nature of Jesus as Gods chosen king (Psalms 2:2), as was seen in the Old Testament appointment of kings (1 Samuel 10:1), namely the spiritual anointing of David (Psalms 23:5; Psalms 89:10).

Other instances confirmed Jesus as the prophesied Messiah and Anointed One of Israel (Daniel 9:25-26; John 1:41; Acts 9:22).

A Rejected King

During Jesus trial, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, asked Jesus if he was truly the King of the Jews (Mark 15:2). Jesus responded, It is as you say. Later, Jesus confirmed that his kingdom was not an earthly, political kingdom but a spiritual kingdom and his throne was not of this earth (John 18:36).

Pilate gave permission for Jesus to be scourged and beaten, and there the Roman soldiers clothed him a purple robe, spit on him, and mocked him, shouting, Hail! king of the Jews! This was also when they fashioned a crown of thorns and placed it on Jesus head (John 19:2-3).

When Pilate brought Jesus before the Pharisees and people once more, presenting the beaten, bruised, and humiliated man as their king (John 19:14), the Jews again rejected Jesus as king and shouted for Pilate to take him away and have him crucified. Pilate asked, Shall I crucify your king? To this, the Jews responded, We have no king but Caesar (John 19:15).

It was a bold and blatant rejection of Jesus Christ as king as there could be. Jesus, the true King of the Jews, was once again rejected by his own people and led away to be crucified.

At the crucifixion, Pontius Pilate had a sign placed at the cross, which read, in multiple languages, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews (John 19:19). The Jewish leaders demanded that Pilate take the sign down, arguing that Jesus wasnt the King of the Jews. This was a false and blasphemous claim worthy of death (John 19:21). Pilate, however, left the sign in its place (John 19:22).

There, as prophesied, Jesus, the Messiah and King of the Jews died amongst thieves, rejected, scorned, humiliated, and bearing the weight of the worlds sin on his shoulders. But through his sacrifice, Jesus would forge a path to redemption and the forgiveness of sin once and for all (Hebrews 10:1-18).

In doing so, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, established himself as the King of the Jews and King of Kings for all mankind for all time (1 Timothy 1:17; 6:14-16; Hebrews 1:8).

What Does This Mean?

One day, those who have rejected God as King and Jesus as Messiah will know that Christ is King. And on that day, as it is written, Every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall give praise to God. (Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:10; Revelations 15:3).

iStock/Getty Images Plus/pamela_d_mcadams

Joel Ryan is an LA-based childrens author, artist, professor, and speaker who is passionate about helping young writers unleash their creativity and discover the wonders of their Creator through storytelling and art. In his blog, Perspectives off the Page, he discusses all things story and the creative process.
Bright Machines, a smart manufacturing company based in San Francisco, offers automation solutions for assembly and inspection of dozens of products, including for the medical device industry. Medgadget recently featured an interview with Jesse Lehga of Diagnostics for the Real World, who have partnered with Bright Machines to produce point-of-care HIV diagnostic devices.

Automating manufacturing processes is key to bringing down costs and increasing manufacturing capacity. During the rapidly developing COVID-19 pandemic, researchers and medical technology companies are rushing to develop new vaccines and treatments. Moreover, basic medical equipment, such as ventilators, and personal protective equipment, such as gloves and masks, are in short supply.

There is a clear need to make such products available as quickly as possible, and given the global nature of the issue, on a massive scale. The situation is unprecedented, and presents unique challenges to the companies tasked with developing and producing such technologies.

Disruptions to global supply chains, because of government lock downs and economic disruption, have made it more difficult for companies to source the raw materials they need to manufacture their products. Staff shortages, because of illness or quarantine, also pose a challenge.

In response, Bright Machines is offering no-cost automation for up to 12 months as part of their three-year microfactory-as-a-service agreement to manufacturers who wish to produce equipment specifically to aid the COVID-19 response.

Medgadget had the opportunity to talk to Amar Hanspal, Bright Machines CEO, about the challenges ahead, and the services his firm can provide to help with the COVID-19 response.

Conn Hastings, Medgadget: Please give us an overview of the challenges currently facing medical technology manufacturers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their significance in hampering the pandemic response.

Amar Hanspal, Bright Machines: It will take social distancing diligence and prompt responses from local and federal governments to flatten the curve of the spread of COVID-19. It will also take an immense increase in the kinds and quantities of medical devices to test and treat the disease. As the world works to stymie the impact of COVID-19, weve seen that access to testing and an adequate supply of treatment resources  especially ventilators and respirators  is critical, but as a company working with manufacturers every day, we know that scaling production to meet a sudden increase in demand is a challenge, even without a pandemic. Scaling production when faced with a reduced workforce is an even more daunting challenge. There are discussions of many initiatives  from private and public sectors alike  to help meet the demands of healthcare systems worldwide during this time. For example, last week the UK government announced they will provide design blueprints for ventilators. This is a good step towards standardizing on design, so multiple contract manufacturers can produce the much-needed ventilators in parallel rather than get bottlenecked by a single manufacturer.

Medgadget: How will automation in manufacturing help with the COVID-19 response?

Amar Hanspal: Manufacturing wasnt prepared for this crisis. Production lines were already facing high demand, labor shortages and geo-political challenges like trade wars. Crucial aspects of production  especially assembly  often rely on humans who are now restricted or even forbidden from entering factories. And where automation is applied to assembly and inspection, manufacturers struggle with antiquated production lines that cant be reconfigured easily. Modern automation, including Bright Machines Microfactories, help manufacturers quickly scale up production using modular automation, which is less reliant on human operators than traditional assembly and inspection processes.

Our goal is to remove the friction manufacturers encounter and help them quickly and cost effectively get COVID-19 response-related products to as many healthcare providers throughout the world as possible.

Medgadget: Why are manufacturers sometimes reluctant to pursue automation in their manufacturing processes?

Amar Hanspal: The biggest rock getting in the way of automation happens before a single product is even manufactured: purchasing automation equipment. Buying factory automation solutions today is too complicated and costly. At times it is even mysterious, as some providers hide component mark-ups and change orders into a purchase agreement. The procurement process can be so daunting that it convinces many manufacturers to stick with the status quo and continue to rely on outdated, manual production processes rather than deal with the headache of purchasing factory automation.

Medgadget: How does Bright Machines make automation easier? How does the system work?

Amar Hanspal: Bright Machines Microfactories completely change the economics of manufacturing by not requiring expensive hardware to achieve automation, which increases both the agility and flexibility of a manufacturing operation. Our microfactories connect individual machines to an intelligent software layer to configure, monitor and manage operations. Providing the next generation of automation, microfactories adaptive robotic systems take advantage of intelligent software, machine learning and computer vision to deliver significantly better assembly efficiency, while getting more intelligent and automated over time.

Medgadget: Please give us some examples of medical technology manufacturers Bright Machines has worked with to streamline medical technology production.

Amar Hanspal: We recently partnered with Diagnostics for the Real World (DRW), to automate the production of their highly complex HIV testing cartridges for use in their SAMBA diagnostic instruments. DRW will use a Bright Machines Microfactory to automate the California-based manufacturing of the complex test cartridges used in the companys SAMBA II diagnostics device, enabling the company to free their team from repetitive, labor-intensive assembly and inspection tasks while increasing output of these care-critical cartridges by 10x, to more than 1 million units a year. This massive increase in production will allow them to not only hit a new important milestone for their company, but to also dramatically lower the end-user cost of the cartridges for the clinics around the world who rely on their products to serve their patients.

Medgadget: Please explain the deal Bright Machines are currently offering to manufacturers of equipment and supplies for the COVID-19 response.

Amar Hanspal: The most valuable and timely contribution Bright Machines can offer is removing barriers to quickly get these critical products into the hands of as many healthcare providers throughout the world as possible. And, as the part of the supply chain helping to manufacture products like these, we feel it is our responsibility to help do so.

For our part this means we are doing what we can to help quickly scale the manufacturing needed to ward off the viruss impact. On March 18 we announced that for companies manufacturing a medical device solution to combat COVID-19, we will provide no-cost automation for up to 12 months. Our end goal is to help these companies who are contributing to the worlds stockpile of devices needed to respond to the novel coronavirus.

Link: Bright Machines
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30)  Congress is waiting for President Rodrigo Duterte to deliver his first weekly report on the additional powers it granted him to address the COVID-19 crisis.

Under the Bayanihan to Heal as One law, which was passed last week, Duterte should deliver a weekly report to Congress every Monday, where he would detail what the government has done in the past week with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report should include how much of the funds have been used, how much has been added, reprogrammed, reallocated and realigned for COVID-19 response.

Were expecting the release of the executives weekly report to Congress today, as specified in the law, Senate Labor Committee chair Joel Villanueva said. We expect that the weekly report will contain statistics on the progress of the government's response, as well as the amount and corresponding utilization of the funds, so we can scrutinize and see where we can provide further assistance to our government.

Villanueva, along with Senate President Vicente Tito Sotto III and Senator Francis Kiko Pangilinan are expecting the executive to detail how it has distributed the P5,000 to P8,000 assistance to 18 million poor families, which is among the key provisions of the law.

Sadly, there are reports that families, especially the daily wage-earners, are going hungry already, Senator Panfilo Ping Lacson said.

Villanueva also wants a report on the implementation of the expanded Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program and the additional funding for emergency employment programs for those who cannot work while Luzon is on a so-called enhanced community quarantine.

Sotto and Pangilinan would also like the report to state how the government has made progress in testing more people through the additional powers granted to Duterte.

They also want the government to explain how it is protecting the safety and welfare of frontline healthcare workers. Pangilinan also wants the government to ensure the safety of other frontline personnel, including food workers and transport and logistics personnel.

Pangilinan said he also wants the report to say how long the current food supply would last.

The Bayanihan law allows Duterte to reshuffle funding within the 2020 budget, particularly savings in the executive department, and realign these towards the governments response to COVID-19, including assistance to poor families who have been adversely affected by the quarantine.

Duterte is expected once again to address the nation in a televised message at tentatively around 4 p.m., his spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.

The President has been advised to go on self-quarantine at his official residence in Malacanang after interacting with officials who tested positive for COVID-19. He continues to work from home, monitoring the country's situation and giving the necessary orders, Senator Christopher "Bong" Go said.

Luzon is entering its third week of enhanced community quarantine after Duterte placed the country's biggest island under lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19.

The Health Department has so far reported 1,418 cases of COVID-19, 71 deaths and 42 recoveries.

CNN Philippines' Joyce Ilas contributed to this report.
Over 175 Malaysian citizens, most of them of Indian origin, who were stranded in India due to the suspension of international flights, will leave for Malaysia later today.

The people are going back by a special Malindo Airlines flight sent by the Malaysian government in coordination with the Indian government and will be leaving from Amritsar Airport.

"We had come from Malaysia to visit Sri Harminder Sahib. India and Malaysia's government joined hands to rescue us. Today we are all going back to Malaysia. I would like to thank the Indian government, the Malaysian government, Khalsa Aid and Punjab Police for helping us out," said Jatinder Singh, one of the passengers.

Another passenger Joginder Kaur told ANI, "We would like to thank everyone, for all the help that was extended to us. The hotel owners and everybody else."

All international passenger flight operations will remain closed till April 14 in the wake of the three-week nationwide lockdown imposed in the light of the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday reported a total of 1071 confirmed COVID-19 cases in India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Patients with coronavirus may be contagious for several days after their symptoms disappear, a new small study suggests.

Researchers found that about half of patients in China were still carriers of the virus even after they seemed to have recovered.

Some were infectious for up to eight days after their fevers and coughs had abated.

The team, from Yale University School of Medicine, says the findings provide evidence that patients should extend their isolation beyond the recommended 14 days so as not to infect others.

A new study found that half of 16 patients in China with mild cases of coronavirus were carriers of the virus even after their symptoms disappeared. Pictured: A coronavirus patient on a ventilator is transferred from Elmhurst Hospital to another hospital, March 26

Some were able to shed the virus for up to eight days even after their fevers and coughs resolved. Pictured: A coronavirus patient on a ventilator is transferred from Elmhurst Hospital to another hospital in New York, March 26

Researchers suggested patients self-isolate for longer than 14 days to ensure others are not infected. Pictured: COVID-19 testing is carried out at Elmhurst Hospital in New York, March 27

For the study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the team look at 16 patients with mild cases of the virus.

They had all been admitted to the Treatment Center of PLA General Hospital in Beijing between January 28 and February 9.

Primary symptoms included coughing, fever, pain in the pharynx (the membrane that connects the nose and mouth to the esophagus) and shortness of breath.

Researchers took throat swabs of all the patients on alternate days and analyzed them for signs of the virus.

The adults were discharged after they received two consecutive negative tests.

'The most significant finding from our study is that half of the patients kept shedding the virus even after resolution of their symptoms,' said co-lead author Dr Lokesh Sharma, an instructor at Yale School of Medicine.

'More severe infections may have even longer shedding times.'

The incubation period, from infection to the onset of symptoms, was five days in all but one patient.

Patients had symptoms for an average of eight days and remained contagious for one to eight days after symptoms ended.

Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends those with symptoms isolate for at least three days after the 'resolution of a fever without fever-reducing medications.'

But corresponding author Dr Lixin Xie, a professor at PLA General Hospital in Beijing, suggested people self-isolate for longer.

'If you had mild respiratory symptoms from COVID-19 and were staying at home so as not to infect people, extend your quarantine for another two weeks after recovery to ensure that you don't infect other people,' he said.

The authors said despite the small-scale of patients studied, that the findings suggest patients who have appeared to recover could spread the disease.

'COVID-19 patients can be infectious even after their symptomatic recovery, so treat the asymptomatic/recently recovered patients as carefully as symptomatic patient,' they wrote.

In the US, there are more than 142,000 confirmed cases and more than 2,500 deaths.
In a time when people are



confined to their homes, the community radio station of Jadavpur University, RadioJU, has assumed significance with the citizens getting essential information, a varsity official said.

Community Radio JU 90.8 Mhz, which had been airing songs, discussions on various contemporary issues for people living within 10 km radius of the varsity since it was launched 12 years ago, had also shifted to the digital mode a few months back, before the world was gripped by coronavirus pandemic, the JU official said.

But now during the coronavirus lockdown, it has assumed more importance with YouTube witnessing huge spikes in viewership as people stay indoors.

One can send his/her complaints, queries and problem to covid19radioju@gmail.com, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCljoKfKwxRdqiezp-Os9dkA and @Radiojucovid19 facebook page, he said.

"Please share with us the situation in your locality, if you are facing any problem - whether medicine shops are open in your area.

"You can either do a 5-minute audio recording which we will upload on our YouTube, Facebook page so that it can be seen by the authorities concerned for taking follow up measures. We can share the inputs about drug stores which will help a lot of people in a particular locality," he said.

The radio station also urged listeners to inform them about the condition of poor people in their area.

Set up as part of the JU Project TEQIP in collaboration with School of Media Communication and Culture, in 2008, the community radio had been operational all these years to promote community interaction and dissemination of information and provided a new platform to students, teachers and locals to showcase their creativity.

"We had posted information about our students and staff distributing sanitisers anong the poor of the locality and the COVID-19 awareness campaign by local police and councillor in our facebook page. This made people curious and there were many queries.

"There are over 800 subscribers in the YouTube which also streams talk show with doctors who give advice on ways to stay fit and stress-free and steps to avoid coronavirus contamination.

Tulika Basu, a young marketing professional from Sodpur, said, the air station has helped her connect with people during the lockdown period.

Sagnik Banerjee, a 60-year old retired bank employee from Bijoygarh said, he got valuable suggestions from Dr Debraj Josh who was invited for a discussion on common cold.

"They conduct talks which are of help for people like us," Banerjee said.

In another initiative, film maker Kasturi Basu and some of her friends have started a new web radio station - 'Radio Quarantine Kolkata' - to help people interact and share their experience in this hour of crisis.

Discussions on contemporary issues, including coronavirus outbreak, story-reading sessions and experience of ordinary citizens on social isolation are being presented to the listeners. PTI SUS -- PTI KOLKATA DESK, PTI Building, DP-9, Sector V, Salt Lake City, Kolkata - 700091 PHONE - 033-40895906



033-40895907033-40895921 email: ptikolkatadesk@gmail.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In the wake of the global COVID-19 Lockdown, SpendEdge, a global procurement market intelligence firm, has announced the availability of a team of experts dedicated to addressing the emerging supply chain queries in the current facilities management consultancy market. Book your free demo of our procurement platform to know what our experts have to say.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005386/en/

The COVID-19 Lockdown is exerting a telling impact on the global facilities management consultancy market in the form of a serious labor shortage. Typically, most of the service providers in the facilities management consultancy market tend to employ immigrants at low-costs. The clampdown of the geographical borders and the lockdown imposed in countries to prevent the spread of the virus are compelling immigrants to relocate to their native lands and are restricting further migration of people across borders. This is depreciating the existing labor force that is the backbone of the facilities management consultancy market and is posing as a critical supply risk in this market.

To achieve a seamless supply chain management in the current facilities management consultancy market during the COVID-19 Lockdown is difficult but not impossible. Get your free trial of our procurement platform and get to know what measures the industry leaders are adopting to mitigate supply chain risks in this market.

What are the ways to achieve efficacy in supply chain management in the facilities management consultancy market?

Engaging in long-term contracts

Benefits of an integrated program are more apparent over a period of 5-7 years, and the goal in such relationships is to achieve cost savings and improve performance in the long run. Hence, buyers should opt for service providers who have a track record of long-term engagements as this will increase the probability of these service providers sustaining in a mutually beneficial relationship for a longer duration.

Engage with service providers who have a self-delivery model

The self-delivery model minimizes the outsourcing services and thereby, simplifies the engagement co-ordination. Self-delivery model service providers can also reduce the contract costs of buyers as these service providers charge low rates compared with service providers that rely on outsourcing as they can maintain their margin at low costs owing to the reduction in profit absorption by third-party contractors.

Opt for service providers who exhibit data management and analytical capabilities

Data management plays an important role in demand assessment, cost savings, and other sourcing aspects. Furthermore, analytical capabilities can also help them in maintenance planning, budget forecasting, and long-term category planning activities. Hence, it is prudent of buyers to opt for service providers who have data management and analytical capabilities that can be utilized by the buyers to gain the above-mentioned benefits.

Request a free demo of our procurement platform to gain real-time insights into supply chain management objectives to protect your business in the facilities management consultancy market against the COVID-19 lockdown.

About SpendEdge:

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View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005386/en/

Contacts:

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Why myopia progression is a concern

Schedule an exam Find Eye Doctor

Are your child's eyes getting worse year after year?

Some children who develop myopia (nearsightedness) have a continual progression of their myopia throughout the school years, including high school.

And while the cost of annual eye exams and new glasses every year can be a financial strain for some families, the long-term risks associated with myopia progression can be even greater.

More children are becoming nearsighted

Myopia is one of the most common eye disorders in the world. The prevalence of myopia is about 30 to 40 percent among adults in Europe and the United States, and up to 80 percent or higher in several East Asian countries.

And it's estimated that by the year 2050, roughly half of the world's population will be nearsighted.

Classification of myopia severity

Myopia  like all refractive errors  is measured in optical units called diopters (D).

Lens powers that correct myopia are preceded by a minus sign (), and are usually measured in 0.25 D increments.

The severity of nearsightedness is often categorized like this:

Mild myopia: -0.25 to -3.00 D

Moderate myopia: -3.25 to -5.00 D or -6.00 D

High myopia: greater than -5.00 D or -6.00 D

Mild myopia typically does not increase a person's risk for eye health problems. But moderate and high myopia sometimes are associated with serious, vision-threatening side effects.

When myopia-related eye problems and vision loss occur, high myopia also is called degenerative myopia or pathological myopia.

Adults with high myopia usually started getting nearsighted when they were young children, and their myopia progressed year after year.

Myopia-related eye problems

Significant eye problems that can be associated with nearsightedness include:

Cataracts. In a recent study of cataracts and cataract surgery outcomes among Koreans with high myopia, researchers found cataracts developed sooner in highly myopic eyes compared with normal eyes. Also, eyes with high myopia had a higher prevalence of coexisting disease and complications, such as retinal detachment.

And in an Australian study of more than 3,600 adults ages 49 to 97, the odds of having cataracts increased significantly with greater amounts of myopia. The odds of having a particular type of cataract was twice as high among subjects with high myopia compared with those with low myopia.

Glaucoma. Myopia  even mild and moderate myopia  has been associated with an increased risk of glaucoma. In the same Australian study mentioned above, glaucoma was found in 4.2 percent of eyes with mild myopia and 4.4 percent of eyes with moderate-to-high myopia, compared with 1.5 percent of eyes without myopia.

The study authors concluded there is a strong relationship between myopia and glaucoma, and that nearsighted participants in the study had a two to three times greater risk of glaucoma than participants with no myopia.

Also, in a Chinese study, glaucoma was significantly associated with the severity of myopia. Among adults age 40 or older, those with high myopia had more than twice the odds of having glaucoma as study participants with moderate myopia, and more than three times the odds of having the disease compared with individuals with mild myopia.

Compared with participants who either had no myopia or were farsighted, those with high myopia had a 4.2 to 7.6 times greater odds of having glaucoma.

Retinal detachment. In a study published in American Journal of Epidemiology, researchers found myopia was a clear risk factor for retinal detachment.

Results showed eyes with mild myopia had a four-fold increased risk of retinal detachment compared with non-myopic eyes. Among eyes with moderate and high myopia, the risk increased 10-fold. The study authors also concluded that almost 55 percent of retinal detachments not caused by trauma are attributable to myopia.

In the Korean study mentioned above, among participants with high myopia due to elongated eye shape (axial myopia), the incidence of retinal detachment after cataract surgery was 1.72 percent, compared with 0.28 percent among participants with normal eye shape.

In a study conducted in the UK that evaluated the incidence of retinal detachment after cataract surgery, 2.4 percent of highly myopic eyes developed a detached retina within seven years following cataract extraction, compared with an incidence of 0.5 to 1 percent among eyes of any refractive error that underwent cataract surgery.

What you can do about myopia progression

The best thing you can do to help slow the progression of your child's myopia is to schedule annual eye exams so your eye doctor can monitor how much and how fast his or her eyes are changing.

Often, children with myopia don't complain about their vision, so be sure to schedule annual exams even if they say their vision seems fine.

If your child's eyes are changing rapidly or regularly, ask your eye doctor about ortho-k contact lenses or other myopia control measures, including specialized myopia control glasses, to slow the progression of nearsightedness.

Schedule annual eye exams

If your child is nearsighted, schedule annual eye exams with an eye doctor near you. During the exam, ask about available myopia control measures to slow the progression of your child's nearsightedness.
Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion curated for you at 1PM. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times.

India assesses Covid-19 sample pooling for tests, says top scientist. How it helps

India is looking at increasing the capacity of testing for coronavirus disease Covid-19 by pooling of samples. The effort was announced on Twitter by Indias principal scientific adviser Vijay Raghavan.

Read full story here.

Coronavirus: Delhi government plans to lodge doctors at Hotel Lalit during quarantine

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government on Monday announced that doctors working at Delhis Lok Nayak Hospital and GB Pant Hospital on coronavirus duty will be lodged at Hotel Lalit.

Read full story here.

Frightening picture: Prashant Kishor tweets video of migrants crying, begging

Election strategist Prashant Kishor has tweeted a video of scores of migrant workers, locked inside a cell crying and asking to be set free, and sought the resignation of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Read full story here.

In Uttarakhand, IFS officer tests Covid-19 positive, after testing negative once

Uttarakhands first Covid-19 patient, a trainee Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer tested positive again after testing negative last week, officials said.

Read full story here.

Dalgona Coffee is the delish beverage trend sweeping TikTok and Instagram. Tried it yet?

With people spending more and more time at home, social media is flooded with a new challenge or trend every other day. The latest trend to spill all over social media is videos on Dalgona Coffee.

Read full story here.

Asian Institute of Medical Sciences, India launches Covid-19 chatbot: How it works

There have been quite a few chatbots on Covid-19 available on different platforms. The Asian Institute of Medical Sciences, India has also created a chatbot which can be accessed on mobile and desktop. It is also available in English and Hindi.

Read full story here.

Apples Dad shoes that inspired Versace sold for over 7 Lakh

American multinational technology company, Apple is known for its high-end luxury gizmos, be it the iPhones that have people lining up outside the Apple store overnight, the laptops, desktops, hand-held devices, watches, etc.

Read full story here.

These two guys, then daylight, then the rest: Shane Warne names best batsmen of his era

Former Australian bowler Shane Warne has always spoken fondly about Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara and in his recent Instagram Live video, the former leg-spinner has picked both the batsmen as the greatest to wield the willow in his era.

Read full story here.
A 25-year-old man was shot to death midday Sunday in west Birmingham.

Birmingham police identified the victim as Lamorn Wilkerson-Hubbard.

West Precinct officers were dispatched about 12:15 p.m. to Baptist Medical Center Princeton on a report of a person who had been brought in with a gunshot wound. Sgt. Rod Mauldin said officers learned Wilkerson-Hubbard had been driven there in a private vehicle.

He was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival.

Investigators learned the shooting happened in the 100 block of Second Court West. Mauldin said the victim and the suspect were engaged in some kind of conversation prior to the shooting.

A suspect is in custody. No additional information about the suspect has been released.

Wilkerson-Hubbard is Birminghams 25th homicide this year. Of those, four have been ruled justifiable and therefore are not deemed criminal. In all of Jefferson County, there have been 39 confirmed homicides, including the 25 in Birmingham.

Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham police homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
The lawmakers in the upper legislative chamber say they will be donating 50 percent of their salaries from March to support the fight ag...

The lawmakers in the upper legislative chamber say they will be donating 50 percent of their salaries from March to support the fight against coronavirus.





The country has so far recorded 111 coronavirus cases and one death. President Muhammadu Buhari has since ordered the complete lockdown of the federal capital territory (FCT), Lagos and Ogun states as measures to check the spread of the virus.





In a statement on Monday, Godiya Akwashiki, senate spokesman, said the monthly contribution would be sustainable until the country is declared free of the disease.





Akwashiki said the senate is ready to do whatever it takes to ensure that the country is free of the disease.

After due consultations following a keen review of the national efforts to contain the Coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria, the Senate wishes to announce that from March, 2020, Distinguished Senators will be donating 50 per cent of their salaries to these efforts to stop the spread of the disease, otherwise known as COVID-19, in our country, he said.





This monthly contribution from the Upper Legislative Chamber will be sustained until Nigeria is declared safe from the ravages of this deadly disease.





The Senate commends the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari and the administration towards the goal of securing our nation against this plague.





The Senate commends all agencies of the Federal and state levels for working in collaboration to protect public health across the country. It also acknowledges the patriotic response of public-spirited individuals and organisations who have contributed in one way or the other in support of this fight.





The Senate further appeals to the citizens to comply with the directives on social distancing and observance of basic rules of hygiene as explained by public health officials as the most effective way to protect ourselves, families and country against COVID-19.





This is a global adversity that is testing the wit and resilience of mankind all over the world. By staying resolute and each of us responsibly playing their role, COVID-19 like all epidemics before it will soon be pushed into history.




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A 25 year-old man has been stabbed during an assault in Inchicore in Dublin.

Gardai attended the scene at St Vincent's Street West at around 2.30am this morning.

Gardai at the scene found a 25-year-old man who had been stabbed.

While the injured party was lying on the ground, the suspect tried to assault the man again.

A Garda member intervened and received a laceration to his head.

The injured party and the Garda were both taken to St James Hospital for treatment.

Gardai said the injured party remains in hospital at this time and the garda member has since been released.

A 24-year-old man was arrested at the scene and is currently detained under Section 4, of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984 at Kilmainham Garda Station.

Gardai said investigations are ongoing.

He was been rushed to hospital, but is expected to make a recovery.
People who wanted to sell their homes to avoid loud and dusty excavation on the North East Link say they are now "stuck", with work set to start this week amid tightening lockdown rules.

The Andrews government is forging ahead with construction works on its major transport projects, including the $15.8 billion North East Link, despite rolling out stricter measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Katie George with her children outside her home on Borlase Street last year. Credit:Jason South

From Wednesday, parkland in Borlase Street, Yallambie, will become a construction site as workers rip up the road and footpath to relocate gas, water, power and sewage to create the launch site for the project's massive tunnel-boring machines.

Site investigations are already under way but construction will ramp up at the reserve this week, just metres away from homes.
Poll strategist-turned-



politician Prashant Kishor on Monday said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his former mentor, should "quit" for his alleged failure to provide adequate assistance to migrants returning to the state from far-off places, amid the 21-day lockdown.

Kishor, who was expelled from the JD(U) headed by Kumar, two months ago, shared a disturbing video footage on his Twitter handle, where scores of people can be seen cooped up inside a structure, beating their fists against the gates and pleading that they be allowed to go home.

With the hashtag #NitishMustQuit, Kishor wrote in Hindi, "It is a terrifying picture of government's measures to save people from coronavirus infection. Such are the arrangements in place by @NitishKumar to ensure social distancing for those who are reaching Bihar from various parts of the country after enduring untold hardships."



Though the place where the video was shot was not mentioned in the tweet, it has been traced to Sareya in Guthani block of Siwan district where nearly 100 people had arrived on a bus the previous day.

"The video is misleading as no one is held up at the RBT Vidyalaya in Sareya anymore. All migrants were sent off to their respective places late Sunday night," Block Development Officer Neeraj Kumar Dubey told PTI over phone.

He also said that migrants who hailed from "far-off districts such as Madhubani and Sitamarhi" were put up at a school building where the government had proposed to set up a camp for stranded people.

"They had an arduous journey from Delhi. Even after being served food and water they seemed desperate to rush to their homes and were ready to make a dash on foot.

"This could have led to more problems so a padlock was placed on the gates to prevent their exit till vehicles were arranged for ferrying them to their respective places," the BDO stated.

The school building had enough space to ensure adequate physical distance, Dubey claimed.

"But, in sheer desperation, some of them seemed to have gathered cheek by jowl at the gates. It was unfortunate. However, thankfully they are all now at their respective villages where panchayats are ensuring that they are placed under quarantine till the time a medical examination is conducted," he added.

Meanwhile, senior JD(U) leader and Bihar minister Ashok Choudhary slammed Kishor for his remarks and asserted that "the state government led by Nitish Kumar has been diligently, and effectively, tackling the coronavirus outbreak, placing restrictions on its own even before the lockdown was announced".

"Even after the nationwide lockdown, Bihar was doing fine until Kishor's current political master Arvind Kejriwal started taking initiatives that created problems. What was Kishor doing, sitting understandably in Delhi, when AAP supporters went around spreading rumours that the lockdown will last for months together," Choudhary said.

Kejriwal is now putting on a show by asking the migrants to stay back with assurances that he would take care of their needs, after having facilitated a mass exodus from the city, the JD(U) leader alleged.

Hitting out at Kishor, he further said, "He must remember that he has a long way to go in politics. He must refrain from talking big and, instead, tell the people of Bihar what he has been doing for them in this hour of crisis, having pledged to devote his energies to the state."



In February, Kishor had launched a campaign 'Baat Bihar Ki' which he described as a long-term initiative aimed at training young men and women with an aptitude for politics.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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New York could reach its peak of new coronavirus cases within the next seven to 10 days, experts say, as the number of hospital ER visits starts to decrease and official data raises hopes that the city could soon start 'turning the corner'.

New York City saw 138 deaths from the virus on Monday, an increase of 17% on Sunday but well down from Saturday's spike of 222 deaths.

There were 4,319 new cases, which is again lower than Saturday's 5,367 new cases, according to official city figures.

Across New York state, the official number of new cases has fallen two days in a row.

The number of new cases in the state dipped by 19% from Sunday to Monday, falling from 7,157 to 5,818. It was also down from slightly from Saturday to Sunday.

The state death toll increased by 253 (26%) to 1,218 fatal cases on Monday. However over the past three days the number of daily deaths has remained almost flat, with an increase of only six deaths per day from Saturday to Monday.

On Saturday the state announced 247 new deaths, on Sunday 183 and on Monday 253.

Experts say the figures offer a glimmer of hope that hardest-hit New York could soon be 'turning the corner' and headed towards a downward trajectory in terms of coronavirus cases.

Doctor and analyst Scott Gottlieb said: 'More data suggesting that New York could be approaching a peak in new cases. Over the next 7-10 days they could peak and start slowly turning the corner. Mitigation is working in New York.'

However the figures should be treated with caution given that in Italy initial signs that the daily death toll was flattening turned back into a daily increase. Governor Cuomo and Bill De Balsio have also painted a grim picture of days to come.

New York City saw 138 deaths from the virus on Monday, an increase of 17% on Sunday

There were 4,319 new cases, which is again lower than Saturday's 5,367 new cases, according to official city figures.

New York could reach its peak of new coronavirus cases within the next seven to 10 days, experts say, as the daily statewide death toll shows signs it is leveling out and the number of hospital ER visits starts to decrease

The death toll in New York state - the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States - increased by 253 to 1,218 fatal cases on Monday, according to new state figures

Deaths in New York are expected to peak within seven to 10 days, according to Farzad Mostashari, the founder of healthcare startup Aledade and a former national coordinator for Department of Health and Human Services.

Visits to hospital emergency rooms in New York City showed a decline in numbers over the weekend, Mostashari says, which puts hospitalizations on a downward trend and shows signs the state's stay-at-home order is working.

State officials expect the number of deaths in New York to continue to rise as the outbreak reaches its projected peak in the coming weeks.

'Whatever the numbers is, it's going to be staggering,' New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said. 'We've lost over 1,000 New Yorkers... To me, we're beyond staggering already.'

He said the rise in the number of new coronavirus infections appeared to be slowing and the hospital discharge rate was increasing.

'People come into the hospital, they stay for a period of time, a number of days, and then they move on,' Cuomo said.

The state has already confirmed more than 66,000 cases, mostly in New York City. There are 9,500 people in New York currently hospitalized for COVID-19.

It comes as a Navy hospital ship with 1,000 beds arrived in New York City and the Javits Center, a makeshift hospital in Manhattan, started accepting patients on Monday.

The Javits Center will have 2,500 beds and the USNS Comfort Navy ship will cater for an additional 1,000 patients. The additional beds will not be used by coronavirus patients. Instead, the field hospitals will be used by other patients to free up beds in New York's already overwhelmed hospitals.

Cuomo on Monday urged other states across the US to not think they are immune to the virus.

'There is no American that is immune. What is happening to New York is not an anomaly. In many ways, it's the canary in the coal mine,' Cuomo said.

'What you see us going through here, you will see happening all across this country. We believe that we're dealing with this pandemic at a level intensity that no one has seen before.

The Navy ship the USNS Comfort arriving in New York City on Monday bringing with it 1,000 more hospital beds to New York's crippled system

The Navy ship arriving in New York City on Monday morning bringing with it 1,000 hospital beds

'We've dealt with some really deadly illnesses. We dealt with the Ebola virus, that's not what this is. It tends to be the people who are acutely ill who have the most problems.

'The situation is painfully clear now; there's no question as to what we're dealing with there's no question to grief or loss of life. There's no question of what we must do,' he said.

Cuomo fumed that he was still seeing 'too many people' in the streets of New York City and said staying at home was the first step to helping curb the spread.

'Stay at home. When I issued the stay-at-home order, it wasn't, 'it would be nice if you did.' Stay at home! If you leave the house, you're exposing yourself to danger and others to danger,' he said.

'I know the isolation can be boring and oppressive. It is better than the alternative. Stay at home. That is the best option. If you are out, no proximity. 6ft distancing.

'You want to stay away from places that are dense. Still, in New York City, you have too many places with too much density. I don't know how many different ways to make the same point.'

Beds are lined up in a tent as volunteers from the International Christian relief organization Samaritans Purse set up an Emergency Field Hospital for patients suffering from the coronavirus in Central Park across Fifth Avenue from Mt. Sinai Hospital
WESTERLY, RI (AP)  The Rhode Island National Guard started going door to door on Saturday in coastal areas to inform any New Yorkers who may have come to the state that they must self-quarantine for 14 days while Gov. Gina Raimondo expanded the mandatory self-quarantine to anyone visiting the state.

Raimondo also ordered residents to stay at home, with exceptions for getting food, medicines or going to the doctor, and ordered nonessential retail businesses to close Monday until April 13 to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. She also directed realtors and hotel operators to include new requirements that any out-of-state residents must quarantine for 14 days in their purchase agreements.

UNEMPLOYMENT: Macys furloughs most of its 130,000 staff amid pandemic

State Police set up a checkpoint on I-95 in Hope Valley on Friday where drivers with New York license plates must stop and provide contact information and were told to self-quarantine for two weeks, WPRI.com reported.

If New Yorkers don't comply, they face fines and jail time, Raimondo said, adding that that's not the goal.

I want to be crystal clear about this: If you're coming to Rhode Island from New York you are ordered into quarantine. The reason for that is because more than half of the cases of coronavirus in America are in New York," Raimondo said, adding that it's not meant to be discriminatory.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the order "reactionary" and unconstitutional, saying he'd sue Rhode Island if the policy isn't rescinded but believed they could "work it out."

"I understand the goal ... but theres a point of absurdity, and I think what Rhode Island did is at that point of absurdity," said Cuomo, a Democrat. We have to keep the ideas and the policies we implement positive rather than reactionary and emotional.

Houston coronavirus updates: Inmate tests positive, beaches close, Metro suspends Park-and Ride

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he had spoken with some governors and was considering some type of a quarantine to prevent people in New York and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut from traveling. Trump Late Saturday, though, he tweeted that a travel advisory should be administered and not a quarantine.

Trump told reporters at the White House that it would be for a short period of time, if we do it at all. He said he had spoken with Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., and Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., the country's epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbot on Thursday joined other states in imposing quarantines on air travelers from the New York area, including New Jersey and Connecticut, and New Orleans, two places where COVID-19 outbreak is more severe. The Republican said travelers who dont comply with the 14-day quarantine risk jail time, adding that state troopers would conduct visits to make sure people were staying put.

In Rhode Island, which reported its first two deaths from COVID-19 on Saturday, a team of a Westerly police officer and a Guard member were visiting stately and modest coastal homes in the Westerly neighborhood of Watch Hill collecting contact information from New Yorkers and telling them to self-quarantine. They expected to go to about 1,000 homes over a few days.

"This is more of an education tool to make people aware and comply with what we are asking them to do, said Westerly, Rhode Island, police chief Shawn Lacey. We are certainly hope it doesnt get to enforcement action that has to happen."

HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Live coronavirus updates

Reha Kocatas, a New Yorker who arrived March 22 from the Bahamas to his Rhode Island home, said his wife and two children were visited by a police officer and a national guardsmen. Already under a 14-day quarantine per a state order because he had arrived from outside the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Kocatas said he volunteered information to the authorities including the number of people in the home, when they entered Rhode Island and his and his wifes date of birth.

But he questioned why it was necessary to send a police officer to his door.

It seemed like a pretty large waste of resources for something that could have been volunteered through an online form pretty quickly, he said.

If New Yorkers are such high risk individuals, why are we putting first responders in front of these individuals is a little questionable since there is no action item at the end of the day," he continued. "They werent going to remove us. It seemed like bureaucratic grandstanding. The local community that happens to be here believes that its a waste of precious resources when time is the essence in preparing for other things."

Ramaindo said only an estimated 50% of Rhode Islanders are complying with social distancing, with crowds spotted at a beach, groups at parks, crowds at big box stores and house parties. As a result, she banned gatherings of more than five people and urged people to limit interactions to the same five.

For those who are not complying with social distancing: I've said it last week, I'm going to say it again, knock if off. You are risking the lives of everyone in this state, she said.

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People able to work from home must do so, she said. Residents who work in Massachusetts and must go to work, must self-quarantine after work at home, she said.

For most people, the virus 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, or death.

____

AP photographer David Goldman contributed to this report from Westerly, R.I.
Coronavirus could mark the end of the EU 'European project' if member states cannot agree to share rescue package debt, the bloc's economics commissioner has warned.

Paolo Gentiloni, a former prime minister of Italy, said it was essential for Germany, the bloc's most powerful member, to come to an agreement over debt with states which have been hardest hit.

He told Italian radio station Radio Capital: 'The European project is in danger of dying out.'

Coronavirus could mark the end of the EU 'European project' if member states cannot agree to share rescue package debt, the bloc's economics commissioner Paolo Gentiloni has warned

'It is clear that if the economic differences between European countries, rather than shrinking in the face of a crisis like this, instead increase... it will be very difficult to keep the European project together,' he warned.

Without Germany, he added, 'we cannot find a compromise'.

On Thursday, Germany and other northern EU states rejected a proposal backed by nine countries, including Italy, Spain and France, for so-called 'coronabonds'.

These would be issued in the name of the eurozone as a whole and would in effect result in pooled debt among member states who share the single currency zone.

Mr Gentiloni said he had expected Germany's reaction, calling it a 'long-standing vision that we know by heart'.

Germany has repeatedly dismissed the idea of mutualised, or shared, European debt.

Mr Gentiloni, a former prime minister of Italy, said it was essential for Germany, the bloc's most powerful member, to come to an agreement over debt with states which have been hardest hit. Pictured: German leader Angela Merkel

The country claims it is an attempt by over-spending southern states to take advantage of the cheap borrowing rates enjoyed by countries with balanced budgets, without being subject to fiscal austerity measures.

European member states should 'start with the common objectives' in order to break the standstill, Gentiloni said, adding that he recognised that pooled borrowing would never be agreed upon.

'We need a new unemployment guarantee instrument, a business support plan and we need the "Green Deal" development model to not be forgotten,' he said.

He added that one possible way to finance such objectives was to issue bonds.

Mr Gentiloni told Italian radio station Radio Capital: 'The European project is in danger of dying out'

'One is to issue bonds, but not generically to mutualise the debt, which will never be accepted,' he conceded.

Gentiloni also said he was 'not very optimistic' about continued discussions over the possible use of the European Stability Mechanism, which provides financial assistance to countries in difficulty.

It normally attaches strict fiscal conditions to its emergency borrowing.

Some say that the mechanism, set up in 2012 during the European sovereign debt crisis, would unfairly punish already highly indebted countries such as Italy, by imposing new and unattainable conditions for fixing its public finances.

On Thursday, Germany and other northern EU states rejected a proposal backed by nine countries, including Italy, Spain and France, for so-called 'coronabonds'

Comparisons with past crises were unhelpful in confronting the challenge posed by the coronavirus pandemic, Gentiloni suggested, a view also voiced by Italy's minister for European affairs.

'It's a new crisis, it's not comparable to the crisis of 2008, there is no guidebook, there are no clues that leaders recognise from the past,' Vincenzo Amendola told journalists on Monday.

'When we think about the sacrifices of the people, it's a huge, extraordinary novelty with dramatic consequences, and leaders must respond to the challenge.'
A man in his 20s has been seriously injured in a stabbing in Dublin city.

He has been rushed to hospital, but is expected to make a recovery.
Kenyas lower parliamentary chamber wants some 50 lawmakers to be tested for coronavirus amid fears they may have contracted the virus from a member who recently tested positive, the Daily Nation newspaper reports.

Local media reports say the parliament has submitted the names of MPs and parliamentary staff it wants tested to the health ministry. It wants them placed on mandatory quarantine as well.

The MP who tested positive is believed to have contracted the virus from a county governor who had returned from Germany on a working visit. Kenya currently has 50 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with two deaths.

Meanwhile, Ghana and Zimbabwe joined the list of African countries enforcing lockdowns to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Zimbabwe is in a nationwide lockdown like in South Africa and Namibia. Zimbabwe has seven cases with one death.

Over in Ghana where confirmed cases are gone past 150, government has placed lockdowns on two major regions. The Greater Accra and Ashanti regions where cases have been recorded.

South Africas lockdown enforcement has been the subject of widespread criticism after security agents were seen assaulting unarmed citizens some of them within their compounds. The country has over 1,200 cases.

Pensioners are as at Monday morning queuing across the country for their allowances. The Ministry of Defense announced that it was ready to fall on other reserve forces to complement the current deployment.

Over in Kenya, there were clashes between the populace and security forces over the enforcement of a night time curfew that started last Friday. Multiple regional states in Ethiopia have banned transport as cases recently spread to Oromia and Amhara regions. Ethiopia has 23 cases presently.

Nigerias Lagos State along with Osun state and the capital Abuja have been put on lockdown by the federal government. Nigeria has 111 cases with over half in Lagos. Abuja is the next most impacted. About 12 other states have recorded cases with two in the north  Bauchi and Kaduna.

---africanews.com
Billionaire Mark Cuban has a track record of investing in food companies on ABC's "Shark Tank," especially when it comes to vegan and plant-based companies. And on Friday's episode, a few of the Sharks had a similar interest  but this time around, it was a fight over a quick-serve pasta restaurant, Pasta by Hudson. "We're a fast-casual, quick-service pasta bar, located in the heart of New York City," Brandon Fay, founder of Pasta by Hudson, told the Sharks during the episode. At the restaurant, customers are able to customize a pasta dish by picking a type of pasta (including a vegetable pasta option), a type of sauce and any extras (including meatballs or other toppings). "When you cook with love, people can tell. They can tell right away," Fay told the Sharks. He yelled, "Who wants to make a lot of dough?" The Sharks were impressed by Fay's loud presentation and enthusiasm, making them laugh frequently throughout the pitch. But most of all, the Sharks loved his food.

"That is so good," Cuban said as he and the other Sharks tried bucatini pomodoro with meatballs. "Let me tell you, this is the best meatball I ever had," Shark Barbara Corcoran said, with Greiner agreeing. And to the Sharks' surprise, Fay revealed he isn't even Italian. "[I'm] Jewish and Irish," he said during the episode. "Make the best Italian food!" He also said he has no formal training as a chef, but had managed a restaurant for over 30 years. "I ran one of the busiest restaurants in not only New York City, but pretty much the United States," Fay told the Sharks, referring to Trattoria Dell 'Arte in Manhattan. "I was managing director, 130 employees. When you work at a restaurant your whole entire life  I'm almost 25 years in the industry  you pick up a few things." Although Pasta by Hudson currently has only one location, the Sharks saw potential for expansion. "Let's talk about future, because really, your biggest future is delivery only," Cuban told Fay during the episode (which was taped in September 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic forced restaurants all over the country to take out.) "If I knew that you had spaghetti squash on there, this size [pointing at his take-out box], with this sauce, and it was 250 calories, I'm ordering every night," Cuban said.
The gas-fired Redondo Beach power plant operated by AES Corp. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

The long-awaited sale of 51 acres of prime waterfront real estate in Redondo Beach has been finalized  and it includes a commitment to shutting down the site's gas-fired power plant, in the latest sign of California's transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels.

Power plant operator AES Corp. said Monday it had closed on a sale of the land to real estate developer Leo Pustilnikov, in a deal that requires the company to stop operating the gas-burning generators by 2023. As part of the deal, Pustilnikov  who declined to disclose the purchase price  agreed to preserve as much as half of the site as public parkland, including several acres of coastal wetlands that were paved over decades ago.

But those commitments aren't likely to end years of squabbling over the coastal power plant's future. And they won't diminish the challenge of fully replacing natural gas, California's largest power source, with climate-friendly energy sources.

Redondo Beach officials want to see the local gas plant closed this year, not in 2023. AES was supposed to cease operations by Dec. 31, 2020, under a state policy requiring coastal energy generators to either shut down or stop sucking up ocean water for cooling, a process that harms marine life.

But the state's Public Utilities Commission threw a wrench in the works in November, proposing to extend the closure deadline out of fear Southern California won't have enough power on hot summer evenings.

The idea was to keep the Redondo Beach facility  and three other coastal gas plants  open for another two to three years, to give utility companies time to replace them with cleaner resources, such as batteries that can store solar power for use after dark.

Redondo Beach officials have urged the State Water Resources Control Board, which controls the fate of the four gas plants, to reject any extension for the Redondo Beach facility. The city won at least a partial victory this month, when water board staff recommended extending the plant's lease on life by just one year, rather than two or three.

Story continues

But the sale agreement between AES and Pustilnikov may put pressure on the agency to let the gas plant operate through 2023.

Power lines carry electricity from the AES gas-fired plant in Redondo Beach. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

If AES is allowed to keep generating and selling electricity for three more years, the company will transfer $14 million to Pustilnikov for environmental cleanup  compared to just $6.5 million with a two-year extension, and $1.5 million with after a single year.

Similarly, Pustilnikov has agreed to preserve up to 25 acres as permanent open space  but only with a three-year extension for AES. With a two-year extension his commitment falls to 12 acres of open space, and with a single year it falls to four acres.

A longer extension would allow AES to generate more revenue from electricity sales, and in turn the company would provide more funds to Pustilnikov for site cleanup. The real estate developer and AES officials say the agreement benefits Redondo Beach, too, because of the big commitment to open space in the event of a three-year extension.

It aligns the interests of AES and myself and the city," Pustilnikov said in an interview.

Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand was far from satisfied. He thinks the power plant ought to close on schedule this year.

"It emits tons of fine particulate emissions, volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides and greenhouse gases every year it operates," Brand said in an interview. "There are 21,000 people living within one mile of the power plant."

Brand described the sale agreement  which also includes a commitment from Pustilnikov to offer 15 acres to Redondo Beach for $2 million per acre  as "far inferior" to the real estate developer's previous offer, around a year ago, to sell the city 25 acres.

Brand is also frustrated that AES and Pustilnikov "want us to stand down on our opposition" to keeping the plant open past 2020.

"We've been fighting to close this plant for over 10 years," he said. "We're going to continue our opposition to any extension."

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Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand has fought for years to shut down the gas-fired AES power plant in his city. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

The State Water Resources Control Board is accepting public comments through May 11. Agency staff has recommended a one-year extension for Redondo Beach and three-year extensions for gas plants in Huntington Beach, Long Beach and Oxnard.

Whatever the state water board decides, natural gas faces a bleak future on the California power grid.

Gas accounted for about one-third of California's electricity in 2018. It emits less planet-warming carbon dioxide than coal when burned, but it's still a fossil fuel that contributes to sea level rise and worsening wildfires, droughts and heat waves.

State lawmakers have set a target of 100% clean electricity by 2045, which will probably require a total or near-total phaseout of gas.

Low-cost solar and wind power are already putting some gas plants out of business. But solar and wind farms generate electricity only when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing, and lithium-ion batteries probably can't fill all the gaps. It's not yet clear which technologies will ultimately get California the rest of the way to 100%, although there are several potential options.

The debate over Southern California's coastal power plants illustrates the challenge of quickly pivoting away from gas.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti made headlines last year when he announced the city would close three seawater-cooled gas plants. But L.A. still plans to operate two of those facilities through 2029 as it figures out how to replace them with clean energy.

As for the privately owned gas plants in Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Oxnard and Redondo Beach, state officials want to see them shut down as soon as possible  but only when they feel confident the closures won't raise the risk of power outages.

Lisa Krueger, president of AES United States, said the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the importance of a reliable power supply  and of continuing to operate the Redondo Beach gas plant a few more years, if that's what state officials determine is needed.

"Just think how important it is in terms of keeping our electric service on so we have clean water, so we have hospitals," Krueger said in an interview. "Having these plants available is a really good insurance policy to make sure the lights stay on."

At the same time, Virginia-based AES says it's planning for a future dominated by cleaner power sources. The company is installing lithium-ion batteries at its gas plant in Long Beach, and is slowly transitioning away from coal in other parts of the country.

A solar farm in Kern County, Calif., supplies the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The state is edging away from its reliance of fossil fuels to generate electricity. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Pustilnikov has big plans for the Redondo Beach gas plant site, and for surrounding land that he also owns. He hopes to build a corporate office campus as well as retail and commercial space, possibly including a hotel and hotel-branded residences. His vision includes repurposing some of the oldest power plant buildings into a food hall similar to New York's Chelsea Market.

"Where else could you get 51 acres on the water?" Pustilnikov asked.

Still, he knows it won't be easy. Redondo Beach voters must approve any redevelopment plan, a requirement that has torpedoed past proposals that Brand and other critics said would have allowed for too much housing or commercial space along the waterfront.

The public vote gives Redondo Beach officials leverage of their own as they continue to oppose a power plant extension.

"You know how when you go to a Broadway show there's the first act and the second act? This is just the end of the first act," Pustilnikov said. "I'm sure the redevelopment will be just another saga that will take as long, if not longer."
Colorado business broker and financial planning veteran Cameron Kolb has just launched Exit Brokers. Exit Brokers will work with owners of small and mid-size businesses as they prepare to sell their businesses. The new firm will have a focus on both the pre-sale planning process and the business sale process. Exit Brokers is located in Denver but will work with businesses all across the state of Colorado.

Cameron's strategic vision for Exit Brokers is to become the preeminent business brokerage firm in both Denver and the state of Colorado. Recent studies have shown that only 1 in 5 businesses sell on the open market. Cameron feels these stats are unacceptable and caused mostly by unrealistic expectations of sellers. Another contributor to these low figures is brokers not performing enough due diligence before taking a business to market. By implementing a pre-sale due diligence process and having straight-forward conversation with business owners, Cameron expects they will be able to sell 70% or more of the businesses that list with the firm.

Exit Brokers is located at 6300 S Syracuse Way #150 in Centennial, Colorado. For more information about Exit Brokers, please visit https://www.myexitbroker.com. Or email cameron@myexitbroker.com or call (720) 598-8195.

About Exit Brokers

While most business brokerage firms are founded by former real estate brokers, Exit Brokers is founded by a formal financial advisor. By applying the same planning mentality used by the countries top financial advisors, Exit Brokers advisors will better prepare the businesses and its owners for the sale of the businesses.

Exit Brokers will provide both business brokerage services and exit planning service. Competitive success fees will be charged for business brokerage services which upon sale of the businesses. They will also charge a small retainer up-front. By charging a small retainer up-front, Exit Brokers will be able to spend time working with the owner to identify any obstacles to selling so they can be addressed up-front.

Exit planning services will be provided to business owner 2-4 years away from retiring for a fee. This exit planning process will include interviewing the owner, business valuation and analysis, developing the exit plan and implementing the exit plan. For the valuation, Exit Brokers will offer a cost-effective business valuation option focused on identifying the market value of the business. This valuation will cost $950 on its own with options to bundle with the complete exit planning process.

About Cameron Kolb

Cameron Kolb has worked in business planning and sales for 10 years. He started his career with Northwestern Mutual Denver where he worked as a financial advisor for 7 years. While working as a financial advisor, Cameron worked predominantly with small business owners. Cameron left Northwestern Mutual in 2016 to work as an independent business broker in Denver for 2 years. Cameron was then brought on with Sagewood Transaction Advisors where he worked as a business broker and business transaction advisor. After a year with Sagewood, their leadership decided to pivot and only with mid-sized businesses. Cameron opted to build a firm that would also help the smaller businesses but harness processes used in selling larger businesses.
A teenage supermarket worker determined to serve his community while keeping his family safe has set up a 'decontamination station' in his garage.

Adam Lefrancke, 19, decided to make some radical changes to his daily routine after the coronavirus pandemic broke out and his family started working from home.

The aspiring policeman, who has worked at New Zealand supermarket chain Pak'n Save for 18 months, said he was determined not to infect his family members.

His mother, Jude Hawley, told Daily Mail Australia her son texts her after every shift so she can open the laundry door and lid of their washing machine for him.

A supermarket worker has set up a 'decontamination station' everyday after work to help keep his family safe from coronavirus

Mr Lefrancke then uses a remote in his car to open the garage, where he has access to a 'decontamination station' set up with a series of antibacterial wipes and sprays.



He then wipes down everything he has handled including his keys, glasses, wallet, phone, keycard, remote and anything else on his person.

With everything clean, he places a majority of his clothes into the washing machine and climbs into the shower with his arms folded to avoid any contact.

'No one touches his belongings or goes near his car. When he leaves for his next shift he picks his things back up and leaves the same way,' Mrs Hawley said.

Mrs Hawley said she brainstormed the thorough cleansing process with her son, who wanted to help his community but also didn't want to make his family sick.

Adam Lefrancke, 19, undergoes the thorough routine everyday after work to protect himself from the virus

'The nature of his work meant he was interacting with the public for eight hours a day,' she said.

'We needed to make sure he wasn't bringing any germs home, so for us and him, we worked out the best way to minimise his interaction with the house and it's contents, and the "Decontamination Station" was born.'

Mrs Hawley said she was proud of the discipline her son had shown during the difficult time.

'I definitely worry about him, he's so exposed, but I think we are being careful enough, I just hope everyone around him is doing the same,' she said.

'He's hoping to join the Police Force one day, that's the kind of young man he is.'

Mrs Hawley said she hopes the customers attending his supermarket would take the same care to protect workers.
Holland America Cruise Ship With 189 Sick Passengers Is Heading Toward South Florida

Florida governor says he believes it's a mistake

A cruise ship scheduled to arrive in Florida in the coming days has reported that at least 189 people on board are suffering from influenza-like symptoms, at least two have tested positive for the CCP virus, and four people have died.

Holland Americas Zaandam ship started traveling down the Panama Canal on Sunday night after it was docked in Panama for several days. Several South American ports denied the ship entry, according to a statement from the firm.

We greatly appreciate this humanitarian consideration and the compassion shown for our guests and crew by the government of Panama and the Panama Maritime Authority. We are also thankful for the support of the various embassies that are partnering with us to help get their citizens home as quickly as possible, the cruise operator wrote on Sunday night.

The ship is still slated to arrive in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on April 7.

Its not clear if the four people died from the virus.

A temporary hospital in Indio, California, on March 29, 2020. (Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images)

Guests have not been ashore since March 14 in Punta Arenas, Chile, and have been self-isolating in their staterooms since March 22, Holland America also wrote.

Zaandam and another Holland America cruise ship, the Rotterdam, are both heading down the Panama Canal, said the canals operators on Sunday. Passengers who are not experiencing symptoms of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19, were transferred from the Zaandam to the Rotterdam on Saturday, according to Holland America.

The agency that runs Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale said it will take about three days for both cruise ships to reach South Florida after they leave the Panama Canal, CNN reported. Port Everglades said Sunday that passengers on the ship have not been cleared to disembark in Fort Lauderdale.

Holland America has to submit a plan prior to arrival to the port.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that he believes its a mistake to allow the ships to dock in South Florida.

We think its a mistake to be putting people into southern Florida right now given what were dealing with, so we would like to have medical personnel simply dispatched to that ship and the cruise lines can hopefully arrange for that, tend to folks who may need the medical attention. But I think a lot of these are foreign nationals, and we want to make sure we have the beds available for the folks here in southern Florida, DeSantis said at a news conference on Monday, according to Local10.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said he is working with other authorities to create a plan to receive the passengers.

Putting us at risk, which is unfair to the community, which has for weeks now been under lockdown, trying to prevent the spread of this disease, the mayor said.

The CCP virus first emerged in Wuhan, China, before spreading to nearly every country in the world, causing a global pandemic.
BARCELONA, Spain (AP)  Europes fractured union came under new pressure this weekend, as Italy and Spain pleaded for urgent European help to withstand the virus ordeal but Germany showed reluctance to plunge into any radical new solutions.

The north-south divide that has dogged the European Union for years has resurfaced as the virus has galloped across the continent, claiming more deaths than any other region in the world.

It is the most difficult moment for the EU since its foundation, and it has to be ready to rise to the challenge, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a televised address Saturday night.

Sanchez warned them that a lack of solidarity to share the enormous financial burden of the health crisis and the imminent economic slowdown will put the future of the bloc in danger.

Europe must provide a united social and economic response. We must have evidence that Europe listens and that Europe takes action.

Europeans have shown some signs of solidarity: Germany and Switzerland are treating the sick from Italy and France. Germany and France sent masks and hospital shirts to Italy. And the EU has pledged billions in aid, and threw one of its most sacred rules out the window to help countries weather the virus-driven economic crisis.

But given the scale of this drama, critics say thats not nearly enough.

Meanwhile, China and Russia have made a point of sending medical aid to Italy, making some Italians question where their allegiances should lie. Cuba and Albania have sent medical teams too.

Europe must demonstrate that it is able to respond to this historic call, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said late Saturday. I will fight until the last drop of sweat, until the last gram of energy, to obtain a strong, vigorous, cohesive European response."

Spain and Italy alone account for more than half of the world's death toll, with hundreds of new victims every day.

Sanchez warned that the blocs southern members can't bear another round of the hard-love austerity applied in the 2008 recession, when countries like Greece and Portugal were forced to request a bailout and slash their budgets and social services.

Story continues

We must not repeat the mistakes of past crises, otherwise the next debt crisis risks coming right after corona, Austrian Finance Minister Gernot Bluemel told the Austria Press Agency on Sunday. We should use the existing instruments before we build new constructions that have long-term effects" on European economic stability.

This time, Spain, Italy, France and six other EU members have asked the union to share the burden of European debt, dubbed coronabonds, to help fight the virus. But the idea has met resistance.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said Sunday that its important to ensure that countries can better carry this difficult task and the extra credit they have to take on.

Scholz said European coordination is essential, but dodged a question about coronabonds. Instead, he stressed that countries are discussing mobilizing money from the eurozone rescue fund created amid Europes debt crisis a decade ago, the European Stability Mechanism.

That is a very concrete contribution to solidarity in this difficult situation, he said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also appeared unenthusiastic about coronabonds, referring to them as just a slogan in a weekend interview with German news agency dpa. That prompted dismay in Italy.

But Germany is not alone in urging caution. The Netherlands, Finland and Auave similar reservations about unleashing new aid that would have long-term impact on Europes collective finances. Some want to save money in case the crisis gets even worse, and fear a system where frugal northerners eternally subsidize debt-laden southerners.

Amid concerns about how the EU will survive this crisis, Scholz insisted it should lead to more Europe.

In closing borders and retreating into nationalist policies against the spreading virus, European countries have flouted the whole idea of the EU, created in the wake of World War II to avoid future conflict via open trade, and eventually, open borders.

Bernard Kouchner, a doctor and former French foreign minister, suggested that EU treaties should be amended to address health emergencies like this one.

This should change Europe, he said Sunday on BFM television. Noting the failure of EU solidarity, he said, We will learn lessons from what is happening now.

___

Angela Charlton reported from Paris. Geir Moulson in Berlin and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine made the decision, which obliges all those who arrived in Ukraine to undergo the observation procedure. It is supposed to last for 14 days. Viktor Lyashko, the Deputy Healthcare Minister and the Chief Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine said so at a briefing.

"You know that the border of Ukraine is closed for visiting. At the same time, there are cases when Ukrainian citizens keep returning, one way or another. This is why they will be observed in the places defined by the regional state administrations, for 14 days. Only after that, they will be allowed into the territory of Ukraine without the restrictions of other rights and freedoms," he said.

Besides, all those considered Covid-19-contacts will be required to self-isolate at home or in the designated observation places.

Lyashko admitted that the observation will be roughly controlled. "This is why criminal responsibility is foreseen as well; it is envisaged in the law on combating the coronavirus disease", the official concluded.
EDMONTONThe Alberta Opposition says Education Minister Adriana LaGrange needs to start fighting for students or quit and make way for someone who will.

NDP education critic Sarah Hoffman says LaGrange is failing in her core mandate by announcing mass layoffs of school support staff, including teaching assistants and substitute teachers, during the COVID-19 crisis.

This is the job of the education minister, to put the resources and supports in place for kids to learn, Hoffman said Monday.

Im sure theres a lot of pressure on her but she needs to go into (Premier Jason Kenneys) cabinet (and) she needs to fight for these kids and these families. And if she doesnt, then somebody else should be doing the job.

Hoffman said it was cruel and heartless to lay off 25,000 vital workers via news release with little notice on the weekend.

LaGrange was not made available for an interview Monday.

She closed schools on March 15 due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, but at that time announced funding would stay whole.

School authorities will receive their full allotment of funding for the 2019-2020 school year, LaGrange told a legislature news conference.

But on the weekend, as schools geared up to begin virtual at-home programming for thousands of students, LaGrange directed school boards to lay off an estimated 25,000 support staff, including substitute teachers, school bus drivers and educational assistants who work with special needs students.

COVID-19 has changed both how we provide student learning and the operational needs of the education system, LaGrange said in an email that pinged in at 1 p.m. Saturday.

In a statement, LaGranges ministry said the move will free up an estimated $128 million to fight the COVID-19 outbreak. Education assistant contracts must be concluded by the end of April and reduced use of substitute teachers is to begin Wednesday.

Funding will return to regular levels when in-person classes resume. Staffing impacts will be determined on a school authority-by-authority basis, said education spokesman Colin Aitchison in the email.

Jessica Kewley, a mother of four special needs students north of Edmonton, appeared by video-conferencing with Hoffman. She said the assistants are critical to her childrens education.

When the minister said earlier that those supports were going to continue, I took her at her word, said Kewley.

The announcement on Saturday was sneaky and backhanded and hurts our most vulnerable.

Nancy King, also by video conference, said a Grade 12 daughter  who deals with anxiety, Tourettes syndrome and autism  was already worried about learning using a virtual program. Now she must do so without her trusted educational assistant.

Special-needs children need and thrive on consistency. My daughters EAs provide her with one-on-one support that the teacher is unable to provide right now.

The province has added $500 million to its 2020-21 budget to battle the coronavirus, which has well over 600 confirmed cases in Alberta.

Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, said the layoffs by the United Conservative government were short-sighted.

Faced with the double whammy of the pandemic and turmoil in the oil industry, it should be all hands on deck. Unfortunately, Premier Jason Kenney has chosen to throw Albertans overboard instead, Smith said in a statement.

Jason Schilling, head of the Alberta Teachers Association, said the group continues to have concerns about how students with special needs will be supported through this time. Many parents are struggling and need as much help as possible.

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Against the backdrop of global efforts to tackle the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and its impact on countries socioeconomic life, the United Nations has provided the Nigerian government $2 million to procure essential medical supplies and to care for individuals with confirmed cases.

The UN will also assist in the rapid procurement of materials for surveillance, prevention, and control, and clinical management said the UNs Resident Coordinator in Nigeria Edward Kallon.

Mr Kallon was speaking at a meeting in the capital Abuja with members of the National Leadership on COVID-19 led by the Minister of Health Dr. Osagie Ehanire, as well as representatives of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the World Bank.

In addition, Mr. Kallon said that the UN will immediately set up a Nigeria COVID-19 Response Fund a single national platform and financing framework that will foster coordination and effective mobilisation of resources and the deployment of strategies for impactful response.

He noted that the UNs intervention was part of a strategy to ramp up response efforts and a recognition that collective efforts were urgently required in view of Nigerias socio-economic situation.

Dr. Ehanire thanked the UN and assured that all financial and material support will be deployed to where it is most needed. He said the government was prepared for the best and worst scenarios.

The health minister emphasised that the government will continue to follow the containment strategy it has in place.

Before the outbreak of COVID-19, the NCDC had established Public Health Emergency Operations Centres in 23 of Nigerias 36 states to monitor and respond to infectious disease outbreaks. The centres have now been activated.

On 24 March the NCDC reported 44 confirmed cases, including 41 active cases, two discharged cases, and one death.
An exposition hall at Freeman Coliseum is being outfitted as a field hospital to accommodate the potential overflow of coronavirus patients from area hospitals, County Judge Nelson Wolff said Monday.

About 250 beds are being set up in a climate-controlled area, Wolff said, with the goal of having the facility up and running by Wednesday or Thursday.

He said the plan to use Freeman, which is already hosting a temporary coronavirus testing site, has been in the works for some time. The facilities next to the AT&T Center lend themselves well to being used for a possible surge of coronavirus patients, Wolff said, as there is plenty of parking and easy access for cars and trucks to drive up.

Wolff did not have details on who would staff the facility.

On ExpressNews.com: Get the latest update on coronavirus and a tracking map of U.S. cases

Because area hospitals have canceled elective and nonessential surgeries in preparation for an influx of coronavirus patients, he said San Antonios hospitals currently have enough capacity to handle the rising number of patients who need treatment for COVID-19.

At University Hospital, which serves as the public hospital for Bexar County, he said 161 beds were available, including 57 intensive care units. A separate area of the hospital was being set aside for coronavirus patients.

However, Wolff said local hospitals could still become overloaded, as has happened in places like Seattle and New York City, so thats the purpose of having an offsite location to handle patients.

As of Sunday night, 35 of the 157 people confirmed to have coronavirus were hospitalized in San Antonio, including a dozen receiving intensive care and 11 patients on ventilators.

I dont know if well get a big surge in the next week or two, Wolff said. Were just trying to be prepared for it.

Lauren Caruba covers health care and medicine in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Lauren, become a subscriber. lcaruba@express-news.net | Twitter: @LaurenCaruba
Who would have thought a month ago that high school grocery store stockers were so very critical to our daily lives? What a difference a pandemic makes.

From farmers and ranchers to truck drivers and pharmacy personnel, we owe them all an expression of gratitude. The hoarding occurring in stores has shown us how critically important those in the food and medical-supply delivery chain are to our survival.

In this time of crisis, so many previously unheralded professions deserve recognition and appreciation for their essential contributions to our daily lives.

Restaurant and food-delivery employees, previously considered entry-level workers, have never before been so appreciated. Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller has written about the joy his children experience when the garbage truck driver pulls up on trash day. For many confined to their homes, the mail delivery is a highlight. Crises have a way of redefining priorities and outlooks on life, which may be the coronaviruss silver lining.

Convenience store clerks are another group of previously unheralded service-sector employees. Their biggest threat a month ago was a late-night armed robber. Now, anyone walking up to their register to buy a gallon of milk or loaf of bread brings risk of infection. But without their work ethic, the rest of us could not fuel our vehicles to get to work or the doctors office.

Road construction workers, street department personnel and utility workers continue doing their essential jobs, making sure streets stay open and vital utilities such as water and electricity are delivered to our homes.

With tens of thousands of laid-off New Mexicans applying for unemployment benefits, the state government workers that process those claims and ensure checks are issued are essential. Without them, many New Mexicans wont be able to pay their monthly bills to get through this crisis.

And, of course, first responders and health care workers on the front lines of this pandemic deserve special recognition. Many put their lives on the line every day before this crisis. Now, all of them are. From the patrol officer called to investigate a gathering of people at the park to the emergency room nurse examining a patient with a fever, all risk exposure to the virus and taking it home to their families.

The workers deemed essential are playing a critical role in keeping our lives going and deserve a hearty Thank you. So do the non-essential workers who are staying home to mitigate any community spread. (Reserve the handshake and double-tap bro hug for later.) Sheltered-in-place citizens of other nations have spontaneously taken to their balconies to applaud first responders driving by. We should do so, too. Wave, give a thumbs-up or a fist pump to the next first responder you see. Say thanks to the store clerk for showing up despite the impatient and frustrated shoppers. Let each of them know, from afar, how much their efforts are appreciated and how important they are to our lives.

Private groups are also stepping up. Mtucci Restaurants is giving away more than 200 meals each day to furloughed workers and their families, as well as donating all carry-out tips to the furloughed workers. Pizza 9 has donated gift certificates for more than 50,000 personal-size pizzas to school districts around the state. The Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce has given hospitals 250 N95 masks donated by businesses in the construction sector. Twisters and Circle K are offering free coffee to health care workers and first responders. Wings for Life International is giving away refurbished bicycles for kids and adults who want to exercise. Volunteer groups are sewing face masks. The list goes on. It all adds up and makes a difference.

In these strange and sometimes scary times, its good to know that at our communitys core there are many good people doing many good things  as professionals, as employees, as volunteers. This crisis wont last forever, but the appreciation we show our fellow New Mexicans should.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex has been admired for her style ever since she was an actress on Suits. As a royal, Meghans clothes get even more attention, which has allowed her to spotlight fashion brands that she loves. Additionally, she also can start trends and influence what people wear. As usual, Meghans recent looks have been the talk of the town, and this time, they might also help usher in a major trend that often gets overlooked.

Meghan recently had her final U.K. tour as a working royal

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Earlier this year, Meghan and her husband, Prince Harry, announced that they would take a step back from being senior royal family members. In a statement that was released, the couple shared that they would still carry out some work in the U.K. to support Her Majesty, but they also wanted to spend more time in North America and take on non-royal jobs.

Meghan and Prince Harrys departure will officially take effect on April 1, 2020. As such, a few weeks ago, the pair decided to embark on a tour of the U.K. to mark their final engagements as working royals.

Meghans outfits during the tour are resurrecting a major fashion trend

Meghans outfits always get a lot of attention and the ones she wore on her final tour are no exception. Some of the most striking outfits are all monochromatic looks with Meghans dresses and accessories matching in color.

At the Endeavor Fund Awards, the duchess sported a blue Victoria Beckham pencil dress, which she paired with navy shoes and a navy clutch. Meghan opted for different shades of blue, but an all-blue look.

Meanwhile, at the Mountbatten Festival of Music, Meghan glowed in a floor-length red gown from Safiyah. She accessorized with red shoes, red clutch, and ruby earrings. Once again, a mono-color look.

During her final event of the tour  Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey  Markle went out with a bang in an emerald green dress. She also wore a fascinator of the same color and carried a dark green bag.

Monochromatic outfits sometimes get a bad rap for being boring, but Meghan clearly showed that they are anything but.

Meghan Markles outfits also sent subtle messages

Royals often do not talk to the press, so they occasionally use their outfits to send subtle messages to the world. Fans believe that Meghans looks during her final tour also have a lot of hidden meanings behind them.

According to Vanity Fair, Meghans bold outfits could be a way for her to tell the monarchy of what it will be missing in the future. The news outlet wrote: Showcasing their special brand of subtly sexy, modern-royal magic in recent days, Meghan and Harry also reminded the monarchy that it is losing two superstars who felt they had no choice but to step back.

Meghan wore capes for two of her outfits, and Vanity Fair does not believe that this is a coincidence either. It is not clear exactly what sort of message Meghan is going for, but it is possible that the capes are a way to showcase her as a superheroine. Additionally, they could represent her and Prince Harrys flying away and leaving the royal family.

Although Meghan and Prince Harry will still keep their primary U.K. resident  Frogmore Cottage  they will also be spending more time in North America from now on. She and her family have been residing in a mansion on Vancouver Island in Canada for a few months now and the couple has reportedly moved to Los Angeles.
A Somerset zoo that was forced to close its doors to the public due to the coronavirus pandemic has bagged 300,000 of funding to help it survive.

Noah's Ark Zoo Farm, in Wraxall near Bristol, was forced to shut last weekend in the run-up to its busiest time of the year, but was facing substantial costs to look after more than 1,000 animals.

Lifeline: Noah's Ark Zoo Farm, in Wraxall near Bristol, was forced to shut last weekend in the run-up to its busiest time of the year

However, the family owners were able to breathe a sigh of relief after agreeing a 300,000 package with Lloyds Bank which will allow them to retain their team of specialist staff.

Lenders are under pressure from the Government and Bank of England to support businesses through the lockdown. Lloyds has worked with Noah's Ark for the entire 66 years the Bush family has been on site.

Managing director Larry Bush said: 'Running a zoo is a huge undertaking and we were really concerned about our animals.

'But our catering suppliers donated fruit and veg that would otherwise have been delivered to local hotels and restaurants, and the public have shown their support.'
By Trend

Operation of passenger trains to Kazakhstans Atyrau city will be suspended starting from Apr. 1, 2020, Trend reports with reference to the press office of Kazakhstan Railways.

Atyrau regions akimat (administrative center) announced on Mar. 29 that quarantine regime will be introduced in Atyrau city to battle coronavirus spread in the country.

Kazakhstan Railways said that starting from Apr. 1, 2020, boarding and exit of passengers, as well as sale of tickets for the passenger trains from and to Atyrau station will be prohibited.

Operation of Aktobe  Atyrau train will be shortened till Dossor station.

Operation of passenger trains of the Atyrau - Mangystau, Atyrau  Kurort  Borovoe will be suspended from Apr. 1, whereas of trains operating on Atyrau  Shu route will be suspended from Apr. 2.

The latest data said that a total of 294 coronavirus cases have officially been confirmed in Kazakhstan.

First two cases of coronavirus infection were detected in Kazakhstan among those who arrived in Almaty city from Germany on March 13, 2020.

On March 15, 2020, Kazakhstans President Kassym Jomart Tokayev signed a decree introducing an emergency state in Kazakhstan due to the coronavirus outbreak, which came in force from 08:00 (GMT +6) on March 16 and will last till 08:00 on April 15, 2020.

By a decision of State Commission on Provision of Emergency State under the president of Kazakhstan, quarantine regime has been introduced in Kazakhstans Nur-Sultan and Almaty cities at 00:00 (GMT +6) on March 19, 2020, due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019. The number of people killed by the disease has surpassed 34,000. Over 723,700 people have been confirmed as infected. Meanwhile, over 152,000 people have reportedly recovered.

Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
30.03.2020 LISTEN

An equal world is an enabled world. This bold statement forms part of 2020s International Womens Day theme. Now more than ever, with COVID-19 running rampant, nations across the globe require an enabled world.

According to the John Hopkins University, Africa has reported more than 1,000 positive cases (45 of the 54 countries now bearing confirmed cases) and more than 40 deaths.

During a crisis such as this one, argues Shannon Henning, Director of Status Reputation Management Consultancy, Africa needs immediate measures and clear direction to keep those uninfected safe. Provide life-saving medical assistance to those have been contaminated by the coronavirus, and ensure the economy of these countries do not crumble under the duress of national shutdowns.

Henning says, while International Womens Day may be behind us, the symbolism of the day continues to singe a message of inclusion onto our daily lives. Notwithstanding the novelty of COVID-19, Africa would be in a better space to deal with the coronavirus if more women were entrusted with roles of leadership, particularly in government and policymaking duties.

There is always room for improvement, says Henning. What makes this improvement even more possible is the fact that there are already so many examples of extraordinary women across Africa making an indelible difference.

Here are some of the women, Henning is referring to as leaders in their various fields:

 Sahle-Work Zewde, current president of Ethiopia and the first woman to hold the office in the country. Under Zewdes administration, Ethiopia will distribute the first batch of 5.4 million face masks, more than 1 million testing kits, 40,000 items of protective clothing and 60,000 sets of face shields, to the rest of the African continent to help combat COVID-19. A donation received from Chinas billionaire, Jack Ma.

 Sophia Abdi Noor, Member of National Assembly in Kenya. Noor has oversight over her constituency's budget; oversees the presidency, ministries and countrys parastatals plus its appointments. As a lawmaker and the head of the Constituency Development Fund, she has used her authority to advance the progress of marginalised groups and the betterment of girl-children.

 Aja Fatoumata C.M. Jallow-Tambajang, Gambian politician and activist who served as Vice-President of The Gambia and Minister of Women's Affairs. She had been the chair of The Gambia National Women's Council and an advisor to Dawda Jawara, the first President of The Gambia. Jallow-Tambajang was also one of two female ministers in the cabinet, alongside Susan Waffa-Ogoo.

 Clare Akamanzi, Rwandan lawyer, public administrator, businesswoman and politician. Akamanzi is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Rwanda Development Board, and also the former Head of Strategy and Policy for the President of Rwanda. Akamanzis current portfolio includes the mammoth task of Chairperson, Board of Directors of Aviation, Travel and Logistics holding company that owns Rwandair, Kigali Airport, and Akagera Aviation. She is also the former Chief Operating Officer of Rwanda Development Board. Akamanzis leadership in the various roles shes occupied has made seen those departments grow in both functionality and efficiency.

There are also other women, who despite no longer being part of legislature, who are still finding ways of ensuring more women continue feeding into other roles of leadership.

 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Liberian president and Africas first woman president, is launching a new initiative to help African women compete with men in leadership positions called the Amujae Initiative, which means "we are going up" in the Liberian local dialect. Sirleaf is also a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and has been vocal about using her influence to create more inclusive spaces for women.

According to the World Economic Forums (WEF) research, parliamentary institutions  including parliamentary committees and womens caucuses  play an important role in helping female politicians in Africa to shape development outcomes, with the health sector positively being impacted where women were better represented.

WEF further cites the works of political scientists, such as quota shocks  large increases in womens parliamentary representation after the introduction of a gender quota  tend to be followed by rises in government spending on public health.

Representation matters, especially in senior management, entrepreneurial spaces, social development and governance levels. Seeing more women in decision-making environments not only emboldens other women on what is possible, but it also becomes a harbinger for the younger generation. More studies continue to verify the positive ratio of having more women in roles of leadership, paving the way for normalising diversity and inclusivity, concludes Henning.
You are here: China

China has been actively making efforts to set up a green channel to facilitate the air cargo transportation of anti-epidemic supplies home and abroad, according to the State Post Bureau.

The State Post Bureau created the green channel through coordinating enterprises in the mail delivery business in multiple methods such as the overseas transfer, increasing charter flights, and opening air routes.

These efforts are sustaining the delivery of China's domestic medical emergency supplies, daily necessities and express mail in the nationwide joint anti-epidemic fight.

Meanwhile, they are also the back-up in the international prevention and control of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Major players of China's air cargo industry, such as SF Airlines, China Postal Airlines and YTO Airlines, are contributing to the anti-epidemic fight home and abroad.

To date, SF Airlines has opened multiple new international cargo air routes and carried around 210 charter flights. From March 1 to 14, cargo flights of the airline sent 108 tonnes of medical and other supplies to 39 countries and regions.

China Postal Airlines had sent 24 charter flights with 42,000 items of airmails, around 292 tonnes.
Phoenix Police Commander Greg Carnicle, 56, a 31-year veteran on the force, was shot dead responding to a dispute between roommates Sunday

A Phoenix police commander just months away from retirement was killed and two other officers were wounded Sunday night as they responded to calls about a dispute between roommates.

Cmdr. Greg Carnicle, 56, a veteran officer and father of four, was shot dead. The other officers, both women, were hospitalized, the department said.

Sgt. Mercedes Fortune said at a news conference that the unnamed armed suspect refused to cooperate and opened fire on the officers after they were called to the scene near 40th Avenue and Pinnacle Peak Road shortly after 7pm on Sunday.

The shooter then barricaded himself inside the house, reported KTAR. Following an hours-long standoff, he was gunned down by police and was pronounced dead at the scene early Monday morning.

There is no word at this time on a possible motive behind the shooting.

Scroll down for video

Police secure a scene of a shooting in Phoenix Sunday that left Cmdr Carnicle dead and two female officers wounded

A Phoenix Police officer directs a patrol vehicle to the scene of the deadly shooting near 40th Avenue and Pinnacle Peak Road in Phoenix

A nearby resident shoots video of the scene where three officers were shot and the suspect was killed after a standoff

The suspected gunman opened fire on the three officers as they were responded to a dispute between roommates

'Tonight we lost a true hero. Greg Carnicle was a 31-year veteran of our department,' Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said, adding that he was just a few months away from retirement.

He is survived by wife Ann, three grown daughters and a son, reported ABC15.

The other two officers who were shot are in stable condition, she said. Marissa Dowhan is out of surgery, and Alicia Hubert is recovering from her wounds, Williams told the Arizona Republic.

The department tweeted that Carnicle 'held positions throughout the department including the special assignments unit, K9 and he most recently oversaw all evening and weekend patrol operations.'

Carnicle is survived by wife Ann (left) and their three daughters and a son. The fallen commander is pictured right with one of his daughters

The 56-year-old officer had been on the force for 31 years and was just months away from retiring from the police department (pictured with two of his daughters)

Mayor Kate Gallego tweeted: 'No words are adequate to express my sadness for Commander Carnicles family and @PhoenixPolice. After a decorated career spent keeping PHX safe, he had his choice of assignments. He volunteered to be a Night Commanderthis is the truest sign of the integrity of his character.'

In a tweet, Gov, Doug Ducey asked the public to 'join me in praying for these officers, their families, and the entire @PhoenixPolice community.'

The most recent death of a Phoenix police officer in the line of duty was in March 2019 when Officer Paul Thomas Rutherford was struck by a vehicle.

The last officers killed by gunfire were Officer David Van Glasser in May 2016 and Detective John Thomas Hobbs in March 2014.
Coronavirus: 6 Telangana men who were tested COVID-19 positive after they attended a religious gathering near Delhis Nizamuddin dargah died today. The authorities have seal Nizamuddin area and looking out for people who came in contact with infected people.

Six people who were tested coronavirus positive after they attended a religious gathering near Nizamuddin Dargah died in Telangana, said reports. In last 48 hours, 8 persons have succumbed. A statement from thr chief ministers office confirmed that off 6 decreaseds persons two persons died in Gandhi Hospital, one each in Apollo, Global Hospital, Nizamabad and in Gadwal. All of them had attended a religious prayer meeting from March 13 to 15 at Markaz in Nizamuddin area, statement added.

The Delhi authorities have also sealed the area within radius of one kilometer of Nizammudin Dargah and hunting others who took part in the event despite of nationwide lockdown.

Meanwhile Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal issued orders to file FIR against the maulana of Markaj.

Reports said, in last 2 days, the Delhi Police and the Health Department have sent at least 220 people from the Nizamuddin area to quarantine centres at Tughlaqabad and Lok Nayak Hospital.

The gathering was held in mid-March inside a mosque where several foreign returns were present too, said a police officer.

Briefing media on the issue, a Delhi health department official said people from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Telangana and Tamil Nadu attended the gathering in Nizamuddin, the area that has a high population density, and there are high chances that they may infect others.

All tested positive were living with a group for some religious gathering, official added stating now activities are going on to trace others who might have come in contact with them.

Notably, after Prime Minister Narendra Modis nationwide lockdown for 21 days announcement to combat coronavirus, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had made it clear that no religious, social, cultural or political gatherings will take place till the lockdown and had urged people to practice social distancing.

So far, the virus has infected 1071 people in India and claimed 29 lives. 23 people were tested positive on Sunday in the capital taking the total number of cases in Delhi to 72.

B

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Sao Paulo, Brazil  Two tweets removed for violating rules, bombastic television appearances and a presidential social media campaign, dubbed Brazil cant stop  quickly banned  illustrate far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaros plan to fight the novel coronavirus: Defy international guidelines, encourage Brazilians to get back to work and continue to downplay the threat of the virus.

Like ally and US President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro has repeatedly sought to minimise the pandemic, first dismissing it as fantasy and then just a little flu.

A Brazilian dives in the sewer and he doesnt catch anything, Bolsonaro told viewers of his weekly Facebook Live programme last Thursday.

Earlier last week, he stunned viewers with a five-minute television tirade in which he attacked political rivals, blasted press hysteria and even mocked a beloved celebrity doctor.

A few state and municipal authorities must abandon this scorched earth concept: the transport ban, the closing of businesses, mass confinement, he seethed and contradicted specialists, including his own health minister, by insisting the virus will soon pass.

This Sunday, he toured the capital Brasilia, defying social distancing recommendations, visiting markets and shaking hands with supporters while encouraging them to continue working to keep the economy going.

An image depicting Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro and Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta wearing protective face masks and the phrase Lets cut some research grants is projected on the wall of a building as a protest, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Sao Paulo, Brazil [Amanda Perobelli/Reuters]

I advocate that you work, everyone works. Of course, anyone who is old stays at home, he told a street vendor of barbequed meat.

His comments came despite recent statistics showing that the majority of Brazils elderly population live with family members or someone else who is not their partner.

Videos showing him questioning quarantine methods were recently removed by Twitter for violating the social media companys new rules on contradicting public health guidance on combating COVID-19.

Bolsonaros messaging surrounding the pandemic makes one thing clear: He favours an economy first approach to tackling the crisis; calculating that the number of deaths will be less costly than the inevitable recession caused by economic shutdown.

But as the worldwide death toll climbs to more than 35,000, it is an approach that is costing him precious political capital at home among Brazils powerful ruling elite, while major cities in lockdown are rocked by panelaco  pot banging protests  most evenings. It is also a plan that is putting Brazilian lives at risk, analysts say.

Healthcare system on verge of collapse

So far, more than 4,300 cases and 140 deaths have been confirmed in Brazil, the majority in the countrys industrialised southeast, according to Johns Hopkins University, with numbers expected to rise sharply in the coming weeks.

Analysts say the death toll would only be compounded by an already overwhelmed health system as well as Brazils brutal levels of inequality.

Brazils poorest communities lack garbage collection, suffer from water shortages, have open sewers and are very densely populated, said Paulo Buss, global health director at Brazils Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. These are perfect conditions for the virus to proliferate.

Bolsonaros televised national address last Tuesday, in which he once again referred to the virus as a little flu, was widely condemned in Brazil, on social media and by business leaders and politicians  including long-term allies.

Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro gestures to supporters, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Brasilia, Brazil [Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters]

His Brazil cant stop campaign, which recommended all but the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions return to work, was banned by a judge on Saturday.

Theres no more dialogue with this man, said Ronaldo Caiado, governor of Brazils midwestern state Goias in the countrys farming heartland and, until now, a solid Bolsonaro supporter.

The majority of Brazils 27 state governors, including Caiado, a qualified doctor, favour the World Health Organization recommended guidelines of self-isolation and closure of all non-essential service.

While increasingly isolated politically, the president maintains the support of a loyal fan base, at least for now, with recent opinion polls suggesting that a third of Brazilians thought he was doing a good or excellent job handling the coronavirus crisis.

The turning point in popular support could come if and possibly when we see an Italy type situation, with death tolls climbing, distressing images on TV and families not being able to attend funerals, said Oliver Stuenkel, an international relations professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo.

Last week, Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said the countrys health system would likely collapse under COVID-19 pressure by the end of April and that infections would only begin to fall by September.

Its going to collapse because there hasnt been the necessary investment for it not to, said Marcos Boulos, an infectologist and professor at the faculty of medicine at the University of Sao Paulo.

Its likely that in two or three weeks when we begin to hit the peak hospitals will be totally overwhelmed and resemble, or be worse in some cases, than what were seeing in Italy, he told Al Jazeera.

A man bangs a pot at the window of his house as he protests against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [Ricardo Moraes/Reuters]

Like the UKs National Health Service, Brazils Unified Health System, is a free universal service that serves the majority of the countrys 209 million inhabitants and is considered a source of great national pride by its medical professionals.

Very few recognise that we are the only country with more than 100 million inhabitants that dared to guarantee medical care for all, as a citizens right, Drauzio Varella, Brazils beloved celebrity doctor who has become a target for Bolsonaro and his followers, wrote in his Folha de S Paulo newspaper column this week.

But years of underfunding and cuts by successive governments have left it underequipped to cope with the COVID-19 crisis, experts say.

According to research published by the UOL new site, 60 percent of Brazilian cities do not have access to a ventilator machine for critically ill patients.

Its a disease that requires highly complex treatment and equipment over a prolonged period, said Jamal Suleiman, an infectologist at Sao Paulos Emilio Ribas Institute. And our system is already at its limit.

Laying the groundwork

Experts believe that coronavirus arrived in Brazil from tourists returning from Italy, today the centre of the outbreak, sparking debates of class and privilege in one the worlds most unequal countries.

For many, such discussions were epitomised by the reported case of a Rio de Janeiro domestic maid who died from coronavirus after her employer returned home from holiday infected but did not tell her.

Bolsonaro is laying the groundwork ... Preparing to blame those that insisted on the lockdown for when the eventual recession comes. Oliver Stuenkel, Getulio Vargas Foundation

Brazils unemployment stands at nearly 11 percent and estimated 38 million workers according to Brazils Geography and Statistics Institute are in the informal economy, the majority poor and without sufficient savings to see them through the crisis.

But Thursday night, after significant pressure, opposition legislators celebrated the approval of an emergency basic income project that awards poor, informal or unemployed workers with a $125 monthly stipend  three times the value originally proposed by Bolsonaros economy minister Paulo Guedes.

Meanwhile, Bolsonaro appears to be focused on who to blame down the road analysts have said.

Bolsonaro is laying the groundwork, said Stuenkel, the international relations professor. Preparing to blame those that insisted on the lockdown for when the eventual recession comes.
TDT | Manama

Information Minister Ali bin Mohammed Al Romaihi asserted last night that GCC Health Ministers underscored in their meeting the existence of tough preventative measures concerning movement between the GCC countries, which Qatar did not adhere to.

In a brief statement on the A Conscious Society programme broadcast by Bahrain TV, the Information Minister stressed that taking advantage of the exceptional circumstances for political ends is no stranger to the Qatari mass media.

He added that bringing a group of people from Iran to Qatar and, then, the Sultanate of Oman without the knowledge of any competent authority in Bahrain raises many question marks.

The Information Minister pointed out that the discontent of many Qatari nationals in many countries in the world, with not allowing them to return to Qatar, is evidence that the current circumstance requires many preventative measures and medical preparations that are being made by the Kingdom of Bahrain in a well-studied way, and in cooperation with the relevant parties.

The Information Minister affirmed that it is unacceptable from a humanitarian perspective to exploit this issue by the Officials at the meeting Qatari mass media.
Last night some Britons trapped in Peru were able to get a flight out of Lima

Around 6,000 are trapped in New Zealand that has imposed a strict lockdown

Brits abroad have been struggling to get home after flights have been cancelled

Up to a million Britons stranded abroad are still scrambling to return to the UK amid the coronavirus pandemic - including 6,000 marooned in New Zealand and thousands trapped in Peru.

The government has been urging against all foreign travel and for people to make their own way back for more than a week, but many have found it difficult to get tickets after many commercial flights have been cancelled.

New Zealand has imposed one of the strictest lockdowns of any country to battle the deadly disease, and has grounded international flights, leaving thousands of Brits, including doctors and nurses, desperate to get home.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has called Winston Peters, New Zealand's Deputy Prime Minister, to ask for assistance in getting Brits home.

Mr Raab is also expected to announce a huge repatriation effort today amid mounting fears over safety.

RAF voyager transport planes could be deployed to bring UK citizens home from places such as India and Peru, where conditions are thought to be deteriorating.

It comes as two repatriation flights carrying British passengers from Peru have landed at Heathrow Airport.

The British Airways flights left Lima on Sunday and landed at the west London hub on Monday morning.

Casi Cartwright and Lewis Dafydd who are currently stranded in Peru, like many other Brits

British critical care nurse Rachel Brockbank is stuck in Christchurch due to lockdown after visiting with family for sister's wedding

The Foreign Office has not said how many passengers were on board, but said two more flights will leave Peru on Monday, arriving in the UK on Tuesday.

The repatriation flights were arranged by the Foreign Office in partnership with British Airways to rescue more than 1,000 stranded Britons.

Since the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, the Foreign Office has helped to bring home almost 1,400 people on specially chartered Government flights from China and Peru and 1,900 people on cruise ships from places including California, Brazil and Japan.

In the last week, the Foreign Office has helped more than 4,000 people to get back from Jamaica and more than 8,500 people to get back from Morocco.

Around 5,000 Britons successfully left Bali after the British team in Indonesia worked with their counterparts to unblock a visa permissions issue.

A number Britons in New Zealand are using social media to call on the government, and specific airlines to get them safely home.

The party of eight tourists - including young children - are trapped in Goa, thousands of miles from home, while their supplies of medicine and food dwindle

A British family have been left stranded in India after their flight home was cancelled due to Coronavirus.

The party of eight tourists - including young children - are trapped in Goa, thousands of miles from home, while their supplies of medicine and food dwindle.

Despite efforts to contact the British Embassy, the family say they have had 'no sign of help' as their holiday in paradise turns into a living nightmare.

They also claim to have been attacked by stick-wielding Indian police officers who told them 'we can beat you now, no-one will care' when they left their hotel to try to buy food.

Two repatriation flights carrying British passengers left Peru for Heathrow Airport in London yesterday (pictured)

The British Airways flights left Lima on Sunday and landed at the west London hub on Monday morning

The Foreign Office has not said how many passengers were on board the flights from Peru (pictured) but said two more flights will leave the country on Monday, arriving in the UK on Tuesday

An online petition to try to get the group home has already gathered hundreds of signatures.

Mother-of-two Chanttel Carrington, from Isle of Sheppey in Kent, said: 'We are stranded with little money, and three of our party members are in need of prescribed medication.

'We have tried to contact the British Embassy multiple times with no success.

'There is no sign of help or support whatsoever.'

Other group members include Ms Carrington's children Ivy-rose McCoy, six, and son George McCoy, four, as well as her partner Barney McCoy.

British holiday rep Alana Swadkins has pleaded for help after she and her heavily pregnant friend were 'abandoned' in Turkey by Easyjet during the coronavirus pandemic

The rest are Ms Carrington's parents Gary and Denise Carrington, aged 59 and 56 respectively, her sister Charley Carrington, 19, and Charley's 18-year-old boyfriend Luke Manning.

They had gone on holiday to the coastal state of Goa, but their flight home last Monday, March 23, was cancelled as travel chaos amid the pandemic continued to snowball.

Ms Carrington claimed that she and Mr McCoy received rough treatment from local police when they went to get medication and food for their children, and were ordered back to their hotel.

She added: 'We went to the shops to get some medicine and also some food for our children the police attacked my partner with sticks when we attempted to try and buy food and medicine.'

Meanwhile a British holiday rep has pleaded for help after she and her heavily pregnant friend were 'abandoned' in Turkey by Easyjet during the coronavirus pandemic.

Alana Swadkins fears it could be months before she gets back to her home in Northfield, Birmingham, after her Easyjet flight to Manchester on April 3 was cancelled.

The 27-year-old - who works as a Tui rep - flew out to Dalaman at the beginning of March for an extended holiday with her pregnant friend, Natalie.

But just two weeks into their getaway, and as the global Covid-19 situation worsened, Alana attempted to contact the airline to find out if they would need to change their 90 flights.

She claims that a customer service representative assured her that the flight would stand as it was leaving the country and not entering.

Five friends who were left fearing they would be stranded in Thailand due to the coronavirus crisis have spoken of their delight at plans to bring them home. Pictured are Ellen Ashley, 70, Kathleen Bell, 72, Joan Holland, 62, Joan Balderson, 78 and Patsy Short, 70

Alana said: 'When we came out to Turkey on Tuesday, March 10, the scale of the coronavirus hadn't hit the scale it is now. The virus ha not even hit Turkey at that point.

'But as the situation changed, I contacted Easyjet and they assured me that the flights on Friday, April 3, would still stand and we would not need to worry.

'They explained if there was change they would contact us immediately and we could either get a refund or a repatriation flight would be on instead.

'Because I work for Tui, I was aware that they had a repatriation flight on Monday, March 23, that I could have boarded but they once again explained there was no need to worry.'

But just days after the assurance, the pair heard rumours that repatriation flights were stopping so tried contacting Easyjet again.

Alana said: 'I have now been on hold for countless hours over the last five days and had any further.

'Their online chat has been turned off, there is no response to my Instagram message and their Facebook is an automated message.

'I'm even on hold so long on the phone that it just cuts off or goes back to the switchboard.

'There is no communication from them whatsoever about what's happening - yet they have taken our money and still allowing others to book on to our flights.

'We don't know when we will be able to get home or how long we will be stuck here.

'My friend, Natalie, is also 31 weeks pregnant and she will go over the safe-to-fly requirement the longer we are here - it is not ideal.

'We really are struggling to think of any other way for us to get back.'

Screengrabs from Alana's phone show calls ranging from 15 minutes to up to two hours to Easyjet's customer service line.

The holiday rep, who was due to work in Zante over summer, has also said that the pair are only on a 90-day visa and cannot apply for a longer-stay permit due to the lockdown in the country.

As of Friday, the number of coronavirus-related deaths in Turkey had risen to 92, while total cases reached 5,698.

An Easyjet spokesman said: 'We're sorry to hear of these passengers' experience.

'Due to ongoing restrictions that continue to be implemented by authorities as a result of Covid-19, we are currently not operating any rescue flights to or from Turkey however we remain in contact with the UK government and have offered to operate repatriation flights where needed.

'Where we have been required to cancel flights as a result of travel restrictions, we have been committed to getting customers home as quickly as possible and so we have worked hard to operate a programme of more than 600 rescue flights so far, bringing over 45,000 customers home since travel restrictions have been implemented.

Crispian Wilson at the Foreign Office has said that commercial routes are the only practical option for many Brits stranded abroad

'We advise anyone who did not book on to the available rescue flights and wants to travel at this time to contact their local embassy for further guidance.'

Five friends who were left fearing they would be stranded in Thailand due to the coronavirus crisis have spoken of their delight at plans to bring them home.

Joan Holland, 62, Kathleen Bell, 72, Joan Balderson, 78, Ellen Ashley, 70 and Patsy Short, 70, jetted from Newcastle on Tuesday, March 17, to celebrate Patsy's birthday.

But a day after they arrived in Pattaya City, which is almost two hours drive away from Bangkok, businesses began to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The group say they have struggled to get advice and information from Hays Travel and failed to get answers from their insurance company, with conflicting guidance from the British Embassy in London.

Now - after a flight they had been booked on earlier was cancelled - the pals have been told they will be able to board a plane to London on Friday, April 3, just two days after they were originally due to depart the country.

The women have been left fearful for their health, as they have been told the virus is causing large numbers to fall ill in the capital, with only limited amounts of medication and cash with them.

Joan Holland told of their relief after Hays made new plans to bring them home.

She said: 'After a very long phone conversation with Hays Travel, we have been told we have flights to London on April 3, we just have to move hotel for a couple of days.

'We are ecstatic that we are coming home.

'We don't know how we getting home from London, but that's the least of our problems.

Reece Hall, 24, from Cornwall, fell victim to a mugging and serious assault on February 26 in north Goa, leaving him with a fractured jaw, eye socket and leg injury, now severely infected

'It's been a horrible experience and not one we would like to go through again.' A spokesperson for Hays Travel said: 'We are really pleased to have been able to secure flights back to the UK for Joan and her friends, we know what a worrying situation this must have been for them.'

The children saw the spectacle and Ms Carrington said: 'My son was crying and said are we going to die in this hotel?

'The hotel is running out of food and the kids are starting to get poorly and distressed with the situation.'

Brits in New Zealand are using Twitter to try and get home by appealing to airlines and politicians.

A user Twitter user called Fen said: 'Waking up to an email from @EmilyThornberry is the one thing that has given me hope that I will be able to return home. I can't thank her enough for what she is trying to do for us all.'

And Shannon Rickards, said: 'When @qatarairways have the chance to literally become THE BEST AIRLINE IN THE if they step up and get people home. Unlike who many of us will never fly with again. #britsinNZ #getushome.

Dr Marion Lynch is one of many medical professionals currently in the country and has implored the government to get them home so they can help battle the coronavirus.

And critical care nurse Rachel Brockbank is currently stuck in New Zealand after visiting with her family for her sister's wedding, but is desperate to get home.

She told the New Zealand Herald: 'I want to go back. I don't think my family want me to but I feel that's where I should be. That's where I'm needed.'

Heidi Hawkins, 49, a carer from West Sussex (pictured with her grandchild) is stuck in south Goa and said she is afraid to go out for food due to police brutality

Twitter user Fen is one of those stranded in New Zealand and is asking the UK government for help

Labour MP Emily Thornberry tweeted today about Mr Raab's expected repatriation plan

Nurse stranded 7,000 miles away in the Philippines pleads with authorities to get her home so she can treat coronavirus victims A nurse is pleading with authorities to get her home so she can help treat victims of the cornavirus. Polly Collins left town for a holiday in the Philippines at the start of the month with a friend, who is also a nurse. As the outbreak worsened and turned into a global pandemic, countries have tightened their borders and flights have been cancelled. Polly Collins is desperate to get back and help the effort at home Now Polly is stranded nearly 7,000 miles away and desperate to get home to help. She has been inundated with appeals from health agencies back home wanting her to help treat patients. Before the pandemic worsened Polly and her friend landed at Cebu City and went to Puerto Princessa and on to the remote island of El Nido Palawan. They were there for eight days before the island was put on lockdown and people had to evacuate due to the virus. The two nurses got the last flight off the island but saw many UK nationals and others stranded there. Rescue flights were promised but didn't happen, although the airlines just kept taking their money. Polly, who hit national headlines when she saved the life of a man having a heart attack at a train station in London in 2015, tried to get a flight to stay with friends in Bangkok but that was cancelled. She has sufficient food and water but is anxious to be home to her family and get working supporting the victims of coronavirus. 'I am just taking it day by day as so many events have taken place while being here,' she said. 'Meanwhile whilst here I have developed an infection on my lower shin by a mosquito. This also has needed urgent medical treatment as I was unable to weight bear. 'As I nurse I tried my utmost to self treat but needed appropriate antibiotics. The surgeon I saw was Filipino, very experienced with superb knowledge. He was very friendly advising me that the wound would need debriding.' The operation was painful but successful. She told how Filippino police now man checkpoints nearby ensuring people follow the lockdown rules. 'It's becoming much the same as the UK although there are no reports of any confirmed cases as yet. I have no doubt this will soon change,' she said. 'Everyone has to have a health pass now and these must be shown in supermarkets etc. The authorities have given me consent to travel into Cebu City for my follow up appointment with the surgeon but this could change.' Luckily she met a fellow Lincolnshire man who was formerly stationed at RAF Waddington and at RAF Northolt. He and his wife, who run holiday accommodation have supported Polly. 'I am safe. I have food and I have water and that's the main thing. My family are safe back over in the UK but I will pray for them everyday. I will keep in contact as long as able but I cannot stress enough just how many Brits are in the exactly the same situation. There is no help, there are no flights, and the communication is practically zero. 'The shortages for nurses back in the UK are phenomenal. The demand is unreal yet they can't get this nurse back to her own country to help with the crisis,' said Polly. She added: 'We pray and live in hope that sooner or later the Government will intervene but I appreciate the focus is on the UK and ensuring the elderly and the vulnerable are prioritised.' 'Unfortunately the authorities are now seeing all Europeans as a threat. The locals see us as a carrier of the virus. Food supplements are now being restricted for all non-Filipino residents.' Advertisement

The Foreign Office has projected between 300,000 and one million Brits are currently trapped abroad, but there is no exact figure available as there is no method in place to be able to track everybody.

The latest effort emerged as the UK's high commissioner in Australia, Vicky Treadell, warned there are at least 30,000 Britons in the country and a few planes 'won't do it'.

She tweeted: 'Brits across Australia so no single point of departure. Keeping key airports and commercial airlines providing 1000s of seats between them is therefore our current priority.'

In the Philippines a Brit stranded abroad fears his wife and unborn baby will die because he claims the British Embassy is refusing to help the family get to hospital.

Desperate Tom Shelton's Philippino wife Annie is eight months pregnant with his first baby.

She needs a Caesarean because their unborn son is upside down in the breech position.

But the couple, who have been running a guesthouse in El Nido, in the Philippines for the last two years, are now a six-hour drive away from hospital because of restrictions enforced to stop the spread of Covid-19.

Tom, 43, from Consett, Durham, says the British Embassy won't help because his wife is not a British citizen.

He claims they have offered to support the family once the baby - who will be British - is born but Tom fears by then it could be too late.

The struggling family are now living in a hut to save money and depending on neighbours for food after the spread of coronavirus destroyed their livelihood.

'My baby could die because of the lockdown,' Tom said.

'Annie is due on April 17 but could go into labour at any time, especially with all the stress of the situation.

'The baby is feet first and its head could get stuck if she ends up giving birth at home with no assistance. My baby and my wife's lives are at risk and yet no one will help me.'

British Nationals stuck in India said their plight is becoming 'desperate', with some claiming they have faced police brutality while attempting to get food and medical supplies.

Reece Hall, 24, a ground worker from Cornwall, fell victim to a mugging and serious assault on February 26 in Titos Lane, north Goa, leaving him with a fractured jaw, eye socket and a leg injury, which has now become severely infected.

Unable to leave his accommodation for regular treatment due hostility towards tourists and strict government lock down measures, in place since Wednesday, Mr Hall's open leg wound, which was caused when three muggers pushed him from his bike, is now badly inflamed.

Mr Hall said: 'I've been avoid going outside ever since seeing videos of people getting beaten up and hearing stories from foreigners who have been beaten, (...) my leg is not looking good at the moment'.

'I'm desperate to get a plane ticket home but it's gone past the point of trying to get one now as they are all cancelled, all we can do is contact government officials. I'm surviving off one meal of rice a day.'

A 21-day lock down was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday causing the immediate closure of shops, restaurants and many hotels.

Heidi Hawkins, 49, a carer from West Sussex stuck in south Goa, said: 'The supermarket was rumoured to be open and it was heaving, no social distancing, every man for himself.

'The police just came along and started smacking people with their sticks. So people are too scared to go out for food. When you hear of a shop that's open you're too scared to go there because of the police brutality.

'We just need food and water and we've been left with no information.

'I went to the police station in Colva to ask for information and the police threatened to put me behind bars. I was laughed at and ridiculed.'

'At home i've got my 22-year-old daughter who is highly anxious alone with her eight-week-old baby, her four-year-old daughter and my 19-year-old disabled daughter. She's been stuck inside without food. While my 19-year-son, who is severely disabled is in an assisted living house and he is desperately homesick and doesn't understand.

'I am desperate to get to him and take him home. I need to get home for my babies, they need their mum.'

British National, Lyn Davis, 60, who is also stuck in Goa and has been visiting the region for almost 20 years, claims she was assaulted by police in the area with a bamboo baton for leaving her hotel to collect medication she had ordered the day before.

Jay Vernon a yoga teacher from Brighton is currently stuck in Varkala, Kerala. He said he is yet to hear back from the Foreign Office

Mrs Davis said: 'Went to the chemists in Candolim this morning (...) police were very aggressive at Calangute roundabout. We tried explaining that we had ordered medication but the police woman hit me hard on the bottom with her stick, had my phone in my hand and told her that was assault.

'They carried on shouting and waved us through, also as we were coming up to them you could see her getting ready swinging her stick around. I've been coming to India for nearly 20 years, do I want to come back? Not so sure now.'

Jay Vernon a yoga teacher from Brighton is currently stuck in Varkala, Kerala, after having two flights he had booked cancelled and no response from the British Embassy.

Mr Vernon said: 'My two flights have been cancelled and no one has yet to reply from the Embassy. Locals are not wanting to associate with me because I'm from Europe. I still can't understand why the Indian government doesn't allow us to leave and their own citizens back in the country.'

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (pictured in Downing Street earlier this month) is expected to announce a huge repatriation effort as early as tomorrow amid mounting fears over safety

Since the 21-day lock down was announced on Wednesday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi thousands of people, mostly young male day labourers but also families, fled their New Delhi homes as the measure effectively put millions of Indians who live off daily earnings out of work.

Construction projects, taxi services, housekeeping and other informal sector employment came to a sudden halt.

Mr Modi said the extreme measure was needed to halt the spread of Covid-19 in India, which has confirmed 775 cases and 19 deaths, and where millions live in cramped conditions without regular access to clean water.

India's finance ministry announced a 1.7trillion (18billion) economic stimulus package that will include delivering grains and lentil rations for three months to 800 million people, around 60 per cent of the world's second-most populous country.

But thousands of India's most vulnerable, who fear dying not of the disease caused by the new virus but rather of starvation, have decided not to wait.
By Azernews





By Akbar Mammadov

The head of Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh, Tural Ganjaliyev, has received death threats from Armenians through social networking websites.

Senior Advisor at Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno Karabakh region of Azerbaijan Samir Mammadov shared information about death threats from Armenians against Tural Ganjaliyev on his Facebook page.

Sadly, we are receiving death threats from the Armenian side. It first started as hate messages and insults and now has turned to assassination threats. Especially the head of the Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, Member of the Azerbaijani Parliament from Khankendi - Tural Ganjaliyev is being targeted.

We urge the Armenian side to stop their Azerbaijanophobia campaign and embrace the peace process by supporting the peaceful coexistence of the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan within the territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan," Mammadov said.

He added that methods used by ASALA, the Armenian group recognized as a terrorist organization by the US and a number of European countries, will not work on the Nagorno-Karabakh's Azerbaijani community.

In the meantime, Tural Ganjaliyev told local media: They even threaten us with murder and terrorist attacks. They send information about the actions of the ASALA terrorists and the Nemesis group of the Dashnaks, realizing that the same thing will happen to me."

These threats are pushing us to continue our work and expose occupants even more actively, the head of the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh added.

Ganjaliyev also informed public about virtual terror against the Azerbaijan community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, writing on his Facebook page.

As our activities irritate the Armenian side, Armenian social media users repeatedly send us insulting messages to the official page of the community and to my personal page, as well as reports about the closure of the pages, write negative comments on the pages, Ganjaliyev said.

It should be noted that the Twitter account of the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh was removed as a result of the massive virtual attacks of the Armenian side before. The community was able to restore its Twitter page later.

Nagorno-Karabakh is Azerbaijans breakaway region which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The Minsk Groups efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have officially left Canada. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been staying on Vancouver Island while they iron out the final details of their exit from the royal family. With their departure becoming official at the end of March, a royal expert claims that the couples life in Canada was never going to work.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | Karwai Tang/WireImage

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle move to California

For the past few months, Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, have been living in a luxurious rental house on Canadas Vancouver Island. The couple has been very vocal about setting up a second home in North America, though nobody knew exactly where they would move.

Turns out, Los Angeles is the couples final destination. According to The Sun, Prince Harry and Meghan flew to Los Angeles right before the United States and Canada closed their borders because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Have Left Canada and Are Now Settled in the L.A. Area https://t.co/CIXunqkfSQ  People (@people) March 26, 2020

A source claims that the Sussexes have been planning on moving to Los Angeles for a long time and always knew that Canada was not going to be their next home.

Harry and Meghan have left Canada now for good. The borders were closing and flights were stopping. They had to get out, the insider dished. But this move was planned for some time. They realized Canada would not work out for various reasons and they want to be based in the Los Angeles area.

The move comes as the rest of the royal family is dealing with the coronavirus outbreak in the U.K. Prince Charles recently tested positive for the virus, which sparked some talk about Harry returning home to be with his family.

Why did the Duke and Duchess of Sussex choose Los Angeles?

There are plenty of reasons why Prince Harry and Meghan decided to set up a base in Los Angeles. For starters, Meghan grew up in the city and her mother, Doria Ragland, lives in the area.

Los Angeles also offers a better opportunity for the Sussexes to grow their brand. The two are looking to become financially independent from the crown and will need a substantial source of income to fund their various ventures.

In a way its exchanging one goldfish bowl for another but its a city where Meghan has deep personal and professional connections, Arthur Edwards, a photographer for the royals, shared. In LA theyll be close to Meghans mum Doria  her only family member at her wedding to Harry  who will love having Archie so close.

According to Express, Meghans team of PR agents are based in Los Angeles, as are many of her celebrity friends. This includes the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres. Depending on how Prince Harry and Meghan plan on making money, these connections will undoubtedly prove useful.

While we finally know where Harry and Meghan will be spending most of their time, sources say that their royal counterparts are not happy about it.

How did the royals react to Prince Harry and Meghan Markles big move?

Buckingham Palace has not released a statement regarding Harry and Meghans decision to relocate to Los Angeles. But according to inside sources, the royals are less than thrilled with the move.

Following Charles health scare, many experts believed that Harry might return to the UK in a show of unity for the monarchy. After all, the royals are already shorthanded as it is and could use the extra support.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have no plans to seek security protection from the U.S. government, a spokesperson for the couple says. https://t.co/G2ZzBysSrU  NBC News (@NBCNews) March 30, 2020

When the exact opposite happened, sources say that the royals were stunned and horrified by Prince Harrys decision to go to Los Angeles.

To make things even worse, there are some concerns that Queen Elizabeth may have contracted the virus from Charles. The two were in contact with each other on March 12, a day before doctors believe that Charles was infectious.

Buckingham Palace has not commented on Queen Elizabeths health. Her Majesty is currently in self-isolation at Windsor Castle.

Meghan and Harry hire a new staff member

While Prince Harry and Meghan are in lockdown, Page Six is reporting that they have hired a new staffer to lead their charitable endeavors. A leaked email reveals that the former head of Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, Catherine St-Laurent, will be leading their next nonprofit organization.

Beginning next week I will be acting as Chief of Staff and Executive Director of the new non-profit enterprise for Meghan M and Harry, St-Laurent shared. They are embarking on a new chapter themselves and I am thrilled to be able to play a supporting role in realizing their vision and enabling them to achieve impact on the issues that matter most to them.

St-Laurent worked with Pivotal Ventures for close to 9 years. She is from Montreal, which is where she may have originally met Harry and Meghan.

Although Harry and Meghans endeavor will act like a charity, it is not going to be set up as a foundation. A source claims that the two want to find their own way of giving back and new ways to make change.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have not commented on the latest reports surrounding their exit from the royal family. Their departure is scheduled to become official on March 31, though that could change in light of the pandemic.
Authorities say the 29-year-old man started showing symptoms for the novel coronavirus after being deported last week.

Guatemala City, Guatemala  A Guatemalan man who was deported from the United States last week has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the Guatemalan Health Ministry said late on Sunday.

A spokeswoman for the Guatemalan Health Ministry told Al Jazeera the 29-year-old man from Momostenango, Totonicapan, was deported last Thursday on a flight chartered by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. The flight, with at least 40 others on board, originated in Mesa, Arizona, according to the Guatemalan Migration Institute.

The man began showing symptoms of COVID-19 over the weekend while in quarantine in his familys home, officials said. He was transferred to a hospital where coronavirus cases are being treated in Villa Nueva, near Guatemala City, on Saturday.

He is the 36th confirmed case of COVID-19 in Guatemala, according to government officials.

Ana Lucia Gudiel, the spokeswoman for the Guatemalan Health Ministry, told Al Jazeera that the other migrants who were on board the same flight are currently in quarantine in their homes across the country. It is unclear if they will be tested for the novel coronavirus.

Guatemalan migrants board a bus after being deported from the US outside La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City, Guatemala [File: Fabricio Alonso/Reuters]

The Guatemalan government on March 17 temporarily suspended deportation flights from the US of Guatemalans and Central Americans to stop the spread of the COVID-19. Deportations of Guatemalans were resumed two days later, after US officials agreed to put in place measures to guarantee the health of deportees.

At least 642 Guatemalans have been deported since deportation flights were renewed on March 19, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on daily government figures.

US immigration officials were not immediately available for comment.

Increase in deportations

Nearly 55,000 Guatemalans were deported from the US last year, the highest number since at least 2007, according to Guatemalan government data. Another 49,000 migrants were deported by Mexico as part of the USs regional crackdown on migration.

The increase in the number of deportations came as more Guatemalans, fleeing poverty and violence, sought to reach the US in search of work opportunities and safety.

More people are coming [to the US], and they are being deported more quickly and with fewer options for seeking protection, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a lawyer and policy counsel with the American Immigration Council, previously told Al Jazeera.

US President Donald Trumps crackdown on immigration means that migrants and asylum seekers remain in Customs and Border Protection custody longer and are deported quicker, sometimes in just over a week, according to Reichlin-Melnick.

The US Department of Homeland Security announced in late March that, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it would begin immediately detaining and deporting migrants and asylum seekers attempting to enter the country between official ports of entry, a move that was criticised by immigrant rights groups.
Nurses put on their personal protective equipment before starting to work on the preparation of the intensive care unit in the new COVID-19 Hospital in Verduno, near Alba, Northwestern Italy on March 29, 2020. (Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images)

Coming to Understand Altruism in a Time of Anxiety

Commentary

In this moment of panic, when the acrid aroma of moral self-infatuation is wafting through the air, its worth stepping back to contemplate the many acts of selfless altruism that brighten the landscape.

The behavior of ICU doctors and nurses, who are working double shifts while putting their own health at risk, is a conspicuous example.

But there are many other examples, not least the clerks who stock the shelves and stand behind the counter in grocery stores and other emporia deemed essential by our masters. We are all told to practice social distancing (wouldnt anti-social distancing be more accurate?), but its in the nature of their tasks that these quietly heroic workers can practice that prophylactic behavior only imperfectly.

Opinions vary about the true nature of the crisis we face. Is it caused by a new virus? Or is the reaction to the spread of the virus even more virulent and destructive?

However we answer, its humbling to reflect on many quotidian acts of altruism that surround us and make our lives easier and in some cases possible.

Its no secret that many people deny that such a thing as altruism even exists. One of the most generous people I have ever met, a doctor himself, denied that there is such a thing as altruism. This supposed absence of altruism in the world didnt bother him. On the contrary, being selfish, he said, is a good thing. He thought that people renowned for altruismMother Teresa, sayarent personally admirable, just warped, hypocritical, or both.

What should we think of these opinions? I think that they are wrong. But they are also very widespreadthey have always been widespreadand it is interesting to ask why. One reason, of course, is that human selfishness is both deep and ineradicable. The questionone questionis whether there are countervailing, non-selfish impulses.

Most people think so. From the nursery on up, most people are encouraged to share, to be considerate (part of which means not giving in to selfish impulses), to think of the other person: to practice, in a word, being altruistic.

Altruism

But lets step back a minute. What, after all, is altruism? An odd word, isnt it? Although it comes ultimately from the Latin alter, meaning other, altruism is a French import. It was coined by the utopian French philosopher Auguste Comte (17981857) and was brought over into English in the 19th century.

On the sound principle that non-edible French imports should be considered guilty until proven innocent, I am perfectly happy to dispense with the word altruism. But what about the thing it describes? Can we do without that?

Altruism means selfless attention to the welfare of others. Is there an English equivalent? Yes, there are plenty. The English philosopher and clergyman Joseph Butler (16921752) offered one good equivalent, when he described benevolence as an affection to the good of our fellow creatures.

I will come back to Butler in a moment. His Sermons, published in 1726, are a philosophical classic. They demolish the selfish theory of human nature, the strange affection in many people of explaining away all particular affections, and representing the whole of life as nothing but one continued exercise in self-love.

Butler puts selfishness in its place. He also acknowledges that selfishness, or something like it, deserves a place in the constellation of human motivations. If human beings were utterly selfless, they would soon be utterly extinct. A well-ordered self-love, Thomas Aquinas observed, whereby man desires a fitting good for himself, is right and natural.

Noble Self-Love

But self-love is not simply an instinct for self-preservation. As Aristotle noted in the Nicomachean Ethics, self-love is an ambiguous term. It can be either a term of reproach or a term of commendation. Self-love is a term of reproach when applied to people who assign to themselves the larger share of money, honors, or bodily pleasures.  Those who take more than their share of these things are men who indulge their appetites, and generally their passions and the irrational parts of their soul.

But, Aristotle observed, someone who was always bent on outdoing everyone else in acting justly or temperately or in displaying any other virtues can also be described as a lover of the self. In this sense, self-love is a term of praise. The good man, Aristotle concludes, ought to be a lover of self, since he will then both benefit himself by acting nobly and aid his fellows; but the bad man ought not to be a lover of self, since he will follow his base passions, and so injure both himself and his neighbor.

I mentioned that my friend who denied the existence of altruism and praised selfishness was a doctor. At first blush, that seems paradoxical. There may be selfish reasons for becoming a doctorthe money, the social prestige. But doctors are conspicuously in the business of working very hard, and often risking their own health, to help others. Think of all those doctors in New York and elsewhere busying themselves among highly contagious COVID-19 patients.

When they get up in the middle of the night to save someones life, it is difficult to describe their behavior as selfish. Why? Because when we describe someone as selfish, we do not mean that he exhibits the noble self-love that Aristotle commends. We mean that he exhibits a grasping disposition that is unconcerned with the fortunes or feelings of others. This accords with the dictionary definition of selfish: concerned chiefly or only for oneself without regard for the well being of others.

We are naturally taken aback when we hear someone praise selfishness as a virtue because we know it is not a good thing to be without regard for the well being of others. Of course, people who praise selfishness as a virtue know this.

Often, I suspect, their praise is deliberately provocative. They know as well as the rest of us that one should not be selfishthat one should not act without regard for the well being of others. They know, too, since they are not lunatics, that there is plenty of selfless benevolence around: Just look at the behavior of most mothers toward their infants.

But they praise selfishness in order to call attention to the hypocrisy and sentimentalization that often attends the praise of selflessness and altruism. This is very much worth doing. For there can be no doubt that some people who loudly praise selflessness are concerned less with the welfare of others than in enhancing their own feelings of virtue. Every good is susceptible of perversion, including the good of caring for the welfare of others.

Misunderstanding Selfishness

But to say that a good can be perverted is not to deny the value of the good when rightly pursued. Nevertheless, people who deny the existence of altruism and praise selfishness are not simply being provocative. Nor are they simply calling attention to the abuse, the sentimentalization, of a natural good. They are also, I believe, guilty of a logical mistake.

This mistake was first pointed out clearly by the aforementioned Joseph Butler in his criticism of the selfish theory of human nature. The selfish theory of human nature, like Halleys Comet, is a recurrent phenomenon: It was popularized in Butlers time by thinkers like Thomas Hobbes with his idea that human life is at bottom a war of all against all.

It is popularized today above all by sociobiologists who tell us that our genes are irredeemably selfish. Of course, a gene can no more be selfish than it can be lascivious or fond of Mozart, but try telling that to a sociobiologist.

Butler saw that many people who promulgated the selfish theory confused two very different propositions, one of which was a commonplace truth, the other of which was a shocking falsehood.

One proposition is that we cant knowingly act, except from a desire or interest that is our own. Not only is this trueits what philosophers call a necessary truthit couldnt be otherwise.

The other proposition is that all of our actions are self-interested. But this proposition, far from being self-evidently true, is a scandalous falsehood. Its a tautology that any interest we have is an interest of our own: Whose else could it be? But the objects of our interest are as various as the world is wide.

No doubt much of what we do we do from motives of self-interest. But we might also do things for the sake of flag and country; for the love of a good woman; for the love of God; to discover a new country; to benefit a friend; to harm an enemy; to make a fortune; to spend a fortune.

It is not, Butler notes, because we love ourselves that we find delight in such and such objects, but because we have particular affections towards them. Indeed, it often happens that in pursuit of some objectthrough fancy, inquisitiveness, love, or hatred, any vagrant inclinationwe harm our self-interest. Think of the scientist who ruins his health in single-minded pursuit of the truth about some problem, or a soldier who gives his life for his country.

The fundamental logical error, as the Australian philosopher David Stove has pointed out, is in inferring real-life consequences from a tautology. If you set out from a tautological premise, Stove observes, you cannot validly infer from it ANY conclusion which is not itself tautological. It does not follow from the tautology that No one can act intentionally except from an interest that he has that No one can act intentionally except from a motive that is self-interested.

As Stove points out, this is the same sort of reasoningperennially popular, but nonetheless atrociousthat gulls people into concluding from the proposition Whatever will be will be that All human effort is ineffectual. The first is a tautology; the second is a silly falsehood. (Its as silly as inferring from the proposition Every husband has a wife that Every man marries.)

Sensible people have a low opinion of human nature. They know that human beings are often vain, selfish, calculating, and ungrateful. But to universalize cynicism is not wisdom but folly. We might all wish there were more benevolence and altruism around than there is. But to say that is not to deny the existence or the desirability of those phenomena.

The temptation is to conclude that human beings are simpler than they are. All of us are plenty selfish. Almost all of us have and act on altruistic impulses, too. The important truth to keep in view is that, as Joseph Butler observed, Everything is what it is, and not another thing.

Roger Kimball is the editor and publisher of The New Criterion and publisher of Encounter Books. His most recent book is The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The Phoenix Hill Sports Park in the capital of Southwest Chinas Sichuan province hosted the 2021 Chinese FA Cup final as its inaugural event Sunday. Covering an area of 128,000 square meters, the park consists of two world-class sports venues, a retail and hotel complex, and a public plaza. It will be one of the venues of the 31st Summer World University Games

Jan 12, 2022 05:45 PM
Investors in Venus Medtech (Hangzhou) Inc. (HKG:2500) had a good week, as its shares rose 9.6% to close at HK$45.20 following the release of its yearly results. Revenues were in line with expectations, at CN233m, while statutory losses ballooned to CN1.22 per share. The analysts typically update their forecasts at each earnings report, and we can judge from their estimates whether their view of the company has changed or if there are any new concerns to be aware of. Readers will be glad to know we've aggregated the latest statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their mind on Venus Medtech (Hangzhou) after the latest results.

See our latest analysis for Venus Medtech (Hangzhou)

SEHK:2500 Past and Future Earnings March 30th 2020

Taking into account the latest results, the current consensus from Venus Medtech (Hangzhou)'s seven analysts is for revenues of CN351.6m in 2020, which would reflect a major 51% increase on its sales over the past 12 months. Earnings are expected to improve, with Venus Medtech (Hangzhou) forecast to report a statutory profit of CN0.10 per share. Before this earnings report, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of CN442.9m and earnings per share (EPS) of CN0.14 in 2020. Indeed, we can see that the analysts are a lot more bearish about Venus Medtech (Hangzhou)'s prospects following the latest results, administering a large cut to revenue estimates and slashing their EPS estimates to boot.

Despite the cuts to forecast earnings, there was no real change to the CN46.26 price target, showing that the analysts don't think the changes have a meaningful impact on its intrinsic value. Fixating on a single price target can be unwise though, since the consensus target is effectively the average of analyst price targets. As a result, some investors like to look at the range of estimates to see if there are any diverging opinions on the company's valuation. The most optimistic Venus Medtech (Hangzhou) analyst has a price target of CN52.18 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at CN41.65. The narrow spread of estimates could suggest that the business' future is relatively easy to value, or thatthe analysts have a strong view on its prospects.

Story continues

Another way we can view these estimates is in the context of the bigger picture, such as how the forecasts stack up against past performance, and whether forecasts are more or less bullish relative to other companies in the industry. We would highlight that Venus Medtech (Hangzhou)'s revenue growth is expected to slow, with forecast 51% increase next year well below the historical 102% growth over the last year. By way of comparison, the other companies in this industry with analyst coverage are forecast to grow their revenue at 20% next year. So it's pretty clear that, while Venus Medtech (Hangzhou)'s revenue growth is expected to slow, it's still expected to grow faster than the industry itself.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away is that the analysts downgraded their earnings per share estimates, showing that there has been a clear decline in sentiment following these results. They also downgraded their revenue estimates, although industry data suggests that Venus Medtech (Hangzhou)'s revenues are expected to grow faster than the wider industry. The consensus price target held steady at CN46.26, with the latest estimates not enough to have an impact on their price targets.

Keeping that in mind, we still think that the longer term trajectory of the business is much more important for investors to consider. We have forecasts for Venus Medtech (Hangzhou) going out to 2024, and you can see them free on our platform here.

We also provide an overview of the Venus Medtech (Hangzhou) Board and CEO remuneration and length of tenure at the company, and whether insiders have been buying the stock, here.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
News round-up for NRIs and diaspora from missions across the globe

The outbreak of COVID-19 and travel restrictions worldwide, has kept the Indian missions across the world busy.

However in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak there have been other tragedies, such as the more than 20 Sikhs, including women and children, killed on March 25, 2020 after Gurdwara Guru Har Rai, Shor Bazaar in Kabul was attacked by terrorists.

Connected to India rounds up news and updates from Indian high commissions and embassies across the globe:

BLAST AT GURUDWARA IN KABUL

The Indian Embassy in Kabul had to secure the safety of the living, assist the injured and repatriate the mortal remains of Sikhs killed, after blasts at the Gurudwara Sahib in Kabul, Afghanistan.

India's Minister of External Affairs Dr S Jaishankar had tweeted soon after the blast, expressing his condolences.

Understandable grief and anger at the cowardly terrorist attack on Gurudwara in #Kabul. Our Embassy @IndianEmbKabul is in continuous touch with the families of those killed and injured.  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) March 26, 2020

India's ambassador to Afghanistan, Vinay Kumar had expressed his grief after he visited the Gurudwara and met community leaders, elders and families of the victims of terrorist attack.

Amb @vkumar1969 visited the gurudwara and met community leaders, elders and families of the victims of terrorist attack. He shared their grief and offered condolences. He was told that the injured are receiving satisfactory treatment @harshvshringla @DrSJaishankar @MEAIndia pic.twitter.com/lou14BYevk  India in Afghanistan (@IndianEmbKabul) March 26, 2020

Dr S Jaishankar later tweeted his concern on the reports of blasts near the cremation site of those killed during the attack on Gurudwara Sahib in Kabul.

Deeply concerned at the blasts reported near the cremation site of those killed during the attack on Gurudwara Sahib in #Kabul.  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) March 26, 2020

And about the security arrangements that he had made with the help of Kabul authorities.

Our Embassy @IndianEmbKabul has been in touch with Kabul security authorities. Have asked them to ensure adequate security onsite as well as safe return of families to their homes thereafter.  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) March 26, 2020

The Indian embassy in Kabul said it was in touch with the Hindu and Sikh communities.

@IndianEmbKabul is in continuous touch with the Hindu and Sikh Community and has assured them of continuing support. Government of Afghanistan has also assured full security to them. @DrSJaishankar@drharshvardhan @HardeepSPuri@HarsimratBadal_ @capt_amarinder  India in Afghanistan (@IndianEmbKabul) March 28, 2020

It also updated that the mortal remains of Shri Tian Singh and two others were being repatriated to their next of kin in India by a special flight upon completion of various legal documentation and procedures.

Mortal remains of Shri Tian Singh and two others are being repatriated to their next of kin in India by the special flight upon completion of various legal documentation and procedures. @DrSJaishankar@drharshvardhan @HardeepSPuri@HarsimratBadal_ @capt_amarinder  India in Afghanistan (@IndianEmbKabul) March 28, 2020

COVID-19

Consul General of India in Dubai, Vipul, shared the UAE attorney general's list of fines applicable for violating COVID-19 rules in the UAE.

Let's all abide by all rules on Covid-19 pic.twitter.com/FoJOeMiUM6  vipul (@vipulifs) March 29, 2020

The embassy of India in Jakarta and Consul Generals in Bali and Medan assured Indian citizens stranded in Indonesia of its full support, especially to the 3 stranded and distressed Indians in Medan.

The Consul General of India in Medan tweeted that he is in regular touch with respective Indian associations in Sumatra and that those stranded are being assisted in every manner.

CGI Medan is in regular touch with respective Indian associations in Sumatra. 3 stranded and distressed Indians in Medan have registered. They are being assisted in every manner. https://t.co/Ht6b8dwQym  India In Medan (@indiainmedan) March 30, 2020

The Indian embassy in Philippines shared the Advisory from the Bureau of Immigration of the Philippines waiving fines and penalties for visa extensions, which can now be processed at the airport by passengers, before their outbound international flight.

Advisory from the Bureau of Immigration of the Philippines waiving fines and penalties for visa extensions. 26 March 2020.



According to BI, visa extensions can be processed at the airport before their outbound international flight. pic.twitter.com/b96eZUXGzO  IndiainPhilippines (@indembmanila) March 29, 2020

It further asked Indians in Philippines not to panic despite the jump in the number of COVID-19 cases in the islands.

To all Indians in the Philippines : Jump in COVID-19 cases by 272 yesterday is due to increased testing in five new centers compared to one earlier says Dept of Health. Please take usual precautions and there is no reason for panic. @MEAIndia @DrSJaishankar @HarshShringla  IndiainPhilippines (@indembmanila) March 29, 2020

The Indian Embassy in Frankfurt tweeted an update on the coronavirus situation in Germany.
The coronavirus pandemic continues to expand in New Jersey with officials announcing another 2,316 new positive tests and 21 deaths on Sunday.

There are at least 13,386 coronavirus cases in New Jersey and 161 people have died since the first positive test was announced March 4.

Most people who have been tested for COVID-19 have tested negative, though - at least 22,216. Its not clear how many people are hospitalized or how many people are exhibiting only minor symptoms.

Gov. Phil Murphy didnt hold a daily press conference Sunday for the first time in more than two weeks, but will be back in Trenton at 2 p.m. Monday to provide a coronavirus update, including giving the latest numbers on how many people have tested positive.

Retail businesses in New Jersey deemed non-essential remain closed, large gatherings are banned and people are still advised not to leave their homes unless its absolutely necessary.

Many grocery stores have modified their operating hours and setting aside designated times for senior citizens to shop.

A roundup of coronavirus news from New Jersey and around the country :

Coronavirus testing in N.J. has been a mess from the start. Heres what went wrong: Despite the opening of testing sites across the state, New Jersey residents say there has been a confounding lack of coronavirus testing in hospitals, doctors offices, urgent care centers and Federal Emergency Management Agency sites. Even when people exhibited clear symptoms of COVID-19, they still were denied tests.

Trump adds 30 days to distancing guidelines as coronavirus spreads: President Donald Trump is extending the voluntary national shutdown for a month as sickness and death from the coronavirus pandemic rise in the U.S.

The initial 15-day period of social distancing urged by the federal government expires Monday and Trump had expressed interest in relaxing the national guidelines at least in parts of the country less afflicted by the pandemic. But instead he decided to extend them through April 30, a tacit acknowledgment hed been too optimistic.

State Police leader overstated the number of N.J. cops whove tested positive for coronavirus: A total of 163 law enforcement officers in New Jersey have tested positive for the coronavirus, the New Jersey State Police said on Sunday in correcting a much-higher figure provided a day earlier. Col. Patrick Callahan, acting superintendent of the State Police, told reporters at a press conference Saturday that about 700 officers had tested positive.

Couple charged with violating N.J. coronavirus lockdown, endangering kids after cops break up big lawn party: A Lakewood couple who hosted a gathering Sunday of 40 to 50 people on the lawn and street in front of the home have been charged with five counts of child endangerment and the husband was charged with violating the ban on gatherings due to the coronavirus outbreak, authorities said.

Drive-thru coronavirus testing site opening at County College of Morris: Another county-based drive-thru testing set is set to open Monday in Morris County. The center at County College of Morris is only be open to Morris County residents who have a valid prescription and an appointment.

About 2,000 U.S. postal workers nationwide are in quarantine over coronavirus concerns, union says: Around 2,000 United States Postal Service employees nationwide are in quarantine over concerns that they may have been exposed to coronavirus, and more than 60 have tested positive for the virus, including one in Trenton, according to the National Association of Letter Carriers and the postal service.

Stimulus checks from coronavirus bill will start coming within 3 weeks, treasury secretary says: Checks from the coronavirus economic stimulus bill could reach some Americans within three weeks, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday. The money will begin to appear in bank accounts of people whose account information is on file with the Internal Revenue Service.

The Associated Press and NJ Advance Media staff writers Rob Jennings, Jonathan D. Salant, Matthew Stanmyre contributed to this report.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

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Passengers prepare for boarding at Wudangshan Airport in Shiyan, central China's Hubei Province, March 29, 2020. Domestic passenger flights resumed operations in Hubei Province, which was once hit hard by COVID-19 pandemic, except in the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport. (Photo by Cao Zhonghong/Xinhua)

WUHAN, March 29 (Xinhua) -- With a Fuzhou Airlines flight departing Yichang city on Sunday morning, civil aviation service began to resume in central China's Hubei Province after a suspension for the control of the novel coronavirus outbreak in January.

Flight FU6779 with 64 passengers left the Three Gorges Airport in Yichang for Fuzhou, capital of east China's Fujian Province.

According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), except for the Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei, all passenger and cargo flights on domestic air routes via airports in Hubei were resumed from Sunday.

The province hard hit by the COVID-19 outbreak lifted outbound travel restrictions on highway traffic in all areas except Wuhan on March 25, with all checkpoints at expressway exits, national and provincial-level highways reopened within two days, as the virus outbreak continues to subdue.

Xu Zuoqiang, chairman and general manager of the Three Gorges Airport, said that before the resumption of flights, the airport had carried out a comprehensive disinfection and organized staff training for epidemic control and prevention.

The airport has newly installed thermal imaging equipment for mass body temperature checks on people in the departure and arrival halls. Isolation areas have also been prepared to quarantine people tested with fever.

The CAAC's central and southern regional subsidiary said that on Sunday, airports in Hubei will have a total of 98 departing flights.

Hubei is a central China air traffic hub. All air traffic control units in the central and southern regions have cooperated to fully ensure the safe and orderly resumption of Hubei civil aviation, the CAAC said.
Emulating the Haryana governments directive to all schools asking them not to take fees till classes resume, Maharashtra education minister Varsha Gaikwad has said that the state will also issue a similar directive.

With the nationwide lockdown and suspension of classes across the country, Gaikwad said that schools must not force parents to pay fees. We might issue a directive in the coming week which will apply to all boards. At a time when people across classes are facing difficulties, schools must not collect fees, at least till the lockdown ends, Gaikwad said.

On Saturday, the Haryana government directed all private schools affiliated with the Haryana School Board, ICSE, CBSE or any other board not to take school fees till normal classes were resumed. The step was taken after reports emerged of some schools forcing parents to pay fees.

With a nationwide lockdown imposed owing to the coronavirus pandemic, schools and colleges across the state of Maharashtra have also been shut.
Challenger 605 Consigned to Sell on May 14th, 2020 Assents closing rate exceeds Eighty Percent (80%) for aircraft offered over $1MM

Assent Aeronautics will transition the Live Assent Private Aircraft Auction on April 30th at Jet Aviation, Dallas Love Field, to a new Live Online Digital Aircraft Auction on May 14th, 2020 to remain in lockstep with the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), federal, state and local regulations, and at the request of aircraft consignors and bidders alike. Jet Aviation, a General Dynamics Company, will be the presenting sponsor of the Inaugural Assent Live Virtual Auction on May14th, and will host both the November 19, 2020 and April 29, 2021 Live Assent Aeronautics Private Auctions at the freshly renovated Jet Aviation, Dallas Love Field Facility.

As the worlds first live and lux aircraft auction house, adding a virtual component to our capabilities has certainly been on the drawing board. COVID-19 is a crisis. We are focused on preserving life while still supporting our economy, our clients and our staff in these difficult times, by continuing to be The Market Maker for private aircraft, said Jake Banglesdorf, Vice President of Assent Aeronautics. Frankly, bidders still want to bid, and sellers still want to sell, so we are accelerating our roll out of the live online bidding platform, so they can shake hands, albeit digitally, through Assent Aeronautics Aircraft Auctions.

The catalog for the auction will be released in the coming weeks, and will include Challengers, Citations and Beechcraft King Airs that are exclusively available through Assent, along with other aircraft as well. Assents December Auction catalog featured slightly over $30MM in Business Aviation Aircraft, and Assents closing rate exceeds Eighty Percent (80%) for aircraft offered over $1MM. Further Assents virtual biding technology is powered by the same online bidding software that well-known automobile, real estate and fine art auction houses use in their digital platforms. Bidders will still be verified and approved by Assent. Consignors will not need to reposition their aircraft but will be required to allow for visual inspections and records reviews at their own facilities should a bidder make the request.

Our nations health and safety are, of course, everyones primary concern at this difficult time. At Assent, we can assure you, those are our top priorities as we join with others in the industrial complex to lead, innovate and redouble our efforts to keep our economy alive and resilient, said W. Hulsey Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer of Assent Aeronautics. If we all work together now, together we can come out of this crisis better on the other side.

To learn more about Assent Aeronautics please visit our website at http://www.AssentAero.com

ABOUT ASSENT AERONAUTICS

Assent Aeronautics is a family owned company, founded in 2004 and headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. Assent Aeronautics distinct business units include aircraft brokerage, aircraft transaction advisory consulting, aircraft management and aircraft maintenance. Able to trace the companys heritage back to a private family flight department established in the 1940s, Assent Aeronautics has a proven track record of success. After numerous requests from companies and individuals to manage their aircraft, Assent Aeronautics was founded to help aircraft owners and operators maximize dispatch reliability and safety while saving money through more efficient expense forecasting and full-time expert technical supervision. For more information visit http://www.assentaero.com

For more information please contact the Assent Aeronautics Media Relations Team:

Pollox Goodspeed, Media Relations. Email: PR@AssentAero.com Phone: 817-754-0560

For Broadcast Quality Footage:

Email PR@AssentAero.com

For Video Please See:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVSG9YL60PzWggfOfRpFnyQ

For Business and Partner Contact please contact:

Email: JetSales@AssentAero.com Phone: 817-888-8227 http://www.AssentAero.com
Bored Britons are doing just about anything to keep themselves occupied during the coronavirus lockdown.

But one person has really branched out - literally.

A couple were left shocked when their neighbour came up with an ingenious method to break-away from quarantine, by dressing up as a bush.

Nicholas Murray and Madeline Mai-Davies, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, watched on in amazement and disbelief as their neighbour scuttled down the driveway, dressed from head-to-toe in the leaf-laden disguise.

Bush-ted: Nicholas Murray and Madeline Mai-Davies, from Stevenage, caught their neighbour attempting to escape quarantine disguised as a bush

The pair watched on in amazement and disbelief as their neighbour scuttled down the driveway, dressed from head-to-toe as a bush

The video shows the disguised neighbour making a break for it as he attempts to get across the road, only to be caught out by the change of background

So as to not draw attention, the neighbour crouches, scurries and even stops, drops and rolls in order to pull off their cunning disguise.

The pair filmed the incident, which shows their neighbour's ingenious plan working while they stand against a backdrop of bushes.

But as the neighbour makes a break for it across the grey road, the bright green disguise quickly unravels.

Though the neighbour tries desperately to blend into the grass on the other side of the road, it is too late - they've already been 'bush-ted'.

The video, posted on social media site TikTok, has since gone viral and has been viewed more than 16.5million times

Nicholas Murray and Madeline Mai-Davies filmed the incident and uploaded it to social media site TikTok, where it has been viewed more than 16.5million times

Nick said: Looking back, I didnt expect the video to go that viral and get that many views.

"Whilst in this difficult time we want to bring smiles, laughs and hope."

Maddie said: I was overwhelmed with the support and following that came from it.




The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has risen by 812 in the last 24 hours, the Civil Protection Agency said on Monday, reversing two days of declines.

Italy, the world's hardest hit country which accounts for more than a third of all global fatalities, saw its total death tally rise to 11,591 since the outbreak emerged in northern regions on Feb. 21.

More positively, the number of new cases rose by just 4,050, the lowest amount since March 17, reaching a total of 101,739.

However, the decline in new infections may be partly explained by a reduction in the number of tests, which were the fewest for six days.

Italians have been under nationwide lockdown for three weeks and officials said the restrictions, which were due to end on Friday, look certain for at least two more weeks.

"We have to agree on this with other regions, but I think we are talking about (maintaining the block) until at least mid-April," Attilio Fontana, head of the worst-affected Lombardy region, told reporters.

The governor of the southern region of Puglia said on Saturday the restrictions should stay until May.

Underscoring the dangers of the disease, the national doctors' association announced the deaths of 11 more doctors on Monday, bringing the total to 61.

Not all of them had been tested for coronavirus before they died, it said, but it linked their deaths to the epidemic.

Lombardy, which is centred on Italy's financial capital Milan, accounts for almost 60% of the total deaths in Italy and some 40% of cases.

Fontana said the unprecedented curbs on movement, gatherings and business activity were preventing an exponential rise in cases, and needed to be kept in place.

"We're on the right track, we're maintaining a (chart) line that's not uphill, but it's not downhill either," he said.

The head of the national health institute, Silvio Brusaferro, who is advising the government on how to handle the crisis, also said that for restrictions to be eased "the number of new cases has to fall significantly."

"For sure the re-opening will happen gradually ... we are even considering the British idea of 'stop and go', which envisages opening things for a certain amount of time and then closing them again," he told La Repubblica daily.

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A shopper picks over the few items remaining in the meat section as people stock up on supplies amid CCP virus fears at a grocery store in Austin, Texas on March 13, 2020. (Brad Brooks/File Photo/Reuters)

Senators Scrutinize Meat Packers Big Profits During Pandemic

CHICAGOU.S. senators are calling for investigations of record profit margins for beef processors like Tyson Foods and Cargill, after ranchers complained surging meat prices due to CCP virus hoarding did not translate into higher cattle prices.

Futures prices for cattle have tumbled during the outbreak, worrying farmers as the U.S. economy heads into a downturn and fueling questions about whether the market run by CME Group is an effective tool for risk management.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote on Twitter that U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Department of Justice (DOJ), and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) probes may be needed to determine why ranchers did not benefit from soaring meat demand.

Beef is flying off grocery shelves but farmers are seeing prices go down, Grassley said. If packers are illegally manipulating markets during crisis, we need USDA & DOJ & CFTC to investigate + help farmers. Four companies control 80% of market & theyre taking advantage.

Packages of beef and pork are seen on a rack in a file photo. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Processors margins leapt to more than $600 per head of cattle last week, HedgersEdge.com said. But cattle producers are operating at a net loss, four U.S. senators from South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana told the Justice Department in a letter that called for a price-fixing investigation.

Cargill said it is a committed buyer in the cash market for cattle, which was less impacted than futures. Tyson said it wants cattle producers to succeed and paid them a premium last week.

This is an uncertain and unprecedented time, where food service beef demand has come to an immediate and virtual standstill, while retail demand has increased, Tyson said.

The USDA said it was working with CFTC to ensure transparency and integrity in agricultural markets.

Live cattle futures dropped 3.5 percent on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange over the last three weeks amid worries the virus would shut slaughterhouses, while prices for beef that meat companies ship to wholesale buyers jumped about 20 percent.

Futures sank as managed funds liquidated long positions, or bets prices will rise, said Cassie Fish, a beef expert who formerly worked for Tyson. It was the markets biggest event-driven decline in more than 45 years, she said.

They decided to get out, Fish said. It was like a stampede.

Farmers and processors use futures to offset the risk of producing meat, and futures are intended to reflect the underlying cash market. April cattle futures ended last week at a record $18 to $19 under the cash market, according to consultancy AgResource.

CME Group said it is committed to improving its livestock markets.

By Tom Polansek
Chennai, March 30 : With masks in huge demand to protect against coronavirus, a team of researchers from Anna University said on Monday that it has developed a reusable and hence cost-effective mask made of polyester pile fabric.

"The mask can be washed up to 20 times and reused. It costs about Rs 30 a piece," S. Subramanian, the team leader from the Department of Textiles, Alagappa College of Technology, Anna University, told IANS.

According to him, the team had earlier worked on developing mask for pollution protection.

After checking out several materials, Subramanian said the team zeroed in on polyester pile fabric which is breathable and washable and also offers good filteration capabilities.

He said a cotton-based mask will retain the moisture and be wet whereas the polyester pile fabric will remain dry.

Pointing out that the mask developed by his team is thicker, Subramanian said it does not however block air flow, is breathable and washable with any soap.

The Anna University has supplied a sample batch to the Health Department and production on a larger scale has to be done by an outside unit.
As the Duke and Duchess of Sussex transition to their non-royal life, rumors sparked that the couple has shifted to settle in the U.S. instead of Canada as their permanent home after stepping back from their royal duties.

A British news outlet broke the news that the Sussexes took a private flight to Los Angeles before the borders in the United States and Canada closed for non-essential travel to help contain the spread of coronavirus.

"This move was planned for some time. They realized Canada would not work out for various reasons and they want to be based in the Los Angeles area," a royal insider told the outlet.

People magazine, on the other hand, confirmed the news and reported that the couple "have been living in a secluded compound and haven't ventured out amid the coronavirus pandemic."

Trump Says Meghan and Harry "Must Pay!"

Given that the high profile couple is now residing in America, U.S. President Donald Trump cleared that the country will not pay for their security protection.

"I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!" Trump posted on his official Twitter account.

The Sussexes security consists of nine highly skilled British officers traveling back and forth between the U.K. and the U.S.

In a separate report, a British news outlet cited a source saying that the said countries have a long-standing agreement about employing security for diplomats and royals; however, since their bombshell news about "Megxit," the couple will no longer be considered as an "international protected person."

The Sussex Don't Need Trump

Meghan and Harry gave a snappy comeback and cleared that they no longer want to rely on any of the public funds for their security protection.

"The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have no plans to ask the US government for security resources. Privately funded security arrangements have been made," a Sussex spokesperson told the Guardian.

Canada Will Stop Paying for The Couple's Security

Since their announcement that they will be resigning as senior royals of the British monarchy, the former "Suits" star and the 35-year-old duke have been living in Vancouver, Canada.

However, it was previously reported that the Canadian government would stop providing security for their family as soon as they officially stepped down in their royal duties on March 31.

"The assistance will cease in the coming weeks, in keeping with their change in status," announced by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) last February.

According to RCMP, they have been providing security assistance to the couple since they arrived in Canada "intermittently since November 2019" since Meghan and Harry are recognized as Internationally Protected Persons.
A pop-up COVID-19 testing clinic will open in Bondi and GPs in Sydney's eastern suburbs have been urged to ramp up testing amid concerns over increasing community transmission in hotspots. NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said the drop in numbers comes as fewer tests were being done. Of the 2032 known cases of COVID-19 in the state, 164 are being cared for in the hospital system, with 35 in ICU and 16 on ventilators. The Ruby Princess floating off Copacabana on the Central Coast as the sun rose on Tuesday morning. Credit:Harriet Alexander More than half of the hospital cases not in ICU are being cared for through home hospital services. The Premier warned against being too hopeful that NSW had turned a corner.

"Remain vigilant, do not look at the case numbers each day...this is serious, we are at a serious stage of the virus," Ms Berejiklian said. Ms Berejiklian said people had to follow strict social distancing rules for the foreseeable future. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, right, and NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller. Credit:AAP "Do not gather more than two people outside or inside your home. This is important because we know the number of cases is increasing," Ms Berejiklian said. "We know NSW has taken every strict measure we can.

Mr Fuller said 13 people had been fined for flouting social distancing rules but that did not mean people could not leave home for important reasons. "If you need to exercise, we get it. If you need to go to the shops to get some food, absolutely acceptable. But the messaging has not been getting through to some people," Mr Fuller said. Bondi outbreak Dr Chant said there would be extra testing in various hot spots, including a pop-up site in Bondi as well as working with local GPs. "There has been an outbreak in backpackers," Dr Chant said.

She said there needed to be extra testing where there is clear community transmission and areas of "active clusters". "I am urging increased testing," she said The Ruby Princess cruise ship in waters off Sydney on Monday,. Credit:AAP Dr Chant also expressed concern about "the weekend effect", where there maybe a decline in cases because people were less likely to present for testing on the weekend, when many GPs are shut. "I suppose I'm just very cautious in interpreting the numbers because I know that whenever I interpret a number, it has to be interpreted in the context of the testing rates," she said. Meanwhile, two pregnant women and four people with coronavirus symptoms are among the crew who have been allowed to disembark ships off the state's coast, Mr Fuller said.

Loading The state was "receiving people sensibly back into NSW" and prioritising taking Australian crew members off the ships, Mr Fuller added. "Four Australians who are crew members have been taken off one of those nine ships," he said "We've had requests for two ladies to leave two different ships who were pregnant, which I thought was absolutely appropriate. We've had four individuals come off with symptoms of the coronavirus and one who had another medical episode." On Monday, it was reported that three crew members were taken off the Ruby Princess and taken to hospital.

Loading On Tuesday afternoon, two more cases of COVID-19 were confirmed at the Dorothy Henderson Lodge aged care facility in Macquarie Park, bringing the total number of cases at the facility to 21. Sixteen residents and five staff have tested positive at the facility, which remains in isolation. Four of the residents have died. There are now 211 NSW cases from the Ruby Princess ship, whose 2700 passengers disembarked in Sydney on March 19. This figure does not include those passengers who travelled to other states, a number which is understood to be well over 120 now, including two elderly Tasmanians who died. Regarding other cruise ships cases in NSW, there are 79 cases from the Ovation of the Seas, 30 from the Voyager of the Seas and four from the Celebrity Solstice.
SPRINGFIELD  Roman Catholic parishes in the four western counties stand to lose more than $1 million in contributions from the faithful due to the temporary closure of churches and suspension of Masses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Most Rev. Mitchell Rozanski, bishop of the Springfield diocese, shuttered more than 80 churches and parochial schools on March 13 in response to public health concerns. (Two days later, Gov. Charlie Baker banned gatherings of 25 more in the commonwealth.)

Catholic churches typically witness an uptick in attendance during Holy Week, which begins on Palm Sunday, April 5, and includes Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil.

We are now three weekends into our suspension of Masses and this has resulted in financial challenges for all of our parishes, diocesan spokesman Mark Dupont said on Monday. We estimate the loss to parishes is just over $1 million. All of our parishes depend upon the stewardship and generosity of our parishioners.

In a March 29 appeal in the Sunday Republican, Rozanski spoke of the importance of faith in facing coronavirus, but also pointed out on a very practical note that "our parish communities have taken a huge financial loss while we are in this time of social distancing.

The bishop announced the establishment of a website, diospringfield.weshareonline.org/ws/opportunities/ParishSupport, so Catholics could aid churches.

All Bishop Rozanski is asking is that parishioners remember their local parishs financial needs but only as their means allow," Dupont said. "At the same time the diocese anticipates we will see increased demands on our Catholic Charities Agency and through a number of Annual Catholic Appeal funded community services and agencies.

Dupont stressed the diocese is well aware that "these are tough times for many of our parishioners, and especially for those we minister to and provide material assistance.

In his March 13 directive closing churches initially through the end of March, Rozanski noted that parishes would also likely close offices. He asked that all employees continue to be paid throughout this time" and told parishes to contact the diocese if they were unable to meet payroll.

Donations collected at weekend Masses help pay the bills and provide for parish staffing needs, said Dupont, adding that the "diocese will work with parishes on a case-by-case basis.'

During the pandemic, diocesan staff is "working remotely, maintaining diocesan operations as best we can, he said.

Other of Rozanskis directives, including spring Confirmations moved to fall and First Communions being postponed, can be found online.

The diocese has arranged for its Sunday televised Mass, Chalice of Salvation, to have additional broadcasts on WWLP-22News for Holy Thursday, April 8, at 11 a.m., Good Friday, April 10, at 11 a.m., and the Easter Sunday Mass on April 12 at 10 a.m. There are also or online weekend services at stagnescc.com.
Countries around the world are imposing stricter rules in an effort to slow the rapid spread of COVID-19.

Coronavirus has infected more than 328,200 people and killed more than 14,300 worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University, which has been tracking the pandemic.

Here are the latest updates.

Australia

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison ordered the closure of most venues from Monday, including pubs, casinos, gyms and cinemas.

The move followed concern from authorities that people were disregarding health and government warnings to avoid large gatherings in recent days - including by flocking to Sydney's popular Bondi Beach .

Along with nearby New Zealand, Australia had brought in widespread rules to limit the spread of COVID-19 - now linked to seven deaths in the country.

These measures had been weaker than parts of Europe and North America with higher infection rates, but the number of cases rose sharply in recent days to 1,315.

The rapid spread caused Mr Morrison to restrict restaurants and cafes to takeaway-only outlets, enforce enclosed funerals and close indoor sporting venues and places of worship. However, he said schools will stay open.

Europe

Italy recorded a jump in deaths from coronavirus of 651 in one day, taking the death toll in the world's hardest-hit country to almost 5,500 as confirmed cases surpassed 59,000.

In a desperate effort to slow the pandmeic, the Italian government ordered all businesses to close until 3 April, excluding those vital to the country's supply chain.

In the most-affected region of Lombardy, even outdoor exercise alone was forbidden, while people were no longer allowed to use vending machines.

In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the NHS could be "overwhelmed" by the coronavirus like the Italian health system in just two weeks. There have been 281 deaths in the UK so far, with the number of confirmed cases reaching 5,683, - a rise of 635 in 24 hours.

Story continues

Spanish media reported the government wanted to double the 15-day state of emergency, with the death toll hiking from 1,326 to 1,756 in 24 hours.

Confirmed cases in the Netherlands jumped by 573 to 4,204 - with 43 new deaths.

Americas

New Jersey became the latest US state to impose unprecedented restrictions and join much of Europe in keeping workers at home, closing schools and shutting bars, pubs and restaurants.

A quarter of Americans have been placed under lockdown .

At least 23,941 cases of COVID-19 had been reported in the United States and 306 people with the disease had died as of Saturday evening. Cases in the state of New York rose by nearly a third in one day to more than 15,100.

Bolivia's interim government announced it would postpone presidential elections originally scheduled to take place on 3 May and institute a mandatory countrywide quarantine for 14 days.

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Brazil's largest state, Sao Paulo, is set to essentially shut down for two weeks to help fight the virus, its governor said on Saturday. President Jair Bolsonaro said again that "hysteria" over the outbreak could cause more harm than the virus itself.

Asia

A nationwide curfew was imposed in India, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered hundreds of millions of people to stay indoors.

At least 341 people have contracted the disease there so far with four reported deaths, according to official data on Sunday.

China - the birthplace of the virus - reported 46 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, the fourth straight day of a rise despite a dramatically slowing spread. All but one of those were from people arriving from overseas, leading to further measures to intercept cases from abroad.

Members of a South Korean church scuffled with police on Sunday, media reported, as government restrictions on religious services and other gatherings took effect.

Middle East and Africa

Iran's death toll reached 1,685 with 129 deaths in one day, the health ministry's spokesman told state TV on Sunday. Infections rates rose to 21,638.

Oman on Sunday banned public gatherings, limited staffing at state entities and shut currency exchange bureaus.

Angola, Eritrea and Uganda confirmed their first cases of coronavirus, while Mauritius recorded its first death as the

virus spreads in Africa, with several countries in the continent closing their borders.

There are concerns that the continent will not cope with a surge in cases.
Over 500 Nepalese labourers returning home from different parts of India have been stranded in Dharchula in Uttarakhand with the Nepal government shutting its doors on them in an effort to combat coronavirus.

The Nepal government extended the ban on entry of people from across the borders for another 10 days from Monday as a measure to contain the spread of coronavirus.

The ban was initially to be in force from March 23 to 29.

The stranded Nepalese workers have been kept temporarily in the shed of a cremation ground in Dharchula with the district administration providing for food, sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) S K Shukla said, adding that if they continue to gather like this, the situation may become difficult.

They are daily wage labourers from Nepal who gathered here after the lockdown from different parts of India, including Delhi, in the hope of crossing over smoothly into their country via Dharchula, he said.

They gathered in Dharchula after words spread that labourers were being despatched to Nepal through the route.

However, the 10-day extension of the ban on their entry into their country by the Nepal government has put them in a fix, Shukla said.

"They want to cross over to their country through a bridge on the river Kali in Dharchula which has been closed from the Nepal side, the SDM said.

"We are ready to open the bridge but the Nepalese authorities are against it, he said.

"We are feeding and taking care of them. Our officials, doctors and local NGOs are involved in the exercise," he said, adding all of them have been screened and have no symptoms of coronavirus so far.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi: Reliance Industries' chief Mukesh Ambani on Monday donated a further Rs 500 crore to the Prime Minister's COVID-19 fund, topping up over the multi-crore initiative of India's first coronavirus hospital, meals to the needy, and fuel to emergency vehicles.

The company has also announced a host of other initiatives in a bid to play its part in the battle against the pandemic.

Here are some of the key initiatives launched by the group and its philanthropic arm, the Reliance Foundation, to support the national fight against the coronavirus pandemic:

- Contribution of Rs 500 crore to the PM-CARES Fund

- Contribution of Rs 5 crore to the Chief Ministers Relief Fund of Maharashtra

- Contribution of Rs 5 crore to the Chief Ministers Relief Fund of Gujarat

- Indias first 100-bed exclusive COVID-19 hospital readied in just two weeks to handle coronavirus patients

- To provide 50 lakh free meals in the next 10 days across the country, with plans to provide more in newer areas

- One lakh masks daily for health-workers and caregivers

- Thousands of personal protective equipment (PPEs) daily for health-workers and caregivers

- Free fuel across the country to notified emergency response vehicles

- Jio seamlessly connecting nearly 40 crore individuals and thousands of organisations daily on its telecom backbone via work from home, study from home and health from home initiatives

- Reliance Retail providing Essential supplies daily for millions of Indians via stores and home deliveries.

Disclaimer: News18.com is part of Network18 Media & Investment Limited which is owned by Reliance Industries Limited that also owns Reliance Jio.
[March 30, 2020] DH2i Recognized in the 2020 CRN Partner Program Guide

FORT COLLINS, Colo., March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DH2i, the leading provider of data availability, security and remote access solutions, today announced it is being recognized by CRN  , a brand of The Channel Company, in its 2020 Partner Program Guide. This annual guide is the definitive listing of the most rewarding partner programs from technology companies that provide products and services through the IT channel. The Channel Company's research team analyzed each vendor's partner program to compile this guide. Each was scored based on several factors, including investments in program offerings, partner profitability, partner training, education and support, marketing programs and resources, sales support, and communication. Based on that assessment, the partner program with DH2i stands among the top technology suppliers in the IT channel, providing excellent value and support for solution providers. DH2i was recognized for its DxAdvantage Partner Program, under which value added resellers (VARs), system integrators (SIs) and other solutions providers are provided with simplified access to DH2i's world-class portfolio of data availability, security and remote access solutions, as well as its team of sales, marketing and service specialists in order to identify, fulfill and maximize sales opportunities. The DxAdvantage Partner Program includes, but is not limited to: Pre-qualified Leads  to help partners focus resources, drive conversion rates and enjoy faster time to profitability and growth.

 to help partners focus resources, drive conversion rates and enjoy faster time to profitability and growth. Partner Registration and Locator  to enable end customers to find and contact DH2i resellers.

 to enable end customers to find and contact DH2i resellers. Discounts, Incentives & SPIFFs  to ensure the highest possible margins with additional generous incentives and bonuses for sales.

 to ensure the highest possible margins with additional generous incentives and bonuses for sales. MDF  market development finds (MDF) to help drive strategic partner market awareness and sales.

 market development finds (MDF) to help drive strategic partner market awareness and sales. Opportunity Registration  for margin protection.

 for margin protection. Demonstration Training & Support  partners can engage with DH2i to help provide customer demos and/or utilize DH2i's admin tour and build-out to incorporate demo capabilities directly.

 partners can engage with DH2i to help provide customer demos and/or utilize DH2i's admin tour and build-out to incorporate demo capabilities directly. Sales Support  to ensure the fastest and highest close ratios.

 to ensure the fastest and highest close ratios. Service Training & Support  to ensure customer expectations are exceeded today, and tomorrow. "With the speed and complexity of technology today, solution providers need partners that can keep pace and support their growing business," said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. "CRN's Partner Program Guide features insight into the strengths and benefits of each company's program to identify those that truly support and drive positive change within the IT channel." "The DH2i DxAdvantage Partner Program provides direct, simplifed access to DH2i's robust portfolio of data availability, security and access solutions, in order to enable our partners to uniquely support end customers on their digital transformation journey. In today's IT and business climate, it is more critical than ever that customers can rest assured that their information and applications will always be available, protected and accessible  from the corporate to the home office," said Connor Cox, Director of Business Development, DH2i. "We are delighted that one of the premier voices in the channel community  CRN, has once again identified DH2i as standing out for its commitment to providing the technology solutions and support necessary to ensure our channel partners bolster their trusted advisor status while dramatically increasing their bottom-line."



About DH2i Software Solutions DxEnterprise - Multi-Platform Smart Availability - Manage a variety of workloads at the instance levelas well as Docker containers, and ensure the highest levels of availability (HA). Get instance mobility from any host, to any host, anywhere with just an application or container stop and restart. DxOdyssey  The SDP Networking Software for Zero Trust Security - Build lightweight, discreet, scalable and highly available Software Defined Perimeter (SDP) connections between on-premises and/or cloud environments for and between Windows and Linux without a VPN or direct link. DxConnect  Securely Access Your Information and Applications from Anywhere - Wherever your workforce may be, they need access to on-premises or cloud-based company resources like servers, desktops, and applications. Using a Software Defined Perimeter (SDP) approach is the most secure way of achieving this. DxConnect is the SDP client software that allows remote access to DxOdyssey's SDP micro-tunnels. And, DxConnect ensures full data encryption and security in transit. The 2020 Partner Program Guide will be featured in the April issue of CRN  and online at www.CRN.com/ppg.

Tweet this: @DH2i recognized in the 2020 CRN  Partner Program Guide https://dh2i.com/press/ #DxAdvantage #DataAvailability #Security #Access #RemoteAccess #Software #WFH #WorkFromHome About The Channel Company

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers, and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelcompany.com Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook About DH2i

DH2i Company is the leading provider of multi-platform Software Defined Perimeter and Smart Availability software for Windows and Linux. DH2i software products DxOdyssey and DxEnterprise enable customers to create an entire IT infrastructure that is "always-secure and always-on." To learn more, please visit: www.dh2i.com, call: 800-380-5405 or +44 20 3318 9204, or email: [email protected]. DH2i Company 2020. DH2i, Smart Availability, DxEnterprise, DxOdyssey, DxConsole, DxHADR, DxTransfer, DxCollect and InstanceMobility are trademarks of DH2i Company. All other brand or product names contained in this press release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Copyright 2020. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved. PR Contact:

Nicole Gorman

Corporate Communications / PR

DH2i

M: 508-397-0131

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A 65-year-old Mohali resident tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases to 39 in Punjab, officials said.

The man was admitted to the PGIMER hospital six days ago, Mohali Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan said, adding, "He was taken to the hospital after he complained of chest pain and breathlessness. Now his test report for coronavirus has come positive."



"We are tracing all his contacts and their tests will be conducted," he said.

With this, the total number of coronavirus cases rose to 39 in the state.

On Sunday evening, a62-year-old coronavirus patient died at the Government Medical College in Amritsar, the second death due to COVID-19 in the state.

Of the 39 cases, 19 were reported from Nawanshahr, seven from Mohali, six from Hoshiarpur, five from Jalandhar and one each from Amritsar and Ludhiana.

Of them, two patients have died and one has been discharged from the hospital after his second test results came negative.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30)  Hospitals under the Metro Pacific Group, which include the Makati Medical Center and Asian Hospital, have chosen the Our Lady of Lourdes in Manila as the group's main referral facility for COVID-19 cases.

Metro Pacific Hospitals said in a disclosure that it has chosen the facility in Santa Mesa as its main hospital to handle novel coronavirus patients out of the 16 hospitals in the group.

Some of the Manny Pangilinan-led healthcare facilities have said they are now at full capacity, leaving them with no choice but to send COVID-19 patients needing confinement or urgent care to other hospitals.

The Our Lady of Lourdes is a level 3 hospital fully-owned by the Metro Pacific group, which has a 230-bed capacity.

The Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Manila Doctors Hospital, De Los Santos Medical Center, and Davao Doctors Hospital are also part of the Metro Pacific Hospitals group. The upscale Makati Medical Center is the biggest with 600 beds.

The unit of the conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corporation said a crisis team has also been formed, led by Atty. Pilar Nenuca Almira who chairs Cardinal Santos and the Our Lady of Lourdes hospitals.

By designating a hospital within the Group to be the main referral facility for PUM/PUI (persons under monitoring/persons under investigation) and COVID infected cases, we are aligning our efforts with the Government to address the pandemic, Almira said in a statement.

The government has identified the Philippine General Hospital in Manila and the Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital in Caloocan City as exclusive COVID-19 centers amid the outbreak.

Meanwhile, all hospitals under the MVP group have been told to review their spaces, personnel count and technical resources with the goal of doubling their capacity to handle coronavirus patients.

Pangilinan said the healthcare system now faces "unprecedented challenges" due to the global pandemic, forcing their hospitals to focus resources on critical concerns. This meant providing hospital care for the most critically ill due to COVID-19.

"Should the pandemic rise in intensity in the coming weeks, the Hospitals Group has been

mandated to plan for supplemental tents, with beds and requisite equipment, for noncritical COVID cases in selected hospital grounds, as an extraordinary measure," the group added.

There are now 78 deaths out of the 1,546 recorded coronavirus cases in the Philippines. The entire Luzon and other provinces and cities in Visayas and Mindanao have been on enhanced community quarantine to contain the spread of the disease.
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

In American political folklore, kitchen table issues are issues, generally involving  naturally  money, where the family sits down round the kitchen table and hashes out the famliy income statement: Whats coming in, and whats going out, and are we the slightest bit ahead, or not?[1] Its a warmly lit, sentimental picture of a vicious system where most of the population, the working class, sell their labor power to survive. Until they cant. And dont. So its no coincidence that theres been an upsurge  power and consequences as yet unknown  of workplace strikes (the income side) and rent strikes (the expenses side). Kitchen table issues. In this post, Ill aggregate some examples of each kind of strike  Ill make no pretense to be exhaustive, since #COVID19 is drowning out everything and in any case, for some reason, collective action by the working class tends not to be covered  and then Ill conclude with some brief remarks on the state of The Left.

Before I start, I want for what I hope is the final time to return to Peggy Noonans post,. My Corona (or Is It Schmutz?). Noonan concludes:

Here is a real-life moment. I mentioned running out to the bank. Were all tipping $20s in Manhattan and I ran low. I walked over in full regaliaN95 mask, sanitary gloves, high-necked coat and scarf. As I walked home I passed by the 90th Street Pharmacy, looked in the shining windows, and saw Hamidou and Barbara at the counter. I felt so grateful for them. I knocked on the glass, they looked, and I drew myself up and threw them a full, formal military salute. At exactly that moment I thought: Oh no, the mask, the gloves, they wont recognize me! But they did, immediately, and we laughed and applauded each other. How fiercely we love people we dont know we love.

How nice. Really. Nevertheless, I cant help but think that Hamidou and Barbara would be better served by solidarity rather than sentimentality, and solidarity takes material form. Surely Hamidou and Barbara would be better served by higher wages, protective equipment, and a freeze on rents, than by any salute, no matter how smartly delivered? There are different definitions of love, I suppose. And now to the strikes, workplace first.

Workplace Strikes

Here is a good wrap-up on #COVID19 from the New York Times, Is Your Grocery Delivery Worth a Workers Life?:

Last Tuesday, after a mechanic tested positive for the coronavirus, more than half the workers at Bath Iron Works, the famous shipyard in Maine, stayed home from work to pressure their employer to thoroughly clean the shipyard. Workers walked out at a Fiat Chrysler truck plant in Warren, Mich., because there was no hot water for washing up. Bus drivers in Birmingham, Ala., went on strike because they felt not enough was being done to protect them from contracting Covid-19 from infected passengers, while bus drivers in Detroit staged a sudden sickout for the same reason. Sanitation workers in Pittsburgh engaged in a work stoppage over their coronavirus worries. We want better equipment, protective gear; we have no masks, one of the sanitation workers told the television station WPXI. We want hazard pay. Hazard pay is very important. At a Kroger warehouse in Memphis, 200 workers walked out after learning that a co-worker had the virus. The ones that is here, they so tense they scared to touch the equipment, said Maurice Wiggins, a Kroger forklift driver and father of two. (He also complained about being forced to work a 97-hour, seven-day workweek [Holy Lord. Also complained].) These workers are demanding what everyone else wants during the worst epidemic in a century  safety. They feel their companies are taking them and their safety for granted, and they dont want to risk their lives for a paycheck, often a meager one.

Note that none of these examples are delivery or gig workers; I suspect the New York Times thought that headline was clever because gig workers are the only working class people they interact with. That said, strikes at InstaCart, Whole Foods, and Amazon are garnering the most press, and it is true they provide an essential supply chain during the pandemic. Lets take each in turn; the grievances are very similar for each.

Instacart. From Vice, Instacarts Gig Workers Are Planning a Massive, Nationwide Strike:

Instacart shoppers are planning a nationwide mass revolt over the grocery delivery apps response to the coronavirus pandemic. On Monday, workers say they will refuse to accept orders until Instacart provides hazard pay of an additional $5 an order, free safety gear (hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, and soap) to workers, and expands its paid sick leave to include workers with pre-existing conditions who have been advised by their doctors not to work at this time. Workers say the strike will last until Instacart agrees to these terms.

Instacart is reacting, but stingily. From CNN:

Instacart said Sunday that it will soon begin making hand sanitizer available to its full service shoppers, who shop and deliver groceries for the company. It is also making it easier for customers to set their own default tipping percentage in the app.

(NC readers know that hand sanitizer is inadequate; what is required is soap and water, and facilities for washing ones hands for a full twenty seconds.)

And from an Instacart worker:

We were sent this from a reader who's an Instacart hourly worker: "Attached is a screenshot from a recent message they sent to us. They implied we would receive a substantial hourly wage increase, but instead, theyre tossing us an anemic one-time bonus and calling it a day." pic.twitter.com/3AnI6PAiV4  Jacobin (@jacobinmag) March 30, 2020

The strike was organized by the newly formed Gig Workers Collective; here is their Medium post.

Whole Foods. Also from Vice (why Vice?), Whole Foods Employees Are Staging a Nationwide Sick-Out

On March 31, Whole Foods employees will call in sick to demand paid leave for all workers who stay home or self-quarantine during the crisis, free coronavirus testing for all employees, and hazard pay of double the current hourly wage for employees who show up to work during the pandemic. The sick-out follows reports that Whole Foods workers at numerous stores across the country, including locations in New York City, Chicago, Louisiana, and California have tested positive for Covid-19. In each of these locations, the stores have remained open, leading some employees to charge that Whole Foods has failed to prioritize their safety during a period of record sales for the company.

This strike is being organized by Whole Worker.

Amazon. Jacobin, in Amazon Is a Breeding Ground, has an interview with strike organizer Christian Smalls:

Christian Smalls, from Newark, New Jersey, is a thirty-one-year-old assistant manager at the Staten Island Amazon warehouse. The facility, called JFK8, employs nearly five thousand people  and more with each passing week, as mass layoffs send workers onto the job market and Amazon puts them to work delivering packages to those staying home during the economic shutdown. Tomorrow, Smalls and his coworkers are walking off the job, hoping to bring operations to a halt and grab Governor Andrew Cuomos attention. Theyre demanding that JFK8 be shut down for a minimum of two weeks and professionally sanitized. Workers, he says, should be paid during this quarantine, which should be long enough for the virus to induce symptoms in whoevers currently infected.

From the interview:

Why are sick people coming into work? Because Amazon is not offering paid sick leave. Theyre offering unlimited unpaid time off, which is ridiculous because people shouldnt be forced to sit at home without getting paid for choosing to be safe in quarantine. Since Ive been off the job, Ive been taking money out of my 401k just to get by. I shouldnt have to do that. The way the policy works is that you only get paid quarantine if you get tested and it comes back positive. But we know you cant even get a test unless youre really sick, and even then it takes a while to get the results. So you get people who are obviously sick as a dog coming into work. My colleague I told you about before, shed been to work for the last eight days in a row. There are about 150 people in that department daily. Shed been in contact with the whole entire department. I sent her home on Tuesday and she tested positive on Wednesday. Shed been in contact with so many people, and the only person they ended up giving quarantine to was me.

Yikes.

Finally, UPS is not on strike, but their grievances are similar, too. From Popular Info, https://popular.info/p/ups-not-delivering-on-promises-workers:

A UPS driver in Tennessee reports the following: UPS is not doing enhanced cleaning of its buildings or vehicles in my area. There arent any automatic hand sanitizer stationsThe cleaning of vehicles has not changed from before coronavirus. So, the only thing that they say that is actually happening is the sick leaveIt is not a job that lends itself to frequent hand washing and to my knowledge the company is not making allowance to accommodate hand washing. They are not providing gloves in my area due to cost concerns. Parts of the operation in the building do not lend themselves to social distancing. So I would say that 90% of what they say on their website is PR bs. UPS workers across the country had similar experiences.

Bring the supply chain to a halt, and you bring the country to a halt (especially of the Teamsters and the Longshoremen got involved.).

Rental Strikes

Now lets turn to rental strikes. I know even less about rental strikes than I know about working place strikes, but I understand that organizing building by building is hard. For example, from The New Enquirys Rent Strike 2020: A Resource Listd

HOW TO FORM A TENANTS UNION 1. Find five people in your building or area willing to support future action

Not easy. For example, in Chicago:

Getting the word out to his neighbors has been really exciting but also a challenge, [tenant Theodore] Bourget said, given that social distancing guidelines prohibit physical meetings. As a result, door-knocking has been kept to a minimum, with flyering and social media outreach taking priority.

Tenant organizer Cea Weaver:

A rent strike is a powerful tool that should always be on the table for any tenant union, but its not the same as not paying the rent, she said. How can we convert thousands of people being unable to pay the rent into thousands of people who are taking collective, intentional, political action together?

Nevertheless, the fact that so many people are going to have trouble making rent at the same time and for the same reason might create opportunities to make organizing easier. It is to be hoped, because response at the Federal and State level (certainly in liberal Democrat enclaves New York and California).

Federal relief (not). From The Intercept, Millions of People Will Struggle to Pay Rent in April, But Few in Congress Care:

[E]ven with unemployment at a record high, major bill payments have barely factored into U.S. politicians response to the crisis. While some states  namely New York  have taken steps to temporarily block evictions, congressional Democrats, with the exception of a handful of progressive lawmakers, have shown almost no interest in addressing the bills due in less than a week, one of the most pressing financial concerns ordinary people currently face. It shows that Pelosi and Democratic leadership still have their eyes on protecting corporations and not the people, said one House Democratic staffer.

No duh!

New York relief. From The Gothamist, With Cuomo Silent On Relief, Some Desperate NYC Tenants Say Theres No Choice But To Rent Strike:

As the global pandemic pushes unemployment to record levels, a desperate and potent tenants movement is taking shape across New York City. A petition calling on Governor Andrew Cuomo to cancel rent for struggling tenants has more than 75,000 backers  including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and NYC Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. With the federal help still at least weeks away for most Americans, housing experts predict that millions of tenants could soon be forced to choose between paying rent and other necessities. That calculus is particularly stark in New York City, where renters make up nearly two thirds of the population, and nearly half of all households are considered rent burdened.

(To be fair to the state of New York, Queens Democrat State Sen. Michael Gianaris has introduced a bill where rent and mortgage payments would be forgiven rather than postponed. It has garnered 21 co-sponsors.)

California relief. From the Los Angeles Times, Newsom orders delay on evictions over coronavirus, while L.A. votes down a blanket ban:

Through an executive order, Newsom announced a two-month delay on residential evictions for those who cant pay their rent as a result of the virus  the first statewide action he has taken on evictions during the outbreak. But the order still allows renters to be removed from their apartments come June. But Newsoms order doesnt prevent the legal process of being evicted from ultimately occurring and still requires renters affected by the coronavirus to jump through a number of hoops to qualify for the two-month delay. For instance, tenants must notify their landlords in writing within seven days of nonpayment, and a landlord could still file a case against a tenant for their removal.

Not looking forward to a return to normal where thats defined as paying three months of rent owed because no money was coming in, when the money wasnt enough to make paying one month easy.

Now lets turn to the three examples of rent strikes I have been able to find. (Since so much rental property is now owned by private equity, it might make sense to attack the private equity firms, rather than go building by building; Im not sure.) There are three. Chicago, Houston, and Richmond. Im sure there are more.

Chicago. Once again, Vice, We Were Out of Options: Chicago Tenants Are Refusing to Pay April Rent:

[Tenant Theodore] Bourget is picking the last option available to him: Not paying his rent to his landlord, Mac Properties. Hes part of a group of tenants from several buildings, Mac Tenants United, that is calling upon the landlord to cancel rent in April and all months affected by the pandemic economic shutdowns. Flyers in Chicagos Hyde Park neighborhood summarize the message many housing advocates are spreading: Tenants, keep your rent. Landlords, keep your distance. Illinois is one of many states that has temporarily suspended evictions. But landlords are still asking for their money, which for most tenants is due on Wednesday, the first of the month. And some renters are preparing to refuse.

Houston. This Reddit thread:

Its one thing to tweet about a totally unorganized rent strike leaving countless folks w/ no organizational back up when the inevitable backlash hits. Its quite another to actually organize your building like this, & put the fear of god into the hearts of a landlord!  https://t.co/MdH4T0954f  Revolutionary Left Radio (@RevLeftRadio) March 25, 2020

Richmond. This is a property seizure rather than a rent strike, but theyre out there doing it:

Conclusion

Its interesting to compare what the two campaigns are doing. First, Biden:

I just wrapped up tonights CNN town hall, where we discussed COVID-19 and how we move forward. I know times are tough, but the stakes in this election have never been higher. If you could chip in a few dollars I would really appreciate it. https://t.co/1PoT5yD9CO  Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 28, 2020

And here is the latest mail I got from Sanders. Theres no ask for the campaign at all. Instead, the ask is for the following worthy NGOs:

Restaurant Worker Disaster Relief Fund is providing direct financial support to restaurant workers in need. With restaurant closures happening in huge numbers, this fund provides small grants to workers who are out of work or with reduced hours. The Workers Fund is providing direct aid to gig and low-earning contract workers, who have seen their income come to a halt and who dont have a safety net. National Bail Fund Networks COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund is giving direct aid to organizations working during the crisis to free individuals in jails and immigration detention centers. Jails are potential hot spots for spreading the virus, and people who can be bailed out should be. CERF+ COVID-19 Response Fund is offering a safety net and disaster aid for artists and artisans during the crisis. Protecting artists during this crisis is essential, as their income has disappeared, and sustaining the arts should always be a priority for our society. Rent Zero Tenant Organizing Fund is supporting tenants across the country to organize and win demands for eviction moratorium and no rents during the crisis and recovery. With millions of people out of work, this is vital organizing work to protect people in need. Amazonians United Mutual Aid Fund is organizing a mutual aid fund for Amazon warehouse workers who are putting themselves at risk during this crisis, focusing first on warehouses that have confirmed coronavirus cases but whose coworkers must still work without adequate safety protections. Now more than ever it is important that we are willing to fight for people we do not know. With so many put out of work or put in harms way as a result of the coronavirus crisis, we must do all we can to help those impacted.

Now, there is much to like in this Sanders effort. For one thing, I far prefer Sanders definition of love  we are willing to fight for people we do not know  to Noonans. However, a political campaign is not about charity. A political campaign is about taking power. The Sanders campaign theory of change  expand the base by briniging in the disaffected working class  failed on its first try. Now there is an enormous opportunity to test that theory a second time, in conditions more favorable to success. Over here, we have the workplace and rent strikes arising spontaneously. They are bottom up, very fragmented, but all driven by the experience that a pandemic under the conditions of American capitalism cannot be borne. And over here, we have an enormous and unique political machine: A massive fundraising operation, a media operation, and an enormous canvassing operation. Surely it is not impossible to bring the Sanders political macnine and the organizing efforts of the workers together? Start by discarding that stupid charity framing. Replace it with worker empowerment. Why arent isnt the Sanders campaign funding the Gig Workerss Collective?[2] And be sure to raise money for strike funds and lawyers. The ultimate kitchen table issue is within the grasph of the Sanders campaign. Just a thought.

NOTES

[1] I was going to cite the 40% of Americans dont have $400 for emergencies factoid, but its debunked here (June 4, 2019). Unfortunately, reality is more cunning than any theory, and has debunked the debunking:

Why does the conventional wisdom about the $400 expense refuse to die? The easy answer is because it riles up voters and attracts readers. That raises a different question: Why is there an appetite for this finding? Id speculate, in part, that this faulty interpretation resonated during the slow and painful recovery from the Great Recession. The recession was traumatic, and affected how many people think about their personal finances, their employment relationships  their economic security. Fortunately, the economic recovery is largely complete . But judging by the persistence of the myth that a broken washing machine would be a crisis for well over one-third of adults, the psychological recovery is continuing.

BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!! Here we are again.

[2] And [family blog] the FEC. Its better to ask for forgiveness than permission.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley has called for an international investigation into Chinas handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

In an op-ed written for Fox News, the representative for Missouri blamed China for the outbreak and said that the country's government should pay for the damage the virus has caused.

The Chinese Communist Party is responsible for the coronavirus pandemic  and it knows it. Thats why Beijing has gone on a propaganda offensive to try to deflect blame anywhere it can, including right here at the United States, Mr Hawley wrote.

He went on to accuse the Chinese Communist Party of hiding knowledge of the virus from the rest of the world.

We need to know exactly what the Party knew, when it knew it, and how the Partys decisions to try and hide the virus allowed it to spread and kept the United States and other nations from protecting ourselves sooner, he added.

The 40-year-old said that if Beijing handled this crisis as transparently as it says it did, then it should have nothing to hide.

If it refuses to cooperate, then the world will know that it does have something to hide  namely, the fact that it is responsible for this pandemic, Mr Hawley added.

The senator is an advocate of President Donald Trump and earlier this year proposed a bill to dismiss his impeachment.

The day after Mr Trump was acquitted, he praised the senator, saying that one of the greatest supporters on this impeachment hoax was Josh Hawley. He added that Mr Hawley has a tremendous future.

Mr Hawley is not the first Republican representative to blame China solely for the outbreak. Mr Trump himself has been criticised for calling Covid-19 the Chinese virus.

The president was asked on Wednesday why he continues to refer to the novel coronavirus in this way, with the 73-year-old dismissing claims of racism.

Why do you keep calling this the 'Chinese virus'? A lot of people say its racist, a reporter asked him.

Because it comes from China. Its not racist at all. It comes from China. I want to be accurate, Mr Trump replied.

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, upwards of 156,931 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 2,880.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended a two-week ban on gatherings of more than 50 people as part of the battle to contain the spread of the contagion.
Moscow court to hear appeal against sentence in prosecutor assistant deadly robbery case

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

13:17 30/03/2020

MOSCOW, March 30 (RAPSI)  The Moscow City Court scheduled an appeal against a sentence in a case over home-invasion robbery against a prosecutor assistant Dmitry Nekrasov that had resulted in the victims death for April 16, the courts press service told RAPSI on Monday.

In late December, Russian citizen Andrey Glukhikh was sentenced to 7.5 years behind bars for home-invasion robbery.

According to the case papers, Glukhikh along with his accomplices searched on the Internet for a nonstandard sexual orientation person to enter the victims home and steal his or her property using violence. As a result, the criminals stole 100 rubles, IQOS, a bottle of Hennesy cogniac, a bottle of vodka, a cup, a laptop and several jackets.

Glukhikh partially pleaded guilty claiming that they had intentionally searched a gay victim as they believed that nobody would apply to law enforcement because of the sexual orientation.

The death of the prosecutor assistant was caused by tie used as a gag. The court held that Glukhikh was not involved in the murder as his accomplice was the last to leave the victims flat.




The process to release nearly



8,000 prisoners began in Madhya Pradesh on Monday with an aim to prevent overcrowding in jails amid the coronavirus crisis, a senior official said.

Out of these 8,000 prisoners, 5,000 will be released on parole for 60 days while 3,000 prisoners, who were being tried for cases where the maximum sentence is less than five years, will be released on interim bail for 45 days, state Director General of Prisons Sanjay Choudhary told PTI.

He said the move was aimed at decongesting jails in view of the virus outbreak.

Prisoners across the state were being released by following the due procedures, including social distancing and keeping in view the curfew imposed in some districts and the nationwide lockdown.

The Supreme Court had earlier directed all the states and union territories to set up committees to consider releasing jail inmates on parole or interim bail in cases where maximum punishment is seven years.

There are 25 jails in the state with a capacity to keep 28,601 prisoners, but they are overcrowded with over 42,000 inmates.

So far, 47 COVID-19 cases and four deaths due to the viral infection have been reported from the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mandatory testing of all foreign arrivals routine as domestic numbers plummet

Health officials and experts are calling for people to remain vigilant against the novel coronavirus and are tightening controls on inbound arrivals and asymptomatic cases as the country still faces the risk of imported infections and the threat of asymptomatic carriers.

The Chinese mainland added 44 imported cases and one domestic case associated with an asymptomatic individual on Saturday, according to the National Health Commission. There were 54 new cases on Fridayall related to overseas traveland 55 new cases on Thursday, one of which was transmitted locally.

As of Saturday, the number of imported infections nationwide had risen to 693 from 42 countries as the virus continues to rage around the world. Meanwhile, domestic spread of the virus has been basically contained, according to health officials.

Commission spokesman Mi Feng said on Sunday that seven countries made up 83.4 percent of all imported cases on the Chinese mainland.

"It is possible that another round of infection spread will occur as a result," Mi said, adding that sporadic domestic infections also pose risks.

Staff in protective suits talks with a passenger at the Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, China, March 18, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

Vigilance required

Li Lanjuan, a senior adviser to the commission, also said last week that she's been deeply worried that the influx of infected travelers might trigger a second wave of infections in China. "We're confronted with a grim task ahead that is set to test whether we are able to tightly and strictly seal off our line of defense and avert a resurgence of the virus," she said in an interview.

In working to minimize the risk of a widening pandemic, authorities in China have already taken several measures to ramp up monitoring of returnees, reduce international flights and restrict entry for foreign nationals.

If the comprehensive response mechanism that entails proactive and prompt screening and quarantine can continue to be forcefully implemented, the chance of a fresh outbreak in China is slim, according to Zhong Nanshan, a renowned respiratory disease expert and epidemiologist.

"Based on the society-wide approach, new infections will be limited to a very small group, which will not amount to an outbreak. The prerequisite is to stay alert and actively test and isolate cases as some infected arrivals from abroad are highly contagious," Zhong told China Central Television on Friday.

Zhang Wenhong, leader of the Shanghai team of experts in the treatment of COVID-19 cases, also said that the main task of epidemic control for China at the moment is to curb the virus' spread from overseas. He said the task is "much easier compared with bringing the Wuhan situation under control in late January".

Zhang said there is no need for the public to be overly worried that the resumption of production in the country might trigger a reoccurrence of the epidemic.

"People don't need to be overly concerned as the country's fever clinic system and public health monitoring network still work at their highest capacity," he said during a live broadcast during which experts from home and abroad shared their experiences fighting the epidemic in different countries on Sunday.

A medical worker teaches a patient who contracted the novel coronavirus pneumonia to do acupressure massage to help him recover at the Wuhan pulmonary hospital in Wuhan, Hubei province, March 19, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

Asymptomatic group

By contrast, one development that is causing greater concern has been asymptomatic groups testing positive for the virus while exhibiting no symptoms.

The locally transmitted case added on Saturday has illustrated the danger of these carriers. The female patient in Luoyang, Henan province, is believed to have come into contact with a doctor on March 21, and the two then shared a vehicle and dined together. The doctor tested positive for the virus during an organized health check on Wednesday and was classified as an asymptomatic case, according to the provincial health commission.

Both Chinese and World Health Organization experts have said that many asymptomatic individuals are detected when placed under medical observation as close contacts of confirmed cases.

Even though scientists are still working on pinning down the true proportion of asymptomatic individuals, Zhong Nanshan said the epidemic's curve and the current mortality rate suggested that the number of undetected, symptom-free individuals is unlikely to be large in China.

However, Zhong, and the many other health experts, are not downplaying the challenge.
With dwindling revenues following the ongoing lockdown in the state, the Telangana government on Monday decided to implement pay cut for government employees, including All India Services Officers and pensioners.

IMAGE: Police personnel wear face masks and stand guard near Charminar during the lockdown in Hyderabad. Photograph: ANI Photo

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao held a review meeting on the state's finances in the backdrop of the coronavirus lockdown and impact on the revenues.

After the meeting it was decided to cut 75 per cent of salaries of the chief minister, ministers, MLAs, MLCs, chairmen of various corporations and local public representatives, an official release said.



There will be a pay cut of 60 per cent in AIS officers such as IAS, IPS and IFS while it will be 50 per cent in state government employees.



However, the government spared Class IV employees, outsourcing and contract employees with just 10 per cent cut.



The cut will be 10 per cent for Class IV retired employees and for all others it will be 50 per cent.



Salaries and pensions of all employees of all public sector corporations and government aided organisations will also be deducted by 50 per cent.



The release did not clarify when the dues will be paid.

Condemning the pay cut, the Telangana Bharartiya Janata Party, in a statement, said it was a hasty decision. "BJP feels it is an extreme measure and unwarranted," the party said in its statement.
Gustavo Huerta/Staff photographer

One of every 50 restaurants in Texas has gone out of business since the start of March, when the novel coronavirus began impacting the business, according to a survey by the National Restaurant Association.

Twelve percent of restaurants anticipate permanently shutting down within the next 30 days.
Payments totalling 95,000 purportedly made from the FAI to a former girlfriend of ex-FAI CEO John Delaney have been discovered in the Mazars probe into FAI affairs.

Susan Keegan, who was in a relationship with the then CEO Delaney a decade ago, engaged with officials from Mazars, the consultancy firm hired by the FAI last year to look into the financial affairs of the association.

They had been examining a payment of 60,000 from an FAI account to an account in Keegan's name, described as a match agent's fee for a role in arranging two friendly internationals against England, but extra payments of 35,000 have now been discovered as part of the Mazars examination of FAI finances.

Keegan has denied receiving the majority of the payments. Mazars officials have been unable to access invoices in the FAI's accounting system to explain the figures.

Former FAI finance director Tony Dignam said yesterday that "payments were approved by the CEO and a number of senior members of the board".

The FAI-commissioned Mazars report, which was initially due to be completed last summer, remains unpublished.

A KOSI report into the FAI, commissioned by Sport Ireland, has been completed but was not made public and has been referred to the Gardai. A probe by the ODCE (Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement) is ongoing.

Mazars were appointed by the FAI board a year ago today to "conduct an independent and in-depth external review of all matters" at the association.

At the time, the FAI said the board requested "that this review be completed as soon as possible".

Twelve months on, the final Mazars report has not been presented to Sport Ireland or the Oireachtas Committee on sport and has not been published.
"Tiger King," the Netflix documentary on the operations of Joe Exotic's Oklahoma Zoom competing head on with another big cat sanctuary in Florida, was one of the top shows in the streaming app over the weekend. The question is why?

One reason could be the surprise camoe of Shaquille O'Neal. The documentary revealed O'Neal's frequent visits to the zoo, which is shocking considering the zoo's uncovered criminal activities.

Recently, on "The Big Podcast with Shaq," he stated that he no longer went there upon knowing about these activities. "So we go in there, and it's a beautiful place, and the character that was there was Exotic Joe. We're there and I dropped some donations for the tigers' foods and all that," O'Neal detailed. "We take pictures with tigers. We went back a couple times," he added.

O'Neal, who loves big cats, then said: "Then we go back another time and we found out that he's involved with all the stuff, and then, actually, I stopped going."

Exotic's crimes are not minor. in 2019, he was found guilty of some really heinous crimes. He was found guilty last year in a murder-for-hire plot involving its Florida rival Carole Baskin.

Baskin is a known animal activist as well, apart from owning Big Car rescue. Exotic also was found guilty of animal cruelty and serving a jail sentence of 22 years. Presently, he's seeking a presidential pardon.

O'Neal clarified that he is not friends with this criminal and certainly does not know him. He said that he does not harm tigers and love them to bits, including the white tigers. He does give donations to these zoos, because he love them and want to help the tigers out. He does not own tigers, he added.

He said people would have their opinions about his comings and goings at the zoo because of the footage, but his conscience is clear with regard to Exotic. 'Don't know him. Never had any business dealings with him, and I had no idea any of that stuff was going on," he said.

"Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness" is a true crime docudrama chronicling Exotic's outrageous lifestyle at the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park. The documentary however, hardly touched on the fact that Exotic could really be a very rich man, according to Looper.

One sign of this according to the site, is that even though Exotic lived as an openly gay man, his two husbands (whom he married at the same time!) - John Finlay and Travis Maldonado, were actually straight. How did he get them to have a relationship with him then? According to USA Today, Exotic allegedly just bought their affections, with drugs and lavish gifts.

His money is reportedly a mix of hard work and inheritance. According to The Cinemaholic, his net worth of $10 million came from his zoo work but he also received $250,000 from a rich grandfather upon passing and then another $140,000 from a lawsuit against a trucking company. The company has fatally injured and killed his brother in a highway accident. The rest of the money that made up his net worth just showed how healthy of a business the G.W Zoo was.

While in jail right now, the New York Post reported that he has filed a jailhouse lawsuit against the US government for a total of $94 million in damages, covering the loss of his prized tigers among others.

READ MORE: Coronavirus: Tom Hanks Gives Major Health Update After Return to US
Editor's note: The following article contains descriptions of a medical process.

Circumcision is mentioned frequently in the Bible. It was at the heart of the covenant God established with Abraham and his descendants. And it is at the center of one of the first controversies of the new church in the New Testament.

This article will take a look at what circumcision meant to the Jews in the Old Testament, and to the challenge it presented to Christians in the New Testament.

What Is Circumcision?

Circumcision is a minor medical procedure performed on males, often as infants, but sometimes as teens or older. Medically speaking, circumcision involves removing the foreskin of the penis. It is controversial in the western world today but has been practiced by many peoples throughout history and around the world.

The reasons for the practice vary. Sometimes it is viewed as a rite of passage, a coming of age. Other times it may be done for medical reasons, although that is somewhat controversial today. And, for some, it has religious significance.

A Covenant Established with Abraham

For the Jews, circumcision was more than a rite of passage. For them it was a sign of their covenant with God. Circumcision marked them as the chosen people  Gods special treasure. Others in their time practiced circumcision, particularly in Egypt. But it seems that only for Israel did it have the significance of marking a covenant relationship with their national deity.

Shortly before Isaac was born, God directed Abraham to circumcise all the males of his household, including himself, Ishmael, and his servants (Gen. 17:1-14). This was to be an ongoing practice. Every male born into his family was to be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth.

During their stay in Egypt, the Jews became deeply immersed in Egyptian culture and religious practice (Jos. 24:14). And along with that, the practice of circumcision likely fell by the wayside. But the practice was renewed on the banks of the Jordan shortly after Israel crossed the river  but before beginning the conquest of Canaan (Jos. 5:2-9).

Throughout the remainder of the Old Testament you will frequently see the division between the circumcised and the uncircumcised. This is essentially the division between the covenant people and outsiders. Or between Jew and Gentile.

During the intertestamental time Greek culture dominated the eastern Mediterranean. The Greeks were opposed to circumcision and during the time when Israel was dominated by Greek kingdoms, circumcision was outlawed and punishable by death. This played into their ultimate rebellion under the Maccabees and a period of freedom before the Romans came. And I suspect it may have impacted the ferocity with which some Jewish Christians defended the practice during the formation of the church.

Controversy within the New Covenant

The earliest Christians were all Jews. And even as believers in the Lord Jesus, they still considered themselves Jews under a covenant relationship with God  a covenant relationship that involved circumcision. So, it was only natural that they would expect all believers to follow the Old Testament covenant requirements. And that was OK until the church began to reach beyond a Jewish audience and into the Gentile world. And then, requiring Gentile converts to become circumcised became a point of contention.

It would seem most of the early work done among the Gentiles did not advocate circumcision for them. Acts 11:19-21 is the first recorded intentional outreach to the Gentiles, taking place in Antioch. Nothing in that passage is said about circumcision. But in Acts 15:1 some Jewish believers from Judea come to Antioch and attempt to push circumcision as a requirement for salvation. That this created an uproar in the church at Antioch would indicate that this church had never required it, at least for the Gentile believers.

Paul and Barnabas were sent to Jerusalem, representing the church at Antioch as well as the greater Gentile mission. They meet with the apostles and elders there to settle this question. Must the Gentiles be circumcised in order to be saved? And the answer coming from this first church council was that no, the Gentiles did not have to be circumcised. They were essentially free from the old covenant obligations.

I believe this marked a major milestone for the new church. No longer were they a sect of Judaism, even though the church still contained thousands of practicing Jews. Instead they were a multi-ethnic body of believers. And circumcision was no longer a sign of their covenant relationship with God. While circumcision remained a contentious issue for many Jewish believers, the church, as a whole, no longer recognized it as a distinctive, or requirement, of the faith.

Circumcision of the Heart

In the Bible, circumcision almost always refers to a physical act. And this is true of Pauls writings as well. But in at least three passages he alludes to a circumcision of the heart, a spiritual circumcision. In Romans 2:28-29, Philippians 3:3 and Colossians 2:11 he discusses this spiritual circumcision. This circumcision, rather than cutting off a small part of the flesh, is a cutting off of the fleshly nature.

Colossians 2:11 especially illustrates this circumcision. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ. This circumcision is not done by human hands but by Christ. And it is not just males. All believers have experienced this circumcision of the heart by Christ.

Conclusion

Circumcision means different things to different peoples. To some it was, and still is, a rite of passage into adulthood. To others it is merely a simple medical procedure. But to the Jews it was, and still remains, a sign of Gods covenant with them.

Yet to Christians, physical circumcision has no spiritual or religious value. For us, the closest comparable thing we have to physical circumcision would be baptism. And some do view baptism in exactly that way, as a sign of our covenant relationship with God.

Photo credit: Unsplash/Ben White
A logo is displayed next to a gas turbine at the General Electric Co. (GE) energy plant in Greenville, South Carolina, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017. General Electric Co. is scheduled to release earnings figures on January 20.

The union representing the largest share of General Electric employees in the U.S. is demanding the company use its full manufacturing resources to increase its ventilator output to help fill shortages caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The members of the Industrial Division of Communication Workers of America, or IUE-CWA, protested on Monday at the company's aviation facility in Lynn, Massachusetts, as well as its headquarters in Boston after the company announced it would lay off 10% of its aviation workforce.

GE Aviation also announced that it would temporarily lay off 50% of its U.S. maintenance, repair and overhaul employees for 90 days. GE predicts these actions will save the company $500 million to $1 billion in 2020, according to a press release.

However, the IUE-CWA said that GE could leverage the employees to increase its capacity to manufacture ventilators, a piece of medical equipment that is in high demand for treating the most critical patients with COVID-19.

On Tuesday, Ford and GE Healthcare announced United Auto Workers union employees would begin manufacturing a "simplified version of GE Healthcare's existing ventilator design" to aid patients who may experience trouble breathing caused by COVID-19.

The company said it is working "around the clock" to increase production of ventilators through its partnership with Ford.

"GE Healthcare has already doubled ventilator production capacity, with a plan to double it again by June, in addition to partnering with Ford Motor Company to further increase ventilator production. We continue to explore additional opportunities to support the fight against COVID-19, while continuing to support mission-critical work for our customers as well," a company spokesperson said in a statement.

Union members held a silent protest standing 6 feet apart at the company's facility in Lynn, which the company uses for its aviation manufacturing, and marched 6 feet apart at GE headquarters in Boston.

The IUE-CWA is the larger of the two unions representing GE employees in the U.S. and represents about 4,900 employees.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that GE announced it would lay off 10% of its aviation workforce, not its total U.S. workforce.
Photo credit: .

From Men's Health

MY INSOMNIA STARTED at age 15. Each night, Id lie down to sleep and drift off pretty quickly, only to reawaken an hour or so later. Then Id remain half awake for hourseyes forced shut, stealing only a few glances at the alarm clock, mind churning with just one anxiety that seemed to grow in the darkness: When will I possibly go back to sleep?

Maybe youve felt that way too. At least 25 percent of Americans experience insomnia each year, according to a recent study by the University of Pennsylvania. And rates tend to spike during times of peak anxiety, which would be, like, right now (for so many reasons). For many people, these problems are temporarythey last for just a few weeksbut after 19 years of restless nights, my waking nightmare felt more or less permanent.

It tends to come in long bursts followed by shorter periods of relief, but at its worst points I feel like Ive slept maybe one or two hours a night. If sleep is a calm ocean of relaxation, I was the guy constantly skimming the surface. Eventually, Id submerge just before dawn broke only to be rudely awakened by the shrill call of my alarm.

But here's the twist: Whenever my partner stirs and looks over, he swears that I am actually asleep. My eyes are closed, Im breathing slowlysometimes Im even snoring. I never believed him but that posed a question as ridiculous as it was eerie: Was I awake or was I asleep? And how, come to think of it, are we really supposed to know the difference?



Photo credit: .

Photo credit: .

HERE'S WHAT THE typical insomnia experiment looks like: Participants spend the night in a laboratory while scientists measure their brains activity through electrodes placed on the scalp (a technique known as electroencephalography, or EEG for short). The next morning, the participants estimate how much they have slept, and this figure is compared with the objective measures of the electrical recordings.

But in 1972 researchers at Stanford noted a strange anomaly. For many us, the reality and our perception of it is wildly different. [People] have slept for most of the night, but they complain that they have slept very little or not at all, explains Dr. Bernd Feige, Ph.D., a sleep specialist at the University of Freiburg in Germany.

Story continues

Today, that physiological and mental disconnect holds a strange promise for people who wake up feeling like theyve tossed and turned. The condition is apparently fairly common, and if it is better recognized and treated, might help many of us sleep better at night without much effort or medication.

Its called paradoxical insomnia, and the latest research suggests that those suffering from the condition are not really awake but trapped in a bad dream limbo that simulates being awake. And that can get exhausting. If youre a paradoxical insomniac, you likely wake up anxious, concerned that youre going to be exhausted, with the sort of heightened stress that makes this cycle continually repeat. That sounded a lot like me.



The bigger question is, if you knew that, could you stop it? Many researchers believe thats possible. But so far, even defining the condition (also called pseudoinsomnia) and establishing its prevalence and causes has been a challenge. The American Psychiatric Association has yet to formulate an official diagnostic process, so sleep labs have often used different thresholds to gauge the prevalence of the phenomenon. Thats complicated by the fact that all insomniacs generally overestimate their sleep loss to some degree, so its been hard to determine clear criteria for when this misperception should be considered the primary problem.

Recent research by Professor Mauro Manconi, Ph.D., at the Neurocenter of Southern Switzerland, however, suggests that people who are off 90 percent or more in their subjective sleep estimates are likely paradoxical sufferers. (For example, for every six hours you sleep, you might claim you were out for only about 36 minutes total.) Patients with this level of misperception dont respond to the most common insomnia medications. (In the U.S. today, insomnia is most commonly treated with so called sedative-hypnotic drugs; the most popular is zolpidem, which is prescribed to more than 5 million patients each year.) So we are dealing with something very different, says Manconi.

With this definition, around one in six people diagnosed with insomnia are really paradoxical insomniacs who are being treated with existing therapies that may be ill suited to their true condition. If you consider other potential measures, such as a 50 percent error in the patients estimation of the time it takes to get to sleep (rather than the total sleep time), then the prevalence can rise to more than 60 percent. And that doesnt account for everyone suffering without seeking medical help, who may be self-medicating with everything from booze to natural remedies and over-the-counter sleep aids.

The upshot is that a lot of peoplepotentially millions of usmay not be caring for ourselves correctly. On the other hand, if you (much like me) feel like youve never had any lasting relief from, well, anything, theres at least an explanation.

Photo credit: .

Photo credit: .

A DECADE AGO, the chief explanation for paradoxical insomnia was that people with the condition are simply light sleepers, and are likely to awake briefly throughout the night. Although those short periods of awareness might not make much difference to the overall quantity of sleep, the regular awakenings could be enough to create the impression of prolonged sleeplessness.

In recent years, as more studies have advanced, researchers have speculated that the mismatch between objective and subjective sleep measures is caused by small pockets of heightened brain activity in an otherwise sleeping brain. If so, its a little like the way that dolphins sleep with half of their brain at a timeone brain hemisphere sleeps while the other remains alert to control their breathing and swimming. Except dolphins seem to remain pretty chipper.

People may base their judgment on whether they are asleep or not on the activity of these brain regions, says Professor Daniel Kay, Ph.D, a sleep scientist at Brigham Young University. In his sleep lab, Kay has used a different kind of brain-scanning technique called positron emission tomography, or PET, to record the activity of peoples deeper brain regions. He found that the perception of being awake coincided with heightened activity in what he refers to as the brains hot zone of conscious awareness. EEG recordings cant pick up on this deeper, regionalized activity; they only register the slowing of activity at the surface of the brain, which appears to resemble normal sleep.

While that may explain some peoples paradoxical insomnia, it cant rule out other theories that may apply to other patients. An analysis by Feiges Germany-based team offers the tantalizing possibility that some cases of paradoxical insomnia may arise from an inability to distinguish dreams from reality. Over the course of a night, the brain cycles between two different types of sleeprapid eye movement (REM) sleep, when we dream, and quiescent sleep, which tends to involve fewer dreams. Each type has its own signature of electrical activity, and these are both different from waking activity.

To investigate the possibility that we may be mistaking dreams for waking consciousness, Feige concocted a study that resembles an insomniacs true nightmare: His team invited 54 participants (including 27 self-identified insomniacs) to spend four nights in his sleep lab and woke them at various points to find out what they were experiencing.

The results, published in 2018, showed few differences between healthy sleepers and insomniacs during quiescent (non-REM) sleep, but a huge divide during REM sleep, with around a third of the insomniac patients claiming to have been awake during that periodwhen their brain activity suggested that they were in fact lost in dreams. The healthy sleepers, in contrast, practically never said that they had been awake when awoken from REM sleep.

From these results, the team hypothesizes that a healthy sleeper has vivid fantasies so obviously different from their waking state that it is easy to recognize that theyve been asleep. For the paradoxical insomniac, however, dreams are full of the rumination that they would be having if they were actually awake, making the two states indistinguishable: Their insomnia is really a dream about insomnia.

Feige thinks this could arise from general anxieties that seep into the unconscious. Dream content is something that you take from your daytime experience into sleep, he says. If you go to sleep with positive emotions then its more likely that your dreams will also show these positive emotions. But if you go to sleep with worries, then its more likely that your dreams will reflect those worries.

These three theories may all be true. The brief micro-awakenings, the localized conscious brain activity, and the misinterpreted dreams could work together to create your misperception; each may play a role in the experience.

A greater understanding of these processes could offer tailored treatments for fake sleep sufferers. Feige, for instance, points out that cognitive behavioral therapy is already available to alter other types of recurring dreams and nightmares. It involves revisiting the events of the dream and rewriting the script with a happier ending. If paradoxical insomnia really is a ruminative dream, then a similar approach might help us avoid its reappearing in the future.

A few months ago, I decided to try it out myself. During the day, Id try to reimagine the fretful nighttime state in which my mind is whirring with worries, and then imagine my thoughts slowing down until I was in a kind of meditative calmness, looking forward to the day ahead rather than agonizing over sleep loss. If my insomnia was really a dream, I reasoned, this could produce a more restful night. When I got into bed each night, I also gave myself something new to focus on: not sheep, exactly, but counting down from 1,000, which helps me avoid priming my brain with ruminations about my insomnia.

Today I usually conk out at around 925. But the main difference is that I then stay asleep a lot longer. I cant say Im fully cured, but the periods of (perceived) sleeplessness appear to be losing their grip. Sometimes I still feel like Im skimming the surface of unconsciousness, but Im calmer about it. It feels like Im clocking around six or seven out of eight hours of good sleep, which is pretty normal.

More than anything, the simple realization that my body can be asleep even if my brain is signaling something slightly different has helped relieve some of the anxiety in my daily life. My dreams today tend to be mundane but pleasant, without the incessant rumination that once haunted themand thats incredibly refreshing.

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Balancing act: trying to work and look after the kids can prove to be a little chaotic

Balancing act: trying to work and look after the kids can prove to be a little chaotic

When my children were small, it became obvious that it would be more practical for me to work from home rather than go to an office daily.

It even seemed like the ideal solution for a working mother. The daily rush to get the kids to the childminder, or then to the nursery school; the elaborate arrangements for picking up on time, or boxing and coxing with other parents to collect their children in fair exchange for reciprocal arrangements - always a stress.

Simple solution. I was a journalist and writer and I could work from home. Unlike other women I knew who needed to be present at their place of employment, I had that choice. Wasn't I lucky? And that was how I proceeded from there on.

It was a useful option - and today, with communications so much more developed through electronic media, it can be for many more people. Yet to be honest, I really did miss the office, especially at the beginning.

I missed the presence of colleagues. I missed the jokes, the camaraderie, the banter, the interchange, the feeling of collegiality. I missed having somewhere else to go on a routine basis.

Newspapers, before the technology revolution of the 1980s and 1990s got going, were often noisy places. The clatter of typewriters filled the air.

The 'back bench' - a desk of men, and the occasional woman, which commanded the proceedings - seemed shouty and agitated, hollering peremptory orders like "splash sub!" and "replate!". The yelling would probably nowadays be called 'bullying', but I liked all that - the sense of urgency, of meeting the deadline, of getting the edition away. A newspaper office throbbed with life itself.

I loved the collaborative element of working alongside other people. Even the editor, who was always right (even when he was wrong), would sometimes wander through the open-plan place and ask a lowly reporter: "What do you think of this picture for the front page?"

It was useful to be able to seek a colleague's advice or draw out an idea over the rather filthy stuff that passed for coffee in those days. It was enjoyable to be part of a gossip circuit - though perhaps not always so enjoyable to be the object of the gossip.

And then there were the pubs, which were part of the working scene. Granted, they were to contribute to my downfall on more than one occasion, but they were a terrific part of the collectivity of a working life. In London, it was El Vino on Fleet Street; in Dublin, Mulligan's on Poolbeg Street, or the Pearl Bar. Great conversations were had with the folks you worked with (even leave aside the illicit romances).

And there was a learning element to those work-pub sessions too. We younger journos sat with older men and women who told instructive and often hilarious stories of the profession - no, journalism has always been called a 'trade' - in times gone by. There was a terrific left-wing writer, James Cameron, whose legendary expenses sheet after a foreign assignment read: "For taxi to Waterloo Station: five shillings. For hire of camel: 2,000." We loved to hear that story.

Among the Bedouin people, apparently, the younger members of the tribe sit around the camp fire and listen to the elders' tales. That is how a sense of identity and remembrance is preserved. It was all something like that.

But when you have young children, you have to adjust your way of life anyway. There isn't time for a parallel existence outside of home responsibilities. You need to focus on priorities. And I did adjust to working from home - as so many people are doing now in the present coronavirus emergency.

There are many benefits too. You can arrange your own timetable. If there's an extra workload, you can always rise earlier. You don't waste time commuting and you don't have much opportunity to waste time gossiping with colleagues anymore.

It isn't always as easy to get down to work at home, rather than clocking in at a specific time at the office. But the Somerset Maugham rule for writers can be useful for all: the muse, he said, appears at 9am. Actually, there is no muse, but a professional writer sits at his desk at nine in the morning and starts writing.

The downside, as many are discovering, is that working from home means there is little division between work and home life.

There was a moment, I do recall, when the children were bawling their heads off, and I was pounding away at a typewriter, meeting some deadline, my husband remarked sarcastically: "You might try practising family values instead of writing about them!"

The image now appears to me like a Punch cartoon about how the world will go to hell in a handcart if mothers don't attend to their proper duties.

Actually, I argued - to myself and others - it's a good thing for children to watch their mothers, and fathers, at work.

Before the Industrial Revolution, and even in agricultural life, families formed their own cottage industry, working together.

Everyone pitched in. In some respects, the future may come to uncannily resemble the past.
Meditate is a word used in Scripture several times. For example, Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night (Joshua 1:8). Is this the same sort of meditation that Buddhists speak of? How do Buddhists and Christians define meditation differently?

Definition of Meditation

The Western understanding of meditation is derived from the Latin meditationem and the French meditacion, which led to meditacioun around AD 1200. This means contemplation; devout preoccupation; private devotions, prayer, as well as thought, reflection, study, or a thinking over. The root med- leads to take appropriate measures.

The Eastern definition of meditation relates to Hindu and Buddhist practices. Within Buddhism, there are several branches and numerous ways to meditate leading to different results. At the simplest level, Buddhist meditation stills the body while unifying body and mind.

Methods of Meditation

Buddhists identify several ways of meditating. One might find a quiet place such as ones home or a peaceful outdoor setting. Meditation takes place in groups such as the zendo or meditation room of a retreat. Buddhists sometimes use mantras (repeated phrases) perhaps from sacred Buddhist writings, and also walk to meditate which is the popular Zen way.

There is a form called Tantric meditation where one visualizes complex images of Buddha forms and recite[s] sacred sounds or mantras. Another popular method is to follow the breathing towards stillness, which is why yoga and meditation work well together.

Christians meditate on Gods Word by finding places of stillness and quiet or by joining groups, which offer directed study. Like Buddhists, they meditate on sacred texts, but unlike Buddhists, Scripture is always key.

For the Christian, like the Buddhist, there is no rule as to how one meditates, whether alone or in a group, sitting, standing, or walking. Christians do not repeat mantras because we have a responsibility to know the meaning of what we are saying. If we utter mantras we dont understand, those words are idle.

Jesus stated, I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak (Matthew 12:36). We pray in Jesus name only. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34). For the Christian, repeating Gods word, such as the Lords prayer, is a matter of love and devotion; it is meaningful and heartfelt, not a matter of mere rote.

Purposes of Meditation

1. Learning Self-Discipline

Meditation teaches self-discipline because its boring, and because the body gets uncomfortable. Buddhists focus the mind in order to facilitate body-mind unity and even elevation of the body-mind to a place of spiritual enlightenment without God.

God does not ask us to experience gratuitous discomfort in order to get closer to Him. Christians do not develop self-control by being bored or by hurting themselves. Meditating on Scripture is not boring to the heart which delights in God (Psalm 37:4). One can meditate on Gods Word anywhere, in any posture.

Learning self-discipline is a by-product of maturity in Christ, not an end in itself. Scripture nourishes: Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation (1 Peter 2:2).

The Word edifies: Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock (Matthew 7:24). One cannot retain the wisdom of Scripture without first stilling ones mind to read and absorb it. While there is wisdom in learning to focus, the Christian does so in order to tune out the world and hear what the Father says about Himself and His Son.

2. The Inner Experience

Buddhists train their thoughts towards the inner experience of thoughts, feelings and perceptions. The belief is that mental states we experience are the key to everything in our lives so meditation unlocks a door to the inner self. During meditation practices, one might be invited to let go of anger and develop an attitude of loving-kindness using memory, imagination and awareness of bodily sensations.

A Buddhist belief is that one can develop kindness towards the self and manifest that kindness with a phrase such as may I be well and happy, may I progress. The ultimate goal of Buddhist meditation is to live at peace with the world, with ones self, and to develop self-knowledge.

Scripture teaches how to respond to suffering because in this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (John 16:33). We are not promised happiness or a life free from suffering. We can experience joy amid suffering, even because of it (James 1:2-4).

We do not live for ourselves but for others, serving them in order to serve Christ our Savior. One of the most prevalent idols people face today is the idol of the self. David Powlinson said, We are always listening to a voice and that voice can be one we self-generate. Psalmist invites God to examine his heart. (Psalm 139:23)

The one who follows Christ, when looking inward, will see sin and repent of it. Self-examination according to Gods standards is positive. Progress is measured as maturity in Him; Fruit of the Spirit. If Christians believe that the key to everything in our lives comes from within, we forget the cross; we forget what it cost the Father for us to be reunited with Him.

We become our own solution to sin, but how can sinful flesh fulfill the law? It cannot. God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do (Romans 8:3). He sent His Son to model love and to die for our anger and selfishness; sins done by us and against us.

Christians concentrate on unity with God through the Spirit given by the Son. Instead of inward, passive meditation, believers are motivated and inspired to take appropriate measures as per that earlier definition of meditation, and as defined by God in His Word.

3. Taking the Worlds Suffering

Tibetans practice breathing in the suffering of others and breathing out a purifying white light in order to cultivat[e] compassion. Buddhism offers guidelines for beginning a life free from unnecessary suffering.

Jesus died on the cross to take the punishment for everyones sin. God sees believers through the blood of Christ, and we are freed to be a light to others and to show compassion, as a reflection of the true light: Christ.

Our purpose, as believers, is to employ the Fruit of the Spirit to meet people in the middle of their pain and neediness and thereby point them to the hope of eternal relief from suffering in eternity with Jesus.

4. Self-Help

Buddhists concentrate on every feeling or thought without rejecting or denying it, then put them all aside so the mind is not carried away by worries, anxieties, and endless hopes and fears. One is freed from the defilements of the mind, the suffering of the mind, leaving the truth of this vast, unidentifiable moment plain to see.

Buddhists try to separate thoughts and feelings in order to become fully aware. Practitioners aim for unity of spirit and mind in order to take control of the mind so that it becomes peaceful and focused.

Seeking truth is essential to the Christian walk, but whose truth? Inner truth? Paul wrote, Be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2). We are warned that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9).

God encourages rational faith and teaches discernment. Israel was instructed to keep Gods commandments, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding (Deuteronomy 4:6). As for living in the moment, when we mature in our walk with the Father, we develop patience to live in the moment with Him.

Christian Meditation

Christians are invited to meditate so they can learn and grow; so, they can claim the Lords comforting and trustworthy promises. Scripture provides guidance and answers many questions. The result is greater peace, calm, and rest but also, eventually, action. Christian meditation leads beyond the self whereas Buddhist meditation involves an unhealthy degree of self-focus. Emptying the mind leaves one exposed to demonic influences and encourages escape from reality.

Its okay to take a break from the worries of life, but Buddhist meditation elevates the deepest inner self to the place of refuge whereas Christians seek refuge in God. He is our Rock and Redeemer (Psalm 19:14), our hiding place and [] shield (Psalm 119:14). Christians are not perfected, elevated, or saved by their meditation; grace has saved believers; therefore, Jesus Christ deserves our undivided attention.

iStock/Getty Images Plus/littlehenrabi

Candice Lucey is a freelance writer from British Columbia, Canada, where she lives with her family. Find out more about her here.
A woman wearing a face mask walks on a deserted street of downtown Moscow on March 30, 2020 as the city and its surrounding regions imposed lockdowns today, that were being followed by other Russian regions in a bid to slow the spread of the COVID-19 infection caused by the novel coronavirus.(DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images)

Moscow Mayor Orders Lockdown as CCP Virus Cases Exceed 1,000

Tougher measures to come as city braces for outbreak

The mayor of Moscow ordered all residents of the city to stay home, except for essential outings, as the city confirmed more than 1,000 cases of COVID-19.

Residents can only leave their homes for emergency medical help, trips to work for those who are required to continue working, visits to the nearest grocery store and pharmacy, dog walks within 300 feet of a building, and throwing out trash.

Mayor Sergey Sobyanin issued the order on March 29. He had previously ordered the closing of all bars, restaurants, shops, and parks.

Sobyanin noted that some of the residents havent been abiding by previous orders. Moscow authorities are working on a system which would require people to carry special passes to travel in the city. Officials are also working on a smart control system to monitor movements in the city, according to the mayor.

The lockdown order doesnt prohibit anyone from entering or leaving the city.

The mayor also asked residents and essential business to abide by social distancing measures, with taxis being the only exceptions.

Prior orders from federal and local authorities reduced the density in the city by a third, according to Sobyanin.

This is very good. But obviously, not everyone got the message, Sobyanin said. Nevertheless, the extremely negative turn of events that we see in the largest cities in Europe and the USA causes great concern for the life and health of our citizens.

According to Sobyanin, roughly 20 percent of the residents didnt abide by the previous orders. There is currently no legal mechanism to enforce the lockdown, so police can only issue warnings. The federal government could authorize enforcement measures by declaring a state of emergency, experts told the Kommersant newspaper. Russia hasnt yet declared a state of emergency.

While Russian President Vladimir Putin last week asked Russians to stay home for a week beginning on March 30, he stopped short of ordering any lockdowns, leaving it to local officials to enact measures. In the northwest region of Karelia, public transport has been shut down. In the city of Ivanovo, police are questioning locals who are outside about their destinations.

Russia reported 302 new cases of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, on March 30 for a total of 1,836; nine people died of COVID-19 in the country. Moscow is at the epicenter of the outbreak with more than two-thirds of the nations cases confirmed in the capital. The city reported 212 new CCP virus cases on March 30.

Editors note: Read why The Epoch Times has adopted the term Chinese Communist Party virus (CCP virus) instead of novel coronavirus.
Doctor's Day like no other

AdventHealth Physician Services Directors deliver gifts to Family Medicine Doctor Matthew Mahar.

Today is Doctor's Day.

AdventHealth Hendersonville is celebrating its physicians and their commitment to whole-person care for people across Western North Carolina. The health care system recognizes its physicians every year on Doctors Day. This national recognition takes place every year on March 30.



We look forward to this day every year. But the COVID-19 pandemic is making it even more important for us to take time to let our doctors know how much we appreciate all they are doing to continue the care and support of our patients and our other team members, said Christy Sneller, AdventHealth Hendersonville Vice President of Physician Services.



AdventHealth Physician Services delivered gifts to the doctors across the nearly 40 clinical locations on Monday, March 30. The gift included a cell phone disinfection station.

We had decided on the UV cell phone disinfection devices before the pandemic hit, but this turned out to be a very timely gift for this amazing team of doctors here at AdventHealth, said Sneller.



The physicians were surprised and enjoyed the break in their busy days of caring for patients and encouraging their team members through this pandemic.

AdventHealth shows its appreciation for us and support all the time, but having the leaders stop in to take a moment to thank us and encourage us on Doctors Day is very much appreciated, especially at this time in the world of health care, said Teresa Bradley, MD, FAAFP, AdventHealth Family Medicine physician.





National Doctor's Day takes place every year on March 30 in the United States to celebrate the contribution of physicians to our communities.
Metropolitan Police officers have tasered a man who they say deliberately coughed at them and claimed to be infected with coronavirus.

The forces firearms command said on Twitter the suspect walked up to officers who were sat in a car in Haringey, north London, and shouted that he had coronavirus before deliberately coughing saliva all over them.

Officers said he then began to physically attack them and was tasered and arrested.

He later tested negative for Covid-19. The man has been bailed until early April.

Haringey Police later tweeted: This is the sad reality of what your front-liners are faced with. This will not be tolerated.

Thank you MPS Firearms for your assistance with this individual, we appreciate your help.

Police officers are still being deliberately coughed or spat on by members of the public despite warnings that such actions could lead to jail time.

The public was warned last week by Max Hill, director of public prosecutions, that using coronavirus as a threat against emergency workers would be treated as a crime carrying a punishment of up to two years in prison.

Deliberately coughing at other key workers, including supermarket staff, could be prosecuted as a common assault which could lead up to six months in prison.

On Saturday, police arrested Peter Davy, 65, who allegedly spat at officers after they were called to a report of criminal damage at a block of flats in Albion Street, Brighton.

Davy is due to appear at Brighton Magistrates' Court on Monday. He is accused of three counts of assaulting an emergency worker and charged with using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause fear of violence and harassment, alarm or distress.

In Salford, during a separate incident, a hospital workers was left with a fractured cheekbone after he was punched in the face.

Daniel Shevlin, 27, was charged with Section 20 ssault and an offence under Section 4a of the Public Order Act after the alleged incident at Salford Royal Infirmary on Sunday, said Greater Manchester Police.

The NHS staff member, a man in his 50s, required treatment for a fractured cheekbone but has since been discharged.

Shevlin, of no fixed abode, was remanded in custody and due to appear at Manchester and Salford Magistrates' Court on Monday.
William J. Maxwell, a professor of English and of African-American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, coedited Romance in Marseille, which Penguin Classics published. He said Ms. Rotor has a more post-Eurocentric sense of what a classic can be, and has consciously tried to widen that definition. While running the imprint, Ms. Rotor has broadened the number of its books by Asian-American, Caribbean and African writers. She wants to work on adding more Latinx and Native American writers, as well. Ms. Rotors expansive definition of classics applies to genre, too  she has brought more horror, science fiction and fantasy under the Penguin Classics mantle.

In the past, the inclusion of these books in discussions about classics, or their use in college classes, was a matter of sometimes heated debate, but Mr. Maxwell has seen those arguments quieting down in recent years. We now understand that there are multiple canons, that theyve shifted over time, he said. Canons dont come down from God. Theyre shaped by sociology.

The books being added to lists of classics, Mr. Maxwell said, are broadening and complicating our understanding of history. Writers themselves havent respected the narrowing of the canon in many cases, he said, citing as an example how scholars now have a deeper understanding of the Harlem Renaissance as a more geographically and culturally expansive period than was once believed. Canons are not just about finding new stuff, he said. Theyre about finding space for old stuff that didnt seem economically and culturally commodifiable. Ms. Rotor agrees, though she also revels in unearthing new work. Theres just so much more crate-digging, she said. Its endless. You never know what you can find.

Though there is growing consensus across the book industry about the need to diversify its offerings, including titles from its backlists, there have been moments of controversy about the best way to go about it. In February, for instance, Barnes & Noble came under fire for promoting classic books with new covers portraying characters whose race hadnt been specified, but were long presumed to be white, as people of color. The initiative was canceled after a barrage of criticism from those who thought promoting books by black writers during Black History Month would have been just one of many better, more appropriate possible strategies.

Still, Mr. Maxwell notes the significance of publishing under the Penguin Classics banner, with the books instantly recognizable black spines and penguin logo. You can sort of think about these books as one unit, and you can start to see the cross pressures in the way that theyre put together, he said.

A significant portion of Penguin Classics sales are from course adoptions by high schools or colleges, where students increasingly expect a more inclusive selection of texts. Ms. Rotor said her team focuses on giving readers opportunities to intellectually and culturally gather around a book, often in a classroom.

Ms. Rotor said she and her team are listening to communities when it comes to deciding which books to tackle next. Its nothing to do with our editors saying, We have just deemed this a canonical text, she said. Instead: Were seeing what people are expecting from us, and we want to bring those stories, and a more diverse and inclusive program of stories, into our series.
By Carl O'Donnell (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories said on Friday it won U.S. marketing approval for a diagnostic test for the coronavirus that can deliver results to patients within minutes and be used in physicians offices and urgent care clinics, as well as hospitals. The United States now has more cases of the coronavirus than any other country, and hospitals have struggled to meet the demand to test thousands of people for the often-deadly virus.

By Carl O'Donnell

(Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories said on Friday it won U.S. marketing approval for a diagnostic test for the coronavirus that can deliver results to patients within minutes and be used in physicians offices and urgent care clinics, as well as hospitals.

The United States now has more cases of the coronavirus than any other country, and hospitals have struggled to meet the demand to test thousands of people for the often-deadly virus.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted the approval under its Emergency Use Authorization.

Abbott said in a statement that it plans to begin distributing the test next week and will ramp up manufacturing to 50,000 tests per day.

"This is a significant leap forward," John Frels, vice president of research and development at Abbott, said in an interview with Reuters. "You can get a positive result in five minutes and a negative result in 13 minutes. You can walk into a clinic and literally get results while you are there."

The portable test will run on Abbott's ID NOW platform.

It is the second test to be approved by the FDA that can be used directly in physicians' offices and other community healthcare settings and promptly provide results to patients. Last week, the FDA approved a test made by Cepheid that can be used at the point of care.

"The COVID-19 pandemic will be fought on multiple fronts, and a portable molecular test that offers results in minutes adds to the broad range of diagnostic solutions needed to combat this virus," said Robert Ford, president and chief operating officer at Abbott, in a statement.

Abbott received approval last week for a high volume, automated diagnostic test that can be used in laboratories and said at the time it would immediately distribute 150,000 of the tests around the country.

Between the two platforms, Abbott said it plans to produce 5 million tests per month.

The FDA has been rushing to approve tests for the coronavirus on an emergency basis and has approved others made by companies including Roche Holding AG and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc .

With the expansion of testing has come a surge in confirmed cases of COVID-19. Reuters reported on Friday that the United States now has more than 100,000 cases.

(Reporting by Carl O'Donnell; Editing by Leslie Adler)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
(Sharecast News) - London stocks were down but off lows by midday on Monday as oil prices slid and as investors came to terms with the prospect of a prolonged lockdown.

The FTSE 100 was down 1.1% at 5,451.40.



Investors were digesting news that the People's Bank of China has cut its seven-day reverse repo rate - which covers short-term loans - to 2.2% from 2.4%, which is the largest cut in half a decade.



Oanda analyst Craig Erlam said: "The news over the weekend was no more pleasant, with the death count nearing 34,000, up almost 7,000 since Friday. Italy will be hoping that two consecutive days of fewer deaths is cause for optimism, although it may be cautious optimism following last week's false dawn.



"The raft of global stimulus measures continued on Monday, with the People's Bank of China cutting the reverse repo rate by 20 basis points, Monetary Authority of Singapore lowering the midpoint of the currency band and Australia preparing to commit to $80 billion of spending over the next six months which includes wages subsidies.



"As we've seen already though, these measures aren't having the same impact in the market as they have in the past. While they may soften the blow of any downturn, they stand no chance of preventing it altogether and a global recession is coming. The hope though is that these measures will ensure it is as brief as possible and maybe even turbo charge the recovery."



In equity markets, Rolls-Royce slid as the Telegraph reported that the aerospace and defence engineer was facing a cash flow crisis due to the collapse in air travel caused by the coronavirus. Also on Monday, JPMorgan cut its estimates for the European civil aerospace sector and said there is now a 75% chance that Rolls-Royce will need to issue equity. JPM also said that Standard & Poor's and possibly other ratings agencies will downgrade RR to non-investment grade.



Aerospace engineer Meggitt was sharply lower.



Convenience food group Greencore fell after saying it was suspending its full-year guidance and scrapping its interim dividend amid a drop in demand for its food to go products due to the coronavirus outbreak.



Budget airline easyJet slid as it said it was grounding its entire fleet in response to "unprecedented" travel restrictions and lockdowns imposed by governments in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The company said it had reached agreement with the Unite union on furlough arrangements for its cabin crew. The deal would be effective from April 1 for two months and meant that crew will be paid 80% of their average pay through the government's job retention scheme.



Shopping centre owner Hammerson tumbled after it pulled its final dividend and guidance as government lockdowns forced many of its tenants to shutter their stores.



Dixons Carphone was knocked lower by a downgrade at RBC Capital Markets, while Cineworld slumped after a downgrade at JPMorgan.



On the upside, oil giants BP and Royal Dutch Shell were both on the front foot even as oil prices fell to 18-year lows.



Pennon gained ground as it said its performance for 2019/20 was in line with management expectations, with revenue down due to prolonged wet weather.



Johnson Matthey rose even as the specialty chemicals company warned annual results would miss expectations after the coronavirus crisis reduced demand and delayed shipments.



Market Movers



FTSE 100 (UKX) 5,451.40 -1.07%

FTSE 250 (MCX) 14,281.67 -3.30%

techMARK (TASX) 3,166.75 -2.45%



FTSE 100 - Risers



Polymetal International (POLY) 1,348.50p 3.77%

Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,313.80p 2.42%

Pearson (PSON) 530.80p 2.31%

Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,256.80p 2.13%

BP (BP.) 311.35p 1.91%

Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,791.50p 1.88%

BHP Group (BHP) 1,209.60p 1.85%

Pennon Group (PNN) 1,091.50p 1.77%

Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,117.50p 1.31%

Rentokil Initial (RTO) 366.60p 1.30%



FTSE 100 - Fallers



Meggitt (MGGT) 266.30p -14.10%

Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 328.70p -9.87%

Melrose Industries (MRO) 96.08p -9.53%

Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,539.00p -8.56%

Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,491.50p -8.38%

Land Securities Group (LAND) 532.80p -7.34%

easyJet (EZJ) 552.60p -7.09%

Carnival (CCL) 912.20p -7.07%

Centrica (CNA) 37.20p -6.93%

British Land Company (BLND) 319.60p -6.55%



FTSE 250 - Risers



PureTech Health (PRTC) 241.00p 12.09%

BMO Commercial Property Trust Limited (BCPT) 63.20p 7.85%

Cranswick (CWK) 3,630.00p 4.37%

Avast (AVST) 379.80p 4.00%

Capita (CPI) 32.45p 3.34%

Cairn Energy (CNE) 83.35p 2.90%

Synthomer (SYNT) 234.20p 2.27%

Worldwide Healthcare Trust (WWH) 2,745.00p 2.23%

Elementis (ELM) 50.50p 2.10%

Centamin (DI) (CEY) 127.10p 1.84%



FTSE 250 - Fallers



Hammerson (HMSO) 69.98p -18.15%

Dixons Carphone (DC.) 66.24p -17.80%

Airtel Africa (AAF) 40.38p -17.59%

Cineworld Group (CINE) 44.92p -16.01%

Frasers Group (FRAS) 180.80p -13.99%

Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 240.20p -13.63%

Provident Financial (PFG) 193.75p -12.05%

Just Group (JUST) 50.00p -11.97%

Marston's (MARS) 35.30p -11.71%

Hill & Smith Holdings (HILS) 859.00p -11.67%
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-31 03:53:28|Editor: xuxin

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The Extraordinary G20 Trade and Investment Ministers Virtual Meeting on COVID-19 under the G20 Saudi Arabia Presidency is held virtually in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, March 30, 2020. The G20 trade and investment ministers vowed on Monday to ensure the continued flow of essential supply, especially medical and pharmaceutical equipment, amid the current global crisis. (G20 General Secretariat of Saudi Presidency/Handout via Xinhua)

RIYADH, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The G20 trade and investment ministers vowed on Monday to ensure the continued flow of essential supply, especially medical and pharmaceutical equipment, amid the current global crisis.

They issued a statement on the website of the G20 General Secretariat of Saudi Presidency, expressing concern of challenges facing workers and businesses, particularly the most vulnerable ones.

The statement also stressed efforts to take collective response which is supportive of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, and recognize the importance of strengthening international investment.

"We agree that emergency measures designed to tackle COVID-19, if deemed necessary, must be targeted, proportionate, transparent, and temporary and they do not create unnecessary barriers to trade or disruption to global supply chains, " the officials said.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 30

By Yusif Aghayev  Trend:

Some slowdown in business activity caused by the need to take urgent measures to fight the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) can certainly affect the country's insurance market, Chairman of the board of the Azerbaijan Insurers Association (AIA) Azer Aliyev told Trend.

Most obviously, at first, the indicators for collecting premiums will decrease. In general, in the conditions of certain critical situations arising in the economic space, the insurance sector suffers first of all. This is because the insurance costs fall primarily under the sequestration as expenses not related to the satisfaction of primary and urgent needs, Aliyev noted.

However, this is not a reason to give up. It is during this period, when many, observing the special quarantine regime, are in isolation, that the insurance community must promptly prepare a plan for switching to a remote mode of operations. Those challenges that face society in the context of the spread of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), cause concern about tomorrow, the well-being of their and their loved ones, the chairman said.

Aliyev noted that under these conditions, the activities of insurance companies should be aimed at creating new insurance products that can meet the needs of customers in new changed conditions, as well as expanding online sales, adding that right now its important to convey a message to the public, which says: "Only with insurance you can protect yourself from existing risks and confidently look to the future".

Digitalization in the Azerbaijani insurance sector is at the level that such types of compulsory insurance as compulsory motor third-party liability insurance (OSAGO) and insurance against industrial accidents and occupational diseases are already carried out in electronic format, without paper documentation. The electronic platform of many insurance companies allows the issuance of insurance contracts for voluntary types. So, travel insurance has long been issued in many companies in this format, said the chairman.

According to Underwriting Director in Azerbaijans AtaSigorta insurance company Nigar Ibrahimova, the company switched to issuing insurance certificates for comprehensive motor vehicle insurance (CASCO) in electronic format. In trun, Gala Sigorta insurance company launched a mobile application on compulsory insurance.

We are not making bright plans, but we are optimistic about the future! I am sure that in this difficult situation, the entire insurance community of Azerbaijan will be able to unite and demonstrate solidarity with the people, Aliyev concluded.
Saudi Aramco, the worlds largest oil producer, is weighing the sale of a stake in its pipeline unit to raise money amid a slump in crude prices, according to people familiar with the matter.

Aramco may need to raise cash this year as it confronts a historic rout in oil prices and a burgeoning list of spending obligations. The company has reaffirmed its commitment to pay out $75 billion in dividends this year and also needs to make the first installment for its $70 billion acquisition of a stake in chemicals producer Saudi Basic Industries Corp.

Aramco, the worlds most valuable publicly traded company after selling shares on the Riyadh exchange last year, could raise more than $10 billion from the sale, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Aramco has already held some preliminary discussions with potential advisers on the deal, but talks are still at an early stage and Aramco may decide against a sale, the people said.

Saudi Aramco declined to comment.

Aramco is ramping up oil supply at a time demand is falling off a cliff as travel restrictions are placed on people all around the world to stop the spread of coronavirus. The company has said it will keeping flooding the market with historic levels of oil at least through May, but the extra volume isnt enough to compensate for the 67% drop in prices this year.

The crash has already caused Aramco to slash planned spending. Capital expenditure would be between $25 billion and $30 billion in 2020 and spending plans for next year and beyond are being reviewed. The oil giant is lowering that range from the planned $35 billion to $40 billion announced in its IPO prospectus.

Neighboring Abu Dhabi has already raised $4 billion from investors including KKR & Co. and BlackRock Inc. in a similar deal to the one Aramco is now considering.

Aramco Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan said last month that he was looking for ways to raise money from the company. We have a lot of assets that could be monetized because they are non-core assets, which can improve the performance of the company, he said in an interview with David Rubenstein, without giving further details.
Amid coronavirus scare, the



Odisha Assembly on Monday unanimously passed the Appropriation Bill allowing the state government to spend Rs 1.55 lakh crore from its consolidated fund during the financial year 2020-21.

The House, which held a brief session at the convention centre in Lok Seva Bhawan instead of the Assembly building as Odisha's third COVID-19 patient was found to have come in contact with seven Vidhan Sabha employees, was adjourned side die following the passage of the Bill.

The Odisha Appropriation Bill, 2020 was introduced by Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari while Leader of Opposition Pradipta Kumar Naik of the BJP and Congress Legislature Party Leader Narasingha Mishra supported it.

The Bill was passed unanimously, said senior BJD lawmaker Amar Prasad Satpathy.

Pujari had presented the annual budget in the Assembly on February 18.

However, due to novel coronavirus outbreak and subsequent adjournment of the Assembly from March 16 to March 29, discussion on Demands of Grants of all the departments could not be taken up, he said.

The Finance Minister sought support from all the members in fighting COVID-19. "We have so far been able to contain the spread of the disease by taking timely action," Pujari said, adding the fight against the deadly virus continues and therefore, everyone should support the state government.

He said the new fiscal beginning from April will start with the fight against COVID-19 that has claimed many lives across the globe including in the US and Italy.

"Apart from other developmental activities, the state government requires funds to tackle the COVID-19," Pujari said.

Journalists were not allowed inside the convention centre where the House assembled for an hour to pass the Appropriation Bill. The convention centre was sanitised by the employees of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation before the sitting commenced.

Following a request by Speaker S N Patro, only 30 per cent of the 147 MLAs of the Assembly attended the session and members were allotted seats at two metre distance from each other as a social distancing measure.

All the MLAs were thermally screened before they entered the convention centre.

The speaker had suspended the Assembly proceedings till March 29 following the coronavirus outbreak.

On March 13, Patro had also announced that the budgetary demands for grants for 38 departments scheduled for discussion between March 16 and 27 were passed through guillotine before the Appropriation Bill.

Around 50 MLAs including Speaker S N Patro, who participated in the Monday session, were seen wearing masks and entered into the House after washing their hands.

Some of them were also seen wearing hand gloves while a few others themselves drove their cars to the Lok Seva Bhawan instead of being chauffeured to the venue, a legislator said.

This is for the first time in the last six decades that the House proceedings were held outside the Assembly building. The entire Assembly building has been sanitised and all the staff members have been home quarantined.

Outside the House, Leader of Opposition Pradipta Kumar Naik said the BJP supported the government in the Appropriation Bill as all should join their hands during times of crisis like the present situation.

He urged the state government to ensure that all persons suspected to be infected with novel coronavirus cases be examined and placed under isolation.

"I have urged the state government to make a provision of insurance for all the medical personnel engaged in the fight against the coronavirus," Naik said.

Congress chief whip Taraprasad Bahinipati said that people in villages are starving due to lack of work and urged the state government to provide foodgrains to everyone irrespective of whether they have ration cards.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Michigan National Guard will be sending its members to help staff four food banks across the state during the coronavirus crisis, state officials announced today.

They also announced a plan to allow restaurants to sell food and pantry items, which currently can be sold only by grocery and retail stores.

The four food banks are Ann Arbor, Comstock Park, Flint, and Pontiac. Approximately 10 Michigan National Guard members will be serving at each site.

Support to the food banks is scheduled to begin March 30 and is expected to continue through mid-April.

Michigan National Guard personnel will assist with mobile food distribution, which serves between 300 to 600 Michigan families daily, a press release said. Guard members will direct traffic for the drive-through distribution site and assist with packing bags of fruit and handing bags to cars.

State officials also announced a partnership between the Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association and the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development that will enable restaurants to sell food and pantry items, which currently can be sold only by grocery and retail stores.

Through the new partnership, restaurants can receive training on proper labeling so they can sell food and pantry items directly to consumers, which not only offers more options to Michigan consumers, but also keeps the supply chain moving in more directions.

Grocery stores are overwhelmed with unprecedented demand. The food supply chain for the restaurant industry is, vetted, reliable and a great resource to supplement traditional grocery stores, said Justin Winslow, MRLA President and CEO. Having restaurants sell typical grocery items will help support the extremely taxed grocery stores and provide customers with access to the essential food supplies they need.

The MRLA has provided the guidance documents on its website for all industry members seeking to provide support to the grocery stores.

Whitmer announced the Michigan National Guards involvement in the state-wide response to COVID-19 on March 18. Since then, guard members have provided logistics support to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, assembling and loading critical personal protective gear such as gowns and face shields.

There are also members of the Michigan National Guard serving the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans and the D.J. Jacobetti Home for Veterans in Marquette. Their support includes temperature screening of all employees before they enter the homes, and ensuring screening protocols are being followed to protect resident veterans from the spread of COVID-19.

Read all of MLives coverage on the coronavirus at mlive.com/coronavirus.

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores.

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Almost all shops in the US are currently on lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic. However, most grocery retailers are still open to provide citizens with basic food and necessities. ShopRite, which is a major retailer in the states Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania, will remain open during the COVID-19 lockdown. However, shop timings and shopping rules have been tweaked to protect customers and employees from the disease.

ShopRite hours and senior hours during Coronavirus pandemic

Also Read | Deepika Padukone reveals Ranveer Singh's lockdown 'routine': 'He sleeps 20 hours a day'

Due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, ShopRite will have modified shopping rules to prevent the spread of the disease. ShopRite's working hours will differ depending on state and county. However, in most locations, ShopRite will still be open during the usual working hours, which is 7:30 AM to 10 PM.

Also Read | Trader Joes hours and senior hours amidst Coronavirus pandemic

In a publicly released statement, ShopRite revealed that they will have senior shopping hours, but the timing would differ from location to location. Moreover, ShopRite also stated that those shops that did not have senior hours would have separate checkout stations for the elderly and at-risk individuals. In most locations, the senior shopping hours will be from 7 AM to 8 AM, right before the official work hours begin.

These special shopping hours have been implemented to protect at-risk citizens such as the elderly. Even healthcare professionals and on-duty officers will be allowed to purchase groceries during senior shopping hours. Every other customer will have to enter the shop after 8 AM.

Also Read | Staples hours and senior hours amidst the Coronavirus crisis

ShopRite has also imposed a new rule, that only allows one shopper inside at a time. This new rule helps prevent the spread of coronavirus and promotes social distancing among shoppers. Moreover, home delivery will also be unavailable during the lockdown. ShopRite has also announced that they will be limiting the purchase of certain products, such as toilet paper and certain food products, due to shortage and to prevent hoarding.

Also Read | Amid lockdown, cop travels 20 hours on foot to join duty in MP
Source areas of MP particles detected at the near-surface depth layers atfive stations (gray dots) of the HAUSGARTEN Observatory . Credit: Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Mine Tekman

Working in the Arctic Fram Strait, scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) have found microplastic throughout the water column with particularly high concentrations at the ocean floor. Using model-based simulations, they have also found an explanation for this high level of pollution. According to their findings, the two main ocean currents in Fram Strait transport the microscopically small plastic particles into the region between Greenland and Spitsbergen from both the Arctic and the North Atlantic. While passing through the Strait, many particles eventually drift to the seafloor, where they accumulate. The experts report on this phenomenon in a study just released in the esteemed journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Located between the northeast coast of Greenland and the Svalbard archipelago, Fram Strait is the only deep passage between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. In its waters, which reach depths of 5,600 meters, two opposing currents flow right by one another like an underwater highway. In the eastern "lane" the West Spitsbergen Current transports warm water north from the Atlantic, while in the other lane the East Greenland Current moves sea ice and frigid water south from the Arctic. This extraordinary combination of circumstances is most likely the reason why the researchers detected extremely high quantities of microplastic particles in the sediment and intermediate levels in the water column in the summer of 2016 while collecting water and seafloor samples at the Arctic deep-sea observatory HAUSGARTEN in Fram Strait.

Major quantities of microplastic in the deep sea and near marginal ice zone

"We found the highest concentration of microplastic particles in water at our northernmost sampling spot near the sea-ice edge," reports AWI biologist and first author Mine Tekman. In the area technically referred to as the marginal ice zone, one cubic meter of surface water contained more than 1,200 microplastic particles, though this hardly came as a surprise to the researchers. "From previous studies we knew that the Arctic sea ice can contain as much as 12,000 microplastic particles per liter of meltwater. When this ice reaches the end of its journey and melts in the northern Fram Strait, it most likely releases its microplastic load into the sea, which would explain the high concentration in the surface waters," she adds.

In contrast, the level of pollution was 16,000 times higher in sediments at the bottom of Fram Strait. The analysis of sediment samples with a Fourier-transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) revealed up to 13,000 microplastic particles per kilogramme of sediment. "This large quantity of particles and the various types of plastic we found in the sediment confirm that microplastic is continually accumulating on the seafloor of Fram Strait. In other words, the deep sea in this region is a sink for microscopically small plastic particles," says AWI deep-sea expert and co-author Dr. Melanie Bergmann.

Inflows of plastic waste from north and south alike

This view was confirmed by ocean circulation modeling, in which the experts simulated the microplastic particles' route to Fram Strait. Depending on the particle size, type of plastic, sinking speed and water depth, some particles travelled up to 650 kilometers before coming to rest on the ocean floor. "The results of our model disprove the notion that microplastic particles could rapidly and almost vertically sink to the bottom," says Melanie Bergmann. In fact, the plastic waste is caught by the ocean currents and can drift for tremendous distances. Especially the aggregation with organic material like algal remains is what causes the particles to sink from the surface through the water column to the seafloor.

With regard to Fram Strait, this means the majority of the plastic particles stockpiled at its bottom likely originate from remote regions; for instance, the East Greenland Current transports microplastic from the Arctic Ocean to the eastern Greenland slope. While collecting samples in its basin, the researchers above all found ethylene-vinyl acetate, a type of plastic used e.g. for coatings, lacquers, paper, packaging and shoe soles. In contrast, the West Spitsbergen Current carries particles from waters south of Spitsbergen into Fram Strait. This finding was also reflected in the plastic mix found in the respective samples.

It should also be mentioned that more than half of all plastic particles identified were smaller than 25 micrometers in diameter, roughly half the thickness of a fine human hair. "This high percentage of truly minute particles is of course troubling, as it immediately raises the question of how marine organisms respond to these minuscule bits of plastic waste," says Melanie Bergmann. To answer this question, British colleagues are currently investigating whether the crustaceans in the AWI's Arctic zooplankton samples have consumed any plastic.

For their part, the AWI experts now want to explore how the microplastic levels in Fram Strait change throughout the year. To this end, they'll use devices referred to as sediment traps, which are moored at the AWI's Arctic deep-sea observatory HAUSGARTEN and catch the various particles and marine snow that gradually descend from the sea surface, all through the year.

"The study that's just been released offers an important snapshot in which analyses with infrared microscopes allowed us to gain a solid overview of plastic pollution in Fram Strait," says Gunnar Gerdts, an AWI microbiologist and Head of the Microplastic Analysis Group. The experts determined that 39 percent of the particles suspended in the water came from polyamide, which is used to produce e.g. fibers for textiles and fishing nets, while nearly a quarter of all particles in the water column were identified as synthetic rubber (ethylene-propylene-diene rubber), an elastic type of plastic used e.g. in automotive and machine-building, as pond liner, for sealing roofs and house fronts, and as filler in artificial turf. In the seafloor sediments, the team primarily found particles made of chlorinated polyethylene (CPE), which is used e.g. in the manufacture of cables, hoses, films and antilock braking systems (ABS).

Explore further Underwater avalanches are trapping microplastics in the deep ocean

More information: Mine B. Tekman et al, Tying up Loose Ends of Microplastic Pollution in the Arctic: Distribution from the Sea Surface through the Water Column to Deep-Sea Sediments at the HAUSGARTEN Observatory, Environmental Science & Technology (2020). Journal information: Environmental Science & Technology Mine B. Tekman et al, Tying up Loose Ends of Microplastic Pollution in the Arctic: Distribution from the Sea Surface through the Water Column to Deep-Sea Sediments at the HAUSGARTEN Observatory,(2020). DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b06981
Convention Center (Photo : Image by Thanks for your Like  donations welcome from Pixabay )

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The 2020 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) held in Detroit in June has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, rescheduling for June 2021. The convention center, where the tradeshow was expected to be held, will now be repurposed into a temporary hospital to treat COVID-19 patients.



The global show has been highly anticipated by the auto industry and is the backdrop for a slew of vehicle launches announced by automakers. Now, the show will prepare to work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to convert the TCF Center into a makeshift hospital as the number of coronavirus cases increases.



"Although we are disappointed, there is nothing more important to us than the health, safety and well-being of the citizens of Detroit and Michigan, and we will do what we can to support our community's fight against the coronavirus outbreak," Rod Alberts, NAIAS executive director, said in a statement.



"With the more than 100 convention centers and facilities around the country being considered to potentially serve as temporary hospitals, it became clear to us that TCF Center would be an inevitable option to serve as a care facility to satisfy our community's urgent health needs.







"One of the hallmarks of NAIAS since the very beginning has been our commitment to being socially responsible. Our thoughts continue to be with those whose lives have been impacted by this devastating virus. And, we support the city and state's mission to help preserve life in the face of this challenging situation," he added.



Organizers of the event said that tickets will be fully refunded and allow Charity Preview ticketholder the option of a refund or to donate the funds to nine designated Charity Preview beneficiaries. The NAIAS will be in contact with all ticket holders, it said.



Sponsors of the show will also be contacted about their event contracts and regarding refunds.



The 2021 NAIAS public show will be held from June 19 to 26, 2021, with the Motor Bella being scheduled for June 11 to June 14, 2021. The Gallery will be held on June 14, 2021, and the Press Preview is slated for June 15 to June 17, 2021. The Industry Preview is from June 16 to June 17, 2021, and the Charity Preview will be held on June 18, 2021.


A Los Angeles serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper, on death row since his conviction for 10 murders in 2016, was pronounced dead on Saturday after being found unresponsive in his prison cell, the authorities said.

The inmate, Lonnie D. Franklin Jr., 67, was found in his single cell at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, Calif., about 25 miles north of San Francisco, at about 7:20 p.m., the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement.

Medical aid was rendered and an ambulance called. He was pronounced dead at 7:43 p.m., the statement said.

There were no signs of trauma and his cause of death is pending the results of an autopsy.

It was not clear whether he had any underlying medical conditions. A department representative on Monday said she could not disclose his health information because of state and federal health privacy laws.
By Bahk Eun-ji



Daewoong Pharmaceutical was fined 5 million won ($4,084) for refusing an administrative probe by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups over allegations that the company stole botulinum toxin (BTX) strains from rival Medytox, the ministry said Monday. The two firms have been in a legal dispute since 2017.





Park Young-sun, minister of SME and Startups

Medytox has claimed Dawoong stole its BTX strain and trade secretly through former Medytox employees who joined Daewoong. Daewoong insists it discovered the strain in its lab here.



The government, which received a complaint from Medytox in March 2019, requested Daewoong's cooperation in its field investigation into the firm's research lab in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province on the grounds that the DNA sequence of registered botox strains from both companies is identical.





Daewoong Pharmaceutical CEO Jeon Seng-ho
An anonymous user on a hacker forum has shared the names and other personal data of millions of Georgian nationals, according to data-breach monitors and an IT-news website.

The database leak on March 28 comes roughly seven months before the South Caucasus country's next parliamentary elections, although it was said to have been originally shared to a "niche" hacker community nine years ago.

In addition to names, it includes addresses, ID numbers, birthdates, and mobile-phone numbers, according to ZDNet, a specialist IT news site.

Georgia's Interior Ministry said it is investigating the case.

Georgia's population is estimated at around 4 million people, but the database was said to have included the details of "4,934,863 Georgians."

The data included deceased citizens, ZDNet said.

It did not appear to have been updated since the original leak in 2011, according to Under The Breach, the data-breach-monitoring and -prevention service that discovered its weekend reappearance and tweeted about its existence.

There was no confirmation of the data's authenticity by Georgian authorities.

The Central Election Commission said it was not their data, which it said includes information on 3.5 million voters and has no deceased individuals. The commission also said it did not collect the names of individuals' fathers -- which reportedly appeared on the leaked list.

"The database got shared on a cybercrime forum, free of charge under the category of a 'leak', the actor who leaked it gave a download link to the actual database which contained the information about the Georgian people," Under The Breach told RFE/RL in a March 30 e-mail.

Under The Breach said they had not noticed the original leak "because it didn't surface to large hacking forums."

ZDNet reported that the user who put the 1.04-gigabyte file on the hacker forum claimed it was from an official voter-registration portal that was down at the time its article was being prepared.

"This is similar to a lot of Russian databases which aren't getting leaked in large forums but in small Russian hacking communities because the rest of the hacking community don't really care about their leaks, mostly because they can't monetize those databases," Under The Breach told RFE/RL.
Forty-seven new patients have



tested positive for coronavirus in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), taking the number of infected persons to 170 on Monday, while the death toll rose to eight, the city civic body said.

According to a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) release, of the fresh cases, 29 are from Mumbai city and remaining 18 from other parts of MMR.

The sprawling region consists of Mumbai city and parts of adjoining districts of Thane, Raigad and Palghar.

Also, an 80-year-old man, who suffered from acute respiratory distress, succumbed to COVID-19 at a private hospital here, taking the toll in MMR to eight, including six in Mumbai city, said the release.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Registered nurses offering their help with ChristianaCare guide people to take the tests in a parking lot along Beech Street in Wilmington, Del., two weeks ago. Read more

On a Monday, it was just the dry cough. By Thursday, he had chills and a 102-degree fever. Michael Campbell, 61, wanted to be tested for the coronavirus.

He lives in Montgomery County, an epicenter of the outbreak in Pennsylvania, and he was nervous. That same week, he had a work meeting, picked his 20-year-old daughter up from Wagner College, and went to church. If he was sick, he wanted to be able to warn everyone.

He says he called the Montgomery County health department and officials asked if he knew anyone who had the coronavirus, if he knew where he could have gotten sick. He didnt. He said he was instructed to self-isolate in his Glenside home. They were not going to test him.

But Campbell felt it was his right to know for certain why he was sick. Growing desperate, he drove to Wilmington to go to ChristianaCares drive-through testing site, where he was one of 536 people screened that day for free, no appointment or doctors prescription needed.

On March 17, he was notified that he tested positive for the coronavirus. Now his daughter, a coworker, and a church friend are all sick. He blames himself.

When I got the positive result back I was almost starting to cry because I like to be part of history, but a good history, not this kind of history, said Campbell, a mobile building maintenance technician. I feel so bad that other people have gotten it from me."

Across the Philadelphia region, as the pandemic spreads both illness and anxiety, potentially sick people may be hopping from site to site, desperate for an answer as cases surge and testing availability proves uneven.

Dr. Tina Tan, a professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases at Northwestern Universitys Feinberg School of Medicine, says test-hopping has the potential to actually spread the virus, putting more people at risk.

Someone who is driving some distance to be tested will likely stop at a rest stop, to use the bathroom, get gas, or buy food. Traveling could also strain limited resources for the health-care workers in another town.

As anxiety in the community builds about this," Tan said, people are going to go to all different lengths to get what they want.

Testing across the United States was slow to start and has been widely uneven, making it challenging to track the spread of the disease and contain it.

South Korea has performed more than 360,000 tests, about one for every 140 people. This aggressive testing has slowed the spread of the virus and the United States lags far behind. Experts say the nation must expand access to tests and the personal protective equipment needed to administer them.

Campbells experience, Tan said, is a consequence of the countrys insufficient response to the pandemic.

Montgomery County, which has been hit particularly hard in Pennsylvania, has struggled to find the resources to test its residents.

Val Arkoosh, chair of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners, has emphasized that residents who are experiencing symptoms but not high-risk should stay home and not be tested.

If you could just sit tight and take a deep breath, and I know its incredibly frustrating because any of us I think would want to know for sure," she said at a news conference. But in this time of scarce resources, if you are able to sit tight and make a test available for someone who really needs to be tested, that is something that youre doing for our whole community.

But Alexander Brown, a 45-year-old software engineer in Metuchen, N.J., was worried about his community. His employer would not notify its more than 2,000-person workforce that Brown was likely sick with the coronavirus  he had a dry cough and felt feverish  unless he had a positive test result.

Brown said he called three telemedicine companies, three or four urgent care centers, and his primary care physician. He was told they were prioritizing people who were exhibiting severe symptoms.

By that time, Browns symptoms subsided and he didnt want to sit in a waiting room only to be turned away.

Friends recommended doctors to call and places they heard were doing testing. He ended up driving to Physicians Urgent Care LLC in Manalapan, where he was swabbed Wednesday. He has been self-isolating at home, where he lives with his wife and two young sons.

He notified coworkers with whom he may have had contact, but wishes all employees would have been told. By the time he receives his results, it will have been more than a week since he started exhibiting symptoms.

Campbell also saw it as his responsibility to be tested, so he could let his community know if he had the virus. He was frustrated with Montgomery Countys insistence that he simply stay at home.

Montgomery County now has an appointment-only drive-through testing site, opened after Campbell made that call to the health department. The testing is reserved for people who meet criteria including a fever, coughing, and shortness of breath. Its unclear if Campbell would receive a different response from the county now, but the experience makes him concerned about people who may have the virus without knowing it or showing up in official counts, but could infect others.

Its very frustrating," Campbell said. If you think you have the slightest symptom, I think you should be able to get a test.
State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) on Monday announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh in case of coronavirus-related death of any LPG delivery boy or other personnel involved in the supply chain.

While the entire country has bee locked down with most confining themselves to homes, cooking gas (LPG) supplies have continued uninterrupted with all the distributors and hundreds of delivery boys providing cylinders to 27.5 crore users on demand.

Though the LPG distributor agencies and their staff, including delivery boys, are not part of oil company staff, they have been provided with protective gear by the three firms. But, the risk to the delivery boys and other staff remained as the Covid-19 infection spreads.

Recognising the threat, IOC, BPCL and HPCL announced the ex-gratia.

"Oil marketing companies IOCL, BPCL and HPCL today (on Monday) announced an ex-gratia amount of Rs 5 lakh each, as a one-time special measure, in the unfortunate case of demise of personnel like show-room staff, godown-keepers, mechanics and delivery boys, attending duty in the LPG distributorship chain, due to the infection and impact of Covid-19," an official statement said.

LPG being an essential commodity has been exempted from the lockdown, and the personnel are required to attend duty during this crisis period to maintain uninterrupted LPG cylinder supplies across the country to all customers.

"Indian Oil to provide an ex-gratia amount of Rs 5 lakhs in case of death of any personnel of Indane distributorships arising out of infection and impact of COVID-19 as a one-time special measure, to include show-room staff, godown keepers, mechanics and delivery boys," the company said in a tweet.

Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan welcomed the humanitarian decision.

"This gesture of goodwill is a recognition of the services rendered by our personnel in these trying times. The well-being of our workers is of paramount importance, this compassionate move will strengthen the safety nets of our workforce aiding India's fight against corona," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Classical music composer Krzysztof Penderecki, whose work was featured in films by Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese, has died.

He was 86.

Penderecki passed away on Sunday at his home in Krakow after a long illness.

R.I.P.: Classical music composer and celebrated conductor Krzysztof Penderecki, whose work was featured in films by Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese, has died. He was 86

In a statement emailed to The Associated Press, the Ludwig van Beethoven Association called Penderecki a 'Great Pole, an outstanding creator and a humanist'.

The composer and award-winning conductor was best known for his monumental compositions for orchestra and choir, like St. Luke Passion and Seven Gates of Jerusalem.

His work was used on the soundtracks to Hollywood movies The Shining, The Exorcist and Shutter's Island and he also collaborated on rock music with Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood.

Greenwood tweeted Sunday: 'What sad news to wake to. Penderecki was the greatest - a fiercely creative composer, and a gentle, warm-hearted man. My condolences to his family, and to Poland on this huge loss to the musical world.'

Acclaimed: Penderecki was best known for his compositions for orchestra and choir, like St. Luke Passion and Seven Gates of Jerusalem, and won several Grammy Awards

Across genres: His work was used on the soundtracks to Hollywood movies The Shining, The Exorcist and Shutter's Island and he collaborated with Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood

Sad news: Rock musician Greenwood paid tribute to the composer and conductor via Twitter

Penderecki won a number of Grammy Awards and in 1968 the Recording Academy awarded him the special merit National Trustees Award.

In 1988, he won a Grammy for the recording of his 2nd Concerto for Cello and in 1999 he won again for his 2nd Violin Concerto, Metamorphosen.

In 2017, he won another Grammy for best choral performance in recognition of the Penderecki Conducts Penderecki album.

Penderecki was also an educator, opening a music center near his home and mentoring young musicians, giving them the opportunity to play with world-famous masters.

Polish Culture Minister Piotr Glinski tweeted: 'Poland's culture has suffered a huge and irreparable loss.'

He added that Penderecki was the nation's 'most outstanding contemporary composer whose music could be heard around the globe, from Japan to the United States.'

He is survived by his second wife, Elzbieta, who as a girl was a piano student of his first wife Barbara, and by daughters Beata and Dominika and son Lukasz.

His ashes will be buried in the National Pantheon, the crypt of Krakow's St. Peter and Paul Church, according to the head of the pantheon's foundation.

The funeral is being postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Rules, so many new rules. They govern our behaviour through every waking moment. Washing our hands: there is a right and a wrong way. Then there is touching  not our faces, preferably not cash, nothing outside the home, really. Keep away from each other. The rules are tightening on where we can go, what we do, who we should do it with, whether we can work or not and, if we can, where we can do that work.

Police started shutting St Kilda beach down from 6pm on Friday. Credit:Justin McManus

None of us has ever before had to observe such a panoply of community-wide directives about our individual behaviour. And the stakes could not be higher. The ultimate price of non-observance, were told, is that we could kill ourselves or others, or both.

And yet, outside our immediate personal environment, rules that governed our lives, shaped our society and our economy, and determined our prosperity are being smashed. Simply in order to help as many Australians as possible to survive the COVID-19 pandemic, governments have been forced to obliterate the economic and fiscal orthodoxy thats been painstakingly established since the early 1980s recession.

Decades of economic transformation have been wiped out in less than a month. The Prime Minister and the national cabinet offer the notion that for, say, the next six months businesses will go into hibernation and re-emerge when the worst is over. Its an appealing idea, suggesting that things will almost be back to normal soon enough. It gives the sense that our federal and state leaders are imposing order on chaos.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed and city health officials will host a virtual news briefing Monday to provide an update on the city's response efforts to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The briefing is at 11:30 a.m. Media can access it at http://youtube.com/sfgtv or https://ccsanfran.webex.com/ccsanfran/j.php?MTID=mb769d302d85e6d2079b83535f8fa5ff7 or by calling (415) 655-0001 and providing access code 927 266 812.
Legendary retailer Brooks Brothers announced Monday that it was latest American company to join the fight against the Wuhan coronavirus by converting its New York, North Carolina, and Massachusetts factories to produce up to 150,000 masks per day.

We consider this a duty, and part of our DNA at Brooks Brothers, Claudio Del Vecchio, Chief Executive Officer, said in a press release on the move. These are challenging times that are impacting us all. We are deeply grateful to the medical personnel at the frontlines who are fighting the pandemic, and we are honored to do our part and join our peers in retail to provide protective masks that our health care system critically needs. I also want to thank our dedicated manufacturing employees who are returning to work as we reopen our factories to make this possible.

In addition to masks, the company plans to also produce protective gowns, with factories reopening this week following a two-week precautionary self-quarantine of workers. Brooks Brothers said it had worked closely with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to review prototypes and to expedite the approval process.

The Trump administration has attempted to solve shortages of personal health protection equipment amid the coronavirus pandemic, including threatening to prosecute those who x fix prices.

The Department of Justice stands ready to make sure that bad actors do not take advantage of emergency response efforts, healthcare providers, or the American people during this crucial time, Attorney General William Barr said in a statement earlier this month. I am committed to ensuring that the departments resources are available to combat any wrongdoing and protect the public.

More from National Review
In February 2020, Ukraine's state and government-guaranteed debt estimated in the national currency decreased by 1.46%, and grew by 0.02% in the foreign currency, according to the Finance Ministry.

"In February 2020, Ukraines aggregate state and government-guaranteed debt in the national currency equivalent shrank by 1.46%, to UAH 2,047.8 billion. The debt in the foreign currency rose by 0.02% and reached $83.38 billion. The devaluation of the hryvnia against the U.S. dollar was the main factor of the impact on debt fluctuations (1.8% in February, according to the NBU), reads the statement.

The cooperation with international financial institutions and partner countries remains a priority for the Finance Ministry in order to ensure the stability of public finances among external sources of financing.

In February 2020, the Finance Ministry held four auctions to place government bonds. As a result, the ministry raised UAH 14 billion to the state budget. At the auction on February 25, the average weighted yield rates on hryvnia-denominated government bonds with a maturity of 3 months, 1.5 years, 2 years and 7 years were 9.4%, 9.9%, 10%, and 9.95%, respectively.

In February 2020, U.S. dollar-denominated government securities were also offered to investors. On February 11, the Finance Ministry successfully placed U.S. dollar-denominated annual government bonds with a weighted average yield of 3.39%. As a result, the state budget was replenished with $200 million, or UAH 4.9 billion in equivalent.

Expenditures of the state budget to repay the national debt in February 2020 amounted to UAH 20.1 billion, for servicing - UAH 7.6 billion.

As Ukrinform reported, Ukraines state and government-guaranteed debt in 2019 decreased by 7.84% in hryvnia equivalent and grew by 7.71% in U.S. dollar equivalent.

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President Donald Trump signs the $2.2 trillion coronavirus aid package bill as White House Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Vice President Mike Pence and Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) watch in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., March 27, 2020. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

The $2 trillion federal stimulus package signed into law by President Donald Trump on Friday, March 27, will be a lifeline to many gig workers and freelancers. Known as the CARES Act, the law takes unprecedented steps in including the self-employed in the social safety net. It offers freelancers unemployment insurance, for which they generally don't qualify, on a large scale for the first time. As stipulated in the House bill, it offers freelancers an additional $600 a week in unemployment insurance, bringing weekly payouts to the $800- to $900-a-week range when state benefits are added, to workers including the self-employed, for up to four months. "It's an amazing win, given that there is no unemployment insurance for freelancers," says Rafael Espinal, who recently took the helm of the Freelancers Union as executive director. "This will help inject cash flow into their homes." The stimulus package also offers the self-employed and small business owners a $10,000 advance on an Emergency Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) that does not have to be paid back, even if the borrower does not qualify for an SBA loan. The program provides loans up to $200,000. Sole proprietors, ESOPs, cooperatives, businesses with no more than 500 employees and tribal small business concerns can apply. Under the EIDL program, administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration, applicants will not have to submit a tax return and will be evaluated based on their credit score. The SBA will provide the funding within three days of a successfully completed application as an advance payment. There is no personal guarantee required for the loans. The SBA is waiving the requirement that businesses have one year of operations prior to the disaster, but businesses are not eligible if they were not in operation on January 1, 2020. The bill authorizes $10 billion in appropriations for these loans.

I suspect with most states it will be very hard to get enrolled and get money. Their systems aren't set up to deal with the magnitude of unemployment they are about to get. Steve King partner, Emergent Research

"I'm very, very pleased the one-third of the American workforce that has been ignored for many years was recognize as a critical part of the economy's recovery, post-pandemic," said Carl Camden, founder and president and founder of the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed . But Espinal and other advocates for freelancers and the self-employed say it is imperative that economic aid arrive quickly for freelancers. Often in a downturn, clients delay paying freelancers for work already done, leaving them with little or no income for extended periods of time. Some organizations are offering grants to tide them over. The Freelancers Union just introduced the Freelancers Relief Fund, which offers a $1,000 emergency grant to freelancers for necessities like rent and groceries that need to be covered before aid is delivered. Hello Alice, a funding provider, has also just offered $10,000 emergency grants to small businesses, in conjunction with nonprofits and government agencies, with the aim to deliver them in three weeks. MBO Partners, a firm in Herndon, Virginia, that provides back office services to independent workers and studies the independent workforce, has been talking with senior leaders at the U.S. Treasury and major U.S. banks to make sure that independent workers can access the resources available through the law, according to Gene Zaino, chairman of MBO Partners. "The issue is going to be how do you make sure the money is going to the right people?" Zaino says. More from Invest in You:

What you can learn from a tanking market: some good financial habits

Panic shopping and fleeing to cash seem to go hand in hand

How to prepare for a family member with COVID-19 For the time being, it may be challenging for the self-employed to access unemployment, according to Steve King, a partner in Emergent Research, a firm in Lafayette, California, that studies the independent workforce, "I suspect with most states it will be very hard to get enrolled and get money," says King. "Their systems aren't set up to deal with the magnitude of unemployment they are about to get. They have no systems for dealing with the self-employed. While the good news is that the self-employed are going to get that money, it's going to be a struggle before anyone sees the money." Many self-employed professionals have been living by their wits since the crisis began. Alicia Schiro, owner of Aced It Events, a one-person event-planning firm in New York City, has seen much of her work grind to a halt since the coronavirus crisis. She's quickly shifted to focusing on online events and enhancing the Zoom webinars that her corporate clients are holding, recruiting celebrities for some events. "I'm not making as much as I would, but right now it's about survival," she says.

Worried about the lack of revenue coming in, Schiro applied right away for a grant New York City offered to small businesses with less than four employees that are seeing a reduction in revenue because of COVID-19. She already received a $1,300 grant, but has a long way to go to make up for her lost income. Some are looking at the loan program cautiously. Elizabeth Davis, a former construction technology engineer, now runs Shedavi, a one-woman business selling hair-care products out of Atlanta. While she would entertain the idea of taking a loan if she needed one, she looks at loan programs cautiously. "Taking on loans affects your credit, and you have to be sure you can pay it back," Davis says. "I'd err on the side of caution with that."

Elizabeth Davis, a solo hair-care entrepreneur, says entrepreneurs need to be mindful that any loans they take for disaster relief must be paid back. Shekeidra Booker
Were asking our readers to share their coronavirus-related questions, and were contacting the experts to get the answers.

Below are some of the questions weve received so far. If you have a question, send an email to Jordan Fenster at jordan.fenster@hearstmediact.com.

Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, medical and health questions have flooded in from readers.

Where is it safe to go, and how does the virus spread? Who is at higher risk? How do I keep myself and my family safe?

From day one, our reporters began looking for answers.

Two weeks ago, we brought you a round of answers to your medical questions.

This week, we went back to one of the experts who previously helped us: Dr. Dennis Brown, who heads Quinnipiac Universitys physician assistant program. Brown specializes in emergency management and community health.

Although the busy professor did not have time to sit down for a video interview early this week, he answered some questions via email.

Many of the questions came directly from readers, while reporters came up with some of their own inquiries based on what they had learned in the field.

Heres what Brown had to say.

Question: Is it unsafe for people with COVID-19 to take ibuprofen?

Answer: When it comes to using ibuprofen when you have COVID-19, medical recommendations vary, according to Brown.

Because the drug works by decreasing the bodys inflammatory response and that response is part of the immune systems reaction to try to kill the virus, some have expressed concern that the virus could do more harm in patients taking ibuprofen, Brown said.

To be safe, the professor recommended using acetaminophen (Tylenol) to ease fever and pains.

Question: Can multiple patients use the same respirator? If so, are there drawbacks?

Answer: Ventilators are designed to serve one person at a time, according to Brown.

While they can be adjusted to serve more than one patient, that measure is only taken in serious emergencies, when there are no other ventilators are available, Brown said.

There are drawbacks, especially as the best ventilator settings for each patient varies, he continued.

Question: How long after recovery from coronavirus would a test be able find a trace in your system?

Answer: Most recent data is suggesting that people are still shedding the virus up to three to five days after a severe illness, Brown said.

Question: Is there free testing available? Where?

Answer: For information on testing, Brown directed readers to use their local hospital COVID-19 hotlines, Connecticuts information hotline (211) or the state Department of Public Healths coronavirus FAQs, which are updated regularly and include a section on testing.

Question: If youre not leaving the house at all, is it still necessary to disinfect all surfaces inside daily?

Answer: While a full disinfection is probably not necessary, keeping the house clean is a great way to get rid of other bacteria and viruses that are still around, and to prevent illnesses such as the common cold, according to Brown.

Question: Will Connecticut hospitals accept home sewn face masks made of cotton pillowcase or T-shirt material?

Answer: Most hospitals are accepting homemade face masks, Brown said, adding that donors should check with the healthcare facility beforehand as it may request specific patterns.

Question: Should blood donors be tested for COVID-19?

Answer: If the donor does not show symptoms, they will not be tested at this time, Brown said.

Anyone who has been exposed to COVID-19 should self-isolate for two weeks, according to Brown. Blood donors should then inform the Red Cross about any possible exposure when they give blood, he said.

Question: Are people with well-controlled diabetes still at very high risk for severe COVID-19?

Answer: Diabetics are more susceptible to having more severe infections because of a decrease in their immune systems response, Brown said.

Even someone whose diabetes is well controlled will not react to stress or illness in the same way as someone who does not suffer from the disease, according to Brown.

Question: My son has henoch schonlein purpura. Does this make COVID-19 more serious for him?

Answer: Brown could not find any literature on the topic, he said.

Given how many unknowns there are surrounding the virus, he recommended that the reader contact their pediatrician or hematologist.

meghan.friedmann@hearstmediact.com

Coronavirus in Connecticut

As COVID-19 spreads across the country, Nicholas Nicholson, Jr., an associate professor of nursing at Quinnipiac University, is thinking about another public health crisis: social isolation among senior citizens.

Even before coronavirus came to the U.S., older adults faced social isolation at such high rates that Nicholson considered the problem something like an epidemic, he said. A recent study indicated almost one in four elderly Americans is socially isolated, he said.

Now, as Americans practice physical distancing to protect themselves from the novel coronavirus, senior citizens face an even greater risk of social isolation and its consequences, Nicholson said.

We talked with Nicholson about what that means, and what steps seniors and community members can take to alleviate the situation.

Here are some of the highlights from the conversation.

Question: What are some of the health consequences associated with social isolation?

Answer: Social isolation is not just a social problem. It also comes with a long list of health consequences, according to Nicholson.

Folks who are socially isolated experience higher all-cause mortality rates. That means youre more likely to die, in general, by being socially isolated, Nicholson said.

Social isolation also increases your risk of being hospitalized, Nicholson continued, adding that hospitals are the last place you want to be right now.

It also decreases your quality of life and increases your risk of cognitive dysfunction, substance abuse and depressive symptoms, according to Nicholson.

Depressive symptoms and social isolation are very closely connected, he said.

Question: What can older adults do to stay socially connected even as they are physically isolated during the pandemic?

Answer: Although face-to-face contact is one of the most valuable forms of social interaction, physical distancing is absolutely necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Nicholson said.

That means its a good idea for senior citizens to find other ways to interact with people so that they can rebuild the social connections they lose by foregoing face-to-face contact, Nicholson said.

Technology marks one important tool. If you cant see someone in person, a video chat might be the next-best thing, the professor said.

While plenty of older folks are tech savvy, some may feel intimidated by the perceived difficulty of learning to use different online applications, Nicholson said.

Nows a great time to connect with a family member if you can. Find the youngest person that you know, talk with them about the technology. And a lot of its not as difficult as people think, Nicholson said.

Nicholson also recommended staying in touch via text and email.

Question: What can non-senior citizens do to help people stay more connected?

Answer: Theres plenty that community members can do to help ease the burden of social isolation on seniors.

Nicholson suggested folks reach out to older adults in their neighborhoodsnot by knocking on doors, but by calling or sending a message to see if a neighbor needs anything.

You might offer, for example, to leave some food at the doorstep.

Actions like these [help] to build community, Nicholson said. People want to know that theyre part of a community.

Online interactions might also help. The professor recommended reaching out to older people on social media and commenting on their posts.

Volunteer work is another option, Nicholson said. He suggested contacting your local senior center or town hall to see how you can help.

Question: Easter and Passover are coming up. Is seeing family for a celebration or holiday worth the risk, or should senior citizens stay isolated? How do you balance your mental health and your physical safety?

Answer: Given the lack of data about the virus thats available, Nicholson advised folks against in-person family gatherings, even on holidays.

I would probably recommend doing a virtual Passover, doing a virtual Easter, he said. I dont think its worth the risk because we dont know enough about who carries [the coronavirus] and doesnt show symptoms.

Question: How can older adults get adequate information about COVID-19 and their communitys response?

Answer: Its likely that many senior citizens get their information from newspapers or television, instead of from the internet, Nicholson said.

If you are unable to get the newspaper because of the pandemic, or if your news source does not provide sufficient local coverage, Nicholson suggested some other ways to get information.

First, he suggested downloading news apps from multiple sources and making sure those sources come from a range of political bents.

While Nicholson advised against using social media as a news source, he pointed out that it can be a great way to get information on local programming.

Folks might also want to sign up for state and local emergency alert systems, he said.

meghan.friedmann@hearstmediact.com

For all the news about the coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease the virus causes, there are still many questions on readers minds. On Monday, March 30 Dr. David Katz, founding director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, answered the latest reader submissions.

Question: What should you do if you think you came in contact with someone who is infected?

Answer: The most important thing, Katz said, is if you are in what I would call a high-risk group for severe infection especially if youre over 70, I think you should let your doctors office know. That way you can get the best advice about how to proceed. The high-risk categories are people over 60, those with underlying health conditions and those with compromised immune systems.

Katz said that for most people, getting COVID-19 wont be a serious illness. Im quite certain I have this, he said. Im 57, Im close to two weeks in now. Its been unpleasant but mostly mild.

If youre under 50, if you are generally in good health, I dont think exposure requires any response, Katz said. He did advise wearing a mask when you go outside. He said there is speculation that zinc supplements may be helpful in keeping symptoms in check.

Question: If a person in our household works at a facility where a workers wife was positive, what are our chances of contacting the virus? He does not work with the person.

Answer: We dont know how close the contact is, but essentially, if a wife has it, the husband is likely to get it, Katz said. But that doesnt mean his co-workers will automatically get it if there is no close contact. I think a lot of us are going to get this thing. Thats the bad news, he said. The good news is I think a lot of us have had this thing and didnt know it. He said there was a rise in flulike illnesses in January that could have been COVID-19 but that people werent aware of it.

Question: Im a 72-year-old woman who has no one to help me. Can I go to Stop & Shop during early senior hours today and, taking all precautions, be relatively safe?

Answer: Yes, particularly if Stop & Shop is helping you, Katz said. Ive been hearing more and more about retailers taking precautions, such as bagging groceries and leaving them for the customer to pick up or bringing them out to the car. Thats the kind of service that should be used, he said.

At 72, you dont want to get this thing. Youre really vulnerable, based on the global data. Call ahead to see what the staff will do to limit your time inside the store, he said, and wear a face mask.

Question: Will cooking kill the virus if its on the food I am preparing?

Answer: Ive heard nothing about food-borne transmission of Covid. Yes, first, cooking will kill the virus, but also your digestive juices will kill the virus, Katz said.

Question: When will the fingerprint antibody test be available in Connecticut? Tests  are in very limited supply currently. Correct?

Answer: There is a massive scrambling effort to access more and better test kits, but they are in short supply, Katz said. For now there are test kits available in hospital settings for people who have symptoms.

Question: How many have died of the flu in Connecticut this season?

Answer: According to the state Department of Public Health, there were 2,934 hospitalizations from the flu as of March 21, with 72 deaths. Katz pointed out, In the United State to date, 2,800 people have died of coronavirus and as many as 50,000 have died of seasonal flu. He said while the coronavirus deserves respect, its significance is amplified by looking at coronavirus statistics all day, every day, like rubber-necking a car crash.

Its absolutely right to be comparing this to other sources of mortality, Katz said. To keep it in perspective, 8,000 people die every day in the United States.

Question: How long after a swab is done will you get the results?

Answer: I was tested five days ago and Im still waiting, Katz said. Rapid-assay tests should eventually be available, which would yield results in an hour. Theyve been approved by the FDA. I know we have some in Connecticut but sourcing them seems to be a problem.

Question: How long after recovery from coronavirus, would a test be able to still find a historical trace in your system?

Answer: Antibodies against the virus should be detectable for an extended period of time, Katz said: for months, at least.

Question: Ive got a question about the enforcement of quarantine measures for positive test results for Covid-19. The neighbors across the street have been positively diagnosed with Covid-19 and have had mild symptoms, so they have been at home self-isolating. According to the household, they first began experiencing symptoms on March 4. How do we know if they were part of the super-spreader cluster that has made national news here in Fairfield County?

Answer: Without knowing where they live, Katz couldnt say, but he did clarify that super-spreader means there are people who have the infection, dont know they have the infection and get together with other people.

The virus is spread by coughing or sneezing on someone or by touching surfaces that an infected person has recently touched not by magical means, he said. Its one of the things that happens when youre in the middle of a contagion. You start to get paranoid, Katz said. Its not going to teleport across the street, he said. If you go out, wear a mask. He said the Czech Republic has used masks to keep the spread down because it keeps people who have the virus from spreading it to others. Ill protect you. You protect me, should be the way we all live, he said.

edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382

Question: How can we minimize coming in contact with the virus?

Answer: Durland Fish, a retired professor from the Yale School of Public Health, has developed habits over the years to protect himself from the flu, which can be used against COVID-19 as well. The problem is that the virus can survive on surfaces.

The most important thing, as everyone has said, is to wash our hands frequently, but Fish said, Its not often stressed that this handwashing is only effective if its done with warm water and soap and if its done for a minimum of 20 seconds. Then use the hand towel to turn off the faucet and open the door.

Speaking of opening doors, I try to avoid touching any kind of a doorknob, Fish said. If I can open a door with my foot or an elbow  Ill do it. If he has to touch a doorknob, Fish, whos right-handed, will use his left hand.

Dont slide your hand down a handrail either You dont know if anyones sneezed on that rail or sneezed on their hand before they touched the rail, and sliding your hand down the rail is just accumulating who knows what, Fish said. And use your pinky knuckle to push elevator buttons.

Question: Can the virus be spread by using cash?

Answer: Yes. I use credit cards exclusively, because you dont know, when youre handed a dollar bill as change at a store, wherever, you dont know where that dollars been , Fish said.

Also, carry a pen. Its ridiculous. You go to a pharmacy and get a prescription or something and you have to sign for the prescription and then you have to sign the credit card slip, Fish said. Dont use their pen. Sick people go to pharmacies, and everyones using the same pen, If he has to sign an electronic pad, Ill use my left small-finger fingernail.  You can just scribble a signature on there, and you wont have to touch a pen.

Question: What if someone sneezes or coughs nearby?

Answer: Hold your breath and move, fast. If someone sneezes around me, Ill just immediately hold my breath  and I walk as far away as I can get before I inhale. That should avoid inhaling droplets or anything if you do it quick enough, Fish said.

If youre in a line and someone behind you is coughing and sneezing, you let them in front of you. Then they wont be coughing on you; theyll be coughing on somebody else.

Question: Does catching the coronavirus give you immunity?

Answer: Yes, at least as far as we know. I dont know how long the immunity lasts  but from what Ive read, the situation in China  you only get it once, for a while at least, Fish sad. But he said we dont know whether the virus will mutate, as the flu does, requiring a vaccine each year.

He said 50 to 60 percent of the population would have to be infected and develop antibodies for herd immunity to take place. Then, that doubling time would go down. But if half the U.S. population were infected, that could mean 2 million deaths, with just a 1 percent fatality rate, Fish said.

Question: Should I avoid getting pregnant until the crisis passes?

Answer: It isnt a bad idea. While hes not a physician, Fish said it might be a good idea to avoid pregnancy. If you had a choice, I would put it off. You dont want to be sick and pregnant at the same time, he said.Question: What are the symptoms of coronavirus?

Answer: State epidemiologist Matthew Cartter said earlier this month that symptoms were very specific: Fever and cough and signs of respiratory distress.

At present, only people presenting with those specific symptoms are being tested for COVID-19, though that may change as testing becomes more widely available.

Researchers at Yale said they were able to replicate the test being administered by the CDC, and would soon be able to start testing as many as 200 patients a day.

Question: What do I do if I show symptoms? What if Im not insured?

Answer: With many thousands of Connecticut residents potentially impacted by the virus, officials are asking people to stay away from emergency rooms until it becomes necessary.

If you have symptoms, call your doctor, Cartter said.

Many health insurance companies and doctors have set up telehealth options, either on the phone or through the internet.

People without health insurance have some options, too. For more general questions, call 211, but several hospitals have set up dedicated phone lines for anyone who believes they might be experiencing coronavirus symptoms.

To reach Norwalk Hospital with coronavirus-related questions, call 888-667-9262 between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. Stamford Hospital can be reached at 203-276-4111 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday through Friday.

As testing will soon become more available, please call these numbers instead of arriving unannounced at a healthcare facility, as State Sen. Will Haskell said on Twitter.

Question: How long will this stay in the U.S.?

Answer: There are a lot of factors that might affect the length of time the coronavirus might be a presence in the United States. The New York Times, using CDC projections, reported that as many as 214 million people might be infected before all is said and done, though it may not be in one wave.

Infections could affect some communities much harder than others, and not all at the same time over the course of a year.

Cartter, the state epidemiologist, said during an informational meeting with legislators earlier this month that Connecticut could see staggered infection surges, community to community, over the course of time.

He compared the coronavirus impact to that of both hurricanes and the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Hurricanes have a local impact. It can hit one place, and the mortality rate might be this, and another place and it would be different, Cartter said. There were towns in the 1918 pandemic that had very few deaths, and others that were severely hit that were only 20 miles away.

Nancy Messonnier, director of CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said the coronavirus may be around until next year at least.

As the trajectory of the outbreak continues, many people in the U.S. will at some point, either this year or next, get exposed to this virus, she said, as statnews.com reported. And theres a good chance many will become sick.

The best estimates for the development and testing of a vaccine are a year or longer.

Question: Will universities refund tuition?

Answer: The situation is still fluid, according to Jennifer Widness, president of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges.

Every institution in the state has shifted to online learning or alternative means of instructions, she said. Instruction is continuing and students will earn credit, so tuition refunds are not being considered at this point by any institution in the state, as far as Im aware.

That being said, some colleges are making the decision to offer refunds on the cost of room and board. Its different, college to college.

Every school has a different policy at this point, but most are asking students to vacate their dorms, as long as they have someplace to go, for the next few weeks, at a minimum, Widness said. The only school in the state that has made the determination to close its dorms for the remainder of the semester is Wesleyan University and they have determined prorated refunds will be issued.

The University of Hartford has said its working on a fiscal response.

We are developing a financial policy to address the disruption in room and board, the university wrote. These plans and policies will vary greatly based on our ability to continue with the semester after April 5.

Were asking our readers to share their coronavirus-related questions, and were contacting experts to get answers.

To that end, we spoke with two Quinnipiac University professors.

Each has a different area of expertise.

Dr. Dwayne Boucaud, a professor of biomedical science, specializes in virology.

And Dr. Dennis Brown, who heads the universitys physician assistant program, specializes in emergency management and community health.

You can find their answers to readers questions  and some of our own  below. A video recording of the full interview can be found here:

Question: What should the public know right now?

Answer: Boucaud had one big message he wanted to get out to the public: please do not take chloroquine. Its not safe, he said. (the drug is used treat the mosquito-borne illness malaria)

And, he said, Be prepared for this [pandemic] to drag on The curve is not close to flattening.

Question: Do you develop immunity to the novel coronavirus after getting COVID-19?

Answer: At this point, there is not enough data out there to determine whether getting the virus gives you protective immunity, Boucaud said.

If its like many other viruses, I would say that yes, you would probably have protective immunity, he said. But, the virologist warned, We cant say that for sure with COVID-19.

Question: What is the difference between COVID-19-S and COVID-19-L, and if you get one, do you have immunity from the other?

Answer: Scientists in China identified two strains of the disease, COVID-19-S and COVID-19-L, according to Boucaud.

But they are so genetically similar that there is debate over whether scientists should even classify them as two different strains, Boucaud said.

At this point, there is not enough data to know whether the strains manifest differently  for example, whether one is more aggressive than the other  or to know whether contracting one strain give individuals immunity from the other, Boucaud said.

Question: How long does it take for COVID-19 test results to come back?

Answer: Right now, the typical turnaround time for COVID-19 test results is between three and five days, Brown said.

Brown also shared some good news. A few days ago, the Federal Drug Administration approved a new rapid test that should decrease the time it takes for patients to get results, Brown said.

Connecticut Covid-19 Map and dashboard

The test can deliver results in under an hour, National Public Radio reported.

However, it will take time before that test comes to our communities, according to the professor.

Question: If you have COVID-19, when do you stop being contagious?

Answer: Brown listed three main criteria those recovering from COVID-19 should meet before it is safe for them to stop sequestering themselves:

1. You have to be fever-free without the help of medications for 72 hours.

2. Your symptoms have to have significantly improved. Fever, cough and shortness of breath should have gone away. However with the flu, it is possible for the cough to linger for weeks, which doesnt mean youre contagious but that your body is healing, Brown said.

3. At least seven days must have passed since the onset of symptoms.

Certain gastrointestinal symptoms, including diarrhea, vomiting and nausea, have been added to the list of COVID-19 indicators, Brown said. People with COVID-19 tend to get those symptoms first, and respiratory symptoms develop afterward, according to Brown.

The most critical symptom that indicates you may have COVID-19 is fever, Brown said.

However, there have been cases of COVID-19 where patients do not present with fevers, Boucaud noted, emphasizing that if you are asymptomatic but know you have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 you should self quarantine.

Take serious precautions even if youre not getting tested, Boucaud said.

Question: Is it safe to go to a friends for dinner? Theyre healthy and have been staying at home.

Answer: Someone weighing whether to go to a friends house for dinner should consider a number of variables, Brown said. He named examples:

1. Has the host or guest has traveled recently?

2. How many people will be at the dinner?

3. How many people have gone in and out of the house?

It also depends on the status of the virus in your area, Brown said. If there have been lots of cases of COVID-19, its best not to go to a friends house, Brown said.

Evidence of asymptomatic spread also means folks should take extra precautions, Boucaud said.

You dont have to be coughing in order to spread this, he said.

Question: What can we do to protect healthcare workers?

Answer: First off, Boucaud emphasized that unless youre really sick, you should not go into the hospital.

Dont go in on a whim, he said. If youre just feeling under the weather, stay at home, hunker down.

Otherwise, you risk exposing healthcare workers, he said.

Even if you are really ill, call ahead before you go to a hospital and let staff know what your symptoms are, Brown said.

Brown had one more piece of advice: dont hoard N95 respirators, which are vital protection for people on the front lines.

Question: Is it safe to use hiking trails?

Answer: Passing people on hiking trails comes with a low risk of exposure to COVID-19, especially because youre in open air, Brown said.

However, its still vital that hikers social distance, doing their best to stay at least 6 feet away from others, Brown continued.

In short, theres no reason you cant be on the trails as long as you maintain distance from people, according to Brown.

Question: Does ultraviolet light kill the virus?

A: Although certain waves of UV light kill the novel coronavirus, sunlight should not be considered an effective antiviral, Boucaud said, adding that you would have to have a lot of exposure to the sun in order for that to work.

Sunlight might, for example, kill the virus on clothing that has been left in the sun for a couple of days, according to Boucaud.

Question: Is there a certain room temperature that can kill the virus? Does heat help?

Answer: The temperature in your home would have to be really, really high to effectively kill the virus, Boucaud said.

In short: cranking up the heat is not a realistic antiviral.

But it is a good idea to wash your clothes in hot water  especially if youve tested positive for COVID-19, Brown said.

One piece of positive news about coronavirus: basic detergents easily kill it, so theres no need to throw bleach in the wash, Brown said.

Question: How do we know our food is safe? Are there any extra precautions we should take when we grocery shop to prevent the spread of the virus?

Answer: Although the CDC has said there is no evidence of COVID-19 spreading via food products, its always a good idea to wash your food, Brown said.

In addition, data indicates the coronavirus can hold onto surfaces for a couple of days, according to Boucaud, who noted that those surfaces are very particular and include stainless steel, hard plastic and cardboard. The virologist has heard of people wiping down packages from the grocery store, he said.

Question: My mom is 89, living in her own apartment, feeling great. I am her caregiver, bringing her groceries and what not since I will not be taking her out to any stores. Other than washing my hands and no direct contact, what other precautions should I be taking?

Answer: First, Brown thanked this reader for taking most of the proper precautions.

He added just two suggestions:

1. If you start feeling under the weather, stop having contact with your mom.

2. Avoid bringing pets, as the virus can sit in their fur.

Question: I work in a dental practice which is open for routine cleanings and non-emergency procedures. I am in the elder age bracket and have family with immune issues. Should I be working?

Answer: Dental hygienists are at higher risk of contracting the virus because theyre exposed to lots of respiratory secretions, Brown said. Those in fields like dentistry should follow professional guidelines, he continued.

While he would not tell the reader whether or not they should work  that call varies  the employee should protect themselves as much as possible, Brown said.

Question: I have a co-worker who has a family member that may have been exposed to the virus. What should I be doing?

Answer: For now, you dont need to sequester, as third-degree contact does not mean you will get COVID-19, Brown said.

But you should practice social distancing, Brown said, and if your coworker does get sick, you should self-quarantine.

meghan.friedmann@hearstmediact.com; 781-346-5236.
LAWYERS in Cebu condemned the discrimination and violent attacks against health workers serving sa frontliners in preventing the spread of the deadly coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in Cebu.

In a statement, officials of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu Chapter denounced the action of certain individuals and groups for prohibiting doctors and nurse from entering their subdivisions for fear of contracting Covid-19.

"In these extraordinary times of this novel virus, let us not allow our fears to rob us of our humanity. We suppose that precautions are being taken by these frontliners to ensure that they do not become carriers of this viral disease. After all, it is their lives and the lives of their family members which are at stake. We should find ways to suppport our frontliners, and not to shun them; to defend, and not to discriminate," the IBP's statement said.

The IBP also committed to protect medical frontliners from discrimination through legal means necessary.

"This is the least we can do for the very people who are protecting us from-and fighting against-this unseen enemy of mankind," the statement added. (JKV)
Three cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Lake County since Thursday, and the county government has partnered with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to fight the outbreak.

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services informed Lake County of the first case on Thursday evening, as announced by a Lake County Facebook post. The post described the patient as a male in his 60s who, thankfully, had been following the guidance to quarantine at home after being notified that he had been a close contact to a confirmed out-of-county case. The individual has not been out in the public since this contact, so at this time there appears to be low threat of exposure to the community.

The second case was announced Saturday by the new CSKT-Lake County Unified Command Center. It was found in a woman in her 60s who had been traveling out of state in an area with a high number of cases and was in quarantine. On Sunday, the Unified Command Center announced that the spouse of the first case, a woman of unknown age, had also tested positive and was in isolation. Investigations into these cases are underway.

Also last week, the Tribal Council and County Commissioners both voted to create the CSKT-Lake County Unified Command Center, a joint agency to address the pandemic. Much of Lake County overlaps with the Flathead Indian Reservation. While the county and tribal governments have a long history of disagreement, leaders of both have decided to pool their resources to fight the pandemic.

Were stronger together than we are as individual governments, a press release quoted Shelly Fyant, Tribal Council Chairwoman, as saying. This is the best way to keep everyone in our community safer.

Lake County Commissioner Bill Barron, meanwhile, said that our two great governments are teaming together for the sole purpose of keeping our loved ones safe.

The Command Center is being co-led by Lake County Emergency Manager Mark Clary and longtime tribal firefighter Bob McCrea. Team members are meeting daily to plan logistics and operations. For their latest communications, visit http://cskthealth.org/index.php/coronavirus-updates.

Also in Lake County, the County Commissioners voted unanimously Monday to hold the county's June primary entirely by mail, which Gov. Steve Bullock recently authorized Montana counties to do. Barron said the commissioners had received three emails and numerous phone calls on the proposal, all supportive.

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San Francisco, 30 March 2020: The Report Legal Process Outsourcing Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Location (Offshore, On-Shore), By Service (e-discovery, Patent Support, Litigation Support), And Segment Forecasts, 2019 - 2025

The global Legal Process Outsourcing market size is projected to reach USD 35.9 billion by 2025, expanding at a CAGR of 31.8% from 2019 to 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The growth can be chiefly attributed to the emergence of alternative legal service delivery models and virtual law firms.

Technological advancements and innovations in the legal industry are expected to offer new growth avenues in the sector, helping law firms inculcate a transparent relationship with clients. Law firms are deploying Natural Language Processing (NLP) and document automation capabilities to fall in line with the reinvention of the legal industry.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is another factor that has taken the LPO industry to a new level. Software equipped with AI capabilities is garnering utmost importance among lawyers and firms to save their time. Document production and proofreading of documents are efficiently done with the help of automation software. Use of team collaboration software is further streamlining the execution of all documentation processes. All such technological developments have greatly aided lawyers by decreasing costs and increasing convenience.

Electronic discovery (e-discovery) services have grown in prominence, which can be attributed to amendments by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, making Electronically Stored Information (ESI) such as e-mails, e-calendars, and voicemails discoverable on handheld devices in litigation. The development of ESI will reduce the complexity and cost of e-discovery processes and is expected to simplify large-scale complex litigation processes.

Access Research Report of Legal Process Outsourcing Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/legal-process-outsourcing-lpo-market

Further key findings from the study suggest:

On-shore outsourcing is expected to grow at a significant rate over the forecast period, owing to benefits such as enhanced data security and sophisticated service delivery models

The litigation support segment is expected to register a CAGR of more than 34.0% over the forecast period

Majority of the LPO providers are emphasizing on maintaining their locally-registered office in U.S. and setting up back offices in Asia Pacific in order to strengthen their foothold in the global market

Key players in the Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) market include Clairvolex; Clutch Group; Mindcrest Inc.; and Pangea3.

Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/communication-services

Grand View Research has segmented the global Legal Process Outsourcing market on the basis of location, services, and region:

LPO Location Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025)

Offshore

On-shore

LPO Services Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025)

Contract drafting

Review and management

Compliance assistance

E-discovery

Litigation support

Patent support

Others

LPO Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025)

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

MEA

Access Press Release of Legal Process Outsourcing Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-legal-process-outsourcing-lpo-market

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

For More Information:www.grandviewresearch.com
NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio  A 27-year-old man is accused of committing seven purse-snatchings in a week at area grocery stores.

Michael Shoemaker is charged with burglary, a second-degree felony. He is being held in the North Olmsted Jail after pleading not guilty at his initial appearance on Friday.

Shoemaker stole womens purses out of shopping carts seven times between March 19 and 26, according to police. The incidents happened at Marcs, Giant Eagle, Walmart and Olive Tree grocery store, all in North Olmsted.

Police arrested Shoemaker twice on Thursday in connection with the thefts.

The first happened about 8:30 a.m. at the Giant Eagle on Lorain Road. He wore a mask over his face and followed a woman around the store until she turned her back to ask a store employee for help finding an item, according to police reports.

He grabbed the womans purse and ran into the mens restroom, where he emptied the purse and stole credit cards and $100 cash, police report say.

As store employees searched for him, he ran to a nearby GetGo gas station and used the womans credit card to buy scratch-off lottery tickets, according to police. Investigators noted that he bought scratch-off lottery tickets with credit cards stolen in an earlier theft at Marcs.

Because of coronavirus concerns, officers elected to issue him a summons and took him to a homeless shelter.

Shoemaker took an RTA bus back into North Olmsted about 4:30 p.m., police reports say.

He walked to the back of the Olive Tree grocery store where employees had left a door open to the stock room. Shoemaker asked an employee if he could use the restroom. When he came back into the store, he said he lost his debit card and asked employees for help.

While the employees searched the store, Shoemaker grabbed an employees purse from the backroom and tried to hide it under his sweatshirt, according to police.

Two employees spotted Shoemaker with the purse, held him down and called 911. North Olmsted police arrested him a second time and took him to the citys jail.

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An investigator checks the wreckage of a Westwind business jet that burst into flames on the main runway at Manilas Ninoy Aquino International Airport, in suburban Pasay City, March 29, 2020.

Philippine aviation authorities launched a probe Monday into an executive plane that burst into flames while preparing to take off from Manilas main airport, killing all eight people onboard, including two foreigners and a doctor involved in the countrys COVID-19 fight, officials said.

The twin-engine 1124A Westwind, a business jet operated by charter company Lionair, was bound for Haneda Airport in Japan when it caught fire near the end of a runway at Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Sunday night, airport officials said. Lion Air, an Indonesian low-cost airline, later said in a statement that it had no ties to the Manila-based Lionair.

While [an] investigation on the medical evacuation plane RP-C5880 is ongoing, it has been decided that Lionairs entire fleet will be grounded, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), the countrys air safety regulator said in a statement Monday, referring to the aircraft by its tail number.

Among the casualties were two foreign passengers  an American and a Canadian  as well as the pilot and his crew, officials said.

CAAP said it had recovered the aircrafts cockpit voice recorder.

The recovery will further aid the investigation and help answer why the crash might have occurred, the agency said.

Donald Mendoza, director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority, told reporters that an initial investigation showed that the plane had encountered a technical problem, which led to the fire.

Definitely we will have a thorough investigation to this and we will advise the actions to be taken, he said, adding that last year, another airplane operated by the same firm had crashed and killed nine.

There were scenes of chaos at the airport on Sunday evening. The incident was streamed live on social media as the plane lay on its belly, engulfed in fire. Rescuers said it happened too quickly and there was no time to pull out any of the passengers or crew.

We are so sad to learn that a plane crashed last night, taking the lives of the eight persons on board. We extend our deepest sympathies to the grieving families of those who perished in the crash, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said.

There must be a thorough investigation of the incident and the concerned government agencies must undertake measures to secure the safety of private aircraft, as well as their passengers and crew, he said.

The ill-fated airplane was to ferry a patient to Japan, but it was not clear whether it was on a mercy mission related to the coronavirus pandemic that has gripped the Philippines, Japan and other countries across the globe.

The Philippines health department said that the same airplane had been helping in its anti-coronavirus initiative nationwide by helping to ferry medical supplies to far-flung areas in the archipelago.

Late Monday, Lionair, the Philippine charter firm, issued a statement confirming that four passengers and for crew were killed in the fire aboard the plane and that it was heading to Japan on a medical evacuation mission.

One of those who perished was identified as Nicko Bautista, a 33-year-old doctor. Lionair said he was the attending physician on the flight.

The accident is the subject of an Official Investigation by the authorities and we are cooperating fully with the government agencies tasked to investigate this tragic accident, Lester Nazarene Ople, a spokesman for the firm, said in the statement.
Soldiers operate a HJ-12, or Red Arrow 12, anti-tank missile. Photo: Screenshot from China Central Television

A leading Chinese arms firm has delivered a batch of advanced portable HJ-12E anti-tank missiles to an undisclosed foreign buyer amid the pandemic of novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) in the first export case of this type of high-end weaponry, prompting Chinese analysts to note on Sunday that this showcased the company's reliability and its potential share of the market.

Despite the COVID-19 outbreak that had brought difficulties in personnel exchanges since the Spring Festival holidays in late January and early February, state-owned China North Industries Group Corporation (Norinco) was able to deliver containers carrying the missiles to foreign clients as of Wednesday, before the scheduled shipment date, according to a statement the company released Wednesday on its WeChat account.

It was the first time a third-generation anti-tank weapon system developed by the Chinese company has been exported, according to the statement.

As the client was in urgent need of the missiles, the successful delivery had significant meaning for establishing Norinco's market position and further opening up the market, the company said.

Norinco did not disclose more details on the deal in the statement, including the name of the buyer, the quantity purchased and the value of the deal.

The delivery demonstrated the Chinese arms firm's reliability and proved it can fulfill a contract even under seeming force majeure, overcoming difficulties and prioritizing the client's interest, a military expert who asked not to be named told the Global Times on Sunday.

This would win trust not only from the buyer for this deal, but also other potential clients, the expert said, noting the product would also get a chance to shine on the international market.

Often compared with the FGM-148 Javelin missile used by the US military, the HJ-12, or Red Arrow 12, is a portable, fire-and-forget anti-tank missile domestically developed by China, Weihutang, a column on military affairs affiliated with China Central Television, reported on Thursday.

It can hit targets including tanks, bunkers, ships and helicopters from above, where armor is likely the thinnest, with a penetration capability of 1,100 millimeters, Weihutang reported.

The HJ-12 enables soldiers to lock on target, fire and then move on without maintaining position to guide the missile to its target, providing many tactical advantages, the expert said.

The missile is capable of destroying even the most advanced tanks in the world, he noted.

It is expected to be a high-end weapon that not every military can afford in mass quantities, but it should be more cost-efficient than its competitors like the Javelin, the expert said.

China does not attach political premise to arms sales, he noted. China provides not only affordable and easy-to-use weapons, but also advanced and sophisticated ones.
(Bloomberg) -- A federal judge ordered Texas to temporarily stop enforcing its ban on abortions, which state leaders had declared medically unnecessary procedures that wasted scarce medical resources needed to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Texass Republican governor and attorney general last week threatened doctors with steep fines and jail time for performing even medication abortions that dont require the use of personal protective equipment, such as surgical masks and sterile gloves and gowns. Only abortions needed to save the life of the mother were allowed under the governors order.
With schools shut down across America , K-12 teachers faced with a question many likely thought theyd never have to ask: When and how often during the school day do my students need to see me?

Distance education can be broken down into two broad approaches: synchronous and asynchronous. The former consists of the teacher offering a lesson to the class of students at the same time; the latter provides the student with tools to complete the work on their own time, and direct involvement from the teacher can happen anytime.

(For more details, check out this guide from Wisconsin educators, such as Diane Doersch, the technical project director for Digital Promise and a former chief technology officer in public schools. And read this guide from Educause about research on the two different approaches.)

The bottom line: Neither approach is sufficient all on its own, but there are situations and subjects that do tend to favor one of the two strategies. Experts say the best recipe for success is to mix the twobut in what proportions? And for which students?

Education Week put this dilemma in front of longtime practitioners and observers of online learning. Heres what they advised.

Dont waste students time.

Asynchronous communications, like emails and text messages, can be useful for teachers setting deadlines, offering instructions or even launching a discussion question. Synchronous communication works better for brainstorming or more spontaneous conversations, said Susan Patrick, president and CEO of the Aurora Institute, formerly the International Association for K-12 Online Learning.

It doesnt make a lot of sense to do a 15-minute lecture live, Patrick said. Make a slide-deck, do a voiceoverhave that delivery of content be done asynchronously so that youre actually using your time together in a videoconference to interact and share ideas and build off each others ideas.

The added benefit of delivering a lecture in this way is that students can watch it at their own pace, rewinding if necessary if they feel like they missed an important point, or watching the lecture multiple times to make sure they understand the content of the presentation.

Dont go overboard with synchronous teaching.

It wont be possible for most K-12 schools to replicate the traditional classroom experience under the current chaos, but they can take lessons from it. Too much synchronous teachinga lengthy Zoom meeting teachers expect students to attend in full, for instancecould be overstimulating for students and maddening for teachers alike.

Teachers also need to keep in mind the unusual logistics of the COVID-19 outbreak: Expecting students to be glued to their computers all day is especially unrealistic in households with more children than devices. So relying too much on this approach could contribute to equity gaps, with students who have easy access to technology getting an edge over those who dont.

Asynchronous learning offers pacing flexibility.

Fully asynchronous education can give students ownership of their own learning that isnt possible in a more traditional classroom environment, said Megan OReilly Palevich, head of Laurel Springs School, a private, nationwide, fully online K-12 institution based in California and Pennsylvania.

Jennifer Kolar Burden, curriculum director for the Illinois Virtual School, believes almost every single piece of content can be delivered asynchronously, but its ideal for the content to be presented in multiple ways: an interactive game, a practice quiz, a supplementary video. A wide range of optional activities will help cover students with diverse learning needs.

Youre going to have a lot of students who typically may not pay attention very well in class, and now theyre supposed to pay attention to a recorded video? Burden said. Some might, but others wont, she said.

This format can also be helpful for students who tend to take longer to complete exams, says Molly Yowell, an online educator and former digital learning specialist at the Indiana Department of Education. She has a 6th grader at home during the outbreak. I think hes really enjoyed being able to take his time at home and not feel rushed by his peers as they all sit and wait for him to finish a passage or a math quiz, she said.

Give parents clear direction.

When making the case for asynchronous learning, OReilly often tells parents that, instead of spending roughly seven hours in a school building each day, students at her school can be learning 24/7. A student could choose to do all their English work on Sunday and all their math on Monday, for instance.

Parents will likely need to be more involved with students in lower grades. Asynchronous exercises for those students could be practicing their handwriting, letters, and numbers: You dont want a kindergartener to be in front of a computer all day.

Synchronous learning can be a little more informal.

Teachers can conduct virtual office hours by inviting students to join them at any point during a couple-hour window, or they can arrange for a lunch period that students can join at their leisure, OReilly Palevich said.

Teachers can conduct virtual office hours by inviting students to join them at any point during a couple-hour window, or they can arrange for a lunch period that students can join at their leisure.

Real-time video or text chatting can also be useful for keeping tabs on individual students--"checking in on them, how are they, do they need help with something? she said.

Synchronous experiences, even for less than half an hour, also allow students to check in on their fellow classmates and get assurance that their teacher is doing okay, Burden said. Particularly for younger students, it can be useful to maintain the rhythm of a traditional school day with an introductory chat, mimicking the transition from getting off the bus.

Some subjects work better in one mode than the other.

OReilly Palevich thinks English is the easiest subject to teach online because so much of it involves students thinking and writing on their own. Math is tougher, and might require the most synchronous periods for students to ask questions and see problems worked out at the pace that works best for them. It also gives students opportunities to ask questions in the moment, if they are confused by a teachers explanation of a concept, saving them the frustration of having to wait hours or longer for a teacher to clarify a concept.

Complex subjects that tend to prompt immediate questions or dynamic discussion among studentslike AP math or computer science, or world-language coursesalso lend themselves to synchronous instruction, Burden said.

Asynchronous doesnt mean absent.

Online videos can help supplement a teachers synchronous lesson and vary what students are experiencing throughout the day. Science lessons benefit from those video supplements to reinforce demonstrations of lab exercises.

Students might be hesitant to bother a teacher with an email or a call if they have a question, unless the teacher proactively offers opportunities for students to get in touch. Younger students might also never have considered that their teachers exist when theyre not physically present with them in a classroom.

Yowell suggests teachers plan to meet one on one with students by phone or video chat a handful of times a month.

Those communications are more effective if theyre more personal than rote, OReilly Palevich says. Teachers can create a goofy video or use Bitmojis to keep the mood light.

Tailor instruction to your students needs.

Some students are more prepared to handle asynchronous instruction than others. Montana Digital Academy, the states K-12 online learning unit, provides an online readiness assessment that anyone can use, with several scenarios that help determine whether a student is likely to thrive asynchronously or needs more support.

Effective synchronous teaching can be powerful, approximating the experience of being in a classroom without the physical environment, said Bob Currie, executive director of Montana Digital Academy. But its not foolproof. Some of Curries colleagues who have taught via videoconference have found it difficult sometimes to really keep people engaged. They may be listening but they may be kinda checked out.

Teachers: Dont get frustrated.

It will be tempting to get frustrated if students arent paying attention during a live meetingbut Currie recommends patience, particularly during a time of heightened stress and anxiety.

Teaching asynchronously can be an adjustment for classroom teachers who are used to getting the instant feedback of students either appearing engaged in an assignment, or getting bored and misbehaving.

Online teachers serve more of a facilitator role, Burden says. Teachers accustomed to in-person instruction will get more comfortable with this role over time, whether theyre teaching synchronously or asynchronously.

Youre not leading through the learning process, youre guiding them, youre pointing them in the right direction, youre letting them explore on their own, she said.

Image: Getty
The United Bank for Africa (UBA) Foundation on Monday donated N28.5 million to Plateau Government as part of efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 in the state.

The foundation made the presentation during Governor Simon Lalongs meeting on COVID-19 with the state legislature and state officials of the All Progressive Congress (APC) at Government House, Jos.

Speaking during the presentation, the regional manager of UBA North Central, Steve Gadzama, said the gesture was the banks contribution to the states COVID-19 Emergency Trust Fund.

Mr Gadzama said the bank had also built and furnished the isolation facility in Plateau Specialist Hospital and donated two incubators to the ward.

In his response, Mr Lalong expressed gratitude to UBA for setting the pace in contributions to the fund, saying the state government was going to fall back on the gesture as a back-up as the disease had the potential of affecting the economy.

Mr Lalong appealed to public spirited Nigerians to contribute to the fund while commending business moguls such as Aliko Dangote, Femi Otedola and Jack Ma for their contributions to combat the virus in Nigeria.

He said the meeting with the legislature was critical to ensure that policies regarding safeguarding the health of Plateau people were successful.

He said Plateau had not recorded any confirmed case of the Coronavirus, but that it was imperative to ensure that people comply with government directives on preventive measures.

The governor said the measures would be reviewed as required.

Speaking at the meeting, the state Commissioner of Health, Nimkong Ndam, said Plateau had been selected as one of the additional centres for testing COVID-19 in the country making it 13.

He said studies had shown that drugs such as hydroxylchloroquine, azithromyicin and zinc sulphate had been discovered to be helpful in the treatment of COVID-19, saying the state government had made provisions for them.

Mr Ndam said infrared thermometers were being used at the entry point of Plateau from Abuja, to check the passengers entering the state and monitor them in the advent of high temperature.

He said recent results of five suspected cases of COVID-19 in the state had turned negative, saying the state would begin training of health workers on Tuesday selected from different hospitals.

He added that protective equipment had been provided for them.

In his presentation, the chairman of the state economic team, Ezekiel Gomos, said that COVID-19 required prudent use of resources in the state, explaining that the federal government allocation to states would decrease.

He said the state government should reduce the overdependence of revenue derived from oil by boosting agricultural activities in the state, especially the production of vegetables and grains where it had comparative advantage.

He said the state should reduce its capital expenditure by 65 per cent, prioritise health care expenditure, establish a framework to involve chairmen of local Governments in preventive measures and seek special funds from development partners and agencies to support the health sector.

The speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Nuhu Abok and the chairman of APC in Plateau, Latyep Dabang, urged Plateau residents to comply with preventive measures as directed by the government, saying the residents should not be complacent because there is no record of the virus in the state.

(NAN)
CGV's movie theater is seen empty in this outlet in Seoul, March 2. / Courtesy of CGV



By Kim Jae-heun



The country's biggest multiplex operator CGV temporarily closed 30 percent of its movie theaters here starting last Saturday as a result of the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.



CGV has been making every effort to continue its business amid the plunging number of moviegoers but it has come to the point where it can no longer hold out.



The multiplex operator owns 116 movie theaters across the country and 35 among them including ones in Chungdam, Myeongdong and Daehangno have now been shut down



The remaining 81 cinemas will not open every day and instead take turns to screen movies. Also, only movie theaters in Yongsan, Wangsimni and Youngdeungpo will be opened full time  the rest will be limited to three showings per day. Normally, the movie theaters have seven screenings.



All CGV employees will work three days a week as a result. The CEO, executives and manager will have their salaries cut by 30 percent, 20 percent and 10 percent, respectively.



Those who have worked over 10 years are allowed to apply for early resignation and other staff are being encouraged to apply for unpaid leave.



Meanwhile, CGV has decided to request owners of the buildings housing their cinemas to postpone collecting rent.



"We pay about 18 billion won every month in rent. After six months we will pay our back rent in 12 monthly installments," the company said.



Lotte Cinema has also ordered its executives to voluntarily return 20 percent of their wages. However, it has yet to mention closing down additional movie theaters. It recently shut down six outlets temporarily.



"We will not close additional movie theaters at the moment to protect the film industry and for employment stability. However, if the pandemic situation prolongs, we cannot guarantee that we will not shut down more," a Lotte Cinema official said.



A total of 1.65 million people watched movies in March according to the Korean Film Council. The number is only 13.2 percent of the 12.55 million that visited movie theaters in the same month last year. The cinemas saw a daily average of only 61,358 people.



To deal with the sharp reduction, the three multiplex operators CGV, Lotte Cinema and Megabox have cut salaries and shortened business hours, but their situation continues to worsen. They expect to lose nearly 80 billion won this month.



"If COVID-19 continues for the next five months, cinema operators will face a 500 billion won deficit. We are in desperate need of financial support from the government," a multiplex official said.


If you shop at Whole Foods, you may find the grocery store understaffed on Tuesday.

Organizers of an online petition are encouraging employees at the national chain  which is owned by Amazon  to call in sick on March 31.

A petition posted to coworker.org by the Whole Workers National Organizing Committee, which has been attempting to organize the company's workers since 2018, calls for better working conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Whole Foods has temporarily relaxed its strict attendance policy, which means that team members can participate in this act of protest without fear of reprisal," the group wrote.

Demands to Amazon include guaranteed paid leave for all workers who isolate or self-quarantine instead of coming to work as well as the reinstatement of health care coverage for part-time and seasonal workers.

Whole Worker is also looking for hazard pay in the form of double pay during scheduled working hours as well as an immediate shutdown of any location where a worker tests positive for COVID-19, with payment for workers continued.

At least four Whole Foods stores in Chicago, Massachusetts, Florida and New York have had employees test positive for COVID-19.

As grocery store employees continue to work through local and state shelter-in-place orders, Whole Foods is not the first company experiencing new demands from workers. Employees at Trader Joes petitioned for better benefits and hazard pay earlier this month and as many as 150,000 workers for grocery delivery service Instacart planned a nationwide strike for Monday, demanding proper safety precautions implemented by the company.

Whole Foods provided the following statement when asked about the petition demands:

As we address unprecedented demand and fulfill a critical need in our communities, Whole Foods Market is committed to prioritizing our Team Members wellbeing, while recognizing their extraordinary dedication. We have taken extensive measures to keep people safe, and in addition to social distancing, enhanced deep cleaning and crowd control measures, we continue rolling out new safety protocols in our stores to protect our Team Members who are on the front lines serving our customers. Team Members in our stores and facilities also have access to up to two weeks of paid time off if they test positive for COVID or are quarantined, an additional $2 per hour on top of hourly base pay, and increased overtime pay. Whole Foods Market's longstanding open door policy encourages direct dialogue between Team Members and leadership, feedback which continues to shape the decisions we are making every day.

Tessa McLean is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her at tessa.mclean@sfgate.com or follow her on Twitter @mcleantessa.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 29

By Elnur Baghishov - Trend

It is necessary to prepare for living with coronavirus (COVID-19) in Iran, said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Trend reports citing IRINN.

According to Rouhani, it may take a year or two to find a cure or vaccine for the virus.

Rouhani added that the level of coronavirus' spread in Iran will be known after the Nowruz holiday.

The president said that while the situation is good in some provinces, the situation is still dire in others.

Iran is one of the countries heavily affected by the rapidly-spreading coronavirus. According to recent reports from the Iranian officials, over 35,400 people have been infected, 2,517 persons have already died. Meanwhile, over 11,600 patients have reportedly recovered from the disease.

The country continues to apply strict measures to contain further spread of the disease. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease.

The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on February 19.
Sarah Ferguson has urged her fans to find 'gold-hearted strength' and 'keep focused on small steps to victory' amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

The Duchess of York, 60, took to Instagram yesterday to share a photograph of a galloping white horse and a snowy mountain scene, along with the inspiring message with her 262,000 followers.

Posting the poignant message, Sarah, who is also known as Fergie, encouraged followers to stay optimistic, writing: 'The light would not be so bright without the shadow.'

It comes after Fergie, along with daughter Princess Eugenie and son-in-law Jack Brooksbank, made a secret mercy dash to deliver supplies to frontline NHS staff last week to help during the crisis.

Sarah Ferguson, 60, shared her poignant message on Instagram as she urged her followers to 'keep focused on small steps to victory' amidst the coronavirus pandemic

Sharing the post with her followers yesterday, she wrote: 'Hold with golden-hearted strength and keep focused on small steps to victory.

'To reach the summit, it takes mini steps, through many valleys, perseverance and patience and you will get there.

'The light would not be so bright without the shadow.'

It is not known where the photographs were taken, but the Duchess has previously shared snaps of snowy mountain scenes taken from her home in Verbier.

Alongside the post, the Duchess of York shared a snap of a snowy mountain. While it is not known where the image was taken, the royal has shared pictures from her home in Verbier before

Last week, Fergie claimed Mother Nature has 'taken back control' and 'sent us to our rooms like spoilt children' on Instagram.

She shared a snap of a blossom tree alongside the thoughtful message, believed to have been taken at her home with Prince Andrew at Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park.

And earlier this month Fergie and Princess Eugenie delivered care packages, containing essentials such as food, toiletries and cleaning products, to Hammersmith Hospital in West London on last Wednesday and then again on Saturday.

Further drop-offs are planned at other hospitals, including the Chelsea and Westminster and Upton Hospital in Slough.

Alongside the image of the snowy mountain scene, Sarah shared a picture of a galloping white horse

A pal said: 'They wanted to do anything they could to help.'

The couple were asked to help out by a hospital consultant friend, and the packages included toothpaste, soap, shower gel, hand wash, anti-bacterial wipes, dried pasta, pasta sauces, rice, cereal bars and tinned fruit.

Meanwhile Sarah's other daughter Princess Beatrice's wedding has been put on hold as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
Officers of the Nigeria Customs Service have been accused of shooting and killing a 15-year-old girl identified as Miss Sekinat Agbelade while chasing a rice smuggler in the Agosasa community in Ipokia Local Government Area of Ogun State.

According to Daily Trust, Agbelade, who died at a private hospital in the community on Saturday, March 28, was running an errand before being hit by the stray bullet from the men of Customs Service.

Spokesperson of the command, Abdulahi Maiwada confirmed the incident but said he doesnt have the facts.

Mr Abdulahi said to newsmen: I can confirm the incident but I dont have the facts. By the time I have the facts, I would make them available.

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An eyewitness told New Telegraph that the Customs officers were chasing a purple Toyota Camry, which was allegedly driven by a suspected rice smuggler. After arresting the suspect, they reportedly started shooting indiscriminately.

READ ALSO  COVID-19: Nigerians Adjusting To Ban On Social, Religious Gathering

The eyewitness said: Everything happened about 1 p.m. on Saturday and aside Sekinat who died, two other people, 55-year-old Oluwole Oladosu and Saliu Babalola, were also injured by stray bullets. The incident happened in Agosasa area. The Customs were chasing a smuggler and the exact place is called Ita-Sango. They were able to intercept the smuggler with his smuggled goods and a series of things happened and they started shooting indiscriminately. The surprising thing is that they started shooting sporadically at the people even after intercepting the smuggler.

It was in the process that this lady, who was sent on an errand, was hit by a bullet. Even with the bullet on her, she was making effort to run but she became weak.

There is one 55-year-old Oluwole who saw the lady wriggling in pain because of the bullet wound and made an effort to rescue her. But these Customs officers, who had already moved the smuggled car, turned back and shot him for daring to save the young girl.

The lady was taken to Olutunu Hospital at Agosasa where Dr. Fatokun made frantic efforts to salvage her life but she had lost a lot of blood because of the bullet wound and she died along the line.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 30, 2020) - Getchell Gold Corp. (CSE: GTCH) (OTCQB: GGLDF) ("Getchell" or the "Company") a leading Nevada focused Gold and Copper exploration company, today announced that its near term strategy to advance its assets is not impacted by the COVID-19 Corona virus. The Company continues to monitor the situation and is in compliance with all government guidelines.

To that end, Getchell has taken possession of all of the physical data, digital data, core, cuttings, storage and logging facilities associated with the recently optioned Fondaway Canyon ("Fondaway") and Dixie Comstock projects. (refer to Company news release dated January 7, 2020 for further details).

The Company is currently completing a new Fondaway technical report as a basis for an open-pit mining scenario and mineral resource estimate. The 2017 technical report (see details below) envisioned an underground operation and set the model parameters accordingly. The new Fondaway technical report will involve a comprehensive synthesis and geological reinterpretation of the substantial volume of data received. The data set was amassed over decades of work across multiple exploration and small-scale mining campaigns. The objective of this internal assessment of the data is to integrate the geology, structure, alteration and mineralization into a revised 3D model that will provide the basis for:

1) A comparison of the revised 3D model with the geologic model used for the 2017 historic resource estimate;

2) Assessing the impact of including the 2017 drill program results (7 holes totaling 2,534 metres) that were not used for the 2017 historic resource estimate;

3) A new, third party, NI43-101 Mineral Resources Estimate and Technical Report; and

4) Guidance on the next phase of exploration in support of a Preliminary Economic Assessment.

"This is a low-cost strategy which could yield significant results for shareholders and we look forward to updating the market as the results of our efforts materialize," said CEO Bill Wagener.

Story continues

2017 Fondaway Technical Report

The 2017 Technical Report on the Fondaway Canyon Project was commissioned by Canarc Resources Corp. and was authored by Techbase International Ltd. The project has a historical estimate of Indicated resources of 409,000 oz. Au contained in 2,050,000 tonnes grading 6.18 g/t and Inferred resources of 660,000 oz. Au contained in 3,200,000 tonnes grading 6.4 g/t, using a 1.8 m width cut-off and a cut-off grade of 3.43 g/t Au.

This historic resource estimate was completed by Techbase International Ltd of Reno, Nevada, and it is contained within a NI 43-101 report dated April 3, 2017 that was commissioned by Canarc Resource Corp of Vancouver, B.C., Canada. The resource estimate was compiled only from drill holes that could be validated (591 holes @ 49,086 m), a sufficient amount to deem the historic resource as reliable. Using Techbase software, a method of polygons was used along each vein. With a minimum 0.10 opt Au and 1.8 m horizontal vein width used as cut-off parameters, twelve veins had sufficient composited intercepts within the sulfide mineralization for the estimate. No capping or cutting of grades was applied. The historical resource estimate used classifications in accordance with NI 43-101 standards, namely, "indicated" and "inferred". A review and/or re- calculation of the historic resource is required by an independent Qualified Person to confirm these as current resources as defined by NI 43-101. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources; and the issuer is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources.

Scott Frostad, P.Geo., is the Qualified Person (as defined in NI 43-101) who reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.

About Getchell Gold Corp.

The Company is a Nevada focused gold and copper exploration company listed on the (CSE: GTCH) and (OTCQB: GGLDF). Getchell Gold is directing its efforts on its most advanced stage asset, Fondaway Canyon, a past gold producer with a significant in-the-ground historic resource estimate. Complementing Getchell's asset portfolio is Dixie Comstock, a past gold producer with a historic resource and two earlier stage exploration projects, Star Point and Hot Springs Peak.

For further information please visit the Company's website at www.getchellgold.com or contact the Company at info@getchellgold.com.

Mr. William Wagener, Chairman & CEO

Getchell Gold Corp.

+1 303 517 8764

info@getchellgold.com

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed this press release and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Not for distribution to U.S. news wire services or dissemination in the United States.

Certain information contained herein constitutes "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the private placement and the completion thereof and the use of proceeds. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "will" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, including: the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, use of proceeds from the financing, capital expenditures and other costs, and financing and additional capital requirements. Although management of Getchell have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward looking information. The Company will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/53924
The General Command of the Armed Forces has issued directives to all affiliated departments to provide medical supplies to support the country's anti-coronavirus efforts.

The measure came as part of directives of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi to take all precautionary measures to combat the virus.

Meanwhile, a Cairo airbase received a military jet, carrying a shipment of medical supplies imported from abroad in cooperation between the Armed Forces, the Health Ministry and the Egyptian authority for unified procurement and medical supply.

The jet crew members have undergone medical checkups to make sure that they did not contract the virus.

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The Santa Cruz County Public Health Division on Sunday announced the county's first death due to novel coronavirus.

The victim, who died Saturday, was a man in his early 70s who had an underlying health condition and was hospitalized March 19 with symptoms that included fever and shortness of breath.

A test confirmed he was positive for COVID-19.

The man was employed in both Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties, had not recently traveled and had not had contact with another known case, officials said.

"After a thorough investigation, Public Health's Communicable Disease Unit determined that this infection was community acquired," the health division said.

Santa Cruz County confirmed its first COVID-19 case on March 6 and as of Sunday morning the number of cases has grown to 41, with the vast majority being between the ages of 18 and 65.

A second patient at Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco has tested positive for novel coronavirus, city officials said in an announcement Sunday morning.

The tally of confirmed cases is now seven staff members and two patients and all are in good condition officials said. Five of the staff provide patient care and two do not, officials said.

"Contact investigations are underway, including testing, and the units have been quarantined," the Department of Public Health said, adding that an investigation of possible contacts of the confirmed cases is being conducted.

The hospital has been under a protective quarantine order issued by the city on Wednesday.

Both directions of Monument Boulevard in Pleasant Hill were closed for a few hours following a solo-vehicle crash into a telephone pole early Sunday morning, according to police.

The crash forced the closure of the eastbound lanes as of 2:40 a.m. and the westbound lanes were closed nearly 40 minutes later between Buskirk Avenue and Mohr Lane, Sgt. Chris Anderson said.

Police said as of 6:45 a.m., the roadway is open with traffic controls in place as PG&E crews are at the scene trying to stabilize the pole without shutting down power to customers in the area.

The driver of the vehicle wasn't injured and wasn't cited or detained on any criminal charges, according to Anderson.

All lanes of eastbound Interstate Highway 580 were closed following a fatal crash involving a wrong-way driver after North Livermore Avenue Sunday morning in Livermore, the California Highway Patrol reported.

The collision was reported about 6:20 a.m. and a sig alert was issued about 10 minutes later. At least five vehicles were involved and one person is dead, the CHP said.

Ten days after passing a $500,000 rent relief package, the Mountain View City Council passed another $800,000 relief package Friday night to help local small businesses, local homeless and people with unstable living situations, local seniors and residents struggling with garbage or water bills.

These relief efforts, known as TogetherMV, will be combined with a local donation portal set to launch early next week. In addition, Mountain View joined other cities in the region to pass an urgency ordinance to suspend evictions for nonpayment of rent due to COVID-19-caused hardship for residential renters, including mobile home lot renters, for 120 days after the May 31 expiration date of the ordinance.

Included in the $800,000 package approved at a special video meeting Friday night are $400,000 for small-business relief with an additional $100,000 earmarked to loan to small apartment complex owners with nine or fewer units who prove COVID-related hardships; $50,000 for portable restrooms, hand-washing stations, mobile showers and washer and dryers; $50,000 for a grocery gift-card program for local homeless, unstably housed and seniors in need; $100,000 for expansion of the Safe Parking Program pilot to run 24/7 at Shoreline, Terra Bella and Evelyn lots during this crisis; and $100,000 to design and implement a program to help with hardships in paying garbage and water utility bills due to COVID-19 impacts.

Lonnie D. Franklin Jr., a death row inmate at San Quentin State Prison, was found dead in his single cell Saturday evening, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced. He was 67 years old.

Medical assistance was rendered when he was found and an ambulance was summoned. Franklin was pronounced dead at 7:43 p.m.

"His cause of death is pending the results of an autopsy; however, there were no signs of trauma," the CDCR said.

Franklin, a serial killer known as the "Grim Sleeper," was on death row for the murders of nine women and one teenage girl committed between 1985 and 2007.

He was sentenced to death in Los Angeles County on Aug. 10, 2016, for 10 counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
RAYLEIGH, ESSEX, UK / ACCESSWIRE / March 30, 2020 / Tube Tech International Ltd. has received three ISO accreditations following an ISO audit at its European headquarters in Rayleigh, Essex, U.K.

The accreditations have been awarded for the provision of specialised industrial cleaning services and apply to the company's research and development into robotic cleaning technology solutions. The certificates primarily relate to general industrial, petrochemical, chemical and renewable energy industries with an emphasis on the minimisation of environmental and occupational health and safety risks.

The company has been awarded with the ISO 9001:2015 accreditation for Quality Management Systems which is awarded to organisations to demonstrate the ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory requirements.

Tube Tech International Ltd. has also received the ISO 14001:2015 accreditation for Environmental Management Systems which specifies the requirements for an environmental management system that an organisation can use to enhance its environmental performance. It is intended for use by an organisation seeking to manage its environmental responsibilities in a systematic manner that contributes to the environmental pillar of sustainability.

The final accreditation awarded to the company is ISO 45001:2018 for Occupational Health & Safety Management Systems. This accreditation specifies requirements for an occupational health and safety (OH&S) management system, and gives guidance for its use, to enable organisations to provide safe and healthy workplaces by preventing work-related injury and ill health, as well as by proactively improving its OH&S performance.

Commenting at the close of the ISO audit, managing director at Tube Tech International Jon Camp, said:

"Receiving these accreditations is a fantastic achievement for everyone at Tube Tech. It represents our commitments to quality, environmental and occupational health and safety management, all of which have been part of the DNA at Tube Tech since the conception of the company.

"I would like to thank all of the staff at Tube Tech who consistently implement the values and processes which have now been officially recognised by attaining these ISO accreditations. They will help us to better serve our clients by providing them with confidence that they are working with a company that adheres to globally recognised standards."

To find out more about ISO, visit: www.iso.org.

To find out more about Tube Tech International, visit: www.tubetech.com.

About ISO

ISO is an independent, non-governmental international organization with a membership of 164 national standards bodies.

Through its members, it brings together experts to share knowledge and develop voluntary, consensus-based, market relevant International Standards that support innovation and provide solutions to global challenges.

About Us

About Tube Tech International

Founded in the UK in 1988, Tube Tech International is the global leader in research-led, high-tech fouling removal and inspection services, constantly investing in and developing tried and tested, step change methods to solve heavy industries' most difficult cleaning challenges.

Tube Tech International's patented methods, including remotely operated robotic technology, achieve significant savings, reduce downtime and CO2 emissions, increase throughput and improve safety standards.

In 2019 Tube Tech International's robotic technology has been granted government funding as part of Horizon 2020; the biggest European Union research and innovation programme to date. Its patented Shell Side Jet solution will deliver the very first technology to effectively remove fouling from the outside heat transfer surface of shell and tube exchangers.

In 2018, Tube Tech Inc. U.S. base of operations was launched in Houston, Texas, and in 2019 a further base opened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

CONTACT:

Ella Boyden

01473 326 907

ella@thewriteimpression.co.uk

SOURCE: Tube Tech International Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/583094/Tube-Tech-Receives-ISO-Accreditation-Treble
Tokyo, March 30 : Japanese authorities have planned to ban the entry of foreigners who have recently visited the US, most parts of Europe, China and South Korea as a preventive measure against the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country, it was reported on Monday.

The ban will apply to those who have visited one of the designated regions in the 14 days prior to their arrival in Japan, Efe news quoted state broadcaster NHK as saying in a report.

Japanese citizens returning from these places can enter the country but will need to be under quarantine for two weeks.

The information did not specify when the measure would come into effect.

Japan has already banned the entry of people who have recently visited countries that have been severely affected by the coronavirus, including 21 European countries - among them Italy and Spain - as well as Iran, certain areas of China and South Korea.

Until now, Japan only required visitors who had been to the US to undergo quarantine, but the extensive spread of the virus in America - which currently has the highest number of confirmed cases ahead of Italy and China - have led the Asian country to decide to tighten its restrictions.

Japan has diagnosed relatively few cases, but in recent days it has experienced a sharp increase, mainly in Tokyo and its surrounding regions.

The Japanese government has so far reported 2,578 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the archipelago - including 712 from the Diamond Princess cruise liner - and 64 deaths.

More than 700 infections were diagnosed in the past week.
Two women from Moncton, N.B., are among the 248 Canadians stuck on a Holland American cruise ship that's been hit with the coronavirus.

Judy Menard boarded the Zaandam in Buenos Aires the first week of March.

The cruise ship was stuck off Panama's Pacific coast after four passengers died and more than 130 others developed influenza-like symptoms. At least two people are suspected to have the coronavirus.

Judy Menard's daughter, Alison, said she talks to her mom daily on the phone.

Submitted/Alison Menard

"When we speak she's always very sunshiny and positive," she said about her mother.

Menard and her travelling companion, Trudy Robertson, also from Moncton, have been confined to their cabin on the ship since March 22.

The women don't have access to the internet in the room, and have been relying on updates from family to find out what's happening on board their ship.

Including information about the four passengers that died on the ship.

"The captain did make an announcement that four people had died but they didn't provide any other information about the time frame or the circumstances," Alison Menard said.

"She would have found that out from us probably, maybe, 12 hours after we heard that information."

Menard said despite the stressful situation, the women are happy to be healthy and not have any symptoms of COVID-19.

Ivan Pisarenko/AFP via Getty Images

Some passengers transferred to a second Holland America ship  the Rotterdam, but Menard said the two women from Moncton are staying on the original boat.

"Somebody, including medical staff, came cabin to cabin to get each of them to fill out a questionnaire, and then a doctor assessed each of them."

Alison said her mother has a cough that she's had for 30 years, but other than that she feels healthy.

Panama reversed its decision to block the ship from the canal and the ship will be allowed to proceed through the Panama Canal, the government said Saturday.

Menard doesn't know when the women from Moncton will make it back to Canada, but there will be a birthday to celebrate when her mother gets home.

Judy Menard is turning 77 on Tuesday, and although her original itinerary had her booked to be on the cruise for her birthday, she didn't plan to be in confinement.

Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says he has been co-ordinating with his Panamanian counterpart and will continue efforts to bring any non-infected Canadians home once the ship docks in Fort Lauderdale.
ALBANY  The state Legislature, eyeing new technology to continue work amid the coronavirus pandemic, is expected to pass measures early this week allowing for remote voting procedures during emergencies.

The state Senate on Sunday approved a resolution allowing senators to participate in sessions by "remote means," including teleconferencing and videoconferencing as necessary. The Assembly will pass a similar resolution on Monday afternoon, Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie, D-Bronx, said Sunday.

The measures serve as the first step to a new reality for the state Legislature  one dominated by online conversations, debates and votes as the state balances social distancing guidelines with the legislative session, which is scheduled to end in June. Four legislators  all members of the Assembly  have tested positive for the virus.

During these extraordinary circumstances, it is critical that the peoples house is able to continue to do the peoples work, Heastie said in a release Sunday. These changes will preserve the integrity of New York's legislative process in a way that will also protect our members, our staff, the hardworking staff of the Capitol and the families we all go home to. This is a historic step that will help save lives and support New Yorkers.

The Assembly resolution  introduced by Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes of Buffalo  would allow the chamber to temporarily utilize remote voting during declared states of emergency. The measure would speed up roll calls, while requiring that members who vote "no" would either enter their votes through an "electronic voting system" or by directly entering the chamber, officials said.

The changes also preface the passage of the state budget, which is due by Wednesday. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, said the Senate "will begin the process of passing budget bills this week as bills are ready." She had introduced the Senate version of the remote voting resolution.

"Throughout the week, our process will establish appropriate protocols involving social distancing, and tomorrow we will pass a resolution authorizing limited remote voting as necessary," she said Saturday. "Obviously, this is a fluid situation, and we will let everyone know if there are any changes."

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's office is leaving the voting process up to the two legislative chambers as he also continues to work on budget bills. Cuomo has been adamant that state legislators are essential workers and should "do [their] job," even as some lawmakers have concerns about traveling to Albany and gathering in large groups amid the pandemic.

While in Albany for a brief session earlier this month, the Senate and Assembly enacted social distancing regulations to significantly reduce the number of lawmakers required to be in their respective chambers during debates and voting procedures.

The Legislature is expected to begin considering budget bills on Monday. Cuomo indicated on Sunday that the houses are still negotiating several big-ticket items he had intended to include in the budget, including the legalization of gestational surrogacy and a new "domestic terrorism" charge for hateful attacks.
Benjamin Netanyahu and his staff are self-isolating until they receive results of a coronavirus test in Israel after a close aide tested positive for the disease.

Rivka Paluch, the prime ministers advisor on ultra-Orthodox affairs, was found to be infected with Covid-19 alongside her husband.

The Israeli leader, who is 70-years-old, initially tested negative for the novel coronavirus on 15 March but is scheduled to be tested again on Tuesday.

Mr Netanyahus office told The Independent that as a precaution he "decided that he and his personal staff will be in isolation until the epidemiological investigation is completed".

The office said that a preliminary investigation showed there was no need for the prime minister to enter full 14-day quarantine as he had not come into contact with Ms Paluch.

An initial examination showed that over the past two weeks the two were never in the same room at the same time, the statement read.

The epidemiological investigation continues, the office added.

Over 4,300 people have been infected with the virus while 15 had died in Israel, that unfurled strict lockdown measures including barring citizens from leaving a 100-metre radius of their homes except If absolutely necessary.

Mr Netanyahu was set to convene officials on Monday to discuss a proposed lockdown of some of the country, as the health ministry warned that the dead could number in their thousands.

If he does test positive, he and his entire team will have to be quarantined as would his main elections rival Benny Gantz, the countrys ex-army chief.

Mr Gantz spent eight hours with Mr Netanyahu overnight Saturday negotiating a unity government deal.

Mr Gantz had headed up a centrist coalition of parties called Blue and White came neck and neck with Mr Netanyahus Likud party in three inconclusive elections over the last year.

The alliance, however, ruled out joining forces with the prime minister because he is standing trial in three corruption cases. Mr Netanyahu denies the charges.

Mr Gantz has, however, broken ranks with his alliance, that formally split over the weekend, forging a new party that is apparently willing to enter a power-sharing deal.

The ex-army chief was elected parliamentary speaker on Thursday with support from Likud and allied parties, angering many of his own allies.

Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly proposed a national unity government to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, promising to step down as prime minister within an agreed period, with Mr Gantz then taking over.

Mr Gantz's move opened up the possibility of such a "rotation" deal. There has been no formal announcement that such an agreement had been reached.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister



Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday said the situation in Indore, where 27 coronavirus cases have been reported so far, will be brought under control soon.

In an interview to PTI, Chouhan said the government has taken adequate measures to deal with the situation by announcing complete lockdown in Indore for three days.

"We will control the situation in Indore soon," he said.

Chouhan also appealed to people of Indore to cooperate during the lockdown for their own good and for the sake of their children and friends.

The awareness level of people of Indore is very high and the city is number one in cleanliness since three consecutive terms, he noted.

The chief minister urged people to follow the 'Lakshman Rekha', as suggested by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to defeat the menace of coronavirus.

So far, 27 coronavirus cases have been reported from Indore, the highest in the state.

Besides, eight cases have been reported in Jabalpur, five in Ujjain, three in Bhopal and two each in Shivpuri and Gwalior.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As hundreds of migrant workers continue to cross state borders to reach their homes amid the countrywide lockdown, District Magistrate Abhishek Prakash, and Sujeet Pandey, Police Commissioner, visited the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan to review the arrangements for the migrant workers, said Swatantra Kumar, ACP, Vibhuti Khand, on Monday.

"In the morning, Abhishek Prakash and Sujeet Pandey had visited the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan to review the arrangements for the migrant workers," Kumar told ANI.

Three shelter homes have been set up at Haj House near the airport, Awadh Shilpgram near Shaheed Path and Indira Gandhi Pratishthan in Gomti Nagar.

"At the quarantine facility in Indira Gandhi Pratishthan, we have provided food and shelter facility to about 600 people while maintaining social distance rule set by the Central government," Kumar said.

Mohammad Abbas Ansari, who had once gone to Haryana in search of work, said, "Social distancing can be maintained if each person gets a separate room."

"But if several people are accommodated in a single hall as has been done at the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan, then the social distancing can not be maintained," he added.

"The government should have sealed the state's borders from the day the lockdown was imposed. Then this chaotic situation would not have occurred," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
ROME - Spain on Monday surpassed China in the official number of cases of COVID-19.



The government was quoted by El Pais as saying that there are now 85,195 cases compared with China's 82,156 (according to the Johns Hopkins University). The country thus has more recorded cases than any other country in the world except for the US and Italy. The number of people who have died and tested positive for the virus is now at 7,340, while at least 16,780 have recovered.

Coronavirus: Spain's outbreak slowing, says foreign minister

Spain's foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez on Monday told the BBC that the latest data shows that the curve of new COVID-19 infections was flattening in the country. The Spanish authorities confirmed 6,398 new cases, the lowest increase in a day in the past week.

Gonzalez noted, however, that there is still a great deal of pressure on intensive care units and that further restrictions being introduced on Monday would help to prevent the spread of the virus. The minister told the BBC that it was unfair to single out Spain because many other countries - including Italy and the US - were also dealing with unprecedented numbers.(ANSAmed).
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were reported to move from Canada to California just days before they will step down from their royal duties and before Canada went into lockdown last week according to a recently published article.

STEPPING DOWN FROM THEIR ROYAL DUTIES

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced that they will step down from their royal duties during the last days of January. The decision was made by the royal couple and stunned everyone around the world that follows the life of Prince Harry and Meghan.

It was first reported that one of the reasons why Prince Harry decided to leave the royal post because it became clear to him that his wife, Meghan Markle, will not get a fair shake and that the royals abandoned his son, Archie.

There are many reasons that circulated about the decision of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to leave their royal duties. These issues do not seem to end even after they leave their royal post. Beginning April 1, they will no longer have to perform official royal duties.

FROM U.K. TO CANADA

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been in Canada since before Christmas to be reunited with their son, Archie. In fact, instead of celebrating their Christmas with the Queen, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had their Christmas celebration in Canada.

The couple was expected to split their time between the U.K. and Canada starting April 1. Prince Harry did not completely abandon the Queen and his country, there are just reasons that until now remain a mystery for most of us on what prompted him to make the decision.

One report says that another reason why Prince Harry decided to live in Canada is because he wants to give his son a normal life. Allegedly Prince Harry wants to keep his son from the negativity that he experienced around the palace according to a report.

It was clear to everyone that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will live in Canada together with their son. Though the reasons behind it remained a mystery. However, the couple made headlines again after it was reported that they will move from Canada to California.

FROM CANADA TO CALIFORNIA

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made another headline in different news outlets after it was found out that they will move from Canada to Los Angeles, California. Two reasons are speculated about their transfer to the American State. It is either because of money or the global health pandemic COVID-19.

Los Angeles is not a new place anymore for Meghan Markle. This is where she grew up as a kid and was raised by her mother. To be reunited with her mother might also be one of the reasons why they moved in the state.

Here are the two main reasons why Prince Harry and Meghan Markle decided to move to Los Angeles, California:

Part of the decision that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle that they have to embrace in their decision to step down from their royal duties is to leave their privileges. According to a report, they were told that work visas in Canada would be difficult and since Meghan remained a U.S. citizen and this means that she is taxed for her worldwide income in two places. That would be in the United States and Canada. Beginning April 1, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have to work as professionals to earn money and sustaian their lavish lifestyle since they will be no longer receiving money from the crown anymore.

According to another report, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle moved to Los Angeles, California just before Canada went into lockdown last week was due to COVID-19 that continues to swell. The report says that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle together with their son took a private jet from Canada to Los Angeles. It was also reported that Meghan wants to be reunited with her mother who is living alone in the United States.

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The analyst said that the starting point of the new normal for the industry began in February 2020 when China put cities under lockdown, disallowed some stores to open, postponed work resumption schedules and limited transportation, all of which reduced TV set demand in the local market and indirectly caused labour and material shortages in the TV supply chain in China.The net result for the TV industry since this time said TrendForce was that the industry currently faces pressure on both the production side and demand side. As a consequence TrendForce has reduced its projection of global TV shipments for the first quarter of 2020 to 44.6 million units, down by 8.6% from the pre-COVID-19 prediction of 48.8 million units. It expects a similar drop for Q2 2020, from the pre-pandemic forecast of 47.6 million units to 44.1 million units, a 7.3% decrease.Drilling deeper, the study found that in Q1 20, Chinas Xiaomis shipment quantity fell from pre-Covid-19 prediction by 25.9%, and that of fellow Chinese firm Skyworth dropped by 21%. These two brands were hit the hardest by the outbreak. Amid international brands, all suffered slightly in the first quarter of the year and the analyst noted that through the year they will all will eventually see unavoidable declines in shipments.Looking forward, the analyst saw further weakening the demand for TVs due to the postponement to 2021 of both UEFA EURO 2020 and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. As a result it has lowered its annual 2020 TV shipment forecast to 205.2 million units, a 5.8% decrease year-on-year. This figure is also 6.7% lower than TrendForces pre-pandemic forecast. Moreover, TrendForce warned that with the possibility of the pandemic escalating in North America and emerging Asian regions, it may decrease the TV shipment forecast even further in the future. For the near future, TrenForce said brands whose Europes shipment portion surpasses 30%  such as Samsung VD, LGE, Sony (pictured) and Philips  might be next victims of the pandemic.
Australian menswear store Tony Barlow has been forced to close its doors due to retail downturn from the coronavirus.

The iconic label first opened a store in Perth in 1971 and will remain active on their online store.

'In our 49th year in business and due to the coronavirus, we have temporarily closed our store, but we will be back as soon as possible to go for the half century,' founder Derek Barlow told The Courier Mail.

Tony Barlow joins a host of retail casualties in recent months in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving tens of thousands of Australians unemployed as stores shut their doors.

Iconic Australian menswear brand Tony Barlow has closed its doors due to the coronavirus outbreak

All Myer stores across Australia closed on Sunday for at least a month due to the coronavirus

Myer closed all of its department stores in Australia on Sunday and stood down 10,000 staff members without pay for at least a month.

Australian bootmakers R.M. Williams has shut all of its stores, as well as David Jones owned smaller fashion stores including Witchery, Country Road, Mimco and Cotton On.

David Jones department stores will remain open, while Myer will still run their online store.

Australia's biggest hairdressing chain Just Cuts announced it would close its doors, along with General Pants, Smiggle, and Peter Alexander due to the coronavirus fallout.

Around 8,000 workers for Woolworths pubs and pokies joint venture were stood down on March 24.

ALH group, jointly owned by Woolworths and the Mathieson family, operates more than 300 licensed venues across Australia but was forced to shut these down after the government ordered all 'non-essential' businesses close due to coronavirus.

General Pants is closing all stores until at least April 22 due to the coronavirus fallout

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

Thousands have since been left without a job but the supermarket giant said that within a day nearly 3,000 would be redeployed.

RAG Group, which owns Tarocash, YD and Connor, closed 500 stores and stood down 3,000 workers on Friday.

The same happened at Accent Group - which owns Athlete's Foot, Platypus and Hype - which announced the closure of 522 stores and the standing down of around 5,000 staff.

It also closed stores from Friday for at least four weeks.

Bunnings will operate limited hours, and all restaurants - including the likes of McDonald's - are only operating as a takeaway.

But the measures will hit the economy hard, leaving many desperate for work as staff are laid off on mass.

Australian bootmakers R.M. Williams said the coronavirus crisis had 'stopped us mid-stride' and forced it to temporarily close its doors

McDonald's stores across Australia (pictured in Melbourne on March 23) have banned customers from dining in and are doing takeaway food only

This would see 814,000 people lose their jobs, as unemployment soared to the highest level since December 1992.

Westpac, Australia's biggest bank, is forecasting an economic contraction in the March, June and September quarters, which would mark the first technical recession in 29 years.

This downturn would be even more severe than the global financial crisis of a decade ago.

Up to 6.5million Australians are set to get a one-off $750 payment on Tuesday in a bid to ward off a looming recession brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

The payments will go to anyone already receiving income support and the first part of the Government's two-part $17.6 billion stimulus package announced on March 12 as COVID-19 began to sweep through Australia.

They include pensioners, veterans, Job seekers (Newstart), Youth Allowance recipients and more.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison asked businesses to hold off from job cuts ahead of a third stimulus package to be announced this week

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has asked businesses to hold fire on any further shutdowns or job cuts ahead of a third stimulus package to be announced in the next few days.

The package is expected to include a $1,500 a fortnight 'job keeper' allowance for those whose employers go into 'hibernation' for the next six months, Seven News reported on Sunday night.

The government has so far announced two stimulus packages worth more than $80billion aimed at trying to shield business and workers from the impact of coronavirus.

'The next stage ... will be even bigger than anything you have so far seen,' Mr Morrison said on Sunday.

'It is part of the hibernation strategy of ensuring that we keep people connected with their businesses and with their jobs, so on the other side of this Australia can bounce back stronger.'

As well as the wage subsidy, there is also expected to be an easing of restrictions on claiming benefits, and rental assistance for both business and individuals.

It comes at a time when economists are predicting a jump in the unemployment rate, with fears it could reach 17 per cent.
OKLAHOMA CITY - More than 50 new cases of coronavirus and one additional death due to COVID-19 were reported Monday by the Oklahoma State Department of Health.

There are now 17 deaths due to the virus and at least 481 cases, the department said, up from 16 deaths and 429 cases on Sunday.

The virus was confirmed in three additional counties, and 47 of the states 77 counties now have at least one confirmed case.

The report comes after Gov. Kevin Stitt on Sunday joined other governors in requiring air travellers from New York and other virus hot spots to quarantine when travelling to the state.

Travellers who fly from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, California, Washington state and Louisiana must self-quarantine for 14 days if they head to Oklahoma, according to Stitts executive order. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and others have issued similar orders.

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.
GREAT FALLS  A former Blackfeet Nation chairman who defrauded a tribal Head Start early education program through an overtime pay scheme was sentenced Monday to 10 months in prison and his plea to be spared prison time because of the coronavirus was denied.

Willie Sharp's attorney had argued the Bureau of Prisons was unprepared for the unfolding pandemic, saying the 66-year-old defendant's age and health problems put him at high risk of complications if he becomes ill with the virus.

U.S. District Judge Brian Morris rejected Willie Sharp's request but issued a more lenient sentence than what was recommended by federal prosecutors.

Federal prosecutors had recommended about two years in prison after Sharp, who is from the town of Browning, admitted to his role in stealing more than $230,000 from the northwestern Montana tribe's Head Start early education program.

The theft "hurt the children enrolled in Head Start by prohibiting the purchase of books, barring the ability to obtain teaching materials and cutting food nutrition programs for those who need it most" U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme said in a statement.

A charge of theft from a tribal government receiving federal funding was dismissed under the terms of a plea deal.

Defense attorney Andrew Huff said Sharp could not appeal under the terms of the plea deal. He declined further comment.

Sharp pleaded guilty to wire fraud last year after he authorized false overtime claims on more than 5,800 hours, resulting in $174,000 in payments including to his wife, Denise Sharp, the program's personnel manager. The scheme took place over a 15-month period starting in 2013, prosecutors said.

Denise Sharp and four others were convicted and sentenced to eight or nine months in prison.

Morris ordered Sharp and the other defendants to pay $174,000 in restitution.

After the fraud was uncovered, the Blackfeet Tribe did an internal review and agreed it could not justify the overtime claims.

It repaid the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services $250,620.29 for disallowed costs and other expenses, Alme's office said.

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TAMPA, Fla.  Florida officials have arrested the pastor of a megachurch after detectives say he held two Sunday services with hundreds of people and violated a safer-at-home order in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

According to jail records, Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne turned himself in to authorities Monday afternoon in Hernando County, where he lives. He was charged with unlawful assembly and violation of a public health emergency order. Bail was set at $500, according to the jails website, and he was released after posting bond.

Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a news conference Monday that he negotiated with the attorney of Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne to turn himself in to authorities in Hernando County. His church is located in Tampa.

Howard-Browne isnt alone in refusing to curtail in-person worship services despite public health orders designed to stop the virus from spreading. Churches in Ohio, Kentucky and Louisiana have continued to invite worshippers in recent days as at least a half-dozen states offer some degree of exemption for faith in their orders to shutter nonessential activity during the pandemic.

Chronister said his command staff met with The River at Tampa Bay Church leaders about the danger they are putting themselves  and their congregation  in by not maintaining appropriate social distancing, but Howard-Browne held the services. The Sheriffs Office also placed a digital sign on the road near the church driveway that said practice social distancing.

Shame on this pastor, their legal staff and the leaders of this staff for forcing us to do our job. Thats not what we wanted to do during a declared state of emergency, Chronister said. We are hopeful that this will be a wakeup call.

The church has said it sanitized the building, and the pastor said on Twitter that the church is an essential business. He also attacked the media for religious bigotry and hate.

The county and governors orders require gatherings, including those held by faith-based groups, be fewer than 10 people to limit the spread of COVID-19. A live stream of Sundays three-and-a-half-hour church service showed scores of congregants. In a Facebook post, Howard-Browne said coronavirus is blown totally way out of proportion.

On March 18, the church called its ministry an essential service, just like police and firefighters, and said it would keep its doors open.

In a Facebook video Sunday, Howard-Browne said it looks like were going to have to go to court over this because the church is encroached from every side.

This is really about your voice. The voice of the body of Christ, he said.

As recently as last year, Howard-Brownes church hosted an event with Paula White-Cain, who was named an advisor leading President Donald Trumps Faith and Opportunity Initiative. Shes also an unofficial spiritual advisor to the president.

___

Religion and politics reporter Elana Schor contributed to this report

___

Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Not for dissemination in the United States of America.

Annual General Meeting

Premier Diversified Holdings Inc. ("Premier" or the "Company") (TSXV: PDH) announced today that in response to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, it will host its annual general meeting of shareholders (the "AGM") on a virtual electronic basis only, at the same time and on the same date as planned, being 11:00 am Pacific Standard Time on April 2, 2020.

As the impact of COVID-19 continues to evolve rapidly across the globe, and in response to the recent public health measures enacted by the Canadian federal and provincial governments, the decision has been made to move the AGM to a virtual setting. This decision was made after considering recent provincial and federal guidance regarding public gatherings, and to proactively protect the health and wellbeing of Premier's stakeholders, employees and service partners that participate in the AGM.

The Company will not hold an in-person meeting as previously communicated in the Notice of Meeting dated March 6, 2020 that was sent to shareholders and filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

Instead, the AGM will be hosted in a virtual setting, and those interested in attending can find the details to attend below. Shareholders are advised that they should not attend at Premier's corporate office, which will not provide any facilities from which to participate in the virtual AGM. Further, shareholders are requested not to attend at the offices of Initio Medical Group Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Premier located next to its corporate office, as immune-compromised individuals regularly attend at Initio.

Virtual AGM Details :

Date: April 2, 2020 Time: 11:00 am PST Participant / Guest (Toll-Free) Access 877-407-2991 Web Link for Audience:

https://78449.themediaframe.com/dataconf/productusers/pdh/mediaframe/36738/indexl.html

In order to streamline the virtual meeting process, the Company encourages shareholders to vote in advance of the meeting using the Voting Instruction Form or the Form of Proxy mailed to them with the meeting materials. Shareholders wishing to attend the AGM may continue to do so by logging into the webcast or calling the number above, and instructions will be provided as to how shareholders entitled to vote at the AGM may participate and vote at the AGM. Management also advised that the AGM will not include a question and answer session following the meeting. The session will be deferred to a later date.



Loan Agreement with MPIC Fund I, LP

Premier further announces that it has entered into a loan agreement with MPIC Fund I, LP ("MPIC") for a secured loan in the aggregate principal amount of up to USD$100,000 (the "Loan"). The Loan matures on March 25, 2021 and bears interest at a rate of 6% per annum. The Loan is secured with all of the present and after-acquired property of the Company and ranks equally in priority with the loans previously made to the Company by MPIC in February 2020, April 2019, July 2019, September 2019, November 2019 and December 2019.

The Company is not issuing any securities, or paying any bonus, commission or finder's fees on the Loan. The Loan is repayable at any time without penalty. The Company expects to repay the financing upon receiving funds from some of its other investments.

Related party transaction disclosure

As MPIC is a control person of Premier, the Loan constitutes a "related party transaction" within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Loan has been determined to be exempt from the requirements to obtain a formal valuation or minority shareholder approval based on sections 5.5(b) and 5.7(1)(f) of MI 61-101.

Premier does not have securities listed or quoted on any of the specified markets listed in section 5.5(b) of MI 61-101. Premier is relying on the exemption from minority shareholder approval in 5.7(1)(f) of MI 61-101 as the loan was obtained by Premier from MPIC on reasonable commercial terms that are not less advantageous to Premier than if the loan had been obtained from a person dealing at arms length with Premier. Further, the loan is not convertible, directly or indirectly, into equity or voting securities of Premier or a subsidiary entity of the issuer, or otherwise participating in nature, or repayable as to principal or interest, directly or indirectly, in equity or voting securities of Premier or a subsidiary entity of the issuer.

The Loans are subject to review and acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange.

Amended Loan Agreement with MyCare MedTech Inc.

Premier entered into an amended and restated loan agreement with MyCare MedTech Inc. ("MMI") on February 26, 2020. The agreement amended the previous secured loan made to MMI by increasing the principal amount which may be loaned by Premier to MMI from $450,000 to up to $500,000 (the "MMI Loan"). The MMI Loan matures 12 months from the date of the amended agreement and bears interest at a rate of 9% per annum. The MMI Loan is secured with all of the present and after-acquired property of MMI.

MMI is not issuing any securities, or paying any bonus, commission or finder's fees on the Loan to Premier. The MMI Loan is repayable by MMI at any time without penalty.

Premier is a control person of MMI, and the MMI Loan constitutes a "related party transaction" within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101. The MMI Loan has been determined to be exempt from the requirements to obtain a formal valuation or minority shareholder approval on the basis of sections 5.5(b) and 5.7(1)(a) of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 as the fair market value of the transaction is not more than 25% of the Company's market capitalization.

The MMI Loan is subject to review and acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange.

About Premier Diversified Holdings Inc.

Premier Diversified Holdings Inc. participates in diversified industries through its acquisitions of securities and/or assets of public and private entities which it believes have potential for significant returns. It may act as a holding company (either directly or through a subsidiary) and may participate in management of subsidiary entities to varying degrees.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

"Sanjeev Parsad"

Sanjeev Parsad

President, CEO and Director

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.



This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdictions in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Any offering made will be pursuant to available prospectus exemptions and restricted to persons to whom the securities may be sold in accordance with the laws of such jurisdictions, and by persons permitted to sell the securities in accordance with the laws of such jurisdictions.

Further information regarding the Company can be found on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Not for dissemination in the United States of America.

Legal Notice Regarding Forward Looking Statements: This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are indicated expectations or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this news release include that MMI will have revenue as disclosed in the news release, that it will use that revenue to repay the MMI Loan, that the net proceeds of the Loan will be used as stated in this news release and that the AGM will proceed as indicated in this news release. Factors that could cause actual results to be materially different include but are not limited to the following: that the revenue which MMI earns will be insufficient to repay the MMI Loan or that the management or board of MMI may use the funds for other purposes, that the capital raised will be insufficient capital to accomplish our intentions and capital alone may not be sufficient for us to grow our business, and that additional complications or unforeseen obstacles from COVID-19 may negatively impact Premier, MMI and/or MPIC. Investors are cautioned against placing undue reliance on forward-looking statements. It is not our policy to update forward looking statements.
Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne arrested for holding church service, defying safer-at-home order

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Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne, leader of Revival International Ministries and The River at Tampa Bay Church in Tampa, Florida, was arrested Monday for what officials say was the violation of a "safer-at-home" order, which prohibits large worship services during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said that when he saw images from a crowded Sunday service at the church posted online, he was furious.

We received an anonymous tip that Dr. Rodney Howard-Browne refused a request to temporarily stop holding large gatherings at his church, he said. And instead, he was encouraging his large congregation to meet at his church.

Hillsborough County issued a "safer-at-home" order effective March 27, 10 News reported. The order mandates non-essential businesses to abide by the CDCs social distancing guidelines that requires individuals to be separated by six feet of space. If they are unable to do that they have to shut down.

Howard-Browne argued that that his church is an essential business, and that the order violates his First Amendment rights.

Worshipers at Howard-Brownes church on Sunday who were recorded on video did not obey the guidelines.

Chronister noted that Howard-Brownes church has the technological resources to simply resort to online worship temporarily and abide by the order but the church instead chose to endanger congregants.

The River Tampa Bay Church has an advantage over most places of worship, said Chronister, as they have access to technology allowing them to live stream their services over the internet and broadcast television for more than their 4,000 members to watch from the safety from their own homes. Instead, they encouraged people to come and gather at the church, even provided bus transportation for the services."

The pastors arrest order shows that he was charged with unlawful assembly and violation of public health emergency rules, which are both second-degree misdemeanors, punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a maximum fine of $500, the Orlando Weekly noted.

"Our goal is not to stop people from worshiping," Chronister said at a press conference, "but the safety and well-being of our community must always come first.

"Its a shame that someone has taken advantage of this. For whatever reason, I just dont understand it. The only reason I can see is its a reckless reason  to put your parishioners in jeopardy."

Chronister told 10 News that he hopes church members realize how serious officials are after this arrest.

I believe theres nothing more important than faith in a time like this. And as a sheriffs office we would never impede someones ability to lean on their religious beliefs as a means of comfort, Chronister said. But practicing those beliefs has to be done safely.

Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family, said in a release to The Christian Post Monday that it has agreed to represent Howard-Browne in the case against the county.

As the arrest was unfolding, the Hernando County Sheriff Chad Chronister held a press conference announcing the arrest. During the press conference, State Attorney Andrew Warren quoted the Bible in Mark 12:31 (There is no more important commandment than to love thy neighbor as thyself). Sherriff Chronister also invited Bishop Thomas Scott to speak, who engaged in a theological lecture about what the Bible says on this issue while disagreeing with Pastor Howard-Browne. Scott is currently running for Hillsborough County Commissioner, Liberty Counsel said.

The religious liberty group said that while Hillsborough County issued an administrative order restricting all public or private gatherings, including community, civic, public leisure, faith-based events, sporting events, concerts, and any similar events that bring together more than 10 people in a single room, single space, or any venue, at the same time on March 20, that order exempted, among other things, shelters. The order does not modify the word shelters, which is an exceptionally broad word.

When the Safer-at-Home administrative order was issued last Friday, the group said it highlighted 42 paragraphs of exceptions, including religious personnel.

In addition, the order also exempts: Businesses which are not described in paragraph 3, and are able to maintain the required physical distancing (6 feet) may operate.

Liberty Counsel claims during the church meeting on Sunday, Howard-Browne, among other things: enforced the six-foot distance between family groups in the auditorium as well as the overflow rooms; all the staff wore gloves; every person who entered the church received hand sanitizer; and in the farmers market and coffee shop in the lobby, the six-foot distance was enforced.

It was also noted that the church spent $100,000 on a hospital grade purification system set up throughout the church that provides continuous infectious microbial reduction that is rated to kill microbes, including those in the coronavirus family.

The Hillsborough County administrative order has so many exceptions it looks like swiss cheese. The order allows a wide range of commercial operations that are either specifically exempt or exempt if they can comply with a six-foot separation. Yet, if the purpose of your meeting is religious, the county prohibits it with no exception for the six-foot separation, Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said.

The problem with this administrative order is it was not reviewed by constitutional experts or vetted by a deliberative body. Neither the Constitution nor Florida law protecting churches and the free exercise of religion disappear. This order from Hillsborough County is not narrowly tailored to achieve its underlying objective.
Porto has been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic but the biggest city in northern Portugal on Monday refused to heed official calls for the 200,000-plus population to be put under isolation and mocked a senior health chief.

With 941 COVID-19 cases, Porto has the largest number of infections in the country, ahead of the capital Lisbon with 633.

Health director general Graca Freitas told reporters in Lisbon that a "decision will probably be taken" to impose a "cordon sanitaire" around Porto, the world centre of port wine on the Douro river.

The Porto authorities were having none of it and hit back with a strongly worded statement.

"If this useless and misplaced measure was taken it would be impossible to operate basic services," city hall said, citing refuse collection by workers from outside areas and supplying the region's two hospitals.

Cutting off Porto would be "absurd when the COVID-19 epidemic has spread widely through communities across the region and the country.

"As a result Porto city hall no longer recognises the authority of the general health director and considers her pronouncements today a slip of the tongue due to fatigue," the statement said.

Portugal has recorded 140 deaths out of a total of some 6,400 COVID-19 cases and put in place a series of measures notably confining people to try to stop the spread of the epidemic.

However only the northern tourist town of Ovar, which has also seen a spike in cases, has been totally locked down.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2020 AFP
LOS ANGELES, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ImaginAb Inc., a leading clinical stage immuno-oncology imaging company, today announced it has signed a multi-year non-exclusive license agreement with AstraZeneca.

Under the terms of the agreement, ImaginAb's CD8 ImmunoPET technology will be used in AstraZeneca's clinical trials in North America and Europe to facilitate clinical development of AstraZeneca's novel immunotherapies and to advance the clinical utility of ImaginAb's CD8 ImmunoPET.

The deal is an opportunity for ImaginAb to support AstraZeneca's project teams on imaging CD8 cells in patients and both teams will be committed to analysing and interpreting the data for their respective research and development activities.

ImaginAb will receive license fees and other contingent payments.

This agreement follows the recently signed pre-competitive alliance between AstraZeneca, ImaginAb and other global pharmaceutical companies, announced on October 14, 2019.

Commenting on the news, Ian Wilson, Chief Executive Officer of ImaginAb said: "We are very pleased that AstraZeneca is expanding our relationship. Under the new agreement, ImaginAb will provide AstraZeneca with clinical doses of ImaginAb's CD8 ImmunoPET minibody, as well as technical support, to AstraZeneca clinical trials involving novel immunotherapies. ImaginAb's CD8 ImmunoPET technology is the clinically most advanced CD8 PET tracer. It is a powerful diagnostic approach for measuring non-invasively the effect of immunotherapies, which we believe will ultimately be used to predict therapeutic efficacy."

About ImaginAb

ImaginAb Inc. is an immuno-oncology imaging company focused on providing actionable insight into patient selection and treatment progress for cancer immunotherapy, enabling precision medicine. ImaginAb engineers antibody fragments called minibodies that maintain the exquisite specificity of full-length antibodies while remaining biologically inert in the body. Used with widely available PET scan technology, these novel minibodies illuminate high-value molecular targets, providing physicians with a whole-body picture of immune activity. ImaginAb is advancing a pipeline of minibodies against oncology and immunology targets including the CD8 ImmunoPET targeting CD8 T cells. ImaginAb's products have the potential to improve patient care and lower healthcare costs. The Company is backed by top tier venture capital firms and strategic corporate firms including The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Nextech Invest, Adage Capital, The Cycad Group, Merck (MSD) Pharma, Novartis Bioventures and Jim Pallotta of the Raptor Group.

For more information about ImaginAb's pipeline and technology, visit www.imaginab.com.

About CD8 ImmunoPET

CD8 ImmunoPET minibody [89Zr-Df-IAB22M2C] binds CD8 receptor on human T cells and is used for non-invasive PET imaging of CD8 T cells in patients. These CD8 T cells are the main effector cells involved in the immune response against tumor cells. Thanks to the Zr-89 labelling of the minibody it can be visualized by PET imaging. The Phase 1 dose escalation study conducted with cancer patients receiving immunotherapy treatments has demonstrated safety, established the effective dose and the optimal PET imaging protocol as well as demonstrated proof of concept for using CD8 ImmunoPET as a clinical tool for the detection and imaging CD8 T cells in patients. Additional studies including ImaginAb's Phase 2 study and studies sponsored by ImaginAb's corporate partners are further establishing the repeat dosing and the utility of CD8 ImmunoPET as pharmacodynamic and predictive marker for immunotherapy.

For further information please contact:



ImaginAb

Ian Wilson

Email: info@imaginab.com

Phone: +1-310-645-1211



Optimum Strategic Communications

Mary Clark, Supriya Mathur

Email: imaginab@optimumcomms.com

Phone: +44-20-3950-9144
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30)  San Miguel Corporation is committing to purchase 500-million worth of personal protective equipment for health workers trying to combat the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

SMC president and COO Ramon Ang said they are hoping to fill the gap and continue supporting the government in addressing the shortage of protective gears.

Our health care workers and government responders are risking their own lives to save ours but they are running out of equipment to protect themselves, Ang said.

We are committed to growing this fund for PPEs and continue allocating resources to purchase much-needed protective items, he added.

The corporation is tapping its global network of suppliers, while also urging local manufacturers to ramp up production of PPE and help secure the supply chain. Ang said they are willing to purchase local suppliers products and distribute them where it is most needed.

Health facilities nationwide have reported lack of medical supplies, including protective masks, gloves, and surgical gowns, necessary to safeguard their staff.

Earlier, at least 12 doctors have died due to COVID-19 while treating patients infected with the viral disease. According to Dr. Rustico Jimenez of the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc., the doctors were exposed to the virus due to the shortage of protective gear.

We also invite other businesses to join us in this initiative and work together to support our selfless health care workers on the front lines of this crisis. We are all in this together, the SMC president added.

The company has also donated over 100,000 liters of ethyl alcohol to front liners in Luzon, as well as distributed food donations, including vitamin-packed bread, to poor communities affected by the quarantine all over Metro Manila.
DHAKA, Bangladesh - Bangladesh garment manufacturers say fashion retailers have cancelled or put on hold more than $3 billion in orders due to the coronavirus outbreak, though a handful have agreed to pay anyway.

The data from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association released Monday reflected both orders already made or in the works and planned orders from the country, which is the worlds second largest exporter of clothing after China.

The cancelled orders, according to reports to the BGMEA from manufacturers, included tens of millions in purchases from many big buyers, including European buyers C&A and Inditex, Primark of Ireland and Britains Marks & Spencer.

Bangladesh manufacturers and labour groups have been appealing to big retailers to honour their commitments to suppliers.

Bangladesh is just beginning to feel the direct impact of the pandemic and its government has ordered a shut down of most businesses to help contain it. But shocks to the countrys export markets have been cascading into its economy for weeks.

A survey of factory owners in Bangladesh released Friday showed millions of Bangladesh factory workers being sent home without the wages or severance pay they are owed.

The BGMEA reported that $1.8 billion in orders have been put on hold and another $1.4 billion have been cancelled. Cancellations of planned orders, for April-December, amounted to nearly $1.7 billion, it said. The figures are conservative because they exclude orders that would go to multiple buyers.

The new data were incorporated into a report by Pennsylvania State Universitys Center for Global Workers Rights and the Worker Rights Consortium, a Washington, D.C.-based labour rights organization.

Swedens H&M has said it was pausing new orders and reevaluating plans but will pay suppliers and take delivery of orders already under production or already made, according to terms already agreed on.

This is in accordance with our responsible purchasing practices, and not only the case in Bangladesh, but in all production countries, the company said in a statement.

PVH, which owns the Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Heritage brands, has told suppliers it is releasing invoices that had been put on hold since March 18. Later invoices will gradually be processed.

The commitment for orders already under production or finished products not yet shipped would enable factory owners to get financing to tide them over, said a letter to suppliers seen by The Associated Press.

PVH and H&M are doing the right thing, in contrast to the long list of brands refusing to pay for goods workers have already made for them, said Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium.

U.K. retailer Tesco, one of the retailers mentioned in the latest data, said in a statement that it was buying from most of its suppliers and working with them to understand how the outbreak is affecting them.

Marks & Spencer said it was trying to defer orders and carry forward its inventory. In these unprecedented times, as a responsible retailer we will continue to do all we can to support our partners and suppliers, it said in an emailed statement.

Big Western brands have come under heavy pressure to improve conditions in factories after huge fires and other disasters killed hundreds of workers.

The store closures and other disruptions from the virus outbreak are straining a fragile supply chain in which big buyers have been squeezing their suppliers for years.

More than 1 million of the more than 4 million garment workers in Bangladesh already have lost their jobs or have been furloughed because of order cancellations and the failure of buyers to pay for cancelled shipments.

___

AP Asia Business Editor Kurtenbach reported from Bangkok.
Equity witnessed yet another weak session on Monday as the coronavirus (Covid-19) cases in India continued to rise despite nationwide lockdown. So far, confirmed cases in India have reached 1,071 while 29 people have died due to the disease.





Further, weak global cues such as fall in global and plunge in crude oil prices, too, adversely impacted the investor sentiment.



The S&P BSE Sensex today slipped 1,375 points or 4.61 per cent to settle at 28,440. Bajaj Finance (down 12 per cent) emerged as the biggest loser on the index while Tech Mahindra was the top performer - up 5 per cent.



HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and Reliance Industries (RIL) contributed the most to the index's losses.



Market breadth was in favour of declines as out of 2,453 companies traded on the BSE, 1,347 declined and 934 advanced while 172 remained unchanged.



Among individual stocks, Abbott India hit a new high in a weak market amid report that Abbott Laboratories, USA, the ulitmate holding company, has received the approval to launch 5-minute coronavirus (COVID-19) test for use almost anywhere. Abbott India is a subsidiary of Abbott Laboratories of USA. The stock ended at Rs 15,400 apiece on the BSE, up around 9 per cent.



On the NSE, frontline index Nifty ended at 8,281, down 379 points or 4.38 per cent. Volatility index India VIX increased 1.53 per cent to 71.46 levels. On the sectoral front, barring pharma and FMCG, all the indices ended in the red. Nifty Bank tumbled over 6 per cent to 18,760 levels while Nifty Finacial Services pack tanked around 7.5 per cent to 9,029-mark.



In the broader market, Nifty Midcap 100 index slipped 2.8 per cent to 11,435 levels and the Nifty SmallCap 100 index lost 2.3 per cent to 3,485 levels.



Global



Asian shares slid on Monday as fears mounted that the global coronavirus shutdown could last for months although markets regained some lost ground late in the session with Australia posting a standout jump. US and European futures also turned upwards in the Asian afternoon, with E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 up 1.1%, again after earlier losses, EUROSTOXXX 50 futures rallying 2% and FTSE futures 1.5%.



In commodity market, Crude oil fell sharply with US crude briefly dropping below $20 and Brent hitting its lowest level in 18 years, on heightened fears that the global coronavirus shutdown could last months and demand for fuel could evaporate further.
The number of novel coronavirus cases in Rajasthan rose to 79 on Monday after 20 people, including seven evacuees from Iran, tested positive for the deadly infection, officials said.

Ten confirmed cases were reported from Ramganj Bazaar in Jaipur. They are the family members of the person who was tested positive after returning from Oman, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Rohit Kumar Singh said.

The 20 cases include seven evacuees who landed at Jodhpur airport in two batches recently, Singh said, adding that people must remain indoors, otherwise, situation might deteriorate.

A person from Alwar also tested positive. He had travelled from Philippines with another person who was found positive on Sunday, the official said.

Another person, who had visited a private hospital in Bhilwara where three doctors and nine nursing staff initially tested positive, was also infected, Singh said.

The total number of coronavirus positive cases in the state has risen to 79, he said.

So far, 26 positive cases have been found in Bhilwara, followed by Jaipur (20), Jhunjhunu and Jodhpur (7 each), Ajmer (4), Pratapgarh and Dungarpur (2 each), Pali, Sikar, Alwar and Churu (one each). officials said.

Health Minister Raghu Sharma said the active surveillance team of the medical department had screened 3.26-crore members of over 78.74-lakh families in the state.

He said 302 people were currently admitted in isolation in the districts of the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Financial firms are warning the public of fake text messages claiming to be issuing fines to people for going outside or offering payments related to coronavirus.

Spam texts, also known as 'smishing texts', claim to be from legitimate organisations such as banks or government departments and aim to trick people into giving away personal and financial information or money.

Trade association UK Finance urged people to avoid clicking on any links within suspicious text messages and to always keep their personal information updated or make any legitimate payments through their bank.

The fake texts may claim the recipient has a penalty payment outstanding after they were apparently seen leaving their house on several occasions.

UK Finance also wanted of another technique called spoofing, which can make a fake message appear in a chain alongside previous genuine messages from organisations.

Katy Worobec, managing director of economic crime at UK Finance, said: Criminals are callously exploiting the coronavirus outbreak to commit fraud, including using scam text messages imitating government departments, banks and other trusted organisations.

We are urging consumers to remain vigilant and avoid clicking on links in any unsolicited text messages in case its a scam.

Last week, Wirral Council issued a smishing advisory on its Twitter account, warning residents of a text message offering a payment of 458 from the UK government.

The council said: "Please do not click the link, and delete it immediately!"

Before giving away any information or money, the association is encouraging consumers to follow the advice of the Take Five to Stop Fraud' campaign, which urges people to challenge such text messages and contact their bank if they believe its a scam.

Consumers can also report any suspicious text messages to their network provider by forwarding it to 7726, added UK Finance.
Villagers in Karauna are facing a situation they had never dreamt of. With a name that rhymes with the coronavirus pandemic, villagers in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur district are troubled.

Residents of Korauna village say they have been facing discrimination ever since COVID-19 started spreading around the world and reached India.

"No one is willing to come out; people are terrified in our village. When we tell people we are from Korauna, they avoid us. They don't understand that it's a village, not someone infected with the virus," Rajan, a resident of the village, told news agency ANI.

Representational Image

He said that people are scared to an extent they do not even want to answer telephone calls.

Another local, Sunil said that even the police look unsettled if we tell them that we are going to Karauna village.

"If we are out on roads and the police ask where we are headed to and we tell them that we are going to Karauna, they look unsettled. What can we possibly do if our village has such a name?" he said.

Ramji Dixiti, a resident, said that we call someone and tell them that we are calling from Karauna, they immediately disconnect our calls thinking someone is pranking them.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, India has been put under a three-week lockdown, which goes on till April 14. The novel virus has claimed thousands of deaths and infected millions around the world.
According to the current analysis of Reports and Data, the global Clinical Chemistry Analyzers market was valued at USD 11.07 Billion in 2019 and is expected to reach USD 16.81 Billion by the year 2027, at a CAGR of 5.7 percent. Clinical chemical analyzers are the computerized equipment used to analyze the stages of sugar and protein in the blood. Owing to their accuracy and time efficiency, these devices are used for the analysis of various diseases like diabetes and hyperlipemia, among others.

Increasing incidences of chronic lifetime diseases and a growing aging population are the factors that drive the global clinical chemistry analyzers market during the forecast period. Technological advancements in clinical chemistry analyzers such as StaRRsed Inversa automated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) analyzer, computer-assisted interpretation, and artificial intelligence have enabled large-scale testing and have facilitated early-stage detection of diseases in various areas like oncology, gynecology, and endocrinology.

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Moreover, consistent efforts by healthcare organizations to increase the reliability of data fuels the demand for clinical chemical analyzers. Moreover, growing awareness regarding preventative healthcare and specialized diagnostic methods, and rising healthcare expenditure are the factors expected to propel the market growth during the forecast period. The Clinical chemistry analyzers market is much fragmented and includes a large number of manufacturing giants as well as emerging players. Additionally, the emerging players have an excellent opportunity to enter the clinical chemistry analyzers market, owing to developments in the market and high demand from end-use industries.

A significant number of different products have been launched and developed in the clinical chemistry analyzers market. Key companies involved in the market are constantly improving their product portfolio and developing their product offerings. For instance, in July 2015, EKF Diagnostics, the global in-vitro diagnostics company, announced the international launch of the Altair 240 clinical chemistry analyzer at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) Annual Meeting and Clinical Lab Expo Meet in Atlanta, U.S.

Further key findings from the report suggest

Growing demand for clinical chemistry analyzers for various applications such as monitoring disease, drugs of abuse testing is also resulting in high growth of the market.

Europe is expected to be the fastest-growing market segment with a CAGR of 5.9% owing to increased healthcare spending by governments of the countries in Europe.

Based on the type of test, the lipid profile segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 6.3% during the forecast period.

Asia Pacific region is expected to witness lucrative growth at CAGR of 5.2% owing to the high prevalence rate of chronic diseases and the growing geriatric population in the region.

However, the high cost of analyzers and risk of result uncertainty are some of the restraining factors for the growth of the clinical chemistry analyzers market over the forecast period.

Key participants include Roche, Thermo Fisher, Johnson & Johnson, Siemens, and Beckman Coulter.

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For the purpose of this report, Reports and Data has segmented the Clinical Chemistry Analyzers Market on the basis of product, test type, end-use, and region:

Product (Revenue, USD Million; 20172027)

Analyzers Small Medium Large Very Large

Reagents Calibrators Controls Standards Others

Others

Test Type (Revenue, USD Million; 20172027)

Basic Metabolic Panel

Electrolyte Panel

Lipid Profile

Renal Profile

Thyroid Function Panel

Specialty Chemical Panel

End-Use (Revenue, USD Million; 20172027)

Hospital

Academic Research Centers

Diagnostic Laboratories

Others

Regional Outlook (Revenue in USD Million; 20172027)

North America U.S. Canada

Europe Germany France U.K. Spain Italy Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific China India Japan Rest of Asia Pacific

Middle East & Africa

Latin America Brazil



To identify the key trends in the industry, click on the link below: https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/clinical-chemistry-analyzers-market

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Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/30/2020 -- Global Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology Market report provides overview of Industry, including industry chain analysis, manufacturing technology, characteristics and latest market trends & dynamics. The Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology market research report also focuses on future trends and demand, supply and market expansion rate, prices, competition, size, prices and value chain also key players in the Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology industry with a forecast from 2020-2027.The overviews, SWOT analysis and strategies of each vendor in the Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology market provide understanding about the market forces and how those can be exploited to create future opportunities.



Lifi (Light Fidelity) technology market is expected to gain market growth in the forecast period of 2020 to 2027. Data bridge market research analyses that the market is expected to reach USD 18376.93 million by 2027 growing at a growth rate of 70.6% in the forecast period 2020 to 2027.



This Study provides a deep insight into the activities of





- LightPointe Communications, Inc,



- Signify Holding,



- Oledcomm,



- LUCIBEL,



- pureLiFi, ACUITY BRANDS LIGHTING, INC.,



- GENERAL ELECTRIC,



- LVX SYSTEM,



- Koninklijke Philips N.V.,





study compiled with over 100+ pages, list of tables & figures, profiling 10+ companies. Ask for Sample @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-lifi-light-fidelity-technology-market



Unlock new opportunities with DBMR reports to gain insightful analyses about the Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology market and have a comprehensive understanding. Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations and also potential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growth



Key Segmentation: Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology Market



By Component (Light Emitting Diode, Photodetector, Microcontroller, Software),



Transmission Type (Unidirectional Transmission, Bidirectional Transmission),



Application (Smart Store, Street Light, Consumer Electronics, Defense and Security, Vehicle and Transportation, Aviation, Hospital, Underwater Communication, Hazardous Environment, Others),



Porter's Analysis is another added point in the report which explains how the number of manufacturers affects the whole market scenario.



PESTLE Analysis includes a political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental analysis of all the regions. This analysis explains the effect of all these factors on the Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology market.



Pricing analysis is provided in the report, which is examined in accordance with different regions and product type segments. The values for all product type segments in all the regions including North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), and Middle East & Africa (MEA) are provided.



To comprehend Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology market dynamics in the world mainly, the worldwide Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology market is analyzed across major global regions.



North America: United States, Canada, and Mexico.



South & Central America: Argentina, Chile, and Brazil.



Middle East & Africa: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Egypt and South Africa.



Europe: UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Russia.



Asia-Pacific: India, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, and Australia.



Rapid Business Growth Factors



In addition, the market is growing at a fast pace and the report shows us that there are a couple of key factors behind that. The most important factor that's helping the market grow faster than usual is the tough competition.



Major Industry Competitors: Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology Market LightPointe Communications, Inc, Signify Holding, Oledcomm, LUCIBEL, pureLiFi, ACUITY BRANDS LIGHTING, INC., GENERAL ELECTRIC, LVX SYSTEM, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Velmenni OU, Zero1 Pte Ltd., among other domestic and global players.



Competitive Landscape and Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology Market Share Analysis



Lifi (Light Fidelity) technology market competitive landscape provides details by competitor. Details included are company overview, company financials, revenue generated, market potential, investment in research and development, new market initiatives, regional presence, company strengths and weaknesses, product launch, product width and breadth, application dominance. The above data points provided are only related to the companies' focus related to Lifi (Light Fidelity) technology market.



Browse more insight of Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology market research report enabled with respective tables and figures @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-lifi-light-fidelity-technology-market



This Global Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology Market Research/analysis Report Focus on following important aspects:





- Manufacturing Technology is Used for Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology:  Undergoing Developments in That Technology, Trends Causing These Developments.



- Global Key Players of Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology Market:  Their Company Profile, Product Information and Contact Information.



- Status of Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology Market:  Past and Present information and Future predictions about Productions Capacity, Production Value, Cost and Return on Investments in Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology Market.



- Current Market Status of Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology Market:  Market Competition includes both Company and Country Wise competition in this Industry. Market Analysis of Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology Market by Taking Applications and Types in Consideration.



- Predictions of Global Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology Market Considering Production Capacity, and Production Value. What Estimation is expected for Cost Vs Profit? What Will Be Market Share, Supply and Consumption? What about Import and Export?



- Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology Market Chain Analysis by Upstream Raw Materials and Downstream Industry.



- Economic Impact on Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology Market:  What are Global Macroeconomic Environment Analysis Results? What Are Global and Chinese Macroeconomic Environment Development Trends?



- Market Dynamics of Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology Market:  Challenges and Opportunities.



- What Should Be Entry Strategies, Countermeasures to Economic Impact, and Marketing Channels for Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology Market?





Key Developments in the Market:



Table of Content:



Part 01: Executive Summary



Part 02: Scope of the Report



Part 03: Research Methodology



Part 04: Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology Market Landscape



Part 05: Market Sizing



Part 06: Customer Landscape



Part 07: Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology Market Regional Landscape



Part 08: Decision Framework



Part 09: Drivers And Challenges



Part 10: Lifi (Light Fidelity) Technology Market Trends



Part 11: Vendor Landscape



Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe, MEA or Asia Pacific.



About Data Bridge Market Research

Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.



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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has emphasized the importance for Ukraine of assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and called on MPs to adopt the land and banking laws needed to obtain it.

He stated this at a special meeting of the Verkhovna Rada on Monday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"Now it is difficult for all, it is difficult for the whole world, it is very difficult for Ukraine, and it is very important for us today to support the economy of Ukraine, people who work at enterprises. It is very important for us to have a memorandum with the International Monetary Fund signed, and you know perfectly well that the two main conditions are the land law and the banking law," he said.

Zelensky called on the parliament not to split into a "party of power" and "opposition" and support the Ukrainian economy.

The bill introducing amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine on improving some mechanisms for the regulation of banking activity (No. 3260) aims to make it impossible to cancel the NBU decision to nationalize/liquidate banks and recover unfair compensation from the state budget to their previous owners.

op
The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) today commended Congress and President Trump for supporting critical efforts to expand geriatrics expertise through the more than $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package (S. 3548).

"Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants, social workers, and all our geriatrics experts are vital--not just to the U.S. economy but also to our health, safety, and independence, which make our economy what it is," noted AGS CEO Nancy E. Lundebjerg, MPA. "As we continue to review the stimulus in detail, we applaud Senators Bob Casey and Susan Collins, as well as Representatives Michael Burgess and Jan Schakowsky, who were instrumental in helping prioritize long-term solutions serving older adults in this rapid response to COVID-19."

The proposals included in the COVID-19 package incorporate language from the earlier proposed Title VII Health Care Workforce Reauthorization Act of 2019 (S. 2997) in the Senate and Educating Medical Professionals and Optimizing Workforce Efficiency and Readiness (EMPOWER) for Health Act of 2019 (H.R. 2781) in the House. While AGS experts remain pleased to see the GWEPs and GACAs reauthorized, they did express concern that the final authorizing level of $40.7 million could compromise the future success of both programs. The AGS continues to advocate for increased funding totaling $51 million, which would do much to close the current geographic and demographic gaps in geriatrics workforce training.

Powered by grantees working on local solutions to workforce shortages across the U.S., the GWEPs educate and engage the broader frontline workforce and family caregivers, and focus on opportunities to improve the quality of care delivered to older adults. And as a program rooted in sustaining geriatrics education, the GACAs represent an essential complement to the GWEP. By supporting time for professional development and instructional advancement, the GACAs ensure we can equip early career clinician-educators to become leaders in geriatrics training and research.

As Lundebjerg summarizes: "The GWEP provides support for the current transformation of primary care, while the GACA develops the next generation of innovators to improve care outcomes and care delivery. Together, these programs play a critical role in developing the workforce we all need as we age."

Across both these efforts, the current coronavirus stimulus plan would authorize funding of $40.7 million annually through 2024. This would allow current and future GWEP and GACA awardees to:

Educate and engage with family caregivers by training providers who can assess and address their care needs and preferences.

Promote interprofessional team-based care by transforming clinical training environments to integrate geriatrics and primary care delivery systems.

Improve the quality of care delivered to older adults by providing education to families and caregivers on critical care challenges such as Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

Support clinician-educators engaged in geriatrics education and research to develop the next generation of innovators to improve care outcomes and care delivery.

Both the legislative language itself and the individual programs it supports draw considerable insight from the Eldercare Workforce Alliance (EWA), a collaborative comprised of more than 30 member organizations co-convened by the AGS and the Gerontological Society of America (GSA). Like EWA, the coronavirus stimulus package now reflects the diverse expertise of millions of health professionals who support older Americans--and understand the best path forward for sustaining that momentum.

The AGS expressed gratitude for the leadership and commitment of Senators Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), as well as Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Michael Burgess (R-Texas), who spearheaded legislation in the Senate and House to reauthorize the GWEPs and GACAs.

###

About the American Geriatrics Society

Founded in 1942, the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) is a nationwide, not-for-profit society of geriatrics healthcare professionals that has--for 75 years--worked to improve the health, independence, and quality of life of older people. Its nearly 6,000 members include geriatricians, geriatric nurses, social workers, family practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, and internists. The Society provides leadership to healthcare professionals, policymakers, and the public by implementing and advocating for programs in patient care, research, professional and public education, and public policy. For more information, visit AmericanGeriatrics.org.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio sparked a controversy over the weekend when he warned churches could be closed permanently if they meet during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The mayor, during his Friday press conference on the coronavirus response, said the vast majority of religious communities have stopped their traditional worship service in the face of the pandemic.

We've had extraordinary support from the leaders of major Christian denominations, de Blasio said. We've had extraordinary across-the-board rabbinical support from all the different elements of the Jewish community. And the same is true of other faiths, as well.

But a small number of religious communities  specific churches, specific synagogues  are unfortunately not paying attention to this guidance, he said.

The state of New York is under a shelter-in-place order.

The New York Police Department and Fire Department, de Blasio said, will enforce the order.

Everyone has been instructed that if they see worship services ... going on, they will go to the officials of that congregation, de Blasio said. They will inform them they need to stop the services and disperse. If that does not happen, they will take additional action, up to the point of fines and potentially closing the building permanently.

The mayor emphasized that he hopes penalties will not be necessary.

It's the last thing I would like to do, because I understand how important people's faiths are to them, he said. And we need our faiths in this time of crisis but we do not need gatherings that will endanger people. No faith tradition endorses anything that endangers the members of that faith.

Nationwide, churches of every denomination have stopped meeting in-person. Many have said they were driven to do so out of a love of neighbor.

De Blasios threat of permanent closure received pushback on social media even from those who believe congregations should follow the governments orders to stop the spread.

Look, churches should not be meeting in the normal corporate way right now. Almost all of them are innovating in exciting ways. That's great. What De Blasio is suggesting here is like the 11th level of unconstitutional, tweeted Casey Mattox, vice president of legal and judicial strategy at Americans for Prosperity.

LOL, ok. Look, churches should not be meeting in the normal corporate way right now. Almost all of them are innovating in exciting ways. That's great.



What De Blasio is suggesting here is like the 11th level of unconstitutional. https://t.co/WAGuagIf4G  Casey Mattox (@CaseyMattox_) March 30, 2020

Bart Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmersville, Texas, wrote on Twitter, Dear @NYCMayor, these are trying times that can tempt any of us to rash action, but city mayors do not have the authority to suspend the First Amendment. Please clarify or correct your threat to close churches and synagogues permanently if they do not comply with your demands.

Dear @NYCMayor, these are trying times that can tempt any of us to rash action, but city mayors do not have the authority to suspend the First Amendment. Please clarify or correct your threat to close churches and synagogues permanently if they do not comply with your demands.  Bart Barber (@bartbarber) March 30, 2020

Ken Ham, founder and president of Answers in Genesis, also spoke out against the mayor.

It's a warning for the future when one person claims they have the power to close churches permanently, Ham tweeted. That's what we've seen in China & Cuba.

I'm only commenting on the statement "and potentially closing the building permanently." It's a warning for the future when one person claims they have the power to close churches permanently. That's what we've seen in China & Cuba. https://t.co/PDIzToz0P6  Ken Ham (@aigkenham) March 30, 2020

Related:

Churches Should 'Love Thy Neighbor' and Obey Gov't Orders to Close, Christian Leaders Say

Church Pools Chick-fil-A Points, Donates 460 Sandwiches to Hospital Workers

34 Coronavirus Cases Linked to One Arkansas Church  Take it Very Seriously, Pastor Pleads

Trump, Pence Thank Churches for Suspending Services: Americans Are Coming Together

Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Stringer

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
A day after thousands of migrant workers marched to Anand Vihar in the national capital, defying the lockdown, to board a bus back to their native homes, the Delhi government reached out to the workers through their employers to build confidence assuring dignity, food and shelter for all. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday had once again appealed to all owners to support their employees during this time.

The representatives of Bawana and Narela industrial complexes, which together house about 20,000 units employing close 250,000 workers, including daily wagers, on Sunday met the district magistrate of the area to discuss measures to address the situation.

DM (North) Deepak Shinde, who presided over the meeting, said, that owners were told to build confidence in their employees and help them in every possible way. We have also created a common platform through a Whatsapp group to address any issues and interaction. Also, we instructed them that there should be no issue of (wage) payments, food and shelter, said Shinde.

From the fear of losing their livelihoods to an uncertain future to have run out of means or simply falling for rumours of the lockdown being extended indefinitely, the large migrant workforce took to the streets, defying the lockdown, to go back to their native villages after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown across the country on Tuesday to contain the spread of Covid-19.

A large number of them employed with industrial units, factories, godowns and hotels, despite being promised food and shelter by the government, have been leaving because of the uncertainty. Among those leaving, the worst-hit are the daily wagers, who do not have permanent employers to help them during this time.

A number of people have left while some who started today came back after repeated assurances by the police and the government. There were some issues such as disbursal of salaries, as many of them do not have accounts and owners were not able to come to the factories. We have got curfew passes issued now and have already made advance payments. Also, we have opened three kitchens in nearby areas to provide cooked meals for up to 15,000 workers, said Ashish Garg, general secretary, Narela Industrial Complex Welfare Association.

He added that the owners have been asked to motivate their employees to stay put and assure them that they will be taken care of.

A senior Delhi government official said that an advisory has been issued to concerned departments to make arrangements for the workers. An advisory has been issued to this effect to urge people to stay back, the official said.

Kejriwal on Sunday appealed to all owners to support their employees during this time. The government is doing its bit. Now, its time for citizens to do their duty in fighting coronavirus. I urge people to not cut the salaries of their employees and instead help them with payments in advance. Also, do not let anyone go hungry in their neighbourhood, Kejriwal said in his digital address to citizens.

The CM had on Saturday appealed to the large number of workers leaving the city to stay back, however, despite that many came out on Sunday in an attempt to leave.

There are 28 authorised industrial complexes in the city housing about two lakh units. As per the Chamber of Trade and Industry (CTI), at least 1--1.5 million workers are employed all over in the city across authorised, regularised but not redeveloped and non-conforming industrial clusters.

We have been meeting government officials and owners to address the issue. We have ensured that workers get their salaries in advance, dry ration, cooked meals for those on their own and other essentials. Besides, many workers, who live on rent, the landlords have been instructed by the DMs office not to charge rent till situation normalises else action will be taken against them, said Brijesh Goyal, national convener, CTI.

In Okhla industrial area, which had a close to 500 plus godowns and manufacturing units, association members say that a majority of labourers working in the area live in adjourning slum clusters. We have told our workers that they will not lose their job and we will not deduct their salaries. If the labourers leave, it will be a big problem for us as it will take time to get them back. Moreover, we are distributing food to people.

It is the unplanned industrial areas, which are up for redevelopment, where the problem is much severe. There are several small scale industries, which employ 10-15 labourers in each unit, operating in these areas.

While many people have paid their employees despite work being temporarily suspended till April 14, factory owners say that cash flow is restricted as there is no business. We have provided them with financial assistance for the time being. But we dont know how long can we continue with it. Small scale business cant afford it, said Vijay Virmani, president of the Delhi manufacturers federation, an association of industrial areas which are up for redevelopment.

Monu Jain, president, Samaypur Badli Industrial Association, an unplanned industrial complex housing about 1,000 units, said that around 200 workers left the area over the past two days. We have spread a word to all the owners to arrange for food and ration for workers. They are living in the factory premises itself. My own workers who started to leave came back on the assurance, said Jain.

Thaneshwar Adigaur, member of the labour welfare board of the Delhi government, however, said, A lot of people have left due to the lockdown. But it is not just Covid-19 and the lockdown due to which labour has left. It is time to harvest the crops. Many daily wagers usually leave for their home towns during April.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 12:33:19|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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A temporary hospital is under construction in Central Park in New York, the United States, March 30, 2020. In New York City, where over 33,000 cases have been reported, white medical tents have been erected in Central Park's East Meadow lawn as a field hospital. (Guang Yu/Handout via Xinhua)

NEW YORK, March 29 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday extended the national social distancing guidelines through April amid warnings that the death toll from COVID-19 in the country might exceed 100,000.

The country's confirmed cases topped 140,000 as of Sunday night, up some 20,000 from the previous day, according to Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering. A total of 2,489 deaths have been recorded.

Trump said that the national social distancing guidelines aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus will be extended to April 30.

He had previously expressed interest in relaxing the national guidelines by the April 12 Easter holiday in parts of the country less affected by COVID-19. The current 15 days of social distancing imposed by the federal government are set to expire Tuesday.

However, the nationwide rapid increase of COVID-19 infections and a daunting death toll forecast forced him to back off from easing restrictions on economic activities.

The president said "modeling suggests" that the peak of the COVID-19 death rate in the United States "is likely to hit in two weeks," adding that he hopes the country will be on its way to recovery by June 1.

Anthony Fauci, one of the leading health experts on the White House Coronavirus Task Force, warned earlier in the day that the country could see 100,000 to 200,000 deaths due to the contagious disease.

Fauci, also director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at the White House briefing that it is "entirely conceivable" that more than 1 million people in the country could be infected with the coronavirus, reiterating that 100,000 deaths are possible.

"The number I gave out is, you know, based on modeling," he told reporters. "What we're trying to do is not to let that happen."

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday also extended the state's "PAUSE" directive for two more weeks, which means all non-essential employees will work from home and public gatherings will be banned until April 15.

The announcement came one day after the Centers for Disease Control and Protection issued a 14-day travel advisory for the states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut due to extensive community transmission of COVID-19 in the northeastern region.

The travel advisory was issued at the request of Trump and the task force. Trump said Saturday that he had considered a short-term quarantine for the three states but ultimately gave up enforcing it.

In New York City, where over 33,000 cases have been reported, white medical tents have been erected in Central Park's East Meadow lawn as a field hospital.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Sunday the 68-bed emergency field hospital is designed as a respiratory care unit and is expected to open on Tuesday.

As the state with the most urgent need for personal protective equipment, New York has also received donations from companies, organizations and individuals worldwide.

In a thread of tweets on Thursday, the governor thanked a list of over a dozen donors "on behalf of the family of New York," including China's tech giant Huawei.

According to the New York Governor's Office, Huawei has donated 10,000 N95 masks, 20,000 isolation gowns, 50,000 medical goggles and 10,000 gloves to the state.

More medical goods are coming from China. Earlier on Sunday, a commercial aircraft from Shanghai carrying 130,000 N95 masks, 10 million gloves, some 1.8 million surgical masks and gowns and other medical supplies landed at the J.F. Kennedy International Airport, according to media reports.

The flight is the first of 22 scheduled flights that will transport essential medical supplies to the United States from countries including China, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam, by early April, The New York Times cited a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency as saying.
The three patients in HCM City pose for a photo with health workers (Photo: VNA)

The patients were numbered 53, 75 and 89 in detection order. They included a 53-year-old male from the Czech Republic and two Vietnamese women who returned from the UK and the US.

They have tested negative for the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 more than twice and will have follow-up health checks in the next 14 days. All of them are now in stable condition.

Earlier the same day, the Hanoi-based National Hospital of Tropical Diseases announced that 27 COVID-19 patients have successfully recovered.

To date, Vietnam has reported 194 COVID-19 cases, of whom 55 were successfully treated. HCM City recorded 45 infections, with 10 patients having recovered.
Medical experts to Italy pose for a group photo before departure in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, March 25, 2020. Photo: Xinhua

The Chinese government has offered over 80 countries and international organizations emergency assistance to fight the coronavirus pandemic, sent seven teams of medical experts to five badly-hit countries including Iran and Italy, and held dozens of video conferences with various countries to share experiences as of Thursday.

On the one hand, China has always born in mind the timely help it received from the international community at its most difficult times. China's foreign assistance demonstrates the country's willingness to give the goodwill back. On the other, as the virus has a foothold across the entire globe, China is well aware that all countries must tide over the difficulties together and is ready to contribute to the global fight against the virus. In particular, as a global manufacturing power, China has started to play its vital role, stepping up production of much-needed medical supplies.

Any country with international morality and responsibility would make the same choice if it were in China's position. However, China's foreign assistance has again touched a raw nerve of some people. Some in the West are once again politicizing the assistance China provided, making it another weapon to slander China.

They claim that China's acts are with murky motives and geopolitical intent. The efforts of the Chinese government to help others are seen by them as an attempt to vie for global influence and cozy up to recipients, drawing them over to China's camp. Some even claim that China should be held accountable for the global pandemic and ask China to compensate. Thus China's assistance is only a gesture of atonement and should be taken for granted.

Such remarks are utter nonsense. It seems that some people will never drop their extremely biased concept toward China. No matter what China does, they always find fault and seize on pretexts to attack China. Believe it or not, if China offered little assistance to epidemic-hit countries, they would seek more excuses to throw mud at China.

Such nonsense also stems from these people's deep sense of anxiety. Through the virus battle, the superiority of China's domestic governance has been fully displayed, and through China's timely assistance to others, the country's international influence has been greatly enhanced. In sharp contrast, with some Western countries becoming the new epicenter of the pandemic, certain underlying problems of their governance systems have been exposed, and inter-country relations within the Western camp have also experienced turbulence. Thus, some in the West are impatient to seek some targets to discredit China and shift people's attention, so as to cover up their own failure.

It appears that slandering China has already become the West's customary tactic. At this critical time, they really should focus more on curbing the virus and protecting their own people's lives. Actions will certainly speak louder than rhetoric.

And for the well-being of all people, China is willing to offer help if any country is in need, but for those who keep smearing China's foreign assistance, they had better not use any China-provided supplies.
After another tie vote Tuesday night, the Boyertown Area School Board abandoned its plan to narrow its seven applicants for a board vacancy down to two finalists, and instead picked from the entire list, thereby choosing Marianne Scott as the newest member.
Police have shot dead a gunman in far north Queensland after an 11-hour chase that included a police car being rammed and multiple officers being shot at by the offender.

It started about 4.30am on Sunday when the man tried to break into an infrastructure facility off the Captain Cook Highway in the Cairns suburb of Palm Cove.

The man was disturbed by a nearby resident and fled, but as he was leaving in his car, he deliberately rammed a police car responding to the attempted break-in.

About 10 kilometres south in Smithfield, the man drove his car at a 26-year-old constable on the side of the road, leaving him with a suspected broken wrist and other non-life-threatening injuries.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 12:23:22|Editor: huaxia

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THE HAGUE, March 29 (Xinhua) -- China has been committed to providing assistance to the Netherlands in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and bilateral cooperation will not be affected by an isolated incident, Chinese Ambassador to the Netherlands Xu Hong said Sunday.

Xu held a telephone conversation on Sunday with Dutch Minister for Medical Care and Sport Martin van Rijn who expressed his sincere gratitude for China's strong support and assistance to his country's fight against COVID-19.

The Chinese embassy paid close attention to some local reports about the "defective" masks that the Dutch government had purchased from China, and contacted the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Health as quickly as possible to verify the information, Xu said in a statement obtained by Xinhua.

"For more than a month, with the development of the outbreak in the Netherlands, China has been committed to providing assistance to the Netherlands within our capability," he said.

"Regarding the problem that some masks purchased by the Netherlands from China are not adequate for the medical staff of the ICU, the Netherlands is still looking into the situation, and if there is any further information, it will inform the Chinese side as soon as possible," Xu said.

"It is hoped that this isolated incident will not affect the friendly cooperation between the two countries in the fight against the pandemic. I thanked Minister Martin van Rijn for his information," Xu added.

The ambassador also emphasized that virus knows no borders, and only by strengthening solidarity and mutual assistance can the international community win the battle against the pandemic.

There have been 9,762 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Netherlands as of Sunday, according to the World Health Organization.

"The reason why China supports the Netherlands and other countries to fight the pandemic is very simple: we are trying to save more lives. There is no 'geopolitical consideration' as a few claimed," he said.

"It is normal if some problems arise during the cooperation. These problems can be solved in an objective manner, but should not be politicized," he added.

"We look forward to the results of further investigations by the Dutch side on the quality of the masks, and we hope the Dutch side could provide the Chinese side with more detailed information. If necessary, the Chinese side will assist the investigation according to the laws and based on the principles of objectivity and fairness," he said.

"The Chinese side will continue to fully support the efforts of the Dutch side to fight the pandemic and work together to defeat the coronavirus, which is our common enemy," Xu said.
Mr Akwasi Aboagye, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority, says all hotels can operate as expected and host their guests.



However, the hotel restaurants, gyms and other facilities will serve only the resident guests, subject to enhanced hygiene protocols and social distancing.



Mr Aboagye said this at a media briefing in Accra on Sunday, following the directives by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on the imposition of restrictions on the movement of persons in Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Greater Kumasi.



The Ghana Tourism Authority under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture and in conjunction with the National Security Task Force on COVID-19, issued other directives for the hospitality industry including the following:



All hotel staff would be provided special passes by National Security, which must be worn in addition to their normal IDs.



Food chains and restaurants must operate only pick-up and delivery services whilst hotel staff would be provided special passes.



All drinking bars, night clubs and pubs within the specified areas of restriction will remain closed during the period.



All the hospitality facilities should observe the safety protocols and precautionary measures on public gathering as spelt out in the imposition of Restriction Act.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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At first glance, it might look as if the South Pacific would be the last place on earth to have to worry about the new coronavirus. The palm-fringed paradises of the self-styled Blue Continent are far from the teeming cities of the world and their swarming sicknesses. Only some 10 million people live in countries scattered across an oceanic expanse as big as all of Asia, Europe, Australia and the US combined. Surely geography took care of the social distancing here?

Not only that. The South Pacific states were smart. They were quick to cut off all international arrivals to protect themselves from the pandemic. Not quite quick enough  114 people across six of the region's countries so far have been confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 nonetheless, with one death. The number of new cases across the South Pacific rose by 5 per cent on Monday.

The economic effect of the coronavirus on the Pacific is comparative to a hurricane. Credit:Inga Mepham

"Our best chance collectively is to isolate ourselves and break the chain of community transmission," says Karena Lyons, director of research at the East-West Centre in Honolulu. "I know it was a big deal for my family in Samoa and New Zealand to refrain from going to church  but they did it and they started three weeks ago," says Lyons. "Thank goodness  it took a village to convince my mother."

It may be the only chance. The most populous of the region's countries, the former Australian colony of Papua New Guinea, has more than 8 million people. And just 14 ventilators, according to an ANU expert, Stephen Howes.
US regulators have approved two malaria drugs for hospitalised coronavirus patients - but the UK has blocked their use until clinical trials finish.

Doctors across America can now prescribe hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as a last resort for critically ill COVID-19 sufferers.

Trials are currently underway to test their effectiveness on coronavirus patients, after the drugs showed promise in helping patients recover in China.

Despite being scientifically unproven, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last night approved them for 'emergency use' in the US.

The UK-equivalent of the FDA, the MHRA, said they should only be used for treating coronavirus patients in a trial until there is 'clear' evidence they work and are safe - a process that could take months.

American actor Daniel Dae Kim, who starred in the hit TV series Lost, believes that hydroxychloroquine was the 'secret weapon' to his recovery.

While US President Donald Trump said last week that the two drugs could be a 'gift from God,' despite scientists having some reservations.

The FDA has approved two anti-malaria drugs, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, for patients hospitalised by coronavirus in the US - but the UK has blocked their use

Daniel Dae Kim took to Instagram on Saturday evening to give followers an update on his COVID-19 diagnosis, after coming forward with his diagnosis on Thursday

The UK-equivalent of the FDA, the MHRA, said antimalarials should only be used for treating coronavirus patients in a trial until there is 'clear' evidence they work and are safe - a process that could take months. Pictured, how cases and deaths have developed in the UK

Around the world, countries are expanding access to hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and chloroquine (CQ).

They are related compounds that are synthetic forms of quinine, which comes from cinchona trees and has been used for centuries to treat malaria.

Chloroquine, sold under the brand name Aralen, is an anti-malarial drug which works by stopping parasites from replicating inside the body.

Hydroxychloroquine, also known by its brand name Plaquenil, is a less toxic version of chloroquine.

Since both products are both well-established medicines - used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and lupus - they could be used relatively rapidly on an off-label basis from existing stocks.

But neither drugs have been licensed for use on COVID-19 patients by the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

The MHRA says the only way to access the two antimalarials is through clinical trials, which are ongoing.

The UK is injecting 20million into coronavirus research projects, taking part at Oxford University, the University of Edinburgh, Queens University Belfast, Imperial College London and the University of Liverpool.

Chloroquine is thought to be among 1,000 drugs being tested against coronavirus in a lab as part of a Queens University Belfast study, considering it has been classified as a top priority by world health officials.

A statement from the MHRA says: 'We understand these are challenging times, and patients may be worried, but we are doing everything we can to continue to ensure patient safety.

'Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are not licensed to treat COVID-19 related symptoms or prevent infection.'

Hydroxychloroquine, also known by its brand name Plaquenil (pictured), is a less toxic version of chloroquine and is being investigated for its effect against the coronavirus

Trump said last week that the two drugs could be a 'gift from God,' despite scientists warning against the dangers of overhyping unproven treatments

ARE CHLOROQUINE AND HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE PROMISING DRUGS? Chloroquine  sold under the brand name Arlan  kills malaria parasites in the blood, stopping the tropical disease in its tracks. But tests of the drug  which has been used for 70 years  on COVID-19 patients in China show it has potential in fighting the life-threatening virus. Chinese officials claimed the drug 'demonstrated efficacy and acceptable safety in treating COVID-19 associated pneumonia'. South Korea and China both say the drug is an 'effective' antiviral treatment against the disease, according to a report by US virologists. The Wuhan Institute of Virology  in the city where the crisis began  claimed the drug was 'highly effective' in petri dish tests. Tests by those researchers, as well as others, showed it has the power to stop the virus replicating in cells, and taking hold in the body. Twenty-three clinical trials on the drug are already underway on patients in China, and one is planned in the US and another in South Korea. Professor Robin May, an infectious disease specialist at Birmingham University, said the safety profile of the drug is 'well-established'. He added: 'It is cheap and relatively easy to manufacture, so it would be fairly easy to accelerate into clinical trials and, if successful, eventually into treatment.' Professor May suggested chloroquine may work by altering the acidity of the area of cells that it attacks, making it harder for the virus to replicate. Chinese scientists investigating hydroxychloroquine penned a letter to a prestigious journal saying the 'less toxic' derivative may also help'. Advertisement

The MHRA has prohibited buying both products for parallel export until further notice, which is done to protect UK stocks.

The move may have been to hold back supplies in the event of an coronavirus outbreak in the UK, IHS Markit reports.

A communication from the Department of Health and Social Care on 26 February noted the parallel export ban had been implemented to ensure supply to the NHS will remain uninterrupted.

Both the medicines are likely to soar in demand after being highlighted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as potential therapeutics, among many others, to treat COVID-19.

The US Department of Health and Human Services (DOHHS) announced last night it had received 30million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate and one million doses of chloroquine phosphate.

A statement issued by the DOHHS noted that the FDA had issued an emergency-use authorization to allow both drugs to be given to 'hospitalised teen and adult patients with COVID-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible'.

It came after the drugs were heralded as 'miracle' cures and 'a gift from God' by Trump over the weekend, who planned to fast-track its approval almost two weeks ago.

China and South Korea were the first countries to recommend the drugs to treat COVID-19 patients, after tests showed it could help them recover and keep the disease at bay.

One report has claimed officials in the Netherlands already suggest treating critically-ill patients with the drug.

In France, a team led by controversial professor Didier Raoult of the IHU-Mediterranee Infection, Marseille reported last week they had carried out a study on 36 COVID-19 patients.

They reportedly found that hydroxychloroquine drastically reduced the viral load in a group which received the drug.

Professor Raoult claimed a further study on 80 patients confirmed the antimalarial's 'efficiency' at combating the virus.

But several critics of were quick to cast doubt upon his findings, saying the testing was not carried out in a controlled study and that the results were purely 'observational'.

Professor Francois Balloux of University College, London, rebutted that hydroxychloroquine could be the COVID-19 cure, writing on Twitter: 'No, (this is) not "huge" I'm afraid.'

Several countries have embarked on clinical trials on the back of promising findings, including the US, where one began in New York this week.

Italy is carrying out a trial on 2,000 people, while scientists are also awaiting the results from bigger trials in China.

A European trial called Discovery will study four experimental therapies, including chloroquine, using 3,200 patients who have been hospitalised from the killer virus in the UK, Spain, Germany, France, Sweden and Luxembourg.

A number of patients claim to have been cured of coronavirus after taking the antimalarials, including actor Daniel Dae Kim.

After being treated with a cocktail of drugs including hydroxychloroquine, the 51-year-old told his Instagram fans on March 21 that he felt 'back to normal'.

However, many researchers have urged caution until larger clinical trials validate smaller studies.

Professor Ian Hall, molecular medicine at University of Nottingham, told MailOnline: 'There is no definite evidence at present that chloroquine will be useful in treating COVID-19, although there has been quite a lot of off label use of the drug.

'If it were to prove effective, I think it would be possible to upscale production fairly rapidly.'

Until random, placebo controlled trials produce results, scientists fear the benefit-risk balance may be unfavourable.

Professor Hall said: 'The dose of chloroquine is also carefully calculated to ensure that the drug does not produce unwanted side effects when used to treat malaria.

'If the incorrect dose is taken, it can produce serious complications, for example heart rhythm abnormalities.'

About one per cent of people are at high risk of blackouts, seizure or even sudden death from cardiac arrest because of heart rhythm issues they may themselves be unaware of, Michael Ackerman, a genetic cardiologist at Mayo Clinic told AFP.

Medical teams must therefore perform electrocardiograms to inform their risk analysis before using these medicines, he said.

Another problem is that people may try to self-medicate with household items that contain the chemical or with over-the-counter options.

Chloroquine was prescribed around 46,000 times in 2018 in the UK  but a form of it is also available over-the-counter from pharmacies without a prescription.

Last week, a man from Arizona died after drinking fish tank cleaner which contained a form of chloroquine intended to fight aquatic parasites.

Professor Stephen Evans, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), said: 'Using non-approved substances, even if the active ingredient in a medicine is in another non-medical product, it is dangerous to use it as if it were a medicine.

'From this tragic occurrence in the US it is clear that people will do foolish things in the belief that they are helping themselves.'

A few other countries are taking a cautious approach. Spain, for example, said last week that 'until further notice' chloroquine would only be given to arthritis and lupus patients.

French Health Minister Olivier Veran meanwhile said the compounds can be used only to treat the most severe cases of COVID-19.

All of the coronavirus treatments currently being tested, from HIV pills to an Ebola drug and malaria medication

NHS hospitals are coming under growing pressure to use experimental drugs to try and treat patients infected with the coronavirus.

Doctors and pharmaceutical firms around the world are scrambling to find a drug that can stop the deadly virus, which has now killed more than 18,000 people.

Medicines already in use for conditions ranging from HIV to rheumatoid arthritis, malaria, the flu and even Ebola are serious contenders and are being tested to see how they could help patients infected with COVID-19.

Here, MailOnline reveals some of the drugs that experts believe have potential.

Favipiravir is the active ingredient in a flu drug called Avigan which is sold in Japan

Favipiravir

What are the brand versions of the drug?

Avigan

What does it treat?

Flu

Who makes it?

It is made by a subsidiary of the company Fujifilm Holdings, which is better known for producing cameras.

What have studies shown?

In a trial of 80 patients in China, those given the drug tested negative for the virus after an average of four days, while it took 11 days for those not treated with it, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK.

How does it work?

The drug - known as an RNA polymerase inhibitor - stops viruses from making copies of themselves to spread through the body.

Is it being tested in the UK?

In the UK it is not licensed or recommended, according to a document released by Public Health England last September. No trials are thought to be taking place in the UK at the moment.

What are its side effects?

Animal studies have suggested the drug may be harmful for pregnant women, with it linked to birth defects and death.

What do the experts think?

Robin May, professor of infectious disease at the University of Birmingham, said: 'It looks encouraging.

'And this drug appears to significantly speed up recovery from coronavirus, which is a step forward.

'However the reports so far seem to suggest it may not work as well for more severe cases of coronavirus.'

He added the data from the Chinese trial suggests that it might not be as effective 'for the severely ill people we are really worried about'.

Remdesivir

Remdesivir is an anti-viral drug that works in essentially the same way as favipiravir  by crippling the RNA polymerase enzyme, stopping a virus from reproducing

What are the brand versions of the drug?

Remdesivir - no brand name currently exists because it is only experimental.

What does it treat?

It was developed around 10 years ago with the intention of it destroying the Ebola virus. It was pushed aside, however, when other, better candidates emerged.

Who makes it?

California-based pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, the firm behind the life-changing HIV-preventing pill Truvada, or PrEP.

What have studies shown?

Lab tests of remdesivir have shown promise against coronaviruses - but human trials are still in their early days.

Doctors in the US have tried it on patients and it managed to speed up the recovery of the first person to be treated for the virus there.

The a 35-year-old man in Washington state, close to Seattle  whose infection was announced on January 20  recovered after being given the drug.

A Californian woman who doctors 'thought was going to pass away' also recovered in the US after being given the drug.

Four American passengers on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship treated with the drug in Japan also recovered.

Officials in Liguria  a coastal region of Italy  also announced an infected man in his 70s had recovered and could go home after 12 days in hospital.

How does it work?

Remdesivir is an anti-viral drug that works in essentially the same way as favipiravir  by crippling the RNA polymerase enzyme, stopping a virus from reproducing.

Is it being tested in the UK?

It is not prescribed on the NHS because it hasn't been approved.

Hundreds of patients - including some in the UK - taking part in a European mega-trial will get chance to take the drug to prove if it can fight the coronavirus.

The drug is also being trialled on coronavirus patients in China and at the University of Nebraska.

What are its side effects?

Scientists are full of hope because the drug is proven to be safe in humans. Its side effects are still not well understood.

What do the experts think?

Professor Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, hailed remdesivir as 'one of the most promising antivirals' being investigated.

While Dr Alfredo Garzino-Demo, of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said evidence shows it has the ability to treat COVID-19 patients.

Lopinavir/ritonavir, marketed under the brand names Kaletra and Aluvia, is an anti-HIV medicine

Lopinavir/ritonavir

What are the brand versions of the drug?

Kaletra and Aluvia.

What does it treat?

It is an anti-HIV medicine given to people living with the virus to prevent it developing into AIDS.

Who makes it?

Illinois-based manufacturer AbbVie donated free supplies of the drug to authorities in China, the US and Europe for tests.

What have studies shown?

Chinese media reported that the drug was successfully used to cure patients with the coronavirus, but the reports have not been scientifically proven.

A separate Chinese study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the lopinavir-ritonavir combination did not improve survival or speed recovery of COVID-19 patients.

However, the authors noted they had enrolled a 'severely ill population' of patients.

In a clinical trial submission, scientists in South Korea said lab studies have: 'In vitro [laboratory] studies revealed that lopinavir/ritonavir [has] antiviral activity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).'

How does it work?

It is a class of drug called a protease inhibitor, which essentially stick to an enzyme on a virus which is vital to the virus reproducing.

By doing this it blocks the process the virus would normally use to clone itself and spread the infection further.

Is it being tested in the UK?

It is not prescribed on the NHS for coronavirus because it hasn't been approved - but it is being trialled by Oxford University.

But it is available on the health service for HIV treatment and was prescribed around 1,400 times in 2018, either as Kaletra or ritonavir on its own.

The drug is also being trialled on coronavirus patients in China and at the University of Nebraska.

What are its side effects?

Known side effects include diarrhea, headaches, upset stomachs, drowsiness, dizziness, a bad taste in the mouth, and trouble sleeping.

What do the experts think?

The drugs have been described as 'promising' by experts. But there has been some hesitancy about the drug combination due to the NEJM study.

One drug being used by doctors fighting the coronavirus outbreak is chloroquine phosphate, an anti-malarial medication. It is sold under the brand name Arlan

Chloroquine phosphate

What are the brand versions of the drug?

Aralen.

What does it treat?

Doctors have used the generic drug for 70 years to treat malaria.

Who makes it?

French drug giant Sanofi.

Where has it already been tested?

China recommended the drug to treat COVID-19 patients, after tests showed it could help them recover and keep the disease at bay.

South Korea has already tried the drugs on COVID-19 patients.

A trial at the University of Minnesota is scheduled to take place in the US next month.

Officials in the Netherlands are already suggesting doctors treat critically-ill patients with the drug.

What have studies shown?

Chinese officials claimed the drug 'demonstrated efficacy and acceptable safety in treating COVID-19 associated pneumonia'.

South Korea and China both say the drug is an 'effective' antiviral treatment against the disease.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology  in the city where the crisis began  claimed the drug was 'highly effective' in petri dish tests.

How does it work?

It has the power to stop viral molecules replicating in red blood cells, and taking hold in the body.

Is it being tested in the UK?

Chloroquine was prescribed around 46,000 times in 2018 in the UK  but a form of it is also available over-the-counter from pharmacies without a prescription.

It is thought to be among 1,000 drugs being tested against coronavirus in a lab as part of a Queens University Belfast study.

What are its side effects?

Doctors say the medicine is generally safe, but it can cause a number of mild side effects including headaches, loss of appetite, upset stomach and skin rashes, to more severe ones such as hair loss and depression.

What do the experts think?

Professor Robin May, an infectious disease specialist at Birmingham University, said the safety profile of the drug is 'well-established'.

He added: 'It is cheap and relatively easy to manufacture, so it would be fairly easy to accelerate into clinical trials and, if successful, eventually into treatment.'

Professor May suggested chloroquine may work by altering the acidity of the area of cells that it attacks, making it harder for the virus to replicate.

Hydroxychloroquine, sold under the brand name Plaquenil, may treat COVID-19

Hydroxychloroquine (Malaria)

What are the brand versions of the drug?

Plaquenil.

What does it treat?

Malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. It is a less powerful and, by some experts' accounts, less toxic, version of chloroquine phosphate.

Who makes it and where has it already been tested?

Drug giant Sanofi carried out a study on 24 patients, which the French government described as 'promising'.

French health officials are now planning on a larger trial of the drug, which is used on the NHS.

What have studies shown?

Results from the French study showed three quarters of patients treated with the drug were cleared of the virus within six days. None of the placebo group were treated.

How does it work?

It interferes with viral molecules replicating in red blood cells.

Is it being tested in the UK?

It is thought to be among 1,000 drugs being tested at Queens University Belfast.

What are its side effects?

Skin rashes, nausea, diarrhoea and headaches.

What do the experts think?

Chinese scientists investigating the other form of chloroquine penned a letter to a prestigious journal saying its 'less toxic' derivative may also help.

In the comment to Cell Discovery  owned by publisher Nature, they said it shares similar chemical structures and mechanisms.

The team of experts added: 'It is easy to conjure up the idea that hydroxychloroquine may be a potent candidate to treat infection by SARS-CoV-2.'

Sarilumab, a rheumatoid arthritis drug which is marketed as Kevzara in the US, is set to be trialled on patients in the US

Sarilumab

What are the brand versions of the drug?

Kevzara

Who makes it?

Kevzara was developed by Sanofi and New York-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

What does it treat?

Rheumatoid arthritis. The condition sees the immune system attack healthy parts of the body, such as the joints by mistake and causes inflammation.

This can cause tiredness, anaemia, and damage to bones, cartilage and soft tissues.

Where has it already been tested?

It was given to 21 patients with severe COVID-19 in a study by the University of Science and Technology of China in February.

Sanofi, which makes the drug, says it is also launching trials 'rapidly in Italy and the US in a matter of weeks.

What have studies shown?

According to the Chinese researchers, fevers returned to normal and all other symptoms 'improved remarkably' within a few days.

Additionally, three quarters of patients had lowered their oxygen intake and one patient no longer needed breathing support.

Nineteen patients were discharged after an average of 13.5 days following treatment, with the remainder 'recovering well' as of the time of the study's release, the researchers wrote.

How does it work?

The drug works by blocking part of the immune system which can cause inflammation, or swelling, which is overactive in people with rheumatoid arthritis.

Inflammation is the body's natural response to infection but, in patients with coronavirus, it can get out of control, making symptoms significantly worse and even trigger multiple organ failure.

Is it being tested in the UK?

It is likely to be included in Queen University Belfast's study of 1,000 drugs on the new coronavirus.

While the official list of drugs has not been made public, the university said it was testing medicines that may be able to reduce virus infection or replication and virus-induced inflammatory responses.

What are its side effects?

A cough or sore throat, blocked or runny nose, cold sores, urinary tract infections and redness and itching at the site of the injection.

What do the experts think?

Dr Cassandra Calabrese, a rheumatologist at the renowned Cleveland Clinic, said there is a 'growing body of reports showing the benefit' of the drug in COVID-19 patients.

Interferon beta-1b (IFN-beta) is a naturally occurring protein that orchestrates the body's anti-viral responses

Interferon beta-1b/SNG001

What are the brand versions of the drug?

The drug is still in development and goes by the name of SNG001.

What does it treat?

Interferon beta-1b (IFN-beta) is a naturally occurring protein that orchestrates the body's anti-viral responses.

SNG001 is a formulation of IFN-beta developed by Synairgen to prevent severe lower respiratory tract illness caused by cold and flu infections.

A different formulation using the protein is used to treat patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

The drug called Extavia is self-injected every two days and works by slowing down the damage to the nervous system and by reducing the number of relapses.

Where has it already been tested?

Synairgen is a UK-based company, and it appears their formulation hasn't crossed overseas yet.

But it does say has been approached by, and is in discussion with, a number of scientific and governmental bodies in the US and internationally since the COVID-19 outbreak began.

What have studies shown?

Laboratory studies have shown IFN-beta can protect cells from infection by a range of respiratory viruses.

These include the MERS and SARS coronavirus strains, leaving scientists expecting IFN-beta to also protect against the COVID-19 strain.

It has already been shown to improve the recovery of asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) patients who have other lung infections, such as flu.

Richard Marsden, CEO of Synairgen, said: 'SNG001 has been well tolerated in clinical trials in over 200 respiratory patients to date and has accelerated lung function recovery in two Phase II asthma trials in patients with a cold or flu infection.'

How does it work?

SNG001 is inhaled with a nebuliser, which helps deliver drugs to the lungs.

Scientists believe it will prevent the coronavirus from taking over lung cells to replicate. This would prevent patients deteriorating until the point they need ventilation to survive.

Viruses, including coronaviruses, can evolve the ability to suppresses IFN-beta production in the body, thereby helping the virus evade.

Is it being tested in the UK?

Southampton researchers are conducting a Phase II SNG001 trial on COVID-19 patients to see if it could prevent worsening symptoms in those most at risk.

The trial, led by Professor Tom Wilkinson at University Hospital Southampton, will involve 100 patients at Southampton and up to ten other NHS hospitals.

Those patients will receive the best current COVID19 care, whilst inhaling either a placebo or SNG001 for 14 days.

What are its side effects?

Doctors are currently clueless. Side effects will be reported with the findings of the clinic trial.

Other forms of interferon beta can cause headaches, vaginal bleeding and diminish libido.

What do the experts think?

Tom Wilkinson told Sky News: 'We are hoping that the drug will increase the rate of recovery from infection, that it will increase the protection in the bit of the lungs that are not infected yet and will reduce the number of patients that decline significantly and require intubation and ventilation.'

Mr Marsden said: 'A successful outcome from this trial [at Southampton] in COVID-19 patients would be a major breakthrough in the fight against this coronavirus pandemic.'

Dexamethasone is a steroid drug is used to treat allergies and asthma, as well as some types of cancer

Dexamethasone

What are the brand versions of the drug?

Ozurdex and Baycadron.

What does it treat?

The steroid drug is used to treat allergies and asthma, as well as some types of cancer.

Who makes it?

Baycadron is made by Wockhardt Usa, Llc, while Ozurdex is made by Allergan, the manufacturer of a commonly used textured breast implant.

What have studies shown?

No studies have yet to prove dexamethasone can treat SARS-CoV-2 - but it has been tested on patients with MERS and SARS, two different coronaviruses.

One retrospective study of critically-ill patients with MERS found that almost half of the people that received steroids needed additional treatments such as assistance in breathing, drugs to increase blood pressure, and a form of dialysis.

Those given steroids were found to take longer to clear the virus from their bodies.

Other studies found that the virus was still present in SARS patients who took the drugs up to three weeks after infection.

How does it work?

Steroids are often used by doctors to reduce inflammation, which is present in the lungs of patients with the coronavirus.

However, steroids also impair the immune system's ability to fight viruses and other infections that often develop in patients with life-threatening illness.

Is it being tested in the UK?

Researchers from the University of Oxford have launched a new clinical trial to test the effects of potential drug treatments, including dexamethasone, for patients admitted to hospital with the virus.

What are its side effects?

The drug is known to cause an increase in appetite and heartburn, as well as muscle weakness and insomnia.

What do the experts think?

In a piece in prestigious medical journal The Lancet, three experts warned: 'No unique reason exists to expect that patients with 2019-nCoV infection will benefit from corticosteroids.

'And they might be more likely to be harmed with such treatment.

'We conclude that corticosteroid treatment should not be used for the treatment of 2019-nCoV-induced lung injury or shock outside of a clinical trial.'

Tocilizumab, marketed as Actemra, cured 90 per cent of critically ill coronavirus patients in an early trial in China. It is used to treat arthritis

Tocilizumab

What are the brand versions of the drug?

RoActemra and Actemra.

What does it treat?

Rheumatoid arthritis as well as certain types of childhood arthritis..

Who makes it?

The Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche.

What have studies shown?

There is no published clinical trial data on the drug's safety or efficacy against the virus.

But doctors in China were the first to try it against the deadly coronavirus. Patients, who were given routine therapies along with the drug, were diagnosed as severe or critical.

They were being treated at two separate hospitals in the eastern province of Anhui in China - The First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China and Anhui Fuyang Second People's Hospital.

Within a few days, patients' fever returned to normal and all other symptoms improved remarkably, Dr Xiaoling Xu and colleagues report.

Fifteen of the 20 patients involved in the trial were able to have their oxygen intake lowered, while one patient was taken off completely.

Seventeen of the patients had seen levels of their white blood cells, called lymphocytes, drop. But on the fifth day, this returned to normal in ten of the patients.

Nineteen patients (95 per cent) were discharged after 13 and a half days. The other patient is recovering well, the study said.

CT scans also showed damage to the lungs reduced significantly around the fourth and fifth day of treatment.

Tocilizumab has now been green-lit by the FDA for trials on patients in the US. The phase III clinical trial launched by biotechnology company Genetech, will compare the drug to a placebo while with the combination of standard care for patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia.

It will involve approximately 330 patients across the US and other countries who will be tracked for 60 days, with recruitment set to begin in early April.

How does it work?

The prescription medicine works by reducing levels of IL-6 protein in the body, which people with rheumatoid arthritis or another autoimmune conditions have too much of.

If there is too much IL-6, it can cause inflammation and damage. Tocilizumab blocks the effects, and has become a go-to for inflammatory disease treatment.

It's thought the drug can prevent an overreaction of the immune system seen in some coronavirus patients.

Called a 'cytokine storm', the body's immune response can go into overdrive and produce inflammation.

The overreaction of the immune system is considered a major factor behind catastrophic organ failure and death in some coronavirus patients.

Is it being tested in the UK?

No patients in the UK are thought to have taken the drug yet, in trials or clinical care.

What are its side effects?

The drug is known to cause a runny or stuffy nose, sinus pain, sore throat, headache, dizziness, itching, mild stomach cramps, or a urinary tract infection (UTI).

What do the experts think?

Chinese doctors at the First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology and Anhui Fuyang Second People's Hospital said COVID-19 patients' symptoms appeared to improve 'remarkably' when treated with the drug.

Tocilizumab

What are the brand versions of the drug?

RoActemra and Actemra.

What does it treat?

Rheumatoid arthritis as well as certain types of childhood arthritis..

Who makes it?

The Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche.

What have studies shown?

There is no published clinical trial data on the drug's safety or efficacy against the virus.

But doctors in China were the first to try it against the deadly coronavirus. Patients, who were given routine therapies along with the drug, were diagnosed as severe or critical.

They were being treated at two separate hospitals in the eastern province of Anhui in China - The First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China and Anhui Fuyang Second People's Hospital.

Within a few days, patients' fever returned to normal and all other symptoms improved remarkably, Dr Xiaoling Xu and colleagues report.

Fifteen of the 20 patients involved in the trial were able to have their oxygen intake lowered, while one patient was taken off completely.

Seventeen of the patients had seen levels of their white blood cells, called lymphocytes, drop. But on the fifth day, this returned to normal in ten of the patients.

Nineteen patients (95 per cent) were discharged after 13 and a half days. The other patient is recovering well, the study said.

CT scans also showed damage to the lungs reduced significantly around the fourth and fifth day of treatment.

Tocilizumab has now been green-lit by the FDA for trials on patients in the US. The phase III clinical trial launched by biotechnology company Genetech, will compare the drug to a placebo while with the combination of standard care for patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia.

It will involve approximately 330 patients across the US and other countries who will be tracked for 60 days, with recruitment set to begin in early April.

How does it work?

The prescription medicine works by reducing levels of IL-6 protein in the body, which people with rheumatoid arthritis or another autoimmune conditions have too much of.

If there is too much IL-6, it can cause inflammation and damage. Tocilizumab blocks the effects, and has become a go-to for inflammatory disease treatment.

It's thought the drug can prevent an overreaction of the immune system seen in some coronavirus patients.

Called a 'cytokine storm', the body's immune response can go into overdrive and produce inflammation.

The overreaction of the immune system is considered a major factor behind catastrophic organ failure and death in some coronavirus patients.

Is it being tested in the UK?

No patients in the UK are thought to have taken the drug yet, in trials or clinical care.

What are its side effects?

The drug is known to cause a runny or stuffy nose, sinus pain, sore throat, headache, dizziness, itching, mild stomach cramps, or a urinary tract infection (UTI).

What do the experts think?

Chinese doctors at the First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology and Anhui Fuyang Second People's Hospital said COVID-19 patients' symptoms appeared to improve 'remarkably' when treated with the drug.
A Phoenix Police officer arrives on the scene of a shooting in Phoenix, Ariz., on March 29, 2020. At least three Phoenix police officers were shot Sunday night on the city's north side, authorities said. (Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo)

Phoenix Police Commander Killed, 2 Others Wounded in Shooting

A Phoenix police commander was killed and two other officers were wounded on the night of March 29 as they responded to calls about a dispute between roommates.

Cmdr. Greg Carnicle, a veteran officer and father of four, was killed. The other officers, both women, were hospitalized, the department said.

Sgt. Mercedes Fortune said at a news conference that the suspect refused to cooperate and shot the officers after they were called to the scene shortly after 7 p.m. Sunday. The suspect was still inside and the situation was active as of 10 p.m., Fortune told the Arizona Republic.

Tonight we lost a true hero. Greg Carnicle was a 31-year veteran of our department, Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said.

Critical Incident: With heavy hearts we announce the passing of a Phx PD Commander. Greg Carnicle was shot at the scene of a domestic violence call. Two other officers also shot at 40th Drive and Pinnacle Peak. The two officers are expected to recover. RIP Cmdr Carnicle. pic.twitter.com/7h4Nih5Y2g  Phoenix Police Department (@PhoenixPolice) March 30, 2020

The other two officers who were shot are in stable condition, she said. One woman is out of surgery, and another is recovering from her wounds, Williams told the Republic.

The department tweeted that Carnicle held positions throughout the department including the special assignments unit, K9 and he most recently oversaw all evening and weekend patrol operations.

Hes survived by his wife and four children, Fortune said at the news conference.

A nearby resident shoots video of a deadly shooting scene involving Phoenix Police officers in Phoenix, Ariz., on March 29, 2020. (Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo)

Before the announcement of Carnicles death, Col. Frank Milstead, director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety wrote on Twitter that I have no exact details on the condition of the 3 @PhoenixPolice officers who were shot tonight. My heart is with the families of the wounded and the women and men of the Department. Pray for @PhxPDChief Jeri Williams and her team. Godspeed.

Mayor Kate Gallego tweeted: Our thoughts are with the loved ones of these officers and the entire Phoenix Police Department. Please keep these individuals in your thoughts.

In a tweet, Gov, Doug Ducey asked the public to join me in praying for these officers, their families, and the entire @PhoenixPolice community.

Please join me in praying for these officers, their families, and the entire @PhoenixPolice community. https://t.co/kBgbwZVOEC  Doug Ducey (@dougducey) March 30, 2020

The most recent death of a Phoenix police officer in the line of duty was in March 2019 when Officer Paul Thomas Rutherford was struck by a vehicle.

The last officers killed by gunfire were Officer David Van Glasser in May 2016 and Detective John Thomas Hobbs in March 2014.
- Additional reporting by Brian Kavanagh

At first, the schoolboys thought the man who had stumbled out of the dark was doused in oil. But with the light of his phone, Paul Maguire told the Central Criminal Court that he could see the man was, in fact, covered in blood.

"There was a wound on his neck and I could see blood flowing down the side of his body," the witness told the court. The injured man was "roaring and roaring" that he had been stabbed and needed an ambulance.

It was the early hours of January 1, 2014 and Paul Maguire and his friends had been walking through Rathmullen Park in Drogheda, having earlier rung in the New Year nearby. As they walked past the home of Paula Farrell, the man had "hopped, skipped and jumped" out in front of them, shouting that he needed an ambulance.

Mr Maguire said he got a fright and moved away at first but when the man slipped on a patch of grass and fell to the ground, he and one of his friends went to him.

As prosecution counsel told the jury, the man had been bleeding so heavily some of the teenagers initially thought that, from the colour of his bloodstained t-shirt, he had been wearing a Liverpool jersey.

Paul Maguire also told the court that the man who had fallen to the ground had his trousers around his ankles and his private parts were exposed.

The witness said he saw a woman standing in the doorway of the house, drying her hands on a towel. Mr Maguire had quickly called the emergency services but the woman told the group: "Don't ring an ambulance, you must be joking to ring an ambulance."

"I'm gone lads," the man had told the teenagers.

Due to a 30-minute delay in getting an ambulance to the scene, attending gardai had to drive the victim Wayne McQuillan in their patrol car to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. He suffered a cardiac arrest on the way and was resuscitated. However, a second cardiac arrest proved fatal and he was pronounced dead at 4.29am on New Year's morning.

Former Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis testified that the former painter and decorator could have potentially survived with "prompt medical intervention".

Something Stupid

Paula Farrell had lived in Rathmullen Park for 23 years. She dropped out of secondary school in her second year and had worked at various jobs, including a time as a machinist in a cotton wool factory.

Clinical psychologist Dr Kevin Lambe testified that Farrell was "an angry person" and this anger prevented her from getting too close to anyone. "She would have found life quite difficult," he said.

The jury also heard that Farrell's IQ was tested at 70, placing her "just at the cut-off point" for a borderline intellectual disability.

She met Wayne McQuillan, who was from the Marian Park estate, in the local pub on the occasion of her 40th birthday in February 2013. Wayne was ten years younger than Paula and they were together for about a year at the time of his death. They would binge drink together in her home on a daily basis, with a typical session beginning around 3pm and concluding around midnight. Mr McQuillan was living with his parents at the time but often stayed overnight with Farrell, who lived with her young child.

Asked by her own defence counsel during the trial if they had a good relationship, Farrell said: "We did and we didn't". Arguments between the couple were frequent and the accused said there was always "drink on board" when disagreements occurred.

The trial heard that Wayne McQuillan had nine previous convictions for public order offences, which had all been dealt with in the District Court. Farrell has no previous convictions.

Paula and Wayne had begun drinking at 3pm on New Year's Eve and high levels of alcohol were later detected in their systems. Farrell drank at least nine cans that day and was found to have six litres of alcohol in her system. Wayne was drinking two-litre bottles of cider and a toxicology report carried out as part of his post-mortem found him to be six times over the drink-driving limit.

When gardai conducted a search of Farrell's kitchen, they found 12 empty cans of Bulmers cider and three empty two-litre bottles of Woodgate cider in a rubbish bag.

Garda Tomas Leonard, one of the first officers to arrive at the scene on the night of the killing, told the jury that Farrell was "hysterical" so he took her to her mother's house nearby for a cautioned statement.

He said Farrell told him: "The two of us started bitching before the New Year. I don't remember what we were fighting about. It was something stupid." She said they had started "tackling each other" in the kitchen and that "he had me by the wrist and neck and I got a bump on my head from him."

Farrell told Gda Leonard that Wayne "had me on the two-seater in the kitchen" and when she got up, she said, "I didn't want him to get the better of me. I got the knife then and I stuck the knife in him."

Following the stabbing she said Wayne walked out the front door of the house and collapsed. She added: "I was crying, saying 'I'm so sorry'."

Farrell told the garda that she had left the knife in the sink but had washed her hands as they were covered in blood. She was later interviewed four times by gardai before being arrested and sent forward for trial for murder at the Central Criminal Court.

Victim, Wayne McQuillan

An Imputation

16 months after the killing, Farrell's solicitor served notice on the prosecution of her intention to adduce evidence which, as the State characterised, "would involve an imputation on Mr McQuillan's character". These allegations included that Wayne had assaulted, sexually assaulted and raped Farrell on New Year's Day 2014.

On the fifth day of her trial, Farrell took to the stand and testified that after she and Wayne had rung in the New Year, he had pulled down his boxers and her pyjama bottoms. "He got in between my legs and was trying to get his penis inside me but couldn't. I was trying to push him off by his shoulders," she said.

She said Mr McQuillan got his penis "a little close" to her vagina but had not penetrated her fully. Farrell said she did not want to have sex and told Wayne to get off her but he began to manually strangle her, she claimed.

"I thought I was dying, I couldn't breathe," she said, adding that Mr McQuillan was on top of her for a while. "My hands were swinging and I was trying to get him off me as he was hurting me," she continued.

Farrell said that she managed to push Mr McQuillan off but did not remember taking a knife from a knife block.

"I went from the sink to the kitchen door, which I don't remember, and I stood in front of him and stuck the knife into him," she said. She added that she had "used the knife twice".

She said Mr McQuillan did not say anything when she stuck the knife into him and he "just walked up the hall" with his pants hanging down. She said she stabbed him again at the house meter box but did not remember this. Farrell accepted that she had stabbed her partner four times but said she only remembered stabbing him twice.

Evidence was heard that Farrell herself had 11 "injury sites" in total, including a lump on her forehead and bruising to both sides of her neck.

Farrell also told her defence counsel, Caroline Biggs SC, that she was sexually abused by a named man when she was a child and that it had "ruined her life". The abuse began when she was seven years of age and lasted until she was 14, she said.

"He mauled my whole body," Farrell told the jury.

She described the alleged abuse in graphic detail and added that it happened every day. Farrell said the alleged abuser began to have sex with her when she was 13 years of age.

Farrell said she began to drink when she was 14 years of age as she could not cope anymore. "I got to like the drink too much as it blocked all my problems out," she said, adding that she started to drink heavily in her twenties and would drink up to 11 cans of cider a day.

She testified that she felt "numb" and "in shock" at the time of killing because of the sexual abuse she had allegedly endured as a child. Farrell maintained she did not intend to kill her boyfriend or cause him serious harm and said she just wanted to "hurt him the way he hurt me". "I don't think I realised what I had done," she remarked.

The accused agreed with prosecution counsel, Mr Gerard Clarke SC, that she had not told gardai about Mr McQuillan trying to have sex with her on the night. "I didn't want to believe it had happened again from two people I loved," she said.

Dr Lambe, testifying on behalf of the defence, told the jury that Farrell did not have the "cognitive resources" to act in a different manner on the night.

He said that she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a consequence of being sexually abused as a child. Farrell stabbing Mr McQuillan four times could be attributed to her PTSD and being sexually assaulted as a child, he maintained.

Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Brenda Wright, testifying on behalf of the defence, said that Farrell was suffering from PTSD and alcohol dependency at the time she stabbed her partner to death. However, Dr Wright said PTSD had not played a significant role in the killing.

Dr Sally Linehan, testifying on behalf of the prosecution, said that the accused's behaviour on the night was influenced by her intoxication and not her mental disorder. However, she accepted that Farrell's illness could have played "some role" on the night as she had difficulty regulating her emotions and behaviour as a result of being sexually abused as a child. She was not satisfied that Farrell experienced "a dissociative reaction" when she killed her partner.

File image of Paula Farrell from 2015

"An outrageous lie"

In her closing speech to the jury, Ms Biggs told the jury that if there was a reasonable possibility that Farrell had acted as a result of provocation, they must convict her of manslaughter.

Provocation is a partial defence which reduces a charge of murder to manslaughter even if there was an intention to kill or cause serious injury.

Ms Biggs asked the jury to look at her client as a person with a mental illness, telling them: "You must look if she lost self-control from her particular situation and decide if she was provoked. PTSD is relative to her subjective state of mind."

She also reminded the jury that Farrell had six litres of alcohol in her system on the night and asked whether the accused could have formed the specific intent to kill or cause serious injury or whether there was a reasonable possibility that because of the state she found herself in, Farrell did not think through the consequences of her actions.

Ms Biggs pointed out that Farrell had described the sexual attack on her by Mr McQuillan as intensely private and said it had taken her client five years of sobriety to be able to discuss her feelings with counsellors.

"People who have suffered child sexual abuse put a lid on everything sexual," she remarked.

However, in his address to the jury, Mr Clarke said the allegation of a sexual attack by Wayne McQuillan was "an outrageous lie" told against a man who was now dead and could not give any alternative account of events.

The barrister said Farrell was claiming Wayne McQuillan had turned into a "homicidal rapist for no reason".

He said in Farrell's four interviews with gardai there had been "no mention whatsoever" of a sexual attack. In fact he said it was "quite the opposite", as Farrell told gardai in her third interview that nothing sexual happened between her and the deceased on the night.

The prosecution's contention was that the only reason the jury had heard about the accused woman having PTSD and being sexually abused as a child was to create sympathy in their minds so they would return a verdict of manslaughter instead of murder.

After deliberating over two days, the jury panel of seven men and four women rejected Farrell's defence that she had been provoked by Wayne's alleged sexual assault.

The verdict marked the second time Farrell has been convicted of the same murder. Her original 2015 conviction, which was also returned by unanimous jury verdict, was quashed by the Court of Appeal in June 2018 over the trial judges decision not to allow the partial defence of provocation be considered by the jury.

A retrial was ordered and a jury failed to reach a verdict in her second trial in July last year.
30.03.2020 LISTEN

This article does not seek to comment on the content of the judgment delivered at the court of appeal for which Nana Kofi Asante, the current Board Chairman of GIMPA claims a victory over Koans. That may obviously amount to contempt of court. Rather, it seeks to explain the strange circumstances which are statements of facts that preceded the judgement and reply to Nana Kofi Asante, the Board Chairman of the institution who has chosen to bring into disrepute a good business agreement due to personal interest specifically. We will leave the rest to Ghanaians to judge as to how powers are abused by those close to its corridors in this country.

The story as you may already be aware is that, GIMPA in 2014 decided to buy one thousand acres of Land from Koans Building Solutions Ltd for a total sum of twenty four Million Ghana Cedis ( GHC24,000,000.00).

All the due diligent which goes into the purchase of land were done and that included but not limited to the following: conducting searches at the land commission to see who bears title to the said land, visiting our grantors, Mankata Family of Panpanso close to Nsawam, setting up land acquisition committee to physically visit the land just to ensure that they dont encounter any form of litigation thereafter.

In the end, contract documents were prepared and both parties signed a contract that included a payment plan. Payment was to be spread over a period of six years without any interest on the agreed amount.

This continued until 2017 when a change in government resulted in the dissolution of the existing Board of the Institution and a new one led by Nana Kofi Asante instituted by government.

This is where our problems with GIMPA begun and we were not surprised, we expected it because the agreement with GIMPA had a history and a strange interest.

Background

Prior to the agreement, there was an attempt by the present Akyem Abuakwa Paramount Chief Amoatia Ofori Panin to sell portion of our companys land to GIMPA Staff through the (Mponua Hene) by name Nana Mbea, after paying a deposit and proceeded to conduct a search at the Lands Commission, it was revealed that the said property belonged to our company, Koans Building Solutions Ltd and not the Okyehene and so the deal foiled.

Under the circumstance, GIMPA Staff had to look for us since they had then committed themselves already by paying huge sums of money to Okyehene through his Mponua Hene. They threatened legal action and to expose the okyehene and his men. Then we (Koans Building Solutions) stepped in, sold the land to them at the very amount they agreed with them and accepted just the top up, absorbing all the amount paid to the Okyehene through his Mponuahene who served as his intermediary.

This earned us the goodwill of the institution and hence when the GIMPA COUNCIL arrived at the decision to expand to a bigger land, we were invited to submit a tender and eventually won after meeting all the requirement and beating other competitors.

And that, I must say was the only reason why we as a company came into the GIMPA land acquisition deal.

When the deal was signed and GIMPA started paying at the agreed installment, Okyenehene got wind of it and immediately wrote to GIMPA without putting us in copy and demanded that they give them their fair share of the deal since they were the original owners of the said land. GIMPA declined this request and asked them to direct their grievances to Koans Building Solutions since we had the right document to the lands and not the okyehene and hence if theres any royalty to be paid the stool, then it is our duty and not GIMPA.

They reluctantly came to us, we welcomed them as a business and in the interest of peace. Even though we owed them nothing, our company tried to avoid any dispute and hence made a number of payment just to bring closure to the issue. This didnt take their attention off the deal.

It was not therefore a surprise to us at all, that when the NPP government led by His Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo took over power, Nana Kofi Darko Asante who is closely connected to Akim Abuakwa and for that matter the Okyehene was appointed as the Board/Council Chairman for GIMPA and this was the beginning of otherwise a cordial relation between KOANS AND GIMPA.

His first action as the Board Chairman of GIMPA was to find non-existing issues with the deal.

When GIMPA started failing to meet their part of the agreement, we resorted to the High Court and a summary judgement which was not entirely in our favor was given. In brief, GIMPA was to pay the amount due which was two million Ghana Cedis (GHc 2,000,000.00) whiles we also go ahead and ensure that their demands, though were never part of the original agreements are met. This was to take place between the payment due and the next one.

Failure on our part to do that imposes on us the penalty to refund all the amount received from GIMPA with interest. Even though we were not happy with the judgment due to the extra cost we were going to incur from the new demands being forced into it by Nana Kofi Asante, we accepted it in good faith because ensuring peace was a priority.

Mr. Kofi Asante who had taken it as a personal battle, defied wise counsel from other Board Members and management of the school according to our sources, pushed the institution to further litigate by activating the appeal and below are the events leading to the current judgment which led to press statement issued by Nana Kofi Darko Asante that instigated this response.

Surprisingly, the Bench who had sat over the said appeal court case for well over a year was altered on the very day of the judgement. Our lawyers questioned why we were not given prior notice and the answer was: due to circumstances beyond our control they could not allow the presiding judge to sit on the said matter on the judgement day but rather a different judge appointed on that particular day was to take over. the presiding seat.

By this they managed to set up the next sitting for the ruling and came out with the new judgement that the Board Chairman of the institution claims a victory.

Meanwhile before the judgement would come for us to pick our certified copy, one Bashiru who presents himself as one of the Okyehenes Chief of Staff called Mr. Dapaa Boateng one of the elderly workers of our company, jubilating that GIMPA has won the case!!!

My question therefore is, how could he who was not privy to the litigation between GIMPA and Koans Building Solution have content of the judgement weeks before a certified true copy come out from the court?

Why would a supposed Chief of Staff of the Okyehene be excited about the outcome of a case between two institutions?

Interestingly, after delivering the new judgments, all the judges have been reassigned a new responsibility elsewhere giving rise to a completely new set of judges at the bench as I speak. Meanwhile, the old judge at the higher court who gave the initial ruling that Kofi Asante deemed unfavorable was immediately transferred.

Ironically, we had another case at his court and judgement was due, this time, the old judge though has been transferred from the station, is still holding on to our judgement to be delivered by himself since according to them the case has been closed already and that judgement could even be read to us by another judge since it is coming from the original judge who held and closed the case after final addresses were given by the litigants involve. In this our case that principle would not apply but will appoint a new judge though final addresses have been delivered already and this is why we find it quite strange.

We dont intend to speculate that they had a hand in all of these happenings, far from that !! But as a principle of law,  JUSTICE MUST NOT ONLY BE DONE BUT MUST BE SEEN TO BE DONE AT ALL TIMES It may be the thinking of every right meaning Ghanaian who will hear this story that there could be some high level of manipulations prior to this appeal court ruling hence the need to test the law once again at the supreme court level. This is so because, to change a presiding judge over a case on the very day of the judgement, bringing a new judge on that same day, setting up a date for the judgement, and finally leaving his judgement seat soon after our judgement was delivered for a new set of judges to take over the same seat is something I would like to leave to the conscience of the people of Ghana. Every objective mind would agree that this gives us a good grounds to suspect that there was interference in the procedure which makes testing the law at a higher court a reasonable step going forward.

We will like to assure all our cherish customers and stake holders that they have nothing to worry about at all. Just as they have known us for the past twenty one years, we have defended their interest and properties purchased from us all these while by fighting the injustices that confronted us a company and this will not be an exception. In the worst case scenario, GIMPA will be the biggest losers and not us.

We are perfectly on top of affairs and can only say that what is happening is a personal interest being advanced over the interest of GIMPA as an institution. We will continue with the litigation at the Apex Court knowing that GIMPA as an institution will always be the losers in this matter simply because no right thinking businessman after paying GHC12,500,000.00 out of the GHC 24,000,000.00 will behave the way the Council Chairman and his allies are except when their personal interests are at stake as against the interest of the very institution he serves.

My little advice to you Nana Kofi Asante is that, please be in the known that as a company we conduct a thorough research into the history of every land we buy and establish who the real owner is before deciding to pay any money to our grantor and it was perfectly revealed to us that the said land was long sold by your elders to the MANKATA Family of PANPANSO way back. In addition, High Court and Supreme Court rulings were taken in 1905 and 1911 respective against your family and hence Akyems have no lands over there anymore. So please stop fighting a lost battle because your elders have long sold them out and for all times for money.

Some of these were confirmed by Dr. J.B. Danquah a member of your royal family and states as follows:

 Let not my sense of responsibility forsake me. But there are overwhelming instances in which stools owing large tracks of good virgin forest lands have sold all away, so that even at this early stage, some towns are hard pressed for small lots on which the inhabitants are to cultivate their annual foodstuff plantations. It used to be said that lands about three miles away from a town might be safely sold without danger of the inhabitants starving for land. This can hardly be safe policy see ( PAGE 22 OF MIGRANT COCOA FARMERS)  You are all aware that the Akyeman State Council have passed several laws in honest attempt to put a stop to the sale of lands in Abuakwalands, and you are aware that non of these enactments has really been effective. (DR. J.B. Danquah An Epistle of the Educated Young man) . These lands are gone forever and Akim Abuakwas territory is .. gradually being cut slice by slice, like bread on breakfast tableThere is no reason why we should not stop the habit of absolutely alienating our interest in land, just for the booze of days funeral custom. (SEE PAGE 144 MIGRANT COACOA FARMERS)

These and many more which I have stated in my earlier writings should advice you clearly on the position of your ancestral lands so you will not gamble with the hard earn money of this great institution like GIMPA.

Additionally, you can rather join us in the crusade against the outright sales of the few lands left which is currently going on among your people as they still hunger and test for the booze of the days funeral custom and not fight us as a company who is honestly championing development into the community. Otherwise, you will be doing a lot of dis-services to your own people like your ancestors seem to have done to you people. The Ashante have and adage which I will like to remind you of and it states; ( He who seeks something valuable for KOTOKO should not be unjustly intimidated.) I pray that you will be inspired by this and do same for people of Akim Abuakwa.

As far as I am concern, GIMPA had a very good plan for that acquisition by way of even putting up a magnificent Teaching Hospital and further extending the campus to that side of the country, but here you are fighting against the vision of the very institution that currently feeds you.

I believe you know that Koans as a company has over seven thousand acres of land registered (7,000 acres) because GIMPA is aware. You are also aware that we solved their problem on lands for them with Okyehene and saved him from a potential scandal. Over three thousand of the land are in the form of Free Hold whiles the rest are Lease Holds. Under no circumstance should one believe that we cannot give GIMPA only one thousand acres of land out of the lot we have. We have indeed signed their documents to them already. After all we solve that of the senior lecturers issue with Okyehene and there has never been disputer so why cant we solve this? We have done genuine businesses with big institutions like GHANA COMMERCIAL BANK, SSNIT, STANBIC BANK, BARCLAYS, NOW ABSA, AGRIC DEVELOPMENT BANK (ADB), GHANA REVENUE AUTHORITY CREDIT UNION (GRACU) and what have you. This is just to mention a few.

We have in the meantime appealed to the supreme court in search of genuine justice because no one has the right to appoint his her own judge in a case and that act we believe must be subjected to a proper scrutiny to determine whether it doesnt breach one of the golden rules of natural justice which states that  NEMO JUDEX IN CAUSA SUA.  literally meaning, you can not be a judge in your own course.

In conclusion, we say our doors are widely opened for any form of negotiation that will be in the interest of all parties. As a business our primary interest is to see our cherish customers smiling all the time but that does not mean we shouldnt deal with the recalcitrant ones who try to destroy our good effort. GIMPA like I said will always be the loser as long as they continue in this stance. We know this litigation has never been between Koans Building Solutions and GIMPA but between Koans Building Solutions and Nana Kofi Darko Asante.

If there is any time to put the interest of GIMPA at the fore, this is the time.

So Nana Kofi Asante the Council Chairman of GIMPA, please dont try to put your personal and familys non-existent interest above the very institution you have sworn to serve since it is a POSITION OF TRUST. For that is how it appears to be.

God be with us all !!!

Long live Ghana !!!

Long live the businesses there inn !!!

By Prof. Kofi Anokye - C.E.O- (Group Koans, (G.K))

(MBA, LLB, BSC)
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JUSTICEINFO.NET: You have analysed the archives of the dictatorship in several books. What are they composed of?

FARAH HACHED: It is quite difficult to explain the notion of archives of the dictatorship. We have established three criteria. The first one is the bodies we are talking about. So the dictatorship archives could be constituted by documents belonging to these structures: the Presidency, the Ministry of the Interior, the former ruling Democratic Constitutional Rally party, embassies, other public administrations, militias, where they exist, and neighbourhood committees. We excluded the army archives because they require specific research and analysis. With regard to the purges, judgments handed down by military judges and unfair trials can theoretically also be included in the archives of the former regime. The second criterion is content. These archives may contain several types of information: personal data concerning key named persons of the dictatorship or opponents of the regime, people who were not politicised but were perceived as such, information on the functioning of the administrations and data concerning national security. The third criterion is the purpose of the information. The archives of the dictatorship do not arise from normal administrative functioning, nor are they linked to normal national security concerns, but rather served a strategy to install, strengthen and perpetuate the dictatorship.

The archives of the Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD) have been transferred to the national Archives. The audiovisual testimonies of victims have remained under seal at the Prime Ministers office. Do we need a specific law to guarantee the security and accessibility of these documents?

A distinction must be made between the archives of the dictatorship and those of the Truth and Dignity Commission. As part of our work, we have advocated the enactment of a specific law on the archives of the dictatorship to protect them from alteration, modification, theft, manipulation or destruction. Concerning audiovisual testimony behind closed doors, this question must be examined on a case-by-case basis in the framework of transitional justice: did the victim ask for his or her statements to remain secret, or did he or she testify so that his or her story could be made public? The choices of each person must be respected. For those who have opted for secrecy and confidentiality, the law on archives of 2 August 1988 applies, i.e. as long as they are alive their testimony remains under seal. It can only be opened 60 years after their death as laid down by the law. In the context of legal proceedings, such testimony is accessible to the judges of the specialized chambers. The law also provides for derogations in favour of historians and researchers.

Transfer the archives of the dictatorship to the National Archives, yes, but they should not be managed directly by the latter but by an independent committee

Is it a problem that the national Archives are a government institution?

When we started working and especially studying examples like Germany and Poland, we said we need a specific body to contain the memory and archives of the dictatorship and its victims, as recommended by the IVD. What we discovered in the course of our research and our discussions with those responsible for remembrance structures made us change our mind. Why? For two reasons. The first relates to the enormous cost of such a body, which would have to manage a huge amount of archives in addition to a large number of educational activities. Does Tunisia in its economic crisis situation, coupled with the current Coronavirus health crisis, have the means to do so? I think that under the circumstances, this project is not a priority for the public authorities, nor is it realistic. The second relates to the risk of political instrumentalization of such a body. This is what happened in Poland, for example, with the rise of the right to power and damage to the reputation of political figures. Even if it was later realized that assumptions made about them were not true, suspicions will continue to weigh on them. These two elements lead us to believe that the best solution would be to transfer the archives of the dictatorship to the National Archives, but they should not be managed directly by the latter but by an independent committee made up of various members, including the director of the National Archives and the president of the IVD. This recommendation was made at a time when the truth commission did not yet exist. We proposed that the archives be physically managed by specialists from the national Archives, who are equipped in terms of infrastructure to receive them. It should not be forgotten that we are talking about masses of documents, from a small Post-it found on the desk of a ruling party administrator to strings of files on opposition activists. However, the control and responsibility for these archives should not lie with the director of the Archives, who is not legally independent, but with this independent committee. The national Archives would be like a service provider for this independent committee. As far as the IVD archives are concerned, I think we cannot ignore the Commissions procedures manual and its recommendations on its documents. The alternative would be for the law establishing the aforementioned committee to develop a chapter on the IVD archives.

Recommended reading Tunisia: Battle over Truth Commission archives

It is time for the government to assume its responsibilities after the IVD concluded its work and the publication of its final report.

Do you think that today the national Archives with the means at their disposal can manage the IVDs archives well?

I think that in our current context, namely a democracy under construction, the archives of the dictatorship can be left under the authority of an independent committee. Questions of awareness- raising and education are part of the remit of the Human Rights Ministry, which would have among its prerogatives implementing the recommendations of the IVDs final report. In Chile the government, through its Secretariat of State for Human Rights, has taken up the recommendations of the transitional justice process, carrying out a number of reforms and conducting awareness-raising and information campaigns. For a country like Tunisia, with its limited means, this alternative may be interesting. Pursuing the objectives of transitional justice in Tunisia could be one of the priorities of the Ministry [of Human Rights]. This cross-cutting ministry can very well coordinate actions with the Ministries of National Education, Higher Education, Culture, Women and so on. It is time for the government to assume its responsibilities after the IVD concluded its work and the publication of its final report. The recent presidential and legislative elections, which came as a surprise to all, showed that Tunisians chose candidates who are favourable to the process.

What can the President of the Republic do with regard to the archives?

The President is the guardian of the Constitution, and therefore has broad powers in terms of respect for human rights. The Head of State can put this issue, which seems to be close to his heart, back at the centre of the debate by organizing events and conferences on this subject. As he has prerogatives in matters of national security, he can initiate reforms in conjunction with the Ministry of the Interior. The President has the Tunisian Institute for Strategic Studies under his authority, and in this context he can launch training courses and awareness-raising activities for decision-makers on the reforms to be undertaken in this post-IVD period, when the recommendations of the Commission are waiting to be implemented.

The examples from the former eastern bloc and South America have encouraged us to reflect on a specific model for Tunisia.

How did the countries of the former communist bloc regulate and manage their archives? What relevant lessons can be learned?

There are those that opened all their archives, such as Germany and Poland. Others closed everything, such as Spain. I am in favour of a local and original model that takes into account our conditions, those of a very difficult economic and security context. Therefore, we cannot make all the archives public without processing them. They certainly contain information about opponents of the dictatorship, but among them are not only human rights activists but also jihadist groups, for example, which still pose a threat to national security. The examples from the former eastern bloc and South America are very interesting, and have enriched our research and reflection. At the same time, they have encouraged us to reflect on a specific model for Tunisia. Our proposal is based on our possibilities, and there are many of them.
HOBART  More information has been disclosed about the company planning to operate out of a new industrial facility planned for 69th Avenue.

AMI LLC has plans to locate in the new 617,000-square-foot building Becknell Industrial will construct on 69th Avenue east of Mississippi Street, according to documents filed with the city.

AMI is seeking 10-year personal property tax abatement for $12 million in equipment that will be installed in the space it will lease from Becknell.

That includes manufacturing, logistics, distribution, IT and research and development equipment.

The project is expected to bring more than 160 jobs to the site, according to city documents.

The City Council recently granted initial approval for the personal property tax abatement request, and a public hearing is scheduled for April 15. The council could take final action on the matter following the hearing.

Becknell Industrial has been working to start construction of the new building as soon as April 1.
On the Frontline Against China, the US Coast Guard Is Taking on Missions the US Navy Can't Do

Competition with China has drawn more Pentagon resources to the Pacific, but the most visible U.S. military presence there...
Our companys rapid growth is a result of TrueChoicePacks unique value proposition. Specifically, we have developed a FOUR R  (reduce, reuse, recycle & renewal) concept after uniquely adding RENEWABLE.Rakesh Rathore, Ph.D., COO and CoFounder of TrueChoicePack, said.

Inc. magazine today revealed that TrueChoicePack is No. 4 on its inaugural Inc. 5000 Series: Midwest list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Born of the annual Inc. 5000 franchise, this regional list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the Midwest economys most dynamic segmentits independent small businesses.

We are honored to be named to the Inc. 5000 list. We continue to make marked progress in our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) efforts. TCPs focus is to help our customers to achieve their Zero Waste Goals, utilizing the industry-leading BioGreenChoice brand, a 100% biodegradable and compostable product line. Across industries and the world, we continue to see a positive trend of even higher expectations for responsible corporate actions towards sustainability goals, and consumers are demanding packaging that is environmentally friendly and health safe. Therefore, providing top-notch compostable disposable and packaging solutions that are safer for the environment and human health to its customers is TrueChoicePacks top priority said CEO & Co-Founder Heena Rathore.

Our companys rapid growth is a result of TrueChoicePacks unique value proposition. Specifically, we have developed a 'FOUR R' (reduce, reuse, recycle & renewal) concept after uniquely adding 'RENEWABLE'. Product offerings include renewable materials like bagasse, corn starch, and wheat straw to transform the packaging and disposables industry. This concept helps customers to use sustainable packaging and products in an affordable way Rakesh Rathore, Ph.D., COO and CoFounder of TrueChoicePack, said.

The companies on this list show stunning rates of growth across all industries in the 12 Midwest states. Between 2016 and 2018, these 250 private companies had an average growth rate of 360 percent and, in 2018 alone, they employed more than 27,000 people and added $13 billion to the Midwests economy. Companies based in the Chicago, Detroit, and Cincinnati areas brought in the highest revenue overall.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000 Series: Midwest, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, metro area, and other criteria, can be found at inc.com/inc5000-series-midwest-2020 starting March 25, 2020.

The companies on this list demonstrate just how much the small-business sector impacts the economies of each Midwest state, says Inc. editor in chief Scott Omelianuk. "Across every single industry, these businesses have posted revenue and growth rates that are beyond impressive, further proving the tenacity of their founders and CEOs.

TrueChoicePack (TCP) is a total solutions provider for private label brands & customized disposable products. They are a proven expert in the design, manufacturing & distribution of products to the retail and food & beverage industries as well as to consumers. Their goal is to provide customers with disposables that maximize quality, efficiency, sustainability and profitability. To meet these goals, they offer products that are made from renewable and compostable materials as well as traditional plastic and paper materials.

_____________________

MEDIA INQUIRIES: Please contact Julia Walker or Rakesh Rathore.

Julia Walker: jwalker@truechoicepack.com

Rakesh Rathore: rrathore@truechoicepack.com

Or call 937-630-3832
Nationally, even before the coronavirus hit, the United States was suffering from a severe shortage of nurses.

This year, 200,000 nursing positions were projected to go unfilled at hospitals across the country. One in eight nursing positions will go unstaffed.

Analysts say about a third of the nations nursesmore than 1 million altogetherwill retire within the next decade, according to the American Association of International Healthcare Recruitment.

The need is acute both because many nurses are retiring and more Americans need nursing care as a bigger portion of the nations populationparticularly the baby-boomer generationgrows older, said Lisk, who holds a doctorate in community college education.

Put those two things togetherretirements and the graying of Americaand that makes for the perfect storm, she said. Also, women have so many career choices now. When I was a young person, it was either nursing or teaching.

Ten to 20 percent of the students in Germannas nursing program are men, Lisk noted.
Researchers are looking for valuable insights to further combat COVID-19 after the National Institute of Virology in Pune has successfully isolated the infection.

The deadly coronavirus, which originated from Wuhan in China, has spread to many countries wrecking havoc globally. In India, more than 1,000 cases have been reported and nearly 30 deaths.

Raman R Gangakhedkar, Head of Epidemiology and Communicable diseases at ICMR, had earlier said the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune has been successful in isolating the virus, which is a prime requisite for doing any kind of research related to viruses.

"There are two ways of going for vaccine preparation. One is either you look at the sequences of the gene which may then lead to development of antibodies or you actually have the strain and then you try to develop a vaccine which is always an easier option," he said.

Researchers at NIV are now hoping to get some valuable insights to further combat COVID-19.

"In order to look at newer drugs that might come, we are soon likely to participate in the WHO solidarity trial for COVID-19,"Gangakhedkar said.

"Earlier, we did not do it because our numbers were so small and our contribution would have looked minuscule," he said.

He said the initial priority of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in developing drugs is more towards re-purposed molecules than new molecules because new molecule research tends to take longer time.

"And we don't have so much time when we are facing this infection," he said.

Health experts while appreciating the attempts in laboratory to seek a solution to tackle this global menace urged authorities to go for large-scale testing



"Desperate need of the hour is testing kits," said Poonam Das, senior director, lab services, Max Healthcare.

Neha Gupta, Consultant, Infectious Disease Specialist Fortis Memorial Research Institute here said, "What we are following in the hospitals is that if a patient presents with flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache, sour throat and chest X-ray showing infiltrates, then the patient is a suspected COVID-19 cases."



India has a few testing centres in the space of viral research but there is a need to develop more such facilities, she said.

"This will allow for easier and faster testing with a quick turnaround period, ensuring quicker detection, confirmation and isolation, thereby enabling India to curb the spread of the virus.

"There is a need for pan-India viral research centres which allow labs tests for virus isolation in reliable, quick and cost reflective manner," Gupta said.

The first images of coronavirus have been captured by scientists in Pune using transmission electron microscope imaging from throat swab of the first positive case in the country, a medical student from the Wuhan University and a native of Kerala,



reported on January 30.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Anthony Williams appeared in court charged with killing wife Ruth at their home in South Wales where they had been self isolating for the past week (Wales News Service)

A "devoted" husband has been charged with murdering his wife of 44 years.

Retired engineer Anthony Williams, 69, appeared in court on Monday, charged with killing wife Ruth, 67, at their home in South Wales.

Mrs Williams, a grandmother, was taken to hospital with head and neck injuries on Saturday but was later pronounced dead.

Neighbours said the retired shop worker had offered to help them with shopping as the British government imposed restrictions on movement  but that she and her husband had then decided to self-isolate because of their age.

Neighbours said the couple had lived in their 170,000 semi-detached home in Brynglas, Cwmbran, for around 20 years.

The semi-detached house in South Wales where Ruth Williams was found with head and neck injuries. (Wales News Service)

Retired Williams appeared at Cardiff Magistrates Court for a two-minute hearing in which he spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and address.

He was remanded in custody by Judge Stephen Harmes and is due to appear before Cardiff Crown Court on Tuesday.

The couples daughter Emma, 40, was said to be "shocked and heartbroken.

Neighbour Janice Allan, 73, said: "Ruth knows I live on my own and she gave me her telephone number if I needed help.

"That's the sort of person she was  always really nice and chatty.

"Tony had worked in engineering but went part-time before retiring. Ruth worked as Asda before she retired a couple of years ago.

"They kept themselves to themselves, especially now, and Tony was quieter. But they seemed devoted.

Cardiff Magistrates' Court. (Ben Birchall/PA Images via Getty Images)

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"The police came to knock on my door to ask where I had been on the day. But I was inside like everyone else, of course. It has been very busy here with police ever since  that is worrying in itself at this time, to see so many people around."

Local councillor Ron Burnett said: "It's a huge shock to everybody. We just can't get our heads around it.

Story continues

"I know them personally and so I find it all very upsetting  my condolences go out to the family.

"They were a well known family. Ruth worked in Asda for many, many years and I'm sure this will come as a big shock to everybody."

A spokeswoman for Gwent Police said: "Gwent Police received a call to an address in Brynglas, Cwmbran at around 6.50am on Saturday 28 March.

"67-year-old Ruth Williams was found unconscious and unresponsive at the premises. She was taken to the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport where she sadly died.

"A 69-year-old man was arrested, he's since been charged with murder."
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 30

By Eldar Janashvili - Trend:

Azerbaijan is one of the financial markets which are most open to the innovations, Regional manager for Caucasus at Visa Christina Doros told Trend.

"On the one hand, such openness of the Azerbaijani market has been stipulated by the fact that consumers, in principle, are open to innovations and are interested in using new payment instruments," Doros added.

"On the other hand, there is a positive influence of regulators, namely, the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), the Center for Economic Reforms Analysis and Communication, which are technologically advanced structures and which clearly understand the importance of the introduction of cashless payments for the country," the regional manager added.

"The first Visa Cashless Forum in Azerbaijan, which was held in the country with their active participation and support and brought together all the key market players, testifies to this," Doros said.

Doros stressed that Visa is actively and fruitfully cooperating with regulators on the implementation of the current program.

"The purpose of the program is to increase the number and volume of cashless payments," the regional manager added.

"Visa is working to maximally increase the volume of non-cash payments," Doros said. "To achieve this goal, we use various tools and approaches, beginning with the introduction of technologies such as contactless payments, tokenization services, and ending with various marketing initiatives and loyalty campaigns. All this is required to increase the number of non-cash payments. This way we help the government to develop the non-cash economy."

"We are active partners of banks, the Central Bank, Center for Economic Reforms Analysis and Communication and other key players in the Azerbaijani financial market," Doros said. "Having global expertise and long experience in the field of payments, we share information on new technologies and trends in the development of digital payments. We render our technologies, thereby helping the creators of the state program to shape it as closely as possible to the modern realities of the digital sphere."

"Involving as many consumers as possible in the payment ecosystem and providing them with fast, convenient and safe payment solutions, a payment card or another payment instrument, is one of Visas main tasks in Azerbaijan," Doros added. "Visa pays special attention to the development of contactless payments, including mobile payments and the further implementation of tokenization projects."

"Tokenization and mobile payments contribute to the digitalization of the sector," the regional manager added. "Moreover, we are working on the introduction of Visa Tap to Phone technology. It allows turning any smartphone based on the Android operating system with NFC functionality into a terminal for receiving contactless payments. Thereby, it helps small and medium enterprises start accepting contactless payments by using a telephone and greatly expand the network for receiving payments in the country."
Virgin Australia is seeking a $1.4billion dollar bailout package from the Federal Government to ensure the airline survives the coronavirus crisis.

Virgin CEO Paul Scurrah made the request last week, telling the government the carrier didn't need the cash immediately, but it would if the pandemic continued beyond six months.

'We have been in ongoing discussions with government about the support the whole industry will need if this crisis is prolonged,' a Virgin Australia spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday.

'Companies like ours are taking a range of measures to respond and manage the financial impact.

'However, the support we've proposed will be necessary for the industry if this crisis continues indefinitely, to protect jobs and ensure Australia retains a strong, competitive aviation and tourism sector once this crisis is over.'

Virgin Australia cabin crew greet a chartered Virgin Australia flight as it arrives at Hobart International Airport

The government is currently considering the bailout, with Mr Scurrah recommending a package be made available to other airlines as part of a $5billion scheme, The Australian reported.

Under the plan, the government would take an ownership stake in Virgin if the airline was unable to repay its debt within three years.

Mr Scurrah said the situation is unprecedented after Virgin was forced to ground its entire fleet of 125 planes and stand down around 8,000 staff members without pay.

'There has never been a travel environment in Australia as restricted as the one we see today and the extraordinary steps we've taken have been in response to the Federal and State Governments' latest travel advice,' he said recently.

'We are now facing what will be the biggest grounding of aircraft in this country's history.'

Virgin CEO Paul Scurrah (pictured) made the request last week, telling the government the carrier didn't need the cash immediately, but it would if the pandemic continued beyond six months

Meanwhile, Virgin Australia last week accused its rival Qantas of spreading rumours it would collapse amid the coronavirus crisis.

Virgin Australia Holdings annual losses 2009: $160million 2011: $67.8million 2013: $98.1million 2014: $353.8million 2015: $93.8million 2016: $224.7million 2017: $185.8million 2018: $653.3million 2019: $315.4million Source: Virgin Australia Holdings annual reports showing the statutory net loss after tax for the full year Advertisement

Both carriers have suspended international flights until mid-year.

Virgin Australia complained to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission after Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce told Sky News it would be unfair for the government to effectively nationalise Virgin to stop it from being placed into administration.

'The government can't pick winners and losers,' Mr Joyce said on Friday last week.

'Whatever aid is given to one company has to be given to every company in that sector.'

ACCC chairman Rod Sims confirmed Mr Scurrah had launched a complaint against Qantas, following Mr Joyce's comments.

'The complaint that we've had from Paul Scurrah is that Qantas is engaging in anti-competitive conduct, designed to damage Virgin as a competitor,' he told the ABC.

'We have to look at whether the behaviour has the purpose or the effect of substantially limiting competition.'

Virgin Australia last week accused its rival Qantas of spreading rumours it would collapse amid the coronavirus crisis (pictured are Virgin and Qantas aircraft at Sydney airport)

Mr Scurrah has accused his Qantas counterpart of spreading rumours Virgin Australia was on the verge of having administrators appointed, The Age reported.

'Virgin Australia has seen widespread reporting of public comments from Qantas and its executive team questioning directly or indirectly Virgin Australia's financial viability and encouraging [the] government to refrain from extending any government support for the aviation industry to Virgin Australia,' he wrote to the competition regulator.

'We have received reports of Qantas briefing journalists on the false pretence that Virgin Australia cash reserves are running out within days and that Virgin Australia has appointed administrators.

'We are aware of social media reports that Qantas has sought to promote a campaign that the government exclude Virgin Australia from any COVID-19 financial support package and have urged their staff to write to their local Member of Parliament to support this exclusion.

'We are gathering together a range of examples of this conduct to send to you.'

A senior Qantas spokesman told Daily Mail Australia that Virgin Australia had threatened court action against it.

'It's a tough time for everyone in aviation, which is why we said that any assistance should be to be industry-wide and proportional,' he said.

'We don't think that's controversial or anti-competitive, and it's exactly what the government has done with its aviation support package.

'In the past fortnight, Virgin has made legal threats to us directly and has now gone to the ACCC to claim we're the source of various rumours circulating widely in the market. We're not.'

Virgin redundancies to top 1,000, CEO says Virgin Australia boss Paul Scurrah says more than 1,000 of the workers it stood down last week will probably be made redundant during the coronavirus pandemic. Virgin Australia had said it would suspend 8,000 of its 10,000 workers as it slashed domestic flights. Mr Scurrah last Thursday gave more detail to ABC TV and said: 'This is the worst airline crisis the world has ever seen.' All 8,000 affected staff have been encouraged to take leave, and consider leave without pay. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce (right) and Virgin Australia boss Paul Scurrah (left) Those to be made redundant could include pilots at Tigerair's Melbourne base. About 220 pilot jobs could go. About 500 crew and pilots in New Zealand could suffer the same fate, according to Virgin. Remaining workers are providing essential services such as transporting critical freight. Mr Scurrah said Virgin was talking to major employers about finding work for affected employees. The airline had already announced 750 layoffs late last year in a bid to turn around its flagging financial performance. Elsewhere in the travel industry, Qantas earlier this month stood down 20,000 of its 30,000 workers, while bookings agency Flight Centre says an initial 6,000 sales and support staff will either be stood down or made redundant. Another travel agency, Helloworld, said it will be sack 275 people and stand down another 1,300 workers. The federal government two weeks ago provided a $715 million rescue package for airlines, which will involve forgoing fuel excise, air service charges and regional security fees. Advertisement

'We've called the skies our home': Virgin Australia flight attendant's heartbreaking message to passengers as 8,000 staff are stood down because of coronavirus

A Virgin Australia flight attendant gave an emotional message to passengers on her final flights before thousands of staff are stood down due to coronavirus.

The airline on Wednesday announced it would cut domestic travel by 90 per cent and ground 125 planes, with 8,000 staff members to be stood down without pay.

Domestic travel cuts will come into effect from midnight on Friday while all international flights will be cut off from Monday onward.

Virgin Australia cabin supervisor Cassy Appleton left a heartfelt message for passengers on a flight landing in Dunedin in New Zealand on Wednesday and thanked guests for choosing to fly with them.

Virgin Australia cabin supervisor Cassy Appleton left a heartfelt message for passengers landing in Dunedin on Wednesday

'I'd like to just say that there's every chance possible that this can be our last operating flight and most certainly is the last for the foreseeable future,' Cassy said.

'As crew we've called the skies our home for so long it's a little surreal knowing we've come back down to earth this one last time.

'On behalf of the entire Virgin Australia team, we wish you all the best during these testing times. Please take care of yourselves, your neighbours and stay safe.'

Ms Appleton elaborated on her final sign off on her Facebook page.

'Today we received confirmation that Virgin are shutting down our NZ bases. Emotions are undescribable,' she wrote.

'Having this opportunity was the best thing that happened to my life and to say I'm beyond grateful is an understatement.

'Whilst I'm hurting for my loss I'm also counting my lucky stars to have been so blessed with this incredible opportunity.'

Virgin Australia's international and domestic flights are not expected to resume until at least the middle of June, with all Tiger Air flights also suspended.

The airline has maintained the remaining 10 per cent of domestic travel to allow for essential services, critical freight and logistics operations to continue.

The majority of staff will be stood down until at least the end of May but the airline group will help them seek out job options for temporary work to fill the gap.

Virgin Australia CEO Paul Scurrah said the mass closure was unprecedented.

'There has never been a travel environment in Australia as restricted as the one we see today and the extraordinary steps we've taken have been in response to the federal and state governments' latest travel advice,' he said.

'We are now facing what will be the biggest grounding of aircraft in this country's history.

'We plan to return Tigerair Australia and Virgin Australia to the skies as soon as it's viable to do so, however I am mindful that how we operate today may look different when we get to the other side of this crisis,' he said.

Mr Scurrah applauded the actions of staff who had worked tirelessly to help passengers get home before states around Australia shut down their borders.

Those with flights booked with the airline between Wednesday and June 30 are entitled to claim back the cost of their flights as credit to use when service resumes.
Paytm has improved the UI so that users can easily spot the essential payments icon.

Paytm has come up with a revamped user interface (UI) to streamline payment processes at a time when the country is under lockdown due to coronavirus.

The company has simplified the payment process for services such as mobile and DTH recharges, water, electricity, credit card, and gas bills, and for the payment of insurance premiums.

Paytm has improved the UI so that users can easily spot the essential payments icon.

The company has also introduced an Information and help centre to provide information on coronavirus verified by the government and health authorities.

Under this section, the app offers self-assessment scanning powered by Apollo 24/7, a screening app created by Apollo Hospitals. This scanning feature is based on guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Union Health Ministry.

However, users are asked to not take this scan as expert medical advice and to visit a doctor if they show symptoms of COVID-19. The scan only helps people know how likely they are to contract the virus.

Apart from these, the company is asking users for contribution to the Prime Ministers Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES) on the app. Paytm has already announced that it is aiming at contributing Rs 500 crore to the fund.


The total number of cases in India rose to 1,071 on Monday, with 29 dead. The relief fund announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fight the pandemic has got the wholehearted support from people from various quarters of life.

Corporate India is helping the government fight the outbreak by donating crores of rupees, supplying medical equipment and opening hospitals. Here's a look at some of the Business Groups that have opened their purse strings

Billionaire Gautam Adani announced a Rs 100-crore contribution by his group's philanthropic arm to various initiatives in support of the war against Covid-19.

Tata Sons and Tata Trusts have pledged to contribute Rs 1,500 crore for the cause

Reliance Industries had made an initial contribution of Rs 5 crore to Maharashtra CM relief fund besides opening Indias first 100-bedded hospital dediated to treating patients in Mumbai.

Apart from this, Indias richest man Mukesh Ambani decided to produce 100,000 masks a day for health workers, provide free fuel to emergency vehicles carrying the coronavirus patients and free meals to the needy people. Reliance Life Sciences is importing additional test kits and consumables for effective testing.

The JSW Group has committed to extend a financial assistance of Rs 100 crore to combat the deadly virus.

The Sajjan Jindal-led group will provide equipment to healthcare workers and its employees will donate one day's salary.

Kotak Mahindra Bank will donate Rs 25 crore to the PM Cares Fund and Rs 10 crore to Maharashtra Chief Minister's Relief Fund. And its Managing Director Uday Kotak announced a Rs 25-crore donation.

ITC Ltd said that it is setting up a contingency fund of Rs 150 crore for vulnerable sections of society in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The fund will collaborate with district authorities to provide assistance to the district health and rural healthcare ecosystem that reaches out to the weakest sections of society.

Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwal has commited Rs 100 crore to fight the pandemic.

Mahindra & Mahindra has offered to use its manufacturing units to make ventilators. The Group's resorts will be used as temporary care facilities. Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra will donate 100 per cent of his salary to the fund.

Hero Cycles has set aside Rs 100 crore as a contingency fund.

India's leading digital payments and financial services platform Paytm said on Sunday that it is planning to contribute Rs 500 crore to the PM CARES Fund. Seeking contribution from the people at large, Paytm said it would donate up to Rs 10 for every payment made using Paytm Wallet, UPI or Paytm Bank debit card, apart from every contribution made by customers.

OPPO Mobiles has become Indias first smartphone manufacturer to extend a helping hand. The company has contributed Rs one crore in aggregate towards the Prime Ministers relief fund and Uttar Pradesh Chief Ministers Distress Relief Fund.

The Bajaj Group has pledged Rs 100 crore to be used to support upgradation of healthcare infrastructure, initiatives for providing food and shelter, and economic aid programmes in rural areas.

TVS Motor Company, along with group firm Sundaram-Clayton, plans to spend Rs 30 crore towards making a million masks, employing factory kitchens, supplying food to daily wage labourers and exploring the possibility of making ventilators.

Hyundai India has ordered 25,000 diagnostics kits from South Korea.

Maruti Suzuki has tied up with AgVa Healthcare to scale up production of ventilators. The automaker intends to manufacture 10,000 ventilators per month. MSIL subsidiaries, Krishna Maruti and Bharat Seats, will provide two million masks and protective clothing.

Axis Bank Is donating Rs 100 crore to support customers, employees, vendors, government agencies and the community at large.

Infosys Foundation will help establish smart classes in 1,000 government higher primary schools in Karnataka in a Rs 20 crore project.

More than 500 fuel Stations of BPCL came forward to help migrants with food and shelter.

DCB Bank announced a commitment of Rs 1 crore as part of its (CSR).

Xiaomi India is donating N95 masks for government hospitals and state police in Karnataka, Punjab and Delhi, and hazmat suits for doctors at AIIMS.

Hindustan Unilever Limited has committed Rs 100 crore. The company will donate 20 million pieces of Lifebuoy soaps over the next few months to those sections of society that need them the most. The company will donate Rs 10 crore to upgrade the health care facilities in testing centres and hospitals.

The Godrej Group has launched a slew of initiatives and earmarked a Rs 50-crore fund for support and relief. Godrej Consumer has commenced free distribution of one million packets of Godrej Protekt Mr Magic powder-to-liquid hand wash was distributed across Maharashtraand. The group has also reduced the price of the hand sanitizer by 66 per cent under its #ProtektIndiaMovement

Parle Products is giving 30 million packets of Parle G over the next three weeks to the needy.

Sun Pharma has commited to donate Rs 25 lakh worth of drugs and hand sanitisers.



Curefit have pledged to contribute Rs 4 crore. And under their #MovementForMovement challenge, whoever completes 12 days of online workout, Cultfit will donate Rs 100 to the PM relief fund.


PayTM To support the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, India's leading digital payments and financial services platform Paytm on Sunday said it is aiming to contribute Rs 500 crore to the PM CARES Fund. Urging users to do their bit in the fight against Covid-19, the company said that for every contribution or any other payment made on Paytm using the wallet, UPI and Paytm Bank debit card, the company will contribute an extra up to Rs 10. "We are honoured to do our duty to aid the government in all the relief measures being taken to fight the Corona pandemic. We hope our users wholeheartedly donate to PM CARES fund and help save lives," Madhur Deora, President - Paytm, said in a statement. "We will also contribute up to Rs 10 for every payment transaction using the Paytm app and instruments. This money would be directly sent to the PM-CARES fund. Paytm commits to doing everything in its power to support the efforts of our government in coming out of this crisis," Deora said. Over the last few weeks, Paytm has launched several initiatives to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus. It has started collecting contributions to buy personal hygiene products for people who might not have the means to buy it. Also, the company has created a Rs 5 crore fund for innovators who are developing medical instruments or medicines to combat the virus. The PM CARES Fund is exempt under the Income Tax Act, 1961 under Section 10 and 139 for return purposes. Contributions towards PM-CARES are notified for 100 per cent deduction from taxable income under section 80(G) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.




Three guests at a party to celebrate a Jewish boy's thirteenth birthday party have died from coronavirus.

The event, where there were more than 100 guests, took place two weeks ago - before official restrictions on social gatherings were enforced in the UK.

One in 30 coronavirus victims in the UK is Jewish, while only one in 250 people are Jewish.

Jewish boys normally celebrate their religious coming of age ceremony, known as a bar mitzvah, at the age of 13 with a synagogue service followed by a party.

Three guests at a party to celebrate a Jewish boy's thirteenth birthday party have died from coronavirus. Pictured is the Royal Free hospital in London where they were taken

Ultra Orthodox Jews from the Kadisha burial organisation wear masks as they move the body of an 89-year-old woman who died from coronavirus at a funeral home in Jerusalem last week

So far, 42 Jewish people have died from the coronavirus in the UK - accounting for 3.4 per cent of deaths, or one in 30.

Jewish people make up just 0.4 per cent of the UK's population, a figure which pales in comparison to the percentage which have died from Covid-19.

The tragedy has led to outpourings of grief in the tight-nit Jewish community in North London where the victims died over the last few days.

The victims were all in their eighties. They were a husband and wife and an unrelated guest.

It is understood that one of those at the party was a dentist who had just returned from a trip to Milan.

Most of the guests would have attended both the religious service at a a synagogue in Golders Green and the party.

All three victims became so seriously ill last week that they were rushed to the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead where they died.

They were patients of a local GP practice and a senior GP at the practice knew all of the dead and was informed by son of the couple who died.

She said: 'The husband and wife had underlying medical problems but nonetheless they would not have died when they did but for this terrible virus.

'It is dreadful that three people attending a social gathering should have died. But this is the dreadful nature of this disease.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews president Marie van der Zyl said the pandemic presents a particular challenge to the 'close knit' community which cherishes festivals and socialising

'That is why everyone has to be so careful now there are restrictions in place. At the time of the party, of course, nothing was in place and people would have been eager to press on with a part that had been planned months earlier.

'I understand the boy and his family are absolutely devastated by what has happened. They are not to blame. It was a legal event.'

The doctor, who is Jewish herself, said: 'The Jewish community here in this area of North London, is large, but it is a community where everyone knows each other. The news of what's happened is spreading.

'My heart goes out to everyone touched by this tragedy. A bar mitzvah, or bat mitzvah for as girl, is meant to be one of the most joyous events in a Jewish family.'

Worshippers wearing the traditional Jewish prayer shawls known as Tallit pray as they keep distance of two meters between each other at the Western Wall in Jerusalem

It is unclear whether other guests at the party were taken ill or if any are in hospital.

The GP said: 'There is a strong chance that others will have been infected as this was a gathering where people came close together.

'There is always a lot kissing and hugging and shaking of hands. Knowing what we do it would have only needed one infected person to have spread it through the whole. Some would have become ill and shown active signs of the disease.

But others would have picked up and not had any symptoms and may now have gone to pass it on to others who were not at the party.

A Hasidic Satmar Jewish family pray on a rooftop in New York after synagogues were closed for Sabbath Prayers service due to the spread of coronavirus across the US

The Board of Deputies of British Jews is collating the figures from the Jewish burial society where the disease is given as the cause of death.

A group of Jewish doctors has advised very devout members of the Jewish community that there should be no religious gatherings of any sort - even in the privacy of their homes.

One said: 'This can't happen. People's lives are in danger and life has to come before religious observance.'
Youve already gone through a cycle with the Mueller report, an impeachment acquittal in the Senate, [Bernie Sanders] may be the nominee, [Joe Biden] looking like he may be the nominee, and now whats happening in the world with coronavirus and a rattling economy, he said. And yet, Democrats have held leads in several states and Senate races and consistently performed well. Its not been a roller-coaster ride.
Scott Lennox is a farmer, but not in what most would believe to be the traditional sense.

He doesn't grow fruits or vegetables, doesn't drive a tractor through open fields or give hay rides in the fall.

An Asbury Park resident, Lennox works in the waters of Barnegat Bay. And similar to farmers who suffer through droughts and bad seasons, the coronavirus outbreak is having a major impact on his small business.

"We're not unique being in a sticky situation, but we have our own uniqueness," the 2001 Chatham High School graduate and former high school biology teacher said.

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What makes Lennox and his partner, Matt Gregg, unique is that they are at the core of a young industry. Those oysters you enjoyed on the half-shell at your favorite raw bar or had on a special occasion probably made their way through the Barnegat Oyster Collective.

Matt Gregg, co-owner of the Barnegat Oyster Collective, works in the waters of Barnegat Bay.

Lennox and Gregg, who met in college at the University of Rhode Island, own the collective as well as Forty North Oyster Farms. With distribution facilities in Wall and Barnegat Light, they're helping make Barnegat Bay one of the premier oyster destinations in the country.

Since 2015, the BOC has distributed oysters primarily in the Tri-State region but also to locations around the country. It's a group of 13 small businesses - from a guy in a boat to three or four people harvesting all year.

"At its core, we're trying to build the industry," Lennox said.

"We've been doing this longer than anyone else in the area, so it's still very new. For some, this was going to be their first spring harvesting oysters."

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While there is no shortage of oysters, coronavirus has put a virtual stop to the process.

"Business has dropped off almost 100 percent. Why it's not 100 percent is because some customers are retailers, but even those - seafood shops, grocery stores - are not selling speciality goods," Lennox noted.

"Most of the reports you see are on the service industry, where there are huge shutdown periods. But all the suppliers ... there's a trickle down effect. Now we're realizing how vulnerable we are.

"We're smaller than the restaurants but expected to extend credit. There's a lot of money on the street right now. When faced with a tough situation, who are you going to pay? The farmer or the line cook? If we get snubbed by some restaurants who are on one side of this, we're stuck."

According to Barnegat Oyster Collective co-owner Scott Lennox, sales have dropped nearly 100 percent due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Unlike stores being out of toilet paper and hand sanitzier, oyster farms are thriving from a supply perspective. Lennox says it's the time of year when waters are warming up and every day becomes more intense for farming operations.

Farmers are tending to crops that were started a year ago, some even longer. Oysters that have hibernated are starting to get bigger and need to be removed from cages so there's enough space for smaller ones to grow and limit overcrowding.

"Normally we'd harvest 30,000-70,000 per week," Lennox said. "We're not emptying cages right now. We're not pulling tens of thousands off farms because there are no sales. There's going to be an incredible supply."

Lennox knows prices are going to drop, simply because the demand is not high right now.

"Either dump them in the bay for zero dollars or unload them," he said. "It's going to be a game of who drops the price and when. Once someone drops the price 30-50 percent, all of us will have to follow."

Lennox and Gregg are doing their best to keep the Barnegat Oyster Collective afloat. One initiative is an Oyster Party Pack, an opportunity for consumers to purchase oysters directly from the BOC from anywhere in the country.

In fact, they've turned to social media in hopes of making it easier.

On Saturday nights, they have someone live on Instagram showing consumers exactly what they need to do to enjoy their oysters.

"We've pivoted," Lennox said. "It's a weird product; people don't know how to open it. There are no zip-lock shells."

The BOC and its host of farmers aren't ready to give up. They have far too much invested and see the potential for growth.

"We're hoping for some relief from the stimulus package," Lennox said. "It's hard to stomach not knowing cashflow in the future.

Oysters coming out of Jersey, weve been making a name for them around the country and growers are getting really good at what they do. Weve found ways of protecting ourselves against winters, mortalities, government regulations. This setback is a major problem for a fledgling industry like this, but were not ready to turn off the lights.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) says that Egypt has a real opportunity to stop the transmission of the coronavirus, yet it did not rule out the possibility of a large outbreak.

We have a real opportunity to stop transmission, said Yvan Hutin, director for communicable diseases at the WHOs Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean during a conference in Cairo on Monday.

He did, however, warn that there is also a scenario by which transmission could expand, leading to a large number of cases in the country.

While we are doing everything to avoid that, we also need to be prepared for that possibility, he said in a statement.

These preparations include planning for more isolation facilities for mild cases, more hospital beds for severe cases, and more intensive care beds for critical patients, while following strong infection control measures, he said.

The WHO, which concluded a technical support mission to review the situation in Egypt last week, has hailed the measures the country has taken to slow down the spread of the virus. These include what Hutin described as well organised management, including through an Emergency Operation Centre and a health ministry call centre.

Rapid response teams are conducting careful investigations of cases and their contacts in a major step to break the chains of transmission, he said.

Egypt offers more than 20 sites to test patients in a reliable way, the statement added. The health ministry has said that central labs are planned to be increased to cover all of the countrys 27 governorates.

Hutin said the that the number of new cases detected since the first case was confirmed on 14 February suggest that transmission is limited to chains of infection.

We have not seen a steep rise in the number of cases, he said.

The organisation has agreed with the health ministry to continue to search for cases everywhere in an effort to bring about the best scenario.

The WHO also advised the public not to listen to self-proclaimed experts who share random information on social media.

Egypt has so far recorded 609 coronavirus cases, including 40 fatalities.

Last week, the WHO said that Egypts strong disease surveillance system and contact tracing efforts have proven effective in controlling and managing sporadic cases and clusters before they can spread, but added that further efforts are needed.

Egypt has adopted a set of preventative measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus, imposing a night-time curfew, halting air traffic, shutting mosques and churches and suspending classes at schools and universities.

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With its troops deployed away from their families, the CRPF has directed its field offices to set up 24x7 helplines, backed by quick reaction teams (QRTs), to assist their spouses and old parents in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

The 23 sectors of the force have been asked to establish and publicise a standalone landline connection and a WhatsApp-enabled mobile number to be manned round-the-clock by a sub-officer.

"Keeping in view the prevailing emergency in the country in view of COVID-19, the DG (force chief) has directed that we should proactively look after and take care of the families of our officials who are staying away from their spouses.

"All systems should be put in place to respond to emergent needs of the family members to keep our officers and troops stress-free and assure them of the welfare of their families while they are deployed in difficult locations away from home," a latest communication from the CRPF headquarters here said.

The directive, accessed by PTI, said a 24x7 helpline comprising a landline and a WhatsApp-enabled mobile phone should be established at all sector headquarters and group centres of the force in the country.

A senior official said directions were issued to take special care of those families where the spouse is alone with the responsibility of children and those where old parents are living alone.

A sector head office of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) looks after the deployment of troops in two or more states.

The helplines will be armed with all the guidelines issued by the government to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, details of the nodal officers of the government in the area and location of the nearest hospitals, quarantine and test centres.

In case of an emergency, the QRT should respond by visiting the premises of the family concerned, the directive said.

The force has directed that all its 43 group centres that have administrative control over six-seven battalions comprising about 8,000 personnel should also establish such helplines and publicise them amongst the personnel and their families.

Supervisory officers in the ranks of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) and Inspector General (IG) have been asked to review the call log books of such cases and in special cases, seek directions from the Delhi headquarters to extend relief and help.

The about 3.25 personnel-strong force is the designated national internal security force and the mainstay for anti-Naxal operations, counter-terrorist combat in the Kashmir valley and anti-insurgency tasks in the north-eastern states.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Express News Service

KOCHI: Taking a cue from the protest of hundreds of migrant workers in Payippad, near Kottayam, the Ernakulam Rural Police launched a helpline number to address the issues of lakhs of migrant labourers in Aluva and Perumbavoor. The helpline number is part of the call centre already set up by the police in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak. Officers fluent in Hindi have been deployed to attend the calls.

Police started visiting migrant workers camps and a police officer is camping in each area to monitor the situation. The rural police have been conducting route marches in these areas. We have also intensified the patrolling, said Rural SP K Karthik.

The police have made all arrangements for food, accommodation and medical assistance for the workers. A community kitchen has already started functioning at Perumbavoor exclusively for migrant labourers. Police have also directed owners of the buildings, where the workers are staying, to not collect rent. Everything they need will be made available to them, said the Rural SP.
MOSCOW -- After President Vladimir Putin announced a nine-day paid holiday on March 25, hundreds of Muscovites flew south to Sochi and other resort towns on Russia's Black Sea coast to while away the unexpected vacation in warmer climes.



Others flocked to Moscow's forested outskirts, to grill kebabs with friends and take advantage of the first balmy weekend in months. "There is no virus," one man told a reporter as he strolled in a park with his daughter.



Putin had urged people to stay home and aid the government's effort to curb the spread of COVID-19, which -- according to official figures that many critics suspect are lower than the real numbers -- has sickened more than 1,500 people in Russia and killed at least nine. In many cases, however, his appeal had apparently fallen on deaf ears.



Late on Sunday, March 29, authorities drastically changed tack. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced that, as of March 30, Russia's capital would go into a lockdown more restrictive than in many European cities: Residents can now only leave home to seek urgent medical care, buy food or medicine at the nearest shop or pharmacy, walk pets within 100 meters of their door, or take out the garbage. No one is to commute to work unless they have to.



With four hours' notice, a city of over 12 million people essentially shut down.



"With each day we will control this situation more and more strictly," Sobyanin said, arguing that the move was justified because many Muscovites had ignored calls to stay home. He added, that within a week or so, separate permission would be required for each person leaving their apartment building, and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on March 30 urged other cities and regions to follow Moscow's example and impose stay-at-home rules.



The sudden escalation from the authorities stood in marked contrast with their tone just three days previously, when officials in Moscow told people not to panic and promised that the situation was under control.

With Russia's official coronavirus case count rising, particularly in Moscow, it fell to Sobyanin to deliver the bad news. Putin, who had addressed the nation on March 25 and postponed a vote on constitutional amendments paving the way for him to potentially stay president until 2036, remained relatively silent.



"The president should bring good news only. He tried explaining unpleasant things to people in the summer of 2018," said Yekaterina Schulmann, a Moscow-based political scientist, referring to a retirement-age increase that sparked nationwide protests. "His ratings fell and haven't risen since."

It's unclear how the lockdown in Moscow will be enforced. Authorities have hinted at an increased police presence, and Sobyanin touted the imminent deployment of "smart control" to enforce the new rules -- a presumed reference, in part, to the several thousand facial recognition cameras installed across the city.

A system of electronic passes is being prepared for residents with a smartphone, Sobyanin said. It was unclear what those without one would do.



'Total Confusion'



According to human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov, the authorities' failure to cite relevant laws or quote doctors with expertise in infectious diseases has left many residents in the dark and vulnerable to arbitrary law enforcement. Without introducing a state of emergency, he argued, their instructions to the population have little basis in Russian law.



"The lack of legal clarity is leading to total confusion," Chikov wrote on Facebook. "Businesses don't understand how to make up for losses. Citizens don't know whether they'll be punished for walking their dogs or taking out the trash."

Elements of the Moscow lockdown are more restrictive than in other countries. Unlike in Britain or the Czech Republic, for instance, there is no allowance for outdoor exercise. Moscow's parks and playgrounds have been cordoned off. But the overall contours of Russia's response -- the closure of schools and universities, the call to remain home -- are like those in many countries.



"It's pretty much the same as every government's response, with our local Russian touch: bad legal technique," Schulmann said. "The mayor has no right to restrict people's movements, unless authorities announce a state of emergency."



Nevertheless, Mishustin announced hefty fines for violating the restrictions, from 15,000 rubles ($188) to almost 300,000 ($3,800) for repeat offenders. He proposed that all Russian regions introduce lockdowns analogous to Moscow's.



Authorities across Russia have already begun to clamp down. In St. Petersburg, a man faces criminal charges for violating an enforced quarantine after his return from Switzerland.



In Chechnya, a southern region governed by a Kremlin-backed strongman with little oversight from Moscow, there are reports of men armed with batons and pipes patrolling the streets and disciplining anyone who leaves home without a mask.



Numerous Russian officials have suggested introducing criminal liability for the dissemination of "fake news" about the coronavirus.

On the afternoon of March 30, Putin finally broke his silence about the Moscow lockdown, telling regional officials in a meeting to take all preventive measures "even if they seem excessive to some."



"It's this attitude that allowed us to win time and stall the explosive spread of the coronavirus in recent weeks," he said. "We need to use this extra time fully and effectively."
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Montreal, Canada  Mon, March 30, 2020 08:05 654 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e35679 2 World Canada,justin-trudeau,coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic,health,infection Free

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Sunday that he would remain in self-imposed isolation even though his wife, who had contracted the coronavirus, has recovered.

Although Sophie Gregoire Trudeau received the all-clear from her physicians on Saturday, the prime minister said, and he himself has no symptoms, he had been "sharing a roof with someone who tested positive for COVID-19."

"I have to continue in isolation in order to be sure that were following all the protocols and the recommendations by Health Canada," Trudeau said.

Since doctors did not know exactly when Sophie Trudeau became virus-free, the prime minister said he would observe another 14 full days of confinement.

Addressing reporters from the porch of his Rideau Cottage residence in Ottawa, Trudeau noted that workers across Canada had discovered that they can do an "awful lot of work via telephone, via video conferences -- and that's exactly what I am doing."

The prime minister has been in self-isolation since his wife tested positive for the coronavirus on March 12 following a trip to London.

She announced Saturday that her physicians had pronounced her cured, giving her a green light to return to normal life.

Justin Trudeau said his wife had taken their children to Harrington Lake, just northwest of Ottawa, the site of a summer residence and official retreat for Canadian prime ministers.

Trudeau also announced new financial measures to help vulnerable Canadians -- particularly children and the aged -- hard hit by the side-effects of the coronavirus.

Asked at the news conference whether he might call on Canada's armed forces to help enforce officially imposed travel curbs, Trudeau said he had no plans to do so for now.

Separately, Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, called on Canadians returning to their country to strictly respect the 14 days of confinement imposed by the government.

She referred in particular to "snowbirds" -- the Canadians who pass much of the winter in Florida and other warmer locales, many of whom have recently been returning home.

As of Sunday, 6,243 Canadians had tested positive for the coronavirus, and 64 have died, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.
ABC News

After weeks of health experts urging Americans to upgrade their masks to protect against the omicron COVID-19 variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that it was planning to update its mask guidance to "best reflect the multiple options available to people and the different levels of protection they provide." The move by the CDC would be the first significant update to its mask guidance since last July when it urged all Americans to return to wearing masks, after the delta variant proved so transmissible that research found even vaccinated people could transmit the virus. While vaccinated people are considered infectious for a shorter period of time than someone who is unvaccinated, and they are considerably less likely to end up hospitalized, the CDC urged everyone to return to masking indoors to prevent community cases from rising.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday shared 3D animated videos of him performing yoga on Twitter to show how he remains fit.

"During yesterday''s #MannKiBaat, someone asked me about my fitness routine during this time. Hence, thought of sharing these Yoga videos," he tweeted.

"I hope you also begin practising Yoga regularly," he wrote.

During yesterdays #MannKiBaat, someone asked me about my fitness routine during this time. Hence, thought of sharing these Yoga videos. I hope you also begin practising Yoga regularly. https://t.co/Ptzxb7R8dN Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 30, 2020

Responding to a question in his monthly radio address "Mann ki Baat" on Sunday on how he is keeping fit during the lockdown, the prime minister had said he would post the "Yoga with Modi" videos.

"But do remember, that I am not a fitness expert, I am also not a yoga teacher. I am merely a practitioner," he had said.

"... some yoga asanaas have greatly benefitted me. It is possible that some of these tips might help you too during the lockdown," Modi said on Sunday.

In the run-up to International Yoga Day in June last year, the prime minister had shared similar videos to encourage people to practise yoga.

Here's where you can watch the videos:
New Delhi, March 30 : The Delhi government has asked city hospitals to hire private vehicles as per requirement for providing transportation to health officials till April 14, due to lack of public transport amid the national lockdown.

In an order issued on Monday, the Health Department said the hired vehicles must have a banner "emergency duty for COVID-19 Health and Family Welfare Department, Delhi government".

The order has been issued after it came to light that the officials working in Delhi government hospitals/institutions are unable to reach their places of duty.

"All Heads of Department/Deans are hearby directed to hire private vehicles as per their requirement for providing transportation (to and from) services to officers/officials working under their jurisdiction on emergent basis till April 14," the order said.

In Delhi, while the number of DTC buses on road has been reduced by half, Delhi Metro and inter-state buses have been completely shut during the 21-day lockdown due to coronavirus scare.

All non-essential services have been stopped and people have been asked to stay indoor. However, those in essential services have to work.
A cyclist went into the sea while reportedly trying to avoid police checks during Italys lockdown over its coronavirus outbreak.

I havent done anything, he shouted while wading through the water holding his bike, according to footage of the incident.

A person behind the camera replies: I know you havent done anything, but we need to do identification checks.

The cyclist was ordered to come out the sea several times, the video  seen in Italian local media  shows.

He was approached by authorities on Otranto beach in the southern Apulia region, according to local newspaper La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno.

Authorities ended up identifying him and giving him a fine, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

The government has ordered everyone to stay at home unless they have to go outside for a list of essential reasons, for example to get groceries or go to work.

People can cycle if it is for necessary travel, or to exercise as long as they stay near their house, according to the nationwide restrictions.

The country has been in lockdown for several weeks as authorities battle the spread of Covid-19, which has infected more than 97,500 people in the country, official figures showed on Monday.

Tougher sanctions for those who ignore the rules were recently brought in by the government, with fines raised to between 400 (357) and 3000 (2677).

The death toll for those who officially tested positive for the disease stood at around 10,700 on Monday.
In his letters sent to the forces on March 28, the Prime Minister wrote that the pandemic is developing in a complicated and unpredictable manner in the country and the world, seriously affecting the national socio-economic development and public health.

With the spirit of fighting the pandemic is like fighting the enemy, the Party, Government and National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control have worked out a number of measures to mobilise the whole political system, agencies at all levels, sectors and people to drastically fight against the pandemic.

Realising the Governments directions, the Ministry of National Defence has been increasing check-points at a number of trails; establishing emergency hospitals and concentrated quarantine areas; spraying disinfectant; receiving, caring and implementing medical quarantine for people entering Vietnam from pandemic-hit countries and territories, he said.

The PM especially praised those who are on the frontlines of the battle, adding that the images of military officers and soldiers sleeping outdoors at night and having quick meals to fight COVID-19 have proved the beautiful tradition of the heroic Peoples Army of Vietnam.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Public Security has taken a raft of preventive measures such as tightening the control of entry-exit and management of foreigners to limit the coronavirus infections in the country; ensuring order and safety at concentrated quarantine areas; strictly handling those spreading false information about COVID-19; and actively preventing pandemic-related frauds.

The two forces have actively coordinated with medical workers to promptly detect infection cases and suspected ones to prevent the spread of the virus in the army and community, Phuc said.

As Vietnam is in critical time to prevent community transmissions, the PM called on the forces to continue heightening vigilance and determination to soon repel the pandemic in the country.
(Newser)  A possible strike by Instacart workers highlights the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the grocery delivery business, with workers worrying about their safety as they try to meet a surge in demand for online groceries. A group called the Gig Workers Collective is calling for a nationwide walkout Monday, the AP reports. The group has been asking Instacart to provide workers with hazard pay and protective gear, among other things. Instacart said Sunday it would soon provide workers with a new hand sanitizer upon request and outlined changes to its tip system. The group said the measures were too little, too late. While some workers say they intend to join the strike for at least a dayor have stopped filling orders already for fear of getting the virusother, newer workers are content to have a paying job at a time of mass layoffs in other industries.

story continues below

The San Francisco-based delivery app is trying to hire 300,000 workersmore than doubling its workforceto fill orders it says have surged by 150% year-over year in the past few weeks. Instacart now has more than 200,000 contracted workers who make multiple trips a day to stores to fulfill and deliver orders that customers place through the app. It also directly employs about 20,000 part-time workers, each assigned to a single store, collecting groceries that are then delivered to clients by a contracted Instacart worker. Chloe Grozdina, a part-time Instacart in-store shopper in the Chicago area, makes $13 an hour and doesn't get tips. She said the crowds of fellow Instacart shoppers make it tough to keep a safe distance while racing to fill orders. She wears a mask to work that she bought herself, Grozdina said, and immediately showers when she gets home.

(Read more coronavirus stories.)
London: Having carved a deadly path through some of Europe's grandest cities, the worst pandemic in a century now threatens to unleash its cruellest work on some of the places and people that can least afford to be hit.

In the packed, squalid migrant camps of Greece, social distancing, self-isolation and hand washing are fantasy concepts. Here, these life-saving measures are luxuries that will only be made available if the increasingly desperate calls for help are heard by Athens and the European Union.

A makeshift camp for refugees and migrants next to the Moria migrant centre on the Greek island of Lesbos. Credit:Getty Images

On the island of Lesbos, 20,000 people who fled war in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq are jammed into the infamous Moria camp built for no more than 3000.

There is just one tap for every 1300 people. Tiny tents are packed with up to half-a-dozen occupants. Nearly 170 residents have to share a single toilet and 200 line up for the same shower.
A woman was hospitalized after police said she was shot Sunday with an AR-15.

San Antonio police responded to the 1300 block of Saltillo Street on the West Side just after 11 p.m. Sunday for a shooting in progress. When they arrived, they found a woman suffering from a gunshot wound to the shoulder.
Hundreds of people in a small town participated in a 'drive-by' birthday celebration for a five-year-old whose party was cancelled due to social distancing restrictions to slow the spread of coronavirus.

Abel Thomas celebrated his fifth birthday this weekend alongside his mum, dad and younger brother out the front of his home in Zuccoli, in south-west Palmerston in the Northern Territory.

His parents initially planned to throw him a big party, but had to cancel when the government imposed gathering restrictions due to increased community transmission of COVID-19.

Abel's mother Charlene Garcia told Daily Mail Australia the little one was devastated that his party was cancelled but handled it like a champ when his parents explained it would help to keep him safe.

Abel received dozens of gifts from members of the community during his drive-by birthday party

On the day of his scheduled party, Ms Garcia posted in the suburb's Facebook community page, asking anybody driving through the area to beep as they passed the house.

'It was only about an hour before,' she said. 'But we got hundreds of responses of people saying they were on their way.'

Local police officers drove down the street with the sirens blaring, and Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro paid him a visit, too.

Ms Garcia said the community lifted his spirits immeasurably, and that little Abel felt so special that everybody had dedicated a day to his birthday.

The five-year-old was initially upset his party was cancelled but had a great time at his replacement party

'It made his entire day, even year that he had a day dedicated to him from the community,' she said.

Many of the visitors brought along small gifts, cupcakes and baked goodies for Abel.

In footage taken from the drive-by party, Abel giggled and waved as people drove past his home and beeped, while others left him presents at the bottom of the driveway, which he ran down and collected when it was safe to do so.

'All of those gifts were given to him from people we didn't even know,' Ms Garcia said.

'It was such a great and positive day during this challenging time.'

Little Abel was filmed waving at cars as they passed by to wish him a happy birthday

His mother told Daily Mail Australia the day was a huge success and that Abel was grateful to those who took the time to say happy birthday

Ms Garcia was inspired to host the drive-by birthday party from an American Facebook post, and the trend is taking off in Australia.

On Saturday, 13-year-old Caitlin Lefer's family threw her a similar party from her Adelaide driveway after her original plans were cancelled due to COVID-19.

The fresh teenager was overwhelmed by the surprise, telling The Advertiser she had resigned herself to the fact that she wouldn't have a celebration because 'we need to try to stop what's going on... People are dying.

[But] it made me really happy because... They were all there for me.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison put an end to social gatherings for the foreseeable future more than a week ago when he restricted outdoor events to 10 people.

Some friends sprayed party confetti out of the window of the car as little Abel approached to thank them for visiting him

Poll ARE DRIVE-BY BIRTHDAY PARTIES A GOOD IDEA? YES NO ARE DRIVE-BY BIRTHDAY PARTIES A GOOD IDEA? YES 23 votes

NO 21 votes Now share your opinion





On Monday, groups of more than two people will no longer be able to gather in an attempt to further slow the spread of coronavirus.

The PM thanked Australians who were already doing their bit to flatten the curve of infection rates, and said the tough restrictions and greater cooperation in terms of self-isolation and social distancing was delivering dividends.

'They are still strong rates of increase, there's no doubt about that,' the prime minister said.

'But as we take the measures that we have been taking and put them in place and we have the co-operation from the Australian people, then that obviously in turn that has an impact on how we are managing the spread of the virus.'

Mr Morrison also said just a third as many Australians were catching coronavirus as a week ago with the borders, pubs, and restaurants shut.

He said the rate of virus infections was 25 to 30 per cent a day, but slowed to about 13-15 per cent in the past few days.

There are currently 4,165 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, including 18 deaths.

Globally, there have been 720,217 reported infections.
QUEENSBURY  Jaden Telesco thought his 11th birthday would be a bust.

He couldnt go to the movies.

He couldnt go bowling.

He couldnt have a party with friends.

And to top it all off, his family had to cancel their trip to Disney World for spring break.

Leading into it was one disappointment after the next, said his mother, Maureen Telesco, who added, He had been so upset, especially about school. He really loves school.

Telesco reached out to some friends on Facebook, and 10 people responded that they would like to help salvage a disappointing birthday for Jaden.

On Thursday, Jadens mom sent him outside to play at the Cottage Hill Townhomes neighborhood, where he was greeted by a parade of cars from neighbors, friends and four Queensbury teachers  including Jadens current fifth-grade teachers Carol Sykes-Bowen and Wendy Single.

I had a birthday parade with all my friends and teachers and they came over in their cars and made a whole line, Jaden said. They put up signs, and they honked their horns as they drove by.

Jaden admitted the event was both exciting and emotional.

He cried, his mother said. He cried hysterically, especially when he saw the teachers.

Telesco said her kids have been heartbroken after being ripped out of school. The unknown has been unsettling, Telesco said.

Some kids are probably like, woo-hoo, this is awesome, but mine are like, when are we going back to school? Telesco said.

Jadens teacher Wendy Single said the minute she opened the email invite, she knew she had to attend.

He was so happy to see so many friends and teachers drive by waving and shouting happy birthday wishes, Single said. It was a great experience for all of us to celebrate Jadens birthday and enjoy community.

Family friends who own West Signs made personalized signs for Jaden as well.

Telesco then brought Jaden to Texas Roadhouse for a takeout birthday dinner, where the employees greeted him outside while maintaining their distance  and gave him a group Yeehaw!

How do I top this birthday now? Telesco laughed.

Call me the good news girl. Are there special people in your community worthy of recognition? Tell me about them. Drop me a line, a tip, a note, or send a press release and photos to ghochsprung@poststar.com or simply call my desk at 518-742-3206. I look forward to hearing all your good news.

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KITT Moore has five children, 11 grandchildren and three great grandchildren but sadly due to this horrible virus not one of them could hug her on her 90th birthday.

But while her family couldnt physically wrap their arms around Kitt they all visited her to show, emotionally, just how much she is loved. And staff in Beech Lodge Care Facility in Bruree made a big fuss of the lady from Knocksounsa, Kilmallock.

Kitts youngest daughter, Rosie, said family members went back at different stages of the day to see her. She described it as bittersweet.

We stayed outside, waved in to her and handed the cards and presents to the staff. She was mad to come out!

She came as far as the door with her walker. She was fine, she wasnt upset, it was just sad, said Rosie, who has four siblings  Tom, PJ, Katrina and Annette.

Over 50 birthday cards were dropped in for the popular lady.

She was delighted. It brought a smile to her face and Beech Lodge gave her a lovely cake, said Rosie.

The letter Kitt, wife of the late John, is holding in the lovely photo came all the way from Thailand, where her relative Chloe Randles is living.

She sent her a card and photographs from her travels so she was delighted with that, said Rosie.

A 90th birthday party was planned for the Charleville Park Hotel but it had to be postponed. A pity as Kitt would have been in her element.

She is very outgoing. She loves to get dressed up and go out. The hotel were very good, they said they would put it on hold and whenever we are ready to go to come back to them.

She loves meeting people, chatting and is very sociable. A lot of people in Kilmallock miss her because every Friday she would get her hair done and go into the SuperValu. She could be two hours in there meeting and chatting to everyone, said Rosie.

Kitts popularity with young and not so young was reflected by the close to 100 comments and 200 likes on Beech Lodges Facebook page.

Anne Maria Moore, proprietor of the care facility in Bruree, said: We were all so sad that Kitt couldnt celebrate her 90th birthday with her family. We tried to make this wonderful milestone as special as possible for her. We presented Kitt with a birthday cake and all the staff and residents sang Happy Birthday. She is a wonderful lady with a wonderful family.

Ms Moore thanked all the residents families for obeying the strict no visiting rules at this time in Beech Lodge and Ennis Road Care Facilities, and all her staff.

Everybody is going beyond the call of duty. Our dedicated activity therapists are creating a fun, person centred, atmosphere every day, said Ms Moore. As a qualified nurse, she added that their thoughts and prayers are with all the health staff at this time.
PR-Inside.com: 2020-03-31 00:28:03

TORONTO, March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mandalay Resources Corporation ("Mandalay" or the "Company") (TSX: MND, OTCQB: MNDJF) announces that it has filed its Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2019. The Annual Information Form can be accessed under the Companys profile at www.sedar.com and on the Companys website at www.mandalayresources.com .

Mandalay has also filed an updated National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") compliant Technical Report documenting its recent work at its Bjorkdal gold mine in Sweden and its Costerfield gold-antimony mine in Australia. These Technical Reports can be accessed under the Companys profile at www.sedar.com and on the Companys website at www.mandalayresources.com .

The technical report in respect of Bjorkdal entitled Technical Report on the Bjorkdal Gold Mine, Sweden was prepared by Roscoe Postle Associates Inc. (RPA), now part of SLR Consulting Ltd. and the Mineral Resource Estimate was carried out under the supervision of Reno Pressacco, M.Sc.(A)., P.Geo., Principal Geologist and an employee of RPA and independent of Mandalay Resources Corporation. He is a Qualified Person for the purpose of NI 43-101. The Mineral Resource Estimates for Norrberget were carried out under the supervision of Jack Lunnon, CGeol, Senior Geologist and an employee of RPA and independent of Mandalay. He is a Qualified Person for the purpose of NI 43-101. The Mineral Reserve Estimate was carried out under the supervision of David Smith, CEng., FIMMM, Principal Mining Engineer and Derek Holm, FSAIMM, Senior Mining Engineer both employees of RPA and independent of Mandalay. Both are Qualified Persons for the purposes of NI 43-101.

The technical report in respect of Costerfield, entitled Costerfield Operation, Victoria, Australia, NI 43-101 Report dated and filed on March 30, 2020, was prepared by SRK Consulting (Australia) Pty Ltd. (SRK), and the Mineral Resource Estimate was carried out under the supervision of Danny Kentwell, FAusIMM, an employee of SRK Consulting and independent of Mandalay. He is a Qualified Person for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101. The Mineral Reserve Estimate was carried out under the supervision of Anne-Marie Ebbels, MAusIMM CP(Mining), an employee of SRK Consulting and independent of Mandalay. She is a Qualified Person for the purposes of NI 43-101.

For Further Information:

Dominic Duffy

President and Chief Executive Officer

Edison Nguyen

Manager, Analytics and Investor Relations

Contact:

647.260.1566

About Mandalay Resources Corporation:

Mandalay Resources is a Canadian-based natural resource company with producing assets in Australia and Sweden, and care and maintenance and development projects in Chile. The Company is focused on growing production at its gold and antimony operation in Australia, and gold production from its operation in Sweden to generate near-term cash flow.
(Bloomberg) -- With its 175-acre campus in Cupertino, California, and several dozen more offices across the rest of the world, Apple Inc. wasnt designed as a work-at-home company. That all changed about three weeks ago in the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier in March, Apple shuttered many facets of its Apple Park and older Infinite Loop campuses as San Francisco Bay Area officials put in place stay-at-home orders. Later, the company told employees that specific approval is needed to gain access to an office, but identification badges remain functional.

The shift from office culture to remote work has been challenging for the hardware-focused company with a passion for secrecy. In the past, Apple has gone to great lengths to keep its new products shielded from the public until the company is ready to unveil them. Employees work behind secure doors with blacked-out windows, lock products in cabinets and are barred from discussing their assignments even with spouses. Now, working from home, some are finding it hard to adjust and there have been minor hardware development setbacks, according to Apple employees who asked not to be named talking about company matters.The majority of Apples hardware products are engineered at Apple Park or surrounding buildings in Cupertino and Sunnyvale, California. For some work that requires hands-on development, some hardware engineers in Silicon Valley are allowed into the office, the people said. Apple also has hardware engineers in San Diego, California, and global coronavirus hotspots like Italy, Germany and Asia. But the companys restrictions in those regions are far stronger. Apple has extended its remote work policy until at least April 5, depending on an offices location.

In a notice to staff, Apple said that whether youre working at home or at the office, its always critical to keep confidential work confidential. While working remotely, use the same care and always securely store confidential items and documents when not in use.

Story continues

Still, Apple hasnt paused its efforts to build future devices. The company is working on new versions of the HomePod speaker, Apple TV set-top box, MacBook Pro, budget iPads, Apple Watch and iMac for as early as later this year. The next round of flagship iPhones are targeting release in their normal fall window, Bloomberg News recently reported.

Bay Area counties announced Monday they were extending stay-at-home orders until May 1, meaning these restrictions will be in place for at least another month, a key period when Apple finalizes products for later this year and next year.

Read more: Apples Supply Chain Woes Linger Even as China Recovers

Apple has struck the balance between recognizing that much of the world runs on their products and that they need to keep them functioning and advancing, and they are balancing that with employee safety, said Gene Munster, a longtime Apple analyst and co-founder of Loup Ventures. They are reminding us with these small products theyve recently announced that theyre going to keep working.

In early March, in a contrast to its normal practices, Apple started allowing engineers to take home early versions of future devices to continue work during the lockdown period. Previously, the company allowed select employees to take home nearly complete devices such as iPhones for real world testing.

Typically, Apple is a company built on in-person meetings. Designers, for example, gather around kitchen-like tables to dream up future products. Hardware experts engineer and test devices together  things that simply are either more difficult or impossible over the internet.

Taking home a future product requires the green light from the vice president of an employees organization. That list of staff with future devices at their homes also is sometimes reviewed by Apples senior vice presidents, the management team run by Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook.

As part of the work-from-home order, Apple has clamped down on which employees are allowed to take home future versions of software, including the next release of iOS, the platform that runs the iPhone and iPad. Like with hardware, employees working on unreleased software, such as the upcoming iOS 14, require approval from the highest levels of the organization, the people said.

Some Apple software engineers have privately complained about the difficulties of working from home, including distractions and concern about the on-going health crisis. But Apples software releases for later this year are currently on track and the company said it will announce the new versions in June at an online version of its annual developer conference.

Meetings have continued by phone and video conferencing. Apple requires employees to communicate via its own FaceTime service, Slack Technologies Inc.s app and Cisco Systems Inc.s Jabber or WebEx in order to maintain secrecy. For file sharing, Apple limits working to its suite of productivity apps, Salesforce.com Inc.s Quip and Box.

As part of its shift to working at home, Apple has also sent employees tips on ergonomic work setups, offered to reimburse staff for purchases of desks and computer monitors and has published responses to workers concerns about Covid-19.

Apple shut all 458 of its stores outside of mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong earlier this month, and the company is holding store employee meetings, known as Daily Downloads virtually and on a less regular basis.

Deirdre OBrien, Apples senior vice president of people and retail, has also been sending employees messages recorded from her home. Last week, she told employees that some workers and their family members were ill with Covid-19. She also re-iterated that stores would reopen on a case by case basis depending on local conditions possibly as soon as the first half of April.

To lighten the mood in an otherwise traumatic period, Apple started a contest for employees to share photos of their work from home setup. The last guideline reads: If youre working on anything confidential, please keep it out of the shot.

(Updates with area stay-at-home order extended until May 1 in the seventh paragraph.)

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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A couple who managed to tie the knot just hours before the nation went into coronavirus-enforced lockdown, had just four people in attendance at their fast-tracked wedding.

Aarti, a teacher, and Jonny, a 27-year-old salesman from Leicestershire, sensed that their original wedding day in May would be lost in the swathe of cancelled and postponed events across the world, and decided to bring their big day forward to March 2020.

After a frenzied search, the couple - who first met at school - managed to secure a venue, registrars and a wedding dress in time for the new date five days later, and exchanged vows shortly after 1pm on Monday 23 March with their parents present.

Later that evening, the newlyweds sat on their sofa and watched as Boris Johnson introduced more stringent measures that banned gatherings of more than two people - including weddings.

Aarti and Jonny from Leicestershire, who married just hours before the United Kingdom went into lockdown, had just four guests in attendance at their fast-tracked wedding. Pictured: Aarti and Jonny on their wedding day

Aarti who teaches at Walsgrave CofE Academy in Coventry, said: 'I rang our venue, Mythe Barn, and they were absolutely fine with us bringing it forward.

'The Leicestershire registrars offered us dates on the 23rd, 25th or the 26th, and I thought I would do the Monday 23rd, as we were living from day to day.

'Being a teacher, we were living hour by hour, not knowing whether the the school was open or closed? Every day at 5pm, we were watching the updates. I just felt that we had to take the closest one.'

She continued: 'The registrars were free, they gave me the time. I had to speak to my boss at work as I was meant to be at school and thankfully they said it was all okay. We weren't even sure if I would be at school or not.

'It all kind of happened from there. On Wednesday the 18th, less than a week before, it was booked!'.

Aarti revealed that they spent a frenzied few days securing a venue, registrars and finding a dress, in order to tie the knot at an earlier date than originally planned. pictured: The couple on their wedding day

Aarti admits that she was concerned about finding a suitable dress, after locking in the venue for their new wedding date.

She said: 'I felt extremely anxious. I'd already ordered a wedding dress with express delivery at short notice as we only booked the original wedding in December for May, which is a short amount of time. That wasn't going to come in time for the new date.

'I went onto ASOS and ordered some quick next-day delivery dresses. The ironic thing is the postman did try to deliver it on the Friday, but because I wasn't in he took it back with him. So I was thinking 'great, I can't even try it on'.

'When it came on the Saturday I managed to try it on.

'Of course these things don't fit you perfectly. My mum was having to stitch it, tweak it, make it fit.'

Aarti (pictured) walked down the aisle with Jonny's dad, because her own father works for the NHS, but plans to have another ceremony where he's given the opportunity

On the day Aarti had her make-up applied at 7.30am, while frequently calling the venue to make sure their efforts wouldn't be in vain.

She added: 'The decision wasn't down to us, it was in someone else's hands. The registrar could've been ill.'

Luckily at 1pm everyone was in place, with Jonny waiting by the registrars in front his parents. Aarti's mother and sister were on the other side providing balance.

Aarti walked down the aisle accompanied by Jonny's dad for a poignant reason.

'My dad works for the NHS,' she said.

'With his job and making sure he wasn't exposed to a lot of people, we took the decision ourselves to FaceTime him for the ceremony, because he wasn't there.

'We still know we will get our wedding when we get it and all of our family and friends will be there, this was the legal ceremony for us.

'Of course, we would've loved for our dad to have been there and part of our day, which we still feel he was. The registrar still included him, acknowledged that he was on FaceTime.

Jonny said they didn't build up their expectations for the big day, but it turned out 'really nice in the end'. Pictured: Jonny and Aarti on their wedding day

'But we will get our day and he will walk me down me the aisle.'

Jonny recalled the moment that he saw his bride, and said: 'It was surreal. It was incredible. Of course I never, ever expected the day to unfold as it did and when it did.

'Despite the circumstances, we didn't really build it up or expect too much of the day, but it was amazing and it turned out to be a really nice day in the end. She looked beautiful, absolutely beautiful.'

Their wedding was filled with surprises and wonderful gestures, including Aarti's sister providing a crucial loan of her Jimmy Choo shoes.

'Mythe Barn booked and surprised us with a photographer so a massive shout out to them,' said Aarti, who grew up in Bedworth.

'The staff couldn't have done more for us. I would ring them literally every day and speak to them, they were more than happy to reassure me.

Aarti (pictured) and Jonny spent the evening of their wedding day watching Prime Minister Boris Johnson's announcement

'They'd also organised a bouquet for me and button holes for Jonny so it matched. They really went above and beyond.'

After a couple of glasses of champagne and once the photographs were completed, the married couple headed to their home in Leicestershire.

Around the time that most newlyweds would be exchanging pleasantries with guests or wrapping up after-dinner speeches, Aarti and Jonny were waiting for the 5pm press conference providing a coronavirus update.

At 8.30pm, when a first dance song may have been played, they watched the prime minister's confrim stringent new measures to lock down the country.

Aarti who is a key worker, said they feel stronger going into the pandemic as man and wife. Pictured: Jonny and Aarti on their wedding day

'It was important to us, the legal part, we hold a lot of value on that and my parents in particular hold a lot of value on that. It could be 2021 before we'd managed to do that if we'd have left it,' said Aarti.

Jonny added: 'When you get the wedding licence it's only valid for 12 months after it has been approved.

'So we were thinking it could easily be another 12 months. We thought we may as well get that box ticked now and then it is done. It's one thing less to do when the storm clears.'

Like any date on the horizon in the current climate, the couple's scheduled wedding day hangs in the balance. When they do manage to pull together their friends and family together for the big day, they will arrive as man and wife.

'We feel a lot stronger going into this as man and wife,' explained Aarti.

'I am a key worker as well, I've got to be at work, I am up and down. We've got enough money to keep a roof over our heads but we're doing it together as man and wife and not just your partner or girlfriend.

'We played our music, said our vows, exchanged rings. It was the perfect wedding ceremony.'
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab has announced a 75m plan to repatriate as many as 60,000 British travellers stranded overseas.

After negotiations with airlines, Mr Raab announced a partnership agreement under which Virgin, EasyJet, Jet2 and Titan have signed a memorandum of understanding to help bring back UK nationals, while British Airways says it will work with the government in the national interest to get people home.

Where commercial flights are not an option, the government will charter special flights to get Britons back, subsidising ticket prices.

Mr Raab, who announced the plan at a Downing Street press conference, said: This is a worrying time for many British citizens travelling abroad. Weve already worked with airlines and governments to enable hundreds of thousands to return home on commercial flights, and we will keep as many of those options open as possible.

Where commercial flights are not possible, we will build on the earlier charter flights we organised back from China, Japan, Cuba, Ghana and Peru. The arrangements agreed today will provide a clearer basis to organise special charter flights where Britons find themselves stranded. Our priority will always be the most vulnerable.

Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Show all 20 1 /20 Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Top: Nabi Younes market, Mosul Bottom: Charles Bridge, Prague Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Grand Mosque, Mecca Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Sagrada Familia, Barcelona Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Nabi Younes market, Mosul Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Basra Grand Mosque, Iraq Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Charles Bridge, Prague Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Taj Mahal hotel, India Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Dubai Mall, UAE Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Beirut March, Lebanon Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Gateway of India, Mumbai Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Cairo University, Egypt Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Amman Citadel, Jordan Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Beirut March, Lebanon Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Cairo, Egypt Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Cairo University, Egypt Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Victoria Memorial, India Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Amman Citadel, Jordan Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Amman Citadel, Jordan Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Sidon, Lebanon Reuters

Gap-year couple Harry Guy-Walters and Molly Holmes, both 23, who are stranded in Bolivia, welcomed the announcement.

It was encouraging to hear, Mr Guy-Walters told The Independent. Weve been told there should be a flight from Bolivia at some point this week but this now gives us more confidence that will actually happen and we really will get home.

The main question, though, is why has it's taken this long? The governments entire response to this crisis has been slow  like, even the lockdown didnt come soon enough.

Mr Raab said he had spoken to more than 20 foreign ministers in recent days to urge countries around the world to keep airports and airspace open to ensure travellers are able to return to the UK.

Hundreds of thousands of British tourists have already been helped to return from all over the globe, including 8,500 from Morocco, around 5,000 from Cyprus, and an estimated 150,000 from Spain, he said.

Charter flights are already up and running to Ghana and Tunisia, and more countries are due to be added this week to bring people back from countries such as India and South Africa where large numbers of British travellers are stuck and commercial routes are suspended. The Foreign Office said it was negotiating intensely with countries around the world to secure permissions for return flights where airspace has been closed.

In a joint letter to the airlines, Mr Raab and Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said they recognised the companies were facing financial and operational challenges as a result of the pandemic.

But they said the airlines too must recognise their responsibility for transporting passengers with pre-booked tickets for flights which have been cancelled, by offering them alternative routes and allowing them to change tickets, including between carriers.

The government will continue to work non-stop around the world to keep routes open, said the ministers.

At the same time, we recognise that thousands of travellers have been affected by flight cancellations and need to find alternative routes or change their tickets.

It is essential that airlines meet this need and offer their passengers the service they deserve.

Harry Guy-Walters and Molly Holmes (Provided)

A Foreign Office source said there was no linkage between participation in the scheme and the separate negotiations over state bailouts for airlines threatened with financial collapse because of the sudden halt to air travel.

Charter flights will be operated on a no-profit basis, and taxpayer funding should mean passengers pay no more than 250-500 for their tickets. Anyone unable to pay will be offered an emergency loan from the Foreign Office if they can find no alternative source of funds.

The number of charter flights will depend on demand and on the ability to negotiate access with local governments, although the budget suggests that as many as 300 are envisaged. The Foreign Office stressed that these are intended only as a last resort, and travellers should take commercial flights wherever possible.

Charter flights are not intended for passengers showing symptoms of coronavirus. Those unable to travel will be advised to self-isolate and seek medical treatment from local authorities where necessary.

Priority will be given to countries with large numbers of British travellers, and flights are not intended to repatriate UK nationals living permanently overseas. The Foreign Office said it will focus on travellers who are vulnerable due to age or underlying medical conditions, taking the state of local healthcare facilities into account.

The coronavirus crisis is a challenge unlike any we have faced in generations, said the letter. By working together, we send a strong message of reassurance to Britons stranded overseas.

We will do our best to bring people home and help reunite families and loved ones.

Acting Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: The Foreign Office must ensure that British citizens will be able to return home, wherever they have been stranded, without exception. We welcome the steps the government is taking to charter flights in order to get people home, and to work to ensure commercial flights remain available where possible.

However, questions remain about why this announcement has taken so long. Thousands have been seeking urgent assistance for weeks as borders have closed. The delay has caused huge amounts of worry both for those stuck overseas and their families and friends in the UK.

Additional reporting by Colin Drury
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Project Baseline, a new website to facilitate screening and testing of people potentially infected with the COVID-19 virus, became available on Sunday. Verily, a company owned by Google parent Alphabet, launched the site.

Access requires a Google login, and assistance currently is limited to residents in two counties in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In addition to administering the website, Verily, which focuses on health and life sciences, is working with state, local and federal authorities to establish testing sites in the Bay Area.

Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai also announced the companies are partnering with the federal government on a COVID-19 education and prevention, and a local resources website, expected to go live late Monday.

The sites focus is on best practices for prevention, with links to authoritative information from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), as well as helpful tips and tools for individuals, teachers and businesses.

Privacy Concerns

Before Verilys testing site was 24 hours old, there were signs it already might be having traffic problems.

When I tested it [(Monday], after answering questions in a way that would qualify me in terms of geography and lack of initial symptoms, it said its not accepting any more applicants, said Michael Arrigo, an expert witness in healthcare who lives in the Bay Area.

It seems like its not allowing people to be screened in the counties where they could be screened, he told TechNewsWorld.

Google did not respond to our request to comment for this story.

The Verily website raises privacy concerns, Arrigo noted.

Its not clear to consumers that the information Verily is gathering is being given to entities not covered by HIPAA, he explained.

HIPAA, the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, protects the privacy of healthcare information collected in the United States.

Verily is interested in capturing a lot of information, Arrigo continued, but there should be more information up front for the consumer.

At this point, the benefits of the site are unclear, he said, but one thing thats clear is theres tremendous benefit for Google in collecting data.

Google Responds to COVID-19

The new website launches were among a number of things Pichai said the Alphabet companies were doing in response to the spreading coronavirus, including the following:

Taking down thousands of dangerous or misleading videos about the virus on YouTube and removing false and harmful information on Google Maps, such as false reviews and bogus information about healthcare locations.

Blocking hundreds of thousands of ads attempting to exploit the pandemic, including a temporary ban on ads for medical masks and respirators.

Making a commitment of US$50 million through Google.org to the global COVID-19 response.

Matching up to $5 million in donations to the WHOs new COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

Awarding a $500,000 grant to a team of researchers, epidemiologists and software developers at Boston Childrens Hospital working on HealthMap, a website that provides up-to-date trends of emerging public health threats and outbreaks.

Creating COVID-19 public service announcements through the $25 million Google Ad Grants crisis relief program.

Establishing a COVID-19 fund to provide paid sick leave to temporary staff and vendors who miss work because they have potential symptoms of the virus or are quarantined.

In this unprecedented moment, we feel a great responsibility to help, said Pichai. Well keep doing everything we can to deliver on our mission, and help people take care of themselves and their communities.

Free Team Software

While few high-tech companies can launch as large a response to the coronavirus as Google has, other companies have found ways to contribute to the cause. Cloudflare, for example, is making its Cloudflare for Teams product  which allows employees to collaborate from home  free to small businesses for six months.

Small businesses are responsible for the creation of two-thirds of net new jobs, noted Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince.

Unfortunately, they are much more vulnerable to even minor interruptions in their operations. Oftentimes their margins are so thin that any significant new expense or reduction in revenue can cause them to fail, he pointed out.

While the impact of the Coronavirus is being felt by businesses large and small, I am worried the impact on small businesses could be especially devastating, Prince added. Small businesses have always been there for us and we want to be there for them during this time of increased strain  .

In addition to offering its team software for free, Cloudflare has established an online business hub where small businesses can see technology services available to them for free or at a low cost.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Companies operating with an expanded work-at-home workforce should be cautious, said Marty Puranik, CEO of Atlantic.Net, a cloud hosting company in Orlando, Florida.

Bad actors will try to take advantage of your situation. Youre going to have a lot of new remote workers, so you need to have policies and procedures in place to make sure they dont fall for phishing scams and wire money where it isnt supposed to be sent, he warned.

The security industry should take the lead and educate people on remote worker security, Puranik told TechNewsWorld.

Zoom for Kids

Employees wont be the only folks hanging around the house during the pandemic. Theres also some 400 million students worldwide, many of them looking for something to do. Among the companies addressing the problem is Caribu, which is offering its video-calling app for free during the virus outbreak.

With the app, kids can create virtual playdates where they can read books from the Caribu library of popular titles, play games and color together on screen.

Kids are feeling the effects of the outbreak, but dont always understand why grandma cant come visit, why the special family spring break trip may have been canceled, or why theyre out of school for weeks, said Caribu CEO Max Tuchman.

Everything we do is about creating more meaningful connections, and thats what we think is most important right now  keeping families connected in the most engaging way, he continued.

Were like Zoom for kids, Tuchman added.

Taking the Lead

Technology companies have to take a leadership role in the battle against COVID-19, urged Gene Munster, managing partner at Loup Ventures, a venture capital firm in Minneapolis.

Its an ironic leadership position because governments message for the past year has been about breaking up Big Tech. Now we have an example of why its good to have Big Tech, he told TechNewsWorld.

Big Tech has some of the best AI talent in the world, and in these situations they can help with everything from understanding how these diseases are transmitted to working on vaccines, Munster added.

Big Tech has the potential to reach large numbers of people with information of substantial benefit to them, Julian Sanchez, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a public policy think tank in Washington, D.C., told TechNewsWorld. But it remains to be seen  because of all the misinformation weve seen circulating  whether theyll be a net positive force as this crisis unfolds.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 30

Trend:

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has condemned the terrorist attacks committed in Saudi Arabia, Trend reports referring to the official Twitter page of the Foreign Ministry.

"We condemn the Houthi terror attack targeting the residential areas in the cities of Riyadh and Jazan in Saudi Arabia, the statement said. Azerbaijan expresses solidarity with and support to Saudi Arabia in its measures to maintain security, stability and territorial integrity of the country."
Over 40 diesel-run cars and SUVs will be phased out of the market in April as companies focus more on petrol models, cleaner CNG models, and electric versions. This shift in focus has been caused by the onset of the new BS6 emission norms.

This shift in focus comes at the time when the nation is dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Industry experts told Times of India that there is not much hope that the BS4 inventory will be cleared out before the March 31 deadline, now that a nation-wide lockdown has been imposed. A petition filed by companies and dealers asking for more time to dispose of BS4 models has already been dealt with by the Supreme Court, according to the daily. The SC had given companies and dealers permission to only sell 10 percent of the pending stock.

Many companies had decided to phase out diesel variants of their cars from the line-up as the companies thought that upgrading existing models to the stricter emission standards would make the cars too expensive for consumers to buy, according to the daily. Some diesel models that showrooms would be saying goodbye to are Maruti's Brezza mini SUV and Dzire entry sedan, Renault's Duster, Skoda's Octavia, Maruti's Swift, Volkswagon's Polo and Audi's Q3 and Q5 SUVs.

"Out of 86 diesel models currently selling in the country, a total of 42 will be discontinued including seven from Maruti," said Shashank Srivastava, Marketing and Sales Director at Maruti, to the daily.

Companies said that favorability among consumers for diesel models has gone down as the price difference between petrol and diesel has decreased significantly in the last few years. Companies also told the daily that diesel cars generally have a life-span of 10 years while petrol cars have a life-span of 15 years in markets such as Delhi NCR. This makes the consumers choose the petrol model over the diesel one.

"In small cars, the cost of upgrading diesel engines to BS6 standards will be substantial. With the price increase, these vehicles will become unviable for customers. We will completely stop selling diesel vehicles from April next year," said Maruti chairman RC Bhargava a year ago when Maruti became the first company to announce moving out of the diesel segment.

Soon after, Renault, Nissan, Volkswagen, Skoda and Audi all announced that they would also be moving out of the diesel segment. Companies that are still players in the diesel segment include Hyundai, Kia, Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra, Toyota, Ford and Mercedes-Benz.

Also Read: Now all goods - essential and non-essential - can move in coronavirus lockdown

Also Read: Coronavirus in India Live updates: Govt denies extension of 21-day lockdown
By Adam Borowski





I never thought I would experience the world on lockdown. Even as someone who enjoys dissecting conspiracies  I imagined epidemic scenarios many times  I still dismissed previous pandemics as media hyperbole.



This feels different.



In 2020, there is a sinister vibe in the air which is palpable. We are living in surreal times. This is the moment when many people start thinking about their place in the grand scheme of things.



I am sure you have asked one, maybe more, of these questions: Is this God's punishment for mankind? Is my shortness of breath a symptom of coronavirus? Does the global elite want to usher in the new world order? And most importantly: when does this madness end?



We do not know when this bedlam is going to end. As psychologists will undoubtedly tell you, this is the worst kind of a crisis, with no clearly defined end. Dictatorial regimes are a tangible, visible threat. You can definitely see a nuclear strike, just as you can see a chemical attack. Our minds can deal with clearly-defined, tangible threats, no matter how terrible those threats are.



The virus is an invisible enemy. It is biological, lurking in the air, on various surfaces. We need to exercise constant caution not to get infected. Our minds immediately conjure up images of people on ventilators. Developing mild paranoia is perfectly justified in 2020. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise. It is a survival mechanism. There really are ''zombies'' roaming around: infected people who don't know it.



Avoid them like the plague.



The coronavirus crisis shows us that Confucianism works, while the rugged, American, individualism is a recipe for disaster. This crisis is also an opportunity for countries to show off their smart power, i.e. the ability to be a shining example for the world in difficult times. The fantastic South Korean response to the virus only strengthens the country's international influence  from K-pop stars to medicine, the world looks up to Korea for answers and guidance.



Many people around the world decry cultural imperialism which is inextricably linked with linguistic imperialism. This is why K-pop is seen as an instrument of cultural domination by some. It is understandable. Poland was under the yoke of foreign powers for a long time. For example, you can tell which part of the country belonged to Austria even today, just by looking at the roads and buildings.



If we assume there is an infinite number of alternate realities and Korea is an empire in one of them  this is the kind of world I could be taken to.



At this point in human history, anything is possible. Let's hope this madness ends soon.





Adam Borowski (adam.borowski1985@gmail.com) is a technical Polish-English translator and an international relations aficionado. He is the author of a novel titled: ''Perfect lives. Perfect selves.''


China has recently announced a raft of specific measures aimed at stabilizing employment for rural migrant workers who have faced challenges returning to their old jobs or finding new ones as a result of the novel coronavirus epidemic.

Photo shows migrant workers queueing up to enter Yichang East Railway Station. On March 23, a special train carrying 1,171 rural migrant workers departed from Yichang east railway station in Yichang, central Chinas Hubei province, for Shenzhenbei railway station in Shenzhen, south Chinas Guangdong province. The special train was the first trip made from Yichang for resumption of work. (Photo/People's Daily)

Efforts will be made to ensure that rural migrant workers return to work and find employment outside their hometowns in a safe and orderly manner, secure employment near their homes, and to guarantee employment for impoverished rural workers, according to a recent guideline issued by the General Office of the State Council.

There are currently 290 million migrant workers in China, 170 million of whom work outside their hometowns.

According to the guideline, which focuses on the implementation of the intensified measures to stabilize employment to cope with the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the relevant departments will make efforts to ensure these workers return to employment and seek jobs in an orderly manner.

Targeted and one-stop services as well as a health information identification mechanism will be provided to help make it easier to resume work and production, according to You Jun, vice minister of human resources and social security.

Rural migrant workers will be brought to work en masse and in batches as soon as possible using special buses, special trains, and charter flights, You said.

We have helped secure 400,000 workers from nearly 10,000 major enterprises, and transported more than 4.7 million rural migrant workers in multiple ways, You explained.

Meanwhile, efforts have been made to help rural migrant workers find jobs in an orderly manner, You said, adding that the relevant departments have collected and published recruitment information in a timely manner, enhanced exchanges between cities where labor forces are exported and imported, encouraged online recruitment activities, and organized targeted exports of labor forces.

Thanks to the joint efforts of various parties, the proportion of companies that have resumed work and workers who have returned to their jobs across the country have been steadily increasing, according to Li Zhong, vice minister of human resources and social security.

100 million rural migrant workers have secured jobs outside their hometowns, a number that accounts for 80 percent of the migrant workers who returned home before the Spring Festival, Li said.

In a bid to stabilize employment for rural workers temporarily unable to find work in other cities, many Chinese cities have made efforts to help these people find work near their homes.

Chenzhou city in central Chinas Hunan province has formulated policies to encourage rural migrant workers to seek local jobs.

According to the relevant policy, the city will award 800 yuan (about $112.9) to every rural migrant worker who returned to the city between Feb. 1 and March 31 and works continuously in enterprises in local industrial parks for at least six months.

The provincial department of human resources and social security of southwest Chinas Sichuan province has collated information on the number and structure of workers needed in local enterprises and provided specific information to rural migrant workers according to their actual situations.

So far, more than 9 million migrant workers have returned to Sichuan for work.

Liupanshui city in southwest Chinas Guizhou province has made efforts to increase local employment by expanding vegetable planting bases and optimizing varieties of vegetables in local areas.

The city has managed to raise the number of local farmers engaging in vegetable production by 7,000 compared to the previous year.

In order to help its poor population secure jobs and get rid of poverty as quickly as possible, the country has specified that impoverished labor forces should be prioritized in the recruitment plans of enterprises, major projects and construction of logistics systems, according to You.

In addition, efforts should be made to encourage enterprises to hire more poor laborers, said You, adding that companies who hire large numbers of poor laborers should be rewarded through dedicated government poverty alleviation funds.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS) has actually been working together with the relevant poverty alleviation departments to help poor laborers secure employment since the COVID-19 outbreak, noted Shang Jianhua, head of the division of employment for rural migrant workers, MHRSS.

Relevant measures have been taken to offer timely recruitment information to poor counties and to encourage major companies producing anti-epidemic materials, living necessities and relevant supporting supplies to give priority to eligible poor laborers during the recruitment process, Shang said.

Areas suffering from extreme poverty and those with resettlement sites for relocated poor residents, as well as the 52 key poor counties, are considered the focus of these assistance efforts, and have been provided with dedicated plans and targeted services for resumption of work, according to Shang.

The country will continue to formulate favorable policies and create a sound environment that will help poor laborers find employment and increase their incomes, Shang said, revealing that efforts will be made to provide targeted jobs and vocational training, while organized export of labor forces will be intensified and the number of public welfare positions will be increased.

We will create a good environment for poor laborers to find employment and increase their incomes to help them get rid of poverty as planned and also prevent the return of poverty caused by job losses because of the epidemic, noted Shang.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 30

By Nargiz Sadikhova  Trend:

Kazakhstan has suspended 72-hour visa free regime for foreign citizens arriving in the country, Trend reports with reference to the corresponding decree of Kazakhstans government.

The visa free regime has been suspended till July 1, 2020.

First two cases of coronavirus infection were detected in Kazakhstan among Kazakh citizens who arrived in Almaty city from Germany on March 13, 2020.

The latest data said that a total of 294 coronavirus cases have officially been confirmed in Kazakhstan.

On March 15, 2020, Kazakhstans President Kassym Jomart Tokayev signed a decree introducing an emergency state in Kazakhstan due to the coronavirus outbreak, which came in force from 08:00 (GMT +6) on March 16 and will last till 08:00 on April 15, 2020.

By a decision of State Commission on Provision of Emergency State under the president of Kazakhstan, quarantine regime has been introduced in Kazakhstans Nur-Sultan and Almaty cities at 00:00 (GMT +6) on March 19, 2020, due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019. The number of people killed by the disease has surpassed 34,800. Over 735,500 people have been confirmed as infected. Meanwhile, over 156,300 people have reportedly recovered.

Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11.

---

Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh
Only recently, in order to stop people from flouting lockdown rules imposed to curb the coronavirus spread in India, a cop by the name of Rajesh Babu in Chennai, Tamil Nadu had worn one unique 'corona helmet'.

An Indian traffic policeman has taken coronavirus awareness to new levels by hitting the streets clad in a newly-devised accessory: the 'coronahelmet' pic.twitter.com/Wh8loNzTfu  Reuters (@Reuters) March 28, 2020

The design of the helmet and Inspector Rajesh, who sported it, had quickly gone viral. The helmet resembled a pictorial representation of the deadly coronavirus. Now, filmmaker Karan Johar, who is known to experiment with his fashion choices, has claimed on social media that he wants the 'corona helmet'. He even shared a picture of a policeman wearing the helmet on his Instagram and wrote, "I want this helmet," emphasising further on his desire to own one.

The artist, Gowtham, who designed the 'corona helmet', told ANI in Chennai that, "The public at large is not treating the Covid-19 situation seriously. The police personnel, on the other hand, are working round the clock to ensure people stay at home and do not venture out so that further spread of the disease can be stopped."

"I came up with the idea and used a broken helmet and papers to prepare this. I have also prepared many placards displaying slogans and handed them over to the police," he added.

Follow @News18Movies for more
A recent Afrobarometer report released by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) reveals that almost 75 percent of Ghanaians are willing to accept restrictions on their freedom of movements, such as curfews and roadblocks, in times of security threats.

The report which was conducted between 16th September and 3rd October 2019 sampled views from some 2,400 adult Ghanaians.

In late 2019, three-quarters (75%) of Ghanaians said the government should be able to curtail people's movement in the face of threats to security, the report said.

It however added that the willingness to accept government restrictions on movement was lower in the Greater Accra Region (64%) than in the Ashanti region (79%).

While the data suggest that a majority of citizens are likely to adhere to the lockdown directive, significant proportions of the population  one in four citizens nationwide, one in three in Greater Accra, and one in five in Ashanti  expressed opposition, as of late 2019, to restrictions on their movements even in the face of a security threat.

The report further added that the willingness to accept such restrictions was widespread across key socio-demographic groups, though slightly lower in cities than in rural areas and among those experiencing high-lived poverty compared to those who are economically better off.

The report was conducted ahead of the lockdown of Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Kumasi by government in a bid to curb the novel coronavirus which has infected some 152 people in Ghana.

Five people who also tested positive to the disease have lost their lives.

The lockdown announced by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo begun today, Monday, March 30, 2020 as part of measures to combat the virus.

---citinewsroom
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Reliance Industries (RIL) on March 30 said it is donating Rs 500 crore towards the PM-CARES fund. The company said in a statement that it is contributing an additional Rs 5 crore each towards the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat in order to lend them support amid the ongoing outbreak.

The PM-CARES fund was created in order to strengthen the country's fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently appealed to citizens to make donations to the fund.

- Contribution of Rs 500 crore to the PM-CARES fund- Contribution of Rs 5 crore to the Chief Ministers Relief Fund of Maharashtra- Contribution of Rs 5 crore to the Chief Ministers Relief Fund of Gujarat- Indias first 100 bed exclusive COVID-19 Hospital geared up in just two weeks to handle coronavirus patients- To provide 50 lakh free meals in the next 10 days across India, with plans to provide more such meals in newer areas- One lakh masks daily for health-workers and caregivers- Thousands of personal protective equipment (PPEs) daily for health-workers and caregivers- Free Fuel across the country to notified emergency response vehicles- Jio seamlessly connecting nearly 40 crore individuals and thousands of organisations daily on its telecom backbone via work from home, study from home and health from home initiatives

- Reliance Retail providing Essential supplies daily for millions of Indians via stores and home deliveries

Track this blog for all the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, said, "We are confident that India will conquer the coronavirus crisis sooner rather than later. The entire Reliance Industries team is with the nation in this hour of crisis and will do everything to win this battle against COVID-19."

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

The company had also undertaken many other steps, earlier this month, as part of its multi-pronged prevention, mitigation, and ongoing support strategy. The Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital, in collaboration with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has already set up a dedicated 100-bed centre at Seven Hills Hospital, Mumbai, for patients who test positive for COVID-19.

: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd)
The Centre informed the Delhi High Court Monday that its nodal officers are making efforts to ensure no Indian citizen faces any problem in any country due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A bench of Justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Navin Chawla was informed by the Centre's counsel that he has received instructions from the Ministry of External Affairs indicating that all medical colleges in Bangladesh where Indian students are staying have been requested to open at least one mess facility to provide food.

Central government standing counsel Jasmeet Singh submitted that efforts have been made to provide appropriate medical and other assistance, if required, by citizens of India in Bangladesh.

For this purpose, a list of nodal officers has already been uploaded on the website and they can be contacted in case of any difficulty, he said.

The court was hearing a petition by petitioner advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal seeking direction to the authorities to forthwith take steps for safe and secure return on Indian citizens who are stuck in Bangladesh. The advocate said most of the students are residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

The petitioner submitted that he will provide the contact details of at least one student of each of the medical college where they are facing difficulty to the government's counsel.

During the hearing, conducted through video conferencing in view of the lockdown due to the virus, the court inquired from Bansal as to how he is in touch with the Indian students in Bangladesh.

He replied that he was communicating with them through Twitter and WhatsApp accounts.

The court listed the matter for further hearing on April 3 and asked the Centre to file a status report or give e-mail id of the concerned officer.

The court, on March 27, had asked the Centre to explain the steps taken by it to evacuate the Indian students stranded in Bangladesh.

The court had issued notices to the Ministries of External Affairs and Home Affairs.

The plea has also sought direction to the authorities to appoint nodal officers in the Indian Embassies and make contact number and e-mail of these nodal officers public so that the Indians who are stranded abroad can contact them and seek help in the time of the global health emergency.

The plea further said that the MEA be directed to formulate guidelines for time bound action by the nodal officers so that Indians can feel safe during this time.

The lawyer said he has been receiving numerous calls from the Indian students who are studying in Bangladesh and stuck in their hostels and do not have masks and sanitisers.

The students told the lawyers that their mess was closed and they have left with few snacks which may last only for a week and there are no facilities by which they can prevent them from getting infected.

"As there is complete lock down now so we would not even get any supplies. You have also closed doors for us. Please help us to reach back home. Even if we die, we would like to die in front of our parents," a student wrote in an email sent to Bansal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With tough new social distancing measures amid the coronavirus pandemic, Tracy Grimshaw made the decision to host A Current Affair from her spare bedroom.

The Sydney-based star, who appeared barefoot under a table, told Channel Nine viewers on Monday's program that 'we're a little cramped, but we have to do it!'

But like other Australians making the switch to working from home, the famed journalist, 59, suffered a few hiccups along the way.

'We're a little bit cramped!' A Current Affair's Tracy Grimshaw (pictured), 59, hosted the Channel Nine program from her SPARE BEDROOM on Monday, amid the coronavirus pandemic

Removing a plush bed from her contemporary home, Tracy set up a makeshift table in the middle of the room and covered the surface with blue paper.

A TV was mounted with A Current Affair's logo and backdrop, making it appear as if she was in the Channel Nine studio.

Tracy wore her signature outfit of a blouse teamed with a black tailored blazer and pants - leaving most viewers unaware that she was barefoot.

The beloved television personality had her brunette bob blow-dried to perfection, and her makeup was suitably elegant.

Creative: The famed journalist utilised the spare bedroom (pictured) in her contemporary Sydney home

'Tonight we're coming to you from my bedroom,' Tracy announced to viewers at the start of the show.

'And there's something I never thought I'd say. It's a spare room and in the interests of staying home, we'll be here for a while.

'I have a small crew here for the first night, which is allowed, because they're of course at work.'

The show must go on! The bed was removed, and crew set up a makeshift table in the centre with blue paper covering the surface

Lights, camera, action: A TV screen was mounted and featured A Current Affair's logo and backdrop, making it appear as if Tracy was in the Channel Nine studio

And like other Australians who have been experiencing teething issues while working from home, Tracy suffered a few 'technical difficulties'.

In a short clip shared to a Channel Nine cameraman's Instagram page, Tracy was seen attempting to get a number of dogs to 'sit' underneath the table and behave.

And during an interview with Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on the $130billion 'JobKeeper' support package made available for workers amid the pandemic, Tracy was left slightly red-faced when the TV screen behind switched to a rival network.

Viewers commended Tracy for working from home in a series of tweets.

Oops: However, as one viewer pointed out online, even acclaimed TV stars suffer technical difficulties. When conducting an interview, the screen behind changed to a rival network

'Sit!' Tracy was also seen in footage shared to Instagram by a cameraman, attempting to get a number of dogs to 'sit' and behave

'Awesome seeing Tracy hosting #9ACA from home,' one wrote, while another added: 'It's very bizarre but also convenient to see Tracy Grimshaw at home on A Current Affair tonight.'

'Tracy Grimshaw is reporting on A Current Affair from her bedroom!! There is NO excuse,' one also said, alongside several clapping hands emojis.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has urged Australians to not leave the house unless absolutely necessary, as the battle to fight the spread of coronavirus continues.

'There is NO excuse': Viewers commended Tracy for abiding by strict social distancing measures, including working from home where possible

Gyms, beauty salons and libraries have been closed, with restaurants and cafes only allowed to serve takeaway.

Tough new social distancing measures have also been enforced - limiting social gatherings, outside of the household, to just two people.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness accompanied by fever, coughing, sore throat, shortness of breath and fatigue. It can produce pneumonia.

The spread of the disease, which began in Wuhan, China, has seen over 723,300 cases worldwide and more than 33,900 fatalities.

As of the evening of March 30, the total number of people diagnosed with the virus in Australia is 4,220 including 18 deaths.
At the time of a global pandemic, wars always tend to subside as adversaries stop shooting, but not this time. Covid-19 is changing the planet, changing our habits, but armed men on the other side of the contact line in Donbas never changed their plans  at least with regard to Ukraine.

"I'm used to seeing covered faces on the front line. But it's for the first time that I'm seeing our troops in the trenches covering faces with medical masks," says TSN Weekly's war correspondent Andriy Tsaplienko.

Soldiers say that they are already used to wearing medical face masks both as they dig trenches and fight in combat. However, wearing masks is now more like following an order than a conscious step of self-protection. One thing is seeing the enemy in the crosshairs and the other  is ensuring protection against an invisible threat. Ukraine's defenders are just beginning to get used to it and some still say they do not believe in the scale of the epidemic too much, suggesting that the coronavirus is too vague a threat to life unlike incoming bullets.

"As for the coronavirus, we have not seen things like that here. So we aren't paying attention," a soldier on the front line says. "People just got stuck to the coronavirus and forgot that the war has been ongoing in the country for years."

Maintaining quarantine rules in field conditions is a daunting task. The new realities have just begun to take hold.

According to Andriy Tsaplienko, in a classic two-person dugout, safe social distancing is impossible. Even a protective mask won't save from the disease. "So the only way out is not to let the coronavirus get into Ukrainian trenches," he said.

Volunteer Vitaliy Deynega believes that completely shielding the Army from the coronavirus is an unrealistic task: "It is impossible to save the Army from an epidemic. An epidemic in the Army can be stretched in time, making consequences less fatal for those it affects."

He sends to the front line sampling systems for the first thousand coronavirus tests. Due to their limited number, only those will be tested who are in contact with a large number of people. "Our job is to find a super-distributor, that is, to test those who have the most social connections, from battalion commander to commander of forces," he says.

Now the fighting will be two-dimensional in Ukrainian trenches...

Meanwhile, Russia has launched an offensive in another domain. Panic against the backdrop of global lockdown is a good time for the Kremlin to fulfill its main task of having sanctions lifted. Global pandemic is playing in Russia's favor. This is what the Kremlin's strategy looks like today: first, having the sanctions lifted, then putting all of Ukraine back in the area of Russian influence.

"I don't think coronavirus is able to stop Russia," says Maryna Danyliuk who lives in a frontline village of Shchastia.

So far, Russia has been successfully stopped near Shchastia. At present, enemy troops occupy the area across the river bridge. However, the Russian side, both in the Minsk and Normandy formats, demanded that forces be disengaged here and open a car crossing be opened to connect the village with the occupied territory. In fact, Russians are interested in a local strategic facility  a thermal power plant. It provides energy throughout the north of Luhansk region. According to the Russian plan, the station falls into a possible disengagement zone.

"Indeed, the station could be seized, so the disengagement of troops could provoke military action," said Serhiy Tkachenko, a war veteran who also lives in Shchastia. "The whole Stanytsia Luhanska district and all our troops will be cut off there."

The Ukrainian side has so far only agreed to open the crossing. The pandemic allegedly slowed down these plans, but never canceled them.

Local residents believe that disengagement cannot be avoided. If that happens, they will have to leave everything behind, pick up their kids and grandchildren, and flee.

To implement its plans, Russia is acting globally, not just in the Ukrainian East. The Kremlin intends to take advantage of EU's weaknesses.

The whole world was stunned by the deployment of a Russian military "medical" team in Italy. Europe has not seen anything like that before: Russian army boots on the concrete of a NATO air base. Italy, which is seeing the highest virus death toll, says it has been forced to accept help from Russia. Eight military teams arrived in Bergamo on Thursday along with the "aid" cargo. But what's the real purpose of Russian military virologists coming to a NATO territory?

"As for military virologists, I find it ridiculous because, of course, there are some virologists, but there aren't many of them," says Doctor of Medical Sciences with the Institute of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases Alla Myronenko. "If they did this, there was probably some other purpose."

Germany's Bild has revealed that the Italian prime minister has agreed to accept Russian military assistance under pressure from the far-right pro-Russian Lega Nord party. The influential Italian newspaper La Stampa was the first to say: "Among Russian supplies, 80% are absolutely useless or not very useful for Italy."

"Russia is only here to wave its flags," sources in Italian military circles told Bild.

"One hundred percent of Russian equipment is something that Italy doesn't need. It's about what we're seeing  large vehicles, trucks, hospitals  and there comes a seeming perception that Russia is doing something important. Instead of arriving at Bergamo right away, they make a powerful march across Italy, and I agree that this is just a large-scale PR campaign ... The Russians have sent a unit dealing with protection from weapons of mass destruction that disinfects combat units, not dealing with a pandemic. We do not need a laboratory for analyzing substances from weapons of mass destruction. We don't need disinfection trucks either. Russia is only here to wave its flags. This is a PR campaign. It's not 80%, it's 100% of material they brought that's useless," Julian Roepke wrote for Bild.

But as soon as the Italian press declared it, a swarm of pro-Russian bloggers in the West rushed to support Russia.

However, we saw what exactly this act was staged for shortly after the Russian leader's appeal to the G20 calling for the lifting of sanctions. Putin is trying to take up a role of a philanthropist and under the pretext of being a rescuer, to have Russia sanctions lifted. "It is now very important to provide access to financing for countries that are particularly in need," Putin said.

Italy is the weakest link in the European Union on the issue of sanctions imposed on Russia over the aggression against Ukraine. A large number of local pro-Russian politicians have been lobbying for sanctions to be lifted even before the coronavirus pandemic broke out.

Today, a narrative is being widely spun in Italy, claiming that "the European Union has given up on us in times of trouble. Russia will save us."

For now, Russia's hybrid attack in the EU, where the novel virus is raging, has failed as sanctions remain in place. However, the global pandemic is only gaining momentum. And the Kremlin's strategists will not stop trying to profit off of Europe, weakened by disease.

Andriy Tsaplienko, Serhiy Schekochykhin, Vitaliy Tkachuk
Australian celebrities have revealed how they're passing the time as they self-isolate inside their multi-million dollar mansions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

While many are making the most of their home gyms and swimming pools, others are going to extreme measures to ensure they don't catch coronavirus.

Roxy Jacenko, for example, is 'taking no chances' with her health and has been cleaning her cash while in lockdown in her $6.6million mansion in Vaucluse, Sydney.

As of Monday afternoon, there are 4,165 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia, including 18 deaths.

How the other half self-isolate! Celebrities like Roxy Jacenko have revealed how they're passing the time inside their multi-million dollar mansions amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Pandemic: As of Monday afternoon, there are 4,165 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia, including 18 deaths

ROXY JACENKO

After returning home from New Zealand last week, Roxy has been documenting her 14 days of self-isolation on Instagram.

The 39-year-old publicist lives with her husband, former investment banker Oliver Curtis, and their two children, Pixie and Hunter.

On Sunday, she shared a photo to Instagram of two $20 notes drying on a clothes horse after she'd cleaned them. 'I am not taking any chances,' she wrote in the caption.

While she may be taking things too far, handling money is considered an easy way to spread COVID-19 if you're not careful.

Not bad! After returning home from New Zealand last week, Roxy has been documenting her 14 days of self-isolation on Instagram. She lives in a $6.6million mansion in Vaucluse, Sydney

Prevention: On Sunday, she shared this photo to Instagram of two $20 notes drying on a clothes horse after she'd cleaned them. 'I am not taking any chances,' she wrote in the caption

Full house: The 39-year-old publicist (left, in her home gym) lives with her husband, former investment banker Oliver Curtis, and their two children, Pixie and Hunter (right)

GUY SEBASTIAN

The Voice's Guy Sebastian is using his time in self-quarantine to entertain fans.

Last week, the 38-year-old musician performed a mini concert on Instagram Live from his $3.1million 'fortress' in Maroubra, Sydney.

'It was awesome to go live on Instagram the other day and partner with this initiative to perform for you all,' Guy said afterwards.

'It was awesome to go live': Guy Sebastian is using his time in self-quarantine to entertain fans

Staying indoors: Last week, the 38-year-old musician performed a mini concert on Instagram Live from his $3.1million 'fortress' in Maroubra, Sydney

CHRIS HEMSWORTH

Chris Hemsworth is also hoping to inspire fans amid the pandemic.

Last week, the 36-year-old actor announced he was making his fitness app, Centr, free for six weeks.

He has also shared videos from the home gym of his $20million mansion in Byron Bay to encourage his followers to keep active.

Inspiring: Chris Hemsworth is also hoping to inspire fans amid the pandemic. Last week, the 36-year-old actor announced he was making his fitness app, Centr, free for six weeks

REBECCA JUDD

Mother-of-four Rebecca Judd is already in need of a break after a week in isolation.

The 37-year-old footy WAG revealed on Sunday she was trying to hide from her own children inside her $7.3million mansion in Brighton, Melbourne.

'I'm hiding in the kitchen from my kids. I need a break,' she told her Instagram followers while leaning against a cupboard, looking defeated.

'I need a break': Rebecca Judd (pictured) revealed on Sunday she was trying to hide from her own children, whom she has been homeschooling since last week

Spacious: The Judds are isolating inside their $7.3million home in Brighton, Melbourne

TAMMY HEMBROW

It's (almost) business as usual for Australia's top influencer, Tammy Hembrow.

Rather than sharing workout videos from the gym, she is training and making content from her $1.95million Gold Coast home.

The 25-year-old Instagram model has also continued to share racy selfies as usual.

No change here! It's (almost) business as usual for Australia's top influencer, Tammy Hembrow. Rather than sharing workout videos from the gym, she is training from her Gold Coast home
A group of residents from an island town in Maine cut down a tree and dragged it into the middle of a road in an attempt to forcibly quarantine three roommates they believed could have the new coronavirus after arriving from out of state, law enforcement officials said on Saturday.

The tree was discovered after one of the roommates left their residence on Cripple Creek Road in Vinalhaven, an island off the coast of Maine, at about 3:30 p.m. on Friday to see why the cable service wasnt working, the Knox County Sheriffs Office said in a statement.

While investigating the downed tree, a neighbor started yelling at him and a group of people showed up and began to gather around, the sheriffs office said. Believing the group may be there to harm him, it added, the man fled back to the residence and alerted his roommates.

An earlier statement from the sheriffs office said someone had reported that several people with guns had cut down a tree and were telling them that they need to stay quarantined.

The episode highlights how states across the country have grown leery of out-of-town license plates and visitors amid the spread of the coronavirus, as people flee cities that have been hit hard by the pandemic for vacation homes and wide-open spaces elsewhere.

In Rhode Island, police officers and National Guard members were deployed to warn fleeing New Yorkers that they must self-quarantine. Hawaii, which thrives on tourism, is asking visitors to stay away for a month. And in Alaska, almost all people, whether or not they live there, must quarantine themselves upon arrival.

The roommates in Maine used a radio to contact the Coast Guard and a drone to keep an eye on the group outside until the authorities arrived, the sheriffs office said.

The group had dispersed by the time law enforcement arrived, the sheriffs office added, but it was apparent that the tree had been cut down and dragged into the roadway to block it.

The sheriffs office said deputies learned that there is a general belief by some island residents that the Cripple Creek residents are supposed to be quarantined because they came here from another state and could have COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

But the authorities found that the three roommates had been living in Vinalhaven for about 30 days, much longer than the two-week quarantine guideline issued by public health officials, and that none of them had any symptoms of the virus.

The sheriffs office said it was concerned that some believe that anyone from out of the state is potentially infected and needs to be quarantined.

Whether someone is a Maine resident or not, they have the right to free movement and anyone who infringes upon that free movement is potentially violating the law, it added.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, some governors have begun placing restrictions on visitors in an effort to prevent the virus from spreading further into their states.

On Saturday, President Donald Trump said he would not impose a quarantine on New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, but would instead issue a strong travel advisory. Later that night, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a formal advisory, urging the residents of those three states to refrain from nonessential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately.

State Rep. Genevieve McDonald, a Democrat who represents Vinalhaven, said on Facebook that there are two guys from N.J. on Vinalhaven who have been renting a house since September while working on a construction job.

They went to the mainland, and were targeted because of their license plate when they arrived back on Vinalhaven, she said.

An exchange between the roommates and some local residents apparently didnt go very well, she said, adding that a group of local vigilantes decided to take matters into their own hands, and barricade these guys into their rental property.

McDonald called the commotion a tremendous waste of resources, noting that it had drawn a response from several officials.

Now is not the time to develop or encourage an us vs. them mentality, she said. Targeting people because of their license plates will not serve any of us well.

McDonald added that except for in the most extreme circumstances, we do not have the authority to control the movement of U.S. citizens within our borders.

She signed off the note with simple instructions: Stay home, wash your hands, dont talk to strangers, and dont waste the time of our first responders.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Nollywood actor, Yul Edochie has advised that Nigerias President, Muhammadu Buhari give out at least N50,000 each to all Nigerians to aid them during the Coronavirus lockdown.

Reacting to the presidents broadcast last night, Yul tweeted;

Read Also: Dont Marry A Career Driven Woman And Force Her To Stay At Home  Yul Edochie

Dear President @MBuhari Pls provide an economic relief package for Nigerians, even if its 50k each, it will go a long way. People are hungry, locked down with no money, begging left, right & centre. With a situation like this, itll be difficult to keep people at home, Yul Edochie wrote.

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The Trades Union Congress, TUC, has asked on all workers within parts of Greater Accra and Kumasi who are not exempted from the restriction of movement, to obey the rules set out in order to avoid the further spread of the novel Coronavirus.

This follows the announcement by President Akufo-Addo on Friday, 27th March 2020, on a partial lock-down of parts of Accra, Tema, Kasoa, and Kumasi, which have been identified as the epicentres of the novel coronavirus in Ghana.

In a statement signed by the TUC Secretary-General, Dr. Yaw Baah, the Union urged workers to be responsible and observe all the enhanced hygiene procedures.

We would like to appeal to all workers in Greater Accra and Kumasi, who are not exempted from the restriction of movement, to stay at home with their families. Remember that it is your civic duty to stay at home to protect yourself and others from the infection. Do not go out unless you need to attend to something really urgent, the statement noted.

While commending all health professionals and front-line workers in the fight against the spread of the virus, the Union called on them to remember to protect themselves as well.

As workers who are at the front-line of this war against COVID-19, you are heroes and heroines of this war. We are counting on you to take care of us. You too have the right to be protected so you should ensure that you have all the personal protective equipment (PPE) you need to perform your duties, the statement added.

Ghana records 152 cases

Currently, Ghana's case count has risen to 152 cases with 5 deaths and 2 recoveries. This follows the confirmation of 11 new cases by the Ghana Health Service on Sunday, March 29, 2020.

Ten of the new cases were among persons who were under mandatory quarantine in Tamale under the direction of the Regional Security Committee of the Northern Region.

Globally, the number of COVID-19 cases is almost 600,000 with over 27,000 deaths.

Click here for the full statement:

---citinewsroom
France has become the fourth nation to see its coronavirus death toll exceed 3,000 following its worst day for fatalities since the outbreak began.

Prime Minister Edouard Phlippe warned the hardest weeks of the pandemic were still to come for the country as deaths climbed by 418 in the space of 24 hours.

The latest deaths mean only Italy, Spain and China have recorded greater loss of life linked to the pandemic.

Among those to die across the weekend in France was a doctor who had been close to retirement and was providing frontline medical care for those suffering with the virus.

We will use this rage from his death to fight more and more and be tougher than this virus, Aurelien Rousseau, director general of the Paris region health authority, said in a letter which has since been made public.

Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Show all 12 1 /12 Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Agnetha Septimus, Matthew Septimus, and children Ezra and Nora Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Husband and wife filmmakers, Claire Ince and Ancil McKain pose for a portrait for the series by Shutterstock Staff Photographer, Stephen Lovekin, shot around the Ditmas Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Khadijah Silver and son Eliot Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Anna Beth Rousakis and daughter Mary Rousakis Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Mike Pergola and Denise Pergola with children Henry, Jack, and Will Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Artist Shirley Fuerst Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Jean Davis and Danny Rosenthal, with children Simone, Naomi, and Leah Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Robert E Clark Jr Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Lisa Draho and Josh Zuckerman, with children Ruby and Ava Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Professor and activist Dr Kristin Lawler Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Tom Smith and Laura Ross, with daughters Caroline, Elizabeth, and Abigail Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Callie Lovekin and Lucas Lovekin Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock

While deaths increased by 16 per cent to 3,024, the number of intensive care cases rose by 10 per cent to 5,107. The increase marked the first rise in the figure after a hopeful two days of decline in ICU referrals.

Today in the pulmonology unit we are as full as full can be, said Jerome Pinot, a physician at the Georges Pompidou hospital in Paris.

To find a place in intensive care is a never-ending headache. We ask ourselves whether we can move this patient to this unit to take another patient. Its an incessant game.

Hundreds of patients have been evacuated from hospitals in Frances hardest hit areas, with some carried by military aircraft and high-speed trains during transfers to medical facilities elsewhere in the country and even in Germany.

Officials hope the strategy will ease the strain on stricken regions so that areas including Paris could again take patients once the expected peak of the outbreak is over in two weeks time.

It comes as the nations health officials wait to see if a national lockdown will begin to turn the tide against the virus, which has claimed the lives of more than 37,000 people worldwide and infected more than 780,000.

We are not in a drop at the moment. We hope that this increase will be more modest in the coming days, said Jerome Salomon, head of the French public health authority.

The growth phase of the epidemic in the region will probably last two weeks, said Pierre Delobel, head of the infectious and tropical diseases unit at the University Hospital in Toulouse, where the number of cases has jumped from eight to 40 in a week.

Then there will be a slowdown but that does not mean a decrease, it will go up less quickly.

Additional reporting by Reuters
Ventilators being checked out.

Reuters

Ford will make 50,000 ventilators in 100 days, starting April 20, to fight the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Ford, through its partnership with GE Healthcare, is working with a Florida manufacturer, Airon, to produce a simplified ventilator that doesn't require electricity to operate.

Ford will make the ventilators at a factory in Michigan, operating around the clock at full production, making 7,200 ventilators per week.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

On Monday, Ford said that it would make 50,000 ventilators over 100-day period, starting April 20, to meet critical demand driven by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Ford has partnered with GE Healthcare to produce a simplified type of ventilator, GE/Airon Model A-E. It operates using air pressure and doesn't require electricity. The ventilator design has been FDA-approved since 2004 and sells for $7,000. GE Healthcare intends to license the device and secure its approval for manufacture by Ford, and ther automaker will serve as a contract manufacturer.

Ford said it would make the ventilators at its Rawsonville Components Plant in Michigan. It could ramp up production to 30,000 units per month, as needed.

"Ford will provide its manufacturing capabilities to quickly scale production, and GE Healthcare will provide its clinical expertise and will license the current ventilator design from Airon Corp.  a small, privately held company specializing in high-tech pneumatic life support products," Ford said in a statement.

Ford CEO Jim Hackett added, "The Ford and GE Healthcare teams, working creatively and tirelessly, have found a way to produce this vitally needed ventilator quickly and in meaningful numbers."

Hackett stressed that production couldn't happen without the cooperation of the United Auto Workers membership.

Scaling production to 7,200 ventilators per week at full production

Ford suspended North American production two weeks ago.

Reuters

Ford said it would initially work with Florida-based Airon to enhance production in that state before beginning work in Michigan. The carmaker, which suspending all US vehicle manufacturing about two weeks ago, said it could see 1,500 ventilators by the end of April, with 12,000 by the end of May and 50,000 by July 4, running its Rawsonville factory around the clock and staffing it with 500 paid volunteer UAW members. Full production would be 7,200 ventilators per week.

Story continues

Ford noted that this new effort comes in addition to Ford's effort to boost production of GE Healthcare's existing ventilators. Tom Westrick, GE Healthcare chief quality officer, described the undertaking as a "two-pronged approach." The company is currently trying to double production of a sophisticated ventilator that it makes in Wisconsin. Now, it's assisting Ford in getting up top speed on the Airon device.

Ford and General Motors both shut down vehicle production several weeks ago, but in short order, each company joined with ventilator manufacturers to rapidly expand the scale at which the devices can be assembled.

On a conference call with the news media after the announcement was made, Adrian Price, Ford's director of manufacturing core engineering, said that workers would begin training in the few weeks to make the Airon ventilators.

In a statement, White House Defense Production Act Coordinator Peter Navarro said Ford and GE are moving "to speed urgently needed ventilators to the front lines of the Trump Administration's full-scale war against the coronavirus."

Last week, President Donald Trump attacked GM for moving too slowly, in his view, to produce ventilators, even though GM had been working with a Seattle manufacturer, Ventec, to make more. Trump also urged Ford to make more ventilators.

Read the original article on Business Insider
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - The first death in Atlantic Canada related to COVID-19 was reported Monday in Newfoundland and Labrador, where health officials confirmed a 78-year-old-man with underlying health problems died after attending a funeral service where several people were infected.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/3/2020 (653 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - The first death in Atlantic Canada related to COVID-19 was reported Monday in Newfoundland and Labrador, where health officials confirmed a 78-year-old-man with underlying health problems died after attending a funeral service where several people were infected.

Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, the province's chief medical officer of health, expressed her condolences to the man's family and immediately announced a ban on all funerals, wakes and visitations. She also said all weddings and burials must be limited to five people, including the person presiding over the ceremony.

Visitors stroll through Point Pleasant Park in Halifax on Friday, August 13, 2010. Police in Nova Scotia are getting serious about imposing fines on people caught ignoring provincial orders aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

"I know people may be anxious about what is happening in our province," Fitzgerald told a news conference via telephone link. "Please know that these feelings are a normal reaction to what we are going through and that you are not alone."

Fitzgerald said 13 positive cases were added to the province's growing caseload, which stood at 148. That's the second-highest per capita infection rate in Canada, after Quebec.

Of particular concern for Newfoundland and Labrador is a cluster of cases linked to two services held March 15-17 at Caul's Funeral Home in St. John's. As of Monday, 111 of the province's infections were linked to those services.

So far, nine people in Newfoundland and Labrador have been admitted to the hospital and two were in intensive care on Monday, Fitzgerald said.

Health Minister John Haggie urged families not to travel together on shopping trips, which he said should be limited to essential purchases.

"Don't take your children with you," he said. "And please don't let them lick the handles on the shopping cart."

No other Atlantic province has reported any deaths related to the virus.

In Nova Scotia, health officials on Monday reported five new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the province's total to 127.

Officials said almost all of those cases have been connected to travel or a previously known case, but one case appears to be the result of transmission within the community.

Dr. Robert Strang, the province's chief medical officer of health, said the infected individual attended a St. Patrick's Day event on March 14 in Lake Echo outside of Halifax. However, Strang said no one else at the party has tested positive.

"It is now more important than ever for Nova Scotians to strictly adhere to the public health orders and directives," the province's Health Department said in a statement, reminding residents that gatherings of more than five people are prohibited.

In New Brunswick, two new confirmed cases were reported Monday, bringing the province's total to 68. Health officials also confirmed that community transmission is now present in the province, noting that cases in Moncton, Saint John and Edmundston cannot be traced to an infection which took place outside the province.

"People everywhere in New Brunswick have to act as if the virus is in their community whether it is confirmed or not," said Jennifer Russell, New Brunswick's chief medical officer of health.

New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs said there are still too many people going to parks and beaches that are supposed to be off-limits. He said he was told of a large crowd at New River Beach near Saint John on the weekend.

"I was told there were over 100 cars at that beach," he said Monday. "We have notified the authorities."

In Prince Edward Island, seven new cases were reported Monday, all of them related to international travel. The Island now has 18 confirmed cases.

P.E.I. Premier Dennis King said he is disappointed that some people are still not listening to the advice from Public Health to self-isolate or practice social distancing, despite the threat of hefty fines.

King said he is asking the attorney general to instruct police agencies on the Island to make enforcement a priority.

"There will be no more warnings," he said.

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Meanwhile, police in Nova Scotia appear to be getting serious about imposing fines on people caught ignoring provincial orders aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19.

On Sunday, Halifax Regional Police handed a $697 fine to a woman who was walking in Point Pleasant Park, which has been closed to visitors since the province declared a state of emergency on March 22.

On Saturday, the Truro Police Service handed a ticket to a 65-year-old man for failing to self-isolate. Police said they received complaints alleging the man was "blatantly disregarding" rules requiring people entering the province to remain in isolation for two weeks.

In Millbrook, N.S., the RCMP have charged a non-essential business for remaining open, despite repeated warnings. Police said the owner was handed a fine for $7,500.

 By Michael MacDonald in Halifax. With files from Keith Doucette and Michael Tutton in Halifax and Holly McKenzie-Sutter in St. John's, N.L.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 30, 2020.
Monroe County is becoming a coronavirus hot zone with more than half of admissions to the St. Lukes University Health Networks Monroe campus being treated for COVID-19, a hospital official said in a news conference Sunday afternoon.

Sam Kennedy, network spokesman, said the news conference was called by Don Seiple, campus president, amid an increase in figures released Sunday afternoon by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Monroe County recorded its third death and had 135 cases as of midnight Sunday. St. Lukes infectious disease specialists have confirmed community spread is occurring in the Poconos, which means the virus is being transmitted among members of the community.

Pennsylvania now has 3,394 positive cases of COVID-19 in 58 of the states 67 counties and 38 deaths. All people are either isolating at home or being treated at a hospital.

Seiple, however, stated at the news conference he didnt believe the states daily count accurately reflects actual numbers because not enough testing supplies have been allocated to the region. Seiple believes the Poconos is more like New York City than other parts of the state because so many residents are commuters and so many New York CIty-area residents have left the city to their vacation homes, Kennedy said.

Patients with COVID-19 symptoms make up most of the emergency room at St. Lukes Monroe Campus, Seiple said, noting most of those hospitalized with the virus need critical care. A tent stationed outside the Monroe Emergency Department is a proactive step in providing additional capacity in the event it is needed, Kennedy said.

We know that we have COVID-19 community spread in Monroe County. We have learned from other areas hard hit by COVID-19, such as Seattle and New York, that expanded capacity in the emergency department can be vital to providing care to the community, Kennedy said. At this point in time the additional space is not needed.

Tests take about a week to be returned, Seiple noted.

At a separate news conference Sunday, Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said the state would be talking to hospital and health system officials in the Poconos to assist them with the influx of cases. Commercial labs in the state are reporting waiting periods of five days or more, she said. State officials have contacted Quest and LabCorp in hopes of cutting that waiting times.

Thats a significant issue, Levine said.

The state lab is able to deliver results for high priority cases  like health care and nursing home workers  in 24 hours. The delay in test results and the fact that many with the virus will never be tested means Pennsylvanias 3,394 positive cases are an undercount, Levine said.

Trends are more important than exact numbers, she said. We are looking at trends over time in terms of the rise in case.

Pennsylvania has enough tests to meet its current testing protocols of testing high priority cases and urging those with mild cases of COVID-19 to stay home and recuperate in isolation. The state does not have enough supplies for mass population testing, like whats been done in Singapore and Hong Kong.

No state has those supplies at this time, Levine said.

There have been two federally-funded mass testing sites in the states hardest hit counties -- Philadelphia and Montgomery. It is up to federal officials if they wish to set up another mass testing site in the state, Levine said.

Lehigh Valley Health Network spokesman Brian Downs said the network is seeing similar numbers at its Lehigh Valley Hospital-Pocono location in East Stroudsburg, Monroe County. The public was alerted more than a week ago by the network to avoid traveling to and from New York City due to an observed heightened risk for contracting COVID-19.

It appears fewer people in Monroe County and the Poconos seem to be heeding the warnings about staying home and social distancing, Downs said.

He noted the health network is urging the same measures as St. Lukes in terms of social distancing and staying home. Gov. Tom Wolf ordered several counties across the state, including the Lehigh Valley on March 25, to stay home.

We continue to monitor the number of patients as well as staffing and have a plan in place that would include all of our sites, Downs said. He added surge tents, used in the past for bad flu seasons, would be part of that strategy, but the network has not reached that level at this time.

Reporter Sara K. Satullo contributed to this report.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email her. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
C oronavirus fake news is a serious issue. From fraudsters running phishing scams, to so-called experts offering misinformation about cures  a mix of garlic and boiling water, really? - misinformation during a time like this is particularly dangerous.

According to the UKs Department of Culture, Media and Sport, there are up to 70 fake news incidents a week doing the rounds on the internet. As a result, the government says it is tasking specialist units, such as the Rapid Response Unit, with combatting false and misleading narratives.

We need people to follow expert medical advice and stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives. It is vital that this message hits home and that misinformation and disinformation which undermines it is knocked down quickly, said culture secretary Oliver Dowden in a statement.

One recent scam related to the UK governments text message to the public to stay home. A second false text message was circulated which claimed some people had already been fined for going outside. A second scam pretended to be HMRC offering tax refunds, which included doctored screenshots of the Gov.uk website.

Its not just the UK government which is cracking down on fake news online, but the social platforms are struggling with it too. Facebook has been removing coronavirus-related misinformation, particular posts that mention false tips around cures, treatments and the severity of the outbreak on both Facebook and Instagram. The platform has also banned ads and listings that imply a product guarantees a cure or prevents people from contracting the virus.

Messaging platform WhatsApp is working with the UK government on its new Coronavirus Information Service, a new automated chatbot which aims to provide information to people, as well as reducing pressure on the NHS and combatting the spread of fake news online. In addition, it is limiting how many times a message can be forwarded as well as using machine learning to identify and ban accounts engaging in mass messaging with intentions to spread viral messages.

How Facebook's platforms are attempting to tackle fake news / Facebook

Even those doing harmless pranks are concerned about the impact of misinformation at a time like this. Billy McLean, the software developer behind the Wembley Stadium lasagne prank, which has been heard over a million times on Twitter alone, warned against how messages can spread on social media.

McLean told the Guardian: "The intentions are good but the outcome most of the time is pretty bad, it makes people panic more... If someone sitting at home in their boxers selling software can save a one-minute clip and make it go viral, you've got to be aware that anyone can put anything out and it might not be valid."

As part of the governments efforts to fight fake news online, it is relaunching its Dont Feed The Beast public information campaign. This encourages people to question the information theyre seeing and determine whether or not it is fake.
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Way back in 1995, Amazon made its first-ever customer sale. Within two short months, Amazon was selling US$20,000 per week in the U.S. and countries around the world.

Today, Amazon has become the go-to marketplace for more than 310 million customers, and more than 54 percent of all product searches occur on Amazon.

In other words, Amazon has replaced Google as the No. 1 search engine for products.

So, how can your brand leverage this fast-growing, ultra-competitive marketplace while still remaining profitable? Lets take a look at four Amazon advertising strategies you can start using today to improve your effectiveness and sell more products.

1. Optimized Product Listings

Before even considering advertising on Amazon, you need to start with effective product listings that are optimized properly for both your audience and Amazons algorithm. Many brands advertising on Amazon still neglect this fundamental step, which leads to lower engagement, lower audience intent, and fewer sales.

You need to err on the side of excellence, especially the more complicated or technical your product is. There are five common shortcomings that brands make in regards to product listings:

Poor brand representation or low quality images: Make sure that all of the text supporting your product  from title and description to details and bulleted copy  are optimized with the keywords that resonate with your audience. Look to Amazons own product listings to get a sense of how it positions information.

Make sure that all of the text supporting your product  from title and description to details and bulleted copy  are optimized with the keywords that resonate with your audience. Look to Amazons own product listings to get a sense of how it positions information. Misleading product claims: Be accurate and truthful in the claims you are making about your products. The fastest way to destroy consumer trust is to exaggerate or inaccurately portray your products. Dont be a snake oil salesman!

Be accurate and truthful in the claims you are making about your products. The fastest way to destroy consumer trust is to exaggerate or inaccurately portray your products. Dont be a snake oil salesman! Unanswered questions: If someone asks you a question about your product, answer it! A huge part of building consumer trust is being highly responsive in your customer service. Unanswered questions are warning signs of a brand that doesnt care.

If someone asks you a question about your product, answer it! A huge part of building consumer trust is being highly responsive in your customer service. Unanswered questions are warning signs of a brand that doesnt care. Negative reviews: Although you cant entirely control negative reviews, you can leverage them to your advantage. Use them as an opportunity to get valuable feedback on your products, provide customer service if something went wrong, or even determine if your customers are receiving counterfeit products from a third-party seller.

Although you cant entirely control negative reviews, you can leverage them to your advantage. Use them as an opportunity to get valuable feedback on your products, provide customer service if something went wrong, or even determine if your customers are receiving counterfeit products from a third-party seller. Duplicate listings: If the same product has multiple listings, you not only are diluting your traffic, but also might be sending shoppers to an unoptimized product page. Make sure that your products dont have multiple listings. If they do, work with Amazon Seller Support to get them removed.

2. The Right Goals

This might sound like common sense, but youd be amazed at the number of brands that dont have clearly defined goals, or have goals focused far too granularly to see the bigger picture. Success means different things to different companies, so understanding the specific needs of your brand is the first step to setting the right goals.

There are three common objectives for Amazon advertisers:

Brand awareness

Rapid growth

Sales at a target ROI

Before even considering building out or expanding your Amazon advertising, you need to set clear expectations for the channel.

For instance, if brand awareness is your main goal, youll probably want to invest more heavily in your Amazon Store and Amazon Sponsored Brand ads, which are a great way to showcase your products and get more people viewing what you offer.

If sales at a target ROI is the goal, youll need a much more comprehensive advertising strategy and campaign optimizations in place to reach your goal.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

3. Competitive Research and Analysis

Understanding your competitors and your position in the marketplace is another essential step toward optimizing your Amazon advertising.

One of the best ways to make this determination is to perform a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) of your brand. This will help you better define your competition, and it also can help you flesh out the specific strengths of your brand.

The big takeaway here is that you can make more profit quickly and easily by focusing on your strengths and capitalizing on the strengths of your products. You can spend a lifetime trying to eliminate your weaknesses and never achieve the same impact as optimizing for your strengths.

Here are six questions to ask yourself as you look to understand your unique strengths:

How competitive is your category on Amazon?

on Amazon? What is your fulfillment strategy , and what is the strategy of your competitors?

, and what is the strategy of your competitors? What do your product reviews look like?

look like? What is the quality of your product listings ?

? How are you priced compared to your competitors?

compared to your competitors? Are your products bundled similarly to your competitors or do you have a unique selling angle?

4. Keywords, Keywords, Keywords

Last but not least, understanding the keywords that are resonating with your audience is essential to optimizing your Amazon advertising campaigns.

There are three main keyword match types on Amazon:

Exact match captures traffic that matches the keyword exactly or is a plural. If the search is sock, either sock or socks would be an exact match, but red sock would not.

captures traffic that matches the keyword exactly or is a plural. If the search is sock, either sock or socks would be an exact match, but red sock would not. Phrase match captures traffic with any variation of a keyword or keyword phrase, assuming the words appear in the correct order. If the search phrase is red socks, phrases like long red socks and red socks for sports would track, but red long socks would not.

captures traffic with any variation of a keyword or keyword phrase, assuming the words appear in the correct order. If the search phrase is red socks, phrases like long red socks and red socks for sports would track, but red long socks would not. Broad match captures traffic when an individual word within the keyword or keyword phrase is used. The order does not matter as long as one of the words for the search is present. A search for red long socks would track for any combination of terms using red, long, socks, or any combination of these words.

There are a number of free tools available to help you in your keyword research.

Also, the Amazon search bar itself is an incredible resource for keyword research. When you start typing a query into the search field, Amazon attempts to auto fill the keyword or phrase based on the tremendous audience data acquired from its 310 million customers.

This offers a great opportunity to see the common keywords that are associated with your products, and the terms that real consumers are using.

Tying It All Together

Once you have gathered a solid collection of keywords, completed your competitive research and SWOT analysis, set smart goals, and fine-tuned your listings, youre well on your way to mounting an efficient, optimized Amazon advertising campaign.

Obviously, the setup is only half the battle. Fine-tuning the ads themselves and continuously analyzing, testing and optimizing are key to long-term success.
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New photos show the grim interior of a field hospital erected in Central Park to provide care for critically ill coronavirus patients as the death toll in New York City climbs toward 1,000.

Workers are currently setting up triage tents outside six hospitals in the Mount Sinai system to create more space for COVID-19 patients.

One of the sites is located on Central Park's East Meadow lawn, right across the street from Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Photos taken inside that 68-bed facility on Monday show rows of simple white cots each with a single blue pillow, spaced out a few feet apart down either side of the tents.

New York City remains the epicenter of the US coronavirus pandemic, with 36,221 confirmed cases and 790 deaths as of Monday afternoon.

Hospitals in the city have been struggling to keep up with the exploding number of critical patients, prompting many to expand to temporary facilities.

New photos show the grim interior of a field hospital erected in Central Park to provide care for coronavirus patients

Simple white cots are seen lined up inside one of the tents on Central Park's East Meadow lawn on Monday

Workers are setting up triage tents outside six hospitals in the Mount Sinai system to create more space for COVID-19 patients

Volunteers are seen setting up ventilators in a tent that will serve as an intensive care unit on Monday

The East Meadow site is located across the street from Mount Sinai Hospital by Fifth Avenue

The East Meadow site is being set up with help from Samaritan's Purse, an evangelical Christian relief organization headed by Franklin Graham, son of the late televangelist Billy Graham.

On Sunday, the group trucked in four trailers of equipment and gear, including tents, beds, personal protective equipment and 10 ventilators to treat the sickest patients.

A team of 70 healthcare workers from around the US are now on the scene unpacking those supplies and distributing them into tents.

The team is led by Elliott Tenpenny, a physician who's previously tended to Ebola patients in West Africa, Syrian refugees in Iraq and earthquake victims in Ecuador.

'There's lots of cases here in New York and a lot of people that need help,' Tenpenny said. 'The hospitals all over the city are filling up and they need as much help as they can get. That's why we're here.'

He told the New York Post: 'I never would have guessed we'd come to New York City with something like this. But New York never thought it would be dealing with a pandemic, either.'

New York City remains the epicenter of the US coronavirus pandemic, with 36,221 confirmed cases and 790 deaths as of Monday afternoon

The East Meadow site is being set up with help from Samaritan's Purse, an evangelical Christian relief organization headed by Franklin Graham (right), son of the late televangelist Billy Graham

Volunteers are seen unpacking a mountain of equipment provided by Samaritan's Purse on Monday

Mount Sinai anticipated that the triage tent set-up on Central Park's East Meadow lawn would take about two days to finish

A volunteer is seen setting up an air conditioning unit at the East Meadow site on Monday

Each of the tents is lined with simple white cots sitting on a tarp covering the grass underneath

Medical equipment is seen stacked on a bed in the intensive care unit

Mount Sinai announced plans to erect temporary facilities outside six of its hospitals last week.

'The tents will be critical in helping us limit the spread of the disease between patients and staff,' hospital officials said in a statement, adding that they will expand the emergency room 'footprint'.

The site in East Meadow, which is typically populated by sunbathers and dog-walkers, is located near the emergency room for Mt Sinai Hospital by Fifth Avenue.

Tents are also being put up outside Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Lower Manhattan, Mount Sinai West on 59th Street, Mount Sinai Morningside on the Upper West Side, Mount Sinai Brooklyn, and Mount Sinai South Nassau on Long Island.

The field hospitals for Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai Morningside are also located in Central Park.

Mount Sinai West made headlines earlier this month after a photo emerged of three of its nurses wearing black garbage bags as makeshift gowns amid a dire shortage of personal protective equipment.

One of its nurses, 48-year-old Kious Kelly, died at the hospital after contracting coronavirus last Tuesday.

Samaritan's Purse trucked in four trailers of equipment and gear, including tents, beds, personal protective equipment and 10 ventilators to treat the sickest patients on Sunday

A team of 70 healthcare workers from around the US are now unpacking supplies and distributing them into tents

Tents are also being put up outside Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Lower Manhattan, Mount Sinai West on 59th Street, Mount Sinai Morningside on the Upper West Side, Mount Sinai Brooklyn, and Mount Sinai South Nassau on Long Island

In addition to a shortage of space within New York City hospitals, several are also struggling to keep shifts fully staffed as doctors and nurses fall ill from the virus.

On Monday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo begged healthcare workers from other states to 'come and help us now'.

Speaking at the Javits Center, a makeshift 2,500-bed hospital in Manhattan that will begin accepting patients on Monday, Cuomo said: 'The front line of the battle is in the healthcare system. That is where this battle is fought. It's that simple. You know exactly where the enemy is going to attack.'

He called the doctors and nurses 'the soldiers' of the war on coronavirus, then went on: 'We need to recruit more healthcare workers. Share healthcare professionals, within this state and within this country, as governor of NY I am asking healthcare professionals across the country; if you don't have a crisis in your community, please come help us in NY now.

'We need relief. We need relief for nurses working 12 hour shifts one after the other after the other. Please, and we will return the favor.'

Cuomo's plea came as experts say New York could reach its peak of new coronavirus cases within the next seven to 10 days as the daily statewide death toll shows signs it is leveling out and the number of hospital ER visits starts to decrease.

The death toll in New York state - the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States - increased by 253 to 1,218 fatal cases on Monday, according to new state figures.

It comes after the rate of deaths spiked 40 percent on Saturday with 247 new cases, bringing the death toll to 782.

The death toll dipped considerably in terms of new fatal cases on Sunday after recording a 23 percent increase with 183 deaths.

Monday's 253 new cases showed an increase of 26 percent in the number statewide deaths.
Most people know that when it comes to post apocalyptic movies and films, moviegoers always go for heart-pounding suspense, a dose of unthinkable horror, and most definitely compelling narratives. Unfortunately, this is one of the genres that is sometimes filled with badly written movies.

Image: facebook.com, @postapocalypticmovies

Source: UGC

Our list of post apocalyptic movies below will make it easy for you to choose a few movies for an easy weekend. All you need to remember is that the best post apocalyptic movies are not necessarily the scariest ones. As long as the storyline is interesting, you can enjoy binge-watching. Consider the following examples, they are all worth watching.

The best post-apocalyptic movies

You can bet that the great acting skills that go into most of the post apocalypse movies will help you prepare for anything. These post-apocalyptic movies will keep you happily engaged all weekend long. With some of the most popular post apocalyptic movies on Netflix, you can be sure that you will be pleased all weekend long. Some of these include:

25. These Final Hours

This 2015 film is a must-watch. The film takes place 10 minutes after the impact of the collision when Australia has about 12 hours before the firestorm reaches the country. It follows James, who wants to spend his remaining time at the "party to end all parties." However, this does not happen as he finds himself being pulled in different directions.

If you love thrilling films that give you an adrenalin rush every time you think about it then this would be a perfect choice. Just thinking about the end time gives many people chills. Trying to imagine if the end would be as a result of a collision as portrayed in the movie is even more interesting.

24. Cloverfield Lane

Image: facebook.com, @cloverfieldlane

Source: UGC

This is a 2016 loose sequel to Matt Reeves Cloverfield. The story is about a young woman who is trapped in an underground shelter with two strangers, while an alien invasion is supposed to be happening above. What this movie does so well is a set-shift between tense-filled scenes and dark humor. You will be taken on a roller coaster ride all through the movie.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is fantastic, and John Goodman gives the performance of a lifetime in this powerful post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller. By the time it comes to an end, you will experience an odd mix feeling of both terror and inspiration that will be difficult to erase in a long time.

23. This Is the End

Just when everyone thought it is impossible to make a comedy out of the end times, this 2013 production makes the apocalypse a little easier to digest. What are some good post apocalyptic movies? If this is a question you may ask, then here is a perfect answer.

The film has characters playing exaggerated versions of themselves in the middle of a looming disaster. You will find yourself laughing despite the scary truth of the apocalypse. It is indeed one of the best post-apocalypse movies you can watch.

22. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

The film is from 2012 and definitely passes for one of the best post apocalyptic films of all time. We all need a friend when things are confusing and difficult to deal with. The story is about an asteroid that headed towards Earth. Dodge acted by Steve Carrell, and Penny acted by Keira Knightly decide to try and reunite Dodge with a lost love before it hits. As they try to achieve their goal, they come across other people who are trying to deal with impending doom in different unique ways.

21. Melancholia

Image: facebook.com, @melancholia

Source: UGC

This 2011 movie has Kirsten Dunst playing a bride whose wedding reception is interrupted by the discovery of a planet named Melancholia. What's more, it is the one that is on a collision course with Earth. The movie unfolds and becomes ostensibly about the end of the world. It also shows chronic depression.

20. Take Shelter

This 2011 movie tries to imagine how it would be during the end of the world, especially if it is on its way, and you were the only one who knew about it. In Take Shelter Curtis LaForche, played by Michael Shannon, has a premonition of what is to come. He then runs into trouble when he becomes obsessed with building a storm shelter to prepare for the inevitable. The adrenaline rush will keep you hooked.

19. Retreat

This is a 2011 film about a married couple looking to reconnect, and they decide to go away for a vacation on a remote island off the coast of Scotland. Their holiday is interrupted by a soldier who shows up at their doorstep, informing them of how an outbreak of airborne disease has decimated the outside world. To survive, they are asked to hide inside until it is safe to come out again. The problem is that they are not sure if the soldier is telling the truth.

18. Days Later

If you love some of the best post apocalypse movies around, then you will add this to your collection. It has a zombie theme. Released in 2002, it will feature among the many zombie movie lists that are worth it. The post-apocalyptic film stars Cillian Murphy as Jim. Jim finds himself in a hospital four weeks after a virus spreads. The struggle is real. You have to watch it to find out who wins? Will things be restored or will the zombies have their way?

17. A Quiet Place

Image: facebook.com, @aquietplace

Source: UGC

If you make a sound above a whisper, you are dead in this world that is ravaged by unknown beasts. The simple premise is so effective and executed with expert precision by Jim from The Office, aka John Krasinski. The tension is constant in this movie, and you likely not to make a sound as you watch. Silence has been used throughout the films so beautifully that you'll keep your eyes open from the beginning till the end. It is more than just a monster movie as the film deals with regret and finding redemption in a near hopeless world.

16. Legion

It is a 2010 film that you do not want to miss. This one is about the end of the world in a Biblical sense of it. Paul Bettany plays the Archangel Michael, who seeks to stop evil forces from bringing about the apocalypse. What movie is about the world ending? Well, this would be a great example. It is one of the best post apocalyptic movies of all time.

15. The Road

This is a film from 2009. It is based on the book by Cormac McCarthy. The film follows a man and his son who try to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. They avoid violent scavengers and other evils as they make their way down "the road," trying to head toward the coast where it might be warmer.

14. Daybreakers

Image: facebook.com, @daybreakers

Source: UGC

Each time you count top post apocalyptic movies, Daybreak of 2009 comes up. In this movie, a plague transforms humans into blood-thirsty vampires. The problem is so widespread that only a few humans are left to feed off. There seems to be a cure, but it appears as though no one can stay long enough to spread it.

13. Knowing

Knowing was released in 2009. The story is about a professor, a role that is played by Nic Cage! He retrieves a code that was buried in an elementary school time capsule, and he believes he has cracked it  and it is a message about the end of the world. He has to establish whether he is right or wrong and if there are any impending disasters to be stopped.

12. Children of Men

Children of Men is a 2006 dystopian action thriller film. The futuristic film is directed and co-written by Alfonso Cuaron. The screenplay is based on P. D. James' 1992 novel The Children of Men, which was credited to five writers, with Clive Owen making unaccredited contributions.

It is set in the future, in 2027, 18 years of human infertility have left society on the verge of extinction. It so happens that one woman miraculously gets pregnant. It is the responsibility of Theo, a bureaucrat, to safely transport her to safety.

11. Sunshine

This was from 2007. The movie is another one where the sun is the main culprit. It is causing the end of the world. In this case, the sun is dying, and a group of scientists goes on a space mission to try and re-ignite it with a bomb. The mission is definitely one of the most dangerous ones because there are numerous dangers lurking. But what could go wrong?

10. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Image: facebook.com, @dawnoftheplanetoftheapes

Source: UGC

This is one of the most popular apocalyptic movies of all time. The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a 2014 American sci-fi action film that has been directed by Matt Reeves. It was written by Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver.

It so happens that a decade after a devastating virus is let loose, there is a war between man and apes. They engage in a battle to determine who would rule the earth's remainder. Ceasar, a chimpanzee, and leader of the evolved apes let in a human family into his territory. However, there comes a time when misunderstandings arise between the two species which then leads to the war and battle for leadership.

9. Delicatessen

This is an old movie from 1991. It is a mix of comedy and weird flicks. The story is cast in a word that is ravaged and people are forced to stay indoors. The landlord of the building seems to come through for the residents by regularly preparing a delicacy whose ingredients they do not know. This seems to get a lot of them thinking. The story is an account of the possible occurrence in a post-apocalyptic scenario where only those with excellent survival instincts will get through the ordeal. The movie is filled with dark humor and seems to be the best choice for a weekend that would otherwise be dull and boring.

8. Dredd

Dredd is a 2012 science fiction action film that is based on the 2000 AD comic strip Judge Dredd. Its eponymous character was created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra. The story is about a report of a horrible crime in a futuristic Mega-City One. A policeman, Dredd, is forced to travel to a perilous zone with Cassandra, a psychic. They are up against a vicious drug lord.

7. Escape From New York

Escape from New York is a stylized on-screen film. It is a story of John Carpenter's Escape from New York. The movie is a 1981 American science fiction action film that was co-written, co-scored and directed by John Carpenter. The movie's stars are Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Donald Pleasence, Ernest Borgnine, Isaac Hayes, Adrienne Barbeau, and Harry Dean Stanton.

The story is about Gruff Snake Plissken, who is an ex-soldier that has been forced to turn into a convict and is sent to Manhattan, now a maximum-security prison. His major task is to rescue the stranded US President.

6. I Am Legend

Image: facebook.com, @iamlegend

Source: UGC

The movie is based on Richard Mathesons famous book, I Am Legend. The story is about the last survivor on the earth. He finds himself a loner after a vampire plague infects all human beings and destroys everyone. While the realities painted in the movie cannot brilliantly capture what the author describes in his novel, since it deviates from the original ending, it still plays an excellent role in trying to make use of imagining how it would be if such a thing was to happen to the world.

The movie stars Will Smith in a solo show. He plays the role of Robert Neville in an excellent and praiseworthy manner. Viewers get to imagine how their beloved New York would really look like if no one was around to take care of it. The deserted city looks like a shadow of itself. You will start appreciating all the hard work that goes into maintaining cities around the world.

Without routine maintenance, there is a high likelihood that things would really get out of hand. The movie is all about a man who is isolated and alone, except for the company of his dog. Apart from the deserted streets, you also get to understand how depressing life can be, and maybe learn a thing or two about how to fight these feelings.

5. The Day After Tomorrow

This film from 2004 is a movie that embodies the term "climate crisis." It is about extreme weather breaking out across the country. People experience tornadoes to deep freezes. Despite the challenges, there are survivors. In New York, a group of survivors huddles in the New York Public Library and plan on their rescue plans.

4. Last Night

The movie is from 1998. It is never explained why the world is ending in this Canadian film. However, one thing is clear, and that is that the world has only one day. The film shows all the characters trying to figure out how to spend this last night, and who they want to share their last moments with.

3. 12 Monkeys

Image: facebook.com, @12monkeys

Source: UGC

This 1996 film is about a deadly virus that wipes out the world. It causes a few survivors to go underground. Bruce Willis has the responsibility of traveling back in time to find the source of the epidemic in the hopes that it could be reversed. In case you like mysteries, then this once-famous movie will interest you.

2. The Rapture

This 1991 film is about a woman who abandons her swinger lifestyle and chooses to follow a religious path. She then starts to see signs that the Rapture is on its way. David Duchovny and Mimi Rogers star in a movie. You will be left wondering if the woman is right?

1. The Quiet Earth

The 1985 film is one you must include in your post apocalyptic movies list. It best suits fans of The Leftovers; this is a movie about a scientist acted by Bruno Lawrence, who wakes up and realizes that the people of Earth are all gone. He thinks that the energy project he was working on may have been the reason behind all this. He then goes in search of other survivors.

With the list of the above post apocalyptic movies, anyone can enjoy watching different possibilities of the world's end. If you have been wondering about how possible the world can come to its knees, the imaginative story-lines in the above films will give something to think about. There is something for everyone. Whether you love recent productions or prefer older films from the past, you can be sure that something works for you.

Source: Legit.ng
Students and staffers with Linden Public Schools believe members of the community could use a little sunshine right about now.

And so, as the district continues with home learning during the coronavirus outbreak, school families are displaying "uplifting art on their windows and doors.

Through these displays, the district hopes to send messages of strength and unity and inspire community members to see beyond the outbreak. The district also hopes to assure students they will get through the challenge of the coronavirus outbreak and school closures together.

Linden High School Spanish teacher Tania Miguelez suggested the idea after seeing the movement, #DeMiVentana, begin in Spain.

In times like this, one of the most generous acts we can do is remind people that they are not alone, she said. We are all in this together. As educators, it is so important to make sure our students, parents, and families feel supported in every way possible. Especially on an emotional level.

Miguelez added, The students were so excited for this project. Many of them mentioned how relaxing it was to get their mind off of what is happening and to participate in something positive.

Linden High School principal Yelena Horre was confident the project would take off in Linden.

When Ms. Miguelez shared the #DeMiVentana project, I immediately knew it would be embraced by our Linden families as a whole, Horre said, One of the things that makes Linden so special is its diversity, and #FromMyWindow was created to share hope and to demonstrate unity; we are all in this together.

Horre is seeing the positive impact the project is having on the local community. She said she has received many messages from families of the district, sharing their own photos and photos from beyond the Linden community. Linden has always been a community that comes together, embraces our differences and celebrates our unity, she said.

Linden district communications coordinator Gary Miller is glad to positivity being spread throughout his community. The movement is to show that even though we are separated, we are all in this together, he said, Its important to keep a positive outlook while we face this challenge, and these displays help to do that.

Staff and students in Linden are also sharing photos of their artwork on social media with the district hashtag, #LindenLearnsAtHome, and the global movement, #FromMyWindow hashtag, spreading positivity to those on their social feeds.

Miguelez is happy to see her community come together at a time of uncertainty and stresses the importance of unity, The biggest takeaway from this project is to remember that we are not alone and that we have each other, she said, It represents how humanity has no boundaries.
More than 20 million Nigerians on Monday scrambled to prepare for lockdown in sub-Saharan Africas biggest city Lagos and the capital Abuja, as the continent struggled to curb the spread of coronavirus.

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered a two-week cessation of all movements in the key cities from 2200 GMT to ward off an explosion of cases in Africas most populous country.

Businesses are to be shuttered, non-food shops closed and people made to stay at home as the authorities look to track down possible carriers of the disease after reporting 111 confirmed cases and one death so far.

Enforcing the restrictions in sprawling Lagos will be a mammoth challenge as millions live crammed into overcrowded slums and rely on daily earnings to survive.-

In the ramshackle outdoor markets of Lagos Island anxious locals complained they did not have the money to stock up, while at higher-end supermarkets better-off residents queued to buy supplies.

Two weeks is too long. I dont know how we will cope, said student Abdul Rahim, 25, as he helped his sister sell foodstuffs from a stall in Jankarra market.

People are hungry and they wont be able to stock food.

City authorities have pledged to provide basic provisions to 200,000 households but the central government in Africas leading oil producer is already facing financial strain as the price of crude has collapsed.

The streets of Ghanas capital Accra were also empty as most people in two key regions appeared to be following a presidential order to stay indoors after it went into force overnight.

 Zimbabwe locks down 

Dozens of nations around Africa have imposed restrictions on movements, ranging from night-time curfews to total shutdowns.

Authorities in Zimbabwe  which is already suffering a grim economic recession  began enforcing a three-week lockdown after the disease left one person dead and infected six others.

Police mounted checkpoints on routes leading to Harares central business district, stopping cars and turning away pedestrians who had no authorisation to be in the area.

We dont want to see people here on the streets. We dont want to see people who have no business in town just loitering, a policewoman said through a loud hailer. Everyone to their homes.

Some people were trying to head for rural villages.

We would rather spend the 21 days at our rural home, where we dont have to buy everything. I cant afford to feed my family here when I am not working, said Most Jawure.

We have been waiting here for more than two hours but there are no buses, Jawure told AFP while standing with his wife and daughter beside a bulging suitcase.

For many of Zimbabwes 16 million people, the lockdown means serious hardship.

With the unemployment rate estimated at around 90 percent, most Zimbabweans have informal jobs to eke out a living and few have substantial savings.

As a similar scenario played out in other poor nations, the UN on Monday called for a $2.5-trillion aid package to help developing countries weather the pandemic, including debt cancellation and a health recovery Marshal Plan.

 A matter of time 

Experts warn that Africa is highly vulnerable to COVID-19 given the weak state of health systems across the continent.

The number of infections still lags far behind Europe but testing has been limited and the figures are growing rapidly.

Angola and Ivory Coast on Sunday became the latest countries to record their first deaths, bringing the number of African fatalities to around 150 of nearly 4,800 recorded cases.

In Democratic Republic of Congo, two new cases were reported in the volatile South Kivu region and an adviser to the nations president announced he had tested positive.

Kenya, which now has 50 reported cases, confirmed Monday that it now had community transmission of the coronavirus.

Police in South Sudan, one of a few nations in Africa yet to confirm a case, enforced strict new rules, shutting shops selling non-essential items and limiting passengers in public transport.

Mauritius, which has 128 cases  the worst in East Africa  has extended its lockdown to April 15.

South Africas defence minister on Monday denounced alleged intimidation by security forces after videos emerged showing some forcing civilians to squat or roll on the ground for allegedly violating restrictions.

In an interview with local Newzroom Afrika television channel, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said she was aware of two videos which have circulated where clearly there (is) some abuse.

Im saying I condemn that, we will not allow that to continue, she said.

SOURCE: AFP
Rolls-Royce, Airbus and Microsoft are among 14 companies joining together to begin production of thousands of ventilators this week to help save the lives of patients with Covid-19.

A consortium of manufacturers is working together to fulfil an order from the government for 10,000 ventilators after ministers called on companies to join a nationwide effort.

The UK currently has just over 8,000 of the vital medical devices  far short of the tens of thousands expected to be needed when the pandemic reaches its peak over the coming days and weeks.

The Ventilator Challenge UK consortium will produce two types of ventilator. One is a slight update to an existing design by Oxfordshire-based firm Penlon, aimed at speeding up the assembly process. The second is a device called the ParaPac ventilator by Luton-based Smiths Medical

Among the firms involved are Ford, GKN Aerospace, Inspiration Healthcare, Meggitt, Renishaw, Siemens, Thales, Ultra Electronics and Unilever.

Formula One teams Haas F1, Red Bull Racing, Racing Point, Renault Sport Racing, McLaren, Mercedes and Williams, are also on board.

More than 3,000 firms have offered to help with ventilator production, business minister Nadhim Zahawi said.

This consortium has brought together the very best of British engineering and manufacturing," Mr Zahawi said.

"It will be key in our efforts to ramp up ventilator capacity and overcome coronavirus. Over the coming weeks I will be working closely with the consortium as part of our shared ambition to protect our NHS and save lives."

An image issued by Dyson of their proposed CoVent ventilator on a hospital bed (PA)

Vacuum-cleaner maker Dyson announced last week that it plans to make a further 10,000 ventilators to its own new design known as CoVent, while defence firm Babcock is developing another separate design.

The government caused controversy last week after claiming that the UK had not taken part in an EU procurement process for thousands of ventilators due to a "communication error". Ministers had earlier said the reason was because the UK was no longer part of the EU, even though the UK had been invited to join.

The Ventilator Challenge UK consortium said it has taken about a week to meet exacting specifications developed by clinicians for a rapidly manufactured ventilator system.

On Monday, the consortium said it has received a formal order for 10,000 devices and could produce more, if needed.

Dick Elsy, leading the consortium, said it brought together firms well used to solving problems, adding "this project is no different".

"They are working together with incredible determination and energy to scale up production of much-needed ventilators and combat a virus that is affecting people in many countries," he added.

"I am confident this consortium has the skills and tools to make a difference and save lives."

Ventilators are crucial equipment for patients suffering the most severe effects of the coronavirus. The machines take over a sufferer's breathing function, pushing air into the lungs and keeping them alive for longer as their body fights the infection.

Additional reporting by PA
File Photo: Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe meets with his Singaporean counterpart Dr.Ng Eng Hen on May 29, 2019.

By Zhang Xiaoyu

BEIJING, Mar. 30-- Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe held a phone talk with his Singaporean counterpart Dr. Ng Eng Hen on the morning of March 27, 2020.

Gen. Wei Fenghe introduced China's prevention and control of the COVID-19. He said that under the command and deployment of President Xi Jinping, China has adopted the most comprehensive, stringent and thorough prevention and control measures. The current situations of China's domestic pandemic prevention and control continue to improve, and the accelerated recovery of production and living order continues to strengthen and expand. China thanks Singapore for its support and assistance in China's fight against COVID-19, appreciates Singapore's prevention and control results, and supports its efforts as well.

As a responsible major power, China has always upheld the concept of a community of shared future for mankind, made active efforts to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 worldwide, provided support and assistance to all countries, and received universal praise from the international community. China is willing to strengthen cooperation with Singapore, share experience, and jointly win the fight against the COVID-19 through mutual help and assistance, said Wei.

Dr. Ng Eng Hen said that China has achieved positive results in response to the COVID-19 under the strong leadership of President Xi Jinping, and Singapore extends the congratulations to China. Facts have proved that China's prevention and control measures are completely correct. Singapores Defense Minister also hopes that China will continue to play an active role in regional epidemic prevention and control cooperation.

The two sides also discussed the exchanges between the two militaries within this year.
The KGB drugged suspected British and US spies with poisoned wine after inviting them to sample experimental sherries, files reveal.

Chemical nerve agent in the drinks caused victims to suffer memory loss before they vomited and passed out.

KGB thugs then burst into their hotel rooms and searched their unconscious bodies for Cold War secrets.

Files at Britains National Archives, stumbled upon by accident, recount a Cold War story from 1967 in detail.

British military attache Brigadier Tony Harper and his American counterpart Colonel Bill Spahr were seized at a winery in Moldova. (Stock image of sherry wine)

The secret of a wine farm operating in the then Soviet republic of Moldova was uncovered when two victims woke up while being searched. These victims were British military attache Brigadier Tony Harper and his American counterpart, Colonel Bill Spahr.

They had diplomatic status but during their tour of the USSR the Kremlin thought they were gathering intelligence on Soviet troops.

So when the pair checked in to Hotel Kishinev in the capital of Moldova, the KGB was ready.

Like all foreigners at the time, the diplomats had to arrange their itinerary through the state travel agency Intourist.

They suspected nothing when the rep offered to take them to an experimental wine plant at 4pm that day to tour the factory and sample the wine.

The two men were determined to stay sober, the papers say, consuming no more than five sherry-sized glasses. But as they were leaving, they were brought a final wine in a bottle that arrived already open and which no one else drank from.

The wine was dark red in colour, very thick and oily. The texture was heavy and the taste was non-existent, according to the files.

As they left, the brigadier began to feel a little befuddled and they could not remember the drive back to the hotel. They managed to lock themselves inside their room and were violently sick before they collapsed by 6.45pm.

They then returned to Moscow where they were examined by an embassy doctor. Above is the former KGB headquarters in Moscow, Russia

Around 10.30pm five or six men, including a militiaman in uniform, a man dressed in white overalls with a stethoscope and a photographer broke in.

The diplomats were held down forcibly while the intruders tore open their shirts to get at the body belts in which they carried their notebooks. But the search was so forceful that both men regained consciousness.

They protested that they were diplomats but the thugs refused to believe them. They left around midnight after photographing all their documents and faking a police report claiming the two men had been drunk and rowdy.

The diplomats returned to Moscow where they were examined by an embassy doctor who concluded: This seems to be a case of intoxication with a chemical agent with a sweet, pleasant taste, [mixed into] alcohol or water.

Dr Juliette Desplat, of the National Archives, said: Serendipity often occurs in the course of archival research. While looking for something entirely unconnected, I stumbled upon a file entitled Incident at Kishinev involving British Military Attache and I wasnt disappointed.

Both men survived the poisoning  Brigadier Harper died in 1997 at the age of 80 and Colonel Spahr in 2011 aged 89.
Saudi Arabia is hijacking mobile phone data to track the movements of its citizens living in the US, new information leaked by a whistleblower suggests.

Data shows that the kingdoms three biggest mobile phone providers sent millions of requests to a major US provider asking for information that would allow the kingdom to identify the location of Saudi-registered phones in the country.

In total, almost 2.3million requests for data were sent per month between November last year and March this year  meaning individual phones were being tracked up to 13 times per hour.



A whistleblower told The Guardian that the data shows Saudi Arabia is weaponising mobile networks to run surveillance on its citizens abroad.

There is no other explanation, no other technical reason to do this, they said.

The apparent spying operation works by exploiting a system called SS7, which is used to connect mobile users calling or messaging from different countries.

Mobile phone companies can legitimately request information on users through the SS7 system including location data, which is used to register roaming charges.

But the new data suggests that Saudi Arabia is using its three biggest providers  Saudi Telecom, Mobily and Zain  to send millions of spurious requests.

Data on individual phones was being requested up to 13 per hour, the Guardian reported, which would allow anyone looking at it to build up an accurate picture of the owners movements.

There is no evidence that the Saudi mobile companies, which did not respond to requests for comment, knew their networks were being used in this way.

Saudi embassies in the US and UK also did not respond to requests for comment.

While the data did not reveal the identities of the phone owners who were being tracked, Saudi Arabia is known to keep a close eye on regime critics living overseas.

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RICHMOND  At Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, instead of cars, geriatric recliners and IV poles fill parking spots in the garage next to the emergency department  a makeshift field hospital for a possible overflow of patients.

VCU Medical Center hurriedly packed up students belongings last week to convert dorm rooms into a hospital for patients who do not have COVID-19 and free up beds in the main hospital for those who do. The medical center has asked the state for emergency permission to add 460 beds on various campuses.

And Wednesday, Gov. Ralph Northam ordered hospitals to cease non-urgent surgeries and made a call out to all medical professionals  from students to retirees  to volunteer for the states Medical Reserve Corps to relieve anticipated medical staffing shortages. The state also is working with the Army Corps of Engineers to identify sites for building up hospital capacity.

Its all part of an effort to keep Virginias health care system from being overrun by COVID-19 patients like New York City and Italy before it. As of Sunday, the Virginia Department of Health reported 890 people in the commonwealth have tested positive for COVID-19  an increase of 151 cases from Saturday. Thus far, 112 have been hospitalized, and 22 have died.

Dr. Laurie Forlano, deputy commissioner for population health for the VDH, said in an interview the department relies on hospitals to report hospitalizations. She said there tends to be a lag in reporting and  because its cumulative  the number does not represent current hospitalizations.

And while state officials say they are planning and encouraging social distancing to prevent the worst-case scenario, they have kept those plans mostly under wraps as some projections anticipate a shortage of intensive care beds, tens of thousands of sickened Virginians needing hospitalization and a climbing death toll in the coming months.

***

In Italy, doctors without enough ventilators  the machines that keep people with respiratory failure breathing  have decided who would live and who would die, often opting to save younger patients, according to news reports.

In New York City, one hospital was using one ventilator for two patients, the New York Times reported Thursday, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has tweeted the states 11,000 ventilators will fall far short of the 30,000 it expects to need.

COVID-19 tests, masks and other protective equipment also are in short supply globally, putting health care workers in danger and making containing the virus especially difficult.

On Friday, President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to compel General Motors to manufacture ventilators. The company said in a release it is ramping up production and plans to work up to producing 10,000 per month.

Still, experts who have projected how COVID-19 likely is to spread say the U.S. health care system will be strained in the coming days and weeks.

Virginia, a state of more than 8.5 million people, has 2,000 ventilators on hand, according to Cotton Puryear, spokesman for the Virginia COVID-19 Unified Command Joint Information Center. The Virginia Department of Health referred questions from the Richmond Times-Dispatch on March 16 and March 24 to the joint information center, which is run by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and includes spokespeople from state agencies, which responded Friday.

A middle-of-the-road projection that assumes 40% of the U.S. population will become infected with the coronavirus over the next six months predicts that hospital emergency rooms and critical care units would be overwhelmed, according to Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute.

Even when you have a lot of capacity creation, we would not be anywhere near where we need to be, Jha said on a webcast Thursday, referring to hospitals actions like at VCU Health to free up space by canceling elective procedures and adding bed space.

The state has requested an additional 350 ventilators from the national stockpile, but has not received an answer, Puryear said.

In addition to those assets, the regional health care coalitions that function as part of the Virginia Healthcare Emergency Management Program (VHEMP) have ventilators that can be deployed to hospitals, said Julian Walker, spokesman for the Virginia Hospitals and Healthcare Association, in a statement. While ventilator usage varies by region, at this point only a fraction of the ventilators in Virginia are in use to support patient care.

While officials in other states have publicly discussed projections of how many intensive care beds and ventilators will be needed depending on how many people are infected by the virus, Virginia has not released that information.

In news briefings, Northam and Health Secretary Daniel Carey have stopped short of giving specific numbers on current available resources or projections, instead saying state officials are in the process of planning and urging the public to stay home and away from other people to slow the spread of the virus.

You need to stay at home, Northam said at a briefing Friday. That is the only way that we can slow the spread of this virus to give our medical system time to build its capacity to save lives.  If we dont stay home  we will see our hospitals overwhelmed.

State epidemiologist Lilian Peake said in an interview Friday state officials are looking to different entities, such as the University of Virginia and individual hospital systems, that are doing scientific modeling to project possible numbers of infected people and needed resources, but the state does not have one model its relying on.

Projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle, which has done a state-by-state data analysis factoring in strict adherence to social distancing and public health measures, predict Virginia will reach its peak in outbreak severity on May 2 and, on that day, will need 512 intensive care unit beds  183 more than the 329 they predict to be open  according to the data used by IHME.

The projections also say Virginia will need 276 ventilators and can anticipate 1,543 COVID-19 deaths by Aug. 4.

Loudoun Countys Pandemic Response Plan, which was updated this month, says previous severe pandemic modeling used by the VDH estimated Virginia could see 2,700 to 6,300 deaths, 12,000 to 28,500 hospitalizations and 1.08 million to 2.52 million people become sick.

***

At Fridays briefing, Carey addressed questions from reporters about bed capacity and projections, saying state officials are aware of different projections and are involved in helping health systems implement their emergency plans and working to call in backup from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Virginia National Guard.

Our first and foremost goal is to encourage how to bend that curve so that those statistics and those potential realities dont come to pass, said Carey, reiterating the importance of social distancing.

Kaiser Health News analyzed hospital bed data from fiscal years 2018 and 2019 throughout the U.S. and found millions of Americans  and 7 million people older than age 60  live in counties or cities with no ICU beds. In Virginia, 76 of 133 localities reported having no ICU beds, but Kaiser noted the states situation is more difficult to analyze because of its independent cities with hospitals that likely serve neighboring counties.

KHN focused on older people because experts believe they  along with people who have chronic health conditions  are more susceptible to the severe and fatal cases of COVID-19, although the CDC has reported nearly 40% of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S. have been younger than 55.

A Richmond Times-Dispatch analysis of KHNs data, dividing the state into eight regions instead of cities and counties, found in Virginia, there were about 1,000 people who are 60 or older for every ICU bed in the state as of 2019.

Central Virginia, which has the most beds thanks in large part to those in Richmond, Chesterfield and Henrico counties, had about 770 seniors for every ICU bed. In Northern Virginia, which had the most reported coronavirus cases in the state as of Friday, there were about 1,250 seniors per ICU bed.

Northern Virginia, central Virginia and Hampton Roads accounted for more than 90% of confirmed coronavirus cases as of Friday. They skew younger than all other regions of the state and are home to about 70% of the states ICU beds. About 1 in 5 people living in those three regions are 60 or older. Across the rest of the state, where a lower number of beds means a smaller outbreak could overwhelm the system, its between 1 in 4 and 1 in 3.

In James City County, which has the highest rate of infection in the state, 1 in 3 residents are 60 or older. The county is home to 26 ICU beds, according to the Kaiser data.

As of Saturdays positive test count, Virginia had between two and three ICU beds for every diagnosed case of COVID-19. But in Northern Virginia, the 392 confirmed cases already slightly outnumber ICU beds in the region.

Most people who test positive for COVID-19 do not require hospitalization, and even fewer require an ICU bed.

***

The state has also shirked repeated questions about how it will approach offering guidance to hospitals on criteria for rationing health care should the need outstrip the supply, as it did in Italy and as it threatens to in New York.

Part of the pandemic flu plan from years ago did anticipate the possibility of [the need for rationing]. We have taken that plan and we are in the midst of evaluating that, Carey said at the Friday briefing in response to a question about statewide rationing criteria. I would really focus on the most important thing we can do is  make sure were doing everything we can to at least slow the spread of this disease. Thats where our focus needs to be. At the same time, we are doing our contingency planning, and we are in the midst of that.

Having a predetermined set of standards and state-level planning is vital when it comes to pandemic preparation, according to Mary Faith Marshall, director of the Program in Biomedical Ethics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and an expert in ethical issues during a pandemic.

When youre doing pandemic planning, you always want to use the worst-case scenario, said Marshall, who helped the Minnesota Department of Health craft its resource scarcity plan a decade ago.

Marshall said any rationing decisions should be made by multidisciplinary teams  not bedside health care practitioners  and those decisions should be free from discrimination and focused on the likelihood of the patient surviving at least one year.

When you think about this criteria, you dont discriminate based on age, based on citizenship, for example, or necessarily disability, Marshall said. We dont want to know who the patient is.

A National Academy of Medicine discussion paper published earlier this month laid out the steps health care providers should take before considering rationing equipment  such as a ventilator  including substituting, adapting or reusing equipment. The paper said if no other alternative exists, the equipment can be removed from one patient and given to another patient who is believed to have a higher chance of benefiting from the care.

Marshall believes the leaders of Virginias hospitals have been on top of preparing for the worst.

There is fear, there is anxiety and there is misinformation, Marshall said. Good communication is really important.
Malaria medicine 'Hydroxychloroquine' is being administered to 1,100 coronavirus patients in New York, President Donald Trump has said, exuding confidence that the drug, touted as a "game-changer" by him, might give some incredible results in the fight against the disease that has infected over 140,000 people in the country.

An inexpensive drug widely used since 1955 to treat malaria, Hydroxychloroquine is considered to have relatively harmless side effects.

It is being tested out on the COVID-19 patients in New York on an experimental basis, hoping that this will give a solution in the treatment against the novel coronavirus.

Hydroxychloroquine is being administered to 1,100 patients, people in New York along with the Z-pack, which is azithromycin, and it is very early yet. It started two days ago, but we will see what happens, Trump told reporters at a White House conference.

Last week, Trump said that the drug could be a "gift from God."



"Hydroxychloroquine & Azithromycin, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine, he tweeted Saturday.

Trump thanked Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director Stephen Hawn for fast approval of this drug in the treatment of the COVID-19.

"Let's see how it may work or may not, but we may have some incredible results. We are going to know soon, so it is being tested on 1,100 people in New York, he said.

The FDA is also allowing the emergency use of a blood-related therapy called convalescent plasma as an experimental treatment for seriously ill patients, said the president.

Given the drug's relatively harmless side effects, doctors are already beginning to incorporate the drug in their treatment of the coronavirus cases. President Trump and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo have both expressed optimism over the drug's efficacy.

In a statement, Health and Human Services said that FDA has allowed the drugs to be "donated to the Strategic National Stockpile to be distributed and prescribed by doctors to hospitalised teen and adult patients with COVID-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible."



Novartis's Sandoz has donated 30 million doses of Hydroxychloroquine to the stockpile and Bayer donated 1 million doses of chloroquine, the media statement said. Both the drugs have been evaluated for the use against COVID-19 in clinical trials around the world.

The number of deaths in New York state due to the coronavirus outbreak has crossed the 1,000 mark, with Governor Cuomo warning that thousands of people will pass away before the crisis ends in America's current COVID-19 epicentre.

Cuomo, addressing his daily press conference on the pandemic on Sunday, said the deaths due to the massive virus outbreak in the state sharply rose from 728 to 965 in just one day. At 237, this was the largest one-day increase in number of deaths since the coronavirus outbreak began. By the end of the day, the death toll in the state crossed the 1,000-mark.

The US has more than 140,000 novel coronavirus cases and 2,489 deaths, according to a tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
[March 30, 2020] NOTICE TO CLEARBRIDGE MLP AND MIDSTREAM FUND INC (CEM) INVESTORS - KlaymanToskes commences investigation on behalf of CEM Investors Who Sustained Losses in Excess of $100,000 as a Result of a Recommendation from their Financial Advisor

KlaymanToskes ("KT (News - Alert)"), http://www.klaymantoskes.com, announces an investigation on behalf of investors who sustained losses from the purchase of ClearBridge MLP and Midstream Fund, Inc. (NYSE:CEM) ("CEM") a Master Limited Partnership ("MLP"). CEM closed at 10.49 on February 21, 2020, prior to the significant market event that was precipitated by COVID-19. Today, CEM trades at 1.94, or more than 81% lower than its market value on February 21, 2020. This product may have been marketed and sold to customers who were risk averse, such as retirees or other conservative investors, that were seeking income and capital preservation and were not explained the potential risks. MLPs are investment vehicles available only to the real estate and natural resource sectors. MLPs offer the tax advantages of partnerships with the advantage of being traded on the open market. Unfortunately, MLPs may become risky during times when certain sectors of the economy are hit hard. The real estate markets and arkets in natural resources, especially the energy sector, can see significant swings often causing investors to shoulder the losses. These are risks that should be explained by brokerage firms and financial advisors prior to recommending these investments. Investors may seek damages for violations of sales practice rules and regulations, as set forth by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in arbitration.



The sole purpose of this release is to investigate the sales practices and financial misconduct of brokerage firms and financial advisors in connection with the sale of CEM to their customers. Investors who purchased these investments are encouraged to contact Lawrence L. Klayman, Esq. of KlaymanToskes at (561) 542-5131, or visit our website at www.klaymantoskes.com. About Klayman & Toskes, P.A.

KT is a leading national securities law firm which practices exclusively in the field of securities arbitration and litigation, on behalf of retail and institutional investors throughout the world in large and complex securities matters. The firm represents high net-worth, ultra-high-net-worth, and institutional investors, such as non-profit organizations, unions, public and multi-employer pension funds. KT has office locations in California, Florida, New York, and Puerto Rico. Destination: https://klaymantoskes.com/notice-to-clearbridge-mlp-and-midstream-fund-inc-cem-investors/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005379/en/

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30.03.2020 LISTEN

In an earlier article , I have noted the emergence of a new religion, a new global religion, the commonsense religion. I argued that the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic had yielded a religion that departed from the old. This new religion overrules the older religions because, in an attempt to contain the virus, old religions capitulated and new rules and ways of living and behaving emerged. A religion of expediency holds sway. Older religions are expected to follow and observe these new religious dictates. I have drawn attention to the fact that this new religion would take over from the existing uncommon sense religions. Uncommonsense religions have been competing and seeking to conquer and dominate nations, and also the world. The pandemic presents a common threat and constitutes a common enemy which existing religions must defeat or go into extinction. Thus the pandemic has forced the warring religions into making compromises, difficult and unprecedented compromises. It has nudged old religions to momentarily shed their uncommonsenses. Churches have been used as morgues. Stadia and convention centers have been turned into isolation centers and makeshift hospitals. Companies have been compelled to manufacture face masks and sanitizers not what they have been established to produce. People have been told to work, pray and learn from home.

The new religion has compelled older religions to observe a truce. This truce is a child of necessity that enables older religions to rally together, mobilize resources to defeat and neutralize the common threat. In the face of a pandemic such as the Covid-19, religions in their uncommon senses are endangered, at least that is what it seems. Older religions are momentarily compelled to become a part of a new dispensation, with new set of rituals- washing of hands, wearing face masks, social distancing etc. Being part of the new religious dispensation is a game of survival and renewal for the older religions

As expected the new religion threatens the power bases of the various older religious bodies as it covertly appropriates and chips away their powers, compelling them to shift positions, adjust and abide by the new dispensation. The facility of appropriation of powers does not go down well with the religious authorities, and sometimes the process elicits mixed reactions, resistance, oppositions, protests and defiance.

In a recent interview, Africas Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka drew attention to the contraveners of commonsense referring to religious bodies that refused to observe the ban on religious gatherings in Nigeria. He blamed the government for negligence and for failing to bring the contravening religious agencies to book. In the new religious dispensation, there are compliants, the faithfuls who follow the rule, and the contraveners who go against the injunctions. The compliants are the virtuous, righteous ones. They are eulogized. The transgressors are the deviants, the sinners who are excoriated and condemned within the new religious order.

The rule of the new religion is not readily accepted. The injunctions are not automatically obeyed. This is because the new religions cause disequilibrium, and disruptions in religious observance and practice. The new religion overrules everyday observance, creating a new normal that unsettles and discomforts many who are used to the old religious dispensation. While some religious bodies obey and submit to the new religion; others do not. They insist on continuing with the old older, dismissing the imperatives that made the new religion possible as conspiracies.

It must be noted that older religions do not comply because they want to eschew their uncommon sense formations. No, not at all. They comply out of necessity as a temporary step to defeat and get rid of the common enemy. They abide by the new religion not because they have renounced their rigid uncommon elements. Compliance with the new religion is a transient measure, a strategy to survive and to ensure the death and disappearance of the common threat.

As I have noted, there are hardliners, those who refuse to bulge or shift positions. But these hardliners only refuse to shift until they are forced to do so especially when it becomes obvious that their uncompromising stance poses a mortal threat to the society. Any country caught up in this situation finds itself in a crisis, in a dilemma and on the path of self destruction. This is usually the case in countries with weak governments.

Following the outbreak of the coronavirus, Nigeria, Africa's most populous country finds itself at a crossroads of old and new religions; of commonsense and uncommon sense. So will uncommon sense overwhelm commonsense as has been the case in Plateau and Katsina states? In Jos, the Izala sect convened to pray despite the ban on religious gatherings. And in Katsina state, an Islamic mob protested and burnt down a police station. Or will the government step forward and enforce the dictates of the new commonsense religion as has been the case in Kaduna and Lagos? In Kaduna, the government arrested two Islamic cleric for organizing public prayers in defiance of the ban and in Lagos the police have been enforcing the closure of bars and public restaurants.

So which religion overrules at the end of the day? The old or the new? The uncommon or common sense? Only time will tell.
SEVEN Irish citizens have landed at Shannon Airport after joining a repatriation flight from Algeria to the United States of America.

It follows an agreement between the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and the US State Department to make seats available to them on a special flight chartered by the US embassy in Algeria to bring American citizens home.

The Omni Air flight is en route to Washington but made a refuelling stop at Shannon Airport.

The Irish passengers disembarked at Shannon thanks to special permission co-ordinated between the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Transport and the US embassies in Algiers and Tunis.

The flight will be met by Shannon Airport staff. The airport remains open to facilitate flights and provide essential services.

Shannon group chief executive Mary Considine said: Shannon Airport is delighted to play its part in getting Irish citizens home to their families. We continue to facilitate airline services for our passengers, cargo operators, and aviation businesses based at Shannon. In these unprecedented times, it is particularly important that we endeavour to keep our airport open to facilitate the transport of essential and emergency goods, and as of this time we will continue to operate on a significantly reduced basis. 

She added her voice to calls to continue to follow the HSE advice in the battle against coronavirus.
In Coon Valley, four candidates are running in the spring election to fill three openings. Current Village Trustees Jon Lee and Russ Cornford are running for office again. Kenneth McClurg and Amy Stakston-Wiedemann will also be on the spring ballot. Editors note: The Westby Times publishes the questionnaires from the candidates as we receive them and in their entirety.

Jon Lee (I)

Name: Jon Lee

Occupation: Educator

What elected office are you vying for?: Village Trustee

Previously elected offices: Coon Valley Village Trustee (3 yrs.) Coon Valley Planning Commission (2 yrs.) Wisconsin Grass-fed Beef Coop Vice President, Coon Valley Conservation Club President

Community and group affiliations: Coon Valley Conservation Club, Sons of American Legion Member.

Why are you running for office?: I would like to take the time to thank village residents for voting for me on my first term. Im proud to serve on the village board, and I am the 3rd generation in my family to do so. My grandfather, Adolph, served in the 20s, and my father, Robert, served in the 90s. I come with no axes to grind and no hidden agendas. I find these days in 2020 ironic. My village trustee grandfather dealt with the Spanish Flu that caused deaths in the valley in 1920. 100 years later, we are dealing with another Pandemic. The village leadership continues to be proactive and supportive to the village residents needs.

What do you think are some of the more important issues facing the Coon Valley Village Board?: My involvement as a trustee currently involves two important committees: Budget and Finance and Personnel. This is the heart and pulse of the village. We try to keep expenses down, but at the same time we are mindful of needed infrastructural improvements. These village projects never get cheaper as time goes on. Costs will always increase. We will continue to look to the future so that we have a strong, vibrant and viable community that people want to live in.

Are there any issues currently being handled that you would handle differently?: No. The current board works very well together, and we all have the best intentions for the village residents. At times, we are faced with hard decisions, but we always have done the right thing in regard to what would be in the best interest of the village.

What should people know about you as a candidate and potential representative? Feel free to talk about your family or about subjects related to the place you call home.: I support our employees. They do not have easy jobs. We are very lucky to have great employees; they have a tremendous amount of experience. Keeping and maintaining these employees saves the village money in the long run. We have been devastated by unprecedented floods in very recent years. Coon Valley Village employees went above and beyond the call of duty to maintain the village infrastructure. This included many sleepless nights between village employees and village fathers. There are not many villages that could have weathered these storms. We also had no fatalities.

We are also very lucky to have a great relationship with our local school. This was the command center following recent floods, and I am very proud to call Coon Valley home. Residents, families, teachers, students, and friends came together in unprecedented ways to cope with devastating losses. I have personally written or have helped write numerous grants for the village. To date, The Village of Coon Valley has received tens of thousands of dollars in grants. In addition, the village has also received hundreds of thousands of dollars in FEMA grants. I will continue to be proactive in supporting these endeavors. As village trustees, we can always improve in our quest to source additional monies. We continue to advocate for funds as we recover from these losses due to these floods.

The Lee Families have lived in the village since the 1890s. We have always been supportive in the community and have embraced leadership roles. This is a wonderful place to raise a family. I will always call this place home. I have lived, traveled or worked on 6 of the 7 continents. Coon Valley is as fine a place as any.

Russ Cornford (I)

Name: Russ Cornford

What elected office you are vying for?: Village trustee

Previously elected offices: Current village trustee, Coon Valley Fire Chief for 40 years

Community and group affiliations: Coon Valley Fire Dept 42 years and Coon Valley EMS 8 years.

Why are you running for office?: To continue to be a part of a group that truly cares about our community. One that has no personal agenda or axe to grind. A group that only wants the best for our town.

What do you think are some of the more important issues facing the Coon Valley Village Board?: At the forefront is the corona pandemic. Learning of and doing what we can to help. But also our infrastructure, by the way ofour streets, water, and sewer upgrades. We also need to replace and rebuild what Mother Nature took from us as a result of the ooding.

Are there any issues currently being handled that you would handle differently?: I dont think so. I feel the board works together as a team with focus and the same goals in mind.

What should people know about you as a candidate and potential representative? Feel free to talk about your family or about subjects related to the place you call home.: I am a self employed business owner for 20 plus years. My wife Nancy and I have raised our two boys here and have 3 grandchildren here so I have a vested interest in the workings of our community. Im proud to be a member and the person in charge of our great Fire Dept. We as a community have come together in the wake of the great oods and are continuing the slow process of rebuilding. I look forward to the future and am happy to be a part of it. This is the place I love to call home!

Amy Stakston-Wiedemann

Name: Amy Stakston-Wiedemann

Occupation: Payroll/Human Resources

What elected office you are vying for?: Village Trustee

Previously elected offices: Village Trustee

Community and group affiliations: None

Why are you running for office?: I have always been interested in politics.

What do you think are some of the more important issues facing the Coon Valley Village Board?: I believe that the health and safety of our residents, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, is a priority. There will be repercussions from this virus that will need to be addressed as well. We will need to continue rebuilding from the floods from the past few years while remaining fiscally responsible.

Are there any issues currently being handled that you would handle differently?: I cant say that there are issues I would handle differently. My philosophy as a new person in any organization is to be in attendance, get the facts and background and learn how things are currently working before making judgement.

What should people know about you as a candidate and potential representative? Feel free to talk about your family or about subjects related to the place you call home.: I have always called Coon Valley my home and am proud to raise my family here. With my educational background, professional expertise and previous board experience, I believe I will be able to apply a broad perspective to Village issues.

I am a team player, who has the ability to listen to others, constructively solve problems and make objective and fair decisions. My numerous years of working in finance and human resources has taught me how to deal professionally with confidential and sensitive information.

Ken McClurg

Name: Ken McClurg

Occupation: Retired mechanic and business owner. Retired military 20 years service.

What elected office you are vying for?: Coon Valley Village Board.

Previously elected offices: None

Community and group affiliations: None

Why are you running for office?: I have lived in Coon Valley for over twenty years and now that I am in a position to contribute my time to benefit the village I should become more involved in village government. I feel that a village residents should be heard and treated fairly if they have problems or concerns regarding the village government. I feel that with my background I can do a good job of representing Coon Valleys residents and I am willing to listen to any concerns you may have.

What do you think are some of the more important issues facing the Coon Valley Village Board?: I feel that the biggest problem that must be addressed is the issue of flooding. We need to devise a plan to reduce flood damage. We also need to find a way to lower the cost of repairing the park every time it floods. Another issue is what we can do locally to help people affected by the Coronavirus as the crisis gets worse here.

Are there any issues currently being handled that you would handle differently?: I feel that some village employees should show a little more tact, restraint and common sense in dealing with the public.

What should people know about you as a candidate and potential representative? Feel free to talk about your family or about subjects related to the place you call home.: I have lived all my life in Vernon County and the last twenty years in Coon Valley. I own a home here and hope to help the Village to continue to be a great place to live. I have quite a diverse background. My father and I operated an auto repair business in Viroqua for twenty years. I spent twenty two years in the military including a year in Viet Nam. The last eight years before retirement I worked as a maintenance supervisor at Volk Field. I have a degree in counseling psychology from Viterbo University. Since I retired my main interests have been motorcycle touring and building and restoring older cars. I feel that over the years I have gained enough experience and common sense to enable me to do a good job of representing the residents of Coon Valley. If anyone has any questions for me you can call me at 608-792-0310.

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Coronavirus: quarantine extended for 3,000 post-Mecca Turks Held in Ankara dorms, those that tested positive in hospital

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, MARCH 30 - Quarantine has been extended for an additional week for the 3,135 Turkish nationals that returned to the country after taking part in the Muslim holy Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The group had re-entered Turkey on March 15 and was placed in isolation in dorms in Ankara. Some that later tested positive for the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, were transferred to hospital. The Turkish scientific committee for the fight against COVID-19 has thus decided to extend the quarantine for those still in the dorms, which was to have ended on Sunday.



(ANSAmed).




30.03.2020 LISTEN

MOGADISHU, Somalia, 29 March 2020- Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) condemns the arbitrary arrests of four Goobjoog Media journalists and their driver in Mogadishu on Sunday 29 March 2020.

The journalists; Hamdi Mahad Diriye (TV reporter); Rahmo Hassan Mohamed (TV Reporter); Muno Mohamed Nur (TV Reporter); Mohamed Abduqadir (cameraman) and their driver Abdisalan were detained while on assignment covering a story of persons with special needs near the KM4 checkpoint in Mogadishu on Sunday morning around 9.30a.m, according to the journalists and their editor Hanad Ali Guled who spoke to SJS.

Hamdi Mahad Diriye and Rahmo Hassan Mohamed told SJS that they, along with other journalists, were briefly held at a detention place near KM4 security checkpoint before they were transferred to the notorious Godkaow prison, run by the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), where they were locked up for more than an hour. They were released without charge.

First the NISA officers in a pick-up truck surrounded us while we were in the mid of the interview. They confiscated all our phones and seized the cameras. When they brought us at the Godka Jilaow prison, they locked us up there before they released us without any charges,Hamdi Mahad Diriye told SJS.

After their release, the journalists said their equipment was returned to them. Phone calls and text messages to the Ministry of Information seeking information on the journalistsa arrest returned unanswered.

We are appalled by the constant and targeted attacks against media professionals by the state security, in attempt to obstruct access to information Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, Secretary-General of the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) said, aWe condemn these heinous attacks and call for the Somali government to promptly investigate the officers involved in these attacks and bring them before the courts of law.

On Tuesday 10 March, police officers at KM4 checkpoint stopped and briefly detained Mahad Hassan Abdi, a cameraman and Shukri Hussein Sabriye, a reporter and producer- both from the privately owned Radio Mustaqbal- while the journalists were on assignment at a local market in Mogadishu KM4 area.

According to the journalists, they were forced to stand under the burning sun as a punishment. The journalists told SJS that they were released after their footage from a local market was deleted as a condition for the release. There were no charges brought against the journalists.

Meanwhile, the editor of the privately-owned independent Radio Hiigsi, Mohamed Abduwahaab Nuur (Abuuja) remains detained in the NISA prison in Mogadishu for more than 20 days. He was illegally detained on 07 March for writing about the conduct of the Somali security services.
Bareilly : , March 30 (IANS) In a shocking incident, migrants who were returning to their homes in Uttar Pradesh were sprayed with 'chemical on Sunday by a team on sanitising duty at the Bareilly bus stand.

According to reports, the migrants who had walked down from Noida and Delhi, were told to sit at the bus stand by officials who said that they would be taken on buses and would be given food.

Mohd Afzal, one in the group, said, "About 50 of us were seating and waiting for food and the bus at the satellite bus adda when some men in protective suits came and began spraying water on us. They said that they were form the sanitization team and were sanitizing us. The children began crying and women were also shocked." According to sources, the sanitizing team sprayed the group with a diluted mixture of sodium hypochlorite.

Sodium Hypochlorite is the main ingredient in laundry bleach. It is used extensively as a bleaching agent in the textile, detergents, and paper and pulp industries. It is also used as a disinfectant.

Mohd Afzal said that after they were sprayed with water, the children complained of itching in their eyes while some women developed rashes.

"The chemical had a strange smell and after this incident, most of us left Bareilly and decided to continue our journey on foot," he said. Mohd Afzal works as a courier boy in a company in Noida and has returned to his home in Shahjahanpur.

None of the officials in Bareilly and Lucknow, however, were ready to comment on the incident.

Calls made to the Bareilly district magistrate's office did not elicit any response.

A junior official, however, said that since a Corona positive patient had been reported in the district on Sunday, a massive sanitization drive was undertaken.

Officials in Lucknow also did not respond to queries on the incident.
Colleagues, constituents and friends of Michigan Rep. Isaac Robinson paid tribute to the Detroit Democrat after news of his sudden death broke Sunday evening, calling him a passionate advocate with a big heart who cared deeply about his community.

Robinson, 44, was elected to the Michigan House in 2018 and served on the House Commerce and Tourism, Tax Policy and Regulatory Reform committees. The Detroit Democrat was not present at the Houses most recent session, which took place on March 17.

His cause of death has not yet been confirmed, but his mother, former state Rep. Rose Mary Robinson, told Crains Detroit Business hed been having breathing problems before being taken to Detroit Medical Center Hospital and suspected the cause was COVID-19.

Michigan state Rep. Isaac Robinson dies

Last week, state Rep. Tyrone Carter, D-Detroit, became the first Michigan lawmaker to test positive for COVID-19. He told MLive last week most of his symptoms have subsided and he is continuing to self-isolate at home.

Prior to his state legislative service, Robinson, an attorney, held positions with several unions and also worked as a political aide, according to his House Democratic Caucus biography. He attended the University of Michigan and Northwestern University School of Law.

Robinson was known around the Capitol for his passionate floor speeches, and friends and colleagues remembered his unyielding defense of civil rights, the environment and economic justice, as well as his ability to bring people together around a common cause.

He was also remembered for his good sense of humor - Rep. Mari Manoogian, D-Birmingham, wrote on social media she could always count on Isaac to make me burst out laughing, even at 9am."

Robinson had a zest for life and could always be counted on to show up prepared, Sen. Jeremy Allen Moss, D-Southfield, shared on social media.

If you needed to organize for a cause, youd call Isaac. If you needed to organize against a cause, trust me, youd call Isaac, he said. He was Michigans protester-in-chief.

Before his death, Robinson was working to obtain protections for workers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, Ron Bieber, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, said in a statement.

Isaac was an incredible spirit, a fighter for working people, and a lifelong champion of the City of Detroit," he said. "He was also a good friend with a big heart. I am shocked and saddened to hear that hes passed...His impact will resonate in his community and around our state years from now.

Detroit House Caucus Chair Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, D-Detroit, said in a statement Robinson epitomized community" and was selfless, dedicated to improving peoples lives and always fought for what he believed in.

Robinson was also remembered for his willingness to stand up for what he believed in, even if it was an unpopular opinion.

There are few willing to stand against a strong tide when it is right, Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, wrote on Twitter. Few who have the moral fortitude to take up a righteous fight that is unpopular. Few whose convictions compel them to speak with the voice of giants through a blistering headwind. Isaac, you will be missed.

Rep. Aaron Miller, R-Sturgis, worked closely with Robinson on legislation to allow licensed professional counselors to continue diagnosing and treating clients last fall. In a Facebook post, Miller said Robinson was a bulldog when we needed a bulldog.

There were times when hed be yelling from the other side of the room and I didnt know what it was about, but I never could question his passion, he said. He deeply cared about serving the Detroit area and it showed. It was a pleasure to serve with him and hell be missed."

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said on Twitter he was deeply saddened to hear of Robinsons passing, noting hed served as a vice chair for the campaign in Michigan and believed strongly in a fairer future for all.

Jane and I are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of State Rep. Isaac Robinson. He served as a vice chair for our campaign in Michigan and believed strongly in a fairer future for all. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones. pic.twitter.com/uW6xw6YylA  Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 30, 2020

Robinson was also mourned by several members of Michigans Congressional delegation, including U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, who said Robinson was full of spit and vinegar and his constituents knew he would always fight for them.

House Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, in a statement said hed remember Robinson as a tremendous friend and colleague who was a passionate defender of the city of Detroit and its people.

He cared deeply for that city, and his genuine love for its residents shined through in everything he did and in every decision he made," he said.

In a statement, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Robinson had a huge heart, a quick wit, and a genuine passion for the people.

"Rep. Robinson will be missed by many, including me. It was an honor to serve the people of Michigan alongside him. My deepest condolences go out his family and loved ones, and to the people of Detroit and Hamtramck who elected him as their voice in the House, Whitmer said.

No one worked harder or loved his community more than Robinson did, Attorney General Dana Nessel shared on Twitter.

There has never been a greater prince of a man than Isaac, she wrote. No better person who has walked this earth. My heart is broken.

There have been more than 140,000 cases of the coronavirus and more than 2,400 deaths in the United States.

Read all of MLives coverage on the coronavirus at mlive.com/coronavirus.

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops ) and when you go into places like stores.

Related coverage:

Michigan state Rep. Isaac Robinson dies

First Michigan lawmaker tests positive for coronavirus

Michigan coronavirus numbers now at 6,498 -- up 1,012 cases
Inside the quarantine zone at a hospital in Da Nang, central Vietnam, February 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong.

Police in Da Nang found and returned Danielle Smith, 29, to quarantine after she absconded from the facility Monday morning.

The tourist, transferred to Police Hospital No. 199 at 9 a.m. Monday from Son Tra District Health Center with signs of coughing and fever, was suspected of Covid-19 infection.

However, during a pre-quarantine health check, she managed to flee, with the city's epidemic prevention and control team as well as police in Son Tra District in hot pursuit.

"At around 9:30 a.m., police in Phuoc My Ward in Son Tra District announced they had found her. We will move her back to quarantine," Dr Truong Xuan Hung from Police Hospital No. 199 said.

Smith entered Vietnam on February 13. She traveled to mainland China and Taiwan before arriving in Da Nang, where there are six confirmed cases of Covid-19.

As of Monday, 110 people suspected of contracting the virus in the city are being monitored in hospitals, including four foreigners.

In all, Vietnam has had 194 confirmed cases, including 55 who have been discharged from hospital.

Many of the active cases are people coming from Europe or the U.S. and people who had close contact with them.

The government decided Sunday to suspend all international flights to Vietnam and limit flights from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to other provinces and vice versa in the coming two weeks.

Starting March 22, Vietnam also suspended entry for all foreign nationals, including those of Vietnamese origin and family members with visa waivers.

To date, the Covid-19 pandemic has killed more than 34,000 people after spreading to 199 countries and territories.
A voter contact and canvassing company, used exclusively by Republican political campaigns, mistakenly left an unprotected copy of its app's code on its website for anyone to find.

The company, Campaign Sidekick, helps Republican campaigns canvas its districts using iOS and Android apps, which pull in names and addresses from voter registration rolls. Campaign Sidekick says it has helped campaigns in Arizona, Montana, and Ohio and contributed to the Brian Kemp campaign, which saw him narrowly win against Democratic rival Stacey Abrams in the Georgia gubernatorial campaign in 2018.

For the past two decades, political campaigns have ramped up their use of data to identify swing voters. This growing political data business has opened up a whole economy of startups and tech companies using data to help campaigns better understand their electorate. But that has led to voter records spilling out of unprotected servers and other privacy-related controversies  like the case of Cambridge Analytica obtaining private data from social media sites.

Chris Vickery, director of cyber risk research at security firm UpGuard, said he found the cache of Campaign Sidekick's code by chance.

In his review of the code, Vickery found several instances of credentials and other app-related secrets, he said in a blog post on Monday, which he shared exclusively with TechCrunch. These secrets, such as keys and tokens, can typically be used to gain access to systems or data without a username or password. But Vickery did not test the password as doing so would be unlawful. Vickery also found a sampling of personally identifiable information, he said, amounting to dozens of spreadsheets packed with voter names and addresses.

Fearing the exposed credentials could be abused if accessed by a malicious actor, Vickery informed the company of the issue in mid-February. Campaign Sidekick quickly pulled the exposed cache of code offline.

One of the Campaign Sidekick mockups, using dummy data, collates a voters data in one place. (Image: supplied)

One of the screenshots provided by Vickery showed a mockup of a voter profile compiled by the app, containing basic information about the voter and their past voting and donor history, which can be obtained from public and voter records. The mockup also lists the voter's "friends."

Story continues

Vickery told TechCrunch he found "clear evidence" that the app's code was designed to pull in data from its now-defunct Facebook app, which allowed users to sign-in and pull their list of friends  a feature that was supported by Facebook at the time until limits were put on third-party developers' access to friends' data.

"There is clear evidence that Campaign Sidekick and related entities had and have used access to Facebook user data and APIs to query that data," Vickery said.

Drew Ryun, founder of Campaign Sidekick, told TechCrunch that its Facebook project was from eight years prior, that Facebook had since deprecated access to developers, and that the screenshot was a "digital artifact of a mockup." (TechCrunch confirmed that the data in the mockup did not match public records.)

Ryun said after he learned of the exposed data the company "immediately changed sensitive credentials for our current systems," but that the credentials in the exposed code could have been used to access its databases storing user and voter data.
How Books and Buckets program in Long Beach aims to keep kids away from gang violence
The enemy opened fire, employing proscribed 120mm and 82mm mortars, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, and rifles.

Russia's hybrid military forces on March 29 mounted 13 attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine.

"The armed forces of the Russian Federation violated the ceasefire 13 times on March 29," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation said in a Facebook update as of 07:00 Kyiv time on March 30, 2020.

The enemy engaged Ukrainian troops with proscribed 120mm and 82mm mortars, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, and rifles.

Read alsoEU demands probes into reported torture of Ukrainian hostages in occupied Donbas

Under attack came Ukrainian positions near the town of Avdiyivka, and the villages of Pavlopil, Vodiane, Bohdanivka, Berezove, Starohnativka, Taramchuk, Luhanske, Hladosove, as well as Butivka coal mine.

"Since Monday midnight, Russia-led forces have attacked Ukrainian positions near Vodiane, using an 82mm mortar," the update said.

No casualties were reported in Ukrainian Army ranks on Monday morning.
From offering office premises that can be converted into isolation wards to earmarking funds to be used for procuring kits, ventilators as well as personal protective equipment for health care workers, India Inc has put a united front to combat the unprecedented crisis facing the country.

IMAGE: Homeless people stand in queue as they receive tea and breakfast during the 21-day lockdown. Photograph: Prabhat Mehrotra/ANI Photo

As India braces up to battle the rapidly increasing number of COVID-19 cases, financial aid and free community services continued to flow from various corporate.

From offering office premises that can be converted into isolation wards to earmarking funds to be used for procuring kits, ventilators as well as personal protective equipment (masks, gloves, etc.) for health care workers, India Inc has put a united front to combat the unprecedented crisis facing the country.

Indias leading digital payments and financial services platform Paytm said it was seeking contribution for Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES) on the Paytm app.

The company is aiming to contribute Rs 500 crore to the PM-CARES fund.

For every contribution or any other payment made on Paytm using the wallet, UPI and Paytm Bank debit card, the company will contribute an extra up to Rs 10, it said.

Additionally, over the past few weeks, Paytm has started collecting contributions to buy personal hygiene products for people who might not have the means to buy it.

Also, the company has created a Rs 5-crore fund for innovators who are developing medical instruments or medicines to combat the virus, it said in the statement.

Flipkart-owned PhonePe has launched a donation drive and said it aims to contribute up to Rs 100 crore to the Fund.

JSW Group too has Rs 100 crore to the PM-CARES Fund to support all relief efforts, the company said in a statement.

Each employee of the JSW Group has committed a minimum of a single days salary as a donation to the Fund.

JSW Group chairman Sajjan Jindal said the group was continuously evaluating the situation and was committed to assisting the government in all ways possible to deal with all Covid-related fallouts.

These immediate contributions are what we see is the need of the hour, and we have earmarked further monetary and non-monetary contributions so as to allow us to dynamically respond to all societal requirements in the future, said Jindal.

JSW is also offering staples and other essentials to communities around the Group facilities.

Conversion of a number of facilities across JSW Group locations into isolation wards is also in the works to reduce the burden on community hospitals.

Adani Foundation has also committed Rs 100 crore to Fund, Group Chairman Gautam Adani wrote on Twitter.

The Adani Group will further contribute additional resources to support the governments fellow citizens in these testing times, he wrote.

Kotak Mahindra Bank has committed Rs 35 crore towards Covid-19 relief operations, it said in a statement on Sunday.

Of this, the bank commits Rs 25 crore to PM-CARES Fund and Rs 10 crore to Maharashtra Chief Ministers Relief Fund.

Further, Uday Kotak, chairman and managing director of the bank, has personally committed Rs 25 crore to the PM-CARES Fund.
EUGENE, Ore. -- The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will begin screening more than 1,000 coronavirus-related complaints this week, according to a spokesman.

Aaron Corvin, public information officer for Oregon OSHA, said the organization has received well over 1,000 complaints following Gov. Kate Brown's Stay at Home order issued last week. The complaints largely surround a lack of social distancing and cleaning supplies in the workplace.

"Per year, we essentially take in about 2,073 complaints. So that can give you some perspective," Corvin said.

OSHA has 75 compliance officers that will begin reaching out to companies to validate the claims made in the complaints.

"For those employers who are not abiding by the governor's executive order, we will certainly begin to address those this week through the inspections we expect to conduct," Corvin said.

Corvin said many of the complaints can likely be resolved in a matter of days, but others may take more time.

"Where there are areas we can work with an employer up front to get things addressed, we will do that," Corvin said. "Where there are areas where there's going to be a necessary on-site inspection, we'll conduct that as well."

Companies found to be violating workplace safety rules will be required to correct the problem and could face a fine.

You can file a complaint on OSHA's website here.
Some New Yorkers are flouting stay-at-home orders and continuing to party amid the coronavirus pandemic.

NBC reports a New York City bar owner has been arrested for violating social distancing rules after at least a dozen people were found inside, drinking and gambling. The speakeasy at 354 Kings Hwy in Brooklyn was among 7,667 bars and restaurants in NYC that police visited to ensure compliance; the owner was the first in the city to be arrested over a statewide shutdown on non-essential businesses.

He was charged with illegal sale of alcohol, promoting gambling and violating Mayor Bill de Blasios order.

De Blasio has threatened to fine people up to $500 if they refuse to practice social distancing.

President Donald Trump has extended nationwide social distancing guidelines through April 30, while states and local governments issue stronger rules. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has banned large gatherings and ordered residents to remain at home until at least April 15.

Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon issued an emergency order Friday temporarily banning all parties, celebrations and other social gatherings, threatening Syracuse-area residents with fines and possible jail time. Days earlier, he criticized a Radisson group for holding a tailgating party.

This photo of people illegally tailgating -- in defiance of social distancing orders -- was sent to the Onondaga County officials.

According to the Daily Orange, Syracuse University has also received reports of SU students violating social distancing orders. A school official said Saturday that the Department of Public Safety will work with city and county officials to enforce Cuomos order.

Similar violations have been reported elsewhere.

The New York Post reports Lucian Wintrich, a former White House reporter and writer for The Gateway Pundit, invited a group of about 20 friends to have a corona potluck at his NYC apartment. He said he was inspired by chickenpox parties in the 1990s, held by parents to intentionally expose children and inoculate them before a vaccine was developed.

The majority of folks I invited, if they got it, would recover fairly quickly and build up an immunity to the present form of COVID-19, Wintrich, 31, claimed.

At least four University of Tampa students tested positive for coronavirus last week after partying during spring break in Florida. Gov. Ron DeSantis did not close public beaches, leaving decisions to local governments, but did warn against groups larger than ten.

Police have broken up several large weddings in New Jersey for defying coronavirus rules against large gatherings. NJ police also shut down a YouTube party held by 30 people gathering last week to make videos together.

And Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said Tuesday that at least one person who attended a recent coronavirus party in the state tested positive for COVID-19 and scolded those ignoring social distancing recommendations.

This is the part where I tell everybody to remain calm while remaining calm myself, Beshear said, according to CBS. Because anyone who goes to something like this may think they are indestructible, but its someone elses loved one that they are going to hurt.

People who are senior citizens or have pre-existing conditions are most vulnerable to coronavirus, but that hasnt stopped some older Americans from going out as normal.

Dr. Knut M. Wittkowski, the former chief biostatistician and epidemiologist at Rockefeller University Hospital, told the New York Post that he regularly goes to one of two illicit restaurants secretly operating the Upper East Side.

Yesterday I went to my favorite speakeasy and had dinner, he said, without naming the establishment.

The veteran physician told the newspaper that he believes social distancing will only prolong the virus by preventing the natural development of herd immunity.

This is a flu and this will end like every other flu did before for the last thousand years.

New York state has more than 59,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and nearly 1,000 deaths related to coronavirus, Cuomo said Sunday. The U.S. has more than 143,000 cases confirmed, more than any other country, and at least 2,500 deaths due to COVID-19.

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

Cuomo extends coronavirus stay-at-home order past Passover, Easter

Coronavirus: Sorry, hanging out 6 feet apart isnt social distancing, expert says

Parties, celebrations now banned in Onondaga County over coronavirus; ignoring order is a crime

Coronavirus: Upstate NY will see rolling apex of cases, Gov. Cuomo says

Cuomos coronavirus fight: 87% of New Yorkers approve, poll shows
The autopsy will show the real reason of death.

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A 60-year-old man from Bojnice (Trencin Region), positive with the coronavirus, died shortly after leaving hospital.

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Were currently waiting for the autopsy results to confirm the primary cause of death, Health Ministry spokesperson Zuzana Eliasova told the TVnoviny.sk website.

The hospital meanwhile closed its pulmonary department, where the patient had been hospitalised since March 20. The tests were carried out nine days later. Since he was in a stabilised condition, the hospital released him for home care on March 30, Milan Hencel of the hospital told the TASR newswire.

Currently, 22 hospital employees and all patients from the pulmonary department have been put in quarantine, the MY Horna Nitra regional newspaper reported.

Some of them who were in direct contact with the patient have been tested, said Hencel, as quoted by MY Horna Nitra. Were waiting for the results, which should be delivered tomorrow. Well then decide on further steps.

The tests of the pulmonary department employees who were in the direct contact with the patient were negative, Hencel said on March 31.


The ongoing struggle against novel Coronavirus has brought to the fore the herculean task that the Covid-19 fighters are facing. Healthcare providers, essential services providers, sanitation workers etc. are central to this struggle and it is only fit that the country paused for a few minutes on 22 nd March to express their gratitude collectively.

However, not many people know that the first line of defence against Covid-19 is the Indian Armed Forces. It was the Indian Air Force (IAF) that evacuated 112 people from Wuhan on 26 th February and 58 more from Iran on 10 th March. This timely evacuation was appreciated by many countries including the US Department of State's Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs that complimented the IAF for the same.

When the first batch of evacuees came in, the Government again turned to the Army for support. This led to the Indian Army setting up the quarantine facility at Manesar in record time and taking on the responsibility of the evacuees.

The monitoring and treatment of the suspected patients at Manesar and subsequent quarantine

facilities were (and continue to be) done by the doctors and nurses of the Armed Forces Medical Services. These medical personnel are working in high risk areas and are treating patients of a very contagious disease. Yet not one of these Armed Forces medical personnel has given a thought to the danger they are exposing themselves to, but instead they are truly embodying the motto of the Army Medical Corps  sarve santu niramaya (freedom from sickness to all). The efficiency and discipline with which these quarantine centres are being run is commendable as is seen by the fact that none of these healthcare providers have tested positive for Covid-19 themselves.

Most of us think of the Armed Forces in terms of the imagery created by movies or incidents that have captured our collective imagination  the Balakot surgical strikes being a recent example. We know that the Armed Forces are there to protect us every time there is an act of aggression. But we are unaware that Armed Forces serve the country in a far greater manner.

As per renowned military author, Gen. Mrinal Suman (retd), It (the Army) is the most potent instrument available to the state to safeguard national interestsMost of the soldiers consider themselves to be the ultimate guardians of national interests and values; and, they take this role rather seriously. Such an attitude generates an intense sense of nationalism.

Thus, safeguarding national interests is not limited to fighting external aggression or controlling internal disturbances. Interests of a state can be undermined by many factors, and it is the Armed Forces that are always there to safeguard them. The Indian militarys responsibilities can be grouped as under 

1) Military Tasks: Defend the State against external aggression and counter insurgency movements.

2) Aid to Civil Authority: As per Para 301 of the Defence Services Regulations, the tasks that can be assigned in aid to civil authority include maintenance of law and order; maintenance of essential services; assistance during natural calamities and any other type of assistance which may be needed by the civil authorities.

3) Civic Action Tasks: These are tasks that the Army undertakes for the socio-economic betterment of people in the larger interest of the nation. These would include providing health facilities, schools, vocational training etc. to people in remote areas.

The Indian Armed Forces have never shied away from helping civic administration. Operation Surya Hope (Indian Armys rescue operation in 2013 Uttarakhand floods) saved more than 11,000 lives. In fact, the Armys history of flood relief goes back a long way  the authors father undertook flood relief operations in Barauni, Bihar in 1971 as a young captain.

Another recent example is when the Armys Corps of Engineers constructed 3 Foot over Bridges

(FOB) for the Mumbai Suburban Railways on the request of the then Railway Minister, Piyush Goyal. The need was urgent - the collapse of a narrow and old railway FOB in Sep 2017 had led to loss of 23 lives. While the Railway Engineers expressed their inability to complete the task as per the desired deadline, the Army built 3 FOBs in a record 117 days.

It is with the same spirit that the Armed Forces is now leading the battle against an unseen and largely unknown enemy (the novel Coronavirus). While disaster management in India is handled by the National Disaster Response Force, the Armed Forces have been specially called in due to their dedication, professional expertise, and ability to work with efficiency under pressure without compromising on quality of care or safety of personnel.

A typical disaster management process consists of six stages  prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response (rescue and relief), rehabilitation and reconstruction. Usually, the Armed Forces are involved in the rescue and relief stage where the delay of a few minutes or slight carelessness could mean the difference between life and death. However, in the case of Covid-19, the Armed Forces are playing a broader role encompassing prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response.

A quick look at the different services provided by the Armed Forces in the current scenario shows that they are leading a multi-pronged effort. As already mentioned, the Indian Air Forces brought back stranded citizens to India. Many quarantine facilities have been set up by the Armed Forces  Manesar, Hindon, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Jhansi, Gorakhpur, Vizag etc. Each of these facilities is being manned by the medical staff of the Armed Forces. These facilities are expensive to operate and the funding for the same is being done from the already meagre Defence Budget. The Manesar facility alone costs the Army Rs.3.5 lacs to run per day, with approx. 60 medical personnel working back breaking hours.

For every Rs. Lac that is spent on these much-needed facilities, there is likely to be something crucial that the Indian soldiers will have to forgo because the Defence budget is finite. But there haven been any signs of protest about this from within the rank and file of the Indian Armed Forces. As always, they have put the national interest far above their own.

The Armed Forces are also working with the civil administration in many states to provide the support of its capabilities, hospitals, laboratories and medical personnel.

These efforts are being monitored at the senior most level  CDS Gen Bipin Rawat and the Chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Force are actively overseeing the situation. 24X7 Crisis Management Cells have been set up to monitor the situation real-time and take quick actions. The Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also held a review meeting with the senior officials on 26 th March, and he appreciated the proactive role played by the Armed Forces.

It is important to remember that when the Coronavirus pandemic hit the nation, it was yet again the Armed Forces that the nation turned to. A soldier who is also a doctor, a soldier who wields a stethoscope  is far outside the realms of our imagination. But it is these personnel of the Armed Forces Medical Services who are the invisible and unsung heroes in this battle. They are continuing the Armys tradition of always being actively present for their countrymen whenever disaster strikes and personifying the motto of the Indian Army  sewa paramo dharam (service before self).



Aditi Kumaria Hingu is a marketing graduate from IIM Calcutta. Currently she works in the corporate sector. She comes from an army background.

Note: The views expressed in the article are of the author's and not of Sify.com.



Read More by the Author:



Of Balakot and body counts



International Women's Day: The Strong Indian Mothers



Uri was not the last, neither will Pulwama be



What Hindu gods teach us: Ganpati and acceptance



India: A schizophrenic nation that worships the dead and kills the living



From cash lovers to Modi-baiters: Reactions to demonetisation



Is India doomed? Actors, failed politicians let down our soldiers



The Table for One: Eternal wait for soldiers who never returned



Let's blame Narendra Modi for all of India's ills!



India and OROP: The hypocrisy of 15th August
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[March 30, 2020] Parasoft announces its support of MISRA C:2012 Amendment 2 and the MISRA Compliance 2020 guidelines

MONROVIA, Calif., March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Parasoft, a global software testing automation leader for over 30 years, announces its support of the newly released MISRA C:2012 Amendment 2, which incorporates the support of the C language standard ISO/IEC 9899:2011, commonly referred to as C11. C11 replaces C99 (standard ISO/IEC 9899:1999) and has been superseded by C18 (standard ISO/IEC 9899:2018). In addition, the MISRA C Working Group released the MISRA Compliance 2020 guidelines, which are now mandatory to claim compliance with the standard. The Parasoft suite guides users through the process of building the Guidelines Enforcement Plan (GEP) and Guidelines Recategorization Plan (GRP) and automatically generate Guidelines Compliance Summary (GCS) together with a full list of approved deviations. To read more about Parasoft's support of MISRA C:2012 Amendment 2 visit our blog: https://blog.parasoft.com/the-anticipated-misra-c2012-amendment-2-is-now-available Miroslaw Zielinski. "Subsequent amendments are expected to lift these restrictions and provide more specific guidelines for the extensions introduced in C11/C18. Parasoft static analysis tools already support MISRA C2012 Amendment 2 and will support the future updates of the MISRA C2012 standard as they become available."



The MISRA C and C++ working groups, of which Parasoft is a member, continues to provide guidance in reducing or removing coding defects and avoiding unpredictable behavior while enabling safety and security. In the MISRA C2012 Amendment 2, users will find new rules that apply to the standard library, where functions have been identified and shall not be used due to security vulnerabilities introduced. Given that the C language is prone to an enormous family of buffer overflow vulnerabilities, it's critical that the organizations that build embedded safety-and security-critical systems are analyzed for security weaknesses. Other C11 and C18 code behaviors have been identified as having occurrences of undefined or unspecified actions. Some language features, though well defined, do not meet developer expectations. During code analysis, these code constructs will be tagged with a violation, and any use of the language feature must be measured and supported by a deviation. In the end, the MISRA working group has taken the opportunity to make updates to the standard, lifting it to a whole new benchmark.

About Parasoft Parasoft provides innovative tools that automate time-consuming testing tasks and provide management with intelligent analytics necessary to focus on what matters. Parasoft supports software organizations as they develop and deploy applications for the embedded, enterprise, and IoT markets. Parasoft's technologies reduce the time, effort, and cost of delivering secure, reliable, and compliant software, by integrating static and runtime analysis; unit, functional, and API testing; and service virtualization. With our developer testing tools, manager reporting/analytics, and executive dashboarding, Parasoft enables organizations to succeed in today's most strategic ecosystems and development initiativesreal-time, safety-critical, secure, agile, continuous testing, and DevOps. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/parasoft-announces-its-support-of-misra-c2012-amendment-2-and-the-misra-compliance-2020-guidelines-301031857.html SOURCE Parasoft

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(TNS)  Austin schools Superintendent Paul Cruz and school board President Geronimo Rodriguez on Monday will provide updates on the district's response to the coronavirus and its search for a replacement for Cruz, who announced last month that he was stepping down.The Austin school board will conduct their regular board meeting on Monday at 6 p.m. virtually on the videoconferencing platform Zoom as a health safety measure amid the coronavirus pandemic.Since March 13, district schools have been closed . Cruz said the district will remain closed until at least April 13 , which is when stay-at-home orders from Austin and Travis County authorities could be lifted.But several Austin-area school districts are preparing for an even longer time away from campuses. Last week, the interim public health authority for Austin and Travis County, Dr. Mark Escott, recommended that schools remain closed for the rest of the school year. The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recommended that schools be closed for up to 20 weeks to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.District administrators earlier this month launched an online learning website where parents can use courses and resources for their kids until the district can provide teacher-led instruction in the upcoming weeks. The Learning At-Home website, features sample daily schedules as well as resources for special education and gifted and talented students.Though it is unclear what distance learning will look like across the district, teachers and staff are continuing to prepare for their new normal this week.In a video uploaded on the district's Twitter account, Cruz said April 6 is his target date to have a continuous learning system for students."We're going to get it right, but we are going to make some mistakes along the way and I ask you for a little grace time and I thank for your patience," Cruz said in the video posted on Friday.As of right now, district administrators say eighth graders and high school students, as well as middle school students from five out of the 19 district schools have devices for online learning. Elementary school students will have printed materials.Brooke Elementary School parent Gloria Vera-Bedolla tweeted out a message to Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Dell and other technology companies to provide devices for Brooke students. Although she has not heard from the tech companies, she has heard from the district. The district administrators told her that they are working on getting equipment for students."The school is shutting down," said Vera-Bedolla, whose children go to a school that was approved by the school board to be closed this year. "It's been a traumatic year and if we could make it easier even for a couple of months that would be my goal."Along with adapting to the coronavirus pandemic, school district administrators and trustees have a lot on their plates, including a vote to potentially modernize and expand the Lucy Read Pre-Kindergarten campus to create the future Rosedale School.Community members can view the streamed meeting on AISD.TV and on the Austin ISD Facebook page. Public agenda comments will be collected from recorded phone messages, according to the district, but no live public comment will occur.
May Mikhail was with her 94-year-old mother until the end, as her health deteriorated at the Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver, where Canada's first COVID-19 death was recorded on March 8.

Her mother, Isabelle Mikhail, became the eighth person to die of COVID-19 at the B.C. long-term care home.

"It was difficult," May Mikhail said about about her mother's final days. "We were trying to keep her hydrated and comfortable. It was clear to me fairly soon into this that she wasn't doing well."

Isabelle Mikhail died March 18. All told, 11 residents have died and more than 40 additional people have tested positive for the virus, along with 21 staff members.

Mikhail commended employees who care for residents at Lynn Valley, but said the deadly outbreak forced her and others to quickly step in when residents and staff fell ill. Eventually, she and her partner pitched in themselves, providing meals, cleaning up and even taking care of residents.

Not a good time to visit

May Mikhail, who lives eight blocks from the nursing home, says the crisis began March 6 when she went to to visit her mother, who had dementia. She was greeted with signs on the front door warning of suspected coronavirus cases.

Staff told her it wasn't a good time to visit.

Dillon Hodgin/CBC

She was invited instead to attend an emergency meeting the next day. There, along with dozens of other family members, she learned residents and staff members had contracted the virus. "And I was reassured that things would be OK," she said.

But they weren't.

She next visited the centre on March 8 around dinner time. "We walked into real mayhem." she said.

Watch | May Mikhail describe the conditions she encountered at the Lynn Valley Care Centre:

Mikhail said that there were just a few staff members working, either because they were already ill, or afraid to come to the nursing home.

She said her mother, who can't feed herself, had not eaten her lunch because no one was there to help her. Isabelle Mikhail was in a wheelchair and needed help to dress herself and go to the bathroom.

Story continues

Her daughter said she was wet with urine and was shivering and cold. May Mikhail and her partner realized they would have to step in and provide their own care for her mother.

On March 8, Isabelle Mikhail was tested for the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19. Two days later, her results came back positive.

Mikhail and her partner spent the next 10 days going back and forth from the nursing home, even as restrictions were put in place there to reduce the number of visitors.

They helped where they could, and not just with Isabelle. They distributed meals, cleaned tables and helped residents stay hydrated all while wearing masks and frequently washing their hands.

They banded together with other families to support one another, along the staff that was still there.

Mikhail says she doesn't blame the centre for the outbreak and its aftermath.

"I want to acknowledge those that did come in and did work double shifts, you know, four or five in a row. [They're] amazing people in there that work tirelessly day in and day out through this. And they're still looking after people."

'Strong person'

Mikhail says her mother, who lived at the home for five-and-a-half years, had nearly died a few times, but she had always pulled through.

"My mom was a very strong person," she said.

This time, though, with the positive coronavirus result, she knew her mother was going to die.

"Though I didn't want my mom's life to end this way, through COVID, I knew this is where we were heading."

May Mikhail

Due to travel restrictions, May Mikhail's twin sister, who lives in Texas, couldn't get to B.C. to see her mother one last time, but did connect with a video call. One of May Mikhail's sons, who lives in Vancouver, came to say good-bye, but first put on personal protective equipment to avoid infection.

About three days after Isabelle's death, May Mikhail and her partner began coughing and having body aches. Both tested negative and are now at home isolating.

As they mourn Isabelle's death, her family is focusing on her life, which they say was filled with adventure.

Isabelle Mikhail was born and raised in Egypt, but moved to Ireland with her two infant daughters and husband, where he was studying at the time.

The family eventually moved to Canada and settled in Lethbridge, Alta. In her late 70s, she and her husband divorced and she started a new life in North Vancouver.

Her daughter says she loved to cook and bring people together over food.

"She did really well," said Mikhail. "She settled down and kind of made a new life here."

May Mikhail

If you have a COVID-19-related story we should pursue that affects British Columbians, please email us at impact@cbc.ca.
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Linkedin Made Anthony Iswara (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 30, 2020 11:12 654 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e44d73 1 Business Indonesia,palm-oil,exports,China,decline,global-uncertainty,biodiesel,B30-Biodiesel Free

Indonesias palm oil exports to China have plummeted by half in volume amid global uncertainties, an industry source has said.

The Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (GAPKI) said in a statement on Tuesday that China's export volume fell by 381,000 tons or 57 percent. This contributed to the sharp drop in the countrys total palm oil exports, which declined by 35.6 percent to 2.39 million tons in January from 3.72 million tons in December 2019.

"The drastic export decline in January could be because importing countries were still holding on to their stock while waiting for the Indonesia government to implement a 30 percent blended biodiesel [B30] program," the association said in the statement.

Should the decline continue, overall export performances could be dragged down in 2020 as palm oil has remained the country's top export. The palm oil industry is one of Indonesias major foreign exchange earners, contributing 13.5 percent to total non-oil and gas exports worth US$22.3 billion, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said on March 2.

Read also: In Papua, forests offer more economic benefits than oil palm plantations, research finds

A decline in palm oil exports to China will also hit the industry hard as one of the countrys main buyers of the commodity. In 2019, China imported 6 million tons of palm oil from Indonesia, representing 16.5 percent of overall palm oil exports during the year, GAPKI data showed.

But China is not the only destination that saw a decline in palm oil exports in January. Palm oil exports to the European Union fell by 188,000 tons (30 percent), 141,000 tons (22 percent) for India and 129,000 tons for the United States (64 percent). Only Bangladesh saw a month-to-month increase by 52 percent to 40,000 tons in January.

The novel coronavirus, which emerged in China in late December 2019, could further lower the countrys crude palm oil (CPO) imports from Indonesia, as most of the countrys industries, including food and beverage producers, were closed for months.

However, CPO CIF Rotterdam prices rose in January, as CPO prices increased to an average of US$830 per ton from an average of $787 tons in December last year. CPO production also increased to 3.48 million tons in January from 3.45 million tons in the previous month.

Palm oil statistics 2019. (JP/Swi)

"We hope that such good prices will motivate farmers and companies to take better care of their plantations in order to achieve higher productivity," GAPKI wrote in the statement.

Outside of CPO, palm oil kernel (PKO) and palm oil-based biodiesel exports also declined while palm oil oleochemicals exports rose by 22.9 percent, GAPKI data showed.

Despite the export slowdown, domestic palm oil consumption increased slightly to 1.47 million tons in January from 1.45 million tons in December 2019.

The increase is in line with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's policy to increase the mandatory use of 20 percent blended biodiesel (B20) and B30, which was made in response to the EUs palm oil restrictions.

Read also: India allots import licenses for 1.1 million tons of refined palmolein from Indonesia

The domestic market is expected to absorb 9 million tons of CPO a year once the B20 and B30 policies are both implemented.

Jokowi had previously asked stakeholders to increase the mandatory use of CPObased biodiesel from B20 to B30 by January and to 50 percent (B50) by the end of 2020.

The association painted a bleak picture of the industry going forward. The unstable petroleum prices as a result of disagreements between Russia and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic will contribute to the global economic slowdown, pushing down demand for imported vegetable oils.

It also expressed worries that vegetable oil prices would fall if the outbreak lasted until Idul Fitri. Experts have predicted that COVID-19 will peak in May or June. On top of that, industries will soon face the drought season, when forest and land fires are rampant.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 30

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree changing the presidential decree #175 dated January 19, 2005 "On Enforcing the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan" On the State of Emergency", Trend reports.

In accordance with the changes, the forces and resources of the Ministry of Emergency Situations will also be used to ensure a state of emergency.

Thus, the powers of the relevant executive bodies envisaged in Articles 11, 15.1 and 28 of this law and the relevant executive body envisaged in Article 12.2.5 will be implemented by the Interior Ministry, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and the State Security Service, Foreign Intelligence Service and the State Border Service within their powers.
Paris Hilton is being mocked on social media after participating in a new 'pass the soap' TikTok challenge  and failing to actually squirt any soap into her hand.

The challenge was started by musician Dillon Francis, 32, who enlisted some famous friends to join him for a video in which each person pumps liquid soap into his or her hand and then pretends to pass it to the next person.

But when it was Paris' turn, the 39-year-old merely tapped the top of the soap dispenser, pretending to pump it into her hand even though viewers could see plainly that that wasn't the case.

Whoops! Paris Hilton is being mocked on social media after participating in a new 'pass the soap' TikTok challenge  and failing to actually squirt any soap into her hand

Caught ya! The 39-year-old merely tapped the top of the soap dispenser, pretending to pump it into her hand even though viewers could see plainly that that wasn't the case

In the video, Dillon introduces the #passthesoap challenge by squirting liquid soap into one hand, then passing the soap to his left.

YouTuber David Dobrik, in his own home, is next seen on screen, pretending to take the soap from Dillon and squirt it into his own hand.

He's followed by Diplo, Natalie M, BabyJake, Julien Solomita, Trevor Wallace, and, of course, Paris. who stands in front of the camera in a hot pink top and braided pig tails.

But when Paris pretends to put soap in her hand, it's clear that she is just barely tapping the pump, and nothing squirts into her hand.

Setting things off: The challenge was started by musician Dillon Francis, 32, who enlisted some famous friends to join him for a video

Starting a trend: YouTuber David Dobrik, in his own home, is next seen on screen (left), and is followed by several others

Famous: Also in the video are Diplo, Natalie M, BabyJake, Julien Solomita, and Trevor Wallace

Viral: The video has already been millions of times across multiple platforms

Viewers have found this both strange and utterly hilarious.

'Why did Paris Hilton not actually squirt the soap,' asked one Twitter user.

'I'm dying at how bad paris hilton acted like she pumped the soap,' tweeted another viewer.

'Are we not going to acknowledge how Paris Hilton didnt even pump the soap?' asked yet another.

Several others commented on how Paris just 'pretends to use soap' in the clip, pointing out that she just taps the head of the bottle instead of pushing it down.

What are you doing, Paris? Viewers have found this both strange and utterly hilarious

Paris hasn't responded to the comments, and may not even be aware of them.

The video has been viewed millions of times across multiple social media platforms, and other comments have poured in as well.

While Paris has had to put some engagements, like DJing, on hold, the heiress isn't hiding out. On Friday, she appeared on Miley Cyrus' Instagram Live series Bright Minded.

Paris revealed that she built a little set specifically for her appearance on Mileys series, which included a butterfly backdrop.

She used that same backdrop for the #passthesoap video.
The pictures have popped up on social media since social distancing became a necessity to battle to spread of the coronavirus.

Groups of neighborhood dads or moms spread out in a circle, drinking beer or wine in the street. A gaggle of teenagers sitting atop their parked cars, hanging out apart from each other. A pair of fishermen standing more than six feet apart in a shallow river.

Those precautions are all in the name of preventing the spread of the respiratory virus within New Jersey and the United States. But to practice true social distancing, those gatherings shouldnt happen at all, according to one health expert.

Dr. Maria Ciminelli, the president of the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians and director of the CentraState Family Medicine Residency Program, said guidelines for people to remain six feet apart are meant only for those essential trips outside the home. Any extended, unnecessary contact with people, even six feet apart, violates the spirit of the precautions.

If youre going to practice intense social distancing, it really means avoiding or limiting contact with people outside of your family, and really staying home most of the time, unless you really need to go out, Ciminelli said. But any prolonged kind of engagement outside is really still not social distancing, having that prolonged contact with people that are not in your family."

Ciminelli said the six-feet rule is for when people need to leave their homes for essential reasons, such as running to the store for groceries, or going on a run or walk for the good of physical and mental health.

Maintaining a safe distance from other people while outside the home is essential, but the effect is lost when meeting up with non-family members for a longer period of time.

Having the six feet distance is certainly whats necessary, but doing that in a prolonged setting is not intense social distancing, she said. And right now, we kind of need to do that. We see the numbers of infection still continue to grow, and well probably continue to see that for some time, especially now that were getting more testing done.

Cases of the coronavirus in New Jersey have continued to spike, jumping to 8,825 on Friday after Gov. Phil Murphy announced 1,982 new positive tests. Ciminelli hasnt been surprised by the continued climb of cases, even with social distancing practices put in place. But people still need to continue the practice to help that growth hit its peak.

Usually it takes a few weeks of good social distancing to really start seeing the term youre hearing everywhere, the flattening of the curve, she said. To start seeing the decrease and not more exponential growth of infected numbers.

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In an attempt to put some rationale on the Covid-19 pandemic, a narrative has emerged that has echoes of older times.

But whereas plagues and assorted other disasters were once believed to be the wrath of God unleashed on miscreant societies, the current crisis is being attributed to an angry natural world.

Nature, the logic goes, is taking revenge for the misuse and abuse of the riches she bestowed on us and which we plundered, squandered and maimed.

It is beyond doubt that mankind's damage to the natural world is immense but is it going too far to suggest that it is turning on us? Is it more likely the case that, for as long as mankind has interacted with nature - for food, fuel, wealth or space - and for as long as that interaction continues, there has been and will be a risk of playing host to viruses and bacteria more normally at home in other species?

And if that's the case, how best do we protect ourselves from the consequences?

It might be a cliche, but listening to the science is a good place to start.

Dearbhaile Morris is director of the Centre for One Health at NUI Galway which brings together scientists and medics of different expertise to examine where their disciplines interconnect.

"One Health is a global concept that recognises that the health of humans, the health of animals and the health of the environment we share are interlinked," she said. It puts her in a good position to judge if nature is in a vengeful mood and she finds the notion "ridiculous".

But she warns that's not to say there aren't consequences for the way we interact with the natural world and one of those is the contracting of zoonoses - diseases that exist happily in animals until they cross paths with humans and find they make useful hosts too. The most infamous, the bubonic plague, which may have killed as many as 200 million in the 14th century and later waves, provided a valuable lesson in epidemiology.

The yersinia pestis bacteria lived in rats and the fleas that fed on them but in the confines of trading ships, competition for food increased, rats died while flea populations grew, and the fleas turned to the sailors. Bubonic plague still exists today.

Despite effective treatments, it killed several hundred people in a 2017 outbreak in Madagascar. The United States still gets on average seven cases a year, with rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks believed to be the source. Transmission may be by chance encounter or, more likely, hunting and skinning an infected animal.

Charting the definitive transmission route of Covid-19 remains a work in progress. Prof Morris says bats are still considered the most likely origin, with pangolins, illegally caught and eaten as a delicacy, the intermediary, although previous coronaviruses are believed to have travelled through civets and camels.

"A complication in understanding and elucidating the origin, is that animals are likely reservoirs of a pool of viruses, including coronaviruses, that are largely understudied."

Why they are understudied is a question that needs addressing. Six months ago, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), an expert group formed by the World Health Organisation and World Bank, issued a chilling warning.

"There is a very real threat of a rapidly moving, highly lethal pandemic of a respiratory pathogen killing 50 to 80 million people and wiping out nearly 5pc of the world's economy. A global pandemic on that scale would be catastrophic, creating widespread havoc, instability and insecurity. The world is not prepared."

The GPMB warned of "disease amplifiers" such as "population growth and resulting strains on the environment, climate change, dense urbanisation, exponential increases in international travel and migration". The warnings sounded remote from an Irish perspective but we have our own experience of zoonoses.

For decades, brucellosis scourged Irish farmers and vets and there are still two or three cases of human infection here annually. Malaria affects five or six people a month here, through foreign travel, while Dengue fever struck 17 in 2018. We have around 20 cases a year of leptospirosis, believed contracted locally, which can develop into Weil's disease, as well as around a dozen cases of neuroborreliosis, the severe form of Lyme disease which, in its more general form, affects at least 200 a year. Toxoplasmosis is on the rise, from around 20-24 cases a year to 32 in 2018 and 28 in the first six months of last year alone. And before we get defensive and point out that those figures, by international comparison, remain small, we should remember that we have had the highest per capita incidence of cryptosporidiosis in Europe for the past decade.

Prof Morris warns: "It is estimated that six out of every 10 known infectious diseases in humans originate in animals and three out of every four new or emerging infectious diseases in people are spread from animals. When viruses cross species barriers, for example from a bat to a human, there is potential for it to change its genetic makeup to give it a survival advantage. Further research will help us to understand these dynamics, the significance of the genetic changes that can happen and may help us to prevent such pandemics occurring in the future.

"It is therefore really important that a One Health approach is taken. It is not only understanding how the virus behaves in humans and in animals and the significance or not of intermediate hosts, but how the behaviour of humans impacts on zoonotic transfer and ultimately human to human transfer that will inform appropriate interventions."

We could do with improving the human to human transfer of knowledge - like the GPMB tried to do. Nature isn't angry, but it could be forgiven for being incredulous at our stupidity and arrogance - and for that we should be angry with ourselves.
While some researchers are developing prototypes for ventilators to overcome their shortage, others have teamed up to develop testing kits. A team of innovators from IIT Kanpurs incubator company Nocca Robotics have developed a ventilator prototype, currently in the testing phase. Our next step is to test the prototype and get it validated with the doctors to fine tune the design, which will take at least two more ...

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As many as 14 employees of Air India's ground handling subsidiary AI Airports Services (AIASL) have been asked to stay in home-quarantine for 14 days after a woman employee of the company tested positive for coronavirus and subsequently admitted to hospital, AIASL chief A K Sharma said on Monday.

The woman staff in her early 20s, who handled the last arriving flight of Air India at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on March 24, a day before all domestic services were suspended, was admitted to the BMC hospital in suburban western Jogeshwari suburb due to fever and breathing problem, a source had told PTI on Sunday.

"It is suspected that she contracted it (coronavirus infection) during the course of her duty. She had handled the last Air India flight which landed at Mumbai Airport on March 24. After consultation with doctors, we have asked 14 of our customer service agents, who were in contract with her during the duty, to stay in home-quarantine for 14 days " Sharma said.

AIASL, earlier known as Air India Air Transport Services (AIATSL), carries out ground handling services at 81 airports in the country.

Sharma said the woman employee had not performed any duty after March 24 even as the company continues to serve cargo airlines, and till Monday it handled not less 40 cargo, freighter and emergency relief services, including the ones operated by overseas cargo airlines.

Her family members have also been admitted in the BMC hospital, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The main railway station in Wuhan, the epicenter of the pneumonia outbreak in China, was thoroughly disinfected on March 24, and is gradually resuming normal operations after being shut down for over 60 days due to epidemic prevention and control measures.

Currently, only travelers with a health code, are allowed to go back to Wuhan. For any of these citizens, the journey to get back home during the fight against the novel coronavirus has been long and hard. (Photos provided by China Photographers Association)
A 41-year-old man was killed



in Korchi taluka of Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district on Sunday night by Naxals who accused him of being a police informer, an official said.

They dragged Hiralal Kallo out of his home in Navjheri village at around 9:30pm and his body was found nearby early Monday morning, he said.

"We found Naxal pamphlets claiming Kallo was a police informer," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Monday that he will enter quarantine after an aide on Knesset affairs tested positive for coronavirus.

Neyanyahu's office said the step was a precaution and is being taken even before the epidemiological investigation has been concluded, Haretz newspaper reported.

Israel is under total lockdown with people not allowed to even walk beyond 100 metres from their homes and have been generally advised to go out only to stock up food.

So far, 4,347 Israelis have tested positive for the coronavirus, with the vast majority of cases mild and 134 recoveries. Sixteen patients have died and 95 are in serious condition. One Israeli tourist died in Italy, the paper said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  More than two dozen of New Mexicos county clerks asked the state Supreme Court on Monday for an emergency order that would allow them to conduct the June 2 primary by mail.

The clerks said they otherwise face an impossible choice  putting voters and election workers lives at risk or violating their oath of office  amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The state of New Mexico faces a public health emergency unprecedented in modern times, the clerks said in an their petition.

Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, New Mexicos chief election officer, supports the petition, describing the move to mail-in ballots  with some exceptions for in-person voting  as a sensible way to protect public health and the right to vote.

The unusual petition seeks emergency court intervention. The clerks acknowledge that an immediate special session  allowing the governor and legislators to change election laws  is a potential solution.

But it isnt practical to convene a session amid a virus outbreak that could kill hundreds of New Mexicans in the next few months, the clerks said, citing a projection by University of Washington researchers. The clerks also noted that most of New Mexicos 112 legislators are 60 or older, putting them most at risk of the disease.

The 27 clerks  mostly Democrats, but including five Republicans  argued that poll workers are scared to work and that election sites, such as schools, are already closed with no plans to re-open, justifying their request for permission to move to mail-in ballots.

They would operate the election largely under procedures already allowed for special elections by mail, with some changes to ensure compliance with federal law for elections involving federal candidates.

Primary election contests for president, seats in the U.S. House and Senate, and both chambers of the Legislature are on the ballot this year. Absentee and early voting are scheduled to begin May 5.

In a 32-page petition, the clerks say they would open a limited number of polling sites to aid voters who must vote in person and for people to drop off ballots. But the election would largely happen by mail, with a ballot sent to each active voter.

Were trying to make it as convenient as possible while maintaining social distancing, said Daniel Ivey-Soto, an attorney representing the 27 clerks in the case.

Ivey-Soto is a Democratic state senator from Albuquerque, but he said he filed the petition in his role as a lawyer, not as a senator.

Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat and former Bernalillo County clerk, supports the proposal.

The Secretary believes limited in-person services should remain available for voters  for instance, to drop off a ballot, replace a ballot, get language assistance, or get assistance because of a disability, secretary of state spokesman Alex Curtas said in a written statement.

Special session

Democratic and Republican legislative leaders have been discussing the timing and agenda for a special session. It would be up to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to call the session.

Her administration has focused in recent weeks on slowing the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The governor and her Cabinet secretaries have instructed people to stay at home, and they have issued emergency orders closing schools and nonessential businesses.

Health Secretary Kathy Kunkel said in a letter to the clerks Sunday that holding a special session now runs the risk of accelerating community transmission of the disease throughout the state and could harm legislators.

House Speaker Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, has asked legislative staff to research the legality of a virtual session, held through an online conferencing program.

House Republican leaders say the Constitution doesnt permit such a thing.

Lawmakers have also discussed the idea of meeting with the bare minimum number of lawmakers necessary to conduct business, changing rules to avoid having too many lawmakers in the room at the same time, and other possibilities.

Legislators on both sides of the aisle have also expressed concern about the details of carrying out a mail election, such as how to ensure ballots get to the right addresses, combating voter fraud and ensuring the postal system could handle the influx.

The Republican Party of New Mexico said it opposes the clerks request. The motion would bypass the legislative process and expose the ballots to tampering, the GOP said.

While everyone understands and appreciates the health and safety concerns during this pandemic, a (vote by mail) election in New Mexico provides no security and no ability to control who votes once the ballots are mailed to every registered voter, Republican Party spokesman Mike Curtis said.

Marg Elliston, chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, said Democrats are open to any process that will expand access while keeping our communities safe.

Deadlines

The clerks, meanwhile, say they face tremendous challenges in carrying out the election under the current system  in which hundreds of polling locations would be open on Election Day.

Some workers  many of whom are temporary employees  say they are unwilling to participate, the clerks said. About 65% of the workers are older than 60, putting them in the at-risk category for the disease, the clerks say.

Ballots are to be sent to military and overseas voters by April 18.
Migrant women subjected to domestic abuse are bearing the brunt of the coronavirus crisis due to being blocked from entering shelters and deterred from accessing healthcare, frontline service providers warned.

Domestic abuse services and human rights organisations urged the Home Secretary to introduce emergency measures to help migrant women forced to self-isolate with their abusers in an open letter seen by The Independent.

Warnings come after police reported there has already been a rise in domestic abuse incidents directly linked to the coronavirus crisis and the national domestic abuse helpline has recieved more calls.

The letter, spearheaded by Amnesty International UK and the Latin American Womens Rights Service, said refuges and counselling services for domestic abuse victims are at full capacity and are falling apart at the seams with most services already having to close doors to protect staff and the people we support.

Campaigners, who raised concerns social distancing measures would lead to a surge in domestic abuse, warned women who have insecure immigration status are at grave risk due to being barred from the safety and support they desperately need because of not having access to public funds.

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Domestic abuse survivors who do not have access to public funds are refused help by the authorities which means they are denied support to leave their partners and refused refuge space.

Four in five migrant women are blocked from entering shelters for domestic abuse victims  as well as routinely being too frightened to access the NHS for healthcare.

The letter, which is signed by 22 organisations, says: They are reluctant to go to the doctor or hospital if they are worried about their health because they are scared they will be reported to immigration enforcement.

"At the same time, migrant women are prevented from reporting domestic abuse to the police or other statutory services since perpetrators use immigration status as a tool of coercive control threatening them with detention, deportation, destitution or separation from their children.

Over the next few months, the situation is only going to get worse. Evidence from China and Italy is emerging that the Covid-19 crisis will exacerbate domestic abuse. We are worried that the vulnerability of migrant women may increase since specialist BME and migrant services are experiencing shrinking capacity due to the lack of face-to-face support as a consequence of the virus outbreak. Domestic abuse affects roughly two million people a year in the UK, the majority of whom are women.

The letter notes that while the home is often viewed as a sanctuary, for many it is actually a place of hostility, violence and danger  adding: At a time when safety and healthcare is what we all need, migrant women victims of domestic abuse are denied these fundamental lifelines.

The letter, which was organised by the Step Up Migrant Women campaign, a coalition of more than 40 black minority ethnic (BME) and migrant organisations, called for the government to protect the many victims of this horrendous crime irrespective of their immigration status.

Campaigners called for all NHS charging that blocks or puts people off accessing healthcare in the wake of the pandemic to be scrapped - as well as demanding data sharing between statutory services such as the police and health services and the Home Office to be axed.

China saw a threefold increase in cases of domestic abuse reported to police stations in February in comparison with the year before in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis.

A Home Office spokesperson said: We are committed to ensuring that migrants who are victims of domestic abuse can access the specialist support they need regardless of their immigration status.

Advice and support is available to all victims of domestic abuse, including through the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, which is staffed by experts 24 hours a day, every day of the year  and the government has announced a 1.6 billion COVID-19 fund for local authorities to support the most vulnerable.

Anyone who requires help or support can contact the National Domestic Abuse Helpline which is open 24/7 365 days per year on 0808 2000 247 or via their website https://www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk/
As the coronavirus spreads, public and private companies as well as government entities are requiring employees to work from home, putting unforeseen strain on all manner of networking technologies and causing bandwidth and security concerns. What follows is a round-up of news and traffic updates that Network World will update as needed to help keep up with the ever-changing situation. Check back frequently!

UPDATE 4.27

According to the April 22 Verizon Network Report, overall data volume across its networks has increased 19% compared to pre-COVID levels. While data usage remains elevated, the changes in how people are using the network has stabilized, the company stated.

In the United States, there has been a notable decline in peoples movements during the course of the global pandemic. Mobile handoffs the times when a data session moves from one cell site to another as users walk or drive around  have reduced by 27% nationally compared to typicalpre-COVID levels. And, measured by mobile handoffs, the U.S. has seen a decrease in movements since March 1. Verizon said that the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions appear to have the most people in the nation staying at home. Verizon stated it expects usage to continue at sustained higher levels, even as movements begin to shift in the coming weeks and months as stay-in-place restrictions begin to lift . We believe all trends point to sustained network usage at this higher level for the foreseeable future, said Kyle Malady, Chief Technology Officer for Verizon.

In its fifth report tracking internet speeds across the top 200 most populous U.S. cities, Broadbandnow reported networks were slowly adjusting to the new demand placed on them. But as of April 22 despite these adjustments, internet speeds in some cases slowed to a crawl. Over the past week, 67 cities (33.5% of the top 200) experienced median upload speed decreases of 20% or greater below range of previous weeks in 2020. Through April 15, the number was 61, or 30.5%. In turn, 51 cities (25.5%) have recorded download speed dips of 20% or greater, compared to last weeks 52.
Coronavirus: 115 Palestinians test positive, one dead Hebron sealed to prevent contagion

(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, MARCH 30 - After six more people tested positive for the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, in the West Bank, the number of Palestinians found to be infected rose to 115 on Monday.



The latest cases were found in the West Bank village of Biddo and nine of those that have tested positive so far are in the Gaza Strip.



The news agency WAFA quoted Palestinian Authority (PA) interior ministry spokesman Ghassan Nimr in giving the figures. A 65-year-old woman is the only known death of a Palestinian who tested positive for COVID-19. The governor of Hebron has ordered the complete isolation of the city, with all accesses blocked. No one is allowed to enter or exit the city and shops are open for the bare minimum to enable the population to get necessary food. The local Palestinian authorities are concerned that the city, in which 150,000 people live, might turn into a second breeding ground in the Palestinian Territories after Bethlehem saw many cases last week. (ANSAmed).




Mark Zaretsky / Hearst Connecticut Media file

A Branford woman was confirmed as the towns first coronavirus fatality Monday, according to a release from the East Shore District Health Department.

The death of the woman, who was between 80 and 90 years old, was confirmed by the state Department of Public Health, the release said.
Tu kahe doleh parania, tudh rakhega sirjanhar (Dont lose heart, O man, you will be defended and taken care of by God, the Creator of everything).

The reassuring shabad at the Golden Temple is apt in these troubled times of the coronavirus disease.

The holiest shrine of the Sikhs may be seeing far fewer devotees due to the curfew to ensure social distancing, but the age-old maryada and dawn-to-dusk rituals of parkash, kirtan and sukh asan  traditions that were interrupted only during Operations Bluestar (1984) and Black Thunder (1986) in living memory  are being followed religiously.

Hymns reverberate in the precincts, and far beyond, through the live telecast that is now providing spiritual solace to devotees holed up in their homes the world over.

Keepers of the faith, including raagis and sewadars, begin their day as early as 2am for the amrit vela (the pre-dawn) ceremony that starts with the opening of kiwars (doors of darshani deori). Despite the curfew, about 100 devotees recite prayers followed by kirtan of Asa di Vaar, a hymn by Guru Nanak.

It is a daily ritual to be here, even in the curfew, says Tarundeep Singh, a youngster who lives nearby, and is adept at blowing the narsinga (a traditional wind instrument) while the Palki Sahib (golden palanquin) carries the holy saroop of Guru Granth Sahib.

Normally, about 3,000 devotees watch the proceedings, says Giani Maan Singh, a granthi (priest). Now the sangat comes daily but only in the required number so as to uphold the maryada, he says.

FAITH COMES FIRST

The kirtan by hazoori raagis (regular Gurbani exponents) are telecast live throughout the day on social media ever since the curfew came into effect last week.

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) sewadars and half the devotees wear masks in the parikarma of the shrine but not in the sanctum sanctorum.

No devotee is prohibited from wearing masks inside the sanctum sanctorum, but it is against the maryada for granthis. They keep a hajuria (a piece of cloth) around their neck to ensure cleanliness, says Gobind Singh Lonogwal, the president of the SGPC that manages affairs of the shrine and has scaled down its staff to 30%.

The sangat continues to drink jal (water) from the holy sarovar, while the Akhand Path (48-hour, non-stop recitation of Guru Granth Sahib) continues as usual.

Devotees happily accept the karah parshad offered by the sewadar on their exit from Darbar Sahib. It is prepared according to the footfall of the sangat. As usual, the first deg (offering) goes to the sanctum sanctorum at 1.30am. As a limited sangat comes, only five cans of 15-kg desi ghee is consumed to prepare the parshad in a day. During a normal day, 40 cans would be consumed, while on special days such as gurpurbs, the consumption goes up to 75 cans, says Kulwant Singh, a cook at the shrines kitchen.

EAT, PRAY, SERVE

The coronavirus curfew has not been able to halt the operation of Guru Ram Das Langar Ghar, the largest community kitchen, where food is served free of cost. The service continues round the clock.

The devotees come to do seva even when there is no relaxation in curfew, says Harjit Singh, an SGPC employee overseeing the langar operation.

Gurmeet Singh, 25, from Koom Kalan in Ludhiana district who came along with a friend to do seva a week ago, says, I recovered from an accident and wanted to express my gratitude by doing seva. The curfew has given us a golden opportunity to spend more time and serve in the Gurus abode.

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Workers package face masks in the Zhejiang Kaierhai Textile Garments Co in Shaoxing of East China's Zhejiang Province. The clothing maker recently started to produce and export face masks and other COVID-19 prevention materials when their traditional business is threatened by pandemic, with foreign customers suspending their orders. Photo: Yang Hui/GT

As demand for life-saving medical supplies continues to skyrocket globally, China, as a major world supplier, is sparing no efforts to ensure steady supplies, with factories running 24 hours a day to make everything from masks to test kits and ventilators, airlines and shipping firms scrambling to expand transport channels and officials stepping up efforts to help boost the supply chain.

However, even as China ramps up efforts to increase medical supplies, major logistical hurdles remain due to restrictions put in place by many countries to combat the global coronavirus pandemic. There are also concerns over the quality of some of the equipment, in light of recent media reports about some malfunctioning masks and test kits - attracting calls for intensified quality-control efforts both in China and abroad.

Surge in supplies

Beijing Aeonmed Co, which makes ventilators that help COVID-19 patients breathe, has kept its machines running 24 hours a day and has converted other production lines to focus on ventilators to meet surging export orders.

"There are too many overseas orders," Li Kai, an executive at the company told the Global Times on Sunday, noting that the company has received "tens of thousands" of overseas orders from about 40 countries and regions, including Italy, the UK, Mongolia and Ukraine.Aeonmed is not alone. Since February, there are 12,000 new companies in China that have started to produce masks and ventilators, bringing the total to 53,000, with over 17,420 of them being certified exporters, according to media reports. Some companies, such as Beijing Siriusmed Medical Device, said that all of its output of 80 to 100 per week are for the overseas market, Cui Gang, clinical director of the company, told the Global Times.

As the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases surges across the world, global demand for ventilators, has increased as much as 10 times, according to some estimates. Facing dire shortages of the devices, public health workers in countries from Italy to the US have been or will reportedly be forced to decide which patients to save and which ones not to.

Apart from ventilators, global demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks, gloves, gowns and other medical devices such as test kits and infrared thermometers has also been surging. Maria Van Kerkhove, an official with the World Health Organization, warned on Wednesday that the world was facing a "significant shortage" of PPE and other devices, though she did not offer a specific amount.

Airport staff unload boxes of face masks and medical supplies from an airplane of Air China, in Athens, Greece, on March 21, 2020. Approximately eight tons of medical supplies provided by the Chinese government to Greece after Athens' urgent request arrived on Saturday morning at Athens international airport on an Air China flight.The aid consists of 550,000 masks and sets of protective gear, according to a release issued by the Chinese embassy in Greece. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

While the Chinese government and other organizations continue to donate PPE to dozens of countries around the world, the number of export orders has also been rising significantly. More than 17 countries such as the UK and Italy have signed purchase contracts with Chinese firms, Geng Shuang, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said last week. Over the weekend, France ordered one billion masks with the vast majority from China and will dispatch 56 cargo flights to transport them.

"The overseas demand for masks is far more than supply," Cao Jun, General Manager at the Zhejiang-based Lanhine Corp, told the Global Times on Sunday, noting that half of the company's 1.2 million daily mask output will go to overseas markets, including Germany and the US.

Shenzhen-based BGI Genomics said that it has exported 7 million test kits to 70 countries and regions and has increased its daily output to 600,000, the company said in a statement to the Global Times.

Overall, China has significantly increased the output of PPE and other medical devices and the numbers could further grow, according to industry insiders. Between February 1 and March 15, 28,000 companies have expanded their operations to production of masks, gowns and other medical equipment, according to business data provider Tianyancha. For example, daily output of masks has increased by 16 folds to around 116 million a day and the number could further jump, according to media reports.

"Just like the response to the epidemic itself, China is really making a nationwide effort to ensure medical supplies to support in the global battle against the coronavirus pandemic," Wang Jun, an analyst at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, told the Global Times on Sunday.

China's nationwide efforts

Not just Chinese factories, officials and other companies have also been scrambling to ensure steady supply of medical equipment for the world. Apart from domestic fiscal and other policy support for medical equipment producers to expand production, Chinese officials have also been arranging transportation for the supplies.

As of Thursday, China's airlines had conducted 23 flights that carried a total of 406 tons of medical supplies to countries around the world, Zhang Qing, a senior official with the Civil Aviation Administration of China, told a press briefing on Sunday, adding that the agency will offer cash incentives to help airlines.

SF Express, a delivery services firm, said that since February 13, it has opened routes, including to New York, and has delivered 742 tons of supplies to more than 50 countries and regions, the company said in a statement to the Global Times on Sunday. China Postal Airlines and YTO Express have also operated over 100 cargo flights and delivered a total of more than 710 tons of supplies overseas, Jin Jinghua, an official at China's State Post Bureau (SPB), told a press briefing on Sunday.

Chinese officials have also maintained operation of the China-Europe cargo train services, given the strict deadlines for the supplies, air cargo remains the best option for transportation of medical equipment, as sea transport and even intercontinental trains could take too long, industry analysts said.

For example, cargo shipped from Northwest China's Shaanxi Province could take as many as 18 days to reach Germany, Xu Yuanyuan, manager of Shaanxi Further Strategy Supply Chain Management Co, told the Global Times.

Xu said that logistics could be more rapid and smoother for orders made by foreign embassies. Many foreign governments, including Russia and the UK, have also reportedly dispatched airplanes to pick up supplies directly from China.

Logistics, quality concerns

Still, there are major hurdles that remain for logistics, according to Chinese officials and businesses. "We are also seeing delays in overseas packages caused by insufficient global air capacities and disruptions to global shipping channels because of the pandemic," Jin with the SPB said.

Sally Gao, an employee from the Wuhan Guide Infrared Co, said that the company has been facing difficulties to ship its infrared thermometers overseas and a batch of 20 thermometers are still held up at US customs. "The biggest problem is that overseas clients are in a hurry for our products but transportation takes too long," Gao told the Global Times on Sunday, adding that air cargo is too expensive.

In light of recent reports about quality issues with Chinese-made medical supplies, several factories on Sunday said that quality comes first even as demand surges.

Aerial photo taken on March 24, 2020 shows staff members transport cargo by a crane at Luokou freight station in Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province. The freight station of China Railway Jinan Group Co., Ltd has transported 14,409 tons of supplies in the last three months, including 378 tons of food and medical materials to Hubei Province, helping the full resumption of work and production across China. (Xinhua/Wang Kai)

"Ventilators go through various inspections before obtaining certifications and must be in line with regulations on quality," Li from Beijing Aeonmed said, adding that the company has been exporting its products to more than 100 countries and regions even before the pandemic.

Still, after the Netherlands reportedly recalled Chinese-made masks because they did not meet quality standards, there are mounting calls in China to intensify efforts to ensure the quality of all its medical supplies not just because of safety concerns but also its impact on China's manufacturing sector.

"No doubt, quality is crucial for medical supplies. It's very important for China to make sure that all products are up to global standards," Wang said, noting that apart from domestic quality-control efforts, foreign regulators' cooperation is also necessary to make sure purchases are made through proper channels.

Some companies said that they have been facing frequently changing rules and regulations from foreign governments over the requirements of medical supplies, which may have caused some "misunderstandings" and confusion but insisted that only a small amount of products have quality issues.

Some have also denied raising prices in light of the surging demand, while others say that certain increases in prices are normal given the rising prices of raw materials.

Cao from mask producer Lanhine said that it's inevitable that masks would see price hikes due to the increasing prices of raw materials. "Price hikes are in compliance with market supply-demand relations, for which, the Western media cannot apply 'double standards' to," said Cao.
STEPANAKERT, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan sent a condolence letter to the family of prominent French political figure of Armenian origin Patrick Devedjian, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

The letter runs as follows:

We have learnt with deep sorrow in Artsakh about the death of prominent French political figure of Armenian origin, great patriot Patrick Devedjian.

He has made an invaluable contribution to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the defense of the Armenian Cause, contributing in every possible way to the preservation of the Armenian national identity in the Diaspora, the development of ties with Artsakh and the resolution of national issues.

Patrick Devedjian's death is a huge loss for all of us.

On behalf of the Artsakh people, authorities and myself personally I extend my deepest condolences and support to all the relatives and friends of the deceased, and wish them endurance and tenacity.
Princess Maria Teresa of Bourbon-Parma has become the first royal from Spain to pass away due to coronavirus complications, reported Fox News. The 86-year-old was a cousin of Spain's King Felipe VI. The news of her death comes a few days after King Felipe VI of Spain tested negative for the virus.

Prince Maria's brother Prince Sixto Enrique de Borbon, the Duke of Aranjuez, announced the of her passing on Facebook. He stated she died after contracting COVID-19 during the outbreak.

The post read, "On this afternoon... our sister Maria Teresa de Borbon Parma and Borbon Busset, a victim of the coronavirus COVID-19, died in Paris at the age of eighty-six."

According to a report in People magazine, Princess Maria Teresa had studied in France and later went onto become a professor at Paris' Sorbonne. She was also known to be a professor of Sociology at Madrid's Complutense University.

Also known for her outspoken views and activist work, Princess Maria Teresa was nicknamed as the "Red Princess." A funeral service is said to be held for the princess on Friday in Madrid.

On the other hand, while Queen Elizabeth has moved out of her palace after a royal aid was tested positive, a week later, Prince Charles was the first British royal to be tested positive for the coronavirus.

Currently living in self-isolation in Scotland at the Clarence House, the news was confirmed to Fox News, earlier last week. A statement by the spokesperson said, "The Prince of Wales has tested positive for Coronavirus. He has been displaying mild symptoms but otherwise remains in good health and has been working from home throughout the last few days as usual."

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Falcone, CEO and chief investment officer for Harbinger Capital Partners, participates in a panel discussion during the Skybridge Alternatives Conference in Las Vegas

BOSTON (Reuters) - An activist investor is stepping up calls for the board of HC2 Holdings Inc <HCHC.N> to remove Chief Executive and Chairman Philip Falcone as the former hedge fund manager faces mounting legal and financial troubles.

MG Capital, run by former Third Point executive Michael Gorzynski, said for the second time in two months that it wants Falcone out. Gorzynski asked lead independent director Wayne Barr in a letter seen by Reuters a "to facilitate the removal of Mr. Falcone."

In February the fund, which owns 5% of HC2 along with its partners, criticized the company's financial performance and said it wanted to replace the entire board, including Falcone, with six directors of its own.

Now, Gorzynski is focusing more on Falcone, whose bets on the overheated housing market at his Harbinger Capital turned him, briefly, into a billionaire. Last year his net worth was closer to $300 million, he told lawyers.

"Based on Mr. Falcone's well-documented financial, legal and regulatory issues, MG Capital - and presumably other stockholders - remains perplexed by the incumbent Board's focus on preserving HC2's status quo," MG Capital said in the letter.

HC2 has businesses in construction, marine services and several other sectors. A spokesman for the firm was not immediately available for comment.

An MG spokesman confirmed the content of the letter.

In the last six weeks, Falcone has been sued for more than $65.8 million for allegedly defaulting on loans and had his assets frozen for failing to pay lawyers. Last year HC2 was ordered by a court to withhold some of Falcone's wages to satisfy unpaid obligations after he was ordered to pay New York City $2.69 million in unpaid taxes.

"We remain deeply troubled by the impact that Mr. Falcone's apparent financial distress and legal issues may have on HC2," MG Capital said.

In papers filed Feb. 21 with the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Melody Business Finance LLC said Falcone and affiliates reneged on obligations to repay loans, which date from 2013 to 2017, and improperly sold some of the underlying collateral, including an Andy Warhol painting.

Alex Spiro, a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan representing Falcone, said in an statement: "This is a personal dispute without merit. We will fight this."

Story continues

In early March, Justice Arthur Engoron froze Falcone's assets after he failed to pay $13.6 million to law firm Dontzin Nagy & Fleissig.

The firm represented Falcone in 2013 when he settled allegations with the Securities and Exchange Commission that he borrowed $113 million from his hedge fund to pay personal taxes and gave preferential treatment to certain clients when he halted redemptions.

Gorzynski in the letter to Barr said MG would "engage in a constructive one-to-one dialogue with you and the other directors once Mr. Falcone has been removed."

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
A couple set up their own makeshift outdoor dining table on the back of their ute so they could eat breakfast outside a cafe despite strict social distancing rules.

The couple strapped down the table and two dining chairs to enjoy breakfast outside Brooks and Stain in Brisbane.

All cafes and restaurants were forced to turn to takeaway only on March 23 after the government closed all 'non-essential' businesses in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The couple strapped down the table and two dining chairs to enjoy breakfast outside Brooks and Stain in Brisbane

A couple set up their own makeshift outdoor dining table on the back of their ute so they could eat breakfast outside a cafe despite strict social distancing rules

The photo was posted to the Brown Cardigan Instagram page with the caption: 'This is cafe culture in 2020. The virus cannot and will not stop the one tonne movable feast'.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday advised all Australians they should only be leaving their homes for essential outings.

But the couple have seemed to have looked past the dining out option and created their own way to eat outside of their home despite the social distancing rules.

But some social media users slammed the couple for not following social distancing restrictions and eating out.

'This is why we're a nanny state...' one user wrote.

'They deserve to get the coronavirus,' another commented.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday advised all Australians they should only be leaving their homes for essential outings

'Boomers. What more can you say?' another wrote.

Meanwhile other people praised the couple for their 'ingenious' idea with one person writing: 'See, we could have had breakfast on Saturday'.

'Take a guess what were doing on the weekend,' another wrote tagging their friend.

Australians can now be fined up to $13,000 for breaking the tough new coronavirus rules that limit public gatherings to two people.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

Mr Morrison on Sunday announced the two-person rule, while urging those over 70 to stay at home and ordering the closure of playgrounds, skate parks and outdoor gyms.

Queenslanders who break the rules will get an on the spot fine of $13,345, while businesses in the state will cop a penalty of $66,672, police said on Monday.

Victorians who are caught outside with more than one other person will be slapped with a $1,652 on the spot fine from Tuesday.

New South Wales is expected to follow suit and has warned punishments for flouting the new measures would most likely be in line with previous restrictions, which have been enforced under the Public Health Act.

Breaches of the Act currently carry $11,000 fines, six months in jail or a $1,000 on-the-spot police fine.

The two-person limit doesn't apply to workplaces, offices, schools and households.

It applies to all indoor settings, including private properties and homes.

People who live alone can only invite one friend over, while households of two people or more can't have any visitors.

A family split across two houses can meet in private, allowing people to visit their partner, siblings or parents.

The prime minister urged all Australians to only leave their homes to buy essential supplies, to exercise, to attend personal medical appointments and to go to work or school - if unable to work or obtain an education from home.

'Every single Australian needs to take this seriously or community transmission could get out of control and we could have a situation as terrible as even they are seeing in the US at the moment,' he said.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government on Monday announced that doctors working at Delhis Lok Nayak Hospital and GB Pant Hospital on coronavirus duty will be lodged at Hotel Lalit.

The administration has come with a 14-day shift, 14-day quarantine plan for health workers and medical professionals who are on coronavirus duty in hospitals. The plan will keep the spread of coronavirus in check.

Doctors are on the frontlines of the battle against Coronavirus. All doctors serving in Delhi governments Lok Nayak Hospital and GB Pant Hospital on COVID-19 duty will now be housed in Hotel Lalit, Office of the Chief Minister of Delhi tweeted out.

Doctors are on the frontlines of the battle against Coronavirus. All doctors serving in Delhi government's Lok Nayak Hospital and GB Pant Hospital on COVID-19 duty will now be housed in Hotel Lalit.#DelhiFightsCorona  CMO Delhi (@CMODelhi) March 30, 2020

In a bid to fight the coronavirus crisis in the national capital, the Delhi government has taken a slew of measures.

The administration is ensuring free food to nearly 4 lakh people daily and is providing free ration to 72 lakh people in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis.

More than 800 centres for food and over 1,000 shops for ration have been made operational. 234 night shelters across Delhi are open to accommodate needy and those hit by the lockdown. The administration is also working toward converting schools into shelters to accommodate migrant workers and daily wage labourers.

Kejriwal on Sunday urged migrant workers not to leave the city because it would defeat the purpose of the 21-day national lockdown, while urging property owners not to force tenants to pay monthly rent, and urging factory owners and contractors to ensure the workers got food to eat despite work being stalled.

I request the landlords  do not collect the rent, and postpone it if your tenants are poor and are unable to pay the rent. If your tenant fails to give the rent later, my government will compensate for it. But dont harass them, Kejriwal said at a digital press conference on Sunday.
Mobax signs key agreement with Radwin as South Africa looks towards the gig economy

Mobax has recently signed a key partnership agreement with Radwin to roll out Radwin's comprehensive portfolio of Point-to-Multipoint and Point-to-Point wireless broadband solutions to its extensive base of telecommunication network operators and corporate clients.

It is no secret that South Africa faces one of the biggest economic crises in its history. Government is struggling to ramp up economic growth as the public calls on the president to resolve the unemployment situation.



In his state of the nation address, President Cyril Ramaphosa stressed the importance of small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs) as key enablers of the South African economy. Historically SMMEs have had limited access to affordable, reliable internet connections which has in many cases hampered their growth.



Gerhard Bezuidenhout, Managing Director of Mobax stated: "Radwin has an exciting portfolio of solutions that will enable us to implement fibre-like broadband connectivity to deliver high-value services to our extensive customer-base. This partnership leverages upon RADWIN's wireless broadband technology and the professionalism and high-quality engineering capabilities of Mobax to deliver advanced fixed wireless solutions to existing network operators and corporate clients as well as a broad scope of new potential customers."



Another day at the office



The partnership between Mobax and Radwin will offer key assistance to companies who are gearing themselves up to become active participants in the gig economy. While this is an important project, Bezuidenhout points out that this project is well within Mobax's capabilities and that the company has successfully rolled out similar projects in the past.



"Mobax is one of the country's leading telecommunication companies specialising in end-to-end solutions for the consumer. As the country moves towards the gig economy, access to a stable internet connection is paramount. This project with Radwin has the potential to open up cutting edge technologies, including 5G, to the consumer and could go a long way in improving the country's telecommunication infrastructure," said Bezuidenhout.



Massive onboarding



The partnership between Mobax and Radwin comes off the back of a long-standing relationship between the companies and will be rolled out on a continuous basis.



Paul Serfontein, Head of Engineering Services for Mobax, pointed out that initially, the current partnership agreement between Mobax and Radwin will offer connectivity to 8,000 clients. However, there are plans for aggressive expansion.



"The initial offering will be aimed at enterprise customers. However, the services can be expanded to include SMMEs as we will be expanding on an existing infrastructure and not building an entirely new network. There is a possibility for Radwin to partner with companies in order to offer its services to the regular consumer without building infrastructure to support this," said Serfontein.



Corporate duty



While government has indicated that it will be specifically focusing on improving the country's telecommunications infrastructure to make access to the internet a reality for all South Africans, it is the duty of corporate South Africa to do their part to support this.



"Mobax fully supports governments intentions to improve the country's telecommunications infrastructure. If we can play a role in this, we will and we are confident that this agreement with Radwin will make significant strides towards achieving this ideal," said Bezuidenhout.



About Mobax



Mobax South Africa (MSA) was established in 2007 and its Headquarters is in Irene, Gauteng. MSA's core business is the supply of Professional Telecommunications Services and Products to the South African market.




WASHINGTON--The international medical team that accomplished the world's first documented drone delivery of insulin for a patient living in a remote community described the project in an ENDO 2020 abstract that will be published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

The 16-minute test flight from Galway, Ireland, to the Aran Islands about 12 miles off the west coast of Ireland took place Sept. 13 last year, according to the drone project's principal investigator, Derek O'Keeffe, M.D., Ph.D., a consultant endocrinologist at National University of Ireland Galway. O'Keeffe said that after severe storms disrupted healthcare access in Ireland in recent years, they wanted to find a solution for future disasters when people with diabetes in remote regions may be stranded for days without their lifesaving diabetes medicines.

"We now have the drone technology and protocols in place to deliver diabetes medications and supplies in an actual disaster if needed," he said. "This is a milestone in improving patient care."

The large autonomous (self-flying) drone flew "beyond visual line of sight" during commercial flight operations in regulated airspace, O'Keeffe said. The project team's yearlong planning required approvals from aviation, pharmaceutical and clinical regulatory agencies.

Endocrinologist Spyridoula Maraka, M.D., M.S., of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, Little Rock, said the team had to address several healthcare delivery issues to send a prescription medicine via an unmanned aircraft operating a 4G cellular network using GPS waypoints.

"Insulin can be outside the fridge for hours, but it can't be exposed to extreme heat, so we put it in an insulated parcel with temperature monitoring en route," Maraka said. "We also put a security lock on the parcel in case the drone did not arrive at the right place."

Because legally a pharmacist must dispense a prescription drug, she arranged for a pharmacist to dispense the insulin and another diabetes medication, glucagon before loading them to the drone for delivery.

Another unique aspect of the project, according to Maraka, is that the drone returned with a blood sample collected from the patient for monitoring blood glucose control (HbA1c). "We wanted to find a way to monitor glycemic control remotely," she said. "It was the full circle of care, which has not been done by drone before."

Maraka stressed that this ability for remote diagnostics could save lives. "A patient with type 1 diabetes could develop life-threatening diabetic ketoacidosis after more than one day without insulin," she said. "A blood specimen would allow us to properly diagnose and treat the condition."

###

For this project, Wingcopter provided the drone, Novo Nordisk served in an advisory role and Vodafone Ireland allowed use of its 4G network.

The Endocrine Society, which is part of the U.S.-based Diabetes Disaster Response Coalition, offers tips on managing diabetes in an emergency.

The Endocrine Society canceled its annual meeting, ENDO 2020, amid concerns about COVID-19. Visit our online newsroom for more information on accepted abstracts, which will be published in a special supplemental section of the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

Endocrinologists are at the core of solving the most pressing health problems of our time, from diabetes and obesity to infertility, bone health, and hormone-related cancers. The Endocrine Society is the world's oldest and largest organization of scientists devoted to hormone research and physicians who care for people with hormone-related conditions.

The Society has more than 18,000 members, including scientists, physicians, educators, nurses and students in 122 countries. To learn more about the Society and the field of endocrinology, visit our site at http://www.endocrine.org. Follow us on Twitter at @TheEndoSociety and @EndoMedia.
Photo: Unsplash

Worcester's tech industry is experiencing strong job growth. Local employers posted 40 new jobs over the past week and 160 in the last month, ranking second among local industries, according to ZipRecruiter, a leading online employment marketplace.

The tech sector came in fourth in terms of local employers adding new jobs. In the past month, 36 companies listed open jobs for Worcester-based workers in that area.

Top companies hiring locally in information technology include U.S. Army/Army Reserves, K&M Systems and Masis Professional Group. According to a recent job opening posted by Masis Professional Group, the firm "is a national-based recruiting firm."

Jobs posted by K&M Systems in the past month in Worcester included technicians.

This story was created automatically using local jobs data, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA is constantly extending support to several nations across the world in their fight against novel coronavirusas is evident from its piling donations.



Alibaba Foundations latest contribution in collaboration with the Jack Ma Foundation to seven more Asian countries is a testament to its social initiative.



Notably, India, Bhutan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam are on the current list, which are entitled to receive medical supplies essential for fighting COVID-19.



The latest move aims at providing protective clothing, medical equipment like ventilators and forehead thermometers, 165,000 testing kits and 1.7 million face masks in total to all these countries. India already received the first batch of these supplies. Other places will be receiving soon.



We believe, the latest endeavor remains noteworthy on part of both foundations. Moreover, it bodes well for Alibabas strong endeavors to aid the global community efforts, which focus on stopping the COVID-19 spread and treating the infected patients worldwide.



Additionally, an extending grant on a continuous basis will steadily help the company win investors confidence during the coronavirus-led crisis situation across the world.



Coming to the price performance, Alibaba has returned 4.2% over a year against the industrys decline of 4.3%.





Rising Support for Other Nations



In addition to the latest action taken for a noble cause, bothAlibaba Foundation and Jack Ma Foundation recently announced a donation of 1.8 million masks, 210,000 COVID-19 test kits, 36,000 pieces of protective clothing and other essential medical supplies to 10 Asian countries, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.



Furthermore, the foundations dispatched medical supplies to countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.



As of now, 23 Asian countries received 100,000 sets of protective clothing, 7.4 million masks, 485,000 test kits in total along with other essential medical equipment from these foundations.



Apart from the Asian countries, North American, Latin American, European and African nations also received medical aid.



Moreover, Alibaba recently presented its cloud-based coronavirus diagnostic tool to the European health systems.We note that the tool is a Machine Learning-based software that assists in chest scans. The company strives to manage this pandemic situation with this diagnostic tool by accelerating the COVID-19 process.

Story continues

Alibaba Group Holding Limited Revenue (TTM)

Alibaba Group Holding Limited Revenue (TTM)

Alibaba Group Holding Limited revenue-ttm | Alibaba Group Holding Limited Quote

Global Measures Against COVID-19

Along with Alibaba, companies such as Alphabet GOOGL, Amazon AMZN, Yandex YNDX and Microsoft are leaving no stone unturned to enable the society to combat the coronavirus pandemic.



Notably, Alphabets Google recently launched a website in the United States, which offers information related to coronavirus symptoms, treatment and preventive remedies from the World Health Organization.



The companys health-care division, Verily, recently launched a COVID-19 screening and testing website under Project Baseline. Further, Alphabet announced above $800-millionworth of donations for producing essential medical equipment in a tie-up with Magid Glove and Safety.



Amazon joined forces with a research program called Seattle Coronavirus Assessment Network (SCAN) to deliver and pick up COVID-19 test kits in Seattle.



Additionally, the company teamed up with Conduent to bring in the latters Maven on AWS in a bid to manage the coronavirus pandemic more efficiently. Notably, Maven is a disease surveillance and outbreak management platform.



Meanwhile, Yandex rolled out a project named Helping Hand, which focuses on transportation, medicinal deliveries, and food and other essential commodity supplies in Russia. It will also deliver COVID-19 testing kits.



Notably, Microsoft unveiled a COVID-19 tracker tool that offers up-to-date infection statistics of each affected country on the tracker. Moreover, the tool provides access to various coronavirus-based articles and other information.



We note that competition is intensifying among the above-mentioned companies in managing the global challenges induced by coronavirus.



Nevertheless, Alibabas expansive attempts are likely to aid its momentum in this global community effort.



Currently, Alibaba carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.



The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All



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In the face of a standoff between Ashraf Ghani and Abdurrashid Dostum -- each of whom is determined to be considered the duly elected president of Afghanistan, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went to Kabul to provide one last push toward a single government that could negotiate with the Taliban. It didnt happen. Pompeo announced his disappointment and a cut of $1 billion in aid to Afghanistan for 2021, but fell short of throwing in the towel. "We're hopeful, frankly, they'll get their act together, he said. And we won't have to [cut the aid], but we are prepared to do that if they can't."

Mr. Pompeo is taking the next step in setting conditions for the United States to end its presence in Afghanistan. The only people who thought the U.S.-Taliban peace plan announced earlier this year was supposed to bring peace between the Taliban and the Afghan government were the people who think a peace plan will do it for Israelis and Palestinians. In neither case is a negotiated peace an achievable objective, because peace is not a negotiable property. Nowhere in history do people give up deeply held convictions for quiet -- or even for money. At least not for long.

So, what is the American objective in Afghanistan? It is to get the United States out of the middle of the Afghan civil war.

The U.S. entered the country to punish the Taliban for harboring al Qaeda and not turning Osama Bin Laden over after the 9/11 attacks. We succeeded when we forced them from governance. At no time was our mission -- our should our mission have been -- to create a democratic, western-style country in a rockpile with a history of chewing up and spitting out foreigners. Ask the British and the Soviets.

While both Democrats and Republicans have said for years that they wanted to leave Afghanistan, we have spent $975 billion on allied military operations and billions more in economic assistance. More important, we lost more than 2,440 soldiers and nearly 2,000 civilian contractors without asking the fundamental question: what are we doing there? And without seeming to notice that our original -- and successful -- objective of punishing the Taliban had morphed into democratization and modernization with all that implies: elections, education, eradication of poppy fields, road building, protecting the Afghan government, and building a modern Afghan military force to fight the Taliban upon its return to its traditional territory after taking refuge in Pakistan.

Those last two are crucial, turning the United States from an internationally aggrieved party following 9/11 into a shield for a government in Kabul that is corrupt, inept, and appears to believe the U.S. will shield it in perpetuity from the worst of its own excesses. The Taliban was clearly an enemy of the United States, but they are natives and we are not, so finding a mechanism by which we can leave their country might work for us.

The U.S.-Taliban agreed parameters are clear:

A temporary ceasefire

Withdrawal of foreign forces. The terms include continued training support for the Afghan government

Intra-Afghan negotiations

Taliban assurance not to allow the territory of Afghanistan to be used by terrorists to threaten the U.S. -- the reason the coalition originally entered.

And although they have been violated in some measure -- notably with Taliban attacks on Afghan government positions and the Afghan government refusing to talk to the Taliban without conditions -- these are early days. There is work to be done for the U.S. to reach its primary objective: to leave Afghanistans civil war to its parties without providing an opening for the return of al Qaeda or its offshoots.

Regardless of the outcome in Afghanistan itself, the United States will remain in the region in some capacity as jihadists spread out looking for more hospitable space. This is the case across the Middle East and Southwest Asia -- the U.S. evicted ISIS from its territorial base in Syria and Iraq, but it has reconstituted in a lesser fashion and with lesser means in Africa and elsewhere. Those jihadist groups that dont find haven in Afghanistan will look beyond. And the U.S. will have to have a broad plan.

Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs R. Clarke Cooper noted that the U.S. is working with Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. There are partner nations that have maybe not been historically aligned with the United States, former Soviet Union satellite states, that we are working with to ensure a more cohesive northern access corridor, regardless of what happens with the Afghanistan peace talks or reconciliation."

Some American veterans of the Afghan war have understandably mixed -- and even negative  feelings about leaving. I wanted to get out, but I didnt think wed get out like that, handing the guys we fought for the last 18 years a victory, said one Army veteran.

But victory requires militarily achievable objectives. Being bogged down with an Afghan ally that isnt, to the detriment of a regional approach to the continuing threat of Islamic jihadism, is not a victory either.
Tuesday's home-school lesson: Drugs.

If you ever wanted to know the ins and outs, the lows and *ahem* highs of different types of narcotics, the Fort Bend County Sheriffs Office has your fix. The suburban sheriffs office will host a Facebook Live to show you what every kind of drug looks like" and offer a Q&A session geared toward parents stuck at home with their kids during the COVID-19 pandemic.

MORE FROM JAY R. JORDAN: Houston father threatens son with gun for taking too long in shower, police say

No, we do not expect police to showcase the effects of said narcotics, but Capt. Josh Dale, who heads up the Fort Bend County Narcotics Task Force, promises to show ways young people often hide drugs from their parents or guardians inside their home.

The live session will start at 10 a.m. Tuesday on the Fort Bend County Sheriffs Office Facebook page.

Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 17:53:27|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- China has been actively making efforts to set up a green channel to facilitate the air cargo transportation of anti-epidemic supplies home and abroad, according to the State Post Bureau.

The State Post Bureau created the green channel through coordinating enterprises in the mail delivery business in multiple methods such as the overseas transfer, increasing charter flights, and opening air routes.

These efforts are sustaining the delivery of China's domestic medical emergency supplies, daily necessities and express mail in the nationwide joint anti-epidemic fight.

Meanwhile, they are also the back-up in the international prevention and control of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Major players of China's air cargo industry, such as SF Airlines, China Postal Airlines and YTO Airlines, are contributing to the anti-epidemic fight home and abroad.

To date, SF Airlines has opened multiple new international cargo air routes and carried around 210 charter flights. From March 1 to 14, cargo flights of the airline sent 108 tonnes of medical and other supplies to 39 countries and regions.

China Postal Airlines had sent 24 charter flights with 42,000 items of airmails, around 292 tonnes.
Now that southwestern Manitoba libraries, schools and playgrounds have closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, local parents have to get creative if they want to keep their children safe and active at the same time.

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This article was published 30/3/2020 (653 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Now that southwestern Manitoba libraries, schools and playgrounds have closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, local parents have to get creative if they want to keep their children safe and active at the same time.

To solve this problem, residents of Souris and Killarney recently decided to hop on the teddy bear hunt trend that has been sweeping across North America in wake of this global health pandemic.

SUBMITTED Kim Staples-Stewart sets up a teddy bear in the window of her Souris residence on Wednesday to join in on the community's ongoing teddy bear hunt.

On March 21, pharmacy assistant Cindy Russell posted about this idea on the Souris Manitoba Talks Facebook page, suggesting that her neighbours should put stuffed animals in their window sills to encourage families to get out of the house.

"We have four kids here and two dogs," she told the Sun on Saturday. "So going on a walk is a lot more fun when theres something to look for, like a little scavenger hunt."

Around the same time, Killarney School teacher Kayla Taylor put together a similar Facebook post for the Killarney Mb. Community Chat group, wanting her two young children to take full advantage of the warm spring weather.

"They were looking forward to going to the park, and now even thats taken away from them," she said, referencing the recent closure of many public playgrounds across the province. "So by putting things in our windows and our doors and stuff like that, its adding a little bit more excitement to just a boring old walk."

Within the space of a couple days, both women said that the trend has caught on with large swaths of their respective communities.

By Russells count, at least 110 Souris businesses and residences have jumped on the teddy bear hunt bandwagon as of Saturday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Taylor told the Sun on Friday that she can now spot at least one teddy bear display on every Killarney street, which gives her two and five-year-old something new to see every time they venture outdoors.

"Plus, theyre finding things in nature that we wouldnt normally stop and enjoy, like the geese flying overhead," she said. "So I think its slowing us all down and helping us appreciate the small things in life right now."

Taking inspiration from the 1989 childrens book "Were Going on a Bear Hunt," this trend began popping up in peoples social media feeds last week, since families across both Canada and the United States were craving an outdoor activity that falls within their governments social distancing guidelines.

To Russell, coming up with these activities is critical to staving off the kind of boredom that could leave Westman communities vulnerable to the spread of coronavirus.

For example, she has seen plenty of people wander into Souris Pharmasave to simply loiter rather than pick up essential supplies.

Moving forward, both women said that the teddy bear hunt format can also be applied to a variety of other activities, especial now that spring has finally arrived.

Russell suggests decorating Easter eggs and placing them in your windows. Bold parents can even be persuaded let their children paint on the glass.

As for Taylor, she said some of her fellow educators have even put their own spin on this concept by pasting inspirational phrases like "Raiders are resilient" and "Well get through this together" in the windows of Killarney School.

While each community is dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak in its own way, Taylor believes that little gestures like the teddy bear hunt will go a long way in terms of helping people endure this public health crisis.

"It think its going to sort of unite our community, because were going to have to work together  from afar."

 kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @KyleDarbyson
Today BrandSpark International announced the winners of the 7th annual BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards (BMTA) based on results from the most extensive trust study in America, the BrandSpark American Trust Study. Shoppers voted for the brands that they trust the most in 175 categories ranging from Food & Beverage, Health, Beauty, Household, Pet, Home Goods, and Tech. BrandSpark bestows these exclusive awards each year to help consumers shop smarter and to help brands easily announce themselves as the leader in the category.

Americans look for transparency and dependability from the brands they buy and this is particularly true in these uncertain times, says Robert Levy, President of BrandSpark International.

This year, BrandSpark has partnered with premier news magazine brand Newsweek to shine a bright light on these award-winning brands. The partnership will include features of the winners in print and digital formats, targeted communications to readers and unique high-value advertising opportunities for brands anchored by editorial content. The BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards has updated its highly influential logo to include the iconic and instantly recognizable Newsweek logo to generate even more impact for shoppers and brands.

Consumers have been rapidly shifting their shopping online over the past days and weeks, accelerating the trend that has been underway for a few years now, Levy says. The tremendous increase in choice online poses a real challenge for consumers and brands. BrandSpark has proven that our BMTA logo helps brands stand out and drives incremental sales both online and within traditional retail environments.

Research from the study is available to both leading and challenger brands in each category to benchmark where they rank on trust, how deeply their consumers trust them, and to quantify their strength on key drivers of trust including quality, price-value, word-of-mouth, shared values, transparency, heritage, and innovation. BrandSpark has also developed a proprietary and innovative BrandSpark Shopper Trust and Stubbornness Framework to help brands improve their understanding around brand trust.

The following is the list of brands that the most Americans count on to deliver on their promises:

The list of Winners is below. To learn more visit http://www.BrandSparkMostTrusted.com

*= first time studying the category

Baby & Kids

Baby Bottle: Dr. Brown's

Baby Food: Gerber

Baby Formula: Enfamil

Baby Laundry Detergent: Dreft

Baby Lotion: Johnson's Baby

Baby Monitor: VTech

Baby Probiotics *: Culturelle

Baby Wash / Shampoo: Johnson's Baby

Baby Wipes: Huggies

Breast Pump: Medela

Children's Coloring *: Crayola

Children's Thermometer: Braun

Children's Toothbrush: Colgate

Children's Toothpaste: Crest

Children's Vitamins: Flintstones

Colic Relief *: Little Remedies

Diaper Pail *: Diaper Genie by Playtex

Diapers: Pampers

Infant / Toddler Car Seat: Graco

Infant Learning Toys *: Fisher-Price

Natural Baby Products: The Honest Company

Nursing Pads: Lansinoh

Organic Baby Snacks *: Gerber

Pregnancy Test: First Response

Stroller: Graco

Toddler Learning Toys: Fisher-Price

Training Pants Huggies: Pull-Ups

Food & Beverage

Artisan Flatbread: Stonefire

Baking Products: Gold Medal

Better-For-You Frozen Meals: Lean Cuisine

Butter: Land O'Lakes

Cake Mix: Betty Crocker

Canned Tuna: StarKist

Chocolate: Hershey

Coffee: Folgers

Cooking Oil Spray *: Pam

Cream Cheese: Philadelphia

Eggs: Eggland's Best

Frozen Pizza: DiGiorno

Frozen Potato Products: Ore-Ida

Gluten Free Bread *: Udi's

Gluten Free Snacks *: Annies / Glutino / Kind

Grape Juice *: Welch's

Herbs & Spices: McCormick

Hot Dogs: Oscar Mayer

Icelandic Yogurt *: Siggi's

Instant Rice: Minute Rice

Jam: Smucker's

Jerky: Jack Link's

Mayonnaise: Hellmann's

Natural Peanut Butter *: Jif

Non-dairy Milk Alternative: Silk

Oatmeal: Quaker

Organic Mac and Cheese *: Annie's

Pasta: Barilla

Plant-based Meat Substitute *: MorningStar Farms

Popcorn: Orville Redenbacher's

Premium Coffee *: Starbucks

Sausages: Jimmy Dean

Sour Cream: Daisy

Tea: Lipton

Vegan Food: MorningStar Farms

White Bread *: Wonder

Health & Beauty

Allergy Relief: Benadryl / Claritin / Zyrtec

Anti-aging Skin Care Products: Olay

Bladder Leakage Protection: Poise

Body Lotion: Jergens

Body Wash: Dove

Cold Sore Remedy: Abreva

Contact Lens Solution: Bausch & Lomb

Cough Drops / Lozenges: Halls

Denture Adhesive: Fixodent

Denture Cleanser: Polident

Electric Toothbrush: Oral-B

Fiber Supplement: Metamucil

Foundation: Covergirl

Hair Regrowth Products: Rogaine

Hair Removal: Nair

Hair Root Touch-up *: Clairol

Laxative: Dulcolax

Liners / Pads: Always

Lip Color: Revlon

Luxury Skin Care Products over $50 *: Estee Lauder / Lancome

Mascara: Maybelline

Men's Antiperspirant/Deodorant: Old Spice

Men's Shaving: Gillette

Micellar Water: Garnier

Mouthwash: Listerine

Nail Polish: OPI / Sally Hansen

Nasal Spray: Flonase

Natural Cosmetics: bareMinerals / Burt's Bees

Natural Deodorant *: Tom's of Maine

Natural Skin Care Products: Aveeno / Burt's Bees / Neutrogena

Probiotic Supplements: Culturelle

Sensitive Skin Care Products: Aveeno

Sensitive Toothpaste: Sensodyne

Shampoo & Conditioner: Suave

Shampoo & Conditioner for Colored Hair *: Pantene

Sunscreen: Coppertone

Tampons: Tampax

Teeth Whitening: Crest

Upset Stomach Relief: Pepto-Bismol

Women's Deodorant / Antiperspirant: Secret

Women's Hair Color: L'Oreal

Women's Shaving: Gillette Venus

Household

Air Freshener: Febreze

All-purpose Cleaner: Lysol

Bathroom Tissue / Toilet Paper: Charmin

Dish Soap: Dawn

Dishwasher Cleaner: Cascade

Dishwasher Detergent: Cascade

Dog Treats: Milk-Bone

Dryer Sheets: Bounce

Fabric Softener: Downy

Facial Tissues: Kleenex

Flea & Tick Prevention: Frontline

Floor Cleaner: Mr. Clean / Pine-Sol / Swiffer

Food Storage Bags: Ziploc

Food Storage Containers: Rubbermaid / Ziploc

Garbage Bags: Hefty

Hand Soap: Softsoap

Insect Control: Raid

Insect Repellant: OFF!

Laundry Detergent: Tide

Laundry Scent Booster (In-wash) *: Downy

Laundry Stain Remover: Shout

Laundry Wrinkle Protection *: Downy

Multi-purpose Disinfecting Cleaner: Lysol

Paper Towels: Bounty

Home Goods

Air Fryer *: Ninja

Barbecue: Weber

Clothes Iron *: Black & Decker

Cookware: Calphalon

Dishwasher: Whirlpool

Drink Carbonation System: SodaStream

Electric Facial Cleansing Device *: Clarisonic

Electric Fan *: Lasko

Electric Hair Straightener *: Conair

Espresso Maker: Keurig / Nespresso

Faucet *: Moen

Hair Curling Iron *: Conair

Hair Dryer *: Conair

Humidifier: Vicks

Luggage *: Samsonite

Mattress-in-a-box: Purple

Single Serve Coffee Maker: Keurig

Slow Cooker *: Crock-Pot

Space Heater *: Lasko

Spring Mattress *: Serta

Vacuum: Bissell / Dyson / Shark

Washer / Dryer: Maytag / Whirlpool

Tech

4K Television *: Samsung

Chromebooks *: Google / HP

Dash Camera *: Garmin

Digital Camera *: Canon

Gaming Laptop *: Alienware / Dell

Headphones *: Sony

Home Theatre *: Sony

Laptop Over $1000 *: Apple

Laptop Under $1000 *: HP

Phone Case *: OtterBox

Portable Speaker *: Bose

Smart Doorbell *: Ring

Smart Home Monitoring / Cameras*: Ring

Smart Lighting *: Philips

Smart Lock *: Schlage

Smart Thermostat: Google Nest

Sound Bar *: Bose / Samsung / Sony

Virus Protection *: Norton

Wearable Fitness Tracker *: Fitbit

Most Trusted Affordable Grocery Store

National *: ALDI / Walmart (tie)

Midwest *: ALDI

Northeast *: ALDI

Southwest *: Walmart

West *: Walmart

For the first time, BrandSpark surveyed which is the Most Trusted Affordable Grocery Store and found that ALDI and Walmart have tied nationally. ALDI was voted the most trusted affordable grocery store by shoppers in the Northeast and Midwest, while Walmart was the most trusted affordable grocery store for shoppers in the South and West. As Americans look for ways to shop for high-quality, affordable groceries these wins can reassure shoppers about their best choices, Levy says.

Some highlights from this years BrandSpark American Trust Study:



With the recent emphasis on prevention of disease and germ spread, Americans have chosen Lysol as their most trusted multi-purpose disinfecting cleaner.

Out of 150 brands in the study, Crayola has the largest share of consumer trust in its category (Childrens Coloring), proving that the 134-year-old brand continues to provide the best coloring experience in the industry.

The study shows that dominant brands can appear across a wide range of categories with massive trust share achieved by Quaker for oatmeal, Welchs for grape juice, Dreft for baby laundry detergent, and Raid for insect control, among others.

Other categories remain highly competitive, illustrated by several categories where brands tied as most trusted, including gluten-free snacks, allergy relief, luxury skin care, floor cleaner and sound bars.

In a few categories the trust leader has changed in 2020, showing that trust is not a constant and brands must continue to forge strong relationships with their consumers to keep their leadership: Purple (2020 mattress-in-a-box winner) dethroned Casper, bareMinerals closed the gap to tie with Burts Bees (2020 natural cosmetics winners) and Hefty (2020 garbage bag winner) edged out Glad.

How winners are determined

More than 18,000 American shoppers determined the BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards winners for 2020 through their top of mind unaided responses for the brand they trust most in categories they had shopped. Results are ranked based on volume of mentions and ties are declared if the margin of victory is within 3%. The questions were included in the annual BrandSpark American Trust Study with results weighted to be nationally representative. BrandSpark also conducts the BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards annually in Canada. Full study results are available. Contact Philip Scrutton PScrutton@BrandSpark.com

About BrandSpark International

Founded in 2001, BrandSpark International is a research and consulting firm that provides leading organizations with the clear direction they need to optimize brand positioning, ignite brand strategy, understand the evolving omni-channel shopper and prioritize growth initiatives. BrandSpark Marketing Services runs major awards programs Best New Product Awards and BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards, and leading shopper community Shopper Army .com where members test products and provide quality ratings and reviews.

About Newsweek

Newsweek is a premier news magazine and website that has been bringing high-quality journalism to readers around the globe for over 80 years. Newsweek provides the latest news, in-depth analysis and ideas about international issues, technology, business, culture and politics. In addition to its online and mobile presence, Newsweek publishes weekly English print editions in the United States, Europe/Middle East/Africa and Asia as well as editions in Japanese, Korean, Polish, Serbian and Spanish.

About EnVeritas Group

EnVeritas Group (EVG), is an award-winning, full-service agency offering bespoke, on-brand content creation, visual design, localization, and strategic messaging solutions to meet clients global and local needs. EVG licenses influential and sales driving credentials via exclusive partnerships with recognized publications.

For further information or interview requests, please contact:

Press Contact: Victoria Kucera, Spotlight Media Relations victoria@spotlightmediarelations.com

BrandSpark International: Robert Levy, President, rlevy@brandspark.com

Adam Bellisario, Director, Consumer Awards, abellisario@brandspark.com

For Sales and Licensing information, please contact Brian Kolb, Chief Brand Officer, Enveritas, brian@enveritasgroup.com
As a boy in Cuba, I remember the Latin Mass and all of those Latin phrases that we would repeat during the ceremony. My late father was actually an altar boy during his Jesuit School days in Cuba so he used to tease us with Latin phrases, such as:

Priest: Dominus Vobiscum. May the Lord be with you. Congregation: Et cum spiritu tuo. And with your Spirit. Priest: Oremus. Let us pray.

In 1965, or shortly after we landed in the U.S., Vatican Two changed things and the mass was now in the local language.

It was a good move because I don't remember anyone who spoke Latin. All I remember was people looking at the altar and hoping that they'd keep up with the priest.

Well, Vatican Two made a lot of changes but I don't think anyone saw the day that the mass would be "streamed" to parishioners sitting in front of a computer.

Here we are: Facebook meet the new Catholic Church, or something like that dependending on what network you watched your mass on.

How did it go? It was different but worth the time. I will answer yes whenever St. Peter does the checklist up in heaven.

Can you guess what the priest was thinking? Well, maybe he was saying something like this:

Here is the church, and here is the steeple;

Father says Mass, but where are the people?

We will survive, the country and the church.

It makes me lucky to say: I've been to mass in Latin, Spanish, English and now "on stream." Wonder what my hilarious grandmother would say to that ?

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
By PTI

MUMBAI: The kin of a 22-year-old Mumbai man on Monday alleged he was beaten to death by police after he was found outdoors during the lockdown in place for the novel coronavirus outbreak, a charge denied by officials who said the man was lynched when he was out to commit a robbery.

The man, identified as Raju Velu Devendra, lost his life in Nehru Nagar locality of Vile Parle (East), his brother Shankar claimed.

"Raju and some of us were moving towards a relative's house at 1 am today when the police started chasing us. They caught hold of Raju and told us he was being taken to Juhu police station. However, at 6 am, a policeman came and told us Raju was lying at Nehru Nagar Chowk," he claimed.

"We rushed him to Cooper Hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival. We found injury marks on his body. We saw 8-9 policemen beating him," he claimed.

Refuting the allegations, Additional Commissioner of Police (West) Manoj Sharma said, "He was not beaten by the police but by local residents when he went to commit a robbery. He has a criminal background. No FIR has been registered as yet. We are awaiting medical reports."
Two MPs representing districts in Mandurah and the Peel region have called for a ban on non-essential visitors from Perth ahead of travel restrictions coming into effect across WA at midnight.

Federal Canning MP Andrew Hastie and state Dawesville MP Zak Kirkup have written to Premier Mark McGowan to express their concern that Perth and Peel are classed as one region under the new regional travel lock down.

Federal Canning MP Andrew Hastie and state Dawesville MP Zak Kirkup.

This means Perth residents could holiday in Mandurah over the Easter holidays, bringing with them the risk of coronavirus.

"The district of Dawesville, within the Peel region, has the oldest per-capita population in Western Australia and would be particularly vulnerable if a COVID outbreak were to occur," the politicians said in an open letter to the Premier.
Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma on Monday said that the total number of positive coronavirus cases in the state is at 60.

"60 positive coronavirus cases have been reported in Rajasthan, with Bhilwara reporting the maximum number - its tally is 25 cases," Sharma said.

Reacting to reports about the doctors of a government hospital in Jodhpur being given substandard personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, he said: "No one wants to purchase substandard products and the state government will never tolerate this. These claims are misleading."

With 47 new cases, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases rose to 1071 in India on Monday morning, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This includes 99 people who have been discharged or cured of the highly contagious respiratory illness.

The number of people who have succumbed to the infection in the country is 29, while one patient has migrated.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
ELKO  Nursing and paramedic programs at Great Basin College will be graduating early in response to the coronavirus pandemic, as other hands-on programs adapt to distance learning.

Great Basin College has been providing for its students and giving back to the communities it serves in rural and frontier Nevada for over 50 years. Now, during this COVID-19 crisis, GBC continues to serve, stated a press release from the college.

GBC responded to the current situation by moving instruction to online and distance education delivery, and continues to assist students during the campus closures.

Many services typically offered to students face-to-face have been transitioned online, over the phone, and through e-mail. The colleges Career and Technical Education and Health Sciences programs are examples of this.

Dean of Health Sciences and Human Services Amber Donnelli explained how her programs are doing their part to assist the communities GBC services.

We accelerated the nursing program for our second-year students so they can graduate early in Elko, Pahrump, and Winnemucca. There is a shortage of nurses in rural communities so everyone counts, Donnelli said.

With the COVID-19 virus impacting the nursing workforce throughout the country it is important to make sure GBC looks at ways to graduate nursing students without delay. These nursing students are working hard with a fast-paced curriculum that will set them up to be successful and go straight into the workforce.

Paramedic students will also be graduating early to help fill the void that Nevada could potentially face with Emergency Medical Services.

We are so proud of these students as paramedics are typically one of the first health care providers that arrive on to a medical emergency. With COVID-19 they are putting themselves at a higher risk of exposure, Donnelli continued.

GBC students arent the only ones who benefit, the press release continued. In light of the current pandemic and the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), GBC Health Science programs have responded to the emergency planning and potential shortage of supplies by giving all their PPE to local hospitals and community partners. Great Basin College has already helped Desert View Hospital, Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital, and the University Police-Southern Command.

The CTE faculty and programs have converted to an online teaching platform as of March 20. Faculty are delivering as much theory as possible for each of the remaining technical courses.

Some programs were able to get the hands-on components of their course work completed before the campuses were closed to the public. These programs will finish their courses on time and there will be no hands-on makeup time needed, said Bret Murphy, Dean of Business and Technology.

Other CTE programs, like welding, werent able to complete all of the required hands-on skills training and will have make-up sessions once the campus is re-opened. For those students working or having other commitments at the time of re-opening, GBC will accommodate their schedules.

One good outcome from the closure is faculty are tapping into their creative sides for innovative ways to deliver technical information, and this will likely migrate into all CTE courses in the future, Murphy commented.

Great Basin College continues to offer Associate and Bachelor level instruction in academic, career, and technical education areas. GBC serves students enrolled online from across the country and on campuses and centers across 86,500 square miles, two time zones, and ten of Nevadas largest counties.

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The European Union doesn't look as though it's going to make it through this coronavirus crisis.

Italians, as noted yesterday, are out burning the E.U. flag and calling for an E.U. "Italexit" in the wake of Europe's failure to help them in their coronavirus distress.

Now France, up until now the noisiest advocate for all the European Union stands for, is moving in that same direction. And the French aren't in the kind of trouble Italy is.

According to Legal Insurrection:

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has called on his countrymen to buy domestic products as the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak cripples the European single market. Describing his approach as "economic patriotism," he urged French supermarkets to 'stock French products.' The call didn't go unheard. Following the minister's remarks on Tuesday, the trade body representing French supermarkets vowed to stock up shelves exclusively with fruits and vegetables produced within France once the foreign products run out, the newspaper Les Echosreported. The French move comes at a time when the 27 member European Union single market faces a massive supply chain crisis in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Many of the EU member states have set up border controls to restrict the export of food and essential medical supplies to neighboring countries.

It's a big deal, because since when has any European Union stalwart ever uttered the word "patriotism" without yelling "Hitler" somewhere in the backwash? Hasn't patriotism, in E.U. eyes, been solely the purview of wild-eyed racists and right-wing zealots, not to be allowed in polite company? That makes France's move actually pretty hypocritical, as Legal Insurrection notes:

French President Emmanuel Macron has been among the sharpest critics [of] 'America First' policy followed by U.S. President Donald Trump. "By pursuing our own interests first, with no regard to others', we erase the very thing that a nation holds most precious, that which gives it life and makes it great: its moral values," Macron declared when the U.S. president joined him at the ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of First World War in November 2018.

The European Union is all about supposedly casting aside selfish interests in the name of global collective goods and forgetting all about where one came from. So now Trump was right all along?

Maybe nations really do act in their national interest, instead of globalism's, after all.

France, as it happens, is in a pretty good position to move toward self-sufficiency as the agricultural big boy of the European Union:

France is the first agricultural power in the European Union. With an agricultural production of 61 billion euros in 2009, it produces 19% of European agricultural goods and has the largest agricultural area.

Since it can, it does. But for EU nations that aren't France, this won't go down well. Now that France is pulling up the drawbridge, the rest the European states are likely do the same, bringing on the distant rattle of dominoes falling for the E.U.

Nations that aren't as self-sufficient as France are going to step up efforts to get that way. After that happens, they're all going to be asking what their European Union membership is good for.

The E.U. was always an argument about money over patriotism, not very different from China's argument that its communist party delivers prosperity so pay no attention to those Mao posters and that socialist absence of freedom.

Europe for sure has said that economics, not patriotism, is what matters. Europe's money, to take one example, has weird generic images of vaguely European-looking monuments instead of specific landmarks. That was intentional, a bid to persuade Europe's denizens that "place" no longer matters in the replacement state of Europe. The E.U. says this:

On the front of both series of euro banknotes, windows and doorways are shown. They symbolise the European spirit of openness and cooperation. The bridges on the back symbolise communication between the people of Europe and between Europe and the rest of the world. Like the first series, the new Europa series banknotes show architectural styles from various periods in Europe's history, but do not show any actual existing monuments or bridges.

This sounds wretched in light of this French appeal to authentic patriotism now.

Up until now, the only "patriotism" the E.U. stands for is loyalty to globalism and the blue 12-star flag, whose 12 stars, again, don't stand for anything.

The coronavirus era not only shows that socialism and globalism don't mix, but also shows that promising prosperity in place of nation and freedom works only so long as there's actual prosperity. Once there isn't, the whole thing falls apart, and nations retreat to being nations.

France's decision may be existentially right for it, just as Trump's is for America, but it isn't conducive toward making anyone else want to stay in the European Union. If France does this and leaves others high and dry, they in the end will be left asking what they need the European Union for.

Good question.

Image credit: PickPik public domain.
Plunging demand, surging supply, and strained storage capacity have put so much downward pressure on oil prices that producers are now considering shutting-in oil wells. The magnitude of these en mass shut-ins could be the largest since the mid-1980s, Bloombergs Javier Blas writes.

It was in 1985-1986 when OPECs de facto leader and largest producer, Saudi Arabia, abandoned production restraint to regain market share, roiling oil markets in the process.

In an eerie semblance to events from 35 years ago, the Saudis dusted off the old bankrupt-them-all playbook earlier this month after Russia refused to back deeper OPEC+ production cuts. The Kingdom is intent on flooding the market with oil as of this week, and it seems it is not backing down from the oil price war.

If the market had to process just the supply surge after the collapse of the OPEC+ coalition, it could have digested it in months with prices settling lower.

However, the supply surge is now combined with colossal demand destruction all around the world as major economies restrict travel to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Its anyones guess how much demand will be lost in the coming weeks and months, and estimates are now close to 20 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil demand wiped out in Aprilthis would be a 20-percent plunge in the typical 100-million-bpd global oil demand.

The double shock has sent oil prices tumbling to the lowest in years, with WTI Crude trading at $20 a barrel early on Monday.

WTI Crude may still cling to the $20 mark, but many regional grades, including in the United States, are trading in the teens and even in the single digits. Prices in some basins are so low that not only arent producers making any money, but they could soon resort to shutting in wellsdespite associated costsbecause even shut-in costs would be lower than the costs to pay to produce barrels of oil worth a dollar or two.

Related: Russias Plan To Bankrupt U.S. Shale Could Send Oil To $60

With the world running out of storage and producers having unequal access to storage sites or tanks, producers of crude grades in landlocked areas may soon see themselves paying consumers to take their oil away. Faced with negative prices, many would resort to shut-ins, analysts say.

In some areas in the United States, crudes are already in the single digits, and even negative. Oil trader Mercuria has recently bid -$0.19 for a barrel of Wyoming Asphalt Sour, a heavy, dense crude for making bitumen, Bloomberg reported last week. In front-month futures, Wyoming General Sour traded at the end of last week at $5.75 per barrel, Oklahoma Sour was priced at $6.00, while in North Dakota, Williston Sour traded at $5.89 a barrel.

The U.S. shale patch is quickly responding to the crashing oil pricesthe number of oil and gas rigs dropped by 44 last weekthe largest single-week drop since February 2016.

The double supply-demand shock will likely lead to an unprecedented global inventory build, which would overwhelm available storage capacity globally by the middle of the second quarter, Roger Diwan, vice president, financial services at IHS Markit, said in a statement last week.

Some sort of management or partial management is likely to emerge as paralysis spreads across the sector, but lower prices and shut-ins are likely to occur first, according to Diwan.

Shut-ins are complex and are not expected to take place overnight, IHS Markit says. Yet, producers whose losses from pumping oil exceed shutdown costs and those without physical storage or takeaway capacity in the form of pipeline, rail, truck, or tanker, will be forced to shut in production, IHS Markit noted.

Related: Rosneft Cancels Venezuela Oil Cargoes On Fresh Sanctions



The gap between supply and demand will be so large that the surplus will outrun available global storage capacity, the consultancy said.

This means, owing to lack of storage, that more production will be cut or shut in than previously anticipated, IHS Markit noted.

Production is going to have to be reduced or even shut in. It is now a matter of where and by how much, said Jim Burkhard, vice president and head of oil markets, IHS Markit.

According to IHS Markit estimates, globally, the countries/regions with the lowest capacity  estimated in how many days of crude oil production could be placed in available storage  are Nigeria, Brazil, Ecuador, and Alberta in Canada. The U.S. PADD 4 Rocky Mountain district, which includes Wyoming and Colorado, has 12.8 days of storage capacity, while all U.S. districts combined have 30.2 days of storage. Russias days of storage are 8.0, while Saudi Arabias are estimated at 18.0.

While demand plunges and supply surges, market analysts will be watching how large the shut-ins could become during this oil price crash.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Sunday announced a donation of N200 million for palliatives in the fighting the deadly Coronavirus in Nigeria.

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in a tweet indicated that in pursuant to the pledge, N100 million will be made available to the Lagos State government and another N100 million to the NCDC to support their efforts in fighting the scourge of COVID-19.
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department is investigating stock trades made by at least one member of Congress as the United States braced for the pandemic threat of coronavirus, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The investigation is being coordinated with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and is looking at the trades of at least one lawmaker, Sen. Richard Burr , R-N.C., the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

As head of the powerful committee, Burr received frequent briefings and reports on the threat of the virus. He also sits on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which received briefings on the pandemic.

In mid-February, Burr sold 33 stocks held by him and his spouse, estimated to be worth between $628,033 and $1.7 million, Senate financial disclosures show. It was the largest number of stocks he had sold in one day since at least 2016, records show.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment as did a spokesman for the SEC. The investigation was first reported by CNN.

Burr's lawyer, Alice Fisher, said in a statement that the law allows any American, including a senator, to "participate in the stock market based on public information, as Senator Burr did. When this issue arose, Senator Burr immediately asked the Senate Ethics Committee to conduct a complete review, and he will cooperate with that review as well as any other appropriate inquiry. Senator Burr welcomes a thorough review of the facts in this matter, which will establish that his actions were appropriate."

A law called the Stock Act prohibits members of Congress, their staffers and other federal officials from trading on insider information obtained from their government work. No one has been charged under the Stock Act since its passage in 2012, and some legal experts consider it a difficult statute under which to file criminal charges.

The investigation is in its early stages, according to the person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive case. It was not immediately clear how many stock trades, or lawmakers, would come under scrutiny in the probe.

A past investigation suggests it would be difficult to build a chargeable case based on the Stock Act.

The Justice Department and the SEC launched an investigation into a House Ways & Means Committee staffer's 2013 communications with a law firm shortly before federal health officials announced a decision affecting reimbursement rates for medical care. Investigators wanted to know if the staffer had tipped off a lobbyist, who in turn told his clients, allowing them to trade on the not-yet-public decision that significantly affected the value of health care stocks.

The SEC issued a subpoena for congressional records, and in 2015 a federal judge ruled that Congress had to comply in part but did not have to turn over records related to "legislative activity." The judge found the Constitution's "speech and debate" clause prevented investigators from seizing such records.

Ultimately, no charges were filed against the former congressional staffer.

Melanie Sloan, a senior adviser to the watchdog group American Oversight, said that due to the speech and debate clause, Burr "cannot be questioned about what he learned regarding the coming pandemic in his role as chair of the Intelligence Committee, making prosecution improbable." She said the Senate Ethics Committee, however, has jurisdiction over the issue and if it finds Burr traded on inside information, could recommend his expulsion.

Burr's stock sales included shares in some industries that were later hit hardest by the pandemic's rapid spread throughout the United States, including hotels, restaurants, shipping, drug manufacturing and health care, records show. The senator has said he relied specifically on "CNBC's daily health and science reporting out of its Asia bureaus" to inform his trades. The outbreak originated in China.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., an outspoken ally of President Donald Trump's, tweeted Monday that his party should remove Burr from his powerful committee chairman position while the investigation goes on, asking how Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., can justify leaving Burr in that position.

"Republicans need to do a better job cleaning our own house," Gaetz wrote.

Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., has also come under fire for her recent stock trades. In the weeks after a closed Senate briefing, Loeffler sold holdings valued at somewhere between $1.25 million and $3.1 million in companies including ExxonMobil and AutoZone, which have seen their stock prices fall significantly. She also purchased shares in a company that sells teleworking software.

Loeffler has said that sales by her and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, were made "at the decision of our investment managers" and that she learned of them only after they'd occurred. "Certainly I had no involvement," Loeffler told CNBC earlier this month.

A Loeffler spokeswoman said the senator had not been contacted by the FBI.
Burrs attorney, Alice Fisher, said in a statement that the law allows any American, including a senator, to participate in the stock market based on public information, as Senator Burr did. When this issue arose, Senator Burr immediately asked the Senate Ethics Committee to conduct a complete review, and he will cooperate with that review as well as any other appropriate inquiry. Senator Burr welcomes a thorough review of the facts in this matter, which will establish that his actions were appropriate.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30) - The Department of Health acquired one million set of personal protective equipment worth 1.8 billion to be given to health workers in referral hospitals for coronavirus patients in Luzon.

In a virtual press briefing on Monday, DOH Spokesperson Rosario Vergeire said each set of PPE contains head gear, goggles, N95 masks, gloves, apron, and gown. She said the agency is currently waiting for the delivery of the PPE.

Vergeire also assured that other public and private hospitals will be given some of those purchased protective equipment.

Mayroon din po tayong nakalaan para sa ibang pampublikong at pribadong ospital, maging ang mga ospital na labas sa Luzon na ngangailangan ng PPE, she said.

[Translation: We have also allocated some for other public and private hospitals, as well as for hospitals outside of Luzon.]

Meanwhile, the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. said that 12 doctors have died from exposure to COVID-19 due to accute shortage of PPE. The Office of the Vice President and a group of fashion designers recently donated PPE to some hospitals.

Moreover, Vergeire said that DOH is currently studying ways to decontaminate PPE amid the shortage of supplies in the market.

Ito po ay kasama na sa pag-aaral ngayon ng Kagawaran ng Kalusugan," she said. "In fact, marami na nagrekomenda sa amin, even people from PNRI (Philippine Nuclear Research Institute), na may teknolohiya na puwedeng gamitin para ma-decontaminate ang mga PPE."

[Translation: This is part of the current study by the Department of Health. In fact, many have recommended to us, even people from the PNRI, that there is a technology that can decontaminate PPE.]

Vergeire was referring to a method developed by Duke University in North Carolina, USA to decontaminate N95 respirators so they can be re-worn several times.

She also confirmed that DOH is partnering with private groups who are developing alternatives to the PPE given the shortage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his close advisers have been placed under quarantine after an aide on parliament affairs tested positive for coronavirus, his office said on Monday.

The step was a precaution and is being taken even before the epidemiological investigation has been concluded, according to a statement issued by the prime minister's office.

"Even before the epidemiological investigation is over and to remove all doubt, the prime minister has decided that he and his close staff will remain in isolation until the epidemiological investigation is completed," the statement said.

"In accordance with the findings, the health ministry and the personal physician of the prime minister will set a day to end the isolation," it added.

Earlier, his office said "the move was unnecessary" as the premier had not been in the same room as the concerned adviser, Rivka Paluch, during the last two weeks.

"The initial assessment is that there is no need for the prime minister to be in quarantine since he was not in close contact with the patient and did not meet with her," the PMO earlier said.

"Likewise, from an initial check, the two were not together in the same room for the past fortnight. The epidemiological investigation is ongoing," it stressed.

The statement had also emphasised that the prime minister and those around him have been strictly adhering to the health ministry guidelines during the past few weeks, under the watch of his personal physician, and that most discussions Netanyahu holds are via video-link from his residence.

Hebrew language media, however, contradicted these claims, saying Netanyahu had in fact met with Paluch, along with a reported confirmation from his office.

Paluch, Netanyahu's adviser on ultra-Orthodox affairs, tested positive hours after her husband was hospitalised with COVID-19.

She met with several lawmakers on Thursday amid negotiations with Blue and White leader, Benny Gantz, over the formation of a coalition government, according to Channel 12.



The prime minister's office had reportedly confirmed on Sunday that Paluch did meet with Netanyahu on Thursday but said that 'the appropriate distance was kept'.

"The rules for keeping distance from the prime minister and those near him were maintained in accordance with the instructions of the health ministry, even before the family member was found positive," sources close to Paluch told the chanel on Sunday.

Netanyahu was previously tested negative for the virus two weeks ago.

According to Channel 12, the prime minister will likely need to undergo another test for the virus on Monday.

There was no immediate word on the adviser's condition.

Israel is under total lockdown with people not allowed to even walk beyond 100 metres from their homes and have been generally advised to go out only to stock up food.

So far, 4,347 Israelis have tested positive for the coronavirus, with the vast majority of cases mild and 134 recoveries. Sixteen patients have died and 95 are in serious condition. One Israeli tourist died in Italy.
Prabhu Deva, who was last seen in Bollywood movie Street Dancer 3D, will next be seen in Pon Manickavel which is directed by AC Mugil Chellappan. The Tamil movie was initially supposed to release on February 21 but was pushed to March. And now the action-thriller won't arrive in the cinema halls until the Coronavirus situation is completely dealt with. Apart from Chellappan's directorial venture, the choreographer-turned-actor has three more films on his plate.

Yes, Prabhu Deva has also signed Theal, Oomai Vizhigal, and Bagheera. In fact, not too long ago, the first look of Bagheera was unveiled on social media and it left everyone quite impressed. Now, the latest update regarding Adhik Ravichandran's directorial venture is that his movie will feature five actresses alongside Prabhu Deva.

According to a report in Times of India, the makers have already zeroed in Amyra Dastur and Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom fame actress Gayathri for their movie. As for the other heroines, well, Adhik and his team have decided to cast three new faces in Bagheera. In that case, we definitely can't wait to see this psycho-thriller and also the new actresses who'll be launched with the film.

Though Prabhu Deva is undoubtedly a busy actor, he is also helming a project in Bollywood. After directing Salman Khan in Dabangg 3, the 46-year-old is now directing the Bollywood superstar in Radhe. The action movie also features Disha Patani, Randeep Hooda and Jackie Shroff in pivotal roles. A remake of the South Korean film Veteran, Radhe went on floors in November last year.

Prabhu Deva Starrer Upcoming Film Pon Manickavel Has Been Postponed AGAIN
Netflix has confirmed to MyBroadband it will reduce its streaming bitrate for South African subscribers to reduce congestion on networks.

This change has been implemented to reduce congestion on local networks as more people use Netflix due to the 21-day lockdown imposed by the government to combat the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Netflix reduced its streaming bitrate in Europe earlier this month in an effort to reduce congestion as its traffic spiked considerably due to more people staying home.

The streaming service has announced it will reduce its bitrate across South Africa and Africa after 23:59 on 30 March 2020. This will last for 30 days.

Bitrate refers to the number of bits per second transmitted through a network. In the context of streaming, a higher bitrate accommodates better video quality due to more data being streamed per second.

Maintaining quality

While a lower bitrate usually means lower-quality videos for streaming services, Netflix said it has found a way to maintain the quality of its video streams while reducing traffic load by 25%.

Given the crisis, weve developed a way to reduce Netflixs traffic on telecommunications networks by 25% while also maintaining the quality of our service, Netflix said.

So consumers should continue to get the quality that comes with their plan  whether its Ultra-High, High, or Standard Definition.

We believe this will provide significant relief to congested networks and we will be deploying it in South Africa and the rest of the continent for the next 30 days.

Netflix offers a number of bitrate options for each video quality option, and by removing the highest-bitrate steam, it can still offer video streams at the same resolution which use less bandwidth.

Commenting on the bitrate reduction, Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams applauded the move from Netflix to reduce congestion on South Africas networks.

We commend the interventions that the industry is putting in place to ensure that network availability remains at optimum levels during this period where we are experiencing increased traffic due to people being home and consuming more online content, she said.

The resolve by Netflix to reduce bit rates is set to alleviate pressure on the networks by 25% and as such we appreciate and support the initiative.

Massive boost in Netflix traffic

South African Netflix traffic has increased substantially due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

Local ISP Cool Ideas previously stated it has seen a major increase in traffic on its network as a side-effect of the outbreak.

Netflix usage, in particular, has seen a major increase over the past few weeks and general daytime Internet traffic on Cool Ideas network has more than doubled.

Cool Ideas co-owner Paul Butschi said the ISP saw a big spike in Netflix usage following the initial announcement of a state of national disaster due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

All other daytime traffic use (6:00 to 17:00) is up around 100%, which is an indication of the number of people now working from home, Butschi added.
Beer pong is set up during the 2008 CineVegas film festival held at the Palms Casino Resort on June 14, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images for CineVegas

A 54-year-old New Jersey man was charged with disorderly conduct after throwing a party with nearly 50 attendees crammed into his one-bedroom apartment.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed an executive order on March 21 telling residents to stay at home until further notice. The order also prohibits social gatherings.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy explicitly warned residents against hosting "Corona parties" in a tweet on Saturday, saying: " We will crash your party. You will pay a big fine. And we will name & shame you until EVERYONE gets this message into their heads."

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A 54-year-old man from Ewing Township, New Jersey, was charged with disorderly conduct after hosting a party in his apartment during a state-wide ban on social gatherings due to the coronavirus outbreak.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy issued an executive order on March 21, closing all non-essential businesses and prohibiting social gatherings. The order also states that individuals must practice social distancing by staying at least six feet apart when possible.

According to a statement from the Ewing Police Department, police received an anonymous call about a house party taking place that was referred to as a "Corona Party."

According to a statement from the Mercer County prosecutor's office, Ewing Police arrived at the 550-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment at about 1 a.m. on Saturday morning, and discovered about 47 people "having a party that included a DJ with speakers, alcohol, and the smell of marijuana."

"Almost all of the people at the party were squeezed together inside, with a handful outside the residence," the prosecutor's office said.

Police sent the attendees home and charged the party's host with two disorderly conduct citations.

"These are mandates, not suggestions," Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onfori said in the statement, referring to the state's stay-at-home order. "Not only are these actions illegal, but in a time where such reckless conduct could endanger family, loved ones, first responders and the community at large, they are also unethical."

Story continues

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy responded to news of the party on Twitter and explicitly warned residents against hosting "Corona parties."

"The organizer was charged, as they should have been and deserved to be," he tweeted on Saturday. "This is not a game. Stay home. Be smart."

Murphy doubled down on his warning several hours later, tweeting: "Can't believe I have to say this at all, let alone for the second time. But here we are. NO CORONA PARTIES. They're illegal, dangerous, and stupid. We will crash your party. You will pay a big fine. And we will name & shame you until EVERYONE gets this message into their heads.

Read the original article on Insider
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SANTA FE  In a telephone conversation between President Donald Trump and governors today, the president told Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham that he will grant her request for a U.S. Army field hospital in Albuquerque.

The governor had asked the federal Department of Defense for the 248-bed hospital last week, citing concern about New Mexico hospitals ability to absorb a surge of novel coronavirus cases.

During the phone call today, Lujan Grisham brought up the request and said her office had not yet received word on the hospital from U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

In response, Trump told the governor well build you that hospital as quick as we can, according to a transcript of the conversation from CBS News. He also apparently directed aides to look into the issue.

Lujan Grisham has asked that the U.S. Army combat support hospital be in place by April 10, or as soon after that date as possible, though no details about a possible location in Albuquerque have been released.

While only 22 coronavirus patients were hospitalized in New Mexico as of Sunday, state hospital officials have said the states health care system will be overwhelmed if a surge in cases cant be mitigated.

New Mexico has fewer hospital beds per capita than the national average, with 1.8 hospital beds per 1,000 people. The national average is about 2.4 beds per 1,000 people, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Along with other governors, Lujan Grisham has been in regular contact with the White House as the coronavirus outbreak has intensified.

Though Lujan Grisham has, at various times, criticized the federal government for its handling of how information and health care supplies are disseminated to states, the governor appeared to praise Trump during todays phone conversation, according to the CBS News transcript of an audio recording.

After exchanging concerns about rising COVID-19 infection rates on the Navajo Nation, Lujan Grisham told Trump: Yeah, Im very worried and Mr. President, I appreciate you.

Thank you very much. I appreciate you, Trump said in response, according to the transcript.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-31 06:11:16|Editor: huaxia

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QUITO, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from COVID-19 in Ecuador has climbed to 60, with a total of 1,962 people testing positive for the disease, Deputy Health Minister Ernesto Carrasco said on Monday.

In recent hours, two more patients died and 38 new infections were detected, Carrasco said on a state-run television network, adding 23 of the country's 24 provinces have reported cases of infection.

The vast majority of the cases, or 71.15 percent, are centered in southwest Guayas province, which has 1,396 COVID-19 patients, and most of those, or 978, were reported in the regional capital Guayaquil, the country's second-largest city with 2.7 million inhabitants.

Ecuador "has secured a good supply of quick tests (for COVID-19) that are due to arrive this week," and will be used initially to test priority sectors, such as medical workers and security forces on the frontlines of the fight against the epidemic, said Carrasco.

Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo said Ecuador's emergency committee has decided to extend the suspension of in-office work for both public- and private-sector employees from the original March 31 deadline to April 5.

The measure was one of many that Ecuador has announced to try to contain the spread of the virus.

The committee will also assess what "mechanisms are needed so that basic services can continue to function," said Romo.
Major U.S. airlines asked the U.S. Treasury to move quickly to release up to $58 billion in government grants and loans and recommended a formula to divide up the money. In a letter dated Saturday and seen by Reuters, carriers wrote that "given the urgent and immediate need, it is essential that these funds be disbursed as soon as possible." The letter was signed by the chief executives of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Alaska Air Group, JetBlue Airways Corp, Southwest Airlines Co, Hawaiian Airlines and Atlas Air Worldwide. It was also signed by ...
Shopping centre landlord Hammerson  best known in Ireland for its Dundrum, Kildare Village, and Ilac shopping centres  said it in talks with retailers about rents after the closure of its flagship outlets.

It said that its flagship Irish centres have been closed apart from stores designated as essential by the Irish Government, which account for about 25 units or 8% of its Irish rents.
Every year a group called Sewstainability gets together to work on a specific project that gives back to the community.

But when this years get together to make warm scarves for the homeless got canceled due to coronavirus concerns, the group knew they had something bigger they had to work on - sewing masks.

Once you have joined, you dont have that feeling of uselessness or helplessness that comes with staying at home, said Susan Clare, the groups creator. I think it helps us still feel part of the community. It helps us feel like were some use to humanity. Its good for our mental health.

The number of masks worn by doctors and nurses in hospitals have been in short supply due to coronavirus concerns. Some have been looking at options to reuse the masks, while others have been asked to use scarves or bandanas.

Not all hospitals are accepting sewed masks, but a number of places, including Cooley Dickinson Hospital are.

Sewstainability created a separate Facebook group, Making Masks in Norwood to help raise awareness and create organization for the project.

What I thought might be 10 or 15 volunteers is now over 150 people, Clare said.

It includes everyone from teenagers to the elderly.

Everyone is getting involved as much as they can, she said. Because it matters a lot.

Making Masks in Norwood is just one of many Facebook groups popping up around Massachusetts, and across the U.S.

Boston Area Mask Initiative started by Stephanie Cave, who owns Quilted by Stephanie cave, now has 650 members. Theyve had over 2,500 requests for masks.

The Facebook group helps when people have questions, need help solving a problem or just need some encouragement.

Cave typically works from home but with the added lack of social contact due to increased social distancing, has been difficult. This Facebook group has helped with that.

Ive been very excited to wake up every day, she said.

The group recently held a virtual sew-a-long using Zoom and Facebook Live.

That was like really great because we were all talking to each other on the Zoom conference call, as if we were all in the room, Cave said. We started talking just like about our daily lives together while we were sewing ... I think it is helping people feel connected in a time where its really hard too."

For people who dont know how to sew or dont have a sewing machine, there are still ways to get involved, said Jessica Karr, with the group Better than a Bandana.

Karr started a GoFundMe to help raise money for materials.

I had people express interest in supporting but didnt have any supplies or sewing skills and wanted to give money, she said. I wanted something a bit more official than just to Venmo me.

Karr also teamed up with DIY Masks of Western Mass to get more resources.

In just a few days, the Better than a Bandana group made around 500 masks  but its not enough.

The requests are in the thousands, she said.

Its also a good way to get the whole family involved, she said, adding that families are creating assembly lines that include cutting and sorting the fabric.

My heart has been warmed seeing families banding together, she said. Some are using it as an opportunity to teach their kids how to sew. Which is awesome because sewing has kind of been a dying art.

Clare knows not all the people in her group will continue to sew like this after the social distancing period is over but shes happy about the community its created now.

And her town is already looking forward to the day everyone can get together again.

When this is all over, well have one really big cookout and everybody gets all the hugs, said Clare. Because we can hug people again.

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Air cabin crew will join doctors and nurses in staffing the new Nightingale hospitals built to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the NHS has said.

Staff at Virgin Atlantic and EasyJet have been invited to volunteer at the new 4,000-bed clinic being built at the Excel centre in east London, and those planned in Birmingham and Manchester.

Their salaries will continue to be paid by the airlines as an astonishing 750,000 other Britons joined the NHS volunteer army in just five days.

Britain's medically trained air crew could be heading to the new NHS Nightingale Hospital at the ExCel Centre in London

Many planes are now grounded because of coronavirus - EasyJet has already written to its 9,000 UK-based staff including 4,000 cabin crew trained in CPR to invite them to give their time to the NHS.

EasyJet grounds its entire fleet of 330 planes due to coronavirus pandemic EasyJet has today grounded its entire fleet of 330-plus planes as coronavirus continued to wound Britain's airlines. The company has worked with union Unite to agree two-month furlough arrangements for cabin crew which means that crew will be paid 80% of their average pay through the Government job retention scheme. EasyJet, whose main base is London Gatwick and serves 159 airports and 1,051 routes, has 9,000 UK-based staff including 4,000 cabin crew. The grounding of its gigantic fleet came just over a week after the airline pressed ahead with a 174million payout to shareholders - days after calling for a state loan to help them survive - and one third of the cash went to founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou. Today it was claimed UK-based airline Virgin Atlantic will ask the British government for a package of commercial loans and guarantees worth hundreds of millions of pounds, the Financial Times reported. Other carriers including easyJet, regional airlines such as Loganair and Eastern Airways, and Norwegian Air Shuttle are also considering to ask for state aid, the newspaper added. But British ministers want bigger airlines with wealthy shareholders will weather the storm without the need for billions in taxpayer cash. Advertisement

Many first-aid trained cabin crew across the world have been grounded as countries have closed borders and cancelled flights amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

EasyJet has already written to its 9,000 UK-based staff including 4,000 cabin crew trained in CPR to invite them to give their time to the NHS.

Virgin Atlantic will begin writing to 4,000 of its employees on Monday and will prioritise getting in touch with those who already have the required skills.

Those who join up will be given expert training and will then perform support roles such as changing beds under the guidance of trained nurses.

St John's Ambulance have already said that hundreds of people will give their time at the first Nightingale hospital in London.

Corneel Koster, chief customer officer at Virgin Atlantic, said: 'We are grateful to the NHS for everything they are doing in extremely challenging circumstances and we're committed to doing all we can to support the national effort against the rapid acceleration of Covid-19.'

EasyJet has said it is 'proud' its staff can support medics at this 'crucial time'.

Tina Milton, director of cabin services, added: 'The NHS is at the forefront of dealing with this health emergency but the training and skills our cabin crew have, working closely with the medical professionals, could help make a real difference.'

Ruth May, chief nursing officer for England, said the NHS needs 'all the support we can get'.

She added: 'Thousands of nurses, medics and other expert staff are returning to work alongside us, but we need everyone to do their bit  whether that is working in one of our current health or social care services, working in the Nightingale Hospital, volunteering to help the NHS or following government advice to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.'

Health Secretary Matt Hancock initially hoped to recruit 250,000 members of the public  but the target was trebled following the huge response.

Nearly half a million people pledged their support in the first 24 hours after the appeal went out on Tuesday, including many workers who had lost their jobs as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

Last night the NHS revealed the 750,000 target had been hit and the appeal closed, to be re-opened in the coming weeks.

Officials are processing the applications, which involves carrying out background and identity checks and allocating individuals to one of four key roles.

Those who have signed up will be helping the 1.5million vulnerable patients who have been told to completely shield themselves from the outside world as they are particularly at risk of contracting the virus.

Roles include collecting groceries and medications, making regular phone calls to help those at risk of isolation and driving them from urgent hospital appointments. Some volunteers will also transport medicine and other equipment between NHS sites.

Volunteers, whose services will be needed for at least three months, will be able to devote as much or as little time as they can. They can log on as being on duty and ready to take tasks, and will be contacted by a call centre run by the Royal Voluntary Service.

If they cannot fulfil a role it will be given to someone else nearby.

Boris Johnson last night declared there is such a thing as society as he hailed the army of volunteers answering the call to tackle coronavirus.

In a pointed contradiction of Margaret Thatcher, below, Mr Johnson said the altruism induced by the epidemic showed that people did not think only of themselves.

The former PM sparked controversy in 1987 when she declared there was no such thing as society, adding: People must look after themselves first. In an online video last night, Mr Johnson suggested her view had been disproved by recent events.

Pledging to beat the virus, the PM said: We are going to do it, we are going to do it together... One thing I think the coronavirus crisis has already proved is that there really is such a thing as society.

Speaking from his flat in Downing Street where he is in self-isolation after contracting the virus, Mr Johnson revealed that more than 20,000 former medics have now returned to the frontline, despite the risks.

He also praised the extraordinary public response which has seen more than 750,000 people sign up in days to volunteer for tasks like delivering supplies to the vulnerable.

Mr Johnson said the public appeared to be obeying the terms of the lockdown, with train use down 95 per cent and bus passenger numbers down 75 per cent.

Thank you to everybody whos coming back into the NHS in huge numbers, he said. We have 20,000 NHS staff coming back to the colours.

Its a most amazing thing. And thats in addition to the 750,000 members of the public who have volunteered.
European airlines have moved further into survival mode, with EasyJet grounding its entire fleet and temporarily laying off 4,000 cabin crew; and Aer Lingus owner IAG altering its lending terms to give it wriggle room to weather the storm caused by the Covid-19 outbreak.

IAG  which also owns British Airways and Spanish carriers Iberia and Vueling  has extended its revolving credit facility by a year to June 2021. Just under $1.4bn (1.27bn) is available under the facility, and IAGs total cash and undrawn lending facilities currently total 9.3bn.

The global health crisis has brought European air travel to a standstill, leaving airlines facing a struggle for survival.

EasyJet has grounded all of its 344 planes, with no indication of when they might fly again. It is laying off cabin crew for two months, but their pay will largely be covered by the UKs job retention scheme.

We think the group [EasyJet] has enough liquidity to manage a short suspension of European air travel but if the disruption proves prolonged, or the recovery is sluggish, EasyJet could be in real trouble, said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst William Ryder.

EasyJet said it was trying to reduce payments, including those on aircraft. The airline said it was focused on short-term liquidity, including removing costs from the business and working with suppliers to defer and reduce payments.

It said grounding its fleet removed significant costs and that it was continuing to talk to UK pilots union BALPA over a potential deal with pilots.

EasyJets biggest shareholder Stelios Haji-Ioannou has called on the airline to cancel or renegotiate a 4.5bn order for 107 Airbus planes and wants the airline to tap shareholders for more money.

Elsewhere, small British airline Loganair has said it will seek state support.

Ryanair, meanwhile, has 90% of its fleet grounded and has extended the time during which the vast majority of its planes will be out of action by a week until April 9.

We are working with EU Governments to try to keep some minimum flight links open for emergency reasons, even though the passenger loads on these flights will be very low, Ryanair said.

In a recent note, Davy said Ryanair and IAG were well-placed to survive in a European airline industry which could see its number of carriers halved after the world recovers from the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, shares in Woodies DIY owner Grafton Group fell by over 3% on the back of the retail chain having to temporarily close its doors and Grafton significantly scaling down its distribution operations in the Republic. The group has not laid off any staff.

Davy, meanwhile, has forecast as 50% sales drop this year for Primark, which trades here as Penneys, should its stores remain closed for six months.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A coalition of voting-rights groups has sued over Ohios new law that extends voting for its primary election through April 28, arguing the vote-by-mail process lawmakers created will disenfranchise thousands of voters.

The League of Women Voters of Ohio, the Ohio A. Philip Randolph Institute and several state voters, in a federal lawsuit filed Monday, argue the states timeline is too fast to conduct a proper election. They are asking a judge to:

* Order county boards of elections to directly mail primary ballots, with postage pre-paid envelopes, to all registered voters who have not already cast a ballot in this election. The states plan is to send postcards to all registered voters informing them how to apply for an absentee ballot application  while making clear previously cast early votes will still be counted  and then providing a postage-paid ballot to voters who apply for one.

* Offer in-person voting for Ohioans who dont receive a ballot on time. The states plan only offers in-person voting for the disabled and homeless.

* Pick a new date that will give election officials more time to organize the election and inform voters how it will work.

* Re-open voter registration until 30 days before the end of voting. Ohio officials contend the ongoing election isnt new  just an extension of the one that was supposed to end on March 17. So, they said the 30-day cutoff for that election, which passed on Feb. 18, still applies.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Southern District of Ohio Eastern Division by the ACLU of Ohio, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Demos. (Scroll down to read it.)

"Under the General Assemblys undemocratic election scheme, thousands, if not millions, of Ohioans will not get to vote through no fault of their own, Jen Miller, Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio said in a statement. Ohios inefficient absentee voting system wasnt designed for this massive scale, especially under such an impossible timeframe. We call on the justice system to ensure that Ohios primary is constitutional and accessible.

Many historically disenfranchised communities are not accustomed to voting by mail and may have difficulty navigating the process in this extremely short timeline. The right to vote is sacred and should be treated as such," Andre Washington, State President of the Ohio A. Philip Randolph Institute, said in a statement.

In filing the lawsuit, the groups are following through on their previous threats to do so. But the voting-rights activists, as well as state officials, have encouraged voters who havent done so already to move forward with seeking to vote by mail. If a court does end up intervening, it will only serve to open up the process, theyve said.

Overlooking a proposal from Secretary of State Frank LaRose that would have preserved the option of an in-person vote on June 2, and sent absentee-ballot applications to all registered voters who hadnt previously voted early. Ohio lawmakers set an all-mail voting process through April 28 instead.

Lawmakers said wrapping it up sooner would allow for the states presidential delegates to be seated in time for the Republican and Democratic national conventions.

They also sided with local government and education groups, which are looking for resolution on local levies and other ballot issues.

DeWine signed the law that included the April 28 date, but previously threw his support behind LaRoses June 2 election plan. The elections plain was part of a larger coronavirus response bill that also waived state standardized-testing requirements, among other changes.

Lawmakers also opted against a component of the LaRose plan that would have provided absentee ballot applications and a postage-paid envelope to all Ohioans who hadnt already voted, similar to what the new lawsuit seeks.

The states election was thrown into disarray after DeWine and other state officials moved to close it on March 16, the day before the election was to have taken place, citing dangers of spreading coronavirus and the likely dampening effect the pandemic would have on voters and poll workers.

Officials have acknowledged delaying the election sowed confusion  some state lawmakers contended doing so was illegal  but have argued it was necessary to save lives and preserve a legitimate election.

Read recent Ohio elections news:

Heres how to vote in Ohios vote-by-mail wrap-up to its 2020 primary election: Q&A

Ohio lawmakers sets all-mail primary election through April 28; legal challenge still possible

Ohio legislature passes coronavirus relief bill extending primary voting until April 28, waiving school testing requirements

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose proposes pre-paid, statewide mail vote for delayed primary

Although mail-in voting continues, Ohios postponed primary remains clouded by legal, political disputes
Apparently frustrated at not being able to get liquor due to the lockdown, a tippler in a Karnataka village attempted to end his life, police said on Monday.

The man identified as Hanumanthappa (48), a resident of Chikkadalavatta village in Madhugiri Tehsil in Tumakuru district, has been admitted to a hospital in Bengaluru with grievous neck injuries, police added.

The labourer was aggrieved that he was unable to get liquor for the past four days and his attempts to get it failed.

Upset at not being able to drink, he took the extreme step on Sunday.

He was rushed to hospital where his condition is said to be stable, police said.

Meanwhile, a man caused a flutter by warning in a video message that he would end his life if he was not provided liquor.

The man from Turuvekere in Tumakuru district held the prime minister and the state chief minister for not being able to procure liquor.

Coming to know about the video, police rounded him up and when questioned said that some people forced him to issue a video message.

"I never intended to commit suicide. I am safe and nothing has happened to me," he said in another video message, apparently shot by a police officer.

The past few days have seen tipplers commit suicide in the southern states of Kerala, Karnataka and Telangana.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
If you think practically about how your life has changed as a result of the Coronavirus, you can start to get a good idea of what stocks might thrive in these volatile times (that luxury helicopter trip might have to wait).

Working from home

This is one of the major changes thats been forced on almost all desk jockeys. Its likely your company or business is relying on Zoom (ZM) or Microsoft Teams (MSFT) both listed in

the US to enable you to communicate, meet and engage with colleagues and clients. All that data needs a home and its home is in a data centre. NextDC (NXT) is Australias primary listed player, however there are global names, Equinix (EQIX), Interxion (IXIN) and Digital Reality (DLR) that operate in Australia and around the world.

Shopping

Many of us have had to setup home offices or mobile workstations. Officeworks (owned by Wesfarmers, ASX code WES), JB HiFi (JBH) and Harvey Norman (HVN) are surely seeing a surge in sales this quarter. You are also likely sourcing a lot more of your stuff online. The king of online is Amazon (AMZN) but theres second and third derivatives of this trend.

More online payments may benefit payments beasts like PayPal (PYPL) and/or Square (SQ).

Perhaps our new obsession with hygiene drives global adoption of tap and go technology from Visa (V) and Mastercard (MC). How will our national shopping centres fair during this period? A protracted shut-down of non-essential retail could impact our nations landlords as their tenants close shop, ask for rent reductions and stop demanding temporary space.

Some examples of shopping centre landlords include: Charter Hall (CQR), Vicinity Centres (VCX), Abacus Property Group (ABP), Shopping Centres Australia (SCP), and Westfield (URW). Similarly, those retailers who are still operating a primarily in store business model could face hard times, while their predominantly online competitors take market share. Discretionary spending in general may decline as unemployment rises and people tighten their belts.

Software as a service (SaaS)

Software you cant live without. I havent spoken to Luc, the boss at DMARGE, but I can guarantee you hes paying his Adobe (ADBE) Creative Suite subscription fees next month before he goes and gets a haircut or buys another pair of expensive loafers!

Same goes for accounting software like Xero (XRO) in my opinion. I personally couldnt run my business without it. For me, same goes for market data related providers like IRESS (IRE) and Factset (FDS).

Isolation

I dont know about you, but Im not cancelling my Netflix (NFLX), Spotify (SPOT) or Amazon Prime (AMZN, again) right now. Its like a great pair of jeans. It doesnt really matter how much you spend, your cost per wear is so low and youre getting more value out of these subscriptions than ever.

As for Foxtel, Kayo or that fedora you bought for the races in 2012 not so much.

Id think a few gym memberships are getting the chop as well (hopefully youre staying healthy and working out at home/in the park). This isnt good news for the likes of Ardent Leisure (ALG) who own Goodlife and a bunch of other gyms in Australia.

Get woke

This is more of a personal favourite, but I love companies that do the right thing. I think its smart business and can generate immeasurable goodwill from the community. Think about investing in businesses that are handling this crisis best. I loved Nikes (NKE) Play Inside strategy and Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey (MC on the Paris Stock Exchange) have also handled this beautifully. Converting perfume factories to make hand sanitiser and ordering 40m health masks to give to the French health service. Both are excellent examples of corporate leadership. Id back both to be equally excellent when it comes to reinvesting my capital in their business.

This article is of a general nature only and does not consider your objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider the appropriateness of the information in light of your objectives, financial situation and needs before acting on it and obtain copies of any relevant disclosure documents. Seneca Financial Solutions does not warrant the accuracy or reliability of the information in this report.

Luke Laretive, Seneca Financial Solutions, its Directors and its associated entities may have or had interests in companies mentioned. They may have or have had a relationship with or may provide or has provided investment banking, capital markets and/or other financial services to those companies mentioned.

Luke provides clients with a daily note, which you can access here.

Read Next
New Orleans Gov. John Bel Edwards, seen in a file photograph, is warning of a projected shortfall in ventilators. (Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

New Orleans May Run Out of Ventilators in a Week: Louisiana Governor

New Orleans is projected to run out of ventilators in one week, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said over the weekend.

We believe that by about April 4 or so in the New Orleans area, we will exceed our capacity for ventilators, Edwards said during an appearance on CBSs Face the Nation on Sunday. And, obviously thats not where we want to be.

Were doing everything that we can to try to find ventilators but it is a big challenge right now, he added. Ventilator capacity is the one thing that really keeps me up at night.

Edwards told reporters on Thursday that New Orleans could run out of ventilators as early as April 2 and run out of hospital beds by April 7.

Its not conjecture, its not some flimsy theory, this is not a scare tactic, this is what is going to happen, he said.

Emergency medicine physician Thomas Krajewski arrives at work for the start of his shift amid an outbreak of the CCP virus in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 27, 2020. (Kathleen Flynn/Reuters)

An empty street in the French Quarter amid the COVID-19 pandemic in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 27, 2020. Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Of the 3,540 confirmed CCP virus cases in the state, 1,127 patients are in hospitals, according to the state Department of Health. Three hundred and 80 patients are on ventilators.

The New Orleans area has 650 ventilators, the Lafayette Daily Advertiser reported, while the state as a whole has 2,750, citing state data.

At this point we do have ventilators available, a fair amount. It is likely well need more, but Im not sure at this point, Lafayette Consolidated Government spokesman Jamie Angelle told the Advertiser.

Louisiana has been able to procure 192 ventilators, none of which have come from the federal government, according to Edwards. The state has requested 12,000 from the government and private companies. President Donald Trump told reporters last week that some ventilators were shipped to Louisiana.

The projected dearth of ventilators has prompted state officials to explore using a single ventilator for two patients, a method New Yorks Department of Health approved last week.
KLAMATH COUNTY -- Health officials are currently investigating one new positive case of the coronavirus, now bringing the county total to five. One of those individuals has since recovered from the illness.

Klamath County Public Health was notified of the new case on Monday after the Oregon Health Authority had already tallied its statewide numbers. As a result, the case will not appear on OHA updates until tomorrow.

Oregon Health Authority releases its daily numbers, compiled by 8 a.m. each day, during the noon hour.

Officials said that contact tracing for this case is already underway, and this is believed to be another example of community spread. The last two cases were announced on Saturday, and one was believed to be community acquired while the other appeared to be travel-related.

"Once Public Health is aware of a positive case, it works with the individual to determine close contacts who might be at risk," the agency said. "Possible times and areas of exposure are also announced when known. Those individuals who may have been exposed are given instructions and next steps to prevent further exposure within the community."

RELATED: Second Klamath County COVID-19 case was Sky Lakes employee, medical center says

People who have had a fever, dry cough, or difficulty breathing are asked to remain home until 72 hours after the symptoms stop, without the use of medication. Anyone needing medical help is asked to call ahead so protective measures can be taken. Individuals with life-threatening symptoms should go to the emergency room.

Our highest priority is the health and safety of our community. We will take all steps necessary to ensure safety while also holding to our core value of integrity. We will not release the name, address or other identifying information about these people, said Jennifer Little, KCPH director. It is a matter of patient confidentiality.

The agency said that in Klamath County "the expectation is that these individuals and their families be able to recover without being the targets of social media attacks and the stigmatization that has occurred in other Oregon communities."
Dublin, March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Ion Exchange Resins Market by Type (Cationic Resins, Anionic Resins), Application (Water, Non-Water), End-Use Industry (Power, Chemical & Petrochemical, Pharmaceutical, Food & Beverage), and Region - Global Forecast to 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.





The global ion exchange resins market size is projected to grow from USD 1.8 billion in 2020 to USD 2.2 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 4.2%, between 2020 and 2025.



Urbanization in APAC, increasing demand for nuclear electricity generation in emerging economies, and stringent environmental regulations are the major growth drivers of the global ion exchange resins market. Pharmaceutical, food & beverage, and electrical & electronics industries are projected to register the highest growth in the next five years, thereby boosting the market growth. Increasing population, growing urbanization and evolving manufacturing sector, need for water conservation, and stringent regulations are the major factors that are projected to drive the ion exchange resins market during the forecast period. Furthermore, volatility in raw material prices and increasing competition from the reverse osmosis process are the factors restraining the market growth.



The other types segment is expected to register the highest CAGR of the overall ion exchange resins market during the forecast period.



Chelation resins and adsorbent resins are included in the others segment. Chelation resins are commonly used to remove metals, such as lead, copper, and zinc, in the metal processing industries. Adsorbent resins are mainly used in industrial applications to modify physio-chemical characteristics of liquids. These resins are suitable for adsorption of specific organic molecules from food and nonfood liquids. They have several applications in the food industry concerned with the removal of undesired organic substances and the recovery of valuable organic substances.



The ion exchange resins market in the power industry is projected to account for the largest share during the forecast period.



The power industry has witnessed significant growth over the past few years, which is attributed to the growing demand for electricity from various countries. The governments, worldwide, are encouraging various industries, including food & beverage, chemical, and primary metal to reduce their carbon footprints and switch to renewable and nuclear energy sources. Nuclear energy is the second-fastest-growing source of energy. Various nuclear-related projects are estimated to be executed in the next 10 years across the globe, thereby, directly boosting the ion exchange resins market in the power industry. In addition, China and India are also increasing their presence in the nuclear power generation segment with the installation of various nuclear energy-based power plants. These trends are expected to boost the demand for ion exchange resins in power end-use industry during the forecast period.



APAC ion exchange resins market is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.



The APAC market is segmented into China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, and Rest of APAC. China is the market leader in APAC for ion exchange resins. Major fuel sources in the country are fossils and renewables. High growth in electricity demand has given rise to power shortages, while the dependency on fossil fuels has led to increased air pollution. Hence, the government is planning to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and hydro resources leading to the rise in the demand for nuclear energy, which, in turn, will boost the market of ion exchange resins in the country. Furthermore, with the growing nuclear industry, there has been a scarcity of freshwater, which is leading to high demand for ion exchange resins in the country.



Story continues

Key Topics Covered:



1 Introduction



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Premium Insights

4.1 Attractive Opportunities in the Ion Exchange Resins Market

4.2 Ion Exchange Resins Market, By Type

4.3 Ion Exchange Resins Market, Developed vs Developing Countries

4.4 APAC Ion Exchange Resins Market, By Type and Application

4.5 Ion Exchange Resins Market, By Key Countries



5 Market Overview

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Market Dynamics

5.2.1 Drivers

5.2.1.1 Growing Urban Population in APAC

5.2.1.2 Increasing Demand for Nuclear Electricity Generation in Emerging Economies

5.2.1.3 Stringent Environmental Regulations

5.2.2 Restraints

5.2.2.1 Volatility in Raw Material Prices

5.2.2.2 Increasing Competition From Reverse Osmosis Membrane Technology

5.2.3 Opportunities

5.2.3.1 Growing Industrialization in Emerging Economies

5.2.3.2 Increasing Importance of the Recycle and Reuse of Water

5.2.4 Challenges

5.2.4.1 Finding New Applications

5.2.4.2 Lack of Strict Regulations in Developing Regions

5.3 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.3.1 Threat of New Entrants

5.3.2 Threat of Substitutes

5.3.3 Bargaining Power of Buyers

5.3.4 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

5.3.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry



6 Ion Exchange Resins Market, By Type

6.1 Introduction

6.1.1 Cationic Resins

6.1.1.1 Growing Industrial Sector Driving the Demand for Cationic Ion Exchange Resins

6.1.2 Anionic Resins

6.1.2.1 Anionic Ion Exchange Resins have High Demand in Water Dealkalization, Demineralization, and Water Softening

6.1.3 Others



7 Ion Exchange Resins Market, By Application

7.1 Introduction

7.1.1 Water

7.1.1.1 Growth of Power, Electrical & Electronics, and Metal & Mining Industries Positively Impacting the Market

7.1.2 Non-Water

7.1.2.1 The Launch of Innovative Medicinal Products to Drive the Pharmaceutical Industry



8 Ion Exchange Resins Market, By End-Use Industry

8.1 Introduction

8.1.1 Power

8.1.1.1 Stringent Regulations on the Treatment of Wastewater Discharged From Power Plants Propelling the Demand for Ion Exchange Resins

8.1.2 Chemical & Petrochemical

8.1.2.1 Domestic Policy Reforms, Improving Commodity Prices, and the Increasing Presence of Production Facilities of Various Companies Boosting the Market

8.1.3 Food & Beverage

8.1.3.1 Significant Rise in Preferences for Healthy Drinks Such as Juices, Bottled Water, and Ready-To-Drink Tea to Propel the Market

8.1.4 Pharmaceutical

8.1.4.1 Better Drug Retention and Prevention of Dose Dumping and Toxicity to Drive the Ion Exchange Resins Market

8.1.5 Electrical & Electronics

8.1.5.1 Price Erosion, Higher Per Capita Income, and Rising Consumer Demand for Electronics to Drive the Market in the Segment

8.1.6 Metal & Mining

8.1.6.1 Ion Exchange Resins Help in Cleaning and Obtaining Pure Metals

8.1.7 Others



9 Ion Exchange Resins Market, By Region

9.1 Introduction

9.2 APAC

9.2.1 China

9.2.1.1 Modernization of the Chinese Economy, Coupled With Changing Lifestyle, Impacting Growth of End-Use Industries

9.2.2 India

9.2.2.1 Increasing Population, Rapid Urbanization, Growing Pressure on Quality Maintenance of Municipal Water Supplies, and Stringent Regulations to Drive the Market

9.2.3 Japan

9.2.3.1 Highly Developed and Efficient Water Treatment and Reuse Infrastructure Significantly Increasing the Demand for Ion Exchange Resins

9.2.4 South Korea

9.2.4.1 Increase in Domestic and Industrial Wastewater Generation to Boost the Market Growth

9.2.5 Australia

9.2.5.1 Consumption of A Considerable Amount of Ion Exchange Resins in Huge Mining Industry

9.2.6 Taiwan

9.2.6.1 Power is the Largest End-Use Industry of Ion Exchange Resins in the Country Owing to the Large Nuclear Industrial Base

9.2.7 Thailand

9.2.7.1 Increased Need for Pure and Safe Water to Drive the Market

9.2.8 Indonesia

9.2.8.1 Increased Infrastructure Funding and Policy Reforms to Encourage Private Investment

9.2.9 Rest of APAC

9.3 North America

9.3.1 US

9.3.1.1 Increasing Demand for Electricity to Benefit the Ion Exchange Resins Market

9.3.2 Canada

9.3.2.1 Growing Nuclear Industry and the Presence of A Vast Mining Sector in the Country Help Boost the Market Demand

9.3.3 Mexico

9.3.3.1 Expansion of the Country's Nuclear Energy Capacity Will Help Increase the Demand for Ion Exchange Resins

9.4 Europe

9.4.1 Russia

9.4.1.1 Large Power Industry in Russia Boosting the Demand for Ion Exchange Resins

9.4.2 France

9.4.2.1 Economic Dynamism, High Level of Labor Productivity, and the Presence of Large International Companies Driving the Market

9.4.3 Germany

9.4.3.1 Strong Manufacturing Base, Skilled Labor, and Balanced Industrial Growth to Drive the Market

9.4.4 UK

9.4.4.1 New and Under-Construction Nuclear Power Plants are Likely to Boost the Market Demand

9.4.5 Italy

9.4.5.1 Accelerating Foreign Demand to Propel the Market Growth

9.4.6 Spain

9.4.6.1 Increasing Stringent Regulations for Water Treatment and Large Industrial Base of the Country Driving the Market

9.4.7 Netherlands

9.4.7.1 Pharmaceutical, Chemicals, and Electrical & Electronics Industries to Grow in the Country Owing to an Increase in Investments

9.4.8 Rest of Europe

9.5 South America

9.5.1 Brazil

9.5.1.1 Almost 90% of the Country's Electricity is Produced From Renewable Sources, Increasing the Scope of Ion Exchange Resins

9.5.2 Argentina

9.5.2.1 Economic Transformation in the Country Promoting Sustainable Economic Development to Benefit the Market

9.5.3 Rest of South America

9.6 Middle East & Africa

9.6.1 Saudi Arabia

9.6.1.1 The Country's Demand for Electricity is Growing Rapidly

9.6.2 South Africa

9.6.2.1 The Country is Politically Stable and has Abundant Natural Resources, R&D Capabilities, and an Established Manufacturing Base

9.6.3 Turkey

9.6.3.1 Growing Electricity Demand in the Country Will Boost the Market for Ion Exchange Resins

9.6.4 Rest of Middle East & Africa



10 Competitive Landscape

10.1 Overview

10.2 Market Ranking, 2019

10.3 Competitive Leadership Mapping, 2019

10.3.1 Visionary Leaders

10.3.2 Innovators

10.3.3 Dynamic Differentiators

10.3.4 Emerging Companies

10.4 Strength of Product Portfolio

10.5 Business Strategy Excellence

10.6 Competitive Scenario

10.6.1 Merger & Acquisition

10.6.2 Investment & Expansion

10.6.3 Partnership & Collaboration

10.6.4 New Product Development

10.7 Ion Exchange Resins: Patent Analysis

10.7.1 Methodology

10.7.2 Document Type

10.7.3 Insight

10.7.4 Top Applicants

10.7.4.1 Kurita Water Industries LTD.

10.7.4.2 Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., LTD.

10.7.4.3 Tris Pharma, Inc.

10.7.5 Disclaimer



11 Company Profiles

11.1 DuPont De Nemours, Inc.

11.2 Purolite Corporation

11.3 Lanxess AG

11.4 Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation

11.5 Thermax Limited

11.6 Ion Exchange (India) LTD.

11.7 Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.

11.8 Novasep Holding

11.9 Sunresin New Materials Co. LTD.

11.1 Suqing Group

11.11 Samyang Corporation

11.12 Resintech Inc.

11.13 Evoqua Water Technologies LLC

11.14 Other Key Companies

11.14.1 Anhui Sanxing Resin Technology Co. LTD.

11.14.2 Auchtel Products Limited

11.14.3 Aldex Chemical Company Limited

11.14.4 Bengbu Dongli Chemical Co., LTD.

11.14.5 Eichrom Technologies Inc.

11.14.6 Finex OY

11.14.7 Hebi Juxing Resin Co., LTD.

11.14.8 Jacobi Carbons Ab Group

11.14.9 Jiangsu Linhai Resin Science and Technology Co. LTD.

11.14.10 Ningbo Zhengguang Resin Co., LTD.

11.14.11 Ovivo

11.14.12 Tianjin Nankai Hecheng Science & Technology Co., LTD.



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Governments around the world are scrambling to procure more of the breathing devices that can blow air and oxygen into the lungs.

Ukraine is dusting off Soviet-era ventilator designs that lay forgotten in a mothballed military factory for years in a bid to ramp up domestic production of equipment that could help in the fight against the coronavirus.

In response to an urgent appeal by hospitals to President Volodymyr Zelensky for ventilators, some of the country's wealthiest men chipped in to buy machines from abroad, Reuters reports.

But representatives of state defense conglomerate Ukroboronprom, which runs the state-run Burevisnyk plant in Kyiv, are leading an initiative for Ukraine to boost domestic output based on technology developed there long ago.

Read alsoProfessor Giuseppe Ippolito: Recommendation for countries where COVID-19 is just starting: "Be prepared!"

Deputy Director General of Ukroboronprom, Mustafa Nayyem, told Reuters that a computer with the relevant technical information had disappeared and the engineers that designed the ventilators were retired or dead.

Eventually officials tracked down a man who knew where printouts for the designs were kept in the factory on yellowing paper. He was working in a local supermarket.

The plant is in no fit state to restart production, so Ukroboronprom will share the technology with interested private companies and has offered to help certify a new product quickly and provide production facilities, Nayyem said.

Some 20 years ago around 6,000 people worked at the Burevisnyk factory, producing hardware including radar systems for submarines. It also had a sideline making ventilators once used to treat Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan.

Falling demand since the end of the Soviet Union and a lack of state funding have pushed the plant into bankruptcy.

A handful of employees remain, including its acting director and security guards. The power and heating were cut off five years ago. The plaster on the walls is cracked and old machinery lies covered in dust.

Its last big government order for ventilators came in 2008, the plant's Acting Director Vitaly Khodzitsky told Reuters. The plant used a bank loan to produce them, but the government money did not arrive and the plant never recouped its costs.

"In 2011, a bankruptcy case was filed, bank accounts were frozen, and everything stopped," Khodzitsky said, shivering from the cold inside the plant.

For a population of about 40 million people, Deputy Health Minister Viktor Liashko said there were about 1,117 ventilators ready for coronavirus patients.

Governments around the world are scrambling to procure more of the breathing devices that can blow air and oxygen into the lungs. They are crucial for the care of people with lung failure, which can be one of the complications suffered by patients with severe COVID-19, the disease coronavirus causes.

The number of coronavirus cases has reached 480 in Ukraine, with eleven deaths. The country is one of Europes poorest and health spending per capita is a fraction of its western peers.
Niamey, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Mar, 2020 ) :The main opposition figure in Niger, Hama Amadou, who has been in prison since last November for alleged baby smuggling, is among more than 1,500 inmates who are being released early because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Amadou's name is among those of 1,540 prisoners who have been pardoned by President Mahamadou Issoufou "for humanitarian reasons and to reduce prison numbers" because of the pandemic, according to a list read on state radio.

A source close to Amadou confirmed the former premier and parliamentary speaker "is definitely concerned by the presidential pardon and in theory will be leaving prison (today)." Amadou has several months left to serve of a controversial one-year jail term.

The 70-year-old, dubbed "The Phoenix" for his political comebacks, ran against Issoufou in presidential elections in March 2016, but his campaign was marred from the start.

He was arrested on November 14 2015 on his return from exile and was later accused that he and others, including one of his wives, smuggled babies into Nigeria via Benin for wealthy couples in Niger.

He denied the charges as a fix, and was forced to campaign for the presidency from behind bars.

He was released on medical grounds on March 16, 2016, four days before the second round of the voting, and flew to France.

Issoufou went on to win with 92 percent of the run-off ballot. With the opposition boycotting the election, Amadou only picked up seven percent of the vote.

After a one-day trial in March 2017, Amadou was given a 12-month term in absentia.

In November last year, he returned to Niger to serve the remaining eight months of his sentence. He went to France for two weeks in February this year for medical reasons.

His party, Moden, named him its candidate for presidential elections due in December this year, although he may be legally excluded from running because of his conviction.

Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, has recorded 22 cases of coronavirus, three of them fatal, since March 19.

The presidential pardon was announced last week on television.

Many countries around the world have taken measures to release prisoners early to ease pressure on overcrowded jails, which health experts say offer ideal opportunities for highly contagious respiratory virus to spread.
Grand Ole Opry star and country music legend Jan Howard died in her sleep March 28th at age 91, the Opry announced during its 4,917th consecutive Saturday night broadcast from Nashville, played to an empty house because of the coronavirus quarantine.

Howard was an outspoken supporter of the military, especially after her son Jimmy Howard was killed in combat in Quang Nam, Vietnam in October 1968. "My Son," a song inspired by his military service and one that prayed for his safe return, had been released only two weeks before Jimmy's death.

Howard first hit the charts with the honky tonk classic "The One You Slip Around With" and had her biggest hit with "Evil on Your Mind." A string of duets with Bill Anderson, including "I Know You're Married" and the #1 hit "For Loving You."

Jan Howard, mostly forgotten by younger country music fans, made a huge impression in two recent PBS documentary films, "The Vietnam War" and "Country Music." Filmmaker Ken Burns told us that his interview with Howard was filmed for the country music film but her story about her son was so powerful that he decided to use it in the Vietnam War documentary as well.

Related: Going Deep on 'The Vietnam War' With Ken Burns

The clip is not online, but you can watch "The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick" on Netflix. "Country Music: A Film by Ken Burns" is available for digital purchase and also streaming on the PBS app for public television supporters whose donations got them access to the PBS Passport programs.

Jan Howard (photo by Buddy Squires/PBS)

In the interview, Jan Howard describes a group of young people who knocked on her door after Jimmy's death. They figured that she might join them in protesting the Vietnam War since she had lost her son in what they saw as a senseless war. Jan politely declined, reaffirmed their right to protest but promised them shed "blow your head off" with a .357 Magnum if they ever came back to her door.

Related: Ken Burns Tells an Epic Story of Modern America in 'Country Music'

The story sounds funny when you write it, but it's actually one of the most moving and emotionally complicated moments in either film. Jan Howard captures all the grief, rage, mourning, patriotism and frustration of those who are left behind when a loved one is killed in war.

Goodbye to one of Nashville's greats and a Gold Star mother worth remembering.
When normality returns, we need to focus more resources on difficult-to-insure risks that all people face, through no fault of their own  old age, illness, unemployment, natural disaster  and recognize that government is best positioned to protect against them. It is outrageous that the United States arrived at its second economic crash within a dozen years still possessed of an outdated state-by-state system of unemployment insurance, and that health insurance still follows employment for most of the non-elderly population.
Jack O. Bocchino, 68, of Kirkville, died Thursday at St. Josephs Hospital Health Center in Syracuse.

According to his obituary, he was born in Syracuse. He was a graduate of West Genesee High School and earned an associates degree from Morrisville State College.

He was a master analytical chemist at Bristol-Myers Squibb for 35 years before retiring in 2011. He was also a well-known local photographer, who had a passion for photography, music, and helping others.

He also was a Knight Commander with St. Baldricks foundation, having dedicated more than 10 years to raising money to help combat childhood cancers by participating in their annual fundraising event.

In 2019 the CNY local music community came together to celebrate his generosity, positive attitude, and love of local music by honoring him with the inaugural Spirit of the SAMMYs award bearing his name.

If you have a suggestion for a feature obituary, please email the link and any other information youd like to share to bduncan@syracuse.com

More recent feature obituaries:

Contact Brenda Duncan anytime: 315-470-2265 | Email | Twitter
Egypts Ministry of Transportation announced on Monday that it has decided to add 28 trains to the current fleet of trains during rush hours.

According to the statement of the ministry,

Minister of Transportation Kamel El-Wazir ordered the use of additional trains to reduce the pressure on trains in Upper Egypt and Nile Delta due to the partial curfew implemented nationwide.

Egypt imposed a two-week curfew starting Wednesday from 6 am to 7 pm to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country.

Egypt has so far recorded 656 coronavirus cases, including 41 deaths.

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Ministers are facing a furious backlash today after it emerged the UK is still not carrying out 10,000 tests a day - despite claims the level had been hit.

Michael Gove and Health Secretary Matt Hancock both hailed the target having been reached yesterday amid mounting criticism of the government response.

However, Public Health England said this evening that the latest figures were actually down. Some 8,278 tests were carried out in the 24 hours to 9am yesterday, compared to 9,114 the previous day.

Health minister Helen Whately conceded earlier that while the 'capacity' was now in place to carry out 10,000 checks a day, the actual figure was still below that.

The confusion fuelled anger about delays in scaling up the testing regime, with questions over how Germany is managing to carry out more than 500,000 a week.

Routine testing is only just being offered to NHS staff, with 800 per day initially expected to get access to tests

Health minister Helen Whately conceded today that while the 'capacity' was now in place to carry out 10,000 checks a day, the actual figure was still below that

Health Secretary Matt Hancock hailed the target having been reached yesterday amid mounting criticism of the government response

Ministers order 17.5m coronavirus tests - but when will they arrive? Ministers have agreed deals to buy 17.5million coronavirus testing kits for use by mid-April. The checks can detect who has previously had the disease, rather than who is currently suffering. The government hopes to identify contagion hotspots as well as people who are immune and can potentially return to work. The tests would help get NHS staff back to work with screening of frontline workers, such as teachers and police officers, to follow. The top priority is randomised testing to establish how far the disease has spread, a Whitehall source said. That is critical to understanding what we are dealing with and shaping our response. Officials have identified suppliers that can make the tests and have agreed in principle to purchase 17.5million if they pass medical checks. Britain is currently conducting only antigen testing  a swab that requires laboratory analysis. However the new antibody fingerprick tests take 15 minutes to detect whether someone has had the virus. Advertisement

Ex-health secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned that mass testing might be the only way to end the UK's draconian lockdown restrictions.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has praised countries like South Korea have for their wide-scale testing regimes, which have helped limit cases.

However, the UK shelved efforts to test everyone with symptoms on March 12, when the response moved into a 'delay' phase.

Instead people who thought they had the illness were urged to self-isolate unless their conditions became so severe they needed medical help.

Amid criticism, Mr Johnson then declared just under a fortnight ago that there would be a big expansion of tests from under 5,000 a day to 25,000.

Routine testing is only just being offered to NHS staff, with 800 per day expected to get access to tests. There are fears that many will have been put at risk, amid complaints that they do not even have enough personal protection kit.

PHE said this afternoon that said 8,278 tests were carried out on 4,908 people as of 9am on Sunday.

That figure was down from 9,114 tests at 9am on Saturday.

Before the figures, Ms Whately said the Government was 'ramping up' its capacity to test health and social care staff for the coronavirus.

She said it now had 'achieved the capacity to have 10,000 people a day tested'.

'Within the next three weeks we expect to get to 25,000 tests a day,' she told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

'The really important thing about that - the effort to test NHS and social care staff - is that we can prioritise the testing to parts of the health and care system where we have particular staff shortages so that we can help by testing people so that we can identify if they are negative so they would no longer need to isolate and they can go back to work.

PHE tweeted that the latest figure for the daily number of Covid-19 tests conducted is 9,114. This was accurate as of 9am on Saturday, it said.

The 'testing capacity for patient care' was 10,949 a day, it added.

A separate drive is under way for 'antibody' tests - which show if individuals have had coronavirus and developed immunity.

Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth said: 'Experts continue to call for the UK to significantly ramp up testing.

'When Germany is testing around 500,000 people a week, many are asking why we are still not even hitting the 10,000 a day promised on March 11th.

'We called for enforced social distancing, but it is a blunt tool without a national strategy to test and contact trace.

'At today's Downing Street Press Conference we call on ministers to outline why testing is still not being scaled up at sufficient levels and what bottlenecks domestically and globally are hindering this.'
The world's oldest man has insisted he enjoyed spending his 112th birthday 'without a lot of hullabaloo' during the coronavirus lock-down.

Bob Weighton, from Alton, Hampshire, took up the title of the oldest man in the world last month after the death of the previous holder, Chitetsu Watanabe, from Japan, and celebrated his birthday on Sunday.

He appeared on Good Morning Britain today, where he told that he spent his birthday taking phone calls from his family, and was perfectly happy because he 'doesn't like crowds'.

Viewers quickly took to Twitter to praise Bob, with one calling him a 'tonic' in these 'weird times', while another hailed him 'delightful, charming and intelligent' .

The world's oldest man Bob Weighton (pictured), from Alton, Hampshire, appeared on Good Morning Britain to speak about celebrating his 112th birthday yesterday

He insisted he enjoyed spending his 112th birthday with calls from his family and 'without a lot of hullabaloo' during the coronavirus lock-down

When asked how he found celebrating his birthday amid the coronavirus lockdown, he said: 'I had telephone calls from my family and so on, I enjoyed it that way. I don't like crowds and a lot of hullabaloo.'

Viewers loved Bob, with one writing: 'Bob is the tonic I needed in these weird times'.

'Gosh, this is a lovely story. Happy 112th birthday Bob!' said another.

A third agreed: 'Bob Weighton showing what a delightful, charming and intelligent man he is on GMB. Happy 112th birthday.'

Viewers quickly took to Twitter to praise bob, with one calling him a 'tonic' in these 'weird times' while another hailed him 'delightful, charming and intelligent'

He went on to insist that the best moment of his long life was meeting his late wife of 60-years, Agnes.

When quizzed by Piers Morgan on which moment he would recreate if he could, he said: 'Meeting my wife, I dont know what kind of life I would have lived without her.

The pair met at university, while preparing to travel abroad to volunteer in foreign countries, and insisted it was 'true love' that 'stood the test of time'.

'She was destined for Ghana in Africa, said Bob, 'I volunteered to go to Taiwan so we were miles apart and months of not having communication, letters took six or eight weeks.

Bob travelled to Taiwan to volunteer as a teacher while his wife was sent to Ghana. He is pictured teaching in 1934

'It was true love and it stood the test of time. After four years of separation and not seeing one another, we still got married and look back with great pleasure and rejoice.'

Last year, the former teacher and engineer celebrated his birthday with his many friends at his retirement flat. But this year the super-centenarian  someone aged 110 and older  is under lockdown like the rest of the country.

He said: 'Everything is cancelled, no visitors, no celebration. It's a dead loss as far as celebration is concerned.'

Bob lived through the Spanish flu pandemic which swept around the globe in 1918, when he was 10 years old, killing between 50 and 100 million people.

He said: 'I only read about it in history books when I got older.

'Actually I wasn't aware there was a Spanish flu around, because none of my brothers and sisters or people I knew were affected.

'I am sure they were, but a child's world is not an adult's world, a child doesn't read the newspapers and there was no radio in those days. So you didn't get news in the sense you get it thrown at you in all directions nowadays.'

When quizzed by Piers Morgan (left) on which moment he would recreate if he could, he said: 'Meeting my wife, I dont know what kind of life I would have lived without her'

Bob reviously said that now the 'world is in a bit of a mess' with coronavirus and it worries him because 'nobody knows what is going to happen'

Bob said that now the 'world is in a bit of a mess' with coronavirus and it worries him because 'nobody knows what is going to happen'.

He added that, unlike the two World Wars he lived through, the challenge of Covid-19 is the unknown elements of battling the virus.

He said: 'In the Second World War you knew what you had to do, you might fail but the objectives were clear as Churchill rallied the country behind him, "We will fight on the beaches", etc etc.

'We knew exactly what we had to do. That was an objective that you could possibly reach, but nobody knows how we are going to defeat the virus.'
SPRINGFIELD  Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday activated about 115 additional Illinois National Guard soldiers and airmen in support of COVID-19 response operations.

About 80 of the additional Illinois National Guard members will help with communications and reporting between county health departments throughout the state and the State Emergency Operations Center. Thirty Illinois National Guard Airmen will assist in the establishment of a medical facility at McCormick Place in Chicago.

About 25 soldiers from the 244th Digital Liaison Detachment, based in Chicago will assist county Emergency Management Operations Centers in Cook, Lake, McHenry, Kane, DuPage and Will counties, gathering information and reporting that data to the medical operations center in the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) in Springfield.

About 15 soldiers from the 404th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, headquartered in Normal, will assist county EMOCs in Christian, Madison, St. Clair, Cumberland, Clinton, Washington and Jackson counties, gathering information and reporting that data to the medical operations center in the SEOC.

About 30 soldiers from the 108th Sustainment Brigade, based in Chicago, will assist county EMOCs in Jo Davies, Stephenson, Winnebago, DeKalb, Kendall, LaSalle, Rock Island, Whiteside, Kankakee, Livingston, Peoria, Woodford, McLean, Champaign, Sangamon and Adams counties, gathering information and reporting that data to the Medical Operations Center in the SEOC.

About a dozen Airmen from the 183rd Wing based in Springfield, the 126th Air Refueling Wing based at Scott Air Force Base, and the 182nd Airlift Wing based in Peoria, will manage the medical operations center and information collection in Springfield for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Illinois Department of Public Health.

About 30 Illinois Air National Guard members will provide labor in constructing a field hospital at McCormick Place convention center in Chicago. About 10 Airmen each have been activated from the 126th Air Refueling Wing, 183rd Wing, and the 182nd Airlift Wing. They are expected to arrive at McCormick Place on Monday.

This brings the total number of Illinois National Guard service members directly supporting the COVID-19 response to about 380, with about 360 on state active duty.

Soldiers and Airmen serving on State Active Duty include:

 About 50 soldiers from the 3637th Maintenance Company, based in Springfield assisting with logistics, administrative and safety procedures at a community-based testing sitean Illinois Department of Public Health COVID-19 testing site at the McLean County Fairgrounds in Bloomington. The site became operational Saturday, March 28.

 About 50 soldiers from the 1844th Transportation Company based in East St. Louis, supporting medical warehouse operations in central Illinois.

 Another six service members working at the State Emergency Operations Center to help with communications, analyze COVID-19 response operations and to provide analysis for potential flood response operations.

 About 60 soldiers from the 3625th Maintenance Company, based in North Riverside, Illinois, were activated to assist with logistics and operations at the Harwood Heights Community-based testing site in Chicago, Illinois, which began operations on Monday, March 23.

 Approximately 45 nurses, doctors, nurse practitioners and medical technicians from the Illinois Air National Guards 182nd Airlift Wing Medical Group, based in Peoria, assisting with the Harwood Heights Community-based testing site and another state testing site at the McLean County Fairgrounds in Bloomington.

 About 20 full-time Air and Army National Guard members from the 5th Civil Support Team, based in Peoria, including medical professionals and experts in biological decontamination, assisting with command and control of National Guard forces at the community-based testing sites.

 The 183rd Wing, the 182nd Airlift Wing, the 65th Troop Command, based in Peoria, and the 108th Sustainment Brigade, based in Chicago, have approximately 30 liaisons and planners including geospatial planners and medical planners who are embedded with the State Emergency Operations Center, the Chicago Office of Emergency Management, and Communications, the Illinois State Police as well as serving at Illinois National Guard headquarters on Camp Lincoln in Springfield.
SPRINGFIELD  In accordance with an executive order from Gov. J.B. Pritzker on March 27, the Illinois State Superintendent of Education Dr. Carmen I. Ayala has issued a declaration that Remote Learning Days will be required to begin for schools statewide on Tuesday, March 31, and continue until in-person instruction can resume.

A statement from the Illinois State Board of Education also reiterated that the two weeks of Act of God days, for missed due to COVID-19 will not have to be made up. The previous statewide order keeps schools closed to in-person learning until at least April 7.

I am deeply grateful to the 63 members of the Remote Learning Advisory Group for giving their time and their expertise to help ISBE and schools across the state navigate a new way of teaching, learning, and caring for our students, said Ayala. We continue to be awed by the phenomenal creativity, resilience, empathy, and problem-solving prowess of Illinois educators, administrators, and students. The stories we see every day on social media, in the news, and in our email show us just how focused our educators are on supporting our children in this time of crisis.

ISBE officials say during Remote Learning Days, schools may implement either an E-Learning Plan or a Remote Learning Day Plan that provides students with instruction and access to educators through whatever means possible.

Schools may use up to five Remote Learning Planning Days to work on Remote Learning Day Plans in partnership with their collective bargaining units. Some schools have already started e-learning or remote learning instruction while others have not, particularly in districts where plans have had to have been made for students without access to Internet.

ISBE says the remote learning recommendations strongly encourage that school districts local grading policies during Remote Learning Days embrace the principle of no educational harm to any child and that school districts adopt grading models of pass or incomplete.

Other topics covered under the March 27 executive order included the suspension of state assessments for spring 2020. ISBE also released joint guidance with the Illinois Board of Higher Education and Illinois Community College Board to advise secondary and postsecondary institutions in Illinois on supporting and accommodating students who are enrolled in dual credit courses during the suspension of in-person instruction.

ISBE also met with the Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Education Association, Illinois Association of School Administrators, and Illinois Principals Association to update the joint guidance regarding pay and work for educators.
An 82-year-old woman found dead in her home in Tenerife and lying next to her disabled husband, 86, who had serious stab wounds, may have entered into a suicide pact because of the coronavirus crisis.

This is one of the theories police are working on as they investigate the tragic incident in the tourist resort of Los Cristianos in the south of the holiday island.

The woman's body was found in their flat, their second home, after worried neighbours raised the alert.

An 82-year-old woman was found dead in her home in Tenerife, lying next to her disabled husband, 86, who had serious stab wounds, in the tourist resort of Los Cristianos (pictured)

Her husband was lying in his bed nearby in a pool of blood. He was rushed to hospital in a critical condition with serious cuts to his arms.

The elderly couple, both Spanish, were visiting Tenerife from the Basque country.

Spanish newspapers say the husband had health problems and was being looked after by his wife.

It is believed the woman might have inflicted the stab wounds on her husband first and had intended to do the same to herself.

Mortuary employees wearing face masks bury the coffin of a COVID-19 coronavirus victim at Fuencarral cemetery in Madrid on Sunday

Doctors, nurses and hospital workers at the Quiron Hospital in Barcelona observed a minute of silence at midday Monday before bursting into applause for a doctor who died at the centre

However, before she could do so, she apparently slipped and fell, hitting her head in the process and then dying, either from the blow or from blood loss.

Police have launched a full investigation and say they are not ruling anything out.

There is speculation that it was a suicide pact gone wrong, prompted by the coronavirus.

In the Canary Islands, there have been 39 deaths, virtually all of them elderly victims.

An autopsy is being carried out on the woman to determine exactly how she died and police are waiting to talk to the surviving husband.

Spain has now registered more coronavirus infections in total than China - at 85,195 - but the rate at which new people are becoming infected has started to fall, as this graph shows

Coronavirus deaths have continued to climb in Spain as hospitals have been overwhelmed. Monday saw 812 people die, a high total but marginally better than the 838 who died Sunday

Spanish national flag flies at half mast on top of a banner reading 'Thank You. Stay at Home' an the facade of Madrid's City Hall

Spain's government has declared a daily minute of silence to honour those who have died from coronavirus, with flags flown at half-mast over Madrid's government building

They had to force the door of the flat open, with Diario de Avisos describing the scene as 'Dantesque'.

Neighbours had alerted a security guard working at businesses nearby who called in the emergency services.

Medics from the local health centre rushed to the scene but there was nothing they could do to save the woman's life.

At this stage, there is no suggestion of gender violence or murder.

The couple were well-known in Los Cristianos and frequently drank at a bar in the town centre in an area much-frequented by British tourists and nearby the bus station.
An Orthodox Jewish organisation said Josef Neumann, who was stabbed by Grafton Thomas during a Hanukkah celebration north of New York City, has died from his injuries three months after the attacks (Julius Constantine Motal/AP)

A man who was among five people stabbed during a Hanukkah celebration north of New York City has died three months after the attack, according to an Orthodox Jewish organisation and community liaison with a local police department.

Josef Neumann, 72, died on Sunday night, the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council said in a tweet.

The funeral for the father of seven and great-grandfather will be held on Monday. No further details were provided.

On December 28, an attacker with a machete rushed into a rabbis home in an Orthodox Jewish community in Monsey, New York, an ambush Governor Andrew Cuomo called an act of domestic terrorism fuelled by intolerance and a cancer of growing hatred in America.

With great sadness we mourn the passing of Josef Neuman at the age of 72, who succumbed to injuries sustained during the #MonseyStabbing while celebrating Chanukah on December 28th.



May his memory be a blessing  pic.twitter.com/5Ui0Ph7uCG  Rabbi Yisroel Kahan  (@ykahan) March 30, 2020

Rabbi Yisroel Kahan, who is the community liaison for the Ramapo Police Department which serves Monsey and executive director of Oizrim Jewish Council, also shared the news of Mr Neumanns death on his Twitter account.

We were hoping when he started to open his eyes, the rabbi told The Journal News on Sunday night. We were hoping and praying he would then pull through. This is so very sad he was killed celebrating Hanukkah with friends just because he was a Jew.

In the days following the attack, Mr Neumanns family said in a statement that the knife penetrated his skull and went directly into his brain, which could have caused permanent brain damage and could leave him partially paralysed. He also suffered other cuts to the head and neck, and his arm was shattered.

The Hanukkah attack came amid a string of violence that has alarmed Jews in the region.

Nicky Kohen, daughter of Josef Neumann who was critically injured in an attack on a Hanukkah celebration, speaks to reporters after the stabbing (Seth Wenig/AP)

Federal prosecutors said the man charged over the attack, Grafton Thomas, had handwritten journals containing anti-Semitic comments and a swastika and had researched Adolf Hitlers hatred of Jews online.

Thomass lawyer and relatives said he has struggled for years with mental illness; they said he was raised in a tolerant home and had not previously shown any animosity toward Jewish people.

Thomas was indicted on federal hate crime charges as well as state charges, including attempted murder. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
South Africa will approach multilateral lenders such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank for assistance in fighting the coronavirus pandemic only if the country runs out of money for health interventions, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said.

As of today I do not see the need for World Bank or IMF funds, but I am keeping them in my back pocket, Mboweni said on a call with reporters Sunday evening.

The Sunday Times newspaper reported earlier on Sunday that South Africa may approach the IMF for the first time ever to help with funding to deal with the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.

Officials from African governments had a call with the IMF on Saturday and the lender has put in place a short-term liquidity facility to help countries who have problems accessing foreign exchange, Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago said.

The World Bank is putting in place facilities to help countries respond on the health side, he said.

While the government would in principle approach the IMF if needed, the first port of call would be the World Bank and New Development Bank, Mboweni said.

On the amount the country may request from the IMF, he said lets cross the bridge when we come to the river.
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The first Vietnamese reporter was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Sunday after she had conducted an interview with a patient.

T.H., a 43-year-old correspondent of Viet Nam News, the English-language newspaper published by the official Vietnam News Agency, was among the 14 COVID-19 cases that the Ministry of Health announced on Sunday.

On March 12, H. interviewed a former French ambassador to Vietnam.

The diplomat was later diagnosed with COVID-19 and became Vietnams 148th patient on March 26.

Following the interview, H. visited her workplace at 79 Ly Thuong Kiet Street in Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi and had contact with her coworkers at their office on the 10th floor.

Once the former ambassador was pronounced to be at high risk of COVID-19 infection, H. and other people who had close contact with him were sent to a quarantine camp.

On March 27, competent authorities disinfected the entire building at 79 Ly Thuong Kiet Street as well as the neighborhood where H. resides in Trung Hoa Ward, Cau Giay District.

The building was briefly on lockdown on Sunday. The lockdown was lifted later the same day and only some areas inside the venue remain sealed off.

Viet Nam News announced on Monday morning it would stop publishing its print daily newspaper for 16 days, from March 31 until April 15.

H. is the first Vietnamese reporter to come down with COVID-19 since the country was hit by the epidemic.

The novel coronavirus, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has infected over 723,000 people and killed more than 33,900 globally, according to Ministry of Health statistics.

Vietnam has announced 194 COVID-19 patients so far, with 55 having been discharged from the hospital.

No fatality related to the disease has been reported in the country to date.

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Patients are having to be admitted to hospital after waiting too long to seek help from their GP, it has emerged.

Doctors are worried that some patients are avoiding going to their GP or hospital because of the Covid-19 crisis.
Kochi: Breaking the myth that aged people and those with other medical complications were highly vulnerable to infections and had higher chances of death from coronavirus, a 93 year and 88 year old couple have recovered in Kerala. Generally, people above the age of 60 are included in the high-risk group for coronavirus treatment.

Thomas aged 93 and his wife Mariamma aged 88, natives of Ranni in Pathanamthitta district were infected with the virus from their Italy returned son. They were admitted to Kottayam government medial college on March 9 and considering the high-risk involved, a special medical team was formed to treat the couple. They also have other age related complications like diabetes and hypertension.

The condition of the couple worsened many times during the treatment. Thomas was suffering from chest pain even during the initial days of admission and he was given utmost care. He later had cardiac attack and was put on ventilator support. But, the condition improved and his cough and breathing difficulty also eased.

After there was an improvement in their condition, the couples swab samples were sent for virus testing and the final test result turned negative. At present, the couple are only battling age related illness.

The couple will soon be discharged from the hospital based on the clearance as per protocol, said health minister K.K Shylaja. The minister congratulated the entire medical team at the medical college for bringing the old couple back to life.

Meanwhile, a nurse who was in the medical team contracted virus from the couple and she is undergoing treatment.

With this, all the five members of the Italy-returned family have recovered. The Italy returned man, his wife, son and two relatives were already discharged from the hospital.
The Mortgage Bankers Association in a dire letter to regulators Sunday warned that the U.S. housing market is "in danger of large-scale disruption," due to efforts by the Federal Reserve that were intended to help rescue the mortgage market.

At issue are the Fed's unprecedented $183 billion of purchases last week of mortgage-backed securities. The purchases were meant to drive down rates, and they did.

But together with the storm that gripped financial markets from the coronavirus, they also effectively blew up a widespread hedge that mortgage bankers use to protect themselves against rate increases. The hedge pays them if the prevailing rate in the market is higher than the mortgage rate they locked in with the customer.

The system works well unless mortgage rates are highly volatile. It is generally considered to be a safe trade: the hedge simply protects the lender against higher rates until the mortgage closes. But compounding the problem, many customers couldn't close on their loans because of quarantines, leaving the mortgage lenders with only the cost of the hedge and no off-setting loan.

The huge volatility in mortgage bonds created massive margin calls from the broker-dealers, who wrote the hedges, to their mortgage bankers.

Some of these mortgage bankers are now facing margin calls of tens of millions of dollars that could drive them out of business, according to Barry Habib, founder of MBS Highway, a leading industry advisor who was among the first to publicly sound the alarm bell last week.

Hardest hit are independent mortgage bankers who wrote about 55% of the $2.1 trillion mortgages created last year and can have higher leverage.

In its letter to regulators, the MBA said: "The dramatic price volatility in the market for agency mortgage-backed securities [MBS] over the past week is leading to broker-dealer margin calls on mortgage lenders' hedge positions that are unsustainable for many such lenders."

The letter went on to say, "Margin calls on mortgage lenders reached staggering and unprecedented levels by the end of the week. For a significant number of lenders, many of which are well-capitalized, these margin calls are eroding their working capital and threatening their ability to continue to operate."

Some lenders, the letter said, may not be able to meet their margin calls in a day or two.

The Fed came into the mortgage market forcefully two weeks ago when rates began to rise because a large array of investors were selling mortgage securities to raise cash, in part, to offset big losses in the stock market. There was also fear that borrowers wouldn't be able to pay.

In the week of March 16, the Fed bought $68 billion of mortgages. But the market still saw massive selling, prompting the Fed to come in with an additional $183 billion of purchases last week. The combined $250 billion in mortgage purchases by the Fed over two weeks was $84 billion more than the Fed had bought over any four-week period during the financial crisis in 2009.

Ironically, the MBA had urged the Fed to come in strongly to help the mortgage market. "We understand that when the Fed came into the market, they couldn't come in surgically. They didn't have a scalpel. They only have a sledgehammer," MBA chief economist Micheal Frantantoni told CNBC.

The New York Fed appears to have adjusted its purchases in response to the industry outcry. It purchased $40 billion of mortgages Friday, $10 billion less than it planned to buy, and it plans to do another $40 billion Monday but could end up doing less.

"We are expecting the Fed to modulate their purchases," Frantantoni said.

But Habib said the Fed needs to go further than just modulate.

"This is a collapse of the system," Habib said. "It's as simple as the Fed stops buying for a period of time."

While CNBC has learned that the MBA has made its concerns known to the Fed and other regulators, the specific request in the MBA letter went to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The MBA asked for regulatory relief for the broker-dealers who provide the hedges. Regulators have recommended a best practices guideline to collect margin on any variation above $250,000.

The MBA asked FINRA and the SEC to issue guidance urging lenders not to escalate the margin calls to "destabilizing levels."
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Like war, pestilence requires unusual measures, including some that curtail civil liberties. Thats also why aspiring autocrats, throughout history and all over the world, secretly love such emergencies. When, if not now and in the name of public health, is a better time to usurp total power, eliminate opposition and discreetly bury liberty?

Take, for instance, two wannabe dictators in the European Union, which fancies itself a club of law-abiding democracies. One is Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, a nation that hes shaped into an illiberal democracy, in his own proud words. The other is Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the chairman of the ruling Law & Justice (PiS) party and de facto ruler of Poland. Both are using the Covid-19 pandemic as a flimsy pretext to establish dictatorships in all but name.

This week, Orban had his pliant legislature adopt an empowerment law (doesnt that sound vaguely like an enabling act?). It lets Orban rule by decree, and without any time limit whatsoever. Jaw-dropping in its brazenness, the new law also allows Orban to suspend any previous law he doesnt like and changes the criminal code so that Orbans government can imprison anybody who in its opinion distorts facts. In effect, its a silent coup detat that leaves Orbans power completely unchecked. All in the name of fighting the coronavirus, you understand.

Meanwhile in Poland, Kaczynski just rigged the electoral system so that his partys candidate, incumbent Andrzej Duda, is sure to remain president in the election slated for May 10. That ballot shouldnt be taking place in the first place: Poland is in lockdown, which prevents the opposition from campaigning, whereas Duda still travels the country and appears on PiS-controlled TV.

But Kaczynski wants the vote to happen, and also wants to know the outcome already. So, between 2am and 4:20am on Saturday morning, in a largely empty parliament where PiS has the absolute majority, he suddenly introduced 79 pages of amendments into an emergency law ostensibly targeted at the coronavirus. The changes, which alter the election rules to favour PiS, violate parliamentary rules and the constitution. Jerzy Stepien, a former president of Polands constitutional tribunal, called the move another step toward a dictatorship in Poland.

Story continues

The EU could and should punish Hungary and Poland, but that would take unanimity, and Orban and Kaczynski, along with a few of their eastern European pals, have each others backs. So the only remaining checks on the two leaders would in theory be their own countries courts. Conveniently, however, both have spent years stacking them with loyalists. With their new powers, theyll be able to make their judiciaries fully beholden to them.

Poland and Hungary are in a sense providing a user manual for creeping autocratic takeovers, and lots of eager students are paying attention. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just staged his own sort of coronavirus coup. Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen has arrested opposition critics in the name of cracking down on fake news over the coronavirus. From India to Russia and Brazil, leaders seem quite enthusiastic about all sorts of drastic emergency measures that just happen to eliminate political nuisances. Chinas Xi Jinping already has, of course; but he at least never pretended to be a democrat.

None of this is really new. Epidemics have put freedom-loving societies to the test at least since the plague struck Periclean Athens in 430 BCE. The difference is that today the tools of epidemiology are also potentially perfect instruments of totalitarianism. From China to Singapore and the West, governments are using or deploying artificial intelligence, facial recognition and social-contact analysis to trace the viral pathways. These same technologies can also turn into permanent surveillance for other purposes.

But who wants to seem unpatriotic right now, or to put lives at risk by saying no to containment efforts as the bodies mount? And yet, we must insist on limits if we treasure our liberties. At some point, this pandemic will recede. And when it does, the extraordinary measures to contain it must end as well. Otherwise, we will have survived one hell only to enter another.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Andreas Kluth is a member of Bloomberg's editorial board. He was previously editor in chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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The kin of a 22-year-old Mumbai man on Monday alleged he was beaten to death by police after he was found outdoors during the lockdown in place for the novel coronavirus outbreak, a charge denied by officials who said the man was lynched when he was out to commit a robbery.

The man, identified as Raju Velu Devendra, lost his life in Nehru Nagar locality of Vile Parle (East), his brother Shankar claimed.

"Raju and some of us were moving towards a relative's house at 1am today when the police started chasing us. They caught hold of Raju and told us he was being taken to Juhu police station. However, at 6am, a policeman came and told us Raju was lying at Nehru Nagar Chowk," he claimed.

"We rushed him to Cooper Hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival. We found injury marks on his body. We saw 8-9 policemen beating him," he claimed.

Refuting the allegations, Additional Commissioner of Police (West) Manoj Sharma said," He was not beaten by the police but by local residents when he went to commit a robbery. He has a criminal background. No FIR has been registered as yet. We are awaiting medical reports.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh government replaced District Magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar BN Singh on Monday and a departmental inquiry has been ordered.

The move comes after he wrote a letter to UP Chief Secretary seeking three-month leave and making the letter public immediately after CM Yogi Adityanath took him to task at a meeting in Noida.

The District Magistrate attached to Revenue Board was replaced with LY Suhas.

As per highly-placed sources, BN Singh wrote the letter to UP CS urging him to relieve him from the district for personal reasons.

The letter was written immediately after the DM got a dressing down by UP CM Yogi Adityanth at a meeting of senior district administration officials during his Noida visit on Monday.

However, senior officials claimed that the CM had taken affront of the Noida DMs action of making the minutes of meeting and his letter public. The CM has believably taken it as gross indiscipline on the part of BN Singh.

The CM had visited Noida to take stock of the situation amid the coronavirus outbreak. In fact, Noida has the most number of coronavirus positive cases (37) in Uttar Pradesh taking tally to 88 on Monday.

FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES HERE

According to sources, the CM reprimanded the district officials for failing to check the deadly march of the virus despite all the advisories and alerts for the last two months.

He pulled the officers up for failing to seal the private firm 'Cease Fire'. The firm is being considered as the epicenter of the coronavirus with 23 persons associated with it testing positive in Noida.

The sources claimed that in the meeting the IAS-IPS rift also surfaced. BN Singh expressed his helplessness in getting his orders implemented under newly introduced Police Commissionerate system.

Even police commissioner Alok Kumar Singh was also present in the same meeting along with Noida CMO.

The CM scolded him for passing the buck instead of fulfilling his own responsibilities with diligence.

Immediately after the meeting, DM shot a letter to UP Chief Secretary seeking three-months leave on personal ground. And he even went a step further by leaking the letter to the media and putting it in public domain.
Euro Manganeses Chvaletice Manganese Project approved for significant investment incentives by the Czech Republics Ministry of Industry and Trade





Euro Manganese becomes eligible for tax credits of CZK 470.3 million (approx. CAD$27 million)

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Euro Manganese Inc. (TSX-V / ASX: EMN) ("EMN" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that its application for certain investment incentives for the Chvaletice Manganese Project (the Project), which was initially reported in the Companys August 14, 2019 news release, has been approved by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic.

These investment incentives are in the form of Czech corporate income tax credits related to eligible Project assets to be acquired by the Companys subsidiary, Mangan Chvaletice s.r.o. (Mangan). Based on eligible assets of approximately CZK 2.4 billion (approx. CAD$137 million), such tax credits would amount to approximately CZK 470.3 million (approx. CAD$27 million). These tax credits would be over and above the normal tax depreciation on such eligible assets, and would be applied toward Czech corporate income taxes otherwise payable by Mangan on earnings generated by the Project.

Marco Romero, President and CEO of EMN, commented: We are grateful and very encouraged by this valuable support offered to us by the Czech Government. Despite the turbulent times that the world is currently experiencing, our team is resolute and continues to make excellent progress on all key fronts with our important Chvaletice Manganese Project. We expect to become Europes only primary producer of high-purity manganese products, just when these sustainably-produced battery raw materials will be most needed by the rapidly emerging European electric vehicle industry.

About Euro Manganese:

Euro Manganese Inc. is a Canadian mineral resource company focused on the development of the Chvaletice Manganese Project in the Czech Republic. The Project will recycle historic mine tailings that host Europes largest manganese deposit and result in an environmental remediation of this site. The European Union is emerging as a major electric vehicle manufacturing hub. EMN's goal is to become the preferred supplier of sustainably-produced ultra-high-purity manganese products for the lithium-ion battery industry and for producers of specialty steel, high-technology chemicals and aluminum alloys.

Story continues

Authorized for release by the CEO of Euro Manganese Inc.

Contact:

Euro Manganese Inc. Marco A. Romero

President & CEO

(604)-681-1010 ext. 101 Fausto Taddei

Vice President, Corporate Development

& Corporate Secretary

(604)-681-1010 ext. 105

E-mail: info@mn25.ca Website: www.mn25.ca

Company Address:

1500  1040 West Georgia Street,

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6E 4H8

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange), or the ASX accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
by Pierre Balanian

Christians and Muslims shut churches and mosques to pray at home. Medical staff cheered for a minute. Lebanon has many doctors but few medical facilities. The poor (70 per cent of the population) and two million Syrian and Palestinian refugees are at risk. Curfew from 7pm to 5am. Lebanese abroad (especially in Africa) kept away for fear of infections. Students in Europe are unable to receive money from banks. Hezbollah leader makes historic speech, slamming banks for clinging onto money that could become waste paper as a result of the world crisis.

Beirut (AsiaNews)  The COVID-19 viral outbreak is uniting the always divided Lebanese.

Christian and Muslim religious leaders have led the way, urging their faithful to stay away from churches and mosques to pray at home.

Artists and TV journalists yesterday called on people to cheer and thank healthcare workers from their balconies at 8 pm tonight. A video by famous artists spread with the Arabic hashtag "a cheer for the heroes", called on the Lebanese, at home and abroad, to cheer for a minute the countrys doctors, nurses, hospital staff, pharmacists, civil protection officers, security agents, disinfestation and cleaning staff, and sanitation workers, i.e. the real unknown soldiers on the front-line of the battle against an invisible enemy.

So far only 442 people have tested positive in Lebanon for the coronavirus, with 30 hospitalised and ten deaths. This is a small number compared with what is happening in other countries, but terrible for a country like Lebanon already on the verge of economic, political and social collapse after months of anti-corruption protests.

The 201920 Lebanese protests are now over. Last Friday, protest tens in central Beirut came down. Now people are all terrified about how to deal with this pandemic, in a country with many doctors, but without the infrastructure necessary to provide healthcare and welfare for all.

Lebanon is home to about six 6 million people, including two million Syrian and Palestinian refugees, and cannot cope with the evolving pandemic. It is a miracle if the epidemic has been contained so far, in overcrowded cities, not to mention refugee camps, real shanty towns.

Initially, few in Lebanon felt concerned about the outbreak. But seeing what is happening in Italy, France, Spain and the United States, people began to take notice, fearful, even the conspiracy theory supporters, who are numerous in the Middle East.

Quickly, the authorities closed the land border with Syria, even before any coronavirus was reported in that country. Yesterday Syrian authorities announced its first death and nine cases of infection.

Subsequently, Lebanons only civilian airport was shut down, except for diplomatic and military personnel of the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon. Despite the lack a national emergency legislation, a 7pm-5am curfew was imposed on the whole country last Thursday.

According to many, the curfew is a precaution to prevent armed attacks against supermarkets in a country awash with weapons. The curfew has been broken, especially in Tripoli, where some workers without steady jobs say they will starve if they don't work.

This is the major issue. What can the unemployed and unprotected workers do under a government lockdown? What can workers on half salary for months because of the protests do? What can Lebanons poor (more than 70 per cent of the population) do? What can Syrian refugees already in a desperate situation do?

The Lebanese government, which has decided not to repay the countrys foreign debt, has set aside 75 billion pounds (about US$ 50 million) for the most affected families, providing a monthly subsidy of 180,000 Lebanese pounds (around US0) for the next two months. However, this has already proven controversial since mayors and political parties will decide who gets the money in a country rife with clientelism and nepotism.

Another divisive issue is what to do with Lebanese citizens abroad. Many members of the Lebanese community in Africa  among the first in the past to send cash aid in response to government appeals  now want to be repatriated from African countries, especially Ghana, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the virus is starting to spread rapidly and medical facilities are limited.

With the pretext of the airport closed, the government is prevaricating, whilst some politicians have been criticised for expressing fear of further contagion should Lebanese citizens come home from abroad.

Saturday evening, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave a televised speech. For the first time in the movements history, the Israeli "enemy" was not mentioned. Instead Nasrallah came to the defence of the marginalised at home and the Lebanese abroad, taking an unprecedented swipe at Lebanese banks for refusing to allow people to take cash from their bank accounts.

Think of the afterlife! What you will tell the Lord, you who clung to money which, due to the world crisis, is in danger of becoming worthless waste paper, he said. Around the world, currencies will collapse, he said.

The most distressing call comes from Lebanese students in Europe. Eager to come home, they would rather die with their loved ones than alone abroad.

Lebanese students in Italy, France and Germany are ready to foot the bill, but their families cannot send them money because Lebanese banks only allow money transfers for economic or medical reasons.

Following the harsh words about the fate of Lebanese abroad, which "is a duty as well as an imperative to bring home", the government, warns Nasrallah, will be forced to quickly adopt a constructive solution for them.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday ordered the registration of an FIR against a maulana for leading a congregation in West Nizamuddin in South Delhi after several people who attended it showed symptoms of coronavirus, sources said.

They said the Delhi government will launch a house-to-house mapping exercise in two nearby colonies on Tuesday to check for coronavirus cases.

The Delhi Police on Monday cordoned off a major area in Nizamuddin West where several people showed symptoms of coronavirus after taking part in the congregation earlier this month, officials said.

Over 2,000 delegates, including from Indonesia and Malaysia, attended the Tabligh-e-Jamaat congregation in Nizamuddin West from March 1-15, officials said as the south Delhi neighbourhood was virtually sealed following fears that some people may have contracted COVID-19.

So far, 97 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the national capital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Boris Johnson has written to 30 million households across the country warning the coronavirus outbreak will get 'worse before it gets better'.

The coronavirus epidemic in the UK appears to be starting to slow down, a leading UK scientist has said, with the number of new hospital admissions appearing to be reducing.

Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, said the slowing of the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, was the result of the social distancing measures brought in by the government.

In the UK we can see some early signs of slowing in some indicators  less so deaths because deaths are lagged by a long time from when measures come in force, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

Professor Ferguson, who has been advising the government on the outbreak that has so far killed more than 1,200 people in the UK, added: If we look at the numbers of new hospital admissions, that does appear to be slowing down a bit now.

(PA)

It has not yet plateaued, so still the numbers can be increasing each day but the rate of that increase has slowed.

Professor Ferguson said the epidemic was spreading at different rates in different parts of the country.

In central London it could be as many as 3% to 5% of the population has been infected  maybe more in individual hotspots, he said. In the country as a whole in the UK, maybe 2% or 3%.

He said antibody tests, currently in final stages of validation, would be critical to the understanding of the epidemic, adding they would hopefully be available in days.

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

Live: Follow all the latest updates from the UK and around the world

Fact-checker: The number of COVID-19 cases in your local area

6 charts and maps that explain how coronavirus is spreading

The comments come as Boris Johnson writes to 30 million households across the country warning that the outbreak will get worse before it gets better.

On Sunday, a key government doctor said normal life will not resume for at least six months as all parts of the UK are placed on an emergency footing to tackle the outbreak.

Story continues

Dr Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer for England, said the nation will not be in complete lockdown for half a year but that social distancing measures will be lifted gradually.

PM posts video message

Meanwhile, the prime minister, who is in isolation in his flat above 11 Downing Street, revealed in a video message that some 20,000 former NHS staff have returned to help in the fight against the outbreak.

He also said the UK will get through the coronavirus crisis together.

We are going to do it, we are going to do it together. One thing I think the coronavirus crisis has already proved is that there really is such a thing as society, Johnson said.

Thanks to everyone who has been staying at home.



By delaying the spread of the disease we can reduce the pressure on our NHS, and that's how we hope to save many thousands of lives.#StayHomeSaveLives pic.twitter.com/kxdqItMYSE  Boris Johnson #StayHomeSaveLives (@BorisJohnson) March 29, 2020

The PM thanked the doctors, nurses and other former professionals for returning to duty, as well as the 750,000 members of the public who have volunteered to aid the health service.

He said the public appeared to be obeying the terms of the lockdown to slow the spread of the disease, saying train use is down 95% and buses down 75%.

Thank you to everybody whos now coming back into the NHS in such huge numbers, he said.

NHS under pressure

British Medical Association chairman Dr Chaand Nagpaul called for testing to be rolled out to all healthcare staff, in particular those in general practice.

Asked what he would ask the government, he told BBC Breakfast: I would like to know when are we going to see the testing extended to all sectors of the health service because all of us are playing a part in trying to combat this disease.

Dr Nagpaul questioned why testing frontline NHS workers was only now being started in England.

He added: What I would say is its really important not to delay this any further and ensure this is available to all healthcare staff.

There is growing concern as to the lack of NHS frontline workers being tested for coronavirus.

Public Health England tweeted that the latest figure for the daily number of COVID-19 tests conducted is 9,114. This was accurate as of 9am on Saturday, it said.

Dr Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said around 25% to 30% of its workforce is currently off work.

He said testing being rolled out to frontline NHS workers would make a big difference.

I have got lots of colleagues at the moment who are sitting at home with family members who have got symptoms, he said.

They themselves dont have symptoms and are champing at the bit to try to get back to work.

So, if we can get the tests and get those people back on the shop floor, then that would be brilliant.

Coronavirus: what happened today
Suzlon Energy on Monday said an SBI-led consortium of lenders has approved a debt resolution plan.

Currently, the company's total debt from the lenders stands at around Rs 12,900 crore.

Besides, the company has called a meeting of bondholders to approve the resolution plan for outstanding USD 172 million borrowed from them via bonds.

"State Bank of India, the lead bank of the consortium of lenders, has, vide its e-mail dated March 29, 2020, conveyed that the resolution plan of the company and its certain identified subsidiaries... was put to vote by the consortium of the lenders and which has since been approved by 100 per cent of lenders by value, and 100 per cent of lenders by numbers," the company said in a regulatory filing to the BSE.

According to the filing, the resolution plan has been unanimously approved by the consortium.

A company official said Suzlon Energy's debt from these lenders stands at around 12,900 crore.

The company is working on finalising various definitive agreements with the lenders, it added.

In another regulatory filing, the company has told the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd that it has called a meeting of bondholders on April 6 seeking their nod for resolution of the outstanding USD 172 million bonds.

The company has given few options to bondholders under the proposed resolution plan seeking hair cut.

The total size of the bond issue was USD 546.91 million. The company paid the bondholders partly earlier.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is pushing back against accusations that her administration was trying to block use of anti-malaria drugs for treatment of coronavirus COVID-19, a day after the federal Food and Drug Administration approved the drugs for emergency use.

We want to ensure that doctors have the ability to prescribe these medicines, Whitmer said in a press briefing Monday, March 30. We also want to make sure that people who have prescriptions that predated COVID-19 have access to the medication that they need.

Whitmers comment came amid questions about a strongly worded letter sent last week from the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs regarding prescriptions for hydroxychloroquin and chloroquin, which have been promoted by President Trump as potential game-changers in the coronavirus pandemic.

The letter warned against inappropriate prescribing practices regarding the drugs.

The LARA letter was interpreted by some to mean the state was forbidding doctors and hospitals from using hydroxychloroquin and chloroquin for COVID-19, which is not the case.

In fact, Beaumont Hospitals in metro Detroit has been among those using hydroxychloroquine to treat some cases of COVID-19, a Beaumont spokesman said Monday.

Spectrum Health also said it has been undeterred by the LARA guidelines.

Our current treatment guidelines for COVID-19 only utilize hydroxychloroquine in the inpatient setting for more severe disease at this time. Therefore the prescribing restrictions are not currently an issue, Spectrum Health Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Joshua Kooistra said in a statement to MLive.

Meanwhile, John Karasinski, a spokesman for the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, said the association is supportive of the correspondence from LARA on limiting the prescribing of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine."

LARA officials have said the March 24 letter was in reaction to reports that doctors were stockpiling the drug for use by themselves or family members, which could create shortages for patients already prescribed the drugs. Hydroxychloroquin and chloroquin are also used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis in addition to malaria.

Whitmer said numerous medical associations have backed her administrations actions in regard to prescribing hydroxychloroquin and chloroquin.

The Michigan State Medical Society and the Michigan Pharmacists Association as well as the American Medical Association, American Pharmacists Association and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists have all issued statements citing concerns about inappropriate prescriptions of the drugs.

On Sunday, the FDA issued an emergency-use authorization for the two drugs. The authorization means that more than 30 million doses of the drugs have added to a national stockpile for distribution to doctors who wish to prescribe it.

However, more study is needed to determine whether the drugs actually work in treating COVID-19, said a statement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Anecdotal reports suggest that these drugs may offer some benefit in the treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients." the statement said. Clinical trials are needed to provide scientific evidence that these treatments are effective.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has been one of Trumps top medical advisers in regards to the pandemic, has said there is no evidence that the drugs are effective in preventing COVID-19, adding the anecdotal evidence so far only involves treatment of people already infected.

However, after Trump promoted the drugs during his March 19 press conference, there were reports nationwide that doctors might be stockpiling the drug to use for themselves or family members as a prophylactic or in case they were infected by coronavirus.

LARA says it has received multiple allegations of Michigan physicians inappropriately prescribing hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine to themselves, family, friends, and/or coworkers without a legitimate medical purpose.

Several other states issued similar advisories last week, including Texas, Ohio, Idaho, Nevada and Virginia.

Michigans letter said the drugs should be prescribed only when medically necessary, and noted that hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine have not been proven scientifically or medically to treat COVID-19.

The letter also told pharmacists not to fill prescriptions of the drug if they thought the prescription was inappropriate and warned that licensed health professionals are required to report inappropriate prescribing practices.

On Saturday, March 27, LARA issued a second letter to clarify its stance, saying its intent was to warn against stockpiling the drugs.

A joint statement issued by the Michigan State Medical Society and the Michigan Pharmacists Association says: The Michigan State Medical Society and the Michigan Pharmacists Association recognize the need to maintain adherence to appropriate prescribing and dispensing of prescription drugs outlined in the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs reminder that prescribing hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with the intent to stockpile the drug may create a shortage for patients with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, or other ailments for which chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are proven treatments. Any prescription medicine that may be effective in treating COVID-19 must be reserved for Michigans sickest and most vulnerable patients.

The American Medical Association, American Pharmacists Association, and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists also have issued a joint statement: Stockpiling these medications  or depleting supplies with excessive, anticipatory orders  can have grave consequences for patients with conditions such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis if the drugs are not available in the community. The health care community must collectively balance the needs of patients taking medications on a regular basis for an existing condition with new prescriptions that may be needed for patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Being just stewards of limited resources is essential.

Read all of MLives coverage on the coronavirus at mlive.com/coronavirus.

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores.

Related news:

Michigan has become an epicenter for coronavirus. Why?

Michigan COVID cases soar past 5,000

Western Michigan University student dies of coronavirus

Whitmer downplays tensions with Trump




By Lee Gyu-lee







CJ ENM's food variety show "Bob Bless You 2" has halted production for two weeks after a junior producer tested positive for the coronavirus.







The program's production team released a statement Sunday saying it is also awaiting the test results of other staff.







It said all four hosts  comedians Park Na-rae, Kim Sook, Song Eun-yi and Jang Do-yeon  and some staff had tested negative.







"Regardless of the test results, anyone who possibly came in contact with the producer are placed in self-quarantine and will be monitored," the production team said. "So the show will be suspended for two weeks."







The producer developed symptoms after returning from vacation in the United States on March 18. He was confirmed infected about a week later.







CJ ENM said it temporarily emptied its building in Sangam-dong, Seoul, and disinfected it.







"Bob Bless You 2" is a food-themed talk show in which a guest joins the hosts to introduce his or her favorite meal. The second season started airing on March 5.


(CNN) - World Health Organization officials Monday said they still recommend people not wear face masks unless they are sick with Covid-19 or caring for someone who is sick.

"There is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any potential benefit. In fact, there's some evidence to suggest the opposite in the misuse of wearing a mask properly or fitting it properly," Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies program, said at a media briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday.

"There also is the issue that we have a massive global shortage," Ryan said about masks and other medical supplies. "Right now the people most at risk from this virus are frontline health workers who are exposed to the virus every second of every day. The thought of them not having masks is horrific."

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist with the WHO, also said at Monday's briefing that it is important "we prioritize the use of masks for those who need it most," which would be frontline health care workers.

"In the community, we do not recommend the use of wearing masks unless you yourself are sick and as a measure to prevent onward spread from you if you are ill," Van Kerkhove said.

"The masks that we recommend are for people who are at home and who are sick and for those individuals who are caring for those people who are home that are sick," she said.

World Health Organization officials warned at a media briefing last week that globally there is a "significant shortage" of medical supplies, including personal protective gear or PPE, for doctors.

"We need to be clear," Van Kerkhove said last week. "The world is facing a significant shortage of PPE for our frontline workers -- including masks and gloves and gowns and face shields -- and protecting our health care workers must be the top priority for use of this PPE."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "WHO stands by recommendation to not wear masks if you are not sick or not caring for someone who is sick"
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Dubai, United Arab Emirates  Mon, March 30, 2020 12:37 654 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e497f3 2 World Dubai,UAE,coronavirus,drive-thru,test,facility,COVID-19,pandemic,health Free

The United Arab Emirates said it has launched a drive-through coronavirus testing facility as part of the Gulf state's efforts to fight the disease.

The facility, inaugurated by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, will provide screenings within five minutes, using state-of-the-art equipment and a medical team, the Abu Dhabi government's media office said.

"A new drive-through testing facility for COVID-19 has launched ... to offer safe testing procedures," the office said Saturday on Twitter.

According to official state news agency WAM, the facility can serve 600 people a day, with priority given to senior citizens, pregnant women and those with chronic illnesses.

The media office said people should book an appointment in advance.

Tests "for the wider community for reassurance only" would cost 370 dirhams (US$100), according to government advice on Twitter.

The UAE, which on Sunday had 570 officially declared COVID-19 cases, including three deaths, has imposed restrictions on night movements and taken steps to sanitize outdoor areas and public transport.

The Gulf state has halted passenger flights, closed its borders to foreigners and asked people to go outdoors only if necessary.

UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi has issued a list of fines ranging from $272 to $13,600 for those violating regulations imposed to contain the virus.
An employee of the Trader Joe's store in Monrovia tells customers waiting in line that it would open doors to everyone at 9 am. (Los Angeles Times)

My first trip to Trader Joes since the start of Californias coronavirus lockdown had all the trappings of order and security. A polite line formed out front, with everyone keeping a respectful and socially distant 6 feet apart. No more than 50 people were allowed in the store at the same time. A worker squirted a dollop of sanitizer into the hands of each and every shopper entering the store. Another wiped down the handles of each shopping cart before use.

Inside, however, despite workers' best efforts, there was only so much that could be done to stay safe. The aisles were narrow, the shoppers nervous.

It felt like a vector for disease. And, frankly, it probably was. Grocery stores are one of the only places where people are still allowed to congregate. If youre going to be exposed to the coronavirus, it will most likely be there.

Aware of this danger, my 15 minutes inside the store were stressful, to say the least. But my fears were undoubtedly nothing compared with those of the workers stuck in the middle of it all.

Shelves needed to stocked. Groceries bagged. Cash handled. The flow of customers  any one of them with the potential to spread the virus  was nonstop.

You guys deserve a serious raise, I told the worker who bagged my groceries. Did you get one?

She didnt look up.

We got a onetime bonus, she eventually answered, her eyes still lowered. It was a couple of hundred bucks.

A couple of hundred bucks to put her life on the line to prevent mass upheaval and panic.

Deservedly, much praise has gone to the healthcare professionals who are battling COVID-19, many of them without sufficient safety gear. But there are other essential workers in harms way too. And for their heroics, they are, by and large, paid next to nothing. They have limited access to affordable healthcare. And paid sick leave, where it exists, is still often frowned upon due to inadequate staffing.

And it isnt just grocery workers. Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island are walking off their jobs Monday in pursuit of more protections from coronavirus and fairer pay. Instacart workers nationwide are doing the same.

Story continues

Employees of Whole Foods announced plans to strike this Tuesday, to demand the company pay for coronavirus testing, provide paid leave for ill and self-quarantining workers, as well as hazard pay for those working during the pandemic.

Good for them.

If youre "essential" enough to work through a coronavirus pandemic, youre essential enough to be paid a living wage and to have access to paid sick leave and affordable healthcare.

Heres the thing: Working conditions for these employees are always dangerous. Coronavirus has heightened that danger, but it was always present.

Seasonal influenza alone still kills anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 Americans a year. Weve internalized those deaths as the cost of doing business. But thats absurd.

We pay millions of workers poorly, and if we offer them health insurance, the deductibles and copayments are often high enough to render the coverage useless. To keep costs down, stores are intentionally understaffed, so that when a worker stays home sick, his or her already overworked colleagues have to pick up the slack. And so people come in when they shouldnt.

Workers suffer. Their families suffer. And we all suffer when they give us whatever contagious disease they picked up on the job. Its outrageous.

All so that Jeff Bezos can have the resources to build himself a floating space pod when all goes to hell on Earth.

Inequality puts everyone at risk. That risk now is certainly heightened with the emergency of COVID-19. But it was always present.

If your work is important enough that society will collapse into chaos without you, you deserve to be paid accordingly. You deserve to be able to stay home when youre sick. And you deserve access to affordable healthcare if you need it. We shouldnt have needed a deadly coronavirus pandemic to show us that, but its blindingly obvious now.

Updates:

1:57 PM, Mar. 30, 2020: This piece has been updated to include news of an impending Whole Foods employee strike on Tuesday.




The financial impact of the coronavirus has made its way to a South Jersey hospital.

Shore Medical Center in Somers Point, is asking for employees to take part in voluntary layoffs, according to a letter from Vice President of Human Resources Alan Beatty.

According to the medical centers website, there are 1,500 employees and volunteers, along with more than 370 physicians.

The financial impact of COVID-19 has been felt throughout the country, we have invested significant resources on equipment and PPE to protect our brave staff who are on the constant front lines caring for our patients, Beatty wrote in the letter. During this time, we have experienced the reality of a dramatic decrease in revenues due to the cancellation of usual elective surgeries and other scheduled services as we focus on protecting our staff and patients.

Beatty mentioned Shore Medical Center was not the only facility facing difficulties, stating may hospitals are facing the same uphill battle. The hospital has taken steps such as reducing staff hours, but the measures have not been successful.

Shore Medical Center spokesman Brian Cahill confirmed the authenticity of the memo. Cahill said the hospital wanted to avoid the situation, but finances dictated the moves.

Our volumes are drastically down, and we are, like everyone else, feeling the economic impact of the virus. We are doing what is necessary to provide our clinical teams on the front line with everything they need to treat our patients and remain safe, said Cahill. This includes making difficult decisions on allocating resources from other areas.

Cahill added that voluntary layoffs were not something the Shore Medical Center wanted to do, but rather a measure to try to prevent further steps being taken.

We are also trying to avoid what is happening or is likely to happen with other hospitals, including closures and mass layoffs. We have been asked by employees to have an option to be laid off, and we want to make sure that option is available to everyone.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

Chris Franklin can be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @cfranklinnews or on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.
United Nations is still to discuss the coronavirus crisis as both the 15 member United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and 193 strong United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) haven't taken the matter up formally, as per accounts. The coronavirus was first reported in China's Wuhan province which then let to the worldwide outbreak. and it has killed over 18,000 people globally and infected over 4 lakh.

It is interesting to know that the Chair for the UNSC for the month of March is China. The monthly chair of the UNSC decides what is on the agenda and guides the body. According to reports, China has blocked the draft on coronavirus and is not allowing the global issue to be discussed in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Meanwhile, many countries want to pass a proposal on the global issue but China is constantly putting obstructions, with involved and knowledgable persons hitting out online.

READ | COVID-19: UN Expresses Solidarity With India, WHO Terms Lockdown 'comprehensive And Robust'

READ | Egypt's Iconic Sphinx Had A 'distinctive Astronomical' Moment With Sun During Equinox

'Coronavirus not on UNSC's agenda'

Earlier on March 3, China's UN Ambassador has said there is no need to panic over the coronavirus epidemic and that Beijing does not plan to discuss the situation in the Security Council during its Presidency this month. Beijing's UN envoy Zhang Jun said that there was no plan to have a "specific discussion" on COVID-19.

"With regard to the Security Council, at this moment, is the general feeling of member states, while we watch closely the situation, especially the new development, we do not need to go panicky about that epidemic," Zhang said during a press conference on the occasion of China assuming Presidency of the Council.

The UNSC last met on 12 March & before that discussed "peace and security in Africa: countering terrorism and extremism in Africa" and the situation in Afghanistan.

READ | UN Council Holds First Video Briefings Of Coronavirus Era

READ | MHA Issues Fresh Lockdown Guidelines, Inter-state Movement Of Goods And Others Exempted

(with PTI inputs)
Stephen Roach, former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and current Yale University senior fellow, discusses how investors can steady themselves in the event of a recession. Additionally, Jeffrey Weiner, chairman & CEO of Marcum LLP, unpacks the issues facing a multitude of chief executives in the current climate.
Minutes of a meeting held last year by then home secretary revealed that some officers expressed concerns about China penetrating India's market, while adopting a host of discriminatory and restrictive practices against Indian companies looking to boost exports

New Delhi: Over a year ago, then home secretary and current Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba held a closed-door discussion with senior officers from states, the security and intelligence establishment. The discussion centred on the threat perceived to be emanating from China. COVID-19 had yet to emerge on the global horizon. However, officers present at the meeting expressed concerns about the growing Chinese presence in the Indian engineering, telecom, manufacturing and education sectors.

Follow all the latest coronavirus updates here

Minutes of the meeting, reviewed by Firstpost, revealed that some officers expressed concerns about China penetrating India's market, while adopting a host of discriminatory and restrictive practices against Indian companies looking to boost exports. Gauba told the officers to closely examine the fault lines in the political, economic and social structure of China, and then strategise to exploit Chinese vulnerabilities.

The officers agreed that there was uneasiness in several countries in Asia and the West about Chinese ascendancy and that India needed to guard itself from Chinese penetration in different sectors. Then, COVID-19 struck and the Chinese regime, as well as the World Health Organisation (WHO), seemed to operate like a shadowy society to bury the pandemic. There is a sense of anger among the bureaucracy, retired diplomats and even the political leadership towards China. Some decided to call out China and the WHO's duplicity and called COVID-19 a China-made pandemic and a "Chinese virus". Others have argued that this is a racist comment.

Meanwhile in China, two important announcements were made within 24 hours: First, the country closed its borders to foreign travellers and second, President Xi Jinping called on leaders from the G-20 nations to remove trade barriers. A day before the G-20 meeting, China's Xinhua news agency had reported that its factories were open and that production had been intensified. This would mean that after allegedly exporting COVID-19, China is ready for real business while the rest of the world is trying to survive the pandemic.

In the past decade or so, the Chinese influence in Africa and Western countries, not to mention Asian countries, has grown exponentially. Even in India, Chinese exports have grown as it becomes clear from the import licences with respect to China, provided to Indian companies between 2016 and 2019 by the Department of Commerce. India has, so far, taken a very cautious approach in dealing with China.

Gauba and the officers present in that meeting knew well that besides flooding the Indian market, the Chinese were also establishing a foothold in strategic areas of the country and making investments in certain states like the mineral-rich Chhattisgarh. But the Indian approach  made clear by the minutes of the meeting reviewed  was to examine the pros and cons of increasing engagement with China through trade, because Indian officials believed that an increased economic engagement will definitely discourage the Chinese from adopting an aggressive attitude against India.

In the present scenario where India is under a 21-day lockdown and facing economic uncertainties, this policy and guarded response to Chinese activity may be in need of a rehaul. Aside from finding a strategy to reduce the Chinese footprint in critical sectors, the officers felt that a host of discriminatory and restrictive practices against Indian companies by China must be addressed.

Among the means discussed to counter the lack of market access to Indian products in China were to prohibit Chinese companies from participating in the Indian market and to focus on reducing Indian dependency on China for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) which is currently 60 percent and electronic components which is more than 64 percent. Another key area discussed at the meeting was the emergence of Chinese companies as lowest bidders in many infrastructural projects across India in the past two years, and the need for an inquiry into such firms.

At the end of the ongoing lockdown, the Indian government would do well to re-examine its China policy and the minutes of the meeting held last year can be a good starting point.
(Photo : REUTERS/Lila Engelbrecht) A warehouse worker prepares donated medical equipment to be shipped at the Afya Warehouse, a non-profit medical supply recovery organization, during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Yonkers, New York, U.S. March 25, 2020.

While the world is struggling to fight coronavirus (COVID), hospital personnel are struggling with the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)-- it includes medical masks, gloves, face shields, and gowns.

A commercial plane has just reached New York, carrying 80 tons of PPE to help those in need!

The PPE shortage

According to an internal medical resident located in New York City, "It's a citywide shortage," continuing with "We underestimated the effects of the pandemic, and now we are overwhelmed."

Just recently, a number of grassroots organizations have created #GETUSPPE headed by Harvard Medical School resident physician Dr. Shuhan He in hopes of getting the necessary equipment needed by the health care workers. As of Saturday, Mar. 21, the United States confirms 118,451 COVDI-19 cases, as well as 1,978 deaths. A report on the shortage of PPE has been shared by several states.

Read Also: COVID-19 Patients Show Sign of Progress After Taking In Development HIV and Breast Cancer Drug, Now Free From Ventilators

There is another existing GoFundMe called "A Million Masks" which was started by a group of friends located in New York headed by Ben Wei saying that they have already raised $386,681 and have delivered 6,000 KN95 masks to about 10 New York hospitals while waiting for an additional 30,000 more KN95 masks to be delivered.

The good news

In a recent turn of events, a commercial aircraft was reported to have been carrying about 80 tons of gloves, masks, and other PPE from Shanghai that has recently touched down in New York! This is one of the first 22 scheduled flights which the White House officials say will bring the much-needed goods.

According to Lizzie Litzow, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the plane has just delivered an amount of 130,000 N95 masks as well as 1.8 million face masks and gowns, 10 million gloves, and about thousands of thermometers to be distributed around New York, New Jersey, and also Connecticut.

Ms. Litzow also announced that there would be flights arriving in Chicago this coming Monday and Ohio on Tuesday, Mar. 31, bringing the supplies to be distributed. The Department of Health and Human Services has also estimated that there will be a needed 3.5 billion masks should the pandemic last a year in the United States.

Read Also: COVID-19 Victims Could Be Positive Even Without Experiencing Fever-Study

According to the acting chairman of greater China for APCO Worldwide James McGregor, China has abundant protective equipment now, and the rest of the world has a huge shortage," due to the newly built factories which are churning out supplies even despite China's own epidemic declines.

Jack Ma's contribution

The co-founder of Alibaba and popular Chinese billionaire Jack Ma is giving one million masks, as well as 500,000 test kits to the U.S. Even The Committee of 100 which is a leadership organization of Americans who come from China has been able to raise $1 million in order to buy medical supplies and protective gear coming from around the world.

According to the chairman of the Himalaya Capital Management by the name of Li Lu, "China has the capacity now, and the U.S. has a huge need," continuing his statement with "We've got to fight together."

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Just before Christmas of 1928, a divorced man named Ray Farrar stopped by his former wifes Idaho home to drop off presents for the children. Shortly thereafter, he began showing symptoms of smallpox. Health authorities responded by requiring him to remain in the house for 15 days, together with his children and his ex-wife, identified in the newspapers only as Mrs. John Hall. And Mr. Hall  the new husband  was not allowed to enter.

This is the kind of story that used to make news during the epidemics of influenza and smallpox that ravaged the U.S. during the first half of the 20th century. Rather than reporting on the horrors, editors of the day chose to search for the human-interest angle, digging up cases that raised legal issues yet might be a fun read for a frightened public. I dont mean in any way to downplay the serious threat posed by the novel coronavirus when I suggest that adding a few such tales to the contemporary news budget might usefully leaven the gloom-and-doom thats dominated reporting.

The Farrar story, for instance, made headlines all over the country. The Philadelphia Inquirer and Boston Globe, among others, slapped it on the front page. And speaking of the Globe, in 1932, the paper reported with evident delight on the inability of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to enforce quarantine orders against male members of an obscure religious sect in Saskatchewan. Thats a serious subject; opposition could doom efforts to control an outbreak.

Yet the editors managed to find the lighter side, even as they drove home the point. The officers, wrote the paper, were met by a barrier of female members  the Globe called them amazons and a petticoat army  and were unable to force their way through. When the Mounties charged, they were beaten back, and evidently lost equipment and even hats. But a few days later the orders were successfully enforced. As to the women, they were arrested and, after pleading guilty to obstructing the police, were lectured by the judge and sent on their way.

Story continues

Just as today, the newspapers found quarantine breakers to write about; just as today, some were stupid and some were selfish and most were both. In 1935, a Wisconsin teenager went to the beach and swam, not once but twice, in violation of an order that he remain at home for five weeks. Somehow other swimmers discovered that he was among them. Panic ensued. (Bathers Flee, a New York paper headlined with evident glee.) Asked for an explanation, the boy shrugged: It was too hot to stay indoors. But, again, the lighthearted story ended on a somber note of warning. The teenager was confined to an isolation hospital and his parents faced criminal charges for letting him out of the house.

And, just like today, there was confusion about who was eligible for what  although, to be sure, the concern of the newspapers reflected the dreadful racial norms of the time. In 1921, for instance, a mother of two boys suffering from smallpox developed the disease and turned herself in at the quarantine hospital, just as she was supposed to do. But for reasons that are unclear, the doctors turned her away. The Baltimore Sun found the case puzzling because the woman was white  yes, thats what the paper reported  and, just days earlier, a white man whose smallpox stemmed from the same school trip as the womans was admitted. Had she been a black woman, perhaps the Sun would have been less surprised at how she was treated.

Then there was the 1918 influenza pandemic. A Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, paper reported a decline in arrests after the quarantine closed the saloons. Why? Because old offenders are sober. At about the same time in Akron, Ohio, warrants were issued for members of a brass band that had put on an impromptu concert in a city park, as well as for what a local paper called city dads and newspaper men who had illegally attended. That the intent had apparently been to lift the citys spirits was beside the point.

Finally, in another parallel with our day, consider the plight of the Aorangi, an Australian steamer (today wed say cruise ship) that at the time of her maiden voyage in 1925 was the largest and fastest in the world. Five years later, the ship, along with passengers and crew, would be quarantined in Australia for 15 days after an outbreak of smallpox. Those forced to remain on board included the celebrity Joe Kirkwood Sr., Australias first truly great golfer. (The papers do not say how many passengers were quarantined, but the ship could carry up to 970.)

Not even our criticisms are new. A college professor who was on board the Aorangi complained to reporters that despite the advanced civilisation of the day, health authorities seemed ill-prepared to handle an entire ship full of passengers and crew who required screening.

Plus ca change.

Oh, and what happened to Mrs. John Hall of Idaho, the former wife of Ray Farrar, required to allow him to remain in the house? Her husband appealed the health departments order to the city council. He lost. The quarantine remained in effect.

The editors of the day published these stories hoping to entertain their readers while at the same time making the point that the way to protect others was to follow the rules. We live, alas, in an era of less subtle news judgment, but the principle remains the same: The more we do what were supposed to, the safer the country will be.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Stephen L. Carter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a professor of law at Yale University and was a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. His novels include The Emperor of Ocean Park, and his latest nonfiction book is Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Amazon employees at a New York facility are planning to walkout on Monday amid concerns about safety as the coronavirus spreads.

As many as seven workers have tested positive for the coronavirus at the Staten Island, New York, facility.

'The plan is to cease all operations until the building is closed and sanitized,' Christian Smalls, an assistant manager leading the strike, told CNN.

'We're not asking for much. We're asking the building to be closed and sanitized, and for us to be paid.'

Amazon employees at the company's facility in Staten Island, New York, plan to walk off the job on Monday afternoon (file photo)

The workers allege the online retail giant has mishandled its response to the pandemic and want the entire facility to be disinfected and sanitized

'We're not returning to work until they close the building down,' says said to USA Today.

Between 50 and 200 employees could be involved in the walk out although around 5,000 workers work at the warehouse over the course of a week.

'They know at lunch time, when they clock out, do not return.'

Amazon has acknowledged that a worker at the Staten Island warehouse has diagnosed with the virus and is 'supporting the individual who is recovering.'

The workers say the online giant are putting their health and safety at risk (file photo)

The company has said that those who were close to the worker have been asked to self-quarantine for two weeks and will still be paid.

The Amazon employees are not the first to threaten a strike as the coronavirus spreads.

Workers at Instacart have also said they will strike on Monday after asking for additional compensation and safety precautions.

There are more than 142,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S.
An occupant of a Range Rover is dead after the SUV crashed into a column at Princes Gate, caught on fire and exploded.

The incident took place just before 2 p.m. on Monday just outside Exhibition Place. After firefighters had put out the blaze, Toronto paramedics attended the area and a victim was pronounced dead on scene.

Paramedics say they dont have information on the gender or age of the victim.

There were no skid marks and the speed on impact was estimated to be 160 km/h.
The declaration of a state of emergency, whatever the circumstances, is a very serious undertaking for any country and its citizens even if that country is the epitome of democracy and even worse so in non-democratic dispensations such as that obtaining in this the Kingdom of Eswatini and, therefore, is one decision that ought to be taken with circumspection because it may be ill-conceived.

In functional democracies, while this power to declare a state of emergency is resident in and the prerogative of the head of state, who ordinarily is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, there are inbuilt safeguards to ensure that this is not done recklessly on the altar of political expediency to further the cause of an individual, a group or section of society. These safeguards further ensure that a state of emergency is by no means a turnkey for resolving socio-political and economic challenges unless these have the likelihood and potential of causing internal strife or trigger a civil war. They are also to ensure that no government has a blank cheque to declare a state of emergency at any time of its choosing.

Role

In truly democratic countries the citizenry, through civic bodies and organisations, play a pivotal role in not only policing the States exercise of authority that it is entrusted with by the people but ensuring and enforcing a culture of human rights. Such activism is usually built on and backed by strong institutions, such as an independent Legislature and Judiciary respectively, which is a far cry from what is obtaining in Eswatini where every institution is subordinated to the Executive arm of government whose power is not derived from the people.

Rule

Notwithstanding, there also are, on the domestic front, inbuilt safeguards provided by the Constitution - irrespective that the so-called supreme law is not exactly supreme in practice - that ought to be fulfilled for a state of emergency to be effective in law  notwithstanding the obtaining permanent rule of law crisis. In Section 36 (Declaration of emergency) under Chapter III  Protection and Promotion of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms  of the Constitution, subsection (2) in part states  that proclamation (declaring a state of emergency) shall not be effective in law unless 

(a) Swaziland is at war or circumstances have arisen making imminent a state of war between Swaziland and a foreign State;

(b) There is in Swaziland a natural disaster or imminent threat of a natural disaster; or

(c) There is action taken or immediately threatened by a person or body of persons of such a nature or on so extensive a scale as to be likely to endanger the public safety or to deprive the community or a significant part of that community of suppliers or services essential to the life of the community.

Subsections (3) and (4) are also germane in checkmating possible abuses of the state of emergency provisions and subsection (3) states; Copies of the gazette containing the proclamation of a state of emergency shall as soon as practicable and at any rate not later than seven days from date of publication of that proclamation be laid before Parliament by the prime minister.

Subsection (4) states; A declaration under subsection (1) if not sooner revoked, shall cease to have effect 

(a) in the case of a declaration made when Parliament is sitting or has been summoned to meet within three days, at the expiration of a period of seven days beginning with the date of publication of the declaration;

(b) in any other case, at the expiration of a period of 21 days beginning with the date of publication of the declaration, unless, before the expiration of that period, the declaration is approved by a resolution passed by a two-thirds majority at a joint sitting of all the members of Senate and the House.

As I see it, in a non-democracy the unfettered powers that are concomitant with a state of emergency could be abused to deal with political opponents and or in achieving specific objectives of an individual, a group or section of community to the detriment of the larger society. That is why in a country such as Eswatini the declaration of a state of emergency, however, desirous and necessary it may be, has to be met with much apprehension and trepidation by the populace. For not so long ago government, notwithstanding the Bill of Rights enshrined in the Constitution, unleashed its security apparatus in pre-dawn raids on homes of political party leaders under the umbrella of the Political Party Assembly (PPA) for leading public protestations over governments profligate spending in the face of endemic poverty.

That the complaisant army gets to police the civilian population alongside the normal police during a state of emergency does add to the discomfort irrespective that ordinarily emaSwati have never enjoyed freedom and liberties like in normal and democratic countries. That the militarys primary role, which is probably engraved in every soldiers psyche, is to ensure the permanency of and to shore up a Byzantine class-based political hegemony meant to keep emaSwati in perpetual subservience compounds the situation. This state of affairs, coupled to the permanent rule of law crisis, validates the perception that the kingdom has been in a state of emergency since the ouster of the Westminster-styled independence Constitution in 1973. We can only pray and hope that we shall emerge from the COVID-19 coronavirus to the normal abnormality that is distinctively Eswatini.
Militants have killed 28 members of the Afghan security forces, police officials and authorities said on March 30, as the government postponed a release of Taliban prisoners.

Militants stormed the compound of a top police official in the northeastern province of Takhar on March 29, killing 13 police officers and wounding the senior official, a spokesman for the force said.

In the southern province of Zabul, Taliban fighters attacked government security outposts, killing at least 11 soldiers, also on March 29, police said.

Attacks on government security posts in the southern province of Helmand and northern province of Baghlan killed four members of the security forces, officials said.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan's National Security Council said the government will not carry out a planned release of 100 Taliban prisoners on March 31.

The Taliban and the United States reached a deal last month allowing the Americans and their allies to withdraw their forces in exchange for Taliban promises on preventing terrorism.

The Taliban eventually accepted also to hold talks with the U.S-backed government, one of the conditions being the gradual release of militants held by Afghan security forces.

There is no prisoner release happening tomorrow, National Security Council spokesperson Javid Faisal tweeted on March 29.

According to Faisal, during a video conference on March 29 -- the third between the two sides -- the Taliban had agreed to send a delegation to Kabul to conduct further discussions with government officials.

The Taliban team was supposed to arrive at Bagram prison to verify the militants' prisoners, but its arrival was delayed due to technical issues, according to Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

With reporting by Reuters, dpa, and tolonews.com
JOHNSTON  Gov. Kim Reynolds said Monday Iowa continues to see more positive test results and deaths associated with the novel coronavirus and shell decide later this week whether to extend her emergency order closing schools, businesses and other outlets until the new April 30 federal target.

The reality is the end is not yet in sight, Reynolds told a news conference, where she noted that at least six Iowans have died so far from the COVID-19 pandemic, including the latest addition of two elderly adults in Linn and Washington counties.

This is a marathon, not a sprint, she said.

While Monday marked the highest single-day jump in positive test results of 88, Reynolds and officials with the Iowa Department of Public Health said part of the increase is due to more testing, and reflect expectations that Iowas first peak is at least two to three weeks away.

For now, we must adjust to a new normal, one that is uncomfortable, its inconvenient and its uncertain and this is not an easy time, the governor said. She added that while resolves are being tested like never before, said noted that Iowans are at their best when times are tough.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump extended the federal social-distancing guidelines to April 30. The 15-day guidelines were set to expire Monday in hopes that the nation could begin to return to normal.

Similar to the White Houses guidance, Reynolds has issued an emergency order advising Iowans to avoid groups of more than 10 and urging people to stay home when possible.

Reynolds, who participated Monday in a conference call with Vice President Mike Pence and other U.S. governors, said the White House expects to issue more guidance for states to use in dealing with the pandemic later this week, and she would wait to decide whether anything should change in Iowas approach.

This isnt going to be over in two weeks, she cautioned. Public health officials said efforts to flatten the curve of the virus spread are multipronged. With up to 1,237 test kits now available at the State Hygienic lab, the prospects are likely that the number of cases will continue to rise and spread to all 99 counties.

The governor said Iowa still has a significant shortage of personal protective equipment, but she praised inspiring businesses for stepping up to produce and donate needed items like masks, face shields, gowns and gloves.

Iowa has pending orders for more than 2 million surgical/procedural masks, 500,000-plus N95 masks, 500,000-plus face shields and 250,000 gowns, Reynolds said. She noted there have been 153 deliveries by Iowa National Guard soldiers and others to all Iowa counties.

She also told Mondays news conference the state will receive at least 15 new mobile testing machines from Abbott Laboratories that can process tests in five minutes. Hospitals and some nursing homes may possibly be places where the machines are deployed.

As the fourth week started since Iowa reported its first positive COVID-19 case, the governor said Health Department officials have confirmed a COVID-19 outbreak in long-term care facility in Cedar Rapids  a designation she indicated that occurs when three or more residents in facility have tested positive for the virus. She said 21 of Linn Countys 71 positive cases were directly related to the outbreak.

Health officials are working closely with the residents who are sick and are monitoring other residents, she said.

At least six Iowans have died so far as a result of the virus. The two Iowans with COVID-19 who died Sunday night were an adult over 80 of Linn County and another adult over 80 from Washington County.

The Health Department also said Monday there are 88 more positive cases of Iowans with COVID-19, for a total of 424. There have been a total of 6,162 negative tests to date, including 1,149 Monday, which includes testing reported by the State Hygienic Lab and other labs.

To date, positive cases have been confirmed in 56 of Iowas 99 counties, with Linn County now rising to having the most cases at 71, followed by Johnson County with 70 and Polk County with 61.

Currently, 51 Iowans are hospitalized with coronavirus-related illnesses or symptoms, while another 23 have been discharged and recovered. Another 203 Iowans who tested positive have not required hospital treatment.

A total of 227 women and 197 men have tested positive, with the 41-60 age range now the highest with 150 cases, followed by Iowans in the 61 to 80 range with 132 cases, younger Iowans in the 18-40 range with 113 positive results, another 24 over the age of 80 and five below the age of 18, according to state data.

State officials list the locations and age ranges of the latest 88 individuals to test positive as:

 Audubon County, one older adult (61-80 years);

 Benton County, one middle-aged adult (41-60 years), one older adult (61-80 years), one elderly adult (81+);

 Cedar County, one older adult (61-80 years);

 Cerro Gordo County, one middle-aged adult (41-60 years);

 Clinton County, one middle-aged adult (41-60 years);

 Crawford County, one older adult (61-80 years);

 Dallas County, three adults (18-40 years), one middle-aged adult (41-60 years);

 Dubuque County, three middle-aged adults (41-60 years), two older adults (61-80 years);

 Guthrie County, one middle-aged adult (41-60 years);

 Iowa County, one older adult (61-80 years);

 Jackson County, one adult (18-40 years);

 Jasper County, one elderly adult (81+);

 Johnson County, two middle-aged adults (41-60 years), three older adults (61-80 years);

 Jones County, one adult (18-40 years);

 Linn County, nine adults (18-40 years), eight middle-aged adults (41-60 years), six older adults (61-80 years), six elderly adults (81+);

 Monona County, one child (up to 17 years), one adult (18-40 years), one older adult (61-80 years);

 Muscatine County, one middle-aged adult (41-60 years), two older adults (61-80 years);

 Polk County, two children (up to 17 years), two adults (18-40 years), six middle-aged adults (41-60 years), one older adult (61-80 years);

 Scott County, one adult (18-40 years), two middle-aged adults (41-60 years), three older adults (61-80 years);

 Shelby County, one adult (18-40 years), one older adult (61-80 years);

 Tama County, one adult (18-40 years);

 Van Buren County, one older adult (61-80 years);

 And Washington County, one adult (18-40 years), three middle-aged adults (41-60 years), one older adult (61-80 years).

On March 17, Reynolds declared a statewide public health disaster emergency that included limiting gatherings to 10 people and closing bars, restaurants, casinos and other businesses.

The order was expanded March 22 to include salons, medical spas, barbershops and many other businesses.

Last week, Reynolds extended the restrictions by one week, to April 7, and expanded the list of retail business closures.

Also, the governors emergency order called for suspending elective and non-essential medical and dental procedures and ordering health care facilities and nursing homes to engage in advanced screenings.

The order is slated to expire April 16 unless Reynolds changes it.

Everybody is feeling the pain of what were doing, Reynolds said.

Some local officials around Iowa have been asking her to issue a statewide stay at home order since they dont have the authority so on their own, but the governor has resisted, saying data does not indicate that is appropriate.

She said she worried that such action would hurt Iowas supply chain and raise anxiety for residents already voluntarily following guidelines.

If you keep asking people to do more and more and more and were not basing it on data, then at some point they really are not going to take you serious, the governor said.
A High Court judge has refused to approve a proposed personal insolvency arrangements for a couple aimed at allowing their family remain in a five bedroom detached home, valued at 1m in 2018, in a "gated" community.

Allen and Elizabeth Nuzum had argued, although their home's 2018 value exceeded their debt to Promontoria Aran Ltd by 290,000, that was not enough for a suitable alternative property for themselves, their four young children and an au pair. The house is in Krisbenis Manor, Williamstown Stud, Clonee, Co Meath.

In a judgment on Monday, Mr Justice Denis McDonald upheld arguments by Promontoria, the couple's only creditor, the costs of enabling them stay in their home, on which the debt is secured, were "excessive and disproportionately large".

The costs were not justified when the significant positive equity in their home would give them sufficient funds to acquire a "more modest replacement home", he said.

He was also concerned the proposed PIAs, involving monthly repayments of some 3,376 over 30 years until the couple are in their late seventies, carried a "very real risk" of their future insolvency.

It was hard to see how they could maintain repayments and meet any exceptional expense that would almost inevitably arise and there was insufficient information about a business carried on by them to explain how they will be able to continue that into their late seventies, he added.

He concluded the retention of the family home was not in the debtors interest and nor was the public interest served by confirming the PIAs. They would be better off, in terms of resolving their indebtedness, selling their home and acquiring a smaller one elsewhere, he said.

While it was unlikely they could get a five bed house in Dublin for some 300,000, the average asking price for a house in north Dublin is some 312,000 and he did not accept this was "inherently unsuitable" for them.

"There are a great number of families of two parents with four children living in three bedroomed houses throughout the State."

It might be "painful" to "downsize" but it was better than staying in a house which, on the evidence, was "plainly beyond" their means.

The PIAs would also see them repay a total of about 1.2m over 30 years, an increase of some 69 per cent on their existing liability, he noted.

This was disproportionate especially when there was a realistic prospect a new family home "on a more modest scale" could be acquired on a debt free basis.

The PIAs did not meet the requirements of the relevant provisions of section 115A of the Personal Insolvency Acts because they failed to show the costs of enabling these debtors to remain in their principal private residence were not disproportionately large, he concluded.

He had to decide the case on foot of evidence about property values given before the Covid-19 outbreak and it is impossible to know, at this point, whether the pandemic may significantly affect property values, he added.

Earlier in his judgment, he said this was an unusual case for reasons including the family home was worth significantly more than the 710,625 debt owed to the objecting creditor, Promontoria, and secured on their home.

It was also unusual because the 616,000 loan facility at issue, made by Ulster Bank Ireland Ltd in 2009 and later acquired by the fund, was said to be a bridging facility only but it had continued for some years.

There was no direct evidence explaining how a facility which was repayable on December 31st 2009 was left in place thereafter, he said.

When the PIAs were proposed in 2018, the couple's children were aged between 5 and 14, he noted.

Mrs Nuzum said in an affidavit she had considered trading down, social housing, mortgage to rent and other options with her personal insolvency practitioner, Eugene McDarby, but none of those options were appropriate because the equity left over would not accommodate their family and the au pair, who she said was necessary so she (Mrs Nuzum) could go out to work. She had been unable to source a suitable alternative property in the vicinity of the children's schools and clubs, she added.
A Chinese national, who forced employees to manufacture masks during the 21-day national lockdown in South Africa due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has been arrested.

Ming Lai He, the owner of Chen Lu factory in Durban, appeared in court on Monday after he was arrested at his factory a day earlier.

Lai He was granted 200,000 Rand bail and will appear in court again on June 20, 2020.

Inspectors from the KZN Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs' Consumer Protection Unit raided the factory after receiving information that Lai He was allegedly forcing workers to manufacture masks in contravention to his licence conditions.

Under the regulations governing the 21-day lockdown, now in its fourth day, only essential goods and services can continue to operate.

Lai He's factory is reportedly licensed to manufacture fragrances, which are not considered to be essential goods.

Lai He faces charges of forcing employees to work overtime and sleep on the factory premises to produce the masks, of which there is a national shortage due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Accordiong to the lockdown announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa last week, only employees of companies producing essential goods may go to work, while all others must self-isolate at home.

A statement issued by the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Durban said that Lai He's company had been set up specifically to help the local community fight the virus.

"The company, which has provided over 200 jobs in its other businesses across the province and South Africa, commits itself to donating all facial masks to be manufactured in the factory during the lockdown period and none would be used for sale," the statement said.

But Natasha Kara, the spokesperson of the National Prosecuting Authority in KwaZulu-Natal province, where the factory is based, confirmed that Lai He is facing three charges.

"He faces charges of forced labour failure to maintain a safe working environment and failing to lockdown a non-essential business, as his business was listed as a fragrance company," Kara said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two members of the U.S. Congress have condemned new legislation in Hungary giving right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban sweeping powers under the country's state of emergency to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.



Representative Eliot Engel (Democrat-New York), chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Senator Jim Risch (Republican-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said it was particularly disturbing that a NATO ally and EU member would implement what Engel called a "blatant power grab" that allows Orban "to rule by decree like a dictator."



Referring to new powers, the Hungarian prime minister received amid an indefinite state of emergency, Engel added in a statement on March 30 that it was "particularly egregious that...Orban attempts to capitalize on the suffering of his own citizens for personal gain."



"Such a serious affront to democracy anywhere is outrageous, and particularly within a NATO ally and EU member," he said. "I call on Prime Minister Orban to abandon this effort and focus on counter-COVID measures that actually prioritize keeping the Hungarian people safe."



Both Engel and Risch noted that the legislation has no so-called "sunset clause" specifying a date when Orbans additional powers would expire.

Risch said emergencies should never be used as an excuse to weaken democratic institutions and added that the Central European country should carefully consider its actions in this crisis and maintain the democratic core we all share.



Engel and Risch join a chorus of criticism of the legislation warning that the bill's open-ended powers to rule by decree could be a major setback to democratic gains in the former communist country.



One expert on international law called it a "constitutional lockdown" on Hungary and its 10 million citizens and suggested that the avenues to help from the European Union were limited.



Orban's nationalist-populist Fidesz party has dominated Hungarian politics for a decade and holds a two-thirds majority in the current legislature.

'Constitutional Lockdown'



The bill, passed on March 30 with 137 votes in favor and 53 votes against, allows the government to extend indefinitely the state of emergency declared on March 11 and its associated powers of rule by decree, doing away with the current requirement for lawmakers to approve any extension.



"My biggest problem is that this is a potential constitutional lockdown, that we are going to be stuck because of this structure in which the government may end the state of emergency but the legal effects adopted during the state of emergency are going to stay in effect as long as the parliament does not end them -- and the parliament is under no legal obligation to end them anyway," Tamas Lattmann, an international lawyer specializing in extraordinary legal regimes who teaches at the University of New York in Prague, told RFE/RL after the March 30 vote.



He said Hungarian law already gave the government broad powers under the state of emergency that don't conflict with the constitution, including allowing it to set aside existing legislation.



On March 29, four Hungarian civil society organizations, including the Helsinki Committee rights group, called on the government to introduce a sunset clause.



Otherwise, Orban will "have a completely unrestricted mandate for the government...the current draft...basically gives an open-ended carte-blanche mandate, said Marta Pardavi, co-chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.



If the Fidesz-dominated parliament never decided to curb Orban's powers, Lattmann warned, "even the Constitutional Court cannot do anything, because the Constitutional Court cannot analyze something which is not being done by the parliament."



"So this is a constitutional stalemate in the end, and it's extremely dangerous," said Lattmann, who was an associate professor at the National University of Public Service in Budapest for nearly two decades.



Since 2010, the 56-year-old Orban has consolidated his power by diminishing the independence of Hungarys courts and media.



He has also restricted the activities of nongovernmental organizations, among other actions for which the country has been criticized at home and in Brussels.



Defenders of the bill have said the powers are necessary to keep the country safe from the mounting toll of the COVID-19 epidemic, which has infected more than 780,000 people worldwide and 447 people in Hungary. Fifteen people in Hungary had been killed by the coronavirus as of March 30, according to data published by Johns Hopkins University.



"The extraordinary measures are related to the pandemic, to its prevention, its elimination, and the damaging economic consequences," AP quoted Csaba Domotor, a deputy minister in Orban's cabinet office, as saying.



"A time limit cannot be declared in this situation because there is no one...who can say how many months of struggle we have to prepare for."

'Fake News' Provision



Among the laws other provisions is allowing a criminal punishment of up to five years for anyone spreading "fake news" about the coronavirus pandemic.



Justice Minister Judit Varga has sought to quell fears about the unprecedented powers the legislation extends to Orban, telling journalists on March 27 that critics opposing the bill were "fighting imaginary demons and not dealing with reality."



Members of the European Parliament in Brussels have called for an inquiry by the European Commission.



Viktor Orban must not be given a carte blanche to further empower himself and strip away Hungarian citizens democratic rights under the auspices of tackling the coronavirus, Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, a French member of the European Parliament told The Guardian daily before the vote.



But Lattmann warned that any EU route to try to thwart what some have described as a "power grab" by Orban under the current situation could prove a dead end.



"The question is really problematic because the European Commission may practice and exercise its inquiry and control functions in questions which are related to EU competencies or the application of EU law," Lattmann said. "And the Hungarian government is going to surely argue that the coronavirus situation, pandemic situation, is not something that the European Union would have competence [in]."

With reporting by AFP, dpa, and The Guardian
A man fleeing police ran across a freeway and jumped off an overpass following a short pursuit Monday near downtown Houston.

Houston police tactical officers tried to pull the man over, knowing he had several outstanding felony warrants, officers on scene said. He allegedly refused to stop and led officers on a short pursuit along the Gulf Freeway, police said.
By PTI

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank on Monday approved a USD 2 million grant to boost Pakistan's capacity to respond to the coronavirus pandemic as the number of confirmed cases rose sharply in the past two days in the country, according to a media report.

The number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan reached 1,664 while the death toll stood at 21, health officials said on Monday, underlining that local transmission of the deadly COVID-19 is increasing.

"The ADB recognises the extraordinary burden of this pandemic on Pakistan and is committed to supporting Pakistan in the fight to control COVID-19," said ADB Country Director for Pakistan Xiaohong Yang.

The Express Tribune reported that the grant, financed from the Asia Pacific Disaster Response Fund, will help fund the immediate purchase of emergency medical supplies, personal protective equipment, diagnostic and laboratory supplies, and other equipment.

This grant will help strengthen COVID-19 detection, improve infection prevention and control, and boost Pakistan's capacity to respond to the pandemic, the top ADB official said.

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The ADB's assistance echoes the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan for COVID-19 and Pakistan's National Action Plan for Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), which includes preventive measures, containment efforts, and treatment of infected persons, the paper said.

Given the urgency of the required support, the ADB will use the most flexible and expeditious approaches to facilitate procurement of the required medical supplies and equipment.

Last week, Pakistan decided to seek USD 3.7 billion additional financing from three multilateral creditors, including a loan of USD 1.4 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to cope with the challenges being posed by the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Earlier, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank committed to providing USD 588 million to Pakistan for its emergency response to fight the coronavirus and to address the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic.
Shanghai donates to Polish sister city

By:Zheng Qian | From:english.eastday.com | 2020-03-30 10:54

As cases of COVID-19 escalate around the globe, China, coming out of the heavy haze of the virus threat, is lifting its global companions. A ceremony for delivering a batch of medical supplies to Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland, Shanghais sister city, was held in Shanghai on March 25.

Donated by the Chinese-Polish Joint Stock Shipping Company, the supplies are scheduled to be carried on a charter flight arranged by the Polish government and to be distributed to front-line workers including medical care providers, law enforcement, fire prevention and border inspection departments.

The ceremony was joined by representatives from both the Chinese and Polish sides of the company, the Consulate General of Poland in Shanghai and the Foreign Affairs Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government.





(Representatives of Chinese and Polish sides pose in front of the medical supplies at the ceremony. The second from left is Marek Ciesielczuk, Consul General of Poland in Shanghai.)





On the boxes is written a common proverb in Chinese and Polish -- A friend in need is a friend indeed -- as well as a Polish verse Umiej byc przyjacielem, znajdziesz przyjaciela, which means feeling for each other will make for a lasting friendship.

As the sentences state, China has a good relationship with Poland and this year marks the 35th anniversary of the sister city relationship between Shanghai and Pomeranian Voivodeship. The Chinese-Polish Joint Stock Shipping Company, established in 1951 as the first joint venture of the Peoples Republic of China, has not only made huge contributions to both countries economies through its Shanghai headquarters and Pomeranian Voivodeship branch, but also acts as a bridge for their friendly exchanges.

More than one month ago when the Chinese were strenuously combating the coronavirus, the Polish branch of the company sent its goodwill to its Chinese part, and purchased urgently needed medical masks through various ways in Poland for the Chinese. Due to the cancellation of international express delivery, in order to bring the protective gear to China in time, a staff member from the Polish side brought it on board a flight to Shanghai. Lukasz Greinke, chairman of the board of directors of Polands Port of Gdansk Authority (PGA) especially sent his sympathy and support to his Chinese colleagues.

The donation to Poland is therefore China repaying this favour. Hopefully, the friendship between the Chinese and Polish sides will be strengthened since they have helped each other when facing up to the disease.
A person who was staying at the Salvation Armys mens shelter in Hamilton has tested positive for COVID-19, raising the spectre of the virus spreading through the citys vulnerable homeless population.

He has been taken from the Booth Centre shelter on York Boulevard to Bennetto Community Centre, which the city has set up in the North End as an isolation space for homeless people who test positive for coronavirus, the agency said Monday.

The Salvation Army continues to stand by and serve our communities to the best of our ability and we are taking a variety of measures at the Booth Centre to limit exposure to COVID-19, the agency said in an emailed statement.

We will continue to follow the local health authorities recommended approach and guidance for prevention and protection to ensure the comfort and safety of our clients and staff.

Keeping Six, a local organization that looks out for homeless people and drug users, urged decisive action to prevent the potentially deadly virus from infecting others.

The harm-reduction group has advocated that homeless people be moved into hotel rooms to protect them from the potentially deadly virus, said member Lisa Nussey.

And, in fact, it now becomes more urgent that people should be moved into conditions that will allow them to socially distance and isolate. And that is not shelters; it is hotels.

A special vehicle from DARTS  a Hamilton charity providing transit to those with disabilities  as well as trained, equipped drivers have been dedicated to transporting people to the centre. As of Sunday, Hamilton had 70 COVID-19 cases overall.

The reality is that creating physical distance and employing infections prevention strategies inside an emergency shelter is very challenging, but we are certainly doing our very best, said Katherine Kalinowski, Good Shepherds chief operating officer.

Depending on the shelter, cots can be placed close together in dormitories. Occupants share washrooms and eat in cafeteria-like settings and spend time in communal spaces.

The city has a contract for 40 hotel rooms and roughly 400 more available during the coronavirus crisis, Paul Johnson, director of the citys emergency response centre, said in a previous interview. Johnson didnt specify for what purpose each of those rooms would be used.

Putting up all shelter users in hotels would be an ideal situation that demanded an endless supply of rooms, Kalinowski said, adding that the city and agencies are deciding how to prioritize or stream people into rooms so that were creating the highest degree of infection prevention possible.

That is exactly what were looking at right now, she added. Who is best placed where.

Shelters have screening in place to help detect COVID-19 positive cases; if necessary, Shelter Health Network professionals do further assessment, Kalinowski said.

Bagged lunches are being offered in some cases instead of sit-down meals; in the latter instance, groups are kept small or to people eating separately.

The Salvation Army is taking a variety of measures to limit exposure to the coronavirus. The Salvation Army continues to stand by and serve our communities to the best of our ability, the agency said.

The Salvation Army said it continues to practise physical distancing of two metres; using gowns, gloves, masks and goggles when staff are in close contact with clients; screening clients when they enter the Booth Centre; and diligent handwashing and/or hand sanitizer practices.

Nussey said the city needs to take action that is outside of the box as the virus crisis continues to unfold.

She noted how difficult it will be to trace the contacts of shelter users who test positive for COVID-19. Even if such a list could be compiled, its hard to track down people who dont have addresses or phones.

Among 18 new cases of COVID-19 in Hamilton announced Sunday is a Good Shepherd employee.

Im happy to report that person is doing very well and were anticipating their return to work, Kalinowski said, but declined to share further details.
Some local officials see value in both numbers. In 2019, officials in the District of Columbia cited the HUD count when they announced that the number of families experiencing homelessness was down almost 12% from the previous year and had decreased by more than 45% from 2016 to 2019. The Education Department data, however, showed that 7,445 students were homeless in the 2017-18 school year, an increase of nearly 19% over the same period two years earlier.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 17:55:29|Editor: huaxia

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KUWAIT CITY, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait reported 11 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 266, the Health Ministry announced on Monday.

The two cases are a Kuwaiti citizen who returned from Britain and a resident who returned from Saudi Arabia, said the ministry's spokesman Abdullah Al-Sanad at a daily news briefing.

Eight cases have history of contact with infected patients, he said, adding that there is one case under investigation.

In addition, 194 patients are still receiving treatment, while 13 others are in ICU, including three in critical condition, he noted.

Meanwhile, Kuwaiti Minister of Health Bassel Al-Sabah announced Monday the recovery of five more people from the coronavirus, raising the country's total recoveries to 72.

The Kuwaiti government has decided to impose a nationwide curfew to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

On March 13, Kuwait suspended all commercial flights. The government also decided to close stores, malls and barbershops.
A 28-year-old Weymouth man was seriously injured in an early morning collision Monday with a Massachusetts State Police cruiser in Braintree, authorities said.

A 45-year-old trooper was driving a 2015 Ford Interceptor cruiser shortly after 3:30 a.m. when he collided with a 2001 Nissan Maxima in the southbound lanes of Route 3 near Exit 17, state police said in a statement.

The operator of the Maxima had hit a guardrail earlier and stopped in the left lane of the highway, according to state police. At some point thereafter, the cruiser struck the Maxima."

The driver of the Maxima remains hospitalized at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth. The trooper, who is assigned to Troop H, was treated for minor injures at the same hospital and later released, the statement said.

Rainfall and darkness are being investigated as factors that may have hindered visibility at the time of the crash, authorities said.

The dark color of the Maxima and the lack of active or functioning lights in the car after the first collision are also being investigated as factors, according to state police.
New Delhi: Noida District Magistrate BN Singh on Monday (March 30) was transferred following a sudden order issued by the state government, which also ordered a departmental probe against him for his reported failure to control the situation amid the outbreak of coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

Informing about the development, Chief Secretary RK Tiwari stated that the DM has been transferred with immediate effect, and a departmental probe has also been ordered against him by Alok Tandon. Tiwari said that in the review meeting with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the DM was found to have failed in dispensing his duty efficiently.

Notably, a new DM Suhas LY will take over the charge of Gautam Buddh Nagar.



Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath earlier held a meeting with the officials of Gautam Buddh Nagar over the COVID-19 situation. The Chief Minister reprimanded the Noida DM for failing to control the situation amid the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic. The DM had expressed his unwillingness to continue to work in the district in front of the CM Adityanath. He also sought leave of three months.

The Chief Minister today visited Noida to take cognisance of the plight of the migrant workers returning from Delhi and reviewed the ongoing lockdown situation.

Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister transferred Rs 611 crores directly into the bank accounts of over 27.5 lakh workers of the state enrolled under the MNREGA scheme. This comes in the backdrop of 21-day nationwide lockdown due to coronavirus outbreak.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said: "I am happy that at a time when the world is affected by the coronavirus epidemic, the Village Development department and State Bank of India are crediting 611 crores to the account of over 27 lakh workers."

The state has so far reported 88 cases, including 14 cured. "Maximum 36 cases have been reported in Gautam Budh Nagar following by Meerut (13). Thus, 50 per cent cases reported in two clusters where containment exercise is underway, UP's Principal Health Secretary AM Prasad told ANI.

Notably, the number of COVID-19 cases climbed to 1,071 in India on Monday, including 29 deaths, according to the Union Health Ministry.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 18:02:05|Editor: Wang Yamei

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JAKARTA, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Monday called for stricter rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19 across the country after receiving reports of workers starting the migration for Idul Fitri celebration early.

"For the safety of all, I ask for stricter steps to prevent the movement of people to regions," he said at the opening of a cabinet meeting on Monday.

Families residing in Jakarta started to pack their bags and return to their home towns amid the mass exodus.

The president said many informal workers in Jakarta, which has most number of the COVID-19 cases, have traveled to the provinces of West Java, Central Java, East Java and Yogyakarta after the capital city announced its emergency status on March 20.

Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous nation, with Jakarta as its capital city suffering the most number of deaths in the country totaling 74, followed by 20 of West Java.

Widodo called on local administrations to apply health protocols to ensure that people who have traveled to their hometowns are in good health conditions.

The government is drafting a regulation to stipulate the procedures for imposing regional quarantines as confirmed cases of the COVID-19 continue to surge in the country.

As of Monday, the government's spokesman for all coronavirus-related matters Achmad Yurianto said Indonesia has recorded 1,414 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 122 deaths.
United Nations, March 30 : An Indian who was an assistant secretary-general dealing with the UN pension fund investments has resigned suddenly, according to a spokesperson.

No reason was given for the resignation of Sudhir Rajkumar that was announced on Sunday by Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Rajkumar also held the title of Representative of the Secretary-General for the investment of the assets of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund.

The resignation is to be effective on Tuesday, Dujarric said.

The announcement was unusual coming on a Sunday and with a very short notice period.

Dujarric said, "The Secretary-General has accepted the resignation and thanks Mr Rajkumar for his service in managing the assets of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund. The Secretary-General wishes Mr Rajkumar the very best in his future endeavours." Rajkumar was appointed to the position in 2017.

He had earlier been the head of the global pension advisory programme at the World Bank Treasury, providing advisory services to pension funds for several countries, according to the UN.

He had also been a member on the External Advisory Committee on Investments of the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Investment Committee of the United Nations Office for Project Services, and as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the International Centre for Pension Management.

Before joining the World Bank in East Africa he worked in a managerial capacity with Shriram Group in India.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)
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A sombre Premier Doug Ford is warning that a mandatory stay home order across Ontario may be necessary to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chiding Ontarians for not following health officials recommendations to remain in their homes, the premier emphasized Monday he may have no choice but to impose more restrictions during the crisis.

Everythings on the table. If I get advice from our chief medical officer and our (virus) command table, I wouldnt hesitate to pull the trigger on that, he said.

To that end, Ford announced Monday night the government is closing all communal or shared, public or private, outdoor recreational amenities everywhere in Ontario, including  playgrounds, sports fields, basketball and tennis courts, off-leash dog parks, beaches, skateboard and BMX parks, picnic areas, outdoor community gardens, park shelters, outdoor exercise equipment, condo parks and gardens.

Parks, trails, ravines, and conservation areas will remain open for walk-through access only but people must remain at least two metres apart. Scofflaws could face cash fines.

Ford, who extended Ontarios state of emergency for another two weeks, said it was shocking to see so many people out and about in Toronto over the weekend.

It was a beautiful weekend, the sun was shining and it was nearly 20C out  and from what I saw  the streets were packed, the premier told a Queens Park teleconference.

And thats unacceptable, he said, adding any such moves forcing people to stay home would be done in conjunction with the federal government.

Imploring people to do their part by co-operating with officials, Ford indicated that he does not want to see martial law or nightly curfews in Ontario.

We dont have enough police in this province to monitor 14.5-million people, he said, reiterating that we need every person in this province to take a hard look at their habits and behave responsibly.

Because as Ive always said, every option is on the table. Were prepared to take further action if we do not see the spread of this virus slow down in the coming days.

While Ontario has already decreed that only essential services can remain open  such as supermarkets, pharmacies, LCBO stores, among other retailers  Ford stressed more limits may be necessary.

Its easy to turn on the TV and think whats happening in Europe cant happen here. But it can happen anywhere. Our story in Ontario can be different that Italys and Spains, but only if we all take this seriously.

Ford said if Dr. David Williams, Ontarios chief medical officer of health, recommends more sweeping measures to contain the virus, he will immediately act.

When they gave us the advice about (closing) the schools, we acted within an hour  similar to the emergency shutdowns. Well be discussing that today. Everything is on the table right now  absolutely everything.

Indeed, schools were supposed to reopen next Monday, which Ford said is not realistic. It is expected students could be out of classes for many more weeks for their own safety and that of their teachers.

The premier said he sympathized with people feeling squirrelly and stuffy being cooped up at home during isolation.

I understand. Its warm, spring is in the air, and people want to get out, he said. But right at this time, the more we can reduce the spread of this virus the quicker we can get through this.

Fords comments followed a statement earlier Monday from Williams urging Ontarians to do more to fight the coronavirus.

The premiers concern is that Ontario hospitals could be overwhelmed if COVID-19 is not contained.

If theres a massive surge of people coming into our hospitals in the next two weeks, our supply lines will be seriously challenged, said Ford.

So, every week, every day, every hour we can push back that surge is another week, another day, another hour that we have to prepare, he said.

The hard truth is the more time we have, the more lives we can save. If we push that surge as far away from today as possible, we will save lives. And we cant do this without your full support.

Every day weve stood here and told you how you can stop the spread of this virus. If you can, please, please stay home.

Robert Benzie is the Stars Queens Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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The City of Laredo Health Department issued an update addressing drive-thru testing clinics and ventilator supply in Laredo amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

READ MORE: 70-year-old woman is first Laredo coronavirus death recorded

Ventilators are one of the best weapons in the fight against COVID-19. In the most serious cases, people can become too sick to breathe on their own and can die if their lungs arent assisted by the oxygen-pumping machines.

In Laredo there are 57 ventilators available for adults and eight for children, with more in reserve, Health Department Director Dr. Gonzalez said.

A study by the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University said that across the U.S., nearly 65,000 people could need ventilators during a moderate pandemic. But if the coronavirus pandemic rises to the level of the 1918 Spanish Flu, more than 742,000 Americans could need the machines to survive.

The total number of existing machines in the United States is a fraction of that: an estimated 160,000 ventilators at most.

If hospitals run short, there are just 16,600 ventilators in the federal governments emergency stockpile, the Center of Public Integrity recently reported.

A state plan for the years 2012-2016 reported that Texas emergency stockpile stood at 428 ventilators. Neither the governors office nor state health department responded to requests for more current figures.

While ventilators will help those infected by COVID-19, early detection, including rapid coronavirus testing, is key to stopping the spread of the disease.

The city was expecting to receive a supply of rapid tests late Sunday or Monday. They hope to test-run drive thru testing Monday, which will be available to Laredoans who have a prescription from their doctor.

Internally we will initiate a process for us to test out how the system is going to work before we go live with the public, said Emergency Management Coordinator Steve Landin. ... Its got to be systematic, its got to be precise, otherwise were creating more issues for ourselves.

Rapid tests take a finger prick and 15 minutes to complete, Landin said. But they only confirm a negative. If a patient tests positive for COVID-19 through the rapid test they will need to be given a CDC-approved confirmatory test before they are officially considered positive.

READ MORE: United ISD and Laredo ISD extend school closures due to coronavirus

The rapid test has a 93% validity and is a good indicator, Gonzalez said.

The San Antonio Express-News contributed to this story. Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.com
tech2 News Staff

Hyundai Motor India's CSR arm has announced immediate order of COVID-19 Advanced Diagnostic Testing Kits from South Korea. These kits, Hyundai says, have a very high level of accuracy and can help serve over 25,000 People.

Hyundai says that once the shipment of the kits is received, it will be distributed in consultation with Center and State Governments to the hospitals in affected areas.

Additionally, last week, Hyundai also announced initiatives to support its customers. The company announced that its 24x7 roadside assistance will be available for customers to ensure help in case any demanding situation arises.

(Also read: Coronavirus Outbreak: Maruti Suzuki India will help scale up production of ventilators, masks, and protective clothing)

Also, customers who were unable to avail their vehicles warranty/extended warranty/free service due to health emergency or dealership shutdown in affected cities, HMIL will offer extended support of two months.

Hyundai Motors India Limited has also deployed over 1,000 doorstep advantage bikes/Emergency Road Service cars from Dealers to reach customers for assistance in case of emergency and minor repairs.
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 on the African continent rose to 4,605 Sunday, with around 100 people having lost their lives to the virus. The need for an internationally coordinated response to stop the spread of the coronavirus on the African continent is urgent.

South Africa now has 1,280 confirmed cases and is emerging as the epicentre of the pandemic on the continent. But other countries are not lagging far behindwith Egypt (609), Algeria (511), Morocco (479) and Tunisia (312), each already recording hundreds of cases. South Africa reported its first two deaths last week from the novel coronavirus, but Algeria has recorded the most with 29.

Mami Mizutori, head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), told Reuters that Africa is likely to see a higher mortality rate than the rest of the world as weak health care systems buckle under the surge of cases, saying, It is easily imaginable that if this becomes the case in a country where the health system is not as sophisticated, then that could lead to possibly higher mortality.

The World Health Organisations regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Rebecca Moeti, warned of a dramatic evolution of the pandemic, telling France24, The situation is very worrying, with a dramatic evolution: an increase geographically in the number of countries and also an increase in the number of infections. He insisted that there must be intensified action by African countries.

African governments, with vicious and corrupt ruling elites at the helm and a long list of appalling human rights abuses and violations under their belt, are exploiting the spread of the coronavirus to build up the powers of the state in preparation for serious confrontations with the working class.

In contrast, little or nothing is being done to prepare for the inevitable surge of cases by diverting resources and money toward the health care system and procuring lifesaving protective gear and medical equipment for health care workers and patients.

The African ruling elite, dependent on the major powers and transnational corporations for their privileged position, are far more concerned with how they can negotiate greater access to the wealth extracted from the international working class. This requires that they impose the dictates of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on the working class and peasantry and ensure that minerals, oil and agricultural goods make their way to the advanced countries and manufacturing facilities unhindered. The logic of this is the violent suppression of any opposition to these dictates.

According to Bloomberg , two men were shot and killed in Rwanda by police for possibly involuntarily violating the stay-at-home order following the announcement by President Paul Kagame one week ago that the country would be on a 14-day lockdown enforced by the military and the police. Jean-Claude Nyiramana, 27, and Emmanuel Nyandwi, 25, were murdered in Nyanza District just outside Kigali on March 24.

In South Africa, ahead of the 21-day lockdown, President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered an address to the security forces in which he instructed them to be a force for kindness. In full military attire, in the manner of a dictator, the speech was designed to threaten and intimidate the population, with Ramaphosa declaring, There are those who want to take chances who will want to challenge the might of the South African state ... Nudge them in the right direction and if they continue resisting, indicate to them that they are challenging the might of the State and the President.

Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told the media, I dont think really people should be provocative because if you dont want to comply with the regulation set out, honestly you are challenging and testing the state itself.

The South African population views the presence of the military on the streets with a mixture of fear and trepidation. An in-depth report by Times Live covering the first day of lockdown met one resident who, after being asked by an armed soldier why he had run when he saw them approaching him, replied anxiously, Ive never seen you guys before. You scare me.

In the Hillbrow neighbourhood of Johannesburg, South African police with batons attacked the homeless, before using tear gear and rubber bullets to disperse shoppers.

The African National Congress government has since extended the lockdownannouncing that the quarantine would continue until June, at a cost of 641 million Rand (US$38 million) to the taxpayer, to be paid for by further attacks on the conditions of the working class.

Zimbabwes ZANU-PF government is imposing a 21-day lockdown from today. Zimbabwe has 7 confirmed cases and one death so far.

World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warning against the use of lockdowns as the only measure to confront pandemic, said, To slow the spread of COVID-19, many countries introduced lockdown measures. But on their own, these measures will not extinguish epidemics. The WHO has stressed that it is critical that governments test, test, test for the virus and then isolate and treat those who are found positive for COVID-19.

The necessary measures to fight COVID-19 are the full-funding of health care, the provision of all the necessary medical equipment and protective gear for health care workers, and universal testingdemands running counter to the polices pursued for decades by every national ruling class who have refused to adequately finance health care.

Africa has some of the most unequal countries on the planet. According to Oxfam, Five of Nigerias richest men have a combined wealth of US$29.9 billionmore than the countrys entire national budget for 2017, with about 60 percent of its citizens [living] on less than US$1.25 a day, the threshold for absolute poverty.

Oxfam writes, West African countries lose an estimated $9.6 billion each year through corporate tax incentives offered to multinational companies. This would be enough to build about 100 modern and well-equipped hospitals each year in the region.

Nurses and doctors have struck in Zimbabwe to demand personal protective equipment (PPE) and demand that wages be paid in dollars, which has prompted the Mnangagwa government to change the currency to dollars. In Kenya, nurses and doctors are threatening to strike if they are not provided with PPE in preparation for the surge of coronavirus cases. In Nigeria, doctors have gone on strike to demand safe and sanitary conditions.

This growing movement of the working class, in Africa and internationally, is showing the way out of the crisis that capitalism has inflicted on humanity. The wealth of the ruling elite must be expropriated and used to meet the demands of society, including the urgent procurement of protective gear and medical equipment. For this to be done, however, a socialist leadership in the working class must be built to wage an intransigent struggle against the banks, corporations and world imperialism and their agents on the continent.
Update: As of 12 p.m., Barbary Coast has given out their entire supply of $1 Sherbinkis eighths.

While San Franciscos cannabis dispensaries currently remain in operation, a drastic reduction in income thanks to statewide shelter-in-place orders means the prospect of hard choices for some individuals who rely on marijuana for medical relief.

Though California continues to operate a medical program which eliminates the costly taxes associated with legal cannabis purchases, the issue is that some individuals who are entirely qualified have instead chosen to simply shop as a recreational customer since the implementation of Proposition 64 in California in 2018.

Whereas before these taxes were perhaps a manageable fee to incur, soaring unemployment rates and a profoundly uncertain economic future mean some individuals may now be forced to choose between buying medicinally beneficial cannabis or other staple supplies.

Acclaimed cannabis grower and entrepreneur Mario Guzman doesnt want to let that happen.

Born and raised in Sacramento, Guzman is revered by cannabis connoisseurs for his role in helping to create two famed strains of weed. Though Guzman was living in the Bay Area when he applied his green thumb to the cultivation of the award-winning strains known as Gelato and Sunset Sherbert, he now operates Sherbinskis  a popular clothing brand and physical dispensary retail operation located in Los Angeles.

Despite his move south, Guzman says hes never forgotten about his home base in San Francisco. Thus, in the spirit of putting his money where his mouth is, Guzman has partnered with SoMa dispensary Barbary Coast to offer a 'compassion' menu for those in need.

San Francisco set the tone for the world when it comes to providing cannabis and compassion to the cannabis community, Guzman explains. Some of the first dispensaries in the world started here. Barbary Coast is part of that inner thread, as is Sherbinskis. Together, we have joined our efforts to show some love in the best way we know how: sharing flowers.

Available starting Monday, March 30, Barbary Coast customers will be given the opportunity to buy eighths (a.k.a. one-eighth of an ounce) of Sherbinskis Acai Berry indoor flower (normally priced at $75) for $1. Rather than require individuals to provide proof of need, the dispensary hopes an honor system will suffice. Basically, if you need the menu, its there for you.

For Barbary Coast co-founder and CEO Jesse Henry, it just feels like the right thing to do.

Were excited to partner with Sherbinskis on this amazing promotion, Henry says. "Right now, people are scared and struggling to get by, so its vital we provide help, hope and hugs to our community. Lets give some relief during this difficult and unprecedented crisis.

Barbary Coast, 952 Mission St., S.F. Pick-up: 8 a.m.  8 p.m. (Daily); Delivery: 10 a.m.  8 p.m. (Daily). barbarycoastsf.com
: Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic and CSR arm of Infosys, on Monday announced that it is committing Rs 100 crore to support efforts towards fighting COVID-19 in the country.

The Foundation said it contributed half of this commitment (Rs 50 crore) to the PM CARES Fund.

This sum would primarily be utilised to expand hospital capacity for treatment and enable hospital stays for COVID-19 patients, especially ones belonging to the economically weaker sections of society.

Also, the amount would be used to provide ventilators, testing kits, and Personal Protective Equipment like masks, and other protective gear for frontline healthcare workers; and to ensure better access to food and nutrition for the underprivileged.

Over the last two weeks, Infosys Foundation said in a statement it has announced support for creation of an exclusive hospital in Bengaluru for COVID-19 patients.

It has also enabled the acquisition of medical and PPE equipment for multiple military and government hospitals across the country.

The Foundation is also supporting various NGOs that provide food and hygiene kits to thousands of people in need, the statement said.

All our efforts will be targeted towards ensuring that the relief material reaches the people who need it the most, whether it is a patient who cannot afford treatment, our healthcare personnel, or daily wage workers whose livelihood has been severely impacted, said chairperson of Infosys Foundation Sudha Murty said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tourism: Greece to prepare improvement strategy 2021-2030 Government enacts commission, will analyse impact of COVID-19

(ANSAmed) - NAPLES, MARCH 30 - Greece is setting up a special commission to manage its tourism strategy for 2021-2030, the Greek government said, according to the tourism website Greek Travel Pages.



Greek Tourism Minister Harry Theoharis will head the workgroup, which will also include deputy minister to parliament Akis Skertsos; president of the Greek tourism confederation Yiannis Retsos; president of the Greek National Tourism Organization Angela Gerekou; and president of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels Alexandros Vassilikos.



The group will create a 10-year plan with a specific focus on seven key areas.



The first items on the agenda are an evaluation of the impact of coronavirus on tourism and the idea of a possible cut on VAT tax for the sector.



The strategy focus areas will be: accessibility and interconnection; sustainable development and management of private structures; public infrastructure and management; human resources training and apprenticeships; product development, marketing, and promotion; collaborative governance; and legislative frameworks.



The goal is to improve Greek tourism product quality through the application of sustainable principles across the production chain, from pleasure destinations to business destinations.(ANSAmed).




T housands more coronavirus patients were admitted to hospitals in England over the weekend as NHS boss Sir Simon Stevens warned: "That number is only going to increase."

The number of patients being treated for coronavirus in hospital soared from 6,200 on Friday to more than 9,000 on Monday.

During the Government's daily press briefing on Friday, Sir Simon said 6,200 coronavirus patients were in hospital, meaning almost 3,000 new patients were admitted over the weekend.

It comes as 1,408 people are now confirmed to have died in UK hospitals after testing positive for Covid-19, as of 5pm on Sunday. This is up 180 from the 1,228 the day before.

Speaking to the BBC, Sir Simon said that the number of patients will increase, but explained that services set up to handle additional capacity will be available later this week.

Sir Simon Stevens / PA

He said: "Today there are over 9,000 positive coronavirus patients in hospitals across England and we know that number is only going to increase.

"That's why what you see here is a mass mobilisation, taking place right across the country, but also at these new Nightingale hospitals.

"This has been an extraordinary team effort on the part of nurses and doctors and therapists and pharmacists across London, but also volunteers and paramedics and people returning to help.

"And when these services are needed, they will be available beginning later this week, and because this is a global health emergency we're actually seeing similar types of hospitals being established in Berlin and Madrid and New York."

Sir Simon also said that NHS England will be able to double the number of coronavirus tests it has available for staff by the end of this week.

It was announced last week that around 800 samples would be processed over the weekend at the first of three new hub laboratories set up by the Government for the duration of the crisis.

It comes as theme park Chessington World of Adventures in Surrey had six lanes set up in its car park for doctors and nurses to get tested in a drive-thru facility.

The site is understood to be one of several sites across the UK rolling out tests for NHS workers.

Medical staff at an NHS drive-through coronavirus testing facility / REUTERS

Sir Simon added: "NHS staff are affected just like people across the country as a whole and so we are seeing staff who are doing the right thing and having to self-isolate at home.

"That's one of the reasons why it's so important that we are ramping up staff testing, but it's also why it's so vital that all of us take the medical advice and stay at home.

"That will reduce the infections and reduce the need for services such as this new Nightingale hospital."

NHS Nightingale Hospital - In pictures 1 /33 NHS Nightingale Hospital - In pictures Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA General view of the new NHS Nightingale Hospital via Reuters Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Medical equipment is labelled and prepared for use by NHS staff at the ExCel centre PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Medical equipment is labelled and prepared for use by NHS staff at the ExCel centre in London PA Natalie Forrest, Chief Operating Officer of the Nightingale Hospital at the ExCel centre PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA The new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA AP The new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA The new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA The new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA Work being carried out at the new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA Work being carried out at the new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA Worker at the new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA

Sir Simon continued: "By the end of this week, we will be able to do double the number of tests that were available last week and we want to start with critical care nurses, with A&E staff, with ambulance personnel, and then expand that to a much wider group of NHS staff over the coming days and weeks."

Sir Simon also said that intensive care beds are available for those that need them and said that the Government is "pulling out all the stops" to procure personal protective equipment for NHS staff.

Boris Johnson thanks public for staying at home during coronavirus crisis

He said: "We have got available intensive care and available hospital beds but we are also bringing online additional capacity such as these Nightingale hospitals as we need them."

Sir Simon added: "It is vital that frontline NHS staff get the protective equipment they need. 170 million items of that protective equipment have been shipped, it's a huge logistics exercise.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday issued directives to the Health Department to constitute teams for Gautam Buddh Nagar, Meerut and Ghaziabad to combat coronavirus there.

Adityanath issued the directives while chairing a meeting of heads of various committees constituted for controlling the spread of coronavirus.

He also reviewed the ongoing lockdown situation, a statement issued by the CM's office said.

Aditynath said that community kitchens must be made operational in each and every district of the state, and district magistrates should make teams to inspect these facilities.

He also said that efforts should be made to spread awareness through public address system about social distancing.

Awareness should also be spread about health department guidelines to combat coronavirus, the statement said.

Orders were also given to issue passes (as per the need) to employees of e-commerce companies and blood banks for their smooth movement during the lockdown period.

The UP Chief Minister instructed the nodal officers to ensure that they take the call of stranded people, and that their problems are addressed.

The nodal officers have also been told to submit a detailed report to the government, the statement said.

Meanwhile, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi told reporters here that the CM will be visiting Ghaziabad, Agra and Meerut on Tueday -- the "hotspots" of COVID-19 outbreak in the state for inspection.

He said that the Chief Minister has asked the District Magistrates to provide the list of people staying in the quarantine centers in all the districts of the state.

Awasthi also informed that the Chief Minister has written letters to the Chief Ministers of all states today in which he has said that people of other states are being taken care of in UP. Other states should take care of the people of Uttar Pradesh.

The Additional Chief Secretary (Home) said that for the supply of wheat and flour during the period of lockdown; 49,885 metric tonnes of wheat has been allocated to 66 district magistrates as per their demand. As many as 214 flour mills have started functioning. The process of starting mills which were not able to function or had stopped due to lack of wheat is being pursued.

He also said that 5,761 industrial units have been contacted, of which, 2,844 units have paid wages at the workplace. Maintenance arrangements have also been made in 2,368 units. As many as 3,909 units have paid the wages of their workers. Following the orders of the Government of India, the movement of trucks in the state is going on smoothly.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Egypt Sunday decided an increase by 75 per cent of allowances of Egyptians working at the frontline of the fight against Coronavirus.

The decision came in appreciation of the efforts of the workers in the medical field as they strive to contain the outbreak, Egypt Today reports.

In addition to the 75 per cent increase, it has also been decided the creation of a risk fund for doctors and workers in the medical field as well as the provision of exceptional rewards to the workers at quarantine, chest, and fever hospitals.

Egypt registered Sunday 33 news confirmed cases and 4 death according to the health ministry. The overall infection toll now stands at 609. Deaths hit 40 while 132 have recovered.

Two top military Generals have died of the disease while President al Sisi himself was rumored infected as he had met with one of the deceased top military commanders.
On Sunday, governor of Texas Greg Abbott had increased travel restrictions into the state due to the COVID-19 crisis. He also announced the first pop-up hospital in the state to help deal with the deadly novel coronavirus. Additionally, he said that he is standing firm on stopping the release of dangerous felons amid the COVID-19 pandemic, says an article.

Expansion of the Self-Quarantine Order

According to Abbott, he will be making an expansion of a recent executive order requiring a 14-day-self-quarantine for those who flew from Connecticut, New Jersey, New Orleans, and New York. The expansion includes requiring anyone who came from Louisiana, Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, Detroit, California, and Washington.

The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center

The first ad hoc healthcare facility in Texas will be the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center located in Dallas, says Abbott. It is an original hotspot for the COVID-19 outbreak at the state-level.

Currently, the convention has a capacity of 250 beds. It has a spacious area that can be expanded massively if the need arises.

Check these out:

Plenty of Hospital Capacity

According to Abbott, there is a huge number of hospital capacity to meet the demands of a state-wide outbreak. Also, the hospitals in the state are still the primary place for the treatment of the COVID-19.

In the previous week, the total number of hospital beds in the state for COVID-19 patients had doubled. There are more than 16,000 available beds reported as of Thursday last week.

The increase of the total available hospital bed as a result of a previous executive order a week ago that bans non-essential surgeries in the entire state.

The New Louisiana Travel Restrictions

Based on the statement of Abbott, the Texas Department of Public Safety will be responsible for monitoring the entry point from Louisiana to enforce the new Louisiana travel restrictions. However, the restrictions do not apply to travels with the purpose of commercial activities, emergency response, military service, important infrastructure functions, and health response.

An Inmate Testing Positive for the COVID-19

The orders from Abbott came after state and local officials are debating whether to release as many as thousands of prisoners who are awaiting trial from the Harris County Jail. The Harris County Jail had reported at least one inmate who tested positive for the COVID-19. There are thirty more inmates who had shown symptoms of the illness.

Advocates are fighting for as many inmates as they can to be released from county jails in the state. These advocates are claiming the increased threat of the spread of the COVID-19 due to the poor sanitary condition at the jails and the close quarters.

The Decision to Release the Inmates or Not

On Sunday, Abbott and Texas Attorney General Paxton requested to intervene in a federal lawsuit in Harris County. Currently, a federal judge will be deciding to either release or not Harris County Jail inmates.
MONTREAL - Air Canada will temporarily lay off 16,500 employees starting this week as the airline struggles with fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Effective this Friday, the layoffs of 15,200 unionized workers and 1,300 managers will last through April and May amid drastically reduced flight capacity from the Montreal-based airline.

To furlough such a large proportion of our employees is an extremely painful decision but one we are required to take given our dramatically smaller operations for the next while, chief executive Calin Rovinescu said in a statement.

The carrier has halted most of its international and U.S. routes in response to the global shutdown.

States from Sweden to China to the United States have rolled out aid packages for the airline sector over the past month as borders closed and travel demand plummeted amid the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Air Canada said its cost reduction scheme aims to save least $500 million. It includes a pledge from both the CEO and chief financial officer Mike Rousseau to forego 100 per cent of their salaries, while the rest of the executive team will give up between 25 per cent and 50 per cent.

The company will draw down about $1 billion in lines of credit to provide additional liquidity for a carrier that has a $7.3 billion cash cushion to fall back on  more than the most profitable U.S. carrier, Delta Air Lines.

Earlier this month Air Canadas flight attendant union said 5,149 cabin crew would be temporarily laid off due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The newly announced layoffs do not include the earlier job reductions.

The pandemic has cost thousands of jobs in the airline sector. Transat AT Inc. has laid off at least 3,600 flight attendants while WestJet has seen 6,900 departures including early retirements, resignations and both voluntary and involuntary leaves.

WestJet said Monday it is cancelling all transatlantic and U.S. routes until May 4, extending its 30-day suspension by two more weeks.

Both Air Transat and Porter Airlines have halted all flights.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 30, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:AC, TSX:TRZ)
He was unconvinced. Last month the coronavirus swept through at least four prisons in three provinces in eastern China, infecting more than 500 inmates and guards. So far no prison cases have been reported in Xinjiang, which has one of the countrys highest concentration of prisons in addition to the network of indoctrination camps.

The Xinjiang authorities have dismissed concerns that they were hiding information about the outbreak. A spokesman for the regional government called suggestions that the new coronavirus had taken hold in the camps or that the authorities were hiding the extent of infections fabricated slanders and attacks, the state-run news broadcaster, China Central Television, reported.

Even before the outbreak spread in China, Xinjiang was already under its own clampdown. The region is dotted with checkpoints to control the movement of minority populations and many Muslims have been rounded up and placed in camps or prisons for a range of behavior the government has deemed extremist.

Uncensored information from the region is scarce. For Uighurs and other minorities, communicating with people abroad is grounds to be sent to a camp. Reporting on the ground is highly restricted, and the extent of the vast campaign there has been pieced together in recent years only through the testimony of exiles and former detainees, leaked documents and satellite imagery of the growing network of detention facilities.

After the first coronavirus cases in Xinjiang were reported on Jan. 23, the region beefed up its controls. Reports from Uighur exiles described how the lockdown placed Uighurs in Xinjiang at risk of starvation. The Uyghur Human Rights Project, a Washington-based advocacy organization, reviewed a pair of videos from the region last month that showed people complaining of being unable to get food.
A group of Vista middle-schoolers is enjoying the sweet taste of success this week after developing a mint brownie candy bar that so inspired Chuao Chocolatier co-founder Michael Antonorsi that a version of it is moving into worldwide distribution this week.

Mintfully Brownie, a 2.8-ounce Signature premium dark chocolate bar, was developed by Antonorsi last summer after a sixth-grade science class at Vista Christian School came up with its intriguing combination of flavors and textures as part of a classroom project.

On Wednesday, Antonorsi invited the 16-student class  now all seventh-graders -- back to his Carlsbad headquarters and factory to unveil the new bar, which went on sale the same day. Besides handing out trays of the finished bars to the 12- and 13-year-olds to sample, Antonorsi had a few other surprises up his chef coat sleeves.

If the Mintfully Brownie bar is a success  and Chuao sales director Tomas Pineda said early feedback from retail buyers is outstanding  Antonorsi said he hopes to donate a portion of the sales to the school.

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He has also included a dedication to the students on the back of the bars white-and-green foil wrapper that concludes with the words: This one is for you, future chocolatiers!

1 / 12 Vista Christian School seventh-grader Karlee Mejia shows off a Mintfully Brownie Bar during its unveiling at Chuao Chocolatier headquarters in Carlsbad on Wednesday. Her science class helped provide inspiration for the bars ingredients as part of a class project last spring. (Bill Wechter / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 12 Chuao Chocolatier CEO Michael Antonorsi reads the back panel of his new Mintfully Brownie chocolate bar to seventh-graders from Vista Christian School during a company visit Wednesday. Antonorsi dedicated the bar to the students, whose class project to create a similar bar in April 2018 inspired his own idea. (Bill Wechter / ) 3 / 12 Vista Christian School seventh-grader Moerani Wight gets a high-five from Tomas Pineda, director of sales at Chuao Chocolatier during a company tour Wednesday. Chuao developed its new Mintfully Brownie chocolate bar after being inspired by a candy bar the students created in class last spring. (Bill Wechter / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 12 Chef Michael Antonorsi talks to Vista Christian School seventh-graders Wednesday at the Chuao Chocolatier headquarters and factory in Carlsbad. (Bill Wechter / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 12 CEO and head chef Michael Antonorsi at Chuao Chocolatier in Carlsbad serves Vista Christian School seventh-graders samples of his Mintfully Brownie bars, which were developed after the students came up with their own mint brownie candy bar recipe as a science class project last spring. (Bill Wechter / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 12 Vista Christian School seventh-graders enjoy a sample of a Mintfully Brownie Bar, a candy bar produced by Chuao Chocolatier in Carlsbad, on Wednesday. The bar was inspired by a similar bar they created as a school science project in spring 2018. (Bill Wechter / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 12 Vista Christian School seventh-grader Kasey Valdez enjoys a sample of Chuao Chocolatiers Mintfully Brownie Bar, inspired by a chocolate bar her class developed last year, during a visit to the companys headquarters in Carlsbad on Wednesday. (Bill Wechter / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 12 Vista Christian School seventh grader Elena Redwine enjoys a sample of Chuao Chocolatiers Mintfully Brownie Bar during a visit to the companys headquarters in Carlsbad on Wednesday. It was inspired by a chocolate bar her class developed last year as a science project. (Bill Wechter / San Diego Union-Tribune) 9 / 12 Vista Christian School seventh-grader Claire McLeod enjoys a sample of Chuao Chocolatiers Mintfully Brownie Bar during a visit to the companys headquarters in Carlsbad on Wednesday. The new Chuao bar was inspired by a chocolate bar McLeods class developed last year as a school science project. (Bill Wechter / San Diego Union-Tribune) 10 / 12 Boxes of newly manufactured Mintfully Brownie bars on display during a premier of the product Wednesday at the Chuao Chocolatier facility in Carlsbad. (Bill Wechter / San Diego Union-Tribune) 11 / 12 Chef Michael Antonorsi introduces the newly manufactured Mintfully Brownie chocolate bars to seventh-graders from Vista Christian School at the companys Carlsbad headquarters on Wednesday. Antonorsi was inspired to create the bar after the students created one with similar ingredients last spring as a science class project. (Bill Wechter / San Diego Union-Tribune) 12 / 12 A seventh-grader from Vista Christian School holds one of Chuao Chocolatiers new Mintfully Brownie chocolate bar on Wednesday at Chuaos headquarters in Carlsbad. Sixteen science students from the school created a mint brownie candy bar last year as a class project and it served as inspiration for Chuaos new bar. (Bill Wechter / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Student Grace Gonzalez, 13, was the class projects photographer and videographer and said she cant believe shes had her own Willie Wonka experience.

This whole thing was awesome, she said. It was very challenging and also inspiring. Our dream really did come true. Now I want to come work here some day.

The Chuao candy bars genesis stretches back to late 2017 when Antonorsi said hed become creatively stuck in his effort to create a brownie-based chocolate bar.

Every one of the companys Signature bars incorporates chocolate and two other layers of flavor that are designed to re-create either a childhood memory or an aromatic experience. Some of the companys 18 Signature bars are Baconlicious, Potato Chip, Ravishing Rocky Road, Caramel Apple Crush and Cinnamon Cereal Smooch.

Antonorsi, whos CEO and head chef at the 17-year-old company, tried mixing caramel and other flavors with chocolate and thin, crunchy brownie cookies but nothing worked. Then last May, he got a letter from Rachel Flores, science teacher at Vista Christian School.

Last spring, Flores was looking for a fun, hands-on project her class could do for open house that incorporated all five elements of the STEAM curriculum: science, technology, engineering, art and math. She came up with the idea of having the kids create their own candy bar flavors. Her husband, Angel, works in Chuaos e-commerce department, so he arranged for the company to donate several pounds of cooking chocolate for the students to experiment with.

Over the next several weeks, the students dreamed up their own flavors, polled the 175 students on campus on their favorites, graphed the data, and set to work inventing the three top finalists: Mint brownie, French toast and coffee toffee.

Student Claire McLeod, who aspires to be a chef someday, was in charge of the cooking project. She said it was much harder than she imagined. As Antonorsi told the students Wednesday during their return visit, making a candy bar isnt as easy as stirring together a few items. Some ingredients lose their texture or flavor, some items arent the proper bite size and many arent shelf-stable.

Its like experiencing fresh-popped popcorn versus popcorn that has been sitting in a bag for months, Antonorsi said. My goal is to translate that experience. Its not always literal. It just feels like what its promising.

McLeod, 12, said she experimented for weeks with different batches of brownies and various mints, finally discovering that the crispy overbaked edges of brownies and chopped up Andes-brand mints worked best. Meanwhile, 12-year-old Bria Livingston designed packaging inspired by previous Chuao Signature bars, with the main ingredient, brownies, covered in a bath of melted chocolate and a mint leaf.

After the open house last April, Flores sent a letter and video of the students experience to Antonorsi as a thank you for the chocolate. He said opening that letter and reading about the students mint brownie bar came like a bolt from the blue.

It just happened out of nowhere. That was it. Mint was the perfect flavor, he said. It has that freshness, it adds another layer to the bar and its a taste that lingers in your mouth afterward.

Last May, he invited the class to the factory for a tour and thanked them for helping him with his long-gestating idea. Then his team went to work formulating their own bar, which is topped with crunchy mint sugar crystals. Senior brand designer Carly Cruickshank came up with the bars name and brand manager Sebastian Gomez oversaw the packaging, which includes the student dedication and a cover design that also features chocolate-dripping brownies and a mint leaf.

After more than eight months of development, the Mintfully Brownie bar was introduced Jan. 13 at the Winter Fancy Foods Show in San Francisco and it was an instant hit. Sales begin this week and the $6 bars should start appearing on store shelves in four to eight weeks.

Antonorsi said he hopes the Mintfully Brownie bar is just the first of many collaborations between his company and Vista Christian School students, who hes calling his outsource R&D department.

On Wednesday, he gave each student a chocolate goodie bag and asked them to fill out a questionnaire on ideas for his now-in-development non-chocolate snack product line. He also asked them for some other candy bar ideas. They came up with mochi, wasabi, pina colada, arroz con leche and creme brulee.

I love collaborating with children, he said. Theyre not as restricted in their creativity as adults. Theres more of a free flow of ideas.

Flores said its been an eye-opening experience for all of the students.

Michael is a passionate person and he inspired the kids, Flores said. He told them that if you have a passion you can make a career out of it. To see the process of something going from an idea to creation was great for them.

pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-31 06:43:09|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LISBON, March 30 (Xinhua) -- A batch of medical supplies delivered by China's Fosun Group, including 1 million face masks and 200,000 test kits, arrived in Lisbon from China on Monday, according to a press release by the company.

The delivery of the essential medical equipment will help the Portuguese National Health Service (SNS) fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Fosun said in the release.

It said that of the 1 million masks, 700,000 will be delivered immediately to the SNS.

The Shanghai-based company added that the 200,000 nucleic acid detection kits, which are CE certified, were developed by Fosun Pharma, Fosun's medical department.

Among the equipment, 70,000 units, including personal protective masks for healthcare professionals and nucleic acid detection kits from COVID-19, will be donated to the Portuguese government by the Fosun Group with the support of Fosun's subsidiaries in Portugal -- Luz Saude, Millennium bcp and Fidelidade, said the release.

"At the time of the epidemic, Fosun joined the group's companies in Portugal to maintain close communication with the Portuguese government to provide full support for the local fight against the epidemic," said President of Fosun International Guo Guangchang, quoted by the release.

Guo noted that Fosun, as a global company, has been developing its presence in Portugal for many years and Portugal has also become his second home.

As part of its operations against the COVID-19 pandemic, Fosun has since March 22 been distributing medical protection equipment to many countries, including Italy, Japan, South Korea, India, the UK and France, said the release.

According to the daily bulletin of the Directorate-General for Health, Portugal registered 6,408 coronavirus cases with 140 deaths as of Monday.
Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness is a Netflix documentary that explores the world of exotic animal owners, who are involved in more than just acquiring animals for their private zoos. This story revolves around Joe Exotic and his nemesis Carole Baskinwhose years-long feud reaches its breaking point. This documentary has caused havoc among the audience and fans are all questioning and sharing their take on the disappearance of Carole Baskin's second husband.

Tiger King's Carole Baskin, Joe Exotic and others: Where is the cast now?

Carole Baskin

Carole Baskin slammed the Tiger King as 'salacious and sensational' after its premiere because it covers the disappearance of her second husband, Don Lewis. She refuted the claims in a statement that the makers devoted an entire segment to 23-year-old lies suggesting that she was involved in her husband's disappearance. Carole Baskin continues to run her Big Cat Rescue animal sanctuary in Florida, where she lives with her third husband, Howard Baskin.

ALSO READ | Fact Check: Netflix & Amazon Prime Giving Free Subscriptions During Coronavirus Lockdown?

Joe Exotic

Joe Exotic is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for hiring a hitman to kill Baskin. Just recently, he filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Interior and the U.S. Federal Wildlife Service for more than $70,000 claiming that they added "generic tiger" to the endangered species list to target businesses like his. Joe Exotic is seeking an additional amount of money from Jeff Lowe and several of his former colleagues for planting evidence against him.

Jeff Lowe

Joe Exotic recruited Jeff Lowe to save the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park from Baskin's efforts to shut it down but the former friends had a falling out. The zoo is still open and is now in Lowe's name. He now plans to move the park to a different location in Oklahoma and rename it as Oklahoma Zoo.

ALSO READ | Netflix Not Working? Here Is Everything You Need To Know About The Outage Problem

Bhagavan 'Doc' Antle

Antle is the man that Joe Exotic calls his mentor in the series and is also the owner of Myrtle Beach Safari. He raised quite some eyebrows with his polygamist lifestyle as he was involved with multiple female partners at the zoo. Doc Antle is currently still running his T.I.G.E.R.S park in Myrtle Beach.

John Finlay

John Finlay was apparently married to Joe Exotic at the same as his late husband Travis Maldonado. It later came to light that Finlay is not gay and was actually having an affair with an employee at the zoo that led to her pregnancy. Since then, Finlay has gotten a new set fo teeth and is currently in a relationship with a woman and lives in Texas.

ALSO READ | What To Watch On Netflix In March - 'Tiger King' & Other Shows To See This Month

ALSO READ | Netflixs New Docu-series 'Tiger King' Leaves Internet Hooked Amid COVID-19 Lockdown

Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment.
From Town & Country

When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle first announced their plans to step back from their senior royal roles in January, they almost certainly didn't predict they would be doing so in the midst of a global pandemic.

But as the date of their official transition approaches, the Sussexes are addressing the unusual circumstances.

"The Duke and Duchess of Sussex would prefer that in the immediate weeks and months, the focus remains on the global response to COVID-19. However, we recognise there are outstanding questions relating to their future beyond their Household transition deadline," reads a statement from a spokesperson for the Sussexes.

"The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will spend the next few months focusing on their family and continuing to do what they can, safely and privately, to support and work with their pre-existing charitable commitments while developing their future non-profit organisation."

The statement clarified a number of elements of their new roles, some of which had previously been spelled out like the 12-month review period, and the change in their use of titles. It also noted that the Sussexes will no longer post under the @SussexRoyal Instagram hand or update the SussexRoyal.com website.

Additionally, the Sussexes shared a message on that Instagram account today nodding to the upcoming changes:

"As we all find the part we are to play in this global shift and changing of habits, we are focusing this new chapter to understand how we can best contribute. While you may not see us here, the work continues. Thank you to this community - for the support, the inspiration and the shared commitment to the good in the world. We look forward to reconnecting with you soon. Youve been great!," reads the caption in part. "Until then, please take good care of yourselves, and of one another. Harry and Meghan."



Also confirmed today was the hiring of Catherine St Laurent as the couple's chief of staff. Moving forward, their press will be handled by the agency Sunshine Sachs in the US and by James Holt on the UK, and Buckingham Palace will no longer comment on matters relating to the Sussexes.

Story continues

This statement this morning comes shortly after reports that Harry and Meghan have left Canada to settle in Los Angeles, though it's still unclear if the move is a permanent one. While they're far from the UK, the Sussexes are still staying in touch with the rest of the royal family. Last week, Prince Charles spoke with Prince Harry following his positive COVID-19 diagnosis. The Prince of Wales is now out of isolation, and said to be in good health.

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A passenger Boeing 737 with an activated engine breakdown alarm has landed safely at Moscows Sheremetyevo, a source in the emergencies services said.

"The plane landed routinely. No one was hurt. A probe is underway to find out why the alarm activated," TASS cited the source as saying.

The plane was flying from Sochi to Moscow when its left engine failure alarm went off before reducing altitude. There were 154 passengers and seven crewmembers onboard.
THE Department of Health (DOH) on Monday, March 30, reported 128 additional cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), bringing the total number of cases in the Philippines to 1,546.

The health agency also announced seven additional deaths, taking the mortality count to 78.

The number of recovered patients remained at 42.

Those who lost the battle with Covid-19 were Patient (PH) 149, PH587, PH647, PH1488, PH1447, PH 1446 and PH 1489.

PH149, a 61-year-old Filipino female from Makati City, died on March 27 of acute respiratory failure secondary to community acquaired pneumonia. She had no travel and exposure history. Her case was confirmed on March 16.

PH587, a 79-year-old Filipino male from Muntinlupa City, died on March 29, five days after he tested positive for Covid-19 on March 24. He died of acute respiratory failure. He had no travel history.

PH647 was a 43-year-old Filipino male from Paranaque City with no travel nor exposure history. He was confirmed positive for Covid-19 on March 25 and died on March 27 due to acute respiratory failure.

PH1488 was a 60-year-old male from Muntinlupa City. The DOH has yet to confirm if the patient was a Filipino. The patient died on March 26 due to acute respiratory distress syndrome and septic shock.

PH1447 was a 45-year-old male from Davao City. He died on March 23, but was confirmed as Covid-19 positive only on March 29. He suffered from cardiopulmonary arrest, acute respiratory distress syndrome secondary to community-acquired pneumonia, and hypoxia.

PH 1446 was a 59-year-old Filipino male from Davao City with no travel history. He died on March 23 and was confirmed positive for Covid-19 only on March 29. The patient has a cardiac disease.

PH 1489 was a 74-year-old Filipino male from Quezon City with an unknown travel and exposure history. He died on March 21 and was confirmed positive for Covid-19 on March 27. (SunStar Philippines)
Sajid Hussain, who escaped Balochistan province in 2012 and was living in self-imposed exile, went missing on March 2.

Update: Since this article was published, Sajid Hussain's body was found in a river in Uppsala, near Stockholm. A post-mortem is due to begin on May 4.

Fears are growing for a Pakistani journalist who, having escaped the South Asian country for safety reasons in 2012, has gone missing in Sweden where he was living in self-imposed exile.

Rights groups are concerned the disappearance of Sajid Hussain, 39, could be related to his reporting.

Hussains family, however, said they did not want to accuse anyone, adding they hoped the Swedish authorities will provide them with answers.

On Friday, the Balochistan Times, an online magazine published by Hussain, announced that he went missing from Uppsala, a city near Stockholm, on March 2.

In the magazine, Hussain reported on alleged human rights abuses in Pakistans restive Balochistan province, where he hails from. For more than a decade, political and armed groups in Pakistans largest province in the southwest, home to more than 12 million people, have been waging a separatist movement.

His wife Shahnaz Baloch, who lives in Balochistan, told Al Jazeera they were in contact on the day he went missing.

I dont know how he went missing or where he is right now. We need the Swedish police to help us locate my husband. They initially said that it was normal in Sweden for someone to go in isolation. We are concerned about his safety and wellbeing. It is very unusual for a journalist like Hussain to go somewhere without informing us.

Hussains friends registered him as missing on March 5 with Swedish police, who have since carried out several searches for him.

Initially, police refused to register the case saying it is normal in Sweden for someone to go in isolation. We insisted that it was not normal for us. Then they registered the case, Taj Baloch, a friend of Hussains, said from Stockholm.

Jenny Johansson, case officer at Missing People (Sverige), an NGO that works with the Swedish police to find missing people, told Al Jazeera the group was in regular contact with the police to find Hussain.

We dont have a clue so far. We only know his last location and we are working from that angle in close collaboration with the police, she said. Because of his background and his job, this case is pretty unique.

By the time of publishing, Swedish police had not responded to Al Jazeeras request for comment.

The Pakistani embassy in Stockholm refused to respond to Al Jazeeras request for comment.

Might be work-related

Erik Halkjaer, president of the Swedish chapter of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), urged Swedish police to continue to investigate Hussains disappearance, which he also said could have been due to his work.

At this point, we cant ignore the possibility that his disappearance might be work related, he said.

In recent months, several Pakistani activists and bloggers living in Europe have claimed to have been targeted for speaking up against human rights violations in Pakistan.

An RSF report last month said a Rotterdam-based Pakistani blogger, allegedly a victim of kidnapping and torture while in Pakistan three years ago, was attacked and threatened by two people believed to be Pakistani intelligence agents.

In an email to Al Jazeera, Daniel Bastard, the Asia Pacific head of RSF, said Hussain could be a victim of enforced disappearance, given the circumstances of his case and testimony by his family and colleagues.

When you think about who could find interest in suppressing a dissident journalist, the first hypothesis leads to Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence, he said, referring to the countrys main intelligence agency, the ISI.

We also know that two other Pakistanis based in Europe have been the victims of pressure upon their family back home in the past two months. And we know that a list of possible targets among Pakistan dissidents abroad is circulating, said Bastard.

The fact that Sajid Hussain was writing about human rights and the situation in restive Balochistan makes him a potential priority target.

Hussain left Pakistan in 2012 after his house in Quetta was broken into. The unidentified perpetrators stole his laptop and some notes, while he was out working on a story.

He then moved to Oman, and later the United Arab Emirates and Uganda in self-imposed exile before arriving in Sweden in September 2017 as a refugee. His wife was expected to join him there this year.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Mar. 29, 2020 | MCCRACKEN / MARSHALL / CALLOWAY COUNTIES

By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 29, 2020 | 05:21 PM | MCCRACKEN / MARSHALL / CALLOWAY COUNTIES

Five additional cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed by health departments in the Purchase area.



The Purchase District Health Department says three more cases have been confirmed in McCracken County.



They report that these patients are two males ages 43 and 49, and a 45-year-old female. None are hospitalized and they are self-quarantined.



The Marshall County Health Department confirms that a second patient has tested positive in Marshall County.



This patient is a 35-year-old male, and is self-isolating at home. They also report that there is no known connection with the county's first confirmed case, which was announced Sunday morning.



A third case of COVID-19 has been reported by the Calloway County Health Department. They report that the patient is a resident of Calloway County, but that due to privacy laws, no other information can be released at this time.
ALBANY  If you know anything about the coronavirus pandemic in New York, you know the state desperately needs ventilators.

As Andrew Cuomo says nearly every day, lives will be lost if the state doesnt acquire more of the breathing-assistance machines. The governor has almost begged the federal government to do whatever it can to deliver them or get them manufactured.

That has prompted pushback from President Donald Trump, including a claim, made last week on Fox News, that Cuomo rejected buying ventilators in favor of death panels and lotteries.

He had a chance to buy, in 2015, 16,000 ventilators at a very low price and he turned it down, the president said. Im not blaming him or anything else, but he shouldnt be talking about us. He should be buying his own ventilators.

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It was one of those bizarre moments, distressingly common, when a baffled listener can only wonder at what Trump is talking about. Death panels? Ventilators at a low price? Huh?

Turns out, Trump was getting his information from a dubious source: Gateway Pundit, a right-wing opinion site that, in a recent post on Cuomo and ventilators, pointed to an obscure state report on planning for pandemics.

As Ill discuss in minute, the claims about the report were terribly misleading, at best. Id say they were blatantly dishonest.

But that didnt stop them from being highlighted by Trump and parroted by Sean Hannity, the presidents chief propagandist, who used his Fox News show to blast Cuomo for blowing money on bad upstate economic development schemes when he could have been buying ventilators.

OK. Theres a lot to unpack here.

But let's start by noting that, in a moment of national crisis, the president and his allies are attacking the governor of the state most impacted by COVID-19 cases with deceptive claims and finger pointing. But this is where we are. America, 2020.

Now, about that report from the state Department of Health and the Task Force on Life and the Law.

On Monday, I talked to Stuart Sherman, a bioethicist who in 2015 was the executive director of said task force. He sounded almost amused that the report is getting so much attention, since he doesnt remember a single news story being done about it at the time.

Its being used as a cudgel to go after the governor, Sherman said. They have basically distilled a very complex report that was nine years in the making and involved many people and a lot of thought into a two-sentence thing that said, 'You should buy more ventilators now.

But the report said no such thing, which is why its misleading to say Cuomo rejected buying them at a low, or any other, price. The report essentially took it as a given there would be too few ventilators during a pandemic and planned for how to distribute them in an ethical way.

Death panels?! Please. Read the report and its clear the idea is simply to get ventilators to the patients who need them most.

In the section most cited by Trump allies, the report said New York would need 18,000 ventilators if confronted by something akin to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which was posited as a worst-case scenario.

Sure, Cuomo could have read the report at the time and decided to immediately stockpile all the ventilators New York needed for a worst-case scenario. But would it have been feasible or rational to do so? I put the question to Stewart.

The fact that no states have done it, the federal government hasnt done it, and no other countries have done it speaks to its feasibility, he said, citing the prohibitive purchase and maintenance costs, among other factors.

Heres the good news: While New York only had 1,750 ventilators stockpiled at the time of the report  not including the more than 7,000 that were already in hospitals  Cuomo now says the state has about 17,000 on hand or on the way. The total includes 7,000 that have been ordered in recent weeks and 4,000 from the federal government.

The bad news: Under current projections, that still wont be enough. Cuomo believes New York will need at least 30,000 ventilators at the apex of the pandemic. As it turns out, the worst-case scenario envisioned by the 2015 report isn't as bad as what we're facing now.

Meanwhile, according to some estimates, the United States will need at least 750,000 ventilators to confront a pandemic as serious as this one. But the country has just 100,000 in its medical facilities, and the federal government is believed to have only 16,000 in its Strategic National Stockpile.

In the face of those grim numbers, and despite pleas from Cuomo and other governors, Trump has been slow to order manufacturers to produce ventilators and other desperately needed supplies. When urgent action was needed, he dithered.

So here's the simple truth: We're woefully unprepared, and lives will be lost as a result.

I understand why the likes of Sean Hannity would rather talk about Cuomo's failed economic development efforts. Heck, I've been plenty critical of them, too.

But we have much more important worries right now.

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchill
According to rebel-run Al Masirah TV, the coalition launched 19 air attacks on the capital.

The Saudi-UAE coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen carried out more than a dozen air strikes on the capital Sanaa, the first such attacks on the city in months.

According to Houthi-run Al Masirah TV, the coalition launched 19 air raids on Monday. No casualties were reported so far.

The attacks on Sanaa came after Saudi Arabia intercepted two ballistic missiles the Houthis said they had launched on Saturday towards Riyadh and southern parts of the kingdom near the Yemeni border.

The Houthi attack coincided with the fifth anniversary of Saudi Arabias intervention in Yemens civil war.

Al Jazeeras Mohammed al-Attab, reporting from Sanaa, said about 25 air strikes hit the capital on Monday, the first such attack on the city in months.

The ministry of health has condemned the Saudi bombing, he said.

Pandemic threat

On Sunday, UN Yemen Envoy Martin Griffiths reiterated a call for an immediate cessation of hostilities to build momentum for a nationwide ceasefire, especially in light of the current coronavirus pandemic.

Yemen needs its leaders to focus every minute of their time on averting and mitigating the potentially disastrous consequences of a COVID-19 outbreak, Griffiths said in a statement overnight, referring to the respiratory illness coronavirus causes.

Yemen has not recorded any cases of the coronavirus, according to the World Health Organization.

Tens of thousands of people, many of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict, relief agencies say.

Airports, ports, bridges and roads have all been repeatedly attacked. Farms, schools, oil and gas facilities, factories and private businesses have also been targeted.

The fighting has triggered what the UN describes as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis, with millions displaced and in need of aid.
NEW YORK - Some Instacart and Amazon warehouse workers walked off the job Monday demanding greater safeguards against the coronavirus, even as both companies are speed-hiring hundreds of thousands of new workers to handle a surge in delivery orders.

The one-day strikes had little impact on consumers, but the unrest called attention to mounting discontent among low-wage workers who are on the front lines of the pandemic, serving the needs of those who can keep safe working from home. Whole Worker, a workers group for Whole Foods employees, is calling for a nationwide sick out on Tuesday.

Many workers in high demand are part-time or contracted employees, lacking in benefits such as paid sick time off or health care. In addition to demands for more protection against coronavirus, workers are citing longstanding grievances over practices that keep wages low and part-time workers from getting more hours.

Online grocery-delivery service Instacart and Amazon say they are working to equip their workers with sanitation gear and have taken steps to increase pay and extend paid sick time. Instacart said Sunday that it would make hand sanitizer available to its workers upon request and outlined changes to its tip system, but strikers said it was too little too late.

They need to give us hazard pay right now and it should be guaranteed, said Shanna Foster, a single mother who stopped working her Instacart gig two weeks ago out of fear of contracting the virus. It wasnt worth the risk.

But a rush of hiring is likely to dilute any attempts by existing workers to organize walk-offs. Many people are applying for the new jobs as layoffs surge in restaurants, retail, hospitality, airports and other industries that have shut down. Nearly 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, almost five times the previous record set in 1982.

While many Instacart workers said they would stop taking orders Monday, other, newer workers were reluctant to give up a source of income at a time of mass layoffs.

Im grateful to have some way to make money, said Summer Cooper, 39, who started working as an Instacart shopper in the Tampa Bay, Florida, area recently after losing her position as a server at a hotel restaurant.

San Francisco-based Instacart said it is nearing its goal of hiring 300,000 more workers  more than doubling its workforce  to fulfil orders it says have surged by 150% over last years levels in the past weeks.

In the past week, Instacart said 250,000 people have signed up to work as full-service shoppers  gig workers who make multiple trips a day to groceries stores to get and deliver groceries that people order on its app. The company said about 50,000 of those workers have actually started shopping.

It said the strike had no impact on its operations Monday, with 40% more shoppers using its platform compared to the same day last week.

Instacart workers are demanding $5 in hazard pay per order and a tip default on the app to at least 10%. The company instead announced Sunday that it would change the tip default to the amount last paid by the client, saying workers are seeing a surge in tips amid the pandemic.

Instacart is also giving 14 days of paid time off for any worker who is diagnosed with coronavirus, or is ordered to isolate, a policy it extended for another month last week. Strikers want that policy extended to any worker with a doctors note verifying an underlying condition making them vulnerable to the virus.

Several Amazon workers, meanwhile, walked out of an Amazon warehouse, in Staten Island, New York, on Monday demanding the facility be shut and cleaned during a paid time off after a co-worker tested positive for the virus. About 100 workers were expected to attend the rally, but Amazon said the number was much lower.

Amazon said it has taken aggressive steps to safeguard its employees from the virus, including enhanced cleaning and sanitation and social distancing enforcement. At the Staten Island facility, which employs 4,500 people, Amazon implemented daily temperature screenings.

Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon, also is offering a temporary $2 raise in hourly wages and two weeks of paid time off for anyone who tests positive for coronavirus or who is quarantined.

But Whole Workers, the group calling for a strike Tuesday, said they want hazard pay, immediate shut down of stores if a worker tests positive and health care benefits for part-time and seasonal workers.

Amazon is hiring 100,000 workers, a mix of full-time and part-time positions and include delivery drivers and warehouse workers. Walmart, Dollar General and Pizza Hut and other companies are hiring thousands more, both to meet a surge in delivery order and more in-store demand for basics like cleaning supplies and toilet paper.

Andrew Challenger, a senior vice-president of recruitment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said he expected a lot of competition for the new jobs despite the new risks from the pandemic.

Theres a tsunami of unemployed people who lost wages in the last two weeks. A lot of the people who have been let go are lower wage workers who left positions similar to the ones that need to be filled right now, Challenger said.

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Associated Press Writer Curt Anderson reported from St. Petersburg, Florida.

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This story has been corrected to show that the Whole Foods sick out is set for Tuesday, not Wednesday.
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As the nation grapples with the coronavirus pandemic that has left thousands dead and hospitals overwhelmed, residents of Miami Beach took advantage of sunny skies and warm weather to jet ski and get tans on yachts.

Some of South Floridas well-heeled citizens decided to flout stay-at-home orders issued by local governments and take to the waters off the Star Island neighborhood of Miami Beach where they water paddled, fished, and even drank Corona beer.

Several other Miamians in bikinis and tights decided to take advantage of the balmy 80-degree weather to get in some exercise on Sunday.

The images from South Florida make it seem as if there were no national emergency over the mounting toll caused by the spread of the coronavirus.

Florida state officials on Sunday reported an increase in the number of confirmed cases.

Miami Beach residents enjoyed a leisurely day on Sunday as temperatures soared to 80 degrees with barely a cloud in the sky

Despite a stay-at-home order issued by local governments throughout South Florida, residents of Miami Beach were out and about on Sunday

No social distancing for us! These two young women enjoy a nice chat aboard a yacht near Miami Beach's Star Island neighborhood on Sunday

In total, 4,077 Floridians tested positive for coronavirus. The state has also confirmed positive test cases for an additional 169 non-residents.

As of Sunday, 56 people have died in the state - a mortality rate of 1.32 per cent.

Most of those cases have been reported in Miami-Dade County, where 1,192 residents were confirmed to have been infected with the virus.

On Sunday alone, 208 coronavirus cases were reported statewdie. Of those, 71 were from Miami-Dade. The states death toll did not change on Sunday.

Broward County has a reported 828 cases of coronavirus. Of those 100 are in hospital being treated.

Palm Beach has reported 333 cases total as of Sunday while Monroe County reported 22 cases.

Earlier on Sunday, it was learned that two medical professionals in Florida died after being infected with coronavirus.

Another local water paddles near yachts in the Miami Beach section of Florida on Sunday

Several locals sail aboard a boat in the waters of Biscayne Bay near Miami Beach on Sunday

The image above shows a man taking two young children on a jet ski near Miami Beach on Sunday

Two women sunbathe aboard a yacht off the waters of Miami's Intracoastal on Sunday

These Floridians enjoy a gathering aboard a boat despite recommendations by the government to avoid people during the coronavirus pandemic

These two Floridians peak at their smartphones while taking in some sun in the Miami Beach section of Florida on Sunday

Two locals sit back and relax in the blazing Florida sun on Sunday while the nation grapples with the coronavirus pandemic

A local decides to go for a pleasant bike ride in the Miami Beach section of Florida on Sunday

A group of Floridians took their boat into Biscayne Bay on Sunday on what was a warm day with clear, sunny skies

Local county and city governments have urged residents of South Florida to stay at home so as to slow the spread of the coronavirus

The Intracoastal near the Star Island section of Miami Beach is considered one of the wealthiest areas in the country

Miami intensive care unit nurse Araceli Buendia Ilagan, 63, passed away on Saturday to complications of the virus, Jackson Memorial Hospital confirmed.

Her death comes four days after the passing of Dr. Alex Hsu, 67, who had worked at Northwest Medical Center in Margate, Florida, and died due to complications of COVID-19 on Tuesday.

Hsu and Ilagan are two of three health care workers who died this past week after being infected with coronavirus.

On Tuesday, New York City nurse Kious Kelly, 48, passed away after his hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital West, suffered a shortage of medical protective equipment that forced some nurses to wear trash bags.

Their tragic deaths serve as a somber reminder of the dire risks doctors and nurses face in working with coronavirus patients as hospitals report shortages of equipment, testing kits, and health care workers.

Nationwide there are over 123,000 cases of coronavirus and over 2,000 deaths.

Medical experts warn the contagious COVID-19 will continue to spread across the country as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's foremost infection disease expert, predicts the US could see between 100,000 to 200,000 deaths.

Some houses on Star Island cost as much as tens of millions of dollars and residents are known to keep boats and yachts

The waters off Miami Beach appear inviting to these residents who sailed on their boats and yachts on Sunday

The state of Florida has avoided imposing the same strict closures and lockdowns that other hard-hit states like New York, California, Ohio, New Jersey, Washington, and others have put in place

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis instead has chosen to let local county and municipal governments impose their own regulations

This boat owner tied a floating device to the back of his vessel while young kids enjoy themselves in the water

A young woman jet skis in Biscayne Bay on Sunday as South Floridians enjoy fun in the sun

Several county governments in South Florida including Miami-Dade and Broward have imposed curfews

These locals went fishing on Sunday as South Floridians enjoyed beautiful weather amid a worldwide pandemic

Floridas governor, Ron DeSantis, has faced mounting criticism at home for his response to the virus.

DeSantis, a Republican, has not imposed a statewide lockdown on businesses as other states have done.

Instead, local governments have imposed their own restrictions.

Several cities and counties throughout South Florida have imposed curfews.

DeSantis was the governor who reportedly urged his ally, President Trump, to impose a mandatory quarantine on New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the US, makes up nearly half of all cases nationwide.

Trump eventually abandoned the idea after governors balked and legal scholars questioned whether it was constitutional.

Florida has imposed restrictions on visitors from New York as well as another emerging hotspot, Louisiana.

Florida orders arrivals from Louisiana and New York into quarantine

DeSantis on Friday ordered anyone arriving from Louisiana to self-quarantine like those from New York in a bid to blunt the coronavirus pandemic.

DeSantis said he is expanding his quarantine order to include Louisiana after officials in the lightly hit Panhandle worried people will flee New Orleans as the number of positive tests there climb.

It is about a three-hour drive from New Orleans to Pensacola and DeSantis said the Florida Highway Patrol and sheriff's deputies will set up checkpoints to screen cars from Louisiana.

The order requires anyone coming from Louisiana to isolate themselves for two weeks under threat of a 60-day jail sentence.

Earlier this week he issued identical restrictions on visitors from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

'New Orleans is having a lot of problems  they may not be quite as widespread as New York City,' the governor said.

'There was a concern from the Panhandle that this could impact them. They are working hard to keep their rates low and we don't want to add any problems to them.'

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis ordered arrivals from New York and Louisiana to self-quarantine for 14 days

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards didnt object. Hes encouraging people from Louisiana to stay home, not travel.

'Im not going to second guess or criticize what other governors are doing, Edwards, a Democrat, said Friday.

DeSantis also said he will issue an order barring companies like Airbnb from renting homes and rooms to vacationers for two weeks. The ban will not affect hotels or motels.

Airbnb said in a statement that it is working with the state to provide housing for medical workers.

Despite criticism, DeSantis has refused to issue a statewide lockdown limiting residents' movements that states like California, New York and Illinois have done.

Instead, he has preferred to let local governments decide.

Restrictions are tight in South Florida, central Florida and the Tampa Bay area, but relatively light in the sparsely populated Panhandle.

He has ordered some statewide measures such as closing bars and gyms and limiting restaurants to takeout and delivery.

State parks have been closed.

Elsewhere, Florida's tourism industry was dealt another blow Friday as Disney World announced it will remain closed indefinitely.

The park closed in mid-March with plans to reopen next week, but Disney said Friday it and California's Disneyland would remain closed.

Disney said Friday it would continue to pay its tens of thousands of hourly workers through April 18.

Universal-Orlando has said it will remain closed until at least April 19.

An offshore supply vessel is seen next to the cruise ship MS Rotherdam, which brought supplies and Covid-19 test kits to the MS Zaandam, where four passengers died. The ship is seen above on Friday off the coast of Panama City

Also in Florida, at least a dozen police officers and deputies have tested positive and dozens more have self-quarantined as they await test results, including 40 deputies from Palm Beach County.

The positive virus tests came from three Miami Beach officers, three Palm Beach County deputies, two Miami officers and single officers in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa and Flagler Beach.

'The Miami Beach cases, they got it from spring break, kind of like New Orleans with Mardi Gras,' said Robert Jenkins, president of the Florida State Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police union.

He said that without masks, the officers are trying to keep their distance but still must do their jobs.

The union represents some 22,000 officers.

Meanwhile, four people have died aboard a cruise ship bidding to get to Fort Lauderdale as 130 others have exhibited symptoms of possibly infection.

Holland America said in a statement Friday the passengers died aboard the Zaandam after Chile refused it permission to dock last week.

The Zaandam was off Central America's Pacific Coast on Friday, awaiting permission to transit the Panama Canal in hopes of reaching Florida.

Holland America did not specify that the four died of coronavirus, but says more than 130 passengers and crew have possible symptoms.

At least two cases have been confirmed.

The ship has four doctors and four nurses to treat 1,243 passengers and 586 crew members.

The canal's administration said Friday the ship will not be allowed through if anyone aboard has been diagnosed with COVID-19 as its employees must board during its passage. The cruise line has been evacuating some passengers to a sister ship.

The ship left Argentina on March 7.

Broward County is debating whether to let the ship dock at its Port Everglades. The cruise line is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough.

For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, even death. The vast majority of people recover.
Germany is planning to test 200,000 people a day for coronavirus in the hope of replicating South Korea's success in slowing the outbreak, it has emerged.

Angela Merkel's government wants to test all suspected cases and the entire circle of people who have come into contact with a confirmed patient.

South Korea 'can be an example' and may also provide a model of how to use mobile phone tracking to contain the virus, Germany's disease control chief says.

Germany is already testing more than any other European country at a rate of up to 500,000 a week, but the latest plans would more than double that capacity.

A graph showing the daily number of coronavirus cases in Germany. The latest figures today show an increase of 4,751, bringing the total to 57,298

This graph shows the daily number of deaths, which has risen but is still below that in Spain and Italy

Medical staff transport a French patient infected with coronavirus after they were taken to a hospital in Essen, western Germany, at the weekend

The latest plans to ramp up testing were revealed in an interior ministry document seen by several German media outlets.

The idea, according to the document, is to move from tests 'that confirm the situation' to tests that 'get ahead of it'.

The current testing criteria are focused on screening people who have symptoms of Covid-19 or have come into contact with a known case.

Germany's proposed plans echo the 'trace, test and treat' strategy that appears to have helped South Korea bring its outbreak under control.

It has included mass screening for potential cases and heavy use of technology to monitor patients.

Although Germany and South Korea are two very different countries, the Asian nation's virus strategy 'can be an example', Germany's disease control chief said.

'A key point is tracing cell phone data,' Lothar Wieler, the head of the Robert Koch Institute, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper.

Surveillance is a particularly sensitive subject in Germany, where the East German Stasi and its network of informants were still operating barely 30 years ago.

Nonetheless, health minister Jens Spahn said it would be hard to ease Germany's lockdown without adequate tracking.

'Society needs this debate in my view,' Spahn told a news conference.

German military personnel inside an air force A400M Medevac unit, which took off from Wuensdorf yesterday to bring coronavirus patients from France to a German hospital

Military personnel move a coronavirus patient into an A400M Medevac airplane before departing to Stuttgart, in Strasbourg, France

South Korea has used immigration, public transportation and credit-card records in addition to location-tracking GPS data as it tries to contain the outbreak.

Officials initially released detailed information that enabled web developers to build maps tracking the movements of patients.

Germany's latest figures today show 57,298 confirmed coronavirus cases, an increase of 4,751 from yesterday's 52,547.

There have been 455 deaths, a jump of 66 from the total of 389 which was announced on Sunday.

The low mortality rate of 0.8 per cent has attracted much attention, although it has crept up from 0.4 per cent in the last week.

For comparison, Italy's death rate is 11.0 per cent, Spain's is 8.3 per cent, France's is 6.5 per cent and Britain's is 6.3 per cent.

German officials believe the low figure is attributable to mass testing, meaning that many people with mild symptoms have been added to the tally of cases.

In Britain, by contrast, many suspected cases are never confirmed because patients with mild symptoms are told to stay at home.

Germany's confirmed patients are also younger than Italy's, even though both countries have relatively old populations.

In addition, Germany has more intensive care facilities than many of its neighbours.

Nonetheless, German health minister Jens Spahn has warned that the country could face 'a storm' of new cases in the weeks ahead.

A coronavirus patient from Metz in France is transported from a military helicopter for treatment at the University Hospital in Essen yesterday

A deserted Berlin Tegel Airport with air traffic almost shut down because of the outbreak

Health chief Wieler warned that the dramatic scenes at Italian hospitals at breaking point could happen in Germany as well.

'We can't rule out that we will have more patients than ventilators here too,' he said.

Germany has 25,000 intensive care beds equipped with ventilators, but may be hampered by shortages of staff.

'In recent months, some intensive care beds have had to be put out of action because of a lack of staff,' said Reinhard Busse, a specialist in health economics at the Technical University of Berlin.

Germany currently has some 17,000 unfilled vacancies in nursing care.

As a result, many hospitals have resorted to drafting in retired health professionals or student medics, including at Berlin's Charite university hospital.

'Even before the coronavirus crisis, operations had to be cancelled because of a lack of staff,' said Uwe Luebking, head of labour market policies at the German Association of Towns and Municipalities.

Nurses can spend up to four hours a day doing paperwork as Germany continues to lag behind other nations in digitalising administrative tasks, experts say.

To make matters worse, confinement measures and border checks brought in to stem the virus spread have made it harder for foreign workers to travel to their German workplaces.

Healthcare institutions on the eastern border with Poland are particularly affected.

Critics have also argued that the German health system, which pays hospitals a fixed price per surgery, has led many hospitals to focus on the more lucrative practice of offering scheduled surgeries like hip or knee replacements, at the expense of strengthening their emergency care facilities.

Although Spahn has urged the directors of some 2,000 hospitals and clinics to cancel all non-urgent surgeries, several are resisting the call, German media says.
SACRAMENTO  California will try to recruit thousands of retired medical workers and students to meet an anticipated surge of patients during the coronavirus pandemic.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the launch of a health care corps Monday to staff medical sites being opened across the state to treat people infected with the virus. As part of the effort, Newsom signed an executive order allowing the state to waive staffing and licensing requirements for certain professions, including doctors, physicians assistants, home health aides and emergency medical technicians.

Many of us were drawn to careers in medicine because of the opportunity to truly help others. This is the work that weve been called to do. Now is our time, Shannon Udovic-Constant, a San Francisco pediatrician, said at a news conference during which Newsom unveiled a recruiting website.

The governor said the order would allow California to turn for help to a pool of about 37,000 inactive workers and students nearing the completion of their training. Health care professionals who have retired within the past five years could reinstate their licenses, while nursing and medical students could seek permission to treat patients as they finish their degrees. The Newsom administration plans to negotiate with unions to temporarily ease staff-to-patient and supervisor-to-worker ratios.

The state has around 75,000 hospital beds and estimates that it will need 50,000 more at the peak of the coronavirus outbreak, even with Californians currently ordered to stay at home. The number of hospitalizations related to the coronavirus doubled in the past four days to more than 1,400, Newsom said, and the number of patients in intensive care units tripled to nearly 600.

If youre a nursing school student, a medical school student, we need you. If youve just retired in the last few years, we need you, Newsom said.

Nursing students, in particular, who were weeks away from graduating before the coronavirus outbreak have reached out to Newsoms office, lobbying for provisional licenses so they can help treat coronavirus patients. Many had implored the governor to lift a requirement that they complete 75% of their clinical training in a hospital setting with patients, which became virtually impossible to do as hospitals closed their doors to students and other nonessential people.

Newsoms order would allow the state to grant provisional licenses to nursing students who are close to graduation, but would leave it up to the Board of Registered Nursing to decide later in individual cases whether that experience was enough for a permanent license.

If not, students may need to return back to the classroom and their clinical rotations to finish up and get their license down the road, said Mark Ghaly, secretary of the state Health and Human Services Agency.

That disappointed Sharon Goldfarb, dean of health sciences at College of Marin, who had advocated for moving nursing students through the pipeline more quickly. She said she will probably close the nursing school because she did not see a way for her students to finish the on-the-job training they need.

Its all optics and no substance, she said of Newsoms order.

But Stephanie Roberson, a lobbyist for the California Nurses Association, said the order struck a good balance between getting nursing students into hospitals while still ensuring they are fully prepared to enter the workforce. Students could treat patients without the coronavirus, she said, freeing up registered nurses to focus on the most difficult cases.

This is a great way to use the nursing students to get their practical clinical training, Roberson said.

Alexei Koseff and Rachel Swan are is San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: alexei.koseff@sfchronicle.com rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @akoseff @rachelswan
Johnson & Johnson said it was working to supply a billion doses of its candidate vaccine by next year

Johnson & Johnson said on Monday it had selected a lead candidate vaccine for the new coronavirus that would move to human trials by September and could be ready for emergency use by early next year.

The pharmaceutical company has signed an agreement with the US government's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to invest $1 billion in the effort, it said in a statement.

J&J began working on the investigational vaccine, Ad26 SARS-CoV-2 in January using the same technology it used to develop a candidate vaccine for Ebola.

It uses a deactivated version of the virus to try to trigger a human immune response.

The company said it was expanding its global manufacturing capacity both in the US and in other countries, to help it supply more than a billion doses of its vaccine around the world.

CEO Alex Gorsky said the company was "well positioned through our combination of scientific expertise, operational scale and financial strength to bring our resources in collaboration with others to accelerate the fight against this pandemic."

J&J is also working on antiviral treatments against the coronavirus.

Separately, the US pharmaceutical Moderna has already moved into human trials for its vaccine candidate, as has China's CanSinoBIO.

There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for the disease.

Several treatments are being investigated, including the antiviral remdesivir and antimalarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, but it is not yet clear whether they add anything to standard care.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2020 AFP
By John Burton





Could North Korea benefit from the COVID-19 crisis? The conventional view is that the virus poses a significant threat to North Korea's stability by weakening its economy and putting severe stress on its public health systems.



But if North Korea does succeed in becoming a "clean land" free of the virus, as it claims, it could strengthen the regime's argument to its people that the ideology of juche, or self-reliance, and an authoritarian government place it at an advantage in dealing with extraordinary threats. That system has already proved resilient in surviving other crises such as the famine of the 1990s  although at the cost of least 600,000 lives.



Pyongyang might also reap more immediate benefits. The pandemic appears to have put on hold its confrontation with the U.S. over its nuclear weapon program as Washington turns its attention to addressing its growing virus crisis at home. In addition, the pandemic could lead to the erosion of the international sanctions regime against North Korea.



The big question is whether North Korea's rapid but draconian response to the virus threat will succeed after it closed its borders with China and elsewhere in late January. That drastic action was an implicit acknowledgment that the country was particularly vulnerable to the pandemic.



Pyongyang has not yet reported any cases of the virus in the country, but it confirmed that 7,000 people had initially been quarantined for medical monitoring, although most have since been released. These "super-special" measures have imposed an economic cost when the growth rate has already contracted in recent years due to the sanctions.



North Korea has taken sensible steps to contain an outbreak. It has banned mass gatherings and reportedly introduced lockdown measures for the military. The government has highlighted other actions, such as rapidly building a new hospital in Pyongyang this year, meant to show the public that it is taking medical matters seriously.



Although North Korea may lack advanced healthcare facilities, its frontline primary care system has enough doctors to address infectious diseases, with the recent elimination of measles. The biggest vulnerability lies in the lack of clean, running water and stable electricity in some clinics in rural areas and a shortage of protective medical gear.



The North Korean public has displayed a stoic response to previous crises. There was apparently little unrest during the 1990s famine and the disastrous 2009 currency reform. This bodes well for continued social stability.



In the meantime, North Korea could turn the pandemic to its advantage in its relations with the U.S, which have soured since the collapse of the Hanoi summit between Kim Jong-un and President Donald Trump a year ago. The U.S. no longer appears interested in pressuring Pyongyang for the time being as Trump grapples with the COVID-19 outbreak and a financial meltdown in the U.S.



Instead, Trump has suggested in a personal letter to Kim that he is willing to improve relations by offering North Korea medical assistance, although Pyongyang has not yet responded.



An added bonus for North Korea is that the U.S. postponed its annual military exercises with South Korea scheduled for this spring due to COVID-19. Since Pyongyang regards these exercises as a major provocation, their delay has reduced tensions in the short term.



The COVID-19 pandemic has also produced the first possible cracks in the sanctions regime against North Korea. U.N. leaders, including Antonio Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, and Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, have called on the G-20 countries to ease international sanctions on North Korea because they are weakening global efforts to contain the spread of the virus.



This follows a similar proposal for sanctions relief by China and Russia in the U.N. Security Council last December. This effort has naturally been endorsed by Pyongyang, but even several senior U.S. Democrats are now urging the Trump administration to temporarily reduce sanctions to speed the delivery of humanitarian aid.



Although the U.N. Security Council is unlikely to act immediately on this appeal since it is not meeting due to COVID-19, these pleas might provide grounds for some countries, such as China and Russia, to test sanctions relief on their own.



Before it temporarily closed for business, the U.N. had accelerated approval of exemptions from its sanctions regime for several international humanitarian organizations to deliver medical aid to North Korea. U.N. sanctions introduced in late 2017 affected a range of goods, including any medical equipment made of metal, for which exemption approval must be sought.



If some sanctions are suspended, it could make it harder to reinstate them once the COVID-19 pandemic has passed. This would represent a setback for the U.S., which has relied heavily on sanctions as part of its maximum pressure campaign against North Korea.





John Burton (johnburtonft@yahoo.com), a former Korea correspondent for the Financial Times, is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and consultant.


Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, July 15, 2019.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

Officials in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia officially ordered residents to stay at home on Monday as the region sees an escalation in COVID-19 cases, effectively shutting down the Capital region.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, issued an executive order on Monday tightening previous restrictions placed on residents and businesses. The order takes effect at 8 p.m. on Monday.

Shortly after, Virginia and Washington, D.C., followed suit. Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, ordered residents to stay at home until June 10. "This is an unprecedented and difficult time," he said.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser tweeted that, "Staying at home is the best way to flatten the curve and protect yourself, your family, and our entire community from COVID-19." The order will go into effect at midnight on April 1.

In all three orders, people are allowed to leave their homes only for essential reasons, such as obtaining food and medicine or going to work if their job is considered essential. Some outdoor exercise is permitted, as long as people practice social distancing. Violators could be guilty of a misdemeanor and face imprisonment or fines.

Combined, the order covers more than 15 million people.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The mayor of Washington, D.C. and the governors of Maryland and Virginia have ordered their residents to stay at home to slow the spread of the coronavirus, putting over 15 million people on lockdown as the region experiences an uptick in confirmed cases.

The orders essentially demand a shutdown of the entire Capital region, with residents instructed to leave home only for essential activities such as food, medicine, caring for family, and limited forms of outdoor exercise.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan officially ordered residents to stay at home on Monday. A few hours later, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam followed suit, telling residents they needed to stay at home until June 10. By late afternoon, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser completed the shutdown of the Capital region, officially ordering city dwellers after the city previously shut down all non-essential businesses.

Story continues

Both governors lamented that some residents had continued to go out and gather, despite both states banning gatherings of more than ten people to prevent viral transmission.

The Washington D.C., Virginia, and Maryland region saw a sharp rise in coronavirus cases this month.

As of Monday morning, Maryland had 1,413 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, according to the state's department of health. So far 15 people have died and over 300 have been hospitalized. By Monday afternoon, Virginia had confirmed a total of 1,020 COVID-19 cases and 25 deaths, per its health department.

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., 401 people had tested positive and 9 had died as of Sunday, March 29.

Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) March 30, 2020

Washington, D.C.'s stay-at-home order is the "best way to flatten the curve," mayor says.

On Monday afternoon, Bowser tweeted that "due to an increasing number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in DC and across the region and the nation, I've issued a stay-at-home order for the District of Columbia."

The city's residents were already barred from gathering in large groups, and non-essential businesses had been ordered to close. Restaurants could still fill take out and delivery orders, however, though many establishments have opted to close for financial and safety reasons.

Mayor Muriel Bowser #StayHomeDC (@MayorBowser) March 30, 2020

Bowser's order takes effect at midnight on April 1.

It permits Washingtonians to leave their home for essential activities such as grocery shopping, obtaining medical care that cannot be conducted through telemedicine, and certain essential forms of travel.

But Bowser warned that those willfully violation of the order could be found guilty of a misdemeanor and face a $5,000 fine, up to 90 days of imprisonment, or both.

Maryland is "no longer asking" people to stay home. It's now mandatory.

"This is a deadly public-health crisis," Hogan said. "We are no longer asking, or suggesting that Marylanders stay home. We are directing them to do so."

The stay-at-home order takes effect at 8 p.m. on Monday.

Anyone who violates the order would be guilty of a misdemeanor, Hogan said, and if convicted could face jail time or a fine up to $5,000.

"No Maryland resident should be leaving their home unless it is for an essential job, or for an essential reason, such as obtaining food or medicine, seeking urgent medical attention, or for other necessary purposes," Hogan said.

The executive order signed by Hogan provides a full list of "essential" activities that include caring for pets, relatives, and friends. The order permits outdoor exercise in forms such as walking, hiking, running, or biking, but they cannot be conducted in groups of more than 10 people.

Maryland began taking action to impose social-distancing orders earlier this month. The governor declared a state of emergency on March 5, and on March 23 he ordered all nonessential businesses to close and told residents to avoid groups of 10 people or more. Monday's executive order updates those directives to a stay-at-home directive.

But Hogan said many residents were still not listening.

"Despite all of those actions and our repeated warnings for more than three weeks, and in spite of the rapid escalation of this crisis across the world, the nation, and our state, some people are still choosing to ignore those executive orders and directives.

"Those individuals are endangering themselves and their fellow citizens," Hogan said.

Virginia's governor orders residents to stay at home after 'beaches and recreational areas were literally packed.'

"It is clear more people need to hear this basic message: stay home," Northam said at a Monday press conference, after lamenting that people still flocked to beaches and parks despite orders from the government to practice social distancing.

Under Northam's order, residents would need to stay at home except to conduct essential tasks, and the order will be in effect until June 10. "It will take time to show results," he said.

Virginia's stay-at-home order is similar to Maryland's in regards to what activity is allowed and prohibited. People could leave their homes for essential reasons, such as buying groceries, caring for animals or family members, getting exercise as long as they practiced social distancing.

But any parties or social gatherings of more than 10 people were prohibited. Beaches would be closed to any activity except exercising or fishing, he said, and people should not go to the store unless they needed to stock up on multiple items.

"This is an unprecedented and difficult time," Northam said. "And it will be hard for people."

Read more: These Republican governors are ordering everyone to stay home because of coronavirus, defying Trump's impatience to reopen the economy

Read the original article on Business Insider
Consumers are choosing everything from cars to chicken sandwiches based on corporate values. Understanding an array of customer personas can guide tactics for landing and keeping them, highlights Firas Sleem, CEO, Virtue Consulting.

Studies have long shown that your conviction to do good will lead customers to spend more, recommend you more, and remain loyal. Yet they seldom describe the mechanisms that brand managers can use to benchmark and track reputation.

A recent global study found that 62 per cent of consumers want companies to take a stand on pressing issues such as fair employment practices, immigration, data privacy and climate change. In the same study, nearly half of consumers (48 per cent) would publicly complain about their disappointment with a company whose words or actions are misaligned with their personal values, and one-fifth of consumers (21 per cent) said theyd abandon that brand out of frustration and would never return.

Reputation is, by definition, opinions held. Like beauty, it is subjective, mercurial, and challenging to categorise. The key to the art of measuring reputation is knowing your audienceideally, every single member of your audience, Sleem points out.

"In 2020, having an outstanding reputation  both online and offline  is even more imperative as competition becomes tougher. Managing ones reputation gives businesses the competitive edge as well as the confidence to carve a niche in their industries and work towards becoming a leader. This puts brand reputation management at the heart of building a genuine public corporate persona; an image that is based on a foundation of customer relations nurtured from the get-go," he says.

Reputation management requires an all-encompassing approach. A good brand manager knows how to maximise key platforms to effectively convey a carefully crafted and appealing message to the target audience. The objective is not just to bring the message out there but, more importantly, to influence or shape public views about the entity as well.

It requires great and consistent efforts to build and sustain an unassailable reputation. From offering top-notch products and services to establishing an emotional connection with your target market, reputation management is all about relationships between you, the brand, and your stakeholders, partners, and the community you serve, he notes.

The traditional way of measuring ones reputation is finding out what your target audience is saying about your brand  both good and bad  to understand the ever-changing sentiments of your public. Scouring each platform, including checking your social media notifications, reading reviews, and listening to views and opinions, is part and parcel of your work as a brand manager.

Being proactive in knowing the publics sentiments allows you to immediately act on their concerns to prevent the issues from spiraling out of control. It also enables you to contain any negative feedback, effectively nipping it in the bud. While acting on the concern, rather than being defensive, it is important to let the other party know that their suggestions and ideas are valued and appreciated. One of the secrets to having a good reputation is knowing how to handle unflattering feedback, Sleem notes.

Listening to the public perception of your brand gives you insights as well into what they find interesting and worth applauding. You can keep track of and record how the public perception of your brand is being affected by every success story you communicate. By doing so, you can effectively design your next campaigns to make them more powerful and impactful. Emphasising positive reviews also help in drowning out the negative voices, which inevitably crop up.

Further, reputation management entails monitoring your market competitors to keep you on your toes at all times. It will prevent you from being caught off guard. Having inside knowledge of what is happening within the industry you are operating in is also an advantage that lets you strategise more effectively, he says.

Other traditional methods available concerning reputation management include word of mouth, direct and consistent communication with the media, partners, and stakeholders, and the examination all brand-related keywords across channels.

There are cutting-edge tools and mechanisms specifically designed to keep track and monitor the reputation of your brand. We have automated media monitoring tools that are extremely efficient in measuring prevailing opinions. Research, surveys, and studies based on the best industry practices are data-driven tools that are useful in managing an entitys public image. Technology-driven software programs are also highly effective, especially in catching and handling negative comments, he says.

For better management, many companies, especially multinationals, outsource this service to an agency that is more experienced in dealing with the public. The agency is more adept at engaging with the target audience by timely delivering the message using the most effective channels.

Reputation management all boils down to building clear communication with everyone internally or externally - and setting the right and practical expectations. Maintaining an outstanding reputation goes beyond delivering high-quality products and services, but it is also about showcasing what makes your brand unique, living up to your commitment and promises, and providing the best customer experience.

It is a continuing process. You check, analyse, and tweak your strategy now and then according to the prevailing demands and needs. In the end, reputation management is an effort worth investing in, Sleem says. - TradeArabia News Service
ZTE just released its Axon 11 5G smartphone, and now it is preparing another Snapdragon 765G-powered phone with 5G capabilities. It will be called ZTE a1 ZTG01 and will arrive in July, but its specs were already revealed by the Japanese carrier au.

The phone will have four shooters on the back, sitting in a square setup in the upper left corner and a flat screen with a punch.

The Snapdragon 765G chipset of the ZTE a1 ZTG01 is coupled with 6GB RAM, 128 GB storage and you also get a microSD slot for up to 1TB of expansion. The phone is built around a 6.5 LCD with Full HD+ resolution.

The quad-cam setup on the back has a main 48MP cam + 8MP ultrawide shooter + 2 MP macro + ToF sensors, according to our rusty Japanese. The selfie shooter is listed as 32 MP.

Other specs of the ZTE a1 ZTG01 include the battery, which will be 4,000 mAh, Android 10 out of the box, and all the latest connectivity options - Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, while the 5G connectivity is on the sub6 spectrum.

We have to wait a little bit more to learn whether this phone would escape Japan and what it might be called internationally.

Source (in Japanese) | Via
Deputy Chairperson of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev does not rule out a possibility of stricter measures introduced if the coronavirus pandemic gets worse in the country.

"We should be ready for any scenarios emerging. The worst-case scenario will require even tougher decisions," Medvedev said in his address to the nation issued on his social media pages.

The official called on Russians "to do everything possible to avoid it - be mindful of the presidents address, show self-discipline and primarily not create additional risks for yourself and your family." "This is not the first epidemic in the worlds history and we all know that people managed to defeat many diseases when they united," TASS cited him as saying.

At the same time, Medvedev noted that in this situation "it is especially important to not let panic overtake you." He reassured the nation that all the necessary measures are being taken to counter the virus.

"Russian medics are gracefully overcoming the toughest of challenges by helping out patients round the clock. I wish to specifically thank them for that," Medvedev added, emphasizing that Russia is managing to contain the virus thanks to doctors efforts.
This is on CPS and its educators to ensure 2020 doesnt devolve into a lost school year for the citys children. And everyone in the CPS orbit  parents, teachers, administrators and students  should be preparing a makeup plan now. Summer getaways may need to take a back seat. Makeup days should not be selected on dates students and teachers are likely to not show up; earlier this year, more than 100,000 students and hundreds of teachers didnt bother to go to school on strike makeup days.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 11:10:35|Editor: Xiang Bo

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SYDNEY, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Scientists in Australia have developed a COVID-19 diagnostic tool, to help doctors identify the disease in CT scans of patients' lungs, with the potential to save thousands of lives.

Sydney-based start-up, DetectED-X, on Monday launched a free online platform called CovED, which teaches health workers to identify the presence of COVID-19 by adapting their existing diagnostic program formerly used to detect breast cancer.

DetectED-X Chief Executive and University of Sydney Medical Radiation Scientist, Professor Patrick Brennan told Xinhua that the tool can be used to evaluate the severity of the disease as well, a significant advantage over other diagnostic methods.

"They'll be able to say with more confidence that this patient has COVID-19, and the severity of the disease," Brennan said.

"Once clinicians get this information much more accurately and much more rapidly, they're able then to triage the patient and send the patient on to the best possible subsequent treatment."

By completing modules taking only a little over an hour, health professionals unfamiliar with lung radiology can be upskilled to identify the presence and severity of COVID-19, improving the efficacy of strained health services.

Brennan explained that what is difficult for untrained health practitioners in identifying COVID-19 from a lung scan, is that there is no one element which indicates the virus' presence -- meaning that an informed judgment is required.

"You've got to judge the image and bring several features together, when you see these several features together, you then say this is a high risk for COVID-19," he said.

Brennan encouraged health practitioners all over the world to access the DetectED-X website to use CovED, which he believes has the power to help save thousands of lives.

"It's an educational tool that's freely available anywhere in the world and it's using proven technology that is known to improve detection of disease," Brennan said.

University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor and Principal Dr. Michael Spence described the project as part of the global response to the disease as recommended by world health experts.

"We are calling on healthcare professionals, and community members alike, to make sure everyone knows this crucial new diagnostic tool to ramp up COVID-19 responses is freely available," he said.
Researchers dated ash deposits from this hill, called a koppie in South Africa. The lower part of koppie Loskop exposes strata from before the end-Permian extinction (Palingkloof Member of the Balfour Formation), while the upper part contains layers deposited after the extinction (Katberg Formation). CREDIT Photo courtesy of John Geissman

The mass extinction at the end of the Permian Peri od 252 million years ago -- one of the great turnovers of life on Earth -- appears to have played out differently and at different times on land and in the sea, according to newly redated fossils beds from South Africa and Australia.

New ages for fossilized vertebrates that lived just after the demise of the fauna that dominated the late Permian show that the ecosystem changes began hundreds of thousands of years earlier on land than in the sea, eventually resulting in the demise of up to 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species. The later marine extinction, in which nearly 95% of ocean species disappeared, may have occurred over the time span of tens of thousands of years.

Though most scientists believe that a series of volcanic eruptions, occurring in large pulses over a period of a million years in what is now Siberia, were the primary cause of the end-Permian extinction, the lag between the land extinction in the Southern Hemisphere and the marine extinction in the Northern Hemisphere suggests different immediate causes.

"Most people thought that the terrestrial collapse started at the same time as the marine collapse, and that it happened at the same time in the Southern Hemisphere and in the Northern Hemisphere," said paleobotanist Cindy Looy, University of California, Berkeley, associate professor of integrative biology. "The fact that the big changes were not synchronous in the Northern and Southern hemispheres has a big effect on hypotheses for what caused the extinction. An extinction in the ocean does not, per se, have to have the same cause or mechanism as an extinction that happened on land."

Members of Looy's lab have conducted experiments on living plants to determine whether a collapse of Earth's protective ozone layer may have irradiated and wiped out plant species. Other global changes -- a warming climate, a rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and an increase in ocean acidification -- also occurred around the end of the Permian period and the beginning of the Triassic and likely contributed.

On land, the end-Permian extinction of vertebrates is best documented in Gondwana, the southern half of the supercontinent known as Pangea that eventually separated into the continents we know today as Antarctica, Africa, South America and Australia. There, in the South African Karoo Basin, populations of large herbivores, or plant eaters, shifted from the Daptocephalus assemblage to the Lystrosaurus assemblage. These groups are now extinct.

In the ocean, the extinction is best documented in the Northern Hemisphere, in particular by Chinese fossils. The end-Permian extinction is perhaps best associated with the demise of trilobites.

To improve on previous dates for the land extinction, an international team of scientists, including Looy, conducted uranium-lead dating of zircon crystals in a well-preserved volcanic ash deposit from the Karoo Basin. Looy, who is also a curator of paleobotany at the campus's Museum of Paleontology and curator of gymnosperms at the University and Jepson Herbaria, confirmed that sediments from several meters above the dated layer were devoid of Glossopteris pollen, evidence that these seed ferns, which used to dominate late Permian Gondwanan floras, became extinct around that time.

At 252.24 million years old, the zircons -- microscopic silicate crystals that form in rising magma inside volcanoes and are spewed into the atmosphere during eruptions -- are 300,000 years older than dates obtained for the confirmed Permian-Triassic (P-T) boundary in China. This means that the sediment layer assumed to contain the P-T boundary in South Africa was actually at least 300,000 years too old.

Dates for an ash deposit in Australia, just above the layers that document the initial plant extinction, similarly came in almost 400,000 years older than thought. That work was published in January by Christopher Fielding and colleagues at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

"The Karoo Basin is the poster child for the end-Permian vertebrate turnover, but until recently, it was not well-dated," Looy said. "Our new zircon date shows that the base of the Lystrosaurus zone predates the marine extinction with several hundred thousand years, similar to the pattern in Australia. This means that both the floral and faunal turnover in Gondwana is out of sync with the Northern Hemisphere marine biotic crisis.

"For some years now, we have known that -- in contrast to the marine mass extinction -- the pulses of disturbance of life on land continued deep into the Triassic Period. But that the start of the terrestrial turnover happened so long before the marine extinction was a surprise."

In their paper, Looy and an international team of colleagues concluded "that greater consideration should be given to a more gradual, complex, and nuanced transition of terrestrial ecosystems during the Changhsingian (the last part of the Permian) and, possibly, the early Triassic."

Looy and colleagues published their findings March 19 in the open access journal Nature Communications. Her co-authors are Robert Gastaldo of Colby College in Maine; Sandra Kamo of the University of Toronto in Ontario; Johann Neveling of the Council for Geosciences in Pretoria, South Africa; John Geissman of the University of Texas in Dallas and Anna Martini of Amherst College in Massachusetts. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

Please follow Astrobiology on Twitter.
By: Andrea Jadi Nemeth lawyer: Humanity is facing the greatest challenge of the 21st century: the coronavirus differs from the hitherto known influenza that we learned to live with.

It is an epidemic that already takes its toll on our daily lives and has significant impact on our work. With rapidly increasing intensity, governments are working hard to fight the economic impacts of the pandemic, but it appears that a severe economic recession can no longer be avoided.



The Hungarian Government has also slammed on the brakes and introduced some measures to assist Employers to uphold their operation and protect their employees health conditions.



The Government Decree No. 47/2020 released last week enabled Employers to take necessary and adequate steps to monitor the health status of their Employees. It looks like a minor change, but in fact two months ago it would have been impossible for an Employer to just think about obliging Employees to seek immediate medical attention.



Being the legal translation of the so called social distancing, the most significant modification relates to the Employers rights to instruct home office and remote work.



The Hungarian Labor Code went through a number of amendments in the last years, but the rules on the workplace to carry out work has remained largely unchanged. In line with other European countries, Employers in Hungary have also been entitled to instruct Employees to work from home, but only for up to 44 working days, or 352 working hours per year.



An agreement between Employee and Employer would have been required to surpass these thresholds. Pregnant women and families with a small child, single parents until their child reaches sixteen years of age, Employees providing long-term care for a close relative in person and Employees with serious health impairment could not have been instructed at all to work at a different workplace, not even at home, without their consent.



It means practically that in case of traditional, good old employment contracts with a fixed place of work, the Employers should have individually agree with every and each Employee to enable longer-term remote working.



From now on, any Employer is free to order telework for an indefinite period of time, for any Employee (even if they would fall into an of the abovementioned preferential categories) without any limitation, or Employee consent.



A further modification relates to the Employees working schedule. Up until last week an Employer should have announced any change at least 96 hours (i.e. 4 days) in advance.



The rule was meant to protect the interests of Employees so that they were not exposed to unexpected, immediate changes in their daily work routine. Now that regulation has been lifted, too, without any restriction.



Finally, the new law allows Employers and Employees to deviate from the provisions of the Labor Code. The novelty of this provision is that it legalizes also those agreements that are more detrimental for the Employees than what the Labor Code would otherwise allow. Still better than loosing jobs.



The new labor rules help indeed to slow down the economic clock, but both Employees and Employers should realize that certain employment hurdles exist. There are Employees, for whom home office cannot or has not been ordered, while no school or care location is available for their children.



They cannot appear for work even if they are free of symptoms of illness. For them the new Government Decree is of little help. Theoretically, they could go on their annual paid vacation, but as per the old rules, they can only use 7 days at times of their own choice, but only if they first notify their Employer 15 days in advance.



Save for strict statutory exceptions (e.g. Employees with a child under the age of three years), Employees are not entitled to unilaterally take unpaid vacation either, only if their Employer agrees to it.



Quarantine has long been a rather historic term that we are now learning to live with. We should keep in mind however, that voluntary quarantine is not a legal category and unless the Employer orders remote work, the Employees voluntary quarantine can only be performed in the form of paid or unpaid vacation, generally with the consent of the Employer.



By contrast, if the Employer obliges the employee to go into voluntary quarantine, as a newly enabled health-check measure, such an order can be regarded as a release from work along with payment of salary or as ordering of home-based work.



Should a quarantine (in Hungarian: jarvanyugyi zarlat) be officially ordered by the government or an administrative body, it can only be considered as a legitimate ground for a paid sick leave, if the Employer cannot offer any other working options for the Employee.



However, if the Employee is separated from a medical point of view in a mandatory pandemic quarantine (in Hungarian: elkulonites), he/she qualifies as uncapable of work and will be entitled to paid sick leave.



It is very likely that in the upcoming days the government will order the closure of facilities or a curfew, whereby Employees with no home office option cannot access their place of work.



The trending interpretation of law for such a case is that Employees may seek paid sick leave. Nevertheless, a different (conservative) approach is also to be mentioned that such an event may qualify as a force majeure event that automatically relieves Employers from their labor law related obligations (including salary payment) without triggering the stipulation on the Act on Social Securities on the Employees right to paid sick leave.



Needless to say that further changes in the legal environment are on their way to fight the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.



Click here to visit bpv Jadi Nemeth Attorneys at Law online
Amid the COVID-19 crisis, health insurance companies Cigna and Humana announced that they will waive patient cost-sharing for al COVID-19 treatments, which include hospitalization and ambulance transfers for all of their insured members.

In a statement by Cigna president and CEO David Cordani, he said that their customers should be focusing on fighting the virus and preventing its spread and not worrying about bills to pay. He further added that while the people are still regaining their healths, the company got their backs.

The waiver applies to all medical costs which are related to the treatment of the deadly virus, according to the insurers. These medical costs include but are not limited to FDA-approved drugs and vaccines when they are made available to the public. The costs will then apply to their privately insured group and individual plans, Medicaid and Medicare members.

On top of this, the President and CEO of Humana, Bruce Broussard stated that they are taking significant action to help ease the burden on those who are struggling at the moment, especially the seniors who are at high risk of getting the diseases. Also adding that no American should be worried about the costs at the moment while trying to survive this disease.

A week ago, Aetna of CVS Health was the first major insurance carrier to waive the cost-sharing amongst their members who are receiving treatment for COVID-19.

The discussion about waiving the cost-sharing on COVID-19 hospitalization costs, aside from testing followed after US President Donald Trump said on March 11 that the insurers would be waiving said expenses,

More insurers are expected to follow the lead of Aetna, Humana, and Cigna and commit to waive essentially all out-of-pocket costs for COVID-19. However, they would be electing to do so without knowing how much the costs would be.

Read also: Trump Says New York Area Quarantine Unnecessary as COVID-19 Deaths in US Reaches 2,000

Medical costs of COVID-19 could reach $95 billion

Earlier this month, analysts at S&P Global has released an estimate of the possible collective cost that health insurers would face amid the COVID-19 crisis. An estimate of $95 billion was declared which includes medical cost in a severe national epidemic with the assumption that 30% of the members would be infected with the virus.

Based on the analyses of S&P, they calculated hospitalization costs for patients which would require intensive case could reach more than $20,000 for patients under 65 and are on private insurance place. Meanwhile, it would costs around $12,000 for Medicare patients.

Financial impact on insurers and employers

While insurers may have a better idea of how much COVID-19 treatments would cost from the growing cases and rate of hospitalizations in some states like New York and Washington, there is no telling as of the moment on how widespread the epidemic will be.

According to CVS Health, at the moment there is still no reasonable way to estimate how adverse the impact of the epidemic will be for insurance carriers since there is still minimum known information on the severity that the outbreak would reach. Thus, they still cannot calculate the impact on them but they are already expecting it would be massive.

Related article: Wuhan Coronavirus Patient Zero Found? Reports Point to Chinese Shrimp Peddler

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
By IANS

NEW DELHI: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has expressed admiration and gratitude for the steps taken by the Indian government to meet the challenges arising out of the coronavirus pandemic. "Today, we are passing through an exceptionally difficult time due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic," the Dalai Lama said in a message.

"In addition to this, further problems confront humanity such as extreme climate change. I would like to take this opportunity to express my admiration and gratitude to governments across the world, including the Government of India, for the steps they are taking to meet these challenges", he added.

A special message from His Holiness the Dalai Lama regarding the coronavirus pandemic. https://t.co/GLSkBN8AQK  Dalai Lama (@DalaiLama) March 30, 2020

"In particular, I appreciate the initiative India has taken with other SAARC countries to set up an emergency fund and an electronic platform to exchange information, knowledge and expertise to tackle the spread of Covid-19. This will serve as a model for dealing with such crises in future as well," Dalai Lama said.

He added that the ancient Indian tradition describes the creation, abiding and destruction of worlds over time. "Among the causes of such destruction are armed conflict and disease, which seems to accord with what we are experiencing today. However, despite the enormous challenges we face, living beings, including humans, have shown a remarkable ability to survive," he added.

"I understand that as a result of the necessary lockdowns across the world, many people are facing tremendous hardship due to a loss of livelihood. For those with no stable income life is a daily struggle for survival. I earnestly appeal to all concerned to do everything possible to care for the vulnerable members of our communities," said Dalai Lama asking people to help those in distress.

The Dalai Lama also sought to ask people not to feel anxious and do what is possible. "No matter how difficult the situation may be, we should employ science and human ingenuity with determination and courage to overcome the problems that confront us. Faced with threats to our health and well-being, it is natural to feel anxiety and fear. Nevertheless, I take great solace in the following wise advice to examine the problems before us: If there is something to be done, do it, without any need to worry; if there's nothing to be done, worrying about it further will not help," he added in his message.

"With heartfelt feelings of concern for my brothers and sisters around the world who are passing through these difficult times, I pray for an early end to this pandemic so that your peace and happiness may soon be restored," the Dalai Lama said.
Egypt reported on Monday 47 new coronavirus cases and one more death, said health minister Hala Zayed.

The total number of confirmed cases now stands at 656, with the total death toll rising to 41.

In a separate statement, the ministry said the new fatality was a 44-year-old woman from Cairo who passed away upon arrival at the isolation hospital.

The statement added that 18 people -- two foreigners and 16 Egyptians -- have fully recovered and left isolation hospitals. The total number of recoveries has thus increased to 150 from a total of 196 cases whose test results turned from positive to negative.

Zayeds statement was made during a meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly to follow up on the health ministrys efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak.Zayed stated there are currently 26 laboratories across governorates to conduct PCR tests, and that there will be more in the next 48 hours.

Zayed briefed Madbouly on the geographical distribution of the cases, and on the tracking and investigation work of the ministrys teams.

They also discussed the availability of various medical supplies at the ministry's hospitals.

Egypts health ministry spokesperson Khaled Meghad said on Saturday that some villages have been isolated in 10 governorates in a bid to stop any possible spread of coronavirus.

Zayed said on Friday that Egypt has a sufficient number of IC beds and ventilators and is being supplied with more.

She told MBC Masr satellite channel over the phone that Egypt has a purchase plan to make protective gear available despite the global shortage.

Egypt has already halted international flights, banned mass gatherings, shuttered cinemas, mosques and churches, and suspended communal prayers in an effort to slow the spread of the virus that claimed the lives of thousands of people around the world.

A nationwide curfew is also in effect daily from 7 pm to 6 am until 7 April.

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A screen shows the trading info for The Walt Disney Company company on the floor of the NYSE in New York

By Helen Coster

(Reuters) - Walt Disney Inc <DIS.N> Executive Chairman Bob Iger will forgo his salary and newly named Chief Executive Officer Bob Chapek will take a 50% pay cut amid the coronavirus crisis, according to an internal email from Chapek.

Disney will reduce the salaries of its vice presidents by 20%, senior vice presidents by 25%, and executive vice presidents and above by 30% effective April 5, according to the email. "This temporary action will remain in effect until we foresee a substantive recovery in our business," wrote Chapek.

Disney said on Friday its parks in California and Florida will remain closed until further notice, as authorities step up efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.

The company will pay workers at both Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort through April 18.

On Monday newspaper publisher Gannett Co Inc <GCI.N> also announced compensation changes in response to the pandemic. In an email to staff, CEO Paul Bascobert said the company's executive team will be taking a 25% reduction in pay and he will be forgoing pay until Gannett's employee furloughs and pay reductions are reversed.

(Reporting by Helen Coster in New York and Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni and Cynthia Osterman)
Cevian builds CRH stake

ICR Newsroom By 30 March 2020

Swedish activist fund Cevian has bought further shares in CRH in less than a fortnight. The fund now holds a 3.145 per cent stake in the Ireland-based building materials producer.



Cevian first purchased shares in CRH in February, calling for a simplification of the business, but has since appeared more supportive of the management.



"When this [coronavirus outbreak] passes, CRH's fundamentals will still be strong, and the business well positioned to benefit from increased public construction spending," Cevian Capital Managing Partner, Christer Gardell told Reuters.

Following a peak of over EUR36 last month, CRH stock halved with the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis. Shares closed last week at EUR23.20.

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Malin Andersson has revealed that she's returned to her previous job as a carer for the elderly and terminally ill, after feeling a 'void' while away from the sector.

The Love Island star, 26, took to Twitter to make the revelation on Sunday, while declaring she felt compelled to help out during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She wrote: 'So Ive decided to return to my former job as a carer throughout this horrible period. For those that dont know I became a carer for the elderly/palliative care after my mum died and it brought me so much satisfaction.

Carer: Malin Andersson has revealed that she's returned to her previous job as a carer for the elderly and terminally ill, after feeling a 'void' while away from the sector

'I cant sit at home on my own anymore knowing I have training within the sector. My heart hurts for them, and if I can give something more then what Im doing - then I am satisfied.'

She added: 'Im blessed to be able to work from home and that Im financially free. I have a roof over my head.I have food.

'But with all of that something is still missing-thats me sat here healthy knowing I can do more. Giving to others fills a void that material things can never bring.'

Helping hand: The Love Island star, 26, took to Twitter to make the revelation on Sunday, while declaring she felt compelled to help out during the COVID-19 pandemic

Twitter announcement: Taking to her account on the micro-blogging site, she made the revelation and shared her reasons for going back to the sector

Malin's announcement comes days after she reflected on her battle with suicidal thoughts.

While expressing concerns over the mental health state of those self-isolating, the reality star gave fans an insight into her own struggles.

The TV personality turned mental health and body positivity advocate spoke candidly about her own experiences in a bid to help out others.

Alongside a picture taken on a holiday in Bali, Malin warned that even when people appear to be coping, there's no knowing how they are really feeling.

Explaining that repressed emotions can come through at any time, she recalled going on holiday after the death of her daughter, believing that she was dealing with her grief, but had instead buried it.

Harrowing thoughts: Malin's announcement comes days after she reflected on her battle with suicidal thoughts. Pictured in September 2019

Malin lost her baby daughter Consy last January, just one month after giving birth to her due to 'complications' with being born seven weeks premature.

Recalling the holiday she took shortly afterwards, she said: 'I was in Bali, my first real escape after Consy. I had a freeing, amazing time.

'I then came back to normality tried to "live" but I didnt want to. Pause. This isnt spoken enough. Its only spoken about when it happens. Listen.

'I was happy. People thought I was ok again, they thought I was over everything. My actions said so. My social media said so too. To everyone else I was "Happy".

'Truth: I wasnt. I tried. I was suppressed. I wasnt feeling my pain. I was ignoring the fact I wasnt ok.'

Honest: Malin warned that even when people appear to be coping, there's no knowing how they are really feeling

Urging her followers not to ignore any signs, she encouraged them not to beat themselves up if they were struggling with their thoughts during isolation.

She reasoned: 'Take all of this one step at a time. Nobody said this was an easy journey. Nobody prepared us for this.

'But remember this; they put you on this earth because you are strong. You are capable of fighting, and you will get through this and see the light that exists on the way out.

'Its going to be the most bitter-sweet journey youll ever have. Sending my warmest hugs. Tagged what helps me. Reach out, dont feel ashamed.'

Tragic loss: Malin lost her baby daughter Consy last January, just one month after giving birth to her due to 'complications' with being born seven weeks premature

Malin, who appeared on series two of Love Island in 2016, gave birth seven weeks early on December 23, 2018.

Just one month later she shared the devastating news with fans that sweet Consy had passed away after being cared for at Great Ormond Street.

For Malin, her daughter's passing came after the devastating loss of her own mum who passed away in November 2017.

If you have been affected by this story, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org

For help with the loss of a child, contact The Lullaby Trust on 0808 802 6868 or visit www.lullabytrust.org.uk
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Linkedin Budi Sutrisno (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 31 2020

Safety procedure: Wearing a standardized protective suit, a health worker demonstrates how to treat a COVID-19 patient at a hospital run by Malang Muhammadiyah University in Malang, East Java on Monday. (JP/Nedi Putra AW)

The COVID-19 pandemic has created tension and panic in a number of communities in Indonesia as residents scramble to distance themselves from perceived risks of infection.

This week in Medan, North Sumatra, residents attempted to prevent the burial of a suspected COVID-19 case in a Muslim cemetery, even though the family had followed the safety procedures set by health authorities.

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Krzysztof Penderecki, a composer and conductor whose music evoked religious wonder, apocalyptic terror and the tumultuous history of his native Poland with an emotional intensity that made him a favorite of rock musicians and filmmakers, died March 29 in Krakow, Poland. He was 86.

His death was announced by the Ludwig van Beethoven Association, a Polish music organization founded by his wife, Elzbieta. The organization did not give a specific cause, citing only "a long and serious illness."

Penderecki (his name was pronounced KSHISH-toff pen-duh-RETS-key) was one of the world's preeminent composers, known for writing musical lamentations inspired by World War II, the Holocaust, the Polish anti-communist movement and Old Testament religious texts that reflected his Catholic upbringing.

Although he spent much of his career writing music under the yoke of communism, he emerged on the international scene in the 1960s as a bracingly original talent, composing choral and orchestral works that featured quarter tones, indeterminate pitches, rapid glissandi and eerie knocks, shrieks, whistles and sirens. Some of his scores did not specify specific notes; others instructed string musicians to slap their instruments or play behind the bridge.

Penderecki also wrote operas, symphonies and chamber pieces, developing a more familiar sound that harked back to music's romantic era. While he admired modernists such as Olivier Messiaen, his tastes as a listener extended back to Strauss and Bach; in his hands, old forms and musical attitudes became new again.

Some critics and fellow composers accused him of selling out, capitalizing on emerging trends in classical music. But Penderecki insisted he was simply searching for new ways to grapple with old themes - history, faith, human suffering - and maintained a devoted following while spending some nine months each year traveling the world, promoting his music and conducting major orchestras.

"Mr. Penderecki . . . is currently our most skillful purveyor of anxiety, foreboding and depression," New York Times music critic Bernard Holland wrote in 1986, reviewing a concert featuring a Penderecki cello concerto and orchestral work, "The Dream of Jacob." "So acute is his ear for orchestral sound and so clever his manipulation of it that wood, metal and string take on an anthropomorphic quality. Listening to this music was like being lectured to by a grand, richly modulated voice on the follies of optimism and joy."

Raised in southeastern Poland, Penderecki watched from his window as Nazi soldiers hanged resistance fighters and rounded up Jews during World War II. He drew on his childhood memories for works, including "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima" (1960), a harrowing shriek of 52 strings, and "Dies Irae" (1967), a choral piece dedicated to the victims of the Auschwitz death camp, which stood roughly 100 miles west of his hometown.

While writing "Polymorphia" (1961), he wired psychiatric patients to electroencephalogram machines and then played a recording of "Threnody," translating their brain waves into new contours of sound, according to Britain's Guardian newspaper. Another early work, "St. Luke Passion" (1966), was an atonal setting of the Passion story, and a rare religious work in Poland at a time when the state was officially atheist.

Penderecki's unconventional techniques and focus on timbre and texture made him a leading influence for musicians such as Jonny Greenwood, a composer and guitarist for the band Radiohead who collaborated with Penderecki on a 2012 album.

In an interview with The Times that year, Greenwood recalled attending a Penderecki concert in which the composer seemed to elicit electronic sounds from traditional instruments. "I thought there were speakers in the room. It was just strings," he said. "But I could hear these kind of buzzings and rumblings, and I was like, 'Where is this all coming from?' And that was just better, to my ears. Odder, stranger, more magical."

Penderecki's otherworldly sounds cropped up repeatedly in moody dramas and horror films, including in William Friedkin's "The Exorcist" (1973), Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" (1980), Alfonso Cuaron's "Children of Men" (2006) and Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island" (2010). In 2017, "Threnody" soundtracked a nuclear-blast sequence in David Lynch's "Twin Peaks" reboot.

The composition was among Penderecki's best-known works and established his international reputation after it won a UNESCO music award. It was originally known as "8'37"," a reference to its length, before being renamed in honor of the Japanese victims of the first wartime atomic bombing.

By the end of the 1970s, Penderecki was turning toward more traditional melodic sounds, which came to the fore in his opera "Paradise Lost" (1978), adapted from Milton's epic poems, and in "Polish Requiem," first assembled in the early 1980s before being substantially revised over the next two decades. Sections of the requiem commemorated victims of the Warsaw Uprising and the country's bloody 1970 general strikes, among other episodes from Polish history.

Penderecki wrote his seventh symphony, "Seven Gates of Jerusalem" (1997), to commemorate the city's third millennium. The work was unabashedly romantic, yet featured some experimental touches typical of his earlier compositions - including, the Chicago Tribune noted, "a prominent part for 'tubaphone' - batteries of plastic tubes whose openings have been fitted with felt-covered fly swatters."

"I no longer ask myself, 'Is this music different or original?' " Penderecki told The New Times shortly before completing the symphony. "So many new things have been discovered in the 20th century that now, at the end of the century, we need some kind of synthesis, some musical language which will allow us just to write music. We live in a decadent time, because in the arts there is absolutely nothing new happening. It's not a period of discovery. It's no longer possible to find something which will shock other people, because everything has already been done."

Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki was born in Debica, Poland, on Nov. 23, 1933. While his parents arranged piano lessons, he embraced music only after picking up a violin that his father - a lawyer - had received as a gift, according to a biographic essay published by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, a Polish cultural group.

Penderecki studied composition at the State Higher School of Music, now the Academy of Music in Krakow. After graduating in 1958, he joined the faculty and one year later, made his name in Poland by sweeping the top prizes in a state composers' contest.

He later served as the academy's rector and taught in West Germany and at Yale University. He won four Grammy Awards, including for concerto recordings featuring violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.

His first wife, Barbara, was a pianist whose practice sessions led Penderecki to compose outside the house, from a Krakow cafe where he was said to have written everything on paper napkins. Their marriage ended in divorce, and in 1965, he married Elzbieta Solecka, who had taken music lessons from Penderecki's ex-wife.

In addition to his wife, survivors include a daughter from his first marriage, two children from his second marriage, and several grandchildren.

Aside from music, Penderecki's chief obsession was trees. He learned their Latin names from his grandfather and built a sprawling arboretum outside his manor house in Luslawice, Poland, where he also founded a music center and cultivated tree mazes.

"In the olden times, these mazes had a tower next to them, with a guard that would guide the lost ones to the exit," he once said, according to the Mickiewicz Institute. "I also want to raise a tower like that. I would love to send the critics that wrote badly of me into this maze, but they would be the ones who would have to find their way out with no guide. As a punishment. A sort of purgatory."
(Natural News) After facing criticism for not showing concern for the safety of its employees, coffee chain Starbucks, along with a couple dozen other major retailers, has improved its employee benefits policies amid the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

One of the first to do so, Starbucks announced on March 11 that it will now being providing catastrophe pay to its baristas who come into contact with the virus, a policy that had previously been implemented at Starbucks locations throughout communist China.

Starbucks later expanded this policy on March 20 to provide pay to its workers for up to 30 days, regardless of whether or not they came into work. That same day, Starbucks closed its indoor seating areas and switched to a drive-thru and delivery-only business model.

Two days before Starbucks made its first announcement about these policy changes, retail chain Walmart issued a memo waiving its employee attendance policy through the end of April. As part of the companys new emergency leave guidelines, Walmart is now allowing its employees to stay home and take unpaid leave if they dont feel comfortable coming into work.

Walmart employees who contract the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) are being allowed up to two weeks of pay. After these two weeks, if sick employees still arent able to return to work, theyre then eligible for up to 26 weeks of pay.

Listen below to The Health Ranger Report as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, talks about ways to help protect yourself against the novel coronavirus from China (COVID-19):

Starbucks talks the talk, but is it walking the walk?

For all the talk about protecting its workers, Starbucks hasnt done a very good job of actually doing it, some reports indicate.

Many Starbucks stores are still operating while providing minimal guidance to their employees, or partners as the company calls them, about how to work safely amid the pandemic, despite no longer accepting reusable cups.

In many cases, Starbucks stores arent even taking minimal precautions, such as providing hand sanitizer or allowing employees to wear masks. Sick workers are reportedly being told to still come into work, and many of them are having to deal with sick customers while working at the cash register.

I either go to work and risk infecting my vulnerable father or I stay home and isolate and receive no pay, one Starbucks employees from Massachusetts is quoted as saying.

Even at stores where emergency supplies were supposed to have been shipped, the products often never arrive. When they do, such as in the case of face masks, employees are sometimes being told not to wear them because it looks bad, which puts them at greater risk of becoming infected.

One employee told the media that customers inside stores that are still open often stand too close to one another, or lick their fingers before handing us cash. In some instances, customers burst out into a coughing fit all over my barista on register, one store manager explained, adding that many customers are acting as if the virus doesnt exist.

Unbelievably, some Starbucks stores arent even being notified, or store managers arent notifying their employees, in the event that another employee tests positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19). And as to be expected, there are problems being reported with the way Starbucks is actually handling its catastrophe pay.

As it turns out, a Starbucks employee is only really eligible for extended catastrophe pay if he or she has an underlying health condition, a travel history involving a higher risk of infection, or if he or she was exposed to someone who tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19).

The latest news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) is available at Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

BusinessInsider.com

Jezebel.com

NaturalNews.com
ALMATY, March 30 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan hopes to keep the number of coronavirus cases within 3,500 over the next two months, with the rate of infection peaking next month, Healthcare Minister Yelzhan Birtanov said on Monday.

The Central Asian nation of 19 million has confirmed 302 cases of the disease and has closed its borders, locked down most of its major cities and shut down most businesses in the two biggest population centres for a week.

"This is the outlook based on which we are preparing our forces and facilities," Birtanov told a briefing.

"...I hope we pass the main peak of the epidemic in April and then we will maintain quarantine measures to gradually reduce infection rates in Kazakhstan," he added.

Kazakhstan plans to spend $10 billion on a stimulus package aimed at softening the blow to its economy from the coronavirus outbreak and the collapse in the price of oil, the former Soviet republic's main export.

The Nur-Sultan government said on Monday it would pay doctors involved in the anti-coronavirus campaign monthly bonuses of about $500 to $2000, depending on their qualifications and proximity to patients, as well as extra payouts in case of infection and disability or death caused by the virus. (Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast

In order to deal with the coronavirus, we need a Marshall Plan immediately, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declared more than a week ago. Schumer has not been alone in invoking the Marshall Plan as a model for dealing with the coronavirus crisis. Jim Cramer, CNBCs most prominent economic analyst, has also called for an updated Marshall Plan, as has Senator Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut Democrat.

They now have a down payment on their calls for a Marshall Plan in the $2 trillion aid package Congress and the Trump administration have agreed on. In addition to providing $100 billion for hospitals and health systems, the aid package will send direct payments to those earning up to $99,000 a year, expand and enhance unemployment benefits, extend loans to small businesses that will be forgiven if the businesses continue to pay their workers during the crisis, and aid distressed companies on the condition that the companies not engage in stock buybacks both while receiving government assistance for a year after that.

The Marshall Plan Was Trumpism in Reverse

The $2 trillion package will certainly need additional appropriations, just as the Marshall Plan did after its first fiscal year, but in the words of Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff, Its a tremendous first step. The flaws in the aid package that have led New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to rightly complain that his state has been shortchanged can be made up if a new round of remedial appropriations comes quickly. The aid package has been negotiated with the intentions that made the Marshall Plan a success.

The Marshall Plan began in 1948 as an effort to help the nations of Western Europe recover from the devastation created by World War II, and by the time the plan was completed four and a quarter years later, the United States had transferred $13.2 billion to 16 Marshall Plan countriesroughly $800 billion in terms of our current gross domestic product, as Benn Steil has pointed out in his 2018 study The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War.

Story continues

The plan took its name from George Marshall, President Harry Trumans secretary of state from 1947 through 1948. Twice named Times man of the year, Marshall had earned the nations trust as Army chief of staff during World War II. What makes the success of his Marshall Plan a guide for today, when straight talk from the Trump administration has been scarce, is the frankness with which it was presented to the nation and the carefulness with which it was executed.

It was up to Americans and their government to face up to the vast responsibilities which history has clearly placed upon our country, Marshall declared in the June 5, 1947, Harvard University commencement speech in which he first outlined the thinking that would turn the Marshall Plan into a reality. Marshall saw world order in danger if the people of Europe continued to do without the basic necessities.

For Marshall, the great danger was that America would try to deal with the postwar economic crisis in Europe on a piecemeal basis. Any assistance that this Government may render in the future should provide a cure rather than a mere palliative, he told his Harvard audience. In his first day of testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Marshall refused to downplay the cost of his plan. It will impose a burden on the American tax payer. It will require sacrifices today in order that we may enjoy security and peace tomorrow, he declared.

Marshall was as good as his word in making sure the plan bearing his name did not become a stopgap measure. He not only appeared before the Congress. He toured the country in order to explain his plan. Thats the thing I take pride in, putting the damned thing over, he would later say.

The heroic adventure, as future secretary of state Dean Acheson called the Marshall Plan, got under way in April 1948, and in its first fiscal year took up more than 10 percent of the federal budget. Marshall did not run the Marshall Plan. Its first administrator was a lifelong Republican, Paul Hoffman, the president of the Studebaker Corporation. Hoffman administered the plan with efficiency and took advantage of the plans built-in safeguards that did not allow the nations receiving Marshall Aid to divert it from uses that would build their economies and increase European trade.

A nation receiving Marshall Plan grant in dollars did not, for example, have to repay it. But the grant still came with strings attached. The nation receiving it was required to set aside a similar amount of money in its own currency, 95 percent of which the nation could then spend as it wished as long as it got approval from the Marshall Plans Economic Cooperation Administration.

The result was not a miracle, but it was an economic and psychological turnaround in Western Europe that never would have happened so quickly without American aid. By the end of 1951, industrial production among the Marshall Plan nations was 64 percent above 1947 and 41 percent above prewar levels. Food production was 24 percent above 1947 and 9 percent above prewar levels.

There is no George Marshall-like figure in the Trump administration, nor do we have the kind of congressional bipartisanship that in postwar America allowed Marshall to work closely with Republican Senate Majority Leader Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan to get the funding the Marshall Plan needed. But it is not necessary to replicate the identical conditionsparticularly Americas postwar economic dominancethat fostered the Marshall Plan for the plan to serve as a model for combating the coronavirus crisis.

What makes the Marshall Plan relevant for today is the example it provides of how massive government interventionwith judicious safeguardscan end a crisis that shows no signs of self-resolving. The European recipients of Marshall Plan aid saw it change their spirits as well as their economies. It was like a lifeline to sinking men, Ernest Bevin, Great Britains foreign minister, observed after hearing Marshalls Harvard speech. It seemed to bring hope where there was none.

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After Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday expressed his displeasure with the Gautam Budh Nagar district administration over its inability to contain the surge in Covid-19 cases in Noida, district magistrate BN Singh asked the state to relieve him of his duties, a request which was granted by evening.

Suhas LY, a 2007-batch IAS officer belonging to Karnataka, was appointed the new district magistrate and a department inquiry initiated against Singh.

The chief minister made some stinging remarks while presiding over a meeting of heads of various committees constituted for controlling the pandemic at Gautam Buddha University.

Soon after the meeting on Monday afternoon, BN Singh wrote to chief secretary RK Tiwari, seeking three months earned leave on personal grounds, which was later sanctioned. When HT contacted him, BN Singh said he sought the leave on personal grounds. I think I was not able to perform my duties as district magistrate properly, working long hours daily. I do not want to work here anymore, he said.

With six new cases, the tally of Covid-19 cases in Gautam Budh Nagar is 38 (as on Monday evening). Of these, 25 cases are linked to security and fire solutions company, Cease Fire, in Sector 135, Noida. Four more positive cases linked to this company have been reported in Ghaziabad and Bareilly.

Earlier in the day, while addressing the review meeting, Adityanath had said publicity and blame game cant cover up the failure of officials, which has turned the district into a hotbed for the infection.

Mujhe lagta hai ki yahan kaam kam aur shor jyada hota hai (I feel that officials here talk more and work less). Alert was sounded much earlier, but it appears that it fell on deaf ears. I am done with sweet talk. If you people had pulled up your socks on time and monitored this crisis, the situation would not have been so bad, Adityanath said.

Expressing concern over the increasing number of Covid-19 cases, the CM said more effort and willpower are needed to control the crisis. How can a company (Cease Fire) hide its details regarding the pandemic, right under the nose of the district administration? Now, I want stern action against such violators, nothing else, the CM said.

When the officials tried to give an explanation for this, the CM asked them to explain why they hadnt sealed the company yet. What are you doing for the common people? Lodging an FIR will not serve the purpose. Go and locate everyone who spread this pandemic to such a critical level, he said.

He also issued directives to the health department to constitute teams for Gautam Buddh Nagar, Meerut and Ghaziabad to combat the spread of coronavirus disease. Adityanath said community kitchens must be made operational in each district and district magistrates should form teams to inspect these facilities.

He also said efforts should be made to spread awareness through public address system about social distancing. Passes to employees of e-commerce companies and blood banks must be issued without delay, he said.

Talking about the mass exodus of workers, Adityanath asked officials to chalk out a plan to regulate those industries which are not prone to spread Covid-19. In brick kilns, the workers dont mix with each other much and social distancing can easily be done. The district officials should contact brick kiln owners and ask them to start operations, following the norms of social distancing, he said.

The CM also asked the officials to ensure that no deductions is from the salaries of any worker. We must also try to provide relief in rents to tenants after talking to landlords. If possible, we must try to convince landlords to waive rents for at least one month, he said.

After the meeting, the chief minister also visited the 100-bed isolation ward at Sharda University medical college.

The CM will visit Ghaziabad, Agra and Meerut districts Tuesday to take stock of arrangements made to check Covid-19 outbreak.
I no longer ask myself, Is this music different or original?  Mr. Penderecki told the New York Times shortly before completing the symphony. So many new things have been discovered in the 20th century that now, at the end of the century, we need some kind of synthesis, some musical language which will allow us just to write music. We live in a decadent time, because in the arts there is absolutely nothing new happening. Its not a period of discovery. Its no longer possible to find something which will shock other people, because everything has already been done.
Tran Hoang Tu, a spokesman for the field hospital in the citys outlying district of Cu Chi, said the three discharged patients will be placed under medical monitoring for 14 days at their residence as an extra protective measure for the community.

The discharged individuals are "Patient 53," "Patient 75," and "Patient 89" in the national count.

"Patient 53" is a Czech man, 51, who was touring the city after he had met with some Italian nationals in his home country. He had landed March 10 in Saigon on Qatar Airways flight QR970 that transited at the Doha Airport in Qatar. As he left the hospital, he expressed his gratitude to the hospitals doctors and nurses who had taken care of him.

He said he had asked doctors to let him buy them some fruits, but they did not accept even that token of appreciation.

"Thank you, Cu Chi hospital, thank you, Vietnam," he said.

"Patient 89," a 22-year-old Vietnamese woman living in Ho Chi Minh City, had traveled from New York to Japan and from Japan to Saigon's Tan Son Nhat International Airport on March 17.

She said she was shocked at first after learning she was positive, because she did not have any Covid-19 symptoms, but she was not scared.

"Everybody was really good, and we were all like a family. All officers, doctors and nurses really cared about patients and were willing to help us," she said.

"Patient 75" is a 40-year-old Vietnamese woman living in District 2, HCMC. She had left the city for London on March 4 and returned on March 15.
A Valley icon who has dedicated much of her life to community service and embodies the spirit of volunteerism  from feeding families in need to rebuilding homes destroyed by fire  is retiring.

Patricia Tarasovic, vice president of community engagement for Valley United Way, spent her last day on the job Friday, closing a chapter on a career that began in 1991.

I will always cherish my time at Valley United Way, said Tarasovic. Ive been so fortunate to be part of this Valley community of caring, passionate and engaging people. The programs of Valley United Way have always been my heart song.

Tarasovic founded the Corporate Volunteer Council and High School Volunteer Council. Both initiatives helped tackle food security in the Valley and assisted families in need through programs such as the Back to School for Kids drive and Holiday Giving.

VUW Interim President/COO David Kennedy said Tarasovic has been a tremendous asset.

I have been fortunate enough to see first-hand the deep respect and profound admiration so many have for Pat in the community, Kennedy said. It is clearly a respect and admiration that has been earned through hard work and consistent care, year in and year out, for over 29 years.

One of Tarasovics proudest moments came with the founding of Harvest House, a communitywide initiative to build a house of food that has provided hundreds of thousands of pounds of nonperishables to Valley food pantries since 2005.

Because of her role in projects like Harvest House, Tarasovic has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce Gold Seal, named a Paul Harris Fellow from the Derby/Shelton Rotary Club, and in 2015 was appointed by the governor to be a commissioner for the Connecticut Corporation for National Service.

Whether organizing volunteers throughout the Naugatuck Valley, assembling Harvest House or leading the Youth Leadership program  of which I am a proud alumnus of  Pat has fulfilled the mission of Living United, said VUWs Vice Chairman of the Board Jimmy Tickey. I thank her for her dedication and service to the Valley United Way.

Former, longtime VUW President/COO Jack Walsh said the Valley is a better place thanks to Tarasovic.

I did not know Pat until we started looking at the feasibility of possibly starting a volunteer center and Pat was attending the meetings as an interested citizen, Walsh said. We decided to go ahead with it and I knew that we would have the perfect person to staff the project  Pat. The rest is history. She will be leaving a tremendous legacy at United Way. She has been a friend to all and a tremendous asset to the whole community.

Tarasovic holds many fond memories, from helping outfit school kids with new clothes and backpacks to the time when more than 300 volunteers came out in force to renovate the Valleys domestic violence shelter, The Umbrella.

I have fallen in love with the Valley ... the people, the culture, sense of community and the intense caring for one another, the mother of three said. I have been blessed to have been a part of that fabric.

The Boston-native said while shes retiring from VUW, shell continue to serve the community on a consulting basis, and enjoy life with her husband of 41 years.

I will continue to assist companies and their associates to plan philanthropic and volunteer activities that will make an impact where there is the greatest need, she said.

jean.sos@snet.net
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Delayed payments. Cancelled orders. Shuttered factories. And more than a third of the global population on lockdown. Coronavirus has ravaged the footwear industry at every level  and independent designers face the most risks.

It might have seemed inconceivable a month ago  but many creative talents are now faced with a difficult decision: whether to move forward with fall. Here, designers get candid on how the virus is upending the luxury fashion cycle as we know it.

More from Footwear News

Chloe Gosselin

The designer was early on spring deliveries  and her factory in Italy was still shipping a few weeks ago until the recent mandate to shut down nonessential production in the country.

But for the fall 20 collection, which she showed during New York Fashion Week, Gosselin said she is currently undecided on how to proceed, especially after her largest wholesale account canceled its order.

Im trying to figure out the right decision, she said. Are people going to spend once this is all over? Will they want to invest in luxury items?

Gosselin had already begun a reposition of her brand prior to the pandemics retail fallout, reducing the focus on wholesale focus and investing more heavily in her own e-commerce. I think we will be doing something more curated, she said, pointing to a few seasonal standouts plus signature styles. Its the perfect time to rethink seasons. Im kind of tired of that crazy cycle of fashion weeks and producing however many collections per year. And all of us traveling for it  look at what happened with that.

Gosselin is also thinking about her production line when weighing the options. I have my team in Italy, my factory. They have already been hit hard by this and what happens if we all cancel production? she said. We are so focused on Instagram, influencers, the glitz of it all, but its a real industry that supports millions of people. Thats who we need to support right now. SHANNON ADDUCCI

Story continues

Mariasole Cecchi, Les Petits Joueurs

The brand was timely with its spring production and deliveries  so while there are still a few payments pending, most orders have been closed. For fall, however, its a different story. People who already placed orders are calling to cancel, freezing sales or requesting changes to the terms of payment, she continued, adding that these are big retailers, not small boutiques.

She believes it is the duty of big industry players to support smaller independent labels. At the same time, though, Cecchi admits that she does not know when she can deliver the fall orders the remain because her Italian factories are closed and its unclear when they can reopen.

The brand is working on a new business model, but one things for sure: Whatever happens nothing will be the same as it was before, the designer said.

Now, shes editing down the collection, concentrating on bestsellers and focusing on a direct-to-consumer strategy while retaining the wholesale accounts that remain loyal. She warned that producers must be flexible with minimum order quantities. Weve all been saying for ages that fashion was too fast and the system was due for a collapse, Cecchi concluded, but then it just happened out of the blue.

Paris Texas, Annamaria Brivio

Brivio is still awaiting balance payments for spring orders from some of the retailers she works with  and while shes doing her best to negotiate, there arent easy solutions. As a new company, this could strongly affect our business, she said. All the spring shoes have been already produced so many are stuck at our warehouse.

Pre-fall production is almost complete but shes currently working with clients on reducing their orders and exercising the same flexibility when it comes to fall. We work with some big and strong partners who are are still supporting us in this difficult moment, who believe in our brand and want to keep our partnership safe and strong.

Andrea Wazen

While Wazen certainly suffered from cancelled buyer appointments, a large part of her sales are derived from her online store  so shes still forging ahead.

Her strategy has shifted though: She is now executing a digital marketing campaign originally slated for 2021.

As opposed to Italy like many of her competitors, her shoes are made in a factory in her hometown of Beirut. It has been closed for the last two weeks as lockdown came early to Lebanon, but for that reason she said that the situation has been well contained so she hopes to resume working normally from the start of April.

However, there will still, of course, be issues. We are in a pickle with sourcing leathers from our Italian suppliers which means we may well have to eliminate some of the styles we had initially wanted to produce, she explained.

Ada Kokosar, Midnight 00

Kokosar is entirely reliant on retailers for sales  which makes this moment particularly challenging.

My brand is small and young and we still dont have an e-commerce, she said ruefully. At the same time, though, she does understand that the buyers who cancelled their fall orders did so because they know the demand would not be there. The last thing I want is to have a fall collection sitting unsold in storage, she said. We need to have the courage to press the reset button and adapt to this change, she said.

To her this means slowing down to preserve quality, reducing production volumes and editing down the collection. Im taking this time to understand how I can transform my brand in a way that is more sustainable and more meaningful, she concluded. We are all linked to each other, from suppliers and manufacturers to brands, retailers and finally consumers. So each must support the other to find solutions.

Julia Toledano of Nodaleto

We want to support the retailers who have supported us from our launch, but we have to measure the risk, said Toledano. Some stores cancelled a proportion of their spring orders and also asked to change the conditions of payments for pre-fall and fall.

The designer is making difficult decisions on a daily basis. We need to support each other and unite more than ever, she said. Her shoes are produced in Italy where all the factories are now closed. Once they reopen, she will need to reduce the order quantities.

Since launching the brand last season, she has focused on a permanent collection, emphasizing existing molds and lasts  and plans to ramp up that strategy. I think everyone will reduce their consumption of fashion after this crisis ends, she predicted. People will buy less but less and focus on quality.

Julien Martinez, Martinez Souliers

Martinez received spring payments before the crisis  and also managed to ship all of his spring and summer collection before the virus brought things to a halt.

In the first days of the crisis he received automatic emails from retailers saying that pre-fall orders would be canceled but following direct discussions, the buying teams confirmed this would not be the case after all. However, while he operated a virtual showroom for fall, many buyers both cancelled those orders or reduced their quantities.

Pamela Costantini and Domitilla Rapisardi IINDACO

The brand debuted in February with its own e-commerce channel  the launch collection was not reliant on external retailers. However, the duo admitted that the fall sales campaign has been extremely difficult.

Emerging brands and start-ups were not the priority for retailers this season, they said, explaining that stores cut their budgets, preferring to buy brands that they already knew.

They are continuing their focus on her direct-to-consumer business. But while spring sales exceeded expectations she knows there are challenging times ahead as it isnt possible to determine how fall production will pan out.

The shoes are made in Italy where all the factories are currently closed. In the meanwhile they are using their downtime to study ways to increase the sustainability of our products and processes and create new ideas for future collections.

By Far, Valentina Ignatova

With a strong direct-to-consumer business and Bulgaria-based production still operating, the hot brand could be in a better position than most  but co-founder Valentina Ignatova is certainly not complacent.

It isnt just a matter of adapting her strategy for fall. Shes making adjustments on a daily basis and is in constant contact with wholesalers and suppliers. For us its all about having very transparent daily conversation with your partners and clients, she said. Only by doing so you can truly understand each others needs and problems. Were all in this together and we should support and help each other now more than ever.

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'Hopefully, people will understand that, beyond medical vaccination plans, in the future we will also need to implement some 'social inoculation' plans.'

IMAGE: A lone tourist poses in front of an empty St Peter's Square a day after the Vatican closed the square and the Basilica due to coronavirus concerns. Photograph: Reuters

Giuseppe Pantaleo, PhD, is professor of social psychology at the faculty of psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy.

He is also the director of UniSR-Social.Lab (which counts among its staff Simona Sciara, Elena Resta, Federico Contu, Veronica Pirola and Matteo Soldi), the laboratory of social psychology at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University.

He graduated under the direction of Professor Luciano Arcuri (University of Padua, Italy), and specialised under the supervision of Robert A Wicklund (University of Bielefeld, Germany).

Together, Dr Wicklund and Dr Pantaleo authored the theory of multiple perspectives (Wicklund, 1999; Pantaleo, 1997; Pantaleo & Wicklund, 2000).

In an interview with Rediff.com Senior Contributor Sheela Bhatt, Professor Pantaleo, below, says, "It is exactly at this psychological junction that the behaviour of role models will become particularly influential. If role models (group leaders, opinion leaders, social influencers) act wisely, identifiers will, on the average, follow those virtuous behaviours. If, by contrast, role models implement risky behaviours, identifiers will also follow them through the risky route."

Dear professor, first and foremost please accept my deepest condolences over the deaths of Italians due to the coronavirus.

Not just as a scholar but also as a citizen of Italy would you share your experiences of the last few weeks?

Thank you very much for giving me the possibility to report and reflect on this crisis, both from a personal and professional psycho-social point of view.

I am glad to accept and share with you the experience of the last few weeks, as I think that sharing common experiences and mutually learning from those experiences, in general, is of paramount importance for everyone on planet Earth, especially now, in these coronavirus days.

We, humans, have a lot to learn from each other. The whole world has been suddenly transformed into a huge living laboratory, both at a biomedical and social-psychological level.

As social scientists -- in particular, as professional social psychologists -- the majority of us is accustomed to running experiments in our private, institutional laboratory. We normally do so, mostly by modelling peoples's emotional, mental, and behavioural responses to specific and carefully pre-selected stimuli, in order to evaluate the immediate and extended effects of those stimuli.

We generally deal, for instance, with broad research questions such as, How will people react to specific threats in crisis situations? To what extent, and why, will they be able to cope with emergencies? Who, and why, will lose or keep control? Who, and why, will flourish again after the emergency? What psychological processes are at work in certain situations? And so on.

In these days, social-psychological theories are called to action.

As odd as it may seem in times of crisis, 'there is nothing so practical as a good theory', as once affirmed by the late Professor Kurt Lewin, unanimously considered one of the founding fathers of the discipline, with respect to the enormous predictive and explanatory power of well-formulated theories.

This turns out to be particularly true today. More than ever, we need reliable predictive, interpretative, and explanatory models.

The entire world, not only Italy, has suddenly turned into a huge biomedical and social laboratory, in which our theories, models, and predictions -- very practical tools -- are automatically tested, whether we want it or not, and pitted one against the other.

Both as an academic and as a citizen, thus, my gaze is now on the entire world -- it is no longer confined to any specific national reality, or laboratory.

Of course, I am deeply touched by what is rapidly and simultaneously happening everywhere on the planet, including India, of course.

Beyond the actual medical help, how is society coping with pandemic at the mental level?

Overall, Italians are reacting fairly well, as most of them understood the importance to comply with social distancing and other medical measures and advice.

Social-psychological reactions are mainly twofold, however.

We witness what we call a 'polarisation' of attitudes, emotions, and behaviours.

On the one hand, people tend to react with puns, irony, jokes, even sarcasm -- this was especially true at the very beginning of the epidemic, when the infectious disease was still not pandemic.

On the other hand, people are also starting to progressively manifest, quite overtly, their hidden anxieties, and also the fears originally underlying those former reactions, this leading, in turn, to certain mental and behavioural rigidities -- that is, to some characteristic psychological reactions, already known to most of our social-psychological theories and explanatory models.

What kind of unusual trends are you noticing in people in this unimaginable crisis?

In a sense, and very sadly, from a clinical and social-psychological point of view, it was all quite predictable from the very beginning of the outbreak; thus, for epidemiologists and social scientists there are no true unusual trends in this respect, actually.

We simply see, and are sadly forced to contemplate, many of our former theoretical predictions at work -- this time, outside of our labs.

In contrast to this, many citizens still seem to struggle to interpret such 'exaggerated' emotional, mental and behavioural reactions either in themselves or in other fellow residents.

Some of them are getting lost. Others resist.

In my opinion, we would need more reliable and trustworthy social psychological guidance, as well as clinical psychological advice when required.

Such indications should be imparted to the population through recognised academics, professionals, and official, non-improvised scholars.

We should definitely avoid the uncertain advice given by some self-invented, semi-professional, and 'would-be experts' -- or by the even more dubious figures who, unfortunately, have their say on TVs, newspapers, and other social media right in these days.

We need firm, evidence-based, informed, and consequent scientific knowledge to be put at work, institutionally.

We, as human societies inhabiting the planet, should focus and capitalise on the already existing bio-clinical, clinical, and social-psychological bunch of expertise -- the official one, of course.

How is the government enforcing social distancing? How is social distancing impacting mental health?

Social distancing is enforced through increasingly restricting legislative decrees. This provokes, quite obviously, severe restrictions on peoples freedoms to behave as they usually did.

When freedoms are abruptly limited, the very first psychological reactions take the form of motivated attempts at restoring those freedoms; this occurs in proportion to a. The violated expectations of freedom; b. The (subjective) importance of those freedoms and, paradoxically, c. The difficulty of enacting the newly forbidden behaviours.

So, the stronger the expectation of 'having the right to think and behave freely', the higher the importance we attribute to 'behaving freely' and -- paradoxically -- the stronger the difficulties of enacting those freedom-reinstating behaviours, the stronger will be the outcome motivation to transgress governments's prescriptions and necessary enforcing of restrictive rules.

These are exactly the basic predictions -- with some later adjustment and integration, of course -- brought about by the theory of psychological reactance, a theory proposed in 1966 by the late social psychologist Jack Williams Brehm.

When all of the above happens, then we experience 'reactance' -- a motivation to restore freedom.

We now systematically witness such an impulse (reactance) either in ourselves or in the broader societal context, especially now that such restrictions to individual freedom have been made compulsory by law.

We should keep in mind, however, that reactance is just the end result of a psychological process. That is, reactance is a motivation, an impulse, an urge.

As many other social motivations, impulses, and urges, if properly controlled and readdressed, reactance does not need to result, necessarily, in overt violation of constructive social behaviours and common norms.

As to the impact of enforcing social distancing on mental health, finally, there are no sufficient official data as yet. Any projection would therefore be hazardous.

When did isolation start in Italy and how long will it continue? What will be its long term impact on your society?

The isolation started officially in Italy towards the end of February 2020, in specific and circumscribed areas of Lombardy, deemed as the epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic in our country.

Then, at the beginning of March, a partial lockdown was implemented to further regions of northern Italy and, eventually, a total lockdown -- for the whole country -- was decided on March 9.

How long it will continue, nobody knows, for the moment.

As to the long term impact of isolation on our society, things are less clear. Hopefully, people will understand that, beyond medical vaccination plans, in the future we will also need to implement some 'social inoculation' plans, in the form of a truly renewed civic education.

To the extent that people have active and protected first-hand experiences with multiple realities, perspectives, and social circumstances and points of view -- even contrasting points of view -- they will be better equipped, in the future, to face crisis and resist several types of threat, also from a psychological point of view.

By contrast, a scanty background in multiple social perspectives will leave people incapable to resist the 'polarisation' of attitudes, emotions, and behaviours we talked about at the outset of this interview.

It is the richness of our internalised social repertoires, the capacity to reproduce those social repertoires when needed, that makes us unique human beings and part of a whole at the same time, as well as psychologically strong and equilibrated actors in our social relationships and exchange.

Once again, this instantiates the prediction of another social-psychological theory, the theory of multiple perspectives (Wicklund, 1999; Pantaleo, 1997; Pantaleo & Wicklund, 2000) -- a forecast about human mental, emotional, and motivational processes and behaviours that has already received support both in the laboratory and in some experimental field studies. And whose explanatory power is being tested out of our laboratories right now, because of the very spreading of the pandemic in these days.

Part 2: Coronavirus: 'My main worry relates to the possibility of social collapse'
ALTON  To ensure small business owners have access to state and federal resources, state Rep. Monica Bristow, D-Alton, is highlighting new programs created to address the new obstacles due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Several new announced programs, including the Illinois Small Business Emergency Loan Fund and the Hospitality Emergency Grant Program, were created to address specific challenges to small businesses and the hospitality industry.

Small and local businesses across the state have been adapting to the safety precautions being taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19, said Bristow. Our state and federal government have been working to provide them the resources and funds needed to support their essential operations and make this challenging time manageable.

Illinois small businesses in Madison County are eligible for a share of the $90 million in state emergency assistance through two new programs:

 Illinois Small Business Emergency Loan Fund, for small businesses with fewer employees and under $3 million in 2019 revenue. Loans up to $50,000 with five years of low interest will be available for business owners, with payments not starting for six months.

 Hospitality Emergency Grant Program, which is aimed to address the challenges of bars, restaurants, and hotels. This program will offer $14 million to help support payroll, rent, as well as training for technology for pickup and delivery options, which has become essential to restaurants staying open.

Our small businesses are the foundation for our local economies, and it is essential that we support them during this unprecedented challenge, said Bristow. With all of our efforts to prevent the spread of this virus, its essential that we continue to support those that are most affected by the outbreak.

If businesses or residents have questions or need help applying for programs, they can contact Bristow at RepMBristow@gmail.com, Facebook.com/RepMBristow, or 618-465-5900. Bristows office remains closed to help protect the communitys health, but messages are checked frequently.

For the most recent information about resources and information regarding COVID-19 in Illinois, visit https://coronavirus.illinois.gov or call the Illinois Department of Public Health at 1-800-889-3931.
People of faith throughout Georgia are finding unique ways to gather and pray for hospital workers battling the COVID-19 pandemic  and theyre following social distancing guidelines while doing it.

In Cartersville, Ga., hundreds gathered in their cars around the Cartersville Medical Center last Thursday to pray for the nurses and doctors. They tuned their radios to 91.7 FM, a local Christian station that plays worship songs.

Georgia is one of the epicenters of the coronavirus outbreak.

I know people personally here that have been tested with the coronavirus. And one of our church members passed due to the coronavirus, participant Jennifer Hyde told Atlantas Fox 5.

Best thing Ive seen today. Doctors and Nurses singing Waymaker over the hospital they work at.



God youre still working in the midst of all of this! pic.twitter.com/7ym7gLp9xq  Jason Romano (@JasonRomano) March 29, 2020

Camden McGill helped organize the event. He said word about the event spread on social media.

Were called to be the hands and feet of Christ  and thats exactly what we did today. We bombarded heaven with our prayers, he told Atlantas 11 Alive. ... Its just been a blessing.

Hospital workers appreciated the prayers. Several workers stood on top of the hospital building, arms outstretched in worship, as Leelands Way Maker played on the radio. Other workers stood on the lawn.

They are putting their lives at risk, participant Lisa Shryock said, holding a sign reading, Thank you. Praying for you.

Michelle Anderson, who has worked at the hospital for 26 years, told Fox 5 she has never been more proud to work here.

The community outpouring today is unbelievable, she said.

Cartersville isnt the only Georgia community to form an automobile prayer circle.

In Americus, Ga., members of a church surrounded Phoebe Sumter Medical Center on Saturday night in their cars to pray.

Citizens in Rome, Ga., have scheduled a prayer circle for this Wednesday, according to the Rome News-Tribune.

The White Houses coronavirus guidelines recommend that Americans avoid gatherings larger than 10 people.

Related:

Church Pools Chick-fil-A Points, Donates 460 Sandwiches to Hospital Workers

Photo courtesy: 11 Alive

Video courtesy: 11 Alive

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 19:17:52|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- A total of 100 international flights originally bound for Beijing had been diverted to 12 other cities as of Sunday, according to a source of China's top aviation authority.

The daily number of incoming passengers through airports across China will dwindle to around 4,000 this week from 25,000 at peak, as China has stepped up measures to guard against imported coronavirus infections, said Jin Junhao, an official with the Civil Aviation Administration of China, at a press conference held in Beijing Monday.

Starting March 23, all international flights bound for Beijing are required to be diverted to twelve other airports, namely Tianjin, Hohhot, Taiyuan, Shanghai Pudong, Shijiazhuang, Jinan, Qingdao, Nanjing, Shenyang, Dalian, Zhengzhou, and Xi'an for procedures before they are allowed to enter Beijing and beyond.

From March 19 to 29, Chinese airlines stopped and persuaded 443 overseas passengers with fever symptoms not to board planes, Jin said.
British airline easyJet on Monday said it had grounded its entire fleet because of the coronavirus pandemic but would still be available for rescue flights to repatriate stranded customers.

"As a result of the unprecedented travel restrictions imposed by governments in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the implementation of national lockdowns across many European countries, easyJet has, today, fully grounded its entire fleet of aircraft," it said in a statement.

"At this stage there can be no certainty of the date for restarting commercial flights." The carrier, which already last week began to ground a majority of its planes, added Monday that it had so far operated 650 rescue flights, returning more than 45,000 customers.

"The last of these rescue flights were operated on Sunday... We will continue to work with government bodies to operate additional rescue flights as requested," easyJet said.

EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren noted that crew members had volunteered to operate rescue flights.

"I am extremely proud of the way in which people across easyJet have given their absolute best at such a challenging time," he said in the statement, Following the full grounding of its planes, easyJet said that for two months from Wednesday, crew would be paid 80 percent of their average pay thanks to an emergency scheme introduced by the UK government to keep workers in jobs.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
"COVID-19 continues to rip around the globe," John Oliver said on Sunday's from-his-living-room Last Week Tonight. But the U.S. now has the most confirmed cases in the world, "and the president has only recently seemed to realize the gravity of the situation." Because the federal government "wasted so much time that we could have spent preparing" and "massively botched the rollout of testing for the virus," he said, our best shot at slowing this outbreak is strict social distancing.

President Trump and some of his allies think the cost may be too high. "I'm in no way minimizing the economic suffering caused by the shutdown," Oliver said. "But the idea that people should sacrifice themselves for the economy is absurd. And yet, it actually gained traction this week."

Oliver addressed right-wing market-worshippers like Glenn Beck and the lieutenant governor of Texas: "You get that the coronavirus is not The Hunger Games, right? You can't volunteer yourself as tribute. And what you're doing is actually much darker: You're actively volunteering others, including people of all ages with health conditions, to die. And even if these guys are okay with letting the coronavirus kill as many people as it feels like so that the economy's protected  which, again: really?!?  there are  and I cannot believe I have to say this  significant drawbacks to hundreds of thousands of people dying," Among them, such carnage "also tanks the economy," he said. "So relaxing social distancing right now isn't just trading one bad outcome for another; it's trading one bad outcome for both bad outcomes."

Oliver ran through some things Trump might have done, and could still do, to forestall a catastrophe. "This was always going to be hard," he said. "But it actually didn't need to be this hard. And that is why it's so profoundly disheartening that we're being led through this crisis by a man who may be less equipped to deal with this historical moment than anybody in recorded history."

Story continues

"For once, something has come along that is more toxic and more threatening than this president, and somehow, he's got f---ing stage envy," Oliver sighed. "And look, I know this isn't exactly the first time that I've criticized Donald Trump, but I can't tell you how much I was rooting for him to do this better." If you don't mind NSFW language, watch below.

More stories from theweek.com

Fox News reportedly fears its early downplaying of COVID-19 leaves it open to lawsuits

CDC is weighing advising Americans to wear face masks outdoors

Relax about Biden


N etflix's Tiger King has well and truly taken the world by storm, telling the salacious and scandalous tale of zoo owner Joe Exotic and his rival Carole Baskin.

The docuseries, which is made up of seven episodes, landed on the streaming site in early March and has quickly became one of the most-watched titles in Netflix's arsenal.

It's centred around so-called Joe Exotic, the mulleted, gun-toting manager of an expansive exotic animal park in Oklahoma, which at one point boasted the largest tiger collection in America.

From the offset, the series grabs viewers - not just for the fact Exotic is perhaps one of the most eccentric characters we've ever come across, but also by feeding us just the briefest snippet about him being incarcerated for plotting to kill Baskin.

Tiger King well and truly has the world hooked / Netflix

Baskin herself is set up to be an animal rights advocate, running a big cat sanctuary in Tampa, Florida. However, as the narrative plays out, we learn there is much more to it as details of her and Joe's deep rivalry are revealed.

But, if like us, you have devoured Tiger King already and are looking for your next fix, we have the perfect solution: you need to watch Cat Dancers.

Created in 2007, the Harris Fishman-directed documentary film runs at just over an hour and will have you hooked from the start.

Cat Dancers is a fascinating documentary about how a performing trio's relationship went awry / RJC Productions

Cat Dancers is told through the perspective of Ron Holiday, a former performer who used big cats, such as leopards, tigers and jaguars, as part of his act with wife Joy.

The couple toured the country with their exotic animal performances, before they were later joined by a third member, Chuck Lizza.

It soon became clear that beyond having just a working relationship, the three of them shared a much deeper connection, and became romantically involved.

However, the love triangle soon becomes a very troubled dynamic, which culminates in utter disaster and tragedy.
Knesset members have been switching party allegiances and moving from one party to the other. Some parties are splitting, while other parties merge. The jaw-dropping series of events over the last few days has left many voters stunned, not to mention upset. So many election promises tossed aside as a novel coronavirus bears down. Even the most creative mind could not have imagined Blue and White splitting into two factions (Hosen Yisrael, which will retain the Blue and White brand, and Yesh Atid-Telem) and four of its Knesset members switching from one faction to another.

All this transpired because Blue and White leader Benny Gantz swore before the March 2 election that he would never sit in a government with someone under criminal indictment, but has now abandoned the effort to form a government of his own  even though President Reuven Rivlin granted him a mandate to do so  and decided instead to form a government with interim Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. More than 2 million people voted in protest against Netanyahu, hoping that they could prevent him from forming an immunity government that would protect him from a trial on the criminal charges against him. This week they learned that they had really voted for a government to extract Netanyahu from his troubles.

The old Blue and White is in turmoil. Zvi Hauser and Yoaz Hendel, both members of Moshe Yaalons Telem faction, decided to join the Netanyahu-Gantz government, so they broke from their original faction and formed Derech Eretz. How ironic! The name they chose, which literally means courtesy, is used to express fairness and loyalty. It seems insensitive of them to use it now, since violating election promises and distorting campaign slogans can hardly be called courteous behavior. In fact, it is the opposite.

Meanwhile, Pnina Tamano Shata left Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid to join Benny Gantz, while Gadeer Kamal Mreeh left Gantz, whom she says violated his election promises to the Druze community, to which she belongs, and joined Yesh Atid. Lapid congratulated Mreeh for refusing to abandon her values even after being promised a ministerial or deputy ministerial position. With all the drama in the Blue and White, did anyone notice that Orly Levy-Abekasis led Gesher out of the Labor-Gesher-Meretz bloc after being elected by voters from the left?

After Gantzs political about-face, the word treason flooded social networking. Lapid, who lashed out viciously at his former political partners decision to join forces with Netanyahu, released an emotional tweet asking his supporters to tone down the rhetoric. He even went so far as to say that it reminded him of the days leading up to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabins assassination. There are photos of Benny Gantz online with the word traitor superimposed on them, he wrote. There are boundaries. I ask all of our supporters not to distribute these images or use that term.

The people who feel cheated the most are Israels Arab citizens. Days ago, it seemed as if the Joint List, which won a historic 15 Knesset seats, would receive political recognition. Two Knesset members from the party, Abbas Mansour and Aida Touma Suleiman, had been selected to head parliamentary committees, while two other members were appointed to lead subcommittees. Gantz thus delivered a devastating blow when he decided to toss Netanyahu a lifesaver and dismantle the very camp that he had led into the election.

The feeling among the Arab public is not that they were betrayed by politicians who promised to stand by their principles and then reneged on their promise. Rather, they feel enormous disappointment in the Israeli political system as a whole. True, they had boycotted it after the events of October 2000  when police shot and killed 12 Israeli Arabs and a Palestinian  but over the last year alone, they had begun to once again feel a glimmer of hope.

In a conversation with Al-Monitor, Ahmad Mahajna, an Umm al-Fahm resident, explained that the long lines outside the polling stations in his town in March had been an expression of hope. Residents of the town that the right-wing parties disparage more than any other went out to vote in large numbers, hoping that this time their votes would have an impact.

No one liked the three chiefs of staff leading the Blue and White party, and especially not Gantz, who prided himself on his massive attacks on Gaza, even going so far as to offer a body count, said Mahajna. Nevertheless, the calculation was that if the Joint List, which we voted for en masse, would support the Blue and White party and Labor-Meretz, there is a chance that we could stifle the incitement, which had tried to depict the Arabs as supporters of terrorism. As it turned out, no matter how many seats the Joint List won, when push came to shove, Gantz preferred Netanyahu and not the Arab electorate.

Joint List Knesset member Yousef Jabareen, also from Umm al-Fahm, was on target in how he expressed this dynamic in the Knesset plenum. Likud B [i.e., Blue and White], which spent the election speaking about a Jewish majority, and took the side of unilateral annexation, joined forces with Likud A. The Joint List will lead the opposition to this government of continued incitement, racism, and occupation.

The Arab members of Knesset are too ashamed to look at themselves in the mirror, Mahajna remarked. They recommended Gantz to the president, and they convinced Arab voters that this time there was a real chance for change. After all their reservations and hesitations, even the Balad faction [of the Joint List] decided to give replacing Netanyahu a chance. What came out of it? Where will this disgrace lead? What will they say in the next election? How will they get voters to the polls? With what kind of promises?

This state of affairs is, in fact, the biggest concern facing the Joint List. Ayman Odeh, the Joint List's chairman, was the engine that pushed all the members of the party to stand up as equals in the Israeli political system. It was all part of a larger effort to participate in Israeli society with their heads held high. The way to do so was to engage Blue and White in an ongoing dialogue on an almost daily basis. Joint List members didnt even toss the board when members of Blue and White spoke about a Jewish majority during the campaign. Sure, they responded angrily and rightfully asserted that the slogan was racist. Still, deep down in their hearts, they believed that maybe it was necessary in order to steal a few votes from the soft right. They waited patiently for the election results, and the party that claimed that it wanted a Jewish majority won a majority in the Knesset thanks to Arab votes. Then the entire Joint List, including the three members of the extremist Balad faction, recommended Gantz to the president without reservation.

It is now up to Joint List Knesset members to preserve Arab voters trust in the political system, even if they feel that they were deceived. It wont be easy, and it might even be impossible.

The Israeli political system is turbulent by nature, and now there is the coronavirus crisis lurking about. No one can foresee what tomorrow will bring, much less next month or next year, until the next election. One thing is, however, certain: It will take a miracle for the Joint List to retain its current level of strength the next time voters go to the polls. The belief among Arab voters that they can change their reality at the ballot box has suffered a devastating blow. It appears that the frustration and disappointment they feel now will be with them for a very long time.
Shares of Alaska Air Group ALK, the holding company of Alaska Airlines, have lost 40.3% compared with the industrys 20.4% decline in the past month.

Alaska Airlines, like most of its peers, has been hit hard by the sharp drop in air-travel demand due to the coronavirus outbreak, which dented its prospects in the process.

Coronavirus-Caused Agony Hurts Alaska Airlines Growth

Due to the coronavirus-induced waning demand, Alaska Airlines plans to reduce capacity by 70% for April and May. In fact, Alaska Airlines expects demand to be significantly suppressed for the next several months.

Alaska Airlines apart, other carriers, namely Delta Air Lines DAL, United Airlines UAL and American Airlines AAL trimmed capacity in the wake of dwindling demand due to the global health hazard.

Additionally, to tackle this unprecedented crisis, Alaska Airlines suspended its quarterly dividend payouts and buybacks. It is also looking to curtail costs in the face of weakening revenues (down in excess of 80% since the commencement of the outbreak).

Some cost-cutting measures include slashing officer pays through Sep 30, laying off contractors and temporary workers, reducing duty hours for management employees, freezing annual pay hikes and asking employees to show interest in taking leave of absence voluntarily. The company is also controlling capital expenditures.

To bolster its balance sheet, the carrier drew down $400 million on its line of credit and closed another secured loan for $425 million as well.

Zacks Rank

Alaska Air Group carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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Midland County recorded one new positive case of coronavirus Monday, according to Fred Yanoski, Midland County Public Health director/health officer. He said his office was notified this morning.

The state report, released at 3 p.m. Monday, didn't show the positive case. Yanoski said there sometimes is a lag in getting information on the state site as several private labs also are processing tests.

This brings Midland County to nine confirmed cases of coronavirus.

"They come from all walks of life, all risk factors, all are doing OK and recovering at home," Yanoski said Monday afternoon.

The state reported no new positive cases for Bay, Isabella or Gladwin counties.

Michigan recorded its highest number of new cases to date with 1,012 and 52 deaths. The previous high was recorded March 28 with 993 cases.

Its imperative that we continue to take all the social distancing recommendations very seriously," Yanoski said. "I have seen some great examples by some of our local businesses on how to incorporate social distancing into their essential operations. This is important to protect the health of the worker AND the community, while keeping essential services available to the public. But to be painfully clear, the best choice is always to stay home whenever possible.

Midland County Department of Public Health continues to encourage residents to take precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19:

 Continue to practice social distancing as recommended by Federal, State and Local Officials

 Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth

 Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash

 Disinfect commonly touched surfaces

 Stay home when you are sick

 Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.

We cannot stress enough how important it is for our community to be diligent in their community mitigation efforts," Yanoski said. "We know that COVID-19 is in our community, and our residents can make a huge impact on slowing the spread of disease by following the recommended precautions."

If you think you've been exposed to COVID-19 and develop a fever and symptoms such as cough or difficulty breathing, call your health care provider for medical advice. If he/she isn't available call MidMichigan Urgent Care in Midland at 989- 633-1350 or MidMichigan Medical Center's Emergency Department in Midland at 989-839-3100.

MidMichigan Health has a COVID-19 informational hotline with a reminder of CDC guidelines and recommendations. The hotline can be reached toll-free at 800-445-7356 or 989-794-7600. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services also has a hotline number for Michigan residents for questions about COVID-19. The number is 1-888-535-6136 and is available seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Residents can also send an e-mail to: COVID19@michigan.gov. E-mails will be answered seven days a week between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

If you are feeling anxious, stressed, depressed and feel you need to talk to someone, reach out to Community Mental Health for Central Michigan by calling 800-317-0708.
As the changes are made in the state budget of Ukraine, the Cabinet refreshed its macroeconomic forecast. Prime Minister Denys Shmygal posted that on Telegram.

"New figures on the Cabinet session have been approved. During the preparation of a new forecast, specialists of the Ministry of Economy conducted consultations with experts of the Finance Ministry, National Bank, the IMF and independent analytical organizations. Perhaps, we're not fine with all figures, but we expect an improvement of economic situation in the second half-year period", the official wrote.

As is known, on March 30, the Ukrainian Parliament will gather on a snap session in the afternoon. The MPs will consider several bills, such as the one on treating coronavirus-struck patients and illegal shipment of medical supplies abroad. The lawmakers will also look into the draft bill on changing the working mode of parliamentary committees, with tthe opportunity to work online with "following written confirmation of MPs' decisions".
One Ukrainian servicemen as killed amid shell attacks by the illegal armed formations on Monday, a press center of the headquarters of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) reported.

"The armed forces of the Russian Federation once again violated the ceasefire and fired on the positions of the units of the United Forces. Unfortunately, today, on March 30, Ukraine lost another courageous defender. At one of the positions in Donetsk region, a soldier of the Armed Forces died from hostile sniper fire forces of Ukraine," it was informed.

It is also noted that in the Luhansk region, one Ukrainian defender received a fragmentation wound following the enemy shelling using 82 mm caliber mortars prohibited by the Minsk agreements, automatic easel grenade launchers and small arms,.

"He was delivered to the military medical institution by evacuation transport and he was promptly provided with appropriate medical assistance. The health status of the military man is satisfactory," the environmental protection department reported.

Thus, to suppress enemy fire, the JFO units used existing weapons. Losses of the enemy are being specified.
Patient family: Cant you get 15 more ventilators from somewhere else?

Clinician response: Right now the hospital is operating over capacity. It is not possible for us to increase our capacity like that overnight. And I realize that must be disappointing to hear.

Patient family: How can you just take them off a ventilator when their life depends on it?

Clinician response: Im so sorry that her condition has gotten worse, even though we are doing everything. Because we are in an extraordinary time, we are following special guidelines that apply to everyone here. We cannot continue to provide critical care to patients who are not getting better. This means that we need to accept that she will die, and that we need to take her off the ventilator. I wish things were different.

New York State does, in fact, have guidelines for ventilator allocation, written in 2015. They recommend that hospitals appoint triage officers or committees  made up of experts who do not have clinical responsibilities for the patients at issue  to make the difficult calls, thus easing the moral burden on the men and women on the ground. Who does and doesnt get a ventilator, and for how long, will depend on a range of criteria, from the overall health of the patient to how well the patient is doing at that particular moment.

Ive spoken to a number of doctors who said theyre comforted by these guidelines. There are clear rules to follow.

But Stephen Xenakis, a psychiatrist and retired brigadier general who has spent decades treating veterans, says that rules arent sufficient to inoculate first responders from psychological suffering.

We have rules too, in the military, he told me. Rules of engagement. And you may follow the rules of engagement, and everyone around you may say that you followed the rules of engagement. But after the incident occurs, you ask yourself, Did I make the right decision? Because the outcome was not acceptable, was not digestible.

Or itll be something even more nuanced than that. The outcome may be acceptable  that is, reconcilable  in the moment. But not later on.
Ontario is testing for coronavirus at a rate less than half that of the other big provinces, leaving thousands of potentially undiagnosed cases out of official statistics and instilling a false sense of confidence as the province enters a key period for flattening the curve of infection.

While Ontario appears to be well back from Quebec in terms of overall number of infections, Quebec has tested far more people and likely has a far more accurate picture of the current spread of the virus.

This is definitely something that Ontario needs to get a handle on, said Todd Coleman, epidemiologist and assistant professor in health sciences at Wilfrid Laurier University. If were seeing (testing) at a much higher level in other provinces, then this means that theres a bunch of people who have lesser symptoms or are asymptomatic are walking around and transmission can keep happening.

As of publication time Monday, Ontario has tested 48,461 people for the COVID-19 virus, while Quebec has tested 65,915 and British Columbia 38,697. But when measured proportionally, because Ontario has a bigger population, it has tested only 333 people per 100,000, while Quebec has tested 777 and B.C. 757. Alberta has tested more than 1,000 people per 100,000.

Even as tests are ramping up, it could take a week or longer before Ontario has a realistic idea of where it is on the epidemiological outbreak curve and how much longer the economic shutdown and physical distancing measures will have to last, experts said.

One of the pillars of managing an epidemic is to have diagnostic testing, said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease expert at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. It's very challenging to manage this if you're working in the dark.

While Ontario appears to be catching up on its large backlog of tests without results  with provincial health authorities reporting Monday that it was down to 5,651 from nearly 11,000 last Thursday  infectious disease experts say there is not nearly enough testing to get an accurate picture of the spread of COVID-19.

The province has said it is working with labs in hospitals, as well as academic and private settings to clear the backlog. As of Friday, the province was completing an average of about 2,400 tests per day.

Speaking to reporters Monday, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontarios associate medical officer of health, said about 4,000 tests were completed in the last 24 hours. The province is aiming to reach a capacity of around 19,000 tests per day by mid-April, she said.

Weve heard about this backlog in diagnostic tests and weve heard about how theyre resolving this backlog. But still, at the end of the day, there is a backlog of diagnostic tests and were not testing as many people as we should, said Bogoch.

Two weeks ago, Quebec was performing between 1,000 and 2,000 tests a day. But by last week, they were able to take swabs from more than 15,000 people in a single day, according to the Quebec provincial health institute.

The province accomplished this not only by dramatically increasing its testing capacity, opening 64 testing clinics across the province, but also by allowing major hospital labs to process their own test results, said Marie-Claude Lacasse, spokesperson for the provincial health ministry. Quebec can now obtain 6,000 test results per day.

Its amazing, Quebec has totally turned the corner, said Bogoch.

While the jump in the number of tests performed in Quebec was accompanied by a jump in confirmed cases as well, this shouldnt be seen as a sign that the virus is rapidly spreading. Instead, Bogoch said its a reflection of the province finally getting a more accurate picture of the current state of infection  something Ontario has yet to do.

If you test, you find it. So, its no surprise, and the same thing is going to happen to Ontario. We should not be alarmed when Ontario does ramp up testing, because we will see more cases.

Many key decisions hinge on having accurate data from diagnostic testing...Once we have a better understanding of the number of new cases per day, we will know how were doing on that epidemic curve.

Meanwhile, in B.C., where testing for the virus has been done at a rate more than twice that of Ontario, officials are hopeful that the infection curve is flattening  that is, the number of new cases isnt growing as quickly as projected by provincial health officials without social distancing.

Its beginning to work, said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday. We see promising news out of B.C.

The province has 970 confirmed cases, but that number hasnt been growing as quickly as it has in Quebec and Ontario. B.C., which recorded the first case of community transmission in Canada on March 5, has employed a testing strategy that prioritizes patients and people with suppressed immune systems over the general population.

B.C.s health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said over the weekend that her province will consider people recovered from COVID-19 if they had a mild form of the disease and are symptom-free for 10 days; they will not need two further tests showing a negative result, a procedure reserved for more vulnerable patients in hospital or those with compromised immune systems. (Ontario has a similar policy). British Columbia leads Canada with the largest number of people who have recovered from the virus  469 as of Monday.

On Monday, Henry stressed that the province is at a critical juncture where either hospitals will see a continuing trickle or dramatic increases of cases after saying late last week that the infection curve in B.C. is bending in the right direction.

We are not through the storm yet. We have not yet reached our peak, Henry said Monday. We have more people everyday who are in hospital and in our intensive care units, so we need to continue to do all we can across government, across our health system and in our community. Every person needs to do their bit.

While limiting the spread of the virus is largely accomplished through physical distancing and keeping as many people at home as possible, theres no way to tell if these measures are working without sufficient testing.

I cant say it is working yet. It may be working, and it is incredibly important, and the modellers have shown us that if we do this right, it is what is going to save us. Its going to save our healthcare system, its going to save our communities, Henry said Friday.

While Ontario remains behind B.C. and Quebec, Toronto General Hospitals Bogoch is confident the province is moving quickly to ramp up testing.

I firmly believe that there will be a quick turnaround and we will see the rapid deployment of diagnostic tests in Ontario. I know there are goals of 5,000 tests per day and scaling that up in the days and weeks ahead, Bogoch said.
Pynwheel offers Self Tour from Home Leasing offices are closed because of the pandemic, but people still need to find homes.

Pynwheel Inc. today announced a tour-from-home version of Pynwheel Self Tour, a mobile experience that now allows prospective residents to take virtual tours of multifamily real estate properties from the comfort of their couch - or from anywhere - on their own schedule. No appointment necessary.

With Pynwheel Self Tour, prospective residents are guided through the property with an interactive map. At each stop, they can watch a video, flip through photos, and read short descriptions. The optional chat feature allows them to ask questions and converse with leasing staff. Once they find an apartment they like, they can apply for a lease right from the app.

Leasing offices are closed because of the pandemic, but people still need to find homes, said Jennifer Cyphers, Pynwheels CEO, Were happy that we were able to quickly adjust the product to accommodate the current state of things. The beauty of technology is that it allows us to adapt to conditions that we cant even foresee.

Once prospective residents are able to set foot on property again, the app will allow them to tour properties while maintaining social distance. The interactive map will guide them through the property and the app will allow them to open locked doors, take photos, and take notes. Built-in security features keep the property staff and residents feeling secure.

Pynwheel is working to on-board as many properties as possible as quickly as possible to fulfill this need.

Pynwheel Self Tour can be found on the App Store and Google Play.

For more information email info@pynwheel.com.

About Pynwheel

Pynwheel (pynwheel.com) is a privately-held marketing technology company in Denver, Colorado founded in April 2012 by Jennifer Cyphers, formerly Founder/President of Engrain (fka Multifamily Edge) and Director of ApartmentGuide.com at PRIMEDIA. Pynwheel creates SaaS-based on-site sales and leasing tools for the multifamily housing industry. Pynwheel innovation makes leasing easier for hundreds of apartment communities across the United States.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

The patriarch justifies the u-turn by citing Saint Mary the Egyptian, "who lived for 47 years in the desert in absolute isolation, observing fasting". But the most intransigent Orthodox accuse him of giving in to the "phobias of the godless". Protoierej Georgij Mitrofanov: People have no faith in state power. Officials are "ready to spread any lie" to save themselves. Putin as "miraculous healer". The invention of a test that gives results within 2 and a half hours.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The patriarch of Moscow Kirill released a statement yesterday advising believers not to go to church, due to the coronavirus epidemic, and to strictly comply with the health regulations of the authorities.

After refusing to close the churches for several days, the Russian Orthodox Church has also decided to implement containment measures. Meanwhile, the number of positive coronavirus cases in Russia has exceeded 1,500 people, with 8 dead.

The most intransigent Orthodox see the Patriarchs change of stance as a surrender to the "phobias of the godless". To justify himself, the patriarch cited an example of ancient Christianity: "I would never have said such a thing if I had not remembered the wonderful and holy example of Mary the Egyptian", Kirill commented during the homily in Christ's Cathedral Savior, pointing to the 4th century hermit "who lived for 47 years in the desert in absolute isolation, observing fasting", and is particularly revered by the Orthodox and Coptic Churches. "We too take the podvig [heroic vow] not to leave our homes, like the saint who remained in her desert, even when she died of thirst".

The patriarch said that the threat of the pandemic is "very serious" and can also spread to Russia; for now citizens do not realize the seriousness of the situation, which however is evident when looking at many other countries in the world.

In St. Petersburg, Governor Aleksandr Beglov ban attendance of places of worship for the days of "forced vacation" decided by the central government, that is until April 5, despite protests from local Orthodox priests who appealed to the law on freedom of conscience, opposing the ban.

The protoierej Georgij Mitrofanov (photo 1), professor of history and theology at the Theological Academy of St. Petersburg, explained the reluctance of the faithful and the clergy to respect the indications of the authorities with the low levels of trust that the population has in them.

"State power has always been indifferent to people's needs, especially in recent decades" - explained Father Georgij to Radio Svoboda - "They have always lied to us, and they lie even today, this is evident. As far as we are concerned every official fears only the official who is above him, not the people, and they are therefore ready to spread any lie, if it serves to protect themselves. This is our biggest difference with the situation in Italy and in many other countries: they know how to lie better".

One of the most spectacular news items circulating in the Russian media these days, for example, concerns the "miraculous healing" of a young man at the Kommunarka hospital, which apparently came about after his meeting with President Vladimir Putin. The young orthopedist Dmitrij Garkavi, head physician at the Sechenov clinic in Moscow, ended up on March 19 in the infectious disease department of Kommunarka, the hospital on the outskirts of Moscow, intended for coronavirus patients. On March 24 Putin had visited the sick, asking if everything was going well and if they were satisfied with the medical treatment. After that Garkavi began to heal suddenly, and the Moscow traumatologist Andrej Volna (Garkavi's friend) released a Facebook post, stating that it is not possible to heal pneumonia so quickly. The same Garkavi, however, denied the miraculous interpretations of his recovery, saying he was continuing the course of the treatments and waiting for the third negative test for the coronavirus.

The Social Observatory of Russia states that about 20% of the positive cases in Russia have had no contact with abroad, neither traveling, nor meeting people from other countries. In the meantime, a testing system has been developed to check for the virus in just two and a half hours.

The Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin, is proposing to apply the most severe measures nationwide, following in the footsteps of those applied by the Mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobjanin, who has decided to control Muscovites through smartphones. The leader of the capital is emerging as the most authoritative figure among Russian political leaders (left in photo n.02)
Chadian President, Idriss Deby Itno, on Sunday, took the war against terror groups BokoHaram and Islamic States West Africa Province (ISWAP) personal by leading his team to Nguimi in Niger Republique, the logistic base for his campaign, to strategize on how best to tack the insurgents.

Recall that chadian soldiers suffered high casualty last week. At least 92 soldiers were killed in the deadliest-ever attack by the Boko Haram armed group on the countrys military forces, Aljazeera quoted President Idriss as saying on Tuesday.

We lost 92 of our soldiers, non-commissioned officers and officers, the president said of the attack overnight on Sunday in Boma.

Its the first time we have lost so many men, he added, after visiting the site of the incident in Lac province, which borders Niger and Nigeria.

The attack on soldiers on the Boma peninsula lasted at least seven hours and reinforcements sent to help out were also hit, one soldier told AFP news agency.

He said 24 army vehicles were destroyed, including armoured vehicles and Boko Haram carried off weapons stolen from the military in speedboats.

The enemy has hit at our defences hard in this zone, a senior officer said.

The attack is part of an expanding armed campaign in the vast, marshy Lake Chad area, where the borders of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria converge.

Boko Haram launched an armed campaign in Nigeria in 2009 before beginning incursions in its eastern neighbours.

Earlier on Tuesday, Nigerias military reported that scores of Nigerian soldiers were also killed in the northeastern state of Borno near the border with Chad.

The attackers used rocket-propelled grenades and other heavy weaponry in the attack on the village of Gorgi on Monday evening.

It was not immediately clear who the attackers were, but fighters from Boko Haram and the ISIL (ISIS) West Africa Province groups are active in the region.

Boko Haram has stepped up its attacks in recent months on the islands of the Lake Chad Basin.

Since 2015, countries in the area have cooperated in the Multinational Joint Force, a regional coalition engaged around Lake Chad with the help of local residents formed into vigilante groups.

Boko Harams decade-long armed campaign has so far killed 36,000 people and displaced nearly two million in northeastern Nigeria, according to the United Nations.
New York state on Monday was nearing a grim milestone with close to 1,000 residents having died from the coronavirus. With more than a third of America's COVID-19 cases, New York is the U.S. epicenter of the pandemic.

Across social media, the phrase "another 30 days" was trending Monday, the day after President Donald Trump announced an extension of social distancing guidelines to April 30.

Trump said last week that he wanted to see much of the country return to normal by Easter, April 12, despite warnings from top health experts that easing the guidelines too soon could cause widespread deaths and economic damage.

But Sunday, he said the extension was necessary to avoid a catastrophic death toll, while still gauging the number to reach "between 100,000 and 200,000."

Image: A Samaritan's Purse crew works on building an emergency field hospital equipped with a respiratory unit in New York's Central Park across from the Mount Sinai Hospital (Mary Altaffer / AP)

At least 2,472 people have died due to the virus in the U.S. while some 142,788 have been recorded infected, according to tracking by NBC News. The official global death toll has hit 34,018, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The reported global infection rate has crept close to 750,000 cases.

On Sunday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo did not put a date to the end of the crisis, instead pointing out that the rate of hospitalization was doubling every six days. At the same time, however, that rate appeared to be slowing, he said.

"That is good news," he said, adding that efforts to ramp up hospitals' capacity were continuing. "The virus has been ahead of us, I want to get ahead of the virus."

New York has imposed a "pause" on travel and activity in the state  directing nonessential workers to stay home and schools to remain closed  and it has been extended by another two weeks. To support the measures, Cuomo said schools would now host day care free of charge and pharmacies would offer free home delivery.

Another major worry for officials and the public has been the safety and health of health workers working with coronavirus cases. But it isn't just health workers who are feeling the burden from the surge of patients.

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Former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said Sunday that 12.8 percent of the police force was out sick. That could rise to upwards of 15 percent  meaning as many as 500 sick officers  by Monday morning.

Image: An elderly man at a SASSA (South African Social Security Agency) pay-point in Soweto covers his mouth on March 30, 2020 while queuing. (Marco Longari / AFP - Getty Images)

Spain also hit a worrisome milestone Monday with the total confirmed cases in the country surpassing that of China, where the outbreak first began. At least 85,195 people had contracted the virus in Spain, and 7,340 people have died in connection with it.

As the United Kingdom entered its second week of a lockdown with nonessential businesses and schools closed, health officials warned it could be six months before life returned to normal.

England's deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries said Sunday the government will need a couple more weeks to see if restrictions to stop the virus from spreading are working, and even if successful, the country wouldn't revert to business-as-usual immediately.

Britain has seen 1,228 deaths as a result of the coronavirus and confirmed at least 19,784 cases.

Although leading the global death toll with nearly 11,000 lives lost, Italy on Sunday saw the second successive fall in the daily rate with 756 deaths reported, compared to 889 deaths on Saturday. Government officials said its strict lockdown measures were likely to be extended beyond the current April 3 deadline.

Meanwhile, South Africa is seeing signs of the disease spreading, having recorded its first case of the virus Sunday in a slum outside Cape Town. The incident is raising alarm if the spread could be mitigated in an area where people live in close quarters and have limited access to water and sanitation.
Marwan Al Damrawi (left) with Arif Saiyad, CEO and Co-Founder of ZON

Zon, a Dubai, UAE-based decentralized mobile-only e-commerce network, closed an $8m seed funding round.

The round was led by ASA Ventures and a consortium of private investors.

The company intends to use the funds to continue to develop its system.

Led by Arif Saiyad, Chief Executive Officer, Zon provides an e-commerce platform that gives consumers access to a large network of retailers across UAE and delivers orders via decentralized fulfillment process and geo-tracking technology. With the aim making every product available 24/7, across all locations in the emirates, Zon has signed up over 32,000 sellers and over 17 million SKUs registered on its platform.

The customer app is scheduled for launch in the second quarter of 2020.

FinSMEs

30/03/2020
The European Union's economics commissioner said Monday that member states would never all agree to blanket mutualised debt, but that a compromise with Germany was crucial to give Europe a credible rescue plan from the coronavirus crisis.

One way to finance the massive effort needed to shore up Europe's economy during the crisis "is to issue bonds, but not generically to mutualise the debt, which will never be accepted," EU Economics Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni told Italy's Radio Capital.

Ongoing disagreements among member states on what policy to take risked splitting and dooming the European project, added Gentiloni, a former prime minister of Italy.

Gentiloni's comments came after Italy and other southern countries lobbied unsuccessfully last week for so-called "coronabonds", money raised jointly by the 19 countries that use the euro single currency.

On Thursday, Germany and other northern EU states rejected the proposal backed by nine countries, including Italy, Spain and France, for such mutualised debt issued in the name of the eurozone as a whole -- a long established red line in Berlin.

Gentiloni said he had expected that reaction by Germany, calling it a "long-standing vision that we know by heart".

Germany has repeatedly dismissed the idea of mutualised European debt as an attempt by over-spending southerners in need of economic reforms to take advantage of the cheap borrowing rates enjoyed by states with balanced budgets.

But Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Monday insisted that Italy was not looking to have its mountain of debt shared across the eurozone.

"No one is asking Europe to assume sovereign debt," Conte told Spain's El Pais newspaper.

Conte said something like a coronabond would be specific to the current crisis: "A common European debt instrument that allows us to win this war as fast as possible to revive the economy."



Gentiloni warned that without a unified response to the coronavirus crisis, "the European project is in danger of dying out." And without Germany, he added, "we cannot find a compromise".

A spokesman for Gentiloni's boss, commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, however cautioned that certain objections to shared borrowing might be insurmountable.

"Some member states have pointed to specific constraints that they face when discussing the issue of eurobonds, coronabonds, etc," said spokesman Eric Mamer.

"These constraints are there. And we cannot simply wish them away," he added.

One possible compromise acceptable to Berlin would be the use of the European Stability Mechanism, but Gentiloni said he was "not very optimistic" given Italy's objections.

The ESM is the eurozone's 400-billion-euro bailout war chest, but strict fiscal conditions are usually attached to its emergency loans.

Rome says that mechanism, set up in 2012 during the European sovereign debt crisis, would in the current coronavirus crisis unfairly punish already highly indebted countries such as Italy, imposing new and unattainable conditions for fixing its public finances.

Comparisons with past crises were unhelpful in confronting the challenge posed by the coronavirus pandemic, Gentiloni suggested, a view also voiced by Italy's minister for European affairs.

"It's a new crisis, it's not comparable to the crisis of 2008, there is no guidebook, there are no clues that leaders recognise from the past," European Affairs Minister Vincenzo Amendola told journalists on Monday.

"When we think about the sacrifices of the people, it's a huge, extraordinary novelty with dramatic consequences, and leaders must respond to the challenge.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Centre has advised childcare institutions to send back home children in conflict with the law in view of the coronavirus crisis.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, in an advisory dated March 28 said that this directive was in line with a Supreme Court order (writ petition (c) No 1/2020) asking all states to release prisoners on parole or interim bail to reduce overcrowding in jails, and said that a high-powered committee will be formed to implement this.

The NCPCR asked state governments to prepare a list of such children in observation and special homes so that they can be released.

In its advisory, the NCPCR has also asked states to take care of children of migrant workers making their way home.

Some children may be moving with their families or alone or in group of migrant laborers from other States. In the best interest of the child, such families/children should remain in the same place where they are. In case of families, adequate measures may be taken as deemed appropriate by the competent authority, the NCPCR said in its advisory.

In addition to that, faced with the constraints of the 21-day lockdown, officials involved with children in institutional care have issued special guidelines to states to deal with the Covid-19 crisis. At the forefront of these efforts are ChildLine as well as the NCPCR.

In an advisory to states on March 23, the ministry of women and child development said that the Centres round the clock hotline for children in distress, ChildLine will function as the emergency response and support for children. It directed states to exempt ChildLine from lockdown norms, and asked ChildLine to ensure that its partner organisations and call centres remain functional.

Another ChildLine official said that given the dire need of children of migrant labourers making their way back to their hometowns, the staff has been involved in providing children and their families food as well.

Experts in the field, however, wondered if sending a child back home is advisable, especially in the case of children in need of protection and care. In Trichy, 2,757 children among the total 4,803 children in institutional care from 72 institutions were sent home after the breakout of the Covid-19 crisis. In Haryana, the chairman of the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Committee has asked children in conflict with law to be released.

Bharati Ali of HAQ Centre for Child Rights said that if states are sending as many as 60% of children home, it defeats the purpose of a care home.

In the lack of a reference point for how many children are in institutional care, the WCD had started an exercise to map 9,589 homes, including observation homes, special homes and open shelters across the country.

The Mapping and Review Exercise of Child Care Institutions, conducted between December 2015 -March 2017, released last year, said that in India, 3,77,649 children were found to be under institutional care across the country. These included 7422 children in conflict with law and 3,70,227 children in need of care and protection.

The study also said that 53.6% homes did not have an adequate number of caregivers per child and only 28.7% homes had adequate food.

Preeti Patkar who runs a child care institution in Maharashtras Raigarh said that an uniform policy for all children could do more help than harm. Some children need to be away from home for their own protection and might be headed home. In other cases, children who were going to be restored will now be stuck due to the lockdown, she said.
President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that the White House would be extending its social distancing guidelines through April 30, from an initial 15-day timeline when they were implemented on March 16.

The peak in death rate is likely to hit in two weeks, Trump said. Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won.

The announcement comes after Trump said last week he hoped to open up the country by Easter, which falls on April 12, saying it was a beautiful time to ease up on the social distancing guidelines that are aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus to prevent overwhelming the health care system, but that have hurt the economy.

Trump said Sunday that the White House task force would be sharing further data and finalized plans on Tuesday, and that he expects by June 1,  we will be well on our way to recovery.

The guidelines call on Americans to avoid social gatherings involving groups of 10 or more, to stay away from public spaces like restaurants and bars, to avoid discretionary travel and to practice increased hygiene. They also asked Americans to stay home if they are sick and for older individuals to stay away from other people.

When asked by USA TODAY about floating Easter as a possible date to lift the social-distancing restrictions, Trump dismissed his previous deadline as "an aspiration."

"We had an aspiration of Easter but when you hear these kind of numbers and you hear the potential travesty," Trump said, "we don't want to have a spike up."

Trump also said that Easter could hit a peak death toll before the number of cases begin to decrease.

"We've gone through too much. So that was an aspiration," he said.

-- Jeanine Santucci and Courtney Subramanian

Trump praises General Motors, reversing course after ordering ventilator production

President Donald Trump on Sunday said General Motors was doing a fantastic job of producing ventilators to treat patients with the coronavirus, in a reversal from his clear agitation with the company last week.

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"I don't think we have to worry about General Motors now, Trump said at his press briefing.

On Friday, Trump had chastised GM, complaining on Twitter that the company had failed to meet earlier agreements to make breathing ventilators and was reducing the number it said it could produce and increasing the price.

GM responded shortly after Trump's Twitter rant on Friday and said it would begin building ventilators in April.

Even so, on Friday afternoon Trump ordered his administration to use its authority under the Defense Production Act to force GM to expedite government contracts to build ventilators. The act allows the government to require private companies to accept contracts and prioritize delivery of materials needed for emergency response. Trump said he did not want to use the Defense Production Act, but felt the company was dragging its feet.

Trump said Sunday that other companies have come into line.

-Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press

Trump wants fast approval for face mask sterilization technology

President Donald Trump said he wants the Food and Drug Administration to move quickly on the approval of a method to sterilize face masks so that they can be reused by health care professionals, as the demand for face masks and other personal protective equipment goes up.

Trump said he had spoken with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Sunday morning, and that he had been working on it since he heard from the governor.

"I got involved and the FDA is now involved. We're trying to get a fast approval for the sterilization of masks, Trump said Sunday at his press briefing. That would be a tremendous difference. That would be really helpful."

The FDA on Saturday partially approved a new decontamination system by Columbus-based research nonprofit Battelle Memorial Institute. But the FDA limited use of the system to just 10,000 N95 air filter masks  a small portion of what Battelle says it can clean, 160,000 on two systems in Ohio  per day at Battelle's Columbus headquarters instead of several sites planned across the country.

DeWine said he was "quite angry" at the FDA's decision and that FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephan Hahn assured him it would be "cleared up" later in the day. DeWine said Trump was supportive of the push and told him "Look, Im moving; Ill get this done."

--Jackie Borchardt and Bobby Nightengale, Cincinnati Enquirer

Trump: 'Something's going on' with respect to lack of masks and ventilators

President Donald Trump, whose administration has been accused of slow delivery of medical supplies to states, seemed to suggest Sunday that some states and facilities are hoarding face masks and ventilators in the fight against the coronavirus,

He provided no evidence for these claims.

"Something's going on, and you ought to look into it," Trump told reporters during a news conference while discussing a lack of face masks in New York. "Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door?"

At another point, Trump wondered if people were hoarding ventilators, and later said "it may be worse than hoarding."

Again, he provided no evidence, except to say, "I hear stories like that all the time."

New York and other states have said there are shortages of personal protective equipment, ventilators and other items needed to treat the upsurge in coronavirus cases.

Governors have also said that the Trump administration's efforts to help deliver supplies have been haphazard at best.

Trump's claims about hospital hoarding drew criticism on social media.

"Its not that he is dumb," tweeted Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director. "He is knowingly ignorant."

 David Jackson

Join USA TODAY's Facebook group, 'Coronavirus Watch,' dedicated to sharing accurate information, asking experts questions and building community as COVID-19 spreads around the world.

Visit the group

Pelosi: $2 trillion coronavirus package 'just a down payment' on fight against outbreak

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that despite the $2 trillion economic package signed into law by President Donald Trump on Friday, the federal government has "to do more" to combat the spread of the coronavirus that has killed more than 2,000 Americans and called for another piece of legislation to address the remaining needs.

"I think the bill was just a down payment," Pelosi told CNN's "State of the Union" host Jake Tapper. "We have to pass another bill that goes toward meeting the need more substantially than we have."

She said new action was required to increase funding for states and hospitals, as well as to address the reported shortages of personal protective equipment for medical professionals. She also called for an expansion of family medical leave, a guarantee that those who get tested have their doctor visit covered and protections for workers' pensions, among other issues.

COVID-19 spreads in prisons: Coronavirus claims first federal prisoner; 49-year-old drug offender dies in Louisiana

"The list goes on about what we have to do," she said, citing the "self-evident" need for additional resources in the states.

Pelosi also tore into Trump for his handling of the outbreak, saying his initial response cost lives.

"His denial at the beginning was deadly. His delaying of getting equipment to where it's needed is deadly," she said.

And she pushed back against Trump's suggestion of beginning to ease the social-distancing meant to slow the spread of the COVID-19 disease in areas where the outbreak was less severe. She said the aim should be to "prevent more loss of life, rather open things up."

"I don't know what the purpose of that is," she said of Trump's idea of easing restrictions. "I don't know what the scientists are saying to him."

She called for an inquiry into Trump's response to the virus after the crisis has passed.

"What did he know and when did he know it? That's for an after-action review," she said. "Let's review later what we should have done when. Let's now just stop doing the same thing, which is to deny and delay."

"But as the president fiddles, people are dying. And we just have to take every precaution."

Ex-FDA chief: Don't ease restrictions until 14 straight days of reduction in cases

Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Sunday that the White House should not ease its social distancing guidelines aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus "until you see sustained reduction in the number of cases for 14 days."

"That's the point at which you can contemplate lifting some of these measures that we have in place right now, some of these very aggressive social distancing measures," he said in a CBS News'"This Week" interview. "But you need to do it very gradually."

Gottlieb - who served as President Donald Trump's FDA head from May 2017 to March 2019 - said it was also necessary to have "the ability to test the population widely" before easing the restrictions "so you can determine who has the infection, who doesn't, and use case-based interventions, where you isolate individual people."

Gottlieb said the principal reason that testing is limited is no longer a lack of testing kits, but lack of basic components such as swabs that are needed to conduct the tests.

"The manufacturing supply chain for those components is very limited right now," he said.

President Donald Trump has said he hopes the restrictions can be eased in the coming weeks because of the economic havoc they have caused and he has floated the idea of lifting them in regions where the number of cases is low.

The current social distancing guidelines issued by the White House were for a 15-day period, which expires Tuesday. Trump, who has said he hopes people can begin to return to work as soon as Easter, is weighing changes before issuing new recommendations.

"It's too early to lift these measures," said Gottleib, who predicted the White House will end up extending the existing guidelines for another two weeks.

"April is going to be a hard month," he said. "Come May, we'll be coming out of this and we'll be able to contemplate starting to lift some of these measures as we see the epidemic curve come down."

 William Cummings

Kudlow defends 'we have contained this' claim

Larry Kudlow, top economic adviser to President Donald Trump, on Sunday defended the claim he made a month ago that the administration had successfully contained the coronavirus, which has since killed more than 2,000 Americans.

"Look, Im as good as the facts are. At the time I made that statement, the facts were contained," Kudlow told ABC News "This Week" host Martha Raddatz. "The president has just put the travel restrictions on China, and a lot of people agreed with me. In fact, at the time, a lot of people thought that the flu was worse than this virus."

The former CNBC host said that "as soon as the facts changed" the administration "changed our whole posture and our whole strategy, and we've gone full bore."

In a Feb. 25 interview on CNBC, Kudlow said of the outbreak, "We have contained this. I wont say airtight, but pretty close to airtight.

"I dont think its going to be an economic tragedy at all," he added, though he conceded, "There will be some stumbles.

Despite Kudlow's claim that many agreed with his belief that the virus had been contained, his comment came the same day that Nancy Messonnier, the director of the CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters that widespread contagion was already inevitable.

"Its not a question of if but rather a question of when, and how many, people in this country will have severe illness," Messonnier said a month ago.

 William Cummings

Trump administration begins airlift of medical supplies

The Trump administration is airlifting medical supplies from Asia and other parts of the world to areas of the United States hardest hit by the coronavirus with a series of daily flights that began on Sunday, the White House said.

A plane carrying more than 10 million surgical gloves and 130,000 N-95 masks, as well as other equipment, landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Sunday from Shanghai. It was the first of what is expected to be approximately 20 such flights over the course of the next several weeks.

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said in a statement that the flights would bring "massive amounts of masks" and other gear to "better equip our health care workers on the front lines and to better serve the American people."

Officials said the goal is to expedite the shipment of medical supplies, bringing equipment into the country within two to three days rather than 20 to 40 days normally required to ship by sea.

The first flight contained 130,000 N-95 masks, nearly 1.8 million surgical face masks and gowns, more than 10.3 million gloves and more than 70,000 thermometers, the White House said.

The effort comes as state and local officials say hospitals are running shortages of medical equipment needed by front-line health workers dealing with the pandemic. The majority of the supplies will be distributed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with other gear headed to nursing homes and other high-risk areas.

 John Fritze

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: Trump says guidelines will be extended to April 30
BATON ROUGE, La., March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LSU Biomedical Engineering senior Meagan Moore is never one to back down from a challenge, especially if it means helping others (she created a cancer model to help personalize treatment last year). So, why would the coronavirus pandemic be any different?

Working alongside LSU Medical Physics and Health Physics Director Wayne Newhauser, emergency room physician Tom Fox, two LSU physics students, and members of the community, Moore is once again helping those in need by creating face masks, ventilators, and face shields for nurses and doctors working with COVID-19 patients at LSU Health in New Orleans.

Before Moore got the call to help create a ventilator prototype less than a week ago, she and her mother Kathryn Moore were knee deep in looking at patterns and sewing face masks for the nurses and doctors in New Orleans who are treating patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Moore and Kathryn, who has two degrees in the fashion and textile merchandise field, followed a mask pattern they found online that was designed by a hospital chain. They, along with other experienced seamstresses, found the pattern difficult to follow, so they improvised.

Their mask consists of two layers of tightly woven cotton sewn together with elastic bands that go over the ears. Once elastic became hard to come by, Kathryn got creative and used elastic bands from old Mardi Gras ball masks.

Ideally, the mask is going over an N-95 mask to provide additional protection so the N-95 can continue being used, Moore said. Our masks can be sterilized appropriately at the hospitals because most people arent going to use or dont have the level of disinfectant needed at their house.

So far, Kathryn has sewn more than 130 masks, with each one taking 30 to 45 minutes to sew.

My mom has been very meticulous with the details, Moore said, to ensure they are effective and comfortable. Each mask is individually packaged and were delivered to Ochsner Hospital in Kenner on Saturday.

In the midst of her mask endeavor, Moore received a call from Newhauser asking if she could help him create a ventilator part for COVID-19 patients in New Orleans. Seeing the dire need for more ventilators should the number of COVID-19 cases continue to increase, Moore said yes without hesitation.

Moore and Newhauser, who is also a professor in LSUs Department of Physics & Astronomy, are working directly with local respiratory specialists, medical physicists, and engineers to fabricate ventilator parts and a variety of personal protective equipment for healthcare personnel in Louisiana.

Were doing a lot of telecommunicating with doctors, Moore said. Were currently doing 3D prints with base stock because the hospitals have gotten to the point where they are desperate and were trying to push things through. Certain companies have done copper printing but its extremely slow and expensive. Our 3D-printer material is PLA (polylactic acid) but we could possibly move up to another type of material.

An LSU resident emergency room physician picked up prototype ventilator pieces from the LSU team on Saturday for inspection and evaluation. LSU Physics student Maxwell Cole and LSU Renewable Natural Resources alumna Cathlin Disotell are assisting Newhauser and Moore; all are working in Newhausers garage while practicing social distancing.

Weve contacted multiple filter companies to ask questions like, Where can we get this filter right now?, Moore said, and realize, Oh, its made in China. One thing I read is that one single country cannot produce a ventilator on its own. All of the different parts come from different countries. That was eye-opening. Were seeing a stopgap like never before. You dont have time to do full-on testing and hit it with everything a lab could do.

While the team is working on prototyping ventilator parts, it is also prototyping field-expedient face shields with help from LSU Chemical Engineering Research Specialist Nick Lombardo.

I was using a laser cutter to make an acrylic template for people to make their own face shield using cardboard that would go on their head and a clear plastic document protector to staple onto it to protect against initial droplet exposure, Moore said.

A local surgeon, Dr. John Faust of Baton Rouge Orthopedic Clinic and Our Lady of the Lake Childrens Hospital, is assisting the team in prototyping protective gowns, which are in short supply. The LSU COVID-19 response team is exploring production and other business logistics, including collaboration with local industry and possible public private partnerships.

Our goal for today is to figure out how to make gowns of reasonable quality from materials and tools that are readily available, Newhauser said. Soon, we will hand off to other teams to scale up training of workers and production of the gown.

Additionally, the team is coordinating with LSU personnel on the COVID response to explore scaling of the instruction and materials to create a community effort.

Though the team has not yet been asked to create a ventilator splitter, which would allow more than one patient to use a ventilator at the same time, Moore has unsurprisingly started creating one because, it seems like thats the direction things are going to go, she said.

Though being under quarantine may cause many people boredom and stress, Moore seizes every free moment of it to make a difference.

I really dont get exhausted from doing this kind of stuff, she said. It can wear a lot of people down. I like helping people and this is unlike any other scale of being able to help, other than [Hurricane] Katrina, which was the most horrible thing I can think of. Im happy to show up and throw whatever I have at it. We have a lot of brilliant people on our project and were really fortunate to have the opportunity to help others.

In the war on COVID-19, our modern-day equivalent of Rosie the Riveter is Meagan the Maker, Newhauser said. She exemplifies the spirit and engagement of LSUs students.

Newhauser also noted the outstanding support and leadership of the LSU administration in deploying its arsenal of academic resources to help healthcare workers.

Like us on Facebook (@lsuengineering) or follow us on Twitter and Instagram (@lsuengineering).

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Archaeologists, historians and environmentalists are joining New Mexicos congressional delegation and a coalition of Native American tribes in asking federal land managers to grant more time for the public to comment on a contested plan that will guide oil and gas development near Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

The federal government should wait until the coronavirus outbreak subsides to ensure the public has an adequate opportunity to participate, the groups have argued in a series of letters sent to the U.S. Interior Department and the Bureau of Land Management in recent days.

The National Parks Conservation Association, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and other groups issued their plea Friday, noting that many tribal communities vested in the outcome lack reliable internet service and that virtual meetings would be impossible for many.

Making a final decision on the proposed resource management plan without adequate public engagement would be a violation of federal laws and guidelines, they said.

Planning documents are simply too important and impactful to be advanced without face-to-face engagement with the interested public, the groups said.

The campaign to curb drilling in northwestern New Mexicos share of the San Juan Basin has spanned at least three presidential administrations. While drilling is off-limits within Chaco parks boundaries, concerns in recent years have expanded beyond environmental effects to the preservation of cultural landmarks.

Tribes, environmentalists and archaeologists all warn that unchecked development could compromise significant spots outside the boundaries of the World Heritage site.

While tribal leaders from outside the area want to halt drilling around Chaco, top Navajo Nation leaders have been more reserved as oil and gas provides a significant source of revenue for the tribe and for individual Navajo property owners. Navajo lawmakers recently voted to support a buffer around the park only half the size of the one outlined in federal legislation pending in Congress.

The All Pueblo Council of Governors, which represents 20 tribal communities, said in its letter to federal officials that the public health emergency has forced the closure of many non-essential government operations and resources have been redirected to provide emergency services.

For many, this means staff who would be directly working on federal administrative processes related to the (plan), including our tribal historic preservation officers and environmental department staff, are not available, said J. Michael Chavarria, the councils chairman.

The groups are asking that the comment period be extended by at least 120 days. New Mexicos congressional delegation says that would also allow more time for tribes to craft an ethnographic study for the federal government to consider.

It was not immediately clear if federal officials would consider granting an extension.

U.S. land managers in late February made public a list of possible alternatives for managing development in the San Juan Basin, one of the nations oldest oil and gas basins. Environmentalists and others complained the options failed to take into account the cumulative costs of increased drilling and threats to Native American cultural sites.

Officials with the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs indicated their preference for an alternative that would balance community needs and development while limiting impacts on the traditional, socioeconomic and cultural way of life of those who call the area home.
While many agricultural and aquatic products remain unsold because of decreased demand during Covid-19, rice sales have been satisfactory.

The domestic and export rice markets have been very busy in the high harvesting season with selling prices increasing in all segments.





In its report to the Prime Minister on March 17 on the 2020 rice production plan, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) cited the prediction by FAO that the worlds rice output this year may decrease by 2.7 million tons because Covid-19 has impacted production in some countries, including China and India.



Meanwhile, domestic and international food demand may increase by 3.7 million tons because many countries want to buy rice in large quantities for hoarding. MARD said it may increase the autumn-winter crop area to 800,000 hectares, an increase of 500,000 hectares over the previous year.



Prior to that, the ministry predicted a bumper winter-spring crop and the total output of 28 million tons of rice this year. Of this, 75 percent will be for domestic consumption and 25 percent for export (6.5-7 million tons).

Reports show that in the first two months of the year, Vietnam exported 895,000 tons of rice, worth $410 million, up by 27 percent in volume and 32.6 percent in value compared with the same period last year.

Reports show that in the first two months of the year, Vietnam exported 895,000 tons of rice, worth $410 million, up by 27 percent in volume and 32.6 percent in value compared with the same period last year.



According to Do Ha Nam, chair and CEO of Intimex, deputy chair of the Vietnam Food Association (VFA), all export markets are good because of crop failure and epidemic in Thailand and China. Meanwhile, Vietnamese farmers can overcome drought and saline intrusion, and have bountiful crops which go for good prices.



Phan Xuan Que, chair of Vinafood 1, confirmed that the rice prices increased in all segments though it is now harvesting time, which was rarely seen in previous years. He believes the $3 billion worth of rice export value this year is within reach.



Though export prospects are good, ADC Rice, a subsidiary of ADC Group, said the company will prioritize the domestic market instead of focusing on export.



We prioritize selling rice in HCM City so that everyone can buy rice. As advised by the HCM City local authorities, we recommend buyers buy rice online or order via phones to avoid contact, a representative of the company said.



Ngo Ngoc Yen, director of Gao Yen Ngoc, said rice demand is very high and sales are 5-6 days higher than before. The rice price has increased by VND1,000 per kilogram.



People are trying to store rice because of the fear of the epidemic. However, there is no need to worry about short supply, she said.

Mai Lan

PM orders suspension of signing rice-exporting contracts Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has ordered a halt of signing new rice-exporting contracts, the Government Office said in a latest document concerning this matter.
TDT | Manama

The Ministry of Health announced last night that it has started conducting field visits across the Kingdom, including in Manama, Bab Al Bahrain, Durrat Al Bahrain and areas alongside the Budaiya highway, to collect random medical samples using mobile screening units.

This is in line with ongoing efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The ministry highlighted that a specialised medical team, along with a group of volunteers participating in the Kingdoms Public Awareness Campaign to Combat Coronavirus, have organised the drive to obtain random medical samples from the elderly, individuals who are susceptible to COVID-19, owners of hypermarkets, supermarkets, cold stores, bakeries and pharmacies, in order to safeguard the community.

The Ministry added that additional precautionary measures will be determined for each of the Kingdoms areas, based on data and indicators received.

The Ministry of Health continues to cooperate with the Ministry of Interior, through the General Directorate of Civil Defence, to ensure the disinfection and sterilization of various areas. The Ministry noted that it further continues to cooperate with community police to ensure public social distancing guidelines are maintained.
MANILA, Philippines  Several countries are sending imported medical supplies back to China after they were reportedly found defective.

The latest is the Netherlands, which ordered a recall of more than 600,000 alleged substandard face masks.

The Dutch government received on March 21 shipments of about 1.3 million face masks.

But the governments Ministry of Health said the rest of the shipment was immediately put on hold and has not been distributed.

A second test also revealed that the masks did not meet the quality norms. Now it has been decided not to use any of this shipment, the Dutch Health Ministry said in a statement.

The imported FFP2 masks or N95 masks dont provide full-face protection and the filters were also defective, claimed the Ministry.

Following the revealed defects, Dutch authorities said they will be stricter by doing extra standard testing to all arriving medical supplies shipment.

Prior to this, the Spanish government last week announced it would send back the rapid test kits it imported from a company in China after tests revealed only 30% detection rate.

Spain said the kits, which came from a national supplier, were CE-Certified and passed the European standards.

However, the Chinese Embassy in Spain revealed that the supplier Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology is not licensed nor registered under the National Administration of Medical Products of China to sell such medical products.

3 Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology no ha conseguido todavia la licencia oficial de la Administracion Nacional de Productos Medicos de #China para vender sus productos.  Embajada de China en Espana (@ChinaEmbEsp) March 26, 2020

Despite the controversy, China vowed to replace the defective test kits delivered to Spain.

Countries like Turkey and the Czech Republic were also among countries that reported faulty rapid test kits from China.

Story continues

In the Philippines, meanwhile, the Department of Health (DOH) found that several COVID-19 test kits yielded only a 40% accuracy rate.

But the DOH clarified that those defective kits were not the ones from China but a brand that was said to have been donated by a private local group.

Sa ngalan po ng Kagawaran humihingi po kami ng paumanhin sa naidulot nitong pagkalito sa nasabi ko po kahapon. Sana po ay na- klaro na po namin ang isyu na ito [In behalf of the Department we apologize for the confusion caused by what I mentioned yesterday. We hope that we have clarified this issue, said DOH Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire.

The DOH stressed that the COVID-19 tests kits imported from China and were delivered to the Philippines, have passed the World Health Organization (WHO) standards. MNP (with reports from Harlene Delgado)

The post Countries sending alleged faulty COVID-19 test kits, face masks back to China appeared first on UNTV News.
New Delhi, March 30 : Amid the lockdown when even Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded efforts of sanitisation workers in fighting Covid-19, Union Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel visited Bhopal to encourage them.

Accompanied by son Prabhal Patel, he spoke to residents and sanitisation workers and sanitised roads and did fogging in an area of Bhopal.

In a video shared on Twitter, Patel and his son are seen carrying fogging machine and sanitising entry doors of a residential complex. Patel also visited hospitals and other institutions.

On Monday, the coronavirus tally in India reached 1,071, including foreign nationals, with 942 active cases, the Union Health Ministry said. 29 deaths have been reported, with highest eight from Maharashtra, followed by Gujarat with five deaths.

"100 patients have been cured and discharged," the Ministry said.
Its easy to feel depressed and scared these days. News about the impact and death toll of the new coronavirus, COVID-19, is constant. Government responses have been chaotic, ranging from near-indifference to suddenly shutting down the economy, with politicians offering to pay for everything.

Yet we shouldn't lose sight of the exceptional vitality that the private sector is demonstrating during this mess. It will make a difference, so cheer up!

After what can only be described as a multilevel government failure that resulted in the United States having practically no coronavirus tests available for weeks after the onset of the pandemic, the private sector ramped up its production so much that we're now testing 65,000 people every day. This number is bound to grow. The tests are a crucial component of making it through this crisis, and they'll become even more accurate and deliver results faster as innovators do what they do best when they're unhindered by silly or contradictory government regulations.

Singapores Veredus Laboratories, for example, said it will soon release Lab-on-Chip kits to test patients for three kinds of coronavirus within two hours. Four American startups had also launched at-home tests for COVID-19, until the Food and Drug Administration unwisely demanded they stop issuing or testing kits.

There are many other remarkable developments. For instance, only a few weeks after the beginning of this outbreak in the United States, many pharmaceutical firms worked at lightning speed to develop a vaccine. Last week, the first doses of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine were administered to a group of volunteers. Many companies are hard at work trying to come up with a cure. Whether it's testing old medications to figure out if they can mitigate the virus's effects or developing new drugs, the private sector is going full speed ahead to help.

Americans, especially health care professionals, need face masks. Companies nationwide are shifting resources to produce more masks. The firm 3M, for instance, announced that it ramped up to maximum production levels of N95 respirators and doubled our global output to a rate of more than 1.1 billion per year, or nearly 100 million per month. 3M Chairman and CEO Mike Roman added that more than 500,000 respirators are on the way from our South Dakota plant to two of the more critically impacted areas, New York and Seattle, with arrivals expected starting tomorrow. We are also ready to expedite additional shipments across the country.

What about companies that werent in the face mask business? A group of American apparel and textile companies like Fruit of the Loom and Hanesbrands came together almost overnight to create a medical face mask supply chain to help hospitals, health care workers and citizens battling the viruss spread. Efforts like this abound.

It gets even better. Researchers trying to understand where best to send supplies or how to mitigate outbreaks are now being helped by Facebook's disease prevention maps that display population density, demographics and travel patterns. As George Mason University's Tyler Cowen also explains for Bloomberg, "Skype and Zoom sessions will replace many a class, and the textbook companies are stepping forward with electronic portals that present classroom materials, interactive exercises and grade student answers."

Creativity and selflessness are on display everywhere. In Canada, an anesthetist managed to turn one life-saving ventilator into nine. In Italy, a company used its 3-D printer to manufacture much-needed ventilator valves to be used in that country's overwhelmed hospitals. These entrepreneurs then created another life-saving device. As they explain in The New York Times, they modified "a snorkeling mask already on the market to create a ventilation-assisted mask for hospitals in need of additional equipment, which was successful when the hospital tested it on a patient in need."

And where I live in Virginia, a couple has been 3D-printing shields to protect N95 masks. The Washingtonian reports, "For each request received, the Filkos are covering shipping costs and sending four free masks to doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers."

Companies are indeed stepping up to help those in need. Burger King is giving out two free kids' meals to everyone who orders food through their app. U-Haul is providing one month of free storage for students displaced from their universities by the virus.

So, during these depressing times, don't underestimate human ingenuity. Just keep your eyes open, and prepare to be amazed.

Veronique de Rugy is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

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Labourers reaching Lucknow from Delhi and other states had a similar tale to narrate that they had no money and food, forcing them to return to their homes.

IMAGE: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath meets migrant workers from various states at Awadh Chauraha Alambagh in Lucknow, on Sunday. Photograph: PTI Photo

The state government has decided not to charge any ticket amount to any labourers, workers and families who are travelling in state-run buses, said Raj Shekhar, the managing director of the Uttar Pradesh State Roadways Transport Corporation.

He added that the conductor need to maintain the way bill details for further necessary action, and the expenditure will be reimbursed by the government.

"This will be implemented with immediate effect," he said.

After covering several kilometres on foot along with their families, the labourers, who reached Charbagh bus station in Lucknow on Saturday and Sunday, said there was no point staying in Delhi as they have exhausted their funds and it would be better for them to return to their homes.

Pankaj Chauhan, who returned to Lucknow from Hazrat Nizamuddin, had his face covered with a handkerchief as a precautionary measure.

"I have to go to Kanpur and I am waiting for my bus," Chauhan said.

Asked whether any arrangement had been made in Delhi for them or not, Chauhan said "our ration stock has exhausted, and funds too have been exhausted".

A state government officer had on Saturday said transport officers, drivers and conductors were called in the night from their homes and around 1,000 buses were arranged.

"UP chief minister himself monitored the situation and more than 1,000 buses were pressed into action to bring stranded people in Noida, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Aligarh and Hapur to their respective

destinations," the officer said.

Those arriving at Charbagh bus station in Lucknow were then sent to Kanpur, Ballia, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Ayodhya, Basti, Pratapgarh, Sultanpur, Amethi, Rae Bareli, Gonda, Etawah, Bahraich and

Shravasti.

State police chief H C Awasthi and Lucknow police commissioner Sujit Pandey arranged food and water for the stranded people.

In a statement, Lucknow District Magistrate Abhishek Prakash said: "Around 70,000 food packets have been prepared to cater to huge number of people coming from the National Capital Region."

A large number of people from other states reached the expressway toll plaza in Lucknow. The district administration is providing them lunch and drinking water.

At the toll plaza, Prakash instructed the people to sit at a distance of two metres and strictly follow social-distancing norms.

In Aligarh, hundreds of stranded migrant workers from the NCR are desperately searching for means of transport to reach their native towns and villages. These migrants, including and children, are concentrated

on the outskirts of the city.

Most of these stranded people are heading to Agra, Etah and Kasganj. Some of the stranded are also from distant locations in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

"The police is sparing no efforts in arranging transport for these stranded passengers. More than 65 buses of the UPSRTC were yesterday pressed into service for this task," Senior Superintendent of Police

Muniraj G said.

On the other hand, police have intensified stringent measures against residents in the city who are wilfully violating the lockdown.
Only a day is left for the Artsakh elections, but the Commandants Office has no clear information on how and where they will test against the coronavirus, what kind of checks will be carried out at the border checkpoint, whether they refer only to observers or journalists, Media Advocate initiate said in a statement.

"The Commandants Office is unorganized; they do not contact the observers leaving from Yerevan in order to explain the procedure.

Uncertainty made many media outlets refrain from sending their reporters to Artsakh. News.am reported that their journalist will not be sent to Artsakh, noting that they share concerns that people leaving from Yerevan could become a potential contaminant of coronavirus and create a risk of spreading the virus during their visit. Moreover, they believe coronavirus tests are more necessary in Yerevan for potential patients or those with suspicion. Armenia TVs reporter Shake Ghazaryan shared an update, writing that they are going to do the same. Journalist Hayk Khalatyan posted a photo on his Instagram page, as he shared his test results and wrote that he succeeded in taking a test at the last moment and will be able cover the election process. It is not clear where they pass a test, who is contacting reporters and observers, whether they are the ones who should apply. By the way, yesterday during its Sunday Issue, Public Television aired a 7-minute report from Artsakh, where, so to speak, everything was talked about except for the important issues that are being discussed among journalists these days, the statement said.
After Spain, Turkey, Ukraine and the Czech Republic, the Netherlands became the fifth country on Sunday to send back tens of thousands of masks imported from China which were distributed to hospitals battling the coronavirus crisis because they did not meet the quality standards. The tests show that the masks failed to protect the face or had defective filters.

'The masks did not meet their standards'

They received delivery of masks from a Chinese manufacturer on March 21, Netherlands' Health Ministry said in a statement to AFP. "The masks did not meet their standards when they were inspected. Part of the shipment had already been distributed to health professionals," the statement said.

"The rest of the shipment was immediately put on hold and has not been distributed. A second test also revealed that the masks did not meet the quality norms. Now it has been decided not to use any of this shipment," it said.

One of the worst-affected country by the novel Coronavirus, Spain announced last week that it would return more than 600,000,000 rapid testing kits it had purchased from a Chinese company after testing on an imported batch revealed they had a 30% detection rate, reported Euronews.

Even 80% of the testing kits sent to the Czech Republic proved to be faulty, according to a Fox News report. The Czech government had airlifted them to meet the emergency situation in the country. Turkey's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca raised similar issues during a news conference on Friday, saying rapid testing kit samples from a Chinese company did not meet the country's effectiveness standards.

There are more than 70 countries around the world including India that have received or are set to get, Chinese medical supplies as the coronavirus pandemic worsens globally.

READ | China bans entry of foreign nationals to curb coronavirus spread

READ | COVID-19: China risks 'good relations' with UK as Boris Johnson faces pressure from allies

Coronavirus cases breach the 1000-mark in India

There are 1,024 positive cases of novel Coronavirus in India and the death toll reached 27 on Sunday, according to the latest official figures released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The total number of COVID-19 cases across the world has surpassed 6,90,000 and there have been over 33,034 coronavirus-related deaths as on Sunday.

A vaccine is still at least 12 to 18 months away, the World Health Organization said, urging the countries to "unite to fight the pandemic together".

READ | China rushes COVID-19 medical supplies to Pakistan through PoK border

READ | China virus epicentre Wuhan eases travel restrictions after lockdown
Allentown, PA (18103)

Today

Clouds and a few breaks of sun; the mildest day of the forecast. .

Tonight

Mostly cloudy and not that cold.
In a first for the Indian market, Great Wall Motors, one of China's biggest automotive companies, is looking to make its bow here with a hybrid version of a SUV.

The launch is slated for next year.

The company is actively exploring the idea of launching a plug-in hybrid version of its SUV along with petrol and diesel variants.

The SUV will be launched under the Haval brand.

"Under Haval (brand), it will be only SUV and no other body type. SUVs are now 28 percent of the market and they have gained 5 percentage points share in the last financial year. We are also exploring the possibility of launching the first SUV with electric powertrain. So we are discussing if we can bring in a plug-in hybrid version alongside a fossil-fuel driven SUV," Hardeep S Brar, Director (marketing and sales), Great Wall Motors, told Moneycontrol.

Great Wall Motors had showcased a number of products at the India Auto Expo in February, including SUVs and compact electric cars. While Brar declined to specify the SUV segment it will target for its debut market sources say that the company could target the premium full-size SUV segment which is dominated by the Toyota Fortuner.

Brar, however, said that India could expect one new model at least once a year in the next five years all of which will be targeted at the SUV and electric vehicle category.

"We have not yet announced which model is it going to be for India debut. As of now there is one confirmed product for India but we are looking to launch one new product every nine months to one year over 3-5 years. We will take a call on diesel later on where we will have to consider what percentage of the market diesel really is and if we feel electrification is a bigger thing going forward then we may focus more on electric," said Brar.

Great Wall Motors grabbed headlines in India when it snapped up the now defunct General Motors plant in Talegaon near Pune for an undisclosed amount. The plant has an annual production capacity of 165,000 units a year in addition to 160,000 units powertrain manufacturing capacity per year.

"We are likely to take over the plant in the third quarter of this fiscal. And there is no delay of any kind in doing so. Sometime is 2021 is what we are looking at for starting the launch of the products in India. There is no change in plans despite the challenges," said Brar.

Great Wall is investing close to $1 billion in India in a phased manner. Some of this is already spent on setting up the research and development (R&D) centre in Bengaluru back in 2016. That R&D centre took the lead in building software, a lot of which was about autonomous cars.

"Now, we will be investing in R&D for development of cars for the Indian market," said Brar.

As the company is in its initial phase of setting up operations it is looking at hiring several key personnel at senior positions. Brar himself has worked with Maruti Suzuki, Volkswagen, Nissan and General Motors in India.

"We have the HR strategy in place. We will be hiring them in phases when the requirement arises. We already have 10 people on board and the process is on," Brar added.
President Jair Bolsonaro visited a market area just outside the Brazilian capital on Sunday to press home his case for keeping Latin America's largest economy ticking instead of locking down activities to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

But Bolsonaro office's social media campaign "Brazil can't stop" was banned on Saturday by a federal judge and ran into a barrage of criticism from state governors, politicians, public health experts and even his own health minister.

In Taguatinga, a low-income suburb of Brasilia, Bolsonaro stopped in a normally bustling market square to speak to a man selling barbecued meat on skewers.

"We have to work. There are deaths, but that is up to God, we cannot stop," the man said, according to a video posted on the president's Facebook and Twitter accounts. "If we do not die of the illness, we will die of hunger."

Bolsonaro said he has maintained that Brazilians need to continue working to earn their incomes while taking precautions not to become infected with the coronavirus. He also has lashed out at state and municipal officials who in steps aimed at saving lives implemented tough lockdowns, closed non-essential businesses and banned public meetings, even in churches.

Despite confirmed cases of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus, tripling in seven days to 3,904 by Saturday, with 114 deaths so far, Bolsonaro has continued to deny the gravity of the disease, calling it "a small cold" that would kill only old people.

On Friday he cast doubt on the state of Sao Paulo's official death toll from the outbreak, the highest in the country, accusing the governor of manipulating the numbers for political ends.

"I'm sorry, some people will die, they will die, that's life," Bolsonaro said in a television interview.

The "Brazil can't stop" social media campaign, suggesting to most Brazilians that there was no need for isolating themselves at home, was banned by Judge Laura Bastos in Rio de Janeiro at the request of federal prosecutors.

The judge ruled that Brazilians could not be encouraged to leave the isolation of their homes and return to the streets without there being a national plan to fight the pandemic.

Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta, often at odds with Bolsonaro since the president greeted supporters rallying outside his office on March 15, reinforced his opposition to all public gatherings on Saturday.

Mandetta asked the president during a cabinet meeting to stop minimizing the gravity of the epidemic, two government officials with knowledge of the meeting attended by other ministers told Reuters. They called the meeting tense.

Mandetta also told Bolsonaro that he could not defend the president's proposal to isolate only the old and the ill as a way of reducing the economic impact of the pandemic, the sources said.

At a news conference following the meeting, Mandetta said his measures will be guided by scientific experts and he called on people to stay at home because the health services cannot cope with a surge in cases of infected people.

He also said chloroquine, which is used to treat malaria and defended by Bolsonaro as a possible solution to the health crisis, is not a cure for the disease and can be toxic if used without medical advice.

Also read: Coronavirus fury: 1 lakh cases globally in 67 days; 5 lakh in just 22 days

Also read: Protests mount against Bolsonaro's handling of coronavirus crisis in Brazil
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz during the virtual G20 summit on COVID-19, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, March 26. REUTERS

After months of complete disarray in the international community, the leaders of the G-20 met on March 26 in a virtual summit ostensibly to ensure a coordinated response to the global crisis emanating out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

There have been demands that the G-20 step up their level of support for the worlds poorest nations as they tackle the large scale disruptions caused by the pandemic. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have called for an immediate bilateral debt relief for the worlds most impoverished nations, and the United Nations has called for a humanitarian response fund. However, given that the worlds powerful and richest nations have been focused on managing domestic turmoil, little was expected of the emergency video-conference summit  and it lived up to expectations.

The G-20 member states decided to inject over $5 trillion into the global economy, as part of targeted fiscal policy, economic measures, and guarantee schemes to counteract the social, economic and financial impacts of the pandemic. They also agreed to work with multilateral bodies such as the IMF, the World Health Organisation and regional banks to deploy a robust financial package to support developing nations. More specifically pertaining to the present crisis, the leaders agreed to assess gaps in pandemic preparedness and increase funding for research and development in vaccines and medicines.

However, these were generalities as the focus of most nations was on their own priorities, and little attempt was made to move towards developing a common framework, let alone global coordination.

In his remarks, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed tariff cuts and removal of trade barriers to prevent the global economy slipping into recession. This should not have been surprising as Chinas economy, after grinding to a halt in February, is seeking a revival. For that it is imperative that rest of the world, and especially the West, comes back on track. The Sino-US contestation continues unabated shaping the wider global response or lack thereof. The G7 foreign ministers meeting also held last week was unable to issue a joint communique after the US insisted COVID-19 be described as the Wuhan virus, in a reference to the city where it originated. Chinese leadership is trying to shift the blame on the US by blaming the US military for this viral contagion in China.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

The other issue plaguing the G-20 was the crude oil prices which have severely impacted by the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia as well by the pandemics impact on global demand. Though Riyadh had publicly underlined its reluctance to yield to any pressure, Washington has been asking its West Asian ally to act responsibly.

Unlike the 2008 financial crisis, when the grouping reacted with alacrity to mobilise assistance for vulnerable countries, it has been found wanting this time round with hardly any attempt to come up with any meaningful response. Coordination among G-20 members would have infused a sense of confidence among the wider international community, but the lack of global leadership is quite striking. In place of an effective co-ordinated response by the worlds richest powers, there have been moves towards greater isolation.

There have even been differences with countries like the United States and Brazil refusing to take the lockdown approach to control the pandemic like most other major countries. US President Donald Trump had been keen for the American business to resume normal operations, arguing that the cure cannot be worse than the problem itself. Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro has gone to another extreme by not only denying the severity of the COVID-19 crisis but also clearly prioritising economy over isolation measures. People are going to die, I'm sorry, Bolsonaro has said. But we can't stop a car factory because there are traffic accidents.

So, even in this age of pandemic, global coordination remains a commodity in short supply as political considerations continue to shape national responses. Its futile to blame the G-20. Such is the nature of global politics that national priorities will continue to overwhelm global imperatives.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi rightly underscored in his own intervention at the G-20 summit, the world needs to redefine its conversations on globalisation to include social and humanitarian issues such as terrorism, climate change and pandemics along with financial and economic discussions. However, the G-20 response so far tells us that such a redefinition is clearly not a priority for the worlds major powers at this juncture.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 23:15:20|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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MOSCOW, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Monday the capital city will install electronic systems by the end of this week to prevent quarantine violations.

"I hope that by the end of the week we will have information systems that will allow us to almost completely control the movement of residents and prevent quarantine violations," Sobyanin said.

"We are also waiting for the adoption of a federal law that will allow us to work more actively on this issue," he said at a meeting of the coronavirus response coordination council.

The entire Moscow region introduced mandatory self-isolation for all residents on Monday.

Moscow is the worst hit part of the country by the novel coronavirus, with 212 new cases confirmed in the last 24 hours, raising the total number of infections to 1,226 in the Russian capital, out of 1,836 cases in the whole country.

Sobyanin said on his website on Sunday that in the coming days residents will be allowed to leave their homes with a special pass.

Moscow has been actively installing facial recognition systems at metro stations and other public places over the last few years.
Neyanyahu's office said the step was a precaution and is being taken even before the epidemiological investigation has been concluded



Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Monday that he will enter quarantine after an aide on Knesset affairs tested positive for coronavirus.

Neyanyahu's office said the step was a precaution and is being taken even before the epidemiological investigation has been concluded, Haaretz newspaper reported.

Follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak

Israel is under total lockdown with people not allowed to even walk beyond 100 metres from their homes and have been generally advised to go out only to stock up food.

So far, 4,347 Israelis have tested positive for the coronavirus, with the vast majority of cases mild and 134 recoveries. Sixteen patients have died and 95 are in serious condition. One Israeli tourist died in Italy, the paper said.
My life in farming started as a farmworker. My very first job was on a farm that did not hire me when I called about wanting a job. I was 14. My mother took me there when strawberry picking season began and told me, "Go see if they need you now." I worked on that family farm for the next four years.

One summer, home from college, I got a job on another farm. By season's end I decided that I would run my own farm, and so it has been for the last 25 years. I love being outside, the physical work, the magic that happens all around me every day. I do not love the uncertainties that come with the job, and the new labor regulations are making things very uncertain indeed.

Last year, New York passed a farm labor law that, among other things, set an overtime threshold for farm labor at 60 hours a week. It just kicked in Jan. 1 and already a wage board is consider lowering the threshold. It is far too soon to even begin that discussion because there is little information to work from at this point.

The federal adverse effect wage rate required for H2A farmworkers here on a guest visa jumped to $14.29 in New York, a hike over last year of $1.05, or 8 percent. This is in large part because of the rising minimum wage. As it climbs, it disproportionately affects the H2A rate formula. With minimum wage rising again at the end of this year, and eventually set to reach $15, I can't even begin to wonder what my labor costs will look like down the road. Plus, what impact will collective bargaining have on wages? What will be the overall labor costs this year compared to last?

I have a 40-acre organic farm in New Paltz. It is just me and my five employees who return every year with visas from Mexico. Because of the higher labor costs, I explained to them how I could only afford to hire four of the five at 60 hours a week. Since they didn't want each other to lose out on a job this year, they are all willing to work for only 45 hours, as opposed to the 65 to 70 they normally asked for. That is a significant pay cut that affects them and their families. Next year, will my employees decide they really want additional hours and go look for employment somewhere else?

As it is, I am scaling back food production this year because of reduced labor hours. I will be downsizing the number of acres planted by about 25 percent, reducing the variety of healthy produce we are known for at the farmers market, including some greens and half of my 90 varieties of peppers. I will also look to cut time-consuming items during harvest - peas, beans, and strawberries.

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Prices must go up, between 10 percent and 20 percent to make ends meet. Will my customers support this? Will they just walk around the market and buy from the many farms from New Jersey who aren't faced with these same labor cost increases?

The only thing I seem to know is that I work in an uncertain job, and things are a whole lot less certain for me and the team I work with right now. Keep in mind, I have not planted one seed in the ground this year. I don't know how extreme weather will affect our time in the fields. Yet a wage board is meeting over the next month to determine if my farm can withstand a lower overtime threshold.

There is no way they can justifiably answer that question if my employees and I have no idea.
The Goa Health Department issued an alert Monday asking passengers of Vistara flight UK861 on March 22 to report to the nearest health centre after a passenger was found to be Covid-19 positive.

The flight departed from Mumbai at 6.36am and landed in Goa at 7.33am.

The passenger who was found positive on March 29 arrived in Mumbai from the Bahamas via New York, and took the connecting flight to Goa on the day that the country practised a voluntary Janata Curfew.

While the patient, his family members and those who have come in contact with him have been quarantined in Goa, the health department fears that other passengers on the flight might also be at risk.

While the Director of Health Services Dr Jose de Sa has said that they have requested the airline for the passenger manifest, they have appealed to all who have travelled on the flight to contact a helpline number (0832-2421810/2225538) or report to the nearest health centre.

The state has five cases of persons with Covid-19.
Boris Johnson is facing fresh pressure to delay the end of the Brexit transition period as countries focus on battling the coronavirus epidemic.

MEPs from the largest grouping in the European Parliament warned that the British economy would face the double whammy of coronavirus disruption and a possible no-deal Brexit if the prime minister presses ahead with the 31 December deadline.

Extending the transition period is the only responsible thing to do, as the timetable to hammer out a trade deal between the UK and the bloc is too tight, warned the centre-right European Peoples Party (EPP).

No 10 rebuffed the calls, saying the date was enshrined in UK law after the withdrawal agreement bill cleared parliament earlier this year.

But talks have ground to a halt as both the UK and the EUs chief Brexit negotiators have been diagnosed with coronavirus and officials have been diverted to work on curbing the outbreak.

A recent Focaldata poll found that two-thirds of people in the UK (64 per cent) want the government to request an extension to the transition period.

Christophe Hansen MEP, a negotiator on the parliaments international trade committee, said: Under these extraordinary circumstances, I cannot see how the UK government would choose to expose itself to the double whammy of the coronavirus and the exit from the EU single market, which will inevitably add to the disruption, deal or no deal.

I can only hope that common sense and substance will prevail over ideology. An extension of the transition period is the only responsible thing to do.

German MEP David McAllister, who chairs the UK coordination group in the parliament, said the EU was open to extending the transition but the ball is now clearly in the British court.

Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Show all 15 1 /15 Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A rose is delivered by drone to a woman on Mother's Day in Jounieh, Lebanon AFP/Getty Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Women dance on their balcony as a radio station plays music for a flash mob to raise spirits in Rome Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A skeleton stands on a balcony in Frankfurt, Germany AP Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies The film Le ragazze di Piazza di Spagna is projected on a building in Rome AP Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A woman uses a basket tied to a rope to pull a delivery of groceries up to her balcony in Naples, Italy EPA Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies DJ Francesco Cellini plays for his neighbours from the rooftop terrace of his flat block in Rome Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A woman gestures from her balcony in Barcelona EPA Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Cellist Karina Nunez performs for her neighbours at the balcony of her flat in Panama City Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies DJ Nash Petrovic live streams a set from his roof in Brooklyn Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies People applaud medical workers from their balconies in Modiin, Israel Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A Brooklyn resident relaxes in a hammock hung on their balcony Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Residents toast during a "safe distance" aperitif time between neighbours in Anderlecht, Belgium Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Musician Adam Moser plays for neighbours from his balcony in Budapest, Hungary Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A man and his son on their balcony in Brooklyn Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A man sits alone on a roof terrace in Rome Reuters

He said: The United Kingdom would have to submit an official request. So far, the UK government has constantly rejected such an option.

Under the current circumstances, London should carefully re-examine a prolongation.

Asked if the UK would seek a delay, the prime ministers official spokesperson said: The transition period ends on 31 December 2020. This is enshrined in UK law.

No representations have been received from EU member states over an extension, the spokesperson said.

It comes as Michael Gove, the cabinet office minister, was set to hold a video call with European Commissions vice president Maros Sefcovic over implementing the UKs withdrawal agreement.
Baghdad (AFP) - An American soldier and a British soldier, as well as one US contractor, were killed Wednesday when rockets hit an Iraqi military base north of Baghdad, a US military official said.

It was the deadliest attack on an installation hosting foreign troops in several years and comes after a spate of rocket attacks targeting US troops across Iraq as well as the US embassy in Baghdad.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Washington has blamed Iran-backed factions for similar attacks.

The Iraqi army had earlier said the attack against the Taji base did not wound anyone or cause any damage, in what was the 22nd attack against American military interests in the country since late October.

Previous rocket attacks targeting US soldiers, diplomats and facilities in Iraq in recent months have killed one US contractor and an Iraqi soldier.

Two days after the death of an American in rockets fired on an Iraqi military base in Kirkuk at the end of last year, the US army hit five bases in Iraq and Syria used by the pro-Iran armed faction Kataeb Hezbollah.

Tensions then rose further between arch foes Washington and Tehran, leading to the assassination in Baghdad on January 3 of the powerful Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and an Iraqi paramilitary commander in a US drone strike.

Iran retaliated by launching a volley of missiles at an Iraqi base hosting US soldiers days later.

The US leads an international coalition -- comprised of dozens of countries and thousands of soldiers -- formed in Iraq in 2014 to confront the Islamic State, a jihadist group that Baghdad declared defeated in late 2017.

While IS has lost its territory, sleeper cells remain capable of carrying out attacks.

The Iraqi parliament voted to expel all foreign soldiers from the country in the wake of the killing of Soleimani, a decision that must be executed by the government.

The outgoing government, which resigned in December in the face of mass protests, has yet to be replaced due to a lack of agreement in parliament -- one of the most divided in Iraq's recent history.
Ulster Carpet has said it is to "run down" some of its operations saying threats have been made against employees after it found itself thrust into the limelight for continuing to work on during the coronavirus outbreak.

The Portadown business stressed it has at all times followed official government advice. It also said some of its companies in the group had been developing products to help with the fight against the virus.

The firm was told by deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill to shut up shop during the coronavirus pandemic, saying it was not an essential service.

However, First Minister Arlene Foster said those businesses which could continue to operate and employ social distancing measures could continue to work.

Ulster Carpets said it had been "very disappointed by some of the ill-informed commentary" used against the company.

"We would request that this would cease as it has created an atmosphere in which abuse and threats have been issued against many of our employees," a company spokesman said.

"We utterly deplore such threats and abuse and urge everyone to work together in a positive spirit at this critical time."

Read More

Ulster Carpets, which employs around 600 people, said its aim was to provide employment for the mid-Ulster area in line with a pledge made by founder George Walter Wilson in 1938.

The company said it was committed to providing a safe working environment for all its workers and had adhered to government advice and "taken full note" of the new regulations that came into force over the weekend.

"Specifically this included taking all necessary precautions as outlined and observing social distancing," a company spokesman said.

"Recognising that we operate from multiple global locations we had prepared detailed contingency plans to take account of different potential scenarios.

"As a consequence of the deteriorating Covid-19 pandemic situation in Northern Ireland, continuing to follow scientific advice and in line with our company contingency planning, we have decided to initiate a run down of some elements of our production until further notice."

The spokesman continued: "We will activate this plan in an orderly manner within days. Our key priority at all times has been to protect the health of our employees and all those in the community. The Ulster Carpet Group ethos puts the health and wellbeing of its people first.

"Through this reduction process we will ensure all contractually based orders are fulfilled and our sales and support services remain operational to secure future work for our world-class production team.

"The jobs of those impacted by the run down will be protected and subject to full consultation. They will of course be covered by the UK Government Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme Regulations.

"Throughout this very difficult process for our employees we have worked very closely with our shop stewards on a continual basis and this has been very helpful to all concerned.

"Clearly, the economic consequences for Northern Ireland from this pandemic are going to be severe with very dire consequences but our present focus is to do all we can to contribute to the general fight against the virus and assist the frontline medics in their heroic efforts to deal with this health emergency.

"A number of companies in the Ulster Carpets Group have already been adapting and converting their processes to produce goods and parts which we believe will help in the fight against the impact of Covid-19."
Greenpeace activists redress the main entrance of Barclays HQ in Canary Wharf in London in an oil drip effect during a protest on 19 July 2018. (Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)

Barclays (BARC.L) has pledged to become net carbon neutral by 2050, succumbing to investor pressure to improve its environmental credentials.

The bank said in a statement on Monday 30 March it would align its entire operations to the principles of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. It means both Barclays and the activities it finances will have to meet the agreements climate goals.

Barclays said its audit of activities would start with the financing of energy and power companies, given the large amount of greenhouse gases they generate. The bank pledged to release transparent targets required to judge progress from next year.

Read more: Investors pressure Barclays to ditch fossil fuel lending

Barclays said it would aim to provide at least 100bn ($124bn) in green financing by 2030 and will invest 175m into environmental innovation over the next five years.

Our new ambition to be net zero, and our commitment to aligning our financing portfolio across all sectors to the goals of the Paris Agreement, will mean we can play much more of a leading role in meeting the climate challenge and in financing energy transition, Barclays chairman Nigel Higgins said.

Ours is a clear and implementable strategy, and will be backed up with specific targets and regular reporting to ensure we implement it.

The green pledges follow pressure from investors. Campaign group ShareAction filed a resolution in January calling for Barclays to publish a plan to gradually reduce its fossil fuel lending. The group said Barclays had provided $85bn of financing to fossil fuel companies and high-carbon emitting industries since the 2015 Paris Agreement, making it the biggest funder of polluters in Europe and the sixth biggest in the world.

Read more: Pressure mounts on Barclays to ditch fossil fuel lending

ShareActions resolution set up an investor vote at Barclays annual general meeting in May, the first such ballot on environmental matters at a European bank. In recent weeks, a growing number of shareholders had pledged to vote in favour of the resolution, including Europes largest asset manager Amundi, the Church of England, and the UKs largest pension scheme by members, and Jupiter Asset Management.

Story continues

Todays news from Barclays is a win for investor stewardship in the UK, said Wolfgang Kuhn, director of finance sector strategies at ShareAction. Nevertheless, announcing a 30-year ambition is arguably the easy bit.

He called for investors to still vote in favour of ShareActions AGM motion, which suggests more ambitious and targeted plans for the bank.

Higgins said on Monday: I would like to thank all of our stakeholders who have engaged with us so constructively since the autumn of last year on our shared goal of tackling climate change.
The Valley Community Foundation has provided the following information for area residents.

The Christian Counseling & Family Life Center in Shelton has transitioned its services (psychotherapy and psychiatric care for individuals, couples and families) to telemedicine. The Christian Counseling & Family Life Center is serving current patients as well as accepting new referrals.

TEAM seeking food donations

TEAM, Inc.s Food Hub is seeking several donation items.

The requested items are shelf stable liquid milk, canned chicken, oatmeal, fresh and frozen vegetables, meats, pasta, rice, eggs, and kid juice and snacks.

Drop-off times are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at TEAM office at 30 Elizabeth St., Derby. Volunteers will assist TEAM in distribution to Valley food pantries helping individuals and families facing food hardships.

Schools, Whitsons offer students food

Shelton schools and Whitsons Food Service are joining forces to keep children fed while the schools are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Interim Superintendent Beth Smith alerted parents online today that the district, in conjunction with Whitsons Food Service, will be offering bagged breakfast and lunch free of charge for all students 18 and younger enrolled in the Shelton public schools and Holy Trinity Catholic Academy beginning Wednesday, March 18.

Smith said parents can pick up breakfast and lunch beginning Wednesday, and continuing Monday through Friday during school closure, between 9 a.m. and noon in the Shelton High School bus loop.

During this time, the high schools Meadow Street gates will be closed in order to keep the flow of traffic on Meadow Street moving, said Smith. All participants may enter and exit the high school grounds via the North Constitution Boulevard entrance.

Smith asked parents to continue to check the district website and Facebook page on a regular basis for updates.

Adams Hometown Market

Adams Hometown Market is making schedule changes (7 to 8 a.m. each morning) to assist the elderly and their caregivers, immunocompromised citizens and first responders to ensure that they will have the safest shopping experience possible.
BNEI BRAK, Israel  Ultra-Orthodox Jews failing to comply with government instructions to contain the coronavirus are causing it to spread so quickly that Israeli officials are considering blockading entire communities to protect the wider population.

The virus is mushrooming in ultra-Orthodox communities as much as four to eight times faster than elsewhere in Israel.

In the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak, where 95 percent of the residents are ultra-Orthodox, the number of confirmed cases spiked from 267 on Friday to 571 on Tuesday. The total was nearly that of Jerusalem, whose population is four times bigger.

Although they make up only 12 percent of Israels population, the ultra-Orthodox account for 40 to 60 percent of the coronavirus patients at four major hospitals, hospital officials told Israeli news media. The true dimensions of the epidemic among the ultra-Orthodox can only be estimated because testing is rare.
(Photo : Screenshot from Twitter of @konstrucivizm) (Photo : Screenshot from Twitter of @BenGalley)

On the faithful day of April 10, 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope, or simply known as the EHT team of radio astronomers were able to take a picture and catch a glimpse of as something they refer to as the "gates of hell and the end of spacetime." Ever since then, the iconic image of the M87 Galaxy's black hole captured light from the entire universe that wrapped itself around an object in a nested series of rings.

Read More: Over 700 Bacteria Families Under Your Tongue That You Never Knew Existed Until Now

What They Discovered About M87

Peter Galison who hails from Harvard and also and EHT collaborator said, "As we peer into these rings, we are looking at light from all over the visible universe, we are seeing farther and farther into the past, a movie, so to speak, of the history of the visible universe."

He also thinks that the image unveiled will be more than enough of compelling evidence to the existence of black holes than some of the more technical data's being used by scientists and astronomers around the globe. "It's amazing to be able to say, here's the black hole, the size of our solar system, and bigger, and it has the mass of six and a half billion suns," he said.

Michael Johnson from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics shared his statement, "The image of a black hole actually contains a nested series of rings," unlike the rings that you usually form around your bathtub drain which was published in the March 18 edition of the journal for Science Advances.

Andrew Strominger, a professor of physics as well as the Assistant Director of Theory at the Black Hole Institute said, "Understanding the intricate details of this historic experimental observation has forced theorists like myself to think about black holes in a new way,"

Read More: Astronaut Moon Home Built by Their Own Urine!

The black hole was previously thought of existing 100 years ago, he said. "And the fact that it's taken us a hundred years to get a clear picture of them is not a measure of how lazy and slow scientists are. It's a measure of how huge the problem is, and with what precision and depth we're understanding the universe around us. It's something I've been thinking about my entire scientific life, and now I've seen it."

M87's black hole's the first picture anyone has ever captured regarding black holes, and its size is one to thank for it, given that M87 is the most giant and most massive galaxy in the nearby universe. This is thought to be a combination of over 100 or so smaller galaxies.

Collaboration Amongst Some of The Best Minds Around The World

That one image was the zenith of two years of hard work and dedication by a team of over 200 scientists in over 59 institutes and 18 countries. The said project, which other scientists at Harvard's Black Hole Institute, also contributed drew on data collected by eight telescopes whose locations were from Hawaii to the South Pole.

The very first picture of a black hole has prompted excitement and worry in the public eyes because black holes have been deeply ingrained in metaphors and mythology. Ortwin Gerhard, the head of dynamics group at Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics had this to say, "There's something paradoxical, intriguing, frightening, and imagination-provoking about black holes,"

Read More: Due to COVID-19, Hubble Space Telescope Anniversary Will be Interrupted

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
H arry and Meghans departures as senior royal makes them now pretty irrelevant as the UK battles the coronavirus pandemic, according to a legendary royal commentator.

Penny Junor said the royal family and the UK as a whole were now focussing on more crucial matters than the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who officially walk away from the monarchy on Tuesday.

Harry and Meghan are thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, preparing to step down as working royals, earn their own money and set up a not-for-profit organisation.

The situation will be reviewed by the monarchy in 12 months, leaving the door open in case of a change of heart,

But Ms Junor said: I think for the time being Harry and Meghan probably will become a distant memory.

Its very sad.

The Queen is expected to speak to the nation in a televised address, the Prince of Wales has coronavirus, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are supporting an initiative to boost the nations mental health during lockdown.

Ms Junor said: The royal family definitely has a role to play in crises like this.

Its a great morale boost to have words from the Queen or words from William and to watch his children clapping the NHS workers. Its important.

The monarchy does represent the nation to itself. They are there to express our emotions.

Penny Junor / Daniel Hambury

Prince Charles has got the disease so hes in there with us all.

All of this is absolutely what the family is about and those members of the royal family that are on a limb now are pretty irrelevant.

Harry and Meghan delivered their bombshell statement in January, saying they wanted a dual role, earning their own money and supporting the Queen.

But the plan was unworkable and the Queen had to hold a crisis summit to deal with the matter, which resulted in the couple walking away from the monarchy completely.

They returned from a stay in Canada to carry out a farewell flurry of engagements in London including appearing with the royals on Commonwealth Day, but in the wake of their final official engagement, the UK has been gripped in the growing coronavirus crisis.

There are life and death situations for absolutely everybody, Ms Junor said.

If people are not fighting for their lives, theyre fighting for their livelihoods. We dont know what the world is going to look like when we come out of all of this.

Im afraid Harry and Meghans decision is absolutely pushed to the back of the list of priorities.

Ms Junor said Harry, as a trained military man, would have been keen to help and disappointed not to be able to play a role.

From what I know of Harry, he would be sad to be away and not able to help, she said.
Massachusetts hasnt seen the worst of the coronavirus, Gov. Charlie Baker said. He projected a surge would hit the state in early April.

Sunday marked the first time in several days where Massachusetts saw a lower number of new coronavirus cases  698 new cases of COVID-19, but still fewer than the 1,000 new cases announced on Saturday. But that doesnt mean residents should expect the downward trend to continue.

The Baker administration sees the number of confirmed cases, as more people can get tests and as the state sees a surge in cases. He projects state could peak sometime between April 7 and April 17.

An analysis of hospital data nationwide, conducted by Harvard researchers at, suggests Massachusetts will be one of several states with a severe shortage of hospital beds for patients over the next few months.

Obviously, a huge part of what were trying to do, both in around preparation around the surge and a lot of other work were doing is to make sure everybody who can be safe is safe, Baker said.

One of those provisions is an initiative to recruit volunteer medical professionals to support the states response to the pandemic. The initiative is meant to help hospitals who may become or already are overloaded with cases.

Since last week, more than 1,800 volunteers have signed up to work with hospitals. The Baker administration said it is working on expedited on-boarding for the volunteers.

Baker also asked the federal government over the weekend for 1,000 ventilators because of the anticipated demand. The government confirmed it would send the ventilators to Massachusetts by early April, he said.

I think the quick turnaround we got on the ventilator request, which was processed in 48 hours or so, with the recognition that we have a demand or a need for somewhere between 1,000 and 1,400 ventilators ... is a big positive step forward in the right direction," he said.

The state continues to request PPE from multiple supply chains, Baker said.

The states COVID-19 Response Command Center is working with nursing homes to turn their facilities into treatment centers for some coronavirus patients.

Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center in Worcester, owned by Salmon Health and Retirement, is being turned into a treatment center and started moving residents on Friday. Of the nursing centers 147 residents, about 50 of those were transferred to other Salmon facilities, and the rest were sent to other Worcester-area nursing homes, CEO Matt Salmon told MassLive.

Tara Gregorio, president of the Massachusetts Senior Care Association, said in a statement that the initiative with nursing homes is a bold and responsible one compared to other states, which have mandated that all nursing facilities admit patients who tested positive.

By having these dedicated facilities, there will be less pressure on the states remaining skilled nursing facilities to admit and commingle COVID-19 patients with otherwise healthy nursing home residents, Gregorio said in a statement. These dedicated stand-alone COVID-19 recovery facilities are intended to reduce the overall risk to the general nursing home population, while freeing up acute hospital beds to treat new COVID-19 cases.

The state has 4,955 confirmed coronavirus cases on Sunday, up from 4,257 a day earlier, according to figures from the state Department of Public Health. More than 39,000 individuals have been tested, up from 35,049 on Saturday.

Brian Yun, associate director for clinical operations of the Emergency Department at Massachusetts General Hospital, told MassLive last week that the hospital has 300 ventilators at the facility. He said the hospital has an adequate number of face masks but that they dont have a comfortable margin."

Depending on what happens here in Massachusetts, it can shorten our runway," he said. "That is why our team is furiously identifying additional supplies.

Massachusetts has not reached the same caseload and death toll as New York state, but medical professionals need to keep prepared, Yun said. Still, state officials should plan for the possibility of overwhelmed hospitals and an uptick in cases, the doctor added.

Here in Massachusetts, we are preparing for that," he said. I agree with the governors approach to encourage and implement practices related to social distancing.

Since the first indication the coronavirus was a threat to Massachusetts and the U.S., Mass. General staff started winding down non-essential procedures and have basically stopped elective surgeries altogether, according to Yun.

Health care workers are continuing to be trained on best practices when treating COVID-19 patients, and employees are looking to increase hospital capacity by repurposing post-anesthesia and operating room spaces to serve as intensive care units, Yun said.

The doctor noted that it would be harmful to do away with measures aimed at staving off transmission, as officials do not know how rapidly the number of positive diagnoses, hospitalizations and deaths in Massachusetts will increase by.

We dont want Massachusetts residents to think that just because were not New York City yet, were in the clear, Yun said. We dont want to prematurely take away these measures, because we dont know where we as a state are going to be.

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by Shafique Khokhar

The Saylani Welfare International Trust was founded in 1999 to support homeless people and seasonal workers. For Muslim, turning non-Muslims away goes beyond the limits. Hindu lawmaker donates her salary to emergency fund.

Karachi (AsiaNews)  A Karachi NGO has denied food aid to poor Hindus and Christians, who like Muslims are suffering from coronavirus.

In Pakistan, the number of coronavirus cases now stands at 1,664 with 21 deaths. The conditions of the poor are cause for great concern.

Due to government travel restrictions, many day labourers lost the only source of livelihood for their family. Various government and local organisations have tried to help them.

The Saylani Welfare International Trust has been operating in the Korangi area since 1999, handing out aid and meals to homeless people and seasonal workers.

Two days ago, the welfare organisation refused to give ration cards to non-Muslims, saying that only Muslims are entitled to them.

The reason for this is that Zakat, Islamic alms giving (one of Islams five pillars), is reserved for Muslims. The Christian man said he begged for food to no avail.

Farooq Masih, a 54-year-old Christian in Korangi, said that last Saturday, Abid Qadri, a member of Saylani Welfare, with other NGO members, handed out food cards in his area. But, when they got to Christian homes, they just moved on.

Adan, a Muslim who lives in the same area, is outraged by the NGO's attitude. Why did they discriminate against Christians? Are they not citizens of Pakistan? They have gone beyond the limits. This act is not acceptable from an association that claims to serve humanity. We are all suffering from COVID-19.

Mangla Sharma, a Hindu Member of the Sindh Provincial Assembly, donated her March salary to the coronavirus emergency fund created by the Chief Minister.

For her, We must focus only on people, on the poor of our nation. Otherwise, only one religious community will benefit. We must all be united at this critical moment and help everyone regardless of faith, creed or language. We must act immediately as one nation and put differences aside.
Slate is making its coronavirus coverage free for all readers. Subscribe to support our journalism. Start your free trial.

It is time to kick Hungary out of the European Union and NATO. The country entered the Western alliance in the aftermath of the Cold War as a fledgling democracy, but has since reverted to autocracy.

Hungary crossed what should be a red line on Monday, as the countrys Parliament granted Prime Minister Viktor Orban the power to rule by decree indefinitely. Opposition parties tried to set a time limit on those powers, but Orbans ruling Fidesz party pushed through his motion without restriction.

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The measures putative rationale was to strengthen the governments hand in fighting the coronavirus, which has infected 447 Hungarians and killed 15. But Orban can cite the law to justify any measure on any subject. It is worth noting that in 2015 he declared a state of emergency to stave off the flow of refugees entering his country, and those emergency powerswhich included shutting down media outlets critical of his policiesare still in force.

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All of these steps violate the tenets of the EUs Charter of Fundamental Rights. As the charter puts it, the whole point of the European Union was to build a peaceful future based on common values, including freedom, equality, as well as the principles of democracy and the rule of law. This includes the freedom to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority.

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Last week, anticipating the bills passage, the EUs justice commissioner, Didier Reynders, said the unions members would assess whether the Hungarian law violates their rule-of-law standards. Clearly it does, and appropriate steps should be taken if these standardsand the EU itselfare still to have any meaning.

Orbans steps also violate the precepts of NATO. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is principally a security alliance, originally joining the United States and the Western European powers to deter and fend off an attack by the Soviet Union. However, Article 2 of the 1949 Washington Treatywhich created NATOstates that the members will contribute toward the further development of peaceful and friendly international relations by strengthening their free institutions.

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Moreover, the treatys Membership Action Plansigned in 1999, as several central and Eastern European countries (including Hungary) petitioned to join NATOstated the point much more firmly and set forth some rules, which Orban is now breaking.

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Future members, the document stated, must conform to basic principles embodied in the Washington Treaty such as democracy [and] individual liberty. Aspirants, it added, would also be expected  to demonstrate commitment to the rule of law and human rights.

Again, Orban is violating these principles and expectations.

Ironically, in the 1980s, as Timothy Garton Ash has written, Orban was a leader of Hungarys democratic movement, forcefully demanding the withdrawal of Soviet troops and pushing for human rights, free markets, and a civil society. Those days are long over.

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This isnt a matter of mere nomenclature. Members of the EU receive bountiful economic rewards. Members of NATO receive the security guarantee of the Washington Treatys Article 5, pledging all members that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.

The true democracies of the EU, such as they are, shouldnt give up a single euro to the coffers of Hungary as long as Orban rules by decree. Nor should the democracies of NATO pledge to give up a drop of blood to preserve his reign.
Sweeping leaves and trash off a deserted street and dumping them into her rusted wheelbarrow, Raj Kumari said the silence of the normal cacophony of Delhi was glorious, but eerie.

She used to sweep Delhis streets with her husband, but he died eight years ago. She is now the sole breadwinner for her six children, after her eldest son was laid off from his tech job this past week because of the lockdown.

Its just me and the sewer cleaners out here now, she said.

The lockdown has affected public transportation, and she now walks two hours just to get to work.

This is what I have to do for money, for life, she said. Even if the streets are empty, I have to come out. I dont have the pleasure of staying at home, this is my duty.

The government has never provided Ms. Kumari, who does not know her exact age, with gloves or masks for her job. But one of her daughters forbade her from working without protective gear during the pandemic and gave her a mask that her school had donated to students to protect against Delhis infamous pollution.

Im not afraid of corona, Ms. Kumari said. Why would anyone fear death when it is time for God to take you?
Every corporate CEO in America who makes $1 million or more should go without pay until their employees' jobs are secure.

After years of telling everyone about the importance of their people, nows the time to show it.

During the Iraq War, I embedded in more than a dozen military units, spending time with young platoon leaders all the way up to two-star division commanders. The troops behavior was always uncannily a reflection of their officers attitudes.

In a time of crisis, we look to our leaders for stability, unity and direction. A weak or selfish leader sets the standard for how everyone else will react.

Leaders show their true character in a crisis, and organizations succeed or fail on their leaders decisions. Boards and CEOs claim that is why they deserve to be paid 221 times more than the average employee, according to corporate filings.

CORONAVIRUS UPDATES: Stay informed with accurate reporting you can trust

From the collapse of cruise lines to the spike in demand at grocery stores, no one is doing business as usual. COVID-19 is challenging every company in the world.

Plunging revenues give CEOs a choice of either spending strategic reserves to keep employees on the payroll or scale back and lay them off. If a CEO is making 221 times the average employee at the company, thats a clear opportunity to save jobs.

Airline CEOs were the first to understand the enormity of the new coronavirus pandemic. United Airlines Chief Oscar Munoz and President Scott Kirby said they would stop collecting their base pay. Stock options are now their only income, and they will need to save the company to preserve that.

Uniteds leadership did the right thing after spending way too much money on stock buybacks, which boosted their compensation. Giving up their salary and ending buybacks are the least they can do in return for a government bailout.

Tomlinsons Take: U.S. responds to COVID-19 with needed socialism

Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly, meanwhile, only took a 10 percent cut to his $750,000 a year salary. He made $7.76 million in 2018, mostly from stock, so a $75,000 reduction is a pittance.

Executives are also taking pay cuts at Jet Blue, El Al Israel Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand, Australias Qantas Airways, U.K.-based Virgin Atlantic, Swedens SAS and Cebu Air, the largest budget carrier in the Philippines.

Hotels have seen occupancy rates plummet, and money is no longer coming in. Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson and Executive Chairman Bill Marriott plan to layoff tens of thousands of employees, but they promised executives would share in the pain through pay cuts.

Collapsing crude prices triggered by the pandemic and a price war have sent energy executives scrambling to slash spending and avoid bankruptcy.

Parsley Energy cut capital spending from $1.6 billion to less than $1 billion, and its chief executive, Matt Gallagher, said executives would cut their salaries by at least 50 percent.

This is not a time for indecision or half measures, Gallagher said in a statement.

Indeed not. Oil field service provider Halliburton is rejiggering its $10 billion in debt and furloughing 3,500 workers without pay for 60 days. But no word from the company spokeswoman on whether Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Miller will cut his $1.4 million salary. He collected $16.9 million in compensation in 2018.

If Miller were to waive his compensation, he could save 290 jobs. Frankly, he and other CEOs owe us.

Tomlinsons Take: America needs broader measures of success beyond GDP

President Donald Trump cut taxes in 2017, promising that subsequent economic growth would float all boats, not just benefit the wealthy. But two years later, data show that 44 percent of Americans saw no benefit from the tax cuts. Wages did not rise; benefits did not increase.

CEO compensation, on the other hand, rose 5.4 percent, according to an analysis by my colleague Erin Douglas. Thats three times faster than the average workers wages.

Executive pay cuts will not save a company from bankruptcy, but they could save a few lower-paid workers their jobs. Its also about honor. Sergeants in the U.S. Army always eat after their troops are through the chow line because a good leader puts his or her needs last.

Every business leader who ever bragged about their team or thought of themselves as a noble and selfless leader has an unprecedented opportunity to show the world their true colors.

Are you going to hole up in your corner office or stately mansion to issue pink slips to your valued employees?

Or will you share in the sacrifice, make sure an average worker can still pay their rent and feed their kids. Because that is where we are now, and your employees are looking to you for leadership.

Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and policy.

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chris.tomlinson@chron.com
HALIFAX, NS / ACCESSWIRE / March 30, 2020 / Namibia Critical Metals Inc. ("Namibia Critical Metals" or the "Company") (TSXV:NMI) today announced it intends to complete a non-brokered private placement in the amount of up to $350,000 consisting of units offered at a price of $0.12 per unit ("Private Placement") representing a 20% discount to the closing price of the common shares of the Company on March 27, 2020. Each unit will consist of one common share and one warrant. Each whole warrant will be exercisable for one common share at a price of $0.18 for a period of 18 months. A maximum of 5,833,333 common shares of Namibia Critical Metals will be issued pursuant to the Private Placement (assuming full exercise of all warrants). The Private Placement is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV").

The proceeds of the Private Placement will be used primarily to fund working capital and general corporate purposes. The common shares and warrants of the Company issued pursuant to the Private Placement will be subject to a four-month hold period.

About Namibia Critical Metals Inc.

Namibia Critical Metals holds a diversified portfolio of exploration and advanced stage projects in the country of Namibia focused on the development of sustainable and ethical sources of metals for the battery, electric vehicle and associated industries. The Company also has significant land positions in areas favourable for gold mineralization.

The Lofdal Heavy Rare Earth Project is the Company's most advanced project having completed a Preliminary Economic Assessment in 2014 and full Environmental Impact Assessment in 2017. An application has been made for a mining licence at Lofdal. The project is now in joint venture with JOGMEC who are funding the current $3,000,000 drilling and metallurgical program with the objective of doubling the resource size and optimization of the process flow sheet.

At the Erongo Gold Project, stratigraphic equivalents to the sediments hosting the recent Osino gold discovery at Twin Hills have been identified but not yet sampled. Detailed soil surveys are planned over this highly prospective area.

The Epembe Tantalum-Niobium Project is also at an advanced stage with a well-defined, 10 km long carbonatite dyke that has been delineated by detailed mapping with over 11,000 meters of drilling. Preliminary mineralogical and metallurgical studies including sorting tests (XRT), indicate the potential for significant physical upgrading. Further work will be undertaken to advance the project to a preliminary economic assessment stage.

The Kunene Cobalt-Copper Project comprises a very large area of favorable stratigraphy ("the DOF") along strike to the west of the Opuwo Co-Cu-Zn deposit. Secondary copper mineralization over a wide area points to preliminary evidence of a regional-scale hydrothermal system. Exploration targets on EPLs held in the Kunene project comprise direct extensions of the DOF style mineralization to the west, sediment-hosted cobalt and copper, orogenic copper, and stratabound Mn and Zn-Pb mineralization.

Earlier stage projects include the Grootfontein Project which has potential for magmatic Cu-Ni mineralization, Mississippi Valley-type Zn-Pb-V mineralization and Otjikoto-style gold mineralization.

The common shares of Namibia Critical Metals Inc. trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "NMI".

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For more information please contact -

Namibia Critical Metals Inc.

Don Burton, President

Tel: +01 (902) 835-8760

Fax: +01 (902) 835-8761

Email: Info@NamibiaCMI.com

Web site: www.NamibiaCriticalMetals.com

The foregoing information may contain forward-looking information relating to the future performance of Namibia Rare Earths Inc. Forward-looking information, specifically, that concerning future performance, is subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the appropriate securities commissions.

-30-

SOURCE: Namibia Critical Metals Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/583171/Namibia-Critical-Metals-Announces-CDN350000-Private-Placement
Dubai's Expo 2020 should be postponed to next year over the new coronavirus pandemic, local organizers recommended Monday, pushing back a world's fair that the sheikhdom has bet billions of dollars on to rejuvenate its troubled economy.

The ultimate decision over the event will be made by Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions, which had awarded the fair to this skyscraper-studded city in 2014. That helped boost Dubai's crucial real-estate market and had officials hoping for more tourists in this city-state that is home to the world's busiest airport for international travel.

Now, the pandemic has grounded flights by Dubai's long-haul carrier Emirates, jeopardized global tourism and caused further panic in a real-estate market already down by a third since the 2014 announcement.

Reem al-Hashimy, the director-general of Expo 2020, said in a statement that participants had been "significantly impacted" by the virus and the COVID-19 illness it causes.

"The UAE and Expo 2020 Dubai have listened," al-Hashimy said in the statement. "In the spirit of solidarity and unity, we supported the proposal to explore a one-year postponement."

The statement also quoted Dimitri S. Kerkentzes, the secretary-general of the Bureau International des Expositions, as saying the recommendation was "welcome" under the circumstances.

Expo 2020 and the bureau did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

Confirmed cases worldwide now number 725,000, with 34,000 death. Already, the Tokyo Olympics and other major world events have been postponed over the virus. While two-thirds of the bureau's members must approve a delay, it likely will be granted.

The project has been huge in Dubai. Already, construction costs around the event are estimated at $7 billion.

The cost of the event had raised concerns given the economic outlook. Dubai will need to incorporate the new city they've built for Expo 2020 into its sprawling real estate market after the six-month event ends. Even before the pandemic, that market shows signs of trouble.

Real estate speculation and the Great Recession helped drag down Dubai's economy in 2009. A sharp drop in oil prices in 2014 also hurt its economy, as has tension between the U.S. and Iran and the war in Yemen. While the Emirates has pulled out of the Saudi-led war in Yemen, oil prices have dropped to nearly $20 a barrel amid a price war.

Dubai's real estate market, which has been a major economic driver since it allowed foreigners to own property beginning in 2002, has seen its value drop by a third since its 2014 peak. Apartments, villas and office space stand empty, and more properties are due to come onto the market in the coming years, sparking enough alarm for Dubai's government to set up a commission to come up with ways of heading off the problem.

On Sunday, Dubai's largest, fully private real-estate developer DAMAC Properties announced its first yearly loss since becoming a publicly traded company. Late Saturday, global ratings agency S&P announced it lowered its rating for DAMAC from B+ to B over concerns about the economic fallout from the outbreak.

The ratings agency said it expected the fall in residential prices in Dubai will be steeper than previously forecast, with "adverse trends" stretching into 2021.

The S&P also lowered its ratings for the Dubai real estate juggernaut Emaar Properties, of which the sheikhdom's sovereign wealth fund owns about a third. Emaar warned investors Monday it would not be paying a dividend amid the pandemic.

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This article originally appeared on the Peekskill-Cortlandt Patch

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY  Westchester could be the second place in New York where the new coronavirus outbreak peaks, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. New York City, with its high numbers of cases, is expected to peak first.

Westchester was New York's first hot spot as large groups of people who attended two events at a New Rochelle synagogue infected each other in late February.

"We were the first but not the worst," Westchester County Executive George Latimer pointed out.

New York state has 66,497 confirmed cases as of Monday morning.

Cuomo described a "rolling apex" at his Sunday news briefing, pointing out that the places where the coronavirus outbreak will peak first. The projections say the second peak will be in either Westchester or Long Island. He warned regions further upstate that their cases would rise, saying that's why the state has a two-pronged approach to the crisis: flattening the upward curve of cases and stockpiling equipment for where and when it's needed.

Earlier Monday, Cuomo received a briefing upon the arrival of the USNS Comfort at Pier 88 in New York City. The 1,000-bed hospital ship has 12 fully-equipped operating rooms and will significantly increase New York's hospital surge capacity.

At his Monday briefing, he said he met with the leaders of hospitals across the state, including Westchester Medical Center, Vassar Brothers Medical Center, Putnam and Montefiore Nyack. No one hospital can handle this outbreak alone, he said at his Monday news briefing.

At his side, Kenneth E. Raske, president of the Greater New York Hospital Association, said, "We're going to work as one cohesive family system, the island as well as Westchester."

What's necessary is to balance the load on each hospital, he said.

"Each day that goes on the stress points will increase," he said.

Credit: New York Governor's Office

"New York is just the canary in the coal mine," Cuomo said. "What you see us going through here you will see elsewhere."



Story continues

Credit: New York Governor's Office

Coronavirus in New York
Austria will require shoppers to wear basic face masks in supermarkets in a bid to slow the still too-rapid spread of the coronavirus, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Monday, Trend reports citing Reuters.

Austria has closed schools, restaurants, bars, theatres and other gathering places, including non-essential shops. People have been told to stay at home and work from there if possible.

The country has reported 108 deaths and more than 9,000 cases, fewer than its neighbours Italy and Switzerland and within its health systems capacity so far, but Kurz told a news conference its intensive care capacity could be exceeded by mid-April.

Many cannot imagine what is heading our way within weeks, but the truth is that this is the calm before the storm. And to tell how horrific that storm can be, you can look at our neighbour Italy, Kurz said, referring to hospitals unable to cope with the number of sick people, and hundreds of dead a day.

The rate of infection remains far too high, Kurz said, adding that less than medical-grade masks would be distributed this week, probably from Wednesday.

As of the moment, these masks are handed out in front of supermarkets it will be compulsory to wear them in supermarkets, Kurz said, adding that the aim in the medium-term was for people to wear them in public more generally as well.

While the masks would not protect the wearer against infection, they would stop them sneezing or coughing on others and potentially infecting them, he added.

The World Health Organization has, however, been sceptical about such measures.

There is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any particular benefit, Dr Mike Ryan, the WHOs top emergencies expert, told a news conference later on Monday while adding that he was not aware of Austrias measure specifically.

In fact there is some evidence to suggest the opposite in the misuse or (not) wearing a mask properly or fitting it properly or taking it off and all the other risks that are otherwise associated with that.

Austria is also carrying out tests on a representative sample of 2,000 people to get a clearer understanding of how much of the population has been exposed to the virus, Kurz said, adding that Austria was one of the first countries in Europe to do so. The results will be available at the end of the week.
Tumble drying and machine washing at 56 degrees Celsius kills all traces of COVID-19 on clothes, cushions and Doonas, infectious disease specialists who study how viruses are transmitted have confirmed.

Doctor Sacha Stelzer-Braid studies respiratory viruses at the University of New South Wales in Sydney

Doctor Sacha Stelzer-Braid is a virologist with special interest in respiratory diseases at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

She is closely monitoring the spread of coronavirus in Australia, as nationwide infections top 4,980 and the death toll climbs to 21 after a 67-year-old woman died at Orange Base Hospital in the NSW Central West region.

Doctor Stelzer-Braid told Daily Mail Australia that cleaning laundry on a regular cycle will cause the virus to disintegrate and die, which means you're unlikely to catch coronavirus from clothing if you simply wash loads as normal.

'It's been shown that washing clothes and bedding at 56C kills the novel coronavirus specifically. It doesn't need to be boiling, you don't need to go overboard,' she said.

56 degrees Celsius is the temperature at which COVID-19 breaks down, according to a recent study by the US National Library of Medicine.

Infectious disease specialists have confirmed that tumble drying and machine washing at or above 56 degrees Celsius kills all traces of COVID-19 on clothes and soft furnishings

HOW LONG CAN COVID-19 SURVIVE ON SURFACES? In the air: Infectious disease researchers have found COVID-19 remains infectious in contaminated airborne respiratory droplets for at least three hours, however they have not determined whether humans produce enough of the disease in a single cough or sneeze to infect another person. On soft, porous surfaces: COVID-19 can survive on porous surfaces like cardboard, paper, clothing and soft furnishings like pillows and Doonas for up to 24 hours. Porous surfaces allow air and water to pass through, which makes them much less likely to hold infectious volumes of the virus compared to non-porous objects like door handles, taps and phone covers. On hard, shiny surfaces: COVID-19 has been proven to stay active on hard surfaces like glass, plastic and stainless steel for up to 72 hours. Hard, shiny materials are non-porous which means water, air and vapour cannot pass through and instead rest and accumulate on the surface. World Economic Forum researchers have confirmed the virus does degrade over time, reducing the likelihood of infection the longer contaminated droplets have sat on a surface, but you should still avoid touching handles, buttons and other objects in public spaces. If unavoidable, you should avoid touching your face until you have thoroughly washed your hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds. Frequently touched household surfaces like taps, door handles, computer keyboards and toilets should be cleaned using bleach or alcohol solutions of at least 70 percent alcohol. On hair: There is no evidence to suggest coronavirus can be carried in strands of beards or facial hair. Advertisement

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

Viruses can only replicate inside a living cell, which means outside the cell, they either infect us or self-destruct before finding a host cell to multiply in.

How long a virus survives outside a cell varies depending on the surface it finds itself on.

Professor Stelzer-Braid said this is why there is less need to worry about contracting the virus from porous materials like clothes and soft furnishings than from hard objects like phones and door knobs.

Porous materials allow moisture to pass through, making them less likely to hold infectious volumes of the virus, while non-porous surfaces are resistant to moisture which creates a breeding ground where the virus can rest and accumulate.

World Economic Forum researchers have found coronavirus can live for up to 24 hours on soft, porous fabrics and as long as 72 hours on hard, non-porous materials.

Researchers have found that COVID-19 can live on hard, shiny surfaces like phones for up to 72 hours (pictured, a witness wears a face mask during wedding at Captain Henry Waterhouse Reserve in Kirribilli, Sydney on March 28, 2020)

This is because the mucus contained in contaminated respiratory droplets absorb into soft fabrics faster than they do on hard surfaces, meaning the virus dies on clothes and cushions sooner than on phone covers and door handles.

But even when droplets COVID-19 are present on clothes, a quick turn in the washing machine will eliminate all active infection.

Professor Nigel McMillan researches infectious diseases at Griffith University in Queensland

These claims have been supported by Professor Nigel McMillan, who studies the causes and transmission of infectious diseases at Griffith University in Queensland.

Professor McMillan said there's no need for people to wash their clothes any more or any differently than they usually would - with the exception of frontline healthcare workers who are exposed to high densities of the virus and should leave gowns and personal protective equipment outside the house or at work.

'Any normal wash will do the job so long as you use detergent. Viruses are made up of proteins and fats which fall apart when they come in contact with the surfactants and soap in standard household detergents,' he said.

'Hot washes are better than cold if you have the option, for sure, but as long as you use detergent it's going to be absolutely fine either way.'

Tumble drying clothes on a hot temperature will also kill the virus, Professor McMillan said.

WHY YOU NEED TO WASH FRUIT AND VEGETABLES WITH SOAP University of Sydney Associate Professor Timothy Newsome University of Sydney Associate Professor Timothy Newsome specialises in infection, vaccines and virology, and has been watching closely as coronavirus restrictions heighten across Australia. Mr Newsome confirmed that 'every surface is a hazard' when it comes to COVID-19, including fresh produce on supermarket shelves. Mr Newsome told Daily Mail Australia that while the virus can live on most surfaces, people doing their weekly grocery shop should be particularly wary of the fruit and veg aisle as customers are constantly picking up and placing back down items. While it would be 'poor practice' to test 'every avocado for coronavirus', Mr Newsome said people must treat everything they touch as potential sources of contamination. The best course of action is to wash fruit and vegetables with soap as soon as you bring them home, instead of simply relying on the high heat of cooking them to 'kill' the virus. 'Wash them with warm soapy water, just as you do your hands,' Mr Newsome said. Advertisement

COVID-19 survives for longer on hard surfaces because contaminated respiratory droplets absorb into soft fabrics faster, which means the virus dies on clothes and cushions sooner than on public seats and door handles (left, celebrity home renovators Mitch Edwards and Mark McKie hold a cushion, and right, a cleaner sanitises handrails on a Sydney Tram at Circular Quay station on March 28, 2020)

HOW COVID-19 IS SPREAD The novel coronavirus is spread through contaminated respiratory droplets which become airborne when someone infected with the disease coughs or sneezes. The virus can also be spread through handshakes and other physical contact with an infected individual, and by touching door knobs, taps or other surfaces which have been handled by a person with COVID-19 who has not washed their hands. The time between when a person is exposed to the virus and when symptoms first appear is typically five to six days, but the time frame can range anywhere from two to 14 days, according to NSW Heath. Advertisement

Boston infectious disease doctor Gabriela Andujar Vazquez agreed.

'It's perfectly safe for you to go back home with your regular clothes and just do what you have been doing [before] COVID-19,' she told Market Watch on Sunday.

The experts' comments are based on the findings of a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which show COVID-19 can live on copper for up to four hours, on cardboard and porous fabrics for 24 hours and on stainless steel and plastic for up to to three days.

Other studies have shown the virus can remain on synthetic materials used in shoes like rubber for as long as five days.

But they warn these preliminary figures may be underestimates because the tests were carried out in clinical and laboratory settings.

'These findings are from a lab study. In the real world, we have different temperatures, different humidity and other environmental factors that come into play which could enable the virus to survive for longer,' Professor Stelzer-Braid said.
EDWARDSVILLE  National unemployment claims broke a recently as almost 3.3 million people filed for assistance, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Illinois unemployment claims totaled 114,663 as of March 27, up more than 103,000 from the previous week.

Marion Gilson, who owns the Back Bar on North Main Street in Edwardsville, joined those ranks after she closed the bar on March 16. She opened the bar in early December 2018, in the back half of the old Lauries space.

Gilson said she borrowed money from her father and sister to open the bar and she viewed its opening as a form of redemption in the wake of her mothers passing and losing a career in 2016 from which she expected to retire.

I promised myself I wouldnt fail and now, it feels like Im failing, she said with a few tears. I dont have an income. Nothing. I have nothing, she said about her current plans. I started this bar with nothing.

She had 10 people working for her.

Im hoping to get them all back, she said of her employees, most of whom attend college. Some of them had other jobs.

Gilson thinks Gov. J.B. Pritzker should have taken a different approach to business closures.

More Information More about resources The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity recently launched three new programs for Illinois small businesses. Click here to learn more about why Madison and St. Clair county residents are not eligible for one of the three initiatives. See More Collapse

If it was up to me, I would have closed everything down, not pick and choose. I would like to think were going to be open again in two weeks, but I dont think thats going to happen.

Stephanie Reinneck leased booth space as one of four hair stylists in Glen Carbon with an upscale clientele. She has worked in this field for 10 years.

About a week before we closed, I started noticing the drop-off, she said of her clients. They just canceled; they were too afraid to come in.

She closed on March 21 at 5 p.m. Like Gilson, she cant conduct virtual or online business.

Congress also passed a $2 trillion rescue package for employees, but word is, the funds wont be available until May, leaving a lot of folks in the lurch about their April rents, mortgages and other monthly payments. Reinneck hopes to be able to take advantage of the states new small business grants or loan assistance programs unveiled recently.

Before today, I didnt even qualify for unemployment because I was self-employed, she said. I think Im one of the lucky ones because my husband gets hazard pay from his job.

She said looking forward, if this happens again that there is more governmental orchestration and the reaction would be immediate.

I dont like that somebody told me I couldnt work then decided not to give me any unemployment, she said.

Stephanie Manning owns The Pilates Barre, located off of Plum Street near Peel Pizza and Mike Shannons Grill.

In our business, we see clients one-on-one, semi-private and small group settings, said Manning. We closed all of our classes, only seeing semi-private, or one-on-one clients, starting March 16. We closed our doors completely end-of-day on March 20. I currently employ nine people, including myself. This is an unprecedented time, for sure!

She said despite being closed, they are trying to continue to teach online classes.

The competition online is worldwide instead of local, so this comes with its own challenges, she said. As of right now, we are planning to open on April 8 with one-on-one appointments. Then we will slowly add classes as government and healthcare officials say it is safe.

Manning is married with two children. Her husband has a job that is considered essential, so he is still able to work.

As the owner of a business, my primary concern is to keep finding and building work for my eight teachers, she said. I am not looking for part-time work, but I am brainstorming ways to continue working through online technology. It saddens me to put not only my business in this position, but the income and families of eight others!

As an entrepreneur, you know you are taking a risk opening a business, but you dont think about the impact your business has on others until it is taken away.

Manning said she is hoping to continue to build her online business, so that when she returns to the studio, she has a more robust business platform.

One place affected that most people in town might not think of immediately is the Edwardsville Childrens Museum (ECM).

Here at ECM, we are following suit with Illinois schools and Gov. Pritzkers stay-at-home order because we feel that the health of our community is of the utmost importance, said Abby Schwent, the museums executive director.

The museum closed on March 17. We feel strongly that joyful and experiential learning is needed during this time, so we are staying connected with our visitors through our social media (Facebook and Instagram) where we share tips and ideas for fun activities as well as our virtual story time, Schwent said.

It is definitely hard to be closed for an extended period of time, especially as a non-profit, and we are taking a huge hit but we know that its the right thing to do and a lot of other people are in this same situation, she said.

I personally feel very sad that weve had to cancel so many field trips, birthday parties and events during what is generally one of our busiest times of year. Its way too quiet here at ECM and we miss our little visitors.

She said on the positive side, museum staff have used this downtime to work on the construction of new exhibits and give the museum a deep cleaning. She added that people can support ECM by visiting its website and donating or registering for summer camps and classes.

Every one of our employees will still have a job with ECM when we re-open; were just on a kind of pause right now, Schwent added.

If your business has been impacted by the coronavirus and you would like the community to be aware, let us know by using the online form available here: SURVEY: How is coronavirus affecting your business or group?

Reach reporter Charles Bolinger at (618) 659-5735
In times of fear, loneliness, and physical distancing, Barbara Judt wants to help pet owners keep their furry friends.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/3/2020 (653 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In times of fear, loneliness, and physical distancing, Barbara Judt wants to help pet owners keep their furry friends.

Judt runs the Manitoba division of the Animal Food Bank, a volunteer and donation-based organization that provides pet food and other supplies to low-income pet owners. Now, demand for its services has skyrocketed as Manitobans lose jobs during the pandemic.

"We dont want to hear the heart-breaking story: I couldnt afford to feed my pet so I had to drop them off at the shelter," Judt said.

"Right now, peoples anxiety and levels of depression are definitely on the increase. People are very much on edge, some people seem to be paralyzed with fear... so if youve got the comfort of your furry friend or your reptile friend close at hand, I think thats great."

The Animal Food Bank, which kicked off in Winnipeg last month, gives pet owners access to food, kitty litter, and sometimes toys. Those in need can fill out an application on Facebook, and volunteers work to fill orders and drop off supplies, no questions asked. The program supplies food for all kinds of pets, including cats, dogs, bunnies, birds and reptiles.

"We are a no-barrier program, you dont have to prove your income to us, and our focus is to help people out who have little to no income and who are living on the streets," Judt said.

"We never want someone to have to relinquish their pets because they cant afford to feed them."

"Its proven, the connection that people have with their pets and how much our pets do for our well being, its phenomenal," she said.

When it launched the food bank was delivering about 200 pounds of food per week, but since COVID-19 hit Canada, demand has jumped to nearly 1,000 pounds weekly. Judt said she received 15 new requests for food on Friday morning alone.

"Right now, were just about out of what weve got, so Im quite worried about how were going to be able to meet this demand," she said.

The charity runs entirely on donations, Judt said. They work with the Pet Valu location on Plessis Road, where Winnipeggers can call in donations to be picked up volunteers. The food bank also accepts e-transfers and open food donations, which can be co-ordinated through its Facebook page.

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"We are in need of donations  we want to keep our furry friends and everyones pets together with their families," she said.

To help keep employees safe and shelters as empty as possible during the pandemic, the Winnipeg Humane Society has closed its intake department to everything except emergencies, spokeswoman Lenore Hume said.

In the last two weeks, the shelter took in 143 animals, but staff is encouraging Winnipeggers to find other ways to care for surrenders or strays.

"Where perhaps if they find a stray, we ask them to look after the animal themselves or adopt it out through someone else they know, or foster until we can find a space," Hume said.

julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jsrutgers
Oxfam has called for a 130bn package from world governments to prevent millions of coronavirus deaths in poorer countries. (stock photo)

Oxfam has called for a 130bn package from world governments to prevent millions of coronavirus deaths in poorer countries.

The charity has set out a five-point plan for help needed in nations such as Mali, where there are just three ventilators for one million people, and Zambia, where each doctor looks after around 10,000 people.

They are calling for investment in disease prevention including public health campaigns, as well as 10 million new health workers, as part of a package of debt cancellation and aid.

The charity also says all healthcare must be free and all private health facilities must be put back into the hands of governments ready for all treatment to be available free of charge.

Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive of Oxfam GB, said: "For millions of people in refugee camps without clean water, and in countries with little or no health facilities, the impact could be catastrophic."
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's coal output in the first two months of 2020 fell 6.3% from the same period a year earlier as the coronavirus outbreak stopped miners from getting back to work after the Lunar New Year holiday was extended in a bid to contain the epidemic.

China churned out 489.03 million tonnes of coal over January and February, down from 513.67 million tonnes in the same period last year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday.

Production of coke, widely used in steelmaking, fell 5.5% on the year in January-February to 70.64 million tonnes, statistic bureau data showed.

The statistics bureau didn't disclose numbers for January and February separately.

Authorities prolonged the week-long Lunar New Year celebration, which began on Jan. 24 this year, for an extra two weeks and some regions blocked roads in an effort to rein in the spread of the virus that has now killed more than 3,200 people and infected more than 80,000 in mainland China.

To ensure sufficient coal supplies for power utilities, the central government had urged miners to resume production and rail companies to ensure enough capacity for shipping coal.

The National Energy Administration said on March 5 that production had reached 83.4% of total coal mining capacity as of March 3.

However, demand at downstream users, such as cement producers and steel mills, remains tepid as construction projects have largely stalled and supply chains for many industries are still clogged.

Power generation in China in the first two months of 2020 fell 8.2% year-on-year to 1.03 trillion kilowatt hours (kWh), the statistic bureau data showed.

Experts had estimated that China's industrial power demand in 2020 may declined by as much as 73 billion kWh, or about 1.5% of industrial consumption in the country.

Port prices for Chinese thermal coal with energy content of 5,500 kilocalories per kg fell to 560 yuan ($80.03) a tonne on Friday from 576 yuan in mid-February when miners started to return for work.

China imported 68.06 million tonnes of coal in January and February combined, up 33.1% from a year ago, as some coal shipments that were unable to be cleared by Chinese customs in December arrived in early January.

(Reporting by Muyu Xu and Tom Daly; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Christian Schmollinger)
Microsoft today announced that later this year, it will launch what is essentially a consumer version of Teams, its Slack-like text, audio and video chat application. Teams for your personal life, as Microsoft likes to call it, will feature a number of tools that will make it easier for families and small groups to organize events, share information and get on video calls, too.

As Google has long demonstrated, there can never be enough messaging applications, but it's interesting to see Microsoft preview this direction for Teams when it has long solely focused on Skype as its personal chat, audio and video call app. But as Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's corporate VP for Modern Life, Search and Devices, told me, Skype isn't going away. Indeed, he noted that more than half a billion people are using tools like Skype today.

"Skype continues," he said when I asked him about the future of that service. "We remain committed to Skype. Skype today is used by a hundred million people on a monthly basis. The way I think about it is that Skype is a great solution today for personal use. A lot of broadcast companies use it as well. Teams is really the more robust offering, as you will, where in addition to doing video and chat calling, we also bring in rich communications and templates [...], we have things like dashboard and it also helps you pull in a richer set of tools."

With the more personal Teams only launching later this year, Skype remains Microsoft's main consumer chat service for the time being. Indeed, about 40 million people currently use it daily, in part because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the company is seeing a 220% increase in Skype-to-Skype call minutes.

While Microsoft thought about giving this new personal take on Teams a different brand, the company decided that Teams had pretty broad brand awareness already. In addition, the focus of today's updates was very much on bridging the gap between work life and home life, so it makes sense for the company to try to combine both enterprise and personal features into the same application.
Dividend paying stocks like Public Joint Stock Company Moscow City Telephone Network (MCX:MGTS) tend to be popular with investors, and for good reason - some research suggests a significant amount of all stock market returns come from reinvested dividends. Unfortunately, it's common for investors to be enticed in by the seemingly attractive yield, and lose money when the company has to cut its dividend payments.

In this case, Moscow City Telephone Network likely looks attractive to dividend investors, given its 9.5% dividend yield and nine-year payment history. We'd agree the yield does look enticing. When buying stocks for their dividends, you should always run through the checks below, to see if the dividend looks sustainable.

Click the interactive chart for our full dividend analysis

MISX:MGTS Historical Dividend Yield March 30th 2020

Payout ratios

Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Comparing dividend payments to a company's net profit after tax is a simple way of reality-checking whether a dividend is sustainable. Looking at the data, we can see that 152% of Moscow City Telephone Network's profits were paid out as dividends in the last 12 months. A payout ratio above 100% is definitely an item of concern, unless there are some other circumstances that would justify it.

In addition to comparing dividends against profits, we should inspect whether the company generated enough cash to pay its dividend. Moscow City Telephone Network paid out 216% of its free cash flow last year, suggesting the dividend is poorly covered by cash flow. Paying out more than 100% of your free cash flow in dividends is generally not a long-term, sustainable state of affairs, so we think shareholders should watch this metric closely. Cash is slightly more important than profit from a dividend perspective, but given Moscow City Telephone Network's payouts were not well covered by either earnings or cash flow, we would definitely be concerned about the sustainability of this dividend.

Story continues

With a strong net cash balance, Moscow City Telephone Network investors may not have much to worry about in the near term from a dividend perspective.

Remember, you can always get a snapshot of Moscow City Telephone Network's latest financial position, by checking our visualisation of its financial health.

Dividend Volatility

Before buying a stock for its income, we want to see if the dividends have been stable in the past, and if the company has a track record of maintaining its dividend. Looking at the last decade of data, we can see that Moscow City Telephone Network paid its first dividend at least nine years ago. It's good to see that Moscow City Telephone Network has been paying a dividend for a number of years. However, the dividend has been cut at least once in the past, and we're concerned that what has been cut once, could be cut again. During the past nine-year period, the first annual payment was 198 in 2011, compared to 232 last year. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 1.8% a year over that time. The dividends haven't grown at precisely 1.8% every year, but this is a useful way to average out the historical rate of growth.

We're glad to see the dividend has risen, but with a limited rate of growth and fluctuations in the payments, we don't think this is an attractive combination.

Dividend Growth Potential

With a relatively unstable dividend, it's even more important to evaluate if earnings per share (EPS) are growing - it's not worth taking the risk on a dividend getting cut, unless you might be rewarded with larger dividends in future. Earnings have grown at around 2.3% a year for the past five years, which is better than seeing them shrink! Still, the company has struggled to grow its EPS, and currently pays out 152% of its earnings. As they say in finance, 'past performance is not indicative of future performance', but we are not confident a company with limited earnings growth and a high payout ratio will be a star dividend-payer over the next decade.

Conclusion

Dividend investors should always want to know if a) a company's dividends are affordable, b) if there is a track record of consistent payments, and c) if the dividend is capable of growing. Moscow City Telephone Network paid out almost all of its cash flow and profit as dividends, leaving little to reinvest in the business. Second, earnings growth has been ordinary, and its history of dividend payments is chequered - having cut its dividend at least once in the past. In this analysis, Moscow City Telephone Network doesn't shape up too well as a dividend stock. We'd find it hard to look past the flaws, and would not be inclined to think of it as a reliable dividend-payer.

It's important to note that companies having a consistent dividend policy will generate greater investor confidence than those having an erratic one. However, there are other things to consider for investors when analysing stock performance. Just as an example, we've come accross 4 warning signs for Moscow City Telephone Network you should be aware of, and 1 of them is a bit concerning.

We have also put together a list of global stocks with a market capitalisation above $1bn and yielding more 3%.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has reported 693 new coronavirus cases today, raising the statewide total to 4,087.

At least 48 have died, including 10 new fatalities reported today, according to the health department. The department issued new figures today.

Cases have now been reported in 59 of Pennsylvanias 67 counties. The new cases reported today mark another one-day high.

There are 33,777 patients who have tested negative. The health department no longer issues the number of pending test results, since most testing is done in commercial laboratories.

More than half of the states cases have been reported in the Philadelphia area. The city of Philadelphia now has more than 1,000 cases (1,007 cases and 7 fatalities), while neighboring Montgomery County has 540 confirmed cases.

Nonetheless, cases continue to rise across the state. Allegheny County alone has 290 cases.

Lancaster County leads the midstate counties with 97 patients, including 30 new cases reported today. Around the Harrisburg region, York County has 54 cases, Dauphin County has 36, Lebanon County has 27 and Cumberland County has 24.

The health department doesnt offer statistics on how many people recover from the coronavirus. The department has said hospitals inform the state about positive cases but dont report when patients are discharged. Most patients who contract the virus do recover.

Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine has continually stressed the need for all residents to practice social distancing and wash their hands repeatedly to protect against the coronavirus. She has urged younger adults to take the virus seriously.

More than half of all patients in Pennsylvania who have been diagnosed are under the age of 50, according to state figures.

Seniors are especially susceptible to more serious complications from the coronavirus. About half of all those who are hospitalized are 65 and older.

Gov. Tom Wolf has said he and health officials are concerned that if the rapid spread of the virus continues at the current pace, the states hospitals could be overwhelmed. The first case of coronavirus in the state was reported on March 6.

Wolf has taken aggressive steps to curb the spread of the outbreak. He has issued stay-at-home orders to 22 counties. More than 9 million people - about three-quarters of the states residents - in a county with a stay-at-home order.

The governor has ordered businesses across Pennsylvania to shut down temporarily to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Thousands of companies have applied for waivers to stay open. Some businesses and trade groups have complained the Wolf administrations order is preventing companies that offer life-sustaining services to operate.

Schools are closed until at least April 6 and Wolf has said they could be closed longer if necessary. School districts are working to deliver online instruction and bracing for the possibility that schools wont reopen this spring. Schools are under increasing pressure to begin offering remote instruction, as the governor signed a bill calling for districts to make a good faith effort to continue educating kids.

Universities and colleges around Pennsylvania have shifted to online instruction. For some instructors and students, theres a steep learning curve.

Note: This story has been updated to correct the number of fatalities. The state initially said in a news release that 49 have died but then revised the number to 48 deaths in a news conference later this afternoon.

More from PennLive

Coronavirus has infected the economy, hitting hourly workers and small business owners the hardest

Updated list of central Pa. restaurants open for takeout/delivery, arranged by county
Ukraine's land market bill: amended draft limits purchases to 100 ha per buyer

16:00, 30.03.20 3808

Legal entities will be allowed to purchase land plots from 2024.
Two inmates at a Quebec maximum-security prison are the first prisoners to test positive for COVID-19 inside a federal prison, according to the agency in charge of Canadas correctional system.

Nine employees at the Port-Cartier Institution have also tested positive for COVID-19 and are now in isolation at home, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) said in a Monday news release. The inmates are being medically isolated from the general inmate population and the institution has been on lockdown as a precautionary measure, the release said.

The prison, located about 600 kilometres northeast of Quebec City, has a capacity of 237 inmates, according to CSCs website.

As of Saturday, tests had been conducted on 50 federal inmates with 45 returning negative and two positive, with three tests pending, CSC said.

For weeks, advocates have called for a compassionate, responsible approach to preventing a potentially devastating COVID-19 outbreak in prisons and jails.

They have suggested releasing non-violent offenders and offenders nearing their statutory release dates  a move that could free up space in the institutions to allow for social distancing and less risk to the inmates who remain. Temporary absences, currently suspended, could also be reintroduced for medical reasons.

The potential for a crisis in jails and prisons has been acknowledged by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said Sunday that the government is very concerned about the fact that our correctional institutions could be places where  are places where there could be greater vulnerability to COVID-19.

CSC has said it is working with the Parole Board of Canada to examine all options with respect to the safe release of offenders into the community.

Ivan Zinger, the ombudsman of federal prisons, has noted the federal government has the power of clemency  an exceptional power allowing Ottawa to release those guilty of federal crimes where no other remedy exists in law to reduce severe negative effects of criminal sanctions.

COVID-19 cases have also begun to show up in the provincial jail system.

On Thursday the province confirmed a positive test for an inmate at the Toronto South Detention Centre, a provincial jail that houses both people who have not yet gone to trial and offenders serving sentences of less than two years. A guard at the jail had previously tested positive.

Canadas federal prisons house inmates who have been convicted and sentenced to a prison term of longer than two years.
Master audio launch is unarguably one of the most celebrated events of the Tamil cinema industry in the recent past. The music album of the Thalapathy Vijay starrer was released in the grand event that was held at Leela Palace, Chennai on March 15, Sunday.

As per the latest reports, the TRP rating of the Master audio launch event that was telecasted on Sun TV is finally out. Despite being a live telecast, the audio launch event of the Vijay-Lokesh Kanagaraj project failed to fare excellent TRP ratings. The sources suggest that the Master audio launch event has failed to enter the Top 5 list of TRP ratings.

Interestingly, the audio launch event of Bigil, the 2019-released Vijay starring Atlee project had earned the no.1 position in the TRP list. According to the trade analysts, the timing of the telecast, lack of hype among the audiences, and coronavirus scare have negatively impacted the TRP of the Master audio launch.

Initially, the audio launch event of Master was slated to be held in a popular college ground in Chennai. But later, the makers decided to go for a close-door event in Leela Palace, Chennai, to prevent the crowd from entering the venue due to the increasing coronavirus scare in the country.

The all India lockdown has not affected the post-production activities of Master, which have been proceeding in a full swing. According to the latest reports, cinematographer Sathyan Sooryan and his team are working on Digital Intermediate (DI) works, while music director Anirudh Ravichander and his team are busy with the final sound recording.

Master, which is said to be an out and out action thriller, features Vijay in the titular role. Vijay Sethupathi, the talented actor is appearing as the lead antagonist in the project, which features Petta fame Malavika Mohanan as the female lead. The Vijay starrer is produced by Xavier Britto under the banner XB Creations.

Also Read:

Vijay's Master: Here Is An Update On The Post-Production Of The Project!
EDINBURG, Va., March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (Shentel or Company) (SHEN) announces the following management changes to its accounting department leadership to further strengthen its technical accounting and internal control over financial reporting capabilities.



Gina Volk has joined Shentel as Director of Internal Controls. Mrs. Volk is a certified public accountant and has 15 years of experience most recently as Senior Director, SOX and Internal Control with NII Holdings, Inc.

Peter Madara has joined the Company as Director of Technical Accounting. Mr. Madara has over 20 years of experience including 12 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers and most recently as Senior Director of Technical Accounting for NII Holdings, Inc.

Kevin Weyant has joined Shentel as an Accounting Manager after seven years with PricewaterhouseCoopers in the McLean, Virginia office in progressively advancing positions including most recently as Audit Manager. Mr. Weyant is a certified public accountant.

Matthew Harbaugh has joined the Company as an Accounting Manager. Mr. Harbaugh has nine years of professional experience including almost four years with PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania office and most recently as Manager with The Siegfried Group LLP. Mr. Harbaugh is a certified public accountant and served in the United States Navy for three years.

We are very pleased to add these seasoned professionals to our accounting management team," said Jim Volk, Chief Financial Officer. They will both help us manage our diversified telecommunication businesses and further enhance our ability to successfully execute our multiple year material weakness remediation plan that we expect to complete by the end of 2021.

About Shenandoah Telecommunications

Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (Shentel) provides a broad range of diversified communications services through its high speed, state-of-the-art wireless, cable and fiber optic networks to customers in the Mid-Atlantic United States. The Companys services include: wireless voice and data; broadband internet, video, and digital voice; fiber optic Ethernet, wavelength and leasing; telephone voice and digital subscriber line; and tower colocation leasing. Shentel is the exclusive personal communications service (PCS) Affiliate of Sprint in a multi-state area covering large portions of central and western Virginia, south-central Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and portions of Maryland, Kentucky, and Ohio. For more information, please visit www.shentel.com .

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This release contains forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements regarding our ability to execute our multiple year material weakness remediation plan by the end of 2021, that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of unforeseen factors. A discussion of factors that may cause actual results to differ from management's projections, forecasts, estimates and expectations, is available in the Companys filings with the SEC. Those factors may include changes in general economic conditions, increases in costs, changes in regulation and other factors, including public health crises, such as pandemics and outbreaks of a contagious disease like the novel coronavirus, either nationally or in the local markets in which we operate.

CONTACTS:

Jim Volk

Shenandoah Telecommunications Company

540-984-5168

jim.volk@emp.shentel.com

John Nesbett/Jennifer Belodeau

IMS Investor Relations

203-972-9200

jnesbett@institutionalms.com

Source: Shenandoah Telecommunications Company
NongHyup Bank CEO Son Byung-hwan, second from left, listens to officials from a local car parts manufacturer hit by COVID-19 in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, March 30. The new CEO vowed to facilitate prompt offering of loans to help small- and medium-sized enterprises suffering from liquidity shortages. Courtesy of NongHyup Bank
Don Lessem is a stickler for accuracy. His company, Dino Don, fields 205 rentable robots, mostly dinosaurs, in zoos, aquariums, and museums worldwide. He also sells them. They're full-size--a 120-foot-long Argentinosaurus is heading to the Leipzig Zoo in Germany--because "part of what's cool about our dinosaurs is how big they are," he says. And you won't see any nonsense like a Hadrosaurus with webbed feet. "If you're a 6-year-old or a scientist--the two most knowledgeable groups of people--you know that is wrong," he says.

The former journalist fell hard for the big beasts in 1988, while reporting for The Boston Globe. He launched his company in 1993 with a traveling exhibit that corrected inaccuracies in the movie Jurassic Park, on which he had served as dinosaur adviser. For years, Lessem created shows featuring casts made from dinosaur skeletons, augmented by models and fossils. The $5 million, six-employee shop operates out of his Media, Pennsylvania, home (called Troodon Manor, after the "smartest" dinosaur).

Long disdainful of existing models, Lessem decided to build his own--in Zigong, China, a hub of the robotic dinosaur industry. He provided the artisans with photos of fossils with imprinted skin patterns, and illustrations of realistic poses. Professional paleontologists oversee production.
Forty-four percent of those surveyed said they had either been laid-off themselves since the crisis started or live with someone who has. About a fifth are worried that they will lose work in the coming days or weeks.

For those who are currently employed, more than half expect their hours to get cut inevitably.

The firm conducted the online survey from March 20 to 23 using "a representative randomized sample of 1,664 Canadian adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum." The sample of that size would carry a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points or 19 times out of 20, it said.

According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFID), businesses are cutting back due to quarantines and the corresponding drastic reduction in demand for products and services. The agency also warned that a third of the countrys small businesses are in danger of closing in the next few weeks without government intervention.

"More than half of small firms have begun laying off staff, with a quarter reporting they have already been forced to lay off their entire workforce," CFIB president Dan Kelly said in an interview with CBC News. That number is likely to increase in the coming weeks as many small businesses will be forced to make additional layoff decisions in the next few days."
China's circulation enterprises have gradually resumed operation with a sufficient market supply of products, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

A woman sells stationery via live broadcast in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province, on March 29. (Photo/ Ke Hao)

Large wholesale markets, supermarket chains, branded convenience stores and e-commerce platforms have all resumed business and recovered their turnover. 99.4 percent of agricultural products wholesale markets have reopened, while 99.5 percent of supermarket chains and 95.4 percent of branded convenience stores have gone back into operation.

By March 27, 97.6 percent of business owners at agricultural products wholesale markets had begun operation, with the transaction volume increasing more than 50 percent from early February, said Wang Bin, an MOC official, at a press conference on March 28.

Wang added that sales at large chain supermarkets and branded convenience stores exceeded that of the same period last year.

In mid-March, sales by key retailers monitored by the MOC increased 7 percent from mid-February, according to Wang.

84.5 percent of business owners on e-commerce platforms have resumed operation, 14 percentage points higher than at the end of February. In addition, 95.8 percent of department stores have reopened, with sales going back to about 50 percent of that in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, 80 percent of catering enterprises, 60 percent of hotels and 40 percent of housekeeping companies have seen sales recover to 35 percent of the same period last year.

Though companies are still facing difficulties such as shortages of capital and personnel, businesses will further go back to normal as a string of policies are about to be implemented, Wang noted.

China has unveiled favorable tax policies to help small and micro businesses and self-employed entrepreneurs tide over their difficulties.

Small restaurants and hotels will be exempt from value-added tax for a certain period of time, said Wang Shiyu, an official with the State Administration of Taxation, adding that owners can carry over a tax loss to eight years, instead of the previous five years.

The country has also decided to exempt value-added tax for small-scale taxpayers in Hubei province and cut the tax from 3 percent to 1 percent for those outside Hubei from March 1 to May 31.
The state veterans home in Lebanon said Sunday a second resident of the facility had died.

The veteran tested positive for COVID-19 on March 16, and had other underlying medical conditions. The home said it would not be releasing the residents name or other personal information.

The Lebanon facility, the Edward C. Allworth Veterans Home, has become one of the states hotspots in the ongoing pandemic. At last count, there were 15 cases among residents, two of whom have died. The facility has said one employee has tested positive, but according to an email obtained by The Oregonian, there may be as many as five.

The first resident to die, a man in his 90s, passed away March 23. Three of the nursing homes four separate buildings have residents diagnosed with the disease. Most of the homes residents are over 70 and have underlying health conditions  the two populations most at risk of catching the virus and having severe complications. About a third of them are over 90.

Most of the veterans homes roughly 225 employees have been tested, according to Veterans Affairs officials. But they have declined to say how many have results back or how many have tested positive other than the initial confirmation of one employee.

This resident was an honored veteran of our nations Armed Forces, who continued to serve his community after leaving the service, said an announcement posted on tha facilitys Facebook page. He was an important and beloved member of our Lebanon community, and he will be missed terribly. On behalf of everyone at the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs and the Oregon Veterans Home, we offer our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.
The young Afghan couple were huddling in the cold; their toddler coughing and wheezing uncontrollably. Amid fears of coronavirus, and public apathy towards refugees, most of the travellers making their way through Istanbuls vast main bus terminal quickly averted their eyes and hurried past.

But something drew 45-year-old businessman Isa Kapcak to the family of Fahim Ayoubi. He, his wife Negin, their sick two-and-half-year old Mohammad-Sabet and a group of perhaps two dozen or so Afghan and Syrian refugees were exposed to the elements after they had been kicked out of the terminal. Many were penniless and had suffered through harrowing journeys to the Greek border, where they had sought to cross into the European Union at the behest of Turkish authorities.

Kapcak, who leases buses to transport firms and runs a dry cleaning shop in the Istanbul bus terminal, insisted on taking the boy and his parents to a hospital.
Plymouth, Massachusetts--(Newsfile Corp. - March 30, 2020) - Plymouth Rock Technologies Inc. (CSE: PRT) (OTCQB: PLRTF) (FSE: 4XA) (WKN# A2N8RH) ("Plymouth Rock", "PRT", or the "Company") today announced it is relying upon the exemption announced by the British Columbia Securities Commission on March 23, 2020 to the requirement to file audited annual financial statements and MD&A on or before the 120th day after the end of its most recently completed financial year. The Company anticipates it will file on or before April 10, 2020.

The Company confirms that management and other insiders are subject to a trading black-out that reflects the principles in section 9 of National Policy 11-207 Failure-to-File Cease Trade Orders and Revocations in Multiple Jurisdictions.The Company further confirms there have been no undisclosed material business developments since October 25, 2019, the date of filing the Company's third quarter interim financial statements.

About Plymouth Rock Technologies Inc.

We are on a mission to bring engineering-driven answers to the most critical problems that threaten our safety. We work with government, law enforcement and military to innovate solutions for national security, defense and space systems. The Company is developing the next generation of threat detection solutions, The PRT X1 is a purpose built multirotor Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). The unit contains an integrated sensor package that combines Thermal detection with 4K HD real-time air-to-ground streaming. Our advanced threat detection methods fuse artificial intelligence with augmented reality interfaces to eliminate human operating error. Plymouth Rock products, both airborne and land-based, will scan for threat items at greater "stand-off" distances than current existing technologies. Our unique radar imaging and signal processing technology creates new opportunities for remotely operated, none intrusive screening of crowds in real time.



Plymouth Rock's other core technologies include: (1) A Millimeter Remote Imaging from Airborne Drone ("MIRIAD"); (2) A compact microwave radar system for scanning shoe's ("Shoe-Scanner").

www.plyrotech.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS



Dana Wheeler

President and CEO

+1-603-300-7933

info@plyrotech.com

Investor Information:

Tasso Baras

+1-778-477-6990

Forward Looking Statements

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/53938
The wife and two children of the lone COVID-19 patient from Mizoram were discharged from a state-run hospital after they tested negative for the disease, a health official said on Sunday.



The trio was admitted to the isolation ward of the Zoram Medical College (ZMC) after the pastor, who returned from the Netherlands, tested positive for COVID-19 on March 25, he said.



The samples of the woman and the two children were sent to Gauhati Medical College and Hospital for tests and reports have come negative, the official said.



They will be placed under home quarantine and the local task force on COVID-19 will monitor them, he said.



The condition of the COVID-19 patient is improving and he is out of critical state, health officials said.



The health department has traced other persons who came in contact with him, they said.



One person was on Saturday admitted to the isolation ward of ZMC after he exhibited coronavirus-like symptoms, the officials said.



Samples of 12 persons have been sent to Silchar for tests and results are awaited, they added.
The car park of Lidl in Bray last Thursday at 6.45pm. We are sitting in the car, eating Lidl ice creams.

No disrespect to this particular car park facing a wall in Bray, but we had left the house in search of a scenic spot. Somewhere to take our minds off The Virus Whose Name We Shall Not Speak. We set off at 5.45pm. We drove to Enniskerry, also in Wicklow, hoping to get an ice cream and park by a field somewhere.

The Spar shop in the village was shut when we got there. With the kids in meltdown mode about the ice cream catastrophe, I bombed down the M50 promising them I knew just the spot, the perfect place for us: Teddy's Ice Cream on Bray seafront.

Of course, it being an non-essential service - although most kids would argue quite plausibly that in a global emergency like this there is nothing more essential for kids than ice cream - Teddy's Ice Cream shop was sadly shut. Hence we ended up looking at the wall in Lidl car park in Bray.

I wasn't thinking straight. I find it difficult to think straight these last few weeks. I wrote about fear last week. Did you honestly think I'd have snapped out of it in seven days? I am probably worse. And going to get worse. I hide it inside. Sharing the fear like this is hiding in plain sight. The fear is better out than in. F**k the fear and do it anyway, as Brendan Behan might have said. Most of us live our entire lives in fear.

We are frightened of the future. They say when you near the time of your death you will realise too late that all the things you feared actually didn't happen and the things you didn't expect did. So, maybe losing the fear stops us from projecting into the future.

There is always a bit of humour in the fear. "Are they going to the dentist?" My five-year-old daughter, the queen of the zingers, said when seeing two people walking along the seafront in Bray wearing masks last Thursday evening. When she and her baby brother were in bed, I sent my guru Michael Harding a private message on Twitter.

Last January I met author Michael in a petrol station cafe 10 miles outside Mullingar. In an interview for Life magazine about his new book Chest Pain, he lorried into a fried egg sandwich with a big mug of coffee before telling me: "My whole life, the bliss has been with being present. There is no meaning. I don't see any meaning in life. I don't believe in the absurdity of after-lives or this life going on in the next."

This time around, last Thursday night, Michael wrote to me, saying (and I think some of us - if not all of us - might find this useful, very useful even): "When I suffered from depression I spent a long time staring at lakes, and when I was recovering I spent a long time staring at holy icons on the wall, but now I just stare at the wall.

"This virus is a language my little mind can't quite get around. It's a message that I can't comprehend or make meaning of. It's like nothing that ever happened before, and it leaves me devastated, stunned and silent. Mostly I feel I need to listen. Not just to others, not just to the news, and not just to the mad anxious chattering voice in my head, but to the deepest inner core of me.

"In each of us there is a core which is silent and I don't know why I say this but I think that's the place to be now, on the edge of that silence, listening, to find out now who we really are.

"That silence is the ground of all being. All our love and joy and hope are founded in that silence, and arise from that silence, and that silence is our strength. The one who asks who am I, and who cannot answer the question, and who doesn't know who the I is or who the other is; this not knowing turns me inwardly to the silence at the centre of my being. Our being. All being."

Good on you, Michael.

Friday morning, we went for a walk up Killiney Hill in Dublin. We observed strict social distance. It was eerie, though. On entering the woody part of the walk, you could suddenly hear from a loud speaker high up in a tree, a man's voice giving out warnings about you know what. It was Orwellian. Here we were, a family, going into the woods to escape this dreaded terror... and even among the trees we are getting warnings to stay two metres away from each other and so forth and so on. If you didn't already have the fear, you did now.

There were very few people about. A few squirrels and the like going about their daily business, looking on at us worried sick human beings trying to stay sane in all this.

In Notes from the Underground, White Nights, the Dream of a Ridiculous Man and Selections from the House of the Dead, Dostoevsky writes, tellingly: "Nature does not ask your permission, she has nothing to do with your wishes, and whether you like her laws or dislike them, you are bound to accept her as she is, and consequently all her conclusions."

Nature's revenge on its human inhabitants for its decades of abuse notwithstanding, we played hide and seek in the trees. It was what we needed. The kids laughed when we caught them hiding behind a bush. After that, we went on a search for witches, and then, lions, tigers and bears, as a kind of homage to The Wizard of Oz, a movie we have been watching pretty much around the clock on Netflix.

I was saved from another afternoon of orphan Dorothy Gale trying to get back to Kansas. Just after lunch, I checked my email and that lovely Maureen "Mo" Ryan at Disney in Ireland had sent me, out of the blue, and my family a one-year entitlement to try Disney+. It was a glorious godsend.

We binged on Frozen, then Mary Poppins, followed by Dumbo. It was our movie afternoon with popcorn and treats, laughter and lemonade. The kids needed such an afternoon after all they have been through the last few weeks. Halfway through the tale of the flying elephant my young daughter noticed that the dashing main human character Holt Farrier, who looks after Dumbo for the Medici Brothers' Circus, only has one arm (he has just returned from World War I).

"But we met him in Dublin and he had two arms, didn't he, Daddy? And now he has one arm." She was referring to meeting Colin Farrell, who plays the WWI amputee in the film, at the premiere last summer with me. "Will his arm come back, Daddy?" Yes, I replied. It will grow back, like the Irish - and global - economy, once this virus eventually passes.
Ognjen Gajic, a lung expert and critical care specialist at the prestigious Mayo Clinic in the northern U.S. state of Minnesota, was interviewed by Ajla Obradovic, a correspondent with RFE/RL's Balkan Service, about the coronavirus and the diseases symptoms and treatment.



RFE/RL: How fast does a persons health worsen after becoming infected? It seems that patients diagnosed with the coronavirus die rather quickly but recover more slowly compared to other diseases? Or is that an incorrect impression?



Ognjen Gajic: Critical illness [in people with the coronavirus] occurs on average after seven days of mild symptoms. From the moment one starts experiencing shortness of breath, [a patients condition can worsen] rapidly, sometimes within a few hours, and then intensive monitoring in a hospital intensive care unit is critical.



RFE/RL: How are COVID-19 patients treated? Is there a standard procedure?



Gajic: Most patients have mild symptoms and there is no specific treatment thus far other than controlling the symptoms -- paracetamol (aka acetaminophen) for fever, weakness, and the like. Untested forms of treatment can be dangerous due to side effects and should not be used until research shows they are efficient.

I deal with the treatment of the critically ill, so I can say more about [those patients]. In many of them, the [COVID-19] disease progresses to severe bilateral pneumonia characterized by shortness of breath and hypoxia (that means oxygen deprivation in body tissue).



These patients should be immediately taken to the hospital for oxygen treatment and their condition should be constantly monitored so it is possible to respond in time [to these problems] with intense respiratory support, including respirators. Sophisticated intensive care with control and support of all organs is successful in about 50 percent of the most severely ill cases, although some patients may be on a respirator for several weeks before recovering or dying.



So far there is no proven specific treatment [for COVID-19] and untested experimental drugs should not be prescribed without the proper research [being conducted]. We are working with colleagues around the world on a day-to-day basis on research projects for new treatments and prevention.



RFE/RL: Is there any data so far on the underlying diseases that are, in some way, more pernicious in combination with the coronavirus?



Gajic: Rather than specific diseases, more important is [someones] physiological condition as far as their lungs and [general fitness]; elderly patients who are not fit and those with severe forms of chronic lung or heart disease have little reserve and little chance of successfully enduring intensive respiratory treatment.



RFE/RL: How much more infectious is the coronavirus than other communicable diseases and what is the best way for people to protect themselves? In the Czech Republic, for example, they require everyone to wear masks in public, while the World Health Organization has not cited this as essential for people who are not infected. Can you give some specific tips on protection?



Gajic: Masks should be left to health-care professionals. A thorough hand washing with soap and water is by far the most important tip and, at this point, isolation from all but essential contacts -- especially groups -- must be respected. Also, before coming to a health-care facility, first make contact by phone, since it is safer to stay home for home treatment if one is showing mild symptoms.



RFE/RL: I understand you worked with your colleagues from Wuhan. What is it that other countries can learn from them and apply in their response to the pandemic?



Gajic: Several colleagues from Wuhan hospitals have been at the Mayo Clinic in recent years and we have been doing joint research. At the beginning of the epidemic in Wuhan, we sent support in terms of treatment guidelines and [medical] staff protection. Now they are helping us. After some initial setbacks, our colleagues in Wuhan, with rigorous isolation measures, adequate equipment, and training, were able to prevent their health-care professionals from becoming sick despite working with critically ill patients.



RFE/RL: The latest information shows that the United States now has the largest number of infected people. Did the U.S. response to the epidemic come too late?



Gajic: I'm not an epidemiologist so I can't comment on that. When it comes to the critically ill, U.S. hospitals provide fantastic care in these difficult conditions.
Egypts Health Ministry, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed El-Tayyeb, and the Doctors' Syndicate mourned the death of Ahmed El-Lawah who hailed from Port Said, northeast of Cairo.

El-Lawah, 57, a laboratory physician at Al-Azhar University, died on Monday. He was hospitalised for two days after he had tested positive for coronavirus.

The provincial General Health Care Authority in Port Said said on Monday that El-Lawah was admitted to the local Tadamon hospital in a very critical condition before he was sent to an isolation hospital in the port city of Ismailia.

The patient entered an emergency room equipped with a mechanical ventilator and a CPAP mask as a medical team consisting of the hospital director, the intensive care physician, the emergency doctor, and a nursing staff trained on dealing with coronavirus cases were waiting for him," health ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed stated.

His condition noticeably improved on Sunday before a sudden deterioration led to his death in the early hours of Monday, the statement added.

El-Lawah's death sparked grief online as social media users shared a post he wrote last week in which he urged people to stay home to protect themselves from the virus.

According to a tracking investigation carried out by a local health department in Port Said, the doctor was one of the direct contacts with a coronavirus case, and he was self-isolating at his home before he entered the hospital, according to the General Health Care Authority in Port Said.

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Spain has banned funeral ceremonies, including vigils at home, and decreed that no more than three people could attend burials as the government struggles with thousands of fatalities from the coronavirus pandemic.

Madrid announced on Monday that "religious celebrations and civilian funeral ceremonies are postponed until the end of the alert,," which has been declared until at least April 11 and keeps the population confined.

The new measures cut to just three the number of people who can attend a burial or cremation and social distancing of one to two metres must be maintained.

Spain has listed 7,340 deaths from COVID-19, the second highest toll in the world after Italy, where the Catholic tradition is equally strong and funerals have also been severely restricted.

The government decree ruled out vigils of family and friends in homes whatever the cause of death.

Spain has already imposed the strictest confinement measures in Europe and on Monday followed Italy and stopped all non-essential economic activity for the next two weeks.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As soon as U.S. shale leaves the market, prices will rebound and could reach $60 a barrel, Rosnefts Igor Sechin said recently. As fate would have it, in what many would have until recently considered an impossible scenario, a lot of U.S. shale might do just that.

Breakeven prices for U.S. shale basins range between $39 and $48 a barrel, according to data compiled by Reuters. Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate (WIT) is trading below $25 a barrel and has been for over a week now.

The SCOOP/STACK play in Oklahoma has the highest average breakeven price at $48 a barrel. Surprisingly, the Permian is not the lowest-cost play but the second-lowest, at $40. The lowest-cost basin, on average, is the Delaware Basin, part of the Permian.

On the face of it, these averages give no cause for optimism to an industry hit hard and fast by a perfect storm of radically lower demand and a sharp increase in supply. However, its worth noting the figures above are averages. They cover a range of breakeven costs that last year, according to the Dallas Fed, featured breakeven prices of as little as $23 a barrel in the Permian. In all fairness, these figures were reported last year. Since then, the lowest may have gone up or, in some locations, down.

Surviving the crisis seems to be a combination of luck with acreage, Wrights Law, and size. The problem is that luck eventually runs out as does the oil from fracked wellsfaster to start producing than conventional ones and faster to depleteand that Wrights Law does not hold to $0. Experience in performing an activity can only go as fast as improving productivity and efficiency.

What about size?

The bigger the size of a company, the more room it has to cut operating costs (the day-to-day expenses related to running any business). Companies can trim these costs by asking suppliers to lower their prices, which some shale players have already done, asking for a sizeable discount, too--some as much as 25 percent.

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Related: Not Even The $2 Trillion Stimulus Package Can Save Oil Markets



This strategy is what happened during the last oil-price crisis, too. At the time, shale producers spoke about efficiency gains and strict cost controls. Nevertheless, most of the relief came from oilfield service providers drastically slashing the price of their products and services so they could survive during the crisis, ensuring in this way the survival of their clients. As a result, the oilfield services segment of the industry suffered longer than E&Ps did.

Efficiency gains aside, breakeven prices have fallen because of lower operating expenses. These now need to be cut further and already are: companies are already curbing business activity; in this case, by idling rigs and drilling fewer wells. This is one of the self-regulating mechanisms of the industry. The fewer new wells drilled, the smaller the production growth until eventually, it evaporates, and production begins to shrink.

We are likely to see this soon enough.

U.S. shale has been praised for changing the world oil game and for managing to bring their costs low enough to survive the 2014-2016 crisis. Indeed, the industry deserves most of the credit it has received: going from the second-highest production cost level in the world to one of the lowest is undoubtedly an accomplishment deserving praise.

However, the shale fan club often forgets that there is a floor under operating costs and that there are only so many discounts an E&P can ask from an oilfield service provider. Once those discounts are reached and operating costs reach the max, E&Ps will be on their own. Many of the smaller independents, as well as the large shale players, have little wriggle room in the current supply and demand situation.

Related: Oil Climbs As U.S. Pushes For An End To The Price War



The question that many are asking is whether the shale industry could repeat its feat from the last crisis: squeeze costs lower, retrench, survive, and enjoy lower breakevens and higher profits once the crisis is over. The answer would have been maybe had the current crisis been only purely related to excessive supply, like the last one. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The industry is now also struggling with what is increasingly looking like the biggest demand slump in the history of oil.

On top of it all, the space for further reductions in breakeven prices is more limited than it was five years ago. It is a law as universal, perhaps, as Wrights Law. You cannot innovate indefinitely, and you cannot bring down the breakeven level of a business to zero. Whats more, shale may be facing higher rather than lower breakevens in some parts of the shale patch.

Shale formations are not all made equal. In some parts of a play, the oil is more easilyread cheaplyextractable than in other parts of the same play. Some of these sweet spots, however, will have been exhausted by now, forcing well operators to tap higher-cost locations, a topic that oil industry expert Art Berman has discussed exhaustively.

Thanks to technological advances, there is certainly more room for efficiency improvements in the extraction of oil from shale formations. These efficiency improvements would likely bring breakeven levels across the shale patch even lower. For those that survive the crisis that more and more people are calling unprecedented.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com



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Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 12:55:37|Editor: huaxia

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by Julia Pierrepont III

LOS ANGELES, March 29 (Xinhua) -- A southern California company, has found itself unexpectedly on the frontlines of the battle against the global COVID-19 health crisis, and the employees have been working overtime to help friends and clients all over the globe.

"We've been increasing our capacity and dealing with the craziness that is happening everywhere as the outbreak is spreading," Roy Paulson, president of the company, told Xinhua gravely in a recent interview.

"We are shipping record numbers of orders every day," he added. "And still can't keep up."

As a local firm in Temecula, California, Paulson's was founded in 1947 by the president's father to make toy goggles for kids, then expanded into racing goggles for the U.S. National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and over time, moved into manufacturing high-end personal protective equipment (PPE), making a name for itself in high quality protective face shields, breathing masks and goggles for healthcare practitioners, firefighters, police, arc welders, and industrial workers, which are now sold in 70 different countries.

When COVID-19 first broke out in January, Chinese health officials were faced with the daunting challenge of finding millions of essential medical supplies, such as protective masks, face shields, goggles, full-body protection suits, respirators of various kinds, disinfectants, thermometers, latex gloves, and other protective products and health accessories to help them combat the virus.

Paulson heard early on about the seriousness of the COVID-19 spread in China and was deeply concerned. He told Xinhua he'd been travelling to China for many times over a decade and had developed many clients who have long since been friends.

"I enjoy my visits to China. I was deeply concerned about my friends and colleagues over there and was so glad our company was in a position to help," Paulson said.

Understanding the urgency, he immediately contacted his distributor in China and offered to ramp up production to provide Chinese hospitals and officials with their higher-rated PPE devices.

The company shouldered the extra costs it took to ramp up production virtually overnight and also added round-the-clock shifts that enabled them to deliver over a million parts in record time to China.

However, less than three months later, COVID-19 has marched around the globe, sweeping through Europe and America.

Paulson's is now churning out products for friends and clients far closer to home.

"The Veteran's Administration Hospital in Los Angeles called recently to say they were running low on face-shields used for infectious disease control and could they send a driver to our factory to pick up 500 pieces immediately," said Paulson.

In the particular instance, the company still had certain items in stock, and were able to accommodate the orders, but Paulson was quick to point out that it is now the exception.

"Now, countries all over the world are clamoring for our products, including Southeast Asia, Italy, Germany, France, etc.," he explained.

"No one was prepared for this," he added. "Europe is in chaos right now and the U.S., not far behind. With the type of emergency and dire circumstances that the world is in now, everyone wants their orders immediately," he explained. "But we can only produce so many per day, even with three round-the-clock shifts."

"We're shipping orders out on an allocation basis ... We can't help everyone, but we can do the best we can," Paulson said.

"Here in the U.S., look at the stock market and it gives you an idea of people's concerns ... And it's starting to look like this is going to last longer here, so we have to be prepared for a longer stretch when everyone still needs our products," he said.

U.S.-based conglomerates, Honeywell and 3M, are Paulson's largest clients, and the company has also a large roster of smaller customers, which all screamed for products.

"I give pep talks to my employees every day and say, 'Think of this like wartime and we just have to stay the course and get through this together,'" Paulson told Xinhua.

He applauded his hardworking employees for having the guts and the loyalty to keep coming to work each day. "We are considered 'Essential Emergency Services,' so we're exempt from the Governor's 'stay at home' order," he said. "We need to stay open to keep making these emergency products," he said.

"But we also need to protect our 160 employees," he said and adhered to strict precautions and safety measures of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"It would be devastating to get coronavirus in our own workforce," Paulson said. "But it's worth it to stay open because we are getting the orders out and saving a lot of lives."
Tony Evans on COVID-19 panic: 'Fear is outpacing the problem of the virus'

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Influential pastor Tony Evans warned that our anxiety, worry, and fear is outpacing the problem of the virus.

Worry and fear have a way of transferring very quickly from to other people, Evans, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, said in a sermon on Sunday.

"I think thats whats happening with this virus. The virus is not the only thing that transfers quickly. Our anxiety, worry, and fear is outpacing the problem of the virus because its consumed the mind, the heart, the energy and the emotions of our selves, our families, the whole nation and even the world.

Evans offered two words to those mired in fear and anxiety: Dont worry.

That comes from Jesus, he said, citing Matthew 6:25-34, where Jesus says dont worry three times.

Stop it, the bestselling speaker and author stressed. You say, How practical is that given all that were facing the unknowns, the crisis the expansion, the speed, the sickness? Is that a practical expectation of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, yes it is, because He commands us not to do it.

Christians have a legitimate right for legitimate concern, Evans said, but added, what we dont have the right to do is worry.

What worry is concern gone haywire, the Urban Alternative founder said. God does not expect us not to deal with reality. If youre sick, youre sick. If youre struggling, youre struggling. But thats different than worry. Concern you own; worry owns you.

Evans argued that what began as concern is now causing us to tremble due to the onslaught of negative headlines and ever-changing statistics.

It can draw you from legitimate concern from which you should act responsibly to illegitimate worry, he said.

Many people believe in God and still worry because they have little faith, Evans said, citing Matthew 8:26, where Jesus rebukes those of little faith.

The size of your faith is tied to the size of your God, he explained. When you shrink God, you automatically shrink faith. So if you and I have little faith, its because were operating with a small understanding and view of God.

The way to get more faith and overcome worry is through expanding your understanding, view of, and submission to God.

The best way I can help you to work through this crisis ... is to grow God in your understanding, in your experience, and in your focus, he stressed, "because when we grow Him, your faith will grow with it and your worry will shrink and become responsible concern.

Far too many Christians believe in a God they dont understand as a father, Evans noted, adding that its important to view God as a father when it comes to not worrying.

This father cares for you. When you come to look at Him this way, understand Him this way, relate to Him this way, you begin to experience God the daddy and not just God the creator, he said. God will keep you calm even in a drought, even in a virus. So I want you to calm down, look at your family members right now who are seated with you and say, Dont worry.

Evans advised using handwashing time  a measure recommended by health officials to slow the spread of COVID-19  as prayer time.

You always know when youre supposed to pray because its connected to when youre tempted to be a worrier, he said. If youre going to wash your hands all day long, talk to your daddy all day long, and get your growing focus on God who is able to calm your fears.

While we ought to be concerned about the coronavirus and make wise decisions about physical distancing, Evans said, you dont live in panic when you know you have a heavenly Father.

If you want to calm down and stay calm ... then heres what you do: Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, the pastor said, adding that the coronavirus is a great opportunity to choose faith over fear.

There are at least 125,093 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. and at least 2,149 deaths as of March 29, according to the New York Times database.

In a previous interview with The Christian Post, Evans highlighted the importance of trusting in a good God even when He doesnt make sense. The pastor shared how his faith has sustained him through a tough year in which he lost his father and his wife and ministry partner, Lois.

Sometimes you have to learn to trust God in the dark when there is not clarity, when He becomes inscrutable. You have to have enough foundation before that happens to weather the storm when that happens.

Trusting God when it doesnt make sense, Evans said, is a decision of the will.

It's often not supported by the emotions because you're not feeling what you're trusting, he explained. Its a decision to act like God is telling the truth, to act like God knows what He is doing. Thats what we choose to do and continue to choose to do day by day.

Its important to not give up on God when life appears to have given up on you. It's easy to trust God when everything is right, blessings are flowing, prayers are being answered, needs are being met. That's the fun part of the faith. But sometimes, you have to trust God when you dont see the benefits, the blessings, and all the frills of the faith.
Humankind is now facing a global crisis. Perhaps the biggest crisis of our generation. The decisions people and governments take in the next few weeks will probably shape the world for years to come. They will shape not just our healthcare systems but also our economy, politics and culture. We must act quickly and decisively. We should also take into account the long-term consequences of our actions. When choosing between alternatives, we should ask ourselves not only how to overcome the immediate threat, but also what kind of world we will inhabit once the storm passes. Yes, the storm will pass, humankind will survive, most of us will still be alive - but we will inhabit a different world.

Looking at the period AD, It was a static world till 1830. Nothing changed, the world GDP and inter-country GDP too, remained static. In a period not impacted by colonial rule, massive trade and new technologies, India and China dominated the world. They dominated because they had the maximum primary resources, which attracted exploitative trade from the west and also colonial rule.

We entered a new phase of rapid changes thereafter, also with the onset of first industrial revolution in the UK and Europe in 1760, and the second in the US in 1900. First and second industrial revolution changed everything, particularly the countries where the new technologies were discovered, and used. The UK grew from 1 per cent to 5 per cent of world's GDP, and the US from 6 per cent to 35 per cent in 100 years, after having remained static for ages (particularly after 1 AD). India and China fell from 50 per cent to 5 per cent in about 100 years from 1860 to 1970.

Now comes a miraculous reversal in 1970 (I have explained in detail in my book, "Containing the China Onslaught").

Both countries started new policies after being independent, used the IR 3.0 technologies and India and China came back to 30 per cent of world's GDP in 2010, in just about 40 years, without the help of any indigenous technology.

What helped these poor countries was globalization, as predicted by Bhagwati (In Defence of Globalisation), and the connected world described by many, and particularly explained well in Parag Khanna's "Connectography"). Globalisation helped the ideas and technologies flow to the backward areas, and the connected world facilitated easy transmission.

IR 3.0 technologies were only useful, if they were made available to the whole world. The post 1950 period belonged to IR 3.0. It was also in US interest to help China (so they were convinced by Deng to Nixon and seven US Presidents, may be through deception, after their post 1980 collaboration).

We now move to IR 4.0, machines interacting with machines and 5.0, machines talking to men etc. and robots, which are also based on communication technologies, and the trend should continue.

But suddenly and from nowhere, has appeared Covid-19, bringing in another BC and AC (before and after COVID-19, after before and after China/Communication technologies), and also Trump and Xi, all unpredictable, and we do not know where they would all take us.

Trump's tariff measures against China, are bringing in unpredictable anti-globalisation, and a technology war against China. China was merrily producing most of world's demand in many sectors, and to facilitate their movement, had launched BRI. But now with the resistance of USA and many other countries like India and Japan (for BRI), none is sure where these products would land, and at what price, and how they would be impacted by anti-globalisation forces..

Due to amendments in Politburo's rules of 2015, Xi was anticipated to rule, almost forever, with Chinese Aambassador brimming with confidence in US that China was so powerful that no one could touch, and a US ambassador-designate to India also saying that China was so powerful that they had to be smothered with kindness, to convince them to change. So now Xi's future is uncertain, and there is opposition. Maslovian forces are also catching up with leaders like Deng's son recognized as pro-democracy.

COVID-19 and the new tariff agreement between China and the US has turned every thing on its head. Suddenly where is the powerful China now that it has signed an unfavourable tariff agreement with the US, and perhaps COVID-19/maslovian forces have added: "Anger inside China is growing. There stands not an emperor in his new clothes but a clown who is stripped of his clothes but still wants to be an emperor." "Atleast 175,000 people left Wuhan just on that day when Wuhan outbreak happened. The departures from Wuhan accelerated over the next three weeks. About 7 million people left in January, before travel was restricted." And we have the 2020 Presidential elections in the US, almost fighting a US-China war. Where has the support of seven US Presidents after Nixon, to China vanished now. We will soon know the results, but the world has changed and the new world would never be the same again. We do not know whether this would mean growth to India with its digital DNA or whether Covid will bring unanticipated reversals like the reversals of 1830/19501970/1980 described earlier, and this time impacted by COVID-19, the biggest unanticipated change of only a few weeks.

Or maybe, the world would go with, "But most economist still believe that despite reverses in COVID-19, China, India and the US will rule the world in 2050: "Lindsey Galloway BBC, 23 March 2020: Brexit, coronavirus, and trade tiffs may be making economic headwinds, but despite immediate challenges, the world economy is projected to keep growing at a rapid pace over the next few decades. In fact, by 2050, the global market is projected to double its current size, even as the UN forecasts the world's population will only grow by a modest 26 per cent." All new technologies lead to faster changes/disruptions. Admittedly, IR 4.0 and 5.0 will help those who implement fast/efficiently. Where would COVID-19 take the competing countries, only the next few weeks will tell?.

(The writer's opinion is personal. He is a former Secretary to the government of India and TRAI Chairman)

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
EURUSD Breaks Weekly Chart Downchannel Resistance Tradable Patterns - Wed Jan 12, 10:12PM CST The (EURUSD) is consolidating in todays Asia morning after yesterdays roughly 100 pip gain from the days low to its high. Significantly, the EURUSD has broken above the December high and downchannel/descending... ^EURUSD : 1.14469 (+0.06%) FXE : 106.43 (+0.74%)

Shootin' the Bull Swift Trading Company - Wed Jan 12, 4:43PM CST I am going to stick my neck out and say that I believe today may be a tipping point in the next round of inflation. I say that based upon a couple of factors that have been building and are potentially...

Midweek Soy Market Closes in Black Barchart - Wed Jan 12, 4:41PM CST Front month soybeans rallied off the initial report day drops and closed the session with double digit gains of 12 1/4 to 14 1/2 cents. March stayed under the $14 mark by 3/4 of a cent. USDA raised the... ZSF22 : 1391-2s (+1.05%) ZSPAUS.CM : 13.5725 (+0.91%) ZSH22 : 1393-2 (-0.43%) ZSX21 : 1234-0s (+1.79%) ZSPX21US.CM : 12.3270 (+1.90%)

Lean Hogs Bounced Triple Digits Barchart - Wed Jan 12, 4:41PM CST Hog futures closed with triple digit gains of $1 to $1.47 in the front months. USDAs National Average Afternoon Base hog price for Wednesday was $66.07 after a 92 cent drop. The CME Lean Hog Index from... HEG22 : 78.850s (+1.28%) HEK22 : 90.975s (+1.34%) KMG22 : 90.725s (+0.78%)

Corn Closes Red on Report Day Barchart - Wed Jan 12, 4:41PM CST Corn futures spiked lower after the data drop early on Wednesday before rallying back just as quick for midday. At the closing bell, prices were 1 3/4 to 2 cents weaker with May above the $6 mark and March... ZCH22 : 598-0 (-0.17%) ZCPAUS.CM : 5.8579 (-0.37%) ZCK22 : 599-6 (-0.17%) ZCZ21 : 588-6s (+0.77%) ZCPZ21US.CM : 5.7930 (-0.49%)
The Donald Trump administration is set to eliminate the majority of humanitarian assistance to Yemen amid concerns that a looming coronavirus outbreak will further decimate the war-torn countrys public health sector, which already struggles to cater to millions of immunocompromised Yemenis.

The Trump administration argues that the cuts, first reported by the Washington Post, are necessary because of onerous new aid restrictions on international delivery set up by the Houthi rebels, who control most of northern Yemen.

Interference in aid operations is not acceptable anywhere, but the Houthis actions are particularly egregious, a spokesperson for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) told Al-Monitor. This decision is a last resort. The United States, other donors and international aid organizations have been advocating with the Houthis for years to allow aid groups to operate independently, but we have now reached a point where continued obstruction has made it impossible to ensure aid is reaching those who need it most.

Still, the steep cut has even drawn out opposition from some humanitarian aid groups that have taken a harder line on Houthi aid obstruction in recent months. They argue that the cuts are particularly irresponsible as the World Health Organization has warned of a coming explosion of COVID-19 cases in Yemen.

Lise Grande, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, told Al-Monitor that slashing US assistance would cut off even more Yemenis from lifesaving programs.

We dont have a choice, Grande said. "Were going to have to reduce and possibly stop the assistance we provide to millions of Yemenis who depend on the generosity of the international community to survive. People here have no one else to turn to and nowhere else to go. Its heartbreaking. It truly is.

Some 80% of Yemenis are dependent on foreign assistance, and the United States provided some $700 million in humanitarian aid for Yemen last year.

USAID noted that it would continue funding $12 million in critical lifesaving activities while it continues operations in southern Yemen. Additionally, the USAID spokesperson said that the United States is carefully and continually evaluating the situation on the ground with our partners so they can pivot current relief activities to address changing urgent needs, including COVID-19 preparation and response, if necessary.

But Aisha Jumaan, an immunologist and the president of the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation, said that over 90% of health services are provided by the [Houthi] government in Sanaa, as most of the Yemeni population lives in the north.

Jumaan estimated that about 80% of Yemenis are already immunosuppressed, putting them at high risk of dying should they contract coronavirus. The war between the Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi-led coalition has malnourished half the population on top of a cholera outbreak last year and a severe swine flu outbreak this year. She also noted that 50% of the health system is compromised because of the Saudi-led blockade and the coalitions bombing of hospitals.

The Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation has only been able to send 500 COVID-19 tests to the key port of Hodeidah so far.

They dont have the ability to test, Jumaan said. Theyve not been able to upgrade or fix the equipment they have in the hospitals in five years because of the blockade. There are no ventilators.

Other aid groups that have been critical of the Saudi-led coalition, such as Oxfam International, have increasingly focused on the worsening Houthi aid restrictions as they negotiate with the rebels for more access to Yemens north.

The Houthis had already agreed to suspend a proposed 2% international aid tax for fiscal year 2020 after negotiations with international donors. However, they have increasingly impeded access to NGO workers from surveilling key programs and have bureaucratically held up approval applications for several projects while placing limits on whom humanitarian groups can procure supplies from.

The USAID spokesperson emphasized that USAID had been planning this suspension with our partners for many weeks and that they would resume operations as quickly as possible once the Houthis eased the aid restrictions.

Scott Paul, the humanitarian policy coordinator for Oxfam America, told Al-Monitor that while his organization welcomed donor countries participating in aid negotiations with the Houthis, USAIDs $73 million aid cut goes too far.

USAID took a much more far-reaching approach to this and basically said were not going to send funds to programs even if they can be delivered properly in the north, except for a very narrow set of circumstances, Paul said. Now we find ourselves in a really unusual situation where it was unusually problematic humanitarian negotiations from the beginning. Then when you see COVID-19 coming, theres no sense this has caused a fundamental rethink of this [USAID] strategy.

Oxfam backed a letter written by seven prominent Democrats, including House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., that warned USAID against the cuts amid the coronavirus pandemic.

As the Trump administration cuts assistance and the Houthis refuse to lift their restrictions, humanitarian groups and antiwar activists are also mired in a tactical debate over whether to lobby Congress on taking another stab at passing a second Yemen war powers resolution to end US support for the Saudi-led coalition  an initiative President Trump vetoed last year.

Some antiwar groups are pushing lawmakers to reintroduce the legislation as a resolution Trump could not veto, formally known as a concurrent resolution.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., took a similar gambit with an Iran war powers resolution earlier this year. But the Senate parliamentarian ruled that a concurrent resolution did not qualify for an expedited floor vote. This allowed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to stonewall it and forced Pelosi to pass a joint resolution, which Trump also vetoed.

Still, some antiwar groups hope that more war powers votes in the House would bolster the case for lawmakers to file a war powers lawsuit against Trump over Yemen and Iran.

Congress must affirm  as House Democratic leadership asserted for Iran  that under the War Powers Resolution, the president must end unconstitutional US participation if the Congress so directs by concurrent resolution, said Erik Sperling, the executive director of Just Foreign Policy. With the parties discussing a cease-fire and reports that the Saudis are looking for an exit, another bipartisan vote could be the catalyst that finally brings the conflict to a close.

The Houthis, Saudi-led coalition and Yemens southern separatists all tentatively endorsed the UNs proposed coronavirus cease-fire last week. But the Houthis and Saudi-led coalition continued to exchange fire over the weekend.
NENT-owned UK content distributor and developer DRG has built on its longstanding relationship with ZCZ Films by acquiring the rights to two of its new documentary series, both commissioned by BBC Four.





ZCZ Films is an independent production company founded by former BBC presenter, art expert and Sunday Times art critic, Waldemar Januszczak. It specialises in producing a broad range of accessible arts programming, with Januszczak (pictured) often featuring as presenter.The slate is headed by Handmade in Bolton (4 x 30) tells the story of Shaun Greenhalgh, one of Britains most prolific art forgers, as he now uses his skills to keep alive secrets of the ancients. Working from a shed at his parents house, he fooled experts for three decades, selling an array of fakes to museums and auction houses all over the world  everything from Roman plates to Gauguin sculptures.After a spell in prison, he decided to use his talent for good and has now teamed up with Dr. Janina Ramirez, an Oxford University historian, to recreate incredible artefacts from the past. Focusing on a different object in each episode, the series follows Greenhalgh as he sources accurate raw materials and works his magic to create authentic versions of these objects lost to time.The Art Mysteries (4 x 30) sees Januszczak embark on a forensic and far-reaching investigation into four great paintings, created by some of the best-known artists of all time. By highlighting subtle clues, new meanings, and hidden messages, he delivers a fascinating new perspective on each of these great works of art and encourages a reappraisal both of the artist and the familiar canvas. The paintings featured are Gauguins The Vision After the Sermon, Van Goghs Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, Seurats Les Poseuses, and Cezannes haunting masterpiece The Card Players.As well as the new deal, DRG also announced that its last acquisition from ZCZ Films, Made in the USA (3 x 60), which explores the golden age of American art, has been in demand. Deals have recently been concluded with Histoire (France), Yleisradio Oy (Finland), Sky TV (New Zealand), Sky Italia (Italy), PTS (Taiwan) and P&P Permissions for Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia.Commenting on the new deal, DRGs SVP of acquisitions Mette Kanne-Behrendsen, said: "Waldemar and the team at ZCZ Films have a real talent for identifying engaging arts subjects and then creating compelling programming that works for international audiences. The Art Mysteries provides an insightful new look at some of the worlds most famous paintings, while Handmade in Bolton is a truly fascinating story of an art forger using his skills for good.Waldemar added:  DRG has proved an excellent partner for ZCZ Films over the years and we continue to reap the benefit of the teams support and knowledge, both in the early stages of content development as well as out in the international marketplace.
Y ouve consumed the bestsellers and have the years cult releases on your Amazon pre-order list.

So what to read now? Weve asked some of our best-loved authors and writers to give ES Magazine their recommended reading for Londoners in self-isolation.

Nick Hornby, author of Fever Pitch

LONESOME DOVE, by Larry McMurty

'Larry McMurtrys great western novel seems to me to have everything you need for right now: its long, absorbing, thrilling, it has fantastic characters you care deeply about and most important of all, it recognises that life is fragile and risky, and that the world is a dangerous place. I wish I hadnt read it so recently, but that might not stop me from reading it again.'

Nick Hornbys new novel Just Like You is out on 17 September

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of City of Girls

THE SUMMER BOOK, by Tove Jansson

'A transporting, delightful, not-well-known-enough novel about a young girl and her grandmother, spending their summer together on a tiny, remote island in the Gulf of Finland. This is the most brilliant story of childhood Ive ever read  charming without being sentimental, and full of a truly holy understanding about the wonders and terrors of nature and the deep friendships that can exist between wise older women and wild young children.'

Fatima Bhutto, author of The Runaways

THE SHAPELESS UNEASE, by Samantha Harvey

I wish I had saved The Shapeless Unease to read in isolation but Samantha Harveys book about insomnia, time, death and so many unknowable things is a blessing to have in lonely times. It is a profound and stunning book but funny, too. Ive got a galley proof of Ben Ehrenreichs Desert Notebooks, which comes out in July, but we may still be in lockdown then so pre-order it now.

Amrou Al-Kadhi, author of Unicorn

STANDARD DEVIATION, by Katherine Heiny

Id like to say we should all use this isolation period to finally get to grips with War & Peace, but the book I would recommend in a heartbeat is Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny. It is without fail the funniest book I have ever read  I even cuddled it in my sleep I was so attached to it  and manages to make you chuckle with laughter whilst crying at the most tender, human moments. Its original, at points surreal and at points uproarious, and if ever you needed a comfort read, this book is it.

Olivia Sudjic, author of Exposure and Sympathy

THE UNDYING, by Anne Boyer

'Its a memoir of survival and a celebration of love, care, and all the things  life and art and books  that persist despite illness.'

Otegha Uwagba, author of Little Black Book

STEAL AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, by Nathalie Olah

'This razor-sharp polemic exploring class, taste and culture, is one of the most insightful analyses of the British class system Ive read in years.'

Laura Whateley, author of Money: A Users Guide

'I have dozens of pristine cookbooks taunting me from my kitchen; now I actually have time to open them. Theres something soothing about reading a cookbook cover to cover. One of best for this is Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, as much of a beautifully illustrated science lesson in how to cook well  and why restaurant food tastes so much better (butter)  as it is a recipe book. I also love The Flavour Thesaurus, by Niki Segnit, which explains how certain combinations  anchovy and cauliflower, or chocolate and bacon  work together. Inspiration for figuring out what to do with the random tins left in my cupboard.'

Raven Smith, author of Raven Smiths Trivial Pursuits

THE HUNGOVER GAMES, by Sophie Heawood

'Im binge-reading Sophie Heawoods The Hungover Games, reminiscing on a simpler time when you could live out your personal chaos abroad in the fresh air. Im in desperate need of the forthcoming Andre Leon Talley memoir to soothe my isolation.'

Hadley Freeman, author of House Of Glass

THE MITFORD GIRLS, by Mary S Lovell

'Of course, the Mitford sisters wrote many books themselves  Nancy, most famously, as any of her novels would be a delicious read on a long afternoon of self-isolation. But for a proper tub-thumping dynastic drama, one that will last you a good while even if you gulp it down, you cannot beat Mary S Lovells The Mitford Girls. Lovell conveys their individual glamour without ever getting starry-eyed about it and she brings clear-eyed clarity to how one family produced a communist, a Nazi-supporter, a fascist, a duchess and a seminal novelist among a group of sisters. A completely irresistible book and one that sparked my lifelong obsession with the Mitfords specifically, and biographies generally.'

Looking for your next read? Your favourite authors have the answers

Helena Lee, founder of the platform East Side Voices

STARLING DAYS, by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan

'Its an illuminating, enlightening tale about the human condition that centres on Mina, a classicist from New York who tries to navigate the circumstantial loneliness of living in London without her husband.'

Michael Donkor, author of Hold

THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD, by Zora Neale Hurston

'Set in the 1920s in the Deep South, it follows the life of a complicated, young African-American woman Janie Crawford as she struggles to find love, understanding and a means of self expression in a hostile world. Hurstons beautiful prose shimmers with wisdom and insight, and in its depiction of Janies trials and triumphs, the novel is a towering testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Exactly what we need right now.'

Polly Samson, author of Theatre for Dreamers

I REMEMBER NOTHING, by Nora Ephron

'At times like these I like to read first person accounts of everyday life, so recommend I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron. When were cut off and lonely its nice to have people talking in that humorous anecdotal way that makes you feel less solitary.'

Nikita Lalwani, author of You People, out on 2 April

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP, by John Irving

'This is really a manifesto for love between humans. We encounter all the shape-shifting forms of eros: romantic, parental, filial and friend-love. I have nothing but sympathy for how people behave, says Garp, in one of his many almost-wise moments, and nothing but laughter with which to console them. The book is full of false endings because it tells us that life can be long; there is often more down the line, and even after the most apocalyptic moments in our personal histories we will probably have to live on a bit more. In that sense it is surely perfect for current self-isolation. The best part about this book is that it is an example of how art imitates life imitating art imitating life. Go float your nerd boat on that one. Yeah! Go GARP!'

Natasha Lunn, founder of Conversations on Love newsletter

TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS, by Cheryl Strayed

'Ive been dipping back into Tiny Beautiful Things, a beautiful collection of agony aunt columns by Cheryl Strayed (aka Dear Sugar). Funny, profound and moving, this book is a balm for tough times, and reading it will remind you to fall back in love with the life youve got.'

Mishal Husain, author of The Skills: How To Win At Work

SONG OF ACHILLES, by Madeline Miller

'In these times, even the next road feels adventurous, but a book that takes you to another age is a proper escape from isolation. Here, the beautiful writing envelops you in the world of the Greek heroes and the great love of Achilles and Patroclus.'

Kiley Reid, author of Such a Fun Age

THE HISTORY OF LOVE, by Nicole Krauss

'This is one of those novels that makes you miss your train stop, and I say that from experience. It's a beautiful story about two very different but intertwined lives, and it's told with depth, heart, and humour.'

Elif Shafak, author of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

PATRICK MELROSE NOVELS, by Edward St Aubyn
By Monday evening, four Montanans had died from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. At least 177 had fallen ill and 12 people around the state are hospitalized, according to information from the state.

The four people who have died include a man in his 70s from Lincoln County and a resident from Madison County.

Sunday night the Cut Bank Pioneer Press newspaper reported that Toole County resident Bev Rogers had died of COVID-19.

And on Monday morning, in a video posted to the Toole County Health Department's Facebook page, Blair Tomsheck, who works at the health department, confirmed the second death of a resident there, bringing the statewide total to four. She did not provide information about the person's age, gender or anything else.

Last week the Marias Medical Center said employees at the Marias Heritage Center have tested positive for COVID-19. Those facilities are in Shelby, in Toole County.

This situation also exposed others to COVID-19 and, as such, we expect that there could be other positives, the press release said.

The Marias Heritage Center is a 40-unit retirement and assisted living facility.

Gov. Steve Bullock on Monday released a statement about the deaths and also saying the state was working to get additional resources to the county.

Losing two more Montanans to COVID-19 is a blow to our statewide community. Todays news is a heartbreaking reminder to us all that we must continue to do everything we can to slow the spread of this disease. Montanans in every corner of our state are keeping the family and friends of these Montanans in our hearts, Bullock said.

Bullock's office said it was notified of the deaths Monday and is aware of the risks to the senior community in Toole County, which has six cases, and is working to deploy additional resources to the health care system. That includes sending additional personal protective equipment for health care providers and using health care staff from other areas of the state, the governor's office said Monday.

Toole County commission chair Joe Pehan said Monday that health care facilities there are on lockdown and patients and residents are not allowed out of their rooms, to help prevent the spread of the virus. Employees wear protective suits when delivering meals.

"We're taking every precaution to keep everyone safe and keep this from spreading in all our facilities," Pehan said. "The whole town, we're on the governor's shelter-in-place (order) so there isn't hardly any movement in the town of Shelby whatsoever."

Gallatin County still has the most cases in the state, by far, at 69.

Yellowstone has 28 cases; Missoula has 12; Lewis and Clark has 11; Butte- Silver Bow and Flathead each have nine; Cascade has seven; Toole has six; Madison and Lincoln have four; Park, Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, Broadwater and Lake all have three; Jefferson has two; and Ravalli, Meagher, Roosevelt and Hill all have one.

By Monday evening, COVID-19 tests for 4,411 Montanans had been processed at the state lab in Helena. That number does not include tests facilities have sent to private labs.
Courtesy of NETFLIX

The Netflix docuseries "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness" has become a popular distraction for millions nationwide as many are forced to stay home during the cornoavirus pandemic, and there is a local tie. One of the show's subjects Carole Baskin was born in San Antonio.

Baskin, who has a big social media following for her "cool cats and kittens," is an animal rights activist and the founder of Big Cat Rescue, an animal sanctuary in Florida. The show centers on her feud with Joseph Schreibvogel Maldonado-Passage, also known as Joe Exotic, who used to own a private zoo of exotic animals in Wynnewood, Oklahoma as well as others around the country. Being an animal rights activist, Baskin didn't agree with Joe Exotic's practices.
Senior Sub-Inspector of Delhi Police Rajinder Malik on Monday made a contribution of Rs 1 lakh to the Prime Minister's relief fund in a bid to tackle the menace of coronavirus in the country.

Speaking to ANI, Malik said that the appeal made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for contributions compelled him to help out with whatever he could.

"It is crisis time. The poor and the needy should get help. That is why I decided to give Rs 1 lakh to the PM's relief fund to ensure the fight against the spread of coronavirus continues," said Malik.

Malik, who has been in service since 1982, said that every citizen should contribute to the PM's relief fund as much as possible.

"Every rupee counts for the needy and the poor. It will help them. We should unitedly fight against the COVID-19 to stop it from spreading and also provide some kind of financial help to the poor and needy at this crucial hour," Malik said.

"There are over 130 crore people in the country. All citizens of this country should come forward and help and donate money to the Prime Minister's relief fund generously at this crisis time," he added.

Malik, who belongs to Muzzafarnagar, in Uttar Pradesh, said that everyone should stay at home and follow the advisory issued by the Government of India and health experts.

The country is under a 21-day lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, which according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has infected 1,071 people so far.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(Newser)  New Yorkers visiting Rhode Island will still be ordered to self-quarantine for 14 days, Gov. Gina Raimondo saysbut so will visitors from the other 48 states. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo threatened to sue after the state introduced restrictions for New Yorkers on Friday, Politico reports. Raimondo said Sunday that the restrictions have been expanded because "the situation has changed." "Unfortunately, the rate of infection we're seeing in New York Cityunfortunately, were seeing that same rate of infection in other places, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey," she told reporters. She said she had signed "an executive order imposing a quarantine on all visitors from any state, by any mode of transportation who are coming in Rhode Island for non-work purposes and plan to stay."

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Police say state troopers and National Guard members are establishing checkpoints on I-95 and other highways entering the state. Cuomo said Sunday that he had spoken to Raimondo and she had promised to repeal the order singling out New Yorkers. "I dont believe it was legal, I dont believe it was neighborly," he said. Raimondo said he is "welcome to sue if he likes." Rhode Island State Police Superintendent Col. James Manni said Sunday that commercial vehicles will not be stopped at checkpoints. "Interstate commerce will not be impeded," he said. "The procedure we have in place does not violate anyones constitutional rights." The Providence Journal reports that Rhode Island has now reported almost 300 coronavirus cases, including three deaths. (Read more coronavirus stories.)
As resources run dangerously low and more healthcare workers get sick, new restrictions are added to Spanish shutdown.

Granada, Spain  Spains uphill struggle against coronavirus showed worryingly few signs of easing on Monday, as government officials confirmed 12,298 health workers had now been infected by the virus, and the countrys total number of cases  85,195  is now greater than that of China.

As Spain moves into its third week of lockdown, with further restrictions on non-essential workers set to be enforced on Tuesday, the daily death toll from coronavirus eased slightly compared with 24 hours earlier, down from Sundays record total of 838 to 812. Percentage-wise, the increase of recorded new coronavirus cases appears to be dropping a little as well.

But medical resources to combat the pandemic are widely reported as running dangerously low in some areas. On Monday, the Spanish daily El Pais published data indicating hospital intensive care units in eight of Spains 17 autonomous regions are already full to overflowing. And there are fears that any let-up in the pace of infections may come too late.

As for the high number of infected health workers, this is arguably the most alarming news of all, said Jose Hernandez, assistant professor of sociology and specialist in social health policies at the University of Cordoba.





It indicates that either they dont have the sufficient resources to fight it, or the measures to avoid contagions are not sufficiently enforced because the staff are so overloaded with cases, he told Al Jazeera. Or, as I fear, both.

The health system is getting overwhelmed, and the ratio of staff per patient is far lower than is desirable.

In what risks becoming a vicious circle, this will lead to an increasingly precarious health system because the staff working in areas like intensive care are specialised.

And if theyre the ones that are most infected, then bringing in foreign medical staff and medical students in their final year  as has been proposed by Spanish authorities  sounds like good news.

But theyll need time to adapt to the work here, and that can contribute to a greater shortfall in the service, says Hernandez.

Unconfirmed reports on Monday suggested conditions for patients and staff in the new 5,000-bed field hospital that opened last week in Madrids gigantic IFEMA trade centre were, in some cases, dangerously precarious.

Data also suggests the number of health workers affected by coronavirus already represents around 14 percent of all cases.

That is much higher than in Italy, the European country initially worst hit by coronavirus, but where, as of March 29, official figures showed the number of infected health workers stood just below nine percent.

Neighbouring Portugal, which has roughly 20 percent of Spains population, has 853 infected medical staff. Spains current total is more than 12 times that number.

In China, too, there seems to be a general acceptance of the confinement measures - whereas here, a certain number of strategies for passive resistance to it are emerging. Jose Hernandez, University of Cordoba

Hernandez warns that, given data is being collected with widely varying criteria in different countries, it is hard to establish real comparisons between, for example, China and the United States. In Europe, he points to Italy as the best reference point for Spain, because the healthcare system there is very similar, as is health workers education, and socially were not that different either.

In China, too, there seems to be a general acceptance of the confinement measures  whereas here, a certain number of strategies for passive resistance to it are emerging.

While Spains director of emergency health services, Fernando Simon, who has been the public face of the governments handling of the pandemic so far, himself tested positive for coronavirus, the country is bracing for an intensified state of emergency set to start on Tuesday.

With Spain in lockdown since March 14, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Saturday that all non-essential economic services would be suspended for two weeks.

The tougher lockdown, initially planned to begin on Monday, was partially delayed at the last minute to allow businesses more time to prepare, a move that Hernandez argues does little to raise the publics faith in the governments planning.

More than the decision itself, the way it was announced so quickly could make people think that theyre not being fully informed of the real situation. But some may also wonder, if they were largely following government instructions previously, why these new measures have to be taken at all.
While many of us are now working at home, others in essential services continue to go out to do their jobs. Donna Deeney, Margaret Canning and Emma Deighan find out how theyre coping.

When we all take this seriously, we can keep ourselves safe and well

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Craig McGowan is among those making sure refuse is collected. A supervisor at Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council's refuge department, he says that, for now at least, all black, blue and brown bins are being collected as normal.

"We still have the manpower to operate the service to its full capacity," he says. "Usually in the mornings before the crews leave the depot, they would have come in for a bit of a chat about the sport that was on the night before or whatever, but that's all stopped. Now, the men come into the depot, get straight out of their own vehicles and get ready to go out in the bin lorries right away.

"Normally for the black and blue bin collections there are usually three men in the crews and the brown bin crews are just two men.

"We have now reduced the black and blue crews down to two men in the cab and the other man coming behind in the council van.

"The crews can stick to the six feet apart rule inside the cab of the lorry and when they are out collecting the bins they can keep to that easily enough."

Craig says that most people realise the need for taking extra precautions.

"Like everybody, we are all worried about catching coronavirus. Everyone takes seriously all the precautions the council has put in place, like disinfecting the cab before and after it is used, wearing personal protection equipment and keeping your distance from others.

"The public really do appreciate us being out there collecting refuse and I'd like to remind them that when they do leave their bins out, they wipe down the handles with disinfectant too. When we all take this seriously, we can all keep ourselves safe and well."

Donna Deeney

We are at the frontline and will help families to get through this

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The way we say a final farewell to a loved one has changed beyond recognition during the coronavirus crisis.

But a Londonderry undertaker warns that people may have to prepare for even more stringent rules on wakes and funerals.

Sean Carr, who has run his family business in Derry for over 20 years, says that families who have lost loved ones have been trying to grasp new regulations that have put tight controls on a tradition that has endured for hundreds of years.

"The guidance coming from both the Irish and the British Association of Undertakers is pretty stark - it is basically to prepare the remains for burial or cremation without wakes or funerals. This goes against everything we traditionally do when someone dies - to view the remains, touch the remains, open the house to a wake where hundreds will come and then have a funeral again attended by hundreds of people. All that has gone - for now at least.

"Right now, a lot of people whose loved one did not die from Covid-19 are still holding three-day wakes but restricting the numbers to family only and the same for funerals, but I think that is about to change too."

Last week Down and Connor Diocese said funerals would no longer take place inside churches.

Sean adds: "In Down and Connor, when someone dies, they go straight to the graveside and I expect before long that will be the case everywhere.

"That will be very, very difficult for families to come to terms with. As undertakers we are at the frontline and it will be our job to help families through this."

As the death toll from Covid-19 rises, Sean says that people in his profession will have to come to terms that they too are at risk.

"We will have to be told when someone has died with Covid-19 but it has also been suggested that families do not put a death notice out until after the burial or the cremation to keep people away.

"We used personal protection equipment anyway but we have increased this to include face visors and obviously we already scrubbed and disinfected working surfaces, but it is still a worry that I might contract the virus and pass it on to people in my family."

Donna Deeney

Ive worked here for 18 years and what were seeing now is new ... Ive never seen demand like it

Elaine Sharvin (37), who works in the Valley Moat SuperValu supermarket on the outskirts of Downpatrick, has had to respond to a rush for groceries since coronavirus first spread to Northern Ireland.

Elaine is married to David, the store's deputy manager, and they have a 10-year-old son, Ben.

She explains: "We are between some large housing estates so to say we serve the community is an understatement. We're at the heart of the community.

"Our big rush first started about two and a half weeks ago when people heard there was a patient with coronavirus in Downpatrick and there started to be a bit of a panic. Some of the schools had taken it upon themselves to shut at that point.

"Like everywhere else, there was a rush on toilet roll. We'd get orders in and they would sell out within seconds. The shop has been reconfigured to make best use of space and additional staff have been taken on.

"Of course the schools were closing as well, which affected some of our staff, but we made it work.

"Our students who work part-time were putting themselves forward for extra hours and we had a WhatsApp group for putting out messages.

"Some staff are parents who might be struggling because schools are shut, but we've had to make it work because, ultimately, we are in this together."

There has also been huge demand for pasta, but says Elaine, "overall, the 'impulse buy' end of things like soft drinks or confectionery hasn't really increased. Musgrave (parent company of SuperValu, Mace and Centra) has been amazing, almost like they have been a step ahead of every announcement by the government."

She adds: "I've worked here for 18 years and what we're seeing now is very new. I've never seen demand like it."

Margaret Canning

Our priority is to pay people and for people to have their money

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David Malcolm is the operations director for Universal Credit, the government benefit paid to people in need, including the tens of thousands who have lost their jobs since the coronavirus outbreak.

He says there has been a huge increase in demand in recent days.

"It's impossible for me to complain about being busy at the minute because there's so many people who would love to be busy but have lost their jobs," he continues.

"What we have now is the new normal and I'm lucky to have the chance to be working."

David, who has a team of 1,800 people, adds: "About 40% of our staff are out at the minute through Covid-19, with people who are in vulnerable groups or are living with people in vulnerable groups, and then you have got the normal sick leave levels.

"But we have seen a 10-fold increase in claims for Universal Credit.

"Last week there were just over 10,000, while this week it looks like we will have 15,000. We would normally get around 1,800 a week.

"I have a great team around me. They have been a Godsend and there's no doubt what we are doing is making a difference.

"It's not business as usual out there. Our priority is to pay people and for people to have their money. Not only do our new customers have to get paid, so do our existing customers. We're constantly juggling what we do as we always need to make sure nobody gets left behind."

David says there is "no doubt" this is much worse than the last recession: "People are claiming at a much higher rate, though back then they were claiming Jobseeker's Allowance.

"But the process is nothing like it was then as Universal Credit is now largely automated and people can fill in the forms on the system at home.

"And there some customers can't use online so voluntary groups help them and work very closely with us."

Behind every claim, he adds, is a different individual with different needs.

"We can never lose sight of the fact that they are real people," he says. "No one in my family has lost their job because of what's happened but people in here have family members who have been affected. What we're doing exemplifies public service. It's guaranteed support and a safety net and we support people when they have no other means."

Margaret Canning

'In the workforce there is a sense of pride and that keeps us going

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Robert Gallagher, operations manager for Musgrave Group at Dargan Road in Belfast, says his team have worked 21 days straight to ensure essential food and non-food items are delivered to convenience stores here.

In his 10 years of working in the food distribution sector, he has never before experienced the volume of products coming and going at the warehouse, even at Christmas.

"Comparing it with our busiest weeks we are delivering 210% more products," he explains.

Robert says he has grown his distribution team from the usual 90-strong workforce to 120 since the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis placed huge demand on ambient, chilled, frozen and non-food products which are delivered to the group's Centra, Mace and SuperValu stores.

"We are now in week three. In the first week we reacted by working every hour under the sun," he says. "In the second week we made the call to recruit people. We took on 30 new team members."

The majority of the new workforce had been made redundant as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic and half of the 165 applicants had warehousing experience. "We see the team growing because right now as soon as stock comes in it's going back out," he adds.

New strategies have been put in place to protect the team including social distancing, a cap on the number of people in the canteen at once, the introduction of extra smoking huts and markers on the ground as well as face masks and gloves.

The company has also reinstated night shifts and all transport staff have worked 21 days consecutively. Yesterday marked their first day off.

"Right now we want to get the food out to people. There is a sense of pride among our workforce and that's what is keeping us going. Looking back, we were almost guilty in thinking that the pandemic wouldn't be as big as it is now but it's real and we are doing what we can to help."

The Musgrave distribution team is gearing up for almost three months of the same. Robert adds: "We are assuming this level of purchasing will continue for 12 weeks to mid-June and we will work accordingly."

Emma Deighan

The bus depot is like a family and everyone looks out for everyone

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Cassie McNeill began working as a Translink bus driver 14 months ago after deciding she wanted a change following nine years in corporate communications.

One motivation was contact with the public - ironically the aspect impacted most by the coronavirus control measures.

While Cassie, who is based at Great Victoria Street station in Belfast, recognises the danger she is exposing herself to by being in direct contact with the public, she acknowledges the safety measures her employer has put in place to protect her.

"The company has provided us with gloves, masks and everything else," she says.

"When you are speaking to your regulars - and for some of them, you might be the only person they do speak to - you don't want to be rude.

"So when I see them coming, I get out of the cab and stand away from them rather than ask them to stand away, but if people are too close to either me or to each other in the bus, I do ask them to space themselves out.

"Generally the majority do this automatically and very few are paying with cash, which is good, but some people still don't seem to get the message. Still, the reality is that when someone gets on the bus, I have no idea if they have coronavirus or if they have been in contact with coronavirus. That does worry me and a lot of the drivers but we know a lot of people rely on us.

"Without us, a lot of elderly people wouldn't get to the shops and a lot of NHS workers use us to get to and from work.

"So we just keep saying to ourselves 'clean our bus bays, wear gloves and change them often', but of course there is still a fear there."

The risks of the job weighs heavily but sharing concerns with colleagues helps.

"While it might sound corny, inside the depot it is like a big family and everybody looks out for everybody else," says Cassie.

"Bus drivers love their tea and banter and that is especially needed now in a way no one would have imagined. It keeps the spirits up."

Donna Deeney
Convinced that people are fleeing tri-state-area coronavirus hot spots, Florida officials have set up an I-95 South checkpoint and are yanking New Jersey drivers and others off the highway as part of the governors executive order that some travelers must self-quarantine for 14 days upon entering the state.

According to News 4 Jacksonville:

Drivers going through the I-95 checkpoint Sunday were being asked by Florida Department of Health personnel which states they had traveled from while semi-truck drivers were being allowed to continue on. Drivers from hot spot states were waved to the side and asked to give their travel and contact information. According to the state, the Florida Highway Patrol is facilitating the checkpoint 24/7 with more than a dozen troopers in 12-hour shifts.

Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order directing the Department of Health to require travelers from New York, Louisiana, Connecticut and New Jersey to self-isolate for 14 days after traveling to Florida.

To dissuade travel from New York and New Jersey, health officials also are screening arriving travelers for COVID-19 symptoms at Florida airports.

DeSantis said the state will not set up similar screening on U.S. 1 South or at Amtrak stations because I-95 is the natural" point of entry for motorists from the Northeast.

If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Kevin Manahan can be reached at kmanahan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @KevinCManahan. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.
Gainers on Monday included Johnson & Johnson, which said it had identified a lead candidate for a vaccine for the virus and planned to ramp up both production and clinical testing. Abbott Laboratories rose on reports that it had said a new test that could detect the virus in five minutes had been cleared for use by the Food and Drug Administration.

But there were lingering signs of caution in the financial markets. Most notably, oil prices tumbled to their lowest levels since 2002.

And in the stock market, Mondays rally came on relatively light volume, said Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak, a trading and asset management firm. That suggests a lack of conviction among investors, he said.

Its a little bit of lack of confidence, said Mr. Maley, And you cant blame them after whats happened.

Some industries continued to be battered by the long shadow of the virus. Cruise lines Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and Carnival were all down 10 percent, making them some of the worst performers in the S&P 500 on Monday. United Airlines, American Airlines and Boeing, all of which had rallied last week on expectations that they would benefit from government assistance, also fell sharply.

The dizzying moves that characterized trading in financial markets for most of March seem to have ended as policymakers around the world moved to bolster their economies with spending and other means of support. But investors were weighing those efforts against the rising number of coronavirus cases and the redoubled efforts to contain the pandemic.
Whats new: A Chinese maker of reportedly faulty Covid-19 test kits sent to the Czech Republic stressed (link in Chinese) the importance of following instructions properly when using the products.

Innovita Biological Technology Co. Ltd. added that its test kits are meant as a supplement for more widely-used nucleic acid tests that have returned negative results.

The company has been in recent headlines since a local news site in the European country claimed that up to 80% of Innovitas Covid-19 test kits were not working properly.

Whats the controversy: The story, reported by Czech news site iRozhlas based on claims from a local hygienist, also drew in the local Chinese embassy, which issued a statement Friday calling the 80% inaccuracy rate claim wrong.

The kits, which were ordered by the Czech Republic government, are just one of many medical supply shipments recently sent from China to other countries battling local outbreaks, which some have likened to a form of soft power.

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use. To read the full Caixin article in Chinese, click here.

Related: Czech Republic Promises No Losses After Confiscating Donated Masks Meant for Chinese in Italy

Contact reporter Mo Yelin (yelinmo@caixin.com)
Weighing only 41 pounds, Wynn, the yellow Labrador retriever, was born the runt. Yet, her diminutive stature doesnt stop her from performing her very big job: Comforting emergency department staff and first responders as they care for patients during the coronavirus pandemic. A picture of her with her volunteer puppy raiser, Dr. Susan Ryan, went viral as it showed Wynn providing support when it was needed the most.

I just slid down along the wall and Wynn just laid there with me, Ryan, an emergency medicine physician at Rose Medical Center in Denver, told TODAY. We find such comfort in just getting to pet her and it grounds us and just reminds us were connected.

Wynn always went to work in the emergency department with her puppy raiser, Dr. Susan Ryan. As staff stress has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, more people are seeking out cuddles with the good girl. (Courtesy of Susan Ryan)

Ryan raises Wynn, who will be 1 on April 10, until shes ready for more intensive training to become a service animal for Canine Companions for Independence, a nonprofit that provides service dogs to people with disabilities.

Ryan always brought Wynn to the emergency department, where the good girl stays in a crate in a social workers office. She enjoys comforting first responders and emergency department staff. Since the hospital started introducing extra safety precautions, having a snuggle with her requires a lot more hand washing (and fur cleaning). But shes making a bigger impact on the overstressed staff.

(Its) a heart-to-heart-connection. Were being present in the moment by petting her, smelling her paws, which still smell like popcorn. This just helps us remember to be human and connected, Ryan said. It just melts away the armor that we have put up to carry out our jobs.

The social worker who shares her office with Wynn made it an oasis of sorts by adding an aroma therapy diffuser, and signs like Itll pass. Itll pass like a kidney stone, but it will pass, Ryan said. When people visit, she dims the lights, covers them with a warm blanket and plays a guided meditation as they cuddle with Wynn.

It really helps. Ive never been really skilled at meditation but just having someone remind you to take three breaths helps, Ryan said.

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Having Wynn, a service dog to be, helps Dr. Susan Ryan feel grounded as treating patients during the COVID-19 pandemic can be overwhelming. (Courtesy of Susan Ryan)

As stress levels have increased, Wynn has become even more compassionate. Even the most overwhelmed person undergoes a transformation after a few minutes with the pup.

When they go out, their faces are entirely different, Ryan explained. Wynn seems to know when people are stressed and she gets closer and climbs on top of their laps. I like to think shes that in tune."

Even the most overwhelmed staff person feels better after cuddling with Wynn, a service dog in training. (Courtesy of Susan Ryan)

Wynn becomes excited to don her vest, collar and leash because she knows shes going to work. Every day, these are washed after Wynns shift. Shes also wiped down following every visit from hospital staff. As Ryan and her colleagues are faced with grueling choices in treating COVID-19 patients, Wynn is needed more than ever.

I take her for a walk and then Im grateful for the routine. When I wake up in the morning Im not inundated with sadness, Ryan said. Wynn is so much in service, giving of her heart  There is no doubt she saves us.
EPA/Luca Zennaro

National constitutions and international human rights treaties often contain clauses that allow governments to temporarily suspend their obligations in a time of crisis. They can invoke special powers that would normally be considered infringements on liberty.

However, while many states have enacted what have been described as emergency laws in response to the coronavirus pandemic, not all of these countries have actually declared a state of emergency under law. That could have future implications for their citizens.

Many states are using emergency powers to impose lockdowns, for instance. This is not a technical legal term but the status seems to include measures like new powers of detention, closing non-essential businesses, limiting public gatherings and limiting peoples movement, monitoring the streets to ensure they remain inside.

These measures have serious implications for the right to liberty, freedom of association, and freedom of movement. For example, powers to break up and limit gatherings are aimed at stopping people from spreading the virus, but they could also potentially be applied to breaking up trade unions, political parties and other organisations that are absolutely vital for democracy.

This is not a priority right now, but it could happen in the future. This is why citizens should be aware of which exceptional powers their governments have invoked and when they will relinquish them.

Declaring a state of emergency

Its useful to use the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) as a benchmark for good practice because 47 states have signed up to the document. It therefore gives a good indication of what they agree is acceptable and what is not. Article 15 of the ECHR allows countries to declare a state of emergency in times of war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation.

States cant just do whatever they like to respond to the crisis, however. Exceptional powers are only allowed to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation. Some rules  such as the prohibition on torture  can never be abandoned.

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So far, six ECHR nations have declared a state of emergency under Article 15 in response to the pandemic. They are Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Moldova and Romania.

Others, like Italy and Spain, have not used the ECHR mechanism but have declared states of emergency in accordance with their constitutional provisions. Italys constitution, for example, only allows an emergency to be declared by the government, subject to review by its legislature.

It may be that these countries believe their constitutions provide better protections for rights than the ECHR and these higher protections need departing from. Or they may feel the need to circumvent the ordinary decision-making processes in their constitutions that prevent them from acting swiftly to respond to this emergency.

The UK, meanwhile, has introduced what politicians have described as emergency powers but has not declared a state of emergency. The government convinced parliament to pass lengthy legislation allowing extra powers in less than a week.

This shows that there is some confusion about whether a country should declare a state of emergency under the ECHR or whether it can simply go it alone. Some MEPs say derogating from the ECHR sends out the wrong signal about a states commitment to human rights. This is because countries with poor human rights records (such as Turkey) often declare states of emergency.

This may be the key reason why countries like Spain, Italy and the UK are taking a different route and relying solely on their constitutional provision.

Accountability

On the other hand, failing to declare a state of emergency via the ECHR may leave these nations less accountable to the international treaties they themselves signed.

Officially declaring a state of emergency allows exceptional powers in exceptional circumstances, which means the mechanism is also supposed to prevent such powers from being enacted in a time of normalcy. If a state of emergency is not declared, this quarantining effect of the special powers is lost. Instead, states can pretend that the exceptional measures they have invoked are perfectly compatible with the normal legal framework.

It will be some time before the European Court of Human Rights definitively rules on whether a state of emergency is needed to authorise the emergency pandemic powers under the ECHR. By then, the crisis will hopefully be over. However, emergency powers have a worrying tendency of becoming permanent.

It does not take much imagination to see how powers restricting public gatherings to control a pandemic could be used to other ends. We are already seeing worrying developments in some European states in response to the pandemic. Hungary is currently considering an emergency bill that would allow its president Victor Orban to rule by decree with no cut-off date.

In contrast, Spains state of emergency expires after 30 days but it can be renewed for another 30 days. The UK governments extra powers must be renewed by parliament after six months and will expire in full after two years.

However, time-limits to emergency legislation have a poor reputation for actually working. This is best illustrated by the US Patriot Act enacted shortly after September 11 2001. Many of the most controversial provisions of this law are still in force today, despite the fact they were originally due to expire on December 31 2005.

Declaring a state of emergency under Article 15 of the ECHR and expressly acknowledging the unpalatable and temporary nature of these measures is best practice. It ensures that other states and international human rights organisations can monitor and even police how powers are being implemented.

Emergency powers were instrumental in ending the Roman Republic and in the rise of Adolf Hitler, so we should always be wary of them. Declaring a state of emergency has the useful effect of defining the boundaries of exceptional powers so that checks are in place.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation

Alan Greene does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Susie Garcia, 52, with her three children and three of her grandchildren. (Hector Juarez)

Hector Juarez said goodbye to his mother through the window as he stood outside Delano Regional Medical Center on Thursday.

Susana Garcia, 52, was hooked up to a ventilator and heavily sedated as COVID-19 ravaged her body. Fears over the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus meant that she was in isolation and the hospital was not allowing visitors.

But staffers opened the blinds so Juarez and his sister could peer inside Garcias ground-floor ICU room.

We got to see her one last time, said Juarez, 27.

Garcia died at 2:10 a.m. Friday, becoming the first Kern County resident whose death was attributed to the virus.

Weeks earlier, she had been celebrating with family.

They gathered in San Jose for her mothers 68th birthday on March 7. It felt especially important to come together, Juarez said, because his grandfather had died about a month before.

Though Santa Clara County was emerging as an early hotbed of the virus, at the time it had reported just 32 cases. It was days before the county began prohibiting even public gatherings, and more than a week before it issued an order directing residents to stay at home.

When Garcia returned to her Delano home March 13, she had a cough and runny nose that she shook off as allergies. Over the next five days, her symptoms grew to include a fever, cold sweats and crushing fatigue.

By March 18, she felt she could no longer breathe, Juarez said. A family member took her to the emergency room, and she was admitted into the ICU that night. The following day, she was tested for COVID-19. Her results came back positive six days later.

In the meantime, her decline was steady and unsparing. Medication to keep her fever down didnt seem to work, nor did the cooling blankets she was wrapped in. Her temperature soared past 105 degrees. Chest X-rays showed that her lungs were declining. She was given an oxygen mask.

On Tuesday, she called Juarezs sister to say that she was afraid, Juarez said.

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She was very scared for her life because she was having a lot of trouble breathing, he said. She knew at that point that something was completely wrong.

Then the hospital held a conference call with Garcia and her family during which doctors said her body wasnt getting enough oxygen and that she needed to be put on a ventilator.

We let her know, Mom, its going to be OK. Were going to be waiting for you here once you get your lungs healthy again and well all be able to be together at home soon, Juarez said. That was the last time we spoke to my mom.

The family made the difficult decision to have Garcia intubated.

Juarez and his sister, who live about 30 minutes away in Bakersfield, rushed to the hospital to see their mother before she was placed on the machine. But by the time they arrived, Garcia had already been sedated, Juarez said.

That was the first time they saw her through the window. Two days later was the last time. Three days later she was gone.

The oldest of seven siblings, Garcia is also survived by her mother, her daughter, two sons and five granddaughters.

She had a history of medical conditions, including diabetes and cardiac problems that prompted a triple-bypass surgery 12 years ago, Juarez said. About 2 years ago, she was bitten by a brown recluse spider and nearly lost her leg, he said. It took about a year for her to regain sensation and learn to walk again.

The spider bite also sidelined her from her career as a small-business owner, forcing her to step away from the sporting goods store she'd acquired in Delano after selling a furniture store she'd owned before that, Juarez said.

But her health had been good since she recovered, Juarez said, and she maintained an active social life.

She was well known in the community for her kindness and how bubbly her personality was, he said. Thats why she had so many friendships.

Since Garcia's death, the family has received an outpouring of support from the community. An online fundraising page Juarez set up to help with her funeral expenses reached its goal of $10,000 within 12 hours.

But the funeral itself is on hold indefinitely, as gatherings are prohibited. For now, the family members grieve alone.

They also worry.

After Garcia became ill, other family members who attended the gathering in San Jose were tested for the virus, and a few of them are positive, Juarez said.

He declined to disclose many details, fearing hed fan rumors that he says have led some to refer to him and his relatives as an infected family on social media.

But one of his aunts is now in an intensive-care unit in San Francisco because of COVID-19, and she is battling for her life, he said.

We had my grandfathers loss, now my moms loss," he said. "God knows we cant bear another loss in the family at this point.

Juarez said he's concerned by reports of people crowding parks and going to the beach, and he hopes that hearing his story might move them to heed warnings from public health officials.

"Its important that people stay home and stay safe and they take all the precautions that the health departments are giving us to stop spreading this virus," he said. "Because, unfortunately, it hit home for us but it can hit anybody, and its devastating."
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30)  Two major sugar companies based in Bukidnon have temporarily stopped milling operations amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The two local firms, Busco Sugar Milling Co., Inc. and Crystal Sugar Company, Inc. have put operations on hold starting March 28 until April 5, 2020.

In a message to CNN Philippines, Busco Sugar Milling Co., Inc. Officer-in-Charge Eduard V. Carlos confirmed that the temporary closure was upon the request of Bukidnon Governor Jose Maria Zubiri Jr. This, in an effort to limit the spread of coronavirus in the province.

Carlos also clarified, production capacity at their sugar refinery remains stable.

We will resume operations on April 6 and [are] estimated to finish the sugarcane harvest by May 21st, Carlos added.

Zubiri issued Executive Order No. 13 on March 17, placing the entire province under an enhanced community quarantine as a precautionary measure against the spread of COVID-19.

As of March 30, there are no confirmed coronavirus cases in Bukidnon province.

Stringer Melchor Velez contributed to this report.
On Friday, the cruise line reported that four people had died onboard the vessel. According to Holland America, on Thursday at least two individuals had been screened for COVID-19 on the ship.

Late Sunday night upon being anchored off the shores of Panama for a couple of days, Holland America's Zaandam started traveling the Panama Canal. After many South American ports refused the ship access, the ship, as well as its crew, had been in limbo for weeks waiting for an opportunity to dock.

In a statement Holland America reported that travelers without symptoms were moved from Zaandam to Rotterdam on Saturday.

In a video clip, the Holland America Line president Orlando Ashford admitted that the corporation has been attempting to "figure out" where to evacuate passengers from the stricken liner of Zaandam in which four of the passengers have already died.

The Two Tandemed Ships

The sister vessel, the Rotterdam, sailed from Panama on Saturday to get the travelers displaying no symptoms of the infection. From San Diego the Rotterdam had come with supplies, medical professionals, test kits and provisions for the belligerent vessel.

The ships were granted permission to continue across the canal by late Sunday or early Monday.

Ashford said in his statement he needed to refute a misconception about the healthy ship being one and the ill ship being the other.

Ashford apologized on behalf of the cruise line saying: "It's been a tough last several days."

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Passengers Wanting to Dock

With the flu-like virus outbreak, four have died from the reported cases for COVID-19, it has been a stressful week for the 1,243 passengers, including 247 Canadians, who have been on board Zahandam, a cruise ship currently sailing off the shore of Panama, on the Holland America Route.

The Zaandam has sought a docking place that would allow passengers to return home after the shortening of its South American cruise on March 14 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last Friday, Holland America reported the deaths of four elderly travelers and the occurrence of influenza symptoms in several other travelers. 73 passengers and 116 members of crew are reportedly ill.

The ship's passenger Cheryle Stothard of Toronto stated, "They're not wanting us there, so where are we going to go?" She and her spouse have also been strictly limited to their room for the past week due to the spread of the disease.

On Wednesday, the Ship Might Reach Florida

Holland America had recently confirmed it was preparing to visit Fort Lauderdale, but Port Everglades authorities said that on Sunday the travelers had not been authorized to dock there.

The ship is required to send a proposal before its entry which includes, in the document, a lengthy list of Unified Command entrance requirements for Port Everglades.

As per the channel release, the Zaandam had reserved transit across the Canal since April 1, 2020.

When the ships continue to navigate the canal, it takes about three days for them to reach South Florida, according to the report mentioned from the Port Everglades.
The provincial government has developed a triage protocol for doctors who may soon be forced to make ethically fraught decisions over how to ration critical care beds and ventilators  a policy document that will shape life-or-death choices over which patients to prioritize if hospitals become overwhelmed by the COVID-19 outbreak.

The document, dated Saturday and obtained by the Star, suggests the province is taking steps to prepare for worst-case scenarios already playing out in hard-hit regions such as Italy and New York, where COVID-19 wards are overflowing and doctors are being forced to ration life-saving interventions like ventilators.

It acknowledges that intensive care units (ICUs) in Ontario are already operating near  or even above  capacity and that even the lowest estimates of (COVID-19) incidence would exceed our capacity at an early stage.

There is a compelling need to prepare a triage system to allocate critical care resources in the event of a severe surge in demand, to be used only as a last resort, states the document, which was published by Ontario Health, the newly created super-agency for overseeing health-care delivery in the province. The consequences of failing to prepare for this eventuality are potentially serious, as has been seen in Italy, a country with similar ICU resource levels to Canada.

The protocol document was developed by Dr. James Downar, secretary of the Canadian Critical Care Society and a critical care specialist at the Ottawa Hospital, who was working under the auspices of the provinces COVID-19 command structure. When reached by email, Downar said he was referring all media requests to Ontario Health, which was unable to respond by deadline.

The province did not respond to questions about whether the document represents the finalized protocol or a working version. But its existence is sure to provide some measure of relief to anxious ICU physicians across Ontario, who have been following the harrowing stories streaming out of COVID-19 epicentres such as Italy and New York while also watching the coronavirus outbreak become increasingly urgent at home.

Last week, Ontario saw the number of COVID-19 patients being treated in ICUs jump from 17 on Wednesday to 63 on Saturday. The Ministry of Health told reporters that the provinces current ICU capacity is at 68 per cent, with efforts underway to clear more ICU beds and procure more ventilators  including 300 already purchased and newly secured contracts to provide as many as 10,000 more.

But as of Friday, the most specialized ICU beds  known as Level 3 beds, needed by the sickest COVID-19 patients  were already at 85 per cent capacity.

From a critical care physicians perspective, this (triage) document is crucial, said Dr. Bram Rochwerg, an associate professor at McMaster University and critical care physician, researcher and site lead with the Juravinski Hospital in Hamilton. I dont think any critical care doctors in Canada anticipated a situation where we might have to start triaging based on resources that we had. Its scary  (but) having a policy provides protection and pathways and protocols to enact if, God forbid, we ever get to that point.

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The protocol document states that the purpose of a triage system is to minimize death and illness for the population overall and ensure consistent and predictable guidelines.

The system will be triggered only if local resources have been depleted and every attempt has been made to relocate patients to other facilities that still have capacity. The document acknowledges, however, that transportation resources will become stretched in a pandemic and this will not always be possible.

The document states that the health-care system can adjust to mild or moderate surges by adapting existing resources, such as using operating room ventilators or enlisting non-ICU staff.

But if the system enters a state of major surge  defined in the protocol as a system operating at 130 per cent capacity or more  regional hospitals are informed that triage will be imminent. When the system hits a breaking point (theoretically defined in the protocol document as 200 per cent of normal capacity), triage protocols are activated and begin to escalate in a stepwise fashion, where the more overwhelmed the system becomes, the stricter the criteria for which patients will be prioritized for critical care.

Under the triage protocol, patients will be assessed according to both inclusion and exclusion criteria. Those who are excluded from treatment will be patients who are very likely to die from their critical illness, and people who are very likely to die in the near future even if they recovered from their critical illness.

At level 1 triage, for example, doctors are advised to exclude patients who have greater than 80 per cent predicted mortality. At level 3, patients with greater than 30 per cent predicted mortality will be excluded. Under the triage protocol, long-term-care patients who meet specific criteria will also no longer be transferred to hospitals.

Decisions on which patients are excluded will be based on good data to show who is unlikely to survive a long critical care stay when they have COVID or any other critical care issue, said Dr. Alison Fox-Robichaud, past president and spokesperson for the Critical Care Society of Canada, which consulted on the triage protocols.

The decision to activate the triage system will also be made regionally and treatment decisions for specific patients will be made by a team of people  thus relieving individual doctors from having to shoulder these burdens alone, she said. I think the most important thing from a critical care perspective is this isnt going to be an individual critical care physicians decision, if we have to invoke this.

Patients who no longer meet the criteria for care under the triage system will be removed from life-saving interventions like ventilation or not have them offered, according to the protocol. But this does not mean these patients will stop receiving medical treatment or care. They will also receive the highest priority for palliative care.

(This protocol is) coupled with a clear palliative care plan so that if we have to, heaven help us, get into this situation, we are going to be providing good care, kind and compassionate care, to the best we can in the middle of a pandemic, Fox-Robichaud said.

The protocol outlines three guiding principles for the triage protocol, the first being utility, meaning physicians should allocate resources to patients who stand to benefit the most.

The second is proportionality  in other words, the number of patients who will be negatively affected by this last-resort triage system should not exceed the number of people who stand to benefit.

The third principle is fairness, meaning only clinical information should be used to decide which patients are treated over others. Priority should not be given to anyone on the basis of socioeconomic privilege, or political rank.

Trudo Lemmens, a bioethicist and professor of health law and policy with the University of Toronto, said he feels this last principle has been given short shrift in the protocol and he would like to see more explicit language guaranteeing that all patients  particularly those from vulnerable populations  will be considered equally. He is especially worried about patients who may be more easily assessed as having a poorer chance of survival  for example, people with disabilities or homeless people. It suggests too easily that these clinical assessments are value-neutral, he said.

Lemmens also finds the notion of removing patients from life support to be ethically problematic. If it comes to a situation where somebodys on a ventilator and we already committed to this person who is receiving the necessary care, I think it may be more problematic to withdraw that from a person with significant chance of survival than to say to somebody who now enters the hospital system, Well, we currently dont have anything available, he said.

For critical care physician Dr. Robert Fowler, the provinces triage protocol is the kind of document you prepare but hope to never use, but he is glad that it now exists and is generating an important conversation.

This is the first time that Ontario has really had to grapple with this in a concrete way, said Fowler, who works at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

He believes its too soon to say whether Ontario or Canada will see a COVID-19 crisis of Italy or New York proportions and he believes its still possible social distancing measures have made a difference in flattening the curve. He notes that critical care units across the province have also become very well integrated since the SARS crisis, so that even if one hospital or region reaches capacity, there is still the option of relocating patients to other regions or even provinces before activating the triage system as a last resort.

In the meantime, he says, the general public can do its part in preparing themselves for their own worst-case scenarios. People should be having difficult conversations now about whether they would even want ventilation or other invasive interventions should they ever find themselves in an ICU ward  if the answer is no, then that would mean freeing up a bed or ventilator for another patient who would want it.

These are always the sort of conversations that you think, Oh gosh, I dont want to talk about that, Fowler said. But its a conversation thats as relevant now as it ever was.
A nurse who contracted covid-19 at a medical conference in Hawaii has told how her colleagues are terrified about catching the virus while treating sick people without personal protective equipment (PPE).

Lisa Merck, from Colorado, said she was troubled that she had been asymptomatic for 'quite some time' and was still seeing patients at the clinic before falling ill earlier this month.

It comes as a new study on the disease in China found that a 'high viral load,' or the amount of the contagion someone is first faced with, can overload a patient and lead to more acute symptoms. This is of particular concern for healthcare professionals surrounded by sufferers.

Asked whether she believed she and her colleagues had adequate supplies of PPE, Merck told Fox News: 'I feel like right now we have it under control, but a lot of my friends are nurses at the hospital and they're very worried about it.

Lisa Merck, from Colorado, said she was troubled that she had been asymptomatic for 'quite some time' and still seeing patients at the clinic before falling ill

'I just ordered some new supplies as well and it's hard to get supplies from the different distributors that we have. They're limiting the amount of supplies that you can order, so I foresee that at some point we will run out. We've just seen the very tip of it in our community. I think we have a lot more to come.'

It comes as the number infected in Colorado has reached 2,307, with 47 dead, while the US total is now at more than 142,000, with 2,509 fatalities.

Merck went on to describe her hometown of Crestview as 'a really small community' but said that she believed cases were 'going to spike.'

A nurse dressed in personal protective equipment (PPE) waits for a new patient at a drive-thru testing station in Connecticut last week

Merck said she would remain in isolation for another week while she undergoes further testing.

A scientific paper published in British medical journal The Lancet this month suggested that a high viral load was linked to worse symptoms.

The study looked at 76 coronavirus patients in Nanchang, China, who had been admitted to hospital and tested positive for COVID-19.

The researchers, led by Dr Wei Zhang, wrote: 'The mean [average] viral load of severe cases was around 60 times higher than that of mild cases suggesting that higher viral loads might be associated with severe clinical outcomes.'

At least 80 per cent of coronavirus patients are believed to have only a mild illness similar to a cold, while some might develop more severe breathing problems.

The most seriously ill end up in hospital with pneumonia and in intensive care units have a survival rate of around 50 per cent.

Dr Wei and colleagues added that high viral load also seemed to raise the risk of a serious illness in patients with SARS, a similar virus that caused an outbreak in 2002.

They wrote: 'This finding suggests that the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 might be a useful marker for assessing disease severity and prognosis.'

Researchers at the University of Oxford agreed that studies seem to show that a higher viral load makes coronavirus symptoms worse but there was no solid proof.

An analysis by the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences reads: 'The evidence suggests an association of viral dose with the severity of the disease.

'However, the evidence of the relationship is limited by the poor quality of many of the studies'.

To avoid becoming infected with a larger viral load the best thing people can do is to stay away from others who are or might be ill, Dr Wendy Barclay said.

Industrial firms employees manufacture PPE to supply New York's health care workers and hospitals at the Brooklyn Navy Yard

The viral load would be higher if someone coughed directly into your face than it would if they were two metres away and the viruses were dispersed in the air.

So when in public people should always keep their distance from others, Dr Wendy Barclay told The Telegraph, especially if they are coughing or sneezing.

Wearing gloves, washing hands and avoiding touching their face can also protect people from picking up the viruses in public places.

And if someone is living with someone infected with the coronavirus they should try to avoid close contact with them - stay two metres (six feet) away, if possible.

This includes stopping hugging and kissing, sleeping in separate beds if necessary and making sure they regularly clean often-touched surfaces like door handles.

Dr Barclay added that it would be sensible not to share towels or cutlery and crockery.

Anyone who is showing symptoms of coronavirus (coughing, fever or shortness of breath) should try to cut themselves off from healthy housemates as much as possible.
Rubio Says Media Reports Claiming US Has Most COVID-19 Cases is Bad Journalism

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on March 29 criticized U.S. media outlets for reporting the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) official data on its COVID-19 cases as fact.

Rubio said Sunday that media reports stating that the number of COVID-19 cases in the United States had surpassed China were grotesque. He called them bad journalism.

Some in our media cant contain their glee & delight in reporting that the U.S. has more #CoronaVirus cases than #China Beyond being grotesque,its bad journalism We have NO IDEA how many cases China really has but without any doubt its significantly more than why they admit to  Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 29, 2020

Some in our media cant contain their glee & delight in reporting that the U.S. has more #CoronaVirus cases than #China, he wrote on Twitter. Beyond being grotesque, its [sic] bad journalism.

We have NO IDEA how many cases China really has but without any doubt its [sic] significantly more than why [sic] they admit to, he added.

A tracking map published by Johns Hopkins University, which relies on official government data, shows at press time that the United States has 142,502 confirmed CCP virus cases, compared to China, which has an official confirmed case total of 82,149.

The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Partys coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China before it was transmitted worldwide.

Rubios comments came after President Donald Trump on Thursday expressed his doubts about official data provided by the CCP that is quoted without challenge in many media reports.

You dont know what the numbers are in China, the president said when asked by a reporter whether he was surprised that the United States has surpassed China in the number of cases of the CCP virus.

Trump said that he thinks the increase in cases being reported in the United States is a tribute to the testingwere testing tremendous numbers of people  Were doing tremendous testing.

Im sure youre not able to tell what China is testing or not testing, Trump told the reporter. I think thats a little hard.

According to The Epoch Times investigations, Chinas actual number of cases and deaths from the CCP virus are likely to be more than 10 times higher than what is being reported.

Meanwhile, residents from Chinas Wuhan, where the global pandemic first spread, told RFA they are skeptical that the official CCP figure of some 2,500 deaths in the city is accurate, given that incinerators have been working round the clock.

Separately, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response director suggested at a Coronavirus Task Force briefing last week that the media is frightening Americans by reporting on extreme results from COVID-19 models which have predicted the death of millions due to the pandemic under circumstances where no precautionary measure are taken.

Models are models, Dr. Deborah Birx said, adding that they dont match the reality on the ground in the United States given the governments social distancing efforts. Birx stressed that the estimates are based on models that do not consider such ongoing efforts to slow the spread of the virus worldwide.

The numbers that have been put out there are actually very frightening to people, she said during the briefing.

Others suggested the media dig deeper into the CCPs official COVID-19 statistics.

If only reporters had the same energy digging into Chinas numbers as they display digging into @marcorubios tweet calling them out for ignoring the truth, Regan Battalion wrote.
High profile solicitor Niall Murphy last night remained in a critical but stable condition in hospital after contracting coronavirus.

Mr Murphy, a 43-year-old father of three, who is a partner at KRW Law Firm and is a leading figure within the Co Antrim GAA, is in a medically induced coma after being rushed to hospital last week.

The solicitor and activist, who sits on the board of Relatives for Justice, had shown signs of illness since returning from a visit to New York a number of weeks ago.

He returned to Belfast about a week before St Patrick's Day.

Mr Murphy did see a doctor in the following weeks but was not tested for coronavirus, several people close to the solicitor said. It is understood his temperature was not high enough to pass the threshold for testing.

Emma Rogan MLA, who has known Mr Murphy for nearly 20 years as he has represented her family and others in their quest for answers relating to the 1994 Loughinisland massacre, said she was devastated to hear of his illness.

"We are really devastated to hear how ill Niall is," Ms Rogan said.

"My first thoughts were for his wife and wee children. God help them, they are not allowed to see him."

Ms Rogan, whose father Adrian was one of six people killed by the UVF in the Heights Bar attack, said he was involved in her family's campaign "from the very, very start".

"He is more than a solicitor, he is a friend.

"He always told us I will look after all the legal bits because you have enough to deal with the emotional stuff."

The Sinn Fein South Down MLA said the solicitor remembers everything, from years back, to the point where the family have jokingly dubbed him "Rain Man".

In a statement, Kevin Winters, on behalf of KRW Law, urged people who know Niall to send him a message of support on Monday.

He said: "His condition remains critical but stable. We have invited people to send him and his family messages of support on Monday.

"All of us hope and pray that Niall's well-known battling qualities will see him through what is a very difficult time for him and his family.

"He would want everyone to keep themselves and their families and NHS staff safe by following advice to stay home and avoid the spread of this awful virus.

"In particular as a GAA mentor he would want young people to stay indoors and use social media to keep in touch with friends and family."
Here below we publish the Preface to the Turkish-language edition of The struggle against imperialism and for workers power in Iran: A reply to a proponent of Iranian Islamic socialism , which has just been issued by Mehring Yaynclk (Mehring Books) in Turkey. The Preface was written by the pamphlet's author, Keith Jones, the National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Canada).

I am very gratified that Mehring Yaynclk is publishing a Turkish-language edition of The struggle against imperialism and for workers power in Iran: A reply to a proponent of Iranian Islamic socialism.

My essay, originally published by the World Socialist Web Site, addresses pivotal issues of socialist strategy in a country that for decades has been a target of US imperialist intrigue and aggression, and where the working classas demonstrated by the repeated eruptions of mass working class protests since 2018is now striving to find the road of independent class struggle. Based on an examination of Irans history and the global struggle against imperialism, it demonstrates that a viable strategy to defeat imperialism can only be founded on the working class, and requires its mobilization as an independent political force in opposition to all factions of the Iranian bourgeoisie.

The struggle against imperialism and for workers power in Iran was written in the first weeks of 2018 in reply to Iran Press TV journalist Ramin Mazaheris criticisms of the World Socialist Web Sites coverage of the mass working-class protests that convulsed that country as 2017 ended and 2018 began. Mazaheri reproached the WSWS for championing the protests, which gave voice, albeit in a politically inchoate fashion, to the long suppressed social and democratic aspirations of the working class, and for condemning their repression by the Islamic Republic, whose rulers, he claimed, were leading Iranian resistance to imperialism.

I will not repeat here what is said in my reply to Mazaheri, apart from saying that the WSWS welcomed his criticisms as an opportunity to elaborate the standpoint of the revolutionary socialist movementthat is of the International Committee of the Fourth Internationalto the defence of Iran against imperialist aggression and its relationship to the fight for socialist revolution in Iran and across the Middle East.

Since this essay was written, the crisis of Irans bourgeois-clerical regime and the threat of a US war targeting Iran has only intensified.

In May 2018, the United States withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear accord, although Tehran had scrupulously adhered to all its conditions. In an act tantamount to war, it then unilaterally re-imposed punishing economic sanctions on Iran over the course of the next 12 months. With the publicly avowed aim of crashing Irans economy, Washington has choked off all Irans oil exports, crippled its trade, and frozen it out of the US-dominated global financial system.

The sanctions have had their intended effect. They have strangled Irans economy and intensified the already deep conflicts within Irans bourgeois nationalist regime over how to continue to maneuver between Washington, which is intent on returning Iran to the neocolonial bondage that prevailed during the bloody quarter-century dictatorship of the US-backed Shah; the other imperialist and great powers; and the increasingly restless Iranian working class.

2020 began with the US drone assassination of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Suleimani, a war crime that brought Iran and the US, and the entire Middle East perilously close to a catastrophic war.

As an appendix to my 2018 essay, Mehring Yaynclk is republishing three WSWS articles published in the days immediately following Suleimanis assassination. Two of the articles analyze the strategy and socio-economic and political crises that are driving US imperialisms reckless maximum pressure campaign against Irana campaign that as this preface is being written continues to escalate with the US deploying additional troops and weaponry to the Persian Gulf region. The third article reviews the response of the major parties of the Turkish bourgeoisie and its Republic to the Trump-ordered assassination of the general who was reputed to be second most powerful person in the Islamic Republic.

For the past three decades the United States has waged and fomented a never-ending series of ruinous wars across the greater Middle East, from Afghanistan and Iraq, to Syria and Libya. These wars have blown-up complex societies, but they have demonstrably failed to halt the decline in the world economic and geo-political power of US imperialism.

The Iranian bourgeoisie chafes under the domination of imperialism. But it does so only because the predations of the US and European imperialist powers impede its efforts to expand the exploitation of its own working class and to make Iran a regional hegemon. By virtue of its class position, the Iranian bourgeoisie and its Islamic Republic are organically incapable of, and hostile to, the revolutionary mobilization of the workers and toilers of the Middle East, across all ethnic and religious dividesthe only viable struggle for opposing Washingtons aggression and intrigues and defeating imperialism as a whole. This task falls to the working class and will only be realized in so far as the struggle against imperialism is infused with the struggle against social inequality and all forms of class oppression, that is the struggle for socialism.

Keith Jones, Montreal, 13 February, 2020

***

Since this short Preface was written, US imperialism has seized on the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic to intensify its aggression against Iran, one of the countries hardest hit by the deadly disease. See: US imperialism exploits coronavirus as a weapon of war .
Dr Akosua Sarpong, Central Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has underscored the need for the public to be fed with the right information about the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).



She said sharing reliable, adequate and truthful information was crucial for controlling the pandemic and therefore, Information Officers and Communicators should be mindful of the information they gave out to the public.



Dr Sarpong said this at a days training workshop for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Information Officers (MMDIO) and Communicators in the Central Region on Friday.



It was to educate and build their technical capacities on the COVID-19 pandemic for them to be able to effectively sensitize the public on the disease to prevent its spread.



She said lack of adequate and right information created room for rumours and misconception and had the tendency of putting more lives at risk.



Mrs Manacia Asamoah, Regional Director of the Information Service Department (ISD), who took the officers through the training, urged the MMDIOs to be diligent and propagate the message of calm and not spread fear.



She charged them to sensitise the public to know the causes, symptoms and prevention of the COVID-19.



The symptoms include fever, running nose, cough, sore throat, breathing difficulties and possible headache.



Mrs Asamoah further admonished the information officers to leverage on community information centres to reach a larger section of the public, while encouraging them to make the message as simple as possible.



Participants were taken through some of the frequently asked questions about the virus and answers provided to be communicated to the general public.



Practising proper handwashing with soap under running water, observing social distancing and covering nose and mouth with either tissue or folded elbow during sneezing or coughing could curb the spread of the COVID-19.



Mr Mathew Ahwireng, Regional Health Promotion Manager who took the participants through Risk Communication in COVID-19 Emergency Response said risk communication was essential in the management of an outbreak.



He said District Public Health Emergency Committee had been re-activated and the Information Officers were automatic members of the committee and urged them to take their activities serious.



Systems to track and detect rumours and public perceptions would be developed and responded to accordingly by the Committee, adding that public perceptions were useful tools to work with in times of an outbreak or pandemic.



Mr Ahwireng encouraged the information officers to use social media to engage the public but cautioned them to follow the protocols to avoid sharing conflicting information.



Giving a situation report in the Central Region in respect to the COVID-19, Mr Ahwireng said four health facilities have been designated as centres, adding that the Region was adequately prepared.



He announced that eight suspected cases, which were sent to Nugochi for testing proved negative and called on the people in the Region to remain calm as it had not recorded any case of the disease.

Source: GNA









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Trading patterns are highly unpredictable at the moment, especially with the big jumps late in the afternoon and during settlement periods. Today the S&P/ASX 200 has traded within a range of 253 points, now wavering between positive and negative territory after being as much as 3.6 per cent higher in the morning.

On Monday, the index jumped about 150 points during the final settlement.

"Outside of automated trading and high frequency trading, I don't know who else could be doing these types of trades,'' says chief investment officer at Australian Eagle Asset Management, Sean Sequeira.

"It was believable from yesterday that the strength was driven by [end of month] rebalancing. But there is very sharp turnaround and things like that, it is quite amazing. Yesterday we saw Cochlear drop $13 in the space of five minutes.''

Cochlear went from $193.65 down to $180 at about 3.30pm yesterday.

"The volatility is just quite difficult to fathom for me. It is something that we have to look through, peer beyond the near term to determine what stocks we want to be in.''

Australian Eagle has been buying recently, although it sat out for the first half of February, adding stocks like Goodman Group, QBE, AMP, Oil Search and adding to its healthcare portfolio.

"I am not convinced yet that we won't have more weakness.''

He notes there is a lot of comparison among traders of the current down turn and the market crash of 1929, but says unlike 90 years ago, central banks and governments appear determined to help companies maintain their balance sheets. This will reduce the number of companies that collapse.
The global death toll has surpassed 34,000 with over 725,000 infections confirmed, causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the new respiratory illness.

Here's a roundup of developments in RFE/RL's broadcast countries.

Russia

Russia is considering extending a nationwide lockdown after Moscow all but confined its 12 million residents to their homes and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church called on worshipers to avoid churches and pray at home instead to stem the coronavirus outbreak.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin asked regional governors during an emergency meeting on March 30 to mirror Moscow's move and consider introducing a partial lockdown in their areas, after Russia recorded its biggest one-day rise in coronavirus cases for a sixth day running.

The government also closed all of the country's borders as of March 30, allowing only Russian diplomats, freight, and other necessary vehicles and people to enter.

"This may now seem to some of you like some kind of game, a kind of Hollywood thriller. This is no game...," Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Security Council, said in a video address on March 30.

"Unfortunately, what is happening now is a real threat to all of us and to all of human civilization," he said.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia has exceeded 1,800, according to a global database maintained by Johns Hopkins University on March 30, with nine fatalities.

Russian officials initially touted quick measures taken, such at strict quarantines for people entering the country and the closure of its border with China, as having blunted a rapid outbreak of the virus.

Indeed, the country appears so far to be less affected than many European countries, but critics and even ordinary Russians have voiced skepticism about the accuracy of official figures and raised questions about the state's testing for the virus.

According to a survey by the Levada Center, only 16 percent of Russians fully trust official information about the coronavirus, while 24 percent said they did not trust it at all.

In a sign of public indifference to the situation, Moscow authorities issued rules on March 30 that state residents will only be allowed to go out to buy food or medicines at their nearest shop, get urgent medical treatment, walk their dogs, or take out the trash. Those needing to go to work will also be allowed to leave their homes, and authorities will introduce a system of passes in the coming days.

Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on March 30 that city control measures had revealed that some 20 percent of Moscow residents had failed to follow previous quarantine regulations, requiring the tighter restrictions.

According to Sobyanin, a special information system will be developed soon to increase control over the movement of the Russian capital's residents.

"It will enable us to practically fully control citizens' movements and prevent violations that may occur," Sobyanin said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 30 hailed Moscow's lockdown as "necessary and justified."

St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, and more than a dozen other regions from the westernmost exclave of Kaliningrad to the Arctic region of Murmansk and Tatarstan on the Volga River have followed Moscow's example and introduced compulsory self-isolation regimes.

Russia's coronavirus crisis center said on March 30 that the latest fatality from the coronavirus was confirmmed in the western region of Pskov. According to the center, the coronavirus cases were registered in 71 of the country's regions.

The virus has also touched the country's power center.

The Kremlin said that a member of President Vladimir Putin's administration has been infected with the coronavirus, but the person had not been in direct contact with Russia's leader.

Putin also called for the week between March 28 to April 5 to be a non-working week -- essentially a weeklong holiday for the country to "prevent the threat of the quick spread of the illness."

The government also ordered all vacation and health resorts closed until June.

Other restrictions ordered by the government included the cancelation of all international flights.

Iran

Iran's death toll from the coronavirus has reached 2,757 with 117 new fatalities over the past 24 hours, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur told state TV on March 30, adding that the official number of confirmed cases has climbed to 41,495.

"In the past 24 hours, we had 117 new deaths and 3,186 new confirmed cases of people infected with the coronavirus," Jahanpur said, calling on Iranians to stay at home.

Iran is one of the countries worst hit by the virus, and experts have been skeptical about the veracity of official figures released by the Islamic regime that keeps a tight lid on local and foreign media.

State media reported on March 30 that inmates in southern Iran broke cameras and caused other damage during a riot, the latest in a series of violent prison disturbances in the country.

Enayatollah Rahimi, the governor of the southern Fars Province, was quoted by the state-run IRNA news agency as saying a riot broke out at Adel Abad Prison in the city of Shiraz. Rahimi said no one was wounded and no one escaped.

Iran had temporarily released around 100,000 prisoners as part of measures taken to contain the pandemic, leaving an estimated 50,000 people behind bars, including violent offenders and what authorities call "security cases" -- often people with dual citizenship and Western ties.

On March 29, the government announced the extension of the temporary releases of thousands of prisoners, after several prison riots in recent days and mass escapes from prisons.

Serbia

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic says his government plans to give about 5 billion euros ($5.54 billion) in loans and subsidies to businesses to help them deal with the economic pressure of the coronavirus pandemic.

The government will also make a one-off payment of 100 euros ($111) to every Serbian citizen older than 18, or around 5 million people, Vucic said on March 29.

So far, 13 people in Serbia, a Balkan country of 7 million, have died from the coronavirus and 741 have been infected.

Serbia has introduced a state of emergency and an overnight lockdown for all.

Vucic said the economic plan would prompt an increase in the deficit this year that would be covered from financial reserves and borrowing. The deficit was originally forecast at 0.3 percent of economic output.

Under the plan, agreed with the International Monetary Fund, Serbia's public debt should not exceed 60 percent of GDP, from 52.4 percent at the end of last year, Vucic said.

Serbia last month had 13.4 billion euros ($14.9 billion) in currency reserves, down from 13.7 billion euros ($15.2 billion) in January.

Vucic said the state would use 700 million euros ($780 million) to pay minimum wages of 30,367 dinars ($288.58) and allow tax delays for micro and small enterprises for the three months after the end of the state of emergency to avoid job losses.

Romania

Romania has reported six more coronavirus deaths, bringing the total inside the country to 46, as the number of confirmed infections reached 1,952, with 192 more cases registered over the past 24 hours.

A total of 16 Romanians have died from the coronavirus abroad, most of of them in Italy. An estimated 4 million Romanians work in Italy and Spain, two of the world's worst-affected countries.

Romania's government crisis group dealing with the pandemic also said 180 people had recovered from the COVID-19 illness caused by the coronavirus.

As of March 30, a total of 23,103 Romanians have been tested for COVID-19.

Romania, a country of 19.5 million, has been under a state of emergency since March 16. On March 22, authorities imposed a "total quarantine," stepping up restrictions.

Armenia

Armenia's parliament has passed in the first reading a government-drafted bill allowing the remote monitoring of coronavirus patients placed in self-isolation, a move that has been criticized by the opposition as a violation of privacy.

Armenia has been under a one-month state of emergency since March 16.

The 132-member National Assembly dominated by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's My Step alliance on March 30 voted 57-24 to approve the bill. There was one abstention.

The text is expected to pass in its second and last reading with minor changes on March 31.

The Ministry of Health said the number of coronavirus cases in Armenia had increased by 58 over the past 24 hours, raising the total figure to 482.

Three people are reported to have died of the disease in the South Caucasus country of around 3 million.

Under the bill, the authorities will be allowed to use telecommunication technologies to monitor the location of coronavirus patients placed in mandatory self-isolation.

The patients' phone records and other personal data could also be used to identify their possible contacts.

Justice Minister Rustam Badasian, who presented the bill in parliament, said the measure would apply only to periods of national emergencies caused by epidemics and would not include snooping into telephone conversations.

The measure would help authorities enforce the self-isolation regime for coronavirus patients, including through a smartphone application, and help locate their contacts with the use of personal data provided by telecom companies, according to Badasian.

The minister said that metadata for all customers would be made available in one database, but authorities would focus only on confirmed coronavirus patients and their contacts.

Opposition factions that voted against the bill said the measure was a threat to the protection of personal data. "We are against yielding our freedom and we will vote against it," Edmon Marukian, the leader of the opposition Bright Armenia faction, said before the vote.

Naira Zohrabian, a representative of the opposition Prosperous Armenia party, described the proposed measure as a waste of money.

"Use the tremendous resources that you are going to waste on trying to [geo]locate us on purchasing [coronavirus] testing kits in order to test people entering the country," she said before the vote.

According to legal amendments passed on March 23, violators of self-isolation orders can face fines of up to $2,000. Up to five years' imprisonment is envisaged for cases where a breach of quarantine or self-isolation leads to fatal infections of other individuals.

Georgia

The Georgian government has decided to impose a night curfew, as part of new quarantine rules aimed at slowing the spread of coronavirus in the South Caucasus country.

Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia announced the new measures at a news conference on March 30, saying that "the dynamics of the growth in new cases [of coronavirus] is alarming."

The country of some 3.7 million people has so far reported 100 cases, with no fatalities.

Gakharia said that starting on March 31, a curfew will be imposed nationwide from 9 p.m. until 6 a.m., during which pharmacies will be the only shops allowed to open.

The government is also declaring a "general quarantine," during which people will only be permitted to leave homes for essential shopping.

Other new measures include a ban on public gatherings of more than three people and a suspension of public transport, except for taxis, the prime minister said.

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan has suspended operations of all airports in Central Asias most-populous nation of 32 million to try to help slow the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that all airports were to cease operations on March 30 and remain closed until April 20.

A special government commission had already restricted all vehicle traffic between Uzbekistan's towns and cities to those with a special permit. The restriction runs for the same period as the airport closure.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Uzbekistan reached 145 as of March 30, including two deaths, according to local health officials.

Kyrgyzstan

In Kyrgyzstan, the Interior Ministry said on March 30 that police detained 1,087 individuals across the country for violating a curfew that was introduced five days earlier over the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the curfew, the movement of individuals or vehicles is banned between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. each day.

Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister Kubatbek Boronov said on March 30 that the total number of registered coronavirus cases in the country had reached 94 after 10 more people tested positive in the southern Jalal-Abad region.

Kazakhstan

In Kazakhstan, more than 70 women rallied in the southern city of Shymkent to demand the distribution of free food promised by the local government last week as part of the assistance being given to low-income families amid the outbreak restrictions.

A representative of the Shymkent city administration, Sundet Seitov, told RFE/RL that city authorities have been unable to provide all of the food assistance due to financial shortages.

Last week, a similar rally took place in another southern city, Qyzylorda, where more than 100 people rallied in front of the city food depot demanding food distribution.

The Health Ministry said that as of March 30, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Kazakhstan was 294, including one death.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Georgian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Romanian, Russian, Tatar-Bashkir, and Uzbek services, Reuters, AP, TASS, Interfax, dpa, AFP, Digi24.ro, Hotnews.ro, and Prva TV
'Some refused to kiss each other on the cheek, as is customary in France while, others couldn't care less.'

IMAGE: Empty food shelves in a store. Photograph: Mary Raja Panday

NRIs describe the impact coronavirus is having on their lives.

Mary Raja Panday, a Parisian, now temporarily a resident of Orleans, France

Photograph: Mary Raja Panday

When we first heard about the coronavirus in Wuhan, China, and the media attention it received, it was a hot topic with colleagues.

People would talk about movies, and tele-series which had a similar plot.

It was unreal.

It was something that happened elsewhere, and we were mere observers.

As we continued with our routine, the virus spread to neighbouring Italy! Things began getting serious.

We were having lunch with a colleague, who just returned from Milan. Needless to say, we were rather uncomfortable.

Photograph: Mary Raja Panday

We felt helpless when business travel was prohibited within a week from this incident. Many jokes were being circulated about toilet paper and pasta hoarders.

Masks, soaps, and hand sanitisers were increasingly out of stock.

Crisis management meetings became a part of our daily lives.

But life went on as before, as we continued to meet friends, and go out for drinks.

Some refused to kiss each other on the cheek, as is customary in France while, others couldn't care less.

Some were convinced that this was a conspiracy, and a lot just thought that it was not as fatal as it was being projected.

IMAGE: An empty underground parking lot. Photograph: Mary Raja Panday

As news of the spread of the virus continued all across the media, people stopped going out.

This was especially the case with Chinese establishments.

I'm from Belleville, which is the equivalent of Chinatown in Paris.

The bustling Chinese restaurants were suddenly empty.

With municipal elections around the corner, we wondered if we were the next in line after Italy.

IMAGE: Empty bread shelves in stores. Photograph: Mary Raja Panday

The French president addressed the nation on March 13, and encouraged everyone to stand united against the virus by practising social distancing, coughing into the elbows etc. Schools, colleges, restaurants, public places were to be shut.

The voter turnout was perhaps the lowest on record.

After three days, when Emmanuel Macron addressed the nation for a second time, we were told that the nation was at war.

Everyone had to be in quarantine for 15 days.

We were amongst the lucky ones to flee to the countryside to Orleans overnight.

It wasn't possible to work from home with a hyperactive 8 year old who could no longer go to the park to unleash all his energy.

Home working was mandatory for those who could.

The others had to go to work if it was considered an essential service.

Public transport continued and so did medical stores and grocery stores.

Anyone going out had to have an official declaration, downloaded from the government Web site, or handwritten, to explain that they were out for valid reasons.

Flights were cancelled.

My in laws who were trying to get back home from India are now stuck there. Our Easter holiday plans went down the drain.

We heard of colleagues who were infected and a friend who lost his ageing mother.

Stockmarkets have plunged.

Small businesses have taken another hit.

It's not been easy for the French since the yellow vest movement, the transport strike, and now the coronavirus.

We hear that the 15-day quarantine will most likely be extended.

These are strange times.

Dear Reader:

Are you someone of Indian origin living through these challenging times somewhere abroad?

We would like to hear how you are coping and what's happening outside your window.

How it has been for you emotionally and practically?

We would like to have your observations and perspectives.

Please share your responses with us and we will publish your account right here on Rediff.com.

Do write in to us at news@rediff.co.in (Subject: Living abroad through COVID-19) along with your NAME, AGE and LOCATION.

Please don't forget to share a photograph of yourself and any significant pictures you have taken of your environment.
Bengaluru, March 30 (IANS) The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Karnataka chapter has set up a task force to work with the government to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. Image Source: PK

Bengaluru, March 30 (IANS) The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Karnataka chapter has set up a task force to work with the government to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. Image Source: PK

Bengaluru, March 30 : The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Karnataka chapter has set up a task force to work with the government to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

"The CII has created a task force to work closely with the state government against the corona spread and assured of support on the ground," said the industry body in a statement.

CII Karnataka will donate medicines, personal protective gears, diagnostic kits and financial support in this regard.

A delegation of the trade body, led by Chairman Sandeep Singh and Vice Chairman Ramesh Ramudarai, met with state Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar and shared an industry report that points to Covid impact on each sector of state economy and recommended measures to address those challenges.

The Industries Commissioner held a meeting with e-commerce companies to understand their operations and help them in their operations during lockdown.

Aiming to smoothen the movement and operations of companies allowed to function during the 21-day nationwide lockdown from March 24 midnight, the trade body is extending help across the state.

CII Karnataka has also set up a fund for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) to tackle the situations emanating from corona outbreak.

MSMEs and exports are an area of priority and policy advocacy for the trade body.

"The CII has set up a helpline for assisting its members and connecting them to the departments concerned for their queries," said the statement.

The industry body's website is relaying updates to help its members and others dealing with similar issues.
North Korea has a population of 25 million people but hasnt reported a single case of coronavirus.

The notoriously secret nation maintains no one within its borders has caught COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.

However, this claim has not been verified by scientists from outside the country.

And its neighbour, South Korea, is adamant that the North has been affected by the pandemic.

On Friday, South Korean prime minister Chung Sye-kyun said the situation is probably not good in North Korea, adding that the government in Pyongyang has yet to request help from the South.

Earlier this month, General Robert Abrams, commander of US Forces Korea, said the US is fairly certain the North has had cases of coronavirus.

Their armed forces has been on lockdown for about 30 days, and only recently have they started routine training again, he said on 13 March.

They didnt fly an aeroplane for 24 days.

In early March, South Korean media reported that up to 180 North Korean soldiers had died from COVID-19.

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

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6 charts and maps that explain how coronavirus is spreading

There have been more than 9,600 cases of coronavirus in South Korea, according to Johns Hopkins University, with 158 deaths and more than 5,200 recoveries.

South Korea has been widely praised for its response to the crisis, including mass testing, contact tracing and strict quarantines.

Commuters in face masks on a tram in Pyongyang, North Korea, last month. (AFP via Getty Images)

Last week the Financial Times reported that Pyongyang has secretly asked for international help to increase coronavirus testing.

The newspaper said at least 590 people have been tested, all of whom arrived from overseas in January and all with negative results.

There are fears that an outbreak in North Korea could have disastrous results, given the countrys vulnerable health system and extensive poverty.

What has North Korea done to tackle coronavirus?

Story continues

North Korea has taken a number of extreme measures to tackle the spread of COVID-19.

As a neighbour of China, where the virus originated, North Korea was one of the first nations to take swift action.

In January it banned foreign tourists from entering the country, and a state of emergency was declared.

Watch the video below

Anyone who entered the country after 13 January was placed under medical supervision, state media reported.

By 20 February, schools in North Korea began to close in an effort to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Up to 10,000 people have been quarantined inside North Korea in the past two months, according to state media.

In an attempted display of strength, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has continued with a series of missile tests during the coronavirus pandemic.

In the latest test, on Sunday, two suspected missiles were fired from the Norths eastern coastal city of Wonsan, ending up in water between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

South Korea branded the launches as "very inappropriate" amid the coronavirus outbreak.

South Koreans in Seoul watch news footage of a North Korean missile test at the weekend. (AFP via Getty Images)

Read more: North Korea sends 500 workers to patrol Chinese border over coronavirus fears

North Korea has fired a series of missiles and artillery shells in recent weeks in an apparent attempt to upgrade its military capability amid deadlocked nuclear talks with the US.

The talks have stalled since the breakdown of a second summit between Kim and US president Donald Trump in Vietnam in early 2019.

A week ago, Pyongyang said Trump had sent a personal letter to Kim, seeking to maintain good relations and offering cooperation in fighting the outbreak.

Coronavirus: what happened today
Patna: The heavy influx of migrant workers into Bihar from Delhi has caused a ripple effect with people living elsewhere, including adjoining Nepal, thronging the states borders, almost defeating the purpose of the 21- day lockdown, a key aide of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said.

Sanjay Kumar Jha, the state's water resources minister and national general secretary of the JD(U), squarely blamed the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi for the situation and questioned its claims that migrants were being taken care of in the national capital.

"I am the party's in-charge for Delhi and my contacts have been telling me how buses were pressed into service to drop migrants at the UP border. They were misled by the Aam Aadmi Party with claims that the lockdown might be extended to three months. This created panic," Jha said here on Monday.

Migrants in Delhi were "made to feel they had nowhere to go except their homes and when they landed at Bihar's borders in buses arranged by the Yogi Adityanath government in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh they grew restive and refused to be stay at the relief camps "despite adequate arrangements for food and medicines", the JD(U) leader claimed.

"We had to arrange for transportation of nearly 25,000 migrants to their native places. There are people staying put at the scores of relief camps set up along Bihar's borders with UP, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Nepal. But they have to do so willingly. We cannot use excessive force, Jha said.

He also pointed out that the suspension of two government officials in Delhi for violation of lockdown "vindicates what the Bihar chief minister has been saying that the mass exodus was defeating the very purpose of the nationwide restrictions announced by the Prime Minister".

"Kejriwal is now making empty pleas, urging people to stay back and claiming that his government is providing food to four lakh migrants. I challenge him to produce a video footage to support the bogus claim," Jha added.

The Bihar minister, who hails from Kosi region, close to Nepal border, also expressed fears that the mass exodus from Delhi could have a "ripple effect" and that migrants in other areas have started to making a beeline to Bihar's borders in a bid to return home.

"Many Bihari workers, mostly from my Kosi-Mithilanchal region, eke out a living in Nepal. Now we have received information that some of them have gathered at Birganj and are trying to cross over. If things continue in this fashion, I wonder how we would be able to achieve the objective of lockdown preventing the spread of COVID-19," he stated.

The Bihar minister, however, asserted that once the migrants reached their villages, measures were taken to ensure they do not mingle with local population and are placed under quarantine till the medical authorities clear them.

"Block level officials and panchayats have been instructed to segregate migrants from local population so that testing and quarantining, which had taken off well in Bihar, does not go off the rails," he added.
A lot of plans have been scrapped. This has led to crystal clear waters (if not dolphins) in Venice, iconic Balinese surf breaks uncrowded like the 1960s and an exodus of selfie sticks from Machu Picchu.

While these benefits are surface-only, it got us pondering. Could there be a silver lining, however temporary, to COVID 19 in Australia? Could the travel ban mean for a much-needed break for the Great Barrier Reef from anchors, pollution and wayward flippers?

Yes and no. Yes, in that there will be a pause in tourism, and no in that its not much-needed. Quite the opposite, actually. Why? Allow Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Chief Scientist Dr David Wachenfeld to explain.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ocean  Wildlife  Travel (@maxence.photography) on Mar 26, 2020 at 7:08pm PDT

Although The Great Barrier Reef gets about two million visitors per year, those visitors are visiting a marine park thats bigger than two-thirds of countries on the planet, Mr Wachenfeld told DMARGE over the phone.

The visitation is concentrated mainly in two parts of the park, Mr Wachenfeld added. The actual density of visitation is really quite low, so the impact of tourism on The Great Barrier Reef is negligible.

I actually think that tourism has a very positive impact on the great barrier reef.

As far as I have ever encountered, everybody who has ever visited and seen The Great Barrier Reef falls in love with the place, and goes away with a stronger commitment to the [its] protection and the environment more generally.

[Tourists] go home with a stronger commitment to act on climate change and protect the reef [which is] not only good for Australian economy but also good for the future and the health of the reef.

Instead of under tourism, the biggest threat to the reef is climate change  a global problem, not a local one. That and insufficient funding to the reefs protection agencies (which we thought would suffer in this time of non-existent tourism).

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lisa Walter (@lisawltr) on Mar 21, 2020 at 2:47pm PDT

Mr Wachenfeld quickly set us straight: I dont think thats [loss of revenue for the protection agencies] an issue in as much as although, yes, visitors to the reef do pay an environmental management charge, and that charge does go to agencies that protect the reef, government has committed to fix up that shortfall.

Not having visitors isnt going to affect the funding of reef protection.

What it is going to affect, is the Australian economy, to which the reef contributes, under normal circumstances, 6.4 billion dollars and supports 64,000 jobs.

The vast majority of that economy is from the tourism industry so the lack of visitors will obviously mean that the tourism industry isnt operating while the COVID 19 restrictions are in place. Thats quite a substantial issue for the Australian economy throughout central, southern and far northern Queensland.

How you can help? Other than social distancing and doing your part to help this situation blow over as quickly and with as little damage possible (dont travel, flatten the curve, etc), what you can do once travel restrictions get relaxed, Mr Wachenfeld told us, is come and see the reef and contribute to its economy and, by extension, maintenance.

This all comes in a context where the greatest threat to the reef is climate change. As The Guardian reported last week, Heat stress has been building across the length of the reef this summer with many tourism operators, tourists and recreational divers recounting severe bleaching.

The problem with this (one of them, anyway) is that the reef cannot simply migrate south, being destroyed at one end and regrowing at another. Not just because the colder areas in the south of Australia are also warming (as Mr Wachenfeld told us, weve seen tropical animals and fish show themselves further south than they traditionally have)  but because there are already wonderful ecosystems in those southern marine areas, which themselves are suffering.

There are fantastically beautiful kelp forests around Tasmania which have suffered terribly because of marine heatwaves.

The fact that there might be some coral growing a bit further south than it used to is not really a compensation for what weve losing in those more temperate areas, Mr Wachenfeld told us. On top of that, theres a second problem with this idea that the reef can simply extend downwards if it gets too hot up north: it will run out of room.

The Great Barrier Reef as a geological structure exists where it does in part because the continental shelf is very wide, so there is a big area of shallow ocean, only about 100m deep, that sticks off the north east coast of Australia. But south of the Great Barrier Reef, the continental shelf doesnt do that so there is nothing for The Great Barrier Reef to move south onto.

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In other words, you might get a few corals growing on the coastline further south than you used to but there is absolutely no-where for a structure even vaguely like the Great Barrier Reef to grow in the southern coastal areas of Australia, Mr Wachenfeld told us.

If we want to have a Great Barrier Reef, were going to need to lift our game.

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25 years ago: Thousands flee violence in Burundi

A refugee camp for Rwandans in Zaire, 1994

On April 5, 1995, a massacre began in a refugee camp in Gasorwe in northeastern Burundi. It was the worst single incident of violence that week in the regions ethnic Hutu-Tutsi violence. Limited and differing reports counted the death toll between 150 and over 400. Hutu villagers were shot, slashed, and clubbed to death by militants, based on their ethnicity. In nearby villages, Tutsis were murdered by armed Hutu groups. Many were Rwandan refugees fleeing genocide only to meet their deaths in refugee camps.

The last week of March and first week of April saw massive violence break out throughout the region. Hundreds of Hutu, mostly women and children, were reportedly massacred. Survivors claimed that the attackers were wearing army uniforms. Burundis military was dominated by the Tutsi, a minority that made up approximately 15 percent of the population. Burundian President Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, a Hutu, told the press that the Tutsi-led army was there to protect the people, and denied it was attacking Hutus.

In neighboring Rwanda the previous April, the death of Hutu President Cyprien Ntaryamira in a plane crash set off a bloodbath which resulted in the deaths of some 500,000 people, mostly Tutsi. Rumors of renewed violence in Burundi, where fighting left 100,000 dead in 1993, drove tens of thousands of Hutu refugees in northern Burundi to flee toward Tanzania, which closed its borders to them.

One of the major sources of tension was the food shortage in refugee camps operated by the United Nations. As many as three million people were dependent on supplies delivered by the UN and private relief organizations in Rwanda, Burundi, Zaire and Tanzania. In mid-March of 1995, the World Food Program reported that $385 million was needed in food and operating expenses for Rwanda and Burundi, but that only $155 million had been pledged. Because of acute shortages, the UN planned to cut all food to the displaced Tutsi people by the middle of April but to continue to distribute to Hutu refugees, which further fueled tensions.

The bloody violence in the region was the legacy of colonial rule, under which tensions between the Tutsi and the Hutu were deliberately exacerbated by the European imperialists.

50 years ago: Cambodian civil war intensifies

Lon Nol

This week in 1970 fighting intensified in Cambodia that would soon draw both the United States and North Vietnam into the conflict. The escalation came as the result of a US-backed coup on March 18, 1970 that had placed Lon Nol as head of the newly declared Khmer Republic and ousted the monarch, Prince Norodom Sihanouk. The Sihanouk government had declared itself neutral in the Vietnam War and lost US favor when it turned a blind eye to the construction of North Vietnamese and National Liberation Front (NLF) secret transport routes and bases inside Cambodian territory.

In the last few days of March the Khmer Rouge, the military wing of the Cambodian Communist Party headed by Pol Pot, began preparing for a coordinated military offensive with the North Vietnamese army and the NLF to remove Lon Nols regime from power. On March 29 the offensive began occupying large areas of northern Cambodia.

With Cambodians flocking into the ranks of the NLF and the Khmer Rouge it quickly became clear that Lon Nol could not sustain his regime. He responded by turning to the South Vietnamese and American militaries for assistance, and by carrying out attacks on the ethnically Vietnamese population within Cambodia. Khmer Republic military forces began arresting and executing Vietnamese immigrants living in Cambodia, claiming they had assisted the NLF-Khmer Rouge offensive. At least 800 were killed in a massacre on April 15 and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese were forced to flee Cambodia in the following months.

By the end of April, US and South Vietnamese troops mounted attacks into eastern Cambodia

While significant damage was inflicted on villages and civilians in Cambodia, the operations and bombings did little to break up the military activity in the region. These raids culminated in a full-scale US invasion of Cambodia, producing outrage in the American population, which overwhelmingly opposed the expansion of the war.

75 years ago: US military launches land invasion of Okinawa

US Marines in the Battle of Okinawa

On April 1, 1945, the United States Tenth Army launched a land invasion of Okinawa, the small but strategically critical southern Japanese island, in one of the bloodiest engagements of the Pacific Theater in World War II. The ensuing battle would span almost three months and would claim hundreds of thousands of lives.

Planning for the invasion followed a series of US victories over Japanese forces throughout the Asia-Pacific region, including the capture of Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and the decimation of the heavily fortified Japanese military base on the island of Iwo Jima.

The Tenth Army had been established in mid-1944, in preparation for land operations against Japanese-controlled islands, including potentially Taiwan. It brought together a number of army infantry divisions and marine corps, equipped with military aircraft and purpose-built amphibious vehicles.

The land operation was preceded by a major naval bombardment, involving the US Navys Task Force 58 and a flotilla of British warships. This succeeded in neutralizing Japanese airfields on Okinawa and in the Sakishima Islands. On April 1, US Army and Marine Corps soldiers carried out the main landing on the islands northern Hagushi beaches. Allied troops made rapid progress, until a Japanese army counter-offensive on April 12 initiated months of close-quarter and bloody fighting.

On April 7, a desperate attempt by the Japanese navy to obstruct the takeover of the island was decisively defeated. The Japanese imperial regime had dispatched Yamoto, then the largest battleship in the world, along with nine other warships, to attack the British and American naval forces providing support to the land invasion. The Japanese armada, travelling without any air cover, was destroyed by US aircraft before it reached its target, costing the lives of over 4,000 Japanese sailors.

Over the following three months, fighting on Okinawa resulted in between 77,000 and 110,000 Japanese military deaths. More than 12,500 US soldiers were killed, along with at least 38,000 wounded. The local population, which had an antagonistic relationship with the Japanese authorities and was unable to flee the hostilities, suffered massive losses of anywhere between 40,000 and 150,000.

100 years ago: Palestinians riot against Zionist settlers in Jerusalem

Nebi Musa procession, the day before the riots

On April 5, 1920, during the celebration of the Muslim Nebi Musa festival, tens of thousands of Palestinians who had assembled in Jerusalem for a religious procession associated with the festival listened to nationalist speeches against the British occupation government and the Zionist colonization of the region. A riot ensued with Palestinians attacking Jewish colonists, and knives and stones were used on both sides. Palestinian rioters invaded the Jewish quarter of the city and ransacked buildings.

The British army declared a curfew in the evening but the next day the riots were renewed, and the British sealed off the Old City. The riots lasted for another four days. The British eventually tried 161 Palestinians and 39 Jews for various crimes that day.

The riots came in the aftermath of the Battle of Tel Hai on March 1 when Palestinians guerillas fought armed Zionists, during which eight Jews and five Arabs were killed. Nationalist sentiment had been raised in the Palestinians population by the declaration of the first independent, though short-lived, Arab state, the Arab Kingdom of Syria, on March 7, which included the areas that make up modern Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and parts of Iraq.

Many of the local religious officials and elements in the Arab ruling class closest to the British, and, in Syria, French, imperialism expressed support for Jewish colonization.

In the aftermath of these attacks, Zionists began to arm themselves and create paramilitary organizations called Haganah, that formed the core of what became the Israeli Defense Force after 1948.
Editors note: President Donald Trump said Sunday he was extending the countrys social distancing policy until April 30.

To the Editor:

During the Dubya Bush administration, there were bumper stickers saying When Bill lied, nobody died. The comparison was between Clintons lie about Monica Lewinsky and the Bush administrations lies that led to our invasion of Iraq.

In the same spirit, when Trump claimed that his inauguration crowd was bigger than Obamas, nobody died unless they literally died laughing. When he claimed all the credit for the economic expansion, which began in 2009 and simply continued into his administration (until the current crisis), its hard to figure how anybody died  although, come to think of it, it may have triggered some cardiac events.

Then things get dicier. During his campaign, he said Mexicans are rapists. No, that did not have a one-to-one correlation with the Walmart massacre, but it may have been a factor. He equated white nationalists with the people who protest against them. That did not directly cause the Tree of Life synagogue massacre, but it surely gave a sense of empowerment to the violent right.

Now things are really getting out of hand. The guy is suggesting what drugs people should take, as if he knows. More basically, he does not want the response to the new coronavirus to be steered by doctors and scientists.

He wants the economy to be back to normal and the churches to be full (hes such a deeply religious man, isnt he?) by a date certain, picked by him. And then maybe pushed back a little under pressure, but not dictated by epidemiological data or concern for our lives. Plainly enough, he considers the economy and the stock market to be his ticket in November.

Now it isnt indirect or ambiguous: The more Trump has his way with this, the more Americans will be exposed to, and die of, the coronavirus.

Eric Kuhn, Middletown
Brussels: Air pollution has decreased in urban areas across Europe during lockdowns to combat the coronavirus, new satellite images showed on Monday, but campaigners warned city-dwellers were still more vulnerable to the epidemic.

Cities including Brussels, Paris, Madrid, Milan and Frankfurt showed a reduction in average levels of noxious nitrogen dioxide over March 5-25, compared with the same period last year, according to the Sentinel-5 satellite images.

That coincides with lockdowns in many European countries which have curbed road transport  the largest source of nitrogen oxides - and slowed output at gas-emitting factories.

France imposes heavy fines on people caught violating lockdown measures intended to stop the spread of COVID-19. Credit:Getty Images

The new images, released by the European Space Agency (ESA) and analysed by the non-profit European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), show the changing density of nitrogen dioxide, which can cause respiratory problems and cancer, like heat maps.
An engineering student works to separate proteins for vaccine production in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on March 24, 2020. (Pedro Vilela/Getty Images)

Tuberculosis Vaccine Being Tested Against COVID-19

A vaccine against tuberculosisan infectious disease that typically attacks the lungsis being given to health care workers in Australia as a trial to see if it will protect them against the CCP virus.

The Epoch Times refers to the virus commonly known as novel coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2, as the CCP virus due to the Chinese Communist Partys initial mishandling and coverup of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, contributing to its global spread.

Some 4,000 health care workers in Melbourne have volunteered for the trial, which involves the tuberculosis vaccine, known as the bacillus Calmette-Guerin, or BCG shot, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) said in a statement.

The trial is to start Monday, March 30, Bloomberg reported.

Infectious disease researchers from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (MCRI) in Melbourne will lead the trial. It is to last six months and will involve some of the volunteers, randomly selected, receiving the BCG shot and a seasonal flu shot, while others will receive just the flu vaccine.

Australian medical researchers have a reputation for conducting rigorous, innovative trials, said MCRI Director Professor Kathryn North, according to RACGP.

This trial will allow the vaccines effectiveness against COVID-19 symptoms to be properly tested, and may help save the lives of our heroic frontline healthcare workers, North said.

The tuberculosis vaccine has been used for around a century and has shown encouraging results in bolstering the bodys immune system more generally to resist infection.

It can boost the immune system so that it defends better against a whole range of different infections, a whole range of different viruses and bacteria in a lot more generalized way, said Nigel Curtis, head of MCRIs Infectious Diseases Research Group, according to Bloomberg.

Studies published in recent decades by Danish researchers Peter Aaby and Christine Stabell Benn found the BCG vaccine prevented around 30 percent of infections with any known pathogen, including viruses, in the first year after it was administered, Science Mag reported.

A 2014 review ordered (pdf) by the World Health Organization found the BCG vaccine lowered mortality in children, but expressed very low confidence in the results. A 2016 study provided more encouraging results but called for randomized trials.

Curtis said the trials in Melbourne would build on the previous body of scientific work around the BCG shot.

We hope to see a reduction in the prevalence and severity of COVID-19 symptoms in healthcare workers receiving the BCG vaccination, Curtis said, according to RACGP.

The Melbourne trial follows reports of a similar initiative in the Netherlands. According to Science Mag, around 1,000 health care workers in eight Dutch hospitals last week were to kick off the first of the BCG trials. Some of the volunteers would receive the BCG shot, others would get a placebo.

Curtis told Bloomberg there are discussions about expanding the BCG trial to other Australian cities, as well as Boston.
Photo credit: Courtesy

From Esquire

If were talking about dining experiences with two Michelin stars, I guess it wasnt what we had expected.

When my wife and I sat down at our table, we noticed that the two previous guests had left rigatoni and red sauce all over the floor, and they still appeared to be screaming like maniacs in a room upstairs. The table itself was crowded with junk  newspapers, magazines, phone bills. There were two nice candles, yes, but no one had remembered to light them, and they squatted next to a yellow tub of Lysol wipes that the busboy had neglected to remove.

Oh, also, I had to do the cooking.

I should probably point out that all of this was happening in our own home kitchen. The unruly diners who had preceded us? Our toddler twins.

Photo credit: Jeff Gordinier

The coronavirus pandemic has, as you know, annihilated the American hospitality business, forcing tens of thousands of restaurants and bars to shut down indefinitely and leaving a scattered few struggling to tread water with takeout and delivery. Some of the most gastronomically ambitious spots around the countryplaces like Zahav in Philadelphia, Pasjoli in Los Angeles, and Canlis in Seattlenow offer dinner in a box.

My wife and I happen to live a few minutes away from one of these places, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, which bears two Michelin stars and is frequently named one of the best restaurants in the world. So when I heard that Blue Hill at Stone Barns was selling assemble-your-own hot pots for $50, I went online and ordered one for my wife and me. I figured we could make a quarantine date night out of it. I suppose something like that could be seen as a pointless indulgence as a disease ravages the world. But restaurants arent mere places to eat and drink. Restaurants are like coral reefsecosystems that allow other life forms to flourish.

Consider an operation like Stone Barns and all the farmers it buys stuff from. The boxes were created to support the employees weve retained, chef Dan Barber told me. But more than that  as if thats not enough  is to soak up whats coming from farmers that we have exclusive relationships with. Eben Proft produces 70 pheasants for us a week  we contracted with him last year to raise them, and we asked in return for an exclusive  and we cant really turn that spigot off without putting him out of business. Thats true of a lot of farmers. We ask for exclusive relationships, so if we dont honor that now they will go out of business.

Story continues

I had to select a time slot for picking up my meal box, and I had to provide my cars license plate number, presumably for the purpose of verification. On Friday afternoon I drove over to Stone Barns, which is situated on rolling pastures that look like Alice Waters vision of heaven as painted by Andrew Wyeth. I met a person with a black pen and a list of names at the entrance, then a person with a clipboard at a guard station, then a person holding a walkie-talkie in white surgical gloves next to the table where I grabbed my box. All of these people were wearing masks.

Photo credit: Jeff Gordinier

Barber later told me that these days it takes ten minutes just to check in each employee at Stone Barns. We start with a hand-washing, sanitizing routine, he said. Then a questionnaire  how do you feel? anyone at your home not feeling well? Then a wipe-down of bags and computers and cell phones, and a makeshift changing room. So before any of the cooks or box-packers even enter the four walls of the space, theres an intense routine to stick to. And then moving around the kitchen  keeping six feet apart, wiping surfaces constantly it all slows everything down exponentially. But we want the team to feel that their health and safety are paramount. Glitches are inevitable. The printer for the box labels fritzes out; too many cars line up for the boxes at the same time. Its like whack-a-mole, Barber told me. Every hour a new obstacle. What Ive found so interesting  inspiring beyond words  is how nothing seems to faze anyone on the team. Its fascinating. Theyre like soldiers in the trenches. Lots of decisive actions to solve problems.

Once I had picked it up, I placed my dinner box in the front passenger seat, switched on the air conditioner to keep the contents of the box cool, and drove home. (Such is the demand that Barber and his team are now also selling bread boxes and meat boxes, and the price of the hot pot box has gone up to $150. Barber told me that that price wont bring him a profit, but it helps cover food costs with room left for our workers.)

One of the hallmarks of a celebrated culinary destination like Blue Hill at Stone Barns  as with Noma in Denmark, Osteria Francescana in Italy, Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, Arzak in Spain, Eleven Madison Park in New York City, and all the rest  is a kind of lavish yet impish creativity. You spend a fortune at these restaurants not just for delicious food and dexterous hospitality, but for the surprises, the oh wows, the clever little flourishes of plating and presentation.

The trench soldiers at Stone Barns had squeezed all of that oh wow into the box, whose elements had been designed by Laureen Barber, the design director of Blue Hill at Stone Barns and a co-owner with Dan Barber, her brother-in-law.



When I opened mine, I found each ingredient for the hot pot  julienned vegetables, foraged pesto, strips of pastrami made with grass-fed beef, braised endive, sauerkraut, boiled potatoes, boiled eggs  neatly marked and stored in individual cups. The Barbers and their crew had included a large paper menu, of sorts, instructing me how to build the soup for our date night, assuring me that cleanliness had been a top priority every step of the way, and explaining why Stone Barns had given the box an auspicious name.

This box is called The Restaurant, an ode to the restorative broth for which the first restaurant was named, the menu said. It turns out that a restaurant was a thing to eat before it was a place to go  and now that we have temporarily closed Blue Hill, we are bringing the restaurant to you.

Photo credit: Jeff Gordinier

It looked complicated, at first glance, but MacGyvering the hot pot turned out to be a breeze. I warmed up the chicken and turmeric broth in a pot. Meanwhile, Lauren and I opened all the cups and chose which of the vegetables and meats we wanted  that was simple: all of them  and piled those components in our bowls. We ladled the broth on top of the meat and vegetables, just like they do in Michelin-starred restaurants, and then we cracked open the soft-boiled eggs and stirred those into the broth to thicken it.

If you had blindfolded me, and hadnt told me in advance that the soup and its ingredients had come from Blue Hill at Stone Barns, I would have been able to guess. Great restaurants have a distinctive taste, the way great bands have a distinctive sound. This was a soup so dense with flavor that you felt compelled to eat it with a fork. Each bite yielded a new rush of pleasure: creamy fat from thin slices of charcuterie, bright funk from the pickles, and springtime grassiness from the pesto, which had been made from dandelion greens, watercress, squash seeds, and a wild plant called shepherds purse. A meal at Blue Hill at Stone Barns might be described as tasting both clean and dirty: clean in the sense that you can pick out the flavor of each ingredient with sharp, isolated clarity, and dirty in the sense that you feel a lot closer to actual soil than youd get during a regular meal. Its as though your nostrils are right next to the furrows of a field. This was true even with our date-night dinner in a box.

Lauren and I missed the hum of a busy dining room, yeah, and we missed that huge cathartic sigh of relief that parents exhale when theyre granted a few hours to put the offspring in the care of a babysitter so that they can (imagine) leave the house. But, hey, we cant leave the house. So within the context of the weird world of quarantining, Id say we felt waves of gratitude for the care that Blue Hill at Stone Barns had put into the box. Dexterous hospitality takes on many forms. We had rice pudding for dessert, along with two cookies, plus yogurt and Hudson Valley apples for breakfast the next morning and even hard-boiled eggs for the subsequent lunch. Not a bad deal for fifty bucks. (Or three times that, even.) Its Monday now and we have eaten it all. I didnt want a speck to go to waste.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 00:56:44|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, March 29 (Xinhua) -- China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government has been liaising with the Office of the Commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in HKSAR and Chinese embassies in Peru and Morocco to bring back Hong Kong residents still stranded there, a HKSAR government spokesperson said Sunday.

As of Sunday noon, the Immigration Department received 86 assistance requests from Hong Kong residents stranded in Peru, including more than 30 group tour members. Five of those who sought assistance have left Peru already through other arrangement, according to a press release from the HKSAR government.

For the Hong Kong residents remaining there, the HKSAR government has contacted the Chinese Embassy in Peru and a number of airlines to make every effort to secure flight bookings or arrange a flight for their return, and make necessary applications to the local authorities, the spokesperson said.

The HKSAR government is actively following up on the matter and once the relevant arrangement has been worked out, it will notify the Hong Kong residents concerned of the latest flight information at the earliest possible, the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, the immigration department has received assistance requests from 150 Hong Kong residents stranded in Morocco. Among them, 70 are from group tours, said the spokesperson.

As of Sunday noon, 113 Hong Kong residents have either already returned to Hong Kong by different flights, or have secured return arrangements. The 37 Hong Kong residents remaining in Morocco are mainly in the cities of Casablanca and Marrakesh.

The HKSAR government is actively following up with the Chinese Embassy in Morocco and a number of airlines to make every effort to secure flight bookings or arrange a flight for the return of the stranded Hong Kong residents. It will notify the Hong Kong residents concerned of the latest flight information at the earliest possible, the spokesperson said.
While thousands of overseas Vietnamese have returned home over the past few weeks, many others are still living in places abroad ravaged by COVID-19.

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While thousands of overseas Vietnamese have returned home over the past few weeks, many others are still living in places abroad ravaged by COVID-19.

Some have decided to stay where they are due to family and work commitments.

Others believe they may have left it too late to return, fearing they are more likely to contract the coronavirus if they were to make the journeys now.

As the world struggles to cope with the pandemic, those who find themselves thousands of kilometres away from their motherland have seen their lives turned upside down.

Im very worried, not only about the disease but also about its impacts on my job, food supplies and necessities within the next month, said Nguyen Thi Huong, who has lived in London, the UK with her husband and son for nearly two years.

Huong had flu-like symptoms a few days ago but when she called the hotline of the National Health Service, all she was told to do was self-quarantine at home with her family.

I am not sure that I am infected or not but luckily I am feeling better now.

Here, not all cases are treated in hospitals because the number of cases are too high. When you call hospitals or hotlines, there are automatic messages telling you how to self-quarantine at home, take flu pills and take care of yourself if you have some suspected symptoms.

When the symptoms worsen such as shortness of breath or high fever, then the medical staff will be sent to your place and certainly then you will receive treatment.

Italy is the country that has seen the most deaths because of the virus.

Lam Anh Dung, an IT engineer, lives with his wife in Milan, the epicentre of the pandemic in Italy. He is due to become a father later this year.

With the country almost completely locked down, the couple is struggling to decide whether they should go to the hospital for regular maternity check-ups or stay home for their safety.

If you want to go out, you have to fill the form of the Ministry of the Interior. You can go to the markets, buy medicine and necessities as usual. Supermarkets are always full of stock to provide for everyone.

Like everyone else I was frightened at first. However, scientists also say that if we strictly follow the governments guidance, this disease wont be that scary, so we should not be too afraid, Dung said.

Lam Anh Dung (left) and his wife in front of their apartment building in Milan, Italy. Photo courtesy of Lam Anh Dung

In the US, which has overtaken China and Italy in the number of cases, Linh Le is also feeling the pressure.

Linh has lived in Maryland for 10 years with her husband and son.

Due to the lockdown, she and her family mostly stay at home but she is still scared of infection.

I'm worried. I don't go out and meet people but we cant tell whether there is virus on objects or not.

Every day I still receive mail and packages I buy online. When receiving them I will spray sanitiser and leave them in the garage for two days before daring to open them, she said.

Simple tasks taken for granted in the past like shopping now cause concern as panic-buying has become common.

Linh added: The supermarkets here are running out of eggs. I only have one package at home now and dont know if I can buy more later.

I bought three bags of rice for three members of the family, and also flour. If we run out of rice I can make noodles, vermicelli or dumplings to eat.

Huong in London is feeling the same unease.

In London, a lot of people also hoard food, even much more than in Viet Nam, she said.

Before supermarkets issued a policy to limit the purchased amount, almost all shelves were empty by the end of the day. It is such an awful experience.

Another major concern for the overseas Vietnamese is the risk of losing their jobs.

As the pandemic is taking its toll on the global economy, more businesses are closing, plunging people into a state of uncertainty.

Just last week, a record 3.3 million people in the US filed for unemployment.

On top of the disease, everyone here is worried about jobs. If this lasted for a long time, many businesses would shut down and fire staff, Linh said.

Generally speaking its very stressful. My husband is working for an IT company and there is a high risk of not securing new contracts. So its very stressful for him.

A friend of mine, who is a retail broker, has nothing to do now as everything is shut down.

However, all three families Viet Nam News spoke to have no immediate plans to return to Viet Nam at the moment.

Nguyen Thi Huong, London, UK

I also wanted to bring my son back to Viet Nam at first, but I also have my family here and my husband could not leave everything behind to come back to Viet Nam.

Before the lockdown was applied, people did not seriously follow the government's guidance to avoid crowded places. At many public places such as supermarkets, children's playgrounds, bars and pubs, there were many people. The government has tightened the policy so that the street seems to be quieter than it used to be.

The UK is a developed country. They have their own explanations for their disease prevention process. They also have different views from Viet Nam. For example, Viet Nam closed schools at the very first stage, but the UK still has not closed all schools yet. Because then most parents will have to stay at home and look after their children. It would cause a negative consequence on the economy and society which is hard to control. That is why it takes more time for the British government to decide to close down schools. The lockdown measure was also issued much later than many other countries in Europe.

Lam Anh Dung, Milan, Italy

People who decide to stay in Italy until now are those having decided not to come back to Viet Nam at this moment. The chance to get infected will be higher at airports or stations than staying at home. It is also a burden for our country if we are going back and then are quarantined for 14 days. As far as I know, a lot of Vietnamese students came back to Viet Nam, but there are still a lot of people staying on. They also created groups on Facebook and WhatsApp to chat and update their situation. I think that their conditions are pretty good here and the Italian government are also trying their best to ensure the citizens living conditions.

There is a stark difference when going to supermarkets these days compared to the past. People have to keep a one-metre distance from each other. There is always a very long queue outside the supermarket because it only allows a very limited number of people inside. People also buy things quickly and only one person for each family comes inside to buy stuff very quickly and then leaves.

Linh Le, Maryland, the US

People try not to go out now. Supermarkets are much less crowded. Restaurants and shops have been ordered to close. There is no business anymore.

One bad thing about here is people dont wear masks. It has affected the infection situation. I dont dare to wear a mask because of information about discrimination. Here it is recommended that only sick people should wear them. But I wear gloves because people do not pay much attention to them.

In the Vietnamese community, often elderly people are those who are panicked. Young people are quite calm. Only those working people are worried because there is no work anymore. VNS

Thu Ha/Minh Phuong

Overseas Vietnamese communities face hard times due to COVID-19 For the first time since her arrival in the US, Phuong Mai found Chinatown in Philadelphia deserted.
London: Diplomatic appeals by Iran for relief from US sanctions to help it fight the coronavirus pandemic may offer an opportunity for the release of dual nationals jailed by the regime, British campaigners have suggested.

Discussions between Iran and Britain, France and Germany over the coronavirus crisis have run in parallel with talks over the release of prisoners such as British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, raising hopes of a general diplomatic breakthrough.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe hugs her daughter Gabriella, in Iran, before her arrest. Credit:Campaign/AP

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker who has been jailed since 2016, was told on Saturday that her furlough from prison would be extended by two weeks and that she has been shortlisted for clemency, raising hopes that she could possibly be on her way home.

"Obviously we are not an 'automatic' case, but one that needs a political decision, likely at the highest level, so it is good the prosecutor general and supreme leader's office are now formally involved in the decision on Nazanin's case," said Richard Ratcliffe, her husband.
Fishing communities risk crocodile attacks in the Ayeyarwady delta in Myanmar

March 30,2020 | Source: Frontier Myanmar

only the sound of the boats engine could be heard as the vessel glided along the creek on a night so dark that the four men aboard could barely see each other. They were too excited to speak. Two of the men in the boat were using torches to peer into the darkness for a tell-tale pair of yellow shining eyes that would indicate the presence of a crocodile. Suddenly Ko Thet, who was smoking at the prow of the boat, raised his hands to signal to Ko Aye Naing to stop the engine.



Lets row towards him, said Thet, pointing his torchlight in the direction of a big crocodile almost completely submerged in the water. Only its eyes and snout were visible. As Aye Naing paddled, they stealthily approached the crocodile. Support independent journalism in Myanmar. Sign up to be a Frontier member. When the boat neared the animal, it sank from view. Aye Naing was worried the beast might attack, but Thet, who has 16 years experience as a crocodile catcher, said they did not attack big boats. Small boats were a different story, he said.



Frontier was a passenger in the boat on one of the creeks that meander through low-lying Meinmahla Kyun (island) Wildlife Sanctuary in Ayeyarwady Regions Bogale Township. The mangrove-covered, 13,490-hectare island, whose name means beautiful woman, was designated an ASEAN Heritage Park in 2003, and a Ramsar site in 2017, because of its significance as a wetland area. The wildlife sanctuary, managed by the Forest Department, is also the habitat of saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus), the most aggressive of the 13 crocodile species and the object of the nocturnal mission in the creek. Other fauna recorded in the sanctuary includes dozens of species of birds and fish, 26 species of snakes, 12 species of shrimp, 10 species of crabs, leopard cats and Irrawaddy dolphins. The flora includes about 40 species of mangroves, 53 species of medicinal plants and 11 species of orchids.



Saltwater crocodiles, the largest living reptile, are found in coastal and estuarine waters along Indias east coast, throughout Southeast Asia and in northern Australia. The Forest Department says there were once four species of the reptiles in Myanmar but only the saltwater crocodile remains. Besides Ayeyarwady, they are also found in Tanintharyi Region. Traditional beliefs hold that crocodiles are controlled by a powerful a nat, or spirit, known as Ah Boe, who lives on Meinmahla Kyun and is revered throughout lower Myanmar. During the military government of General Ne Win, in 1963, the newly formed Peoples Pearl and Fisheries Corporation began catching crocodiles in the Ayeyarwady delta and exporting them live or selling their skin for luxury leather products.



A parallel black market emerged and any crocodiles seized by the government from illegal smugglers were kept in the compound of the Trade Department in Yangon. In 1977, Ne Win visited Cambodia, then called Democratic Kampuchea, for talks with prime minister and Khmer Rouge Brother Number One Pol Pot. The communist dictator and genocidaire reportedly gave his Myanmar guest three crocodiles as a present. Ne Win was said to have been delighted with the gift and had a crocodile farm built at Yangons eastern Thaketa Township to house the three reptiles. The farm survives as a low key tourist attraction and research facility, housing more than 500 crocodiles.



Unfortunately, the three animals given by Pol Pot were killed after being put in a tank with some saltwater crocodiles that had been seized from smugglers in Myanmar. Ne Win was angry when he heard that Pol Pots gifts had been killed and scolded and demoted the staff at the crocodile farm, a former Peoples Pearl and Fisheries Corporation official who worked at the Thaketa enterprise told Frontier.



The former official, who works for a wildlife conservation NGO and asked not to be identified, said Ne Win had banished the demoted staff and the crocodiles that killed Pol Pots presents to Meinmahala Kyun. The internally exiled staff were ordered to help build up the numbers of saltwater crocodiles in the area because their population had fallen sharply as a result of continuous catching by the Peoples Pearl and Fisheries Corporation. Gradually, the number of saltwater crocodiles on the island began to recover.



In 1994, the State Law and Order Restoration Council enacted the Protection of Wildlife and Conservation of Protected Areas Law, under which crocodiles were protected and trade in the reptiles was banned. The law passed by the junta also provided the basis for Meinmahla Kyun to be maintained as a nature reserve, to which entry was prohibited. This contributed to a population explosion among the areas crocodiles. These crocodiles found new neighbours after Cyclone Nargis roared across the Ayeyarwady delta in 2008, leaving at least 140,000 dead and devastating vast areas of farmland. Many farmers left homeless by Nargis moved to the area around Meinmahla Kyun to work as fishers.



Saltwater crocodiles are highly territorial and they regard any human in their waters as prey, so deadly encounters ensued. These have happened in the creeks of the island, which villagers enter illegally to catch fish and shrimp, but more commonly in the waterways outside of the wildlife sanctuary, where crocodiles from the island roam for food. People intruded into the crocodiles territory and so the animals attacked them, said Ko Hla Soe Win, who has worked as a Forest Department ranger on Meinmahla Kyun since 1994. A survey in 2018 counted more than 200 crocodiles on the island. The Bogale Township Administration Office says there are 31 fishing villages within half-an-hours boat ride of Meinmahla Kyun. Most of the fishers taken by crocodiles were setting shrimp and fish traps. The creatures like to drag their prey under water while performing whats known as a death roll. Few survive this experience.



U Thant Zin Aung, who heads the management of the wildlife sanctuary and the township Forest Department, told Frontier there were 16 crocodile attacks in the area between 2012 and 2019, five taking place inside the wildlife sanctuary and 11 outside, closer to the villages. Ten were fatal. However, local residents believe that many attacks go unrecorded. Ko Htun Win lost his left leg to a crocodile in 2018 while setting a fishing net close to his village of Wae Chaung. His wife, who was at his side, managed to pull him back onto the boat. But after a struggle lasting an hour, the crocodile swam off with his leg in its mouth.



Ive become disabled and I have to depend on my wife, Htun Win told Frontier at his home in Wae Chaung. Htun Wins neighbour was the victim of a crocodile attack the same year while catching crabs. The crocodile inflicted a savage wound on the mans abdomen. The skin was sewn together to close the wound with the result that the man cannot walk straight and is bed-ridden most of the time. Attacks like these have made people wary of going into the water. Some villagers cannot swim even though they live beside the river, because they are too frightened to go into the water, said U Kyaw Win, a 100-household leader in Wae Chaung. Well never be able to have secure livelihoods for as long as the crocodiles are here.



Villagers also complain that crocodile attack victims never receive compensation from the government. The 1994 Protection of Wildlife and Conservation of Natural Areas Law says that anyone who kills a crocodile is liable to be sentenced to five years imprisonment. But while crocodiles are protected under the law, it mandates no compensation for humans who are attacked. The 1994 law was replaced in 2018 by the Conservation of Biodiversity and Protected Areas Law, which also says nothing about compensation. When Htun Win was attacked, staff from the township Forest Department visited and gave him K30,000 out of pity and kindness.



We want to hack down the crocodiles and the Forest Department staff who protect the creatures, said Htun Wins wife. Her family had a decent standard of living when her husband worked as a fisher, she told Frontier, but since the crocodile attack it was struggling to live on the proceeds of their small grocery shop in Wae Chaung. Feeling that their fears and concerns are ignored by the government, the local residents sometimes wreak bloody revenge on the giant reptiles.



In 2013, a group of villagers killed one of the biggest crocodiles on Meinmahla Kyun in a rage after it dragged a young novice monk into the water. After retrieving the boys lifeless body from the water, the residents of multiple villages hunted down the crocodile, who was said to be 18-feet (5.4 metres) long and known locally as arpaegyi, or torn-off mouth. The villagers stabbed it to death with iron spears and pointed bamboo poles, before dragging its body ashore and burning it to ashes. Hla Soe Win, the forest ranger, said the Forest Department tried to take legal action but gave up because too many people were involved in killing the protected animal.



He said the deadly encounters were driven by the illegal plundering of the natural resources that sustain the crocodiles on the island. People from the nearby villages sneak into the wildlife sanctuary to catch fish and prawns using pesticides, he said, meaning the crocodiles are forced to roam more widely, including into village areas, in search of food. This happens because men cannot help their greed, Hla Soe Win said.



Many people were fishing openly in the wildlife sanctuary during Frontiers visit. Foresters and rangers from the Forest Department patrol the island twice a month, but have not made any arrests because offenders can easily escape, said U Bo Bo Lwin, a forester. He leads patrols, generally of half a dozen men, and admits that he cannot effectively protect an area covering 13,490ha with such a small number of officers. The fish, prawns and crabs poached from the island are sold at markets in Ka Don Ka Ni, a big, prosperous village south of the Meinmahla near the mouth of the delta. The catch is then transported by boat at night to the fish market in Yangons Kyimyindaing Township. As well as illegal fishing, Meinmahla Kyun Wildlife Sanctuary is also being denuded of forest cover because of the illegal felling of mangroves for firewood and making charcoal. Illegal felling is happening every day, said Bo Bo Lwin.



Much of the illegally felled timber is destined for Pyapon town, also in the delta, which produces about 70 percent of Myanmars dry fish and prawns. Large amounts of firewood are needed to process the dried seafood products. Illegal fellers on Meinmahla Kyun help to meet the demand for firewood in Pyapon, said Hla Soe Win. The forest area on the island has been greatly reduced in the past 10 years. This has damaged the ecosystem, forcing the crocodiles to leave the wildlife sanctuary in search of food, which increases the chances of encounters with humans, In order to reduce crocodile attacks, the Forest Department proposed at a meeting with the Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation in 2017 that an enclosure be built on Meinmahla Kyun to confine the reptiles. A source told Frontier that the minister, U Ohn Win, supported the proposal, but no enclosure has so far materialised.



Meanwhile, the commercial processing and export of crocodile skins remains off the table because it conflicts with Myanmars obligations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), said a senior Forest Department Official who asked not to be named. Although the saltwater crocodile is not considered endangered, CITES prohibits the trade of the species and its by-products among wild populations, except in Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Hla Soe, the forest ranger, says the conflict between man and crocodiles at Meinmahla Kyun would be best resolved not by building enclosures but by improving the ecosystem on the island.



He wants a reforestation programme on the island and a crackdown on those who use poisonous chemicals to catch fish. If the crocodiles have enough food in the wildlife sanctuary, they will not need to leave the island and attack humans, he said. If man can make compromises, the conflict with the crocodiles could be reduced, said Hla Soe. I want crocodiles, not men, to be the masters of Meinmahla Kyun.
By Cheng Leng and Engen Tham

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's largest state banks said the impact of restrictions on movement imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus could pull down asset quality as borrowers struggle to repay loans, though they are likely big enough to weather any fallout.

The comments come as five of the country's largest state-backed lenders posted estimate-beating fourth-quarter profit - but they bode ill for smaller lenders, who have less capital reserves and can call on fewer state borrowers.

The virus outbreak, which began at the end of last year, has left many airlines, hotels and other businesses fighting to survive after government countermeasures all but paralysed economic activity for more than a month.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) <601398.SS> <1398.HK>, China Construction Bank Corp (CCB) <601939.SS> <0939.HK> and Bank of Communications Co Ltd (BoCom) <601328.SS> <3328.HK> - posted annual profit growth of over 4% for 2019 due in part to improving asset quality.

A prolonged pandemic might break the upward trend with rising soured debt and shrinking net interest margins (NIM), a gauge of banks' profitability, senior bankers said.

"We expect there will be an increase in overdue loans in the first quarter and first half," Bank of China Ltd's <601988.SS> <3988.HK> Chief Risk Officer Liu Jiandong said after the lender published annual results on Friday. The bank's president added that the impact is likely to be short-term and controllable.

ICBC President Gu Shu likewise said the outbreak "will put some pressure on our asset quality," but that the lender is confident in its overall situation.

Big-bank confidence is down in part to plush capital reserves which can help ease the impact of a downturn.

The provision coverage ratio at ICBC was 212.53% at the end of December, compared with 198.09% three months prior. CCB's ratio rose to 227.56% from 218.28% in the same period.

China's largest banks have also benefited from preferential government policies such as support to tackle bad loans. They often lend to the biggest state-owned firms which are less risky and which helps buoy profit even during economic downturn.

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TOUGHER TIMES

Smaller lenders, by comparison, have had a tougher time.

Inner Mongolia lender Baoshang Bank Co Ltd [BAOTO.UL] was rescued by the government in May and there was a run on Yingkou and Yichuan Rural Commercial Bank in November.

"We estimate non-performing loans will total 250 billion yuan ($35.23 billion) in the best-case scenario as a result of the (coronavirus) outbreak," said analyst Liao Zhiming at TF Securities.

Smaller banks with lower capital reserves are likely to struggle the most.

"The pattern of low provisions, high non-performing loans and high overdue loans suggests rural commercial banks are short of capital," Gavekal Dragonomics said in a client note.

On Monday, Moody's Investors Service changed its outlook on six Chinese banks, including Bank of Nanjing Co Ltd <601009.SS> and the Bank of Ningbo Co Ltd <002142.SZ>, to negative, citing the impact of the virus through exposure to highly affected industries such as manufacturing and trade.

Meanwhile, Harbin Bank's <6138.HK> net profit for 2019 tanked 36% on-year, the lender said in its annual results on Monday.

"2019 was an extraordinarily difficult year for city commercial banks," said chairman Guo Zhiwen.

Overall, banks' NIM is likely to keep narrowing, bankers and analysts said, as the government and central bank urge lenders to sacrifice profit to support companies during the downturn.

At BoCom and the Agricultural Bank of China Ltd (AgBank) <601288.SS>, <1288.HK>, the NIM was slightly wider at the end of December than three months earlier. It narrowed at ICBC and CCB and was steady at BoC.

CCB expects to see a 10 bps decline in NIM in 2020 said the bank's CFO Xu Yiming at a press conference on Monday.

Senior BOC and ICBC officials also flagged risk relating to recent global market turmoil, saying contingency plans would be in place to curb credit and operational risk abroad.

($1 = 7.0954 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Cheng Leng and Zhang Yan in Beijing and Engen Tham in Shanghai; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Kirsten Donovan)
We already had a technology modernization plan in place so we could get to a place where all students would have devices in schools over time, McDade said. The district was moving in a direction for more digital access overall and I think well learn a lot from this situation.
Russia moved toward a lockdown across the worlds largest country by area on Monday to try and halt the spread of coronavirus, following Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanins order for residents to stay in their homes.

Heads of all Russias regions should adopt similar restrictions as those announced in the capital and surrounding areas, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said at a televised meeting with deputy premiers.

Moscows 12.7 million people were ordered to stay home starting Monday, with limited exceptions for emergencies, in the strictest measures yet imposed in a major Russian city. Confirmed infections in Moscow jumped overnight to 1,014 on Sunday and make up two-thirds of the countrys total.

Sobyanin warned in a website statement that the expansion of the virus in Europes largest capital city has entered a new phase. He said that the authorities will shortly introduce passes to permit movements outside the home in the coming days, with a smart system of remote monitoring to ensure compliance.

Other than for emergency medical reasons or work obligations, residents will be allowed to walk outside their homes only to visit their nearest food store or pharmacy, to take out trash, or to take pet animals within 100 meters of their buildings. While outside, people will be required to maintain a distance of at least 1.5 meters from others.

The lock-down comes after Sobyanin ordered last week non-essential businesses to close to slow the spread of the illness. He has been among Russias most vocal proponents of tough restrictions to counter coronavirus in a crisis that has undermined the Kremlins ability to get its message out clearly.

Movement in the city is down by two-thirds and thats very good, Sobyanin said in the statement. But its obvious that far from everyone has heard our message.

The World Health Organizations representative in Russia complained at the weekend that Muscovites were flouting the authorities advice to stay home and keep social distancing. The capital was packed with people out on the streets in warm spring weather on Saturday and other regions saw a sudden influx of Moscow residents taking advantage of a week-long paid time off decreed by Putin.

Nikolai Malyshev, a leading infectious diseases specialist in the Health Ministry, warned on state TV last week that Russia is readying itself for an explosive development like a nuclear reaction with the coronavirus epidemic. In the near future, large numbers of people will fall ill and need medical treatment, he said.

Sobyanin said people will still be able to leave or enter Moscow but the new rules are aimed at restricting moving around the city without any reason.

Non-Working Week

Putin announced in a March 25 national address that this week will be a non-working one. But he didnt commit to any drastic measures limiting movement, instead promising benefits to get companies and individuals through the crisis. After signs that many Russians had interpreted the measure as an opportunity to take vacation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday that the presidents statement was really an order to work from home.

Putins top public health official, Anna Popova, as recently as last Monday ruled out locking down the capital, while Sobyanin pushed a harder line the following day, warning the president that the number of reported cases of the coronavirus understated the problem.

While its total number of declared cases is still low by comparison with many other countries, Russia has been adopting progressively stricter measures against coronavirus in the past week. The government halted all international flights as of Friday and Mishustin called on regions to close most businesses, while stopping short of ordering them to do so. The government closed all of Russias land borders effective Monday.

Russia is also mobilizing the army to help battle the epidemic, and the Defense Ministry announced plans to build 16 hospitals to treat coronavirus patients around the country by mid-May.
J&J, Moderna sign deals with U.S. to produce huge quantity of possible coronavirus vaccines FILE PHOTO: A Johnson & Johnson building is shown in Irvine, California

By Julie Steenhuysen

(Reuters) - The U.S. government has cut deals with Johnson & Johnson <JNJ.N> and Moderna Inc <MRNA.O> and said it is in talks with at least two other companies to prepare them to produce massive quantities of coronavirus vaccines even before safe and effective ones become available.

There are currently no approved treatments or vaccines specifically for COVID-19, the respiratory disease that has killed more than 35,000 people and infected over 745,000 globally in just a few months.

No vaccine is expected to be ready for use until at least 2021, as they must still be widely tested in humans before being administered to hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people to prevent infection.

On Monday, J&J announced a $1 billion deal with the U.S. government to create enough manufacturing capacity to make more than 1 billion doses of a vaccine, and its shares closed up 8% at $133.01.

It has chosen a candidate but will not begin testing it in people until September.

Moderna, which this month began very early tests of its vaccine candidate in people, also signed a deal with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The arrangements are part of the federal government's effort to encourage drugmakers to be able to produce massive amounts of COVID-19 vaccines even before any are proven to work.

The J&J effort will be funded in part by about $420 million from BARDA. The agency told Reuters it also plans to spend an unnamed amount to ramp up manufacturing for Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

Moderna shares rose 1.4% to $30.48.

BARDA ultimately plans to support five or six experimental vaccine candidates, with the hopes of having two or three successful ones, BARDA director Rick Bright said in a phone interview.

Experts have estimated it could be 12 to 18 months before a safe and effective vaccine wins regulatory approval.

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"Government and industry is working in unprecedented ways," Bright said. The hope is to work "as quickly as possible and manufacture enough of it for us and the rest of the world in a very short timeframe."

The agency plans to take over manufacturing of Moderna's vaccine candidate to enable the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech to focus on testing it in larger trials.

BARDA hopes to speed up the back end of the vaccine manufacturing process, which involves ensuring that they are made and packaged according to standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

'A LOT OF RISK INVOLVED'

There are dozens of coronavirus vaccines in development, according to the World Health Organization. But it is still not clear that people develop lasting immunity to this virus, or what it will take for a vaccine to be protective.

"What you need to do is take an assessment of what the most likely candidates are and invest at risk in those," said Seth Berkley, chief executive of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).

The earlier you make that decision, the more likely you are to have manufacturing in place, but the less confident you are about whether the vaccine will work, Berkley said.

Typically, decisions on whether to move forward with a vaccine are made after safety trials and preliminary efficacy trials have been completed.

J&J said it will begin human testing in September, with an eye toward having a vaccine ready under an emergency use authorization in early 2021.

J&J Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Paul Stoffels told Reuters the company had to start ramping up manufacturing capacity now, even before it has a signal that its experimental vaccine candidate works.

"That is the only option for us to get it on time," Stoffels said of the early 2021 target. J&J hopes to have data proving its vaccine works by the end of this year.

J&J has a manufacturing plant in the Netherlands that can make up to 300 million doses of vaccine, Stoffels said, but that "absolutely will not be sufficient for the world."

The company is also scouting for manufacturing plants in other parts of Europe and Asia capable of making the type of vaccine the company is working on.

Stoffels said J&J's vaccine will be based on the same technology used to make its Ebola vaccine, which has been widely used in people. The company believes it will prove safe.

In lab studies, it has produced strong neutralizing antibodies to the virus - the type needed to make a successful vaccine.

In addition to the investments in J&J and Moderna, Bright said his agency is in talks with at least two other large vaccine makers, but declined to make them public.

BARDA is interested in working with a broad range of vaccine technologies and with companies that have proven track records, Bright said.

"There's a lot of risk involved in making a new vaccine, a lot of risk in going quickly," Bright said. "Wherever possible, we need to understand and mitigate that risk."

(Additional reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru and Caroline Humer in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Bill Berkrot)
Members of Quebec's provincial police force talk to the driver of a recreational vehicle near the U.S. border in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, south of Montreal, on March 28, 2020, as COVID-19 cases rise in Canada and around the world. (The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes)

We Missed the Boat on Containing COVID-19, Senator Says

A longtime Conservative senator says Canada is suffering the consequences of being slow to close the border and failing to implement strict screening procedures amidst the COVID-19 pandemicmoves he recommended in early January.

I thought at the timeand now history has proven that I was on the right sidethat we should have created a bubble for Canada back in January and protected our borders from the importation of this virus, Leo Housakos told The Epoch Times.

I mean, its only logical if youre trying to contain a virus  When its all said and done, we missed the boat on that.

In January and February, Housakos adds, he was also among the many parliamentarians who called for a ban on flights between Canada and Chinawhere the outbreak beganas well as flights from Iran and Italy, both of which have been hit hard by the pandemic.

But those calls were ignored by the government, he said. In early February, Ottawa drew praise from a spokesperson for Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs for not following the Trump administrations move to enact a travel ban.

[Some] Western governments, for whatever reason, do not want to hurt the feelings of the Chinese government, Housakos said.

On March 16, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finally announced that Canadas border would be closed to all foreign nationals except U.S. citizens, with flights restricted to four major airports with adequate screening capacity. On March 28, flights were banned for anyone with symptoms of COVID-19.

They made a full flip-flop  when they realized that we were actually importing the virus through our airports and through flights not just from China, and not just from Iran, not just from Italy, but from airport hubs around the world. Because viruses, of course, are very, very fluid and theyre very, very mobile, and theyre very transmissible, Housakos said.

There was a lax approach in January and February, and there was a lax approach up until mid-March, when everyone pressed the alarm button.

Beijing has been widely accused of covering up the coronavirus outbreak, which appeared in Wuhan in early December but wasnt publicly admitted to by the regime until six weeks latergiving the virus ample time to spread across China and around the world. Doctors who tried to warn of the danger were silenced and charged with spreading rumours.

The origin of the virus has so far gone unanswered. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has floated several different theories, the latest being that the U.S. military introduced the virus to Chinawidely seen as an attempt to avoid blame.

This prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to push back by referring to it as the Chinese virus.

The Epoch Times now refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Partys coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.

The name holds the CCP accountable for its wanton disregard of human life and consequent spawning of a pandemic that has put untold numbers in countries around the world at risk, while creating widespread fear and devastating the economies of nations trying to cope with this disease, an Epoch Times editorial states.

The truth of the matter is you cant rely on information that comes out of China, said Housakos.

Theres no doubt that if the Chinese were a reliable ally and partner, I believe we would have been better equipped in understanding the severity of the problem, and collectively the world [would have been able to] take measures to protect people and resolve the problem.
For Mr. Landers, the consultant, mastering the logistics of food delivery has become something of an obsession. Before the pandemic, he would order from the delivery apps about twice a week, not unusual for a New Yorker. More unusual was what he did once the deliveries arrived: stick a thermometer into his food.

My wife would get to the point where she was like, Can we eat now? Mr. Landers said.

Since the pandemic forced restaurants to close their dine-in areas, he has offered free consulting sessions to owners who are trying to improve their delivery operations. And he has warned clients to keep a close eye on the economics.

Make sure that youre not losing two or three dollars on every order, he said. Because youll just go out of business even faster.

At Bolero, Mr. Le-Khac said he was not sure whether he would continue offering delivery and takeout. It might not work financially, he said. And with New York now the epicenter of the pandemic, hes concerned about the safety of his employees.

Last week, he closed the restaurant to regroup and consider the implications of continuing to offer delivery. The margin of error is so small right now, Mr. Le-Khac said.

If he decides to reopen, he said, hell probably switch from plastic containers to paper ones.

Kitty Bennett contributed research.
As the coronavirus continues to spread in New York City, authorities have begun setting up a makeshift hospital in Central Park as area hospitals hit capacity. Early Sunday afternoon, park-goers watched as workers set up long white tents in the East Meadow, near 99th Street and Fifth Avenue. The emergency field hospital will have a capacity of 68 beds, including a respiratory unit and an ICU, with doctors and nurses who are trained in infectious diseases deployed on a rotating basis, according to Dr. Elliott Tenpenny, who is in charge of the operation. It is the result of a partnership between New Yorks Mount Sinai Hospital and North Carolinabased Christian organization Samaritans Purse, who helped build a similar temporary hospital in Northern Italy. This will not be a walk-in facility; instead, Mount Sinai will manage the admission and transfer process. As crews work around the clock, the makeshift hospital is expected to be ready to open on Tuesday.

US-HEALTH-VIRUS Photo by Kena Betancur. Image courtesy of Getty Images.

This is the kind of thing you will see now, as this crisis continues and deepens, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio told the media on Sunday. The makeshift field hospital in Central Park comes on the heels of news that the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort (with 1,000 beds, a pharmacy, an optometry lab, radiology services, CAT-scan equipment, two oxygen-producing plants, a helicopter deck, and 12 operating rooms) will soon be docked at Pier 90. With the help of the U.S. Army, the citys Javits Center is being converted into a field hospital with a capacity of nearly 3,000 beds, but when the makeshift hospital opens in the convention center, it will be used to treat patients not infected with the coronavirus, so as to dedicate the citys hospitals to the treatment of those sick with COVID-19.

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
T HE airline industrys woes worsened today as easyJet grounded its entire fleet and Britains biggest regional airline, Logan Air, demanded emergency funding.

A global shutdown of borders and lockdowns of customers have pushed the industry to the brink, forcing all companies in the industry, including airports and the companies that

serve them, into unprecedented crisis levels.

Ironically, this comes as the price of oil  airlines biggest expenditure itembeing fuel  crashed to new lows.

US crude fell below $20 a barrel for a while yesterday while London Brent plunged below $23 for the first time since 2002.

EasyJet said that, having completed 650 repatriation flights to get its customers home, it was now grounding the entirety of its fleet with no certainty of the date for restarting commercial flights.

The company said it had agreed to furlough its cabin crew for two months, with staff receiving the 80% of pay being offered by the Government job retention scheme.

The airline had provoked outrage from UK staff over attempts to cut their benefits permanently as part of the deal but said todays agreement had been negotiated to the satisfaction of the Unite union.

Chief executive Johan Lundgren said: We are working tirelessly to ensure that easyJet continues to be well positioned to overcome the challenges of coronavirus.

However, its biggest shareholder and founder Stelios Haji-Iaonnou added to the crisis by racheting up his attack on the board. Today he demanded the company scrap its plans to buy up to 107 new planes from Airbus by triggering a force majeure clause in the contract.

If the board fail to do so by Wednesday, Haji-Iaonnou said he would demand the sackings of non-executive directors.

He would do this one by one by forcing an extraordinary general meeting every seven weeks.

Lundgren has asked the Government for a state-backed loan facility to tide the airline over if its own banks refuse to extend credit.

Listen to today's episode of The Leader podcast:

However, Haji-Iaonnou argued that this would be unnecessary if the Airbus order was cancelled.

Furloughed cabin crew of easyJet and Virgin Atlantic have been offered roles at the emergency Nightingale coronavirus hospitals in London, Birmingham and Manchester where their first aid experience could be used.
On March 30, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba had a phone conversation with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia Retno Marsudi.

The protection and support of citizens of Ukraine, who are now in Indonesia, are my priority. I look forward to working with you on this issue, the minister said.

The minister also expressed gratitude to the Indonesian side for the decision not to apply sanctions against citizens of Ukraine who have expired documents but cannot leave the country due to transport restrictions.

Kuleba noted that Indonesia is an important partner of Ukraine in the region of Southeast Asia and one of its leaders. In this context, he noted the growth in bilateral trade, which, according to the results of last year, exceeded USD 1 billion. The ministers agreed to work together to further develop trade between the countries.

At the same time, the Ukrainian minister underlined the desire of Ukraine to establish closer political cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Kuleba stressed the readiness of Ukraine to welcome President of Indonesia Joko Widodo in Kyiv and renewed the invitation to the Indonesian foreign minister to visit Ukraine at a convenient time.

ish
An 85,000-square-foot commercial building on Clark Street in Worcester was sold for $13 million, Kelleher & Sadowsky Associates, Inc. announced on Monday.

The building at 324 Clark St., which was occupied by five tenants at the time of sale, was purchased by Lowfield Realty Group, a Massachusetts limited liability corporation affiliated with Vincent J. CampoBasso of Leominster.

Tenants at the building include the Department of Developmental Services, Department of Early Education and Care, South Bay Community Services and Nouria Energy Corporation.

The CEO and President of Nouria Energy Corporation, Tony El-Nemr, sold the building, which will continue to headquarter the energy company.

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Last night some Britons trapped in Peru were able to get a flight out of Lima

Around 6,000 are trapped in New Zealand which has imposed a strict lockdown

Charters will go to countries where commercial flights have been cancelled

Dominic Raab today unveiled a massive 75 million repatriation plan to bring home 'tens of thousands' of Britons stranded abroad because of the coronavirus crisis.

The Foreign Secretary said the UK government will now step in to provide 'special charter flights' from parts of the world where commercial flights are no longer in operation.

The government has struck a partnership deal with British Airways, Easyjet, Jet2 and other airlines to provide the planes for the effort.

Speaking at the government's daily coronavirus press conference in 10 Downing Street, Mr Raab said: 'Under the arrangements that we are putting in place we will target flights from a range of priority countries, starting this week.'

However, Mr Raab said in countries where commercial flights are still in operation, the instruction is still for Britons to buy tickets home 'as soon as possible'.

'Where commercial routes remain an option, airlines will be responsible for getting passengers home,' he said.

'That means offering alternative flights at little to no cost where routes have been cancelled.'

Dominic Raab today unveiled a 75m effort to bring back home stranded Britons stuck abroad due to the coronavirus crisis

He also told airlines they must allow passengers to change tickets, including between carriers, as he told travellers: 'For those still in those countries where commercial options are still available, don't wait, don't run the risk of getting stranded, the airlines are standing by to help you, please book your tickets as soon as possible.

'Where commercial flights are no longer running the government will provide the necessary financial support for special charter flights to bring UK nationals back home.

'Once special charter flights have been arranged we will promote them through the government's travel advice and by the British embassy or high commission in the relevant country.'

Mr Raab said the 75m being made available by the government will be used to 'support those flights and the airlines in order to keep the cost down and affordable for those seeking to return to the UK'.

Passengers will be charged between 250 and 500 for the subsidised tickets that will be promoted through British embassies and high commissions. Mr Raab said: We have not faced challenges like this in getting people home from abroad on this scale in recent memory.

Aircraft will be chartered from BA Virgin, Jet2 and private charter airline Titan. EasyJet  which yesterday announced the grounding of its entire fleet  has also been called on to operate rescue missions to mainland Spain and the Balearic and Canary Islands.

Hundreds of thousands of Britons are stranded abroad and are scrambling to return to the UK, including 6,000 who are marooned in New Zealand with thousands more trapped in Peru.

Getting the disease licked: Mr Raab appears to put his finger to his mouth during today's press conference

The government advised against all non-essential foreign travel on March 17 before then urging all UK residents abroad to return home as soon as possible on March 23.

However, many people have found it difficult, if not impossible, to buy commercial plane tickets after widespread flight cancellations while many of those who have found tickets have faced steep prices.

Mr Raab said a Foreign Office helpline set up to deal with traveller questions normally receives 1,000 calls a day but last Tuesday the number of calls hit an all time record of 15,000.

Coronavirus travel chaos - how the shutdown spread February 4: Britons warned against all but essential travel to mainland China after lockdown in Wuhan. March 12: British nationals aged 70 and over, 'and those with underlying health conditions such as chronic diseases and diabetes' are told not to travel on cruise ships. March 12: UK travellers advised against all but essential travel to the worst-affected parts of Spain, including Madrid. March 15: The advice is extended to include all of mainland Spain. March 17: Britons told to avoid all but essential foreign travel globally for at least 30 days March 23: All British citizens who live in the UK are told to come back as quickly as possible. March 23: Figures reveal that the number of flights globally has fallen by 40 per cent in a fortnight as airports close and passenger travel dries up. March 29: Britons stuck abroad say they are being quoted up to 40,000 for flights home to the UK. March 30: Easyjet grounds its entire fleet of 330 aircraft March 30: Dominic Raab unveils 75million deal with airlines to bring stranded tourists home. This includes charter flights and cheap tickets where airlines are still operating. Advertisement

He said as a result the government had increased resources at the call centre to make sure questions get answered as he tried to reassure worried families.

'For those stranded or for families nervously awaiting news and wanting to see their loved ones return home, we are doing everything we can,' he said.

'We have improved our advice and boosted the call centre so travellers get better and swifter information.

'We have put in place this arrangement with the airlines so that we can reach more British citizens in vulnerable circumstances abroad where commercial flights aren't running and we are working intensively round the clock with all of our partner countries and governments around the world to keep open the airports, the ports and the flights to bring people home.

'We have not faced an international challenge quite like this before but together we are going to rise to it and of course here at home we can all support our NHS by continuing to follow the guidance to stay at home, protect our NHS and save lives.'

The government's repatriation efforts will be prioritised to help the most vulnerable passengers get home, with special flights expected to initially focus on areas with the largest numbers of British travellers.

New Zealand has imposed one of the strictest lockdowns of any country to battle the deadly disease, and has grounded international flights, leaving thousands of Brits, including doctors and nurses, desperate to get home but without the means to do so.

Mr Raab had already called Winston Peters, New Zealand's Deputy Prime Minister, to ask for assistance.

The Foreign Secretary's announcement today comes after two repatriation flights carrying British passengers from Peru landed at Heathrow Airport.

The British Airways flights left Lima on Sunday and landed in London this morning. The Foreign Office has not said how many passengers were on board, but said two more flights will leave Peru on Monday, arriving in the UK tomorrow.

Two British backpackers stuck in quarantine in Peru said the announcement gave them hope they might finally escape their nightmare. Sian Forkan, 27, and Abi Dennison, 28, an intensive care nurse, had space on the repatriation flights but were unable to go after two fellow guests were struck down with the virus.

The friends from Nottingham have been ordered to stay in their rooms for 23 hours a day and food is delivered outside their door. Miss Forkan, an HR assistant, said: It does sound like a positive step forward and that they are doing everything they can to help people get out.

The repatriation flights were arranged by the Foreign Office in partnership with British Airways to rescue more than 1,000 stranded Britons.

Casi Cartwright and Lewis Dafydd who are currently stranded in Peru, like many other Brits

British critical care nurse Rachel Brockbank is stuck in Christchurch due to lockdown after visiting with family for sister's wedding

A party of eight tourists - including young children - are trapped in Goa, thousands of miles from home, while their supplies of medicine and food dwindle

Since the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, the Foreign Office has helped to bring home almost 1,400 people on specially chartered government flights from China and Peru and 1,900 people on cruise ships from places including California, Brazil and Japan.

In the last week, the Foreign Office has helped more than 4,000 people to get back from Jamaica and more than 8,500 people to get back from Morocco.

Around 5,000 Britons successfully left Bali after the British team in Indonesia worked with their counterparts to unblock a visa permissions issue.

A number of Britons in New Zealand are using social media to call on the government, and specific airlines, to get them safely home.

Meanwhile, a British family has been left stranded in India after their flight home was cancelled due to coronavirus.

The party of eight tourists - including young children - are trapped in Goa, thousands of miles from home, while their supplies of medicine and food dwindle.

Despite efforts to contact the British Embassy, the family say they have had 'no sign of help' as their holiday in paradise turns into a living nightmare.

They also claim to have been attacked by stick-wielding Indian police officers who told them 'we can beat you now, no-one will care' when they left their hotel to try to buy food.

An online petition to try to get the group home has already gathered hundreds of signatures.

Mother-of-two Chanttel Carrington, from Isle of Sheppey in Kent, said: 'We are stranded with little money, and three of our party members are in need of prescribed medication.

'We have tried to contact the British Embassy multiple times with no success.

'There is no sign of help or support whatsoever.'

Other group members include Ms Carrington's children Ivy-rose McCoy, six, and son George McCoy, four, as well as her partner Barney McCoy.

The rest are Ms Carrington's parents Gary and Denise Carrington, aged 59 and 56 respectively, her sister Charley Carrington, 19, and Charley's 18-year-old boyfriend Luke Manning.

They had gone on holiday to the coastal state of Goa, but their flight home last Monday, March 23, was cancelled as travel chaos amid the pandemic continued to snowball.

Ms Carrington claimed that she and Mr McCoy received rough treatment from local police when they went to get medication and food for their children, and were ordered back to their hotel.

She added: 'We went to the shops to get some medicine and also some food for our children the police attacked my partner with sticks when we attempted to try and buy food and medicine.'

The children saw the spectacle and Ms Carrington said: 'My son was crying and said are we going to die in this hotel?

'The hotel is running out of food and the kids are starting to get poorly and distressed with the situation.'

Brits in New Zealand are using Twitter to try and get home by appealing to airlines and politicians.

A user Twitter user called Fen said: 'Waking up to an email from @EmilyThornberry is the one thing that has given me hope that I will be able to return home. I can't thank her enough for what she is trying to do for us all.'

And Shannon Rickards, said: 'When @qatarairways have the chance to literally become THE BEST AIRLINE IN THE if they step up and get people home. Unlike who many of us will never fly with again. #britsinNZ #getushome.

Crispian Wilson at the Foreign Office has said that commercial routes are the only practical option for many Brits stranded abroad

Reece Hall, 24, from Cornwall, fell victim to a mugging and serious assault on February 26 in north Goa, leaving him with a fractured jaw, eye socket and leg injury, now severely infected

Labour MP Emily Thornberry tweeted today about Mr Raab's expected repatriation plan

Nurse stranded 7,000 miles away in the Philippines pleads with authorities to get her home so she can treat coronavirus victims A nurse is pleading with authorities to get her home so she can help treat victims of the coronavirus. Polly Collins left town for a holiday in the Philippines at the start of the month with a friend, who is also a nurse. As the outbreak worsened and turned into a global pandemic, countries have tightened their borders and flights have been cancelled. Polly Collins is desperate to get back and help the effort at home Now Polly is stranded nearly 7,000 miles away and desperate to get home to help. She has been inundated with appeals from health agencies back home wanting her to help treat patients. Before the pandemic worsened Polly and her friend landed at Cebu City and went to Puerto Princessa and on to the remote island of El Nido Palawan. They were there for eight days before the island was put on lockdown and people had to evacuate due to the virus. The two nurses got the last flight off the island but saw many UK nationals and others stranded there. Rescue flights were promised but didn't happen, although the airlines just kept taking their money. Polly, who hit national headlines when she saved the life of a man having a heart attack at a train station in London in 2015, tried to get a flight to stay with friends in Bangkok but that was cancelled. She has sufficient food and water but is anxious to be home to her family and get working supporting the victims of coronavirus. 'I am just taking it day by day as so many events have taken place while being here,' she said. 'Meanwhile whilst here I have developed an infection on my lower shin by a mosquito. This also has needed urgent medical treatment as I was unable to weight bear. 'As I nurse I tried my utmost to self treat but needed appropriate antibiotics. The surgeon I saw was Filipino, very experienced with superb knowledge. He was very friendly advising me that the wound would need debriding.' The operation was painful but successful. She told how Filippino police now man checkpoints nearby ensuring people follow the lockdown rules. 'It's becoming much the same as the UK although there are no reports of any confirmed cases as yet. I have no doubt this will soon change,' she said. 'Everyone has to have a health pass now and these must be shown in supermarkets etc. The authorities have given me consent to travel into Cebu City for my follow up appointment with the surgeon but this could change.' Luckily she met a fellow Lincolnshire man who was formerly stationed at RAF Waddington and at RAF Northolt. He and his wife, who run holiday accommodation have supported Polly. 'I am safe. I have food and I have water and that's the main thing. My family are safe back over in the UK but I will pray for them everyday. I will keep in contact as long as able but I cannot stress enough just how many Brits are in the exactly the same situation. There is no help, there are no flights, and the communication is practically zero. 'The shortages for nurses back in the UK are phenomenal. The demand is unreal yet they can't get this nurse back to her own country to help with the crisis,' said Polly. She added: 'We pray and live in hope that sooner or later the Government will intervene but I appreciate the focus is on the UK and ensuring the elderly and the vulnerable are prioritised.' 'Unfortunately the authorities are now seeing all Europeans as a threat. The locals see us as a carrier of the virus. Food supplements are now being restricted for all non-Filipino residents.' Advertisement

Dr Marion Lynch is one of many medical professionals currently in the country and has implored the government to get them home so they can help battle the coronavirus.

And critical care nurse Rachel Brockbank is currently stuck in New Zealand after visiting with her family for her sister's wedding, but is desperate to get home.

She told the New Zealand Herald: 'I want to go back. I don't think my family want me to but I feel that's where I should be. That's where I'm needed.'

The Foreign Office has projected between 300,000 and one million Brits are currently trapped abroad, but there is no exact figure available as there is no method in place to be able to track everybody.

The latest effort emerged as the UK's high commissioner in Australia, Vicky Treadell, warned there are at least 30,000 Britons in the country and a few planes 'won't do it'.

She tweeted: 'Brits across Australia so no single point of departure. Keeping key airports and commercial airlines providing 1000s of seats between them is therefore our current priority.'

In the Philippines a Brit stranded abroad fears his wife and unborn baby will die because he claims the British Embassy is refusing to help the family get to hospital.

Desperate Tom Shelton's Philippino wife Annie is eight months pregnant with his first baby.

She needs a Caesarean because their unborn son is upside down in the breech position.

But the couple, who have been running a guesthouse in El Nido, in the Philippines for the last two years, are now a six-hour drive away from hospital because of restrictions enforced to stop the spread of Covid-19.

Tom, 43, from Consett, Durham, says the British Embassy won't help because his wife is not a British citizen.

He claims they have offered to support the family once the baby - who will be British - is born but Tom fears by then it could be too late.

The struggling family are now living in a hut to save money and depending on neighbours for food after the spread of coronavirus destroyed their livelihood.

'My baby could die because of the lockdown,' Tom said.

'Annie is due on April 17 but could go into labour at any time, especially with all the stress of the situation.

'The baby is feet first and its head could get stuck if she ends up giving birth at home with no assistance. My baby and my wife's lives are at risk and yet no one will help me.'

British Nationals stuck in India said their plight is becoming 'desperate', with some claiming they have faced police brutality while attempting to get food and medical supplies.

Reece Hall, 24, a ground worker from Cornwall, fell victim to a mugging and serious assault on February 26 in Titos Lane, north Goa, leaving him with a fractured jaw, eye socket and a leg injury, which has now become severely infected.

Unable to leave his accommodation for regular treatment due to hostility towards tourists and strict government lock down measures, in place since Wednesday, Mr Hall's open leg wound, which was caused when three muggers pushed him from his bike, is now badly inflamed.

Mr Hall said: 'I've been avoid going outside ever since seeing videos of people getting beaten up and hearing stories from foreigners who have been beaten, (...) my leg is not looking good at the moment'.

'I'm desperate to get a plane ticket home but it's gone past the point of trying to get one now as they are all cancelled, all we can do is contact government officials. I'm surviving off one meal of rice a day.'

A 21-day lock down was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday causing the immediate closure of shops, restaurants and many hotels.

Heidi Hawkins, 49, a carer from West Sussex stuck in south Goa, said: 'The supermarket was rumoured to be open and it was heaving, no social distancing, every man for himself.

'The police just came along and started smacking people with their sticks. So people are too scared to go out for food. When you hear of a shop that's open you're too scared to go there because of the police brutality.

'We just need food and water and we've been left with no information.

'I went to the police station in Colva to ask for information and the police threatened to put me behind bars. I was laughed at and ridiculed.

'At home I've got my 22-year-old daughter who is highly anxious alone with her eight-week-old baby, her four-year-old daughter and my 19-year-old disabled daughter. She's been stuck inside without food. While my 19-year-son, who is severely disabled is in an assisted living house and he is desperately homesick and doesn't understand.

'I am desperate to get to him and take him home. I need to get home for my babies, they need their mum.'

An elderly couple from Northamptonshire on board the MS Zaandam yesterday issued a plea just to get some fresh air. Jenni and Tony Wills, aged 74 and 80, said they had run out of toothpaste, were running low on toilet paper, and had waited ten days for a change of sheets.

After being at sea for several weeks, they were given permission to pass through the Panama Canal and expect to arrive tomorrow in Florida. However, their fate remains in limbo after the mayor of Fort Lauderdale said they would not be allowed to dock
The president of Romania Klaus Werner Iohannis signed on 16 March an emergency decree which, among other measures, allows the National Authority for Administration and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) to order take-down notices for websites and news reports containing fake news. The International and European Federation of Journalists believe that governments are right to tackle misinformation but warn against a set of measures that could lead to self-censorship.

The Romanian emergency decree includes an article on countering the spread of pandemic related false information online, which will allow the takedown of articles and entire websites. The decision came as a shock to many media professionals, as rumours of such restrictions being introduced were refuted by government officials one day before the emergency decree was declared. ANCOM, a manager of communication infrastructure with no expertise in dealing with thorny issues such as disinformation, was made responsible to implement the removal of content. No appeal and redress mechanisms were provided, commented the Romanian Center for Independent Journalism.

According to the Romanian government, ANCOM would just implement the content take-down, based on recommendations coming from the Strategic Communication Group, a governmental task force charged with managing the pandemic.

Other provisions of the emergency decree are also denounced by the Romanian Union of Journalists, SRJ MediaSind. The decree sets limitations to requests for information by extending the response time allowed to authorities from 30 to 60 days. We do not see the justification for these measures, in a context where journalists should, on the contrary, have more immediate access to information about the pandemic, said Cristi Godinac, president of SRJ MediaSind.

Additional decisions to limit the circulation of information at county level are raising grave concerns in Romania. On 20 March, several civil society organisations issued a Manifesto to request for greater transparency of data related to the spread of COVID-19 in Romania.

The IFJ and EFJ join SRJ MediaSind and call on the Romanian authorities to ensure full transparency about the pandemic and to restore the capacity of journalists to act in the public interest without any limitation.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio projected that over half of the city of more than 8 million people will become infected with coronavirus and appealed to the federal government to provide New York with more ventilators to face a public health crisis he estimated would last into May. A patient wears a protective face mask as she is loaded into an ambulance at The Brooklyn Hospital Center emergency room, in New York. (Image: AP)
Beijing, March 30 : China's manufacturing sector has steadily advanced production resumption, with 98.6 per cent of major industrial firms resuming work amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Monday.

Around 89.9 per cent of employees in industrial companies with an annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($2 million) have returned to their workplaces, Xinhua news agency quoted Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of the MIIT, as saying at a briefing here.

In Hubei, where the pandemic originated in its capital Wuhan last December, the average work resumption rate of industrial firms have surpassed 95 per cent so far.

The production and operation of large pharmaceutical companies producing vitamin, antibiotic, antipyretic and analgesic ingredients have returned to normal, according to the vice minister.

Meanwhile, 76 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises nationwide have also resumed operations.

Some 92 leading enterprises in key industries have helped boost the work resumption of more than 400,000 their upstream and downstream enterprises, Xin said.

As of Monday, China reported 82,149 confirmed coronavirus cases with 3,308 fatalities.

Although the virus originated in China, the US now has the highest number of cases (142,502) globally, while Italy has recorded the largest death toll (10,779), according to the latest updates by the Washington-based Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
The new coronavirus has been called the invisible enemy by none other than President Donald Trump. Then why has there been a recent run on guns and ammunition?

Rick Mutter, the owner of the Sportsmans Den and the North Fork Sportmans Club in Saltville, has his own opinion.

If you can figure out why the toilet paper is disappearing, it is the same thing here, Mutter said.

Jon Hall, an 11-year military veteran and owner of Jons Guns in Bristol, Virginia, has seen a definite increase in sales  and not just in this region.

We are actually having a hard time right now purchasing guns and ammo from our distributors, said Hall, who believes the jump in sales began when Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam started pushing for gun control measures, a run that was exacerbated by the coronavirus.

It is not just in our area; it is nationwide.

What is causing people, some of whom have never owned or even fired a gun, to suddenly want one of their own? Call it fear of the unknown, protecting self, family and property from those who want what you have.

It is kind of weird. Sometimes we have people come in, and they will tell me they had never owned a gun and would never, ever buy a gun if this wasnt going on, said Hall, who sold a gun to a woman from Northern Virginia who had a friend killed by a firearm.

She said she had never even thought about buying a gun until all this went on. She was scared to death. She didnt even want to touch it when you would say, Here it is. It is interesting.

Not everyone believes the hype. In fact, Mutter believes it is hype.

I guess its the same thing with the toilet paper, Mutter said. I think the news media is driving this. That is my opinion. If they had called this thing the flu and left it alone, everybody would be going around just like normal. I have got the flu shot; I am all right.

However you feel about the COVID-19 pandemic, there is little doubt that it has people on edge.

I am sure this is short-term. I think a lot of people are scared because of the coronavirus, No. 1, and how can they protect their family, and No. 2, just for survival, Hall said.

If we cant get the necessities from the grocery store, some of these guys want to make sure they have got ammo so if they had to go hunt something on their own, it is at least possible.

Buying a gun requires a background check, which can be done at the store, usually in a few minutes. That process is now taking several days as the demand for firearms has increased.

That is something else right now, Hall said. Typically we can get a background check done in five to 15 minutes. It doesnt take very long, but right now we are seeing some that take two or three days. A lot of times when people come in, we will just take their phone number, and we will call them when it is approved. The state police are just so backed up.

Hall, who would like to see an indoor gun range opened in Bristol to teach gun buyers how to use their weapons, said women have been just as likely as men in recent years to buy guns.

The last couple of years there has been an uptick in the number of female shooters. I dont know if that is any worse because of the coronavirus  I think it is probably about the same percentage  but it is both, Hall said.

We get a lot of new shooters too. You get a lot of men and women, both who come into the gun shop looking for a firearm that have never owned one before, and a lot of them are scared.

Hall suggests gun purchasers visit local gun ranges or find other ways to learn how to use their weapons.

That is what I always tell people, especially if you are not a shooter, Hall said. You have got to practice because if you get in that stressful situation anyway and you dont know what you are doing and you havent practiced enough, it is going to be twice as bad as it could have been.

Mutter has seen an increase in use of his range in Saltville.

The shooting range has picked up a little bit, yes, Mutter said. A lot of them are new people, and a lot of it is people who havent done it in a while.

Customers arent picky about the type of gun either. Hall said most want handguns, shotguns or rifles but will take just about any firearm and ammunition for self-defense.

A lot of times we dont have the more popular well-known ones in stock because of the supply and demand, but they will pick up something else even if we dont have what they came in looking for, Hall said.

We are selling guns that have been sitting for five or six months, things we dont sell very often.  We are selling out of everything. Our ammo shelves are bare.

While business has been booming for local gun shops, the good times might not last, according to Mutter, who has seen his supply of handguns, ammunition and reloading supplies quickly dwindle in number.

It is helping right now, but it is not going to help next week, Mutter said. I havent got enough here for people to buy. They cant get it in, and then their suppliers, there is five days to even get it shipped out for us.

Hall, who said his typical gun sale is in the $400 to $800 range, is confident hell be able to get guns from his distributors. He also expects the current run on firearms to end soon.

We will still be able to get guns, said Hall, who said it will be more difficult for smaller gun shops to restock their inventory.

We can still get some of the more expensive guns. A lot of the dealers will go out there, and they will hoard all the cheaper things that sell really fast. We will still be able to get guns. It might not be the ones that people are looking for, but we will still have guns.

I dont think it is going to last much longer. Maybe a couple of weeks, and it will start ticking back down a little bit. Hopefully we can get some stuff by then.

That would be fine with Mutter. He is hoping for a return to normalcy soon but understands these are not normal times.

I think it will; it always has before, he said, but we are in a time I have not seen either.

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AVON LAKE, Ohio -- Mayor Greg Zilka took a brief moment to update residents on the citys efforts to prepare and communicate with residents during this tense time of the COVID-19 virus.

We have had eight positive (coronavirus) tests now, he said, two police and six residents. The second of the officers is home recovering. The first officer was already reported as recovering at home.

I have also had conversations with Dr. (Rebecca) Starck (president of the Cleveland Clinic Avon Hospital) and (Lorain County Public Health Commissioner) Dave Covell. He noted that the conversations were productive and reassuring.

Regarding personal protective equipment (PPE), Zilka said: PPE is so important, especially with our paramedics. Local companies have donated equipment to paramedics both here in Avon Lake and in Sheffield.

Zilka assured residents: We have enough protective gear right now for police, fire and paramedics. But it will get worse and also put more pressure on the hospital systems. We are ordering more equipment and will continue to consult with Dr. Starck on what to get.

Sanitizing city facilities is a priority, said Zilka. We have (sprayed) the fire department, police department and the court. Next is City Hall and the service department.

In the recreation department, the mayor said decisions are yet to be made. We have scaled back on some part-timers in the recreation department and we are not yet committed to seasonal positions this year.

The mayor also wanted residents to know he will continue to do the new mayors update report by utilizing the citys cable equipment and personnel.

I did the first video last Monday, he said. I will do one every Monday now, taping at 11 a.m., and it will be up on YouTube by 3 p.m.

In other news, quarterly water bills from Avon Lake Regional Water will be postponed due to the virus pandemic, as announced on its Facebook page.

The Avon Lake Board of Municipal Utilities and Avon Lake Regional Water understand that this is a challenging time for both our residential and commercial customers. Avon Lake Regional Water will be postponing the mailing of the upcoming quarterly bill (bill for the months of December, January, and February) that would have arrived in mailboxes on March 31st.

"Postponing the mailing will also change the bills due date, too. We will provide further information at a later time. For now, rest assured that your water and wastewater services will continue seamlessly.

Read more from the Sun Sentinel.
The 19th Battalion of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) on Sunday distributed ration items to the stranded migrant workers in Himachal's Kinnaur amid national lockdown. According to reports, the ITBP provided all the essential ration items to them.

Hundreds of migrant workers had started moving to their native places on foot from different states after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the 21-day nationwide lockdown on March 24 due to the Coronavirus crisis. Currently, three coronavirus cases have been reported in Himachal Pradesh, while one person has been reported dead. Along with it, two persons are reported to have recovered.

Read: Five Khurja natives tested positive for Coronavirus in Meerut: CMO

Coronavirus cases rise in India

As of date, India has reported over 1,100 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19. Out of all the states, Kerala and Maharashtra have reported the most in the country. Meanwhile, 19 people have died so far due to the deadly virus. Due to the outbreak, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had put India under a national lockdown for 21 days. Further, India has also closed the India-Pakistan border and restricted passenger movement at the border with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Myanmar.

Read: Indian Railways develops washbasin that works without touching amid Coronavirus outbreak

Presently, there are around 721,412 confirmed cases of COVID-19 which has led to the death of around 33,956 people. Meanwhile, around 151,004 people have reportedly recovered. The US is at the top of the charts with respect to Coronavirus cases, with over 1.2 lakh infected.

Read: COVID-19: 215 people at ITBP quarantine facility asymptomatic after a week

Read: Former Maldives President thanks India for sending vital assistance amidst COVID-19 crisis

(With ANI Inputs)
A total of 14 railway employees, who arrived at Ambassa in Dhalai district of Tripura, in a train from Bengaluru carrying no passengers were taken to a quarantine facility, officials said on Monday.

After the train reached Ambassa, the penultimate station before Agartala, were shifted to the quarantine centre for 14 days on Sunday, district COVID-19 surveillance officer Dr Subhash Barua said.

Passenger train services in the country were suspended on March 21 in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Three days later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown for 21 days.

"The Bengaluru Cantonment-Agartala Humsafar Express was returning to Agartala without any passenger. The 14 people on board the train were employees of the Northeastern Frontier Railway," NFR chief PRO Subhanan Chanda told PTI from Guwahati.

Altogether 689 people including two foreigners were now kept in the quarantine facility of the district, but none of them showed any major symptoms of COVID-19, Barua said.

Over 7,000 people are under quarantine in the state with recent travel history outside or with preliminary symptoms, a government announcement said.

Meanwhile, transport department Principal Secretary Laihlia Darlong said more than 115 people of the state are stranded in different parts of the country and 1,400 labourers of West Bengal are stuck in Tripura since the lockdown was declared.

Darlong said 11 people stranded in Guwahati were shifted to the Tripura Bhawan there and all necessary arrangements were made for them.

Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Sunday has written to his counterparts in Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Delhi, requesting them to arrange for food, accommodation, security and healthcare facilities to the citizens of Tripura, who were stranded in those states during the 21-day country-wide lockdown.

Deb said Tripura has a rice buffer stock that would last 76 days, 52 days' stock of wheat, sugar stock for 15 days, salt stock for 24 days, petrol stock for 8 days and 'sufficient' stock of LPG.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Kerala government's plans to sell liquor based on doctors' prescription has faced a setback with doctors maintaining that it was unethical to prescribe liquor as medicine.

It was in the wake of the suicide of three persons in Kerala, reportedly due to withdrawal symptoms, that the Kerala Government came out with the idea of supplying liquor to the needy based on doctors' prescription. But the move suffered a setback as the service organisation of the Kerala government doctors, who are supposed to prescribe liquor, have stated the decision was unethical.

Follow live updates of coronavirus cases in India here

The Kerala Government Medical Officer's Association stated that liquor was not a medicine to treat alcohol in modern medicine and hence it would be unethical for any doctors to prescribe it. The Indian Medical Association-Kerala chapter even cautioned that doctors may even lose their licence if they prescribe liquor as a medicine.

According to Kerala government excise department sources, nearly 15 lakh people in Kerala used to visit liquor and toddy shops in Kerala daily, of which around 1.5 lakh used to begin their day with alcohol. The number of those suffering from alcoholism would be less than one lakh.

Liquor sales were stopped in Kerala on March 25 following the lockdown due to COVID-19. The Kerala government was initially reluctant to shut the retail sales. The state was earning an annual revenue of around Rs 2,500 crore from liquor sale.

Track state-wise coronavirus positive cases tally here

After liquor sales were stopped, there was a heavy rush of people with withdrawal symptoms at hospital casualties. Until now, four persons have committed suicide and it is suspected that it was due to withdrawal syndrome. Spurious liquor sales were also being reported. These prompted the government to explore the option of supplying liquor to the needy based on the prescription of doctors attached to the de-addiction centres run by the government.
PORTLAND, Ore., March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CTL announced the launch of its new Chromebook VX11 today. The Chromebook VX11 has a rugged yet convertible design and runs the latest Intel Gemini Lake processor (N4020) providing Gigabit Wi-Fi speeds up to 1.7ghz.

The VX11 is equipped with a water-resistant keyboard, anti-peel keys and an anti-glare screen. With up to 12 hours of battery life and non-slip texture, this lightweight Chromebook has a 180-degree hinge allowing it to open completely flat.

CTL Chromebook VX11 features the Latest Intel Gemini Lake-R Processors CTL Chromebook VX11has a 180-degree hinge allowing it to lay flat

The CTL Chromebook VX11 is designed to last and hold a secure connection with the fastest available processors to date. CTL President Erik Stromquist says, "We've been eager to release our latest Chromebook VX11. With improved Wi-Fi speeds and rugged build, we're pleased to release another reliable device that schools and enterprises can utilize for their everyday needs at an affordable price."

The VX11 Chromebook model comes with a 1-year Parts and Labor Warranty and 2-way shipping for qualified educational institutions in the first year. Options to upgrade warranties are available.

The CTL Chromebook VX11 model is available for pre-order from CTL.net and can be purchased from resellers, and distributors including Ingram Micro and Synnex with an MSRP of $209.00.

Customers interested in bulk purchasing can request a quote here .

About CTL:

CTL has been manufacturing best-in-class Chromebooks, Laptops, Desktop PCs, Computer Displays, Workstations, and High-End Servers since 1989. CTL's rugged Chromebooks for Education , Chromebox , and Chromebook Tablets have received widespread recognition from noted tech publications such as PC Magazine, ChromeUnboxed.com, Android Police, Android Central, CNET, and Laptop Magazine. CTL's headquarters, sales, and support teams are all located in the United States. CTL is a Google Education Premier Partner, and an Intel Technology Program Platinum Partner. For more information about CTL and to purchase CTL products, visit us at https://ctl.net.

Media Contact:

Mike Mahanay

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Two colonies in Worli area in



central Mumbai were sealed, disinfected and fumigated in the early hours of Monday in view of novel coronavirus outbreak, local MLA and Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray tweeted.

While some television channels reported that four COVID-19 cases were detected in the two localities, there was no confirmation from Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation officials on this.

"Late last night 2 am onwards, Koliwada and Janta Colony have been sealed off further. Disinfection and fumigation is on along with contact tracing," Thackeray tweeted.

Koliwada, home to a vast fishing community, and Janata Colony are congested localities in the metropolis.

Local residents said police were not allowing people to leave or enter the area.

The BMC also started a drive in the area as part of its drive to disinfect public places.

"In order to contain further spread of COVID-19, Worli Koliwada has been completely sealed and lockdown for public movement, in coordination with Police Dept. Disinfection and fumigation process of the complete area has been initiated, as a precautionary measure," tweeted G North ward of BMC.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Healthcare major Apollo Hospitals on Monday said it has launched 'Project Stay I' with 500 rooms in select hotels across the country in the first phase with light medical supervision for quarantine.

This effort is aimed at creating isolation and quarantine facilities and reducing the burden on hospitals providing acute care.

Joining hands with partners including HUL, SBI and OYO, Apollo Hospitals plans to scale this capacity to up to 5,000 rooms where patients can stay in isolation.

'Project Stay I' (Stay Isolated) is a part of its 'Project Kavach' announced last week by Apollo Hospitals Group Chairman Prathap C Reddy to fight the VOVID-19 pandemic.

"Apollo along with our partners commits to add up to 5,000 rooms where patients can stay in isolation. These will be 5,000 telemedicine medically supervised beds so that those who are in isolation stay in isolation and don't spread the infection to others," Apollo Hospitals Group Joint MD Sangita Reddy said.

Isolation is not possible in many Indian homes where 5-7 people stay in the same room and where they share a bathroom, she said.

"So we realised for those who can't afford, there was need to find capacity to cover the cost, and HUL, SBI and Deutsche Bank have come forward and said for those who cannot afford it they will cover the cost of care," she added.

"Apollo Hospitals is not charging for the the telemedicine network or our medical supervision. Only the medicines will be charged at actual costs and the MRPs," Reddy said.

As part of phase 1, Apollo Hospitals is launching around 500 rooms in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi which will be scaled up to 5,000 rooms across other cities in successive phases on the basis pf further assessment, she added.

"Project Stay I will help to 'Break the chain' and is expected to help over?10,000 patients in a month and prevent over 50 lakh infections," Reddy said.

For the 'Project Stay I', initiative Apollo Hospitals has partnered with hospitality chains such as Lemon Tree Hotels, Ginger Hotels and OYO and online restaurant guide and food ordering platform Zomato.

Apart from them, leading entities such as HUL, State Bank of India and Deutsche Bank have also joined hands in the initiative.

The objective is to create isolation and quarantine facilities away from the main hospitals in cities across the country and reduce the burden on hospitals providing acute care.

"The steps taken by the Government of India in screening, testing and keeping high risk individuals in state quarantine facilities to prevent the extensive spread of the disease is indeed commendable. However, with increase in the scale and scope of testing, the number of positive cases are expected to increase," Reddy said in the media conference call.

There will also be a rise in the number of individuals requiring to be quarantined due to contact with COVID-19 patients. This will put a huge load on the government facilities for quarantine. This is the time for the private sector to step up to the challenge to aid, augment, and support the government, she added.

The model is envisaged to have a combination of self-paying and CSR funded customers, Apollo Hospitals said.

On the development, HUL Chairman and MD Sanjiv Mehta said: "Isolation facilities are extremely important to curb the spread of this virus. As Hindustan Unilever we are delighted to partner with organisations like Apollo Hospitals, State Bank of India, Oyo, Lemon Tree and many more to help create isolation facilities."



This will help in augmenting the quarantine system already put in place by the government, he added.

Biocon Chairperson and MD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said: "We have a very small window of opportunity to really make a success of lockdown, of quarantine and making sure we don't get overwhelmed in terms of the need for critical care."



'Project Stay I' is a very important initiative that is being embarked upon. This is a model that needs to emulated by all the hospitals and hotels put together, she added.

OYO Founder & Group CEO Ritesh Agarwal said: "Our partnership with Apollo Hospitals has been developed to ensure we utilise capacity where possible to create highly sanitised pay per use quarantine facilities under the guidance and supervision of medical professionals."



This is an unprecedented situation which requires all of us to find new ways to work together and rise to the occasion, he added.

Highlighting the need of the initiative, Deutsche Bank India Chief Country Officer Kaushik Shaparia said: "We've seen with other countries that people needing intensive medical care can very quickly outrun the available facilities. This partnership is a step towards addressing that challenge and the model provides an excellent way by which to respond quickly to people in need and curtail further spread of the disease."



On their role in 'Project Stay I', Zomato Co-Founder & COO Gaurav Gupta said: "We are glad to team up with Apollo Hospitals and other service providers for 'Project Stay I' and lend our services to make sure people in isolation have access to good food. We are enabling our network for the supply and employing our logistics capabilities to facilitate daily meals."



Stating that Lemon Tree Hotels has been in the forefront in partnering with government on fight against COVID-19 pandemic, Lemon Tree Hotels President Vikramjit Singh said: "From the beginning of this crisis, Lemon Tree has supported state governments in offering quarantine accommodation and we are now happy to partner with Apollo Hospitals on 'Project Stay I'."



Lemon Tree Hotels believes it is extremely important for the private sector, especially hospitality, to play an active role in helping the government control this pandemic, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
| By Jena Frick

On March 25, Diana MacFarlane waited patiently in the lobby of the SMC Campus Center at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). She was waiting to be called to donate blood for the University of Maryland Medical Centers (UMMC) March blood drive.

It feels really good to donate, she said. I feel like I'm helping my hospital and I'm helping the other hospitals in Maryland.

While hospitals across the nation are experiencing an unprecedented shortage of blood because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people willing to donate here is not in short supply.

MacFarlane, who is a laboratory liaison at UMMC, donates to the hospitals monthly blood drives every three months, but this particular drive was different from the rest. She was seated 6 feet apart from the rest of the donors in the waiting area; all of the donors were given medical masks to wear over their noses and mouths; and prior to entering the campus center, MacFarlane had to have her temperature taken.

The American Red Cross has implemented these additional precautions at all of their blood drives due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Donating blood is an essential part of ensuring community health. Right now, the American Red Cross faces a severe blood shortage due to an unprecedented number of blood drive cancellations during the COVID-19 outbreak, which is why this three-day blood drive at UMB was more important than ever.

(View a photo gallery.)

Around this time, we really count on our high schools and colleges to host regular blood drives, said Tammy, a charge nurse for the American Red Cross. A lot of those have been shut down because of COVID-19. Theres also been a lot of fear about spreading the virus, so we have had a lot of blood drives canceled.

Blood drive organizers were worried that this fear would deter people from donating, but it actually sparked more interest from the community.

I was really happy to see that UMMC was organizing this drive with UMB, especially during this difficult but really important time, said Kathryn Lee, a blood donor who came to the drive Wednesday. There are certain situations that call on us as a community to step up, and this is one of them. We all have to do our part to help.

(View a video below.)

UMMC normally hosts its monthly blood drives in the hospital, but since the outbreak of COVID-19 there are restrictions on visitors and non-essential personnel entering the hospital. Thats why UMMC decided to collaborate with UMB and set up the three-day drive in the main lobby of the Universitys campus center, which is not being used because of the outbreak.

To maintain social distancing, blood drive organizers did not allow any walk-ins. Instead, all donors were required to make an appointment before attending the drive, and the response was overwhelmingly positive.

We had 82 appointment slots for each day, said Anne Williams, RN, the director of community health improvement at the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), which provides primary and specialty care in more than 150 locations and at 13 hospitals, including UMMC. All of those slots completely filled up in less than 48 hours and we even have a waitlist.

According to organizers, the three-day drive collected a total of 242 donated units of blood. Each donation can save three lives, so the blood collected during this drive could potentially save about 726 lives at hospitals around Maryland.

We're really excited because when we announced this blood drive, we really weren't sure what the response would be, but the community has been wonderful, Williams said.

Due to the continued shortage of blood and high number of interested donors, UMMC and UMB plan to host a blood drive at the campus center every Tuesday in April during the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 7, the drive will be opened from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and for the rest of the month, it will be opened from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

This is not just one and done. We will continue to make sure that blood donations happen for UMMS, said David Marcozzi, MD, MHS-CL, FACEP, associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and incident commander at UMMS. There's a lot of people who still need blood during this pandemic and its our job to make sure we maintain the supply, so those folks get the blood that they need.

Donated blood is a lifesaving, essential part of caring for patients, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages people who are well to continue to donate blood if they are able. MacFarlane and Lee plan to come back and donate again.

I'm really grateful for everyone who's going to work and taking on risk in order to help others at this time, Lee said. Continuing to donate blood is something small that I can do to help others, too.

Anyone interested in becoming a donor should visit the American Red Cross blood donation website to schedule an appointment.
Postpartum psychiatric disorders are common in new mothers, and a new Danish study has suggested that women who experience psychiatric disorders after the birth of their first child are less likely to go on to have more children.

Image Credits: Tolikoff Photography / Shutterstock.com

The study, led by Dr. Xiaoqin Liu, a postdoctoral researcher at the National Centre for Register-based Research at Aarhus University in Denmark, is the first of its kind to investigate the probability of conception within five years of the mother experiencing a postpartum psychiatric disorder.

Published in Human Reproduction, which is one of the worlds leading journals on reproductive medicine, discovered that 69 percent of women who experienced postpartum psychiatric disorders within the first six months of giving birth did go on to have more children. This is in contrast to the 82 percent of women who did not experience any postpartum psychiatric disorders.

Dr. Liu was keen to express that psychiatric disorders after the birth of a child can be prevented, saying:

An important message to women who have a history of severe postpartum psychiatric disorders is that it is possible to prevent relapse. We recommend that they seek help from their family doctors or psychiatrists if they want to have another child so that plans for treatment that are specific for the individual needs can be made to reduce the risk of relapse, and so that their health, well-being, and symptoms can be closely monitored and treated.

Common postpartum psychiatric disorders include depression and anxiety, but more rarely women can also experience postpartum psychosis, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and eating disorders.

A paper published in Nature Reviews Disease Primers, discussing the range of disorders experienced by new mothers and the importance of effective global treatment delivery described the causes of postpartum psychiatric disorders as a complex interaction of psychological, social and biological factors, in addition to genetic and environmental factors.

Earlier research into the rates of postpartum psychiatric disorders found that approximately three percent of women experience a psychiatric disorder in the first three months after giving birth, but until now, there have been no investigations into whether these disorders discourage women from conceiving again.

Speaking on the motivation behind the study, Dr. Liu said, We wanted to explore whether women with postpartum psychiatric disorders had a reduced possibility of having a second child. Furthermore, we considered whether a reduction in the live birth rate was due to personal choices or decreased fertility, as these are important issues to consider.

To conduct the study, Liu and her colleagues analyzed data from Danish registries for 414, 571 women who had had their first child between 1997 and 2015 in Denmark. They then followed the women for up to 19.5 years, until another child was born, the mother emigrated, passed away, had their 45th birthday, or until June 2016, ending the study at the point when any of these events occurred first.

To identify which women had experienced a postpartum psychiatric disorder, they saw whether they were prescribed psychotropic medication or engaged in hospital support for psychiatric disorders within the first six months of their child being born.

In total, 4,327 (1 percent) of women did experience a psychiatric disorder after their first live birth. These women were a third less likely to have a second child compared to women who did not develop a psychiatric disorder after childbirth. If the mother was hospitalized because of her psychiatric disorder, the probability of her conceiving again almost halved, irrespective of whether she had a live- or stillbirth.

Some limitations of the study include the fact that the researchers did not have accurate data on miscarriages and stillbirths and only live births were included in the study, and not all women who experienced a psychiatric disorder after childbirth received medication or sought treatment in hospital. Therefore, it might not be possible to apply the discoveries from this particular study to other populations around the world.

Although fewer women with postpartum psychiatric disorders had subsequent children, it is noteworthy that about 69% of these women still chose to have a second child, Dr. Liu said. For the remaining 31% of women, we need to differentiate the reasons why they did not have another child. If they avoided another pregnancy due to fear of relapse, an important clinical message to them is that prevention of relapse is possible.

Liu continued:

Women whose first child died were nearly four times as likely to have a subsequent live birth as women whose first child survived. These findings suggest that the overall reduced rate of subsequent live births among women who experienced psychiatric disorders after the birth of their first child is, at least in part, voluntary.

The researchers offered a possible explanation for the lower birth rates following episodes of postpartum psychiatric disorders, but believe more work needs to be done in this area. The reasons included difficulties in conceiving after experiencing a disorder and problems in relationships with their partners.

The reason why women with postpartum psychiatric disorders choose to have fewer children needs to be explored further, Dr. Liu said.

Denmark offers free and easily available healthcare to all individuals, so we believe our results can inform other, similar populations, although we cannot rule out local differences.
YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian sent a letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Armenian Presidents Office told Armenpress.

President Sarkissian congratulated the Chinese counterpart on the great progress recorded in the fight against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

The Armenian President said in the latter the epidemic was possible to restrain due to the decisive measures of the Chinese government, as well as thanks to the peoples selfless dedication. The new coronavirus pandemic once again proved that the international cooperation and solidarity are the only effective tools to resist the global challenges as no region in the world can avoid the spread of the virus, the Armenian President said.

Highlighting consistent strengthening and deepening of traditional close cooperation with China, President Sarkissian, by using this chance, expressed his deepest gratitude to China for the continuous assistance provided to Armenia to prevent and overcome the virus.

Considering Chinas experience in preventing and effectively fighting the spread of the virus instructive for Armenia, President Sarkissian also proposed to consider further assistance to Armenia from China in providing equipment, necessary items, as well as in the form of professional support.

In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, central China. WHO declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus a global pandemic and named the virus COVID-19. Cases of coronavirus have been reported in over 195 countries.

China reported a total of 81,470 cases so far. On March 29 the Chinese authorities announced the stop of the spread of the disease inside the country.

Number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Armenia has reached 482.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Here is a transcript of tomorrows briefing by the coronavirus task force:

PRES. TRUMP: Good morning. I want to update you on our efforts to defeat the Chinese Virus. Today I have closed the border to travel by all non-U.S. citizens coming from China.

REPORTER: Mr. President, you did that on Feb. 2.

TRUMP: Thats right, and I intend to keep doing it until we defeat the invisible enemy, as I call it. Its invisible. You cant see it. Mike, do you want to add anything?

MIKE PENCE: Thank you Mr. President. Your bold action in stopping Chinese people from crossing our border has saved millions of lives.

TRUMP: Tony.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Me? Well, yes, sure, closing the border was good. Actually, Italy banned all travel from China three days before the U.S. did. But lets look forward. We want to flatten the curve. We want more of a mound, not a spike.

TRUMP: Last night I invoked the Presidential Podium Act of 1937. As you know, weve been using an outdated, bulky microphone left here by the Obama Administration. I touched it repeatedly, lowering it for Tony, then raising it for Mike, then lowering it for Deborah, then raising it for myself. The act gives me broad power to deal with this, but I didnt have to use it. I received a call from Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart. He said, Mr. President, I want to help. Im giving you two tiny podium mics. And here they are on our podium. I call it the Peoples Podium. Theyre beautiful microphones. I want to thank Doug and all the great CEOs who have praised me for acting quickly to close the border to the Chinese who are responsible for this war, as I like to call it.

REPORTER: Has there been any progress in stopping the virus?

TRUMP: Thats a nasty question. Really nasty. But I will tell you, I heard Dr. Laura Ingraham say on TV that there could be dozens of miracle cures that will save us. I have a hunch shes right.

REPORTER: Laura Ingraham is a host on Fox News Channel. Shes not a doctor.

TRUMP: I dont know anything about that. Tony.

FAUCI: Me? Well, sure, many of us in the medical profession are skeptical of people who would mislead the public. On the other hand, the president has hope. He hopes that Ms. Ingraham is a doctor. But its really about the curve. Where are we on the curve?

TRUMP: Deborah.

DR. DEBORAH BIRX: Thank you Mr. President. Id like to ask Americans to read both sides of this sheet of paper that we have deployed rapidly to all 50 states. It says the president acted quickly to close the border to travelers from China. Thats something all citizens should think about, especially millennials who will write our history. They must remember how quickly the president stopped people coming from China.

REPORTER: Mr. President, hospitals are running out of supplies 

TRUMP: Thats another nasty question. I took a call just this morning from Donnie Arnold, the CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines. He said hes giving us dozens of big, beautiful ships to deliver masks to hospitals all over Americain Omaha, Des Moines, Kansas Citywherever we need to get supplies quickly.

REPORTER: Sir, those cities are land locked. Besides, ocean vessels are slow, right?

TRUMP: Ben.

DR. BEN CARSON: The American spirit is under attack, but we can do anything we want if we put our minds to it. Remember, the president acted quickly to stop Chinese from coming here.

TRUMP: Tony, do you have something to add?

FAUCI: Now? Well, ok, I think the president means we will do whatever it takes to distribute supplies. Naval experts probably wouldnt use cruise ships for supply missions to the Midwest, but I see nothing wrong with exploring all options. Were on a curve which we must flatten and make it more of a mound. Not a curve, a mound.

REPORTER: What do you say to scared Americans?

TRUMP: I say, trust me. What the hell do you have to lose?

Peter Funt is a writer and speaker. His book, Cautiously Optimistic, is available at Amazon.com and CandidCamera.com. Columns distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate.

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The producers of the hit Netflix documentary Tiger King have denied that they coerced one of its main subjects, animal rights activist Carole Baskin.

Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness investigates the story of Joe Exotic, a tiger trader who became embroiled in a rivalry with Baskin  owner of the Big Cat Rescue Sanctuary in Florida  who accused him of breeding big cats unethically.

Baskins ex-husband, Don, went missing 21 years ago. In the documentary, a number of people accuse her of being responsible for his death.

Accusations aired in the series include one that Baskin fed her husbands body to the big cats at her sanctuary, a claim she brands ludicrous.

Baskin has never been charged with anything related to Dons disappearance.

Since the show aired on Netflix, Baskin has condemned the production, calling it salacious and sensational in a blog post and claiming the series lies to attract viewers.

Baskin also took issue with the final version of Tiger King, a documentary she claims was pitched to her as the big cat version of Blackfish. Released in 2013, Blackfish exposed animal abuse at SeaWorld.

Tiger King co-producer Eric Goode defended the show to the LA Times, saying: Carole talked about her personal life, her childhood, abuse from her first and second husband, the disappearance of her ex, Don Lewis. She knew that this was not just about ... its not a Blackfish because of the things she spoke about. She certainly wasnt coerced.

He continued: The other thing I would say about all these people is that there was a lack of intellectual curiosity to really go and understand or even see these animals in the wild. Certainly, Carole really had no interest in seeing an animal in the wild...

The lack of education, frankly, was really interesting  how they had built their own little utopias and really were only interested in that world and the rules they had created.

Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up

 Tiger King, Murder, Mayhem and Madness, Official Trailer

Goodes co-producer Rebecca Chaiklin added: I would just say we were completely forthright with the characters. With any project that goes on for five years, things evolve and change, and we followed it as any good storyteller does. We could have never known when we started this project that it was going to land where it did.

By contrast, Baskins nemesis Exotic is over the moon with the documentary, according to Goode.

Exotic, born Joseph Schreibvogel, is a big cat breeder who ran an exotic animal park in Oklahoma named GW Exotic. He appeared in a 2011 Louis Theroux documentary about dangerous pets.

He was jailed last year for 22 years, for crimes including trying to hire someone to murder Baskin, and for various crimes related to endangered species and conservation.

Goode said: Joe has called me quite a few times over the last few days and weeks. One, he is absolutely ecstatic about the series and the idea of being famous. Hes absolutely thrilled. I think he is trying to be an advocate for  no surprise  criminal justice reform.

He is in a cage and of course, hes gonna say that he now recognises what he did to these animals. With Joe, we have empathy for him, but at the same time, hes someone who really knows what to say at the right moment. I take it with a big grain of salt when he says he is now apologetic for keeping animals.

Exotic has filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Interior and the US Federal Wildlife Service for nearly $79 million, while serving time at Grady County Jail in Oklahoma.

In the suit, according to TMZ, Exotic claims he was a victim of malicious prosecution and discrimination.

Cardi B has claimed she wants to help Exotic be released from prison. Bout to start a GoFundMe account for Joe, she tweeted. He shall be free.
When a boy from Fort Lauderdales juvenile lockup appeared in court wearing a protective mask and exhibiting symptoms of the flu, judges and public defenders wanted to know what precautions, if any, Florida juvenile justice administrators were taking to ensure that youthful offenders have not been exposed to the deadly coronavirus.

In what has become a familiar pattern, state leaders would offer little information or comfort  even to judges who oversee juvenile court.

Then, on Sunday, the Department of Juvenile Justice confirmed that an employee of another DJJ facility in Broward  this one in Pembroke Pines  had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by exposure to the virus.

When asked by a reporter whether youths incarcerated at the Broward Youth Treatment Center, where the employee was confirmed positive, had been tested, a DJJ spokeswoman refused to answer.

Were working with the local health department on that and will follow the guidance they provide to us, was spokeswoman Amanda Slamas only reply.

Later, she declined to say whether any youths in the states custody were given tests to rule out infection.

The game that DJJ is playing is that, if you never test the kids, then no one ever tests positive, said Gordon Weekes, Browards top assistant public defender. If you never go about testing, you will never identify people who test positive. Its like theyve thrown up their hands.

He added: Im really concerned when it comes to the children. We dont have good data on how children will respond to this. We should not be allowing the population of children in state custody to be the guinea pigs.

The state Department of Juvenile Justice is one of the largest single caregivers of Florida children.

Most of the youths in residential custody are in jail-like facilities or in dormitory-style programs. All are behind lock and key. And they are unlikely to be practicing social distancing.

Family members, lawyers and advocates want to know that the kids are safe in the midst of a global pandemic. But in recent days, they have been unable to get meaningful answers from juvenile justice administrators.

Story continues

On Friday, for example, the Broward Public Defenders Office asked the superintendent of that countys detention center, Duviel Rosello, whether any detained children had been diagnosed with COVID-19.

The lockup superintendent never answered the question. Instead, assistant public defender Nadine Girault, who oversees the offices juvenile program, got a terse reply from the departments lawyer reminding her that further communications regarding the youth in our detention center be directed to me.

Giraults inquiries werent a mere academic exercise: That same day, March 27, the employee of the Broward Youth Treatment Center tested positive for coronavirus. Girault had already complained earlier that week to Broward Countys top juvenile judge that her office was concerned about a detained youth, identified as S.D., who had appeared in court wearing a protective mask and showing symptoms of the highly contagious virus.

Though the public defenders office has asked repeatedly about S.D., lawyers still do not know whether S.D. was sick with the virus  or has even been tested, Weeks, the chief assistant public defender, said.

In its prepared statement Sunday morning, DJJ said the employee is being isolated and will not return to work until it has been documented that he is no longer contagious. The program holds 27 youths, ages 13 to 18, and the parents and guardians of all of the detainees have been notified.

No additional youths will be admitted to the facility, the statement said, and all staff and youth will be monitored for flu-like symptoms.

DJJ, the statement said, continues to take all necessary precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Thus far, juvenile justice administrators have not reported any confirmed cases of coronavirus infection within the ranks of children in custody.

In Jacksonville, local DJJ administrator Capt. Delmonica Harris addressed rumors that had been circulating about an infected youth in her March 26 email: We do not have a confirmed youth that is active to coronavirus. We are merely taking precautions because he has a cold and he is isolated as a precaution and we must use precaution. That is all.

In a later email, Harris wrote: I just dont want it out there that we have a [confirmed] case when we do not. Youth is not running a fever, just has cold symptoms. We have followed our protocol from HQ [headquarters] that is to isolate him, have him checked daily by medical and report the information to our [doctor] and HQ staff.

It is unclear whether protocol includes testing. If it does not, it is unclear how any youth could be confirmed for the disease.

In Broward, the conversation about detained youths began on March 13 with a routine request to DJJ from the chair of that countys juvenile court bench, Judge Michael J. Orlando: We are requesting that DJJ share its intended protocols for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic so that we, as partners with DJJ, can adapt our procedures here within the court system, if necessary.

It was my understanding that there was a DJJ statewide conference call with the detention superintendents yesterday wherein COVID-19 was discussed, he added. As of now, I have not received any information from DJJ.

The email was shared with Browards chief judge, Jack Tuter.

DJJs secretary, Simone Marstiller, replied directly that day. The agency, she wrote, had developed COVID-19 guidance for all facilities serving DJJ youth. This guidance included Centers for Disease Control criteria on how to assess and care for youth who are exhibiting fever and respiratory symptoms and environmental cleaning and disinfection recommendations.

The agency had revised its screening tools for youths taken into custody by police and sheriffs deputies to identify children who might be infected with the disease, Marstiller wrote. DJJ had developed a visitor screening tool, and alerted parents and guardians to its requirements. And the agency asked vendors, guests volunteers and business partners to stay away from lockups and programs if they were experiencing flu-like symptoms or had traveled outside the United States.

Since then, DJJ has suspended all visitation at lockups and residential programs.

A week later, on March 20, Girault complained to Marstiller about the agencys failure to adequately address the COVID-19 health crisis for youth being housed in the Broward lockup. The day before, she said, S.D. had been booked into the lockup. Upon his arrival, he began to experience flu-like symptoms.

The next day, S.D.s lawyers learned that the child had been taken to Broward General, and that some form of testing had been performed. She added, however, that there was no clear indication that the child was tested for COVID-19. ...Rather, this child was placed in isolation in the medical unit with his temperature being taken every fifteen minutes.

Anyone experiencing symptoms should immediately be taken to the appropriate medical facility for COVID-19-specific testing and not merely a flu test, Girault wrote. No child should return to the facility until it is determined that they have not been infected with the virus. Anyone already exposed, she added, should be tested and isolated.

Gordon Weekes, chief assistant public defender in Broward County.

Girault also asked that S.D. be immediately tested.

Three days later, it appears S.D. was still at the lockup. And there was still no confirmation he had been tested.

On March 23, Girault wrote Marstiller again, expressing grave concerns with regard to the health and safety of [youths] in the Broward lockup. On March 22, she said, S.D. had been taken to the Broward County Courthouse wearing a protective mask, though he did not have a scheduled court hearing. S.D. was released to his guardian.

Even more concerning is the conflict of information disseminated by the department, Girault wrote. Both the youths guardian and the judge presiding over his case were told S.D. had tested negative for coronavirus, Girault wrote. However, the superintendent [of the lockup] advised me that the youth did not qualify for COVID-19 testing.

The departments continuous failure to adequately address the COVID-19 health crisis poses a threat to the youth being housed in the [lockup], as well as the surrounding public, Girault wrote.

Less than an hour later, Tuter, the chief judge, who was still part of the email thread, wrote in large letters: Nadine, are you advising they are bringing juveniles for detention hearings with exposure to the virus?

Giraults response: Unfortunately, I am unable to answer if any juveniles have been exposed to the virus. DJJ has provided conflicting information as to the testing conducted for the virus.

She added: The child, who was experiencing flu-like symptoms, was transported to the court on two occasions, and was housed at the detention center for a few days. DJJ has yet to indicate if the child was tested for the virus.




Haiti - Covid-19 : President Moise announces a package of economic relief





In order to reduce the negative economic effects of Covid-19 in Haiti, President Moise unveiled a series of measures in his address to the Nation (March 27).



To keep these promises, Moise relies on the commitment of international donors, including among others: the Inter-American Development Bank BID https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30394-haiti-health-$50m-from-the-idb-for-the-fight-against-covid-19.html ; the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30381-haiti-covid-19-the-imf-will-help-haiti.html , the European Union, the American Agency for International Development (USAID), Canada, France and other friendly countries and on the decommissioning of resources allocated to non-priority public investment projects.



List of Measures :



Postponement by 3 months of the date of payment of income tax for businesses and individuals;



Extension of 3 months of the validity of the tax discharge for companies from the expiration date;



Postponement to June 30, 2020, of the Land Contribution of Built Properties (CFPB);



Ability to split the tax payment for companies that filed for bankruptcy last January;



Three-month moratorium on fines payable by companies that fail to submit their financial statements on time;



Removal of fines and penalties due to late payment until June 30, 2020;



Establishment of a customs clearance unit for medical and other equipment and materials in one day;



Cash transfer to 1.5 million families with 5 to 6 members;



Subsidy to nearly 100,000 private sector teachers and university professors;



Mass distribution of Food Kit;



Payment of salaries to more than 55,000 textile subcontracting employees whose factories are closed following the declaration of State of Health Emergency at least until April 3, 2020 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30311-haiti-flash-president-moise-declares-a-state-of-health-emergency-text-of-the-order.html ;



Special bonuses for healthcare workers and the police;



Subsidy to the Transport sector ...



In addition, an economic recovery plan is being drawn up, which will include, among other things, stimulating growth, facilitating access to credit and the implementation of investment projects with socio-economic impact.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30394-haiti-health-$50m-from-the-idb-for-the-fight-against-covid-19.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30381-haiti-covid-19-the-imf-will-help-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30345-haiti-news-zapping.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30321-haiti-politic-prime-minister-jouthe-takes-stock-of-the-situation.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30311-haiti-flash-president-moise-declares-a-state-of-health-emergency-text-of-the-order.html



TB/ HaitiLibre


















Stranded Thais allowed to return from Malaysia

THAILAND: Nearly 300 Thais who were left stranded at the Wang Kelian immigration checkpoint in Malaysias Perlis State on Saturday night (Mar 28) have been allowed to enter Thailand but must quarantine themselves at home for 14 days, the Satun governor said yesterday (Mar 29).

CoronavirusCOVID-19immigration

By Bangkok Post

Monday 30 March 2020, 08:32AM

The Wan Prachan checkpoint in Khuan Don district in Satun, opposite the Wang Kelian pass, Perlis state of Malaysia. Photo: Bangkok Post file

Veeranan Pengchan said the 280 Thais were initially denied entry to Thailand after failing to follow procedures set by Thai authorities when they arrived at the Thai-Malaysian border checkpoint on Saturday but authorities had solved the problem by asking the Thai embassy in Malaysia to issue them with health certificates. (See story here).

Mr Veeranan said the Thais, both Buddhists and Muslims, had been either tourists or working in Malaysian restaurants and the fishing industry. They had flocked to Wang Kelian checkpoint in Malaysia on Saturday because they heard that Thailand was closing the Thai-Malaysian border.

These Thais have had their temperatures checked and they do not have fever. They have to quarantine themselves for 14 days at home under the supervision of local authorities in each province, he said.

The decision to allow them to return to Thailand was made after a meeting between Thai and Malaysian authorities at the Wang Prachan checkpoint on the Thai side of the border, opposite the Wang Kelian immigration checkpoint in Malaysias Perlis State.

Thailand and Malaysia have closed checkpoints along the common border to all but their own citizens to stem the COVID-19 spread.

After the border was closed to foreigners, the Satun governor issued an order to allow Thai nationals with certain documentation to return to Thailand via Wang Prachan immigration checkpoint in Satun.

To be eligible, Thai nationals are required to contact the Thai embassy in Kuala Lumpur or a Thai consulate in Malaysia to get a letter of certification.

The embassy or consulate must then notify the immigration checkpoint in Satun of their intention to return to the kingdom. The Thais are also required to show a health certificate issued no more than 72 hours previously.
Tiffaney Hobbs, owner of the Children of Destiny Learning Academy and the Learning Center, is still paying her staff and not expecting private-pay parents to pay for childcare while her site is shut. But she's not sure how much longer she can go on. Read more

Mary Graham is like thousands of child-care providers and workers in the region: teetering on the edge, terrified that the day-care center she runs, one of the many small engines that power the larger economy, may be unable to survive the coronavirus pandemic.

"Nobody is sleeping, said Graham, executive director of Childrens Village, which cares for 425 children at Eighth and Arch Streets. Can we survive a couple of weeks? Yes. But we cant do this for months. The system couldnt survive that.

Pennsylvania child-care facilities have been closed since March 16. New Jersey day cares must close by Wednesday. In both states, officials have made exceptions for in-home day cares and centers that obtain waivers to care for the children of essential workers. Still, even those centers are in a tough position, with enrollment plunging.

Almost a million young children in Pennsylvania and New Jersey use child care services.

 READ MORE: A Philly day-care owner laid off 100 people because of the coronavirus: It was the worst day of my life

We are the backbone of the economy, said Leslie Spina, executive director of Kinder Academy, which has five locations in Northeast Philadelphia. We are the underpinning for all who work. People cant work if children dont have a safe place to be.

Day-care centers typically operate on the narrowest of margins, unable to withstand major disruptions, employing workers who make between $10 and $20 per hour. In a recent national survey, 30% of providers said they could not survive a closure of more than two weeks without significant support.

Some help is on the way: The federal economic stimulus package included money for grants and loans to help prop up day-care providers. And locally, officials on Monday announced the Philadelphia Emergency Fund for Stabilization of Early Education, launched with $5 million from the William Penn Foundation and $2 million from Vanguard Group.

That fund, open only to child-care providers in Philadelphia, will support paying basic expenses, finding new ways of reaching families during the coronavirus shutdown, and covering expenses associated with reopening.

This emergency fund will help ensure that Philadelphias early learning sector remains stable so that our children continue to have access to high-quality early learning opportunities when our city emerges from this public health crisis, Janet Haas, board chair of the William Penn Foundation, said in a statement.

Still, the entire industry remains fragile, experts said.

 READ MORE: As coronavirus closes schools, wealthier districts send laptops home with students. What about poorer districts?

Tiffaney Hobbs, who operates Children of Destiny Learning Center in Southwest Philadelphia, had 127 children enrolled when the shutdown order came. Both Pennsylvania and Philadelphia pledged to continue to pay subsidies for a time, though not indefinitely.

Hobbs is also now missing both the co-pays of parents who receive subsidies and tuition from private-pay families.

My liability insurance is $1,000 a month," Hobbs said. "The mortgage is still due. And at this point, I dont know what my enrollment is going to be when we can open up. I dont know how thats going to affect being able to maintain the center.

Most child-care providers contacted by The Inquirer said they charged private-pay clients for the last two weeks of March, but will not bill them going forward as long as the centers are closed.

Some centers are asking for all or part of private-pay families tuition, however.

 READ MORE: Parenting in the time of coronavirus: How do you manage work and supervising kids?

Michelle Dixon, whose two children attend a day care in Philadelphia, hasnt had to pay her 7-month-olds tuition since the center closed. But its owners want her to pay half-tuition so her 3-year-old can participate in a distance learning curriculum. If Dixon opts out, she would have to withdraw her daughter and take a chance on whether a spot will be available once the pandemic passes.

Im a student, so theres really no option for me, Dixon said.

Day-care charges depend on location and age of children served. In Pennsylvania, the average cost is $814 a month, compared with $905 a month in New Jersey, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Genithia Geiger, who owns Young Scholars Daycare at 40th Street and Girard Avenue, is not holding her private-pay clients responsible for tuition during the shutdown.

We know they need to put food on their table, she said. Geiger opted to pay her staff when the center is closed, but warned her workers the paychecks may not last for the duration of the closure.

I looked at my bank account this morning, and I thought, Are you kidding me?  Geiger said. The world is never going to be the same, and I dont think the hurt is going to stop once this quarantine is over.

Day-care providers typically have provisions for emergency days  about 10 a year  to be used for weather-related closures.

Snow happens. We never anticipated a pandemic, said Traci Childress, executive director of St. Marys Nursery School in University City, which serves 130 families.

Helen Gaul, who owns Gauls Nursery & Arts Centre in Maple Shade, shut her day care on March 20, ahead of the New Jersey order. Now, she waits and worries, she said.

This could close us forever, Gaul said. Hopefully the states going to come through and help us out, but I dont know.

The stimulus package and the newly announced Philadelphia relief fund are encouraging for her center, said Graham, of Childrens Village.

But we have no idea what it really means, Graham said.

In the meantime, workers are making videos for the children  reading books, taking nature walks, and playing games to keep connected with their students. Hobbs drops off care packages for the children who attend her center.

On Friday, Pennsylvania approved 700 waivers allowing some providers to operate, serving only children of essential personnel.

Wonderspring, a nonprofit that operates centers in Montgomery County and West Philadelphia, shutdown March 12, and CEO Ann OBrien isnt sure when shell be able to reopen  or what things will look like when she does.

Weve reached out to every single vendor that we have, OBrien said. I feel like Im in the basement and all the pipes are running and Im trying to pull all the levers I can pull to keep this going.
Healthcare workers are having a tough time during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Doctors, nurses and other health officials are ensuring best of treatment to patients who have tested positive for COVID-19. Amid this, a heart-touching story of a nurse is creating a buzz on social media.

Popular Facebook page 'Humans of Bombay' on Sunday shared an interview of a nurse who said that she was scared when she along with another nurses were called for duty to attend COVID-19 patients.

The mum of two young daughters said that she was equally concerned about the health of her daughters and her husband. She said one of her daughters begged her not to report for the duty and was paranoid that she would catch the virus.

All I could do at that point was to assure her that Id be okay, because when duty calls, you show up, the nurse added.

The nurse also equated her first day at the hospital dealing with the COVID-19 patients as a war zone. She said, I still remember the first day  between admitting patients, allocating beds and calming down panicked patients... it was like a war zone.

She added that the nurses and other healthcare workers did not even get a minute to rest.

The most difficult part of their duty, according to her, was to keep families apart. She shared a heartbreaking incident, I was handling a couple from Pune who was begging me to leave to go home to their children  but I just couldnt let them leave.

Attending patients for almost a week now, she added that she missed her children. "But all of it is worth it when we see the look of relief on our patient's faces when they test negative," the nurse described her experience.

Stating that these are trying times and everyone will get through them together, she also urged people to believe only credible sources for information, follow the instructions seriously and stay at home. "Help us by not getting out unless it's for essentials or if there's an emergency. And once this is all over, we will all celebrate."

Since being shared online, the post has collected over 28,000 likes and more than 2,100 comments on Facebook.

While one person posted, "Once this is over, we will all celebrate," a second wrote, "When someone is going through a storm, your silent presence is more powerful than a million empty words."

"Salute to all the people who are supporting in this crucial time. You people are putting your lives on risk and trying to save others. Hats off to you all. Please take of yourselves too," commented a third person to the heart-wrenching post.

COVID-19 has so far claimed 29 lives in India and more than 1,070 people have tested positive for the deadly disease.

In his address to the nation earlier in March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed the countrymen to applaud the hardwork of healthcare professionals and workers in other essential fields by clapping for 5 minutes at 5 pm on March 22 from their balconies and rooftops.
Iran's death toll from the new coronavirus has increased to 2,757 with 117 new deaths in the past 24 hours, a health ministry spokesman told state TV on Monday, adding that the total number of cases has climbed to 41,495.

"In the past 24 hours we had 117 new deaths and 3,186 new confirmed cases of people infected with the coronavirus," Kianush Jahanpur told state TV, calling on Iranians to stay at home.

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Doctors and other health staff remain fearful that they will be hostages to fortune if the HSE is overly reliant on importing vital protective equipment and clothing to safeguard them against the coronavirus.

It comes as a first major delivery of personal protective equipment (PPE), including gowns, goggles and face masks, is being delivered from today to hospitals, GPs and other health facilities after an Aer Lingus cargo plane arrived back in Dublin from China with the supplies yesterday afternoon.

HSE chief Paul Reid said it is the first of 10 cargo flights with the protective gear which will travel from China in the coming weeks.

Yesterday's cargo included 11 million masks, 2.4 million gowns, nine million gloves and 2.3 million goggles.

"We are already assured that the Chinese provider is currently assembling and putting together what will be our second batch, so we would see flights continuing on a regular daily basis in the coming weeks for this batch, and subsequent batches, up to the end of May and probably beyond, as it is over 200m of an order," he said.

Although health staff are relieved more supplies will be available as hundreds more patients who test positive for the coronavirus are admitted to hospital, there are fears that the stock will not be enough to see them through months of the pandemic.

They want the Government to work more with Irish companies, whose core business has been hit by the impact of the coronavirus, but would be willing to diversify to produce protective gear.

The call for more domestic supplies has also been made by Sinn Fein's health spokeswoman Louise O'Reilly, who said: "We cannot continue to leave hostages to fortune and rely on imports from other countries, especially as there are disturbing reports in recent days that some countries are hijacking supplies of PPE and equipment if delivery planes stop over at their airports."

There is also a major call for more protective equipment from the wider health service, including private nursing homes which have had a number of clusters of infection and where staff are increasingly anxious about getting infected. So far health workers account for around one in four people who have caught the virus and most have picked it up here in Ireland.

One of the 46 fatalities so far from the virus was a nurse.

Pharmacies have been issued with PPE stock in line with the recommendation from the Department of Health.

The HSE confirmed that protective clothing and equipment had also been distributed to pharmacists.

"As the most accessible of all healthcare professionals in our health service, community pharmacists have a key role in maintaining continuity of care to patients. Pharmacists are therefore frontline healthcare workers and, as such, play a key role in the national response to Covid-19," a spokesperson said.

"Accordingly, pharmacists have been provided with a limited volume of personal protection equipment and have been advised by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre guidance for the community pharmacy setting."

There were subsequent communications from the Irish Pharmacy Union and the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland that it must only be used in exceptional circumstances and it is not recommended to be used when performing routine work in community settings, she added.

Mr Reid assured doctors that the standard of the supplies which arrived yesterday and additional deliveries are in line with those set out by the World Health Organisation.

The Dutch government recalled 600,000 masks due to quality standard concerns.
Retired police community support officer John Hood, 66, has died after contracting coronavirus

A retired 'kind, generous and courageous' police community support officer, 66, has died after contracting coronavirus.

John Hood was hailed a hero for rescuing four 15-year-old girls from the North Sea when their rubber dinghy was swept away in 2016.

He stayed in self-isolation for just over a week after contracting the bug which has killed 1,408 in Britain alone.

When his condition worsened, Mr Hood - who had diabetes and a heart condition - was admitted to Ipswich Hospital. He died in hospital last Tuesday.

Mr Hood, of Felixstowe, Suffolk, was praised in September 2016 when he swam 250m out to sea at Felixstowe to save the four girls.

He was handed a Stars of Suffolk award for carrying out the rescue despite having had a pacemaker to correct a slow heartbeat.

He said at the time: 'I could have stayed on the beach and called the Coastguard, but I know I am a strong swimmer, I know the water and I made a decision to go in.'

Mr Hood served as a PCSO with Suffolk Constabulary between 2007 and 2018.

Mr Hood, of Felixstowe, Suffolk, was given a Stars of Suffolk Award (pictured) in September 2016 when he swam 250m out to sea at Felixstowe to save four girls who were swept out to sea on a dinghy

His partner Nita Crossley who lived with him and is now isolation described him as a 'kind, generous and courageous man'.

She added: 'He lived life to the full and he will be hugely missed.'

Mr Hood was from Dunedin, New Zealand and came to the UK in 2004 with his former partner who was returning to her native Suffolk.

He had previously worked as a radio presenter in New Zealand and Australia,

Mr Hood was involved in local amateur theatre as a talented director and actor.

Mr Hood stayed in self-isolation for just over a week after contracting the bug which has killed 1,408 in Britain alone

He also loved the outdoors and had been a keen triathlete in his earlier life in Australia.

His former partner Jayne Lindill, editor of Suffolk Magazine, said they had remained close friends for 23 years.

She added: 'John had a big heart and made an impression on everyone he met. His great passions were rugby, his native New Zealand, music and theatre.

'He also loved Suffolk as his adopted home and was looking forward to enjoying more of it with Nita.'

She added they were thankful to all the NHS staff for the help they gave John and urged people to listen to Government advice to stop the spread of the virus.

'We're very grateful to the paramedics and the staff at Ipswich Hospital for the care they gave John while he was battling this terrible virus,' she said.

'They're doing an incredibly difficult job and no praise is too great for them.

'Our hearts go out to other people who have lost loved ones and we urge people to do everything they can to stay safe.'

Suffolk Chief Constable Steve Jupp spoke of his sadness at the news on Twitter.

He wrote: 'On behalf of Suffolk Constabulary, Suffolk Police send condolences to John's family and friends, thinking of you at this sad time.'
Due to social distancing restrictions, wineries have faced the task of changing the way they do business, only being allowed to offer delivery and/or curbside pickup. According to Alicia Notarianni of Herald Mail Media, Lori Yata -- who co-owns Stone House Urban Winery in Hagerstown, Maryland, with Lorie Dixon -- came up with an alternative curbside pickup method in response to the coronavirus quarantine.

Yata decided to bring some extra cheer to her customers. She enlisted Soda Pup, her 11-year-old brindle boxer as their deliver boy  taking up to two bottles of wine from the winerys door to customers cars.

As an enticement, Yata posted this on the winerys Facebook page, Mom says that we all have to pitch in and pull our weight, that includes me as well. So, if you are out shopping and have kids in the car, or just want to keep your distance from other folks, give us a call and place your order. Ill try to personally deliver your wine in my nifty new wine saddle bag.

"Yes mom, I'm working very hard to bring in some business. Actually, I really miss all my friends that would come in to... Posted by Stone House Urban Winery on Thursday, March 26, 2020

She knew her customers would love it, because Soda Pup was already very popular in the winerys tasting room and shop. According to Yata, Before this all happened, we had so many customers who came to see Soda. Theyd grab a glass of wine, sit on the floor with him, some would take him outside. They love Soda Pup.

Soon after the Facebook post, customers were calling with orders. Yata outfits the 75-pound pup with a saddle bag vest, that has two pouches on each side. She sends him out the door and watches. She mentions that if patrons call for him, he will go to them.

Her big concern is something attracting Sodas attention as he makes his way to the curb. According to a video by Alyssa Royster of District Wire News, American University, Yata said I make sure before he leaves, that there are no geese or squirrels or bunnies. Thank goodness the robins fly away, because he does like to go chasing robins.

According to information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, In the United States, there is no evidence to suggest that any animals, including pets, livestock, or wildlife, might be a source of COVID-19 infection at this time.

For patrons who do not wish to come into contact with a human or a dog, Yata will just leave the order on the sidewalk.

It is odd, what the times have come to, Yata said. Doggone it.

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Just Short of a Decade Later, PokerStars Case Comes to a Full Close

Published March 30, 2020 by Lee R

PokerStars now officially can move on from the black eye to its reputation that it has been working to distance itself from.

After a scandal that has stretched into nearly a decade, the other shoe has dropped at PokerStars.

An Ominous Shadow

Even while running successful operations in various jurisdictions in the well-known attempt to move on from an ugly incident in 2011, the Poker Star still had remained unresolveduntil now.

Brought to Bear

That's because on Wednesday, the well-known operator's founder Isai Scheinberg finally admitted to running the illegal online gambling business for which he and other online poker executives were indicted by New York prosecutors in March 2011.

The Original Charges

Along with 10 other principals, Scheinberg was originally indicated by federal prosecutors in New York for bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling, with the other executives previously pleading guilty and sentenced. The PokersStars organisation itself promptly agreed back in 2012 to pay $731 million to settle the charges with the Justice Department, without admitting wrongdoing.

Recent Extradition



Now 73 years old, the dual Canadian and Israeli national Scheinberg was not captured until 2019 in Switzerland, before being extradited to the United States the following January, only after dropping the extradition challenge.

Plea Arrangement



Facing charges carrying a maximum of five years in prison, prosecutors have reportedly agreed to seek a sentence of 12 to 18 months.

PokerStars Spokesman Speaks

As the waiving of extradition might indicate, Scheinberg was pleased to put the matter behind him, as confirmed be a spokesman.

The spokesman's statement added that all PokerStars players were paid back immediately and Mr. Scheinberg played an important role in ensuring that all of the players from other sites were repaid as well.

Outlook

According to prosecutors in the Manhattan office of District Attorney Preet Bharara, the key violation that the charges stemmed from was the illegal circumvention by the three online poker companies of a 2006 law barring banks from processing payments to offshore gambling websites, a costly corner-cutting measure which manifests as blatant money-laundering: good someone still had the $731 million around.
Members of the Disaster Response Force (DRF) of Telangana prepare to spray disinfectant on a street to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus in Hyderabad. (AFP)

Hyderabad: A 60-year-old patient who had tested positive for the Covid-19 virus on Saturday died in a private hospital in Hyderabad Monday morning.

This is the second death due to the coronavirus epidemic in Telangana state. The total number of coronavirus positive cases went up to 77 on Mondnay, with six fresh cases being reported.

The Telangana government did not reveal personal details of the Covid-19 fatality today, with a view to preventing any stigmatization of the victims family.

The patient had been brought in with severe respiratory distress. Despite ventilator support, the patient deteriorated very fast and could not be saved.

District medical and health officials moved in quickly to commence the rigorous process of disposal of the body. It has to be placed in a Ziploc bag and treated with disinfectant.

Family members are not allowed to go close to the body and funeral rituals are not allowed. No more than five people are allowed to be present during the final rites.

Policemen are on hand to ensure there is no breach of peace as the experience can be harrowing to families.

A senior health official, speaking on condition of anonymity, explained, This is the most sensitive part of the ordeal. Dealing with the family members requires a lot of patience. We have to ensure that the body is disposed of as per protocol and protect the family against any stigma.

Those who are admitted in hospitals for Covid-19 infection are breaking down. They are scared and not sure what is going to be done to them.

Unlike other ailments, which allow doctors and nurses to hover around a patient, Covid-19 patients are monitored on camera. A nurse comes once in four hours and the treating doctor comes only if required.

Distanced from family and medical personnel alike, and having to wait up to 24 hours for test results is breaking the spirit of many patients in quarantine.

A senior doctor explained, When risk levels are high, proximity of doctors to patients is not advised. Protective gear cannot be used for all cases. For this reason, a protocol of on-camera monitoring, low contact with patients and checking of vitals at intervals of four hours has been designed. But patients in the age group of 60-80 years are not able to understand the purpose of this protocol and are breaking down. They want a family member around, which is not possible.

Psychological counselling or reassurance is not happening. There are only physicians around whose main priority is managing the physical symptoms.
Angered by Chinas handling of the coronavirus crisis, the Boris Johnson government in the United Kingdom is reconsidering an infrastructure deal, which was struck at the cost of upsetting US President Donald Trump, with China.

At least three UK officials have expressed suspicion over China and warned Beijing that it faces reckoning once the COVID-19 crisis is over.

The British MPs are working on re-drawing the diplomatic board by putting China in a position of answering uncomfortable questions over allegations of downplaying COVID-19 pandemic.

Further, London has accused Beijing of spreading disinformation about the severity of the coronavirus outbreak in China. Few scientists have told certain newspapers that China tampered with the coronavirus cases at least 15-40 times to downplay the crisis. China had reported 81,439 at the time of writing, said the report in Business Insider.

Meanwhile, the suspicion is mounting against China for expanding its economic grip in other countries it is closely working with. China is expanding its economic power by offering help to other countries trying to combat the virus, said the report.

It is going to be back on the diplomatic board. Rethink is an understatement, the officials were quoted as saying. There has to be a reckoning when all this is over. The anger goes right to the top, they said.

The unsparing anger has reached Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who may now review his previous decision to let Chinese telecom company Huawei develop UKs 5g network. The deal was struck at the cost of upsetting an important ally  the USA, for giving Huawei a limited but significant role in improving the countrys infrastructure, said the report.

The Trump administration was reportedly miffed by the decision and the POTUS had expressed his disapproval before hanging up in an apoplectic phone call with Johnson last month.

The decision to strike an infrastructure deal didnt go well with swathes of MPs in Johnsons own Conservative Party. We cant stand by and allow the Chinese states desire for secrecy to ruin the worlds economy and then come back like nothing has happened, said one of Johnsons cabinet minister.

There is a sentiment to rethink these decisions as many think that by this deal they are allowing companies like Huawei not just into our economy, but to be a crucial part of our infrastructure, the report said.

UK government officials are of the view that this needs to be reviewed urgently as any strategically important infrastructure that relies on Chinese supply chains.

The UK Prime Minister has tested positive of coronavirus and written to the households of the country to practice social distancing.
Two coronavirus-stricken Holland America cruise ships that are carrying four dead passengers are now making their way towards Florida in the hopes they will be allowed to disembark following weeks in limbo at sea.

Both the Zaandam and Rotterdam cruise liners - which are carrying more than 1,800 passengers and crew - began transitioning through the Panama Canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in Central America, on Sunday en route to Fort Lauderdale.

Four elderly people, including one American, on board the Zaandam liner have died and two people have tested positive for coronavirus, the company said last week without disclosing their identities or cause of death.

More than 130 people on the ship have reported flu-like symptoms.

Despite now making their way towards Florida, American passengers on the ships have said they've received mixed signals about their fate even as they pleaded for help to be allowed to disembark.

The Zaandam and Rotterdam cruise liners - which are carrying more than 1,800 passengers and crew - began transitioning through the Panama Canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in Central America, on Sunday en route to Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Cliff and Doris Kolber, who live in Miramar, Florida, are among the passengers currently stuck on the cruise liner

The passengers have been told Holland America is still searching for a port that will allow them to get off the ship because the company had not yet received official permission from Florida.

Cliff and Doris Kolber, who live in Miramar, Florida, are among the passengers currently stuck on the cruise liner.

The couple, who have been barricading themselves in their room, are terrified they will become infected if they are forced to remain on the ship.

'I visualize a big bad bogey man germ outside the door,' Doris told NBC's Today on Monday.

The couple said they should be allowed to disembark in Florida because they're no different to the people who have flown or driven to the state from New York, which is the current US epicenter of the virus.

'These ships are blocked. People coming in through the airport can turn around and go back home or get a car and go somewhere else. We can't, we're in the middle of the ocean, so why are they picking on us?' Doris said.

Holland America Line President Orlando Ashford admitted in a video message that they are still trying to figure out where to disembark the passengers after the mayor of Fort Lauderdale said they could not take the risk of accepting the passengers unless appropriate safety measures were put in place.

The couple, who have been barricading themselves in their room, are terrified they will become infected if they are forced to remain on the ship

Ashford described the situation as 'difficult and unprecedented'.

As the liners made their way towards Fort Lauderdale, Mayor Dean Trantalis said that allowing them to dock in his city was 'completely unacceptable' as no special assurances had been given about the passengers' onward travel arrangements.

'No assurances have been given that they will be escorted from the ship to either a treatment facility or placed in quarantine. This is completely unacceptable,' Trantalis said.

'We cannot add further risk to our community amid our own health crisis here with thousands of people already testing positive for the deadly and contagious COVID-19 virus.

He added that the National Guard and the Department of Homeland Security 'must create a plan to protect the community'.

The Zaandam had been stuck in the Pacific Ocean since March 14 after dozens of the 1,800 people on board reported flu-like symptoms and several South American ports refused to let it dock.

The ship left Argentina on March 7 - just 24 hours before President Donald Trump advised Americans to avoid traveling on cruise ships.

Passengers showing no signs of the virus were ferried a short distance to a sister ship, the Rotterdam, off Panama on Saturday. The Rotterdam had arrived from San Diego carrying medical staff, testing kits and food for the beleaguered vessel.

Passengers showing no signs of the virus were ferried (above) from the Zaandam a short distance away to a sister ship, the Rotterdam, off Panama on Saturday

Passengers of Holland America's cruise ship Zaandam are transferred to the Rotterdam cruise ship in Panama City bay on Saturday

Panama on Saturday reversed its decision to block the Zaandam from its canal and said it would be allowed to transit from the Pacific to the Caribbean side for humanitarian reasons.

The Rotterdam has also now started transiting through the Panama Canal.

In his message, cruise company boss Ashford said he wanted to dispel a 'myth' that one was a 'healthy ship' and the other a 'sick ship.'

'Whether you're isolated on the Zaandam or isolated on the Rotterdam, the way that we protect the health of those of you that are healthy is to make sure that you're isolated safely while we figure out where it is that we're going to take you.'

Apologizing to passengers, Ashford said: 'It's been a tough last several days.'

The Zaandam left Buenos Aires on March 7 and was supposed to arrive two weeks later at San Antonio near Santiago, Chile.

Since a brief stop in Punta Arenas in Chilean Patagonia on March 14, it has been turned away from several ports after reporting that 42 people aboard were suffering from flu-like symptoms.

American passenger Laura Gabaroni pleaded for help on Sunday, saying that the ports that had turned the Zaandam away would have the deaths of passengers on their conscience.

'Four people are now dead, and that is on the head of all the people along the way who turned us away,' Gabaroni told AFP after she was evacuated from the Zaandam.

American passenger Laura Gabaroni (above with husband Juan Huergo) pleaded for help on Sunday, saying that the ports that had turned the Zaandam away would have the deaths of passengers on their conscience

Laura Gabaroni and her husband Juan Huergo have been on locked down in their cabin on the Zaandam cruise ship

'What we need more than ever right now is a place that will let us dock, so that the sick can get treated and the healthy can start doing whatever they have to do to get back to their homes and their lives.'

'Please help us.'

In a video recorded in his small cabin in which he had been confined for six days, passenger Dante Leguizamon told AFP on Saturday it was 'very difficult to maintain mental health'.

'I am... on a boat that I cannot get off, with coronavirus patients, with four dead,' he said, adding that he was 'full of uncertainty, without money... and without knowing if there is a plane back home.'

The Zandaam is the latest in a string of cruise ships stuck at sea after being turned away by ports desperate to protect their own residents from coronavirus.

It comes as more than two dozen crew members from two Costa cruise ships were brought to shore in Miami before being rushed to the hospital for testing.

Footage from last Thursday showed the crew from the Costa Favolosa and the Costa Magica jumping into lifeboats in hazmat suits to reach mainland United States.

The Costa Favolosa and the Costa Magica had been carrying a combined total of 1,939 crew and there were at least 30 who had come down with a flu-like illness.

All passengers were able to disembark the boats back in Guadeloupe and nearby Martinique in the Caribbean.

Earlier, the Grand Princess had to be docked off the west coast of the US for several days after being denied entry to San Francisco Bay en route back from Hawaii due to confirmed cases on board.

In February, that company's Diamond Princess cruise ship was in the spotlight when hundreds onboard were infected in what was then the biggest concentration of confirmed cases outside China. About 700 people onboard were infected and six died.
Despite living less than 100 miles from Spaceport America as the crow flies, Alamogordo resident Bob Pattillo had never seen the distinctive, copper-colored hangar facility that marks the nations first purpose-built commercial spaceport.

But after an all-day visit in February that featured a tour of Virgin Galactics facility, highlighted by the recent arrival of the spaceship Unity, and presentations from several heavy-hitters within New Mexicos burgeoning space industry, Pattillo said he came away with a newfound respect for the work being done 100 miles to the west.

I had no idea how many things they were doing here, Pattillo said.

The tour was part of Leadership New Mexicos alumni program, aimed at continuing to educate business leaders across the state even after theyve graduated from the organizations core program.

In keeping with the goals of the program, Pattillo and other members of the approximately 40 Leadership New Mexico alumni said they left with a better understanding of Spaceport Americas estimated $950 million impact on New Mexicos economy.

The idea that we have a facility like this in southern New Mexico is pretty impressive, said Rob Nelson, alumni program chair for Leadership New Mexico.

Patty Komko, president of Leadership New Mexico, said 2020 marks the 25th year for the nonprofit, which aims to facilitate and identify community leaders all over the state and give them the tools to understand the challenges and opportunities New Mexico faces.

Komko said the alumni program, one of four programs the organization offers, is entering its 20th year of operation, with around 1,800 graduates from 87 New Mexico communities.

Nelson said other trips during this session include a tour of Electric Playhouses new flagship location in southeast Albuquerque, as well as a trip to the ABQ BioPark to take a look at the recently constructed Penguin Chill exhibit.

Komko said the program works to identify places New Mexico residents dont always have access to, and Spaceport America has been a frequent destination since the facility broke ground in 2009.

We want to present cutting-edge topics and issues, in the hope that not only will they learn at the event itself, but they learn from each other, Komko said.

The tour was designed not only to provide insight not only about Virgin Galactic, which is planning to conduct its first commercial launch from the spaceport later this year, but also about New Mexicos wider space industry, which boasts dozens of companies all across the state.

Bill Gutman, vice president of aerospace operations at Spaceport America, told the tour group that the Land of Enchantment has a long history with air and space, dating back to Robert Goddards research on rockets in the 1930s. However, Gutman said the industry has made significant progress in New Mexico over the last decade.

To date, Gutman said the site has seen more than 300 vertical rocket launches, ranging from student competitions to paying customers.

All of us here can be proud of the fact that were helping to put Americans back to the space station on American rockets, rather than Russian rockets, Gutman said.

Chris Lopez, director of site operations for Spaceport America, said the spaceport has the potential to be a significant revenue generator for New Mexico as well. Lopez said Virgin Galactic now employs 150 people in New Mexico, with an average salary of around $50,000. Overall, Spaceport America is projected to contribute $956 million in direct, indirect and induced spending between 2016 and 2024.

We have a rare opportunity in an emerging sector, where we can take more than our fair share of customers, Lopez said.

The tour began at Spaceport Americas main terminal hangar facility, which is now Virgin Galactics hub for commercial spaceflight operations. Jeremy Brown, lead designer for Virgin Galactic, discussed the companys additions to the hangar, which converted a near-empty building into a futuristic gateway to space.

Brown said the companys main gathering area, known as the Gaia Lounge, drew visual cues from the surrounding landscape, using earth tones and tiering to match the stark desert outside.

The highlight for many in attendance was seeing Unity, which became the first spacecraft at Spaceport America, after arriving just a week prior. Several oohs and ahhs were audible as the tour group entered the hangar and the spaceship came into view.

I was thrilled to see the spacecraft, and to get a chance to understand their goals in terms of flight, Nelson said after the tour.

Pete Nickolenko, who handles mission operations and special projects for Virgin Galactic, described the experience as the culmination of years of work.

Ive been waiting anxiously for this day that just arrived, Nickolenko said.

The tour also had an opportunity to watch a sped-up simulation of a commercial spaceflight from New Mexico, which offered a peek at the edge of space and the curve of the earth without the estimated $250,000 cost of a ticket on the spaceship itself.

The visit also included presentations from Spaceport officials and New Space New Mexico, an organization attempting to help New Mexicos space industry coalesce. It wrapped up with a tour of the facilitys unique fire suppression equipment.

A key theme throughout the tour was the importance of collaboration between all parts of the state. Lopez urged the business leaders in attendance to look at New Mexicos space industry as a statewide issue, rather than one that only applies to certain regions or political affiliations.

Its not a partisan issue, its a business issue, Lopez said.

Komko added that this approach also ties into Leadership New Mexicos goal of helping business leaders all over the state connect and find ways to collaborate.

It is so much easier to do business with people that you know, Komko said. It makes our state much smaller.
In the race against the coronavirus, Germany is betting on widespread testing and quarantining to break the infection chain, a strategy borrowed from South Korea whose success in slowing the outbreak has become the envy of the world. Germany is already carrying out more coronavirus tests than any other European country at a rate of 300,000 to 500,000 a week, according to officials. But Chancellor Angela Merkel's government aims to ramp that up to at least 200,000 tests a day, according to an interior ministry document seen by several German media outlets. The goal would be to test all those who suspect they have caught the virus, as well as the entire circle of people who have come into contact with a confirmed case. Current testing criteria are focussed on those who are sick with COVID-19 symptoms and have had contact with a confirmed case. The idea, according to the document, is to move from tests "that confirm the situation" to tests that "get ahead of it". A crucial weapon in the battle would be the use of smartphone location data to trace a patient's recent movements, to more accurately track down and isolate potentially infected people. - Cell-phone tracking - While government officials and epidemiologists have come out in favour of cell-phone tracking, it remains a controversial idea in privacy-minded Germany, a nation haunted by the surveillance of the Nazi era and the communist-era Stasi secret police. Germany's proposed plans echo the "trace, test and treat" strategy that appears to have helped South Korea bring its outbreak under control. It has included mass screening for potential cases and heavy use of technology to monitor patients. Although Germany and South Korea are two very different countries, the Asian nation's virus strategy "can be an example", the head of Germany's Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for disease control told the Frankfurter Allgemeine daily. "A key point is tracing cell phone data," Lothar Wieler said. - Storm brewing - With a total of 389 deaths out of more than 52,000 cases, Germany has a mortality rate of just 0.7 percent -- compared with around 10 percent in hardest-hit Italy and eight percent in Spain. But German Health Minister Jens Spahn has warned that the country could face "a storm" of new cases in the weeks ahead. The RKI's Wieler warned that the dramatic scenes at Italian hospitals at breaking point could happen in Germany as well. "We can't rule out that we will have more patients than ventilators here too," he said. With 25,000 intensive care beds equipped with ventilators, Germany is in a better position than many countries to deal with an influx of patients in respiratory distress. But years of underfunding have left the country's healthcare system woefully understaffed. "In recent months, some intensive care beds have had to be put out of action because of a lack of staff," said Reinhard Busse, a specialist in health economics at the Technical University of Berlin. Germany currently has some 17,000 unfilled vacancies in nursing care. As a result, many hospitals have resorted to drafting in retired health professionals or student medics to help with the expected coronavirus onslaught, including at Berlin's renowned Charite university hospital. - Polish workers - "Even before the coronavirus crisis, operations had to be cancelled because of a lack of staff," Uwe Luebking, head of labour market policies at the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, told AFP. And when there is personnel on hand, nurses can spend up to four hours a day doing paperwork as Germany continues to lag behind other nations in digitalising administrative tasks, experts say. To make matters worse, confinement measures and border checks brought in to stem the virus spread have made it harder for foreign workers to travel to their German workplaces, with healthcare institutions on the frontier with Poland particularly affected. Critics have also argued that the German health system, which pays hospitals a fixed price per surgery, has led many hospitals to focus on the more lucrative practice of offering scheduled surgeries like hip or knee replacements, at the expense of strengthening their emergency care facilities. Although Spahn has urged the directors of some 2,000 hospitals and clinics to cancel all non-urgent surgeries, several are resisting the call, according to Der Spiegel weekly.
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered a three-month moratorium on loans to all TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni beneficiaries as relief efforts to tackle the Covid-19 impact on the Nigerian economy.

President Buhari in his address on Sunday directed that the freeze should be implemented with immediate effect.

He also directed that all government funded loans from institutions such as the Bank Of Industry and Nigerian Export-Import Bank be given the similar three-month moratorium.

I have directed that a three month repayment moratorium for all TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni loans be implemented with immediate effect.

I have also directed that a similar moratorium be given to all Federal Government funded loans issued by the Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture and the Nigeria Export Import Bank.

In his address, Mr Buhari also said the ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development should ensure that the school feeding program should continue in the affected states; despite order of closure of schools.

The president also urged the ministry should work with the affected state government without compromising the social distancing policies.

President Buhari had ordered residents of Lagos, Ogun and Abuja. to stay at home for 14 days from 11 p.m on Monday.

Furthermore, although schools are closed, I have instructed the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to work with State Governments in developing a strategy on how to sustain the school feeding program during this period without compromising our social distancing policies. The Minister will be contacting the affected States and agree on detailed next steps.

The newly-established Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, headed by Sadiya Farouq, was until last year Independence Day, moved away from the the office of the vice-president, Yemi Osinbajo.

The ministry is responsible for the National Social Investment Programmes which include N-Power, National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), National Cash Transfer Project (NCTP), and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).

He also directed that For on-lending facilities using capital from international and multilateral development partners, I

Mr Buhari said, I have directed our development financial institutions to engage these development partners and negotiate concessions to ease the pains of the borrowers.

He added that the payment for the conditional cash transfers beneficiaries would be immediately paid for the next two months.

For the most vulnerable in our society, I have directed that the conditional cash transfers for the next two months be paid immediately.

Our internally displaced persons will also receive two months of food rations in the coming weeks.

Since the first outbreak of coronavirus in Nigeria, the effect has had a great impact on the Nigeria economy to its foundation, with disruptions transcending all sectors.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on its part, announced last week, a N1 trillion intervention in all critical sectors of the economy on Wednesday, as against the crash in price of crude oil by $26.11 per barrel lowest since 2003 making oil price now over 50 per cent lower than Nigerias 2020 budget benchmark.

As of 11 p.m on Sunday, there were 111 cases of Coronavirus in Nigeria.
Dalmia Bharat suspends entire manufacturing capacity

30 March 2020

Indias Dalmia Bharat has suspended its entire 26.5Mta of cement manufacturing capacity as a result of the coronavirus, according to a press release.



"We are continuously monitoring the situation and the immediate task is to ensure that the chain of transmission of COVID-19 breaks. We will decide to restart production once the lockdown is over, based on the directions of the state and central governments," said Mahendra Singhi, managing director and CEO.



Although the plants have the requisite permission from both the state and the central governments to operate with minimum employees during the lockdown, Dalmia Bharat will only carry out mandatory activities required for the safety and security of the plants in the larger interest of its staff, said the company.

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The future of broadcast tower joint venture TX Australia continues to attract headlines as owners Nine and Seven pursue legal action against the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports both networks argue the competition regulator lacks authority to mediate a dispute with 10 over access to its infrastructure.

10, is a former third party in the joint venture, which it lost after going into administration in 2017. It then turned to Broadcast Australia, used by the ABC & SBS.

But the latest dispute came about as Broadcast Australia wanted to use some of TX Australias 67 sites for coverage. 10 had been seeking access to TX Australias towers but was unable to agree a price. The case was taken to the ACCC.

In a separate matter both Seven and Nine have also been in discussions about a sale of the joint venture.
She announced she was taking a break from social media earlier this month.

Kelly Killoren Bensimon was back in the public view this week as she let photographers into her home to document her social distancing attempts amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The 51-year-old Real Housewives Of New York alumna highlighted her age-defying figure as she lounged around the pool at her home in West Palm Beach, Florida, while also fitting in some essential exercise with a jog by the sea.

Passing the time: Kelly Killoren Bensimon, 51, invited photographers into her home to demonstrate how she's staying sane while social distancing. She stunned in a black and white striped bikini

Kelly showcased her svelte figure in a revealing two-piece suit covered in irregular black and white stripes.

The bikini revealed her flat tummy and strong arms as she dipped her toes in her backyard pool.

The real estate agent put her tanned trim legs on full display in a second outfit, a brilliant white one-piece bathing suit.

The swimsuit also featured a low-cut top that highlighted her cleavage.

Relaxing: The bikini revealed her flat tummy and strong arms as she dipped her toes in her backyard pool

Woman in white: The real estate agent put her tanned trim legs on full display in a second outfit, a brilliant white one-piece bathing suit

Taking the plunge: Kelly kept cool with a dip in the pool in her elegant white suit

See through: For some more casual lounging around the house, Kelly opted for a lovely white lace dress

For some more casual lounging around the house, Kelly opted for a lovely white lace dress.

The outfit was covered in large flower petal designs and still revealed her one-piece suit underneath.

Kelly cuddled up next to the house with her adorably fluffy white dog, whose walks give her a respite from constantly staying in the house.

Flower power: The outfit was covered in large flower petal designs and still revealed her one-piece suit underneath

Part of the family: Kelly cuddled up next to the house with her adorably fluffy white dog, whose walks give her a respite from constantly staying in the house

Low key: The former reality star tried out a more casual look while hanging out with the dog inside. She wore what looked like a man's blue and white seersucker shirt that she left open to reveal her bikini underneath

The former reality star tried out a more casual look while hanging out with the dog inside.

She wore what looked like a man's blue and white seersucker shirt that she left open to reveal her bikini underneath.

She also added a fedora to her look for some extra flare.

Though she's been abiding by the guidance to social distance and shelter in place, Kelly has still been able to stay in shape with solitary runs by the sea.

Getting some air: Though she's been abiding by the guidance to social distance and shelter in place, Kelly has still been able to stay in shape with solitary runs by the sea

Seeing green: The former wife of Gilles Bensimon was unmissable in a neon green cropped tank top, which she wore without a bra, matching green leggings and black trainers

The former wife of Gilles Bensimon was unmissable in a neon green cropped tank top, which she wore without a bra.

The caramel-haired beauty also wore a set of matching leggings, as well as sporty black trainers.

Earlier this month, Kelly visited the Bahamas as guidance to isolate began to pop up across the world.

She claimed to be a on a 'quarantine in luxury,' though she didn't appear to be observing rules about social distancing and limited contact with others.

Settling down: After faux-quarantining during a Bahamas vacation earlier this month, Kelly announced she was taking a break from social media amid the coronavirus pandemic

She appeared to be headed back home to the US on March 12, at which point she decided to take a breather from social media as the coronavirus pandemic heated up.

'In light of the present state, I will be not be posting on Instagram for a while. This is a time for me to focus on my girls and my family. I am thinking of all of us, and you. Thank you for supporting me for so long. It means a lot. Be careful and practice #socialdistancing,' she wrote.

The departure was short-lived, though, and she posted a photo of herself in an airplane wearing a mask two days later.

'Hey guys, I made a mistake and have made a decision to be in this with you. When I get afraid, I tend to hide and revert,' she explained.

'We are all in this together. So. Im going to continue to post. Keep criticizing and making me better. Thank you for pushing me out of my comfort zone. Love you, kkb.'
Kartik Aaryan has joined the growing list of celebrities who are chipping in to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Kartik Aaryan is the latest Bollywood celebrity to pledge his support to the PM-CARES Fund. The actor on Monday announced to donate an amount of Rs 1 crore to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.

(Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak)

Sharing about the same on his social media, Aaryan writes, "Sharing the same on Twitter, he wrote, "It is the absolute need of the hour to rise together as a Nation. Whatever I am, whatever money Ive earned, is only because of the people of India."

Check out his post

The country is witnessing a 21-day lockdown, as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to contain the spread of the virus. The daily wage workers across different avenues are badly hit by the lockdown.

On Monday, Salman Khan had pledged to financially support 25,000 daily wage workers from the film industry in the wake of the national lockdown, according to Federation of Western Indian Cine Employees (FWICE).

Earlier in the week, filmmakers and actors, including Karan Johar, Taapsee Pannu, Ayushmann Khurrana, Kiara Advani, Rakul Preet Singh, Sidharth Malhotra, and Nitesh Tiwari pledged their support to a new initiative aimed at supporting the daily wage earners.

The initiative, I Stand With Humanity, started by organisations -- the International Association for Human Values, the Art of Living Foundation and the Indian Film and TV Industry, will provide families of daily wage workers with 10 days of essential food supplies.

Last week, Indian cine stars Hrithik Roshan, Prabhas, Ram Charan, Akshay Kumar, Varun Dhawan, Mahesh Babu, and comic-TV host Kapil Sharma pledged to donate both funds and medical supplies to help the country combat the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
JOHNSTON  The novel coronavirus is on a trajectory to peak in Iowa during the next two to three weeks, a state public health official said Sunday.

Sarah Reisetter, deputy director of the state public health department, also cautioned that peak projection could change in the coming days and weeks.

Were thinking that we might see a first peak (of the virus) in the next two to three weeks, Reisetter said during Gov. Kim Reynolds latest briefing on the states response to the coronavirus. The briefing was held Sunday at the State Emergency Operations Center at Camp Dodge.

Thats the best information that we have right now, Reisetter added. I would reiterate that things are changing on a daily basis, and we continue to look at numbers, both here in Iowa and whats happening in other states. So that certainly could change. But that would be our best estimate right now.

Thirty-eight new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed Sunday, bringing Iowas total to 336 cases since the virus first appeared here earlier this month, according to state public health data.
Dmytro Razumkow revealed what kind of draft laws will be considered during the session

Speaker of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine censor.net.ua

The urgent session of the Ukrainian Parliament is planned for Monday, at 2 p.m. Dmytro Razumkov, the Speaker said so, as quoted by the Ukrainska Pravda news agency.

"We are now expecting a letter from the President on the call of the urgent session. We agreed with the leaders of parliamentary factions that the urgent session will take place at 14.00", Razumkov said.

A conciliatory board will gather at 11 a.m. It will be working in the limited mode, without the committee representatives.

According to Razumkov, the MPs will consider the draft law on treating coronavirus-struck patients and illegal shipment of medical supplies abroad. The lawmakers will also look into the draft bill on changing the working mode of parliamentary committees, with the opportunity to work online with "following written confirmation of MPs' decisions."

The governmental draft law related to changes in the state budget will be considered as well. The changes, in particular, will concern the salaries of officials; they are expected to get a maximum of 10 minimal salaries.

Besides, some new ministers will be elected.

The banking system and land reform bills will not be considered.
A Houston man who allegedly threatened his son with a gun for taking too long in the shower was arrested after an hours-long standoff with police Monday morning.

Police were called to an apartment in the 12500 block of Dunlap around 7:20 a.m. after the altercation. The adult son was getting ready for work when the father, who was not immediately identified, confronted him over the long shower, according to Houston Police Department Cmdr. Larry Baimbridge.
ATLANTA, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Marine Products Corporation (NYSE: MPX) announced today that it has temporarily suspended manufacturing operations in its Nashville, Georgia production facility. This facility produces all of the Company's recreational pleasure boats under the Chaparral, Robalo and Vortex brand names. The suspension in production activities is temporary, but the Company has not decided at this time when production will resume. Essential administrative and management functions will continue without interruption, and the Company's corporate headquarters in Atlanta remains open. Marine Products Corporation does not anticipate any delays in its upcoming first quarter 2020 earnings announcement, its Securities and Exchange Commission filings, or its 2020 annual meeting to be held on April 28, 2020.

"We have made the decision to suspend our production in order to protect our employees, their families and our community from the potential spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). We cannot predict the duration of this temporary, short-term suspension because we are proceeding cautiously and coordinating our actions with the recommendations and mandates of local, state and Federal authorities," stated Richard A. Hubbell, Chief Executive Officer. "We have prepared for this possibility during the past several weeks by expediting shipment of boats which have been pre-sold to retail customers, and stand ready to serve our dealers with existing inventory during this time. Our essential management and public company functions will continue normally during this production suspension.

"I want to emphasize that Marine Products is among the most financially stable companies in our industry. We maintain a variable cost structure which will allow us to maintain our liquid, debt-free balance sheet during this time. In addition, we do not believe that there will be any delays in payments for boats we have shipped to our dealers and retail customers, or any meaningful long-term deterioration in our supply chain. We will continue to provide updates regarding the resumption of our production operations as they become clear," concluded Hubbell.

Marine Products Corporation (NYSE: MPX) is a leading manufacturer of fiberglass boats under three brand names: Chaparral, Robalo and Vortex. Chaparral's sterndrive models include SSi and SSX, along with the Chaparral Surf Series. Chaparral's outboard offerings include various models, such as OSX Luxury Sportboats, the 257 SSX, and SunCoast Sportdecks. Robalo builds an array of outboard sport fishing boats, which include center consoles, dual consoles and Cayman Bay Boat models. Chaparral also offers jet powered boats under the Vortex brand name. The Company continues to diversify its product lines through product innovation. With premium brands, a solid capital structure, and a strong independent dealer network, Marine Products Corporation is prepared to capitalize on opportunities to increase its market share and to generate superior financial performance to build long-term shareholder value. For more information on Marine Products Corporation visit our website at MarineProductsCorp.com.

Certain statements and information included in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include statements that look forward in time or express management's beliefs, expectations or hopes. In particular, such statements include, without limitation, the statement that the temporary suspension of our production activities will be short-term in nature, that the suspension of our production activities will benefit our employees and community during the COVID-19 pandemic, that our essential administrative and management functions will continue during this period, there will be no meaningful long-term deterioration in our supply chain, that we stand ready to serve our dealers with existing inventory, that our variable cost structure will allow us to maintain a liquid, debt-free balance sheet, that there will not be any delays in payments for boats we have shipped to our dealers and retail customers, and there will be no delays in our first quarter 2020 earnings announcement, Securities and Exchange Commission filings, or 2020 annual meeting. These risks include the effect of economic conditions, availability of credit and consumer confidence levels on our business, our dependence on our network of independent dealers and the possibility of defaults by our boat dealers, and our reliance on suppliers and their ability to continue or to return to supplying raw materials, engines and components. Additional discussion of factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from management's projections, forecasts, estimates and expectations is contained in Marine Products' Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") for the year ended December 31, 2019.

For information about Marine Products Corporation or this event, please contact:

Ben Palmer

Chief Financial Officer

(404) 321-7910

[email protected]

Jim Landers

Vice President, Corporate Finance

(404) 321-2162

[email protected]

SOURCE Marine Products Corporation

Related Links

http://www.marineproductscorp.com


STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The massive red crosses adorning a U.S. Navy ship spotted off the coast of Staten Island on Monday morning served as both a beacon of hope, and a stark indication of the rising death toll across New York City as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The USNS Comfort (T-AH-20) passed under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge en route to Manhattan, in relief of local hospitals running short on medical staff and supplies as patient counts continue to increase.

Last week, the number of deaths on Staten Island due to coronavirus-related illnesses surpassed the death toll of Hurricane Sandy. Statewide, more than 1,000 people have died after being diagnosed with the virus.

The ship, like other Naval hospital ships, contains 12 fully equipped operating rooms, 1,000 hospital beds, laboratory facilities and an oxygen-producing plant. The ship is staffed by federal medical professionals, and will be used to treat non-coronavirus-related patients to free up beds at area hospitals.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

This isnt the ships first assignment in New York City.

Following the 9/11 terror attacks, the boat was stationed at Pier 92, helping to treat hundreds of Ground Zero first responders.

The Comfort joined the Navy fleet in 1987, and has since been deployed around the world in response to wars and natural disasters. Most recently, it was deployed to Central America, South America and the Caribbean to assist nations healthcare systems, according to the Navy.

The last time the ship was seen off Staten Island was under much different circumstances, when it was open for public tours in Stapleton during Armed Forces Day celebrations.

The Navy announced over the weekend that Fleet Week is canceled this year, in light of the health crisis.

In addition to the USNS Comfort, a 1,000-bed medical facility was erected at the Javits Center and a 68-bed field hospital in Central Park.

On Staten Island, elected officials are working with federal agencies to bring a 1,000-bed field hospital to the College of Staten Islands Willowbrook campus.

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A police officer has died at home after showing symptoms of coronavirus.

The 56-year-old, who served with Dorset Police but has not been named, had been unwell with a chest infection since Christmas, the force said.

On March 18 he went into self-isolation following advice from the NHS after suffering virus symptoms.

The popular and well-respected sergeant died at home in Bournemouth just before 10am on Monday, his colleagues confirmed.

Coronavirus hits the UK - In pictures 1 /81 Coronavirus hits the UK - In pictures A deserted Westminster Bridge PA A man wearing a face mask or covering due to the COVID-19 pandemic, walks past customers sat outside a restaurant AFP via Getty Images Boris Johnson addresses the nation on the Coronavirus lockdown Andrew Parsons Runners pass cardboard cutouts of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William during the London Marathon in London AP An empty escalator at Charing Coss London Underground tube station Jeremy Selwyn Electronic bilboards displays a message warning people to stay home in Sheffield PA A sign is displayed in the window of a student accommodation building following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Mancheste Reuters People take part in a 'We Do Not Consent' rally at Trafalgar Square, organised by Stop New Normal, to protest against coronavirus restrictions, in Londo AP People sing and dance in Leicester Square on the eve on the 10PM curfew Reuters Hearts painted by a team of artists from Upfest are seen in the grass at Queen Square, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Bristol Reuters Graffiti reads 'good luck and stay safe', as the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases grow around the world, under a bridge in London Reuters A sign is pictured in Soho, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London Reuters Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures, during a coronavirus briefing in Downing Street, London AP A person runs past posters with a message of hope, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Manchester REUTERS Riot police face protesters who took part in a 'We Do Not Consent' rally at Trafalgar Square, organised by Stop New Normal, to protest against coronavirus restrictions in London AP An image of The Queen eith quotes from her broadcast to the UK and the Commonwealth in relation to the Coronavirus epidemic are displayed on lights in London's Piccadilly Circus PA Military vehicles cross Westminster Bridge after members of the 101 Logistic Brigade delivered a consignment of medical masks to St Thomas' hospital Getty Images Durdle Door in Dorset Reuters Captain Tom Moore via Reuters Mia, aged 8, and Jack, aged 5, take part in "PE with Joe" a daily live workout with Joe Wicks on Youtube to help kids stay fit who have to stay indoors due to the Coronavirus outbreak PA An NHS worker reacts at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital during the Clap for our Carers campaign in support of the NHS Reuters Goats which have taken over the deserted streets of Llandudno @AndrewStuart via PA Tobias Weller PA Novikov restaurant in London with its shutters pulled down while the restaurant is closed London Landscapes: Hyde Park and the Serpentine, central London. Matt Writtle A newspaper vendor in Manchester city centre giving away free toilet rolls with every paper bought as shops run low on supplies due to fears over the spread of the coronavirus PA Theo Clay looks out of his window next to his hand-drawn picture of a rainbow in Liverpool, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue Reuters A young man cuts another man's hair on top of a closed hairdresser in Oxford Reuters General view of the new NHS Nightingale Hospital, built to fight against the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London via Reuters Jason Baird is seen dressed as Spiderman during his daily exercise to cheer up local children in Stockport, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters A woman wearing a face mask walks past Buckingham Palace Getty Images A man holds mobile phone displaying a text message alert sent by the government warning that new rules are in force across the UK and people must stay at home PA Medical staff on the Covid-19 ward at the Neath Port Talbot Hospital, in Wales, as the health services continue their response to the coronavirus outbreak. PA Prime Minister Boris Johnson taking part in a virtual Cabinet meeting with his top team of ministers PA A shopper walks past empty shelves in a Lidl store on in Wallington. After spates of "panic buying" cleared supermarket shelves of items like toilet paper and cleaning products, stores across the UK have introduced limits on purchases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some have also created special time slots for the elderly and other shoppers vulnerable to the new coronavirus. Getty Images People on a busy tube train in London at rush hour PA Mia, aged 8 and her brother Jack, aged 5 from Essex, continue their school work at home, after being sent home due to the coronavirus PA Children are painting 'Chase the rainbows' artwork and springing up in windows across the country Reuters Social distancing in Primrose Hill Jeremy Selwyn A general view of a locked gate at Anfield, Liverpool as The Premier League has been suspended PA Homeless people in London AFP via Getty Images A piece of art by the artist, known as the Rebel Bear has appeared on a wall on Bank Street in Glasgow. The new addition to Glasgow's street art is capturing the global Coronavirus crisis. The piece features a woman and a man pulling back to give each other a kiss PA The Queen leaves Buckingham Palace, London, for Windsor Castle to socially distance herself amid the coronavirus pandemic PA A general view on Grey street, Newcastle as coronavirus cases grow around the world Reuters Matt Raw, a British national who returned from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, leaves quaratine at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA Britain's Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty (L) and Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance look on as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures as he speaks during a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) news conference inside 10 Downing Street Reuters The ticket-validation terminals at the tram stop on Edinburgh's Princes Street are cleaned following the coronavirus outbreak. PA Locked school gates at Rockcliffe First School in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear PA A sign at a Sainsbury's supermarket informs customers that limits have been set on a small number of products as the number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases grow around the world Reuters Jawad Javed delivers coronavirus protection kits that he and his wife have put together to the vulnerable people of their community of Stenhousemuir, between Glasgow and Edinburgh AFP via Getty Images A sign advertising a book titled "How Will We Survive On Earth?" Getty Images A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask today in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A pedestrian walks past graffiti that reads "Diseases are in the City" in Edinburgh AFP via Getty Images Staff from The Lyric Theatre, London inform patrons, as it shuts its doors PA A quiet looking George IV Bridge in Edinburgh PA A quieter than usual British Museum Getty Images A racegoer attends Cheltenham in a fashionable face mask SplashNews.com A commuter wears a face mask at London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn A empty restaurant in the Bull Ring Shopping Centre Getty Images A deserted Trafalgar Square in London PA Passengers determined to avoid the coronavirus before leaving the UK arrive at Gatwick Airport Getty Images

Dorset Police Chief Constable James Vaughan said the death was a huge loss.

He was 56 years old and had been unwell since Christmas with a chest infection, Mr Vaughan said.

He had been off sick since Thursday 19 March and went into self-isolation following Covid-19 guidance from the NHS after displaying symptoms.

It is not yet confirmed if the death is Covid 19-related and I would strongly emphasise that it is too early to speculate on the circumstances surrounding his death.

We are all deeply saddened by the death. This is a huge loss to the police family and my thoughts and prayers are with the officers family, friends and close friends, many of whom are Dorset Police colleagues.

I have relayed to them my deepest condolences.

I would ask you to please respect their privacy at this very sad time.

Anna Harvey, chairwoman of Dorset Police Federation, described the man as a popular, well-respected custody sergeant.

This is devastating news, she said.

The thoughts of Dorset Police officers are with our colleagues family, friends and loved ones and close colleagues at this terrible time.

Our colleague was a popular, well-respected custody sergeant, one of the most difficult and challenging police roles.

But it was one he was expert in and he had the respect of his colleagues.

We are there to look out for our colleagues who will be mourning this terrible news.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chair Rod Sims has cleared supermarkets of price gouging during the coronavirus pandemic despite the claims of many shoppers.

Mr Sims says the price of fresh food such as broccoli and cauliflower has risen quite a lot but this was due to the effect of the drought and bushfires on growers.

"We have not seen evidence of significantly higher supermarket margins," Mr Sims told an Australian Financial Review business summit on Monday.

Panic buying of items such as toilet paper, rice and pasta have helped Coles and Woolworths enjoy record sales during the pandemic.

The ACCC says it has contacted gym operators, travel companies, event payment processors and others during this time to change their pricing approach.
Conversion Brewings business model is the opposite of social distancing.

That makes the current environment difficult for the downtown Lebanon craft brewery and restaurant. On March 16, Governor Kate Brown issued an executive order closing dining rooms at all restaurants and bars.

Along with many other restaurant owners in Lebanon, Matt and Rachelle Cowart have been working hard to keep their business afloat until the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.

Our motto is passionate people crafting community, said owner Matt Cowart. The thing that is hurting us and our customers the most is our business model is based around community and gathering people. And that has been taken away from us. Were trying to figure out ways to make people feel connected. Weve been doing some live-feed videos so people can chime in and ask questions and see whats going on.

Conversion Brewing has reduced its hours at this time and is closed on Sunday and Monday. From Tuesday through Saturday, Conversion is open from noon to 8 p.m. offering takeout and delivery.

Delivery is starting to pick up. Takeout is still good. Our regular customers are still coming in and grabbing stuff. Wed like them to call ahead if they can, but theyre welcome to wait here, but you have to have the social distancing stripes, Matt Cowart said, pointing to the lines of blue tape on the floor indicating where customers should stand as they wait for their orders. We can deliver all our food. Were doing a full menu and we can deliver beer, wine and cider same day.

Delivery and takeout are crucial to keeping the business afloat, but they dont allow the downtown location to fully serve its customers. There is typically a full slate of events which often spill over into Strawberry Plaza next door. Those events help drive business and grow revenue, but right now they are impossible to host.

Its not just us, its all of downtown. Everything is on pause, said Rachelle Cowart.

Cassie Cruze, the Main Street Manager for the Lebanon Downtown Association, surveyed restaurants in the area and found a mix of results so far.

There are definitely restaurants that are doing really well in the sense that people are supporting them and they are doing takeout, doing delivery. And there are other ones that have had to close their doors, Cruze said.

Barsideous Brewing downtown is not serving food at this time but is continuing to operate its craft brewery. It is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday to fill growler to-go orders.

At Conversion Brewing, the staff is trying to fill the void with online events. Rachelle Cowart had the idea for a mock telethon which they hosted last week.

We figured people would get a kick out of it and I think right now people need a laugh, Matt Cowart said.

Since opening in October 2015, Conversion Brewing has become an anchor business downtown and before the current restrictions were put in place the business had 16 employees. The loss of business has forced the Cowarts to make some difficult decisions.

At first my plan was to keep everybody on staff and after one week of this I realized really quickly there was no way to do that, Matt Cowart said. We laid off 50% of our staff. The plan is to bring them back on when this nightmare is all over. With reduced hours were down sales, obviously. Ive owned businesses since I was 16 and thats the first time Ive ever had to lay off staff, ever.

They are optimistic about the future and look forward to when they can resume their regular operations.

I think were going to see floods of people when things go back to normal, Rachelle Cowart said.

There has been a great deal of confusion about some of the restrictions that are in place, especially for craft brewers and other establishments which fill growlers. Some businesses are choosing not to fill customer growlers at this time because of possible exposure to the new coronavirus.

At Conversion Brewing, customers can still fill growlers. They can either choose a container which has already been washed and sanitized by the staff, or they can bring in their own and wait for it to be sanitized before it is re-filled.

Were not filling anything thats not sanitized, Matt Cowart said, noting that any container of two-gallons or less with a tightly sealed lid can serve as a growler. A pint jar, a quart jar, a used container. A gallon pickle jar can be filled.

Conversion has always operated a growler share program. Customers can have a growler filled and then bring it back to the location when its empty.

Were promoting it more than usual. Its a program we do all the time, but right now its getting more use, Rachelle Cowart said.

Cruze encouraged people to think about their community when they place food orders during this community quarantine

Hopefully our community continues to support our restaurants. They truly are an anchor for our downtown, Cruze said. When you buy local, youre supporting your neighbor. If we dont want to see the socio-economic decline that was once seen here in Lebanon in the 80s, then we have to support one another.

DOWNTOWN RESTAURANTS The Lebanon Downtown Association surveyed restaurants to learn what they are currently offering. Here is a summary of their findings. Barsideous  carry out, 541-570-1789, Saturdays only to-go growler fills from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Big Town Hero  delivery/curbside/carry out, 541-258-2054, call ahead to place orders.

Bigfoot Grille  carry out, 541-570-1092, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

Conversion Brewing  delivery/curbside/carry out, 541-259-2337, noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Dos Arbolitos  delivery/carry out, 541-258-5798, 11 a.m to 9 p.m. daily.

Growler Cafe  delivery/curbside/carry out, 541-570-1380 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

J & C BBQ & Catering  delivery/curbside/carry out, 541-258-7510, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Kento Hibachi & Sushi  delivery/curbside/carry out, 541-405-4281, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Serendipity Cafe and Tea  curbside/carry out, 541-570-1716, orders can also be placed at the window. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Sugar Vibes  curbside/carry out, 541-405-4069, call ahead, 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. or sold out.

Munchys  delivery, (888) 356-8624

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The Minority in Parliament has shot down proposals for government to use part of the Heritage Fund to finance the fight against the coronavirus disease in the country.

The Minority insists that its not yet time for government to touch the Fund.

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta had earlier today, Monday, March 30, 2020, proposed the amendment of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act to allow the government to utilize portions of the Heritage Fund.

President Nana Akufo-Addo in his last address to the nation on the spread of Coronavirus in Ghana on Friday, March 27, 2020, said that he has instructed the Finance Minister to make available GHC1 billion in a move to mitigate the impact of Coronavirus on businesses and households and to ensure that job losses are minimized.

But the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu argued that the government's financial programmes must directly affect the ordinary Ghanaian.

There is no difficulty in giving him (Finance Minister) approval to use the stabilization Fund but what we are saying is that the Heritage Fund was set out for a purpose and we are not there yet. So make use of the stabilization reserve to support your activities and not the Heritage Fund, Haruna Iddrisu insisted.

About the Heritage Fund

The Heritage Fund is a creation of section 10 of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act 815 enacted in 2011.

The purpose of the establishment of this fund is to provide an endowment to support the development of future generations when the petroleum reserves have been depleted according to Act 815 (2011) and amended Act 893 (2015).

The fund receives a percentage of oil revenue accrued to the Petroleum Holding Fund.

In view of this Parliament of Ghana pegged this figure at 9%. This means that out of the total oil revenue received into the Petroleum Holding Fund the Heritage Fund receives only 9%.

Coronavirus pandemic to cost Ghana GHS9.5bn  Finance Minister

The novel coronavirus pandemic is set to cost Ghana GHS9.505 billion , according to Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister.

This will be 2.5 percent of Ghana's revised GDP.

Mr. Speaker, the total estimated fiscal impact from the shortfall in petroleum receipts, shortfall import duties, the shortfall in other tax revenues, the cost of the preparedness plan, and the cost of Coronavirus Alleviation Programme is GHS9.505 billion, he said when he appeared in Parliament today, Monday.

---citinewsroom
The highest court in Europe has ruled that proceeds of crime legislation, used to confiscate illegally obtained assets, is lawful.

The case is seen as a major test for the legislation, which has become a powerful weapon for law enforcement agencies across Europe in the war against organised crime and terrorism.

Each EU member state is now using the legal tool, which was first introduced in Ireland with the setting up of the inter-agency Criminal Assets Bureau and has since been adopted by more than two dozen other countries.

The measure was brought in here after the brutal murder of Sunday Independent investigative journalist Veronica Guerin in 1996 and the passing of the hugely successful Proceeds of Crime Act.

If the EU Court of Justice had ruled against the legislation, it would have effectively scuppered the seizure of criminal assets, which has played a key role in the fight against the organised gangs over more than two decades.

The question mark over the legality of the measure was referred to the EU court in Luxembourg by Bulgaria, which asked if EU law precluded member states from providing for civil proceedings for confiscation, which were unrelated to a finding of a criminal offence.

It arose from a case in the Sofia City Court in which a Bulgarian banker is the subject of criminal proceedings for allegedly having incited others, between December 2011 and June 2014, to misappropriate funds belonging to the bank, amounting to about 105m.

A final judgment in that case has not yet been given.

Independently of those proceedings, the Bulgarian commission for the combating of corruption and the confiscation of assets found that the banker and members of his family had "acquired assets of a considerable value whose origin could not be established".

The commission brought civil proceedings before the Sofia City Court with a view to confiscating those assets.

The Sofia court, in essence, asked the EU Court of Justice whether it was legal in a civil action to seize assets if there had been no finding of a criminal offence being committed or a person convicted of such an offence.

In its judgment, the EU Court held that the proceedings before the Sofia court were civil and co-existed in national law with the confiscation regime under criminal law. The civil proceedings concerned assets alleged to have been illegally obtained and were conducted independently of any criminal proceedings brought against the person accused of committing offences and of any conviction of that person.

The court concluded that EU law did not preclude national legislation, which provided that a court "may order the confiscation of illegally obtained assets following proceedings, which are not subject to a finding of a criminal offence or the conviction of the person accused of committing such an offence".

In Dublin, the Criminal Assets Bureau last night welcomed the judgment and said it reinforced the use in many countries of legislation such as the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The bureau's most recent annual report, published last year, showed that CAB returned 5.6m to the State in 2019, including 323,000 from social welfare overpayments, while it also recovered 2.2m seized as the proceeds of crime and just over 3m in taxes.

CAB has targeted a number of high-profile Irish criminals since 1996 including Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch, Kinahan cartel member Liam Byrne and convicted drug trafficker John Gilligan. Last December Gilligan's final property was sold on behalf of the Criminal Assets Bureau.

The three-bedroom house at Willsbrook in Lucan, Co Dublin, was sold for 380,000 after the CAB received approval from the High Court to go ahead.
Oil prices plunged Monday as the number of novel coronavirus cases worldwide surged past 700,000, reinforcing worries about the impact of the pandemic on the global economy.

Stock markets reacted differently to the prospect of much of the world remaining in confinement for weeks to come, with some moving higher as officials moved to deal with the crisis, while others slid further.

Crude oil struck the lowest levels in more than 17 years on Monday, with Brent North Sea tumbling to USD 22.58 per barrel at one point.

"Estimates for the (oil) demand side are being revised downwards on an almost daily basis, while on the supply side there is still no sign of any reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Russia" regarding their price war, Commerzbank said in a client note.

There are warnings that oil could sink even further as storage tanks around the world approach full capacity.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, announced it would raise exports by 600,000 barrels per day to a record 10.6 million barrels per day in May.

In Asia, stock markets mostly fell following the steep drop on Wall Street and in Europe on Friday.

Australia was out on its own -- its stock market surging 7.0 per cent as the country's virus infections slowed, while after the close of trade in Sydney, the government unveiled an income-support plan worth USD 80 billion.

European stocks were mostly lower in afternoon trading as the number of deaths in the regions jumped past 25,000 and the economic cost of the pandemic is becoming more apparent.

The EU's economic confidence index suffered its sharpest monthly fall ever in March, which experts said Germany's economy could contract by over five percent. On Wall Street, the main indices opened higher, even though jubilation over last week's enormous US stimulus package has largely faded.

US President Donald Trump on Friday signed off Washington's stimulus measures worth more than USD 2 trillion.

However, over the weekend, Trump extended social distancing measures until the end of April, after days of indicating he would like to lift restrictions that have been crimping businesses within two weeks.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Linkedin Gemma Holliani Cahya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 30, 2020 16:41 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e64ad7 1 National COVID-19,coronavirus,bipolar-disorder,mental-health,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,#coronavirus,#COVID19 Free

Being isolated and cut off from social interaction and everyday routines can be hard for everyone during the COVID-19 pandemic. It presents an even bigger challenge to those living with bipolar disorder whose support system is an integral part of their well-being.

Content creator Olivia Fabriane, 25, has been working from home for almost two weeks since authorities imposed a so-called social distancing policy to limit the spread of coronavirus by reducing physical contact between people.

Jakarta is now the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country with 1,414 cases and 122 deaths as of Monday.

It is hard because I couldnt see my psychologist for a psychotherapy session. I also dont dare to go to the hospital to restock my medication because I'm afraid of contracting the coronavirus there, Olivia told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Olivia was diagnosed with clinical depression in 2011 and bipolar disorder in 2017.

For Olivia, social connections and mental support from her friends and psychologists are essential for her well-being. With the COVID-19 pandemic she now lives in constant worry over the safety of her family, friends and herself. Social distancing, also known as physical distancing, makes it harder for her to seek the optimal mental support from her closest circles.

It needs extra effort for me in coping with bipolar disorder. It is hard for me to concentrate and I cannot think clearly. More negative thoughts pop up when you are stuck at home for a long time," she said.

"Several days ago, I hit rock bottom and I could only get support from my friends through mobile messaging apps, she said.

And although her psychologist offered her online consultation sessions by video call, Olivia said it was far from sufficient.

It was not ideal because it relied on a stable internet connection. Not to mention the 15-minute limit per session because other patients were also waiting in line for consultation sessions with the psychologist, she said.

"I think the demand for mental health consultations has increased these days because many people feel worried and stressful [because of the pandemic]."

Bipolar disorder is a mental illness marked by extreme mood swings that cause unusual shifts in concentration, energy, activity levels and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks. It is associated with episodes of mood swings ranging from depressive lows to manic highs.

The exact cause of the disorder remains unknown but experts believe that a combination of genetics, environment and altered brain structure and chemistry may play a role.

March 30 is marked annually as World Bipolar Day to educate people about bipolar disorder and end the stigma surrounding the illness.

Mental health experts urge families and friends of people living with bipolar disorder to give them extra support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The codirector of Bipolar Care Indonesia (BCI), Agus Hasan Hidayat, said that most of the members of the group had shared how the COVID-19 situation had negatively impacted on their mental health. The biggest stressor, Agus said, was the news related to the coronavirus.

Many have been worried about access to treatment these past two weeks, especially because there is an appeal that they shouldnt see psychiatrists except if there is a serious situation that they cannot control," Agus said. "While in fact they need regular counseling and medication."

There is no official data on how many people live with bipolar disorder in Indonesia, but estimates put the prevalence between 1 to 8 percent of the population, and that nearly 45 percent of affected people don't get diagnosed properly.

The BCI alone has recorded more than 700 people with bipolar disorder registered as its members. Most of them are students and white-collar workers who are now studying and working from home to maintain COVID-19 physical distancing.

People with bipolar disorder need to limit their information intake on COVID-19, Agus said. "Those living alone in a rooming house are in a more worrying situation because their social interactions and activities are very limited compared with those living with family.

Gina Anindyajati, a general psychiatrist at the Cipto Mangunkusumo National General Hospital, said that while people were physically distant during this unprecedented period, it was crucial to maintain social contacts, especially for those with bipolar disorder.

What we need right now is social connection and empathy. [] Ask each other about their condition, share stories, send each other food, a simple form of attention is really helpful for them, she said.

It is also important for them to maintain routine activities and a daily schedule. It is also important for them to do something relaxing," she said.

Benny Prawira, founder of Into the Light Suicide Prevention Community, highlighted the importance of people with bipolar disorder getting enough sleep and never skipping on prescribed medication.

He stressed that people must first take care of themselves during the pandemic before caring for those with mental illness since it can be a challenging task.

Giving our support [to people with bipolar disorder] when we ourselves also need to adapt to the [COVID-19] situation is not an easy thing to do, he said.
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Trump cut off the microphone of PBS Newshour correspondent Yamiche Alcindor and referred to her as you people while calling her threatening.

Alcindor asked Trump about his claim that New York doesnt need as many ventilators as they are requesting.

Trump responded by saying, Listen, why dont you people act  listen, why dont you act in a little more positive. Always trying to get you, get you. Thats why nobody trusts the media.

Trump then told her to be nice.

The President then told an African-American female journalist that she was threatening, When you ask questions that are so threatening.

Video:

Trump uses "you people" when yelling at African-American journalist @Yamiche of PBS Newshour. pic.twitter.com/KjkhY0GG2x  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 29, 2020

The entire exchange was full of racial overtones from Trump. The President berates white journalists too but he doesnt call them threatening.

The White House cut off Alcindors microphone as has become the custom at these sham briefings. Another journalist passed her a microphone after hers was cut off.

Trump supporters will come up with a million defenses for Trumps use of you people, but when the entire exchange is viewed, it provides a damning racial context and insight into the bigoted way that Donald Trump views and treats certain members of the media.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook
Austria welcomed hundreds of extra care workers from Romania and Bulgaria into the country on Monday as part of further recruitment to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak. 231 workers arrived at Vienna airport and are set to support many elderly residents in Lower Austria who need 24-hour care.

According to Robert Pozdena, of the Lower Austria Chamber of Commerce, even more, workers were due to arrive on Monday but some Bulgarian nationals were unable to leave their hometowns despite having permits to go to Austria.

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.
President Donald Trump repeated his claim Monday that desperately needed ventilators that the feds delivered to New York were discovered in a warehouse and weren't being used.

He repeated the claim, which New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called 'incorrect and grossly uninformed,' in a Fox News interview as the state warns it is thousands of ventilators short of what it will need to treat patients during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic in the city.

Trump also repeated his position that it is up to states to provide ventilators.

'We delivered 4,000 ventilators to New York to their warehouse, which happens to be located which is interesting in Edison, New Jersey. It was signed off, they were delivered and they weren't used,' Trump claimed.

'And we said a number of days later: 'Why aren't you using these ventilators?' I don't know what happened. But we delivered thousands of them And we've delivered them to a lot of people.'

President Donald Trump claimed ventilators delivered to New York 'weren't used.' Days earlier he said some of the 4,000 ventilators delivered to the state were 'found' in a warehouse. New York Gov. Cuomo called the claim 'incorrect and grossly uninformed'

Not true: Andrew Cuomo - who welcomed the USNS Comfort, a 1,000-bed hospital ship in New York Monday - had already said that the claim about ventilators being 'found' was wrong and that the state was keeping them in readiness to be sent where they were needed

Trump exploded at a reporter who pressed him Sunday on statements casting doubt on the requests being made by governors for large numbers of ventilators. Cuomo has said his state may need 30,000 to 40,000 of them.

Trump on Monday said the state where he was born, but that is no longer his domicile, should be 'fine.'

'There's a whole question about that. I think New York should be fine. Based on the numbers that we see, they should have more than enough. I'm hearing stories that they're not used or they're not used right,' Trump said.

Calling in to the morning hosts on Fox, Trump predicted that ventilators would drop dramatically in price once the epidemic wanes. He said some are now going for up to $30,000 as governors and heads of state are desperate to procure them.

New York Gov. Cuomo says his state may need up to 40,000 ventilators. He called Trump's earlier claim about unused ventilators 'incorrect and grossly uninformed.'

Cuomo says the equipment is being held for a crush during peak which could come in two to three weeks.

'But we find anywhere from two to 4,000 that have been sent and aren't used, now we've done a job,' Trump said of New York.

'After this is over they'll be selling ventilators for a dollar a piece. We'll have a lot of them,' he said.

Cuomo last week called similar comments by Trump 'incorrect and grossly uninformed' when Trump claimed ventilators had been 'found' in New York.

'Of course we didn't -- that's the whole point,' Cuomo said. 'The hospitals don't need them yet. The hospitals aren't at their apex. The hospitals have enough ventilators today, but their numbers are going up.'

At issue: The shortage of ventilators like these is at the center of the dispute between Trump and the New York governor

Trump had earlier made the claim on Twitter Friday, as infections and deaths in New York rose and hospitals complained of the coming dire need for equipment: 'Thousand of Federal Government (delivered) Ventilators found in New York storage,' Trump Tweeted.

'N.Y. must distribute NOW!' Trump added.

Trump has made the position that the federal government is making up for the 'failure' of state governments the centerpiece of his coronavirus response.

Asked about Cuomo's approval ratings for his handling of the crisis, which now far exceed Trump's, the president sought to paint it as because of the federal response.

'Becausewe give them ships and we give them ventilators and we give them all of the things that were giving them, Steve, and were giving them a, were giving them four hospitals and four medical centers and all of the things that weve done,' he told Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy.

'So I mean one of the things - and I think hed admit this, one of the reasons hes been successful - if I said no were not giving you four hospitals and were not giving you four medical centers and were not sending you a ship, then hes got a hold - and we didnt give them thousands of ventilators by the way and millions of masks, because weve sent them a lot of stuff.

'Well one of the reasons he's successful is because weve helped make him successful.'

The ventilator row came after Trump on Sunday claimed that a shortage of masks and other protective equipment was because they were 'going out the back door.'

Trump made the claim at a free-wheeling White House press conference afternoon as he was asked about persistent warnings from New York hospital staff that they are short of masks and gowns.

Trump claimed typical requests for masks have gone dramatically up. 'How do you go from 10,000 to 20,000 masks to 300,000?' he asked.

Trump acknowledged that 'even though this is different' referring to the coronavirus outbreak, that reporters at the briefing 'ought to look into it.'

'Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door?' Trump asked at the briefing.

He came under fire shortly afterwords from Democratic 2020 frontrunner Joe Biden, who said in a statement: 'This is ridiculous and completely false.

'Today's conspiracy-mongering from our President is among the most reckless and ignorant moves he has made during this crisis, and there have been many. Lives hang in the balance.'

He also demanded Trump use his Defense Production Act powers to guarantee vital hospital equipment. Trump has used it once, in a dispute with General Motors over ventilator production, and admitted that he was not well-disposed towards the firm when he put it into action.



The president's remarks sparked an outcry online from outraged people who said Trump was accusing health care workers of stealing.

Kaivan Shroff tweeted that 'Trump just attacked nurses putting their lives on the line - accusing them of a consirpacy to steal masks. Truly vile.'

Shroff also posted an image of Kious Kelly, an assistant nurse manager who had just died from the virus.

Brett Edkins, political director at Stand Up America, a progressive, nonprofit group formed to challenge the president on his policy decisions, tweeted his partner was a New York City doctor and blasted Trump for the comments he made about health care workers.

'Hearing Trump accuse them of stealing masks is offensive beyond words,' Edkins said in a Tweet Sunday night.

Karly Brom suggested in a tweet that the briefings should include live footage of dying patients and medical professionals 'fighting to save them without basic equipment.

Kaivan Shroff tweeted that 'Trump just attacked nurses putting their lives on the line - accusing them of a consirpacy to steal masks. Truly vile.' Shroff also posted an image of Kious Kelly, an assistant nurse manager who had just died from the virus

Brett Edkins, political director at Stand Up America, a progressive, nonprofit group formed to challenge the president on his policy decisions, tweeted his partner was a New York City doctor and blasted Trump for the comments he made about health care workers

Karly Brom suggested in a tweet that the briefings should include live footage of dying patients and medical professionals 'fighting to save them without basic equipment

The US has had more than 142,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, which has been blamed for more than 2,500 deaths since the outbreak began.

It was not clear if the president was motivated to make his comments about the masks after New York's Governor Cuomo earlier this month said there was evidence of thefts.

'There have been thefts of medical equipment and masks,' Cuomo said during a March 6 press conference. He did not suggest it was by hospital workers.

The governor said that he had instructed the New York State Police to look into the theft.

Karly Brom suggested in a tweet that the briefings should include live footage of dying patients and medical professionals 'fighting to save them without basic equipment.
A video leaked from a meeting of the COVID-19 Control Task Force highlighted the power and influence of the economic conglomerate that operates under the aegis of the office of Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

In the video President Hassan Rouhani tells state TV Chief Ali Asgari to air free of charge advertising for online retailers to encourage Iranians to stay home and do their shopping online.

The Chief of state TV, officially known as the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Organization (IRIB), tells Rouhani that if the IRIB advertises for those companies, TOSKA will sue the state TV. TOSKA is the Persian acronym for a company registered as "Developing Iranian Businesses."

Reactions to the video clip on social media included a post by former Vice-President Abdollah Ramezanzadeh who asked: "Who are those powerful people who run TOSKA and why the IRIB chief is defending it so elaborately at the COVID-19 Control Task Force meeting in front of the President and thousands of viewers?"

A Powerful cobweb

TOSKA was registered in Iran in September 2017. Its main shareholders include three other companies namely Naqsh Aval Keyfiat, Mobile Communication Co, and Tose'eh Nour Dena Investment company. These are part of a long chain of companies whose roots reach to Tadbir Holding, the financial wing of Khamenei's office's most important economic institution: The Headquarters To Implement Imam Khomeyni's Decree.

In other words, Toska is linked to Khamenei's office via four links. Most of these interconnected companies are each other's shareholders and ae intertwined like a cobweb.

The network is so powerful that the IRIB chief, himself appointed by Khamenei is utterly afraid of them, as the video shows.

In September 2017, the state TV issued a tender bid to outsource its advertising business as its main source of income that provides astronomical financial resources for the organization. A commercial entity named Yas Holing, which turned out to be linked to the IRGC Intelligence Organization won the tender and signed a contract with the IRIB which was reportedly worth 30 trillion rials [roughly $707 million] at the official rate of exchange.

The head of IRIB at the time, Mohammad Sarafraz who was against the deal had to resign subsequently. However, as Yas Holding became bogged down in a major financial corruption case, the tender was given to TOSKA, a company that was registered only ten days before winning this contract. TOSKA was an affiliate of the cell phone company Hamrah Avval whose shares were transferred to the Headquarters To Implement Imam Khomeyni's Decree as part of Khamenei's office, after the financial corruption case linked to the IRGC Intelligence organization became known to the public.

Since then, Iran's Minister of Communication Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi has repeatedly protested against the contract between the state TV IRIB and TOSKA. Meanwhile, some lawmakers also wanted to initiate an investigation into TOSKA'a financial transactions, but the parliament presidium never allowed the move to be started.

Gambling Application

TOSKA soon developed a start-up and an application named Rubika which also belongs to Khamenei's office. It was soon turned into IRIB's tool to run the biggest lotteries in Iran, a country where gambling is illegal.

Criticizing the burgeoning lottery business, many people and some media outlets in Iran nicknamed the state TV as the IRIB casino. Subsequently Khamenei warned against gambling on TV, but nevertheless, it continued in a different format as the state TV could not simply forget about the hefty income.

Khabar Online website estimated the income as 40 trillion rials per annum although there are no accurate official figures about the venture. This equals around $950 million based on the official exchange rate.

According to a statement issued in March 2018 TOSKA sponsors 79 programs on the Iranian state TV with a huge investment which makes it effectively IRIB's most important and most prolific producer.

Meanwhile, TOSKA is accused of using its vast influence to fire a popular broadcaster, Adel Ferdowsipur, who was against gambling on TV. It has also produced a couple of movies that propagate Iranian harliners' party line. TOSKA is also active in developing Iranian social networking applications.

It appears that Khamenei's office has been using the IRIB not simply as a broadcaster. It is also a tool to acquire and distribute money via its monopoly which enables the office to get rid of its commercial rivals.

According to a Reuter report in 2014, the Headquarters To Implement Imam Khomeyni's Decree, now part of Khamenei's office had $93 billion in assets at its disposal. It is now further developed into a treasury for Khamenei and controls his business interests.

Among other things, the headquarters is now also known as the Sultan of Masks as it has been using the outbreak of COVID-19 as an opportunity for making more money by importing and producing protective masks.

The headquarters managers include many of former President Ahmadinejad's aides including Ali Nikzad, Mehrdad Bazrpash and Kaveh Eshtehardi.
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Christina Applegate and Will Ferrell in a still from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. (Paramount)

Set your DVR and settle in as TopFilmTip brings you cult comedy, hard-boiled Brit thriller & a veritable horror-fest to help you unwind with the best free films on TV for Monday, 30 March.

Presidential bodyguard gets drawn into thwarting a terror plot in Gerard Butlers ultra-violent and questionable action sequel London Has Fallen 9pm 5Star

Newsreader pursues pirate hooker with help of mayo toasting moron, sex panther & trident melee Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy 9pm Sky 1

Elvis hallucinater & ex-prostitute go on the run in Quentin Tarantinos cameo-fuelled, delectably dialogued Pulp Fiction preamble True Romance 10pm Sony Movie Channel

Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette in 'True Romance'. (Warner Bros.)

New romantic 80s biker punks press-gang teen while bouffanted brother seeks idiotic assistance in superb sax-jamming vampire treat The Lost Boys 11pm 5Star

Gay cop Paddy Considine & hard-boiled Jason Statham track serial cop killer in hammer bludgeoning, crowbar bashing Brit thriller Blitz 11:05pm Channel 5

Inspired artist's work spirals into demonic depths after he moves family to Texan town whilst treading line between passion & madness in soul slithering horror The Devil's Candy 11:20pm Horror Channel

Read more: The best 4K TV deals

Would Elijah Wood become creepy, scalping obsessed, mannequin collecting, POV psychopath serial killer? Elijah Wood would in lesser known treat Maniac 00:55am Horror Channel

Cake craving corpses, wife munching crate-yetis, bugged-out billionaires & tidal torment in masterful horror anthology Creepshow 1:25am Film4

Mysteriously causing deaths of those immediately around him, amnesiac seeks enigmatic answers in uncommon, off-kilter curio Radius 2:40am Horror Channel

Follow TopFilmTip on Twitter for daily film recommendations.
Australia's stock market pulled a rabbit out of the hat on Monday delivering the best gains on record despite a global economic shutdown designed to slow the spread of a deadly virus. The S&P/ASX 200 gained 7 per cent, while the All Ords gained 6.5 per cent.

The gains also coincided with the end of the March quarter, as fund managers scramble to lock in their positions. A new $130 billion wages package from the Federal government in Canberra boosted the market further in the late afternoon.

The local bourse soared 7 per cent on Monday, its best one-day performance on record. Credit:Tamara Voninski

"We got hit pretty hard on Friday, probably undeservedly, so Monday was a little bit of a rebound,'' said senior investment advisor at Shaw and Partners, Adam Dawes.

"I think some fundies said 'lets start buying' and pushed the market higher.''
Some L.A. County jail inmates said they don't have adequate cleaning supplies to keep themselves safe. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

The thin bar of soap Joseph Clarino said he and other inmates get at Los Angeles County's Men's Central Jail is supposed to last three days. Clarino said hes lucky if its enough for one shower  maybe two if cut in half  and that the shortage extends to other supplies. Some inmates, he said, recently used torn bedsheets when toilet paper ran out.

Across the street at Twin Towers Correctional Facility, Richmond Davis said fellow inmates were cleaning with the same mop theyd used days earlier when a toilet overflowed with sewage.

As concerns over the novel coronavirus grow, conditions inside the nations largest jail system have raised alarms among civil rights advocates and inmates, who say social distancing is impossible when more than 100 people are crowded into a dorm and some bunks are three feet apart. Inmates, they said, may go days without the cleaning supplies needed to keep themselves safe.

This is worse than a cruise ship, Kristopher Howard, an inmate who has been in jail for almost a year and a half, said in a phone interview from Twin Towers. Everybodys on top of each other.  Im scared. Im scared for what could happen.

The Men's Central Jail. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

There are no confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, inside the sprawling L.A. County jails, which typically house about 17,000 people. But cases have emerged at lockups elsewhere. Mens Central recently dealt with an outbreak of mumps in some of its dorms that infected 47 inmates and led to vaccinations of 4,500 inmates and staff, underscoring how rapidly infections can spread behind bars and contribute to overwhelming the medical system.

COVID-19 outbreaks at Rikers Island and other jails in New York City infected more than 230 prisoners and staff. In California, inmates have also tested positive in Orange County and in state prisons.

Robert L. Cohen, a physician who is a member of the NYC Board of Correction, said the New York outbreak was exacerbated by a 10-day delay in releasing people early. Over the last four days, authorities have cut the jail population by 400 inmates, down to 4,900, he said, offering a cautionary tale to jail and prison leaders across the nation.

Story continues

Wasting time is going to waste lives, and no one should die in jail who doesnt have to, Cohen said.

As of late Friday, 44 L.A. County jail inmates had been isolated and tested because they showed flu-like symptoms or had a fever. Of those, 35 tested negative. In the meantime, hundreds of inmates housed in units with those awaiting test results are also quarantined, part of an effort to prevent a potential outbreak.

Some said its only a matter of time.

I'm anticipating at some point I will get a positive result  and then we have a plan for that, said Jackie Clark, the countys correctional health director.

The Sheriff's Department did not respond to questions about how many personnel, if any, have tested positive for the virus. The Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs said Saturday that at least one of its members has tested positive, and it expects that number to grow.

L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva briefs the media at the Hall of Justice about safety precautions the department is taking regarding COVID-19. (Nick Agro / Los Angeles Times)

L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said last week that cleaning crews have "doubled up on all the cleaning protocols and that an ongoing education campaign is provided in English and Spanish.

"All of the high-traffic areas and surfaces are constantly being sanitized. We have a lot of inmate crews, and they have all the protective gear necessary, and they are scrubbing everywhere they can.

He said every inmate has access to soap and running water at all times, in every single cell, but some inmates suffering from mental illness may not want to adhere to hygiene standards.

Villanuevas remarks were at odds with what some inmates told The Times in telephone interviews last week.

Benedek Virag, who was moved from state prison to county jail last fall, said theres no regular delivery of soap or cleaning supplies.

Sometimes we get it; sometimes we dont, he said from Twin Towers. Its a crapshoot with that.

Virag, 38, and Howard, his bunkmate, said they first learned of COVID-19 from news accounts. But they said regular newspaper deliveries ended around the time the virus paralyzed life in the U.S., and since then deputies have blocked television news broadcasts.

We ask almost every day to watch the news, and they never let us, Howard, 35, said. We want to see whats going on.

I feel like Im gonna die in here, he said.

Instead, Howard said, inmates are shown a video in which a doctor advises them not to touch, hug or kiss, and to wash their hands.

Even on a non-virus day, theres a danger to being in the jail. And now youre adding the virus in it too? Virag said.

L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger signed an executive order that clears the way for the Sheriff's Department to release more inmates from Men's Central Jail, shown. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

The Sheriffs Department has taken steps in recent weeks to reduce the jail population, releasing 1,700 inmates. As of Friday, there were fewer than 14,500 inmates in custody.

L.A. County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey moved last week to release hundreds more pretrial detainees accused of nonviolent crimes. Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Kathryn Barger, meanwhile, ordered public health officials to examine conditions in the lockups to identify "all necessary and appropriate measures" to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among inmates and staff.

The point is that you dont want disease incubating in the county jail system, and we have an obligation to make sure that that isnt the case, said Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who requested the jail assessment. He called reports of inadequate cleaning supplies unacceptable.

Ron Kaye, a Pasadena attorney who has sued the Sheriff's Department and other law enforcement agencies over conditions in jails, said L.A. County jails are notorious for low hygiene standards and unhealthy conditions.

"They are essentially sitting ducks," Kaye said of inmates. "This is not meant to be a death sentence."

If the virus erupts in custody, it's going to spread like wildfire, he added.

At the Men's Central Jail, Steve Kaplan and other inmates said the 9300 dorm  home to 100 or so people  was locked down for more than a week after two people fell ill. No inmates were allowed in or out, which meant no court and no attorney visits. During that time, inmates said, deputies began wearing masks and gloves, but some medical requests were ignored.

Kaplan, 58, said he has severe asthma and made more than a dozen requests for an inhaler. The Sheriffs Department said Kaplan was given an inhaler on March 4 and again on March 25 after he indicated he had lost it.

Kaplan, who has been in jail on a probation violation since December, when he was arrested on suspicion of trespassing in the lobby of a downtown L.A. hotel, said sleeping is difficult. He said he contends with almost always being cold, with the dorm maintained at about 60 degrees.

Its like slow torture, keeping us in these conditions, Kaplan said. Its horrible.  Im traumatized for 22 hours a day.

He is scheduled to be released in late May.

Clarino, 30, said that the dorms mop head is broken, theres no squeegee to clean the restrooms, and only two of six phones work, but theres nothing with which to wipe them down.

The body odor is so strong that deputies will joke, Man, it really stinks in that dorm; thank God for the masks, said Clarino, who was elected by inmates as the 9300 dorms house mouse to liaise with deputies. When inmates asked for masks, he said, deputies told them to buy them online.

They almost treat it like everyone in here has the plague, Clarino said.

Clarino said he and others are considering standing six feet apart, instead of sitting on their bunks, when deputies come by for head counts, in an act of protest to prove how difficult it is to practice social distancing.

At Twin Towers, Davis, 56, said he also struggles with keeping distance in his pod of 44 people and worries because he has a history of asthma and respiratory infection. He and other inmates typically dilute any cleaning solutions with water to make them last longer.

While Davis was on the phone with a reporter, two 24-ounce bottles of cleaning solution appeared in his pod, he said.

They must be listening, he said.
[March 30, 2020] OKCoin Japan Announces the Completion of Virtual Currency Exchange Service Provider Registration

TOKYO, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- OKCoin Japan K.K. (www.okcoin.jp) announced today the completion of its registration with the Kanto Local Finance Bureau as a Virtual Currency Exchange Service Provider based on Japan's Payment Services Act. OKCoin Japan is the Japanese subsidiary of OK Group, one of the major global providers of Blockchain-based technologies and cryptocurrency-focused services. Since its establishment in September 2017, OKCoin Japan has focused on building a comprehensive framework of business operation and internal governance to ensure its compliance with the Payment Services Act and related regulations, business guidelines issued by the Japanese financial regulator Financial Services Agency (FSA), and self-regulatory rules promulgated by the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Asociation (JVCEA). OKCoin Japan has constructed a secure, stable, and robust service environment with enhanced KYC and dynamic customer risk profiling capabilities, solid customer asset protection measures, advanced cryptocurrency transaction technologies, and innovative product offerings that will serve investment needs of a diverse clientele ranging from individual traders to institutional asset managers. OKCoin Japan also has developed and implemented proprietary AML/CFT technologies such as automated transaction filtering and monitoring systems as part of its effort to combat illicit activities in the crypto industry.



OK Group, founded in 2013, is a global FinTech enterprise specialized in Blockchain and cryptocurrency with over 1,000 employees globally located in China, the United States, Malaysia, the Philippines, and several other locations in Asia and Europe. In addition to providing Blockchain and cryptocurrency exchange services, as a key strategy for global expansion, OK Group seeks to cooperate with industry leaders as local partners to jointly promote the development and commercialization of the Blockchain technology. Equipped with state-of-the-art technologies and products, OK Group aims to actively contribute to the advancement of the Blockchain industry worldwide. By leveraging OK Group's superior technologies and product offerings, OKCoin Japan will soon launch its exchange service for individual and corporate customers in Japan. Service details and schedule will be announced shortly. In the meantime, pre-registrations of customer accounts are accepted on its website.

About OKCoin Japan OKCoin Japan is the Japanese subsidiary of OK Group, a leading global provider of Blockchain-based technologies and services. Founded in September 2017 and based in Tokyo, OKCoin Japan is poised to provide secure, stable, and innovative cryptocurrency trading services to individual and corporate customers in Japan. Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200330/2763819-1 SOURCE OKCoin

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The European Union warned Monday that economic policy disagreements among member states in reaction to the coronavirus pandemic risked splitting and dooming the European project.

EU Economics Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, a former prime minister of Italy, also told Italy's Radio Capital that mutualised debt would never be agreed upon by eurozone members, but that it was essential for Germany to come to an agreement with its southern neighbours currently hardest hit by the pandemic.

"The European project is in danger of dying out," Gentiloni told Radio Capital.

"It is clear that if the economic differences between European countries, rather than shrinking in the face of a crisis like this, instead increase... it will be very difficult to keep the European project together," he warned.

Without Germany, he added, "we cannot find a compromise."

On Thursday, Germany and other northern EU states rejected a proposal backed by nine countries, including Italy, Spain and France, for so-called "coronabonds."

These would be issued in the name of the eurozone as a whole and in effect result in pooled debt among member states of the single currency zone -- a long established red line in Berlin.

Gentiloni said he had expected the reaction by Germany, calling it a "long-standing vision that we know by heart."

Germany has repeatedly dismissed the idea of mutualised European debt as an attempt by over-spending southerners to take advantage of the cheap borrowing rates enjoyed by states with balanced budgets, without being subject to fiscal austerity measures.

European member states should "start with the common objectives" in order to break the standstill, Gentiloni said, adding that he recognised that pooled borrowing would never be agreed upon.

"We need a new unemployment guarantee instrument, a business support plan and we need the "Green Deal" development model to not be forgotten," he said, adding that one possible way to finance such objectives was to issue bonds.

"One is to issue bonds, but not generically to mutualise the debt, which will never be accepted," he conceded.

Gentiloni also said he was "not very optimistic" about continued discussions over the possible use of the European Stability Mechanism, which normally attaches strict fiscal conditions to its emergency borrowing.

Some say that mechanism, set up in 2012 during the European sovereign debt crisis, would in the current coronavirus crisis unfairly punish already highly indebted countries such as Italy, imposing new and unattainable conditions for fixing its public finances.

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Over 700 people have been booked here for allegedly violating the lockdown imposed across the country to stop the spread of coronavirus infection, which has so far claimed 29 lives in India.

SSP Abhishekh Yadav said the police have registered 135 cases against 727 people and 4,182 vehicle owners were fined. As many as 612 vehicle were seized since their documents were unavailable, he said.

The number of coronavirus cases in Uttar Pradesh rose to 88 on Monday with report of 16 new cases.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A garda was rushed to hospital this morning after receiving a cut to his head after attending the scene of a stabbing in south Dublin.

At approximately 2.30am this morning, gardai in Kimainham were called after a man (25) was stabbed in St Vincent's St West in Inchicore.

The injured man was lying on the ground and as the male suspect (24) tried to assault the man again, a garda intervened and was injured.

Both the injured man and the garda were rushed to St James's Hospital.

The garda has since been released and the other injured man remains in hospital.

The suspect was arrested at the scene and is currently detained under Section 4, of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984 at Kilmainham Garda Station.
MILAN, March 30 (Reuters) - Around one-third of those working at an Amazon delivery station in central Italy went on strike on Monday, a union representative said, citing a request for enhanced safety measures for workers amid the coronavirus health emergency.

A company representative told Reuters activity at Amazon's site in Calenzano, near Florence, was not affected and said it had already cut deliveries and stepped up safety measures to protect both its direct employees and independent couriers.

Around 300 people work at the site, more than two-thirds of them independent couriers delivering parcels for the world's largest online retailer.

The death toll in Italy from COVID-19 has risen by 812 in the last 24 hours, the Civil Protection Agency said on Monday, reversing two days of declines. The country, the hardest hit in the world, saw its total death tally rise to 11,591 since the outbreak emerged in northern regions on Feb. 21.

To grapple with an unprecedented health emergency, the Italian government on March 22 ordered non-essential businesses to close until at least April 3. But it said others in strategic and essential sectors should keep working.

Parcel and mail delivery is considered essential and has not halted, provided the one-metre safety distance is respected and workers wear face masks and gloves.

"Several employees working at the site use face masks for days instead of having new ones each day," one union representative told Reuters. He added that Amazon representatives did not attend a meeting called by local authorities in Florence to discuss the health emergency.

Amazon said it has reduced deliveries in Italy since March 22, focusing on products that are most-wanted by customers and stopped accepting orders for many products not considered a priority.

"As customers use e-commerce as a useful tool for their social distancing efforts, we too have adopted specific measures within our sites so that our employees can respect social distance and work safely," the company said in a statement.

Amazon said it was also supporting delivery service providers by providing drivers daily with sanitising wipes and a bottle of disinfectant. It also said it created a committee with workers to discuss safety issues. (Reporting by Francesca Landini; Editing by Dan Grebler)
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Unfazed by the nationwide



lockdown, a 22-year-police constable walked for nearly 20 hours during the 450-km journey from his hometown in Uttar Pradesh to Rajgarh in Madhya Pradesh to join duty.

The Rajgarh police lauded constable Digvijay Sharma's commitment towards work and advised him rest for a few days as his legs got sore muscles after travelling long hours on foot.

Talking to PTI on Monday, Sharma said he was on leave from March 16 to 23 to appear for his BA (Bachelor of Arts) exams at Etawah in Uttar Pradesh. But, the exams got postponed due to the shut down.

"I contacted my boss - Pachor police station inspector - and told him that I want to join duty during these testing times. He advised me against it as there was no transport facility available," he said.

Sharma's family also advised him to stay at home, but he could not hold himself back.

"I started my journey on foot from Etawah on March 25 morning. I walked for nearly 20 hours during my journey in which I took lifts from people on motorbikes and reached Rajgarh on Saturday night. I subsequently informed my boss about my arrival," he said.

Sharma said during the journey he did not get anything to eat for a day, but later some social organisations provided him food.

"My boss asked me to rest as I have sore legs. I will join duty soon," said the constable, who joined the Madhya Pradesh Police force on June 1, 2018.

Rajgarh Superintendent of Police (SP) Pradeep Sharma said he gave the constable a letter lauding his commitment and dedication towards work during such challenging times.

"I am going to write to the state Director General of Police, requesting him to give the constable a letter of appreciation," the SP added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Donald Trumps announced goal of having America back to work by Easter should be welcome news across the nation but nowhere more so than here in Pennsylvania. For both the religious and sectarians, Easter is a symbol of rebirth and resurrection. Colored eggs and bright flowers represent the promise of the birth and bloom each year. Thousands of businesses and millions of citizens are suffering under mandates recently imposed by Governor Tom Wolf. They need relief this holiday season, and the president is poised to give the Easter rebirth they so desperately need.

The coronavirus is indeed a threat we should take seriously and fight vigorously. However, our current path of shutting down the economy comes with immense costs and unintended consequences that will ultimately harm our efforts to combat this disease.

Not only has Gov. Tom Wolf dictated the closure of many businesses across the state, but he and his team have seen fit to pick and choose which companies should be allowed to conduct commerce and which were deemed expendable.

Under the initial order, hotels and rest stops were closed, leaving drivers attempting to fill our stores with needed supplies and deliver medical goods with nowhere to sleep, eat, shower, or rest. They closed bathrooms at turnpike stops but added porta-potties. Even law firms and insurance companies were on the closure list at a time when business owners and property owners wanted to know what their legal rights and protections were under their policies.

Bureaucrats decreed farmers and ranchers could remain open, but loggers and construction trades could not. Oil and gas extraction could continue, but coal miners were sent home. Sawmills were closed while paper manufacturers remained open. Heating and air conditioning manufacturers were allowed to work, but metalwork machinery manufacturers were not. The initial list closed clothes cleaning services; the next day, they opened laundromats but not dry cleaners. After another day the dry cleaners were allowed to open. The government was so out of touch it did not even realize the importance of cleaning clothes during a virus epidemic.

The list goes on and on. And the afterthought waiver process (there was not a waiver policy in effect when the emergency order was announced) is arbitrary and capricious. I have seen waivers that were granted to one business owner who does the exact same thing as another that had his request denied. It serves to highlight not only the erratic ineffectiveness of this approach but also the catastrophic harms of the government picking winners and losers.

It creates a dangerous distrust of government from the very types of people who made Americas economy and will save it in days ahead.

Gov. Wolf may think that only some businesses are essential, but all of the entrepreneurs I have spoken to believe their companies are crucial, and they have taken steps to protect their employees, their customers, and their clients, while continuing to provide service. As someone smarter than me said, all businesses are life-sustaining to someone.

Millions of small businesses across the nation are suffering the same fate as those here in Pennsylvania. President Trump is right to say we must avoid turning the current situation into a depression. Small business is the engine of our nation, employing nearly 60 million people or over 47-percent of the entire workforce. These entrepreneurs risk everything to build better lives for themselves and their families. They are certainly capable of running their businesses while following protocols to keep themselves and their communities safe.

We cannot go backward. The heavy thumb of government imposing random, hand-picked closure measures cannot be the way forward. We should seek solutions to protect the vulnerable populations and do what it takes to ensure adequate medical capabilities to treat those who fall ill, but let the rest of America get back to work to salvage whats left of their businesses.

Time is short. The current stimulus package of over $2 trillion likely wont even cover the cost of the ongoing shutdown period. Millions who risked everything to open a small business or restaurant will see their dreams shattered because the government would not allow them to work.

We cannot allow this to happen.

Practice social distancing. Wash your hands. Wear a mask if you want. But please, government officials, listen to President Trump and let Americans reopen the nation for business.

Greg Rothman is a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing the 87th House district in Cumberland County
On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot while leaving a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Reagan had addressed the Building and Construction Workers Union of the AFL-CIO.

The headline on The Patriot on March 31 shouted in large letters, REAGAN SHOT.

As Reagan was walking to his limousine at 2:27 p.m. from the side entrance on Connecticut Avenue, John Hinckley Jr., 25, who was armed with a .22 caliber revolver, began shooting.

Hinckley's first shot hit White House Press Secretary James Brady in the head. Brady was left partially paralyzed.

Also wounded were District of Columbia police officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service Agent Timothy McCarthy.

All six of Hinckleys shots missed Reagan. While one Secret Service agent pushed Reagan into the limo, another put himself between the shooter and the president. However, the last bullet ricocheted off the limousine and hit him in the left underarm and lodged in his lung.

Agents at first did not realize Reagan had been hit. After realizing he was injured he was taken to George Washington University Hospital. He arrived there less than 4 minutes after leaving the hotel.

At the hospital, according to history.com, Reagan said to his wife, Nancy, as he was taken into surgery, Honey, I forgot to duck. He also told the doctors that he hoped they were Republicans.

Reagan began resuming some of his duties the next day. He returned to the White House on April 11, 1981.

Hinckley reportedly was trying to impress actress Jodie Foster. Hinckley had stalked her and wrote her a letter saying he was trying to gain her love and respect.

Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity in June 1982 and committed to a psychiatric facility. He was permitted supervised day trips in 1999 and was allowed to visit his parents once a week. He was released in 2016 and moved in with his elderly mother in Virginia. Officials had determined that he was no longer a threat to himself or others.

In 2018, a federal judge ruled that Hinckley was permitted to live on his own. He was required to do volunteer work or have a job at least three days a week and was restricted to a 75-mile radius of Williamsburg, Va. He is required to have a GPS-enabled cell phone whenever he is away from home, according to a story by USA Today.

Reagan, former governor of California and a former actor, was elected president in 1980. He had been sworn into office in January 1981, just two months before he was shot.

He won a second term in the 1984 election and was sworn into office in January 1985.

After retiring he was diagnosed with Alzheimers disease in 1994 when he was 83 years old. He died in California on June 5, 2004, at the age of 93.

During the shooting in 1981, Brady had been shot above his left eye. He was left with partial paralysis that required him to use a wheelchair.

He and his wife, Sarah, became gun control advocates and lobbyists. They founded the nonprofit Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was passed in 1993. Brady died in 2014.

FILE - In this March 30, 1981 file photo, Secret Service agent Timothy J. McCarthy, Washington policeman, Thomas K. Delehanty, and White House press secretary, James Brady, lie wounded on a street outside a Washington hotel after shots were fired at President Reagan. Federal prosecutors say the man who shot President Ronald Reagan and three other people in 1981 won't face new charges in the death last summer of Reagan's former press secretary. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, File)AP

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Linkedin Isabelle Le Page (Agence France-Presse) Berlin, Germany  Mon, March 30, 2020 18:07 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e6ce95 2 Health domestic-violence,domestic-abuse,coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic,violence-against-women,lockdown,quarantine Free

With families across Europe confined to their homes to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, fears are rising of a surge in domestic violence.

From Berlin to Paris, Madrid, Rome and Bratislava, associations that help victims of domestic violence have sounded the alarm after Europe overtook China to become the epicenter of the pandemic.

"For many people, their home is already not a safe place," says the German federal association of women's counselling centers and helplines (BFF).

But the stress caused by social isolation is exacerbating tensions and increasing "the risk of domestic and sexual violence against women and children", the association warns.

And the risks are not limited to homes where violence was already a problem before.

On top of the stress caused by confinement, fears around job security and financial difficulties are also increasing the likelihood of conflicts.

"It's putting a lot of pressure on households," says Florence Claudepierre, head of the FCPE parents' federation in the Upper Rhine, a region hit hard by the pandemic in France.

She said she is hearing stories of "parents who are cracking, who can't carry on" in families that have not previously had any problems.

In China, which is slowly emerging from several weeks of total lockdown, the women's rights organization Weiping has reported a threefold increase in reports of violence against women.

In Spain, which has the second-worst outbreak in Europe after Italy, a 35-year-old mother of two was murdered by her partner last week.

Read also: Mental issues sparked by pandemic could be 'silent killer': Red Cross

'Where can I go?'

Elsewhere, help centers have noted a drop in calls for help -- which is not necessarily seen as a good sign either.

For children, young people and women who are victims of domestic violence -- mental or physical -- the current situation means "being constantly available" for abuse by the perpetrator, the German federation stresses.

Decisions to shut down schools, sports clubs and youth centers are important to curb the spread of the virus and prevent hospitals from being overrun, acknowledges Rainer Rettinger, who heads a German child protection association.

But "who is seeing and hearing abused children today?" he asks.

"Now violence, too, has been confined. That's what we're afraid of," says Martine Brousse, head of Parisian organization La Voix de l'Enfant (The Child's Voice).

As governments pour billions into their economies and health services, they should "not lose sight of the importance of equality and fundamental human rights," Beatrice Fresko-Rolfo, the general rapporteur on violence against women for the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, pointed out recently.

Domestic violence associations are facing a double-edged sword: With many social workers having to work from home, they are unable to reach victims; and when people need to be brought to safety, there are often not enough places in the refuges.

"Women have called us and told us they are experiencing violence at home. They are asking: Where can I go?" says Canan Gullu, from Turkey's federation of women's organizations.

In Germany, families minister Franziska Giffey has called on municipalities to organise alternative reception facilities if necessary, while neighboring Austria provides guaranteed places in women's refuges or the removal of violent family members from quarantined households.

In the countries with the strictest lockdowns, such as Italy, victims are exempt from some of the rules -- such as the requirement to carry a document justifying why they are leaving their home -- if they need to visit a refuge center.

"The current situation is unprecedented," says Adriana Havasova, a psychologist from Bratislava. She hopes the confinement will be limited to two or three weeks.

If it goes on for several months, "I can't imagine how much more domestic violence could increase," she warns.
Islamabad, March 30 (IANS) Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered opening of all national highways to ensure smooth and adequate supply of food items from farms/factories to markets amid "panic buying" due the coronavirus pandemic, it was reported on Monday.

While presiding over a meeting of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) core committee at the Prime Minister House on Sunday, Khan reiterated his commitment to providing ration at the doorsteps of the poor and daily wage earners through a force of young volunteers he is going to formally form on Monday, reprts Dawn news.

The meeting was informed that the government had started providing personal protection equipment (PPE) to all medical practitioners, including doctors and paramedical staff currently performing their duty in different hospitals, and intensive care units (ICUs) and quarantines had been established across the country for coronavirus patients.

In case of death of any of the medical practitioners during duty, he/she would be given a 'Shuhada' (martyr) package.

"The core committee was apprised that although the prime minister had ordered restoration of movement of goods transport in the whole county a couple of days ago, almost 80 per cent of goods transport was still off the road due to certain restrictions made by provincial governments, including blocking of national highways," Dawn news quoted Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information Firdous Ashiq Awan as saying after the meeting.

She said the premier was quite concerned over reports about shortage of food items in many parts of the country and ordered strict action against those involved in hoarding, black marketing and charging exorbitant prices.

Awan further said that Khan had held consultations with the provinces and would announce a road map to ensure smooth supply of essential items across the country.

Prime Minister Khan, she said, was informed that there was sufficient quantity of food items in the country, including agriculture products like wheat, rice, pulses and grains.

This development comes as Pakistan has so far reported 1,593 cases with 16 deaths.

--IANS

ksk/
The Centre told the Supreme Court on Monday that the exodus of migrant workers from the cities to their hometowns will have to be stopped to ensure that it does not aggravate the threat posed by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta spelt out the Centres stand during a hearing on a petition filed by two lawyers, asking the court to issue directions to the central and state governments to address the threat arising from the mass migration following the three-week national lockdown imposed on March 25.

A message should not go out that the government is facilitating the migration, Mehta said. Migration has to be stopped,,he said.

The lockdown sparked an exodus of tens of thousands of migrant workers, mainly daily wagers who lost their livelihoods, from the cities to their homes in the hinterland of India. In the absence of public transport, many started walking hundreds of kilometres across state borders, posing the threat that Covid-19 may spread to rural India.

The petition filed by advocates Rashmi Bansal and Anuj Gupta cited the possibility that many of the migrant workers may have been infected by the virus and become carriers of the disease. Desperate to return home, they arent maintaining social distancing, posing the threat that the disease may spread, they argued. The workers shouldnt be allowed to travel without being sanitized / disinfected, the lawyers said.

The Supreme Court, after hearing the Centre and the petitioners through video-conferencing, indicated that it may not be inclined to interfere in the issue since it fell within the executive domain. The bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde, remarked that it did not want to complicate the matter when the government was already dealing with it.

I think government is taking certain measures. We do not want to complicate things by issuing orders on things the government is already doing, the CJI said.

The court did not pass any order but allowed the central government to file a status report on the issue. The matter will be heard again on Tuesday.

The petitioners also said the people fleeing the cities should be counselled so that they didnt panic and run away.

This fear and panic is a bigger problem than this virus, CJI Bobde remarked.

The court also sought a status report from the Centre on another petition filed by advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava to address the plight of the migrant workers who are walking hundreds of kilometres to reach their hometowns. Srivastava prayed that such people should be identified and shifted to government shelter homes and provided food, water and medicines.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday praised National Conference leader Omar Abdullah for appealing to people to avoid large gatherings in view of the coronavirus outbreak following his uncle's death on Sunday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday praised National Conference leader Omar Abdullah for appealing to people to avoid gathering in view of the coronavirus outbreak following his uncle's death on Sunday.

The NC leader had tweeted on Sunday night about his uncles demise. He had urged people to avoid gathering at his uncles residence or graveyard in view of the coronavirus lockdown.

My uncle Dr Mohd Ali Mattoo passed away earlier tonight after a brief illness. At this difficult time the family appeals to everyone to respect the guidelines to not gather either at his residence or the graveyard. Your prayers from your homes will give peace to his soul, Abdullah had tweeted.

My uncle Dr Mohd Ali Mattoo passed away earlier tonight after a brief illness. At this difficult time the family appeals to everyone to respect the guidelines to not gather either at his residence or the graveyard. Your prayers from your homes will give peace to his soul. pic.twitter.com/JsVwRjfdnk  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) March 29, 2020

Prime Minister Narendra Modi replied to the Jammu and Kashmir leaders tweet on Monday with a condolence message. He also praised Omar and wrote in this hour of grief, your call to avoid any large gathering is appreciable.

Condolences to you and the entire family, @OmarAbdullah. May his soul rest in peace. In this hour of grief, your call to avoid any large gathering is appreciable and will strengthen Indias fight against COVID-19. https://t.co/2xz814elbq  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 30, 2020

The National Conference leader thanked the prime minister for his message of condolence.

My family joins me in thanking you very much for your message of condolence jenab. Your prayers for the departed soul are much appreciated. https://t.co/O5sHZmiPiF  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) March 30, 2020

India has been under a 21-day lockdown since 25 March to stop the spread of coronavirus. Over 1,000 people in country have tested positive for Covid-19 and 29 people have succumbed to the deadly disease.

Abdullah was released last week after close to seven months under detention. He has been in custody since the central government abrogated the special status of Jammu Kashmir on August 5 last year.
MIAMI, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Elevate Prize Foundation is announcing the launch of the inaugural Elevate Prize, which will empower and celebrate inspiring people around the world who can spark movements, mobilize people, and catalyze positive, transformational change. This includes solutions that can help communities around the world prepare for, detect, and respond to emerging pandemics and health security threats, including Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The new foundation has engaged with MIT Solve, a marketplace for social impact innovation, and will leverage their award-winning open innovation platform, methodology, and extensive network of entrepreneurs and social impact leaders all around the world. The Elevate Prize will award up to USD $5 million annually to a cohort of 10 Global Heroes, as well as offer unprecedented resources for two years after being selected.

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, MIT Solve has launched a new Health Security & Pandemics Challenge. The Elevate Prize has announced that they will commit one of its 10 prizes to one of the Solver teams selected for Challenge.

Established by business leader, philanthropist and author Joseph Deitch, The Elevate Prize will select a radically diverse cohort of Global Heroes to present with:

Funding: A minimum prize of USD $300,000 to each Global Hero spread over two years, with potential for additional monetary support.

A minimum prize of USD to each Global Hero spread over two years, with potential for additional monetary support. Professional Expertise: Management and development services, mentorship and counseling, educational training, and capacity building.

Management and development services, mentorship and counseling, educational training, and capacity building. A Powerful Platform: The creation of a global fanbase to help amplify and scale winners' work.

"We're looking to change the way we change the world," said Deitch, founder of The Elevate Prize. "Our mission is two-fold: First, we want to find extraordinary, purpose-driven leaders, innovators, activists, and risk-takers all over the world  the best of the best  and provide them with resources and support to dramatically increase their impact."

"The second part is where the magic really happens," he continued. "We want to share the stories of these changemakers  whether they are focused on equality, education, economic issues or are addressing other critical needs  and showcase their enormous energy, talent, and passion with the rest of the world. In this way, we believe The Elevate Prize can create a powerful fanbase for each winner and for social entrepreneurship in general. Ultimately, the goal is to awaken and nurture the hero in all of us, and ignite a chain reaction of giving, goodness and love on a global scale. The world is looking for heroes. I believe this is needed now more than ever."

While the Prize is open to Global Heroes who are addressing any challenge in the world, the Foundation is using the UN's Sustainable Development Goals as a general guide  so Global Heroes could be doing anything that solves problems and elevates humanity. Everyone who is making a profound difference is invited to apply  from entrepreneurs in Haiti and technologists in the United States to artists in Malaysia and activists in Brazil.

"The Elevate Prize is committed to making a profound difference with a new and innovative model for engaging and catalyzing audiences around the world," said Carolina Garcia Jayaram, founding Executive Director of The Elevate Prize Foundation. "Right now, COVID-19 is on all our minds. It's also important to remember the myriad issues that will emerge from or be exacerbated by the current pandemic and the massive economic disruptions it will cause. The collaborative and dynamic community of Global Heroes we are going to build will help us face those issues, creatively and head on."

"We are proud to partner with The Elevate Prize Foundation to support Global Heroes who can make a significant impact in their community and in the world," said Alex Amouyel, Executive Director at MIT Solve. "We are thrilled to help launch and power the inaugural and expansive Elevate Prize. Now more than ever, in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and its consequences, we need innovators, technologists, activists, and more who elevate humanity."

The application process for the Prize begins on March 30, 2020 at www.elevateprize.org and applicants can submit a solution until the June 29, 2020 deadline. Finalists will be selected in August and invited to present their work before The Elevate Prize judges and a live audience in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly in September 2020.

Applicants who seek to elevate humanity can submit their application, and anyone is welcome to nominate their hero, starting today at www.elevateprize.org.

About The Elevate Prize:

Founded by businessman, philanthropist and author Joseph Deitch, The Elevate Prize Foundation launched The Elevate Prize powered by MIT Solve to awaken and nurture the Global Hero in all of us. The Prize will award up to USD $5 million annually dispersed across multiple Global Heroes, as well as offer unprecedented resources for two years after being selected, helping to amplify their work and build a massive movement to inspire people everywhere to do amazing things and awaken the hero in all of us. Learn more at www.elevateprize.org or contact us at [email protected].

About MIT Solve:

MIT Solve is an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a mission to solve world challenges. Solve is a marketplace for social impact innovation. Through open innovation Challenges, Solve finds incredible tech-based social entrepreneurs all around the world. Solve then brings together MIT's innovation ecosystem and a community of Members to fund and support these entrepreneurs to help them drive lasting, transformational impact. Join Solve on this journey at solve.mit.edu.

SOURCE Elevate Prize

Related Links

http://elevateprize.org


by Trung Tin

To avoid contagions, the Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City suspended Masses. Churches, chapels and religious communities remain open for prayers and worship. The Popes universal prayer and Urbi et Orbi blessing moved many.

Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews)  The coronavirus outbreak has upturned the religious life of many Vietnamese Catholics. Masses have been suspended and churches remain open only for Eucharistic worship and individual prayer. Nevertheless, believers enthusiastically and with great devotion joined the Popes prayers for the victims of COVID-19.

Over the past few days, the number of cases has increased significantly in Vietnam. This morning, local health authorities have confirmed a total of 194 cases, with 52 patients healed.

Last week Le Thanh Liem, deputy chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, announced that As of 6.00 pm on 24 March, all restaurants with more than 30 seats, billiard rooms, gyms, spas and barbershops will remain closed until 31 March, to counter the spread of Wuhan pandemic pneumonia.

The following day Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Nang of Ho Chi Minh City (ex-Saigon) informed the faithful that all religious activities in the archdiocese would be suspended as of 4 pm 26 March until further notice. However, churches, chapels and religious communities would remain open to allow Catholics to pray and worship the Blessed Sacrament.

Parish priests will continue to celebrate daily Eucharistic services in the name of the Church, said Mgr Nang praying and asking God to extend His mercy to the world. However, Priests will say Mass without people. Every day, the faithful will be able to watch services on live TV at 5.30 am and 5:30 pm. Registration can be found on the website of the Archdiocese of Saigon.

Thanks to the internet, millions of Catholics across Vietnam were able to follow the universal prayer and Urbi et Orbi blessing, which Pope Francis recited on 27 March (6 pm Rome time, 11 pm in Vietnam) on the parvis of St Peters basilica.

Many were moved by the image of the elderly pontiff, in the rain, in an empty square, between the icon of Our Lady Salus populi romani and the Christ "of miracles". His speech was translated into Vietnamese in real time.

I cried when I saw Pope Francis walking in the night, while the rain fell, said Maria Ngoc. I silently told myself: We really love the Holy Father. Oh! My Jesus, I thank God who gave us a common Father.

The pontiff, she added, always thinks about today's world to accompany us in the suffering of this health crisis. Dear God, please change our hearts so that we can overcome today's difficulties. May God strengthen those who suffer from Wuhan pneumonia.

Kim Anh, in Ho Chi Minh City, reacted to Pope's reflection saying Good God! I always believe that You alone can end this cruel pandemic. We always rely on Your hand.

For Le Hoang Nghia, Through this catastrophic pandemic, we can clearly recognise our own weakness and smallness before the power of the God we worship. Our extravagance and pride have no meaning. Today, through the prayers of the Holy Father Francis, may God grant peace to the whole world to overcome the crisis of the Wuhan pandemic.
WASHINGTON--Common bisphenol A (BPA) substitutes can affect the developing fetus and cause hypertension in later life, suggests a rodent study accepted for presentation at ENDO 2020, the Endocrine Society's annual meeting. The research will be published in a special supplemental section of the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

Chemicals such as bisphenol A (BPA) are widely used in the synthesis of plastics and are found in numerous consumer products. Most humans are exposed to BPA on a daily basis. BPA disrupts the body's endocrine system by mimicking the hormone estrogen. BPA exposure has been linked with high blood pressure.

Based on studies over the last few decades, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2012 banned the use of this chemical in baby bottles and infant formula packaging. Manufacturers often replace BPA with other chemicals such as bisphenol S (BPS) and bisphenol F (BPF). These substitute chemicals are often found in products labeled "BPA free."

"Cardiovascular diseases are the leading causes of mortality among men and women. With the new blood pressure guidelines from the American Heart Association, almost half of the United States population--45.6%--has hypertension," said study co-author Maryam Hazim Al Mansi of the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine. "There may be several reasons for this high prevalence of hypertension in our population, but the effect of contaminants is overlooked and understudied."

In the new study, Al Mansi and colleagues exposed pregnant rats to low levels of saline, BPA, BPS or BPF and followed the development of their offspring. The offspring were implanted with devices to measure their blood pressure. The researchers measured blood pressure once a week for 11 weeks over a 24-hour period. They found systolic (the top number in a blood pressure reading) and diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) were significantly increased in animals exposed to BPA, BPS and BPF compared with those exposed to saline.

"These results suggest that even low-dose exposure to these chemicals can affect blood pressure in the offspring later in life," said co-author Puliyur S. MohanKumar, B.V.Sc., Ph.D., of the University of Georgia. "It is important to avoid these exposures during pregnancy."

###

The Endocrine Society canceled its annual meeting, ENDO 2020, amid concerns about COVID-19. Visit our online newsroom for more information on accepted abstracts, which will be published in a special supplemental section of the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

Endocrinologists are at the core of solving the most pressing health problems of our time, from diabetes and obesity to infertility, bone health, and hormone-related cancers. The Endocrine Society is the world's oldest and largest organization of scientists devoted to hormone research and physicians who care for people with hormone-related conditions.

The Society has more than 18,000 members, including scientists, physicians, educators, nurses and students in 122 countries. To learn more about the Society and the field of endocrinology, visit our site at http://www.endocrine.org. Follow us on Twitter at @TheEndoSociety and @EndoMedia.
Field testing of the COVID-19 tests developed by scientists from the University of the Philippines is expected to end on April 1, according to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), which funded the research.

DOST Secretary Fortunato dela Pena said today in a Facebook post that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to issue a certificate of product registration on the locally made kits on April 3. The kits were approved by the government earlier this month, but werent yet ready for commercial use because they still had to be validated in compliance with FDA rules.

Dela Pena said that the kits manufacturer, Manila HealthTek Inc., is ready to produce up to 120,000 units once the FDA has approved their release.

The DOST chief said that some 26,000 tests will be distributed to several major hospitals, including designated COVID-19 facility Philippine General Hospital, as well as the Makati Medical Center and Baguio General Hospital. The remaining 94,000 kits will be sold commercially by Manila HealthTek at around PHP1,300 (US$25) per kit, or at roughly one-sixth the cost of units currently being used in hospitals.

The manufacturers have enough orders from the private sector who intend to donate them in turn to the Department of Health and hospitals, Dela Pena said.

In a separate announcement, the FDA said that it has approved five rapid test kits, which were reportedly registered and used in countries with advanced technology and wide experience with COVID-19, such as China and Singapore.

FDA Director General Eric Domingo said the rapid test kits will help clear the countrys testing backlog, but noted that PCR-based test kits  used in laboratories to extract genetic material from throat and nose swabs to compare it with the COVID-19 virus  are still more reliable.

The Department of Health (DOH) says PCR-based tests are still the current gold standard for diagnosing COVID-19.

Story continues

Over the weekend, the DOH announced that four other labs will now be able to conduct full-scale COVID-19 testing, including the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila, Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City, Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City, and Baguio General Hospital in Baguio City.

Prior to this, the countrys sole testing laboratory for COVID-19 was the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City, and the sub-national labs had to send their tests to RITM for validation.

According to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, this is why the four labs had only been able to process up to 160 tests per day, while RITM can process up to 1,000 tests per day.

Vergeire added that the four hospitals have now been fully certified, which means they no longer have to send their positive cases to the RITM for validation because theyre now certified to do individual testing. They can now release results for those positive for coronavirus.

Vergeire said that the Lung Center of the Philippines is likewise expected to receive full certification to test for COVID-19 by March 30, while 30 other private and public laboratories across the country are undergoing different stages of certification. Of the 30, seven facilities are in the advanced stages of being certified.

This article, Philippine-made COVID-19 test kits ready this week, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters!
While we focus on vaccines, anti-virals and respirators in the fight against COVID-19, theres another type of technology that gets less attention, but may be even more important in lessening the impact of the pandemicinformation technology.

Given that weve been hearing more and more about the importance of widespread testing, were probably less surprised at this than we might have been a few weeks ago. Its becoming increasingly clear that knowledge is actually one of the most important tools we have. The good news is that we have people working all the angles on this, from artificial intelligence data mining to genetic sequencing.

Why is this so important? It can get a little bit abstract, but the all-important testing strategy demonstrates exactly why knowledge is power.

Current evidence suggests that a certain number of people will get the novel coronavirus and be entirely asymptomatic. Some will never even know they had it. Meanwhile, others will get COVID-19 and have mild symptomsnot severe enough to go to the hospital. And, after they recover, they wont know for sure what they had. Maybe it was just the flu.

Working under the assumption that people develop an immunity after they get it (likely, but not proven yet), these people, after the contagion period ended, would no longer be at risk of either getting or spreading it. That would leave them free to go back to work or, better yet, volunteer at a hospital.

Without testing, though, we have no way of knowing if they ever had it. And since, right now, were mainly limiting testing to people who have symptoms, were nowhere close to finding out who doesnt have it at this pointa number thats just as valuable as the number of active cases.

Public health works best when we can get as precise as possible, explains Steven Hoffman, director of the global strategy lab and professor of global health law and political science at York University. So, as long as were in the current situation where we dont have the full testing capacity, were stuck with more blunt tools like closing schools and asking everyone to remain at home except for essential trips outside. Those are effective for slowing the spread of the virus and buying us time but not, ultimately, for getting society back to normal.

By now, most people understand that buying time through social distancing is important so that hospitals arent overwhelmed but, as Hoffman explains, its also about getting us to a point where weve beefed up our public health agencies so theyre ready to do mass-testing. The cuts to the Ontario Public Health budget under the Ford government means we started out at a disadvantage. And without mass surveillance testing, the official numbers we see reported are always out of date. It takes five days for symptoms to show up, then several more days for test results, so the confirmed case numbers were looking at could be 10 days post-transmission.

Fortunately, in other areas, were ahead of the curve, thanks to academic research into artificial intelligence that can mine data from social media and other sources to track outbreaks and hotspots before we get official confirmation of a positive test. Researchers at University of Guelph developed a system for doing this with avian flu and its now being applied to COVID-19. The idea, roughly, is to look for patterns and early signals, which includes everything from trade routes linked to disease transmission to people describing or complaining about symptoms on social media.

So, were working with AI algorithms, the robots, and, so far, we have collected three million tweets related to COVID-19, explains Rozita Dara, a professor in computer science at the University of Guelph. Only two per cent of them have geo-location data but two per cent of three million is still a lot. So we are very excited to look at that and see if we can see patterns.

In the United Kingdom, where mass surveillance testing hasnt begun yet either, a team of doctors and scientists at Kings College London, Guys and St. Thomas hospitals have developed the COVID Symptom Tracker , an app that allows people to report their symptoms daily, whether theyre sick or not. From there, the researchers can aggregate and analyze data to identify clusters and researchers can better understand symptomology. For example, its still unclear if diarrhea and/or losing your sense of smell are early warning signs, but both are definitely on the radar. Apps like this might help determine how relevant they are.

Thats the sort of innovation and cooperation that Hoffman is hopeful about. Efforts like these might make it possible for us to rise to the challenges posed by this pandemic.

Were seeing global science like never before, says Hoffman. For example, within three weeks of first identifying a cluster of viral pneumonia cases, we had already sequenced the virus genetic code. And a day later, we had developed a diagnostic test. Thats crazy how fast that progress was.

He continues: Now were tracking the virus evolution in real time at labs around the world and uploading new sequences on global databases and, fortunately, its staying relatively consistent.

It may not feel like it, since the virus is moving fast, but theres plenty of hope that information and communications technology will help us move even faster.
Some persons who were found to be loitering about in Kasoa in the Central Region without tangible reasons have been seized by security personnel stationed within the area.

Citi News Calvis Tetteh reports that at least sixteen of them were held at the premises of a makeshift facility in the area for a while before being cautioned and asked to return home.

Some of those arrested said although they explained to the security officials their reason for their movement, the personnel did not accept the excuses and decided to arrest them.

One of those seized by the personnel told Citi News that he returned from Kumasi last night and arrived in Accra very late and so decided to stay over and proceed to the Central Region but was stopped by some soldiers.

We work at a construction site in Kumasi. Our master didnt let us close early and so because of the traffic, we arrived here very late. We want to continue to our hometowns last night but we didnt get a car. That is why we stayed to continue today. We explained to him [the soldier] but he said we will not allow us to go to our hometown. I told them everything but he said I should sit here, he said.

Another person, who is an electrician and was attempting to travel to Ajumako after arriving in Accra from Kumasi last night said the security officials did not listen to his explanations and asked him to sit.

Two teens who were also accosted by officials said they had been sent by their grandmother to buy call credit.

Our grandmother sent us to go and buy credit and while we were on our way, they arrested us. I am aware there is a lockdown but I didnt know that this place is partThey said we should sit here, he said.

Meanwhile, some other persons who were able to justify the movement within the area were permitted by security personnel to carry on after interrogation.

They were asking me where I went to and I told them I went to buy corn dough and charcoal. I dont have anything in the house that is why I decided to go out and after some time they allowed me to go, Joe, a resident told Citi News.

I told them I went to buy fish It was just a few seconds chat with the military man and after explaining to him, he let me go, said Emmanuel Odoom, another resident.

About 15 checkpoints have been mounted in the Awutu Senya East district to enforce the lockdown of the area as part of the major Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area lockdown.

The lockdown is to stop the spread of COVID-19 in Ghana.

As at 1200GMT, on March 30, 2020, Ghana had recorded 152 cases of COVID-19.

133 of the cases were confirmed in the Greater Accra region while 8 were confirmed in the Ashanti Region.

One case has been confirmed in the Upper West region and 10 in the Northern Region.

---citinewsroom
RENO, Nev.  Two years after a U.S. judge ordered the Trump administration to reconsider its refusal to protect sage grouse populations along the California-Nevada line, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has again decided against listing the bi-state grouse as threatened or endangered.

The bi-state grouse is related to but separate from the greater sage grouse, which lives in a dozen Western states and is at the center of a dispute over the governments efforts to roll back protections adopted under President Barack Obama.

Mondays decision is the latest in the governments on-again, off-again federal actions to protect the game bird under the Endangered Species Act dating to 2013.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said its latest review indicates the status of the bi-state grouses population has improved, thanks in large part to voluntary protection measures adopted by state agencies, local ranchers and other interested third parties.

Conservationists insisted the Trump administration is ignoring the fact the bird has been in serious trouble for more than a decade.

Failure to protect bi-state sage grouse is pushing them closer to population collapse, said Ileene Anderson, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. Voluntary agreements wont save them from extinction.

Laura Cunningham, California director of Western Watersheds Project, said the governments own scientists estimate that only 3,305 bi-state sage grouse remain.

Its unconscionable that the Trump administration is abandoning this iconic bird, said Michelle Bashin, president of Desert Survivors.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said its formally withdrawing a 2013 proposed rule to list the bi-state grouse as a distinct population of the greater sage grouse.

A federal judge in San Francisco ruled in March 2018 that the agency acted illegally the first time it denied protection of the bi-state grouse as a distinct population in California and Nevada. Five months later he ordered reinstatement of the proposed listing and designation of more than 2,800 square miles (7,251 square kilometers) of critical habitat along the Sierras eastern front.

The agency said Monday it still believes the population is distinct from the greater sage grouse  living in six population subgroups on the southwest edge of the overall species. But it no longer believes theres any immediate threat to the survival of the subgroups.

The best scientific and commercial data available indicated the threats  are reduced to the point that the (distinct population segment) does not meet the acts definition of an `endangered species or of a `threatened species.' the agency said.

The six bi-state grouse sub-populations at issue are spread across 7,000 square miles (18,129 square kilometers) of high desert sagebrush along the Sierras eastern front stretching from near Carson City as far south as Bishop, California south of Yosemite National Park.

Paul Souza, the agencys regional director for the California-Great Basin Region, said partners in the Bi-State Local Area Working Group have conserved, restored or enhanced more than 156 square miles (404 square kilometers) of sagebrush habitat in the bi-state area since 2012, helping reduce habitat fragmentation, pinyon-juniper encroachment and loss of wet meadows used by sage grouse to raise their young.

This partnership shows that conservation for at-risk species can be successful when we work together and leverage our resources, Souza said.

Steve Nelson, the U.S. Bureau of Land Managements field manager in Bishop, agreed, along with the California and Nevada state leaders for the USDAs Natural Resources Conservation Service.

This extremely positive news is very welcome, Carlos Suarez of California and Ray Dotson of Nevada said in a joint statement.

Conservationists disagreed.

Most of the bi-state sage grouse populations are tiny, isolated groups that are under imminent threat of winking out, Cunningham said. These birds clearly need stronger legal protections.
Minister: Lockdown in place for weeks and weeks to protect lives and maintain the capacity of the health service to do just that

This article is old - Published: Monday, Mar 30th, 2020

Channel 4 news interviewed Health Minister Vaughan Gething last night, where he said the lockdown could continue for weeks and weeks into the future.

The full video is below:

In the interview the Minister states that antibody testing could still be a number of weeks away before being in place, and will be really helpful to get people going back about their business.

Channel 4 news also challenged the Minister on the adequacy and supply of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers. The Minister replied that 3.4 million items of personal protective equipment in Wales had been delivered, and this weekend saw 600,000 respirator masks going to health boards across Wales. Localised problems were recognised, I dont want to try to say that anything is perfect because I know it isnt.

The Minister was asked if such equipment could run out over the coming weeks and months. Although indicating that he did not think it would happen, Gething said theres always a risk that we could see demand outstripped supply and that the whole world is trying to get personal protective equipment. Prioritising of equipment was also mentioned, with those who dont need it not getting it.

Moving on to bed capacity the Minister was asked how many extra hospital beds are currently projected as being required for the coming weeks and months.

The Minister said at least 5000 will likely be created and potentially more. Pointing to Italy and lessons being learned, the ability to get people out of the hospital system as it currently is, and its a step down care was behind the extra bed thinking as that then allows people who do have significant health care needs to go into a more acute setting.

Although we are in the early days of the response to the pandemic the Minister was asked for his view on when the lockdown could be lifted, and answered it will be weeks and weeks into the future, with the peak likely in May / June time.

Its real, and its serious about protecting lives and maintaining the capacity of our health service to do just that.

Separately Clwyd Souths MP Simon Baynes MP has been critical on the issue of protective equipment, saying: Constituents in Clwyd South are contacting me in large numbers every day to express their concern about the problems being experienced by the Welsh Government in Cardiff with providing sufficient testing and personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline health and social care workers.

A key Welsh government contract to supply testing equipment has fallen through and I would urge the First Minister to redouble his efforts to source and supply testing equipment and PPE to all our brave frontline staff in Wales in the Coronavirus crisis.

On Friday Plaid Cymrus Shadow Health Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth said it was unacceptable that NHS staff and care workers who were working on the frontline in the fight against the coronavirus felt exposed and were afraid of their patients, families or their own health being put at risk of contracting or transmitting the virus.

Shadow Health Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth AM said,

There are serious concerns about gaps in the provision and distribution of personal protective equipment across Wales.

It is unacceptable that key NHS staff and care workers working on the frontline in the fight against the coronavirus feel exposed, fearing they, their patients and their families are being put at grave risk of contracting or transmitting the virus. Many are now afraid of going into work.

Of particular concern are nurses and carers working in the community, often with very elderly or vulnerable patients.

There appears to be inconsistency in the approach across Wales  and inadequate guidance about what equipment will be required under particular circumstances and who will be given the equipment and when.

As one health chief told me, Welsh Government has to be honest with both frontline workers and the public about the challenge ahead, and the plans in place to provide enough PPE, and the correct PPE over coming weeks. This is a real priority.

On Friday the Chief Medical Officer for Wales, Dr Frank Atherton, spoke about a rapid review into personal protection equipment (PPE) guidance in the UK and updated the latest position in Wales.

Dr Atherton said: We have issued more than 3.4m items of PPE to frontline health and social care workers in Wales from our pandemic flue reserves. This is in addition to the normal supplies available.

The current UK guidance is clear PPE should be used when dealing with people who have or are suspected to have COVID-19. The current guidelines about what PPE is needed differs by setting and procedure. It is essential those who need PPE have access to it but we should not use it unnecessarily in order to avoid wastage and to ensure we have sufficient stocks as the coronavirus pandemic progresses.

For many critical workers, including staff in some healthcare settings  those who are not dealing directly with people with suspected or confirmed COVID-19  standard good practice, which includes thorough hand washing and social distancing will protect people from the spread of the virus.

In light of the current situation and following discussion with my UK counterparts, we think it right that some of the existing guidance should be reviewed and simplified if possible. A rapid review of the guidance has been announced, which will also look at any supply issues and the most efficient use of current stocks.

The health and wellbeing of our health and social care staff is our prime concern. It is vital they are protected and that they feel confident when working.
[March 30, 2020] Microlab DCC Series Point-of-Interface Integrated Solution Chosen for Raymond James Stadium Wireless System Deployment Parsippany, New Jersey, USA, March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Microlab, a Wireless Telecom Group Company (NYSE American: WTT ), announces today that the DCC Series Point-of-Interface (POI) integrated solution was chosen for the wireless system deployment in Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. This new custom solution enables critical network densification initiatives designed to enhance the fan experience by improving carrier coverage, increasing capacity, and allowing multiple carrier and multiple spectrum deployments.

Our focus on custom, specialized integrated solutions and experienced product design teams enabled us to rapidly solve the unique challenges of this deployment for increasing coverage and capacity, says Dino Giordano, VP of Engineering. System integrators involved in multi-million dollar stadium deployments require the highest quality performance at every level of the design and turn to a trusted partner in Microlab to address the challenges of deploying a low-loss architecture system for maximum coverage and distribution of signals to multiple antennas in the stadium. We provide a fully tested solution which reduces their deployment and commissioning time. For carriers, designers and deployment teams, the encapsulated design of the DCC Series POI provides clean integration from the radio to the antennas for simplified distribution of mid-band and high-band cellular signals, the high-band enabling CBRS, LTE-LAA and 5G New Radio (5G NR). The DCC Series solution is delivered as an end-to-end tested solution streamlining deployment, reducing on-site installation time, eliminating individual component testing and enhancing overall performance and reliability. Challenged with addressing the wireless data capacity needs of today, expected demands of the future and a limited physical space, system designers and integrators sought a cost-effective, flexible, reliable and compact solution. Designed to meet these distinctive challenges, the Microlab DCC Series end-to-end tested solution minimizes distribution losses to offer a high level of integration, quality, and coverage compared to discrete components. Housed ithin a compact form factor, the custom POI allows for design optimization, reduced installation and on-site troubleshooting time, and faster time to deployment while maximizing RF transmission to ensure higher performance. The custom POI solutions designed for this installation enables carrier aggregation of current licensed mid-band and unlicensed high band to strengthen and expand the network coverage and capacity and is neutral host capable to share infrastructure for additional mobile network operators to join the network in the future. Microlab DCC Series Point-of Interface integrated solutions are deployed extensively in stadiums, convention centers, campuses, and medical facilities worldwide. The fully-tested integrated solution with guaranteed low PIM and low loss architecture provides maximum RF transmission to ensure system performance. Microlab designs integrated solutions to customer-specific requirements for 4G, and 5G cellular networks, medical equipment applications, and military use cases To learn more about Microlab solutions, visit https://microlabtech.com/ . About Wireless Telecom Group

Wireless Telecom Group, Inc., comprised of Boonton , CommAgility , Holzworth , Microlab , and Noisecom , is a global designer and manufacturer of advanced RF and microwave components, modules, systems, and instruments. Serving the wireless, telecommunication, satellite, military, aerospace, semiconductor, and medical industries, Wireless Telecom Group products enable innovation across existing and emerging wireless technologies. With a product portfolio including peak power meters, signal generators, phase noise analyzers, signal processing modules, LTE PHY/stack software, power splitters and combiners, GPS repeaters, public safety components, noise sources, and programmable noise generators, Wireless Telecom Group supports the development, testing, and deployment of wireless technologies around the globe.



Wireless Telecom Group, Inc.s website address is www.wtcom.com . Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this news release may be considered "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such statements include declarations regarding the intent, belief, or current expectations of the Company and its management. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could materially affect actual results. Such risks and uncertainties are identified in the Company's reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018. Marketing Contact

Maria Droge: +1 (973) 386-9696 Wireless Telecom Group Inc. 25 Eastmans Road Parsippany, NJ 07054 Tel: (973) 386-9696 Fax: (973) 386-9191 www.wtcom.com

[ Back To www.mobilitytechzone.com\LTE's Homepage ]
Over 20 million Nigerians on Monday scrambled to prepare for lockdown in sub-Saharan Africa's biggest city Lagos and the capital Abuja, as the continent struggled to curb the spread of coronavirus.

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered a two-week "cessation of all movements" in the key cities from 2200 GMT in a bid to ward off an explosion of cases in Africa's most populous country.

Businesses are to be shuttered, non-food shops closed and people made to stay at home as the authorities look to track down possible carriers of the disease after reporting 111 confirmed cases and one death so far.

Enforcing the restrictions in sprawling megacity Lagos will be a mammoth challenge as millions live crammed into overcrowded slums and rely on their daily earnings to survive.

In the ramshackle outdoor markets of Lagos Island anxious locals complained they did not have the money to stock up, while at higher-end supermarkets better-off residents queued to buy supplies.

"Two weeks is too long. I don't know how we will cope," said student Abdul Rahim, 25, as he helped his sister sell foodstuffs from a stall in Jankarra market.

"People are hungry and they won't be able to stock food."

City authorities have pledged to provide basic provisions to some 200,000 households but the central government in Africa's biggest oil producer is already facing financial strain as the price of crude has collapsed.

The streets of Ghana's capital Accra were also empty as most people in two key regions appeared to be following a presidential order to stay indoors after it went into force overnight.

Zimbabwe locks down

Dozens of nations around Africa have imposed restrictions on movements, ranging from night-time curfews to total shutdowns.

Authorities in Zimbabwe -- which is already suffering a grim economic recession -- began enforcing a three-week lockdown after the disease left one person dead and infected six others.

Police mounted checkpoints on routes leading to the capital Harare's central business district, stopping cars and turning away pedestrians who had no authorisation to be in the area.

"We don't want to see people here on the streets. We don't want to see people who have no business in town just loitering," a policewoman said through a loud hailer. "Everyone to their homes."

People look at the newspaper headlines in Mbare, a surbub of Harare, where all food markets were closed on Monday as part of a three-week lockdown. By Jekesai NJIKIZANA (AFP)

Some people in Harare were trying to head for rural villages.

"We would rather spend the 21 days at our rural home, where we don't have to buy everything. I can't afford to feed my family here when I am not working," said Most Jawure.

"We have been waiting here for more than two hours but there are no buses," Jawure told AFP while standing with his wife and daughter beside a bulging suitcase.

For many of Zimbabwe's 16 million people, who are already suffering a grim economic recession, the lockdown means even tougher hardship.

With unemployment rate estimated at around 90 percent, most Zimbabweans have informal jobs to eke out a living and few have substantial savings.

'A matter of time'

Masked: An elderly man in the Johannesburg suburb of Soweto waits in line at a pay point operated by South Africa's Social Security Agency. By MARCO LONGARI (AFP)

Experts warn that Africa is highly vulnerable to the spread of the virus given the weak state of health systems across the continent.

The number of infections still lags far behind Europe but testing has been limited and the figures are growing rapidly.

Angola and Ivory Coast on Sunday became the latest countries to record their first deaths from the disease, bringing the number of fatalities on the continent to around 150 out of nearly 4,800 recorded cases.

In Democratic Republic of Congo, two new cases were reported in the volatile South Kivu region in the east of the country and an adviser to the nation's president announced he had tested positive.

In a strident call for action, former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf -- who shepherded her country through West Africa's Ebola epidemic -- urged global solidarity to defeat the virus.

Warning: Former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. By Andrew H. Walker (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File)

"While African nations have so far been spared the worst, it is only a matter of time until it batters the continent which is the least prepared to fight it," she wrote in an open letter published by the BBC.

"We must act to slow down, break the chain of transmission, and flatten the curve," said Sirleaf, the 2011 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

"(...) (W)hat most encourages today, is the opening up of expertise and the fact that knowledge, scientific discovery, equipment, medicines and personnel are being shared.

"It is happening within nations, and increasingly across international borders; an indispensable, albeit delayed reaction, that every person, in every nation, needs to do their part."

burs-del/ri
While the final results for Brisbane City Council's election are still days away, the Greens are already celebrating a powerful swing towards them in several LNP-held wards, as well as a strong boost in incumbent Jonathan Sri's ward, The Gabba.

As the Electoral Commission of Queensland continued the vote count on Monday, after a website glitch saw few early numbers uploaded on Saturday night, Cr Sri said he had seen a swing of about 17 per cent to the Greens in his ward.

Greens lord mayoral candidate Kath Angus and Cr Jonathan Sri pledged to "clean up" Brisbane City Council's planning legislation. Credit:Lucy Stone

Cr Sri won the ward in 2016 on Labor preferences, but now appears to have been reinstated with greater support from electors and a primary vote close to 50 per cent.

He fended off a challenge from Labor's candidate Rachel Gallagher, an urban planner who also appealed to ratepayers on issues around planning and density.
Principals are rejecting claims remote learning should revolutionise education, saying the novelty was already wearing off for some students and even the most sophisticated online technology should never replace face-to-face teaching.

Jenny Allum, who has been principal of SCEGGS Darlinghurst for 24 years, said many lessons would be learned about the "social experiment" in education arising from COVID-19, but the difficulty in keeping students engaged online remained.

Ms Allum rejected suggestions that online learning could change some aspects of education forever.

"Teachers are reporting that it is harder to engage some students when they are learning on-line," she wrote in an opinion piece for the Herald. "Slowly, [the novelty] is dissolving for some students, and will for other students over time. It becomes harder. It becomes lonely. It becomes less engaging."
Photo: Phil Roeder/Flickr

Read on for the most recent top news you may have missed in Chicago.

Police disperse large church service as part of stay-at-home enforcement

In an effort to enforce social distancing guidelines, Chicago police dispersed a church service involving a large group on the Far North Side on Sunday.

Read the full story on ABC Chicago, WLS.

Texas requires 14-day quarantine for travelers flying from Chicago, other major cities

The governor of Texas is requiring all air travelers from Chicago to the state to quarantine for 14 day or potentially face jail time.

Read the full story on ABC Chicago, WLS.

Falling debris temporarily closes part of Michigan Avenue

Michigan Avenue was shut down Sunday between Eighth and Ninth streets in the South Loop after debris fell from a building.

Read the full story on ABC Chicago, WLS.

3 convenience stores robbed in Loop

Three convenience stores were robbed in Chicago's Loop on March 9, 25 and 29.

Read the full story on ABC Chicago, WLS.

This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
India has been on a nationwide lockdown since March 25 to curb the spread of coronavirus. While the government has announced a lockdown of 21 days till April 14, rumours of an extended shutdown with the declaration of emergency have been floating around.

The Indian Army has clarified that message is fake. Fake & malicious messages are circulating on social media about likely declaration of emergency in mid-April & employment of Indian Army, veterans, National Cadet Corps and National Service Scheme to assist the civil admin [sic], the Indian Armys statement as reported by ANI.

Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba has also denied media reports claiming that the government will extend the lockdown. "There are rumours & media reports, claiming that the Government will extend the #Lockdown21 when it expires. The Cabinet Secretary has denied these reports, and stated that they are baseless," the government stated.

Also Read: Coronavirus News India LIVE Updates

During the lockdown, essential services will be available and citizens can only venture out in case of any emergency.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

The government has also launched a WhatsApp chatbot called MyGov Corona HelpDesk
PARK FOREST (AP)  As people everywhere prepared to hunker down for what could be an extended period, Sue Zelek couldnt wait to get outside.

She wasnt eager to get to the store to stock up on toilet paper or cleaning supplies. For her, life is looking up. Literally. Shes always ready to get her eyes to the skies and treetops to search for birds.

This is a good time to do that, she said. When youre outside, for birders, youre keeping your distance from people. If youre with a group of people, most of the time, the birds arent going to be there. So you leave that area to go somewhere to be more secluded. So its an escape from the reality of life right now, to get outside and get fresh air, to go hiking which also is good for you.

Zelek, of Steger, is a master birder who teaches programs in the area on bird identification and a naturalist who helps get people into and understand nature. She was set to lead a Woodcock Watch at Governors State University until nearly every event that involves gathered people was canceled.

So shell head out on her own with her binoculars and camera to add to her yearly list of species sightings.

It keeps me out of my computer seeing all of this stuff I dont want to think about, she said. Its like, OK, Ill just go out and look for birds. Ill just get away.

But for Zelek, birding is no mere walk in the park. Its a skill shes honed over several decades to the point where she can pick out the tiny details  a color variation behind the eyes, the pitch of a mating call  that distinguishes birds from within even the same species.

Leading a group of beginner birdwatchers at a program in January at Thorn Creek Nature Center in Park Forest, a muffled call from a stand of evergreens was enough to alert her that a pileated woodpecker was nearby. A few quiet moments later, her suspicion was confirmed. The largest of the woodpeckers that frequent the area flew by, bigger than the red headed woodpecker and markedly larger than the downy woodpecker.

Thats what makes birding especially rewarding in times of stress. Not only does it get her outside into nature and moving around, but it occupies her mind.

Its a whole different high, she said. Its peaceful, its relaxing and its challenging. Youre using your brain to figure out what youre seeing, why youre seeing it, where youre seeing it. Its everything all at once. Its a rush.

You get out there and its a legal high, but youre not doing anything wrong. Especially when you get to see the cool stuff.

She told of sitting in her car on the side of the road  as I often do, she said  after she spotted some sandhill cranes flying into a farm field.

I kept thinking, you know, a whooping crane would be great, she said. And as I sat there, I heard these birds flying from the field next to me, as I was looking up there were these whooping cranes. I almost broke my camera trying to get it from the floor next to me. But I grabbed it just in time.

She also grabbed her phone to alert her birding friends about the whooping cranes, which are rare in Illinois. One friend, who was at work, told his work he had plumbing problems so he could duck out to see the whooping cranes.

The feeling you get from seeing something like that is great, she said. Its hard to describe. If you were ever out there with birders and something like that would happen, you would see the feelings these people are getting. Its amazing.

Zelek said she often seeks out bird hot spots before she heads to work as a lab technician at a company that makes coatings for glass. Such was the case Thursday, when she stopped by Maple Lake in Willow Springs to look at loons. Then thousands of sandhill cranes flew overhead.

It was absolutely awesome, she said. They just kept coming over and over us. Its hard to concentrate on birds in the tree when you have all these loud, large dinosaurs flying overhead. So it was kind of fun.

When I pulled out to head to work, which is difficult when I get focused on birds, I couldnt stop looking. There were all these Sandhills. The sky was turning dark. Crazy. I put down 2,000, but there had to be more like 5,000 or 6,000.

Part of being a birder, as opposed to being a bird watcher, is making lists, she said, estimating numbers and recording the number of species shes spotted. Whenever she can, she documents the sightings with photographs.

Birdwatching is casual, she said. A birder is more extreme, we go out and try to see birds everywhere. We make lists and compete with other birders for numbers.

Last year was a big year for Zelek. She spotted 251 different bird species that year in Will County. And there were 256 species of birds spotted by anyone in Will County that year.

I was at 98% in the county, she said. There were only a handful of birds I didnt see. I was shocked at myself. Of course there was a lot of work involved. And I got lucky too. Because I was out there. The more youre out there, the more you see.

Zelek used to work as a naturalist, but since 2000 or so has volunteered at Thorn Creek Nature Center and elsewhere to spread the gospel of birding.

And as we head further into the uncertain future of unprecedented times, perhaps that message is more important than ever.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-31 01:32:35|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Photo taken on March 30, 2020 shows a red double decker running in front of Canary Wharf in London, Britain. A total of 22,141 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Britain as of Monday morning, marking an increase of 2,619 in the past 24 hours, according to the Department of Health and Social Care. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

LONDON, March 30 (Xinhua) -- A total of 22,141 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Britain as of Monday morning, marking an increase of 2,619 in the past 24 hours, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.

As of Sunday afternoon, 1,408 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 have died, said the department.

During Downing Street's daily novel coronavirus press briefing on Monday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the government is taking "unprecedented action" to increase National Health Service capacity by ramping up the number of beds and staff.

Britain is pledging 75 million pounds (about 93 million U.S. dollars) to get Britons stranded abroad home by chartering rescue flights when there are very limited commercial routes available, said Raab.

The move came as the government is facing mounting pressure to do more to get stranded citizens back home.

Up to a million Britons are thought to be stranded across the world as airlines and borders shut down in a bid to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Sky News.

Also on Monday, Britain's Prince Charles ended self-isolation following his diagnosis of COVID-19.

"Having consulted with his doctor, the Prince of Wales is now out of self-isolation," said a spokesman of Clarence House, the official residence of Charles and his wife Duchess of Cornwall Camilla.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's chief adviser Dominic Cummings is in self-isolation after showing coronavirus symptoms, according to a Sky News report.
The COVID-19 pandemic is rampaging across continents, leaving death, fear, and uncertainty in its wake. The virus is known to cause more severe illness and have a higher death rate in people who are already sick or immunocompromised, as well as the elderly. Several nations, states, and provinces have announced total lockdowns to try and minimize the impact of the virus.

With over 720,000 people affected so far, leaving nearly 34,000 dead, people with chronic medical conditions are naturally anxious and fearful. They wonder about their risk of becoming sick, as well as whether they can still get medical care and the medications they are currently on. One such condition is diabetes mellitus, in which the patient must often take the peptide hormone insulin with or without other medications to keep their blood glucose levels in check.

The American Diabetes Association says there is not enough data to show whether people with diabetes are more likely to get COVID-19 than the general population. The problem people with diabetes face is primarily a problem of worse outcomes, not a higher chance of contracting the virus.

Image Credit: Maya Kruchankova / Shutterstock

Are diabetic children at higher risk?

The European Society of Pediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) also says that there is no robust evidence that children with type 1 diabetes mellitus who have well-controlled blood sugar levels are at a higher risk for COVID-19 or severe illness. Moreover, children who catch the virus are typically at much lower risk for illness than adults.

Exceptions may exist in the case of children with poor control of diabetes or for children who are extremely obese, even though they are in good health otherwise. Such children may develop more complicated lung disease with COVID-19 infection. Such children should be cared for vigilantly to prevent this infection.

The usual preventive measures apply for both parents or caregivers and child patients: thorough and frequent handwashing, social distancing, and protective measures at all times. Online learning at home is likely to be a healthier option for childrens education at the present time.

If symptoms should develop in children with diabetes, medical advice should be taken over the phone to find out whether the child should be isolated at home to rest and recover, as is typically advised for mild cases, or should be taken to the doctors office. Management of the sick child in COVID-19 with diabetes follows the same sick day advice already outlined by the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD). The childs endocrinologist should also be kept in the loop. Such children must have frequent monitoring for blood glucose and ketone levels, insulin must be continued, and the dosage increased as required.

Are diabetics more likely to catch the illness?

The American Diabetes Association says that in China, people with diabetes were much more likely to develop serious complications or to die of the infection  if one caught it, in the first place. Thus, prevention reduces the risk in these cases to below the baseline risk.

Like other viral infections, COVID-19 can cause the development of diabetic ketoacidosis in type 1 diabetics who have a failing pancreas. This can progress to sepsis and septic shock.

When to take alarm

As for others, diabetic patients should be careful to observe social distancing. The following are the emergency warning signs of COVID-19 in adults, and should prompt an immediate medical consultation:

Breathing difficulty or shortness of breath

Chest pain or pressure which is persistent

New-onset confusion or difficulty in arousing to full consciousness

Bluish discoloration of the lips or face

Will diabetics continue to get what they need?

Australia serves as a model in the area of ensuring people in isolation who have underlying medical conditions get the care they require.

In Australia from March 11, 2020, onwards, that the Department of Health has stated that neither insulin nor anti-diabetic medications are in short supply, nor any other products supplied through the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS). As such, patients are advised not to buy increased supplies of any drug or product in order to stockpile it against future emergencies. Instead, diabetic patients may order their medications and other supplies, as always.

The various departments concerned with the care of patients and the supply of essential medications and devices are constantly communicating with each other and coordinating their services in order to ensure patients have access to up to date information. This will be crucial in allowing them to remain safe and healthy. There is also a nonstop hotline to call the governments health information line in a time of need.

Telemedicine to the rescue

Secondly, the Diabetes Australia has passed on information from the government of Australia that it plans to provide telemedicine services which will be billed in bulk, to deliver medicines to patients doorsteps, to increase the budget to accommodate more staff to care for older patients and step up the capacity to provide medical services for aboriginal people living in remote places. To increase the efficiency of the deliver-to-home services, the government will allow pharmacies that can accept online prescriptions to participate.

The telehealth consultations under the Medicare services began from March 13, 2020. These online services will be provided by GPs, specialist doctors, nurses, and health workers allied to mental health services. Any Medicare beneficiary who is over 70, has chronic underlying medical illnesses such as diabetes mellitus, aboriginal people who are over 50 years, people with a weakened immune system for any cause, pregnant women, and those who need to look after their newborn infants, can avail of this consultation.
All images by the author.

Home to 39 different tuition and enrichment centres, Beauty World Centre is eerily quiet today.

Its the first weekend after authorities announced the suspension of all centre-based tuition and enrichment classes from March 26 to April 30. For the first time in living memory, there are no students loitering under the escalator or outside McDonalds. Ive always joked that the tenant composition of my neighbourhood mall is 70% tuition centres, 30% everything else, but this tongue-in-cheek quip has never felt truer than it does this Saturday morning.

About 60% of the tuition and enrichment centres are closed, and even those which appear to be open have just one or two staff manning the front desk with thick stacks of notes and lesson materials for parents to drop by and collect for their children. Some of the tuition teachers will also be conducting their lessons from the tuition centres via livestream, which explains why some of the centres are still open. Regardless, the formerly-ubiquitous piles of slippers strewn outside doorsteps have dwindled to a few pitiful pairs. Door signs are flipped to the closed side. Notices are taped to doors, explaining that the centres will not be open to students in compliance with the governments new social distancing measures.

These centres will remain shuttered for more than a month.

Tuition is a $1.4 billion industry in Singapore, and many Singaporean students have been affected by the move to suspend tuition lessons. Tuition centres are not risking the harsh penalties for non-compliance by remaining open, but neither are they refunding fees and closing up shop for the month.

Instead, many have implemented home-based e-learning measures including but not limited to: emailing PDFs of lesson materials to student and live-streaming lectures over Zoom.

A surprising number of the tuition centres are willing to talk to me candidly about their struggles.

Initially, when the news came out, we were frantic because a lot of parents started texting us: Oh shit, is tuition cancelled? Is your tuition centre going to close down? says Kimi, an admin member at Math Academia, which is a Mathematics tuition centre located on Level 3 of Beauty World Centre.

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Were using Zoom, doing it kind of like uni-style. We have content online and were teaching [the students] via online questions. If they have any questions, they can also ask us because its live.

Despite the measures, Math Academia has also encountered parents who requested refunds or make-ups during the June holidays because they felt that having lessons online would not benefit their children as much. But since school lessons will still continue during the suspension, Math Academia believes that it would not be beneficial to students learning to stop lessons completely during the one-month suspension and conduct make-up lessons afterwards.

So right now, the admins are just chionging the work and were trying to bring tuition online. And we have to finish everything by April. Thats kind of our problem nowfinishing one months worth of content in a few days. And we actually have to notify parents and stuff to make sure theyre ok with having the tuition online.

Being swamped with admin work seems to be the norm amongst the tuition centres at Beauty World Centre. The admin at Modular Education, who declined to be named, echoes a similar sentiment:

I really have a lot of admin work. We have to send out worksheets and follow up with calls to the parents. What is your arrangement? What is your alternate method? Every parent is asking.

Like many of the other centres at Beauty World, Modular Education has printed out notes and worksheets for parents to pick up over the weekend.

While the quick response has certainly been commendable, its questionable just how close of a substitute online lessons can be for regular face-to-face tutoring.

Private tuition does not come cheap, with tuition lessons at the junior college level costing upwards of $110 for a two-hour lesson. At that price point, its clear that students are expecting more than a mere regurgitation of content theyve already learned in school, or something they can learn by watching a video on YouTube. Why pay a hundred dollars to watch a live-streamed lecture when you can get the same thing for free on Khan Academy? Why pay a hundred dollars for PDFs of notes or Organic Chemistry topic summaries when you can purchase a study guide at a fraction of the cost at Popular?

However, such an analysis would overlook the reason why tuition centres have survived and thrived for as long as they have in the digital age.

Fundamentally, the product that tuition centres offer isnt a product at all, but a service. Tuition has been in such high demand in recent years not because of the content private tutors teach (exactly the same as what is taught in any MOE school), but because tutors offer students convenience by repackaging content to make it more accessible, teaching students tricks and tips to solve higher order questions faster, and analysing past-year trends to spot potential exam questions.

In other words, what tutors have to offer students are the academic shortcuts that wont be taught in school. How then does this product translate to the online world?

First of all, the possibility of third-party leakage of lesson materials would be a big concern for tuition centres. When lessons are live-streamed or made available online, theres very little stopping an enterprising student from screen-recording a lesson and profiting off of the centres intellectual property by forwarding it to other students for a fee. The same goes for notes, worksheets or any other lesson materials uploaded online which can be forwarded with the tap of a finger. If all of their knowledge and expertise, accrued from years of teaching experience and trend analysis, becomes readily available to those who have not paid for tuition, it would be hard for tuition centres to continue charging students and parents for it.

For other subjects, the tutoring simply needs to happen offline to be of any aid. I still remember struggling to understand 3D vectors last year to the point where my Math tutor had to physically grab a piece of A4 paper and a graphing calculator that happened to be on the table, and hold them together to explain the concept of a line of intersection. The frustration of going through the same traumatic process, this time with the added barrier of a screen, is an ordeal which I am sure many students can relate to.

The admin of Modular Education, which teaches students from Primary to JC, also pointed out the significance of a tuition centres age group in the feasibility of online learning. Online tutoring makes more sense for older students, who are more self-directed, than for younger ones: Primary level and Lower Sec is more of the problem. It also depends on what subject youre teaching. For example for Math, [the teacher] needs to check the working and that cannot be done as easily online.

Actually, its just a minority that is not ok [with having online lessons], said Kimi from Math Academia. Theres a few hundred students here, and most are ok with it. Its just like, five? And theyre not unhappy or anything, they just feel it might not benefit their child as much, so theyve decided to opt out of online tuition.

Since my weekly H2 Chemistry tuition class was replaced by a live-streamed lecture hosted on Zoom this week, I also feel somewhat qualified to comment on the experience, and how it measured up against regular classroom learning.

10 minutes before my lesson was due to start, I logged on to the tuition centres in-house learning portal (which we had used regularly to take weekly quizzes, even before classes were suspended) to access the Zoom link for the virtual lesson. However, due perhaps to the sheer number of students who were all also trying to log on at the same time, the login page just sat there buffering for five minutes no matter how many times I tried refreshing the page.

Frustrated, I grabbed my phone and composed a quick Whatsapp message to the centre admin to inform them that I was unable to log in to my learning portal account and asked if it would be possible for them to send me the Zoom link directly over Whatsapp. Fortunately, the link was sent to me over Whatsapp in a matter of seconds and I was able to join the virtual classroom despite still being unable to log into my learning portal account. I turned on the webcam, popped in my earphones, and braced myself for my first online tuition experience.

The lesson started once all 88 participants had joined the virtual classroom and was conducted by two tutors (who were seated one metre apart from each other because, well, social distancing) who were live-streaming from the centre. They informed us that our faces were being projected on the screen behind the camera so that they could gauge our confusion, or lack thereof, from our facial expression. Students were encouraged to make use of the Reaction function on Zoom to show either a thumbs up or a clap emoji to indicate that the video and audio quality was ok. The lesson was conducted in a talk show format, with the two tutors conversing with each other, asking each other questions, and taking turns to speak. They also used Zooms Share Screen function to go through lecture notes and share annotations with us. Throughout the lesson, the Poll function was used to periodically check students understanding.

While the streaming on the tuition centres side was relatively interruption-free as the centre had invested in a lan cable instead of relying on WiFi, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link which, in this case, was my own spotty home WiFi signal. My Zoom app crashed eight times throughout the 2-hour lesson, with each crash and subsequent reboot lasting an average of one minute. I stopped counting the number of times that I experienced a video or audio lag after my laptop had lagged for the 59th time, somewhere around the halfway mark of the lesson. While the video lags were jarring, it was the audio lag which was infinitely more irritating because whenever it happened, the tutors voice would be replaced by dissonant sounds which bore an uncanny resemblance to an amateur pianist playing chromatic scales on an out-of-tune piano. This would usually subsequently be followed by a crash. And by the time the app finally restarted, I would find myself in the middle of an unfamiliar section of the lecture notes, having missed out the tutors explanations on the last part completely.

Despite my poor live-streaming experience, I am aware that there are many ways that it could have gone much worse. While my tuition centre had had the funds to invest in building a learning portal, paying for a Zoom subscription, and hiring a customer service team to respond in real time to messages from students who were experiencing technical difficulties, the tuition industry is made up of many smaller players who do not have sufficient economies of scale to make such investments.

Video-conferencing lessons for smaller tuition centres, which have not had the capacity to develop their own in-house digital portals or invest in business-grade paid solutions, will be limited to whatever free video conferencing apps are available to them, like Skype, Google Hangouts, or Zoom Basic. Each comes with their own set of constraints. Apps like Hangouts and Skype are not designed to handle too many members at the same time and students might experience connectivity issues or lags if the virtual classroom is too large. The audio and visual quality of such free apps tends not to be high as well. And while Zoom has lifted its 40-minute limit on free Basic accounts for K-12 schools, tuition centres are not schools in the strictest sense of the word, so such privileges are unlikely to be extended to them. This means that even the highest quality, lag-free online lesson with crystal clear definition and audio will be cut off abruptly in less time than it takes to finish watching a K-drama episode.

However, even with this many factors stacked against the tuition industry, it still seems premature to cry that 2020 will be the year that the 1.4 billion industry finally meets its demise.

For one, the suspension of tuition and enrichment centres will only be for one month, at least at the time of this articles publishing.

For another, tuition fees tend to be collected on a termly basis, with fees for the next term being collected before the previous term ends.

The announcement coming when it did, in the first week of term 2, means that most current tuition students have already paid their tuition fees for the next 10 weeks and will have no choice but to suck it up, and watch their hundred-dollar live-streamed lectures in bed on their weekend mornings. As long as the suspension isnt extended past May and there arent too many angry parents beating down the door demanding refunds on their tuition fees, it seems like tuition centres will probably ride this crisis out.

But what if things get worse, schools are closed, and tuition centres stay shuttered indefinitely?

If the suspension carries on past the end of Term 2 (or even for the rest of the year) and parents and students perceive the online solutions as no longer adding value to their learning, then the demand for private tuition could fall. If so, smaller centres would likely be disproportionately affected compared to larger centres with larger class sizes and multiple outlets.

Larger centres would be better equipped to handle the long-term transition from face-to-face learning to e-learning for two reasons.

While smaller centres often depend on the quality of individual experienced teachers (whose experience in teaching would probably be mostly limited to teaching in a traditional classroom setting) to differentiate themselves from their competitors, larger centres rely less heavily on individual teachers and tend to place greater emphasis on teaching materials, which are standardised across teachers, while the teacher serves only as a facilitator and deliverer of pre-prepared content. The latter is transferred more easily to the online setting; the former is not.

Secondly, larger centres which can achieve significant internal economies of scale would have a greater incentive to channel their profits into developing their own better-quality in-house digital solutions than smaller centres, which do not have significant enrollment numbers to justify such an investment. Smaller centres and their students would thus remain at the mercy of inferior free apps like Skype or Google Hangouts, which were never created to be e-learning tools in the first place.

In the long term, this could lead to the exodus of many small players in the tuition industry, leaving behind mostly larger tuition centres which operate more like businesses than educational institutions. This would be bad for students, because a large part of the value-add in tuition is the expertise that a tutor is able to bring to the table. It tends to be the case that at bigger, multi-outlet centres, the quality of individual teachers matters less than their ability to deliver the standardised, homogenous content that the centres academics team has prepared for them. With the reduced competition in the tuition industry, students and parents could see themselves faced with higher prices and a lower variety of alternatives to choose from.

Of course, COVID-19 might just show students and parents that they might not really need tuition after all. But speaking as someone who chose to join the Science stream in JC (despite having a choice of either and having a greater passion for the latter) because science subjects seemed safer and more tuition-able than the humanities, this seems unlikely to happen. The existence of entire malls filled with tuition and enrichment centres, such as Beauty World Centre, speaks to the intensity of local tuition culture. Demand may be low for tuition in its current COVID-crippled online form, but it is likely to return once the COVID dust has settled and lessons go back to being face-to-face again.

Also, while the spotlight has been focused mainly on tuition centres, it bears remembering that it is not just tuition centres which have been affected. Enrichment centres which teach non-curriculum subjects have been affected by the suspension too, perhaps to an even greater extent.

Let Colour Soar is an art studio located in the basement of Beauty World Centre which has been open since 2017 and caters to students of all age groups, from as young as two to adulthood. Zhu Hong, its proprietor, is pessimistic about her future business prospects.

Unlike the other tuition centres Ive spoken to, conducting online lessons is not an option for Mdm Zhu. Her centre teaches painting, which needs to be taught in person. Her students also would not have the required art materials to complete their projects at home, as these materials would normally be sourced for and provided by the centre.

We are completely not receiving any revenue this month, she said in Mandarin, but we still have to pay our teachers salaries and the rent on this shopspace. This shop has been open since 2017, we can hold out for another 2-3 months. But those which have just opened might experience more problems staying afloat.

She is also uncertain about whether her students will return once the coronavirus situation has blown over. Unlike music or dance lessons, there are no formal qualifications or exams for painting, so there is no guarantee that her students will return to continue their lessons after the break.

We expect to lose many students from this closure. During this break, the teachers will continue to update the curriculum of our art lessons and improve the classroom environment. The rest is difficult, but hopefully students will return to pick up some of the harder paintings once this is all over.

Do you think that tuition centres should remain closed? Should schools be closed as well? Tell us what you think at community@ricemedia.co.

The post Will Covid-19 Spell The End For Singapores Tuition Industry? appeared first on RICE.
General Electric (NYSE:GE) employees at the company's Massachusetts aircraft engine facility held a protest Monday to urge the company to shift to ventilator production instead of cutting 10% of its aerospace workforce.

On March 23, GE Aviation said it was trimming its workforce and temporarily furloughing about half of its remaining employees for 90 days in response to a global travel slowdown. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused airlines to cancel flights and ground planes, eating into demand for aircraft engines and replacement parts.

General Electric is attempting to preserve between $500 million and $1 billion to help the company weather a potential extended downturn.

Nevertheless, during protests at GE's Lynn, Mass., facility and its Boston headquarters, members of the Communication Workers of America urged the company to keep the workers on board and shift production from engines to ventilators. Jake Aguanaga, local union president for a GE facility in Kansas, told Vice that about half of his workforce had been laid off and that significant factory space is sitting idle.

"If GE trusts us to build, maintain, and test engines which go on a variety of aircraft where millions of lives are at stake, why wouldn't they trust us to build ventilators?" Aguanaga told Vice.

In response to the pandemic many large manufacturers, including automakers General Motors and Ford Motor, have pledged to work with medical products manufacturers to increase production of ventilators and other products. On March 27, GM said it will bring back about 1,000 furloughed workers to build ventilators.

GE's healthcare division is already a large producer of ventilators, so the company should have the internal expertise to shift production if it sees fit.
A team of workers spray disinfectants outside as a precautionary measure during the nationwide lockdown imposed in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, in Srinagar on Monday. PTI photo

Photographs and videos portraying purported chaotic conditions in some of Jammu and Kashmir hospitals have gone viral on social media as the Covid-19 tally in the Union Territory (UT) went up further on Monday with ten more persons testing positive for the deadly virus.

One of the photographs showed stray dogs roaming freely along a corridor of Srinagars government-run Chest Disease (CD) Hospital designated as a facility for Covid-19 patients. A pinned tweet read Im shocked, I was just talking over phone to my cousin and another patient  both Covid-19 +ve patients at CD Hospital. Dogs are in ward attacking patients. Also doctors asked them to get medicines from outside. Is this our healthcare system level?

However, in another tweet, same person Khalid Rathore said that his cousins medical reports clearly show him as suspect for Covid-19 but he has been put together with confirmed positive cases of the disease. Just checked medical reports of my cousin, which clearly show suspect for Covid-19 that means he has not been yet confirmed +ve for the same. Then, why has he been kept with +ve cases where he can easily and is likely to get infected?

Last week, a woman suspected to have been stuck by the disease had fled the hospital in the dead of the night and later reported at Srinagars Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS). Her family had sought to justify her act saying she left the hospital after a horde of stray dogs entered the premises.

Srinagars mayor Junaid Azim Mattu had, after photographs showing presence of dogs inside the hospital went viral, promised to secure the premises by erecting a wall.

At the weekend, as many as 26 Covid-19 suspects jumped quarantine at Srinagars Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial (JLNM) Hospital amidst chaos triggered by a violent protest over poor medical facilities. The protesters allegedly broke furniture and window panes in the hospital in the Citys Rainawari area and were joined in the rampage by their relatives who had been waiting outside.

However, as per a statement of Srinagars DC, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, all the quarantine fugitives were quickly traced and brought back to the hospital with the help of the police. Later in the day, the authorities sacked a doctor and suspended another for negligence.

The authorities here admit that the hospitals and other medical facilities in the UT, mainly Kashmir Valley, have been overcrowded with the increase in the number of both confirmed and suspected Covid-19 cases. But, they insisted that best possible treatment is being provided to all patients and those under observation too are being looked after well.

Were making every possible effort to make everyone who is with us comfortable. Any gaps that might be there will be filled and all weaknesses removed soon, said Dr Naveed Nazir Shah, HOD at the CD Hospital in a video message.

He had in a recent tweet complained that patients were not cooperating with the hospital authorities and demanded security. Request for administration... no security in hospital... patients not cooperating...they roam about on the hospital defeating the motive of isolation....need hospital security, he said. Responding to it, Srinagars DC assured him Deployment will be strengthened. Request everyone to cooperate with doctors. They are putting in their best.

However, Dr Shah on Sunday wrote on a micro-blogging site that some of the grievances and complaints of the Covid-19 patients were genuine and that he has assured them that effort would be made to rectify them. He also said, (were) trying to give the best out of the limited resources and again requested people to cooperate and break the chain.

The government on Monday reported ten new positive cases of Covid-19, including three from Jammu division and seven from Kashmir Valley, taking the total number of such patients in the UT to 48. With one more person from Ladakh testing positive at a hospital in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, following his evacuation from Iran, the number of patients in or from the landlocked region has risen to 14.

The officials said that while most of Ladakhs Covid-19 patients are recovering at Lehs Sonam Narboo Memorial Hospital, out of J&Ks 48 positive cases 44 remain active, two have recovered and the remaining two have already passed away.

In J&K, as many as 11, 644 travellers and persons in contact with suspected cases are currently put under surveillance which include 355 persons who are in hospital isolation or quarantine. A report from Jodhpur said that a 41-year-old male resident of Ladakh among those evacuated from Iran last week was found Covid-19 positive at the citys MDH Hospital.

Back home, the doctors at SKIMS claimed that the 67-year-old woman from Srinagars Khanyar area, who became the Valleys first case of the Covid-19 has recovered as she tested negative for the novel disease.

G.H. Yatoo, nodal officer for Coronavirus at the SKIMS, said that the samples of the woman sent to the viral diagnostic and research lab have tested negative adding that she would, however, be kept in quarantine for a period of 14 days before a decision to discharge her or not could be taken.
30.03.2020 LISTEN

Hot on the heels of the novel COVID-19 pandemic, President Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo-Addo announced a partial lockdown(shelter-in-place order) of Accra and Kumasi, the epicentres of the Coronavirus in Ghana effective today Monday, March 30, 2020.

The declaration came on the heels of heightened calls from the general public and particularly, the Ghana Medical Association.

Uganda, South Africa, Mauritius, Lesotho, Rwanda, Namibia among other African countries are on lockdown.

Angola declared a state of emergency and a 3-day lockdown.In Zimbabwe, the lockdown is supposed to take effect from today and public transport is to be restricted, except public service buses that will operate under strict social distancing.

Ghana's case count as at March 30, 2020, stands at 152 with five deaths and two reported recovery cases.

Globally,we've a total of 723,540 case counts with 33,998 deaths and 151,824 recovery cases.

Aside Accra and Kumasi the cynosure of the virus, the Upper West Region recently confirmed its first case of COVID-19, involving a 42-year old Ghanaian who visited UK and Spain and returned to Ghana through Egypt.

On 29th March 2020,at 10:30 hrs, Tamale in the Northern Region, recorded 10 cases involving Guinean residents who travelled through Burkina Faso and Togo to Ghana and were picked up and mandatorily quarantined in Tamale under the direction of the Regional Security Council. Spine-chilling,I guess!

Wondering how they got into the country in the first place, right? Through our passable borders, of course!

Inasmuch as I commend the president for the bold decision to lockdown(shelter-in-place order), the "windows of my eyes can't just close to the manner in which it is being done and announced, and the reverberations therefrom.

In fact,I was among the many still voices calling for a lockdown of the country, but ever since the president announced his kind of lockdown,I became more afraid of my own shadow. Simply put panic buying and panic traveling!

Could it have been a total lockdown of Accra and Kumasi explicitly explained to the Ghanaian, with no movement of passengers across regions from the day of the declaration?

The risk of the lockdown alone,I put it to you blankly,is more than all the interventions of government put together.

People clamorously disregarding the Social distancing rule to stock-up toiletries and foodstuffs among other essential supplies for the next two weeks.Partial lockdown with many exemptions miscommunication to the extent that most people thought gas filing stations and banks were to be affected by the 'so-called lockdown.

With the stampede,you can imagine the number of people that would be affected if there were potential carries of the virus among them.

Leadership of our dear nation seem not to be inspiring confidence in the system.The hysteria of the virus seem to have clouded their sense of right reasoning.We understand it's not easy; but the mistakes are way too basic to fantasize.

Just as we became negligent and like a mirage,imported the strange virus into the country through our porous borders,ports and airfields,we are now trying out of the same slackness to endanger lives in our vulnerable communities across the various regions.Jumping Judas!

We had power under the imposition of restriction bill to restrain entry into Ghana in the early days,but leadership failed to do the needful.

Courage was mustered to abondone our students in Wuhan,the capital of Hubei province,China,where the virus emanated,but we opened our borders and airfields wide enough to any traveler without due diligence.

I should like to say that,the sudden spike in the number of travellers from Accra and Kumasi to Northern Ghana following the lockdown declaration shouldn't be lost on you.This was smelled.It was anticipated and not at all flabbergasting.

Where were you expecting the head porters,popularly known as 'Kayayei',who in trying to put body and soul together have found convenience on the streets of Kumasi and Accra to go to? How about the many homeless street hawkers;were we expecting them to look to heaven and jump into the welkins?

These people survive under the mercy of the streets in the cities because,we've failed to create a better space for them to make a better living in rural areas.And in announcing the lockdown,we overlooked their needs and presence in the affected areas.

Going by the logic that when people move,the disease move,then there is a potential risk of spreading the virus to other parts of the country through this panic travel.

Mind you,it's free entry,free exit into Northern Ghana for most of these travelers without visible screening.Our leaders at the local level seem more in a deep slumber.The Savannah Region is a clear example.

They look on helpless as these people flood our communities with all its repercussions,when they could have simply deploy their powers and mounted roadblocks at ventage points,quarantine such people for 14 days before clearing them to join their families.

With our weak health system coupled with clear lack of ventilators and Personal Protection Equipment,i wonder were we will turn to if we get overwhelming cases of COVID-19.Our infant regions are already lamenting over the lack of Personnel Protection Equipment. They can't even take a sample of suspected patients,not to talk of running a test.

Be warned that there is community-level transmission of the virus ongoing in Ghana and you can't tell who is the next victim.

Indeed,we love and welcome our brothers and sisters home from their "life-searching" adventure,but not at the expense of our own lives.We can only love you as ourselves,but not more than ourselves.It is our prayer and hope that you are virus-free.

It goes without saying that,in times like this, self-protection is key!

Our lives remain in our hands, not government.We owe it a duty to ourselves and our communities to curb the spread of the virus in our regions.

'Self-isolate from relatives who recently returned from the epicentres of the virus for 14-days. You can organise a cocktail party with minimal attendance after the 14 days and thank me later.

Instead of the once-in-a-century fumigation of markets, let's disinfect our homes,lavatory and bathrooms on a daily basis as required.

It's recommended that we wash our hands with soap and running water for at least 20 seconds,especially after visiting the John,coughing, sneezing or blowing one's nose.The virus is killed by soap outside the human body as soap burst its protective bubble.

Also,the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol by volume where soap and running water are not available in a ready manner.

Worthy of acceptance is the suggestion by the WHO that we should avoid touching our eyes,mouth or nose with unwashed hands.Science would say it's impossible to stay a minute without touching your face,but we ought to give it a hard try.

As much as possible, stay at home and be safe.

Shalom!

Editorial note: In times of pandemic like this,all we need is research, not fear or panic.

What will be the future impact of Coronavirus on the universe?

Ananpansah B Abraham (AB)

Blogger/Local Reporter/Assembly Man for Canteen Electoral Area

0241129910/0200704844
An art student has claimed to have solved the mystery behind why shoes are hung over electricity lines in Australia.

Christine Abadir, from Sydney, uploaded a Tik Tok video this week, showing a pair of runners hanging from electricity lines on a suburban street in the city's west.

'Foreigners in Australia: Why do you guys have shoes on your power lines?' Ms Abadir asked her followers.

The video began with footage of a pair of runners hanging from telephone lines on a suburban street in Mount Druitt, west of Sydney

As the camera zoomed in on the shoes, Ms Abadir's face popped up.

'A drug dealer,' she said, suggesting shoes on power lines are an international sign there was someone selling illicit substances from a home nearby.

But not everyone who watched the video was convinced her theory was correct.

'What exactly does that mean?' one user asked. 'There were a lot on the power lines near my school.'

'Exactly why?' another questioned.

As the camera zoomed in on the shoes, Ms Abadir's face popped up and said, 'a drug dealer'- insinuating the shoes are a sign that someone is selling illicit substances in a home nearby

'This is one of life's mysteries,' someone else said.

Ms Abadir didn't respond to the questions, but others offered their own explanations.

Why are shoes flung over power lines? Popular theories include: - A drug dealer is living nearby - The area is designated gang turf - There has been or will be a murder in the area - In memorial to a dead friend - A tradition held by high school students on their last day of classes - A way of getting rid of an old pair of shoes Advertisement

One who gave the most comprehensive answer said shoes hanging from power lines could symbolise a range of things.

'There are several different reasons, which is why you never get a straight explanation,' they explained.

'Some people do it just to be annoying. Some people do it as a memorial to a dead friend. Some people do it to advertise a drug dealer territory. Some people do it because they've seen it done and just think it's funny.'

Website Only Melbourne presented the drug dealer possibility, but said there were other explanations.

The site suggested 'shoe flinging' is a tradition held by high school graduates on the last day of school or a warning or reminder of a nearby murder.

It also said some people tie shoelaces together and throw them over wires after buying a new pair of shoes.


Theoretical work by Martin Eichenbaum and Sergio Rebelo (of Northwestern University) and Mathias Trabandt (of Freie Universitat Berlin) finds that, in the short term, there does appear to be a trade-off between economic activity and health outcomes. That is, the containment measures required to limit the spread of the coronavirus would result in a sharp initial recession. But over the long run, an optimal containment strategy would reduce economic costs, largely because it preserves the lives of workers needed to keep the economy running.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co.s recent progress with its bankruptcy case appears to have blocked Sen. Scott Wieners legislative push for a government takeover of the company  at least for now.

Wiener, D-San Francisco, told The Chronicle that his bill, SB917, probably will not move forward this year largely because of a recent deal that resolves a months-long dispute between PG&E and Gov. Gavin Newsom. The bill would have transitioned control of the investor-owned PG&E to a new government entity called the Northern California Energy Utility District.

Newsom had been strongly critical of PG&Es initial plans to resolve its bankruptcy and pay victims of catastrophic wildfires caused by its power lines. But on March 20, PG&E revealed that it had agreed to a series of changes with the governors office, including new financial conditions and a process by which the company could be sold to the state  but only if it fails to meet certain legal deadlines or regulators revoke its operating license.

Because PG&E has won support from Newsom and lawmakers attention is focused on the coronavirus pandemic, Wiener said a very hard bill has just become hard in the extreme.

So Im not at all optimistic ... that were going to be able to advance this bill this year, Wiener said.

Yet hes not giving up on the effort.

In the long run, Im committed to this goal, Wiener said. PG&E should be publicly owned. PG&E has not worked out as an investor-owned utility; weve seen that over a period of decades.

PG&E and its largest union, IBEW Local 1245, have both opposed the bill.

Company spokeswoman Lynsey Paulo said that though a proposed government takeover is not a new concept, we dont agree that the outcomes of this type of framework will benefit customers, taxpayers, local communities, the state or our economy. Among the downsides are that state ownership of PG&E would expose taxpayers to the states strict wildfire-liability rules and be highly costly overall, she said.

The company and its parent PG&E Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2019, following devastating wildfires that killed more than 100 people and burned thousands of homes in 2018, 2017 and 2015. Just last week, PG&E revealed that it would plead guilty to 85 felony counts, all but one of them for involuntary manslaughter, over the 2018 Camp Fire.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Wiener is not the only one to have pushed for major structural changes during the legal and political fallout from the fires. A coalition of local government leaders led by San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo has advocated to turn PG&E into a customer-owned cooperative like a credit union.

Dan Richard, a former PG&E senior executive who advises the coalition, said the group has not scrapped its plans despite the company reaching a deal with the governor.

The customer-owned option is a well-developed option that we can move forward with. We are prepared to do that, Richard said. The governor has made it clear that his preference is an investor-owned utility, but we see ourselves as a strong backup. Others see us that way, too.

San Francisco has also offered to buy PG&Es power lines for $2.5 billion. The company rejected the offer, but city officials involved in the effort vowed to continue pressing their plans  and they say thats still the case.

J.D. Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: About 200 devout were evacuated from the headquarters of Tablighi Jamaat, locally known as Markaz, a centre for learning teachings of Islam, in Nizamuddin area of south Delhi on Monday for coronavirus testing.

According to the police, all evacuees were taken to various hospitals designated for the test after which the premises including the attached mosque and the entire area was cordoned off.

As per the police, more than 1,000 people staying at the centre have been quarantined and being monitored.

The centre is visited by hundreds of faithful from across the country and it also receives guests in large number from various countries.

The centre is under the scanner since the death of two COVID19 victimsfrom Jammu and Kashmir and Tamil Nadu. Both had attended the congregation along with more than 500 people before the lockdown was enforced. The groups of international travellers, who supposedly arrived at the centre around March 10, were also part of the gathering.

According to a health official, Monday's 25 COVID-19 cases include 18 such patients who are from Nizamuddin mosque and had attended the gathering earlier.

ALSO READ | COVID-19: Five people from Telangana who attended Markaz in Delhi's Nizamuddin die

"Of these 18, no one is a resident of Delhi. Two are foreign nationals while rest 16 belong to different parts of country such as Calcutta, Kashmir, Assam, Tamil Nadu etc. The rest seven cases are Delhi based which are from other parts of the city. While four of these cases are direct and indirect contacts, 2 have travel history and one yet to be investigated," noted the official.

According to the police, 18 attendees have already been tested Covid-19 positive including nine from the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

About 200 people have been admitted to hospitals, who are Covid-19 suspects. Several others are also in quarantine. The entire vicinity--Nizamuddin Police Station, Ghalib Academy, Sunder Nursey, Eishwar Nagar, and Nizamuddin Basti have been sealed. To keep a close watch on the movement of people in the neighbourhood, drones are being used, said a senior police official.

According to people associated with the centre, about 100 people were removed during the weekend.

They are under observation at different hospitals including Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital, Lok Nayak, Guru Teg Bahadur and Safdarjung hospitals, said an official of the government.

Besides, people from different states, travellers staying at the Markaz are from Indonesia, Malaysia, Ukraine, China, Yemen, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, and others.

People from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kashmir, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands had also attended the event in question.

A team of doctors have been examining occupants of the centre since last week. On Monday, another team of health expert reached there and has set up health camps. Presently, about 1,000 people have been quarantined, said the police official.

In the evening, a team of doctors of the World Health Organisation (WHO) reached to carry out tests and conduct check-ups of people on the campus of the centre.

Meanwhile, Delhi witnessed a spike in Covid-19 patients, with 25 new cases reporting on Monday.

On Saturday, an 80-year-old resident of the area tested positive for COVID-19.

The centre has been issued notices for holding a gathering allegedly during lockdown by the police.

We have served notices on the centre for holding a religious gathering here during the lockdown. We are examining the matter. Action will be taken if required and then FIR will be registered, said RP Meena, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) southeast district.

However, the Markaz administration denied the charges. The place was mostly vacated on March 22 (Janata Curfew), the process was stopped as immediately after the Janata Curfew lockdown was announced, said the centres reply to the police notice.

Yesterday, we provided a list of names to administration, who had health issues, including cold and fever. Some of them have been admitted to the hospital on the basis of age or their travel history. We don't have any confirmed COVID-19 case till now, Dr Mohammed Shoaib, spokesperson, Nizamuddin Markaz to ANI.

Delhi government statement on Nizamuddin cases
Photo: (Photo : pexels/Polina Tankilevitch)

On Saturday, the state governor said in a press conference that an infant, who was tested positive of the COVID-19 died in Illinois. Among the infants who contracted the coronavirus, this is the first recorded death in the US.

Investigation on the Infant Death Case

The Illinois Department of Public Health director, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, said that they would undergo a full investigation to determine the cause of the baby's death. She said that it was a hard day for her to report 465 new cases and 13 additional deaths, which includes the tragic death of an infant.

On Sunday, Dr. Ezike attended another press conference and said that the investigation of the reported baby's death is still ongoing. She said that the investigation is still fresh, and they are gathering data as of that moment. She understands that it is the people's greatest concern, and they want to allow appropriate processes so that they can provide the best information.

Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker is telling the parents that the infant's death is a rare occurrence according to the scientific papers. But he does not mean that all the other babies are safe; however, he reassures the people that chances of it happening again are very low because it does not happen that often. He also said that they are investigating whether the younger than one-year-old has other underlying health issues besides the coronavirus disease

A state employee, from the Department of Human Resources, was one of the deaths reported on Saturday, bringing the total to 2,514 deaths in the country, 47 from Illinois, as of writing.

A news release from the IDPH said that the age of cases ranges from below one to 99 years old.

Pritzker said on Saturday that he knows how hard the news can be, especially about a child that young. He admitted that he was shaken upon hearing of the sad news, and he feels it is just appropriate for anyone to grieve today.

Illinois Implements Stay-at-Home Order

On March 21, Illinois implemented a stay-at-home order. He said that the government has been working to obtain the needed medical equipment for the front-line workers and upgrade its testing capabilities.

Dr. Ezike said that they want everyone in Illinois to take the coronavirus seriously. For those who have not been paying attention, maybe this infant incident is your wakeup call.

Even though the virus has caused several deaths in adults, some children who tested positive with COVID-19 have also died. Despite being rare, at least one 10-month-old baby in Wuhan died in a hospital after being diagnosed, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.

Pritzker said everyone should grieve for the family of the state employees and for the many people who have died of the virus, young and old. He added that every person should also grieve for the loss of a sense of normalcy left behind a few weeks ago. He further added that it is okay to grieve.
Around noon just a few days ago, Hudson, my 10-year-old son, shouted out from his perch in the computer room: Mom! he said, can we go for a run before lunch?

My ears perked and I wandered over to his seat, now permanently indented with his bum print. A run? I said, squinting. For real? Yes, he said. I need to move!

Well Ill be darned. Just as he and my daughter Scarlett, 8, settle into distance learning, with more and greater access to screens than ever before, theyve decided theyd rather be up and about. Since Ontarios schools shut down nearly two weeks ago, weve gone for more runs and family walks than we have in the last two years combined. Not to mention, both my kids are in better shape than they were at the start of the month and more willing  eager, even  to get outside.

While there seem to be conflicting messages about going outdoors, Mark Tremblay, director of the Obesity Research Group at the Childrens Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute (CHEO), says that unless youre in isolation, getting outdoors is not only safe, but recommended.

If youre keeping proper social distance  at least 6 feet, he says, and adhering to public health guidelines, such as washing hands and sneezing into your arm, then transmission of germs is less likely outdoors. And, he says, getting exercise in the great wide open makes our immune system more robust.

Call me crazy  and I know this may sound rash  but, so far, social distancing has been having a positive impact on my kids health.

In a weird way, Tremblay says, societys current state, as unfortunate as it is, may be an opportunity to recalibrate our lifestyle priorities. Fear of coronavirus has heightened everyones awareness of basic hygiene, and perhaps it will also help reinforce other healthy habits too, like eating well and getting enough sleep and exercise.

School aged children need at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day, according to Canadas 24-hour movement guidelines. With all our newfound flexibility, says Tremblay, also chair of Outdoor Play Canada, a network of professionals committed to promoting outdoor play, its easier than ever right now to get that. Time is at our disposal.

Indeed. Under normal circumstances, my kids would be at school and my husband and I would be kilometres away at work. We also would be running errands, stuck in traffic or scrambling to get to two places at once: can you take them to piano?! I have a meeting! Now, we can go anytime. We start most days with a walk, cap it off with a run and if theres a will after dinner, why not a stroll!

Admittedly, all this fluidity in the day concerned me at the start of this social-distancing experiment. Parents, especially now, have vast canyons of time to program for our beloved children  if, that is, we hope to work, remain calm and stay sane. Screen time fills some of the voids on the weekends (go right ahead and judge me!), but I have too much guilt to let iPads dominate during the week.

Chris Markham, executive director and CEO of Ontario Physical and Health Education (OPHEA), a non-profit that promotes active living for kids, says its important to fill some of that time by getting kids moving and the best way to do that is to schedule it in. Not only will it cut down on cabin fever, he says, it can lend structure to the day.

To help, OPHEAs 10-day physical activity Challenge #DPAEveryday, spirited videos geared to get kids hearts pumping, goes live at 10:30 a.m. (and are always available on OPHEAs Facebook page facebook.com/OpheaCanada/).

Kudos to Paul Penna Downtown Jewish Day School, where my kids go. It has kept phys ed as part of its Covid-19 programming. Principal Amy Platt, a friend, told me that preserving gym was a priority for the school because exercise is particularly important in the scope of a long digital day. Kids need movement to allow their brains to engage properly, she said. If we can get their endorphins going that will increase their aptitude to learn.

Passing by our home office, now the epicentre of our home-school, I have been stunned to find my daughter breathless after several sets of mountain climbers or ski jumps. Gym teacher Avee Helfand taught these basic fitness moves to Scarletts Grade 3 class earlier this week over Zoom, the teleconferencing app and likely the only company whose stock has soared in these trying times. Nice work Scarlett! Helfand called out to my daughter in real time over the world wide web as she then planked for 30 seconds. Look mummy, she said, in her tiny, high-pitched voice. I can totally do it!

As fabulous as this is, exercise in the era of Covid-19 still has its challenges. Every day, it seems, were banished from yet another public space. The track at Central Tech was closed as of March 24. Its 400 metre loop at the corner of Bathurst and Harbord Sts. is set within a sprawling field that made it nearly impossible to get close to another human, not to mention, it was a safe place, away from cars, where the kids could run without touching much of anything. Why?? my children shouted from behind its locked gate. Why isnt it open?

When it comes to leaving the house, theres a fine line between getting physical outdoors, it seems, and being viewed as a social pariah. A couple of ignorant neer do-wells shouted at Hudson earlier this week as he ran up and down. In good health, robust and happy, hes in social distance not in isolation and, he was running along the block alone with nothing around him but at least six feet of airy space in every direction. You shouldnt be out, they said. Get back to quarantine!

Had I been there, I would have shouted something like: go exercise yourself! And who knows, perhaps the next time we go out for a run I just will.

Kid-friendly tips for Covid-era exercise:

Tim Fletcher, an associate professor in physical education at Brock University, suggests that now might be a good time for kids to set goals to be active every day, doing something theyll enjoy, so it motivates them to continue. If theyre a gymnast, he says, perhaps they can practice their handsprings inside. Fletcher also suggests taking advantage of technology. YouTube kids has some interactive dance videos, for instance. Kids may even want to video themselves doing a dance move and send it to a friend, through a parent approved social medial channel, of course, as a challenge to do one as well. Go outside! Getting outside is essential, according to a statement on play and Covid-19, from Outdoor Play Canada, an organization devoted to keeping kids active When children are outside they move more, sit less and play longer.

Take micro breaks: Split up the recommended hour of exercise for kids into manageable chunks, says Mark Tremblay, chair of Outdoor Play Canada. Start the day with movement and punctuate sedentariness during the day with, say, a walk up the stairs or a walk outside.
National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow has defended comments where he claimed coronavirus was 'relatively contained' and that 'the vast majority of Americans are not at risk from this virus'.

Kudlow was seemingly trying to reassure people the financial markets would be okay and encouraged Americans to continue their usual routines, despite directions on the contrary coming from the World Health Organization and Trump admin health experts.

But more than a month after the comment on CNBC's Squawk on the Street, Kudlow has backtracked and suggested he wasn't trying to play down the true danger of COVID-19.

'Look, I'm as good as the facts are. At the time I made that statement, the facts were contained,' Kudlow told Martha Raddatz on ABC News' This Week, Sunday morning. 'The President has just put the travel restrictions on China, and a lot of people agreed with me. In fact, at the time, a lot of people thought that the flu was worse than this virus.

Scroll down for videos

Larry Kudlow defended his comments last month saying that coronavirus was contained

ABC: You told CNBC a month ago that the coronavirus was "contained." Why should people trust you?



LARRY KUDLOW: "Look, I'm as good as the facts are. At the time I made that statement, the facts were -- contained ... a lot of people agreed with me." (Experts did not agree w/ him) pic.twitter.com/TaO0WpWYU8  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 29, 2020

'But as soon as the facts change, we changed our whole posture and our whole strategy and we've gone full bore. No package like this has ever passed Congress before. And, look, as the President has said, we will do more if need be.'

At the time of the original interview, February 25, there were less than 1,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the US.

By Sunday there had been over 132,600 confirmed cases and 2,355 related deaths.

States have shut down non-essential businesses in a bid to stop to the spread of coronavirus.

This week saw the largest number of US unemployment claims filed in history. Over 3 million Americans flocked to apply for benefits.

During the older interview he reassured viewers the consequences of the virus would not lead to 'economic tragedy'.

'We have contained this. I won't say airtight, but it's pretty close to airtight,' Kudlow said last month.

He repeated the claim again on CNBC March 6.

Several weeks later, on Sunday Kudlow was praising Donald Trump for a $2trillion relief package aimed in part to help small businesses and employees get back on their feet after coronavirus has affected the livelihoods of millions of Americans.

From the package, $600 billion will go to 175 million people and $350 billion will go towards loans for small businesses.

Individuals making up to $75,000 per year will get a $1,200 handout. Married couples with an income of up to $2,400 will get $150,000. Families with children will get an additional $500 per child.

'I think it will be enough,' Kudlow said about the funds. 'One-third of the whole economy is being covered by this package. That's really quite remarkable.'

Kudlow on Sunday claimed the assistance package 'may not be perfect', but said he thinks it's going to 'give a tremendous amount of resources to get us through what we still believe is going to be a question of weeks and months'.

'It's the largest mainstream financial assistance package in the history of the United States, so it's hard to know if we could get everything, help everybody,' he added on Sunday. 'But I'm an optimist. I think the sheer resources here -- we are putting in whatever it takes, we're using every federal power lever possible to help folks and it's going right into middle, lower-middle class people.'

Raddatz asked Kudlow how the stimulus package was possible without raising taxes.

President Donald J. Trump (C) during a signing ceremony for the The CARES Act in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC on March 27. The CARES Act, is a coronavirus COVID-19 stimulus package worth more than $2trillion. Kudlow is pictured left and says the package is 'enough'

But the National Economic Director reassured viewers that taxpayers would feel the relief.

'Well, we're not raising taxes. We're cutting taxes right now,' Kudlow responded. 'The whole package is essentially direct assistance on the spending side and large-scale tax cuts  probably half of the companies in the U.S., are going to get rebates or deferred payroll tax holidays.'

'So, we have tried to hit both sides,' Kudlow continued. 'We're helping the individuals. We're helping the small business. Those are the major components of the American economy. I hope that the machinery works.'

Trump has been criticized for playing down the crisis. Experts in his administrative have advised that lockdowns may need to continue for months. But Trump has said in contradiction that it will not be months.

Kudlow on Sunday admitted that reopening the country in one or two months is wishful thinking.

'It could be four weeks. It could be eight weeks. I say that hopefully and I say that prayerfully,' he said. 'That's what some of the science experts are telling us. I don't know if they'll be right.'
Hillrock was thrilled to work with the three founders of Breaking Bourbon in choosing this special single cask because they are true whiskey connoisseurs and have such developed palates.

Breaking Bourbons Single Barrel Club took home a gold medal at the 2020 San Francisco World Spirits Competition for their single barrel pick Hillrock Estate Distillerys Hudson Confidential. We knew that we had selected a special barrel for our Single Barrel Club members the moment we tasted it. Were proud and excited that the judges agreed, said Jordan Moskal, co-founder of Breaking Bourbon.

Hudson Confidential is a 117.4 proof single barrel Hillrock Estate Solera Aged Bourbon finished in an Oloroso sherry cask. Finishing in a 20 yr old Oloroso sherry cask adds depth to the flavor profile, but is subtle enough that many people are surprised when they hear that its finished in a sherry cask, according to Jeffrey Baker, co-owner of Hillrock Estate Distillery.

Breaking Bourbons Single Barrel Club focuses on bringing world class barrel picks to its members. By partnering with online retailers, Single Barrel Club members get exclusive access to Breaking Bourbon barrel picks and can purchase bottles that they may not otherwise be able to access in their region. This honor is a true testament of the high level of quality picks that we are able to deliver to our members, said Nick Beiter, co-founder of Breaking Bourbon.

Each Breaking Bourbon single barrel pick is given a name that represents the backstory of the particular barrel selected. For Hudson Confidential, we wanted the name to focus on what we set out to do: Shine light on a great, but often lesser known distillery. We understand those who know about Hillrock Estate Distillery may want to keep this hidden gem a secret. But, we felt that wed be remiss to not share our experience with this remarkable craft distillery with our club members, said Eric Hasman, co-founder of Breaking Bourbon. Co-owner of Hillrock Estate Distillery, Cathy Franklin says, Hillrock was thrilled to work with the three founders of Breaking Bourbon in choosing this special single cask because they are true whiskey connoisseurs and have such developed palates. They share our passion for creating great whiskey.

Hudson Confidential Tasting Notes:

The nose is nicely expressive with bursts of floral aromas, dark fruit, and candied cherries notes thats punctuated with seasoned oak. The palate is sweet to the tongue, with raspberries, apricots, and raisins. It finishes with a bump of rye spice, followed by oak and plum. Overall an excellent sipper that features a ton of flavor delivered with elegant complexity.

About Breaking Bourbon

Breaking Bourbon is the leading online bourbon review and news destination. Started in 2014, Breaking Bourbon reaches over 2 million unique visitors a year, with the mission to empower consumers to be more knowledgeable in the dynamic world of American whiskey. In 2018, Breaking Bourbon started their Single Barrel Club, which was among the first in the industry pairing world class single barrel picks with retailers across the nation. To learn more about Breaking Bourbons Single Barrel Club visit: https://www.breakingbourbon.com/single-barrel-club. To learn more about Breaking Bourbon visit http://www.breakingbourbon.com or or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at @breakingbourbon.

About Hillrock Estate Distillery

Hillrock Estate Distillery is located in the heart of the historic Hudson Valley, two hours north of New York City, overlooking the distant Berkshire Mountains. Prime farmland, crystal clear water, and a favorable climate create a unique terroir which is profoundly expressed in Hillrocks artisanal whiskeys. Proud to be one of the few Field-to-Glass whiskey producers in the world, Hillrock is also the first U.S. distillery since before Prohibition to floor malt and hand craft whiskey on site from estate-grown grain. Founded by Owners Jeffrey Baker and Cathy Franklin and legendary Master Distiller David Pickerell, Hillrocks commitment to quality embodies the rich history of craft distilling in the Hudson Valley.
Dubai, March 30 : A delivery man for the past 15 years in Dubai, an Indian national was grateful of supporting support his family, while continuing with his regular job despite threats posed by the coronavirus pandemic, a media report said on Monday.

Masks and gloves are the 42-year-old Murali Shambantham's weapons against COVID-19 as he hits the road with his bike to do food deliveries for Aappa Kadai Restaurant, the Khaleej Times said in the report.

"Someone needs to do this job," said Shambantham, who has a family of four in Ariyalur, Tamil Nadu.

"I know it can be contracted through cough droplets or by touching infected surfaces. Therefore, I make sure to wear gloves and mask to protect myself, apart from regularly sanitising hands even after I park my bike. I also maintain a certain physical distance and lean forward to handover the parcel.

"Food is an essential item. How can you deprive someone of food? If we don't step up, how will people who do not have running kitchens in their homes eat?" he queried.

"We have to take adequate measures and cannot constantly keep feeling threatened. We need to be committed to our professions. It's not merely about the bills that we have to pay, but we must ensure our customers are fed and keep it going for everyone." Murali said customers were more understanding these days and also fewer delays while delivering foods.

"With less traffic now, most deliveries are done within the ideal time. Earlier, customers were impatient even when we get delayed by a few minutes. Now, they are more empathetic and thankful," the Khaleej Times quoted Shambantham as saying.

People are also careful while collecting food parcels, said Murali, who remains vigilant, ready with his Emirates ID, pointing to his unmissable food delivery box, in case he is stopped.

Restaurant and dine-ins have been shut across the United arab emirates to ensure people don't step out of their houses during the coronavirus-enforced closures.

However, deliveries and takeaway of meals continue.

The UAE has so far reported 570 confirmed coronavirus cases, with three deaths.
(Newser)  The figure of up to 200,000 possible American deaths from the coronavirus is now in wide circulation, with Dr. Anthony Fauci and President Trump both mentioning the number on Sunday. On Monday, the White House coronavirus response coordinator agreed, and Dr. Deborah Birx cautioned that it's actually a best-case scenario. "If we do things together well, almost perfectly, we could get in the range of 100,000 to 200,000," Birx said on the Today show, reports NBC News. "I think in some of the metro areas we were late in getting people to follow the 15-day guidelines," she said, adding that she and other officials are "very worried about every city in the United States."

story continues below

Fauci: "Whenever the models come in, they give a worst-case scenario and a best-case scenario," Fauci said Sunday on CNN. "Generally, the reality is somewhere in the middle. I've never seen a model of the diseases that I've dealt with where the worst case actually came out. ... I mean, looking at what we're seeing now, you know, I would say between [100,000] and 200,000 [deaths]. But I don't want to be held to that."

"Whenever the models come in, they give a worst-case scenario and a best-case scenario," Fauci said Sunday on CNN. "Generally, the reality is somewhere in the middle. I've never seen a model of the diseases that I've dealt with where the worst case actually came out. ... I mean, looking at what we're seeing now, you know, I would say between [100,000] and 200,000 [deaths]. But I don't want to be held to that." Trump: At his press conference Sunday announcing the extension of social distancing guidelines, Trump repeatedly made reference to early, worst-case estimates of about 2 million deaths in the US, notes the Washington Post. "And so if we could hold that down, as we're saying, to 100,000it's a horrible number, maybe even lessbut to 100,000," said Trump. "So we have between [100,000] and 200,000, and we altogether have done a very good job."

(Read more coronavirus stories.)
Contributing to India's fight against the novel Coronavirus pandemic, Navaratna public sector mining company NMDC Ltd on Monday stated that it will contribute Rs 150 crore to the PM CARES Fund. The release by the company claimed that this contribution is one of the biggest ones yet offered by any public sector enterprise for the initiative.

In addition to the Rs.150 crore contribution, the NMDC has already implemented various preventive measures at the headquarters, manufacturing plants and offices to protect all the employees, workers and their families against the spread of COVID-19. The mining firm which operates across various remote locations in the country has also implemented various precautionary measures in villages and hamlets adjacent to its facilities and townships.

READ | Coronavirus LIVE Updates: India at 'local transmission' stage; total cases at 1071

"Novel coronavirus is one of the biggest challenges that our country has faced and has been unprecedented in its severity," said Chairman and Managing Director N Baijendra Kumar.

"We at NMDC have always been at the forefront in times of need for the country. But the biggest need is at this time is to be united and strengthen the government's hands," he added.

NMDC Ltd is the single largest producer of iron ore in India. The firm owns and deals with highly mechanised iron ore mines in states like Chhattisgarh and Karnataka. The firm is considered to be one of the top low-cost producers of iron ore in the world. It also operates the only mechanized diamond mine at Panna in Madhya Pradesh.

READ | MEA to donate approx. Rs.1 crore to PM CARES, pledges support in fight against COVID-19

Coronavirus crisis in India

As of date, over 1071 positive cases have been reported of the pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) and at least 29 deaths have been reported to date. India has suspended all visas and barred travel from Afghanistan, Philippines, EU, UK, China, Malaysia and mandatory 14-day quarantine from several other countries and a complete nationwide lockdown till April 14 has been imposed.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a relief package for the poor and the affected persons due to the deadly Coronavirus. According to the minister, the package is worth Rs 1.7 lakh crore, under the Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Yojana. Meanwhile, India has also closed the India-Pakistan border and restricted passenger movement at the border with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Myanmar.

READ | BCCI donates Rs 51 crores to PM-CARES Fund, confirms the same on social media

READ | COVID-19: Ladakh MP Namgyal releases Rs 1 cr from MPLADS fund, donates one month salary

(With inputs from ANI)
Officials on Sunday said New Jerseys total coronavirus cases grew to at least 13,386 with 161 deaths statewide, leaving the state second in the nation for confirmed cases of the virus behind New York.

The increase was the second consecutive day with more than 2,000 new cases announced. Officials believe the peak for the virus in the state is could still be weeks away.

New Jersey, New York are the nations hotspots right now, Gov. Phil Murphy said during a radio interview Sunday morning. "The nation is looking to us. This is the fight of our lives.

Health officials also reported 22,216 negative tests for coronavirus to date in New Jersey, which includes about 90% of the private testing being done in the state.

Heres a roundup of coronavirus news:

Stimulus checks from coronavirus bill will start coming within 3 weeks, treasury secretary says: Checks from the coronavirus economic stimulus bill could reach some Americans within three weeks, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday. The money will begin to appear in bank accounts of people whose account information is on file with the Internal Revenue Service.

These 10 N.J. towns have at least 100 coronavirus cases. Jersey City has the most with 334.: At least 10 municipalities in New Jersey have more than 100 coronavirus cases each, with Jersey City having the most at 334. Bergen County continues to lead the state in cases by county, with at least 2,169 people confirmed as infected as of Sunday.

Supermarkets, grocery stores are shifting hours, adding hours for seniors and have purchase limits: See an updated list of hours, locations and special accommodations in place at stores around the state.

Coronavirus cases increase to 13,386 with 161 deaths. Outbreak escalates with 2,316 new positive tests: The state reported another jump in cases Sunday, with 161 deaths.

Many N.J. restaurants promoting gift cards, discounts to keep business going: New Jersey restaurants struggling to stay afloat while residents are told to stay home are offering a range of special deals on gift cards.

2nd N.J. congressman tests negative for coronavirus after self-quarantining: Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who was under self-quarantine after he was exposed to someone the coronavirus, has tested negative for the virus. The congressman attended a March 13 press conference with Holy Name Medical Center CEO Mike Maron, who later tested positive for the coronavirus.

Shore town bans Airbnb, other short-term rentals to stem spread of coronavirus: Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian said the city has banned short-term rentals in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Coronavirus cases in the United States: There were 136,880 cases reported in the country as of Sunday afternoon, according to information from the the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The center logged 2,409 deaths nationwide.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

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NJ Advance Media staff writers Matt Arco, Chris Franklin, Jeff Goldman, Jonathan D. Salant and Peter Genovese contributed to this report.

Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Police officer Davinder Singh, who was arrested while ferrying two Hizb-ul-Mujahideen terrorists in a vehicle on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway earlier this year, has been sent to further custodial interrogation by a Delhi court till April 3.

Special Judge Ajay Kumar Jain extended Singh's custody after Delhi Police said that he was required to be confronted with other accused Javed Iqbal, Syed Naveed Mushtaq and Imran Shafi Mir arrested in the case.

Heard the IO (investigating officer) and peruses the record. Police custody is granted for further interrogation and identification of other accomplices and confrontation with other co-accused," the judge said.

The court also directed the police to conduct his medical examination after every 48 hours.

The police sought Singh's further custody, saying that the confrontation and further interrogation was required to unearth the larger conspiracy and role of the accused, to trace the details of financial transaction, to verify and trace other offenders.

It also told the court that the custody was required to establish the identity of main handler, defence advocate Prashant Prakash said.

Suspended DSP Davinder Singh was suspended from the Jammu and Kashmir Police in January this year.

The Special Cell had brought Davinder Singh to Delhi from Hira Nagar Jail in Jammu and Kashmir.

Earlier the court had sent Syed Naveed Mushtaq and others to police custody till April 3 after the police said that he and other co accused were planning to execute terror attacks in Delhi and other parts of the country and targeted killings of protected person.

While seeking Mushtaq's custody, police had alleged that the accused was commander of Shopian district of Hizbul Mujahiddeen through his handler based in Pakistan.

The police said the accused used to chat with other co-accused and militants through various internet platforms, including darknet chat.

"The accused, along with other militants of Hizbul Mujahideen, were planning to execute terror attack in Delhi and other parts of the country and targeted killings of protected persons," police had told the court.

The Delhi Police has filed an FIR under Section 120B of IPC. The FIR said that the youths of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab are being trained for carrying out terrorist activities.

The FIR also mentioned of D Company and Chhota Shakeel. According to the FIR, the Delhi Police Special Cell had received an input that the D Company is funding to pro-Khalistan terrorist organisations in Punjab.

Under this very FIR Davinder Singh was taken in custody. The Special Cell had also interrogated Davinder Singh regarding the Khalistan angle, police said.

Although Davinder Singh is not named in the FIR, but the Special Cell has some inputs on the basis of which the enquiry will be done carried out and Davinder Singh will be questioned.
Montgomery County logged 16 more cases of COVID-19 on Monday but health officials reported 11 people have now recovered from the novel coronavirus.

The Montgomery County Public Health District confirmed the new cases, bringing the countys total to 81.

The Woodlands was continuing to report the most cases with 20 and nine of those cases were reported as residents of The Conservatory at Alden Bridge, according to a health official who asked not to be identified.

Montgomery ISDs Lake Creek Principal Phil Eaton who recently tested positive remained in ICU Monday. However, Eatons daughter Erika Bittner reported doctors were concerned to see an increase in his white blood cell count but noted his lungs showed improvement.

Dad is still very much in the thick of fighting this virus, Bittner posted to Caring Bridge. It is a long road, but we will take it one step at a time and submit it all to the lord.

Health officials urged residents to stay home as the number of positive results climb. According to the data, 40 of the cases have been community spread with 16 still under investigation. The remaining 25 cases were all travel related.

At this time, it is important to follow CDC guidelines and governmental orders to stay home in order to limit your contact with others, officials stated in a release.

Officials with the MCPHD also confirmed mass testing is not available in Montgomery County because of the scarcity of test kits.

Keep clean Wash hands often for 20 seconds and encourage others to do the same. If no soap and water are available, use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. Cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue, then throw the tissue away. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands. Disinfect surfaces, buttons, handles, knobs, and other places touched often. Avoid close contact with people who are sick. For more information, please see www.dshs.texas.gov/coronavirus. See More Collapse

If you believe you are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, the best steps to take at this time is stay home, hydrate well, and take fever-reducing medications like Tylenol. Since there are no approved treatments for COVID-19, there is no need to be tested. If your symptoms become SEVERE, please call ahead to your healthcare provider for further instructions. In the case of a life-threatening emergency, call 911. The decision for an individual to be tested depends on the healthcare provider and the availability of tests at that location and time, MCPHD officials stated in a release.

The case counts are as follows: The Woodlands, 20; Montgomery, 14; Conroe, 14; Spring, 13; Oak Ridge North, 8; Porter, four; Shenandoah, 4; Hockley, one; Pinehurst, one; Splendora, one; and Willis, one.

For a complete list of all confirmed new coronavirus cases in Montgomery County, visit mcphd-tx.org/coronavirus-covid-19/confirmed-cases.

cdominguez@hcnonline.com
Rescuers carry 4-year-old Vadie Sides out of the woods in Lee County, Ala., after the girl was found with a dog at her side after two days in the woods.

A 4-year-old girl was found alive after she and her dog disappeared in Alabama woods last week.

Evelyn Sides, who goes by Vadie, was walking her dog, Lucy, with a caretaker Wednesday afternoon when she vanished into the woods near Loachapoka, Alabama. She shared an account of her harrowing experience in a video posted on Facebook by her mother Amanda Sides.

"We took a walk, but then I got too fast and got running and got lost then I started calling for Nanny, but Nanny was too far," Vadie explained, dressed in a yellow, insect-print hospital gown.

She said she crossed somebody's house, but "I was brave not to go in." Then she "slided down a waterfall that was so slippery."

Post by amanda.e.sides.

At one point she and Lucy got separated, but they reunited later because Vadie said she was going in the right direction. On the first night, Vadie said she slept by a road, and on the second night, she slept where she was found.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers, K9 units and volunteer Fire & Rescue personnel helped in the search, aided by helicopters and drones, according to Al.com.

After two days of searching, the Lee County Sheriff's Office put out a call Friday for volunteers to help search the "dense wooded terrain." She was found by volunteer searchers Friday afternoon with Lucy, less than a mile from where she disappeared.

Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones told Al.com Vadie was "a little bit dehydrated but not that much worse for the wear." Volunteers gave her Gatorade, water, a banana and other snacks, the outlet reported.

She was responsive and answering questions, Jones said. She did not present as scared. She was animated, and talkative and chowing down the last time I saw her in the back of the ambulance.

Jones added that she wanted to know why so many people were out in the woods.

On Saturday, the Lee County Sheriff's Office said Lucy the dog was home safe, too. Amanda Sides thanked her community for coming together to find her daughter. Sides said Vadie was still in the hospital but was recovering well.

Story continues

"To all of the volunteers who came out in the middle of a global pandemic to traipse around in the woods, sometimes into the early morning hours, God Bless you all," Sides wrote.

Follow N'dea Yancey-Bragg on Twitter: @NdeaYanceyBragg

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lost Alabama girl, 4, and dog found alive after two days in woods
Authorities in Florida are making a fresh appeal for help in the unsolved disappearance of Jack Donald Lewis, the husband of Tiger Kings Carole Baskin.

Following the extreme popularity of the Netflix show, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister shared an appeal on Twitter on Monday.

Since @Netflix and #Covid19 #Quarantine has made #TigerKing all the rage, I figured it was a good time to ask for new leads, the sheriff wrote.

He attached an image reminding members of the public that millionaire Lewis was last seen on 18 August 1997.

Those with potential leads in the case are asked to call +1 813 247 8200.

Baskin and her organisation are both featured in the hit Netflix documentary Tiger King, which has captivated viewers since its release on 20 March.

Lewis was married to Baskin when they founded Big Cat Rescue in Florida.

Baskin has denied allegations that she was involved in Lewiss disappearance. She has never been charged in relation to the case.

The controversial true-crime show predominantly follows the life of big cat breeder Joseph Maldonado-Passage, known as Joe Exotic. He was convicted in April 2019 of trying to hire someone to murder Baskin as well as several animal-based charges, and is currently serving a 22-year sentence.

Tiger King is streaming on Netflix now.
During the 1990s, the World Bank and other major aid organisations focused on primary and secondary rather than higher education in Africa. The Scandinavian countries had another strategy. They made partnerships and so-called research capacity building programmes at higher education level with African countries.

Over the past three decades, more than 500 African scholars have been to Denmark as part of such partnerships funded by Danish Development Assistance (Danida). The partnerships take different forms, but their main objective has been to contribute to the solution of developing countries' problems, both in terms of new research results and in building research capacity.

In 2018, Danida Fellowship Centre initiated a study of the experiences and reflections of the African scholars who'd taken part in such partnerships.

The scholars reflected on their experiences, and listed both benefits and drawbacks of studying in Denmark. These included access to supervision and having the opportunity to share and discuss knowledge in their research groups, as well as being able to access libraries, laboratories, and other facilities that may have been lacking in their home countries.

The majority of those we interviewed were still involved in research and were publishing at international level. Those not working in the research environment said they continued to apply their training in critical thinking and knowledge sharing. Almost all of the researchers were active in local development in their home countries. Some were active in politics at home or internationally.

Overall, the study's findings suggest it is vital for African researchers to have access to international funding, for example through Danida's research capacity building programmes. This benefits individual scholars, Denmark and Danish universities  and, crucially, the countries from which these researchers come. Their experiences can be used to build research capacity on the African continent.

The study

The study targeted all the approximately 500 African scholars who had been involved between 1989 and 2019. We managed to get in touch with 60% through a questionnaire, which asked about respondents' current employment, research collaboration, publications and mobility. There were also open-ended questions regarding their ideas about the benefits and challenges of being involved in research capacity building.

Most respondents were originally from Tanzania and Ghana; around 65% were currently employed in the university sector.

We also had 15 qualitative interviews with current and former PhDs, and researchers involved in current research capacity building projects. Finally, we conducted a workshop with 45 participants that posed broader questions about the purpose of going to Denmark and notions of empowerment.

Most of the people we interviewed hadn't particularly wished to come to Denmark. They were keen to go wherever funding was available. But they all had very positive feelings about the country  apart from the Danish weather  after having been there. Some participants shared their experiences in Denmark in video interviews.

The current PhD fellows were making the most of their stays in both Denmark and in their home countries. They said the most important advantage of studying in Denmark was supervision and having the opportunity to share and discuss knowledge in research groups. Conducting fieldwork and being supervised were the most important aspects of their stays in their home countries (which formed part of the fellowship).

Less than 5% marked the item disappointed on a list of 11 items (multiple entries allowed) describing their PhD training. Some elaborated by noting the difficulties of leaving family behind.

Many of those who had already completed their PhD studies said they remained in contact with their supervisors and other people in Denmark.

The vast majority of the African researchers we interviewed considered their stay to have been intellectually stimulating, adding to their personal development and empowerment. Participants said their home countries had benefited, too.

They emphasised that they appreciated being able to discuss and share knowledge with their Danish colleagues, and the relatively high level of social equality and flat social hierarchies in Denmark. They had learned critical thinking and to work independently. This shows the importance of physical mobility  of actually being in Denmark.

And what of the benefits to the researchers' own countries, and the African continent more broadly?

Power balance

The researchers educated through the projects were useful to their countries, although it is not possible to link this directly to the capacity building. The majority were employed either at universities or in the public sector; some of those working in the public sector were still conducting research. Only 1% were unemployed. Others were no longer involved in research, but had important positions in society due to their academic and intellectual skills.

We also questioned issues of power in the engagement between Denmark and the African countries involved. Any kind of so-called research capacity building is invariably embedded in power relations and debates about colonisation of knowledge.

We were quite surprised by the African participants' positive perception of research capacity building. We have both worked in the field as practitioners and researchers for quite a few years and have followed the debate about the decolonisation of universities. As we have also written about the power and politics of knowledge , we were prepared for critique. We asked for it and about it. But it seldom came across.

It emerged that, through long-term collaboration in the course of the projects  and often in the course of a number of projects  the participants built up constructive working relations which made uneven power relations between the global North and the global South less pronounced.

Read more: Global academic collaboration: a new form of colonisation?

Many of the African researchers said the commitment of Danish researchers went far beyond purely research collaboration. For instance, a PhD student said her supervisor picked her up at the airport, bringing a warm coat for her. These approaches were much appreciated by the African researchers as the basis for long-term relationships. And the African researchers had similar approaches towards the Danes, when they were in the African countries doing fieldwork. In this way, friendships also evolved.

Hanne Kirstine Adriansen has received funding from Danida Fellowship Centre, which funded the study mentioned here.

Lene Mller Madsen receives funding from Danida Fellowship Centre, which funded the study mentioned here.

By Hanne Kirstine Adriansen, Associate Professor, School of Education, Aarhus University And

Lene Mller Madsen, Associate professor in Science Education, University of Copenhagen
NEW YORK  A supervisor urged surgeons at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in Manhattan to volunteer for the front lines because half the intensive-care staff had already been sickened by coronavirus.

ICU is EXPLODING, she wrote in an email.

A doctor at Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan described the unnerving experience of walking daily past an intubated, critically ill colleague in her 30s, wondering who would be next.

Another doctor at a major New York City hospital described it as a petri dish, where more than 200 workers had fallen sick.

Two nurses in city hospitals have died.

The coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than 30,000 people in New York City, is beginning to take a toll on those who are most needed to combat it: the doctors, nurses and other workers at hospitals and clinics. In emergency rooms and intensive care units, typically dispassionate medical professionals are feeling panicked as increasing numbers of colleagues get sick.

I feel like were all just being sent to slaughter, said Thomas Riley, a nurse a Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, who has contracted the virus, along with his husband.

Medical workers are still showing up day after day to face overflowing emergency rooms, earning them praise as heroes. Thousands of volunteers have signed up to join their colleagues.

But doctors and nurses said they can look overseas for a dark glimpse of the risk they are facing, especially when protective gear has been in short supply.

In China, more than 3,000 doctors were infected, nearly half of them in Wuhan, where the pandemic began, according to Chinese government statistics. Li Wenliang, the Chinese doctor who first tried to raise the alarm about COVID-19, eventually died of it.

In Italy, the number of infected heath care workers is now twice the Chinese total, and the National Federation of Orders of Surgeons and Dentists has compiled a list of 50 who have died. Nearly 14% of Spains confirmed coronavirus cases are medical professionals.

New York Citys health care system is sprawling and disjointed, making precise infection rates among medical workers difficult to calculate. A spokesman for the Health and Hospitals Corp., which runs New York Citys public hospitals, said the agency would not share data about sick medical workers at this time.

William P. Jaquis, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, said the situation across the country was too fluid to begin tracking such data, but he said he expected the danger to intensify.

Doctors are getting sick everywhere, he said.

Last week, two nurses in New York, including Kious Kelly, a 48-year-old assistant nurse manager at Mount Sinai West, died from the disease. They are believed to be the first known victims among the citys medical workers. Health care workers across the city said they feared many more would follow.

Riley, the nurse at Jacobi, said when he looked at the emergency room recently, he realized he and his colleagues would never avoid being infected. Patients struggling to breathe with lungs that sounded like sandpaper had crowded the hospital. Masks and protective gowns were in short supply.

Im swimming in this, he said he thought. Im pretty sure Im getting this.

His symptoms began with a cough, then a fever, then nausea and diarrhea. Days later, his husband became ill. Riley said both he and his husband appear to be getting better, but are still experiencing symptoms.

Like generals steadying their troops before battle, hospital supervisors in New York have had to rally, cajole and sometimes threaten workers.

Our health care systems are at war with a pandemic virus, Craig R. Smith, the surgeon-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, wrote in an email to staff on March 16, the day after New York City shut down its school system to contain the virus. You are expected to keep fighting with whatever weapons youre capable of working.

Sick is relative, he wrote, adding that workers would not even be tested for the virus unless they were unequivocally exposed and symptomatic to the point of needing admission to the hospital.

That means you come to work, he wrote. Period.

Arriving to work each day, doctors and nurses are met with confusion and chaos.

At a branch of the Montefiore hospital system in the Bronx, nurses wear their winter coats in an unheated tent set up to triage patients with symptoms, while at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, patients are sometimes dying before they can be moved into beds.

The inviolable rules that once gave a sense of rhythm and harmony to even the busiest emergency rooms have in some cases been cast aside. Few things have caused more anxiety than shifting protocols meant to preserve a dwindling supply of protective gear.

When the pandemic first hit New York, medical workers changed gowns and masks each time they visited an infected patient. Then, they were told to keep their protective gear on until the end of their shift. As supplies became even more scarce, one doctor working in an ICU said he was asked to turn in his mask and face shield at the end of his shift to be sterilized for future use. Others are being told to store their masks in a paper bag between shifts.

It puts us in danger, it puts our patients in danger. I cant believe in the United States thats whats happening, said Kelley Cabrera, an emergency room nurse at Jacobi Medical Center.

An emergency room doctor at Long Island Jewish Medical Center put it more bluntly: Its literally, wash your hands a lot, cross your fingers, pray.

Doctors and nurses fear they could be transmitting the virus to their patients, compounding the crisis by transforming hospitals into incubators for the virus. That has happened in Italy, in part because infected doctors struggle through their shifts, according to an article published by physicians at a hospital in Bergamo, a city in one of the hardest-hit regions.

Frontline hospital workers in New York are now required to take their temperature every 12 hours, though many doctors and nurses fear they could contract the disease and spread it to patients before they become symptomatic.

They also say it is a challenge to know when to come back to work after being sick. All medical workers who show symptoms, even if they are not tested, must quarantine for at least seven days and must be asymptomatic for three days before coming back to work.

But some employers have been more demanding than others, workers said.

Lillian Udell, a nurse at Lincoln Medical Center, another public hospital in the Bronx, said she was still weak and experiencing symptoms when she was pressured to return to work. She powered through a long shift that was so chaotic she could not remember how many patients she attended. By the time she returned home, the chills and the cough had returned.

I knew it was still in me, she said. I knew I wasnt myself.

Christopher Miller, a spokesman for the Health and Hospitals Corp., said the agency could not comment on Udells claim, but said its hospitals had never asked health care workers who are sick and have symptoms of COVID-19 to continue to work or to come back to work.

There is also the fear of bringing the disease home to spouses and children. Some medical workers said they were sleeping in different rooms from their partners and even wearing surgical masks at home. Others have chosen to isolate themselves from their families completely, sending spouses and children to live outside the city, or moving into hotels.

I come home, I strip naked, put clothes in a bag and put them in the washer and take a shower, one New York City doctor at a large public hospital said.

Because the pathogen has spread so widely, even medical workers not assigned directly to work with infected patients risk contracting the disease.

A gynecologist who works for the Mount Sinai hospital system said she had begun seeing women in labor who were positive for the coronavirus. Because she is not considered a front-line worker, she said, restrictions on protective gear are even more stringent than on COVID-19 units. She said she was not aware of any patients who had tested positive after contact with doctors or nurses, but felt it was only a matter of time.

Were definitely contaminating pregnant mothers that were assessing and possibly discharging home, said the doctor, who spoke on condition on anonymity because her hospital had not authorized her to speak.

Mount Sinai said in a statement that it had faced equipment shortages like other hospitals, but added the issues had been solved in part by a large shipment of masks that arrived from China over the weekend. The hospital moved mountains to get the shipment, the statement said.

This week, the Health and Hospitals Corp. recommended transferring doctors and nurses at higher risk of infection  such as those who are older or with underlying medical conditions  from jobs interacting with patients to more administrative positions.

But Kimberly Marsh, a nurse at Westchester Medical Center outside New York City, said she has no intention of leaving the fight, even though she is a 53-year-old smoker with multiple sclerosis and on a medication that warns against getting near people with infections.

It almost feels selfish, she said, though she acknowledged that with two years before retirement she could not afford to leave if she wanted to.

Even so, she said, the fear is palpable each time she steps into the emergency room. A nurse on her unit has already contracted the virus and one doctor is so scared he affixes an N95 mask to his face with tape at the beginning of each shift. Marsh said she sweats profusely in her protective gear because she is going through menopause and has hot flashes.

We all think were screwed, she said. I know without any doubt that Im going to lose colleagues. Theres just no way around it.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Shiromani Akali Dal leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa condemned the denial of food to Hindus in Pakistan amid the Coronavirus outbreak. Making an appeal to Pakistan PM Imran Khan to look after Hindus and Sikhs, he further stated that minorities in Pakistan would die of hunger.

He said, "Shocking news: Amid Covid-19 outbreak, Hindus of Karachi are denied food supplies." "This is against the basic Human Rights principle, minorities would die of hunger in Pakistan. PM Imran Khan is requested to ensure the well-being of Hindus and Sikhs during the crisis of Coronavirus," Sirsa added.

Minorities refused food in Pak

In a shocking development, sources have reported on Sunday that Karachi-based NGO Saylani Welfare Trust, has allegedly refused to offer food packets to Christians and Hindus amid the Coronavirus lockdown imposed in parts of Pakistan. Sources state that while several NGOs have been entrusted to distribute food to stranded daily wage workers in parts of Pakistan, the Saylani Welfare trust had allegedly refused to give food to minority workers.

READ| Pakistan PM Imran Khan tests positive for Coronavirus?

They were then allegedly provided food by Edhi people. Pakistan currently has reported 1593 cases with 16 deaths. On March 21, Saylani Welfare Trust chairman Maulana Bashir Farooqi had announced that they would provide ration to 1.2 million poor persons in Pakistan, as per reports. Farooqi added that the Trust is arranging the 'Dastarkhan' on a daily basis which would reportedly function as roti banks to provide take away food packets to poor families. Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, who reportedly reviewed the distribution process on Thursday, lauded the initiatives of the Saylani Welfare Trust to aid the needy.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan Prime Minister's Adviser on Health Dr. Zafar Mirza claimed that the situation was under control as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country was still limited to 1,526 with 121 testing positive in past 24 hours. He said that 1,106 suspected cases were added during the last 24 hours, taking the total number of such cases to 13,324. Mirza said that 857 out of 1,526 COVID-19 patients were the pilgrims who came from virus-hit Iran, while 191 patients came back from other countries and the rest were local transmissions.

READ| Request Shaheen Bagh protest to halt for few days because of Coronavirus: Sirsa's appeal
Lap Nguyen began each school day at Rochester John Marshall by essentially taking a "lap."

The senior arrived an hour before classes started, stopping at each of his teachers rooms, one after the other, wanting to talk about anything and everything.

With all the processing, reading and empathizing done by Nguyen, there was ample material to go over.

"He gets to school, makes the rounds and basically talks to teachers about what is going on in the world, his life, current events, events at school," said Nguyens calculus II teacher, Jacob Johnson, in his 14th year at John Marshall.

"Lap is so well read, about everything," Johnson said. "Hes always got a newspaper, is always reading about what is going on. Hes an incredible kid. And that doesnt even touch on the leadership he shows inside and outside the classroom."

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Nguyen is much more than well versed and a talker. In many ways, hes the leader of the school. Hes JMs senior class president, its speech and debate team captain and its president of Model United Nations, a role-playing group seeking solutions in world affairs.

He also has a 4.0 GPA, a 33 ACT score and full-ride offers from almost every Ivy League school as well as Duke and Stanford, to name a few.

Nguyen is JMs ultimate "Little Big Man." All of that talent, desire and heart, and its packed into a frame that measures just 4-feet-11.

"Im vertically challenged," Nguyen says with a slight laugh. "I guess I dont fit the paradigm of what people think a leader should look like."

With Nguyen, its always been a challenge accepted.

"Its almost like he wears his lack of height as a badge of honor," Johnson said. "Hes small in stature, but hes huge in personality and accomplishments. Plus, hes got a huge empathy for others. Because of all of that and that hes under 5 feet tall, its almost like having a giant in the room. He just stands out."

Overcoming obstacles

There wasnt much in Nguyens background to suggest hed become some kind of "whos who."

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It was actually to the contrary, as myriad obstacles awaited him.

That started with his roots. Lap and his parents are immigrants, having come to the United States from Vietnam in 2008. Lap was 7 at the time. Upon arriving in Rochester, his school became Riverside Elementary for a year (kindergarten), then Gage Elementary.

Lap and his parents showed up speaking no English, and to this day his father, Binh, and his mother, Hoa, still speak mostly Vietnamese. Binh works at Azotic Coating Technology, coloring gem stones. Hoa is a manicurist at Spa and Nails. Lap also has a younger brother, 9-year-old Benson.

"It took me two full years before I could really speak English," Lap said. "Because of that, I didnt really make any friends until the third grade."

That now seems so long ago, as if it were another life.

Prior to COVID-19s recent take over, the disease closing Rochester schools on March 18 and forcing social distancing and online learning, Lap was as social as they came.

He was ever-present at John Marshall. Hed get off to that hour-early start, go through his school day, then head to speech and debate practices, and his Model United Nations gatherings.

Now, shuttered at home like everyone else due to COVID-19, he has time on his hands. Nguyen has used much of it to read. Fittingly, he just finished a book that spoke to him, "Outliers: The Story of Success," by Malcom Gladwell.

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A mythical place called Harvard

Hes also used it to narrow down his next academic step. College offers from Princeton, Duke, Dartmouth, Pennsylvania and Yale have piled up in the Nguyen mailbox in recent months.

Its created an emotional time at the Nguyen residence.

"When we first came to this country, my parents had hoped that I could succeed in school and get into a college," Lap said. "They just wanted to get me into any college. But they never thought I could go this high. When the offers have come in, theyve become very emotional. We hug and we cry."

More than anything, it was in search of educational opportunities that Hoa and her husband left Vietnam in the first place.

Once here, Lap hasnt let them down.

"I have instilled the idea that academics are the best way (for Lap) to succeed, but other than that, I have only taken a supportive role rather than someone who pushes him," Hoa said in Vietnamese, Lap translating. "During this whole (college) application process, he has largely been on his own due to the fact that I am very limited in my knowledge of what higher education is like in America."

As Lap considers the Ivy League schools and others, Hoa has also made sure to remind her son of his blessings. She regards the United States as a beacon of hope and of infinite possibilities.

"I have continually reminded him that our family ought to be grateful to this wonderful nation that has harbored us, and that he must try to find some way to be successful by giving back to the community in whatever ways that he can," Hoa said.

And where does she hope Lap ends up? Well, there is one school on his list that Hoa had heard of dating back to her days in Vietnam. Shed love to see him land there. Indeed, it's among the letters and it's where he's leaning.

"There was one school in particular that I had heard of even back in Vietnam, this seemingly mythical place called Harvard," Hoa said. "Although it is ultimately his decision, I do have a preference for it, but I will let him be the judge of that."
Researchers collaborating from McGovern Medical School, Department of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas Heart Institute, Houston, Brigham and Womens Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts and University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, have reviewed the evidence showing the effects of the SARS-CoV-2 or novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) on the cardiovascular system. Their study titled, Potential Effects of Coronaviruses on the Cardiovascular System: A Review, was published in the latest issue of JAMA Cardiology.

Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (blue) infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (red), isolated from a patient sample. Image captured at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Credit: NIAID

What was the study about?

The researchers explained that the new viral pandemic of Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19 has ravaged the world, and people with cardiovascular diseases may have particular implications when infected with the virus. This study was conducted to look at the effects of COVID-19 on the cardiovascular system.

Effects of the coronaviruses in humans

The researchers wrote that coronavirus is named because of the crown-like spikes on its surface these have four structural proteins  spike (S) protein (which mediates attachment to the host receptor and subsequent fusion of the virus and cell membrane), the nucleocapsid (N) protein, the membrane (M) protein, and the envelope (E) protein.

They add that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and the present SARS-CoV-2 can cause life-threatening respiratory infections in human populations.

Problems of the cardiovascular system associated with SARS

The researchers write that SARS-CoV may result in some complications of the cardiovascular system. However, there are no studies to clearly outline the effects of SARS-CoV on the cardiovascular system except for anecdotal reports that the risk of myocardial infarction or heart attacks and acute coronary syndrome was common after SARS. The researchers speak of a study of 75 patients with SARS and report that for every 5 cases of death, two were due to heart attacks. Thromboembolism and subendocardial infarction have also been reported, they wrote.

What happens in COVID-19?

On the 9th of January 2020, a novel coronavirus called the SARS-CoV-2 was identified to be the cause of a viral pneumonia. The virus was transmitted from human to human via close contact. In most cases, adults are infected. There are fewer cases among children aged less than 15 years of age. Three significant symptoms include fever, cough, and shortness of breath, and other symptoms include headache, sore throat, fatigue. Both asymptomatic persons with COVID-19, as well as those with active disease, carry equal viral load. This means that asymptomatic individuals can be carriers of the infection in the community. Abnormalities are detected in chest CT scans of 85 percent of patients say reports. Both lung involvement is seen in 75 percent of all patients. The rate of fatality with the infection rises with age.

Other diseases among those with COVID-19

The team of researchers wrote that some of the common conditions seen along with those with COVID-19 include cardiovascular disease in 4.2 percent and high blood pressure in 12.8 percent. They add that the case fatality rate was 6 percent for those COVID-19 patients who had diabetes and 7.3 percent in those who had long term respiratory diseases such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Overall case fatality with COVID-19 is 2.3 percent, they wrote. They also added that those that did not survive the disease had a higher likelihood of having heart failure (52 percent compared to 12 percent among survivors) and acute cardiac injury (59 percent compared to 1 percent among survivors). Some of the markers for heart disease such as troponin, myoglobin, C-reactive protein, serum ferritin, and interleukin-6, were found to be in higher levels among those who died of COVID-19 and this could indicate systemic inflammation, the researchers wrote.

They explained that SARS-CoV-2 had been known to affect the myocardium and lead to myocarditis. They wrote, Myocardial injury is likely associated with infection-related myocarditis and/or ischemia and is an important prognostic factor in COVID-19. A prognostic factor is one that predicts the outcome of a disease. Many patients died of ARDS or acute respiratory distress syndrome, and they found that those patients with cardiac injury were more likely to develop ARDS with COVID-19.

Results and observations

The team summarizes, A large proportion of patients (with COVID-19) have underlying cardiovascular disease and/or cardiac risk factors. Factors associated with mortality include male sex, advanced age, and presence of comorbidities, including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, and cerebrovascular diseases.

They explain that both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 use the ACE2 receptor to enter into the host cells. ACE2 plays a protective role in the development of lung failure, they wrote. No risks or benefits of using ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) or antagonists of the renin-angiotensin system in COVID-19 patients has been noted, they wrote. They added, A joint statement by the Heart Failure Society of America, American College of Cardiology, and American Heart Association recommends that these medications can be continued in patients with COVID-19 without interruption in compliance with available clinical guidelines.

Implications and relevance

The authors conclude that COVID-19 has reached pandemic status and is a threat to global health. As of now, it is difficult to predict its course over the next few months or years. What is known is that this viral infection can lead to acute coronary syndromes, arrhythmias, and heart failure. The researchers wrote, Treatment of cardiovascular complications should be based on optimal and judicious use of guideline-based therapies. As with other triggers for acute CVD events, the use of antiplatelet agents, -blockers, ACE inhibitors, and statins are recommended per practice guidelines.

The researchers conclude, Extensive efforts are underway to find specific vaccines and antivirals against SARS-CoV-2. Meanwhile, cardiovascular risk factors and conditions should be judiciously controlled per evidence-based guidelines.
While there are hardly any tourists left in Agra, twin religious cities of Mathura and Vrindavan are struggling to manage the foreign devotees who had come to the land of Lord Krishna and are now stranded due to 21-day lockdown announced by the government in view of Covid-19 pandemic.

We have two types of foreign nationals. While majority are those who come to Mathura and Vrindavan to stay for years, a few Krishna devotees keep coming, said Sarvagya Ram Mishra, district magistrate (DM), Mathura.

Insisting that the situation was well under control, the DM said: Those who have come after February 15 have been placed in quarantine. There are about 111 such foreigners traced in Mathura. Out of these, 22 are undergoing active quarantine under vigil of health officials and the remaining are in self quarantine for 14 days.

None of these foreigners had symptoms of coronavirus but were still placed under quarantine. Many of them are in the process of leaving for their home country now, added the DM.

Most of the foreigners come here to ISKCON temple in Vrindavan.

While the temple closed now, about 40 foreign devotees, including those living here for long also want to go back to their country.

Since they are not allowed to stay in ISKCON temple, most of them are putting up in Goverdhan area. Those who are from Russia will soon go back as special flights are being arranged for them in Delhi by their own government, said Ravi Lochan Dass, spokesperson, ISKCON.

They are mostly from USA, UK and Russia and their government is arranging flights back home but the hurdle is in travelling to Delhi for which they need passes for vehicle movement. The district administration is yet to act on it, added Dass.

With hotels and restaurants closed and flights cancelled, nobody is coming to Agra. With monuments shut, any way, they have no reason to visit the city, said Rajeev Saxena, vice president, Tourism Guild of Agra.

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(TNS)  The Biddeford, Maine, City Council meeting started as usual with the city clerks roll call and a welcome from the mayor.But this was unlike any meeting the council has had before.From their living rooms and kitchens, elected officials and city staff logged onto Zoom to connect by video conference Thursday evening for their first council meeting since Gov. Janet Mills declared a state of civil emergency and signed an emergency law that allows remote municipal meetings. Their faces appeared in a gallery view reminiscent of the iconic Brady Bunch show intro.Meetings held via Zoom or similar videoconferencing services are becoming the new normal as town and cities across the state adjust to doing necessary municipal business in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.Portlands City Council will use the technology to meet Monday night, when its expected to decide whether to extend the citys stay-at-home order.As municipal officials scramble to make the transition to virtual meetings, they also have to be cognizant of public access laws. City officials say they are using technology to connect elected leaders, but also need to make sure the public can watch and participate in meetings just as they would if they showed up at City Hall.Concerns about public access at municipal meetings has increased amid emergency responses to the pandemic. That came to light earlier this month in Waterville, where a city council subcommittee gathered in person and illegally met in secret by not allowing public access to its deliberations. Some municipalities have temporarily suspended committee and commission meetings until they can ensure the public will be able to participate in public hearings.The key for me is everything still has to be public and transparent. Everyone has to have the same access to it now that they did two months ago, said York Town Manager Stephen Burns.On March 15, Mills declared a civil emergency in Maine because of the coronavirus. Three days later, she issued an executive order banning gatherings of more than 10 people and signed into law emergency legislation to address public health, safety and welfare during the public health emergency.That law allows towns to conduct public meetings through telephonic, video, electronic or other similar means of remote participation. Public notice is required and the notice must include the method by which the public can attend. All participating board members must be able to hear and speak with all other board members and they all must be able to be heard by the audience. Additionally, municipalities must also allow public participation and all votes must be taken by roll call.Those provisions for nontraditional meetings are repealed 30 days after the state of emergency is terminated. They currently extend through May 14, but may be extended if Mills continues the state of civil emergency.In guidance provided to towns on the temporary provisions, the Maine Municipal Association advises them to consider postponing nonessential meetings and agenda items, and limiting business to items necessary to continue municipal operations. It also suggests town officials test equipment and technology well before the meeting to minimize disruption to public access and board operations.Under state law, the public does not generally have a right to participate in board or committee meetings unless the board has allowed public comment or local rules require. However, during the COVID-19 related state of emergency, board should consider taking extra steps to allow public involvement. For example, board could provide methods for citizens to submit comments on agenda items before or after the meeting via email, phone, mail or other means, MMAs legal services department wrote in the advisory.Sigmund Schutz, a First Amendment attorney with PretiFlaherty who represents MaineToday Media, which includes the Portland Press Herald, said the Freedom of Access Act gives you the right to attend, but not necessarily to be heard at public meetings. However, certain types of proceedings  including Planning Board decisions  must have input from the public.For other proceedings it would be a shame if they changed normal practices and eliminate public comment, he said.Biddeford city staff are still working through the logistics of having the public comment during meetings held through Zoom, said City Manager Jim Bennett. On Tuesday, the City Council will consider temporarily suspending its rules that allow public comment at the end of meetings, but Bennett said that could change as the city figures out the best way to allow the public to interact during meetings.For now, Biddeford City Council meetings will be held on Zoom and aired simultaneously on local public access and on the city website. All meetings will be recorded and archived on the city website in the same way meetings are normally saved.Bennett said the citys priority was getting the council up and running with virtual meetings before focusing on doing the same with the planning board and other committees that have decision-making authority. Advisory committees and commissions have the lowest priority.The feedback weve gotten from the council and people who watched the (first) meeting was that it was surprisingly good, Bennett said. The council felt OK about it and the public didnt find it difficult to watch.Bennett said city staff is considering how to incorporate public comment into live meetings, but are aware of issues municipalities in other states have had with people hacking into the meeting or doing inappropriate things. That became an issue last Friday in Falmouth when the town council met via Zoom to discuss declaring a local civil emergency.Unfortunately, the meeting ended abruptly due to the inappropriate and lewd behavior of one individual (whose) actions were viewed by several of the meeting participants. Fortunately, this behavior was not captured on the live stream, town officials wrote in an update to the community. We apologize for this incident and will explore ways to prevent such an occurrence from happening in the future.The Portland City Council will hold its first virtual meeting Monday night, during which the council will consider renewing a state of emergency and requirement to stay at home. That meeting will be held through Zoom and residents will be able to participate in public comment, said city spokesperson Jessica Grondin.Grondin said the ability to take public comment was the biggest requirement as city staff decided which format to use. Staff is still figuring out how to show the meetings through Town Hall Streams and on Facebook live. The city has not yet made a decision about whether committee meetings will be held remotely, she said.Were still in that crisis mode of responding to whats going on, Grondin said. If things start to get back to normal, well see if we can conduct committee meetings remotely.Starting Wednesday, all South Portland municipal meetings will be held via Zoom, but there are unlikely to be many virtual council meetings in the short term. Residents who want to comment during meetings will be able to do so, said City Manager Scott Morelli.Right now the mayor is hesitant to meet over Zoom because its not as easy for people to show up to hear and see what is going on, Morelli said.South Portland City Council meetings will only be held virtually if there are emergency situations that cant wait for the panel the meet in person, Morelli said. The council met twice using Zoom to deal with issues related to the coronavirus pandemic.There were a few hiccups along the way, but the public was able to participate and councilors could see and hear everyone, he said. Its not ideal for public meetings, but in a pinch its working for us.Burns, the York town manager, said the board of selectmen is planning to meet every week to get out information about town government and the coronavirus response, but the town has temporarily put on hold other types of meetings. When selectmen meet Monday for their first virtual meeting, it will be streamed online and on public access, though resolution may be low.The town has not yet integrated a way to take live public comment, so it has postponed consideration of a business license and other proceedings that will require public comment, including planning board and zoning board of appeals business. Residents can email selectmen at to submit public comments on board business.Were learning on the fly, Burns said. It seems like we really havent gotten it down to a science yet, but were getting there.
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Linkedin Nedi Putra AW (The Jakarta Post) Malang, East Java  Mon, March 30, 2020 13:20 654 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e4d57e 4 Food tumpeng,Central-Java,tradition,food,culinary,arts-and-culture,history,Hinduism,Islam Free

The cone-shaped rice dish known as tumpeng is an inseparable part of celebrations and other important events in Indonesia.

While there can be no doubt about the popularity of tumpeng across all segments of Indonesian society, the publics understanding of its philosophical values is less clear.

For Raden Ayu Koes Dwayati Soegondo, the tumpeng, more than just a culinary specialty of a bygone era, is steeped in hidden meanings.

Ayu, who has been working as a tumpeng instructor since the 1970s, describes how the tumpeng symbolizes the journey of life.

Its basic philosophy is that the more suffering we have to endure, the more mature we become, as reflected in the process of preparing the tumpeng by heaping rice until it becomes anteng (steady), she said during a recent tumpeng workshop at the Soendari Batik & Art Gallery in Malang, East Java.

More than just food: The 'tumpeng' and its side dishes symbolize philosophical values of the ancestors of today's Indonesians. (JP/Nedi Putra AW)

According to Ayu, the other meaning of the tumpeng is inherent in its pointed cone, symbolizing the devotion toward the one God. The shape also alludes to the mountainous landscape of many Indonesian regions, particularly Java. The dishes around the cone signify the vegetation, forests and wildlife.

Ayu mentioned various kinds of tumpeng made with different styles of rice as the basic component, from white rice, to uduk rice (cooked with coconut milk) and yellow rice. White rice is the principal choice traditionally.

White means sinless, and it is meant for traditional ceremonies in Java, such as birthdays, seventh-month pregnancy, pasaran [a day of the Javanese five-day week], wetonan (Javanese-week based birthday) and gusur tanah [land clearance], said Ayu.

Uduk rice comes from the word wudhu, meaning the cook has to perform ritual ablutions, because the rice is preferred for Islamic religious events like Ashura and Mawlid.

Lastly, yellow rice is the most commonly found tumpeng, served at events ranging from birthday parties to office inaugurations.

Ayu said that, for cooks familiar with the tumpeng philosophy, the cone model should be mandatory for white rice.

Uduk and yellow rice tumpeng can be modified according to the customers orders, added Ayu.

As for side dishes, bean sprouts and long beans in the form of urap-urap (mixed with grated coconut) are aimed at promoting interaction and friendliness. Botok tawon (bees with grated coconut) symbolizes the character of bees, which are beneficial, always needed and make a lot of friends.

Ayam ingkung (whole chicken with head facing upward) signifies a gesture in the direction of God, and rempeyek teri (small fried chips) is intended to depict harmony.

Boiled eggs portray inner gentleness behind ones stern appearance.

The egg white symbolizes virtuousness and the yolk stands for the light of God, so that humans should maintain virtuous deeds and always be close to God, said Ayu.

Catfish is also a common side dish, and it represents a humble attitude, because fish are always under water.

The side dishes for uduk and yellow rice cone are essentially the same as those for the white cone, only with some additions, like ox or chicken liver and tempeh or potatoes cooked in sambal goreng (spicy condiment with chili peppers or coconut milk), raw cucumbers and potato croquettes.

Ayu assumed that tumpeng was first made by Indonesians when people used kukusan (cone-shaped bamboo baskets) to cook rice.

She was convinced that the tumpeng had nothing to do with Hinduism, because India had no tradition of rice cones similar to Indonesia. The influence of Indian culture, noted Koes Dwayati, only involved some modification, such as adding turmeric to make yellow rice.

I also believe the tumpeng was introduced when most people were illiterate, because it is packed with moral teachings, she said. This fact shows the aspirations of the ancestors of todays Indonesians to provide education through food symbolism.

Ayu finally referred to tumpeng as a manifestation of gotong royong (mutual assistance) as a typical characteristic of Indonesians.

The process of making tumpeng involves teamwork for mutual enjoyment, she concluded.

A lecturer of anthropology at Malangs Brawijaya University, Ary Budianto, said at a separate occasion that, based on Kakawin Bomakawya (old Javanese poetry) of the 12th  13th century, the tumpeng was a Javanese tradition of laying down food to create a large heap.

At the time, kingdoms received tributes from their people, and tumpengan was an occasion to allow people to dine together with royal circles, he said.

Making the cone: Raden Ayu Koes Dwayati Soegondo (left) explains the philosophy of tumpeng at a workshop at Soendari Batik & Art Gallery, Malang, East Java. (JP/Nedi Putra AW)

Ary added that, in Javanese society, there was no significant difference between the food consumed by royal families and the common people.

He pointed out that culinary differences between social classes first emerged in the colonial era, beginning with the growth of industries like those of sugar and coffee.

The Tumpeng indeed originated in Java, Ary said, but its presence remained affected by ancient Indian Hindu-Buddhist culture, especially concerning Mount Semeru. It became typically Javanese due to local distinction.

The era of Islam entering Java also affected the tumpeng, as reflected in the grebeg religious procession introduced by Sultan Agung in the 17th century, which involved the tumpeng.

Coastal people have since held Petik Laut, a marine thanksgiving ritual that involves floating a giant tumpeng. Ary is concerned about the fading philosophical significance attached to the tumpeng.

In his view, the tumpeng today serves merely as a complement to ceremonial events.

Tumpeng with all its philosophy is a manifestation of our agrarian society. Each of the components tells us something about the process of human life," he stressed.
If parties must move in extreme circumstances, they must exercise extreme caution, follow Ministry of Health guidelines and follow the Alert System when moving, says Tenancy Services Information and Education Manager Jennifer Sykes.

If parties cannot work together to plan a move within the rules set by the Alert System, then the move must not take place.

The changes to termination provisions in the new legislation passed last week will be in place for three months, at which point the Government will consider whether they need to be extended.

The level 4 Alert Level is, however, currently planned for four weeks. The legislation is designed to cover both Alert Levels 4 and 3.

The Alert Level 4 rules are designed to reduce movement between properties wherever possible for the next 4 weeks.

Tenants retain their existing rights under the Residential Tenancies Act and may still be able to move into a new rental property if they need to but must follow Ministry of Health guidelines and follow the Alert System rules when moving.

There may be situations where moving into a new rental property is absolutely essential.

For example, a New Zealander returning to the country may need to begin a new tenancy, family violence may create an essential need to move, or a tenants current rental property may become uninhabitable such as a catastrophic plumbing leak.

I appreciate that the ability for landlords and property managers to organise a move while under a Alert Level 4 would be extremely limited. This would be very rare and reserved for only very exceptional circumstances and when the tenant would otherwise have nowhere else to live, says Jennifer

The new legislation also introduced a freeze on rent increases and additional protections for tenants.

Tenants still need to pay rent during this time and could have their tenancy terminated by the Tenancy Tribunal if they get behind in their rent by 60 days or more and for other limited reasons during the 3 month period.

Tenants struggling to meet their payments can contact Work and Income to find out what options are available to them.

Landlords and tenants should talk to each other and work together to come to an arrangement that suits them both in these unprecedented and difficult times, says Jennifer.

Guidance under the alert levels:

Moving rental properties is not prohibited under the COVID-19 Response (Urgent Management Measures) Amendment Act (the new law passed Wednesday, March 25, amending the Residential Tenancies Act).

During Alert Level 4

Moves should only occur in very extreme circumstances and extreme care must be taken not to violate any Alert Level 4 rules. Here is some guidance on specific scenarios:

If parties need to sign a tenancy agreement, this should be done digitally.

If keys need to be transferred, then extreme care must be taken. Property managers are not classified as an essential service so they cannot go into offices to pick up keys during alert Level 4. Transfer could therefore only occur if there are keys available to them at their homes. Physical distancing must be maintained and keys should be sanitised.

Tenants can only move in a private vehicle with only members of their own household. They cannot hire a moving service during this time.

For example, if a New Zealander might be returning home from overseas, the landlord or property manager might be working from home and have access to keys at their home office. The tenant might pick the sanitised keys up in their own vehicle and go straight to the new premises.

During Alert Level 3

Similarly, moves at Level 3 can only occur in very exceptional circumstances. All parties must take extreme care.

Further information

Property managers are not classified as an essential service at Level 4 of the Alert System. For more information please visit the Ministry of Health website.

Visit the governments Unite against COVID-19 website for the latest information on Alert Levels.

A set of questions and answers with more detailed scenarios is available on the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development website.
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Linkedin Bambang Muryanto (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta  Mon, March 30, 2020 11:05 654 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e44494 1 Art & Culture Javanese-culture,Javanese-language,Yogyakarta,Yogyakarta-Palace,Sri-Sultan-Hamengku-Buwono,arts-and-culture,macapat Free

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the music of macapat (a form of Javanese poetry that is sung a cappella) would be heard from a house on Jl. Rotowijayan, not far from the Yogyakarta Palace. But until April 1, the house will stay silent.

The Pamulangan Sekar KHP Kridha Mardawa school at the house offers macapat and Javanese script lessons.

One February afternoon, 86-year-old Dwijo Cipto Wandowo led his students in singing Maskumambang, one of the macapat verses. He has been teaching since 1994, living 7 kilometers away from the school. After asking the students to sing, he closed his eyes and listened to them with his heart.

A student learns Javanese script under the guidance of Dwijo Cipto Wandowo on March 13. (JP/Bambang Muryanto)

People learn the macapat to get together with their friends, to have a joyful heart, said Djiwo. When ones heart is joyful, one will live a long life.

Legends say that macapat was written by Wali Songo (nine propagators of Islam on Java) to spread the teachings of Islam in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Students at the Kridha Mardawa school are of all ages, including teenagers and the elderly. Around eight people come daily to learn macapat, while students for the Javanese script lessons rarely attend.

But if theres someone who never fails to show up, its Djiwo. In late February, he sat alone in the middle of an empty room. It was almost 4.30 p.m. and no students were to be seen.

It is still not clear when the Javanese scripts were created, he said. Some say they came from India, with modified shapes.

Dwijo Cipto Wandowo teaches "macapat" in the Pamulangan Sekar KHP Kridha Mardawa school in Yogyakarta on Feb. 18. (JP/Bambang Muryanto)

Read also: Ancient and traditional Indonesian fonts available to download on 'Aksara di Nusantara'

He added that Javanese script, consisting of 20 letters, was filled with the life philosophy of the Javanese. For instance, the letters ha and nga at the start or end of sentences can never be consonants.

If the beginning is dead [a consonant sound], then there wont be anything. When the end is made into a consonant, will life also end and who will end it? he said.

Projo Suwasono, headmaster of Kridha Mardawa, said that Javanese script lessons were offered so the public would be able to read ancient macapat verses.

They offer lessons on life for humankind, from the day were born until the day we die, he said.

Mijil, for example, narrates the story of births, while Sinom provides lessons for teenagers. Megatruh is where one can learn about life after death or the world before mankind exists.

In the past, macapat belonged only to the royals. But Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono VII of Yogyakarta, who reigned from 1877 to 1921 and had a penchant for the arts, allowed macapat to be performed by the general public.

Formerly a house belonging to a royal servant in the Yogyakarta Palace, Kridha Mardawa has offered lessons in macapat since the 1960s.

Student Eko Purbowono said that he chose to take lessons there as he wished to study Javanese culture. A Yogyakarta resident, he came back after working outside of Java.

My grandmother said the Javanese should always remember where they come from, he said. (wng)
A 38-year-old motorcyclist has been killed in a road collision with a tractor in Cornwall, police have confirmed.

The incident happened on Saturday 28 March on the A30 at Higher Drift Farm, near Penzance in Cornwall.

The Kawasaki motorcycle collided with a green John Deere tractor, the police said.

The male motorcyclist was pronounced dead at the scene.

A spokesperson for the police said: "South West Ambulance Service and Cornwall Air Ambulance attended, however the rider of the motorcycle, a 38-year-old local male from the Penzance area, was pronounced deceased at the scene.

"Local police officers and officers from the Roads Policing and Serious Collision Investigation Teams attended the scene."

The police are now appealing for witnesses to the crash.
As well as reducing the risk of coronavirus spreading social distancing could make people's symptoms milder if they do get the illness, scientists say.

It can do this by reducing a patient's viral load - the number of particles of the virus they are first infected with.

Having a high viral load gives a bug a 'jump start' and raises the risk of a patient's immune system becoming overloaded in its battle against COVID-19.

People can slash their chances of a massive initial infection by staying away from others who might be ill and by sticking strictly to the rules against close personal contact which millions of people around the world are now faced with.

Someone infected indirectly by touching a door handle could ultimately end up with milder symptoms than someone who inhales an infected person's cough, experts say.

And this is because it gives the immune system more time to get a handle on the infection before it gets overwhelmed and symptoms start to show.

Therefore medics, who can come into face-to-face contact with gravely ill patients, are more likely to get seriously ill because they are exposed to higher quantities of the virus by the infected breathing into their faces.

Religious leaders - who are often vulnerable to the life-threatening illness because they tend to be older - can also come into close proximity with the sick.

Sixty priests and sixty doctors are among the thousands of COVID-19 victims in Italy. At least two medics have already died in the UK after testing positive.

Viruses make people ill by multiplying rapidly inside the body and causing the immune system to go into overdrive to get rid of them - this causes symptoms like fever and tiredness

According to a study done in China patients with higher levels of the virus circulating in their body were more likely to have severe illness (Pictured: An intensive care patient in the Czech Republic)

'In general with respiratory viruses, the outcome of infection  whether you get severely ill or only get a mild cold  can sometimes be determined by how much virus actually got into your body and started the infection off,' says Professor Wendy Barclay, an infectious diseases expert at Imperial College London.

'Its all about the size of the armies on each side of the battle, a very large virus army is difficult for our immune system's army to fight off.'

The way viruses make people ill is by multiplying rapidly once inside the body and building up in such large numbers that the body takes weeks to destroy them all.

WHY COULD A LOWER INFECTION DOSE REDUCE SYMPTOMS? Everybody who contracts COVID-19 will develop huge amounts of the virus inside their body, but people will become first infected with different quantities of it. Someone who breathes in the cough of a seriously ill patient in the height of a fever, for example, will be exposed to more viruses than someone who touches a door handle that was coughed on two days ago. Most of the coronavirus symptoms are caused by the immune reaction which is triggered when the virus is discovered in the body. In a bid to destroy the viruses the body ratchets up its internal temperature to kill them, causing a fever, and uses huge amounts of calories to send immune cells out into the blood to attack the viruses, causing tiredness and aching. Being exposed to a smaller number of viruses at the start may mean the body can start off with a smaller immune response. More viruses, however, would mean a need for a bigger reaction which could produce worse symptoms and then raise the risk of it tipping over into sepsis later on in the illness. Advertisement

This process is inevitable once someone has caught an infection, but it is possible for people to first become ill with only a small dose of a virus.

This can, in theory, make it easier for their body's immune system 'army' to cope and to fend off the early infection.

In fact, for coronavirus, it seems likely that a large majority of patients become ill under this circumstance and take an unusually long time to notice they're sick.

Because of this, people appear to be spreading COVID-19 more widely than they would if they had a more serious disease.

Dr Michael Skinner, also from Imperial College, said that if someone starts off with a massive amount of the virus it could overload their immune system.

The virus would get a 'jump start' in such circumstances, he suggested, because it would be able to build up faster before the body had time to respond.

Dr Skinner said: 'We must be more concerned about situations where somebody receives a massive dose of the virus (we have no data on how large that might be but bodily fluids from those infected with other viruses can contain a million, and up to a hundred million viruses per ml), particularly through inhalation.'

He said that this would be a 'rare event' and it was unlikely that people outside of hospital staff would be exposed to massive amounts of the virus.

Scientists do not think that people's viral load will increase if they are exposed to more infected people after they first become ill themselves.

Nor do they think there is not likely to be a build-up of the virus from multiple sources before it reaches a threshold that makes them ill.

Scientists say massive initial doses of the virus could be more likely to make people seriously ill, but people outside of hospitals are unlikely to encounter them (Pictured: Staff at King's College Hospital in London)

Professor Wendy Barclay and Dr Michael Skinner, both virus experts from Imperial College London, said being infected with a larger first dose of the coronavirus could lead to worse symptoms because the immune system would struggle to contain the infection

Dr Skinner added that if someone is infected with a large viral load: 'The virus receives a massive jump start, leading to a massive immune response, which will struggle to control the virus to allow time for acquired immunity to kick-in while at the same time leading to considerable inflammation and a cytokine storm.'

Uncontrollable inflammation (swelling) caused by the body's immune system can be devastating and cause deadly conditions such as kidney failure or sepsis.

It is known to be a contributing factor to severe illness and death among COVID-19 patients.

And a 'cytokine storm' happens when white blood cells go haywire and can cause kidney or lung failure and death.

Professor Jonathan Ball, a virology expert at the University of Nottingham said: 'It is possible that individuals with pneumonia who have a higher viral load might develop more serious disease, but disease development is complex and no doubt many factors will have an impact.'

A scientific paper published in British medical journal The Lancet this month suggested that a high viral load was linked to worse symptoms.

WHAT IS SOCIAL DISTANCING? The best way of the reducing the amount of the coronavirus someone is infected with is to be strict about social distancing, according to experts, in order to make sure any viruses are well diluted in the air or spread thinly before they reach the airways. Social distancing measures are used to slow the spread of disease by keeping an appropriate distance between people. This is two metres (6'5") in the UK and US, but is 1.5 metres in Australia. This is because coronavirus can be transmitted by coughing, sneezing, or being in the same space as someone who has the coronavirus for a long period of time. The aim of social distancing is also to limit physical contact with each other as much as possible, with the encouragement of working from home, avoiding crowded spaces and public transport as much as possible. Social distancing is a behavioral method that buys time for scientists to develop a vaccine. However, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said 'on their own, these measures will not extinguish epidemics'. He has urged for testing to be done on large scale in order to contain cases. Social distancing measures are: Avoid contact with someone who is displaying symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) - these symptoms include high temperature and/or new and continuous cough.

Avoid non-essential use of public transport - when possible, alter your travel times to avoid rush hour.

Work from home, where possible - your employer should support you to do this.

Avoid large gatherings and small gatherings in public spaces - pubs, restaurants, leisure centres and similar venues are currently closed as infections spread easily in closed spaces where people gather together.

Avoid gatherings with friends and family - keep in touch using remote technology such as phone, internet, and social media.

Use telephone or online services to contact your GP or other essential services Sources: NHS Inform Advertisement

The study looked at 76 coronavirus patients in Nanchang, China, who had been admitted to hospital and tested positive for COVID-19.

The researchers, led by Dr Wei Zhang, wrote: ''The mean [average] viral load of severe cases was around 60 times higher than that of mild cases suggesting that higher viral loads might be associated with severe clinical outcomes.'

At least 80 per cent of coronavirus patients are believed to have only a mild illness similar to a cold, while some might develop more severe breathing problems.

The most seriously ill end up in hospital with pneumonia and in intensive care units have a survival rate of around 50 per cent.

Dr Wei and colleagues added that high viral load also seemed to raise the risk of a serious illness in patients with SARS, a similar virus that caused an outbreak in 2002.

They wrote: 'This finding suggests that the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 might be a useful marker for assessing disease severity and prognosis.'

Researchers at the University of Oxford agreed that studies seem to show that a higher viral load makes coronavirus symptoms worse but there was no solid proof.

An analysis by the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences reads: 'The evidence suggests an association of viral dose with the severity of the disease.

'However, the evidence of the relationship is limited by the poor quality of many of the studies'.

To avoid becoming infected with a larger viral load the best thing people can do is to stay away from others who are or might be ill, Dr Wendy Barclay said.

The viral load would be higher if someone coughed directly into your face than it would if they were two metres away and the viruses were dispersed in the air.

So when in public people should always keep their distance from others, Dr Wendy Barclay told The Telegraph, especially if they are coughing or sneezing.

Wearing gloves, washing hands and avoiding touching their face can also protect people from picking up the viruses in public places.

And if someone is living with someone infected with the coronavirus they should try to avoid close contact with them - stay two metres (six feet) away, if possible.

This includes stopping hugging and kissing, sleeping in separate beds if necessary and making sure they regularly clean often-touched surfaces like door handles.

Social distancing measures such as those in place in the UK at the moment (Pictured: People standing in a spaced-apart queue outside a Sainsbury's supermarket in London) are the best way to reduce someone's risk of being exposed to the virus

Dr Barclay added that it would be sensible not to share towels or cutlery and crockery.

Anyone who is showing symptoms of coronavirus (coughing, fever or shortness of breath) should try to cut themselves off from healthy housemates as much as possible.

'The point of social distancing is that by standing further away from someone when they breathe or cough out the virus it likely means fewer virus particles reach you,' Dr Barclay told the Telegraph.

'Then you get infected with a lower dose and get less ill. Your own viral load, that starts off the battle, is going to be lower and you've got more chance of winning it.'

A higher viral load is not only more dangerous for the patient themselves but also for people around them, because it makes them more infectious.

The more of the virus there is inside someone's body, the more they will therefore breathe out and expel in coughs and sneezes - a process called viral shedding.

This raises the risk of them infecting someone else.

Professor Ball, from the University of Nottingham, added: 'We know that the likelihood of virus transmission increases with duration and frequency of exposure of an uninfected individual with someone infected with the virus.

'We also suspect that the amount of virus that an infected individual is producing  sometimes referred to as the viral load  and potentially shedding, will also impact on transmission; the higher the viral load the more infectious someone is likely to be.'
If there was ever a time when remote education was more than just an interesting concept, this is it. For example, the government of Bahrain has said that 140,000 students are now benefiting from remote learning in the kingdom.

With the need to avoid social contact made more urgent by the Coronavirus outbreak, Bahrains public and private educational institutes are offering lessons online and through specified broadcast channels.

This, the government claims, is proof that investment in next-generation connectivity has paid off, and certainly it benefits the government-created education portal, which allows schools and educational institutes to continue tuition through online portals and broadcast channels.

The precise numbers to date, supplied by local media, are some 146,498 students and over 18,000 teachers using the portal. Hundreds of e-books, lessons, educational materials and sample questions and exams, not to mention over a thousand educational units and tens of thousands of exercises are just part of the make-up of the system, which parents can also use to follow up on the activities carried out by the schools. In addition, school administrators can monitor the progress of students and teachers.

The portal is powered by AWS, which recently opened its first Middle East data region in the Kingdom. AWS is also supporting the Bahraini government in its shift to the cloud.
Syracuse, N.Y.  Nearly 9 in 10 New Yorkers approve of Gov. Andrew Cuomos efforts to fight the coronavirus, a Siena College poll out this morning shows.

The governors strategy to stop COVID-19s spread has closed thousands of businesses, sent school children home, cost people jobs, postponed weddings, and kept family from visiting loved ones in nursing homes.

Cuomos work in the past month also raised an alarm for the nation about shortages of ventilators and healthcare workers. In a couple weeks time hes successfully pushed for as many as eight new hospitals in the New York City area, currently the worlds hotspot for the pandemic.

New Yorkers polled early last week get the urgency for such stark decisions: 87 percent say they approve of the Democratic governors efforts to try to save lives. In Upstate, 85 percent approve of Cuomos actions. Among Republicans, 70 percent approve of Cuomos coronavirus decisions.

A poll by Siena College asked New York voters about leaders' response to the coronavirus.Source: Siena College

Cuomos overall favorability rating rose to 71 percent, up from 44 percent in February. The mark was Cuomos best since January 2013, when he was advocating for stricter gun laws in the wake of the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut.

Just 44 percent of New Yorkers approve of the job President Donald Trump is doing to fight coronavirus, the poll shows. Among Republicans, 82 percent approve of the presidents actions.

The pandemic and Trumps response to it hasnt convinced many more voters to back former Vice President Joe Biden, whos leading the Democratic presidential primary race. Last month, Biden led Trump 55 to 36 percent among New York voters, according to Siena. This month, Biden gained just three points over Trump, 58 to 33 percent.

Fifty-one percent said they thought if they had to predict, today, the outcome of the November election, Trump would win.

The poll surveyed the youngest person in the households of 566 registered voters from March 22 to March 26. At 8 p.m., March 22, Cuomo closed all non-essential businesses, sending 100 percent of their workforce home. The poll has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4.5 percentage points.

The survey also found that 79 percent say New York is doing all it can to protect state residents. Just 53 percent said they thought the federal government was doing it all could to keep people safe.

Two-thirds said Washington is not doing enough to help small businesses. Nearly half  48 percent  said the federal government is failing to help industries.

About three-quarters said they approved of the work by the Centers for Disease Control and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Those surveyed also like the job their local officials are doing, especially in Upstate. Statewide, 73 percent approve of their local government leader, 76 percent approved of their local health department. Those approval ratings dropped among voters in New York City, where just 61 percent approve of the job Mayor Bill de Blasio is doing.

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

Syracuse-area funeral home plans drive-by ceremonies

Relief checks could arrive within three weeks

Domestic violence amid coronavirus: Stuck inside, victims get no reprieve from abuse

Teachers are the glue helping to hold kids, community together (Editorial)

Got a story idea or news tip youd like to share? Please contact me through email, Twitter, Facebook or at 315-470-2274.
NDCs National Communication Officer, Sammy Gyamfi has commended President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for listening to the masses call to lockdown the epicenters of the deadly outbreak in the country.



According to him, the Presidents directive is the best to help curb the spread of the virus across the country.



Good he listened to the peoples cry. The virus does not know NPP or NDC supporters, it kills everyone irrespective of your party affiliation, he said in an interview with NEAT FMs morning show Ghana Montie.



NDC Bars Communicators From In-Studio Radio, TV Discussions Over COVID-19 Lockdown



According to Sammy Gyamfi, the NDC has also suspended in-studio discussions for its Communication Officers following the lockdown announced by President Nana Akufo-Addo.



He said radio discussions in the Ashanti Region, Greater Accra and other parts of the Central Region have been discouraged by the party amidst the Coronavirus scare.



In view of the announced partial lockdown of the Ashanti Region, Greater Accra Region and parts of the Central Region as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Communication Bureau of the NDC has directed all Communication Officers and Communicators of the party in the affected areas to suspend in-studio discussions on radio and TV stations forthwith, he said.



He advised that Officials and executives of the national secretariat of the party, shall be operating from their homes during the pendency of the lockdown and will be available for engagements with party officers and members through phone calls, SMS and WhatsApp messages.



COVID-19 cases in Ghana hit 152



Ghanas case count for COVID-19 has increased to 152 as of Sunday, March 29, 2020.



This followed the confirmation of 11 new cases by the Ghana Health Service.



Ten (10) of the new cases were among persons who were under mandatory quarantine in Tamale under the direction of the Regional Security Committee of the Northern Region.



Lockdown takes effect today



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo last Friday imposed a lockdown on the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) including Kasoa in the Central Region as well as parts of the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area (GKMA) which includes Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.



Accra, Tema, Kasoa, and Kumasi have been tagged as the hotspots of the disease in Ghana.



The lockdown is expected to take effect from today, Monday, March 30, 2020.



















Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Isis militants broke through internal walls of a prison in northeastern Syria, seized an entire floor, and attempted to escape, according to Kurdish-led forces.

Officials within the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said that foreign fighters mutinied on Sunday, managing to remove inside doors and knock holes through walls of their cells. The SDF then deployed additional troops to wrest back control of the facility.

The prison facility, a former school located in the Geweran district of Hassakeh city in Kurdish-controlled north Syria, is believed to holding nearly 5000 people, a mix of Syrian and foreigners.

The nationalities of those involved in the attempted prison break are not known.

North Press Agency, a media platform operating in the Kurdish-administered areas, initially reported that at least four Isis militants had escaped, quoting a security official. SDF forces themselves at first confirmed some had managed to break free.

Recommended Syria confirms first coronavirus case amid accusations of coverup

SDF commander Mervan Qamishlo later told The Independent no prisoner had escaped adding the anti-terrorism force had surrounded the entire complex.

The security forces and the SDF are still surrounding all of the area in a widespread deployment. The militants still control one of the floors.

This is not the first time there has been a riot, but it is certainly the largest, he added. 

Qamishlo said that the SDF did not believe the demands of the rioters were related to the spread of the coronavirus. He said the SDF was struggling to maintain control of the Isis detention facilities across the north of the country.

Our biggest concern is that we will not able to manage all the prisons, given the big numbers of the prisoners, and the low capacity of the security forces.

Mustafa Bali, the SDF spokesman, later said that prisoners managed to remove doors to their cells and smash holes through the wall, allowing them to control of one of the jails lower floors.

He said that no one managed to escape and that the SDF had taken back control of the prison.

Kurdish authorities run more than two dozen detention facilities across northeastern Syria, holding about 10,000 Isis fighters.

Among the detainees are some 2,000 foreigners, including about 800 Europeans.

The Kurdish-led forces, backed by the US-led coalition, declared victory against Isis last year after seizing control of the last pocket of land the militants controlled in southeast Syria.

Since then the Kurdish authorities have begged countries to repatriate their nationals, saying they do not have the resources to control thousands of detainees crammed into often makeshift facilities.

There are now concerns if coronavirus reaches northeastern Syria, they will not be able to halt the spread within the prisons or camps where families of Isis militants and Isis supporters are held.

The largest one houses nearly 70,000 women and children, many of them foreigners.
Drivers with out-of-state license plates are being pulled over as they enter Rhode Island, and if they plan to stay they're told to self-quarantine for 14 days. They're also told to give their address in the Ocean State, so that law enforcement can check up on them to make sure they comply. This action mirrors steps being taken in other states, including Florida and Texas, as officials move to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

Rhode Island originally had targeted New York drivers exclusively. New York state has 10s of thousands of confirmed coronavirus cases  the most of any state  while tiny Rhode Island to date has only a couple hundred, and some New Yorkers have vacation homes in Rhode Island's coastal areas. After New York's governor objected  and even threatened to sue  Rhode Island's governor issued a new executive order this past Saturday, targeting all visitors coming in from out of state. Non-commercial vehicles are being pulled over on I-95 and several state highways to enforce the mandate.





Florida, too, has moved against drivers from New York and also from comparatively hard-hit Louisiana. Florida has announced a checkpoint on I-95 to net fleeing New Yorkers and one on I-10 for drivers coming from Louisiana. Again, inbound travelers are supposed to self-quarantine for 14 days. Florida had previously established similar rules for airline passengers on flights from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Within its own state, Florida's Monroe County has closed the roads to the Keys, where visitors have been told to go home and new ones are blocked from entering  even those from within Florida.

In Texas, meanwhile, the governor on Sunday issued an executive order that targets vehicles driving in from Louisiana. Travelers are told to self-quarantine for two weeks. The same orders apply to travelers flying in from New Orleans, Miami and a host of other cities.

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The costumers behind adventure fantasy series "His Dark Materials" have come forward to make scrubs for healthcare workers fighting the coronavirus outbreak in the UK.

The initiative, "Helping Dress Medics", unites the staff in the HBO-BBC series costume department in Cardiff, Wales, and around the country to stitch garments and supply to the closeby National Health Service (NHS) hospitals.

"This should make things quicker, keep costs down and ideally keep any risk of contagion to a minimum.

"We are liaising with hospital staff directly in the areas we live and taking advice from them about what they need, so that we can specifically help them. The nature of how the virus is spread means that the demand for scrubs is especially high," Variety quoted the group saying in their fundraising statement.

The group was formed by the show's costume supervisor Dulcie Scott and fundraising team members include series costume designer Caroline McCall, Primetime Emmy winner for "Downton Abbey", Fiona McCann, Ellie Munro, Jacqueline Sewry, Cathy Tate and Emma-Jane Weeks.

Launched Saturday, the initial target of the group was 1,500 pounds, but by Monday morning, they had collected 8,165 pounds.

"I'm so delighted to report that this has gone way beyond any of our expectations both in donations and also in offers of help. Many more costume makers have joined us and we have been able to order lots more fabric, make many more scrubs (and) reach other parts of the country.

"The first delivery of fabric is due today. The skills of these talented people, along with your amazing generosity, will mean that by the end of this week there will be NHS workers wearing wonderful new scrubs," Scott said.

In the past, American medical dramas such as "Grey's Anatomy", "The Resident" and firefighter drama "Station 19" donated items from their sets to nearby hospitals struggling with shortage of supplies.

Last week, Costume Designers Guild gathered members to sew masks for hospitals to support the medical community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"His Dark Materials" actor James McAvoy too donated 275,000 pounds to a crowdfunding campaign set up by a group of doctors under the NHS to combat the deadly virus.

An official adaptation of Philip Pullman's novel, the series is set in an alternative world where all humans have animal companions called dmons, which are the manifestation of the human soul.

More than 700,000 cases of the novel coronavirus have been officially declared around the world since the start of the pandemic, according to a tally on Monday based on official sources.

There have been at least 715,204 cases including 33,568 fatalities in 183 countries and territories.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Supreme Court Rules CITGO Subsidiary Must Cover Oil Spill Costs

An oil refining company has to cover cleanup costs that the owner of a vessel it was using incurred for a 2004 oil spill in the Delaware River, the Supreme Court found March 30.

The ruling in the case, cited as CITGO Asphalt Refining Co. (CARCO) v. Frescati Shipping Co. Ltd., clarifies liability for spills and other maritime accidents in the future, clearing up a disagreement over contract boilerplate.

CARCO was supposed to ensure the safe arrival of a tanker it chartered to deliver crude oil from Venezuela to the companys refinery near Philadelphia, the court determined. Because CARCO failed to do what it was required to do, it must cover the cleanup expenses of Frescati Shipping Co., the owner of the vessel that rammed an obstacle near the refinery and spewed crude oil into the river.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the 72 majority opinion for the court. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a dissenting opinion, which Justice Samuel Alito joined.

CARCO sub-chartered the oil tanker from tanker operator Star Tankers, which had chartered the vessel from respondent Frescati Shipping Co., according to a court-provided summary. A standard industry form contract was signed that used language from a template known as the ASBATANKVOY form, which was named after the Association of Ship Brokers and Agents (USA) Inc., the trade association that publishes it.

In the last leg of the tankers journey from Venezuela to New Jersey, an abandoned ship anchor punctured the 748-foot-long hull of the tanker Athos I, which caused 264,000 gallons of heavy crude oil to spill into the Delaware River.

The federal Oil Pollution Act required the vessels owner, Frescati, to cover the cleanup costs in the first instance. The law limited Frescatis liability to $45 million, and the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund reimbursed Frescati an extra $88 million for cleanup costs. The fund is run by the federal government, which is one of the respondents in the litigation.

Frescati and the United States then sued CARCO to recover what they spent on the cleanup. Both claimed CARCO was at fault because the company had breached a contractual safe-berth clause in the subcharter agreement between CARCO and Star Tankers. That clause obligated CARCO to choose a safe berth that would permit the tanker to come and go always safely afloat, and was tantamount to a warranty regarding the safety of the selected berth.

The question before us is whether the safe-berth clause is a warranty of safety, imposing liability for an unsafe berth regardless of CARCOs diligence in selecting the berth, Sotomayor wrote. We hold that it is.

The litigants disagreed over part of the contract that required CARCO to designate and procure a safe place to dock the ship. The disagreement centered on whether that wording constituted a guarantee of safety, or was merely a promise of due diligence. CARCOs attorneys had said during oral arguments last November that any rule that would expose a defendant to limitless liability would interfere with maritime commerce.

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for Frescati, finding the language should be seen as a guarantee of safety.

Given the unqualified language of the safe-berth clause, it is similarly plain that this acknowledged duty is absolute, Sotomayor wrote, agreeing with the 3rd Circuit.

Thomas wrote in his dissent that the court majoritys interpretation of the disputed contractual language is wrong and finds no basis in the contracts plain text.
Photo Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty

By Matthew Chapman

Philip Morris International, the worlds largest multinational tobacco company, has been accused of a shameful publicity stunt by a leading advocate after it donated ventilators to the Greek government as coronavirus infections mount in the country.

Early evidence suggests smokers are more likely to suffer a severe form of illness than non-smokers infected by the virus.

A PMI executive said that the companys Greek affiliate Papastratos had sourced and paid for the ventilators in order to help flatten the curve. Stavros Drakoularakos, PMIs director of communications for Greece, tweeted the news and said he was sky-high proud of the move and described it as proof of what sheer will and collaboration between all can achieve.

Papastratos donated 50 ventilators for use in Greek hospitals, including 19 to intensive care units at the Sotiria General Hospital of Thoracic Diseases in Athens. As of Sunday, there were at least 1,156 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in Greece, and at least 38 people had died in connection with it.

Vasilis Kikilias, the health minister, thanked the cigarette company for its donation.

NBCs Chuck Todd Asks Biden If Trump Has Blood on His Hands Over Coronavirus Response

But Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, an international consortium of anti-tobacco advocacy groups, criticized PMIs motives. This is a shameful publicity stunt by Philip Morris International, which owns Papastratos and has a 40 percent share of the Greek tobacco market, she said.

Smoking makes people more vulnerable to coronavirus, and if they get it makes the symptoms worse, meaning theyre more likely to need a ventilator, she added. Papastratos makes 1.3bn a year... In comparison, the donation of 50 ventilators is a drop in the ocean.

A recent study by Chinese researchers published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that smokers were much more likely to progress to the severe stage of COVID-19 than non-smokers.

Story continues

"If smoking does predispose people to having adverse outcomes during COVID-19 it is a funny position to be giving ventilators but selling a product that leads to worse outcomes, said Constantine Vardavas, a research associate at the University of Cretes school of medicine.

Greece has one of the highest smoking rates in the E.U. Nearly a third of adults are smokers, according to 2014 figures.

The World Health Organization reports that smoking kills more than 8 million people across the globe every year.

Moira Gilchrist, a vice president at PMI, said: We were happy to help the Greek government fulfill a critical need by sourcing this lifesaving equipment.

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Renowned chef and food activist Jose Andres recalled an exquisite adage from a 19th century French politician in a TV chat last week. It went like this: The destiny of nations, the man said, depends on how they feed themselves.

It was true back then (during a cholera epidemic, in fact), and given what we are facing today, we need to adopt it as our community creed.

Fortunately, New Jersey has legislative leadership that agrees with the sentiment. Listen to Craig Coughlin: I always say that if you want to be a great state, if you want to be a great nation, there are minimal things you have to do, says the Assembly speaker. And feeding your people must be one of them.

Accordingly, Coughlin led an unopposed bipartisan effort designed to pour $15 million in funds to our states three food banks last week, which is the first counterstrike against a hunger problem that will be more tenacious now that the COVID thunderbolt has slammed our state.

But this gesture needs some civic momentum. Remember that for all our wealth, one out of 8 New Jerseyans  roughly 900,000 of our neighbors already are food insecure. Among that group, 260,000 children lack consistent access to quality food.

More than half the people who access food banks actually have employment income, and now that theyre missing paychecks, these services will be overrun. The Legislature prepared for the crush by sending more support to the Community FoodBank of New Jersey (CFBNJ.org), but that doesnt mean those folks can relax after Gov. Murphy gets around to signing the bill, which is why the rest of us need to help.

NJ is doing what we can to provide meals for kids while schools are closed, but this article provides some helpful information about what every day citizens can do to help children throughout the country during the #coronavirus school closings: https://t.co/1MgD7cKR8b  Speaker Craig Coughlin (@SpeakerCoughlin) March 17, 2020

Indeed, the CFB is one of our states most venerable and efficient institutions: It stocks 1,000 sites across 16 counties  community partners like food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, child feeding programs, a dozen campus pantries, senior homes, and mobile pantries  and when their year is done, they serve 47 million meals. It often boasts that it can turn a single dollar into three meals.

But COVID-19 is creating anxiety throughout its distribution network. Not only do employees work closely in the warehouses and kitchens, the majority of their vast volunteer staff are seniors  saintly souls with stout hearts, but the most vulnerable among us to the virus.

Nothing really compares with this, says CFB President Carlos Rodriguez, who had 40 sites close this week for multiple reasons. Were dealing with a massive economic impact as we did with the recession, plus the operational challenge presented by Superstorm Sandy. But now were also dealing with the fact that our workers and people we love can fall ill  or maybe they already are, and we just dont know it.

Then you add the pressure of these workers in a not-for-profit space who have to take on the role of at-home teachers, since many of us have young children. So, yes, theres a lot of pressure were managing at the moment.

And now they know a tsunami is coming  yes, even with the extra SNAP benefit included in the stimulus bill passed by Congress, which boosts food stamp payment for 205,000 households for a few months. The United Way reminds us that 10.5 percent of NJ households are poverty homes, with another 28 percent classified as ALICE homes, the acronym used to identify those that cannot afford essentials (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed).

When a crisis hits, these families have to give something up. Most often, it is nourishment.

And the people who suffer most are children, as one out of five in our state go hungry.

So the food banks are in the teeth of this crisis, and some are already bending. Consider: The mighty Center For Food Action (CFANJ.org), the Harry Chapin brainchild that is a beacon for the hungry in Bergen and Passaic Counties, just shut down for a week after donations dwindled, and postponed its fundraiser.

This is a good time for the fit and fortunate to visit the websites of these noble places and donate or volunteer. The folks at the food banks know better than anyone that the Frenchman was right: Our destiny is calling. Pantries fill a critical need and need critical filling. Lets try to help.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 17:38:03|Editor: Wang Yamei

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TOKYO, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) on Monday vowed to improve its corporate governance following a decades-old scandal involving the former deputy mayor of a town hosting one of its nuclear plants routinely bribing the firm's executives.

The Osaka-based company said it will implement a number of reforms to improve its corporate governance, including establishing new committees comprising outside directors to better oversee its executive strata and provide increased transparency.

The company also said Sadayuki Sakakibara, the former head of the Japan Business Federation as the country's most powerful business lobby, had been appointed as the chairman, according to a plan presented to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).

Sakakibara will take over from Makoto Yagi who stepped down last October to take responsibility for the bribery scandal.

"We will carry out these reforms and strive to become a company that is trusted by the public," President Takashi Morimoto told a press briefing following the submission of the plan to METI.

Third-party investigations found that Eiji Moriyama, the late former deputy mayor of Takahama, in Fukui Prefecture, for more than three decades, furnished 75 executives, officials and employees with lavish gifts and cash handouts totaling around 360 million yen (3.34 million U.S. dollars).

One of the executives, formerly in charge of the utility's nuclear business, said he received a gift that could certainly be considered a kickback for awarding contracts to companies two decades ago from Moriyama. The executive said he began receiving gifts from Moriyama in the late 1990s.

The investigation has since found the bribes started to be dished out as early as 1987.

Among other executives, one was found to have received a cash payment of around 1 million yen (9,200 U.S. dollars) and gift vouchers to the tune of 400,000 yen (3,700 U.S. dollars), while two others accepted five tailor-made suits gifted from a company awarded a contract by Kansai Electric, sources close to the matter have said.

KEPCO said that an additional 82 people will be subjected to disciplinary measures, bringing the total of those found culpable in the wake of the scandal to 93.

The company is now required by METI by the end of June to report on its improvements following the implementation of its reformatory measures.
[March 30, 2020] COVID-19: the Government of Canada Provides Relief to the Broadcasting Sector

As part of the government's broader efforts to support the broadcasting sector, the CRTC is waiving the next payment of licence fees GATINEAU, QC, March 30, 2020 /CNW/ - Canadians rely on radio and television to stay up to date on matters related to COVID-19. The government knows that our Canadian broadcasters have been working around the clock to deliver news and information programming, while facing operational challenges and significant declines in advertising revenue. This is why, after discussions with the Government of Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) will not issue letters requesting payment for Part I licence fees by broadcasters for the 202021 fiscal year. The government will transfer necessary funds to the CRTC to support its operations. Waiving these regulatory charges for broadcasters provides immediate financial relief for the broadcasting industry, freeing up more than $30 million in cash. Last week, the Government of Canada also announced that Canadian Heritage is working quickly to simplify the process for submitting and processing requests for 202021 funding for the Canada Book Fund and Canada Periodical Fund. The department is examining what other measures can be implemented quickly to support the beneficiaries of all of its rograms.



Quotes "Canadian broadcasters are working hard to fulfill the mission of sharing credible and verified information with Canadians. This task is even more difficult since they also face significant drops in advertising revenue. The decision to waive the regulatory charges is one we could make quickly and we are working on more measures to support the industry. We will continue to monitor the impacts of COVID-19 on all sectors, ensuring we remain well-positioned to respond to this rapidly changing environment."

The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage Quick Facts The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is an administrative tribunal that operates at arm's length from the federal government. In 2020-21, 107 broadcasters are expected to pay licence fees to the CRTC. The Canada Periodical Fund provides financial assistance to Canadian print magazines, non-daily newspapers and digital periodicals, allowing them to overcome market disadvantages and continue to provide Canadian readers with the content they choose to read. The fund has three components: Aid to Publishers, Business Innovation and Collective Initiatives. The Canada Book Fund ensures greater access to a diverse range of Canadian-authored books nationally and internationally, by encouraging a strong book industry that publishes and markets Canadian-authored books. The fund has two streams: Support for Organizations and Support for Publishers (with two components). The fund is now accepting applications for projects starting in 2019-20 through the Accessible Digital Books initiative. Related links Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission News release : COVID-19: The Government of Canada is taking action to support the publishing and news sectors SOURCE Canadian Heritage

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Euro Manganese's Chvaletice Manganese Project approved for significant investment incentives by the Czech Republic's Ministry of Industry and Trade





Euro Manganese becomes eligible for tax credits of CZK 470.3 million (approx. CAD$27 million)

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Euro Manganese Inc. (TSX-V / ASX: EMN) ("EMN" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that its application for certain investment incentives for the Chvaletice Manganese Project (the "Project"), which was initially reported in the Company's August 14, 2019 news release, has been approved by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic.

These investment incentives are in the form of Czech corporate income tax credits related to eligible Project assets to be acquired by the Company's subsidiary, Mangan Chvaletice s.r.o. ("Mangan"). Based on eligible assets of approximately CZK 2.4 billion (approx. CAD$137 million), such tax credits would amount to approximately CZK 470.3 million (approx. CAD$27 million). These tax credits would be over and above the normal tax depreciation on such eligible assets, and would be applied toward Czech corporate income taxes otherwise payable by Mangan on earnings generated by the Project.

Marco Romero, President and CEO of EMN, commented: "We are grateful and very encouraged by this valuable support offered to us by the Czech Government. Despite the turbulent times that the world is currently experiencing, our team is resolute and continues to make excellent progress on all key fronts with our important Chvaletice Manganese Project. We expect to become Europe's only primary producer of high-purity manganese products, just when these sustainably-produced battery raw materials will be most needed by the rapidly emerging European electric vehicle industry."

About Euro Manganese:

Euro Manganese Inc. is a Canadian mineral resource company focused on the development of the Chvaletice Manganese Project in the Czech Republic. The Project will recycle historic mine tailings that host Europe's largest manganese deposit and result in an environmental remediation of this site. The European Union is emerging as a major electric vehicle manufacturing hub. EMN's goal is to become the preferred supplier of sustainably-produced ultra-high-purity manganese products for the lithium-ion battery industry and for producers of specialty steel, high-technology chemicals and aluminum alloys.

Authorized for release by the CEO of Euro Manganese Inc.

Contact:

Euro Manganese Inc. Marco A. Romero

President & CEO

(604)-681-1010 ext. 101 Fausto Taddei

Vice President, Corporate Development

& Corporate Secretary

(604)-681-1010 ext. 105

E-mail: info@mn25.ca (mailto:info@mn25.ca) Website: www.mn25.ca (http://www.mn25.ca/)

Company Address:

1500 - 1040 West Georgia Street,

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6E 4H8

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange), or the ASX accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
HOHHOT, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The land checkpoint of Erenhot in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region saw an increase in throughput in the first two months, despite measures taken to reduce gatherings for the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

According to the Erenhot customs, the volume of imports and exports through the customs reached 2.28 million tonnes in the first two months, up 25.9 percent year on year. Among them, imports accounted for more than 90 percent of the total, up over a quarter year on year, while exports also saw an increase of 12.6 percent year on year.

The customs attributed the surge to the China-Europe freight train services importing Mongolian commodities and livestock products, and exporting Chinese fruits, vegetables as well as mechanical and electrical products. As of March 13, Erenhot had seen 30,000 TEUs of goods imported and exported since the start of this year, up 61.3 percent year on year.

The customs set up a green channel for fruit and vegetable exports to ensure the transport efficiency of fresh farm produce. In the first two months, the export volume of fruits and vegetables through Erenhot reached 14,000 tonnes, up 5 percent year on year, and the export value grew by 15.9 percent year on year to reach 17 million yuan (about 2.39 million U.S. dollars).

Since the beginning of March, Erenhot has seen Chinese exports of 3 million face masks to Mongolia. On March 25, China donated a batch of nucleic acid detection kits, medical masks and disposable medical protective clothing through the customs to assist Mongolia's pandemic prevention and control.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 19:45:42|Editor: huaxia

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Customs officers ask and record information of inbound passengers at the Capital International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, March 18, 2020. (Xinhua/Chen Zhonghao)

BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- A total of 100 international flights originally bound for Beijing had been diverted to 12 other cities as of Sunday, according to a source of China's top aviation authority.

The daily number of incoming passengers through airports across China will dwindle to around 4,000 this week from 25,000 at peak, as China has stepped up measures to guard against imported coronavirus infections, said Jin Junhao, an official with the Civil Aviation Administration of China, at a press conference held in Beijing Monday.

Starting March 23, all international flights bound for Beijing are required to be diverted to twelve other airports, namely Tianjin, Hohhot, Taiyuan, Shanghai Pudong, Shijiazhuang, Jinan, Qingdao, Nanjing, Shenyang, Dalian, Zhengzhou, and Xi'an for procedures before they are allowed to enter Beijing and beyond.

From March 19 to 29, Chinese airlines stopped and persuaded 443 overseas passengers with fever symptoms not to board planes, Jin said. 
Three times as many coronavirus patients have died at a hospital in London as the NHS has reported in its official count.

King's College Hospital Trust has handled at least 31 deaths, according to an internal memo, while the NHS's official figures list just 11 for the hospital.

The difference raises the prospect of the UK's true coronavirus death count being considerably higher than the official 1,228 which was announced yesterday.

Deputy chief medical officer for England, Dr Jenny Harries, has admitted there is a lag of at least one day between the deaths happening and their being reported.

Families must all be informed, she said, and data across the NHS and Government must match up before any official announcement can be made.

Patients must also be tested more than once to confirm they have had the coronavirus, and some are tested after their deaths.

Statistics released last weeks showed some deaths date back up to 10 days before they are revealed in national statistics.

The UK is today entering its second week of near-total lockdown and at least 19,522 people have tested positive for the coronavirus after 127,737 tests.

King's College Hospital in south London has had around three times as many deaths as official figures let on, according to an internal memo read out on live television yesterday

Dr Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said there was a lag in publicly announcing the data and this would take longer as the death toll gets larger

In the Government's daily coronavirus briefing yesterday a Channel 4 journalist read out an internal memo sent to staff at King's College Hospital Trust in south London.

The reporter, Simon Israel, said via video link: 'A message sent today to staff at Kings hospital trust said, and I quote, The number of deaths being reported at Kings in national figures is below what they are experiencing. This is not just Kings, there are a number of other trusts and the centre has been made aware.

'At what point are we being given accurate, up-to-date figures on the numbers who have died?'

BRITAIN 'WON'T BE BACK TO NORMAL FOR SIX MONTHS' Britons should not expect to get back to 'normal life' for six months or even longer, the government's deputy chief medical officer warned yesterday. Dr Jenny Harries told a Downing Street press conference that people should not be viewing the coronavirus crisis as something that will blow over soon. She said it will not be clear whether the 'social distancing' lockdown is working for another two or three weeks - after Easter - with deaths set to rise further. But even if the draconian restrictions do succeed in 'squashing' the peak of the outbreak, reverting to a 'normal way of life' immediately would probably lead to a disastrous new spike in infections. Speaking after the official UK coronavirus death toll rose by 209 in 24 hours from 1,019 to 1,228, Dr Harries said people had taken 'quite some time' to get used to social distancing, but there was now evidence the country was obeying the rules. She added: 'The issue of the three weeks is for us to review where we are and see if we've had an impact jointly on the slope of that curve. 'But I think to make it clear to the public if we are successful we will have squashed the top of that curve, which is brilliant, but we must not then suddenly revert to our normal way of living that would be quite dangerous. 'If we stop then all of our efforts will be wasted and we could potentially see a second peak. So over time, probably over the next six months, we will have a three-week review.' Dr Harries said it was 'plausible' that the restrictions could need to in force longer than that. Boris Johnson has previously voiced optimism that the UK can 'turn the tide' on the outbreak within '12 weeks'. But government papers from scientific advisers have made clear they are anticipating a longer timeframe. Advertisement

King's College Hospital has officially recorded 11 coronavirus deaths, placing it around mid-table among NHS trusts around the UK.

The worst hit so far has been London North West University Healthcare trust in Harrow, where at least 55 people have died.

Before authorities can publicly confirm a death has taken place they must be certain that the patient had the coronavirus, which involves taking multiple tests, and also that the family have been notified and give their consent for basic information to be shared.

This process can take between days and weeks and, as more people die, the backlog becomes greater and the process slower, said Dr Jenny Harries.

At the Government briefing she said: 'Clearly every death that we have is a really sad event... We have to make sure that when were reporting the family is content and knows and that all our data is absolutely accurate.

'For any event like this, whether it be COVID, whether it was Ebola, whatever it is, there is always a time lag for us to check and evaluate that the data across the system is linked. We do not want to be misreporting data and having to correct it.

'The public would not have confidence if we were doing that and as we have had, sadly, to register more deaths, that time period takes longer.'

Dr Harries said she was not aware of the memo from King's College Hospital, and added: 'For the reporting yesterday it will have been the deaths reported the previous day.

'So it is inevitable that there will be a time lag  this is not an issue of transparency, its an issue of ensuring that all those families that need to know and all the parts of the system can consolidate the information and ensure its accurate for the public.'

Dr Harries took Sunday's briefing alongside the Secretary of State for Housing, Robert Jenrick.

The announcements are usually handled by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his scientific and medical advisers, Professor Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance.

But Mr Johnson and Professor Whitty - along with Health Secretary, Matt Hancock - are now sick with the coronavirus themselves.

MailOnline has contacted King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust for comment.

Expert who predicted just 5,700 may die from coronavirus in the UK says he was wrong

The expert who predicted 5,700 Britons would die from coronavirus now says that figure was underestimating the peril the pandemic poses.

Scientist Tom Pike from Imperial College claims that the UK is in a 'dangerous state' amid the Covid-19 crisis.

He calculated his original death rate based on the assumption that Britain would follow a similar pattern to Wuhan, China, where the virus originated.

His paper put Britain's peak at 260 deaths a day - but that number has already hit over the weekend.

Professor Pike told The Times this changes his projections entirely, saying: 'We don't know where that uptick is going to go, or if it will keep going in the same direction

'That's critical in terms of the projected total deaths. If we don't regain the Wuhan trajectory, each day we are building up more deaths. It's a very dangerous state to be in.'

The paper by Imperial College London last week predicted that if the country follows the same trajectory as China did, it could see between 4,700 and 7,100 deaths.

And the peak of the outbreak, which could see between 210 and 330 people die in a single day, could happen next Sunday on April 5, it predicted.

Professor Pike (pictured) fears the death rate could now be higher

The study estimated that the true death figure would be around 5,700 - the figure is considerably lower than the 20,000 warned about in the doomsday scenario paper which convinced the Government to tighten up its efforts to stop the virus.

That claim, published by Professor Neil Ferguson, one of the Government's leading COVID-19 advisers, warned that tens of thousands could die if people weren't forced to stay at home.

A projection from the same university, developed by engineer Professor Tom Pike, compared eight countries' death rates to China's after Beijing put the nation into shutdown.

It showed that up to 41,000 people could still die in the US, 60,000 in Spain, 32,000 in Italy and 23,000 in France.

It comes after another paper this week said countries around the world have averted disaster by sending their citizens into lockdown and that 40million could have died if they hadn't.

More than a billion people worldwide are now in some form of lockdown as the number of confirmed coronavirus patients has soared past 500,000 - but the dramatic measures are saving millions of lives, said another study from Imperial.

It said that almost the entire world population - seven billion citizens - could have been infected if the virus was allowed to spread unchecked.

The data from last week's paper showed the UK's total deaths from coronavirus to be estimated at 5,700, if the country follows the path China took after introducing a lockdown there. Spain could now be the worst-hit nation with more than 45,000 deaths
Harpreet Bajwa By

Express News Service

CHANDIGARH: After a diktat from Khap panchayats in Haryana, villagers have put in place "Thikri Pehra" round the clock by forming teams of 8 to 10 persons in each village, to make sure that no outsider enters the village during the 21-day national lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Rashtriya Maha Khap Maha Panchayat convenor Sunil Jaglan send a message to all khaps and sarpanches of villages asking them not to allow outsiders in their respective villages be it from within the country or outside.

"In most of the villages, a rope has been put on the entrance of the village and a group of 8 to 10 people, maintaining a distance of two meters from each other, take guard to ensure nobody is allowed inside the village, even if he/she is a kin of a villager," Jaglan said.

ALSO READ| CM Manohar Khattar orders sealing of Haryana borders to stop movement of migrant workers

"People have been told to postpone marriage functions and fix them after a month. They have also been advised not to bring their cattle on village ponds for drinking water and not to sit and talk with each other," he added.

Jaglan also recalled that though people were not agreeing to the idea initially as around 200 to 250 people came on the village pond but have now agreed. "We are now writing to the district authorities to start sanitization of each and every village as this demand has been raised by the villagers themselves. Also when the 'Janta Curfew' started, many people from the villages, who were working in cities, came back to their families and are still here. Some of them have self-quarantined themselves as most of them have not been medically examined and hence, the sensitisation of villages is necessary," Jaglan said.

Mehan Khap chief Tulsi Grewal said that the system implemented by all the khaps is much better than the police and no one is coming and going out of the villages. "By rotation, the groups manning the "thikri pehra" keep a watch. With marriages being postponed, villagers have also started spraying chemicals to sanitize their villages with the help of tractor trolleys and spraying instruments. They have also rationed their food so to cope with any eventuality," said Grewal.

CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW LIVE COVERAGE OF COVID-19

What is a Khap?
That's where the Philippine auto industry is coming in to help, and one of them is Toyota Motor Philippines.

Unfortunately, this also meant all forms of commercial public transport were put to a stop, which is a vital means for essential front-liners such as doctors, nurses, and other medical staff to get to hospitals and continue their struggle against the invisible adversary.

The government's implementation of an Enhanced Community Quarantine effectively brought Luzon to a standstill. The ECQ is intended to keep citizens in their homes in order to arrest the spread of COVID-19.

In a social media post, the newly assigned president of Toyota, Mr. Hiro Okamoto, pledged the support of the company to several hospitals and local government units. While Toyota in the Philippines has had to suspend its general operations, they have at their disposal a fleet of vehicles often used for promotional events or for test drives. And that's what TMP president Okamoto promised.

The company has mobilized its very large fleet of test vehicles comprised of various units of the Rush, Wigo, RAV4, Vios, FJ Cruiser and more to ferry front liners around.

"From my last post, I got very good suggestions from my Facebook friends to lend support to our front liners, in whatever way we can," said Okamoto. "I would like to thank you for your suggestions!"

Okamoto confirmed that they are currently augmenting the mobility needs of the front liners of 10 hospitals: Binangonan Lakeview Hospital, East Avenue Medical Center, Mary Johnston Hospital, Ospital ng Makati, Paranaque Doctors Hospital, Philippine General Hospital, Qualimed Hospital Santa Rosa, Santa Rosa Community Hospital, South City Medical Center, and Unihealth Paranaque Hospital. TMP is also supporting the City of Manila with some mobility solutions, as well as the Navotas City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (DRRMO).

The Department of Transportation has mobilized buses and routes to ferry hospital staff, especially in Metro Manila as a lot of front liners live far from the hospitals they work in. The work of the auto industry to ferry people during the ECQ is meant to augment the efforts of the national government as well as the LGUs to ensure the movement of front liners to their posts.

Okamoto also says that they will continue to update the list of hospitals they can support.
SALEM, Ore.-- An Amazon employee working at a Salem warehouse has tested positive for coronavirus, according to a company spokesperson.

The company said employees who had contact with the person who tested positive are being asked to self-quarantine for 14 days with pay. All employees at the warehouse have been made aware of the confirmed case.

In a statement, the company said: "We are supporting the individual who is recovering. We are following guidelines from health officials and medical experts, and are taking extreme measures to ensure the safety of employees at our site."

It is unclear what role the employee filled at the warehouse.

According to the company, employees who test positive for COVID-19 or are placed into quarantine receive up to two weeks of pay. They are taking preventative measures such as increased cleaning and implementing social distancing practices.
Andhra Pradesh Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan on Monday pledged his one-month salary to the PM-CARES Fund and Rs 1 lakh to the State Relief Fund as contributions for the fight against COVID-19, which has affected more than 1000 people in the country.

"In response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal, I have decided to contribute one month's salary to the PM- CARES Fund, as a humble gesture. And as a responsibility towards my state, I have decided to donate Rs 1 lakh to the AP State CM Relief Fund," Harichandan said in a televised appeal.

"Entire humanity is experiencing the crisis of the COVID-19 calamity. It is essential that each and every citizen remains alert and cautious," he added.

The Governor also asked the people of the state to take the utmost precautions to fight the deadly virus and asked them to oblige the lockdown and to maintain social distance for their own safety.

Backing Prime Minister Modi's decision for a nationwide lockdown, he said: "After assessing the situation on the ground and to prevent the potential risk of further spread of the coronavirus, PM Modi announced complete lockdown throughout the country for 21 days beginning from the midnight of March 24."

He also appealed to the people to contribute to the country's effort to combat coronavirus, saying that "the fund will go a long way in mitigating the emergency situation posed by COVID-19 and to help the poor and needy people in these difficult times.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Preschool teacher Karen Llorens-Kiesling has been reading to her preschoolers online since school shut down.

I need to connect with the kids, she said. Theyre little and they dont understand whats going on right now. Thats why we become teachers, because we love what we do. It fills my heart with joy, which is exactly what people need right now.

The Rosenberg resident misses her students and her co-workers at Fort Bend ISD - but shes also glad to be stuck at home.

Llorens-Kiesling is six months pregnant with her second child. While she tries to stay positive, she struggles with concerns about COVID-19.

Will there be hospital beds available when the time comes? she asked. I know the labor and delivery unit is kept closed. Still, this is a voracious monster. Its getting everyone.

CORONAVIRUS UPDATES: Stay informed with accurate reporting you can trust

Llorens-Kiesling ordered her vitamins online and stocked her pantry with canned goods. Her recent visit to the doctor went well, with few people in the office and hand sanitizer easily accessible. Still, she fears the uncertainty that comes with the pandemic.

I dont know if I would be this freaked out, if I werent pregnant, she said. People are going to do what they want. I cant control them. But I can stay home, which is what I intend to do. I have this unborn child, and I want to give him his best chance.

She is one of many pregnant women in Houston who share these concerns.

Richmond resident Tabinda Ghani, who is due with her first child in July, had to cancel her baby shower in late March. Everyone was looking forward to getting together, she said.

While disappointed, she felt it was the right decision to protect everyones health - including her own. Ghani works from home, but limits going outside these days except for walks. Im trying to stay as far away from people as I can, she said.

Ghani reads as much as possible about how to best protect her baby. But there isnt a lot of information about coronavirus and pregnancy. Theres not enough data, she said. So Im just taking the exact same precautions the elderly take.

She wonders, could greater restrictions come in the future? Will Would her husband still be allowed to join her for doctor visits?

Birth is a family thing, she said. You give birth, and everyone comes to visit you in the hospital. Its not going to be like that for me. I cant imagine anyone will come.

Spring Branch resident Kelli Hall is due soon with her first child. While she had originally hoped friends and family could visit her in the hospital, she now plans to use technology to connect afterwards and share videos with her newborn.

Halls last doctor appointment was solo. No visitors are allowed at the OB-GYN, she said.

Her husband will be able to come to labor. When they return home, the couple plans to invite only guests who have been self-quarantined for the recommended amount of time.

Hall said they also decided to make their stay at the hospital shorter. We want to go home as soon as possible, she said. Were the only people in the house. We know it is a safe place. We want to do whats best for our baby.

When it comes to COVID-19 and pregnancy, there are a lot of unknowns, said Dr. Kjersti Aagaard, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor and Texas Childrens Hospital.

The virus is new, and researchers will need more time to study it extensively.

It doesnt help us here today, Aagaard said. We have to be practical.

History provides ample insight, she explained. Researchers have been able to study other influenza epidemics, including the 1918 flu pandemic and other H1N1 outbreaks, as well as the other coronaviruses like SARS and MERS - and look at data related to the effects on expectant mothers.

Aagaard recalls the 2003 SARS epidemic, where the general population faced a 10.5 percent mortality rate. It was double that for pregnant women: about 33 percent required medical ventilation and 25 percent died.

What we know is pretty straight forward, Dr. Aagaard said. Pregnant women experience disproportionate outcomes relative to non-pregnant women and men. Pregnant women are at an increased risk for severe respiratory morbidity and death.

That does not mean pregnant women are at a higher risk of actually catching coronavirus.

The idea that women are immunosuppressed during pregnancy is false, Aagaard explained. Your immune system is uniquely adapted to tolerate your baby, she said.

In fact, she explained that B cells and T cells, both essential to the immune system, function normally during pregnancy.

Its not that women are more likely to get infected, its that when they are infected, its more likely to lead to a severe outcome, Aagaard said.

The best course of action is for expectant mothers to follow the same health precautions as everyone else, like avoiding touching their faces, and social distancing.. In addition, pregnant women should ensure necessary medications, household items and groceries are stocked.

Make sure you have your medicines and prenatals on hand, Aagaard said. Stay hydrated. And just remember that this isnt going to last forever.

To eliminate stress, which can be harmful for expectant mothers, Aagaard suggests sticking to

guidelines and recommendations from experts with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Baylor College of Medicine has also prepared an online FAQ: pregnancy and COVID-19.

Really limit where youre getting your information, Aagaard said. Keep in touch with us. Stay tuned. Understand that every single one of us, who gladly accepted the privilege and responsibility of taking care of pregnant women, is willing to work around the clock and make sure our hospitals and clinics are safe.

That also means sticking to regularly scheduled appointments - unless her doctor recommends against it. Some visits can be made through telehealth, but Aagaard explained that most require taking blood pressure and listening to heartbeats.

If pregnant women are experiencing coronavirus symptoms, they should contact their doctors or midwives before coming into the clinic or hospital.

Your healthcare providers will be able to guide you on next steps, Aagaard said.

Expectant mothers with chronic medical illnesses such as heart, lung or kidney disease  or who have diabetes, immune system disorders or are on immunosuppressive medicines  should take extra precautions and stay at home as much as possible.

Houston has the ability to greatly reduce the amount of COVID-19 infections in the city, Aagaard said, if residents will stay home.

We have the potential to keep our curve pretty flat, if we just pull up our boots and do the right thing, she said.

Lindsay Peyton is a Houston-based freelance writer.
Lawsuits Fight to Change Federal Wireless Safety Standards

Groups hope to force FCC to recognize science warning of health hazards linked to wireless radiation

Microwave radiation can cook your food, but it also carries your calls, texts, and wireless data. Regulators set strict guidelines on microwave ovens to prevent exposure to dangerous radiation leaks, but critics say the lax standards applied to wireless devices are the result of undue industry influence over the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

According to the FCC, the dividing line between safe and unsafe exposure is basically a matter of heat. If that radiation can produce a thermal effect, like burn us, it is dangerous. The FCC does not recognize other biological impacts of microwave radiation on our bodies.

But research has found the microwave radiation from our wireless networks and devices has impacts ranging from lack of sleep to affecting the expression of DNA. Meanwhile, the FCC has avoided officially recognizing these effects while paving the way for a massive increase in our environmental exposure to microwave radiation through the rollout of 5G.

Outdated Standards

The FCC set its current radiation safety standard 24 years ago, with The Telecommunications Act of 1996, years before smartphones, Wi-Fi, and cell tower transmitters began to saturate our environment with radiofrequency (RF) radiation.

However, since 1996 government and other studies have shown clear evidence of harm from microwaves below the thermal threshold and many people suffer from illness resulting from sub-thermal exposure.

Before those standards were even set, a 1981 report prepared for NASA had already warned of adverse effects from microwave radiation. In the decades since the standards were set, numerous studies and reviews of those studies have identified biological effects that have nothing to do with the thermal threshold.

And much of that research was not looking at the more severe real-world impacts of that radiation, warned Ronald N. Kostoff, a research affiliate at the Georgia Institute of Technologys School of Public Policy. In his 2019 paper, Adverse effects of Wireless Radiation.

Most of the laboratory experiments that have been performed are not designed to elicit the more severe adverse effects reflective of the real-life operating environment in which wireless radiation is embedded, wrote Kostoff. His paper referenced dozens of studies that present adverse effects. He warned, what has been reported is the tip of the iceberg of the full spectrum of potential adverse effects from wireless radiation.

Hundreds of scientists have already warned of widespread health problems related to current levels of wireless exposure and warn that current guidelines are not based on studies of long-term exposure. And many scientists worry that the next chapter, known as 5G, which uses higher frequency and requires far more towers, may have devastating effects on public health and the environment, with studies showing both plants and animals are affected.

While findings are well-documented, regulators have been unmoved. Meanwhile, entire industries are counting on 5Gand lobbying accordinglyto create new product categories and services, ushering in a wild-west of potential new business models.

Blockade of 5G

That gold rush could be challenged by two new lawsuits that urge the FCC to reevaluate the thermal threshold safety premise.

One case is led by the Environmental Health Trust (EHT), a science-based think tank that has pushed for years for stricter regulations on wireless technology. EHT president Devra Davis, Ph.D., MPH says FCCs refusal to reconsider their safety standards ignores mounting evidence of harm. The FCC dares to propose that these outdated standards can safely be applied to 5G, a technology that did not even exist two decades ago, Davis said in an EHT statement.

Despite the longevity of the safety standard, several scientists have cast doubt on it since its inception. Research from thousands of studies, including several from the U.S. military, revealed harm without heat. One study by Dr. Dominique Belpomme, a professor of medical oncology at Paris University, examined 700 people suffering from electromagnetic sensitivity (ES) and one quarter showed evidence of a broken blood-brain barriera hallmark of microwave exposure.

An Opportunity to Sue

The other lawsuit challenging the federal safety standard is led by Childrens Health Defense (CHD)a non-profit dedicated to ending childrens chronic health conditions by eliminating harmful toxic exposures. Dafna Tachover recently joined CHD as its lead attorney and is the founder of We are the Evidencean advocacy group dedicated to protecting those who have been injured by wireless radiation.

Tachover said it was previously impossible to sue the FCC.

I wasnt suing the FCC because I could not sue the FCC. There are very few ways in which you can sue the government, and Ive been through all of them, and I couldnt find a loophole, she said.

The potential for a loophole opened in 2012, when the General Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report recommending that the FFC reevaluate its wireless regulations. In 2013, FCC responded with Docket 13-84 asking for public comment on whether a review was actually needed.

But Tachover says the docket was less of an invitation for discussion, and more of a strategy to avoid the question. Typically when a government agency opens a docket, it closes it after a month or two so the agency can consider the commentary it receives. But Docket 13-84 stayed open for six years and grew to over a thousand comments.

For the FCC, it was a way to avoid facing the GAOs recommendation, and in the six years since, 5G towers have proliferated.

Clearly it opened it just because it had to, Tachover said. It had to keep it open if it wanted to proliferate wireless technology and 5G. But if they had to review the evidence they would find they couldnt proliferate this technology.

The docket may have stayed open for several more years if it wasnt for several lawsuits complaining about the installation of 5G infrastructure. Compared to previous wireless generations (3G and 4G), 5G requires a lot more equipment.

This includes thousands of new satellites and large cell towers as well as many black cylinders known as small cells that keep the 5G signal strong so devices can easily connect to the new network. Thousands of small cells have already been mounted on utility poles all over the country ahead of the 5G rollout. Plans are in place to erect millions more over the next few years.

Shared Interests?

Regulators and the telecommunications industry are eager to see 5G up and running as soon as possible. To speed up the small cell build-out, the FCC enacted installation rules for states to follow, but resistance was strong. At least 24 cities and counties sued the Commission because they were losing out on contracting fees. They were also forced to review applications to deploy the new devices in an unreasonably short period of time.

To avoid most of the state legal battles, FCC passed a regulation that took away the right to protest placement of small cells. But that strategy hit a snag with Marylands Montgomery County. What made Montgomerys lawsuit unique from the other suits is that it also addressed the issue of health effects that might be caused by small cells because they are often placed in close proximity to homes, schools, and businesses.

Section 704 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act says that local governments cannot deny the placement of cell towers due to health or environmental concerns, because the frequency they generate is already deemed safe.

But the Montgomery lawsuit stated that it was unreasonable for the Commission to extend the health regulations to 5G small cells when it still had an open docket that asked whether they should review their guidelines. The FCC closed their docket just a few days before the hearing and concluded that no update was necessary. In an over 100 page report from Dec. 4, 2019, the Commission stated that their 24-year-old standard was sufficient to ensure public safety, even with 5G.

After reviewing the extensive record submitted in response to that inquiry, we find no appropriate basis for and thus decline to propose amendments to our existing limits at this time, states the report. We take our duty to protect the public from any potential harm due to RF exposure seriously.

The move effectively ended the Montgomery County lawsuit without having to go to court, but it left the agency vulnerable to new legal attacks, if only for a short time.

Tachover explains that when a government agency closes a docket and publishes its order in the Federal Register, you have only 60 days to submit a lawsuit. Thats it, she said. You have one very short window. If you dont take it, you lose it, and we would not be able to challenge it again.

Tachover hired attorney Scott McCollough to represent the CHD case. McCollough has been working in telecommunications for the past 35 years, but he says this case opened his eyes to a whole new side of the industry.

I know the wireless industry. I know how wireless networks operate. I knew there were emissions requirements. But I never knew there were health concerns, McCollough said.

The idea may be hidden by design. In researching the case, McCollough found evidence of a concerted effort to silence any concerns that might suggest that the frequency currently used to carry wireless communications could be harmful to health.

It looks like there has been an alliance between aspects of the federal bureaucracy, perhaps military, and the wireless industry going as far back since weve had mobile service to play keep away with any real ability to deal with serious health concerns, McCollough said.

Its much like they did with asbestos, and similar to the way it went down with tobacco. Theyre just using every trick in the book.

In 2016, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) released a report from its 10-year, $25 million study funded by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)a study explicitly designed to be the final word in deciding whether wireless radiation exposure caused harm.

The study examined the health impacts of cell phones used in close proximity to rodents. In the initial report, researchers stated that the microwave field these devices produced were proven to be harmful to humans and the environment. Effects include increased cancer risk, a rise in harmful free radicals, genetic damage, structural and functional changes to the reproductive system, learning and memory deficits, neurological disorders, and a negative impact on general well-being.

However, after all that money and time spent to find an answer, the FDA concluded that the NTP study wasnt sufficient to change safety standards because the research didnt show adverse effects to humans, only rodents. The FCC followed suit.

NTPs findings should not be applied to human cell phone usage, the available scientific evidence to date does not support adverse health effects in humans due to exposures at or under current limits, states the FCC report. NTP has not suggested in its findings what this research may mean relative to human beings, including anything that would help to indicate appropriate exposure levels, and its research work is ongoing at this time.

McCollough says regulators refuse to recognize problematic research in order to alleviate themselves of the burden of proof.

Sick from Wireless

It may seem hard to fathom that wireless exposure could really be so harmful. After all, virtually everyone carries a cell phone these days, and Wi-Fi, cell towers, smart meters, and other RF radiation-emitting equipment are found nearly everywhere. Were literally bathing in microwave radiation 24/7, so how bad could it be?

But just as not everyone develops cancer from smoking, not everyone gets sick from microwave or EMF radiation.

Some people, however, are more affected. Those with Electromagnetic Sensitivity (ES) a condition recognized by the International Code of Diseases, can actually feel wireless devices and transmitters. They show biochemical reactions, including lower melatonin levels which may explain their trouble sleeping. ES is virtually identical to what the U.S. Navy dubbed microwave sickness, a condition suffered by soldiers who had been working with technologies such as radar for extended periods of time.

ES is a spectrum condition where some experience manageable symptoms, while others endure debilitating effects. Symptoms include headaches, tingling in the hands, difficulty sleeping, cognitive and memory problems, heart palpitations, fatigue, persistent flu-like symptoms, skin rashes, auditory effects, nausea, noise sensitivity, nosebleeds, and more.

Petitioners who are part of the CHD case include parents of children who have contracted ES, and doctors who regularly see evidence of harm in patients exposed to wireless fields.

The official position of the FCC is that there are no harms caused by subthermal exposure. But the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) recognizes ES as a legitimate disease. The Access Board (the government agency that instructs how to accommodate people with disabilities in federal buildings) has since the early 2000s considered making standards to accommodate those who suffer from ES.

A 2005 report contracted by the Access Board determined that, People with electromagnetic sensitivities can experience debilitating reactions from electromagnetic fields emitted by computers, cell phones and public and commercial buildings are required to provide reasonable accommodations for those disabled by electromagnetic sensitivities.

But even 15 years later, rules for accommodation have never materialized.

They acknowledge that it exists, they say theyre going to come up with some standards, but they never do, McCollough said.

Environmental Safety Standards

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began the process of finding environmentally related standards back in 1996, but McCollough said Congress shut down the project before it was completed.

They took away all the money they were using to do it. It was about the same time they made the 1996 revisions to the Communications Act, McCollough said.

The Epoch Times sent the FCC a list of questions for this report and followed up, giving the regulator over a month to respond:

Does the FCC contend that the current standards are safe for everyone, including those who have medical proof of sickness caused by wireless radiation? Have standards not been updated simply because the science has not yet been strong enough?? If so, what sort of evidence would be necessary to enact an update?

No response was given.

In its December 2019 report, the FCC did address the proposal for safer limits recommended by the Bio-Initiative Report, an extensive review of the science of harms caused by wireless exposure often cited in the comments for Docket 13-84. The report looks at 3,200 studies on the effects of non-thermal levels of RF radiation.

Regulators say the Bio-Initiative Report specifies impossibly low limits for RF exposure that are millions to billions times more restrictive than FCC limits. Adding that, No device could reliably transmit any usable level of energy by todays technological standards while meeting those limits. Further, there is no scientific evidence in the record that such restrictive limits would produce any tangible benefit to human health, or provide any improvement over current protections against established risks.

Status of Law Suits

Its not clear when petitioners of either suit will see their day in court, or which court will hear the cases. EHT was the first to submit their case to the DC Circuit Court. CHD submitted their case a few days later to the Ninth Circuit in California. The FCC submitted a motion to consolidate the cases, but CHD filed a motion to block it.

Tachover explains that all this legal wrangling is the FCCs attempt to get the cases thrown out on a technicality. Whenever a government agency issues an order or rule, it only goes into effect after they publish it to the Federal Register. However, when the FCC released their December 2019 report, it did not publish it. Tachover says its all part of the strategy to avoid litigation.

What they planned is to dismiss these cases by not publishing in the Federal Register, and claim that the cases are premature, Tachover said. So we submitted a motion saying that the courts should force the FCC to say whether or not the decision on this issue should be published in the Federal Register. The FCC responded that they did submit the documents to the Federal Register, but they sent it only after we demanded that it be done. Its all very evil and purposeful.

McCollough says the case is extremely important, but a win still wont bring the ultimate solution petitioners seek.

What really needs to happen is for Congress, FDA, OSHA, and EPA to come up with reasonable, sufficiently protective standards. The standards were truly about health effects, to begin with, he said. Or else what sadly is going to happen is all of a sudden were going to have some really big outbreak where it becomes just painfully evident that when the small cells go up, people nearby all of a sudden start getting sick.
MySA.com is compiling the latest headlines on the COVID-19 pandemic and its affects in the San Antonio area.

Confirmed cases daily update: There are now 168 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Bexar County. While 42 patients are now hospitalized with the illness, 44 people who had the illness have made a full recovery, said Mayor Ron Nirenberg.

Judge strikes down abortion ban: A federal judge on Monday blocked the state's emergency ban on abortions during the coronavirus outbreak. The order, issued by U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel, says the ban violates a woman's right to choose as outlined in the 14th Amendment. Yeakel granted a temporary restraining order as abortion providers seek to overturn the order issued by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

Confirmed cases: A sixth person in San Antonio has died from the novel coronavirus and an SAPD officer has tested positive for the virus, officials said Monday afternoon.

Confirmed cases of coronavirus rose by 17 on Sunday for a grand total of 157 cases in Bexar County.

Thirty-five people remain hospitalized with the virus with 12 people in intensive care and 11 on ventilators, said Mayor Ron Nirenberg.

The city has added a page to their website to provide assistance to residents who might need assistance due to being out of work.

UTSA faculty, student test positive: A member of the faculty and a student attending the University of Texas at San Antonio separately have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, said President Taylor Eighmy on Saturday evening. Both had been traveling internationally, developed symptoms while self-isolating at home and had been away from campus for weeks.

Abbott blocks inmate release: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott enacted an executive order Sunday to prevent the release of certain inmates from jails.

The order, which suspends portions of state law, bars personal bonds for anyone convicted or arrested on charges involving violence or the threat of violence. Abbott also outlawed commuting the sentences of inmates convicted of such crimes for good conduct, or releasing them on electronic monitoring.

Harris County announced Sunday the first confirmed COVID-19 case in its jail. About 30 inmates are experiencing symptoms associated with the virus, according to officials.

Traveling from Louisiana: During the news conference, Abbott also announced an executive order that increases restrictions on people entering Texas.

The Texas Department of Public Safety will stop road travelers from Louisiana at or near entry points and order them to self-quarantine. The order does not include travel for commercial, military, emergency response, health response or critical infrastructure purposes.
The daughter of a west Belfast couple who died within hours of each other in hospital after contracting Covid-19 has spoken of her family's heartache at not being able to give her parents a proper send-off.

Christopher Vallely (79), who was known as Arty, and his wife Isobel (77) died 12 hours apart in the same room at the Mater Hospital in Belfast at the weekend.

Their distraught daughter Fiona said her family was stunned at the sudden loss of both parents, who had been married for 53 years.

She also spoke of her sorrow at being unable to give her mother and father "the proper send-off that they both absolutely deserve".

"My dad is getting cremated because that was his wish, and my mum's wish was to be buried," she said.

"It'll be two separate [events], and it's going to be hard.

"We were hoping to have a lovely church service for mum with all of her friends and family.

Please, please, please everybody, please follow the public guidelines, do everything you can to protect yourself and your families because this is only going to get worse Fiona Vallely

"And for my dad we were going to have a big party because he had such a zest for life."

Ms Vallely also urged the public to heed the government's advice on social distancing.

"Please, please, please everybody, please follow the public guidelines, do everything you can to protect yourself and your families because this is only going to get worse," she told the BBC.

Mr Vallely had been taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital more than a week ago, and tested positive for Covid-19 before being transferred to the Mater, a now specialist hospital for coronavirus.

He had been suffering from lung cancer.

His wife was taken to the Mater on Thursday, and died on Saturday. Her husband died in the same room that she had, just hours later. She had suffered a stroke six months ago.

I was very, very grateful (to the staff) that they let us do that under the circumstances, and we had to wear the protective gear and everything, because I know a lot of families haven't had that chance Fiona Vallely

Fiona said her parents' previous health problems meant they were unable to win the battle against Covid-19.

She added: "They both had underlying health issues.

"My dad was never going to fight terminal cancer, but my mum fought back, from six months ago, a stroke and all her other illnesses, but this, they both couldn't fight this illness, so that shows how this is a very, very serious illness."

Ms Vallely said it brought great comfort to her that she had been able to say goodbye to both her parents, who are from Iris Mews off the Falls Road.

"I was very, very grateful (to the staff) that they let us do that under the circumstances, and we had to wear the protective gear and everything, because I know a lot of families haven't had that chance," she said.

They were amazing and they would have done anything for anybody. They were fantastic people and they did not deserve to go this way Fiona Vallely

"We would like to think they were conscious and could hear us."

Ms Vallely praised the staff at the hospital and said they were doing an "amazing job and putting their lives at risk".

Paying an emotional tribute to her parents on behalf of herself and her brothers Mark and Chris, Fiona described them as "fantastic".

"They were amazing," she said. "And they would have done anything for anybody. They were fantastic people and they did not deserve to go this way."

Last week the heartbroken daughter of Northern Ireland's seventh Covid-19 victim told the Belfast Telegraph how her mother died not knowing that her beloved brother had also passed away.

Carol Palmer's mum Linda Wilson (64), who was originally from Greenisland, succumbed to the virus on Wednesday, March 25, after being admitted to hospital on Mothering Sunday.

But while she was fighting for her life in Belfast's Mater Hospital her children opted not to tell her that their uncle Graham Campbell, who was in his 60s, had suffered a fatal heart attack at work on Sunday. Mr Graham was buried at Roselawn Cemetery on Friday.

Mrs Palmer also said she will have to attend her mother's funeral in protective clothing.
NORWALK  At least one school employee involved in the districts food distribution plan has tested positive for coronavirus, according to city officials. A second employee is symptomatic.

Chief of School Operations Frank Costanzo said Monday that the employee had tested positive over a week ago and has been off the job since the district learned he was symptomatic. An additional two employees who may have been exposed to the first were also asked to remain home for a 14-day period, though they remain asymptomatic.

Costanzo said the positive result did not prompt the districts shift in the distribution of meals that went into effect Monday.

That positive case, that persons last day at work was a week ago, Costanzo said. So we continued the delivery model all of last week, despite that positive case. That wasnt a reason to change the model.

The employee was not involved in the handling or preparation of food, Costanzo said, and was not a direct risk to public health. Those in receipt of the districts free meals were not exposed to the virus through the employee, he said.

According to Steven Browning, president of Norwalks food service workers union, the safety of his workers is paramount. He urged any employees showing symptoms to remain home.

Workers have families. They dont want to bring this home to their loved ones, Browning said. If you know that you are sick, stay home. Dont put others at risk.

Board of Education Chairwoman Sarah Lemieux said she just learned about the positive result Sunday, but was under the impression it was limited to one case involving someone who didnt make physical contact with the meals.

From what I understand  I only found out about this yesterday  it was not anyone involved in the actual preparation and handling, Lemieux said.

Nevertheless, the district is moving away from a distribution model that allowed all students in the district to pick up meals at their regular bus stops.

On Sunday, the district announced that, as the city braces for the peak phase of the COVID-19 coronavirus spread, a variety of distribution centers would be set up throughout the city. The city has seen a large spike in the number of confirmed cases, with 226 as of Sunday, more than any other municipality in the state.

Mayor Harry Rilling said he had been made aware of the positive test result Friday.

More Information Pickup locations for student meals beginning Monday, March 30. Monday - Friday, noon to 2 p.m. SCHOOL SITES Brien McMahon High School 300 Highland Avenue Jefferson Elementary School 75 Van Buren Avenue Kendall Elementary School 57 Fillow Street Marvin Elementary School 16 Calf Pasture Beach Road Ponus Ridge Middle School 21 Hunter's Lane Nathan Hale Middle School 176 Strawberry Hill Avenue Tracey Magnet School 20 Camp Street COMMUNITY SITES Ben Franklin Community Center 165 Flax Hill Road Carver Community Center 7 Academy Street Nathaniel Ely Center 11 Ingalls Avenue See More Collapse

Were currently monitoriting the stiuation, Rilling said Monday. We do need to get food out to people who need it. We might have to activiate the police or fire department. Ive recommended to the schools to set up distribution sites in various areas where people who may have difficulty with transportation could get food.

An employee of Chartwells, the districts food service provider, also began showing coronavirus symptoms on Saturday and has been instructed to self-quarantine while she waits for a test. Costanzo said the person also had not been handling meals. A representative from Chartwells employees union did not respond to a request for comment.

Rilling said he heard on Friday of long lines at bus stops where meals were being distributed, which raised concerns about physical distancing. Costanzo said the distribution had been complicated Friday, partially as a result of a delayed shipment of food. That delay coincided with a week of extreme job loss nationwide, which Costanzo said increased the need in cities like Norwalk.

Last week was a historic job loss number for the country, with over 3 million people nationally losing their jobs, Costanzo said. That has an impact in Norwalk. There are people who are struggling economically because of this pandemic. And then were a high needs district. I think that confluence of things are why we saw all the great participation that we did over the past couple weeks.

In the past week alone, more than 42,000 meals have been distributed throughout the district, Costanzo said. On Friday, more than 20,000 meals were served.

The new distribution model is intended to cut down on lines and large gatherings of people, while still making food available for people in need. Costanzo, however, anticipates a drop in the number of meals delivered.

Costanzo said he and the citys Director of Health Deanna DAmore are in daily contact, and that the food delivery plan would continue to be under review as the number of cases in Norwalk increases.

There is a tension between wanting to service as many families as we can and protecting the health and welfare of employees and their families, Costanzo said. We felt it was in the best interest of district and families to modify food delivery.

justin.papp@scni.com; @justinjpapp1; 203-842-2586
SHANGHAI, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (the "Company," or "JinkoSolar") (NYSE: JKS), one of the largest and most innovative solar module manufacturers in the world, today announced that it will donate one million face masks and other protective equipment items to several countries severely affected by Covid-19 including Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Britain, Switzerland, South Korea, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Turkey, Portugal and Norway. The first batch of 50,000 has been packaged and shipped out on March 29th through green passage for export aid equipment under the assistance of local governments, Red Cross and other charity organizations.

This mass donation from JinkoSolar complements its ongoing efforts to support those countries hit by the coronavirus outbreak.

The donations come at a time when governments are struggling to procure enough masks to supply hospitals, health care workers and others in critical and vulnerable professions. JinkoSolar said it will deliver these already-prepared one million masks to health care institutions in those epicenter regions in the coming week and would not decline direct requests for aid from hospitals.

This move follows the company's 12 million RMB donations to China Red Cross in Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Shanghai to set up a special funding to fiscally support medical and health care workers who had been working in the frontier line curing infected patients and saving lives.

SOURCE JinkoSolar
The total cumulative balance of letters of guarantee and other credit facilities provided by banks and other business entities in the UAE significantly grew to Dh4.53 trillion ($1.2 trillion) in February, according to the Central Bank of the UAE statistics.

A letter of guarantee is a type of contract issued by a bank on behalf of a customer who has entered a contract to purchase goods from a supplier. It lets the supplier know that they will be paid, even if the customer of the bank defaults.

The February figures registered an increase of Dh186 billion (or 4.3 per cent) compared to the previous month's figures of Dh4.34 trillion ($1.18 trillion), it stated.

This significant increase in credit facilities was reflective of the continued business momentum maintained by various economic sectors in the UAE with overseas partners despite the global slowdown witnessed worldwide, stated Central Bank of the UAE.

The apex bank's figures show that the balance of foreign currency derivatives soared to Dh797.2 billion in February 2020, against Dh766.3 in January of the same year.

The balance of interest returns on foreign exchange derivatives likewise increased from Dh2.763 trillion in January to Dh2.928 trillion in February, stated the Central Bank of the UAE figures.

The value of letters of liability provided by banks stood at Dh238.6 in the reference period.

The total balance of letters of guarantee at the end of February valued about Dh382.7 billion while the balance of letters of credit amounted to Dh103.8 billion.-TradeArabia News Service
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday urged the migrants to stay back in the city during the lockdown and said his government is serving lunch and dinner to over four lakh people at more than 800 locations.

Speaking to the media through a digital press conference, he said the government operationalised 568 Hunger Relief Centres in schools, apart from 238 night shelters.

"We have the capacity to feed lunch and dinner to approximately 4 lakh persons daily," Kejriwal.

He also said that apart from this, mobile vans are deployed to arrange food for those who cannot reach the locations.

"Although there is some issue, I am expecting that these will be streamlined in a day or so."

Kejriwal said the Aam Aadmi Party MLAs and party workers are reaching out to the migrants, and have been successful to stop a number of migrants.

"Lockdown should be implemented seriously. If we keep moving, the purpose of lockdown will be wasted. I urged the migrants at the border to come back to Delhi. We even opened night shelters in some of the schools around the border areas," Kejriwal said.

He also said that the ration from April in around 1,000 ration shops has reached and will soon be distributed.

"Coronavirus is spreading very fast. In the countries which we thought were highly developed are facing a serious crisis. We should learn from different nations."

The nationwide lockdown has started from Tuesday midnight, following which migrant labourers have started moving to their homes in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha.
Coronavirus is hitting the energy industry hard. First, it instigated a breakup between the OPEC+ countries of Saudi Arabia and Russia, leading to an oil price war which then led to a spectacular oil price crash. Now, the Permian Basin, once the site of an unparalleled shale boom, is currently facing tens of thousands of layoffs. Then it crushed biofuel markets across the world. Now its hitting the renewable energy industry, and solar is begging for a bailout. While Congress and the White House have finally come to a hard-won agreement on a $2 trillion coronavirus economic stimulus package, negotiated earlier this week, solar and wind did not receive the support they were looking for. Although some democrats were pushing for solar and wind tax credit extensions to be included in the bill, it appears they didnt make the final version, reported Solar Power World. Still, the solar industry will see some relief in the economy-wide measures included in the bill.

President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association Abigail Ross Hopper responded: As Congress continues to address the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, we appreciate that they are prioritizing relief for families and small businesses. There are several elements in this legislation that can help solar businesses and solar workers, including long-term unemployment insurance, business loans and provisions that support employee retention and other employee protections. We will be working to help our members understand what resources are available to them as a result of this legislation and how they can use those resources to help get through this difficult time.

As a result of this pandemic, the solar industry stands to lose half of our jobs  thats 125,000 families who will no longer receive a paycheck. Congress can help stem this tide. Economic stimulus legislation can help our companies sustain families and invest tens of billions of dollars into the economy over the next couple of years. We remain committed to helping our economy recover from this pandemic. We fully expect to work with Congress on any broad economic stimulus package. This will ensure that when this awful chapter in Americas history comes to an end, the clean energy economy is well-positioned to lead our nations economic recovery.

Related: How COVID-19 Could Spark The Next Recession



President and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) also issued a statement echoing the urgency of saving the solar industry as so many other energy sectors are also taking a beating. The renewable energy industry is fully supportive of broad measures to support the economy, protect workers, and ensure the health care system can effectively respond to the COVID-19 pandemic  which is precisely what the final Senate package is designed to do, he said. When lawmakers turn their attention to measures aimed at bolstering specific sectors of the economy adversely impacted by coronavirus, we want to make sure they understand how supply chain disruptions and other pandemic-related delays are threatening the jobs of hundreds of thousands of workers in the renewable sector and the time-sensitive tax incentives on which renewable project financing depends. In the end, were all in this together and the renewable energy industry wants to be a key economic driver to help the nation through this downturn, as well as an effective climate solution over the long haul.

The entire solar energy sector seems to be speaking out. In a letter signed by more than 550 solar companies across the United States, the solar industry is pleading with the federal government to provide support to the hundreds of thousands of people employed by the U.S. solar sector, according to Energy Live News.

Keeping the renewable energy sector afloat is essential and letting the solar sector go bankrupt or even shrink by any sizable margin would be a huge misstep at a moment that every economic decision the government makes is under a microscope.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
ATHENS (Reuters) - Manolis Glezos, a prominent Greek whose act of defiance against Nazi occupation during World War Two was a rallying cry for the country's resistance movement, died on Monday, authorities said. He was 97.

Revered across Greece's political spectrum, Glezos was most famous for scaling the steep walls of the Acropolis with a friend in 1941 to take down the swastika and replace it with the Greek flag.

It was the first visible act of resistance against the Nazis, who occupied Greece between 1941 and 1944. He was sentenced to death in absentia.

Glezos died of heart failure at a central Athens hospital, where he was admitted on March 18.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis led tributes to Glezos, calling him a "lionheart" and "the sweetest man".

"The death of Manolis Glezos leaves Greeks poorer, but the legacy of his life leaves Greece richer," he said in a statement.

"His example, that of a true patriot and fighter, is a guiding light for us all. And it gives us the strength to unite to overcome difficulties, like those we are experiencing today," Mitsotakis said, referring to the coronavirus crisis.

Former left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said: "He will live on through eternity as the symbol of a fighter who knew how to sacrifice himself for his fellow man."

With his white mane of hair and thick moustache, Glezos was a recognisable fixture in leftist politics.

In his late eighties, he braved police teargas at protest rallies against tough cuts imposed in exchange for international bailouts that kept the Greek economy afloat between 2010 and 2015.

A member of the Socialist PASOK party which he represented in the European Parliament, Glezos gradually migrated further to the political left.

At the age of 91, in 2014, he became a member of the European Parliament representing Syriza, the left-wing party which came to power in 2015. He resigned a year later.

Story continues

Asked what had kept him at the forefront of politics for so long, Glezos told Reuters in 2012 that it was the memories of dead comrades.

"Before every battle, every protest, we told each other: 'If you live, don't forget me'. I am paying a debt to those I lost during those difficult years. My only regret is that I havent done more."

(Writing By Michele Kambas; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
China, which has sent medical teams and supplies to Pakistan where coronavirus cases are increasing steadily, said on Monday that it was building a makeshift hospital there to treat COVID-19 patients.

The number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan reached 1,664 while the death toll stood at 18, health officials said on Monday, underlining that local transmission of the deadly COVID-19 is increasing.

"Recently, the pandemic is also spreading in Pakistan. We totally relate to what they are experiencing, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing here.

"The Chinese government has donated supplies such as testing kits, masks, protective suits and ventilators to Pakistan. And we will also help Pakistan to set up adhoc makeshift hospital. Last week this hospital has been put into construction, she said while replying to a question.

China had built two major makeshift hospitals with 2,300 bed capacity in Wuhan in early February at the height of the coronavirus outbreak in the city.

Hua said China has invited Pakistan to attend the video conference on COVID-19 and a medical expert team is in Islamabad.

On Saturday, a special plane from China carrying a team of eight medical experts and relief assistance arrived in Pakistan.

Besides airlifting supplies, China also sent medical supplies to Pakistan through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to fight the steadily increasing coronavirus case there.

A truck full of five ventilators, 2,000 safety apparel, 20,000 medical masks and 24,000 nucleic acid testing kits were sent from Khunjrab Pass to the Gilgit-Baltistan region, according to official media here.

In addition, many friendly sister cities and provinces in China also donated the epidemic response and control materials to Pakistan and they are also joined by Red Cross Society and many enterprises help is on the way, Hua said.

"Going forward, we will continue to provide our best help to Pakistan if necessary, she said.

China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic cooperative partners and iron friends. We have fine tradition of lending each other support and mutual assistance in the time of adversary, she said.

Pakistan President Arif Alvi visited Beijing on March 16 and met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and other leaders to show solidarity as China battled coronavirus at home.

Pakistan also did not evacuate its over 1,000 nationals stuck in the coronavirus hit Wuhan despite their desperate pleas, stating that China has promised to look after them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Linkedin Rina Chandran (Thomson Reuters Foundation) Bangkok, Thailand  Mon, March 30, 2020 17:04 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e66b59 2 World coronavirus,lockdown,environment,pedestrian,walkable,cities,congestion,pollution Free

Cities under lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus are making more room on their streets for pedestrians, fulfilling a long-standing demand by residents for more walkability that could be hard to reverse, urban experts said on Monday.

More than 720,000 people across the world have been infected by the coronavirus and about 33,000 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

With lockdowns or restrictions on movement in hundreds of cities, residents are often still allowed to occasionally go outside to run, walk or cycle, as long as they practice social distancing, or keep two meters from each other.

While this has led to overcrowding in parks in several cities, authorities in Toronto, New York and Philadelphia have barred traffic from some streets so more people can walk safely.

"Making cities more accessible to pedestrians now is necessary because people want to feel connected, get some exercise, and feel a little better about a very challenging situation," said Tony Matthews, a lecturer in urban and environmental planning at Australia's Griffith University.

"Many people may not want to give their streets back to heavy traffic volumes after this, so there will be a lot more advocacy for urban walkability," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Walking not only has physical and emotional benefits, but walkability - which considers safety, comfort and health - is also good for city economies and is key to social connectedness, research has shown.

But while urban planners have long been working to increase walkability, the challenge has always been competing with the dominance of vehicle traffic, Matthews said.

Reduced vehicle traffic in cities now has given authorities a chance to prioritize pedestrians, possibly for the first time in decades.

In Toronto and Vancouver, officials are looking into closing some parts of their streets to vehicles, while New York has closed some of its streets to vehicle traffic to allow more room for pedestrians.

Developing Asian cities, with a few exceptions, are less walkable, with pedestrians often forced to share narrow, crumbling pavements - where they exist - with vendors, motorbikes and stray dogs and cats.

But walkability is even more critical in these crowded cities, as there are few open spaces, said landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom in Bangkok.

"People want to get out and exercise, and it is important that there are accessible, healthy, welcoming spaces for them to do so," she said.

"We have prioritized cars for so long now, we forgot all about pedestrians. But that is beginning to change," she said.

Bangkok began to open up some of its busiest streets to pedestrians last December, though the move was largely targeted at tourists. While Jakarta has expanded its car-free Sunday to more streets in the congested Indonesian capital.

The pandemic has made authorities realize the importance of healthy urban environments, said David Sagita, a public space specialist at United Cities and Local Governments, an umbrella organization of cities and regional authorities.

"Residents and authorities are seeing the need for cleaner, greener, healthier cities - which includes more open spaces and less traffic," he said.

"This experience will change urban planning as we know it."

Topics : coronavirus lockdown environment pedestrian walkable cities congestion pollution
Sexual abuse survivors this week called on Southern Baptist leaders to commit to sustained action on abuse reforms despite the faith group not meeting this year because of COVID-19.

They hope that leaders such as SBC President J.D. Greear, who will now have a third term as president because the faith groups annual meeting was canceled, will push for more robust policies on abuse.

This years meeting would have been the second since the publication of Abuse of Faith, a Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News investigation that found hundreds of Southern Baptist pastors and church leaders had been convicted of sexual abuses in the last 20 years. They left behind more than 700 victims, nearly all of them children.

Rachael Denhollander, who has been advising leaders on abuse policies, said she hopes Greear uses his platform to push back against those whove been complacent or, in some cases, hostile to reforms.

While SBC presidents dont have the authority to implement sweeping reforms or dictate the affairs of any of the faith groups 47,000 autonomous churches, their priorities are important, Denhollander said, and their actions trickle down to the local church level.

I hope to see significant forward movement in confronting sexual abuse, said Denhollander, who was the first person to come forward about abuses by now-imprisoned USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. More direct interaction with survivors and advocates whove been on the front lines.

That includes those such as Christa Brown, a longtime activist and abuse survivor. In response to Greears third term in office, Brown again requested the creation of a database that would track abuse allegations against those whove worked in SBC churches.

Greear has previously said the idea could be part of a package of reforms, and other prominent leaders have expressed openness to a similar idea, though it has not yet been seriously discussed publicly.

Greears office declined to offer specifics on what hell pursue during his third term. SBC presidents are typically limited to two years in office, and Greears office said he is still working on a more concrete agenda for his unexpected third year.

In a speech to executive committee members earlier this year, Greear did advocate for some reforms, including mandatory background checks for nominees to SBC committees.

Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson said he hopes thats the case. An outspoken advocate for abuse issues and reforms, Burleson has been complimentary of actions taken by Greear and others since the Chronicles report.

But, he added, the SBC needs to shift its focus from raising awareness about abuse to having specific and intentional conversations about potential reforms to combat it.

Greear and other leaders have often said that confronting the abuse issue will require a shift in the SBCs broader culture.

To do that, Burleson said, the SBC needs to be more willing to discuss abuses  and failures to handle them  when they involve prominent pastors or church figures. That also means elevating more survivors who are critical of the SBC or who may have left organized religion entirely.

Similar critiques were made ahead of a three-day conference last year that focused solely on sexual abuse. Since then, some leaders  including Greear  have been more outspoken about mistreatment of survivors.

Earlier this year, a small group of executive committee leaders sought to have Greear censured over comments he made to the Chronicle, in which he urged churches to exercise caution before hosting disgraced ex-leader Paige Patterson.

We have a tendency to point our finger at people we dont know and we hesitate putting a spotlight on people we do know, and that bothers me, Burleson said. For us to have the spirit of Christ, we cant make a distinction between high-profile and not-high-profile leaders.

At last years meeting, thousands of church delegates empowered a committee to make inquiries into churches handling into sexual abuse and, if necessary, recommend that they be removed from the SBC. Also approved was a constitutional amendment that, among other things, explicitly barred convicted sex offenders from working in SBC churches.

The amendment needs to be approved at two consecutive SBC meetings to take effect. A spokesman for the executive committee, however, said that the one year delay wont really affect the SBCs response to abuses.

Inquiries into churches will continue, said spokesman Jonathan Howe, and the committee will continue meeting and could refer bad-acting congregations for removal.

So far, the committee has recommended one church be removed: Ranchland Heights Baptist Church in Midland, which is pastored by a convicted sex offender.

robert.downen@chron.com
Globe-trotting action drama Blood & Treasure is the latest new show to be added to 10 Play from today.

The CBS series centres around an antiquities expert and an art thief who team up to catch a ruthless terrorist who funds his attacks through stolen treasure.

The cast features Matt Barr, Sofia Pernas, James Callis and Katia Winter. This premiered in the US in May 2019 and a second season began filming internationally in October (hope they got lots in the can!).

When Dannys mentor, Dr. Anna Castillo and the priceless ancient Egyptian artefacts shes discovered are stolen by terrorist Karim Farouk, the sexually charged duo, Danny and Lexi team up to catch the ruthless terrorist.

As they crisscross the world hunting their target, Danny and Lexi unexpectedly find themselves at the centre of a 2,000-year-old battle for the cradle of civilization.
DUARTE, Calif. -- A City of Hope scientist is one step closer to discovering what weakens a pathogen that appears to cause babies to be born with abnormally small heads.

Interestingly, it takes studying "mini brains" to understand why certain unborn babies infected with cytomegalovirus (CMV) enter the world with shrunken brains, said Yanhong Shi, Ph.D., senior author of the new study, director of the Division of Stem Cell Biology Research and the Herbert Horvitz Professor in Neuroscience at City of Hope.

In the United States, the most common cause of infectious-related birth defects is CMV. About 1 in 5 babies with congenital CMV infection will have birth defects or other long-term health problems. Among those congenital conditions is microcephaly, or abnormally small heads, a concern many soon-to-be mothers had during the 2015 Zika outbreak. However, CMV is a far more common culprit for microcephaly, Shi said.

"We are among the first to model human CMV-induced microcephaly using brain organoids. This is a first step to one day studying more complex neurological complications such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease," Shi said, adding that much more developed brain organoids, as the mini brains are more popularly known, are needed for scientists to study complex nervous system diseases that develop later in life.

The study, published in Cell Reports Medicine on March 25, solves a problem that has befuddled scientists for decades - how to create an experimental model that can mimic the complexities of the human brain in order to study neurological disorders. Until recently, scientists were restrained to studying the problem mostly in two dimensional models in a petri dish because they couldn't replicate many key features of neurological disorders in animal models. Notably, animals cannot be used to study human CMV (HCMV)-specific brain disorders because the disease is specific to humans.

Shi and her colleagues, however, found that a strain of HCMV called TB40/E appeared to replicate what HCMV does to an unborn baby's brain in the transition between the first and second trimester. The TB40/E-infected brain organoids were significantly smaller than the control models. Of the 10 genes that were reduced, three were related to calcium signaling, an indication that brain connections were not being made and that the brain's electrical network was not functioning properly. Further testing showed that TB40/E affected critical genes involved in brain development, including ones responsible for the development of the hippocampus, the center of learning and memory.

"A similar organoid strategy can be used to understand how infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus leads to COVID-19 so that we can test potential therapies for the disease," said Guoqiang Sun, Ph.D., lead author of the study and a staff scientist in the Department of Developmental and Stem Cell Biology at Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope.

To take the study one step further, Shi and her colleagues collaborated across disciplines with Don Diamond, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at City of Hope. Diamond has been studying CMV for three decades and is developing vaccines to prevent congenital CMV infection.

The City of Hope scientists tested what could one day prevent or lessen the birth defects created by HCMV-induced microcephaly. They introduced a protective immune system antibody currently in development in the Diamond Lab. When tested in the brain organoid model, it appeared early intervention with these "neutralizing antibodies" may prevent or reduce the most severe consequences of HCMV infection.

"Now that we have a model that replicates how HCMV-induced microcephaly happens, we can use it to test antiviral agents," Shi said. "We can now start looking for real-world solutions."

###

Other significant contributors of this study include Xianwei Chen, Ph.D., from the Shi Laboratory at City of Hope, and Flavia Chiuppesi, Ph.D., and Felix Wussow, Ph.D., from the Diamond Laboratory at City of Hope. Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania also contributed to this study.

The research was supported by the Louise and Herbert Horvitz Charitable Foundation, Sidell-Kagan Scientific & Medical Research Foundation, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (TRAN1-08525), National Institute of Aging of the National Institutes of Health (R01AG056305, RF1AG061794 and R56AG061171), National Institutes of Health (U19AI131130, R35NS097370 and R37NS047344), Helmsley Charitable Trust (2017-PG-MED001), Grace Foundation, JPB Foundation, Annette C. Merle-Smith Fowler Merle-Smith Family Charitable Lead Trust, Robert and Mary Jane Engman Foundation, Lynn and Edward Streim, Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund, and U.S. Public Health Service (R01 AI103960).

About City of Hope

City of Hope is an independent biomedical research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases. Founded in 1913, City of Hope is a leader in bone marrow transplantation and immunotherapy such as CAR T cell therapy. City of Hope's translational research and personalized treatment protocols advance care throughout the world. Human synthetic insulin and numerous breakthrough cancer drugs are based on technology developed at the institution. A National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, City of Hope is the highest ranked cancer hospital in the West, according to U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals: Specialty Ranking. Its main campus is located near Los Angeles, with additional locations throughout Southern California. For more information about City of Hope, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.
The Gladwin County Community Foundation (GCCF) is engaging in a collaborative approach to impact small businesses in Gladwin County affected by the COVID-19 pandemic through a $10,000 grant.

GCCF is granting $10,000 to the Gladwin County Economic Development Corporation to supplement their support of the Michigan Small Business Relief Program, which is designed to support businesses most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gladwin County Community Foundation is excited to collaborate with Gladwin County Economic Development Corporation on this philanthropic venture, said Terry Brokoff, chair of the Gladwin County Community Foundation. We believe working with local partners who genuinely care about the business community in Gladwin County is the most effective way to impact small businesses patrons cherish and love.

Grant applications are currently available to small businesses affected by COVID-19 through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). The deadline for businesses to apply for grants is April 1, with decisions for funding to be made the week of April 6. More information can be found by visiting michiganbusiness.org/covid19/. The grant application can be found at https://form.jotform.com/200855402355147.

The GCCF has done amazing work throughout Gladwin County for years, providing tens of thousands of dollars in financial support for programs and projects that help define who we are as a community said Bob Balzer, director of the Gladwin County Economic Development Corporation. We are incredibly thankful to the GCCF and its board members for this generous financial support that will bring some relief to many local businesses.

The GCCF is gathering information from community partners, organizations, and individuals to best understand how to help Gladwin County during this unprecedented time. More information will be coming out soon as the Community Foundation looks for ways to assist throughout this pandemic.

For more information about the Gladwin County Community Foundation, visit gladwinfoundation.org or call 989-839-9661.
Photo: All rights reserved.

A royal footman for Queen Elizabeth II has reportedly tested positive for COVID-19.



The Buckingham Palace employee contracted the coronavirus while the monarch was still at her main residence in London last week, before heading to Windsor Castle with husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, to begin their Easter break earlier than planned.



The footman, who is now in self-isolation, had been responsible for taking drinks and meals to the Queen, introducing guests, handling messages, and walking her beloved dogs, according to The Sun.



The unidentified staffer is the latest infected person to have come into contact with the Queen in recent weeks - her eldest son Prince Charles and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson both recently went public with their mild cases of the disease.



Royal representatives have not commented directly on the aide's reported illness, but confirmed to The Sun that the ruler, who turns 94 on 21 April, remains in good health.



The news emerges two days after the global coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of her annual birthday parade in London.



The Trooping the Colour event, typically held in early June, "will not go ahead in its traditional form," Buckingham Palace officials confirmed on Friday.



They added, "A number of other options are being considered, in line with relevant guidance."
The peoples Democratic party(PDP) has described president Muhammadu Buharis national broadcast on Sunday as empty and devoid of real concerns.

This was contained in a statement on the official Twitter handle of the party.

Read Also: Fani Kayode Advises Buhari On His Nationwide Broadcast

The president addressed the nation following the coronavirus pandemic currently rocking on the increase in the country.

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See statement below:

COVID-19. Buharis Address Empty, Failed to Address Real Concerns

The @OfficialPDPNig laments that President @MBuharis long awaited address on the COVID-19 pandemic came empty and failed to address the salient demands of the impact of the scourge on our nation.

The party notes that outside the social distancing and isolation, which Nigerians had already imposed on themselves, Mr. President had no new solutions to offer our nation.

The @OfficialPDPNig regrets that the address did not touch on the real necessities of majority of Nigerians who reside in the states where President @MBuhari had ordered a lockdown.

It is unfortunate that Mr. President failed to respond to demands on hope for medications, direct social palliatives, cut in taxes as well as reduction in the pump price of fuel even with the cut in the price of petroleum and crude oil in the international market.

Our party notes as saddening that even in areas where Mr. President announced an ambitious intervention, such remained largely cosmetic as there are no clear palliative content but moratoriums on loans with no clear data for implementation.

Mr. President is reminded that already, the COVID-19 had affected the performance of those loans. Granting them moratoriums is therefore of no consequence to the capital and interest on them.

It is rather unfortunate that Nigerians had to wait this long for an address that came out empty and failed to respond to anxieties.

Moreover, Nigerians expected Mr. President to articulate an across-the-board and far-reaching strategy that would have captured the need of each state of the federation as they were today, instead of a parochial approach to a national anxiety.

President @MBuhari should therefore go back, listen to the nation, retool his policy framework and implementation strategy to properly address the fears as well as the needs of Nigerians,

 including health safety measures and the real remedies that meet the anxieties of our nation at this critical time.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 17:50:34|Editor: Wang Yamei

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ABUJA, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian defense authorities on Monday confirmed a senior commander of the terror group Boko Haram was killed during a recent military operation in the northeastern state of Borno.

In a statement made available to Xinhua, the defense media center in Borno said the Boko Haram commander was identified as Abu Usamah who led the terror group in an encounter with troops on March 22.

Usamah died of gunshot wounds following that encounter with troops in Gorgi, a town in the Damboa local government area of Borno, said the statement.

"His death has no doubt created a consequential vacuum in the Boko Haram leadership particularly as the gallant troops remain resilient and continue to rout the criminal elements from their last enclaves in the northeast," the statement added.
First Minister Arlene Foster has said the Executive has 'unity of purpose' in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, as Northern Ireland prepares for a surge in cases.

Speaking in a press conference at Stormont, Mrs Foster said tackling the virus has been a challenge for the Executive, which is set to increase as in the coming week.

"Every minister in the Executive feels the pain, worry and concern you are going through," she said.

She told the public Stormont does not want to enforce new powers, which will allow police to fine those who leave their homes without good reason during the lockdown but said some businesses may be forced to close if they do not adhere to guidance on social distancing.

Read More

A new forum met for the first time on Monday to establish further clarity for businesses in what Mrs Foster described as "a good meeting".

She said ministers will meet on a North-South basis on Tuesday to establish how best to fight the virus.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said: "It's no secret there is a diversity of views in the Assembly", adding there is a "difference of emphasis" around what steps to take in regard to the coronavirus.

Mrs O'Neill said ministers had worked across the weekend and along with a new public relations campaign to spread information, "saving lives in the number one priority of this Executive".

"We all have a unity of purpose and the unity of purpose is to flatten the curve of this infection," said Mrs Foster, adding the leaders had met with the Health Minister and the Chief Medical Officer on Monday.

It comes as the death of another person due to coronavirus was announced in Northern Ireland, bringing the total number of fatalities to 22.

The Public Health Agency said that further testing has resulted in 123 new positive cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Northern Ireland to 533. That is the biggest single rise in a day so far. However, the increase may be a result of a ramping up in testing.

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said "tens of thousands" of stranded British travellers will be flown home under a new partnership between the Government and airlines.

Speaking at the Downing Street press conference, he said: "I can today announce a new arrangement between the Government and airlines to fly home tens of thousands of stranded British travellers, where commercial flights are no longer possible.

"Partner airlines include British Airways, Virgin, easyJet, Jet2 and Titan and this list can be expanded.

"Under the arrangements that we are putting in place we will target flights from a range of priority countries, starting this week."

Earlier Northern Ireland Justice Minister Naomi Long announced the decision to temporarily release some prisoners early as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The announcement came as police Chief Constable Simon Byrne confirmed two PSNI officers tested positive for coronavirus.

Read More

Check out our blog to see how Monday's coronavirus developments unfolded.
Married At First Sight groom David Cannon has gone rogue ahead of the much-anticipated reunion episode on Tuesday night.

Speaking to the Not Here To Make Friends podcast, David openly defied producers and broke his contract to drop spoilers.

'No f**ks given ay, I dont even care about ruining the show,' the truck driver, 31, stated, as he gave away which newlyweds last the distance.

Scroll down for video

'I don't even care about ruining the show': Married At First Sight's David Cannon (pictured) broke his contract by revealing which couples split before the reunion episode

On Sunday's episode of Married At First Sight, Connie Crayden and Jonethen Musulin broke up, while Stacey Hampton and Michael Goonan, and KC Osborne and Drew Brauer vowed to stay together.

Dave, who was 'married' to Hayley Vernon this season, was not shy or concerned about ruining the show, revealing who is still together at the reunion.

'F**k no  by the end of the (final) dinner party, they're not together,' David said of Stacey and Michael's relationship, hinting the airing of Staceys 'affair' with co-star Mikey Pembroke caused their rift.

He also revealed Drew and KC arrive at the reunion no longer together.

'F**k no  by the end of the (final) dinner party, they're not together': David said Stacey and Michael are over, hinting Staceys 'affair' with co-star Mikey Pembroke caused their rift

Unhappily ever ever: Dave also revealed Drew Brauer and KC Osborne arrive at the reunion episode as exes, despite vowing to stay together on Sunday's episode

However, David also told host James Weir that the reunion does see at least two happy endings for the 2020 cast.

He claimed Lizzie Sobinoff and Seb Guilhaus were still together when the reunion episode was filmed in January.

Surprisingly, he confirmed Aleks Markovic and Ivan Sarakula shocked the cast by arriving as a couple, despite leaving the show as singletons.

That's nice: David also told host James Weir that the reunion does see at least two happy endings for the 2020 cast, including Elizabeth Sobinoff and Sebastian Guilhaus (pictured)

Daily Mail Australia can confirm that just three couples returned to the show to film the reunion on January 15 - and only one of them are still going strong now.

Elizabeth and Seb were the first couple to arrive at the reunion together, which was filmed seven weeks after the final vow ceremonies.

They appear to be the only couple that have remained together in recent weeks, as it is believed Aleks and Ivan split again in February.

Married At First Sight continues on Monday from 7:30pm on Nine
"Seth leads a team that is directly responsible for shaping our members' healthcare experience," said Terry Gilliland, M.D., Executive Vice President, Healthcare Quality and Affordability. "His background as a physician and a healthcare executive paired with his passion to transform care will help us achieve our mission to create a healthcare system worthy of our family and friends and sustainably affordable."

Glickman joins Blue Shield with more than 20 years of experience, most recently in Utah as president of Intermountain Medical Group and chief medical officer for Intermountain's community-based care where he had oversight for all risk/value-based care delivery and associated clinical and financial performance. He also served as president of a network of more than 3,000 physicians at the University of North Carolina and has been a practicing physician for 20 years.

"I'm excited to be part of an organization with Blue Shield's mission and vision for the future of health care," said Glickman. "By taking a member-centric approach and focusing on quality, affordability and innovation, I look forward to helping the organization improve the health of all Californians."

Glickman received his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Pennsylvania and completed his medical residency in emergency medicine at the University of Chicago. He also has a Master of Business Administration from Duke University.

About Blue Shield of California

Blue Shield of California strives to create a health care system worthy of our family and friends that is sustainably affordable. We are a tax paying, not for profit, independent member of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association with over 4 million members, 6,800 employees and more than $20 billion in annual revenue. Founded in 1939 in San Francisco and now headquartered in Oakland, Blue Shield of California and its affiliates provide health, dental, vision, Medicaid and Medicare health care service plans in California. The company has contributed more than $500 million to Blue Shield of California Foundation since 2002 to have an impact on California communities.

For more news about Blue Shield of California, please visit news.blueshieldca.com.

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CONTACT: Mark Seelig

Blue Shield of California

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SOURCE Blue Shield of California

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 30

Trend:

The Chairman of the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) of Pakistan Justice (Retd) Ali Nawaz Chowhan has condemned the so-called "parliamentary and presidential elections" to be held in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, Trend reports referring to the Dispatch News Desk (DND).

According to DND, the Chairman of the NCHR stated that holding of so-called "election" by Armenia in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh is against all international norms because the region is occupied by Armenia.

I strongly condemn the holding of so called parliamentary elections and presidential elections of the illegal regime, established by Armenia in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh territory of Azerbaijan by the occupying forces of Armenia, which are to be held on March 31, 2020, and join my government and the UN in support of Azerbaijan. I also once again condemn the genocide committed by Armenia in the town of Khojaly against Azerbaijani civilians. Armenia will be accountable for its aggression and genocide, said Ali Nawaz Chowhan.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr. Harsh Vardhan, on Monday, addressed the media and informed about the efforts being undertaken by India to control the spread of Coronavirus. He also informed about his meeting with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and researchers from The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Addressing the press, the Health Minister said: "Today, we held a meeting with all the researchers from ICMR and researchers from CSIR. The meeting went on for 2.5 hours and we had a very intense discussion, and this meeting will benefit in terms of new drug discovery and other benefits as well."

" On January 7, China told the world about other countries getting affected by the deadly Coronavirus and since 8 January, we started taking measures to prevent Indians from COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, we are monitoring every situation. So far, only a few countries have contained the virus and India is one of them, now we have look for its cure. Every science and health researcher is trying hard to get more information about this virus," the Health Minister added.

READ | Coronavirus LIVE Updates: India at 'local transmission' stage; total cases at 1071

Coronavirus crisis in India

As of date, over 1071 positive cases have been reported of the pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) and at least 29 deaths have been reported to date. India has suspended all visas and barred travel from Afghanistan, Philippines, EU, UK, China, Malaysia and mandatory 14-day quarantine from several other countries and a complete nationwide lockdown till April 14 has been imposed.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a relief package for the poor and the affected persons due to the deadly Coronavirus. According to the minister, the package is worth Rs 1.7 lakh crore, under the Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Yojana. Meanwhile, India has also closed the India-Pakistan border and restricted passenger movement at the border with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Myanmar.

READ | COVID-19: Dr. Harsh Vardhan warns legal action against violators of lockdown in India

READ | Dr. Harsh Vardhan condemns ostracisation of doctors, paramedics, amid COVID-19 pandemic
China garnered praise from everybody including the WHO for its control of the spread of the deadly coronavirus. However, even as domestic cases have "nearly stopped", troubles could increase for the Chinese mainland as the number of imported cases in the country are on the rise. There are speculations that these imported cases could fan a second wave of infection in China. In addition, domestic travel also poses a risk.

According to reports, most of the imported cases are Chinese nationals returning home from abroad. Mi Feng, the Spokesman for National Health Commission reportedly said that China has till now accumulated nearly 693 cases entering from overseas. A total of 3,304 people have died from COVID-19 infection in China. In the last seven days, the country has reported 313 cases of imported coronavirus but only six confirmed domestic transmissions, NHC data revealed. This comes as March 30 marked the sixth consecutive day with no cases in the Hubei Province. China has recently eased travel restrictions with trains, buses moving between cities.

But as travel restrictions are rolled back, concerns about asymptomatic cases have intensified. Gansu, a province in northwestern China, reported a new case on March 29 of a traveller from Hubei who drove back on a health code declaring the person free of virus.

Read: Coronavirus: Following In China's Footsteps, Vietnam Bans Wildlife Trade

Read: COVID-19: China Risks 'good Relations' With UK As Boris Johnson Faces Pressure From Allies

China's sub-standard masks

After Spain, Turkey, Ukraine and the Czech Republic, the Netherlands became the fifth country on March 29 to recall tens of thousands of masks imported from China which were distributed to hospitals battling the coronavirus crisis because they did not meet the quality standards. The tests show that the masks failed to protect the face or had defective filters. They received delivery of masks from a Chinese manufacturer on March 21, Netherlands' Health Ministry said in a statement to AFP. "The masks did not meet their standards when they were inspected. Part of the shipment had already been distributed to health professionals," the statement said.

(Image credit: AP)

Read: Sham! Nations Bulk-return Faulty Coronavirus Gear & Tests Imported From Covid Source China

Read: China's Coronavirus Hit Hubei Province Begins Domestic Flights


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A looming eviction has not been good for Dieu Pham's blood pressure. Now, throw a pandemic into the mix.

You may remember Pham as the grandmother who last year fought eviction and won, along with her fellow tenants, who are all immigrants from Southeast Asia. The building was eventually sold.

But now, Pham's new landlord V.F. Developments is planning a big renovation -- which involves having all the tenants out of their apartment complex on the Chinatown-Echo Park line by mid-April. All this during an expected surge of COVID-19 cases.

"I just want to be at home during this time," Pham, 70, said in Vietnamese as her niece interpreted. "If I'm evicted, where am I going to live?"

The L.A. City Council recently passed a ban on evictions but it's targeted at tenants who can show they were affected by COVID-19, including those financially affected.

Tenants seeking eviction protection would have to produce documentation such as medical bills or termination notices.

This has advocates and some city officials pushing to extend eviction protections to all, saying renters -- the majority of Angelenos -- should be able to stay home and shield themselves and others from COVID-19.

"If you are evicted right now, you literally cannot abide by the Mayor's stay-at-home order," said Councilman Mike Bonin during Friday's council meeting. "You are not going to be able to be shopping for a unit. You're going to have a hard time finding a moving company to move your stuff."

'OPEN HUNTING SEASON ON LANDLORDS'

Landlord groups say a universal evictions moratorium would be ripe for abuse by problem tenants were it to pass.

It would be "like open hunting season on landlords," said Daniel Yukelson, executive director of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles. "Nobody would pay the rent if that were the case."

Enough councilmembers held similar fears that they voted down Bonin's proposed "blanket" moratorium on evictions during the council meeting Friday. The measure was one vote shy of the eight votes needed. (Councilmen Curren Price and Paul Krekorian recused themselves because they're landlords, according to each of their representatives.)

Councilman Joe Buscaino said he was concerned a moratorium didn't address tenants partying or engaging in drug-dealing or prostitution. Councilman Bob Blumenfield, who also voted no, questioned the need for any moratorium given the current shutdown in the civil courts.

'A CENTRAL DEMAND'



Despite the council's rejection of stalling all evictions, housing activists are not giving up.

"I think it will come up before the City Council again," said Craig Wong, an advocate with Chinatown Community for Equitable Development. "That's a central demand of every housing rights and tenants group in the city."

Sunday night, demonstrators drove their cars in front of Mayor Eric Garcetti's house in Hancock Park to demand the moratorium, as well as a freeze on rent and rent forgiveness.

We need a real eviction moratorium and a cancellation of rents @MayorOfLA https://t.co/v96GGPvGWO  Jane Nguyen (@theglowingstars) March 30, 2020

PROTESTING WHILE SOCIALLY DISTANCING

The tenants at 920 Everett Street hope city policy will change so they can stay in their units. In the meantime, they're working with the activists at Chinatown Community For Equitable Development to pressure their landlord, VF Developments, to back down from evicting them.

VF Developments' principal Victoria Vu would not comment on 920 Everett Street at this time, according to her lawyer, Linda Hollenbeck.

In the past, the tenants would have gone to protest in front of Vu's residence. When the previous owner of their building tried evicting them last year, Pham and other tenants went to Brentwood with protest signs looking for his home.

After that episode, then-owner American Collateral Buyers put the property on the market and sold it to VF Developments in January for nearly $2 million.

But given orders to socially distance, the tenants and activists cannot plan an in-person protest. Instead, they've taken to social media to pressure Vu, like with this video:

Dieu Pham said she celebrated months ago when American Collateral sold the building and dropped eviction efforts, but she felt uneasy when VF Developments became the new landlord.

"My gut told me," Pham said.

What it didn't tell her is that eviction would coincide with the biggest health crisis of her lifetime.
This Friday, March 27, 2020, photo provided by Southwest Airlines employee Dayartra Etheridge shows health care workers, other passengers and flight crew aboard a Southwest flight from Atlanta to New York's LaGuardia Airport holding their hands in the shape of a heart, before the plane pushed back from the gate, at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. There were about 30 health care professionals, all from Atlanta-area hospitals, who were on the regularly scheduled flight to LaGuardia, to help with the coronavirus outbreak in New York. (Dayartra Etheridge via AP)

A photo of health care professionals from Georgia on a Southwest plane on their way to help with the coronavirus outbreak in New York is getting lots of love online.

The photo shows dozens of people, some wearing masks and gloves, holding their hands in the shape of a heart. It had been shared by tens of thousands on Facebook and Twitter, with many comments praising the health care workers for their bravery.

An Atlanta ramp agent took the photo of the health care workers, other passengers, and flight crew before the plane pushed back from the gate on Friday, Southwest Airlines spokesman Derek K. Hubbard said on Sunday.

There were about 30 health care professionals including nurses, all from Atlanta-area hospitals, who were on the regularly scheduled flight to LaGuardia Airport, Hubbard said.

These brave souls soldier on in the midst of tremendous risk and exposure, constantly putting the needs of others above their own, Southwest Airlines wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday. Their selfless sacrifice is a beacon of light during such a dark time in our world, and no amount of gratitude and praise would ever be enough."
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30)  Fashion designers who are customizing protective suits for COVID-19 frontline workers have gotten a doctor's approval to push through with their initiative and create more for those in need.

In a Facebook post on Sunday evening, designer Mich Dulce shared that the first suit that they created for direct and critical exposure to COVID-19 patients has recently been approved by Infectious Diseases Specialist and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jesus Julio Ancheta of The Medical City Sta. Rosa Laguna.

"Thank you Lord!!! Napasigaw kami sa saya!!!" Dulce's post read.

Vice President Maria Leonor "Leni" Robredo, who has been coordinating with the team for the distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) and facilitating the approval, also made the announcement in her Facebook account.

"It took us more than 48 hours of going back and forth and this afternoon, finally, our prototype has been approved!!!" Robredo said.

The approved pattern was made by Joey Socco using Tafetta Silver Back Lining, a water repellent fabric used for umbrellas and raincoats, she added.

Dulce noted that the approved material, which can be reused and disinfected multiple times, was donated by Dr. Reina Tajonera and Dothy Atienza, using the patterns and techpack made by Kendi Maristela, Lea Empalmado, and AJ Dimarucot.

The designer added that they based their design from an infection, prevention and control source for severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS.

"Existing evidence from IPC source for SARS was used for a basis for this, and the article says that 15 minutes autoclaving is effective to kill the virus. So the Tafetta SBL can take it!!" Dulce added.

Dulce and Robredo appealed to designers to create the suits in large size for the meantime, as they will be uploading another approved pattern graded for small and medium sizes, and a two-piece version.

"For everyone who is making using other fabrics, don't worry. They can still be allocated to other health workers / staff appropriately! Let's just all keep making what we can!!" said Dulce.

"The pattern is for everyone's consumption. We will be producing in bulk but you can all have your local mananahis make them for your own health frontliners, especially those in the provinces. Please just make sure you use Tafetta SBL to ensure utmost protection. The good thing about this is this is reusable," the Vice President noted.

The link to the approved pattern can be found here.

To date, the Office of the Vice President has delivered 32,325 PPE sets to 103 hospitals and communities in Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon. It has also received over P37 million for its COVID-19 efforts with the help of its partners under its Angat Buhay initiative.

On Sunday, the Philippines recorded 345 additional COVID-19 cases, the largest single-day surge since the outbreak began, bringing the new total to 1,418 in the country. There are a total of 71 deaths and 42 recoveries from the infection so far.
Actor Matthew Seadon-Young is auctioning off a series of never-before-seen backstage photos from two major London productions  Company and Death of a Salesman.

The former, starring Rosalie Craig, Patti LuPone, Mel Giedroyc, Jonathan Bailey and more, first opened at the Gieglud Theatre the autumn of 2018 and went on to win a series of awards and had recently opened in previews on Broadway. The latter first opened at the Young Vic before transferring to the Piccadilly Theatre, with stars Wendell Pierce and Sharon D Clarke lauded for their performances as Willy and Linda Lowman.

Seadon-Young, who appeared in both pieces, is now auctioning off a series of backstage shots he took from the shows in aid of Funds for Freelancers, a new project set up to help those affected by the coronavirus job losses. Each picture will be a one-off, and signed by those featured in the photo.

You can have a look at some of the samples provided by Seadon-Young below, with the nine auction lots available here.

Patti LuPone in her dressing room, Gielgud Theatre, London. Want this signed print? Please follow link to raise money for #FundsForFreelancers https://t.co/YpD0qFPE6g pic.twitter.com/FCEG973yC5  Mat Seadon-Young (@MatSeadonYoung) March 29, 2020
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30)  Marikina City has identified a two-storey building that will house a local COVID-19 testing center, days after the Department of Health turned down its original proposal.

Mayor Marcelino Teodoro announced Monday that a building along Bayan-Bayanan Avenue in Barangay Concepcion Uno has been chosen as the new site for the city's own laboratory for coronavirus testing, taking into account DOH recommendations given last week.

Health authorities rejected the city's plan to set up the testing laboratory either on the sixth floor of the Marikina City Health Office or inside the state-run Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center, saying these locations did not pass space and biosafety standards.

Teodoro said the newly-built structure has a floor area of 160 square meters, and is set to be completed in two weeks. The building is a free-standing structure in a not-so populated area in the city, with no other offices sharing the space, he added.

DOH Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire has said that a mixed-use building could increase the risk of infections, especially if there are lapses in protocol inside the laboratory.

Teodoro said a dedicated ambulance would be on standby for the facility. He added that the city adheres to a risk assessment template for the planned testing center, which includes biohazard measures.

READ: Local governments must coordinate with Health Dept. before buying COVID-19 test kits

The DOH-run Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa conducts the most number of coronavirus tests in a day, while select government-run institutions and private hospitals have also been tapped to test samples in other parts of the country.

Kailangan ma-test ang ating mga kababayan kung may COVID-19 sila para sa ganoon ang kinakailangang supportive treatment ay maibigay, para sa ganon ay ma-isolate sila at ma-contain  hindi na sila makahawa sa kanilang mahal sa buhay, Teodoro said in a statement.

[Translation: We need to have our compatriots tested for COVID-19 so that we can provide supportive treatment and so we can isolate them and contain the virus  that way, they won't infect their loved ones.]

The city official earlier said that nearby towns and cities would also be accommodated for testing swab samples.
Fredrick Mwangi Ndegwa, 32 and Constance Joyce Okhako, 28, were set to wed on Saturday, March 28 but had to cancel because of the coronavirus pandemic.

They have been dating for four years and shared their story via Saturday Nation:

Constance, who is a teacher says: I often tell Fredrick that ours is an ethereal love. It is such a shame that it took us six months to finally start dating. When I met Fredrick at the All Saints Cathedral in 2017, I was in search of a closer relationship with God. We struck a friendship from the get-go, his bubbliness to my cool, his chatter to my laughter and we often encouraged each other through our daily struggles.

If you would have told me then, that I would be here now saddened by the delay of our wedding I wouldnt have believed you.

I dont even know when my feelings turned from platonic to romantic, but I remember clearly when he asked me to be his girlfriend and a fire lit inside me.

Fredrick, an ICT engineer, says: In August 2017, I came up with the perfect plan. I asked Constance to accompany me to the arboretum. I knew she would enjoy it because she is a great lover of nature. I was worried when she didnt accept me immediately.

After a week, as she agreed to be my woman, she finally confided that she was worried that our ethnic backgrounds, Kikuyu and Luhya, would impede our love. Connie felt perfect and completed and complimented me in ways I had never thought possible.

So in late 2018, I took her home in South C, Nairobi and my parents fell in love with her as well. My parents approval gave me even more confidence in our relationship.

Just before we crossed into 2019, I took Connie to her favourite place Ngong Hills  went down on one knee and asked her to marry me. She said yes.

TOUGH DECISION

Constance says: I was overjoyed. It was far, far away from the current coronavirus pandemic that has forced us to postpone the wedding indefinitely. I will not forget the day we decided to cancel. It was a week before the ceremony. It took all the strength in my body to stop myself from drowning in self-pity. I spent a whole night crying and a couple of days mopping around, looking for someone to blame. But I came out empty. The scourge has affected everyone.

For days, I laid in bed recalling how I rushed around Nairobi preparing for my dream wedding. It was to be at All Saints Cathedral Church and thereafter reception at KALRO grounds on Waiyaki way. Two months ago I was tasting food, choosing the best catering company that would provide the tastiest balanced meal for our 500 guests.

I was swirling around in my pure white mermaid gown from Fintan Designers practicing my dancing moves in front of my best friends, Grace, Christine, and Terry.

I was confident that all our gowns were cut and stitched and all venues paid and booked for. I remember sighing thinking that finally, we will start our life together.

Our traditional wedding had already happened in August 2019 in my family home in Shiatsala, Butere, so I was just thinking one more blessing and we would be off sipping fresh juice on some fancy tourist beach.

DIVINE POWER

Fredrick says: All our 300 invitations had been sent out far and wide. So we had to text and call everyone to let them know that the wedding will not happen as planned. Some of our family members advised us to hold the 10 guests wedding approved under the new government directives. But we were conflicted about who to invite and who to leave out. Calls of support have helped us to move forward.

Constance says: My biggest blow was hearing Fredrick cancelling our pre-booked honeymoon. Since he was trying to be discrete, my teachers instinct told me not to show him that I overheard him.

28/03/2020 are the engravings on my wedding ring. 28 was not only the date of the wedding but the age at which I was going to walk down the aisle.

I give thanks that all the wedding vendors agreed to cater to our wedding at the date we will set in the future. Our budget was Sh500,000 and most had been committed.
By Ron Bousso, Shradha Singh and Scott DiSavino

(Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc <RDSa.L> pulled out of a major U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant under development following the recent crash in energy prices, quickly followed by its partner, Energy Transfer LP <ET.N>, delaying its final decision on whether to go ahead with the project to next year.

The Lake Charles, Louisiana, facility is one of several LNG export projects worldwide that have been delayed in recent months by the collapse in global energy prices. Global LNG demand has been hitting record highs for years, thanks to big demand from Asian nations like China and India as they diversify away from dirtier coal power generation.

The crash in oil and gas prices has caused major LNG exporters like Qatar and oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp <XOM.N>, however, to put off gigantic new facilities or expansions of existing projects. U.S. gas prices have recently dropped to their lowest since 1995.

"It's telling that (Shell) a major would walk away from a major outlet for long-term gas supply," said Ira Joseph, head of global gas and power analytics at S&P Global Platts, noting that storage, port and pipeline work was already in place on the project.

Analysts have anticipated that a number of the projects under development worldwide would not come to fruition. In total, U.S. energy firms alone are developing over 50 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of new export capacity - more than all the worldwide consumption of LNG in 2019, which was about 46.3 bcfd, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.

"Given the added demand decreases associated with COVID-19 and continuation of price declines its even more likely that well see additional projects aiming to reach FID (final investment decision) this year delay their timelines for hitting this milestone," said Allison Hurley, team lead, LNG and proprietary natural gas at energy researcher Genscape.

Story continues

The Lake Charles project, one of a number of large LNG facilities planned in the wake of the U.S. shale boom, envisaged converting Energy Transfer's existing import and regasification facility into a 2.2-bcfd export facility.

"Whilst we continue to believe in the long-term viability and advantages of the project, the time is not right for Shell to invest," Maarten Wetselaar, head of Shell's integrated gas and new energies division, said in a statement.

Energy Transfer said it expected to make a final investment decision by early 2021 on whether to build the plant, a delay from its earlier timeline for a decision by late 2020. The company's shares fell by 5% on Monday, while Shell rose 4%.

Shell said last week that it would cut spending by $5 billion to below $20 billion in 2020 and suspended its vast $25 billion share buyback plan in an effort to weather the oil price collapse.

Exxon Mobil is likely to delay the greenlighting of its $30 billion LNG project in Mozambique, six sources told Reuters in March.

Qatar has also delayed choosing Western partners for the world's largest LNG project by several months, four sources said in February.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York and Shradha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Marguerita Choy and Peter Cooney)
Almost Paradise (WGN at 10) A former Drug Enforcement Administration undercover agent thinks hes retired to a calmer life on a tropical Philippine island, but finds himself pulled back into the life of fighting crime when he comes into contact with shady characters at the luxury resort where he works.
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San Francisco, 30 March 2020: The Report Vaccine Delivery Devices Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Devices (Syringes, Jet Injectors, Other Devices), By Route of Administration (Intradermal Vaccination, Intramuscular Vaccination, Subcutaneous Vaccination), And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025

The global vaccine delivery devices market size is expected to reach USD 6.21 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is primarily driven by growing immunization programs, financial support from government & nongovernment organizations, increasing vaccination initiatives & campaigns, and rising prevalence of infectious diseases globally. Growing research in the field of vaccines and development of new products is also contributing to the growth of the market.

Adoption of needle-free approach for administering these products is gaining momentum due to growing awareness and demand to avoid pain & injuries associated with the use of a needle stick. Data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that an estimated 385,000 sharp injuries including needle stick injuries occur every year in hospitals in the U.S. Advancing technologies in administering vaccines and their increasing adoption is propelling market growth. Rising interest of various key players, national institutions, and organizations in novel delivery technologies is expected to further contribute to market growth.

Various governments and international organizations are increasingly investing in the development of vaccination programs. For instance, the UK government also announced funding up to 1 million from its Global Challenges Research Fund through Medical Research Council to investigate the Zika virus and its transmission. Organizations such as GAVI Alliance, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Path, and WHO are actively involved in the field of vaccines. Many governments are also undertaking several immunization programs on priority.

Access Research Report of Vaccine Delivery Devices Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/vaccine-delivery-devices-market

Further key findings from the report suggest:

The syringes segment held majority of the revenue share in 2016 due to increasing vaccination programs, spreading immunization coverage, and technological advancements

Jet injectors is expected to register highest growth during the forecast period owing to rising concerns regarding needle stick injuries and growing preference for needle-free technologies

Intramuscular vaccination dominated the route of administration segment in 2016 as majority of vaccines are given through this route owing to its advantages

North America dominated the global vaccine delivery devices market owing to increasing awareness levels, high adoption of technology, and rising prevalence of infectious diseases

Some of the key players include Becton Dickinson & Company, Bioject Medical Technologies, Inc. (Inovio Pharmaceutical Inc.); Gerresheimer AG; PharmaJet; Corium International, Inc.; and SCHOTT AG

Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/medical-devices

Grand View Research has segmented the global vaccine delivery devices market on the basis of devices, route of administration, and region:

Vaccine Delivery Devices Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

Syringes

Jet Injectors

Other Devices

Vaccine Delivery Devices Route of Administration Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

Intradermal Vaccination

Intramuscular vaccination

Subcutaneous Vaccination

Other Vaccinations

Vaccine Delivery Devices Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

Middle East & Africa

Access Press Release of Vaccine Delivery Devices Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-vaccine-delivery-devices-market

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

For More Information:www.grandviewresearch.com
Lopez Obrador says Im not a robot, I have feelings after critics questioned his handshake with the drug lords mum.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday defended his weekend handshake with the mother of drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, calling her a respectable old lady and seeking to cast his critics as the principal menace to the country.

In a 30-second video posted on Twitter on Sunday, Lopez Obrador could be seen approaching Maria Consuelo Loeras car, parked on a dirt road on the outskirts of Badiraguato, a mountainous municipality in the northwestern state of Sinaloa.

Surrounded by onlookers, Lopez Obrador told Loera she need not get out of the car, they shook hands and, after a brief exchange, he told her he had received her letter.

Guzman was for years boss of the Sinaloa Cartel, a powerful criminal organisation blamed for the deaths of thousands of people in Mexico ranging from rival gang members, general citizens, police and members of the armed forces.

Critics on social media asked what kind of message the encounter, videotaped by part of the entourage that regularly accompanies the president on weekends, was meant to send.

Questioned about the meeting at his regular morning news conference, Lopez Obrador was unrepentant and quickly blamed adversaries for trying to make a scandal out of it.

Sometimes, because its my job, I have to shake hands with white-collar criminals who havent even lost their respectability. How am I not going to greet an old lady who leaves her hand outstretched? he told reporters.

In the video, Lopez Obrador could also be seen talking to one of El Chapos lawyers, Jose Luis Gonzalez Meza.

Lopez Obrador said Loera, a respectable old lady, wrote to him to ask for help in getting permission from US authorities to visit her son, who is in a maximum-security US prison.

This depends on the United States government, the US embassy. I believe that for humanitarian reasons she should be allowed to go with caregivers, sanitarians, doctors, he said.

Ignoring coronavirus guidance

The left-wing leader said conservative opponents, were trying to use the encounter to hurt him.

Accusing them of hypocrisy, he said the corruption he identifies as their legacy is a much bigger threat to the country than a 92-year-old woman who deserves my respect.

After questions by reporters about the meeting, Lopez Obrador promised to publish the letter from Loera, saying: We have nothing to hide  theres nothing that can embarrass us.

Amidst the #CoronaCrisis, @lopezobrador_ has been seen around with people that have tested positive for the virus. Today while visiting Badiraguato, Chapo Guzman's hometown, he greeted Chapo's mother with a handshake imagine if later on she tests positive oh, the drama! pic.twitter.com/TrtS07M5Bz  David Wolf (@DavidWolf777) March 30, 2020

Guzman shipped tonnes of drugs around the world and twice embarrassed the Mexican government by escaping from prison.

Captured for a third time in 2016, he was extradited to the United States in 2017 and sentenced to life in prison by a US judge last year after his conviction on multiple drug charges.

The Sinaloa Cartel caused Lopez Obradors government considerable embarrassment last October, when security forces briefly surrounded and captured the notorious drug lords son Ovidio Guzman in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa.

Cartel gunmen responded with prolonged bursts of gunfire in the streets after Ovidios arrest.

To avoid bloodshed, the government ordered Ovidios release, sparking widespread criticism of Lopez Obradors security policy, and angering some military leaders.

Lopez Obrador saw Guzmans mother on a visit to a rural area of Sinaloa where the government was building a new road that would pass near El Chapos birthplace. The president said he went to meet Loera after hearing she wanted to greet him.

The 66-year-old, who has flouted the advice of his own government not to engage in physical contact during the coronavirus crisis, dismissed the suggestion that he should not be shaking hands with an elderly woman at risk of contagion.

He said it would have been disrespectful not to take her hand  even as two state governors Lopez Obrador had recently met with said over the weekend they had coronavirus.

I am not a robot, he said. I have feelings.
L.A police Lt. Jay Hom helps assemble safety kits for field officers on March 11 at Piper Technical Center in Los Angeles (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

The Los Angeles Police Department is taking the temperatures of its officers as they arrive for their shifts to try to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus inside the department, which has seen 26 employees test positive.

Anyone with a temperature will be sent home immediately and directed to get medical treatment. "We are taking every step to ensure officers' health," Assistant Chief Horace Frank said.

Department roll calls are now conducted with officers spaced far apart to ensure social distancing as part of efforts to get as many officers as possible working. Those with even slight signs of illness have been ordered to stay home, Frank said.

Workspaces are now frequently sanitized, and officers are equipped with N-95 masks and gloves and goggles to use in the field if needed.

The LAPD continues to test more of its 13,000 employees, and 26 have tested positive for COVID-19 so far. Four are department leaders.

LAPD managers, however, are concerned with the scenario unfolding in New York City with the nation's largest police department. More than 800 officers there have tested positive for the virus, and more than 4,700 officers  about 12% of the force  have been calling in sick daily.

Three NYPD employees have died, and John Miller, chief of intelligence and counter-terrorism, is among those who have been hospitalized. In each case of a positive officer, it has forced those around them to self-quarantine in an effort to stop the spread of the virus.

LAPD numbers remain relatively small by comparison. But some officers expressed frustration with commanders in the LAPDs Central Division after, sources told the Los Angeles Times, an officer who later tested positive was exhibiting symptoms at work for two days before being sent home. The officer, who had recently returned from a vacation out of the country, was coughing and sweating during roll call in Central Division, which patrols areas that include downtown L.A., sources said.

Story continues

The officer, according to the LAPD, was sent home once supervisors became aware of his illness. According to the sources, six officers in Central, however, have since tested positive for the virus.

The source of the infection isn't known for sure.

Police Chief Michel Moore is now sending a daily briefing to his officers on the latest on the coronavirus, and he and his commanders have planned out scenarios in which up to 30% and perhaps even half the department calls in sick. These are worst-case scenarios, and officials do not think it will get that bad.

Officers in many locations this week began switching to 12-hour shifts to bolster the number on patrol and to provide security at eight homeless shelters. The department has already transferred hundreds of detectives to patrol functions.

Moore said that in the last few weeks the department had entirely mobilized. Vacation days have been canceled, unnecessary assignments and operations have been put aside, and everyone has been assigned to concentrate on essential public safety functions.

With gatherings now limited to 10 or fewer people, the department's officers over the weekend received calls from residents about several gatherings or parties where people were crowded into small spaces.

In South L.A., a small number of officers dispersed a gathering where they found about 10 people in the frontyard and 40 to 50 people in the backyard for what was a toddler's birthday party. No arrests were made.

Crime in Los Angeles fell sharply in March as the city imposed strict new rules on residents and businesses. Violent offenses in the city dropped 14% and property crime declined 12% through March 25 compared with the same period last year, according to figures from the Los Angeles Police Department. The department had reported single-digit reductions before this month.
Michigan officially surpassed 6,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday, March 30, going from 4,650 on Saturday to 6,498 on Monday.

The increases of 1,012 cases in Mondays report set a new daily record. There are now 184 deaths reported statewide.

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However, work has already begun to combat the spread, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers creating an alternate care facility at the TCF Center in Detroit. SpartanNash also announced it will be offering free, same-day prescription delivery.

Heres a look at the most recent developments related to the coronavirus crisis.

Michigan coronavirus cases soar past 6,000. Michigan reported 6,498 total cases Monday, including 52 new deaths.

Whitmer approves $150M in coronavirus relief. Whitmer is suspending state hiring and vetoing previously-planned state spending in a budget bill as the state anticipates reduced revenues due to the economic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis.

Whitmer announces new unemployment programs during coronavirus crisis. The governor signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor to implement pandemic unemployment programs available to workers who do not qualify for state unemployment benefits. The program, created through a provision added by U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, provides temporary support for independent contractors, people who are self-employed, seasonal workers and others who can no longer work because of the pandemic.

Coronavirus testing may not matter for individual patients. But for public health, its key. Nearly three weeks into Michigans coronavirus crisis, access to lab tests for COVID-19 remains limited and problematic. Thats not an issue for most individual patients: The treatment options are largely the same for coronavirus and influenza. But from a public health standpoint, its a big concern.

Michigan officials warn against stockpiling drugs to treat COVID-19, as FDA issues emergency OK. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is pushing back against accusations that her administration was trying to block use of anti-malaria drugs for treatment of coronavirus COVID-19, a day after the federal Food and Drug Administration approved the drugs for emergency use.

GM working around the clock to reopen Kokomo plant to build ventilators. General Motors and Ventec Life Systems officials say they are working around the clock to reopen GMs Kokomo, Indiana, plant to produce ventilators in response to the COVID-19 emergency.

Michigan braces for shortage of hospital beds, health-care providers, supplies. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun said there is a growing need for more personal protection equipment, hospital beds, ventilators and qualified health care personnel. The number of confirmed cases in Michigan has dramatically grown since the first cases were discovered on March 10, and Khaldun said there are no signs that the number of new cases discovered each day will drop any time soon

Coronavirus cases in Michigans prisons double over weekend. Fifty-eight prisoners and one parolee across multiple state correctional facilities are now confirmed to have COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections on Sunday, March 29.

Two new COVID-19 deaths, 46 new cases in Washtenaw County. There are now 233 cases in Washtenaw County, the fifth most in Michigan behind Detroit, Oakland, Wayne and Macomb counties.

Four new coronavirus cases reported in Kalamazoo County. State data says no deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported in the county.

Man could face domestic terrorism charge for trying to spread coronavirus. A 26-year-old Mt. Morris man was walking around Kroger with his hands down his pants and touch and pushing shopping carts, all while saying he was infected with COVID-19.

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SpartanNash offering free, same-day prescription delivery. Starting on April 1, SpartanNash will begin offering free, same-day delivery to customers within a 10-mile radius of a store location.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer downplays tensions with Trump on CNN. The Michigan governor was sporting an Everybody vs. COVID-19 shirt and used her time on CNN to downplay any tension with the Trump administration.

Officials targeting summer 2021 for Tokyo Olympics. Athletes who qualified to compete at the 2020 Olympics will still be qualified for the event next year.

Western Michigan University student dies after contracting COVID-19. Bassey Offiong was studying chemical engineering and set to graduate in a few weeks, WMU President Edward Montgomery said in a statement.

Jackson, Hillsdale, Isabella counties report first coronavirus deaths. A 74-year-old man died at Henry Ford Allegiance Health in Jackson, according to the hospital. An elderly male from Hillsdale County with underlying health conditions died at Hillsdale Hospital, and an elderly man admitted to McLaren Central Michigan in Mount Pleasant March 21 died late Saturday night.

Two UAW members die from COVID-19 Saturday, bringing total to six. Five of the six workers who have died from the virus were based in Michigan, and the other worked in Kokomo, Indiana.

TCF Center alternate care facility to include 2 floors, 900 beds. USACE Detroit District anticipates it will take 24 to 36 hours to place a contract, at which point the TCF Center team will activate its personnel to start construction, a press release said.

Detroit auto show canceled, FEMA picks TCF Center as field hospital. The center, formerly known as Cobo Center, will be used for at least six months. Sponsors were told the show is scheduled to return in 2021.

Auto show officials disappointed but support reason for cancellation. Although we are disappointed, there is nothing more important to us than the health, safety and well-being of the citizens of Detroit and Michigan, and we will do what we can to support our communitys fight against the coronavirus outbreak, said NAIAS Executive Director Rod Alberts.

Whitmer signs executive order mandating reconnection of services. The executive order approves a $2 million Water Restart Grant Program to help communities comply with the order and ensure at-risk households have access to clean water for handwashing and sanitation, a press release said.

A look at virtual concerts in Michigan. Local Spins has started a Viral Virtual Venues listing of online, live-streamed concerts to replace MLives usual concert guide.

Detroit-area hospitals seeing tsunami of coronavirus cases. U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams Friday labeled Detroit as a hot spot for the coronavirus pandemic and said the situation there will worsen in the next week.

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Trump approves Michigan disaster declaration. President Trump approved the states request for a major disaster declaration early Saturday, the same day Gov. Whitmer announced that more federal medical supplies have already arrived in the state. The funding is now available for emergency protective measures, including direct Federal assistance, for all areas in the state of Michigan impacted by COVID-19, a statement from the White House said.

Michigan state park bathrooms, gathering spots shut down during coronavirus spread. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources closed the spots to ensure people follow social distancing guidelines when they are using the state parks trails and recreation areas.

Michigan police agencies ready for staff shortages. Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police President Robert Stevenson said hes heard from up to 20 departments that have one or more officers off duty due to the virus.

Michigan restaurants struggling to survive solely on takeout. Restaurants have closed their dining rooms and are only offering carry-out or drive-through options, and some have even found it easier just to temporarily close their doors.

Read all of MLives coverage on the coronavirus at mlive.com/coronavirus.

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops ) and when you go into places like stores.
Beware of COVID-19 scams, state A.G. warns

As North Carolinians work to stay healthy and safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, scammers are looking to take advantage of their fears.

The state attorney general's office has received information from federal partners about robocalls and text message scams offering bogus miracle cures, free at-home test kits, updates from government authorities, and home cleaning that scammers claim will reduce your risk of getting COVID-19. Some robocallers may also be offering help obtaining stimulus checks from the federal government.



"Scammers are working to take advantage of peoples fears to steal their money and personal information," Attorney General Josh Stein said. "Our office is working hard to protect consumers, and we want you to be able to avoid coronavirus scams." The best way to protect yourself is to follow these tips:

Watch out for unsolicited messages and calls. Never respond to texts or calls from unknown numbers. Take care to avoid clicking links, paying for products, or giving personal information to an untrusted solicitor. Know that government agencies will never call you to ask for personal information or money. If you want information and the updates on government efforts related to COVID-19, contact your local government office, or go directly to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services [ncdhhs.gov] or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [cdc.gov].

Be skeptical of miracle cures and testing offers. Ignore unsolicited offers for vaccinations, pharmaceuticals, and medicines that promise to cure COVID-19 or prevent you from getting the virus to begin with. Some scammers have reportedly targeted individuals who are high-risk to contract COVID-19. According to medical experts, no such cure-all product exists. Before you purchase a product or a service, check with a doctor. Remember, as all scams go  if its too good to be true  it probably is.

Dont let anyone rush you. Avoid sales offers that are only good now or never. Fears about the spread of coronavirus mean that many people are making decisions under pressure  walk away from high-pressure sales pitches or cure-all promises. You should never feel like you have to make a decision or share financial information under pressure.





"As we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, its crucial that we do so with accurate information and protect our personal information and money in the process. If a company contacts you and youre unsure of their authenticity or if you believe that you have been the victim of a scam, contact our offices Consumer Protection Division at ncdoj.gov/file-a-complaint [ncdoj.gov] or 1-877-5-NO-SCAM.
GRAND HAVEN, Mich., March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Access-Power & Co., Inc., (ACCR or the Company), a Grand Haven based diversified holding Company is pleased to announce that we have officially agreed to an INTERNATIONAL MERGER AGREEMENT between ACCR and ACCESS-POWER LLP. Below is our MERGER AGREEMENT:



Pursuant to 2019 FLORIDA STATUTE 607.1101, our MERGER AGREEMENT between Access-Power & Co., Inc., a Florida Corporation and the international company Access-Power LLP. Patrick J Jensen will cancel 10,000,000 of his shares back to the ACCR Treasury, and all of his remaining shares will remain RESTRICTED during this merger process.

This merger will place Access-Power LLP under the Florida State Senate Laws of 2019 found here:

https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2019?chapter=607

Access-Power & Co., Inc. OTC Ticker Symbol ACCR will merge and become the US Parent Holding Company with the intent to acquire 100% of all the assets of Access-Power LLP. The parent US holding Company will continue to report to the US Securities Exchange Commission and continue to trade under the ticker symbol ACCR.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us directly at 616.312.5390, or contact our merger website http://www.access-power.com.

With all the best intentions, and with all seriousness,

Sincerely yours,

Stephane and Patrick

Established in 1996, Access-Power & Co., Inc. is a Florida based for-profit Corporation with operations in West Michigan.

There are various risk factors that should be carefully considered in evaluating our business; because such factors may have a significant impact on our business, our operating results, our liquidity and financial condition. As a result of these various risk factors, actual results could differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us, or that we currently consider to be immaterial, may also impact our business, result of operations, liquidity and financial condition. If any such risks occur, our business, its operating results, liquidity and financial condition could be materially affected in an adverse manner. Under such circumstances, if a stable trading market for our securities is established, the trading price of our securities could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment.

SECURITIES ISSUED BY THE COMPANY INVOLVE A HIGH DEGREE OF RISK AND, THEREFORE, SHOULD BE CONSIDERED EXTREMELY SPECULATIVE. THEY SHOULD NOT BE PURCHASED BY PERSONS WHO CANNOT AFFORD THE POSSIBILITY OF THE LOSS OF THE ENTIRE INVESTMENT. PROSPECTIVE INVESTORS SHOULD READ ALL OF THE COMPANY'S FILINGS, INCLUDING ALL EXHIBITS, AND CAREFULLY CONSIDER, AMONG OTHER FACTORS THE VARIOUS RISK FACTORS THAT MAY BE PRESENT.

You should be aware that there are many substantial risks to an investment in our common stock. Carefully consider these risk factors, along with any available information currently reported by the Company (of which there are note), before you decide to invest in shares of our common stock.

If these risk factors were to occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations or future prospects could be materially adversely affected. If that happens, the market price for our common stock, if any, could decline, and prospective investors would likely lose all or even part of their investment.

Cautionary Language Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release may be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company or its management, identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, and projections about the Company's business, based, in part, on assumptions made by management. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may, and probably will, differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in such forward-looking statements due to numerous factors.

Contact Information:

Patrick J. Jensen

Director

Tel: 616.312.5390

Email: pjensen@myaccess-power.com

Corporate Website:

http://www.myaccess-power.com

Merger Website:

http://www.access-power.com

Access-Power, Inc.

OTC Ticker: ACCR
WOLFVILLE, NS / ACCESSWIRE / March 30, 2020 / Mountain Lake Minerals Inc. ("Mountain Lake" or the "Company") (CSE:MLK) announces that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company has delayed the release of its annual financial statements for the year ended November 30, 2019 which are due to be filed on SEDAR before the end of Monday, March 30, 2020.

Instead of filing the annual financial statements and related Management's Discussion & Analysis ("MD&A") before that deadline, the Company will be relying on the 45 day filing and delivery extension for annual financial statements and related MD&A provided by the British Columbia and Alberta Securities Commissions in their recent blanket orders. MLK expects that the annual financial statements and related MD&A will be filed on or before Thursday, April 30, 2020.

There have not been any material business developments since the Company's financial statements and MD&A for the third quarter ended August 31, 2019 other than:

The Company's management and other insiders are subject to a trading black-out that reflects the principles in section 9 of National Policy 11-207 Failure-to-File Cease Trade Orders and Revocations in Multiple Jurisdictions.

About Mountain Lake Minerals Inc.

Mountain Lake Minerals Inc. is a junior exploration company exploring for precious metal deposits. Mountain Lake's current projects are located on the island of Newfoundland.

Forward-Looking Information

This press release may include forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, concerning the business of the Company, including statement regarding the services to be provided by JCMI and the issuance of shares to JCMI. Forward-looking information is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the management of the Company, including assumptions regarding the Company continuing as a going concern and general economic and market conditions. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking information is based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. A variety of factors may impact the Company's ability to achieve the results contained in the forward-looking information, which includes the risk that the Company will be unable to satisfy the conditions in the agreement with JCMI. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. The Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, other than as required by applicable securities laws.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein in the United States. The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or any applicable securities laws or any state of the United States and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to the account or benefit of a person in the United States absent an exemption from the registration requirements.

For additional information, please contact

Paul Smith, President & CEO

Mountain Lake Minerals Inc.

Phone: (902) 698-2662 or (647) 729-0311

Email: paul.smith@mountain-lake.com

The CSE has not reviewed, approved, or disapproved the content of this press release.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

s/"Paul Smith"

President & CEO

SOURCE: Mountain Lake Minerals Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/583134/MLK-Annual-Financial-Statements-and-MDA-Filings-to-be-Delayed
Finance minister of Germany's Hesse state, Thomas Schaefer, committed suicide apparently after expressing "despair" over how to handle the economic fallout from the fast-spreading coronavirus, an official confirmed on Sunday.

IMAGE: A medical staff of general practitioners wearing protective suits watches a patient at a coronavirus disease test center at Berlin's Reinickendorf district, Germany. Photograph: Reuters

Schaefer, 54, was found dead near a railway track at Hochheim, near Frankfurt on Saturday.

The Wiesbaden prosecution's office said they believe he died by suicide, Al Jazeera reported.

"We are in shock, we are in disbelief and above all we are immensely sad," State governor Volker Bouffier said in a recorded statement.

Police and prosecutors said factors, including the questioning of witnesses and their own observations at the scene, led them to conclude that Schaefer killed himself.

Hesse is home to Germany's financial capital Frankfurt, where major lenders such as Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank have their headquarters.

The European Central Bank is also located in Frankfurt.

A visibly shaken Bouffier recalled that Schaefer, who was Hesse's finance chief for 10 years, had been working "day and night" to help companies and workers deal with the economic impact of the pandemic.

"Today we have to assume that he was deeply worried," said Bouffier, who is also a close ally to Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"It's precisely during this difficult time that we would have needed someone like him," he added.

Schaefer belonged to Merkel's centre-right CDU party and is survived by his wife and two children.

The killer bug has so far infected over 60,000 people in Germany while nearly 600 have succumbed to the contagious infection.
In a move that has shocked everyone, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry have left Canada amid the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and moved their lives permanently to Los Angeles. Though there have been whispers for some time that the Sussexes were eyeing LA for a summer stay, no one knew that America would be their final stop.

At present, the duo are self-isolating with their son Archie Harrison in a compound near Hollywood. However, like the rest of the country, they have not been outside since they are practicing quarantining and social distancing. The royal couples move came just before the borders between Canada and the United States were closed. They were able to obtain a private jet last minute for their move.

Now that they have landed in LA, so far away from the bubble of the British royal family, they are bound to face some interesting obstacles as life returns to normal in the near future, including the paparazzi and a new spotlight on their lives. In fact, President Donald Trump has demanded that they pay for their own security.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have chosen LA as their home base for several reasons

LA is the Duchess of Sussexes hometown. However, prior to marrying Prince Harry, the former actress was living in Toronto, Canada where she filmed her hit series, Suits. Now, this move to LA is a way to bring her new star-power to Hollywood while being closer to her mom, Doria Ragland.

Harry and Meghan have left Canada now for good, an alleged source told The Sun. The borders were closing and flights were stopping. They had to get out. But this move was planned for some time. They realized Canada would not work out for various reasons and they want to be based in the Los Angeles area. They have a big support network there. Its where their new team of Hollywood agents and PRs and business managers are based. Meghan has lots of friends there and, of course, her mum Doria.

Once the social distancing and isolation bands are lifted it should be interesting to see how the duke and duchess adjust to being at the center of things.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are going to need extensive security

The Sussexes are going to need extensive security for the rest of their lives. Their team consists of 15-highly trained and armed guards who are on duty 24 hours a day. Though things were relatively low-key for the Sussexes in Canada, thats undoubtedly going to change in LA.

They will get photographed and there will be a different photographer working on him, a British photographer told Yahoo U.K. There are a lot photographers in LA daily, up to 100. In London, there is only a handful each day. In the UK, we are not allowed to follow them, doorstep them, we work off our leads, our information. We work out where they could be based on their engagements. LA paparazzi dont play by the rules, they will follow them, they are considered fair game. Meghan is an actress, they are in a weird limbo, they have protection and they are trying to make money. They are going to get photographed a lot more and there is not much they can do.

A spokesperson for Harry and Meghan has just told us that The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have no plans to ask the U.S. government for security resources. Privately funded security arrangements have been made.  Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) March 29, 2020

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will pay for their own security

Upon learning that the Sussexes had relocated to LA, President Donald Trump declared that the U.S. would not be footing the bill for their security. The royal pair have since responded.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have no plans to ask the U.S. government for security resources, a spokesperson for the Sussexes explained. Privately funded security arrangements have been made.

This should be an interesting ride.
KIGALI  Rwandas Ministry of Health has confirmed new 10 people positive for the novel coronavirus bringing the total tally to 70 as of Sunday, March 29.

The new cases include 6 travelers who had arrived in the country from Dubai, UAE, 2 from South Africa, one traveler from Nigeria as well as a frequent in the East African Region.

All patients had been in isolation.

The Ministry of Health said that all 70 patients are in stable condition, and that most of them are without any signs or symptoms of the ailment.

Tracing and tracking of anyone who might have come across any of the 70 patients have also been conducted for further management.

All patients are recovering from a dedicated facility established in the premises of Kanyinya Health Centre in Nyarugenge District.

Health experts have allayed fear among Rwandans on the rising number of confirmed cases saying that it is proof of the effectiveness of the efforts to track, trace and test suspected cases.

Rising numbers among those in isolation, experts say, indicates that the tracking and tracing efforts have been productive and reduce the chances of community transmission of the ailment.

The ministry called for heightened vigilance among Rwandans, and rigorous observance of the enhanced prevention measures announced by the government of Rwanda

Related
Napa County health officials have confirmed two additional COVID-19 coronavirus cases Sunday night, making a total of four news cases Sunday and 14 cases in the county overall.

The two newest cases are in the city of Napa, and in the same household. Isolation and quarantine orders have been issued.

The two cases reported earlier Sunday are not connected. One had exposure related to foreign travel, and the other is from exposure to a previously confirmed case.

Napa County announced its first two confirmed coronavirus cases on March 22. Until then, Napa County had been the last Bay Area county to report a confirmed coronavirus case.

Regular Caltrain weekday service is set to resume Monday morning as the second weekend of this phase of work to prepare the route for electrified trains is scheduled to finish by 4 a.m. Monday.

Having started Feb. 22 and running through March 29, Caltrain is planning for weekend work on the four train tunnels in San Francisco to pave the way for Caltrain's electrification, as well as to perform standard track repairs.

To accommodate the new electric trains by 2022, Caltrain crews will install the "catenary" system, the overhead wires from which the electric locomotives will draw power.

During work weekends, SamTrans will provide free bus service to connect Caltrain riders traveling between the San Francisco downtown station, the 22nd Street station and the Bayshore station.

Caltrain's electrification is scheduled to be operational by 2022.

The California Highway Patrol said that a motorcyclist was killed Sunday when, after he laid his motorcycle down in the northbound lanes of Interstate Highway 680, he was hit by another vehicle in the middle of the freeway.

The accident was reported at 8:13 p.m. Sunday, and happened on I-680 just north of the El Pintado Road onramp. The motorcycle rider, who was driving a red 2004 Honda CBR motorcycle was pronounced dead at the scene. The victim's name was not available late Sunday night.

The driver of the vehicle the struck the motorcyclist remained on scene and was fully cooperative throughout the investigation. Other witnesses also remained on scene to help investigators.

Lisa Mills is a nurse, and she said she knows the value of motivation and support.

So in the spirit of community efforts including Mill Valley's nightly "howl" in support of medical workers, and the nightly singing of homebound Italians who nonetheless raise their voices for medical personnel changing shifts nearby, Mills organized a sort of drive-by Sunday serenade as a boost for the essential workers. It was sort of a combination of the Howl and the Sunday drive-by of about a dozen Morello Park Elementary School teachers through their students' Martinez neighborhoods, waving to the kids out the windows.

Mills mobilized participants via the Martinez Rants and Raves Facebook page, and asked that all drivers play Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" on car radios or boom-boxes.

A caravan of about 20 vehicles departed the Alhambra High School parking lot on Alhambra Avenue and hit the lightly trafficked streets at about 6:20 p.m. Sunday, with emergency blinkers blinking, windows open and "Don't Stop Believin'" coming out of virtually all the windows. The procession headed north past a Contra Costa County Fire Protection District station, the Martinez Police Department station, and through downtown before heading back south.

At least one person was killed Sunday night in an accident involving at least three vehicles - one of them a motorcycle - on Vasco Road north of Livermore in unincorporated Alameda County, the California Highway Patrol said.

The crash took place about 9 p.m. Sunday on northbound Vasco Road just south of the access road to the Vasco Road landfill about three miles north of Interstate Highway 580, the CHP said.

No other information about any other injuries was immediately available Sunday night. As of 10 p.m., the road remained closed in both directions at the accident scene. Vasco was blocked off at Dalton Avenue on Livermore's north edge.

The Alameda County Public Defender has condemned actions taken Saturday by the Judicial Council of California he views as dramatically restricting speedy trial rights in California during and after the COVID-19 coronavirus emergency.

During a special emergency meeting Saturday, the Judicial Council of California unanimously voted to approve temporary emergency measures to continue "essential court services," such as protecting the rights and needs of the accused in a safe way while guarding the health and safety of the public, court employees, attorneys, litigants, judicial officers, law enforcement, and staff and inmates in detention facilities during a time when many courts are closed in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The specific measures include extending the 10-court-day period for holding a preliminary hearing and the defendant's right of release to 30 court days; extending the time period in which a defendant charged with a felony offense shall be taken before a judicial officer from 48 hours to not more than seven days; extending the time period for holding a criminal trial by more than 30 days; and extending the time period to bring an action to trial by more than 30 days.

A blown transformer created a power outage in Scotts Valley Sunday night, and it affected police department telephones and radio dispatching system for a time, police said.

PG&E said the outage, reported about 7:55 p.m. Sunday, affected about 1,700 customers, but customers were restored less than an hour later.

Scotts Valley police officers worked with neighboring agencies to ensure police protection wasn't disrupted, but a generator was put into service and normal police operations resumed quickly.

Monday will be mostly cloudy in the morning, then becoming partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers in the afternoon. Highs will be near 60. Southwest winds will be 5 to 15 mph.

Monday night will be mostly cloudy. Lows will be in the lower 50s. West winds will be 5 to 15 mph.

Tuesday will be mostly cloudy in the morning, then becoming partly cloudy. Highs will be near 60. West winds will be 5 to 10 mph, increasing to 10 to 20 mph in the afternoon.

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Yoga guru Ramdev said on Monday he will donate Rs 25 crore to the PM's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund), which has been set up to fight the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Also, all employees of his Patanjali and Ruchi Soya will donate their one-day salary, collectively amounting to Rs 1.5 crore, to the PM CARES fund, he said



The yoga guru said he will also give the premises of two of his institutions in Haridwar and his ashrams in Kolkata, Modinagar (Uttar Pradesh) and Solan (Himachal Pradesh) for the treatment of coronavirus patients.

About 1,500 suspects can be kept in isolation at these facilities together, he said.

Food will be provided by Patanjali at these places, he said.

Ramdev also appealed to his followers to contribute generously to the PM CARES fund to fight against coronavirus.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, have explored the relationship between parental alcohol consumption -- before conception in the case of fathers and during pregnancy in the case of mothers -- and offspring development.

In a paper published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, the researchers report that when alcohol-exposed male mice mated with alcohol-naive females, the offspring displayed significant deficits in brain development. Specifically, the neocortex, the most complex part of the mammalian brain responsible for complex cognitive and behavioral function, had patterning deficits where abnormal gene expression led to miswiring of connections. Although neither these mice nor their mothers had ever been exposed to alcohol, their brains showed changes consistent with a mouse model of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, or FASD.

"People have known about the dangers of maternal drinking during pregnancy for years; however, the safety of paternal drinking while trying to conceive has barely been considered," said Kelly Huffman, an associate professor of psychology who led the study and whose lab generated the FASD mouse model. "Our research shows that fathers' exposure to alcohol leading up to conception can have deleterious effects on the child's brain and behavioral development."

In a second paper, published in Neuropharmacology, Huffman's team reports that when female mice were given choline, an essential nutrient, along with alcohol during their pregnancies, the negative outcomes associated with prenatal alcohol exposure, such as smaller body weight, brain weight, and abnormalities in the anatomy of the neocortex, were reduced in the offspring. This suggests choline supplementation could prevent the adverse outcomes associated with prenatal alcohol exposure.

"Our work shows that prenatal choline supplementation, when administered at the time of prenatal alcohol exposure, improves abnormal brain and behavioral development in offspring," Huffman said. "It rescues some of the phenotypes associated with FASD."

Sins of the father

In the first study, male mice consumed alcohol for approximately two-three weeks before mating with alcohol-naive females. Huffman's team found this preconceptual paternal alcohol exposure altered neocortical gene expression and connectivity in their offspring. The offspring also demonstrated atypical features such as increased anxiety or hyperactivity and reduced motor function, consistent with some documented behavior patterns of children born to alcoholic fathers.

"Fathers who consistently consume moderate to high amounts of alcohol leading up to conception may negatively impact offspring development due to the exposure to the paternal sperm," Huffman said. "In our previous study, we described how the paternal germ line specifically can transmit heritable changes through multiple generations after a single prenatal alcohol exposure. Clearly, the paternal environment before conception is critical for healthy offspring development."

Additionally, the team found male offspring generally seem to be more adversely affected than female offspring by paternal alcohol exposure in terms of increased hyperactivity, impaired coordination, and impaired short-term motor learning abilities.

The study is the first to examine the effects of preconceptual paternal alcohol exposure on the gross anatomical development of the neocortex, including genetic patterning and circuit development, coupled with extensive behavioral analyses in the affected offspring. Huffman's team plans to extend the mouse study to investigate whether the effects of paternal alcohol consumption on the offspring are transmitted to subsequent generations.

Huffman was joined in the research by graduate students Kathleen E. Conner and Riley T. Bottom.

Nutrient to the rescue

Depending on maternal age, up to 18% of pregnant women in the United States report alcohol consumption during their pregnancies. Gestational or prenatal alcohol exposure can produce problematic deficits in offspring. In mice, prenatal alcohol exposure, via maternal drinking, results in gross developmental abnormalities, including decreased body weight, brain weight, and brain size. Also, the exposure causes profound abnormalities in the patterning of an infant's neocortex and the resulting circuitry, or connections, necessary for precise function.

In the second study, Huffman's team exposed pregnant mice to 25% alcohol, the usual dose for the FASD model, as well as about 640 milligrams per liter of choline chloride supplement throughout the pregnancy. Her team's goal was to test potential rescue effects of choline supplementation on abnormal neocortical and behavioral development induced by prenatal alcohol exposure.

Choline, a vitamin-like essential nutrient, is a methyl group donor and is crucial for proper brain development as it generates the methyl group that attaches to DNA and affects gene expression. Given the transgenerational effects of prenatal alcohol consumption discovered by the Huffman lab, Huffman's team believed co-administration of choline with alcohol could mitigate the deleterious effects of the exposure.

"Our findings suggest that providing methyl group donors, such as choline, to alcoholic women during pregnancy could be effective in reducing the extent of the damage that prenatal alcohol exposure can cause," said Bottom, the first author of the research paper. "This could possibly reduce the multigenerational transmission of FASD in our prenatal alcohol exposure model."

Huffman and Bottom were joined in the study by Charles W. Abbott III, a former graduate student in Huffman's lab. This work is a major component of Bottom's dissertation research.

###

The study was supported by a grant to Huffman from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to Bottom.

The University of California, Riverside (http://www.ucr.edu) is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment is more than 24,000 students. The campus opened a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of almost $2 billion. To learn more, email news@ucr.edu.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-31 01:01:13|Editor: huaxia

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BERLIN, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The center for cultural and creative industries in Germany said on Monday the cultural sector could lose up to 28 billion euros (31 billion U.S. dollars) as a result of the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Many creative professionals are facing economic ruin due to the widespread cancellation of events and commissions without substitution," the center warned.

In a mild scenario, total losses for Germany's cultural and creative industry would only amount to 9.5 billion euros, while a medium scenario would yield a loss of 14.7 billion euros.

The center said that the exact course of the situation and how long the sub-sectors of the cultural and creative industries in Germany would be affected by sales losses would have to be reassessed constantly.

The figures would be "dramatic" in view of the fact "that the sales losses are not evenly distributed over the year, but occur currently and within the next three to four months."

In the music industry, the center is expecting losses of up to 5.1 billion euros, which would be 59 percent of the annual sales. In the film industry, up to 71 percent, or 7.2 billion euros of turnover could be lost.

Self-employed and companies from the art market and the performing arts in Germany were expected to be hit hardest, losing 75 percent of their annual revenues because of COVID-19.

"The coronavirus pandemic is unique in the history of Germany in terms of its impact on society and the economy," the center noted.

"Particularly in times of crisis," however, it would become "evident" that the cultural and creative industries in Germany were using "creative methods to contribute to solutions for key issues of the future, including education, digitization and sustainable development." Enditem
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While many fear that simply visiting a hospital might put them at risk of contracting the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), American Tandy Nathan Jackson is among the few who have risked exposure to donate blood amid a nationwide shortage.

Blood shortage is common in Vietnam during the first few weeks following the Lunar New Year holiday, or Tet, but this year that dearth has extended for months because many fear visiting the hospital to donate is risky business in light of the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic.

The blood bank at the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion in Hanoi is petering out as the institute approaches nearly two months of averaging less than 100 daily donations.

Spooked off by the risk of coming in contact with medical workers or patients who have been exposed to COVID-19, few have been willing to donate blood and dozens of companies and organizations who had scheduled blood drives have canceled them.

Even the institute, despite fears the blood bank will soon dry up, has opted to postpone several of its own drives planned for locations throughout Hanoi in order to comply with restrictions on social gatherings currently being enforced throughout the country.

Serious shortage

At the end of January, as many Vietnamese were winding down their Tet holiday and Vietnam was dealing with just 16 COVID-19 infections, the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusions reserves were already running low.

Even reserves of type-O blood, the most common blood group in Vietnam, seemed to be nearing their last drops.

The institute collected just 500 donations in the first two weeks following the holiday, a frighteningly low number compared to its typical daily average of 1,200 donations.

A nationwide blood drive held about a month after the holiday garnered over 1,000 donations during each day of the event and campaigns held by dozens of companies and organizations helped give the blood bank a boost, but levels have since dropped to an all-time low.

During that time, medical staff themselves donated blood, accounting for more than 5,000 units, while other individuals have accounted for 9,000 donated units. Each unit is equal to 250 milimeters of blood.

These individual donations account for just one-fifteenth of the demand, according to Le Thanh Hang, a public relations associate with the institute.

This donation boom came to an abrupt end in early March when Hanoi announced the countrys 17th confirmed infection.

Shortly after, three businesses and organizations canceled planned blood drives and dozens of others followed suit, Hang said.

Right now were surviving off just 70 donations each day when we really need 1,500 to meet the daily needs of our 170 hospitals. Yesterday we saw an uptick, with nearly 200 donations given, Hang said, adding that the institutes reserves often hover around 6,000 units, compared to its normal average of 9,000 units.

Without a massive spike in donations, Hang said, the institute would run out of blood in just ten days.

The institute's blood donation ward, which typically has seating for 20, now holds just six empty reclining chairs, each placed a meter apart to ensure social distancing and limit the possibility that a COVID-19 positive patient might unknowingly spread the virus.

Unfortunately, this precaution does not seem to be doing much to quell fears.

Empty reclining chairs in the admission room of the Hanoi-based National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion are seen in this provided photo.

Blood amid fears

Among the 24 cities and provinces nationwide with confirmed COVID-19 patients, Hanoi is currently Vietnams epicenter with 73 cases having been confirmed as of Monday.

Although blood donation centers are carrying out preventive measures such as sanitization, mandatory health declarations, and physical distancing, many still fear just visiting the centers makes them a sitting duck for the disease.

Others, however, are willing to take that risk in the hope that their blood can save lives.

Among them is Tandy Nathan Jackson, an American national who moved to Hanoi three years ago to work as an English teacher.

With all foreign language schools and colleges closed since January, the English teacher has decided to use some of his free time to donate blood.

His visit to the hematology facility is an energetic answer to an appeal for expats in Vietnam to donate blood.

I want to do something for your country, said Jackson, whose mother works as a nurse in the U.S., adding that he had regularly donated blood in his home country.

Jacksons sentiment is one shared by all those still willing to donate their precious blood.

Son, a 58-year-old resident of Ba Dinh District, shared that her heart sinks at the sight of the many desperate parents who rent rooms near the National Pediatrics Hospital while they await life-saving transfusions for their young children suffering serious blood diseases.

I really hope my blood can help save someones life, particularly during such a difficult time, she said.

Lanh Van Dong is one of the many people who benefit from these donations.

Dong has Thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder that causes the body to make an abnormal form or an inadequate amount of hemoglobin which can lead to bone deformities.

Dong was just five when he was diagnosed with the disease and has visited hematology facilities on a monthly basis for the past 27 years. At 32, the man could pass for a fifth-grader.

Hoang Thi Loan and her husband also depend on blood donations for their son, a seven-year-old who was diagnosed with Thalassemia six years ago.

The couple left their rice paddies in Nam Dinh Province, 95 kilometers from Hanoi, to be nearer to a blood transfusion center.

Now, the couple is concerned that there might not be enough blood to give their son the treatment he desperately needs.

Hoang Thi Loan (right) with her son, a seven-year-old suffering form Thalassemia, at the Hanoi-based National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion. Photo: Vu Tuan / Tuoi Tre

Seventy scheduled donation registrations of approximately 12,000 units have been postponed since March 7, Bach Quoc Khanh, head of the National Institute of Hematology and Blood, confirmed.

The facility is working hard to ensure absolute safety for blood donors, recipients, and medical workers while calling for donations to keep supply up with demand.

The novel coronavirus, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has infected over 721,300 and killed nearly 34,000 globally as of Monday, according to Ministry of Health statistics.

Vietnam has confirmed 194 COVID-19 cases, with 25 having already been discharged from the hospital.

No fatalities related to the disease have been recorded in the country.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) Sunday denied reports of deploying troops to Kumasi, saying it does not also intend to do so.



Its role in the Operation COVID-19 Safety, it said, was also not to intimidate citizens but to provide security to them.



A statement signed by Colonel E. Aggrey-Quashie, the Director-General of the Public Affairs Directorate said video, which has gone viral on social media platforms and reported by a television network that some troops had arrived at Kumasi to enforce the stay at home measure against the spread of COVID-19 was doctored.



The fact is that the video showed troops who had completed the market disinfection exercise in Accra on Monday March 23, 2020, five clear days before the announcement of the partial lockdown was made, it stated.



The task of the Ghana Armed Forces is to provide security for the citizenry and not to intimidate anyone.



The imputed threatening statement has been found to have been deliberately doctored.



The threatening words attributed to the troops, are, therefore totally untrue and only deliberately staged with obvious intent.



In broadcasting the report, the GAF said the network could have verified the authenticity of the information with it, adding that the failure to do so had created fear and anxiety among the populace and the people of Kumasi and its environs, in particular.



The resulting negative image for GAF, the statement said, could therefore not be over-emphasised.

It urged the public to disregard the report in its entirety and trust in the GAF as a Force for good.



We accordingly demand a retraction and an unqualified apology to the GAF from your renowned station...; we trust in your usual sense of fairness and cooperation.

Source: GNA









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Featured Video
Opinion Article

30 March 2020

The Young Hoteliers Summit (YHS) returns with the 2020 edition of the Employer Rankings Survey. This year, the survey has collated 1,150 responses from students and alumni of over 270 universities around the world. The survey's findings are summarized in the Employer Rankings Report which focuses on understanding the underlying factors affecting employee motivation in the context of retention, training and development, empowerment and career aspirations.

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Download the Full 2020 YHS Employer Rankings Report Now

Key Takeaways

Training & Development Programs

78% of alumni respondents agree that improvements should be made in their current Training & Development program and that companies need to encourage more cross-departmental training.

Related to this finding, 14% of these same respondents perceive the outcomes of the training received as not useful in other work contexts, showing that what was learned is not transferable and sometimes overly specific to the company.

Recommendation:

Training & Development programs should focus on imparting skills and knowledge applicable in other work contexts as well as in other departments within the company (cross-departmental training).

Employee Empowerment

According to the survey's findings, employee empowerment means being allowed to be creative when dealing with a work-related problem, being given authority, flexibility and being encouraged to handle problems on one's own.

Interestingly, not needing approval from managers to handle a problem is not necessarily perceived as a means of employee empowerment. 22% of alumni respondents feel empowered even if they require their manager's approval to handle a work-related problem.

Recommendation:

To foster employee empowerment in an organization, employers should empower employees by giving them the autonomy to deal with work-related problems in a creative and flexible way whilst having their managers' support.

Influence of internship experience on career decisions

20% of the respondents do not wish to work/are currently not working in the same industry as their most recent internship. Also, 39% of the respondents stated that their internship experience has affected their intention to enter the profession. The top three reasons that have impacted their decisions are a)repetitive work, b) not wanting to be in the same industry for the long term, c) the gap between expectation and reality.

Recommendation:

Hospitality companies should effectively structure internship programs by better aligning the program's objectives with both the organization's requirements and interns' expectations. For example, it would be advisable to first understand mutual needs and expectations, provide meaningful tasks and conduct periodic assessments.

Brand Rankings

In the Luxury and Upper Upscale segment, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts ranks first followed by The Ritz-Carlton and Marriott Hotels & Resorts.

Four Seasons has ranked first for two consecutive years and the same three brands have been in the top 3 since 2019.

Photo: EHL

Among the top 10 desired employers to work for, 4 hotel brands belong to Marriott International (Ritz-Carlton, Marriott Hotels and Resorts, Bulgari Hotels and W Hotels). This could be explained by its wide scope of brands and possible job opportunities, since it is the largest hotel chain in the world.

In the Upscale and Upper Midscale segment, 42% of respondents ranked Hyatt Place as their most desired employer to work for.

Movenpick, Novotel Hotels, Courtyard by Marriott and Wyndham Hotels are first-timers on the top 10 list.

Photo: EHL

In the Midscale and Economy segment, Ibis Hotels has once again returned as the most preferred employer to work for since 2018.

Accor dominates this segment with two of its brands in the top three.

Photo: EHL

About the Young Hoteliers Summit (YHS)

Founded in 2010, YHS has since established itself as the largest student-run hospitality summit in the world. Every year, YHS welcomes over 30 industry professionals along with students from more than 40 of the world's leading hospitality institutions to engage in insightful debates and discussions on the industry's hottest topics.

The YHS Employer Rankings is an integral component towards achieving the mission of YHS, which is to improve opportunities for young talent by putting global hotel companies in the spotlight. Since 2010, hospitality students worldwide have been asked to give their perceptions of the employment landscape in the industry.
Stocks were poised to extend losses Monday as the coronavirus pandemic deepened over the weekend, with the U.S. death total escalating.

On Sunday evening, futures for the Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 300 points, signaling another volatile week on Wall Street after it tumbled more than 900 points on Friday. Standard & Poors 500 futures lost 1.5%.

President Donald Trump late Sunday extended the national social distancing guidelines to April 30 as U.S. fatalities from the pandemic climbed above 2,300. The announcement comes after Trump said last week he hoped to open up the country by Easter. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, projected between 100,000 and 200,000 people could die from the virus.

The stock market has shed more than 20% since touching records just over a month ago. Despite Friday's losses, the Dow still notched its biggest weekly gain since 1938, helped by promises from Congress and the Federal Reserve to provide aid for the economy and markets. But analysts caution that the recent rally could fade until theres a long-term solution to fight coronavirus infections.

Volatility will likely persist, says Rusty Vanneman, chief investment officer at Orion Advisor Solutions. Its a race against the clock right now. Hopefully, we can get some positive data on the infection rates peaking in the next few weeks.

What we know: How the $2T coronavirus stimulus will affect you and the economy

Contact your mortgage lender: Payments may be deferred as coronavirus pandemic causes worker hardships

Trader Vincent Napolitano works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, March 2, 2020.

Investors are looking for the number of infections to slow before markets can find a bottom, analysts say. Last week, the U.S. topped China as the global leader in virus cases.

Investors want to see the curve of virus cases flatten, says Michael Lackwood, founding principal of New York-based Spring Delta Asset Management. Thats what will inspire people and get businesses back to work, which will help the economy restart again.

Story continues

More than 710,000 people are known to have been infected with the virus globally, and more than 33,000 have died. The U.S. counted more than 136,000 cases of coronavirus by Sunday afternoon, the world's highest total, and there were nearly 2,400 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University data dashboard. More confirmations are expected as the U.S. continues to ramp up testing for the virus.

On Friday, Trump signed an unprecedented $2.2 trillion economic rescue package into law to support companies and help struggling families.

In commodities, U.S. crude slid below $20 a barrel Sunday evening for the first time since 2002 amid weakening global demand due to the pandemic and the Saudi Arabia-Russia oil price war.

U.S. crude prices shed 7% to $19.99 a barrel. Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell 5.6% to $23.54 a barrel.

Looking ahead, investors will monitor jobs and manufacturing data this week for further signs on how the pandemic has affected the U.S. economy. The March jobs report is set to be released Friday.

The Institute for Supply Management, meanwhile, will release its March manufacturing survey on Wednesday, which could provide clues into how supply chain disruptions have impacted factory activity.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dow: Stock futures set to extend losses as coronavirus deaths climb
Bridgeport Fire Department photo

BRIDGEPORT - Five people escaped unharmed after a fire tore through a building in the 1000th block of Stratford Avenue early Sunday morning.

Scott Appleby, director of the Office of Emergency Management & Emergency Communications, said the call came in at 3:51 a.m.
The battle between French activist investment fund CIAM and SCOR, which has been waging for more than a year, heated up again recently with yet another push by CIAM to separate the chairman and CEO roles, both held by Denis Kessler.

Luxembourg-domiciled CIAM began its campaign against SCOR in early 2019 after the reinsurer rebuffed a 8.5 billion (US$ 9.5 billion) takeover bid in 2018 from French mutual insurer Covea.

SCORs hostile reaction towards its largest shareholder Covea (which at the time held a 10% stake) were not appropriate and highlighted problems with the companys oversight practices, said CIAM in a presentation provided to shareholders at SCORs annual general meeting in April 2019.

Additional CIAM complaints  then as now  center on separating the chairman and CEO roles, which would it said would help enhance governance, as well as an aim to resolve a poorly drafted pay policy that continues to lavishly reward Kessler. CIAM, which holds about 1% of SCORs share capital, tried and failed last year to get shareholders to remove Kessler from the board.

In a letter to shareholders, sent on March 24, 2020, CIAM said, although Kesslers base salary has been kept at the same level for several years, his generous pension benefits has led SCOR to provision 24.7 million [US$27.5 million], based on his reference compensation.

[O]nly cosmetic changes have been made to the executive pay policy despite nearly half of the shareholders opposing SCORs policy last year, added CIAM. As a result, CIAM has called for a shareholders vote against the approval of Kesslers renumeration. (SCOR announced it would postpone its annual general meeting from April 17 to June 30, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 crisis).

CIAM also wants shareholders to vote against the renewal of Augustin de Romanet as a director who chairs SCORs Compensation and Nomination Committee. Kessler and de Romanet have a long friendship, said CIAM, which it said is a potential contributing factor to the lack of responsiveness of the compensation committee to consider shareholder concerns about Kesslers remuneration.

While CIAM said it welcomes SCORs minor step of disclosing that it may consider the separation of the chair/CEO roles in 2021, it reminded shareholders that Kessler, who has been CEO and chairman for 18 years, will be 69 when his mandate as director ends next year.

SCORs bylaws require that both the CEO and/or the chairman resign at the AGM following reaching the age of 70, said CIAM.

As a result, CIAMs shareholder letter requested that SCOR disclose further information on its succession plan and confirm that it would appoint an independent chair.

An independent chairman eliminates the conflict of interest that inevitably occurs when a CEO is responsible for self-oversight, CIAM said in its April 2019 presentation at the AGM.

SCORs Response

CIAM puts forward once again seriously unfounded, inaccurate and misleading statements with the purpose of destabilizing SCOR, said a note from SCOR issued on March 25 in response to CIAMs shareholder letter..

CIAM invested in SCOR immediately after Covea published a press release on Sept. 4, 2018 disclosing its unsolicited proposed combination with the SCOR Group, which SCOR said shows that CIAMs investment is speculative and short-term.

CIAM has made public several letters, dated Sept. 17, 2018, Sept. 26, 2018, Jan. 31, 2019 and Feb. 6, 2019, which criticize the governance of the SCOR Group in a seriously unfounded, inaccurate and misleading manner, said the reinsurer.

SCOR said its board of directors has unanimously decided to reiterate its full support for Denis Kessler and Augustin de Romanet and to recommend the shareholders of SCOR vote against the draft resolution presented by CIAM, proposed in its March 24 letter.

The board has also acknowledged that the dismissal of Denis Kessler as director would also entail the termination of his office as chief executive officer, with all the foreseeable consequences on the stability and management of the group.

SCOR then went on to detail the reasons why the statements made by CIAM in support of its draft resolution and its call for a vote are seriously unfounded, inaccurate and misleading.

Some of the reinsurers arguments follow:

1) CIAM states that the evolution of SCORs share market price appears poor compared to its peers. SCOR said the facts prove otherwise:

A total return for SCOR shareholders, with dividends reinvested, has reached 301% over the past 10 years.

Since the launch of its most recent strategic plan, Vision in Action, in September 2016, SCOR has outperformed all its main Tier 1 reinsurance competitors, with its share market price having increased by 42.4%.

During 2018, SCOR paid 312 million in dividends and completed share buy-backs for an amount of 194 million, which represents in aggregate more than 500 million paid to its shareholders within a year.

2) CIAM states that it is necessary for the board to be chaired by a chairman free from any conflicts of interest and that corporate governance specialists recommend separating the functions of chairman and chief executive officer. Once again, SCOR said the facts prove otherwise:

The board of directors of SCOR considers that the governance model with a combined chairman and CEO has in particular allowed SCOR to benefit from efficient decision-making process and a strategic alignment of its governance bodies, said SCOR.. This analysis is fully shared by a vast majority of the shareholders of SCOR, which, on April 27, 2017, renewed the office of Denis Kessler as director for a term of four years with 80.60% of favorable votes.

SCORs governance model is in line with French corporate governance practices.

The French corporate governance code requires the board of directors appoint a lead independent director with broad powers, which is being performed by Augustin de Romanet.

3) CIAM mentions inappropriate review of Coveas unsolicited proposal. Contrary to what CIAM alleges, the board of directors of SCOR exercised the utmost diligence and reviewed in detail all the terms and conditions of Coveas unsolicited proposal dated August 24, 2018, said SCOR. These activities included a consultation with the Strategic Committee, a session of non-executive directors, convened on Aug. 30, 2018 to review the proposal, as well as advice from two banks and two law firms.

With the help of the consultation it had received, the board of directors on Aug. 30, 2018 unanimously decided to refuse to initiate discussions with Covea regarding its unsolicited proposal, said SCOR. Such proposal would have  jeopardized the business model of SCOR which creates value for all its shareholders, and in particular its independence, which is a key factor of the performance and financial flexibility of SCOR.

4) CIAM alleges unprecedented aggressiveness deployed by [Kessler] against Covea for it to withdraw its proposed offer. In part, SCOR explained that Thierry Derez, chairman and CEO of Covea, was also a director of SCOR. As Covea was pursuing a hostile takeover of SCOR, his presence on the board was considered to be a conflict of interest. After nearly a three month process, Derez was forced to resign from the board in November 2018.

5) Responding to CIAMs complaint of Kesslers excessive remuneration SCOR said, the remuneration of Kessler, which is transparent, was approved by at the general shareholders meeting held on April 26, 2018 by 87.92% (ex ante or before the event) and 78.79% (ex post or after the event) of shareholders. [At the 2019 shareholders meeting, CIAM said, only circa 55% of participating shareholders supported the remuneration policy]. SCOR continued with its response, saying:

The methods used to determine the remuneration of Kessler strictly comply with applicable laws and the best corporate governance practices. Further, the Compensation and Nomination Committee consists of independent directors and a director representing the employees. It is then validated by the board of directors, without Kesslers participation, before being submitted to the vote of the shareholders during the general shareholders meeting.

A benchmark conducted by the firm Mercer in 2018 at the request of the Compensation and Nomination Committee concludes that the global remuneration of the chairman and CEO of SCOR (including all types of remuneration) is aligned with market practice and amounted to 104% of the median within a list of peers, including major global reinsurers in 2017.

Since Kesslers appointment in November 2002, the turnover has been multiplied by six, reaching 15.3 billion; the balance sheet totals have risen from 13.5 billion in 2004 to 44.4 billion by the end of 2018, and more than 2.7 billion in dividends have been paid since 2005.

Related:

Topics Reinsurance
The latest projections on coronavirus in the US were so alarming, there was virtually no choice but to extend social distancing guidelines, two of the nation's top infectious disease experts said.

Federal guidelines originally scheduled to end this week have now been extended to April 30.

That means all Americans should avoid groups of 10 or more people, avoid discretionary travel, and consider canceling all social visits in homes. Older residents should stay home.

But even with continued social distancing, "I wouldn't be surprised if we saw 100,000 deaths," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"It was patently obvious, looking at the data ... if we try to push back (on social distancing) prematurely, not only do we lose lives, but it probably would even hurt the economy," he said.

"So you would lose on double accounts. So to us, it was no question what the right choice was."

More than 143,000 people in the US have been infected with coronavirus, and more than 2,400 have died. And it's only been two months since this coronavirus was first detected in the US.

How well Americans obey social distancing could make the difference between 100,000 and millions of deaths, said Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus response coordinator.

"If we do things together well, almost perfectly, we could get in the range of 100,000 to 200,000 fatalities," Birx told NBC's "Today" show Monday. "We don't even want to see that."

Birx said the worst-case projections show "between 1.6 million and 2.2 million deaths if you do nothing" and disregard social distancing guidelines.

'Those are tinders that can turn into big fires'

While the death toll from coronavirus in New York state topped 1,000, it's not just hotspots that need to watch out.

Places with few cases can also steer the direction of this outbreak, Fauci said.

"If you just look at those (places) and say, 'There are very little infections in this area or that area, we don't have to worry about it,' you're making a big mistake. Because those are tinders that can turn into big fires."

"You've got to look at those other areas and make sure you very vigorously identify, test ... get individuals who you take out of society because they're isolated, and do contact tracing," he said.

'There is not enough of anything'

Hundreds of medical workers across the country have fallen sick with coronavirus as hospital employees face dire shortages of protective gear.

"We are slowly descending into chaos," a trauma physician at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital said.

Trauma physicians that normally rely on literature, research and training are now "flying blind" without instruments and building guidelines from the ground up, the physician said.

And when they're done treating coronavirus patients in trauma, they head back to the ICU to treat more.

At a New York hospital, staff members were wiping down and reusing single-use protective equipment, a doctor in the anesthesiology department said.

When the hospital ran out of life-saving ventilators, it started using anesthesia machines instead.

"There is not enough of anything," the doctor said. "There are just so many patients who are so sick, it seems impossible to keep up with the demand."

And it's not just the elderly who get severe complications. More young adults are getting hospitalized with coronavirus.

At NYU-Langone Brooklyn hospital, patients ranging from their 20s to their 90s are being intubated, an emergency room nurse said.

In Boston, "we are seeing lots of young people get very sick in our intensive care units," said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, chief of infectious disease at Massachusetts General Hospital.

"So when we are asking you to stay home, we are saying please stay home because we don't know who they will be," she said. "We have no way to predict who of the younger will get sicker."

FDA approves limited emergency use of treatments

There's no cure for coronavirus, and the first vaccine probably won't be available until next year.

But over the weekend, the US Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for chloroquine, a drug commonly used against malaria, and hydroxychloroquine to use on patients hospitalized with coronavirus.

Though evidence is limited on the efficacy of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, the FDA said the drugs' benefits outweighed their risk.

"Based on the totality of scientific evidence available to FDA, it is reasonable to believe that chloroquine phosphate and hydroxychloroquine sulfate may be effective in treating COVID-19," said the agency in its letter.

Treatment authorization is limited to patients who are currently hospitalized and weigh at least 110 pounds. Health care providers must contact their local or state health departments to access the drugs.

You asked, we answered: Your top coronavirus questions

A new travel advisory would limit domestic travel

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel advisory Saturday urging residents in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut "refrain from nonessential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately."

The states would have "full discretion" on implementing the advisory, which exempts employees in working in critical fields.

The CDC advisory came as some starts started implementing their own rules on visitors coming from out-of-state hotspots.

Florida opened highway checkpoints to screen drivers coming from Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Louisiana, the state Department of Transportation said. Drivers coming from those states must self-quarantine for 14 days or for the duration of their visit.

In Delaware Gov. John Carney modified his state of emergency declaration to require out-of-state travelers to self-quarantine for two weeks.

And in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas expanded the state's rules on which visitors must self-quarantine for 14 days.

Previously, anyone flying into Texas from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and New Orleans must quarantine 14 days.

The expanded order adds anyone driving into Texas from Louisiana plus anyone flying from Miami, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington state and California.
1. Asur: Welcome to Your Dark Side

Directed by Oni Sen, it stars Arshad Warsi, Anupriya Goenka, Ridhi Dogra and Barun Sobti. Its a mythological crime thriller, set in current times and revolves around serial killings. Set in the backdrop of the mystical Varanasi, Asur follows a forensic-expert-turned-teacher, who returns to his roots at the Central Bureau of Investigation. Along with his former mentor, finds himself caught in a cat-and-mouse game with a serial killer.





2. The Family Man

3. Special OPS

This is an Indian espionage thriller series created by Neeraj Pandey. The series follows Himmat Singh (Kay Kay Menon) of Research and Analysis Wing, who derives similar patterns in terrorist attacks. His team of five agents, in various parts of the world, plan to catch the mastermind. The story is inspired by surveillance assignments undertaken by India in the last two decades. It also stars Divya Dutta, Revathi Pillai, Karan Tacker and Vipul Gupta.







4. Lelila

The coronavirus has put life around the world to a halt. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi enforced a 21-day lockdown, which means the entire population is now home-bound. To help you get through the lockdown, we decided to list some interesting thriller. Have a look at which ones top the must-watch listCreated by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K.,. Starring Manoj Bajpayee and Priyamani, it tells the story of a middle-class man secretly working as an intelligence officer for an anti-terror squad. While he tries to protect the nation from terrorists, he also has to protect his family from the impact of his risky, high-pressure, and low paying job. As officer Srikant Tiwari, Manoj Bajapayee is the highlight of the series.

5.Ghoul

Created by Urmi Juvekar, based on the novel Leila by Prayaag Akbar, Leila is an Indian dystopian drama directed by Deepa Mehta, Shanker Raman and Pawan Kumar. It follows the story of Shalini (Huma Qureshi), who tries to find her missing daughter in a totalitarian regime in near future. The world in the series is shown to be run by an oppressive religion that has complete control over important matters of the society. Shalini goes against this very religion in search of her daughter.

Ghoul is based on the Arab folklore monster ghoul. The series is written and directed by Patrick Graham. The story is set in India in a disturbing future, where fascism rules. Nida Rahim (Radhika Apte) is a newly recruited military officer, fiercely loyal to the authoritarian regime. Shes appointed at a detention centre to interrogate Ali Saeed (Mahesh Balraj), the most dreaded terrorist. However, he shocks his interrogators, exposing their most reprehensible secrets. Nida concludes that Ali Saeed is possessed by some ghostly entity.




The coronavirus pandemic may lead to a global shortage of Condom, the worlds largest producer of condoms, Karex Bhd, has said.

The Malaysia based company said it has not produced a single condom from its three Malaysian factories for more than a week.

This is due to a lockdown imposed by the government to halt the spread of Covid-19 virus, Bloomberg has reported.

Condom is the most widely used contraceptives in the world.

Karex Bhd makes one in every five condoms globally. It produces for brands like Durex as well as its own line of specialty condoms such as Durian-flavored ones.

It churns out more than 5 billion condoms a year and exports them to more than 140 countries. That has become more challenging as governments shut borders and airlines cancel flights.

The other major condom-producing countries are China, where the coronavirus originated and led to widespread factory shutdowns, and India and Thailand, which are seeing infections spiking now.

Sadly, Malaysia is one of the hardest-hit countries in southeast Asia. As of Monday morning, more than 2,400 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, with 35 deaths.

The lockdown in the country is due to remain in place at least until April 14.

Pandemic

The Chief Executive of the group, Goh Miah Kiat, warned of a global shortage as supply falls by almost 50 per cent while its stockpile is set to last for just another two months.

He said the company only restarted its factories on Friday after a week-long closure, working with just half of its workforce.

It will take time to jumpstart factories and we will struggle to keep up with demand at half capacity, Mr Kiat said.

We are going to see a global shortage of condoms everywhere, which is going to be scary.

My concern is that for a lot of humanitarian programs deep down in Africa, the shortage will not just be two weeks or a month. That shortage can run into months, he said.

Mr Kiat also said demand is growing at double digits as governments around the world issue stay-at-home notices and many people abstain from having children due to the uncertain future.

He warned of a possible price hike in the purchase of condoms.

Condoms could also get much more expensive. We are still paying all our workers full salaries but workers only come in half the time so generally, there will be a cost increase, he said.

Negative impact

In an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, the President of Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH), Oladapo Ladipo, said the pandemic will have a negative impact on reproductive health.

There is no doubt this will have a negative impact on the health sector and on the economy itself. It is a health emergency and an economic emergency.

Virtually, some countries are locked down now. The economy is down, shares are down and productivity is reduced. And, since we have to import virtually most of our drugs, there may be shortages in the not too distant future. What is important is to remain healthy and to make sure you do not need any of these medications, he said.

He, however, said people will have to revert to the natural method of family planning for the period of the pandemic.

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Prevention is always better than cure. In terms of our reproductive health, there are guidelines on how to protect oneself and how to remain safe.

For example, avoid multiple and sexual partners, avoid indiscriminate and unacceptable behaviors.

In terms of family planning products, you have to revert back to the natural method if there are shortages of commodities for family planning. But, it is a difficult situation we are in, you cannot even say categorically what the final outcome will be, he said.
Construction workers are outfitting an expo hall at Freeman Coliseum as a field hospital for a potential overflow of COVID-19 patients from area hospitals as the confirmed cases continue to climb.

A sixth person died from the novel coronavirus in Bexar County, and a second died in Comal County, officials reported Monday. The number of cases in Bexar jumped from 157 Sunday to 168 Monday.

A man in his 50s with underlying health problems died at Methodist Hospital Northeast after being treated there for an unrelated health issue, officials said. It wasnt immediately clear when the man died.

If you werent already convinced, I hope the growing number of cases and casualties are enough to prove to you that this pandemic is extremely dangerous, not just in California or New York but here in San Antonio, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said in a joint daily briefing with County Judge Nelson Wolff.

On ExpressNews.com: Get the latest update on coronavirus and a tracking map of U.S. cases

Of the confirmed cases in Bexar County, 89 are travel-related or were contracted through close contact with someone known to be infected. An additional 57 are from community transmission, or cases of unknown origin.

To date, 52 patients in Bexar County have been hospitalized. Twenty-one have been put in intensive care.

Nirenberg said earlier in the day that San Antonio is at about 80 percent capacity, and thats a good place to be at this point but that the area must be prepared for a possible surge in patients.

To that end, the field hospital will have about 250 beds in a climate-controlled area ready to go by Wednesday or Thursday, Wolff said.

He said the plan to use Freeman, which is already hosting a temporary coronavirus testing site, has been in the works for some time. The facilities next to the AT&T Center lend themselves well for a temporary hospital, Wolff said, as there is plenty of parking and easy access for cars and trucks to drive up.

Wolff did not have details on who would staff the facility.

Because area hospitals have canceled elective and nonessential surgeries in preparation for an influx of coronavirus patients, he agreed with Nirenbergs earlier statement, saying San Antonios hospitals currently have enough capacity to handle the rising number of patients who need treatment for COVID-19.

At University Hospital, which serves as the public hospital for Bexar County, Wolff said 161 beds were available, including 57 intensive care units. A separate area of the hospital was being set aside for coronavirus patients.

However, Wolff, like Nirenberg, cautioned that local hospitals could still become overloaded, as has happened in places such as Seattle and New York City, so thats the purpose of having an offsite location to handle patients.

At Monday evenings briefing, the two leaders noted that they also have been working to add more potential beds at local hotels. Nirenberg said they plan to have about 1,000 additional beds by the end of the week, in the event they are needed.

Another continuing concern nationwide is ventilators, the lifesaving machines that are needed in the most serious cases of COVID-19. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said the state needs at least 30,000 ventilators to deal with the outbreak there.

Bexar County hospitals have about 650 ventilators available, Nirenberg said.

So far, of the 52 patients in Bexar who have had to be hospitalized, 15 have been put on a ventilator.

At Gov. Greg Abbotts urging, the city and county have ordered an additional 2,100 ventilators from the state, Nirenberg said.

He also noted that the city has received 45 pallets of personal protective equipment, including masks, gloves and goggles for hospital workers.

Forty-four people diagnosed with the coronavirus have now made a full recovery, Nirenberg said.

The scope of testing remains unclear. To date, Metro Healths lab has conducted 625 tests, with an additional 1,000 tests at the drive-up lab at Freeman Coliseum, Nirenberg said.

But the city still does not have complete data from private labs here that also have conducted tests. Nirenberg referred to a bottleneck of data sharing at the state level.

It is a source of great frustration for me and the judge, Nirenberg said. We need that data to come back to San Antonio.

Lack of testing is a problem statewide; though Texas has seen its output grow to nearly 4,000 tests a day, its still far behind other large states and even trails smaller states such as Massachusetts.

Texas has had more than 14,000 people tested since Thursday, according to new numbers released by the Texas Department of Health. The state has tested a total of 35,880.

But in that same time, Florida tested almost 28,000 people and has now tested at least 55,000. And New York has tested almost 68,000 since Thursday and has tested more than 190,000 overall.

Abbott acknowledged last week that Texas is not getting as many tests as other states.

We are administering every test that we get, he said.

But he added that the federal government has been prioritizing the states where more people are dying. Texas had 39 deaths as of Monday afternoon. New York meanwhile is over 1,200, and Louisiana has 185.

Back in San Antonio, the effects of the virus continue to ripple through the first responder ranks, although the most recent case involved travel outside the area rather than community contact.

Officials said a seven-year veteran of the San Antonio Police Department who tested positive for COVID-19 contracted it through travel. Two other SAPD officers are at high risk of exposure, Metro Health officials found, and are under quarantine for 14 days.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio mayor threatens park closures as governor ups coronavirus restrictions on travelers

The news came after Comal County officials reported that a second person there had died from the coronavirus. The number of confirmed Comal cases climbed to 11, officials said Monday.

The man in his 70s died Thursday at his home in Canyon Lake after showing COVID-19 symptoms.

A postmortem test confirmed Monday that he had the virus when he died. He had also tested positive for flu and strep throat.

The man and his wife, also in her 70s, had recently traveled out of state. She, too, has tested positive for COVID-19 and is self-quarantined at home.

First responders who were at the scene have been told to self-quarantine. None has shown symptoms.

Also Monday, Boerne officials confirmed the areas seventh case of COVID-19. Three of those patients are in Boerne, three are in Kendall County and the remaining patient is in Fair Oaks Ranch.

So far, the town doesnt have any cases of community spread. Six patients contracted the disease through travel, and one got it through close contact with someone who already had the virus.

Also Monday, Nirenberg and Wolff named five working groups made up of members of the City Council and the Commissioners Court, business leaders and local philanthropists to tackle growing economic fallout from COVID-19. Philanthropist and developer Gordon Hartman will head up the effort.

Staff writers Jeremy Wallace and Sig Christenson contributed to this report.

Staff writers Jeremy Wallace and Sig Christenson contributed to this report.

Joshua Fechter is a staff writer covering San Antonio city government and politics. To read more from Joshua, become a subscriber. jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFReports
The Allahabad High Court on Monday suspended the sentence of a 94-year-old man convicted by a Gorakhpur court in January this year in a case of murder committed 42 years ago.

The order by a two-judge bench of Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Siddhartha Varmathe came amid the ongoing shutdown of the state judiciary in the wake of the country-wide lockdown to contain the coronavirus spread.

The bench passed the order on a plea by Gorakpur native Suryavansh of Sikari police station in the district challenging the additional sessions judge verdict, convicting the nonagenarian man in a crime committed on March 28, 1978.

The high court bench suspended Suyravansh's sentence and ordered his release on bail on a personal bond of Rs 5,000.

The Bench suspended the sentence of the convict considering his old age and said, "The crime occurred on March 28, 1978 and at that time, age of Suryavansh was 40 years. It is brought to our notice that Suryavansh is now 94 years old."



"Having considered this aspect of the matter, we are inclined to allow this application. Accordingly, the application is allowed. The sentence awarded to Suryavansh is suspended till the disposal of appeal," the bench said.

The court directed additional government advocate to ensure compliance of the order at the earliest and to file a compliance report within a week.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(Bloomberg) --

Its a mass exodus not seen since the days following Indias independence in 1947.

Hundreds of thousands of the countrys poorest citizens are walking long distances from cities back to their villages, carrying what little they have on their shoulders along major highways. Many lost their jobs and housing virtually overnight after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a three-week lockdown on March 24.

The decision is aimed at stopping the spread of Covid-19 in a country of 1.3 billion people, a fifth of the globes population. But in a nation with a large proportion of people reliant on informal work in cities that is now drying up, the lockdown is also sparking a humanitarian crisis  and a potential health emergency, as Muneeza Naqvi and P.R. Sanjai report.

India has very low coronavirus testing rates, so experts say its impossible to know the real rate of infection. The mass movement of people risks speeding up the viruss transmission, threatening to overwhelm Indias overcrowded, understaffed and often rundown hospitals.

Modis unprecedented move may only provide temporary respite for those who could afford to stay put. Unlike China, India will struggle to quickly ramp up its medical infrastructure to cope with vast numbers of critically ill people.

Doctors say its a matter of time before that reality bites.

Global Headlines

Backing off | President Donald Trump abruptly abandoned his ambition to return life to normal by Easter, heeding advice from top doctors that re-opening the U.S. economy in two weeks risks causing a higher number of deaths. He said social distancing guidelines would remain until at least April 30, and he warned that 100,000 or more people may die.

Amid an outcry from civil rights groups and a threat of legal action from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Rhode Island repealed an order for the police to stop cars with New York license plates and will instead halt all cars entering the state at certain locations. Click here for more on how Cuomos virus response has left some Democrats seeing him as potentially better positioned to take on Trump in November than presumptive nominee Joe Biden.

Story continues

Deadly weekend | The pandemic claimed more than 3,000 lives in Italy and Spain over the weekend, with increasing strains on health-care systems. European officials warned against loosening lockdowns, while finance ministers are expected to discuss the way forward this week, though there's little scope for fresh action as governments implore people to stay home.

Russia moved toward a nationwide lockdown, following Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanins order for residents to stay home. Australia unleashed a record $80 billion jobs-rescue plan, pledging to subsidize wages as the outbreak wreaks havoc on the economy.

Slow shift | Stung by global criticism for his relaxed approach to the virus, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is now sending home nonessential state employees. But even as the leftist populist promises no more hugs and advocates hand washing, hes urged traditional markets to stay open. AMLOs dilemma, Andrea Navarro writes, is that for the many Mexicans employed in the informal economy, not working means they may not be able to eat.

Chess pieces | The Kremlins sudden shift of ownership of multi-billion-dollar oil projects in Venezuela shields oil giant Rosneft from further U.S. sanctions but keeps Moscow firmly behind President Nicolas Maduro. Rosneft, which produces 40% of Russian oil and has major exposure in the western financial system, is turning over its Venezuelan projects to an unnamed state-owned company in what it calls an effort to protect shareholders interests.

Poisoned partnership? | On March 18, General Motors Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra told Trumps top economic adviser that the automaker might be able to help make much-needed ventilators. But less than 10 days later, Trump accused GM of foot-dragging and price-gouging in its effort to replenish the supply of medical equipment. David Welch has the inside story on what went wrong.

Trump alleged yesterday that a New York hospital lost protective masks or even allowed them to be stolen, questioning how demand could have spiked so rapidly during the outbreak. The Pentagon is struggling to stay ahead of the pandemic as missteps start piling up and the Navy sidelines an aircraft carrier.

What to Watch This Week

North Koreas firing of two short-range missiles yesterday marked the fourth such launch this month. Nigeria has put its capital Abuja and the city of Lagos  Africas biggest with about 20 million people  on lockdown in a bid to slow the coronavirus in the continents most populous nation. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is set to win parliaments approval today to rule indefinitely by decree, effectively putting the European Union member under his sole rule for as long as he sees fit. A deputy minister in Poland said the nations presidential election cant be held on May 10, becoming the first government official to openly voice such a possibility. The main challenger has called for a boycott. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus efforts to form a government are gaining pace, with two Labor party lawmakers slated to receive cabinet portfolios in exchange for joining the coalition, Israeli media are reporting.

Thanks to all who responded to our pop quiz Friday and congratulations to Raphael Muchunu Mwangi, who was the first to name Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro as the leader who echoed Trump in calling for an early restart of his economy. Tell us how were doing or what were missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.

And finally ... A Hong Kong broadcasters interview with a senior World Health Organization official went viral after he appeared to hang up when asked about Taiwans membership status in light of the Covid-19 outbreak. The footage showed Bruce Aylward saying he couldnt hear properly and asking the reporter to skip to the next question. It then showed the line disconnecting after the reporter said shed like to hear more about Taiwan. The WHO later said such issues are up to member nations, not its staff.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
The Delhi High Court on Monday directed the Centre to get in touch with the Indian students stranded in Bangladesh amid the Coronavirus lockdown and ensure they are provided with basic facilities and medical attention.

The High Court also directed the Centre to ask its nodal officers to contact all the medical colleges where Indian students are residing temporarily and to ensure that they are given proper meals. The matter will be heard on April 3.

The petition was filed by advocate Gaurav Bansal and the hearing took place via video conferencing. Bansal said that he is in touch with the citizens through Twitter and WhatsApp.

READ | COVID-19: HC Asks Centre To Explain Steps Taken For Evacuation Of Indian Students From Bangladesh

Petition seeking rescue of Indian students in Bangladesh

The petition sought directions to the Ministry of External Affairs to rescue the Indian medical students who are stuck in Bangladesh due to COVID-19 lockdown. It also seeks the appointment of Nodal Officers in all the Indian embassies who can share their contact information so that people can reach out for help. In his petition, Bansal said that he had received many calls seeking help in rescuing Kashmiri students who are facing trouble in Bangladesh during the lockdown.

"It has been learned that there are around 581 such students in Bangladesh whose welfare and wellbeing is at stake and looking for help from the Indian authorities," the plea said.

READ | Omar Abdullah Urges EAM S. Jaishankar To Assist Kashmiri Students Stranded In Bangladesh

Kashmiri students stranded in Bangladesh

A group of 70 students had left for Kashmir after Bangladesh ordered the closure of varsities in the wake of Coronavirus spread. The students said the embassy conveyed to the Bangladesh government and asked the authorities at their colleges to open hostels for them. The distressed students said it was not safe for them to continue their stay in Bangladesh as there were not enough facilities and other safety measures to deal with the Coronavirus crisis.

We were stranded on roads for two days and on Tuesday evening, we were asked by officials from the Indian embassy to return to our colleges in Bangladesh. Despite our pleas, they didnt allow us to enter India, said a student.

To mitigate the coronavirus pandemic, Government of India has already suspended all international and domestic flights, besides sealing borders and entry points. Furthermore, the students said Bangladesh will undergo lockdown from Wednesday which will make their stay more difficult.

READ | Coronavirus Toll Rises To 5 In Bangladesh, No New Case Of Infection In Last 24 Hours

READ | Centre Files Response In Delhi HC, Appoints Nodal Officer For Indians In Kazakhstan
She has been hunkered down at home near the beach in Los Angeles with her two children and beau since the coronavirus quarantines stepped up earlier this month.

And on Sunday Alessandra Ambrosio slipped on one of her many tiny bikinis for a relaxing afternoon of sunbathing at her 'home sweet home' near the beach in Los Angeles.

The former supemodel, 38, took to Instagram and shared some videos and photos that captured her day of sun worshipping with the caption: 'Vitamin,' along with a sun emoji.

Ample assets: Alessandra Ambrosio showed off her supermodel curves while sunbathing at her home in Los Angeles on Sunday during coronavirus quarantine

The Brazilian-born model, 38, posted a series of three selfie photos showing her lying down in her yard with her ample assets nearly on full display in a silver bikini.

With her bosoms nearly bursting out, she donned a large straw hat to help stave off some of the glaring rays on a gorgeous sunny day in Southern California.

To accommodate the hat, she pulled her long dark brown tresses back into a ponytail.

Social distancing: The Brazilian-born model, 38, appeared to be sun worshipping in the yard of her 'home sweet home' in a silver bikini

Sunny outlook: Ambrosio also donned a large straw hat to help stave off some of the glaring rays on a gorgeous sunny day in Southern California

Ambrosio also shared a quick video on her Insta-Story where she shook her hips in her bikini.

Earlier in the day, she also gave her 10.3 million followers a glimpse at her morning yoga routine that helps her keep her body toned and fit.

She struck a number of traditional yoga poses in the video.

Working it: Ambrosio also shared a quick video where she shook her hips in her bikini

The mother of two also shot some video of her daughter Anja, 11, sitting on the sidewalk outside their home, doing some colorful chalk drawing.

She captioned the video: 'Love this,' that also included a few appearances by the family's pet chocolate Labrador Retriever.

Along with Anja, Ambrosio also has a son Noah, seven, that she shares with her ex-fiance Jamie Mazur.

She has been dating fashion designer Nicolo Oddi for about a year-and-a-half.

The mother of two also shot some video of her daughter Anja, 11, sitting on the sidewalk outside their home, doing some colorful chalk drawing.
The death toll from the coronavirus has risen, with two fatalities confirmed in the southern province of Daraa, although the regime maintains that there has been just one death writes Zaman Al-Wasl.

At least two deaths due to COVID-19 have been confirmed by residents in the southern province of Daraa as the Syrian regime continue to deny the spread of the killer pandemic.

Health officials claimed that a man and a women died of pneumonia, and refused to let their families bury them or even hold a funeral.

But sources in the Busra al-Sham hospital have confirmed that the cause of death was COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the regimes Health Ministry announced on Sunday that a woman died as soon as she entered a hospital with an emergency case, and after conducting tests it was clear she had the coronavirus.

The number of confirmed cases in Syria is now six, with one death, the Ministry said in a statement.

The regime authorities have put 29 people in quarantine in the town of Kherbet Ghazaleh, after retuning from Lebanon.

The number of infections in Syria is just five, according to the regimes official statements but the World Health Organization sees Syria at high risk from the virus.

In the opposition-held northwest, rescue workers whose usual role is to respond to government bombardments have been sanitizing classrooms. Medics in the northwest fear the virus would spread very quickly in crowded camps for the displaced.

Most of the hospitals still operating are unable to meet existing needs, much less a possible COVID-19 pandemic, DW reported.

Meanwhile, Syrian activists and former detainees have called on the Syrian regime to release inmates to protect them against the virus.

Most of the opposition detainees are held in the notorious Sednaya Military Prison in miserable conditions.

This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
Complaints about price gouging in the wake of New Jerseys coronavirus outbreak are soaring.

But not every potential incident of price gouging is what it seems as costs for some products soar.

Take the case of a pharmacy that rents space at a New Jersey hospital and decided to make sanitizer.

The pharmacy sent an email last week offering hospital employees 100 milliliter bottles of homemade hand sanitizer  equal to the TSA-approved size for liquid carry-ons  for $20 apiece, according to emails obtained by NJ Advance Media.

Hand sanitizer has been elusive as demand rises along with coronavirus.

New Jerseys price gouging laws forbid excessive price increases  defined as an increase thats more than 10% higher than the normal price  during a state of emergency or for 30 days after a state of emergency.

A $20 price tag for a small hand sanitizer bottle might on the surface seem questionable.

But thats not always the case, especially when a merchant faces higher-than-usual costs to buy ingredients and packaging materials.

NJ Advance Media spoke to one of the pharmacy owners who is also a pharmacist. She said the pharmacy charged the higher price because it paid more than usual for the ingredients and bottles for the sanitizer.

I went to great lengths to make the sanitizer because it was not available, the pharmacist said. I wish I could have made more and given it away for free.

NJ Advance Media is not naming the pharmacy or the hospital because any allegation of price gouging may be unfounded.

The pharmacist said the sanitizer mix followed Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines.

The pharmacy spent more than $4,000 to buy containers for the sanitizer, which took more than 15 days to get, she said.

The ingredients cost another $1,000 or $2,000, she said, and she was charged higher-than-normal prices, too. For example, one item normally costs $11 per liter, but she paid about $65 per liter for the same ingredient, she said.

Then there was the time and labor it took to make the sanitizer.

It took four days to make the sanitizer, she said. We made the first few batches but it failed. We had to throw everything out and we made it again to stay in the FDA guidelines.

She said the pharmacy sold about 100 bottles and they had maybe 20 or 30 more, but theyre not going to sell it anymore.

I would never take advantage of this situation, its part of being a human being, she said. Im not trying to make money on the sanitizer. I was trying to provide a service.

When Attorney General Gurbir Grewal talked about price gouging last week, he said many of the investigations found the prices charged were not against the law, noting they had been increased appropriately after suppliers hiked prices for retailers.

While consumers can always ask a merchant about supply costs, in most cases, stores arent going to open their books for you. The only way for consumers to know if theyre being overcharged is to file a complaint with Consumer Affairs so authorities can investigate.

Despite the high cost of specialty ingredients and the length of time to make a batch, the sanitizer was priced at below cost, the hospitals spokeswoman said.

We asked the Division of Consumer Affairs if it had received any complaints about the pharmacy, but a spokeswoman said it couldnt confirm complaints against individual businesses because of the volume of complaints.

The Division is looking into all allegations of price gouging, including those brought to our attention through the media, a spokeswoman said.

If you believe you are a victim of price gouging, you can file a complaint with Consumer Affairs online or call (800) 242-5846 (toll-free within New Jersey) or (973) 504-6200.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

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For many people, COVID-19 pandemic is a foe but for street vendors in Mexico, it is a profitable ally.

Countries around the world are declaring lockdowns due to COVID-19, and as pharmacy and supermarket shelves have gone empty of alcohol and other sanitary products, some Mexicans are raking in the profits for selling hand sanitizers three to four times their regular market price, according to a recent article.

"Even by the 20-liter jug," said one police officer designated in Avenida Juarez post, alongside the city's famous Alameda Park.

Across downtown Mexico City, vendors have posted signs advertising hand gels mostly sold in unlabeled containers.

READ: COVID-19 Recoveries: Is the World Winning the Fight?

According to the local press, vendors are selling 525-milliliter bottles bearing the labels of the Blumen brand for 100 pesos (US4.30), contrary to its supermarket price of around 30-40 pesos.

They also had unlabeled 280-milliliter bottles that can be bought for 50 pesos and even smaller ones for 15 pesos.

Profeco, Mexico's federal consumer protection agency announced on March 21 that the average price for hand sanitizer in the black-market was 13.83 pesos per 60 milliliters. At that price, a liter costs 230 pesos. Meanwhile, in supermarkets, a 1-liter bottle of Blumen hand sanitizer costs around 55 pesos.

Last week, Profeco agents seized 1,435 unlicensed, unlabeled bottles of hand sanitizer and face masks.

ALSO READ: COVID-19 Strikes in Mexico Leaving 12 Dead

In a press release, the agency warned of the danger of such products, stressing that the hand gel "might not disinfect, or could even contain a prohibited ingredient."

But street vendors have fed on the fear of the public which bolstered demand for products to protect themselves against the unseen enemy.

"I see them get it from that booth there," a shoe shiner pointed on a corner of the popular pedestrian street Calle Madero.

Down the street, 60-milliliter bottles of hand sanitizer are being sold for as low as 10 pesos to as high as 50 pesos.

Bootleg antibacterial gel vendors are finding they can't even meet the demand. When a group of vendors with bags full of unlabeled 5 and 10-liter plastic bottles was asked if they were going to sell them, one of them replied:

"Yes, but not until tomorrow, because we ran out of alcohol."

While their alco-gels were going out of stocks, the vendor said she does not believe that all the hand sanitizer would even do any good.

READ MORE: How Do I Properly Explain Coronavirus to My Child?

Despite benefiting from the fear caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the vendor claimed she does not believe the news of the virus and said that people were wasting their money on hand sanitizer.

"It's a rumor. The whole world's getting sick, but this is utter nonsense from the federal and world governments," she said. "You go and find out who caused this disorder."

As of Friday, March 27, the ministry of health reported 717 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Mexico, with 12 deaths, according to an article by Latin Post.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 30, 2020 16:55 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e6588f 1 National COVID-19,COVID-19-Indonesian-patients,ICJR,justice-watchdog,Yasona-Laoly,legal-system Free

A coalition of legal watchdogs has urged law enforcement to temporarily refrain from putting more people in penitentiaries to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

Law enforcement could instead use a bail system for light offenses and criminal acts without victims or violence, according to the Justice Monitoring Coalition, which comprises 16 legal advocacy groups.

It is essentially a suspension, Erasmus Napitupulu, executive director of the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR), which is grouped under the coalition, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

"If someone is subject to arrest, his family can pay a sum of money as a guarantee that he will not run away."

The request came in light of the growing number of coronavirus cases in Indonesia. Both government and advocacy groups have highlighted the need for preventive measures against the fast-spreading respiratory illness in penitentiary facilities.

As of Monday afternoon Indonesia has reported 1,414 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 122 fatalities.

Three members of the coalition, namely the ICJR, the Research and Advocacy Institute of Court Independence (LeIP) and Indonesian Judicial Research Society (IJRS) also emphasized in a separate statement that "the overcrowding issue and the spread of COVID-19 make penitentiaries not a safe place" to have people serving their prison terms.

Jakarta, for example, has eight penitentiaries and detention centers that jointly hold 18,531 inmates, far higher than the total capacity of 5,791 prisoners, according to data updated on March 9 from the Law and Human Rights Ministry's Correctional Facilities Directorate General. That means an overcrowding rate of 320 percent.

With 675 COVID-19 patients as of Sunday, the capital city has been dubbed the national epicenter of the outbreak.

"Under the current conditions, we should avoid imprisoning people as best as we can," the advocacy groups' statement said on Monday. "This is a good step toward using a restorative justice concept."

Read also: Overcrowded and understaffed, prisons scramble to protect inmates from infection

The World Health Organization (WHO) has made a similar recommendation, encouraging countries around the world to reduce the number of inmates to prevent a massive spread of the contagious respiratory illness.

The groups also called on judges to choose rehabilitation for drug convicts over imprisonment, as drug offense was the country's top criminal act brought to trials. "Based on their assessment and a recommendation from doctors and labs, judges can decide to order rehabilitation," the statement reads.

The request was in line with measures taken by the government regarding arrest procedures. Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly sent a letter on March 24 to the Supreme Court chief justice requesting that the judicial body put suspects under house arrest or city arrest instead of imprisoning them at penitentiaries, citing Article 22 of the Criminal Law Procedures Code.

The minister also sought to temporarily stop people from visiting the penitentiaries, extend terms of imprisonment and conduct trials via online video conference.

The Supreme Court issued on Saturday an instruction to proceed with trials via teleconference.

Attorney General's Office spokesperson Hari Setiyono told the Post that "trials could proceed via teleconference." (dfr)
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Thank you, readers, for making this years Water Cooler fundraiser a great success, and also for the many kind comments, and helpful suggestions. I feel much better about the stresses of the coming year (and will also be able to help some others, as I said). Thank you, thank you, thank you! lambert P.S. Of course, if you missed the fundraiser, the tip jar is below. Theres still time!

#COVID-19

At reader request, Ive added this daily chart:

The data is the John Hopkins CSSE data. Here is the site. I am using a linear, not a logarithmic scale, because the linear scale conveys the alarming quality of the multiplication better (dont @ me, math nerds). I did not adjust for population, because it seems to me that the epidemics spread through a population in a fractal matter; within reasonable limits, the shape of the curve will be the same. Show me Im wrong!

Politics

But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? James Madison, Federalist 51

They had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery. Frank Herbert, Dune

They had learned nothing, and forgotten nothing. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord

Key dates coming fast now, so I added some counters:

* * *

2020

Realignment and Legitimacy

Sirens in the silence: As we settle in for a plague year, the empire strikes back [Salon]. [Hoover Institution fellow and NYU law professor Richard A. Epstein] argued that the coronavirus pandemic wasnt really a pandemic: There would be well under 1 million cases worldwide, and about 50,000 deaths. In his original post, he predicted that there would be fewer than 500 deaths in the United States  and, oh goodness, each of those would be a personal tragedy, no doubt! But in the larger scheme of things, nothing to worry about, and definitely no justification for the current course of widespread economic shutdown.  I would be much more sympathetic to liberal Democrat horror at this line of thinking if they had not systematically ignored falling life expectancy, and if they were not perfectly OK with losing 68,000 lives a year, every year, for years and years, because they wont support #MedicareForAll. The Democrat Establishment. Thread: Did you know that all of the moderate candidates who dropped out and endorsed Joe Biden all are represented by the same legal counsel? Each of these campaigns has paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to the same firm pic.twitter.com/JgqlAoQug1  jack allison (@jackallisonLOL) March 12, 2020 Interestingly, the Clinton campaign laundered the Steele Dossier through Perkins Coie.

Stats Watch

At reader request, I added some business stats back in. Please give Econintersect click-throughs; theyre a good, old-school blog that covers more than stats. If anybody knows of other aggregators, please contact me at the email address below.

Manufacturing: March 2020 Texas Manufacturing Plummets [Econintersect]. Important subindices new orders significantly declined (and are now in contraction) and unfilled orders insignificantly improved and remains deep in contraction. This should be considered a much worse report relative to last month.

Housing: February 2020 Pending Home Sales Growth Strong. Wait Until Next Month To See The Affect [sic] of Coronavirus [Econintersect]. The year-over-year growth is in positive territory. The data is very noisy and must be averaged to make sense of the situation. Shorter-term trends are now improving. However, we expect the pending home sales index to collapse with the March data.

* * *

Real Estate: The World Needs Warehouses Now, and Blackstones Got Them [Bloomberg]. Last year, Blackstone Group Inc. bought more than $25 billion worth of industrial properties, which include warehouses and logistics facilities, according to Real Capital Analytics. The private equity firm now owns more of this space in the U.S. than any group except real estate investment trust Prologis Inc., which has also been getting bigger through acquisitions. The two companies have about a billion square feet between them, more than their next 10 largest competitors combined, according to CBRE Group Inc.

Retail: The coronavirus pandemic may be providing supermarkets a view of a future that depends heavily on digital grocery shopping. Soaring demand for online ordering is giving grocers a lesson in how far they are from handling e-commerce efficiently with many companies straining to turn surging web traffic into profitable sales and deliveries [Wall Street Journal]. Consulting firm Bricks Meets Clicks says the number of U.S. households ordering groceries online reached 40 million this month, roughly double the level recorded just last August. Although supermarkets have invested heavily in their online businesses, it is proving harder to ramp-up capacity quickly online than in physical stores. The trend-setting U.K. online grocer Ocado stopped taking new customers and Walmart Inc. and Amazon Fresh customers have seen delays.

Shipping: Scared drivers press on toward looming freight cliff [Freight Waves]. Trucking companies last week began to accept loads they would have rejected two weeks ago. There are fewer loads to choose from as the coronavirus pandemic shuts down all but essential businesses like grocery stores and pharmacies. Manufacturers of most expensive items like cars and trucks are shut down. Their suppliers have no choice but to cease production.. None of the drivers who spoke with FreightWaves wanted to drive a load to New York, where the coronavirus spread leads the nation.  Hmm. I wonder how much food there is in warehouses that serve New York.

Manfacturing: The coronavirus relief package coming out of Washington provides a big boost to troubled U.S. aerospace supply chains. The $2 trillion measure makes billions of dollars available to aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co. and its fast supplier network. providing a safety net for a sector under pressure from plummeting demand for air travel [Wall Street Journal]. Whether Boeing will tap into the federal money remains a question, and the company is looking at private financing so it doesnt have to take funding with big strings attached. The jet makers suppliers may need help, however, since many have been strained by the crisis over the grounding of Boeings 737 MAX jets. The high value of aerospace components leaves some suppliers with little financial room to ride out the coronavirus lockdowns, and may make it harder to resume operations quickly once demand returns.

Manufacturing: 40 years ago, a fabulist named Robert Bork dreamed up an imaginary history of US antitrust law in order to justify dismantling it [Cory Doctorow, ThreadReader].  A thread about the extremely bad behavior of Covidien, the big company that bought up a small company whose mission was to build cheap ventilators, to kill their product. Reminds me of the horror stories in voting machine companies.

Tech: Venmo, Square Cash Vie For Stimulus Funds Distribution [PYMNTS.COM]. Venmo and Cash App want to be considered as ways the U.S. government could deliver its stimulus funds to help the coronavirus-wrecked economy. The parent companies of both apps have discussed this possibility with the Treasury Department, though it is unclear if the proposition has been seriously considered. Though the money is planned to be distributed via direct deposit, that option may not be feasible for everyone. Fourteen percent of Americans making under $40,000 a year dont have a bank account, according to figures published by the Federal Reserve in 2019, and Venmo, Cash App and other such services are available to even those without bank accounts. Erica York, an economist with the Tax Foundation, said there could be potential for experimental thinking outside the box when it comes to people who dont have normal bank accounts. However, with the size and scope of the crisis, she was unsure if the government had the requisite time to adapt to a whole new form of distribution because of the changes that would be needed to adapt to the apps.

* * *

Todays Fear & Greed Index: 24 Extreme Fear (previous close: 23 Extreme Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 5 (Extreme Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Mar 30 at 11:39am. Stimulus!

Rapture Index: Closes unchanged [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 182. Remember that bringing on the rapture is a good thing. An index that measures the likelihood of the Apocalypse has been stable in the midst of what, in Biblical terms, should surely be a plague. Very odd.

The Biosphere

It really bugs me the way #COVID19 has driven all the climate news off the science sites. Because #COVID19 is just the first wavelet of a tsunami.

Climate vs coronavirus: Why massive stimulus plans could represent missed opportunities [Nature]. But there is a danger that governments will fall back on high-carbon projects that are ready to go. Mountford notes that India and China have plenty of plans for coal-fired power plants that have been shelved in pursuit of renewable energy, and they could be revived quickly if the focus is purely on economic growth and jobs. This dynamic is already playing out in the aviation industry, which has been at the front of the queue for government relief in the COVID-19 crisis. In Europe, Livingston says, airlines are asking politicians to shelve looming carbon taxes, which would apply to flights within Europe and the European portion of external flights.

Rare ozone hole opens over Arctic  and its big [Nature]. A vast ozone hole  likely the biggest on record in the north  has opened in the skies above the Arctic. It rivals the better-known Antarctic ozone hole that forms in the southern hemisphere each year. From my point of view, this is the first time you can speak about a real ozone hole in the Arctic, says Martin Dameris, an atmospheric scientist at the German Aerospace Center in Oberpfaffenhofen. [T]his year, powerful westerly winds flowed around the North Pole and trapped cold air within a polar vortex. There was more cold air above the Arctic than in any winter recorded since 1979, says Markus Rex, an atmospheric scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdam, Germany. In the chilly temperatures, the high-altitude clouds formed, and the ozone-destroying reactions began.

The northern-hemisphere winter of 2019-20 was the warmest ever on land [The Economist]. The winter-that-wasnt of 2019-20 is not yet a new normal. The main factor determining the severity of northern winters is the Arctic oscillation: the relative pressure of Arctic and sub-tropical air. When pressure is higher in the Arctic, cold air from the North Pole pushes south, bringing harsh, dry winters to many places. When pressure is higher towards the sub-tropics, warm air pushes northwards, hemming in cold air around the pole. These two patterns flip back and forth irregularly. For reasons that are not yet clear, pressure in the sub-tropics this year was much stronger than in the Arctic. And researchers have not yet determined how rising temperatures affect the Arctic oscillation. Until a few years ago, climate models tended to show pressure in the Arctic strengthening, reducing the amount of warming during winter at temperate northern latitudes. The latest models find the reverse.

Read All About Arctic on ASI Blog [Arctic Sea Ice Forum (PI)]. PI writes: For the past year or so I have been following the Arctic Sea Ice forum, in particular their data thread. They track the rise-and-fall of the ice up north, and compare it to previous years weve had data for.

Health Care

Coronavirus: The state had 21 million N95 masks stockpiled. All are expired. [San Francisco Chronicle]. As the coronavirus pandemic slammed into California and doctors and nurses sounded the alarm on a dire shortage of masks, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the release of the states emergency stockpile of 21 million N95 respirators. What he didnt mention then: They are all expired. Every one of the masks stored in the states climate-controlled warehouse in a secret location has surpassed its wear-by date. What could limit the expired masks use in this pandemic is quite simple  an elastic band. The resilience of the band that holds the mask in place can wear over time and prevent a tight fit on the nurse or doctor wearing the mask.

Meet the doctor who ordered the Bay Areas coronavirus lockdown, the first in the U.S. [San Jose Mercury News]. It was [Sara] Cody, [Santa Clara Countys Public Health Officer since 2013,] who would eventually lead her Bay Area cohorts to pull the trigger March 16 on the historic seven-county legal order  the first of its kind in the country  that required residents to shelter-in-place, days ahead of Gov. Gavin Newsoms similar mandate for the entire state.

Screening Room

There is a Netflix movie, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. The Hunter Thompson of Circus-Circus days would approve. Here are two threads about it:

Theres a motherlode of You cant look away material on this thread:

To anyone currently bingeing #tigerking on Netflix: I spent four years working on a podcast and a long magazine story about Joe and Carole. I spent a week living at the zoo. Ive spoken with almost everyone youre seeing in the doc, and I attended the trial. Ask me anything!    (@robertmoor_) March 21, 2020

This thread is like listening to somebody react without being able to see whats on the screen:

Just shirtless men rubbing animals. Is no one going to unpack this???  Tressie McMillan Cottom (@tressiemcphd) March 29, 2020

Groves of Academe

Mayor: New Haven asks for coronavirus housing help; Yale says no' [New Haven Register]. An angry Mayor Justin Elicker said he asked Yale University President Peter Salovey whether police officers and firefighters who are asymptomatic, but who have a family member exposed to COVID-19, or who are not symptomatic, but have been exposed to the virus, or are waiting for test results, if they could use a dormitory at the university. The answer was no. He said he then called UNH President Steve Kaplan, who in the first 5 minutes of the conversation, said yes. We will make this happen. This is important for the community.'  Corey Robin:

Rich people firing nannies and housekeepers w/o severance. Harvard laying off dining hall workers (tho it was finally pressured to pay them through the end of the semester). And now this from Yale. Elites are mimicking the sociopathy of the White House. https://t.co/U57k6b4od5  corey robin (@CoreyRobin) March 28, 2020

I think the normally astute Corey Robin has this reversed. Elites are not mimicking Trump. Rather, Trump is the pure expression of elite sociopathy, with the public relations and the pretense of moral superiority ripped away. Hence their hatred of him, I would guess.

Class Warfare

COVID-19 and Circuits of Capital [Monthly Review]. Word:

The failure to prepare for and react to the outbreak did not just start in December when countries around the world failed to respond once COVID-19 spilled out of Wuhan. In the United States, for instance, it did not start when Donald Trump dismantled his national security teams pandemic preparation team or left seven hundred CDC positions unfilled.9 Nor did it start when feds failed to act on the results of a 2017 pandemic simulation showing the country was unprepared.10 Nor when, as stated in a Reuters headline, the United States axed CDC expert job in China months before virus outbreak, although missing the early direct contact from a U.S. expert on the ground in China certainly weakened the U.S. response. Nor did it start with the unfortunate decision not to use the already available test kits provided by the World Health Organization. Together, the delays in early information and total miss in testing will undoubtedly be responsible for many, probably thousands, of lost lives. The failures were actually programmed decades ago as the shared commons of public health were simultaneously neglected and monetized. A country captured by a regimen of individualized, just-in-time epidemiologyan utter contradictionwith barely enough hospital beds and equipment for normal operations, is by definition unable to marshal the resources necessary to pursue a China brand of suppression.

The leadership debate fracas in the press and the political class does seem a little superficial.

Nurses Die, Doctors Fall Sick and Panic Rises on Virus Front Lines [New York Times]. I feel like were all just being sent to slaughter, said Thomas Riley, a nurse at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, who has contracted the virus, along with his husband.  That has always been the case. Thats why life expectancy isnt dropping for the 10% on up, and is dropping for everyone else. Its just happening out in the open now, and a lot faster.

News of the Wired

Upgraded Google Glass Helps Autistic Kids See Emotions [IEE Spectrum].  Just the kind of power we want to give the Marketing Department.

Tilde Sites  Geocities 2.0, or SDF for the 2020s? [The Dork Web].  I dont know quite what to make of this. It seems that tilde sites are real and exist today, and use the gopher protocol? (This seems to be SDF). It all seems very retro. But thats not a bad thing at all.

Going stir-crazy already:

new days of the week: sunday

monday

monday II

monday III

trash day

thriday

pre-sunday  shrill kingdom come (@theshrillest) March 28, 2020

I think there are some missing days. Wheres Banday?

* * *

Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, (c) how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal, and (d) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. Todays plant (TH):

TH writes: This one was taken at a Nature Center in Long Beach, CaliforniaEl Dorado Park. Theres something about greenery bordering water that draws me in every time. (Im not sure how I feel about the out of focus foreground, but I dont think I was supposed to step off the path and didnt want to trample anything to avoid it.)

Here is another reader project (stillfeelinthebern):

stillfeelinthebern writes: I see Katiebirds mittens. Here are mine. These are a take on traditional Latvian mittens. Knit circular, on a circular needle with a loop, not the traditional 4 needles. That why you see only one needle in the picture. Lambert, you are correct that knitting is a complicated data structure. I started knitting at age 7 and really believe that all the math and symbolic pattern reading prepared me to be a scientist (and artist too!). Thank you!

* * *

Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldnt see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know Im on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:









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If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!
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Trump supporter Bill Mitchell wants Congress to issue a subpoena for Dr. Anthony Faucis phone and accused him of contact with Hillary Clinton.

Congress should subpoena Dr. Doom Faucis phone records and see how many times he has called Hillary in the past 60 days, Mitchell said on Twitter.

Congress should subpoena Dr. Doom Fauci's phone records and see how many times he has called Hillary in the past 60 days.  Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) March 30, 2020

Mitchell has downplayed the severity of the Coronavirus since the global pandemic began. He has been on the fringes of the right since at least 2016 and has frequently attacked Dr. Fauci.

Mitchell is one of a number of conservative supporters of President Donald Trump who have painted Covid-19 as overblown or even a hoax.

Hes taken aim at Fauci as the doctor became a recognizable face in the pandemic response.

Mitchell is spreading baseless conspiracies about Fauci and the so-called Deep State, with predictable references to the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate.

There was a time when Dr. Doom Faucis prediction of mass death would have opened the markets down 1000. Has Chicken Little lost his mojo? Mitchell asked.

Mitchells comments may have been prompted by Dr. Faucis appearance on CNN on Monday. He explained how the pandemic response team had convinced Trump to extend social distancing measures beyond Easter.

We argued strongly with the President that he not withdraw those guidelines after 15 days, but that he extend them, Fauci said. And he did listen.

President Trump has reportedly grown tired of Dr. Fauci since the pandemic began. The President was unhappy with Fauci for correcting him and apparently criticizing him in media interviews.

However, Fauci has remained at the forefront of the Coronavirus response. Hes quickly become someone many Americans have come to trust during this crisis.

Follow Darragh Roche on Twitter
A Tucson man is facing murder charges after police said he killed his teenage cousin and buried her remains in different locations in the county.

According to the Tucson Police Department, Gerardo Salinas, 32, is being held in the Pima County Adult Detention Complex for first-degree murder, kidnapping and abandoning and concealing the dead body of Sofia Hurtado, 17, his cousin from Mexico who disappeared a few days after she came for a visit.

The remains of Hurtado were discovered at a number of burial sites across Pima County.

The teen went missing on March 19 after Salinas picked her up from Mexico, where she resided with her family. He took her back March 15 to Tucson for her visit, stated in a news release from the Tucson Police Department. Salinas admitted in an interview with investigators that he brought Hurtado to his house, located at the 6600 block of East Calle Alegria, where he resided with his live-in girlfriend and their children.

Investigators inspected what looked like dried blood in Salinas' house and they returned with a search warrant.

Forensic evidence alluded to a violent crime that transpired in the home and investigators discovered a female's bloody clothing in a trash container.

It was not made clear on Thursday if Salinas has a lawyer yet.

The release stated that Salinas called the police on March 22 from a residence near Tanque Verde and Kolb roads to report a missing teenager/runaway child named Sofia Hurtado, who originally lived with her mother in Mexico but was staying with Salinas.

Also Read: Dead Body of NYC Nurse Who Wears Trash Bags As PPE Cannot Be Found, Sister Says

Salinas let police officers inside their home and showed them where the teenager had been staying. Aside from the dried blood, furniture was missing from the room where she had been sleeping.

Detectives interrogated Salinas and his girlfriend.

When the premises were searched, aside from the crime being violent, it was said to have been committed in different locations inside the home.

Upon her arrival in Mexico, Hurtado sent a message to a friend in Mexico "saying she was not safe and needed help." The friend told Hurtado's mother, who tried to contact Salinas but was not successful.

When Hurtado's mother finally reached Salinas, he told her that Hurtado ran away.

The mother told Salinas to report the girl to the police as missing.

According to the news release, Hurtado's remains were discovered and recovered from each one of the burial sites around Pima County.

Tucson police are asking people to come forward with information by calling 88-CRIME, wherein callers can remain anonymous. The investigation of the detectives is still ongoing.

Salinas was admitted to custody and imprisoned in the Pima County Jail where he is being confined on a $1 million bond. Hurtado's family was notified.

For the abandonment or concealment of a dead body, anyone who violates this section is guilty of a class 5 felony.

Related Article: Child Left Alone With Mom's Dead Body After She Succumbed to COVID-19

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Ladakh MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal has sanctioned Rs one crore from his MPLADS fund for both Leh and Kargil districts, besides donating his one month salary of Rs one lakh to the PM Relief Fund in order to strengthen the ongoing fight against coronavirus.

The Centre has recently changed guidelines to allow the use of Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) fund to supplement the government's effort in battle against the deadly disease.

"Pandemic COVID 19 is creating a challenging situation world over. Considering the pandemic situation has already reached Ladakh with 13 positive cases (3 of them have resulted negative after treatment), I decided to sanction the amount and donate the salary," Namgyal told PTI on Monday.

He said Ladakh being a landlocked region during the long winter season and with the current situation of suspension of airlines, it is facing acute shortage of essential medicines and other medical supplies.

"To keep all my people safe at this hour of need, I am trying my best to coordinate with all officials concerned at all levels and assisting the administration of Union Territory of Ladakh with my all possible time, energy and efforts," the Lok Sabha member said.

He said authorities are working on establishing a bio safety level-2 (BSL) (or BSL-3 Lab, if possible) laboratory in Ladakh so that tests for COVID-19 can be conducted here.

"As of now, we are sending each of COVID-19 samples to Delhi for laboratory testing on daily basis," Namgyal said.

The funds sanctioned by the MP will be utilised by the deputy commissioners of both the districts of Ladakh for purchasing equipment for establishment of bio safety level-3 testing laboratory and infra-red thermometers (non-contact), among others.

Besides these, the amount can be used for purchasing personal protection equipment (PPE) for the medical personnel, thermal imaging scanners, coronavirus testing kits for airports of Leh, Kargil and Thoise, and Manali-Leh and Srinagar-Leh roads which allow detecting of temperature from a safe distance.

The fund will be further used to improve the ventilators and isolation/quarantine wards.

Recently, the Ladakh MP played a pivotal role in the evacuation of 577 stranded Muslim passengers from Iran. He also ensured that Ladakh students who are stranded at various locations such as Dehradun, Jammu, Nagpur, Srinagar, Jammu, Gujarat, Bengaluru and Chandigarh, etc. amid the 21-day lockdown get essential commodities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
During a call-in to 'Fox & Friends' that lasted an hour, Trump says next call is with Putin.

Impeached toddler president Donald Trump says he and his boss, Russian crimelord-president Vladmir Putin, will talk on the phone today about trade.

While babbling on the Fox News show 'Fox and Friends,' Trump suggested that he has plans to lift U.S. sanctions against Russia.

"The whole [Russia] thing turned out to be a hoax," Trump said.

Yes, America, this is really happening. Remember, Trump promised that Putin would be coming for an official state visit, to Washington, DC, in September. Buckle up.

Just moments earlier on Fox & Friends, when asked about disinformation campaigns pushed by Russia, Iran and China, Trump shrugged it off as commonplace.

"They do it and we do it," Trump said. "Hey, every country does it."

Who initiated the phone call? For what stated purpose? Will we know what was said?

Trump says he and Putin will talk about trade and suggests he'll lift sanctions (!). "The whole [Russia] thing turned out to be a hoax."  Gabriel Sherman (@gabrielsherman) March 30, 2020

.@kilmeade repeatedly presses Trump on Putin, reminding the president of the literal murder the Kremlin has gotten away with. "I'm not saying that they're perfect," Trump says. Co-host Ainsley Earhardt cuts in and ends that line of questioning.  Hayley Miller (@hayleymiller01) March 30, 2020

President Trump says his next phone call this morning will be to Vladimir Putin and they will discuss the price of oil and trade. He says the Russians very much wants to trade with the US. (The Russians want to get out from under US sanctions.)  Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) March 30, 2020

Trump tells Fox and Friends his next call is with Vladimir Putin and that they'll discuss the Russia-Saudi oil pricing war.  Meredith Lee (@meredithllee) March 30, 2020

On the phone with Fox and Friends Trump says his next call is to "a gentleman named Vladimir Putin" about oil prices  then veers off into James Comey and "the hoax"  Chris Jansing (@ChrisJansing) March 30, 2020

Trump says he's talking to Vladimir Putin after Fox & Friends. He mocks his opponents' previous "Russia, Russia, Russia" focus. "We have problems with other countries. More than Russia, frankly."  Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 30, 2020

"I've been tougher on Russia than any president in the history of the country." He says Putin will probably ask him to lift sanctions, "he's been asking that for two years," but he, Trump, put sanctions on, and he's "not the soft guy."  Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 30, 2020
The government of Anambra State has announced the closure of the Niger Bridge in Onitsha, to discourage vehicles from queuing up on the bridge.

The announcement was made yesterday in a statement issued by the Secretary to the State Government Prof Solo Chukwulobelu. Only vehicles transporting food items and medicines will be allowed passage.

The statement reads;
A Melbourne astrophysicist's attempts during self-isolation to invent a device to slow the spread of coronavirus landed him in hospital.

Dr Daniel Reardon got four magnets stuck up his nostrils while experimenting with them at home last week as he tried to come up with a way to stop people touching their faces.

The Australian researcher had been trying to create a magnetic necklace that activated an alarm if users brought it too close to their face.

Dr Daniel Reardon's experimentation with magnets landed him in hospital last week

'It used a 'hall effect sensor' which detects magnetic fields,' Dr Reardon told MailOnline.

'So if the device is worn on the neck, and magnets worn on the hand/fingers, it would activate the device and sound a buzzer if you bring them too close to your face.

'It needed to be much more sensitive to magnetic fields, and also my sensor was activating the buzzer when there wasn't any magnetic field. So the buzzer would sound continuously unless you brought your hand close to your face.'

He continued experimenting with the magnets, despite the unsuccessful invention.

'It's the same logic as clipping pegs to your ears - I clipped them to my earlobes and then clipped them to my nostril and things went downhill pretty quickly when I clipped the magnets to my other nostril,' Dr Reardon told Guardian Australia.

Dr Daniel Reardon has vowed to not experiment with magnets again after getting four stuck up his nose during a mishap while in self-isolation at home

The magnets connected to each other while Dr Reardon was trying to remove them and got stuck up his nose when he lost his grip.

In an attempt to remove them, Dr Reardon used pliers, which only made matters worse.

'My partner took me to the hospital that she works in because she wanted all her colleagues to laugh at me. The doctors thought it was quite funny, making comments like ''this is an injury due to self-isolation and boredom'',' he said.

Daniel's hospital discharge report summed up the bizarre incident which happened at home

Doctors managed to pull three magnets from his nostrils, while the other fell down his throat.

'That could have been a bit of a problem if I swallowed or breathed it in, but I was thankfully able to lean forward and cough it out  Needless to say I am not going to play with the magnets any more,' Dr Reardon said.

He says his days of experimenting with magnets are now over.

'I'd be happy if anyone else took the idea and made something of it,' Dr Reardon told MailOnline.

'The device is a write-off now since I don't have a lot of free time.'
An emergency room doctor in New Jersey who had to intubate a fellow physician.

A doctor in New York who had to tell her patient's wife he was dying over FaceTime.

An ICU nurse in Michigan who had to spend a 13-hour shift caring for two critically ill patients essentially on her own.

FURLOUGHS: These companies have furloughed or laid off Houston and Texas workers due to virus

These are just some of the firsthand accounts from health professionals in emergency departments and critical care units across the United States that have emerged on social media in recent weeks - providing raw, unfiltered glimpses into the lives of those on the front lines of the country's battle against the novel coronavirus.

"For me, it's really just about sharing the reality," said Craig Spencer, who recently took to Twitter to detail a day in his life as an emergency room doctor in New York. New York has become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., so far recording nearly 60,000 confirmed cases and 965 reported deaths.

Spencer's tweets, posted March 24, have since been shared by tens of thousands of people, including former president Barack Obama, and turned into an op-ed for The Post.

"I'm just hoping that myself and other people can . . . share real stories and highlight the fact that it doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or Republican, old or young, black or white," said Spencer, the director of Global Health in Emergency Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. "The one truly bipartisan thing right now facing this country is your susceptibility to being infected with this virus," he told The Post Sunday night.

STAYING SAFE: How you can avoid coronavirus exposure while shopping

- "I intubated my colleague today": On Friday, David Zodda, an emergency medicine physician at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, recounted having to insert a breathing tube into "a young, healthy ER doc" much like himself.

"I intubated my colleague today . . . As scared as I was, I knew that I owed it to my colleague to be calm, focused, and collected," Zodda wrote in a lengthy Twitter thread.

Beyond providing practical tips for "a safe and organized intubation," Zodda stressed to his fellow medical professionals that "it's ok to be human."

"It's ok to show emotion for in doing so, we show that we care, we grieve, we love," he tweeted. "In the end, our love and service to one another, may very well be the thing that gets us through this."

According to the most recent figures, New Jersey has more than 13,300 confirmed coronavirus cases and 161 reported deaths.

- "This is our new normal": In a single day, Anna Podolanczuk, an attending physician at New York Presbyterian/Columbia University in New York, tweeted that she did the following while treating patients:

- "I told a 28 year old that he needs intubation. He was scared. Couldn't breathe."

- "I told the wife of a 47 year old that he is dying over FaceTime."

"I bronched a #COVID19 patient who mucous plugged. It saved his life. Risked mine."

At the end of her shift Saturday, Podolanczuk wrote that she made it home "in time to have dinner with my family for the first time this week," adding that she hopes she won't get her loved ones sick.

STAY POSITIVE: 15 pieces of good news to come out coronavirus pandemic

"This is our new normal," she tweeted.

- "Mommy tried really hard to do her job": Other doctors have used their social media platforms to raise awareness about a shortage of personal protection equipment, among other essential supplies, and the risk they face of exposing themselves to coronavirus every day at work.

New York-based pediatric surgery fellow Cornelia Griggs shared a photo of herself decked out in medical garb along with a message to her children.

"My babies are too young to read this now. And they'd barely recognize me in my gear," Griggs tweeted Sunday. "But if they lose me to COVID I want them to know Mommy tried really hard to do her job."

- "All these patients need help": For Mary Macdonald, an emergency room nurse in Michigan, her coronavirus "reality check" moment came early last week.

"Until you see it firsthand, you just have no idea what it's like, what it's going to be like," Macdonald said in an Instagram video shared March 23. "It's truly frightening and I'm here to talk to you guys about that."

Macdonald said she was home on her first night off in "10-plus days" when she was called in to help at another area hospital.

BEFORE AND AFTER: Photos show the stark changes in Houston life following stay-at-home order

"'Everybody's sick,'" Macdonald recounted her boss telling her. "'They're intubating everybody and all these patients need help.'"

By the end of her shift, Macdonald said the hospital had run out of ventilators and critical medications that help keep intubated patients sedated.

"We're out of Tylenol," she said, shaking her head in disbelief.

As of early Monday, Michigan had more than 5,400 confirmed cases and 132 reported deaths.

- "It felt like I was working in a war zone": Macdonald wasn't the only nurse in Michigan to document her experience treating coronavirus patients in recent days.

In a video shared widely on Twitter March 25, an ICU nurse broke down in tears as she talked about her first day at work after her unit was designated for covid-19 cases.

"Honestly guys it felt like I was working in a war zone," the nurse said. "Completely isolated from my team members. Limited resources, limited supplies. Limited responses from physicians because they're just as overwhelmed as we are dealing with a ton of other stuff.

"Basically, I just spent the last 13 hours like treating two critically ill covid patients . . . basically by myself," she continued. "And this is my new normal for the next however many months that it takes for this virus to die down."

A NEW ROUTINE: Coronavirus show what Houstonians take for granted

- "Our health care system is in survival mode": Prakriti Gaba, an internal medicine resident in New York, tweeted Sunday about how her hospital is struggling to accommodate a flood of patients, many of whom "are being intubated as soon as they show up to the Emergency Room."

Gaba noted that she provided care for 20 coronavirus patients on breathing machines and described a shortage of critical resources, including ICU beds.

"Hospital staff are exhausted & honestly - scared," Gaba wrote. "Our health care system is in survival mode."
Amid the blame game between Uttar Pradesh and Delhi over the exodus of migrant workers due to the nation-wide lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19, Haryana and Rajasthan have also started pushing UP labourers working there to the states borders.

Uttar Pradesh chief secretary Rajendra Kumar Tiwari said, This is true... our residents working in states like Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan are returning to UP in big numbers despite our repeated calls that people should stay put where they are. We are also promising them that UP government will make all arrangements for food and shelter there only.

Tiwari said nodal officers had been appointed for each state where UPs labourers worked and stayed, asking them to set up control rooms and ensure people had no difficulty with regard to food and shelter.

There are reports that Haryana has dispatched 500-600 buses with UP migrants to different cities in the state, including Lucknow. About 50 buses of Haryana State Roadways Corporation reached the state capital till 6pm.

Pallab Bose, the UP State Roadways Corporation (UPSRTC) manager of Lucknow region, said Haryana buses with passengers on board were reaching Lucknow via the Agra-Lucknow Expressway.

We are trying to get these buses to carry our people to their destinations (elsewhere in the state) but if Haryana authorities do not agree we will receive them here near Kakori (on the outskirts of Lucknow) and then dispatch them to their respective districts by our buses, he said.

According to people familiar with the developments, divisional commissioner Mukesh Meshram got inputs about a large number of buses with UP workers coming from Haryana to Lucknow and other cities. Thereafter, he alerted UPSRTC managing director Raj Shekhar too.

As for Rajasthan, sources said the entry points from Rajasthan were Agra and Mathura, and UPSRTC was handling transportation of migrants through its buses from thereon.

The abrupt, mass exodus started from Delhi on Friday.

After initially taking the stand that it will not allow any person to move from one district to another during the lockdown, the UP government had to operate special buses in the night to take its people home after they massed at different locations on the UP borders.

UPs minister of state for transport (independent charge) Ashok Katariya alleged the exodus from Delhi was the Aam Aadmi Partys (AAP) doing.

First, they got rumours spread that buses were waiting for them on the UP borders to take them home and then ferried them in Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses to the UP border, he said, claiming, We have videos showing all this.

Twitter war

The blame game began on Saturday with Delhis outspoken AAP legislator Raghav Chadhas tweet in which he alleged that the UP police were beating people who were going back to their home state. The tweet was later deleted.

Sharply reacting to Chadhas remark, UP CMs media advisor Mritunjay Kumar also posted a tweet, accusing the AAP government of forcing migrants to leave.

The massive exodus of workers from Delhi is your (AAP) governments doing. They got neither shelter nor food and water. The Yogi government has arranged buses overnight to bring them back and make arrangements for their stay and food. Dont resort to lies to do face-saving, he said in the tweet.

BJP national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh also tweeted: Migrants workers tell on camera that they were told that buses will be there at Anandvihar ... DTC buses drop them to Anand Vihar ... Some forces want India to fail when #IndiaFightsCorona. Nation will not forgive them.

Joining the twitter war, Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia rebutted the BJP leaders charges and advised them to desist from indulging into cheap politics in the time of crisis.

The round of allegations and counter-allegations continued on Sunday as well.

UP chief secretary Rajendra Kumar Tiwari avoided making any direct allegations against any of the neighbouring states, but said UP migrants were certainly facing some problems in neighbouring states because of which they were feeling compelled to leave.

Otherwise, what is the reason that despite the fact that UP houses more than five lakh migrant workers belonging to states like Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, no one is leaving for their home districts? he questioned.

UPSRTC FERRIES AROUND 1.25 LAKH PASSENGERS

The UPSRTC has already ferried more around 1.25 lakh (125,000) workers, mostly from the Delhi border, to their respective home districts where they will be kept in quarantine for 14 days before they are allowed to move to their homes if they are not found to be infected with Covid-19.

Sources said Anand Vihar in Delhi and Kaushambi in Ghaziabad were cleared by noon though migrants were still reaching Lal Kuan from where they were being ferried to different districts.

We arranged around 3,000 buses overnight on Friday despite the fact the department was closed. We are ensuring proper sanitisation of buses and providing hand-gloves, masks to drivers and conductors as well as two bottles of sanitizer each for the passengers to use intermittently during their journey, sources said.

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Moscow entered lockdown today in a bid to slow the spread of coronavirus after the capital recorded more than 1,000 cases of the disease.

Streets in the Russian capital were deserted today with Red Square empty after mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced the drastic measures last night.

People can only leave their homes for very limited reasons including food shopping, medical treatment and walking their dog.

The lockdown coincides with the start of a 'non-working' week declared by president Vladimir Putin last week in which shops and restaurants have been shut down.

Red Square, overlooked by St Basil's Cathedral (left) and the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin (right), is nearly deserted this morning after Moscow went into lockdown

A street in central Moscow is deserted today after authorities ordered a shutdown and said people had ignored previous health warnings

Moscow mayor Sobyanin said people had ignored earlier warnings to avoid public places and non-essential travel.

Many people went to parks for barbecues during an unusually warm weekend, despite the official recommendations.

'It is obvious that not everyone heard us,' Sobyanin wrote on his website as he announced the tighter quarantine measures.

Muscovites will only be allowed to go out to buy food or medicines at their nearest shop, get urgent medical treatment, walk the dog in a 330ft radius from their homes, or take out the bins, he said.

People who must go to work will be allowed to leave their homes, he said, adding that authorities would introduce a system of access passes in the coming days.

Streets were deserted in Moscow this morning, although there was still some traffic on roads in the city centre.

A vast system of facial recognition cameras in Moscow will help to police the lockdown.

Sobyanin wants 200,000 cameras across the city in a highly contentious policy which was already underway before the virus outbreak began.

An empty footpath in Moscow's Gorky Park, which has been closed in order to stop the spread of coronavirus in the capital

A nearly empty square outside St Isaac's Cathedral in St Petersburg, as Russia's prime minister ordered other regions to prepare for their own lockdowns

Moscow surveillance cameras such as this one will help to police the lockdown with facial recognition technology

Russia's prime minister ordered regional authorities to make similar plans for a lockdown.

'I ask regional heads to work on the introduction of quarantines similar to the one introduced in Moscow,' Mikhail Mishustin said at a government meeting.

In a rare televised address last Wednesday, Putin announced that Russians would not be required to go to work this week, but would still get paid.

The country has so far reported 1,534 cases of coronavirus - more than 1,000 of them in the capital - and eight deaths.

But some doctors have voiced scepticism about the accuracy of the figures given what they say has been the patchy nature and quality of testing. Authorities deny these claims.

A survey by the Levada Center found only 16 per cent of Russians fully trust official information about the coronavirus, while 24 per cent say they do not trust it at all.

Russia has already halted international flights, closed its borders and shut down shops and venues in Moscow and some other regions.

The head of Russia's Orthodox Church yesterday urged believers to pray at home, telling people to obey instructions 'before someone dies in our families'.

'Refrain from visiting churches,' Patriarch Kirill said, even though Orthodox services went ahead, including one led by him.

Mosques in Muslim majority Chechnya cancelled Friday prayers, Russian news agencies reported.
[March 30, 2020] HIVE Blockchain Doubles Global Mining Capacity with Acquisition of 30 MW Bitcoin Operation in Canada

VANCOUVER, March 30, 2020 /CNW/ - HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (TSX.V:HIVE) (OTCQX:HVBTF) (the "Company" or "HIVE") is pleased to announce that it has signed a definitive agreement (the "Agreement") to acquire a dedicated cryptocurrency mining operation with access to 30 megawatts ("MW") of low cost green power at a leased facility located in Lachute, Quebec (the "Facility") from Cryptologic Corp. for a total purchase price of approximately C$4.0 million (the "Acquisition"). Pursuant to the Agreement, HIVE will satisfy the purchase price through the issuance of 15,000,000 common shares ("HIVE Shares") to Cryptologic at a deemed price of C$0.20 per HIVE Share and C$1,000,000 in cash, subject to a working capital adjustment. "This is an important strategic acquisition for HIVE that diversifies our business significantly, and we are making it at an opportune time at an attractive valuation for our shareholders," said Frank Holmes, Interim Executive Chairman of HIVE. "The Acquisition provides us with an advanced, operating Bitcoin mining facility ready to transition to next generation mining hardware with access to some of the lowest cost electricity on the planet. The cost of US$95,000 per MW is less than half the industry standard build cost per MW. "Additionally, the Acquisition provides us with direct control of our destiny, including significant capacity for expansion and flexibility for our future operations," added Mr. Holmes. "Along with our recent assumption of full control of our Swedish operations and planned expansion there, and the recent suspension of our cloud mining operations, it is consistent with our focus over the past 18 months to strengthen our operational control of HIVE including improving transparency, accountability and financial controls, and improving our operational efficiency including optimizing our cost structure to set the foundations for profitable growth. In addition, it is in line with the Company's green energy strategy as the Facility is powered entirely by renewable hydroelectricity, thereby maintaining our 100% green energy powered operations globally." The Acquisition will more than double HIVE's total available power capacity globally to approximately 50 MW, placing it among the largest of any publicly-listed cryptocurrency miner, and provide significant diversification to the Company's business both geographically and by blockchain network. HIVE's European GPU-mining operations are currently mining on the Ethereum network, while the Facility in Quebec is able to support miners on the Bitcoin network. The fully operational, state-of-the-art Facility features US$0.04/kWh electricity costs and its primary assets include 30 MW of HVAC and electrical infrastructure that is unique to cryptocurrency mining, triple redundancy systems for power and internet connectivity, operational staff, and approximately 14,000 Bitmain S9 miners that are currently installed, which provide about 173 Petahashes of SHA 256 Bitcoin mining computing power and utilize a portion of the Facility's power capacity. Due to the Facility's low electricity prices, these miners generate positive gross mining marginsi under current market conditions. However, the value of the Acquisition is based primarily on the Facility's power capacity and cryptocurrency mining assets. HIVE intends to invest in next generation miners and potentially act as host for third-party miners to maximize utilization of the Facility's power capacity. The Company also anticipates exercising an option to extend the term of the Facility lease for an additional five years commencing on or about the closing of the transaction. The Acquisition has been approved by HIVE's Board of Directors and the board of directors and the shareholders of Cryptologic, and remains subject to customary closing conditions including receipt of regulatory approvals. The Acquisition is expected to close on the date that is the later of: (a) Friday April 3, 2020; and (b) the date that is two business days after the date that the TSX Venture Exchange provides conditional approval of the transaction. Following the Acquisition, Cryptologic will own approximately 4% of HIVE's common shares. The HIVE Shares are subject to customary resale and transfer restrictions. HIVE is currently one of the world's largest public miners on the Ethereum blockchain and this acquisition places HIVE among the world's larger publicly-listed miners of Bitcoin. The newly acquired Bitcoin mining facility in Quebec diversifies the Company's existing portfolio, which includes a facility in Sweden that comprises the bulk of HIVE's Ethereum-focused GPU mining operations and a smaller Ethereum-focused mining facility in Iceland. As announced recently, HIVE is expanding its operation in Sweden by 20% over the next two quarters. About HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. is a growth oriented, TSX.V-listed company building a bridge from the blockchain sector to traditional capital markets. HIVE owns state-of-the-art GPU-based digital currency mining facilities in Iceland and Sweden, which produce newly minted digital currencies like Ethereum continuously. Our deployments provide shareholders with exposure to the operating margins of digital currency mining as well as a growing portfolio of crypto-coins. For more information and to register to HIVE's mailing list, please visit www.HIVEblockchain.com . Follow @HIVEblockchain on Twitter and subscribe to HIVE's YouTube channel . On Behalf of HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. "Frank Holmes" Interim Executive Chairman Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Forward-Looking Information Except for the statements of historical fact, this news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation that is based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. The information in this news release about future plans and objectives of the Company, are forward-looking information, including the proposed acquisition and benefits of the cryptocurrency mining operation located in Lachute, Quebec; and the intentions, plans and future actions of the Company, as well as the Company's ability to successfully mine digital currency, the construction and operation of expanded blockchain infrastructure, and the regulatory environment of cryptocurrency in the United States and other jurisdictions where the Company may operate. This forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time it was made, and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others: the COVID 19 crisis; the transaction described in this news release may not occur on the terms as proposed and described herein or at all and, if such transaction is completed, the cryptocurrency operation may not meet expected performance levels for one or more reasons; the proposed transaction may not have a positive impact on HIVE's revenues, or gross mining margin; the impact of new electrical power rates which could impair profitability and operating performance; the operation of the acquired assets may not occur as currently planned, or at all; expansion may not materialize as currently anticipated, or at all; the digital currency market; the ability to successfully mine digital currency; revenue may not increase as currently anticipated, or at all; it may not be possible to profitably liquidate the current digital currency inventory, or at all; a decline in digital currency prices may have a significant negative impact on operations; the volatility of digital currency prices; the Company may never realize more efficient operations, a lower cost structure, or greater flexibility in operation; risks relating to the global economic climate; dilution; and other related risks as more fully set out in the Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for the year ended March 31, 2019, and other documents disclosed under the Company's filings at www.sedar.com. The Company has also assumed that no significant events occur outside of the Company's normal course of business. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward -looking information other than as required by law.









___________________________ i Gross mining margin equates to income from digital mining less operating and maintenance costs and is a non-IFRS measure

SOURCE HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd.

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A sudden spike in coronavirus cases across Tokyo following the postponement of the Olympics has sparked allegations that Japanese authorities understated the citys outbreak in order to keep the Summer Games on track.

Having initially appeared to contain the spread of Covid-19  despite being one of the earliest countries outside of China to report a case  Japan is now facing the prospect of a sudden explosion in infections.

With authorities poised to tighten containment measures, which could see Tokyo placed into lockdown, critics claim the capital manipulated figures and has only started taking the outbreak seriously after agreeing to delay the Olympic Games until 2021.

In order to make an impression that the city was taking control of the coronavirus, Tokyo avoided making strict requests and made the number of patients look smaller, former Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama said in a tweet.

The coronavirus has spread while they waited. [For Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike] it was Olympics first, not Tokyos residents.

On Sunday, Tokyo recorded its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases, bringing the citys total to 430, as prime minister Shinzo Abe warned that the countrys strategy for tackling the pandemic was barely holding up.

A rise in untraceable cases mushrooming in Tokyo, Osaka and other urban areas has raised concerns that Japan is on the brink of losing control.

Once infections overshoot, our strategy ... will instantly fall apart, Mr Abe said.

To combat the rising number of cases in the capital, which has a population of more than 13 million, residents have been urged to avoid non-essential, non-urgent outings until 12 April, while Ms Koike said last week that a lockdown could be needed if the spread of the virus does not slow.

Citing Tokyos sudden surge in infections, Maiko Tajima, an opposition lawmaker from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said last week: Is this just a coincidence?

Japanese health minister Katsunobu Kato said there is absolutely no relationship between the Olympic postponement and the recent increase in cases.

The country has also been accused of not testing enough people. From 18 February to 27 March, 50,000 people were checked for coronavirus  a daily average of 1,270.

South Korea, another Asian country to have reported early cases of coronavirus, had tested about 250,000 people by mid-March.

Japans strategy has been to focus on clusters and trace infection routes rather than testing those suspected to be carrying SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes Covid-19.

Mr Abe insisted that officials had not limited testing in order to reduce Japans number of confirmed cases. Im aware that some people suspect Japan is hiding the numbers, but I believe thats not true, he said. If there is a cover-up, it will show up in the number of deaths.

Shigeru Omi, a former World Health Organisation public health expert who is consulting with the Japanese government over the pandemic, defended the policy of selective testing. Tests are primarily for people who are suspected of having the virus, and should be based on clinical judgment by doctors, he said.

To date, Japan has reported 1,866 cases of infection and 54 deaths, according to figures compiled by John Hopkins University.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto has announced that a new shipment of medical supplies arrived on Saturday, March 28, bringing another 27 tonnes of protective equipment from China.

Two additional shipments were delivered on Sunday to ensure that everyone involved in healthcare is equipped with the necessary protective gear.



The most important thing is to protect peoples health and life, and here it is crucial that Hungary has sufficient means of protection, said the minister.



In connection to that, the coronavirus operational group has announced that the military-style medical command system for hospitals in Hungary will start from Monday.



The main goal of the changes is to let the doctors concentrate solely on the primary care for the patients, while a different system deals with organizational matters and the supply of equipment and medicines.



MTI Photo: Szilard Koszticsak
Vietnams exports to Japan rose by 6%. Agricultural exports amounted US$248.3 million, up 4.7% year on year.

Among the agricultural items, vegetables and fruits saw the largest growth of 25%, followed by cashew nuts 19.1%, and aquatic products 2.5%.

Last year, the two-way trade reached US$39.9 billion, up 6% year-on-year with US$20.4 billion from Vietnamese exports, up 8.4%, statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade showed.
[March 30, 2020] PENDULUM THERAPEUTICS ADDS GLOBAL HEALTH CARE EXECUTIVE HEATHER MASON TO BOARD OF DIRECTORS

SAN FRANCISCO, March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pendulum Therapeutics , an evidence-based microbiome company, announced today that veteran health care executive Heather Mason has joined its board of directors. A global executive with more than 25 years of experience in bringing novel pharmaceutical and consumer products to battle chronic diseases, including diabetes, Mason brings a wealth of expertise to Pendulum Therapeutics fast-growing business.

Mason most recently served as executive vice president of Abbott Nutrition, where she restructured and elevated the performance of Abbotts $7 billion consumer-focused business across R&D, sales, marketing and supply chain. She led the growth of differentiated nutritional products including Similac, an infant formula with human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) to strengthen babies immune systems; Glucerna, a medical food to minimize blood sugar spikes; and Pedialyte for multiple forms of dehydration. Prior to that, she was senior vice president of Abbott Diabetes Care, where she was instrumental in the development of the Freestyle Libre glucose monitoring system. The field of microbiome interventions is one of the most exciting areas of health care today, said Colleen Cutcliffe, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Pendulum. We are onored to have Heather join our board. Her guidance will benefit Pendulum greatly as we continue to expand our footprint of microbiome science in chronic diseases.



Mason holds a Master of Business Administration in marketing, strategy and finance from the University of Chicago, and a Bachelor of Science in engineering in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan. She also is an active board member for a variety of organizations, including Assertio Therapeutics Inc., University of Michigan College of Engineering, University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Kids in Danger. Previous board memberships include the Institute of Formula Manufacturers, California Life Sciences Association and Healthcare Businesswomens Association.

There are so many great developments happening at Pendulum. Its a truly fascinating time to be joining the board, as the company is already generating a high level of interest amongst medical providers and consumers alike, Mason said. Pendulum is a pioneer, and Im honored to be part of such an impressive group of experts helping to revolutionize the management of chronic disease, including type 2 diabetes, through the gut microbiome. About Pendulum Therapeutics

Pendulum Therapeutics is the first and only microbiome company to apply the discoveries of high-resolution, long-read DNA sequencing to the development and commercialization of microbiome interventions targeting specific diseases. Pendulums proprietary innovation platform enables identification of microbiome mechanisms of action and rapid translation from discovery and development through human clinical validation. Founded in 2012 by a diverse team of scientists with deep microbiology, biochemistry, computational and clinical expertise, Pendulum has raised $57 million to date. Sequoia Capital led its Series B with repeat participation from Mayo Clinic, True Ventures, Khosla Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures and others. Formerly Whole Biome, Pendulum Therapeutics is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.Pendulum.co . Media Contact:

Capwell Communications

[email protected]

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While gradually toughening measures against the COVID-19 outbreak in Turkey, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears bent on opacity in communicating with the public, a policy it has followed since confirming the countrys first case on March 11.

On March 27, Erdogan announced the toughest restrictions yet, canceling all international flights, banning residents from traveling between cities via public transport and planes unless granted permission by local authorities and closing picnic sites on weekends, among other measures.

In what Erdogan described as the most important point, he said, A decision has been enacted to meticulously implement these measures in all of Turkeys 30 metropolitan cities, chiefly big cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Kocaeli. Im not mentioning the others but only the 30 metropolitan cities for now.

He was referring to 30 provinces whose local administrations with the status of metropolitan municipalities. Did Erdogan select Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Kocaeli because those four provinces are the worst hit by the outbreak? No official data is publicly available to confidently answer this question in the affirmative. One can only piece together hearsay and a few facts to guesstimate that the outbreak has likely reached serious proportions in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Kocaeli. Deduction is the only option here because Erdogans government has been pursuing a policy of opacity in which the distribution of infections has been kept from the public as if a state secret.

That Ankara was following such a policy become obvious thanks to a video leaked from a prestigious hospital March 18, when the government's official count of the novel coronavirus pandemic stood at two deaths and 191 infections, a week after it confirmed the first case.

The video, which was taken secretly and quickly went viral on social media, showed a female physician briefing staff at the Ankara Universitys Ibni Sina Hospital about the coronavirus outbreak. Deploring Turkeys response to the pandemic, the physician, who was later identified as Dr. Gule Cinar, said, It looks like weve got off to a bad start. We dont know how it will go. We hope we dont become another Italy. The cases are now in the thousands, not in the hundreds as they say.

In addition to putting the cases in the thousands while the official tally stood at 191, the doctor cited some of the provinces affected by the outbreak. Istanbul got off to a very awful start, and Ankara, too, got off to an awful start, she said. There are cases in the east, in Van, as well as in Kayseri [in central Turkey].

So, Cinars situation report  intended only for hospital staff but made public by an anonymous colleague of hers  was significant in not only contradicting the official number of cases, but also in identifying regions where the outbreak is more prevalent.

The leak of Cinars remarks was apparently deemed irksome in undermining the governments policy of opacity, as Ankara University released an apology signed by Cinar on its Twitter account the following day. The statement referred to COVID-19 as an impending infection epidemic, suggesting that the cases in Turkey were not yet on the scale of an epidemic as of March 18. Cinar denied using any rhetoric that is politically motivated and aimed at provoking [public] indignation, concluding with an apology to everybody for having caused a negative public perception.

The doctors reference to rhetoric aimed at provoking indignation was the key element in her apology. The Turkish government has often used situations that could plunge the public into fear and panic by causing indignation as an excuse or justification for measures that are hard to defend on legitimate grounds. The same type of governing impulse has been afoot from the start of the coronavirus outbreak.

Remarks made March 24 by Health Minister Fahrettin Koca are a case in point on how this impulse manifests itself. [The government] has avoided strategies and practices that could lead to panic and cause the [further] spread of the disease and has [thus] narrowed the extent of risk, he asserted.

Koca did not elaborate on the said strategies and practices, and none of the journalists present asked him about them. Hence, it is up to observers to try to flag what strategies and practices Ankara has shunned in managing the COVID-19 crisis.

The first observation is that the government has avoided informing the public about the regions and provinces where COVID-19 cases and fatalities are on the rise. Similarly, it has withheld information about what measures, if any, are being taken in regard to the social circles of people with confirmed infections.

By keeping the names of the worst-hit cities and regions under wraps, the government shirks to a certain extent its responsibility to fully isolate and quarantine those settlements. Evading lockdowns and quarantines might slow economic damage in the short run, but Ankara's reluctance and procrastination are exacerbating the outbreaks impact on public health.

Yet, how this opacity can contribute to the spread of the outbreak was recently on full display in Istanbul when tens of thousands of people, in the dark about the gravity of the threat they faced, flocked to the shores of the Bosporus and to picnic sites to enjoy the pleasant weekend weather as they would in normal times, paying little heed to social distancing and probably spreading the virus. Had those people been warned that Istanbul was a focal point of the outbreak, they hardly would have behaved so casually and put their families in danger.

Turkeys lack of a free media is a great misfortune in the face of the governments opacity. According to the 2019 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, Turkey ranks 157th out of 180 nations, excelling in the category of countries whose media is not free. Without a mainstream media that can investigate, question, report and criticize, the government faces few obstacles in successfully implementing its policy of opacity, which can be defined as withholding as much information as possible from the public and thus releasing information in equally limited rubrics.

Even this policy, however, has been inconsistent. For instance, in a March 25 address to the nation, Erdogan spoke of 8,554 coronavirus patients receiving treatment in hospitals. Hours later, the health minister put the total number of patients at 2,433 on his Twitter account, which he has used to provide 24-hour updates on the number of new tests, confirmed cases and fatalities since March 11.

According to Sinan Adiyaman, head of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), Kocas tally represents only patients who have been tested for the coronavirus and were found to be positive, while Erdogans figure denotes the total number of patients who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in line with clinical and radiological findings and placed under treatment in hospitals. It was Erdogan who gave the true number of patients under treatment with a COVID-19 diagnosis, Adiyaman said.

Yet Kocas official update the following day perpetuated the inconsistency. The minister announced 1,196 new diagnoses, bringing the number of patients to 3,629  still well below Erdogans tally. He also announced 16 new fatalities, which put Turkeys death toll at 75.

While government officials offered no explanation as to why Erdogan and Kocas figures differed, the TTB in a March 26 statement said that the number cited by the health minister was only the tip of the iceberg. Instead of making do with Twitter messages of limited word count, the TTB said, the Health Ministry should begin releasing detailed data on its official website, including breakdowns by a patient's city, age, gender and profession. In addition to figures on those who have tested positive for the virus, the ministry should also reveal the number of cases that are clinically and radiologically consistent with COVID-19, regardless of the results of their tests. The TTB warned, People will remain insufficiently convinced of taking personal precautions, from hand washing to social distancing, unless they are adequately informed on how much the outbreak has spread among the public.

Suspicions of a cover-up are not actually new. Emrah Altindis, a Turkish-born scholar at Harvard Medical School, for instance, raised such a doubt in an interview published March 21. Asked why Ankara would conceal the actual figures, he said, A propaganda [campaign] is currently underway that the process is being managed very well. Until recently, the health minister claimed that Turkey had no cases and was boastful about that. They know this affair will have grave economic and political repercussions, so they are laying the ground to be able to say later they did their best. And are those in power doing their best? In my opinion, no.

In his March 27 statement, Erdogan put the total number of cases at 5,698, matching Kocas figure for the day. He did not bother to explain how the number had decreased from 8,554, the tally he had given two days prior.
Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen (SDRPY) has launched a cleaning, beautification and environmental sanitation campaign that will see collection and removal of up to 9,000 cu m of accumulated waste from streets and public areas.

The campaign will last for three months and will also include planting new greenery, erasing graffiti and repairing streetlights throughout the city.

Working in partnership with CIFA, the programme will cover 10 neighbourhoods in eight districts: Sheikh Othman, Mansoura (Abdel Aziz and Cairo), Dar Saad, Buraiqeh (Inma and Al Shaab), Khormaksar, Al Mualla, Tawahi and the Crater District.

Besides critical knowledge and skills, SDRPY has provided the campaign with more than 22 pieces of heavy equipment and machinery  including bulldozers and garbage trucks, as well as over 200 rubbish bins.

The project has also created valuable temporary job opportunities for more than 300 citizens, working alongside 12 field monitors, 80 participants from civil society organizations, and 40 individuals from local farms, said the statement from SDRPY.

Everyone involved will receive daily rewards for their direct actions throughout the duration of the campaign.

According to SDRPY, the hygiene and environmental sanitation campaign aims to improve urban character and reduce health risks from environmental and visual pollution.

It will also contribute to raising the level of performance of the Cleaning and Improvement Fund in Aden (CIFA), providing more advanced and higher quality services to Yemeni citizens, it stated.

The campaign was launched in the presence of Aden Governor Ahmed Salem Rabeea and the head of the SDRPY delegation Engineer Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Hadi.

During the inauguration, a memorandum of joint cooperation was signed between SDRPY and CIFA to contribute to improving and developing Aden.

Rabeea affirmed that the support of SDRPY is continuous and without limitation, adding that the campaign would contribute to curbing the spread of epidemics and diseases.

The equipment received by the governorate was part of a comprehensive set of deliveries that would arrive consecutively to support the sanitation sector, noting that the very modern and advanced nature of the equipment and machinery received.

In launching the campaign, the programme seeks to activate environmental sanitation in cooperation with CIFA by providing essential support in the form of equipment and machinery, in addition to afforestation and rehabilitation of vital roads in Aden to maintain the cleanliness of the province and increase awareness of achievements for the health of the members of the community, remarked Al Hadi.

SDRPY, which had been active during the past few months in Aden assessing city's needs, would soon be announcing a number of new projects covering various sectors, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc., Instacart Inc. and other companies providing food, medicine and other essentials are about to find out whether the pandemic can accomplish what organized labor has struggled to do: give employees and contractors the leverage to extract better working conditions.

Some employees at Amazons Staten Island, New York, warehouse walked off the job on Monday, calling for the company to shut the facility for extended cleaning after they say a number of their colleagues were diagnosed with Covid-19. Instacart workers called for a nationwide strike on Monday over safety and pay concerns. And, if a petition circulating online gets traction, workers at Amazon-owned Whole Foods Market plan to call in sick en masse on Tuesday.

As coronavirus cases pop up at warehouses and supermarkets, workers -- cheered on by politicians and labor activists -- have begun demanding better pay, sick leave and on-the-job protections from the deadly respiratory virus. Amazon, the second-largest private employer in the U.S., has long been the target of efforts to organize its workforce. They have generally failed.

These things do sometimes take on a life of their own, and I wonder if were in one of those moments where workers are starting to stand up in greater and greater numbers because of the magnitude of the threat theyre facing, said Brishen Rogers, an associate law professor at Temple University.

Organizers face long odds should they pursue formal unionization. Forming unions in the U.S. is difficult, and the coronavirus has both flooded the market with potential new hires and made large labor rallies impractical. Organizers of the Staten Island walkout say more than 60 employees participated; video from a protest appeared to show a sparser crowd.

You could come out of this seeing much greater levels of worker organization within Whole Foods and Amazon that could in the future grow into formal unions, Rogers said. In the meantime, I think theyll respond by changing policies, in part to avoid unionization.

Story continues

In an emailed statement, Amazon said 15 people out of a workforce of 5,000 participated in the Staten Island demonstration, and called their critiques completely unfounded.

Our employees are heroes fighting for their communities and helping people get critical items they need in this crisis, the company said. Like all businesses grappling with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we are working hard to keep employees safe while serving communities and the most vulnerable. Amazon says it has stepped up cleaning inside its facilities, and that it is supporting employees diagnosed with Covid-19.

Instacart said it has seen absolutely no impact from the strike and that workers earnings are up on average. The company added about 50,000 new workers as so-called Instacart shoppers in the last week, and there were 40% more people working on Monday compared with the same day last year, the company said. Our goal is to offer a safe and flexible earnings opportunity to shoppers, while also proactively taking the appropriate measures to operate safely, a spokeswoman for Instacart wrote in an email.

A Whole Foods spokeswoman said the grocer is committed to prioritizing our team members well-being, while recognizing their extraordinary dedication. Despite the walkout and threatened sick-out at Whole Foods, Amazon shares climbed 3.4% Monday, closing at $1,963.95, alongside market-wide gains in the U.S.

Worker protests over coronavirus workplace conditions have also recently hit companies like Perdue Farms, McDonalds Corp. and General Electric Co., where employees at a Massachusetts site Monday protested -- standing six feet apart -- to demand the company deploy workers to manufacture ventilators in-house.

Amazon boosted its $15 an hour starting pay in the U.S. by $2 an hour through the end of April, and raised overtime pay. Workers at an Amazon warehouse in northern Italy, the epicenter of Europes coronavirus outbreak, on Friday said theyd reached an agreement that guaranteed workers an additional five minute break to help practice personal hygiene, and made permanent temporary enhanced cleaning protocols rolled out during the pandemic.

It remains to be seen whether Amazon will be pushed into broader concessions for the workers who pack and ship packages to customers. The U.S. labor market is teeming with millions of newly unemployed workers as large portions of the economy shut down to prevent the spread of the virus. Amazon has said it hopes to hire an additional 100,000 workers to deal with a surge in online shopping by people asked to stay home. Wholesale closings of large chunks of Amazons logistics network seem unlikely, say people who follow the company.

Amazons responses to worker agita have been rolled out in piecemeal fashion over the last two weeks. When the first coronavirus cases appeared in European warehouses, the company began doing things like removing chairs from break rooms and turning off the metal detectors employees were previously asked to go through on their way out of buildings. Over the weekend, Amazon said it would begin screening some employees in the Seattle and New York areas for fevers, a program Amazon plans to roll out at sites nationwide.

In the U.S., Amazon has also reoriented some work to spread out employees and closed locker rooms. Still several employees who work at facilities across the country have expressed alarm at the decision to keep some facilities with confirmed coronavirus cases open. The only Amazon warehouse known to have closed for an extended period -- a warehouse in Shepherdsville, Kentucky -- was set to reopen last week before the state governor intervened.

Amazon says it follows public health recommendations for cleaning its sites, and that it reviews video footage to determine who sick employees came into extended contact with. Those workers are asked to go home and into a 14-day quarantine.

Amazon has promised two weeks of sick pay to all employees diagnosed with Covid-19 or ordered into a quarantine; some workers, and a group of U.S. senators, say thats insufficient.

Emboldened workers can expect consumers to back them if they dont think companies are protecting their health, said Nelson Lichtenstein, a history professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Heres a crisis, he said, which makes it absolutely clear how important they are.

(Updates with Instacart reporting in the ninth paragraph.)

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He's the ballsy Australian Survivor host known for his sense of humour and ability to drop double entendres.

And on Monday, Jonathan LaPaglia confessed that his risque repertoire may have pushed the envelope at times.

Speaking to news.com.au, Jonathan said: 'I guess it's become a thing  the audience loves it, and it's entertaining for us on set to do it. It's our way having a little wink with the fans'.

'It's our way having a little wink with the fans': He's the ballsy Australian Survivor host known for his sense of humour and ability to drop double entendres. And on Monday, Jonathan LaPaglia confessed that his risque repertoire may have pushed the envelope at times

Throughout the series, the 50-year-old presenter hasn't held back from using naughty puns at any given opportunity.

And it appears there were times when Jonathan may have crossed the line.

'Sometimes, I lean into it too much and I start to go off the rails,' he said.

He explained that production had to cut a lot of it out.

In a montage, posted to the show's Instagram page, Jonathan can be seen taking any chance he can to say a dirty line while commentating the challenges.

Cheeky: Speaking to news.com.au , Jonathan said: 'I guess it's become a thing  the audience loves it, and it's entertaining for us on set to do it. It's our way having a little wink with the fans'

'That's a lot of love': In a montage, posted to the show's Instagram page, Jonathan can be seen taking any chance he can to say a dirty line while commentating the challenges. One memorable line came when Jonathan said 'Lockie (Gilbert) swinging his sack, making it difficult for the other team to bust a nut'

One memorable line came when Jonathan said 'Lockie (Gilbert) swinging his sack, making it difficult for the other team to bust a nut'.

On Monday, Jonathan threw shade at fellow Channel 10 host Osher Gunsberg after reports he would be filling in his spot hosting the live finale in Sydney amid COVID-19 concerns.

Speaking with KIIS 106.5's Kyle and Jackie ahead of the Survivor Grand Finale, he joked: 'I think hes gunning for my job.'

Before adding: 'I think hes trying to take over every hosting gig on Channel 10. Hes trying to improve his odds of winning a Logie.'

Cheeky! In another scene, Jonathan said 'Harry, tries to pull David off', referring to the moment ousted contestant pushed fellow contestant David Genat in the water

It comes after it was revealed that he will not be travelling from his New York base to host the show.

In a statement issued by Endemol Shine, a spokesperson said: 'The welfare of everyone involved in our shows is our number one priority so the filming will not have a live audience and host Jonathan LaPaglia will stay in the USA rather than travel to Australia.'

They added: 'He will still be a part of the Finale via a satellite link from LA.'
As of today, the 30th of March, 2020, we have recorded 111 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria of which 68 are in Lagos, 21 in the FCT, seven in Oyo, three in Ogun, two in Bauchi, two inEdo, two in Osun, two in Enugu, and one each in Benue, Ekiti, Kaduna and Rivers States, Ehanire added.
Kottayam : Prohibitory orders under section 144, CrPC were issued in Kottayam district on Monday, a day after a village near Changanassery saw a massive protest by hundreds of migrant workers, violating the 21-day lockdown.

District Collector P K Sudheer Babu issued the prohibitory orders as a measure "to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the district", officials said.

On Sunday, hundreds of migrant workers took to the streets in Payippad village seeking transportation to travel to their native places,, violating the nationwide lock down.

The Kerala government quickly stepped in to defuse the tension by deploying police force and sending the Kottayam district authorities to pacify the agitating migrant workers
Carluccios has fallen into administration, blaming tough trading conditions made worse by the coronavirus outbreak, which has seen restaurants shut their doors.

The decision casts doubt over the chains 71 UK restaurants and 2,000 employees. It came moments after rent-to-own company Brighthouse announced it was going into administration, putting 2,500 jobs at risk.

Advisory firm FRP has been appointed to explore options for Carluccios, including a sale of all or parts of the group.

Most of the companys staff will continue to be paid up to 80 per cent of their salaries through the governments job retention scheme while these options are explored.

Carluccios had been in trouble before the government ordered restaurants, pubs and bars to close to slow the spread of coronavirus.

Earlier this month the chain, founded in 1991, asked its landlords for a rent holiday as it struggled to deal with falling customer numbers.

Geoff Rowley, joint administrator and partner at FRP, said: We are operating in unprecedented times and the issues currently facing the hospitality sector, following the onset of Covid-19, are well documented.

In the absence of being able to continue to trade Carluccios, in the short term, we are urgently focused on the options available to preserve the future of the business and protect its employees.

BrightHouse, which sells televisions, washing machines and other household items on credit, collapsed after being hit by a regulatory crackdown on high-interest lending.

Britains biggest rent-to-own operator typically charges customers around 70 per cent annual interest. Last April, the Financial Conduct Authority capped interest and fees that companies operating in the sector could charge.

BrightHouse temporarily shut down its 240 stores last week after the government announced lockdown measures on Monday night.

Dr Gordon Fletcher, retail expert from the University of Salford Business School warned that coronavirus would cause more high street chains go into administration.

He said: While these two failures have come only a few days into the governments stronger social distancing measures there will be others as the pressure of having no casual high street shoppers will place pressure on their cash flow and the rationale for their underlying business models.
Hungary's parliament has approved a bill giving the country's strongman leader sweeping new powers to help tackle the coronavirus crisis but without any limit on how long they can be used for.

The bill, passed by 137 votes to 53, gives Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his government the ability to rule be decree - meaning they can enact new laws and make changes to existing ones without having to consult parliament.

While opposition leaders agreed on the need for new powers, they say the lack of a clear end-date means Orban may be reluctant to hand those powers back when the crisis comes to an end.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (pictured) has been given sweeping new powers to rule by decree - meaning his government can largely bypass parliament - amid the pandemic

The bill also includes measures against false information which have raised concerns they they could be used by the government to muzzle independent media.

'The extraordinary measures are related to the pandemic, to its prevention, its elimination and the damaging economic consequences,' said Csaba Domotor, a deputy minister in Orban's Cabinet Office.

'A time limit cannot be declared in this situation because there is no one ... who can say how many months of struggle we have to prepare for.'

Opposition lawmakers said they were willing to give the government the requested powers, but only if they were set for a certain period, with the possibility of extensions.

'The opposition is united on the issue of giving the government powers which are significantly more extensive than the authority in the Constitution,' said Tamas Harangozo, a lawmaker with the opposition Socialist Party.

Opponent of the move say the new powers are necessary, but should only apply for a set time amid fears that Orban will not give them up even once the virus crisis is over (pictured, a van disinfects the streets of Budapest)

'The opposition's request is that 'the government accept that it can only do this within time limits.'

The human rights chief at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe also expressed concerns about the new legislation.

'It is clear that states need to act swiftly in order to protect their populations from the COVID-19 pandemic, and I understand that extraordinary measures may be required to do so,' said Ingibjorg Gisladottir, director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

'However, a state of emergency -wherever it is declared and for whatever reason - must be proportionate to its aim, and only remain in place for as long as absolutely necessary.'

Hungary declared a state of emergency on March 11 due to the spread of coronavirus, which so far has infected 447 people with 15 deaths.
A 102-year-old Italian woman who spent more than 20 days in the hospital with COVID-19 has recovered from the disease, CNN reported.

Italica Grondona was admitted to San Martino Hospital in Genoa in early March for mild heart failure, according to her doctor, Vera Sicbaldi.

She also had mild coronavirus symptoms, so she was tested for COVID-19 and found to be positive. Despite her age, her heart condition and the infection, she required little medical intervention, doctors said.

"We nicknamed her 'Highlander'  the immortal," Sicbaldi told CNN.

Doctors say Grondona, who was born in 1917, is the first person they know of to contract COVID-19 and also live through the Spanish influenza pandemic that killed 50 million people in 1918-19. They took serological samples to identify what antibodies she might carry.

Grondona was released to a care home on March 26.

"I dont know what her secret is, but I know she is a free and independent woman," her nephew Renato Villa Grondona said.

A study released March 18 found that 15 percent of COVID-19 patients over the age of 80 died.

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Mike Moffitt is an SFGATE Digital Reporter. Email: moffitt@sfgate.com. Twitter: @Mike_at_SFGate
Britains middle class will bear the lions share of the pain when the multi-billion pound support measures start to be withdrawn, economists say.

Their investments, pension pots and house values will all record a big hit once the epidemic has passed and as Ministers unwind the huge economic stimulus and try to reduce what will have become a colossal debt mountain.

These are findings of a panel of distinguished economists assembled by The Mail on Sunday to look at the likely long-term implications of the crisis.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said the Government will do whatever it takes, but Michael Gove indicated yesterday that will come with a bill in the future

Pensions look set for three blows, they said.

Professor Peter Spencer, of the University of York, said nationalising companies vital to the economy was on the cards, and on terms less generous than those received by bank shareholders during the financial crisis of a decade ago.

I wouldnt be surprised if the Government tries to separate British Airways from the rest of International Airlines Group and renationalise it, he warned those with IAG shares in their pension pot.

Carl Emmerson, deputy director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said the crashing stock market had already caused great damage to pension schemes and there was no guarantee share prices would bounce back.

A third blow, said Professor HaJoon Chang, would be the ultra-low returns with the Bank of England base rate at 0.1 per cent.

He added: It is contradictory for authorities to urge people to save for old age then cut the returns to practically nothing.

Yesterday, Michael Gove indicated in an interview that Britain could face years of fresh austerity to try to balance the books after the Covid-19 outbreak is over.

The Cabinet minister said it was right to put the UK into lockdown although it meant ramping up UK debt, as you cannot 'put a price on lives'.

But he said the massive hole left in the country's finances by rescue packages for workers and businesses will need to be paid off 'in due course'.

This stands in contrast to some suggestions that the Bank of England will help the fund the fight back by ramping up quantitative easing, creating new money to buy government bonds.

However, there are economic concerns about using unusual monetary policy to fund fiscal expansion, which is often called monetary financing.

The tough message came as forecasters said the impact on UK plc from coronavirus will be many times greater than from the credit crunch.

Investment firm Nomura expects an unemployment rate of 8 per cent in the next quarter, up from just 3.9 per cent in January, according to the Sunday Times.

Property

The Government has told the public not to move house during the coronavirus lockdown - with just a few exceptions in certain circumstances.

Home buyers and sellers were left in limbo after the Government urged the public not to move house while the lockdown continues across the country.

If the house you're moving into is already empty, you can move in. If the property you're buying is currently occupied, however, then the Government has encouraged all parties to 'do all they can to amicably agree alternative dates to move', for a time when it's likely that the lockdown has ended.

Savers hit by rate cuts The Bank of England's response to the coronavirus crisis and lockdown has been to slash base rate to its lowest ever level of 0.1 per cent. Savers will feel the pain of this, with a wave of cuts to popular accounts. That makes it vital to switch to the best deals. Check the top rates in our independent savings tables.

The most pressing issue is for those who have exchanged contracts and are due to complete soon and move into their new property. They must work out what to do - a matter made even more complicated for those in a chain.

Meanwhile, those who were in line to exchange contracts soon are wondering what to do, as once this is done they are locked into the purchase on a certain date. Solicitors are either trying to put in mutually agreeable 'as soon as possible' completion clauses, or encouraging their clients not to exchange.

Those who have had offers accepted cannot get surveys or valuations done and may struggle with mortgage offers.

Estate agents have been told not to do physical viewings or valuations and market properties in the traditional manner, which will lead to a freezing of the market.

The inevitable question is what will happen to house prices? This is almost impossible to predict, although Savills has forecast a 5 to 10 per cent short-term fall.

Pensions and investments

The crash triggered by the coronavirus crisis has wiped about 30 per cent off the UK stock market.

The effect on individual portfolios and pension pots will vary, as these will not just be invested in a way that simply tracks the UK's FTSE indices.

Many balanced portfolios will hold a proportion of government bonds, which have gained in value as investors feel to safe havens. This may be the case for a portfolio overall, or some of the funds and investment trusts within it.

Other investors who are more exposed to higher risk but potentially higher reward investments, such as smaller companies, may find that their portfolios have been hit even harder.

The dent to Britain's defined contribution pension pots from the stock market's tumble is sizeable. However, losses will only be crystallised if savers sell their investments. Those who remain invested should benefit when the stock market rises again, although this could take some time.

The greatest risk is for those nearing or in retirement, particularly if they hold riskier investments than is suitable. If they need to draw an income from dividends, they may be hit as many companies have cut these. Meanwhile, if they need to sell investments to fund their pension years, they risk cashing out while values are depressed.

Investors should read our guide on how to shelter your pension in a stock market storm if you are already drawing an income from it. Our pensions columnist, Steve Webb, looks at what to do if you are still some way off from retiring here.

Those with final salary - also known as defined benefit - pensions are better protected, as the employer is responsible for meeting its retirement income promises.

One problem they may face in future is that struggling companies may not be able to meet these promises. The slashing of base rate to 0.1 per cent and the fall in UK government bond yields, known as gilts, also makes funding pension promises harder.

Defined benefit pensions are protected by the Pension Protection Fund lifeboat. If you are not yet retired it covers 90 per cent of your payouts, up to a fairly substantial annual cap, and if you are already retired it pays out in full.

The Pension Regulator has relaxed rules so employers can put contributions into defined benefit schemes on hold, and member transfers can be delayed for three months.

Tom McPhail, head of policy at Hargreaves Lansdown, says: 'A delay to any transfer request can be helpful to administrators in managing their resources, at a time when activity levels are very high and firms are dealing with reduced staff numbers and operational challenges.

'It also helps mitigate the risk of members being taken in by scams, or simply making poor financial planning decisions in response to the crisis situation.'

Will coronavirus sink house prices? The property market has been frozen as estate agents are instructed not to do viewings and valuations and surveys cant happen. On this podcast, Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost look at what buyers and sellers can do, how the freeze is affecting those due to move, and explore what could happen next for the property market. Press play above or listen (and please subscribe if you like the podcast) at Apple Podcasts, Acast, Spotify and Audioboom or visit our This is Money Podcast page.

Could small firms insure against another pandemic?

Insurers are set to hold talks with the Government with a view to insuring small businesses against another catastrophic pandemic, writes Helen Cahill.

Trade body the Association of British Insurers said it would be pushing policymakers to consider creating a Government-backed plan.

Huw Evans, director general of the ABI, told The Mail on Sunday it was impossible for insurers alone to provide cover to small firms for an event as devastating as the current virus outbreak.

He said insurers would go bust if they had to pay out claims to British businesses with total revenues of 4.4trillion all at the same time.

He said: To insure against that on a normal economic basis would be unaffordable for every business in the country. The only way you can insure against such a risk is with direct state support.

Evans said insurers would offer to work with the Government to build a specialised scheme that would pay out to firms forced to shut down in a future pandemic.
Medicine is often called the noble profession. The present coronavirus crisis has once again proved why that is the case. Its the medical professionals who are at the forefront of the battle against this fatal disease and doing their utmost to contain them. Theyre combating it day and night despite the risks and are really going beyond the call of duty. Our films have always portrayed doctors and nurses in a good light. As a salute to the bravehearts fighting this war for us, we bring you a list of films where the health care professionals exemplified the noble traits of their profession.The film is based on the life of a real-life Dr Dwarkanath Kotnis, an Indian doctor who worked in China during the Japanese invasion in World War II and gave up his life treating his patients. The idealistic young doctor, played by V Shantaram, who also directed the film, learns that medical help is required by the Chinese who are held under siege by the Japanese and travels there at the height of the Second World War. He meets a Chinese girl there who becomes his assistant and in due course, they marry. Such is their zeal that on their wedding night itself, they set out to help the wounded after a raid. A plague sets in and in order to find a cure for it, the good doctor self-injects himself with it in order to develop ant-bodies. Hes able to develop a vaccine but later succumbs to the rigours of the profession. His young wife is seen coming to India along with his infant son in the climax.The film was based on a short story written by Sachin Bhowmick. Its a love triangle between a young woman who marries an idealistic doctor but later develops feelings for a rich friend. Dr Nirmal Chowdhary (Balraj Sahni), who lost his mother to illness decides to dedicate his life to serving the poor and moves to remote Nandgaon. A rich heiress, Anuradha (Leela Naidu) is smitten by him and wants to marry him, despite him warning her of the hardships shell face in a remote village. She marries him against her fathers wishes but soon the toil of running a household without any servants in a far-off place begins to take its toll. Her husband too cares more for his patients than for marital bliss. Chance gets her close with a rich suitor Deepak (Abhi Bhattacharya) whose injured girlfriend is successfully operated upon by Nirmal. She longs to get back to the lush life of the city, only to change her mind at the last minute when she learns that her husband is held in high esteem by his peers. It was a simple story highlighting the fact that doctors serving in remote areas sometimes have to sacrifice family life for the sake of their cause.This was another love triangle between a doctor, his lover and the man she eventually marries. It was quite melodramatic in content, in keeping with the kind of films that were being made but depicted the dedication of a doctor nevertheless. Dr Dharmeshs (Rajendra Kumar) only lives to serve his patients. Hes nursing a broken heart because the love of his life Sita (Meena Kumari) has married a rich businessman Ram (Raaj Kumar). Ram gets cancer and comes to Dharmeshs hospital for treatment. Sita isnt sure Ram is the right doctor for her husband as his feelings might come in the way. To prove to her that his zeal for curing patients is bigger than his feelings for her, he dedicatedly works day and night to find a line of treatment and even suffers a heart attack in the process. He successfully operates on Ram but later dies out of exhaustion. Ram and Sita later erect a hospital in his memory.This time its not a doctor but a nurse who was at the forefront. The film is based on the Bengali short story titled Nurse Mitra by noted Bengali writer, Ashutosh Mukherjee and is a remake of director Asit Sen's own Bengali film, Deep Jwele Jaai (1959), starring Suchitra Sen. Its a poignant tale of a nurses complete dedication towards curing mental patients and the breakdown she undergoes because of it. Nurse Radha (Waheeda Rahman) cures a patient Dev Kumar (Dharmendra), of his illness through her affectionate care. She crosses professional boundaries and falls in love with him and is heartbroken when he leaves the hospital. A new patient, Arun Choudury (Rajesh Khanna), suffering from acute mania now gets admitted. Radha initially refuses to treat him but later relents. They both share memories from their past and Arun gets gradually cured. Convinced that he too will eventually leave her, Radha suffers a mental breakdown. However, Arun promises to wait for her till shes cured. The film had some fabulous music by Hemant Kumar, including the haunting song, Tum pukar lo.The film depicted the friendship between a kindhearted doctor and a cancer patient. It starred two superstars -- the current one, Rajesh Khanna and the one in the making, Amitabh Bachchan. Dr Bhaskar (Bachchan) is a cancer specialist who wants to do good by his poor patients. His kind nature makes him invest emotionally in his patients and he doesnt like it when they lose the battle with life. Anand (Khanna) a man at the terminal stage of cancer enters his life and both become fast friends, so much so that he starts living in Bhaskars house. Anand discovers Bhaskar loves Renu (Sumita Sanyal), from a distance and tries to fix up their marriage. He kind of lights up everyones life in the short span of six months that he has. He passes away but not before teaching a valuable lesson to Bhaskar that he should learn to live in the moment and not take life, or death, too seriously. It gave the viewers a glimpse about what our surgeons, especially those who battle cancer, have to go through on a daily basis and made us realise the efforts they take to keep sane.Based reportedly on real-life events, this is perhaps Pankaj Kapurs finest film as an actor. He plays a dedicated researcher who at the cost of his health and family life, discovers a vaccine for leprosy. However, jealousy by those in power makes his life hell. Insult turns to injury when his discovery gets credited to American scientists. Hes shunted to a small village but toils on. Redemption comes at last when a prominent foreign institute invites him to be on the panel of doctors researching other life-threatening diseases. It was a study of the dedicated researchers in microsome and how the unhealthy atmosphere stops them from reaching their true potential. Pankaj Kapur brought to life the sincerity and dedication of a doctor who has been married to research to perfection. Its a must-see if you want to know more about the hearts and minds of doctors researching cures for new diseases.
jackscoldsweat/iStock(NEW YORK) -- Southwest Airlines snapped a photo of 29 health care professionals making their way to New York City to aid overwhelmed medical staff during the novel coronavirus pandemic.



The picture shows nurses and doctors holding their hands up in the shape of a heart as the flight prepares for takeoff from Atlanta. Several broke out their masks and gloves for the journey.



"These brave souls soldier on in the midst of tremendous risk and exposure, constantly putting the needs of others above their own," the company wrote. "Their selfless sacrifice is a beacon of light during such a dark time in our world, and no amount of gratitude and praise would ever be enough."



The photo, originally shared on the airlines Instagram page on Sunday night, has now garnered thousands of likes and comments across social media, with many users praising the health care workers' sacrifice and bravery.

Happy Doctors Day! Thank you to all the docs, nurses and @SouthwestAir , my fave for this tremendous effort! #Brave https://t.co/3ohbHY3pY1  Amy Fenton Parker (@Amy_Parker456) March 30, 2020

If you need proof that theres still good in the world, 76,000 healthcare workers to date have answered @NYGovCuomos call for volunteers. Heres a plane full of doctors & nurses headed to NY on @SouthwestAir via Atlanta  #heroes #godspeed pic.twitter.com/7zDByK6IiO  Jei Chua (@JeniChua) March 30, 2020

Doctors and nurses on a Southwest Airlines flight headed to NY to help. This is why America is great! pic.twitter.com/UqgLZkqEco  Beau (@beau3161) March 29, 2020

Southwest Airlines spokesmen Derek Hubbard explained the photo was taken by an Atlanta ramp agent who wanted to capture the group of medical professionals on the regularly scheduled flight.



He added the flight crew "thanked them for their service" and "wished them well on their journey ahead."



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Bank of Ghana the Regulator of Banking and Financial Services in Ghana granted ZEEPAY Ghana, license to operate a full Electronic Money Issuer service otherwise known as Mobile Money.



Zeepay is a leading African FINTECH Giant that operates as a Mobile Financial Service company from Ghana, covering in addition 20 other African markets and still growing. The service will allow Zeepays subscribers to operate the full bouquet of mobile money services such as  Cash In, Cash Out, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Transfers, Payments and Digital Termination of Remittances (DTR).



Zeepay customers can now send and receive money across over 150,000 Agent network available and also perform other related services out of Zeepays full bouquet such as  Remittances, Micro Insurance, Auto Insurance, Mortgage Remit, Airtime top up, Bill Payment and Pension Collections all in partnership with third parties  such as Insurance Companies, Banks, and Pension Trustees amongst others.



Chairman of the Board, Paa Kwasi Yankey mentioned that The new Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) license will enable Zeepay to extend its current services within the Mobile Financial Services Industry. He reiterated that, Bank of Ghanas approval is a historic landmark, considering that Zeepay is the first Non-Bank Financial Services to be so issued. He further intimated, This is also a testament of the President Akuffo-Addo led Administrations commitment to empowering Ghanaians and Start-Ups. I am excited and believe that this landmark approval will open doors for Zeepay across the African continent  where we have significant operations in countries such as Uganda, Mozambique, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Cameroun, Cote dIvoire, Guinea, amongst others.



Andrew Takyi-Appiah, Managing Director mentioned Since 2014 when we embarked on this journey, we have never stopped to innovate- from being the first to introduce Tap & Pay services to mobile money, PoS acquiring for mobile money wallets and digital termination of remittances to mobile wallets. We are deeply humbled and grateful to the Bank of Ghana for this approval. Especially to the Leadership of Bank of Ghana. We will like to express our gratitude to our Shareholders Kwame Achampong-Kyei, Zoe Phillips, Paa Kwasi Yankey and Aaron Sackey for all their relentless support and our partners, the likes of MoneyGram, Small World, Thunes, RIA, DMA Consulting, Barclays Bank, GTBank, Access Bank, ADB (Bank), FAB (Bank), Bank of Africa and all our Board members; including John Gely and Patrick of MoneyGram, Natasha and Nick Day of Small World and Robert Kotei of RIA and AB, Sandra Yao and Djibril and others for believing in us.



Mr Andrew Takyi-Appiah further mentioned that Central Banks in Africa should follow the lead of Ghana and go a step further to recognize such approvals in their markets through Passporting like its done in Europe; where Zeepay is regulated across all 28 countries through similar Passporting arrangements from the United Kingdom.



The approval will enable Zeepay improve last mile access to financial services for over 20 million Ghanaians, while offering safety, convenience and significant cost savings. We look forward to exciting times ahead, where in partnership with Banks, Insurance Companies, Fintechs, Application service providers and Pension Fund Managers amongst others, we offer Mobile Financial Services products to our large pull of over 2 million users across Ghana. said The Head of Commercial at Zeepay, Ms. Dede Quarshie and further expressed the companys gratitude and profound appreciation to the Central Bank and the Payment Systems Team for their tremendous support.



About Us



Zeepay is the fastest growing Mobile Financial Services across Africa with Operations in Ghana and United Kingdom and terminating to 20 countries across Africa and over 90 remittance termination agreements globally. We specialize in Remittance termination into mobile wallets and completely agnostic. We are wholly owned Ghanaian company and regulated in the UK by Financial Conduct Authority-FCA # 592538 and in Ghana by Bank of Ghana under the Payment Systems and Services Act, 2019 (Act 987). Zeepay supports Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3 and is considered a Financial Inclusion Company positioned to improve last mile access. Go to myzeepay.com for more information.











Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A Delhi court on Monday extended the police custody of suspended Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Davinder Singh till April 3 in connection with a case pertaining to planning terrorist attacks in the country.

Special Judge Ajay Kumar Jain extended Singh's remand after Delhi Police sought his custody for confronting him with others accused in the matter to unearth the conspiracy.

Delhi Police told the court that Singh will be confronted with other accused persons, Javed Iqbal, Syed Naveed Mushtaq, and Imran Shafi Mir. Police said that the custodial interrogation will help in tracing the details of financial transactions and to find out other offenders.

Singh was arrested earlier this year by the NIA in a separate case for allegedly trying to assist terrorists to travel outside Jammu and Kashmir last month.

According to the police, the accused used to chat with other co-accused and militants of Hizbul Mujahideen through various internet platforms.

The court had earlier sent Syed Naveed Mushtaq and others to police custody till April 3.

Delhi Police has filed an FIR under charges dealing with criminal conspiracy saying that the Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab youths are being trained for carrying out terrorist activities. The FIR said that a Special Cell of Delhi Police had received an input that the D Company is funding pro-Khalistan terrorist organisations in Punjab.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The 100,000-square meter, 500-bed, GoBroad Research Hospital, upon completion, will provide a cutting-edge space designed for the implementation of translational medicine research and reduce the time to market for new drugs through international relationships, collaborative research, personalized clinical services, and technology empowerment.

The facility will provide pharmaceutical producers with a full-cycle service system from early clinical trials to drug registration and availability, effectively solving the bottlenecks they face, including long cycles and the high cost of clinical research.

The research-oriented facility is scheduled to come online in 2023 following three years of construction.

Despite the severe challenges brought about by the COVID-19 epidemic, it took only 124 days for GoBroad Healthcare Group to go from the signing the strategic cooperation framework agreement to construction, including all the necessary procedures associated with planning, land acquisition, government approval and development.

Building a research-oriented innovative medical group

GoBroad Research Hospital aims to become a research-oriented international-grade healthcare facility centred on translational science.

The hospital will address the unmet needs in the industry, including a lack of institutional capability for conducting clinical trials and investment in resources, such as experts and hospital beds.

The investment into the GoBroad Research Hospital project marks the completion of Hillhouse Capital's closed-loop investment in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. With Hillhouse Capital's extensive portfolio in the sector, GoBroad Healthcare Group is uniquely positioned to create an innovative drug ecosystem. It has become a pioneer in terms of promoting industrial transformation.

In 2019, GoBroad Healthcare Group established the Industrial Transformation Research Institute, bringing global top scientific research institutions and clinical specialists together to create a collaborative R&D across multiple locations.

GoBroad Healthcare Group operates five research-oriented medical institutions and a phase I ward lead by specialists in the fields of medical diagnosis, treatment and research that can support the development of the hospital. In addition, the company's team of clinical professionals has, in the aggregate, conducted over a hundred trials.

The project represents the latest investment by GoBroad Healthcare Group in the research hospital field following the opening of Shanghai Artemed Hospital in mid-2019.

GoBroad Healthcare is a medical platform wholly owned by Hillhouse Capital. The commencement of construction of the new hospital is an important step in the company's strategy to transform itself into a research-oriented medical group driven by innovation. Hillhouse Capital and GoBroad Healthcare Group plan to create a medical service and technological innovation platform integrating production and research by taking full advantage of their respective strengths in biopharmaceutical investment and the management of research-oriented healthcare industry translational projects, as well as in global resources and capital investments in the sector.

About GoBroad Healthcare Group

GoBroad Healthcare Group is dedicated to creating a medical service and technological innovation platform integrating pharmaceutical production and research, with a focus on blood diseases and tumors, among other medical fields. Its medical ecosystem covers the entire hospital supply chain. From clinical laboratories, a medical imaging facility, and big data centers to biotherapy Research and treatment. Currently, the group has three homoeopathy R&D centers and five hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, with a total of 800 beds and 88 hematopoietic stem cell transplantation wards.

SOURCE GoBroad Healthcare Group
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is self-isolating after a close aide tested positive for the novel coronavirus, his office said Monday.

The 70-year-old Israeli leader and other members of his office who may have been exposed will remain in isolation until a full investigation is completed and they are given the all-clear, his office said.

Rivkah Paluch, the prime ministers adviser on ultra-Orthodox issues, was diagnosed with COVID-19 overnight Monday after her husband was hospitalized with the virus. According to Israeli media reports, Paluch was at Israels parliament, the Knesset, Thursday morning as opposition leader Benny Gantz was voted speaker. It is unclear with whom she interacted.

The prime minister's office said a preliminary investigation found no need for Netanyahu to enter a 14-day quarantine because he had not come into close contact with Paluch.

Having tested negative for the virus earlier this month, Netanyahu will retake the test on Monday. Should he test positive, he and his staff would need to be quarantined, along with his rival Gantz, who spent eight hours with him over the weekend discussing an emergency unity government to deal with the pandemic.

Netanyahu is meanwhile said to be coordinating with his personal doctor and conducting business from home and via video conference.

The virus has impacted some of the highest levels of government around the world. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced last week he had been diagnosed with the coronavirus and is now under quarantine. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Sunday he will remain in isolation for the next two weeks, even though his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau had recovered from the virus.

The number of cases in Israel surged over the weekend, with the Health Ministry reporting Monday that it had recorded 100 more cases, bringing the total number of infected to 4,347. Fifteen people have died of the virus in Israel and 80 are in serious condition.

The government has rolled out sweeping measures aimed at keeping citizens indoors, including a ban on straying more than 100 meters from home unless to buy groceries, receive medical care or go to an approved job. Netanyahu warned last week his government would impose a full nationwide lockdown if there wasnt an immediate reduction in the number of coronavirus cases.
American President Donald Trump has said that the US would not foot the bill for the UK's Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle's security amid reports that the couple have moved to California from Canada, the media reported.

"I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen and the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the US however, the US will not pay for their security protection. They must pay," the BBC quoted the President as saying in a tweet on Sunday.

But in a statement released through a spokesperson, the couple set to formally step down as senior royals on March 31 and no longer carry out duties on behalf of the Queen, said: "The Duke and Duchess have no plans to ask the US government for security resources. Privately funded security arrangements have been made."

According to a report published last week by London-based The Sun newspaper, the couple along with their son, Archie left the 10.7 million-pound mansion they were borrowing in Vancouver and took a flight out of the city shortly before Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau closed the border between their countries.

The Sussexes will set up a new home close to Hollywood, where they are currently living in lockdown with their 10-month-old son, the report added.

Last month, the Canadian government announced that it would stop providing security assistance to the family "in keeping with their change in status", the BBC reported.

In a shocking announcement last month, the couple said they planned to step back from their duties as senior members of the royal family and "transition into a new working model" last month.

The Sussexes' new role was agreed after a summit of senior royals was convened by the Queen at Sandringham to discuss their desire to take a step back and strive for financial independence.

It will be reviewed after a 12-month period.

The Duke and Duchess were in the UK earlier this month to wrap up their last royal engagements before stepping back as senior royals on March 31.
Modi appreciates Omar Abdullah's call for social distancing following his uncle's death

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Mar 30: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday condoled the death of Omar Abdullah's uncle and appreciated the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister's call to supporters to respect guidelines and not gather at either his residence or the graveyard.

Prayers from home will give peace to his uncle's soul, Abdullah tweeted on Twitter on Sunday night while announcing the death of Dr Mohammed Ali Mattoo in Srinagar following a brief illness.

My uncle Dr Mohd Ali Mattoo passed away earlier tonight after a brief illness. At this difficult time the family appeals to everyone to respect the guidelines to not gather either at his residence or the graveyard. Your prayers from your homes will give peace to his soul. pic.twitter.com/JsVwRjfdnk  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) March 29, 2020

The Prime Minister offered his condolences and said, "In this hour of grief, your call to avoid any large gathering is appreciable and will strengthen India's fight against COVID-19." India has been under a 21-day lockdown since March 24 to curtail the spread of coronavirus. Social distancing is the only way to curb the spread of coronavirus, the government has said.

#Stayathome and send us your selfie

Condolences to you and the entire family, @OmarAbdullah. May his soul rest in peace.



In this hour of grief, your call to avoid any large gathering is appreciable and will strengthen Indias fight against COVID-19. https://t.co/2xz814elbq  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 30, 2020

Replying to the prime minister, Abdullah said, "My family joins me in thanking you very much for your message of condolence jenab. Your prayers for the departed soul are much appreciated."

My family joins me in thanking you very much for your message of condolence jenab. Your prayers for the departed soul are much appreciated. https://t.co/O5sHZmiPiF  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) March 30, 2020

On Sunday night, the National Conference leader, who was released last week after nearly eight months in detention, went on Twitter to say his uncle had passed away after a brief illness.

"At this difficult time the family appeals to everyone to respect the guidelines to not gather either at his residence or the graveyard. Your prayers from your homes will give peace to his soul." Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, whose Twitter handle is being operated by her daughter Iltija and continues to be detained, also expressed her condolences over the bereavement.
The Chattanooga Engineers Club, a longtime valued Chattanooga State supporter, has established the Chattanooga Engineers Scholarship, providing a $10,000 annual donation for engineering technology scholarships. Chattanooga State is home to one of the largest engineering technology departments within the College System of Tennessee.

Funding was made possible through the Frazier Engineering Education and Development Fund, administered through the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga. The Chattanooga State scholarship was one of four $10,000 scholarships that the club established in the Chattanooga tri-state region.

The Engineers Club has funded scholarships at Chattanooga State for many years, now with the Frazier Engineering Education and Development Fund we can provide more funding on an annual basis," said Albert Curtis, club president. "The members believe that Chattanooga State offers a great technical education for students in our area and is a wonderful place to help students fund their education."

For more information about this scholarship and other giving opportunities, visit chattanoogastate.edu/alumni-donors or contact Tammy Sawyers, director, College Advancement at 697-3359, tammy.sawyers@chattanoogastate.edu.
Alarmed that quack cures and myths about coronavirus are getting more traction in social media than official medical advice, the Boris Johnson government has deployed specialist units across departments to crack down and prevent fake news spreading.

Penny Mordaunt, paymaster-general said on Monday: Holding your breath for ten seconds is not a test for coronavirus and gargling water for 15 seconds is not a cure - this is the kind of false advice we have seen coming from sources claiming to be medical experts.

The drive to counter false narratives is coordinated by a group called the Rapid Response Unit operating from No 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, tackling harmful narratives online - from purported experts issuing dangerous misinformation to criminal fraudsters running phishing scams.

The unit is engaging with social media platforms and with disinformation specialists from civil society and academia, to establish a comprehensive overview of the extent, scope and impact of disinformation related to coronavirus.

To help spot false information, officials ask people to use a SHARE checklist: Source - make sure information comes from a trusted source; Headline - always read beyond the headline; Analyse - check the facts; Retouched - does the image or video look as though it has been doctored? Error - look out for bad grammar and spelling.

Noting that some countries routinely use disinformation as a policy tool, officials said the government is also stepping up efforts to share its assessments on coronavirus disinformation with international partners.

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden said: Were working with social media companies, and Ill be pressing them this week for further action to stem the spread of falsehoods and rumours which could cost lives.

When false narratives are identified, the governments Rapid Response Unit coordinates with departments across Whitehall to deploy the appropriate response. This can include a direct rebuttal on social media, working with platforms to remove harmful content and ensuring public health campaigns are promoted through reliable sources.

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CHICO, Calif.- Local restaurants are working to stay in business amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Action News Now reporter Kristian Lopez spoke with a four different restuarant owners in Chico on Sunday, about how they are handling the situation.

Shelly Blanshei, owner of Tea Bar & Fusion Cafe, says she hasn't had to lay off any employees, but is still adjusting to many changes.

"There isn't activity of people and the buzz we are used to in the restaurant but that's fine we are making it work. It's been encouraging to see the community support and that people appreciate that we are still open," Blanshei said.

Like other restaurants, they are only offering take-out and delivery. She adds, "The community has really been very supportive, it's very enjoyable working, there's a connection with people in a different way."

Blanshei currently has three Tea Bar locations, two in Chico and one in Sacramento.

Right next door, a popular breakfast spot, also continues to serve the community.

Dee Luna, owner of Morning Thunder Cafe, says they are also facing challenges but staying positive.

"We are part of a tight knit community and I love that," Luna said.

She says they have had to lay off many employees but are still open for business.

Morning Thunder Cafe is currently open for take-out and delivery.

Not too far away, Bidwell Perk, continues serving fresh coffee daily.

Owner, Michelle Power says, "It's been emotional at times honestly, people are very thankful that we are still open."

The lobby is closed but the patio is open with extra space between tables. They have curbside delivery or you can use their walk-up window. They offer a variety of drinks, breakfast and lunch options, and are now offering beer and wine to-go.

In downtown Chico, Broadway Heights is serving up take-out and delivery.

Owner, Scott Schulman says they have managed to stay steady.

Schulman says, "The biggest challenge is getting the word out, that we are producing food and making stuff we have made for 28 years, people are just really happy that we are doing it and showing their gratitude by ordering a lot and leaving some tips which is really cool. Support us and everyone who is open, we are doing the best we can to keep people busy and getting a little normal."

For a list of restaurants that are currently open CLICK HERE.
Seeking to contain mass spread of the deadly coronavirus, several states on Monday effectively sealed their borders to stop movement of migrant workers rendered jobless due to a nationwide lockdown, but FMCG firms flagged non-availability of trucks and labour as a major challenge in ensuring supply of essential goods.

The Supreme Court also observed that fear and panic becoming was becoming "a bigger problem than the coronavirus", but stopped short of passing any order and sought a report from the government by Tuesday.

As the 21-day naionwide lockdown entered its sixth day, reports from various parts of the country showed curbs put in place to fight the COVID-19 crisis beginning to impact supplies of essential goods as available inventory dwindled and fresh stocks were hard to come by.

Amid rumours about a possible extension of the lockdown, the government had to debunk them, while the Army also stepped in to dismiss as fake the social media posts about a possible declaration of emergency in April.

A day after the central government relaxed some lockdown conditions to allow transportation of all goods, irrespective of those being in essential or non-essential categories, the FMCG companies said availability of workers at factories and trucks for transportation remain key challenges to meet the demand for essential items.

The companies, however, said approvals for plant operations and transportation of goods have eased difficulties in movement of raw materials and finished products, assuring steady supply of essential items.

Addressing local issues in many states that have hindered movement of goods would help in kick-starting the functioning of the supply chain, they said.

"But, the key issue that still remains is the availability of manpower and workers to run these operations. With most workers either leaving for their home towns or staying at home during the lockdown, it would be a challenge to ensure smooth functioning," Dabur India Executive Director (Operations) Shahrukh Khan told PTI.

Sharing similar experience, an ITC spokesperson said, "While we have progressively obtained permissions in some states, availability of trucks continues to be the biggest challenge at the moment. Interstate and local truck movement has been severely impacted together with the challenge of shortage of manpower in factories."



Expressing similar views, Parle Products Senior Senior Category Head Mayank Shah said, "The biggest challenge today is manpower... The new challenge facing the companies now is how to continue running their plants in absence of labour."



Most of the labours in manufacturing plant are migrant workers. With they moving back to native places, there is going to be a huge challenge, he added.

Even many poor beneficiaries registered under the Public Distribution System (PDS), who are pinning their hopes on free and subsidised ration supplies for their survival during the COVID-19 lockdown, complained they are not wheat while flour mills are shut too.

In most parts of the country, local flour millers and chakki shops are not allowed to operate, while some are not willing to function due to fear of action by the police which is enforcing strictly the lockdown rules to stop the spread of the disease as the confirmed cases in the country has crossed the 1,000-mark.

In Punjab, the state government's decision to allow industrial units to commence their operations did not find favour, particularly among MSME segment, as many establishments said it is not feasible in view of rising coronavirus cases.

The state government on Sunday had said the owners of all industrial units and brick kilns could commence production if they have enough space to accommodate migrant labourers and provide them with food and take all hygiene precautions.

In the meantime, the Home Ministry issued orders to states and Union Territories to make it a personal responsibility of District Magistrates to arrange food and shelter for stranded workers waiting to reach their native places.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, Joint Secretary of Union Home Ministry Punya Salila Srivastava said the ministry has already issued orders asking landlords to not seek a month's rent from migrant workers and also to not ask for vacating their property.

On the issue of police beating workers who are walking to their native places in the absence of transport, she said while clear instructions have been issued to states and UTs to enforce lockdown, the ministry has also asked that the police be sensitied.

Officials said the Union Home Ministry is doing 24X7 monitoring of lockdown along with state government.

Haryana police said they have completely sealed all inter-state borders to prevent the movement of migrant workers, while the Uttarakhand government withdrew its earlier decision of allowing inter-district movement of people within the state.

The Delhi government announced that students from nursery to class 8 will be promoted to the next class in the national capital and also announced online classes for students of class 12 from first week of April.

In Delhi University also, professors and students have begun using digital platforms to continue studies, but slow internet speed and connectivity are emerging as key challenges.

Good samaritans, in the meantime, continued to pitch in in various regions by helping with delivery of food to the elderly to taking medicines to the sick, as also for fighting fake on social media and for helping people with their groceries.

But, another problem seen emerging in Telangana and some other states after Kerala in the form of rising number of cases getting reported to hospitals for alcohol withdrawal symptomsd due to closure of liquor shops and bars.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A total of 163 law enforcement officers in New Jersey have tested positive for the coronavirus, the New Jersey State Police said on Sunday in retracting a much-higher figure provided a day earlier.

Col. Patrick Callahan, acting superintendent of the State Police, told reporters at a press conference Saturday that about 700 officers had tested positive.

In a statement, the State Police said Callahan had overstated" the numbers.

However, 1,272 officers in New Jersey are quarantined and 1,435 are out for other reasons, State Police said.

New Jersey has about 36,000 full-time officers in the state, according to recent State Police data.

Multiple local police departments, including Jersey City and Newark, as well as the State Police, NJ Transit and Port Authority, have reported officers testing positive for the coronavirus.

Princeton announced on Saturday than an officer had tested positive, six days after noticing symptoms and going into quarantine. Its the second officer in the department to test positive.

On Sunday, New Jersey reported 2,316 new known cases of the coronavirus, with a statewide total of 13,386 cases, with at least 161 deaths.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

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Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@RobJenningsNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
FMCSA drug and alcohol rules have been updated, and a new clearinghouse database has been created to offer easy access to these records for employers. Clearinghouse is part of new FMCSA regulations that aim to make roads safer.

There were 97 accidents involving large trucks daily in Texas alone in 2017. Injuries and fatalities for accidents involving big rigs or commercial vehicles are substantially higher than accidents involving cars.

Increased Access to Information

The FMCSA Clearinghouse will allow for employers to have a quick and easy way to see if current or potential employees have failed drug or alcohol tests in the past. Until the creation of the database, companies have had to rely on the employee to divulge all of their failed tests.

Employees will often lie about failed tests.

The Clearinghouse database will:

-Require all CDL employers to use the database

-Require employers to add failed tests to the database

Access to the database will be limited to:

-State law enforcement agencies

-Employers

All CDL drivers must be notified of these changes and that their information will be added to the database if they fail to pass a drug or alcohol test.

50% Random Drug Testing Rate Minimum

Drug testing must be performed randomly for the system to be fair and just. Minimum testing requirements are 50% for all commercial driver's license holders. The requirement will mean that one out of two people are likely to be tested for both drugs and alcohol.

Starting on January 6, 2020, employers must check the database before hiring anyone with a CDL.

It's also up to the employer to check the database annually for all current employees. The driver must provide written consent before a query is made. Consent can occur in two main ways:

1. Written

2. Electronic

The FMCSA is attempting to stop truckers from circumventing measures using techniques that were followed in the past. When an employee would fail a test, they would try to conceal their failed test by:

-Not informing new employers of the failed test

-Switching jobs and concealing the failed tests

-Moving to other jurisdictions where the test won't be on records

Employers were often hiring drivers that had failed drug and alcohol tests because there was no easy way to sift through the person's prior failed tests. An important objective of the Clearinghouse is to ensure the safety of everyone traveling on highways. The attorneys at Michael P. Fleming & Associates, P.C. know that by making safety a top priority you can reduce the number of serious truck accidents on our roads.

What the Testing Involves

Drug and alcohol testing prices were a main concern for employers before the FMCSA made the changes seen in Clearinghouse. But the tests will be offered at a much steeper discount than in the past. An initial drug test would cost employers $65, but the random drug tests are expected to cost less than $2 in some circumstances.

School districts, for example, will often have to pay just under $2 for the random drug test, allowing for a minimal impact on the school's budget and the ability to be able to ensure that drivers are not using drugs or drinking alcohol.

The Department of Transportation has testing requirements for all safety-sensitive transportation. The Department of Transportation requires a five-panel test to be performed that will test for the following substances:

-Opiates

-Cocaine

-Methamphetamine / Amphetamines

-Marijuana

-Phencyclidine

Employers will have to have their own contract with a testing facility. It's the employer's responsibility to make sure that the service agents are following compliance standards. If testing is performed in a non-compliant way, civil penalties may follow.

Service agents will include several different people or agencies, such as:

-Breath alcohol technicians

-Third-party administers

-Laboratories

-Medical review officers

-Urine collectors

-Substance abuse professionals

On top of all of this, the employer must also designate a person who will be an employer representative. The representative will receive all of the analyses and will be responsible for removing drivers who have failed a test.

The FMCSA Clearinghouse will allow drivers to also access their own information. A driver's record will be accessible electronically at no cost to the driver. The driver will be able to see all records that they have, including:

-Drug violation program information

-Alcohol violation program information

Drivers will also be able to view their return-to-duty (RTD) status.

Employers must also have a written policy, which outlines their substance use and alcohol misuse policies. All drivers must be given a copy of this policy by their employer.
Will Tanner: Service and self-sacrifice. Our new polling suggests that people are more concerned about others than themselves.

Will Tanner is Director of Onward and a former Deputy Head of Policy in Number 10 Downing Street.

The paradox of this pandemic is that, far from keeping us apart, it is bringing us closer together.

Last Monday, when official advice placed 1.5 million people into self-isolation and prohibited the rest of the population from coming within two metres of each other, I feared the most insidious effect of the virus could be the state-enforced solitude. Numerous studies associate loneliness with a 50 per cent increase in mortality, a much higher multiplier than the virus itself.

That trepidation lasted only three days. The outpouring of appreciation for NHS carers, from millions of balconies, porches and stairwells last Thursday evening, revealed a national solidarity many us have not felt in decades. The fact that just shy of three-quarters of a million people, one per cent of the population, volunteered for the NHS volunteer responder scheme shows how many want to serve in the national effort, not just applaud it.

A deep reservoir of community and contribution, obscured in normal times, has been uncovered by our present situation. Yes, media stories have focused on the selfish stockpiling of a minority, but the silent majority are worried about others. In fact, new polling data published today by Onward reveals that more people are worried about the health of their community than their own physical and mental health, and even that of their immediate family.

This community spirit extends beyond health to the jobs and economic impact. Only half (52 per cent) of people are worried about their own jobs, compared to 74 per cent worried about those of their family and 84 per cent of people who worry about the jobs and incomes of their wider community. Just one in ten (12 per cent) of people say they are not concerned about local jobs and incomes, a third of the number who say they are not concerned about their own economic future.

Like those offering to transport supplies, medicine and patients for the NHS, the majority of people are willing to stand up and be counted in the coming weeks. Three-fifths of us, 61 per cent, say we are likely to check on elderly neighbours if the crisis continues, while half say we will deliver food to those who are self-isolating. Two-fifths, 42 per cent, say they will speak to socially isolated neighbours by phone or video link. There is an army ready to ensure that isolation does not claim more victims than infection.

Weekend news reports about a package of measures to support charities and communities indicate ministers recognise the need for some kind of social stimulus, to compliment the economic and public health support announced to date. This is welcome and would be popular.

Two-thirds (69 per cent) of people want tax rules relaxed to encourage more people to give to good causes over the coming months, and a similar proportion (66 per cent) support taxpayers directly subsidising the wages of charity workers. Well over half (59 per cent) think charities should be mobilised to administer immunity in the community, something that may become necessary as the 17.5 million tests ordered by the NHS come online.

These kind of measures will be necessary in the coming weeks, to support voluntary activity at a time when the NHS needs to divert non-related demand, the police fall back on civic cooperation to maintain social distancing, and local communities are into their eighth, ninth of tenth week of social segregation. This pandemic, much like its predecessors and the wars frequently evoked by politicians, will be subdued by everyone working together in the spirit of shared sacrifice and service.

This will be more important in some places than others. Our findings reveal respondents who do not trust their neighbours to support them through the crisis are twice as likely to say they will not offer any support to their community as part of the Covid-19 response. If we do not try to strengthen social trust where it is lacking, already strong neighbourhoods may come out of this crisis even stronger as the fabric of Britains most atomised places becomes even more frayed.

The Government has acted with alacrity to wrap its arms around the British economy, keeping businesses safe for the moment until they can be safely released. It should act with equal vigour to unleash the power of ordinary British people, who like Burkes little platoons are lining up to be deployed in the battle against the virus.

If they can, it will not just help many survive this pandemic, but build a society that is more connected within neighbourhoods and across generations  and more self-sufficient in the long-run. That is something all Conservatives should welcome.
Indigenous leaders from across South America on Monday issued a desperate plea for protection against the COVID-19 pandemic, warning that the virus poses an "existential threat" to their communities.

With billions confined to their homes as the world tries to slow its unprecedented spread, tribes in the Amazon and Chaco regions are urging governments to ensure their territories are protected against outsiders possibly carrying the coronavirus.

"Indigenous people living in voluntary isolation are especially vulnerable to infectious disease as they don't have any immunity at all against most diseases," said Claudette Labonte, from the Congress of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA).

"We call on governments to intensify surveillance and protection of indigenous territories, many of which are invaded by miners, drug traffickers, loggers, land-grabbers and tourists," Labonte, a member of the Kamuyeneh community in French Guiana, told AFP.

She said that illegal miners were seeking to take advantage of the pandemic to expand activity into French Guiana. Community leaders have decided to block the Marroni River for protection, she added.

Indigenous communities are crucial guardians of biodiversity. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recognises them as a key player in the fight against global warming, and they are thought to protect forest that contains more than 200 billion tonnes of carbon.

Deforestation on indigenous lands is less than half the rate on other lands, but the communities are under increased threat from illegal activity and government-mandated agribusiness projects.

A group of 20 indigenous organisations from seven South American countries issued a call to governments to ensure that their protective "geographical isolation" was respected.

COICA said that if boundaries were not respected then COVID-19 posed an "existential threat" to indigenous communities.

While mortality rates from confirmed COVID-19 appear to vary between nations, healthcare system bandwidth plays a part: many of the deaths seen in Italy and Spain for example are down to hospitals being overwhelmed.

Indigenous peoples have lived with the threat of infectious diseases for centuries -- it is estimated that their population in South America decreased by a quarter between 1492-1650 due to viruses and bacteria carried over by colonisers.

Michael McGarrell, from the Patamona Nation of Guyana and human rights coordinator for COICA, told AFP that indigenous communities were essentially defenceless against new diseases.

"We run the risk of being impacted, the reason being that many of our communities don't have the required facilities to deal with any outbreak," he said. "Because they are small and have a communal way of life, coronavirus is a danger to them. We're calling on governments to ensure that systems are put in place to cater for our needs."



There are currently a number of ways the virus might reach isolated communities, not least from a group of evangelical Christians currently seeking to convert Amazonian tribes, McGarrell said.

Local authorities in Brazil said Friday that 10 members of the Tikuna ethnic group were being quarantined after coming into contact with a health worker who later tested positive for COVID-19.

"Just one person entering who is infected can have a devastating impact on our communities," said McGarrell.

"This should never happen. We know from history that when the colonists came our people were decimated as a result of illness such as flu and chickenpox."



McGarrell said that a COVID-19 epidemic among tribes would jeopardise the preservation of the forests they inhabit and risked losing medical expertise passed down through the generations.

"Indigenous peoples play a great role in maintaining biodiversity and we have certain knowledge that can help the world," he said.

"If coronavirus gets a hold of our population who knows what will happen.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. As part of its global response to the coronavirus outbreak, the European Commission stands by Eastern Partner countries and has reallocated 140 million for the most immediate needs including for Armenia. In addition, the Commission will also redirect the use of existing instruments worth up to 700 million across the region to help mitigate socio-economic impact of the coronavirus crisis, the EU Delegation to Armenia told Armenpress.

Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations Oliver Varhelyi said: These are very difficult times not only for the EU, but for our partner countries, such as Armenia, as well. We have to do what we can to mitigate the impact of the Coronavirus outbreak on human lives and livelihoods. Todays package responds both to the immediate needs of the health systems, as well as a longer term needs to the most vulnerable groups in society and small and medium-sized enterprises, which are the backbone of the economies in the six countries.

Responding to immediate needs:

Support to the Armenian health system: At the request of the partner countries, including Armenia, the Commission will respond to immediate needs by supporting the supply of medical devices and personal equipment, such as ventilators, laboratory kits, masks, goggles, gowns, and safety suits. The European Commission is working with the World Health Organisation (WHO), and is deploying 30 million to ensure these necessary supplies are jointly purchased and effectively distributed to the health systems of the six countries in the coming weeks. In addition, the funds will support national health administrations to train medical and laboratory staff and carry out awareness raising measures to the wider population.

Support to the people who are most affected by the crisis, together with civic partners: The EU has made available more than 11.3 million in small grants to civil society organisations across the region. These funds are already responding to immediate needs, through the ongoing regional Rapid Response Mechanism, such as supporting local schools with distance learning. In Armenia, a project with the Red Cross will be launched in the coming days to support the elderly, vulnerable families, and people with disabilities. By the summer, and as part this package, the Commission will the launch of the Eastern Partnership Solidarity Programme which will target the most affected parts of the populations through civil society support and notably sub-grants to smaller, local organisations. Additionally a new call for proposals, worth 3 million, was launched on 25 March, to support civil society organisations contribute to social well-being, including those impacted by the COVID19 outbreak.

Mitigating socio-economic impact of the outbreak:

Support to Armenias economy, notably small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): The EU is working closely with International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and relevant financing institutions from EU Member States as TEAM EUROPE providing a coordinated European response for the real economy, including SMEs, in particular through:

Launching of a new regional support programme of 100 million to help SMEs, including self-employed and others to easily access credit and boost their businesses after the crisis. This will be complemented by a new support programme targeting Armenian SMEs worth 13 million

The EU is also exploring to mobilise over 30 million from existing programmes in coordination with the Armenian government

Facilitating, simplifying, accelerating, and reinforcing 200 million worth of existing credit lines and grants to SMEs in local currency including through its EU4Business Initiative;

In addition, in the current crisis the EU has mobilised its major de-risking instrument worth 500 million, the European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD). This will rapidly provide liquidly and can be urgently deployed by IFI partners to facilitate the provision of liquidity in the EUs Neighbourhood including through working capital, trade finance, or moratoria on debt service.

The EU is also reorienting ongoing support programmes to address Armenia's needs to respond to the pandemic. As a result, 1.75 million has already been disbursed under a Public Finance Policy Reform budget support programme to provide immediate support to the government.

In parallel, a new Twinning programme of the Ministry of Emergency Situations in partnership with the Swedish and Lithuanian civilian protection agencies has been approved and will start soon to improve civil protection and disaster risk management.

The Commission also stands ready to provide assistance to Armenia through TAIEX, its peer to peer instrument, by using EU Member States expertise, experience and examples of good practice on assessing emergency preparedness response scheme and health systems.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has accelerated spread of myths and disinformation around it coming from various sources both within and outside of the European Union. Learn more in the report on Disinformation on the coronavirus.
Guineas electoral body said March 27 that Guinea has voted to back a contested new constitution.

Independent National Electoral Commission president, Amadou Salifou Kebe, told reporters that 91.59 percent of ballots were in favor of adopting the new constitution, while 8.41 percent were against.

Turnout was 61 percent, he added, saying that these were provisional figures.

The vote was originally planned for March 1 but was postponed until March 22 because of international criticism of its fairness.

The authorities went ahead with it after scrubbing some 2.5 million unverifiable names from the electoral rolls, following advice from the West Africa bloc ECOWAS.

The day of the vote was marred by violence, with scores of polling stations ransacked across the country and, according to the countrys political opposition, dozens killed.

The proposal to change the constitution was hugely controversial in the West African state, spurring mass demonstrations in which at last 32 people have been killed, according to an AFP tally.

Authorities have said only a few deaths occurred on polling day, and that the voting took place in peace.

In a sign of impatience with Condes government abroad, however, France, the United States, and the United Nations have all expressed their reservations about the vote on March 22.

France, the former colonial power, condemned election-related violence in Guinea this week and said the vote was not credible.

The United States also said last week that the situation in Guinea was worrying and that it shared international concerns about the fairness of the vote, and the lack of political dialogue surrounding it.
Insurance Australia Group has bucked the trend of companies pulling profit guidance, with the extreme volatility in the markets delivering a smaller-than-expected hit to its books.

IAG's decision to reaffirm its previous revenue and profit margin forecasts is in contrast to its peers, with financial services groups QBE and Bank of Queensland both retracting their respective guidance on Monday.

IAG reaffirmed guidance on Monday. Credit:Bloomberg

IAG, the insurer behind brands including NRMA and CGU, on Monday said its technical reserves had suffered a unrealised loss of $100 million because of the recent widening in credit spreads. Even so, Bell Potter analyst TS Lim said the damage was lighter than he had expected and IAG's underlying business so far appeared "strong".

The insurance giant also forecast gross written premiums would grow in the low single digits and a reported margin range of between 12.5 per cent and 14.5 per cent.
A daylight break-in last week at a west-end art gallery is serving as a stark reminder for local businesses to remain extra vigilant during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

Someone smashed the door of Gallery 1313 in Parkdale last Friday and forced their way inside. The gallery had been closed since March 16 due to the pandemic.

Owner and executive director Phil Anderson said he took his work computer home with him, but the thieves stole four old-model laptops that were left in the office.

They also broke into the gallerys donations box, but made away with maybe $5.

Its a little bit brazen for thieves to come and break into a business at 10:30 in the morning, he said, noting the irony that the gallerys premises at 1313 Queen St. W. used to be a police station years ago.

I think they were looking for anything that they can turn into quick cash, because they didnt steal any artwork, he said. I find it so unfortunate that bad people would want to take advantage of the ongoing isolation and want to steal from a non-profit.

Anderson had been showcasing art from students at York University and OCAD University when the gallery closed. Most of the other pieces of art on display had already been taken down and properly stored, and none of it was affected by the break-in.

Artscape, an umbrella organization that works with artists in the community, helped with the door repairs and the installation of boards to ensure more security.

Anderson said he has worked in Parkdale for 23 years but had never been a victim of a break-in.

But there Anna Bartula, executive director of Parkdale Village BIA, said there have been red flag waves for the past few weeks.

Weve been having discussions with other BIAs across the city, and businesses are scrambling to find out how they can board up their property and taking extra steps to protect their belongings, she said.

The BIA has partnered with police in 14 Division to disseminate information on how to increase safety during this period of isolation and physical distancing. Businesses have been asked to submit night directory information to police  whether the buildings have alarms and video surveillance, for instance, and who to call in emergencies.

Other tips include emptying cash drawers often, using deadbolt locks on exterior doors, installing efficient alarm systems and using quality CCTV systems whenever possible. Business owners have also been advised to remove valuables from visible areas of stores, such as electronics, alcohol and other expensive products. Wherever possible, people are encouraged to post signs on windows and doors that indicate there are no cash or goods on hand.

I think some people are financially and emotionally desperate right now, said Bartula, adding criminals are taking advantage of empty streets.

The Assembly Theatre, also in Parkdale, was broken into a few days ago. Even when not much is stolen, a robbery is still a huge problem because business owners have to make thousands of dollars in repairs, Bartula said.

Daytime vandalism is scary. It shows the high levels of desperation for someone to hit a small gallery with no big profits whatsoever, she said.
As the COVID-19 pandemic settles in across America, Donald Trump is being exposed as the charlatan he is.

I wont waste ink recapping the presidents denials, false accusations and hubris toward the American people. I wont expose his pitting Americas governors against each other in an effort that has only resulted in price gouging for desperately needed medical supplies and personal protection equipment.

At this point, Americas governors control the economic future of America. Two Governors in particular sit atop the American economic engine. They are Californias Gavin Newsome and New Yorks Andrew Cuomo. Together their states generate more economic activity than every other state combined.

Newsome controls the single biggest economic state, one that surpasses many developed countries, and he has the highest state population in America. Cuomo has the most cases of diagnosed COVID-19 in the country, but more importantly, he controls Wall Street. Since both governors are members of the Democratic Party, they are immune to the party backlash keeping many Republican governors from acting, most notably Floridas Ron DeSantis and Alabamas own Kay Ivey.

There is good news for those living in other GOP-controlled states. Republican governors are beginning to display resolute leadership and putting the lives of their citizens above partisan compliance with president. Among the more defiant GOP governors are Greg Abbott in Texas and Mike DeWine of Ohio.

The mutiny being conducted in real-time is not limited to Americas governors and local officials. Congress, while still dysfunctional and out of political balance, has managed to rise above its quest for partisan purity and embraced bipartisanship. The imbalance is a result of yet another political drubbing of Democrats by Republicans. The GOP constituency  business  once again made out like bandits in the stimulus package.

The Democratic constituency  people  were provided some direct relief, but it was a meager one-time payment capped at $1,200 that not every American is entitled to and $100 billion for the hospitals that will care for them during this crisis.

Perhaps the biggest oversight with regard to people is the lack of discussion regarding what is going to happen once all the hospital bills become due.

While the richest nation on Earth legislated a one-time $1,200 payment to some individuals, Canada provided citizens affected by COVID-19 $2,000 a month for four months. In the United Kingdom, many workers are getting 80% of their wages while sheltering in place.

Obviously, our Congress left a lot to be desired with regard to meeting the needs of the American people. However, a 96-0 vote in the Senate indicates even those voting to exonerate the president from impeachment are fully aware that he is not capable of leading our country through this crisis.

Instead of waiting for the president to roll out implementation of the Defense Production Act and manage this crisis from the White House, GOP senators joined with their Democratic colleagues to provide that leadership.

While Donald Trump remains president of these United States, his lack of coherent and tangible action in the face of a situation he could not bully his way out of has created a power vacuum that Americas governors have boldly filled. Their science-based actions have safeguarded millions of American lives and we thank them profusely for putting our lives above partisan politics.

John Meredith, of Huntsville, is a former Capitol Hill lobbyist who was recognized as one of the countrys 100 most influential Black Republicans.
KABUL  Taliban attacks in Afghanistans north and south have killed at least 11Afghan soldiers and police officers, the countrys Defense Ministry and a provincial official said Monday.

The violence comes even as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani last week announced his 21-member team to negotiate peace with the Taliban, only to have his political opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, reject it as not inclusive enough.

The Taliban have not claimed responsibility for the latest attacks.

According to the Defense Ministry, the insurgents targeted a military checkpoint in a multi-pronged attack in the district of Argandab in southern Zabul province on Sunday night, killing at least six troops. In northern Baghlan province, at least five members of the security forces were killed and six others were wounded when their checkpoint came under a Taliban attack on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Pulikhomri, said Mabobullah Ghafari, a provincial council member. That attack also took place on Sunday.

On Monday, a sticky bomb attached to a vehicle detonated in the capital of Kabul, wounding at least four people, said Firdaus Faramraz, spokesman for the Kabul police chief.

Afghanistans political turmoil and the rivalry between Ghani and Abdullah have impeded each step toward talks with the Taliban  negotiations that were supposed to come next under a peace deal that Washington signed with the insurgents last month.

The deal calls for the eventual withdrawal of all 13,000 U.S. soldiers from Afghanistan in exchange for guarantees from the Taliban that they would fight other militant groups, including the Islamic State group. The deal has been touted as Afghanistans best chance yet of ending its relentless wars.

But Ghani and Abdullah, who also declared himself president in a parallel inauguration ceremony this month, have been locked in a power struggle that has prompted Washington to say it would cut $1 billion in assistance to Afghanistan if the two couldnt get their act together.

The Taliban are to send 10 representatives to the U.S.-led coalition base in Bagram, north of Kabul, to oversee the release of their prisoners. That release is also part of the deal signed with the U.S.
A man peers into the Sugar Shack Cafe in downtown Huntington Beach on March 18. Orange County bars, breweries and wineries were ordered to close, restaurants were told to offer take-out or delivery only, and people were told not to gather to curb transmission of the coronavirus. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Coronavirus infections continue to climb in Orange County  and reached 464 Monday.

Since the start of last week, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the county has more than tripled. The cities of Anaheim, Irvine and Newport Beach alone now have 126 confirmed cases among them  one more than the entire county had only a week ago.

Four deaths  two men and two women  have been reported. Three of those individuals were at least 65 years old, and one was between 45 and 64 years old, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.

So far, 5,522 people have been tested countywide.

The coronavirus outbreak has also reached the county's jail system.

As of Monday, nine individuals "who are showing symptomology consistent with COVID-19" were being isolated within the jail, according to county Sheriff Don Barnes.

Five inmates have tested positive, and roughly 150 are "being quarantined under observation," he added.

Over the weekend, 130 people were released from custody early  including 43 who were considered medically at risk, meaning they were at least 65 years old or had preexisting health conditions, according to Barnes.

Overall, Barnes said the county's jail population has shrunk by 838 inmates since March 1, about a 15% reduction. Much of that is due to natural attrition  fewer people entering the jail to replace those who are released as scheduled.

As the number of cases continues to grow in California, officials at all levels of government are preparing for an anticipated crush of coronavirus patients.

"All hospitals with emergency departments are operational and have canceled all nonessential services and are actively preparing for patient surge," said David Souleles, the county's director of public health services.

Officials, he added, are "actively working with the state to site a large regional alternate care site here in Orange County."

In the city of Costa Mesa  which generated headlines as it fiercely contested a proposal last month to move coronavirus patients to the local Fairview Developmental Center  officials are now singing a different tune, given the anticipated need for tens of thousands of additional hospital beds statewide.

Story continues

"Much has changed since the Fairview Developmental Center was being considered as a site for COVID-19 patients several weeks ago, City Manager Lori Ann Farrell Harrison said in a statement Monday. The federal, state and local governments are now all actively engaged on the COVID-19 response in a coordinated, collaborative effort."

Given the sharp uptick in cases countywide, she added, "it is imperative that we have the resources to care for those needing medical treatment, including our loved ones. No one is immune from this disease."

As of Monday, there were 11 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Costa Mesa, according to county health officials.

Along with Fairview, a state-owned facility that had long housed adults with developmental and behavioral disabilities, Costa Mesa officials said the state is also looking into whether other surplus properties  such as the Orange County fairgrounds  could be used to house coronavirus or other hospital patients.

Such efforts would supplement the recent arrival of the Navy hospital ship Mercy, which docked at the Port of Los Angeles on Friday.

While Orange County's COVID-19 case growth has been slower in recent days  with 65 cases reported on Sunday and Monday combined, compared with 83 on Saturday  health officials say it's far too early to draw big-picture conclusions from the data.

"A single day, or even two days, doesnt necessarily mean a whole lot," said County Health Officer Dr. Nichole Quick. "So, we want people to continue to follow what our cases are over a period of time."

She added, "It's very important for everybody to follow the governor's, state and local health officer orders to remain at home unless you are leaving for essential business."

Orange County officials also released tips last week on how to stay mentally resilient in the midst of the public health crisis  urging residents to establish an emotional support system by maintaining daily routines to the extent possible and keeping in touch with family and friends, tapping into reliable sources of information to better understand COVID-19 and taking steps to stem its spread.

"As the spread and far-reaching impacts of COVID-19 dominate the world news, we have all witnessed and experienced the parallel spread of worry, anxiety and uncertainty," county officials said. "The way to overcome this natural tendency is to build our mental resilience, the ability to refocus, clear our minds and discard negative thoughts."
The Lincoln Lancaster County Health Department said there are now 8 lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in Lincoln.

According to health officials, one case is an older child. More information on the child and their age was not released.

The second additional case is an adult female in her 40s.

City of Lincoln officials said more information will be released at a press conference at 3:30 p.m. Monday with Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird.

10/11 NOW will stream that press conference on our website and 10/11 NOW App.

As of Monday morning, the Lincoln Lancaster County Health Department is monitoring 120 individuals.

Lancaster County reports 252 negative tests and eight positives with 34 cases pending at the Nebraska Public Health Lab.

There are now 129 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Nebraska and two deaths.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 19:19:44|Editor: yhy

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COLOMBO, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Meteorology Department on Monday issued an 'extreme heat' advisory in several areas of the country as temperatures were expected to cross over 40 degrees in the coming days.

"People in these areas could suffer from heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke as a result of the situation," the Meteorology Department said in a statement, warning people to remain indoors as much as possible.

The Department said temperatures in the North-Western and Sabaragamuwa Provinces and in Mannar, Vavuniya in the north, Anuradhapura in north central province, Gampaha in the outskirts of Colombo and the Moneragala District in the Uva Province will reach extreme caution levels.

Accordingly the temperature in those areas was expected to spike from 32 degrees to above 41 degrees.

Several other areas including capital Colombo were also warned to remain cautious due to the extreme heat.

The department also advised the public to remain hydrated and not to leave children and elderly unattended in the coming days.
Disneynature documentary Elephant, narrated by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (inset). (Disney+/Karwai Tang/WireImage)

Ordinarily, the release of a new nature documentary to a streaming service would make very few waves in the press. However, the new Disney+ doc Elephant is no ordinary release.

The wildlife documentary, produced under Disneys Disneynature banner and released exclusively on Disney+ on 3 April, marks the first piece of media work undertaken by Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, since she and Prince Harry consciously uncoupled from the British Royal Family.

Meghan and Harry have not carried out any public engagements since 9 March, but the official date they stop being working royals is 31 March, so the timing of Elephant has been choreographed to perfection.

Read more: The best child-friendly docs to stream

The couples announcement in January that they wanted to step back from their roles as senior members of the Royal Family, and make their own money, came as a surprise to the British public.

It was reported by The Times in January that Meghan had signed a deal with Disney for a voiceover to in exchange for a donation to charity Elephants Without Borders. According to Press Association, it is understood that Meghan was approached by Elephants filmmakers last summer, who asked if she would consider recording the narration.

The film itself is fairly standard nature documentary fare. Filmed in Botswana and Zimbabwe, it tells the stirring story of African elephant Shani and her son Jomo as their herd makes a journey across the Kalahari Desert, led by their great matriarch Gaia. As youd expect from a Disney doc, its a family-friendly, bloodless affair, but beautifully shot and not without moments of peril for the herd of elephants.

Read more: Trump says Sussexes security will be privately-funded

Meghans voice is not as familiar to the British public as say Prince Charles, or Harry himself, so her involvement may come as a surprise to casual viewers upon first watch. Her name is not invoked by the film until the closing credits where its listed as Narrated by: Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex.

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Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrive to attend the European Premiere of Disney's "The Lion King". (Niklas Halle'n-WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Unsurprisingly for an actress with over 15 years of experience, her voiceover is confident and assured, and it brings to life the elephant herds story in an entertaining way. There are some delightful moments of exuberance, including a scene where an elephant breaks wind and Meghan cheerfully asks oh, who did that?

She seems to be having a lot of fun with the work, recorded by Jemma Riley-Tolch and Helen Miles at Pinewood Studios in London, but its almost impossible to ignore the rich context of the script (written by Mark Linfield and David Fowler) which, at times, seems cheekily on the nose given Meghans recent past.

So proud to have recorded the voiceover for this with @LenSound - it is a fantastic moving story. It was an absolute joy and pleasure #womeninfilm  https://t.co/dlV3RrKPao  Jemma Riley-Tolch (@JemmaRileyTolch) March 26, 2020

Gaia, the elderly matriarch, leads the elephants with unwavering devotion to the survival of the herd: Where she leads, the herd follows, Meghan explains.

Theres talk of the herds sons leaving home to seek their own fortunes, and in one scene, where one of the calves gets stuck in some mud, the matriarch has to step in to save him: shes the only one who can help... this matriarch is a force to to be reckoned with!

Gaia navigates the great plains using her unbroken chain of memories passed down from generation to generation that stretch back a millennia, and she passes on her experience through a line of succession in order to ensure the survival of the herd.

Theres an obvious successor for when Gaia finally falters, but the voiceover ponders: do they have what it takes to lead the herd?

Queen Elizabeth II, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, Princess Beatrice of York, Princess Eugenie of York, Sophie, Countess of Wessex and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex at Trooping the Colour in London, England. (KGC-09/STAR MAX/IPx 2019 6/8/19)

We give it about 20 minutes from after the documentary hits Disney+ before some wag online edits her voiceover onto footage of the Royal Family at work as a spoof.

Regardless of Meghans voiceover, theres a lot to enjoy in this educational documentary thats sure to go a long way in helping the cause of Elephants Without Borders. And Meghans future as a voiceover artist, if thats something she wishes to pursue, seems rosy too.

Elephant launches on Disney+ from 3 April, along with Dolphin, narrated by Natalie Portman.
Any way you look at it, it is most likely the world will be a different place once some sense of normality resumes following the global battle against coronavirus. In the new paradigm, there will also be companies riding the wave of a successful confrontation with COVID-19. Will small cap biotech Cytosorbents (CTSO) make such a list?

Bucking the trend, the healthcare company skyrocketed 70% year-to-date, on the back of a possible treatment for coronavirus.

Last week, Cytosorbents announced that its CytoSorb blood purification device has been used by healthcare providers in Italy, China, Germany and France to treat dozens of severely ill COVID-19 patients suffering from cytokine storm, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and shock. The related conditions are the causes of death in COVID-19, and are the underlying reasons for the long ventilator periods currently overpowering Italys healthcare system.

CytoSorb is approved in the EU and has been recommended for blood purification in China. Despite being included in both Italy and Panamas treatment guidelines and widely used across the globe, the treatment is not yet FDA approved in the US. Although currently provided under an expanded access program, discussions are on-going on how to improve widespread access to the treatment.

Maxims Jason McCarthy reiterates the important role CytoSorb can play in the fight against COVID-19: In the US, New York is the epicenter, representing ~50% of cases, and hospitals are reporting a spike in ICU visits, and barring emergency measures (which are in the works), the stat only has ~3000 ICU beds in total, so measures to reduce the spread (such as social distancing, closing non-essential businesses) and treatments to prevent and reduce the length of ICU stays have become highly important.

McCarthy reiterated a Buy rating on CTSO shares, along with an $8 price target, implying potential upside of 21%. (To watch McCarthys track record, click here)

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Over the past 3 months, only two other analysts have thrown the hat in with a view on the promising coronavirus fighter. The two additional Buy ratings provide Cytosorbants with a Strong Buy consensus rating. With an average price target of $11, investors stand to take home an 68% gain, should the target be met over the next 12 months. (See Cytosorbents stock-price forecast on TipRanks)

To find good ideas for coronavirus stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights.
On March 30, a newly-created Twitter account StopSerbiaDogWalkingBan @DogSerbia posted a tweet saying: In Serbia, the #Covid19 curfew means we cant walk our dogs for up to 14 hours at a time. It causes so much unnecessary suffering.

The claim is true.

Two days earlier, the Serbian government announced new stricter nationwide curfew measures in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Among the new restrictions: walking back on pet walks.

Guided by the expert opinion, the government of the Republic of Serbia has decided to withdraw the decision on the allowed walk of pets for 20 minutes between 20.00 and 21.00 (8 p.m. and 9 p.m.), the announcement read.

It also extended the 3 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew on weekdays to include the weekends.

Initially, the Serbian governments COVID-19 curfew allowed dog-walking for up to 200 meters outside the home and 20 minutes between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.

The dog-walking ban outraged Serbian dog owners, the Associated Press reported.

Serbias prominent animal rights groups and veterinarians published an open letter to the president and the government to back off.

The decision threatens the dogs physical health, and the mental health of their respective owners, which are elevated in a situation of stress, the letter stated.

Now, the only exceptions to the curfew apply to people in urgent need of medical assistance and farmers delivering groceries to urban stores.

Violating the curfew is a criminal offense punishable by a fine of up to 150,000 dinars ($1,406) and/or up to three years in prison.

Videos tracking dogs walking outside during the curfew hours can be seen posted by the Serbian news channels.

According to Johns Hopkins Universitys COVID-19 dashboard, Serbia has recorded 785 confirmed coronavirus cases and 16 deaths from the disease by March 30.
Over 7,000 people who were stranded in Hubei due to the COVID-19 outbreak have returned to Beijing as of Saturday, said the municipal government on Sunday.

A total of 7,098 people who work or live in Beijing took 12 high-speed trains back to the capital from Wednesday to Saturday, after the lockdown of the virus-hit province was lifted.

The returnees were put under home or concentrated observation after being picked up by designated shuttle buses at Beijing train stations, the government said.
A growing number of Swedish doctors and scientists are raising alarm over the Swedish governments approach to COVID-19. Unlike its Nordic neighbours, Sweden has adopted a relatively relaxed strategy, seemingly assuming that overreaction is more harmful than under-reaction.

Although the government has now banned gatherings of more than 50 people, this excludes places like schools, restaurants and gyms which remain open. Thats despite the fact that 3,046 people have tested positive. Although Norway has the most confirmed cases (3,066) in Scandinavia, COVID-19 fatalities in Sweden are highest by far (92), compared with Norway (15) and Denmark (41).

People now are taking sides, with some arguing that publicly criticising the authorities only serves to undermine public trust at a time when this is so badly needed. Others are convinced that Sweden is hurtling toward a disaster of biblical proportions and that the direction of travel must change. The truth is that of all these opinions, none is derived from direct experience of a global pandemic. No one knows for sure what lies ahead.

In epidemics, prediction models help guide the choice of interventions, assess likely social and economic impacts, and estimate hospital surge capacity requirements. All prediction models require input data, ideally derived from past experience in comparable scenarios. And we know the quality of such input data is poor.

Most current COVID-19 prediction models use data gathered from the COVID-19 epidemics in China and Italy and from past outbreaks of other infectious diseases such as Ebola, influenza and other coronaviruses (Sars and Mers). But demographics and patterns of social interactions differ from country to country. Sweden has a small population and only one real metropolitan area. Ideally, wed need data from Sweden on the community spread of COVID-19, but this requires screening programmes that do not currently exist.

The little reliable data on COVID-19 in Sweden concerns hospital admissions and fatalities. This latter can be used to get a poor mans estimate of community transmission, providing approximately how many fatalities occur among those infected. But with a two-week lag between diagnosis and death, this a very blunt instrument with which to guide decision making.

In Sweden, the public health authorities have released simulations to guide surge requirements. This is the extent to which hospitals will need to boost their capacity to deal with the high number of very ill COVID-19 patients that are likely to need specialist care in the coming weeks. From these simulations, it is clear that the Swedish government anticipates far fewer hospitalisations per 100,000 of the population than predicted in other countries, including Norway, Denmark and the UK.

The corresponding number of deaths in Sweden predicted using the UK simulations are much higher than the Swedish governments simulations suggest. The reason appears to be that Swedish authorities believe there are many infected people without symptoms and that, of those who come to clinical attention, only one in five will require hospitalisation. At this point, it is hard to know how many people are asymptomatic as there is no structured screening in Sweden and no antibody test to check who has actually had COVID-19 and recovered from it. But substantially underestimating hospital surge requirements would nevertheless be devastating.

Uneven spread

Like in many other countries, the spread of COVID-19 is quite uneven in Sweden. Most cases have been diagnosed and treated in the greater Stockholm area, and lately also in the northern county of Jamtland  a popular destination for skiers. On the other hand, some other geographical areas are relatively spared, at least for the moment. In the third largest Swedish city, Malmo, still only a few cases have been hospitalised at the time of writing.

Lightspring/Shutterstock

There is no doubt that the epidemic will spread, but the speed of this is disputed. The national Public Health authorities are also sceptical about the need for lock-down in most of the country, but discussions are now ongoing to enforce such an intervention in the capital area.

There are several arguments supporting the current official Swedish strategy. These include the need to keep schools open in order to allow parents who work in key jobs in health care, transportation and food supply lines to remain at work. Despite other infectious diseases spreading rapidly among children, COVID-19 complications are relatively rare in children. A long-term lockdown is also likely to have major economic implications that in the future may harm healthcare due to lack of resources. This may eventually cause even more deaths and suffering than the COVID-19 pandemic will bring in the near term.

Herd immunity

The best estimates of the COVID-19 case-fatality ratio (CFR)  the proportion of those infected who die  is currently 0.5-1.0%. By comparison, the 1918-1919 Spanish flu had a 3% CFR in some parts of northern Sweden. A century ago, Sweden was recovering from the first world war, even though the country stayed neutral.

Internal transportation and communication systems were less developed than in many other countries at the time, which helped slow the spread of the epidemic. In the short term, this was perceived to be a good thing, but because herd immunity  whereby enough people have been infected to become immune to the virus  had not been initially achieved, there were at least two additional epidemics of the Spanish flu virus within a year. The second wave of infections had a higher mortality rate than the first wave.

Learning the lesson from this, many people in Sweden are now optimistic that it can achieve herd immunity. Compared with the Spanish flu, COVID-19 is less severe, with many infected people believed to be asymptomatic. While this contributes to a more rapid spread, it also means that the threshold for herd immunity is about 60%. This may be quickly achieved in countries that do not have intensive mitigation or suppression strategies.

This may also lower the risk of further waves of the epidemic. So when we probe the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic in the future, there will likely be a lot of focus on the success or failure of Swedens relatively relaxed initial approach. This would take into account not just the loss of lives from the pandemic, but also longer term social and economic negative consequences and the deaths they may cause.

Ultimately, given the uneven and relatively modest spread of the virus in Sweden at the moment, its initial strategy may not turn out to be reckless. But going forward, Sweden is likely to have to impose stricter restrictions depending on how the virus spreads, especially in metropolitan areas or when the healthcare system is under severe strain.

Paul W Franks, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology, Lund University and Peter M Nilsson, Professor of Internal Medicine - Epidemiology, Lund University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

The landmark peace agreement between the United States and the radical Taliban movement is most threatened by the internal political disputes within Afghanistan, Pakistani Senator Sehar Kamran told Sputnik

ST. PETERSBURG (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th March, 2020) The landmark peace agreement between the United States and the radical Taliban movement is most threatened by the internal political disputes within Afghanistan, Pakistani Senator Sehar Kamran told Sputnik.

After the US-Taliban deal was signed in late February, Pakistan reemerged as a key player in the Afghan peace process.

"The biggest threat to the future of this deal comes from within Afghanistan," Kamran said.

She went on to say that this threat was borne out of internal disputes; lack of trust; the dispute between Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and former Afghan chief executive Abdullah Abdullah over presidential election results; growing differences between stakeholders; and the failure to establish an inclusive national team to participate in intra-Afghan negotiations and take measures to ensure the release of prisoners as a confidence-building measure to reach a political settlement and ceasefire.

"The deal remains fragile without intra-Afghan peace talks and dialogue, which is likely to be further delayed," the senator said.

Over the past year, the US had held a number of peace talks with the Taliban in a bid to encourage the group to cut ties with terrorists and begin rapprochement with the Afghan government, paving the way for US troops to pull out.

On February 29, the US and the Taliban agreed to a peace deal that, among other things, set the beginning of intra-Afghan talks for March 10. However, the power crisis between Afghan Ghani and his political rival, Abdullah Abdullah, who refuses to concede his defeat in the presidential election, as well as Kabul's reluctance to exchange prisoners with the Taliban, resulted in a standstill in the peace process.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday pulled up officials in Gautam Buddh Nagar for not being able to contain coronavirus from spreading in the district, which has recorded 38 COVID-19 cases so far, highest in the state.

The chief minister arrived here to take stock of the situation and held a high-level meeting with senior officers including the district magistrate, the police commissioner and the chief executive officeRs of the three local authorities.

While reviewing the district's preparedness to deal with the virus outbreak, Adityanath expressed anguish that the officers were not taking tough action against a private company, which the Health Department suspected, directly or indirectly, infected nearly two dozen people so far.

"Ye bakwas band karo apna bakwas kar kar ke aap logon ne poora mahaul kharab ho gaya hai yahan pe.. zimmedariyon ka nirvahan karne ke bajaay ek doosre pe wo (dosh) daalna.. (Stop talking nonsense. You all have made the situation bad here with all this nonsense. Instead of fulfilling your responsibilities you are passing the buck around). We issued orders two months ago, the order was for entire state," Adityanath told the officers, directing them to work more efficiently and contain the virus from spreading.

An FIR has already been registered against the firm, Cease Fire in Sector 135 of Noida, for hiding information. The firm's employees, their family members and some contacts have tested positive for the coronavirus -- totalling about 22 of the 38 cases in the district, according to officials.

Principal Secretary Medical Education and Nodal Officer of the district Rajneesh Dubey, Commissioner Meerut Anita C Meshram, CEO of the three authorities, Commissioner of Police Gautam Buddh Nagar Alok Singh, District Magistrate B N Singh, Chief Medical Officer Anurag Bhargava and other officers concerned were present at this meeting held at the Gautam Buddha University.

The chief minister also inspected the isolation ward set up at the Sharda Hospital in Greater Noida. Following the inspection, he distributed food and ration to the poor and the needy near the Yamuna Expressway Authority office and assured people of all possible help.

He issued instructions to officials to ensure proper arrangements for food, milk, ration etc. in Noida, Greater Noida and nearby villages, while asking them to especially focus on and spread awareness about social distancing.

In view of the circumstances arising out of the lockdown, a control room was set up at Uttar Pradesh Bhawan, which was inspected by the chief minister.

He instructed the officials to take the calls very seriously and offer all possible help to solve their problems. He also suggested that the callers be told that it is dangerous to move out in this situation and they should stay where they are staying and the UP government is making arrangements for food and medical assistance.

The helpline numbers of the control room are 011-26110151, 26110778, 26111762, 26110052, 26110155 and the Whatsapp number is 9313434088, Resident Commissioner Uttar Pradesh Prabhat Kumar Sarangi said.

Sixteen new coronavirus positive cases were reported in UP on Monday, taking the total tally in the state to 88, officials said in Lucknow.

Gautam Buddh Nagar district alone reported 38 cases, they said.

Of the 88 COVID-19 patients, 14 have fully recovered and discharged, they added.

The number of COVID-19 cases climbed to 1,071 in India on Monday, and the death toll rose to 29, according to the Union Health Ministry.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The other tests in the Champions League, dating back in the last decade, are not equally positive, both under the management of Antonio Conte. Two 1-1 draws against two different opponents - Nordsjaelland and Copenhagen. Those two fixtures were also two stumbling blocks of different weight: the first irrelevant for progressing out of the group stage (2012-13); while the second was decisive for the final group ranking (2013-14). There were some similarities in the two matches: Juve were at a disadvantage and they relied on the goals by Mirko Vucinic and Fabio Quagliarella, who scored in their respective games to secure a point.
New Delhi [India], Mar 31 (ANI): The Delhi Police have rescued a woman, who got stuck in the city due to the lockdown.

A resident of Assam, the woman was on her way back home from Punjab.

According to police, the woman has been identified as Rinku Borah. Her husband works in Punjab and she had visited him.

She was traveling from Punjab to Dibrugarh but due to the lockdown, the train stopped at the Old Delhi railway station.

At the station, her money, phone, and wallet were stolen. She was stranded at the railway station. A person approached her to help her contact her husband and in the process robbed her.

When the railway station was vacated, she got lost and reached the Rain Basera. She was asked to get her medical done.

She got her medical done at the Gurugobind Singh Hospital and started staying at the night shelter.

A Station House Officer (SHO) got to know about the woman's plight. After he made some calls, a team got in touch with the woman. Following which she was taken to the Assam Bhawan by the police.

Her accommodation has been arranged at the Assam Bhawan. She will be sent to her place once the lockdown is over.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
You can get a free Doritos Locos Tacos on Tuesday.

Taco Bell announced it is giving away the tacos through its drive-thru service on Tuesday, March 31.

Now more than ever, we could all use a free Doritos Locos Tacos, the company said in a tweet.

Mark King, CEO of Taco Bell Corp., said they have been working to make their workplaces safe during the coronavirus pandemic.

For the past few weeks, weve been focused on making Taco Bell the safest place to work and eat, and now were giving America free tacos as a small way of saying thank you for how everyone is showing up for their communities, said King.

But not everyone is happy about the idea. Some Twitter users expressed their concern with attracting more people to the fast food restaurant during a time when people are encouraged to stay home.

Arent we supposed to be encouraging ppl to stay home - not go out & about either spreading or contracting #Covid_19? #NotDyingForATaco," one Twitter user wrote.

Arent we supposed to be encouraging ppl to stay home - not go out & about either spreading or contracting #Covid_19?#NotDyingForATaco  Kemu (@kemu808) March 30, 2020

Risk my life for a taco? I dont think so. #COVID19  Kassie Rose (@KassieMcGarry2) March 30, 2020

The number of coronavirus-related deaths in Massachusetts increased to 48 on Sunday, and there were 4,955 positive cases, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

The company has also announced its donating $1 million to No Kid Hungry, a national campaign to end childhood hunger in America.

Customers will also be able to participate by having the option to donate by rounding up their order total to the nearest dollar. The extra money will go to No Kid Hungry.

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The Trump administration finalized new fuel economy standards for automobiles on Tuesday, moving forward with one of its most sweeping environmental rollbacks even as it contends with an unprecedented national health crisis.

The regulation, scheduled to take effect later this year, will undo an Obama-era policy requiring automakers to sell cars that spew fewer smog-forming pollutants and less heat-trapping gas, which would have led to more electric vehicles and fewer big gas guzzlers.

The new federal rule calls for a 1.5% annual boost in vehicle fuel efficiency, down from 5% under the current rule. By 2026, new cars would have to average about 40 miles per gallon instead of closer to 50 miles per gallon.

President Trump has long maintained that the nations fuel economy standards are too costly. The U.S. Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency, which announced the new regulation after nearly two years working on it, said that automobile prices would spike if the standards didnt change and that Americans would be forced to drive older, less safe vehicles.

This rule reflects the departments No. 1 priority  safety  by making newer, safer, cleaner vehicles more accessible for Americans who are, on average, driving 12-year-old cars, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said.

Environmental groups countered that any savings at the car dealership would be offset by the need to buy more gasoline with a less efficient vehicle. They also point to the hidden costs of dirty air and atmospheric warming. The transportation sector remains the nations biggest driver of climate change.

This doesnt benefit anybody except oil companies, said Maya Golden, deputy director of the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy organization. Its going to lead to a huge amount of climate pollution.

Models that Golden has looked at suggest that more than 1 billion metric tons of carbon emissions will result from the dirtier cars built under the more relaxed standards, the equivalent of operating 68 coal plants for five years, she said.

Golden also said that it was insensitive for Washington to roll back pollution controls as the nation grapples with a deadly respiratory illness spread by the coronavirus.

While combating the coronavirus outbreak remains the stated priority of the White House, the administration is also coming up against the end of its term and a reckoning that major policy changes can take months to secure.

The weakening of the nations fuel economy standards is just the latest of dozens of efforts by President Trump to gut climate policies and roll back protections of air, water and wildlands. The new effort, though, is one of the most consequential, with big stakes for California.

California has long set its own mileage standards, getting a waiver from the federal government to operate with tighter rules because of its famously filthy air. The national standards rolled out by the Obama administration in 2012 were designed to conform to Californias rules so automakers wouldnt face different regulations in different parts of the country. In September, however, the Trump administration revoked Californias waiver, which could leave the state at the mercy of the new federal policy.

California and 22 other states that support stronger fuel efficiency standards are fighting in court for California to keep its waiver. The new national mileage rules are also certain to face a legal challenge as critics seek to hang on to the regulation established under President Obama.

We hope that everybody will sit down and review our analysis and understand that this is the right balance to strike for the American people, said James Owens, acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, part of the Department of Transporation. So we hope that we will not see litigation, but of course we are prepared to defend the rule if such an unfortunate eventuality should arrive.

The Trump administration, to win in court, must show that the new standards live up to its claims that consumers will benefit, something that legal observers say could be difficult to do.

When you revisit an administrative action like this, theres a heightened level of scrutiny, said Julia Stein, an environmental law professor at the UCLA School of Law. The administration has really struggled to provide an adequate basis to roll back the Obama-era standards.

The legal wrangling also creates uncertainty for the auto industry. With the standards in limbo, manufacturers are unclear how to proceed on their 2022 fleet, which theyre planning now.

Ford, Honda, BMW of North America and Volkswagen Group of America have pushed for tighter standards, even agreeing to comply with Californias stricter policy. Other automakers have sided with the Trump administration, seeing the current regulation as burdensome, though all car companies are in agreement that having two different rules doesnt work.

The auto industry has consistently called for year-over-year fuel economy and greenhouse gas improvements that also recognize that the standards originally developed almost a decade ago are no longer appropriate in light of shifting market conditions and consumer preferences, said John Bozzella, president and CEO of the industrys largest trade group, Alliance for Automotive Innovation, in a statement.

The new standards are slightly stricter than the outright freeze on fuel efficiency requirements, at 2020 levels, that the Trump administration had initially considered.

If the White House prevails in whats certain to be a years-long legal battle, the new regulation would mark the biggest blow yet to the nations fight against climate change.

Were looking at very serious impacts, Stein said. We will go from having one of the most aggressive fuel standards in the world to having one that lags behind many other countries, including South Korea and India.

Chronicle Staff Writer Tal Kopan contributed to this report.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander
1. Contagion (2011)

2. My Secret Terrius (2018)

3. Pandemic (2007)

4. Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America (2006)

5. Virus (1980)

6. Tangled (2010)

They say that imagination knows no boundaries. It can penetrate time and space and dig out nuggets that continue to astound us with their near-accurate portrayal of forthcoming events. Its said that Morgan Robertsons novel The Wreck Of Titan published in 1898 predicted the sinking of The Titanic full fourteen years before it actually happened. Dean Koontzs 1981 novel The Eyes Of Darkness mentions a Wuhan virus which was developed as a bio-weapon. We trace some of the...Even scientists agree that the portrayal of how the virus came about and how it spread is the closest to real-life happenings. The disease in the movie,is zoonotic in nature. The film shows us how it all started. A bulldozer is razing trees where bats live. A pigpen is constructed in the cleared space. A bat is shown dropping a piece of banana that its eating and a pig, in turn, eats it and gets infected. A chef later butchers that pig, prepares it as a dish and later shakes hands with Gwyneth Paltrows character, infecting her. Whoever she comes in contact with is a potential victim and host and the rest of the film is spent in coding that chain, which doctors are currently doing in real-life situations. Her husband, played by Matt Damon, however, doesnt get infected. Thats also not impossible as some individuals are shown to have an inbuilt immunity to such things.An episode of this hugely popular. The episode has a man telling his partner to stay in his home to be safe. This is much like the social distancing advice were currently being bombarded with. The episode also has a doctor explaining that this mutant coronavirus attacks the respiratory organs -- something which is true of the real-life coronavirus as well. The 1995 film Outbreak too talked about the US developing a superbug as a bioweapon.At the beginning of this mini-series, two American surfers are shown saying goodbye to each other at an Australian beach. They fail to notice the bird corpses lying about. On the flight, the surfer returning home starts coughing up blood and dies before the plane can land. The other surfer is found dead in Australia. The authorities start processing people to be put in quarantine until they can be evaluated for exposure. During their transfer to a remote place, one of the passengers escapes to complete a business deal and unknowingly spreads the virus throughout Los Angeles. It is also revealed that outbreaks of the virus are occurring in other cities around the world as well.Some people are predicting a Doomsday-like scenario and they would be happy to see this depressing film which shows all their grim predictions coming true. An American businessman visiting China is infected with a mutated bird flu virus. Soon, America and then the rest of the world is infected. There are food shortages everywhere, rioting and looting become routine and upto 350 million people die worldwide. The end is bleak indeed as just when the authorities think they have beaten the virus, news comes that a remote Angolan village is wiped out by a new mutation of the virus.This is aof an Italian Flu, which has wiped out most of the worlds population. Given that Italy leads the death count right now, the coincidence is mind-boggling indeed. A group of survivors find sanctuary on Antarctica but the threat of a nuclear war perpetuated by Russia looms large over the motley crew of virus-free individuals. The film was said to be the costliest Japanese film made at the time and boasted of several Hollywood faces as well.Lets end this rather morbid tale on a lighter note. We all love Disneys animated take on Rapunzels story. Well, if you google the name of the town where she was born, youll come up with Corona. This has led to conspiracy theorists putting forward a new twist to the fairy tale. The claim Mother Gothel was quarantining Rapunzel from Corona by locking her in the tower -- basically enforcing social distancing...
MIT chemists have designed a peptide that can bind to part of the coronavirus spike protein, which they hope may prevent the virus from being able to enter cells. Credit: Christine Daniloff, MIT

In hopes of developing a possible treatment for COVID-19, a team of MIT chemists has designed a drug candidate that they believe may block coronaviruses' ability to enter human cells. The potential drug is a short protein fragment, or peptide, that mimics a protein found on the surface of human cells.

The researchers have shown that their new peptide can bind to the viral protein that coronaviruses use to enter human cells, potentially disarming it.

"We have a lead compound that we really want to explore, because it does, in fact, interact with a viral protein in the way that we predicted it to interact, so it has a chance of inhibiting viral entry into a host cell," says Brad Pentelute, an MIT associate professor of chemistry, who is leading the research team.

The MIT team reported its initial findings in a preprint posted on bioRxiv, an online preprint server, on March 20. They have sent samples of the peptide to collaborators who plan to carry out tests in human cells.

Molecular targeting

Pentelute's lab began working on this project in early March, after the Cryo-EM structure of the coronavirus spike protein, along with the human cell receptor that it binds to, was published by a research group in China. Coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, which is causing the current COVID-19 outbreak, have many protein spikes protruding from their viral envelope.

Studies of SARS-CoV-2 have also shown that a specific region of the spike protein, known as the receptor binding domain, binds to a receptor called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). This receptor is found on the surface of many human cells, including those in the lungs. The ACE2 receptor is also the entry point used by the coronavirus that caused the 2002-03 SARS outbreak.

In hopes of developing drugs that could block viral entry, Genwei Zhang, a postdoc in Pentelute's lab, performed computational simulations of the interactions between the ACE2 receptor and the receptor binding domain of the coronavirus spike protein. These simulations revealed the location where the receptor binding domain attaches to the ACE2 receptora stretch of the ACE2 protein that forms a structure called an alpha helix.

"This kind of simulation can give us views of how atoms and biomolecules interact with each other, and which parts are essential for this interaction," Zhang says. "Molecular dynamics helps us narrow down particular regions that we want to focus on to develop therapeutics."

The MIT team then used peptide synthesis technology that Pentelute's lab has previously developed, to rapidly generate a 23-amino acid peptide with the same sequence as the alpha helix of the ACE2 receptor. Their benchtop flow-based peptide synthesis machine can form linkages between amino acids, the buildings blocks of proteins, in about 37 seconds, and it takes less than an hour to generate complete peptide molecules containing up to 50 amino acids.

"We've built these platforms for really rapid turnaround, so I think that's why we're at this point right now," Pentelute says. "It's because we have these tools we've built up at MIT over the years."

They also synthesized a shorter sequence of only 12 amino acids found in the alpha helix, and then tested both of the peptides using equipment at MIT's Biophysical Instrumentation Facility that can measure how strongly two molecules bind together. They found that the longer peptide showed strong binding to the receptor binding domain of the COVID-19 spike protein, while the shorter one showed negligible binding.

Many variants

Although MIT has been scaling back on-campus research since mid-March, Pentelute's lab was granted special permission allowing a small group of researchers to continue to work on this project. They are now developing about 100 different variants of the peptide in hopes of increasing its binding strength and making it more stable in the body.

"We have confidence that we know exactly where this molecule is interacting, and we can use that information to further guide refinement, so that we can hopefully get a higher affinity and more potency to block viral entry in cells," Pentelute says.

In the meantime, the researchers have already sent their original 23-amino acid peptide to a research lab at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai for testing in human cells and potentially in animal models of COVID-19 infection.

While dozens of research groups around the world are using a variety of approaches to seek new treatments for COVID-19, Pentelute believes his lab is one of a few currently working on peptide drugs for this purpose. One advantage of such drugs is that they are relatively easy to manufacture in large quantities. They also have a larger surface area than small-molecule drugs.

"Peptides are larger molecules, so they can really grip onto the coronavirus and inhibit entry into cells, whereas if you used a small molecule, it's difficult to block that entire area that the virus is using," Pentelute says. "Antibodies also have a large surface area, so those might also prove useful. Those just take longer to manufacture and discover."

One drawback of peptide drugs is that they typically can't be taken orally, so they would have to be either administered intravenously or injected under the skin. They would also need to be modified so that they can stay in the bloodstream long enough to be effective, which Pentelute's lab is also working on.

"It's hard to project how long it will take to have something we can test in patients, but my aim is to have something within a matter of weeks. If it turns out to be more challenging, it may take months," he says.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

More information: G. Zhang et al. The first-in-class peptide binder to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, bioRxiv (2020). G. Zhang et al. The first-in-class peptide binder to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein,(2020). DOI: 10.1101/2020.03.19.999318

This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.
Jeffrey Epstein used his connections to disgraced Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein to lure young women into his sex trafficking ring with the promise of landing roles.

According to the Daily Beast, Epstein would flout his Hollywood ties to impress women, introducing them to rapist Weinstein and even helped then-21-year-old Chauntae Davies book a small role in a 2005 horror film produced by a Weinstein-owned company.

But the relationship between the two sexual predators soured when Epstein accused Weinstein of attempting to sexually assault one of his 'favorite girls'.

Jeffrey Epstein used his ties to Harvey Weinstein to lure in young women into his sex trafficking ring

Epstein introduced then-21-year-old Chauntae Davies to Weinstein, which landed her a role in a 2005 horror film. Pictured with her lawyer Brad Edwards outside federal court

Davies says she was a massage therapy student in California when she was recruited into Epstein's trafficking ring in 2001. She claims she was sexually abused by the billionaire before she escaped in 2005.

Her attorney Brad Edwards confirmed that Epstein introduced Davies to Weinstein, which got her an audition for the 2005 horror film Feast and then the role as 'Drunk Girl'.

Davies was cast as 'Drunk Girl' in the 2005 horror film Feast, which was produced by a Weinstein-owned company

Edwards said: 'Jeffrey Epstein introduced her to Harvey and that connection is what led to her getting that audition.'

Feast was produced by Dimension Films - an independent branch of Weinstein's Miramax. Dimension was run by Weinstein's brother, Bob Weinstein.

Edwards, who has represented Epstein's victims for over a decade, has elaborated on the relationship between the two convicted sex offenders in his new book In Relentless Pursuit, out March 31.

In it, he reveals that the friendship came to an end when Epstein accused Weinstein of trying to sexually assault one of his 'favorite girls' at Epstein's home in France.

Edwards writes: 'I heard various versions of this story from others, including years later from Epstein himself, who referred to Harvey as a pig. Imagine that.'

'Weinstein was at Epstein's apartment in France receiving a massage from one of Epstein's girls when he attempted to aggressively convert the massage into something sexual.

'The girl rejected his advances. As the story goes, Harvey then verbally abused her for rejecting him.

'Little did Harvey know, this was one of Epstein's favorite girls at the time and Jeffrey viewed the aggressive mistreatment as disrespectful to him.

'Jeffrey then came into the room, got in Harvey's face, and kicked him out of his house, delivering the message that he was never to come back.'

Epstein's alleged madame Ghislaine Maxwell also ran in the same circles as Wenistein, attending the same parties and premieres for years

Harvey Weinstein is serving 23 years behind bars after being found guilty of rape and sexual assault

Epstein and Weinstein had the same high-profile connections including President Bill Clinton and publicist Peggy Siegal. They were also part of the same investor group.

Epstein's alleged madame Ghislaine Maxwell also ran in the same circles as Wenistein, attending the his parties and premieres for years.

'From my point of view, I can tell you that Ghislaine and Epstein viewed Hollywood and the movies as a way into power society,' New York publicist R. Couri Hay told the Daily Beast. 'Epstein collected people, including movie stars like Woody Allen.'

'It wouldn't surprise me if Weinstein and Epstein felt a kinship through their immoral character traits and that they had some immediate symbiotic relationship because of their evil ways,' Hay added.

Another insider who was a friend of Maxwell and is remaining anonymous told the Daily Beast: 'The Jeffreys of the world are the kind of people Harvey liked in his orbit. If he saw power and/or influence, all of that was very appealing to Harvey.'

Davies, now 40, was witness to Epstein's high-powered connections on a 2002 humanitarian trip to Africa with Epstein, President Bill Clinton and actors Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker on board Epstein's private jet The Lolita Express.

She previously said she was hesitant about traveling so far from home with Epstein, whom she accused of raping and sexually assaulting her on other trips, including at his private island in the Caribbean. However, she says she was not sexually assaulted on this journey.

When Davies arrived to the airfield for the trip, she said a man handed pilot uniforms to her and three other assistants to wear on board to look professional as they waited for Epstein and Maxwell's arrival.

Davies described being shocked when she saw the A-listers that would be traveling with her.

'I jumped out of my seat and was immediately aware that my travel mates had arrived and in walks Bill Clinton,' she told The Sun. 'He continued to walk onto the plane, introducing himself. I thought him to be charming and sweet.

'More of the guests arrived and somehow, as the plane closed its doors, I stood looking around the room at all the new faces I just met.

'Chris Tucker, Kevin Spacey and Bill - accompanied also of course by the Secret Service. I was going to Africa with the most eclectic group of people imaginable.'

Davies, now 40, witnessed Epstein's high-powered connections on a 2002 humanitarian trip to Africa with Epstein, President Bill Clinton and actors Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker on board Epstein's private jet The Lolita Express

An air-stewardess on the jet at the time, Chauntae Davies, then 22, recounted the star-studded trip to Africa on board Epstein's private jet

Davies said: 'It's clear that Epstein was using this private jet and his wealth to get close to rich and powerful people.'

Epstein was arrested on July 6 and pleaded not guilty to federal charges of sex trafficking involving dozens of girls as young as 14.

He was found dead on August 10 in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan and an autopsy concluded that he hanged himself.

Meanwhile, Harvey Weinstein is serving 23 years behind bars after being found guilty of rape and sexual assault.

Weinstein, 68, has reportedly tested positive for coronavirus and is being isolated at Wende Correctional Facility in Western New York.

Weinstein is said to have told prison staff he believed he has the virus when he entered the state prison system last Wednesday from notorious Rikers Island where a number of inmates have the virus.
BANGALORE, India, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Traffic management systems help boost traffic flow and increase passenger health. Traffic management systems collect data from diverse sources such as road sensors, CCTV cameras, and centers for traffic control. Such data are processed by systems, and useful information is generated, which is passed on to end-users such as travelers, traffic control agencies, and police stations.

The global Traffic Management Systems market size was at USD 1785.9 million in 2019 and is expected to reach USD 3307.7 million by the end of 2026, at a CAGR of 9.1 % over the forecast period 2021 to 2026.

The global traffic management systems industry grew steadily from 2010 to 2014 with a growth rate of approximately 13.5 - 17.5 percent.

This study focuses on the status of global traffic management systems, future projections, prospects for growth, key industry, and key actors. The study goals are to address the growth of traffic management systems in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India, and Central & South America.

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TRENDS INFLUENCING THE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS MARKET SIZE:

The growing implementation of the new technology is expected to drive the traffic management systems market. Some of the latest technologies that are significantly impacting the traffic management systems are Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). Traffic management industry vendors provide numerous services, including design and consultancy, system installation and implementation, and support and maintenance services.

Owing to the massive increase in vehicle ownership globally and the growing recognition of the social losses that economies suffer as a result of traffic jams, demand for successful traffic management solutions is expected to grow at a promising rate in the coming years.

With population growth, the number of on-road vehicles is also increasingly growing, generating demand for traffic management systems. The major factors driving the traffic management systems market are investments and initiatives by various governments and companies around the globe, promoting the growth of traffic control and management infrastructure.

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REGION WISE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS:

In the traffic management market, North America is expected to have the second-highest market size. There are several traffic management projects currently underway in the area, and traffic management systems are now equipped with advances in information and communication technology (ICT) to minimize congestion, provide real-time information, avoid collisions, implement speed and traffic laws, and minimize revenue leakage.

is expected to have the second-highest market size. There are several traffic management projects currently underway in the area, and traffic management systems are now equipped with advances in information and communication technology (ICT) to minimize congestion, provide real-time information, avoid collisions, implement speed and traffic laws, and minimize revenue leakage. Due to rapid urbanization and increasing investment in developing countries such as India and China , Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region during the forecast period. Furthermore, in China , the traffic management systems industry has experienced exponential growth due to the late launch. It is projected that in the next few years, the traffic management systems industry will continue to grow rapidly.

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THE KEY PLAYERS COVERED IN THIS STUDY

Kapsch TrafficCom

SWARCO

Siemens

TomTom

THALES

IBM

Cubic

Fujitsu

Q-Free

Imtech

Kyosan Electric

SICE

Iteris

Peek traffic

E-Hualu

China ITS (Holdings)

ENJOYOR

Datang Telecom

Wantong Technology

Hisense TransTech

China Shipping Network Technology

Dahua Technology

HIKVISION

Baokang Electronic

Others

MARKET SEGMENT BY TYPE, THE PRODUCT CAN BE SPLIT INTO

Integrated Urban Traffic Control System

Freeway Management System

Electronic Toll Collection (ETC)

Advanced Public Transportation System

Others

MARKET SEGMENT BY APPLICATION, SPLIT INTO

Urban Traffic

Inter-Urban

Parking Management

Info-mobility

Public Transport

Freeway

Consultancy & Planning

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SIMILAR REPORTS :

AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT MARKET RESEARCH REPORT

The global air traffic management market size was valued at USD 12150 million in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 14360 million by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 2.4% from 2021 to 2026.

Air traffic control is an aviation unit that includes all structures from an aerodrome, traverse airspace and land at a destination airport, including Air Traffic Services (ATS), Airspace Management (ASM), and Air Traffic Flow and Capacity Management (ATFCM).

This report focuses on the status of glo bal air traffic management, future projections, opportunities for growth, key markets, and key players. The aims of the report are to address the growth of air traffic management in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India, and Central & South America.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-0V217/air-traffic-management-market

INTELLIGENT TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (ITMS) MARKET RESEARCH REPORT

The global Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) market was estimated at USD 7404.5 Million in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 11800 Million by 2026, registering a 6.8 percent CAGR from 2021 to 2026.

This report focuses on the status, future outlook, growth potential, key market, and key players of the global Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS). The purpose of this study is to present the development of the Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India, and Central & South America.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-4J208/intelligent-traffic-management-system-market

VESSEL TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT MARKET RESEARCH REPORT

The Vessel Traffic Management size is expected to grow from USD 301 million in 2018 to USD 505.9 million by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.6% during the forecasted period.

Vessel Traffic Management is a maritime traffic management system that is similar to air traffic control for aircraft developed by port or port authorities. Typical VTS systems use radar, CCTV, VHF radiotelephony, and a utomatic identification to track vessel movements and provide navigational protection in a restricted geographic area.

This report studies the size of the Vessel Traffic Management market by participants, countries, product types and end industries, historical data for 2014-2018, and forecast data for 2019-2025. Furthermore, the report also analyses the global competitive environment, market drivers and patterns, opportunities and challenges, risks, and barriers to entry, distribution channels, distributors, and Porter's Five Forces Analysis.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-3H220/vessel-traffic-management-market

SHIP TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT MARKET RESEARCH REPORT

It is a marine traffic management system, similar to air traffic control for aircraft, developed by harbor or port authorities. Typical VTS systems use radar, CCTV, VHF radiotelephony, and automatic identification to track vessel movements and provide navigational protection in a restricted geographic area.

The study report studies the market for ship traffic management using different methodologies and analyses for providing reliable and in-depth market information. It is split into several sections to cover various areas of the industry for a better understanding. Afterward, each field is built to help the reader understand each region's growth potential and its contribution to the global market.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-3S219/ship-traffic-management-market

UNMANNED TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT (UTM) MARKET RESEARCH REPORT

This report focuses on the status of global Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM), future outlook, opportunities for development, key market, and key players. The aims of the study are to present the production of Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) in the United States, Europe, and China.

Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM), or a networked infrastructure array that interacts together on the basis of general laws. Instead of relying on centralized regulation, UTM systems worldwide will follow the distributed authority concept, which opens up the system to more service providers who can adapt as the market grows and needs change.

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Sixteen new coronavirus positive cases were reported in Uttar Pradesh on Monday, taking the total tally in the state to 88, officials said.

Of the 88 COVID-19 patients, 14 have fully recovered and discharged. Gautam Buddh Nagar district alone has reported 36 cases, they said.

"So far, the number of samples which tested coronavirus positive is 88. Of this, 14 patients have fully recovered and discharged. The maximum 36 cases have been reported from Gautam Buddh Nagar, where 31 were from just one factory," Uttar Pradesh Principal Secretary (Medical and Health) Amit Mohan Prasad told reporters on Monday.

"In Meerut, 13 cases have been reported, all of which are relatives and acquaintances of one infected person."



Prasad said of the total cases reported so far, 44 are from two clusters.

Cluster containment work is on, he said, explaining that if more than one patient is reported in a cluster, every house in a radius of three kilometre is thoroughly scanned and if any symptom is reported, the residents of the said house are quarantined and their samples tested.

"If just a single case is reported in a cluster, we do containment in a radius of one kilometre," Prasad said, adding so far 2,430 samples have been sent to different laboratories, of which 2,305 have tested negative.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Overseas Highway into the Florida Keys was blocked off to visitors Friday, an acknowledgment that tourism - the lifeblood of the islands - will have to be temporarily sacrificed as part of the effort to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The move follows a crescendo of actions from local officials, who a week ago ordered tourists to leave and all hotels and short-term rentals to close, and comes as part of a broader attempt across the Sunshine State at a time when spring breakers are usually descending.

Monroe County has had 14 reported cases of coronavirus infection and no deaths, but residents said they've noticed more and more people coming to the Keys recently from Miami-Dade County, which has the most cases in the state, at 744.

"It breaks my heart," said Elizabeth Moscynski, president of the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce. "It's so tough, because we're such a friendly place. Now we have to tell people they can't come down."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced at a news briefing Friday that he would be expanding restrictions on travelers and tourists entering the state from areas of the country hardest hit by the virus.

He said he was adding Louisiana to an earlier executive order that requires air travelers from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to self-isolate for two weeks upon arrival. Travelers from nearby Louisiana, which is also experiencing an outbreak, will now be required to isolate as well, including those traveling by car.

Since his earlier order, 3,400 travelers from the New York area have been screened in Florida, and there has been a "dramatic reduction in air traffic," DeSantis said.

The governor also announced a two-week ban on new vacation rentals, though it was not immediately clear how state officials planned to enforce that. He said people currently in vacation rentals can finish their stays.

Though nationwide social distancing protocols have been in place for weeks, tourists and locals have still flocked to the state's public beaches and sandbars, tying their boats together on the water in a way that violates what health officials say are critical measures for "flattening the curve."

DeSantis said at his news briefing that he is issuing a new emergency declaration that prohibits these boat gatherings, empowering Florida Fish and Wildlife officers to enforce social distancing on the waterways.

The Keys sees more than 5 million tourists every year, and this time of year is usually among the busiest, with spring breakers and families traveling to the nation's southernmost tourist destination. But the pandemic has halted that.

Officers from several agencies, including state troopers and Florida game officers, began stopping all vehicles trying to enter the Keys on Friday morning, either on the Overseas Highway, which is also U.S. 1, or on a more remote road called Card Sound Road.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Heather Carruthers, mayor of Monroe County, said the checkpoints were necessary because visitors weren't following the county's order to leave the islands.

"The message wasn't getting through," Carruthers said.

Scott Atwell, CEO of the Key West Chamber of Commerce, said police are turning back about 20 cars an hour.

"We were still having day-trippers coming in from Miami and Broward, and those are the real epicenters," Atwell said. "People in the Keys were concerned about travelers coming from those hotspots."

Atwell said the hope is that by closing down the Keys, the sooner the pandemic is over, the quicker the Keys will recover. Meanwhile, he said, it's an eerie scene in Key West.

"My office is right behind Sloppy Joe's on Duval Street," Atwater said. "At this time of year, the town would be packed with thousands and thousands of people. Instead, it's empty."

To get past the two checkpoints, drivers have to show proof of Keys residency, or proof from an employer that they work there, an effort that Moscynski said was necessary.

"We have to do it to flatten the curve," she said. "Once this clears up, we'll be back to 'come as you are.' For now, we've got to be proactive."
Wine producers the world over invest in unusually thick, heavy wine bottles for the sake of impressive brand aesthetics. But thanks to their weight, these bottles (and their transportation around the world) represent the single largest portion of the wine industrys carbon footprint and contribution to global warming.

Its time for us to tear down the aesthetic fallacy of the heavy wine bottle. It wont be easy, but it is most surely possible, because weve done this sort of thing before.

Once upon a time here in the United States, pretty much everyone chose the vehicles we drove merely by the intersection of what we could afford and our sense of self image. In a pre-9/11 world, the logical extension of this principle gave rise to big, expensive cars with bad gas mileage that were followed by bigger more expensive cars with even lousier gas mileage that were eventually all topped by the GMC Hummer.

Modeled on the Humvee, the burly, squat vehicle that played a starring role in the Gulf War, the GM Hummer debuted in 1999 and through three different editions (H1, the H2 shown above, and H3) managed to authoritatively establish the nadir of U.S. automotive fuel efficiency, clocking in somewhere between 9 and 11 miles per gallon.

The redesigned Hummer H2 launched in 2002, and with rising gas prices, increased understanding of global warming and rising scrutiny of our Mid-east relationships following 9/11, public sentiment eventually decided these gas guzzlers represented the worst of our national inclination to excess.

Hummers became a symbol of wasteful consumption, said Business Insider, as part of a piece entitled The Rise and Fall of the Hummer. They became a symbol of everything that is wrong about the way we treat the planet.

At the height of Hummer hating, eco vandals slashed tires, sprayed graffiti, and keyed the sides of Hummers in parking lots and even at stoplights. At one point some protesters even set fire to the vehicles in dealer parking lots in Los Angeles.

Eventually described by Time Magazine as an unnecessary SUV that signals pure contempt for ones fellow man, and by AutoTrader as the most embarrassing car you can buy Hummers fell so low in public favor that the entire line was discontinued in 2010 after the previous years sales barely topped 1,500 vehicles. America had finally decided that some things were more important than aesthetics.

The carbon footprint of global wine shipping is enormous. When you include the emissions involved in glass production (which the industry has taken great pains to reduce in recent years) experts suggest that close to 20% of every winerys carbon footprint comes from manufacturing and shipping those glass bottles. And that is true for the mere average wine bottle, which clocks in at roughly 1.1 pounds, or roughly 500 grams. I regularly receive wine samples packaged in bottles that weight twice that amount, and thats before the weight of the ostentatious metal medallion they have stamped on their front. A case box of such bottles can weigh close to 50 pounds. Or roughly 18-20 pounds more than it really needs to.

Which is why I was frankly nonplussed to see fellow wine writer Robert Josephs article An Argument for Heavy Wine Bottles back in January of this year. I tend to agree with much of Josephs writing, and Im thankful for the contrarian approach he takes to many subjects that are all too often assumed as gospel in the wine world. But in this case he seems to have gotten it so very wrong.

Joseph equates the heavy wine bottle to a hardback book, suggesting there is value in its mere aesthetics, making it superior to a soft-cover or an e-book.

Most books no more need hard covers or indeed any kind of printed format than most daily-drinking wines need anything more than a refillable bottle or environmentally-friendly bag-in-box, writes Joseph. Thats true enough. But he then continues: Nicely produced hardback books, however, are undeniably aesthetically more pleasing and satisfying to receive and own. And so  to their buyers and recipients  are heavier bottles.

Yes, Robert, so were huge SUVs that got 9 miles to the gallon at one time in America. But we got over it. Just as in 1917, outrage over the decimation of bird populations thanks to the popularity of ladies hats adorned with egret and other feathers directly led to the passage of the Migratory Birds Treaty Act of 1918. Eventually becoming known as the white badge of cruelty these once-admired fashion items all but disappeared in a matter of months as celebrities and newspapers drove a groundswell of public outrage.

The time has come for the wine industry to suffer the same outrage, and for wine writers, critics, and consumers to stoke the fires underneath them. I have been calling out obscenely heavy bottles in my wine reviews for some time, and will continue to do so, with increasing prejudice and ire.

Heavy wine bottles are the wine equivalent of a fancy SUV with shitty gas mileage, and its time, wine industry, to move on. Even the Hummer has.
NEW YORK, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Vegan Baking Ingredients Market is expected to grow from USD 1,423.37 Million in 2018 to USD 2,167.34 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.19%.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05871931/?utm_source=PRN



The positioning of the Global Vegan Baking Ingredients Market vendors in FPNV Positioning Matrix are determined by Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) and placed into four quadrants (F: Forefront, P: Pathfinders, N: Niche, and V: Vital).



The report deeply explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Vegan Baking Ingredients Market including are Associated British Foods, BASF SE, DuPont de Nemours, Inc., Dohler, Kerry Foodservice, Dawn Food Products, Ingredion EMEA, Lallemand Baking, Turtle Island Food, and veganz GmbH.



On the basis of Type, the Global Vegan Baking Ingredients Market is studied across Baking Powder and Mixes, Colors and Flavors, Emulsifiers, Enzymes, Leavening Agents, Raising Agents, Starch, and Vegetable Oils.



On the basis of Application, the Global Vegan Baking Ingredients Market is studied across Biscuits & Cookies, Bread, Buns, Cakes & Pastries, and Rolls & Pies.



For the detailed coverage of the study, the market has been geographically divided into the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The report provides details of qualitative and quantitative insights about the major countries in the region and taps the major regional developments in detail.



In the report, we have covered two proprietary models, the FPNV Positioning Matrix and Competitive Strategic Window. The FPNV Positioning Matrix analyses the competitive market place for the players in terms of product satisfaction and business strategy they adopt to sustain in the market. The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies. The Competitive Strategic Window helps the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. During a forecast period, it defines the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisitions strategies, geography expansion, research & development, new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth.



Research Methodology:

Our market forecasting is based on a market model derived from market connectivity, dynamics, and identified influential factors around which assumptions about the market are made. These assumptions are enlightened by fact-bases, put by primary and secondary research instruments, regressive analysis and an extensive connect with industry people. Market forecasting derived from in-depth understanding attained from future market spending patterns provides quantified insight to support your decision-making process. The interview is recorded, and the information gathered in put on the drawing board with the information collected through secondary research.



The report provides insights on the following pointers:

1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on sulfuric acid offered by the key players in the Global Vegan Baking Ingredients Market

2. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and new product developments in the Global Vegan Baking Ingredients Market

3. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyzes the markets for the Global Vegan Baking Ingredients Market

4. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new products launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments in the Global Vegan Baking Ingredients Market

5. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players in the Global Vegan Baking Ingredients Market



The report answers questions such as:

1. What is the market size of Vegan Baking Ingredients market in the Global?

2. What are the factors that affect the growth in the Global Vegan Baking Ingredients Market over the forecast period?

3. What is the competitive position in the Global Vegan Baking Ingredients Market?

4. Which are the best product areas to be invested in over the forecast period in the Global Vegan Baking Ingredients Market?

5. What are the opportunities in the Global Vegan Baking Ingredients Market?

6. What are the modes of entering the Global Vegan Baking Ingredients Market?



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Thousands of medical students are set to bolster Victorias health system and join the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic, with some starting in hospitals as early as this week.

The Victorian government has asked the states medical schools  which teach about 4000 doctors-in-training  to provide numbers on how many students are willing to join a surge health force, as Australia moves towards hitting a peak in coronavirus infections in May or June.

Kevin Shi, 22, says he and many of his colleagues are ready to answer the state's call for help ahead of the coronavirus peak in May or June. Credit:Jason South

Following the lead of countries such as the UK, students could do coronavirus-related tasks such as swabs and blood testing, triage or telehealth consulting, or take up backroom or non-coronavirus responsibilities to relieve pressure on doctors.
President Donald Trump on Sunday abandoned his timetable for life returning to normal in the United States, extending emergency coronavirus restrictions for another month, while Spain suffered its deadliest day. Trump, who had hoped to shortly re-open much of the US, said the death rate in the country was likely to increase for two weeks and announced "social distancing" guidelines would be in place until at least the end of April. More than 40 percent of the world's population has been asked to stay at home to halt the deadly march of a disease that has claimed some 33,880 lives. Hospitals are rapidly filling with patients in Europe and the United States -- now the focal points of a pandemic that began in Asia but has upended the global economy and upset everyday life in unprecedented ways. Spain announced 838 deaths in a 24-hour period, the third consecutive day it has seen a rise. The US has witnessed explosive growth in coronavirus cases, including a doubling in cases in only two days, with New York hardest hit. Trump said the better that Americans obey the emergency guidelines to stay home "the faster this whole nightmare will end." "Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won," Trump said, altering his previously upbeat tone. He said he expected the country to "be well on our way to recovery" by June 1 -- dropping his previous target of mid-April. "We will defeat this invisible curse, this invisible enemy," he added. Senior US scientist Anthony Fauci issued a tentative prediction that COVID-19 could claim from 100,000 to 200,000 lives -- a figure Trump described as "horrible." As of Sunday, more than 3.38 billion people were asked or ordered to follow confinement measures, according to an AFP database, as the virus infects every sphere of life, wiping out millions of jobs, postponing elections and pressing pause on the sporting scene. Worst-hit Italy, with 10,779 deaths, and Spain, with 6,803 dead, together have accounted for more than half of the world's deaths. Both countries are clinging to the hope, however, that they are closing in on the peak of the crisis. - 'We are on the verge' - Several countries warned citizens that lockdowns will be the new normal for an indefinite period. Spain is toughening already tight restrictions on movement while Italian authorities said they would extend a shutdown past an April 3 deadline. "My ICU (intensive care unit) is completely full," said Eduardo Fernandez, a nurse at Infanta Sofia hospital in Madrid, where authorities have set up a 5,500-bed field hospital and transformed an ice rink into a morgue. "If it is not a complete collapse, we are on the verge," he added. The pandemic has spurred a worldwide scramble for medical gear as doctors and nurses struggle to dole out limited stocks of face masks and life-saving ventilators. "I have nothing for my head, nothing for my shoes," said Diana Torres, who works in a rehabilitation centre in New York. "Everybody is scared." - Long haul - The US is now home to the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 infections globally with more than 140,000 cases, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. The US death toll reached 2,467 on Sunday, with cities like Detroit and New Orleans joining New York as hotspots. Across the Atlantic, Britain's death toll passed 1,200 as Prime Minister Boris Johnson -- who tested positive for the virus last week -- warned that dark days lay ahead. "We know things will get worse before they get better," said Johnson, who reports only mild symptoms. The country's deputy chief medical officer warned that life would not return to normal for six months or more. France deployed two specially equipped trains to transport coronavirus patients from overcrowded hospitals in the east to facilities along the western coast. In hard-hit Iran, President Hassan Rouhani also said the country must prepare to adjust to "the new way of life" for the foreseeable future, after 123 more deaths were recorded. The mayor of Moscow ordered self-isolation for all residents as Russia prepares to close its borders on Monday and take a week off work. - Global divide - More than 720,000 cases of the novel coronavirus have been officially declared around the world since the outbreak began late last year, according to the Johns Hopkins tally. Variations in testing regimes mean the true number is likely far higher. As health facilities in rich countries buckle under the pressure, aid groups warn of the toll for the millions in poor states and war zones such as Syria and Yemen. Three billion people around the world lack access to running water and soap, the most basic weapons of protection against the virus, according to UN experts. In Africa, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari ordered a two-week lockdown in Lagos and capital Abuja. But in Benin, President Patrice Talon said his country could not enforce public confinement because it lacks the "means of rich countries." In China, however, life is creeping back to normal in the ground-zero city of Wuhan. Officials say the biggest threat to public health is now imported cases. "Initially we were more scared and maybe thought it was safer overseas," said Han Li, who is helping floods of locals returning to Wuhan. "But now it doesn't seem this way. It seems it might be safer within China." burs-ssm/har/bbk/bgs/cl
Security services will approach this lock down with a humanitarian face. Its not a war. Police will take the lead and GAF will support Report early if you have any symptoms All bars and nite clubs are to remain closed during the lock down Dont hold back critical information . Every citizen must help in this fight Restaurants and other food deliveries are to operate online Non food dealers are to stay at home 31 COVID patients are been treated from home in isolation from their families Hospitals are to give priority to COVID 19 issues Exempted institutions like manufacturing companies and even that only critical workers

Have your IDs on you always

Staff buses must be used by exempted institutions

These buses must have special stickers provided by the security services

Restrictions are for Accra KumasiKasoa areas for now



And no travels from or to the restricted areas during the lock down 2000 Security personnel to be deployed during the lockdown The local area waakye seller will be still allowed to sell Markets will remain opened



Do essential purchases in your local areas Government workers to work remotely from home Only critical cases will be attended to in the courts Media is exempted from the lock down



But must carry staff ID card at all times and must be in branded vehicles or apparel There will be a naval contingent at sea Air force personnel will air lift essential medical supplies Financial institutions must rationalize their operations and minimize workers coming to work Ports remain open for public business



But only critical workers

Staff IDs must be on you always

Those using public toilets must proof enough that  thats where they are going and nowhere else GPRTUto ensure social distancing in vehicles by reducing the numbers per car Private security services are exempted from the lock down but must be in Uniform and have ID cards always ALL category of health workers are exempted from the lock down ALL other operations are in force by the Security services eg. Operation CALM Life(Night patrols to combat armed robbery) Security personnel will be professional in their duties and citizens must comply to security directives ALL borders still remain CLOSED National COVID 19 Trust fund inaugurated chaired by former Chief Justice Sofia Akuffo



Individuals are to freely donate to the fund

President Akuffo Addo & the Vice President Bawumia have donated their 3 months salaries respectively into the fund already to help our the most vulnerable in these times

Guinness Ghana has made available 1500 cases of MG PET to all frontline workers fighting COVID 19 Citizens must.provide the necessary information to help fight the spread of the virus and stay home

COVID 19: STAY HOME & SAVE LIVES & OUR HEALTH SYSTEM

---citinewsroom
Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Challenge to Police Officers Immunity in Excessive Force Claim

A dispute between a Michigan man and law enforcement over the use of excessive force in a mistaken identity case will be reviewed by the Supreme Court.

The case stems from a 2014 incident in which two undercover law enforcement officers mistook the identity of a then-college student, James King, for a wanted home invasion fugitive. The officersGrand Rapids Police Department detective Todd Allen and FBI agent Douglas Brownbackwere assigned to work as members of a state-federal police task force that was searching for the suspect.

King, who fit the general description of the suspect, was stopped by the two plainclothes officers, who wore their badges on lanyards while walking near a gas station in Grand Rapids. He was not able to produce any identification. When the two officers began searching his body and removed his wallet, King thought he was being mugged and made a run for it.

The officers then pursued the student and eventually, a brawl ensued. King alleges that Allen had placed him in a chokehold that caused him to lose consciousness for several seconds. Meanwhile, the Justice Department said King fought with the officers and violently resisted arrest, including biting Allen in the arm. In order to force King to release his bite, Allen began punching the student in the head and face. The arrest was captured on video by passersby who called police.

King was later charged and acquitted for resisting arrest and assaulting the officers. He then sued the two officers for violating his constitutional rights including an unreasonable search and seizure. He also sued the federal government under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), which waives the sovereign immunity of the United States in certain types of lawsuits where a federal government entity and federal employees who, while acting within the scope of their employment, have caused injuries.

The main obstacle, in this case, is that the officers were working in a state-federal police task force. A person who sues state or local law enforcement officers for excessive use of force would sue under Section 1983 of the U.S. Code (section 1983). Meanwhile, when suing federal law enforcement officers, a person could try bringing a Bivens claim, which gives private citizens the implied right to sue a federal officer, acting under federal authority, who had violated the Constitution for damages. The doctrine came out of the 1971 Supreme Court case Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents. King sued the officersone being local and the other federalunder both options.

The district court dismissed all of Kings claims, including his FTCA case against the federal government. The court found that King had not shown enough facts to show that officers actions could support liab[ility] to the claimant in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred. The court also found that Allen was acting as a federal officer, therefore, which would only trigger a Bivens claim. However, the court subsequently dismissed that claim as well.

King then appealed the decisions against the two officers at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit but decided to drop his FTCA claim against the federal government.

Before the 6th Circuit, the officers argued that the district courts dismissal of the FTCA case against the federal government triggered a provision under the FTCA, which blocks a plaintiff from bringing further claims against the employee of the government involving the same facts of a case after a judgment has been rendered on the FTCA claim.

The 6th Circuit rejected the officers argument that Kings Bivens claim would be blocked due to the judgment on the FTCA claim. The circuit court also held that the officers were not entitled to qualified immunitya legal doctrine that insulates government officials from being sued for actions performed within their official capacityand remanded the case back to proceed with Kings Bivens claim.

The Justice Department then appealed the case to the Supreme Court. King also appealed to the top court asking them to review whether the officers who are in state-federal joint task forces could be sued under section 1983 as well.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the governments request (pdf) on Monday but denied Kings cross-appeal (pdf).

The Institute for Justice (IJ), who represents King and characterized the governments arguments as a shell game, said in a statement following the top courts decision that asserting that simply bringing an FTCA claim is like stepping on a tripwire that destroys your constitutional claims.

We hope the Court will reject the governments request for yet another way to shield officers from constitutional accountability, said IJ Attorney Patrick Jaicomo. Because members of joint federal-state task forces have power under both state and federal law, they should be more accountable, not less, when they use that power to violate the Constitution.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to our request to comment.
There are days Tanya Veltz simply doesnt have the energy to help people in their darkest hour with the non-profit she started four years ago. She is rundown, the phone calls keep coming, and the problems seem endless and insurmountable.

Theres a mother of seven with no food for her children, or an infant drinking soda from a baby bottle because the family has no formula, or a disabled neighbor who cant get out and hasnt eaten in days, or dozens of seniors who are relying on her for a hot meal.

She is exhausted. But in that moment, Veltz, 52, remembers the three slices of bread that were her Thanksgiving meal one year and the countless hardships she has endured. She remembers standing in food lines when she and her husband, Matthew, lost their jobs and sent their kids to school for an education -- and for breakfast.

Suddenly, there is a surge of energy.

As the coronavirus spreads and many struggle as she once did, Veltz remembers the promise she made to God, too.

When He pulled me out of those situations, I promised him that I would do this," Veltz said.

She and Matthew are relentless. They take phone orders, read text messages, prepare dozens of meals and hit the road to distribute the food thats been donated by individuals, organizations and food stores. Its wearying work. I spent a few hours with them, and they stopped moving only long enough to pose for a photo for this column.

Whew, that felt good," she said. Were not used to that.

She answers the phone whenever it rings, and now, as she also grieves the loss of a friend to Covid-19, the calls for food have been unyielding. In the past three weeks, Veltz, an East Orange resident, has taken only one day off from running Tree House Cares, her Newark based non-profit known for showing up with whatever her neighbors need.

Take Friday, for instance. By 3 p.m., the couple already had made five stops to pick up food and donations. In a beat-up yellow van, they scooped up banana pudding in Clifton; pasta and salad in Newark and food containers in Irvington. Two stops in East Orange yielded bread, rice, fresh vegetables and canned soup.

She is running on fumes, sleeping about four hours a night after 12-hour days. This is her passion, and Matthew, works right beside his wife of 21 years, occasionally trying to get her to slow down. Its no use.

Shes non-stop, 24/7," he said.

And heres why: This is definitely my calling," she said.

Theyre pumping $250 a week in gas into the van with income from his job as a laborer for Local 55. She was a per-diem nurse, but left John F. Kennedy Hospital in Edison last year to operate her non-profit full time.

The Unified Vailsburg Services Organization, a non-profit community group in Newark, allows Veltz to use part of its building for free. In one room, Veltz stores clothes, shoes and linen; another room, lined with tables, is where she normally would serve food to 500 people a week.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, however, Veltz has stopped people from coming inside -- except those picking up food for an emergency delivery or dropping off a donation. Shanida Carter of Newark, for instance, donated 300 Styrofoam containers on Friday when Veltz was running low. Carter had seen Veltz on Facebook, making food runs, and wanted to help.

Its the least we can do," she said.

At Unified Vailsburg Services Organization in Newark, Pamela McElveen (right) and husband Gerald McElveen bag meals to go for members of Cathedral of Love Church, in Irvington. From the left are Isaiah Smith, Pastor Stephon Love and Zami Ford.Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance MedMichael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Into those containers went 24 meals ready for a womens shelter in Montclair and a special order for a hungry senior in Newark. From large tin trays, Veltz and her husband dished up spaghetti sauce and pasta, green beans, chocolate cake, banana pudding, salad and yams.

On Friday, Pamela McElveen and her husband, Gerald, helped to pack food. McElveen, president of the Palm Street Block Association, met Veltz and partnered with her three years ago to fill the social cracks that many in New Jerseys cities fall through. She and Veltz are on the same level, she said. Im all about realism.

The realism of people in need. And the sobering realism that unless someone fills that need, people will go hungry.

Bishop Stephon Love of The Cathedral of Love Church in Irvington remembers when the Veltzes first started out as a mobile pantry, pulling tables from the van and serving food to the needy.

They dont do it for recognition," Love said. When they go out, large crowds come because of their reputation of how they treat people."

Word travels fast. A young couple up showed up Friday after hearing they could get something to eat. Veltz had enough food left to make them plates while Matthew was loading up the van.

When they reached Montclair, the womens shelter hadnt received clearance to accept the meals Veltz had prepared. No problem. That just meant disabled and wheelchair-bound seniors in Newarks North Ward would get a second visit this week. Barbara Fox was waiting outside with a shopping cart -- and a big smile -- when the van pulled up at the Casa Mia Apartments on Summer Avenue.

These are my people right here," said Fox, who looks out for the seniors in her building. When I reached out see if she could help, she remembered who I was. I love them so much."

Veltz knows tomorrow will bring more phone calls, more desperation, more challenges to be met. Bone-weary, she vows to keep going until she drops.

I promised God I would be a testimony," she said. And that testimony is serving.

Matthew and Tanya Veltz, married 21 years and the operators of Tree House Cares, a non-profit in Newark, continue their work feeding the hungry in spite of the coronavirus pandemic. Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance MedMichael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

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03/30/2020

By Ed Brennen

People are coming to us and saying, Ive got an idea. Who can you connect me to? And weve been doing that as rapidly as possible. -M2D2 Co-director Nate Hafer

Photo by Versatope Julie Liao, associate director and project leader of Versatope's universal influenza vaccine program, looks in a microscope at the company's M2D2 space at 110 Canal Street in Lowell.

The announcement came in late June 2018, just as many people were turning their attention to Fourth of July cookouts and summer vacation plans.The federal agency tasked with solving critical health threats to Americans has chosen the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center ( M2D2 ) as one of only eight business incubators in the nation to help startups develop means of eradicating influenza pandemics and other public health emergencies.For the scores of biotech and medical-device startups affiliated with the UMass Lowell-based incubator, it was headline news that the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority ( BARDA ) had selected M2D2 to join its new Division of Research, Innovation and Ventures ( DRIVe ) network  which includes access to $500,000 in public and private funding over five years.Now, less than two years later, a global pandemic is here. As COVID-19 threatens millions of lives, the research and development work being done at M2D2 has taken on increased urgency and focus.A collaboration of the UMass Lowell and UMass Medical School campuses, M2D2 has quickly aligned its efforts to help members of the life sciences innovation community identify funding opportunities (such as those from BARDA) to advance solutions for the coronavirus pandemic, from testing and detection to, ultimately, an effective vaccine.Theres been a tremendous shift in focus to all things related to coronavirus preparedness and disease response, says M2D2 Co-director Nate Hafer , an assistant professor of molecular medicine at the UMass Medical Schools Worcester campus. People are coming to us and saying, Ive got an idea. Who can you connect me to? And weve been doing that as rapidly as possible.M2D2 is home to 48 startups across its three sites  at 110 Canal Street and the Wannalancit Business Center in Lowell and at the UMass Medical School in Worcester  and is affiliated with more than 50 other companies around the world. In addition to medical device and biotech lab space, M2D2 provides resources and assistance for everything from funding opportunities and business development to clinical pathways and prototype design.Were able to help these early-stage emerging biotech companies from an idea on a napkin all the way through to commercialization, says Director of Operations Mary Ann Picard . Right now, we are actively looking for technologies that are applicable to COVID-19.One of those early-stage biotech companies is Versatope , which develops vaccines and therapeutics. Versatope has been working to develop a universal flu vaccine and was awarded a $17.9 million contract last fall from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).In light of the coronavirus pandemic, Versatope has recently used its computational technology to design new vaccines for COVID-19.Pandemics have been a threat throughout history, but this moved so much faster than most people had anticipated, says Versatope CEO Christopher Locher, who co-founded the company in 2017 and has worked in the infectious disease field for 30 years.Versatope is actually taking two different approaches to a vaccine for COVID-19, which is caused by a virus known as SARS-CoV-2.One approach is a spinoff of its flu technology, which involves replicating a portion of the spike protein on the novel coronavirus  the part that latches on to the human cell. That replicated portion is then attached to nano-sized vesicles, or recombinant outer membrane vesicles (rOMVs), that are made by Versatope.The resultant vaccine, which could be rapidly synthesized and distributed, would create antibodies in a persons system that block the spike protein of the virus. Versatope recently applied for supplemental NIH funding to begin making the genetic constructs of the vaccine, which Locher says is still in its early stages.The second approach is based on structural biology. One of Lochers colleagues at Versatope, Carlos Faerman, is an expert in molecular modeling. Faerman recalled a published paper on SARS-CoV-1, which is related to SARS-CoV-2, that mapped out its neutralizing antibodies.We were able to identify precisely the amino acid residues that come in contact with the neutralizing antibodies, Locher says. We looked at the sequence of the SARS-2 virus, did an alignment and were able to identify how to design the vaccine based on COVID-19.What happens now with that design?We think we can use this polypeptide-based approach for a vaccine and start immunizing people to show that this approach is safe and well-tolerated. Thats our goal, Locher says. Weve designed the construct. We know how to make it. Its just a matter of getting the money to actually pay people to make it for us.Versatope has been exploring a public-private partnership for the vaccine funding  like it did when it partnered with Assoc. Prof. of Chemical Engineeringon a $1.75 million Mass Life Sciences grant to make nano-vesicles for its universal flu vaccine. Lawton is also the founding director of the Massachusetts Biomanufacturing Center (MBMC).Locher moved Versatope from Boston to M2D2s 110 Canal site two years ago  in part, he says, because of UMLs strongbiotechnology program.We can hire students right out of school, says Locher, whose team includes alum Lixia Wang 01, who earned her masters degree in biology from theVersatope also has an internship program that last summer included a junior biology and chemistry major Kimberly Carroll, biology alum Rachel Papazian 19 and chemistry alum Julie Pieslak 19.Being at M2D2, with the core services of UMass, has been a huge help, says Locher, who notes that in addition to the equipment that M2D2 has purchased to advance its biotechnology platform, one of the most important resources has been access to theWe have access to journals and databases that are not cheap, he says. Were able to access a lot of information and resources at M2D2 that otherwise wouldnt have been possible.Another M2D2 resident, Nuclease Probe Technologies ( NPT ), is working to develop a faster testing method for COVID-19.NPT specializes in developing simple blood tests to rapidly detect bacterial pathogens and determine the most effective treatment. The company moved to M2D2 last March after receiving $500,000 in funding from Breakout Labs to support the development of its rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing for bloodstream infections.Like everyone else, were concerned (about the coronavirus) and we consider this really important work in these times, says NPT CEO James McNamara, who left his tenured faculty position at the University of Iowa last year to found the company.McNamara, who moved to the area when his wife took a job at Moderna Therapeutics in Cambridge, says M2D2 had everything he was looking for in a research incubator, at a cost-effective price.M2D2 has been a really rich and nurturing environment, McNamara says. Theyre really helping to educate us and make us aware of various funding opportunities.NPT currently has a three-person R&D team, although McNamara says it is looking to expand in the near future. The company has also turned to UML for student interns. Hannah Bagley, a senior biomedical major from Townsend, started an internship with NPT in January.To support the federal governments coronavirus medical countermeasure efforts, BARDA is funding awards of up to $750,000 for COVID-19 diagnostics through its EZ-BAA program.M2D2 also offers funding opportunities from its Center for Advancing Point-of-Care Technologies ( CAPCaT ) program, as a member of Johnson & Johnsonsnetwork and through its annual$200K Challenge.While many of the innovations are in early stages, its clear that M2D2 is channeling as many resources as possible to stop the spread of the coronavirus.People are laser-focused right now and brainstorming hard about how their slice of the health care or biomedical enterprise could be used to address this very acute crisis that were in, Hafer says. Its amazing how people have come together.Vice Provost of Graduate, Online and Professional Studies Steve Tello , an architect of M2D2 in his prior role as vice provost of innovation and workforce development, is confident in what its dedicated researchers and scientists can achieve.The universitys support of M2D2 for the past decade has helped create an ecosystem that attracts innovative life science startups and researchers  people who are ready to tackle the challenge COVID-19 presents, Tello says. We are fortunate to have companies like Versatope and Nuclease Probe already working in this space on this campus. We all look forward to celebrating their successes.
New Delhi, March 30 Ians) : Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) has on Monday pledged Rs 26.25 crore to the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund.

The state-owned aerospace and defence company's employees have donated their one-day salary amounting to Rs 6.25 crore. Cumulatively, it works out to Rs 26.25 crore.

"It's a small step from HAL in supporting the government's efforts in fighting the coronavirus pandemic," said R. Madhavan, HAL Chairman and Managing Director.

"Each HAL employee has committed a minimum of single-day's salary as donation," said Alok Verma, HR Director.

HAL has shut all manufacturing units and offices for March 24 to March 31. But people involved in essential services, including those dealing with maintenance, water supply, power and security at HAL townships, will remain on duty.

Earlier this month, the company had planned to set up logistics bases in Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Sri Lanka as part of initiatives to woo them to buy its light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas and military helicopters.

Madhavan had said the HAL was considering logistics bases in the four countries as they used a number of Russian-origin military aircraft and choppers, whose service ability was poor.

He had said HAL was focusing on boosting exports in sync with the government's priority and identified Southeast Asia, West Asia and North Africa to sell key platforms like Tejas, attack helicopter Rudra and advanced light helicopter Dhruv.
By Express News Service

KOLKATA: A businessman in Kolkatas port area has turned a messiah to the poor, distributing food to people in distress, including stranded migrant labourers, since last three days.

He located a roti-maker which produces 1,000 chappatis in an hour and distributed more than 8,000 rotis with vegetable curry and pickle among 2,000 people on Thursday between 11 am and continues 9 pm.

I saw many daily wage earners, migrant labourers stranded at the port. Their children were starving since the lockdown was announced. On the first day, I managed some rice and daal. Then I heard about a roti making machine which was lying idle in the area. I approached its owner and he allowed me to use the machine, said R P Singh.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 30

By Nargiz Ismayilova  Trend:

Reaffirmation of Azerbaijan's S&P rating at "BB +" level and remaining of its "Stable" outlook are positive for euro bonds, Trend reports with reference to Russian media.

"We believe that amid a sharp decline in oil prices, confirmation of Azerbaijan's current sovereign rating is positive for euro bonds," the bank analysts said.

According to the review, this decision was not surprising for Gazprombank, given that owing to the measures taken, the Azerbaijani economy has acquired significantly greater resistance to external shocks compared to 2015.

The availability of international reserves is high and as of March 1 reached 103 percent of GDP (with accounting for SOFAZ assets); the debt burden has remained low and hasnt exceeded 20 percent of GDP in 2019; a budget rule has been introduced, which implies a restriction of the nominal growth of budget expenditures at the level of 3 percent compared with the approved expenditures of the previous year; a limit for oil revenues, which can be used to finance budget expenditures, also target level of the non-oil balance of the budget as a percentage of non-oil GDP have been established and approved by Azerbaijan's president; the country's non-oil sector is actively developing to ensure the acceleration of economic growth in 2020 to 2.8 percent.

Gazprombank experts believe that other rating agencies - Moodys and Fitch - in case of an extraordinary review, will confirm Azerbaijans current ratings with a "stable" outlook, the banks review said.

Gazprombank is one of Russias leading credit organizations, providing banking support services for contracts since 2014.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-31 05:06:39|Editor: huaxia

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RABAT, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Moroccan government has pledged on Monday to support workers and economic sectors affected by COVID-19 pandemic.

Moroccan enterprises affected by the pandemic will also get state help, said a press release from the prime minister's office.

During a meeting in Rabat with representative of trade unions, Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani underlined the government's determination to continue providing online teaching courses and ensure the continuity of public services and vital productive activities, the statement added.

El Othmani hailed the commitment of trade unions to contributing to the efforts to fight against this pandemic, calling for more mobilization of workers and employees to ensure the success of the precautionary measures taken, it added.

On March 27, the government announced the allocation of a monthly stipend, as of March 15, for workers forced to suspend their income-generating activities due to the national lockdown.

A guarantee program was also launched to protect companies with a deteriorated cash flow from bankruptcy amid the novel coronavirus crisis.

Morocco has recently created a special fund to upgrade health infrastructure and help vulnerable economic sectors.

The donations received by the fund have reached so far more than 3 billion U.S. dollars.

The deaths from the novel coronavirus reached 33 on Monday in Morocco among the 534 confirmed cases, the Ministry of Health said.

On March 22, the north African country declared a one-month state of medical emergency until April 20.

Since after the detection of the first COVID-19 case in Morocco on March 2, Morocco has closed all its land and sea borders, and suspended all international passenger flights. Enditem
SAN LEON  Joaquin Padilla steered his white oyster boat, MISS KOSOVARE, in deliberate, counter-clockwise circles on an unusually placid Galveston Bay. The boats oyster dredge  a chain mesh net with a heavy steel frame - dragged on the port side of the boat along the floor of the bay, raking up dozens of oysters of various sizes.

Padilla lifted the dredge out of the water using a crank, and the net dumped a pile of oysters on a small table. His deckhands, Jaime Martinez and Miguel Vasquez, quickly went to work cleaning and sorting oysters, hammering with mechanical precision and chucking rocks and dead or undersized oysters back into the water.

As a kid growing up in San Leon and working as a deckhand for his fisherman-uncle, Padilla remembered seeing up to 150 oyster boats in Galveston Bay, competing for an abundant harvest.

Right now, you can count with your fingers, altogether maybe 20 boats, Padilla said.

Houston Chronicle

The oyster population has dwindled from its peak two decades ago due both to market charges as well as a cyclical battle with droughts, floods, hurricanes, even invasive snails. The state responded in 2017 by sharply limiting oyster harvesting.

The good news: the commercial oyster fishery in Texas had one of its most productive years in 2019, producing $22.4 million worth of economic benefit, and wholesalers and fishermen said the 2020 season was continuing that trend. Then came the global coronavirus epidemic.

While the virus outbreak in southeast Texas hasnt led to any formal restrictions on the commercial harvesting of oysters, the recent closure of dine-in restaurants in the region has tanked the demand for oysters. Several oyster dealers have shut down because the market and supply chains are no longer there. The dealers still in business are freezing pints and gallons of oysters for sale at a later date.

With so many existential threats looming, the question facing fishermen like Padilla is whether the oyster population will ever rebound to what it once was.

Restoring reefs

In his early days on Galveston Bay fishing for his employer, Prestige Oysters, Inc., Padilla and his crew would haul in as many as 150 sacks  defined as 110 pounds  of oysters per day.

Today, state regulations limit all oystermen to 30 sacks per day. What used to be a seven-day-a-week trade has been reduced to five. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has gone so far as to shut off certain parts of the bay to oyster fishing entirely to allow new oysters the time (18 months to 3 years) to fully mature.

While some might view the steep drop in oyster fishing as alarming, oystermen such as Padilla are hopeful. He and other Prestige fishermen have personally invested time in restoring the private reefs leased out by the state  dumping piles of river rock and limestone into certain sections of the bay for oysters to spawn.

On a recent outing, he grabbed a clump of limestone from the pile just lifted from the bay floor and pointed to the fruits of this labor  small saucer-shaped oyster shells clinging to the stone, immature oysters that will someday be ready to harvest.

If we dont work the reefs so hard, we get those reefs back, little by little, Padilla said.

Raz Halili, vice president of Prestige Oysters, said maintaining its private reefs is one way to ensure the company can withstand future natural disasters that devastate the bays larger oyster population.

It is a constant battle with Mother Nature, shes unpredictable and she can be very unforgiving, Halili said. Were out here putting millions of dollars in the water and we wouldnt be doing that if we thought this business was going away anytime soon.

Ikes impact

Experts trace the decline in bay oysters to Hurricane Ike in 2008, the Category 2 storm whose 17-foot storm surges swept over Galveston and Bolivar Peninsula, stirring up sediment that blanketed oyster reefs, effectively smothering them. Parts of East Bay lost all of its reefs, and about half of Galveston Bays oyster population vanished.

Galveston (Bay) was the driver of the commercial oyster fishery in the state of Texas, said Lance Robinson, deputy director of TPWDs coastal fisheries division. Hurricane Ike changed that overnight.

Prior to Ike, Texas had been the second-largest producer of eastern oysters  the bivalve native to the Gulf Coast  in the nation, second only to Louisiana. At one point in the early 2000s, Texas accounted for about 20 percent of the national landings for eastern oysters, 80 percent of which came from Galveston Bay.

Oysters are remarkably resilient. An individual oyster can filter plankton, nitrogen and other pollutants from as much as 50 gallons of water per day, providing an enormous benefit to Galveston Bay, which has a long history of industrial activity and oil spills.

But an oysters survival depends on the precarious balance between heavy rainfall and prolonged dry spells. A nearly five-year drought beginning in 2011 raised salinity in the bay to dangerous levels, attracting bacteria, disease and natural oyster predators like the oyster drill  a little snail that preys on oysters by drilling a hole through their shell.

Freshwater runoff from major flooding events in 2015 and 2016, as well as the massive pulses of rain from Hurricane Harvey in 2017, dealt further setbacks. Harvey alone wiped out 90 percent of the oyster reefs in East Bay.

We had planted a lot of the material (in East Bay) and we were getting tremendous recruitment  really, really good-looking crop of oysters coming in over there, Robinson said. And then Harvey hit and wiped out all of these gains that we made.

Bouncing back

Robinson said he believes rule changes adopted by the Texas Legislature in 2017  new sack limits, the ban on weekend havesting, closing off parts of the bay to fishing entirely  had oysters on the road to recovery. State regulators cracked down on oystermen who culled immature oysters from reefs.

Misho Ivic, a 50-year veteran of the oyster trade and owner of Mishos Oyster Co., a wholesaler, as well as Gilhooleys, an oyster restaurant in Dickinson, initially balked at the changes. But the reduction in sack limits led to higher quality oysters being harvested, and the smaller supply meant wholesalers such as Ivic could raise prices.

The rule changes turned out to be the best thing that anyone did in Texas, now that I look backwards, Ivic said. You have a quality of oysters now that goes on the market that is just about perfect.

Ivic acknowledged, however, that the rule changes put a dent in the pockets of fishermen. Oystermen make about $40 per sack, according to Ivic. When you subtract expenses for diesel fuel, paying deckhands, food and other expenses, a boat captain like Padilla is left with $10 to $15 in take-home pay per sack. Multiply that by the 100 days that the state allows for oyster season  which runs from November through April 30  and an oysterman takes home only about $30,000 by the end.

Thats the downside, Ivic said. You have to try to do something else to survive the other six months.

Private leasing debated

For Padilla, that means harvesting from Prestiges private leases in the summer, where the sack limits are not subject to the same regulations  and where his profit margins are higher. He counts as a blessing that he is able to continue in this line of work during the off-season when many oystermen struggle.

Not everybody has a chance to work the whole year, Padilla said. My stepdad and my uncle, they have to go shrimping or do something else to keep working the next six months.

However, the proliferation of private oyster reefs in the bay has not been without controversy. Some say oysters are a public resource and that reefs should be reserved for public harvesting. Supporters say private leases are well-maintained and responsibly harvested in a way that public reefs arent.

Bob Stokes, the president of the Galveston Bay Foundation, a regional environmental advocacy organization, said hes concerned about the whack-a-mole cycle of restoring reefs to a mature oyster population only to see them overfished.

Were not against oyster harvesting, in fact were supportive of it, Stokes said. It would be nice to have some reefs that are off-limits and the vast majority could be harvested.

For Padilla, maintaining the private leases gives him an additional stake in the future of his livelihood. He wants the oyster trade to be an heirloom, a skill he can pass on to his children, who used to accompany him on the boat when oyster reefs were open for fishing on weekends.

Maybe later on my kids can come drive the boat, you never know, Padilla said. I hope those oysters dont disappear. If we work together, we can have those oysters for a long, long time.

nick.powell@chron.com
Coronavirus: 516 cases in Morocco and 3 bn to stem pandemic Casablanca hardest hit, hotels made available to medical staff

(ANSAmed) - RABAT, MARCH 30 - The number of people who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, has risen to 516 cases, according to the health ministry. Some 27 people with the virus have died and 13 have recovered. The Casablanca region, the country's main commercial and industrial hub, has been hit the hardest with 149 cases of infection, followed by Marrakech with 94, Fez with 88 and Rabat with 86. Some 2,436 COVID-19 tests have been carried out, 21% of which were positive. Morocco now has 550 new ventilators and 1,000 more beds in intensive car units. Civil society in the country have been working to help, with the main industrial groups in Morocco helping to increase a fund set up by the king for the COVID-19 emergency. According to the most recent estimates by Afrique Advisors, the fund now has more than 32 billion dirhams. The national social assistance fund, the country's social security institute, has created a fund that ensures up to 2,000 dirhams (about 200 euros) per month to employees that have had to stay home. Major hotel groups in the country - including CDG, Accor and Risma - in Tangiers, Casablanca, Essaouira and Marrakech have made their facilities available to host medical personnel and paramedics assisting those infected with COVID-19. (ANSAmed).




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President Donald Trump has blamed the state of New York for its ventilator shortage. The President gave a live interview on Fox News on Monday claiming the state was misusing the lifesaving machines.

I think New York should be fine, based on the numbers that we see, Trump told the networks morning show.

They should have more than enough, he said on Fox & Friends.

Im hearing stories that theyre not used, or not used right, but when we find anywhere from two to four thousand that have been sent and arent used, you know weve done a job, he said.

Watch the video:

"I think NY should be fine, based on the numbers that we see. They should have more than enough [ventilators]. I mean, I'm hearing stories that they're not used, or not used rightthe states should be getting it. We should be a backup"- Trump blames NY for a ventilator shortage pic.twitter.com/qCpU5YUJ6A  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 30, 2020

Trump was repeating a claim he made on Sunday. Speaking to the press, the President blamed hospitals for a shortage of masks and ventilators.

Now were still getting more ventilators, he said. After this is over, theyll be selling ventilators for a dollar a piece. Weve have a lot of them. But you know, they have to build them because for the most part, the whole world is short on ventilators.

Trump added that other countries were also in need of ventilators.

Were making a lot of ventilators now and eventually theyll be a dime a dozen, Trump said.

New York had chance to get 16,000 ventilators a few years ago and they turned it down. They should be getting it. The states should be getting it and we should be a backup.

And weve become not a backup  the opposite, the President said.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said his state will need 30 to 40 thousand ventilators and called on the federal government to help supply them.

Dr. Anthony Fauci agreed with Cuomo that the state would need around 30 thousand ventilators but Trump has repeatedly criticized Cuomos response to the Coronavirus outbreak.

Follow Darragh Roche on Twitter
Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders at Friday's press conference.

State Staying with County Numbers for COVID-19 Reports

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  At last report from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, there are 5,752 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the commonwealth and 162 cases  including five fatalities  in Berkshire County.

Of course, those numbers are always changing and likely will look different when the DPH updates its numbers again, which it does daily.

State officials are doing their best to report the impact of the pandemic, but they will not any time soon change the practice of reporting statistics on a county-by-county basis.

On Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders fielded a question from a reporter asking why Massachusetts was not releasing data about the virus spread within specific towns.

"This is where we try to balance public health and individual privacy and avoid people being bullied," Sudders said in a news conference with Gov. Charlie Baker.

"There were cases, particularly in the early part of the crisis, of individuals being outed on Facebook or people who assumed someone tested positive. "That is the balance we continue to try to strike."

Sudders said local boards of health in cities and towns had access to more specific municipal data and that first responders are notified of addresses in their communities where the virus is known to be present so they can take additional precautions.

The county's two mayors have been releasing information on the numbers of cases in their communities. Pittsfield has established a community dashboard where residents can find a range of information from school closures to meal sites to numbers of COVID-19 cases.

The Berkshires' largest municipality has seen positive tests for the coronavirus rise from the first two identified on March 9 to 59 at present in addition to one death.

In North Adams, Mayor Thomas Bernard has been posting a daily newsletter that indicates there have been at least 16 confirmed cases in the city. He informed the community of one death from the coronavirus on Saturday, a woman identified as Martha Robare by her family.

Robare, 86, had been at Williamstown Commons, which has had 17 residents test positive for COVID-19. She was a Drury High graduate who spent many years working at the former Sprague Electric Co., local day-care centers and the YMCA.

Clarksburg has had two confirmed cases, both of whom have recovered.

The Berkshires had been considered a "hot spot" for the coronavirus last week because of the number of cases per capita but the number of cases in other parts of the United States have grown rapidly. It's not clear how COVID-19 entered the community, which was first identified in one of the Clarksburg cases.

Sudders noted Friday that there is nothing stopping someone who has been diagnosed with the virus from informing their own community. Likewise, there is no restriction on a local board of health that wants to announce how many cases there are within a town or city. But the state wont be the one to make that information public.

"If you live in a community of several hundred people, does that person want to be identified?" Sudders asked rhetorically. "If you share that kind of status about an individual, you also want to make sure theyre protected from being bullied."

Sudders was asked whether seeing specific numbers in one of the commonwealth's 351 municipalities  as opposed to its 14 counties  would do more to alert residents to the danger.

She said the numbers released by her department drive the point home.

"When you see the numbers of the counties who report every day, it's fair to say we have community spread in the commonwealth," she said. "We put out age data so no one can think this age group or that age group is immune."
The United States has pledged to provide Armenia with more than $1 million in aid designed to combat the coronavirus epidemic.

The funding will be part of a $274 million emergency aid package announced by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo late last week. Pompeo said it will help 64 of the worlds most at-risk countries to better deal with the spread of coronavirus.

The assistance will be provided through international aid agencies, notably the World Health Organization.

We are pleased that $1.1 million has been authorized for Armenia, the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan announced at the weekend.

The embassy told RFE/RLs Armenian service afterwards that the assistance has already been transferred to relevant international organizations. It is aimed at strengthening Armenian health authorities capacity monitor infections and detect the virus.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), a Washington-based lobby group, welcomed the allocation. In a statement, ANCA Chairman Raffi Hamparian reiterated at the same time that some of the annual U.S. aid to Armenia allocated by Congress should also be channeled into the fight against coronavirus.

Armenia has already received limited amounts of coronavirus-related medical supplies from several other countries, including China. The Chinese aid reported by the Armenian government has included coronavirus test kits, protective medical uniforms and ventilators.
TORONTO, March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fura Gems Inc. (Fura or the Company) (TSXV: FURA, OTC: FUGMF and FRA: BJ43) announces the extension of the drop dead date for the closing of the Merger of Ruby Assets Agreement dated July 14, 2018, as revised and restated on February 5, 2020 (the MRAA). In accordance with the MRAA, on March 26, 2020, the Company gave New Energy Minerals Ltd. written notice to extend the drop-dead date of the MRAA from March 31, 2020 to June 30, 2020.



The MRAA contemplates the purchase by Fura of interests in three ruby licences/concessions in Mozambique as follows: (i) a 70% interest in ruby mining licence 5030L through the acquisition of 70% of the issued and outstanding shares of Rubies Resources SA, (ii) a 80% interest in ruby mining concession 8921C through the acquisition of 80% of the issued and outstanding shares of Ibra Moz SA; and (iii) a right to earn a 65% interest in mining concession 8955C under a joint venture agreement (collectively, the New Energy Assets). Please see the Companys press releases dated November 29, 2018 and February 11, 2020 for further details regarding the terms of this proposed acquisition. The transaction remains subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

For more information about Fura Gems Inc., please contact:

Fura Gems Inc. Dev Shetty  President & Chief Executive Officer Tel: +971 (0) 4 240 8760

dev.shetty@furagems.com Rupak Sen

Vice President  Marketing and Sales Tel: +1+(778)386-1313

rupak.sen@furagems.com Public Relations

Tavistock (UK)

Jos Simson / Barney Hayward Tel: +44-207-920-3150

fura@tavistock.co.uk

About Fura Gems Inc.

Fura Gems Inc. is a gemstone mining and marketing company which is engaged in the mining, exploration and acquisition of gemstone licences. Furas headquarters are located in Toronto, Canada and its administrative headquarters are located in the Gold Tower, Dubai. Fura is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol FURA.

Story continues

Fura is engaged in the exploration of resource properties in Colombia and owns a 76% interest in the Coscuez emerald mine in Boyaca, Colombia. Fura is involved in the exploration and mining of sapphires in Australia through its 100% interests in two mining permits (EPM 25973 and EPM 25978) and three mining licences (ML 70419, ML 70447 and ML 70451), and rubies in Mozambique through its 80% effective interest in four ruby licences (4392L, 3868L, 3869L and 6811L) and its 100% interest in ruby licence 5572L.

Regulatory Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the Companys ability to complete the acquisition of the New Energy Assets, the mineralization and prospectivity of the New Energy Assets, the Companys exploration activities and mining activities and the Companys performance. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; the actual results of exploration activities; regulatory risks; risks inherent in foreign operations, legacy environmental risks, title risks and other risks of the mining industry. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.
EDINBURGH, Scotland, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Melrose Labs, the Edinburgh-based cloud communications provider, has launched in the UK their voice conferencing service, Conference, a service that is a key enabler of remote working and collaboration. The service allows teams and other groups to have meetings via telephone for free or at low call rates, and for free via the web.

The Conference service has a capacity for up to 100 participants, high-quality wideband audio and the ability for participants to join calls via telephone and the web. The service can be used by businesses of any size, government, healthcare providers, educational establishments, social groups, clubs and religious groups. With instant sign-up on the melroselabs.com website, the service is immediately available to new customers.

Conference accounts each have a non-geographic dial-in telephone number that when called by participants will take them directly into the conference call without the need to enter a conference ID. Customers may request options such as PIN protection of their conference room, and for a monthly charge, a geographic dial-in telephone number in place of the non-geographic number.

Mark Hay, CEO/CTO and Founder of Melrose Labs, said of the new service: "We have fast-tracked our Conference service due to the extremely high demand for services that aid remote working, resulting from the fight against COVID-19. We have aimed to deliver a service that strikes a balance between commercial prudence and delivering a quality and reliable service that can be used for free."

Conference is one of two Melrose Labs Voice Gateway services available for free in response to the COVID-19 crisis. The other service, CloudPBX, is a hosted PBX service that enables staff located in an office or working remotely to be part of the same business phone system.

In the two weeks since Conference was released, many organisations are making use of it, including local authorities, trade groups, advice bureaus, religious groups, schools, utilities and healthcare providers.

To learn more about Melrose Labs Conference, visit melroselabs.com/conference.

Get in touch

Web: melroselabs.com

Twitter: twitter.com/MelroseLabs

Facebook: facebook.com/melroselabs

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/melrose-labs

About Melrose Labs

Melrose Labs is a cloud communication services provider in fixed-line, mobile, internet and satellite communications. Our services help businesses communicate better with their staff and customers, and increase their success.

Our service portfolio is diverse and spans Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS) and Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). The primary focus across these mediums is voice and messaging, with a range of APIs for simple and complex tasks, and sophisticated services for mobile marketing, emergency notification and cloud PBX. Messaging services include rich messaging, SMS, email, social media and chat.

Melrose Labs was founded in August 2019 by Mark Hay, the founder and former owner and CEO/CTO of Hay Systems Ltd / HSL Mobile, the UK-based SMS aggregator. Mark Hay founded HSL Mobile in 1999 and sold the business to LINK Mobility Group of Oslo, Norway in December 2018. Mark Hay brings over 20 years of experience in providing communication services to organisations such as DHL, BAA, Capgemini, Goldman Sachs, John Lewis, IKEA, NCR and NHS.

Melrose Labs is a privately held company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.

Related Links

https://melroselabs.com

https://melroselabs.com/conference
With the coronavirus in the air, literally, the focus inevitably is on health and healthcare. It has been exactly two months since the first Covid-19 case was reported in the country from Kerala on January 30. Three students from Kerala had returned from Wuhan and tested positive for the Sars-Cov-2 virus. Fortunately for all, they recovered from the infection on February 14, and since then, we have been witness to an extraordinary turn of events.

We still do not know with any certainty what form and shape the Covid-19 pandemic will take in India in the days and weeks to come. A multi-pronged strategy has been put in place by the government to deal with the crisis and needless to say, the situation is being monitored on a day-to-day basis.

The crisis has thrown the spotlight on the enormous deficiencies in the public healthcare system. Hopefully, those deficiencies would stand addressed one way or the other once India recovers from this crisis. Alarmed as we are with the prevailing situation, some valuable lessons in health and hygiene have already been driven home across this nation of a billion-plus people.

We now know, more than ever before, the importance of washing our hands with soap and the high chances of catching a viral infection if we are close to a person with flu. The correct way of coughing and sneezing, using our upper arm to cover the mouth is being reinforced again and again over the media. As also, the importance of using hand sanitisers and the importance of not touching our face frequently as that is how this particular viral infection is transmitted through the nose, eyes and mouth.

On March 22, people across the country heeded Prime Minister Narendra Modis call to cheer and thank our health workers and others on the frontline in this great war against the coronavirus. We used our taalis and thalis (claps and utensils) to applaud and support their effort.

A very smart thing to do would be to show the same attention and shower much-needed recognition on our sanitation workers, who are also our warriors in the healthcare system.

Pune has already taken a national lead on this front through the public-private-cooperative partnership between the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the Swach network- Indias first Solid waste collection and handling (Swach) cooperative of waste pickers. This pioneering effort of the eminent social worker Baba Adhav and Poornima Chikarmane, an associate professor at the SNDT Womens University in Pune, has brought a lot of dignity into the lives of waste pickers. The waste pickers have a uniform, they enforce garbage segregation in Punes housing societies strictly; they earn a salary and also avail of numerous welfare schemes introduced by the cooperative.

This not only needs to happen nationally, but along with waste pickers all levels of sanitation workers need to be recognised as health workers: Right from those contract labourers who descend into manholes to clean sewage lines (and often die of asphyxiation), to the sweepers, the janitors of the public toilet system and those who man the garbage trucks and the landfills.

They are also fighting germs and diseases on the frontline through their effort to clean-up our cities. Why should they not be a part of our healthcare system?
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 30

By Ilkin Seyfaddini  Trend:

Chinese defense enterprises have sent 20 tons of medical supplies to Uzbekistan as humanitarian aid,Trend reports citing the press service of the Uzbek Defense Ministry.

The cargo consisted of disposable sterile medical gloves, protective gloves, face masks and thermal imaging cameras that measure body temperature.

Humanitarian aid was delivered by a special airliner of the Uzbek Defense Ministry on March 29.

These medical items will be distributed to military personnel, internal affairs officers, medical staff and others who involved in the quarantine regime in the country.

The total number of infected by coronavirus in Uzbekistan reached 144 people.

The first case of Coronavirus infection in Uzbekistan was detected on March 15, when an Uzbek woman returned from France and tested coronavirus-positive. The Ministry of Health later said that her son, daughter, husband and grandson also tested coronavirus-positive.

The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019. The number of people killed by the disease has surpassed 34,000. Over 724,000 people have been confirmed as infected. Meanwhile, over 152,000 people have reportedly recovered.

Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

---

Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini
It doesnt mean that the abuse has stopped. It means that we are not hearing about it and our mandated reporters are not seeing it, and that petrifies me, hotline call-taker Jessica Jenner told the Tribune. We have conversations among ourselves about how it is scary that we dont have people with eyes on our kids, because we know that the abuse hasnt miraculously stopped. We just dont know about it yet.
LYNCHBURG, Virginia  Jerry Falwell Jr. is denying a report that about a dozen students at Liberty University have symptoms of the coronavirus, less than a week after they made a controversial return to the main campus.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that three students have been referred to nearby hospitals for testing. Eight other students have been told to self-isolate on the campus.

Falwell told the Times that the university would be notifying the community as deemed appropriate and required by law about anyone from the school testing positive. However, Scott Lamb, the schools senior vice president of communications, told USA Today that the Times story was false. Lamb said an online student who does not live on campus has tested positive.

Contrary to the Times reporting, Liberty is not aware of any students in its residence halls testing positive for COVID-19 or, in fact, being tested at all, much less any residence hall students having sufficient symptoms of COVID-19 prompting the need to get tested based on current CDC guidelines, Liberty said in a statement to USA Today.

But Dr. Thomas W. Eppes Jr., the physician who runs Libertys student health service, told the Times of the nearly dozen students who are showing signs of being ill. Falwell tells the Times that about 800 of the nearly 2,000 students who returned to campus last week had since left. Falwell said last week that students who want to withdraw from classes for the semester would receive a $1,000 credit toward next years classes.

In an email to the Times, an unidentified student wrote we need help to get home. City officials in Lynchburg have been highly critical of Falwells decision to allow students to return, with Mayor Treney Tweedy calling it reckless.

Nearly all colleges and universities in the nation have told students to stay home, including Ohio State, Kent State, the University of Akron, Cleveland State University and other Northeast Ohio schools. Liberty University is one of the largest evangelical schools in the nation, normally with about 15,000 students taking classes on campus.

Read recent Ohio coronavirus coverage:

U.S. FDA OKs expanded use of new mask-cleaning technology after pressure from DeWine, Trump

Deftly, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine blasts federal response to coronavirus while also praising President Donald Trump

Ohio coronavirus cases climb to 1,653, 29 deaths : Gov. Mike DeWines Sunday, March 29 briefing

Mapping Ohios 1,653 coronavirus cases, plus county details

Machines could sanitize 160,000 masks for reuse each day in Ohio, if approved by FDA

So what is the potential peak of coronavirus cases in Ohio? Sorting out the various projections
The public is whipping itself into "collective hysteria" over the coronavirus outbreak, a former Supreme Court justice has warned.

Lord Sumption, who served on the UK's highest court until 2018, said people were working themselves "into a lather" over the threat of coronavirus - and should ask themselves "whether the cure may be worse than the disease".

In an outspoken criticism of the response to the outbreak, Lord Sumption said extreme measures to prevent the spread of the virus risked turning the country into a "police state".

It comes after the deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries said restrictions on daily life could last for up to six months, with social distancing measures to remain in place even if the lockdown is lifted.

Lord Sumption told The World At One: "The pressure on politicians has come from the public, they want action.

"They don't pause to ask whether the action will work, they don't ask themselves whether the cost will be worth paying - they want action anyway.

"Anyone who has studied history will recognise here the classic symptoms of collective hysteria.

"Hysteria is infectious. We are working ourselves up into a lather in which we exaggerate the threat and stop asking ourselves whether the cure may be worse than the disease."

Lord Sumption said the threat of coronavirus was significant but questioned whether the measures brought in were equal to the risks.

He added: "Yes, this is serious, and, yes, it's understandable that people cry out to the government, but the real question is, is this serious enough to warrant putting most of our population into house imprisonment, wrecking our economy for an indefinite period, destroying businesses that honest and hard-working people have taken years to build up, saddling future generations with debt?

"Depressions, stress, heart attacks, suicides and unbelievable stress inflicted on millions of people who are not especially vulnerable and will suffer only mild symptoms or none at all - like the health secretary and the prime minister."

He also criticised police forces for over zealously interpreting government advice on lock down measures, with reports of officers preventing people from buying "non-essential" items or walking in the countryside.

Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Show all 15 1 /15 Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A rose is delivered by drone to a woman on Mother's Day in Jounieh, Lebanon AFP/Getty Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Women dance on their balcony as a radio station plays music for a flash mob to raise spirits in Rome Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A skeleton stands on a balcony in Frankfurt, Germany AP Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies The film Le ragazze di Piazza di Spagna is projected on a building in Rome AP Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A woman uses a basket tied to a rope to pull a delivery of groceries up to her balcony in Naples, Italy EPA Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies DJ Francesco Cellini plays for his neighbours from the rooftop terrace of his flat block in Rome Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A woman gestures from her balcony in Barcelona EPA Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Cellist Karina Nunez performs for her neighbours at the balcony of her flat in Panama City Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies DJ Nash Petrovic live streams a set from his roof in Brooklyn Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies People applaud medical workers from their balconies in Modiin, Israel Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A Brooklyn resident relaxes in a hammock hung on their balcony Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Residents toast during a "safe distance" aperitif time between neighbours in Anderlecht, Belgium Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Musician Adam Moser plays for neighbours from his balcony in Budapest, Hungary Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A man and his son on their balcony in Brooklyn Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A man sits alone on a roof terrace in Rome Reuters

Derbyshire Police has attracted particular criticism for warning people against walking in the Peak District and for dumping black dye into the Blue Lagoon, a local beauty spot, to prevent people from gathering.

Lord Sumption said: "I have to say that the behaviour of Derbyshire Police in trying to shame people in using their undoubted right to travel to take exercise in the country and wrecking beauty spots in the fells so people don't want to go there is frankly disgraceful.

"This is what a police state is like. It's a state in which the government can issue orders or express preferences with no legal authority and the police will enforce ministers' wishes."

On Sunday, Dr Harries said the nation will not be in "complete lockdown" for half a year but said measures will be lifted gradually.

The nation's sacrifice could be "wasted" if the lockdown was lifted too quickly and led to another spike in deaths, she said.

But Professor Neil Ferguson, one of the government's advisers on the crisis, said he believe the "epidemic is just about slowing in the UK right now" as a result of lockdown measures.

Prof Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London, said: "In the UK we can see some early signs in slowing in some indicators, less so in deaths because deaths are lagged by a long time from when measures come in force.

"But if we look at the numbers of new hospital admissions per day for instance, that does appear to be slowing down a little bit now.

"It's not yet plateaued so still the numbers can be increasing each day but the rate of that increase has slowed."
Live music venues and bars in Melbourne nightlife hotspots like Fitzroy, Collingwood, Richmond and Abbotsford are calling for their local council to help them financially amid the coronavirus shutdown.

A group of live music venue operators in the City of Yarra has written to the council to ask for a bailout, saying state and federal government packages have not helped them enough.

Dave Barrett, owner of Laundry Bar (pictured), Bad Decisions and Georges. Credit:Jason South

There has been some payroll tax relief for these venues but the owners say their turnover is not large enough to qualify them for other government stimulus.

Dave Barrett, who owns Fitzroy bars and live music venues Laundry, Georges and Bad Decisions, said even grants of $5000 would boost some venues' chances of staying afloat.
Insisting that COVID-19 is still in the local transmission stage in India, the Health Ministry on Monday said it took 12 days for cases of infection to rise from 100 to 1,000 in the country and the rate of increase has been slower than some of the developed nations.

The ministry, however, in its Standard Operating Procedure issued on Sunday for transporting a COVID-19 case, had mentioned the current phase of the pandemic as "local transmission and limited community transmission".

"This SOP is applicable to current phase of COVID-19 pandemic in India (local transmission and limited community transmission), wherein as per plan of action, all suspect cases are admitted to isolation facilities. These procedures are meant to guide and be used for training ambulance drivers and technicians in transporting COVID19 patients," it read.

But Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal reiterated on Monday that there has been no community transmission and instead of panicking, stressed on the need to create awareness about the respiratory ailment.

"Technically, COVID-19 is still in the local transmission stage in the country as there has been no community transmission as of now," he said, adding, "If there will be a community transmission we will want to convey it to the community through you (media) to increase the level of alertness and management for the infection at the field level."



Addressing the daily press briefing, Agarwal said 92 new cases and four deaths due to the virus have been reported in India since Sunday, taking total cases to 1,071 and the number of deaths to 29.

"It took 12 days for cases to rise from 100 to 1,000 in our country, whereas seven other developed nations having lesser population than us have seen multiple increase," he said.

Agarwal attributed the slow pace of rise in cases in India to people's participation in strictly following the social-distancing guidelines and the collective preemptive actions taken by the Centre in tandem with state governments.

Underlining the importance of social distancing, he said even one person's carelessness can lead to the spread of this pandemic.

Speaking at the same press conference, Raman R Gangakhedkar, head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at the Indian Council of Medical Research, said 38,442 tests have been conducted till now, out of which 3,501 were done on Sunday.

He said 47 private laboratories have been given approval for conducting COVID-19 tests and in the last three days, 1,334 tests have been done in private labs, he said.

"It is still below 30 per cent of or testing capacity," he said.

On reports about death of doctors due to heart attack apparently after consumption of Hydroxychloroquine recommended by ICMR for healthcare workers taking care of COVID-19 patients, Gangakhedkar said they do not have details of the cases.

"We do not have full details of the case but anyone dying due to cardiac arrest after taking two doses seems a pretty difficult calculation unless they already had an increased QT interval or had cardiac issues. It is difficult for me to say anything as I do not know the profile of the patient."



Over several people being allegedly quarantined in a particular area in Delhi's Nizamuddin after they showed symptoms of coronavirus infection, Agarwal said they initiate action as per the protocol.

Be it in Nizamuddin or any part of the country healthcare teams go and take action as part of the containment strategy, he said, adding the government was focusing on hotpsots from where large number of cases are being reported and working in tandem with states to implement rigorous contact-tracing, community surveillance and other containment strategies to break the chain of transmission.

Responding to a question over a video on social media showing a group of migrant workers allegedly being sprayed with a chlorine solution by the Bareilly municipal corporation personnel, Agarwal said the district magistrate has clarified it was some "overzealous" employees who did something which was not required.

"He has reprimanded all those officials. It was done by field officers out of ignorance or out of fear.

There are no guidelines in terms of spraying disinfectants on people.

"This is an overzealous action done by field officers either out of fear or out of ignorance," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A mother-of-two has rubbished claims children are less likely to fall ill with COVID-19 after her two kids caught the deadly respiratory virus from an unknown source.

Bettina Rowley, a German woman who lived in Australia for 11 years up until 2018, spent three nights in hospital with her five-year-old daughter, Charlotte and three-year-old son Fred.

Both children developed a 42C fever 'at the same time' while at home in mid-March. They were shivering and had broken out in a sweat, but children's nurofen did nothing to ease the symptoms.

And it was when the children started coughing Ms Rowley and her husband, Hamish, 'immediately realised' what they were dealing with.

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Charlotte and Fred came down with aggressive COVID-19 symptoms suddenly, and wound up being monitored in a German hospital until the symptoms eased

Two days later, both children were diagnosed with COVID-19 and hospitalised as their conditions deteriorated.

Ms Rowley told Daily Mail Australia she and her husband still have no idea where the children caught the 'aggressive' virus.

'We haven't travelled, we haven't had contact with anybody that was ill or had been travelling,' she said.

The couple said they have always practiced good hygiene, as have their children, and that they considered themselves the 'last people' who could be affected by coronavirus, because they live a relatively isolated life on a farm in a small town.

Ms Rowley said both children were happy, healthy and symptom free right up until the moment they got sick, and that it could happen to anybody.

The family considered themselves the 'last people' who could be struck down by coronavirus, and are now encouraging others to be aware of the warning signs

They live on a rural farm in a small community in Germany, and still have no idea how their two children contracted the potentially deadly virus

'We are a fit and healthy family. We love being in nature together and we love to exercise,' she said.

'It came on very quickly. There was no lead up period and it can be quite aggressive with the high temperatures.'

Health authorities across the globe have repeatedly said they're not sure how the virus affects children, but Ms Rowley urged other parents to recognise the warning signs.

'They say kids don't really get sick... This is not just like a cold,' the mother-of-two said.

Charlotte and Fred's conditions both deteriorated while in hospital before they finally began to improve.

Initially, their white blood cell count was dropping and they weren't responding to treatment, but after a few days of intense care, the children were released from hospital to complete self isolation at home.

Charlotte and Fred had low white blood cell counts while in hospital, but are now on the mend and recovering at home with their parents

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

'They're recovering more and more each day,' Ms Rowley said. 'We're definitely past the worst... They're eating and drinking and starting to get back to their crazy old selves.'

But Ms Rowley said not every family will be so lucky. She said she can't fathom the widespread misconception that children are immune to the virus.

'We don't agree that children are safer than adults,' she said. Her husband described the theory children are less likely to get sick as an outright lie.

'The whole thing of saying kids don't get that badly affected is an absolute lie... It is real,' he said.

Ms Rowley also couldn't believe Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's decision to keep schools open.

While some states have decided to close schools early amid the coronavirus hysteria, the prime minister has stood by his belief that they need to remain open.

'It doesn't make any sense. If you're trying to stop the spread, leaving schools open really is strange.'

Ms Rowley said she understands how much of an inconvenience closing schools can be for some people, but that everybody needed to work together to help flatten the curve globally.

In Germany, where the family now live, a nationwide lockdown is in place to slow the spread of the infection.

There are currently 62,095 cases of coronavirus in Germany - the fifth highest in the world. Of those, 525 people have died.

German health officials have been largely praised on a global scale for keeping the death rate so low.

While Mr Morrison is still refusing to close schools, he has introduced further restrictions on social gatherings to slow the spread of the virus.

From Monday, gatherings of more than two people will be banned, and those breaking the rules will face heavy on the spot fines.

On Sunday, Mr Morrison said the tough restrictions and greater cooperation in terms of self-isolation and social distancing was delivering dividends.

There are currently 4,167 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, including 18 deaths

'They are still strong rates of increase, there's no doubt about that,' the prime minister said.

'But as we take the measures that we have been taking and put them in place and we have the co-operation from the Australian people, then that obviously in turn that has an impact on how we are managing the spread of the virus.'

Mr Morrison also said just a third as many Australians were catching coronavirus as a week ago with the borders, pubs, and restaurants shut.

He said the rate of virus infections was 25 to 30 per cent a day, but slowed to about 13-15 per cent in the past few days.

There are currently 4,167 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, including 18 deaths.

In New South Wales alone, 64 of those cases are in children or teenagers.

Globally, there have been 720,217 reported infections.
Daniel Radcliffe and Erin Darke. Photo: Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic

As the ancient proverb dictates, no international pandemic is complete without an accompanying celebrity hoax. In the case of our current global crisis, that honor was bestowed upon Daniel Radcliffe. In mid-March, a Twitter account with the handle @BBCNewsTonight reported that the actor had contracted coronavirus, making him the first famous person to be publicly confirmed. The tweet was shared hundreds of times before Twitter suspended the account, including by journalists at the New York Times and Politico. Another journalist, me, also thought the tweet was real for a split second and texted Radcliffes long-time girlfriend Erin Darke, whos a friend, asking if she and Daniel were okay. By the time my text had gone through, I realized that I was, in fact, an idiot whose non-existent journalism degree should be rescinded.

Soon afterward, BuzzFeed spoke to the people behind the hoax, a group of 33 anonymous people who said they did it because it was funny, that they were manipulating peoples minds, and that the internet was lowering peoples IQ. They chose Radcliffe because we needed someone who was famous but not famous enough to be unbelievable. Radcliffe himself good-naturedly joked about the rumor days later during a round of pre-scheduled press for Endgame, a play he was performing in across the pond until the pandemic shuttered it. In one interview, he wondered if those behind the hoax had chosen him because he looks ill all the time.

I was interested in hearing more, so I called up Radcliffe and Darke. They talked about what it was like to be the unwitting subject of a celebrity pandemic hoax  and years of unhinged gossip  and how theyve been faring otherwise.

Where are you guys holed up?

Erin Darke: Were in New York, at Daniels apartment. We decided to be super-responsible and self-quarantine so we havent stepped out of the apartment in  11 days?

Radcliffe: We gotta cross that off.

Darke: [Laughs.] Oh yeah, we gotta check off the 11th day on our prison checklist.

Are you keeping a log?

Radcliffe: We have a little Post-It on the wall that were keeping a tally on. There was something about it that just made me laugh, immediately treating it like a prison film. Were both in the situation where weve never been more grateful not to have a kid, or more annoyed that we dont have a dog. But generally speaking, compared to a lot of people, we are very, very much okay.

Daniel, where were you when you first heard that you had coronavirus?

Radcliffe: I was doing a play in London, which obviously had to finish a little early, but at the time we were still doing it. The London theaters carried a week or so longer than most other plays. Wed done the matinee and I went into hair and makeup for the evening show, and the hair and makeup artist, a lovely guy called Rob, turned around with a sort of knowing smile, and he was like, Youve got coronavirus. I was like, What?! Im sure I dont. I just did a play. And he said, Yeah, my niece just texted me. She said, Oh, yeah, that dudes got coronavirus. It was very much like, Watch yourself. I dont know if you should work with this guy. Hes got coronavirus.

So I was immediately like, quite amused by it. Its not the first time Ive had something crazy written about me. I dont ever think theres been a rumor about me that was so topical, that was pivoting off the news. Most of it before has been random stuff that British newspapers have said. So this one was slightly odd. But then you end up having to text a bunch of people saying, No, I dont have coronavirus, Im fine.

Erin, when did you first hear the rumor?

Darke: I was on a plane back from visiting him. As soon as the plane landed, I turned my phone on and I had all these texts like, Tell me the internets wrong! Is Daniel okay? I was like, What the fuck is happening? And finally a couple people texted me, Oh, it was a hoax, never mind. But I also had a text from Dan asking what he should do with the Invisalign that I accidentally left in the retainer when I left. I was like, I think hes okay? [Laughs.]

When you first got all those texts, were you ever worried?

Darke: No, because Id just seen him that morning. I was just very confused. I was like, He seemed really okay this morning and hes only texting me about my retainer, so if thats his way of letting me know he has corona, we need to work on our communication.

When did you finally get on the phone and talk about it?

Darke: So you were already asleep when Id landed, so I didnt get to talk to you about it till the next day. But I spent an evening texting people back, like, I think hes fine!

Radcliffe: Didnt I text you about it, being like, Theres this thing going around?

Darke: [Laughs.] No!

Radcliffe: Oh, sorry.

Darke: You literally only texted me about my retainer.

Radcliffe: I thought Id mentioned that. I did know about it at that point.

Wait, so you already knew about the hoax but just didnt mention it to her?

Radcliffe: I think I was like, filing it under  Erin and I have been together long enough that she also knows weird stuff gets written about me occasionally. It wasnt really until the next day, until I did a round of phone interviews, that it was like, This has been taken seriously by more people than it should have. I spent the whole morning just having to tell journalists that I did not have coronavirus. And it was maybe only a day later that Tom Hanks said he had it.

Darke: When I talked to you the next day I was like, Its a crazy hoax, partially because it could have been true. At some point, someone will be the first famous person to have it. And it was like, eight hours later that Tom Hanks came out.

Radcliffe: The original tweet was something like, Daniel Radcliffe becomes the first famous person to get coronavirus. And I was like, Thats such a weird distinction. Surely the first person to get coronavirus is the first famous person to get coronavirus.

A good point.

Radcliffe: I also wonder if someone would do that now. Even in the relatively short time since that happened, the gravity of the situation has sunken in a bit more. I dont think people would be so quick to make something up. Erin saw the article about the people whod done the hoax, and they said they wanted to make a point in how easy it is to get people to believe things that arent true. I feel like weve got that point. Everyone is all too aware of that. Also, at some point, I might get it!

Darke: Right, thats the thing. So many people will get it before this is over. And I was like, The weird thing will be that he could get it now. Oh, its real this time, guys!

Radcliffe: The actor that cried coronavirus. What did you say about one of the people in the group who did the hoax?

Darke: One of them thought he was a celestial being. I do also think that if you got it at some point and wanted to be public about it, you might have to do a video of yourself talking about it, because now if theres just an article, I dont know if people would believe it.

Radcliffe: I dont know if Id do that.

Darke: Well, some people are publicly saying it just to take away the stigma of people having it. Thats why Tom Hanks did it, I think. Like, A lot of people are going to get this, dont freak out about them or at them.

Radcliffe: Right, right.

Who was the most random person to reach out to both of you?

Radcliffe: I dont know! I dont think there was anyone particularly random. I did have the producers of the play call me the next day like, Hey, can we talk to you tonight? And it was actually about something totally different, but my first thought was that they had also believed it. I was like, I dont have coronavirus!

Darke: That was what was funny. It wasnt as much random people as it was friends. I just felt bad for all of our friends who temporarily got very worried.

Radcliffe: Didnt [the New York Timess] Maggie Haberman retweet it or something?

Yes.

Radcliffe: I feel very sorry for her about that. Im sure the amount of news coming at her every day must be very hard sometimes to filter out the occasional crazy story. And everyone piled on her on the internet. Sorry, Maggie Haberman.

I love that youre apologizing to her.

Radcliffe: Its not like she printed something terrible, she just passed on something that wasnt true. And yes, everyone should be more careful about that, but if youre spending your day overwhelmed by the news, it must be hard to pick out a crazy news story that also is fake.

Darke: And it was at that tipping point. Our culture is so celebrity-obsessed that it felt like a weird thing that was about to happen. It was weird, perfect timing for this bizarre thing.

Erin, I love that you immediately had a sense of humor about it. Your text back to me was like, Ha! This is so fucking weird.

Darke: Its key 

Radcliffe:  if youre going to be involved in my life, having a sense of humor about the weird shit happening to me.

Darke: Dating a famous person teaches you very quickly that shit is weird sometimes. People are weird with fame sometimes.

Radcliffe: Theres no right reaction, but I [credit] a lot of my attitude to things toward my parents. To give a tangential story, but Harry Potter was massive in Japan. When I arrived in Japan when I was 12, there were thousands of people at the airport. It was this crazy crowd, a hundred security there trying and failing miserably to hold them back, as these young girls and old women piled through these guards. We got through the crazy crush and we got in the car, and my mom and dad just started laughing. They were like, How fucking weird was that.

And thats honestly the most helpful reaction that you can have. Im glad to hear [Erin reacted] like that. Thats why I didnt feel the need to text you on some level, like, Oh, youll see this and recognize it as bullshit.

Darke: Were at the point now where Ive seen my own wedding reported several times. You do start to dismiss things you read about your partner if youre pretty sure theyre not true. I spent a week once having to text all my family members being like, I promise if Im getting married, you will find out from me and not Us Weekly. At first I assumed it was a weird tabloid story rather than a deliberate hoax.

Outside of this, whats the weirdest thing youve seen written about you?

Radcliffe: At least three different times, somebody has written that were getting married and Emma Watson is gonna be the maid of honor, and Rupert Grint is my best man, and were getting married on a lake in Michigan.

Darke: Its always very detailed, and with things that would never be true if youve ever met us. Clearly theyre like, What are the four things we know about these people? Okay, these are their co-stars, and this is where shes from. Okay, thats their wedding! [Laughs.]

Radcliffe: Ive had a bunch of really weird ones. And this is all, by the way, not Twitter hoaxes but newspapers. There was one thing that Id hired former SAS soldiers to walk my dogs. There was a rumor that Id had a full-sized nude statue of myself made and put in my house. There was a rumor that I had special beer made for myself from a monastery with Belgian monks. And there was a really weird one at one point: The logic was that Im too famous and important to hold an iPad, and I didnt want to hold an iPad to read scripts, so I sent my assistant to like, hold it up behind me in a mirror while I was having my makeup done. Wouldnt even work because Id be reading it backwards. [Laughs.]

But as Ive said, theyre more normally weird, idiosyncratic, and unrelated to whats going on in the world. This was my first time getting dragged into a news cycle.

Darke: Mostly, theyre very uninterested in me, except where it concerns the two of us and whether or not were getting married.

That sounds about right for the tabloid industry.

Radcliffe: Im okay with their lack of interest in us.

Darke: Were boring to them. Ninety percent of the paparazzi photos of us are getting coffee.

Radcliffe: Or getting yoga mats.

Darke: Or going to the grocery store. Weve been photographed twice waiting for an Uber. Dan is not the most exciting celebrity.

Radcliffe: Im really not. Ive bored the paparazzi out of following me. The last interaction I had with a paparazzi, actually  I was walking home from getting coffee and he followed me for ages and I saw him jumping out from behind a car. Because Im so not used to them being around me at the moment, I was like, I assumed there must be somebody else around where I lived that he was waiting for. So I was like Come on, youre not here for me. Who are you here for? And he just looked at me and gave this weird creepy smile and went, It doesnt matter. Other than that, were very left alone.

Darke: You can only sell so many photos of two people waiting for an Uber.

Why do you think you were selected as the first celebrity pandemic Twitter hoax, perhaps ever?

Radcliffe: I think most of it, and they said as much, was that Im not on social media. So I wouldnt see it or be able to respond to it quick enough to flatten it, so itd get a few hours of time to germinate before anyone was able to shut it down.

Darke: Also I think its because youre not a dramatic celebrity. Youre not in the news for crazy shit. So it feels more believable when theres something dramatic.

Radcliffe: Maybe, but I feel like it couldve been someone like Charlie Sheen and still been a massive story.

Darke: I love that Charlie Sheen is where you went for dramatic.

Radcliffe: My mind went to other places first but I didnt want to say. Hes someone everyone can agree is dramatic.

Do you think part of it was a heartstrings thing, because you were a big part of peoples childhoods?

Radcliffe: Maybe! [Laughs.] Thats pretty shitty, if it was. That also makes sense, that it would be somebody who was a part of peoples childhoods. Its like telling people that Santa has coronavirus.

Well, Im glad neither of you have coronavirus.

Darke: For now! Who the fuck knows?

Radcliffe: Were going to keep isolating and try and stave it off.

Are you going to stay in New York?

Darke: I think so. At this point, I dont really know where wed go. I also love this city so much, I dont want to leave her when shes down.

Radcliffe: Its scary here right now, but itll be scary in a bunch of other places, too.

Darke: I also think it sounds like the safest, most responsible thing we can do is stay in this apartment as much as humanly possible. So thats what were going to try and do.

Okay guys, stay safe. Lets grab a drink or a coffee in one year.

Darke: Absolutely.
More than 225 million Americans have now been placed on lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus after governors from Virginia, Maryland and Florida issued stay-at-home orders.

Virginia Gov Ralph Northam and Maryland Gov Larry Hogan both announced the directives on Monday, joining at least 25 other states who have done the same since the outbreak began.

Florida Gov Ron DeSantis only issued such an order for South Florida residents, with fears Miami could be one of the next epicenters in the U.S.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser also told all residents to not leave their homes unless they are buying food and medication or carrying out an essential task such as going to the doctor.

The sweeping lockdowns across the country follow President Donald Trump's decision to extend the country's social distancing guidelines through April.

Trump announced his order after Dr Anthony Fauci, the government's foremost infection disease expert, said the United States could experience more than 100,000 deaths and millions of infections from the coronavirus pandemic.

The bleak forecasts were carried into the Oval Office by Fauci and Dr Deborah Birx, who displayed to Trump projections that, on the low end, could yield 100,000 American deaths from COVID-19.

One model showed that deaths could have soared past 2 million had there been no mitigation measures.

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More than 225 million Americans have been placed on lockdown as governors from Virginia, Maryland and Florida issue stay-at-home orders

Virginia issues stay-at-home directive for 8.5 millions residents

During a press conference, Northam called out Virginia residents who packed the state's beaches last weekend or otherwise ignored calls to avoid mass gatherings.

'You are being very, very selfish because you are putting all of us, especially our healthcare providers, at risk,' Northam, who is also a doctor, said at a news conference.

'To date, this has been a suggestion to Virginians. Today, it's an order.'

Northam's executive order tells the state's approximately 8.5 million people they must stay home except for limited circumstances, such as traveling to or from work, seeking medical attention, obtaining goods and services, including food, or engaging in outdoor activity.

The order also adds restrictions to the state's public beaches, closing them to sunbathing but permitting exercising and fishing.

The order lasts until June 10, but the governor could rescind it before then.

'Do not go out unless you need to go out. This is very different from wanting to go out,' he said.

Virginia Gov Ralph Northam's (pictured) executive order tells the state's approximately 8.5 million people they must stay home

Northam's order also directs universities to stop any in-person classes and instruction, a move likely directed at Liberty University. Students are seen walking on the campus of Liberty University on March 25

The governor has criticized Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr for welcoming students back to the Lynchburg campus

Those who violate the executive order could be subject to misdemeanor criminal penalties, but the governor said he's expecting people to comply voluntarily.

'This is not a time ... when we're looking to put people in jail,' Northam said.

Northam's move is in line with steps taken by governors in neighboring Maryland and North Carolina.

Northam's order also directs universities to stop any in-person classes and instruction, a move likely directed at Liberty University.

The governor has criticized Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr for welcoming students back to the Lynchburg campus.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Virginia surpassed 1,000 on Monday, with more than two dozen deaths from the illness, according to the state health department.

Among the confirmed cases, over 130 required hospitalization, according to the latest Virginia Department of Health figures.

Maryland governor orders statewide shelter in place as of 8pm Monday

In Maryland, Gov Hogan said the region around the nation's capital, which includes Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, has reached 'a critical turning point in the fight to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic'.

The stay-at-home order will be effective at 8pm Monday.

'No Maryland resident should be leaving their home unless it is for an essential job or for an essential reason, such as obtaining food or medicine, seeking urgent medical attention or for other necessary purposes,' Hogan said at a news conference on the Maryland State House lawn.

Maryland Gov Larry Hogan announced a 'stay-at-home' directive during a news conference on Monday in Annapolis, Maryland

Hogan said no Maryland resident should be leaving home unless it is for an essential job or for an essential reason such as obtaining food, medicine or urgent medical attention. A drive-thru confessional is held at the Saint Edward the Confessor Catholic Church in Bowie, Maryland

Gov Hogan also said that at least 67 people have tested positive for the virus at the Pleasant View Nursing Home (pictured) in Mount Airy, Maryland

Maryland has had at least 1,413 confirmed cases of the virus. Fifteen deaths also have been attributed to the virus in the state.

'In addition, only essential businesses are allowed to remain open in Maryland and those businesses must also make every effort to scale down their operations in order to reduce the number of required staff, to limit in-person interaction with customers as much as they are able to and to institute telework for as much of the workforce as is practical,' Hogan said.

The governor also said residents should reschedule all nonessential appointments.

'We are no longer asking or suggesting that Marylanders stay home,' Hogan said. 'We are directing them to do so.'

Hogan also noted an outbreak at the Pleasant View Nursing Home, where 67 residents have tested positive and a man in his 90s has died.

The governor said 27 members of the Mount Airy facility's staff are experiencing symptoms. The facility was rated much below average by Medicare largely due to staffing.

'The most frightening one today is this nursing home situation in Carroll County, because we've got 67 positives, but there are smaller outbreaks in a number of places around the state that are of concern that are in senior centers or nursing homes or with staff at hospitals or people in sensitive locations,' Hogan said.

The governor also noted an outbreak at the at the Clifton T. Perkins psychiatric hospital in Howard County.

Washington, DC, issues stay-at-home order effective April 1

Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, DC, also issued a stay-at-home order on Monday afternoon.

'Our message remains the same: stay home,' Bowser said.

Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, DC, also issued a stay-at-home order on Monday afternoon

Like all of the stay-at-home orders, residents (pictured running at the National Mall on March 26) can leave for essential reasons such as to travel to work, seek medical attention and get food

A jogger runs along the west side of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, which Bowser closed to pedestrians due to the coronavirus pandemic

'Staying at home is the best way to flatten the curve and protect yourself, your family, and our entire community from COVID-19.

'Many people want to know how they can help right now, and for most people this is how  by staying home.'

Like all of the stay-at-home orders, residents can leave for essential reasons such as to travel to work, seek medical attention and get food.

Any individual who willfully violates the stay-at-home order may be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, subject to a fine not exceeding $5,000, imprisonment for not more than 90 days, or both, the mayor's statement reads.

The stay-at-home order goes into effect on April 1.

Florida Gov Ron DeSantis refuses to issue statewide shelter in place order and only locks down four counties

Meanwhile, Florida Gov DeSantis has only placed four South Florida counties on lockdown for more than a month in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the state.

DeSantis said he expects Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe to be shutdown until mid-May.

The number of confirmed cases in Florida neared 5,500 on Monday with 62 deaths. About 60 per cent of the diagnosed cases are in the four South Florida counties.

Florida Gov Ron DeSantis (pictured on Monday) has placed four South Florida counties on lockdown for more than a month in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the state

There are more than 1,600 confirmed cases in Miami-Dade, 1,129 in Broward, 407 in Palm Beach and 21 cases in Monroe.

DeSantis said he would issue an executive order unifying the lockdown order between the counties. They already have ordered the closures of non-essential retail businesses, beaches and parks.

The governor said the high rate of infection is why he expects the area to be locked down for at least six more weeks.

He said he thinks the disease was likely circulating in the area when Miami hosted tens of thousands of guests for the Super Bowl in early February, but any illnesses were thought to be the flu at that point.

Despite criticism from Democrats and others, DeSantis has refused to issue a statewide lockdown like many other states have imposed, saying it wouldn't be fair to counties with few or no reported cases.

Most of those are small, rural counties along the state's northern border. Counties in the Tampa Bay area and central Florida have issued their own lockdown orders.

In Monroe County, deputies were seen at a checkpoint on US 1 leading into the Florida Keys. Monroe County administrators made the decision to prohibit tourists and only allow property owners and people who show they legitimately work in the Keys to pass through

As recent as Saturday, Gulfstream Park held races (pictured in Broward County) without fans, owners or media despite one of veteran jockey Javier Castellano testing positive for the coronavirus

With Florida lacking a direct lockdown order from the governor, worshippers took advantage and crowded into a megachurch on Sunday. DeSantis has put in place an executive order that limits faith-based gatherings to 10 people or less.

But on Sunday, hundreds of congregants attended a service at The River at Tampa Bay Church on Sunday after its conservative evangelical pastor, Rodney Howard-Browne, vowed never to close.

The service came on the same day President Donald Trump extended lockdown measures across the US as he urged Americans to stay home until the end of April to slow the spread of the deadly virus.

On Monday, Florida officials announced the arrest of the Howard-Browne who violated a safer-at-home order in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

According to jail records, Howard-Browne turned himself in to authorities Monday afternoon in Hernando County, where he lives.

He was charged with unlawful assembly and violation of a public health emergency order. Bail was set at $500, according to the jail's website.

Hundreds of congregants attended a service at The River at Tampa Bay Church on Sunday after its conservative evangelical pastor, Rodney Howard-Browne, vowed never to close

Howard-Browne turned himself in to authorities Monday afternoon in Hernando County, where he lives. He was charged with unlawful assembly and violation of a public health emergency order. Bail was set at $500

Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a news conference Monday that he negotiated with Howard-Browne's attorney to turn himself in to authorities in Hernando County.

'Shame on this pastor, their legal staff and the leaders of this staff for forcing us to do our job. That's not what we wanted to do during a declared state of emergency,' Chronister said. 'We are hopeful that this will be a wakeup call.'

The church has said it sanitized the building, and the pastor said on Twitter that the church is an essential business. He also attacked the media for 'religious bigotry and hate'.

Though DeSantis has not taken action by ordering a statewide lockdown, he has taken some measures to keep others out.

Florida Highway Patrol officers set up checkpoints at its borders in hopes of deterring visitors from hard-hit states like New York

Florida border controls have begun in the fight against coronavirus, with officers pulling over and questioning drivers trying to enter.

The Florida Department of Transportation is taking action to help limit the spread of the coronavirus, particularly from hard-hit states like Louisiana.

According to FDOT, when entering Florida, every arriving traveler must complete a traveler form with their contact information and trip details.

Motorists who are traveling from areas with substantial community spread including Louisiana, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, will be required to isolate for a period of 14 days upon entry to Florida.

Staff will be at the checkpoint at I-10 at the Alabama-Florida line, 24 hours a day with approximately 16 troopers in 12-hour shifts.

Staff will be at the checkpoint at I-10 at the Alabama-Florida line, 24 hours a day with approximately 16 troopers in 12-hour shifts

Motorists who are traveling from areas with substantial community spread including Louisiana, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, will be required to isolate for a period of 14 days upon entry to Florida. A checkpoint is pictured near Key Largo, Florida, on Saturday

Commercial vehicles may bypass the checkpoint to make sure that products can still be delivered across the state.

Checkpoints have also been set up along I-95 in Florida, which is how many travelers from the tri-state area would get to the Sunshine State by car.

National Guard members are also greeting travelers from the New York City area at Florida airports.

President Donald Trump considered a quarantine for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut amid concerns that their residents have traveled to Florida and infected people in the state.

'Whatever works I think we need to do,' DeSantis said. 'The more people are being shuttled around the country, I just think it makes it more difficult. I think it would make it a lot easier if we didn't have folks coming in from hot zones.'

But Trump abandoned that idea and issued a travel advisory for the tri-state area instead.

Vice President Mike Pence tweeted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was urging residents of the three states 'to refrain from non-essential travel for the next 14 days'.

On Saturday, DeSantis revealed that a man who had previously tested positive for COVID-19 was on a flight from a New York City airport to Jacksonville International Airport (file image) on Friday when he was intercepted at an airport checkpoint and taken to a local hospital

Florida residents are seen out and about after local authorities ordered the closing of all the beaches in Miami-Dade County for precaution due amid the coronavirus pandemic

On Saturday, DeSantis revealed that a man who had previously tested positive for COVID-19 was on a flight from a New York City airport to Jacksonville International Airport on Friday when he was intercepted at an airport checkpoint and taken to a local hospital.

The man told authorities that he believed his symptoms had lessened enough to travel but then the symptoms returned.

Passengers who were sitting near him at the airport are not being treated by the CDC.

Many critics have continued to slam DeSantis over the past few weeks after Spring Breakers were seen partying on beaches and boats despite orders to social distance.

The governor's refusal to lockdown the entire state has prompted local officials to issue orders of their own, which included closing several of the state's popular beaches.

Miami reports first coronavirus death amid fears it could become the nation's new hotspot

Over the weekend, Miami reported its first COVID-19 related death, prompting officials to speculate that Miami could become a hotspot for the virus.

Israel Carreras, 40, died in hospital Friday due to complications from the highly contagious virus he is believed to have caught at a dance party held on Miami Beach earlier this month.

Over the weekend, Miami reported its first COVID-19 related death. Israel Carreras (left), 40, died in hospital Friday due to complications from the highly contagious virus he is believed to have caught at a dance party held on Miami Beach earlier this month

Carreras attended the Winter Party Festival between March 4 and 10, before coming down with a horrible cough. At least

Carreras' heartbroken partner, Franco Conquista, paid tribute to his boyfriend in an interview with NBC, stating: 'Everybody loved him. His personality just shined ... [there was] just an aura around him'.

Carreras attended the Winter Party Festival between March 4 and 10, before coming down with a horrible cough.

The party attracts thousands of people each year, who squeeze into close confines to enjoy house music.

At least nine other attendees have also tested positive to COVID-19.
Chinese consumers are calling for a boycott of Burger King after the brand's Taiwanese franchise referred to the coronavirus as the 'Wuhan pneumonia'.

The controversy began on Wednesday when Burger King Taiwan described their food delivery service as the 'nemesis of the Wuhan pneumonia' in a Facebook post.

The brand's Chinese operator has apologised to the public 'on behalf of Burger King Taiwan' on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter.

Burger King China has issued a formal apology to its customers after the brand's Taiwanese franchise referred to the coronavirus as the 'Wuhan pneumonia'. Customers are pictured at a Burger King restaurant in Guangzhou, China

The controversy began on Wednesday when Burger King Taiwan described their food delivery service as the 'nemesis of the Wuhan pneumonia' in a Facebook post. 'Select "deliver it at the door" on your payment page to avoid the Wuhan pneumonia,' the post claimed

Burger King Taiwan was introducing its new contactless delivery service when it used the term.

'Select "deliver it at the door" on your payment page to avoid the Wuhan pneumonia,' the post claimed.

After sparking outrage on Chinese social media, Burger King Taiwan first changed the controversial phrase to 'coronavirus pneumonia' but later deleted the post altogether.

The Taiwanese operator named the deadly disease as the 'Wuhan pneumonia' in a Facebook post to introduce its new contactless delivery service on March 25. The picture shows a Burger King restaurant at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport

Though the Taiwanese franchise didn't release any statements following the deleted post, Burger King China issued an apology on Chinese Twitter-like Weibo yesterday.

'Even though Burger King China and Burger King Taiwan are managed by two different companies, we are angered by their irresponsible comment,' the Chinese franchisee wrote in a statement on Sunday.

Burger King China said they had contacted the chain's Taiwan operator and 'demanded they delete the post that hurt everyone's feelings.'

The Chinese operator said they also donated one million yuan (113,527) to help Wuhan fight the coronavirus despite suffering a profit cut.

Taiwanese people have responded to the incident by commenting with a hashtag 'Chinese Wuhan pneumonia' on Burger King Taiwan's Facebook page.

MailOnline has contacted Burger King for comment and is awaiting a reply.

Burger King China said they have contacted the chain's Taiwan operator and 'demanded them to delete the post that hurt everyone's feelings.' Employees serving in a Burger King restaurant

Taiwanese people have responded to the incident by commenting with a hashtag 'Chinese Wuhan pneumonia' on Burger King Taiwan's Facebook page. A Spanish medic is seen in the parking lot of Burger King where drive-through coronavirus testing is being carried out

China and Taiwan have a long-standing dispute over the island's legal status. Most Chinese people consider Taiwan as a part of its territory, but many Taiwanese want a separate nation.

From 1683 to 1895, Taiwan was ruled by China's Qing dynasty. After Japan claimed its victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government forced to cede Taiwan to Japan.

But the island was under the Republic of China's ruling again after World War II, with the consent of its allies the US and UK.

Most Chinese people consider Taiwan as a part of its territory, but many Taiwanese want a separate nation. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is pictured during her visit to a factory

The leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party, Chiang Kai-shek, fled to Taiwan in 1949 and established his government after losing the Civil War to the Communist Party and its leader Mao Zedong. Chiang's son continued to rule Taiwan after his father and began democratising Taiwan.

In 1980, China put forward a formula called 'one country, two systems', under which Taiwan would be given significant autonomy if it accepted Chinese reunification. Taiwan rejected the offer.

Taiwan today, with its own constitution and democratically-elected leaders, is widely accepted in the West as an independent state. But its political status remains unclear.

Taiwan today, with its own constitution and democratically-elected leaders, is widely accepted in the West as an independent state. Young people are pictured in Taipei wearing face masks

The news comes as Burger King becomes latest fast food chain in UK to shut its doors amid coronavirus crisis.

All major fast food restaurants, including McDonald's and KFC, in the UK closed their doors last week amid the escalating pandemic.

It comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered all non-essential shops and food outlets to close as part of a nationwide lockdown.

Britons are now only allowed out of their homes to buy food, collect medical supplies and exercise once a day after 1,228 people died and nearly 20,000 people were confirmed to have contracted the virus.
A fire-damaged car belonging to a missing elderly camper has been found in Gippsland and police are appealing for public help to find the man and his companion.

Russell Hill, 74, has not been heard from since March 20 while 73-year-old Carol Clay, who is believed to be with Mr Hill, has not returned home.

Russell Hill and Carol Clay have been missing for more than a week.

Mr Hill, from Drouin, left on March 19 to visit campsites along the Dargo River about four hours north-east of Melbourne.

His last check-in came from Wonnangatta Station in the Victorian Alps. His car was found on March 27 with signs of minor fire damage near the Dry River Creek track at Billabong.
A Green Party TD says those encouraging her party to join in government formation are asking them to facilitate a power-grab from Fine Gael and Fianna Fail.

Neasa Hourigan says that the current thinking that her party should join in the likely coalition of the two traditional parties, is asking them to put their policies and principles aside, despite not asking the same of other parties.

"If you felt you could leverage a national crisis into a five year government with no commitments on housing or health or climate, you'd think that's what they're doing," she said.

"The idea that they are somehow presenting their view as the only view is unacceptable, and it's no coincidence that that particular view affords them the most amount of power with the least amount of oversight"

The Green Party say Fianna Fail and Fine Gael haven't considered a unity government seriously, and now is not the time for government formation talks.

They believe a national unity government could provide strong, cross-party leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic  flagging Belgium as an example of a state where the arrangement has worked.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has said that behind the scenes there is growing interest in a government of national unity.

Neither Fianna Fail or Fine Gael have taken the idea seriously, according to Ms Hourigan, while Sinn Fein remain open to the idea, Social Democrat Gary Gannon described it as a "social science experiment".

Over the weekend, a number of media reports criticised the Green Party for "walking off the pitch" in a time of national crisis, by withdrawing from government formation talks.

Ms Hourigan says the suggestion the onus is on her party alone to give up on certain principles is unfair.

"We were the only party that convened in-depth policy talks with every party," Ms Hourigan added.

"We spoke to both parties about their priorities at length and we did not agree on a whole lot.

"We couldn't get commitment or enthusiasm to a 7% emissions target, or commitment to focus on public transport, or great commitment to look at Shannon LLG.

"I'm at a loss why people think Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Greens will able to work in harmony and it does very strongly imply that we should go in and be quiet - that's what they're saying we don't agree but you have to provide stability.

"While we concentrate on this crisis, it doesn't mean all that gets set to one side.

"To enter some interim agreement and concentrate on government later, it's not responsible to cobble something like that together with no agreement on vision for the country.

"It also means there's nothing the public can hold you to, just making a government with no documents on their plans for the future, how is the electorate to hold them to account?

"The idea that you're not going to have any plan then jump into five years of government is crazy."

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For better or worse, Easton Hospital is now a ward of the state of Pennsylvania. If not in name, in practice. Its on a taxpayer-paid life support that is likely to be extended only as long as the response to the COVID-19 pandemic requires.

How did that happen?

The decline of Easton Hospital as a full-service, acute-care hospital is apparent to anyone who followed its history since 2001. Operating as a for-profit entity  first under Community Health Systems and lately under Steward Health Care  the hospital has had to shed services to survive. In a competitive arena dominated by St. Lukes University and Lehigh Valley health networks, it began shrinking as the competitors grew.

Easton Hospital ended or farmed out services  neonatal ICU, OB-GYN, the maternity ward, cardiac surgeries. Earlier this year, it ended elective surgeries to conserve resources for an expected crush of COVID-19 patients. In February alone the hospital lost $5 million, Steward officials said.

The best-case scenario for the failing hospital was  and still is  a takeover by St. Lukes. Negotiations between the two parties had been in the works for months.

St. Lukes called a time out, saying it couldnt negotiate an acquisition while dealing with the coronavirus onslaught. Steward had notified the state in January that it would close Easton Hospital by April 21 if it couldnt reach an acceptable deal with St. Lukes. That scenario morphed into a stepped-up, 11th-hour demand last week.

Steward threatened to close the hospital at midnight Friday, alleging that Gov. Tom Wolf had backtracked on a promise of $8 million a month to keep Easton running for up to three months. Steward wanted a firm guarantee of funding beyond the first month if the state insisted on Easton staying open at least until June 30.

Over that detail, it appears  on the upward climb of the worst pandemic outbreak in the U.S. since 1919  the owner of Easton Hospital came within hours of calling it quits. Finally, five hours before the deadline, Steward said it got the terms it needed from Wolf.

State Rep. Robert Freeman, who had been working with Wolfs office on a solution, called the brinkmanship by Steward irresponsible.

Its hard to believe that Easton Hospital could have sat vacant in the coming months  shedding 700 jobs in the process  as the rest of the Lehigh Valley scurried to free up every room, ventilator and medical staffer to try to save lives.

Were relieved that Wolf found a way to keep the lights on at Easton  and stupefied by the last-minute maneuvering by the hospitals owner.

Wolf says most of the Easton bailout, expected to be about $24 million for three months, will come from the federal stimulus bill passed last week and signed by President Trump. Steward said it will return any federal/state subsidies not used for the hospitals operating expenses.

Lets try to keep some perspective on this turn of events  something thats not always easy to do in a crisis.

Its good that Easton Hospital is still functioning. Its facility, its equipment and its staff are desperately needed now.

Its shameful to see them used as bargaining chips, as pieces in some kind of pandemic chess game.

We hope St. Lukes will complete its acquisition of Easton Hospital after the storm passes. The better outcome would have been for Steward to hand over the keys, pre-epidemic, had St. Lukes or another competent suitor been in a position to restore Easton to solvency.

Too late now.

Whatever public money is invested in Easton Hospital must go toward saving lives and relieving suffering in a time of historic need. Beyond that, this taxpayer reprieve should be used to endow its future, for its patients and employees  and for the idea that hospitals should be answerable first to their communities, rather than stockholders.
UPPER THUMB  There were no new confirmed coronavirus cases reported in the Upper Thumb Sunday, the first in several days without any additionally reported cases.

The numbers come from the state's daily statewide report.

As of 10 a.m. Sunday, Huron County had three confirmed cases, while Tuscola County had four and one death as a result of coronavirus. Sanilac County has reported two confirmed cases so far, with the most recent one coming March 26, a woman in her mid-30s who is now quarantined at home.

Statewide there have been 5,486 reported cases with 132 deaths so far.

It was announced Sunday that Detroit's TCF Center, formerly COBO Hall, will be transformed into a 900-bed field hospital to help deal with the rising number of coronavirus cases in the state.

Locally, health officials have told residents to be proactive. Huron and Tuscola County Health Officer Ann Hepfer has said it is likely there are more cases in the Thumb, and people should act accordingly.

Residents should behave as though the virus may be present when they are in public places in the community, Hepfer said. It does not matter where these cases are located in the county, this is highly infectious. Assume everything you touch could be infected with the virus.

The health departments are urging people who are not working to stay at home.

This is not a vacation, a release reads. Do not travel to your vacation homes. If you are currently in Florida or other states, stay there, it is actually safer for you.

According to health officials, the virus is within control if everyone stayed home and businesses did their part by reevaluating if they are essential services. If a business determines it is essential, it needs to start screening workers before they start work, even if they are outside.

As a precaution, the health department is asking anyone with symptoms they believe may be COVID-19 to self-isolate for 14 days to avoid exposing others. Symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of break.

As the COVID-19 situation continues to develop, we urge Huron and Tuscola County residents to make efforts to reduce the spread of illness, Hepfer said. (The) health departments are working hard to manage and respond to the presence of COVID-19 through established public health measures such as quarantine, isolation, and contact tracing.

According to the health department to prevent the spread of COVID-19, people should:

Wash their hands.

Stay home when sick.

Avoid close contact with sick people.

Avoid touching their face.

Disinfect commonly touched surfaces.

Avoid shaking hands.

Follow suggested guidelines for social distancing.

For social distancing, we recommend the following:

Keep six feet between yourself and others when possible.

Avoid public places at their busiest times.

Work from home when possible.

Cancel gatherings of more than 50 people as required by Michigan law. However, it is recommended gatherings not exceed 10 people. This includes baby showers, and bridal showers.

Limit travel.

People who are concerned that they may have COVID-19 should contact their healthcare provider and call ahead before visiting any healthcare facility. Mildly ill people are encouraged to stay home and contact their healthcare provider by phone for guidance. If you feel well, you do not need to be tested. Testing is determined based on a CDC risk assessment.

Information about the COVID-19 is rapidly changing. For general questions about COVID-19, call the state hotline at 1-888-535-6136. For more information, visit https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html, https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirus, www.tchd.us and www.hchd.us.
The militants attacked the positions of the Armed Forces with heavy weaponry

Since the beginning of the current day, Russia-backed militants have violated the ceasefire in Donbas four times and have fired at the positions of the Armed Forces with the weaponry that is prohibited by the Minsk agreements. This was reported by the press service of the Defense Ministry.

In particular, the enemy has fired 12 mines of 82-mm caliber at the positions of the Ukrainian soldiers in the area of Vodiane and Lebedynske.

In addition, for one and a half hours, the militants were attacking the positions of Joint Forces next to the Shumy village, using grenade/rocket launchers, large-caliber machine guns and small arms.

As a result, two Ukrainian servicemen were injured.

As we reported earlier, according to the Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksiy Reznikov, the occupation authorities conceal the real number of people infected with Covid-19.

They do not have tests. The occupation authorities conceal true picture from the outer world and citizens, living in those territories. They act on the old Soviet method: when Chornobyl exploded, they also concealed it from people; everyone got to know the truth later and it led to the fact that many people were affected by radiation, he stated.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Luciana Infusino-Tomei has been left alone to care for her young daughter during the COVID-19 pandemic after her husband was sent to prison last year on a drug-related charge.

The 38-year-old woman from Vaughan, Ont., is one of many worrying about the health and safety of their incarcerated loved ones, whose living arrangements make them particularly vulnerable to the novel coronavirus that has so far infected thousands of people and killed dozens across the country.

"Sometimes I find myself having to hold back my tears," Infusino-Tomei says. "My anxiety is through the roof, and so is my husband's, because he is away from us."

She says she hasn't been able to get support in caring for their 19-month-old because her parents are older and in poor health.

Her husband, Adrian Tomei, is serving a three-year sentence at Beaver Creek Institution north of Toronto, after he pleaded guilty last year to possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

Infusino-Tomei says people like her 33-year-old husband  who have no other criminal history, were convicted of a non-violent crime and have a safe place to stay  should be released from prison, where she fears COVID-19 would spread uncontrollably.

"There is no excuse for making bad decisions," she says. "He is paying his dues. He plead guilty from the onset and he was a man from the beginning by standing up and facing the music."

But she says prisoners are unable to self-isolate and have limited access to hygiene and sanitary products, so sending those who are not a risk to public safety may be the best thing during a pandemic.

"We know mass quarantines don't work because of those people left on cruise ships for weeks at a time," Infusino-Tomei says. "If something like that happens in prison, it's going to be far more dangerous, far more catastrophic on a far larger scale."

She says her husband has applied for parole by exception and is working with a lawyer in Kingtson, Ont.

Fergus J. (Chip) O'Connor, Tomei's parole lawyer, cites a section of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act that allows early release for an offender for whom continued confinement would constitute an excessive hardship.

"My argument is that the pandemic is a public health risk for prisoners and the risk of getting the virus is a hardship that was not previously foreseen," O'Connor says.

He says he has suggested to the commissioner of corrections and the Parole Board of Canada that efforts should be made to release non-violent prisoners soon, as the pandemic is expected to peak in Canada in the coming weeks.

He, as well as other legal advocates in Canada, are also calling for the government to recognize parole officers as essential workers, since they play a key role in getting applications processed.

"I'm not asking that they let everybody out of jail," O'Connor says.

"But if they would just take that step, and if they had the political will to do so, then we could reduce the prison population significantly, put people in their homes and it would ... flatten the curve."
A high powered committee, headed by a Delhi High Court judge, has directed authorities to take steps like releasing inmates on emergency parole for reducing over-crowding in jails to prevent the spread of coronavirus which has infected 1,071 people in India and claimed 29 lives.

The committee, constituted on the orders of the Supreme Court, deliberated on various means of achieving social distancing and resolved to quarantine fresh inmates who are foreign nationals, isolate those with flu or fever symptoms, conduct regular medical examination of the prisoners, release (those eligible) inmates on emergency parole and to grant special remission of sentence to those who have six months or less jail term left to serve.

The decision by the committee, headed by Delhi High Court judge Justice Hima Kohli, was taken in a meeting held via video conferencing with officials of DG Prisons, Delhi State Legal Services Authority and Home department of the Delhi government.

The meeting was held pursuant to the March 23 direction of the apex court to every state to set up a high powered committee to take measures to reduce population of inmates in the over-crowded jails in the country by determining category of prisoners to be released on parole and interim bail.

In the meeting held by the committee constituted by the Delhi government, it was resolved that the process of granting eight week parole to around 1,500 prisoners, under a newly incorporated provision in the prison rules, would be completed expeditiously.

It was also resolved to relax category of under-trial prisoners (UTPs) who can be released on interim bail to further reduce the jail population, the minutes of the meeting said.

However, UTPs undergoing trial in drug cases where intermediary or large amount of banned substance was recovered, those facing trial for sexual assault of children, rape and acid attacks, foreign nationals, accused in corruption or money laundering cases and those under investigation in terror, anti-national or unlawful activities, would not be considered for any interim bail, the committee resolved.

As personal visits to jails have been cut, the committee resolved that the inmates be allowed to talk to their family through telephone after properly sanitizing the phone.

According to the DG Prisons, in the 16 jails in Delhi which have a total capacity of 10,026 prisoners, there are 17,440 inmates of which 14,355 are UTPs.

During the meeting held on March 28, the prison authority informed the committee that no case of COVID-19 has been detected among the inmates and every nook and corner of the jail campus was being regularly sanitized and cleaned.

Besides that, masks and gloves have been supplied to jail staff and the prisoners and cultural and group activities of inmates have been suspended to avoid mass gathering.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Indian Army on Monday issued a statement saying that fake messages and rumours are doing the rounds on social media about likely declaration of emergency in India in the wake of coronavirus crisis.

This is absolutely fake, read a post tweeted by the Armys official handle on Monday.

Fake & malicious messages are circulating on social media about likely declaration of emergency in mid-April & employment of Indian Army, veterans, National Cadet Corps and National Service Scheme to assist the civil admn. Its clarified that this is absolutely fake, the tweet read.

Fake and malicious messages are circulating on social media about likely declaration of emergency in mid April and employment of #IndianArmy, #Veterans, NCC and NSS to assist the civil administration.



It is clarified that this is absolutely FAKE. pic.twitter.com/YnbLnBZGY0  ADG PI - INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) March 30, 2020

Earlier in the day, the Centre clarified on the false reports of the possible extension of the 21-day coronavirus lockdown in the country.

There are rumours and media reports, claiming that the government will extend the lockdown when it expires. The Cabinet Secretary has denied these reports, and stated that they are baseless, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) said on Twitter on Monday.

I am surprised to see such reports, there is no such plan of extending the lockdown, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba told a news agency.

The 3-week nationwide lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week to break the chain of coronavirus infection in the country and keep the spread in check.

India on Monday entered the sixth day of the 21-day lockdown.

The total number of coronavirus cases in the country have jumped to 1,071, the health ministry said today. While nearly 100 people have been recovered and discharged, 29 Covid-9 patients have lost their lives.
Amid the lockdown, Indians have turned to social media to pass their time. In the first week of lockdown, Indians spent more than four hours every day on social media. This is a 87 per cent increase from a week before lockdown.

Before the lockdown, social media usage was on average 150 minutes per day. However, in the first week of lockdown, the figures jumped to 280 minutes per day, showed a survey. The survey added that 75 per cent people were spending more time on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp compared to the week before. In social media, people were largely consuming news and communicating with their friends and families as coronavirus grappled the country.

Also read: Coronavirus in India Live updates: Govt denies extension of 21-day lockdown

Besides, television, internet browsing and streaming platform have also seen a rise in viewership, according to the survey. Internet browsing saw a 72 per cent spike during the first week of lockdown.

The survey, conducted by Hammerkopf Consumer Survey, also found the prime time for streaming platforms began at 7 pm in the first-week of lockdown. Seventy six per cent of people said they watch TV in the morning between 8 am and 9 am. The survey was conducted across 1,300 people, in Mumbai, Bengaluru, New Delhi and Chennai.

Also read: Coronavirus: Three Indians among 42 new cases reported in Singapore

Also read: Now all goods - essential and non-essential - can move in coronavirus lockdown
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 30, 2020 20:42 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e743a3 1 City COVID-19,COVID-19-Jakarta,Greater-Jakarta,BPTJ-Greater-Jakarta-Transportation-Body,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,COVID-19-quarantine Free

Bus routes connecting Jakarta and other cities and provinces will remain open following the cancellation of a plan to temporarily suspend operations of Greater Jakarta-based intercity and interprovincial (AKAP) buses.

We need a letter from the Transportation Ministrys Greater Jakarta Transportation Agency [BPTJ] to implement the plan, but we have not received the letter to date, Jakarta Transportation agency head Syafrin Liputo told The Jakarta Post via phone Monday afternoon.

He confirmed that without the letter, the Greater-Jakarta based AKAP buses could still leave and enter the city.

On Sunday, the agency decided to prevent residents in the capital from leaving the city by suspending the service of AKAP buses as well as tourist buses starting at 6 p.m. on Monday.

Syafrin said on Sunday the agency would monitor AKAP bus stops, such as Kalideres terminal in Cengkareng, West Jakarta; Tanjung Priok terminal in North Jakarta; and Kampung Rambutan terminal in Cipayung and Pulogebang terminal in Cakung, East Jakarta, to ensure the suspension of operations was enforced.

The decision was made following reports that thousands of people were leaving the capital for their hometowns, a tradition known as mudik (exodus), despite the government's warnings against it, risking the further transmission of COVID-19.

Read also: Jokowi refuses to impose lockdown on Jakarta

The agency also consulted the Transportation Ministrys land transportation director general, the Public Works and Housing Ministry's highways director general, the Toll Road Management Agency head and the Greater Jakarta Transportation Agency head.

However, Syafrin asserted that implementation of the policy required the governments approval through the BPTJ.

The Jakarta administration has extended the capitals emergency status to April 19 as the spread of the virus in capital  the nation's epicenter of the outbreak  continues unabated.

Health experts and analysts have called for a quarantine in the capital city to curb the transmission of the virus, as increasing numbers of positive cases detected in others regions are found to have been imported from Greater Jakarta.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, however, remained adamant a quarantine would not be imposed. Instead, he called on Monday for the implementation of "large-scale social restrictions" as outlined in the 2018 Health Quarantine Law and asserted that declaring a lockdown was the sole authority of the central government.

As of Monday, Indonesia had reported 1,414 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 698 of which were recorded in Jakarta. A total of 122 people have died from the disease. (aly)
VOLUNTEERS in Henley have delivered food and other essential items to people affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

They are part of the Henley Covid-19 Mutual Aid Group, which is co-ordinating efforts to keep people across the town supplied.

The group has about 2,000 members and has divided the town into areas, each covering about 80 households.

Many of the people who are receiving the ongoing deliveries are self-isolating to avoid contracting the virus.

Some have other health conditions, which make them vulnerable to the disease, and have decided to stay at home and rely on the generosity of the volunteers to keep them supplied.

Mary Spargo, 94, of Kings Close, is self-isolating because her age means she is at higher risk of severe illness.

Volunteer Pamela Cook, 51, of Kings Road, is supporting her by doing her shopping.

Mrs Spargo was put in touch with Ms Cook by the mutual aid group and had a delivery of fresh vegetables, including cabbages and broccoli, on Saturday.

Ms Cook called Mrs Spargo to let her know she would be doing her shopping.

She found out what she wanted before going to Waitrose early to shop with elderly residents.

After she had paid for Mrs Spargos items, she phoned her to let her know she was dropping the food outside her front door.

Ms Cook held up a sign, which read Hello, Mary, its Pamela so Mrs Spargo knew it was her.

She said: Im helping because I can and I think its a great thing to be doing. Im conscious a lot of people in the community dont know each other as well as they should.

This is a great way of giving people support and a lot of them are really grateful. Weve had lots of calls from people saying thank you, its really nice we have support.

I just got her the papers and her groceries. I think people are really happy to know that we are around but theyre worried about the future.

Mrs Spargo said: Shes offering to do anything. All I need is help with my shopping, which she has very kindly agreed to do for me. Ive got her number if I should need anything.

I feel very relieved, partly for my daughter, who lives in Ewelme. Of course, Im very old but this has taken the pressure off my daughter to look after me. Shes very relieved because she has spent a lot of her time worrying what would happen to me if she became ill.

She has a daughter who just came back from university and anyone could be ill at any time, you just dont know. Its a relief for my daughter to know that Im not going to sit here and starve.

I think the volunteers are doing a fantastic job. Pamela very sweetly brought some daffodil buds with her. Its very sweet of her and she seems a lovely person. I never knew she existed until the weekend.

Volunteer Andrea Peart, 48, of Remenham Hill, has agreed to support five people who contacted her for help.

She said: Im picking up prescriptions and Ive got shopping lists coming out of my ears for these individuals.

Among the recipients is Linda and Brant Harrison, both 67, who also live in Remenham Hill.

Mrs Harrison said: I dont know what I would do without Andrea because my husband is an extremely high risk case. He has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

I have it too as well as asthma and it affects our lungs and breathing, so obviously were quite high risk.

Were both self-isolating and were just doing it for as long as we possibly can because we dont want to catch anything. Were both very concerned, I would say, because the guidelines that have been given to us vary and nobody is 100 per cent sure what to do or what not to do.

You get silly students who go out and go for a rave and I dont know why they want to potentially affect their own families.

Theres no two ways about it, having Andreas support has given us peace of mind. She doesnt mind whatever we ask her to do. She can pop out and go to the shops and then drop everything outside our back door.

Without her I think I would have just given up. You just cant imagine how much of a lifeline it is to know there are people out there who want to help and care.

She has been out and got us food for the cats and the dog, biscuits, milk and bread. Shes also doing her own online shop and has asked us if wed like to tag along on the end of that. Theres no pressure and shes not bothered at all either way.

I would encourage anybody thats physically able to help to just sign up and support as much as you can. We all need to help each other to get through this. The more people that help, the better its going to be.

If anything happens to Andrea then somebody else, another volunteer, can help. If she hadnt been out for us we possibly wouldve been without food, so people like her are just amazing and its so heartening to know there are good people out there.

Mrs Peart said: Ive had a couple of conversations with people who are over 70 and they felt vulnerable in the supermarkets.

They said it was frightening and crazy. One of them told me she was scared. She said it wasnt just the vulnerable going in and it was literally just a crush.

There will be bigger shops to do and volunteers will also begin doing runs to the butchers or for prescriptions. Some people also want technical support so they can use things like video conferencing.

One person has said to me, thank you so much because Ive been really worried about this. Another said, Im not sure what I would do without you because people cant get online shopping.

I keep getting messages saying thank you so much and youre so kind. I cant tell you how happy people are when they are being helped. Im just doing my best because other people are doing their bit to help my parents.

For me its really important that if youre fit and healthy you do your best to help the community because we dont know if we will need that help at some point.

Because I was helping people that I knew already, it just made sense to do it. People are going to be stuck indoors for months and they just need help. Its going to affect everybody of all ages and we need more people to volunteer.

Michael McDonagh, of Gainsborough Hill, Henley, offered to help Julie Maxx, of Gainsborough Crescent, whose son Tyler, 21, has cerebral palsy and is vulnerable to the virus.

He bought her loo roll, disinfectant and bread last week and said she was absolutely delighted.

Mr McDonagh said: I realised she was struggling and saw her post on the mutual aid group Facebook page.

The more we work together, the sooner we can come out on the other side. Were all worried about what the future holds. Knock on your neighbours door, especially if theyre elderly, and help.

Ms Maxx, 54, said: It was really, really good help. Its nice to know that somebody is there. I just couldnt get any eggs or milk anywhere.

I have to do everything for my son but I cant take him out because I could risk him getting this virus. I cant go shopping till later in the afternoon and my partner is at work and starts really early.

Emma Taylor, 45, of Western Avenue, is also volunteering to support people in need.

She posted a Mothers Day card for Jo McDonagh, of Gainsborough Hill.

Mrs Taylor said: I know Jo and she is considered to be high risk. She just asked if someone could help her because she wanted to post her Mothers Day card to her mother-in-law in Northern Ireland quite urgently.

I went round and picked it up from her keeping at arms length and then went round to the post office. However, they told me next-day delivery had been suspended so I sent it first class.

Jo is isolating at home. She does have her husband but she realised it needed to go and he was going out to work.

She seemed really grateful and relieved that I would offer to help. I could tell from her messages that it was a little bit of a worry for her.

I just felt that at this time, its those connections with family that feel more important than normal. I could see that it was really important to her. Our aim is to make sure that no one is missed out and everyone gets support. This is why we as a support group have adopted a town-wide approach. We have gone for this co-operative approach and the response has been amazing.

The town has really pulled together and we have up to 2,000 people on the Facebook group. This time last week it didnt exist and we only had a Skype meeting about this on the Monday evening last week.

We have an amazing bunch of people in Henley and Im very aware that everyone is pitching in. Its such a relief to know there are people to call on if we cant get out to buy food.

People in the streets where Im helping are so glad to know the support is there and if they need it theres a number to call.

Mrs McDonagh said she and her husband appreciated the support.

She said: It was great because if we didnt get the letter posted on Friday it wasnt going to get there for Saturday. We wanted to make sure that my mother-in-law was aware we were thinking of her.

The support is really good for everybody. Im normally out and about doing lots for everyone else. Just to have that little bit of support if youre short of something or being able to send a little message if you need something is really good.

To contact the mutual aid group, email henleyc19aid@gmail.com

Neil Gunnell has been part of a neighbourhood watch group on the Wootton Manor estate in Henley for 10 years.

There are 24 volunteers in the area who have contacted between 250 and 300 houses by email and delivered leaflets to offer support.

Mr Gunnell has delivered 130 leaflets in addition to 125 emails to residents in the area.

He said: The key is for people to watch out for their very local neighbours. We also encouraged people to send a smaller contact sheet to their immediate neighbours.

Residents have asked him to shop and he has spoken to others about the support he can offer.

I have bought for two so far and specifically reassured three other concerned households in the over-70s category not to worry, he said.

I have also had general contact, reassuring phone calls, with perhaps six others and received many emails back thanking me and saying that they are reassured someone is here.

We are getting the same message. People are short of things like bread, milk and vegetables.

He hopes one effect of the virus will be to bring people together and improve community engagement.

Its a relatively old-fashioned concept but actually we need a new generation of people to help others, he said. Ive had lots of messages from people saying they really appreciate the support. They feel theres someone to turn to.

Mr Gunnell and the other volunteers are providing support to people in the area from Manor Road to the end of Makins in conjunction with the Henley Covid-19 Mutual Aid Group. To volunteer, email

ngunnell@gmail.com
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Today in Pa. Daily Podcast | March 30, 2020

Pennsylvania prisons enter quarantine after an inmate tests positive for the coronavirus. Meanwhile, the commonwealth has laid off 2,500 workers as it looks for federal funding to help combat the pandemic. Social distancing looks like itll be the new trend for the rest of April, but one Pennsylvania woman isnt letting it get her down -- inspiring thousands with her porch musicals.

Those are the stories we cover in the latest episode of Today in Pa, a daily weekday podcast from PennLive.com and hosted by Julia Hatmaker. Today in Pa is dedicated to sharing the most important and interesting stories in the state.

Todays episode refers to the following articles:

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With a tag of 'maximum-spreader,' Pakistan is reeling under an alarming situation due to a consistent surge in the active COVID-19 infection in the South Asian region. But Imran Khan is still not in favour of a complete lockdown in the country, fearing that the stringent measures would further challenge the economic meltdown which has been stagnating since the prime minister took over reins in August 2018.

Khan has been talking about devising an economic package to deal with the coronavirus situation. He also added that the government is closely monitoring the matter and it will not hide facts from the public.

But shouldn't the government only focus on combating the global pandemic for the time being instead of focusing on saving the already-sluggish economy, especially at a time when the most developed countries across the are closing their borders and halting services, ensuring a stringent lockdown to stain the spread of the killer bug?

The virus which is believed to have originated in central China, the all-weather friend of Pakistan, has infected at least 1600 people in the Islamic country, the maximum reported COVID-19 cases in South Asia.

As many as 17 people have succumbed to the contagious infection in Pakistan so far, including the death of a health department employee in Gilgit-Baltistan today. Twelve new cases in GB have come up, taking the total tally in the region to 128, according to Bol News.

Mubasher Lucman, a Pakistani film director-turned-journalist and former caretaker provincial minister in Punjab, in the view that the corona situation in Pakistan is "highly alarming."

Faisal Edhi of Edhi Foundation, a Karachi-based non-profit organisation, further stated that his Foundation is burying a minimum of six to seven corona deceased daily in Punjab itself. Edhi added that the Foundation's cold storages have been being closed to hide the number of dead bodies.

On the other hand, the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is also hiding facts. Mubasher said that all doctors in government hospitals have been stopped from speaking on the issue. He quoted the doctors as saying that casualties are "on the high side. Hospitals are getting choked. There is a shortage of equipment and kits and worse doctors are not trained in using these kits and equipment."

It shows that people, themselves, are complaining against the so-called measures taken by Khan's government in response to combat the pandemic. Six cases have been reported in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir region whose residents are upset with the establishment for setting up quarantine facilities in the area to treat those infected by the virus from across the country.

But such 'rumours related to coronavirus' simply fall on the deaf ears of the prime minister, who instead of taking the call seriously, urge the media to report cases with more 'responsibility.'

"Media and private TV channels should stop creating panic among the people," the media quoted Khan as saying during a news conference.

According to Pakistani media reports, Khan is continuously pressurising the finance ministry to devise strategies in order to save the country from the economic fallout.

He said the economic indicators of the country were showing progress before the eruption of coronavirus. The prime minister is more tensed regarding the fact that the global economy is slowing down due to the global pandemic, and Pakistani exports are also likely to be impacted. It could also reduce the foreign remittances received by the country, besides plummeting the job creation opportunities, the local media stated.

The 'fake concern' of the Pakistani establishment further comes in light following reports that tons of medical aid from China were sent to Pakistan, at a time when various countries are rejecting those test kits following claims showing inaccurate results.

In view of the above factors, it has become a necessity for Pakistan to take immediate action to curb the COVID-19 spread.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - CARBO Ceramics has initiated voluntary chapter 11 process in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas to facilitate ownership change and recapitalization, with financing commitment. The company reached an agreement with Wilks Brothers, LLC and Equify Financial, LLC under which the Wilks Brothers will acquire the company through a debt-for-equity exchange pursuant to a plan of reorganization in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. The Wilks Brothers have committed to providing $15 million in debtor-in-possession financing and consented to the use of its cash collateral to bolster CARBO's financial position and finance its operations through the process. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Sundays are a day to recharge and reset by hanging with friends, turning off your phone, bathing for hours on end, or doing whatever else works for you. In this column (in conjunction with our Instagram Self-Care Sunday series), we ask editors, experts, influencers, writers, and more what a perfect self-care Sunday means to them, from tending to their mental and physical health to connecting with their community to indulging in personal joys. We want to know why Sundays are important and how people enjoy them, from morning to night.

As coronavirus (COVID-19) spreads across the country, millions of Americans have self-isolated in their homes to stay safe. While some people are using this time to be creative and catch up on projects that have laid dormant for weeks (or months), otherslike our Deputy Editor, Rachel Simonare allowing themselves to just chill instead.

For the first timeever, I dont feel guilty for not writing, because I truly recognize that I need to be prioritizing my mental health right now and doing whatever makes me feel relaxedeven if its not the most productive thing, she says.

For Simon, this isnt an easy feat. For years, her routine has involved moving 100 miles per hour to accomplish the number one thing on her to-do list: finishing her manuscript. Normally, I tend to be really hard on myself when I dont write regularly or make progress towards a goal, and while Ive always known its not the healthiest behavior, this is the first time that Ive actually felt my mindset changing for the better in this regard, she explains.

So what has Simon been doing with her down time instead of writing while she self-isolates during the coronavirus pandemic? Whatever makes her feel calm. Last weekend, my boyfriend and I took the pets and drove to North Carolina where his parents are, so we mostly spent that Sunday settling in. Since getting here, Ive been spending non-work time going on walks, working on puzzles, and reading books, which have all been great distractions from the news and good ways to help me relax, she says.

Story continues

While writing is still incredibly important for Simon, shes not allowing it to define her time right nowand she knows thats exactly whats needed. I dont want to give up on my ambitions, of course, but Im realizing that its perfectly okay to recognize when you need a break and take it, she says.

We couldnt agree more. For this weeks Self-Care Sunday, we connected with Simon to find out how shes been managing her down time during the pandemic. Here, in her own words, are her insights, plus tips for others who might be struggling with slowing down.

Mental Health:

Until we left for North Carolina, my anxiety level was really highbeing in a small New York apartment and having to read and cover the news for my job made it pretty much impossible to not be constantly thinking about the pandemic. Getting out of the city helped a ton; while I still feel stressed and scared, its not nearly as overwhelming as it was before.

Mindset during the pandemic

Lately, I havent been able to get the energy and focus to make much progress [on my manuscript]. Instead of beating myself up about this, though, Im reminding myself that its totally okay to not be that creative right now and instead do other, less important activities that help me relax, like puzzling and watching TV.

Wind-down practices

Most nights so far, Ive FaceTimed with my parents or friends, and its been a great way to stay connected to everyone I cant see in person right now. Im not usually a big video-chatter, but like [it has for] so many others these days, its become my go-to method for catching up with loved ones and getting some much-needed laughs. Im also making sure to spend plenty of time playing with our cuddly 1-year-old puppy and less cuddly 8-year-old cat.

Rachel Simons

Physical Practices:

Exercise routines

Ive never been a big outdoor runner, but with gyms being closed, Ive taken to going for short runs in the neighborhood before dinnertime. I still miss the treadmill, but getting fresh air during golden hour really helps boost my mood and takes my mind off the news for a bit. I also take the dog for a walk at least once a day and am always running up and down the stairs here at the house, which is a big change from life in the New York apartment.

Other physical health practices

Im definitely guilty of sitting on the couch for way too many hours in a row without moving while I work, so Im trying to remember to stretch often and get a change of scenery every now and then. Im also eating and drinking a little more than I typically would, so Im making sure to fit in real exercise when I can, even if its only for 15 or 20 minutes a day.

Community Care:

Staying connected while social distancing

As an extrovert who really values her relationships, social distancing has definitely been hard, but Im so glad to be staying with family right now. My boyfriend and I also make sure to take time each day to catch up with each other while were living with three other people, and luckily, FaceTime and regular calls have allowed me to stay connected to family and friends that Im not able to be with in person.

Personal Joys:

Self-care routine

For me, self-care has always been less about beauty and more about letting myself nerd out on activities that bring me joy. Right now, its all about puzzlingwhether thats working on this super hard jigsaw puzzle with the family, doing the daily New York Times crossword, or learning how to make crosswords of my own. Ive just started learning, and while its really hard (themes are no joke), Im having so much fun.

Galison

Sunday must-dos

I always make sure to get fresh air, even if the weathers bad. It doesnt matter if I run or walk, go solo or with my boyfriend and the dogas long as I leave the house for a bit, I feel way better.

Advice for people who are having a hard time being productive

Remember that this isnt permanent, even if right now it might feel like theres no end in sight. Its completely okay to take a break from your normal productivity for a while if its making you anxious or exhausted, because you will get back to that routine eventuallywhether thats in a few days, weeks, or months. Do whats best for your mental health until things are calmer because pushing yourself to be creative or productive when your mind is somewhere else is only going to make you feel worse.
James McAvoy has claimed that his generous 275k donation to the NHS this weekend was not simply to help buy supplies for staff - but to show how much they are valued and supported by the public during the coronavirus crisis.

The X-Men actor, 40, told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'One of the main reasons I wanted to give money, and why I upped the amount of money, was not just to get [Personal Protective Equipment] across there, which is so important, but secondarily I'd say it was more to show a sign of support to the frontline staff.

'I've heard that morale is incredibly low and they're feeling exposed and vulnerable and like they haven't been supported properly.

Helping the cause: James McAvoy has claimed that his generous donation to the NHS this weekend was not simply to help buy supplies for staff - but to show how much they are valued and supported by the public

'I think we've got to protect those incredible doctors and surgeons and porters and the lady that fills the vending machine at the hospital, and we've got to protect all of those people by staying indoors, we've got to protect all of those people by social distancing and by taking it seriously, and I think people are starting to take it more seriously.

'They've got to protect their families, and I just wanted to help start a conversation that says to the NHS, we value you so much.'

James added that he has a personal sense of value toward the NHS, explaining: 'They've saved my life and the lives of my family multiple times, and they probably will be doing it at some point in the near future again, so please please please know we value you.'

The Scottish actor described COVID-19 as 'an invisible enemy that [NHS frontline staff] are fighting every day on our behalf'.

The X-Men actor, 40, told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'One of the main reasons I wanted to give money... was more to show a sign of support to the frontline staff' [Dr Mona Barzin, one of those behind the campaign, is also pictured]

He said: 'It's an absolute war zone and we're asking them to go and fight that war with no weaponry, no armour'

He said: 'It's an absolute war zone and we're asking them to go and fight that war with no weaponry, no armour, and I'm sure it's going to get fixed in the coming weeks and months, but in that interim, what is happening right now, the threats that they face and the threat of them passing it onto their patients and their patients' families is huge, so you know every day that goes by without the correct PPE is an opportunity lost to save someone's life.

'The sooner that we can get PPE in there, even donating 10, that might mean you might potentially save a life because you provided essential PPE to a healthcare provider in this essentially important time to get it done.'

The campaign Masks For NHS Heroes was set up by a group of four doctors, and has raised more than 900,000 so far.

Their mission is to 'purchase certified PPE to donate directly to the NHS front line and protect staff and patients'.

Dr Mona Barzin, one of those behind the campaign, told the programme that the Atonement star's donation has helped them to raise a larger amount than they first thought.

Gesture: 'They've got to protect their families, and I just wanted to help start a conversation that says to the NHS, we value you so much,' he asserted

Generous: James, who last year starred in the likes of Glass and IT: Chapter Two, has helped to buy the likes of masks, visors and gloves for hospitals after the medics launched the crowdfunding page on Thursday

She said: 'We thought we'd get a small amount of donations, then James gave us his first initial amount, which was also incredible, but then he upped it and it took us to a completely different level.'

James also told the programme how those in the acting community are feeling amid the pandemic, which has seen the UK and other countries put in a lockdown-style situation to adhere to social distancing measures.

He said: 'A friend of mine, whilst we were social distancing, he came to borrow something and I chucked it out the window of our flat.

'I said, "How you doing man?" and he said, "You know it's great, I've got no anxiety about my career, right now I've got the exact same career as Benedict Cumberbatch!"'

Running out: The campaign was set up by a group of concerned NHS doctors to raise money for Personal Protective Equipment. James' contribution means an order of 75,000 masks and 75,000 visors can be immediately placed

James, who last year starred in the likes of Glass and IT: Chapter Two, has helped to buy the likes of masks, visors and gloves for hospitals after the medics launched the crowdfunding page on Thursday, claiming that they were 'going to war without armour'.

The campaign's target was 200,000 and it has already surpassed this, currently standing at over 440,000, with a new goal of 500,000.

James said on Instagram: 'Money donated today will save lives  Help us to help the government to help the NHS.'

James said on Instagram: 'Money donated today will save lives  Help us to help the government to help the NHS'

The Guardian reports that Dr Salaj Masand, one of the fund's organisers, said: 'We are overwhelmed and speechless at the trust and faith people have put into us to deliver this.

'The number of very generous donations from everyone doubled our target within three days.'

He branded Hollywood star James' contribution 'mindblowing' and that it amounts to an order of 75,000 masks and 75,000 visors.

The order can be placed immediately, thanks to this sizable donation.

The medic went on: 'This is a global catastrophic event and an extremely tough time for governments across world, no different from ours. There is a worldwide shortage of [Personal Protective Equipment] PPE [thats] likely to go on for months.

James added that he has a personal sense of value toward the NHS, explaining: 'They've saved my life and the lives of my family multiple times, and they probably will be doing it at some point in the near future again, so please please please know we value you'

'The government is doing all it can but the NHS needs all the help it can get. We are also competing with the commercial market who are trying to sell the same PPE for extraordinary prices.'

He also revealed that one of the other doctors behind the crowdfunding campaign has tested positive for COVID-19.

The government have been approached by private sellers since the outbreak of the virus, offering inadequate PPE at extortionate costs.

'That is why we raised the capital ourselves and hope to help government distribute these supplies in best possible way,' explained Dr Masand.

Passionate: The Scottish actor described COVID-19 as 'an invisible enemy that [NHS frontline staff] are fighting every day on our behalf'

'Unfortunately current hospital supplies are not sufficient and while we are reassured the government is doing everything it can, healthcare workers on the frontline are risking themselves daily without adequate protection to care for sick patients.

'Healthcare workers on the frontline without PPE is the equivalent of going to war without armour and protection.'

Equipment is in such short supply that medical TV dramas such as Holby City and Casualty in the UK, as well as Grey's Anatomy in the US, are sending their PPE props to hospitals to help with the shortfall.

Most shows around the world have halted production, as have movie sets.
Free agent defensive end Jadeveon Clowney remains unsigned, and a former Seattle Seahawk observed the longer Clowney is unsigned, the chances of him returning to the Seahawks improves.

Former Seahawks wide receiver Michael Bumpus said Clowneys lingering availability is good news for the Seahawks in their quest to re-sign Clowney. Clowney was with the Seahawks in 2019 after Seattle acquired him in a trade with the Houston Texans before training camp.

"The longer this thing plays out, the better it is for the Seattle Seahawks, Bumpus told radio station 710 ESPN in Seattle. I think hes going to go back to whats familiar. Hes definitely not going back to Houston, I can guarantee that, so whats the next best thing? Its Seattle.

Clowney reportedly is asking for a contract that will pay him $20 million annually. Some think Clowneys asking price is far too high for a player who posted just three sacks and missed three games with a core muscle injury and had offseason surgery.

Clowneys injury history and offseason surgery has left potential suitors wondering if hes healthy. The problem for him is the league has suspended physicals and in-person interviews because of the coronavirus, so Clowney cant meet with teams and show hes healthy.

Another report indicated Clowney may extend his free agency wait into training camp. Bumpus, who played for the Seahawks in 2008, seemed to agree, saying he thinks Clowney is playing a long game."

"If hes not getting the offers that he wants or that intrigues him, then youve got to hold out and wait this thing out and hope that maybe a in a month or so, hes able to travel and go check out teams and whatnot, Bumpus told 710 ESPN.

Seahawks have reportedly made an offer that would pay Clowney around $12 million a year, but he continues to think hes capable of earning more.

-- Geoffrey C. Arnold | @geoffreyCarnold
Three of the people tested by staff at Bryan Health's drive-thru clinic last week have tested positive for COVID-19 and are among the eight cases confirmed in the county, said Bryan Medical Center CEO John Woodrich.

Woodrich said that out of 244 people tested for COVID-19 last week at its drive-thru clinic, there have been the three positives and 40 negatives, with 201 results still pending.

On Tuesday, CHI Health will launch its own drive-thru coronavirus testing site at Lincoln North Star High School that prioritizes tests for health care workers, first responders, nursing home staff, correctional center staff and the residents of group homes with vulnerable populations.

Like the protocol at Bryan's drive-thru site, tests are only available to people with a doctor's order and an appointment, CHI Health announced in a news release Monday.

Increased testing and ramped-up test analysis capacity will likely lead to reports of new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the city on a daily basis, Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird said.

She hopes people will not see that and think social distancing measures are not working.
(Natural News) When President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act earlier this month, he said he wasnt certain hed ever have to use it.

The Korean War-era law gives him the authority to order U.S. manufacturers to produce certain goods needed to battle the coronavirus outbreak.

The National Sentinel reported March 22:

But the president thus far has not had to use that authority because American companies are doing a very American thing: Theyre stepping up to donate or deliver on those items without being made to do so, according to the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Apparently, however, as coronavirus crushes hospital systems in the countrys hardest-hit regions like New York City and threatens to do the same in California, Washington and New Orleans, it became apparent that one of the most vital pieces of equipment  ventilators  are getting to be in extremely short supply.

As such, on Friday General Motors became the first American company ordered to produce a product under the authority of the DPA since the president first invoked it, CNBC reported, adding:

The order comes hours after GM announced plans to build critical-care ventilators with Ventec Life Systems at one of the automakers component plants in Indiana.

The presidents order doesnt change GMs previously announced plans or schedule to begin making ventilators, corporate spokesman Jim Cain said. Last week, the automaker said it expected to begin shipping those vents as early as April.

In a statement released by the White House, President Trump said his action will help ensure the quick production of ventilators that will save American lives.

Our negotiations with GM regarding its ability to supply ventilators have been productive, but our fight against the virus is too urgent to allow the give-and-take of the contracting process to continue to run its normal course, he said. (Related: China now trying to rewrite world history by claiming the Wuhan coronavirus never originated in China.)

Theres no way to prove Gov. Cuomo wrong at this point

The company isnt pushing back at all, which is a good thing since, by law, it really doesnt have much choice.

In a statement emailed to CNBC, the automaker didnt directly address the presidents invocation of the DPA. Rather, company officials repeated earlier claims that employees with Ventec, GM and their supply chain have been working around the clock for over a week to meet this urgent need.

Our commitment to build Ventecs high-quality critical care ventilator, VOCSN, has never wavered, GM said. The partnership between Ventec and GM combines global expertise in manufacturing quality and a joint commitment to safety to give medical professionals and patients access to life-saving technology as rapidly as possible. The entire GM team is proud to support this initiative.

The presidents announcement, strangely, came just a day after he expressed doubt regarding a claim by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo that his state will require at least 30,000 vents in order to treat a tsunami of critical patients sickened by COVID-19.

I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than theyre going to be, Trump said in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

I dont believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You know, you go into major hospitals sometimes theyll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden theyre saying, Can we order 30,000 ventilators?

Honestly, though, theres no way to prove Gov. Cuomo wrong at this point. And again, the president did turn around and order GM to get moving on its promised deliveries of ventilators.

It probably isnt an accident that GM became the first company ordered by the president to make a coronavirus-related product. Last year, Trump criticized GMs decision to shutter an auto plant in Lordstown, Ohio, which he took as a personal insult because he had promised workers there that their manufacturing jobs would be returning.

Stay informed at Pandemic.news.

Sources include:

CNBC.com

TheNationalSentinel.com

WhiteHouse.gov

NaturalNews.com
The U.S. is all but guaranteed to lose its hard-earned spot as the world's number one oil producer this year amid the recent price crash, vanishing demand and a plunge in capital investment, energy experts say. That could mean potentially enormous implications for U.S. foreign policy, as administrations have for decades viewed energy security and national security as being inexorably tied. "If we continue where we are with these low prices, we'll see a big decline in U.S. oil production. It will no longer be number one," Dan Yergin, energy expert and vice chairman of IHS Markit, told CNBC's "Capital Connection" on Monday. The U.S. became the top oil producer globally, surpassing the output of Saudi Arabia and Russia, in 2018 thanks to the shale oil boom. A world increasingly in lockdown over the coronavirus crisis and the oil price war set off between Saudi Arabia and Russia in early March have brought crude prices down more than 65% year-to-date, with global benchmark Brent crude trading at just $22.78 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate at $20.39 per barrel on Monday morning London time, their lowest levels in nearly two decades. Saudi Arabia earlier this month slashed its crude prices, reversing course from boosting prices via production cuts to what some analysts call a "scorched earth" strategy, flooding the market with cheap oil in pursuit of greater global market share. Russia has announced it will in turn increase its own production, leading other OPEC allies of Saudi Arabia like the United Arab Emirates to open their taps once the previously-agreed OPEC+ output cut deal expires on April 1.

A drilling crew secures a stand of drill pipe into the mouse hole on a drilling rig near Midland, Texas February 12, 2019. Nick Oxford | Reuters

But the impact of the price war still pales in comparison to the sheer evisceration of demand brought on by a forced economic shutdown in most of the world in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, which has now killed more than 34,000 people and infected more than 730,000. "We see in this coming month of April what could be a 20 million barrel a day decline in oil demand. It's unprecedented," Yergin said. "That's six times larger than the biggest downturn during the financial crisis period." "I think it's almost a guarantee that this year it will certainly lose that position," Edward Bell, commodities analyst at Dubai-based bank Emirates NBD, told CNBC regarding the U.S.'s top spot. "And it might happen probably a lot faster than we anticipate." The current rate of rig closures in the U.S. means an estimated 750,000 barrel per day decline from the second quarter onward, Bell predicts  taking the country down from an output of some 13 million barrels per day at the year's start to "down below Saudi Arabia or Russia by the end of the year."

US 'doesn't have a lot of tools to address this'

Despite its objections to current Saudi oil policy  which is set to pull prices down even further come April when it ramps up output  there doesn't seem to be much Washington can do about it, according to Yergin, a decades-long veteran of the energy industry. "The U.S. government doesn't have a lot of tools to address this however beyond diplomacy  because oil production is really controlled and regulated by the states," he said. Last week, the State Department issued a statement saying that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had urged Saudi Arabia, in a call with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to "rise to the occasion and reassure global energy and financial markets when the world faces serious economic uncertainty."

But so far, an end to the price war is nowhere in sight, with both Moscow and Riyadh insisting that they can live with low oil prices for some time. By contrast, at current prices, higher-cost producers like those in the U.S. shale patch "are already operationally inefficient... and the pain will only get worse," said Ehsan Khoman, director of MENA research at MUFG Bank in Dubai.

Energy security and American foreign policy
Iran Frees Prisoners Amid Pandemic

03/29/20

Source: RFE/RL

Iranian authorities said they have extended the temporary releases of thousands of prisoners in an attempt to curb the spread of the new coronavirus in the country's overcrowded jails. Authorities said they would also temporarily free another 15,000 prisoners, bringing the total number released to 100,000.



Disinfecting Shiraz streets

(photo by ISNA)

Iran is one of the countries worst hit by the virus, with a declared death toll of 2,640 as of March 29, although experts estimate the total to be much higher.



Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told state TV on March 29 that the release of 15,000 more inmates on temporary releases "had already started."



He said all 100,000 prisoners would be temporarily released until April 19.



On March 17, Iran said it had freed about 85,000 people from jail temporarily, including political prisoners.



Iran said it had 189,500 people in prison, according to a report submitted by the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran to the Human Rights Council in January.



In recent days there have been several prison riots and mass escapes from prisons, as inmates try to avoid the coronavirus amid substandard prison conditions.



Meanwhile, President Hassan Rohani said "the new way of life" in Iran was likely to be prolonged by the coronavirus outbreak.



Rohani told a cabinet meeting on March 29, "We must prepare to live with this virus until a treatment or vaccine is discovered, which has not yet happened to date."



"The new way of life we have adopted" is to everyone's benefit, he said, adding that "these changes will likely have to stay in place for some time."



Tehran on March 25 decided to ban all intercity travel until at least April 8.



Without an official lockdown in place, the government has repeatedly urged Iranians to stay home "as much as possible."



Schools and universities in some provinces were closed in late February and the closure was later extended to the whole country.



The reopening of schools following this year's Persian New Year holidays of March 19 to April 3 appears unlikely after Rohani's warning.



Iran has refused the United States' offer of humanitarian assistance, saying that Washington should lift sanctions if it wants to help Tehran fight the epidemic.



Iran has been under crippling U.S. sanctions in connection with its nuclear and missile program.
WASHINGTON  The U.S. Conference of Mayors, including Sylvester Turner of Houston and Ron Nirenberg of San Antonio, is the latest group of public officials to urge President Donald Trump to use the full force of the Defense Production Act to compel companies to make medical supplies needed to combat COVID-19.

Texas Take: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

Our cities and our nation need the full strength and authority of the federal government if we are going to protect our workers and save as many lives as possible, the national group wrote in a letter to the president on Monday. The act is critical to the development of a nationwide production and supply chain that can get the materials so desperately needed to our cities on a timely basis, the mayors wrote.

The conference is a group of mayors from cities with populations of 30,000 or more.

The mayors are the latest to join a bipartisan push  including U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, and several House Democrats from Texas  to get Trump to use the law to force companies to make ventilators and other medical gear.

For subscribers: Sen. Cruz calls on Trump to address medical supply shortages by invoking Defense Production Act

The Trump administration has so far been reluctant to use the full weight of the act, which stems from the Korean War and allows the federal government to require private industry to make material deemed necessary for national defense.

Trump, however, invoked the act in an executive order he issued March 18, and on Friday said he would use it to force General Motors to make ventilators, accusing the company of wasting time in voluntary negotiations with the government.

ben.wermund@chron.com
Even if COVID-19 disappeared tomorrow, there are still indications that the oil market is going to be in bad shape for a long time to come with everything that is going on, said John Albers, a lawyer representing Save Our Illinois Land and Sierra Club. Logically and rationally, (the company) should have to prove the need for more oil, if for no other reason, independent of the D.C. case, than the collapse of the oil market. If the demand is not there for oil anymore, and thats what they have been pointing to as a reason why they need to increase capacity, whats the point of all of this?
Toni Weiss set the laptop on a red picnic table and watched her students pop up one after another, 160 total, until their faces crowded her computer screen in 25-person clusters.

One student was shirtless. Some were slouched in bed. Others were sitting with notebooks as if this were any other normal setting, not a digital classroom within an online chatroom.

Welcome to "Intro to Macroeconomics," a course Weiss has been teaching at Tulane University since 2006. Normally, the professor would be standing at the front of an auditorium; but this is the age of the new coronavirus, the sickness that has spread globally and chased communities into mass quarantine and isolation. Instead, Weiss hosted Monday's 10 a.m. lecture in her backyard in New Orleans, the city considered the epicenter of Louisiana's COVID-19 crisis.

The pandemic has shut down campuses mid-semester across the nation. Institutions are postponing or completely canceling commencement ceremonies due to the disease. Nearly every school in the country has banned in-person classes and converted all academic activity online.

Loyola University moved to online classes on March 16. Students at LSU recessed for spring break on March 23, such as it was, and returned for their first online classes on Monday. Tulane is entering its second week of online teaching, and Weiss' class represents a small portion of students who are stuck at home with many questions: How will I take finals? Will I still graduate? Will I be reimbursed for the dorms I'll no longer use?

"This is across the world, this disruption," Weiss said. "Whatever's happening at Tulane is happening everywhere else."

About 242,360 students enrolled in Louisiana public and private universities this spring, according to Board of Regents' calculations, and just over a fourth of them are seniors who are months away from possible graduation.

Most of Louisiana's university systems are still adapting to hosting their entire education operations online  a transition, UL System President Jim Henderson said "is a much more significant undertaking than I think a layperson would understand."

"On the one hand, it's helpful that everybody in the country is basically in the same boat," said Matt Lee, LSU's Vice Provost for Academic Programs and Support Services. "So that creates an immediate community of professionals to kind of lean on and learn from."

Less than 10% of students remain on the campuses of the UL, LSU, Southern and Tulane institutions, according to reports provided by school officials, and those institutions are all answering how they'll reimburse students for on-campus housing.

Southern spokeswoman Janene Tate said 126 of over 2,000 students in on-campus housing were left at its Baton Rouge campus as of Monday  an exodus that spiked once students who applied for a school emergency fund received money for gas money, bus tickets and airfare.

Pockets of students still remain near their campuses, hunkering down at off-campus apartments and houses.

Reed Hauser, a 25-year-old Tulane law student in his final semester, still lives in an apartment in uptown New Orleans with three other roommates. The fifth roommate returned home, Hauser said. The rest have self-quarantined, leaving the apartment only for brief grocery trips or food pickups from local eateries.

"It's very surreal," Hauser said. "We have no idea what's going to happen tomorrow, who's going to be sick tomorrow, whether it's a professor or a classmate. So we're trying to keep it together by not really thinking about it too much."

NCAA grants eligibility extension to all spring-sport athletes after season cancellations The NCAA Division I Council voted Monday to grant an extra year of eligibility to all spring-sport athletes, extending careers across college athletics after seasons were canceled by coronavirus.

Meanwhile, professors are figuring out how they'll administer lectures and assignments  especially final exams  over the internet for the rest of the semester.

Tena Golding, Southeastern Louisiana's Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, said the Hammond university is leaning on a seven-member task force  the Center for Faculty Excellence  to explore options beyond traditional exams.

Most options include open-ended scenarios that free students from multiple-choice: projects, writing a thesis. Professors could also video chat with students individually and assign them a random question.

"One size fits all just doesn't exist," said Mary Ballard, the task force's director. "We've tried to put out all kinds of options."

Of course, there are some classes in which traditional multiple choice exams are unavoidable.

Coronavirus pandemic likely to trigger more post-traumatic stress cases, LSU researcher says A combination of stress, trauma and depression triggered by the coronavirus pandemic after the virus abates is likely to increase whats alrea

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Most schools already have exam applications built into their official databases platforms such as Moodle and Canvas  but then, administrators run into the big bugaboo: cheating.

An online product called ProctorU is a commonly used accountability service, a proctoring program in which a student logs into a testing database and a service employee watches the student via webcam.

However, a student must have access to a computer with a webcam. The service also isn't free, and various companies could require students to pay anywhere from $3 to $25 per exam.

There's a bigger hangup: a bylaw within the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools prevents schools from requiring students to pay for class services they weren't told initially they'd have to pay. That scratches out nearly every class at Southeastern except nursing programs, Golding said.

Professors can still use free services, like Zoom and Google Meet; but they must also serve as their own proctors.

LSU issued an official release to its students on Monday that its students will not be charged any additional fees for proctoring services.

Tulane has existing contracts with proctor services, so students wouldn't have to pay; but Weiss still feels the university can find a more effective option without putting more stress on students during an already stressful time.

"Our goal is for the students to learn the material," Weiss said, "and (finding) what is the best way for them to do that. Creating these large-stakes exams in which there's online monitoring that's super stressful for students  that might not be the best way for them to learn the material."

+4 For these Baton Rouge seniors, high school was bookended by 2016 flood, coronavirus closure Not every high school student can celebrate the the end of their senior year with commemorative T-shirts that read "We are survivors."

Some school departments, like Tulane's law school, have alleviated that stress by making all classes "pass/fail" this semester  a move that several schools and departments are considering, although LSU's Lee said it could also include negative ramifications.

Some schools don't transfer in pass/fail classes, and students counting on GPA changes  students who are in academic probation or are applying for grad school  won't benefit from a blanket "pass" grade that doesn't change their point total.

Tulane spokesman Mike Strecker said the university's undergraduate programs are moving toward giving students an option: Take the letter grade, or replace it with a modified pass/fail option.

Meanwhile, Weiss has restructured her weighted point system, pulling some points away from mid-term and final exams and instead awarding students for logging into video classes, for watching the videos she posts, for reading newspaper articles and writing analysis.

Southern University to postpone spring commencement, combine with summer semester Southern University commencement has been postponed amid ongoing concerns about the spreading coronavirus.

"It's really about trying to encourage them to engage with content," Weiss said.

Hauser said he feels he's seen more of his classmates speak up with questions and answers since lectures moved online  something he theorized had something to do with not being physically next to a peer who might judge you.

Living in the middle of a pandemic still makes it difficult to pay attention in class, Hauser said. It's a combination of everything: the lockdown, the constant news cycle, the home environment. Your attention wavers, he said, when there's a class on employment law at 10 a.m., but President Donald Trump also has a news conference at 10:30 a.m.

"It's been a process," Hauser said. "But we have to work, we have to study and we have to go out and get food. We're doing that as safe as we possibly can and waiting for things to get better."

He paused.

"Hopefully," he said.

Housing Reimbursement Plans
By Trend

Saudi Arabia halted entry and exit into Jeddah governorate on Sunday, expanding lockdown rules as it reported four new deaths from a coronavirus outbreak that continues to spread in the region despite drastic measures to contain it, Trend reports citing Reuters.

The Saudi health ministry said four more foreign residents, in Jeddah and Medina, had died from the virus, taking the total to eight. The kingdom confirmed 96 new infections to raise its tally to 1,299, the highest among Gulf Arab states.

Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain reported more cases, taking the total in the six Gulf Arab countries to over 3,200, with 15 deaths.

Saudi authorities imposed entry and exit bans on Jeddah, after doing so for the cities of Riyadh, Mecca and Medina last week.

The kingdom late on Saturday extended indefinitely its suspension of international passenger flights and a bar on workplace attendance.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have imposed partial curfews and the UAE has imposed an overnight curfew until April 5 under a nationwide campaign to sterilize streets and public venues.

UAE Attorney-General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi announced coronavirus-related fines, including 50,000 dirhams ($13,000) for non-compliance with home quarantine orders and 3,000 dirhams for violating the curfew.

Kuwait and the UAE have also halted passenger flights at main airports. Oman suspended international passenger flights on Sunday.

The UAE emirate of Ras Al Khaimah said late on Saturday that hundreds of German tourists had been repatriated. Kuwait said it evacuated 97 of its nationals on Sunday from Iran, one of the epicenters of the disease.

Bahrain, which has about 1,000 citizens stuck in Iran, has been struggling to charter aircraft willing to operate repatriation flights.

But Manama said on Sunday it had leased an aircraft to fly back 31 Bahrainis who decided to travel from Tehran to Qatar in an attempt to get home.

Qatar Airways, one of the few airlines maintaining scheduled commercial passenger services, will continue to fly, Chief Executive Akbar al-Baker told Reuters, but warned the carrier could soon run out of cash and seek state support.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
FORT COLLINS, Colo., March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- GenoFAB Inc. recently announced it would partner with Decisions LLC to help accelerate biomedical research projects. With recent nationwide community health concerns, increased research productivity through automation is now more important than ever, especially as it relates to the development and manufacturing of vaccines and antiviral drugs. Decisions LLC is a recognized leader in rule-based business process automation with a long track-record of helping companies increase their productivity across many industries, including healthcare, life sciences, finance, logistics and operations.

Digital Transformation of Biomedical Research GenoFAB Automation Platform

"We are all facing unprecedented challenges," said CEO of GenoFAB, Dr. Jean Peccoud . "GenoFAB is committed to helping research organizations transform their operations at a time when they need it most. Cost reductions, productivity gains, and increased reproducibility are proven benefits of automation that can accelerate the development of life-saving drugs."

The COVID-19 health crisis has already starkly illustrated the need to dramatically accelerate the development of critical medicines and vaccines. Yet over the last 10 years, the productivity of pharmaceutical innovation has drastically decreased, according to industry analysts . Reversing this trend requires a deep transformation in the very way biomedical research is performed. The biotechnology industry increasingly involves global networks of scientific partners that contribute to the same overarching goal to develop and produce effective biological solutions for the most pressing problems. Strong and evolving partnerships between research organizations, service providers, and automation companies will be key to this enterprise success.

"We are looking forward to working with GenoFAB to increase the productivity of the biotechnology industry," said Carl Hewitt , founder and Managing Director of Decisions. "Decisions' growth strategy relies on strategic partnerships with pioneering organizations who can envision how process automation can transform their industry."

A number of companies provide Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) and Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELN) software solutions to record the data produced by scientists working in laboratories. These systems require lab personnel to report data and laboratory operations as each project progresses. Rather than focusing on data capture, GenoFAB Automation Platform drives the execution of laboratory processes. It automates the generation and recording of data while extracting the actionable information that different stakeholders need to contribute to the overall success of each project. The platform extends beyond laboratory operations by including computational steps executed in software and experiment performed by collaborators and contractors.

About GenoFAB, Inc

GenoFAB is a cloud computing company headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado. GenoFAB develops automation solutions for the biotechnology industry. The GenoFAB Automation Platform streamlines complex laboratory processes by connecting laboratory operations with data services and supply chain transactions. GenoFAB works with research organizations seeking to improve the performance of their R&D programs, biomanufacturing companies seeking to accelerate the development of new manufacturing processes, and Contract Research Organizations seeking to provide value-added analytical services to a broad range of industries. Learn more at: www.GenoFAB.com

About Decisions, LLC

Decisions is a leading provider of business automation and business rule software, headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia. It was founded in 2010 by Carl Hewitt to provide technology for automating key business processes, workflows, and rules, while making the rules and the logic accessible to non-programming staff. Decisions' technology is deployed as the basis of multiple commercial applications in healthcare, life sciences, finance, logistics and operations software. It is used directly by companies on almost every continent, ranging from small/mid-size companies to many Fortune 500 corporations. Learn more at: www.decisions.com

Media Contact:

GenoFAB

Jean Peccoud, CEO

(970) 205 9158

[email protected]

Decisions

Gordon Jones COO

(919) 530-0825

[email protected]

SOURCE GenoFAB Inc.

Related Links

https://genofab.com


PR-Inside.com: 2020-03-30 15:01:46

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 30, 2020 / Searchlight Resources Inc. ("Searchlight" or the "Company") (TSX-V:SCLT) announces that it has received the final payment of $225,000 from the sale of the New York Canyon Property, NV (the "Property") to Emgold Mining Corporation, a company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "EMR", ("Emgold").Under the Agreement terms, Searchlight will transfer all its interest in and to the New York Canyon Property to Emgold and, in consideration of which, Emgold will have paid Searchlight CAD $275,000 and issued 2,941,176 common shares of Emgold.Under the terms of the Claim Purchase Agreement between Emgold and Searchlight, Emgold, agreed to purchase a 100% interest in the 21 patented and 60 unpatented mineral claims comprising the Property (at that time) from Searchlight under the following terms:C$10,000 on signing the LOI (paid);C$40,000 on closing of the Transaction (paid);C$500,000 in common shares of the capital of Emgold at the date of closing of the Transaction, with the share price based on the 30-day volume weighted average price of the Company's share immediately prior to the announcement of the Transaction - 2,941,176 shares at C$0.17 per share, with the shares subject to Right of First Refusal provisions (paid);C$100,000 within 6 months of the date of closing of the Transaction;C$100,000 within 12 months of the date of closing of the Transaction; andC$100,000 within 18 months of the date of closing of the Transaction.In the Claim Purchase Agreement with Searchlight, Emgold had the option of accelerating the acquisition. If the outstanding payments (3 x C$100,000) were made on or before the 6 month anniversary of the closing of the Transaction, Emgold would be entitled to a 25% discount on the outstanding balance, reducing the amount of the payment due to C$225,000.On February 11, 2020, Emgold announced it had signed an Earn-In with Option to Joint Venture Agreement with Kennecott Exploration Company ("Kennecott"), a subsidiary of Rio Tinto PLC (LSE: RIO:L, ASE: RIO.AX NYSE: RIO.N) for the Property. Kennecott can earn up to a 75% interest in the Property by completing US$22.5 million in exploration expenditures. Kennecott staked 265 unpatented mineral claims, expanding the Property to 21 patented and 417 unpatented mineral claims, totaling approximately 8,700 acresUnder the terms the Earn-In with Option to Joint Venture Agreement between Kennecott and Emgold, Kennecott elected to pay this discounted payment to Searchlight, on Emgold's behalf, as part of its expenditures under the First Option.About Searchlight ResourcesSearchlight Resources Inc. is a Canadian mineral exploration and development company listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange (TSX-V: SCLT). The corporate strategy of the company is:to explore and develop opportunities in safe, low risk jurisdictions. The Company holds claims in Saskatchewan and Ontario, Canada. These are two of the top jurisdictions in the Canada for mining investment, as ranked by the Fraser Instituteto target known highly productive geological belts, including the Flin Flon - Snow Lake Greenstone Belt and the Abitibi Greenstone Beltto acquire high quality projects, close to infrastructure, focusing on road accessto work closely with stakeholders, including First Nations, Metis, local and provincial governments and local contractors to advance mineral exploration and development in a safe and environmentally sound manner.On behalf of the Board of Directors,"Stephen Wallace"SEARCHLIGHT RESOURCES INC.Stephen Wallace P.Geo, President, CEO and DirectorContact:Searchlight Resources Inc.Investor Relations(604) 331-9326info@ searchlightresources.com Forward-Looking StatementsInformation set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's limited operating history and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.SOURCE: Searchlight Resources Inc.
Jennifer Banash and her husband thought they had done everything right. The Brooklyn couple had stopped going anywhere but the grocery store weeks ago. They started keeping their 7-year-old daughter at home before schools even closed, and canceled her birthday party. We were those people who were so annoying, trying to do everything right, Banash said. On March 13, anticipating a citywide lockdown, they decided to leave New York for their house in Maine. Banashs husband, Willy Blackmore, wore gloves to operate the gas pump on the drive north. They arrived, exhausted from the trip, and went to bed without grocery shopping. The next morning, he woke up with a fever and a cough. By the evening, she had the symptoms too.

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Banash and Blackmore had found themselves in the nightmare scenario for presumably every parent on earth right now: What happens if both parentsor a single parent without a co-parentget the coronavirus? In normal times, parents can enlist grandparents or nearby friends to help out with child care while they recover from illness. But the coronavirus is particularly dangerous to older people, which puts grandparents out of the picture as caregivers. And any other helpers would be putting themselves and their families at risk of infection. Parents have no choice but to go it alone. Its a situation that seems both utterly plausible and impossible to plan for.

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Reyhan Harmanci and her husband, who also live in Brooklyn with their 4-month-old daughter and 2-year-old son, came down with symptoms on the same day. The couple followed guidance at the time to stay home rather than seek testing, but their symptoms were consistent with the virus. Their cases were relatively mild at first, and they were able to muddle through in their apartment, using Instacart for groceries and hiring someone on TaskRabbit to drop off Tylenol. The experience made Harmanci think about what would happen if, say, they both had to go to the hospital. Maybe they would ask friends who had a child in their sons day care, on the assumption that both families had already been exposed. It makes you contemplate what seemed like a ridiculous reaction five days ago, and then seemed reasonable three days ago, and now is like, Yeah, we should have our wills ready,  she said. It moves so fast. Over the weekend, after we first spoke, she said her husbands symptoms got substantially worse.

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For some parents, having the virus is a reminder that it is necessary in a crisis to rely on help from outside the nuclear family. Joshua Anderton, who lives in a rural area outside Vancouver, British Columbia, told me that his 1- and 3-year-old sons got sick several weeks ago, with what he and his wife assumed was a mild normal bug. Then the parents came down with COVID-19 symptoms. Their doctor said they clearly had the virus, they recalled, but said they should stay at home instead of pursuing testing. Ximena Andertons symptoms were worse, so Joshua took over parenting duties while continuing to work from home. (Ximena is a stay-at-home mom.) Friends, family members, and their landlord stepped in to drop off deliveries of needed supplies, leaving packages outside their door. Joshua Anderton hopes people who dont get sick try to think about people in their lives who might need similar help: We all just have to try to get through it.

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For Banash and Blackmore in Maine, the experience was much more harrowing. Blackmore visited the emergency room (wearing a mask) and received a positive test result within a day. He isolated himself in a room above the couples garage, and Banash took over parenting duties. Soon her own symptoms worsened, with Blackmore still in isolation. It was like being hit by a train, she said. She had H1N1 when that virus spread in 2009, but for her, COVID-19 was much worse.

The CDC told them not to hug their daughter. When the 7-year-old cried, she took off her daughters sock and rubbed her foot.

Friends dropped off groceries at the foot of their driveway, but they were otherwise on their own. The couple texted each other from their different corners of the house, checking in on each others breathing. At one point Banash asked Blackmore what would happen if they got worse. We cant think about that right now, he said. The CDC called and gave them instructions, including to wear masks and disinfect surfaces every day. (Just imagine being this sick and having to clean your fucking house every day, she said.) The CDC also told them not to hug their daughter, to prevent infecting her if by some chance she hadnt caught it yet. When the 7-year-old cried, Banash took off her daughters sock and rubbed her foot.

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After just under a week, Blackmore was well enough to take over parenting duties. Banash, who has asthma, got worse. When she woke up feeling short of breath one day, they went to an ad hoc drive-thru clinic, where she was tested and cleared for pneumonia. Blackmore is now mostly recovered, and Banash is improving. Her advice to other parents is to make a plan now in anticipation that both parents could be hospitalized. Talk to people who are not immunocompromised and set them up as potential caregivers, she said. Theres no other option. Its that or foster care.

For Banash, those early days when she and her husband both realized they were ill now feel like a hazy dream. She barely remembers anything, though she knows she must have cooked for her daughter, bathed her, read to her. Its like those old stories about mothers lifting cars off their kids, she said. I always thought that was bullshit, but I guess that stuff does kick in when youre in survival mode.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft <TRNF_p.MM> said on Monday it has partially settled claims with French energy major Total <TOTF.PA> over contaminated oil that flooded the Soviet-built Druzhba pipeline in April 2019.

Transneft said the agreement covers oil supplied by Russian company Surgutneftegaz <SNGS.MM> to Total, including to Germany, where Total owns the Leuna refinery.

Transneft said the compensation does not exceed the limit of $15 per barrel that its board had set for payments related to the contamination, but it did not say how much it had paid Total.

The company added that it was close to a settlement with Total in relation to supplies by Russia's Gazprom Neft <SIBN.MM>.

Up to 5 million tonnes of tainted Russian oil was contaminated en route to central Europe via the Druzhba pipeline. Organic chlorides were found in Urals crude export flows in late April last year.

In June, Total declared a force majeure on the production of jet fuel at its Leuna refinery in Germany following the supply of contaminated crude from Russia.

Transneft has already compensated Hungary's MOL <MOLB.BU> and all the Kazakh companies affected by crude oil contamination in its pipelines.

Talks with Rosneft <ROSN.MM>, Russia's top oil producer which also has refineries in Germany, were the most difficult. Rosneft and Transneft have publicly attacked each other over the contamination incident.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Olesya Astakhova; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Do we really need to disinfect everything that comes into our home? (Getty Images)

The way we go about our everyday lives has changed in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

One of the bigger adjustments to life weve had to make is how to get groceries into our homes. With delivery slots in hot demand, many people have no choice but to head out to shops.

Either way, if youve found yourself deliberating what to do with all your bags of groceries when you get home or your delivery arrives, youre not alone.

Weve heard that the coronavirus can live on multiple surfaces, but does this mean we should be individually disinfecting our groceries?

Read more: Government advice on how to protect your mental health during lockdown

Luckily, the World Health Organization has deemed food packaging low-risk and says it is very unlikely that you would catch the coronavirus from food.

It does recommend that before and after you handle food, you should wash your hands. That means if youve got a delivery en-route, wash your hands before intercepting it.

And the food products that come into your home may have already been disinfected before they arrive.

The World Health Organization recommends that extra care should be taken by supermarket staff to clean products regularly.

While food packaging is not known to present a specific risk, it says, efforts should be made to ensure it is cleaned and handled in line with usual food safety practices.

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

Live: Follow all the latest updates from the UK and around the world

Fact-checker: The number of COVID-19 cases in your local area

Explained: Symptoms, latest advice and how it compares to the flu

A Tesco spokesperson told Yahoo UK it follows government guidelines and advice on food packaging, which also sets out that if a supermarket worker is feeling unwell, they should listen to the governments advice and stay at home.

Tesco is also frequently cleaning and disinfecting objects and surfaces that are touched regularly using standard cleaning products, in accordance with the governments advice.

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A woman in a mask walks past a Tesco delivery lorry for supermarket chain Tesco in London. (David Cliff/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

With most supermarkets also following the governments food safety advice, its safe to say the chance of contracting the coronavirus through packaging is very low  although theres certainly no harm in disinfecting food packaging when it comes into your house.

Read more: What impact does coronavirus have on the heart?

What is a bigger risk, though, is going to the supermarket itself.

It can be hard to get a delivery slot, meaning you might have no choice but to venture out to a supermarket to get your essentials.

The risk of contracting coronavirus is significantly lowered if you follow the guidance from the government  which is now in place in many supermarkets.

The advice includes respecting social distancing, queueing with two metres in between each person and looking on the ground for markings guiding you to where you should be standing.

The best thing you can do is to make sure you regularly wash your hands. This is particularly important after touching higher-risk areas like trolley handles, baskets and self-checkout machines.

Its also advised to wash your hands after putting your groceries away or accepting them into the house.

Regular hand-washing can go a long way to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK
The number of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients traced to a major general hospital in Hanoi surged to 33 on Monday, as the Vietnamese Ministry of Health confirmed 15 new cases.

The 33 patients include health workers, patients, patients visitors, and catering staff linked to Bach Mai Hospital in the capital city, according to statistics by the ministry.

Bach Mai is a special-grade hospital and the largest general hospital in Vietnam.

It treats a daily average of 6,000 outpatients and 4,000 inpatients, while receiving 4,000 visitors of the sick in addition to having thousands of health workers.

Thousands of health workers at the hospital have been subject to mass screening and almost all tested negative for the virus, except for two nurses who were infected before the mass screening.

Vietnam has recorded a total of 203 COVID-19 patients to date, 55 of them having fully recovered. A total of 187 cases have been confirmed since March 6.

Hanoi has discharged 27 out of its 81 cases from the hospital as of Monday.

Ho Chi Minh City is treating 35 patients at the moment.

City authorities have announced 13 people sickened by the virus after visiting Buddha Bar&Grill at No. 7 Thao Dien Street in Thao Dien Ward, District 2.

Hundreds have been tracked after they were found coming to the bar on the same day as a British pilot, who was confirmed as the primary spreader at the bar.

Vietnams Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a national pandemic on Monday.

The whole country has to focus on battling COVID-19 as it is now the decisive time to suppress it, PM Phuc underlined.

We are not allowed to be complacent and negligent, the prime minister said, noting that many people have still gathered on the streets or gone to the beaches despite warnings against mass gatherings.

He called on everyone not to leave their house, village, commune, district, or province for at least 15 days so as to avoid catching the disease.

Vietnam is upping the ante in its national fight against the novel coronavirus.

The country has closed non-essential services like bars, pubs, clubs, massage parlors, kaorake lounges, cinemas, tourist sites, and online game centers, among others.

The central government has ordered restaurants in major cities like Hanoi, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City, and Can Tho to offer takeaways and deliveries while telling diners in the other provinces to serve no more than 10 customers at a time.

Travel restrictions are in place while those not wearing face masks when outdoors have been fined.

Inbound and domestic flights have been restricted, with foreigners being denied entry altogether.

Officials are trying their best to keep the number of patients under 1,000 for as long as possible, in the hope of completely controlling the epidemic in the end.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Two Coles workers in Victoria have tested positive for coronavirus.

But the supermarket giant has confirmed on Monday that the Brandon Park outlet in Mulgrave, south-east Melbourne, will remain open.

A spokesperson said the store has undergone 'extensive cleaning' and directed other staff members who were in close contact with the pair to self-isolate.

'Health authorities have not instructed Coles that it is necessary to close any stores, including in cases where team members or customers are diagnosed with COVID-19,' the spokesperson said.

The supermarket giant confirmed on Monday that its Brandon Park store in Mulgrave (pictured), south east Melbourne, will remain open

Victorian Department of Health defines close contact as a 'face to face' encounter that lasts for at least 15 minutes.

Anyone passing through the store shopping is deemed to be of a low risk of contracting the virus.

'The Victorian Department of Health has reconfirmed that Coles has undertaken all necessary safety measures in stores where positive cases have been identified,' the spokesperson said.

The Coles scare comes after an employee at a McDonald's restaurant in Sydney's west tested positive for coronavirus.

Shoppers buy toilet paper, paper towels and pasta at a Coles Supermarket in Sydney (above)

Staff at the Gregory Hills store in Sydney's far south-west are reportedly 'angry and confused' that they weren't all notified of the positive diagnosis immediately, ABC reported.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

Only 20 of about 100 employees were told that a co-worker had been tested.

NSW Health said the store will remain open and all 20 staff who came into close contact with the infected person have been quarantined.

But an employee, who chose to remain anonymous, told ABC other members of the team were concerned about going into work amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said while the company made the decision not to notify other employees of the diagnosis to avoid causing unnecessary panic, he was hurt to have found out about the situation from other staff members while working a shift last night.

'I left the shift shaking, I was so scared,' he said.

'There's a lot of workers who are really, really angry at [McDonald's] for not telling us.'

Meanwhile, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced the state will commence a stage-three lockdown to combat the spread of COVID-19, after the number of cases increased by 136 to 821.

Under the strict new measures which went into effect at 11.59pm on Monday, all non-essential movements have been restricted.

'My message to every Victorian is that there are only four reasons to leave your home: food and supplies, medical care, exercise, and work or education,' Premier Andrews said.

'Life is going to look very different for a while but if we don't make these changes now, the virus will continue to spread, and our health system will be overwhelmed.

'To flatten the curve, we are all going to have to sacrifice a lot. But it may be the most important thing we ever do. So please: Stay home. Protect our health system. Save lives.'

Anyone who fails to adhere to the new social distancing measures will face and on-the-spot fines of $1,652 for individuals and $9,913 for businesses.
Melbourne, March 30: While attempting to make a device to stop people touching their faces during COVID-19 pandemic, an Australian astrophysicist stuck up four magnets in his nose. According to a report in The Guardian, Dr Daniel Reardon, a research fellow at Swinburne University, was building a necklace which stops people from touching their face by sounding an alarm. Coronavirus Prevention: Can Your Smartphone Infect You With COVID-19? Right Way to Clean Your Mobile Phone to Prevent the Spread of the Deadly Disease.

According to the report, the 27-year-old astrophysicist said that he was building circuits but was not an expert in the work. I accidentally invented a necklace that buzzes continuously unless you move your hand close to your face, Reardon said.

After scrapping the idea, he was playing with magnets and clipped them to his earlobes and then to his nostrils and things went worse when he clipped another magnet to another nostril. The two magnets stuck inside. He then decided to use remaining magnets to remove them.

Unfortunately, Reardon lost his grip on magnets and stuck those magnets in his nostril. Three magnets got stuck in his left nostril while the other one in his right.

The astrophysicist then rushed to a hospital, where doctors applied an anaesthetic spray and removed magnets from Reardon's nose. When doctors removed three magnets from his left nostril, the one magnet fell down to his throat which he coughs it out.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 30, 2020 12:33 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
[March 30, 2020] NOTICE TO TORTOISE ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE CORPORATION (TYG) INVESTORS - KlaymanToskes commences investigation on behalf of TYG Investors Who Sustained Losses in Excess of $100,000 as a Result of a Recommendation from their Financial Advisor

KlaymanToskes ("KT (News - Alert)"), http://www.klaymantoskes.com, announces an investigation on behalf of investors who sustained losses from the purchase of Tortoise Energy Infrastructure Corporation (NYSE:TYG) ("TYG") a Master Limited Partnership ("MLP"). TYG closed at 15.65 on February 21, 2020, prior to the significant market event that was precipitated by COVID-19. Today, TYG trades at 2.39, or more than 84% lower than its market value on February 21, 2020. This product may have been marketed and sold to customers who were risk averse, such as retirees or other conservative investors, that were seeking income and capital preservation and were not explained the potential risks. MLPs are investment vehicles available only to the real estate and natural resource sectors. MLPs offer the tax advantages of partnerships with the advantage of being traded on the open market. Unfortunately, MLPs may become risky during times when certain sectors of the economy are hit hard. The real estate markets and makets in natural resources, especially the energy sector, can see significant swings often causing investors to shoulder the losses. These are risks that should be explained by brokerage firms and financial advisors prior to recommending these investments. Investors may seek damages for violations of sales practice rules and regulations, as set forth by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in arbitration.



The sole purpose of this release is to investigate the sales practices and financial misconduct of brokerage firms and financial advisors in connection with the sale of TYG to their customers. Investors who purchased these investments are encouraged to contact Lawrence L. Klayman, Esq. of KlaymanToskes at (561) 542-5131, or visit our website at www.klaymantoskes.com. About Klayman & Toskes, P.A.

KT is a leading national securities law firm which practices exclusively in the field of securities arbitration and litigation, on behalf of retail and institutional investors throughout the world in large and complex securities matters. The firm represents high net-worth, ultra-high-net-worth, and institutional investors, such as non-profit organizations, unions, public and multi-employer pension funds. KT has office locations in California, Florida, New York, and Puerto Rico. Destination: https://klaymantoskes.com/notice-to-tortoise-energy-infrastructure-corporation-tyg-investors/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005376/en/

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The Company announces decisions made today during the meeting of the Supervisory Council regarding changes in the Management Board and the Supervisory Council.

Birute Cepanskiene, a member of the Management Board and Chief Commercial Officer will be replaced by Ieva Galvydiene starting from 1st April. B. Cepanskiene is leaving the Board due to personal circumstances.

I. Galvydiene has great experience in the tourism industry, especially in sales and commerce. She has been with the Novaturas Group for 13 years and has been leading the Sales department in Lithuania for 8 years, also coordinating commerce in other markets. Since November 2019, I. Galvydiene has been heading the Aviation Division at Novaturas Group.

The Company continues to follow the strategy of having long-term executives with excellent know-how, multiple years of experience in the tourism market and a comprehensive knowledge of the products on offer.

The Management Board of the company consists of three members who are elected for three years. Audrone Keinyte, CEO of Novaturas Group is the chairman of the Board. Tomas Staskunas, CFO of the Company, also serves on the Board.

Vidas Paliunas was elected Chairman of the Supervisory Council today. He replaces Sebastian J. Krol, who left the Supervisory Council in February. Vidas Paliunas participated in the creation of Novaturas Group, when three travel agencies operating at the time were merged. V. Paliunas was the CEO of one of them. In 2009-2018, he was a member of Management Board and as of February 2018 he was a Supervisory Council member.

Other members of the Supervisory Council are Ugnius Radvila, and independent members Piotr Nowjalis and Franz Leitner.

About Novaturas Group

Novaturas Group is the leading tour operator in the Baltics states. Since 21 March 2018, Novaturas shares have been dual-listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and on Nasdaq Vilnius.

Novaturas was established in 1999, became the market leader in the Baltics in 2004. Aside from the Baltics, Novaturas has begun offering its products in Belarus, where they are retailed through local partners.

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Novaturas continues to attract new clients thanks to its attractive and diverse offering and the high quality of its services. The Group offers both summer and winter package holidays as well as sightseeing tours by coach or plane to more than 30 destinations worldwide, including the most popular holiday resorts in Southern Europe as well as select locations in North Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.

The Group's strategy also aims to retain diverse and complementary distribution channels. Novaturas works with over 400 travel agencies, including all of the major agencies in the Baltics. It also operates retail offices of its own in main cities of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and is investing in further development of its e-commerce channel.

The Companys asset-light business model, which is characterized by strong cash flows from operating activities and low capital expenditures, allows it to pay out a large part of its earnings to shareholders. Paying regular dividends is one of the key elements of the Company's strategy. Every year the Management Board expects to propose for distribution 70-80% of the Companys net profit.
According to government estimates the total number of people living with HIV in India is 2.1 million. The earlier copy wrongly said it was 21.4 million.

On the morning of March 26, the third day of lockdown in Indias capital over coronavirus fears, 15-year-old Himanshus mother tried to board a state-run bus to collect her sons medicines for HIV from a government-run hospital.

It was her scheduled day to pick up the monthly anti-retroviral therapy (ART) drugs, the HIV-suppressing drug that has to be taken lifelong, provided free of charge to patients registered with government hospitals.

But with strict travel restrictions in place, the conductor did not allow her on the government-run bus, despite her furnishing the green book provided by the Kalawati Saran Childrens hospital located in central New Delhis Gole Market area.

Himanshus father volunteered to go by bicycle to pick up the drugs instead, but a policeman stopped him and turned him back, as well.

Sometimes, the Delhi police see your hospital book and let you go. But sometimes, they will see the word HIV and chase you, says Loon Gangte, co-ordinator of the Delhi Network of Positive People  a collective that works for people living with HIV.

It is the term HIV. They think we are all sex workers and drug addicts. Yesterday [March 25], police beat up one of our outreach workers who was trying to organise. There is still prejudice even though it is now against the law to discriminate against persons with HIV.

HIV-positive people

India is believed to be home to the third-largest population of HIV-positive people in the world. There are 2.1 million Indians living with HIV, according to the National Aids Control Organisation data in 2017.

The Indian government provides ART to all HIV+ people registered in government hospitals, most of whom are overwhelmingly the poor and rely on public transport.

An Indian police officer stops a man going to hospital complaining of stomach pain on a deserted commercial hub in New Delhi, as he enforces a lockdown announced on Tuesday [Yawar Nazir/Getty Images]

But public transport across the country, including metro rails, taxis as well as buses, have been banned as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a lockdown on Wednesday and urged people to maintain social distancing to prevent the spread of coronavirus that has killed more than 30,000 people worldwide.

The move seems to be taking a toll on the HIV-positive people along with other patients with chronic conditions.

The government clarified that people would be allowed to go out for essential supplies, including groceries and medicines, without being asked for documentation to prove the nature of their trip.

Many patients, who live in smaller towns or rural areas but are registered with the government hospitals in cities are finding it difficult to travel amid the ban on public transport. Many were forced to use private transport, such as cycles or motorbikes to travel.

Himanshus parents, who live in a working-class neighbourhood of Jahangirpuri in New Delhi, eventually walked to the hospital and walked back home, 19km (11.8 miles) on foot each way.

I have applied to the police for a traffic permit. I want to be able to reach them on my bike when the police stops anyone, Gangte said.

But the lines at the police station are so long, the first day it was almost two kilometres (1.25 miles) long. I came away because I am already immune-compromised; HIV itself means immunity deficiency. But when my outreach worker was beaten, I decided to brave the crowds to apply for the permit.

Lack of planning

Critics have accused the government of imposing the lockdown for 1.3 billion people without proper planning.

Over the past week, social media has been full of imagery and stories of policemen beating up vendors, smashing shops, deflating the tyres of vendor carts. In one striking photograph, a policeman is beating a person with a lathi while speaking on the phone.

Tens of thousands of migrant workers have been stranded in cities following the shutdown of businesses and factories, with many walking hundreds of kilometres to reach their homes amid lack of transport.

Tens of thousands of migrant workers have been stranded in cities following the shutdown of businesses and factories, with many walking hundreds of kilometres to reach their homes [Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters]

Modi addressed the nation twice in the past 10 days but failed to spell out specifics of how people are to manage their essential needs during the 21-day lockdown period, in particular, people with special needs and chronic conditions, who need regular access to medicines, diagnostic tests and other healthcare.

A government circular listing released after PMs speech last Tuesday failed to mention support services for chronic patients. There were no directives on the vast numbers of health personnel who work in small concerns or provide home services and lack company ID cards.

What has followed is confusion, delays and anxiety.

Will the cancer not spread without treatment? Naresh Lama, husband of a cancer patient

Mary Lama* (name changed), an HIV-positive patient diagnosed with cancer of the tongue, has been advised a number of tests before her surgery initially scheduled for early April.

This week, she received an SMS informing her that her MRI appointment was delayed minutes before she was about to leave home for it. Her calls to the laboratory received a standardised response that all tests were delayed by the lockdown.

I am unable to contact her doctors at the hospital to tell them about the tests, and the treatment is also delayed, said Naresh Lama, Marys husband.

Will the cancer not spread without treatment? There are 1.6 million living with cancer as of 2018, according to Indian government data.

Auto-immune and rare conditions

Karishma Khemlani, who describes herself on her Twitter as a person with 17 incurable conditions, is used to planning ahead because she cannot afford to take chances.

It is a preparedness for crises developed over 17 years of living with auto-immune and rare conditions. A week before the Janta Curfew (public curfew last Sunday), she placed an order for her immunosuppressant drug CellCept at her local pharmacy. These drugs are specialised, lifesaving and rarely available without order. But as March 22 drew near, her pharmacy and all the pharmacies in her locality in Andheri, Mumbai, was unable to deliver the drug.

Khemlani is an enterprising social media activist and a tweet about running out of medicines was retweeted several times. Eventually, a journalist with a press pass scoured the city, and secured supplies for her.

Karishma Khemlani struggled to buy immunosuppressant drug [Picture courtesy Khemlanis Instagram handle]

There is little data available on patients with rare, chronic conditions like Khemlanis. The government estimate relies on a global statistic  6 to 8 percent of the population has rare diseases  the population of 1.3 billion A sudden lockdown like this may have left many without stocks of their hard-to-source medication.

In other places, drugs are available, but transport is not. An official of the pharmaceutical giant Novartis, who did not want to be identified, said immunosuppressants are available at their centre in the eastern city of Kolkata, but patients have to travel to collect medicine that their agents and courier companies would normally have delivered.

Immunosuppressants are a lifeline for organ transplant patients. India maintains no national organ transplant registry, and data is, therefore, based on projections.

The governments own undated estimate is that 6,000 kidney, 1,500 liver and 25,000 corneal transplants are performed annually, in addition to much smaller numbers of heart and lung transplants. All transplant patients require immunosuppressants to ensure their bodies do not reject the transplanted organs.

We could quickly be facing a non-COVID humanitarian crisis if the government fails to act to restore health services, particularly for those with critical conditions that require sustained medication/treatment, said Malini Aisola, public health activist and co-convenor of the All India Drug Action Network.

Measures can be put in place, such as stringent infection control protocols and triaging systems, to make the necessary care available. As sound public health policy, the government should be concerned with meeting needs of special groups because they are in fact more vulnerable and risk worse outcomes in the event of COVID-19 infection due to lower immunity and preexisting conditions. Unfortunately, from the stories emerging, the government seems to be lurching from crisis to unfolding disaster.

Kidney transplant patients

The stories of kidney transplant candidates dealing with exhausting trips to hospital for their weekly dialysis appointments have been reported from Mumbai and the southern city of Chennai.

Sejal Jobanputra, a chronic kidney disease patient who lives in Kandivali in Mumbai city, said her Whatsapp group of kidney patients all spoke of long strenuous, and sometimes harassed, trips to hospital as some policemen did not understand why they were travelling, even after they showed their hospital records. Other policemen, however, were helpful.

I realised I am lucky among them because my hospital is also in Kandivali, said Jobanputra, over a chat on Whatsapp. A phone conversation was not possible because she suffers from hearing impairment.

We could quickly be facing a non-COVID humanitarian crisis if the government fails to act to restore health services, particularly for those with critical conditions Malini Aisola, public health activist and co-convenor of the All India Drug Action Network

But it is exhausting for me to stand for even 10 minutes. Policemen kept directing me to the bus-stand, but it is physically impossible. I went back home, and rescheduled my appointment. My family will drop me to hospital.

India has 34 million patients in need of dialysis as of 2018, according to the national dialysis registry, with 220,000 patients added every year.

Although age is not a chronic disease, the elderly are also left vulnerable in the lockdown. There is no government data available, but an estimate by the home healthcare service venture Medwell suggested that India has the second-largest geriatric population in the world, numbering 104 million.

Medwell defined geriatric as those over the age of 60, and estimated home healthcare services to be $1.5bn market in India, mainly providing care for chronic conditions at home.

Home healthcare workers have been severely affected by the closure of transport services, especially as they often do not possess company identification cards stating they are health workers.

This leaves many of the elderly, who live alone and are sick, without essential support.

Even those who live with family face the real possibility of dying without medical help.

On Thursday, journalist Joanna Lobo tweeted to the chief minister of Goa state about her grandmother, Lourdes Lobo, in the village of Camurlim, who is 111 years old.

She had taken a turn for the worse during the previous weekend as the state went into lockdown.

No doorstep medical assistance was available, no grocery stores were open, and her parents who live nearby were unable to step out of their homes. The family increasingly prepared for the traumatic possibility that the old lady might pass away at home without any assistance.

At least my aunts are with gran, said Lobo. There are octogenarians who live alone in our village. I wonder how it is for them.

The special secretary in the Delhi governments health and family welfare department, the principal secretary of the countrys health and family welfare department and the National Aids Control Organisation did not respond to emails before the time of the publication of this article.
Avadh Shilp Gram, Haj House and Indira Gandhi Pratishthan (IGP), the three establishments that have been transformed into makeshift quarantine centres and shelter points in the state capital, witnessed the influx of over 8000 migrant workers on Monday.

Administrative officials said the migrant workers were brought to the centres, medically examined, given food packets and allowed to leave for their respective destinations on buses.

No suspected coronavirus patient was found during the check-up, Lucknow divisional commissioner Mukesh Meshram said.

We have transformed three establishmentsAvadh Shilp Gram, Haj House and IGP  into quarantine centres and shelter points. On Monday, we directed all officers, including police personnel, to divert the entire incoming crowd to these three centres, he said.

Situated on the Lucknow-Kanpur highway, Haj House witnessed the maximum crowd on the day.

A crowd of around 3000 migrants was witnessed at Haj House, where the migrants underwent preliminary medical examination, were handed over the food packets and allowed to leave for their respective destinations through buses, said Meshram.

District magistrate Abhishek Prakash said thermal scanning was done at all three centres and RTO was asked to arrange buses to transport them to their respective destinations afterwards.

Around 2500 migrant workers were taken to Awadh Shilp Gram, which was the second most crowded place.

About 1,000 migrant workers went to IGP. The migrants blamed the police for being insensitive towards them.

My village is in Madhya Pradesh (MP) and police in Delhi stuffed me into a bus to Lucknow. Here I am being told I cant go to MP following the lockdown. We really dont know where to go and for how long we would be harassed, said a migrant worker at Avadh Shilp Gram.

He was accompanied by half-a-dozen workers, who too belonged to MP and had gone to Delhi to earn their livelihood.

Similarly, other migrants too said no one was helping them reach their respective destinations.
MANTORVILLE  An Owatonna man was killed and three Hayfield residents injured in a two-car collision Sunday near Mantorville.

Mark Douglas Johnson, 58, of Owatonna was driving east on Dodge County Road 16 just north of Mantorville at 11:29 a.m. Sunday when his car collided on a wet road with a vehicle driven by Bradley Herman Schmidt, 54, of Hayfield, according to a Minnesota State Patrol report.

Johnson was not transported for medical care from the scene, the report states. He died in the crash.

Schmidt and his two passengers, Danielle Kaye Schmidt, 20, and Mary Kay Schmidt, 58, also both of Hayfield, were all transported to Mayo Clinic Hospital-Saint Marys. All three suffered non-life threatening injuries, according to the report. No updates were available on their conditions.

The Dodge County Sheriff's Office and Kasson Police Department also responded to the scene.
Indiscipline attitudes of Residents in the Kumasi Metropolis and its environs have Friday, March 27 were met with radical responses from personnel of the Ghana Army during the turn of the metropolis for disinfection of markets in the wake of the spread of the coronavirus disease to the country.

Traders and others were taught bitter lessons in the national exercise put together by the Local Government Ministry in collaboration with the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council, with support from Zoomlion Ghana Limited for acts that tended to undermine it.

In the Asewase Constituency of the Asokore-Mampong Municipal Assembly, for example, some traders at Aboabo number 1 and 2 market zones showed gross indiscipline by refusing to close their shops to make it possible for the sanitation team to disinfect the markets and the soldiers descended on such recalcitrant traders to close the shops.

While the soldiers were doing their work, some traders at the two markets attempted to take videos or pictures of the scenes and such people had their mobile phones seized and destroyed.

Squatters on the run

Also, the military personnel chased squatters out of Bantama and the Race-Course markets to make way for the exercise.

It again had to take the efforts of the military to chase out squatters who live in some other markets in the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi, for the exercise to be carried out smoothly.

All streets in the central business district and the Bantama high streets were completely deserted.

At the Bantama and Central Markets, the squatters were still asleep at the time the fumigation team arrived to carry out the operation.

The team would have had it tough but for the intervention of the heavily armed military personnel supporting the exercise.

230 Markets

The Ashanti Regional Minister, speaking to journalists Mr Simon Osei Mensah before the exercise started, said about 230 markets have been identified to be sprayed in the region.

He said 22 markets in the Kumasi metropolis would benefit from the exercise.

The Miniater said market places were areas where people converged in their numbers to transact various forms of businesses, therefore, the need to disinfect those areas to reduce the risk of people getting infected with the disease.

Zoomlion

The Communications Director of the Zoomlion, Emma Akyea-Boakye, said even though the disinfection was not to help stop the spread of coronavirus disease, otherwise known as Covid 19, it will equally kill bacteria and other germs in the markets.

She expressed satisfaction with the professional manner in which the exercise was carried out.

As at 7 am on Friday morning when the DAILY HERITAGE visited some of the market centres in Kumasi, workers of Zoomlion draped in their protective clothes, were seeing spraying the markets with the police and military officers providing security.

Various lorry stations within the markets and lanes and streets in the vicinity were sprayed.

Most shops and stores in the markets had been closed ahead of the exercise and indications were that the markets would not be opened for trading activities today.

Some of the traders the paper interacted with commended the government for the initiative and said it would not only help prevent to the spread of the Coronavirus, but other infections caused by rodents and insanitary conditions in the markets.

---Daily Heritage
By Online Desk

Fresh confirmed cases of coronavirus infections are being reported from different parts of the country as the tally crossed 1200 amidst a nationwide lockdown.

With Punjab, Bengal, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra reporting fresh deaths due to the deadly coronavirus on Monday, the toll too has gone up to 37, including the Filipino who died in Mumbai.

This on a day when the government insisted again that the country has not entered the community transmission stage and the Cabinet secretary rubbished media reports that the 21-day lockdown may be extended to check the coronavirus menace.

The Centre on Sunday had ordered the sealing of all state and district borders to check community transmission of the deadly virus by migrant workers and asked those who had already left to be quarantined for 14 days.

Two senior Delhi government officers were suspended and while two others were served showcause notices for "serious lapses" in duty during the ongoing lockdown.

COVID-19: CHECK THE STATUS OF YOUR STATE HERE
BRUSSELS -- Former Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak is expected to become this week the European Union special representative for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and the Western Balkans.

According to a leaked document seen by RFE/RL, Lajcak is to take up the new post for a period of one year on April 2, a day after EU ambassadors are expected to give their green light to his appointment.

According to the working document dated March 30, Lajcak's first task is to achieve a "comprehensive normalization of relations" between Serbia and Kosovo.

That should be done through the conclusion of a "legally binding agreement that addresses all outstanding issues between the parties in accordance with international law and contributing to regional stability," the document says.

Kosovo, a former province of Serbia, declared independence in 2008 in a move rejected by Belgrade, its ally Moscow, and a number of other states, including Slovakia and four other EU member states.

Both Kosovo and Serbia aspire to join the EU, which has made the normalization of relations a precondition.

But EU-mediated negotiations broke down in 2018 over reports of a proposed land swap and after Kosovo imposed a 100 percent tax on Serbian imports.

The expected appointment of Lajcak has been met with skepticism in Kosovo, where President Hasim Thaci tweeted a few weeks ago that the Slovak's "mission is designed to fail due to his record to stop Slovakia to recognize Kosovo."

The EU document seen by RFE/RL says Lajcak's mandate will also consist in improving neighborly relations and reconciliation in the entire Western Balkans, enhancing EU visibility through public diplomacy, and contributing to the unity, consistency, and effectiveness of the EU action in the region.

Apart from Serbia and Kosovo, the Western Balkans includes four other EU hopefuls: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, and North Macedonia.

Lajcak, who was proposed to the post by EU foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell, stepped down as Slovakia's foreign minister earlier this month after eight years in that role.

He has also served as high representative for Bosnia between 2007 and 2009, overseeing the civilian implementation of the 1995 Dayton accords that ended the Bosnian War.
Back in 2015, when Aaadu was released in theatres, the audience had witnessed the handsome hunk, Roshan Mathews. With just a few scenes in the comedy entertainer, the actor vanished for two years and made an impressive comeback with the 2017 movie Dry, in a lead role. Well later, he was seen taking an unconventional path in theatrical plays and feature films. His approach of picking up socio-cultural content-driven scripts helped him grab remarkable roles in the projects, American Hate and Ayesha.

Roshan is currently on an acting spree. He is gearing up to play the lead in a feature film helmed by Manjeet Singh, whose previous outing, Mumbai Cha Raja was officially selected at the Toronto International Film Festival. Also, he is a part of the play Brother At The Canadian Border, which has its shoot pushed ahead due to the ongoing Coronavirus scare.

In an exclusive tete-a-tete with Filmibeat, Roshan Mathews gets candid on his engrossed journey of films and theatres.

We didn't see you on the silver screen since the 2017 movie, Dry. Any particular reason?

After the release of Dry, I was working on a few theatre projects in Mumbai, when I came across the opportunity to train further in LA. I soon received a scholarship from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and I felt the need for taking the time to deepen my skills and I also had the chance to pursue opportunities in Hollywood. So, in December of 2017, I moved to Los Angeles and have been training and working on several plays and films since then.

How was it working with thought-provoking content-driven projects like American Hate and Ayesha?

It is truly a privilege to be a part of such impactful stories. Since I started acting professionally, I've always tried to be mindful of the socio-cultural impact of the projects that I have been a part of, and projects like American Hate, Ayesha, or even some plays that I've been in, like Given, SubUrbia and Radicals, make me feel more content with my choices. I feel blessed that I get the opportunity to collaborate with writers and directors who want to talk about these important topics.

Which character played by you is closer to your heart?

Recently, I played the character of Norman Chaudhry in a classic American play named SubUrbia. This character is an immigrant who owns a 7-11 convenience store in the middle of rural America. Norman is just trying to survive there along with his sister, as he pursues his education, in order to make a better life for himself and his family. This character felt very close to some of my experiences living in America. Especially in such a time, when immigration, racism, and citizenship is such a huge conversation all around the world, playing such a character did affect me more than I'd imagine.

Conventionally, an artist starts with theatres and then steps into movies. But you have opted a reverse formula. Any particular reason?

I don't think of them as mutually exclusive. For me, they are both acting media, and they are equally challenging. Both platforms have their own identities and thus, the acting approach will be different. I happened to get into films first as that was my first opportunity. I got to act in my first professional play a couple of years later. Now, I continue to work in films and theatre as I enjoy both art forms. It all depends on the next best project for me.

Can you tell us about your experience of performing theatre in LA?

I have had a wonderful time working in plays in LA. The first play that I did professionally here was a play called Radicals, which is set in Kashmir and highlights the struggle of the people in Kashmir due to the religious conflicts that plague the region. It was written as a Bollywood musical style of performance, which received a lot of positive reviews and accolades at the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2019. My next play was Silver Bullet, where I played the detective in a film-noir inspired play. The play was inspired by detective movies and femme-fatale stories from the 1940s and people really enjoyed the modern retelling of that theme. Soon after I was cast in the play called SubUrbia, where I play a Pakistani immigrant who owns a 7-11 store and has to face some racism from the local population. I received a lot of positive reviews for the performance, but more importantly, I had people approach me after the play saying that they have gone through similar experiences and could connect with my portrayal in the play.

Films or Theatres, which one do you like and why?

I genuinely love both platforms. I feel different stories require different mediums, which is what the determining factor should be. For example, I have seen several films adapted from classic plays like Miss Julie by Strindberg and The Seagull by Chekhov, but they don't hold a candle to seeing it being performed on stage. Additionally, the process for both is very different. In the film, whatever interpretation of the character you have at the moment of the shoot is the one that becomes the defining idea of the character. However, when I'm working on a play, I can have different interpretations, different moment-before's, different nuances every time I perform, and as long as I'm still grounded in the reality of the situation and my relationships, it will still be a truthful performance. With films though, I love seeing the output of the performance and being able to watch the story from an audience's perspective. Also, I enjoy seeing myself on screen! I also enjoy the technicalities of the film; the way a frame is set, the way your acting changes depending on the type of lens that's used, the kind of choreography you create with the camera, etc.

How is the theatre crew, sets, and comfort different from film?

For one, there is a lot more sitting and waiting around on a film set, than in theatre. On a film set, you, as an actor, are just one of the functions along with several other departments like camera, lights, grips, sound, etc. On a theatre set, you are usually called in only when you are needed to rehearse or perform. All the other functions, like building sets, lights, sound, happen at other times (unless it is the tech rehearsal, of course). So, you're always either acting or seeing other actors in your play rehearse their scenes.

With regards to the sets, in theatre, you get used to the set pieces, your props, your movement patterns, and marks as you do more and more shows, and that familiarity evolves your perspective of your character as you do more shows. In films, you have a limited amount of time with the set, depending on the schedule, and thus you have to endow it with the appropriate feelings and spatial/experiential memories by the time you begin acting in that set. Both have their unique benefits and challenges, and it is fun to discover this as part of your process.

Who is your favourite actor who inspires you the most?

I have several actors who I truly admire, be it their method, style, ease or the nuances they bring to a role. Some of my favourites are Daniel Day-Lewis, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Mohanlal, Manoj Bajpayee and Vidya Balan.

What are your next projects?

I was due to start working on my next play, and my next feature film soon. The play was called Brother at the Canadian Border, which is a comedy play about two Iranian brothers who are arrested at the US-Canada border and the confusion that ensues there. I had started to work on the play, however, given the current situation, that has been put on hold!

My next feature film is with director Manjeet Singh, whose previous film, Mumbai Cha Raja, was the official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival. The next project as well is set in a very real location and circumstances and is a political satire about people who go to various lengths to propagate their political beliefs. I play the lead in this film.

Lastly, what is your dream project?

I am a huge fan of the Marvel movies and I believe that there's a position open for Iron Man. I'd love to play the next Iron Man. Bas itna sa khwaab hai!
China's sole operational aircraft carrier, the Liaoning (front), sailing with other ships during a drill at sea in this file photo. (AFP via Getty Images)

China Ramps Up South China Sea Provocations as US Battles CCP Virus

News Analysis

China has sent its marine militia into the South China Sea to engage in a series of military provocations as the United States battles the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

The Peoples Armed Forces Maritime Militia (PAFMM), referred to as little blue men, began in January to move vessels through the 34-mile-long Union Banks, a sunken atoll in the center of the South China Seas Spratly Islands chain, according to vessel-tracking and satellite imagery reviewed by Radio Free Asia (RFA).

Despite the United Nations recognition of claims by Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Taiwan, China asserts that it holds exclusive rights to more than 80 percent of the South China Sea, encompassing an area 1.4 million square miles in the Pacific Ocean that holds up to 22 billion barrels of oil, and 290 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

China has the worlds largest and farthest-ranging fishing operations, outstripping the next 10 biggest nations combined. China deploys 672,000 motorized vessels with 2,500 of those fishing in far off waters, according to Global Fishing Watch, a nonprofit group that tracks fishing activities. But thousands of full-time PAFMM sailors with military training that never fish are tucked within that fleet.

The PAFMM operates at least 84 purpose-built vessels with mast-mounted water cannons for spraying and reinforced steel hulls for ramming, according to Andrew Erickson, a professor of strategy in the U.S. Naval War College (NWC)s China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI).

The PAFMM boats that fly the flag are often shadowed by armed Peoples Liberation Coast Guard and Navy formations. The 2017 U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS) stressed that China is engaged in continuous competition with Americaneither fully at peace nor at war. The NSS identified each of the three Chinese sea forces as representing significant and growing risks to U.S. interests and values.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, accompanied by the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit in support of U.S. allies, conducted a South China Sea freedom of navigation operation, including a historic first port call to Danang on March 4 to celebrate 25 years of diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam.

PFAMM vessels were spotted on March 14 at Johnson Reef, in the southwest corner of Union Banks. The timing corresponded with the anniversary of the 1988 Battle of Johnson Reef, in which dozens of Vietnamese troops died and China first seized control of the reef.

China seriously upped its provocations in February with its ground units firing lasers at U.S. surveillance aircraft in the region. The PLA Air Force also began conducting sorties in the East China Sea that included Shaanxi Y-8 planes conducting anti-submarine drills in the contested waters off the coast of Taiwan.

The United States retaliated March 23 with a Navy Lockheed EP-3E reconnaissance aircraft that conducted surveillance sorties between Taiwan and the Philippines.

The next day, the USS Barry, accompanied by the guided-missile cruiser USS Shiloh, conducted a live-fire missile launch from the Philippine Sea into the South China Sea. In the most unusual move, the U.S. 7th Fleet posted a video of the activation and launch of a medium-range Standard Missile-2 on its Facebook page.

Such Chinese belligerence would normally result in the USS Theodore Roosevelt Task Forcewhich had moved west into the Philippine Seato reverse course and re-establish U.S. authority in the South China Sea. But on March 24, the worlds most powerful Naval task force has been immobilized by an outbreak of the CCP virus.

U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. John Aquilino told The Associated Press (AP) that the Roosevelt would be moved to Guam, 2,000 miles from the South China Sea. He warned U.S. adversaries, But let there be no doubt the ship is ready to respond if needed.

But retired Adm. James Stavridis, a former ship commander who became NATOs top commander in Europe, told AP: The Navy is headed into choppy waters in terms of readiness in the months ahead.

He warned that the ships tight sleeping quarters might become birthing compartments for the virus.
POLICE have urged farmers and members of the public to be extra vigilant following a suspected sheep theft in Tanworth-in-Arden.

An incident was reported at approximately 2pm in Penn Lane, Tanworth where occupants of a silver vehicle were seen trying to steal a sheep.

The vehicle registration was foreign and the occupants described as four young males.

The vehicle was then seen on the A435 with a sheep in the back.

Further calls indicate that two vehicles were involved - a Silver Ford Mondeo and a dark coloured Vauxhall.
Only two people should gather in public spaces and 'other areas of gathering: Households - no matter how large - can still go outside together, but individual people can only meet with one other person. The two-person limit doesn't apply to workplaces, schools or households.

Moratorium on evictions from rental properties for the next six months: Scott Morrison said State and Territories will be moving to ban landlords from evicting tenants who are struggling to pay rent. Mr Morrison urged landlords to work with their tenants and banks on immediate solutions.

Playgrounds, skate parks, and outdoor gyms will be closed from Monday: Boot camps will be reduced to one-on-one outdoor personal training sessions.

Australians urged to only shop for the essentials and nothing more: Mr Morrison reminded people it isn't a time for browsing or catching up with friends. 'When you are going out for shopping, you should be going for just stuff you need and do it and get home,' he said.

People aged over 70 or having chronic illnesses are discouraged from leaving their homes: Mr Morrison said elderly people should only go outside for doctor's appointments or medical reasons. He said vulnerable groups who need help with shopping should access 'support through their community or others'.

WHAT CAN I LEAVE MY HOUSE FOR?

Buying essential supplies: Scott Morrison said shopping should be done solo and not turned into impromptu gatherings.

Going to work, if unable to work from home: Australians who have the ability to work from home are strongly advised to do so. Those who can't must follow social distancing measures when at their place of work.

Exercise: People working out should still follow the two-person limit. All boot camps of 10 people or less have effectively been banned.

To attend personal medical appointments, or for compassionate reasons: Elderly people in particular should only go outside for doctor's appointments or medical reasons.

CAN I VISIT FAMILY MEMBERS?

Yes, however social distancing measures should still be adhered to.

A family split across two houses can meet in private, allowing people to visit their partner, siblings or parents.

People who live can only invite one friend over, while households of two people or more can't have any visitors.

WHAT ABOUT HOUSEHOLDS WITH MORE THAN TWO PEOPLE?

Households - no matter how large - can still go outside together, but individual people can only meet with one other person.

If four people live together in a house, all four of them can take their dog for a walk.

The two-person limit doesn't apply to workplaces, schools or households.

CAN OLDER PEOPLE GO OUT IN PUBLIC?

Elderly people are allowed to go outside for the same reasons as young people, but Scott Morrison has urged those over the age of 70 to self-isolate unless going to a medical appointment.

'This does not mean they cannot go outside,' Mr Morrison said on Sunday.

'They can go outside and be accompanied by a support person for the purposes of getting fresh air and recreation, but should limit contact with others as much as possible.'

CAN I GO TO A WEDDING OR A FUNERAL?

Last week's rules pertaining to weddings and funerals haven't changed.

Funerals are still limited to 10 people and weddings to five - including the officiator and the bride and groom.

WHEN DO THE NEW MEASURES COME INTO EFFECT?

The two-person rule will begin on Monday, while playgrounds, outdoor gyms and skate parks will be closed at midday.
A drone launched by Korea Forest Service (KFS) monitors the conditions of a forest. / Courtesy of KFS



By Baek Byung-yeul



The Korea Forest Service (KFS) has been increasingly adopting smart technology to better monitor forest fires, the state-run agency said Monday.



The forestry body, which oversees the conservation of forests and the protection of people from natural disasters, said it has been using drones for fire observation, and other information and communication technology (ICT) equipment such as temperature sensors and thermal imaging cameras.



Korea is witnessing increasing cases of bushfires. The KFS said the country had 650 such fires in 2019 that burned 3,254 hectares of land.



Over the past 10 years, the number of forest fires has increased by 31 percent and the total area burnt by 264 percent. Illegal incineration of waste is a common cause of many bushfires, the KFS added.



To thoroughly monitor bushfires and landslides, the KFS has been utilizing a scientific and systematic approach  it launched a smart forest disaster response team in August 2019 and has actively used smart technologies for forest management.



Among the smart technologies the agency has adopted, drones are widely used it said. Taking advantage of drones, the KFS has been thoroughly monitoring forests along the eastern coast in Gangwon Province.



The KFS said drones are increasingly used as they help the agency reduce the size of its workforce. Drones also allow for the service to practice and encourage social distancing amid the coronavirus outbreak.



"Amid the virus outbreak, it is getting difficult to deploy a large workforce to monitor bushfires during this critical fire danger period, so we are increasingly using drones to screen bushfire-vulnerable areas," a KFS official said.



The forestry body's bushfire control team designated a "critical fire danger period" for about a month from March 14 to April 15 to ramp up safety precautions.



During this period, the KFS is operating 29 drones to crack down on illegal incineration of waste and unauthorized entry into forests in the Goseong, Sokcho, Yangyang, Gangneung, Donghae and Samcheok areas of the province.



Given this year's spring will be warmer and drier with little rain compared to previous years, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration, the KFS said there needs be more focus on preventing bushfires.



The KFS said 70 percent of bushfires occur during the dry and windy spring or autumn seasons. Stating that the dry climate, westerly winds and the mountainous terrain affect the frequency and degree of forest fires, it added people who visit forests during the February to April period, which is an extremely dry season, should be more careful in preventing forest fires.



"As chances for bushfires are higher in this dry spring season, we are urging people to pay more attention to prevention," the official said.


Chennai, March 30 : After shampoo, pickles and other items, the time has come for hand sanitisers in a sachet.

At a time when the country is reeling under the coronavirus outbreak, city-based fast moving consumer goods major CavinKare Private Ltd on Monday announced that it would soon launch hand sanitisers in Re 1 sachet under the CHICK brand.

The company which has launched a 5-litre pack of the same said that it would soon launch the product in other packs under its personal care brands -- CHIK, Nyle -- and professional brand -- Raaga.

"This is not merely a product launch, but service that we are launching for the safety of every citizen across urban and rural areas of our country," C.K. Ranganathan, Chairman and Managing Director of CavinKare, was quoted as saying in a statement.
AROUND 15,000 applications for the 350 per week payment to those who have lost their jobs as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic have been rejected.

The Department of the Taoiseach confirmed on Monday that thousands of applications for the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payments have been rejected for a variety of reasons.

Senior official Liz Cavanan said applications were deemed ineligible because individuals were not fully employed, they were aged under 18 or they were not previously employed. She was speaking at a daily briefing on the Governments response to the Covid-19 pandemic at Government Buildings on Monday.

Ms Canavan said that another 15,000 customers incorrectly completed their applications by providing an incorrect PPS number or an IBAN number. These customers are being contacted over the coming days to resolve these matters.

Over 283,000 Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payments are being made this week after around 90pc of the applications received as of last Thursday were processed in recent days.

Read More

The Department of Employment has said that in total since launching the emergency payment on March 16, it has received and processed 389,000 applications. This is equivalent to a 19 month claim-load in two weeks. Over 66,000 duplicate applications were received.

Some 20,500 businesses have registered for the temporary wage subsidy scheme, which enables employers to keep employees on the payroll during the crisis by refunding 70pc of their take home pay up to 410 per week, Ms Canavan said.

The first tranche of payments, totalling 5.1m, were processed last Friday and should be in the accounts of most employers today. A further 8.6m in refunds were generated under the scheme on Monday and will hit employers accounts on Tuesday.

In a wide-ranging briefing Ms Canavan also said that Passport Offices are now closed. While people can continue to apply online the usual turnaround times cannot be guaranteed as some officials are now being redeployed to assist in public service delivery and to provide consular support to Irish people stuck abroad.

On cocooning, Ms Canavan said that vulnerable people are being asked to stay at home at all times and avoid face-to-face contact.

Those considered at risk and who should cocoon are people aged 70 or over, everyone living a residential home or long-term care, and people who have serious medical difficulties that make them vulnerable.

A local authority community response forum will coordinate to ensure those affected by cocooning have appropriate supports including food and medicine and other needs, like transport to medical appointments, during this time.

Ms Canavan said that any essential workers over 70 should work remotely where possible. She said older farmers should ring family members if they need help and if that's not possible - and their job is essential - they should ring their local community support line or contact their local garda station.

Meanwhile, there are now more people on emergency coronavirus unemployment payments than the standard dole.

A total of 283,000 people have been approved for the new 350 a week emergency pandemic payment that was announced earlier this month following mass layoffs due to the coronavirus.

This compares with 201,000 people in receipt of standard jobseeker payments as of Friday last, according to figures released by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection this morning.

The figures give some indication of the numbers out of work after the government ordered non-essential businesses to close to stem the spread of the virus.
Hanoi authorities fear the Covid-19 outbreak that began at Bach Mai Hospital would be difficult to control since it transferred 5,000 patients to other provinces.

The risk of the coronavirus infection spreading from the hospital, which had 16 patients, was highlighted by city Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung at a conference Sunday.

Upon learning that two nurses at Bach Mai, one of Vietnam's largest hospitals, had tested positive for the novel coronavirus on March 19, the city immediately identified everyone who had been in close contact with them to quarantine and test them, he said.

Chung said that on March 19, he proposed to Bach Mai Hospital managers and the Health Ministry officials to lock down some departments, reduce the number of patients it receives, and keep patients already inside the hospital.

But the proposal was rejected, and the hospital then transferred more than 5,000 of its patients to hospitals across northern localities, including nearly 1,600 to other hospitals in Hanoi.

"Members of the city steering committee for the prevention and control of the epidemic said the act of transferring patients to localities is no different from releasing chickens only to chase after them again," Chung said.

Between March 19 and right until Bach Mais lockdown on March 28, thousands of people still entered and left the hospital every day, he said.

Chung warned that a nurse at the hospital who later tested positive for Covid-19 had distributed drugs to around 2,000 HIV patients between March 9 and 14.

Twenty three employees of Truong Sinh Company, which supplies food and water to the hospital, delivered water to all of the hospital's departments and two of them tested positive.

The hospital canteen is also thought to pose a very high risk of spreading the infection since 600-700 people eat there on weekdays and 250 people on weekends. The kitchen provides food to 5,000-6,000 hospital staff while 2,000-3,000 students and interns from all over Hanoi and nearby provinces come there to eat.

Chung said he had asked foreign experts on disease prevention and control to analyze the Bach Mai Hospital case and assess the risk of Covid-19 spreading to the community, and was told the situation at Bach Mai could be more complex than at hospitals in Daegu in South Korea, Lombardy in Italy and New York in the U.S. considering how many patients and others it has entering and leaving every day.

"The outbreak at Bach Mai Hospital is the most complex in the whole country. The risk of the infection spreading from the hospital to the community is very high. It is very likely that in the coming days more cases would be discovered."

He asked the government to provide Hanoi with 15,000-20,000 testing kits so that it could carry out quick coronavirus tests on a large scale, especially in wards at Bach Mai with dialysis patients, HIV patients and outpatients and people who donate blood frequently.

But Nguyen Thanh Long, Deputy Minister of Health, said the ministry has taken drastic response to the Bach Mai outbreak.

As soon as the first positive cases were diagnosed, the health ministry immediately instructed Bach Mai Hospital to lock down and quarantine all doctors and other workers and family members of patients who could have come into contact with them, he said.

The ministry has since tested all Bach Mai workers and patients as well as their family members to determine the source of the infection, and out of the 6,000 samples collected, nine tested positive, seven belonging to Truong Sinh Company employees, he said.

"In the evening of March 27, after discovering two cases at Truong Sinh Company, the Ministry of Health discussed this and reported to the deputy prime minister. The main source of infection was determined to be Truong Sinh Company rather than the health workers. The Ministry of Health immediately requested a full lockdown of Bach Mai Hospital from noon on March 28."

"The ministry has worked with Bach Mai Hospital to get camera footage of vehicles entering the facility since March 12 and noted down the license plates of all vehicles, even Grab and Uber, to contain the epidemic."

As of Monday morning, Vietnams Covid-19 tally had risen to 194, including 25 associated with Bach Mai Hospital and Truong Sinh Company. 52 patients have been discharged after recovery.

Globally, the Covid-19 pandemic has killed more than 33,900 people as it spread to 199 countries and territories so far.
The children in the Jeffries family were facing a familiar problem. As schools in San Antonio, like those around the country, were closed because of COVID-19, the children received Chromebooks to access their online lessons. But, according to the San Antonio Express-News, while the Jeffries now had devices, they did not have internet accessand they could not receive the free service offered by their local provider during the pandemic because of an outstanding balance.

Millions of students across the country are in this same positionwithout home broadband access and trying not to fall behind while away from school. Resourceful families have long used schools, libraries, and places like Starbucks and McDonalds to access free Wi-Fi for homework and other needs. But with those options closed (or not allowing customers to congregate as usual), students are out of luck. Some school districts are providing physical packets for the students to fill out at home, supplemented by calls with teachers. While these materials technically do not require internet for completion, the lack of online resources to guide students work and aid in research still hinders students without access and leaves some students without the online remote learning experience their peers are having, which more closely reflects that of a classroom. These disparities arent new, but they are being greatly illuminatedand exacerbatedby the current crisis.

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Communities across the nation are working hard to address the issue of connectivity for students. Some companies have stepped up to offer 60 days of free internet service for households with K12 students without internet access (though, as in the case of the Jeffries family, hurdles may remain). In other cases, school districts are employing strategies to make Wi-Fi available themselves: In Bloomington, Illinois, public school officials sent out more than 250 hotspots for students and faculty to address the connectivity gap. In South Bend, Indiana, schools have dispatched a fleet of about 20 buses equipped with Wi-Fi to rotate through over 30 spots across the city. In the past, school districts in southern Virginia have used TV white space technologylong-range Wi-Fi that uses the vacant television channels available in rural and small-town areasto extend schools internet to students at home, another option that could see use again soon.

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But we need a national approach, not an ad hoc strategy. Otherwise, large swaths of the student population risk losing weeks or months of their education and falling dangerously far behind their peers.

This homework gap has long been a problem: An estimated 12 million children do not have internet access at home. That divide disproportionately harms students from historically marginalized communities and rural and tribal areas. The Pew Research Center reported that 17 percent of U.S. teenagers they surveyed said they are either often or sometimes unable to complete homework due to a lack of a reliable internet connection or computer. That number is even worse for low-income students, as 24 percent of teenagers living in a household with less than $30,000 of annual income reported the same. Yet an estimated 70 percent of teachers in the U.S. assign homework that requires internet access to complete, and that share is believed to increase in high school. Research has also found that students who have internet access at home consistently earn higher scores in testing for reading, math, and science.

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The homework gap has long been concerning, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, it means millions of American students will be unable to keep up with their connected peers and could lose a significant portion of their education. Students homes are now their classrooms, and millions of those homes do not have broadband connectivity. This requires immediate action to ensure students can get the connectivity needed to keep up their studies.

Congress and the Federal Communications Commission have several options, but one of the most pertinent to the issue of education is the FCCs E-Rate program. E-Rates mission is to provide telecommunications services (which today includes broadband and Wi-Fi) to elementary schools, secondary schools, and libraries for educational purposes at rates less than the amounts charged for similar services to other parties, according to the 1996 Telecommunications Act that created the program. E-Rate, one of the FCCs Universal Service Fund programs, has been a success in improving broadband access for schools and libraries since the FCC modernized the program in 2014.

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Historically, E-Rate has helped schools pay for high-speed broadband connections as well as for Wi-Fi networks to spread that connectivity throughout school buildings. But funding can and should also be used to provide broadband services for educational purposes beyond the walls of a school, particularly during this pandemic. This doesnt mean directly paying parents internet bills. The FCC should dedicate a special allocation of money from the Universal Service Fund to reimburse schools and libraries that purchase and loan out Wi-Fi hotspots to students who live in homes that lack adequate broadband access, as FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and 16 U.S. senators recently recommended. The FCC could also leverage E-Rate support to empower local educational institutions to extend their broadband access to their communities using innovative methods, like the bus fleet in Indiana, TV white spaces, and other wireless internet service technologies.

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Although Congress could and should include its own funding to assist households without adequate internet access during the crisis in emergency relief legislationas an even larger group of senators has suggestedthe FCC can use some of what is estimated to be up to $2 billion unallocated in the E-Rate budget toward this effort.

The idea of using E-Rate funds beyond the walls of schools and libraries is not brand-new. The Government Accountability Office recommended the FCC review making E-Rate funding applicable for off-school premises connectivity in a 2019 report. There are petitions pending at the FCC from 2016 by school districts, telecommunications carriers, broadband advocates, and Microsoft requesting authorization for schools to use E-Rate funds to extend wireless internet access to students for educational purposes off-campus. And even back in 2010, the FCC established a pilot program that allocated up to $10 million in funding (for 2011) for which schools and libraries could apply to support innovative and interactive off-premise wireless device connectivity.

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The FCC has issued clarification that schools and libraries can leave their Wi-Fi networks on even as they are closed, enabling the community to use E-Rate networks while on campuses or school and library properties. This reassures schools and libraries that they can leave their networks operational without risking losing funding, and could allow students to use these Wi-Fi networks from a parked car near a school or library. However, it still requires students to venture close enough to their schools and librarieswhich are closedto access the internet required for their education, potentially endangering themselves and others with travel and congregation. The FCC (or Congress) should extend E-Rate connectivity directly to students who are self-isolating or sheltering in place, thereby facilitating remote learning off-campus (which, again, will be the indefinite new on-campus for millions of students).

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So far, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has done important work during the COVID-19 pandemic by securing commitments from telecommunications providers that include removing data caps, opening Wi-Fi hot spots, and pledging not to terminate service or impose late fees on households that cannot pay due to issues surrounding the COVID-19 crisis. The FCC has also temporarily removed E-Rate gift rules that restrict the equipment and services that schools and libraries are allowed to accept from telecommunications providers during the pandemic. Pais work so far has been significant, but even more can be done. An important next step would be ensuring that the households that do not already have access to broadband get the assistance they need so all students can fully participate in their classwork.

Of course, closing the homework gap is a difficult undertaking (particularly during a pandemic), and addressing the divide between those with and without home internet should not be the only focus in addressing the problems facing educators right now. But organized and concerted efforts to expand internet access can and should be used to alleviate the issues of the homework gap both while schools are closed and in the long term.

A version of this piece also appeared on the Open Technology Institutes blog.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
With the first worker at a Toronto homeless shelter testing positive for COVID-19, the city is asking the province to expand the group of frontline workers who get priority access to personal protective equipment.

On Sunday, a memo was sent to employees of Homes First, the agency that operates the shelter at Lakeshore Blvd. W. and Bathurst St., informing them that an employee had tested positive for the coronavirus and is now in self-isolation.

At this time, staff who may have had direct contact with this individual will be contacted directly by Toronto Public Health and will be provided with guidance on next steps, said the emailed memo, written by management, a copy of which was obtained by the Star.

The employee works in the lower level mens program at the shelter. Its not publicly known how the shelter worker contracted the virus. Homes First learned on Saturday night that the employee tested positive, according to the memo. The individual had been tested three days earlier and had not been to work since March 20.

We are cooperating completely with public health, Patricia Mueller, CEO of Homes First, said in an interview.

The city has been rapidly working to increase the number of temporary shelter spaces to create distance in the overcrowded system, as well as creating unprecedented isolation and medical sites as frontline advocates report urge the city to move faster to prevent deaths

Mary-Anne Bedard, head of the citys shelter support and housing administration, reported Monday that there are four confirmed cases of COVID-19 related to clients in the shelter system  a total that has been consistent since Friday. She confirmed the one new case of the shelter worker.

Bedard told the Star she believes shelter workers are the next level of priority for personal protective equipment (PPE) and that they continue to advocate for more equipment.

PPE protocol for first responders, according to Public Health Ontario evidence brief, includes gloves, a long-sleeved gown, face mask and face shield. But the guidance speaks only to healthcare workers.

Bedard said she believes shelter workers are the next level of priority for PPE and that the city continues to advocate both provincially and federally for more equipment.

The provincial Minister of Health did not respond to a request for comment.

We desperately need to expand the pie for PPE and who gets it instead of divvying the pie up differently, said Coun. Joe Cressy, who chairs Torontos board of health.

Cressy acknowledged global supply chain issues.

But in the city of Toronto, not unlike cities across North America, we desperately need to ensure that PPE is available and provided to those on the frontlines  in healthcare and emergency services for sure  but also in community and social service settings, he said.

There is PPE for city-operated programs and temporary sites, and they are making deliveries to seven other agency sites to help them, Bedard said.

Screening protocols in place in the shelter system require staff to assess if an incoming client may have symptoms of COVID-19 and send them for testing and then, if necessary, to an isolation site while they await results. But agencies running some shelter and drop-in sites dont always have PPE available for those screening clients  a major concern, frontline workers have told the Star.

Dr. Andrew Boozary, a family physician who works with homeless and marginalized people, said its important to protect all frontline workers during the pandemic.

We cant afford a divide when it comes to protective equipment on the frontlines. The staff working in shelters and community are as essential as it gets, said Boozary, executive director of Health and Social Policy at the University Health Network. They are risking their lives  and we have to protect the heroes inside and outside hospitals to overcome this thing together.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 1,000-bed Navy hospital ship docked in Manhattan on Monday and a field hospital was going up in Central Park for coronavirus patients, as officials in New York City, the epicenter of a widening U.S. outbreak, pleaded for more help from Washington.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a prominent public figure in the battle to stop the virus, waited at a Midtown Manhattan pier when the converted oil tanker, painted white and adorned with giant red crosses, arrived at about 11 a.m. EDT.

The Comfort will treat non-coronavirus patients, including those who require surgery and critical care, the Navy said.

Hospitals in New York City have been overrun with patients suffering from COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus. New York state accounts for almost half of the country's 141,883 cases and more than a third of its 2,477 deaths, according to a Reuters tally. The United States has the most cases in the world.(Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T)

Construction of a 68-bed field hospital began on Sunday in Central Park, and the new site was expected to begin accepting patients on Tuesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement.

The makeshift facility, provided by Mount Sinai Health Systems and non-profit organization Samaritan's Purse, will not take walk-ins, and admissions and transfers will be managed by Mount Sinai, de Blasio said.

De Blasio, among a growing chorus of officials who have voiced frustration at the Trump administration's handling of the crisis, said the death toll in the city would rise soon if Washington did not provide more medical supplies and assistance.

"If we don't get more consistent federal help in a growing crisis, there's a danger we start to lose lives that could have been saved," the New York City mayor said in an interview with CNN. "Sunday is D-Day, we need help by Sunday."
For nearly two years, Eilat Lieber, director and chief curator of the Tower of David Museum in Jerusalems Old City, has been excited for this April, when Passover, Easter and Ramadan  touchstone holidays of three major religions  would collide for the first time in nearly two decades.

To prepare for the 400,000 or so tourists who had been projected to visit Jerusalem this April, the Tower of David Museum began collaborating with two virtual reality production houses  Blimey, based in Israel, and OccupiedVR, based in Canada  to create an immersive augmented reality experience for the crowds expected at its medieval stone citadel.

And then coronavirus shut everything down. Israel closed its borders to foreign visitors; all nonresidents are now banned from the Old City. So Ms. Lieber made the decision to put The Holy City, a virtual reality experience that lets viewers drop in on Jerusalems holiest sites and festivals, online for free starting April 9. Her move came as virtual reality experiences of holy sites across the globe are more readily available, allowing shut-in pilgrims of multiple religions a window into virtual worship in an unprecedented time.
Young criminals would be warned rather than arrested and charges for non-violent crimes, such as begging and vandalism, would be suspended under a proposal aimed at preventing more people entering a justice system under threat from coronavirus.

Lawyers from The Police Accountability Project, run by the Flemington and Kensington Community Legal Centre, have called for a moratorium on the enforcement of the law in relation to non-violent and low-level crimes in an effort to reduce the number of people in courts, remand centres and prisons.

Police officers inform beachgoers at Brighton of closures on Saturday. Credit:AAP

The proposal includes public order offences, such as begging and vandalism, and justice procedures such as breaches of bail, except in circumstances where there is risk to safety.

The Police Accountability Project also said Victoria Police should charge people on summons to face court at a date after the COVID-19 health crisis is over, rather than arresting people and taking them into custody, potentially exposing them to further risk of infection.
TORONTO - Some of the most active companies traded Monday on the Toronto Stock Exchange:

Toronto Stock Exchange (13,038.50, up 350.76 points.)

Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD.B). Industrials. Down three cents, or 6.59 per cent, to 42.5 cents on 17.5 million shares.

Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU). Energy. Up $2.54, or 15.46 per cent, to $18.97 on 15.6 million shares.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (TSX:CNQ). Energy. Up $2.40, or 18.02 per cent, to $15.72 on 15.5 million shares.

Aurora Cannabis Inc. (TSX:ACB). Health care. Down 17 cents, or 11.64 per cent, to $1.29 on 15.2 million shares.

Cenovus Energy Inc. (TSX:CVE). Energy. Up six cents, or 2.55 per cent, to $2.41 on 11.4 million shares.

MEG Energy Corp. (TSX:MEG). Energy. Up 27 cents, or 22.13 per cent, to $1.49 on 11.4 million shares.

Companies in the news:

Transat AT. (TSX:TRZ). Down 74 cents or 7.8 per cent, to $8.75. The Competition Bureaus warning about Air Canadas proposed takeover of Transat AT Inc., which owns Air Transat, should be taken in context, analysts say. The watchdog said Friday that eliminating the rivalry between the two Montreal-based carriers would discourage competition by prompting higher prices and fewer services. Desjardins Securities analyst Benoit Poirier said he believes the purchase will still be approved considering the companies willingness to address the bureaus competition concerns, such as potential dominance of airport slots.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (TSX:CM). Up $1.33 to $79. An Ontario Superior Court judge has ruled against the CIBC in an overtime class-action lawsuit filed more than a decade ago. Judge Edward Belobaba found the bank liable for breaching its overtime obligations to a class of about 31,000 current and former tellers, personal bankers and other front-line workers in branches across Canada.

Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust. (TSX:CAR.UN). down 23 cents to $41.90. Some of Canadas biggest landlords say theyre committed to working with tenants who have lost their job because of the coronavirus pandemic. Mark Kenney, CEO of Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust, says the company is committed to working with those who have suddenly lost their job, and is violently against evicting anyone whos in distress.

Freshii Inc. (TSX:FRII). Down one cent to $1.23. Freshii Inc. is delaying the filing of its latest financial results as it deals with the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on its restaurants and franchise partners. The company says it has also temporarily streamlined its head office workforce in a move to cut costs. It did not say how many people were affected. Freshii says the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to have a material impact on its business, operations and financial performance for at least the first half of 2020.

Parkland Fuel Corp. (TSX:PKI). Up 85 cents or 3.5 per cent to $25.05. Parkland Fuel Corp. is cutting its 2020 capital spending budget by 52 per cent and trimming executive salaries in response to the uncertain economic impact of the novel coronavirus. The Calgary-based company, which sells fuel through more than 2,600 service stations throughout Canada and in the United States and Caribbean, says it plans to spend $275 million this year, down from its earlier guidance of $575 million.

Air Canada (TSX:AC). Down 67 cents or four per cent to $1608. Air Canada will temporarily lay off more than 15,000 unionized workers beginning this week as the airline struggles with fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The layoffs will continue through April and May amid drastically reduced flight capacity from the Montreal-based airline. Air Canada says the two-month furloughs will affect about one-third of management and administrative and support staff, including head office employees, in addition to the front-line workers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 30, 2020.
Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has advised Ghanaians to comply with President Akufo-Addo's directives regarding the partial lockdown of Coronavirus affected areas and Regions in the country.



According to him, the lockdown isn't intended to impose restrictions on people but to aid State authorities to identify persons infected by the virus, otherwise called Covid-19, and their contacts.



Speaking in an exclusive interview with host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' program on Monday, March 30, 2020, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah noted that the 2-week lockdown is an opportunity for the health and other appropriate authorities to do contact-tracing to fish out people who have imported the virus and also at the community level.



Outlining some major steps undertaken by the government to curtail the spread of the Covid-19 in the nation, he noted that the authorities have a database of all persons that took flight into Ghana from 3rd March and are able to identify them.



He explained there were about thirty-four thousand travelers and 400 flights into the country, however not all the travelers are infected.



The flights, he added, have been narrowed down to 28 and all persons on board are being traced in order to have their samples tested.



''We have to fish out those people and test them. We know the location of a lot of them, so we have to ensure they are tested . . . The President met with us to go back into all the flight manifests and about 34,000 people entered the country from the 3rd (of March). But among the 34,000, not all of them came from the affected countries; so they can be exempted. Some also underwent self-quarantine for more than 14 days and those category of people can also be exempt," he said.



The Information Minister asked Ghanaians to cooperate with the President and make the lockdown exercise easy by staying home.



He stressed that the lockdown is to help authorities engage in aggressive testing nationwide, disclosing that there are currently 30,000 test kits and the government is procuring additional ones to augment the exercise.



"We have to do enhanced testing exercise within the next 2 weeks . . . we know people that we believe are at risk; those we say are 'at risk population'. So, we had to impose restrictions to identify these people within the 2 weeks and get them tested to curtail the spread and to teach those who are not infected about the precautionary measures . . . the two-week restriction period that the President, after several hours and days of consideration that he's given us, is not restriction for restriction sake.



". . it's a period that gives us the opportunity to halt 1. the potential spread but 2. the main thing is to engage in some aggressive testing.



"We want to go ahead of the virus," he emphasized.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A special flight from Afghanistan carrying 31 Indians, including diplomats and ITBP personnel, landed at the Delhi airport on Monday and the passengers were sent to a quarantine facility set up in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, officials said.

Officials had earlier said that a total of 35 people were brought on the plane.

They were brought on a Kam Air flight from Kabul that landed at about 2:40 pm at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport.

"There are 31 passengers on the special flight from Kabul that includes four diplomats, 26 ITBP men and a civilian," a senior official said.

Their medical samples will be taken to check coronavirus symptoms, he said.

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police is deployed to guard the main Indian embassy complex in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul and four consulates in Herat, Kandhar, Jalalabad and Mazar-e-Sharif.

The passengers were screened with temperature guns by ITBP personnel at the tarmac and were sent to the quarantine facility in the Chhawla area of southwest Delhi.

The centre already has 481 Indians who were recently rescued from COVID-19 affected Rome in Italy.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Gardai investigating an aggravated burglary in Cork have arrested a man in his late 20s.

Gardai said that at around 2.30am this morning, the man broke into a house in the Mahon area.

When discovered by the homeowner, he proceeded to assault the woman using a metal travel mug.

Gardai said the male fled the scene when disturbed by another member of the household.

The woman, aged in her 50s, received injuries to her head. No property was taken from the premises.

The man was later arrested and taken to Bridewell Garda Station, Cork where he is currently detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.

Gardai said that investigations ongoing.
www.courtnayerichard.com

Hey Sister! At the time of this writing, majority of us are being quarantined in our homes during the Coronavirus. So my question this week is How are doing in there? Are you sick or are you well? If youre sick, Im praying for you, sister. And if youre well, take advantage of this down time, because when were all back out into the world and into our normal routines, well be praying for some much needed quiet time or extra time catching up on things.

With that being said whether youre working outside of the home, because youre needed on the job or in the health field, or whether youre quarantined at the moment, I want to suggest a few helpful tips during this time. Are you ready?

Here goes

Rest when you can

Get up earlier to spend some time with the Lord in quiet (or stay up a little later, when everyone else is asleep)

Study a book of the Bible (like really study  notebook, pen, highlighters, etc.)

Memorize and meditate on Scripture (grab a few index cards or type them up)

Read a few books that youve been wanting to read (now that things are slower-paced)

Cultivate your gifts or research topics for your ministry, brand, or business (take good notes)

Join a Facebook Group, connect, and grow together online

Connect with family members, friends, mastermind groups, or bible study groups through Skype or Zoom

Share the gospel, Gods Word, or encouragement with someone at the grocery store or online

Do a puzzle with the family (even if its just you alone or with your spouse)

Play games with your family or play one on your phone

Watch a good movie (or a few good movies)

Call a friend or family member that you havent chatted with in awhile

Take a bubble bath and simply relax

This time will eventually be over. So take advantage of this break. And remember, when we put God first and His righteousness, everything else will be added unto us (Matthew 6:33). Gods got us. He will supply all that we have need of, according to His riches in glory (Philippians 4:19). You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Philippians 4:13).

So take care of yourself. Use wisdom. Be alert in all things. And until the next posthang in there, sister. Literally.

Remember, Jesus is coming back soon! And those who endure unto the end shall be saved. So lets be ready from the Inside Out!

~Courtnaye

QUESTION: So again, how are you doing, sis? Are there any tips here that you would like to apply this week? Also, need prayer? If so, write it out here or you can email me directly to join you in prayer on it @ insideoutwithcourtnaye@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you and praying for you.

*Grab my NEW book today! Visit www.courtnayerichard.comor Amazonto order! Thanks!

Courtnaye Richardis the founder of Inside Out with Courtnaye, a ministry that helps women grow in their walk with Christ from the heart and equips them to fulfill their God-given purpose. She is also the author of the book, IDENTIFIED: Knowing Who You Are in Christ and Moving Forward in Your Purpose. Courtnaye is married with three beautiful children and is a contributing writer for ibelieve.com, Womens Ministry Tools, speaker of a host of womens conferences, and her blog reaches thousands of women across the globe. She resides in the beautiful Texas Hill Country (outside of Austin, Texas).
China's Culture Minister Luo Shugang has expressed his thanks and appreciation to Bahrain and to the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (BACA) for their sympathy and support to his country in its response to the coronavirus spread.

The minister highlighted in a letter to BACA President Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa the appreciation of the Chinese government and people of the efforts and measures taken by Bahrain to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and their belief that Bahrain and China will triumph over the virus through mutual support and assistance.

Luo Shugang expressed pride in the level of relations between the two countries and their development in all areas in general and in the cultural field in particular.

He added that he looked forward to consolidating cooperation and joint work with the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities.

The minister affirmed his keenness on coordination and support on the cultural policy between the two countries and his aspiration to speed up the resumption of joint cultural activities and events.
BEIJING, March 29 (Xinhua) -- China's Central Military Commission has released a set of revised regulations on the work related to social organizations for military personnel.

The revised regulations aim to provide more specific requirements for military personnel to participate in social organizations, including the number of organizations they were allowed to join and the posts allowed to hold in these organizations.

The regulations also stressed that in-service military personnel should join organizations that are directly related to their jobs.

The revised version went into effect starting March 24.
UK's specialized analytical publication PoultryWorld has published an article on the issues of the Ukrainian egg industry. The publication believes that the artificial bringing to bankruptcy of the largest Ukrainian egg producer, Avangard agricultural holding owned by Oleg Bakhmatyuk, would be "an unprecedented catastrophe for the entire Ukrainian agricultural industry," according to Ukrainian News.

Dark clouds hang over the Ukrainian egg industry, according to the British media outlet. Since the outbreak of the economic crisis in 2014 many companies have been under pressure with the large Avangard agricultural holding is now in a critical situation. If pressure on the holding leads to bankruptcy, it would be an unprecedented catastrophe for the entire agricultural sector of Ukraine, PoultryWorld said.

The publication notes the company survived the economic crisis that affected the country in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea by Russia. Bird stock reduced in 2015 as the farms in eastern Ukraine located near the conflict zone halted production. In addition, domestic demand for eggs fell due to a decrease in consumption during crisis. However, the company has largely shifted to exports, which has been showing annual growth.

The British publication writes that the recent problems have started due to a conflict between owner of the agricultural holding Oleg Bakhmatyuk and the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). "[T]he recent conflict between Oleh Bakhmatyuk, the owner of Avangard, and the Ukraine authorities could indicate that the situation is getting out of hand."

"Avangard agricultural holdings' international creditors have recently written a letter to Prime Minister Alexey Honcharuk asking whether the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine should investigate Oleh Bakhmatyuk."

This is about a criminal case opened by NABU to refinance the bank, which the businessman himself considers pressure on his business. Bakhmatyuk is now openly talking about the possible bankruptcy of his egg giant, saying "achieving a constructive position with creditors and the government will save far more than the value of the holdings, while attempting to sell off the assets in parts will only lead to a greater loss." Apart from the company crashing, there is also the threat of an illegal takeover, writes PoultryWorld.

"The bankruptcy of Avangard would cause turbulence not only in Ukraine but also on the global egg market," a source in the Ukraine poultry industry who wished to not be named told Poultry World. "Avangard is a fairly efficient company. But there is common sense and there is policy, and sometimes policy prevails."

The Avangard agricultural holding is one of the largest producers of eggs and egg products in the world. As of the end of 2018, the agricultural holding occupied 30% of the industrial egg market and 66% of the Ukrainian market of dry egg products. Avangard (AVANGARDCO IPL) is the largest exporter of eggs and dry egg products in Ukraine and sells products in more than 40 countries, mainly in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, the CIS and the EU.
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On July 21, 1861, spectators traveled to Manassas, Virginia to witness the first battle of the American Civil War. The rich citizenry of the Union wanted to see how easily the Confederacy would collapse against the Federal Army, giving a quick end to the secessionist slave-owning states. Unfortunately, the Union Army came decidedly unprepared, and the Confederacy won that battle, sending the spectators scurrying, as well as the entire Union for four years. If a stand had been made hundreds of years ago, proclaiming equality for all Americans and ending slavery during independence, we likely would not have had such a dire situation for the coming years.

On January 21, 2020, some 140 first-year medical students and I sat in a large lecture hall at Rush Medical College, waiting to take an assessment on what we had learned so far about the respiratory system. To manage my anxiety, I decided to look at the news, where an alert flashed across the screen: CDC expected to announce first coronavirus patient in the U.S. Huh, I thought. It probably wasnt a huge deal. The United States had worked through H1N1, Ebola, and other recent global disease scares. Our health care system is deeply flawed, but it could fight those illnesses without significant disruption to our daily lives. In a sense, like many fellow residents in America, I found myself as a spectator in this battle against COVID-19. Yes, it might be hard for a while, but this fight was going to be over soon.

Instead, today, on March 28, 2020, COVID-19 has claimed more than 10,000 lives, sickened more than half a million people, made billions of people stay at home, and is overwhelming nearly every hospital infrastructure in the world. Instead of saying, See you later, we say, Stay safe. Health professional students have been told to go home, as our classes have all moved to virtual formats. Effectively, students are currently on the sidelines for this war, but there is still plenty we can do to alleviate the burden on our health care and social systems, and here are just a couple reasons how:

1. Volunteer: Are you feeling bored stuck at home? Same! If you are not immunocompromised, have preexisting conditions, or have recent travel history, consider helping out in the community! A call for volunteers has been put out by multiple organizations and institutions to help social services and hospitals during this time of need. Health professional students are putting out drives to collect PPE for their hospitals, including Manvita Tatavarthy and Karina Parekh at Rush in Chicago, while Deji Adeniyi, Carissa Ho, and fellow Columbia health students are looking to purchase PPE for the besieged hospitals of New York City. In addition, take time to donate blood at your closest American Red Cross center, as blood drives and regular sources of donation are quickly running low.

Is it terrible that we have to rely on donations and volunteers to fund and run our health care system? Yes. But for now, its a small task we can provide to help stop COVID-19.

2. Dont scapegoat: There have already been multiple reports describing an increase in hate crimes and discrimination against those of Asian descent in the United States. Reports are that the G7 could not put forward a concrete statement to the pandemic since the United States government insisted on calling the disease the Wuhan virus. Reducing this disease to the country of origin, as well as harassing people who simply look like they might carry a virus, is not only a blow towards values of tolerance and inclusion, but also does nothing to tackle the disease at hand. Diseases, as a speaker in my health equity class once said, do not discriminate. If a lifeless organism is not differentiating how it goes about a population, how helpful is it if humans ostracize and attack distinct subsets based on erroneous assumptions?

Shut down talk of racializing the disease in your friend and family circles. If people in positions of authority propagate that idea, report them. In this pandemic, we are all together, not separate, in our response.

3. Prepare for the future: This disease, and the response, will not be a blip in the year 2020. Our response, preparedness, and the societal ramifications to COVID-19 will be discussed for years to come. They deserve a deep reflection on how the social services and health care systems in the world deal with crisis. Why does a country with the highest health care spending per capita in the world still struggle to provide basic resources to its health care personnel? How can we increase blood donations when we have regulations preventing the LGBT community from participating in the effort based on their sexual activity? The United States prides itself on global health initiatives, but in this crisis, we have not adequately collaborated with our global partners to effectively tackle this disease. As the next health care providers and leaders of tomorrow, be attuned to these developments, and be ready to propose solutions in the years to come.

It is time to stop being spectators. We are at a critical turning point in our fight against this disease, and our actions now will determine whether we stay on the sidelines, or put an effective end to the scourge of the disease. If we want to avoid a deadlier and costlier battle for the years to come, students, and the general public, have to take steps to work together to disrupt disease transmission and increase cooperation. In the case these steps are not taken, humanity may soon be facing its own Civil War, where our societal fabric may be further ripped apart.

Adithya Sivakumar is a medical student.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
Parsley Energy and Pioneer Natural Resources, two of the most active oil companies in Texas, on Monday asked the Railroad Commission to hold an emergency meeting and order production cuts at a time when record low crude prices threaten hundreds of thousands of jobs.

The request comes as the U.S. benchmark crude settled Monday just above $20, nearly a two-decade low, as a global price war and the coronavirus pandemic combine to crush oil prices.

The Railroad Commission, which regulates the state's oil industry, canceled its March meeting as the outbreak widened, and it's not scheduled to meet until April 21. The two companies filed a Monday afternoon petition asking the commission to hold an emergency meeting before then.

"The situation requires urgent and immediate action," said Matt Gallagher, CEO of Austin-based Parsley.

Coronavirus: Pipeline operators may seek legal protection as storage fills

Crude oil, which for most of 2019 traded between $50 and $60 a barrel, have collapsed since January. The coronavirus outbreak kicked off the decline as fears mounted that its spread would slash global demand for oil and its refined products. As those fears became a reality, Russia and Saudi Arabia exacerbated a longtime global oil glut by pumping even more after they failed to agree on production cuts to soften the price collapse.

The result has caused pain for the energy companies, particularly those in Texas' shale plays, where $50 oil typically is needed to break even. Effects are being felt from wells to gasoline pumps.

Refining companies are selling gasoline at record-low prices and cutting back on production. Pipeline operators with full storage tanks are asking some Texas oil companies to stop production. Industry experts fear the pipeline firms may soon invoke contract clauses allowing them to stop buying and shipping millions of barrels of oil per day, creating billions of dollars of losses for oil producers and forcing them to shut down oil wells. That scenario would cascade through the industry, leading to thousands more jobs cut in production and oil field services.

Fuel Fix: Get daily energy news headlines in your inbox

Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton, one of the panel's three elected officials, says he supports holding an emergency meeting and discussing the issue in a public setting using videoconferencing to comply with public health "social distancing" recommendations.

On top of the situation with pipeline operators, Sitton said the oil and gas industry is facing tremendous process across the supply chain.

"I'm hearing today that there are some Permian Basin operators receiving offers as low as $6 per barrel at the well head on their futures contracts," Sitton said.
To the Editor:

Re Letting Go of Your Fantasy Birth Plan, by Rosemary Counter (Sunday Review, March 8):

Letting go of your fantasy birth plan suggests that birthing the way you want is not only impossible but also entitled. Women must plan; too often our needs are not met in hospitals, and our unnecessary cesarean and maternal mortality rates are too high.

Preparation for birth has never been more important, considering the many additional unknowns in this wild time. All the more reason to prepare and advocate for yourself.

The more pregnant women can learn about labor, their bodies and how to give birth, the better and more confidently they can navigate the many unknowns that birth brings.

I prepared for my births, two in the hospital and one at home, carefully selecting providers, taking childbirth classes, reading books, practicing labor positions and meditating. My preparations were the foundation of three totally different, empowering experiences that eased my difficult transition into motherhood.
PR-Inside.com: 2020-03-30 14:26:02

Total donation recipient countries in Asia increased to 23

Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation Donation Arrives in Laos to Combat Covid-19

Dian Safitri

Alibaba Group

+62811852004

dian.safitri@alibaba-inc.com

Covid-19 test kits donated by the Jack Ma Foundation and the Alibaba Foundation arrived in Vientiane at Wattay International Airport on Saturday March 28. They will be distributed across the country by the Ministry of Health of the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (PDR).

Dr Boufeng Phoummalaysith, Vice Minister of Health of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR), took receipt of the donation in a ceremony at the Ministrys office today. Also present to witness this private philanthropic initiative were Mr. Wang Qihui, Counselor of the Economic and Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy in Laos, and senior government officials of the Lao PDR, including Mr. Somchith Inthamith, Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce, and Ms. Phongsamouth Anlavan, Acting Director General Asia Pacific and Africa Department.

We hope this donation will help Laos in the battle against Covid-19. It is a challenge to source and transport medical supplies to where it is needed the most, but we are working hard to get it done, said the Jack Ma Foundation.

The donation to Laos is part of the two foundations pledge to deliver medical supplies to 10 Asian countries announced on March 21. These 10 countries include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Collectively, the 10 nations will receive a total of 1.8 million masks, 210,000 test kits and 36,000 units of protective clothing, as well as essential medical equipment that include ventilators and forehead thermometers.

To date, the two Foundations have donated medical supplies to 23 Asian countries totaling 7.4 million masks; 485,000 test kits; 100,000 sets of protective clothing along with other medical equipment.

These donations are among a number of aid initiatives from the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation to support the areas of the world most affected by the Covid-19 crisis. This includes sourcing and delivering various types of medical supplies to countries and regions across Asia, North America, Latin America, Europe and Africa.

The Foundations have published and distributed a handbook detailing learnings and best practices from the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, for treating Covid-19 patients: https://covid-19.alibabacloud.com/

More initiatives and donations are expected to be announced over the coming days and weeks.

Follow @JackMa and @foundation_ma on Twitter for the latest efforts of Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation to support the global fight against Covid-19.

About Jack Ma Foundation

Established by Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group, the Jack Ma Foundation was founded on December 15, 2014 and has been focusing on education, entrepreneurship, womens leadership, and the environment. The Foundation aspires to be a reliable, participative, and sustainable philanthropic organization. The Jack Ma Foundation has so far supported projects worldwide including the Jack Ma Rural Education Program, the Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative, the Ma & Morley Scholarship Program, and Jordans Queen Rania Foundation. Additionally, the Foundation has also funded a number of projects in its priority areas. The Jack Ma Foundation is committed to empowering rural educators, entrepreneurs, rural children, young start-ups, and women to equip them for the future and to help build a happier, healthier, more sustainable and more inclusive society.

About Alibaba Foundation

The Alibaba Foundation, established in December 2011, aims to create a culture that encourages people to get involved in philanthropy, make it sustainable and genuinely contribute to civil society and nature. Its key funding aspects include water protection, environmental awareness promotion and development of green organizations. Alibaba Group is committed to devoting a percentage of its annual income to the Alibaba Foundation to ensure stable long-term funding that will allow for timely response in the event of natural disasters or expansion of philanthropic projects.

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With 2,856 people of the State, who have returned from abroad during the last 14 days untraceable by district surveillance teams, Odisha government has asked all collectors and municipal commissioners to focus on surveillance and contact tracing of people who have returned from coronavirus affected areas.

These persons could infect others unless home quarantined, said Odisha health secretary Nikunja Bihari Dhal asking the officials to contact them at the earliest to ensure their home quarantine.

The state surveillance teams have so far identified 167 people, who came in contact with the three Covid-19 patients in the state, including 112 contacts of the latest patient.

Dhal said active surveillance is the foundation of prevention and containment. The three most important pillars of the states containment strategy is active surveillance, risk-based testing and quarantine of contacts of confirmed cases irrespective of symptoms, he said.

Odisha has so far seen only three Covid-19 cases after testing of 370 samples.

Also read: Odisha suggests release of 1700 inmates to decongest jails

In a related development, the Odisha government has decided to provide extensive training to medical students so that they can be deployed in case of any emergency arising out of the coronavirus outbreak.

As the treatment and management of Covid-19 cases require extreme caution and professionalism, the state government is planning to impart necessary training to the medical students as per the prescribed protocols.

The state government decided that seventh, eighth and ninth-semester students of medical colleges will be trained so that they could be deployed in case a need arises.

Private medical colleges have also been asked to train their doctors and students simultaneously.

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A 41 percent annual decline in cut and polished diamond exports led to a cumulative exports fall of 19 percent year-on-year for the overall gems and jewellery industry in February 2020, it added.

Mumbai: The gems and jewellery exports are expected to witness a sharp decline in March as well as in the first quarter of the next fiscal due to disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak, according to a report.

An industry that is largely trade-oriented and attracts over over 5,000 exhibitors and 1,00,000 buyers at various trade fairs has witnessed a continuous decline in exports in all of the 11 months of FY20, with February 2020 being a major disappointment, CARE Ratings said in a report.

A 41 percent annual decline in cut and polished diamond exports led to a cumulative exports fall of 19 percent year-on-year for the overall gems and jewellery industry in February 2020, it added.

The gems and jewellery industry continued to face hurdles in the form of high custom duty on key commodities, continuous fall in exports and restrictions on the availability of bank credit and to add to this, recent outbreak of COVID-19 in top consuming markets including USA, Europe, China, Hong Kong and other south-east Asian nations has worsened the situation further for players operating in this industry, the report said.

"This has temporarily disrupted operations of all members in the value chain. Due to this, the exports of gems and jewellery from India are expected to witness sharp decline not only in March 2020, but also in Q1-FY21," it added.

There could be heavy loss for domestic jewellery retailers as well, who were already distressed with lax demand due to escalated gold prices in the last few months and have now temporarily shut their stores due to the lockdown imposed in the country.

Domestic retailers will face loss of revenue, stress on profitability and lengthening of operating cycles, which could further dampen their borrowing abilities in future, it added.

The upcoming festivities of Akshaya Tritiya may not offer much cheerful signs, as jewellery demand is expected to remain muted in the short term, the rating agency said.

Short-term outlook for the gems and jewellery industry is negative, while long term prospects remain positive, owing to growing consciousness of branded jewellery, increasing purchasing power in tier II and III cities, increasing working women population and rising preference towards diamond jewellery, it added.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30)  The entire fleet of charter airline Lionair has been grounded after one of its medical evacuation aircraft caught fire while it was taking off at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines spokesperson Eric Apolonio on Monday said the order covers all seven of Lionair's planes and helicopters "while investigation is ongoing."

The Agusta WW24 aircraft carrying a patient caught fire Sunday, just before 8 p.m. and killed all the eight people on board. Filipino doctor Nicko Bautista, an American national, a Canadian national and five other Filipinos perished in the flight. The Filipinos also included a flight medic, a nurse, and three flight crew.

Apolonio told CNN Philippines the investigation into the ill-fated incident may take six months to a year.

He said the cockpit voice recorder of the medical evacuation plane has been retrieved, which will help authorities investigate the second fatal incident in less than a year involving Lionair.

In September 2019, a Lionair twin-engine plane exploded mid-air and crashed into a resort village in Barangay Pansol in Calamba, Laguna. The crash killed nine passengers, including the pilot and co-pilot.

CAAP said the two air incidents cannot be compared.

"Same operator but its's a different kind of aircraft. We cannot speculate," Apolonio said.
TDT | Manama

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has issued an order to help needy families registered with the Royal Humanitarian Foundation (RHF) and the Ministry of Labour and Social Development who have been affected by coronavirus (COVID-19).

His Majesty directed the RHF, under the chairmanship of HM the Kings representative for Charity Work and Youth Affairs and RHF Board of Trustees chairman HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa to oversee the implementation of the royal donation, in cooperation with the relevant parties.

HH Shaikh Nasser extended his heartfelt thanks and gratitude to HM the King, the RHF Honorary President, for his paternal care for all components of the Bahraini society. HH Shaikh Nasser also lauded the royal keenness to provide the Bahraini people with a decent life and support to the needy.

He voiced the RHFs pledge to implement the royal donation, commending the efforts of the National Taskforce to Combat COVID-19 to contain the virus in the Kingdom by applying all preventative measures and international standards which has earned Bahrain international praise from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

HH Shaikh Nasser lauded the close follow-up of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, and pointed out his keenness to serve the Kingdoms interests and ensure the peoples safety.

For his part, RHF secretary general Dr. Mustafa Sayed stressed the royal keenness to reach out to citizens needs and provide them with every support in all circumstances.

He pointed out that, in line with the royal donation and the directives of HH Shaikh Nasser, the RHF will coordinate with the National Taskforce and the ministry to ensure that basic commodities reach the needy families who are registered through the help of 500 volunteers from a special RHF team.
[March 30, 2020] DNI Metals Update - Coronavirus, Status of Mining Permits and other operational information inclusive of the Fraud Trial of DNI's previous Country Manager in Madagascar

DNI Metals Inc. (DNI: CSE; DNMKF: OTC) ("DNI" or the "Company") Coronavirus- Madagascar In order to prevent the risk of the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the Government of Madagascar has declared a state of sanitary emergency for a period of 15 days, with effect from 21 March 2020. In order to restrict human contact as far as possible, all passenger flights have been suspended, personal travel is strictly limited, and public transport services are no longer permitted to operate. DNI's management team and board are all in Canada and are showing no signs of the virus. Permits At the request of the Autorite des marches financiers ("AMF), DNI is providing this update on the status of its operations (inclusive of its mining permits) in Madagascar. Vohitsara (Permit 38642) On July 22, 2015, under the guidance of the former DNI Madagascar Country Manager, DNI Metals Inc. issued the following press release: "DNI is pleased to announce that it has been granted full commercial Mining Licence ("Permis d' Exploitation" or "PE") for its Vohitsara graphite project in Madagascar. Originally an artisanal mining permit ('PRE') at the time of the transaction, the Mining permit was granted by the Madagascar Minister for Mines through the national mining cadastre office ("Bureau du Cadastre Minier de Madagascar" or "BCMM).

The BCMM is the government agency responsible for administration and oversight of all mining tenements in Madagascar. The obtaining of a full PE marks a significant milestone for DNI in Madagascar; as it allows DNI to move to full commercial production at its option, subject to completion / fulfillment of the requisite environmental impact and social responsibility (''EIE' & "CSR' (News - Alert)) studies and obligations." DNI has received legal opinions from qualified Malagasy counsel, that it owns PE permit 38642. Marofody (Permit 8904) On October 27, 2017, under the guidance of the former DNI Madagascar Country Manager, DNI issued the following press release: "DNI Metals Inc. Completes Purchase of a 2nd Graphite Property in Madagascar. The new property, Madagascar claim number PE8904 (the 'Marofody' project), is a permit that allows for production, is good for 40 years, and can be extended." DNI also owns PE permit 8904. Title Cards On July 21, 2015, six days after the former DNI Madagascar Country Manager filed all of the DNI registration and conversion documents with the Madagascar Mining Cadastre Office "BCMM", DNI received a certificate of registration ("certificat d'enregistrement") for its Vohitsara project. According to this certificate of registration, the PRE was being transferred and transformed into a PE in the name of DNI. The same information was confirmed by another BCMM certificate of registration issued on 12 December 2017. On December 28, 2017, the DNI Madagascar country manager (now terminated) provided senior management and the board a copy of a ministerial order No.9304/2017 ("arrete n9304/2017"). The Minister of Mines issued this "arrete" wherein it stated that the procedure of transfer, and transformation of the PRE into a PE was recorded (in French, "enregistree"). The Minister warned that the "arrete" was provisional and should not be used prior to its publication date in the "journal official de la Republique." DNI continues to press the government to issue the title cards for the permits as DNI believesthat it is legally required to do and that it is making progress in that regard. No assurance can be made that the title cards for either project will be issued in a timely manner. The government of Madagascar has put on hold the issuing of all licenses, permits and title cards, as they are considering changing some of the mining laws.



On February 21, 2020 the government issued the following: "The steering committee for the modification of the mining code is now in place. It is responsible for carrying out the work of reflection and drafting of the draft reform of the Mining Code. This steering committee is made up of five groups. The first group constitutes the administration which will be composed of the ministries in charge of Mines and Strategic Resources, Decentralization, Finance and Budget, the Environment and the State Secretariat in charge of the Gendarmerie. The second group includes mining operators Grande mine while the 3E group consists of mining operators Small Mines and other actors in all links of the industry chain. As for the 4th group, it represents civil society and finally the last group is made up of trade unions. These stakeholders will thus meet to seek a compromise in the context of the reform of this Mining Code," said the minister of mines, Fidiniavo Ravokatra, at the first meeting of this steering committee yesterday in Ampandrianomby.

They plan to present the potential changes to the mining laws at the next parliament meeting in June. We note that due to the Coronavirus, this could be delayed. Local Issues and DNI's previous Country Manager In January of 2017, the DNI team, held information meetings with the local residents prior to commencing the drilling program. The Main zone and the SW zone on DNI's Vohitsara claim have two villages, the Village of Vohitsara and the Village of Ambatolampy. The DNI team and the Ministry of Agriculture, formulated a process to compensate the locals for damage to any of their crops, incurred from the drilling program. A few of the locals were not happy with the compensation, and were upset with DNI's previous Madagascar team, in the way they were treated. The locals commenced a legal action, against DNI, and in particular against DNI's previous Madagascar team. They also tried to claim that DNI did not have the right to complete an exploration program. On December 4, 2017 the Court decided in DNI's favour on all accounts, and that it had the right to complete exploration on the Vohitsara property, since the previous owner had received permission under the PRE permit provision. On December 15, 2017, the Ambatolampy group filed an appeal. On May 15, 2018 the appeals Court, Cour D'Appel de Toamasina, rejected some of the decisions handed down by the judge's decision on December 4, 2017. The appeal judge added that he felt that no decision had yet been rendered by the administrative body with regard to the request for transfer and transformation of the PRE into a PE. The appeal court further stated that the transfer and transformation procedure is ongoing and that the title card has not yet been granted. On August 16, 2018, DNI filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of Madagascar. On October 15, 2018, the DNI Madagascar team lead by the former Country Manager, Steven Goertz, was terminated, and Daniel Weir, DNI's CEO, took charge of all operations in Madagascar. Steven Goertz refused to return to DNI any and all corporate documentation in his possession. After an investigation was completed by Daniel Weir, DNI was able to come to a settlement with the Ambatolampy group, and all court actions were withdrawn on February 13, 2019. The terms of the settlement are confidential, and were deemed non-material to the company, according to accounting standards. Mr. Weir and DNI's new team, has been able to build a new and strong relationship with the locals and the local governments. They are supportive of DNI getting into production. In fact, they have written letters the federal government of Madagascar, showing their support. Conditional Approval of Environmental Licenses DNI has received conditional approval of its Environmental Licenses for its Vohitsara and Marofody Graphite Projects from the Office National pour l'Environnement (the National Office for the Environment or "ONE"). The Environmental documents will be released to DNI, once DNI shows the original title cards. The previous Madagascar Country Manager notified the Management and the Board of DNI that he had seen the title cards. We now do not believe this to be true. Fraud Trial While investigating the permitting process completed by the previous Madagascar Country Manager and his team, the "ONE" claimed that documents presented to DNI Senior Management and Board in Canada had been forged. The previous Madagascar Country Manager had withdrawn the funds from DNI's bank account in Madagascar and yet according to the "ONE" did not pay the permit fees to the government. Under Malagasy law, if a person becomes aware of a crime it must be reported to the police. Therefore, Daniel Weir reported the fraud to the police. The fraud being, that the former DNI Madagascar team lead by Steven Goertz, the former Country Manager, had forged government documents and misappropriated the applicable funds. Under Malagasy law it is also illegal not to file the corporate taxes in a timely manner. As the previous DNI Madagascar team refused to return the corporate documents to DNI, Daniel Weir on behalf of DNI had to file a report with the police stating that the pertinent corporate documents required to file the taxes had been lost or stolen. As Steven Goertz still held those documents in his possession, he was able to claim that the report filed with the police claiming the documents were lost or stolen was technically invalid. On February 19, 2020, a trial was held. On March 5, 2020 a judgement and sentencing was released. The formal reports from that trial have yet to be released, due to the coronavirus, but counsel for DNI has reported that Mr. Steven Goertz, (the former DNI Madagascar Country Manager and team leader) was convicted of fraud, in regard to the missing funds, creating false permitting documentation and fake receipts. The sentencing includes jail time, fines, and eviction from Madagascar. That said, that same judge found that Daniel Weir filed an invalid report with the police. Mr. Weir has appealed the decision against him. Mr. Goertz cannot appeal his conviction, since he and his lawyers chose not to attend the trial. DNI may have further details once it can access the court documents. DNI - CSE

DMNKF - OTC

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In the days after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Doug Walsh turned his Jersey Shore BBQ in Belmar into a soup kitchen for first responders, locals and "anybody who wanted a meal.''

It took no one by surprise when the Middletown native last week launched the JSBBQ Hospital Workers Fundraiser, with the proceeds going to meals for doctors, nurses and other staff at Central Jersey hospitals.

In less than a week, $8,600 has been raised  half through in-store donations and on Venmo (jsbbq_hwf), and half by Walsh, who is matching all donations.

"Were taking every cent and buying product,'' he said.

The money is used to assemble boxed meals for local health care workers, with Walsh and Denis Barnao, owner of Jersey Shore BBQs East Brunswick restaurant, making the deliveries. The first delivery was on Friday, to a pediatricians office in Tinton Falls.

On Monday, 183 meals were delivered to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune City; on Wednesday, 100 meals will be dropped off at Monmouth Medical Center, he said. On Thursday, 100 meals will be delivered to St. Peters University Hospital in New Brunswick, and the following day 200 meals will be delivered to Hackensack Meridian Ocean Medical Center in Brick.

Other hospitals will be added to the rotation as needs are ascertained.

"Everyone were talking to at the hospitals is overwhelmed by the generosity,'' Walsh said.

Each boxed meal is a combination of chicken, pulled pork and mac 'n cheese; cole slaw has also been offered. The meals are put together by Walshs current staff of six; it was formerly 18.

"Every nurse Ive talked to at the hospitals says its a war zone,'' said Walsh, who opened Jersey Shore BBQ in 2010. "Any time they can sit down and have a hot meal is great. The nurses at Jersey Shore Medical Center told me theyre only serving chicken fingers and fries in the cafeteria.''

Jersey Shore BBQs customers are also appreciative of Walshs fundraising efforts.

Comments about Doug Walsh on Jersey Shore BBQ's Facebook page.

The restaurant, on my list of N.J.'s best barbecue joints and part of the best strip mall for food in N.J., is open for takeout only. On Sunday, Walsh was promoting his "smokey sweet rib tips'' tossed in Texas BBQ Sauce "fresh off of the smoker'' on his Facebook page.

Walsh came by barbecue the roundabout way: he was doing tech consultant work in Texas when he "fell in love with the food  brisket, ribs, intense smoking.'' Back in Jersey, he started doing barbecue cookouts in his backyard. That led to catering, which led to the Belmar storefront. A second Jersey Shore BBQ location opened in 2017 in East Brunswick.

Dough Walsh, co-owner, Jersey Shore BBQ in Belmar

Business has been slammed by the coronavirus-caused state lockdown.

"Ive lost every (previously scheduled) graduation, communion, confirmation, christening, backyard barbecue, rehearsal dinner (this summer),'' he said. "Ive had massive cancellations on all events this summer.'' A 300-person event Jersey Shore BBQ had been scheduled to cater last Friday also went by the wayside.

"Thats a big hit,'' he added.

Despite the restaurants financial losses, the Hospital Workers Fundraiser will continue.

'Our business is way down, but as long as we can sustain this were going to do it,' he explained. "Making sure people on the front lines can get a hot meal is our sole driver.''

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

Peter Genovese may be reached at pgenovese@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @PeteGenovese or via The Munchmobile @NJ_Munchmobile.
When Nima Amraa returned to the Gaza Strip from neighboring Egypt earlier this month, she was surprised to learn she was being placed in a makeshift quarantine centre set up by the ruling Hamas group.

But her initial jitters turned to fear when two fellow travellers in another facility tested positive for the coronavirus the first cases to be confirmed in Gaza.

"Once there were cases of the virus spreading, we started to feel afraid and disappointed," Amraa, a 30-year-old journalist, said by phone from quarantine, where she has spent a week-and-a-half sleeping in a room with five other women and sharing a bathroom.

The virus found a way into Gaza, even though the Mediterranean enclave has been largely cut off from the world by an Israeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas militants seized it 13 years ago.

Yet the terrifying possibility of an outbreak in one of the world's most crowded territories 2 million people squeezed into an area twice the size of Washington, DC does not seem to have registered fully. Many in Gaza seem to accept Hamas assurances that the threat is contained.

In the meantime, Hamas is racing to build two massive quarantine facilities hoping to prevent the disease from spreading and overwhelming Gaza's already shattered health system.

The construction was ordered after photos surfaced from makeshift centers mostly schools showing people celebrating birthday parties with visiting relatives, food being delivered by volunteers and groups of people smoking water pipes together.

Amraa said it was immediately clear that the school where she was placed was not prepared to house so many people.

"I was worried after seeing that we will sleep on mattresses on the floor and we will be six in one room. We eat together and there is no isolation," she said.

She said she and her roommates take precautions, such as avoiding direct contact and keeping their beds two metres apart from each other. But that might not be enough to keep the virus from spreading.

Last week, seven Hamas security guards who were in the facility housing the first two cases became infected themselves.

"We have been very clear on how the quarantine facilities should look like and offer in terms of facilities and services and support," said Dr Gerald Rockenschaub, the World Health Organisation's director in the Palestinian territories.

"But this is obviously easier said than done in Gaza, where there is substantial shortage in almost everything."



Although movement in and out of Gaza has been heavily restricted since 2007, it is not cut off altogether. The first two virus cases were men who had returned from a religious conference in Pakistan, part of a wave of hundreds of returnees who were placed into quarantine.

No one knows how much farther the virus has spread. Only 20 per cent of the roughly 1,700 people in quarantine have been tested.

Gaza's people live mainly in densely populated cities and refugee camps. The health care system is in shambles a result of the blockade, three wars between Hamas and Israel and chronic under-funding due to infighting between Hamas and the rival Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Gaza has only 60 breathing machines and all but 15 are already in use, according to the WHO.

The agency has been assisting local health officials and has been working with Israeli authorities, who have no direct contact with Hamas, to import desperately needed equipment and supplies from international donors.

Most people infected by the virus experience only mild symptoms, such as fever and cough, and recover within a few weeks. But the virus can cause severe illness and death, particularly in older patients or those with underlying health problems.

High rates of obesity, smoking and stress-related disorders appear to make Gaza's population especially vulnerable.

Hamas has sought to beef up its quarantine efforts in recent days, opening 18 additional facilities in clinics and hotels and declaring them off-limits. It also has banned weekly street markets and shut down wedding halls, cafes and mosques and extended quarantine periods by a week.

After seeing images of the makeshift facilities, Hamas' leader in Gaza, Yehiyeh Sinwar, ordered the group's military wing to build two new quarantine centres.

Situated on the territory's northern and southern borders, they will be able to hold 1,000 people. The group expects them to be ready within a week.

The public seems to have been calmed by Health Ministry claims that all virus patients are held in quarantine centres. Despite the shutdown orders, people still walk the streets and congregate around small coffee kiosks and noodle shops.

Last Friday, the crew for a Turkish TV station caused a panic after entering the field hospital where the nine infected people are being treated. The crew subsequently left the facility and broadcast a report the next day.

Hamas quickly put the crew members into quarantine and suspended the head of its media office for allowing them access to the facility.

Elsewhere, people still held wedding parties in their homes after wedding halls closed.

Israel, along with most Western nations, considers Hamas a terrorist group.

But it likely fears the fallout from a catastrophic outbreak would spill over the frontier.

Qatar, which provides extensive humanitarian aid to Gaza, has also stepped in, pledging USD 150 million in aid. The Gaza Health Ministry says it urgently needs over USD 20 million to stave off the collapse of the health system if there is a major outbreak.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Complaints about Torontonians purportedly flouting coronavirus rules  ones that grew even stricter this weekend  are keeping Torontos 311 operators busy, with some callers even wanting to submit video and photo evidence.

On Friday and Saturday, the citys 311 hotline received about 700 COVID-19 enforcement-type inquiries, including calls from people concerned about others not keeping apart by the recommended two metres while using parks, trails and green spaces, according to Alex Burke, a senior communications adviser with the city.

There were also calls about an outdoor gathering of families and friends and a crew at a construction site not practising social distancing.

Some callers wanted to report non-essential businesses allegedly disobeying the order to close, including a barbershop, a furniture store and a bar letting patrons enter from side door. Others complained about price gouging, such as a store allegedly selling a box of masks for $70, something Premier Doug Ford vowed to crack down on over the weekend.

On Saturday, Ford announced that the province was taking stronger action to stop the spread of COVID-19 by prohibiting gatherings of more than five people, replacing a previous emergency order making it illegal for groups of 50 people to gather. The emergency orders will remain in place until March 31, when the province will reassess for an extension or end of the closures.

City of Toronto spokesperson Brad Ross said that on Sunday the 311 calls are being centralized by our Emergency Operations Centre for response and action. (311 call volumes during the work week have spiked  the number usually receives about 3,000 calls per day at this time of year, but the average number has increased to 4,000, and jumped as high as 4,600.)

Police and others with designated enforcement powers have the discretion to issue fines under the provincial Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act. Those fines include a $750 charge against someone who has failed to comply with an order made during a declared emergency. Its unclear if any such fines have been imposed.

We have confidence that Ontarians will follow the medical advice and follow the emergency orders issued, Stephen Warner, press secretary for the office of Solicitor General Sylvia Jones, wrote in email Sunday.

The new provincial five-person limit comes with some exceptions. They include private households with five people or more, and child-care centres still open to tend to the kids of front-line health-care workers and first responders, provided the number of persons at each centre does not exceed 50 people.

But just to have a party or have a social gathering, thats unacceptable, Ford told reporters.

The orders scope also includes weddings, yet the previous provincial order closing all non-essential workplaces means the reduction from 50 to five will have no extra immediate effect, Irene Hryniuk, CEO of Old Mill Toronto Hospitality Inc., said Sunday. The Old Mill, a popular venue in Etobicoke for weddings and other social gatherings, closed its doors March 17 after Ford announced the closure of all non-essential services in the province.

We were impacted Day One, she said Sunday.

Fortunately, March isnt the height of wedding season, said Hryniuk, so only a handful  and a couple of baby showers  have had to be rescheduled. Ninety-nine per cent of customers are postpone, find a different date, and wait.

One of the exceptions Ford announced was for funerals, which are permitted to proceed with up to 10 people at a time. The funeral and bereavement industry had already introduced more stringent rules by limiting on-site attendance to 10 or fewer people, not counting funeral staff, said David Brazeau, communications manager with Bereavement Authority of Ontario, the industry regulator.

Allan Cole, owner and president of MacKinnon and Bowes Ltd., said there will be no need for funeral homes to do head counts of mourners because services are already being regrettably altered from the norm.

Many services have either been reduced to small numbers, or have moved outside for graveside services because funeral homes are not anxious to receive families into the building and create an opportunity for transmission. His company provides services, such as vehicles and pallbearers, to funeral-home operators throughout Ontario.

For the most part, said Cole, I think youre seeing scaled-back versions of simple ceremonies ... with very, very few family members are present, but that still reflect the dignity and appropriateness, given the current challenges were facing.

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The coronavirus pandemic is expected to hit rural regions in the United States harder as these areas do not have full-time doctors and are not connected by roads.

There are at least 135,856 cases of the novel coronavirus in the United States, according to CNN Health's tally. Though the highest number of cases in New York, there are also significant clusters of Covid-19 in rural areas in the Midwest and South, including Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina, Vox reported.

Elise Pletnikoff, a family physician and the medical director of the Kodiak Area Native Association, said: "Our capacity will be the limiting factor, meaning not just equipment, but also the staff." Pletnikoff said when Covid-19 cases surge, "we're worried about how busy everyone will be."

On Friday, Alaska reported 85 cases and its first Covid-19-related death. According to experts, 40-70 per cent of the state's 737500 population will contract coronavirus.

Based on initial reports, 20 per cent, or 59,000 people, will need hospital care. Alaska only has 1,500 general hospital beds.The delay in transmission may be longer in some places than others. Data from Johns Hopkins University suggests that rural areas with popular tourist destinations -- like Blaine County, Idaho, home to Sun Valley -- actually already have the highest rates of cases outside of New York City and its surrounding areas.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Ghana Armed Force is demanding an apology and retraction from tv3 over what they described as false reportage during the 10pm news coverage on Saturday, March 30.

In a press statement, the Public Relations Directorate stated that the news item which purportedly showed troops from Burma Camp threatening residents of Kumasi during the impending partial lockdown exercise to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is totally untrue and deliberately staged with obvious malice intent.

The statement indicated that the news item is false with no foundation because the imputed statement is found to have been deliberately doctored.

They mentioned that the false reportage has created fear and anxiety among the general populace and the good people of Kumasi and its environs.

The Ghana Armed Forces (GFA) assured the general public that they will continue to live to the task of providing security for the citizenry and not to intimidate anyone.
Strengths The best performing metal this week was palladium, up 37.90 percent, essentially regaining all the losses from the prior two weeks. Platinum and silver also rebounded strongly. Gold headed for its biggest weekly gain since 2008 while platinum and palladium were on track for their biggest weekly increases on record. It was a smashing week for precious metals due to supply concerns over mine shutdowns in top producing South Africa. Palladium surged more than 20 percent on Tuesday, its biggest ever gain, after South Africa announced a 21-day coronavirus lockdown. Dmitry Glushakov, head of metals and mining research at VTC Capital, said the country accounts for some 70 percent of global platinum mined supply and 35 percent of palladium, with a 21-day lockdown possibly resulting in a 4 percent and 2 percent of 2020 supply reduction respectively. CME Group is planning to offer a new futures contract with expanded delivery options that include 100-troy ounce, 400-troy ounce and one-kilo gold bars, reports Bloomberg News. Derek Sammann, senior managing director and global head of commodity and options products for CME Group, said that this time of unprecedented market conditions has led to growing demand for a broader range of delivery needs for our clients worldwide. Silver demand is finally seeing some love. The Perth Mint reported a surge in demand, so much so, that it is diverting production resources to meet demand for the popular one ounce Silver Kangaroo coin. The U.S. Mint sold out of American Eagle silver coins and the closing of the Royal Canadian Mint has squeezed supply even further. Gold had its best two-day gain since 2016 on Monday, climbing 3.8 percent since last Thursday, after the Fed announced a huge second wave of initiatives to support the U.S. economy. Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank A/S, says its a really aggressive message made by the Fed and is a long-awaited relief for risk-on assets and gold, which had suffered recently from deleveraging. Economic damage expected from the virus has boosted bullions safe haven appeal. Weaknesses The worst performing metal this week was gold, up 8.64 percent. The gold market was thrown in a frenzy this week as investors rushed to get their hands on the metal amid a supply crunch. Logistical disruptions led to a wide divergence of prices in the U.S. and London. Contracts for delivery in New York were trading at a $60 premium to London  the highest premium since the 1980s. Bloomberg reports that most banks and traders ship gold around the world on commercial flights. But with most flights canceled and refineries closing due to lockdowns, it has become more challenging to buy and sell the metal. Metalors gold refinery in Singapore is running at much-reduced capacity due to a manpower shortage. There is a movement-control order in Malaysia where many workers live. Switzerlands gold refining hub, the biggest in Europe, halted output. Ludwig Karl, a board member of Swiss Gold Safe, an operator of high security vaults, said Its absolutely crazy whats going on. Right now, if somebody wants to buy gold, I wish them all the best in finding it. Most of the bullion dealers are closed. The All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council estimates that total purchases of gold jewelry in India are set to fall 30 percent in 2020. Demand had already been hit for months due to high domestic prices and slow economic growth. But now with the added virus threat and the entire county on lockdown, demand could fall to the lowest since 1995. The lockdown will prevent gold shops from opening and a drop in the rupee is keeping local gold prices elevated, reports Bloomberg. Opportunities Gold may reach $2,500 per ounce in the third quarter due to Fed stimulus, says B Riley FBR analysts led by Adam Graf in a note this week. Regardless of how much longer recession conditions will continue and how much further general equity markets might retreat, extreme monetary and fiscal stimulus policies enacted on a global basis will have repercussions. Graf upgraded Royal Gold to buy from neutral and recommends that investors be overweight gold and gold equities, reports Bloomberg. Goldman Sachs Group said gold bullion is at an inflection point and it is time to buy as the metal extended its rally on a fresh wave of stimulus measures. Goldman says the Feds move will help alleviate the funding stress that had driven gold lower and that investors would now pivot to focus on the expansion of its balance sheet, just as it did in 2008, reports Bloomberg. The U.S. finally passed its $2.2 trillion stimulus package on Friday  growing the deficit even further. Lastly, the analysts highlighted the rise in deficits of developed economies and how this will likely lead to debasement concerns similar to the post Global Financial Crisis period. While ounces produced may be down in 2020 due to the lockdowns, the margins for gold miners may be better, writes Michael McCrae of Kitco News. One-third of NYSE-listed senior gold miners have withdrawn 2020 production guidance as more and more mines are taken offline. Although this setback could be negative, miners are actually in good shape to weather the downturn, especially with oil prices as low as they are. Additionally, gold miners are cashed up due to gold performing well in 2019. Threats The Rand Refinery in South Africa will operate at reduced capacity during the nations 21-day lockdown. If the refinery has to do a complete shutdown, it would have a domino effect on the production across the continent. With the refinery closed, mines would stockpile their mined gold on the surface, which would create heightened security risks. Treasury holdings by foreign central banks held in custody at the New York Fed fell $31 billion to a two-year low of $2.9 trillion in the week ended March 18. Bloomberg reports that this is likely due to Middle Eastern countries raising cash to balance their budgets as oil prices plummet. Ye Xie, markets reporter, writes that with low oil prices and shrinking current accounts in emerging markets and China, President Trump cant count on foreign central banks to take on more Treasuries. President Trump said that he wants the U.S. economy to reopen by Easter, but it could end up having severe health and economic consequences after recently implementing strict social distancing policies and shutdowns. The President, and others, fear that the economic consequences of such a long shutdown will be severe, but the number of lives that could be lost if the virus continues to spread rapidly would also be severe. The U.S. became the country with the most number of cases of COVID-19 this week. Nearly half of all Americans have been ordered to stay at home and avoid contact with others and each state is individually determining lockdown measures. By Frank E. Holmes Contributing to kitco.com Follow @bulldogholmes www.goldnewsletter.com

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi on Monday instructed the DGP to take strict action against the landlords asking doctors, nurses and medical staff to vacate their rented accommodation for treating COVID-19 patients.

Reviewing the ongoing situation in the state with top officials, Mukhi said he has come across reports, where the doctors and paramedical staff living in rented apartments are being asked by the landlords to vacate the houses.

The Governor asked the Director General of Police to take stern action against such landlords and ensure the safety of the health workers, an official release said.

He emphasised that the men and machinery of the government should be fully deployed to mitigate the emergent situation arising out of COVID-19 in the state.

Stating that migratory population is a major problem, Mukhi said he will take up the matter with Chief Ministers of the respective states and the Home Department to deal with it.

He said that considering the status of the pandemic in other advanced countries and the rising number of infected persons with every passing day, the situation in India presumably is very controlled.

"However, complete lockdown for 21 days to keep the people of the country indoors, away from social gathering is essential to contain and control the outbreak of the virus," he added.

The Governor also said that he had a talk with all the Vice Chancellors of the Universities and accordingly online classes are to be imparted to the students.

Assam Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna said the government is coordinating with the Indian Railways for carriage and supply of essential goods.

Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Political) Jishnu Barua apprised on the constitution of various state- level task forces and meetings conducted at different levels to tackle the outbreak of the pandemic in the state.

Health and Family Welfare Principal Secretary Samir Sinha said though no positive case has been detected, the department is ready to face any contingency.

"The workforce has been expanded by deployment of MBBS, BDS and BSc nursing students.

Also, 42,000 ASHA workers are functioning at the grassroot level and are generating mass awareness," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dutch officials have recalled 600,000 medical masks imported from China, saying they do not meet quality standards, according to the health ministry.

Releasing a statement, the ministry said on March 21 that they were provided delivery of masks from a Chinese manufacturer.

The report stunned frontline medical staff in the Netherlands who rely on high-quality products to protect them from being infected with the novel coronavirus.

According to the government, half of the shipment of 1.3 million apparently top quality face masks, or known as N95 in the U.S. and Hong Kong, had been distributed to healthcare workers treating the most critical coronavirus patients.

The Netherlands has requested hospitals to return about 600,000 protective masks mported from China. The masks were reportedly not successful at inhibiting coronavirus particles to pass through. They failed to protect the face or did not have defective filters.

The Netherlands recently bought 1.3 million masks imported from China.

According to their statement, the health ministry "received a signal that, upon inspection, the quality of this shipment did not meet the required standards."

"A second test also proved that the face masks did not meet the required quality standards. It has now been decided to stop the use of this entire shipment."

One hospital worker said that when the masks were delivered to their hospital, he immediately rejected them for being faulty. "If those masks do not close properly, the virus particles can simply pass. We do not use them. That is unsafe for our people."

Also Read: Hantavirus Kills One in China, May Be Next Outbreak After Coronavirus?

Spain and Turkey also complained of faulty rapid testing kits courtesy of Chinese companies.

Part of the supplies had already been distributed to medical professionals, the health ministry said. The rest of the shipment was urgently put on hold and has not been distributed.

N95 masks, also known as FFP2 in Europe or KN95 in mainland China, play a crucial role in the medical field. Their function stop coronavirus particles to pass through.



European countries have had problems in the past with COVID-19-related medical equipment imported from China.

"The mouth masks that are not satisfactory have been retrieved," according to Holland's Ministry of Health.

The Netherlands, like other European countries, has declared rigid social distancing measures to tackle the spread of COVID-19.

There are 1.3 million masks imported from China.

The fine filters of FFP2 masks should stop the virus from entering the mouth or nose.

A second test also showed that the medical masks did not pass the mandatory quality standards, even though they had a KN95 certification specifying that they are able to filter above 95% of particles.

The nation struggles to keep its infected cases from continuing to increase. The Netherlands had reported 10,866 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 771 fatalities as of Sunday afternoon.

Further shipments would undergo extra testing.

Health Minister Olivier Veran for France has declared that he had ordered more than a billion face masks to be imported from China.

Related Article: Coronavirus Symptoms Day-By-Day: How to Check If You Are Sick With COVID-19



@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
BENGALURU: It will take not less than two to three months for the business and normal life to fall in line. Retail sector, e-commerce, health care, Information Technology and travel sectors are the worst hit says Shailesh Shah, Senior Partner and Co founder, Strta Consulting with more than three decades of experience in strategic, operational, finance, marketing and organisational issues.

The non essential retail sector which had been seeing a turnover of Rs. 100 crore per annum has been reduced to almost nil. Not a single customer is turning up in the last one week. This is the state of affairs. On a positive note, India has been headed in right direction. Compared to other countries, there has been effective measures to curb the spreading of dreaded virus with lock down measures, he added.

The loss that the industry suffering has not been quantified yet but it runs in several crores. Almost all the sectors have suffered loss except emergency health care and pharma sector.

A few non essentials like art, drawing and painting materials besides online and offline gaming are seeing a surge in the business. Since people are home bound, some of the e-commerce industry is doing a good business. However, it is a temporary phenomenon as the people would lose buying capacity, says Shah.

Transport is the direct indicator and driver of development and growth. When air and surface transport like trains and road transport is halted it has trickling down impact on the industry and growth.

"It took three months for China, a communist country to bring the situation to normalcy after shutting down the entire country for three months. No doubt they may have achieved success in combating dreaded corona virus but the economy has nose dived," he said.

IT industry may be working from home. Measures like work from home, ups killing, cross skill and off shore technology support is guiding the industry. IT field may not see the attrition as their services for banks and other sectors are very essential. However, a few start up companies may feel the brunt of spread of COVID 19 disease, said Shah.

Prudent practices are a must by each and every citizen to combat the situation, he suggested. He also feels that India and US being democratic countries face more challenges than other countries in tackling COVID 19.
Qantas has complicated the Morrison government's decision on whether to bail out Virgin Australia by insisting it should be eligible for a support package three times as large to "level the playing field" and avoid distorting the market.

The debt-laden and loss-making Virgin wrote to the government last week requesting a $1.4 billion loan to help it survive the coronavirus pandemic, which has devastated airlines globally. Qantas has told the government it does not want further financial support and is confident of seeing out the crisis on its own, according to a well-placed source with knowledge of discussions between the airline and government.

Qantas boss Alan Joyce has been lobbying against government support for Virgin, saying last week that government should not help companies that "have been badly managed for 10 years" and that helping Virgin and not Qantas would be "completely unfair" on his airline. Credit:Renee Nowytarger

However, the larger airline is insisting that if the government helps Virgin it wants to receive a similar package to avoid distorting the market and to "level the playing field". Qantas says the support should be proportional to the size of each business. Qantas revenue is three-times higher than Virgins, meaning it would want a $4.2 billion loan, the source said.

The demand complicates the governments decision of whether or not to help Virgin because it significantly increases the amount it will have to deliver in an industry-wide package.
Monday, March 30, 2020

March 31, 2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The SAC Release

Nominations Open for 2020 Advancing Consulting Award

Recipients to be honored by the Society for Advancement of Consulting in Fall

CLAREMONT, CAThe Society for the Advancement of Consulting (SAC), a leading association of global consulting professionals, announced today that nominations are now open for its an annual award honoring two consultants who have advanced the profession in the previous year.

The Corrie Shanahan Memorial Consulting Award is given to both an emerging consultant and one with an established practice. It is named in memory of longtime SAC member Corrie Shanahan, who passed away in 2019. Corrie Shanahan was an expert in rapidly strengthening organizational performance, productivity, and corporate culture.

The call for nominations will be open from today, March 31 through June 2, 2020 Nomination forms and applications can be found on the SAC website.

"We are thrilled to be able to offer these awards for the second consecutive year," said Executive Director Lisa Anderson. "We feel in this unsettled time it is more important than ever to acknowledge excellence in independent consultants."

To be eligible, individuals must be independent business consultants who generate most of their income by working directly with clients, and they must be members in good standing of SAC. Factors that will be considered in evaluating applicants will include degree of client success, innovation, advocacy and growth through association, and resilience.

A committee of SAC members, led by chair Pam Harper and representing a variety of consulting specialties and four different countries, will review applications and determine the winners who best meet the established criteria.

The 2019 honorees were Andrew Hollo, Melbourne, Australia, for established consultant, and Amy Segami, Chicago, Illinois, for emerging consultant.

"We had a truly exceptional list of candidates to evaluate last year ," said SAC Executive Director Linda Popky. "We expect this year's applicants will be just as qualified, making it difficult to choose just one winner in each category."

Current plans are for the awards to be presented at SAC's Annual Meeting, to be held in New York City on October 20 and 21, 2020.

Independent consultants may join SAC between now and May 1, 2020 to be considered for the award.

About SAC

The Society for the Advancement of Consulting (SAC), now in its 17th year, is an international association of consulting professionals who subscribe to an industry code of ethics and have provided evidence of significant consulting results among their clients. SAC members hail from 14 different countries. For more information, please go to http://www.consultingsociety.com, write to info@consultingsociety.com or call 909-630-3943.
This is a community calendar. To accommodate demand for the print edition, we ask that items be brief and include time, date, place, address, admission cost and a contact number for publication. Inclusion of items is at the discretion of the newspaper. Further information is available at 541-758-9524 or jane.stoltz@lee.net.

Assistance

TUESDAY

Lebanon Schools emergency meal distribution for all children ages 1 to 18, 9 to 9:30 a.m., noon to 1 p.m., Lebanon High School, 1700 S. Fifth St. Drive-through service; enter in the bus slip area in front of LHS.

Greater Albany Public Schools offers free grab-and-go sack lunches for all children ages 1 to 18: 11 to 11:30 a.m., Columbus Greens, Memorial Middle School, Oak Elementary School, Tangent Elementary School; 11:15 to 11:45 a.m., Lafayette Elementary School, Lake Creek Ranch; 11:20 to 11:50 a.m., Waverly Elementary School; 11:30 a.m. to noon, Albany Meadows, Sunrise Elementary School; 11:40 a.m. to 12:10 p.m., Periwinkle Elementary School, South Shore Elementary School; 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., Albany Boys & Girls Club; Takena Elementary School; noon to 12:30 p.m., Lexington Park, South Albany High School, Three Lake Estates.

Emergency food boxes, 1:30 to 4 p.m., St. Vincent de Paul Society Corvallis Conference Food Pantry, campus of St. Marys Catholic Church, 501 NW 25th St. No appointment needed. A thrift store is in the same building; proceeds help support the pantry. Information: 541-757-1988, Ext. 317.

Emergency food boxes, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. by appointment, FISH of Lebanon, 145 Ash St. FISH also offers help with basic expenses such as rent, utilities, water, propane, prescriptions, clothing, identification cards, driver's licenses and other emergency needs. Appointments: 541-259-3200, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays

Stone Soup dinner, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., McLean Hall, First Christian Church, 602 SW Madison Ave., Corvallis. Free meal for those in need.

Corvallis Men's Shelter, 6 p.m. to 9 a.m., 211 SE Chapman Place. Breakfast: 7 to 9 a.m. Information: 541-791-6691.

Classes

TUESDAY

Free gentle yoga online, 10 a.m. Suitable for all bodies. Go to www.livewellstudio.com.

Events

TUESDAY

Canceled: Holly Hughes and Clem Stark, Grass Roots Books & Music, Corvallis.

Government

TUESDAY

Benton County Emergency Operations Center policy discussion with elected officials and Incident Command, 9 a.m., GoToMeeting: 1-571-317-3122, access code 278-992-501.

Opportunities

Ten micro-shelters are being built to serve as isolation units for unhoused Corvallis community members who need that service. After the crisis is past, the shelters will be used by the SafePlace Transitional Housing program. An individual or organization can donate any amount of the $3,000 it costs to build each shelter. Donations can be sent to be sent to the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition Housing Action Team at https://sustainablecorvallis.org/get-involved/donate.

Organizations

TUESDAY

Canceled: Takena Kiwanis Club of Albany, 7 a.m.

Support groups

TUESDAY

Alcoholics Anonymous:

 7 a.m., noon, Room 11, First Christian Church, 602 SW Madison Ave., Corvallis.

 5:30 p.m., Harden Hall, 580 Second St., Lebanon.

 6:30 p.m. (open meeting), basement, New Life Fellowship, 1412 Applegate St., Philomath.

 7 p.m., Crossroads Christian Fellowship, 2555 NW Highland Drive, Corvallis.

 7 p.m., the Mustard Seed open group, 313 Washburn St., Brownsville.

 7 p.m., 525 Santiam Highway, Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital.

Information (24 hours): 541-967-4252 or www.aa-oregon.org.

Narcotics Anonymous, noon to 1 p.m., Room 11, First Christian Church, 602 SW Madison Ave., Corvallis. Information: www.lblna.org. Twenty-four-hour help line: 877-233-4287.

Al-Anon Care and Share meeting, noon to 1 p.m., community room (enter from parking lot), First Christian Church, 432 Ferry St. SW, Albany. Information: Information: 541-224-6651.

Al-Anon, 7:30 p.m., Room 12, Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan, 333 NW 35th St., Corvallis. Support group for families and friends of alcoholics. Message center: 541-967-6262.

Narcotics Anonymous, 7:30 p.m., Room 11, First Christian Church, 602 SW Madison Ave., Corvallis. Information: www.lblna.org. 24-hour help line: 877-233-4287.

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A Navy hospital ship carrying 1000 beds and 1200 medical personnel has arrived in New York City to help combat the coronavirus pandemic.

The USNS Comfort arrived in Manhattan on Monday and will treat those who need non-coronavirus related care.

Despite the lockdown in effect, groups of people gathered to watch the ship arrive, likely breaking social distancing rules.

Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio recently announced that he would fine people $500 for not practising social distancing.

The ship will free up space in New York hospitals, allowing medical officials to focus on tackling Covid-19.

New York is currently struggling with the outbreak, having reported the most cases of any state in the US.

Figures from the Johns Hopkins University show that New York has upwards of at least 1000 deaths related to the virus.

The ship is equipped with 12 operating rooms, a laboratory, a pharmacy and will be used immediately to treat patients.

The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, released a video on Twitter explaining how helpful the ship will be.

In the video, Mr Cuomo lists the medical capabilities of the ship and says: we are going to fight every way we can to save every life that we can.

Some Twitter users criticised the crowd that gathered to watch the ship come in, amid repeated warnings about social distancing.

Twitter user @achorowitz tweeted: You would think the necessity of a gigantic hospital ship would be enough to make people rethink crowd situations but... *gestures wildly*.

Another user, @juliakmarsh highlighted the Mayors policy, posting: De Blasio said this morning hed start fining people up to $500 for not social distancing yet theres this crowd outside Pier 90 where the US Naval Hospital Ship Comfort and none of the several cops on site are doing anything to disperse them.

Mr de Blasio commented on the ships arrival, saying: This is like adding another hospital here in New York City.

Mr Cuomo extended his executive order on Sunday, stating all non-essential workers must stay home for another two weeks as coronavirus cases increase.

In a press conference on Sunday evening Mr Cuomo said: This is not a lockdown. It is a travel advisory to be implemented by the states, in essence.

Its nothing that we havent been doing, right? Non-essential people should stay home.

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, upwards of 143,055 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 2,513.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended a two-week ban on gatherings of more than 50 people as part of the battle to contain the spread of the contagion.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 22:29:36|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The leading group of China's COVID-19 response on Monday stressed the control of cases of infections that show no symptoms.

The group, led by Premier Li Keqiang, called for improving prevention and control strategies and measures to bring economic and social development back to the normal track at an early date.

Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, presided over the meeting.

Noting that the positive trend in containing the domestic epidemic keeps expanding and the resumption of work and production is being promoted in an orderly fashion, the meeting stressed that the world is nevertheless still battling the COVID-19 pandemic and the risks and difficulties of epidemic containment in the country should be fully recognized.

The meeting called for more efforts in the treatment of patients in severe conditions as well as quarantine and follow-up visits for recovered patients, urging local authorities to release relevant information with openness and transparency.

Cross-border transmissions should also be further prevented, the meeting said, stressing that all travelers entering the country should take nucleic acid tests.

To consolidate the achievements in epidemic containment, more efforts should be made in monitoring, tracing, quarantining and treating the asymptomatic patients, the meeting said.

The screening of asymptomatic infections should be stepped up and the detection range should be expanded, it added.

The identified asymptomatic patients should be put under close quarantine, the meeting said, urging that the infection sources of these patients should be found out as early as possible.

The meeting also called for epidemiological analysis of such infections to improve the prevention and control measures.

Wang Huning, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and deputy head of the leading group, attended the meeting.
Mogadishu: A governor in Somalia's Puntland was seriously wounded on Sunday in a suicide bomb attack, witnesses said, in an attack claimed by the al-Shabaab jihadist group.

The attack on Abdisalan Hassan Hersi, governor of the Nugaal region, happened in Puntland capital Garowe, said officials.

A former police commander and a civilian were also wounded in the blast, and all three were being treated in hospital, Puntland's interior minister, Mohamed Abdirahman, told reporters.

Witnesses said the attacker ran at the vehicle in which he was travelling before detonating his explosive vest.

"The governor and the former police commander were wounded seriously in the blast, the police sealed off the area after the blast", one witness, Adan Suleyman, said.

Abdikarim Ahmed, another witness, said the bomber ran on to the vehicle of the governor as he was parking near a police station before detonating his device.

The jihadist Shabaab group claimed responsibility in a statement.

The al-Qaeda affiliated group was driven out of Mogadishu in 2011 and lost most of their strongholds, but still control vast swathes of the countryside. They have vowed to overthrow the internationally backed Somali government and have carried out any attacks in the Somali capital.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) La Paz, Bolivia  Mon, March 30, 2020 12:15 654 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e48bdb 2 World Bolivia,coronavirus,death-toll,COVID-19,pandemic,health,novel-coronavirus,infection,infectious-diseases,SARS-CoV-2 Free

A 78-year-old woman on Sunday became the first person to die of the new coronavirus in Bolivia, which has reported 81 confirmed cases, the government announced.

Health Minister Anibal Cruz told reporters the woman, who was hospitalized in the department of Santa Cruz, had been in stable condition.

"During the night she grew worse, and was transferred to intensive care. She died this morning," he said.

More than half the country's confirmed cases have been in Santa Cruz, an eastern province where authorities said stay-at-home appeals have not been heeded.

The country was under a national shutdown over the weekend, for the first time. From Monday to Friday, only one person per family is permitted to circulate to buy groceries or other supplies.
Coronavirus has struck the pinnacle of power in the UK, with several infected after PM Boris Johnson tests positive.

The coronavirus outbreak at the heart of the UK government may have spread further, with Prime Minister Boris Johnsons senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, self-isolating with symptoms just days after the British leader himself tested positive.

A Downing Street spokesman said on Monday that Cummings, one of the most powerful men in the government, developed symptoms of COVID-19 over the weekend, according to Reuters news agency.

Several other British media also reported Cummings was isolating, citing an unnamed source at Downing Street.

Johnson on Friday became the first leader of a major world power to announce he had tested positive for the virus. His health minister, Matt Hancock, also tested positive and the governments chief medical adviser, Chris Whitty, is self-isolating.

Cummings was seen leaving Downing Street shortly after Johnson revealed he had tested positive.

Last week, the adviser denied a newspaper report which said he had prioritised herd immunity and the economy in the coronavirus crisis at the expense of pensioners dying.

Britain initially took a modest approach to containing the spread of the disease compared to its European peers such as Italy and France.

But Johnson imposed stringent controls after projections showed a quarter of a million people could die. He is now self-isolating in Downing Street.

Scientists say the viruss incubation period is estimated at between one and 14 days, and there have been anecdotal accounts of people spreading the disease without having symptoms.

Besides meetings in Downing Street, Johnson ventured beyond Downing Street last week.

On Wednesday, a day before his positive test, Johnson answered questions at a weekly session in Parliaments House of Commons chamber.

Johnson also spoke with several legislators.

Minister for Scotland Alister Jack, who sat next to Johnson before the session, said on Saturday he had developed a temperature and a cough and was now working from home in isolation.

Health officials said on Sunday that figures showed that 1,228 patients in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) had died.

By Sunday morning, 127,737 people in the UK had been tested, of which 108,215 were confirmed negative and 19,522 were confirmed positive.
China has set up multiple fake bot accounts on Twitter using Radio Free Asia's logo and descriptions to tweet fake news in recent months, including allegations that the coronavirus came from the U.S., a recent investigative report has found.



The tweets are sent by accounts using the RFA logo, but named after various regions of China, for example "Radio Free Guangdong," or "Radio Free Anhui."



They churn out tweets that reflect the official line of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, including the rumor that the coronavirus pandemic originated in the United States and not in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.



The public interest journalism website ProPublica said it had tracked more than 10,000 suspected fake Twitter accounts since August 2019 that have been part of a "coordinated influence campaign with ties to the Chinese government."



The report's co-author Jeff Kao said the hijacking of visual identifiers from legitimate accounts to impersonate them is a hallmark of Beijing's social media campaigns.



"They changed one of the letters in the Twitter handle and they were posting political messages that were in line with the Chinese government's views," Kao told RFA.



"They have very few real followers, but what they were tweeting would get like 100 likes or 20 retweets, and I think that was another tactic that they were trying out," he said.



For example, a recent post in English reported on aid the Chinese government recently provided to Italy, and was sent by the Twitter handle @RNA_Chinese.



"[The account] appears to have been an attempt to fool the casual reader into believing it was coming from the U.S. government-funded broadcaster Radio Free Asia (@RFA_Chinese)," the report said.



Hacked, repurposed accounts



Other accounts tweeting pro-China propaganda were actually once genuine, but had been repurposed after they were hacked, the ProPublic report said.



"They included a professor in North Carolina; a graphic artist and a mother in Massachusetts; a web designer in the U.K.; and a business analyst in Australia," it said.



"Suspected Chinese operatives have stepped up their efforts in recent days, according to private messages shared with ProPublica, offering influential Chinese-speaking Twitter users cash for favorable posts," it said.



The article said the fake accounts are tailored to different audiences, but the Chinese-language posts were likely aimed at influencing the "millions of ethnic Chinese" who don't live in mainland China.



In August and September, Twitter announced that it had suspended more than 5,000 suspected Chinese state-controlled accounts and banned around 200,000 accounts that hadn't yet been fully activated.



ProPublica said it wrote computer programs to document millions of interactions between the 10,000 suspected fake accounts and trace an interrelated network of more than 2,000.



"The true scale of the influence campaign is likely much bigger; our tracking suggests that the accounts we identified comprise only a portion of the operation," it said.



"We found a pattern of coordinated activity among the fake accounts that appeared to be aimed at building momentum for particular storylines," it said.



Among the storylines were the smearing of the Hong Kong protest movement as "rioters" and "separatists," and praise lavished on the city's police as they used unprecedented amounts of violence to crack down on largely peaceful protesters.



Yang Jianli, founder of the Washington-based human rights group Citizen Power, said he has been targeted by hackers backed and directed by the Chinese state, although their companies may be nominally listed as private.



"The authorities use a lot of private companies to carry out operations like this, and many are willing to provide this service to the Chinese government," Yang said.



"Clearly these companies benefit from being under the aegis of government power and privilege," he said.



Efforts not effective



Kao said the fake accounts aren't convincing enough yet to be effective, however.



"It's hard to say that any minds will change ... because the accounts look so fake," he said. "But I think the message was definitely reaching the people that it was trying to reach."



There are strong links between the Chinese Twitter bots and a Beijing-based internet marketing company called OneSight, as many of the fake accounts had liked its tweets.



The company recently won a U.S.$175,000 contract to boost the Twitter following of the state-run China News Service, an arm of the Chinese Communist Party's outreach and influence arm, the United Front Work Department.



On Jan. 29, OneSight announced a new app that tracked virus-related information, and tweeted that it would "transmit the correct voice of China" to the world, just six days after Beijing imposed a lockdown on Wuhan.



"The influence network suddenly shifted its focus to the coronavirus epidemic," ProPublica said.



A spokesperson for Twitter declined to comment specifically when contacted by ProPublica.



"Using technology and human review in concert, we proactively monitor Twitter to identify attempts at platform manipulation and mitigate them," the spokesperson said in a statement.



"If we identify further information campaigns on our service that we can reliably attribute to state-backed activity either domestic or foreign-led, we will disclose them."



Reported by Jia Ao for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday said there was a "dangerous situation" in the entire country as the exodus of migrant workers continued, despite the ongoing 21-day lockdown.

Reacting to a report on Twitter in Hindi, Sisodia said, "Exodus of migrant workers continues even today from Punjab and Haryana...There is a dangerous situation in the entire country."



The Centre asked the state governments and Union Territory administrations on Sunday to effectively seal the state and district borders to stop the movement of migrant workers, who will be put under a 14-day quarantine for violating the lockdown.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has also appealed to migrant workers not to go to their native places in the country's interest as they are also at the risk of being infected with the coronavirus in large gatherings.

So far, 72 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the national capital.

According to the Union Health Ministry, the number of COVID-19 cases climbed to 1,071 in India on Monday, while the death toll rose to 29.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
GENEVA  The virus that causes COVID-19 is mainly transmitted through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or speaks, the World Health Organization (WHO) has clarified, dismissing a message spreading on social media that COVID-19 is airborne.

A statement shared on its website on Monday March 30, the United Nations health body said these droplets are too heavy to hang in the air.

They quickly fall on floors or surfaces, WHO noted adding that You can be infected by breathing in the virus if you are within 1 meter of a person who has COVID-19, or by touching a contaminated surface and then touching your eyes, nose or mouth before washing your hands.

The WHO urged everyone to protect themselves, keep at least 1 meter distance from others and disinfect surfaces that are touched frequently.

Regularly clean your hands thoroughly and avoid touching your eyes, mouth, and nose, added WHO.

Authorities urged everyone to verify the facts before sharing to stop misinformation.

Related
By PTI

BEIJING: China, which has sent medical teams and supplies to Pakistan where coronavirus cases are increasing steadily, said on Monday that it was building a makeshift hospital there to treat COVID-19 patients.

The number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan reached 1,664 while the death toll stood at 18, health officials said on Monday, underlining that local transmission of the deadly COVID-19 is increasing.

"Recently, the pandemic is also spreading in Pakistan. We totally relate to what they are experiencing," China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing here.

"The Chinese government has donated supplies such as testing kits, masks, protective suits and ventilators to Pakistan. And we will also help Pakistan to set up adhoc makeshift hospital. Last week this hospital has been put into construction," she said while replying to a question.

China had built two major makeshift hospitals with 2,300 bed capacity in Wuhan in early February at the height of the coronavirus outbreak in the city.

Hua said China has invited Pakistan to attend the video conference on COVID-19 and a medical expert team is in Islamabad.

On Saturday, a special plane from China carrying a team of eight medical experts and relief assistance arrived in Pakistan.

Besides airlifting supplies, China also sent medical supplies to Pakistan through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to fight the steadily increasing coronavirus case there.

A truck full of five ventilators, 2,000 safety apparel, 20,000 medical masks and 24,000 nucleic acid testing kits were sent from Khunjrab Pass to the Gilgit-Baltistan region, according to official media here.

In addition, many friendly sister cities and provinces in China also donated the epidemic response and control materials to Pakistan and they are also joined by Red Cross Society and many enterprises help is on the way, Hua said.

"Going forward, we will continue to provide our best help to Pakistan if necessary," she said.

"China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic cooperative partners and iron friends. We have fine tradition of lending each other support and mutual assistance in the time of adversary," she said.

Pakistan President Arif Alvi visited Beijing on March 16 and met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and other leaders to "show solidarity" as China battled coronavirus at home.

Pakistan also did not evacuate its over 1,000 nationals stuck in the coronavirus hit Wuhan despite their desperate pleas, stating that China has promised to look after them.
Australia's plan to rescue the economy is a little too slow, too small. Source: Getty

No one should blame the Morrison government for the coronavirus driven economic recession unfolding before our eyes.

It is an unforeseen health crisis that has seen large parts of the economy shut down, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to lose their jobs and businesses.

That said, the government will unambiguously carry the responsibility for how deep the recession is, and how long it lasts.

The speed and magnitude of the destruction of the economy demanded a quick and frankly huge reaction from policy makers.

How big is big?

The issue is about getting lots of money into the economy as rapidly as possible, helping people stay in their homes and helping businesses stay afloat.

Given the quite obvious magnitude of the shock to the economy, a massive policy effort is needed.

Wage subsidies, increases in social security payments, rent and mortgage relief, cash out the door for small and medium businesses, payment of utility bills for households are all just a part of what a strong economic policy reaction should be. These measures should have been easy to access, open to everyone even partly impacted and involve a lot of money.

Tragically, the government has shied away from such a policy response.

The policy roll-out to date being too slow and too small. Many measures are tied up in red tape  regulations making it hard for people to access payments.

Businesses are closing, workers have no work, retiree wealth has been destroyed as stock markets have crashed. And now, it looks like the housing sector will fall away, with house prices being crunched by mortgage defaults, unpaid rent and forced selling.

The images of people queuing outside Centrelink offices illustrate how sudden and severe the economic shock has already been.

Story continues

Follow the leader  the experiences of other countries

Around the world, there have been an exciting mix of policy measures from other rich, industrialised countries. Wage subsidies and payments to workers and business, payments to ensure rent and mortgages are covered for individuals severely impacted in this crisis and relief on the payment of utilities are a few that will help the people impacted and the economy.

These are templates that Australia can follow. The hard work has been done.

To be sure, these are expensive for the government to implement. A strong response, a fulsome response would see budget deficits approach $150 billion per annum, perhaps more.

But just as no one queried the government in World War Two for spending too much money on guns, bullets or tanks, it is irrelevant how much money is needed now to stem the worst effects of the current recession.

In the current climate, if anyone is seriously worried about how much this will cost, their priorities are wrong. Money and lots of it is the critical element that will lessen the human and economic cost of this catastrophe.

It is enlightening to see the fiscal stimulus measures overseas.

In the UK, New Zealand, Canada, Germany and even the US, the stimulus measures are huge. They have been announced and in many cases delivered early.

They are generally well targeted, they get cash into the pockets of households and small and medium business, and are likely to cushion the downside to the recessions hitting each of these countries.

Measuring the success of economic policy

There are two simple benchmarks which the Morrison governments fiscal measures will be benchmarked.

Those two items are:

The change in GDP;

The change in total employment.

and these should be measured relative to the US, Germany, the UK, Canada and New Zealand with the base period being the December quarter 2019.

As noted, no one will blame the Morrison government for the recession nor for the slump in employment, but it will be held account if it underperforms these other countries who it can be argued have delivered a more aggressive economic policy response.

If GDP and employment weakens and then recovers at a pace below these countries, the Morrison economic policy response will be a failure.

If GDP and employment weakens less and then recovers at a faster pace, Mr Morrisons policy repose will have been a success.

It will take probably two years before we can pass judgment. When the virus has been beaten and economic conditions start to normalise.

Lets hope the policies help Australia to outperform the world, just like it did during the global financial crisis.

The early signs are not encouraging.

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A Dubai-based Indian businessman has donated a fully-equipped building owned by him to the country's health authorities for the purpose of quarantining coronavirus affected patients, according to media reports.

Ajay Sobhraj, Founder and Chairman of Dubai-based Finja Jewellery, has donated the building in Jumeirah Lake Towers in Dubai, that can accommodate up to 400 people, to be used as a quarantine centre, the Gulf reported on Sunday.

In a letter addressed to the Dubai Health Authority titled 'To Support and Give Back to the City That Cares', the Indian businessman who has called Dubai his home for 25 years, has donated a fully-equipped building in Jumeirah Lake Towers to be used in the country's fully integrated strategy against the COVID-19 crisis, the report said.

"I believe that in such challenging times, it is imperative for the community to come together and support the country we reside in to overcome this pandemic. I am extremely pleased to offer my assistance to the government during this critical period and support the city that has continued to contribute to my success and growth for the past 25 years, Sobhraj said.

The gesture reflects the support that the Dubai business community has extended to the authorities' measures to safeguard the health of the community, the report added..

The building has undergone all necessary maintenance, including deep cleaning, sanitisation and air conditioning servicing, to ensure the facilities meet the required health and safety standards, the report quoted the Dubai Media Office as saying.

According to the Gulf News, the UAE has so far reported 570 confirmed coronavirus cases, with three deaths.

To limit the spread of the virus, the UAE will continue nationwide disinfection of streets and public transport until April 4. Residents have been told to stay at home between 8pm to 6am, The National reported.

People are allowed to leave their homes during the day but trips must be restricted to essential shopping or medical appointments, it said.

Dr Farida Al Hosani, from Abu Dhabi Centre for Public Health, said she hoped the public would stay at home during the disinfection programme, the report added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Public funerals have been banned in a second Catholic diocese as part of efforts to slow the spread of coronavirus.

The Clogher Diocese, which covers Co Monaghan, much of Co Fermanagh and parts of counties Tyrone and Donegal, is also standing down priests aged 70 and over from frontline ministry.

It has stopped baptisms, marriages, individual confessions and house calls.

Announcing the move, Bishop of Clogher Larry Duffy said he was "saddened to have to take this course of action".

However, he added that "in the prevailing circumstances and to protect the lives, health and wellbeing of all", he had no other option.

"When I was appointed bishop just over a year ago, I could never have imagined I would have to take such radical actions and to have to take them so swiftly," he said.

"But we all have to make sacrifices for the common good because we have a responsibility to each other. Truthfully, our fate and the fate of others is in our own hands."

Bishop Duffy said that for all funerals, the funeral mass will be celebrated at a later date. In the meantime, the body of the deceased will be brought directly to the place of burial. Burial will be led by a priest, deacon or, if necessary, a layperson.

Last week the Down and Connor Diocese, which includes Belfast, announced similar measures around funerals.

Separately, a bishop criticised "selfish" parishioners for putting pressure on priests to hold mass.

Bishop Kevin Doran from the Elphin Diocese, which covers parts of counties Roscommon, Sligo and Galway and Westmeath, said: "Unfortunately, a very small minority are putting pressure on some priests to celebrate private masses for them.

"This is selfish and contradicts the very meaning of communion. The restrictions are for your safety."
Air India crew members are being provided with substandard, ill-fitting and flimsy personal protective equipment (PPE) on special flights being operated during the lockdown, a union of the airline's pilots complained to Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday.

With India under a 21-day lockdown till April 14 to curb the spread of coronavirus, all domestic and international commercial passenger flights have been suspended for this period.

However, carriers such as Air India have been permitted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to fly special flights to transport test kits, medicines, relief material and Indians coming from abroad or foreigners going to their countries.

"Our pilots and cabin crew are being provided substandard, ill-fitting and flimsy PPE that tear/disintegrate easily on rescue flights. Sanitisers are not provided in sufficient quantities and disinfection processes are short of industry best practices," the Executive Pilots Association (EPA) said in a letter to Puri.

"These inadequacies compound the chances of viral exposure and equipment contamination - and may even lead to a community (Stage 3) transmission of COVID-19 infection within crew members, passengers and the public at large, since most reside in large residential societies," it said.

The EPA stated that Air India's medical services department has chosen to "lock its doors and wash its hands off" the flying crew amid the pandemic.

As the carrier's medical services department has decided to work from home and limit its services to just phone calls, the association requested the minister that the department's doctors, ambulances and infrastructure be made available 24x7 to support the flying crew.

"This is the minimum level of support expected from an organisation that sends its employees to a biohazard frontline," it added.

The union also requested Puri to issue directions so that at least one senior executive each from medical services, personnel and finance departments is onboard each special flight to boost the crew's morale and gain a better understanding of field requirements.

Taking senior executives of other departments on rescue flights would also lead to creation of more efficient work processes related to the COVID-19 crisis, "which are non-existent at this time", the EPA noted.

The union said there is no additional insurance policy to cover any risk related to COVID-19 for pilots and cabin crew members who are operating these rescue flights.

According to the union, families of pilots and crew members have been left "extremely anxious and vulnerable" as the insurance companies may invoke the force majeure clause in case there is mass COVID-19 outbreak to not pay any money.

Force majeure is a clause in contracts which frees the parties from liability or obligation on account of extraordinary event or circumstance beyond their control.

The EPA said, "Our flying-related allowances, comprising 70 per cent of our total emoluments, remain unpaid since January 2020... To add insult to injury, we have also recently been informed by our management of a substantial pay cut, while in the midst of the above mentioned COVID-19 rescue operations!"



During the last few weeks, Air India has operated multiple flights to coronavirus-hit cities such as Wuhan in China and Rome in Italy to bring back Indians stranded there.

Between Tuesday and Friday, the national carrier will be operating nine flights to Frankfurt from Delhi and Mumbai to fly back Germans who are stranded in India amid the coronavirus lockdown.

The number of coronavirus cases in India rose to 1,071 and the death toll climbed to 29 in India on Monday, according to the Union Health Ministry.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday condoled the death of Air Vice Marshal (retd) Chandan Singh Rathore, describing him as a valorous air warrior. Rathore, 95, died at his Jodhpur residence on Sunday morning. He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter. He had distinguished himself as a young air warrior during the Sino-India 1962 war and the 1971 Indo-Pak war.

"India will always remember the impeccable service of Air Vice Marshal (Retd.) Chandan Singh Rathore. He was a valorous Air Warrior who contributed towards a stronger and safer India," Modi tweeted. "Pained by his demise. Condolences to his family. Om Shanti."

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also paid tributes to the IAF veteran.

"Pained by the demise of Maha Vir Chakra (MVC) Recipient, Air Vice Marshal (Retd.) Chandan Singh Rathore. His contribution as Air Warrior in 1962 and 1971 war will never be forgotten," Singh tweeted.



"I salute his outstanding service and express my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family," the defence minister said.

During the war with Pakistan, Rathore was at the forefront of air operations conducted for the liberation of Bangladesh, Air Force officials recalled. Rathore was also responsible for the planning and execution of the special helicopter operations to airlift two companies of troops of the Sylhet area. On the intervening night of December 7 and 8, 1971, he flew eight missions, deep into enemy territory to supervise the progress of the helicopter airlift, and to guide and inspire his pilots who were facing heavy opposition.
Beer brewers in Vietnam will have a tough 2020 with disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic and Decree 100

Contrary to previous years, all beer brewers in Vietnam are looking at a hard time in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Decree No.100/2019/ND-CP outlining sanctions for drink-driving taking effect since early this year.

Under the new rules, all drinkdrivers shall be imposed a fine of VND2-8 million ($87-348) minimum and their licenses could be revoked for 22-24 months if tests confirm alcohol content in their blood or breath.

As soon as the decree came into force, well-known beer parlours and bars in Hanoi like Hai Xom and Prague Pub were submerged in silence and brewers have been forecasting a plunge in revenue. According to SSI Research, Sabeco will be hard-pressed to maintain double-digit output growth in 2020 due to Decree 100, with a forecast performance of 6-7 per cent in the whole sector instead.

The COVID-19 outbreak has made the situation even worse because a string of business establishments, including restaurants, bars and karaoke venues, have been ordered to halt operations. That also means beer makers may see little revenue during this closure.

As more infections are detected every day, major firms predict profits this year will plunge by 30-70 per cent.

Saigon-Mien Trung Beer JSC (HSX: SMB) targets VND1.472 trillion ($64 million) in revenue, down 5 per cent on-year. Besides, its pre-tax profit is forecast to be VND156 billion ($6.78 million), equal to 60 per cent of last year.

Saigon Beer Western (UPCoM: WSB) also predicts a 7 per cent fall in revenue, with expected earnings of VND967.3 billion ($42 million). Moreover, pre-tax profit will fall to VND111.9 billion ($4.87 million), equaling a 69 per cent drop on-year.

Under the pressure of Decree 100 and the health crisis, Hanoi Kimbai Beer JSC (UPCoM: BHK) estimated pre-tax profit to reach VND8.6 billion ($373,910), down 31 per cent on-year. Meanwhile, Saigon-Dong Xuan Beer Alcohol (UPCoM: BSD) expects to earn about VND9.46 billion ($411,300) in profit, equalling 72 per cent of last year's performance.

Giants like Sabeco (HSX: SAB) and Habeco (HSX: BHN) have yet to publish revised business plans for 2020. The latest information is that Habeco will organise a shareholders' meeting on April 28 while Sabeco announced delaying the meeting due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Accordingly, it will be held sometime before June 30.

In the stock market, SAB is now traded at VND121,000 ($5.26) per share, down 45 per cent against early this year. BHN also recorded a downturn of 30.5 per cent to VND52,900 ($2.30).
Representative Image

In a chilling warning, the US will see 100,000 to 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus, the Trump administration's topmost infection disease expert forecast on Sunday as the pandemic infected nearly 125,000 people in the country.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said in an interview on CNN that the US will certainly have millions of cases of COVID-19 and more than 100,000 deaths.

Fauci made the scary prediction as the COVID-19 infections in the country neared 125,000 from 10,000 less than 10 days ago, making the US the world's top hotspot.

Looking at what we are seeing now, I would say between 100,000-200,00 deaths from coronavirus.

We're going to have millions of cases, he said.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

"But I don't want to be held to that, because it's -- excuse me -- deaths. I mean, we're going to have millions of cases, Fauci said.

The deadly disease is spreading like wildfire in the US with the New York City metropolitan area being the hotspot accounting for nearly 50 per cent of the total cases in the country.

Fauci, a key member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said the spread of the deadly virus that originated in Wuhan city in China is unlikely to slowdown in the coming days.

But I just don't think that we really need to make a projection, when it's such a moving target, that you can so easily be wrong and mislead people. "What we do know, is that we got a serious problem in New York, we have a serious problem in New Orleans, and we're going to be developing serious problems in other areas, Fauci said.

President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency, major disaster declaration has been issued for more than 20 of the 50 US States, army has been roped in for health care and other services and a USD 2.2 trillion stimulus package has been announced to mitigate the financial woes of the Americans, small and medium businesses and corporations.

Responding to a question, Fauci said that it's true the virus itself determines its timetable.

You can try and influence that timetable by mitigating against the virus, but, ultimately, it's what the virus does. And when I start seeing this happen, then I will come back on the show and tell you, I think we're at that point now where we can start pulling back a little, but not right now in several of the places that I just mentioned, he said.

Fauci expressed concern at the infection rate in the New York City area, which is about 56 per cent of all of the new infections in the country.

That's terrible suffering for the people of New York, which I feel myself personally, as a New Yorker, he said.

So what was trying to be done is to get people, unless there's necessary travel, so, all non-essential travel, to just hold off, because what you don't want is people travelling from that area to other areas of the country, and inadvertently and innocently infecting other individuals, Fauci added.

He said President Trump decided not to impose a quarantine on parts of the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and instead issue a travel advisory for that area after officials had very intensive discussions last night at the White House with him.

After discussions with the President we made it clear and he agreed it would be much better to do what's called a strong advisory," Fauci said.

"The reason for that is you don't want to get to the point that you're enforcing things that would create a bigger difficulty, morale and otherwise, when you could probably accomplish the same goal," Fauci said.

According to him, the White House task force wants to strongly do mitigation in areas like New York City and the surrounding metropolitan area, at the same time that don't neglect other areas of the country, where it looks like there are just relatively few infections, because they have a window of opportunity there to get out there and test.

And if we do testing, identification, isolation, getting people out of circulation who are infected, and contact tracing, we might be able to prevent those areas from getting to that stage where we'd have to do mitigation, which is much more than difficult and much more frustrating than trying to contain, he said.

According to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre, the US has 124,763 cases and witnessed 2,612 deaths as of Sunday morning.

A total of 2,612 patients have recovered, it said.

Globally, the number of COVID-19 cases stand at 684,652 and more than 32,000 people have died of the disease.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Rising global temperatures are expected to thaw Arctic permafrost, reinvigorating the microorganisms that live in the regions carbon-rich soils. When that happens, those microbes will begin consuming the carbon stored in the permafrost and emitting massive amounts of methane, one of the most powerful greenhouse gases on the planet.

This injection of methane into the atmosphere is a concern for climate scientists worried that it will exacerbate global warming. But Purdue University scientists say that while there will likely be more methane  and still a concerning amount  the net emissions from the Arctic may be much smaller than expected.

Qianlai Zhuang, a professor in the departments of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences and Agronomy, and Youmi Oh, a graduate student in Zhuangs lab, say that permafrost thaw increases not only methane production in Arctic wetlands but also methane consumption in upland areas. Upland dry and mineral-based soils account for 87% of Arctic soils and are rich in microbes called methanotrophs that consume methane.

This group of bacteria utilizes atmospheric methane as an energy source, Zhuang said. The emissions from wetlands will potentially be quite large, but if you consider the uplands, then the area-aggregated net emissions will be much smaller than previously thought.

Arctic organic-rich soils emit methane to the atmosphere when their methane production by methanogens is larger than the methane consumption by methanotrophs. The methanotrophs in those soils require high-level methane concentrations to survive and reproduce.

In contrast, scientists discovered novel methanotrophs in Arctic mineral uplands. These high-affinity methanotrophs require less than 1% of the methane concentration level that allows their wetland counterparts to thrive. That means they can survive and reproduce on atmospheric methane concentration levels and can pull methane from the atmosphere.

Zhuang and Oh included the role of these microorganisms in methane consumption into a biogeochemical model and found that they significantly reduce the net regional methane emissions to the atmosphere. Their results were published today (March 30) in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Their findings more closely resemble recent observed trends in methane levels in the Arctic where emissions have increased, but atmospheric accumulations have not increased as quickly as models had simulated.

We do believe that Arctic methane emissions will increase by the end of this century as other studies have shown, but the net increase to the atmosphere will be much smaller once upland methanotrophs are taken into consideration, Oh said. It was even possible in our simulation that net emissions decrease because high-affinity methanotrophs survive better than methanogens in response to warming.

While smaller net methane emissions sound good at first glance, Zhuang and Oh warn that the scenario would be dependent on higher global temperatures.

We could see Arctic methanotrophs consume more methane than the region is producing, but that would require even more warming, Zhuang said. And its important to remember that this is only one part of the planet. It doesnt account for greenhouse gases produced in other regions.

Zhuang and Oh will continue to monitor Arctic methane emissions and improve their model. They believe theyve added a critical component required to better understand net methane emissions, but they say that current models will need to adapt to provide more accurate projections.

The model we use assumes that wetland and upland areas will not change in the future, Oh said. We know, however, that changes in temperature, precipitation and other factors will impact areal dynamics of wetland vs. upland, thus methane emissions.

Graduate student Licheng Liu and Lisa Welp, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, also contributed to the study. Zhuang and Oh received funding from NASA Interdisciplinary Research in Earth Science program and NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship program.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked the No. 6 Most Innovative University in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at purdue.edu.

Writer: Brian Wallheimer; 765-532-0233; bwallhei@purdue.edi

Source: Qianlai Zhuang, 765-494-9610, qzhuang@purdue.edu

ABSTRACT

Reduced net methane emissions due to microbial methane oxidation in a warmer Arctic

Youmi Oh, Qianlai Zhuang, Licheng Liu, Lisa R. Welp, Maggie C. Y. Lau, Tullis C. Onstott, David Medvigy, Lori Bruhwiler, Edward J. Dlugokencky, Gustaf Hugelius, Ludovica DImperio, and Bo Elberling

Methane emissions from organic-rich soils in the Arctic have been extensively studied due to their potential to increase the atmospheric methane burden as permafrost thaws. However, this methane source might have been overestimated without considering high-affinity methanotrophs (HAMs, methane-oxidizing bacteria) recently identified in Arctic mineral soils. Herein we find that integrating the dynamics of HAMs and methanogens into a biogeochemistry model that includes permafrost soil organic carbon dynamics leads to the upland methane sink doubling (~5.5 Tg CH4 yr1) north of 50 N in simulations from 20002016. The increase is equivalent to at least half of the difference in net methane emissions estimated between process-based models and observation-based inversions, and the revised estimates better match site-level and regional observations. The new model projects doubled wetland methane emissions between 20172100 due to more accessible permafrost carbon. However, most of the increase in wetland emissions is offset by a concordant increase in the upland sink, leading to only an 18% increase in net methane emission (from 29 to 35 Tg CH4 yr1). The projected net methane emissions may decrease further due to different physiological responses between HAM and methanogens in response to increasing temperature.

Agricultural Communications: 765-494-8415;

Maureen Manier, Department Head, mmanier@purdue.edu

Agriculture News Page
He has blamed some of the contagion on travelers from New York and Louisiana fleeing hot zones there and ordered those visitors to quarantine. Florida has closed restaurants except for takeout and delivery, urged people 65 or older to stay home, suspended vacation rentals and taken other steps, but it has not ordered a statewide shutdown of nonessential businesses or beaches.

The editorial boards of local newspapers have clamored for the governor to take bolder action. Physicians in Southwest Florida who are worried about hospitals becoming overwhelmed have asked Collier and Lee Counties, home to Naples and Fort Myers, to shutter nonessential businesses and order people to remain at home. County commissioners have refused to go that far without guidance from the governor.

Wildly different approaches by local officials have prompted outrage, especially online. While the city of Jacksonville, in Duval County, shut down its beaches, St. Johns County to the south did not. A striking aerial photo over the weekend showed bare beaches on one side of the county line and crowded sand on the other. (St. Johns County later closed its shoreline.)

Its really rather scary, because my neighbors arent really paying attention  and I live in an elderly community, said Vicki Stanbury, 59, of Boynton Beach, a city in Palm Beach County. She said she was aghast to see people packed inside Walmart and Publix over the weekend without any apparent attention to social distancing.

There was a little strip mall  Pet Supermarket, open. AT&T store, closed. Post office, open. Laundry center, open. Beauty school, closed. G.N.C., closed. Panera Bread, open, she said. I would like to hear the message that this is really serious: Stay home, do not go out. Do not go to religious services. Do not be wandering around Atlantic Avenue with 15 of your friends. Do not go down by the beaches.

Democrats have called on the governor, a strong supporter of President Trump, to issue a statewide stay-at-home order, but he has insisted on what he calls a tailored approach.

That allowed Hillsborough County to order that people stay at home  and it was that local order Mr. Howard-Browne defied, even as religious services of all kinds have been canceled across the country, or moved online.
YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. The government of Armenia will hold an extraordinary session on March 30, the prime ministers office told Armenpress.

The session will begin at 12:00.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
In only its first year to enter the Tommy Tune Award competition, Dickinson ISD has scored three nominations for its Jan. 31-Feb. 8 production of Disneys Newsies.

The show was nominated for best ensemble, costumes and stage crew/technical execution, said DHS theater directors Laurel Powell and Marisa Hataway.

The competition, which is sponsored by Theatre Under the Stars, honors excellence in musical theater at Houston-area high schools, but Dickinsons cast included students from grades kindergarten through 12.

Shows costume designer is 15

The shows costume designer was Kimmy Sosa, 15, a sophomore who is the daughter of Wendy Vasquez.

She did a very good job, said Hataway. She was in charge of doing research and working with a crew of about 10 other students that pulled from our costume storage. They modified and created pieces for this show.

With help from their teachers, the costume crew dressed more than 90 actors.

We rented costumes for about six different characters, but everything else was purchase or made, said Hataway, who is the districts associate director of theater.

Hataway was thrilled, but not surprised, to see the show win a nomination for its costumes.

I think the attention to detail for every single actor on stage helped make them outstanding, she said. The costume crew worked tirelessly on making sure every newsie looked as they had been living on the street and working to survive.

In their research, the Dickinson thespians discovered that the newsies were both boys and girls; so youths of both sexes were cast as newspaper hawkers, who balk when publisher Joseph Pulitzer hikes the cost of the product he sells to them for delivery.

Kimmy also played Race in the show, said Hataway. She is a very talented young lady.

Awards to be announced on Facebook

The Tommy Tune Awards have traditionally have been handed out in a Tony Awards-style ceremony at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Houston. However this year, due to the pandemic, the awards will be announced on Facebook.

A special online awards show will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 28, said Israel Jimenez, the director of community engagement for TUTS.

In addition to trophies in 15 categories, the Tommy Tune program awards scholarships to graduating seniors who plan to pursue careers in the arts.

Hataway said that Dickinson ISD will be ready to watch the show online.

We were so excited about the nominations that we had a group zoom going to watch the nominations together, she said. It was our first nomination watch party! We had over 35 people on the zoom call. Its the perfect way to social distance.

To see a complete listing of schools with nominations in this years competition, visit https://bit.ly/2JnAnq0.

Don Maines is a freelance writer who can be contacted at donmaines@att.net
A NUMBER of community groups has been set up to help people in need as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

Henley Covid-19 Mutual Aid Group has more than 1,200 members and they have divided the town into areas, each covering about 80 households.

Each one has a co-ordinator responsible for managing a team of street representatives and individual volunteers.

A steering group of nine residents has been established to co-ordinate the network and includes town councillor Kellie Hinton.

Anyone who wants to take part, needs help or wants to alert the group to a vulnerable relative living in the town should visit the Facebook page by searching for Covid-19 Mutual Aid Group or email henleyc19aid@gmail.com

Town councillor Will Hamilton has told people to message him on Twitter @LeadHenley if they want help shopping.

Deputy Mayor David Eggleton says he will deliver soup, long-life milk, sugar, teabags, coffee and toilet rolls to people who are self-isolating and the elderly.

If you need asssistance, call him on 07836 202508.

The Henley Literary Festival has established a buddy scheme for anyone who needs help and is appealing for volunteers.

It will connect them with residents who require support and carry out deliveries of groceries or medication.

To join the scheme, email info@henleyliteraryfestival.co.uk

Residents of Shiplake have also come together to help people who cannot go out or want to limit the number of times they leave the house.

They will deliver fresh products such as milk, eggs, bread, fruit, vegetables and other items such as newspapers and medicines.

This is being co-ordinated by Carol Harvey, who runs the village corner shop.

In Sonning Common, the Fish volunteer centre, a charity that provides transport to people in need, is deploying its 50 drivers to pick up peoples shopping and medicine.

If you require help, call the centre on 0118 972 3986.

Villagers have also established a Facebook group called SoCo Corona Virus Support, which 300 people have joined. To make contact, call 07468 004541 or email socohelpers@gmail.com

In Bix and Assendon more than 40 people have offered to take dogs for a walk or shop.

Some have also offered to have telephone conversations with people who feel isolated.

In Woodcote, residents Rachael Winterbottom and Helena Fahie have established Facebook groups called Combat Corona Volunteers Woodcote and Combat Corona Volunteers. The latter applies to the Goring area.

Ewelme Village Store is operating a delivery service for villagers who self-isolate. Other groups you may find useful are as follows:

Nomad Youth and Community project supports young people and their families at grassroots level. It provides support for those facing challenging situations in their lives and works collaboratively with other organisations to deliver positive and individually tailored programmes of support.

It also seeks to act as an advocate for local people regarding resources and facilities within the community.

It is based at 55-57 Market Place, Henley. For more information, call (01491) 635737 or email info@nomadhenley.co.uk

Henley Lions Club seeks to serve the community wherever there is a need, assisting groups and individuals. Projects have included helping individuals in distress, working with the physically and mentally handicapped, providing hospital equipment and patients comforts, and helping to supply food parcels for those in need.

For more information, call David Murray on (01491) 574114.

Henley Probus Club provides fellowship and an opportunity to develop friendships. New members are always welcome. For more information, visit www.hen

leyprobusclub.wordpress.com

Henley Branch User Group represents people interested in the Henley branch rail line.

To join the group mailing list, email henleybranchusergroup

@gmail.com or follow the group on Twitter @HenleyBUG

Townlands Memorial Hospital features services including a minor injuries unit, podiatry, outpatient services, physiotherapy and out-of-hours GP services.

The hospitals outpatient department also offers cardiology and emergency medical services as well as clinics for patients with pacemakers. There is also an

X-ray unit and a physiotherapy area. Call 01865 903703 or visit www.nhs.org.uk

Doctors surgeries in and around Henley are conducting all appointments by telephone. If the condition is deemed serious enough a face-to-face appointment will be offered.

Henley has two GP surgeries  the Bell Surgery and the Hart Surgery, both off York Road. Call the Bell Surgery on (01491) 843250 or the Hart Surgery on (01491) 843200.

Friends of Townlands Hospital is a charitable association of volunteers established to supplement the service provided by the hospital for health, welfare and comfort for patients and has been in existence for more than 50 years. For more information, call Judith Nimmo-Smith on 07930 581732.

The Chiltern Centre for young adults with disabilities, off Greys Road, Henley, is an independent charitable organisation providing short-break respite care for those with severe learning and/or physical and complex medical disabilities. For more information, call (01491) 575575 or email chiltern@chilterncentre.org.uk

Riverside Counselling Service, established in 1989, provides professional, affordable counselling for adults and young people from the age of 12.

It is based at the Friends Meeting House, Northfield End, Henley, and is accredited by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.

For more information, call 07879 381334, email riverside

counselling@gmail.com or visit www.riversidecounselling.co.uk

Oxfordshire Mind has a wellbeing service which operates across the county, running peer support groups, short courses, one-to-one recovery sessions and information sessions about mental health and mental health services.

It also runs a peer support group at the Christ Church Centre in Reading Road, Henley, on Fridays from 1.30pm to 3.30pm.

For more information, call 01865 247788 or visit www.

oxfordshire-mind.org.uk. For more information on the Henley group, call Roger Thomason on 07435 760801.

South Oxon Adult Mental Health Team helps people with mental health difficulties. It is a multi-disciplinary team comprising doctors, community psychiatric nurses, psychologists, occupational therapists and social workers.

The team runs programmes for those aged 18 to 65. It is based in Wallingford and open seven days a week, 7am to 9pm.

For more information, call 01865 904191. Calls are answered 24 hours a day.

Oxfordshire South and Vale Citizens Advice offers advice on all sorts of problems, including debt, benefits, employment, housing, immigration, relationships, discrimination and consumer issues.

Run mainly by volunteers, help is free, independent, confidential and open to everyone in the community. It is based next to Henley town hall at 32 Market Place.

For advice, call 0300 3309042 or email henley@osavcab.org.uk or visit www.citizensadvice.org.uk

The Henley and District Housing Trust is a small charity that provides affordable rental accommodation in the Henley area for local residents in need.

The accommodation is mainly houses and bungalows in Henley and the surrounding parishes.

For more information, email enquiries.henleyhousing@btcon

nect.com

Henley Volunteer Drivers provide transport to hospitals and doctors surgeries for the elderly and disabled.

For more information, call the office on Monday to Friday, 10.15am to noon on (01491) 572923.

The Henley HandyBus uses a 14-seater bus with a tail lift to provide transport for people in the Henley area who have difficulty accessing public transport and who are members of a local club, group or organisation.

Regular journeys (not excursions) are free for bus pass holders.

For more information, call secretary Robin Popham on (01491) 571974 or email info@henleyhandybus.co.uk

Age UK Oxfordshire is an independent charity offering advice, information, companionship and support with the aim of making Oxfordshire a great place to grow old in.

Its information helpline answers more than 4,500 enquiries a year on a range of subjects, including staying independent at home, social and leisure opportunities, legal issues, financial issues, housing, care homes and being a carer.

It has also started a new telephone service for the elderly offering advice and a weekly check-up call.

For more information, call 01865 411288 or email admin@

ageukoxfordshire.org.uk

Henley U3A (University of the Third Age) is aimed at people no longer in full-time employment but wanting to make the most of their lives.

It provides an opportunity to try new things and make new friends.

For more information, call membership secretary Ros Whittaker on (01491) 413535 or visit www.u3asites.org.uk/

henley-on-thames

Henley has two Rotary clubs  the Rotary Club of Henley Bridge and Henley Rotary Club.

Rotarys main theme is service above self and members try to help others in the spirit of fellowship.

For more information about the Rotary Club of Henley Bridge, call Annie Lathaen on 07769 687326 and for information on Henley Rotary Club, call its secretary, Phil Fletcher, on 07979 690437.

Samaritans is a registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress, struggling to cope, or at risk of suicide.

Call for free  at any time from any phone  on 116 123 or email joe@samaritans.org
Paseka Motsoeneng, a South African televangelist also called Pastor Mboro, has reportedly offered to travel to hell to kill the demon ...





Paseka Motsoeneng, a South African televangelist also called Pastor Mboro, has reportedly offered to travel to hell to kill the demon responsible for coronavirus.





According to KenyaUpdates, Mboro, the pastor of Incredible Happenings Ministries, requested $100,000 (36,700,000 at 367/dollar) to take care of his transportation.





The controversial evangelist reportedly said theres no need to waste money on research as the real cause of the contagious disease is a demon in hell which he has volunteered to kill in his dangerous mission.





I am ready to save mankind, I have seen a vision of how the Corona demon looks like and I will defeat it, Mboro said.





The real problem is the demon causing this disease and Im ready to kill it once and for all. There is no need for worrying and expensive research.The real problem is the demon causing this disease and Im ready to kill it once and for all.





He also said that the money should be ready by April.





According to TheSouthAfrican, Mboro had earlier claimed that God told him to prepare just before the pandemic broke out, revealing to him how the coronavirus would affect the world.





God said to me theres going to be outbreaks. Outbreaks that will even cause hospitals to kill doctors and nurses. Thats the time we should be seeking God, he reportedly said in a sermon.





I listened to the president saying public meetings are banned for health reasons. God said this outbreak will happen this year. So it didnt take me by surprise. Weve been preparing and praying.





God gave me a way to pray for the president, saying that the storms that are coming are going to be heavy. What we need to do is take better care of ourselves and listen to what were being told.




Malian voters went to the polls in sparse order on Sunday to elect their deputies in a high-stakes legislative session.

No official turnout figures were available shortly after the polls stations closed, but findings by AFP correspondents and observers suggest that it will be low.

The elections, postponed several times, should make it possible to renew the 147-seat parliament. The first results are not expected for several days. A second round is scheduled for 19 April.

The campaign, which was not very popular, and the elections took place in a deleterious context: the appearance of the coronavirus and persistent jihadist and inter-community violence, despite the presence of French, Sahelian and UN forces.

Opposition leader Soumaila Cisse was abducted a few days before the polls while he was campaigning in his electoral stronghold of Niafounke, near Timbuktu (north). There was still no news of him on Sunday evening.

He is believed to be in the hands of jihadists claiming to be Amadou Koufa, leader of one of the branches of the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel, affiliated to al-Qaeda, according to an elected official and a security source.


Genex signs Binding ESSA with EnergyAustralia for Hydro

Sydney, Mar 30, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Genex Power Limited ( ASX:GNX ) is pleased to announce that it has today finalised its offtake arrangements for the 250MW Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro Project (K2-Hydro or the Project) with the signing of a binding Energy Storage Services Agreement (ESSA) with EnergyAustralia Pty Ltd (EnergyAustralia). A summary of the key terms of the ESSA is below:- A term of up to 30 years, with an initial term of 10 years and two options (at EnergyAustralia's election) to extend for a further 10 years each (Extension Options);- Genex will provide the full operational dispatch rights for the K2-Hydro plant (including P&L responsibility) to EnergyAustralia in exchange for a fixed annual rental payment, escalating over the total term;- Following the expiry of the full 30-year term and therefore conditional on the exercise of the Extension Options, EnergyAustralia shall have the right to acquire Genex's shareholding in the Project for a fixed cash payment; and- The ESSA is subject to a number of conditions precedent, including achieving financial close for the Project, which must be satisfied prior to the financial close sunset date of 31 December 2020.Genex remains deeply engaged with the other Project stakeholders, including the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) to complete the restructuring of the project financing on the basis of the agreed terms of the ESSA. Following today's announcement, and subject to agreeing suitable terms with NAIF and Queensland Government, Genex is now seeking to reach financial close on the Project in the third quarter of the 2020 calendar year. The Company will continue to keep the market informed of developments in relation to this timetable as appropriate.Commenting on today's announcement, Genex CEO, James Harding stated:"Since November 2019, Genex has been actively working with all of its project stakeholders, including EnergyAustralia, NAIF and the Queensland Government, to complete the restructuring of the project financing for K2-Hydro and progress to financial close as quickly as possible.We have been extremely pleased with the support of our stakeholders and counterparties during this period and now believe, with today's signing of the ESSA with EnergyAustralia, that we have the basis to move forward to financial close of the Project.The K2-Hydro project will be the first pumped storage hydro project in the National Electricity Market in almost 40 years, and the first to be developed under private ownership. It will create over 500 jobs during construction and deliver significant economic benefits to Queensland through providing reliable generation for the grid and applying downward pressure on wholesale electricity prices. We look forward to keeping the market informed as we progress toward financial close, and to commencing construction at Kidston later this year."About Genex Power Ltd

Genex Power Limited (ASX:GNX) is focused on developing a portfolio of renewable energy generation and storage projects across Australia. The Company's flagship Kidston Clean Energy Hub, located in north Queensland, will integrate large-scale solar generation with pumped storage hydro. The Kidston Clean Energy Hub is comprised of the operating 50MW stage 1 Solar Project (KS1) and the 250MW Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro Project (K2-Hydro) with potential for further multi-stage wind and solar projects. The 50MW Jemalong Solar Project (JSP) is located in NSW and provides geographical diversification to the Genex Power Limited portfolio. JSP was energised in early December 2020 and commissioning is now underway. Genex is further developing its energy storage portfolio via the early stage development of a 50MW/75MWh standalone battery energy storage system at Bouldercombe in Queensland. With over 400MW of renewable energy and storage projects in development, Genex is well placed as Australia's leading renewable energy and storage company.
Since the COVID-19 response has hit the US  shuttering bars, restaurants, and any place more than a few people congregate at once  there's been a deluge of workers furloughed and let go from their jobs. Last week, a record 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment, while many more have had their work hours trimmed as the great economic pause continues. Meanwhile, time's passage moves forward and rent is due on the first of the month, same as always.

In America, a country where you need income to afford a place to live inside, this isn't an ideal situation.

"I'm lucky enough to have just enough savings to cover my rent until my lease is up June first. After that, I'm not sure," says Megan Dunbar, a legal assistant based in New Orleans who was laid off due to coronavirus. "I called my landlord and asked if they'd be providing any different options for people affected by coronavirus. They said, and I quote, 'No.'"

After speaking to and trading texts with dozens of renters across the country, this response is common, if not universal. Some landlords are offering to work with renters until the pandemic is over, others are saying suck it up, it's business as usual, while still others are preemptively evicting tenants who they believe are greater risks for carrying the virus. As there's no top-down or universal plan yet in place, it's just a mess of tenants and landlords trying to figure it out for themselves. No one quite knows what to do yet. The only certainty is that a lot of us are in this together.

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There have been some attempts to let pressure out of the panic pipe that comes with a mixture of no income and "rent's due"  $1,200 checks to some Americans as part of the coronavirus relief package is one such attempt  but many municipalities have been trying to calm renter nerves with an "eviction moratorium." Essentially, they state that evictions due to lack of payment stemming from COVID-19 can't occur over the next stretch of social isolation. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo recently said these moratoriums take care of the renter's predicament enough that there's no need to do anything else, a stance that seems egregiously short-sighted.

"Eviction moratorium is an objectively good thing, but it is a temporary solution to a long-term problem," says Cea Weaver, organizer for Housing Justice for All, a tenants rights group that's put together a Google Doc to keep everyone updated on what's happening in New York and provide resources for those willing to partake in an organized rent strike. "It's not like all of a sudden the jobs and income you lost will be back."

Related | Read These 15 Books in Quarantine

Across the country, the same disconnected and murky battles are taking place. The city of Los Angeles has issued a similar moratorium on evictions, but offers nothing in the direction of what tenants are supposed to do about rent. (California Governor Gavin Newsom has taken the leadership pathway of essentially telling cities to figure it out themselves.) To those who have been paying close attention to landlord/tenant squabbles over the years, this lack of direction is nothing shocking.

"Even though 64 percent or people in LA are renters, more than half of the City Council reps are landlords," says Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal from the LA Tenants Union. "And we're seeing that power play out in a way that will disproportionately will disadvantage renters."

Of course, there is a relatively simple solution to alleviate the panic and confusion these piecemeal and incomplete plans produce: Universal rent forgiveness.

There have been murmurings in some legislatures about rent forgiveness for those directly affected by COVID-19. (The Anti-Eviction Map Project, meanwhile, has been keeping track of emergency tenant protections that have passed, or that tenants are working on getting passed.) While this would be a step in the right direction, as long as it's not a universal program that forgives rent for all, it's still not enough. "The burden of proof on tenants to prove [they're being affected by COVID-19] is risky for undocumented people, or those who get paid in cash like Uber and Lyft drivers, people who didn't lose their job but aren't making any income," Weaver says. "It would just remove too many people from protection."

Until this forgiveness occurs, renters must figure it out with their own landlords. But that doesn't mean they have to do it alone.

If your landlord hasn't reached out yet, it's worth getting in contact and asking if they have any policies during this time. If you are experiencing financial hardship, be explicit about this and see how they react. Then, consult your local tenant's right organization for more advice on how to proceed. "We're encouraging our members to keep their rent," Rosenthal says. "And to use their money to buy food, necessities, household supplies, medication, and whatever else they need." In New York City, if a landlord is currently trying to evict you and even if you've received a notice already, the moratorium means they'll need to get a court order in order to force you out. If they're shutting off utilities or making threats, you can call the police and report an illegal eviction.

Keep a copy of all letters, and consider forwarding these to your state and local government representatives to give them a sense of how this pandemic is affecting renters. Maybe even think about posting negative interactions with your landlords on social media  sometimes shame goes a long way.

In addition, it's important to exchange contact information with your neighbors to trade stories of how your landlord is acting during this time of crisis  anything you can do to build solidarity is a net positive. At the least, maybe you'll have someone who can bring you groceries when you're sick. At the most, with enough people on the same side, the boulder of the status quo can be dislodged and open a pathway to a more equitable future.

"When we're separate, we're easy to evict, easy to harass, easy to displace. But together it is much more difficult," Rosenthal says. "Organizing is the alchemy that turns sharing vulnerability into shared power."
Our work suggests that Americans may not be as divided on voting by mail as policymakers are  both in Washington D.C., and in Oklahoma City. If public concern about COVID-19s health risks continues throughout the fall, and if Oklahomans' opinions on vote-by-mail resemble those of liberals and conservatives elsewhere, the merits of offering expanded mail balloting in November may be a point of agreement  not disagreement  for liberals and conservatives alike.
Fake: Govt is not extending the lockdown beyond 21 days

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Mar 30: The Government has rubbished reports that the lockdown in India would be extended beyond 21 days.

Referring to a report that the Modi government would extend the lockdown beyond 21 days, Prasar Bharti News Services said that report is fake. We got in touch with the Cabinet Secretary on this news article. The Cabinet Secretary expressed surprise and said that there is no such plan to extend the lockdown.

FAKE NEWS ALERT 



PBNS got in touch with the Cabinet Secretary on this news article.



The Cabinet Secretary expressed surprise & said that there is no such plan of extending the lockdown. https://t.co/CrLlp6f7X5  Prasar Bharati News Services (@PBNS_India) March 30, 2020

The nation wide lockdown will continue until April 14. The lockdown was announced to ensure social distancing and isolating people, so that the doctors can fight the pandemic. Reports suggesting that the lockdown would be extended came in the wake of the migrant crisis.

Fake circular stating booze stores in Karnataka will be opened up does the rounds

NEWS AT NOON, MARCH 30th, 2020

Scores of migrants are stranded without food and money. Many started walking back to their native villages stating that they rather be with their families. The government had take some tough measures and directed states to seal borders to prevent the migrants from moving into other states. On the other hand, in UP, where a large number of migrants crossed over the government has made arrangements to quarantine them.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, March 30, 2020, 10:04 [IST]
The 1st of April month is known for Fools Day jokes and many companies come up with a number of pranks. But this year, it is not going to be the same as the world is fighting a pandemic. Due to the outbreak of coronavirus and the present situation, Google has taken a major decision on the Fools Day jokes.

According to a report, Google says that its highest goal right now is to be helpful to people and save the Fools Day jokes for April 2021. The company further adds that it has stopped the centralized efforts for April Fools Day jokes and has directed its teams to pause on Fools Day jokes that were planned.

It is indeed a step in the right direction by Google and it will not be a wise decision to come up with jokes and information that might mislead people during this time. Other companies that have planned Fools Day jokes are expected to withdraw as well.

An internal email by Google read,

Google will take the year off from that tradition out of respect for all those fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. Our highest goal right now is to be helpful to people, so lets save the jokes for next April, which will undoubtedly be a whole lot brighter than this one. Weve already stopped any centralized April Fools efforts but realize there may be smaller projects within teams that we dont know about, the email from Googles head of marketing Lorraine Twohill continues. Please suss out those efforts and make sure your teams pause on any jokes they may have planned  internally or externally.

Source | Via
By PTI

ALIGARH: Deoband-based Durul Uloom, Asia's largest madrassa, on Monday offered to hand over one of its buildings to the Uttar Pradesh government to turn it into an isolation ward for coronavirus-infected patients.

The offer was made by Vice-Chancellor Mufti Abdul Qasim Nomani of the theological school in a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The Durul Uloom's Mohtmim (vice chancellor) has written to Chief Minister Adityanath offering a three-storeyed hostel building, 'Darul Quran', for housing COVID-19 patients, Durul Uloom's spokespersons Ashraf Usmani told PTI.

READ| India not at COVID-19 community transmission level, says Health Ministry

The head of the Deoband school, in his letter to the chief minister said, the hostel building of the school is located adjacent to the main highway and if the government finds it appropriate, the school would like to offer its services for helping the country in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the spokesman said.

The building can accommodate up to 100 people, he said.

"We are ready to offer the hostel as quarantine facility for as long as the government wants it," he added.

Darul Uloom is Asia's largest madrassa which is located at Deoband in Saharanpur district.
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Linkedin Reyner Valiant Tumbelaka (The Jakarta Post) Surabaya  Mon, March 30, 2020 17:01 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e662b7 3 Opinion COVID-19,medical-practitioners,doctor,nurse,hospital,safety,health,pandemic,infectious-diseases Free

The persistent issue for Indonesian medical professionals is largely being portrayed at present as one of sourcing extra masks, goggles, hazmat suits and other personal protective equipment (PPE). But they face multiple complications that are rarely reported.

Doctors and medical residents of all specialties are on the front lines in the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are not just in the emergency room, but also in outpatient clinics, general wards and labs, at reception, in offices, in the dispensary and almost every corner at all referral hospitals.

Every time we arrive at the hospital, we are resolved to help patients, not only those with the coronavirus, but also all other people with illness or injury. The orthopedic residents are treating patients with broken legs, the pediatric oncology residents are providing chemotherapy treatment for child patients with cancer, and general practitioners are providing medical consultations and treatment while running triage, assigning varying degrees of urgency to patients.

All this happens in a single place: the hospital.

Considering the COVID-19 outbreak and the priority of treating patients according to specialty cases, we dont want to harm patients or ourselves, so we do everything we can to protect ourselves and our patients using PPE  or anything else that is available, like duct-taped raincoats.

The problem that is receiving the most attention  the shortage of basic PPE is theoretically the easiest to resolve: produce and ship more supplies and detain the PPE hoarders. After healthcare workers raised the alarm about shortages, the government started distributing tons of PPE supplies from China using military aircraft.

The Indonesian Textile Association (API), in collaboration with the Indonesian Fiber and Filament Yarn Producers Association (APSyFI), is producing more protective gear and masks to meet the high demand. No physician would refuse going to work if they are properly protected.

Those on the front lines are most at risk, not simply of catching the virus, but of contracting its most virulent forms. So far, however, the countries that lag behind in understanding and responding to the risks COVID-19 pose to health workers are also those countries that are lagging behind in suppressing community transmission.

Lets learn from the nations that have been hardest hit by the virus as cases in China decreased.

With about 80,500 cases and more than 8,000 deaths, Italy was hardest hit by the COVID-19 epidemic  until the United States overtook it on March 26 with almost 82,500 cases. The Italian healthcare system has been using all available resources to respond to the flood of COVID-19 patients. But doctors and nurses are near breaking point, and they have warned the world to learn from Romes mistakes and move from patient-centered care to community-centered care. Treating more patients at home during early symptoms is a rational strategy during a pandemic, and it requires public cooperation and awareness.

Major hospitals in Italy have become sources of infection, with COVID-19 patients indirectly transmitting the virus to other, uninfected patients. Health workers, especially those that do not have symptoms, carry the contagion to other patients and back into the community. Asymptomatic doctors can unwittingly spread the virus before they need treatment or to be quarantined; they are fighting alongside their overwhelmed troops.

In a world with an ideal viral response strategy, hospitals would be testing medical staff periodically to give them the all-clear, and those who are carriers can be isolated. But the availability of testing kits is still limited, so patients with symptoms are being prioritized.

Whats happening in Italy is partly because they didnt protect the doctors. Now there are fewer doctors, and the sad thing about all this is that it was preventable through protection and adequate testing.

Thankfully, Indonesias frontline workers are among the top priority groups for getting tested using the newly available kits.

Meanwhile, facing the pandemic with this microscopic enemy has led to a change in role for surgeons from their usual, daily practice. The key aim of surgical staff in this kind of situation is to maintain emergency surgery provisions, including major trauma.

If the public keeps ignoring government guidance and restrictions, COVID-19 cases will only continue to grow. Elective surgery will likely be delayed where possible, with priority for only emergency cases to minimize the use of essential items including beds in intensive care units, PPE, cleaning supplies and ventilators.

In a surgical setting, the risks start with the anesthesia procedure. While all medical professionals in operating theaters are at risk, anesthetists may be particularly at risk of contracting COVID-19 through droplets when intubating a patient for surgery if they lack sufficient protection.

Protecting health professionals also means protecting the community. Indonesian doctors are risking their lives, but our greatest fear is that we could shift from being part of the solution to becoming part of the problem.

***

The writer is an orthopedic and traumatology resident at Dr. Soetomo Regional General Hospital and a graduate of the Airlangga University medical school in Surabaya, East Java.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
During a crisis, people seek leadership to get answers, quell concerns, and guide them forward with a steady hand. As weve seen with the coronavirus outbreak, this pandemic is no different  and President Trump has proven himself to be the leader we need during these uncertain times.

Since coronavirus began to spread from China, President Trump has taken bold, assertive actions to curb the outbreak and protect New Mexico. The administration has moved quickly, including instituting a travel ban in January, establishing an exemplary task force, working hand-in-hand with local governments and the private sector, and freeing up funding for states to combat the pandemic.

With the early implementation of a travel ban, the U.S. was able to get ahead of the virus, significantly decelerating the spread from China to the United States. Further, President Trump locked down border areas where the virus has spread to put the safety of Americans first.

In conjunction with the travel ban, the president has assembled a world-class task force led by Vice President Mike Pence working constantly with world, federal, state and local officials. The task force continues to keep the American people informed, including with new guidelines designed to ensure the safety of our communities.

On March 13, Trump declared a national emergency, saying no resource will be spared  and we in New Mexico were given over $5.9 million in federal money to help fight the virus and protect the most vulnerable here. He has also worked to remove bureaucratic red tape to expedite Americans access to testing  a decisive action that allows more Americans to be tested and helps prevent the spread of the virus, providing a blueprint for future administrations.

While the government is working to see Americans through this outbreak, the president is also utilizing the private sector. Leaders of the nations largest businesses in the medical, insurance and retail industries are standing with him and offering services to help defeat the virus.

The president has made clear this is not a financial crisis. But to protect from any possible economic burden on the American worker and business, the administration has worked with congressional leaders to put forward a bipartisan stimulus package and taken steps to protect the economy  like tax credits and waiving interest on student loans.

However, weve seen in recent days that despite having worked toward a bipartisan stimulus package that earned praise from both Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrats would rather play politics.  Instead of putting the American people first, Democrats spent days allowing their hatred of this president to stop them from doing what is right, but the people of New Mexico can rest assured the president will continue to protect them. His top priority remains the health, security and safety of the American people. Even notorious critic of the president, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, said the Trump administration has been helpful in its response: every single thing (President Trump) said, they followed through on.

Regardless of what some Democrats or the media have said, President Trump is working diligently to see us through the end of this pandemic. And with Gov. Newsoms commendation comes a reminder for us all: This is not a time for partisanship or division, but rather a time for every American to work together so we come through this crisis a stronger nation.
At least five Ottawans are stuck on two separate cruise ships after cases of COVID-19 were detected on board.

Two couples from Orleans are hoping they'll eventually make it back to Canada after being trapped on Holland America's Zaandam, where some 130 passengers have developed influenza-like symptoms.

The ship, currently making its way north from Panama to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is carrying more than 1,800 people, including 248 Canadians  247 passengers and one crew member.

Four people have died, while two others have been confirmed to have contracted COVID-19. Holland America has not identified the cause of the deaths.

"At first it was a fun cruise, but when we knew we had to stay in our little cabin, [it became] less fun," said Michel Cayouette, 66, who's stuck on board with his 63-year-old wife Lucie and another couple, Denise Lemire and Gilles Laporte.

"Before, you could walk around. It was nice to get some fresh air when you wanted," Cayouette told Radio-Canada in a French-language interview.

The Zaandam had initially been denied passage through the Panama Canal, with Panamanian authorities citing sanitary reasons. That had passengers and crew wondering when they would get home.

On Saturday evening, the Panama government announced it would let the vessel pass. No passengers, however, are allowed to disembark.

The federal government has confirmed that none of the dead passengers are Canadian citizens, and said Saturday it was working to repatriate those who were on board.

Many of the symptomless Zaandam passengers have already been transferred to another cruise ship, the Rotterdam, also headed for Fort Lauderdale.

Lemire and Laporte are among them.

"The organization of the transfer was quite spectacular, very well co-ordinated," Lemire wrote in a French-language Facebook post.

As of Saturday, the Cayouettes were still hoping to be transferred to the other boat.

"People 70-and-over are the first designated people who can go in the other boat," Michel Cayouette said. "The transfer of people is still quite good. We transfer about 60 people an hour."

Story continues

Councillor's brother trapped

Across the Atlantic, the brother of an Ottawa city councillor is currently stuck on the Costa Victoria cruise ship off the coast of Italy.

Bay ward Coun. Theresa Kavanagh said her 70-year-old brother, Kevin, is one of approximately 200 people remaining on the cruise liner, confined to his cabin after a case of COVID-19 was confirmed on board.

"What they do is they take his temperature every day and he's been passing. So that's good," Kavanagh told CBC Ottawa Sunday.

"But he doesn't know if he is going to have to be quarantined in that area, in Rome, or if they are just going to ship him off to get back home."

Matthew Kupfer/CBC

Kavanagh said her brother doesn't have cellphone service in his cabin and couldn't be reached on the weekend.

She said he's one of only a handful of Canadians on board, and given that small number, her brother feels the federal government is unlikely to repatriate them.

Even once he's eventually allowed off the Costa Victoria, Kavanagh said his family worries the options to get home are shrinking.

"They told him to be ready to go, to like, have his bags packed," she said Sunday. "And of course, he's quite anxious to. But he's still waiting."

She said her brother has registered with Global Affairs Canada as a Canadian travelling abroad.

"You don't know what to do," she said. "You're just playing a waiting game."
Mumbai, March 30 : Lenders of debt-ridden Suzlon Energy have approved the resolution plan as per the the Reserve Bank of India's June 7, 2019 circular (RBI).

In a regulatory filing, the company said that the resolution plan has been accepted by all the lenders.

Suzlon said that the company is working on finalising various definitive agreements with the lenders.

It said that the plan has been "approved by 100 per cent of lenders by value, and 100 per cent of lenders by numbers".

The other lenders of Suzlon Energy include the Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank and Yes Bank.

Last July, lenders entered into an inter-creditor agreement with Suzlon with a standstill period of 210 days which expired on January 7, 2020. It was then extended till April 30.

Suzlon had sought to convert Rs 7,700 crore of its debt into convertible debentures, and another Rs 3,600 crore was classified as sustainable which would remain as loans on the book. The remaining portion of debt would continue in the form of non-fund exposure for banks.

Its shares on the BSE settled at Rs 1.91, higher by 4 paise or 2.14 per cent from the previous close.
One odd side effect of covid-19 has been what it does to taste. Even those who have avoided the illness enjoy things they once disliked: government spending. Video chatting with family.

Andrew Cuomo.

The governor of New York's morning news conferences have become part of the country's new daily rhythm. He is broadcast live from the wood-paneled Red Room of the state capitol building or New York City's convention center - a leader in a polo shirt or neatly knotted tie, projecting competence to go along with the PowerPoint projection of hard truths. And to the surprise of anyone who has watched his State of the State, it's must-see television.

First come the facts. In a series of days, there are no cases, then 30,000 cases, then nearly 45,000 cases in New York state. "That's a problem," he says. The state is running out of beds and ventilators. He doesn't shy away from that. "That's a challenge." He pauses.

"Take a breath," he says, and when he starts to talk again it is the revival portion of the meeting. There are moving stories about New York, his mother, his father and all of humanity. The density of the state - its "closeness," he says - is its vulnerability in this moment. But it is also what will get it through. He is talking to New York but the whole country is listening to the Cuomo Monologues: part briefing, part sermon, part inspirational talk.

By the end, viewers at home are getting choked up, and people in California and Colorado are texting about him. They'll tune in later to watch as he and his younger brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, rib each other about who Mom loves more amid the coverage of impending doom.

The comedian Chelsea Handler is attracted to him. Even women who used to despise him find him irresistible. His enemies give him praise.

The coronavirus crisis has re-introduced the nation to a different cast of Democratic leaders. Joe Biden, the supposed standard bearer of the party has been largely missing, with governors such as Jay Inslee of Washington, Gavin Newsom of California and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan finding the spotlight. And no one is on a bigger stage right now than Cuomo.

It's an interesting turn of events for a governor who has mostly been known as a micromanager, a bully, a vacuum cleaner set on high to suck up power.

Many Americans have had a thing for "tough guys" before. Donald Trump became president, after all. People don't seem to mind a jerk if he's their jerk.

It helps Cuomo that the other daily programming is the president's presser, equal parts bravado and wishful thinking, underscoring a message that conjures a deadbeat dad - "I take no responsibility at all."

It can make Cuomo's faults feel reasonable. He's the strongman who can admit he's wrong. He speaks fluently about the facts. He worries about his mother, and by extension, yours, too.

He can screw up. Cuomo, who declined an interview for this story, got into a public bickering match with his old rival Bill de Blasio, the Democratic New York City mayor, about a stay-home order and wavered on whether to close New York's schools. He shut down nonessential business after California did. When Cuomo decided to use the state's prisoners to produce hand sanitizer, critics howled that he was exploiting what was essentially slave labor in a health crisis. Just this past week, Cuomo admitted that parts of mandatory quarantine, like sending people - both those in college and those without the savings to live on their own without a job - back home to live with their vulnerable parents, may not have been the best decision. But at least he doesn't go against his own scientific advisers about when to open businesses back up.

"All of those attributes that at times grate at people - even like me who want to poke him sometimes - frankly are useful in an emergency," said Marc Molinaro, Dutchess County executive and Cuomo's 2018 Republican opponent in the governor's race.

The state now accounts for more than half of cases of covid-19 in the country, and having granted himself immense power to make unilateral decisions, the success of the response largely falls to Cuomo, and his ability to work with the federal government.

"This is not a time to play nice in the sandbox," he said at Wednesday's news conference.

"We are going to go out and kick coronavirus's a--," he said Friday.

- - -

As recently as last summer, New Yorkers seemed to be sick of the Cuomo show. A three-term governor and the son of another, the late Mario Cuomo, Andrew has spent more than two decades in and around the Executive Mansion.

Where his father was called a political visionary, as close to a poet as Albany may ever see, Andrew Cuomo has long been thought of as more of a blunt object.

"Mario Cuomo loved the art of thinking, of grappling with concepts," said Steve Cohen, a former secretary to Andrew Cuomo who also worked for his father. Andrew, is in some ways, a reaction to his father. "He is every bit the intellectual his father was, but he is also very pragmatic. Andrew believes you need to actually get things done. If you can't get things done, a lofty philosophy is a luxury."

If Andrew Cuomo wanted to get it done, he often did: driving strict gun-control measures, minimum-wage hikes, and some of the most expansive infrastructure projects in the history of the state. He has also dealt with acute disasters before, including Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy. After Hurricane Irene washed out a major thoroughfare in the Adirondacks in 2011, Cuomo got on the phone to threaten the contractor on the reconstruction job that if he didn't fix the roads within a week, he'd never work in New York again. After Superstorm Sandy, Cuomo eviscerated the local power authority for its response to power outages and drove legislation to change it.

"This is the Cuomo disaster playbook," said Josh Vlasto, former deputy communications director for Cuomo. "Hands on, fully immersive, direct and clear communication, and completely blowing through bureaucracy even if it is his own bureaucracy."

But the go-it-alone attitude has been frustrating to some, especially the many Democrats who fall to his left and feel he hasn't done enough to address inequality. And at its worst, Cuomo's brusque leadership style can give the impression that not everything is on the level.

In July 2013, Cuomo sat in the same Red Room and announced that in response to a spate of scandals plaguing the Statehouse, he was forming an independent panel of lawyers and investigators to crack down on corruption.

"The people of this state should sleep better tonight," he said, announcing what would be called the Moreland Commission.

But when the commission started looking into entities tangentially connected to the governor, he shut it down months ahead of schedule.

"This was an edict by the governor that we should uncover whatever might be going on in the state," said Barbara Bartoletti, a former adviser to the commission. "What he did not apparently want us to do was get close to him. And that's when it started to fall apart."

But what counts as good government in a crisis? Sometimes it's a heavy hand.

In late February, Cuomo secured $40 million in a bill that gave him broad authority to combat the virus without having to seek approval from the legislature.

"If the legislature abdicates their role, he's the type of governor who, like a large celestial object acting with the laws of gravity, will pull more power to him," said Blair Horner, who used to work for Cuomo and is now a regular critic. "But maybe right now it's the only option."

- - -

A lack of options has driven the governor into regular contact with a fellow New Yorker he's known for 30 years: Trump. The two are on the phone every day, often multiple times. Along with the rest of the country, Trump regularly tunes in to Cuomo's news conferences, and by some accounts has tried to emulate his tone.

For the most part, the two have been careful to praise each other in public. But they both have their limits. Earlier this month, the president tweeted that Cuomo needed to "do more," which rankled the governor enough for him to respond: "No - YOU have to do something. You're supposed to be the President." Ultimately Trump deleted his tweet and told Fox News's Sean Hannity, "Generally speaking, I'm getting along very well with Governor Cuomo."

"They are just two boys from Queens, right?" said Rep. Max Rose, a freshman Democrat who represents parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island. "Considering the two personalities involved and their history, it is notable the degree to which they have worked with each other."

In their latest run in, Trump floated a quarantine of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut without telling Cuomo or the other governors. Aides spent hours talking the president out of it. Then Trump called Cuomo to say he'd relented.

Cuomo has said he's trying to keep his emotions in check these days, and reserves his flashes of anger not for Trump but for the federal government itself, calling their $2 trillion aid package "reckless" and "irresponsible" for not doing enough to help New Yorkers. So what does he do when the feds don't come through? Same thing he always does, turn to his own New York network. Early on, he called his father's former health commissioner to try to expand testing for coronavirus in New York. "He got very very involved to facilitate regulatory approval to make sure our lab got up and running in a very coordinated way with the state lab," said Michael Dowling, president and CEO of Northwell Health, the largest health system in the state. Cuomo visited Northwell's lab on a Sunday in early March to inspect the facility. It is now conducting 1,700 hundred tests a day, according to Dowling. "Andrew has been leadership in action," he said.

Cuomo's crisis management has earned rave reviews, but as the state becomes the worldwide coronavirus epicenter, it's unclear whether anyone will ultimately be seen as a winner. Already there have been questions about whether keeping the New York City subway open has allowed the virus to spread. Has Cuomo done enough to protect the vulnerable populations of New York City, especially those in prison? News stories have started to critique his response - turns out that hand sanitizer story was a bit of a ruse. And while he's been sounding the appropriate levels of alarm now, would he not have saved more lives if at the end of February he hadn't said: "This situation is not a situation that should cause undue fear"?

"In an emergency, no matter what there are going to be a thousand things that could have been done differently and that we should learn from for the next time," said Molinaro, Cuomo's former opponent. "But I was also once a volunteer fireman, and you want to put the fire out before you look for the missteps."

If Cuomo is able to help stave off this disaster, it will further fuel speculation about him seeking higher office in the future, an ambition his aides deny. The president's praise has wavered the more Cuomo's star has risen. Hannity, Trump's mouthpiece and muse, recently berated Cuomo, whose requests for supplies have grown ever more urgent.

"The cynic in me - and I've known him a long time - thinks he is setting himself up for 2024. He certainly wants to save lives in New York, he's genuine about that, but he's a political animal and always has been," Bartoletti said.

"He has his eye on one thing right now - being governor in a time of crisis. There is no 2024. It doesn't exist to him," Cohen said. "What exists is now."
Americans may be too diseased to return to work after the worst of the coronavirus pandemic has passed because they are the most vulnerable.

The US is already facing huge burdens on its healthcare system with rising rates of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic conditions.

More than 60 percent of adults in the country have at least one underlying health condition, according to Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

All of these health issues increase the risk of infection of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and worse: death.

With more than 151,000 confirmed cases of the virus in the US and more than 2,700 deaths, health experts fear that both of these numbers will rise exponentially because few are truly at low risk of becoming infected.

Studies have shown that chronic health conditions such as obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure can increase your risk of infection and death (file image)

Obese people who become infected with the flu are not only at a greater risk of severe complications but remain contagious longer. Pictured: A patient is taken to Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, New York, March 30

Data out of China has shown that mortality rates are higher in patients with underlying conditions such as cardiovascular disease. Pictured: A medical worker stands with a body on a hospital gurney as it is moved to be temporarily stored in a mobile morgue outside of the Brooklyn Hospital Center in Brooklyn, New York, March 30

Experts suggest that obesity may put the US at risk of of a pandemic similar to that seen in 1918 with the Spanish flu.

According to the CDC, 42.4 percent of the US adult population is obese and 18.5 percent of American children are.

Obesity is known as a risk factor for several chronic health conditions including type 2 diabetes, strokes, heart attack and even certain types of cancer.

Experts have warned that the proportion of obese adults will only grow as younger generations do.

Rising rates of obesity will not only raise healthcare cost but could spur the coronavirus pandemic, or future pandemics.

A study of the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, found that obese people were twice as likely to be hospitalized compared with the state population.

This means that obese people diagnosed with COVID-19 could put an even further strain on already overwhelmed hospitals.

Additionally, a recent study from the University of Michigan School of Public Health found that obese adults who become infected with the flu are not only at a greater risk of severe complications, but remain contagious longer.

This means that obesity is tied to an increased risk of flu transmission. With 75 percent of US adults predicted to be overweight or obese by 2030, this could result in a loss of thousands more more lives to the flu, or the coronavirus.

Although it is unclear why obese adults are more contagious, scientists believe it may be that that obesity changes the body's immune response and leads to chronic inflammation.

What's more, a study this month out of China found that coronavirus patients with underlying conditions had higher mortality rates.

Researchers found morality rates were 10.5 percent for those with cardiovascular disease, 7.3 percent for diabetes, 6.3 percent for chronic respiratory disease, six percent for hypertension, and 5.6 percent for cancer.

A study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that only 12 percent of Americans over age 20 are considered 'metabolically healthy.'

This population has 'optimal' waist measurements, glucose levels, blood pressure and cholesterol without having to take medication.

Meanwhile, 80 million people in the US (one in every three) suffering from high blood pressure, 100 million live with diabetes or pre-diabetes, and 102 million have high cholesterol levels - and many have some combination of the three.

This means that only a small percentage of the population that can truly be considered low risk.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-31 00:51:46|Editor: huaxia

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BERLIN, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The German government has brought around 175,000 citizens, who had been stranded abroad because of the coronavirus crisis, back to the country, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas announced on Monday.

Germany's Foreign Office had chartered aircraft, which had carried out 145 special return flights so far. According to Maas, an estimated 200,000 German citizens had initially been stranded abroad.

In addition to chartering aircraft, the German government was also working with travel operators and airlines. In total, the German government had been able to return citizens from more than 60 countries, a foreign office spokesperson said.

The German government had made up to 50 million euros (55 million U.S. dollars) available for organizing return trips for Germans who had no other options due to border closures during the coronavirus crisis. Enditem
Further, the party urged agencies of government, particularly the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to be wary of attempts by some All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders to hijack fiscal procedures and push hazy financial theories that will end up diverting public resources into their hands, away from the poor Nigerians in the informal sector who are in dire need of social remedies due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland will extend most of its measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak by one month until May 13 from April 13, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Monday.

In recent weeks, Finland has restricted traffic across its borders, banned public meetings of more than 10 people, closed schools for most pupils and urged people to stay at home as much as possible.

Most restaurants have closed after the government urged them to sell only takeaway food last week, although an official decision on that is still pending parliament's approval.

The government said it was possible schools may not reopen before the school year ends at the start of June.

As of Monday, Finnish authorities have confirmed 1,313 cases of COVID-19 in the country and 13 deaths.

Finland has imposed roadblocks around the Helsinki region, which are currently due to be removed on April 19.

Some Finns have expressed mounting concern over neighbouring Sweden's lax measures to control the spread of the virus.

The government announced stricter controls on Finland's western and northern borders with Sweden and Norway, where people have moved back and forth for work freely for decades.

Interior Minister Maria Ohisalo said on Monday evening that the government would seek to impose a two-week quarantine on Swedes and Finns who travel frequently between the two countries.

Finance Minister Katri Kulmuni said more than 280,000 people have been laid off due to the virus, excluding layoffs at companies that employ fewer than 20 people and are exempt from reporting such moves.

(Reporting by Anne Kauranen; Editing by Chris Reese and Hugh Lawson)
San Antonio Express-News file photo

An employee of the video visitation center with the Bexar County Adult Detention Center has tested positive for coronavirus, the Bexar County Sheriff's Office reported Sunday.

Officials believe the case is travel-related, possibly stemming from a cruise the employee returned from on March 15. The person returned to work on March 16 and later developed and reported symptoms on March 18. They were placed on administrative leave on March 19.
Operators in the financial sector, particularly banks and money markets, have been granted limited exemptions to maintain skeletal operations through the lockdown period.

In his nationwide speech on Sunday, President Muhammadu Buhari announced the cessation of all movements in Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for an initial period of 14 days with effect from 11p.m. on Monday, March 30.

The restriction of movement, which also applied to Ogun State due to its close proximity to Lagos and the high traffic between the two states, is to help in controlling the spread of the coronavirus.

All citizens in these areas are to stay in their homes. Travel to or from other states should be postponed. All businesses and offices within these locations should be fully closed during this period, the President said.

The only commercial establishments granted exemptions include food processing, distribution and retail companies; petroleum distribution and retail entities; power generation, transmission and distribution companies, and private security companies.

Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed [PHOTO CREDIT: @FinMinNigeria]

However, considering the strategic importance of the financial sector, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, and the Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Godwin Emefiele, requested the approval of the president for light operations in the financial system.

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They said the request was to help ease the burden the restriction order could bring on ordinary Nigerians and ensure they can still perform online transactions and use the automated teller machines (ATM) to withdraw money to meet their financial needs while observing the restrictions during the period.

We will like to inform the general public and all affected stakeholders that we have obtained exemptions from the President to allow very skeletal operations in the financial system and money markets in order to keep the system in light operations during the time, they said in a statement on Monday.

Consequently, the minister said all relevant staff of the affected outfits and agencies should look out for further instructions from their bosses.

Although these establishments are exempted, access will be restricted and monitored.
MARCH 30, 2020  UTSA is responding to the COVID-19 outbreak with a commitment to supporting the safety of the university community while enabling the academic progress of students. Here is your digest of university news and tips.







STRATEGIES FOR HEALTH



Self-care and well-being are important. Check out UTSAs video series with tools and strategies for adjusting in our current environment. This first videofrom Melissa Hernandez, director of Counseling and Mental Health Servicesexplains how to plan a workday schedule that wont stress you out. Be sure to watch for more in the series on UTSAs YouTube coronavirus playlist.



VIRTUAL EVENTS



HONE YOUR SKILLS: If youre not sure which tech tool to remotely teach and work is the best for a specific task, join UTSAs town hall event Remote Tools for Learning and Working (Tuesday, March 31, 23 p.m.) to gain useful insights, get guidance and hear updates. The panel will be taking questions from viewers.

Panelists: Kendra Ketchum, vice president for information management and technology; Jenell Bramlage, senior associate vice president for information management and strategic services; Marcela Ramirez, executive director of digital learning; and Melissa Vito, interim vice provost for academic innovation. Moderator: Jessica Abel Wilkinson, project coordinator, University Technology Solutions strategic services and communications.





BE A VIRTUAL VOLUNTEER: UTSAs Volunteer Services will be hosting virtual volunteer opportunities to help you stay connected with the community.

To build awareness for National Child Abuse Prevention Month in April, Roadrunners will share their decorated Cardboard Kids online. Decorate a cardboard kid template (in the Cardboard Kids Insta story) digitally and share it on Thursday, April 2 via social media with the hashtag #UTSACardboardKids and tag @utsavolunteer.

Join Volunteer Services as it hosts a virtual service project (Friday, April 3 from noon2 p.m.) to make dog toys for the local shelter of your choice.



COMMUNICATION



NEW PANTRY HOURS: Roadrunner Pantry on Main Campus will be open weekdays from noon to 4 p.m., effective March 31. The pantry continues to have ample supplies, and anyone with a UTSA ID will be given a weeks worth of food. Visitors are asked to enter the Student Union through the northern entrance closest to the circle driveway near the tennis courts. Note that aside from Roadrunner Pantry and the UPS Store, all other Student Union operations and buildings are closed.





PURCHASES AND DELIVERIES: As the majority of UTSAs workforce adjusts to telecommuting, please thoughtfully consider purchases and reduce spending on materials and supplies wherever possible. Numerous technology resources are available to support paperless processes. The university will carefully monitor purchase order requests and Procard reports during this time. When purchases are necessary, please note that the university does not allow home delivery of items. Deliveries will continue to route through Central Receiving to facilitate required inventory, asset and purchasing policies. Learn more about current Central Receiving operations.
Cho Won-tae

Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Won-tae called Sunday for government support as he is pushing to raise funds to tide over difficulties over the spreading coronavirus outbreak.



Korean Air Lines Co., a flagship unit of Hanjin Group, has suspended most of its flights on international routes as an increasing number of countries close their borders to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.



Cho said more than 90 percent of Korean Air's aircraft are grounded, a situation that company officials said would threaten the company's survival unless the virus outbreak is contained.



Cho said he will take necessary self-help measures to improve the company's financial structure, in addition to the previously announced sale of idle assets.



"We will actively seek to raise funds by consulting the board of directors," Cho said in a message to shareholders of Hanjin KAL Corp., the holding company of logistics-to-airline conglomerate Hanjin Group. "We earnestly ask the government for strong support."



To help airlines weather the fallout of the coronavirus outbreak, the government said last month it would extend loans worth a total of 300 billion won ($250 million) to airlines, mostly low-cost carriers, and allow them to delay payment of airport usage fees.



Full-service carriers, such as Korean Air Lines Co. and Asiana Airlines Inc., have yet to receive financial help from the government to cope with the crisis.



On Friday, shareholders of Hanjin KAL approved Cho's reappointment as a member of the company's board, bringing him a victory in a family feud over the group's control.



Cho's current post has been challenged by a coalition led by his elder sister Hyun-ah that has called for ousting him from the position over the control of Hanjin Group.



Local airlines have been struggling with a sharp decline in air travel demand since Jan. 20, when South Korea reported its first case of COVID-19.



Last week, the International Air Transport Association called on South Korea to offer a comprehensive rescue package to support local airlines "in grave and immediate danger of insolvency," according to Korean Air.



The global trade association for the airline industry sent a letter to President Moon Jae-in and asked the Seoul government to urgently extend direct financial support, loan guarantees by the government, support for corporate bond issuance and tax relief.



South Korea's eight other airlines have also suspended most of their flights on international routes, as an increasing number of countries have closed their borders and imposed stricter entry restrictions on inbound passengers. (Yonhap)


YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian parliament passed at first reading the government-authored bill on allowing authorities to use mobile location data of citizens to trace direct contacts of confirmed novel coronavirus cases.

The bill passed with 57 votes in favor, 27 against and 1 present.

The mechanism does not foresee any surveillance on the content of calls or messages, according to the authors.

The mechanism will be introduced only during pandemic-related state of emergencies and all collected data will be deleted afterwards.

The ruling My Step faction said it has some recommendations to the government ahead of the second reading.

The opposition parties strongly disapproved the bill and voted against.

Arman Babajanyan, an independent lawmaker, also voted against, citing very serious reservations and disagreements of the Human Rights Defender, with whom he has discussed the issue.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
AUTHORITIES in Dodoma are confident to meet the 4.4bn/- investment target that seeks to increase the production of edible oil in the semiarid area, a new venture that could make it an undisputable regional hub for cooking oil.

Dodoma Regional Commissioner, Dr Binilith Mahenge, says Dodoma has the best land for groundnuts and sunflower farming, yet the two key raw materials remain under produced and existing factories have been targeting the local market.

Kongwa District Commissioner Deo Ndejembi told the Daily News yesterday that the district was committed to ensuring it met the production target.

Kongwa District, which was a key exporter of groundnuts during the colonial administration, has also ventured into massive production of sunflower. Mr Ndejembi said; our target is to produce 30 tonnes of cooking oil daily.

The investment meets international standards and the oil produced can compete in the international market. We have major factories.

One of our refinery plants is located in Kibaigwa. Its a 1.5bn/- investment. We have over 10 other small and medium refineries in the area.

With Dodoma running to capture the regional hub for cooking oil, little, however, is known about the actual production capacity.

Stakeholders in the edible oil business have rushed to blame limited interactions between the public and private sectors.

Observers admit that should the state and none state actors work together to address the challenge of limited expertise, appropriate seeding, lack of inexpensive financing and business coordination can improve the countrys potential to produce sufficient cooking oil for domestic and international markets.

Director of Finance and Administration at the Tanzania National Business Council (TNBC) Oliver Damasi said at a consultative meeting that the cooperation between the public and private sectors was still too slow and needed to be strengthened to bring a meaningful impact.

Meanwhile, the regional commissioner has said the government has been making reasonable investments that will spur industrial growth.

The latest investments have been the revival of the state flagship air carrierAir Tanzania, planned construction of an international airport at Msalato and the ongoing construction of Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).
WASHINGTON, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) and EURORDIS-Rare Diseases Europe share the global concern that diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines to address COVID-19 be developed expeditiously. Our organizations represent the 30 million people in the US and 30 million people in the EU living with rare diseases. These individuals are disproportionately at risk if they contract this disease and will be among those who benefit the most when such products are developed and made available.

Notwithstanding our community's stake in solutions for COVID-19, we do not believe that rare disease incentives that exist under our respective laws, the Orphan Drug Act in the US and the EU Regulation on Orphan Medicinal Products, are appropriate for use in this global pandemic in which hundreds of thousands, if not millions, will be affected. These laws have been highly successful at spurring development of therapeutics for those rare diseases which affect a very small number of people in the population and where there was a lack of investment in research. That is an entirely different problem than the current one.

Clearly, there exists a viable market of people infected by SARS CoV-2 or patients affected by COVID-19 in our respective territories, and our regulatory bodies have sufficient and flexible authorities at their disposal to facilitate the expeditious review of these products. There is no need for rare disease incentives to spur investment.

We emphasize the importance of global and open collaboration on research for treatments and vaccines, as pooling knowledge and resources is the best way to expedite availability of these medicines.

About the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD)

The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) is the leading independent advocacy organization representing the over 25 million Americans affected by rare diseases. NORD is committed to the identification, treatment and cure of more than 7,000 rare diseases, of which approximately 90% are still without an FDA-approved treatment or therapy. NORD began as a small group of patient advocates that formed a coalition to unify and mobilize support to pass the Orphan Drug Act of 1983. For more than 35 years, NORD has led the way in voicing the needs of the rare disease community, driving supportive policies and education, advancing medical research and providing patient and family services for those who need them most. Today NORD is home to over 300 member organizations and nearly 15,000 advocates.

About EURORDIS-Rare Diseases Europe

EURORDIS-Rare Diseases Europe is a unique, non-profit alliance of over 900 rare disease patient organisations from 72 countries that work together to improve the lives of the 30 million people living with a rare disease in Europe. By connecting patients, families and patient groups, as well as by bringing together all stakeholders and mobilising the rare disease community, EURORDIS strengthens the patient voice and shapes research, policies and patient services.

SOURCE National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD)

Related Links

https://rarediseases.org


Former presidential hopeful Tom Steyer has responded to criticism that he has been a no-show while a number of fellow billionaires publicly vowed to plough millions into fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

In an interview last week, Mr Steyer told The Independent: To me, this is a political question and so that's what we've been focused on. To push as hard as possible to understanding the most vulnerable people as always will be hit the hardest and to make sure that the response reaches them directly.

A spokesperson for the former candidate told The Independent that more news was coming on Mr Steyers plans in the next day or so but that a food bank drive will be launched shortly for low-income families under financial stress from Covid-19.

Mr Steyer, 62, spent more than $300m on his presidential bid which ended last month after he came third in the South Carolina primary.

He is worth an estimated $1.6bn from his hedge-fund career which he ended a decade ago to focus on politics and the environment.

His former Democratic opponent, billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who spent close to a billion dollars funding in his short-lived campaign for the White House, has committed $40m to fighting coronavirus.

Billionaire Mark Cuban, who owns the Dallas Mavericks, has made a donation to help cover salaries of arena staff.

When asked about Mr Steyer and other political big spenders, Mr Cuban told the Daily Beast: They should do what they think is right. Not up to me to judge.

Forbes has been tallying the response of the worlds richest to Covid-19.

Mr Steyer made his money in private equity and established Farallon Capital after moving to San Francisco in the eighties. His wealth was partly built on investing in fossil fuels.

He cashed out in 2012 to focus on politics and the environment, setting up NextGen America in 2013.

Mr Steyer, his wife, Kat Taylor and four children live in the uber-wealthy San Francisco neighbourhood of Sea Cliff, beloved for its sweeping views of the Pacific.

As of today, the US has 143,055 cases and 2,513 deaths, including 132 in California and 48 in the Bay Area.

(Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

He said last week that he was taking the advice of health authorities in California when it comes to social distancing and that the response to the coronavirus had lessons on how we should respond to climate change.

He said: I've been trying to be careful as a good citizen to make sure that [I'm] not getting infected and infecting other people.

"I was talking to an old friend of mine who's a conservative Republican this morning. I said to him, 'Mike, does the coronavirus pandemic show you that denying science and not preparing for things that scientists tell you are overwhelmingly likely or inevitable is a gigantic mistake?' Silence at the end of the line from him.

"You can't watch what's happening with this pandemic and look at the negative response of the Trump administration and not know there's an absolute parallel to climate where you have to be data-driven, look at the facts and act on them.

"You can't allow political considerations to come between the facts and your responsibility to protect the health and safety of American citizens. To me, it's completely comparable.

Mr Steyer's spokesperson also pointed to other ongoing philanthropic efforts amid the outbreak.

These include the Beneficial State Bank, which Mr Steyer founded with his wife, which has removed fees on many products and offers savings up to $200 per month for all bank clients on household expenses.

Tom and Kat have invested over $100 million into the bank, and of course do not profit from it the rep said.

They are also working with ReGenesis, a community development corporation in South Carolina, in the frontline communities where both climate and Covid19 hit disproportionately hard.

Other actions include setting up off-season farmer's markets at their TomKat Ranch and working with trade associations to support community banks for small businesses.

Mr Steyer said: I have been trying as hard as possible to figure out the best way to do that in terms of giving money to specific things.

We're looking at $1tn response by the federal government, that is the size of what we need to see.

"The size of the problem requires federal response and the responsibility of every citizen, from my standpoint, is to push as hard as possible to make sure that response is fair to the people of the United States which is what I've been focusing on. To try to make sure that response treats the most vulnerable amongst us fairly.
A man is accused of posing as a police officer before allegedly raping two women who were staying at a hotel in coronavirus isolation.

The 31-year-old, who can't be named for legal reasons, is charged with two counts of rape and impersonating police after the alleged sex attacks at a hotel in Adelaide's CBD on Friday night.

Adelaide Magistrates Court on Monday heard the first alleged victim answered a knock at her door at about 8.30pm, with a man telling her he was a policeman and producing a form of ID.

The man told the woman he was checking on her welfare amid the COVID-19 pandemic, so she let him in her hotel room, the court heard.

Prosecutors told the court the man handcuffed her to the lounge before pulling a handgun from his jacket.

The first victim answered a knock at her door to a man she thought was a police officer at around 8.30pm on Friday. She was then allegedly raped and handcuffed to the sofa (file picture)

The man then demanded money, and the woman handed him $400, the court was told.

But he allegedly showed her his gun a second time, prompting her to give him another $6,200.

'She stated to him that she would have no money to buy food so he handed back $400,' prosecutors told the court, ABC News reported.

Prosecutors told the court the man forced the woman into the bedroom and raped her several times.

At about 10.45pm the same night, the man allegedly entered another woman's hotel room.

Pictured: Recently arrived overseas travellers get off their bus and wait to check in at the Crown Promenade Hotel in Melbourne while police supervise them

Again, the man allegedly showed the woman the handgun inside his jacket.

'He told her that she would go to prison if she was not quarantining and the only way she would not go to prison is if she had sex with him,' prosecutors told the court.

It's alleged the man told the woman's male friend to wait in the bathroom while he raped her.

The man's lawyer said her client denies all allegations.

His bail application for home detention was denied. He will return to court in July.

Thousands of Australians are currently being quarantined under police guard in hotels around the country after returning home from overseas.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

All arrivals at international airports will be under the close watch of border force officials for their 14-day isolation period, before getting the all clear to return home.

Border force guards are understood to be watching each floor, with those in isolation warned they will be handed $1000 on-the-spot fines if they leave their hotel room.

Australia's confirmed coronavirus cases have soared to 4,220, and 18 people have died.

A Sydney man is already behind bars for allegedly flouting his home self-quarantine twice on Saturday before trying to leave the serviced apartment in which he had been confined.
Solidarity is the only way forward, says WHO

A number of drugs have shown promise in treating SARS: WHO

Lockdowns are essential, but human rights should be upheld: WHO

Financial year has not been extended: Finance Ministry

The coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 7,00,000 and caused more than 30,000 deaths globally. With infections crossing 140,000, the United States has emerged as the new Covid-19 hot spot. President Donald Trump said Sunday that the peak death rate in the United States from the coronavirus pandemic was likely to hit in two weeks. He has also extended the governments social distancing guidelines until April 30. Japan is set to extend its entry ban to include citizens that have travelled to United States, China, Europe and South Korea to stop the spread of the virus.

In India, the number of Covid-19 cases crossed 1,000 on Sunday including the death toll of 29 as per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare figures. Fresh cases were reported in Noida, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Read highlights:
There is reason to be optimistic during this overwhelming crisis.

This sensibility springs from an idea my father, Pat Williams, gave me, a principle of political leadership. He likes to say We must remember there is a genius on every block. What he means is we need to have confidence and trust in the people and systems that make America extraordinary, and then well be okay.

Oddly enough, I watched this bit of uniquely American wisdom borne out in my personal experience in the Congo. A decade ago, I helped create an organization  Eastern Congo Initiative  in a part of the world that has experienced remarkable challenges from war to disease.  Today, we employ nearly 200 professionals who help local leaders build the economy, create jobs, and make available clean water and health services to confront health challenges large and small. The work is paying off: weve opened markets for farmers to sell their cocoa to the chocolate company Theo and their coffee to Starbucks. We have partnered with community groups to drive down maternal and child mortality rates and seen thousands of patients at health clinics. Well-being is on the rise.

I travel to Congo frequently and I was there during the recent Ebola outbreak, a challenge that is in many ways is precedent to what we face with coronavirus. Heres a reason for optimism: The Congo just celebrated a major milestone with the passing of an entire month without a new case of Ebola. The Congolese can beat Ebola and we can do the same with coronavirus, especially if we pay close attention to the biggest lesson from that faraway epidemic.

Citizens across Africa have beaten Ebola by beating an attitude of distrust in institutions, science and expertise.

When trust in institutions and science breaks down, the real problems begin. I was there, and I saw it happen. Early in the epidemic, many people were so suspicious of healthcare workers and their advice that they physically attacked them, real and ugly violence against modern day heroes simply trying to help.

What saved millions from that epidemic was turning that attitude around. Citizens were taught to trust and support health care workers and scientists, the people on the front lines. This sea change in attitude paid off in spectacular fashion, in specific ways that ought to give us hope today. Ebola was like coronavirus because as the epidemic began, there was a lot of faith directed toward magic-bullet solutions, that a vaccine or anti-virals would miraculously make the whole peril pass.

But front-line healthcare workers in Congo learned by doing what they do best, by taking care of patients, that small steps could help, simple matters like effective quarantine or attending to hydration, restoring fluids and electrolytes of patients. In the process, the healthcare workers taught all of us that small incremental steps from geniuses on every block reduced the death rate and saved many lives, one step at a time.

Its the same spirit that had a father in son in Billings recently figure out how to make medical masks with a 3-D printer. We depend on front-line workers here at home to beat back our current problem, and not just healthcare workers, but pockets of genius that will overcome our current crisis bit by bit: people in local and state government taking care of us with reliable information and communication, neighbors looking out for neighbors as we stay at home, and those throughout the supply chain working tirelessly to deliver medical supplies and food.

Its up to the rest of us to support them, trust them and give them the tools they need. And to listen to them. Were all in this together now.

On the backside of this pandemic  because this, too, will pass  Montana will have a whole set of economic and social challenges that no one thought wed face just two months ago. Well need a new generation of leadership to pull us through. Well need someone who will fight for Montanas families, farmers and ranchers, and small businesses. Well need someone with broad experience in solving complex problems. I have worked alongside everyone from small farmers and Fortune 500 companies to solve tough problems born from crisis. I work with fierce urgency. I believe deeply in Montanas promising future. It is why I am running for governor  and why I am asking for your support.

Whitney Williams is a sixth-generation Montanan, a businesswoman and candidate for Governor.

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Producers in Morgan, Macoupin and Sangamon counties can apply for the Otter Lake Source Water Protection Project to improve the watersheds quality.

The funding will come through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The service has partnered with Illinois Corn Growers Association to help producers address resource concerns, such as degraded water quality and soil erosion.
Following their successful launch in India, the Realme 6 and 6 Pro are ready for their European tour. The pricing and launch dates will be unveiled tomorrow at 8:00 UTC. This is a week later than the originally planned, but the way 2020 has been going no plan is set in stone.

Anyway, the Realme 6 Pro and its vanilla sibling already received several important updates. The Realme 6 got 120fps slow-mo, it and the Pro received HD support for Netflix.



The Realme 6 and 6 Pro will make their European debut tomorrow

We've received both phones and posted hands-on reviews, so you can find more about the Realme 6 and 6 Pro. Spoiler: they offer pretty good value for money.

Source
Apropos the editorial Covid-19 crisis: Imposing a financial emergency can be useful by A K Bhattacharya (March 30), there is no doubt to impose a pay cut for the government and PSU employees, one has to use the provisions of Article 360 enshrined in the Constitution.

But the bigger question is that will such a step be wise at this juncture when quite a few states are ruled by the parties who will oppose any such step by the Centre? When the poor are suffering, it is imperative that the salaried class should contribute financially. Otherwise, this will lead ...
TRUMBULL  Town residents are facing a tax deadline that, so far, isnt being eased by the coronavirus fallout.

The next quarterly property tax payment is due Wednesday with a one-month grace period before interest charges begin accruing May 2.

This is going to become an issue for Trumbull before it does for many other towns, because we pay our taxes quarterly instead of biannually, said First Selectman Vicki Tesoro.

With the impact the coronavirus and in-home quarantine efforts have had on the economy, the ability of many people to pay their taxes could be in question, she said. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act recently passed by Congress contains language protecting homeowners from foreclosure and renters from eviction, but real estate taxes are not included in the package and are controlled at the state level.

Adding to the problem, Tesoro said, is that like residents, municipalities still must pay their bills.

Our workforce is the same, everybody is still on the job, Tesoro said. Police, public works are on the job. The parks department is working, even though its staggered shifts to make it a little safer. Everyone is working remotely where possible. We havent laid anyone off, and we dont intend to.

Tesoro notified Trumbulls legislative delegation Sunday afternoon in a group email to state representatives David Rutigliano, R-123rd, Laura Devlin, R-134th, and Ben McGorty, R-122nd, and state Sen. Marilyn Moore, D-22nd.

We have payments due on April 1. Interest charges do not begin until (May 2), she wrote. Although there is still over a month before that will occur, I am already receiving requests from residents to put forward an initiative to forgive any interest on late payments and to possibly defer payments.

Tesoro pointed out that towns do not have the authority to change due dates or waive interest and fees, and that although Gov. Ned Lamont has issued a series of executive orders related to coronavirus, none has addressed municipal taxes.

Do you know if there are any discussions in Hartford about municipal tax relief? she asked. Because we pay our taxes quarterly in Trumbull and not semi-annually as many town and cites do, this may not be on the radar yet, but our taxpayers will begin to be penalized if they cant meet their tax obligations by 5/2.

Rutigliano later told Tesoro that a proposal to waive or change the penalties for late tax payments was on its way to Lamont.

Its on the top of the list, he said.

But with tax bills due in a matter of days, Tesoro said she hoped for some guidance soon. Even a decision leaving it up to municipalities would be helpful, she said.

Under ordinary circumstances, you dont want towns to have different rules, where one town waives fees and one doesnt, one town extends the deadline and one doesnt, she said.

But with businesses shuttered all over town and many others doing a fraction of their normal business, and with the resulting layoffs and reduction in hours for employees, these are hardly ordinary circumstances, she said.
Four men will appear before the Special Criminal Court on Friday over the alleged assault and false imprisonment of Quinn Industrial Holdings Director Kevin Lunney last September.

Luke O'Reilly (66), from Mullahoran Lower, Kilcogy, Co Cavan, Darren Redmond (25), from Caledon Road, East Wall, Dublin and Alan OBrien (39), of Shelmalier Road, East Wall are charged with false imprisonment and assault causing serious harm to Mr Lunney at Drumbrade, Ballinagh, Co Cavan on September 17, 2019. A fourth accused cannot be named for legal reasons.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Workers at the Bloomfield-based Amazon fulfillment center walked out during their lunch break on Monday to protest working conditions during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

With city police officers making sure protestors maintained a six-foot distance from each other, at least 50 people took part in the rally in front of the facility, known as JFK8 -- which has 5,000 workers. The facility is Staten Islands largest employer.

I forgot my mask at home the last time I was working. I asked my manager for one and she said, No, we dont have any, recalled Rina Cummings, a West Brighton resident who works as a sorter at the facility and attended the walk out.

I had a knot in my stomach; my heart started racing. I have two children at home and I cant afford to be sick or hospitalized for any reason. ...I heard there was a positive diagnosis at JFK8, but I dont know where this person worked, and I dont know what was done to clean the area. ...This is a multi-billion dollar company. They should be sending in masks, gloves, and isolation gowns at the front door, she added.

However, Amazon said it has been deeply cleaning and sanitizing the facility on a daily basis.

These accusations are simply unfounded. Our employees are heroes fighting for their communities and helping people get critical items they need in this crisis, said an Amazon spokesperson.

While it appeared there were at least 50 protesters at the walk out, Amazon said only about 15 of them were employed at the facility.

"Less than half a percent of associatesparticipated in todays demonstration. ...Like all businesses grappling with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we are working hard to keep employees safe while serving communities and the most vulnerable. We have taken extreme measures to keep people safe, tripling down on deep cleaning, procuring safety supplies that are available, and changing processes to ensure those in our buildings are keeping safe distances. The truth is the vast majority of employees continue to show up, and do the heroic work of delivering for customers every day, she added.

MULTIPLE CASES OF COVID-19

The Advance/SILive.com reported Saturday that sources say there are multiple confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) at Amazons Staten Island fulfillment center.

A spokesperson for the Amazon facility wouldnt confirm the number of cases and told the Advance on Saturday that the facility would not be closed for deep cleaning. Amazon said the confirmed cases at JFK8 are not linked to one another. And the workers who contracted the virus had no contact with each other, the company said.

Workers are really scared right now. As of this morning, it looks like there is another case in the warehouse. This brings it up to six or seven cases, said Zack Lerner, the organizing director of New York Communities for Change, which helped stage the walkout with Made The Road New York. Both are grassroots organizations.

Lerner claimed management didnt make employees aware of the confirmed cases.

Workers now have to choose between infecting their families and paying their bills. People are pretty freaked out about this, he said, adding that workers want Amazon to close down the warehouse for deep cleaning, and release a public plan for how they are protecting workers from contracting and spreading the virus.

According to Amazon, the company has worked closely with health authorities to take care precautions for workers. Amazon said its measures to protect employees include increased frequency and enhanced deep cleaning and sanitation multiple times a day, every day, and maintaining social distance in the fulfillment center.

In addition, the company also recently implemented daily temperature screenings at the Staten Island fulfillment center.

All Amazon employees diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed into quarantine will receive up to two weeks of pay, the company said.

PETITION

Athena -- a grassroots coalition of more than 50 organizations representing workers, among other groups -- released a petition of $4,000 signatures demanding, Amazon take immediate action to address the glaring gaps in safety and health that are endangering public and worker health.

The petition called on Amazon to provide every worker with 100% paid leave to stay home if they need to, and explain what they would do if COVID-19 disrupts their operations, among other pressing needs.

Amazons inaction has left workers with no other choice but to walk out of an unsafe work environment to protect their own and everyones health. Enough is enough, said Dania Rajendra, director of Athena. Amazon must immediately issue a comprehensive, uniform public plan for what it will do to protect workers and our communities, as well as provide accessible paid time off for anybody who feels sick or needs to self-quarantine. Its what we need to protect workers, our communities, and public health.

Said Maritza Silva-Farrell, a leading critic of Amazon in New York and executive director of ALIGN: We stand with all Amazon warehouse workers on Staten Island who are walking off the job today to protect themselves, their co-workers, their families, and public health. Jeff Bezos and Amazons top leaders should immediately meet all these workers demands, including closure of the facility for complete sanitization and paid time off for employees."

AMAZONS SOCIAL DISTANCING POLICIES

The company said it has put the following social distancing practices in place:

- There are no stand-up meetings during shifts; all essential business information is shared via boards near main areas and through conversations with managers, or HR team members.

- Chairs have been moved and tables have been spread out in break rooms.

- Shift start times and break times are being staggered.

- All exit screening is suspended to ensure ease of movement near main entrances.

- The company has enabled temporary cell phone processes for those who need to be in contact with their family or child care provider.

- Training now takes place in small formats and with in-app tools and other equipment.

- Employees are required to stay home and seek medical attention if they are feeling sick, and Amazon has adjusted attendance policies to support this.

- Employees are required to sanitize and clean their work station and vehicle at the start and end of every shift with disinfectant/cleaning wipes.

- All employees have been asked to defer non-essential travel.

- Potential employees are interviewed via video.

- All employees have been ordered to wash their hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after: Going to the bathroom; before eating; after blowing their nose, coughing, or sneezing. If soap and water are not readily available, they are told to use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.

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SEOUL, South Korea  North Korea said on Monday that it had lost all appetite for dialogue with the United States because of Secretary of State Mike Pompeos continuous pressure on the country to give up its nuclear weapons program.

The statement came a week after North Korea said its leader, Kim Jong-un, had received a personal letter from President Trump offering help in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

The world does not know well why the D.P.R.K.-U.S. relations remain amiss, North Koreas Foreign Ministry said in its statement, using the abbreviation of the Norths official name, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, despite the special personal relations between the top leaders of the countries.

Secretary of State Pompeo gave a clear answer, it added.

The statement, carried by the Norths official Korean Central News Agency, appeared to criticize comments by Mr. Pompeo last Wednesday after a meeting of foreign ministers of the Group of 7 industrialized countries.
CREMONA, ITALY - MARCH 29: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) A male nurse is getting the handover from the head nurse at Cremona Hospital on March 29, 2020 in Cremona, Italy. Marco Mantovani

The coronavirus outbreak isn't showing any major signs of easing in Italy, where the death toll surpassed 10,000 over the weekend. Italy has been the worst-hit country by the pandemic so far in Europe, with the highest number of deaths and cases among its 60 million citizens. The country has grappled with the outbreak since its first cases emerged in late February, imposing a nation-wide lockdown in early March. "We are in the most acute phase," Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told the newspaper El Pais Sunday. There have been 97,689 confirmed cases in total, which includes 13,030 recoveries and 10,779 deaths, according to the latest figures from the Italian government, released Sunday evening. "Experts are still cautious, but it is reasonable to think that we are near the peak," Conte added. However, there are growing fears in the southern part of Italy that there could be a surge in cases in the coming days. The outbreak in the country has so far been most concentrated in its industrial northern heartland.

LIVORNO, ITALY - MARCH 29: A pizza chef prepares pizza while wearing a protective mask in his pizzeria which is closed to the public on March 29, 2020 in Livorno, Italy. In Italy the pizzerias are closed, but home delivery is allowed. Laura Lezza

Vincenzo de Luca, governor of the southern region of Campania, warned last week in a letter to the government that "there is the real possibility that there will be a tragedy in the south." In general, southern parts of the country are less developed and are likely to face bigger challenges when responding to the virus. The first cases of Covid-19 emerged in the north of Italy. However, when the first lockdown measures were introduced, they only applied to that area, which meant that many Italians returned to their home regions in the south, potentially spreading the virus across the country.

Daily increases fall in Spain

Meanwhile, in Spain, authorities are being cautiously optimistic about the outbreak, having noticed a reduction in the number of new cases over the weekend. Fernando Simon, head of Spain's centre for health emergencies, told reporters on Sunday that "one needs to be careful about the latest figures," but pointed out that there was a 13% rise in new cases on Saturday, followed by a 9% rise in new cases the following day. Tweet 1 Spain has reported a total of 78,797 confirmed cases, of which 14,709 have recovered from the illness and 6,528 have died, according to the numbers released by the Spanish government on Sunday.

The European challenge

The coronavirus outbreak is shaking the politics of the European Union (EU) by resurfacing old divisions between the 27 member states. Italy and Spain, the countries with the highest cases and deaths from the virus, have asked for more European support as the outbreak has brought their economies to a halt. However, certain EU nations are reluctant to take unprecedented steps in helping these nations because of the risk of jeopardizing public opinion in their home countries. "If the EU does not live up to its vocation and its role in this historical situation, will citizens have more confidence in it or will they permanently lose it?," Italy's Conte asked during the interview with El Pais. He added that the risk of a higher anti-EU sentiment was "obvious" as a result. "Nationalist instincts, in Italy, but also in Spain and elsewhere, will be much stronger if Europe is not up to the task," he said. Italy, Spain, France and six other EU countries believe that countries sharing the euro as a currency should issue common debt. This instrument would be used to mitigate the economic impact of the virus across all of the impacted nations.
BISHKEK -- The trial of former Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev and 13 co-defendants over deadly clashes with security forces last year at Atambaev's compound in a Bishkek suburb has been postponed because of the state of emergency announced in the country because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Birinchi Mai district court in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, was to restart the high-profile trial behind closed doors on March 30, after postponing it a week earlier when Atambaev experienced a drop in blood pressure.

However, the court announced on March 30 that it was shutting the trial down for the time being due to the government's March 25 declaration of a state of emergency in Bishkek, as well as the southern cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad and several districts in the south.

During the state of emergency, which has been called until April 15, all activities at public offices and institutions, including courts, are to be suspended as the government tries to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

Deputy Prime Minister Kubatbek Boronov said on March 30 that the total number of registered coronavirus cases in the country had reached 94 after 10 more people tested positive in the southern Jalal-Abad region.

It is not clear when exactly Atambaev's trial will resume.

In August 2019, security officials were sent to Atambaev's compound in Koi-Tash near Bishkek after he refused to obey three subpoenas calling him to the Interior Ministry for questioning in an investigation into his alleged involvement in the illegal release of a jailed organized-crime boss in 2013.

Atambaev was arrested on August 8 after he surrendered to police following a violent, two-day standoff.

The standoff by the former president and his supporters resulted in the death of a 47-year-old security officer, Usenbek Niyazbekov, and injuries to more than 170 others, including 79 law enforcement officers.

Atambaev and the 13 co-defendants were charged with murder, attempted murder, threatening or assaulting representatives of the authorities, hostage taking, and forced power seizure.

All 14 defendants pleaded not guilty and called the case against them politically motivated.

Five more defendants in the case made plea deals with investigators and will be tried separately.

The 63-year-old former president currently faces a separate trial for charges linked to the release of the crime boss. Aziz Batukaev was convicted of several high-profile crimes, including the murders of a Kyrgyz lawmaker and an Interior Ministry official, before his illegal release in 2013.

Kyrgyzstan saw a smooth and peaceful transfer of power from Atambaev to his ally, Sooronbai Jeenbekov, a move welcomed by the international community after presidential transitions -- in 2005 and 2010 -- came after violent rioting.

However, the deadly clashes in August at Atambaev's compound underscored a power struggle between him and Jeenbekov.
For the first time since early March, a significant snow storm will hit the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. Over the next two to three days, gusty winds and abundant snowfall could slow down freight flows in the Seattle, Portland and Spokane markets.

SONAR Critical Events and radar: Monday, Mar. 30, 2020, 10 a.m. EDT; Pacific Northwest snow storm

Setup and snowfall amounts

A cold front will sweep across the region today, followed by a cool, moist upslope wind flow across the Cascades and northern Rockies into Tuesday. Snow levels will begin lowering later today with significant snow accumulations through Wednesday. In some areas, precipitation will start as rainfall, changing to snowfall later today. Snow levels could eventually be as low as 1,500 to 2,000 feet in elevation in some areas.

Total snowfall accumulations could reach 12 to 24 inches in the northern Cascades of Washington State into the Cascades of British Columbia, Canada, Snoqualmie Pass on Interstate 90, Stevens Pass on US-2, Mount St. Helens, and Crater Lake National Park. Look for several inches of snowfall on parts of I-84 in Oregon, with light, wet snow in the lower elevations along I-84.

As the storm moves inland, atmospheric pressure will drop, producing a strong pressure gradient and winds gusts of 30 to 45 mph in parts of the Oregon Cascades. Blowing snow will cause periods of reduced visibility and whiteout conditions.

While heavy snowfall hits the mountains, the lowlands and lowest elevations adjacent to the Cascades will get drenched with several inches of heavy rainfall. Thunderstorms could occasionally dump excessive rain in some spots, with potential flash flooding along the I-5 corridor.

Impact on freight

Seattle is the largest freight market in the snowstorm's impact zone. According to FreightWaves SONAR, Seattle's otobund tender volume index (OTVI.SEA) is rebounding after dropping a few days last week. The OTVI is an index that moves in proportion to the total observable outbound tender volume among the 135 freight markets nationwide, and it's based on trucking volumes on March 1, 2018.

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A good measure of a market's stability/volatility is the SONAR outbound tender rejection index (OTRI)  the percentage of electronic, contracted loads offered by shippers that carriers turn down. There are two primary reasons why carriers would begin to increasingly reject loads. First, they literally may be at full utilization and not have any excess capacity to take on the load;. or, second, carriers may reject loads if they have more attractive alternatives available in the form of higher rates in the spot market or from another broker or shipper.

SONAR Tickers: OTVI.SEA, OTRI.SEA

In the case of Seattle's current rejection rate (OTRI.SEA), it is at 7.2%  less than half the national average  indicating a balanced market. As a rough rule, a loose market (high capacity) is defined by tender rejections in the low- to mid-single-digit range, a balanced market by tender rejections in the high single digits, and a tight market by tender rejections above 10%.

Based on Seattle's volume and rejection rate, carriers may be able to find freight there and shippers may be able to pay rates that are close to contract rates. However, getting there before Wednesday or Thursday could be challenging because of the weather.

Have a great day! Please stay healthy and be careful out there!

See more from Benzinga

 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Photo: Jennie Robinson Faber/Flickr

Here's the most recent top news you may have missed in Baltimore.

Woman shot and killed in east Baltimore

Police are investigating after a woman was shot and killed Sunday evening in east Baltimore.

Read the full story on CBS Baltimore.

Baltimore City Schools sees first case of COVID-19

A staff member at The Historic Cherry Hill Elementary/Middle School recently tested positive for coronavirus, according to the Baltimore City Health Department.

Read the full story on CBS Baltimore.

UMMC delivers boxed meals to families in need during COVID-19 pandemic

The University of Maryland Medical Center is delivering food to Baltimore City families in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full story on CBS Baltimore.

Maryland National Guard sets up tents near MedStar Union Memorial, MedStar Good Samaritan Hospitals

The tents were set up as a precaution at this time, should there be an overflow of COVID-19 patients in the area.

Read the full story on CBS Baltimore.

This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
Sometimes referred to as the "the Methuselah of freshwater fish", sturgeons and their close relatives are very old from an evolutionary point of view. Fossils indicate that sturgeons date back 250 million years and have changed very little during this period, at least as far as their external appearance is concerned. So it is not surprising that already Charles Darwin coined the term "living fossils" for them.

Scientists from the University of Wurzburg and the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) with colleagues in Constance, France and Russia have now successfully sequenced the genome of the sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus), a relatively small species of sturgeon. They were able to show that the genetic material, too, has changed very little since the heyday of the dinosaurs. The scientists present the results of their work in the latest issue of the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Ancestors of the vertebrates

"Sturgeon genomes are an important piece of the puzzle that helps us understand the ancestry of vertebrates. And this has been missing until now," Professor Manfred Schartl explains the reasons why scientists are interested in this fish species. Schartl is the lead author of the recently published study and is senior professor at the Chair of Developmental Biochemistry at the University of Wurzburg since this year. Sturgeons are among the oldest species on earth in terms of evolutionary history. They are the ancestors of more than 30,000 species of bony fish that occur today - and thus of more than 96 percent of all living fish species and about half of all known vertebrate species.

Schartl and his colleagues were able to show that sturgeons branched off onto their own evolutionary path at some point during the Upper Devonian or Carboniferous Period about 345 million years ago. "Their external appearance has changed very little since that time and this is also evident in their genetic material, the DNA," Dr. Du Kang explains; first author of the study and a research assistant at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II at the University of Wurzburg.

To verify this, the geneticists had to take a close look at the proteins encoded by the genes of the sterlet. And indeed, their calculations reveal that this so-called protein evolution has proceeded at a very slow pace. "The rate of protein evolution of the sterlet is similar to that of the coelacanth or of sharks - two fish species that have been roaming the oceans almost unchanged for more than 300 million years as well," says Dr. Matthias Stock, an evolutionary biologist at the IGB.

Extensive genome change 180 million years ago

The sequence analysis revealed that the sterlet genome comprises 120 chromosomes, about 47,500 protein-coding genes and 1.8 billion base pairs. The researchers also showed that the sterlet duplicated its genome some 180 million years ago, leaving the species instead of the regular two with four sets of chromosomes, which is called tetraploidy in scientific jargon. The genome duplication does not come as a surprise: "Such processes have repeatedly had a major impact on the evolution of the vertebrate genome," says Manfred Schartl. Already their ancestors underwent "whole genome duplication" twice in their evolutionary history. Some species went through this process as many as three or four times.

What did surprise the scientists though was the fact that this duplication of the genome happened so far back in the long history of the sturgeon. "Over this long time span, we would have expected the genome to change more profoundly because in tetraploid organisms gene segments are often lost, silenced or acquire a new function over time," says Professor Axel Meyer, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Constance.

Genome uncertainty eliminated

The exact genomic state of sturgeons was long controversial among scientists. While considered polyploid by some, which means that the genome was duplicated multiple times, others interpreted the sturgeon as a "functional diploid", which refers to a species that first duplicated its genome to become tetraploid but then reduces the gene content again as it evolves. Although the chromosomes are still present in two pairs, they divide their tasks among themselves.

Now it's clear: "We have found out that the sterlet has not returned to a diploid state. Instead, it has retained an unexpectedly high degree of structural and functional polyploidy," says Manfred Schartl. This retention can be ascribed to the slow pace of molecular evolution of most fractions of the sterlet genome.

Genome duplication: A layperson might assume that this makes the job easier for scientists because everything is available in duplicate. But in fact, this presents researchers with a major technical challenge. "This has made it extremely difficult to assemble and assign the small 'snippets of DNA' that modern genome sequencing methods provide us with," says Schartl. However, using special procedures we were able to create "a very good reference genome and the first ever genome of an ancient fish" as part of an international research collaboration.

Genetic research to protect species

Gene sequencing is an important basis for protecting sturgeon species. "In the future, we will be able to determine the sex of the animals using genetic analyses which will greatly facilitate breeding. This will allow us to control reproduction and support the management of breeding populations. This is a milestone in our efforts to preserve these ancient species", says Dr. Jorn Gessner, the IGB's sturgeon expert.

About sturgeons

Sturgeons are native to subtropical, temperate and sub-Arctic rivers, lakes and coastlines of Eurasia and North America. Sturgeons are long-lived and reproduce late, typically not before the age of ten. In many sturgeon species, the adult fish repeatedly migrate from the sea into freshwater to spawn. They are highly sought after for their eggs - better known as caviar.

Because of habitat destruction, river fragmentation, marine pollution and 2,000 years of caviar production, most sturgeon species are now on the brink of extinction. Due to a ban on wild caviar trade, sturgeon aquaculture has become an important industry which can contribute to protecting wild populations by securing the market supply.

###
By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 30, 2020 | 10:08 AM | PADUCAH

Gasoline prices continue to plummet in western Kentucky, where it's on the verge of falling below $1.50 per gallon.As of Monday morning, gas was selling for 1.51 on Paducah's southside, and at about 1.60 around the mall area.It was an even 1.50 in Mayfield, 1.52 in Murray, and 1.63 in Benton.Gas has even fallen below $2 per gallon in Metropolis, with Illinois' higher gas taxes included.The lowest gasoline prices around the region as of Monday continued to be in Henderson, KY ($1.04) and Paris, TN ($1.07).Gasbuddy.com analyst Patrick DeHaan is still calling for parts of the country to see prices head below a dollar a gallon, and stay there for the foreseeable future.It's the 38th straight day of gas price declines, during the time oil was dumped on the world market by Russia and Saudi Arabia, and lately the lower demand for gas during "shelter in place" directives from the coronavirus situation.DeHaan tweeted on Monday that the national average gas price is 73 cents lower than it was at this time last year.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio  The first case of novel coronavirus has hit the Ohio prison system, as authorities scramble to prevent its spread amid advocates calls to reduce the states overcrowded cellblocks.

A prison spokeswoman said Sunday that the employee last worked at the Marion Correctional Institution on Tuesday, March 24, and reported feeling ill the next day. The staff member, whose position was not disclosed, tested positive Sunday and reported it to officials.

The prison houses about 2,500 inmates and 450 staff members. The prison has some of the states oldest and most feeble inmates, including Roy Schrock, who turns 95 next week, and Romulus Nedea, 92, according to state records.

The disclosure about the staff member in Marion comes as prisoner advocates in Ohio and across the country have pushed for the reduction of the prison population to allow health officials a better chance to fight the spread of the virus.

The groups have sought the release of older inmates, those with pre-existing medical conditions and inmates convicted of non-violent crimes with just a handful of months remaining on their sentences.

They also have called for the state parole board to look again at those the board denied recently and for DeWine to commute sentences.

The virus has killed 29 people in Ohio, and more than 1,600 have contracted it.

DeWine on Sunday said prison officials have done everything to keep the virus out of prisons. But he said releasing some inmates does not appear to be a solution right now.

I dont think we should think its an automatic solution to set a number of people who have been convicted, who have been sentenced, to set them loose and assume that theyre going to be more able to stay free of the virus, DeWine said.

State prison officials have stressed that they have prepared for years to fight the effects of a pandemic and have worked in the past month to educate inmates.

They have disinfected cellblocks, eliminated visitors and screened incoming staff, attorneys and inmates for symptoms of the illness.

Correctional officers have even been permitted to give inmates hand-sanitizing gels, a move that had been prohibited in the past because the alcohol in the sanitizer is flammable. It had been considered contraband.

Prison officials have tested 20 inmates at Grafton Correctional and Richland Correctional. Eighteen tests have been negative; two tests are pending, according to the prison system. As of Sunday, there had been no reports of testing at the Marion facility.

The state has come up with a free video-messaging system to allow inmates to reach out to their families instead of in-person visits.

Advocates, however, say more needs to be done.

Thats a good start, but inmates are 3 feet apart from each other, said Piet van Lier, a researcher for Policy Matters Ohio. Prisons are a breeding ground for this kind of disease. Its not just the people inside the prisons, but it also is the people who work there."

Advocates cited the fact that it is impossible to maintain social distancing and good hygiene in an overcrowded prison system. Ohio houses nearly 49,000 inmates in 28 prisons. It was built for about 39,000.

Advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, sent DeWine and other state officials a letter late last week seeking the immediate reduction of those behind bars.

The letter said that incarceration settings are ideal for rapidly amplifying infectious disease, which could soon spread to surrounding communities.

The letter also noted that prisons health systems are often severely lacking and could soon be overwhelmed. The letter said an immediate drop in the number of inmates would release much-needed pressure on the states prisons and offer greater housing flexibility to quarantine inmates.

Nobody wants to do more harm, said Gary Daniels of the ACLU. These are unprecedented times. If we were to release inmates, it has to be done in a way that would provide them with resources.

Read more coronavirus coverage:

Virus prompts families to visit nursing homes from afar

How and where to get tested for coronavirus

Childcare centers, parents grapple with tough choices

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Boko Haram terrorists

A top commander of the Boko Haram terror group, Abu Usamah, has been killed by troops in Gorgi, Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State.

According to a statement by the Acting Director Defence Media Operations, Brigadier General Benard Onyeuko, Usamah was among the terrorists killed by troops of the Operation Lafiya Dole during a subsidiary Operation known as Ayiso Tamonuma.

He said that the late terrorist died of gunshot injuries, having sustained gunshot wounds during the encounter with troops.

According to the statement, it would be recalled that on 22 March 2020, troops of Operation LAFIYA DOLE, while conducting a Special clearance operation in a subsidiary Operation called Operation AYISO TAMONUMA, decimated some key Boko Haram elements in an encounter at Gorgi in Damboa LGA of Borno State.

In our earlier Press Briefing, we reported over 100 Boko Haram insurgents neutralized while scores of them escaped with gunshot wounds.

This was in addition to several equipment casualty suffered by the Boko Haram insurgents.

As an update to that report, it is gratifying to note that, own communication intercept confirmed by accurate intelligence revealed that a top Boko Haram Commander, *ABU USAMAH* was among those Boko Haram insurgents killed during that encounter.

He had earlier sustained fatal gunshot wounds in the firefight that ensued during the encounter before his foot soldiers hurriedly evacuated him and withdrew. Nevertheless, Abu Usamah died in the process.

His death has no doubt created a consequential vacuum in the Boko Haram leadership particularly as the gallant troops remain resilient and continue to rout the criminal elements from their last enclaves in the North East.

The statement added that, In another development, troops of 159 Task Force Battalion, Operation LAFIYA DOLE deployed in Forward Operating Base Kanama, Yunusari LGA of Yobe State, neutralized scores of the Boko Haram Terrorists/Islamic States West Africa Province insurgents who attempted to infiltrate their location on 27 March 2020.

The terrorists were severely decimated by our gallant Ground troops supported by the Air Component of Operation LAFIYA DOLE. They withdrew in disarray under superior fire power and were subsequently crushed by own troops.

Furthermore, during the encounter several terrorists were neutralised while one Gun Truck and various arms and ammunition were captured by the troops. These include; one DSHK Gun, 2 AK 47 Rifles, 2 AK 47 Rifle magazines, one Rocket Propelled Grenade bomb, 273 rounds of Anti-Aircraft Gun ammunition, 101 rounds of 7.62mm (NATO) ammunition, 15 jerricans of Premium Motor Spirit and a Boko Haram Terrorists flag.

Meanwhile, the Military High Command has congratulated the gallant troops for their resilience, courage and dedication to the noble cause of defending our fatherland against the criminal elements. They were equally enjoined to continue to be steadfast and relentless against the enemies of our nation.
Shelly Kelly, a nurse practitioner from Tulsa, Oklahoma, never imagined that on her first trip to New York City, she would be unable to visit some of the area's biggest attractions.

"I had no idea that on my first trip to New York I wouldn't be able to see a Broadway show. I wouldn't be able to go out to all the nice restaurants I've heard about. I wouldn't be able to see people around Times Square. It's completely different," said Kelly, who landed in New York on Sunday.

IMAGE: Field hospital in Central Park (Bryan R. Smith / AFP via Getty Images)

Instead, Kelly will be among a few dozen nurses and doctors from Samaritan's Purse, a nondenominational evangelical Christian humanitarian organization, working at a field hospital set up in Central Park  across the street from Mount Sinai Hospital  for patients battling COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The organization is led by Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham.

On Sunday, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged to use every place needed to help people.

"This is the kind of thing you will see now as this crisis develops," he told reporters while discussing the field hospital in Central Park.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

It made for a jarring scene Monday.

"It's kind of surreal to see a field hospital sitting in the middle of Central Park," Kelly said. "I just don't think this is the way it was supposed to be my first time, but it's a pleasure for me to be here."

The field hospital will have 68 beds, 10 of them in a makeshift intensive care unit for patients who need ventilators. It took 48 hours to build and will be operational by Tuesday, said Melissa Nystrom, a spokeswoman for Samaritan's Purse, which is working with Mount Sinai Health System.

Seventy-two disaster assistance response specialists from Samaritan's Purse worked around the clock with local volunteers to build the hospital, Nystrom said.

IMAGE: Nurse practitioner Shelly Kelly (Janelle Griffith / NBC News)

"Just getting the permits to put up a field hospital in Central Park should've taken years," Kelly said, adding that with help from de Blasio and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the hospital has "been up really fast."

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"I think that just speaks to the resilience and the flexibility of our health care system here in the United States  that we can take down barriers like that and bring in a field hospital at a time when our health care system is overwhelmed," Kelly said. "It's just amazing to see the creativity and thinking outside the box that happens here."

Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts about the coronavirus outbreak

Cuomo said Monday that 1,218 people had died from the virus in New York state, up from 965 Sunday. A Navy hospital ship docked in Manhattan on Monday morning and is expected to provide relief for the city's overwhelmed hospitals.

"Those numbers are daunting," Cuomo said at a news conference. "It's continuing to move across the state of New York. Anyone who says this situation is a New York City-only situation is in a state of denial."

Denial is the last thing on the minds of Kelly or Dr. Elliott Tenpenny, director of international health at Samaritan's Purse.

"I know I'm going to be working in an ICU, and that's where a lot of the deaths happen, and so, yes, I am prepared for that," Kelly said. "As prepared as you can possibly be as a practitioner walking into that kind of situation."

Her previous assignments with the organization have taken her to the Philippines, Ecuador and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and twice to Iraq.

"This is an incredibly unique effort. We've been afforded the challenge by the governor's office, by the federal government, by our partnership with Mount Sinai, among others, to be able to do something that's really unprecedented here," said Tenpenny, who will be the team lead.

When Samaritan's Purse responds to disasters inside the U.S., like hurricanes, it's usually with general efforts after the fact. It has never before responded in a medical capacity within U.S. borders, according to Tenpenny and Kelly.

"Samaritan's Purse looks for where the need is greatest around the world," Tenpenny said. "Right now, that happens to be New York City."

The organization has another field hospital in Cremona, Italy, outside Milan, another hot spot of the COVID-19 virus, Tenpenny said, marking the first time Samaritan's Purse has had two emergency field hospitals running at the same time.

"We're looking for those needs and want to respond to those as quickly as possible," Tenpenny said.

Asked whether he was sought out by local or government officials, Tenpenny said, "We worked with the federal government and state government, who was able to hand us to the local government."

The field hospital in Central Park will have 60 to 70 medical staff, including nurses and doctors. Tenpenny said he could not provide specifics, but he said the nurses will outnumber the doctors.

"The truth is, no one knows how big this need is going to be or how long it's going to be present for," Tenpenny said. "Honestly, we hope it's very short and that New York City isn't suffering from this for very long. But we're here for as long as the need exists."
A five-day evangelical congregation at a French megachurch has been blamed for sparking the country's biggest cluster of coronavirus infections.

Worshippers at the Christian Open Door church in Mulhouse, near the Swiss border, had travelled across the world for the week-long event on February 18.

The prayer meeting kicked off the biggest cluster of Covid-19 cases in France - one of northern Europe's hardest-hit countries - to date, the local government said.

Worshippers at the Christian Open Door church in Mulhouse (pictured), near the Swiss border, had travelled across the world for the week-long event on February 18

Around 2,500 cases have been linked to it after congregants took the disease to Burkina Faso, West Africa, Corsica in the Mediterranean, Guyana in Latin America and Switzerland.

Church officials said 17 members of the congregation have since died of complications linked to the disease.

France has 44,550 cases, while 3,024 have died and 7,927 have recovered.

Germany partially closed its border with France, suspending a free-movement pact that has been in place for the past 25 years.

The church cluster was a key factor, two people familiar with the German decision said.

For many members of the Christian Open Door church the annual celebration was the highpoint of its calendar.

Worshippers cram into an old shopping centre, which has been converted into a 2,500-seat auditorium.

At the time, France like other governments in northern Europe, had imposed no restrictions on big meetings and the country only had 12 confirmed cases.

The prayer meeting (pictured) kicked off the biggest cluster of Covid-19 cases in France - one of northern Europe's hardest-hit countries - to date, the local government said

Jonathan Peterschmitt, son of the lead pastor and grandson of the church's founder Jean, said: 'At the time, we viewed COVID as something that was far off.'

The day after the first case linked to the church was identified on February 29, public health officials followed the usual protocol and traced the people whom the carriers had been in contact with, to stem the spread.

Using a list supplied by the church - which public health officials said cooperated fully - they first contacted those who had staffed the children's creche.

But the health inspectors realised they were too late as some creche staff were already sick, according to Michel Vernay, an epidemiologist with France's national public health agency in eastern France.

'We were overwhelmed,' said Vernay. 'We realised that we had a time bomb in front of us.'

Local Elie Widmer, a 37-year-old manager of a house-building company whose parents were members of the church, said the Mulhouse gathering was something he looked forward to all year.

His parents were members of the church, which was founded in 1966 by Jean Peterschmitt, a French shopkeeper who embraced evangelism after his wife was unexpectedly cured of an illness.

Around 2,500 cases have been linked to it after congregants took the disease to Burkina Faso, West Africa, Corsica in the Mediterranean, Guyana in Latin America and Switzerland. Pictured: Gospel preacher Mamadou Karambiri from Burkina Faso addresses the congregation

Mr Widmer said: 'You feel a special energy during that week. For a week, you stop everything to spiritually recharge.'

As a drummer in the church orchestra, he attended the whole week.

Antoinette, a 70-year-old grandmother, had travelled from the Mediterranean island of Corsica to make her 25th gathering.

Antoinette made the trip with five other women who worship at the Bethel evangelical church in the capital Ajaccio.

She spoke on the condition she not be fully identified, saying believers had been stigmatised by people outside the church for spreading the virus.

Antoinette has chronic lung problems, for which she has regular treatment.

As the women flew out of Corsica on February 16, they looked forward to combining evangelical workshops with excursions to the shops.

Church officials said 17 members of the congregation have since died of complications linked to the disease

'We knew nothing,' she said from her home in Ajaccio. 'We weren't thinking about the epidemic.'

Neither was Mamadou Karambiri, who flew into Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport on February 14 aboard an Air France flight from Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso.

He is pastor of his own church in Africa and co-founder of an organisation called the International Evangelism Centre - Africa Interior Mission.

A charismatic speaker with white hair, Karambiri was to be the meeting's star preacher.

His church, a warehouse-like building that takes up a city block in Ouagadougou, can accommodate 12,000 people, according to a worshipper there.

A giant white cross towers above the red dirt street outside.

Across the road is the studio that televises the sermons the pastor delivers to worshippers assembled on rows of blue plastic chairs.

Karambiri travelled to the Mulhouse gathering with his wife and a bodyguard, said his spokesman, Aristide Ouedrago.

The pastor, through his secretary, declined to be interviewed for this story.

Ouedrago said he believed when Karambiri travelled, the virus was not in France, although there were actually 12 cases.

In Mulhouse, the Christian Open Door church stands across the road from a kebab cafe. A four-story-high white metal cross rises over the car park.

Also gathering in the church building were two children whose mother had taken sick before the event started, health officials said.

The mother stayed at home, but their grandfather brought the children along - the elder child was five, the younger just one year old.

The children and their mother would later test positive for coronavirus, making the mother a potential source of the cluster, said Vernay, the French public health official.

Germany partially closed its border with France, suspending a free-movement pact that has been in place for the past 25 years. The church cluster was a key factor, two people familiar with the German decision said. Pictured: Preacher Karambiri

It was not clear to public health officials where the mother, whom Vernay declined to identify, picked up the infection.

The week's schedule included gospel choir performances, collective prayer, singing, sermons from preachers, workshops, and testimony from people who said God had cured their illnesses.

The best-attended sessions had up to 2,500 people and there were never fewer than 1,000, said Jonathan Peterschmitt, the founder's son, from his home.

Many people came day after day, and spent hours there. 'So we were in the same petri dish for a week,' he said.

By the end of the gathering on February 21, no one had reported any flu-like symptoms, according to Nathalie Schnoebelen, a church spokeswoman.

At the time, France's tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases was steady at 12.

In late February, Widmer, the drummer, started feeling unwell. His wife, his three children, and his mother-in-law also took ill.

For many members of the Christian Open Door church the annual celebration was the highpoint of its calendar. Worshippers cram into an old shopping centre, which has been converted into a 2,500-seat auditorium

On March 3, the WHO recorded 91 new COVID-19 cases in France, bringing the country's total to 191.

The church, prompted by the discovery of the infected woman and her two children, posted on its Facebook page that people who had come to the gathering should contact a doctor.

Widmer dialled 15, the number in France for emergency medical care. There were not enough testing kits for him to be tested.

But doctors diagnosed coronavirus and ordered him and his family to quarantine themselves.

For three days he had a strong fever and headache, and lost his sense of taste and smell.

He said he was not especially worried as his family had milder symptoms. He has since recovered, but remains in self-isolation.

The virus spread through the church founder's family, with around a dozen members are now recovering.

At the time, France like other governments in northern Europe, had imposed no restrictions on big meetings and the country only had 12 confirmed cases

A few miles away across the border, German officials were watching with growing alarm.

They had received a report from the Robert Koch Institute, a German state public health institution, that added eastern France to its list of four coronavirus risk areas around the world - along with China's Hubei province, Iran, Italy and North Gyeongsang province, adjoining the city of Daegu, the site of the South Korean church outbreak.

By March 11, France's COVID-19 tally at the WHO had leapt to 1,774, of whom 33 had died.

Roughly 45,000 French workers commute to Germany daily, according to official data - around a fifth of them from the Mulhouse area.

Most work in Germany's wealthy industrial region of Baden-Wuerttemberg, where automakers Porsche and Mercedes-Benz have their headquarters. Europa-Park, a theme park just over the Rhine in Germany, is a big employer, also of French workers.

After attending the gathering, a worker from the French nuclear power plant at Fessenheim near Mulhouse tested positive.

The plant's operator, Electricite de France SA (EdF), ordered 20 others to self-isolate at home but operations were not disrupted, a representative of the power company said.

Another person who had been at the gathering worked in the Peugeot Citroen factory on the edge of Mulhouse; that individual too was infected, according to a person familiar with the case.

German officials in Baden-Wuerttemberg decided to act, imposing restrictions on movements across the border.

The French government asked Berlin for an explanation. On March 16, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron.

They talked about the cluster in eastern France and the risk from commuters, said a German government official briefed on the call.

Then they agreed to close the border to traffic other than cargo vehicles and people making essential trips. A French official confirmed the contents of the discussion.

Police appeared at previously unmanned border posts, asking car drivers for a document from their employer proving travel is essential. Cargo trucks are backed up.

But the disease was already out. A resident of Switzerland who went to the meeting brought the virus back to their evangelical community near Lausanne, the Swiss federation of evangelical churches said on its website.

Public health authorities in French Guyana said they found five people who had traveled to the gathering also tested positive.

Back home in Corsica after her trip to the church gathering, Antoinette felt under the weather.

She put it down to the exertion of the trip, and carried on meeting up with other church-goers in Ajaccio.

On March 2, nine days after she returned, she received a call from Mulhouse describing the outbreak there.

She was hospitalised overnight, tested, and on March 4, became one of the first cases of COVID-19 on the French island of Corsica.

She has since been in self-isolation, and her church has suspended services. As of March 27, 263 people were infected with coronavirus on Corsica, 21 of whom died.

'People have pointed their finger at me,' said Antoinette on March 16. 'They need a scapegoat.'

She said some people outside her circle were suspicious of evangelical Christians and blamed her for bringing the virus to Corsica.

Jonathan Peterschmitt, the son of the Mulhouse pastor, said others in the congregation had been subject to verbal attacks by strangers for spreading the infection, and were now fearful of revealing their identities.

By March 20, France had more than 10,000 cases of COVID-19. Around a quarter were in Grand-Est, the region that includes Mulhouse.

'The very great majority' of these could be traced to the church, said Vernay, the local public health official.

Because there are more critical cases than intensive care beds in the region, some patients have been flown by helicopter to Switzerland, Germany and Luxembourg.

The French military have set up a field hospital inside green metal-framed tents.

At home in Ouagadougou, Pastor Karambiri and his wife, after falling ill on March 1, went to a local clinic, tested positive, and quarantined themselves until March 20.

At the end of his self-imposed period of isolation, he broadcast a message to his followers in a video posted on his organization's Facebook page.

Sitting on a sofa, his bible on his lap and his wife alongside him, he told them about the infection.

The coronavirus, he said, is 'a satanic plan conceived a long time ago to destroy the world. But God is watching over us and he will lead the people out.'
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)  Alabama Public Television says it will be offering more academic programming since the virus outbreak has forced officials to close schools for the rest of the academic year.

An announcement released Friday said the network is modifying the schedule on its main channel starting April 6 to offer more shows for grades kindergarten through 12 in different content areas. Teachers and parents will have access to supplemental lesson plans to help children.

Alabama Public Television was the first educational television network in the country, said Phil Hutcheson, interim director of APT. Education remains our primary mission today, and we will work closely with the State Department of Education to meet the needs of Alabama schools and students in this difficult time."

Individual school districts around the state are separately developing plans for how to teach students while schools are closed.

Alabama K-12 schools are closed. Now what?
As India's positive Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases soar to 1071, the Union Health Ministry, on Monday, has issued new standard operating procedure (SOP) for transporting a suspect/confirmed case - applicable to India's current phase (local transmission and limited community transmission). The Health Ministry in the press briefing has denied any community transmission of the pandemic in the nation as India's testing scope with 3,501 tests done on Sunday. Currently, India has 942 active cases with 29 deaths.

Coronavirus LIVE Updates: India at 'local transmission' stage; total cases at 1071

Health Ministry issues SOP for India's local transmission

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare releases Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for transporting likely/confirmed cases of #COVID19. Release states, "This SOP is applicable to the current phase of COVID19 pandemic in India - local transmission & limited community transmission". pic.twitter.com/HeOrZb3rt3  ANI (@ANI) March 30, 2020

UP govt 'sanitises' migrant workers entering Bareilly; Congress warns of COVID-19 spread

The SOP guides ambulance drivers and technicians in transporting COVID-19 patients and the types of ambulances - ALS (with ventilators) and BLS (without ventilators) to be used for transportation. Apart from the type of ambulances, the SOP also instructs Call centers to handle the disaster calls, the management of the patient in the ambulance, his handing over and the disinfection of ambulance. The SOP also deals with the capacity building of the medical technicians and the monitoring of the ambulance staff.

Coronavirus: 35 Indians land in Delhi from Kabul, being sent to ITBP quarantine facility

Health Ministry briefing

Health Ministry clarifies that the country is still in the local transmission stage if it reaches the community transmission stage, the Health Ministry will admit it but the country is not there yet.

92 new cases of COVID19 and four deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking total cases to 1071 & number of deaths to 29 in India

Exclusive cargo flights have been approved to transport medicines & other essentials. Senior citizens have to follow 100% lockdown and other measures and new guidelines have been issued to disinfect places where COVID-19 cases were reported.

Instructs to not speculate on the extension of lockdown



Coronavirus: Centre sets up 11 response groups with PMO & cabinet secretariat members

Coronavirus crisis in India

As of date, 1024 positive cases have been reported of the pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) - 95 have been discharged and Maharashtra reporting the highest at 203. 27 deaths have been reported till date. India has suspended all visas and barred travel from Afghanistan, Philippines, EU, UK, China, Malaysia and mandatory 14-day quarantine from several other countries and the Prime Minister has issued a 21-day countrywide lockdown starting from 25 March to April 15 and launched the PM-CARES fund to aid the government in its battle against COVID-19.
Over the weekend, the global public health disaster caused by the coronavirus pandemic reached a new point of crisis at its center, the United States. Nationally, confirmed cases of COVID-19 soared to more than 135,000, for the first time rising by more than 20,000 in a single day. Deaths doubled in two days, surpassing 2,400.

Worldwide, there are now 720,000 officially confirmed infections and 34,000 deaths caused by the pandemic.

In the current epicenter of the crisis in the US, New York state, the number of confirmed cases has risen to nearly 60,000 and the death toll has surpassed 1,000.

On Sunday, the two leading health officials on Trumps Coronavirus Task Force, Dr. Tony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Deborah Birx, the task force response coordinator, issued dire warnings of a rapid increase in infections and deaths. Fauci, appearing on CNNs State of the Union program Sunday morning, said he thought the crisis would fall between best-case and worst-case modeling scenarios, resulting in millions of cases in the US and between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths.

Morgue at Bellevue Hospital, New York City. (Photo by Bryan R. Smith / AFP)

Birx, appearing on NBCs Meet the Press, admitted that the government expected the crisis to spread to every region of the country. Every metro area should assume that they could have an outbreak equivalent to New York, she said.

The economic and social consequences of such a public health catastrophe are incalculable. As production and the real economy continue to contract, not even the trillions in cash infusions approved by both big business parties will be able to stabilize the financial markets, the central preoccupation of the financial oligarchy and its representative-in-chief, Trump.

Social and class tensions will continue to build, leading to an inevitable explosion of popular opposition. And the utter discrediting of all of the political institutions of American capitalismwhich has proven incapable of preparing for or responding to a long-predicted flu pandemicis fueling an enormous exacerbation of internal tensions within the ruling elite and its state.

The entire constitutional framework of the United States, including the relationship between the federal government and the states, is showing signs of fracturing.

In the course of two days, Trump was forced to reverse policies he had previously announced. On Saturday, he suddenly announced that he would likely proclaim in short order an enforceable quarantine of the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut tri-state region. This measure, ostensibly taken to contain the spread of the virus, would ban 30 million residents from leaving their states.

Already, the governors of Florida, Texas and Rhode Island have declared travelers from New York persona non grata. In Florida and Rhode Island, the governors have mobilized the National Guard to man checkpoints at airports and on interstate highways to stop New Yorkers and order them to quarantine in place for 14 days. In Rhode Island, National Guard troops are going house to house to issue quarantine orders on New York residents, on pain of a jail term and fine.

Responding to Trumps announcement of a possible quarantine of New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo on Saturday called it a federal declaration of war that opened up a civil war kind of discussion.

Under immense pressure from within his own party and his own administration, Trump dropped the proposal later Saturday, announcing instead a strong travel advisory for residents of the three statesa meaningless measure since all three states are already in lockdown.

At Sundays daily coronavirus press briefing, Trump announced he was dropping his call for opening up the country by Easter, April 12, and ordering all workers back on the job. Instead, he extended until April 30 the advisory issued earlier in March effectively shuttering most public gathering places and many businesses. This was under conditions where a host of state governors, Republicans as well as Democrats, had made clear that they would ignore a federal order to ease social distancing restrictions and maintain their strict lockdown protocols.

The tensions between the federal and state governments had already been expressed in denunciations by Trump of the governors of Washington and Michigan for making mild criticisms of his failure to take action to carry out mass testing, provide life-saving equipment such as personal protective equipment, face masks and ventilators, or respond to hospitals being swamped by a flood of coronavirus patients. Just days before, he had dismissed pleas from New York Governor Cuomo for 30,000 to 40,000 ventilators, saying he did not believe anywhere near so many ventilators were needed.

Speaking earlier Sunday on CNN, Washington state Governor Jay Inslee, asked point blank if he would comply with an order from Trump to relax restrictions on movement and activity, said, No. We need to make decisions based on science and reality.

In fact, whatever their tactical differences, all of the political representatives of big business in both parties are committed to the defense of the property and profits of the ruling elite, no matter the cost in human lives. Cuomo, for example, said on Saturday that if there were mass testing for the virus, workers who tested negative could be sent back to work immediatelydespite the lack of safety measures to protect them and their families.

The mounting political crisis is compounded by reports from all over the country of a lack of vital supplies, swamped hospitals, inaccessibility of testing, and doctors facing the horrific demand to ration life-saving care and decide who will live and who will die. Reports abound of utter chaos in the production and distribution of critical equipmentall of it the product of decades of the plundering of society by the super-rich and the decay of basic health and social infrastructure.

California estimates it needs 10,000 ventilators, and has received 170 broken ones from the Trump administration, while Louisiana requested 5,000 from the national stockpile and received zero.

Hospitals in New York City are struggling to provide ventilators to the very sick. Photos have circulated on social media of exhausted doctors and nurses napping in surgery rooms to catch a moments rest. The current supplies of masks, gowns, goggles and gloves, which help to prevent health care workers from being infected while they treat patients, will likely run out this week.

One particularly grim photo, shared by a nurse with Buzzfeed, shows the inside of one of the many makeshift morgues that have been set up to handle the hundreds of dead. I took it to show to people, wrote the nurse. It is the ghastly reality of what we deal with and where some of us have ended up already.

The state is being trailed by New Jersey, California, Michigan and Massachusetts. Similar scenarios are developing in other major metropolitan areas such as Detroit, New Orleans and Chicago.

Action can and must be taken to contain and reverse the spread of the disease and save lives. But this cannot be left up to the political representatives of the ruling class. At every point, the necessary measuresshutting down of all non-essential production, with no loss in income for the workers; safe conditions, monitored by health are professionals, for workers involved in essential production; full pay for all workers for the duration of the crisis; a coordinated plan to quickly produce the needed PPE, masks and ventilators; mass testing and contact tracing, at no expense to the population, and the full and equal care for all those who fall illconflict with the property and profit interests of the ruling corporate oligarchy.

Workers must raise these demands and link them to the measures needed to carry them out: Instead of bailing out the corporations and banks, nationalize them and turn them into public utilities under democratic control, expropriate the obscene fortunes of the financial oligarchs and use the money to provide equipment, build hospitals and compensate workers who lose their jobs.

The alternative to millions of deaths and the destruction of jobs and living standards is the struggle to put an end to the capitalist system and replace it with socialism.
(TNS)  The Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which only releases the number of people who have contracted or died from a disease by county, has asked cities and towns to stop releasing the number of cases of the coronavirus in their communities.Since the coronavirus outbreak began in Massachusetts in early March, cities and towns across the state have decided to release the number of residents who have tested positive in their communities. Some municipalities send press releases any time they are notified of new cases, a handful of town officials are posting such numbers on their official Facebook pages and other communities are updating their websites daily to reflect the number of cases in town.Following the Department of Public Health's recommendation on Friday, some cities and towns say they will take the advice and no longer be releasing how many residents have COVID-19 in their communities.But others say they will continue to release the numbers and not suddenly stop after doing so for the past few weeks.Easton, which was first sending out press releases when the town was notified of new cases, is one of the towns now updating its website daily with the number of cases in town. The total is updated by 6 p.m. each day and will continue to be updated, officials said. The town had 21 cases as of Friday evening."We have no plans to change course at this time," said Town Administrator Connor Read.John McGarry, the interim executive health officer in Brockton, has been providingwith a daily count each afternoon when requested. He said the Department of Public Health is recommending against releasing the number of cases, but not prohibiting it, and on Friday afternoon provided that Brockton was up to 65 cases.A Department of Public Health spokesperson said Friday evening that the agency only provides cases and deaths by county "in order to protect privacy and confidentiality of individuals who test positive for COVID-19."The spokesperson said the recommendation given to local boards of health does not prohibit them from releasing the number of cases in their communities."We understand that many boards of health find value in sharing community-specific data as part of a risk communication plan and to keep the public informed about the scope of the local public health effort," the recommendation states. "If you choose to share numbers of cases or deaths for these purposes, please do so with the highest regard for privacy and confidentiality by not including any information other than the case count."But officials in several cities and towns say they were under the impression that the Department of Public Health asked them specifically not to release the number of cases in their communities. Many of those officials say that information came on a conference call Friday morning with state officials."The Town of Whitman is following the current guidance of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health asking towns not to release the number of positive COVID-19 cases in respective communities," said Whitman Emergency Management Director and Fire Chief Timothy Grenno.The Hanson Board of Health, which had posted an announcement to the town's website on Thursday stating that two residents tested positive for the coronavirus, has since removed the post.On Friday morning, during a press conference at Government Center in Fall River, Director of Health and Human Services Tess Curran also stated she was asked not to release the number of cases in the city."I received direction from the Department of Public Health today that individual cities should not be releasing any case count numbers," she said. "So at this point in time, we'll be relying on the state to provide information on countywide data."A post on the Weymouth town website's "COVID-19 Information" page, highlighted in red letters, states: "The Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services and Department of Public Health have asked that towns not post the number of cases in each community. They are concerned about privacy rights as well as cyber and other bullying."But communities may be getting a mixed message from the state.After communities received the recommendation from the Department of Public Health on Friday morning, Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders said late Friday morning that local boards of health can release such data."I take the concern of communities thinking that they want to know. But if you share that kind of health information status about an individual, you also want to ensure that they are also safe and protected from bullying and the like and being spotted by someone," Sutters said during Gov. Charlie Baker's press briefing at the State House. "It is a very constant conversation that we're having. It's one thing in Boston, but if you lived in a community of like several hundred people, does that person want to be identified? There would be nothing to preclude a local board of health from saying, 'We have 15 positive cases,' in their community."A reporter then asked Sudders to clarify whether the information could be released at the city or town level."So a municipal board of health could make that public?" the reporter asked."Yup," said Sudders, who is heading the state's coronavirus command center.While Sudders twice recently said that one of the main reasons the Department of Public Health only provides information on a county level is to prevent potential cyberbullying if a person is identified, the department has denied releasing similar information in the past for other reasons.The Department of Public Health, in denyinga town-by-town breakdown of those who contracted the mosquito-borne Eastern equine encephalitis virus last year, maintained that a person's town of residence is "undeniably medical information exempt from disclosure" that, if released, "would constitute an unwarranted invasion of privacy."The department cited the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule as its standard for "de-identification" of personal information.The state supervisor of records has questioned the department's use of that standard, saying it is "uncertain how disclosing the names of towns would lead to the identification of the individuals affected" andcontinues to appeal the Department of Public Health's multiple denials.Attorney Jeffrey J. Pyle, a partner at Boston-based Prince Lobel who specializes in media law and First Amendment cases, previously called the Department of Public Health's use of the exemption "mystifying" and "a real abuse of that exemption." He's said the department should have to release the cities and towns of victims.Even after the Department of Public Health made its recommendation on Friday regarding those who contract COVID-19, several local cities and towns released updated information about the numbers of cases in their communities on Friday afternoon or evening, well after receiving the notice from the state.Despite publicly announcing the state's desire that cases no longer be released by cities and towns on Friday morning, Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan posted updated numbers on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning."Middleborough now has 12 confirmed cases," Town Manager Robert Nunes posted on his official Facebook page Saturday morning.In Randolph, the town has been updating its website daily to inform residents of the number of cases of the coronavirus."Randolph has 23 confirmed cases of Covid-19 as of 4:30pm up from 13 confirmed cases yesterday," the post from Friday afternoon reads. "This will be updated daily on the Town website under Covid-19 Updates."Hanover, which has nine cases as of Saturday morning, and Norwell, which had five cases as of Friday afternoon, also both continue to update numbers daily on their town websites.
In its Sunday edition, with the biggest readership of the week, the New York Times published an utterly baseless accusation:

The American Thinker falsely claimed that the [Fauci] email was evidence that he was part of a secret group who opposed Mr. Trump.

In other words, the newspaper did exactly what it purported this website did: "falsely claimed" something without a factual basis. Moreover, in its online edition, the Times failed to link to the post in question so readers could see for themselves that the accusation was untrue.

This libel comes as the latest in a series of mainstream media attacks on American Thinker over its critical coverage of Dr. Anthony Fauci, a presidential adviser on the coronavirus pandemic.

Background

Nine days ago, American Thinker published a blog post that I wrote, which included some information and context about the career of Anthony Fauci, M.D. A follow-up blog post was published last Saturday. In particular, I reviewed the growth of the enormous and outsized medical bureaucracy that grew up around the government's anti-HIV/AIDS effort that Dr. Fauci has led since the mid-1980s. The article made no mention of, nor did it imply the existence of an alleged conspiracy on the part of Fauci or anyone else in President Trump's circle of medical advisers to seriously undermine the president's efforts to mitigate the problem of the coronavirus.

In recent days, the initial tempest in a teapot that my March 21 blog post occasioned has gone ballistic, like a suitcase  or maybe a teapot  nuke. The mainstream media, always on the lookout for something they can use to besmirch President Trump and anyone who supports him, have conveniently lumped together any and all published or broadcast questions about or criticism of Dr. Fauci. It appears that Dr. Fauci has now reached the exalted position of him whose word shall not be challenged. Admittedly, some of the criticism of him online has been severe  but I and other contributors to American Thinker are not responsible for what people say or write elsewhere on the internet.

Of the five mainstream media articles that have made something out of this story  and mentioned American Thinker  in recent days, the most flagrant example of fake news is the New York Times' article on March 28, "Medical Expert Who Corrects Trump Is Now a Target of the Far Right." The Times cites my March 21 blog post as a key offender and takes note of my reference to Fauci's 2013 email praising secretary of state Hillary Clinton for her performance at a congressional hearing on Benghazi. Referring to my March 21 blog post, the Times article says:

The American Thinker falsely claimed that the [Fauci] email was evidence that he was part of a secret group who opposed Mr. Trump.

That assertion by the Times is a bald-faced lie. At best, it represents the jaundiced opinion of the Times' writers, perhaps based on what they read or heard somewhere else on the internet and then ladled onto my blog post at American Thinker. Never did I say or imply that Fauci's email about Mrs. Clinton was "evidence that he [Fauci] was part of a secret group."

One likely reason why American Thinker has been targeted by the MSM here is because it is a venerable, respected conservative publication that has built up a large and loyal audience during the past 17 years. As a frequent contributor, I can attest to the fact that American Thinker's contributors adhere to facts as the basis of their reporting, analysis, and opinion. The publication has editorial standards and oversight  unlike, it must be said, much of the self-congratulatory mainstream media. It appears that in the view of the New York Times and other Trump-hating MSM outlets, if you can take down a prominent conservative media player like AT, which, by the way, is a competitor, the rest of the conservative pack lower down on the food chain will be easier pickings.

Hundreds  probably several thousand  reader comments have piled up at AT in response to my two blogs posts on this subject and the contributions in recent weeks by many other writers who have offered reporting and opinions about the coronavirus. A review of these reader comments  aside from the droppings of a few trolls  reveals a deep and thoughtful understanding of the issues on the part of many commenters who are writing from a probing, independent perspective. In many cases, readers' comments significantly add to and advance the conversation that began with the article or blog post that they are commenting on.

One person who tweeted a response to my March 21 blog said it well: "The vastly disproportionate funding and attention to HIV-AIDS needs to be thoroughly investigated." That was indeed the essence and the takeaway from my blog post  the one that the Times and other MSM outlets have attacked without mentioning the substance of its content. Most important, my work has not called into question the actions that the Trump administration is undertaking to quell the coronavirus pandemic.

What I did hope to advance was a discussion of some issues that are being given short shrift in the rush to shut down the entire country with consequences that cannot yet be imagined. To name just a few, there are the lack of mainstream interest in potentially promising therapies that have already been approved and are being prescribed in off label use with some positive anecdotal reports; the employment of high-tech mass surveillance and the threats to what's left of personal privacy; the possibility of mandates that would accompany the introduction of a coronavirus vaccine; and the potentially irreversible impacts on the economy and tens of millions of uninfected people's lives.

In defending me against one of a large number of attacks that have been posted  some of them crossing the line into threats  author and journalist Diana West tweeted this about my March 21 AT blog post:

It's called original thinking. Our society does not tolerate it and seeks to extinguish it.

Let's hope these latest crude attempts to intimidate, censor, and silence us will not prevail.

This post has been updated (03-30-2020).

This posted was updated 04 -02-20 to include the name of the supportive author.
HH Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, and Ruler of the Emirate of Dubai at the inaugural e

The third edition of the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS), will be converted into a series of digital sessions, inviting thought-leaders from the global manufacturing community to virtually come together, for the very first time, to discuss, debate and shape the future of the manufacturing sector.

A joint initiative by the UAE Ministry of Energy and Industry and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), #GMIS2020 was initially planned to take place in April alongside the Hannover Messe 2020 in Germany under the theme of #GermanyConnects  inspired by the countrys leadership in connecting the global manufacturing and industrial community with its transformational digital and technological solutions.

The digital series was announced in coordination with its co-chairs, and alongside its partner in Germany, Deutsche Messe, following the evaluation of the growing economical and logistical uncertainly surrounding the escalating Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Reinforcing the physical and digital convergence of Industry 4.0, the #GMIS2020 Digital Series will leverage technology to virtually convene a truly global, multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder dialogue around issues that are at the heart of the manufacturing sector and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Badr Al-Olama, Head of the Organising Committee for Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit said: Our highest priority has always been to arrive at the safest and most practical outcome in light of the current situation while staying true to the vision and mission of the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit. The #GMIS2020 Digital Series takes a transformational approach towards ensuring a risk-free environment for participants to engage in shaping the future of manufacturing. As the pandemic sweeps across the world, paralysing many aspects of normal life, attention must now turn to how the Fourth Industrial Revolution can be leveraged to restore our economies and our society, taking us from an era of digital disruption to an era of digital restoration.

There have been many debates around the disruptive, and in some cases, the destabilsing nature of the Fourth Industrial Revolution with regards to employment, business sustainability, and global prosperity. However, the crisis surrounding the current pandemic is casting a new lens on the power of technology to assess how it can be utilised as a force for global restoration, allowing businesses to continue to operate, providing communities with tools to keep them connected, and restructuring supply chains to overcome the recent disruption to global markets.

Companies such as Lonati SpA, an Italian manufacturing company, has 3D printed ventilator valves to address domestic shortages. Other examples include a robot named Little Peanut that is being deployed to deliver food to people who have been quarantined; and Baidu, a Chinese technology company, is using artificial intelligence technology and computing resources to predict the secondary structure of the Covid-19 RNA sequence to help accelerate the development of a vaccine.

Technology can also help restore normal business activities through the use of blockchain to securely and remotely sign and exchange documents, or enable workforce training and development, or even process certification and qualification, through widely used digital communication platforms.

Al Olama explains: History demonstrates that innovation has proven to be an effective tool in solving the worlds toughest challenges time and again, while also being the driving force behind the advancement of humanity and global prosperity. In a world where many discussions are taking place around some of the negative implications of 4IR technologies, it is times like this that we should encourage policymakers to streamline and fast track regulations that allow certain technologies, such as autonomous mobility, to restore many parts of our daily lives and help us overcome unprecedented challenges.

Dr Jochen Kockler, Chairman of the Board of Management of Deutsche Messe AG said: As a strategic partner to the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit, Deutsche Messe fully supports the shift towards digital sessions that can continue to gather valuable insights from the global manufacturing community. Reinforcing the #GMIS2020 theme of Germany Connects, we look forward to hosting a digital gathering of global minds.

Established in 2015, the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit is a global platform that brings together governments, organisations, NGOs, technologists, and investors to discuss, debate and shape the future of manufacturing. The Summit covers topics related to the digital transformation of the manufacturing sector and dives into subjects such as 3D printing, artificial intelligence, robotics, and value chains  discussions that, in todays world, are more important than ever before. -- Tradearabia News Service
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The Indian stock market had a gap down opening on March 30 following weak Asian cues as coronavirus pandemic continues to create havoc across the globe.

At 09:27 hrs, the Sensex was down 816.80 points or 2.74 percent at 28998.79, and the Nifty down 237.65 points or 2.74 percent at 8422.60.

Among the sectors, banks along with the auto index dragged the most, down almost 4 percent each.

Nifty Auto shed 4 percent in the morning session as the spread of COVID-19 has forced automakers to shut manufacturing operations. Share price of Mahindra & Mahindra was down over 7 percent after the company on March 22, 2020, announced suspension of the manufacturing operations at Nagpur Plant with immediate effect and Chakan (Pune) and Kandivali (Mumbai) from March 23, 2020, onwards.

Eicher Motors shed 6 percent, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors and TVS Motor Company were down 4-5 percent each.

Moody's Investors Service has placed the ratings on Tata Motors on review for a possible downgrade. The review, which will be completed over the next 90 days, is on the Ba3 corporate family rating and Ba3 senior unsecured debt rating, Moody's said in a statement.

However, Motilal Oswal has a buy rating on Tata Motors with target at Rs 178 signalling an upside of 102 percent. It is of the view that the reduction in China sales resulting from the coronavirus impact is estimated to reduce JLR's full-year EBIT margin by about 1 percent, however, free cash flow in 4QFY20 is still expected to be modestly positive.

Showrooms across major cities and towns have downed shutters choking sales of Bharat Stage IV (BS4) vehicles, auto factories are under lockdown hampering supplies of BS6 upgrades and market sentiments are at its worst with the stock market going back to the levels of early 2017.

As per data shared by the SIAM, passenger vehicle sales in the domestic sector during April-February declined by 15 percent to 2.63 million units while commercial vehicle segment reported a fall of 22 percent compared to the same period last year.

Share price of auto ancillary stocks including Apollo Tyres, Motherson Sumi Systems, Bharat Forge and MRF were down 2-3 percent each as the coronavirus pandemic continues to bite.

"The industry was already under pressure due to plummeting sales and there was also uncertainty from BS4 to BS6 [shift]. Everything has come to a standstill. We do not know how long it will last. There is a production loss of Rs 1,200 crore a day for the component industry," said Vinnie Mehta, director-general, Automotive Component Manufacturers Association.

At the request of the Government of India, Maruti Suzuki examined its ability to assist in the production of ventilators, masks and other protective equipment, the company said in a statement.

MSIL entered into an arrangement with AgVa Healthcare, an existing approved manufacturer of ventilators. MSIL would work with AgVa Healthcare to scale up the production of ventilators to reach a volume of 10,000 units per month.

: The above report is compiled from information available on public platforms. Moneycontrol advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
(CNN)  Across the United States, prized chickens are laying life-saving eggs at secret farms.

Few people know where the chickens are kept their locations are undisclosed as a matter of national security.

Each day, hundreds of thousands of their eggs are trucked to facilities, where they are protected by guards and multimillion-dollar, government-funded security systems.

But these eggs aren't for breakfast; they're the source of your common flu shot.

For the past 80 years, much of the world has relied on chicken eggs for the production of influenza vaccines.

About 174.5 million doses of the flu vaccine were distributed across the US this flu season through the end of February, of which an estimated 82% were egg-based, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

With each egg producing one vaccine, that means the US might have used 140 million eggs this flu season alone.

To prepare for annual flu seasons, as well as possible pandemics, the US government has invested tens or hundreds of millions of dollars over the past 15 years to ensure there are enough eggs for vaccines.

But now the world faces a new crisis: the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 423,000 people globally and killed more than 19,000 since the virus emerged last December, according to Johns Hopkins University.

There is no vaccine yet for the virus; and because it's different than the influenza virus, traditional methods like using eggs won't work. As scientists race to find a cure, the huge US stockpile of eggs won't be of any help.

The rise of the egg-based vaccine

Scientists started exploring the use of eggs in vaccine production in the 1930s.

Researchers in England conducted the first trials on their armed forces in 1937, and the year after the US found it could protect its military with the flu shot.

A working egg-based vaccine was ready for the US public by the 1940s.

Here's how it works today: The US CDC and other labs partner with the World Health Organization (WHO) to choose certain virus strains to send to private vaccine manufacturers. The flu can mutate and strains can change each year, meaning new vaccines are needed for every flu season.

The selected virus is injected into a fertilized hen's eggs, where it incubates and replicates for a few days -- just as it would do inside a human host.

Scientists then harvest fluid containing the virus from the egg. They inactivate the virus so it can no longer cause disease, and purify it, leaving scientists with the virus antigen.

The antigen is the crucial element -- it's a substance released by the virus that triggers your immune system to respond. That's how the vaccine prepares your immune system for a real infection.

The entire process, from the arrival of the egg to the publicly available vaccine, takes at least six months, according to the CDC.

The government gets its vaccines from a handful of manufacturing companies, which source their eggs from numerous farms in secret locations. The farms' locations are "proprietary information," said a spokesperson from Sanofi Pasteur, the biggest flu vaccine manufacturer in the US, citing "security sensitivities."

The eggs don't come cheap: the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spent $42 million on a three-year contract with one company to ensure a year-round supply of high-quality eggs, according to a 2017 report from the US Government Accountability Office (GOA).

That's just one company from one time period; the HHS began contracting a handful of manufacturers and egg farms in 2005, meaning there are likely many more contracts worth tens of millions of dollars.

And these eggs are precious: if the supply chain is compromised, it could mean a nationwide shortage of crucial flu vaccines.

So, obviously, the eggs have bodyguards.

Part of that $42 million contract required that the vaccine manufacturer had "both a physical security program and a biosecurity program to provide protection against man-made and natural threats," according to the GOA report.

That might seem like a lot of money to spend on eggs, but each year the flu costs the US about $10.4 billion in hospitalizations and treatments, according to the CDC.

And the eggs aren't only useful for flu vaccines -- they could potentially be used to develop vaccines for other illnesses, said Leo Poon, head of public health laboratory sciences at Hong Kong University (HKU). It just depends on the illness, as some virus strains can't incubate inside eggs.

Why the egg method won't work for a coronavirus vaccine

As the coronavirus pandemic spreads, scientists and governments around the world are racing to develop a vaccine -- but eggs won't be the answer, said John Nicholls, a Hong Kong University clinical professor of pathology.

Due to having different receptors and other characteristics, the novel coronavirus isn't able to replicate inside eggs the way flu viruses can, Nicholls said.

Even beyond the immediate problem of the coronavirus, US officials have been pushing for non-egg alternatives in recent years.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order last September requiring health agencies to expand the use of alternative production methods.

One reason officials are looking elsewhere is the six-month production time can be too slow. Not only could an illness spread globally during that time, but the virus injected into the egg could mutate and make the vaccine less effective, said Poon.

Another issue is that the supply is vulnerable to deadly avian flus. "If there's a pandemic of H5N1 (avian influenza), it can kill chickens substantially and there will be a huge drop in egg supply, and you will have a problem getting enough eggs to make the vaccines," Poon said.

The GOA report warned that it takes about 12 to 18 months to establish an egg supply large enough for either seasonal or pandemic influenza. But in the case of a fast-spreading pandemic like this, authorities simply can't wait that long -- and there aren't that many chickens and eggs immediately available.

More than 20 potential coronavirus vaccines using a range of non-egg technologies are now in development, according to the WHO.

Some of these are mRNA vaccines, which direct cells in the body to make proteins to prevent or fight disease using messenger ribonucleic acid, a molecule vital to the proper functioning of the body's cells. Others use recombinant DNA technology, which produces an exact genetic match to proteins of the virus, and can then rapidly produce large amounts of antigen.

Even companies that traditionally make egg-based flu vaccines are jumping into the mix; Sanofi Pasteur said in February it was working on a non-egg coronavirus vaccine.

Health officials warn it will take at least a year before any coronavirus vaccine is proven effective and gets necessary approvals for widespread distribution.

Typically, clinical trials are broken into two phases. Phase 1, involving a few dozen people, would last about three months. Phase 2, involving hundreds of people, would last another six to eight months.

At least one Phase 1 coronavirus vaccine trial has now begun; the US study gave a dose to the first participant on March 17. Over six weeks, each participant will receive two injections about a month apart in varying doses, to try to establish that the vaccine is safe and induces a desired response from participants' immune systems.

There is still a lot we don't know about the coronavirus, said Poon -- so the wide range of technologies being used to develop vaccines gives us a better shot at finding one that works.

"That's why I say I appreciate diversity," he said. "You never know which one is going to work -- it's dangerous to put all the eggs in one basket."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "The US keeps millions of chickens in secret farms to make flu vaccines. But their eggs won't work for coronavirus."
MOHALI/CHANDIGARH: Six new coronavirus cases five from Chandigarh and one from Mohali  were reported from the tricity on Monday, taking the tally to 21. This is the highest number of cases reported in a single day since March 18 when the first positive case was detected in the tricity.

UT health authorities said a 40-year-old Sector-30B woman whose son was tested positive on Friday has also contracted the disease. Her 22-year-old son had returned from Dubai on March 11 and was tested positive on Friday.

Similarly, his two friends, both aged 23 and residents of Sector 29A have also tested positive. They were admitted to Government Medical College and Hospital on Saturday.

Also, a NRI couple from Canada too tested positive on Monday at Government Medical College and Hospital Sector 32.

Officials said the couple arrived in Chandigarh on March 13 and developed symptoms on March 26. The couple got hospitalised on March 28. The couple was put in the quarantine list on March 30, suggesting that they have not obeyed the mandatory quarantine period in their home. About 21 residents have been quarantined at their residence in Sector 33A. More than 1000 people are under quarantine in the city now.

UT Health Secretary, Arun Kumar Gupta said they are ascertaining whether the couple obeyed the quarantine rules.

In Mohali, a 65-year-old man from Nayagaon tested positive for the virus, taking the tally of positive cases in the district to seven.

Mohali civil surgeon Dr Manjit Singh said, The patient is a resident of Dashmesh Nagar of Nayagaon and was admitted to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER). We have identified around 20 contacts of the patient and samples have been sent for testing. We have sealed the entire Dashmesh Nagar and are trying to ascertain his contacts for screening. The patient has no travel history.

The health authorities have taken the second sample of a 27-year-old woman, who tested positive for Covid-19, recently. Her first review report had tested negative on Sunday evening.

She is the friend of the first coronavirus patient of the tricity, a 23-year-old woman resident of Sector 21, Chandigarh, who returned from London on March 15 via Amritsar.

The Mohali woman had tested positive on March 21, after she went to pick up her friend from the Amritsar airport.

Epidemiologist Harmandeep Kaur Brar, who is the coordinator for Covid-19 patients in Mohali, said: The sample of the patient has been taken and if the report is negative again, we will discharge her from hospital.

She will be the first patient of Covid-19 to be discharged from the civil hospital in Mohali.
MIAMI, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --A To address expanding global travel restrictions and provide peace of mind in guest travel planning, Royal Caribbean Group is extending itsA Cruise with ConfidenceA cancellation policy through September 1, 2020. A The updated policy enhances planning flexibility by allowing cancellations up to 48 hours prior to sailing for any reason.A Guests will receive a full credit for their fare, usable on any future sailing of choice in 2020 or 2021. "Guests are reacting positively to ourA Cruise with ConfidenceA policy," says company chairman and CEO Richard Fain, "because it enables them to make informed decisions and to better manage complicated travel plans during this unprecedented time of uncertainty." The extension applies to both new and existing cruise bookings. In addition to easing concerns of booked guests, Fain says the policy enhances consumer confidence to schedule new bookings, knowing last-minute travel adjustments will incur no penalty. "We want our guests to feel they can safely keep their existing cruise bookings or schedule new sailings," says Fain, "because this policy gives them more freedom and flexibility." The policy applies to all cruises with sailing dates on or before September 1, 2020, and applies to the company's global brands Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, and Azamara. A For individual brand policy details and for information on the Silversea policy, please visit the respective brand websites: Azamara:A https://www.azamara.com/cruise-with-confidence, Celebrity:A https://www.celebritycruises.com/cruise-with-confidence, Royal Caribbean In! ternation al:A https://loyaltoyoualways.com/service/cruisewithconfidence1/m, Siversea:A https://www.silversea.com/temporary-amendment-to-cancellation-policy.html. About Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.A A A Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL) is a global cruise vacation company that controls and operates four global brands: Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Azamara and Silversea Cruises. We are also a 50% joint venture owner of the German brand TUI Cruises and a 49% shareholder in the Spanish brand Pullmantur Cruceros. Together these brands operate a combined total of 61 ships with an additional 17 on order as of December 31, 2019. They operate diverse itineraries around the world that call on all seven continents. Additional information can be found on www.royalcaribbean.com, www.celebritycruises.com, www.azamara.com, www.silversea.com, www.tuicruises.com, www.pullmantur.es, orA www.rclinvestor.com. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/677715/RCL_Logo.jpg
The 2020 Trump campaigns official Twitter account, Trump War Room, has condemned Joe Biden for his supposed failure to stockpile enough protective masks to prepare for the coronavirus pandemic.

America has Joe Biden to thank for this. He left our country unprepared for a pandemic. Despite warnings from experts to replenish the supply of masks in the national stockpile, he did nothing, the campaign said.

The tweet included a screenshot of a recent headline in The Washington Post, Face masks in national stockpile have not been substantially replenished since 2009.

It was followed by another tweet quoting the article directly: In 2009, The International Safety Equipment Association warned of significant shortages if another pandemic caused demand for masks to surge.

But the stockpiles reserves were not significantly restored after the 2009 pandemic.

Published on 10 March, the detailed story does not in fact mention Mr Biden, nor does it attribute any decisions to former president Barack Obama.

Instead, it cites the views of public health experts and those in the safety equipment industry that stocks of protective equipment were never adequately refilled after the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, which saw 85 million N95 respirators distributed along with other protective equipment.

After the H1N1 pandemic subsided, trade groups and public health agencies called on the government to restock the US governments supply of respirators and masks. However, it has transpired that heading into the current pandemic, the national stockpile held only a fraction of the number required.

There are now reports of medical workers resorting to reusing protective equipment beyond what it is designed for, to the point where researchers have started decontaminating used masks to keep up with demand.

Since the early stages of the USs coronavirus outbreak, Mr Trump has regularly accused the Obama administration of making it harder to roll out a programme of mass testing, and of fumbling its responses to H1N1 and Ebola.

In mid-March, he laid into Mr Biden specifically in a tweet: Sleepy Joe Biden was in charge of the H1N1 Swine Flu epidemic which killed thousands of people. The response was one of the worst on record. Our response is one of the best, with fast action of border closings & a 78% Approval Rating, the highest on record. His was lowest!

However, his assorted statements slating his predecessors for mishandling that pandemic  and claiming that Mr Biden was in charge of the response  have mainly failed to withstand the scrutiny of various fact checks.

Mr Trumps public disdain for the Obama administrations handling of the 2014 Ebola crisis, meanwhile, goes back to the time of the epidemic itself, when he experienced what Esquire termed a freakout that played out in lurid fashion on his social media channels.

While repeatedly calling for the administration to halt all flights from affected countries lest the plague spread in the US, he also questioned the presidents capacity to lead the country.

I am starting to think that there is something seriously wrong with President Obamas mental health, he opined in a tweet that October. Why wont he stop the flights. Psycho!

And as with his references to H1N1, Mr Trump is still drawing direct comparisons between Mr Obamas response to Ebola and his own administrations handling of the coronavirus epidemic, which thus far has claimed more than 2,000 lives in the US. (Ebola claimed just one life on US soil, a Liberian man who was visiting family in Dallas.)

Meanwhile, his administration remains mired in a fight with several states who are calling for more protective and medical equipment to handle the surge in critical Covid-19 cases, which are putting their health care systems under unprecedented strain.

Mr Trump recently dismissed those demands with scepticism, telling Fox Newss Sean Hannity: I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than theyre going to be.

I dont believe you need 30,000 or 40,000 ventilators. You know, you go into major hospitals, sometimes theyll have two ventilators. Now all of a sudden theyre asking can we order 30,000 ventilators?

The president has also suggested that hospital staff may be stealing masks. Citing no particular evidence, he told a reporter: Something is going on, and you ought to look into it as reporters. Are they going out the back door? ... I dont think its hoarding, I think its maybe worse than hoarding but check it out.
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COVID-19 appears likely to further delay a process that already was lagging. In November, the former federal prosecutor tasked with monitoring the citys progress, Maggie Hickey, wrote that the city missed 37 of its 50 deadlines for implementing parts of the decree. The consent decree is the result of the push for reform that started more than four years ago with the release of video of a white police officer shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times.
Cairo, March 30 : Iran announced 2,901 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday as the total number of confirmed cases soared to 38,309; Meanwhile, the total number of infections in Turkey approached 10,000.

Also, the death toll from the disease reached 2,640 in Iran, while 12,391 patients have recovered.

Earlier in the day, Iranian Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi said the number of infected people has taken a downward trend in 13 Iranian provinces, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif condemned the US insistence on anti-Iran sanctions amid the COVID-19 outbreak as "medical terror," once again urging the international community to disregard the "illegal" US sanctions.

Kianoush Jahanpour, spokesman for the Iranian Health Ministry, said Iran is developing a stem-cell therapy that uses mesenchymal stromal cells to treat the patients infected with COVID-19.

Doctors in Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran announced that they are considering the use of COVID-19 convalescent plasma, taken from those who have recovered from the disease, to treat the newly infected patients.

In Damascus, a Syrian woman died upon arrival at a hospital over COVID-19, which is the first death case in the country. Meanwhile, four new cases were reported, raising the total number of infections in Syria to nine.

Turkey, the second hardest-hit country in the Middle East, reported 1,815 new cases of COVID-19 infection, as the total number surged to 9,217. Meanwhile, 23 more people died in Turkey from the highly infectious disease, raising the death toll to 131.

In its biggest single-day rise, Israel reported 628 new cases on Sunday, raising the total number of COVID-19 infections to 4,247. The death toll rose to 15, up by two from Saturday.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Morocco rose to 463 on Sunday, up by 104 from Saturday, while the death toll increased to 26 after two more deaths were reported.

The United Arab Emirates announced 102 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 570, the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention said.

Qatar reported 44 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number to 634, of whom one has died and 48 have died.

Iraq's Health Ministry confirmed 41 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of the infections to 547, of whom 42 have died and 143 have recovered.

Tunisia reported 34 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 312.

In Cairo, Egypt announced 33 new cases of COVID-19, raising the total number of infections to 609, including 40 deaths.

The Central Bank of Egypt set new temporary limits for daily cash withdrawals and deposits for businesses and individuals as part of its efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19. The daily limit for deposits and cash withdrawals for individuals is 10,000 Egyptian pounds (636 U.S. dollars) and 50,000 pounds for companies.

Kuwait reported 20 new COVID-19 cases, as the total number of confirmed cases in the country climbed to 255, of whom 67 have recovered.

Oman reported 15 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 167, of whom 23 have recovered.

Jordan confirmed the second death from the novel coronavirus and 13 new cases of infection, raising the total to 259.

Jordanian Minister of State for Media Affairs Amjad Adaileh said all those who were quarantined at hotels in Amman and the Dead Sea will be sent home starting Monday after completing the necessary period in quarantine.

Palestine on Sunday recorded six new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number to 104.

Matthias Schmale, head of of UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, said he was gravely concerned about the spread of the virus in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza Strip, because of its vulnerable situation as a result of the 13-year-old Israeli blockade.

The UN-backed government of Libya announced five new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number to eight. It also issued a ban on people's movement between cities in order to fight the COVID-19, while extending the previously imposed curfew, which will last 2 p.m. to 7 a.m. as of Monday.

Tunisian Minister of Health Abdellatif Mekki said on Sunday that his ministry will soon start using new COVID-19 testing kits, which can produce results in just 10 minutes.

A day earlier, Tunisian presidency announced that it received a batch of medical supplies and equipment from China to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Gov. Charlie Baker gives an update on pandemic planning.

State Officials Bracing for COVID-19 Surge Next Week

BOSTON  State officials are ramping up for an expected surge in COVID-19 cases between April 7 and 17.

Gov. Charlie Baker at Monday's briefing said reviewed plans being implemented to reduce pressure on the health system including increasing bed capacity, equipment and staffing.

"This isn't an exact science, but generally speaking, most of the calculations that are out there with respect to Massachusetts both, some of the ones we've done and some of the others, suggests that the surge here is probably going to start somewhere between the 7th and the 17th," he said.

Massachusetts has seen the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases jump by nearly 700 percent in a week and the number of hospitalized patients rise to 350.

The governor last week said the state had been in talks with the Army Corps of Engineers on transforming appropriate spaces for isolating patients with the novel coronavirus. Officials had also announced a partnership with health systems and homeless advocates in Boston to house patients at Newton Pavilion, with the idea it could be a model for other communities.

"This week the Covid-19 Response Command Center is establishing a set of dedicated skilled nursing facilities to care for older adults who are infected with COVID-19," Baker said. "This is one more way to relieve pressure on build and maintain acute care pack capacity for patients who are critically ill, to allow hospitals to move more patients into the recovery phase and out of hospital beds and into a safe professionally staffed setting."

Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center in Worcester was the first, the governor said, to answer the call for expanding skilled nursing beds and anticipating 150 beds by Thursday with another 150 to follow. These dedicated facilities would obviate the need for hospitals to transfer COVID-19 patients to long-term care homes with the most vulnerable populations.

"The goal is to have about 1,000 beds available for older residents for the COVID-19 surge," the governor said. "We've also received federal approval from [ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] to implement this program, and we'll continue to work this issue around the clock to increase our bed capacity to prepare for this search."

The administration has also issued orders to get retired and out-of-state essential medical personnel licensed expeditiously and has sent out a call for medical professionals and volunteers with more than 1,800 signing up

The pursuit for personal protective gear continues with many first-responder agencies soliciting donations to keep their personnel save during the pandemic. Baker said the state had received more supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile over the weekend.

"I think for governors, generally, the whole issue of personal protective equipment has been a difficult one," he said. "I've made that clear to the people in the [Trump] administration as well as to many of the folks who work down the chain from there."

Governors, including Baker, have expressed frustration at the challenges in getting supplies through the federal government and on the open market. Some states, such as Florida, have been given more than requested while others like Massachusetts have received only a small percentage.

Baker thought the "quick turnaround" within 48 hours to approve a request for 1,000 ventilators was a sign that the federal government was recognizing the needs of Massachusetts. There are also orders outstanding for PPE that will make a big difference when they arrive.

An estimated 28,000 masks and 120,000 pairs of gloves were distributed last week, he said, and supplies that came in over the weekend are being inventoried for distribution. Another $50 million in orders are outstanding.

"But obviously, we will need more," Baker said. "Yesterday, the command center launched an online portal where individuals and companies can donate or contract with the commonwealth to supply PPE."

Massachusetts and regional manufacturers are stepping up efforts to fill the gap, with shoemaker New Balance the latest to retool to produce to face masks.

The governor stressed that residents need to continue social distancing to "flatten the curve" and reduce a surge of patients overwhelming medical facilities.

"We know many of the measures have been disruptive and difficult, but if everybody follows them, we believe they will have a significant impact on slowing the spread of the virus and make it possible for our health-care system and our communities, generally, to manage the surge, and to come out the other side of it in a position to successfully figure out how we move forward from there," he said.
This association will help mCaffeine employees and their families to get access to 24*7 medical support and unlimited and free consultations with doctors on call through their helpline number

mCaffeine, Indias fastest growing caffeine infused personal care brand has partnered with Clinikk, the healthcare startup to provide free medical facilities for the employees and their families in this current 21 days lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic.



This association will help mCaffeine employees and their families to get access to 24*7 medical support and unlimited and free consultations with doctors on call through their helpline number. All doctors are qualified (MBBS or specialization), with extensive training in telemedicine. Post the consultation; a signed prescription will be shared on SMS/WhatsApp & the Clinikk App. If a further diagnosis requires lab tests, the sample will get collected at home. Employees can also order medicines online and can get benefited from discounts.



Tarun Sharma, co-founder & CEO, mCaffiene said, The need of the hour is to extend maximum possible support to your employees and their families. Besides assuring the job and financial security, it is pertinent to take care of their physical and mental well being. In a lockdown scenario when one cannot step out of their home more so because of the spread of a highly contagious virus, its our responsibility to take care of their health needs. We dont want them to compromise or neglect themselves. In such a panic scenario one may not know whom to approach or where to go.

While all employees are working from home; we want them to be tension free regarding any health problems of themselves and their families by providing them door-step medical facilities. Clinikk app which gives a one-stop solution will provide the much required ease and convenience. Employee wellness is prime at mCaffeine. More than 400 people will benefit from this association.



Bengaluru based health tech startup, Clinikk is revolutionizing the approach to healthcare in India, by building a one-stop solution for all healthcare needs at just one-phone-call-away. The ability of Clinikk is to diagnose and treat certain ailments using remote technology instead of person-to-person contact, thereby creating ease of access to medical care.



At Clinikk we believe in becoming the first point of contact for any medical need that a family might have. Being there for them 24*7 ensures that we are able to detect any medical problem proactively at its onset and make necessary intervention before it manifests itself as a more serious issue", Said, Bhavjot Kaur, co-founder of Clinikk Healthcare.



Apart from doctor consultations, if any medical information is required for eg. partner hospitals, it can be directed to the Health Assistants, who provide relevant, accurate information. Based on seasonal change, medical history etc. - Clinikk provides personalized awareness building information through WhatsApp, SMS and IVR calls. The languages currently supported are; English, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bangla, Assamese, Marathi.
Can I go to the beach? Can I go to the park? Can I go shopping? In pre-COVID-19 times, these were questions that would not trouble many, let alone spark heated debate on social media or a public reprimand. But these are far from normal times, and whether you can answer such simple questions will play a crucial part in determining how effectively Australia can limit the spread of the coronavirus.

It's time to follow the social-distancing rules. Credit:Leigh Henningham

As the social-distancing rules (which should actually be called physical distancing) have tightened over the past few weeks, there has been some confusion in the messaging. There has been flouting of the rules and some have preferred denial when considering how seriously to take the pandemic.

On Sunday night, Prime Minister Scott Morrison spelt out the latest edicts on social distancing. They are very clear: stay at home unless you need to shop for essentials, are seeking medical care, need to be out for compassionate reasons, cannot work or study from home or need to exercise. And when you leave home, unless they are people you live with, dont gather in groups of more than two.
Despite no recorded case of coronavirus in Anambra state , the Gov, Willie Obiano has requested for a sum of N1bn to combat the epidemic.

Governor Willie Obiano

Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra state has asked the Federal government to give his government N1 billion to prevent the spread of Coronavirus into his state.

A statement from the governor asking for the funds to be released to his state which has not recorded any confirmed case of the viral disease, reads in part

Governor Obiano, therefore, considers it imperative that the Federal Government provides at least N1bn to Anambra, which is at risk in view of the multitude of people in its numerous markets and the peripatetic nature of the people who have been helping in the rapid development of all parts of Nigeria. Besides, we have as many as 63 major markets in the state, including the Onitsha main market, which is the largest market in West Africa.

The markets are always full of millions of people from different countries in West and Central Africa, thereby making our people vulnerable.

The statement added that a special account has been created for donations from well meaning indigenes of the state as the government works towards preventing the virus from being imported into the state.

The Anambra State Government would like to use this opportunity to announce the creation of a special account to assist ndi Anambra grapple with the grave challenges of the coronavirus.



Known as the Anambra State COVID- 19 account, it is in response to various inquiries from people of Anambra State origin in different parts of Nigeria and beyond who have been seeking ways to assist their people since the viral disease outbreak the statement read


Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is implementing new unemployment assistance programs secured by the $2 trillion federal stimulus bill aimed at counteracting the coronavirus economic impact.

The governor signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor to implement pandemic unemployment programs available to workers who do not qualify for state unemployment benefits. The program, created through a provision added by U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, provides temporary support for independent contractors, people who are self-employed, seasonal workers and others who can no longer work because of the pandemic.

The number of people seeking unemployment assistance in Michigan has risen dramatically during the last month. There were 129,298 new unemployment claims filed for the week ending March 21, up from 5,338 filed the week prior.

Nationally, almost 3.3 million Americans filed new unemployment claims, almost five times the previous record of 695,000 set in October 1982 for seasonally adjusted claims, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The agreement provides weekly benefits for all unemployed workers, including those who qualified for state aid, to $600 a week for up to four months. Benefit payments were extended from 26 weeks to 39 weeks.

The State of Michigan is dedicated to implementing measures to protect the health of all our residents and we understand financial health is critical as we meet this challenge together, Whitmer said in a statement. This increase and expansion of unemployment benefits will provide a measure of security for Michigan working families who lost their income due to the pandemic. We are committed to ensuring emergency financial relief for unemployed residents who continue to stay home and stay safe.

The program will expire on Dec. 31, unless otherwise extended. Undocumented workers do not qualify.

If a workers application has previously been denied by the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency in the past three weeks, there is no need for them to reapply. They will be notified by the agency about any additional actions they need to take.

Michigan workers seeking unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic are being asked to file claims on specific days designated by their last name. The new schedule was implemented to handle a historic demand for unemployment benefits.

We appreciate the patience Michigan residents have shown with the unemployment system over the last few weeks as we continue to provide emergency financial assistance during this historical demand," said Labor and Economic Opportunity Director Jeff Donofrio. I want to assure every eligible worker in our state who needs to apply for unemployment benefits that they will receive them.

The day or time of day in which a claim is filed will not impact whether a worker receives benefits, according to the state. Claims will be back-dated to reflect the date in which a claimant was laid-off or let go from their job due to COVID-19.

The eligibility window to apply for state benefits was increased from 14 to 28 days from their last day of work.

Starting Sunday, March 29, people filing claims online with last names beginning with the letters A-L will be asked to file claims on Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays, and last names beginning with the letters M-Z will be asked to file claims Sundays, Tuesdays or Thursdays. Anyone who couldnt file during specified time windows could file on Saturdays.

Workers are also encouraged to go online between 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. and avoid peak internet traffic times.

There is a similar schedule for people to file an unemployment claim over the phone at (866) 500-0017.

People with last names starting with A-L are asked to call between 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays or Wednesdays, people with last names starting with M-Z are asked to call at the same time on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Fridays are open for anyone to call.

To file an unemployment claim, visit Michigan.gov/UIA or call 866-500-0017.

PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops ) and when you go into places like stores.

Read more on MLive:

In Michigans coronavirus crisis, testing may not matter for sick individuals. But for public health, its key.

Doctors on front lines of Michigans coronavirus crisis: It seems like the sky is falling

Michigan state Rep. Issac Robinson dies

Monday, March 30: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Coronavirus cases in Michigans prisons double over weekend

TCF Center alternate care facility to include 2 floors, 900 beds once completed, officials say

Gov. Whitmer downplays tensions with Trump on CNN, Meet the Press appearances
Lately, players in the industry have suffered massive cancellations of bookings resulting in room occupancy rate dropping to average two percent in some hotels while others are already at zero. Three quarters of jobs have since been lost after employers terminated contracts while some workers have been sent on forced leave or placed on half salary because of lack of business.
Dominic Cummings, chief adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on Monday became the latest individual at the top of the British government to go into self-isolation, as a leading expert suggested that the number of cases in the UK may be slowing down.

Cummings, 48, has been a leading if controversial figure in the Brexit campaign and joined Johnson in Downing Street in July 2019 after he became prime minister. He joins Johnson and other figures who have been afflicted with coronavirus.

These include health secretary Matt Hancock, Scotland secretary Alister Jack and chief medical officer for England Chris Whitty. Johnson is continuing to lead the governments response while remaining in self-isolation, officials said.

Prince Charles office announced that he has come out of self-isolation and is in good health.

Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist from Imperial College whose modelling contributed to the governments decision to impose the ongoing three-week lockdown, said new data was showing signs that social distancing measures were beginning to work.

He told BBC: In the UK, we can see some early signs of slowing in some indicators. Less so in deaths because deaths are lagged by long time from when the measures come into force. But we look at the numbers of new hospital admissions today, for instance, that does seem to be slowing down a little bit now.

Its not yet plateaued as the numbers are increasing each day but the rate of that increase has slowed. We see similar patterns in a number of European countries, he said, adding that 3-5% of people in central London may have been infected.

London has become a hotspot for the virus, with one-thirds of the cases in the UK. Recent data shows that Birmingham and the west Midlands have also become a hotspot.

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A severe tornado struck Jonesboro, Arkansas on Saturday, 5:00 P.M., injuring 22 people and leaving commercial centers and homes damaged. There were no deaths reported and of the 22 injured people, two stayed in the hospital for a night but did not have life-threatening injuries, Mayor Harold Perrin said. Residents admit it could have been worst if there was no quarantine measures for the COVID-19 as the tornado ripped through business establishments that were normally packed during weekends. (Photo : Reuters Connect )

A severe tornado struck Jonesboro, Arkansas on Saturday, 5:00 P.M., injuring 22 people and leaving commercial centers and homes damaged. There were no deaths reported. Among the injured, only two stayed in the hospital for a night but did not have life-threatening injuries, Mayor Harold Perrin said. Residents admit it could have been worse if there were no quarantine measures for the COVID-19 as the tornado ripped through business establishments that were normally packed during weekends.

The National Weather Service declared the Jonesboro Tornado as an EF3 rating, noting the estimated maximum winds were at 140 mph. Jonesboro's Municipal Airport's Hangar was damaged, and the city's commercial district was flattened. Houses in several subdivisions were pulverized. The tornado caused significant damage at the Mall at Turtle Creek and an Anheuser-Busch granary. Cars were thrown aside. A portion of a freight train was damaged.

The Mayor issued a curfew from 9:00 P.M. to 6:00 A.M. after the tornado as the Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliot urged the residents to stay home as roadways and common areas are being cleared of debris.

Saved by the COVID-19 self-quarantine measures

On Sunday morning after the tornado, many residents acknowledged the stay-at-home order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus as it inadvertently saved many lives from the tornado. The J.C. Penney and Barnes and Noble stores that are typically filled with shoppers during weekends were closed. Restaurants would have been filled by early diners had it not been closed.

Like the rest of the country, normal routines have been suspended to stop the spread of the virus. Gatherings of more than ten people have been prohibited. Businesses with non-essential services, including restaurants have been closed. Schools are closed and students will be taking online classes instead.

Cooperation and gratefulness in difficult times

The damage brought by the typhoon, however, makes the COVID-19 safety measures difficult to maintain. For Diane Bizzle, a resident of Jonesboro, the social distancing became over as soon as the tornado passed. Bizzle related that as soon as the tornado passed, all of the neighbors were going out and hugging, checking out if everyone was okay.

A friend helped Curtis Brown, 54, clean up after his fence and pine trees were knocked down, he said they still practiced elbow bumps, stood a distance from people and used hand sanitizers while fixing his fence.

According to Mr. Long, the city councilman, residents were busy picking up debris and clearing yards. Others were carrying ice chests and handing out drinks and snacks, clearly violating social distancing measures. Under these circumstances, it is difficult for residents to practice social distancing, just as managing various emergencies would be for city officials, he said.

"You do what you have to do to meet the need at the moment, and right now, this is what we're doing," he said.

Mr. Long said houses at a subdivision at Bridgers Place were destroyed. He reported one home where the roof had been shaved off and the wooden beams had been broken. Despite such damage, he was teary-eyed when a saw a "blessed" sign tacked in the wall.
Texas expanded its quarantine requirement for out-of-state travelers on Sunday, adding to a growing patchwork of domestic travel rules aimed at stemming the spread of the coronavirus.

Gov. Greg Abbott targeted some of the pandemic's hot spots, ordering that air travelers from California, Washington state and several other places must self-quarantine for two weeks after arriving in Texas. His executive order, which previously focused on New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and New Orleans, was also expanded Sunday to all of Louisiana and Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit and Miami. The new rules take effect Monday.

Abbott directed state troopers to enforce the quarantine order for Louisiana motorists driving into Texas, with authorities slated to collect information from drivers on where they would isolate themselves for 14 days, with the possibility of unannounced visits to verify compliance and levy punishment of a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.

Texas has emerged as a new center of the coronavirus, with the Department of State Health Services reporting more than 2,500 cases and 34 deaths as of Saturday night.

The Republican governors action follows a similar move by Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, a Democrat, who first required quarantine for New York motorists but expanded her order Sunday to all states. Her initial targeting of New Yorkers drew the ire of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who denounced the policy and threatened to sue.

Florida has also gone after neighboring Louisiana and the faraway New York tri-state region, with Gov. Ron DeSantis setting up checkpoints along the Panhandle border. The Republican governor, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, said he would support Trump if he quarantined New York City's metropolitan area, as he floated Saturday.

The president, after floating the idea earlier Saturday, backed down a few hours later and instead asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a strong Travel Advisory for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. A quarantine will not be necessary, he said.
Yesterday, 29 March 2020, a team of private sector players launched 'The Ghana COVID-19 Private Sector Fund' - a GHC100m innovative fund. This Fund is to complement the Government of Ghana's (GoG) efforts to fight the rapid spread of the COVID-19 in the country.



The Fund, will be used to resource health facilities with supplies and equipment and promote desired citizenry behaviours required to overcome the spread of the virus.



At the launch, the Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Fund and Fidelity Bank's Chairman, Mr Edward Effah, said "The purpose of the Fund is to raise a minimum of GHC100million. We will approach selected individuals and corporates to compliment the Fund Trustees to support the government's fight against COVID-19. Seed money of 1million Cedis has already been raised by the ten trustees to support the Fund."



"We are counting on the public to contribute towards the Fund since we have put in place adequate measures to ensure maximum transparency and accountability. We have therefore appointed Stanlib Ghana Ltd as the Fund administrator, responsible for administering the Fund. Fidelity Bank will serve as the Fund custodian and Ernst & Young as the Fund auditors," he disclosed.



Mr Effah added that "for complete transparency, all donations and disbursements will be published on the Fund's website unless the donor requests anonymity."



Mr. Alexander K Abban, Deputy Minister of Health (MoH), commended the private businesses for such an exceptional show of love even though the outbreak of the virus is negatively affecting their businesses. "This fund will help with protective gears and equipment to boost the confidence of the frontline health workers in the discharge of their duties", he added.



The Deputy Finance Minister, Charles Adu Boahen, delivered the keynote address. He said, "the initiative by the private sector will be supported by the Government to win the fight against coronavirus." To demonstrate his support of this initiative he generously donated three-months of his salary to the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund. He then tasked the managers of the Fund to effectively coordinate and prudently allocate the resources to meet the expectations of the donors.



The trustees of the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund are Mr Anthony Oteng-Gyasi (Chairman - Tropical Cable & Conductor), Edward Effah, (Chairman - Fidelity Bank Ghana Ltd), Mr Kwaku Bediako (Director - CH Group), Mr John Taylor (CEO - Woodfield Energy Resources Ltd), Mr Omane Frimpong (Chairman - Wilkins Engineering Ltd), Mr Kwame Ofosu Bamfo (MD - Bamson Group), Mr Kwabena Adjei (Group Chairman - Kasapreko), Mr Thomas Svanikier (Chairman - Svani Group), Mr Kwasi Twum (CEO - Multimedia Group) and Mr Senyo Kwasi Hosi (CEO - Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors).

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 30

The United States Government is providing $1.1 million assistance to Georgia to combat COVID-19 pandemic, Trend reports citing Georgian media.

The US Department of State announced that the United States has provided nearly $139 million as health assistance to Georgia, and the total US assistance to the country in the past 20 years has exceeded $3.6 billion.

Earlier, US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan praised the Georgian government for its proactive steps to contain the spread of COVID-19.

As of today, a total of 18 individuals have recovered from the new coronavirus in Georgia out of the 91 confirmed cases.

On March 21, Georgia declared a state of emergency until April 21 to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11.

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#FreeThePress

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on all governments to release all journalists from their prisons. On behalf of more than 250 journalists behind bars, we call on authorities to free these political prisoners immediately and unconditionally.

In Other Languages  

For journalists jailed in countries affected by the virus, freedom is now a matter of life and death. Imprisoned journalists have no control over their surroundings, cannot choose to isolate, and are often denied necessary medical care.

The World Health Organization states that People deprived of their liberty, and those living or working in enclosed environments in their close proximity, are likely to be more vulnerable to the COVID-19 disease than the general population.

Journalism must not carry a death sentence. Thats why today we launch #FreeThePress, a campaign calling for the release of every journalist behind bars now.

We ask all world leaders to protect the free press and the free flow of information at this crucial time.
Production on the upcoming season of Channel Ten's Australian Survivor, which was set for Fiji, has been postponed indefinitely amid the coronavirus pandemic.

And speaking to TV Tonight ahead of Monday's All-Star final episode, host Jonathan LaPaglia expressed doubts on when filming will eventually take place.

With international travel banned and strict social distancing measures in place, the 50-year-old said it will most likely only be possible when 'we're on top of the pandemic'.

'We're no exception': Australian Survivor host Jonathan LaPaglia (pictured) told TV Tonight on Monday that production on the upcoming season won't go ahead until 'we're on top of the pandemic'

'Every production around the world has been put on hold and we're no exception,' Jonathan explained.

'It's not going to be possible until we're on top of the pandemic - not only from an insurance point of view, but just the logistical point of view.'

Jonathan also pointed out that with contestants and a crew of around 200 to 300 people, as soon as one person tests positive for coronavirus, production must shut.

'The minute one crew member gets it, obviously they're out but then you have to isolate everyone else who's been in contact with them.'

Risky: The actor and TV presenter explained how with contestants and crew of 200 to 300 people, as soon as one person tests positive for coronavirus, production must shut down

La-based Jonathan was replaced by Osher Gunsberg for Monday night's finale episode of the All Stars season, due to strict quarantine protocols.

Osher handed over to Jonathan via a video link from the USA, where he announced model David Genat the winner.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has banned international travel in a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).

Called off! Earlier this month, Channel Ten announced that the upcoming season has been postponed indefinitely. Pictured: The cast of Australian Survivor: All Stars

Health first: A Channel Ten spokesperson told The Daily Telegraph that the 'health and safety of everyone involved with the show' is their 'number one priority'. Pictured: The cast of the current All Stars season

He has also enforced strict social distancing measures - limiting gatherings, outside of the household, to just two people.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness accompanied by fever, coughing, sore throat, shortness of breath and fatigue. It can produce pneumonia.

The spread of the disease, which began in Wuhan, China, has seen over 734,900 cases worldwide and more than 34,700 fatalities.

As of the evening of March 30, the total number of people diagnosed with the virus in Australia is 4,220 including 18 deaths.
F rom the line smoothers and skin firmers that the facialists swear by to the techy hair tools that beauty editors rely on, theres no denying that we now exist in a time when we can - at least to some extent - be our very own skin experts and hair stylists.

The latest and greatest beauty gadgets promise to revolutionise, refine and speed-up our daily regimes, as well as enhancing the results we achieve with our beauty products.

With this in mind, here are five of our favourite tools for delivering top rate results throughout isolation and beyond.

The Light Salon Boost Advanced LED Light Therapy Decolletage Bib

Following the incredible success of The Light Salons London walk-in light bars the brand produced this clever portable bib.

Just like the pro machines found at the clinic it harnesses red light and near-infrared technology to wage war on spot-causing bacteria, stimulate collagen production and target redness and wrinkles on the back, neck and delicate decolletage.

NuFace NuBody Skin Toning Device

Struggling with cellulite or sagging skin? The four spheres on this innovative skincare device deliver targeted microcurrents to help firm, tone and smooth by gently stimulating the body to produce more collagen and elastin which in turn aids skin repair. Use it for five minutes daily on the buttocks, thighs, upper arms or tummy as required.

Dyson Corrale Straightener

399 is a very significant investment for a pair of straighteners, but Dysons new Corrale comes with buckets of innovation and style.

Patented flexing plates work to efficiently gather and shape each and every hair strand allowing for enhanced styling with half the damage, while three temperature settings tend to every hair type from fine to coarse, and a powerful battery makes cordless styling easy.

Nurse Jamie Uplift Massage Beauty Roller

This circulation and complexion boosting beauty from Hollywood skin expert, and A lister darling Nurse Jamie is set with 24 tourmaline quartz stones to mimic the facial massaging techniques used in her clinic. With its unique hexagonal form it gently but efficiently works to stimulate the blood circulation to noticeably revive and invigorate your complexion.

Dr. Dennis Gross SpectraLite EyeCare Pro, 175
Winnipeg church leaders and theologians launched a petition Friday asking all levels of government to patch  or reinvent  the countrys social safety net after the coronavirus pandemic is over.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/3/2020 (654 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg church leaders and theologians launched a petition Friday asking all levels of government to patch  or reinvent  the countrys social safety net after the coronavirus pandemic is over.

The petition on Change.org says the current economic shutdown hurts the most vulnerable, exposes huge economic injustices and demonstrates the need to reassess social welfare programs, explained petition author Rev. David Driedger, associate minister at First Mennonite Church.

"There is a direct appeal in the (Christian) gospel that prioritizes the vulnerable over profit," he said about the reason for the petition, developed from a longer document with input from a group of about two dozen clergy and theologians.

He encourages churches to post the petition on their websites to inform people and rally them to contact their elected leaders with their concerns.

The petition asks the federal government to rescind its ban on asylum seekers, allocate funds and resources for emergency shelters and be more attentive to the needs of Indigenous communities already facing housing shortages, inadequate water supplies and less access to medical care. It also asks government not to subsidize oil companies during the crisis.

"COVID-19 has already changed the global landscape," the petition reads. "We are asking that we do not return to a system that was increasingly unjust and never sustainable."

Premier Brian Pallisters request to have people shame those who dont follow protocols and the imposition massive fines on violators reeks of vigilantism and privilege, said a religion professor at University of Winnipeg who helped draft the petition.

"A lot of people who arent able to practise social distancing arent doing it out of defiance," said Rev. Jane Barter, who is an Anglican priest serving St. Matthew Anglican Church at Peguis First Nation.

"They are doing it because they dont have that option."

People violating emergency measures under Manitobas Public Health Act can face a fine of up to $50,000 or up to six months in prison.

Due to closures and restrictions, Winnipegs vulnerable population already faces a significant drop in services and no access to public spaces they previously frequented, said Lynda Trono of West Broadway Community Ministry.

"People who are homeless have no way of following what is being asked of everyone else," she said in a telephone conversation after serving bagged lunches and emergency food kits to her clients.

Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

"Weve been putting profits before people for a long time, and this is the result."

Trono said her organization is starting a program called "Love your neighbour from a distance," where their clients are asked to stand inside a large chalk heart marked on the sidewalk while waiting for their food. It is a small gesture, but it encourages people to stay two metres apart while reminding them they are valued, she said.

"We are called to care for one another," said Trono, a minister in the United Church of Canada.

"Our primary job is to love our neighbours."

The petition is available here.

faith@freepress.mb.ca
Bengaluru, March 30 : In a stern warning to violators, Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Monday put the onus of lockdown ending on the people following the government's guidelines strictly and staying at home.

"Ending of the 3-week lockdown depends on strictness with which the people follow the curfew and maintain social distance. In this hour of crisis, it is not good to come out of house and violate the curfew," Yediyurappa said in a statement here.

He appealed to the people to help the state government in preventing the spread of the virus.

"People of Karnataka are known for tolerance and patience. They are law-abiding citizens. The lockdown is a testing time for them. It has come to test the patience of our people," Yediyurappa said.

Citing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's apology for the lockdown amid the pandemic, the Chief Minister said everyone should realise the predicament of Modi who cares for the well-being of the country and its people.

"Modi's precautionary measures are yielding results when the performance of the developed countries is miserable in handling Covid outbreak," he said.

Yediyurappa lamented that many individuals in urban centres were brazenly transgressing the curfew rules, compelling the police to act against them.

"As the police are human beings like us, don't test their patience. They are under stress by working without rest. Don't make them use force and blame them for stern action," he reiterated.

The Chief Minister also exhorted parents not to allow their children to venture outside.

Assuring supply of essentials and food, Yediyurappa said the state government had taken measures to reach the needy.

He urged the people to consider the lockdown as a blessing in disguise to spend time reading books and engaging in other activities at home.

"It is for us to respect the sacrifice of the doctors, nurses, health staff and civic officials working round the clock to save lives of hundreds of people affected by coronavirus," he added.
A two-week partial lockdown is currently in force in the Greater Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Kumasi in the Ashanti region.



Prior to the lockdown which started at 1 am Monday, 30th March 2020, there were reports that some Ghanaians were moving from the places where the lockdown has been imposed into other regions.



The fear was that if some were carrying the virus, they could infect other people in regions where no case has been recorded.



Speaking to this in a one-on-one interview on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo', Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said even though some might have gone to other regions, they will still be tested if their names are in the database.



According to him, during the two-week lockdown period, all the contacts traced will be tested and so even if the person is in another region, he or she cannot escape testing.



He said because we are in a democratic dispensation, the government couldn't have prevented people from moving.



"We need to look at balance to avoid over-reacting especially because we are in a democratic dispensation . . . you cant do anything out of proportion. The teams conducting the contact tracing are also in the other regions and so if an infected person is out of the region but is part of the database, we will get them," he assured.



Listen to him in the video below







Source: Rebecca Addo Tetteh/Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Harsh lockdowns aimed at halting the march of the coronavirus pandemic extended worldwide Monday as the death toll soared past 37,600 amid new waves of US outbreaks. Despite slivers of hope in stricken Italy and Spain, the tough measures that have confined some two-fifths of the globe's population to their homes were broadened. Moscow and Lagos joined the roll call of cities around the globe with eerily empty streets, while Virginia and Maryland became the latest US states to announce emergency stay-at-home orders, followed quickly by the capital city Washington. In a symbol of the scale of the challenge facing humanity, a US military medical ship sailed into New York to relieve the pressure on overwhelmed hospitals bracing for the peak of the pandemic. The US death toll passed 3,000, while the number of confirmed US infections topped 163,000, a global high. President Donald Trump sought to reassure Americans that authorities were ramping up distribution of desperately needed equipment like ventilators and personal protective gear. He also offered a stark warning, saying "challenging times are ahead for the next 30 days" as he acknowledged mulling a potential nationwide stay-at-home order. "We're sort of putting it all on the line," Trump said, likening the efforts against coronavirus as a "war." The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases around the world rose above 784,000, with 413,000 of those in Europe, while most of the confirmed deaths are also from the continent, according to an AFP tally. World leaders -- several of whom have been stricken or forced into isolation -- are still grappling for ways to deal with a crisis that will have economic and social shockwaves unseen since World War II. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed "closer cooperation" and addressed plunging oil prices in a Monday call, the Kremlin said. - 'Good for morale' - The US Navy's USNS Comfort, which has space for 1,000 beds and a dozen operating rooms, docked one day after Trump extended US social-distancing measures until the end of April. "It will be good for morale," said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio of the arrival of the Comfort, which will help people requiring intensive care unrelated to coronavirus, easing the burden on hospitals. In Russia, Putin urged residents of Moscow to "very seriously" respect a lockdown that has closed all non-essential shops, including restaurants. Moscow's famed Red Square was deserted, and surrounding streets were quiet. Anna, a 36-year-old web designer, said the lockdown would be hard for her and her five-year-old daughter. "But I don't want Arina to get sick," she told AFP on her way to buy bread. "So of course we will observe the quarantine." Fears of spiking cases drove Moscow to follow Italy, Spain and France in imposing full lockdowns, and Europe remains the epicentre of the pandemic with the death toll there passing 26,500 on Monday, according to an AFP tally. - 'Work continues' - After weeks of life spent under a national lockdown in Italy, signs were emerging that drastic action could slow the outbreak's spread. Even though the country's death toll grew by 812 in 24 hours to 11,591, figures from the civil protection service showed the rate of new COVID-19 infections hitting a new low of just 4.1 percent and the number of people who had recovered reached a new high. "The data are better but our work continues," said Giulio Gallera, the chief medical officer of Lombardy, Italy's worst-hit region. Spain, which announced another 812 virus deaths in 24 hours, joined the United States and Italy in surpassing the number of cases in China, where the disease first emerged in December. France reported its highest daily number of deaths since the outbreak began, saying 418 more people had succumbed in hospital. Even as the US health system was stretched to the limit, Trump said he was ordering some excess medical equipment be sent to Italy, France and Spain. - 'Nothing to eat' - Britain and Italy both warned recently that measures to prevent disease spread would be in place for months to come. In Britain, COVID-19 has hit high profile figures including Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prince Charles, who was out of virus isolation, according to royal officials. In Israel, meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became the latest world leader to enter isolation, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel's third coronavirus test came back negative. The lockdowns are causing hardship across the world but particularly in impoverished cities in Africa and Asia. Africa's biggest city, Lagos, joined the global stay-at-home from Monday, with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari ordering a two-week lockdown for its 20 million people. The measures also apply to the capital Abuja. "Two weeks is too long. I don't know how we will cope," said student Abdul Rahim, 25, as he helped his sister sell food from a market stall. Impoverished Zimbabwe also began enforcing a three-week lockdown. "They need to be fed, but there is nothing to eat," vegetable vendor Irene Ruwisi said in the township of Mbare, pointing at her four grandchildren. "How do they expect us to survive?" The shutdown has already put millions out of work and forced governments to rush through huge stimulus plans. Experts in Germany, Europe's economic powerhouse, said the virus would shrink output there this year by up to 5.4 percent. In the US, more than two thirds of the population were under lockdown orders. "We are nowhere near over the hump," warned Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards. "We still have an awful lot of work to do to flatten the curve." burs-mlm/bgs
Morocco has announced that it will spend 200 million dollars on medical equipment to counter coronavirus including the acquisition of 100,000 testing kits to be supplied by a South Korean company, local media said.

The deal was sealed by Moroccan ambassador in Seoul and South Korean medical company Osang Health Care, Moroccan news websites said citing a statement shared on South Korean media.

We were in talks with more than 60 countries across the world, when Moroccan ambassador visited us. Afterwards, the contract was rapidly signed, the South Korean company said in its statement.

The South Korean company said it will offer Morocco 10,000 kits free of charge as it continues to deal with larger orders including the supply of 2 million kits to Romania.

South Korea has been widely praised for its success in managing the coronavirus outbreak thanks largely to its fast and efficient testing program.

The 200 million dollars earmarked by the Special Fund for the management of the pandemic to the Health Ministry will be also used to buy 1000 intensive care beds, 550 ventilators, 100,000 collection kits, imaging and scanning devices, pharmaceutical products and other equipment key to treating coronavirus cases.

The country plans to increase its intensive care beds to 3000, according to the government.

The number of confirmed cases in Morocco surged to 479 on Sunday, including 26 deaths and 13 recoveries.

The 200 million dollars will also be dedicated to increase payment of health workers and the disinfection and protection of health infrastructure.
Scientists all over the world are working on finding ways to quickly test and develop vaccines for COVID-19.

The first step was finding and isolating the virus so other scientists and researchers can begin working with the live virus and come up with vaccines that may be able to defeat this illness.

In Canada, a joint team of researchers from Sunnybrook Hospital, the University of Toronto and McMaster University quickly collaborated to become one of the first in the country to isolate the COVID-19 virus. With that breakthrough, other Canadian researchers have started their work on combatting the disease.

Today we are talking with Dr. Karen Mossman, now in self isolation, who is a professor of pathology and molecular medicine and vice president of research at McMaster University.

She talks about what it took to isolate the virus, what creating a vaccine entails and what is giving her hope about all the work being done.

Listen here or subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday held a meeting with the officials of Gautam Buddh Nagar over the COVID-19 situation.

The Chief Minister had visited Noida to take cognisance of the plight of the migrant workers returning from Delhi.

Uttar Pradesh has so far reported 75 cases. The number of COVID-19 cases climbed to 1,071 in India on Monday, including 29 deaths, according to the Union Health Ministry.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WORKERS WILL NOT PAY FOR THE CRISIS AGAIN!

I would like to start by asking all Party members and readers to stay safe and do whatever possible to avoid spreading the Coronavirus. However, the struggle must go on to demand workers will not end up paying for the crisis again.

As Australian governments shut our borders and social distancing gets more restrictive the Party of the working class moves its activity online on various social platforms. Party functions will continue online and we will continue to post updates on our website, social media, and Party press. Branches will explore party life in times on COVID-19 and learn to adapt to continue interacting with the Australian people by other means. Various efforts are underway to start live-streaming, podcasting, etc.

Despite the obstacles we faced twelve months ago when the Communist Party of Australias (CPA) original Facebook page was stolen and taken by another organisation it is good to report that our current page gets new likes everyday and our twitter account has more than 10,000 followers. It is important that all members and supporters get their hands on their gadgets and share the Partys social media posts. As we said, with discipline and without distractions, we are now in better conditions than twelve months ago to take the Party to the people.

The current leadership has led the Party for a year and has managed successfully to unite the Party across the country. We have a number of vibrant new members in all branches particularly younger people. The South Australian State committee and Sydney District Committees held conferences and elected new leaderships. All branches had their AGMs and many have many new faces around the table including comrades leading those branches. We have new Party branches in NSW and great perspectives coming from Darwin and Canberra. Comrades have rallied around our new general secretary and other members of the collective leadership. It is important to note that the five comrades elected to Party leadership are full time workers and play active roles in their respective unions. Having that link with the working class is essential to avoid losing perspective of what it means to be a worker and its links with the working-class party.

As our Party moves into its centenary anniversary, we rally together selling more Guardians every week. Branches are organising more and more public activities which have raised our profile and brought new recruits. The balance is positive and we have a stronger Party and are prepared to deal with the current crisis created by the pandemic.

Communists around the world are demanding workers will not pay for the capitalist crisis again. We will continue to campaign for universal access to health and education, the cancellation of student debt, more public housing, land rights for Aboriginal people and pension for all workers. As governments struggle to save the capitalist system with massive stimulus packages we demand the nationalisation of our national resources, a national public health and education systems. Australian unions were on the front foot from the onset of the crisis and have done a great job representing their members and demanding sick pay for all workers as the country goes into a lockdown.

The Communist Party of Australia campaigns for socialism as the only alternative to this inhumane and greedy system that is killing the planet and its people. Stay tuned and stay safe. Lets get organised and win.
Mr. Koszarys success was also noticed outside the museum world. Last April, Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla  and a man with his own history of using Twitter to grab attention  changed his Twitter photo to the absolute unit sheep and started a Twitter conversation with Mr. Koszary.

Soon afterward, Mr. Musk hired him. It seemed a perfect match, but their time together lasted less than six months.

The news of a split emerged in February, when Mr. Koszary wrote a blog post titled Christ what a weird year. Tesla was full of intelligent people wholl change the world, he wrote. And it was the right personal and professional decision to let them find someone else to achieve their vital mission on social media.

Mr. Koszary said he could not talk further about his time at the company and would not say if that was because of a nondisclosure agreement; Tesla didnt respond to a request for comment. He said he felt incredibly lucky that Royal Academy, which had offered him a job before he went to Tesla, took him back afterward.

Asked about his approach for the museums social media during the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Koszary said that people seemed to want light relief from the news. But he added that lighthearted tweets would not be enough to get museums through this difficult period. Instead, the Royal Academys social team was trying to reflect all aspects of how people were feeling, he said: this weird mixture of scared and bored.

On Twitter, that meant setting daily tasks to keep people engaged. (You cant come in to look at the art. Show us the art on your walls instead, read one recent tweet.) On Instagram, the museum has been posting calming paintings accompanied by breathing instructions to help people meditate. Nick Sharp, the museums digital director said that the museum was looking into using social media for life drawing classes. (It used YouTube to stream classes in 2018.)




Timi Frank

Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, on Monday, described President Muhammadu Buharis pre-recorded broadcast to the nation on Sunday evening as a monumental embarrassment to Nigerians.

Frank in a statement in Abuja, said that Nigerians were disappointed in Buharis speech because it fell shamefully short of a presidential crisis broadcast compared to what world leaders are offering to their citizens at this time.

He said that Nigerians would have forgiven the President if he had stuck to his decision not to speak to Nigerians on efforts being done to contain the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country, instead of being wide in generalities and short on specifics.

Frank said: The broadcast was worse than COVID-19 because it failed to outline a specific roadmap on how Nigeria can win this invisible war.

Any measure from the Federal Government that does not advance Nigerias response to the COVID-19 will ultimately hurt Nigerians.

The President has not only lost precious response time, he is yet losing time while the rate of infection is steadily growing in the country.

Nigerians were highly disappointed that instead of a live broadcast  with the media given the opportunity to seek clarifications for the benefit of Nigerians  the President opted for a pre-recorded and stilted message.

He only played back to Nigerians what most experts have recommended and which many state governments have already started implementing.

While Ghana with about 28 million population is attacking the pandemic with $100 million, Nigeria with over 200 million people is approaching the virus with a paltry N15 billion which translates to roughly $40 million going by the prevailing exchange rate. Are we being serious and responsive here?

He commended the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, for appealing to Chief Executives of commercial banks to support the Federal Governments fight against the pandemic.

He however called on individuals and corporate bodies that have pledged financial assistance to contain the virus in the country not to handover such funds to the administration if they dont want their hard earned resources looted.

They should rather partner with individual state governments to ensure that the funds are prudently spent like the example that GTBank has done in partnership with the Lagos State Government by erecting a 100-bed hospital for the isolation and treatment of confirmed cases, he said.

According to the Bayelsa-born political activist, Buhari only told Nigerians what they already knew  things many state governments have already implemented. Yet, all palliatives promised by the President will be delivered in coming weeks.

The President failed to tell Nigerians about the testing capacity of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) that is leading the charge against this deadly virus in the country.

How many people can the NCDC test per day and what medical exigences are needed to successful treat confirmed cases and ensure that they resume their normal lives?

How many people are going to benefit from

the conditional cash transfer. How many IDPs will benefit from the two months food rations being planned by Buhari in the coming weeks?

Nigerians are aware that the school feeding programme of the Federal Government has performed wonderfully in theory. How does the President want to feed children that are not in school?

Buhari restricted movement in Lagos, Ogun and the FCT for two weeks, however, he failed to say when most civil servants especially in the FCT that have not been paid will receive their salaries.

How are these categories of workers expected to cope with the lockdown without a Kobo in their pockets?

All over the world, no government has restricted media coverage of the ongoing pandemic, but Buhari said those in Abuja and Lagos can only move if they can prove they cannot work from home!

Do media houses operate newsrooms or broadcast stations from the homes of their respective employees?

I think Nigerians deserve something better from their President in the the face of this global scourge.

He saluted Nigerians for their resilience in this trying moment and prayed for quick recovery for those undergoing treatment as a result of the virus.

He also urged Nigerians to intensify prayers for the pandemic to cease in the country.

Signed

Comrade Timi Frank

Political Activist

Abuja.






A Washington state man riding shotgun in an old Buick was arrested after fleeing a hit-and-run incident and leading police on a high-speed chase on an Interstate freeway. Meanwhile, the driver, his pet pit bull, got off scot-free.

Such was the scene Sunday near Seattle, where police arrested a 51-year-old man from Lakewood, Wash., who told them he was teaching his dog how to drive. The man was apparently steering the car from the passenger seat.

Reports say the man, whose name was not released, was driving his 1996 Buick on Interstate 5 when he allegedly struck two vehicles in South Seattle near the Boeing Access Road and then fled north on I-5. The car was spotted on the interstate near the Snohomish River in Everett, and officials told KOMO-TV the vehicle was driving more than 100 miles per hour when they began pursuit. The vehicle left the freeway near the Stanwood exit  57 miles north of the hit-and-run  and then drove onto the nearby Centennial Trail, a rails-to-trail bike path. The chase finally ended after police were able to deploy spike strips.

Police found the man seated in the passenger seat and his dog behind the wheel. The man appeared to have been steering for the canine.

The man was arrested on suspicion of DUI, reckless driving and hit-and-run feeling eluding.
In Sharjah, a 40-mn-dollar gas storage facility To manage internal production after Emirati deposits discovered

(ANSAmed) - NAPLES, MARCH 30 - The Sharjah National Oil Corporation (SNOC) has awarded a 40-million-dollar project to build a gas storage facility at the Moveyid field, said Gulf News. It said the facility will be built by Petrofac Facilities Management International in the Sharjah emirate of the United Arab Emirates.



The facility will be the UAE's second large gas facility of this type, following the one in Dubai, and completion is expected in 2021.



The project aims at self-sufficiency for the emirate in production and management of gas supply for the internal market.



"The whole idea of a gas storage project came from managing the huge seasonal variations in gas demand," said Hatem Al Mosa, CEO of SNOC.



"A storage facility would stabilise this," he said.



The project features a high-pressure compressor facility, a high-pressure pipeline, and flow lines to four existing wells in the area. "The project will allow us to store excess gas in the winter to satisfy peak summer demand," Mosa said. "It will also provide a readily available strategic reserve to respond to unexpected issues," he said.



The project was initially planned in 2003 for storing imported liquified natural gas, but the recent discovery of gas deposits in the Sharjah emirate changed plans, which are now devoted to internal production.



SNOC and Italian oil and gas giant ENI announced the discovery of a large gas deposit in the emirate at the start of the year.(ANSAmed).




Almost two weeks after testing positive to Coronavirus, Celtics' Marcus Smart has been cleared from the disease. He was cleared by the Massachusetts Department of Health.

Corona Free as of two days ago. Cleared by Mass Dept of Health.

Thanks for everyones thoughts and prayers and Im doing the same for everyone thats been effected by this. Stay safe and stay together- apart!

Much love!  marcus smart (@smart_MS3) March 30, 2020

"Thanks for everyone's thoughts and prayers and I'm doing the same for everyone that's been effected by this. Stay safe and stay together- apart! Much love!", Smart said on Twitter.

The Celtics Guard is the fourth NBA player to be cleared from COVID-19, following the steps from Christian Wood, Rudy Robert and Donovan Mitchell.

Before the NBA suspension, Smart was averaging 13.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists this season. Boston is currently the third best team in the East at 43-21.
PEDDLERS of fake COVID-19 information in the country are in hot water after the government insisted no one would be spared of stern legal measures once found guilty of the offence.

So far, three people have been held accountable for propagating fake news on the deadly contagion, including the man who shared a hoax that the government was intending to open schools and colleges last week.

The post appeared to contradict the governments decision to impose a 30-day closure of all schools and colleges in the country from the 17th and 18th of this month, respectively.

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa urged the public to refrain from peddling false news, insisting at the weekend that the government would continue to take stern actions against all of the offenders according to the laws.

He confirmed that the person who claimed that schools and colleges were going to open last week, had been arrested and will be charged in court of law.

The Premier made the remarks when touring the isolation centre for suspects of COVID-19, in Kibaha District, Coastal region.

Only recently, a couple was arrested in a commuter bus in Dar es Salaam after claiming that the government has run out of money to feed students, and so was using the COVID-19 as a cover up to close schools, colleges and universities.

Mr Majaliwa maintained that any information about the pandemic will be issued by the relevant authorities including the Prime minister, the Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children Ummy Mwalimu and the Chief government spokesperson Dr Hassan Abbasi.

At the isolation centre, Mr Majaliwa expressed his satisfaction with the preparations put in place to limit further spread of the pandemic in the country.

As part of efforts to curb the spread, the government has ordered mandatory 14-day quarantine to whoever coming to Tanzania from countries that have been affected by coronavirus. While in quarantines, they will be tested for COVID-19 daily to ascertain their condition.

If they are tested negative for 14 days consecutively, they will be allowed to join their families, said the premier.

The prime minister reminded Tanzanians to always adhere to recommended preventive measures, including hand washing with soap and clean water every time.

People should also avoid mass gathering and overcrowding in buses-as that would help avoid direct body contacts that increase the chances of contracting the virus, the PM noted.

He reiterated the importance of social distancing among people whenever they go for any service at shops or markets. So far, 14 people in Tanzania have tested positive for coronavirus out of 273 who were taken samples for testing in both Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar.

Globally, there are around 678,000 cases with over 32,000 deaths, while the number of those who have recovered stands at 146,319. High death rate is in Italy and Spain.

While Italy confirmed 889 new coronavirus deaths, raising the coronavirus fatality toll to 10,023, Spains death toll increased to 6,528 as of mid yesterday. The figures were expected to go up later on the day.
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The Ohio Auditors Office has announced an investigation into funding of a $34,675 telephone survey for Issue 26, the 7.9-mill levy currently before voters in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District.

Back in mid-January, Cleveland Heights resident Garry Kanter filed a complaint with the Fraud Task Force on the state auditor's website, arguing that the school district was violating the Ohio Revised Code by using taxpayer funds to pay for the survey.

"As you will see, the survey questions were clearly designed to determine what messages would sway residents to vote in favor of the levy," Kanter wrote in his complaint to the state, which was accompanied by 121 pages of exhibits.

Kanter argues that state law prohibits boards of education from spending public money to support or oppose the passage of a levy or bond issue.

Yes, the district has done this previously at least a half-dozen times, that I have copies of, Kanter said of what he described to the state auditors office as blatant violations from 2007-2015.

And it's an issue he's brought up with prior school officials on the local level, "obviously, to no avail," Kanter added after receiving word from Complaint Intake Officer Cheryl S. Gray with the Special Investigations Unit for Ohio Auditor Keith Faber.

The recommendation by the Special Audit Task Force was to open an investigation and conduct an audit, Gray wrote to Kanter on March 27.

CH-UH Communications Supervisor Cathan Cavanaugh said Monday (March 30) that the district is complying with the auditors request for further materials.

Kanter also argues that state law also prohibits a board from compensating any school employee for time spent at an activity intended to influence the outcome of a levy or other tax issue.

"The intent of the survey is further evidenced by the communications between CH-UH City School District employees and (consultants) R Strategy Group LLC and Lake Research Partners once it was launched in mid-November," Kanter said in his complaint.

The survey targeted 500 registered voters likely to turn out for the March 17 primary election, which wound up being postponed due to public health and safety concerns over the potential spread of coronavirus pandemic.

It consisted of 22 questions and was expected to take about 15 minutes to complete.

"Moreover, the presentation prepared to present the results of the survey to the CH-UH school board makes it absolutely clear that the intent of the survey was to influence the vote in favor of the proposed levy," Kanter said. "These activities of the CH-UH school board violate Ohio statutes."

Mail-in election ballots planned

Last week, Ohio lawmakers approved a plan for an all-mail primary election running through April 28 -- the state legislatures fix to wrap things up after the original March 17 Election Day was canceled.

The bipartisan plan, approved unanimously by the House and Senate, would send postcards to every Ohioan with instructions on how to apply for an absentee ballot.

Anyone who hasnt cast an early ballot already would have to print off a paper application or call their county board of elections to request one be mailed to them, then mail it in.

Elections officials then would mail an empty ballot with a postage-paid envelope. Voters would have until April 27 to mail it back or drop it off at at a curbside county ballot box. Votes would be counted on April 28.

State may act on EdChoice voucher fix

In the meantime, school district officials are also watching for action from the state legislature on changes to the EdChoice tuition voucher formula that is costing many districts millions of dollars.

State legislators set a deadline of April 1 to come up with a plan, which the CH-UH school board did not know when it unanimously approved placement of the operating levy on the spring ballot back in December.

As it all plays out, Kanter believes he has "a good shot at prevailing" with the state auditor's office.

In recent years, he was unsuccessful in an earlier appeal of his lawsuit against Cleveland Heights over alleged violations of the Ohio Sunshine Act.

But Kanter did ultimately succeed in getting the city to change its policy and start recording all of its meetings, including City Councils Committee-of-the-Whole sessions.

Read more from the Sun Press.
Having to remain indoors is making people experiment with their culinary skills and our social media timelines are being blessed with the same. The country is going through a hard time, just like the rest of the world and if we can find happiness in little things, we should do that in order to ensure our mental peace is not compromised.

What is that one thing that makes most millennials happy? Coffee! However, there is a twist to this new trend of coffee that is doing the rounds on social media and boy, it is extremely tempting.

Twitter

Some people are also claiming that it is way better than our traditional cold coffee or instant coffee, while some feel their favourite chilled beverage cannot be defeated. However, there is no denying that the dalgona coffee drink does look extremely attractive and the icing on the cake is that it is super easy to make.

Twitter

Basically, in order to make the drink, you have to take instant coffee, sugar and two spoons of hot water and whisk it all up till it becomes frothy. Then take a chilled glass of milk and just add the froth to the glass. Voila! Your dalgona coffee is ready to be served!









Some people also decided to customise their caffeine beverage with ingredients like chocolate, cookies and wafers! Sounds like a delicious treat!





1st time to make Dalgona Coffee.



Ver 1: with M&M's

Ver 2: with Crinkles #dalgonacoffee #dalgonacoffee pic.twitter.com/eOuvNOQot4  Cherry Flores (@cherryfl_xv) March 28, 2020





However, desis are also pointing out that we have been making this for ages!





People are going mad over trendy Dalgona coffee. It's nothing different, but ages old Indian 'ghar ki feti hui' coffee. 

We did it first. #Facts #dalgonacoffee  Aeeeprajita (@BhattAprajita) March 30, 2020

Are you serious?



The entire world is making my mom's recipe for 'Beaten coffee' now?#dalgonacoffee  Chaipocalypse (@Harnit_Arora) March 30, 2020





#dalgonacoffee is just the flipped version of the "phiti hui" (whipped) coffee, desi homes have been making for ages.

(Milk over coffee VS Coffee over milk)



So, my Nani has been making killer Dalgona coffee all along. pic.twitter.com/FjWvIkang9  Snigdha Chaturvedi (@sni5chats) March 29, 2020

#dalgonacoffee is trending but apna Desi #chai rocks !

Samosa is already on the feed bass #chai ki kami thi 



Badam Pista Chai - Amritsar Style !

Watched some YouTube videos about this chai and place.

Basically https://t.co/SeFeUT0dQB  Richa (@savory_tales) March 27, 2020

Its a phenti hui coffee and not #dalgonacoffee .



Only 90s kids who patiently did this with a weak ass spoon, just a little water, #nescafe and sugar for exactly 30 minute in Summer vacations would understand 

This tweet is so amusingly niche for Twitter  pic.twitter.com/5sSwXd2ZNO  Snigdha Chotani Jha (@jhacsnigdha) March 29, 2020

guys this whipped dalgona coffee is just advancement and reversal in plating order of "beaten" coffee, a long standing urban indian tradition  Vernica (@veryvernica) March 30, 2020

Its so cute how the Internet is going crazy all of a sudden over what it calls Dalgona coffee. Like bro thats literally how weve made coffee in Indian homes for ages lol.  Anay Mridul (@AnayMridul) March 30, 2020

Dalgona is just Indian fetti hui coffee that went abroad for higher studies.  master procrastinator (@CheekyChickoo) March 28, 2020

For every Indian going crazy about #dalgonacoffee , you do realize it's beaten coffee over cold milk?

You've probably been having it since you were a teenager....

Beaten hot coffee... Ring a bell?

Just because we didn't come up with a cooler name!#CoronaLockdown  Ananyaa Goel (@ananyaa9) March 29, 2020

Just look at how satisfying it looks!





Jumped on the Dalgona Coffee Challenge bandwagon this morning 



Just coffee, sugar and water whipped with an electric whisk until it turns into this mousse like deliciousness! #dalgonacoffeechallenge #dalgonacoffee pic.twitter.com/wslfn9rq8F  Hayley Shannon (@HayleyShannon8) March 30, 2020

Got curious about all this #dalgonacoffee hype  pic.twitter.com/PmKeOvnjqE  Briggette Gonzalez (@breggidoo) March 30, 2020

 Finally I have the time to make Dalgona coffee. It was easier than I thought  # #dalgonacoffee pic.twitter.com/2IaDvKkARH  Noeru Y & YS (@noeruchan) March 29, 2020

You need to try this. Right now. Its so damn good. Youll thank me later. #dalgonacoffee pic.twitter.com/y4xgO3fxVE  Brian Moretti (@thebrianmoretti) March 29, 2020

Voila! Here it is. Turned out to be pretty delish  #dalgonacoffee

P.S - sprinkled some good ol grated Hersheys to spruce it up! pic.twitter.com/BDB4F7yG8A  Bhavya Sadhwani (@bhavyasadhwani2) March 30, 2020

So I made #DalgonaCoffee . Im not a coffee person but this taste so good, you guys should try it pic.twitter.com/srRAoZyVR3  nurin (@nurinazmii) March 24, 2020

However, you cannot make everyone like everything and there were people who were not impressed!

Yes I tried it and no I wouldnt try it again.

I dont like instant coffee#dalgonacoffee pic.twitter.com/DaDF6TTpGo  Katy  (@katy_krazy_xoxo) March 30, 2020

Have you tried it out yet? Show us in the comments!
Ben Affleck looked very smitten with his new girlfriend Ana de Armas of Knives Out fame in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles on Monday.

The 47-year-old Oscar-winning actor appeared every inch in love as he hugged, held hands with and kissed his 31-year-old Deep Water co-star.

The two were enjoying a stroll in a residential neighborhood with their dogs.

A nice start to the week: Ben Affleck looked very smitten with his new girlfriend Ana de Armas of Knives Out fame in Los Angeles on Monday

Love is in the air: The 47-year-old Oscar-winning actor appeared every inch in love

Ben wore a dark grey shirt with dark slacks and black sneakers as he could not keep his hands off his younger lady love.

The father of three - he has daughters Violet and Seraphina as well as son Samuel - added sunglasses and held a black leash for his dog.

Ana stood out in a ruby red outfit that consisted of a long-sleeved top with pirate sleeves and a V-neck and a wide collar that showed off a bit of her tummy.

Awww: The two were enjoying a stroll in a residential neighborhood with their dogs

They play a married couple in an upcoming film: He hugged, held hands with and kissed his Deep Water co-star

A closer look: At one point they had both arms around each other as they seemed to be hanging on for life

And the James Bond actress, who can be seen in November's No Time To Die, had on a matching skirt that went down to her ankles and had a thick waist band.

The Cuban star added a long necklace and white sneakers.

Her glam was relaxed with unstyled hair and minimal makeup for the outing.

Tee hee: The two smiled and laughed it up as they walked past several parked cars

In his usual duds: Ben wore a dark grey shirt with dark slacks and black sneakers as he could not keep his hands off his younger lady love

Mr A: The father of three - he has daughters Violet and Seraphina as well as son Samuel - added sunglasses and held a black leash for his dog

Red for spring: Ana stood out in a ruby red outfit that consisted of a long-sleeved top with pirate sleeves and a V-neck and a wide collar that showed off a bit of her tummy

Her dog was a much smaller white one compared to Ben's which looked to be a German Shepherd mix.

The Argo actor could not keep his hands off the star as he put his arm around her shoulder, around her waist and then hugged her.

The ex of Jennifer Garner also kissed her passionately and also gave her a peck on her head.

A few construction workers turned to look at the Hollywood vet as he walked with his lady love.

Now a hug from the back: Ben put both of his arms around the petite beauty

A loving touch: And she put her hand on Ben's arm at one point as the two were never far apart

Over two weeks ago the couple were in Cuba and Costa Rica. And Ben took some time out to take snapshots of his new lady love while on the beach.

She shared the images in mid March.

While the brunette knockout did not tag or give Affleck photo credit, she was wearing the same form-fitting burnt orange midi dress from her barefoot stroll with the actor.

But later Ben fully confirmed he was the photographer, as he took to the comments section to jokingly ask for credit.

She looks in love: After packing on the PDA during a romantic getaway to Costa Rica last Wednesday, de Armas is sharing photos her new boyfriend took of her on their romantic beach stroll on Instagram

Credit please! later Ben fully confirmed he was the photographer, as he took to the comments section to jokingly ask for credit

Even in the two deliberately out-of-focus solo snaps, the star flaunted her incredible curves and slim frame.

Unlike the rest of the series, the first picture accentuates her natural beauty and soft pout in a nearly make-up free portrait, which followed their walk along the tide line.

The actress wore an alluring expression and her brown tresses down, as she made eye contact with her love behind the camera.

He want want to clean his lens? After a week of suspense, the 31-year-old beauty shared her Oscar-winning beaus photography on her social media, which included a close-up shot of her on an empty beach and a few of her silhouette running in the water from a distance

Not exactly crisp: While the brunette knockout did not tag or give Affleck photo credit, eagle-eyed fans can confirm she is wearing the same form-fitting burnt orange midi dress from her barefoot stroll with the actor, 47

The leading man, who met de Armas on the set of the sexy thriller Deep Water, was first spotted taking these photos on a digital camera on their second romantic getaway to a tropical beach after visiting Ana's birthplace Cuba.

Romance rumors gained traction after the lovebirds were seen enjoying Havana and posing with fans, who then shared the snaps on social media.

'Ana was his tour guide and took him to all her favorite places,' a source told People.

'Ben seemed to love the trip. He was in a great mood and very friendly,' the source added. 'He was approached by fans multiple times and happily posed for pictures. They visited several restaurants and enjoyed Cuban cuisine.'

Ana moved from Cuba to Spain at age 18 where she embarked on her acting career.

She married Spanish actor Marc Clotet in 2011 but they divorced two years later in 2013.

Dining out: Romance rumors gained traction after the lovebirds were seen enjoying Havana and posing with fans, who then shared the snaps on social media

Posing with a fan: Ana, 31, wore a flirty dress as she posed with Ben who is 47

Ben, of course, was previously married to actress Jennifer Garner with whom he shares three children.

They split in 2015 after a decade of marriage but only finalized their divorce in late 2018.

The Gone Baby Gone star has a well-documented struggle with addiction and sobriety and entered rehab in 2017 and then again in 2018 following an intervention by Garner.

During his recent publicity tour for his new movie The Way Back, in which he plays a man struggling with alcoholism, divorce and mid-life disappointment, Ben told AP: 'For the last three years, 99% of my life Ive spent sober.'

'I dont know all the answers. Im only an expert in my own failings,' he added. 'But the more expert you become in your own failings, interestingly, the less likely you are to repeat them, Ive found. That is how my life has been getting better.'

'I have a better relationship with my kids today than I did three years ago. I have a better relationship with my ex-wife, I think, than I did three years ago. I think Im a better actor. I think Im a more interesting person because most of the growth that Ive had has come from pain,' he said.
New Delhi, March 30 : The Delhi government has converted 11 schools into night shelters to enable the board and lodging of migrant workers rendered without work amidst the countrywide lockdown.

The government was already providing shelter to the homeless in 238 locations across the city.

The schools where night shelters have been set up are GBSSS, Magazine Road; Sarvodaya Bal Vidayalya, Timarpur; MCPS New Rajinder Nagar; RPVV Link Road Karol Bagh; SKV Ghazipur; and Sarvodaya Co-ed Senior Secondary School, I.P. Extension.

Schools with both accomodation and food facilities are at Jai Rani Bagh, Padam Nagar; Turkman Road No.2; Gulabi Bhag; Pratap Nagar; and 64, Khamba Road.

Rugs and blankets have been laid out on the floors of each classroom, and food arrangements made. The Delhi government said the rooms have been properly disinfected and cleaned.

Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia appealed to the poor and migrant workers to utilize food and accomodation facilities provided by the Delhi Government.

In the wake of the coronavirus lockdown in the country from March 24 midnight, hundreds of migrant workers had started leaving Delhi for their homes in UP and Bihar.

"The heads of schools are taking rounds of their respective schools, where guards too have been deployed too. Provisions for two meals a day have been made in each of these schools. Social distancing is being taken seriously and hence the rooms are not cramped up with too many occupants. One hall has not more than five occupants," the government said.

Apart from these schools, over 550 schools have been opened by the government for providing food to those in need amid the lockdown.
Syracuse, N.Y.  When restaurant dining rooms across New York shuttered two weeks ago to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus, chefs and restaurant owners scrambled to build new, viable business plans.

Rich Strub, the chef at Eden, the Hanover Square restaurant that specializes in hyperlocal ingredients cooked over open wood hearths, was no exception.

At first, he turned to take-and-make meal kits, an idea hes been toying with since the restaurant first opened last August. He did those for about a week, but they didnt take off.

Mark Pawliw, of Farm to Fork 101, a Syracuse local food advocate who runs, among other things, the Wegmans Demonstration Kitchen at the New York State Fair and a series of monthly pop-up dinners, had been looking to create some kind of online farmers marketespecially now that people may be hesitant to go out and shop.

So the two joined forces and launched a line of locally-sourced grocery boxesavailable for home delivery or pickup at Eden, located at 118 E. Genesee St.

The boxesavailable in both produce ($30, or $115 for four weeks) and protein ($40)use the connections Strub and Pawliw have built with farmers and producers across Central New York. They plan to add additional producers as well.

38 Dinner at Eden, Syracuse, N.Y.

The first round of boxes went out Friday. The boxes are mostly fruits and vegetables or meats, but Strub said theyll throw a little something into the baskets every week. For the first week, he and Pawliw rolled out homemade pasta, a process Strub admitted was much more labor-intensive than he anticipated, likely rendering it an opening week exclusive.

Im turning a restaurant into an online grocery store, so were working out the kinks, Strub said.

Strub had a spare case of jalapeno peppers in his kitchen, so he roasted them over a wood fire and processed them into hot sauce. A bottle of that might be included in this weeks box. This weeks meat box also has Italian sausage Strub made from pork sourced from Lucki 7 Farms in Jefferson County. Customers can also purchase add-ons to their boxes, such as local milk, cheeses, eggs, and Recess Coffee.

Strub said he hopes the program grows large enough that hell be able to hire some of his staff back.

Theyre chomping at the bit to get back cooking again, Strub said.

But for now, its Pawliw, Strub and Strubs girlfriend, Michelle, preparing the boxes and doing the deliveries. Their deliveries are non-contact, but if they catch the customers eye, they usually get a smile or a wave, Strub said.

Both Pawliw and Strub said they want the grocery box program to be a permanent part of Edens business, even after the coronavirus pandemic ends and restaurants fully reopen.

To order a box, visit either farmtofork101.com or edencny.com. Orders must be placed by 5 p.m. Wednesday for pickup or delivery from noon to 5 p.m. Friday.

Jacob Pucci finds the best in food, dining and culture across Central New York. Contact him by email at jpucci@syracuse.com.

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Considering that Muslims have at times allied with Europeans, sometimes even against fellow Muslims, why present Muslim attacks on Europe throughout history as ideologically driven  as jihads ("holy wars") against the infidel? Why not see them all as generic wars?

This is the main point of an apologia being leveled against my book, Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West. Thus, weeks before my recent lecture at the U.S. Army War College, another speaker was brought in to present an "alternative view." That speaker was John Voll,* professor emeritus of Islamic history and past associate director of the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. (This center was "gifted" 20 million dollars from Prince Alwaleed  a Wahhabi who suggested that the 9/11 attacks were based on America's position "toward the Palestinian cause"  for the express purpose of improving Islam's image in the West.)

According to the War College's advertisement:

In contrast with the well-known story of Muslim-Christian military conflict, less well-known is the long history of Muslim-Christian alliances and cooperation, even in times of conflict. Voll will address risk of misunderstanding when the history of clashes between Islam and the West is viewed in broad generalizations. Voll will focus his discussion on alliances and conflicts in the modern era[.]

Voll reasserted these themes weeks after he presented in a less than honest Army Times report that depicted him as "a more mainstream speaker ... who[m] CAIR-Philadelphia did not object to" (as opposed to me):

Voll does not agree with Ibrahim's view that Christians and Muslims are almost inevitably at odds. Extreme advocates of this "Clash of Civilizations" hypothesis tend to deal with only half of the historical record of relations between the West and Islam, he said in an email. "While the history includes many wars and conflicts, that history also includes many experiences of cooperation and alliances," Voll explained. "To ignore the history of Muslim-Christian cooperations and only emphasize the conflicts is to present a misleading narrative that opens the way for dangerous misunderstandings of world history in general and current global affairs in particular."

Is this true? Yes and no. Yes, Muslims have (infrequently) allied with non-Muslims  in this case, Europeans. No, this does not prove that the exponentially greater, perennial attacks on every corner of Europe were not ideologically driven by jihad. It merely proves that Muslims are pragmatic  which Islam endorses  and willing to ally with whoever best serves their interest.

For instance, in its announcement, the Army War College noted that "Voll will focus his discussion on alliances and conflicts in the modern era, to include the history of the Anglo-Egyptian relationship, and the enemy-ally transitions of the Sanusiyyah and the Angle-American powers of World War II and the Cold War."

Why the "modern era"? Could it be that, as opposed to the twelve centuries of Islamic raids on Europe (circa. 6341830, when Barbary was subdued), Muslims have been remarkably weak vis-a-vis infidel Europe beginning in the late modern era and therefore had much to gain by allying with the infidels?

Relying on the late modern era  the last two centuries, which Voll bizarrely claims represent "half of the historical record of relations between the West and Islam"  to explain the totality of Islamic-European relations (nearly fourteen centuries) is one of the oldest tricks relied on by Islamophilic academics: presenting rare exceptions (alliances with non-Muslims) to the rule (jihad against infidels) as the rule itself.

This is well epitomized by the recent book Crusade and Jihad: The Thousand-Year War between the Muslim World and the Global North, by William Polk, a retired professor of history at Harvard (my complete review here). Despite its ambitious subtitle, only some 30 of its 550 pages deal with the first millennium (when jihad was the norm); 95 percent is devoted to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries  the "modern era." As with Voll, this lopsided approach allows Polk to present Muslims as not just occasional allies of the West, but its eternal victims as well.

But as much more balanced historians such as Bernard Lewis put it:

We tend nowadays to forget that for approximately a thousand years, from the advent of Islam in the seventh century until the second siege of Vienna in 1683, Christian Europe was under constant threat from Islam, the double threat of conquest and conversion. Most of the new Muslim domains were wrested from Christendom. Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and North Africa were all Christian countries, no less, indeed rather more, than Spain and Sicily. All this left a deep sense of loss and a deep fear.

"We tend nowadays to forget" these troubling facts precisely because those most charged with reminding us  the professional historians of Islam, the Volls and Polks of Western academia  go out of their way to suppress them.

Moreover, Islam's modus operandi has always relied on circumstances. When Muhammad was weak and outnumbered in his early Meccan period, he preached peace and made pacts with infidels; when he became strong in his Medinan period, he preached war and went on the offensive. This dichotomy  preach peace when weak, wage war when strong  has been instructive to Muslims throughout the centuries.

Indeed, when it comes to making life easy for Muslims, particularly vis-a-vis infidels, Islamic law (shari'a) is remarkably lenient, via the doctrine of taysir (ease). It is why millions of Muslims  who under strict shari'a are banned from willingly relocating to infidel nations  are flooding the prosperous West: it is beneficial to them, even if they hate and occasionally abuse their hosts (which, for some clerics, validates their presence as a form of jihad).

At any rate, ignoring the first millennium of Muslim-European history  when Islam was as strong if not stronger than Europe, therefore regularly waging jihads on it  and focusing only on the last two centuries  when Islam has been much weaker than the West and therefore in need of dissembling its true feelings for the infidel  is truly what "present[s] a misleading narrative that opens the way for dangerous misunderstandings of world history in general and current global affairs in particular," to quote Voll, though in reverse.

*As an amusing side note, I actually sat in on one of Voll's classes at Georgetown University nearly two decades ago. An apparently especially contentious question and observation I made concerning what he was saying ended, I distinctly recall, with a curt response and an especially dirty look  and my deciding not to sign up for his class.

Raymond Ibrahim, author of Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, Judith Friedman Rosen Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute.
The differential charge diagram of SnS/Aminated-C for (a) and the partial current density of formate production for SnS and SnS/Aminated-C for (b). Credit: CHEN Zhipeng

Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emission has become a global problem. Efficient conversion of CO 2 into value-added liquid fuels is one method to fix CO 2 , and it can alleviate the growing shortage of non-renewable fossil fuels at the same time.

The electrochemical reduction of CO 2 to value-added products has obtained attention worldwide in recent years owing to its mild reaction conditions and high energy efficiency. However, it remains a challenge to achieve a large current density with a high Faraday efficiency.

Recently, a research team led by Prof. Liu Licheng from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) proposed a new strategy for improving the catalytic activity of transition metal catalysts for CO 2 electrocatalytic reduction.

The researchers found that directly coating the amino-functionalized carbon layer can effectively regulate the electronic structure of the non-precious metal catalyst SnS.

This approach would accelerate the electron conduction efficiency and enhance the adsorption energies of OCHO and CO 2 , increasing the reaction current density and formate production.

The related findings were published in Advanced Energy Materials.

Explore further Extremely active and selective immobilized catalyst for electrocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction

More information: Zhipeng Chen et al. Engineering Electronic Structure of Stannous Sulfide by AminoFunctionalized Carbon: Toward Efficient Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO 2 to Formate, Advanced Energy Materials (2020). Journal information: Advanced Energy Materials Zhipeng Chen et al. Engineering Electronic Structure of Stannous Sulfide by AminoFunctionalized Carbon: Toward Efficient Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO 2 to Formate,(2020). DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201903664
I am a Taiwanese American college professor in Texas. Since my university moved to online teaching for the rest of the semester due to the new coronavirus outbreak, and I had originally planned to spend the summer in Taiwan with my family anyway (I havent seen my grandma since she had surgery earlier this year). I landed in Taiwan two nights ago.

Coming from the U.S., where the publics perception of the threat of the new coronavirus is polarized and discrepancy exists in how the federal and various state governments combat COVID-19, I was in awe of how differently Taiwan, a small democratic country off the coast of China, is treating the outbreak.

Taiwan started barring foreign nationals from entering the country on March 19. Everyone entering Taiwan from a level 3 country ( U.S., Canada, Japan, Korea, Italy, etc.) is now required by law to be in quarantine for 14 days.

Not only did we have to fill out a form detailing our home quarantine address before entering the country, but also we were individually greeted by a Taiwanese official before going through customs just so they could be sure that we understood how seriously we were to take the mandatory quarantine.

Failure to comply with the mandatory quarantine may result in up to $30,000 penalty and even possible jail time, and we are forbidden from using public transportation until after the quarantine.

We are required to track our body temperature and health status daily during the quarantine and asked to keep our smartphones on the entire time because the government uses it to track our locations as to ensure that we stay put during the quarantine.

A government official is also assigned to each person under quarantine and is required to call us twice a day to check up on our health status and to remind us ad nauseam that we cannot leave the house during the quarantine.

The government offers all citizens a 24-hour toll-free hotline for free counseling services, too.

In addition to being in awe of Taiwans proactive and systematic rigor in combating the new coronavirus , I am also amazed by how united its citizens are during this challenging time. According to two recent large-scale nonpartisan surveys of adults over 20, the Taiwanese public is overwhelmingly supportive of its governments handling of COVID-19 thus far.

To get a better understanding of how the locals think about this whole thing, I asked a friend about what those around her appreciate the most regarding the governments handling of the outbreak.

The governments transparency since day one definitely calmed a lot of our nerves and earned our trust, Wei Chun Tsai, a 30-year-old from Taipei, said. In addition to giving daily briefings on the latest COVID-19 status and new measures introduced by the government, President Tsai Ing-wens proactive cancellation of her presidential inauguration and other large-scale social events also set an exemplary precedent of how seriously we, as a nation, should take COVID-19. We respect her leading by example, and trust her government even more because of this, too.

As inconvenient as the mandatory quarantine and all stringent preventative measures against the virus may be, I cannot express in words how grateful and proud I am of Taiwans fight against this pandemic. Its apparent that Taiwan is doing something right, as it has significantly fewer COVID-19 casualties compared to its neighboring countries. Now if only the U.S. would follow suit so that we may save as many lives as possible.

Stay safe and healthy everyone. More importantly, lets love ourselves and each other more during this difficult time. After all, we are all in this together no matter who or where we are.

Lee is an assistant professor at the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication at the University of Texas at Dallas.
A woman crosses 5av while it seems empty as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues in New York City. Photo: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

US deaths from coronavirus could reach 200,000 among millions of cases, the government's top infectious diseases expert has warned as New York, New Orleans and other major cities pleaded for more medical supplies.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, estimated the pandemic could cause between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths in the US.

Since 2010, the flu has killed between 12,000 and 61,000 Americans a year.

The US coronavirus death toll topped 2,300 yesterday, after deaths on Saturday more than doubled from the level two days prior. The US has now recorded more than 130,000 cases of Covid-19, the most of any country in the world.

New York state reported nearly 60,000 cases and a total of 965 deaths yesterday, up 237 in the past 24 hours, with one person dying in the state every six minutes.

However, the number of patients hospitalised was slowing, doubling every six days instead of every four, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

One bright spot yesterday was Florida reporting about 200 more cases but no new deaths, with its toll staying at 56.

President Donald Trump has talked about reopening the country by April 12, despite many states such as New York ordering residents to stay home past that date. At the weekend, he seemed to play down those expectations, saying only: "We'll see what happens."

Tests to track the disease's progress also remain in short supply, despite repeated White House promises that they would be widely available.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, whose state has become one of the fastest-growing areas for the virus, especially in the county that includes Detroit, called the rapid spread "gut-wrenching".

"We have nurses wearing the same mask from the beginning of their shift until the end, masks that are supposed to be for one patient at one point in your shift. We need some assistance and we're going to need thousands of ventilators," Ms Whitmer said.

New York City will need hundreds more ventilators in a few days and more masks, gowns and other supplies by April 5, Mayor Bill de Blasio said yesterday.

New Orleans will run out of ventilators around April 4 and officials in Louisiana still do not know whether they will receive any ventilators from the national stockpile.

Louisiana has tried to order 12,000 ventilators from commercial vendors, but had secured only 192 so far, Governor John Bel Edwards said in a TV interview yesterday.
I was more excited about this than I have been about anything but possibly one other gig that Ive ever played, McComas said. We were going to do a master class in a Theater Traditions class on both Sam Shepard and his work, and the life of a Midwestern artist  challenges and solutions.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 21:45:42|Editor: yhy

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HARARE, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's main COVID-19 isolation and treatment center, Wilkins Hospital, which was upgraded by Chinese enterprises at a cost of more than 500,000 U.S. dollars, has been completed.

As part of efforts to strengthen Zimbabwe's capacity to handle the coronavirus, the Chinese business community in Zimbabwe, together with the Chinese embassy, mobilized resources to revamp the Wilkins Hospital.

The hospital was mandated to treat suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients from across the country but dilapidated infrastructure at the hospital hampered the government efforts to curb the spread of the virus in the country.

The rehabilitation program, which started on March 13 and completed on March 30, included renovations of the hospital's dilapidated infrastructure and the addition of previously unavailable intensive care beds.

Speaking at the launch ceremony of the project, Zimbabwe's Health Minister Obadiah Moyo thanked Chinese business community for upgrading the hospital, saying the assistance will greatly improve the country's diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Guo Shaochun said that relevant Chinese companies also provided medical equipment including masks, goggles and medication to the Zimbabwean government. In addition, the Chinese Embassy also donated protective equipment to Zimbabwe's health ministry.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa also expressed sincere gratitude to the Chinese government and Chinese enterprises for boosting government efforts in controlling the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

Zimbabwe has so far recorded seven confirmed cases of COVID-19, with one person succumbing to the disease.
Gov. Mike Parson mobilized the Missouri National Guard Friday in support of the COVID-19 unified response across Missouri, according to a news release issued Saturday by the guard.

Now mobilized, the Missouri National Guards current missions could include:

helping to set up community-based testing sites and operation of those sites;

providing intrastate transportation of personnel and equipment for medical or testing support;

logistical support to local and state authorities;

and continued assessment of and facilitation of the construction of temporary medical or other facilities.

We are committed to assisting local, state and federal officials in supporting the health and well-being of our citizens and service members, said Missouri National Guards adjutant general, Brig. Gen. Levon Cumpton. Our longstanding state and federal partnerships help ensure a rapid and unified response. This activation allows us to be even more integrated and bring more resources to bear.

The Missouri National Guard is trained and ready to respond to the needs of Missourians across the state for any emergency, including floods, tornadoes and, in this case, a health emergency.

Your Missouri National Guard stands ready to serve our neighbors, families, and friends in the communities in which we live and work. Cumpton said. We are your sons, your daughters, your brothers, your sisters, your dads, your moms, your neighbors. We are your Missouri National Guard.

The Missouri National Guard is fully integrated in the planning and execution of the COVID-19 response with our state and national partners. The Missouri National Guard is working closely with Governor Mike Parson, the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Health and Senior Services and Missouri Healthnet supporting a coordinated response. To learn more about how you can do your part, please go to: https://www.cdc.gov/

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GREENWICH  Local advocates are worried that instances of domestic violence could escalate as the coronavirus-imposed isolation drags on.

In an effort to help, advocates are offering advice to victims who may be holed up inside with an abuser. And as indoor spaces feel like they are getting smaller, advocates outlined strategies that could protect victims and their families from escalating tension and abuse.

They recommended staying away from rooms that contain only one entrance or exit, where abusers can corner a victim and make it harder for them to flee. Advocates also recommend limiting time spent in the kitchen or bathroom, where many items can be turned into weapons, said Meredith Gold, director of domestic abuse services at the Greenwich YWCA.

Tell trustworthy neighbors about the violence. Ask them to call the police if they hear something, said Suzanne Adam, executive director of the Stamford-based Domestic Violence Crisis Center.

Devise a code word with your children, so if they hear meatballs they know to go upstairs or to keep themselves safe, she added.

Others suggested maintaining as normal a schedule as possible  even during this difficul time.

The more structure your children have, the more they can depend on the activities, and you being calm to keep them away from (the) abuse, said Sue Shatney, a board member of Connecticut Protective Moms  a new group supporting mothers and children during and after divorce proceedings.

One of the most-offered recommendations is to create space away from the abuser to allow time for reading, exercise, meditation and other forms of self care.

Its important for them to be able to maintain the ability to think clearly, said Adam.

Service providers in Connecticut said they have not seen an increase in domestic violence calls during the pandemic, but many fear a rise will come in the next few weeks, which has been the case in China, the U.K. and elsewhere.

In the last three weeks, the data has shown an average of 50 to 75 calls per day, in line with numbers documented before the pandemic, said Karen Jarmoc, president and CEO of the Connecticut Coalition to End Domestic Violence.

Anyone experiencing immediate danger should call 911.

To find the domestic violence shelter in your region, visit the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence website at www.ctcadv.org/.

To contact the Greenwich YWCAs 24-hour hotline, dial 203-622-0003.

Dial 888-774-2900 to call the Stamford-based Domestic Violence Crisis Center hotline.

For more advice from experts, click here.

tatiana.flowers@thehour.com
After 9/11, life in America changed in significant ways. Assumptions of our safety and security were shaken to their roots. Our behavior and our beliefs were greatly modified.

Air travel was completely transformed, as well as security measures in our buildings, sporting events, and schools. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its sub-agency, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) were created. Our freedoms and privacy were negatively altered with the introduction of the Patriot Act. Our heightened fear resulted in increased government authority.

What will our post-Wuhan world look like? When we emerge from our erstwhile sanctuaries like nuclear war survivors coming out of their bomb shelters, will everything appear the same, or will it be a barren, post-apocalyptic landscape (metaphorically speaking, of course)? A lot depends on how long our self-imposed national quarantine continues.

We are witnessing another 9/11-esque event, with economic structures crumbling in slow-motion all over the country. When we wander through our towns in the aftermath, many of our favorite shops and restaurants will be gone. Our personal situations, investments, and incomes will be negatively impacted.

No matter what happens at this point, some things will never be the same. For one, we are all transforming into germophobes. This will result in numerous cascading effects in our lives.

Our collective consciousness on personal hygiene and cleanliness has been permanently raised. Most of us are experiencing a heightened awareness and an altered kinetic feedback effect toward shaking hands, touching our face, licking our fingers, and social distancing.

Hand sanitizers will likely be standard accessories in homes and automobiles from this point on into the future. Sanitizing wipes will be used more frequently. Our motor learning reflexes have been re-tuned to urge us to wash our hands more often, especially after touching potentially contaminated objects like public door handles and stair rails.

More people are likely to turn into Monk, the fictional multi-phobic detective on the television series of the same name. Played by Tony Shalhoub, Monk lived in constant fear of germs. He would never get near anything he perceived as dirty or anyone who was sick. If he was forced to shake hands with someone, he would immediately shout for a wipe from his assistant. I thought his behavior was extremely neurotic (and funny), but now Im not so sure.

The Japanese have been culturally programmed on hygiene for generations, particularly in food preparation and serving. Shoes must be removed before entering traditional Japanese restaurant rooms (and hospitals, where sanitized sandals are provided). Contamination of cooking utensils, kitchen areas, and eating surfaces is strictly verboten. I once sat down in a casual airport restaurant in Tokyo, putting my shopping bag on the dining table. You wouldnt believe the horrified looks on the waiters faces as they ran toward me to take the bag off of the table.

Most, if not all Catholic churches no longer share the Blood of Christ communal chalice among the congregants during Mass. The holy water receptacles at church entrances are dry. The shaking of hands after the Apostles Creed has been eliminated and will stay that way. (No loss there. I always hated it when the guy behind me was sneezing and coughing into his hands before the Greeting.)

Social media and video communications are on the rise due to the need for social distancing and to avoid unnecessary travel. This will most likely continue increasing in popularity over personal interactions after the crisis is over.

As a result, the university system in America may face permanent disruption when more students turn to alternate learning platforms. And it will be much harder for professors to spew their leftist propaganda over internet connections, where their indoctrination sessions become more visible. I wont be crying over the downsizing of excessively wealthy leftist-controlled ivy league schools.

This past week, my granddaughter in her school program for three-year-olds had several video classroom sessions in lieu of physical classes. She also went on a virtual class field trip to a butterfly zoo and a virtual play-date with a friend. Next month when she turns four, her parents are planning a virtual birthday party with friends and relatives Skyping in. What a brave new world evolving before our eyes, for better or worse.

Delivery and pick-up services from restaurants and grocery stores will continue to be booming businesses. They are already gaining incredible popularity during this crisis period. Online providers like Amazon are getting swamped with orders as well. Avoiding crowded restaurants and retail stores will increasingly be imprinted into our psyches.

Crowded cities may also be increasingly less desirable habitats, contrary to the wishes of Green New Deal advocates. Their goal is to eliminate private transportation by cramming everyone from the countryside and suburbs into mega-cities. This also includes the homeless, whose unsanitary and disease-spreading presence will be less tolerable.

Unfortunately, as a consequence of this high density living the wealthier residents of NYC are rapidly fleeing like rats from a sinking plague ship to South Florida and the NY Catskills, bringing the contagion with them.

Many are also waking up to the dangerous myth of a perfect world with open borders. Apparently, millions of racists and xenophobes are being spontaneously generated around the globe, as more citizens and their governments become advocates of strong borders. Suddenly all nations, including the states within the EU, are realizing the critical importance of border security in light of pandemic vulnerability. Hopefully the lesson will stick.

My wifes brilliant thought today (no sarcasm intended) was her belief that RVs will become even more popular, as fewer people will want to fly in germ-ridden planes or be exposed to all of the potential foreign contaminants lurking in hotel rooms. Maybe we will need to sell our Hilton stock (like hedge fund manager Bill Ackman recommended in his fear-mongering tirade that tanked the market while he walked away with $2.6 billion), and buy an RV park.

Its a well-known fact that the most germ-infested thing in hotel rooms is the TV remote. For the past several years, I have either cleaned it with a sanitizing wipe or put it into a plastic zip-lock bag before using it. Many hotel rooms now have a sign next to the remote saying it was sanitized, but I dont trust that and I dont think others will, either.

I used to chuckle derisively at media stories of celebrities bringing their own bed sheets. pillowcases, and towels into hotel rooms, but I am re-thinking that dismissive attitude of mine. On our next vacation, we will be bringing our own supply of Lysol to the hotel, if not some of our own linens.

Subtle changes to our collective lifestyle will be all but unnoticeable. The potential downsides of small unsanitary habits and activities that we previously ignored now loom larger in our subconscious. Handling money, licking a finger before turning a page, using a dirty public restroom, even buying a used book or dusty curio from a thrift shop will start triggering a stronger avoidance response in our brains.

Drive-in movie theaters are making a resurgence as people are getting less comfortable in an enclosed theater with a hundred coughing strangers while sitting in a filthy chair with a sticky floor. However, the drive-in movie fad may fade when movie-goers try to use the grotesque rest rooms usually found in those places. Meanwhile, Netflix stock is rising because more families are choosing to stream video while cocooning in their nests.

Public wearing of surgical masks will be more commonplace in America, as they are currently in most Asian countries. Salad bars and buffet restaurants will likely become much less popular, if they continue to exist at all. Diners will not be as enthusiastic about using communal serving spoons at these places. And there will be a lot less tolerance of any unsanitary behavior in public, where coughing on people and licking groceries is now considered an act of terrorism.

There will be many negative consequences in the aftermath. Training ourselves to practice better hygiene in our daily lives may be one of the more desirable and positive outcomes of this Wuhan virus crisis.
SPRINGFIELD  The letters are tilted on the sign Dave Heinzel pounds into to the ground; a heart held on by a screw goes flying off.

The sign reads "Everything will be OK" and Heinzel, a Springfield filmmaker, believes it, even as the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic strengthens.

"It sounds better than 'Everything, after everything gets much, much worse, will be OK,'" Heinzel said.

"People are going to lose people they know (in this pandemic). It's going to get more personal and more painful. But things will get better. There are painful, but beautiful things about change. I'm going to focus on the beautiful things."

The 11-by-32-inch wooden signs, decorated with three-quarter-inch red wooden hearts, have been stealthily springing up in Springfield. They are Heinzel's products from start to finish. Only since he got an order of 200 of the signs, thanks to a post on the Facebook page Springfield Families Helping Families, did he enlist the help of his wife, Hannah, 14-year-old son, Ethan, and 13-year-old daughter, Mia.

Heinzel spent an afternoon last week hand delivering the signs. One of his first stops was at Mary Anne Theyssen home on West Capitol Avenue.

Theyssen's husband, Terry, died on March 2 from heart-related problems. Her next door neighbor, Erika Anne Sheehan, had requested a sign for Theyssen's yard, thinking it would lift her spirits.

"I love it," said Theyssen, standing on her porch and wearing a Santana shirt. "I think we should have them all over. Everything will be OK, eventually. Everyone has their own struggles and problems within this crisis, but sharing hope, optimism and love for each other is so important."

Jay Shanle, who had a sign put in his yard near Washington Park, said he agreed with its message.

"It's uplifting," said Shanle, who is self-isolating with four other family members. "It's going to take some time.

"The one thing I've noticed is the sense of community come back. It's like 9-11, when we put aside our differences and came together. We're going through this together."

The message and the decision to get busy with the sign-making wasn't solely born out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week, Heinzel, who works remotely as a creative technology consultant at the Lombard, Ill.-based Consortium for Educational Change, learned he would be losing his job in mid-summer, though it is unrelated to the health crisis.

Heinzel also has been one of the caretakers for his father who is going through chemotherapy for stage 4 lung cancer. "I have to be careful about going over there (because of the virus)," he said.

Heinzel, who has made short films including "Emily" and "15 to Curtain" but is perhaps best known for the popular web series "The Studio Show," admitted that he "had to do something with my hands" other than have my phone in it.

Ultimately, he wanted the signs to look handmade, not like political signs that came off an assembly line, thus the tilted letters.

"They're all different and have imperfections," Heinzel said.

That's fine with Lindy Wilkinson, a language arts/literature teacher at Southeast High School, who has a sign in the front yard of her Laketown home.

"That's what makes it great, those imperfections," Wilkinson said. "You can't have life be perfect all the time. You have to have some battles."

"Everything will be OK," Wilkinson added "is like a mantra when you're inundated with news headlines and social media posts. It's very chaotic and uncertain on what the next press conference will bring but you take a deep breath and everything will be OK."

"What I love about it," Heinzel said, "is it's short and vague and with the heart, it communicates what it needs to."
Media outlets have published leaked correspondence between Director of the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Artem Sytnyk's subordinates and foreign embassies, suggesting that NABU allegedly systematically leaked classified investigation materials and personal data of lawmakers, while NABU detectives reported on their work to foreign actors.

The Strana news portal has obtained the materials which, according to the media outlet, prove that NABU leaked case files and personal data of Ukrainian lawmakers to embassies of a number of countries, while the agency's detectives visited the embassies with reports on the progress of the investigation. This was reported by the Obozrevatel media outlet.

"Polina Chyzh, chief expert with the NABU Director Support Department, and, in fact, assistant to Sytnyk's Deputy Gizo Uglava, communicates with the embassies and international structures as a NABU representative. She would send reports, classified case files and data on politicians to the embassies. Besides, on behalf of her leadership, Chyzh regularly 'snitched' on other Ukrainian law enforcement agencies," the material of the media outlet says.

Also, the media outlets give an example of such emails, which, according to their information, were received by Maksym Markevych, a member of the IMF mission in Ukraine, through whom NABU contacted head of the IMF mission in Ukraine Ron van Rooden and mission member Emmanuel Mathias.

In these emails, the National Anti-corruption Bureau asks for instructions from the embassy of a foreign state  how to respond to requests from Members of Parliament of Ukraine, the journalists say. These answers are pre-agreed with the embassy's staff. The fact that they are embassy workers could be seen from the email with @ state.gov.

"NABU is extensively sharing documentation with the embassy on the direct instructions of Sytnyk's First Deputy Gizo Uglava," the material says.

In response, the embassy, the journalists write, requests information on cases that interest them:

"It becomes clear from the emails that NABU detectives visit the embassy either to consult or to report on the cases that they are investigating.

The correspondence mentions 'Matt,' who gave instructions to forward information to the detectives who are probing the Ukrzaliznytsia case. This is Matthew Thoresen, who at that time worked as Senior Criminal Justice Adviser for the U.S. Embassy's International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Section," the material of the media outlet says.

Moreover, detectives allegedly submit reports to the embassy, fill out questionnaires. As the media outlets conclude from the correspondence published by them, the embassy sets clear deadlines and writes that it will call the detectives for reporting.

"The cases that are of interest to the United States are proceedings against MP [Mykola] Martynenko, the Ukrzaliznytsia case, ex-Minister of Ecology [Mykola] Zlochevsky (connected with the case of Joe Biden's son)," the journalists say.

"NABU also shares lawmakers' personal data  for example, the address of MP Mykola Martynenko's actual residence (it was redacted by the media before publication)," the media outlets summed up.

It should be noted that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is currently considering a draft decision on Artem Sytnyk's dismissal, which was signed by 216 MPs, and two draft amendments to existing legislation that relate directly to the removal of the NABU director. The lawmakers consider the fact that the NABU director was included in the official register of corrupt officials, which is kept by the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), and the Bureau's poor performance in the fight against corrupt officials are grounds for his dismissal.
MLAs in Odisha Assembly on



Monday wore masks to attend the concluding day of the budget session, in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

The law makers were also seen washing their hands before entering Lok Seva Bhawan at the state secretariat, where the House proceedings are being held.

The session is being held at the Convention Centre within the premises of Lok Seva Bhawan, instead of the Assembly building as Odishas third COVID-19 patient was found to have come in contact with seven employees of the Assembly secretariat.

This is for the first time in last six decades that the House proceedings are being held outside the Assembly building.

The entire Assembly building has been sanitised and all the staff members have been sent on home-quarantine.

As Speaker S N Patro had earlier requested leaders of all the political parties to send only 30 per cent of their legislators to attend the session in Lok Seva Bhawan, about 50 MLAs were present in the House.

In order to maintain social distancing norms, the legislators were provided seats at least two metres apart from each other.

The Odisha Aapropriation Bill, 2020 is slated to be passed in the Assembly which is to be presented by state Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari.

The Assembly had suspended its proceedings on March 13 in the wake of coronavirus outbreak.

Opposition BJP leaders have demanded an all-party meet to discuss the states preparedness to deal with the novel coronavirus pandemic.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Bank (MNB) has called on banks and other financial institutions to keep their branches open for business to allow personal administration during the period of curfew restrictions.

The MNB said financial institutions could set shorter opening hours on the basis of actual customer service needs. If demand increases for personal services, normal hours should be restored, it added.



The National Bank also recommended the designation of certain banking hours for elderly clients. Takarekbank announced over the weekend that it recommends customers younger than 65 years of age to visit branches only after 10 a.m.

MTI Photo: Attila Kovacs
INDIANAPOLIS -- An editorial challenges physicians and the U.S. healthcare system to reconsider the current "one size fits all" care for diverticulitis and to employ a precision medicine approach to determine which patients should be referred for colonoscopy.

The editorial, by Regenstrief Institute research scientist Thomas F. Imperiale, M.D., the Lawrence Lumeng Professor of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Eddie Krajicek, M.D., a fellow in gastroenterology, both at Indiana University School of Medicine, highlights what they term "sign posts" to support individualized decision-making and strongly recommends their use.

"While national guidelines equivocate, conventional care is to refer all individuals with diverticulitis for a colonoscopy," said Dr. Imperiale, who is a practicing gastroenterologist. "But employing the tools of health information technology, we can and should consider sign posts - such as the specific nature of the diverticulitis episode, preceding changes in bowel habit or other symptoms, personal and family medical histories, the dates and findings of previous colonoscopies - before making a decision to refer the patient for colonoscopy.

"While an episode of diverticulitis may be a sentinel event that brings someone who may have been avoiding routine screening into the doctor's office and subsequently gets them into the colonoscopy suite, many patients who are automatically referred for a colonoscopy may not need one, which wastes colonoscopy resources. Taking a personalized, precision medicine approach uses healthcare resources wisely and provides better patient care," he said.

If a patient's primary care physician orders a colonoscopy without first asking sign post questions, Dr. Imperiale encourages patients to start a discussion to determine if colonoscopy is necessary.

The editorial, "Colonoscopy After Acute Diverticulitis: From Clinical Epidemiology to Clinical Management. Are We There Yet?" is published in the peer-reviewed journal Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.

What is diverticulitis?

Diverticulitis may follow diverticulosis, one of the most common medical conditions in the United States and other developed countries. Diverticulosis is a condition in which small pouches form and push outward through weak spots in the wall of the colon, the final portion of the intestinal tract. According to the National Institutes of Health, diverticulosis exists in about a third of U.S. adults age 50 or younger and more than half of people older than age 60. When one or more of these pouches becomes inflamed, the condition is called diverticulitis, which causes abdominal pain, usually with fever. A computed tomography (CT) scan of the abdomen is used to diagnose diverticulitis. There is no clear cause and effect relationship between diverticulitis and colon cancer.

###

About Regenstrief Institute

Founded in 1969 in Indianapolis, the Regenstrief Institute is a local, national and global leader dedicated to a world where better information empowers people to end disease and realize true health. A key research partner to Indiana University, Regenstrief and its researchers are responsible for a growing number of major healthcare innovations and studies. Examples range from the development of global health information technology standards that enable the use and interoperability of electronic health records to improving patient-physician communications, to creating models of care that inform practice and improve the lives of patients around the globe.

Regenstrief Institute is celebrating 50 years of healthcare innovation. Sam Regenstrief, a successful entrepreneur from Connersville, Indiana, founded the institute with the goal of making healthcare more efficient and accessible for everyone. His vision continues to guide the institute's research mission.

About IU School of Medicine

IU School of Medicine is the largest medical school in the U.S. and is annually ranked among the top medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. The school offers high-quality medical education, access to leading medical research and rich campus life in nine Indiana cities, including rural and urban locations consistently recognized for livability.

About Thomas F. Imperiale, M.D.

In addition to his Regenstrief and IU School of Medicine appointments, Dr. Imperiale is a core investigator with the VA HSR&D Center for Health Information and Communication at the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center and a member of the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center. He is also a practicing gastroenterologist whose clinical responsibilities include performing colonoscopies.
A 25-year-old Boston man is accused of using a box cutter to slash another man Sunday night in Back Bay, according to police.

Officers responded around 6:45 p.m. to a report of a person stabbed near the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Newbury Street, the Boston Police Department said in a statement.

Three men were in a argument when police arrived. One of the alleged victims had a laceration on the back of his neck, according to police.

The officers spoke to the victims who stated that the suspect had approached them and produced a yellow box cutter which he then used to cut the injured victim before threatening to harm the second victim, the statement said.

The injured man was treated at the scene scene by Boston EMS, but he refused further medical attention, according to the statement.

Police identified the suspect as Gary Dumas II and placed him under arrest. Officers discovered the box cutter in his pants pocket, according to police.

Dumas was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault with a dangerous weapon.
"While the digital business remains open, we have lost the majority of our sales due to the store closures," Macy's said in the release. "Weve already taken measures to maintain financial flexibility, including suspending the dividend, drawing down our line of credit, freezing both hiring and spending, stopping capital spend, reducing receipts, cancelling some orders and extending payment terms, and we are evaluating all other financing options."

When business resumes, the company said it would bring its workers back on a staggered basis.

Kohl's, which has stores in Highland, Hobart, Valparaiso, Portage, Michigan City and Crete, also announced Monday it was furloughing 85,000 employees nationally. The Wisconsin-based retailer paid them for two weeks after shuttering its stores, but said its stores will now stay closed indefinitely until they're deemed safe to open.

It will continue to provide health insurance to its furloughed workers.
The Syrian regime has announced a total ban on all travel between governorates, in an effort to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus reports Sowt Al-Asima.

On Sunday, the Syrian regime government, issued a decision banning citizens completely from moving between Syrian governorates as part of precautionary measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

According to the cabinet Facebook post, the decision will be applied from 6pm on Tuesday until Apr. 16, 2020, with the Interior Ministry to provide executive instructions for its implementation.

The regimes SANA news agency said that the decision exempts, all actors excluded from the curfew measures to ensure the continuation of work in service and health institutions and the productive sector, as well as humanitarian cases, and securing basic goods for citizens, as well as vehicles transporting food supplies, vegetables, and oil products, meaning that they are the categories exempted from the previous curfew decision, which stipulated the isolation of governorate centers from cities and towns of the countryside.

The previous curfew allowed a number of categories of people, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists, to move freely, as well as emergency workers and civil defense, as well as national media agencies on the condition that they show their union card. Members of the army, security forces, political parties, and diplomatic missions and international organizations, as well as those on tasks from governorates or ministries, as well as Red Cross members and volunteer teams, on the condition that there is an official mission, were permitted to move.

The decision also exempted cars carrying foodstuffs, vegetables and fruits, without needing any permit, according to the Interior Minister Mohamed Rahmoun, who said that employees in government departments needed to obtain permission from the, entity responsible for them if their work required them to go to the countryside or the governorates, with the citizen getting permission from the concerned governor or minister.

The prime minister issued a decision earlier, stipulating a partial curfew, starting from Mar. 25, 2020, until further notice. The Ministry of Interior was tasked with taking measures to implement the ban, for the specified period, with the governor and police chief in each governorate concerned with implementation on the ground and imposing penalties against violators. The Ministry of Internal Trade and Ministry of Local Administration were tasked with securing bread in all regions and neighborhoods through mobile cars accredited and under the direct supervision of the administrative unit, in order to prevent gatherings.

On the first day of the partial curfews implementation, members of the police of the Ministry of the Interior arrested 153 people in various Syrian governorates for violating the curfew, which was applied between the hours of 6pm until 6am. They are expected to face a prison sentence ranging from between six months to three years, with fine ranging between 50,000 and 500,000 Syrian pounds.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
Scott Morrison has announced an extraordinary plan to pay the wages of six million Australians for the next six months.

Workers at companies hit by the coronavirus shut down will be paid a flat rate of $1,500 per fortnight.

The money will be given from the tax office to the companies, who have a legal obligation to pass it on to their employees.

The $130 billion scheme is designed to keep workers connected to their employers so the economy will rebound faster when the coronavirus crisis is over.

Scott Morrison has announced a plan to pay thousands of Australians' wages to stop more workers being sacked due to the coronavirus shut down

How does the wage scheme work? Payments via the ATO will be made to businesses, sole traders and not-for-profit organisations whose revenues decrease by 30 per cent or more due to the coronavirus fallout. The employer will get $1,500 per fortnight for each employee and must legally pass the payment to their workers. The payment will go to full-time workers, part-time workers and casual workers who have been employed by a company for 12 months, regardless of how many shifts they worked. The policy will apply to workers that have already been stood down, provided they were on their employer's books on March 1. Advertisement

The flat-rate payment is about 70 per cent of the median wage and is roughly equal to the median wage in the industries most affected such as hospitality and tourism.

The payment will go to full-time workers, part-time workers and casual workers who have been employed by a company for 12 months, regardless of how many shifts they worked.

The policy will apply to workers that have already been stood down, provided they were on their employer's books on March 1.

The scheme is part of the government's third round of measures to shore up the economy as officials urge people to stay at home to slow the spread of coronavirus.

In total, the the three relief packages amount to more than $320billion, or 16.4 per cent of GDP.

'We want to keep the economy running through this crisis, it may run in idle for some time, but it must run,' Mr Morrison said.

'We will give millions of eligible businesses and their workers a lifeline to not only get through this crisis, but bounce back together on the other side,' he added.

The payments via the ATO will be made to businesses, sole traders and not-for-profit organisations whose revenues decrease by 30 per cent or more due to the coronavirus fallout.

People queue to enter Centrelink on March 24, 2020 in Melbourne as thousands of jobs were axed

On Monday, travellers were pictured enjoying world-class views at the Crown Promenade (above) after they were forced into quarantine for two weeks after returning from overseas

Any business that turns over more than $1 billion will have to prove revenues are down 50 per cent to be eligible.

The payments will go to businesses from May 1 and will be backdated to today. Companies have a legal obligation to pass the money on to their employees.

New Zealanders on 444 visas will be eligible for the JobKeeper payments even though they do not normally get welfare - but other workers on temporary visas do not qualify.

Mr Morrison advised Australians who have been stood down to call their employer to see if they are part of the scheme.

Australians can only receive one of Centrelink's JobSeeker payment or the government's JobKeeper payment.

The scheme is inspired by similar policies in the UK, Canada and New Zealand.

What do business owners have to do to get the payment? To receive the JobKeeper Payment, employers must:  Register an intention to apply on the ATO website and assess that they have or will experience the required turnover decline.  Provide information to the ATO on eligible employees. This includes information on the number of eligible employees engaged as at 1 March 2020 and those currently employed by the business (including those stood down or rehired). For most businesses, the ATO will use Single Touch Payroll data to pre-populate the employee details for the business.  Ensure that each eligible employee receives at least $1,500 per fortnight (before tax). For employees that were already receiving this amount from the employer then their income will not change. For employees that have been receiving less than this amount, the employer will need to top up the payment to the employee up to $1,500, before tax. And for those employees earning more than this amount, the employer is able to provide them with a top-up.  Notify all eligible employees that they are receiving the JobKeeper Payment.  Continue to provide information to the ATO on a monthly basis, including the number of eligible employees employed by the business. Source: Treasury Advertisement

The policy has been broadly welcomed but critics said the payment is too little and should also apply to 1 million workers on temporary visas, some of whom have lost their jobs but are stuck in Australia due to flights being cancelled.

Parliament will be briefly recalled next week with a minimum of 31 MPs to pass the measure. The Labor Party has indicated they will support the legislation.

Mr Morrison also announced that the income test for the JobSeeker payment has changed to allow people to apply if their partners earn up to $80,000 instead of $48,000.

Earlier today it was announced two people in their 80s died of coronavirus in Tasmania and Canberra, taking the national death toll to 18 as the case total soared past 4,000.

Meanwhile, states and territories moved to enforce severe restrictions to slow the spread of the deadly virus, which has killed 33,000 globally.

From midnight, people who gather in groups bigger than two in New South Wales face a $1,000 fine.

Repeat offenders can even face six months in jail under the Public Health Act.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said on Monday morning that he was prepared to be lenient over the new laws.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

'We don't want to have to enforce these laws. We want to work with you,' he said.

He also announced that 1,200 Australians arriving from overseas today will be quarantined in hotels for two weeks to slow the spread of the virus.

On Sunday, 1,400 Australians arrived and were taken to hotels by the Army.

Victorians who are caught with more than one other person except immediate family will be slapped with a $1,652 on the spot fine from Tuesday.

'If you are having friends over for dinner or friends over for drinks that are not members of your household, then you are breaking the law,' Premier Andrews said.

'If we allow our health system to be overrun, then people will die. That is just a price that is just not worth paying. No gathering with friends is worth someone's life,' he warned.

New South Wales saw 127 new cases in the past 24 hours.

In the 24 hours to Saturday morning there were 212 new cases and on Sunday morning 174 new cases were announced, meaning the rate of infection appears to be declining due to the restrictions.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian urged Australians over 70 to stay at home.

She said: 'If you are over 70 you shouldn't leave home at all. I know this is difficult and I appreciate that for some parts of the day, people might want to get out and exercise.

'That is OK, so long as you don't come into contact with anybody else.

'This disease, this virus is particularly - has a horrible impact on those who are older and vulnerable and it is time for us to protect the most vulnerable in the community.

'Can I stress please take care of each other and make sure people over 70 are not leaving their homes and make sure they have support.'
By Timothy Gardner and Darya Korsunskaya

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed during a phone call on Monday to have their top energy officials discuss slumping global oil markets, the Kremlin said, as Trump called Russia's price war with Saudi Arabia "crazy."

The agreement marks a new twist in global oil diplomacy since a failed deal earlier this month between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia to cut production ignited the price war between Russia and OPEC's de facto leader Saudi Arabia.

The fallout from the coronavirus pandemic also helped to send oil prices into a historic tailspin, threatening higher-cost drillers in the United States and around the globe with bankruptcy.

"Opinions on the current state of global oil markets were exchanged. It was agreed there would be Russo-American consultations about this through the ministers of energy," the Kremlin said in a readout of the call.

White House spokesman Judd Deere said the two leaders had agreed on the importance of stability in global energy markets. U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette will talk with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak about "ways the worlds largest producers can address volatility in the global oil markets," Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said.

The Kremlin did not say what exactly the ministers would discuss, but Moscow has previously signaled it would like to see more countries joining efforts to balance global oil markets.

Shortly before Monday's phone call, Trump said Saudi Arabia and Russia "both went crazy" in their oil-price war and that "I never thought I'd be saying that maybe we have to have an oil (price) increase, because we do."

"The price is so low now they're fighting like crazy over, over distribution and over how many barrels to let go," Trump said in an interview on Fox News.

Story continues

The United States has grown in recent years into the world's largest oil and gas producer, thanks to a technology-driven shale drilling boom. But the current price of oil is below the production cost of many American drillers.

That has threatened the highly leveraged U.S. shale industry.

"We don't want to have a dead industry that's wiped out," Trump said in the interview. "It's bad for them, bad for everybody. This is a fight between Saudi Arabia and Russia having to do with how many barrels to let out. And they both went crazy, they both went crazy."

Goldman Sachs analysts said that oil demand from commuters and airlines, which account for about 16 million barrels per day of global consumption, may never return to their previous levels.

Oil prices fell on Monday, with U.S. crude future <CLc1> dropping below $20 a barrel and international benchmark Brent <LCOc1> falling to 18-year lows.

The Trump administration is also seeking to persuade the world's top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, to cut crude output, and will soon send a special energy envoy, Victoria Coates, to the kingdom.

In addition to oil and the pandemic, Trump said he and Putin would talk about trade and sanctions the United States has imposed on Russia.

After Washington imposed sanctions on two units of Russia's largest oil producer Rosneft <ROSN.MM> in Venezuela, the company said on Saturday it had sold the assets to an unnamed company owned by the Russian government.

The change of ownership means any future U.S. sanctions on Russian-controlled oil operations in Venezuela would target the Russian government directly. The Trump administration had accused Rosneft of providing a financial lifeline to Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, a socialist. Washington recognises opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country's legitimate interim president.

Late last year, Washington slapped sanctions on Russia's Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, halting work on the project weeks before it was expected to be finished. Russia says the pipeline will be completed eventually. But the delay could allow increased competition for gas markets in Europe, where the United States is eager to export more liquefied natural gas.

Trump said in the Fox interview that Putin has been asking over the last two years for the sanctions to be lifted and probably would do so on the call. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Trump's claim that Putin had made the requests over the course of the past two years, the TASS news agency said in a report.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington and Darya Korsunskaya in Moscow; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Diane Bartz, Doina Chiacu and Lisa Lambert in Washington and Polina Ivanova in Moscow; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Jonathan Oatis, Marguerita Choy and Cynthia Osterman)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 19:15:19|Editor: yhy

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COLOMBO, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Plantation Ministry on Monday said it is aiming to revive its regular tea auctions in a bid to reduce the impact on the country's tea exports due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, local media reported.

Plantations Minister Ramesh Pathirana told the media that the tea industry has suffered a setback during the past few weeks with some of the workers affected seriously without wages.

Sri Lanka has remained under a countrywide curfew since March 20.

Pathirana said that plans, however, were underway to get the auction revived by this week so that tea exporters could obtain their tea stocks to export into the global market.

Sri Lanka's tea export industry is one of the country's leading foreign exchange earners with the country earning over 1 billion U.S. dollars from its exports last year.

According to statistics from the Sri Lanka Tea Board, the country last year exported a record 11.8 million kg of tea to China as China is among the top 10 export destinations for Sri Lankan tea.
Russias Rosneft has canceled VLCC cargoes scheduled to carry 5.7 million barrels of Venezuelan oil because of U.S. sanctions, Reuters reports, citing data from PdVSA, and shipping data from Refinitiv Eikon.

The cargoes, according to the data, would have been delivered to Asia.

Earlier this year, Washington announced sanctions on Rosnefts Swiss-based trading arm as part of its attempts to cut off all revenue streams to the Maduro government in Caracas. The U.S. has signaled it is ready to continue to tighten the noose around the Venezuelan government.

Separately, Rosneft announced a surprise move: it will be pulling out of Venezuela, selling its assets there to a state-owned Russian company.

Today Rosneft concluded an agreement with the company 100% owned by the Government of Russian Federation, to sell all of its interest and cease participation in its Venezuelan businesses, including joint ventures of Petromonagas, Petroperija, Boqueron, Petromiranda and Petrovictoria, as well as oil-field services companies, commercial and trading operations, the state giant said in a press release on Saturday.

The move appears to serve a way to shield Rosneft from U.S. punitive actions related to the enforcement of sanctions, and according to the Venezuelan president, a sign of the continued support for his government on the part of Moscow.

Right now, Russia is not the only voice in support of Venezuela. The coronavirus has hit hard the South American country, and there have been calls from politicians in the United States and abroad for Washington to ease the sanctions.

Its absolutely unconscionable to keep sanctions on at this moment, the AP quoted Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, as saying.

The only moral, sane and legal thing to do is stop the madness that is crippling other countries health systems.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Singapore

(Reuters) - Countries affected by the novel coronavirus entered another week of strict quarantine and several nations introduced new economic stimulus to aid citizens and companies hit by the pandemic.

DEATHS, INFECTIONS

** More than 738,500 people have been infected across the world and about 35,000 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

** For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.

** U.S.-focused tracker with state-by-state and county map, open https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T in an external browser.

EUROPE

** Italy's government said it would extend its nationwide lockdown measures against a coronavirus outbreak at least until the Easter season in April.

** The British prime minister's senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, is self-isolating with symptoms just days after the British leader himself tested positive.

** France recorded its worst daily coronavirus death toll on Monday, exceeding 3,000 for the first time, and army helicopters transported critical patients from the east to hospitals overseas.

** More than a dozen Russian regions including the city of St Petersburg introduced a partial lockdown.

** Finland will extend most of its measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak by one month until May 13 from April 13.

** Denmark may gradually lift a lockdown after Easter if the numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths remain stable.

** Spain overtook China in the number of those infected with coronavirus.

** Germany hopes to launch a Singapore-style smartphone app within weeks to help trace infections.

** Hungary's prime minister has secured open-ended emergency powers to fight the outbreak.

AMERICAS

** People cheered the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort as it sailed into New York, a beacon of the national effort to stanch the coronavirus outbreak at its U.S. epicenter as the number of cases soared.

** The U.S. government has cut deals with Johnson & Johnson and Moderna Inc and said it is in talks with at least two other firms to expand manufacturing capacity within the United States for coronavirus vaccines.

Story continues

** Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro stepped up his stand-off with state governments by suggesting that democracy could be at risk if the coronavirus crisis leads to social chaos.

** Colombia's ELN guerrillas declared a unilateral cease-fire for one month from April 1 in an effort to help stem the spread.

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

** China will step up prevention and control of asymptomatic coronavirus cases, state media reported.

** Police in India fired tear gas to disperse a stone-pelting crowd of migrant workers defying a three-week lockdown against the coronavirus that has left hundreds of thousands of poor without jobs and hungry.

** Tokyo's governor called on residents to avoid outings, but said it was up to Prime Minister to declare a state of emergency.

** The World Health Organization has not shared with member states information Taiwan provided including details on its cases and prevention methods, its foreign ministry said.

** Vietnam suspended public transport services.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

** Iran had 117 new coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours, prompting the Middle East's worst hit country to consider tougher curbs.

** Saudi Arabia will finance treatment for anyone infected with the coronavirus in the country, the health minister said, while the agriculture ministry took steps to boost wheat and livestock supplies.

** An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tested positive but initial findings indicate she had not posed an infection risk to the 70-year-old leader.

** Zimbabwe began a 21-day nationwide lockdown, following neighbour South Africa in implementing some of the world's toughest anti-coronavirus measures likely to hurt an economy already suffering hyperinflation and food shortages.

ECONOMIC FALLOUT

** Global stocks rose on Monday despite a drop in oil prices to their lowest levels since 2002, as central banks and the United States tried to contain damage from the coronavirus that has upended the world economy. [MKTS/GLOB]

** Trade ministers from the Group of 20 major economies agreed on Monday to keep their markets open and ensure the continued flow of vital medical supplies, equipment and other essential goods.

** The International Monetary Fund said relaxing the euro zone's fiscal rules and support from the European Central Bank and European Stability Mechanism is critical to a strong regional response.

** Banks across the euro zone are ditching dividends to shore up reserves as the outbreak threatens to tip the world into a deep recession.

** Israel will spend 80 billion shekels ($22 billion) to help the economy weather the coronavirus crisis.

** Switzerland may have to expand its emergency fund for companies after banks loaned out $6.89 billion in the first four days of the scheme.

* Peru is readying a stimulus package worth around 12% of its gross domestic product.

* The outbreak will push Germany into recession in the first half of this year and could result in its output contracting by up to 5.4% this year.

** Collapsing oil prices are costing some OPEC members not only lost revenue when they most need it to tackle the coronavirus crisis, but also market share they may never recoup.

** South Korea will make emergency cash payments to all but the richest families and draw up a second supplementary budget next month.

** Nigeria's currency eased to 415 naira per dollar on the black market on Monday after its president ordered a lockdown of two of the country's biggest cities.

** Singapore's central bank aggressively eased its monetary policy, with the city-state's economy bracing for a deep recession.

(Compiled by Sarah Morland, Milla Nissi and Aditya Soni; Editing by Tomasz Janowski, William Maclean, Sriraj Kalluvila)
Bank of Ireland and AIB have withdrawn plans to pay a final dividend to shareholders in respect of last year.

It comes after the European Central Bank last week asked banks not to pay dividends to shareholders or buy back their own shares until at least October, including in respect of last years profits.

The State has a 71pc stake in AIB, which had proposed paying a 217m dividend this year.

The ECB wants banks to focused resources on funding for households, small businesses and corporations.

Meanwhile, Bank of Ireland said it expects the coronavirus to have a material impact on the group's performance this year.

The full-year outlook that it provided in February should therefore no longer be considered current in these circumstances, the bank said in a statement.

It will provide a further information in its first quarter trading update.

Elsewhere, AIB said it will conduct its AGM on 29 April via a live conference call from the bank's headquarters in Dublin 2.

Colin Hunt, AIB chief executive, said the bank is strongly capitalised and well positioned to support the Irish economy and our customers at this critical time.

KBC Bank also today announced it is withdrawing its final dividend over 2019 profit and cancelling its proposed share buy-back.


Scientists have studied an ancient fish that, they say, shows the early origins of the bone structures found in the human hand.

The discovery was made by researchers who examined a nearly complete fossil of a fish that lived about 380 million years ago. The fish, called Elpistostege watsoni, is believed to have lived in waters in what is now eastern Canada.

The researchers say their findings provide new information about the way fish began to develop into vertebrates that could survive on land. The team of scientists from Australia and Canada reported their research in a study published in Nature.

Inside the top of Elpistosteges front fins - called pectoral fins - were small bones appearing in several separate digits: an early form of fingers. These digits would have given the fishs fin the strength to hold its weight and to move on land.

Richard Cloutier of Canadas Universite du Quebec a Rimouski is a paleontologist who helped lead the research. He told Reuters news agency the discovery shows clear links between the development of Elpistostege and human evolution.

By looking at Elpistostege, it is important to realize that we, as human beings, are coming from a long line of evolution, that every part of our body, like our fingers, has a long evolutionary history, Cloutier said.

He added that such development was not only important for Homo sapiens  the species of human that exists today  but for all living organisms.

The four-legged land animals that evolved from fish like Elpistostege are called tetrapods, a group that covers amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, including humans. The digits of the thousands of living species of tetrapods all share the same basic structures that scientists found in Elpistostege.

The researchers used computerized image technology to examine the 1.6 meter-long fossil. The results showed upper and lower parts of a complete pectoral fin for the first time in any Elpistostege fish, the team reported.

The process also showed the formation of wrist bones and divided digits. The digits were still contained within the fin, however, so they could not move independently like fingers, the researchers said.

Elpistosteges body was similar to a crocodile and the animal lived mainly in water. It had a flat head, with eyes at the top and many teeth around the jaw area. Its body was thin, with well-developed fins.

It is unclear whether Elpistostege sometimes moved on land. But the structure of its fins would have made this possible, said study co-writer John Long of Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia.

This finding pushes back the origin of digits in vertebrates to the fish level, Long said in a statement. And tells us that the patterning for the vertebrate hand was first developed deep in evolution, just before fishes left the water.

Elpistostege was known only from fossil parts until the complete set of bones was found in Canadas Miguasha National Park in 2010.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from Reuters, Nature and Flinders University. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

Quiz - Scientists Say an Ancient Fish First Developed Bones Found in the Human Hand Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

origin  n. where something begins or comes from

fossil  n. part of an animal or plant from thousands of years ago, preserved in rock

vertebrate  n. having a spine

fin  n. a thin part that sticks out from a fishs body to help with movement

evolution  n. the way in which living things gradually change and develop over millions of years

species  n. a set of plants or animals in which the members have similar characteristics to each other and can breed with each other

amphibian  n. an animal that lives both on land and in water

pattern  n. a particular way something is done, is organized or happens

jaw n. the lower bone of the head where teeth grow
Migrant workers walk on NH 24 near Akshardham in East Delhi to go to their villages in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. (PTI)

New Delhi: As India entered Day 5 of a 21-day lockdown, eight more Covid-19 deaths were reported from six states, taking the toll to 27 on Sunday.

On the positive side, of the 1,024 active cases, 95 patients have been cured and discharged. However, the spread of the highly contagious virus has more than doubled  from 75 districts to 160  in the last six days.

And 106 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours.

In a bid to stop community transmission of the virus, the central government has ordered the sealing of state and district borders across India to discourage the movement of migrant workers, many thousands of whom have set out to return to their villages after the lockdown left them jobless.

The Centre said Sunday that all those violating the lockdown restrictions will be sent to 14-day quarantine. States have been directed to allow only the movement of essential commodities and stop peoples movement on highways or across cities.

The Prime Ministers Office (PMO) has constituted 11 high-level committees to suggest measures to ramp up healthcare, put the economy back on track, and minimize the pain of people as quickly as possible.

So far, Maharashtra has reported six deaths, Gujarat five, Karnataka three, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir two each; and Kerala, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Punjab, West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh have reported one each.

With 203 cases, Maharashtra is the state worst hit by Covid-19, followed by Kerala with 182. In Telangana, the number rose to 66, including 10 foreigners, while Karnataka has reported 76 cases. In Tamil Nadu 50 people, including six foreigners, have tested positive.

Here's the the statewise breakup of corona+ cases:

Maharashtra: 203

Kerala: 182

Telangana: 66 (10 foreigners)

Karnataka: 76

Tamil Nadu: 50 (six foreigners)

Rajasthan: 55 (two foreigners)

Uttar Pradesh: 65 (one foreigner)

Gujarat: 58 (1 foreigner)

Delhi: 72

Punjab: 38

Haryana: 33 (14 foreigners)

Madhya Pradesh: 30

Jammu & Kashmir: 31

West Bengal: 18

Andhra Pradesh: 19

Ladakh: 13

Bihar: 11

Chandigarh: 8

Chhattisgarh: 7

Uttarakhand: 7 (one foreigner)

Himachal Pradesh: 3

Odisha: 3

Andaman & Nicobar: 9

Goa: 5

Puducherry: 1

Mizoram: 1

Manipur: 1

On Sunday, the Centre issued fresh directions to all states and Union territories to strictly enforce the three-week lockdown. During a video conference with chief secretaries and DGPs, cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba and Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla directed that district magistrates and SPs should be made personally responsible for the implementation of the lockdown.

The two top central officials told the chiefs of police and civil administrations of all states to make adequate arrangements for food and shelter for poor and needy people, including migrant workers at their place of work. The central government has already issued orders allowing the use of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) funds for this purpose.

The states have been told to ensure the timely payment of wages to workers at their place of work during the lockdown without any cut.

They have been directed to ensure that even house rent is not demanded from labourers for this period. They have also sought action against anyone who asks labourers or students to vacate their homes.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said that cargo flights will be used exclusively for transporting medical equipment and emergency goods, besides other essential items to the northeastern states, in the wake of the countrywide lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak.
By AFP

LONDON: Life in locked-down Britain may not return to normal for six months or longer as it battles the coronavirus outbreak, a top health official warned on Sunday, as the death toll reached passed 1,200.

Deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries said it would take two or three weeks to assess the impact of the current rules for people to stay at home wherever possible to limit the spread of COVID-19.

"If we are successful, we will have squashed the top of that (infection) curve, which is brilliant," she told the government's daily news conference.

"But we must not then suddenly revert to our normal way of living -- that would be quite dangerous. If we stop then, all of our efforts would be wasted and we could potentially see a second peak."

She said measures to contain the virus would be reviewed every three weeks, "probably over the next six months" or even longer -- but stressed that did not necessarily mean a full lockdown for that long.

"Gradually we will be able to hopefully adjust some of the social distancing measures and gradually get us all back to normal," Harries said.

Britain has been on lockdown for a week, with non-essential shops and services closed and people told to stay at home except for daily exercise, to get groceries or help vulnerable people.

The measure was introduced amid fears the virus was spreading more rapidly than expected.

New figures on Sunday revealed that 1,228 people with coronavirus have now died in Britain -- an increase of 209 on the previous 24 hours.

FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES HERE

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is among more than 19,500 people who have tested positive for COVID-19.

He is currently holed up in his flat above his Downing Street office, but officials say he has mild symptoms and remains "fully in charge".

Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London, one of the epidemiologists advising the government, told the Sunday Times he believed the lockdown could last until "the end of May, maybe even early June".

Expect more deaths

In a video posted on his Twitter account, Johnson thanked health workers, pharmacists and shop workers still working during the shutdown -- and the 20,000 doctors and nurses who had returned to work during the crisis.

Another 750,000 had stepped forward to volunteer to do other work in the fight to contain the virus, he said.

Johnson also thanked those people respecting the new restrictions.

"By delaying the spread of the disease we can reduce the pressure on our NHS (National Health Service), and that's how we hope to save many thousands of lives," he tweeted.

In a leaflet being sent to more than 30 million British households in the coming days, Johnson warns that "things will get worse before they get better".

"The more we all follow the rules, the fewer lives will be lost and the sooner life can return to normal," the prime minister wrote.

But he added: "We will not hesitate to go further if that is what the scientific and medical advice tells us we must do."

Harries also warned that the death toll would continue to rise until the lockdown started to have an effect.

"We actually anticipate that our numbers will get worse over the next week, possibly two," she said, but should then fall.

A top ear, nose and throat surgeon was on Sunday named as one of the victims of coronavirus.

Amged El-Hawrani, 55, died in hospital in Leicester in central England. His family said he was a "loving and much-loved husband, son, father, brother and friend".

Separately, senior government minister Michael Gove accused China, where coronavirus first emerged, of failing to alert the world as to its severity.

"Some of the (early) reporting from China was not clear about the scale, the nature, the infectiousness of this," he told BBC television.
Uttarakhands first Covid-19 patient, a trainee Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer tested positive again after testing negative last week, officials said.

After the test results appeared positive he was again shifted to the isolation ward in Doon Hospital and kept under observation. After initial treatment, he had tested negative in the first test which was done last week.

Dr Dinesh Chauhan, additional chief medical officer of Dehradun said that the trainee IFS officer would have been discharged from the hospital if two consecutive tests showed negative after treatment, but he tested positive the second time.

The first Covid-19 patient of Uttarakhand tested positive in the second test after treatment on Sunday. His health is stable and he is being kept under observation. Two more trainee IFS officers who had also tested positive earlier were discharged after they tested negative in two consecutive tests, said Dr Chauhan.

According to the World Health Organisations standards, a positive case of Covid-19 is said to be healthy if test results come out to be negative at least twice.

On March 15, the first positive case of Covid-19 was confirmed in the state. The 26-year-old trainee Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer was confirmed positive after he recently returned from a tour of Finland, Russia and Spain. He was part of a group of 62 trainee IFS officers who had visited these countries for an educational tour.

The trainer officer had been quarantined at a health centre at the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy Dehradun and was later shifted to the government-run Doon Medical College Hospital in the state.
People who are in isolation and under observation will be monitored via the Internet

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has supported the initiative of Minister of Health Illya Yemets to strengthen the quarantine measures across the country. The corresponding decision was made at the governments extraordinary meeting, the press service of the Healthcare Ministry reports.

"We must protect Ukrainians. I save lives all my life and now I will do my best so that as few of our fellow citizens as possible are affected by the coronavirus. We must act quickly and decisively," Yemets said.

The adopted resolution stipulates that persons who have had contact with an infected coronavirus or are infected with Covid-19 and do not require hospitalization are obliged to adhere to the self-isolation regime to prevent the spread of the disease.

As we reported earlier, as of 22:00, on March 29, the number of coronavirus infected people in Ukraine reached 475 people.

Overall, 710 918 cases of coronavirus were recorded in the world. Of these, more than 33 551 people died, and 148 900 people recovered.
Israel is taking advantage of the COVID-19 crisis to take more Palestinian land, but the Palestinians will resist.

Forty-four years ago today, the Israeli police shot six Palestinian citizens of Israel dead as they were protesting against the Israeli governments expropriation of thousands of acres of Palestinian land in the Galilee. Since then, March 30 has been known as Land Day and is an important date in the Palestinian political calendar.

This year, Palestinians will be marking Land Day at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has left much of the worlds populations under lockdown and curfew. Being confined to their homes or their villages and towns is not a new experience for Palestinians which is perhaps why so many have taken it in their stride.

Indeed, Palestinians in the West Bank are confined to what amounts to bantustans connected to each other only by roads controlled by the Israeli regime, while their brothers and sisters in Gaza live in an open-air prison deemed unliveable by the United Nations. Most Palestinians living across the Green Line have Israeli citizenship, they nevertheless live in urban and rural ghettos.

Palestinians are also disconnected from their Arab brothers and sisters with many of them prevented from travelling around the Arab world, either because their documents do not permit them to do so (in the case of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship) or because they are under travel bans.

As part of the COVID-19 response, the Israeli regime has imposed even more measures restricting Palestinian movement. The city of Bethlehem has been put under lockdown, while crossings into Gaza and the West Bank have been shut down. Palestinian labourers working in Israel have also been told to either stay for an unknown period of time in shoddy and unsanitary accommodation or give up work and stay in the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority has imposed a curfew and set up checkpoints between villages and towns to limit the movement of people. Businesses have been shut down, except for supermarkets and pharmacies.

Meanwhile, Israel is continuing its practices of removing Palestinians from their land, even exploiting the lockdown amid the pandemic to do so. In Jerusalem, where there is a concerted effort to Judaise neighbourhoods and reduce the number of Palestinian inhabitants, the demolitions of Palestinian homes continue, despite the outbreak. The Israeli regime claims these buildings are illegal in order to justify demolishing them, yet Palestinians are consistently denied building permits.

Demolitions are also used as a method of collective punishment of the families of Palestinian political prisoners particularly in the West Bank. In the midst of this pandemic, this continuing cruel practice renders calls by Israeli authorities to stay at home absurd.

Similarly the construction of illegal settlements across the West Bank has not halted and there are fears that de jure annexation of many areas will be expediated under these circumstances, particularly as Benjamin Netanyahu is once again set to lead the next government.

Already, last week there were three cases in which illegal Israeli settlements razed Palestinian land and there has been an overall rise in attacks against Palestinian properties.

Earlier this month, Palestinians from Beita village near Nablus held a sit-in to try and protect land from being stolen by settlers. The Israeli security forces came out in full force to give cover to the settlers and in the process shot 15-year-old Mohammed Hammayel in the head killing him instantly.

Many in historic Palestine are worried that Israel will use the COVID-19 outbreak as an excuse to leave in place new restrictive measures even after the pandemic is over and will also prevent Palestinians from resisting its land grabs. At a time when the world is focused solely on the pandemic and the Israeli regime has the full support of the US administration to do as it pleases, Israeli aggressive expansionism seems inevitable.

Yet over the decades, Palestinians have shown incredible strength, courage and sumud (steadfastness) in the face of great adversity. While Israeli settler colonial expansionism does not rest, neither does Palestinian perseverance. As the Palestinian poet Tawfiq Ziyad wrote:

In Lidda, in Ramla, in the Galilee,

we shall remain

like a wall upon your chest,

and in your throat

like a shard of glass,

a cactus thorn,

and in your eyes

a sandstorm.



The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
A colonel-rank doctor tested positive for coronavirus at Kolkata's Army Command Hospital on Sunday (March 29). The 52-year-old Army officer had returned from Delhi recently. Sources said that the Army officer has been put under quarantine.

A Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) in the Indian Army posted to a base in Dehradun also tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday

It is learnt that steps have been launched to trace all those who have come in contact with the two persons and some of them have already been placed in quarantined.

Sources said that the doctor and the JCO have visited an Army facility in Delhi few days ago.

It may be recalled that an Army jawan had tested positive for coronavirus few weeks ago. The soldier was on leave at his home in Leh when he got infected from the deadly virus. The soldier has now recovered and has been discharged from hospital.

On Friday (March 27), Army Chief Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane launched 'Operation Namaste' with an aim to protect the 1.3 million strong Army from coornavirus outbreak and help the government in curbing the spread of the deadly virus.

Gen Naravane also ordered the Army personnel to take full precautions against the virus.

"I would request everyone to take care of themselves and their families. Your safety is my first responsibility. I want to assure all the soldiers posted on the border that we will take special care of your families. We will achieve success in the 'Operation Namaste'," the Army chief had said.

On Sunday (March 29), the Union Health Ministry said that the total number of coornavirus cases in India has climbed to 1024, including 48 foreigners, and the death toll at 27. The Joint secretary of Health Luv Agarwal confirmed that in the past 24 hours as many as 106 coronavirus cases have been reported with six deaths.

Maharashtra and Kerala continue to remain the worst affected states with 203 and 202 cases of infections, respectively. Also, the most number of deaths has been reported from Maharashtra.
Fourteen new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Nigeria, buoying up the total to 111.

The NCDC made the announcement Sunday, hours after President Muhammadu Buhari addressed the nation in a broadcast announcing a 14-day lockdown in Lagos, Ogun, and Abuja, with palliative measures tocope with the emergency .

Fourteen new cases of #COVID19 have been reported in Nigeria; 9 in Lagos and 5 in FCT, the centre tweeted.

As at 09:30 pm 29th March there are 111 confirmed cases of #COVID19 reported in Nigeria with 1 death, it read.

Lagos still leads with 68 patients while the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) follows with 21.

Ogun, Enugu, Ekiti, Oyo, Edo, Osun, Bauchi, Benue, Kaduna and Rivers follow in that order.

PV: 0
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 22:24:11|Editor: yhy

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BERLIN, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The German car industry is worried about potential job losses because of the spread of the coronavirus, Hildegard Mueller, president of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), told national broadcaster ARD on Monday.

"We worry about jobs and the future," Mueller stressed, adding that the crisis is "existential" and a recession must be expected this year.

For now, however, Mueller said that German car companies treat their employees "very responsibly." Car makers make full use of available instruments to "keep people on board."

Mueller refused to comment on "speculations" about how deep recession would be, but emphasized that the "decisive factor" was how a "structured ramp-up of technologies and industries" could be achieved in order to "secure as many jobs there as possible."

Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer from the Institute for Customer Insight (ICI-HSG) warned that "car production in Germany will be significantly damaged by the corona crisis in 2020 and beyond."

"We must expect a significant reduction in production capacity in the automotive industry in Germany," Dudenhoeffer said, adding that "this could mean more than 100,000 jobs or 12 percent of the current 830,000 jobs at car manufacturers and suppliers that are at risk."
From delivering food to the elderly to taking medicines to the sick, from fighting fake on the Internet to helping people with their groceries, groups across the country have joined hands to identify willing people to create an army of volunteers who will take the fight against coronavirus to the streets.

Bhopal-based Vipin Tripathi, an engineering dropout, had launched his own startup in 2017 of providing video content for students. With the coronavirus outbreak, Tripathi has now found a novel way to redirect his database of 25 lakh student towards volunteering to fight the contagion.

My website now opens with a form where willing students can fill up their names, their cities and the area of work that they want to volunteer in. We are calling it the 'CT Care' program. They can volunteer to distribute food, share information via social media platforms and restrict rumours, make donations, work to care for animals and other things. Once the database reaches a certain number, we plan to give them to the local authorities," said Tripathi.

In the past two days, CT Care has already received more than 11,000 registrations.

The 21-day lockdown has resulted in a major need for a workforce which could help out with basic services specially for the elderly and those unable to come out of their homes for essentials. Many state governments have started issuing curfew passes to volunteers to help with their movement.

A group of students from the premiere B-school Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon have launched a crowdsourcing platform for volunteers.

"We are collating a database so that they can be used in essential services. Depending on the need and availability the database can be referred to and will come handy. The details of volunteers are being sought on different online platforms as well as from calls being received. There are enough good samaritans, having a database will ease worries of where to look for them," said Ramesh Kumar Wadhwa, who is contributing to the database.

The MDI volunteers program started on March 25 and it now has about 1,620 volunteers.

Three senior citizen couples in Gurgaon are also forming a database together which now has around 100 volunteers.

"We have posted calls for volunteers online and the database is being readied mostly for food and medicines distribution among the needy. We are also applying for curfew passes online for the volunteers and whoever is calling for help, we are passing on the information. We cannot go out on our own but staying home is a luxury not all can afford," said Poonam Kumar, one of the senior citizens who is creating the database.

While these efforts are being made on a small scale, on the central front, nearly 27,000 individuals and more than 1,100 organisations have registered themselves as volunteers with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) till last week.

The government has also opened registrations for volunteers on its mygov portal and is looking for volunteers in four categories health, communication, entrepreneurial and essential services. Over 89,000 individuals have already registered on the website so far.

India was brought under a 21-day lockdown on Tuesday midnight with an aim to check the spread of the coronavirus infection.

The positive coronavirus cases touched 1,071 on Monday with 29 deaths.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Three local companies have combined their collective resources and expertise to produce and provide hand sanitizer to WakeMed Health & Hospitals to help fight the COVID-19 outbreakDURHAM, NC / ACCESSWIRE / March 30, 2020 / In an effort to provide essential resources to local hospitals in need and mitigate the spread of COVID-19, Bedlam Vodka, an award-winning craft vodka distilled and bottled by Graybeard Distillery, MedPharm, the world's leading contract provider of topical and transdermal product design and formulation development services to the pharmaceutical industry and Avazyme, a customized testing solution provider have combined forces to scientifically create, test and distribute quality-assured hand sanitizer.The COVID-19 pandemic has put enormous pressure on traditional supply channels, leaving many medical institutions supporting the critical needs of vulnerable people and patients in short supply of hand sanitizer.As news arose of local distilleries shifting their focus of producing ethanol for consumption to sanitizer, Bedlam Vodka was quickly inundated with requests from healthcare providers and institutions to assist. Knowing the importance of providing a medically safe solution, Bedlam looped in MedPharm and Avazyme to work together. The sanitizer will be supplied to WakeMed, a leading N.C.-based healthcare provider, for use in their hospitals and numerous outpatient units in the local area."The collective fabric of our community is stepping up in new ways to meet these challenges, and for that we are grateful and humbled," said Deb Laughery, vice president of Marketing & Communications for WakeMed. "These collaborative efforts allow us to care for those who need us and protect the safety and well-being of our patients and staff. Let's continue to align resources, talent and compassion as we all respond to this public health crisis." In Durham, N.C., MedPharm has combined their formulation development expertise with Bedlam Vodka, who is supplying the ethanol and their distillery for manufacturing the product. Agricultural and food testing experts Avazyme are providing the analysis required to ensure the product is quality assured and meets the guidelines for hand sanitizer to be used as a disinfectant."We are fortunate to have 20 years of formulation and manufacturing expertise, and the resources to be able to do what we can across both of our facilities in Durham, N.C. and Guildford, UK," said MedPharm's President and CEO, Eugene Ciolfi. "It is clear that key small local institutions desperately need the product now and we are proud to be able to support our local communities in any way we can at this time." "Our regulatory science team here at the Avazyme laboratory is proud to join forces with local companies MedPharm and Bedlam Vodka to quickly support our medical care providers in the fight against COVID-19." said Volker Bornemann, President and CEO of Avazyme.Bedlam Vodka is shifting a portion of their ethanol production facility to accommodate the substantial volume of alcohol needed for hospitals."Our collaborative venture means we will be able to produce large quantities of sanitizer to support the needs of healthcare workers at this time," added Brandon Evans, CEO of Graybeard Distillery, distillers of Bedlam Vodka. "Our group has also been approached by other hospital systems to provide the scarce sanitizers, and we are doing everything in our power to help as many of our vital medical providers as possible." COMPANY INFORMATIONAbout MedPharmMedPharm is the world's leading contract provider of topical and transdermal product design and formulation development services to the pharmaceutical industry. MedPharm, which was established over 20 years ago, employs over 150 people in Durham, North Carolina and Guildford, UK. MedPharm is expert at reducing risk and accelerating development times for generic and proprietary pharmaceutical customers through their unique, cost-effective and industry-leading performance testing models.For more information please visit www.medpharm.com About Avazyme, Inc.Avazyme, Inc. is a privately owned customized testing solution provider, offering laboratory testing, product development, and expert consulting services to agriculture and the entire food value chain, from farm to fork and from farm to pharmacy. Avazyme provides fast, accurate and reliable answers to ensure product safety and high product quality for food, feed, cosmetics, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical products and regulatory compliance. Our services range from analytical chemistry and state-of-the-art mass spectrometry to specialty natural products testing, nutritional analysis, stability and batch release testing, microbiology, molecular biology and immunochemistry testing.For more information please visit www.avazyme.com About Graybeard DistilleryGraybeard Distillery, purveyors of Bedlam vodka, is located in Durham, NC. Bedlam Vodka is a highly awarded, handcrafted, grain to glass vodka made from 100% long grain white rice sourced from Arkansas and Louisiana. The high quality long grain white rice base yields a uniquely smooth flavor profile with a distinct nose, complexity, feel and finish. Our mission is to provide a unique spirit to be enjoyed around the world by people who love life and live rebelliously.For more information please visit www.bedlamvodka.com Media Contact: Megan CuellarEmail: mcuellar@ interdependence.com Phone: (949) 777-2468SOURCE: Graybeard Distillery
On March 27, Army Corps of Engineers Lieutenant General Todd Semonite announced from the Pentagon that Chicagos largest convention space, McCormick Place, will be converted into a 3,050-bed field hospital by April 24.

The Army Corps, Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (the corporation that operates the convention center) and the state of Illinois are working with direction and kits from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on the $75 million project to convert three of the centers halls into wards, offering three levels of treatment for COVID-19 patients. Reports indicate that Hall C with 500 beds will become available first, this week, treating those with less severe symptoms. Hall As 1,800 beds for more severe cases and Hall Bs 750 isolation units, for the most severe cases, are to come sometime no later than April 24.

As testing capacity has incrementally grown, the number of cases in Illinois has surged. As of Sunday, there were 4,596 cases, an increase of 1,105, and 65 deaths. Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker announced 4,000 tests are currently being performed daily, to rise to 10,000 each day by mid-April.

(Photo Credit: Antonio Vernon/Wikipedia)

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) will remain closed through at least April 20. From March 17-19, CPS distributed more than one half-million meals to working class families who rely on the breakfast and lunch programs. Food service and other essential school staff are receiving 1.5 times pay.

This week the state reported the United States first COVID-19-related infant death. Clinical healthcare workers are testing positive in growing numbers. Twelve University of Illinois registered nurses tested positive after being exposed at work while working without adequate protective equipment. One surgeon at a north suburban hospital with COVID-19 required medical intervention.

Eighty-nine inmates in Cook Countys notoriously overcrowded jail have tested positive, along with 12 jail staff members. As a preventative measure, six women who have been raising their newborn children behind bars were released from Illinois jail facilities to their homes with electronic monitoring anklets. The state holds 40,000 prisoners and it has not yet been reported whether broader mitigation will take place.

Massachusetts Institute of Technologys coronavirus infection modeling indicates the virus will quickly overwhelm area hospitals. Local and state officials and health corporations are scrambling to respond. As in other large population centers around the world, the healthcare needs are immense in the USs third largest city, with 10 million residents in the Chicago metro area.

The virus was allowed to spread uncontrolled until March 21, when statewide shelter-in-place orders were issued, to last through April 7. Last Thursday, the city of Chicago closed public parks and outdoor areas to limit the numbers of people gathering in groups.

Giving some indication of the shuttering of healthcare infrastructure that has taken place in the city, Metro South Medical Center on Blue Island, which was closed in October 2019, is to be reopened to add 200 rooms to the city's COVID-19 quarantine capacity.

Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that Chicagos Northwestern Memorial Hospital is weighing a do not resuscitate policy for COVID-19-infected patients once the rate of infection creates 1.5 patients for each intensive care unit bed. In the United States, this is a decision usually made only by an individual in advance or someone recognized by law as having the power to make that decision for another person. The mounting crisis, immeasurably worsened by the malign indifference of the corporate and political elite, has, along with risking the health of the population as a whole, placed tens of thousands of clinical staff in positions that risk their lives and traumatize their minds.

Five hotels are being used to isolate COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms who cannot stay at home, or who are awaiting test results and do not need medical intervention. By the end of this week, 2,000 such hotel beds will be available in Chicago and 15,000 statewide, according to Crains. The program has also involved the YMCA providing 400 beds for the citys homeless, who number around 82,212 according to Chicago Coalition for the Homeless figures from 2015.

Chicago Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said the program may be expanded to house healthcare workers and first responders, who are highly vulnerable to contracting the virus. Deputy Mayor Samir Mayekar said Chicagos hotel plan is the first of its kind, and the city is sharing it with other municipal leaders so it can be replicated across the country.

At a press briefing last Monday, Arwady said that city employees led by the Department of Public Health will be on-site, using safe protocols to interact with guests who will remain in their individual rooms throughout the isolation or quarantine period. She also stated that hotel employees will be trained and will have no direct interaction with guests, but no standard was detailed.

Mayekar reportedly said that city health department employees will staff floors where quarantined guests are staying and hotel workers will prepare meals and provide housekeeping services.

As part of the hotel plan, Mayor Lori Lightfoot brokered a deal with Oxford Capital Group, a luxury hotel operator, and two unions, Unite Here and Local Operating Engineers, to end an 18-month-long strike against Fillmore Hospitality, operator of the former Cambria Chicago Magnificent Mile hotel, since renamed Hotel One Sixty-Six in downtown Chicago. Striking workers were demanding higher pay, an end to long hours and benefit cuts and safer working conditions. Lightfoot, Oxford Capital Group and the two unions signed an amended collective bargaining agreement to establish the COVID-19 response plan. No details of a contract ratification have been made public.

The cost of the hotel plan was estimated by Mayor Lightfoot to be $1 million per hotel per month.

All city and county staff, housekeeping and foodservice workers involved in these essential operations should be outfitted with high-quality, effective protective equipment and disinfection supplies and have access to healthcare in the event that they fall ill. They should set up rank-and-file committees, independent of the unions, to monitor safety conditions and insist that medical professionals are on site to protect all workers.

The hurried efforts on the part of Illinois Democratic leaders came only after they waved off the seriousness of the coronavirus threat. On February 26, the Sun Times reported Democratic Mayor Lightfoots shocking indifference to the human costs as she scolded the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, I will candidly tell you that I was very disappointed with the comments of the CDC yesterday and members of the Trump administration around coronavirus. We feel very well prepared to address this issue. And I dont want people to take from the comments  at the federal level that, somehow, they should be worried and that were not prepared in this city.

She continued, Am I going to sit here and say with absolute certainty that we wont have any other cases? No. I will not. But I want to make sure that people understand they should continue to go about their normal lives.

Since then Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has leapt to center stage to control the damage, publicly criticizing the slow White House response to the pandemic and ramping up testing in the state, but only after he insisted, in the face of public outcry, that the March 17 primary elections take place with in-person voting in violation of World Health Organization guidelines.

Last week, several corporations headquartered in Chicago announced job cuts and furloughs. Between April and May, Hyatt Hotels will furlough or cut hours for two-thirds of its corporate employees, who number in the tens of thousands, and close some properties. Governor Pritzker, worth some $3.4 billion, is a member of the Pritzker family which still largely owns Hyatt.

Major airlines also announced that the relief package passed last week will not guarantee the companies will not go through with mass layoffs. United Airlines has asked workers to take unpaid leave through September 30 and many are working reduced hours.
PERTH, Western Australia, March 29, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Perseus Mining Limited (Perseus or the Company) (TSX & ASX: PRU) is pleased to announce details of its updated Life of Mine Plan (LOMP) for its Edikan Gold Mine in Ghana, West Africa. An executive summary is provided below. Full details of the Edikan Gold Mine Life of Mine Plan are included in the Companys market release dated March 30, 2020 which is available for download from www.perseusmining.com, www.asx.com.au and www.sedar.com.



The LOMP covers the period from July 1, 2020 and is based on the Companys revised mining strategy that was implemented in January 2019 involving use of a single mining contractor, mining at a reduced rate of total material movement. Costs, recoveries, mill throughput rates and run times have been updated to reflect recent performance.



The LOMP is based on the revised Ore Reserves reported on February 20, 2020 which included Proved and Probable Ore Reserves as at December 31, 2019 of 45.7 million tonnes of ore, grading 1.10 g/t gold and containing 1,608 kozs of gold.



Ore loss and dilution included in the estimate of Ore Reserves is based on recent mine to mill reconciliation results. Comparisons of ore tonnes and grade by Edikans Mineral Resource models relative to ore tonnes and grade delineated by grade control, indicate that the Mineral Resource estimates on which the Ore Reserves are based are reliable predictors of ore tonnes and grades.



The Esuajah South Underground mine has been included in the LOMP, employing a sub-level stoping under rock fill (SURF) mining method. Development capital of US$31 million has been assumed.



Gold production averages 212,000 ounces/annum over Edikans currently estimated mine life of 6.2 years from July 1, 2020, including gold production of approximately 231,000 ounces/annum on average over the next 4 years. The altered production profile relative to the previous LOMP is largely due to the addition of Esuajah South Underground and a significantly larger AG Open Pit.



Total estimated gold production of 1,307,000 ounces over the life of mine is 95% higher than the amount estimated for the corresponding period in the previous LOMP. The substantial increase is largely due to the addition of Esuajah South Underground and a much larger AG Open Pit.



Forecast weighted average all-in site costs, including all direct production costs, royalties, waste stripping costs and sustaining capital expenditure (AISC), are in the range of US$870-US$890 per ounce over the remaining life of mine. This represents a 5% decrease in average AISC relative to the previous LOMP, over the corresponding period. Forecast sustaining capital costs (including the cost of site rehabilitation) of US$37 million or US$28 per ounce are included in the AISC estimate.



Edikans revised LOMP forecasts strong positive after-tax cash flows totalling approximately US$356 million (or A$0.51per share at an A$:US$ exchange rate of 0.60), assuming a flat spot gold price of US$1,300 per ounce for the remaining mine life.



The revised LOMP should be read in conjunction with, and added to, previously published production and cost guidance for the Half Year ending June 30, 2020.

Story continues

To discuss any aspect of this announcement, please contact:

Managing Director: Jeff Quartermaine at telephone +61 8 6144 1700 or email jeff.quartermaine@perseusmining.com ; Media Relations: Nathan Ryan at telephone +61 4 20 582 887 or email nathan.ryan@nwrcommunications.com.au (Melbourne)

Caution Regarding Forward Looking Information

This report contains forward-looking information which is based on the assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management of the Company believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, but which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made by the Company regarding, among other things: the price of gold, continuing commercial production at the Edikan Gold Mine and the Sissingue Gold Mine without any major disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise, development of a mine at Yaoure, the receipt of required governmental approvals, the accuracy of capital and operating cost estimates, the ability of the Company to operate in a safe, efficient and effective manner and the ability of the Company to obtain financing as and when required and on reasonable terms. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all factors and assumptions which may have been used by the Company. Although management believes that the assumptions made by the Company and the expectations represented by such information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking information will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, the actual market price of gold, the actual results of current exploration, the actual results of future exploration, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be evaluated, as well as those factors disclosed in the Company's publicly filed documents. The Company believes that the assumptions and expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the Companys ability to carry on its exploration and development activities, the timely receipt of required approvals, the price of gold, the ability of the Company to operate in a safe, efficient and effective manner and the ability of the Company to obtain financing as and when required and on reasonable terms. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Perseus does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Competent Person Statement

All production targets for the Edikan Gold Mine referred to in this report are underpinned by estimated Ore Reserves which have been prepared by competent persons in accordance with the requirements of the JORC Code. The information in this report that relates to Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves for the Esuajah North deposit at the Edikan Gold Mine was first reported by the Company in compliance with the JORC Code 2012 and NI43-101 in a market announcement entitled Perseus Mining Updates Mineral Resources & Ore Reserves released on 29 August 2019. The information in this report that relates to the Mineral Resources for the Edikan deposits (other than the Fetish, AFG, Bokitsi South, Esuajah North and Esuajah South deposits) was first reported by the Company in compliance with the JORC Code 2012 and NI43-101 in a market announcement released on 29 August 2018. The information in this report that relates to Ore Reserves for the Edikan deposits (other than the Fetish, AFG, Bokitsi South, Esuajah North and Esuajah South deposits) was first reported by the Company in compliance with the JORC Code 2012 and NI43-101 in a market announcement entitled Perseus Mining Updates Mineral Resources & Ore Reserves released on 29 August 2018. The above-mentioned deposits have been updated for mining depletion as at 31 December 2019 in a market announcement Perseus Mining Updates Edikan Gold Mines Mineral Resource & Ore Reserves released on 20 February 2020. The information in this report that relates to the Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve estimates for the Bokitsi South and Esuajah South underground and to the Ore Reserve estimates for the Fetish and AFG deposits at the Edikan Gold Mine was first reported by the Company in compliance with the JORC Code 2012 and NI43-101 in a market announcement Perseus Mining Updates Edikan Gold Mines Mineral Resource & Ore Reserves released on 20 February 2020. The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affect the information in those market releases and that all material assumptions underpinning those estimates and the production targets, or the forecast financial information derived therefrom, continue to apply and have not materially changed. The Company further confirms that material assumptions underpinning the estimates of Ore Reserves described in Technical Report  Central Ashanti Gold Project, Ghana dated 30 May 2011 continue to apply.
Jerry Jariwalla runs Moo Marketing, a marketing agency that helps medium-sized businesses go up against bigger corporations, without spending millions of shillings.

His entrepreneurship journey, however, has not been a walk in the park. He shared his lessons with Hustle.

Your first job was at Ernst & Young (EY) when you were 23. Why did you quit three months down the line?

It wasnt about the job really. It was a personal decision I made when my father, a locksmith, fell asleep at the wheel and drove off the road. This was due to fatigue. I was born in London to a Tanzanian father and Ugandan mother. My mother was a refugee and my father a student who moved to England from Arusha in the 70s.

My father would work from 6 in the morning to 3 at night because the longer he worked, the more jobs he could do. The more jobs he did, the more money he made. When I heard about the accident, I decided that was my last day at EY and I joined my fathers business to give him support. The prestige of working at a big firm did not matter. It was more important to keep my father alive.

Did the business succeed?

When my brother and I joined, it became a three-man business. We joined dad between 2003 and 2004. By the end of 2009, in five years, the business had grown to 100 employees, gone nationwide and was getting revenues of more than a million dollars (Sh106 million at current rates).

How did that happen?

At that point, I didnt think of myself as a businessman. I regarded myself a hustler  someone who knew how to attract the ideal audience and then convert that phone call into a customer because I knew they had a need. That is how we grew the business and we just continued advertising in different territories. So, for example, if that had been Nairobi, we would start here, and then Nakuru, then Nanyuki, then Mombasa, then Malindi and slowly make our way throughout the country. Within five years we were everywhere. However, as much as we were making huge revenues, the business made its first loss at the end of that year. An internal investigation revealed massive theft within the company. At least 50 percent of the staff was stealing money.

And thats when the troubles began?

Yes. As we were sorting out the stealing issue out, my dad asked me to take a short break from work. I did. On New Years Eve 2009 while in Mombasa, I suffered two strokes three hours apart. I was only 29. I lost my right arm function and my speech. I could walk though. Ten years later, through sheer willpower and practice, I am back to full function.

Did you go back to the business?

After 10 months of running the business with my limitations, I decided to start a new business building bespoke bulletproof doors that cost more than Sh2 million each. We sold bulletproof doors that looked like pieces of art to the one percent of the world. We built them for princes, kings, queens, pop stars, celebrities and politicians.

You later quit that business, too. Why?

It got to 2012 and I realised that I was going down the same path as I was with the first business  rapid growth and high stress. Instead of dealing with lots of customers for lower amounts of money, now I was dealing with fewer customers and higher amounts of money. Either way, the stress was still there. The whole point of changing my business had been to reduce stress. But now the stress was coming from a prince demanding I turn up at his house at 2 am. Or a pop star saying she couldnt operate something when I was a three-hour drive away. And we were building a business, so the team was very small. In the first business I had 100 people. In the second business, we were operating with less than six people. So I took another break and went to Tanzania.

Was that how you got your aha moment?

I made the trip to Tanzania because I realised the stress was getting to me. I had children and responsibilities and I didnt want to take the risk with my life. So I went to Tanzania looking for opportunities. It was while there that I witnessed someone fall off a building because they didnt have the correct safety equipment at a construction site in Dar es Salaam. Thats when it hit me that I could combine my experience in security products with safety products in Tanzania using certified equipment that was coming from manufacturers with tested equipment. So we started a business in 2013 in Tanzania. I consequently moved my family there.

Was this business another hit?

Yes, it was. It hit revenues of Sh100 million in 13 months. Unfortunately, in 2017, I experienced some personal problems and left the business once again. And because I believe in observing the environment for ideas, I went to China to get ideas for a fourth business, but this time I had no idea what I would possibly find. I was overwhelmed by the options. I was in the largest exhibition in the world. I left that exhibition after five days, having walked more than 100 kilometres at the fair. I was exhausted. I had also spent money I didnt really have. I felt like I had failed too.

Failed how?

I was embarrassed to go back home with nothing concrete. So I decided to travel some more. I ended up in Malaysia. But I was broke.

How could you have been broke after running successful businesses?

The thing is, I had left the businesses to my family to begin afresh. And I had spent quite a lot of my savings in China and on my travels. I was now 37, in Malaysia and sleeping in a hostel. It was tough. I felt very alone. I didnt know what to do. An old friend called Mike from London who was a start-up entrepreneur called to find out how I was doing, and promised to be there by the end of that month to help me figure things out. As I waited, I learned how to become a professional diver because I had to figure out what I was going to do for a month. I knew I had an overthinking problem because of my past. I went to the East Coast of Malaysia and I learned how to dive.

Did that pay the bills?

Not much, but in water I found peace, quiet and clarity. I found myself again. I hardly made any money but I waited tables and did odd jobs to pay the bills.

Did your friend Mike come over?

Four hours after meeting Mike, we reverse-engineered all my successes from the past, looking at all the things I had done. We basically became pattern spotters. If you study successful people in any industry, you can spot the patterns of actions they all take. Mike told me, Jerry, you are the funnel guy. You have been doing this subconsciously.

A funnel guy?

Yeah. A funnel is a set of processes that starts with a customer not knowing who you are to getting to know, like and trust you through a series of interactions and touch points until they are ready to buy. Mike suggested that I should sell that as a service because I apparently figured it out, had the proof and could show I had done it. I just had to figure out how much I was going to charge for it and how to sell it. Within three days, I had my first client in Bali. As soon as I had the clarity that this is what I was good at, I went all in.

Now youre based in Kenya?

Yes. In February 2019, I moved to Kenya and set up Moo Marketing. It is a business that helps companies grow through increasing the number of people who are aware of your business, and then creating systems and processes to make sure that the business does not forget about those people who showed interest in the first place. Moo Marketing helps medium-sized businesses achieve the same things as corporate businesses, and makes sure that they can win the fight against the bigger companies without spending millions of shillings in the process.
Airport staff unload medical materials donated by China to Laos from a chartered plane at the Wattay International Airport in Vientiane, Laos, March 29, 2020. A team of Chinese medical experts, along with medical materials, arrived in Lao capital Vientiane by a chartered plane Sunday morning to assist Laos to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua)

VIENTIANE, March 29 (Xinhua) -- A team of Chinese medical experts, along with medical materials, arrived in Lao capital Vientiane by a chartered plane Sunday morning to assist Laos to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Somdy Douangdy, Lao deputy prime minister and chair of the Task Force Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, and Chinese Ambassador to Laos Jiang Zaidong received the Chinese medical experts at the Wattay International Airport in Vientiane.

The Chinese medical team includes experts in various fields such as infection prevention and control, intensive care, epidemics, and laboratory testing. They also brought along with medical supplies.

The team came to Laos less than five days after the Lao side announced its first two confirmed COVID-19 cases and asked for assistance from China.

Laos has detected eight confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Saturday afternoon.

When welcoming the Chinese experts, Lao Deputy Prime Minister Somdy said that the Lao side is heartfully grateful for the Chinese medical expert team's coming only in five days after Laos confirmed COVID-19 cases. China's gesture reflects the profound friendship from the Chinese side to the Lao people, he said.

The medical team, made up of top experts in China's southwestern Yunnan Province, brought Chinese experiences and solutions to Laos' epidemic prevention and control, said the Lao deputy prime minister, adding that the Lao government will coordinate and ensure all possible conveniences for the Chinese medical expert team.

Somdy said the Lao side will make full use of the intellectual support and material assistance brought by the Chinese side, and will try its best to prevent COVID-19 from spreading.

"A friend in need is a friend indeed," Jiang Zaidong said, adding that China will not forget in the early days of the outbreak, Laos donated money and multiple batches of anti-anpidemic materials to China, and tried its best to successfully organize the China-ASEAN Special Foreign Ministers' Meeting on Coronavirus Disease in Vientiane.

The Chinese people are always ready to return the kindness, sand Jiang. Currently, the number of confirmed cases in Laos is increasing, and the pressure on prevention and control is rising. As a community with a shared future, China will go through the difficulties with the Lao people, jointly strengthen epidemic prevention and control, and steadily push forward bilateral cooperation, the ambassador said.

Huang Xingli, the head of the Chinese medical expert team, said to Xinhua on arrival that the main tasks of the expert team are to share experiences and exchange with Lao local hospitals and experts, to introduce China's anti-epidemic experience, to provide consultation to the Lao side on epidemic prevention and control, diagnosis and treatment and laboratory work, and to provide training and guidance for the Lao medical staff and community staff.

Along with the team also came medical treatment, protective supplies and a batch of Chinese and Western medicines donated by China's Yunnan Province.

Laos announced it had detected the first two confirmed COVID-19 cases on March 24. The total number has risen to eight till Saturday.
We think intelligent long term investing is the way to go. But no-one is immune from buying too high. For example the Beijing Capital Grand Limited (HKG:1329) share price dropped 63% over five years. That is extremely sub-optimal, to say the least. And some of the more recent buyers are probably worried, too, with the stock falling 33% in the last year.

View our latest analysis for Beijing Capital Grand

Because Beijing Capital Grand made a loss in the last twelve months, we think the market is probably more focussed on revenue and revenue growth, at least for now. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally expect to see good revenue growth. Some companies are willing to postpone profitability to grow revenue faster, but in that case one does expect good top-line growth.

In the last half decade, Beijing Capital Grand saw its revenue increase by 30% per year. That's well above most other pre-profit companies. Unfortunately for shareholders the share price has dropped 18% per year - disappointing considering the growth. It's safe to say investor expectations are more grounded now. If you think the company can keep up its revenue growth, you'd have to consider the possibility that there's an opportunity here.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

SEHK:1329 Income Statement March 30th 2020

You can see how its balance sheet has strengthened (or weakened) over time in this free interactive graphic.

A Different Perspective

We regret to report that Beijing Capital Grand shareholders are down 33% for the year. Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 17%. Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 18% per year over five years. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Take risks, for example - Beijing Capital Grand has 3 warning signs (and 2 which are significant) we think you should know about.

Story continues

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on HK exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) Algeria has launched a fighting-COVID-19-themed activity recently, inviting employees and their children to submit artworks on the theme. The activity is aimed at raising morale in the time of the outbreak, and supporting the fight against the coronavirus.

Some 30 pieces of artwork were received from Chinese and Algerian employees and their children, each expressing heartfelt encouragements for the fight. At the same time, the participants put their artistic talents on full display. Some artworks paid tribute to those working on the frontlinesmedical workers, local government officials, policemen, volunteerswhile others depicted images of the construction workers racing against time to build the two emergency hospitalsthe Huoshenshan Hospital and the Leishenshan Hospital. Some focused on promoting the philanthropic spirit and national solidarity, while others offered prevention tips and quarantine guidelines. Through their unique perspectives and fertile imagination, the kids came up with some genuine and amazing artworks, raising public awareness of the COVID-19 and communicating positive messages that we shall prevail over the coronavirus.
The residents welfare association (RWA) of Nizamuddin West Monday said it will soon issue an advisory to the locals to stay indoors and follow the lockdown rules even as it prepared to allay fear and panic that gripped the area after 10 persons, who were part of a congregation of about 200 at the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz in the area, tested positive for Covid-19.

Officials said over 2,000 delegates, including from Indonesia and Malaysia, attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Nizamuddin West from March 1-15. The south Delhi neighbourhood was virtually sealed with the Delhi Police, CRPF personnel and medical teams reaching the locality on Sunday night. At least 100 people have been tested. The results are expected on Tuesday.

Buses have been kept in readiness for shifting people to quarantine centres. Hotels in the area that had housed people from the congregation have been sealed.

Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic

Local residents said one of the persons who tested positive is from Nizamuddin area. RWA members alleged that the police should have curtailed the gathering. We got to know about the positive cases on Monday morning. The mosque has people coming from all over the world. If they were gathering here, the police must have known about it and should have taken timely action. People are frightened. We will issue a circular asking them to not panic and stay indoors, said SM Umar, general secretary, Nizamuddin West RWA.

Contact tracing has revealed that people from this gathering have travelled to states such as Bihar, Telangana, Odisha and Karnataka. The initial coronavirus death in Jammu and Kashmir has also been traced to this gathering.

The Union home ministry had banned all religious gatherings and ordered the closure of all religious places when a countrywide lockdown was announced last Tuesday to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

We had informed the police earlier about the event and the number of people gathering there. Before the Janta curfew on March 22, there was a meeting there. However, after the lockdown, people remained inside after which we saw many of them being taken away over the last two days, said Mohammad Umair, social activist and resident of Basti Nizamuddin.

DCP(Southeast) RP Meena, however, denied that the local police had received complaints about the gathering at the mosque.

The Markaz, also known as Banglewali Masjid, is a six-storey building complex that can house up to 2,000 people. It shares its wall with the Nizamuddin police station and is adjacent to the famous shrine of Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya. The mosque adjoins Basti Nizamuddin, which has a population of over 25,000.

From Sunday evening, when the news broke, a group of 10-12 residents armed with canes have been standing guard in the area so that nobody steps out. Later, the police also closed the entry and exit, said Umair.

Altamash Nizami, member of the management committee of Nizamuddin Dargah, which is located in the middle of the area, said, The Tablighi Jamaat outfit had an event there two weeks ago in which people from across the country and the world joined in. They met and stayed for a few days and later went to different areas. There are arrangements for food and stay inside and people can stay up to 40 days.

Delhi Police officers said beginning March 22 (the day of Janta Curfew) police teams stood outside the mosque and stopped people from gathering in the area. Police said until March 22, people from abroad and other states continued to visit the mosque. Outsiders were completely stopped from March 22.

Deputy commissioner of police (south-east) RP Meena said, The whole city is in lockdown. Now with some people showing symptoms of Covid-19 in Nizamuddin area, we have posted more police personnel at market places and the lanes to ensure that people follow the lockdown rules. Our officers on the ground are also helping the government officials in Basti Nizamuddin.

Joint commissioner of police (southern range) Devesh Srivastava said police are assisting World Health Organization and health department officials who are screening people in Nizamuddin, especially inside the mosque complex and sending them to quarantine.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Vatsala Shrangi Vatsala Shrangi joined HT Editorial team on July 2, 2018 as Principal Correspondent. She covers Environment, Civic bodies and the Social Sector. ...view detail
Northrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/30/2020 -- According to the new market research report "Vibration Monitoring Market by Component (Hardware and Software), System Type (Embedded Systems, Vibration Analyzers, and Vibration Meters), Monitoring Process (Online and Portable), Industry, and Region  Global Forecast to 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global Vibration Monitoring Market size is projected to be valued at USD 1.5 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 2.2 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 7.4% during the forecast period.



Factors such as the rising trend of remote monitoring through wireless systems, growing awareness toward predictive maintenance, increasing demand from emerging applications such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HAVC), and penetration of smart factories are driving the growth of the vibration monitoring market.



Ask for PDF Brochure:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=29273491



"Embedded systems to hold the largest market share in the global vibration monitoring market."



The embedded systems segment is expected to lead the vibration monitoring market during the forecast period. Effective and continuous monitoring through embedded systems that are installed directly on the machines allows real-time assessment of the machine condition as well as an optimized maintenance program.



Embedded systems are ideal solutions, being the complete and reliable detection and analysis systems for equipment defects, performance shifts, imbalances, and other anomalies. These systems include sensing, analysis, storage, and alarm capability and offer quick notifications related to vibration shifts. Industries such as oil & gas, energy & power, metals & mining, and chemicals have a huge demand for embedded vibration monitoring systems as several assets used during production are critical as they mostly require continuous monitoring.



"Automotive industry is expected to exhibit the highest growth from 2020 to 2025."



The vibration monitoring market for the automotive industry is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during 2020-2025. The global automotive industry is emphasizing on automating and upgrading assembly lines, which require motor monitoring. Motor current signature analysis helps reduce machine failures and extends the life of machines. The automotive industry is witnessing significant growth in the number of units produced per day. The machinery on the production floor is required to be appropriately maintained to minimize the production cycle and increase production output. Thus, the market for the automotive industry is likely to grow at a significant rate during the forecast period.



Browse in-depth TOC on "Vibration Monitoring Market"



64  Tables

59  Figures

168  Pages



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https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=29273491



"North America expected to hold the largest share in the vibration monitoring market between 2020 and 2025."



The growing adoption of smart manufacturing or Industry 4.0 in various industries creates a massive demand for vibration monitoring in the region. Besides, factors such as the increasing focus on optimum asset utilization, stringent government regulations for the workplace & personal safety, and tight quality control in the oil & gas, chemicals, and food & beverage industries are driving the demand for vibration monitoring systems in North America. Increasing emphasis on plant asset management and the presence of prominent market players such as General Electric, Emerson Electric, Honeywell International, National Instruments, and Parker-Hannifin in the US are contributing to the high demand for vibration monitoring in the region.



Emerson Electric (US), General Electric (US), Honeywell International (US), National Instruments (US), and SKF (Sweden) are some of the major players operating in the global vibration monitoring market.



Related Reports:



Machine Condition Monitoring Market by Monitoring Technique (Vibration Monitoring, Thermography, Oil Analysis, Corrosion Monitoring, Ultrasound Emission, MCA), Monitoring Process, Deployment, Offering, Industry, and Region - Global Forecast to 2025



NVH Testing Market by Application (Environmental Noise, Pass-by-noise, Noise Mapping, Sound Power, Telecom Testing, Sound Quality, Building Acoustics, Human Vibration, Product Vibration), Type, End User, Geography - Global Forecast to 2023



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A worker at an oil processing facility of Saudi Aramco, a Saudi Arabian state-owned oil and gas company, at the Abqaiq oil field.

Oil prices fell to the lowest in more than 17 years as demand plunged as a result of the pandemic and an unrelenting price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia showed no signs of easing.

Brent crude prices hit $23.03 a barrel on Monday morning during Asia hours  the lowest level since Nov. 15, 2002. It has since clawed back some losses following that record decline, but was last still 5.86% lower at $23.47 a barrel.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures briefly dipped below $20 per barrel to $19.90  their lowest level since March 20, when they fell as low as $19.50. WTI was last 4.51% lower at $20.54 per barrel.

Those declines come as Saudi Arabia signaled no breakthrough in the oil price war with Russia. On Friday, the two countries were still at a stalemate, with Saudi Arabia saying it was not in talks with Russia to stabilize oil markets despite Washington stepping in to pressure both sides to end the price war.

"Russia and Saudi Arabia show no signs of compromising in their standoff over oil supply," National Australia Bank's Rodrigo Catril wrote in a Monday note.
TDT | Manama

Bahraini nationals jobs are not to be affected by any developments or economic challenges, the Minister of Labour and Social Development said yesterday.

Minister Jameel bin Mohammed Ali Humaidan was speaking during a meeting with General Federation of Workers Trade Unions in Bahrain (GFWTUB) secretary-general Abdulqader Al Shehabi, in the presence of deputy secretary-general Hassan Abdulla Al Halwaji.

The minister, who is also the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) Board of Directors chairman, highlighted the governments adoption of initiatives aimed at providing decent work for the citizens, and that Bahrainis jobs are not affected by any developments or economic challenges.

Minister Humaidan congratulated Al Shehabi on winning the confidence of the representatives of Bahraini trade unions and election as GFWTUB secretary-general.

He noted that he is looking forward to enhancing cooperation between the Labour Ministry and GFWTUB, in order to increase labour gains during the prosperous era of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, who laid the rules for trade union work, and its first supporter in the kingdom.

The Labour Minister underlined the constant keenness of the government, led by HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister, and supported by HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier, to support and facilitate the work of trade unions, being a major part in the three production parties, and an important engine in enhancing the kingdoms development and progress.

Al Shehabi praised the existing cooperation between the Labour Ministry, GFWTUB and all trade unions. He noted that GFWTUB is keen to strengthen joint work among the three production parties and enhance bridges of communication, trust and constructive dialogue among them to serve national interests, and achieve balance and ensure the labour markets stability and development, which will contribute to supporting the economic development in Bahrain.
Saudi Arabias health minister says citizens and residents diagnosed with the virus will be covered by the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia will finance treatment for anyone infected with the coronavirus in the country, the health minister said on Monday, while the agriculture ministry took steps to boost wheat and livestock supplies amid global fears of a food shortage.

The kingdom has registered eight deaths among 1,453 infections, the highest among the six Gulf Arab states.

Health Minister Tawfiq Al Rabiah said King Salman would cover treatment for citizens and residents diagnosed with the virus, urging people with symptoms to get tested.

We are all in the same boat, he told a news conference, adding Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was overseeing containment efforts night and day.





The kingdoms de facto ruler was last seen publicly at a cabinet meeting on March 3, days before detaining his uncle and three cousins in a move seen as cementing his eventual path to the throne.

Supply chains

King Salman, his 84-year-old father, addressed the nation two weeks ago and chaired an extraordinary virtual summit of G20 leaders to advance a global response to the coronavirus pandemic.

G20 trade ministers are holding an emergency video conference on Monday to discuss cooperation on supply chains.

At a separate news conference, the agriculture ministry spokesman said Saudi Arabia would start importing at least 1.2 million tonnes more wheat next month, adding to strategic reserves of about one million tonnes.

Abdullah Abalkhail said the kingdom also expanded the list of countries from which it can import livestock.

Saudi Arabia has taken drastic steps to contain the coronavirus, halting international flights, closing most public places, and imposing a partial curfew.

Restrictions on movement have tightened with entry and exit to Riyadh, Mecca, Medina and Jeddah heavily restricted.

MERS lessons

The worlds last major coronavirus outbreak, in 2012, began in Saudi Arabia, where a faltering response allowed the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) to kill several hundred people and spread across the region.

This time around, the kingdom was better prepared, public health officials say. Their experience of MERS meant hospitals had already established separate triage units for respiratory illnesses, with specialised ventilation to protect medics from infection.

At least two hospitals also had drive-thru testing in place and seven weeks before the first domestic case, authorities developed guidelines to deal with the new virus.





Their experience with MERS uniquely positioned them because they learned a lot from that, said Joanna Gaines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which for years has supplied the Saudi health ministry with its only full-time foreign disease expert.

They know its MERS season and theyre already cued up for that. The preparation and processes  really cuts down on your exposure right away.

Acting fast

Kuwait also took drastic measures early on to contain the new pandemic, halting air travel, imposing curfews, and quarantining and testing thousands of people.

Kuwait has recorded no fatalities among 266 cases. Initial outbreaks in both countries were linked to foreign travel.

The World Health Organization said Saudi Arabias whole of government approach had benefitted from the MERS experience and unique expertise in emergency preparedness from managing the Hajj pilgrimage, the worlds largest annual gathering of Muslims.

Kuwait also has experience with national health emergencies, from the oil well fires after the 1990 Iraqi invasion to fears of biological and chemical warfare during the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.

It took precautionary measures soon after reporting its first case on February 24, a week before Saudi Arabia.

Continuous parliamentary pressure made government institutions feel they must perform, said Nada Al-Mutawa, management professor at the Australian College of Kuwait.

Qatar death

Neighbouring Qatar recorded its first death from the new coronavirus on Saturday, while its infections rose by 28 to 590, the health ministry said.

The United Arab Emirates recorded two deaths on Monday in Arab and Asian nationals, both in their 40s with pre-existing heart conditions, raising the death toll to five among 611 infections. The country extended distance learning until the end of the academic year.

The health ministry in Bahrain, which has recorded four deaths and 500 cases, said a plane of evacuated citizens from Iran landed in Manama, without providing details.

Another plane landed in Kuwait carrying 70 of its nationals from Tehran, Kuwait said.








Obsidian will be led by CEO William Jewett, who has more than 35 years of industry experience. Prior to joining Obsidian, Jewett served as president and member of the board of directors at Endurance Specialty, a Bermuda-based insurer and reinsurer.

Craig Rappaport has also joined the company as chief operating officer. Rappaport has more than 20 years of industry experience, most recently serving as COO of specialty property and casualty at The Hanover Insurance Group.

We are thrilled to be backing such an experienced, dynamic, and well-rounded team in the formation of Obsidian, said Ryan Clark, president and managing director of Genstar Capital. One of the trends we have been following is the emerging need for insurance companies that underwrite program business and act as a conduit to reinsurance and alternative capital. Our formation of Palomar Specialty in 2014 was a successful investment based on this theme, and we think there is opportunity for new players. Obsidian will be an unconflicted partner to its program and reinsurance relationships, and we are excited to be open for business with such a terrific team.
Along with these 13 people, an offence was registered against around 22 others under IPC sections 188, 269 and also under Disaster Management Act, and Epidemic Diseases Act at Chikhali Police Station

Pune: Police have arrested 13 persons and registered an offence against around 22 others for gathering at one place for prayers in Pimpri Chinchwad area despite the ongoing lockdown, officials said on Sunday.

They are all residents of Kudalwadi area, police said.

"Around 35 people had gathered for prayers on the terrace of a building on 27 March. After we received information about it, we launched an inquiry," a senior official said.

"After the investigation, we arrested 13 people, but released them on bail," he said.

Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak

Along with these 13 people, an offence was registered against around 22 others under IPC sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and also under the Disaster Management Act, and the Epidemic Diseases Act at Chikhali Police Station, he said.
On Wednesday, one woman prayed in the chapel of East Alabama Medical Center while another joined her in prayer from the parking lot. By Friday, the two turned into dozens. By Sunday night, over 100 were praying and singing from their cars in what is now known as Park and Pray.

Laura Eason, EAMCs chaplain who was praying in the chapel, said she had no idea that her friends idea to pray from the parking lot and invite a few friends would turn into something so big. Now, theres a rush to get to the side of the Opelika hospital that faces the parking lot. Patients and staff lean against the windows, wave and hold up their flashlights.

Its just absolutely amazing, Eason said. I mean, the tears of joy from all of the hospital staff  they literally run to the windows to see."

Park and Pray occurs each morning and night from 7-7:30, right when the shifts change. It supports a hospital that is now reporting six deaths from COVID-19. Participants park in the top of the guest parking deck and put their hazard lights on. Then they join each other in prayer. Eason said people are encouraged to stay in or near their cars to maintain social distancing. At the end of the half hour, they all flash their headlights and then drive out with their hazards still flashing. Eason said they considered having people honk but decided it would be too disruptive to patients who are sleeping. On Monday, they hope to start spreading out the cars so that other parts of the hospital can see the support.

Park and Pray was a response to EAMCs new no visitor policy, which has meant no patient except for mothers giving birth may have any visitors because of the coronavirus pandemic. Easons friend had been joining her to pray in the hospital chapel every other Tuesday for over two years but decided to pray from home when the pandemic hit. On Wednesday, she asked Eason if she could instead pray from the parking lot, and Eason said yes. After her prayer time was over, she sent Eason a text saying she had been given an idea. What if she asked some friends to join her in prayer? Since her husband works at the hospital, she knew when the shift changes occur and chose to do it then. She has asked not to be named because the credit for this should go to God instead of her.

The first meeting included her and nine friends. Then it got shared on Facebook, was dubbed Park and Pray and even had a logo created for it. Several churches picked it up and by Friday, there were speakers out there playing praise and worship music.

"We've just kind of thrown it out there and asked the community, and if anyone feels led by the Spirit, Eason said. "It's been amazing to see what the Lord has done to grow this thing by just word of mouth."

14 "Park and Pray"

Church of the Highlands is responsible for at least some of the speakers. Jo Clark and and Tara Albright are the leaders of a prayer group called Praise Party, and on Sunday, they were right at the front of the deck sharing their prayers with the nurses and patients gathered in the hospital. They both said its grown a lot since even Friday, but neither had any idea over 50 cars showed up because they were so focused on their prayer and the people in the hospital.

The prayer is what its really about, Eason said. The lights and the waving are nice, but its the prayer that will move mountains. Eason said theyve asked for prayers for the hospital, the staff, the patients and the entire community. In just a few days, its already made a difference.

"Just the morale of the staff has increased tremendously just knowing the support that this community has for them, Eason said. I can't describe how it's made people feel. It's made all the difference."

Albright shared photos, videos, information and thanks through a Facebook post on Saturday morning. The response from the community, especially the health care workers, was overwhelming. Nurses in the windows in her photos commented with thanks. Family members of hospital workers shared how much of a difference it made. Community members said they would show up and continue to pray.

Thats me, Rayshune Jackson posted. Im literally crying all over again.

Thank you Lee County Posted by Rayshune Jackson on Thursday, March 26, 2020

This is so uplifting! Audra McClure wrote. My niece works at EAMC and was brought to tears as she walked out to her car to head home.

Eason said Park and Pray is just one of many ways, big and small, the community is showing its support. Signs have been hung outside the hospital stating that the staff is full of heroes. Painted bricks and tiles line the walkway with colorful thanks and support. Thirteen churches have signed up for prayer chains, an idea that started with Auburn United Methodist Church. Theres also a prayer room where people can go to pray for an hour. More information can be found here. The Opelika and Auburn Chambers of Commerce have set up a program to feed the staff who cant leave their floors, which also supports businesses in town.

This is a horrific, horrific virus and pandemic, and to see the outpouring of love and support for the health care workers from the community has just been incredible and amazing," Eason said.

Read more coronavirus coverage:

Alabamians search for a new normal during third week of coronavirus pandemic

I miss them: Childcare professionals grapple with coronavirus closures, finances

Company gives Huntsville 65,000 pounds of free food

Amidst shutdown, Auburn signees find ways to keep preparing for college level

All-time top 5 Auburn and Alabama games to rewatch
Representative image

India's top venture capitalists have come together to set up a Rs 100 crore fund to help startups which are at the forefront of developing services and products to help fight the coronavirus outbreak, according to two people aware of the development.

Large VCs and active angel investors are expected to participate in the fund.

Four major VC firms - Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, Accel and Kalaari Capital - have been roped in to anchor the fund, said one of the persons mentioned above. Anchor investors generally contribute the most to a fund.

"More than 40 percent of the fund size has already been subscribed to within the first few days. The fund could close soon and can be deployed to help startups working in sectors which can directly help fight the virus," said the person mentioned above.

Moneycontrol could not immediately ascertain the exact split of the fund between institutional investors and angels.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

The VC funds did not respond to email queries sent by Moneycontrol. The copy will be updated once they revert.

The nascent Indian startup ecosystem has been badly affected by the coronavirus outbreak. From supply chains being disrupted to deals getting stuck, entrepreneurs are facing multiple challenges.

This prompted the start of dialogues between top investors, government officials and prominent entrepreneurs, looking to help the startups tide over this crisis.

Moneycontrol had earlier reported that VCs are also coming together to address queries and doubts for all Indian startups in these difficult times. Invest India, which is a facilitation agency for investments in the country has created a separate website for this. The Business Immunity Platform, united against Covid19: has been created to cater to all the requirements for startups. Not only are their queries getting addressed, the government is also encouraging tech startups to work on innovative solutions which can help fight the contagious virus.

"This fund will act as a major boost to players who can work on solutions and products to help fight Covid19, while there are platforms for them to showcase their technology solutions, the fund will help them scale up and innovate faster," said the second person mentioned above.

In an effort to get entrepreneurs across the country to pitch in, DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Investment and Internal Trade) with Startup India has called for innovative technologies for precautionary as well as treatment-related interventions mainly to address the impending healthcare challenge.

The government is specifically looking at solutions around protective equipment, contactless access, large area sanitisation, geofencing, crowd management and others.

There are multiple startups which are working across the spectrum to help consumers and the country overall in this tough situation.

For instance, health tech startups like Mfine are working on using telemedicine, artificial intelligence to detect Covid19 symptoms. Agva Healthcare, a Delhi based startup is trying to ramp up its production of a cost effective ventilator which can help address the shortfall of these instruments in the country, while 3D printing startups are creating components for helping hospitals treat patients.

Follow our full coverage here
Part of the control in life is thinking, if you needed help, youve got somewhere to go, he said. When that is taken off the table, all sense of control is gone, and hope starts fading.

He read aloud text messages he received over the weekend. Please continue to pray, one said. My mother, my grandmother and my grandfather have been admitted to the ER with coronavirus symptoms.

Then, later, My mother has died.

For Ms. Johnson, only one person mattered last week.

Her daughter, Tonya M. Thomas, was all she thought of while she was in the hospital. The illness had hit them almost simultaneously, but unaccountably, her 51-year-old daughter was the worst hit, with double pneumonia.

I was trying to feel better so I could come up here and take care of my daughter, said Ms. Johnson, an oncology nurse. I felt like if I hadnt been in the hospital I could have advocated for her.

She arrived in time, at 5:45 on Friday afternoon, to be with Ms. Thomas as she died. She called her a beautiful spirit, her familys center. Her best friend.

She unplugged her daughters ventilators and removed the IV tubes from her body.

Ms. Thomass husband, son and sister were in the room.

It just hurts so bad, I just dont understand it, Ms. Johnson said. We came together at a funeral of someone we love, and everyone came up and got sick.
Virus-free days may seem like a dream at the end of the rainbow right now.

But in the meantime kind-hearted children up and down the country are doing their best to spread colour and joy.

Beautiful homemade rainbows have been appearing in the windows of houses and businesses.

They are mainly created by children and are designed for other youngsters to spot while getting their daily exercise. Dozens of online groups have sprung up encouraging people to get involved.

Pictured: Darci, eight, and Alba, five, show off their rainbow banner on Isle of Sheppey

Ella Williamson, five, waves through a window in Stewarton, Ayrshire beneath a stunning rainbow display

They are mainly created by children and are designed for other youngsters to spot while getting their daily exercise. Dozens of online groups have sprung up encouraging people to get involved.

Organisers hope it will lift children's spirits during the crisis.

Nursery owner Kate Clavin and sons Harvey, eight, and Tommy, six, have decorated their windows in Doveridge, Derbyshire.

Pictured: The Clavin brothers (right) draw rainbows on a banner in Derbyshire and Regan McLeod (left) smiles beneath a window design

Village residents have been allocated numbers from one to 100 so children can count the rainbows as they go. Mrs Clavin said: 'Everyone has got involved.'

It is thought the rainbow initiative started in Italy before spreading to the US and UK.

And Daily Mail readers have been completing heart-shaped tributes to the NHS as part of a campaign we organised with top illustrator Millie Marotta.

Daily Mail readers have been completing heart-shaped tributes to the NHS as part of a campaign we organised with top illustrator Millie Marotta
The federal Securities and Exchange Commission is accusing a Rite Aid vice president of illegal insider trading over his sale of more than $650,000 in company stock.

The target of the charge, filed in U.S. Middle District Court in Harrisburg, is David M. Mahan, who has been a Rite Aid regional VP based in New Jersey since 2003. Mahan has worked for Rite Aid for nearly 36 years, court filings state.

The grist of the SECs complaint is that Mahan, armed with information not available to the public, dumped his company stock in January 2017 a day before the price dropped.

His sell-off of nearly 75,000 shares of stock was swayed by knowledge about what became the failed bid for Rite Aid to merge with Walgreens, the feds contend. Mahan knew the Federal Trade Commission was unlikely to approve the merger in time for a Jan. 27, 2017 deadline set on the deal, the SEC claims.

It claims Mahan should have known it was illegal to sell his stock based on that information which he wouldnt have had he not been in the higher echelons of Rite Aids management. Rite Aids own code of ethics, as well as federal law, barred such actions, investigators say.

Mahan sold his Rite Aid stock on Jan. 19, 2017 when it was going for $8.62 a share, according to the SEC complaint. A day later, after Bloomberg reported the FTC wasnt going to render a decision by the Jan. 27 cut-off. The value of Rite Aid stock promptly dropped to $7.46 a share, a decline of 13 percent. It later sank to $.6.50 per share.

Mahan avoided $87,277 in losses through the sell-off, the SEC charges.

It is asking Judge John E. Jones III to order Mahan to fork over the amount of the loss he avoided, plus mare than $12,000 in interest, and also to pay an $87,277 civil penalty. The SEC said Mahan, without conceding guilt, has consented to such a judgment.
An exception applies to citizens who travel to attend a funeral of a close relative.

Residents of occupied Crimea who have local registration and who are citizens of the Russian Federation will not be allowed to travel to mainland Ukraine through checkpoints on the de-facto border over the situation with the spread of coronavirus.

A temporary ban was introduced on Monday midnight, as reported by the so-called border control of Russia's FSB on Crimea, according to RFE/RL's media project Krym/Realii.

An exception applies to citizens who travel to attend a funeral of a close relative.

Read alsoUkraine struggles to debunk fake virus news  media

At the same time, Russian border guards say residents with Crimean registration will be able to enter the peninsula without restrictions.

Now 2,801 people are under medical supervision in Crimea, 62 people are in hospitals, 10 are being kept under observation in special medical institutions, according to the so-called "health ministry" of the peninsula.
gettyimagesbank



By Nam Hyun-woo



Businesses are making every effort to secure cash, cash-equivalent assets and other frms of liquidity as their gloomy earnings outlooks stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic are expected to worsen their credit ratings and trigger cash-flow problems.



According to the Korea Financial Investment Association, the total value of domestic companies' corporate bonds due next month is 6.55 trillion won ($5.35 billion), the largest for April since 1991.



Generally, companies handle their corporate bonds by issuing new ones. But such refinancing is facing setbacks after the COVID-19 outbreak, because the companies' grim earnings outlooks are aggravating their credit ratings and damaging investor sentiment on "lending" money.



On Monday, Moody's Investors Service said GDP growth would decline in the United States and major European economies in the second quarter and weakness would persist into the third quarter, followed by a recovery in the fourth.



In the U.S., the default rate would increase to 7.7 percent from 4.5 percent now by the end of the year. In Europe, it would increase to 4.8 percent from 1.5 percent, Moody's said.



As negative projections are raised on their cash flows, companies are striving to secure cash and other liquidity by unloading assets or getting loans from commercial banks.



"When the business environment is plagued with uncertainties, the best strategy for companies is securing cash," an official at one of the largest domestic conglomerates said. "Instead of making aggressive investments and facing uncertainties, many firms are making efforts to pile up cashable assets for potential share buybacks and to prepare for future investments."



As of last September, Samsung Electronics' cash-equivalent assets were 26.6 trillion won, followed by SK Holdings with 9.22 trillion won, Hyundai Motor with 9.21 trillion won and LG Electronics with 4.8 trillion won. Of them, Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor's cash assets declined by 19.59 percent and 1.37 percent from a year earlier, respectively.



"Those companies may not show immediate moves to secure liquidity due to their abundant cash-equivalent assets, but they are paying keen attention to keeping available cash at an appropriate level in order to prepare themselves for COVID-19 uncertainties," another industry official said. "As the capital market gets strained amid the outbreak, some firms having good cash flow are also tapping into commercial paper as a contingency."



Last week, Moody's placed the ratings of Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors on review for a downgrade, citing the companies' negative earnings outlook in the second quarter following the coronavirus pandemic.



Since the companies have abundant cash and cash-equivalent assets to handle their outstanding debts, they showed no direct reaction, but said they were "closely monitoring" the movement of the capital market to cope with uncertainties.





Lotte Shopping CEO Kang Hee-tae

Lotte Shopping has begun efforts to secure liquidity by restructuring its outlets. Earlier this month, the company said it would close more than 200 including branches of Lotte Department Store, Lotte Mart and Lotte Super. This accounts for nearly 30 percent of the company's total outlets. It said the move was aimed at securing financial prudence and efficient management of assets.



Smaller firms are also showing aggressive moves in securing cash.



Last week, discount chain E-mart said it would sell a 30,950-square-meter lot in Gangseo District, Seoul, to a consortium led by Taeyoung E&C for 818.5 billion won. The company said it decided to do so "to secure financial prudence and resources for further investments."





E-mart CEO Kang Heui-seok

E-mart initially purchased the lot from the Seoul Housing & Communities Corp. for 240 billion won in 2013, in a bid to establish a Starfield shopping complex there. Though a company official said, "it is a strategic decision to avoid cannibalization," industry officials said the sale apparently is aimed at securing cash in case the coronavirus pandemic is prolonged and hurts consumer demand.



Earlier this month, SK Networks sold more than 300 gas stations across Korea to a consortium consisting of Hyundai Oilbank and KORAMCO Reits & Trust for 1.33 trillion won. The company plans to use the money to repay debt and invest in new businesses.



In February, LG Hausys said it would sell an employee residence in Ulsan to construction firm Ildong for 63 billion won. The company said the sale was aimed at the "optimization of its assets."



The home materials firm has been suffering a deteriorating bottom line in recent years due to a protracted slowdown in the country's housing market.





SK Networks CEO Choi Shin-won
Photo credit: NurPhoto - Getty Images

From Popular Mechanics

USS Zumwalt, the worlds first purpose-built stealth destroyer, will join the rest of the U.S. Navy in days.

The ship was designed in the late 2000s for a mission that was obsolete by the time it was commissioned.

Instead of bombarding targets on land, the Zumwalt will take on the role of stealthy ship-killer.

The stealth destroyer USS Zumwalt is almost ready for action, three and a half years after it was commissioned into the U.S. Navy. The first-of-its-kind warship transformed from a ship designed to provide gunfire support for U.S. Marine landings to one designed to range across oceans and engage enemy fleets with long range missiles. In the meantime, the ships two 155-millimeter gunsthe reason why they were built in the first placeare still without ammunition.

USS Zumwalt was supposed to be the first of new generation of U.S. Navy destroyers. Each ship of the Zumwalt class (there were supposed to be 32 of them) would be fitted with two 155-millimeter Advanced Gun Systems, each capable of engaging targets with precision-guided shells at ranges of up to 60 miles. In wartime, the destroyers would creep close to enemy coastlines and then bombard targets in the path of an amphibious assault, softening up hostile defenses. The destroyers were designed to be stealthy and feature a knife-like profile that allegedly gives the 600-foot-long warship the radar signature of a fishing boat.

Unfortunately, the ships ran into rough seas before even hitting the water. Technical difficulties and cost overruns boosted the cost of the program, and the Navy ultimately decided to trim the class from 32 to just three ships. Meanwhile the Long Range Land Attack Projectile, the precision guided shell that would arm the ships guns, ballooned in price from $50,000 a round to $800,000. The Navy canceled LRLAP but pushed ahead to complete the three authorized shipsat a total cost of $23 billion.

Now, according to Defense News, USS Zumwalt is almost ready for war , with its new combat suite on track to be delivered within days. The lack of ammunition for the ships guns meant it could no longer fulfill the land attack mission, and the ship was in danger of becoming the white elephant of the fleet. The Navy changed the ships mission to a stealthy ship-killer.

Story continues

Photo credit: Handout - Getty Images

The Zumwalt-class destroyersin addition to their two 155-millimeter gunsare each equipped with 80 Mk. 57 vertical launch systems built into the sides of the hull. Each Mk. 57 can carry a single SM-2 or SM-6 long range surface-to-air missile, ASROC anti-submarine rocket torpedo, or up to four Evolved Sea Sparrow short-range surface to air missiles. Importantly, they can also carry the Tomahawk land attack cruise missile.



The rise of the Chinese Navy caught the U.S. Navy without an effective long range anti-ship missile, and the service scrambled to catch up. One result is a new version of the Tomahawk missile, Block V, also known as Maritime Strike Tomahawk . Most Navy warships, including destroyers, cruisers, and submarines, carry Tomahawk missiles as part of their missile inventories. Block V capabilities include the ability to change targets in mid-flight via satellite, target moving enemy ships at sea, and the new Joint Multiple Effects Warhead System . The Navy will convert all of its Tomahawks to the Block V configuration, enabling all ships already carrying the land attack version to now carry the ship-killing variant.

Here's a Tomahawk missile launching from a silo on a Burke-class destroyer:

The Zumwalt destroyers only have 80 missile silos, ten less than the older Burke-class destroyers and 42 less than the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruisers. A potential war load for the ships could be 30 Maritime Strike Tomahawks, 30 SM-6 and SM-2 missiles for long range air defense, 5 anti-submarine torpedo rockets, and 60 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles for short range defense.

In wartime, the Zumwalts would use their stealth to evade enemy sensors, setting up a long range ambush of enemy shipsparticularly Chinas new aircraft carriers. Maritime Strike Tomahawks have a range of 900 miles and that capability, paired with the radar signature of a fishing boat, will make the Zumwalts a difficult threat to defend against. The Zumwalt affair is a sad, tortuous, and expensive debacle even by American standards, but at least were finally getting a (mostly) useful ship out of it.

Source: Defense News

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Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home minister Amit Shah to check alleged incidents of attack and racial discrimination against people of the Northeast in some states where they are mistaken for Chinese after the coronavirus outbreak.

He attached a video with his tweet showing some Naga students being prevented from entering a grocery store in Mysuru.

"I am pained, shocked and in my worst awe seeing this video. When has humanity stooped so low," the chief minister said in his tweet.

He urged the prime minister and the home minister to look into the matter and take immediate action against those responsible for such acts.

"I kindly request Shri Narendra Modi ji and Shri Amit Shah ji to look into the matter," he said in the tweet.

Zoramthanga also tagged fellow chief ministers of Meghalaya, Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh-- Conrad Sangma, Sarbananda Sonowal, Neiphiu Rio and Pema Khandu.

Meghalaya chief minister Sangma said he had spoken to Mysuru MP Pratap Simha who informed him that an FIR has been lodged and two people have also been arrested in connection with the incident.

The illness caused by the coronavirus started from Wuhan in China before rampaging through most of the planet.

Poople from the Northeastern states have since been the target of racial slur and discrimination because of their mongoloid features.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
[March 30, 2020] Onapsis Launches The Onapsis nCase Partner Program

Onapsis, the leader in business-critical application protection, today announced the official launch of the Onapsis nCase Partner Program. This new program opens business opportunities for partners in the fast-growing market of protecting business-critical SAP and Oracle (News - Alert) applications as they migrate to the cloud and drive digital transformations for the Global 2000. The Onapsis nCase Partner Program is led by Darren Gaeta, Vice President of Worldwide Alliances and Channels. Prior to Onapsis, Gaeta built and scaled successful alliance and channel programs for cybersecurity solutions for Anomali, Securonix and HP Arcsight. This new partner program is built on a four-pillar strategy, which was developed by Gaeta several years ago with the goal of reaching strategic system integrators, managed security service providers (MSSPs), technology alliance partners and value-added resellers (VARs). "We're excited to see this next phase of the Onapsis nCase Partner Program come to fruition as our strategic alliances grow," said Chris Smith, Chief Revenue Officer, Onapsis. "As modern companies focus on complex digital transformation projects and cloud migrations, it's crucial to ensure the availability, security and compliance of the mission-critical processes that help run their businesses. The Onapsis nCase Partner Program extends the reach of our mission to empower organizations to protect their business-critical applications." Onapsis partners gain access to the company's specialized knowledge base, expertise and insights into best practices for ensuring the availability, security and compliance of business-critical applications, including actionable information about the key quality, security and compliance issues that need to be addressed during SAP (News - Alert) S/4HANA projects and cloud migrations for SAP and Oracle. Additional benefits to partners include: New product and service offerings that support emerging business-critical application transformation, cloud migration and regulatory compliance use cases Improved revenue margins with a trusted leader in protecting business-critical applications

Participation in deal registration by reselling Onapsis technology solutions

Access to Onapsis market-leading technology for use in consulting engagements

The ability to incorporate Onapsis technology, experts and analytics into managed security service offerings

Product integrations to drive value within the security and audit ecosystem

Exclusive access to sales and technical training, as well as branding and lead generation programs

Significant services revenue built around Onapsis implementations



Gaeta's recognition to CRN's 2020 list of Channel Chiefs. This annual list, which was released in February, recognizes the top vendor executives who continually demonstrate exemplary leadership, influence, innovation and growth for the IT channel, with cutting-edge strategies and partnerships. Additionally, the Onapsis nCase Partner Program has been included in CRN's 2020 Partner Program Guide. This annual guide is the definitive listing of the most rewarding partner programs from technology companies that provide products and services through the IT channel, based on several factors, including investments in program offerings, partner profitability, partner training, education and support, marketing programs and resources, sales support and communication.

To learn more about Onapsis's partner program and how to join, please visit: https://www.onapsis.com/partners/why-partner-onapsis. About Onapsis Onapsis protects the business-critical applications that run the global economy. The Onapsis Platform uniquely delivers actionable insight, secure change, automated governance and continuous monitoring for mission-critical systems-ERP, CRM, PLM, HCM, SCM and BI applications-from well-known vendors such as SAP, Oracle and leading SaaS (News - Alert) platforms. Onapsis is headquartered in Boston, MA, with offices in Heidelberg, Germany and Buenos Aires, Argentina. We proudly serve more than 300 of the world's leading brands, including 20% of the Fortune 100, 6 of the top 10 automotive companies, 5 of the top 10 chemical companies, 4 of the top 10 technology companies and 3 of the top 10 oil and gas companies. The Onapsis Platform is powered by the Onapsis Research Labs, the team responsible for the discovery and mitigation of more than 800 zero-day vulnerabilities in business-critical applications. The reach of our threat research and platform is broadened through leading consulting and audit firms such as Accenture (News - Alert), Deloitte, IBM, PwC and Verizon-making Onapsis solutions the de-facto standard in helping organizations protect their cloud, hybrid and on-premises business-critical information and processes. For more information, connect with us on Twitter or LinkedIn, or visit us at https://www.onapsis.com. Onapsis and Onapsis Research Labs are registered trademarks of Onapsis Inc. All other company or product names may be the registered trademarks of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005049/en/

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Virus rumour sparks riot, prison break

THAILAND: A riot erupted at the central prison of this lower northeastern province after about 100 hard-core prisoners broke furniture and smashed windows and set a fire over rumours of a COVID-19 outbreak yesterday (Mar 29), Justice Minister Somsak Thepsutin said.

CoronavirusCOVID-19

By Bangkok Post

Monday 30 March 2020, 08:15AM

A number of prisoners escaped, said Justice Minister Somsak Thepsutin, but seven have since been recaptured. Photo: Bangkok Post

A number of prisoners escaped, he said, but seven have since been recaptured.

Citing an initial report, Mr Somsak said the protest began about 11.45am in the dining hall while warders were busy refurbishing an isolation cell for inmates infected with communicable diseases.

About 100 inmates, some of them facing a life sentence, set fire to the dining hall and demolished the visiting room for relatives.

Thick smoke was seen billowing from the prison into the sky.

The fact is that none of the prisoners in Buri Ram were infected [with the coronavirus] - they only started this rumour to find supporters, the minister said, adding the cafeteria and visiting areas were among the areas torched.

Mental health workers were later deployed to reassure prisoners after some rumours were spread about a COVID-19 outbreak, deputy Provincial Police Region 3 chief Pol Maj Gen Akkaradej Pimonsri said.

The situation is under control, he added.

A number of the protesters escaped during the riot. Although the exact number is yet to be confirmed, local police said they are hunting at least six inmates known to be on the run.

The breakout prompted prison officials to alert the governor and ask police and military personnel to set up checkpoints to intercept the escapees.

Mr Somsak said he was last notified that seven of the escapees had been recaptured while inmates who were not involved in the riot had been confined to their quarters for the time being.

He said Pol Col Naras Savestanan, director-general of the Corrections Department, had travelled to Buri Ram to investigate.

Pol Col Naras, in a media interview on a helicopter flight to Buri Ram, said five people were initially reported hurt in the incident but details were still emerging.

The situation was under control but details were not yet clear, he added.

Buri Ram Prison, like other prisons nationwide, has been closed to visitors to stem the coronavirus outbreak under the governments executive decree for administration in emergency situations.
'On the darkest of nights, that's when you see the most stars." This is how Sarah Cassidy, whose father was buried last week, describes her community's response to her family's grief.

When Willie Gallagher (95) passed away after a short illness, his family was distraught. This man, a giant in their lives and a stalwart in his community of Gweedore in the heart of the Donegal Gaeltacht, was gone from them.

Not only had his wife Kathleen and his five children to deal with the loss of their husband and father but they also had to grapple with the restrictions around funerals as a result of Covid-19.

The new rules are an additional ordeal that bereaved families across the country find themselves dealing with even as they try to say farewell to their loved ones.

In a place as tightly knit as Gweedore, where the ancient rites of death and the importance of the wake at the centre of it are closely observed, staying apart would be a challenge. The family were thrust into dealing with their very private grief which coincided with the largest social shutdown the world has ever seen.

"He was a huge figure in the local area. He'd spent a lot of time in the US and he had friends all over the place. He was very rooted in the area and his friendships meant so much to him. He had a lot of friends of all ages and he was great for visiting and telling stories," Sarah says of her dad.

And even though the traditional large wake with friends and neighbours calling from far and wide could not be observed, Sarah says the whole family felt their community carried them through it all.

At the wake in the family's hotel, Teach Mhici in Derrybeg, people gathered outside, keeping their distance, dropping flowers at the door and leaving.

Sarah recalls one of the most poignant scenes that stays in her mind when her aunt Brid, her mother's sister arrived. "She came to the door and my mother Kathleen and Brid cried together from a distance." Sarah observed the same ritual with her own best friend, together yet apart, grieving deeply together.

But what Sarah says she will never forget is the way her community came together on the day of her father's funeral.

When the family left the church bringing their father on his final journey, Sarah says people from the parish had gathered a good distance apart taking up every corner of the graveyard. She describes it as like witnessing a sea of angels and the most comforting thing she had ever seen.

"The physical distance that people adhered to... they had spread out to every corner of the graveyard which is on a hill overlooking the sea. It was the most beautiful scene," she says. "People went even further just to be there even though they couldn't come close. I have never felt as close to people in my own area as I did that morning."

The restrictions on travel meant that Sarah's brother Colm couldn't make it home from San Francisco for the funeral. But the family were touched when a local production company got in touch to say they would record proceedings which were broadcast on the funeral director's Facebook page.

While it's very early days for them all in terms of grieving, Sarah says she feels great comfort from people even though they might not be able to call and see her. "I'm suffering for my dad. It feels like the whole world is suffering and death is a global theme. It's like the whole world is in mourning," she says.

According to Donegal-based funeral director Colm Gillespie, people are very concerned about what the new arrangements for funerals will mean for grieving families. The undertaker, based in Gweedore, says the norm in the area is for people to attend a wake at the home of the deceased and express their condolences in person.

He says it's not unusual for the parish church to be packed to capacity with hundreds of people for a funeral so the new arrangements will be a complete change to the norm.

HSE guidelines announced earlier this month advised that funerals should be held privately with only family and close friends present, with social distancing being maintained at all times with no handshaking or hugging.

The guidelines stated that there should be no public advertisement of funeral arrangements, in print or online, but death notices can be placed without arrangements. Families can advise friends and relations privately of funeral arrangements.

There should be no condolence book at the funeral and public reposing must be discouraged, as should funeral home gatherings.

Close family members of people who die from coronavirus will be allowed to attend their funerals, but only under strictly controlled conditions.

Families will be able to say goodbye to their loved ones in the coffin but will not be allowed to kiss the deceased.

The guidelines state that the deceased should be brought from the healthcare facility to the designated funeral home or the church where the service will be held.

Despite the restrictions, Mr Gillespie says people are finding ways to express their grief, with more people sending cards or letters to the bereaved family or using RIP.ie to express their condolences.

"I'm sure people will be coming up to the bereaved in the months to come because they didn't get to see them at the time," he says.

Funeral directors will also find new ways to help in the changed circumstances.

In the past 10 days, Mr Gillespie has had two funerals. At the funeral of Willie Gallagher, the production company filmed the funeral and it was broadcast live on Mr Gillespie's Facebook page so absent family members and friends could watch. In the second case, he filmed proceedings using his mobile phone on a tripod so anyone who wanted to be there, but could not, could view the funeral.

"When someone dies, the family's concern is with their loved-one. Covid-19 is an added burden. The situation is changing all the time and we don't know what's ahead. When the time comes, we can only try to comfort the family as best we can," he says.

Orla Keegan, head of education and bereavement at the Irish Hospice Foundation, says while death is always difficult, people's hearts are going out to the bereaved at this time.

She says people will look at other ways of reaching out to people even though they cannot physically be present. While attending wakes allows people to talk about the deceased person and share stories with their loved ones, Ms Keegan says it's still important to make that contribution even though it can't be done face to face.
Barry Sheelan, in Sardinia

Today marks three weeks since the start of the Italian national lockdown due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus. As of this morning, there are 638 positive cases, and 27 deaths caused by the virus on the island of Sardinia.

The national restrictions, although originally planned to end this Friday, April 3rd, are still in place indefinitely. We are still unable to leave our homes, unless for grocery shopping, for medical reasons, or for essential work.

The Italian government, who initially had tolerated people leaving their homes in order to exercise, have since restricted the acceptable distance for this exercise to a maximum of 200 metres from our homes. The reason stated for this further restriction was to stop people gathering in groups to run or walk in popular tourist spots.

Despite these further restrictions, some people are continuing to receive fines as they attempt to flaunt the restrictions by travelling unnecessarily. To combat this, Italian Prime Minister Conte last week increased the fine for unjustified travelling, from 206 to between 400 and 3000. The infraction also carries a possible prison sentence of up to three months for those who break the law.

Daily spot checks are now carried out by the Police, and the Italian military.

The restrictions, although severe, appear to be working, as the number of daily reported cases nationally have slowed in growth.

Sassari, the second-largest city on the island, has been hit hard, however. Of the 638 confirmed cases on the island, Sassari counts for 415 - hospitals here continue to struggle with this high number.

Closer to home, in my town of Decimomannu, with a population of 8,000 people, we have received news of our first confirmed case of the COVID-19 Coronavirus.

The local mayor, Anna Paola Marongiu, has decided not to announce any identifying information about the confirmed case at this moment in time, and opinions are divided. People are scared, however, the mayor advised that people who had been in touch with this person would be contacted directly and that the persons privacy would be respected.

According to Mayor Marongiu we have activated all the planned precautions  I will do everything in my power to protect the health of my community.

Without losing our tempers, please respect the measures, remembering that the best way to avoid contagion is to stay at home the mayor added.

Even before the news of this confirmed case was made public, local supermarkets and pharmacies had made the decision to not allow anyone to enter their premises without a face mask. There is also a limited amount of people allowed into shops at any one time. If this number has been reached, we must wait outside and follow a policy of one out, one in.

Following another announcement by the national government, funds will be granted individually to local town councils to be distributed to families in need, or small businesses, who have suffered financially due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

Apart from these government plans, in a great example of community spirit, volunteers in towns and cities across Italy have set up groups for people to buy groceries for those less fortunate. This is then distributed by the volunteers anonymously, to local families in need.

The lockdown is far from over in Italy, and we are still isolated, but the sense of community has grown stronger than ever.
As the tornado touched down, moving from south to north, some said they were at home watching the local television news, seeing in real time the funnel forming over the meteorologists shoulders. It caused significant damage at the Mall at Turtle Creek and at an Anheuser-Busch granary. Cars were picked up and tossed aside. Part of a freight train was knocked over.

All I could hear was just the most horrific exploding, said Sharon Gore, 60, who could see the destroyed mall from her driveway. There was so much glass cracking. I couldnt believe it. I was just calling the name of Jesus over and over again, because I couldnt even get a prayer out. It was like bombs were dropping.

Jonesboro, a city of about 75,000 in northeast Arkansas, had been devastated by tornadoes before. A storm in 1968 killed 34 people and injured some 300 others. Another storm in 1973 also left a trail of destruction. Three people were killed, but it was hailed as a miracle for not being deadlier.

If the storm had struck just a few hours earlier, it would have caught hundreds of shoppers in the Carraway Road area, which was pounded with savage fury, wrote Mike Overall, city editor of The Jonesboro Sun, according to a retrospective published in 2013 by Memphis magazine. And, everyone shudders to think what would have happened if the twisters had hit during school hours. Nevertheless, the fact that so many lived was a miracle in itself.

Mr. Long, the city councilman, pitched in on Sunday morning, covering roofs and boarding up windows. He saw residents picking through debris and clearing yards, and others carrying ice chests and handing out drinks and snacks. He said that keeping distance was difficult for residents, just as juggling the tandem emergencies would be for city officials.

You do what you have to do to meet the need at the moment, and right now, this is what were doing, he said. Were doing our best to keep the virus under control. We will not abandon those people who need us the most at this time.
Ozark Fire Pink Season 3 Episode 9 Editors Rating 5 stars * * * * *  Previous Next  Photo: Steve Dietl/Netflix

The saddest episode in the history of Ozark is also one of its best, anchored by truly moving performances from Laura Linney and Tom Pelphrey. Linneys Wendy Byrde has often been a cold political animal, a shark unafraid of any other predators in the water, even a drug kingpin like Omar Navarro. Whats finally broken her, and even brought her back to her husband Marty, is the sad saga of her brother Ben. Linney deftly captures how Wendys emotional connection to her brother influences the tough decisions she has to make this episode, while Pelphrey conveys the horror of being somewhat aware that you are constantly making bad decisions but still are unable to stop. In the opening scene, a monologue that should earn him an Emmy nomination, he speaks of general anxiety and fear, that feeling that a kid is going to jump in the road as youre driving and change your life forever. Ben thinks hes the driver. Hes actually the kid jumping into the road.

Fire Pink feels like a set-up for a war between Helen Pierce and Ben Davis, but its not exactly that. Ben is lucky to have someone like Ruth in his life, because she instantly knows the danger of the situation when she hears that her boyfriend told Erin Pierce about her mothers role in an illegal empire. The way she goes and grabs a shotgun and a go bag is amazing. She gets Ben out instantly, and, after a brief memory scene with Marty, the episode is basically about Wendy trying to figure out what to do with her brother, as he constantly sabotages everything she does.

Everyone but Ben seems to comprehend the danger inherent in what he did with Erin and Helen. As Helen says, Theres no room for mental illness in a criminal empire. She may be emotional about what Erin knows, but theres a key moment in the kitchen with Marty when she tells him that the major concern is who else Ben might someday tell. Hes a loose end, and criminal operations cant have loose ends.

At first, it feels like the Byrdes may start an all-out war with Helen. They consider going to Navarro and convincing him that theyre more valuable than Helen. And its an argument that Wendy might be able to win. The problem is that Ben needs to be shuttled to safety before that can happen, but his illness and emotion keep sabotaging his sisters attempts to keep him alive.

Before then, Erin goes to hear the truth from the Byrde children. Would Helen allow that? She probably cant just lock Erin in her room, but doesnt it seem like she might try? Or get her on a train immediately? The Byrdes are dangerous. Theyve killed people. Helen is sometimes fearless, but if Ben is the vulnerability on the Byrde side of the empire, Erin is the one on her side. Its hard to believe Helen would just let her talk to Jonah and Charlotte. But she does. And she learns that what Uncle Ben said was true.

She rushes into the Byrde home while Wendy is still there, trying to talk Helen into sparing her brother. When Erin drops everything on the table, Wendy tries to lie, but Jonah stops it. The coldest and scariest moment comes when Helen looks at the Byrde kids as she says, unacceptable vulnerabilities, but it also adds depth to why Helen was so secretive with her daughter. Its not out of pride or concern over illegal behavior. Its because people who know what people like Helen do end up dead. Helen is upset because her daughter is now a vulnerability.

And then the truly tragic final arc of Ben Davis really kicks off. After Wyatt Langmore, of all people, talks him out of running, he actually goes to the Missouri Belle. With people outside watching and an FBI agent inside, he begins a pattern of destructive behavior. Marty shuttles him into a car quickly and gets him to Wendy, but she doesnt know what to do but drive. What now? Does Robert Forster show up and give Ben a new life at a Cinnabon?

Before that option can be explored, Wendy falls asleep in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart stand-in called Warner Mart (subtle), and Ben actually calls in a tip. The cops show up to see Ben and Wendy, reporting on a call that a drug lord is targeting someone in a car in a big box store parking lot. Wendy talks her way out of the situation, and the siblings hit the road again to who knows where.

Its not Bens last mistake. Shortly thereafter, he calls Helen, trying to apologize, trying to fix something that cant be fixed. Wendy catches him and her polite regard starts to crumble. As Ben slaps himself and sobs, Wendy struggles. Hes a mess, but he volunteers to go to Knoxville and lay low. Even Wendy cant quite believe this. Its like the alcoholic saying hes clean as he goes into the liquor store.

As Martys plan to keep the known evil of Maya Miller in the Belle seems to work, Ben spirals further. At a gas station, he buys a burner phone, and Wendy knows its over. She has to turn him in or kill him herself. Over pancakes, they talk about the past and future, and then Wendy walks away from her brother, leaving the restaurant. She goes to the car and drives away, tearfully calling Marty as the cleaner known as Nelson takes her parking spot. He marches toward a confused Ben as Wendy cries in her car on the side of the road. Through sobs she asks her husband, What are we doing?

Dirty Laundry

 This episode has one of the best examples yet of what we should call the Wendy Turn, wherein she goes from convincing someone to intimidating them. Shes always so polite and smiling at first, like with the cop in the parking lot, and then shes not. Theres even a variation on the Wendy Turn in the gas station when she realizes her brother bought the phone  the look in her eyes conveying the knowledge that a new tactic is necessary.

 Its funny how much Ozark is a show about danger bringing people together. The saga with Ben leads to the first time Marty has told his wife he loves her in a very long time. And its brought Wyatt and Ruth back together after their drama. They even hug. This is often a drama about the solidarity created by common fear.

 This is Linneys best season. She was almost certainly an Emmy nomination lock before, but she might be a front-runner to win now. And I hope Pelphrey gets a nod, too, just for that opening scene alone. It really sets the stage for the tragedy to follow.

Ruths Most Iconic Lines on 'Ozark'
New Delhi, March 30 : As COVID-19 spreads across the globe, consequently 30 Indians have returned from Afghanistan on Monday on board a Kam Air flight.

Accordingly, the flight from Kabul to New Delhi landed here at around 2.40 p.m. on Monday.

At present, no domestic or international passenger flight operations are allowed. However, cargo operations have been permitted.
Nature can be a source of comfort and solace in times of crisis, said Sir David Attenborough.

In an interview with Big Issue magazine about the climate, the 93-year-old naturalist said the world is experiencing an unprecedented situation.

He said: In times of crisis, the natural world is a source of both joy and solace. The natural world produces the comfort that can come from nothing else. And we are part of the natural world.

If we damage the natural world, we damage ourselves.

Humans are the only species with anything like the power they have over the natural world, he said, and added: There is nothing remotely like the situation were in at the moment.

Environment news in pictures Show all 8 1 /8 Environment news in pictures Environment news in pictures Davos 2019: David Attenborough issues stark warning about future of civilisation as he demands practical solutions to combat climate change Sir David Attenborough has issued a stark warning about climate change to business figures gathered in Davos, telling them that "what we do now...will profoundly affect the next few thousand years". On the eve of this year's World Economic Forum, the renowned naturalist told the audience that the worlds of business and politics should "get on with the practical solutions" needed to prevent environmental damage. "As a species we are expert problem solvers. But we've not yet applied ourselves to this problem with the focus it requires. "We can create a world with clean air and water, unlimited energy, and fish stocks that will sustain us well into the future. But to do that, we need a plan," he said. The broadcaster made his speech after receiving a Crystal Award, which is awarded by the forum to "exceptional cultural leaders". AFP/Getty Environment news in pictures At least 60% of wild coffee species face extinction triggered by climate change and disease Two decades of research have revealed that 60 per cent of the worlds coffee species face extinction due to the combined threats of deforestation, disease and climate change. The wild strain of arabica, the most widely consumed coffee on the planet, is among those now recognised as endangered, raising concerns about its long-term survival. These results are worrying for the millions of farmers around the world who depend on the continued survival of coffee for their livelihoods. As conditions for coffee farming become tougher, scientists predict the industry will need to rely on wild varieties to develop more resilient strains Alan Schaller Environment news in pictures Warming Antarctic waters are speeding the rate at which glaciers are melting The Antarctic ice sheet is losing six times as much ice each year as it was in the 1980s and the pace is accelerating, one of the most comprehensive studies of climate change effects on the continent has shown. More than half an inch has been added to global sea levels since 1979, but if current trends continue it will be responsible for metres more in future, the Nasa-funded study found. The international effort used aerial photos, satellite data and climate models dating back to the 1970s across18 Antarctic regions to get the most complete picture to date on the impacts of the changing climate. It found that between 1979 and 1990 Antarctica lost an average of 40 gigatonnes (40 billion tonnes) of its mass each year. Between 2009 and 2017 it lost an average 252 gigatonnes a year. This has added 3.6mm per decade to sea levels, or around 14mm since 1979, the study shows Nasa/Getty Environment news in pictures Greater Manchester to ban fracking, paving way for confrontation with government over controversial industry Greater Manchester is to effectively ban fracking, raising the prospect of fresh confrontation with the government over the controversial industry. All of the regions 10 councils are to implement planning policies which create a presumption against drilling for shale gas in their areas, Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has announced. Campaigners said the move was the latest sign that the tide was turning against fracking, which has been the subject of multiple legal battles across the country. Critics of fracking say it poses environmental and health risks. Drilling at the UKs only operational fracking site, run by Cuadrilla in Lancashire, has repeatedly been halted due to earth tremors. But ministers support the industry and last year unveiled plans to accelerate the development of new drilling sites Ross Wills Environment news in pictures Japan confirms plan to resume commercial whaling in its waters from next year Japan will resume commercial whaling next year for the first time in more than three decades, in a move that has provoked strong criticism from campaigners and the international community. Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said his nation would leave the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to resume hunting the marine mammals in Japanese waters. However, he stated the activity would be limited to Japans territory and the 200 mile exclusive economic zone along its coasts. This means controversial scientific trips to Antarctica in which Japanese vessels killed hundreds of whales, as well as activity in the northwest Pacific, will stop in 2019 AP Environment news in pictures COP24: Environmental groups criticise morally unacceptable climate deal reached after major Poland summit Diplomats from around the world have agreed a major climate deal after two weeks of United Nations talks in Poland. But climate campaigners warned the deal  effectively a set of rules for how to govern the 2015 Paris climate accord  agreed between almost 200 countries lacked ambition or a clear promise of enhanced climate action. Activists cautiously welcomed elements of the plan, saying important progress had been made on ensuring that efforts to tackle climate change by individual nations can be measured and compared. But environmental groups were also highly critical of the agreement, warning it lacked ambition and clarity on key issues, including financing for climate projects for developing countries. The COP24 deal, which is aimed at providing firm guidelines for countries on how to transparently report their greenhouse gas emissions and their efforts to reduce them, was confirmed on 15 December, after talks overran Reuters Environment news in pictures Unprecedented changes needed to stop global warming as UN report reveals islands starting to vanish and coral reefs dying Greenhouse gas emissions must be cut almost in half by 2030 to avert global environmental catastrophe, including the total loss of every coral reef, the disappearance of Arctic ice and the destruction of island communities, a landmark UN report has concluded. Drawing on more than 6,000 scientific studies and compiled over two years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) findings, released this morning, warn enormous and rapid changes to the way everyone on Earth eats, travels and produces energy need to be brought in immediately. Though the scientists behind the report said there is cause for optimism, they recognised the grim reality that nations are currently nowhere near on track to avert disaster AFP/Getty Environment news in pictures Africas three biggest elephant poaching cartels exposed using DNA from illegal ivory shipments DNA taken from massive shipments of ivory has been used to identify the three largest wildlife trafficking gangs operating at the height of Africas elephant poaching epidemic. Ivory tends to be shipped around the world from African ports in bulk, and scientists have used genetic evidence gleaned from intercepted batches to reveal their origins. Led by Dr Samuel Wasser from the University of Washington, they traced a number of these shipments to three cartels operating out of Kenya, Uganda and Togo. Evidence collected by Dr Wasser has already helped convict ivory kingpin Feisal Mohamed Ali, and as his team joins the dots between shipments they plan to shore up the cases against more of the continents most prolific smugglers Art Wolfe

Theres no moral to be taken from what happened in the past. Weve got a completely blank sheet of paper in front of us.

The plain fact is that every mouthful of food you eat comes from the natural world. Theres no food that nourishes you that doesnt come from the natural world. Every lungful of air that you take is refined by the natural world, oxygen breathed out by plants, Mr Attenborough added.

If you cant breathe and you cant eat, you dont exist.

But there was cause for hope in children, he said.

Kids these days are knowledgeable, aware of whats happening, and are concerned. They are vocal. I havent know a generation of children that could be placed alongside these today.

Mr Attenborough was interviewed by Big Issue before the UK went into lockdown earlier this month.

He said: Problems are short-term and long-term the short-term we deal with and the long-term well do tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes. And then suddenly we discover its too late.

This week's cover of The Big Issue, featuring David Attenborough (PA)

The full interview is in the current edition of Big Issue, which can be accessed via subscription as vendors are unable to sell on the streets due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Reporting by PA
Villagers in India quarantined themselves up trees to avoid spreading coronavirus to their family members.

The labourers were told to self-isolate for 14 days after making the long-distance journey home from the city of Chennai to a remote district of West Bengal.

Video footage shows the seven-strong group setting up temporary residence in two Mango trees and a Banyan tree normally used to look out for elephants.

They told reporters that they did not want to enter their village and put their family at risk because they live in one single-room mud hut in the village of Vangidi in the Balampur area of Purulia district.

The doctor directed us to stay at home and practice social distancing, villager Bijoy Sing Laya said.

We dont have personal rooms in our houses. It was decided in the village that we should be isolated, we are living on and under the tree out of our own free will and we are doing well here. There are no problems.

Indias entire population of 1.3 billion has been ordered to stay at home until 15 April by prime minister Narendra Modi.

The lockdown has left hundreds of thousands of people unemployed and prompted a mass exodus of migrant workers from cities towards their villages.

With buses and trains shut down, many are making the journey by foot, raising concerns they would spread the virus to the countryside where health facilities are limited.

On Sunday, police in the western city of Surat fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of migrant workers who demanded to be allowed to go home to other parts of India.

The workers refused to budge, and started pelting stones at police, said Surat deputy commissioner of police Vidhi Chaudhari. Officers detained 93 people for violating lockdown orders.

Mr Modi has apologised for the abrupt 21-day lockdown, saying that he had no choice.

Indias health ministry reported a total 1,071 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 29 deaths in its latest update on Monday.

Additional reporting by agencies
The Make-A-Wish Ireland Charity are delighted to announce, that they have achieved their target of raising 80,000 through their annual Wish Day initiatives.

This year, being fraught with difficulty, forced the Charity to cancel their national on-street collections due to the outbreak of COVID 19. Following on from advice from the HSE and the Government, and in the interests of Public Health and Safety, the annual fundraiser became a Virtual Wish Day with members of the public being asked to donate through a dedicated text line, or via the charitys website www.makeawish.ie

Wish Day is a key fundraiser for Make-A-Wish Ireland who grant some 200 wishes annually for children with life threatening illnesses such as cancer, cystic fibrosis and heart disease.

The charity receives no government support, and it is only through the kind donations of the general public that the work of Make-A-Wish can happen.

Make-A-Wish CEO Susan ODwyer says the organisation "are absolutely delighted with this result. We cannot thank the general public, and media, enough for their support. A big thanks to our corporate partners and specifically SPAR who are still supporting this incredible organisation. Wish Day is critical to our fundraising, and in light of Covid-19, has become even more important to us as we know of at least 10 key fundraising events that have been cancelled for the months ahead. In times like this hope is even more important, and the hope and strength we give our children is critical to their abilities to battle their illness. Thank you so much for your ongoing support."
(Natural News) The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) put out a video recently urging Americans not to withdraw their money from banks because the banking system is supposedly doing just fine. But if thats really true, then why say anything about it at all?

FDIC Chairwoman Jelena McWilliams basically told America that the safest place to keep your money is in an FDIC-insured bank, even despite the economic catastrophe that looms from the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.

With soft piano music playing in the background, McWilliams offered reassurance that your money is safe at the banks, and that the last thing you should be doing is pulling your money out of the banks thinking its going to be safer somewhere else.

Its a nice sentiment, but does it bear any resemblance to reality? A good rule of thumb when it comes to the American banking Ponzi scheme is that if the government says everything is just fine and not to worry, the exact opposite is probably whats really true.

In this case, McWilliams urgency in telling people to keep their money in the bank is probably an indicator that they shouldnt, or at least that they should pay close attention to whats going on in order to make changes in a flash, if necessary.

The fact of the matter is that theres currently about $250 trillion worth of debt in the world right now, and much of that exists on the balance sheets of the United States. And with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) halting the worlds economic system, the time is coming to pay the piper.

But will people actually be able to do that, seeing as how millions of Americans can no longer work? Will there actually be any money in circulation to service mortgages or student loans or credit cards?

Listen below to The Health Ranger Report as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, talks to James Yeager about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the urgent need to brush up on your self-defense skills:

The FDIC only has enough cash to cover less than 1% of the entire banking system

While McWilliams is technically correct in stating that not a single depositor has lost money since 1933, the fact of the matter is that were now dealing with a whole new animal, the likes of which has never before been seen in human history.

Depending on how long this pandemic persists, the economic calamity its creating could be far more than what the FDIC could ever possibly insure.

As it turns out, the FDIC only has about $109 billion on hand to insure the $13 trillion that makes up the American banking system. This adds up to less than one percent coverage capacity, which is nothing short of grim when considering the cascading economic effects of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19).

Neither the FDIC, nor any bank, has ever had to deal with a complete shutdown of the economy  or potential losses of this magnitude, warns Sovereign Man.

The Covid-19 impact on the banking system could be 10x bigger than the housing meltdown in 2008  If the pandemic ends up causing trillions of dollars of loan losses, the FDIC wont have enough ammunition to fix it  and that doesnt even consider trillions of dollars more in potentially toxic derivatives exposure.

In a nutshell, the FDIC is being less than honest in claiming that everything is 100 percent safe, here. And while we cant make any recommendations about how to respond, we would simply advise that you read between the lines and make your own assessment of how to proceed.

More of the latest news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis is available at Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

SovereignMan.com

NaturalNews.com
TORONTO  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus wife said Saturday that she has recovered from being ill from COVID-19 disease caused by the new coronavirus.

I am feeling so much better, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau said in a statement on social media. She said she received the clearance from her doctor and Ottawa Public Health.

Trudeaus office announced on March 12 that she had tested positive for the coronavirus after she fell ill upon returning from a trip to London.

The prime minister and his family have been in self isolation at home since then. He and their three children didnt show symptoms.

Justin Trudeau has been giving daily news conferences outside his residence. He said earlier Saturday that his wife was in in fine form.

From the bottom of my heart, I want to say thank you to everyone who reached out to me with their well wishes. And to everyone who is suffering right now, I send you all my love, she said.

The prime minister suggested Saturday that he would continue to work from home to set an example for Canadians who are being asked to stay at home.

Ontario, Canadas most populous province, meanwhile, said Saturday that it is prohibiting gatherings of five people or more. The order was effective immediately and replaced one that prohibited public events of over 50 people. It does not apply to households with five or more people, and funerals will be permitted with up to 10 people at one time.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said if the virus is to be stopped, extraordinary measures are needed to ensure physical distancing. The province has already closed all nonessential services.

Quebec announced police checkpoints in eight regions outside the provinces major cities where the population is deemed more at risk. Quebec Deputy Premier Genevieve Guilbault said that only essential travel will be allowed in those areas and that provincial police have also set up checkpoints near the Canada-U.S. border to intercept snowbirds coming back to Quebec to ensure they understand there is a 14-day quarantine.

Canada has more than 5,616 confirmed coronavirus cases, including 61 deaths. About 445 people have recovered.
Thousands of individuals are calling on the government to amend a huge oversight in the coronavirus job retention scheme that is already leaving workers being laid off across the country.

Unveiling the programme ten days ago, Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, said employers can claim a grant covering 80 per cent of the wages for a furloughed worker  to a maximum of 2,500 per month.

He said the unprecedented package would allow those placed on temporary leave to volunteer without risking their pay, or sign up as one of the many of thousands to help the NHS as the cases of covid-19 continue to climb.

But under updated criteria for the scheme published by the government on Friday, workers must have been on their employer's PAYE payroll on or before the 28 February 2020  three weeks before Boris Johnson announced stringent restrictions on public life.

A Facebook group set up by workers ineligible for the retention programme due to the cut-off date has already attracted hundreds of members within days, with dozens of posts detailing how they have already been laid off by employers. Those in the process of changing jobs have also been affected.

Over 3,000 have also signed a petition urging the government to amend this huge oversight, adding it puts thousands of workers at risk, and stuck in the place of having no income and little to no prospect of getting employment in this current economy.

Samuel Keir, a 26-year-old charity worker, was told on Friday by his employer that he would not be kept on as he had not been on the companys payroll before 28 February. There has been quite a lot of people who have come together  actually hundreds of people who have come together with similar stories, he told The Independent.

Hopefully [well] push to get the scheme revised so that people like myself and thousands of people who fall in between the gap can actually be eligible for the furloughing.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said he had raised the issue with the chancellor to amend the support scheme so that people do not fall through the gaps. We will keep pressing for action on this, he added.

Kuljit Athwal, a 39-year-old software engineer, believed he would have been covered the scheme when it was announced by the chancellor. My employer on the day after it was announced sent me an email saying they were furloughing the entire company and that wed all be covered, he said.

Mt Athwal said the Treasury had updated its guidance on 26 March, adding: That very day my employer sent me a second email saying unfortunately yesterdays email doesnt apply to you and as such we have no choice but to terminate you. I was basically let go the same day.

He believes the government should either remove the cut-off date completely, or push it back to the day the scheme was announced by the government. The PAYE records exist for previous employment, so if theres any doubt in the governments mind about the legitimacy of somebodys claim, the evidence is there for them to look at, he said.

Elina, a 23-year-old who lives in London, started her new role as a marketing and communications manager on 2 March, said she was hopeful the governments coronavirus job retention scheme would be able to help her when it was first announced. I remained cautiously optimistic until the new details were released, she added. It just seems like a massive loophole in my opinion.

It was worse than losing my job. Obviously, I really, really valued my employer. I think they are great, wonderful people who I respect and knew that they would have done anything in their power to have kept me and support me and they are in a really difficult time themselves.

For me it seems there should be a way to prove that you are employed by a company from the date the furlough scheme was announced, as opposed to this date of 28 February.

Rebecca Long-Bailey, a contender in the Labour leadership race and current shadow business secretary, told The Independent: Thousands of people have slipped through the net and now face losing their jobs and months of hardship unless the government acts quickly to extend its job protection scheme.

She continued: There is no justification for setting an arbitrary cut off date weeks before the chancellors announcement. He must ensure all people employed on PAYE on the date the scheme was announced are covered, to prevent further job losses.

Frances OGrady, the general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, added: Employers should use the full support now available to them to keep workers on. That includes not just the Job Retention Scheme, but business interruption loans too. And they should sit down with unions to look at all options before any lay offs.

Announcing the furlough scheme earlier this month, Mr Sunak said workers who lose their jobs will be eligible for mortgage holidays and universal credit.

A Treasury spokesperson added: Our coronavirus job retention scheme is protecting thousands of jobs up and down the UK  with the government covering 80% of the salary of furloughed workers.

Firms can reemploy staff made redundant after 1 March and those who do not qualify will be able to access a range of other support  including an increase in the universal credit allowance, income tax deferrals, 1 billion more support for renters and access to three-month mortgage holidays."
Syracuse, N.Y. -- The requests for food from Meals on Wheels in Syracuse have increased by about 15 percent since concerns about the cornonavirus pandemic escalated in New York. The number of families using the Mexico Food Pantry in Oswego County almost tripled over the past month.

At the same time that demand increased, both organizations lost the biggest part of the volunteer base when many retirees, following medical advice, chose to stay home to protect their own health.

Normally, that equation would be very problematic. But Central New York has stepped up.

At many local charities, volunteer manpower has not been an issue over the past two weeks, a rare silver lining and a reason to feel optimistic amid the pandemic.

We have a pool of volunteers who are older and more at-risk, said Mason Kaufman, the executive director of Meals on Wheels in Syracuse. We want them to be safe and take care of themselves. Weve had lots of new volunteers. Its a little bit of a roller-coaster. Every day theres a little wonder. But so far weve always had enough.

Credit the United Way of Central New York for helping ensure thats the case.

Each night, Kaufman looks at his volunteer list and figures how many additional people will be needed to do the job the next day. He places a call to the Central New York United Way, asking for help filling the gaps.

Since they arent regular volunteers, Mason said theres a little less certainty when he wakes up in the morning that everything will work out. Theres a little more instruction needed to get through each day.

But so far, Central New York hasnt disappointed once. Not even once.

The service usually does between 350 and 375 meals a week. Last week, Kaufman said, there were 52 new people to sign up for the service. The increase, he says, comes from seniors who normally shop for themselves but dont want to take the risk of being in public. He said theres reason to expect the number of people using the service will continue to climb.

Nancy Kern Eaton, the president of the United Way of CNY, said the organization has had more than 300 people sign up to volunteer over the past two weeks for the groups Volunteer CNY program.

Given the importance of social distancing and the pause of all non-essential activity, Eaton said shes actually been able to utilize only about 125 of them. Most have been dispatched to help feed the community through Meals on Wheels, food pantries or other food-related organizations.

The majority of the requests that have come in have been related to food, Eaton said. How do we get adults in need food? How do we support pantries? How do we help the schools?

Still, she said, she hopes that list continues to grow.

Those who signed up and havent been called should expect to be at some point as the needs of the community change and grow. In the meantime, she said, shes encouraging those who sign up to donate blood to the Red Cross, which continues to have an urgent need due to canceled blood drives and donors who have been unable to participate.

I hope that everyone will recognize that in a month our food pantries will still need that help and support, Eaton said. In two months, Meals on Wheels is still going to need volunteers. One benefit of this challenge is hopefully that more people think, Hey, I should volunteer. I hope all of our volunteer organizations have more help moving forward.

In addition to those efforts, the organization has raised more than $1 million for its CNY COVID-19 Community Support Fund.

Not every charity has been able to navigate the crisis so easily.

Andrew Lunetta, who runs A Tiny Home for Good, which builds affordable housing to help combat homelessness, has been forced to pause three different construction projects. He said he wouldnt be able to continue working and follow social distancing guidelines. The fact that his four most consistent volunteers are retirees made the decision to halt work even less of a question.

The Mexico Food Pantry also worried about a volunteer shortage before community members rallied to support it. Martha Sturtz, the organizations volunteer coordinator, was worried about how to keep servicing the community before Oswego County Legislator Brad Trudell offered his help.

The quality of the pantry is a point of pride for Sturtz. Shoppers have traditionally been allowed to pick out their own food. They walk around the location with volunteers and pick ingredients from the shelves.

On a normal month, the pantry sees around 100 families. In March, the pantry served 280 families, including 77 new patrons. The increase comes from a combination of families already impacted by job losses and others who are anxious about what the future will bring and looking to be more frugal.

With the food pantry already seeing a huge increase in visitors and the workforce made up largely from at-risk individuals, Sturtz had to alter that setup to ensure it was run safely. With some volunteers choosing to stay home, she worried about the organizations ability to continue to help long-term.

Trudell heard those concerns and engaged in conversations with community members. He felt confident he could ensure adequate staffing. He said that Mexico school superintendent Sean Bruno told him that employees of the district would be willing to fill the volunteer gap if necessary.

Despite those initial concerns, residents can feel secure that the food pantry will continue to be available to help them try to meet their needs.

Like the Mexico Food Pantry, Kaufmans operation has had to trim down on some of the things hed like to do.

In order to comply with social distancing requirements and serve more meals, he said Meals on Wheels is providing two cold meals a day rather than one hot and one cold meal. He is looking into the possibility of acquiring frozen meals to create a stockpile in case there are days when things get even more difficult.

Despite all of that -- increased numbers, new safety protocols and a small kitchen that makes social distancing require thought and effort -- Kaufman said theyve always hit their target, even pausing to provide moments of companionship from a socially-responsible distance.

There is plenty to worry about. Thanks to the eagerness of Central New York to pitch in, manpower remains low on that list.

Were in awe of the response, Kaufman said. Weve got people stepping up. This community is something else.

Contact Chris Carlson anytime: E-mail | Twitter | 315-412-1639

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Linkedin Jonah Mandel (Agence France-Presse) Jerusalem  Mon, March 30, 2020 14:02 654 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e511cb 2 World Israel,BenjaminNetanyahu,Benny-Gantz,politics,Politician,opposition Free

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his erstwhile rival Benny Gantz on Sunday announced "significant progress" in talks towards forming an emergency unity government amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Gantz, whose now fractured centrist Blue and White alliance had positioned itself as the alternative to Netanyahu in three inconclusive elections over the past year, was elected parliament speaker Thursday.

The two men held talks through Saturday night "aimed at establishing a national emergency government to deal with the corona crisis and the additional challenges facing the State of Israel", said a joint statement from Blue and White and Netanyahu's Likud party.

"Significant progress was made during the meeting," it added. "During the course of the day, an additional meeting will be held in order to come to a finalized agreement."

Both leaders have previously voiced support for a unity government to help combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Gantz was tasked with forming a government following March 2 elections -- a task he had already been unable to complete after two national polls last year -- and there was no guarantee he would succeed this time, given rifts within the anti-Netanyahu bloc.

The former chief of Israel's army, Gantz has subsequently tempered his long-time opposition to working with Netanyahu, due to the dangers presented by the coronavirus.

But that move has provoked an implosion of the anti-Netanyahu block Gantz had led.

A parliamentary committee on Sunday afternoon formalized Blue and White's fracture, with Gantz's faction keeping that name.

The dissidents were rebranded as Yesh Atid-Telem, incorporating the Yair Lapid and Moshe Yaalon parties.

"We will keep a watchful eye over the work of this government and create a real alternative for the State of Israel," the new grouping said in a statement after the split.

'What my nation needs'

Netanyahu, in office since 2009, was in January charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, but the start of his trial has been delayed by the pandemic.

He denies the charges.

The divided anti-Netanyahu forces, who held a narrow majority in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, on Wednesday forced the ouster of speaker Yuli Edelstein, a member of Netanyahu's Likud party.

Gantz then put himself forward as speaker, triggering the break-up of Blue and White, with Telem and Yesh Atid accusing Gantz of surrendering "without a fight" to Netanyahu.

On Friday, Gantz justified his move as being "what my nation needs" given the coronavirus pandemic.

"I won't be the one who categorically refuses to step in and pull my weight in a state of emergency," he wrote on Facebook.

There were no official details of the likely makeup of a future government, but Netanyahu has in past weeks proposed 18-month premiership terms -- with him taking the first, to be followed by Gantz.

Reports said that at least three people who were not originally part of Gantz's party would be seeking to join him in Netanyahu's coalition.

Spokespeople for Blue and White and the Likud would not provide any details on what any agreement to form a government might entail.

One of the main questions centered on who takes over as justice minister, replacing the current Netanyahu loyalist now overseeing the legal proceedings against the prime minister.
Hyderabad: Petroleum dealers across the state have urged the Centre to grant a one-year exemption from bank interest on loans, as well as exemption of statutory fees.

With the lockdown beginning to make its impact on their operating costs and profit margins, the Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers (CIPD) chapter in the state is also planning to formally petition Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.

Telangana has around 1,700 petrol bunks with Hyderabad accounting for around 600 of them.

According to Rajiv Amaram, joint secretary of CIPD, who also runs a petrol pump at Balanagar, they sell about 10,000 litres of petrol a day and around 15,000 litres of diesel.

Since the lockdown, we are selling just about 10 per cent of the normal petrol sale and between two and three per cent of diesel sales. And it is mostly ambulances that are mostly demanding diesel, he said,

The group said the lockdown will result in losses because of reduced sales on one side and rentals, salaries to staff and power bills on the other. The losses could vary between Rs two lakh and Rs 10 lakh, depending on the size of the pump and sales, he said.
General Motors and Ventec Life Systems officials say they are working around the clock to reopen GM's Kokomo, Indiana, plant to produce ventilators in response to the COVID-19 emergency.

The effort to set up tooling and manufacturing capacity at the GM Kokomo facility started last week and GM released these photos Sunday, March 29, showing some of the early work.

GM is counting on a fast start so that ventilators, which are in demand around the country, can be manufactured and shipped out starting next month.

Ventec and GM have said the companies aim to ramp up to a manufacturing capacity of more than 10,000 critical care ventilators per month with the infrastructure and capability to scale further.

AJ Mast

GM Kokomo Operations to Build Ventec Life Systems Ventilators

The General Motors manufacturing facility in Kokomo, Indiana, Wednesday, March 25, 2020, where GM and Ventec Life Systems are partnering to produce Ventec VOCSN critical care ventilators in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by AJ Mast for General Motors)

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AJ Mast

GM Kokomo Operations to Build Ventec Life Systems Ventilators

General Motors and Ventec Life Systems are partnering to convert the GM Kokomo, Indiana ERC building for the production of Ventec ventilators in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ventec and GM are ramping up for a manufacturing capacity of 21,000 critical care ventilators per month, with the ability to expand further based on demand. (Photo by AJ Mast for General Motors)

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AJ Mast

GM Kokomo Operations to Build Ventec Life Systems Ventilators

General Motors and Ventec Life Systems are partnering to convert the GM Kokomo, Indiana manufacturing facility for the production of Ventec ventilators in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers clear furniture Saturday, March 28, 2020, from a floor that will be converted to produce the Ventec VOCSN critical care ventilators. (Photo by AJ Mast for General Motors)

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AJ Mast

GM Kokomo Operations to Build Ventec Life Systems Ventilators

Ventec Life Systems Vice President Engineering Joe Cipollone explains its VOCSN critical care ventilator Friday March 27, 2020, to General Motors employees who will be helping to produce the ventilators at the GM Kokomo, Indiana manufacturing facility, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The FDA-cleared ventilators are scheduled to ship as soon as next month. (Photo by AJ Mast for General Motors)

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AJ Mast

GM Kokomo Operations to Build Ventec Life Systems Ventilators

Ventec Life Systems Vice President Engineering Joe Cipollone explains its VOCSN critical care ventilator Friday March 27, 2020, to General Motors employees who will be helping to produce the ventilators at the GM Kokomo, Indiana manufacturing facility, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The FDA-cleared ventilators are scheduled to ship as soon as next month. (Photo by AJ Mast for General Motors)

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AJ Mast

GM Kokomo Operations to Build Ventec Life Systems Ventilators

Work being done Sunday, March 29, 2020 at the General Motors manufacturing facility in Kokomo, Indiana, where GM and Ventec Life Systems are partnering to produce Ventec VOCSN critical care ventilators in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by AJ Mast for General Motors)

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AJ Mast

GM Kokomo Operations to Build Ventec Life Systems Ventilators

Work being done Sunday, March 29, 2020 at the General Motors manufacturing facility in Kokomo, Indiana, where GM and Ventec Life Systems are partnering to produce Ventec VOCSN critical care ventilators in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by AJ Mast for General Motors)

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AJ Mast

GM Kokomo Operations to Build Ventec Life Systems Ventilators

Work being done Sunday, March 29, 2020 at the General Motors manufacturing facility in Kokomo, Indiana, where GM and Ventec Life Systems are partnering to produce Ventec VOCSN critical care ventilators in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by AJ Mast for General Motors)

Don't Edit

AJ Mast

GM Kokomo Operations to Build Ventec Life Systems Ventilators

Work being done Sunday, March 29, 2020 at the General Motors manufacturing facility in Kokomo, Indiana, where GM and Ventec Life Systems are partnering to produce Ventec VOCSN critical care ventilators in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by AJ Mast for General Motors)

Don't Edit

AJ Mast

GM Kokomo Operations to Build Ventec Life Systems Ventilators

Work being done Sunday, March 29, 2020 at the General Motors manufacturing facility in Kokomo, Indiana, where GM and Ventec Life Systems are partnering to produce Ventec VOCSN critical care ventilators in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by AJ Mast for General Motors)

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The number of deaths due to coronavirus in Gujarat has gone up to six after one more patient succumbed to the infection, a senior health official said on Monday.

Besides, the number COVID-19 cases in the state went up to 69 as six more people tested positive for the deadly virus on Monday, principal secretary (health) Jayanti Ravi said.

A 45-year-old woman died at a hospital in Bhavnagar late Sunday night, taking the total number of deaths of coronavirus patients in the state to six, she said.

The woman had a mental ailment and suffered a stroke about two weeks back, Ravi said.

Ahmedabad has so far reported three deaths, followed by Bhavnagar- two and Surat- one, she said.

Out of the six new coronavirus cases, five have been reported from Bhavnagar, including the woman who died on Sunday night, and one in Ahmedabad, the official said.

Of these six cases, five are of local transmission, while a 38-year-patient reported in Ahmedabad recently returned from USA, she said.

So far, Ahmedabad has reported 23 cases, followed by Rajkot, Vadodara and Gandhinagar- nine each, Surat- eight, Bhavnagar- six, Gir Somnath- two, and Kutch, Mehsana and Porbandar- one each.

Of the total 69 COVID-19 cases, 33 cases are of local transmission, while 32 patients have foreign travel history, the official said, adding that there are four cases of inter- state travel history.

So far, two persons have been discharged, she added.

The official further informed that till now, 19,617 people in the state have been quarantined. These include 18,701 who are placed under home quarantine, 744 at government facilities and 172 at private facilities.

The state government has also conducted house-to-house survey of 5.9 crore people, of whom 87,274 have a travel history. Of these 87,274 people, 1,382 went abroad while 69,892 travelled to other states, the official said.

Of those surveyed, 231 were found with symptoms of coronavirus and placed under quarantine, Ravi said.

The government has intensified surveillance amid reports of cases of local transmission, she said.

The official also informed that 4,300 isolation beds are available in government hospitals, 635 in private hospitals, and more beds are being added for coronavirus patients.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Former Vice President Joe Biden has urged President Donald Trump to be honest and listen to science. The Democrat made the remarks in his new podcast.

Biden debuted the Heres the Deal podcast on Monday. He hopes it will help him keep in touch with voters during Coronavirus restrictions.

Its critical for the President not to resort to fear-mongering and also baseless downplaying or lying about the situation, Biden said.

The President needs to be honest, needs to follow the science, needs to be transparent with the American people.

Not a joke, folks, we just launched our new podcast. Its called "Here's the Deal." For our first episode, I sat down with Ron Klain, former White House Ebola Response Coordinator, for a discussion on COVID-19. Listen at https://t.co/t11Fa0TZjc or wherever you get your podcasts.  Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 30, 2020

Biden explained why he had launched a podcast in the middle of a global pandemic.

First, Im recording this podcast to connect with all of you instead of traveling across the country as I have been doing most of the last year, he said.

Its just not worth it to go out there and take a chance of getting sick and further spreading the virus.

In the first 20-minute episode, Biden interviewed Ron Klain. Klain is his former chief of staff and was Ebola czar during the Obama administration.

President Trump and his allies have recently criticized Klain because of his outspoken criticism of Trumps handling of the pandemic.

Biden addressed his listeners directly as part of his strategy to continue campaigning despite the limits imposed by Coronavirus measures.

Why am I doing this? he said. So we can keep talking to each other. We cant hold rallies anymore, but were not gathering in big public spaces.

Were living in the new normal, but I want you to know that Im with you and Im on your side and were going to get through this together as a country.

Biden recorded the podcast from his home in Wilmington, Delaware.

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HCL Technologies on Monday said it is not expecting any significant impact on business in March quarter on account of the coronavirus outbreak, and that booking during the period has largely been "on track" with significant part of closures happening in January.

HCL Tech said it had invoked 'Business Continuity Plan' and 'Risk Management Framework' quite early to minimise the impact on its employees and clients, and added that its exposure to the more-impacted verticals is "not significant".

"While the impact on this quarter's numbers is yet to be quantified, we don't expect it to be significant. Our exposure to the more impacted verticals are not significant. Booking during this quarter has largely been on track as significant part of closures happened in January," HCL Tech said in a statement on the likely impact on business.

The company said its business model is a healthy mix of recurring product revenues, managed services and discretionary spend-led professional services, and that its exposure to verticals like Oil and Gas, Travel and Hospitality, High-End Retail is in single digit.

"We recognise our investments in risk management systems and processes over the last several years are helping us to minimise the short-term impact and to be adequately prepared for the medium term, if it gets worse.

"We are also confident our business model will help us to emerge stronger in the longer term as it has been built for resilience during tough times," it said.

The company said 76 per cent of its India-based employees and 92 per cent of employees in other geographies are enabled to work from home, and that the company has not witnessed any outages or major disruption in operations with this newer format of delivery.

HCL said it has a well-defined and structured pandemic policy in place that attaches highest importance to employee safety and health as well as client commitments.

"We are actively engaged with our clients and have executed the client-specific and HCL internal operations-centric Business Continuity Plan that ensures continuity in delivering to our client and employee commitments," the statement said.

The company is constantly reviewing the situation at hand with utmost priority and fully complying with all government advisories and recommendations.

"Given the extended nature of this situation, we have looked at ensuring that we put in medium-term sustainable measures in place to ensure continuity of all our operations and client deliverables. We have been successful in achieving this as of today," the company said.

It said that in some geographies, a limited set of employees are working from offices, wherever it is permissible by the government and local authorities.

"It is noteworthy that we have not witnessed any outages or major disruption in operations with this newer format of work from home delivery," HCL Tech said.

The company said it has been monitoring the COVID-19 outbreak since late January and had invoked its Business Continuity Plan and Risk Management Framework quite early to minimise the impact on its employees and clients.

"The situation arising out of this outbreak and its rapid spread across the world is unprecedented and is extremely dynamic. The economic impact is visible with varying degrees of intensity across multiple countries where we operate," it said.
Coronavirus impact: How Isolation, HIV memories hit India's Transgender community hard in lockdowns

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Mar 30: The coronavirus pandemic that has killed close to 30,000 globally, and a lockdown is being seen as the most effective way of breaking the chain of transmitting the virus.

In an effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appealed to all citizens to stay inside their homes till April 14. Already, India has recorded 29 deaths and 1071 cases. However, this lockdown has left transgender people at hightened risk of poverty and ill health because they exist on the margins of society, eking out a living through sex work and begging.

Though Supreme Court of India ruled in 2014 that transgender people had equal rights, but prejudice against them persists and they are often rejected by their families and denied jobs, education and healthcare.

Many trans women, also known in India as hijras, survive through begging at busy intersections and on trains, performing at social functions such as weddings or selling sex.

Coronavirus death toll in India rises to 29; positive cases surpass 1,000-mark

NEWS AT 3 PM, MARCH 30th, 2020

Amid lockdown, the marginalised transgender community of the Bengaluru city is facing difficulty to meet basic needs. With large fraction of the community dependent on beggary for sustenance, the situation has resulted in literally no earnings for most of them, as general public are away from streets and shops being closed.

"We are facing difficulty for even one time food... no one is coming forward to help us," a transgender said. While pointing out that the government was helping labourers and other needy, another transgender said, "what have we done wrong? The situation is such that we cannot go out and ask for money or food...at least provide us with food."

Some of us are short of money for medicines, there are many elders who are ill and HIV affected, another transperson pointed out. However, organisations like Ondede that works for the rights of the transgenders, led by activist Akkai Padmashali, is working with well-wishers of the community to provide groceries to the doorstep of transgenders.

Speaking to PTI, Padmashali demanded that a package for the community along with other vulnerable sections, by the government that takes care of the livelihood from medicine to ration for couple of months, until the situation gets better.

#Stayathome and send us your selfie

"I'm disappointed with the federal and the state government's response towards the community...We are the ones affected directly, our daily life is on the streets through begging and sex work... our daily life is affected like daily wage workers. There is no food, no money for rent, there are HIV positive people unable to buy medicines," she said. Also pointing out that there is no proper awareness being created among the people of the community who are vulnerable, she said, most of us don't have TV to see awareness ads.

In hyderabad, wall posters have sprung up which reads,''If you talk to transgenders, you will get Corona.'' Posters were found stuck on metro pillars at Ameerpet Metro Station, and on Raj Bhavan road and Banjara Hills Road No 12.

While in Uttar Pradesh, transgenders are coming forward to provide food and water to migrant labourers who are returning home after the lockdown.

Transgender people must be aware of the particular risk for the coronavirus because of the several factors:

LGBTQ people have higher rates of HIV and cancer, and therefore may have a compromised immune system. According to NCTE's 2015 US Trans Survey, trans people are five times more likely to be living with HIV compared to the general population.

LGBTQ people also use tobacco at a rate of 50% higher than the general population. The coronavirus is a respiratory illness that could be especially harmful to smokers.

Trans adults are also more likely to score their health as poor or fair compare to the general population. More than 1 out 5 transgender adults have at least one or more chronic condition, such as diabetes, arthritis, or asthma. Fear of discrimination keeps many of us from going to the doctor. This may impact the potential novel coronavirus effect on us in three ways:

Stigma and discrimination makes transgender people reluctant to get help.

Access to health care barriers, such as lack of insurance, leaves us less likely to get medical care.

Existing health conditions mean more of us live in a state of compromised health.

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Story first published: Monday, March 30, 2020, 13:58 [IST]
Prices had been rising in the city (Stock image)

New research has revealed that the Covid-19 outbreak has put the brakes on what was shaping up to be a strong recovery in Irish house prices.

Average house prices nationally had been returning to growth and Dublin market values were up by more than 1,000 in the quarter leading into the outbreak, the Irish Independent/REA Average House Price Index found.

The price of an average three-bedroom semi-detached house nationwide rose by 0.14pc over the past three months to 235,028, after an annual decline of 0.63pc in 2019.

The figures illustrate how confidence had returned to the market, after months of Brexit uncertainty, with many agents indicating an upturn in viewings and sales since the start of the year.

The price of a three-bedroom semi-detached house in Dublin city rose by 0.3pc in the first quarter of 2020, after a 4pc decline in 2019, and agents had been experiencing an increase in first-time buyer activity.

The average family home in the capital's postcode districts registered an increase to 427,167, a rise of 1,333 on the December figure of 425,833, with time taken to sell decreasing from nine to eight weeks before the outbreak kicked in.

The index, which measures real-time sales across the country through the 50-plus branch network of the Real Estate Alliance, assesses price movements of the most typical home type, the three-bed semi, and is therefore a more accurate reflection of prices achieved than barometers based on asking prices.

Brexit

In the capital, the market saw a return to growth in the south of the county, which rose by 0.3pc to 413,333, after falling 5pc in 2019.

With a high number of luxury homes, this location is perhaps the one which had been hit hardest by Brexit uncertainty, along with coastal tourist locations popular with the British.

The availability of new developments in north Co Dublin, however, saw three-bed semi prices decline in that location by 0.8pc to 312,500 in Q1.

Prices in the commuter counties rose by 0.4pc in the first three months of the year before the crisis hit, with the average house now selling for 247,556 - after an annual fall of 1pc in 2019.

The highest percentage rise to March came in Wexford, where prices grew 9.5pc to 202,500, an increase of 17,500.

The best quarterly growth happened in Kildare, where prices increased by 1.1pc in Q1 and 3.1pc annually to 285,000.

Prices rose by 0.4pc in Galway city in the first quarter, with Limerick values surging by 2.5pc in that time to 205,000.

Prices in regional towns increased by an average of 1.67pc in the quarter.

"There is no doubt that we saw a stronger market in Q1 up to the start of the current health crisis," said REA spokesperson Barry McDonald.

"We are suddenly in a time of uncertainty and a pause button has been pressed on a lot of activity.

"State interventions of the past week have been welcome in providing increasing levels of security and certainty to loan-approved buyers.

"We are in a different place than in 2008, and we will now benefit from the effects that the Central Bank's lending restrictions have had."
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TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / March 30, 2020 / Avidian Gold Corp. ("Avidian" or the "Company") (TSX-V: AVG), an exploration Company with key gold assets in Alaska and Nevada announces that due to the COVID-19 pandemic the Company has suspended all activities and will in the short term focus on data analysis and strategic plans. Avidian's majority-controlled subsidiary, High Tide Resources, has delayed commencement of the diamond drilling program at the Labrador West Iron Ore Property located near Labrador City, Newfoundland & Labrador. The program will be initiated once health concerns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic subside.Drill permitting continues at Avidian's Amanita Gold project which is adjacent and contiguous to Kinross's Fort Knox open-pit gold mine. The timing of the actual commencement of any drilling program on this project will also be dependent on the COVID-19 situation and the ability to work effectively in a safe and responsible manner.David Anderson, Chairman and CEO states "Our first priority is the health and safety of our employees, contractors and the communities in which we operate. Until the current situation with COVID-19 subsides we could not effectively conduct a drill campaign in any of the jurisdictions in which our projects are located, and we will only re-activate these programs once the all clear is given by local, provincial/state and federal government authorities. In the meantime, the Company has enacted prudent measures to preserve capital and will be well positioned to return to active exploration in the months ahead".The technical information contained in this news release has been approved by Steve Roebuck, P. Geo., President of Avidian, who is a Qualified Person as defined in "National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects." About Avidian Gold Corp.Avidian brings a disciplined and veteran team of project managers together with a regional scale advanced stage gold-copper exploration portfolio in Alaska. Avidian's Golden Zone project also hosts a NI 43-101 Indicated gold resource of 267,400 ounces (4,187,000 tonnes at 1.99 g/t Au) plus an Inferred gold resource of 35,900 ounces (1,353,000 tonnes at 0.83 g/t Au). Additional projects include the Amanita gold property which is adjacent to Kinross Gold's Fort Knox gold mine in Alaska and the Jungo gold/copper property in Nevada.Avidian is the majority owner of High Tide Resources, a private company, that owns the base metal Strickland Property, the Black Raven gold property and an option on the Labrador West Iron Ore property, all located in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.Avidian is focused on and committed to the development of advanced stage mineral projects throughout first world mining friendly jurisdictions using industry best practices combined with a strong social license from local communities. Further details on the Corporation and the individual projects, including the NI 43-101 Technical report on the Golden Zone property, can be found on the Corporation's website at www.avidiangold.com For further information, please contact:Steve Roebuck, PresidentEmail: sroebuck@ avidiangold.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.Forward-looking informationThis News Release includes certain "forward-looking statements". These statements are based on information currently available to the Company and the Company provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe the Company's future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "estimates", "may", "could", "would", "will", or "plan". Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results relating to, among other things, results of exploration, project development, reclamation and capital costs of the Company's mineral properties, and the Company's financial condition and prospects, could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements for many reasons such as: changes in general economic conditions and conditions in the financial markets; changes in demand and prices for minerals; litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; technological and operational difficulties encountered in connection with the activities of the Company; and other matters discussed in this news release. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company's forward-looking statements. These and other factors should be considered carefully and readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by the Company or on its behalf, except in accordance with applicable securities law.SOURCE: Avidian Gold Corp.
CAIRO  Egypt wants to attract foreign investors for military-owned companies following complaints by private sector companies that they are being crowded out of lucrative sectors by the military, the Financial Times reported Feb. 27.

The Sovereign Fund of Egypt is assessing 10 companies owned by the National Service Projects Organization, an economic arm of the military, with the aim of opening them up to domestic and foreign investors, said Ayman Soliman, its chief executive, the Financial Times reported.

He stressed that desalination, water treatment plants, power stations and other state-owned enterprises could be opened up to private investment, according to the Financial Times.

Soliman told Al-Monitor that Egypt Fund Management signed a cooperation agreement with the armed forces Feb. 3, in order to assess and ready some companies affiliated with the armys National Service Projects Organization, in a bid to attract investors abroad and at home.

He added, The assessment period of the military-owned companies will end by mid-April and reports to this effect will be handed to the leaders of the National Service Projects Organization.

The fund will acquire a minority share, not a majority, in these companies, in order to give investors full freedom and help them overcome any obstacles related to purchase operations and investment, Soliman said.

Soliman did not reveal the names of said companies, stressing that they will be announced in due course.

We are working on turning these companies into vital and productive enterprises capable of investment and expansion, which is what matters, he concluded.

During the inauguration ceremony of a military-owned medical gas factory in the Abu Rawash area in the Giza governorate in October 2019, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said, Companies owned and operated by the armed forces should be listed on the Egyptian stock market and  allow Egyptians to buy shares in them.

In December 2019, Sisi reiterated his keenness to enlist military-owned companies on the exchange market during a speech at the opening of the integrated animal production complex in Fayoum governorate, southwest of Cairo.

The army is dedicating part of its capabilities in preserving the stability of the Egyptian state and preventing its downfall. The armed forces-affiliated companies will be put up on the exchange market, allowing all sectors to have an opportunity [for investment], Sisi said.

Abdel Khaleq Faruq, an economist and director of the Nile Center for Economic and Strategic Studies, considers enlisting the armys companies on the stock market and the talk about their privatization as tantamount to squandering the efforts of the Egyptians working in these companies. He also believes that privatization in general in Egypt does not serve the public interest.

The idea to open up military-owned companies for foreign or local investment came after much pressure from the International Monetary Fund, which requested to make room for the private sector and ensure freedom of economic competition, as part of the reform program imposed on Egypt. Egypt also received a $12 billion fund in six tranches, Faruq told Al-Monitor.

He highlighted the concerns of businessmen in Egypt and abroad about the idea of increasing the size of the armys companies in Egypt, which would deprive private companies of free competition. He explained that military-owned companies, unlike other companies, have cheap or free labor most of the time, not to mention the preferential laws for the army, which is in direct conflict with free competition in the liberal economy.

As for the possibility of successful privatization of these companies and enlisting them in the stock market, Faruq said that it is not an easy process, as these companies are subject to private military laws. They cannot be subjected to competition laws at the present time, which means disruption of their offering on the stock market or opening up to foreign investment.

Mohammad Nagm, an economic researcher at al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, believes that Sisis vision to attract foreign investments to military-owned companies indicates his greater economic openness. He believes that the president is keen on offering the military companies on the stock market in a bid to boost it and attract more investment to keep pace with his economic vision.

Nagm told Al-Monitor that the agreement of the army and Egypt Fund to open up military-owned companies to investment will benefit these companies. He explained that the Egyptian government believes that a closed economy at this stage is not the solution to achieve a state of economic welfare and prosperity for its citizens but instead attracting investments to all companies, even those affiliated with the army.

Nagm downplayed the criticism directed at the army because of its interference in the economic activity of the country, stressing that the army companies operating in the civil sector came as a necessity to meet the needs of citizens at times, and to provide competitiveness and lower prices at other times.

Putting up the military companies on the stock market and offering some shares for sale and investment will greatly boost Egypts exchange market as these companies would expand and pump local and foreign investment funds in the market, Nagm concluded.
Facebook has already taken a number of measures to help the global effort against the spread of the coronavirus, most recently by opening up its Messenger platform to governments, and in announcing plans to invest $100 million in small businesses around the world. Now, the platform says it will set aside an additional $100 million to support the news industry during the coronavirus crisis.

In a post on Facebook's Journalism Project portal, the company says it recognizes that ad revenues are declining "at a time when journalism is needed more than ever," and that its funding will be used to help journalists cover important stories "when we all need them most." Of the grant, $25 million will be set aside as emergency funding for local news through the Facebook Journalism Project, and $75 million will be given as additional marketing spend to move money to news organizations around the world.

The first round of grants have already been given to 50 local newsrooms in the US and Canada. The Post and Courier in South Carolina used its grant to take down its paywall for coronavirus-related stories, for example, while Southeast Missourian is using the money to help bolster its remote work technology.

The funding program is the latest move by Facebook to help fortify reliable news coverage during this uncertain time. At the end of February the platform started banning ads promoting coronavirus "cures," and later offered the World Health Organization free ads to counter misinformation surrounding the outbreak.
Should governments announce specific dates for the end of social distancing measures?

Doing so might increase the number of people who disobey the measures if expectations are poorly managed and the timeline is suddenly extended, a new survey suggests.

The study  by researchers at Canadian, U.S. and Italian universities  surveyed the attitudes of Italians, who were issued stay-at-home orders March 9 and told they would be lifted April 3. Strikingly, it found that half of respondents admitted to not fully complying with the isolation orders when they were surveyed on March 18-20.

When asked how they would react if the April 3 lockdown deadline were suddenly extended by a few weeks, 10 per cent said they would reduce or completely abandon social distancing efforts  a significant number, considering the coronavirus is highly contagious. The rest said they would either maintain or increase their efforts.

The extent to which respondents would reduce or abandon their efforts had much to do with their expectations. The survey first asked Italians how long they expected the April 3 deadline to be extended, and then tested their intended behaviours with different extension timelines.

Among the group fully complying with social distancing measures, 15 per cent said they would reduce or abandon their efforts if the April 3 date was extended longer than the few weeks they expected. If the extension was less than they expected, only 3 per cent would reduce their efforts.

It turns out that its mostly those who are fully compliant so far who would really react negatively to some bad surprises in terms of (isolation) duration, which means that we might lose the good ones by not managing expectations properly, says Nicola Lacetera, a behavioural scientist at the University of Toronto and a co-author of the study.

For those who fully comply, their stated intention to do less suggests isolation fatigue, he add in an interview. Theyre saying, Hey, Im fully complying and you keep extending the timeline? Theyre exhausted.

Overall, respondents who were told extensions would be shorter than they expected were less likely to reduce their isolation efforts. Those informed extensions would be longer than expected were more likely to decrease efforts.

To maximize the effectiveness of temporary isolation efforts, public authorities must manage public expectations on when such measures will be relaxed or lifted, the study states. Our findings show that expectations about the duration of social isolation measures influence the publics intention to comply.

The survey of 894 Italians was conducted for the academics by SWG, a leading Italian polling agency. It manages a panel of 60,000 adults and usually pays them for their time. Respondents answered the survey online or via computer-assisted telephone interviews.

The majority of respondents were in the northern part of Italy, where a flood of coronavirus victims has resulted in the near-collapse of the health-care system. Doctors triage who gets placed on the short supply of potentially lifesaving ventilators and the military drives bodies to crematoria by the truckload.

On Thursday, the total number of infections in Italy surged to more than 100,000, and the number of dead reached 11,591.

In Ontario, the provincial government closed schools for two weeks and has since extended the closure indefinitely. Premier Doug Ford also announced a state of emergency March 17 and on Monday said he would be extending it for two weeks, warning that mandatory stay-home orders may be next.

The federal government has largely refrained from setting a date for getting life back to normal, but has made clear that the success of voluntary social distancing measures will largely determine whether firmer measures are taken.

In Britain, the government implemented lockdown measures March 23, saying they would last for three weeks.

RELATED STORIES GTA Why is Canada set to deport an ICU nurse in the midst of a pandemic?

Lacetera says the Italian survey results indicate compliance becomes especially problematic when a politician keeps moving the goalposts. The best example of that is U.S. President Donald Trump. After initially downplaying the virus threat, Trump declared a state of emergency March 13. Days later, he said he expected workers would be back at their jobs by Easter. This weekend, he extended that date to the end of April.

This stop-and-go approach might make people feel a sense of fatigue and mistrust greater than otherwise, Lacetera said in an interview.

Laceteras report describes the fine line politicians and health authorities need to walk. Providing no end date could signal to citizens the crisis is severe but might also increase anxiety and other psychological impacts. Giving an end date to isolation measures might be more acceptable in a democratic society, but it risks suggesting the crisis is less serious, the report says.

Extending measures after creating the expectation that they would be limited in time might reduce peoples acceptance, trust in the authority and ultimately reduce compliance, warns the report by Lacetera and researchers from Johns Hopkins University, the University of Chicago, and the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano in Italy.

Moving the goalposts of when the isolation measures will be lifted may lead to frustration if the public begins to believe that the goal is unattainable.
As India battles the deadly coronavirus pandemic, a fake 'infodemic' is also spreading on WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms with numerous false claims, including about an impending emergency declaration and an extension of the lockdown period.

While official agencies and several private fact-checkers kept on promptly debunking the fake news, the full-hoaxes and half-truths continued unabated, including by some fraudsters trying to mint some easy money by circulating fake bank account details for contributions to the government relief funds.

A lot many also fell prey to an "early April Fool" prank on Monday wherein a document was circulated on social media, disguising itself as a government announcement about an extension of lockdown beyond the 21-day period.

The Indian Army also had to debunk fake about an impending emergency declaration in April.

"Fake and malicious messages are circulating on social media about likely declaration of emergency in mid April and employment of Indian Army, Veterans, NCC and NSS to assist the civil administration. It is clarified that this is absolutely fake," the Army's Additional Directorate General of Public Information tweeted.

The government also debunked rumours about plans for extending the ongoing 21-day lockdown period, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 to fight the coronavirus crisis.

The clarification by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba came after hundreds of thousands of migrant labourers undertook long journeys from major urban centres on foot to their homes in the last five days, reflecting their struggle for survival due to job losses following the lockdown.

In a tweet, the government's Press Information Bureau said: "There are rumours & media reports, claiming that the Government will extend the #Lockdown21 when it expires. The Cabinet Secretary has denied these reports, and stated that they are baseless."



PIB's Fact Check Twitter handle also asked people to "be cautious of fake account details circulating on the pretext of PM CARES Fund".

Delhi police's cybercrime unit had on Sunday detected a fake Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ID created with a motive to cheat donors of the newly launched PM CARES Fund to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

Anyesh Roy, DCP (cybercrime) said in a tweet that the fake UPI was created with the ID pmcare@sbi, which is similar to the correct ID pmcares@sbi.

The State Bank of India has also been briefed about the fake ID and the bank has blocked it, a police official said.

The matter is under investigation and efforts are being made to identify the accused, he said.

Another 'fake news' debunked by the authorities included a message doing the rounds that the Home Ministry has decided to make it a punishable offence if anyone posts anything related to the coronavirus on social media.

There are also a number of other such misinformation being circulated including about the COVID-19 treatment and on ways to avoid getting infected from the deadly coronavirus.

"There is no scientific evidence to prove that inhaling hot water steam kills #Coronavirus. Remember: Respiratory hygiene, social distancing and washing hands are effective measures to prevent #Covid19 Let's spread facts, not fear and contribute to #IndiaFightsCoronavirus," PIB Fact Check tweeted.

Among private fact-checkers, Boom FactCheck tweeted that a "misleading" infographic has been shared thousands of times in multiple Facebook posts with a nine-day timeline of the symptoms of the novel coronavirus.

It also debunked another "fake" message claiming several areas in Mumbai, including Mohammed Ali Road, having been blacklisted and put under control of the army.

Another misleading message claimed that a state government in India has recommended that the juice of bitter gourd, a vegetable often used in traditional medicine, is an effective treatment for the novel coronavirus. This one has also been found to be false.

On social media, several people including some senior journalists, fell prey to an old prank video from Jakarata, which went viral after being presented this time as being from Goa and as an "innovative way to make people stay indoors".

Fact checker SM Hoax Slayer said, "A Prank video is viral, tweeted by few media houses and journalists claimed to be recent and from Goa. It shows a man wearing a ghost looking suit jumping suddenly in front to a motorcycle on a bridge because of which the rider gets afraid, turns around and leave and the pillion rider climbs the bridge whom the prankster follow."



The fact-checking website found that the prank video was neither from Goa, nor related to the lockdown or the coronavirus outbreak at all.

The video was found to be almost a year old from May 2019 and it originated from Jakarta, Indonesia. After being corrected by SMHoaxSlayer, some people and organisations tweeted a correction in reply to their wrong tweet, while few others deleted the original tweet.

Fact-cheking website AltNews debunked a viral audio clip, presented as a conversation between two persons, with one of them claiming that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has asked India to extend the lockdown from April 15 to June 15. AltNews said its investigation found the claim to be totally fake.

Interestingly, the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had said in February itself, "We are not just fighting an epidemic; we are fighting an infodemic."



Several other countries are also dealing with an increased flow of fake relating to the coronavirus.

The UK has set up a rapid response unit within the Cabinet Office which is working with social media firms to remove fake news and harmful content. The UK's anti-fake news unit is also dealing with up to 10 false coronavirus articles a day.

On Sunday, the Indian High Commissioner to the UK, Ruchi Ghanashyam, also appealed to Indian citizens stranded in the country due to the coronavirus pandemic to beware of fake news doing the rounds about Air India evacuation flights planned next week.

Few days ago, another viral message had re-surfaced about all calls getting recorded and platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter being monitored with the start of the lockdown period, but it was found to be fake.

Boom FactCheck found that the viral message has been doing the rounds on social media since as far back as 2017. It also found the message to be referring to one 'Ministry of Internal Regulation', which does not exit in India.

Police in various parts of the country has also begun taking action in such cases.

In Kolkata, a woman was arrested on Monday for allegedly sharing fake information pertaining to COVID-19 on WhatsApp. She had apparently claimed in her post that 15 people have tested positive for novel coronavirus in New Alipore area of the city and that the state government was suppressing the information.

An officer said the Kolkata Police has also been keeping any eye on social media to prevent circulation of fake news.

In Himachal Pradesh, a journalist has been booked for reportedly spreading fake news regarding plying of buses amid the lockdown.

A 30-year-old man was arrested in Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday for uploading a fake and alarmist Facebook post in the name of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in connection with the lockdown, according to the police.

Similar arrests have been made in Mizoram and some other parts of the country as well, while Maharashtra Police's cyber unit has registered 36 FIRs across the state against those spreading fake news about coronavirus on social media.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Lebanese government is looking to cannabis cultivation for medicinal and industrial purposes to improve the country's economic situation. Lebanon is the third most indebted country in the world, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 170%, according to Prime Minister Hassan Diab.

The Finance Ministry announced March 23 that Lebanon will suspend payments on all its $30 billion worth of Eurobonds in foreign currency after defaulting on its $1.2 billion debt March 9 in the country's first-ever default.

Lebanon's deputy parliament speaker Elie Ferzli told Al-Monitor, Parliamentary committees passed a draft law Feb. 26 legalizing cannabis cultivation for medical and industrial use. He explained, The draft law will be transferred to the parliament's general committee for approval.

The Lebanese Parliament closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, but, the law is expected to pass after it reconvenes.

Ferzli expressed optimism about the economic benefits of the cultivation and export of cannabis, saying, The global consultancy firm McKinsey suggested, in a study about setting a vision for Lebanons economy to grow its GDP and create jobs through selecting productive sectors, that legalizing the cultivation of cannabis would bring in up to $1 billion per year in revenue for the government.

According to the General Directorate for Studies and Information, The economic benefits of cannabis legislation lie in the use of many vast neglected lands, placing all farmers in [an equal] legal framework and combating the cannabis trade in the black markets.

Each dunum can yield up to $10,000. Cannabis legislation also aims to reduce unemployment and achieve economic growth, as well as stimulate exports toward foreign countries, enabling the use of foreign currency, which enhances the central bank's reserve of foreign currencies, the paper added.

Ferzli pointed out, The type of plant that Lebanon seeks to cultivate is  specific to medical industries, stressing, The Lebanese state does not accept the use of hashish as a resource to support the economy.

Hussein Hammoud, a professor at the Faculty of Agriculture Sciences in the Lebanese University, said in a research document published by the Lebanese army, The number of workers in the agricultural sector in the Bekaa region [in eastern Lebanon] is about 60% of the population. So many families in the villages of Baalbek and the Bekaa inherit hashish cultivation across generations.

Hammoud added, Hashish cultivation in the 1980s generated for Baalbek and Hermel close to $500 million annually.

In remarks to Al-Monitor, Minister of Agriculture Abbas Mortada explained that after the bill is passed, a team will study the appropriate places for cultivation of cannabis, such as the type of soil in different regions. He added that a Cannabis cultivation body will be established and controlled by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. This body will oversee planting, harvesting, manufacturing and establishing research centers and laboratories.

Mohammad Mroueh, a professor at the Medicinal Cannabis Research Center in the Lebanese American University, told Al-Monitor that cannabis has high medical value and that Lebanon's climate is ideal for its cultivation. He added, The medical use of cannabis dates back to 700 years across the Arab region. I obtained three plants to do my research and study the benefits of extracts from the plant, including Tetrahydrocannabinol and not only cannabinoids.

The government has allowed Mrouehs research but has not yet formally approved the establishment of his research center, which opened in May 2018. Mroueh pointed out that cannabis seems to prevent the multiplication of cancer cells and localized tumors, but it is necessary for the patient to continue chemotherapy in parallel with consuming the therapeutic oil.

He revealed that the Food and Drug Administration has approved cannabis products like Sativex, a mouth spray used for neuropathic pain and spasticity in multiple sclerosis) patients; Marinol, a treatment for chemotherapy-induced nausea in cancer patients; and Epidiolex, a treatment for severe and recurrent epilepsy.
In Pavilion 5 of the Ifema convention center in Madrid, which has been turned into Spains largest field hospital to manage the rising number of coronavirus patients, there is neither two meters of distance between one patient and another, nor adequate personal protective equipment. The conditions of nurses and doctors are shameful and they dont even have the computer program they need to work.

This is what doctors, nurses, guards and administration staff at the center told EL PAIS this past weekend.

There is greater risk of contagion than of being cured in this situation. Its a disaster, says one nurse.

Ana Gonzalez, another nurse who works a a local health center in Mostoles and in intensive care units (ICUs) in different hospitals in Madrid, went to the field hospital on Wednesday to volunteer. The patients are overcrowded . It looks like [a scene from a] war, there are barely two steps between beds, there is one bathroom for all the patients, and they had gone 13 days without showering until a shower was installed on Friday. There are no stands to hold up drips, we are using broomsticks!

These are just some of the dozens of complaints from health workers. The terrible conditions faced reached their limit on Sunday, according to Spains CCOO labor union, which argues that the protocol for personal protective equipment is not being met, that there is overcrowding, and that the changing rooms fail all safety measures aimed at avoiding contagion and stopping the spread of the virus.

Pavilion 5 at Madrid's Ifema exhibition center on Friday.

Up until now, the field hospital has been run by volunteers, but many are thinking of refusing to work in these conditions. On Sunday, trash bags were handed out instead of caps to protect heads, and non-protective green gowns were put on with a plastic apron.

The waiting areas and the changing rooms are being filled up with scrubs, caps and personal protective equipment that we have been using before with infected patients. There is not even a meter of distance between one person and another, staff have told the union. This situation breaks all safety protocols set out by the Madrid regions public health department for health workers and non-health workers who have direct contact with patients.

[I work] three nights in a row and where I am there is no replacement. There are very few of us in Summa [Madrids emergency services] and the patients are very unwell, says a nurse. They are left exhausted by the fever, the diarrhea caused by [HIV medicine] Kaletra and an indescribable sadness.

The regional government in Madrid has recognized that there was a one-off organizational problem on Sunday that led to complaints from professionals, but says that the field hospital is being provided with the necessary resources. There are professionals who have decided to also cover their gowns, caps and shoes with plastic bags, authorities added.

The CCOO union has warned that it would not allow workers to be threatened for refusing to work without adequate personal protective gear. In response, the Madrid regional government said that they had seen no evidence of such threats and encouraged staff to report such cases because they would not be tolerated.

Some health workers insist that the threats are real. One of them says they are veiled but continuous. They dont want people to know how things are being done and there is pressure all the time, they explain.

The pro-public healthcare group Coordination Against Healthcare Privatization (CAS) says that many patients from residencies were brought in directly, without a Covid-19 diagnosis this weekend, and added that the field hospital did not have the resources needed to carry out the necessary analyses. The computer program is not installed and there is no way of creating a patients history.

Volunteers for 5,500 beds

Since the field hospital opened, 1,110 patients have been admitted and 424 have been discharged after recovering. On Sunday night 750 patients were in the hospital. The space is set to have capacity for 5,500 hospital beds and 500 intensive care beds. But obviously they are not all there right now. Not even those that are there have the optimum conditions for patients, says one family doctor.

Another family doctor, Carmen, 45, who works in a health center in Mostoles, received a call on Friday afternoon from her boss. They needed people at the field hospital right away. She told her husband, 52, who is also a doctor, and the two of them went on Saturday to Pavilion 5, the first of the three that the Madrid government converted to ease the strain on hospitals in the region.

Intensive care beds at the Ifema field hospital. Ministerio de Defensa

That first day was devastating. Nothing had been put together. It was all very makeshift, it was very cold. It is a sad site, a grey concrete hangar, with beds separated without screens, with no privacy, says Carmen. The best part of the center was the attitude of the health workers. We are all volunteers except for the internists who coordinate. The volunteers are very eager, we came to give it our all, to do what was needed. But, as one nurse notes, enthusiasm doesnt protect you, and willpower doesnt cure.

That job is done by personal protective gear. Carmen arrives at 7.30am at Ifema and it takes the Samur staff at least 10 minutes to put on her four gloves, socks over her pants, fix everything in place with duct tape, a plastic suit that is fearfully hot, two face masks and protective facial visor like welders wear, only transparent. This is the highest level of protection.

They are very heavy suits to wear, everything is tight and its very hot. We come out of them literally sweating. Working seven hours this way is very hard, says Carmen.

But it is better than not having access to this equipment at all, says one nurse. The dehydration under this weight of plastic and the marks and the injuries that it can give you, these are all things that we all want, rather than feeling completely unprotected, thinking that we are going to get infected and infect the patients.

Prioritizing patients

Every patient at the Ifema field hospital has mild symptoms and has been transferred from a hospital in Madrid, a region which has been overwhelmed by the health crisis. When a patient arrives with more serious symptoms, or their condition worsens, the health workers have to make a decision.

Some are transferred to ICUs in hospitals, but there are others, who because of their age or the fact they have multiple illnesses, are candidates for sedation, says Carmen. The doctor from Mostoles explains the triage system: prioritize those with the greatest chance of survival when faced with a shortage of resources to help critical patients. The ICU beds are limited. Sadly, you have to select patients. We cant send patients over 90 to the ICU when a 30-year-old needs it Its very hard, she says.

Enthusiasm doesnt protect you, and willpower doesnt cure Anonymous nurse working at Ifema

Since she started to work at the Ifema field hospital, Carmen has discharged five patients and her husband two. On Tuesday she had to sedate an 87-year-old woman, a moment she wont ever forget. Its very sad but I am happy that I made it so that she would not die alone. A day before her condition worsened, the woman suddenly improved and asked to speak with her daughter, by gesturing to her cellphone. Hours passed and when Carmen realized she was not able to do any more for the woman, she called the patients daughter again. This time, so that they could say goodbye. I wanted for her to hear her daughters voice before she was sedated. [During the call] the grandmother smiled occasionally. I heard that they were talking to her about her granddaughter.

Ana Gonzalez, a 22-year-old volunteer nurse, does not go home when her shift ends I stay in case someone gets dizzy and I have to go back in. According to Gonzalez, the working hours at Ifema are set by the protective suit: between four and six hours a day with one day off a week: And that day, we work for free. With the protective suit on, health workers cannot go in for more than six hours. But many staff who worked last weekend say that after experiencing the conditions on Sunday they may not last a minute longer. And we cant allow ourselves to take sick leave, says one health worker. The worst is yet to come.

English version by Melissa Kitson.
I walk on untrodden ground, George Washington wrote 230 years ago. One of Americas greatest Founding Fathers was blazing a trail in which his actions (and their consequences) had no precedent.

Today, innovators and designers solve challenges that require new paradigms, processes and/or inventions for which there are no blueprints. As pioneers, they bear the risk of ruin from failure, while pursuing the lofty goal of changing the world.

Our STEM Dilemma

Pioneers make progress possible, but in America, STEM education (science, tech, engineering and math) needs plenty of improvement. In 2015, 15-year-olds across the country ranked 38th in math and 24th in science out of 71 developed countries, according to Pew Research.

China, India, Russia and other developing countries are winning the race to produce future scientists, Nobel Prize winners and manufacturing supervisors. Small businesses create two-thirds of net new jobs. Therefore, entrepreneurship and STEM programs are important to Americas prosperity.

Related: Get Yourself an Entrepreneurial Education

Changes in Education Can Help

There are initiatives across America to grow innovation through curricula designed for students in elementary and high school. More importantly, theres growing interest in entrepreneurship among kids. There's a reason ABCs Shark Tank, now in its 11th season, remains one of the most popular shows on primetime television.

Alex Hodara, who was recognized by Forbes' 30 Under 30, combines the sciences with entrepreneurship education. Rocket Club, an award-winning after-school program in New York City, teaches 7-to-14-year-olds about robotics, coding and founding a venture. His students actually learn how to start a business by creating things like proposals, contracts and invoices.

Execution, as all practitioners well know, is a key virtue of the sciences and small business. Entrepreneurs are forced to learn by doing, not rely on theory or impractical ideas. Students earn a currency called Rocket Fuel, which they can use to hire other classmates or get prizes.

Moreover, students with promising ideas obtain real money from the club to start their businesses. Rocket Club is already at full capacity until September of this year, and with good reason  enrollees meet with entrepreneurs and engineers from organizations like NASA, Red Bull and Estee Lauder.

Early STEM Exposure Could Be Key

Americas educational landscape could use a big boost. In 2016, U.S. colleges produced 568,000 STEM graduates, according to World Economic Forum. China dwarfed that number at 4.7 million. In fact, 40 percent of all Chinese graduates received a STEM degree. India graduated 2.6 million STEM students in 2016, as well.

In order to see different results, its the process that needs changing. Funded by Elon Musk, one extremely selective program is breaking free from traditional learning. The Ad Astra School, located inside SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., lets students choose their subjects. Students opt out of topics they dont enjoy, work in teams and analyze real-world issues like artificial intelligence, nuclear policies and geopolitics in North Korea.

Youd think these were college-aged adults, but theyre actually kids between the ages of 7 and 14. Enrollees learn software programming and other technical skills, but they arent given a letter grade  ever.

After-school programs like Rocket Club and Ad Astra are paving the way for young minds to accomplish greatness by teaching and gamifying entrepreneurship, engineering, networking and other professional skills that aren't emphasized in the traditional school system.

Related: Is Entrepreneurial Education Really That Important?

Todays youth have more tools than ever to embrace practical, science-based learning, but America needs to reverse a few disturbing trends. STEM has key implications in the global economy, and unfortunately, U.S. manufacturing has seen a steep decline since the late 1990s.

In 1997, manufacturing accounted for 16 percent of U.S. gross domestic product; 20 years later that figure had dropped to 11.6 percent, according to World Bank. These are high-paying jobs that were lost to China, India and other countries. On average, with manufacturing jobs paying 12 percent more than other American jobs, thats a problem.

Admirably, entrepreneurial pioneers go through daunting obstacles to get whats needed. This kind of resiliency should be applauded  not seen as something insurmountable.

Innovative curricula make a difference by giving young talent the kind of exposure they need to develop and flourish. An imaginative mind should be encouraged to pursue whats possible, even if there are no blueprints for soon-to-be solutions.

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Copyright 2020 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
By Fabian Werner and Daniel Ramos MONTEVIDEO/LA PAZ (Reuters) - Uruguay and Bolivia have confirmed their first deaths related to coronavirus, as many Latin America countries go into lockdown in a bid to mitigate the impact of the global pandemic that has infected nearly 700,000 people worldwide and killed over 30,000. Bolivia's health minister Anibal Cruz said on Sunday that a 78-year-old woman in the lowland city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the region most affected, had died of severe respiratory distress after contracting the virus from a family member. 'We recommend that the population take care of our older adults who are the most vulnerable and sensitive to this disease,' Cruz told reporters.

By Fabian Werner and Daniel Ramos

MONTEVIDEO/LA PAZ (Reuters) - Uruguay and Bolivia have confirmed their first deaths related to coronavirus, as many Latin America countries go into lockdown in a bid to mitigate the impact of the global pandemic that has infected nearly 700,000 people worldwide and killed over 30,000.

Bolivia's health minister Anibal Cruz said on Sunday that a 78-year-old woman in the lowland city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the region most affected, had died of severe respiratory distress after contracting the virus from a family member.

"We recommend that the population take care of our older adults who are the most vulnerable and sensitive to this disease," Cruz told reporters.

Bolivia, which has 81 confirmed cases, has taken aggressive measures to slow the spread of the disease including a nationwide quarantine and closing the country's borders.

Nearby Uruguay also reported its first coronavirus death, while total cases climbed above 300 in the grains and cattle producer, which has a population of around 3.5 million people.

The country's health ministry said in a report that a 71-year-old former electoral court minister, Rodolfo Gonzalez Rissotto, had died after contracting the virus.

An 82-year-old Uruguayan woman who died earlier in March was found to have had the virus, but her death was attributed to the terminal cancer she was suffering.

Chilean authorities reported a total of 2,139 confirmed cases on Sunday after the number had passed one thousand on Wednesday. The copper-rich country has recorded seven deaths.

Neighboring Argentina, which has imposed a nationwide quarantine, has 745 confirmed cases with 19 deaths, though the number of cases rose by the smallest margin in five days on Saturday, data from the health ministry showed.

(Reporting by Fabian Werner in Montevideo and Daniel Ramos in La Paz; Additional reporting by Natalia Ramos in Santiago; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Catherine Evans, Lisa Shumaker and Daniel Wallis)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
The outbreak of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in India and across the world has turned life upside down for many. India went into a 21-day lockdown period on March 25, and it brought almost everything to a complete standstill.

Jackie Shroff, who was at his second house between Mumbai and Pune when the lockdown was announced, found himself unable to make his way back to his primary home where his wife Ayesha Shroff, son Tiger Shroff and daughter Krishna Shroff are currently residing.

Jackie Shroff spoke to Radio Nasha's RJ Anmol and said, "Unfortunately, I am not at home. Tiger, Krishna and wife (Ayesha) are at home. I am here at my second house between Pune and Mumbai. The curfew was announced at 12 pm and I couldn't leave after that."

Stressing on why the lockdown is necessary, the actor continued, "If you don't have even this little common sense, then the stupidity is quite disappointing. When you are told to stay where you are, the whole world is in crisis, India has more than 100 crore people. We will have to be very careful."

He added, "Ye bahut bada cheez hai bhidu, bol diya ghar pe baitho toh ghar pe baitho (This is a really big thing, brother. Stay home when you are told to stay at home)."

Jackie Shroff is living in his second home, where his driver and he have been cooking food using the vegetables grown in the backyard. Like some other celebrities, he too has been volunteering to provide food for daily wage workers and stray animals.

ALSO READ: Krishna Shroff Gets Cozy With Boyfriend Eban Hyams On Vacation; Calls Him 'Her Favourite Fish'

ALSO READ: Katrina Kaif Learns To Do The Dishes Amidst Self Isolation


A dedicated community support helpline is now up and running in Kilkenny County Council to assist at risk members of the public in accessing non-emergency and non-medical supports and advice during the current public health emergency.

The confidential phoneline service is being established by the new Covid-19 Kilkenny Community Response Forum, which includes over a dozen agencies and organisations. The helpline is focused primarily on ensuring that vulnerable members of the community or those living alone can access deliveries of groceries, medicine and fuels. The role of the Forum is to ensure that there is a co-ordinated community response and to enable all voluntary statutory agencies to collaborate in support of communities and particularly vulnerable members.

The new phoneline is just one aspect of the forums work. Its core aim is contributing to the community-wide effort to limit the spread of Covid-19. Kilkenny County Council, through this group, will ensure that the wide variety of groups working across the city and county to assist those in need, will do so in an organised, collaborative and targeted way.

The councils Community Response Forum is there to ensure the very best use of the many resources assisting vulnerable persons with their daily needs at this unprecedented time, whether that is collecting medication, food shopping, social support and contact.

There are a number of agencies currently doing excellent work in delivering care to older and vulnerable people in our communities," says Chief Executive of Kilkenny County Council, Colette Byrne.

"These groups are currently operating independently of each other and Kilkenny County Councils role is to provide a targeted, integrated and coordinated approach to the delivery of these much needed services to our more vulnerable citizens across the city and county during the Covid-19 pandemic. Kilkenny County Council is ideally placed both statutorily and regionally to channel this great work and provide the governance structure in partnership with all stakeholders.

"This public health crisis has changed life for so many, and we are there to help with that change. Our own staff whose day-jobs have changed due to this crisis, will be a key resource in the management and operation of this community support programme along with our partner agencies/groups. Already up and running since Friday, March 27, Kilkenny County Council is providing a dedicated free contact number 056-7794145 with the lines open from 8am to 8pm seven days a week.

Included in the COVID-19 Kilkenny Community Response Forum are:



Health Service (HSE)

Kilkenny County Council Staff led by Senior Executive Officer, Community Department

Community Champion nominated by the Wheel.

An Post

Community Welfare Service

An Garda Siochana

Tusla

Local Volunteer Centre

Local Development Companies

Red Cross

Civil Defence

GAA

Irish Farmers Association (IFA)

Public Participation Network

Age Friendly Network

Local Link

Citizens Information

Alone

Migrant Forum

Religious.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 03:51:20|Editor: huaxia

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A woman wearing a protective mask looks at her cellphone in Moscow, Russia, on March 27, 2020. (Photo by Evgeny Sinitsyn/Xinhua)



It is noted that the regime does not limit the right of citizens to come to Moscow or leave the city.



MOSCOW, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Moscow residents will not be allowed to leave their apartments unless for exceptional reasons from Monday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Sunday.

"Starting tomorrow, the home mode of self-isolation is introduced for all Moscow residents, regardless of age," Sobyanin said in a statement on his website.

According to the statement, Muscovites will only be allowed to leave apartments for emergency medical assistance and in case of other direct threats to life and health. They will also be able to go to work if required to. In addition, they can go to the nearest store and pharmacy, walk pets at a distance not exceeding 100 meters from the place of residence, and take out household garbage.

Over the coming week, a smart system will be deployed to monitor the compliance with the home isolation regime. "Gradually, but steadily, we will tighten the control necessary in this situation," Sobyanin added.

It is noted that the regime does not limit the right of citizens to come to Moscow or leave the city.

A regional compensation payment to the unemployed is introduced under the current difficult situation, he said.

Russia has registered 270 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the sharpest daily increase so far, raising the total number to 1,543, of which 1,014 cases were confirmed in Moscow. 
Private hospitals will be prevented from collapsing after their incomes plummeted when the national cabinet ordered many elective surgeries be cancelled to preserve masks and free up capacity for a coronavirus surge.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt wrote to the private hospital sector late on Monday as negotiations with state governments threatened to fall apart and hospitals warned they would have to close their doors without income, after standing down thousands of nurses without pay.

In the letter, the minister pledged to "guarantee the viability of private hospitals" in addition to paying 50 per cent towards the states and territories' agreed payments.

Private hospitals are struggling to reach agreement on their promised bailout deals. Credit:Nic Walker

"This is on the expectation that all private hospitals retain capacity for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and non-COVID-19 activities and are able to resume operations at the end of [the pandemic]," the letter said.
Oficemen asks government not to paralyse the construction sector

ICR Newsroom By 30 March 2020

Cement manufacturers with plants in Spain have requested the countrys government not to paralyse the construction sector in the face of the current COVID-19 pandemic and the national alert, considering it necessary to maintain its activity so that "the country is prepared for the exit of the crisis".



"With the service sector paralysed, construction now becomes an essential pillar so that the Spanish economy does not freeze," says the cement association, Oficemen. It advocates "maintenance of the works, always reinforcing inspections related to compliance with sanitary measures that guarantee the complete safety of workers."



"It is of utmost importance that the works, including the infrastructure works, continue to operate if we want our country to be prepared for the way out of this crisis," Oficemen in its monthly newsletter. It indicated that cement production, "although it is weakening, it is still continuing" whenever there are operational works, "just as there are in other countries around us."



Oficemen also underlined the importance of generating, "as quickly as possible, the flow of credit to companies, referring to the urgent financial aid package approved by the government, stating that "only the main contractor is protected" in case the works are stopped. Oficemen said it was important to protect the entire value chain of the construction materials used in the project.



In addition, the cement association highlighted the key role of the cement industry in waste management, particularly at times of health crises. Through the ministerial order approved on 19 March, cement plants may be required to deal with the waste caused by the coronavirus.







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Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 07:03:05|Editor: huaxia

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LA PAZ, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Some 19 days after the detection of its first case of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Bolivia on Sunday reported its first fatality from the disease and a total of 81 people who have tested positive.

The fatal victim was a resident of eastern Santa Cruz department, which has become the national epicenter of the epidemic, with more than half of the cases, 44.

The victim was an elderly woman, 78, diagnosed with "coronavirus respiratory distress," top officials of the interim government told reporters at a press conference, including Health Minister Anibal Cruz.

Cruz urged the public to comply with a blanket quarantine to avoid a rise in infections.

The woman "was stable in mandatory isolation" through Saturday, but her condition worsened at night, requiring intubation and intensive care.

Her recovery was complicated by age and she passed away on Sunday morning, said Cruz, stressing that the elderly in particular should stay home.

Bolivia first urged that citizens quarantine on March 22. It declared a state of emergency four days later to strengthen the quarantine and extend it through April 15.
B oris Johnson has been warned that if the UK does not extend the Brexit transition period it will face a double whammy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

After the UK left the EU on January 31, both sides have until the end of 2020 to negotiate rules for after the split.

The biggest grouping in the European Parliament, as well as some UK MPs, have advised the Prime Minister not to insist on ending Britain's compliance with EU single market rules on December 31, while the world deals with the Covid-19 strain.

However, Mr Johnson has been adamant that the deadline can still be met and argues it should be possible to negotiate a comprehensive free trade agreement by then.

EU post-Brexit talks will continue despite the UK and much of the Continent being on a coronavirus-enforced lockdown / PA

The Prime Ministers spokesman said the Government had no plan to change course on the negotiations, telling reporters on Monday: The transition period ends on December 31 2020. This is enshrined in UK law.

The centre-right European Peoples Party (EPP) said the coronavirus epidemic further complicated what many in Brussels regard as an unrealistically tight timetable for securing a deal.

MEP Christophe Hansen, a negotiator on the parliaments international trade committee, said: Under these extraordinary circumstances, I cannot see how the UK Government would choose to expose itself to the double whammy of the coronavirus and the exit from the EU single market, which will inevitably add to the disruption, deal or no deal.

I can only hope that common sense and substance will prevail over ideology. An extension of the transition period is the only responsible thing to do.

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The warning comes as the EU-UK joint committee set up to implement the Withdrawal Agreement was set to meet for the first time.

Because of the outbreak, the talks will take place by video conference, with the British side led by Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove and the EU by European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic.

The EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier is reportedly continuing to convalesce after contracting the disease earlier this month.

German MEP David McAllister, who chairs the UK co-ordination group in the parliament, said now was the time for the UK to change tack over an extension to the transition.

The coronavirus pandemic complicates the already very ambitious schedule, he said.

The EU has always been open to extending the transition period. The ball is now clearly in the British court.

The United Kingdom would have to submit an official request. So far, the UK Government has constantly rejected such an option.

Under the current circumstances, London should carefully re-examine a prolongation.

The Prime Minister's spokesman added: "We have shared legal texts and they are the subject of informal discussions between ourselves and the European Commission.

They are conversations that are taking place via telephone as both sides analyse each others respective legal texts.
With every passing day of the coronavirus lockdown, all we get to hear is an increase in the number of infected people, deaths or economies on the verge of collapse. While memes on the internet still manage to keep us going through these depressing days and how the word quarantine gave a more positive meaning in the current scenario, there is one thing for sure; we cant afford April Fools jokes this year!Fortunately enough, this is not only our own opinion. Google also agrees to what we have said above and therefore the company has also announced to skip the April Fools Day pranks this year.In an official email sent by Google Head of Marketing Lorraine Twohill to the Business Insider the company has said to take a year off from the April Fools tradition, which was celebrated on every 1st April before, all in response to pay homage to people who are fighting the battle against COVID-19. In this hard time, Google is preferring to help people as much as they can and promised that the April Fools Jokes will be back next year which might just be much better than your expectations.The email by Twohill was also sent to the managers at Google to make sure that any smaller joke projects managed by different specific teams should be immediately shut down.Despite introducing us to some of the most amazing products in its history, Google has also made its name for brilliant April Fool Pranks as well. But as the world is not ready for any more shock, even in the name of jokes, it is recommended for other brands as well to postpone or cancel their plans for 1st April.The decision from Google came out after knowing that the US now stands at the top spot in the list of countries that have been badly affected by the coronavirus. The increase in number of patients in the US has been worse than China as well. Millions of Americans have also become jobless with due date of bills approaching soon.Last year, Microsoft also banned the bad tradition of April Fools Day, as according to the company "these stunts have limited positive impact and can actually result in unwanted news cycles".Photo: AFPRead next: WhatsApp Limits The Duration Of Status Videos To 15 Seconds For Some Users
On March 26, Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse released Sunil Ratnayake, a former Sri Lanka army sergeant convicted of the brutal murder of eight Tamil civilians, including three children. The crime was committed in Mirusivil village, 26 kilometres from Jaffna in the countrys north, during Colombos almost three-decade communal war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Under the constitution, Sri Lankas executive president has the arbitrary power to release convicted criminals.

Rajapakses presidential pardon occurs as he is exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to further increase the militarisation of his administration. During last years presidential election campaign, Rajapakse, who relies on political support from the military, pledged to release from custody all officers being held on human right violations.

Sunil Ratnayake

President Rajapakse and his party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, falsely claim no war crimes occurred in Sri Lanka during its nearly 30-year war. This is the position of every faction of Sri Lankans ruling elite.

Five people, including then Lance Corporal R.M. Sunil Ratnayake and Private Mahinda Kumarasinghe, were part of the armys Long Range Reconnaissance Patrola group that conducted covert operations. They were charged in the Colombo High Court in November 2002 on 19 counts of murder.

While four of the five were exonerated due to lack of evidence after a 13-year trial, a three-judge High Court panel unanimously found that Ratnayake was guilty of the murder of the eight civilians, and sentenced him to death.

In 2017, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court heard an appeal against Ratnayakes death sentence and confirmed the High Court verdict. It was one of the rare cases in which a Sri Lankan soldier has been convicted of war crimes. Overwhelming evidence against Ratnayake, as well as mass outrage over the cold-blooded killings, prevented his legal appeal from succeeding.

The Mirusivil village massacre took place on December 19, 2000, as military clashes between the LTTE and government forces intensified in the North. Confronting Sri Lankan army shelling, the villagers fled to a safer location, However, when the attacks subsided, the villagers used to visit their original homes to collect whatever fruits or vegetables they could, then return to their temporary dwellings.

Ravivarman, Thivakulasingam, Vilvarasa and his 5- and 13-year-old children Jeyachandran and Gnanachandranand his 15-year-old brother-in-law, Maheshwaran, visited Mirusivil village on December 19 and were returning on pushbikes. Maheshwaran, the only survivor, provided an eyewitness account of the crime.

The Tamil villagers were stopped by two heavily armed soldiers who forced them to kneel down and interrogated them. Four other soldiers joined in and the villagers were blindfolded and assaulted.

Maheshwaran, who was knocked unconscious, was being dragged by the soldiers near a cesspit when he became conscious and his blindfold became loose. He noticed patches of blood near the cess pit and movements inside it. Realising the danger, he pushed away two soldiers and was able escape, running for his life into the thicket.

During the police investigation, Maheshwaran identified Ratnayake and Kumarasinghe. While only goat and reptile carcasses were discovered in the cesspit, the bodies of the eight villagers were later found buried among the bushes near the place where they were attacked. The post-mortem found that all of the victims, including the toddler, had been beaten, tortured, and their throats had been slit.

Having released Ratnayake, the Sri Lankan president has once again asserted that the security forces and police can act with impunity and commit any crime against the people. It also shows Rajapakse will not allow the rule of law or the judiciary to block his autocratic moves.

As he declared in this years Independence Day speech: I do not envisage public officials, lawmakers or the judiciary, impeding my implementation of this commitment [to the people].

While numerous war crimes were committed by Sri Lankas security forces during the war, only a handful have been exposed. When cases were filed, those accused were ultimately released.

Much international attention has been paid to the killing of five students in eastern Trincomalee and the massacre in 2006 of 17 members of the Action Against Hunger, an organisation that assisted war-affected people in Muttur. Both these cases were suppressed during the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration.

Since becoming president last year, Rajapakse has increasingly exalted the military and elevated former senior military officers into leading positions in civilian institutions, laying the foundations for dictatorial forms of rule.

Gotabhaya Rajapakse previously served as defence secretary when his older brother Mahinda Rajapakse was president during the last period of the war that ended in 2009. He is determined to protect and defend their political leadership and the military who are implicated in war crimes, which, according to the UN, saw the deaths of 40,000 civilians and LTTE members who surrendered during the final phase of the war.

President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his administration recently withdrew from the 2015 October UN Human Rights Council resolution, co-sponsored by the US and the then Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government. This resolution, which was fully backed by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), proposed a domestic mechanism to investigate human right violations which was simply window-dressing to cover up war crimes.

This year Rajapakse publicly admitted that 20,000 people who went missing during the war were actually dead, and that the government would issue death certificates after verifying relatives claims on the disappearances. The disappeared include many hundreds of people who were rounded up, tortured and killed by death squads linked to the military.

Early this year, Rajapakse established a presidential commission to investigate so-called political reprisals by the previous government. The commission is the means to block judicial inquiries into the crimes of military officials, such as former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda, who has been accused of abducting and murdering eleven Tamil youths. Karannagoda has defied four court orders demanding that he appear in court.

Amid growing international opposition to the release of the killer, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement on March 27 condemning Sunil Ratnayakes release and declaring that it was troubled by it.

The statement declared that the pardon was yet another example of the failure of Sri Lanka to fulfil its international human rights obligations to provide meaningful accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other gross violations of human rights. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also condemned Ratnayakes release.

Sri Lankas parliamentary opposition parties, including the United National Party, Sri Lanka Freedom Party and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, have said nothing about this legal travesty. Their silence is political consent.

For its part the TNA has shown little concern. It issued a brief comment describing the pardon as an opportunistic act by President Rajapakse who was taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic, to deflect attention from Ratnayakes release.

All of the establishment parties, including the Tamil parties and the pseudo-left, attended an all-party meeting called by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse in the name of national unity to fight the coronavirus pandemic. They all endorsed the moves by the Rajapakse administration towards authoritarian rule. All fear the explosive struggles of the working class and the poor that will inevitably erupt.

Rajapakse has not just released a convicted war criminal but is making clear how far he is prepared to go in suppressing the democratic rights of the masses. This is a serious warning to the working class.
I represented a vast swatch of South and West Texas during my 14 years in Congress, including dozens of energy-producing counties. As energy policies are being developed in these tenuous times, those in charge must adhere to the class Texas words of wisdom, two wrongs dont make a right.

Just because Russia and OPEC are using the coronavirus pandemic to undermine the U.S. shale industry and drive down global oil prices, it does not mean the U.S. should follow suit.

Earlier this month, as Asias demand for oil plummeted due to the pandemic, Saudi Arabia proposed cutting production to boost prices. Russia, a quasi-adjunct OPEC member, surprisingly balked. If Russia figured flooding the market could put another nail in the coffin of U.S. producers, Saudi Arabia seemed more than happy to play that game.

For struggling U.S. producers, oil at less than $20 a barrel would force the abandonment of existing and planned oil exploration and extraction. This is especially true in the Eagle Ford shale play south and west of San Antonio.

Some industry leaders and elected officials say it is time to put a check on Saudi Arabias and Russias latest attempt at economic sabotage.

Ryan Sitton, a member of the Railroad Commission of Texas, surprised industry observers by announcing plans to meet with OPEC ministers in June to join forces in setting production quotas to help prices recover. It has been nearly 50 years since the commission adopted quotas. It has never teamed up with OPEC on market manipulation. This is not the time to start.

With the global economy headed toward recession, there are already signs Russia and Saudi Arabia fear unintended consequences of their profiteering. As we move forward, the U.S. should stay the course with free-market principles and honest competition, no matter how tough it can be.

Lets remember why Russia and OPEC are colluding in the first place. The United States has become a net exporter of energy, largely due to advances in hydraulic fracturing. It was the wildcatter spirit, a drive to innovate, compete, and do the impossible that fueled this revolution and created thousands of jobs  not price fixing and quotas.

Saudi Arabias move to flood the market in 2014 took its expected toll but many domestic producers were able to weather the storm, cut costs, become more efficient, and thrive. Production limits and export quotas on Texas crude would punish these producers in order to protect the less efficient companies. This would undermine the competitive dynamics that made this country a global energy powerhouse in the first place.

In addition, if the Railroad Commission abandons its long-standing policies and cuts a deal with OPEC on quotas in a moment of panic, the U.S. will lose forever its ability to criticize OPEC for doing the same in the future. This would confer upon OPEC new legitimacy as an anti-market cartel, giving it even more clout going forward. We cannot allow the current distress to legitimize schemes such as the Russia-OPEC gamble and empower the very players who are overtly seeking to undermine us.

Economic principles and fortitude must apply as well to proposals coming out of Congress. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, and other lawmakers want President Trump to invoke a provision in U.S. trade law to boycott Saudi Arabia and Russian oil. They argue that national security considerations make it necessary to protect U.S. oil producers and bolster American energy independence.

To be sure, free and fair trade is more an aspiration than a reality but we should use powerful and controversial trade remedies judiciously. Oil is a global commodity. Its pricing and trade is tied to global financial markets. The near- and long-term risks of unintended consequences of introducing more uncertainty into an already volatile marketplace are numerous and serious. However objectionable the actions of Russia and OPEC are, Mike Sommers, the CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, told the Washington Examiner, a boycott would be incredibly damaging.

Upholding proven market principles will take a lot of discipline as the coronavirus and the Russia-OPEC machinations compound an already punishing drop in oil prices. Instead of duplicating bad policies in a moment of crisis, we must stand firm and position U.S. producers for ultimate success in the years ahead.

Henry Bonilla represented South and West Texas in Congress 1993-20078 and served on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Whether its the Coronavirus (COVID-19, if you prefer), a major weather event, financial upheaval, an unexpected health reversal, or some other form of adversity, we all hate a crisis. We like things to be going smoothly, when we feel in control, when changes come about only by our own choosing. But we detest when control is suddenly wrested from our grip and we find ourselves at the mercy of our circumstances.

But theres one benefit from going through a crisis: It reveals where our trust, our confidence, our faith truly lie.

There have been times when Ive gotten into spiritual discussions with friends and family members and, after a while, they say something like, Hey, I believe in God. Lets leave it at that!

At other times, on TV or in a movie, we watch a key character going through a difficult time be advised, You just have to have faith.

So, is that all we need? Simply believing in God  whoever that happens to be to you? What about faith? Exactly what is it were supposed to have faith in  fate, good luck, serendipity, karma? Faith infaith?

Because as we see in the Bible, belief doesnt necessarily equate to saving, transforming faith. For instance, the apostle James wrote, You believe that God is one. Good for you! Even the demons believe that  and shudder (James 2:19, Berean Study Bible). In other words the apostle was cautioning his readers, You claim to believe in God. Big deal! The workers of evil believe in Him, too, but you wont be seeing any of them in heaven!

I think of someone years ago who seemed to think I was being judgmental, even intolerant, when her claim to believe in God didnt cause me to stop talking about Jesus Christ and the necessity to receive Him as Savior and Lord. I wasnt judging, but as James pointed out, simple intellectual acceptance that there God exists doesnt amount to faith.

In the same passage, he wrote, Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? (James 2:18-20). Then James proceeded to cite biblical examples of people who acted upon their faith in the Lord, even in seemingly impossible situations: Abraham, who was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar, and a prostitute named Rahab, of all people, who concealed Israelite spies scouting out the city of Jericho. Both Abraham and Rahab didnt just believe  they possessed faith that drove them to action.

Look at it this way: We all know that airplanes can fly, even if we dont fully understand how. We might even go to an airport, where planes fly in and out. Theres no problem believing that, even if weve never flown personally. But suppose, once we get to the airport, someone says, Here, Ive bought you a ticket. I want you to fly with me to Boston (or Chicago, or Dallas).

Suddenly, theres a test  is there enough belief to become faith by actually boarding the plane? Because, whether those of us who are familiar with flying realize it or not, this requires an act of faith: Trusting implicitly in the integrity of the aircrafts design and construction, the skill of the crew, even that the plane has been properly maintained and fueled for the trip.

What if the novice flyer said, No way! Im not getting on that plane! But you do believe it can fly, dont you? Well, yeah, but youre not getting me on that thing to go anywhere! Why not? It could crash!

In a similar way  but far more profound  at one point or another, we must decide whether I believe in God will become, I am committing my life to the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting in Him to guide my life, working in my life and making me into the person He wants me to be.

Getting back to the crisis, staring at the chaos and realizing we dont understand whats happening, or what can be done to fix it, were challenged to dig deep and determine where our faith lies. Do we feel overwhelmed with fear and anxiety, our emotions surging to the brink of panic? Or do we turn to the Lord, not just in intellectual belief but also with faith, the confident assurance and expectation that He is faithful and will fulfill His promises for His children?

The Scriptures remind us of this in many places, but I particularly like what we read in the eighth chapter of Romans. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seem is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently (Romans 8:18-25).

In times of crisis and uncertainty, do we turn to the God of the Bible with hope and expectation, even though we dont know how Hes going to work through our circumstances, or do we succumb to worry, fear and desperation? Every once in a while, its good to re-examine ourselves by taking this test.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13).



* * *
Digital pathology is a concept that has been around for over a century, however, it is only in the past decade that technological advances have allowed for its widespread adoption.

The market for digital pathology is growing all the time. The global market was valued at $767.6 million in 2019 and is expected to grow rapidly, at a CAGR of 11.8% between now and 2027.

The continued growth of this market is heavily related to the numerous benefits it brings to the scientific community, discussed below.

Image Credit: Anton Gvozdikov/Shutterstock.com

The benefits of digital pathology

There are a number of advantages related to the use of digital pathology, these advantages are helping the practice become more widely adopted, and commonplace in lab settings.

Improved analysis

To begin with, digital pathology offers improved analysis. It provides algorithms to be used for automated slide analysis, which is objective, rapid, and accurate. It also allows scientists instant access to previous related cases, as data storage for long-term predictive analytics.

Reduction in errors

Next, the use of digital pathology means fewer errors are made, mistakes such as misidentification are reduced, and because the images are stored digitally, breakages do not threaten data.

Enhancing imaging

The practice also offers better views of the samples, it allows scientists to magnify to slides and look at them from different angles. It also allows for annotation and the measurement of multiple regions of interest.

Improved productivity

Productivity is one of the main benefits that has helped digital pathology gain popularity. It does this in several ways. Firstly, it improves workflow by enabling wide-scale collaboration, offering central storage of data and easy access, minimizing the need for outsourcing and facilitates automation.

Also, it improves turnaround times by enabling rapid access to digital slides held in the archives, speeding up the processes of retrieving, organizing, and matching data.

Digital pathology processes address the major contributors to wasted time in pathology labs. It stops scientists from having to search through large volumes of physical slides, sometimes kept in archives, to locate the one they need.

It also reduces the time required to set up the microscope in the exact way it was when studying a previous sample.

The need to physically gather other team members at the same time to inspect samples is eradicated, and the old ways of sharing a photo of a sample that could be very time-ineffective are replaced by the rapid sharing capabilities of digital pathology.

More innovation

Innovation is another key benefit of digital pathology. The process facilitates more innovation by encouraging pathologists to become specialized, giving scientists access to better tools and information, and sharing practices with broader geographies.

Better patient outcomes

A main role of pathologists is to establish a diagnosis for a patient based on their tissue samples, leaving a critical decision up to a single person, or small group of people. Diagnosis in this way is vulnerable to human error, even if the person reviewing the samples is an expert, they are still not immune from human error.

Digital pathology can help reduce human error as well as producing precise diagnostic results in short turnaround time. The processes involved in digital pathology allow it to speed up routine tasks without reducing the quality of the execution of each task.

There are many scenarios where doctors need an accurate analysis of a tissue sample instantly. In these cases, waiting for tissue biopsies to be processed in traditional ways may be too slow, and have detrimental impacts on the health outcomes for patients.

With digital pathology, even if the required specialist is not physically available on site, the images of the sample can be sent instantaneously to specialists in locations around the world to enable rapid analysis. This capability of digital pathology could theoretically save lives.

Reduces long-term costs

Finally, digital pathology can greatly reduce costs in the long-term. This is because it can speed up the workflow, eliminate the need for couriers, reduce the requirement for scientists to travel, and reduce time and resources spent analyzing and interpreting data.

Serval years ago, researchers based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, investigated how the adoption of digital pathology systems allowed healthcare institutions to reduce costs. They found that a significant reduction in spending, equating to $12.4 million, was observed just five years after implementing the system. This works out at an annual saving of $219,000.

The study attributed much of this cost-saving effect to the system allowing staff time to be better allocated, increasing productivity all round.

Summary

Digital pathology has become firmly established in labs all around the world, and its numerous benefits have helped drive its rapid expansion, which is predicted to continue momentum over the coming years.

Its advantages of cutting costs, improving analysis, patient outcomes, and productivity, reducing errors, and enhancing imaging and innovation are likely to continue to propel its widespread adoption.

Sources: Ho, J., Kuzmishin, J., Montalto, M., Pantanowitz, L., Parwani, A., Stratman, C., Ahlers, S., Aridor, O. and Fine, J., 2014. Can digital pathology result in cost savings? A financial projection for digital pathology implementation at a large integrated health care organization. Journal of Pathology Informatics, 5(1), p.33. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4168664/

Pantanowitz, L., Sharma, A., Carter, A., Kurc, T., Sussman, A. and Saltz, J., 2018. Twenty years of digital pathology: An overview of the road travelled, what is on the horizon, and the emergence of vendor-neutral archives. Journal of Pathology Informatics, 9(1), p.40. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6289005/

The Value of Digital Pathology. Available at: digitalpathologyassociation.org/blog/the-value-of-digital-pathology/

Further Reading
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 17:32:18|Editor: yhy

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Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen attends a press conference in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on March 30, 2020. Hun Sen said on Monday that the government has finalized a draft law on putting the country in a state of emergency in response to the spread of the COVID-19. (Photo by Li Lay/Xinhua)

PHNOM PENH, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said on Monday that the government has finalized a draft law on putting the country in a state of emergency in response to the spread of the COVID-19.

"Now, the draft law has been already completed," he said during a press conference on the latest measures on anti-COVID-19 pandemic here.

He added that he would lead a top-level meeting on Tuesday to review the draft bill before putting it forward to the Cabinet meeting on Friday for approval.

Hun Sen said the draft law will state a number of measures including imposing curfews, preventing mass gatherings, and locking down public areas or private locations, among others.

"I'd like to appeal to the people not to worry about this law, and I don't want to use it, just want it in place," he said. "Only the situation is out of control, will we use this law to declare the country in a state of emergency with a certain period of time."

The draft law would need to be adopted by the National Assembly and finally reviewed by the Senate before being submitted to the king for promulgation.

At the press conference, Hun Sen also ordered the temporary closures of all casinos in the kingdom, taking effect from April 1 at midnight.

He also banned the exports of white rice and unhusked rice, effective from April 5, in order to reserve them for local consumption during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Southeast Asian country has so far recorded a total of 107 confirmed cases of the virus, according to a Ministry of Health's statement on Monday, adding that 23 of them have recovered.

On Saturday, the kingdom decided to impose temporary entry restrictions for all foreign travelers for one month in order to stem the virus spread.

Earlier this month, the country also ordered the temporary closures of all schools, karaoke clubs, night clubs, cinemas, and museums nationwide, as religious gatherings and concerts were prohibited.
All weekend, Quentin Hillard had been getting emails from her sixth grade son and 10th grade nephews teachers asking that they log on to Fort Bend ISDs online learning website Monday morning.

The tenth grader was supposed to have a 9 a.m. video conference with his Introduction to Physics and Chemistry teacher, but was greeted by an error message instead of his teachers face when he logged into the feed.

I get it, its going to be a trying situation, Hillard said. This is the same with anything, like the IRS when people are trying to file their taxes at the end of the year  they end up with the same problem where the system gets jammed.

Students in several local school districts began their distance learning with error messages and glitchy websites Monday as schools across Greater Houston marked their first day of online classes. Some dove straight into curriculum-based lessons, while others instructed teachers to give students and their families the week to get acquainted with the new online systems.

Almost all area districts began giving students work online Monday. Houston ISD will start rolling out instruction on a central site called HISD H.O.M.E. on Tuesday; Monday was a district holiday commemorating the legacies of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.

A Fort Bend ISD spokeswoman said thousands of area students may have logged onto the online platform the district is using, called Schoology, at the same time, possibly overloading the system and causing it to crash and lag. Students in Alief ISD and Crosby ISD, which use the same Schoology platform experienced similar problems.

While teachers, district leaders and IT employees have undertaken a herculean effort to transition to remote learning since schools announced they would close on March 12, the incident showed that technical underpinnings created by third-party companies could disrupt the delicate new systems.

Fort Bend spokeswoman Amanda Bubela said the disruptions in that district lasted several hours but largely were resolved around noon.

She and officials in Alief said they got in touch with Schoology about the issues and the company was working to fix the problems.

Schoology did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Bubela said Fort Bend ISD students can access their teachers content at any time during the day and do not have to log on at the same time to watch live lessons or participate in classwork.

I think this morning, because its the first day, we had a high volume of logins, Bubela said. But the idea is that they dont all have to log on at same time, like 7 a.m. elementary students. It all depends on the teacher and the teachers schedule, but they will post content and lessons on a daily basis.

Hillard worried about the quality of work and instruction teachers would give if online systems continue to sputter. Would her kids just be given worksheets to keep them busy? Would they be able to ask questions?

I just got another email, Hillard said Monday morning, reading from another teachers email. You wont need me for assignments this week.

She sighed.

I just think with this, just saying do some worksheets basically in Schoology, I can do that at home. I dont need a teacher sending something to do on the website and submit this for a grade, Hillard said.

Bubela said the district still is working out details on how grading would be done while students remain away from school, but the first lessons that likely would be graded will be published on teachers websites Friday.

For this week, we have teachers reaching out to families and students so they can get acclimated to system, getting them used to logging onto Schoology, Bubela said. On Friday, well start pushing out the actual content.

shelby.webb@chron.com
Frank Pomeroy, pastor at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, was away for the weekend when he received a text message alerting him that a gunman had just attacked the church during Sunday worship. Among the dead was his own daughter, Annabelle.

By noon, as Texas journalist Joe Holley writes in his new book recounting the massacre and its aftermath, Frank was in his truck barreling down I-35, every mile a rolling kaleidoscope of memories  [He] began to separate out the feelings of pain and desperation that threatened him from the practical steps he knew he had to take in the next few hours, the next several days.

Holley, columnist for the Houston Chronicle and a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his columns on Texas gun culture, was at a book signing when he learned about the shooting. Driving home afterwards, he heard all the terrible details on the radio: A Baptist church. Multiple deaths. Sutherland Springs.

Soon enough, a clearer picture of the carnageand an outline of the trials to comewas emerging: Twenty-five friends and loved ones had lost their lives  A pastor who knew and cared about those broken people needed to preach their funerals. Twenty of their friends and loved ones were in area hospitals, some still fighting for their lives; they needed visiting and their families needed consoling.

When Holley saw the exit for I-35 he began driving toward the small town. He would spend the next year of his life there, remaining long after most reporters had left. The resulting book, Sutherland Springs: God, Guns, and Hope in a Texas Town, paints a picture of tragedy, despair, faith, and resilience. But Holley also shows the systemic failure of American society to protect places like Sutherland Springs, one that left the small congregation totally alone and exposed to terror.

I Choose Forgiveness

What happened within the four walls of First Baptist Church on November 5, 2017 was a paroxysm of violence unlike anything any human, save soldiers in the fiercest of combat, ever encounters. For the handful of worshipers trapped by the attacker, it must have felt like the devil himself had appeared in their midst, tearing apart the very fabric of reality.

Holleys re-creation of gunman Devin Patrick Kelleys rampage is as shattering an experience reading a book as youre likely to ever have.

Waves of bullets, like swarming angry hornets, streamed through the walls and shattered windows  [Kelley] moved to the right side of the sanctuary and began firing single shots into people huddled beneath pews. He was killing at point-blank range  [Julie Workman] could tell he was wearing military gear, all black  He seemed to target children, aiming at their heads. Precious little ones she thought of as her own were being pulverized before her eyes. The shooter moved toward Joann Ward, thirty, who was lying between pews atop three of her children, like a mother hen sheltering her chicks. He shot Joann and killed her, and then kept firing through her body to make sure he killed her children. Four times bullets burned into [Farida Browns] legs. Four shots hit the woman to her right. Farida held the womans hand as the bullets slammed into her. She tried to comfort her, assuring her that soon it would be over, that soon she would be in heaven. The woman lay still, tears streaming down her face.

The carnage continued until 26 members of the church were dead.

Holley spends considerable time recounting the shared experiences in the life of the church before the shooting occurred: the potlucks, the Bible studies, the weekend and weeknight services, the home visits, the joy of their worship, the communal way they raised their children and cared for their sick.

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Many of the activities centered on sharing meals together: breakfast before Sunday worship, dinner before Thursday Bible class, the Pomeroys cooking Thanksgiving dinner, Pastor Frank manning the barbecue pit for Vacation Bible School. In most cases, calling a church community an extended family can sound fairly cliche, but in the case of Sutherland Springs it was often literally true. As Holley soon discovered, interfamily marriage entanglements make it hard for newcomers to figure out whos related to whom.

He adds, They worship and study the Bible together several times a week, they eat together, they vacation together, go on hunting trips together, watch the Super Bowl together. Sunday after Sunday, month after month, year after year, their lives layer with familiarity, interdependence, and affection.

Holley admits that he thought hed find relationships broken by the tragedy, and he was surprised when their community, their communality, held firm. The remnant found strength in its faith and common purpose. They would need every last thread of strength these bonds afforded. As the weeks passed, Holley continues,

I saw people laugh and joke and enjoy themselves. I saw children and adults come to church one Sunday morning dressed like pirates, greeting each other with a fearsome Aargh. I saw happiness break through often. And, just as frequently, I saw sadness. I saw people wander down the aisles of the sanctuary on a Sunday morning and suddenly stop and embrace someone, tightly, in tears, for minutes at a time.

The faith, trust, and resilience the congregation exhibited over the following months, as members began to reassemble the fragments of their broken lives, is simply unfathomable. As Holley recalls, I dont know how many times I heard, in sermons, prayers, and supplications, in interviews and conversations, some version of the following: We dont know why it happened, but we trust that God has a plan, and someday well understand.

It is difficult for an outsider to hear these expressions of faith and forgiveness without a profound sense of disbelief, and Holley admits his difficulty with these conversations. At first I found it incredible, almost infuriating  and yet who was I to question the depth and sincerity of their beliefand their grief. I could only listen and try to understand. He adds:

Still, their suffering and their soul searching were nothing if not profoundand profoundly in the tradition of humankinds age-old dilemma. They distilled the ancient existential questions into one agonizing word, the word long-suffering Job uttered in the midst of his inexplicable agony: Why? Their answeror rather their un-answercould be distilled in one word, as well: Trust.

Perhaps most stunning is how faith led the members of First Baptist to forgive the man who brought this horror upon them. As Holley reports, at a Bible study held after the shooting, a member named Elizabeth Briggs asked, Should we include the forgiveness of that man who to me was demon-possessed? Should we have a cross up there for him? She and other members answered with a resounding yes.

The church placed blame for their suffering directly at the feet of a figure familiar to evangelicals across the earth: Satan. As Pastor Frank said to his congregation, We must be doing some real bottom-kicking; otherwise, he would have passed us by.

At a service six months after the shooting, he preached, There shall be life. Im not saying its simple. Im not saying its easy. But Im saying that God has given us the ability to do so. I choose life. I choose peace. I choose forgiveness.

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Do Your Duty

In recreating the events that led to the attack, Holley shows that the violence at Sutherland Springs was the end result of a systemic collapse that enabled Kelley, the attacker, to wield weapons he never should have been allowed to legally possess. Most infuriating is the incompetence of the United States Air Force, which failed to report Kelley, a former enlistee, to the FBI for domestic assault and child abuse on multiple occasions.

Instead, Kelley was able to purchase the assault rifle and enough ammunition to unleash more than 700 rounds, multiplying exponentially the carnage inside the small sanctuary.

In addition to the failures of the Air Force, Holley mentions two others incidents after Kelleys discharge, related to animal cruelty and sexual assault, that were serious enough to block a gun purchase. Local authorities neglected to investigate either case.

The cruelest cut of all occurred during the attack itself, when victims repeatedly dialed 911 and got no response. First responders didnt arrive until after Kelley had fled the scene.

In the seconds after the shooting ended, Julie Workman, a nurse, began moving from victim to victim, looking for people she could help. Holley vividly recreates the scene:

The first seven people she approached were dead. She got to Brooke Ward; the five-year old was beyond help. Julie began screaming. From several pews away, Gunny [Macias, a retired Marine sergeant] rose up. He was drenched in blood. Julie! he ordered. Do your duty! Let me cry and scream over this baby, she said to herself, maybe to Gunny. Then Ill do what Im trained to do. She went back to work. Twice more, anguish overwhelmed her. Twice more, Gunny rose up and ordered her back to work. Julie! Do your duty!

In the end, Julie Workman, the other members of the church, and a neighbor across the street were the only ones who did. That neighbor was Stephen Willeford, who heard the rapid fire of Kelleys weapon and ran outside, clutching his own assault rifle. In a scene Holley renders in heart-stopping detail, Willeford shouted to get Kelleys attention and shot him twice, critically wounding him before the gunman sped off in a Ford Expedition.

Undoubtedly, lives were saved by the bravery of Willeford, the quintessential good guy with a gun. But of course this only raises the question of whether there are legal reforms that might keep guns away from the bad guys before the good guys are obliged to come to the rescue. Is the unrestricted right to own weapons, specifically assault rifles designed to inflict maximum damage to the human body, worth leaving the door open to the kind of mayhem that played out in Sutherland Springs? It is impossible to read Holleys book without considering how many religious Americans regard the right to own firearms not just as a constitutional guarantee but as something of a divine imperative.

Common-Sense Conversations

Among the townspeople of Sutherland Springs, the conviction that gun control wouldnt curb violence was widespread, even after the shooting. These are gun people. Pastor Frank wears a pistol on his hip band when he stands behind the pulpit. Speaking to Focus on the Family founder James Dobson on his national radio show Family Talk, shooting survivor David Colbath applied the good guy with a gun principle to issues of school safety. If you dont want armed teachers and armed personnel in there, he said, then youre [telling] me as a school district or whoever that you dont want people that are armed protecting our kids.You show me how youre going to protect them. Your way is not working.

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Within this gun-friendly consensus, however, there was room for a few notes of hesitancy. Colbath conceded, in Holleys telling, that law-abiding gun owners need to resist the NRAs all-out obstinance. And as pastor Frank told NPR, I am one of the few that do believe that theres not much use for automatic weapons in the hands of civilians.

For his own part, Stephen Willeford, who was invited to the State of the Union address and spoke at the NRAs national convention after his heroics outside the church, remained fiercely pro-gun, telling Holley, I met [the attacker] with the very same gun that he had. Theres only one thing that stops a bad guy. Thats a good guy.

Thats a great quote for the evening news. Unfortunately, it overlooks certain facts about the United States, where massive gun ownership numbers go hand in hand with elevated rates of gun-related deaths, measured against many nations where tighter gun restrictions exist. Furthermore, as Holley details, mass shootings occur with alarming frequency in Texas, whose gun laws are among the most permissive in the nation.

Not everyone affected by the shooting was as sanguine about Texas gun culture as Willeford and most residents of Sutherland Springs. Kati Wall, a teacher who lost the grandparents who raised her in the attack, published an editorial in the Dallas Morning News urging Texas Governor Greg Abbott to consider various gun-control and mental-health measures, including stronger background checks. She pushed government leaders to value the lives of the American people over gun lobbies, the better to encourage common sense conversations that shut down the extremists.

By carefully reconstructing the details of the shooting at First Baptist and faithfully observing the churchs long journey of mourning and recovery, Holleys book makes its own important contribution to state and national debates over gun control. Decades of inaction amid recurring episodes of tragedy cast doubt on our willingness to embrace more forceful restrictions. Perhaps Sutherland Springs can renew our sense of urgency.

John B. Graeber is a writer living in Chattanooga, Tennessee, whose work has appeared at Curator Magazine, The Blue Mountain Review, Ekstasis Magazine, Nooga.com, and Fathom Magazine. His poetry has been featured on Chattanooga's local NPR affiliate. He is also co-founder of Tributaries, a literary newsletter that explores the inspiration behind great writing. Follow him on Twitter: @jbgraeber
The Finance Ministry and the central bank of India will decide the government's borrowing plan for the first half of FY21 on Tuesday, March 31.

This is the first time the Finance Minister and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would discuss this matter through video conferencing as the country undergoes a lockdown.

There are chances the Government of India would resort to front-load its borrowing plan to put the economy on track, hit by coronavirus. After the RBI-Finance Ministry meeting, the borrowing calendar for issuance of dated government securities and short term papers would also be announced.

In the Union Budget 2020, the government had planned to borrow Rs 5.36 lakh crore for FY21. It is higher than the Rs 4.99 lakh crore estimated for the current financial year, which is ending on March 31. "Net market borrowings for the year 2019-20 would be Rs 4.99 lakh crore and for the year 2020-21, it would be Rs 5.36 lakh crore," Finance Minister Sitharaman said during budget 2020.

Besides, the goss borrowing, which includes repayments and past loans, would be Rs 7.8 lakh crore for FY 21. The repayment of past loans has been pegged at Rs 2.35 lakh crore for FY21. The government raises finds from the market to fund its fiscal deficit through dated securities and treasury bills.

(With PTI inputs)

Also read: Coronavirus impact: Why Bhopal firm's 60,000 bottles per day sanitiser plant lies idle

Also read: Bank of India loans get cheaper; external benchmark lending rate cut by 75bps
Earlier this year, when the news broke that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be stepping down as senior members of the royal family, a cringe-worthy video clip of the Duke of Sussex resurfaced on the internet.

In the viral video, the 35-year-old Prince could be seen talking to the Disney CEO Bob Iger, which according to critics proved that Meghan's husband was working his way out of the royal family even months before their bombshell announcement.

The video was taken back in July 2019 when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended the premiere of Disney's remake of the 1994 animation file, "The Lion King." The premiere was held in support of the African Parks, an organization that Prince Harry supports.

During the premiere in London, Meghan could be seen greeting the Queen of all pop stars, Beyonce and her husband, Jay-Z. Beside them is Prince Harry exchanging some small talk with the Disney CEO.

Although Beyonce greeting Meghan "My princess" immediately went viral, some eves-dropping internet users could not help but overhear Prince Harry and Iger's conversation that hinted a possible future work for the former "Suits" actress.

In the resurfaced clip, the Duke could be heard saying: "You know she does voiceovers," which obviously took Iger by surprise.

"Did you know that? You seem surprised," Prince Harry added.

He then gestured towards Meghan, who is speaking with Beyonce and Jay-Z, and said: "She's really interested." To which Iger replied with: "Sure. We'd love to try."

The Truth Behind The So-called "Work Pitch"

It turns out that Prince Harry and Bob Iger's controversial red carpet exchange was actually just a simple "inside joke." It is because even before the Lion King premiere night, the 38-year-old Meghan already knows about the project.

In short, Harry and Iger just trolled us big-time with that sneaky red carpet conversation. Well played!

According to reports, the Duchess of Sussex was first introduced to the film idea in Summer of 2019. She was approached by filmmakers Mark and Vanessa Berlowitz about the project.

Hello! reported that Meghan was aware of the nature of the film, as she saw some footage take a few years ago. The team believed Meghan would be a perfect fit to do the narration due to her passion for wildlife.

The report also suggested that the Duchess signed the deal in exchange for Disney donating to Elephants Without Borders. She then recorded the voiceover narration by fall of 2018.

Meghan X Disney+

Last Wednesday, Disney Plus finally revealed that the Duchess acted as narrator in the upcoming movie called "Elephant."

The "Disneynature" feature follows the journey of an elephant mother who travels across the Kalahari Desert together with her calf. The story highlights the elephant's 1,000-mile journey across Africa is an extraordinary adventure that will change their lives.

"Disneynature's Elephant, an Original Movie narrated by Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, starts streaming April 3, only on #DisneyPlus," the streaming giant wrote on Twitter.

READ MORE: Baby No. 2? Meghan Markle's Post-Royal Plans, REVEALED!
YEREVAN.  In a state of emergency, the government of Armenia proposes to impose restrictions on the right to protection of personal data, such as the inviolability of the private and personal life, and the right to freedom of communication and secrecy. Justice Minister Rustam Badasyan announced this at Mondays National Assembly special session debates on the package of bills on making amendments to the Law on Legal Regime of State of Emergency and Related Laws.

Accordingly, as per Badasyan, in case of a state of emergency, the operators of online communications network are required to provide to state authorities and state legal entities (hereinafter referred to as data processors) the data necessary to determine the location of the customer receiving the said public services; the telephone numbers, which are directly or indirectly related to the customer's telephone number, as well as the date, start and end of the telephone conversation, as well as their provision in the case of forwarding the telephone number; the data processors may request about the declaration of a state of emergency for comparison with other data; data provided may also reveal the location of third parties; and citizens shall have devices or software designed to track their location, movement, and health. In case of breach of this obligation, a fine of 100-200 thousand drams is envisaged.

To note, there is a state of emergency in Armenia, from March 16 to April 14, to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the country.
(Newser)  Encouraging news for lovers of the British royal family: Prince Charles is no longer in self-isolation. The 71-year-old spent 7 days in that state in Scotland after testing positive for the virus. His symptoms reportedly remained mild, and the BBC reports his doctor has cleared him to end his self-isolation at his home at Balmoral. CNN describes the Prince of Wales as "in good health," and Reuters notes he will "resume meetings" and begin exercising again. Per UK guidelines, which recommend those living with someone who tests positive self-isolates for two weeks, Camilla will spend another week in isolation. She has thus far tested negative. (Read more coronavirus stories.)
The Indian Army on Monday dismissed as "fake" certain messages circulating on social media about likely imposition of Emergency in the country next month to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

Army officials also said no effort is being initiated to rope in services of retired personnel, the National Cadet Corps and the volunteers enrolled under the National Service Scheme in the wake of the coronavirus crisis



"Fake and malicious messages are circulating on social media about likely declaration of emergency in mid April and employment of #IndianArmy, #Veterans, NCC and NSS to assist the civil administration," the Army's Additional Director general of Public Information (ADGPI) tweeted.

"It is clarified that this is absolutely Fake," the ADGPI said.

India was brought under a 21-day lockdown on midnight of last Tuesday with an aim to check the spread of the coronavirus infection.

The positive coronavirus cases touched 1,071 on Monday with 29 deaths.

Globally, the virus has infected more than 700,000 people and claimed more than 32,000 lives.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rochester Mayor Kim Norton says the city needs more federal assistance to help pay for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Norton and other community leaders participated in a conference call with DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Monday. Norton pointed to aid that larger cities in Minnesota have received to help prepare them for the economic fallout and emergency preparations for the ongoing spread of the virus. She said being home to Mayo Clinic makes Rochester an integral part of the COVID-19 response and fallout.

"With Mayo Clinic and what were going to be doing for the whole region, were really coming up short," Norton said.

She pointed to the fact that Rochester received no Urban Area Security Initiative funds while the Twin Cities and their surrounding counties did. The bill also directed $430,000 in community development block grants to Rochester while Duluth received $1.4 million, she said.

However, overall, Norton said the emergency legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Trump last week will help the city.

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Kathleen Harrington, president at Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce, praised the innovation of legislations payroll protection loan program.

That program sets aside $350 billion for businesses with less than 500 employees to cover payroll for three months.

Harrington called the provision "innovative" and said the bill will help area small businesses.

"Were the weakest part of the economy and the most vital part of the economy," she said.

Klobuchar said the U.S. Small Business Administration is still drafting instructions to banks about the loan program. However, she said small business owners interested in the loans should contact their banks now.

Klobuchar encouraged Harrington and Norton to stay in touch with local businesses applying for aid and contact her office if there are problems or delays. She said the program could hit some procedural snags as its executed since its a new and unique program.

"Sometimes it helps just individually pushing cases," Klobuchar said.

Norton asked about personal protection equipment for city first responders and medical staff. She said the city has about a two month supply but added estimates show the epidemic will peak about July. Norton said she is concerned about having access to equipment.

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"We understand theres more urgent need around the country right now, but we may have an urgent need down the line," she said.

Klobuchar also acknowledged the unique economic impact Rochester is feeling with all elective procedures at Mayo Clinic postponed.

"This is hurting small businesses there in a unique way," Klobuchar said.

Inside the clinic, doctors and staff there are holding about 500 video conference visits with patients per day, said Halena Gazelka, Mayo Clinics medical director for public affairs, who also sat in on the call. About 20,000 Mayo employees have been able to work from home, she said.

Mayo is also ramping up testing, Gazelka told Klobuchar. Currently, about 5,000 tests are processed there per day, she Gazelka said.

"Were expecting that to grow," she said.
Wuhan was locked down as COVID-19 took hold, but as life returns to normal, its residents remain cautious.

The city of Wuhan, which was subjected to the most aggressive quarantine in China after the coronavirus first emerged there late last year, is slowly returning to normal with the lockdown imposed at the end of January expected to be completely lifted on April 8.

At its peak, some 56 million people in the city and the surrounding province of Hubei were forced to stay at home, and all travel was suspended.

Residents struggled to get treatment for their family members, and medics were overwhelmed with cases before reinforcements were drafted in from across China, and field hospitals built; a situation now being repeated in hard-hit countries like Italy and the United States.

As life slowly returns to normal, there are concerns that cases of the disease could spike, not only as people return from new epicentres of the disease overseas, but because China does not disclose the number of asymptomatic cases of infection.

Nevertheless, there is a sense that the worst has passed.

During the peak of the outbreak, people in Wuhan spoke to Al Jazeera about what they were going through.

With businesses and shopping centres reopening on Monday, and the lockdown to be lifted in full next week, we asked them what had happened since.

Shopping centres began to reopen on Monday with visitors required to show health status before entering [Aly Song/Reuters]

These are their stories. They preferred to remain anonymous or use only one name for fear of reprisals.

Stories as told to Shawn Yuan, but edited for clarity and length.

The teacher

The teacher wrote a diary for Al Jazeera, describing his first week of life under quarantine. With the lockdown about to be lifted, he shares some of his experience and observations about the past two months and what it has meant, not only to him but for the city of Wuhan.

Yesterday, I went out to go to the pharmacy 20 metres from our apartment compound (In China apartment buildings are grouped together to form a neighbourhood with a main gate). Where are you going? the security guard asked me.

Just going to the pharmacy to get some hand sanitisers, I answered, while pointing at the pharmacy. Look, its only a few steps away.

He watched me while I made my way to the pharmacy, fetched my sanitiser and nodded to him as I swiftly made my way back to my apartment building. That was the first time I had left the complex in more than six weeks, and it was somewhat surreal to think that there is still a world outside.

These days, when I go down to the park within our development, I see a lot more people strolling and chatting, some even without masks  something unimaginable just over two weeks ago. Peoples conversations are still dominated by the coronavirus outbreak, but the focus seemed to have shifted.

During the peak of the epidemic, everyone was almost fanatically worried about the virus: whenever there was an ambulance driving into our community, our WeChat group would explode with messages with people speculating whether someone they knew was infected by the virus.

Now as the epidemic winds down, I still hear people talking about the virus, but more about overseas cases. Oh my God, can you believe there are over 80,000 cases in the US already? I overheard some grandpas chatting over a few exercising sessions in our community park.

Even after April 8 comes, I dont think all of us are going to rush out to the streets or out of the city. The day before the lockdown when I returned home from my work on the train, it was almost an apocalypse-like silence, and Wuhan has been silent for over two months except for ambulance sirens.

I dont see how this city can just return to its old-time glory, if I can put it this way, just overnight.

Fences were erected around residential complexes to prevent people going in or out as drastic restrictions were imposed to check the spread of the coronavirus in the city where it first appeared late last year [Aly Song/Reuters]

Im an optimistic person, but there were two things during the past two months that made me almost lose hope. The first was the death of the father of my childhood friend. I didnt personally know anyone who died from the virus until then. Thats when I realised that it seemed like no one could escape  that thought kept me awake and anxious for days.

The second time was when Dr Li Wenliang died. The ferocious censorship and the governments disregard for public opinion made me want to throw up. I felt so powerless and hopeless then  I thought everything was over.

Now as I look back, those memories are still fresh.

So yes, of course lifting the lockdown is a milestone for Wuhan, but for we people who are living in Wuhan, it doesnt really mean all that much. We are still going to be exercising extreme caution, and more importantly, Wuhan has been forever changed.

The professional

Fubin tried to get his father admitted to a hospital after he developed a high fever on January 20 but was repeatedly turned away due to a lack of hospital beds. He finally managed to get his father into Wuhan No.5 Hospital.

My father was discharged two weeks ago and just finished his post-discharge quarantine a few days ago. We had a little welcome party for him  my father loves festivity, and he always says that it was such a shame that we couldnt celebrate the Lunar New Year this year.

We picked him up from the quarantine centre a few days ago. My wife and I had been preparing a big meal the entire day  a delayed Lunar New Year dinner  just to make sure my father, and our entire family, could make up for the messed up New Year (Lunar New Year fell on January 25 this year with the big celebration on the eve).

At the dinner table, I could hold my fathers hands for the first time in almost two months. I dont know how to describe that feeling but you know the happiness of you finding something that you thought you had lost? Thats exactly how I felt.

My father told me that he had been through a lot in his life, but the last two months was the most intense.

There was a patient who was gasping for air for a good 10 minutes while the doctors and nurses were trying to help him, my father told me after he was discharged. Then they wheeled him out of the ward, and I heard they were sending him to ICU. But I never saw him again.

He doesnt know if that person died or not, nor does he seem to really want to know because I think thats too much emotional toll on him  that could very well have been him.

Wuhan is slowly opening up and the lockdown imposed at the end of January is expected to be fully lifted on April 8 [Roman Pilipey/EPA]

Thankfully, my fathers treatment journey went smoothly, but we have been vigilant and sometimes to a paranoid level in trying to make sure we are not infected. We stayed at home for the entirety of the last two months. I never stepped out of my apartment building for even one second  we have people who delivered our groceries.

April 8  I think its over-hyped. I dont think much is going to change. Nobody expected Wuhan to go back to normal as soon as the quarantine measures were lifted, especially now that the virus seems to be spreading far and wide. I think that all we, and everyone in the world, can do is to follow the governments instructions and stay at home.

The healthcare worker

On January 25, a medic working at Xiaogan First Peoples Hospital told Al Jazeera that her hospital was running out of protective equipment, and doctors and nurses had to use disposable raincoats as protection. She was imploring the world to help her hospital, which is about 73 kilometres (45 miles) northwest of Wuhan. Now Xiaogan has only one remaining case, which is at her hospital.

Will you believe me if I say its a miracle that Im not dead from the virus? Because thats what I told myself in the past two weeks when I finally got some off time from my shifts.

The last two months felt surreal  never in my life have I ever experienced anything like that. All the resources were going to Wuhan in the early days, and that had left a gigantic gap between supply and need in medical protective equipment in our hospital.

The situation only got better after mid-February. It may seem like a short time  only two weeks of severe shortage, but that meant many of my colleagues were infected. I cant count how many times I have cried in the break room from the overwhelming scene.

I really thought we couldnt make it. That reached the peak when a patient I was in charge of died on February 4. I remember that day  I had been in the isolation ward with my colleagues attending the patients for well over six hours without eating or drinking, and almost as soon as I was about to leave, this patients blood oxygen level started to drop. We tried everything we could, but he passed away almost as soon as he was sent to ICU.

I spent the rest of the day crying because he was like a grandpa to me  every day when I walked into the ward, hed nod and smile at me even though he couldnt move or speak. My colleague came to comfort me and asked me to take a break.

But I knew I couldnt  it was at the peak of the outbreak. Our hospital had over 400 patients and it was an absolute chaos at the beginning, with patients pouring in and medics not having equipment. Even though the situation got better, it was still tremendous pressure.





Its hard for me to actually wrap my head around what happened, but now that Xiaogan only has very few cases left and the city lockdown has also been lifted, I do want to caution against getting life back to complete normal just yet.

The Health Commission doesnt tell us how many asymptomatic cases there are, and there are even cases where discharged patients later were admitted again because their test came back positive  all that after the original test was negative.

There are still many things that we dont know about the virus and what it does to the human body. From a medical perspective, I would advise people to continue staying at home and avoiding going out frequently because the risk of infection is still there.
The coronavirus is on everyones minds these days, and for good reason. People are tuning into their televisions and reading news sites for the latest information. Many are outspoken on how they feel President Donald Trump is handling the situation and whether they agree or disagree with his handling of the situation. This includes celebrities as well, who often use their platforms for this exact type of thing.

How Donald Trump is rubbing people the wrong way

I always treated the Chinese Virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning, including my very early decision to close the borders from China  against the wishes of almost all. Many lives were saved. The Fake News new narrative is disgraceful & false!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2020

President Trump is no stranger to controversy surrounding his statements, especially his tweets. He often rubs people the wrong way, saying things that can be construed as hateful, one-sided, or even things that go against what a president should represent.

His latest upset comes in the form of his tweets about the coronavirus, or COVID-19, the official name. Trump does not call it by its name, instead, referring to it as the Chinese Virus.

This has caused a big stir in the Asian-American community and many other communities as well. Trump doesnt seem to think he is doing anything wrong, though, and even told a journalist during a press conference that it wasnt racist at all.

Lana Condor called Trump out on Twitter

Lana Condor | Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for MTV

After seeing the tweet and a fellow Asian-Americans response to it, actress Lana Condor retweeted the tweet and then tweeted some of her thoughts. Condor, who was adopted by Caucasian American parents from her homeland of Vietnam, identifies as Asian and the stigma directly affects her.

After the presidents tweet, young adult author Ellen Oh tweeted that the phrase was racist and deliberate, calling for Trump to use the name and not endanger the lives of all Asian-Americans by giving people someone to blame in times of fear. Condor agreed, saying that it shouldnt be called anything other than its official name.

Be better. To wake up to your chaos is truly a nightmare. Please. Be better. To my followers- be safe. I love you. pic.twitter.com/Okbg735cQC  Lana Condor (@lanacondor) March 18, 2020

In an open letter to Trump, Condor shared her thoughts on his tweet and his use of the improper, potentially hurtful name. The actress  known for her candid, body-positive, and advocate-minded nature  called him out for not knowing better and not leading by example, saying he should be ashamed of himself.

The coronavirus is not the Chinese virus

Look at him deliberately calling it the Chinese Virus. Very deliberate. Very racist. The virus actually has a name Covid19. Use the name. Don't endanger the lives of all Asian Americans. Because in times of fear, people look for someone to blame. Like he is doing right now. https://t.co/9owTuh0wNt  Ellen "Writes About Dragons" Oh (@ElloEllenOh) March 18, 2020

The reason referring to the Chinese Virus is a problem for many is that it causes a problem that isnt necessary. There has been an increase in hate crimes, discrimination against Asian Americans, and xenophobic feelings in general. The growth has been so prevalent that the National Council for Asian Pacific Americans sent a letter to Congress on March 11th to encourage them to denounce the discrimination and racist behavior publicly.

Back in 2015, the World Health Organization put out new guidelines on naming viruses to avoid offending people. Viruses stopped being named after the country of origin and instead started being referred to by the virus itself or the symptoms.

The H1N1 swine flu pandemic that infected up to 1.4 billion people and killed up to 575,000 originated in factory farmed pigs in the United States. Yet nobody ever calls it the American Pig Flu. Lets stop calling the coronavirus the Chinese Virus. Were all in this together.  Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) March 22, 2020

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) began in 2012 in Saudi Arabia, but by the new guidelines, it would have likely been named after the virus causing it, another coronavirus strain. Maybe Covid-12? Either way, this is why the new coronavirus isnt called the Chinese Virus and instead is called Covid-19.

Some people feel that these more politically correct names can cause confusion because they are so similar and dont distinguish them well. Others think that history shows how stigmatizing names can be: AIDS used to be called gay-related immune deficiency, while the swine flu that wasnt even transmitted by pigs led to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of pigs after the outbreak. The bottom line: naming a disease shouldnt illicit racism.
One of Nigerias most influential traditional rulers has claimed he has a tested cure for coronavirus COVID-19.

The Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Ogunwusi, made the announcement on his verified Instagram handle on Monday, a day after President Muhammadu Buhari addressed Nigerians for the first time on measures his administration is taking to check the spread of the virus.

The COVID-19, which has caused over 35,000 deaths globally, currently has no known cure although scientists, globally, are working round the clock to develop a vaccine and treatment for the disease, caused by the coronavirus.

Some drugs have been touted to cure the disease including chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, but scientists and the World Health Organisation have warned that such drugs are still in the trial testing phase and should not be considered as a cure yet.

On Monday, the Ooni, whose domain, Ile-Ife, is considered the origin of the Yorubas in South-Western Nigeria, said he had spiritually identified the possible cure of the disease.

He said a divine proclamation foretelling the coronavirus pandemic came out to the world on June 6, 2019, during the World Ifa Festival  Otura Meji.

We foretold about the impending rage of this invisible pandemic war, but few heard us. Please note that Efod/ Urim and Thurim are in the holy Books. They are the same as our ancient readings that have not failed us till date.

On this throne, I work very closely with all the nations of the world, most especially the nation of Cuba. Centuries go by, the nation of Cuba hold dearly the tenets of our ancestors and rely on the blessings of the mystery of nature, and as a result they have the best medical care in the world.

They are the ONLY country that have come out boldly to help the world. The Almighty is above religion and he is moving now, the world will now respect nature WHOLLY. Remember nature does not need you, we all need nature to survive, he wrote.

The monarch, who has made unrelated controversial claims in the past, said that the herbal product he is recommending has been tested and used to cure chronic coronavirus infection.

READ ALSO:

Truly, the world will NEVER remain the same again!!! To solve this ailment is through natural elements put together above all from nature. It has been tested!!! I have used it and also used it for some of the chronic Corona patients with testimonials, he said.

He challenged researchers, both in Nigeria and the world, to make these natural herbs into clinical medicine and extract vaccines from them.

I am ready to work with them and provide huge access to the herbs. It is real and it works.

I have a lot gathered together for the use of mankind. Im also currently working with Yem Kem International (an alternative medicine expert) pharmaceutical company for the packaging and distribution of these globally, he said.

He listed the herbs as follows:

1Yoruba (ewe akoko)

English ( boundary tree)

Botanical name ( Newbouldia laevis)

2.Yoruba( dogoyaro)

English ( nim tree or Indian lilac)

Botanical (Azadirachta indica)

3. Yoruba (Alubosa)

English (Onion)

Botanical ( Allium cepa)

4.Yoruba (Ogirisako)

English ( Forest anchomanes) (Blume)

Botanical (Anchomanes difformis)

5. Yoruba ( Aridan)

Englush (Aridan fruit)

Botanical ( Tetrapleura tetraptera)

6. Yoruba (Eeru or Erinje)

English (African pepper, Guinia pepper)

Botanical (Xylopia aethiopica)

7.Yoruba (Ewuro)

English (Bitter leaf)

Botanical (Vernonia amygdalina)

8.Yoruba (Iyin ojo)

English (Sulfur)

The monarch did not give the dosage or quantity of each herb to be used.

Search for cure

Although research works are ongoing in a bid to get the cure and treatment of the infection, none has been fully approved.

In Nigeria, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has given its approval to May and Baker, a pharmaceutical company, to produce more chloroquine for clinical trial as a potential cure for COVID-19.

The NAFDAC Director-General, Mojisola Adeyeye, said the approval followed the recommendation by the United States National Agency for Food and Control.

She said the trial was also necessary since coronavirus symptoms were similar to those of malaria; hence, the need to give chloroquine a trial

Also, President Donald Trump of the United States of America had on March 19 announced that the U.S. had approved chloroquine for use as a treatment for coronavirus. Mr Trumps statement was quickly countered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

NAFDAC said in its statement that the World Health Organisation (WHO), however, was yet to announce and approve any treatment for coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, Nigeria now has a total number of 131 coronavirus cases spread across 10 states and the FCT.

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Data from NCDC show that Lagos State leads with 81 cases, followed by 25 in Abuja, Ogun  3, Kaduna  3, Oyo  8, Edo  2, Bauchi  2, Enugu  2, and Osun  2. Ekiti, Rivers and Benue states have one case of the infection each.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday ordered a lockdown of Lagos, Abuja and Ogun State to check the spread of the disease.
BRIDGEPORT  Sacred Heart University is blaming its food service provider for the death of a student who fatally choked while participating in a pancake-eating contest at the university in 2017.

Twenty-year-old Caitlin Nelson died after taking part in an on-campus, school-sanctioned pancake-eating contest for charity in March 2017. Her family sued the university, claiming Sacred Heart not only approved the contest and the use of pancakes, but also failed to have adequate medical personnel there. That lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in Superior Court here in September 2021.

But last week, Sacred Heart University filed a lawsuit against its food service provider, Chartwells, contending the company is responsible for Nelsons death and demanding it cover all the universitys costs in the case.

SHU has incurred and will continue to incur attorneys fees and other expenses in responding to and defending against the claims asserted by the plaintiff, and also faces the possible award of damages against it in favor of the plaintiff, the lawsuit states.

Deborah Noack, SHU spokeswoman, stated the university does not comment on ongoing litigation.

Meredith Rosenberg, spokeswoman for Chartwell, declined comment.

Nelson, of Clark, N.J., whose father was a Port Authority police officer killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was studying to become a social worker.

On March 30, 2017, according to her familys lawsuit, Nelson agreed to participate in an on-campus pancake eating contest during the schools Greek Week to benefit the non-profit organization Prevent Child Abuse America.

When the buzzer rang, Caitlin did what nearly all amateurs do: she stuffed pancakes in her mouth much faster than she could swallow, the suit states. Moments later, Caitlin started to shake uncontrollably and then collapsed.

Fairfield police said at the time that officers arriving on the scene after receiving a complaint tried to gain access to Nelsons airway so she could breathe but were unsuccessful.

Nelson died after being taken to St. Vincents Hospital and then to New York Presbyterian Hospital, where tests determined her brain was severely damaged from oxygen deprivation, the lawsuit says.

William Bloss, the lawyer for the Nelson family, declined comment.

In relying on its expert food service provider, SHU had no reason to believe food eating contests are inherently dangerous as alleged by plaintiff, or that pancakes posed a particularly dangerous choking hazard, the school states in its suit against Chartwell. Indeed, prior to the subject eating contest, Chartwells promoted, sponsored, publicized and catered other on-campus eating contests, including eating contests at SHU and other schools.

Its lawsuit states that Chartwells recommended that Mickey Mouse-shaped pancakes be used in the eating contest and prepared and served the pancakes.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Hospitals, health-care workers and homeless shelters need more beds, and hotels have plenty theyre not using.

I look at it as a win-win, said Bill Faith, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, whose organization is working with the hotel community to find ways to help homeless shelters spread out residents during the coronavirus pandemic. The hotels are empty and theyre either going to shutter or find ways to be of use in this public health crisis.

So far, hotels in Ohio havent been called on in a large-scale way to offer assistance, as hospitals throughout the state have been able to handle their rising caseloads.

But the hotel industry will be ready when needed, said Joe Savarise, executive director of the Ohio Hotel & Lodging Association.

The organization has set up an online database of hotels that are willing to help. Among the ways they can offer assistance:

* As a location for overflow hospital rooms, when coronavirus patients spike in Ohio and more beds are needed. Hotels probably wouldnt be asked to house COVID-19 patients, but may be needed for less critical patients or those on the mend who need isolation.

* To alleviate pressure at overcrowded homeless shelters throughout the state. Already, the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless is using several hotels in Cleveland to keep the homeless population safe, according to Executive Director Chris Knestrick.

* To offer rooms to health-care workers who dont want to go home, for fear of infecting their families, as well as pandemic first responders.

Among the participating hotels: Radius Hospitality Group, the Copley-based company that owns more than dozen hotels in Northeast Ohio and across the country. The company recently started promoting its properties as alternative lodging for health-care workers who dont want to go home and risk infecting their families.

Emerald Hospitality Associates in Westlake, the operator of dozens of hotels, also is ready to help, said Edward Pavente, chief operating officer. Our hotels remain open and we certainly are willing to support our local communities and government agencies to the best of our ability. If the need should arise, we will work closely with local officials and hospital administrators to explore all opportunities.

This isnt the first time hotels have been asked to help during times of crisis, including hurricanes and other natural disasters, although its unusual in Ohio.

Hotels are already being used to alleviate pressure on the medical system in some states where the pandemic is more widespread, including California and New York.

Representatives from the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals said their organizations are not currently using hotels for overflow, although UH is talking with Case Western Reserve University about using a dorm to house health-care workers who want to stay closer to the main campus.

John Palmer, a spokesman for the Ohio Hospital Association, said his organization doesnt have data on what, if any, deals have been made between hospitals and hotels in the state. But he said: We are active with state officials and agencies on surge planning and coordination that has many options on the table to expand capacity such as hotel space, residence halls, nursing home wings, etc.

Early this week, the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless paid to house 50 homeless Clevelanders at a local hotel in an effort to keep them from sleeping in an outside encampment, where they would probably face an elevated risk of coronavirus exposure.

Knestrick said his organization is paying about $50 per room per night to several hotels, both downtown and on the near West Side. A lot of hotels have reached out, willing to help us figure out how they could help folks who are unhoused in Cleveland, he said. Its very generous of them to partner with us in this way.

Faith, with the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, said hotel rooms can help the homeless population in a couple of ways  by providing safe space for healthy families, or by housing individuals who may be sick and need to isolate themselves.

One of the cool things about hotels and motels is that many of them serve breakfast, which is a big help, Faith said. They also have housekeeping staff and cleaning supplies, also important during the pandemic.

Savarise said the lodging industry lobbied to be included on the list of essential businesses as Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine considered the components of the states Stay at Home order, which went into effect earlier this week. One of the reasons to keep at least some hotels open is so they can provide assistance to the community, Savarise said.

Even so, he said hes hoping Ohio hotels are not needed in a large-scale way to help fight the pandemic. This is not something we want to happen, he said. We are prepared to help. I think we all hope that it doesnt become as big as it could.

Read more:

Cleveland-area hotels starting to close amid steep drop in occupancy

Ohios hotel, tourism industry facing huge losses during coronavirus crisis

Cleveland Hopkins airport could see up to 50% drop in air traffic due to coronavirus-related reductions

Tourism to Cleveland, region, likely to drop due to coronavirus concerns

Many out of work due to coronavirus arent eligible for unemployment benefits
Staff at a local college have produced 150 face guards to support those at the frontline of the fight against the coronavirus.

Eemployees at the North West Regional College's Greystone Campus in Limavady have used specialist equipment at the campus to create the face guards, some of which have been handed over to the Foyle Hospice.

The college is now hoping to ramp up production of the guards.

It is appealing to anyone with 3D printers, laser cutters and rapid prototyping machinery to consider if they can make Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to meet the safety needs of medical and care staff during the current Covid-19 pandemic.

The college has produced over 150 face guards in just two days at its state-of-the-art facility.

Production will continue in the coming days.

They have appealed to anyone who has access to laser cutting or 3D printing facilities to use this equipment to assist with the supply of PPE to local hospitals, care facilities and front line workers.

Patrick McKeown, Director of Finance and Economic Engagement at the NWRC, said the college was doing whatever it could in an effort to meet the pressing need.

He said: We put out a call to colleagues to collect all the PPE that we have across the various areas of the college, from Hairdressing and Beauty, to Science and Technology, and Health and Social Care, and we have passed these on to those in need.

At the beginning of last week our PDC Manager, Philip Devlin, outlined that his team would like to utilise the 3D printing facilities to develop a prototype solution for a face guard.

We were fully supportive and gave our full backing to the team  the progress in a few short days has been significant. 

PDC Manager Philip Devlin revealed that an innovative approach has seen the number of face guards being able to be produced per day increase from under 10 on Monday to over 100 on Friday, by switching from 3D printing technology to laser cutting, optimising the speed at which the guards can be manufactured and assembled.

He said: On Monday we were looking at open source platforms which had designs from engineers throughout the world and these were utilising 3D printers to make plastic frames to which a clear plastic guard could be attached.

We produced some of these prototypes and provided them to local Health Trusts to get feedback from their clinicians.

There was no point in us making these guards if they were not going to meet the health care needs from a protective perspective and we were delighted when we received positive feedback.

This encouragement inspired Philip and the team to try and speed up the process.

He continued: We are fortunate to have staff that are willing to be innovative and we came up with a modified Computer Aided Design (CAD) to utilise a laser cutter to rapidly speed up the process that has seen us increase the speed tenfold.

We were delighted to deliver 50 units to the Foyle Hospice on Friday and to see the relief on their faces when they received the delivery was worth the hard work and effort that has gone into it to this point and inspired us to try and support more front-line workers.

Since we began looking at the needs of the health and care sectors we have seen the front-line workers crying out for face guards and we are acutely aware that given our facilities there are still only so many guards that we can manufacture per day.

This is why we are encouraging those with the resources to produce, to do so.

It might only be ten face guards that you can produce but if that prevents ten people from getting this deadly virus it will have been worthwhile.

Staff at a County Derry college have produced 150 face guards to support those at the frontline of the fight against the coronavirus.

Eemployees at the North West Regional College's Greystone Campus in Limavady have used specialist equipment at the campus to create the face guards which have been handed over to the Foyle Hospice.

The college is now hoping to ramp up production of the guards.

It is appealing to anyone with 3D printers, laser cutters and rapid prototyping machinery to consider if they can make Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to meet the safety needs of medical and care staff during the current Covid-19 pandemic.

The college has produced over 150 face guards in just two days at its state-of-the-art facility.

Production will continue in the coming days.

They have appealed to anyone who has access to laser cutting or 3D printing facilities to use this equipment to assist with the supply of PPE to local hospitals, care facilities and front line workers.

Patrick McKeown, Director of Finance and Economic Engagement at the NWRC, said the college was doing whatever it could in an effort to meet the pressing need.

He said: We put out a call to colleagues to collect all the PPE that we have across the various areas of the college, from Hairdressing and Beauty, to Science and Technology, and Health and Social Care, and we have passed these on to those in need.

At the beginning of last week our PDC Manager, Philip Devlin, outlined that his team would like to utilise the 3D printing facilities to develop a prototype solution for a face guard.

We were fully supportive and gave our full backing to the team  the progress in a few short days has been significant. 

PDC Manager Philip Devlin revealed that an innovative approach has seen the number of face guards being able to be produced per day increase from under 10 on Monday to over 100 on Friday, by switching from 3D printing technology to laser cutting, optimising the speed at which the guards can be manufactured and assembled.

He said: On Monday we were looking at open source platforms which had designs from engineers throughout the world and these were utilising 3D printers to make plastic frames to which a clear plastic guard could be attached.

We produced some of these prototypes and provided them to local Health Trusts to get feedback from their clinicians.

There was no point in us making these guards if they were not going to meet the health care needs from a protective perspective and we were delighted when we received positive feedback.

This encouragement inspired Philip and the team to try and speed up the process.

He continued: We are fortunate to have staff that are willing to be innovative and we came up with a modified Computer Aided Design (CAD) to utilise a laser cutter to rapidly speed up the process that has seen us increase the speed tenfold.

We were delighted to deliver 50 units to the Foyle Hospice on Friday and to see the relief on their faces when they received the delivery was worth the hard work and effort that has gone into it to this point and inspired us to try and support more front-line workers.

Since we began looking at the needs of the health and care sectors we have seen the front-line workers crying out for face guards and we are acutely aware that given our facilities there are still only so many guards that we can manufacture per day.

This is why we are encouraging those with the resources to produce, to do so.

It might only be ten face guards that you can produce but if that prevents ten people from getting this deadly virus it will have been worthwhile.
Multilateral institution Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday announced a $100 million funding for the Indian infrastructure sector through the government-promoted NIIF

Mumbai: Multilateral institution Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday announced a $100 million funding for the Indian infrastructure sector through the government-promoted NIIF.

The Manila-based body will be investing in the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund's (NIIF) fund of funds which will ensure that the actual money invested will be a few times more than the $100 million.

The investment announcement comes at a critical time for India, as the already sagging economic growth is feared to be taking a heavy hit due to the coronavirus pandemic.

ADB''s commitment to NIIF fund of funds during these extraordinary and challenging times is highly meaningful, NIIF''s managing director and chief executive Sujoy Bose said.

He added that the commitment should be seen as reflective of ADB''s confidence in the continued growth and potential of the Indian economy, its skilled private equity fund managers and the large pool of determined entrepreneurs who seek capital to grow and strengthen their companies.

ADB''s investment in NIIF will help catalyse institutional capital into domestic private equity funds in India, thereby contributing to greater availability of long-term growth financing for private sector companies and leading to the creation of quality jobs, social infrastructure development, and economic growth, its Vice President Diwakar Gupta said.

Bose said ADB has been funding Indian private equity funds for over two decades now, and added the latest move will help NIIF commit money to private equity fund managers who may be struggling to raise money from overseas sources.

The total size of NIIF's fund of funds has now grown to $700 million, with ADB''s commitment, an official statement said, adding that the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has also committed money to the corpus.

So far, it has made commitments to three funds aggregating to over Rs 2,600 crore or $350 million, the statement said.

These three funds are engaged in investments in diverse areas including green energy and climate; middle-income and affordable housing, and entrepreneur-driven mid-market growth companies operating across diversified sectors, it said.

The NIIF said its ability to crowd-in investments has also been established as these three funds have raised $1.1 billion from other sources.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30)  The government is working to release personal protective equipment (PPE) and other items seized in raids so they can be given to groups fighting COVID-19.

Speaking at the the Laging Handa briefing on Monday, Bureau of Customs Assistant Commissioner Jet Maronilla said they were coordinating with the Department of Justice and the National Bureau of Investigation in order to facilitate the release of these items.

"We're already coordinating with the Department of Justice and the National Bureau of Investigation  in fact, we were talking with ((Undersecretary) Markk Perete of the Department of Justice already last week. We're finalizing some plans to be able, for the Bureau of Customs to assist itong mga na-raid po ng NBI, at pati na rin ho yung na-raid namin last week na overpriced alcohol, na marelease po agad ang forfeiture nito para ho mai-donate natin dun sa mga frontliners nating nangangailangan," he said.

[Translation: We're already coordinating with the Department of Justice and the National Bureau of Investigation  in fact, we were talking with ((Undersecretary) Markk Perete of the Department of Justive already last week. We're finalizing some plans to be able, for the Customs Bureau to donate these to our frontliners who need it.]

Authorities have conducted a series of raids in establishments who were reported to be selling PPEs, medical equipment, and other items at exorbitant prices.

The Department of Trade and Industry has previously sent out a guide on how much certain items can be sold.
Shoppers in New Zealand have gone to extreme lengths to avoid being infected with coronavirus.

One customer donned a full unicorn costume while shopping at a discount grocery store.

The bizarrely-clad shopper was seen stocking up on essentials at a Pak'nSave store in Gisborne on the island's east coast.

Scroll down for video

Extreme lengths: A shopper in New Zealand took social distancing to a new level as she wore an inflated unicorn costume to keep others away

The shopper was spotted wheeling her haul out of a Pak'n Save store on the north island in the giant costume

Another shopper wearing a face mask used what appeared to be three pool noodles taped together to keep her distance from others around her.

She also kept her sense of humour by wearing an umbrella-shaped hat on her head and a plastic cover in front of her face as she browsed the supermarket aisles.

As New Zealand's coronavirus infection tally jumped to 589 on Monday despite Prime Minister issuing a level four lockdown, the most extreme measure available.

Supermarkets, clinics and pharmacies are they only shops exempt from the widespread closures.

Schools, universities and non-essential businesses - including restaurants and hairdressers - have been ordered shut, and their workers sent home.

But people using those services have been told to avoid touching others and only make physical contact with people they live with.

One shopper sported an umbrella-themed hat and what appeared to be three pool noodles taped together to keep her distance from others around her

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said people must be vigilant with lockdown measures enforced on the country to prevent any further spread of the disease.

New Zealand has suffered its first coronavirus -related death, a woman in her 70s on the West Coast of the South Island. Pictured: a medical worker conducts tests at a mobile coronavirus testing facility in Auckland on Wednesday

'Even with the measures we now have in place, we will continue to see more people get sick, because of the time it takes to get unwell,' Ms Ardern said.

'Today's death is the reminder of the fight that we have on our hands.

'Stay at home, break the chain, and save lives.'

Ms Ardern ordered all Kiwis into an enforced lockdown from Thursday for at least four weeks as the government aims to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the 'death is the reminder of the fight that we have on our hands' after the country recorded their first coronavirus death

A woman in her 70s died from COVID-19 on the south island's west coast after being initially misdiagnosed with the flu, health officials announced on Sunday.

The patient was treated by 21 hospital staff who weren't wearing adequate protective clothing to treat a coronavirus patient, who were all put into self-isolation.

Chief Executive of the New Zealand Ministry of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the woman was not immediately treated as a coronavirus patient as she was well known to hospital staff due to her health conditions.

Dr Bloomfield did not say how the woman contracted the disease, but said there was a link to overseas travel.
Defra Secretary George Eustice has labelled farmers 'hidden heroes' for keeping food on the nations plates during the Covid-19 crisis.

In an open letter to the food and farming industry, Mr Eustice paid tribute to 'all those who are working around the clock to keep the nation fed.'

The statement described farmers' response so far as 'extraordinary' and thanked those involved in food production on behalf of the country.

In the face of what is perhaps the greatest health challenge this country has faced in our lifetime, I want to pay tribute to all those who are working around the clock to keep the nation fed," he said.

He went on thank those people working in our fields, processing plants, factories, wholesalers, stores and takeaways and all those moving goods around the country and to our homes.

It comes as food retailers face an unprecedented increase in demand, and those working in food production and distribution working harder to ensure that food are kept on the shelves.

The last three weeks have been stressful and difficult for everyone working to feed the country and provide them with other essential items," Mr Eustice added.

"Having worked in the food industry myself, I am personally enormously proud and thankful for all the work that you have done in recent weeks, and will be asked to do in the weeks ahead.

In many cases you are the hidden heroes, and the country is grateful for all that you have done.

The letter comes amid a mounting concern that farmers still face a substantial shortfall of workers to help pick fruit and vegetables despite a campaign signing up 10,000 people.

Farm labour specialists Concordia, HOPS and Fruitful are currently inviting British people to apply for jobs picking and packing fruit and veg.

Mr Eustice has backed the campaign, saying the country needs to 'mobilise the British workforce'.

"We need to fill that gap and make sure our excellent fruit and vegetables are on peoples plates over the summer months I would encourage as many people as possible to sign up.
ROME - Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said Albania is offering a "lesson in solidarity" with its efforts in sending a team of 30 doctors and nurses to assist healthcare personnel in Italy in the fight against the coronavirus.

"Selfishness does not belong to us. From Albania, a lesson in solidarity. Thank you to Edi Rama. These are the founding values that Europe should transmit to those who are struggling," Di Maio wrote on his Facebook page, in a post with an exchange of messages between Di Maio and the Albanian prime minister.

"If Italy wins, Albania, Europe, and the world wins; without Italy, no one wins at all," Rama wrote.

"Thanks a million, my friend, our two peoples will always be brothers," Di Maio wrote.


John Krasinski kicked off his new web series over the weekend with a very special guest- inviting his old boss onto the show.

The actor and director uploaded the first episode of his YouTube series Some Good News on Sunday, and halfway through chatted with his co-star from The Office, Steve Carell,

To the delight of fans, the two stars reminisced about their favorurite scenes from the hit show, which is celebrating its 15 year anniversary.

Surprise! John Krasinski kicked off his new web series with a very special guest on Sunday inviting his old boss onto the Some Good News Show - his co-star from The Office, Steve Carell

John, 40, spoke to Steve, 57, via video chat, telling him: 'So Steve, this week marked a huge anniversary for you and I. We were on a little show called The Office and it turned 15 years old this week.'

John explained he got his big break on The Office, the remake of the successful British show from Ricky Gervais, where he played Jim Halpert.

'I was a waiter when I got that job, I was 23 years old,' he reminisced with Steve. 'After the pilot, I went back to waiting tables because I was sure nothing was going to happen with it.'

Memories: John explained he got his big break on The Office, the remake of the successful British show from Ricky Gervais,where he played Jim Halpert

'We all kind of came into it with that vibe. I remember none of us had done anything huge.'

'It's such a happy surprise that after all these years people are still tuning in and finding it today, it's pretty cool,' agreed Steve, who prior to being cast as Michael Scott was primarily a sketch comedy performer.

During their conversation, John and Steve looked back at their hit show, revealing their favourite episodes and behind the scenes moments.

Iconic: To the delight of fans, the two stars reminisced about their favorurite scenes from the hit show, which is celebrating its 15 year anniversary

Telly moment: During their conversation, John and Steve looked back at their hit show, revealing their favourite episodes and behind the scenes moments

'Some of the most fun memories, personally or professionally, are intertwined and connected with that show,' Steve said.

The pair agreed that the infamous plasma TV scene at Michael's dinner party was a favourite, as a blooper reel was shown.

John admitted he spent much of his time on set trying to hold it together when Steve was performing.

'I remember when we did the episode where you played Santa and were very upset that Phyllis was already Santa,' he said. 'So you were asking people to come sit on your lap and Brian [Baumgartner], thank God, was chosen to sit on your lap.'

Hilarious: John admitted he spent much of his time on set trying to hold it together when Steve was performing. 'I remember when we did the episode where you played Santa,' he said

'I was supposed to be the button of the scene where they cut to me and make a Jim face. I was never there, I was physically never there because by the time they got swish pan to me, I was out. I was either on the floor or I left the room,' John added.

And as for his most tearful moment? John said it was easily the scene in season seven when Michael left, calling it 'the most emotional I've been on set,' as the two were shown struggling to get their lines out.

Talk also turned to a reunion, but John admitted he would simply be happy to see his old friends again amid the coronavirus lockdown.

Tears: John said it was easily the scene in season seven when Michael left, calling it 'the most emotional I've been on set'

Pals: Talk also turned to a reunion, but John admitted he would simply be happy to see his old friends again amid the coronavirus lockdown

'Without a doubt. Listen I know everyone's talking about a reunion, hopefully one day, we just get to reunite as people. And just all get to say hi,' John said.

'Just to see your face is so great. I miss you a ton man,' Steve told John, who later joked: 'I really think you're going to make something of yourself.'

The US series of The Office lasted a total of nine seasons, airing on NBC from 2005 to 2013, following the employees of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company

While it was met with mixed reviews during its first series, the show went on to win four Emmys, a Golden Globe and two Screen Actors Guild Awards as well as making stars of many of its cast, which also featured Mindy Kaling, Ellie Kemper, Ed Helms, and Jenna Fischer, who played Jim's love interest Pam.

TV favourite: The US series of The Office lasted a total of nine seasons, airing on NBC from 2005 to 2013

Family: John laughed as Steve's wife Nancy appeared to help with some tech issues

Steve's unexpected departure from the show appears to have finally been explained, as new book The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s recalls.

The show's boom operator and sound mixer Brian Wittle, who was interviewed in the book, claimed the actor, 57, left the role because showrunners didn't react when he 'haphazardly mentioned' the seventh season could have been his last.

Brian explained: 'I sat with [Carell] one time and he told me the story. He was doing a radio interview and he haphazardly mentioned, almost unconsciously, that it might be his last season.

Stars: The show went on to win four Emmys, a Golden Globe and two Screen Actors Guild Awards as well as making stars of many of its cast, which also featured Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute, Jenna Fischer as Pam Beesly and B.J. Novak as Ryan Howard

'He didn't plan on saying it out loud and he hadn't decided anything. Then what he said was the people connected to the show had no reaction to it.

'They didn't call and say, "What? You wanna leave?" He said he didn't get any kind of response from them

'When the news broke that he was considering it, the people that are in charge of keeping him there didn't make a big effort to do so until afterward.'

Casting director Allison Jones also told the same story, as she explained: 'As I recall, he was going to do another season and then NBC, for whatever reason, wouldn't make a deal with him

'Somebody didn't pay him enough. It was absolutely asinine. I don't know what else to say about that. Just asinine.'
A surge in online sales at Powell's Books, which comprises five bookstores in Portland, Ore., has allowed the bookseller to rehire some of the more than 340 staff it had laid off earlier this month. (Those layoffs represented 85% of the company's staff, according to International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 5, which has represented the store's employees since 1999.) In a letter from CEO Emily Powell posted to the bookstore website and social media last Friday, Powell's said that more than 100 people are now working at the company; of these, 49 are union employees that were rehired, ILWU confirmed, with the remaining staff representing management.

"Your kind words, messages of encouragement, ideas for perseverance and orders for books have taken our breath away," Powell wrote. "We now have more than 100 folks working at Powell's againall full time with benefits. Most importantly, we're working hard to keep everyone safe and healthy."

Powell added that the store has "made an internal commitment to only pay for expenses that keep folks employed, and the lights on, for the time being," but noted: "we can't do that foreverwe love our vendors and business partners, and want to support them as well. Right now, however, our focus is on keeping Powells moving, keeping our community healthy, taking care of our wonderful customers and having as many folks working with health insurance as our sales can support."

The letter continued: "We dont know what the future holdsnone of us does. Were going to keep the doors to Powells.com open as long as we can, and we will open the doors to all of our stores as soon as it is safe to do so. In the meantime, we are eternally grateful for your support. We love nothing more than connecting readers and writers, and sending books out the door to their new homes. Your orders allow us to keep working and keep our team of incredible booksellers employed."

Powell added that, should customers wish to offer additional support, they can donate to to the Oregon Community Foundation COVID-19 Fund, to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, or to the ILWU Local 5, which established a worker relief fund when the layoffs were first announced.

On Sunday, Myka Dubay, ILWU Local 5 union representative, issued a press release that accused Powell of misleading the public. "While frontline booksellers, shelvers, and shippers remain on layoff status, Powells has trumpeted the fact that 'over 100 workers' have been brought back to work," the union said in the release. "In fact, to date, only 49 frontline bookstore workers have been recalled to their former positions. The other 51+ are management staff, doing frontline bookseller, shelver, and shipping work, instead of the union workers who were trained to do this work and did that work everyday."

The union went on to express dismay at how the situation has been handled. "While we understand the difficult nature of the situation COVID-19 has created in our society, we remain incredibly disappointed in how Powells has dealt with this situation and treated workers," the statement read. "Local 5 explicitly denounces the misleading statements made by Emily Powell with regards to her statement on 03/27/2020 of bringing back 'over 100 workers.' These distinctions are important. We cannot stand by while Powells misleads the public and so issue the above public statement to correct the record."

Dubay told PW that the union has raised over $20,000, and that it has an internal application process to assist workers who apply for funds. That process is run by ILWU Local 5 trustees, who oversee all financial operations of the Local. Dubay added: "We have been blown away and are exceedingly grateful for the support and solidarity the community has shown the workers of Local 5 who were laid off and found themselves facing financial crisis."

PW reached Emily Powell late on Sunday, but she was unable to comment at the time.
Meanwhile, many in Ukraine suggest the move would legitimize Russian occupation authorities in Donbas, putting them on equal footing with Ukrainian negotiators, while portraying Russia as a pure mediator in the conflict rather than a direct party to it.

The so-called "advisory council" within the framework of the Trilateral Contact Group for Donbas settlement in Minsk could be created after the approval of the Normandy Four member states at the level of advisers, says Vice Prime Minister, Minister for the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov.

He noted that the creation of such a "council" should be approved by Germany and France, since the TCG is a brainchild of the Normandy format, the vice PM told RBC-Ukraine.

"The final decision and signing is possible only after the consent of the German and French parties. They shouldn't only approve, but also delegate their representatives there as observer participants," he said, noting that there should also be an OSCE reaction.

Read alsoUkraine never to fix in Constitution "special status" for certain areas of Donbas, Vice PM says

"To this end, at least political advisers will have to agree. If leaders say okay, then each country's foreign ministry will be able to authorize the advisers to coordinate this decision. I dont know how they will fix it," Reznikov added.

As UNIAN reported, on March 11, Minsk hosted the regular meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group for Donbas settlement with the participation of the head of Ukrainian President's Office Andriy Yermak and Deputy Head of Russian President's Administration Dmitry Kozak. The two agreed to sign the TCG decision on the establishment of an "advisory council" as part of the political subgroup following consultations with representatives of the OSCE, France, and Germany regarding the implementation of the agreements reached during the Normandy summit. The signing was scheduled to take place at the next meeting in Minsk on March 25.

Later, the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia outlet published a copy of the minutes of meeting signed in Minsk on March 11. According to the document, the criteria and the procedure for appointing council members shall be independently determined by Ukraine, certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Germany, France, and the OSCE.

At the same time, 10 representatives from Ukraine and the certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions will each have the right to cast votes, and one representative each from Russia, Germany, France, and the OSCE  the right to cast consultative votes.

Read alsoAdvisory Council with Donbas warlords: canceled or delayed?

A few days later, about 60 MPs with the Servant of the People party called on President Zelensky to halt the process of creation of the advisory council, which many said would legitimize Russian occupation authorities in Donbas, putting them on equal footing with the Ukrainian negotiators, while portraying Russia as a pure mediator in the conflict rather than a direct party to it.
Lizzie Cundy has revealed that shes using the government-imposed gap in her social calendar to raise cash for charity amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The 50-year-old former WAG, a longtime fixture on the London social scene, has transported the red carpet to her home, where she'll sell her gowns to raise funds for the charities who have lost out on donations following the UK-wide lockdown.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, the star explained: 'I will be posing in a different red carpet dress on my rolled out red carpet every day and will be giving them all away to charities struggling in the coronavirus pandemic to raise funds.

Rolling out the red carpet: Lizzie Cundy has revealed that shes using the government-imposed gap in her social calendar to raise cash for charity amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic

'I wanted to give something back and I kept getting messages from people saying they missed my glam red carpet poses. So I thought Id bring the red carpet to my home!

'I know some charities are suffering and so I wanted to do something with a bit of a sense of humour. We could all do with a smile at the moment!'

And the brunette beauty kicked off her new charitable initiative on Monday, when she took to Instagram to share a shot of herself posing on a brand new strip of red carpet in her kitchen.

Charity: The 50-year-old, a fixture on the London social scene, has transported the red carpet to her home, where she'll sell her gowns to raise funds for charity. Pictured earlier this month

Looking sensational in a shimmering floor-length red Pia Michi couture gown, the star gives her ensemble the unexpected domestic touch with a pair of pink gloves.

Captioning the image, which saw her posing with one hand resting atop her oven as she struck a smouldering pose, she wrote: 'I know some of you maybe missing my red carpet posts so this one is for you!

'I cant get to the red carpet so Ive brought it today to my kitchen! Im giving away my red carpet dresses to charities that are suffering through this #corona crisis to raise some much needed funds.

'Lets all clear our closets and give to who need it through these difficult times #redcarpet #dresses #kitchenchic #stayhome #staysafe #charity #talesfromtheredcarpet.'

Glam: She told MailOnline, 'I wanted to give something back and I kept getting messages from people saying they missed my glam red carpet poses.' Pictured earlier this month

On Wednesday, Lizzie's pal Anthea Turner, 59, brought some light relief to the coronavirus pandemic as she joked that the former WAG is struggling to deal with Prime Minister Boris Johnson's social distancing instructions.

In a post shared to Instagram, the former Blue Peter presenter coined the term 'Cundyvirus' after her friend, which she has described as 'the unthinkable fear' of staying indoors amid the global crisis.

The host went to great lengths to amuse her followers as she shared a snap of a red carpet - highlighting Lizzie's frequent appearances at industry events - as well as the caption: 'Please give a thought to LIZZIE CUNDY'. [sic]

Anthea explained alongside the image: 'Sadly I have to inform you that Cundyvirus has hit our shores.

'Named after Socialite, WAG and Showbiz Reporter @lizziecundy its the deadly unthinkable fear of Staying In Help lines are being set up and Ill keep you in touch with developments.

Distance: Lizzie's pal Anthea Turner recently brought some light relief to the coronavirus pandemic as she joked that the former WAG is struggling to deal with social distancing

'In the meantime if you see Lizzie wandering the streets looking in carpet shops wearing not many clothes and clutching a bottle of Champagne please contact me.'

The dynamic duo have been close pals for many years, with media personality Lizzie set to serve as a bridesmaid at Anthea's wedding after setting her up with fiance Mark Armstrong.

Coronavirus was classed a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) earlier this month, leading countries such as the UK, Italy, Spain and China to implement nationwide lockdowns.

Sporting events, music festival and other social gatherings have been either cancelled or postponed due to the crisis.

Nearly 750,000 people around the world have been infected and almost 36,000 have died since the outbreak began last December.

Joker: TV host Anthea went to great lengths to amuse her followers as she shared a snap of a red carpet - highlighting Lizzie's frequent appearances at industry events
The Mexican government announced that the Mexican border, which runs along the state of Chihuahua, will be a temporary shelter for those migrants that are coming back to Mexico as they will be quarantined for 14 days.

The announced state shelter for the deported migrants will be set up in a few days to house incoming migrants from border cities of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. The state government announced that there are about 65 migrants that were deported from the state of Ciudad Juarez every day, and it is now in total of 5,200 as for this year.

It is now expected that the coronavirus will have a huge, enduring and serious effect as it hits Latin America. Consequences include emotional, economical, physical, humanitarian aspects. It was desired before, in early March, that the weather remoteness can control and cast off coronavirus, but sadly after three weeks, cases to cases were positive each day. It left a big impact especially on the business and economy of Latin America.

Most provinces in Brazil and Ecuador had positive cases, many fear that the positive cases might go up like in Italy. Funds are now out for the crisis and the underlying health conditions.

More on Latin Post:

During this crisis one of the preventive measures that were taken are quarantine, social distancing and limiting the activity of the public. This is to further prevent the transmission of the infectious disease. The United States now has 81,000 cases and Mexico has 585 cases.

The head of migrant services in the Chihuahua state - Dirvin Garcia Gutierrez announced that officials are now trying to decrease or avoid the crowding in the migrants' temporary home in Ciudad Juarez that is now holding 1,400 people. It is said to be that most of these migrants are from Central America. She also added that the city has 14 shelters that most of them are privately run. The temporary shelters must only hold 50-80 people.

Most of the countries are now adopting guidelines and protocols that are needed to further minimize the spreading of the infectious disease. Banning the flights, limiting social gatherings, limiting public activities and closing non-essential businesses are now taken into action and will be lifted after the state of health department will lift them.

Allowances and hazard pays are also given to the benefit of the health workers as front liners that are now the number one who battles with the coronavirus. As the medical health professionals; doctors, nurses, pharmacists, medical technologists, are definitely exposing themselves to infectious and contagious diseases that are rapidly increasing, cooperation from the community is highly expected and to be asked for.

Accepting migrants from the different parts of the world and making them stay in a temporary state in Chihuahua both benefits the peoples' health and their welfare. Safety is a must, as humanity is now having a crisis people are expected to listen and take care of each other.
The Citizenship Amendment Act has been challenged in Indias top court, but experts call for international intervention.

Many international legal experts, including the United Nations special rapporteur on minorities, say Indias new citizenship law is discriminatory and are calling for international intervention.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) fast-tracks nationality for non-Muslim minorities from neighbouring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan but excludes Muslims  a step compared with US President Donald Trumps Muslim ban.

Fernand de Varennes, the UN special rapporteur on minorities, told Al Jazeera that there is a danger that millions of members of minority groups such as Muslims will be denied citizenship.

Many have opined that the exclusion of Muslims as a group from the ambit of the law constitutes an extreme example of discriminatory treatment and that the right of equality without discrimination  particularly if it has a racial element  is one of the fundamental principles of international human rights, de Varennes told Al Jazeera.

Sovereign power is not unfettered

Earlier this month, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, filed an intervention in the Supreme Court to challenge the CAA.

Indias top court is also hearing a petition from Muslims and liberal Indians, who say the law is against the countrys secular constitution. The case has been temporarily suspended because of the lockdown following the coronavirus crisis.

Bachelets petition emphasises that sovereign power is not unfettered and that even decisions regarding citizenship have to conform to the principle of non-discrimination.

In February de Varennes and other UN special rapporteurs wrote an open letter to the Indian government expressing concerns about the discriminatory aspects of the CAA.

The letter highlights that the arbitrary exclusion of Muslims and other minorities from the NRC would perpetuate discrimination against them and perpetuate a climate of uncertainty, including fears of prolonged statelessness, detention or even deportation.

Internal matter

The Indian Ministry on External Affairs said that the CAA was an internal matter of the country and no foreign party has any standing on issues pertaining to Indias sovereignty.

Experts warn that the CAA, coupled with the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), violates international law, specifically the prohibition on rendering people stateless.

Nearly two million people were excluded from a citizenship list in the northeastern state of Assam where the NRC exercise was concluded last year.

What the NRC will create is a large group of stateless people, which in itself will run counter to the obligation in international law to prevent statelessness, Parvathi Menon, a lecturer at the Erik Castren Institute of International Law and Human Rights at the University of Helsinki, says.

Menon says the Indian government has already violated its international obligations by returning many Rohingya, claiming that they were illegal immigrants. Menon points to the position in Assam where illegal immigrants are now being housed in detention centres.

Indias Hindu nationalist government has deported some Rohingya refugees to Myanmar in violation of the principles of non-refoulement under refugee law. New Delhi, which considers the Muslim refugees a security threat, has vowed to deport them.

Doubtful citizen

According to Indian lawyer Shruti Panday, the NRC places the burden to prove Indian citizenship on the citizen, which could mean that every citizen becomes a doubtful citizen. The impact on marginalised groups such as Muslims will be particularly detrimental, she says.

The Indian Constitution recognises the right to equality and the equal application of the law. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which India is a signatory to, specifically prohibits arbitrary deprivation of nationality.

The purpose of Bachelets intervention was to highlight the High Commissioners concerns that the CAA does not comply with Indias human rights obligations.

The citizenship law, passed last December, sparked nationwide peaceful protests largely led by Muslims, who fear millions of members of the community will be rendered stateless or disenfranchised. Dozens of people, mostly Muslims, have been killed in a police crackdown that has been criticised by rights groups.

The Supreme Court refused to strike down the legislation and gave the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi time to reply to pleas challenging the constitutionality of the CAA.

Surinder Bhagat, a counseller at the Indian Embassy in Doha, the capital of Qatar, said the CAA does not take away the citizenship of any Indian citizen, including Muslims.

The CAA also does not challenge the standard naturalisation process already permitted in Indian law. The process of obtaining citizenship remains open to people of all faiths and of all countries, Bhagat told Al Jazeera in an email interview.

But in the third week of March, the Ministry of Home Affairs filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that preparation of the NRC was a necessary exercise for any sovereign country for mere identification of citizens from non-citizens.

It emphasised that it is not taking away anyones citizenship, adding that the CAA wont affect the legal, democratic or secular rights of people.

Priya Pillai, an international lawyer, said that the international community should keep the pressure on India.

Pillai says she believes the UN High Commissioners intervention is a signal of how seriously the issue of citizenship and potential statelessness is being taken by the international community.

The impact on regional peace and security can also not be ruled out, especially if there is mass statelessness as a result of the law and policies being pursued, says Pillai.
A near-empty Piccadilly Circus is seen pictured at night on March 28, 2020 in London, England.

British tech start-ups are lobbying the government for an emergency support package to help them weather the storm of the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.K., which has been formally on lockdown since March 23, introduced a stimulus plan for businesses hit hard by the virus outbreak earlier this month.

Under recently-appointed Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, the government has launched a 330 billion ($409 billion) loan scheme and other relief measures to help firms avoid collapsing.

But many start-ups in the country say they cannot access such funding. That's because they have to prove they would be "viable" businesses if not for the disruption caused by COVID-19, potentially blocking out ventures that focus more on growth than profits.

"The loan program is not relevant to a lot of start-ups in the ecosystem," Russ Shaw, founder of Tech London Advocates, an industry campaigning group, told CNBC last week. "Many if not all are loss-making, so they would not qualify for that support."

Meanwhile, some lenders have come under fire for requiring personal guarantees to issue the emergency loans. Agreeing such terms would mean banks could go after individual company directors' assets if their business goes under.

Ry Morgan, co-founder and chief product officer of London-based start-up Unmind, said some of his fellow entrepreneurs have been faced with "bureaucratic red tape" when approaching the banks.
When Jose closed the door to his two-bedroom apartment, he saw the same notice from management taped to every door of the complex. The first line: Despite what you may have heard in the media, rent is still due and evictions will be filed.

The memo was dated March 23, four days after Texas had declared a halt to evictions statewide and well into the Houston areas novel coronavirus surge. Jose, who asked that his last name be withheld because hes afraid of retaliation by the property manager, is only able to pay his share of Aprils $1,017 rent because hed stopped making car payments.

Jose has no idea how hell pay rent next month.

If this is not over soon, definitely I will become homeless, he said. Hes lived in his unit at the Ashford Westchase Apartments for four months.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Explaining the eviction policy in Texas during the coronavirus pandemic

As the first of the month looms, tenants who found themselves suddenly unemployed as the novel coronavirus devastates the economy are left unable to pay rent. Landlords worry that without the expected rent revenue, they wont be able to pay their own bills.

Some states  including Texas  have temporarily stopped evictions from going forward in court. In Maryland, no landlord can evict a tenant who can prove that their nonpayment of rent is directly related to the coronavirus. The city of Austin gave tenants an additional 60 days to pay rent.

But there is no rent measure in Houston, where 55 percent of the citys occupied housing unit are inhabited by renters. And the Texas order has no allowance for coronavirus-imposed economic conditions like Marylands. It still allows landlords to file eviction cases, but they wont be heard in court until the order lifts on April 19.

On HoustonChronicle.com: What its like living paycheck-to-paycheck in Houston during a coronavirus pandemic

The notice on Joses door at the Ashford Westchase Apartments wasnt meant to be a threat, said property manager Emerich Esqueda. Its just explaining the fine print.

While Jose worries where he will live as the pandemic rages, Esqueda worries what happens to him without the rent to pay his salary.

Long story short, we expect to see a lot of evictions, Esqueda said. I think they may take advantage of the situation.

Educating tenants

Jack Yetiv is so proud of the notice he sent to tenants in his three multifamily complexes that he thinks it should be made free to anyone who wants to use it.

Yetiv, a retired doctor-turned-lawyer-turned-landlord, sent a 12-point notice to each tenant on March 25, the day after Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo issued a stay-at-home order.

 you MUST PAY YOUR RENT and other charges as you always have, the memo began. NOTHING in Judge Hidalgos order says anyone gets free rent  just like you do not expect to go to Kroger and get free food.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Harris County is under a coronavirus stay-at-home order. The homeless have nowhere to go.

Notices like Yetivs have gone out all around the country as landlords anticipated rent payment issues. Theyve also heard the mixed communications from state and local governments and misleading statements at the federal level (President Donald Trump erroneously said he ordered the Department of Housing and Urban Development to suspend all evictions; the order only applied to certain mortgages).

Its my attempt to educate our residents, Yetiv said. What they heard was, Theyre suspending evictions. If theres no evictions, theres no rent. But if people dont pay the rent, how am I gonna pay the electric?

Yetiv asked tenants who think theyll have difficulty to reach out (point 10). He can give them maintenance to do around the property or sign what he calls a voluntary lien: He holds onto something of value (a TV, a wedding ring) until rent is paid.

Point 9 offers the option of prepayment if the tenant cannot follow the advice from Point 8 to save ahead: If that is not a realistic option, and you have no other method to put money away, we will accept PREPAYMENTS of your rent so that you are ahead on your rent in future months if your income drops.

Yetiv said: I know theres people that are terrible money managers. If they prepay, that money is safe. It wont go away. It doesnt go to an alcohol habit.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Its too late for them: Houstons homeless on the streets left vulnerable to coronavirus

At Villa de Cancun Apartments, management sent a notice notice shorter than Yetivs to remind tenants that rent is due by the third day of the month, with late fees to follow. An office staffer deferred comment to a manager; no one responded to messages left in the following days.

Nothing has changed despite recent news, the notice read. KEEP IN MIND WE CAN AND WILL FILE EVICTION IF RENT IS NOT PAID ON TIME.

Rick Guttman, who sent out a notice to his nine properties warning tenants that a nonpayment of rent would trigger an eviction filing and a credit agency notification, said he doesnt want to speculate what would happen if he didnt get enough rent checks.

We have all of our expenses that are not stopping, he said. I dont have anything in writing providing leniency for us.

On HoustonChronicle.com: She woke up to her chest burning. It wasnt coronavirus  it was anxiety.

Melissa Gallegos, 35, feels like she cant do anything but give leniency. Shes known her tenants for two decades. The family of six has rented the house she grew up in since 2015, when her father died. They have been behind since Hurricane Harvey.

All our savings, they already gone, said Xochitl Valadez, who rents Gallegoss home. We just started running behind, behind, behind  everything. With this situation, everything, were running more behind than we used to be.

Gallegos husband is out of work because of coronavirus. She worries about paying her own bills.

I have had a lot of people tell me you need to kick them out, Gallegos said. But I cant do that to them. Especially with the kids.

Facing homelessness

Before the coronavirus crisis, Jose had worked as a full-time Uber driver. This is his third week without work, because people have been afraid to use rideshares. He has a few hundred dollars left for food. His roommate has a fever.

It made me sad because these people are thinking only in money, said Jose, who is from El Salvador and has lived in Houston for 20 years. They are not taking in consideration that we are having hard days.

The sudden crisis is devastating for renters who were already living paycheck-to-paycheck.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Governor Abbott requests federal loans to pay unemployment benefits

Gina Baptiste, 40, is a single mother of two daughters, 18 and 11, living in Fort Worth. She had a history of late payments on her two-bedroom apartment but hadnt been evicted. (Amy Cox, the propertys portfolio manager, wrote in an email that the company tried helping our residents through tough times.)

She can pay only $850  half her rent. She was let go in mid-March. Her apartment complex requires documentation for a payment plan. Her old boss, she said, wont provide it: She said she was paid off the books.

Clearly, this is well outside of our control and seems odd, at best, wrote Cox. We are open to accepting a payment plan if she provides adequate documentation.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Everything you need to know about unemployment benefits in Texas during the coronavirus crisis

Cox added: We have heard many reporters, advocates, etc. try to make the apartment industry look like bad people. Thats not a new theme by any stretch, but the dull roar continues to get louder.

Cox and the management team gave Baptiste another option: Leave by March 31, and they would not file for eviction. She does not know where she would go.

If you are not working right now or about to start, then it seems like that is a personal choice to not work, Cox wrote in a March 29 email to Baptiste. If that is an incorrect assumption, then please let me know.

Baptiste has been applying, she said. She felt like she was being blamed for losing her job.

Usually her apartment is happy: Her girls drag her into TikTok dances (shes terrible) and both of them come relax with her in bed. The fridge is covered with family pictures, takeout menus and academic awards.

I have kids and, like, you cant be homeless with children, she said. She started to cry. How can you look your kids in the face and say you might not have anywhere to go?

sarah.smith@chron.com
Dozens of homeless people vulnerable to COVID-19 will be transferred to the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds this week, where officials have set up cots and isolation trailers in an effort to thin out the countys overcrowded shelter population.

Up to 80 homeless people now housed in shelters will move into Gateway Hall at the fairgrounds in south San Jose, Supervisor Cindy Chavez said during a tour of the grounds Sunday.

The county  which quickly became the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the Bay Area  has also set up 15 trailers provided by the state to isolate homeless people who are exhibiting symptoms of the virus.

The goal is to prevent an outbreak inside a homeless shelter, where the illness could spread quickly and threaten the lives of hundreds of vulnerable people.

What were trying to do is make sure that none of the shelters are so crowded that its easy if somebody gets sick or if somebody has the virus, that other people get it, Chavez said. Were taking people who are in shelters and really spreading them around so that we can create safe environments in the current shelters.

Advocates and local officials have voiced concern for the countys nearly 10,000 homeless residents because of their potential exposure to the virus. People without stable housing cannot take proper preventive measures and are often in poorer health than other residents, they said.

More for you Coronavirus in the Bay Area: The key events unfolding on March 31

For the homeless community, they not only dont have access to running water and soap, they may be living in very close corners with each other, sharing a tent, sharing a tarp, Chavez said. What were trying to do is make sure that were doing everything we can to follow our local and state public health directives, which is: Everybody in our community needs to shelter in place. And if they dont have a place to shelter in place, were trying to help them get there.

There were 136,880 coronavirus cases and 2,191 deaths in the U.S. as of Sunday afternoon. More than 691,867 people have tested positive for the virus worldwide and more than 32,988 people have died. Santa Clara County reported 646 infections and 25 deaths as of Sunday.

Maintenance crews were cleaning and prepping the 15 isolation trailers on the fairgrounds Sunday, said Chavez, who expects people to occupy them by the end of the week.

California officials sent the trailers to the county before the virus broke out, according to Chavez, though their initial purpose was unclear.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

San Francisco-based Verily manages a drive-through testing site on the grounds, testing hundreds per day.

The county has also secured 172 hotel rooms in San Jose, Santa Clara and Gilroy to quarantine some homeless and vulnerable residents.

The Valley Homeless Healthcare Program  which provides health care to homeless people across the county  along with local hospitals, shelters and other agencies have referred 147 people in need of isolation or quarantine rooms, 68 of whom have already gone into quarantine, the county said.

The countys homeless shelters are open 24 hours and have social-distancing policies in place. Seasonal shelters will remain open through April 15.

Tatiana Sanchez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tatiana.sanchez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TatianaYSanchez
The Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, in a statement issued this morning has said that old antimalaria drug, Chloroquine will be produced for emergency stock for the clinical trial treatment of Coronavirus.

Making reference to some countries that have started using Chloroquine for the treatment of coronavirus, she said the drug was discovered to be effective in the treatment of COVID-19 associated pneumonia.

The state read in part:

Other researchers in France, US have used the drug for the clinical trial treatment of COVID-19 and they reported effectiveness of the drug. Lagos State will be starting a clinical trial on chloroquine to evaluate the effectiveness.

In a very recent publication, chloroquine was reported in a press briefing by the State Council of China, indicating that chloroquine phosphate had demonstrated marked efficacy and acceptable safety in treating COVID-19 associated pneumonia in a multi-center clinical trials conducted in China.

The study involved 10 hospitals in Wuhan, Jingzhou, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Ningbo, and 100 patients. The investigators reported that Chloroquine phosphate is superior to the control in inhibiting the pneumonia associated with COVID-19, and shortening the course of the disease.

Prof. Adeyeye said she had approached a local Pharmaceutical manufacturing company (May and Baker) which had NAFDAC approval for the production of chloroquine as antimalarial many years ago, to make a batch of the drug for emergency stock.

She said the Managing Director of May and Baker had confirmed that the batch of chloroquine drugs has been manufactured and the company plans to make more batches, on request.

She appealed to Nigerians to desist from using Chloroquine drugs without the guidance of a medical doctor or clinician for treatment of coronavirus and warned of possible side effects which includes blurred vision, itching, headaches and gastrointestinal upset, amongst others.
Hailey Wozniak

One of Hailey Wozniak's biggest accomplishments at Bowdoin has been cofounding Avant-Garb Magazine, an arty, brainy journal about fashion and culture that prominently features Bowdoin students and their personal styles.

Wozniak, a history major and cinema studies minor, credits her work as editor-in-chief of Avant-Garb as the inspiration for her travel itinerary. Next year, she will visit Senegal, India, Brazil, and South Korea to explore "how people cultivate their identities, react to their environments, and break boundaries through fashion."

She plans to talk to a broad swath of people about the clothes they have in their closets and what they choose to wear day to day. These straightforward questions, she says, can get at deeper truths about how people think of themselves and their place in society.

"There is a story in every closet," she added. "Whether people are conforming to expectation or pushing against social standards, how they adorn themselves every day is a choice." When she would ask Bowdoin students this question for feature stories, she ended up having some of her most interesting conversations.

Wozniak will start her trip in Dakar, Senegalthe "capital of West African fashion"before continuing to Mumbai, India. In both places, she'll study the fusion of tradition, modernity, and globalism in local styles.

She'll then make her way to Sao Paulo, Brazil, during Carnival, where she'll get a chance to observe how "Brazilians transform themselves for public display" through elaborate costumes. She'll also explore the role that the LGBTQ communityparticularly drag queensplays in the national pageantry. She'll end her year in Seoul, South Korea, where she wants to talk to women who are rejecting the country's obsession with flawless female beauty.
A tornado ripped through northeast Arkansas on Saturday, leaving six people hurt after hitting commercial and residential areas in the college town of Jonesboro.

The six people reported injured were taken to a local hospital with minor juries, Jonesboro E-911 Director Jeff Presley said. The tornado did major damage at the Mall at Turtle Creek and Jonesboro Municipal Airport.

Like much of the rest of the world, Jonesboro is working to fight the spread of COVID-19. Because of that, most stores in the Mall at Turtle Creek were closed Saturday to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Severe weather could have been much worse if not for that, Presley said.

At 5 oclock on a Saturday afternoon that place wouldve been packed, and at this point there was hardly anyone in there, Presley said. Its a blessing in disguise.

Power was out in sections of the city, which affects the citys traffic lights. Wreckage tossed about by the twister also blocked roads. They mayor issued a 7 p.m. curfew, and authorities asked people not to drive around.

The storm also derailed a train, Presley said. Crews were examining damage and trying to determine whether it had been hauling anything hazardous.

The National Weather Service tweeted a video from the Arkansas Department of Transportation that showed a large tornado dropping from storm clouds in Jonesboro.

U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, who represents much of eastern Arkansas, said on Twitter that a tornado tore through the heart of town and asked for prayers for first responders. Crawford said his staff and family were safe.

Jonesboro is home to Arkansas State University. The university tweeted that campus was not damaged.

Forecasters with the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, warned that a severe weather outbreak was possible later Saturday for much of the central U.S.

The National Weather Service reported other possible tornadoes Saturday in Illinois and Iowa.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Windstorm Education Universities
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussexs announcement about leaving their royal duties behind may have come as a shock to many, but one insider claims that Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth knew about it in advance  through an email from Harry.

Prince William, Prince Harry, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Charles | RICHARD POHLE/AFP via Getty Images

Prince Harry reportedly emailed details of the exit plan

Daily Mails royal editor Rebecca English shared how, when Prince Harry and Meghan took a six-week break from their royal duties around Thanksgiving, Unknown to anyone, the couple had in fact been plotting a life outside of Britain.

She added, They had assembled a team of US advisers and managers, many of whom had worked with Meghan as an actress.

Before they returned from their break, in early January, Harry contacted his grandmother and father by email to tell them he and Meghan wanted out, English explained. Both the Queen and Charles urged him not to rush into anything.

It was complicated

English further notes that their request wasnt so simple due to a host of considerations and decisions that needed to be made. The editor shares that according to a family source, They understood that he and Meghan wanted something different and were willing to help but it was complicated.

The insider continued, There were issues like security and funding, visas and tax, which neither of them had thought through. Harry was told to put his request in writing and come up with some ideas.

This timeline reportedly didnt sit well with Prince Harry, as the source shared, He thought his family were stonewalling and decided to push the nuclear button.

Prince Harry was reportedly stubborn about the decision

Prince Harry and Meghan returned to the UK after their break, where Harry met with his senior staff and, despite their warning to not make their plans public, another insider shared with English, Unfortunately he was just too stubborn, blinkered and bitter to see sense.

The couple then released a statement about their plan to take a step back, which many found disrespectful. One courtier told English, Her Majesty was shocked. People were angry the queen had been so disrespected.

The queen gave her blessing

In the end, the queen did sign off on Prince Harry and Meghans desire to leave their royal duties, though there were sacrifices they had to make. Harry was devastated to lose his military and Commonwealth roles, but his biggest frustration was being ordered to walk away from their Sussex Royal brand, English noted.

The queen remarked in a statement following the finalization of their decision that she supported their move.

Following many months of conversations and more recent discussions, I am pleased that together we have found a constructive and supportive way forward for my grandson and his family. Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved members of my family. I recognise the challenges they have experienced as a result of intense scrutiny over the last two years and support their wish for a more independent life, the statement shared.

The queens statement continued: I want to thank them for all their dedicated work across this country, the Commonwealth and beyond, and am particularly proud of how Meghan has so quickly become one of the family. It is my whole familys hope that todays agreement allows them to start building a happy and peaceful new life.
A stack of two-inch-thick textbooks near the door of Cati Garcias classroom are more than educational tools; theyre potential weapons.

In the event a school shooter penetrates the classroom, students should look for ordinary objects to defend themselves, Garcia told her class during an active-shooter drill last week.

If there were 20 of us throwing books at him, chances are we would be able to take him, Garcia said, adding, I would spray the fire extinguisher at him.

The drill at Valley High School, a continuation campus for the Escondido Unified High School District, introduced students to the new run, hide, fight protocol that some schools are adopting in defense against school shootings.

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That strategy, developed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, trains teachers and students to seek the safest way off campus, or into hiding, in the event of a school shooting. And it prepares them to defend themselves in the worst-case scenario, by taking action to disarm or incapacitate a shooter. Its an expansion of the existing lockdown protocol, with added options.

If the shooter is on the opposite side of campus, or the students are already outdoors at lunch or recess, evacuating the area and fleeing to a safer place may be the best choice, officials said.

When there isnt a clear route to safety, they should use lockdown or shelter in place procedures to hide in classrooms. They should also barricade doors and windows to make them harder targets. If those strategies fall short, the plan prepares them to confront a shooter.

The main difference is, we are given the option to run or to fight back, Garcia said. Before it was just lockdown, and youre sitting ducks.

Once the drill began, Garcia asked students to slide a file cabinet against the door, use a chain or belt to jam the hinge, and secure a safety bolt. They need to know not only how to hide, but also how to barricade the space.

Students dimmed the lights and took cover behind desks and cabinets. It it were safe to escape, she would lead them out, she told them. If not, they should plan for an unlikely, but potentially deadly, confrontation with a shooter, she said.

If your classroom was breached, what would you do? she asked students.

Fight, some kids answered. Throw a chair. Staplers, scissors and the flagpole are other classroom objects that could double for self-defense, students added. Those items arent a match for gunfire, but could disorient or distract the shooter, or even knock him out.

Im totally fine with you throwing Chromebooks if they would save your life, if someone comes in here with a gun, Garcia said.

When teachers first discussed the strategy at an assembly with students the previous week, some of them didnt take it seriously, or didnt want to participate, Garcia said. So she brought it closer to home.

This could be your little brother or sister, she told them. Think of Florida. This could be 15 of your classmates murdered. Then it clicked.

After the drill, some students said it opened their eyes to possible tactics for a school attack.

My option, to save our lives, would be to fight for out lives, said Jose Armenta, 18. My first option would be to throw a chair or a book. If we hit him he might drop. Then he would be without his weapon.

 Active shooter drill at Valley High School in Escondido. Escondido Union High School District conduct a student drill of its now run, hide, fight active shooter protocol at Valley High School, the districts continuation school. The system calls f

San Diego has had its own school tragedies. In 1979, Brenda Spencer shot eight children and killed a principal and custodian at Cleveland Elementary School. Charles Andrew Andy Williams killed two students and wounded 13 at Santana High School in Santee in 2001. And in 2010, Brendan ORourke injured two second-graders when he shot into a crowd of students at Kelly School in Carlsbad.

Around 2008, the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies started studying ways to improve the odds in those emergencies, said Bob Mueller, director of student attendance, safety, and well-being for the County Office of Education.

In 2013, the federal government introduced run, hide and fight in its school emergency guide, he said. The San Diego County Office of Education worked with local law enforcement on a plan for options-based responses to school attacks.

This is allowing us to have another level of safety that students are trained on, so they can reduce the likelihood of becoming a victim, said Escondido Police Chief Craig Carter, president of the San Diego County Police Chiefs & Sheriffs Association, which has endorsed the strategy.

Escondidos elementary and high school districts, along with Vista Unified School District, have adopted the plan and started training staff. At Escondido high schools, students are integral to the system.

Thats not the case in all districts.

Some experts recommend explaining the plan to students, but not practicing it, warning that the exercise itself could traumatize youth who have watched school shootings on the news. Such attacks are devastating, but statistically unlikely, they say, so heightening students awareness of those events could do more harm than good.

In Vista, officials wont drill students, but will train teaches and other staff to take the lead in emergencies.

That makes sense for younger kids, but high school students are young adults and should be involved in the process, said Rich Watkins, director of Pupil Services and Interventions for the Escondido Union High School District.

Knowing that its okay to fight, it gives them some confidence, he said. Not only that, they know well fight with them. We explained to them that their actions could save them and others.

Students had mixed reactions to the drill, questioning whether the barricades would work and worrying that evacuation could be too slow, or police might mistake a kid for the shooter. However, several said they were encouraged by the chance to fight back.

Elian Gaona, 17, said he felt fairly confident after reviewing the plan.

The options that we had were pretty good, he said. We had students barricading the door he came in, had students ready to fight, and had an exit. But in the moment, you dont know what you will do.

Michelle Ramos, 17, said shes been anxious about school safety since the Florida shooting, but said she would do her best in the worst situation.

The fact that we had to have this drill makes me feel sad and uneasy at school, she said. Im not that strong, but I think I would try to fight, because I think about my sisters and my family.

The school has gone on lockdown before because of emergencies in the surrounding area, Principal Daniel Barajas said. He thinks his students would rise to the occasion if an attack occurred on campus.

I do believe that instinct will take place and kids  and any of us  will do what they need to do to survive, he said.

deborah.brennan@sduniontribune.com Twitter@deborahsbrennan
New Delhi, March 31 : A religious congregation of 2000 people at a mosque in Delhi's Nizamuddin area which has thrown up several corona positive cases is a ticking time bomb as six of the persons who returned to Telangana have died from the virus and positive cases are emerging from at least five regions including J&K, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

The Telangana Chief Minister's Office said in a tweet, "Six people from Telangana who attended a religious congregation at Markaz in Nizamuddin area of New Delhi from March 13-15 succumbed after they contracted coronavirus. Two died in Gandhi Hospital while one each died in Apollo Hospital, Global Hospital, Nizamabad and Gadwal." The state has intensified its efforts to locate all those who returned from the event and the contact trail.

The suspected outbreak was discovered earlier today in Delhi as it emerged that several hid their travel history to foreign countries and a large congregation was held on March 13-5 at a markaz in Nizamuddin. The area was sealed today and hundreds of those present were whisked away to hospitals.

The Jawaharlal Nehru stadium which otherwise holds sporting events is being prepared for a possible large size quarantine centre in case there is a huge outbreak of the virus. Reports are emerging that COVID-19 cases linked to this gathering are being across the country in J&K, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar and Telangana.

As many as 1,400 people continued to stay at the Tabligh-e-Jamaat's "Markaz" in Delhi's Nizamuddin West even after the event.

The Telangana Chief Medical Officer confirmed that six people who attended this congregation have died in Telangana after testing positive for coronavirus. A cleric who was there had died after testing positive for coronavirus in Srinagar last week.

More than 2,000 delegates, including from Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan, attended the congregation of Tablighi Jamaat - a Muslim religious organisation - from March 13 to 15.

So now, after the congregation dispersed, those who had gathered have gone in different directions and six have died in Telangana.

This constitutes a mammoth health risk for those present and others who may have come in contact or are even now coming into contact through transit.

Sooner or later, it is feared this may be a form of community transmission as infected people move in different directions.

This is so symptomatic of the virus spread where even once infected person can pass it onto hundreds of others.

Jammu and Kashmir where many of these people returned is already on alert. The district administration in all ten districts have fanned out teams to trace those who might not have disclosed their travel history or contact history with Tabligi Jamaat.

Another worrying strand that has emerged is that the list of those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Nizamuddin from Jammu & Kashmir is huge. Clearly, many of them are not in quarantine yet and the administration and police are making efforts to identity, trace and isolate.

It is learnt that the government has prepared a 50 page list of people from J&K who attended the congregation or came in contact with those. Efforts are being made to identify these people and isolate them.

District magistrates in different districts of Kashmir have issued a strong warning today evening to those who have entered the Valley after March 1 and have not so far revealed their travel history to the authorities.

The order issued today evening by the various district magistrates said all those who entered the Valley after March 1 with travel history abroad, outside the Valley or association with members of the Tabligi group are given the last chance to report to the authorities within two days failing which they could face imprisonment under the provisions of the disaster management act, 2005.
An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tested positive for coronavirus, officials said on Monday, but it was not immediately clear if the 70-year-old leader had been exposed or his work affected.

We will take action in accordance with Health Ministry directives, an official said, announcing the diagnosis of the parliamentary aide, whom Israeli media described as being in good condition.

The Health Ministry generally requires 14-day self-isolation and possible coronavirus testing for anyone deemed to have been in proximity with an infected person.

Israeli media said the aide had been present at a parliament session last week attended by Netanyahu as well as opposition lawmakers with whom he is trying to build an emergency coalition government to help address the coronavirus crisis.

Israel has reported 4,247 cases and 15 fatalities. With the Health Ministry warning that the dead could eventually number in the thousands, Netanyahu was due on Monday to convene officials on Monday to discuss a proposed lockdown of some of the country.

Netanyahu was tested for coronavirus as a precaution on March 15, his office said. The result was negative.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Toby Chopra)
TDT | Manama

Top officials yesterday lauded the Kingdoms tireless efforts to bring home Bahraini citizens stranded overseas due to the outbreak of COVID-19. A meeting was held yesterday between a number of ministers and the Representatives Councils Bureau, chaired by Speaker Fawzia bint Abdulla Zainal.

The meeting discussed the national plan to repatriate citizens still abroad. Also in attendance were Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani and Health Minister Faeqa bint Saeed Al Saleh, among others.

Speaker Zainal lauded the efforts of the government, led by HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister, the endeavours of HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier, and those of all members of Team Bahrain.

She affirmed the solidarity and cohesion of the Bahraini people with the leadership of HM King Hamad, and stressed the ability of Bahrain to overcome all current challenges and circumstances.

She noted that the return of Bahrainis abroad is a national priority for both the legislative and executive branches. Foreign Minister Dr Al Zayani said that the executive and legislative branches are working together for the best interests of the nation and its citizens, especially amid the current extraordinary circumstances the entire world is facing after the outbreak of COVID-19.

The Foreign Minister asserted that Bahrain will continue the implementation of its plan to evacuate Bahraini citizens wishing to return home, especially those in Iran, according to scheduled direct flights to the Kingdom.

Rules and necessary precautionary measures will be followed to protect the health and safety of travellers, plane crew members and the employees of airports and work teams.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Al Saleh stressed that her ministry and its medical teams are in the frontline of efforts to ensure the safety and health of all citizens and residents, through the implementation of the world-standard precautionary and preventive measures.

She cited the increase of medical competencies and raising the capacity of the treatment and quarantine centres, noting that the ministry has benefited from the efforts of volunteers and experts in various medical fields, which, she said, reflects the awareness and patriotic sense of Bahrainis.

She also affirmed that the Health Ministry has maintained constant contacts with the World Health Organisation on its recommendations on ways to curb the spread of COVID-19
Michael Oseku-Afful

30.03.2020 LISTEN

Accra, March, 2020  Standard Chartered is delighted to announce the appointment of Michael Oseku-Afful as Country Head of Conduct, Financial Crime and Compliance (CFCC). Michael brings his expertise to deliver the right outcomes for our clients and business by driving the highest standards in conduct, compliance and fighting financial crime.

Michael joined the Bank in November 2006 and has held senior roles in the Credit Risk Control function and as Head of the Credit Documentation Unit.

He joined the Compliance Team as Head of Legal and Compliance for Retail Banking in 2012. His most recent role was Head of Compliance for Corporate and Commercial Banking.

Prior to joining Standard Chartered, he worked in Advertising and Public Relations.

Speaking on the appointment, Mansa Nettey, CEO Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Limited said, I am glad to welcome Michael to the Management Team. As a bank, we believe that good conduct and ethical behavior is fundamental to sustainable business growth. I am confident that Michael will bring his expertise to drive the highest standards of conduct, compliance and the fight against financial crime to protect our business, clients and the wider community.

Michael said, I am delighted about my appointment and look forward to working with the Management Team to achieve the overall priorities of the bank while ensuring adherence to controls and positive conduct.

Michael is a Lawyer by profession and was called to the Ghana Bar in 2010. He holds an LLB Degree from City University, London, a BA (Hons.) from the University of Ghana as well as a post-graduate Diploma in Compliance (ICA) from the University of Manchester, England. He also holds an Advanced Certificate in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK.

With more than 10 years experience in the Bank, Michael brings a considerable wealth of experience and depth to this role.

Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Limited

Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Limited is Ghanas premier bank established in 1896. We are part of a leading international banking group, with a presence in more than 60 of the worlds most dynamic markets.

Our purpose is to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity. Our heritage and values are expressed in our brand promise, Here for good.

The Bank is listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange and has been one of the leading stocks over a sustained period.

Standard Chartered PLC is listed on the London and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges as well as the Bombay and National Stock Exchanges in India.

For more stories and expert opinions please visit www.sc.com/gh

Follow Standard Chartered on Twitter, LinkedIn and Standard Chartered Ghana Limited on Facebook.com/StandardCharteredGH
BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 30

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

The number of tourists from Turkmenistan visiting Turkey amounted to 16,833 people in February 2020, which is 20.86 percent less compared to the same month of 2019, Trend reports referring to Turkeys Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The share of Turkmen citizens in the total number of foreigners visiting Turkey in February 2020 amounted to 0.97 percent.

From January through February 2020, 35,822 tourists from Turkmenistan visited Turkey, which is 15.59 percent less compared to the same period of 2019.

The share of Turkmen citizens in the total number of foreigners visiting Turkey during the reporting period amounted to 1.02 percent.

In February 2020, 1.7 million tourists visited Turkey, which is 3.76 percent more compared to February 2019.

From January through February 2020, 3.5 million tourists visited Turkey, which is 9.68 percent more compared to the same period of 2019.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
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We highlight five of the best personal loans around below, This is a great deal, Men want cleverer, but it seems to apply as much to Mrs Clooney as it does to Mr Clooney. who have been on death row since 2006, should the penalty be carried out? the question saidMr McMahon told SMH the result now a tool being used to get my clients killed AG and the ambassador have publicly relied on the SMS poll as a factor justifying execution They say that it pushes them to do it that they have Australian public support Mr McMahon reasonedDaily Mail Australia has contacted the Triple J Hack show for comment Gary Morgan executive chairman of Roy Morgan Research defended way the poll was carried out to the SMHWhen the poll results were originally published Morgan said in a statement: slight majority of Australians (52%) say that Australians convicted of drug trafficking in another country and sentenced to death should be executed there is a clear gender split with men (60%) in favour of the death penalty being carried out while only 46% of women believe that convicted drug traffickers overseas should be executed courts rejected an application for a judicial review into the cases of Chan and Sukumaran again on Wednesday despite a strong campaign for mercy being pushed from the level of Australian governmentForeign affairs minister Julie Bishop and Tony Abbott promised they to raise the cases with the Indonesian government? average earnings or 2. and even analyse your selfies. 14 April 2014 Updated: 09:53 GMT, 15 April 2014Nick Clegg was facing a growing clamour last night to reveal what he knew and when about the Cyril Smith paedophilia scandal. But for people in your situation they can create insurmountable barriers.

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Jeff Greenberg | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

Out of all the many concerns that Americans now have related to COVID-19, more and more are worrying about getting paid, and quickly. Earlier this month, Desiree May, an employee at Loop Neighborhood convenience store and gas station in San Francisco, used DailyPay to get access to her pay to buy supplies related to COVID-19. "I needed money to buy supplies  masks and hand sanitizers  so I could do my job at a gas station and safely support the workers needing to be out," she said. May is far from alone. The shift from paper checks and direct deposit to newer, more flexible electronic payments such as payroll cards, PayPal, DailyPay and others  has been unfurling for years. Now the pandemic may well push these newer payment arrangements to the forefront. DailyPay, which allows workers to take out pay they've already earned whenever they need it instead of waiting weeks for their next payday, saw a 400% jump in use between March 14 and March 17 as workers rushed to access their money early to stock up on food, cleaning supplies, wipes and other products before shelter-in-place rules took effect. "If everyone is waiting until the 15th to 30th, everyone is going at the same time to the store and a lot is sold out," said Jeanniey Mullen, chief innovation officer at DailyPay. Mullen said that starting earlier this month, the No. 1 reason for withdrawals has been related to COVID-19, whereas transportation costs  money for gas to get to work, bus fees or Uber  are the primary reason. The company, which typically charges a $2.99 fee for employees to get access to their pay immediately, or $1.99 for the next business day, has waived next-day fees amid the crisis.

Demand for flex options rise

The current crisis has put a spotlight on the limitations of paper checks and direct deposit. Paper checks come with concerns about lack of personnel in the office to print the checks, mail-delivery delays, as well as concerns about potential contamination if someone sick handles the paper. Direct deposit is relatively slow, forcing employees to wait days to actually take out their money. While many Americans are losing their jobs and worried about getting access to their money as soon as possible, some employers are also facing challenges  in particular, ramping up their workforce. Mullen noted that some of DailyPay's supermarket customers are battling to keep their employees in stores to keep up with demand. "It's a battle to get people," she said. To attract workers, she claims that some supermarket and health-care centers are promoting DailyPay so employees can get paid their first day on the job. More from At Work:

5 actions freelancers should take right now to protect against crises like COVID-19

This could be worst job market for new college grads since the financial crisis

Coronavirus poses a new threat to gig economy workers Rockaway Home Care, based in Queens, New York, recently promoted DailyPay on their Twitter as a benefit to their employees. The company, which has about 1,000 full- and part-time home health aides out in the field, has seen an uptick in interest in more flexible pay arrangements  namely, getting paid immediately  amid the current crisis. "We were wondering about what is going to be the immediate and three- to six-month fallout from COVID-19," said Sean Hirsch, executive director at Rockaway Home Care, from loss of patient lives to additional costs of onboarding new employees or employees refusing to go to cases. "What we've seen, when we offer this benefit, people are motivated to work. The reality is this virus doesn't mean the expenses around you stop," he said, noting that applications have increased.

Changing expectations

DailyPay is one of many pay providers that are shifting to more flexible, personalized pay arrangements. While direct deposit is still the dominant form of payment, with 80% of employers and employees in North America saying they prefer it, nontraditional payment methods have been making inroads. According to research by ADP, nearly half of employees in North America are willing to accept nontraditional payment methods, such as mobile payments, digital platforms or pay cards. Companies such as ADP, Fiserv, Green Dot and others are rolling out pay cards and virtual bank accounts. There's also Zelle, debit accounts linked to Venmo or PayPal, and many other competitors. Bank accounts are no longer required for some of these alternative pay arrangements. Venmo and PayPal, for instance, allow users to keep money in the app and then pay for things, also through the app. Funds can also be transferred to a bank account. Pay cards act like prepaid cards or debit cards, which can be loaded electronically each time an employee gets paid. Employees can then use the pay card like a debit card, at an ATM or to make online purchases.

What you will see is a shift from a weekly or biweekly payment cycle to a more employee-centric model, moving to daily or on-demand payments and greater flexibility in payment schedules. Doug Politi president of compliance solutions at ADP

Initial demand for things such as payroll cards came from lower-income workers who are more likely to be unbanked, or without a bank account. But now younger workers are driving demand as well. "Millennials and Gen Z don't have banking relationships. They are not at all tied to walking into a bank branch; they are not familiar with that; they've never written a check and don't know what to do with one," said Chris Ruppel, founder of Green Dot's Rapid paycard business, which offers payroll cards and debit accounts. For this group, payroll cards are "really more of an experience and lifestyle choice, rather than one driven by economic necessity," he said. Millennials "think of cash as their phone, and their phone as their bank. This is driving demand for nontraditional offerings," said Doug Politi, president of compliance solutions at ADP.

ADP's Wisely is a reloadable account that comes with a card and mobile app. Wisely Direct gives users a fast and easy way to get pay and other sources of income. ADP

Part of the shift in expectations from younger users may stem from the growth of the gig economy, which pays after a job is done, rather than in monthly or biweekly periods, said Politi. "It won't be one-size-fits-all. What you will see is a shift from a weekly or biweekly payment cycle to a more employee-centric model, moving to daily or on-demand payments and greater flexibility in payment schedules," he said. For employers, the appeal of payroll cards and other electronic payment methods is that they can easily be distributed to new employees and topped up remotely. Paper checks have been falling out of favor for some time now, and with administrative staff likely working from home during the current pandemic, employers face additional challenges writing and mailing paper checks.

Competition from fintech mounts
OAKLAND (BCN)

A judge on Monday denied a defense motion asking that Ghost Ship master tenant Derick Almena be released from Santa Rita Jail in Dublin because his health is deteriorating and the novel coronavirus pandemic has made the conditions at the jail unsafe.

Almena, 49, is charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter for a fire at the Ghost Ship warehouse in the 1300 block of 31st Avenue in Oakland's Fruitvale district the night of Dec. 2, 2016, that killed 36 people.

A lengthy trial for Almena and co-defendant Max Harris, the warehouse's artistic director, ended last Sept. 5 with jurors deadlocked 10-2 in favor of convicting Almena and acquitting Harris of all charges. Harris was released from custody later that day but Almena remains in custody in lieu of $750,000 bail.

Alemana's second trial was scheduled to begin on Monday with pretrial motions, with jury selection to follow next week, but it's been postponed because California Supreme Court Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye has suspended all jury trials for 60 days, through May 22.

At a teleconference on Monday with Almena, defense lawyer Tony Serra and Alameda County prosecutors Casey Bates and Autrey James, Superior Court Judge Trina Thompson rescheduled Almena's trial for July 6.

However, Serra said it's possible the trial could be postponed again if the coronavirus pandemic isn't under control by July.

Serra said he asked that Almena, who has been in custody since he was arrested and charged in June 2017, be released on his own recognizance or a personal recognizance bond because his health is deteriorating and the conditions at Santa Rita are unsafe because of the possibility that inmates and deputies there could spread the coronavirus.

Serra said, "It's only a matter of time until the virus gets into Santa Rita and other jails."

He said Almena has put on a lot of weight since he's been in jail, has swollen lymph nodes that haven't been treated and other issues that leave him in horrible pain.

But Serra said Bates, the prosecutor, vigorously opposed the defense motion to release Almena and Thompson ruled that Almena should remain at Santa Rita in lieu of $750,000 bail.

Serra said Thompson's ruling is "a miscarriage of justice" and he will file a writ with the state appellate court in another effort to get Almena released from custody.

The veteran defense lawyer said Almena is not a danger to society and is not a flight risk because he wouldn't want to abandon his wife and children, who live in Lake County.

Referring to Almena's circumstances at Santa Rita, Serra said, "He's wilting away in there."

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When her familys trip to Walt Disney World was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, Cady Hearn got creative.

With some help from her sister Jessica and her mom Shannon, mother-of-four Hearn managed to recreate the trip to Walt Disney World in her Spring, Texas, home.

The family can be seen sitting in make-shift plane seats, before being handed Magical Express tickets and enjoying a tour of their own Magic Kingdom.

The parks may be closed, but the coronavirus cant steal our Disney joy! Hearn commented on Facebook. Credit: Cady Hearn via Storyful
RUTHERFORD, Calif., March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Andy Beckstoffer of Beckstoffer Vineyards today announced that the company will be donating $100,000 directly to individuals, not organizations, most in need in Napa, Mendocino and Lake Counties. Beckstoffer Vineyards will write more than 100 checks of $300 for each of the three counties totaling approximately $33,000 per county. The Chambers of Commerce of each county will be determining what individuals and families will receive the checks, which are primarily earmarked for hourly workers who have lost their jobs due to layoffs from COVID-19, including hotel housekeepers, dishwashers, waitstaff, busboys and more. The checks from Beckstoffer Vineyards will be issued directly to individuals, not to the Chambers of Commerce or other organizations. There will be no administrative costs or fees.

Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Andy Beckstoffer

"We are fortunate that at Beckstoffer Vineyards, we haven't laid off any staff as grape growing has been deemed an 'essential business.' However, with restaurant closures and reduced tourism, we recognize that many in the hospitality industry have been suddenly been laid off, meaning that many of the already lowest wage earners have now lost their income completely. Beckstoffer Vineyards has grown grapes in these three counties for the past 50 years, and we care about the people who live and work there. We are immediately providing help to the people who are most in need," stated David Beckstoffer, COO, Beckstoffer Vineyards.

"In 2015, Beckstoffer Vineyards pledged $50,000 to the #LakeCountyRising fundraising campaign following the devastating Valley Fire. Our donation and those of other individuals and private companies eventually raised more than $1,000,000 for #LakeCountyRising. We care about the people who work in the counties where we farm and hope that our donation inspires other individuals and companies to donate additional much needed funds," added Andy Beckstoffer.

ABOUT BECKSTOFFER VINEYARDS

Named "Napa's most powerful grape grower" by both the Wall Street Journal and Wine Spectator, Beckstoffer Vineyards was founded in 1970. Beckstoffer Vineyards is firmly rooted in the soil of Northern California's wine country, with Andy Beckstoffer playing an integral role in the evolution of the wine grape industry since 1970. Joined at the family-owned business by his son, David, in 1997, they share a common mission  to produce the highest quality grapes in Northern California that form the foundation for exceptional wines  and a combined passion for preservation of the land and viticulture expertise.

For more information or to arrange an interview with Andy Beckstoffer, please contact Charlotte Milan at C. Milan Communications at 415.412.9303 or [email protected].

SOURCE Beckstoffer Vineyards
Survivors from two dramatic rescues that captivated the world, the 2010 Chilean mine collapse and the 1972 Andes plane crash, gave their advice for how to surivive a lockdown as the number of Latin American coronavirus cases soared past 10,000 Friday.

"Don't give up guys! A sense of humor is very important," said Mario Sepulveda, one of 33 Chilean miners who spent more than two months trapped nearly half a mile underground at the San Jose mine in northern Chile.

"Organize your homes! Make and stick to routines so as not to get bored. There are many things you can do!" the upbeat Sepulveda told AFP.

"Let's do what we are told, it is super important," Sepulveda said about social distancing and hand-washing requirements. "It's no longer a political problem, today it is simply a health problem."

The miners spent 69 days trapped in the depths of the mine, in the Atacama desert 800 kilometers (500 miles) north of Santiago, before being brought to the surface.

"We were in a pretty critical situation. We had no way out, there was no way out of that situation," said Luis Urzua, shift manager when a rockfall cut off him and his team from the outside world on August 5, 2010.

During their close-quarters confinement, Urzua said "there was a lot of fellowship, a lot of conversation. We got to know some of the work that various other colleagues did in their different roles."

"The other thing that helped us was prayer," he said.

"Not asking God to help us, but that people would have the strength and the will to persist in trying to find us," said Urzua -- the last man to be brought to the surface on October 13, 2010.

Carlos Paez was one of 16 survivors from a plane that crashed in the snow-clad Andes on October 12, 1972 as it was taking a Uruguayan rugby team to a match in Chile.

Twelve people died in the crash, while 17 others succumbed over the next few weeks. Infamously, 16 people managed to survive in the extreme conditions by eating the bodies of the dead which had been preserved in the snow.

"There's a big difference in these two quarantines, if I can call them that. In the first one I experienced, it was 70 days in the Andes mountains but without any resources -- 25 degrees below zero, without food, without communication. And I was 18 years old," Paez told AFP.

The current situation is somewhat easier than his 10 weeks spent sheltering in the plane's fuselage, he said.

"The only thing to do is nothing at all! They send you to stay at home and wash your hands. And you have all the comforts: television, internet, food. So nothing to complain about," said Paez, now 66.

"In the cordillera we were fighting against a tangible enemy which was the mountains, the snow and the cold, and now we are fighting against an enemy that we cannot see, which is what generates uncertainty.

"But I am fighting against arrogance. I try to be humble and obey. The message is clear: stay at home and wash your hands. Look how simple that is," said Paez. "I try to be obedient because I want to live."

Roberto Canessa, 67, another survivor of the Andes crash, advises people to "look for something to do, start a project."

"That's what I did in the mountains. I worked all day so as not to think and not have anxiety or anguish," he told AFP.

These days, Canessa -- a cardiologist -- is working on a project to provide emergency mechanical respirators to Uruguayan hospitals to help them cope with an expected flood of coronavirus cases.

"Throughout the world there are no respirators available. Just as in the Andes, we have to depend on ourselves. We are not going to wait for helicopters to come or for someone to bring us respirators to Uruguay," he said.

"You have to turn this problem into an opportunity. Crises are what causes inventions to come about."
Police have warned of heightened criminal activity during the coronavirus crisis as farm machinery worth hundreds of thousands of pounds was recently recovered.

Information from farmers has played a vital role in two police operations which led to the recovery of a treasure trove of machinery earlier this month.

The first of the recoveries came from a Warwickshire farm on 13 March after police carried out enquiries on the premises and found machinery with identifying marks which raised suspicions.

Further investigation revealed other reported stolen and suspicious machinery and as a result equipment was seized including: a John Deere 6940 tractor, a JCB telehandler, Takeuchi mini excavator, a Kobelco large excavator, an Ifor Williams livestock trailer, and a hedge cutter. Arrests were made.

The second operation on 16 March, involved a raid on a site elsewhere in Warwickshire. Among the recovered were: six caravans, two livestock trailers, one small trailer, a mobile shower block, numerous power tools, a Ford Transit van and a Ford Focus. Enquiries are ongoing.

The operations involved Warwickshire Police Rural Crime Team and the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS).

Detective Constable Chris Piggott from NAVCIS said police were able to seize the machines and make arrests 'thanks to information from farmers'.

Police forces do record these reports and use them to piece together trails which can lead to arrests being made," he said, "So its well worth taking the trouble to report suspicious activity, even when there doesnt appear to be an immediate police response.

There is no doubt that these were highly organised criminals. The recovered equipment has been traced back to owners across the UK, including kit from Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Thames Valley, West Yorkshire, Liverpool, and Bedfordshire.

Current farm machinery theft reports indicate that hot spots for tractor and farm loader theft include Derbyshire Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.

Thefts of quad bikes and other types of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) are continuing to come in from all parts of the UK - with current hot spots in Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and Hampshire.

Mr Piggott urged farmers to take steps to secure equipment as thieves were likely to take advantage of isolated communities and stretched police resources during the coronavirus outbreak to steal from farms.

He said: Many farm vehicles now have so-called smart keys containing electronic information needed to start the machine, so its vital that keys are removed from machines and stored securely in a remote location.

Other measures including CESAR marking, immobilisers and tracking devices are effective in deterring thieves and aiding police recoveries.

What measures can I take to secure my machinery?

1. Remove keys. Just as you wouldnt leave the keys in your front door at home, store keys securely

2. Keep your machine locked up an out of sight. Thieves often stake out a farm before they raid, so where possible store machinery in a locked building or where it cant be seen from the road

3. Use the CESAR marking and registration system. Markings make your property less attractive to criminals and can help recover your belongings if they are stolen

4. Install immobilisers and trackers on tractors and loaders. Thieves cant take what they cant start and wont want to be found if they make off with your property

5. Know what you own. Take pictures of your vehicle and record serial numbers
Chandigarh, March 30 : After two days of hiatus, one more patient in Punjab was tested positive for coronavirus on Monday, taking the total count to 39 with two deaths, both elderly, officials said.

The Mohali resident, who was undergoing treatment at the PGI hospital was tested positive, Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan told the media.

"His contact details are being traced and their tests would be conducted accordingly, he added.

With this, the total number of coronavirus cases rose to 39 in the state.

On Sunday evening, a 62-year-old coronavirus patient died at Government Medical College in Amritsar, the second death due to COVID-19 in the state.

Of the 39 cases, 19 were reported from Nawanshahr, seven from Mohali, six from Hoshiarpur, five from Jalandhar and one each from Amritsar and Ludhiana.

The state on March 9 tested the first positive case for the coronavirus.

The man, who has been discharged after being treated, returned to Amritsar from Italy's Milan via Delhi on March 4 along with his two family members.

He belongs to Hoshiarpur town and was hospitalised in the Government Medical College in Amritsar along with his son.
[March 30, 2020]

Raytheon, Missile Defense Agency sign landmark $2 billion Standard Missile-3 contract

TUCSON, Ariz., March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) will produce and deliver SM-3 Block IB interceptors under a $2.1 billion, multi-year U.S. Missile Defense Agency contract. It is the first multi-year contract for the SM-3 program, and covers fiscal years 20192023.

SM-3 is the only ballistic missile interceptor that can be launched on land and at sea. It is deployed worldwide and has achieed more than 30 exoatmospheric intercepts against ballistic missile targets.







"This procurement deal is a win-win for government and industry," said Dr. Mitch Stevison, Raytheon Strategic and Naval Systems vice president. "Efficiencies gained from this contract will allow us to reduce costs, continue to improve the SM-3 and deliver an important capability to our military."

The Block IB variant achieved full-rate production in 2017. The company has delivered more than 400 SM-3 rounds over the lifetime of the program.

About Raytheon

Raytheon Company, with 2019 sales of $29 billion and 70,000 employees, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions. With a history of innovation spanning 98 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration, C5I products and services, sensing, effects, and mission support for customers in more than 80 countries. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Follow us on Twitter.

Media Contact

Doug Shores

+1.256.527.5196

[email protected]

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/raytheon-missile-defense-agency-sign-landmark-2-billion-standard-missile-3-contract-301031740.html

SOURCE Raytheon Company
Tata Trusts, the philanthropic arm of the Tata group and Tata Sons, the group's holding company, have committed Rs 1,500 crore to fight the novel coronavirus (Covid-19). The funds will be used to buy personal protective equipment for medical personnel, respiratory systems, testing kits and setting up modular treatment facilities for patients. (Image: Humans of Bombay/ Facebook)

A contingency fund of Rs 150 crore has been set up by ITC. This fund will be utilised primarily to provide relief to vulnerable and most needy section of society who have been harshly impacted by the pandemic and have faced significant disruption in their livelihoods. The fund will collaborate with district authorities to provide assistance to the district health and rural healthcare eco-system (Image: ITC Hotel, MakeMyTrip)

Engineering giant Larsen & Toubro will donate Rs 150 crore to the PM-CARES fund. It has further set aside an outlay of over Rs 500 crore per month to support about 160,000 contract workers by continuing to pay their wages during the ongoing lockdown and providing them with food and basic amenities at labour camps, while maintaining the COVID-19 prevention and containment protocol. (Image: Reuters)

The JSW Group has committed Rs 100 crore to the Prime Ministers Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES) in support to all on-going relief efforts. In addition, funds have also been earmarked to source and import ventilators, testing kits, as well as personal protective equipment (masks, gloves etc) for health care workers. (Image: JSW)

Mining giant Vedanta has set up a dedicated Rs 100 crore fund that will cater to three specific areas  livelihood of the daily wage worker, employees and contract workers, preventive health care and will provide timely help to communities in and around various plant locations of the company (Image: Moneycontrol)

Bajaj Group has pledged Rs 100 crore to fight against Covid-19. The group will support government and identified private sector hospitals to upgrade ICUs, procure additional equipment and consumables including ventilators and personal protection equipment, enhance testing, and set up isolation units. (Image: Moneycontrol)

Adani Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Adani Group, has contributed Rs 100 crore to the PM CARES Fund for the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The group had earlier announced the donation of Rs 5 crore and Rs 1 crore to Gujarat and Maharashtra CM relief funds respectively. (Image: Reuters)

Hero Cycles has set up a Rs 100 crore contingency fund that will be put to use as and when required to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 situation on employees, suppliers, customers and communities across India. The organization has also reached out to the governments in Punjab, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to extend any help required by authorities in addressing the crisis. (Image: Hero Cycles)

Axis Bank has set aside Rs 100 crore to support customers, employees, vendors, government agencies and the community at large towards curbing the spread of coronavirus. The bank has waived off charges on various transactions, to ensure seamless and convenient banking (Image: Axis Bank)

Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has committed Rs 100 crore to help in the fight against coronavirus. HUL will also donate 2 crore pieces of Lifebuoy soaps besides providing free supplies of sanitation and hygiene products such as hand sanitizers, bar soaps and floor cleaners. HUL will donate Rs 10 crore to upgrade the health care facilities in testing centres and hospitals. (Image: Moneycontrol)

The Godrej Group has earmarked Rs 50 crore for community support and relief initiatives in India against coronavirus. The fund will back some of the initiatives underway focused on public health and essential supplies, as well as additional efforts in the months ahead. It had earlier donated Rs 5 crore to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). (Image: Moneycontrol)

The Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has contributed a fund of Rs 50 crore from its own reserves to help the needy workers of the industry impacted by Covid-19. The fund allocated will also be utilized to support the Government in undertaking several initiatives to fight the current crisis. (Image: Moneycontrol)

Kotak Mahindra Bank will be donating Rs 25 crore to the PM Cares fund and a further Rs 10 crore to the Maharashtra Chief Ministers Relief Fund. (Image: Moneycontrol)

Auto maker TVS Motor Company and die-caster Sundaram-Clayton announced spending of Rs 30 crore to support the nationwide efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19. The funding will come through Srinivasan Services Trust and will include measures ranging from manufacturing and supplying supportive equipment such as masks, to providing cooked meals to healthcare workers and police officers. (Image: TVS Motor Company)

Sun Pharma has committed to donate Rs 25 crore worth of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQS), Azithromycin, other related drugs and hand sanitisers to support India's fight against coronavirus pandemic. (Image: Reuters)

MG Motor India will contribute Rs 2 crore to government hospitals and health institutions providing medical assistance in Haryana and Gujarat. The contribution includes gloves, masks, ventilators, medicines and beds. While MG Motor India will directly contribute Rs 1 crore, its employees have pledged to donate the remaining amount of Rs 1 crore. (Image: Moneycontrol)
(Newser)  Liberty University controversially welcomed back students after the spring breakand, as officials feared, some of them may have brought the coronavirus back with them. Dr. Thomas W. Eppes Jr, who runs the evangelical university's student health service, told the New York Times on Friday that at least 11 students on the campus in Lynchburg, Va., are sick with COVID-19 symptoms. He said three had been referred for testing and eight others had been told to self-isolate. Eppes said he warned university president Jerry Falwell Jr. that they had "lost the ability to corral this thing." Falwell has repeatedly downplayed the risks of the outbreak, calling measures to slow the spread of the virus a politically motivated "overreaction." Falwell initially planned to allow in-person classes to resume, but backtracked after Virginia banned gatherings of more than 100 people.

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Around 1,900 students returned to on-campus housing last week and others are in off-campus housing in Lynchburg, where Mayor Treney Tweedy called Falwell's decision to allow students to stay for the spring semester "reckless." Falwell has clamped down hard on criticism and has even fired back at worried parents, the Times notes. "Im as right wing as they get, bud. But as a parent of three of your students, I think this is crazy, irresponsible, and seems like a money grab," tweeted one parent concerned about students bringing the virus back to their grandparents. Falwell called him a "dummy." WSET reports that Falwell says the Times' story is "false and misleading" and the university is not aware of any students showing COVID-19 symptoms, though four students who had been in the New York City area have been asked to self-isolate. (Read more Liberty University stories.)
A health minister today vowed to increase testing of frontline NHS medics for Covid-19 after it emerged that thousands of potential tests went unused over the weekend.

Care minister Helen Whatelys promise that a planned programme of testing will be rolled out came amid controversy over an apparent failure to make full use of the higher capacity built up over recent weeks.

Public Health England said 9,114 tests were carried out in the 24 hours from Friday morning to 9am Saturday. It said the full capacity was 10,949, meaning it could have carried out another 1,835 tests.

Over the weekend, the shortfall was bigger, Ms Whately indicated, with 7,000 daily tests carried out from a capacity of 10,000.

The Standard understands that the NHS is now organising to ensure that any spare capacity in future is automatically diverted to testing nurses and doctors, in order to reveal which staff should self-isolate and whether some displaying symptoms would in fact be safe to return to work.

NHS Nightingale Hospital - In pictures 1 /33 NHS Nightingale Hospital - In pictures Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA General view of the new NHS Nightingale Hospital via Reuters Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Medical equipment is labelled and prepared for use by NHS staff at the ExCel centre PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Medical equipment is labelled and prepared for use by NHS staff at the ExCel centre in London PA Natalie Forrest, Chief Operating Officer of the Nightingale Hospital at the ExCel centre PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA The new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA AP The new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA The new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA The new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA Work being carried out at the new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA Work being carried out at the new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA Worker at the new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA

Ms Whately told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: We have achieved the capacity to have 10,000 tests a day. The actual number that were tested on the day in question was I think around 7,000 but within the next three weeks we expect to get to 25,000 tests a day.

Speaking on Sky later, she said the testing of NHS frontline workers would be stepped up over the next few days.

Over the weekend we started testing NHS workers. Thats going to be increased in the weeks ahead.

The really important thing ... is that we can prioritise the testing to parts of the health and care system where we have particular staff shortages so that we can help by testing people so that we can identify if they are negative so they would no longer need to isolate and they can go back to work.

The rate of infections appears to be slowing down in Britain, one of the top academics whose work guided the Governments shift to a lockdown policy revealed today.

Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, told Today: If we look at the numbers of new hospital admissions to date, that does appear to be slowing down. It has not yet plateaued but it is slowing down.

He hoped that new tests for antibodies, which will reveal if a person has developed immunity and is safe to go to work as normal, would be available in days rather than weeks.

Professor Michael Levitt, the Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist, was more downbeat. In the UK there are too many outbreaks, he said. Italy on the other hand has turned the corner. Switzerland has turned the corner. We hope, but we are not sure yet, that Spain has also.

Doctors leaders stepped up protests at shortages of basic equipment including masks and full gowns. Theres no point in doing all of this, taking such extreme measures, if we dont get the basics right, said Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, president of the Doctors Association.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth called for better equipment deliveries as a matter of urgency. He also backed a move to community testing and contact tracing to beat the virus, a call also made by former Conservative health secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Listen to today's episode of The Leader podcast:
The process of photography, developed in 1839 by Louis Daguerre, allowed trained individuals to capture the lifelike images of people, activities and places for the viewing of future generations. During the Victorian era, the presence of a professional photographer was the mark of a town's progressive development.

Though several minor photographers operated in Midland sporadically during the 1870s, it was the work of Edwin C. Berryman which eventually became the standard by which all other local photographers work would be judged.

Berryman was born in 1843 on Cayuga, New York, to William and Catherine Berryman. Both father and son saw active service in the Union Army during the Civil War. In 1864, Berryman and his parents moved near the village of Leslie in Ingham County, where the elder Berryman farmed on an 80-acre parcel of land obtained through the homestead act.

After five years of farming with his parents, he spent the next decade engaged in a variety of clerking jobs. In April 1879, he arrived in Midland, where he spent three years as a salesman for the Reardon Brothers Dry Goods Store.

While in the Civil War, Berryman became interested in the process of photography. After being discharged, in 1864, he spent considerable time and resources learning the mysterious "new" craft of preserving images on glass or paper.

Berryman was fascinated with the capabilities of photography and he devoted much of his spare time learning the skills necessary to develop photographs.

He was married to Della Glympse, of Detroit, on Sept 21,1881. They commenced housekeeping in a rented room in the Midland home of Charles Andrus, located on West Main Street.

Edwin C. Berryman turned his avocation of photography into his profession in early 1882. With $200 capital, he purchased several used cameras, chemicals and a covered wagon, and became a traveling photographer. Berryman plied his craft throughout the mid-Michigan area, traveling to small towns and pioneer farms alike. He offered his photographic services to anyone willing to pay 75 cents per photograph.

Such a business could only operate on a seasonal basis, as temperatures and supplies were difficult to maintain in a wagon based operation. Berryman located his photography studio in a vacant store front on Midland's East Main Street, where he was soon engaged in a prosperous business. The next year, he erected a new building on the corner of Main and Townsend Streets (in 1993 the site is occupied by Chemical Bank and Trust).

This two story brick structure was described in detail by the editor of the Midland Republican, who wrote, "Berryman's new photography studio is a credit to our thriving city, Proprietor Berryman has spared no expense in his business development. The first floor of the building which measured 22 feet by 66 feet, in exterior dimensions, houses several photographic sitting rooms outfitted in the latest styles. A commodious stock of stylish picture frames is available for purchase in the store's main area. Other rooms contain Berryman's laboratory where the master photographer himself create images taken from light."

The building's second floor was used as the residence of Berryman and his wife for several years. By 1886, they had constructed a comfortable dwelling on East Buttles Street, and their former upstairs apartment was converted into additional studio storage.

Berryman was an exceptionally talented photographer, who, it was said, "could make every woman beautiful and every man handsome." He was also a successful businessman and developed hie profession into a very substantial enterprise which offered all varieties of photographs,copying, charcoal portraits, framing and watercolor portraits. His portraits were claimed to be 'veritable works of art, which appear ready to speak to its viewer." By 1887, Berryman was employing several apprentice/assistant photographers,who learned and worked carefully under his skilled guidance.

E.C. Berryman successfully operated his studio in Midland as sole owner until 1891. In the spring of that year, he sold a partial interest in the Midland photographic gallery to his brother, Fred, who continued the business for several years. Meanwhile, Berryman decided to move to West Superior, Wisconsin, where he established a photographic studio.

Fred and Edwin Berryman appear to have shared ownership and operational responsibilities for both the West Superior and Midland Studios. Each brother operated each business at various times with substantial overlapping of involvement. In 1894, Edwin Berryman opened a third studio near Petoskey, where he had previously spent several summers conducting a school of photography for northern Michigan residents. The Petoskey studio appears to have been a short lived venture.

In 1897, Edwin C. Berryman finally ended his 15-year business association with the Midland community and the studio was sold to Thomas Garlock, one of his assistant photographers. Berryman was hired by a major southwestern railroad to photo-document the land which the railroad passed through, including portions of New Mexico, Arizona and California. He eventually relocated to San Diego, California, where he opened a studio specializing in portrait and art photography. Adjoining the studio, his wife operated an art shop which featured fashionable glassware,hand-painted china and art pottery.

Berryman died in San Diego in 1915, she lived until 1921. Though Edwin C. Berryman's business spanned only 15 years, his immense impact on local history is still felt nearly 100 years later. Many genealogists and other historians are indebted to Berryman for the thousands of images he photographed of early Midland citizens.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Midland County Historical Society is partnering with the Midland Daily News for a "Window to Midland's Past," which will feature historical pieces in print and online at ourmidland.com. This particular piece was compiled by Gary Skory, retired director of the Midland County Historical Society, and it was originally published June 3, 1993.
PALO ALTO, California, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In July 2007, Nelson Mandela took to a stage in Johannesburg on his 89th birthday to introduce the world to a new alliance of senior states people dedicated to solving thorny global problems-an extraordinary effort of cross-border collective strength. Today, the Skoll Foundation honors that alliance, The Elders, with its Global Treasure Award.

"The Elders are a shining example of the kind of cooperation and leadership that the world needs now more than ever," said Don Gips, CEO of the Skoll Foundation. "For sustained progress on the greatest challenges-from pandemics like COVID-19 to the existential threats of climate change-we look to collectives like The Elders for coordinated action and a steadfast voice of hope in uncertain times."

The Elders have shown that global challenges require global solutions that emerge from ethical leadership and multilateral cooperation.

"As Elders," said Mary Robinson, first woman President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, "we profoundly believe in the power of working together because, in the words of our founder Nelson Mandela, "we are human only through the humanity of others."

Ban Ki-moon, Deputy Chair of the Elders and former Secretary General of the United Nations, was responsible for major international peacekeeping reforms and has become a leading international voice in support of the Green New Deal. "We call on global leaders and citizens alike to recognize that no one nation, no one individual, can overcome the profound problems ahead of us," he said. "Going it alone means we all lose. The Skoll Foundation's focus on collective strength could not be more prescient."

Juan Manuel Santos, Elder, and former President of Colombia, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 for his efforts to negotiate a historic peace treaty with the FARC-guerrilla forces in Colombia. "A collaborative and inclusive approach is at the heart of the Elders' mission, and the embodiment of collective strength," he said. "I commend the Skoll Foundation for recognizing the fundamental importance of this approach."

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Elder, former President of Liberia, was the first elected female head of state on the continent of Africa and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 in recognition of her work to bring women into the peacebuilding process. "Injustice, poverty and inequality are issues that, by their very nature, can only be overcome by working together and pooling our collective strength," she said. "Solutions to these problems require marginalized groups to be heard, leaders to listen, and for all of us to recognize the shared advantages that can be born out of solidarity and common endeavor."

Our current moment shows with certainty that global threats and thorny problems know nothing of borders. The welfare of humanity depends on our capacity to summon a mighty collective strength, and The Elders have shown us the way forward.

About The Elders

The Elders are an independent group of global leaders working together for peace, justice and human rights.

Our vision is of a world where people live in peace, conscious of their common humanity and their shared responsibilities for each other, for the planet and for future generations.

Working both publicly and through private diplomacy, our mission is to engage with global leaders and civil society at all levels to resolve conflict and address its root causes, to challenge injustice, and to promote ethical leadership and good governance.

About the Skoll Foundation

The Skoll Foundation drives large-scale change by investing in, connecting, and celebrating social entrepreneurs and the innovators who help them solve the world's most pressing problems. Founded by Jeff Skoll, the Foundation's signature program is the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. Today, the Foundation's portfolio includes 116 organizations and 144 social entrepreneurs around the world. Learn more at skoll.org
On March 28, the Indian Pilots Guild, a union of pilots at the state-owned airline Air India, wrote to the civil aviation minister and the companys chairman complaining about the quality and quantity of personal protective equipment (PPE) on recent rescue flights aimed at bringing back home Indians stuck overseas on account of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The union specifically mentioned shoe covers that failed in minutes, gloves in hours, and ill-fitting hazmat suits, of which there werent enough, in the letter to chairman Rajiv Bansal, and flimsy PPE that tear in that to minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

While the quality issues are worrying, whats equally worrying is the shortage of PPE. Reuters reported last week, citing documents from India Invest, that the country needs 6.2 million units of PPE and has approached hundreds of companies to secure supplies quickly.

In a statement issued on Monday, the Press Information Bureau of the government said that in order to meet the requirement of PPEs, masks and ventilators, factories producing essential items are working around the clock and ordnance factories are trying to produce PPE for medical personnel. The statement added that the state-owned Bharat Electronics would also soon start manufacturing ventilators.

Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic

The Reuters report also said India needs 38 million masks.

In its release, PIB said India has 3.34 lakh PPEs in various hospitals, and pointed out that another 3 lakh donated PPEs would arrive by April 4, and orders for 2.9 million PPEs have been placed (300,000 with ordnance factories and 2.6 million with 12 other manufacturers). In addition, the release added, orders for another 3 million PPEs have been placed with a Singapore based online platform and a supplier based in Korea. That works out to 6.2 million PPEs.

There was a shortage of PPEs initially but we worked on a war footing and managed to test the cloth, identify manufacturers and place orders in a matter of weeks. The government is taking all necessary measures to ensure there is no shortfall of necessary equipment, said Lav Aggarwal, joint secretary in the health ministry.

PIBs statement also gave an update on availability of N95 masks. A million would be part of the PPE kits being sourced from Singapore, it said, adding that two domestic manufacturers are in the process of increasing their daily capacity to 100,000 masks from the current 50,000 within a week. The Defence Research and Development Organisation has worked with local producers to produce about 20,000 N99 masks, with this supply also expected within a week.

Hospitals in the country already have 1.195 million N95 masks, the statement said.

Health experts have pointed to the shortage of ventilators in the country . What we have, and what we are trying to procure, is not going to be enough if the curve does not flatten out, and the situation explodes, said Dr Yatin Mehta, chairman of critical care at Medanta Hospital, Gurugram.

Only around 20 people (out of the at least 1,100 being treated for Covid-19) right now are on ventilators, the PIB statement said, adding that 14,000 ventilators have been set apart in public and private hospitals for Covid-19 patients.

The disease attacks peoples lungs, in some cases compromising their ability to breathe as they develop pneumonia. Ventilators, which deliver air to the lungs through a tube placed in the windpipe, are crucial to keep these patients alive.

India on March 22 banned the export of ventilators and placed an order for 10,000 ventilators with Agva Healthcare, a domestic manufacturer based in Noida, which is expected to deliver the units by April 2. An order for 30,000 ventilators has been placed with Bharat Electronics Limited, which will collaborate with other domestic manufacturers, PIB said. Auto manufacturers, such as Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki, have also said they are preparing to manufacture ventilators.

On Monday, M&Ms managing director Pawan K Goenka tweeted that Mahindras in-house effort for affordable respiratory device is near fruition. Video shows a working model. Packaging yet to be done. Testing started. Looking for ideas on what to call it? Will go for approvals soon. The tweet was accompanied by a video of a product-demo.

Global data shows between 3% and 5% of Covid-19 affected people develop severe illness and may require oxygen support or mechanical ventilation, and the data is the same for India, said Aggarwal.

He added: We must keep in mind that not all severely ill patients would need ventilators. The number of positive cases that we have currently, we have enough ventilators. Placing orders for more ventilators is to prepare in case numbers increase. Apart from the Centre, even states are procuring at their level. The government has taken several measures to ensure there is no shortage of any critical equipment needed to manage the disease, including ventilators.

It is possible that the successful implementation of social distancing measures could help India flatten the curve  reducing the number of ventilators needed.

Though the number of positive cases is rising, the number of people needing ventilators may not suddenly shoot up. And if required we can always tweak the ventilator settings to accommodate two patients on one ventilator, said Dr MS Kanwar, senior consultant, department of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rhythma Kaul Rhythma Kaul works as an assistant editor at Hindustan Times. She covers health and related topics, including ministry of health and family welfare, government of India. ...view detail
Photo: (Photo : Instagram/william.and.harry)

The royal family announced that Prince Charles tested positive with the coronavirus. Now, he is in self-isolation in Birkhall. Fans are glad that he only has mild symptoms and is in good health. However, they are curious about how the Prince of Wales told his two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, about his condition.

How Did Prince Charles Tell His Sons About His Diagnosis

Since the royal family is practicing social distancing, Prince Charles told Prince William and Prince Harry about his condition only through phone. It is believed that the conversation happened before Clarence House told the news to the public.

March 9 is the last time that William and Harry were seen together with the Prince of Wales. Doctors believed that Prince Charles was contagious a few days after the public event, so the chances of siblings getting infected are slim.

William and his family are currently staying at his country estate in Norfolk, while Harry is now in Canada with his wife, Meghan, and son, Archie. The Sussex couple is in a home on Vancouver Island.

Right now, there are no updates if William and Harry have undergone testing from the coronavirus.

Prince Charles is Confirmed to Have Coronavirus Infection

The palace is now on the move to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. They started by canceling future events and letting all participants be in self-isolation.

Even so, the royal family has confirmed that Prince Charles is positive from the virus. According to Hello Magazine, he is currently in good condition and is resting at his home until he recovers.

A statement said that the Prince of Wales was tested positive with the coronavirus and had been showing mild symptoms. However, he is still in good health and is working from home.

Camilla Parker Bowles was already tested and is negative at the moment. She and Prince Charles are now residing at their estate in Scotland and will be staying there for several weeks.

The NHS tested Prince Charles. At 71, the Prince of Wales is at higher risk of getting complications due to the virus.

How Did Prince Charles Get Infected?

No one has found out yet how Prince Charles got the coronavirus. Since he attended many events in the past few weeks, it will be hard to tell where he got it.

The Clarence House said that it is impossible to say how Prince Charles got the virus due to the high number of public engagements he did in the last few weeks.

Among the British royal family, only Charles contracted the coronavirus. Across the globe, other royals also tested positive, and these are Prince Albert of Monaco and Prince Henrik of Denmark.

Even before knowing of Prince Charles' diagnosis, the palace has already been canceling public engagements and will still be doing so unless there is some good news.

Since most of the royal family members are practicing self-isolation, the chance of spreading the virus is slim. Hopefully, Prince Charles recovers soon, and no one from the family gets infected further.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 30

By Ilkin Seyfaddini  Trend:

Uzbekistan will temporarily lift customs duties on importing a number of medicines and medical products,Trend reports citing the Uzbek media.

This is stated in the decree of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev "On additional measures to meet the needs of the population in medicine," signed on March 27.

"Duties will not be charged during the period of strengthened order to combat the coronavirus infection. The goods that will be excluded from the duties include medical equipment, medical products, as well as raw materials and substances used in their production," the report said.

The list of such goods will be made by the Ministry of Health of Uzbekistan and the Agency for Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry of Uzbekistan.

Earlier, against the backdrop of increased demand for medical masks in Uzbekistan,masks were allowed to be produced and sold without a license. According to the established rules ,wearing masks in public places is mandatory.

The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019. The number of people killed by the disease has surpassed 34,000. Over 724,000 people have been confirmed as infected. Meanwhile, over 152,000 people have reportedly recovered.

Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

---

Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini
State-owned Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) on Monday said its employees will donate one-day salary to the PM-CARES Fund in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

As of now, it has collected Rs 15.48 lakh as contribution from all its employees, a statement said.

STPI, which has a headcount of 980 in India, said its employees are voluntarily donating their one-day salary to support the fight against the deadly coronavirus.

The number of deaths around the world linked to the new coronavirus has touched nearly 34,000. In India, the tally of confirmed coronavirus cases has crossed the 1,000-mark.

STPI has also urged the IT/ITes industry to refrain from terminating their employees, including casual and outsourced staff, and ensure that they are treated as 'on duty' during their period of absence to enable timely disbursal of wages/ salaries to them at this critical moment.

It also called on the companies to undertake social and community welfare measures and augment the efforts of the government in tackling the crisis.

"Indian IT industry has brought many laurels to the nation and today it stands resilient to COVID-19 crisis by ensuring business continuity to clients. We at STPI are committed to extend our support to the nation to fight this pandemic. Each and every employee of STPI will donate its one-day salary," STPI Director General Omkar Rai said.

STPI also recommended that companies should leverage CSR funds for implementing suitable measures while commending the efforts of the IT/ITes industry for allowing the majority of employees to work from home and adhering to the standard hygiene practices, wherever offices are operational.

STPI is an autonomous society set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in 1991, with the objective of encouraging, promoting and boosting software exports from India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
THOUSANDS of food insecure families in Harare and other cities and towns yesterday flocked to their rural homes after failing to stock up enough food supplies to last them until the end of the 21-day national lockdown which came into effect last night.





Fears, however, abound that the urban-rural migration could further spread COVID-19 to the countrys marginalised communities.





Most major bus terminuses in Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and Masvingo were packed with rural-bound travellers rushing to beat the midnight deadline of the lockdown announced by President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday.





Several people who spoke to NewsDay said they had no choice, but to spend the three-week shutdown in their rural areas, where there were better chances of getting food and water supplies while the possibility of contracting the deadly disease is minimal because of the low concentration of people.





So far, Zimbabwe has had seven confirmed cases in Harare and Victoria and one death.

It is not that easy to migrate to Chiredzi. I live in a one-roomed house with my three children and to keep social distance might not be easy, hence I am opting for my village, said Chenai Moyo of Mbare hostels as she waited for her Chiredzi-bound bus.





Another traveller, Joseph Mhembere, said:My company has closed and I am not sure if we are going to receive this months salary. I decided to move to my rural home in Gokwe so that my children wont suffer from hunger. I cannot survive this lockdown period without any financial help.





A visit to Entumbane and Renkini bus terminuses in Bulawayo showed that many people were boarding rural-bound buses despite bus crews having taken advantage of the high demand to hike fares.





Takesure Chitauro, a driver at Inter Africa buses, said they had increased the number of buses that ply most rural routes to cater for the swelling number of passengers.





Today, we had seven buses going to Chiredzi and they were all full. People are fleeing the city saying there is coronavirus and we are happy today that we have managed to capitalise on our profits, he said.





At Sakubva in Mutare, transport operators recorded brisk business as people jostled to get transport to their respective rural homes.





Operators who spoke to NewsDay said people were still waiting for transport to Nyanga, Chipinge, Chimanimani and Nyanyadzi by late evening yesterday.





Several bus operators who increased bus fares were charging between US$10 and US$15 or $300 to Chiredzi up from $240.





Harare-Kwekwe operators pegged fares at US$10, up from ZWL$60.





Zimbabwe Nurses Association president Enock Dongo said migrating to rural posed a fresh challenge.





It is unfortunate that people decided to migrate to rural areas. It will be a disaster countrywide. We have been urging the government to equip all hospitals with the protective measure for coronavirus, but it did not listen.





People in rural areas do not have information on how to protect themselves from infected persons. You cannot greet your old parents with an elbow, they do not understand that, he said.





The whole logic of 21 days lockdown means that coronavirus symptoms develop after 14 days and if you have it, it will develop within the 21 days while in lockdown. The tracking of contacts will be easy, but now if you go to rural areas with it, but not knowing your status, you can infect the whole village and it will be a big disaster since the government does not have capacity at the moment.





Community Working Group on Health executive director Itai Rusike said testing for COVID-19 should be stepped up so that infected people take measures to avoid infecting others, or to get the care they need and to help authorities take action to slow it.





Indeed, official statistics shows that we only have seven COVID-19 confirmed cases and one death for a population of about 15 million. The real numbers may be higher than this if we increase and widen our testing capacity, hence some people may be moving around spreading the disease unknowingly and, unfortunately, the people in the rural areas can become collateral damage due to the mass movement of people to their rural homes in the last few days in an effort to beat the total lockdown that is likely to have a bigger impact on those in urban areas compared to their rural counterparts.





MDC secretary for labour Gideon Shoko said government should have consulted workers before enforcing the lockdown to avert starvation.





While the lockdown decision is welcome, the challenge now to the working class both formal and informal, is  with their meagre wages and salaries, workers must buy adequate food rations, pay their rentals, rates, water, funeral insurances etc, but alas this is impossible, he said.





So far, nothing tangible has been put in place to have safety nets for the poor workers. This means that they are going to be on lockdown with nothing to support their families.





Certainly, if this was a responsible government elected and answerable to the masses, it would have cared to consult stakeholders at the Tripartite Negotiating Forum on how the needs of the workforce would be taken care of during these trying times.





Ibhetshu lika Zulu party secretary-general Mbuso Fuzwayo said: Lockdown is good, but there was no adequate planning. Nothing is said about those vulnerable on the streets. With our failing economy, we need days to prepare for the lockdown. (There is) little information to those in the periphery and those who survive on food handouts from food agencies. Nothing has been out in place on how they will access their allocation.





However, on Saturday, government said distribution of food aid would continue during the lockdown.





The distribution of food aid will continue. However, distribution points will be increased in order to minimise large gatherings, Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa said after an inter-ministerial taskforce on COVID-19.





At the moment, grain and monetary payments are being made to 760 000 households throughout the country.





Contacted for comment, Health minister Obadiah Moyo asked the NewsDay to forward questions to the ministrys public relations department. Health ministry permanent secretary Agnes Mahomva was not reachable on her mobile phone.

In a statement, World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus yesterday said lockdowns on their own would not extinguish the epidemics, but just reduce pressure on health systems.





Asking people to stay at home and shutting down population movement is buying time and reducing the pressure on health systems, but on their own, these measures will not extinguish the epidemics. The point of these actions is to enable the more precise and targeted measures that are needed to stop transmission and save lives, he said.





We call on all countries that have introduced so-called lockdown measures to use this time to attack the virus. You have created a second window of opportunity. Newsday








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Linkedin Nedi Putra AW (The Jakarta Post) Malang  Mon, March 30, 2020 19:43 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e71b56 1 National COVID-19,COVID-19-Indonesian-patients,medical-workers,Malang,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,medical-equipment Free

Academics and volunteers at the Muhammadiyah University of Malang (UMM) in East Java have developed a safety chamber to allow medical workers to examine patients while minimizing their potential exposure to COVID-19.

The newly developed safety chamber is made from fiberglass and is meant to shield patients and minimize direct contact with medical workers. The universitys hospital has made two variants, one that covers the upper half of the patients body and one that covers their entire body.

The half-body model is used for examination and treatment, while the full-body one is used to minimize exposure when the patients are being transferred inside the hospital so that the patients wont transmit the disease and the medical workers wont catch it, UMM Hospitals COVID-19 response team coordinator Thontowi Djauhari said on Monday.

Thontowi said that the half-body model cost around Rp 2.2 million (US$134.43) to make while the full-body model cost around Rp 2.5 million, adding that the device would be mass-produced for other referral hospitals.

If previously the patient was transported by nurses or medical workers who had to dress like astronauts, with this safety chamber, both the patient and the staff will be safer because the proper isolation method had been applied, UMM Hospital director Djoni Djunaedi said.

He added that the hospital would continue to add new features and make improvements to the chamber, such as adding a breathing apparatus and using adhesive to prevent leakage, to increase the patients comfort during examination.

The maintenance is easy, just clean it with alcohol, or just use detergent, Thantowi said.

In addition to the safety chamber, the university has also designed a coverall suit made from waterproof material with a built-in face mask that only costs Rp 200,000 and can be used up to two times.

One of its advantages is that medical workers dont need to wear boots as the suit covers their body from head to toe, with the exception of their face and palms, Thontowi said.

As the materials used in the suits are scarce, they would only be used at the UMM Hospital and other nearby hospitals. Thontowi, however, said he had given the blueprints and samples of the protective suit to the East Java and West Java provincial administrations to be replicated, adding that the hospitals would not file a patent.

The COVID-19 coronavirus has put a massive strain on Indonesias healthcare system, with reports of inadequate medical supplies and deaths of hospital workers as patient numbers continue to surge. (mfp)
M ajor supermarkets said they expected their shelves to be full this week after restrictions on the number of people allowed into stores made it easier for staff to restock.

Less panic-buying after the chaotic scenes at some stores ahead of the lockdown has also allowed retailers to rebuild stocks of essentials. However, they warned that any return to stockpiling could see shelves stripped bare once again.

A spokeswoman for Tesco, Britains biggest supermarket chain, said: We are working hard to make sure there is availability across our stores.

"Weve increased the daily flow of food to stores to record levels, but we need everyones help to buy only what they need, so that there is enough for everyone.

Tesco is aiming to double the normal amounts of milk, bread, rice, pasta and toilet rolls sent to stores.

A spokeswoman for Asda said social distancing rules that place limits on the number of people in stores meant that staff have more time to stock the shelves. She added: Customers now realise theres enough in-store for everyone when they visit.

A spokeswoman for Sainsburys said: Customers will continue to see good availability of food and essential items.

Morrisons chief executive David Potts said its bakery, egg and fruit and vegetable departments will run for an extra hour every day to make, prepare and pack food required to restock the services. It will also be donating 10 million-worth of items such as canned goods and pasta to local food banks via community champions.

Meanwhile some traders at Billingsgate fish market said they were being forced to close after customers failed to stay two metres apart.

Steve Monaghan, who runs John Stockwell, closed his shop at the east London market on Saturday for the first time in 28 years, because he feared for his employees safety.



Hear more on today's episode of The Leader podcast:

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IRL AB INTER RAO Lietuva Supervisory Board having analysed the Financial Statements for the year 2019 decided to propose the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders to approve them

AB INTER RAO Lietuva (hereinafter referred to as the Company) announces that the Meeting of the Supervisory Board was convened on 30 March 2020 in which all appointed members of the Supervisory Board unanimously adopted the following resolutions:

1. Resolution. Regarding the Annual Consolidated Report of the Company for the year 2019; Resolved: Having analysed the Consolidated Annual Report of the Company for the year 2019, to propose the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders to take note of it. 2. Resolution. Analysis of the Audited Annual Financial Statements of the Company for the year 2019 and the Audited Consolidated Annual Financial Statements of the Group for the year 2019; Resolved: Having analysed the Audited Annual Financial Statements of the Company for the year 2019 and the Audited Consolidated Annual Financial Statements of the Group for the year 2019, to propose the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders to approve them. 3. Resolution. Analysis of draft decision on distribution of profit (loss) of the Company for the year 2019; Resolved: Having analysed the proposal of the Board to distribute the profit (loss) of the Company for the year 2019 as provided in the draft distribution of profit (loss), to propose the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders to approve it. Legal grounds: Article 17.1 of the EU Regulation on market abuse No 596/2014.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday ordered extension of the state-wide curfew till April 14 and directed foolproof sealing of the state's borders.

Singh also promised special insurance for Punjab Police personnel and sanitation workers engaged in the anti-COVID battle, an official statement said here.

He asked Finance Minister Manpreet Badal to come out with a contingency financial plan, to overcome the COVID-19 crisis, and ensure an uninterrupted supply of medical items and essentials commodities in the current battle against coronavirus.

The chief minister also allowed the Local Bodies Department to extend, by three months, the services of 2000-odd sanitation workers, due to retire on March 31, in order to deal with the prevailing situation.

During a video conference to discuss and review the current situation in the light of the COVID-19 crisis and the curfew restrictions in the state, Singh also asked all concerned departments to intensify their efforts to check the spread of the disease, and ensure that all essential supplies and services are maintained.

He also ordered strict enforcement of the curfew, especially in rural areas, amid reports that gatherings continued to take place in villages.

All restrictions should be strictly enforced till April 14, after which the state will decide in line with the further decisions of the Government of India, said Amarinder, adding that the lockdown was the only way to prevent the spread of the disease.

Additional Chief Secretary ACS Vini Mahajan informed the meeting that mobile testing vans are being made operational to increase testing in Punjab.

Giving details of the state's preparedness, she disclosed that 65 more ventilators, more than 1.5 lakh PPE kits and over 47,000 N-95 masks, as well as 13 lakh more triple layer masks have been ordered to augment the inventory of available equipment.

She said that manpower for 20,000 beds have been identified on the Health Department portal from among the public.

Earlier, the chief minister accepted DGP Dinkar Gupta 's proposal to seal the state's borders to check the inflow of people, especially from Haryana.

Amarinder made it clear that while no general relaxation have been provided to industry and brick kilns to resume operations, they have been told they could utilise the services of the migrant labourers if they could provide food and shelter to them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The paramilitary forces have directed that 'live location' of all officers and jawans allowed to work from home or on leave should be obtained daily to prevent the spread of COVID-19 after two positive cases were reported among them, officials said on Monday.

Border guarding force Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has taken a lead and directed all team heads a few days back to undertake this exercise daily and submit a compliance report twice to the headquarters in Delhi at 10 am and 4 pm.

In a directive accessed by PTI, the force has ordered that a senior officer designated for the task should every morning give a call to all personnel allowed to 'work from home' or on leave and subsequently ask them to send their 'live location' over the latest WhatApp group especially created for this purpose.

"This is aimed to check that none of the personnel misuse their leaves and stay at homes. This is important as it will not only help in strict enforcement of the ongoing lockdown declared by the government but also save the vital manpower of these fighting forces from contracting coronavirus," a top Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) commander told PTI.

All supervisory officers have been asked to check the WhatsApp live location provided by their subordinates with the house addresses furnished by them in official records, he said.

He said while no such case of violation has been detected till now but the intelligence and vigilance arms of these about 10 lakh personnel strong forces have reported that misuse of official ID card, uniform or government-issued vehicle by force personnel to visit their homes or family members during the leave period can take place, and hence checks need to be deployed.

"The snoop wings indicated that the police forces manning check posts in the city and at borders may not strictly check official force vehicles or allow those in uniform or carrying ID cards. Some erring personnel can misuse this authority," the commander said.

All CAPFs have been asked this WhatsApp-based data on a daily basis, he added.

The paramilitary forces comprising the ITBP, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) are also known as CAPFs.

They work under the command of the Union Home Ministry for rendering a variety of internal security tasks and border guarding.

Counter-terror force National Security Guard (NSG) has also been brought under the same order and directed for compliance, officials said.

A BSF officer posted in Tekanpur in Gwalior and a CISF head constable deployed at the Mumbai international airport have recently tested positive for coronavirus that has claimed thousands of lives and infected lakhs across the world.

In the case of the BSF, at least 50 personnel have been sent to home quarantine as the infected officer attended at least two meetings and carried out official work for some days. His wife had returned from the UK sometime back but was tested negative.

The officer was himself in-charge of managing affairs of a special quarantine centre created at its academy in Tekanpur to treat COVID-19 patients.

These forces have also circulated a declaration form amongst the personnel to report if any of their family members have returned from abroad in the recent past or they have come in touch with someone who is infected.

This measure is also aimed to ensure that any such individual can been immediately be isolated or quarantined and his medical tests are conducted, officials said.

"Strict disciplinary action will be taken against any officer or jawan found violating these two latest directives on grounds of jeopardising the health of his healthy colleagues who are part of an armed security force under the Union of India," the commander said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A pint of good beer up in Canada will probably cost you about $5 bucks. You can now get a barrel of oil for less than that.

Traders tell me that the price of Western Canada Select (WCS) is being quoted at $4.18 per barrel as of this writing. A "wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen the trade screen myself" kind of situation. But there it was.

Source: Bloomberg

To be fair, WCS ain't WTI. Western Canada Select is actually not very select. It's a heavier blend, more acidic. If the good Texas stuff is like water, WCS is like maple syrup. Because of this it always trades at a fairly deep discount to the premium West Texas blend, usually anywhere from $8 to $15 bucks per barrel.

But $4 dollar oil is incredible nonetheless.

Traders tell me one reason it's so cheap is that the China market is basically closed, so you can't ship it to Asia. Sending it to the Gulf of Mexico by rail and pipeline adds about $8-10 dollars to the price, and no one down there really wants it anyway because there's so much oil everywhere and the tanks are filling up.

Currently, there are a few out-of-the-way places in smaller oil markets where stories of negatively priced crude are happening now. As Goldman Sachs wrote today, "the demand shock is extremely negative for oil prices and is sending landlocked crude prices into negative territory."

In other words, producers pay someone to take the crude, rather than get paid for it. Why would they do that? Because it's expensive to shut down or reopen a well, and may actually be cheaper to simply pay someone to remove it, especially if you believe prices may turn higher in a few months.
By Trend

One of the best decisions that can currently be made in the face of the threat of coronavirus is to stay at home, demonstrate a responsible attitude and keep a social distance, Trend reports citing Azerbaijan's country office of the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) on March 30.

According to UNICEF, for children, refusing to walk and to communicate with peers can be especially difficult, so planning their leisure time will be useful from the point of view of their development even in these conditions.

Create a daily program for them and follow it, prepare ideas for games. Be creative parents, and dont forget that staying at home and working together will strengthen your connection with your child, a source in the UNICEF said.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Amid the coronavirus lockdown, the government of the United Kingdom said that they will distribute 50,000 care packages to the most vulnerable people in Britain by the end of this week. The packages, for those most at risk whom the government has asked to shield for the next 12 weeks, will contain vital food and supplies, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick reportedly said. It came after Jenrick announced council across the country were on an "emergency footing" to ensure those shielding themselves got the support they needed as vital public services continue.

People with several serious underlying conditions - including serious lung conditions - have been asked to avoid as much contact as possible with the outside world as part of Government plans to reduce fatalities. The government confirmed that the first batch of vital packages of those people had already been delivered - with 50,000 expected to be delivered by the end of the week.

The nobel act

The first 2,000 packages were delivered over the weekend to those who cannot leave their homes because of severe health conditions. The packages contain essentials such as toilet roll, pasta, fruit, and tinned goods and are being directed at that self-isolating for 12 weeks but have little support from family or friends. Jenrick tweeted and informed about the noble initiative. He took to his Twitter handle and wrote, "This weekend we began delivering parcels to some of the 1.5 million people extremely vulnerable to #coronavirus. We promised that whilst you are at home, you would not be alone."

Read: Pakistan Denying Hindus Food Amid Coronavirus Outbreak? Sirsa Slams 'human Rights' Abuse

Read:Coronavirus: Kalyan Jewellers To Spend Rs 10 Cr To Provide Food, Essential Items To Needy

On March 29, the death toll from Covid-19 in the UK reached 1,228 after a rise of 209 in just 24 hours. All parts of the country are now on an emergency footing, Jenrick said. Speaking at the government's daily press briefing, Jenrick was reportedly heard saying that this move of distributing packages is an unprecedented step in peacetime which the government has not done since the Second World War. By doing this act of kindness, the government said that they are establishing strategic coordination centers across the whole country.

Jenrick said each center would be led by gold commanders - police or emergency service leader specifically trained to handle major incidents. He added that the onset of this weekend sees the start of extraordinary steps to support the most clinically vulnerable, while they shield from coronavirus. Jenrick revealed that the government is all set to lend their hand of support to people in need at this difficult time, and the scale of an operation like that has not been seen since the Second World War.

Read: Lack Of Money, Food Drove Migrants Back To Home

Read: Delhi Hotels Provide Free Food & Stay To Foreign Tourists Stuck In India Due To Travel Ban


New York, March 30 : In a surprise move US President Donald Trump has extended the federal anti-coronavirus guidelines till the end of April after receiving grim projections from medical experts about the likely toll of the pandemic.

As the number of confirmed cases in the US reached 139,675 on Sunday evening, Trump announced at the White House that instead of relaxing soon the guidelines social distancing at their core, he would continue them.

As they are only guidelines, it is up to the state and local governments to enforce them under the US federal system. They were set to expire on Tuesday.

Trump said that he expected a full recovery by June 1, while cautioning that it could be earlier or sooner depending on how the pandemic is controlled.

The need for social distancing under the guidelines has resulted in the shutdown of all non-essential parts of the economy plunging the US into a recession, a price it will have to pay to save lives.

About half the US population is under semi-lockdown known as Stay-at-Home orders imposed by 27 of the 50 states.

Trump had earlier discussed relaxing the guidelines on Easter, which falls on April 12, to restart the economy, but said on Sunday that had only been "aspirational" and now only expected the deaths from COVID-19 to peak around that date.

He said, "Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won. That would be the greatest loss of all." Earlier, the top White House expert on COVID-19, Anthony Fauci, said on CNN that the US could see one million cases and 100,000 deaths from the disease based on models of how the infection could spread.

Discussing the models projecting the number of deaths, he said, "Looking at what we're seeing now, you know, I would say between 100 and 200,000. But I don't want to be held to that." Before Trump's announcement of guidelines extension, Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Trump of being in denial and underestimating the gravity of the situation.

"Don't fiddle while people die, Mr President," she said on CNN.

She said that Trump's denial of the severity of the pandemic at its start "was deadly" and "we cannot continue to allow him to continue to make these underestimates of what is actually happening here." Trump countered these accusations by saying that he imposed restrictions on travellers from China on January 31, and on 26 European countries on March 11, which was extended to two more.

Some Democratic Party leaders like former Vice President Joe Biden had criticised the travel restrictions.

At his news conference, Trump referred to worst case scenario projections of two million deaths if no precautions had been taken and asserted that the actions taken by him had forestalled that eventuality.

Trump spoke of the cooperation with the private sector in ramping up production of essential medical equipment like ventilators and supplies like masks.

Because of the systematic deindustrialisation of the US under previous administrations, the country facing difficulties in meeting its needs in a medical emergency.

He said that the 51 aircraft would be flying in supplies from around the world to meet the needs of the hospital facing dire shortages.

The first plane landed with supplies from China.

With the extension of the guidelines, the US will need more rounds of economic relief packages, beyond the $2 trillion programme enacted last week with direct payments to people, extension of unemployment benefits, additional medical care and loans to business.

Both Trump and Pelosi agreed on this.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in <mailto:arul.l@ians.in> and followed on Twitter @arulouis)</mailto:arul.l@ians.in>

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
French health authorities reported 292 new deaths from the coronavirus on Sunday, up 13% on the previous day and taking the total to 2,606 since March 1, as the government raced to relieve pressure on overwhelmed hospitals in the east.

The number of known cases of coronavirus infection rose to 40,174 on Sunday from 37,575 a day earlier, Frances director general of health Jerome Salomon told a press conference on Sunday.

Among the nearly 19,000 patients now hospitalised, 4,632 are in intensive care, Salomon said.

The toll over the past 24 hours was below the 319 deaths reported on Saturday, but the figures include only deaths reported in hospitals, and not at retirement homes or assisted-living facilities.

Authorities say they will be able to compile data on deaths in retirement homes from next week, which is likely to result in a big increase in registered fatalities.

France has been under virtual lockdown since March 17 and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Friday that the unprecedented peacetime restrictions on public life would remain in place until at least April 15.

Public gatherings are banned, schools and universities are closed and all non-essential businesses have shut down, with people allowed out of their homes only to buy groceries, carry out essential work, exercise or seek medical care.

Frances Health Minister Olivier Veran announced on Saturday that the government has ordered more than a billion face masks  the overwhelming majority of them sourced from China  as the government scrambles to build up its supplies.

A plane arrived in Paris from China on Sunday carrying 5.5 million masks and other equipment, though the government has admitted it needs 40 million masks each week for health workers alone as the outbreak rages.

Our first Boeing 777 Cargo has just landed at #ParisCDG with close to 100 tonnes of medical equipment on board, including more than 5 million masks, Air France tweeted.

Pres de 100 tonnes de materiel medical dont + de 5 millions de masques viennent darriver en France par vol Gargo @AirFranceFR.

Merci aux pilotes et personnels qui accomplissent un travail exemplaire pour approvisionner nos soignants et rapatrier nos compatriotes. #TousMobilises https://t.co/WzCPotSd5t  Elisabeth BORNE (@Elisabeth_Borne) March 29, 2020

Doctors, nursing home carers, the police and other frontline staff have decried a shortage of masks.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)
WINNSBORO, S.C. - Students struggling to get online in a rural South Carolina county received a boost last week with the arrival of six buses equipped with Wi-Fi, some of the hundreds the state has rolled out since schools were closed by the coronavirus outbreak.

With routers mounted inside, the buses broadcast enough bandwidth in an area the size of a small parking for parents to drive up and children to access the internet from inside their cars. One of the buses set up outside the apartment complex of Lacheyle Moore, who had been limiting her own usage to leave enough data on her cellphone plan for her daughters schoolwork.

I have to put extra data on my phone to make sure her work gets done, so she can get graded for it, said Moore, who works as a cashier and shifted her schedule to help instruct her two children.

The pandemic that launched a massive, unplanned experiment with distance learning has created extraordinary hurdles for schoolchildren left behind by the digital divide. School districts and governments are now racing to give the millions of U.S. students without home internet a chance of keeping up.

Nationwide, nearly 3 million students make do without home internet due to the high costs of service and gaps in its availability. The disadvantaged students are more likely to be students of colour, from low-income families or in households with lower parental education levels.

The nations largest school districts, including Los Angeles and New York, are spending millions of dollars to provide devices and internet connections for students. Smaller districts are finding ways to boost wireless internet in school parking lots and distribute hot spots. Still, others are sticking with paper assignments and books because the digital equity issues are too much to overcome.

What were seeing is a widening of the achievement gap, so that children who are in well-funded districts were able to immediately pivot to online learning strategies, because the infrastructure was already in place, said Maura McInerney, legal director of the Education Law Center, which advocates for disadvantaged students. In sharp contrast, underfunded districts, who did not have these resources and their children do not have access to Chromebooks, for example, are scrambling to address the educational needs of students.

In Fairfield County, South Carolina, 51% of households have no broadband internet access, according to an Associated Press analysis of census data. Nationwide, an estimated 18% of U.S. students do not have home access to broadband internet.

Lots of mothers and fathers are really not equipped to be home school parents, said J.R. Green, the school superintendent.

Across South Carolina, hundreds of buses were requested by school districts in a program targeting low-income and rural areas, state education spokesman Ryan Brown said. The state was ready to equip thousands of buses, but Brown said that service providers offers of low-cost and even free service plans has lessened the demand.

So deep are the equity challenges for the Philadelphia School District that it initially prohibited online instruction during the shutdown. Only about half of the districts high school students have a laptop or tablet and home internet service. As schools now appear likely to be closed for longer than anticipated, the district plans to buy 50,000 Chromebooks and begin online instruction by mid-April.

Comcast, which is based in the city, has pledged to raise speeds on its $10-a-month Internet Essentials plan for low-income school families and offer two months of free service.

We have the $10 internet (plan). Its not for doing lessons, cause its really slow. If we needed to do the Google classroom, we would need, I think, the regular internet, which I cant afford, said Cecelia Thompson, 54, who cannot work because of health issues and lives with her 21-year-old son, a district student with severe autism who attends Martin Luther King High School.

She believes they would also need a Chromebook and perhaps a printer, so her son, who has a full-time support person, can do worksheets. For now, they rely on her cellphone and a 10-year-old tablet.

Some districts also are hoping for some help from the federal government.

Mike Looney, the superintendent of Fulton County schools in Georgia, said parents should take advantage of offers for reduced-cost internet from service providers. But he would also like the Federal Communications Commission to redeploy money used to subsidize school internet connections to instead pay to supply students with devices and internet at home  an idea that has been endorsed also by many U.S. senators.

In central Ohio, Hilliard City Schools sent students home with school-issued iPads they can use to download, complete and then upload assignments. The iPads allow them to do much of their work offline, according to district Superintendent John Marschhausen, though theyll need to connect to submit completed work and download new assignments.

The districts two dozen schools are extending their Wi-Fi into their parking lots so that families can complete downloads from their vehicles. The superintendent said he thinks it will be a smooth transition for most but he worries about a radical shift for the younger students who typically spend less than half an hour on their devices in the classroom.

Were going to have to do a lot of adapting and adjusting and a lot of learning along with our families if this is truly something that will continue into the summer, he said.

In Columbus, Mississippi, Wi-Fi equipment installed on nine buses to allow children to do homework on the way to and from school was transferred to school and community buildings after officials discovered routers would only run for two hours after buses were shut off.

But Superintendent Cherie Labat said the district is giving out paper lesson packets at schools where meals are being picked up, as well as books that students can take home for independent reading. With 100% of students in the predominantly African American district eligible for free or reduced price lunches, Labat said she cant assume students have resources at home.

Thats why Im working from the ground up, she said. Thats why Im doing paper.

____

Dale reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press writers Jeff Amy in Atlanta and Kantele Franko in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.
Donald Trump said Monday that US officials expect the number of coronavirus cases in the United States to "spike" around Easter Sunday, a reversal from his talk of opening much of the country by 12 April.

The president, during a morning call-in interview with Fox News, continued his focus on the American death toll, saying this: "By a little short of June, maybe June 1m, we think ... the death will be ... brought down to a very low number."

Despite revising his own timeline for the virus spread subsiding on US soil, Mr Trump claimed the country is "getting close" to "winning" what he again called a "war" against the COVID-19 disease outbreak.

That came as his top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, was back on television saying there could be up to 100,000 deaths from the virus inside the United States.

"We have a very low morality rate," Mr Trump said. "And there are reasons for that."

He contended that had his administration not taken certain steps, like banning travellers from China, 2.2m Americans could have died. (The US death toll now is over 2,000.)

Two days after he floated a quarantine and strict travel restrictions for New York City, and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, the president knocked down a question about closing airports to help stop the virus's spread. "We're looking at opening things up before closing" down more public gathering spaces. Without explaining, he said closing things like airports would be too difficult, suggesting the economic hit would be too high.

A day after Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Mr Trump's early response to warnings the virus was headed to the United States "deadly," the president called the California Democrat a "sick puppy."

"She's got a lot of problems, in my opinion," he said without providing details of those alleged issues. "There's something wrong with the woman."

The president then slammed San Francisco, where Ms Pelosi lives, calling it a "slum" and saying the federal government might take control of the region to address its alleged problems.

 Trump calls Pelosi a 'sick puppy' for attacking him

The president appeared in full campaign mode as he cannot hold his signature rallies, contending "Sleepy Joe wouldn't even know what was going on." That was a dig at former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee whom Mr Trump contends is mentally feeble.



The "Fox & Friends" co-hosts were in campaign mode, as well, asking Mr Trump about high approval ratings for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo over his handling of the virus outbreak there. The president responded that Mr Cuomo has only been able to respond to the outbreak in the manner he has because of federal help that he green-lit. He also said he would "love" to run against the New York governor in a presidential general election.



In yet another stunning moment of his term, Mr Trump appeared to claim the United States should have a more confrontational relationship with Germany and a closer one with Russia because the then-Soviet Union lost "50 million people" fighting on the side of the United States  against then-Nazi Germany. "No one talks about that," he said, leaving out the US-Soviet Cold War that followed that world war.



He told the conservative news network's morning show he would be speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin following the "Fox & Friends" interview. Mr Trump has been criticised for at times appearing to carry out Mr Putin's whims, even though his administration has put sanctions on Russians over its 2016 election meddling.
Several ecommerce companies are struggling to get enough of curfew passes, besides being short of delivery personnel. Given the strong and unconditional enforcement of lockdown rules by most local authorities, the delivery personnel were fearful for their security and didnt turn up for work. Many of these personnel are migrants and many have gone back to their hometowns -- it will be a challenge to bring them ...

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Spain has suspended the use of Chinese kits to detect coronavirus after being found to be faulty.

As per media reports, Spain discovered that the rapid test kits failed to detect positive cases. Spain has so far confirmed 57,786 cases for the novel coronavirus and is the worst hit in Europe after Italy from coronavirus.

The virus has hit Spain hard with the second-highest number of deaths at over 4,000. With less confirmed cases than China, Spain has higher death cases than it.

Experts in Spain have reached a conclusion that the kits from China are failing to detect positive corona cases. Spanish newspaper El Pais in a report said that the Chinese kits have only 30 percent sensitivity and are able to detect only 30 percent of the positive cases whereas the tests need to be at least 80 percent sensitive to be effective.

Fernando Simon, the director of Spain's Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies has said that the 9,000 of the test kits brought from China were found to be 'not good enough' and hence Spain has decided to return them.

A spokesperson of the Carlos III Health Institute, part of the Spanish government, told that the test kits from China would be returned and new test kits approved by the government will be launched.

The rapid test kits are reportedly manufactured by the Chinese company Bioeasy. Reportedly, similar kits have been supplied to various other countries including Georgia and the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic also confirmed that the rapid test kits from China are not working at the expected capacity.

However, China is yet to respond to the fresh allegations as it is already facing flak for its handling of information emanating from the virus outbreak.
NEW YORK, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The second release of the PwC COVID-19 CFO Pulse Survey reveals growing concerns around the business and economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic among chief financial officers (CFOs) and finance executives. Based on responses collected from 55 finance leaders in the US and Mexico between March 23-25, results indicated CFOs are increasingly worried about the ramifications of the pandemic, with 87% reporting great concern for their business and 80% expecting COVID-19 to decrease their revenue or profits this year. This is a 33 and 22 point increase respectively from responses fielded the week of March 9.

Companies are rapidly adjusting their business strategies in response to the pandemic, with 85% of CFOs indicating they have already taken financial action as a result of COVID-19, with most focusing on cost containment measures (67%) and deferring or cancelling planned investments (58%). Other strategies include evaluating facilities costs, general capital expenditures, information technology and workforce.

More than half of CFOs (56%) are expecting to see an increased desire for actions and benefits that help ease the burden for employees. As Congress works to pass various stimulus packages to provide aid to Americans to offset increased unemployment and help keep businesses afloat, corporations are actively updating employee benefits and evaluating other options, including hiring freezes, reduced work weeks, potential pay cuts and more.

"Business leaders understand that pre-crisis targets are no longer relevant, and their number one priority is now to lead their organization and people through the COVID-19 pandemic and its wide-reaching ramifications," said Tim Ryan, PwC US Chair and Senior Partner. "It is significant that only 16% of CFOs surveyed are looking at potential layoffs in the next month. Instead, they're focusing on protecting their most important asset--their people and their livelihoods--which in turn will support the economy and help it rebound."

Despite increasing fears of an impending global recession from 84% of finance leaders, the majority of those surveyed (76%) feel assured their business could return to business-as-usual within three months should COVID-19 be resolved today, down 14 points from responses fielded the week of March 9.

"Many companies are grappling with how to maintain financial and operational stability while navigating this crisis, and CFO confidence in their business' ability to recover within months continues to wane," said Amity Millhiser, PwC Chief Clients Officer. "Solvency remains top of mind in the face of a potential economic downturn, and we can expect to see further major financial actions aimed at maintaining business resiliency in the coming weeks."

The impact of the novel coronavirus on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) strategy is divided and still remains unclear at the moment. A majority of finance leaders surveyed are still assessing or not changing their activities, however, 13% indicate an increasing appetite in M&A.

"Following the initial shock, leaders are looking with an eye to the future and see that certain businesses and assets have healthy underlying operations and are now far more affordable than ever before," said Neil Dhar, PwC US Financial Services Leader. "Credit still needs to work its way through the system at reasonable prices and spreads before we can expect to see the M&A engines throttled with any velocity, but given the current market dynamics, we can expect a handful of 'fire sales' in the near future."

Of the 55 CFO and finance leaders surveyed, 80% are from Fortune 1000 companies, with others in healthcare non-profit associations or in privately held companies, and 45 respondents are from the US whereas 10 are from Mexico. The PwC COVID-19 CFO Pulse Survey will occur twice per month to track changing sentiment and priorities. The first iteration of the Pulse Survey was conducted March 9-11, 2020. You can view all findings and insights by visiting pwc.com/us/covid-19-survey .

About PwC

At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. PwC is a network of firms in 157 countries with more than 276,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax services. Find out more and tell us what matters to you by visiting us at www.pwc.com .

PwC refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details.

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http://www.pwc.com


Blood Glucose Test Strip Market Overview:

The Global Blood Glucose Test Strip Market revealed growth prospects for the coming years, and, as per the report, it would be substantial during the forecast period (2019-2027). Market Research Future (MRFR) has revealed several factors that can boost the market in the coming years, and among them, growing awareness regarding diabetes and hike in technological inclusions would play crucial roles.

For diabetes patients, this is a good way to check the state of their glucose level and maintain a proper health standard. Inclusion of latest technologies would help in the growth of the global market for blood glucose test strip. Better disposable income would assist in reaching out to a larger consumer base.

Blood Glucose Test Strip Market Segmentation:

The global blood glucose test strip market can be segmented on the basis of technology and region. MRFRs analysis of the market reveals information regarding segments that can help in designing better growth for the coming years.

Request Free Sample Copy at: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/892

By technology, the global report on the blood glucose test strip market can be segmented into Thin Film Electrochemical, Thick Film Electrochemical, and Optical. The procedures are getting ample scope for introducing major innovations as several companies have started launching their latest developments to secure a firm footing in the market.

By region, the report on the blood glucose test strip market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific as major market contributors and South America and the Middle East & Africa as moderate growth recorders.

Blood Glucose Test Strip Market Regional Analysis:

North America would enjoy its role as the blood glucose test strip market leader as the region is infrastructure-wise strong and can expect an easy influx of investment from several quarters that can boost the prospect. The healthcare sector is well-developed and amply backed by various government initiatives, pharmaceutical developments, and research-related initiatives. Countries like the US and Canada would dominate the regional market as their healthcare investment in the budget is quite substantial.

Europe would follow suit as the regional market is getting ample thrust from countries like Russia, the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and others. These regions have made their name by investing notably in the healthcare sector and for public health. Growing awareness among patients and the high disposable income of these people would help the market in registering robust growth. The Asia Pacific region would bank on China, India, Japan, and others as the population in these countries is immense, and they can boost the growth substantially. Many major market players are looking at the region as an opportunity to expand their business.

Blood Glucose Test Strip Market Competitive Landscape:

The global blood glucose test strip market is getting good leads from several companies who are exploring opportunities in the market by implementing various tactical moves. These companies are Acon Laboratories, Inc, Abbott Laboratories, Apex Biotechnology Corporation, Allmedicus, B.Braun Melsungen Ag, Roche Diagnostics, Ascensia Diabetes Care Holdings Ag, Lifescan, Inc., HMD Biomedical, I-Sens, Inc., Taidoc Technology Corporation, and others.

These companies have made their extensive contributions using mergers, acquisitions, investments in researches, and others as proper expansion methods. MRFRs report has analyzed these moves and recorded them to ensure a better understanding of the market movement. This could also help in the proper development of strategies.

Browse More Details at: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/blood-glucose-test-strip-market-892

Blood Glucose Test Strip Industry News:

EKF launched STAT-Site WB that is a dual-use whole blood -ketone and glucose meter that could be used in the handling of diabetes. This is a handheld analyzer that has been designed in such a way that it could deliver reliable and efficient results in 5-10 seconds.

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- As coronavirus patients overwhelm New York City hospitals, Syracuses three hospitals still have nearly 300 empty beds.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has suggested the state might move some patients upstate to relieve overcrowded New York City hospitals.

Ron Lagoe, executive director of the Hospital Executive Council, said while Syracuse hospitals currently have room to spare, they want to make sure they can accommodate the growing number of local coronavirus patients.

This is a moving target and the patient census can change quickly, Lagoe said. We assume that before we make any commitments outside Onondaga County, weve got to make sure we can take care of the Central New York patients.

As of today, Onondaga Countys tally of confirmed coronavirus cases increased to 228, 23 of whom were hospitalized.

Despite the local uptick in coronavirus patients, Syracuse hospitals still have plenty of capacity.

Over the past three weeks, the combined average daily patient census at the three city hospitals has dropped 36 percent.

As previously reported, the sharp drop in patients at city hospitals is due to cancellations of scheduled non-emergency surgeries, postponements of other hospital admissions and a decline in seasonal flu activity.

Todays census shows the three hospitals have 292 fewer patients than they did three weeks ago.

The hospitals currently have 447 patients in medical-surgical beds used for routine care and 75 patients in intensive care and critical care beds, according to the Hospital Executive Council. Three weeks ago, the three hospitals had 704 patients in medical surgical beds and 110 in intensive care and critical care beds.

The Hospital Executive Council, a Syracuse hospital planning agency, tracks the combined patient census for Upstate, St. Joes and Crouse hospitals every day.

James T. Mulder covers health news. Have a news tip? Contact him at (315) 470-2245 or jmulder@syracuse.com
CHICAGO, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The leaders of 10* nursing organizations have issued a policy brief that calls for academic-practice partnerships between health care facilities and prelicensure registered nursing (RN) and practical/vocational nursing (PN/VN) programs across the country during the COVID-19 crisis.

Mindful of safety, state emergency response provisions and existing Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements, the proposed model recommends that nursing students be employed by the facility on a full- or part-time basis, that they work in the role of a student nurse for compensation and -- in conjunction with the student's nursing education program  that they receive academic credit toward meeting clinical requirements.

COVID-19 represents an unparalleled moment in time for nursing students to assist the nation in a time of crisis and learn the principles of population health and emergency management. This academic-practice model demonstrates that even in crisis, continuous innovation can occur.

The "Policy Brief: U.S. Nursing Leadership Supports Practice/Academic Partnerships to Assist the Nursing Workforce during the COVID-19 Crisis" can be found at https://www.ncsbn.org/Policy_Brief_US_Nursing_Leadership_COVID19.pdf

About NCSBN

Founded March 15, 1978, as an independent not-for-profit organization, NCSBN was initially created to lessen the burdens of state governments and bring together nursing regulatory bodies (NRBs) to act and counsel together on matters of common interest. It has evolved into one of the leading voices of regulation across the world.

NCSBN's membership is comprised of the NRBs in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and four U.S. territories  American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and the Virgin Islands. There are three exam user members. There are also 27 associate members that are either NRBs or empowered regulatory authorities from other countries or territories.

Mission: NCSBN empowers and supports nursing regulators in their mandate to protect the public.

The statements and opinions expressed are those of NCSBN and not individual members.

*National Council of State Boards of Nursing, National League for Nursing, American Organization for Nursing Leadership, Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, Inc., Organization for Associate Degree Nursing, NLN Commission for Nursing Education Accreditation, American Association of Colleges of Nursing, Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, National Student Nurses' Association, American Nurses Association

Contact: Dawn M. Kappel

Director, Marketing and Communications

312.525.3667 direct

312.279.1034 fax

[email protected]

SOURCE National Council of State Boards of Nursing

Related Links

http://www.ncsbn.org


Doctors will break with convention and urge Australians to go to their GP and get their flu shots as soon as possible in a bid to reduce the load on hospitals during the probable peak of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a normal year, doctors typically advise their patients to wait until May for the vaccine, but there is concern it may not be as safe to get it later, or that sufficient medical staff may not be available.

Sydney GP Allison Bielawski gives a flu shot to patient Lily Bardsley on Monday. Credit:James Brickwood

Some medical groups worry that people are avoiding medical appointments and fearful of going out in public in the midst of social-distancing restrictions, which would further reduce the number of people who receive the vaccine.

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Dr Harry Nespolon is among those urging people to come out of isolation into the world and visit their GP.
This is a time of great testing for Congress. The pressure to move quickly is intense, and it is not an institution built for that purpose.

Yet Congress acts with unaccustomed swiftness when needed. The House passed the first relief measure quickly, and the Senate acted the following week. Clearly, lawmakers took the need for speed to heart, and in a bipartisan way.

Theres a key but basic fact to remember about how Congress works: its governed by a majority. This seems like a very simple thing to say, but the reality is that it is not always easy to reach. This is compounded when, as now, each chamber is under the control of a different party. Still, while there are never any guarantees, at times of national crisis the math becomes much easier to achieve.

Thats despite the fact that members can vote any way they want to, and Congress is where all the cross-currents and needs of a complicated nation converge. Congress  at all times, but especially now  is beset by organized interests weighing in. Members of Congress are also listening to the no-doubt urgent messages theyre getting from their constituents and making the political calculations that, even at the most dire times, are very much in the mix on Capitol Hill. You can see why arriving at agreements swiftly is such difficult work.

Which is why, now more than ever, everything depends on the leadership. Even in calm times, the key to the functioning of Congress rests overwhelmingly with the presiding officers of the House and Senate, and with their teams. At the moment, both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are conveying that they intend to keep Congress on an even keel as they work on relief and stimulus legislation.

This is obviously a time of great peril, with immense stakes. We are a democracy, and our challenge  and Congresss in particular  is to respond as the situation demands while preserving the best that democratic governance offers: solutions to the countrys problems that reflect the best thinking and collective wisdom of a great, diverse, and creative nation.

It is not written in the stars that Congress can make it work, but the evidence so far is that in this crisis, when we need it to come through, Congress can do important work well and do it in a bipartisan way.

Lee Hamilton is a senior adviser for the Indiana University Center on Representative Government. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years.
The decision allows companies to donate supplies of two related drugs  hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine  to the Strategic National Stockpile. The drugs will then be distributed to hospitals for use in patients who have coronavirus. The generic drug maker Sandoz, a division of Novartis, donated 30 million pills of hydroxychloroquine and Bayer donated one million doses of chloroquine. Other companies are ramping up their production of the drugs and may donate more supplies, the federal government said.

Teva has also said it is donating six million pills of hydroxychloroquine to be used in U.S. hospitals.

Mr. Trump has frequently touted the use of the drugs, describing them as a potential game changer in the pandemic, although there is only anecdotal evidence that they are effective. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and other experts, have been far more cautious in saying that evidence is still needed to know if they work.

However, since there are no treatments for the virus, many hospitals are already using the drugs on severely ill patients. The drugs have been on the market for decades and one, hydroxychloroquine, is also used for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

The decision by the F.D.A., issued on Saturday but announced by the Department of Health and Human Services on Sunday, will allow hospitals to use the drugs on patients when enrolling them in clinical trials is not possible. Doctors must report on how they were used, including documenting any harmful side effects. Patients and doctors will also receive a fact sheet explaining that the drugs efficacy in treating coronavirus is not known.

By restricting hospital use of the drugs to those taken from the national stockpile, the move also eases pressure on the rest of the supply chain. Both drugs have recently gone into shortage, making it difficult for patients who rely on them for other conditions to get access.

Massachusetts veterans home sees a rash of deaths.

Eleven residents of a veterans home in Massachusetts have died, including five people who tested positive for the coronavirus, a state agency announced on Monday, in another example of how the virus can spread in a facility for vulnerable residents.
They never learn, do they? Democrats and their pundit class have a long habit of promoting standards for others that their own side cant abide living under. Somehow, they make arguments year in and year out that come back to bite them, and they never pick up on the slightest clue that this will, predictably, happen again.

So it is  now that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, has been accused by a woman who worked for him in the early 1990s of sexually assaulting her. If we apply the standards that Republicans and conservatives have advocated for these kinds of things, the question we would ask right now is whether the evidence shows the allegation to be credible. We can return to that another day. Because under the Believe All Women standard promoted by Democrats, liberals, and progressives, Biden should be simply assumed to be guilty. Case closed. David Harsanyi has a selection of those arguments from the Kavanaugh hearings, including from Biden himself.

The examples he lists are not hyperbole; they are what Democrats argued with straight faces as recently as a year and a half ago. They made those arguments loudly, insistently, repeatedly, emotionally, sometimes with tears in their eyes and voices quivering with rage. They argued them in congressional hearings and on the campaign trail, tweeted them and memed them. And those Democrats who even bother to notice Tara Reades allegations against Biden will now be forced to explain that they never really meant any of it. To all of them, I now say: Not only did we warn you and warn you and warn you that this exact thing would happen to you sooner or later (and probably sooner), but it has happened to you before and you learned absolutely nothing from it.

Those of you old enough to remember the Clarence Thomas hearings will recall that a major part of the argument for believing Anita Hills sexual-harassment charges against Thomas was this same line of reasoning. We were told that men just dont get it and cannot and should not attempt to evaluate the facts and testimony to judge whether Hill was telling the truth. This you-must-believe, you-may-not-question stance became a centerpiece of the Democrats 1992 Year of the Woman Senate campaigns. There were reasons that they took this tack: Polls at the time by Gallup and the New York Times/CBS News showed that more voters believed Thomas than Hill, and voters throughout the hearings favored his confirmation by a two-to-one margin. The cleanest way to avoid discussion of the credibility of your witnesses is to argue that their credibility is irrelevant.

Story continues

This happens nowhere else in politics or the law. We should, of course, listen to every accuser who comes forward with a claim of sexual assault or abuse, and too often as a society we have failed to do so. We should listen to Reade, just as we should listen to the women who have made accusations against Donald Trump and other political figures of both parties. But in any accusation of misconduct (sexual or otherwise), what matters most is whether it is true or not. In the civil and criminal law, that means we have the protections of due process. In politics, it sometimes means making judgments about the facts without the benefit of a legal proceeding. But the duty to take the truth seriously and apply our common sense in finding the truth is no less important.

Lots of people on the right argued at the time that the thou shalt not question Anita Hill edict was an insane standard that would sting the Democrats at the next opportunity. Democrats, recklessly disregarding all these warnings, not only persisted in making the argument but also went ahead and nominated a notorious Lothario for president in 1992. Predictably enough, early in Bill Clintons presidential term, he was sued for sexual harassment by Paula Jones, a former subordinate in Arkansas. Kathleen Willey, a Democratic supporter of Clintons, accused him of groping her in the Oval Office. He was also accused, by Juanita Broaddrick, of rape.

The Paula Jones case eventually expanded to questions of Clintons other workplace sexcapades, thanks to the liberal discovery rules of civil litigation. That, in turn, led to the referral of the Monica Lewinsky affair to yet another liberal innovation  the independent counsel. The independent counsel was, itself, a Carter-era Democratic creation. In 1988, Justice Antonin Scalia tried to warn liberals of precisely why it was dangerous, with its presumption in favor of launching unaccountable investigations. Not one of these events dented the absolute certainty of liberal pundits and Democratic politicians in making deeply illiberal arguments, so long as the targets were Republicans. All of them were shocked when their own rules were forced on them during the Clinton presidency. The believe all women standards went quiet for a long time, workplace sexual harassment was shrugged off as compartmentalized from Clintons presidency, and the independent-counsel statute was allowed to expire by bipartisan consent in 1999.

But in the long term, Democrats learned nothing. When presented with the chance to play the credibility-of-the-accuser-doesnt-matter card in pursuit of Kavanaugh, they took the same absolutist position all over again. It didnt take long to blow up in their faces, as the thirst for corroborating allegations brought out people such as the bottom-feeding attorney Michael Avenatti to push ludicrous gang-rape charges against Kavanaugh that just proved his defenders point. Boxed in by their own standards, Democratic senators actually read Avenattis nonsense into the Senate record during the hearings. Republicans and conservatives warned them that they would regret these standards the next time charges were leveled against one of their own. It didnt take long, as two women came forward to publicly accuse Virginia lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax of rape in mid-2019. Fairfax is still in office, and he plans to run for governor, and his party may well fall in line behind him. Now an accusation has been raised against the partys presumptive presidential nominee.

Will Democrats learn their lesson this time? Dont bet on it.

More from National Review
The global pandemic now hitting almost every corner of the world is forcing countless millions of people to work from home. In one sense, were fortunate to now have the technology that allows us to do that. Between broadband Internet access in the home, corporate VPNs, team workspaces and videoconferencing services, many people can continue to do their jobs as effectively as if they were in their regular office environment.

That doesnt mean its all smooth sailing for the IT departments that have to enable and support those critical work-from-home services. Depending on the type of network architecture a company has, it can be relatively easy or significantly challenging to support tens of thousands of employees now suddenly working from home.

I recently talked with Mark Casey, CEO of the network infrastructure services provider Apcela, who conveyed the challenges that many large enterprises have. Its these companies that typically still have a traditional hub-and-spoke kind of WAN anchored in a physical data center. Corporate traffic is backhauled from branch and remote locations (like workers homes) to a centralized data center to pass through a security stack before it is sent to the internet or to cloud services. Unfortunately, this legacy network architecture doesnt adapt well to the dramatically different traffic patterns resulting from a massive surge in telework.

When you look at the VPN architecture in this environment, its largely dominated by Cisco with its AnyConnect solution that pairs with the vendors ASA firewall products. Countless large enterprises have these hardware appliances in their on-premises data centers. Whether its Cisco equipment or some other vendors, the VPN/firewall combination is a real workhorse under normal conditions, but the vast increase in remote workers is causing a strain.

VPN capacity is strained

A home-based worker brings up a VPN connection that creates a secure tunnel to take him straight into the data center. This might be fine when the company expects 10% to 20% of its employees to work remotely at any given time, but now the numbers might approach 50% or 70%. This creates contention for resources and a poor VPN experience for all. Whats more, workers are routing a bunch of internet traffic to the data center along with traffic destined for on-premise applications like Microsoft Office 365. This is the landscape that Casey sees every day as he engages with large enterprise organizations.

Weve talked to a number of companies recently that say they need to expand their VPN capacity but the legacy network architecture is holding them back. Cisco, Palo Alto and others are offering free VPN client licenses but the enterprises still need to expand the VPN terminating appliances. Its hard to quickly scale capacity in this environment, says Casey. Whether its coronavirus or some other catalyst that puts stress on the legacy network environment, we advocate that enterprises should diversify and shift portions of their network architecture to the cloud. This will give them much more flexibility to provide security and remote access services to their workforce in the long run.

SASE for flexibility and capacity on demand

Casey points to the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE, pronounced sassy) framework as a model for re-architecting the enterprise network. SASE is Gartners name for a combination of SD-WAN capabilities with a number of security services that are primarily delivered through a cloud-based delivery model.

Gartner defines the service edge as an offering that supports the access needs of digital enterprises by combining SD-WAN functions with network security services such as secure web gateway (SWG), cloud access security broker (CASB), and cloud-based firewall. In short, a SASE offering helps simplify network management by offering highly customizable policy-based control that can be tailored by user identity, session context, and application needs for performance and security  and its delivered from the cloud.

Casey explains the concept of a service edge with a geographical example. Suppose an employee is VPNing into his corporate network from his New York area home, and the data center happens to be in Chicago. Ordinarily the traffic would all be directed to Chicago, but if hes accessing internet content, it would be optimal to egress that traffic via secure web gateway much more locally to where the user is. Its better to go to a site in New York where the VPN terminates on a local firewall, and theres a secure web gateway there so the Internet traffic can be offloaded there instead of backhauling it to Chicago. This site in New York is called the service edge.

Casey continues his explanation: A virtualized version of a companys firewall sits in the hub. The VPN terminates on the VPN concentrator in the local hub and then the traffic is routed appropriately. That traffic going to the internet goes out through secure web gateway and that traffic that's destined for an application in the data center goes over a private network inside the security parameters. This is essentially another tunnel back to the data center. And that's a great use case for this whole concept of SASE, which is to lift some of your core security components and move them out to the cloud.

With the word cloud, people tend to think of AWS or Azure or Google Cloud Platform, but Casey gives cloud a broader definition. Cloud is Software as a Service, like Salesforce and ServiceNow, says Casey. If youre an enterprise, cloud is an Equinix data center. Cloud is anything thats not you, and its delivered as a service.

The service edge is a powerful hub

In Apcelas parlance, a service edge is called an application hub, or AppHub. Other companies call them communication hubs, cloud hubs, or simply Points of Presence (PoPs). Regardless of the name, the concept is the same.

These hubs consist of racks of switching and routing equipment that are typically deployed in carrier-neutral co-location centers. Then these data centers are interconnected with high-capacity, low-latency circuits that create a high-performance core network. SD-WAN, VPN and security stacks are typically deployed in the hubs. At the edge of this network, an enterprise can directly connect its own data centers, branch offices, remote and mobile users, and even third-party partners. The leading SASE providers have built hubs, or PoPs, around the world so that organizations and their workers can connect to the closest hub to obtain the communication and security services they need. Each enterprise chooses what services it wants to utilize.

When considering how to deploy security as a virtual service, Casey says, You don't necessarily want to put all the security in AWS because then it will work great with AWS, but it won't work for GCP or Azure, and it certainly won't help you for your SaaS applications. So having this hub environment that sits between the application clouds  Salesforce, Office 365, Workday, etc.  and the users and enterprise locations is the perfect location to put these security services. And because the hubs are essentially an Infrastructure as a Service, you're not stuck with having to move to some proprietary cloud-based platform.

SASE infrastructure is essentially on demand, so its fairly easy for new customers to adopt it. Its not complicated, says Casey. We have to find a place, somewhere in the world, and cross connect back into an enterprises infrastructure to deliver private connectivity. But it's all very cloud-like. It takes the agility of cloud and the speed of cloud and enables you to act quickly.

SASE has VPN capacity pre-built

The SASE model allows companies to expand their VPN platforms easily because the capability is all pre-built. Once the service is turned on, the company is well positioned to support thousands of new home-based workers.

I asked Casey about a realistic timeframe for companies that are new to the SASE approach before they can expect to be up and running with expanded VPN capacity. I can only speak to the solution Apcela offers, of course, but Id say its a matter of days to weeks, but certainly not months, he says. In our case, it depends on their security platform because we leverage virtualized network functions on the security side, so the whole concept of procuring and shipping equipment goes away. Other vendors might do the deployment in different ways.

Contrast this approach to the legacy model of installing new hardware in a data center to provide more capacity. By the time the company orders the hardware, gets it shipped to the data center, and then installed and configured, two or three months might pass.

Another benefit of the SASE framework is that traffic travels over a private core network rather than the public Internet. The Internet shouldnt become your new WAN  certainly not for business and mission-critical platforms. You need a specialized sort of MPLS-like network for your cloud apps, which is what a SASE platform does, says Casey. Traffic is taken off the Internet at the secure edge, put onto a private secure network and routed directly to the appropriate SaaS or IaaS platform data center.

Having a private core network is especially important at this time because the public Internet is under great strain due to the traffic and content pattern shifts now that so many people are staying home or working from home. The strain is so bad that companies like Facebook and Netflix have been asked by the European Commissioner for internal market and services to throttle their services to consume less bandwidth. As Casey says, You dont want your corporate traffic to compete for bandwidth against Netflix and all these different videoconferencing services.

If your organization is struggling with ramping up work-from-home capacity in a hurry, consider how a SASE service might help you.
New Delhi, March 30 : Highlighting the mass exodus of migrant labourers from the big cities to their respective states on foot, the Congress on Monday attacked the Narendra Modi government, questioning if lives of poor matter or not. The Congress urged the government to ensure that they reach home safely.

"Do poor lives matter? Question - government should ask itself. If they do then unlock railways/buses and take them home. Do not stop them by force on roads. If state had the ability to feed and shelter them they would not be on roads. Try and get them safely home," Congress spokesperson and MP from Punjab Manish Tewari said in a tweet tagging railway minister Piyush Goyal.

His remarks came amid the reports of thousands of migrant workers returning to their homes on their foot.

The migrant labourers had been walking to several districts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced 21-day nationwide lockdown on Tuesday to combat the spread of novel coronavirus (Covid-19).

The railways had suspended the passenger train services from March 24 to April 14 and even the interstate bus services were suspended in view of the nationwide lockdown from March 24.

On MOnday, the total number of Covid-19 patients in India rose to 1024, with 27 deaths.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 21:40:57|Editor: Xiaoxia

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MANILA, March 30 (Xinhua) -- China will send a team of medical experts to the Philippines to help the country fight COVID-19, Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian said on Monday.

In his phone call to Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque, Huang said that the main task of the medical expert team is to help the Philippines fight COVID-19, by providing technical advice on epidemic prevention and control, as well as sharing medical treatment experience.

Huang assured Duque that the Chinese Embassy in Manila will continue to work closely with the Philippine department of health to facilitate relevant arrangements of the medical expert team.

Duque expressed his appreciation and gratitude for China's support to the Philippines in battling the epidemic and looked forward to the arrival of the Chinese medical expert team.

Duque also pledged that the Philippine department of health would actively further coordinate with the Embassy to make sure the work of the medical expert team goes smoothly.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told a virtual press conference that the Philippines wants to learn from the experience of the the Chinese experts on how to fight COVID-19.

"We also want to get their advice on the measures that we are implementing against COVID-19. We want them to share their expertise with us on how they are able to control the spread of the disease and lower the number of COVID19-related deaths," she said.

The Philippines reported on Monday that the number of coronavirus disease cases in the country has climbed to 1,546, including 78 deaths.

"As of 4 p.m. today, the Department of Health reports 128 new cases of COVID-19," Vergeire said.

She added that no additional patient has recovered from the disease, adding the number of recovered patients remains at 42.

Vergeire said the availability of test kits and the expanded capacity of laboratories that are capable of conducting tests have paved the way for the Philippines "to detect those that really have to be detected."

"The testing kits are sufficient enough now. The 100,000 test kits from China are already here and we expect more kits from different donors to arrive here within the week, and hopefully we will have sufficient stock for our needs," she said.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- As recently as a few weeks ago, it seemed as though U.K. politics could not possibly talk about anything besides Brexit, even after the countrys formal departure from the EU. Business as usual was expected to return at some unspecified point in the future.

As elsewhere, the coronavirus has turned British politics on its head. Unlike Brexit, which continues to divide opinion fairly evenly, the coronavirus crisis has prompted an outbreak of recently unfamiliar unity. Number Cruncher polling (excusive to Bloomberg) finds personal ratings for Boris Johnson -- himself now diagnosed with coronavirus -- that have not been seen for a British Prime Minister since the early days of Tony Blairs premiership in 1997.

Fully 72% of eligible voters are satisfied with Johnsons performance as Prime Minister, with 25% dissatisfied. Ninety-one per cent of those currently supporting the Conservatives count themselves as satisfied, along with about half of Labour voters and those voting for other parties and a large majority of undecided voters. Johnsons government gets similar approval ratings, both overall (73% to 24%) and on its handling of the Coronavirus outbreak (72% to 25%).

The 1,010 interviews were conducted Tuesday through Thursday, following Johnsons televised address on Monday, but completed before Johnson himself revealed that he had tested positive for the virus. There is some evidence in our data to suggest that these figures were higher in the immediate aftermath of the pre-recorded broadcast, which was watched by around half of the adult population.

The strongest numbers of all are for the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak (77% satisfaction). Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose successor will be named on April 4, remains in negative territory (with 54% dissatisfied).

While wartime metaphors are now commonplace, this pandemic is not, of course, a war in literal sense -- people are being killed by a disease, not each other. But it does share many of the same characteristics and a similar rally around the flag sense. The most obvious of these is the unity against a common enemy, with a lot of agreement across parties and across the public. There is also clear sense of national effort, and some extremely large government spending on its way.

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Thats not to say that there have been no controversies  there have been debates over strategy and the policy response  though these can easily be drowned out by the enormity of the wider situation.

This is not unique to the U.K. Polling elsewhere has shown that the crisis has helped incumbents in other countries too. Emmanuel Macron in France, Italys Giuseppe Conte and Canadas Justin Trudeau have also seen their ratings improve. Even in the strongly polarized U.S., Donald Trumps approval ratings have seen gains.

But what is specific to the U.K. is the perfect storm providing the tailwind to the Conservatives. The post-election bounce for Johnson and his party was still very much in evidence when the coronavirus became the dominant story, and was likely boosted by Brexit on Jan. 31st. Labour has been less visible than it might normally be, and when it is visible its via its unpopular leader, who remains in place more than three months after his election defeat.

Coupled with the rally-round-the-flag effect, it is not hard to see why records are being broken. Of likely voters, 54% would choose Conservatives, up nine points from the December election (excluding Northern Ireland). No Conservative government has ever had such a strong poll rating, according to records compiled by author Mark Pack beginning in 1943.

Labour has dropped five points to 28%, giving the Tories their biggest lead while in office since Margaret Thatchers peak during the Falklands war in 1982. The Liberal Democrats  who this week postponed their leadership election until 2021  also fall five points to 7%.

Of course, no U.K. election is imminent, with even the local elections scheduled for May having been postponed until next year. Whats more, being hugely popular in a war or war-like situation can still end in electoral defeat, as it did for Winston Churchill and George H.W. Bush. And thats before we consider likely economic damage of the coronavirus, which is in the very early stages of being felt.

But these numbers are significant for another reason. The immediate task for Johnson and other leaders is to convince their citizens to comply with personal restrictions that would be unthinkable in normal times. Irrespective of the wider politics, having the public united behind him can only help. For now, the U.K. feels strangely united.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Matt Singh runs Number Cruncher Politics, a nonpartisan polling and elections site that predicted the 2015 U.K. election polling failure.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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ARTISTS IN THE TIME OF COVID-19  Carly Findlay

I feel discombobulated, says Carly Findlay, writer, speaker, trainer and amazing dress wearer. She speaks for all of us in this new claustrophobic world.

Things are strange  like we are waiting for something to happen, but we arent sure what, she says. There is a big sense of grief, like weve lost the way of life we are used to.

Writer and activist Carly Findlay.

Findlay is also an appearance activist. She has a rare severe skin condition, ichthyosis. My skin has been really sore these last two weeks. My ichthyosis has flared up due to stress. Im worried about needing to see doctors and going to a pharmacy, but my dermatologists and GP have both been amazing with Telehealth appointments.
Superstore star Nico Santos revealed Saturday that his stepfather Sonny died of COVID-19 on Friday and his mother Tita is still battling the fast-spreading virus.

The 40-year-old son of Filipino immigrants described Sonny as a kind, friendly, and caring man who had a great laugh 'that filled the room with joy.'

'The loss of my stepfather is devastating but what has gutted me is that this pandemic has kept my family apart,' Nico - who has 147K social media followers - tweeted.

Grieving: Superstore star Nico Santos revealed that his stepfather Sonny died of COVID-19 on Friday and his mother Tita is still battling the fast-spreading virus (pictured March 9)

'You will be in our hearts forever': The 40-year-old son of Filipino immigrants described Sonny (L) as a kind, friendly, and caring man who had a great laugh 'that filled the room with joy'

'We were unable to be with him during his last days. I can't hold my mother as she mourns her husband. I can't hug my brother as he contemplates a world without his father.

'I can't wipe away the tears from my nephews' eyes as they wonder why their Lolo Sonny isn't here anymore. I want to thank everyone of you who offered up prayers, love, and assistance to our family during this difficult time.

Santos received condolences from SNL star Bowen Yang, This Is Us star Chrissy Metz, his Crazy Rich Asians castmates Ken Jeong and Constance Lau, as well as his Superstore co-star Lauren Ash.

Luckily, the LGBTQAI advocate has his boyfriend since 2018 - transgender Survivor star Zeke Smith - to help support him as his mother battles coronavirus at her home.

Nico tweeted: 'The loss of my stepfather is devastating but what has gutted me is that this pandemic has kept my family apart. We were unable to be with him during his last days. I can't hold my mother as she mourns her husband'

RIP: Santos received condolences from SNL star Bowen Yang, This Is Us star Chrissy Metz, his Crazy Rich Asians castmates Ken Jeong and Constance Lau, as well as his Superstore co-star Lauren Ash

'She has not required hospitalization': Luckily, the LGBTQAI advocate has his boyfriend since 2018 - transgender Survivor star Zeke Smith (R) - to help support him as his mother (L) battles coronavirus at her home (pictured June 30)

'For the time being, she has not required hospitalization,' Nico noted.

'Please continue to pray and send healing energy to my mom. I hope all of you are staying safe and healthy. Rest In Peace Tito Sonny. I love you.'

As of Sunday, there are over 141K confirmed coronavirus cases and over 2K deaths in the United States, according to John Hopkins University.

Santos currently plays gay, undocumented Filipino Cloud 9 associate Mateo Fernando Aquino Liwanag in the 21-episode fifth season of Superstore, which airs Thursdays on NBC.
Fear is a common issue that halts us. Fear is one of Satans most effective weapons against the mind of believers. Satan chooses to use fear as a way to paralyze us and render us ineffective in spiritual battle. Fear is such an incredibly strong emotion, and it can be incredibly hard to overcome.

It is no wonder that so many people are afraid of the end of the world. What will happen after? What if I never make it to Heaven? What if I never see the ones I love again? These are all common questions that cause doubt and confusion. The Book of Revelation lays out the end of days and it can be an intimidating read. It brings out some of the most common fears: fear of the unknown, fear of death, fear of pain and fear of loss.

However, fear is only an emotion. Though its effects are incredibly powerful, fear can always be overcome by truth. If we know the truth about God and the world, we can beat our fears. We as Christians should try to conquer this fear given to us by Satan, and instead turn to God and His Word. Despite the scary scenarios in the Book of Revelation, a believer who has a saving relationship with Jesus Christ (John 3:16, Romans 10:9-10) can find peace for several reasons.

God is Always With Us

Christians can rely on Gods spirit to help alleviate our fears. God is always by our side, lifting us up and giving us strength (Isaiah 41:10). While He cant promise that nothing bad will happen to us we can take comfort in knowing He is with us. No matter the things we face in life, we always have God on our side to guide us and protect us. This doesnt end in the prophesies of Revelation. Next time we are fearful of the end, remember to cast those worries on God (1 Peter 5:7). He will give you the extra strength and reminder that you are not alone, and you never will be.

Its Not Really the End

Secondly, we can take comfort in the fact that the end of days is not really the end. The Bible clearly states that a believers final destiny will be in Heaven with Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). God will keep us safe as we walk through the trials of the world (Revelation 3:10). Even more exciting, after the trials of the world are over we can rejoice as Gods Kingdom comes to earth. He will create a new earth and new heavens where everything will be perfect (Revelation 21). While the end of the world seems scary, the results after will be beautiful. We will be with God for eternity in a place that has no fear, no death, and only happiness (Revelation 21:3-4).

Jesus is Our Salvation

We can also find peace because we are one with Christ. We do not have to fear Judgement Day because we are children of Him. We are instructed to be confident about judgement, because we are covered by Christs merit. He love us, and that love drives fear away (1 John 4:17-18). However if you choose not to follow God, you do have reason to fear. Jesus did not come to judge us, but to save us. Those who reject His offer of salvation will face judgement (John 3:17-18).

God Does Not Want Us to Be Afraid

In the Bible, God makes it clear that He doesnt want His followers to be scared of the End Times. Instead, what Christians are told is actually encouraging. First Thessalonians 4:13-18 states But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. Rather than fear the future, we are called to anticipate the future with joy. Why? In Christ, we will be caught up to meet Him and we will always be with the Lord.

Further, Scripture says we do not need to fear Judgment Day: By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love (1 John 4:17-18).

Fear is a normal emotion, but we can recognize its just Satans way of turning us away from God and the truth. When we take the time to understand the Book of Revelation, Gods promises, and the End Times we learn that there is nothing to be truly afraid of. Instead, there is only love and a future with our Father.
The Indian Army has invited online applications from unmarried (male only) Indian nationals for filling numerous vacancies to the post of Soldier - General Duty (Indian Domiciled Gorkhas) through an Army Recruitment Rally to be held in Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts in West Bengal from May 4, 2020 to May 6, 2020 at the Ghoom Army Ground (GAD). The online registration-cum-application process towards the same closes on April 26, 2020.

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Soldier - General Duty Organisation Indian Army Educational Qualification Class 10th/Matriculation or equivalent with 45% marks (aggregate) and 33% marks in each subject Experience Freshers can apply Skills Required Physical and Medical Fitness Job Location India Salary Scale As per the Indian Army norms Industry Defence/Army Application End Date April 26, 2020

Age Criteria And Fees

Candidates interested in applying for Soldier - General Duty posts through Army Bharti Rally must have attained 17 12 years of age and not be more than 21 years i.e. born between October 01, 1999 to April 01, 2003 as specified in the advertisement.

For details regarding fee towards application processing, refer to the official notification given at the end of the article.

IOCL Recruitment 2020 Re-Written Test Notice For Experienced Non-Executive Personnel Posts

Educational Criteria And Eligibility

Candidates interested in applying for Soldier - General Duty posts through Army Bharti Rally must have passed Class 10th/Matriculation or equivalent with 45% marks (aggregate) and 33% marks in each subject from a recognised Board/University/Institute as detailed in the advertisement.

Selection And Pay Scale

The selection of candidates to Soldier - General Duty posts through Army Bharti Rally will be done through Physical Fitness Test (PFT), Physical Measurement Test (PMT), Medical Test and Written Test through Common Entrance Examination (CEE) at the Army Rally Site at the Ghoom Army Ground (GAD).

Candidates selected to Soldier - General Duty posts through Army Bharti Rally will be paid emolument as per the Indian Army norms.

MAPIT Recruitment 2020 For 166 Assistant, District E-Governance Managers And Trainers Post

How To Apply

Candidates applying for Soldier - General Duty posts through Army Bharti Rally must register and submit their applications on the official Indian Army website at http://www.joinindianarmy.nic.in/Authentication.aspx on or before April 26, 2020.

Read the detailed notification about Army Bharti Rally for Soldier - General Duty posts here
What the $2 Trillion U.S. Stimulus Package Means for Travel Businesses

Editors Note: Please join my colleagues and Tori Barnes from the U.S. Travel Association online at noon on April 1 for a live discussion of these issues and themes. Well present details from multiple industry sectors as well as explain what we know as of now. You can register here. I hope to (virtually) see you there.  Tom Lowry, Editor-in-Chief

President Donald Trump last week signed what is now known as the CARES Act, a massive $2 trillion stimulus meant to keep the U.S. economic engine running despite concerns about coronavirus.

As businesses will receive a good portion of that money  individuals will receive about $600 billion, according to one estimate  now comes the complicated part for companies. They must apply for money with U.S. government agencies, which will be tasked with deciding what businesses will receive aid, and how much. That will be no small feat, as the law is not always clear about what companies are entitled to money.

Relief Package Webinar on April 1: Register Now to Hear Skift Editors Discuss the Impact on the Travel Industry

All kinds of businesses have the right to make claims. But travel is at the forefront, with legislators creating special piles of money for industries hit hardest, including airlines, airports, and even travel agents. Travel businesses from segments not expressly named in the bill also will jockey for money, hoping they can apply for grants and loans to keep afloat until the coronavirus pandemic passes.

How much travel businesses receive, and how they deploy the funds, will determine the industrys landscape for decades to come. Some will survive. Others, probably many small businesses that make up the majority of travel, wont be as lucky.

Here are some potential winners and losers in the governments new law.

Airlines and Airports

U.S. passenger airlines will have access to roughly $50 billion, half in grants, and half in loans.

After airlines accept federal money, the CARES Act bars them from laying off or furloughing frontline employees  typically flight attendants, pilots, gate and airport agents, and ramp staff through September. In addition, the law limits airlines from buying back shares or increasing executive compensation.

Story continues

Most airlines are expected to apply for federal grants so they can meet payroll needs, and the government should make it relatively easy for carriers to get that money. However, the question of loans is murkier, Jamie Baker, an analyst at JP Morgan, wrote in a report. He noted airlines may go to the government only as a last resort, and at unclear terms.

Should any airline ultimately apply for a loan, language on securitization is vague, stating that applicants would have to post collateral or that loans be made at a rate that reflects risk, suggesting unsecured borrowing may be possible, but at potentially unattractive rates, Baker said.

U.S. airports also will receive $10 billion from the government. The trade group Airports Council International-North America said the money will help defray budget shortfalls and will help airports make bond payments, but said more is needed. U.S. airports are seeing a collapse in airport revenues, with far less money coming in from landing fees, parking, and concessions than expected.

The formula for allocating the stimulus funds will be worked out with the FAA and the U.S. Transportation Department.

Get the Latest on Coronavirus and the Travel Industry on Skifts Liveblog

Hotels

Individual hotel owners and big chains also will get a boost from the CARES Act, but insiders say the law offers short-term funding to an industry that needs a longer-term stimulus.

Hotel operators are included in the group eligible to tap into federal small business loans set aside for businesses negatively impacted from coronavirus. A provision was added in the bill to enable many one-off hotel operators to qualify for small business benefits even if they operate under the flag of a larger brand like Marriott or Hilton. The large brands are not eligible for these federal loans.

We have been advocating on behalf of these small business owners for the (U.S. Small Business Administration) emergency loans that will allow them to remain solvent while operations are suspended at their hotels, a Hilton representative said last week.

These SBA loans are capped at 250 percent of a hotels monthly payroll. Loans are subject to forgiveness, meaning they dont have to be paid back, if hoteliers re-hire employees by June 30. The measure comes as many brands have had to lay off tens of thousands of hotel staff and corporate employees.

But the relief package likely wont give the industry enough of a lift to get back to pre-coronavirus performance levels, according to one hotel trade group CEO.

Were very grateful. The industry has never seen anything like this, so we need a remedy unlike anything weve ever needed, American Hotel & Lodging Association Chip Rogers said. Its definitely a lifeline. Calling it a stimulus package, I wouldnt agree with that. Hoteliers are in survival mode right now. At some point well need an actual stimulus package.

The trade group wanted the small business loan cap at a higher 400 percent monthly payroll rate in order to give operators the ability to address debt payments as well as keep most employees on payroll. Given the uncertainty on when travel restrictions will be lifted, the organization also emphasized a need for a longer timeline to recall furloughed employees.

We dont expect the industry to be back by June 30, Rogers said. By pushing that back to something later like, say Sept. 30, it would allow the industry to get back to full employment and not face financial penalties.

Larger hoteliers werent entirely ignored by Washington. The new laws Coronavirus Economic Stabilization Act of 2020 subset offers $454 billion in liquidity to affected industries like the hospitality sector.

The measure is meant to keep workers on payroll at mid-sized companies with between 500 and 10,000 employees. To be eligible, a larger hotel company would have to use funds to support business operations and keep 90 percent of its workforce with full salaries and benefits through the end of September. This package comes with oversight measures like salary caps as well as bans on stock buybacks while loans are outstanding.

Experts said it could take weeks for hoteliers to get more clarity on the package aimed at larger companies. In the meantime, smaller operators and employees will at least see some degree of improvement in coming weeks.

Short-Term Rentals

Property management companies in the short-term rental sector, like major online travel agencies, were working Monday to understand the fine print in the stimulus package, and were hopeful it would provide enough relief to enable partners to hang on until business normalizes.

U.S. hosts may be eligible for small business grants and loans, as well as unemployment insurance.

Andrew McConnell, the CEO of Rented.com, a revenue management company for short-term rental hosts, said the stimulus package could be the difference in survival or not for many firms depending on the speed of the rollout.

Rented has already seen some host partners fire all staff and cease operations.

If this package can be accessed quickly enough, and things get back to some semblance of normality within a few months  two big ifs  it could provide just the bridge needed to keep businesses open, people employed, and get everyone to the other side of this intact, McConnell said. Right now we are hoping for the best, but at the same time not counting on it.

T.J. Clark, co-founder and CEO of TurnKey Vacation Rentals, said the company is reaching out to legal, banking and tax advisors to determine how to leverage the relief package.

We are hopeful that it could be meaningful, but are not relying on the promise of relief to make the necessary decisions of the day, Clark said.

Cruise Lines

In a late change, perhaps due to political pressure, lawmakers implicitly excluded the cruise industry from government funds.

The bill states that businesses eligible for the allocated $500 billion in government loans and loan guarantees that might otherwise be allocated to cruise companies must be created or organized in the United States or under the laws of the United States and has significant operations in and a majority of its employees based in the United States.

None of the the big three cruise lines  Carnival Corp., Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian Cruise Lines  can easily make that claim. Each has physical headquarters in Miami, but all are incorporated and flag their ships in other nations. A large proportion of their workforce comes from other countries, and they pay comparatively little federal income tax. They also do not have to abide by U.S. labor laws.

Carnival Corp.s CEO had previously indicated his interest in securing a loan guarantee from the government.

A coalition of environmental groups is now calling to make sure political-savvy cruise industry cannot find a way to skirt the wording by claiming they are indeed organized in the United States and thus deserving of aid.

Travel Advisors

There are several facets in the bill that help travel advisors, but a key win was securing the eligibility of travel advisors to apply for $25 billion in loans, loan guarantees, and investments reserved for passenger airlines, other related aviation businesses, and ticket agents  the statutory term for travel advisors.

Politico characterized this provision as one of a handful of special deals included in the bill, as its a specific pot of money that travel advisors are entitled to that fewer businesses will seek.

Travel advisors also will be eligible for the Small Business Interruption Loans/Paycheck Protection Program, a $349 billion dollar fund disbursed by the Small Business Administration. Loans of up to $10 million are available, no collateral is required, and the application process is meant to be streamlined.

The Small Business Administration said it hopes by next week to be approving and disbursing many loans in as little as one day.

Business that did not apply for small business loans can also seek relief from the $425 billion allocated in Economic Stabilization Loans for Severely Distressed Sectors. This fund provides loans and guarantees to U.S. businesses that incurred losses directly or indirectly due to the virus.

In addition, unemployment benefits akin to those normally given to employees will be made available to independent contractors. About 40,000 independent contractor travel advisors work the United States, according to the American Society of Travel Advisors, and these workers usually do not have access to federal and state unemployment benefits.

Travel Technology

Unlike airlines or hotels, travel technology didnt get its own carve out in the legislation. But many companies can still apply for aid.

If they are considered small businesses, they will be able to tap into some of the same resources as travel advisors, including loans. During this crisis, the Small Business Administration now defines small business as a company with no more than $22 million in annual revenue or no more than 500 employees.

Travel tech firms should be able use payroll protection loans to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable, and other bills that cant be paid because of the disasters impact.

The loans are good news for many travel companies, such as Navis, which builds customer-relationship management software for hotels.

We certainly intend to apply for applicable loans, said Wade Tibke, vice president of marketing, technology, and software at Navis, which last week had to lay off a large portion of its workforce.

Travel tech startups, however, may not find it so easy to take government money.

Companies that have taken either significant venture capital or private equity investment may fall into a grey area. Until now, the Small Business Administration usually has not given loans to companies backed by private equity or venture capital. Lobbying groups like TechNet are asking the government to loosen that restriction.

As far as small business loans, yes were planning to apply for them, said CEO Gillian Morris of Hitlist, the startup behind a deal-tracking app.

Destination Marketing and Tourism Boards

The bill does not specifically mention destination marketing organizations or tourism boards. However, the structure of some DMOs will entitle them to certain provisions, according to Don Welsh, president and CEO of Destinations International.

The Emergency Stabilization Fund seems to be the most promising financing tool for destination organizations because it provides relief for 501(c)6s and other nonprofits, but policy makers are still working on guidelines for how this fund will be administered and who will be eligible, he said.

Online Travel Companies

Expedia Group, Booking Holdings and Tripadvisor were still evaluating the relief package. Representatives from all three declined to comment.

Werner Kunz-Cho, co-CEO of Fareportal, which operates CheapOair, said his company is studying the stimulus package to see how it might offset what he called a dramatic decline in sales.

It is too early, right now, to conclusively determine in what capacity the package can help us, Kunz-Cho said. However, we are pleased that our government is stepping up efforts to support companies, such as ours, being drastically affected by this pandemic.

Relief Package Webinar on April 1: Register Now to Hear Skift Editors Discuss the Impact on the Travel Industry

Skift reporters and editors Rosie Spinks, Madhu Unnikrishnan, Dennis Schaal, Cameron Sperance and Sean ONeill contributed to this story.

Subscribe to Skift newsletters for essential news about the business of travel.
Passenger checks in using a touchscreen at JetBlue's terminal in John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City on March 14, 2020. (Kathy Willens/AP Photo)

COVID-19 Could Become Seasonal, Says CDC Director

Americans must prepare for a second wave of COVID-19 to spread across the United States, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director said on March 26, warning that the deadly virus could become seasonal.

This virus is probably not going to go away once it stops its aggressive transmission in the United States, which I anticipate it will, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield told KTAR News on March 26. Well have to get prepared for when this virus may come back.

Redfield said that respiratory viruses, like the CCP virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, have a tendency to be seasonal.

We dont know for certain that this virus is going to follow the pattern of flu, but I think its a reasonable hypothesis to be prepared for, that this may in fact die out, Redfield added. Not to say that the war is over, but basically recognizing that we need to get even more prepared for the next wave.

A tracking map published by Johns Hopkins University, which relies on official government data, shows that the United States has 156,931 confirmed CCP virus cases and 2,880 deaths.

Redfield told CNN in February he believes the CCP virus will be with us beyond this season and beyond this year.

I think eventually the virus will find a foothold, and we will get community-based transmission, he said at the time.

The U.S. governments foremost infectious disease expert recently warned that the United States could experience more than 100,000 deaths and millions of infections as a result of the CCP virus pandemic.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, in an interview on CNNs State of the Union on March 29, said that he would say between 100,000 and 200,000 Americans will die from the virus.

Were going to have millions of cases, he said, adding that he didnt want to be held to that statement because the pandemic is such a moving target.

Experts have said that most people who suffer from COVID-19 have mild or moderate symptoms that dont require hospitalizations or intensive care. The fatality rate is higher among elderly people and individuals with underlying health problems.

The pandemic has upended everyday life around the world, causing closures of businesses and schools as federal and state officials seek to enforce measures to curb the spread of the disease.

The White House on March 29 extended its guidelines for stopping the spread of the CCP virus to April 30.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
The Chief of Staff to the President, Mr Abba Kyari has arrived in Lagos to receive treatment for Coronavirus.

Recall that some days ago, Kyari was confirmed to have tested positive for the virus, days after coming back from Germany.

Also Read: Senators To Donate 50% Of Salary To Help Fight Coronavirus

Recall also that on Sunday, the presidential aide said based on medical advice, Kyari will be transferred to Lagos for additional tests and observation after testing positive for COVID-19.

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Now, in a new development, Daily Trust reports that Kyari has been conveyed in an air ambulance to Lagos on Monday.
Press Release

29 March 2020

The Young Hoteliers Summit (YHS)remains a testament to the consistency of the traditional and the progressive and innovative nature of the new. The rapid evolution of the Covid-19 situation meant that the physical summit had to be canceled just two weeks prior to the event. Nonetheless, extraordinary times have always driven innovation and change, and the YHS2020 team was no different. In less than two weeks, YHS stripped down to its core and transformed itself into a virtual summit that took place on 16 and 17 March.

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The foundation of YHS lies in its ability to bring together industry professionals and young hoteliers to exchange ideas and accelerate progress in the industry. The virtual summit extended this experience globally, as the team embodied this year's theme of giving power to the people and adopting a mindset that is set on growth.YHS Virtual 2020 was a product of innovation, a keen sense of community, and a collaborative effort. With over400-600registrations on each day, the summit saw up to 250 to 300 people tuning in live for each session - a higher number than usual YHSsummitwould have reached.

YHS 2020 is proud to have taken on this challenge alongside its speakers: Anita Mendiratta, Elaine Teo, Paul Genovese, Michael Levie, Marc Dardenne, HenriRoelings, Steve Hood, StanleyFourteau and Hans Meyer, as well as all the YHS 2020 partners and EcoleHoteliere de Lausanne.

While a common concern with virtual conferences is the degree of interactivity on such platforms, YHS Virtual 2020 was heartened to see the enthusiasm of its participants as attendees used live chat sessions and live Q&As to interact not only with the speakers but also among themselves. In these tumultuous times, YHS has witnessed the strength of innovation in adversity and the strength of the community. The success of this virtual summit hopes to set new ground for creating hybrid events to reach even wider audiences both physically and virtually.

The future is here and YHS 2020 was ready to embrace it.

In case you missed it, view the recorded sessions of the virtual summit here

Photo: YHS Global

About YHS

Creating greater networks, building hospitality connections around the world, the Young Hoteliers Summit (YHS) has come a long way since its inauguration in 2010. As the largest student-run summit in the world, YHS brings together aspiring hoteliers from the world's top hospitality institutions, with industry professionals across the globe.

YHS Virtual 2020 Theme "Power to the People; The Growth Mindset"

Mindsets and preferences are shifting faster than some can adapt. At the core of navigating this evolution, are the people who need to adopt a multi-generational perspective, in order to drive business transformation alongside these changing needs. YHS 2020 seeks to empower our attendees to face the industry's challenges head-on, by inspiring a mindset that is constantly set on adapting and growing.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone into quarantine after one of his staff tested positive for coronavirus, his office said today.

Netanyahu, 70, and his close aides will be 'in confinement until tests are completed' and the premier is cleared by the health ministry.

The PM's office said Netanyahu is awaiting results from his latest test, after previously being found negative on March 15.

Israeli media said the infected aide had been present at a parliament session last week attended by Netanyahu as well as opposition lawmakers.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured) has gone into quarantine after one of his staff tested positive for coronavirus, his office said today

Netanyahu's office said the quarantine decision was precautionary because the PM had not been in recent contact with the sick staffer.

'Over the past two weeks the two were never in the same room at the same time,' a statement said.

A statement from Israel's parliament, identified the staffer as Rivka Paluch, Netanyahu's parliamentary aide, noting three dates she had been in the building.

Members of the Knesset and their staff have already been instructed to follow the health ministry's orders and self-quarantine if they were in her vicinity.

The Knesset said it was offering footage from its surveillance cameras to the health ministry for them to see where and when Paluch had been in the building.

Israel's health ministry regulations generally require 14-day self-isolation for anyone deemed to have been in proximity with a carrier.

The duration is reduced for the number of days that have passed since the suspected exposure.

Netanyahu had been due to convene officials today to discuss a proposed lockdown of some of the country.

An Israeli official said Netanyahu has been following medical advice and holding most meetings by video-conference.

Israel has reported 4,347 cases and 15 fatalities, but officials warn that the dead could eventually number in the thousands.

After a year of political stalemate, Netanyahu is trying to build an emergency coalition government to help address the coronavirus crisis.

Three elections in less than 12 months all proved inconclusive, with neither Netanyahu nor his rival Benny Gantz winning a clear majority.

A protester uses an Israeli flag as a face mask during a protest against Netanyahu outside the parliament in Jerusalem last week

Gantz has now softened his stance on working with Netanyahu, and was elected parliament speaker on Thursday - apparently abandoning his hopes of being PM.

The two men held talks through Saturday night 'aimed at establishing a national emergency government to deal with the corona crisis,' a joint statement said.

Netanyahu's critics accuse him of exploiting the crisis to stay in power and weaken Israel's democratic institutions.

The PM and his surrogates have shut down the court system, approved the use of sophisticated phone-surveillance technology on the general public and temporarily suspended the activities of parliament.

Meanwhile, Gantz's move towards compromise has split the Blue and White alliance which he led in the three elections.

Netanyahu also has corruption charges hanging over his head, after he was indicted on bribery, fraud and breach of trust allegations in January.

However, his trial has been delayed by the pandemic. He denies the charges and claims they are politically motivated.
A federal judge has granted a temporary restraining order allowing Alabama abortion clinics to continue providing abortions during the COVID-19 crisis.

United States District Judge Myron Thompson, the same judge who blocked Alabamas abortion ban from going into effect in Nov. 2019, ordered in a court filing Monday night that the March 27th order by the Alabama Department of Public Health postponing non-emergency medical procedures would not apply to abortion clinics.

Despite the serious conditions described by defendants and the dire need for medical equipment across the United States, the benefits of some potential increase in the availability of equipment (some of which may be ill-suited to the task of disease containment) do not outweigh the serious, and, in some cases, permanent, harms imposed by the denial of an individuals right to privacy, Judge Myron Thompson wrote in a court filing.

The temporary restraining order will last until April 13, 2020, at 5:00 p.m., when the court will reconsider the order in light of defendants responses.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama earlier Monday had filed an emergency request in federal court to prevent Alabama from using the the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent people from obtaining an abortion.

Representing Dr. Yashica Robinson, an abortion care provider in Huntsville and three independent abortion clinics, the ACLU of Alabama challenged the Alabama Department of Public Healths notice on March 27 mandating the postponement of all surgical and medical procedures not necessary to treat an emergency medical condition or avoid serious harm from an underlying condition.

The motion also seeks a temporary restraining order blocking the state from shutting down abortion services.

The plaintiffs believe the language used in the mandate would allow abortions to be performed, but as of Sunday, Attorney General Steve Marshall refused to provide any further guidance as to how it is interpreting the scope of the order other than to make plain that in its view someand perhaps mostabortions are not permitted," according to the court filing.

Because of the current interpretation of the ADPH guidelines, abortion clinics in Alabama have already been forced to start cancelling abortions scheduled for today, March 30. According to the court filing, if a court does not enter an injunction by 8 p.m. providers will be forced to cancel the more than 20 abortions scheduled for Tuesday, including one patient who will be pushed past the legal limit for abortion in Alabama.

Government response to the spread of COVID-19 must be grounded in science and public health, not politics, said Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, in an emailed press release. As leading medical experts have recognized, abortion is essential, time-sensitive health care. Alabamas attempts to prevent patients from accessing abortion care does nothing to slow the spread of COVID-19, it just stops people from getting this essential care.

According to the court brief counsel for the plaintiffs talked to the counsel for the Alabama Department of Public Health on March 20 to confirm that the order to limit medical procedures was not intended to apply to abortions.

The public health order currently in effect statewide does not require the full closure of any business, and even in Jefferson County, where non-essential businesses have been ordered closed, clinics in general are still open as essential, Arrol Sheehan, director of public information at ADPH, said in an emailed statement to AL.com on March 25.

But on March 27, the State Public Health Officer issued a second amended order to postpone all medical or surgical procedures until further notice.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said Alabama abortion clinics will not be exempt from the March 27th ADPH order postponing all non-emergency surgical procedures.

At a time when all Americans are making significant sacrifices to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, it is remarkable that one class of providers demands to be treated differently than all others, Marshall said in a press release. "Abortion clinics want an exemption, yet they are by no means exempt from the known risks of spreading the virus in crowded waiting rooms, depleting scarce personal protective equipment that should be reserved for those treating the virus, and transferring patients with complications to already overburdened hospitals.

Marshall also announced he is joining an amicus brief supporting Texas and Ohio as the two states attempt to outlaw abortion during the COVID-19 crisis.

Sixteen states, including Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia, signed an amicus brief in support of Alabama prohibiting abortions during the COVID-19 crisis to conserve personal protective equipment for the treatment of coronavirus patients.

Alabama voted to ban nearly all abortions, including pregnancies due to rape and incest, in May 2019. A federal judge blocked the ban from going into affect until after a lawsuit brought on by Planned Parenthood and the ACLU of Alabama played out in the courts.

Candace OBrien, healthcare services programs manager for the Yellowhammer Fund, a reproductive rights organization in Alabama, said there has been an influx of people calling the fund seeking abortions because of job loss and financial instability amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Declaring that abortion is not an essential healthcare service or that it can be put on hold for a few weeks or longer in the same way an elective surgery can be is both factually inaccurate and grossly cruel to those facing an unwanted pregnancy, OBrien said. Unlike true elective procedures, an abortion cannot be put off indefinitely without adding health risks to the patient or hitting legal limitations enforced by the government.

AL.com reached out to ADPH for clarification of the March 27 order, but has yet to receive a response.
Up to 200 prisoners will be given a temporary early release in Northern Ireland in a bid to stop the spread of coronavirus.

There is yet to be a confirmed case of coronavirus in the region's prisons, but Northern Ireland Justice Minister, Naomi Long, said that, in anticipation of that moment and strained staffing levels, she now 'considers it necessary to release some prisoners early'.

Last week the Department of Justice said 163 prison officers out of a 1,200-strong workforce are self-isolating due to Covid-19.

Ms Long described the decision as a 'significant one which should only be taken when there is no alternative'.

The temporary early release of up to 200 prisoners has been announced by Northern Ireland justice minister Naomi Long. Pictured is Crumlin Road Gaol jail in Belfast

'Such a move is contrary to the ethos of the justice system and will cause distress to victims and their families,' she said.

'However, in the context of the pandemic we are facing, and to ensure as far as possible the safety and wellbeing of staff and those in our care, it is, I believe, an appropriate and reasonable step.'

Ms Long said she anticipates the release of fewer than 200 individuals and each will be assessed against criteria.

There are currently 1,521 prisoners in Northern Ireland.

Prisoners serving a life sentence, detained under the mental health act, those serving a sentence for a terrorist offence and those deemed a risk are among those who will not be eligible for early release.

'These individuals will be subject to a number of NIPS applied conditions including a curfew, a requirement to follow all Public Health Agency guidance during the current emergency period, a ban on victim contact, an alcohol ban and a ban on having any engagement with the media,' she said.

'It is important to note that prisoners released under Rule 27 may be recalled to prison at any time, whether release conditions have been broken or not.'

The minister added: 'The challenges over the coming days will be great and in closing it is right that I pay tribute to the staff of the Northern Ireland Prison Service who on our behalf are providing a vital public service in the most difficult of circumstances.

'The work of prison staff is seldom seen but it should never be underestimated.'
TV channel NewsOne journalist Tetiana Sivokon was physically attacked on 24 March by a shop owner while shooting a story about the sale of protective medical masks, The International and European Federation of Journalists (IFJ and EF) recall the press freedom right of covering news on Covid-19.

Ukraine is experiencing masks shortage during the coronavirus pandemic. While preparing a report on this topic, NewsOne TV crew was informed by locals that the owner of a drug store in the Khmelnitsky region had several large boxes with medical masks.

The targeted journalist Tetiana Sivokon explained: We went to this shop, saw the announcement that masks are in stock. I politely introduced myself and asked if I could buy masks. Seeing the camera, the man began to pull the masks pack from my hands. He said that masks are not for sale, that they are for employees only.

After I informed that I had called the police, the man walked around and attacked me from behind, started to wring my hand and twist my fingers to snatch the masks from my hands. He also damaged microphone, she added.

Doctors diagnosed the journalist with severely ligament damage and put a cast on her hand. The National Police of Ukraine recorded the injury and started an investigation into the incident.

The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) is outraged at this obstruction of journalistic activity:In Ukraine, the level of physical aggression against journalists is usually high, and obviously the current situation is making their work even more complicated. Attacks on media workers during the coverage of the coronavirus epidemic are totally unacceptable, the President of the NUJU Sergiy Tomilenko emphasized. "Together with doctors and health care workers, law enforcement officers and rescuers, journalists are at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus. Journalists cannot go into self-isolation because they do an important public mission. They promptly and objectively inform citizens about an emergency caused by an epidemic. Reporters nowadays are consciously risking their own health. Law enforcement and government must strongly respond to attacks on media workers.
Report Scope: This report presents a general overview of biofuel types, manufacturing methods, feedstock options, typical plant costs, and operating margins, followed by an analysis of major geographical markets: North America, Europe, South America, Asia-Pacific, and Africa and the Middle East.

New York, March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Biofuels: Global Markets" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05878600/?utm_source=GNW

Each regional evaluation includes estimates of market size for sales of ethanol, biodiesel, and other fuel types, and a forecast for growth to 2024.



Projections are expressed in constant (2019) U.S. dollars. The report concludes with a discussion of industry structure and brief company profiles of the various players in the area.



Report Includes:

- 112 tables

- An overview of the global markets for liquid biofuels within the industry

- Analyses of global market trends, with data corresponding to market size from 2018 and 2019, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2024

- A look at the regulatory framework regarding the use of biofuels, incentives for fuel production, and the number and capacity of manufacturing plants

- Analysis of significant patent data and their allotments in each category underlying discoveries in biofuels market

- Information on the market opportunities and market outlook for major listed companies and strategies that may lead to a better understanding of the market from a practical perspective

- Market share analysis of key market participants and assessment of their competitive landscape

- Profile description of market leading corporations, including Acciona Energy, Beta Renewables, Cargill, Evonik Industries, GreenShift Corp., Novozymes, Synthetic Genomics Inc. and Virent Energy Systems



Summary:

Biofuel is a solid, liquid, or gaseous fuel derived from recently dead biological material as distinguished from fossil fuels derived from long dead biological material.Theoretically, biofuels can be produced from any biological carbon source; however, the most common sources are photosynthetic plants.



Currently, the most common biofuels are liquid fuels used primarily in transportation applications. In this report, the term biofuels will be used in this context.



In world regions outside of North America, the biofuels market was worth about REDACTED in 2018 and REDACTED in 2019.The market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of REDACTED to REDACTED in 2024, with most of the growth coming from biodiesel and advanced biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol.



The greatest market growth will take place in a few EU member states, Asia-Pacific and South America. The Africa and Middle East regions will remain relatively under-developed due to a lack of investment.



There are a number of reasons for the projected relatively gradual increase in biofuels consumption in most major markets. Biofuels consumption is to a large extent policy-driven, i.e., the result of various government mandates and incentives. A number of government policy objectives provide the motivation for these mandates and incentives, including increasing energy security and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Most major biofuel consuming nations already have a policy framework for biofuels in place, so new regulations are unlikely to lead to major increases in biofuels consumption in the near to mid-term.



The next most important market driver for biofuels is the price of oil. The price of benchmark Brent crude oil, which at times has been as high as $145 per barrel, was slightly over $71 in 2018 and is expected to decline still further in the next few years.



Feedstock costs are another major influence on the market for biofuels.Feedstocks prices can swing wildly from high to low, disrupting farmers planting plans, the cost of manufacturing biofuels, and the profitability of ethanol and biodiesel.



For example, U.S. corn production has been at record high levels in recent years, which has kept corn prices generally stable in the $3.40 and $4.00 per bushel range, and increased the profitability of U.S. ethanol production. U.S. corn prices increased somewhat in 2019, but it is difficult to draw any conclusions about a long-term trend that might put a damper on ethanol production.



A more serious consequence of increased biofuel demand is the impact on world food and feed prices.The global rise in population, and greater percentage of food crops used to manufacture biofuels, has been criticized for diverting food away from the human food chain, leading to food shortages and price rises.



Land and water use are other challenges.The desire to diversity away from biofuel feedstocks that compete with other human needs, of course has been the driver behind the development of so-called advanced biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol and algal biodiesel.



However, the technological obstacles to commercializing these advanced biofuels have proven greater than some proponents once envisioned.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05878600/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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(Bloomberg) --

Coronavirus deaths in Italy and Spain rose above 17,000, keeping Europe focused on further restricting peoples movements and avoiding a health-care collapse.

Italy, the country with the most reported deaths, recorded 756 new fatalities on Sunday. Spains Health Ministry said 838 people died from the virus over the last 24 hours, its highest daily number yet. Both countries together have more than five times the deaths reported in China, where the outbreak began.

Spains patients in intensive care surpassed the national capacity of some 4,400 beds, forcing health-care workers to decide whom to treat first. While officials say the increases in deaths and infections are leveling off, that focuses attention on the suffering and risks in hospitals.

It seems the evolution has stabilized and could even be starting to fall, but the fundamental problem now is to ensure that our ICUs arent saturated, Health Ministry spokesman Fernando Simon said at a briefing in Madrid.

Italys death toll rose to 10,779, with the number of infections approaching 100,000. Spain has recorded 6,528 deaths linked to the virus.

In a small glimmer of hope, the pace of increases in deaths slowed for a fourth day in Spain, deaths in Italy fell for a second day and new infections are rising more slowly in both countries. Officials warned against complacency.

The human toll is a reason to be even stricter, Luca Richeldi, an Italian government medical adviser, told reporters. We must be even more determined in complying with the measures.

The economic costs of the crisis continue to mount. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday repeated his call for a European Marshall Plan, a reference to the U.S. aid program credited with pulling Western Europe out of its post-World War II devastation. European Union member states remain at odds over how best to buttress their economies as the costs of countering the pandemic and supporting workers and companies rise.

Story continues

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Contes calls for coordinated EU action, specifically for the issuance of joint debt, have been met with German and Dutch opposition and countries have adopted their own bailout plans.

Deputy Finance Minister Laura Castelli told La Stampa the Italian governments aid package could increase to as much as 100 billion euros ($111 billion). That compares with 750 billion euros mobilized by Germany and 300 billion euros by France.

More than 200,000 French businesses have applied for assistance to keep 2.2 million workers on the payroll during the virus-induced lockdown, Labor Minister Muriel Penicaud said.

France, where the Covid-19 virus has killed more than 2,600 people, is gauging the success of quarantine measures by the number of patients in intensive care.

If there has been less contact between people thanks to the confinement, Director-General of Health Jerome Salomon said Sunday, we should start to see a reduction in the number of new cases requiring intensive care each day.

Sunday Every Day

Sanchez on Saturday announced tighter restrictions on movement, ordering those who work in non-essential services to stay home during the Easter period. Companies must still pay employees in full and workers will have to make up the hours by the end of the year.

The premise is that we all stay at home, Labor Minister Yolanda Diaz said on Sunday. We need to reduce mobility and convert all of the days of the week into Sundays.

The government hasnt published a list of non-essential sectors. Spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero said people who must keep working were those in the health sector, public administration, armed forces, police and food supply.

Read more: The latest virus news

More than 17,300 coronavirus victims  more than half the worlds total  have been reported in Italy and Spain. European borders have been closed with many other countries adopting similar lockdowns.

The U.K.s restrictions  for now a three-week lockdown with schools and many businesses closed  could last for a significant period, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove indicated on Sunday. Fatalities in the U.K. have increased to 1,228 with 19,522 confirmed cases.

Even as Europe grapples with the virus, the challenge is spreading elsewhere. U.S. deaths could reach 200,000, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said on CNNs State of the Union.

There are signs that new cases may be tapering in Italy, which reported a second straight daily decline in deaths on Sunday.

Still, the global outbreak may be just the first round of the pandemic, and even if it ends in the coming months new infections will likely follow, Novartis AG Chief Executive Officer Vas Narasimhan told Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung.

A pandemic comes in waves, Narasimhan said. Its therefore important to continue to test and collect data.

(Updates with French comments on ICU patients in 12th paragraph.)

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
The Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mrs. Barbara Oteng Gyasi, says she would engage government on a stimulus support system to cushion the tourism industry in the wake of COVID-19.



She explained that government recognized the immense contribution of the industry to the economy and would put in place measures to ensure that the sector does not suffer as a result of the pandemic.



The minister was speaking at a stakeholders meeting in Accra to brainstorm how best to seek support from government due to the effects of the disease on the sector.



The meeting brought together representatives from the Ghana Tourism Federation which represents 23 institutions to chart the path forward in addressing challenges faced by the industry.



The stakeholders have developed a proposal to the ministry on the effects of the disease on their operations and the ministry promised to engage the leadership of the federation to President Akufo-Addo for assistance.



This, the minister explained, was necessary because the sector employed a huge number of people across the value chain sector for socioeconomic development.



She was optimistic that the engagement with the President would yield positive results and explore ways of discussing with the financial institutions to extend the payment of moratorium with industry players.



Mrs Oteng-Gyasi commended the hotel industry for availing their facility to government to be used as a quarantine centre, stressing that their efforts had demonstrated love and service to humanity in this difficult situation.



She urged members to register with the federation for a united front, priority would be given to groups affiliated or aligned with the federation.



Mrs Bella A. Ahu, president of the federation, appealed to government to grant its members incentives to compensate negative impact of the pandemic on the industry.



The federation is seeking for subsidy in water and electricity tariffs, suspension of taxes such as VAT, Tourism Levy, National Health Insurance Levy, Property rate and Business Operating Permit, she said.

Source: Daily Guide









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Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 17:59:02|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Iran's confirmed novel coronavirus cases jumped by 3,186 on Monday to a total of 41,495, Iran's health ministry announced.

The death toll rose by 117 to reach 2,757, Kianush Jahanpur, head of Public Relations and Information Center of Ministry of Health and Medical Education, was quoted as saying by official IRNA news agency.

Jahanpur said that fortunately, 13,911, of all the reported cases, have recovered.

The Iranian health official added that 3,511 of the patients are in critical condition.

So far, over 63 million people have been screened for the novel coronavirus symptoms as part of nation-wide efforts aimed at containing the spread of disease, he added.
Joe Biden sought to heal rifts in the Democratic party yesterday by heaping praise on nomination rival Bernie Sanders after a poll showed Donald Trump rapidly closing the gap with the former vice-president.

Mr Trump's approval rating has reached 49pc, the highest since he took office, according to a poll released yesterday.

The figures suggest the Democrat attacks on the administration's management of the coronavirus crisis have not hit home, even though the United States is bracing itself for massive job losses in the wake of the outbreak.

The surge in support for Mr Trump, who has given daily press conferences during the crisis, comes at a time when he has secured bipartisan support for a $2trn (1.8trn) economic rescue package.

He has also invoked the Defence Production Act to order GM, one of America's big three carmakers, to make much-needed ventilators for the country's hospitals.

The ABC-'Washington Post' poll gave Mr Biden a narrow two-point lead over Mr Trump.

Even though other polls put Mr Biden further ahead, the surge in the president's approval rating will have set off alarm bells among Democrat strategists.

Mr Biden, who now looks almost certain to win the Democratic nomination for November's presidential election, was careful not to put pressure on Mr Sanders to abandon his campaign when he appeared on NBC.

"Bernie Sanders has poured his heart and soul into this campaign. He is moving the ball on a number of issues that relate to what are government's responsibilities," he said. "I think it's up to Bernie to make the judgment whether or not he should stay in the race... I think he's had a real impact - he brought a lot of people into the process that weren't in before."

Mr Biden's remarks appear intended to avoid the sort of split between the progressive and moderate wings of the party that dealt a fatal blow to Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016. While there was little love lost between Ms Clinton and Mr Sanders, Mr Biden's relationship with the Vermont senator is far more cordial.

Mr Biden was also measured in his criticism of Mr Trump, noting voters tended to rally behind the president in a crisis. "I hope we're in a situation, going into the fall, where this is under control, where we've done all the right things and the president is listening to the scientists," he said. ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
People exercise along the Schuylkill River bank in Philadelphia on March 20. Despite calls for social distancing, many people were out enjoying the beautiful weather, which reached nearly 80 degrees that day. Read more

When Randy LoBasso, policy manager at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, set out recently for a bike ride, he was stunned.

I rode up to Schuylkill Banks, and it was like  mobbed," he said. " ... Nobody was getting six feet distance from each other.

The Bike Coalition spearheaded a successful effort to close Martin Luther King Drive to vehicular traffic from East Falls Bridge to Eakins Oval so pedestrians and bikers have new space to get exercise or clear their heads during the coronavirus pandemic.

Now LoBasso and other advocacy groups want Philadelphia to close even more streets to cars, such as the roads through the 2,052-acre Fairmount Park.

Theres not much space in the city to get exercise," he said, and I think that especially now, physical and mental exercise is really important just because everyone I know is so stressed out.

The idea has seen support from Councilmembers Jamie Gauthier and Helen Gym, too.

We have gotten requests, city spokesperson Kelly Cofrancisco said last week, but the city has no other plans at the moment.

An uptick on the trails

People are walking and biking on local trails in huge numbers, according to data from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

Figures from trail counters along the Chester Valley, Delaware River, Schuylkill River, Wissahickon, and Schuylkill Banks trails are up between March 1 to March 24 this year, compared with the same time last year, by 52% to 96%.

A nearly snowless winter contributed to soaring counts, said Shawn Megill Legendre, assistant manager of regional trail programs at the DVRPC. So did the coronavirus.

The Chester Valley Trail saw the highest spike of 96%, while recent weekday levels along the Schuylkill Banks look more like they would on a summery weekend.

Just like inside, people using these facilities really do need to be following the guidelines that have been laid out by federal, state, and local officials in terms of physical distancing," Megill Legendre said. Its just as important outside as it is inside.

Pennsylvania officials are asking residents to stay inside unless necessary, though walks or outdoor activity are permitted, as gyms and playgrounds were ordered closed. New Yorkers over the weekend saw a pilot program that shut four streets to traffic in a move to make room for pedestrians to get exercise while staying far apart. But in Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot closed off its popular lakefront area after swarms ignored social distancing calls.

Expanding beyond MLK Drive

Feet First Philly, a Clean Air Council-sponsored pedestrian advocacy group, is part of the open streets effort. The group is circulating a petition and is offering its own ideas, such as Kelly and Lincoln Drives, but also seeks input from others.

Jennifer Dougherty, Feet First Philly steering committee chair, recognizes the importance of creating space in a city such as Philadelphia, where not everyone has a backyard and streets are often narrow.

As the weather gets more and more beautiful, its going to be harder and harder for people to stay inside all the time, and demand is only going to increase," she said. And wed hate to see a kind of situation where our public parks or trails become so crowded that they become a vector."
BRIDGEPORT  Mayor Joseph Ganim believes the city needs to reallocate $500,000 to purchase 2,000 laptops so upper grade students can better access distance-learning programs.

But just where that money would come from is unknown to some of the City Council members.

Ganim has taken to Facebook Live everyday around noon to conduct a town meeting in which he discusses various issues impacting residents, businesses and city employees during the governors stay-home directive to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. On Monday, the mayor said he had spoken to Acting Superintendent of Schools Michael Testani and City Council leadership about reallocating $500,000 in funding to purchase approximately 2,000 laptops.

I spoke to the state about how theyre doing 60,000 computers  we havent seen one yet and thats not a criticism, the mayor said. But we need to move ahead quickly if were going to do remote learning and were going to be the best we can at it. We need to make the transition. We need to do the full pivot where we can for as many students as we can. If that means committing more resources to that, were going to do that.

And getting students laptops is only half the battle, which is why the mayor commended Optimum and the private sector for stepping up during this crisis. Ganim said Optimum has made its emergency designated WiFi hotspots available to people living in the 06604, 06605, 06606 and 06608 zip codes.

The mayor said hes going to look at purchasing up to 2,000 laptops in conjunction with the Board of Ed. with the support of the City Council and start with where theyre felt to be best applied. If others dont supply high school seniors with laptops quickly, well buy them and well get them in their hands. We think this is critical.

Scott Burns, who co-chairs the Councils budgetary committee, said Ganim did not talk to him about it. Both he and his co-chair, Mike DeFilippo said they have no idea where this money will come from.

They have scheduled a virtual meeting for Tuesday night, but Burns said reallocation of $500,000 is not on the agenda and would require a special meeting.

Coronavirus in Connecticut Free laptop distribution is a month away

Meanwhile, Testani said he already has spoke to vendors.

If we were to get the money today or tomorrow, Testani said he optimistically believes he could have the laptops by April 20 depending on how long it takes to install the necessary software and programs.

That would give us two full months of access to distance learning, said Testani, who suspects schools probably will close for the rest of the year.

But Hernan Illingworth, the Board of Educations vice chairman, would like to take the purchase one step further.

Im hoping we can take that $500,000 and match it on our part to some extent, he said. Im wishful. ... Id like to see us have all new devices by the start of the school year in the fall.

Testani suggested the new devices go first to high school students who dont have access to computers in their homes. Any left over would go to eighth and then seventh grade students.

He estimates about half of the citys 22,000 students already have access to computers in their home. There are about 5,000 students attending high school and another 3,200 in seventh and eighth grades.

For those interested in hearing more about how the districts distance learning has been going so far, on Tuesday at 3 p.m. Testani will use the citys page to host a Facebook Live session to discuss the subject with parents and students.

Ill be telling and demonstrating to parents the simplest way to get their childrens work to their teachers is by photographing the pages with a smart phone and then emailing the photos to the teachers, he said. Then they dont have to worry about coming to the school with completed pages.

As for students, he said he will encourage them to stay committed to learning during these days away.

Were looking to put a plan in place that may involve implementing some summer programs and then on Saturdays and after school in the fall, he said.

As for graduating to the next grade level, the acting superintendent said it will be based on the three previous marking periods as well as what is completed during this time away from school.

He suggested that parents consider what other states are allowing, which is continuing the same grade the child was in next year.

If it was my child thats what I would do, he said.

Illingworth said that might be a good idea for the younger students but I dont know how parents or students who are older and in the upper grades would react.
Jail officials have reopened a recently closed building to house other inmates, placing detainees who test positive in one part of the facility and those with symptoms  a fever, cough, sore throat  in another, said two people with knowledge of the inner workings of the jail. Both groups were given masks.

Yet in interviews, six jail employees and eight people either recently released or still being held on Rikers Island described a tense, crowded and unsanitary atmosphere inside the 10 jails there. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their jobs or out of fear of reprisals from law enforcement officials.

Jimmy, who was recently released from Rikers Island, said that he and other detainees had mixed shampoo with water and used the solution to disinfect countertops, doorknobs and other areas in a dorm shared by 50 men. They had not been given cleaning supplies, he said. Feces was on the walls of some holding pens and dorm areas, two detainees said.

Social distancing is impossible, he said. In the Rikers jailhouse where Jimmy was, 40 to 50 inmates use the same toilets and share three phones to call loved ones and lawyers. During meals, the detainees sit at five tables with six stools. Thats elbow to elbow, Jimmy said. Some of the tables are caked with food from previous meals, he said.

Department officials said that phones are sanitized every two hours and that inmates have access to soap and cleaning supplies.

Several detainees and recently released people said they learned about the virus from friends and family or from watching television. The only guidance they received from correction staff was a pamphlet instructing them to cough into their arms and to wash their hands often.

Another inmate said during a telephone interview that correction staff met with a group of detainees and encouraged them to eat more fruit, and told them that the coronavirus was no worse than the common cold.
New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) In the backdrop of large movement of migrant labourers from cities to their villages, the Centre on Friday issued an advisory directing all states and Union Territories (UTs) to take immediate steps to provide adequate supp Image Source: IANS News

Bengaluru, March 30 : The sudden nationwide 21-day lockdown since March 25 to contain coronavirus spread has stalled harvesting in Karnataka due to labour shortage and a host of other problems.

A.N. Subramani, 36, a farmer in Kodagu's Hudoor village, who grows paddy, pepper, coffee, is one of the thousands of ryots grappling with the crisis due to the prolonged lockdown.

"Estate work has halted due to the sudden lockdown. Harvesting the crop is delayed for want of labour, as there is no transport to ferry workers to the fields," Subramani told IANS.

Subramani has 10 acres of coffee plantation and 5 acres of paddy field in the village, about 270 km southwest of Bengaluru.

Though farmers in the southern state hire more local labour than migrants, suspension of transport and physical distancing have put paid to their efforts in engaging them.

"Labour shortage has made hiring workers from surrounding areas expensive as they are in huge demand and those from other districts have rushed to their native place," Subramani lamented.

As the district authorities advised the farmers not to hire outsiders in the absence of transport, labour shortage is more pronounced in the region.

"We will not be able to sell the crop as harvesting is delayed. With buyers or traders also staying away from the market, we won't be able to collect money soon," Subramani said.

Watering of coffee plantations, picking pepper and manuring have also stopped due to non-availability of labour. Farm machinery cannot be used in coffee and pepper plantations, which are grown in hilly areas on gradient land.

"Pepper is picked with hands, using ladder and bamboo stick to climb tall trees. Coffee plantations are watered with aluminium or plastic pipes connected to sprinklers by workers," Subramani said.

With markets and shops shutdown, A. Nachappa, 39, another farmer from Karmad village in the same district, is unable to buy fertilisers and pesticides for his coffee and pepper plantations spread over 30 acres of land.

"The sudden disruption will lead to price fluctuation and increased input cost. Due to floods in August, the quality of coffee beans and pepper is low. They have to be sold at lesser price than last year," pointed out Nachappa.

Admitting that the state government was yet to come to terms with the crisis gripping farmers, Karnataka Agriculture Commissioner Brijesh Kumar Dixit said reverse migration of labour would have minimal impact on farm activities as more locals are hired.

"Agricultural labour is more local or from adjacent districts in the region. Some come from neighbouring Tamil Nadu when there is shortage and demand is more for farming or harvesting," Dixit told IANS.

With the central government exempting agriculture activities from lockdown since March 27, Dixit hoped farming and harvesting would revive soon. "The new guidelines from the Union Home Ministry allow farmers to hire labour, harvest crops, transport grains to the market and sell them above the minimum support price," noted Dixit.

The revised guidelines allow farmers to buy seeds and fertilisers and other stakeholders to process their produce.

As rabi crop has been harvested in the state in January, only intermediate crops are sown for harvesting by mid-April before the onset of summer.

Around 1.1 lakh hectares of farm lands are cultivated across the state, with 75,000 hectares for kharif crop (June-September), 30,000 hectares rabi crop (October-December) and the remaining 5,000 hectares for the summer crop (January-April).

Though floods in August led to a shortfall in kharif output, the rabi crop was a bumper owing to increasing ground water following heavy monsoon rains till September last year.

"As rabi crop has been harvested, only summer crop remains to be cut. Sowing operation for summer crop begin after January 15. Paddy, groundnuts, millet and sunflower are grown during the lean season," added another official.

(Sharon Thambala can be contacted atAthambalasharon@gmail.com)
Since April, Saudis plan to start up to full capacity and pump out a record 12.3 million barrels per day

In March, many countries reduced their oil purchases due to world market conditions and general lockdown, which led to a drop in global demand and an increase in transportation prices.

Large American, Chinese, Polish, Indian, Finnish and British refineries also cut Saudi oil imports in March-April.

According to estimates by the International Energy Agency, in the coming months, global oil demand will fall by 20%, and the cost of transportation will continue to rise. And this means that the problems for world gas stations will not end at least until the end of spring.

This is very bad news for the Saudis. Since April, they plan to start up to full capacity and pump out a record 12.3 million barrels per day, filling the world markets with their oil. But how to do this when these same markets are closed?

The introduction of total quarantine in India this week can be very painful for them. The country is one of the largest buyers of Middle Eastern oil.

April-May will be decisive for the position of Saudi Arabia in oil. If they do not find a way to sell their oil, which they want to pump out unlimited, then difficult times will come for Riyadh.

They will have to win back the situation and either abandon plans to increase production, or return to the negotiating table with Russia to revive the OPEC + agreements.

Well, or continue the race, relying on its reserves and trying to hold out longer than the Russian Federation.
USNS Mercy, one of the U.S. Navy's two seaborne floating hospitals, has deployed all over the world in support of humanitarian operations and training exercises. Its latest deployment brings it just 120 miles north of its home port.

Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) arrives in Los Angeles March 27. ((U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class David Mora Jr.)

The 1,000-bed hospital ship arrived in the Port of Los Angeles on Mar. 27, 2020. The ship, a converted oil tanker, is set to accept patients who are not infected with COVID-19 in order to alleviate pressure on hospitals in the LA area.

Mercy took its first patient just two days after its arrival.

A patient is guided towards hospital ship USNS Mercy in Los Angeles March 29, 2020. (U.S. Marine Corps/Cpl. Alexa M. Hernandez)

Read: Everything You Need to Know About the Navy's Hospital Ships

Hospitals in the area are expected to be overrun with patients of all kinds. Mercy is not the only help sought by the city. Mayor Eric Garcetti announced via Twitter that the LA Convention Center will be converted to a federal field hospital and that the California National Guard will also be mobilized to help local hospitals.

Sailors assigned to the hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) treat the first patient from Los Angeles medical facilities, March 29, 2020. (U.S. Navy/ Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Erwin Jacob Miciano)

As the staff of the Mercy is filled with mostly military medical practitioners, trauma cases are the ship's primary expertise.

The ship took 7 days to arrive in Los Angeles after departing from its home station at Naval Base San Diego. According to Capt. John Rotruck, Mercy's Military Treatment Facility commanding officer, the hospital will also support FEMA as well as state and local authorities.

Sailors prepare to admit the first non-Coronavirus patient aboard the hospital ship USNS Mercy. ((U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Abigayle Lutz)

"Being able to accept our first patients is a true testament of the teamwork between Mercy, the Navy, the State of California, the county of Los Angeles, and the City and Port of L.A.," Capt. Rotruck said in a statement. "The men and women embarked on board Mercy are energized, eager, and ready to provide relief to those in need."

It's critical that the hospital ship is only used for non-COVID-19 cases, as the floating hospital has no way of isolating patients and hospitalized persons aboard Mercy are sometimes stacked in bunks two beds deep.

Mercy will also provide general surgeries, critical care and ward care for adults.

Sailors assigned to the hospital ship USNS Mercy tend to the first non-Coronavirus patient from Los Angeles medical facilities, March 29, 2020. (U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Erwin Jacob Miciano)

For the 1,000 beds the ship holds, there are more than 1,200 military medical personnel to tend to them. Mercy's shipboard operations are handled by 70 civil service mariners from the Military Sealift Command, who maintain ship functions.

Meanwhile in New York City, the USNS Comfort, the Navys East Coast-based floating hospital, has arrived in New York Harbor after departing from its home port of Virginias Naval Station Norfolk.

Coast Guard assets, along with New York Police Department and New York Fire Department assets, provide a security escort for the USNS Comfort arrival into New York Harbor, March 30, 2020. (U.S. Coast Guard/Petty Officer 2nd Class Cory J. Mendenhall)

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 20:52:39|Editor: huaxia

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JERUSALEM, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The air forces of Israel and the United States have concluded a joint exercise over southern Israel, the Israeli army said on Monday.

Israeli and U.S. F-35 fifth-generation fighter jets practiced "mitigating various strategic aerial and ground threats," a military spokesperson said in a statement.

The exercise took place while Israel was struggling to halt the rapid spread of the coronavirus. The spokesperson said that precautionary steps were taken to ensure the safety of the soldiers. The teams engaged only in the air, and briefed and debriefed all parties via remote video conference, said the spokesperson.

The exercise was planned in advance as part of the military's 2020 training program and the army decided to carry it out despite the COVID-19 crisis.

According to the military, the exercise "illustrates the close ties between both air forces and militaries, expands the shared knowledge and learning of the F-35's advanced capabilities and improves the operational capabilities of the IAF (Israel Air Force)."
Q: I feel my face is losing definition with age (Im 56). How can I get my cheekbones and jaw- line back?

As none of us can get out and about at the moment, Id recommend the NuFace Mini Facial Toner, (133, currentbody.com). This at-home device uses microcurrent stimulation to tone the face, delivering what cosmetic treatment company CACI calls a non-surgical facelift.

Tiny electric pulses, barely felt, stimulate blood flow in the muscles, both relaxing and toning to rebuild facial scaffolding and tighten skin. I couldnt see the point of microcurrents until I started to see my own face flattening, where facial fat and muscles atrophy with age.

An anonymous reader asked British beauty expert Inge van Lotringen, for advice on adding definition to their jawline and cheek bones (file image)

Simply pass the device over your face (instructions tell you how)  but it doesnt hurt. You might feel some mild itchy tingling. You have to use it consistently: five 15-minute sessions equate to one 60-minute CACI treatment in a salon (which costs from 80).

If your delivery gets delayed, some face yoga will help you rediscover your cheekbones.

Try this exercise by facialist to the stars Nichola Joss (nicholajoss.com), which tackles all face muscles. Start with your features relaxed, then loudly and slowly say A, E, I, O, U, over-enunciating each vowel, tensing and stretching every fibre in your face.

Do it five times in a row, each day to firm muscles and help drain excess fluids.

Inge (pictured) advised the reader to invest in at-home treatment NuFace Mini Facial Toner

Email questions to Inge van Lotringen at inge@dailymail.co.uk.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-31 03:49:04|Editor: huaxia

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Israeli police block main roads in the central Israeli city of Tel Aviv on March 30, 2020. A total of 448 people in Israel tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 4,695, the Israeli Ministry of Health said. (Gideon Markowicz/JINI/Handout via Xinhua)

JERUSALEM, March 30 (Xinhua) -- A total of 448 people in Israel tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 4,695, the Israeli Ministry of Health said.

It said the death toll of the virus in the country has hit 16, adding of the 527 patients being treated in hospitals across Israel, 79 are in serious condition.

Earlier on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced further measures to tighten the closure in the country.

The maximum number of employees allowed to attend workplaces will be reduced from 30 percent to 15 percent.

Also, public gatherings of more than two people will be banned; weddings will be held without guests; funerals will be limited to 20 participants, and prayer will be possible only individually.

Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon has announced a 22.4-billion-U.S.-dollar emergency plan to help the national economy and the health system.
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The USNS Mercy, which arrived in Los Angeles on Friday to ease the strain on California's hospitals, has already started accepting patients as the state continues to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

Officials said the Mercy, one of two Navy ships aiding hospitals in Los Angeles and New York, welcomed some patients onboard Sunday and even more were brought onto the ship on Monday morning.

Medical personnel are accepting patients on the 894ft converted supertanker who do not have the virus in order to clear up beds in the rest of Los Angeles' hospitals.

In Los Angeles, there are more than 2,100 cases of the virus and 37 people have died. The numbers have not caught up to New York City by any stretch, but there are fears the city may soon see a spike.

Across California, a total of 132 people have died from the virus and 6,200 people have been infected.

Scroll down for video

Video from the USNS Mercy, which will be providing at least 1,000 beds, showed medical personnel prepping to receive patients on Monday morning (pictured)

Navy medical staff aboard the hospital ship USNS Mercy treat a patient from a Los Angeles hospital on Monday

The USNS Mercy, which arrived in Los Angeles on Friday to ease the strain on California's hospitals, received their first patients on Sunday (pictured)

A patient is guided towards hospital ship USNS Mercy in Los Angeles on Sunday as the ship admitted the first of its patients

The first patient arrives on the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy in Los Angeles on Sunday March 29

The USNS Mercy Navy hospital ship is seen at dawn in the Port of Los Angeles after it arrived to assist with the coronavirus pandemic

Video from the Mercy, which will be providing at least 1,000 beds, showed medical personnel prepping to receive patients on Monday morning.

Parts of the footage shows some patients being wheeled onto the ship on stretchers.

On Monday morning, Dr Anthony Fauci - the most authoritative voice on the subject - said he would 'not be surprised' if as many as 100,000 die in the US from the virus by the time the pandemic is over.

He said he is looking at Los Angeles as the next possible epicenter, after New York, along with other cities that are 'percolating' like Detroit and New Orleans.

California Gov Gavin Newsom was the first to issue a stay-at-home order to try to stop the spread before it happened.

The Mercy came just in time for California, which is expecting dramatic surge in coronavirus cases.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti warned that families should prepare for isolating themselves at home in ways so they will not infect others in their households.

Anticipating a surge in COVID-19 cases this week that may overwhelm healthcare systems, Garcetti urged people who test positive not to rush to hospitals unless they have serious symptoms.

Instead, he asked the city's 4 million residents to think about how to separate themselves from family members while quarantining at home.

'Don't just take social distancing seriously, I hope each and every one of us take isolation seriously too,' Garcetti said Sunday.

A cyclist rides by the Mercy as it entered the Port of Los Angeles on Friday. The ship will provide 1,000 beds for non-coronavirus patients

The Mercy (pictured) came just in time for California, which is expecting dramatic surge in coronavirus cases. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti warned that families should prepare for isolating themselves at home in ways so they will not infect others in their households

He acknowledged that physical distancing may be hard for those in tight quarters and said local officials were working to set up quarantine spaces for them.

National Guard troops set up beds in the sprawling Los Angeles Convention Center, converting it from a site that normally hosts meetings, trade shows and exhibitions into a field hospital.

Testing among the state's 40 million residents has stepped up significantly after a slow start. Officials have warned the increase will reveal an expanding number of cases.

California was stocking up on ventilators and fixing outdated models in anticipation of shortages. Gov Newsom said Saturday the federal government sent 170 broken ventilators from a national stockpile.

Engineers at Bloom Energy, a fuel cell maker in San Jose, were fixing them and sending them to hospitals.

In Southern California, people were kept off beaches and hiking trails. A stay-at-home order restricts people to all but essential outside activities such as buying food and outdoor exercise near home that doesn't put them within 6 feet of others.

Officials closed California's 280 state parks to vehicular traffic on Sunday, citing overcrowding. The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area also closed its extensive trail system in Los Angeles County.

'This was the first time that we saw across Southern California our iconic beaches and trailheads, the parks that define who we are, the views that greet us at our best and worst moments weren't there except in our imaginations,' Garcetti said.

San Francisco's subway and light rail system closed Monday, with service replaced by buses. Rail ridership has dropped by more than 90 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Navy's USNS Comfort arrived in New York City on Monday morning.

Meanwhile, the Navy's USNS Comfort (pictured) arrived in New York City on Monday morning. It will also provide 1,000 hospital beds for New York's sick

Gov Andrew Cuomo spoke briefly at Pier 90 as the ship docked to herald its arrival. He said he has a 'smart plan of action' about how to handle the virus that does not involve waiting 'for the storm to hit'

The ship, which has 1,000 beds for patients will be used to treat non-coronavirus patients while hospitals treat people with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

It came as the death toll in New York City hit 776 and more than 33,000 cases were recorded. New York City is the epicenter of the virus in the US.

The USNS Comfort came to New York City after 9/11 to help care for some of the thousands wounded. That was also the last time the city saw as many makeshift morgues in the street to cope with the death toil of the virus.

Across the US, there are now more than 148,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 2,500 people have died.

The Comfort will provide medical personnel with more than 100 operating rooms.

In addition to the Comfort, a makeshift hospital has been set up in the Javits Center - where 1,000 people will be cared for.

New York Gov Andrew Cuomo said he wanted to build eight in total to add another 8,000 beds to the city's hospital system.

Speaking at New York Harbor as the ship docked, he told of the need for 'a smart plan of action'.

'I've dealt with disasters all across this country. I've worked in the federal government, I've dealt with dozens of disasters.

'If you wait to prepare for when the storm hits, you lose. Because it's too late,' he said.

He has also resisted suggestions by President Donald Trump that he would quarantine the state of New York and has lashed out at Rhode Island Gov Gina Raimondo for saying anyone who enters her state from New York has to self-quarantine for two weeks.

The Mount Sinai hospital system in New York City is setting up the temporary treatment facilities outside six of its hospitals - five in New York City and one in Long Island - as it prepares for a projected influx of COVID-19 patients.

'The tents will be critical in helping us limit the spread of the disease between patients and staff,' hospital officials said in a statement last week, adding that they will expand the emergency room 'footprint'.

On Sunday workers began erecting tents in Central Park that will service overflow patients at Mount Sinai West Hospital.

The Central Park site is located near Columbus Circle, a few hundred yards from the Mount Sinai West emergency room on W 59th Street.

Workers were seen unfolding massive tents and spacing them out on a grassy field where dozens of boxes of supplies waited to be unpacked.

Mount Sinai West made headlines earlier this month after a photo emerged of three of its nurses wearing black garbage bags as makeshift gowns amid a dire shortage of personal protective equipment. One of its nurses, 48-year-old Kious Kelly, died at the hospital after contracting coronavirus.
With government restrictions forcing people into lockdown or isolation due to the coronavirus outbreak, cafes are struggling to keep their businesses afloat.

So to help customers support their local baristas from afar, Australian order ahead app Hey You is now encouraging customers to order 'virtual coffees' online.

'We've added a "Support Your Local" menu item where you can buy a virtual coffee or lunch. 100 per cent of the sale will go to your local,' the business wrote online.

Australia's number one order ahead app Hey You is now encouraging customers to support local businesses by ordering virtual coffees

The new addition comes after the app received a lot of positive customer feedback revealing people's desire to support local eateries while being unable to be there physically.

While the virtual coffee won't actually be made once an order is placed, it will help keep cafes and businesses afloat during the coronavirus crisis.

'Many of our cafes are still open for take-aways and would love your support. As always, please stay safe, stay informed and take care of each other,' the app stated.

The new addition comes after the app received a lot of positive customer feedback revealing people's desire to support local but are unable to physically get to them

While the virtual coffee won't actually be made, it will help contribute to keeping local cafes and businesses afloat during the tough coronavirus crisis

From as little as $3.50 for a coffee you can support your favourite cafe without leaving your home during isolation.

Customers based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth can make a contribution simply by downloading the Hey You app or ordering through the website.

Since developing in 2015, the app has grown to attract more than 700,000 customers with over 21 million orders taken to date.
Clinical trials have kicked off in many countries in search of unconventional approaches to help humanity out of the coronavirus crisis.

One of the endeavours is based on the claim that a vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) can give the immune system a boost strong enough to fight the novel coronavirus.

At least four countries have announced their intention to conduct trials on those on the front line: doctors and nurses, and the elderly.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the TB vaccine was developed in the late 20th century by French doctors Camille Guerin and Albert Calmette.

The vaccine itself is not 100 percent effective, and its effectiveness varies from one country to the other, and ranges around the figure of 60 percent.

But could the struggle against diseases that vanished from developed countries ages offer hope for the new struggle?

The advantage that lies within

Dr. Mohammed Abu Al Ghar, professor of gynaecology, discussed the issue with Ahram Online.

Since 2004, various studies have been conducted on African countries, especially in Guinea Bissau, where they found out that TB vaccination decreases the mortality of children not only from TB, but also from other diseases that are viral or bacterial, Dr. Mohammed Abu Al Ghar, professor of gynaecology, told Ahram Online..

Scientists already had this information in the back of their mind for years, and in 2018 many scientific publications pointed out the same info.

Abu Al Ghar said that developed countries stopped administering the vaccine to infants decades ago because TB was practically eliminated. But in developing countries, it not only exists, but is also compulsory. In Egypt, the TB vaccine is one of the requirements to obtain a complete birth certificate.

Abu Al Ghar points out that although some statistics are difficult to obtain, other facts remain obvious and of great significance.

No country can test all citizens, it is just not possible, neither in Egypt nor in any country. But although definite unreported cases could be overlooked, it is not the case with mortality, which cannot be hidden. It is very obvious that in some countries -- one of which is Egypt -- the infections are much less and the mortalities are way fewer than other places in the world, especially in Europe.

Many possibilities loom, one of which is that because of less hygiene and more exposure, some populations have already developed some kind of cross-immunity that prevented the onset of the disease or made it take a milder form, he says.

Abu Al Ghar says that in the Netherlands they have already started testing the TB vaccine on a thousand people, giving half the vaccine and the other half a placebo.

Australia will start in a few days, and Greece already has an ongoing experiment.

These are all assumptions and hopes, and science will have the final word. Until then we should all practice social distancing and other measures that help society decrease its staggering losses, he concluded.

The question of immunity

Dr. Abdel Hadi Mesbah, professor of immunity, also stressed to Ahram Online that caution is advised.

Vaccines generally raise immune responses specific to a targeted pathogen. The vaccine, BCG, contains a weak strain of the microbe that causes TB, and it is given to children in their first year of life in most countries of the world, and within the first six months after birth in Egypt.

BCG also increases the ability of the immune system to fight off diseases other than the TB bacteria, thus preventing infections with any known pathogen, including viruses, in the first year after its given, he said.

Studies from various countries strengthened the clinical evidence investigating how BCG may generally boost the immune system. Nevertheless, any vaccine must be administered after profound and adequate trials to make sure that adverse effects dont outweigh its benefits, and it is known that vaccinations in general are not all 100 percent effective with no exception, and it is also common knowledge that they come along with a price tag of some side effects in some cases, he concluded.

At the time of writing, Egypt, which boasts a 100 million-strong population, has a total of 576 coronavirus cases nationwide, including 36 fatalities.

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When Beaumont ISD made the decision to shutter its campuses along with other schools across the state in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, it put all school-related activities on hold as well.

When the month started, the district was training mentors for a soft roll-out of a program aimed at providing students with support for social and emotional growth. With the length of the closures still unclear at this point, they hope to start back up when it is safe to do so.

The program had garnered a number of community-leaders as mentors before the shut-down, including state Rep. Dade Phelan.

I think it is an excellent opportunity for the community to get involved in BISD, Phelan said. So many individuals like to criticize our school systems, and the next generation and our youth, but this is an opportunity to do something about it instead of just finding faults.

The district plans to partner with local leaders, business owners and community members to help mentor students..

The opportunity is called REACH Mentoring, and has been developed over recent months by a team of social emotional learning coordinators including Janie Holtz.

REACH Mentoring has been in research since September, but we have been mentoring and getting trainers and mentors in place since January, Holtz told The Enterprise at one of their training sessions. We already have some mentors on campuses, and our goal is to continue to put mentors out there to match with mentees from now through the end of April.

Cindy Cherry, who is a retired probation officer and member of the Beaumont Rotary Club, completed her training to become a mentor before the closures impacted the district.

We have about 250 people in the club, and we want a transformative project, so we partnered with Martin Elementary after (Tropical Storm) Harvey, because they were exceptionally hard hit, Cherry said. We were able to give every student there a pair of shoes and coats, and for the last couple years we have been giving them books.

But the desire to do more came after Homer Drive Elementary School Principal Belinda George talked with Cherry at a Rotary Club meeting.

She said you can give money and you can build things and do all of these, but what they really need is your time, Cherry said. And this program sounds like, you know  its time.

Holtz said there are many goals the program seeks to achieve.

Through REACH mentoring we are hoping to work on self management, relationship skills, self awareness, social awareness, even learning just how to communicate better, she said. And what we find with students is that they arent always able to express what is happening or what the reason is why they behave a certain way.

Holtz, and others associated with the program, draw on their own backgrounds for inspiration in developing the program.

I have always been a fan of mentorship because as a child, with the background I had, it was mentors who made a difference in my life, and several colleagues of mine as well, she said. I grew up in a home of poverty. I had a father that wasnt always very present, a mother who worked a lot and several siblings, and we didnt have a whole lot growing up.

With a lack of positive support at home, Holtz said it was teachers and others who made a difference in her life and told her she could be something.

Mary Williams, a liaison for a reading program called ROAR at Amelia Elementary, also was recently trained as a mentor.

I got into this because as a ROAR liaisonI see first hand what is going on with the kids, and what their struggles are and what they may be lacking, she said. And I just want to also be that person that is going to make a difference in that childs life.

Williams said early intervention could help prevent children from making poor life choices later on.

You are the person that could literally make that change for that child from right or wrong, she said. These kids today, they come from broken homes. Kids are raising kids. Some kids  the two meals a day they get (at school) are the only ones they eat.

The program was developed as disciplinary issues in the district continued to rise, causing promises by the administration that changes would be made. Holtz said the mentorship program could address some underlying issues that cause disciplinary action.

One of the goals is to teach them, how they can communicate, and self-regulate themselves emotionally so that they are able to explain why they feel a certain way instead of just becoming emotionally upset and some of the behaviors that come about, she said. We are hoping that through the relationship skills that is something they learn, and that in a positive affect they arent always getting into trouble behaviorally because they feel that no one understands them or that they dont care because no one is seeing what is going on.

Cherry said that in addition to her civic drive, her background as a probation officer could help her in mentoring young people in BISD.

I worked in a drug court program  my whole career, with people who made plenty of mistakes, but there is so much good in them, she said. If you can find that positive thing about them, or what they are good at, it is life changing.

Cherry said she wants to make those kinds of connections with children so they know that someone believes in them.

While the program is currently on hold, parents, teachers or administrators are able to recommend a student for a mentor during periods of regular operation. The students need parental permission to participate in the REACH mentoring program.

The mentor will go in and sit with the mentee and they will look at their schedule and see what works for the mentor, the mentee and their schedule, Holtz said. And that is how they will identify the best time.

Those times would always be during school hours, between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Gov. Gregg Abbott closed schools through April 3, but some local districts have extended their distance learning though April 10.

BISD will begin distance learning Monday, although the situation has been described as fluid.

isaac.windes@hearstnp.com

twitter.com/isaacdwindes
She's famed for her hourglass curves.

Yet Kelly Brook has revealed that she didn't feel healthy or beautiful at her curviest, after 'creeping up' to a size 16.

After shedding two stone and dropping two dress sizes, the model, 40, spoke candidly with HELLO! magazine about her weight loss journey.

Stunning: After shedding two stone and dropping two dress sizes, Kelly Brook, 40, spoke candidly with HELLO! magazine about her weight loss journey

Reflecting on an incident when photographers told her to 'breathe in' on the red carpet, Kelly admitted she had been lying to herself about her weight gain.

She recalled: 'I crept up to a size 16. When my jeans started to feel tight I thought they'd shrunk in the wash.

'I definitely didn't feel my healthiest or most beautiful, and I wanted to feel good again.'

Pin-up: She's famed for her hourglass curves (pictured right in 1997) Yet Kelly has revealed that she didn't feel healthy or beautiful at her curviest, after 'creeping up' to a size 16 in 2017 (left)

Insisting that at a size 12 she is now her 'size sexy', Kelly went on to explain that her weight means nothing to her boyfriend Jeremy Parisi.

She explained: He loves me whatever my size. He didn't even notice I'd gained weight. He doesn't care about things like that.

'He just likes that I sit down and enjoy eating with him. I'm not one of those girls who pushes a salad around her plate.'

Cute couple: Five years ago, the presenter found happiness with French/Italian model and actor Jeremy Parisi and has spent recent years with him in the Kent countryside

Five years ago, the presenter found happiness with French/Italian model and actor Jeremy and has spent recent years with him in the Kent countryside.

Out now: Read the full interview in this week's HELLO! magazine, out now.

Kelly previously spoke about her shock at the focus on her weight when she made a return to the spotlight in 2017.

The radio host dazzled as a curvy size 16 in a slinky black sequinned dress to attend the Murder On The Orient Express film premiere at the Royal Albert Hall.

But the former glamour model told The Sun that was given a nasty shock when the hoards of photographers were yelling at her to 'breathe in'.

Laughing about the incident, which she described as a 'wake-up call,' Kelly admitted: 'Well, I'm glad they told me! They actually thought they were doing me a favour, but yeah, it was a bit of a shock.'

The presenter continued, explaining that while she was taken aback by their comments, they must have been equally shocked because they'd only ever previously known her as being 'skinny.'

Read the full interview in this week's HELLO! magazine, out now.
Finance ministers of the 19-country eurozone are to hold a videoconference on April 7 to try to forge an economic response to the coronavirus crisis, its chairman said Monday.

"The Eurogroup will meet April 7 to act on the EUCO (European Council) Leaders' mandate to deliver proposals to reinforce our EU policy response to COVID-19," Mario Centeno said on his Twitter account.

The virtual meeting follows a March 26 videoconference of leaders of EU countries that told the Eurogroup it has up to two weeks to come up with a joint response to the crisis which risks plunging Europe into deep recession.

That leaders' call, however, revealed deep divisions between fiscally austere northern countries and more economically fragile southern ones that wanted economic bazookas to be brought out to help them cope.

While the Eurogroup consists of countries using the euro, next week's videoconference will also be open to other EU countries.

Italy, Spain, France and six other euro-using countries last week called for an "instrument" to be created allowing a common eurozone bond issue, sometimes called "coronabonds".

That has long been a warhorse for indebted southern EU countries such as Italy, but fiercely resisted by deficit-leery northern countries.

The latter group would prefer to see money shaken out of the European Stability Mechanism which offers loans to countries in difficulty.

The problem for countries such as Italy, the member state that is most in the red with public debt of 130 percent of GDP, is the strings that are attached. They also fear markets will baulk at the negative impression caused by seeking such assistance.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The coronavirus death toll in Alabama has now reached at least 10, after a Lee County hospital announced its sixth fatality in three days.

The official count by the Alabama Department of Public Health still puts the state at 4 deaths. But two local agencies have announced deaths that have not yet been confirmed and included in the official state numbers.

Related: AL.coms coronavirus coverage.

East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika, next to Auburn, said in a press release Sunday afternoon that a sixth patient had died. The hospital said only one of the six, from Chambers County, has been confirmed by ADPH and said it was sharing COVID-19 information daily so as to keep area residents informed.

Of the six deaths, four were from neighboring Chambers County and two were from Lee County.

The Opelika hospital is the only hospital in the state so far to announce a coronavirus death.

The Mobile County Health Department has also announced a death that has not yet been reflected in the ADPH count.

The state health department has confirmed deaths of residents from Jackson, Madison and Lauderdale counties in north Alabama, as well as the person in Chambers County.

EAMC alone announced five deaths on Saturday.

Sunday's death at EAMC came about due to complications brought on by COVID-19, the hospital said.

Lee County now has 59 positive COVID-19 tests, according to the state health department website on Sunday. That's the fourth-most of any county, surpassed by Jefferson, Shelby and Madison. As of 5:30 p.m. Sunday, the state had 827 confirmed COVID-19 positive tests.

The Lee County hospital last week expressed concern over the spread of the deadly virus through church congregations, which it said were still meeting in the Auburn area as recently as last Sunday.
Union Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday said it was "very unfortunate" that the Kabul gurdwara attack took place when the prayers were going on in the context of coronavirus pandemic.

"It is very unfortunate that while the 'ardas' (prayer) was going on in the Gurdwara Sahib, a terrorist attack took place. The ardas was in the context of the pandemic. At that time, terrorists struck and many innocent lives were lost," he told ANI.

The Union Minister said that the Centre has brought back the mortal remains of Tian Singh, an Indian national living in Kabul in Afghanistan, and other Indian nationals killed in the attack. At least 27 people were killed in the attack that took place on March 25.

"We are cremating one of our sons of India, who was living in Kabul, Sardar Tian Singh Ji, my heart goes out to the family and the government India did what it always does, brought back the mortal remains and mortal remains of others," Puri said.

The minister also said that the Indian government will "very carefully" watch the situation in Afghanistan as it would be providing more security to the Sikh community and appropriate decisions will have to be taken.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Amara Raja group also offered Rs one crore for the Telangana CM Relief Fund in the government's efforts against the deadly virus.

Tirupati: The Amara Raja Group has offered a total of Rs five crore to the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister's Relief Fund to fight the coronavirus pandemic, a government official said here on Monday.

The Amara Raja group, which has presence in the automotive battery business and infrastructure among others, also offered Rs one crore for the Telangana CM Relief Fund in the government's efforts against the deadly virus.

The group chairman Galla N Ramachandra Naidu accompanied by his daughter Ramadevi handed over a DD for Rs 5 crore to Chittoor district collector Dr Narayana Bharath Gupta on Monday, the official said.

The group also donated Rs 1 crore to the Telangana government.
The Governor of the Damascus Countryside has announced a new service that will deliver bread to families, although many are complaining the rationed amount is too little writes Brocar Press.

The Governor of the Damascus Countryside governorate, has said that bread will be distributed to citizens in the governorate, in accordance with the number of family members, through a smart card system.

On Sunday, Governor Alaa Ibrahim told Cham FM radio, which is loyal to the regime, Bread will be distributed via smart card in the Damascus countryside, to the homes of the citizens.

Ibrahim added that the distribution would be carried out according to family members, whereby each family consisting of three or four people will get one bundle, and every family of five or six will get two, and families of eight and above will get three bundles of bread.

Each bundle of bread in Syria contains about seven flat loaves of bread.

The governor added: We will start with the most densely populated areas (Jaramana, Duma, al-Tal, Sahnaya, Ashrafieh, Sahnaya) and the big cities. The small towns will carry out distribution through the family book until the smart card is applied.

This decision was met with displeasure by Syrians on social media. Each persons share of bread according to this decision is estimated at a loaf and a halfwhich is not enough for more than one meal per day.

Susan Saeed commented on the decision, announced on Cham FM, saying: For three or four people, one bundle? This is strange  Isnt it better to raise the price of bread than let people starve?

Mahmoud Ali said: A bundle for every four people? It seems like youll starve people to death. Dont you know that without bread, half the people will go hungry?

Ahmed Obaid asked, What can we say? Who is more mercifulyou or the coronavirus?

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
New recommendations for care in nursing homes are to be announced tomorrow after a "concerning" rise in infection clusters in the sector.

Minister for Health Simon Harris met with representatives from nursing homes and other residential institutions to discuss how the government can support the facilities through the Covid-19 pandemic.
Forty Kyiv teachers will be teaching lessons to all Ukrainian students via YouTube, Facebook, and on TV pending quarantine.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the All-Ukrainian Online School project will start across the country on April 6, as part of which 11 classes will be taught remotely for students from 5th to 11th grades, in line with the balanced curriculum of the Ministry of Education and Science.

"Another important point during quarantine is distance education," Zelensky said in a video address. "Our task is to provide each child with free access to knowledge. To this end, on Monday, April 6, the All-Ukrainian Online School project will be launched."

The president says 40 Kyiv teachers will be teaching classes to all Ukrainian students via YouTube, Facebook, and on TV pending quarantine.

Read alsoNumber of confirmed coronavirus cases in Ukraine rises to 475 by Sunday evening

"Students will be able to study remotely on Facebook and YouTube. And also, every morning, lessons will be broadcast by Ukrainian TV channels, which gladly joined this important mission. Each class will be assigned one or more television channels. Their list, as well as the weekly schedule, will appear very soon," the president added.

Zelensky also urged parents to follow the news and encourage children to watch.

"Actually, the whole family can check out this educational content. Therefore, let's stay at home. Let's study at home," the president concluded.

As UNIAN reported, last week the government extended the all-Ukrainian quarantine until April 24 and introduced an emergency situation across the country.
File image

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Monday said everyone needs to be ready for the impact of coronavirus on the country's economy as business activities are suspended.

Taking to Facebook for a live interaction with people of the state, the former Union minister asked people to stop unnecessary expenditures and stay at home to contain the spread of the deadly viral infection.

"We should be ready to brace the impact of looming economic crisis over the country as all types of business activities are suspended. People need to do away with their unnecessary spending habit for the next coming weeks as the country's economic situation looks grim, he said.

"I also appeal to people to stay at home and prevent the spread of coronavirus infection. Otherwise, police will have to use force to keep them indoors," he said.
Following an announcement last week of major layoffs due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, General Electric workers in Massachusetts protested over demands that the company help address the countrys ventilatory shortage and rehire employees to do so, according to news outlets.

Factory workers at the companys aviation facility in Lynn and employees at the businesss Boston headquarters protested Monday, demanding that GE convert its jet engine factories to make the piece of medical equipment, Vice reported.

GE announced on March 23 that its aviation divisions workforce in the U.S. would be reduced by roughly 10%. In a statement, CEO H. Lawrence Culp, Jr. said the COVID-19 public health crisis has led to a rapid contraction in air travel and a significant decline in demand for commercial airlines.

Taken together, we expect these cost and cash actions will preserve $500 million to $1 billion in 2020, Culp said about the companys actions in the wake of the outbreaks spread.

Culp noted he would forgo his full salary for the remainder of 2020. A hiring freeze, a cancelation of salaried merit increases, a temporary layoff of half of the companys maintenance workers and a dramatic reduction in all non-essential spending would also be implemented, he added.

During a press conference, members of the Industrial Division of Communications Workers of America union pointed out that layoffs would undermine efforts to increase ventilator production, according to Vices article.

The news outlet reported that union members at GEs Boston location marched six feet apart, in accordance with social distancing guidelines.

Ventilators are desperately needed at hospitals in New York, California, Washington State, and Florida. They soon will be in short supply from the East Coast to the West Coast, from Puerto Rico to Hawaii, from Alaska and Illinois to Texas, said CWA President Chris Shelton, according to Vice. Most Americans are not aware that the best ventilators are already made by General Electric within the companys healthcare division.

Officials said the companys Lynn facility is crucial in supporting the U.S. military. The Lynn factory is considered essential by the Department of Homeland Security work, as it provides mission-critical equipment to the military. The companys aviation division facilities continue to be used despite the layoffs.

The business is also adding employees to join manufacturing lines so it can keep facilities open 24 hours a day and doubling its capacity of ventilator production, according to officials.

GE is working around the clock to increase production of much-needed medical equipment. GE Healthcare has already doubled ventilator production capacity, with a plan to double it again by June, in addition to partnering with Ford Motor Company to further increase ventilator production," a GE spokesperson said.

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For the first time in their history members of the Reserve Defence Forces will have their full-time jobs protected if they are called up to reinforce the regulars during times of emergency, such as the current Covid-19 pandemic.

The legislation was cleared in the Dail after being proposed by TDs Denis Naughton and Cathal Berry, a former second-in-command of the elite Army Ranger Wing (ARW).

For many years legislation was in place in America to protect employment for their reserves, known as the National Guard, and in Britain for its reserves, the Territorial Army.

Mr Barry said that, unlike many other European countries, up to now this was not the case in Ireland.

"They were never formally protected here. They relied on the goodwill of their employers to release them from their normal work. I know 95% of employers are good people, but there are some who would be unscrupulous and that's why this legislation is needed," Mr Berry said.

He described the lack of job protection as a "shambles" and said he couldn't understand why this was allowed to go on so long by the Department of Defence.

"The whole Covid-19 issue is a classic example of how the Reserves can be used during an emergency and then demobilised when it passes," he said.

Mr Berry, who is also a qualified medical doctor, said there are many highly-qualified people among the ranks of the Reserve Defence Forces and the government should be especially targeting those with medical experience.

"I know of a consultant anaesthetist who is a member of the Reserve Defence Forces. There are also four doctors and a number of advanced paramedics among their ranks and loads of EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians)," Mr Berry said.

The supposed minimum strength of the Reserve Defence Forces should stand at over 4,000. However, successive governments have let it run down in recent years and according to latest figures, there are roughly only 1,000 active members.

"This is an issue which has to be discussed at the next meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs, Trade & Defence. The committee should bring in senior Department of Defence officials and ask them to explain why this has been allowed to happen and why such a wonderful resource has been let run-down to that extent," Mr Berry said.

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Syracuse, N.Y.  A quarter of households across the state include one person whos lost a job, a new poll out today shows.

About half have a person whos working from home. Nearly a third know someone who has tested positive for coronavirus. Ten percent say someone in the house is sick but hasnt been tested. Four percent of the homes surveyed have someone whos tested positive for the coronavirus, the poll from Siena College found.

Overall, 92 percent of those surveyed say they are concerned about the pandemic, and 79 percent say they are concerned theyll get COVID-19.

Still, 28 percent say a neighbor or friend has checked in or assisted them as coronavirus has spread in the nation and New York.

Hopes for any return to normal were split. When asked how the nation would emerge from the health crisis, 53 percent said they thought the country would weather the pandemic and be back to normal soon. Another 44 percent had little confidence that the nation would return to normal in the near future.

Those polled in Upstate  where the virus has not yet caused heavy casualties  showed more optimism. Here, 57 percent said they saw a quicker return to normal, compared with 41 percent who didnt. In New York City, the worlds current epicenter of the virus, 44 percent saw a quicker return while 53 percent did not.

The poll surveyed the youngest person in the households of 566 registered voters from March 22 to March 26. At 8 p.m., March 22, Cuomo closed all non-essential businesses, sending 100 percent of their workforce home. The poll has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4.5 percentage points.

Only 33 percent said they thought the federal government was providing enough financial help for average Americans. That number was slightly higher  41 percent  among Upstate voters.

About half the people surveyed said they would spend any relief check immediately for family needs. Another quarter said theyd save it in case of emergencies. Upstate voters surveyed appeared in a slightly better situation: 44 percent said theyd spend it quickly while 31 percent said theyd sock it away.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

Parties, celebrations now banned in Onondaga County over coronavirus; ignoring order is a crime

Coronavirus: CDC urges NY residents to avoid non-essential travel for 14 days

Domestic violence amid coronavirus: Stuck inside, victims get no reprieve from abuse

Teachers are the glue helping to hold kids, community together (Editorial)

Got a story idea or news tip youd like to share? Please contact me through email, Twitter, Facebook or at 315-470-2274.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30) The Chinese government will send a team of medical experts who will help the Philippines combat COVID-19, Beijings embassy in Manila said Monday.

The main task of the medical expert team is to help the Philippines fight against COVID-19, by providing technical advice on epidemic prevention and control as well as sharing medical treatment experience, Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian said.

The Chinese Embassy said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III appreciated Chinas support to the Philippines in addressing the pandemic and is looking forward to the arrival of the Chinese medical team.

Locsin earlier appealed to the Health Department to allow China's deployment of medical workers to the Philippines amid the COVID-19 crisis. The country's top diplomat said he has asked his counterpart, Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian, "to send us Chinese doctors" but claimed that DOH has been "blocking their arrival."

Health Undersecretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire, however, denied such move, saying the agency has no objection to the entry of the international medical experts.

China the ground zero of the infectious disease has recorded over 82,000 COVID-19 cases as of Monday. Out of the number, nearly 76,000 individuals have recovered.

The Philippines, on the other hand, has listed 1,546 cases, including 78 fatalities and 42 recoveries.

Worldwide, COVID-19 has infected over 723,000 people in 177 different countries.
URGENT: WE NEED TO PRESSURE THE GOVERNMENT TO PUT A FREEZE ON RENT AND MORTGAGES

Members of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) are calling on the members of parliament to make the correct decision tonight (25/03/2020) in order to protect peoples housing and health during COVID-19 health crisis.

As the government discusses its decision on housing during COVID-19, the CPA is asking it to make the right decision and to implement the three demands in our statement. (Guardian, Communist Party of Australia CC Statement, #1908, 23/03/2020)

STATEMENT ON THE QUESTION OF HOUSING, RENT AND MORTGAGE DURING COVID-19:

It is of upmost importance that during COVID-19 there are safe and secure measures to prioritise and protect public health with no one left behind. The CPA wishes to urge the government to implement the three demands listed below. We believe that by protecting peoples housing and finances, we help protect public health by relieving the pressures that force people to break social distancing and self-isolation.

We demand that the government take action using state of emergency powers and achieve the following:

A total rent freeze during the COVID-19 health crisis so that nobody is evicted, experience financial pressure or force themselves to risk their health and that others by breaking social distancing or self-isolation or quarantine.

A total freeze on mortgage payments and interest. This is to ensure that nobody is left with increased debt during COVID-19 and again so that nobody puts themselves in a hazardous position to make mortgage payments.

Emergency housing for Australians who are already in insecure housing or on the streets. Any empty housing units or hotel accommodation should be temporarily seized under the control of the state to house people who are at risk of spreading and contracting COVID-19 due to insecure housing and inability to maintain social distancing, self-isolation or self-quarantine because of this.

In solidarity,

Andrew Irving

Communist Party of Australia

Victorian Branch
Adam Olden (19) has shown no symptoms, the court was told

A teenager charged with assault after allegedly spitting at a garda and then claiming he had the Covid-19 virus has claimed the incident was only "a big joke".

Adam Olden (19) appeared before a special sitting of Cork District Court arising out of an alleged incident in the early hours of yesterday morning.

The matter unfolded after gardai attended a reported incident in the Deanrock Estate in Togher at 2.30am.

It is alleged that Mr Olden approached one of the officers, spat at him and then claimed that he had the coronavirus.

The teenager was arrested and taken to the Bridewell Garda Station for questioning.

Judge John King was told that Mr Olden, of Leamlara Close, Togher, Cork, was charged with assault and with two offences under the Public Order Act.

The judge was told by Inspector Pat Murphy that Mr Olden has now insisted the incident was "a joke".

Sergeant Kevin Joyce said that the defendant "is now claiming this morning that it was all a big joke".

Serious

However, the court heard that gardai were taking the matter very seriously given the current public health emergency.

Insp Murphy said that, as a result of the incident, "Mr Olden has taken two garda off the streets".

The garda who was allegedly spat at is now in precautionary self-isolation.

Because of the nature of the alleged incident, the officers involved are bound to comply with precautionary protocols introduced.

Judge King queried whether the teenager had displayed any symptoms of Covid-19.

Defence solicitor Eddie Burke said that his client did not have any of the symptoms of the virus.

Mr Burke said Mr Olden was a hard-working young man who had never come to garda attention before. He said that his client would comply with any bail conditions required by gardai.

Judge King queried whether the defendant should now be required to self isolate.

Tests

His family however, had assured his legal counsel that he had shown no symptoms of ill health but would, if required, take any medical tests now required by the State.

The teenager works in a grocery shop.

The judge granted bail but imposed a number of conditions, including that Mr Olden abide by an 8pm to 6am curfew, stay away from intoxicants and inform gardai with 24 hours' notice if he intends to leave his nominated address.

He was remanded to appear before Cork District Court on April 1, though his presence was excused.

The case will be only listed for mention on that date, pending preparation of a case file by gardai.

Mr Olden's mother has agreed to serve as independent surety for his remand on bail.
Thousands of people have used Twitter to praise White House reporter Yamiche Alcindor after Donald Trump scolded her for asking a question.

Ms Alcindor, a political correspondent for PBS, was interrupted by the president and told to be nice during a heated exchange at Sundays daily coronavirus briefing from the White House.

Political pundits, journalists and others joined together to defend Ms Alcindor using the #WeLoveYamiche hashtag, with some of those criticising the president citing misogyny and racism against the reporter.

She steps up to speak the truth. No fanfare, no grandstanding, no gloating. Just respect & grit., said Wall Street Journal columnist Teri Agins on Twitter.

The exchange began when Ms Alcindor asked the president about his previous comments on the number of medical supplies needed by states to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

Youve said repeatedly New York might not need 30,000 [ventilators], you said it on Sean Hannitys Fox News, asked Ms Alcindor.

Despite making the claim on Thursday night, the president replied: No, I didnt say that, before beginning to berate the journalist.

On Sunday, president Trump put to Ms Alcindor: Why dont you people  why dont you act in a little more positive,

He added: Its always trying to get you, and you know what, thats why people dont trust the media anymore.

As Ms Alcindor attempted to put her question to the president, he interrupted: Excuse me, you didnt hear me, thats why you used to work for the [New York] Times and now you work for somebody else.

The PBS reporter later commented on Twitter that: President Trump today at the White House said to me: Be nice. Dont be threatening.

Im not the first human being, woman, black person or journalist to be told that while doing a job, she added.
GREENWICH  With local residents warned not to congregate in Greenwich parks during the outbreak of the coronavirus, police officers have been active in enforcing the ban.

Police said they gave out nine warnings over the weekend to people who were found in town parks, in violation of a recent directive from First Selectman Fred Camillo that all parks are to be closed as a public-health measure to combat the spread of coronavirus. Residents are urged to practice social distancing and limit gatherings to five people or less.

One person was also given a misdemeanor summons for entering Tods Point by climbing over a fence, police said Monday.

According to police Lt. Mark Zuccerela, officers were making sure that the ban was enforced.

All were advised of parks needing to be cleared. Some were kids playing, others were people just walking, the lieutenant wrote in an email. No fines were issued in those cases.

But on Friday evening at Tods Point, a caretaker caught a 25-year-old Greenwich man climbing over a fence at the park, according to Zuccerela. That man was given a summons for criminal trespass.

Camillo issued an order that closed town parks and other recreational facilities, effective March 22, after thousands of people visited Greenwich Point over that weekend.

Were not looking to give tickets and throw people in jail, Camillo said of the closure order. Were not looking to make peoples lives more frustrating than they are now. But were very, very, very serious about this. If we close the parks, that means theyre closed. If we close the beaches, that means theyre closed. If youre there and in violation and youre told to get off, you need to get off. If you dont, youre going to suffer the consequences. Theres no fooling around when it comes to this.

The closure order includes the towns golf course, tennis and basketball courts, ball fields, playgrounds, school grounds and town-owned open spaces.

Authorities have been putting up yellow warning tape at parks including Greenwich Commons in central Greenwich to warn the public to keep out.

Towns around the region have been adopting various park restrictions, from outright closures to bans on certain kinds of activities, as the public-health emergency continues.

In Norwalk, all recreational fields, courts and playgrounds are closed. In Fairfield, all parks, fields, beaches and open spaces are closed. In Stamford, residents can visit parks to walk and run, play tennis, fish and exercise dogs, but they cannot play football or basketball.

rmarchant@greenwichtime.com
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 30

By Ilkin Seyfaddini  Trend:

Eleven other Uzbek citizens have tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of infected people in the country to 144, Trend reports citing the Ministry of Health.

The first case of coronavirus infection in Uzbekistan was detected on March 15 in the laboratory of the Research Institute of Virology; it was Uzbek woman who returned from France. The Ministry of Health later said that her son, daughter, husband and grandson also tested coronavirus-positive.

The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019. The number of people killed by the disease has surpassed 34,000. Over 723,320 people have been confirmed as infected. Meanwhile, over 151,990 people have reportedly recovered.

Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019. Several countries are working on a vaccine against the new virus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11.

---

Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on March 30 that he will enter quarantine after an aide on Knesset affairs tested positive for coronavirus.

Neyanyahu's office said the step was a precaution and is being taken even before the epidemiological investigation has been concluded, Israel's Haretz newspaper reported.

Israel is under total lockdown with people not allowed to even walk beyond 100 metres from their homes and have been generally advised to go out only to stock food.

So far, 4,347 Israelis have tested positive for the coronavirus, with the vast majority of cases mild and 134 recoveries. Sixteen patients have died and 95 are in serious condition. One Israeli tourist died in Italy, the paper said.

A number or prominent personalities have tested positive for the deadly virus, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had also earlier said he would be going into self-quarantine after his wife tested positive for coronavirus. According to reports, Trudeau's wife has now recovered.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

(With PTI inputs)
The coronavirus outbreak has made a recession in Europe's largest economy inevitable in the first half of this year, Germany's council of economic advisers said on Monday, predicting that output could shrink by up to 5.4% this year. Germany is in virtual lockdown, with more than 57,000 infected and 455 dead. Parliament last week suspended the country's constitutionally enshrined debt brake, approving a massive stimulus package worth more than 750 billion euros ($831.60 billion) to help weather the economic fallout. The panel that advises the government said its baseline ...
(Photo : sungmin cho from Pixabay) Automakers will help create more ventilators for COVID-19 patients. (Photo : Jason Shivers from Pixabay) Fashion companies will provide medical masks and other medical gear. (Photo : Ri Butov from Pixabay) Cosmetics companies, distillieries, and breweries are creating and donating hand sanitizers to healthcare staff.

Amid the rising cases of COVID-19 around the world, essential medical equipment such as ventilators and personal protective equipment are currently lacking, putting medical frontliners in jeopardy and coronavirus patients suffering.

Manufacturers are trying to keep with the demand, but with hundreds of thousands of cases, it is a daunting task for them.

Various Sectors to the Rescue

To lessen their burden, multiple companies in different sectors are now redirecting their production on manufacturing the essentials: ventilators, face masks, hand sanitizers and rubbing alcohol, hospital gowns, and more.

Here are some of the automakers, fashion companies, distilleries, and breweries that are using their resources to help with the battle against coronavirus and COVID-19, courtesy of Yahoo! Finance.

Automakers

Among the list of automakers who have answered the call to create more ventilators for COVID-19 patients are Ford, General Motors, Exor, Tesla, Toyota, and Renault.

Ford is currently assisting General Electric Healthcare to produce ventilators at a Ford factory. They are also working on Powered Air-Purifying Respirators with 3M, which is based in Minnesota. They will also provide ventilators in the UK.

General Motors (GM), on the other hand, is working together with Ventec Life Systems to manufacture ventilators at a GM factory in Indiana. An employee-led initiative also had GM working on face masks, producing 50,000 masks a day with the potential to double the number.

Exor is also working on ventilators, with the hopes of producing 160 to 500 units in a month.

Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, has already bought 1,255 ventilators from China and is donating them to various hospitals in Los Angeles and New York.

Japanese carmaker, Toyota, is working on both ventilators and respirators for COVID-19 patients. They will also start on making 3D-printed face shields to be donated to hospitals in Dallas, Kentucky, Houston, Indiana, and Michigan.

They are also looking for partners to create mask filters.

Meanwhile, Renault is also using its 3D printer to produce medical visors for healthcare frontliners in Spain. They are also hoping to expand their assistance and provide ventilator parts.

Read Also: COVID-19 Update: Formula One Engineers Developed New Ventilator Device for Patients Who are Too Frail to Undergo Invasive Ventilation Procedures

Fashion and Cosmetics Industry

Besides carmakers, different organizations and companies in the fashion industry are focusing their resources to produce PPE.

Among them is Dancing with the Stars dancer Tony Dovolani who is currently working with Advis, Inc. president and CEO, Lyndean Brick, to provide 1 million masks, known as "Million Mask MOVEment." They are doing this with the help of 14 ballroom dressmakers who are working six days a week to produce the mask.

A Canadian parka company known as Canada Goose has pledged to provide 10,000 patient gowns and scrubs and are starting their production.

Meanwhile, world-renowned powerhouses like Christian Sirano, Ralph Lauren, Gap, Hanes, New Balance, Under Armour, LVMH (owner of Louis Vuitton and Dior), and more are starting to produce face masks, N95 face masks, hospital gowns, medical gears, and hand sanitizers that will be donated to medical frontliners to protect them against the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 infection.

Distilleries and Breweries

Several distilleries and breweries around the world, including in the US, the UK, Canada, Switzerland, are beginning to produce hand sanitizers as an answer to the global shortages in pharmacies and hospitals.

A few companies like Bacardi, Anheuser-Busch, Sazerac Co., and even smaller distilleries are already producing and donating thousands of bottles of hand sanitizers to medical frontliners, the police, and care homes for safety against COVID-19.

Other Companies

Various other companies in different sectors are redirecting their resources to help ease the burden caused by the coronavirus global pandemic.

Dyson, a well-known vacuum maker, has already invented the CoVent, which is a ventilator with Dyson's digital motor and runs on battery power. The U.K. has ordered 10,000 CoVents, but Dyson is adding 5,000 more to be distributed around the world.

Leesa, a mattress company, has also provided mattresses for hospital use and are currently shipping 1,000 mattresses to various hospitals, according to The Ticker.

A Washington-based custom sole maker, Superfeet, is now using its 3D printer to produce medical supplies that will be donated to healthcare workers.

Read Also: Coronavirus Update: Japan Promotes Gargling, But Can it Help Against COVID-19?

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Moscow is intending to "practically fully control the movement of citizens" to enforce quarantine measures as the Russian capital begins a full lockdown.

It comes as the city is hit with more than 1,220 cases, with 17 cases known to be children.

Residents will only be allowed to leave their homes for either urgent medical problems, to visit the nearest supermarket or chemist, to take out the rubbish and to walk their dogs - but only to a distance of 100m.

Unlike in the UK , Muscovites are not granted time outside their homes in order to exercise.

These measures will be backed up by what amounts to a smart control system where data on citizens will be monitored.

"We will be tightening control as the development of information systems progresses. Hopefully, by the end of the week, we'll have information systems which will allow us to practically fully control the movement of citizens and prevent possible violations," Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said during a coronavirus council meeting.

Moscow already has one of the most sophisticated and invasive facial recognition surveillance systems in the world which has been used to monitor individual quarantines .

Additionally, location data gathered from people's mobile phones will also be used to track the movements of citizens. This new power for the government has resulted in the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov having to deny the measure is a violation of people's rights.

These two surveillance tools will become just a part of the mechanism deployed to watch the whole city.

People flouting the quarantine will be hit with fines and potential prison terms.

New draft legislation which is soon to be debated in parliament would see any person who is found to have infected two or more people face up to seven years behind bars.

One exception to the strict rules is that people are still allowed to leave and enter the city.

Moscow Region, adjacent to the capital, and the Arctic city of Murmansk are also in lockdown.

Story continues

On Monday morning Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin urged other regional governors to follow suit, indicating that it will only be a matter of time before Russia, the largest country in the world, locks down completely.

These new steps are a far cry from the week's paid leave Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his people last Wednesday.

It was an extraordinary promise in an address which the president seemed to have made to announce the delay of his cherished vote on constitutional reforms, rather than to remind his people of the gravity of what is an economic as much as a health crisis.

It fell to Mr Sobyanin to explain that all restaurants, malls and parks would now be closed and for the Kremlin spokesman to spell out that this was not actually a holiday and that people should work or study from home.

There has been a strange absence of leadership from Mr Putin on the coronavirus crisis.

On Friday, the Kremlin insisted there was no epidemic in Russia but three days later and the capital is in lockdown. The president's default appears to be to downplay the virus. Perhaps this is to stop the spread of panic, but more likely it is to capitalise off the perceived wins of Russia being able to control an epidemic the West cannot.

The more realistic perspective and the real leadership on this has come from Mr Sobyanin. His impulse has been to meticulously watch the response of countries elsewhere and to take every possible precaution back home, first as mayor and then as head of the country's COVID-19 task force.

The decision to put Moscow in lockdown was his. Last Tuesday in a televised meeting a visibly frustrated Mr Sobyanin told the president that the numbers in the capital alone were far higher than the official statistics suggested and that the response must be ramped up nationwide.

It was his call to implement a regime of high alert on 5 March which required anyone returning from high-risk countries to self-isolate for 14 days. These measures may have won Russia valuable time.

The Kremlin spokesman last week said there was no reason to consider a lockdown. Mr Putin's office then said there was no reason to consider extending the 'week off work' this time was styled as.

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Mr Sobyanin on the other hand is clearly preparing for the long haul. He says that self-isolation measures will become more restrictive day by day and that the monitoring system will only come into play at the weekend. That would not happen if the self-isolation regime was duly lifted the following week.

Russians have not yet been confronted with the six month lockdown possibility the UK faces today but it may not be far off. The number of cases this Monday is up to 1,836 over 35 regions, the vast majority of those in Moscow. Sobyanin is taking steps that would suggest the capital is already riddled with the virus.

Let us hope this is out of an abundance of caution rather than because he is one of the few to see the real picture.
Welsh farmers have written to the government calling for action to protect food producers and rural communities in light of the current coronavirus crisis.

A range of concerns have been highlighted, including the need to protect UK food security and primary producers, as well as concerns over access to the countryside.

Covid-19 has had a varied impact on food supply chains, with panic buying and other factors leading to shortages of certain foodstuffs.

Meanwhile, sales of produce through cafes and other outlets have plummeted - factors that have increased market volatility and already led to price cuts for many milk producers.

In letters to Defra Secretary George Eustice and Welsh government's Rural Affairs Minister Lesley Griffiths, the Farmers Union of Wales (FUW) called for more action.

With such impacts likely to continue for months at a time, we believe it is essential that those businesses producing what is, next to water, our most essential commodity should be supported, wrote union president Glyn Roberts.

In light of such concerns, he said a range of interventions should be considered, including forms of direct support for those suffering significant price drops.

He also called for tax concessions and other measures that protect the viability of farm businesses.

The letter also highlights the need to ensure food supply chains can continue to provide food to the nation.

It stated: To this end we would emphasise the importance of allowing milk collectors, livestock markets, slaughterhouses and others to continue to operate while observing appropriate biosecurity rules.

Mr Roberts also took the opportunity to reiterate the need for government to act proportionately in terms of scheme and works deadlines and other requirements that may not be met as a result of the virus, and would normally lead to farm penalties.

The letter said: "To penalise individuals under such circumstances would be unacceptable, and every effort must therefore be made to recognise Force Majeure/exceptional circumstances.

The most significant deadline for the farming community at this time is that relating to the submission of the Single Application Form - which is also the time at which farmers are most at risk of suffering major financial penalties due to minor errors on the form, said Mr Roberts.

Earlier this month, the FUW asked officials to consider means by which the deadline for SAF submission could be extended.

The union has since welcomed the European Commissions announcement that a months extension to the deadline for data relating to schemes which still fall under the Common Agricultural Policy can be sought.

We would naturally ask that the domestic regulations relating to the Basic Payment Scheme submission deadline also be extended, while ensuring that Force Majeure/exceptional circumstances are fully recognised, added Mr Roberts.
The spread of coronavirus has not yet been reflected in Japanese statistics, not because of the malicious intent of the authorities, but because the virus does spread slowly, and the reasons do not depend on the government

Open source

The population of Japan began to cultivate misophobia (fear of infectious diseases) and practice social distance long before the current epidemic and does not need instructions from the authorities

One of the main attractions of modern Hiroshima is its trams. This is not about the trams themselves (they are the most ordinary), but rather about the fact that during their 107 history, they did not leave the depot for only three days in August 1945. The survivors of the atomic bombardment, burnt and crippled people still wandered around the ruins of the city, trying to find their loved ones, and employees of the Hiroshima Railways were already re-laying the rails and restoring power supply.

Through their efforts, the first tram set off on the Nishi  Tammatyo  Koima route on August 9, the day the second bomb fell on Nagasaki. Of course, there was no "economic" meaning in this. The tram went on rails for the sole purpose of becoming the first good news in destroyed Hiroshima. Demonstrate the victory of the ordinary over the extraordinary.

I was reminded of this story by my personal impressions of Tokyo from the era of the coronavirus. Unlike Paris, New York or London, trying to cope with the spread of the disease through total social distance, the largest metropolitan area of the world still has no thoughts to cope with.

Yes, there are fewer people on trains, there are no more crowds of schoolchildren in the black uniform on the sidewalks, and theatergoers like me have nowhere to go on Friday evening - the March season of kabuki is canceled, as well as all other mass events. For the rest, Tokyo lives a relatively normal life: cafe, as they should, the smell of coffee, companies of office proletarians of varying degrees of sobriety fall out of restaurants on the streets in the evenings, and children in parks seem to rave about nothing.

Unless this year, sakura blossomed earlier than usual, and toilet paper for some time was the only truly valuable paper, not subject to market fluctuations. Otherwise, the ordinary here is still calmly riding on the emergency, like a Hiroshima tram on the rails.

Today, Japan is the only G7 country where the Covid-19 pandemic has not yet caused serious problems. This looks especially strange if we take into account the local population density and the fact that the coronavirus began to spread here in mid-January, as well as the rather passive reaction of the authorities to its spread.

Facts and figures

Japanese statistics on coronavirus for weeks have left observers at a loss. The website of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of one of the most developed countries in the world gives official data on the spread of the infection with a fantastic delay: on Thursday evening there were numbers for Tuesday. By the way, the site itself leaves the impression that the development of web design in Japan stopped in the late Middle Ages, but there is nothing surprising in this - it really stopped there.

But that is not the point. So, according to the Ministry of Health, by 18:00 on March 24 in the 126 millionth Japan recorded 1,193 confirmed cases of Covid-19. By this indicator, it has already been beaten not only by such large countries as Israel, Denmark, and Norway but also by giant Luxembourg.

Mortality statistics are slightly less successful, but they still do not cause feelings of a catastrophe gaining momentum: by the evening of Tuesday, 43 people died from the coronavirus in Japan - significantly more than in same Norway, but much less than three- and four-digit numbers from large European countries.

The list of amazing statistical artifacts does not end there. Lets take a look at the data on how many people with coronavirus were placed in the intensive care unit (ICU). Indeed, in the world oldest country, where an acute infection has the most severe impact on aged people, should cause a sharp increase in hospitalization rates in critical and critical condition. Right? No! By the evening of March 24th, there were only 57 people with Covid-19 in the ICU throughout Japan.

Let us not forget about the total number of PCR tests for coronavirus, since Japan also excelled here in its modesty. As of Tuesday, it tested 23,521 people, which is about 15 times less than neighboring South Korea.

The temptation to write off relatively good statistics on the distribution of Covid-19 to insufficient testing volumes is very great, but one circumstance prevents the saying they do a little testing, so they have a small number of the infected. If an unrecognized epidemic raged in Japan, the ratio of the number of patients detected to the total number of tests carried out would be rather high. But this is not so: the Japanese indicator (slightly less than 6%) is really higher than the Korean one (about 2.5%), but not by much, and this difference can easily be explained by strict selection criteria for people who can pass the PCR test.

Until now, this test (with rare exceptions) has been available only to three categories of people: those who came from countries with a difficult epidemiological situation, who had close contact with at least one sick person, and those who had a temperature above 37.5 for four days and symptoms of acute respiratory disease. Obviously, such a sample is simply obliged to give more positive results in comparison with the mass tests practiced in South Korea, which almost everyone can pass without leaving the car.

These figures explain the passivity of the measures that the Japanese government and local governments have so far tried to limit the spread of the disease. While Western Europe knew the joys of hard quarantine, Japan was moving more in the opposite direction. For example, on March 19, the emergency regime announced in Hokkaido Prefecture on February 28 was canceled, and school holidays that began because of the coronavirus earlier than usual are expected to end already in the first decade of April. To the utmost, Japan tried to hold even the Olympics on time and in full.

So where did this amazing statistical well-being come from and how is it supported?

Independent reasons

The simplest possible explanation is that official Japanese statistics for one reason or another do not reflect the real situation. For example, one of the leaders of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party and former Minister of Health of Japan, Akira Nagatsuma, recalls that in Japan, even without the coronavirus, about 90,000 people annually die from pneumonia of various etiologies (more than 200 a day).

It is very difficult to establish whether Covid-19 is hiding in this array of deaths since pathological studies in Japan are extremely rare. This version has the right to life, although it has one serious drawback: crowded hospitals in Europe and the USA clearly demonstrate that the accelerated epidemic of coronavirus cannot be hidden  it becomes immediately noticeable. Wuhans attempts to do this, as you know, failed very quickly.

Most likely, the spread of Covid-19 has not yet been shown in statistics, not because of the malicious intent of the Japanese government trying to hide the true extent of the problem, but because the virus is indeed spreading slowly, and for reasons independent of the government. The point here, it seems, is that the population of Japan began to cultivate misophobia (an obsessive fear of infectious diseases) and practice social distance long before it became fashionable in other countries, and continues to do it now by itself, without any sanctions of the authorities.

Let's start with misophobia. Anyone who has heard anything about Japan knows about the almost universal Japanese habit of wearing surgical masks. There are several reasons for this, but we will focus on the main thing: it is not customary to take sick leave in Japan. Neither SARS nor the atomic bombing, which is clear from the story of Hiroshima trams, is not a good reason for not appearing at work here. This circumstance brought to life an exotic norm: if you have a fever, sneeze, and cough, you should definitely go to work, but you should wear a mask, so as not to infect others.

The first case of coronavirus was confirmed in Japan very early, on January 16, and since then the already high demand for masks has become a rush. Even today it is almost impossible to find them in any store, but now they are on almost all faces.

Even if masks do not help healthy people avoid coronavirus infection (there is no consensus among experts on this issue), they definitely prevent patients from spreading the infection to others: the mask takes on most of the secretions expunged by the sneezing and coughing person. An indirect argument in favor of the masks is the fact that the outbreak of influenza, standard for January - February in Japan, did not happen this year - thanks to the now total masking of the population.

The situation with social distancing is still more interesting. The greatest danger to society in the context of the coronavirus epidemic, apparently, is represented by people under the age of 35: they often tolerate the disease asymptomatically and therefore are almost ideal invisible carriers of infection. So these very people in Japan have long and very well isolated - both from those at risk of developing complications and from each other.

First, Japanese large cities where the epidemic is spreading faster, are much younger than smaller cities and towns, not to mention the countryside. People in megacities almost do not live in families consisting of several generations; moreover, the average young Japanese generally sees his older relatives in the province twice a year. This creates a kind of barrier that protects older Japanese from infection, and this barrier does not break even when the elderly require daily care: according to statistics, more than 50% of people over 65 receive it from spouses of the same age category, and not from children or grandchildren.

Secondly, Japanese urban youth, in fact, are very lonely in themselves. At least 1.5% of people aged 15 to 39 years old are classified by the local statistics as hikikomori - not students and not working voluntary recluses who have not left their apartments for months and years. Those who nevertheless leave the apartments, as a rule, ply along the work-home route: the first takes them so much time and effort that all leisure comes down to sitting and lying in the second. With personal life, things are even worse: almost 70% of Japanese and almost 60% of Japanese women aged 18 to 34 are not romantically involved, and a quarter of men under the age of 50 are still single.

However, even married Japanese are not the most promising carriers for a virus that prefers to spread through close physical contact. The percentage of married and sexually active people in Japan is one of the lowest in the world, and the percentage of couples sleeping in different beds is one of the highest.

If we add to this the nods that replace shaking hands here, the disapproving attitude to expressing romantic feelings in public and the lack of a habit of visiting each other, the conclusion suggests itself: the coronavirus epidemic simply came across in Japan an even stronger epidemic of loneliness, which created for Covid- 19 very unfavorable environment for distribution.

Are come, but not gone

However, even if the assumptions described are true, this does not mean that Japan has a magical immunity to Covid-19. Apparently, while she was just lucky: millions of people cloaked in masks, for many of whom social distancing is a sad fact of life, and not a conscious choice, became extremely unpleasant news for the virus and slowed its spread. Slowed down, but did not stop. The Ides of March are come, aye, Caesar, did not gone.

The bad news for Japan is that a sluggish epidemic is creating a false sense of security among the authorities and society, which could lead to dire consequences. The first alarm bell rang on March 25, when Tokyo Prefecture reported a record number of new cases of coronavirus detected per day.

The figure by European and American standards came out quite modest - only 41 people. But it is alarming here that the surge was preceded by a three-day weekend, which coincided in Tokyo with the peak of sakura blossom and warm sunny weather. The sad conclusions and not very favorable forecasts here beg for themselves.

The Tokyo authorities reacted instantly, although, as before, with restraint: Governor Yuriko Koike addressed the city on Wednesday evening, asking them not to leave their homes next weekend if possible. Will Japan, which has so far remained aloof from the global anti-flash mob, be able to limit itself in the fight against coronavirus by unhindered requests to its disguised lonely population and continue to demonstrate to the world the victory of the ordinary over the emergency? We will find out the answer to this question very soon.

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Testing for coronavirus remains below the target of 10,000 a day, despite ministers claims over the weekend that the milestone had been passed.

Public Health England announced on Monday morning that the latest daily figure for antigen tests - which identify people currently infected - was 9,114, while health minister Helen Whately said that around 7,000 a day were carried out over the weekend.

Meanwhile, a Whitehall source said it was premature to suggest that 17.5 million antibody tests to identify people who have had the virus and recovered could soon get under way. Ministers have ordered millions of the blood tests, but checks are still ongoing to ensure that they work before they can be put to use.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth demanded to know why NHS staff are still not being routinely tested for coronavirus at a time when Germany is testing up to half a million people a week.

Experts continue to call for the UK to significantly ramp up testing, said Mr Ashworth. When Germany is testing around 500,000 people a week, many are asking why we are still not even hitting the 10,000 a day promised on 11 March.

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We called for enforced social distancing, but it is a blunt tool without a national strategy to test and contact trace. At todays Downing Street press conference we call on ministers to outline why testing is still not being scaled up at sufficient levels and what bottlenecks domestically and globally are hindering this.

NHS England said on 11 March that it was significantly expanding testing to 10,000 a day, and ministers later said that this would be reached by the end of last week, with a further target of 25,000 by the middle of April.

Cabinet minister Michael Gove told a TV interview on Sunday that weve increased the number of tests to 10,000 a day, were going to move to get that up to 25,000 a day and were doing all that we can to increase and to accelerate that. And health secretary Matt Hancock tweeted: Good news that weve reached 10,000 #coronavirus tests a day  ahead of schedule. Were on track to 25,000. #StayHomeSaveLives

But in an interview on Monday, Ms Whately said that, while testing capacity had increased to 10,000 tests a day, only around 7,000 were carried out each day over the weekend.

And Public Health England said in a tweet: NHS / PHE testing capacity for patient care stands at 10,949 a day. Latest figure for number of tests conducted is 9114. (Accurate as of 9am 28th March).

Ms Whately told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: Within the next three weeks we expect to get to 25,000 tests a day.

Helen Whately (PA)

The really important thing about that  the effort to test NHS and social care staff  is that we can prioritise the testing to parts of the health and care system where we have particular staff shortages so that we can help by testing people so that we can identify if they are negative so they would no longer need to isolate and they can go back to work.

Grocery delivery company Ocado has ordered 100,000 Covid-19 testing kits for staff, to ensure that customers who cannot visit shops because they are observing lockdown can receive goods safely.

It is believed to have paid 1.5m for the testing kits, with 40,000 already delivered and a further 60,000 to come.

Labour former minister Gareth Thomas asked: If Ocado can buy 100,000 Covid-19 test kits to ensure 'safety for all' for its staff, why cant Michael Gove and Matt Hancock do the same for NHS staff? It beggars belief that staff are still not being routinely tested.

Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Munira Wilson said: "Retaining the public's trust has to be a top priority for the government. The fact that the government have seemingly given inaccurate information regarding the number of tests carried out is not only misleading, but reckless.

"The Secretary of State for Health must come clean quickly. There needs to be an answer as to how this happened, as well as a commitment to ensure an incident such as this does not happen again."

The chair of the Commons Health Committee, Jeremy Hunt, has called for mass testing of the UK population, including weekly coronavirus tests for all NHS and care home staff.

With mass testing, accompanied by rigorous tracing of every person a Covid-19 patient has been in touch with, you can break the chain of transmission, said the former health secretary.

Mass social distancing should protect the NHS through the peak over the next few weeks, but it's a blunt instrument with massive economic impact. For the next wave we must use the precision scalpel of mass testing.
New Delhi: Star couple Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma and actor Kartik Aaryan on Monday pledged to support the fight against coronavirus pandemic. In an Instagram post shared by them on their respective handles, Virat and Anushka wrote that they will contribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative PM-CARES Fund and Chief Ministers Relief Fund (Maharashtra), but didnt mention an amount. Meanwhile, Kartik announced that he would donate Rs 1 crore to PM-CARES Fund and urged others to help as much as possible.

Anushka and I are pledging our support towards PM-CARES Fund and Chief Ministers Relief Fund (Maharashtra). Our hearts are breaking looking at the suffering of so many and we hope our contribution, in some way, helps easing the pain of our fellow citizens, Virat said in a statement while Anushka too posted the same message.

Kartik, while announcing his contribution, said, We need each other now more than ever. Lets show our support.

The government set up the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund, or the PM CARES Fund on Saturday, with the objective of dealing with emergency situations such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Contributors to the fund will enjoy tax benefits, it has been announced.

"People from all walks of life expressed their desire to donate to India's war against COVID-19. Respecting that spirit, the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund has been constituted. This will go a long way in creating a healthier India," PM Modi announced in a tweet on Saturday.

Superstar Akshay Kumar pledged to donate Rs 25 crore to PM-CARES Fund, Varun Dhawan announced a contribution of Rs 30 lakh while T-series honcho Bhushan Kumar said he will donate Rs 11 crore to it.

The coronavirus pandemic has engulfed the entire world and has posed serious challenges for the health and economic security of millions of people worldwide. In India, the spread of coronavirus has been alarming. The number of coronavirus cases has already crossed 1,000 and the death toll is 29 as of Monday morning.
Just about everyone has been affected by the coronavirus pandemicand the crisis, according to most experts, is only beginning to play out in many parts of the U.S. America now has the most confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world. And beyond the devastating human toll, an economic one is looming. The unemployment numbers are staggering, and the economy appears to be headed for a recession, if it's not already in one.

That's bound to affect just about every housing market in the country, some worse than others. But which are the most vulnerable? The realtor.com data team found the counties that could be most at risk in the worsening financial crisis.

Tourism and vacation-home hot spots could be affected more than others, at least initially. These places that depend on visitors to frequent local hotels, restaurants, and attractions to keep their local economies afloat are starting to see big job losses. And when local economies suffer and people aren't working, housing markets hurt.

"The biggest initial coronavirus hit will be felt in the tourism and hospitality industries," says realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale. These are the same places where folks tend to buy vacation homes.

"Second-home markets tend to be hit a bit harder in a recession. ... When people are cutting back, that's where they'll cut back," says Hale.

The luxury home market is also expected to feel the pain.

"Luxury buyers [typically] have a lot of their money in the stock market, and the stock market has taken a huge hit," says Ali Wolf, chief economist at Meyers Research, a national real estate consultancy. "They're saying, 'Let's wait. Let's ride this thing out.' Buying a luxury, new home right now is something that can wait."

Popular retiree destinations may also experience a slowdown. Older Americans, who are more vulnerable to the virus, are increasingly reluctant (or unable) to visit potential forever homes in warmer-weather states. Many of these retirees and soon-to-be retirees hail from the Northeast, the epicenter of the crisis, and the Midwest. And most already have homes, so moving to a retirement community or a sunny, new locale isn't urgentit can be put off until the crisis has passed.

But real estate professionals are optimistic that these near-term vulnerable markets, like the rest of the nation, will likely bounce back once the virus is contained.

Most housing markets in the country will take a significant short-term hit due to COVID-19," says Wolf. "[But] ultimately the housing market is going to come back."

To come up with our list, we looked at the counties with the highest percentage of workers in the industries that are most likely to be affected by this coronavirus-fueled crisis. These included a wide range of tourism, hospitality, retail, and other face-to-face fields, ranging from personal fitness, restaurant, and performing arts workers to those employed at car dealerships, casinos, and cruise lines. The data came from the 2017 County Business Patterns data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The manufacturing industry was not included in our analysis. We counted only the counties with at least 100,000 workers and included one county per state to add some geographic diversity to our list.

Vulnerable counties Tony Frenzel

The most vulnerable county was Horry County, SC, home to Myrtle Beach, with a median county home list price of $239,050 as of February, according to the most recent realtor.com data. It was followed by Clark County, NV, where Las Vegas is located, with a median county list price of $329,050; Atlantic County, NJ (Atlantic City), at $250,050; Orange County, FL (Orlando), at $359,950; and Orleans Parish, LA (New Orleans), at $349,050.

Rounding out the top 10 were Honolulu County, HI, at $636,050; New London County, CT (Mystic), at $287,550; Monterey County, CA (Carmel-by-the-Sea), at $1,173,050; Chatham County, GA (Savannah), at $325,050; and Prince William County, VA (Washington, DC, suburbs), at $480,050.

We broke out the different trends affecting these markets, and took a deeper dive into each. All of the places on our list fall into more than one of these buckets; a few of them fall into each of them.

1. Popular second-home destinations are beginning to slow

All of the counties on our list, most of them on the water, are popular with tourists and vacation home buyers for a reason. They tend to offer lots of natural beauty, plenty of local, unique attractions, and a plethora of places to grab a bite and a drink. And those are the same things that make them more vulnerable to a downturn.

After the housing bust that triggered the Great Recession, home values in resort areas plunged about 25% to 50% depending on where they were located, Jack McCabe of McCabe Research & Consulting, previously told realtor.com. Meanwhile, nationally home prices fell only 17.5% from 2006 to 2011, according to McCabe's analysis.

Myrtle Beach, in the most vulnerable county of our analysis, could take a double hit since it's both a popular vacation home market as well as a major lure for retirees. (Median home prices in Horry County, at $239,050, are the lowest of our list.) About two-thirds of sales in the area are vacation and investment homes. And those sales slowed in mid-March after President Donald Trump first addressed the nation on the pandemic, says Laura Crowther, CEO of the Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors, based in Myrtle Beach.

Myrtle Beach, SC Kruck20/Getty Images

Many second-home buyers come from out of state, and now they can't physically travel to South Carolina to view properties.

But Crowther is seeing an increase in virtual tours of Myrtle Beach listings, and for now, locals are still buying properties, buoying the market.

"It's a very difficult time right now for Myrtle Beach and other areas like it," says Robert Salvino, director of the Grant Center for Real Estate and Economics at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC. Transactions will decline. Theres simply a real difficulty showing and looking at homes.

The area, like all of the others in our analysis, relies on lots of visitors to eat at its restaurants, stay at its hotels, and visit its attractionsbasically pump money into its economy.

Some of these markets were also badly affected by last decade's housing bust. Single-family home sale prices in the Myrtle Beach metro area peaked at $242,310 in July 2006, according to multiple listing service data provided by Salvino. Prices bottomed out to $160,000 in November 2012. They've since rose to $241,900 for the full year of 2019still short of the previous high nearly 14 years ago.

Second-home markets are the first to be affected" by a recession, says Salvino. "People are going to hold off on buying until they know theyre secure and prioritize affording the first home."

The crisis is also likely to hurt the short-term rentals market, like Airbnb. Investors may hold off on buying properties in tourist areas until the crisis passes.

After the housing crash, prices for Honolulu's short-term rentals, mostly condos rented out to visitors, fell by more than 50% in some cases, says local real estate broker George Krischke of Hawaii Living. This could happen again as most Americans are hunkering down instead of jetting off to the tropics during a global pandemic.

In Atlantic County, home to Atlantic City, NJ (No.3 on our list), folks struggling to pay their bills may sell their vacation homes to help alleviate some of their expenses.

"Some people rent [out] during the summer season to help alleviate some of the expenses," says David Fiorenza, an economics professor at Villanova University in the Philadelphia suburbs. "Its going to be harder for people if they have two mortgages, one at their primary residence and one at their secondary residence."

And while this is likely more of a short-term crisis, it could have some serious long-term effects.

Once the virus is under control, vacation home buyers and retirees may want to buy property closer to their primary homes and family, says Sudesh Mujumdar, dean of the College of Business Administration at Savannah State University in Georgia.

They may fear another pandemic or crisis. And that could hurt markets like Savannah, which has a growing retiree and second-home market.

"This might have a longer-term impact on our social fabric," says Mujumdar.

2. Retirees may put home purchasesand relocationson hold

Retirees tend to be attracted to many of the warmer-weather, tourist, and vacation home areas on our list. But those hailing from the particularly hard-hit Northeast as well as the Midwest aren't likely forgoing social distancing to head to South Carolina, Florida, and Hawaii to tour homes. Older individuals are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, with some of the highest mortality rates.

So many of them are holding off on their home searches.

Right now people are adopting a wait-and-see attitude," says Brad O'Connor, chief economist of Florida Realtors, the state's Orlando-based trade group. "Everyone's going to put some stuff on pause right now temporarily while we get a handle on things.

3. Luxury markets could see slumps

Luxury markets won't be exempt from the distress. With the stock market in turmoil and the economy in a downturn, many buyers are more likely to hold off on big-ticket purchases. A pair of such markets likely to be affected are ultrapricey Honolulu County (No. 6) and Monterey County (No. 8).

After the housing bust and the Great Recession, home prices in Honolulu County fell about 10%, says Honolulu broker Krischke. He believes the price declines this time around will be much milder.

"We will always be paradise, but right now were having tough times just like everybody else," says Krischke.

The market in Monterey, CA, an affluent, seaside county just south of Silicon Valley, is already beginning to stall. The market is split between primary and vacation homes.

Carmel-by-the-Sea chinaface/Getty Images

There has been only 12 closings for Monterey County homes costing $1.5 million and more as of March 18typically, that number would have been closer to 30, says real estate broker Andrew Oldham of Compass, who's based in Carmel-by-the-Sea. But now he's seeing extensions, cancellations, and mortgages that are taking longer to process. Some sellers are pulling their properties off the market or even dropping prices. Few new listings are appearing.

However, his team is still seeing multiple offers on less expensive fixer-uppers that are priced right.

They're also seeing buyers make offers on homes they've viewed online with contingencies that would allow them to back out of the dealjust in case problems with the properties crop up once they're finally able to see the homes in person.

Prices plunged 33% to 40% during and after the Great Recession, but he doesn't expect anything that drastic this time around. He anticipates there could be a 5% to 10% dip.

"So far we're not seeing too much of a correction right now," says Oldham. "If you go in thinking you're going to get a good deal, you're probably not."

4. Gambling meccas will likely be hard-hit

Las Vegas Strip after the statewide closure of nonessential businesses Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Two of the counties on our list, Clark County's Las Vegas (No. 2) and Atlantic County's Atlantic City, were clobbered by the financial meltdown in the mid-aughts. Both had struggled to recover and were finally on the upswingthat is until the spread of COVID-19 forced the casinos, hardly centers for social distancing, to close tight.

Just last month, median home prices in the greater Las Vegas area surpassed their height-of-market highs, just before the crash, according to Las Vegas Realtors, the local trade group. (This was for single-family, existing homes.) Home prices in Southern Nevada reached $316,000 in February compared with $315,000 in June 2006.

"That's kind of ironic," says longtime real estate agent Bryan Kyle of First Serve Realty. "It had been a long time coming."

The recovery had taken much longer because the city's real estate market had fallen much further than in other parts of the country. So it had more lost ground to make up.

But unlike last time, Las Vegas is better positioned to weather this storm as there hasn't been rampant overbuilding, says Stephen Miller, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. There is no longer a vast supply of empty homes.

The problem is the city hasn't diversified its industries to protect it from a downturn. About 29% of Clark County's employment is in leisure and hospitality, says Miller. And 1 in 7 visitors is coming to the city for a convention, most of which have been postponed or cancelled.

Were so heavily reliant on leisure and hospitality," says Miller. "The problem is we don't know how long this is going to last."

And if it doesn't end soon, that could spell trouble. In Atlantic City, May through September are the make-or-break months.

If were not able to get the casinos running by May, were not going to see any good economic impact this summer at the Jersey Shore," says Villanova University's Fiorenza.

The post These Housing Markets Could Be Most at Risk in a Coronavirus-Fueled Recession appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.
Hanjin Group chairman Cho Won-tae on Sunday promised aggressive self-rescue measures and capital injections for Korean Air after defeating a coup attempt from his sister and her posse of raiders.

"Executives and staff will focus all their resources on overcoming this crisis," Cho said in a statement.

In a shareholders' meeting of holding company Hanjin KAL on Friday, Cho Won-tae defeated his foes -- Cho Hyun-ah of "nut rage" notoriety, Bando Engineering and Construction and hedge fund Korea Corporate Governance Improvement -- by winning 56.67 percent of votes in favor of keeping him in the job.

"The coronavirus pandemic has pitted the airline industry against an unprecedented crisis," Cho Won-tae added. "At Korean Air, more than 90 percent of aircraft have been grounded."

He pledged to turn the crisis into an opportunity to bolster the airline's financial health by selling off real estate and boosting capital in other ways.

Industry watchers expect Cho Hyun-ah and her allies to continue their offensive, but Cho Won-tae vowed to "give back to society" and "try my best" to turn the company around.


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Linkedin Majeda El-Batsch (Agence France-Presse) Jerusalem  Mon, March 30, 2020 11:30 654 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e46cc1 2 World Israel,Arab,Jews,doctor,medical-practitioners,coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic,novel-coronavirus,health Free

In Israel, Jewish and Arab doctors have worked side by side on the frontlines of the novel coronavirus fight, also battling entrenched schisms between their communities and stressing their unity in the face of the crisis.

Israel's Sheba Medical Center, near the city of Tel Aviv, is ranked among the best in the world and its directors say its standing is thanks to a team of Arab and Jewish caregivers working together in a society otherwise marked by divisions.

"We work together with Arab medical staff everywhere and not just in the time of coronavirus. There is no difference between us," Sheba deputy director emeritus, Rafi Walden, told AFP.

"Without them, the Israeli medical system would collapse."

Israel's Arab minority are the descendants of Palestinians who stayed on their land after the creation of Israel in 1948. They make up around 20 percent of the population, but slightly more of the country's health care workers.

The community regularly says it faces social discrimination and denounces a law that enshrines the Jewish character of Israel.

But as the Jewish state struggles against the deadly novel coronavirus, the crisis is highlighting the collaborative nature of its health service.

A photo shared widely on social media this week showed two medics pausing to pray in front of their ambulance. One was Jewish -- standing and praying in the direction of Jerusalem -- and the other a Muslim, who laid out his prayer rug and knelt facing towards Mecca.

Some internet users praised the image published by Israel's equivalent of the Red Cross, the Magen David Adom, as "inspiring" and underscored the need for unity in a crisis.

Others took the opportunity to highlight the inequalities faced by the Arab minority.

According to a 2017 study by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel, poverty rates are far higher in Arab neighborhoods, where the average life expectancy is also four years lower than among Jewish Israelis.

'In the trenches together'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long faced accusations of racism towards the Arab minority and of inciting hatred against members of Arab political parties. He has described them as a "threat" to the country and one of his ministers has called them "terrorists in suits".

"Netanyahu knows the role of Arabs in the health service and in other sectors and he continues to spread hatred against Arabs and to lie unabashedly," Walden said.

Recently, nearly 700 Israeli medical professionals, roughly half of them Arab and half Jewish, signed a petition calling on Netanyahu to stop sowing division during a public health crisis.

More than 3,800 cases of the novel coronavirus have been reported by Israel as of Sunday, and 12 people have died.

After more than a year of political turmoil marked by three inconclusive general elections, Netanyahu is expected to remain in power and form an "emergency government" to manage the virus outbreak after a surprise agreement by his rival Benny Gantz to work with the premier.

"Our goal, both Arabs and Jews, is to protect humanity, and we call for an end to incitement to hatred. We're in the trenches together working to stop the coronavirus epidemic," said Shukri Awawda, a senior doctor in the Arab city of Nazareth and one of those who spearheaded the petition.

Disparities in virus response?

The number of novel coronavirus cases recorded in Arab areas has remained relatively low.

This is "because fewer tests are being conducted in Arab areas", said Israeli Arab lawmaker Jaber Asakla, who has made an urgent call for more resources to manage the health crisis.

Another explanation could be the faster spread of the disease in large cities, according to researcher Mohammad Darawshe, who noted that "nearly 70 percent of Arab citizens live in villages and individual homes".

Meanwhile "70 percent of Jewish citizens live in cities and apartment blocks", said Darawshe, who works with the Givat Haviva centre, which campaigns for equality between Arabs and Jews in Israel.

With fewer resources, "Arab municipalities are definitely not prepared for when the big wave of coronavirus comes," he warned.

"They have not had the luxury of budgets to train their staff properly for emergency situations."

In a recent campaign on social media, Arab doctors and nurses wearing masks and protective gear urged fellow citizens to avoid spreading the virus by staying home, "for the sake of our loved ones, and for our sake".
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Workers at the Bloomfield-based Amazon fulfillment center plan to walk off the job Monday due to what they deem unfavorable working conditions as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Workers at the facility, known as JFK8, will walk out Monday due to the companys lack of safety protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU).

Published reports say approximately 100 of the 4,500 workers there plan to take part. The facility is Staten Islands largest employer.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

All employers need to prioritize the health and safety of their workforce at this time. Unfortunately, Amazon appears to be prioritizing maximizing its enormous profits even over its employees safety -- and that is unacceptable," the union said in a statement.

While Amazon workers on Staten Island are not unionized, they have sought to form a union in the past.

The health and safety of our employees is our top priority and the vast majority of our employees continue to come to work and deliver for customers," an Amazon spokesperson said. "We understand the past few weeks have been a very challenging time and we deeply value our employees as they serve the people in their communities in a way that very few can  delivering critical supplies directly to the doorsteps of people who need them.

We are closely following guidance from local and state health authorities and making adjustments to our business, which includes going to extreme measures to keep the building clean with enhanced cleaning and sanitation and efforts to enforce social distancing, to name a few," the spokesperson added.

Amazon also recently implemented daily temperature screenings, the spokesperson said.

[This] is an additional preventative measure to support the health and safety of our customers and employees. We believe direct communication is the best avenue to discuss feedback, and our teams onsite are speaking directly with employees each day to hear their questions and discuss options that are available in this ever changing environment, she said.

CONFIRMED CASE AT JFK8

The Advance/SILive.com reported Saturday that sources say there are multiple confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) at Amazons Staten Island fulfillment center.

A spokesperson for the Amazon facility wouldnt confirm the number of cases, although sources say there are several."

We are supporting the individuals who are recovering. We are following guidelines from health officials and are taking extreme measures to ensure the safety of employees at our site, said an Amazon spokesperson Saturday.

The company didnt close for cleaning, said a company spokesperson.

We continue to consult with health authorities and medical experts on how to handle building closures for deep cleaning, if an employee tests positive for COVID-19. Our process evaluates where the employee was in the building, for how long, how much time has passed since they were onsite, and who they interacted with, among other items, in determining how to appropriately handle the situation, said Amazon.

COMPLAINTS FROM WORKERS

The Advance/SILive.com has received several complaints from workers at the Bloomfield facility saying that Amazon is not adhering to social distancing policies.

One worker said that he was self quarantining after seeing others exhibiting symptoms at the Bloomfield facility.

ONE CONFIRMED CASE

Last week, Amazon confirmed that one worker at the fulfillment center tested positive for the coronavirus. The company said it has put the infected person in a mandatory quarantine.

That worker was last onsite in the center on March 11, the company said. The person received medical care and is in quarantine, according to Amazon. Employees diagnosed with the virus or placed into quarantine will receive up to two weeks of pay, in accordance with company policy.

The company said it has put the following social distancing practices in place:

- There are no stand-up meetings during shifts; all essential business information is shared via boards near main areas and through conversations with managers, or HR team members.

- Chairs have been moved and tables have been spread out in break rooms.

- Shift start times and break times are being staggered.

- All exit screening is suspended to ensure ease of movement near main entrances.

- The company has enabled temporary cell phone processes for those who need to be in contact with their family or child care provider.

- Training now takes place in small formats and with in-app tools and other equipment.

- Employees are required to stay home and seek medical attention if they are feeling sick, and Amazon has adjusted attendance policies to support this.

- Employees are required to sanitize and clean their work station and vehicle at the start and end of every shift with disinfectant/cleaning wipes.

- All employees have been asked to defer non-essential travel.

- Potential employees are interviewed via video.

- All employees have been ordered to wash their hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after: Going to the bathroom; before eating; after blowing their nose, coughing, or sneezing. If soap and water are not readily available, they are told to use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.

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Domestic violence cases in Montgomery County have spiked 35 percent this month compared to the same period last year, possibly due to isolation during the coronavirus outbreak, according to the District Attorneys Office.

This rise may be due to increased isolation, stress and more access to victims by perpetrators caused by the COVID-19 virus fallout. As social distancing guidelines continue to further isolate victims from resources available to them, those victims are at an increased risk for abuse, a statement from the DAs Office read. The Office will continue to aggressively prosecute violent offenders, particularly those who prey upon these most vulnerable members of our community.

The District Attorneys Office has been taking measures in anticipation of an increase and is addressing it with newly disclosed procedures.

As detailed to The Courier last week, prosecutors will enhance certain offenses, including for assault, committed during a disaster declaration. As allowed by the Texas Penal Code and following its own discretion, the DAs Office will add to a convicted offenders sentencing. Charges may also increase by a level, such as a Class A misdemeanor being pushed up to a felony.

On-call prosecutor

Part of the its family violence division, the office has an on-call domestic violence prosecutor to advise and furnish resources to law enforcement investigating domestic abuse. The prosecutor will respond in person to an arrest when there is a so-called high lethality risk. Such risks include homicidal or suicidal threats, offenses involving strangulation, weapons in the home, threats involving weapons, prior violence between the accuser and the accused, unemployment and controlling or stalker-like behavior.

Planning and resources

Within 24 to 72 hours from the time an alleged offender is taken into custody, the DAs Office will reach out to reporting victims. Additionally, the DAs Office will be providing victims with safety planning and resources, including the Montgomery County Womens Center.

Reach out for help Contact: Montgomery County Women's Center 24 hour hotline, 936-441-7273 or mcwctx.org/ National Domestic Violence Hotline, 800-799-72323 or thehotline.org National Dating Violence Hotline, 866-331-9474 LoveisRespect.org or text LOVEIS to 22522 Texas Council on Family Violence, tcfv.org/survivor-resources See More Collapse

Though it is still housing those in need, social distancing efforts to suppress the community spread of COVID-19 have created unique circumstances for the Womens Center. As a precaution, the Womens Center has had to turn away some people.

We will continue to protect the health and welfare of our citizens, which requires more than just preventing them from becoming ill. It requires us to stop those who seek to harm those who are most vulnerable, said District Attorney Brett Ligon in a statement. Individuals who display the worst of humanity and commit acts of violence during this time should expect to be met with determined and aggressive prosecution by the District Attorneys Office.

jose.gonzalez@chron.com

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Mandy Crozier 40, curriculum coordinator at Kinder Academy, left, and her daughters, Jacey Crozier, 21, center, and Savannah Crozier, 10, right, in front of their home. Both Mandy and Jacey were laid off from Kinder after the COVID-19 related shut-down. Mandy has been reaching out to teachers and students while at home. Read more

Leslie Spina never thought it would come to this. She scheduled an online meeting for the majority of her staff at Kinder Academy child-care centers in Northeast Philly. She scanned the faces of 100 employees, practically all of them women, on a computer screen. Some shed known since 1994, when she founded the business. She tried, but couldnt hold back tears. Her voice quivered as she told them she had to lay them off Friday, March 20.

It was the worst day of my life, she said later. The absolute worst. I am so worried for them and how they will fare in this situation. How will people recover from this? And that is considering the situation before any of them are sick or before we have lost anyone.

 READ MORE: Read more: Phillys day-care system is on the verge of a coronavirus collapse. Emergency cash is coming. Will it be enough?

Child-care facilities have been closed statewide since March 16. The majority of Kinders 500 client families at five locations are low-income and qualify for city, state, or federal funding. The states Office of Child Development and Early Learning has said it would continue to fund the subsidized program Child Care Works through April 30. But what happens after that date, including to other city, state and federal subsidies? And the duration of the shutdown remains unclear.

Spina said she decided to do layoffs sooner rather than later, thinking that her employees would get a jump start on applying for unemployment.

And that's just what they did.

It felt bizarre, said Mandy Crozier, who was Kinders curriculum coordinator, describing the application process. It was disturbing to do it. Ive never been on unemployment. Its scary. I still dont feel like its set in yet. It doesnt feel real.

Crozier, now 40, kind of grew up at Kinder. She was 20 years old, a single mom raising daughter Jacey when she started there. I needed work, and I didnt want to leave my child, she said. So she got a job at Kinder and enrolled Jacey, then 18 months old. It was the easiest solution at the time. I thought Id do this while I try to figure life out.

She now has a masters degree, and Jacey, now 21, also worked at Kinder until the layoff. Crozier is now married and is relieved her husband hasnt lost his job in human resources. She said she understands why Spina chose to lay employees off rather than wait and see. I respect her decision. I want the business to still be there. To see her in that state when she told us was terrifying. She was crying. Leslie doesnt cry. She can withstand anything.

Many Kinder workers are terrified that they wont be able to financially stay afloat.

Its scary. Just really scary, said Yashira Morant, a mother of two children, ages 3 and 6. She and her fiance already lived paycheck to paycheck before the layoff. She earned $13 an hour and her fiance does pest control work, and so far is still employed.

"One paycheck will make it really hard to pay the rent, the car payment, and all the other bills," she said. "My biggest fear is that I can't go back to work soon. If I have no income coming in, what happens to us?"

Heather Campbell, 32, and her husband, William, both worked for Kinder and have two sons, 5 and 11. She was a teacher and he was a part-time janitor. William has another job, cleaning trains for SEPTA.

For right now, hes working. Im just afraid when this is all over that we wont have a job to come back to, she said. Im hoping that we can reopen for ourselves and our families. Resume where we left off.

Parents who relied on Kinder are struggling, too. Porsha Fields had three of her four children there while she worked as a food service assistant for the Philadelphia School District. The kids miss their friends, she said. And the teachers there are like my second family.

Campbell FaceTimed Fields children, reading books, playing games, staying in touch. Many Kinder teachers continue to do the same for their children.

"In the face of tragedy, they continue to do Eve's work," Spina said.

Among the employees Spina laid off was her own mom, who ran the front desk, and nephew, who was a classroom assistant. Her mom survived SARS 17 years ago. Now she, along with her disabled husband, live with Spina in Bucks County.

The expectation is, after this crisis passes, well come back and take care of the children. Its underpaid and undervalued work. Its time for our society to take a different look at this, she said. "In order for us as a country to normalize, child care, quality care, has to be in place.

Im just trying to save the ship.
Youtube / Zay Miyagi

New York City hospitals have been overrun with an influx of Covid-19 patients with the number of cases rising to 33,768 confirmed infections and 776 people have died, as of Sunday.

Footage shared online shows how some NYC hospitals are handling the people dying from the virus, as well as other ailments, including using forklifts to load bodies on refrigerated trucks to act as makeshift morgues before they are transported away.

One video outside Brooklyn Hospital Centre in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, appeared to show hospital workers working to move bodies into an 18-wheel refrigerated truck over the weekend.

"This is for real. This is Brooklyn," an unidentified man said who filmed the moment.

"This may make you want to take this serious," he added.

Another video shared by a Mount Sinai hospital worker showed staff standing outside with stretchers carrying what looked to be bodies. The worker in the video said they were preparing to load the bodies into a refrigerated truck.

The Independent contacted Brooklyn Hospital Centre and Mount Sinai for a comment on the released footage.

Hospitals across New York City have set up these trucks outside their buildings as makeshift morgues during the pandemic. These trucks were previously used during the 9/11 terrorist attack.

Reasoning behind using these trucks is the inability for hospitals to house the increased number of bodies in their built-in morgues. Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn, for example, can only hold 20 bodies in its morgue, so it has resorted to also placing a refrigerated truck outside its building, CNN reports.

"What's more so terrifying is you have family members who can't come pick up normally as they lose a family member," Khari Edwards, the hospital's vice president of external affairs, told CNN. "Funeral homes are swamped."

Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan has also placed a truck outside its building.

New York state is anticipating it will need about 140,000 hospital beds to handle the number of Covid-19 patients. Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday when welcoming the USNS Comfort, an 1,000-bed hospital ship, to the city's harbour that it needed every hospital to increase capacity by three times in the coming weeks.

Story continues

Officials, including New York City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot, anticipated April could be a deadlier month with the virus expected to peak.

"The reality is that if we think about the typical flu season on a yearly basis New York loses roughly 1,000 to 2,000 people because of influenza. I think we are on the scale of having many more people ... die because of Covid-19," he said on Sunday. "We're definitely on track for having more deaths than we would typically see in a flu season."

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Listen to the latest episode of The Independent Coronavirus Podcast
And because of inadequate medical care in most of these facilities, people in prison who become infected will die unnecessarily, while others will be transferred to local hospitals in rural communities upstate, where most of New Yorks prisons are. These hospitals are woefully unprepared for the influx of patients, adding to growing strain on our states health care system. Dr. Ross MacDonald, the chief physician for the Rikers Island jail complex, was not being hyperbolic when he wrote on Twitter recently: A storm is coming.

We have little time to curb the spread of the virus within our states jails and prisons, and, by extension, across our state. This is not only an issue about the health of people in prisons, but also a public health crisis that threatens to become a humanitarian disaster.

For this reason, we and a number of public health experts call on Mr. Cuomo to release as many people as possible from New Yorks correctional facilities, and to ensure they have the medical and re-entry help they need when they return home.

Here are several actions Mr. Cuomo must take, in addition to ending money bail for most people charged with crimes:

First, the governor should grant compassionate release to elderly inmates, as well as those with health conditions that put them at higher risk, including people with chronic and co-morbid conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and those who are pregnant or have immune deficiencies. We know that older incarcerated people are both more vulnerable to the disease and present the lowest risk of reoffending.

Second, Mr. Cuomo should release the thousands of people currently incarcerated on noncriminal technical violations of their parole, like missing an appointment with a parole officer  except in the very few cases in which a technical violation involves a risk to public safety. There are some 4,000 people incarcerated in New York prisons for such non-crimes. Only the governor has the power to release these people  and 50 current and former parole commissioners around the country already have recommended he do so.
Although I am a medical doctor focused on aesthetics, my career has been devoted to combating inflammation in both joints and skin. These days I field many questions from customers and patients about what we should change in our skin care regime during the stay at home phase of the coronavirus response.

Skin is more than just a beauty device, and healthy skin is more important to overall health than most people realize. Skin is our body's largest organ, and it is the first thing that encounters the outer world. Skin is the armor that protects us from pathogens, pollution, UV rays and everything we come in contact with.

With entire countries now working from home and widespread school cancellation, screen time  the time we spend sitting in front of our computers, mobile phones, tablets and flat screen TVs  has predictably spiked up to 50% according to Internet service providers.

Internet viewing is so high that Europe is considering a shutdown of high definition television availability, forcing all Europeans to watch low resolution TV to preserve broadband.

An American Academy of Dermatology study found that all those HEV-induced free radicals destroy the complex cell structures over time, including the skin's collagen and elastin

What does your skyrocketing screen time have to do with your skin? All of these devices emit a blue-colored thing you have probably never heard of called High Energy Visible light, or 'HEV.' The sunlight spectrum is comprised of UV, infrared and visible colors of the rainbow, each with varying wavelengths. UVA and UVB light from the sun are invisible light, which we all know during daylight hours can harm your skin's health and appearance.

Blue HEV light penetrates from 380 to 500 nanometers, reaching all the way to the hypodermis skin layer. HEV can penetrate as deeply and be just as damaging to skin as ultraviolet rays. Recent studies show HEV light generating similar amounts of reactive oxygen species like nitric oxide as UVA and UVB combined, causing oxidative damage to cells and other bodily functions.

An American Academy of Dermatology study found that all those HEV-induced free radicals destroy the complex cell structures over time, including the skin's collagen and elastin. HEV light exposure from our screens can also cause premature aging, dryness, impaired skin healing, melasma, sensitivity, wrinkles, uneven tone and texture, and sagging skin. HEV is shown in studies to cause the ultimate skin killer - an inflammatory cascade.

Dr. Sturm writes: 'Get your phone away from your bed; HEV exposure in the night triggers the production of Cortisol, a hormone that interrupts sleep'

The inflammatory cascade in turn affects skin healing, skin barrier function, post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation and cellular cycles. And the harmful effects of HEV have been shown to be exacerbated by exposure to air pollution. So the reality and damage of HEV exposure is akin to sun exposure  you could physically avoid it altogether, but you probably won't.

The difference is that everyone knows they need to wear broad spectrum sun protection or risk the consequences  cancer and premature aging.

HEV exposure can be just as damaging and it is equally imperative that you protect your skin against it using daily skin care with ingredient science that blocks HEV light and helps the body adapt to the aftermath of HEV exposure.

Here are five steps you can take to protect yourself from the ravages of HEV:

First, limit excessive screen time, which is currently averaging over 10 hours a day, and increase distance between your skin and the screen.

Second, wear blue light filtering glasses, just as you do sunglasses, to protect against eye damage.

Third, get your phone away from your bed; HEV exposure in the night triggers the production of Cortisol, a hormone that interrupts sleep.

Fourth, use skincare products that contain HEV light filters and apply high concentration Hyaluronic Acid regularly  clinical studies show it does double duty keeping your skin hydrated and promoting the skin barrier function that affords you some natural protection against UV and HEV alike.

The quarantine period of the current health crisis is a good time to reflect on the health of our families and ourselves. If you are studying how to do that, including reading this on your computer or mobile phone, you should be using protection against High Energy Visible light

And fifth, use the best ingredient science, in oral supplements and skincare, to further protect your face  examples include Cacao Seed, which contain powerful anti-oxidants that combat the free radicals produced by HEV exposure, and Adaptogens, compounds that help the body adjust to the physical stresses of UV, HEV and other environmental stressors.

The quarantine period of the current health crisis is a good time to reflect on the health of our families and ourselves. If you are studying how to do that, including reading this on your computer or mobile phone, you should be using protection against High Energy Visible light.

Like seatbelts and sunscreen, the public needs to be educated to protect against new dangers it did not previously know existed, both in these quarantine days and beyond. Protect your skin and it will protect you back.
Flagellants in the Netherlands scourged themselves in atonement, believing that the Black Death is a punishment from God for their sins, 1349. With every new pandemic throughout human history have come successively different theories about their transmission: why this disease, why here, why now. Credit: Western News

Millions of people confine themselves to their homes as they battle an invisible, viral enemy. Schools and theaters close. Playgrounds empty. Medical staff choose which patients will get life-saving respirators, and which will not.

That was polio at its North American peak in the early 1950s.

Today, the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak is both familiar and concerning to Western medical historian Shelley McKellar.

She sees parallels in the current pandemic with the trajectory of history's other fast-moving diseases, including the Black Death of the 1300s; the cholera outbreak of the 18th century; the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic; polio's apex in the 1950s; and modern-day viruses such as HIV, SARS, MERS, H1N1 and Zika.

She cites a resiliency on two levels: On one level, the resiliency of peoplewe are still here and still moving forward. On the other, there's the resiliency of the diseasewe haven't seen the end of this.

Students in her Plague, Pox and Flu: Disease in Global History undergraduate course are in the rare position of learning the historical lessons of pandemics while living in one.

"It's a great year to teach this course," said McKellar, the Jason A. Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. "I'm so proud of my students as they're identifying recurring themes (from history) that they see through these news stories."

Although theories of contagion have evolved considerably over time, approaches to slowing the spread of disease hasn't changed much. "We've seen similar strategies in how to address it. This is all about containment, all about barriers, all about strategic quarantine."

Even the origin of the word quarantine stems from Italy in the 1300s, when sailors arriving on ships in Venice had to remain on board for 40 ("quaranta" ) days to as a defense against spreading the plague.

The Black Death of 1347-51, remains the most devastating pandemic in history, having killed as many as 200 million people, including half of what was then Europe's population.

"Its incidence and mortality were so egregious," McKellar said. It upended the labor system, changed social and economic structures, and recovery from its wide-reaching impact took as long as six generations.

Could this outbreak have such far-reaching effect? McKellar stresses her job is to examine the pastnot predict the future.

In history, she tells her students, "time and place matter. The disease process is geographically contingent and culturally contingent."

But some themes of past outbreaks do find echoes in the present pandemic, she said. One is the blame game used to further political agendas, rather than advance medical endsa tendency that extends even to disease nomenclature.

In the 15th century, for example, Italians and Germans referred to syphilis as the 'French disease,' the French called it the 'Italian disease,' while the Dutch blamed the Spanish, and the Russians pinned it on the Poles.

Another relatively recent theme has been an increasing expectation that governments can, and should, take economic and medical measures to keep us safe.

In 1976, the H1N1 death of one U.S. serviceman at Fort Dix, New Jersey, led to fears of impact similar to Spanish fluwhich killed tens of millions, more than in the Great War that preceded it. That single case prompted mass vaccinations later decried as an over-reactionand continued today in conversations about how much government intervention is enough or too much.

One lesson of the SARS outbreak in 2003, for example, was "how crippled our preventive health measures were and how much we had taken away from those health resources," she said. Learning from that failure has helped Canadian efforts to combat COVID-19 and emphasize that all levels of governments nationally and internationally must work together in a co-ordinated, well-communicated, measured, evidence-based response.

Pandemics also push uncomfortable ethical issues to the fore.

When polio inexplicably peaked in North America in the 1950s, medical staff had to decide who would receive breathing support in an 'iron lung' machine, sometimes for years, and who would be denied that chance at life.

With 'new' pandemics come successively different theories about their transmission: why this disease, why here, why now. "You have to understand disease-causation theories to better understand public response to disease," she said.

If the science of the day said disease was caused by 'bad air', the solution was to avoid inhaling putrid smells. If people believe disease is a curse from God, they follow more religious rituals. If the medical issue is an imbalance in body fluidsthe four 'humors' of blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegmthen the cures include bloodletting, laxatives and emetics.

Combine those along with the ideas that disease could be transmitted by looking at a diseased person or that contagion was rooted in the alignment of the stars and planets.

Ultimately, these theories gave way by the 1880s to the germ theory of infection, which led to sanitation, antibiotics, vaccines.

Some in the mid-20th century even began positing that curing human disease was within medical/scientific reach. "We were moving on this hubris that we can live in a disease-free worldand then along comes HIV," she said.

People shouldn't be so surprised pandemics happen and continue to challenge us, she said.

She hopes this pandemic will teach enduring lessons useful during the next outbreak: a commitment to support health-care workers; a co-ordinated international response; individuals recognizing their responsibility to safeguard community wellbeing even if personally inconvenient; and handwashing.

"I look at all the positive instances coming up in that people are helping each other. We will make it through this."

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
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MILFORD - Two Milford residents have been arrested after being accused of having sex in a vehicle in a parking lot of Eisenhower Park on Saturday night.

Frank Steele, 39, and Danielle Dionne, 29, of the same address on Columbia Drive, were both charged with public indecency and breach of peace.
Chartered flights brought more than 200 workers to Austria on Monday to ensure that the provision of care to the elderly and vulnerable was not disrupted by coronavirus-related travel restrictions, a regional official said.

Austria's social care sector is heavily dependent on staff from eastern Europe, many of whom shuttle back and forth, staying in Austria for weeks at a time.

On Monday, 231 workers were flown in to provide round-the-clock care in the region of Lower Austria, which organised flights from the Bulgarian capital Sofia and the Romanian city of Timisoara.

Regional social affairs official Christiane Teschl-Hofmeister told public radio station Oe1: "I can't tell you now whether this will be a one-off action or not.

"If the need presents itself again we will try to do everything we can to fulfil it," she said.

Since several neighbouring countries shut their borders in response to the pandemic, fears have grown in Austria that the crucial flow of care workers could be threatened.

The regional chamber of commerce is paying for foreign staff to stay in a hotel and complete a 14-day quarantine before they begin work, Oe1 reported.

They are then expected to stay longer than the usual period of three to four weeks.

Teschl-Hofmeister said only 70 workers were needed immediately, but more than 200 were recruited as a "security" measure.

The European Commission has issued guidance for member states to ensure that workers in key fieldsincluding the care sectorcan cross borders to work despite the new restrictions.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

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Linkedin Budi Sutrisno (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 30, 2020 15:25 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e57b3b 1 National COVID-19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,COVID-19-lockdown,Jokowi,quarantine,lockdown,social-distancing,physical-distancing,regional-quarantine,emergency Free

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has ordered his Cabinet to impose stricter rules on physical distancing coupled with "civil emergency policies" in an effort to contain the worsening COVID-19 outbreak.

I ask that large-scale social restrictions and physical distancing policies be enforced more strictly and more effectively, which is why I said they should be coupled with civil emergency policies," Jokowi said in his introductory statement to a limited Cabinet meeting on Monday.

"I ask that clearer implementing regulations be prepared as guidelines for the provincial, regency and city administrations so they can work, he continued, adding that regional quarantine policies could only be enacted by the central government.

Before the meeting, presidential spokesman Fadjroel Rachman also said that the government would impose extreme physical distancing measures by declaring a civil emergency.

President Jokowi will set a new stage of large-scale social restrictions through [declaring] a civil emergency, he wrote on his official Twitter account @fadjroeL.

However, the tweet was soon deleted, and replaced with a tweet stating that the large-scale social restrictions would be coupled with "health quarantine" policies instead.

"Only if things worsen significantly will a civil emergency [be declared]," he tweeted.

Presiden @jokowi menetapkan tahapan baru perang melawan Covid-19 yaitu: PEMBATASAN SOSIAL BERSKALA BESAR dengan KEKARANTINAAN KESEHATAN. Hanya jika keadaan sangat memburuk dapat menuju Darurat Sipil ~ #Jubir #BungJubir @JubirPresidenRI #GotongRoyongKemanusiaan pic.twitter.com/wAh61w4wCC  Fadjroel Rachman (@fadjroeL) March 30, 2020

National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) head Doni Monardo, who is also Indonesia's COVID-19 task force chief, later confirmed after the Cabinet meeting that the policies announced by Jokowi on Monday referred to three existing pieces of legislation.

They are the 2007 Disaster Management Law and the 2018 Health Quarantine Law -- which stipulates large-scale social restrictions and regional quarantines -- and Government Regulation in Lieu of Law (Perppu) No.23/1959 on a state of emergency, which particularly regulates civil emergencies.

Presidential spokesman Fadjroel Rachman said that the civil emergency policies were only anticipatory measures so as "to prepare for if the situation gets significantly worse."

Editor's note: This article has been updated to confirm that the government is using Government Regulation in Lieu of Law (Perppu) No.23/1959 on a State of Emergency, also known as the civil emergency law, if the situation concerning the pandemic significantly deteriorates.
Telemedicine is having a moment, as Dr. Rahul Parikh at Kaiser Permanente Walnut Creek Medical Center put it.

As the COVID-19 outbreak escalates around the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging health care providers to boost telehealth, and encourage patients to avoid in-person treatment unless its a medical emergency.

Experts say virtual doctor visits are critical to reduce the spread of the disease and avoid overwhelming local health care systems with cases of COVID-19  for which theres no medical cure.

Its supporting our need for social distancing and to keep doctors and health care providers safe. Thats our primary prevention, our first line of defense to COVID, Parikh, a pediatrician and telemedicine expert said in an interview, echoing national advice.Ill make this plea: Please honor social distancing in and out of the health care system.

Hospital systems have practiced telehealth through messaging, phone, and video calls for years. But with California and many other states sheltering in place, demand in the Bay Area and elsewhere has boomed for patients who fear they have COVID-19 and for those with other medical needs.

Kaiser Health reported Thursday that its doctors and nurses are seeing about 8,000 patients a day system-wide via video call, spokeswoman Kerri Leedy said. That number has grown by an order of magnitude in just two weeks, Parikh said.

At Sutter Health, video visits are available daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The number of patients served virtually has grown 20 times since the onset of the pandemic, said Dr. Albert Chan, whose title at Sutter Health reflects the new reality: He is chief of digital patient experience.

Before COVID-19, UCSF saw an average of 150 telehealth patients a day; now its upward of 600, said spokeswoman Kristen Bole. On Wednesday, video calls to UCSF exceeded in-person visits for the first time.

Keep in mind that were also rescheduling and deferring a lot of visits that arent critical, said UCSF Chief Innovation Officer Ralph Gonzales. But for people who need to confer with a medical professional right away, he said, telemedicine is a viable option.

People who have symptoms associated with COVID-19  a fever and dry cough, for example  can also take a survey of their symptoms online, which uses an algorithm to suggest medical treatment. Employees can call UCSFs COVID-19 hotline.

Set up in February, the hotline has received more than 2,200 calls.

But those calls have recently declined in frequency, and Dr. Gina Intinarelli, a UCSF vice president who manages the hotline, has asked herself if the citys early move to social distancing has helped bring those numbers down.

Were cautiously optimistic, she said.

Of the thousands of people who called the hotline, 38% stayed home to self-monitor, 43% received a video appointment, 13% had an urgent in-person appointment, and 6% were sent to the emergency room, UCSF said. Soon, 18 nursing students will join the team staffing the hotline to deal with the demand.

Among the few industries doing well in the pandemic are telemedicine startups that enable online medical visits or house calls.

Demand is up three times at PlushCare, a San Francisco company that offers an app for virtual primary care, said Ryan McQuaid, its chief executive.

Heal, also in San Francisco, produces an app that sends doctors out on house calls and offers telemedicine appointments. That company saw a 200% increase in the past two weeks compared with three months ago, said Heals medical director, Dr. Justin Zaghi.

Most of the calls are related to COVID-19, which can be treated virtually if symptoms are mild, Zaghi said.

To boost remote visits, the government and insurance companies are loosening the rules on telehealth. Under new federal law, co-pays and deductibles are free for COVID-19 testing and treatment, including virtually. And Medicare will cover all telehealth visits. Health care providers can now bill remote visits as in-office, getting more reimbursements from insurance companies.

In California, out-of-state doctors can now be authorized by the state health department to treat patients in person and online. Veterinarians dont have to physically examine pets after the Food and Drug Administration said it wouldnt enforce that treatment requirement. And mental health therapy has gone almost completely online.

Now Playing: Here is what you need to know about the coronavirus. Video: Manjula Varghese

Other companies are using their technology to offer a slew of new services. Dr. Pat Carroll, chief medical officer with Hims and Hers, said the San Francisco telemedicine platform expanded its usual health consultations to offer primary care visits in 17 states plus a free COVID-19 assessment online in the past week.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The health care world has been turned upside down with COVID-19, Carroll said.

Yet there are limits to what telemedicine can do  and pitfalls.

Zaghi at Heal worried that women will miss critical screenings, like mammograms, which require in-office visits.

But health care providers are also stretching the limits of practicing medicine remotely.

At UCSF, cancer and heart patients can see their doctors online, Gonzales said. Doctors at Sutter Health use telemedicine to determine whether patients with acute respiratory illness need to get in-person care, said Chan. And at Kaiser, Parikh said hes able to assess an asthmatic childs breathing and determine if a kid is dehydrated.

Id say that we are going to learn a heck of a lot, he said. If theres one silver lining, well learn about where it works and doesnt work at a much faster pace.

COVID-19 could be a tipping point for telemedicine: Some patients using it for the first time said theyd do it again  even after the pandemic is over.

Kayla Maloney had scheduled a two-month checkup for her baby, Evie, at Kaiser San Jose but began to worry about going to the hospital. Then she received a call from Kaiser recommending she do a video appointment instead.

I was relieved not to go in, Maloney said. She knew she would miss out on some things  for instance, Evie wasnt weighed or measured  but the doctor asked basic questions about her daughters health that took just 10 minutes.

It was so great just being at home and being able to talk to our doctor. It was really cool, Maloney said. I would be open to doing it again.

Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mallorymoench
HCMC has prepared to cope with different scenarios and targets limiting its Covid-19 cases to below 150, city Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong said Sunday.

All facilities are ready to meet quarantine and treatment requirements in the worst case Covid-19 scenario, Phong said at a meeting with the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control. He did not specify what the scenario was.

Ho Chi Minh City currently has 36 quarantine camps with 12,000 beds and will add more areas to increase capacity to 24,000 beds. The city has four intensive care facilities for treating Covid-19 patients with 2,300 beds and 47 hospitals that can accept patients with more than 700 beds.

The city had also equipped itself with 10,000 high-sensitivity test kits, seven million medical masks and 40 million cloth masks.

Phong said that among 46 Covid-19 infections in the city, 32 cases were infected from abroad and the rest contracted the virus within the community.

To deal with the possibility of infection from foreign tourists from other localities, Phong has proposed that Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asks the Transport Ministry to minimize domestic flights to and from the Tan Son Nhat International Airport and only approve a few essential flights.

He said flight crew of domestic and international carriers should not be allowed to stay in apartments but in temporary accommodations. During their stay, flight crew should not be allowed to leave the location and must inform local authorities of their presence for supervision.

Earlier, a 43-year-old British pilot with Vietnam Airlines was confirmed positive for the coronavirus. He had attended a party at the Buddha Bar and Grill in Saigon's District 2 on the night of March 14. Of more than 200 that people attended the event, 13 have contracted the virus so far.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc praised HCMC for taking drastic actions to contain the pandemic and suggested that authorities in other provinces follow HCMC and Hanoi in sanctioning people who do not wear masks in public places. "The next 15 days will decide the success or defeat of the war against Covid-19," he said.

Nine latest Covid-19 patients confirmed Sunday evening, including one reporter and two related to Hanoi's Bach Mai Hospital, have taken Vietnam's total to 188 infections. Of these, 25 have recovered and been discharged from hospitals.

The Covid-19 pandemic has killed more than 31,700 people in 199 countries and territories.
A group of migrants heading home after the lockdown over coronavirus was hosed down with a chlorine solution in Bareilly, triggering criticism and then an admission from the local authorities that they went too far.

A state government official, however, argued that such spraying of people is permitted internationally. But the authorities did not follow the right procedure, he said.

A fire brigade official said the migrants were sprayed with a solution containing sodium hypochlorite. It is often used to keep swimming pools sanitised.

The incident, caught on video and shared on social media, took place at Bareilly's Satellite bus station on Sunday.

The clip showed several migrants squatting on the ground as men in protective suits hosed them down. Someone is heard telling people to shut their eyes as the spraying begins.

Several people in the group, which included women and children, complained of a burning sensation in the eyes.

Chief Fire Officer C M Sharma said spraying the group with sodium hypochlorite was necessary for "disinfecting".

He said there is a burning sensation for two or three seconds in the eyes when it gets into them, but it doesn't harm them.

As a row erupted over the incident, District magistrate Nitish Kumar blamed it on overzealous civic body personnel and said action is being taken against them.

Those affected were seen by the chief medical officer, he said.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samjaj Party chief Mayawati lashed out at the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh over the treatment of migrants, hit by the lockdown and now heading for their homes.

Priyanka Gandhi asked the UP government not to do something this inhuman.

The labourers have already suffered a lot. Don't make them bathe with chemicals like this. This will not protect them but will create more problems for their health, she tweeted in Hindi.

Akhilesh Yadav said the spraying of chemicals on migrants to sanitise them had raised questions.

He asked if the World Health Organisation had given any directions on this.

What arrangements were there for people to change out of wet clothes? What alternatives are being provided for the food that gets wet due to the spraying?" Yadav tweeted.

Mayawati called the Bareilly incident inhuman and brutal and asked the government to act.

"It would have been better if the borders of the state were sealed and two or three special trains run for labourers so that they could reach home", she tweeted.

The district magistrate said teams from the municipal corporation and the fire brigade were asked to sanitise the bus in which the migrant workers had travelled, but they were overzealous.

Orders have been issued to take action against those concerned," he tweeted.

In Lucknow, Additional Chief Secretary (Information) Awanish Awasthi said such measures are allowed internationally, but the eyes of those being hosed down are kept closed.

He suggested that the procedure followed was wrong and those responsible in the municipal corporation will face action.

Awasthi said when there is a high infection load disinfection is needed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PARIS (Reuters) - How the European Union responds to the coronavirus outbreak will determine its future credibility, a French minister said on Sunday, after the bloc failed to agree last week on measures to cushion the economic blow.

The EU is struggling for a coordinated response to the coronavirus, the latest test of the bloc's solidarity after it was shaken by Brexit, the 2015-2016 migration wave and the euro zone debt crisis.

"If Europe is just a single market when times are good, then it has no sense," European Affairs minister Amelie de Montchalin told France Inter radio.

The bloc's divisions were laid bare after leaders hit an impasse on Thursday over how to minimise the economic pain and prepare for an eventual recovery, with the ailing south incensed by the resistance of the richer north to offer more support.

Germany and the Netherlands came out strongly against a push by Italy, Spain, Portugal and France to issue joint bonds to help finance an economic stimulus. There were also squabbles over the sharing of medical equipment and border controls.

In Austria, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz fumed at double-standards within the bloc after his country was slowed in efforts to secure face masks from Germany while other capitals criticised Vienna's own controls on the Italian border.

"After the crisis is over, there will have to be tough discussions within the EU," Kurz told the Kronen Zeitung newspaper.

De Montchalin said there would be no economic rebound in Germany and the Netherlands if the rest of Europe remained sick. The coronavirus crisis raised existential questions for Europe, she added.

"Our Europe is one of action, one of solidarity, and if certain countries see otherwise, well then the question of their place will raise itself, as will what the union should be doing as a group of 27," said de Montchalin.

However, she cited the decision by Germany and others to take in critically ill French coronavirus patients and relieve pressure on France's healthcare system as proof that solidarity between member states persisted.

Europe's populist parties would be the winners if EU leaders failed to act together during a major crisis, she said.

(Reporting by Richard Lough in Paris and Kirsti Knolle in Vienna; Editing by Catherine Evans and Andrew Cawthorne)
(Photo : VIDO-InterVac on Reuters) Coronavirus Vaccine Has Possibly Been Hidden Around for 100 Years; We Just Don't Know it Yet (Photo : KHAM on Reuters) Coronavirus Vaccine Has Possibly Been Hidden Around for 100 Years; We Just Don't Know it Yet

As of now, there is still no available vaccine for viral Coronavirus disease. A lot of hospitals and health experts test their versions of COVID-19 vaccine, but the World Health Organization has not yet approved any specific medicine. What if the vaccine that we've looking for was already out there curing a different disease, but we just don't know it yet?

TB vaccine might vaccinize you from COVID-19, but it leaves a mark! Willing to try?

As reported via Bloomberg, there might be a hidden Coronavirus vaccine that was already out there for around 100 years old from today. A tuberculosis vaccine called bacillus Calmette-Guerin, or BCG, is a widely known medicine with a century-old age that has been used to vaccinized people that needs a boost on their immune system.

"It can boost the immune system so that it defends better against a whole range of different infections, a whole range of different viruses and bacteria in a lot more generalized way," said Curtis, who's also a professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Melbourne and head of the infectious diseases unit at the city's Royal Children's Hospital.

Not only tuberculosis can be vaccinated using this medicine. People that have common immunodeficiency diseases like early-stage bladder cancer can be boosted with their immune system with a single shot of BCG.

This is also one of the reasons why the WHO recommends BCG for further testing. Since the immune system is the main target of Coronaviruses, there is a possible chance that having a stronger immune system will make humans immune to the disease.

BCG testing trial now being created in Australia

The clinical trial for BCG vaccine is now on the roll in Melbourne, Australia. A small number of the volunteered hospital staff will be part of the six-month trial which they will be randomly vaccinated against seasonal influenza and TB or the flu shot only.

The answer on whether BCG can be used to treat COVID-19 lies on the underlying results from the volunteered staff. If they reacted negatively on the medicine, the hunt for vaccine repeats.

Health workers are our priority in COVID-19 vaccination, say, health experts

The BCG is a vaccination, not a cure. This is the explanation why health experts from Australia reiterated that once BCG testing is done successfully, health workers will be their priority to get vaccinated.

"We need to think of every possible way that we can protect health-care workers," Curtis said. "And there's going to be a particular need to reduce the amount of time that our health-care workers are absent."

Again, Australian health experts clarified that they're not yet sure about this vaccine. But for now, they hope that this brings hope to all citizens worried about getting the virus.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
TOKYO, March 30 (Reuters) - Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LD) on Monday called for direct spending of 20 trillion yen ($185.6 billion) as part of a stimulus package to support the economy amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The LDP proposed a package of measures totalling 60 trillion yen, party lawmakers said.

($1 = 107.78 yen) (Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto and Daniel Leussink; Editing by Toby Chopra)
YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian parliament is debating a government-backed bill seeking to ban autopsies of coronavirus fatalities.

Deputy Minister of Healthcare Anahit Avanesyan told lawmakers that the current autopsy services in the country are not equipped with necessary conditions and standards to carry out the procedure on the COVID19 fatalities. She said that because the level of contagiousness of the disease isnt fully studied yet, and moreover it is still unknown for how long the disease remains active in a corpse, performing autopsy may cause severe consequences and increase the spread.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
Indian fishermen stranded in Iran due to global shutdown

by M. Kalyanaraman

March 30,2020 | Source: The Hindu

Among the over 250 Indians stranded in coronavirus-hit Iran are fishermen and seafarers. Many of these seafarers are trainee ratings, who have been marooned in boats abandoned by the owners in ports such as Khorramshahr, Bandar Mahshahr and Bushehr. The Iranian crew in the boats have left for their homes.



The abandoned vessels are practically dead ships with no power or fuel. The trainees who cant leave the port are making do with whatever supplies they can muster and keeping their spirits alive. Many say they have received no medical attention though none of them has shown any visible symptoms of COVID-19. For many of these trainees, the 12-months they serve on the small Iranian ships  practically boats that ferry loose cargo from Dubai and back  will enable them to become certified seamen in India. Many have foregone salaries and some have put up money to agents in India to serve as trainees and become full-fledged seafarers so they can make a career in the merchant navy.



Snehit Barathe from Pune completed his 12-month training on March 5 on the ship Yekta that was transporting tyres, car parts and so on between Dubai and Abadan in Iran. But his owner has told him to stay on in an abandoned boat in Khorramshahr. We are six here on this ship. There is gas in the boat that we are using to cook. Until a week back the market was functioning but everything is under lockdown now, he says. Many have been stranded longer. Hemchandra Pokhariyal from Nainital in Uttarakhand finished his training in January 15. He continued to serve in a ship until his salary was settled. I had a ticket for March 4 to come back to India but the lockdown started here. Since then I have been living in an abandoned boat, he says. We are managing with qaboos (Iranian bread) and rice, says another stranded trainee Ajay Pawar. Anurag Chand says some 50 Indian seafarers have taken shelter in the abandoned boats at the Khorramshahr port. We help each other out with food, he adds.



Desperate fishermen



Recently, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami had taken up the issue of stranded fishermen with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The fishermen have been confined to small spaces and are living under poor conditions without proper food or medical care, says Mario Johnson, advocate at the Madras High Court and co-ordinator of Tamil Fishermen Confederation. The Embassy official said despite large distances and poor connectivity, they have provided essential food items at great cost to all the 1,029 Indian fishermen in Bushehr and Hormozgan provinces within a span of 24 hours on March 20-21, 2020.



These include 744 fishermen from Tamil Nadu, 215 from Gujarat and 70 from Kerala. The places inhabited by the fishermen are either islands or ports and spread over a geographical area of around 300 km. The supplies were arranged despite considerable logistical challenges such as inter-province lockdown and extended holidays due to Nowruz (Persian New Year),  the official says. We have been counselling the fishermen of the lockdown in India and cooperation of all people also and hence [the need] for them to stay put and take adequate precautions, follow all health protocols and cooperate with their owners by resuming work, he adds.



Not accounted



The exact number of such stranded seafarers is not known. A list created by Sanjay Parashar, Chairman of the International Maritime Federation, has the details of some 70 seafarers but he estimates hundreds of such Indian seafarers are in trouble in Iran. The Indian Embassy in Tehran has so far counted some 150 stranded Indian seafarers. We have advised them to not sign off and stay with their owners/vessels. We have been able to help in sending back eight who signed off. We do not have information of them being abandoned by owners, says an official at the Embassy. He cites strict lockdown rules that include heavy fines of up to 5,000,000 rials as constricting any effort to reach out to them.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has reached out to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr to ask him about the series of stock transactions he made in the run-up to the coronavirus crisis.

CNN reported Monday that the Justice Department had started to investigate the sell-off of stocks made by senators ahead of the market crash, as lawmakers were getting closed-door briefings about the threat of the virus.

The inquiry is being done in coordination with the Securities and Exchange Commission and of the four senators who were publicly shamed for selling off stocks, a CNN source confirmed only that the FBI had reached out to Burr.

Sen. Richard Burr, the North Carolina Republican who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation over a series of stock transactions he made while being briefed on the coronavirus, CNN reported Monday

The FBI, in conjunction with the Securities and Exchange Commission, is looking into at least Burr, CNN reported. On March 19, ProPublican reported that Burr had sold off $1.7 million in his holdings in mid-February as he was being briefed on the coming pandemic

On March 19, ProPublica reported that Burr had sold off up to $1.7 million in holdings in mid-February, when he was being briefed about the coming pandemic.

The next day, Burr responded to the reporting by sending a letter to Senate Ethics Committee Chairman James Lankford, asking for a review.

Burr said he relied on 'public news reports' when making his financial decisions.

'Specifically I closely followed CNBC's daily health and science reporting out of its Asia bureaus at the time,' Burr said in a statement. 'Understanding the assumption many could make in hindsight however, I spoke this morning with the chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee and asked him to open a complete review of the matter with full transparency.'

Burr's lawyer told CNN on Sunday that he'll continue to cooperate.

Alice Fisher, a lawyer for Burr, said the senator 'welcomes a thorough review of the facts in this matter, which will establish that his actions were appropriate.'

'The law is clear that any American - including a senator - may participate in the stock market based on public information, as Sen. Burr did. When this issue arose, Sen. Burr immediately asked the Senate Ethics Committee to conduct a complete review, and he will cooperate with that review as well as any other appropriate inquiry,' Fisher said.

She previously ran the DOJ's criminal division under President George W. Bush.

Lawmakers are prohibited from using information gleaned on Capitol Hill for their financial befefit due to the STOCK Act.

Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Georgia Republican, is also under public scrutiny for selling off 27 stocks - valued at between $1.275 million and $3.1 million - starting in late January until mid-February.

She and her husband, who heads the New York Stock Exchange, also purchased stocks valued at between $450,000 and $1 million, including in Citrix, a company that benefits when people are working from home.

Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Republican from Georgia, has said she uses a third-party financial adviser to make decisions about buying and selling stocks. A spokesperson for the senator told CNN that she has not been contacted by the FBI

Two additional senators, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (left), a California Democrat, and Sen. Jim Inhofe (right), an Oklahoma Republican, said they weren't the ones who decided to sell off stocks in their portfolios in the weeks before the coronavirus-caused stock market crash

Loeffler has pushed back on any allegations of impropriety.

She said she uses a third-party financial adviser to handle stock transactions.

A Loeffler spokesperson told CNN that Loeffler has not been contacted by the FBI, adding that the Georgia Republican has 'acted in accordance with the letter and the spirit of the law.

Two additional senators were selling stocks in the weeks before the market's downturn, and neither of them have been contacted by the FBI, their offices said.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the only Democrat swept up in the controversy, said it was her husband's decision to sell off between $1.5 million and $6 million in Allogene Therapeutics stock. She said she has no involvement in those decisions.

'I have no input into his decisions. My husband in January and February sold shares of a cancer therapy company. This company is unrelated to any work on the coronavirus and the sale was unrelated to the situation,' she said.

Sen. Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, made a number of transactions on the stock market in January and February, but said he has no involvement in his investment decisions.
Queenslands top cop has scolded party-goers who continue to ignore Australias strict social distancing measures.

Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said officers in Queensland have responded to a huge spike in noise complaints from house parties, despite tough laws banning gatherings.

Where we have had some issues in the past two weeks is on the weekend of the 21st and 22nd of March, police attended 600 noisy parties, she at a media conference on Monday.

This went up significantly the last weekend to 900.

The number of house parties appears to be surging in Queensland following the shutdown of all bars, clubs restaurants as a measure to slow the spread of coronavirus (stock)

With all pubs, clubs and restaurants now shutdown across the country to slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus, it appears Queenslanders are now turning to their homes to socialise.

What that means for us obviously is an extraordinary amount of resources that have been diverted to looking after complaints and noisy parties and it is not where we should be concentrating our efforts, Commissioner Carroll said.

As it stands, Australia now has a total of 4220 confirmed COVID-19 cases - with 689 of them in Queensland.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Sunday that all public gatherings over two people would be outlawed - down from the previous restriction of 10.

With the new rules, partying should not be taking place in people's households, it should just be your family and you in your household,' Commissioner Carroll said.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

Under the restrictions, police have the power to issue on-the-spot-fines of $1334.50 for individuals and $6,672.50 for corporations who fail to comply with the health directive.

But although the Commissioner was furious with those failing to follow the rules on public gatherings, she said the majority of people in Queensland had been adhering to the regulations on self-isolation.

Anyone entering the state must self-isolate for a mandatory period of 14-days.

'In the last week or so, we got some 231 complaints through Police Link about people not abiding by the compliance rules,' she said.

'As a result we did check up on 210 quarantine and did some compliance checks, and they actually were cooperating within the rules.

'I am pleased to say the public and the community is listening and a sincere thank you for that.'
He caught COVID-19 on a cruise ship. His family had to say goodbye over speakerphone
As the coronavirus pandemic knocks primary election after primary election off schedule, Democrats argue the outbreak shows the country needs to move toward one of their longtime goals - widespread voting by mail - to protect the November election.

But Democrats' hopes for using the crisis to expand voting by mail face firm Republican opposition, as well as significant logistical challenges. In some states, it would amount to a major revamp of their voting system just eight months before an election.

Vote-by-mail boosters already lost the first round of the fight. Democrats tried and failed to insert a broad mandate expanding voting by mail in the stimulus bill, a proposal that could cost as much as $2 billion. Instead, the bill included $400 million to help states adjust elections however they see fit before November.

But Democrats in Washington say they will keep pressing the issue, pointing to the increasing number of states that are shifting to mail-in voting for primaries as evidence that the time is right.

"Practically every single Tuesday, we see another state reacting to their inability to run their election in the middle of this incredible health care pandemic," said Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the first state to vote entirely through the mail. He called expanded mail voting "not even a close call."

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the leading Democratic presidential candidate, joined the push Sunday. "We should be looking to all-mail ballots across the board," Biden said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "We should be beginning to plan that in each of our states."

Every state already allows some form of voting by mail, but only six Western states are set up to allow all-mail voting in every county, according to Wendy Underhill at the National Conference of State Legislatures. Meanwhile, 17 states require a formal excuse for voters to get ballots they can mail in, and some have additional requirements. In Alabama, for example, applications for ballots must be returned with a copy of a state ID.

Democrats have long sought to eliminate such rules - either on the state level or by federal mandate - arguing they are barriers to voting, particularly for minorities, the elderly or the disabled.

While Republicans have backed the trend toward mail voting, the party remains suspicious of widespread use of the method - even though there is evidence that its voters benefit the most from it.

President Donald Trump summed up GOP complaints about Democrats' mail-in-voting proposal during an interview Monday on "Fox & Friends." "The things they had in there were crazy. They had things -- levels of voting that if you ever agreed to it you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again," Trump said of Democrats.

Many Republicans argue that a major expansion of mail-in voting opens up new concerns about fraud and security and that the decisions should be made at the state level rather than be dictated by Congress.

"These people who are saying all these states have to change and vote by mail don't know what they are talking about," said John Merrill, Alabama's Republican secretary of state who has worked to expand mail voting in his home state. "I think every state ought to be able to make up their mind about what to do in elections."

There are other, practical hurdles. Mail-in voting requires an expensive upfront investment in machines to process mail ballots, poll workers and election judges to be retrained to use the devices and verify voters' signatures on their envelopes and other wrinkles.

"You can't just flip the switch and go from one system to another," Underhill said. She noted that official ballots must be printed on durable paper stock, and states may not be able to secure enough for November without sufficient advanced planning. "You can't just get it at Kinko's."

It's also not clear that voting by mail is necessarily pandemic-proof. In Washington state, an early epicenter of the outbreak, Secretary of State Kim Wyman, a Republican, recommended that a special election set for April 28 across 18 counties be canceled because of the virus.

She noted that, under Washington law, voters can register up until Election Day, which requires personal contact with government workers. And sorting of mail ballots typically takes place in crowded offices.

"Most people focus on Election Day and people being able to return a ballot. But there's lots of activities on the back-end in elections offices," she said.

Many local officials are focused on finding ways to make voting in person safer. In Alabama, Merrill, who pushed local primaries back until mid-July because of the virus, said he plans to spend more money ensuring that polling stations are heavily cleaned and that poll workers have access to protective equipment and sanitizer.

He doesn't want to try to change the state's voting system in a few months. "We're not for introducing new problems. We're for fixing current problems, Merrill said.

Some Republicans see Democrats as trying to take advantage of a crisis.

"Some of these are things that have been kind of partisan issues for a long time and now are being presented as a kind of response to COVID-19," said Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican who opposes a federal mandate. "I've called that crisis opportunism. I don't think making big policy changes in response to a crisis is the right thing to do."

Ohio's March 17 primary was delayed at the last minute and changed to an almost-exclusively mail-in contest for April 28.

Michael McDonald, a professor at the University of Florida who tracks voting issues, notes secretaries of state have long resented mandates from Washington on how to conduct elections. But after upfront costs, mail voting is demonstrably cheaper than casting ballots in-person, McDonald said. It also may favor Republicans, whose voters tend to be older and more likely to cast absentee ballots, McDonald found, while Democrats are more likely to vote in person.

Mail voting can also delay election counts, especially in California, which allows voters to mail in their ballots on Election Day. The state is still counting votes from its March 3 primary, in part because the virus outbreak has scrambled staffing in county elections offices across the state.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat, said states will be able to plan ahead for November to ensure its count is faster. He said he was disappointed that Congress balked at including voting reforms in the stimulus.

"They missed a golden opportunity to strengthen the resiliency of our elections system," Padilla said.

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COVID-19 has drastically affected our nation. The rising number of novel coronavirus cases is just making everything worse. But authorities are alert and on the right track to contain the coronavirus.

Reuters

Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a fund for emergency relief dubbed PMs Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations or PM Cares. And citizens of the nation have already started to contribute to this cause.

However, the Delhi Police has come across instances where people are making fake UPI IDs to fool people into transferring money into their account.

Twitter user @bishwesh0604 notified Delhi Police about the fake UPI IDs.

The official ID is Pmcares@sbi. However, a notorious fraudster created another UPI ID dubbed pmcare@sbi -- minus the s. While some do pay attention to these small changes, it is not uncommon for even the smartest to get fooled by such attempts.

To prevent such cases, Delhi Police tweeted about it, trying to create awareness for the right UPI ID that should be used for making donations to the PM Cares fund. It also mentioned that the aforementioned fraud UPI ID has been blocked and an investigation is underway for the person who decided to fool people.

Twitter

Thank you for notifying us about this Fraud UPI ID. We have immediately alerted our UPI team and they are on the job to block the same. We sincerely appreciate your alertness.



Another Twitter user @muglikar_ was notified SBI about another fraudulent UPI ID -- pmcaree@sbi.

Twitter

He stated, Dear @TheOfficialSBI @NPCI_NPCI Pls immediately ban this UPI ID and SBI must freeze all the credits done today. Do it immediately sir. To which SBI thanked him and flagged the ID.

It's not just our PM who has a relief fund -- several state ministries are also establishing their own funds. In case you want to contribute to those, just make sure to check the CMs Twitter handle carefully for the official UPI ID or details.
Mask Sterilizing Technology Approved for Use by FDA

A mask sterilizing system developed by an Ohio-based company has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration amid fears of shortages of N95 respirators, masks used by healthcare workers caring for COVID-19 patients.

The mask sterilizing system was developed by Battelle. After 2 1/2 hours of exposure to concentrated, vapor phase hydrogen peroxide, the used masks are decontaminated, the company said in a statement. Each system can decontaminate up to 80,000 masks when running at full capacity.

Battelles system was approved for use at its West Jefferson facility under an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The company was told it can sterilize 10,000 N95 or N95-equivalent masks in each chamber load, or over 40,000 a day.

I want to thank the FDA team for their professionalism and help in authorizing the use of our technology at this critical moment for our nation, Lou Von Thaer, president and CEO of Battelle, said in a statement. Everybody who has worked on this project shares the same goal of protecting first responders and healthcare workers who are at the front lines of the pandemic.

Known and potential benefits of the denomination system outweigh the known and potential risks, Denise Hinton, the FDAs chief scientist, wrote in a letter to Jeff Rose, a Battelle vice president.

Touro University Nevada medical students check a box of N95 respirators and surgical masks before conducting medical screenings at a temporary homeless shelter set up in a parking lot at Cashman Center in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 28, 2020. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

The respirators can be decontaminated a maximum of 20 times each under the authorization, which was granted because of insufficient supplies and a lack of an alternative decontamination method, Hinton wrote.

Healthcare systems and workers were warned of possible shortages of respirators by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which laid out strategies of what to do if a shortage happened.

Battelle is currently decontaminating masks for OhioHealth, a healthcare system headquarted in Columbus, and plans to begin processing masks for three other major systems starting this week. Chris Clinton, vice president of Shared Services at OhioHealth, said the system will have a significant impact on helping caregivers have the supplies they need to remain safe and to deliver critical care when it is needed most.

Healthcare systems will collect worn respirator masks daily and send them to Battelle. Each piece of equipment will be labeled with a barcoded serial number to make sure each system receives its own masks back and with the number of times its been decontaminated to make sure that number doesnt exceed the authorized limit.

A fact sheet (pdf) was created to inform healthcare personnel when they were given a decontaminated respirator.

Successful testing on decontaminated N95 respirators demonstrated acceptable performance through 20 decontamination cycles for sporicidal activity, viricidal activity, filtration efficiency, breathability, form fit testing, and strap integrity testing, per authorized respirator, they were told.

In this March 17, 2020, file photo, Laurie Kuypers, a registered nurse, reaches into a car to take a nasopharyngeal swab from a patient at a drive-thru COVID-19 testing station for University of Washington Medicine patients in Seattle. (Elaine Thompson/AP Photo)

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine praised President Donald Trump and FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn in a statement released by Battelle on Sunday but in a separate statement released by his office criticized the FDA for limiting the use of the new technology to Ohio.

The authorization prevents Battelle from sending its groundbreaking technology to other states such Washington and New York, as well as Washington D.C. and the Virginia/Maryland areas, DeWines office said. The governor referred to the limitations as nothing short of reckless.

I am not only disappointed by this development, but Im also stunned that the FDA would decline to do all it can to protect this countrys frontline workers in this serious time of need, he added, also noting that the FDA approval didnt appear to be for Battelles full capacity.

An FDA spokeswoman told The Epoch Times in an email that the agency issued a new authorization allowing them to ramp up their capability to decontaminate more respirators.

FDA is committed to working across government and with the private sector to find solutions fast. We are willing to be flexible and adapt to this pandemic, so that we can get essential medical devices to those in need to protect against COVID-19, she said.

Hinton said that the company needed to provide the FDA information in advance of establishing satellite facilities and that the system can only be operated by the company.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- The number of new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases reported in Kent County spiked Monday.

State health officials say 23 new cases of COVID-19, the respiratory disease spreading from person-to-person caused by a novel coronavirus, were reported in the county as of Monday afternoon, March 30.

That brings the countys total case number to 96. No new deaths were reported. One person in the county has died so far.

The uptick tops the previous biggest daily increase in new coronavirus cases. That record was set Sunday, when 20 new cases were reported in one day.

Related: Kent County sees largest spike yet in new coronavirus cases

Kent County Administrative Health Officer Adam London cautioned residents Sunday that case numbers would likely continue to increase, potentially dramatically, in the coming days.

But, he said, the majority of people who catch the virus will get through it without severe symptoms and that it's not a time for fear.

Some people, unfortunately, in our community are going to get hurt, and thats tragic and totally unacceptable to all of us, but its the reality, London said Sunday in his daily video update on Facebook.

But I promise you that we are all fighting like hell to make sure that number is as small as possible and we're doing everything we can to get this entire community through this with as little suffering as possible.

The number of new cases also increased again in neighboring Ottawa County.

County health officials reported Monday afternoon that Ottawa County now has 30 total reported coronavirus cases. The county had 25 total reported cases the day before.

No one in Ottawa County has died from the virus.

Statewide, there are now 6,498 coronavirus cases and 184 deaths in Michigan, state health officials said Monday.

Read all of MLives coverage on the coronavirus at mlive.com/coronavirus.

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus.

Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops ) and when you go into places like stores.

Read more:

Michigan has become an epicenter for coronavirus. Why?

Western Michigan University student dies of coronavirus

Grand Rapids chemical company making hand sanitizer for nursing homes, others in need

TCF Center alternate care facility to include 2 floors, 900 beds once completed, officials say
A senior backbench MP has called for the development of a virtual parliament to allow scrutiny and voting to take place if Westminster is unable to reopen as planned after Easter.

Commons education committee chairman Robert Halfon said that parliament was a hotbed of ill-health, while Labours Lucy Powell said she was aware of dozens of MPs who have shown symptoms of coronavirus.

Barrow and Furness MP Simon Fell was the latest to reveal he has suffered Covid-19, joining a list of at least 29 known to have gone into self-isolation after experiencing a persistent cough and high temperature.

Among those who have tested positive for coronavirus are prime minister Boris Johnson and health secretary Matt Hancock, as well as health minister Nadine Dorries, who was the first MP to go down with the virus on 6 March

It emerged today that Mr Johnson's senior aide Dominic Cummings is also self-isolating after experiencing symptoms over the weekend.

Ms Powell tweeted: So many MPs have had/got the symptoms. Suggests either Parliament was a hotbed of spreading virus or a much higher proportion of public have had it than first appears. To my knowledge dozens of MPs 

Conservative backbencher Mr Fell said that he began shivering to my bones and feeling feverish last Friday and developed a dry cough later in the day.

He said he was able to continue working through the weekend, despite flu-like symptoms, and now feels his condition is improving.

So, if thats it - two or three days of a fever, is it that bad? he asked. I say firmly, yes.

Walking up the stairs yesterday evening, it felt as if I had a clamp on my chest. I had to stop twice before making it all the way up.

At no point was I worried, but it immediately made me think of my own family and friends who are older, and why this virus would be so difficult for them to shake off.

The House of Commons is currently due to return on 21 April. Commons authorities are working through the recess to improve videoconferencing facilities as a matter of priority.

But Mr Halfon told BBC Radio 4s Westminster Hour that he thought schools, as well as parliament, may be unable to reopen after Easter.

If it looks by the end of April that its getting worse and worse and worse and not getting better and that we havent reached the peak before it slows down, then the schools will remain closed, said the Harlow MP.

In terms of parliament, that is a hotbed of ill-health, who knows what is going to happen.

They may keep it open. I hope very much that we can develop some kind of virtual parliament, if it is shut and if were not able to go, where we can vote online and walk through virtual division lobbies.

The education committee held parliaments first ever online session last Wednesday after it was agreed that decisions could be made electronically without members being physically present at the meeting.

I think that is an incredible precedent and a constitutional change thats going to have big ramifications in the future, said Mr Halfon.

The House of Commons broke up early last Wednesday for its Easter recess, which was due to start on 31 March.

In the final week before its doors closed, MPs had been observing social distancing measures by sitting apart from one another on the green benches, but there were concerns that the crowded conditions in the chamber and voting lobbies, as well as the presence of thousands of people from all parts of the country in the building, made Westminster a breeding ground for the virus.
The night she was admitted to Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center with symptoms of coronavirus, Rose Burges heart rate was so low, doctors ordered an EKG.

After unplugging the electrodes, the nurse sat by her bedside and asked her if she believed in God.

Burge replied that she did.

She said, Can I pray for you? Burge recalls.

The recollection of that brief encounter a week ago, on Monday afternoon overwhelmed Burge with emotion. The 36-year-old Harrisburg resident remains in the hospital, sick from COVID-19.

It kind of eased me because you are in here by yourself, said Burge, who on Monday remained in isolation with pneumonia in both lungs.

She said she is weak, fatigued and has recurring headaches.

She agreed to speak to PennLive, she said, in order to let other young people know that the pandemic, which has infected thousands in Pennsylvania and hundreds of thousands worldwide, affects everyone - not just the elderly.

They are telling us its worse for older people but it seems like a lot of younger people are catching it, Burge said. Ive seen some people here that dont look too much older than me.

She described her condition as maintaining. She said she has no appetite and because she cannot be given fluids intravenously due to the pneumonia; she has to force down fluids.

Burge is one of the 4,087 coronavirus cases in Pennsylvania. On Monday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 693 new cases.

RELATED: Pa. coronavirus cases top 4,000

At least 48 people have died from the viral infection, including 10 new fatalities reported Monday, according to the health department.

Health officials have urged younger adults to take the coronavirus seriously. Across Pennsylvania, 41 percent of those who have contracted the virus are between the ages of 25 and 49, according to the health department.

Older adults are more likely to develop complications and require hospitalization. Roughly three out of four patients who have required hospitalization are 50 and over. Only 22 percent of those who have required hospital care are between the ages of 25 and 49, according to state data.

Burge first suspected she might have COVID-19 two weeks ago on Sunday.

She had a fever, body aches and was vomiting. She went to Hershey Medical Center, and although she was admitted for a short time, the medical team declined to test her because she was low risk.

Still, the medical team proceeded in treating her as if she was COVID-19 positive. Doctors and nurses followed the appropriate protocol and kept in-room visits to the shortest amount of time as possible.

On Tuesday, she was discharged. Burge said she was given no additional information on her condition at the time.

By Tuesday night, Burge had gone downhill fast. Her breathing was the first thing to fall apart.

It felt like someone was suffocating me or sitting on my chest, Burge recalls.

She tried to nurse herself back to health at home, but her condition only worsened. On Saturday afternoon she drove herself back to Hershey Medical Center.

She tested positive; and she had pneumonia in both lungs.

Some days are good, Burge said. Last night was bad ... they gave me medicine to put me to sleep. The pain was kind of bad. I havent eaten anything. Its just a very uncomfortable situation.

Burge said she has abdominal and chest pain from the pneumonia, as well as the headaches, which she said doctors attribute to the coronavirus.

She is being administered medicine for the viral infection, although she does not know what the medicines are.

Im so out of it, I dont remember, she said. They do tell me what they are.

Burge has retraced her steps leading to her symptoms and has concluded that she left the house only twice after Gov. Tom Wolf ordered non-essential businesses to close on March 16.

That Monday, Burge, who works at the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency in Harrisburg, worked just a half day. She left the office after a 1 p.m. meeting.

After that, she went out to Giant (that same day) and a couple of days later made three quick stops at various stores looking for pull-ups for her 2-year-old son. She said that because everyone was panic buying, she was unable to find any.

I was basically staying in the house ... I didnt go anywhere, she said.

Burge has notified her supervisor. Her parents are taking care of her son, and all remain under a 14-day quarantine.

She said she has no energy,

Im very, very fatigued, said Burge, who FaceTimes her mother several times a day. Its almost a waiting game.

She said the medical staff at Hershey Medical Center seem to be on top of things.

They do the best they can with what they have, Burge said. My nurses are really good at making sure Im comfortable. I see them more than I see the doctor.

Wolf has said he and health officials are concerned that if the rapid spread of the virus continues at the current pace, the states hospitals could be overwhelmed. The first case of coronavirus in the state was reported on March 6.

She said the hospital personnel who enter her room wear a protective device resembling a space helmet." Before they leave her room, they sterilize their hands with their gloves on, then take everything off. Someone on the other side of the door has to open the door for them; and once they step out, they sterilize down again, including wiping down their shoes.

Burge is not allowed out of her room. She and the other COVID-19 patients are in a separate wing of the hospital.

You are in here by yourself, she said.

That, she said, is why the prayer session with the nurse was so special.

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A group of prominent Muslims, including Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind secretary Mahmood Madani, have denounced the recent attack on a Sikh Gurudwara in Kabul, saying the killers may be born Muslims but they are "hardcore criminals for whom there is no space in Islam".

At least 25 worshippers were killed and eight others injured when a heavily armed suicide bomber stormed his way into a prominent gurdwara last week in the heart of Afghanistan's capital of Kabul, in one of the deadliest attacks on the minority Sikh community in the strife-torn country.

The group of prominent Muslims, in a statement, condemned the "merciless killing of our own innocent brothers" and denounced it as a "heinous crime deserving the severest punishment".

In the statement, they offered "sincere condolence on behalf of the Muslims of India to our Sikh brothers and sisters and their religious leaders" and added that the killers may be born Muslims but they are in fact "hardcore criminals for whom there is no space in Islam".

The signatories of the statement include Madani, former chairman of the nation's minorities commission Tahir Mahmood, All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) general secretary Wali Rahmani, Imam of Jama Masjid Ahmad Bukhari, Delhi Minorities Commission chairman Zafar-ul-Islam Khan and AIMPLB member Kamal Faruqui.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
IT may be nine months until Christmas but Santa Claus has emerged from lockdown in the North Pole with a very important message.

"Stay at home. Help our hospital staff," urges Santa from his prominent perch outside a house on the northside of Limerick city. And Santa sees and knows everything.

Sean Ryan, the eagle-eyed photographer who kindly sent the photos to the Limerick Leader, said it is part of an emerging trend.

Christmas lights are also going up, he says.

"It's for hope," said Sean.

It started in America with families putting up their Christmas lights to help brighten the darkness surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

Good Morning America reported that people are going on social media, specifically Twitter, to put the lights out to show there is still life outside while everyone is cooped up practicing social distancing and self-quarantines.

If you have decorated your home in a festive way please send photos to news@limerickleader.ie
Bakersfield, CA (93308)

Today

Mostly clear early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low around 45F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Mostly clear early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low around 45F. Winds light and variable.
Three men have been jailed for a total of over eleven years following a campaign of barbaric illegal sheep butchery across Northamptonshire.

Robert Iordan, Florin Nutu and Viorel Manu's attacks on sheep and lambs in the dead of night throughout last summer had the county's farmers gripped in fear.

But they were hunted down by Northamptonshire Police's rural crime team, acting on key information from NFU members and farmers, and arrested.

All three eventually pleaded guilty and were sentenced at Northampton crown court on Friday 27 March.

Iordan, 23, and Nutu, 36, were both handed jail terms of four years and four months and Manu, 39, was ordered to serve two years and 11 months inside. The trio were all from Birmingham.

NFU county adviser for Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland, Harriet Ranson, who was involved in the case from the beginning and liaised with police throughout, said she was delighted with the outcome.

These crimes were horrific, barbaric and unprecedented and had the whole livestock farming community in Northamptonshire and neighbouring counties living in fear that they would be next for months," she said.

"It is fantastic to see the courts treating these appalling crimes with the seriousness they deserve and handing down suitably lengthy prison terms to these dangerous men.

This case really highlights how important local information from farmers, the NFU and the public is in helping to bring offenders before the courts.

We hope this case sends out a clear message to anyone planning to do something similar  you will get caught and you will get punished.

Between 22 June and 7 October last year, farmers had their livelihoods hit hard by the three men, who travelled across rural areas in the county, killing and butchering sheep in order to steal the meat and profit from it.

In total, 12 reports of illegal butchery were made to Northamptonshire Police during this period, with the Operation Stock investigation launched in response.

Lead investigator, DC Jamie Cooper, said: These crimes caused farmers a great deal of upset and anger last year and Id like to thank them and the wider rural community for their support and patience during our investigation.

There was extensive media coverage when these incidents were taking place and I am very pleased we have achieved a successful outcome with all three men pleading guilty to their crimes.

Operation Stock was a huge team effort and I hope this case shows just how hard we will work to protect the livelihoods of our farming and rural communities, who were deeply affected by this crime series.
Bunk beds are spread throughout a common area at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

An inmate and four people who work in the Los Angeles County jails have tested positive for the coronavirus infection, heightening fears that the disease could spread quickly in the overcrowded jail system.

The inmate, who was at Twin Towers Correctional Facility, displayed symptoms Thursday and was moved to the jail's Correctional Treatment Center for isolation, Correctional Health Director Jackie Clark said. His test came back positive over the weekend, and he is now at L.A. County-USC Medical Center.

The inmate had been held in a one-man cell in a "high observation housing" area reserved for mentally ill inmates. About 16 others in that housing area were being quarantined, with staff monitoring them regularly with temperature checks, Clark said. She added that classes and therapy sessions for that group were halted about three weeks ago to minimize the risk of exposure.

"We don't have a huge concern for the 16 that's in quarantine," she said. Clark said it's likely the inmate was exposed in the jail, where he's been housed since about December. Officials are working to track his movements and determine exactly where he was exposed and by whom.

Four people who work in the jails  a deputy, a custody assistant, a nursing assistant and a doctor  also have tested positive for the coronavirus, Clark said. The doctor, a contractor, had not worked in the jails for weeks, but notified Correctional Health Services that he had been exposed elsewhere and would not be scheduled to return.

Clark said the other three staff members stayed home when they started feeling ill and subsequently tested positive. "None of them came into work with a fever," she said.

L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva told reporters Monday that two other Sheriff's Department employees  one in the Court Services Division and the other in East Patrol Division  have tested positive. Seven employees had either tested negative or were waiting on results, he said.

Story continues

More than 40 inmates have been tested for the coronavirus and nine tests are pending, Clark said.

The Sheriffs Department has taken steps in recent weeks to cut the jail population, releasing inmates with fewer than 30 days of jail time left to serve, and citing, instead of arresting, people whose alleged misdemeanor offenses carry a bail of less than $50,000. That doesnt include people suspected of domestic violence. L.A. County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey moved last week to release hundreds more pretrial detainees accused of nonviolent crimes.

As of Friday, there were fewer than 14,500 inmates in the jails, which typically house about 17,000 people.

Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Kathryn Barger, meanwhile, ordered public health officials last week to examine conditions in the lockups to identify all necessary and appropriate measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, among inmates and staff.

Clark said officials are checking the temperatures of anyone who enters the treatment center. She said there had been discussions about temperature scanning everyone entering the jails, but ultimately officials decided it would cause more harm than good by creating bottlenecks at the more than 40 points of entry into the buildings.

"It's not appropriate for me to deploy healthcare staff to take temperatures of people coming," she said. "I have my healthcare staff taking care of people in the jail that need healthcare."

Clark said 42 single cells are available to treat people should a surge of patients overwhelm the roughly 200-bed treatment center.

Villanueva said last week that cleaning crews have doubled up on all the cleaning protocols and that an ongoing education campaign is provided in English and Spanish.

He said every inmate has access to soap and running water at all times, in every single cell, but that some inmates with mental illness may not want to adhere to hygiene standards.

Several inmates told The Times in interviews last week, however, that they did not have adequate access to soap or cleaning supplies.

Sometimes we get it; sometimes we dont, Benedek Virag, who was moved from state prison to county jail last fall, said from Twin Towers. Its a crap shoot with that.

Across the street at Men's Central Jail, Joseph Clarino said some fellow inmates recently used torn bed sheets when toilet paper ran out.

Assistant Sheriff Bruce Chase told reporters Monday that his staff contacted inmates interviewed by The Times and has been regularly distributing additional cleaning supplies.

"We don't want anybody to feel like they don't have access to soap or cleaning supplies," he said. "If we do get any reports of inmates that don't have adequate cleaning supplies or soap or feel like they're in danger, we will reach out to them as we did today and try and make sure that they're feeling comfortable and safe."
Due to the coronavirus exams and other face-to-face assessments will not take place at IT Carlow, with online services now available.

Because of the changes necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic, Institute of Technology Carlow has been working to ensure that our students are not disadvantaged at the point of assessment, while preserving the academic integrity and standards of all awards. In so doing, we have been mindful of the principles and guidelines set out at a national level by Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) and the practices being introduced across higher education.

The Institutes Academic Council has agreed that, in recognition of the need to protect the health and wellbeing of students and staff, examinations and other face-to-face assessments scheduled to the end of the summer term will no longer take place. They will be replaced, where feasible, by alternative online assessments/ online exams. The changes agreed by Academic Council are designed to enable our students to progress and complete their studies. These changes will ensure that learning outcomes are properly assessed. They will ensure that the integrity and validity of the award process is assured in an equivalent manner to any form of assessment conducted on campus.

Programme Boards from all departments, campuses and faculties have been working with our external examiners, professional and regulatory bodies and the Registrars Office to agree and approve alternative on-line assessments/ online examinations/ continuous assessment and assignment submissions, whilst

maintaining the balance of being fair to students and upholding the academic rigour required for all programmes of study. Students will be contacted by their Programme Board and/or relevant lecturers over the coming days and weeks with details specific to each module on the relevant programme of study.



May examinations  all full-time students and part-time lifelong learning students (where applicable)

Where online examinations are occurring, students preparing for May exams will be contacted between March 30 and April 10 with details specific to each module on the relevant programme of study. The Institute will then publish a full revised schedule of alternative on-line assessments/online exams on, or before, April 10.

April exams  Lifelong Learning students only

The Faculty of Lifelong Learning will publish its revised April examination timetable on Monday March 30 and will contact every student with details specific to their programme.

The specific details students will receive, by email or via Blackboard from the relevant department/ campus/faculty, will explain the alternative on-line assessments/ online exams/ continuous assessment and should ease concerns and clarify questions. Once students receive details of the alternative on-line assessments/ online exams/ continuous assessment specific to the relevant programme, students may liaise with their lecturer/ Programme Director/ Head of Department in relation to any difficulties. The Institute is committed to supporting students through this challenging time.

With regard to examination results originally scheduled for release on June 14th 2020, there will be some delay but the Institute is working to minimise this delay as much as possible. At this stage, the Institute endeavours to issue results by the end of June 2020.

Institute of Technology Carlow intends to offer repeat assessments / exams in August 2020. Further details will be provided on these at a later stage.

The Institutes Library continues to provide and expand the range of services available.

The Institutes Student Services Department continue to work to support students. Details on the services available at this time can be found at https://www.itcarlow.ie/student-life/student-services/healthcentre/coronavirus/student-services-update.htm. The Institute acknowledges the Students Union for the valuable support they too are providing at this time.
A day after FWICE (Federation of Western Indian Cine Employees) president B N Tiwari revealed that Salman Khan has pledged to financially support 25,000 daily wage workers from the film industry, the actor's father Salim Khan has opened up about how their family is taking care of their house staff and employees.

In a recent interaction with Mid-day, Khan revealed that his sons-- Salman, Arbaaz and Sohail-- have lent financial assistance to their staff at their respective studios. However, he refused to comment on Salman's contribution to the 25,000 workers, saying, "I don't know much about it."

"But our family has a principle  hamara paisa jahan jaaye, wahan dikhna chahiye aur kisike kaam aana chahiye (our family has a principle that wherever they contribute familys money, it should be of help to those who need it). (Since the past fortnight), we have been arranging meals for our building and Salman's security guards. We must all look after our staff," he said.

A source from Salman Khan Films (SKF) revealed to Mid-Day that as soon as the suspension of shoots was announced mid-March, the studio dispersed the monthly salary to its employees. "Salman is also taking care of the ration of those at his studio who are in dire need."

Meanwhile, according to B N Tiwari, Salman via his Being Human Foundation reached out to their organisation to help the workers.

"Salman's Being Human Foundation has come forward to help daily wage workers. They called us three days ago. We have about 5 lakh workers out of which 25,000 are in dire need of financial help. Being Human Foundation said they will take care of these workers on their own. They have asked for account details of these 25,000 workers as they want to ensure that money reaches them directly," Tiwari told PTI.

On March 18, the Producers Guild of India announced that they have set up a relief fund for daily wage earners impacted by the shutdown of film, television and web productions amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Their decision came after many filmmakers, including Sudhir Mishra, Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap, raised concerns over the impact of shutdown on the daily wage workers.

According to the Health Ministry, the total number of COVID-19 cases rose to 979 on Sunday, with death toll climbing to 25.
New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday (March 30) ordered the registration of an FIR against a Maulana of Markaz in connection with Tabligh-e-Jamaat congregation in West Nizamuddin in South Delhi after several people who attended it showed symptoms of coronavirus COVID-19.

A Delhi Police team, including Joint CP DC Srivastava, today reached the Nizamuddin area where some people have shown symptoms of coronavirus after taking part in a religious gathering at the Markaz. Those who have shown symptoms have been shifted to different hospitals in buses for check-up.

The Police cordoned off some areas by placing barricades and are monitoring the movement of people through drones. A World Health Organisation (WHO) team also reached the spot to supervise and monitor people.

"The health department has said that the area will be disinfected and police will provide every possible help in this process. The civil department is taking care of the situation here," a police official told ANI.

According to reports, the Delhi government will launch a house-to-house mapping exercise in two nearby colonies on Tuesday to check for coronavirus cases.

Issuing a statement, Delhi government today said "Lockdown was imposed in entire India on 24th March and it was the duty of every owner and administrator of every hotel, guesthouse, hostel and similar establishment to maintain social distancing. It looks like social distancing and quarantine protocols was not practiced here."

"

Now it has come to our knowledge that the administrators violated these conditions and several cases of corona positive patients have been found here. Strong action would be taken against those in charge of this establishment."

"By this gross act of negligence many lives have been endangered. It was the responsibility of every citizen to proactively avoid such gathering of people during the lockdown and this is nothing but a criminal act.

After the centre informed us about the first positive patient and requested assistance we moved all symptomatic patients to our medical facilities and as a safety precaution all non-symptomatic contacts have been moved to the quarantine centres," the statement said.

Earlier in the day, Dr Mohd Shoaib, Spokesperson, Nizamuddin Markaz, said that they had provided a list of people who had any health issue, including cold and fever, to the administration. "Yesterday, we provided a list of names to the administration, who had any health issue, including cold and fever. Some of them have been admitted to the hospital on the basis of age and travel history. We don`t have any confirmed COVID-19 case till now," he said.

Over 2,000 Muslim delegates, including from Indonesia and Malaysia, attended the Tabligh-e-Jamaat congregation in Nizamuddin West from March 1-15, officials said, as the south Delhi neighbourhood was virtually sealed following fears that some people may have contracted COVID-19.

Notably, around 300-400 people had attended a religious gathering at Markaz and 163 people from Nizamuddin, likely to be infected with COVID-19, have been admitted to Lok Nayak Hospital in the capital.
Saudi Arabia said on Monday it will raise its oil exports to a record 10.6 million barrels per day starting from May despite a global supply glut, escalating a price war with Russia.

Oil prices are languishing at 17-year lows as the coronavirus pandemic threatens a painful global recession that could further sap demand.

Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter which already announced a sharp production increase for April, said it would add additional supplies to the global market, deepening a glut.

"The kingdom plans to raise its petroleum exports by 600,000 bpd from May, so total exports will increase to 10.6 million bpd," said an official at the energy ministry, cited by the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

The announcement came as US President Donald Trump, a close ally of the Saudi crown prince, spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday about plunging oil prices and the impact on US producers.

The two leaders agreed to hold US-Russia "consultations" about prices through their energy ministers, the Kremlin said.

Saudi Arabia had been exporting around 7.0 million barrels per day under an output reduction agreement among a 24-member producers' alliance known as OPEC+ which included Russia.

Its Gulf neighbour the United Arab Emirates has also pledged to pump at least one million bpd more from next month.

Riyadh said earlier this month it was raising exports after a production cut agreement among top producers flopped in early March.

OPEC+ failed to reach an agreement on further production cuts to shore up sagging prices as the coronavirus hit the global economy hard.

In an effort to grab market share, Saudi Arabia immediately announced a substantial increase in its production to 12.3 million bpd and exports to 10 million bpd at the beginning of April.

The energy ministry said it would secure the increase from two sources, by using natural gas in the domestic market to free up oil for export and also as domestic consumption drops because of the coronavirus.

Despite the oil crash piling pressure on the Saudi economy, analysts say its latest moves are part of a deliberate long-term strategy to capture greater market share by pressuring its high-cost rivals including US shale producers.

"The kingdom could theoretically be the last man standing, given (its) financial reserves and the ability to borrow money if necessary," said research group JBC Energy.

"For pretty much everybody else in the industry, including US shale and Canadian oil sand companies, it is set to be a much more existential threat, with months of lower production at prices close to zero."

'Harder for renewables'

Saudi Arabia has shrugged off criticism that its aggressive strategy could bankrupt its oil-producing rivals, indicating it was no longer willing to play the role of "swing producer" that bears the burden of stabilising the markets.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman "has embarked on a policy of capturing market share rather than trying to set the price," said Bernard Haykel, a Saudi expert at Princeton University.

"By keeping prices depressed, Saudi policy will not just drive more expensive forms of oil production out of the market; it will also make it harder for renewable energy to compete with fossil fuels -- at least in the near term."

The price of oil struck its lowest levels in more than 17 years on Monday, with Brent North Sea crude tumbling to $22.58 per barrel at one point.

There are warnings that oil could sink even further as storage tanks around the world fill to capacity.

In a letter last week to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a group of US senators accused Saudi Arabia and Russia of waging "economic warfare against the United States".

"During this time of pandemic and global economic crisis, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia has chosen to settle scores in the oil market," the senators wrote in the letter.

"Riyadh's motivation may be multi-faceted -- to punish the Russians, to capture near-term market share, to destabilise long-term investment in American energy."

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North Korea's latest test of super-large multiple rocket launchers a day earlier was a success, state media said on Monday.

North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Sunday, the latest in a flurry of launches that South Korea decried as "inappropriate" amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The North's official KCNA news agency said the launch was aimed at examining the strategic and technical features of the "super-large multiple rocket launchers," which has been tested multiple times since last August overseen by leader Kim Jong Un, ahead of deployment.

KCNA did not mention Kim's attendance at the latest test, led by ruling party vice chairman Ri Pyong Chol and conducted at the Academy of National Defense Science.

"The operational deployment of the weapon system of super-large multiple rocket launchers is a crucial work of very great significance in realising the party's new strategic intention for national defence," Ri was quoted as saying during the test, without elaborating.

"The test-fire was conducted successfully," KCNA added.

It marked the fourth round of tests this month since North Korea staged military drills and resumed missile launches following a three-month break.

The move indicated the progress of Pyongyang's weapons development while denuclearisation negotiations with the United States remain in limbo.
Oslo-listed RAK Petroleum, a leading oil and gas investment company, said that it will delay the publication of its 2019 annual report and accounts, which were scheduled to be released on March 31.



The release has been postponed to a date that will be determined as soon as possible, the company statement said.



RAK Petroleums principal holdings are 40.45 percent of DNO ASA and 33.33 percent of Foxtrot International LDC held through Mondoil Enterprises, LLC.



DNO ASA is a Norwegian exploration and production company focused on the Middle East, West Africa and the North Sea regions with interests in oil and gas blocks in various stages of exploration, development and production, both onshore and offshore.



Foxtrot International LDC is a privately-held company active in West Africa whose principal asset is a 27.27 percent interest in and operatorship of Block CI-27 offshore Cote d'Ivoire.  TradeArabia News Service
Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE updates: The number of novel coronavirus cases climbed to 1,397 on Tuesday after 146 new infections were reported in the past 24 hours across the country, while the death toll due to the pandemic rose to 35, according to the Union Health Ministry.

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At 227, this is the largest one-day increase in the number of cases for India. The highest number of cases was reported from Kerala (202) while Maharashtra has 198 cases, said the health ministry.

The government said there was no immediate plan to extend the 21-day lockdown period, which entered its sixth day on Monday, while the Indian Army dismissed as "fake" social media posts about a possible emergency declaration next month.

The number of coronavirus cases in the country rose to 1,251 on Monday while the number of fatalities reached 32, said the Union health ministry.

Officials in states hard hit by the pandemic have pleaded with the Trump administration and manufacturers to speed up the production of ventilators to cope with a surge in patients struggling to breathe. Hospitals in New York already are using one ventilator to sustain two patients. New Orleans has a fraction of the ventilators it needs for a surge of COVID-19 patients, Louisiana officials said.

Ford said the simplified ventilator design, which is licensed by GE Healthcare from Florida-based Airon Corp and has been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, can meet the needs of most COVID-19 patients and relies on air pressure without the need for electricity.

Ford Motor Co said on Monday it will produce 50,000 ventilators over the next 100 days at a plant in Michigan in cooperation with General Electrics healthcare unit, and can then build 30,000 per month as needed to treat patients afflicted with the coronavirus.

The first consignment of such materials had arrived here last week, he said.

A total of 1,008 units of personal protective equipment, 10,000 masks, 5,000 screening kits, 6,000 confirmatory kits for test and 7,000 units of hand sanitiser among others were supplied to fight the coronavirus crisis, the health department official said.

The consignment of medical equipment weighing more than 5 tonnes was brought by an cargo aircraft of the Indian Air Force, he said.

The Manipur government on Monday received the second consignment of essential medical equipment including screening kits, sanitiser, masks, gloves and other personal protective gear, which will help the state health workers to combat the coronavirus outbreak, an official said.

"Now we are seeing growing interest from US citizens wanting to return from Asia, India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. We had our first repatriation flight out of Bangladesh today and are coordinating with the Indian Government to begin flights there," Brownlee said.

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Ian Brownlee told reporters during a teleconference on Monday that the US had brought back some 25,000 of its citizens from 50 countries and another 9,000, including those from India, have expressed their interest to return to America in the wake of the deadly coronavirus pandemic that has engulfed the world.

The Trump administration is coordinating with the Indian government to evacuate stranded American citizens from India who have expressed interest to return to the US, a top official here has said, amid the rapid spread of coronavirus pandemic that has upended life, disrupted travel and killed over 37,500 people.

The Maharashtra state has sought the expedition of the release of Rs 25,00 crore that the Centre has not yet paid to the state. These dues are to be paid by 31 March, demands the Uddhav Thackeray-led state government and will be used to fight the outbreak of the novel virus in state.

The S&P 500 remains about 23 percent below its record set last month, and oil tumbled to an 18-year low. In early afternoon trading on Monday, the S&P 500 was up 2.3 percent.

Nascent optimism is budding on Wall Street that the worst of the selling may be over, but markets around the world remain tentative amid uncertainty about whether global authorities can nurse the economy through the pandemic.

Stocks pushed higher on Wall Street Monday, led by big gains for health care companies announcing developments that could aid in the coronavirus outbreak. The rally tacked more gains onto a recent upswing for the market, which is coming off the best week for the S&P 500 since hitting bottom after the financial crisis 11 years ago.

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray reassures Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami that the 300 Tamil migrants stuck in Maharashtra will be taken care of. The move comes after the Tamil Nadu chief minister raised the issue on Twitter, urging Maharashtra to look after 300 Tamilians, who were stranded in the two locations without food for the past 4 days

The PB 560 ventilator has a number of advantages, one being that its a relatively compact and lightweight piece of equipment that can be easily moved around and installed for use in a range of different healthcare environments and settings. And its a design that was originally introduced in 2010, so it has a decade of qualified, safe medical use in treating patients.

Healthcare and biomedical engineering company Medtronic is making available to anyone the full design specifications, product manuals, design documents and, in the future, software code for its Puritan Bennett (PB) 560 portable ventilator hardware, say reports .

Economic experts fear massive layoffs in various sectors of the American economy due to the current economic distress that is only going to deteriorate in the coming weeks and months.

The current federal rules require an H-1B visa holder to leave the US along with their family members within 60 days of losing their job.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

Fearing massive layoffs in America due to the coronavirus crisis that is hitting businesses around the globe, foreign technology professionals on H-1B visas, most sought after among Indians, demand the Trump administration extend their permissible post-job loss limit to stay in the US from the existing 60 to 180 days.

Police and paramilitary personnel cordoned off a major area in Nizamuddin West in south Delhi on Monday and over 200 people have been kept in isolation in hospitals after several people who took part in a religious congregation there showed symptoms of coronavirus.

The special teams under the collectors have identified the persons who came in contact with the deceased and they are shifted to the hospitals, it said.

Two of the six died at the Gandhi Hospital, one each in two private hospitals, and one each in Nizamabad and Gadwal towns, the statement said, without mentioning the time of their deaths.

"Coronavirus has spread among some of those who attended a religious prayer meeting from 13 to 15 March at Markaz in Nizamuddin area in Delhi," according to an official release. "Among those who attended were some persons from Telangana."

Six people from Telangana who attended a religious congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin died due to the novel coronavirus, the state government said on Monday.

Analysts cautioned the result could even be higher given that the index measures the net balance of firms reporting an expansion or contraction in activity.

There were also hopes a survey of Chinese manufacturing due later would show a sizable improvement for March as factories began to re-open. Forecasts are that the Chinas official purchasing manufacturers index (PMI) will bounce to 45.0, from a record-low 35.7 in February.

Asian share markets managed a tentative rally on Tuesday after European and U.S. equities stabilised, though buying for month and quarter-end book balancing likely flattered the gains.

Around 300-400 people had attended a religious gathering at Markaz and 163 people from Nizamuddin, have been admitted to Lok Nayak Hospital Delhi for tests.

"It has come to our knowledge that administrators of Nizammuddin Markaz violated coronavirus lockdown conditions and now several positive cases have been found. Strong action would be taken against those in charge of this establishment. Delhi Government to ask police to register FIR against Maulana of Markaz, Nizamuddin," the Delhi government stated.

The Delhi government will ask the police to register an FIR against the Maulana of Markaz in Nizamuddin area as some people have shown symptoms of coronavirus after taking part in a religious gathering in Delhi.

We have managed to win time and slow down an explosive spread of the disease in the previous weeks, and we need to use that time reserve to the full, Putin said.

A stern-looking President Vladimir Putin warned his envoys in Russia's far-flung regions that they will be personally responsible for the availability of beds, ventilators and other key equipment.

The Russian capital, Moscow, on Monday woke up to a lockdown obliging most of its 13 million residents to stay home, and many other regions of the vast country quickly followed suit to stem the spread of the new coronavirus.

Indian Express reports that the government in India is set to ramp up testing in 10 identified hotspots where unusual transmission has been detected. Of these, two  Dilshad Garden and Nizamuddin  are in Delhi, the others being Noida, Meerut, Bhilwara, Ahmedabad, Kasaragod, Pathanamthitta, Mumbai and Pune.

An estimated 230 House members returned to Washington to pass the relief package on Friday, despite the health risks of traveling and gathering at the Capitol, after Republican Representative Thomas Massie said he would block any effort to pass the bill without at least half of the Houses 430 current members present.

Now that Congress has passed a $2.2 trillion economic relief bill and President Donald Trump has signed it into law, neither the House of Representatives nor Senate is due back in Washington until 20 April at the earliest.

At least six members of the US Congress have announced that they have contracted the novel coronavirus, and more than 30 others are or were self-quarantining in hopes of limiting the spread of the pandemic.

To date Himachal Pradesh has 1,779 people under home quarantine. One patient is under treatment for COVID-19. A total of 211 samples have been taken so far out of which 208 were negative.

"This would be an OTP based application which would be given by health worker and violation of quarantine will be monitored through this tracking application," Rohan Chand Thakur, Director, Department of Information Technology said.

Himachal Pradesh government has developed a mobile application to track and monitor the people who are quarantined for COVID-19. The Department of Information Technology has started a 'Corona Mukt Himachal' mobile app. The health workers of the Health Department will monitor the people, especially on home quarantine through this app.

Also, an 80-year-old man, who suffered from acute respiratory distress, succumbed to COVID-19 at a private hospital here, taking the death toll in MMR to eight, including six in Mumbai, said the civic body's release.

While 29 of the new infections are in Mumbai, the rest 18 are from other parts of MMR, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation officials said.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region's COVID-19 count reached 170 on Monday with 47 people testing positive for the novel coronavirus, officials said.

Italians have been under lockdown for three weeks, with most shops, bars, and restaurants shut and people forbidden from leaving their homes for all but non-essential needs.

The Health Ministry did not give a date for the new end of the lockdown but said it would be in law the government would propose. Easter Sunday is 12 April this year. Italy is predominantly Roman Catholic and contains the Vatican, the heart of the church.

Italys government on Monday said it would extend its nationwide lockdown measures against a coronavirus outbreak, due to end on Friday, at least until the Easter season in April, as the number of new infections declines.

Earlier, the testing of these migrant workers for coronavirus had been carried out after their return to the state and the result had come out as negative.

In a commendable move, which shows that people around the country and even in the rural areas are aware of the severity and the threat posed by the COVID-19 infection, the workers decided to self-quarantine themselves to protect their family.

A dozen migrant workers in the Kalahandi district have set up camp to self-quarantine outside their village even after testing negative for coronavirus, as a precautionary measure after returning from Kerala.

"So far, the accused has sold 70,000 masks at a cost of Rs 1.05 crore," police said in a statement. The warehouse in Kalyan Nagar was raided on Monday night and 12,300 fake N95 masks worth Rs 20 lakh were seized, it said.

Over 12,000 fake N95 face masks were seized from a warehouse here by the Central Crime Branch, police said on Tuesday. The filtering masks have been in demand since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, which has claimed 32 lives and affected 1,251 people in the country.

Five more COVID-19 cases have been reported from Maharashtra as the total state tally climbs to 225, said health officials on Tuesday. One case has been reported from Mumbai, two from Pune and another two Buldhana.

Besides, Jabalpur has reported eight cases, Ujjain- five, Bhopal- three and Shivpuri and Gwalior- two each. They are being treated in different hospitals of the state.

She had no travel history and was already suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes, the official said. So far, 47 persons have tested positive for coronavirus in the state, including 27 from Indore.

A 49-year-old COVID-19 patient died in Madhya Pradesh, taking the number of coronavirus deaths in the state to five, an official said on Tuesday. The woman, a resident of Chandan Nagar, breathed her last at the Manorama Raje TB Hospital, an official from Government Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College said.

"The person died on Monday night before test results came. Her test results confirmed that she was infected with the coronavirus," the official said. There were four new cases of coronavirus reported in West Bengal, taking the total number to 26 in the state, he added.

An elderly woman who was infected with the coronavirus died at a hospital in West Bengals Howrah district, taking the total number of COVID-19 deaths to three in the state, a health department official said on Tuesday. The man had recently travelled to the northern part of the state, he said. Four new cases of coronavirus have been reported in West Bengal, taking the count to 26.

A list of 17 vehicles with registration numbers along with names of drivers plus their license details were submitted to Ld SDM so that stranded visitors/guests could be ferried towards their destination. The requisite permission is still awaited, said the statement of Markaz, Delhi.

It was also informed that LD SDM concerned had been requested to issue vehicle passes so that the remaining people could be sent back to their native places outside of Delhi.

ANI reported that on 24 March, a notice was issued by SHO PS Hazrat Nizamuddin, seeking closure of Markaz premises. It was responded on 24 March, stating that compliance of directions regarding the closure of Markaz is underway and that around 1500 people had departed the previous day thus leaving around 1000 visitors of different states and nationalities in Markaz.

Medical teams and police are present at the Markaz building, Nizamuddin where around 2500 people had attended a function earlier this month.

With the help of the Health Department around 860 people have been shifted from Markaz building, in Nizamuddin to hospitals. Around 300 more people are yet to be evacuated, Delhi Police sources told ANI on Tuesday.

Among the people that were admitted at the LNJP hospital in Delhi, from the Nizamuddin cluster case, 24 have tested positive for the novel coronavirus disease, reports CNN-News18. More results from two more hospitals are awaited.

She was admitted at the Howrah District Hospital on Sunday with COVID-19 symptoms. There have also been allegations of gross negligence in handling the patient by hospital authorities. She was admitted in general bed instead of the isolation ward. Nurses and hospital staff have agitated against the negligence.

The third coronavirus casualty in West Bengal was an elderly female patient. She had travel history to Dooars in North Bengal, along with 3 other families (a team of 15 members) and returned on 21 March, reports News18.

The press release said: "During this entire episode, Markaz Nizamuddin never violated any provision of law, and always tried to act with compassion and reason towards the visitors who came to Delhi from different states. It did not let them violate the medical guidelines by thronging ISBTs or roaming on streets."

Amid multiple reports which claim that the Markaz Nizamuddin had violated lockdown, the Markaz issued a detailed clarification into how they did not violate the lockdown announced by the government. With a hastily carried out lockdown, people were stranded and were forced to seek accommodation at the premises, on the orders of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for people to stay put at where they were.

He also said that around 1,500 to 1,700 people have been estimated by the government to have assembled at Markaz building. He added that thought the government was no certain of the exact number, 334 people have been sent to hospitals and over 700 others have been sent to a quarantine centre.

Delhi's health minister Satyendar Jain told ANI that 24 people who were present at the Markaz building, Nizamuddin have tested positive for coronavirus, so far.

The portal is titled Stranded in India . The portal will help tourists get information/details of State Tourism departments and Regional offices of the Ministry of tourism to help foreigners to stay safe and healthy while in India. It will also help foreigners find information on ways of getting back to their home country.

The aim is to extend support to the foreign tourists who are stranded in our country because of the COVID-19 pandemic, has set up a portal to disseminate information regarding the services that can be availed by them.

The Ministry of Tourism on Tuesday said it has set up a portal called 'Stranded in India' for tourists stuck in the country to disseminate information regarding the services that can be availed by tourists while they're here.

The decision was taken to facilitate the citizens facing difficulties in renewing the validity of various documents related to the Motor Vehicles Act and the Central Motor Vehicles Rules due to nationwide lockdown in the country and closure of government transport offices, according to the advisory.

In an advisory to all states and Union territories, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has asked them to treat such documents as valid till 30 June.

The Centre has extended till 30 June the validity of documents like driving licenses, permits and registration that expired since 1 February, in a move to ensure hassle-free transportation of cargo amid the lockdown over the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday reported 17 new cases, with most patients having a travel history with Delhi. According to an official release by the state government, the state tally of confirmed cases has now climbed to 40.

The cop was seen roaming outside the residential colonies of the area in a bid to raise awareness and urge people to take all necessary measures to contain coronavirus spread.

Sub-Inspector Maruti Sankar was on Tuesday was seen riding a horse in Pyapili town of Kurnool district, while there is nothing unusual about this act what caught eyeballs were the drawings on the animal's body. The white horse had red circles dotted with lines, resembling the structure of the highly contagious virus which has plunged the world into crisis.

With governments taking all possible measures of spread awareness over the highly contagious COVID-19, a cop in Andhra Pradesh devised a novel way to make people remember the enemy which the nation, and the world at large, is fighting.

Among the 83, seven are evacuees from Iran who had landed at Jodhpur airport recently.

Additional Chief Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said one person each has tested positive from Jhunjhunu, Ajmer, Dungarpur and Jaipur. He said the total number COVID-19 cases in the state has risen to 83.

Four more persons tested positive for coronavirus in Rajasthan on Tuesday, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases in the state to 83, an official said.

So far, six coronavirus positive patients have died in the state. Five patients have been discharged, the official said, adding that two are on ventilator support.

Till now, Ahmedabad has reported 25 cases, followed by Rajkot at 10, Vadodara, Surat and Gandhinagar nine each, Bhavnagar- six, Gir Somnath-two, and Kutch, Mehsana and Porbandar- one each.

Three new COVID-19 cases were reported in Gujarat on Tuesday, taking the total number of coronavirus patients in the state to 73, an official said. Out of the three new cases, two were found in Ahmedabad and one in Rajkot, Principal Secretary (Health) Jayanti Ravi said.

Five more new cases have been reported in Maharashtra. Among the five, four cases were reported from Mumbai and one from Pune. The total number of positive cases in the state rises to 230, said Maharashtra Health Department on Tuesday.

At the interbank foreign exchange the rupee opened at 75.52, then gained ground and touched 75.51, registering a rise of 8 paise over its previous close. On Monday, rupee had settled at 75.59 against the US dollar.

Forex traders said the rupee is trading in a narrow range as the higher opening in domestic equities supported the local unit, while sustained foreign fund outflows and strengthening of the American currency weighed on it.

The Indian rupee appreciated by 8 paise to 75.51 against the US dollar in early trade on Tuesday tracking positive opening in domestic equities.

All his family members have been asked to stay in home quarantine, she added.

His sample was tested COVID-19 positive late night on Monday, she said. He was accompanied by his sister during his travel from Mumbai to Korba and her sample was also collected for testing which came out to be negative, she said.

The man, who studies in London, returned to Korba town via Mumbai on March 18 and was placed in home isolation. After he complained of cold and cough, his sample was sent for testing, Korba Collector Kiran Kaushal said.

A 22-year-old man with foreign travel history has tested positive for coronavirus in Chhattisgarh's Korba district, taking the number of COVID-19 infection cases in the state to eight, officials said on Tuesday.

He further said, "Indian Government has done what was unthinkable in locking down the entire country. We respect that. All my companies have effectively ceased operations. All manufacturing is closed as well."

Mallya, who is wanted in India on alleged fraud and money laundering charges amounting to an estimated Rs 9,000 crore, also said all his companies have effectively ceased operations and manufacturing following the lockdown in India.

Embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya, on Tuesday asked Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to consider his repeated "offer to repay 100 percent" of the amount borrowed by now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, in this time of coronavirus pandemic.

"Additionally, we need to think of a suitable framework under which critical pharma products, medical devices, diagnostic equipment and kits and healthcare professionals can be deployed at short notice across territories under a pre-agreed protocol," he said.

Participating in the Extraordinary G20 Trade and Investment Ministerial virtual meeting, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that trade facilitative responses need to be in place, and wherever necessary, requirements by authorities like customs, banks of producing original documents by importers for various clearances can be removed temporarily.

India on Monday called for ensuring uninterrupted supply of vital medicines and food products across the globe to deal with the challenges in the wake of surge in the number of coronavirus cases across the world.

The ministers stated that they will take immediate necessary measures to facilitate trade in those essential goods. They also agreed to implement those measures, upholding the principle of international solidarity, considering the evolving needs of other countries for emergency supplies and humanitarian assistance.

"We are actively working to ensure the continued flow of vital medical supplies and equipment, critical agricultural products, and other essential goods and services across borders, for supporting the health of our citizens," the statement said.

According to a joint statement issued after a video conference, the ministers agreed to support the availability and accessibility of essential medical supplies at affordable prices, on an equitable basis, where they are most needed and will guard against profiteering and unjustified price increases.

Trade and investment ministers of the G-20 group have agreed to ensure fair trade and a continued flow of vital medicines as well as other essential goods to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

So far, Indore has reported 44 COVID-19 cases, Jabalpur-8, Bhopal-5, Ujjain-5, and Shivpuri and Gwalior-2 each. Five coronavirus patients have so far died in the state, the official said.

Seventeen more people tested positive for coronavirus in Indore on Tuesday, taking the total number of such cases in Madhya Pradesh to 65, a health official said.

The order said that those who have physical and mental issues due to withdrawal symptoms could be given liquor in a "controlled" and "prescribed" manner.

"Following the lockdown and the closure of liquor outlets in the state, there were many instances of social issues including the frustration and suicide tendencies shown by those who used to consume liquor regularly and the state government has decided to initiate steps to resolve the matter," the order read.

A government order in this regard was issued on Monday night, despite objection from doctors' association, to supply liquor to tipplers under prescription during the 21-day lockdown initiated to counter the spread of COVID-19.

The Kerala government has decided to issue special passes for tipplers, who have withdrawal symptoms and doctor's prescription, to purchase liquor from the Excise department.

"This is apart from the unfathomable hardships the labourers are going through owing to stoppage of their income," the bench noted.

The court while considering the issue said such large-scale movement of labourers increases the danger of further spread of coronavirus, and noted that these people are in need of assistance from the state government.

A single bench of Justice Sunil Shukre on Monday heard a petition filed by one C H Sharma, raising concerns over the spread of coronavirus on account of the movement of thousands of labourers and their families from cities to rural areas, both within and outside the state.

Taking note of the hardships being faced by migrant labourers amid the lockdown, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has asked the Maharashtra government to make all necessary arrangements for them, and also consider taking funds from charitable organisations.

Infosys Foundation, over the last two weeks, has announced support for creation of an exclusive hospital in Bengaluru for COVID-19 patients. It has also enabled the acquisition of medical and PPE equipment for multiple military and government hospitals across the country.

This sum will primarily be utilised across three broad areas of support that the Foundation has prioritised, including expansion of hospital capacity for treatment and enable hospital stays for COVID-19 patients across India, especially ones belonging to the economically weaker sections of the society, it added.

Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Infosys, on Monday committed Rs 100 crore to support efforts towards fighting COVID-19 in India. The Foundation has contributed half of this commitment (Rs 50 crore) to the PM CARES Fund, a statement said.

A cluster case has emerged from Delhi, from Markaz building in Nizamuddin, which has initiated fast action against coronavirus in Delhi. This is the country-wise case count of foreign nationals who were part of the event that took place between 15 to 17 March.

If a foreigner is put in the Home ministry's blacklist, he or she can't travel to India in the future. A total of 281 foreigners were found by the police at the Nizamuddin campus in the last two days.

"Those who came on a tourist visa but attended the Nizamuddin event stands to be in our blacklist as they have violated the visa conditions. Tourist visa holders can't attend religious function," a Union Home ministry official said.

About 30 of those who attended the Nizamuddin event in mid-March tested positive and at least three have succumbed to the infection in last few days.

These foreigners were among around 8,000 people who attended the Tabligh-e-Jamaat at Nizamuddin Markaz facility in March, many of whom have shown symptoms of COVID-19, a Union Home Ministry official said.

India is likely to blacklist about 300 foreigners who came from 16 countries, including Malaysia and Thailand, on tourist visas but attended an Islamic congregation at Nizamuddin here that has become a key source for the spread of coronavirus in the country, officials said on Tuesday.

According to News18 Assam, over 200 people from Assam participated in the religious congregation organised by Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin in New Delhi. An individual from Morigaon district in Assam, Kasem Ali, who spoke with News18 Assam said that he is still lodged in a six-storeyed building called Markaz in the institution. Ali claimed he has not been infected with the novel coronavirus, but one person from Assam has been admitted to a Delhi hospital. People from Assam went to participate in the event by train and most of them stayed on the fourth floor of the building.

In a press release, Nizamuddin Markaz  the Delhi headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat  said after Prime Minister Narendra Modis call for Janata curfew on 22 March, the ongoing program was discontinued. However, as the Indian Railways suspended its operations, it had to accommodate the stranded guests.

On the 16 March, the government further reduced number of people from 200 to 50 under the ban. Therefore, the clarification that has been issued wherein they say Makarz had intimated the SHO on 24 March is not enough.

Delhi government on Tuesday replied to Markaz clarification which claimed that they did not violate the government lockdown, by saying that a ban was already in place since the 13 March reports News18.

Karnataka health minister B Sriramulu on Tuesday said that the government has information that around 45 people from Karnataka had taken part in the Nizamuddin congregation. The Tumkur resident (who died on March 27) is one of them, he said and added that 13 people have been traced so far.

Uttar Pradesh Police confirmed to ANI on Tuesday that the search for 157 people from the state, who had participated in Tablighi Jamaat event at Markaz, Nizamuddin in Delhi is currently underway.

But 9 out of the 10 people who tested positive for coronavirus in Andaman & Nicobar, had attended Tablighi Jamaat event at Markaz, Nizamuddin in Delhi. "Wife of one of these people later tested positive," said Abhijit Roy, Dy Director Heath and Nodal Officer.

The designated laboratory for COVID19 in Andaman & Nicobar, RMRC-ICMR, Dollygunj has tested 33 suspected cases on 29 March, out of which only 1 was found positive. The total number of cases found positive is 10 out of 99 samples tested till date, Andaman and Nicobar administration told ANI.

The Maharashtra cybercrime has been asked to step up and take strict action against those who post fake or misleading information on social media platforms, Deshmukh said.

In a pre-recorded video message, the minister said, "The lockdown is in force to contain the coronavirus outbreak. I appeal to people not to spread any fake messages that can trigger panic among people."

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Tuesday issued a stern warning against spreading fake news about coronavirus as part of April Fool's Day pranks, stating that it could trigger panic during the lockdown.

Further, Development Commissioners of SEZs have been requested to ensure that there is no hardship to Developer/Co-Developer/Units and no punitive action is taken in cases where compliances like filing of certain forms required to be filed by 31 March, are not completed.

Besides, more than 1900 IT/ITES units have been facilitated to enable their employees to work from home, a statement by the ministry said.

Over 280 SEZ units engaged in manufacturing of essential items like drugs, pharmaceuticals or hospital equipment are operational to ensure these critical supplies are not disrupted during the lockdown period, the commerce and industry minister said on Tuesday.

Former Delhi L-G Najeeb Jung slammed the Markaz Nizamuddin gathering on Tuesday, saying the jamaat should have cancelled the event as soon as COVID-19 cases began to get reported in India. "It was the duty of the Delhi Police to have cracked down on them, writing a letter to them was not enough," he said, adding that the administration should have been aware of the gathering long time back. "We are now crying over spilt milk," he said. "I beg all religious leaders to shut their places of worship," he told News18.

The decision has been taken after a detailed deliberation with various unions of employees, he said.

"The salaries of Class I and II will be cut by 50 percent while that of Class III employees will be cut by 25 percent. There will be no cut in the salaries of remaining classes in the state bureaucracy," he said.

In an official statement, Pawar announced a 60 percent cut in the March salaries of the chief minister, all other ministers, MLAs, MLCs and representatives of local governing bodies.

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who is also the state finance minister, said the decision has been taken after consultation with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and various unions of employees.

The Maharashtra government on Tuesday said there would be a 60 percent cut in this month's salaries of public representatives in the state, including the chief minister, in view of coronavirus affecting the economy.

According to state data, 98 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state which includes 3 deaths and 6 discharges. From 5 pm yesterday till 8 am on Tuesday, 10 new cases have been reported.

Over 24 people, who attended Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi, were tracked in Bengaluru on Tuesday. "We've quarantined 54 people, aorund 8 people from Bidar. One person was found positive in Bidar and we've quarantined him. There are people who attended jamaat from almost all districts,' said Karnataka Home Mininster.

The chief minister will hold a meeting with senior officials later in the day, the spokesman added.

He was scheduled to visit Meerut and Agra besides Ghaziabad to review the situation.

The chief minister visited Ghaziabad Tuesday morning. He, however, cut short his visit and headed to Lucknow to meet senior health officers to review quarantine measures, especially in the light of the incident in Delhi, a government spokesman said.

Cutting short his visit to the districts with maximum number of COVID-19 patients, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday returned to the state capital to hold an urgent meeting with senior officials, in view of reports that people from the state attended a religious event in Delhi's Nizamuddin area which has emerged as one of the biggest hotspots of the disease.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Punjab stood at 41 with 4 deaths. The states's first COVID19 patient has now fully recovered. "We are tracing and testing all connections of all positive patients," said Punjab Health Minister BS Sidhu.

The 65-year-old man from Nayagaon near Chandigarh, who had tested positive for coronavirus succumbed to his illness on Tuesday morning, reports The Tribune. His condition was critical and he had been put on a ventilator.

The Civil aviation ministry has formed a committee to facilitate movement of cargo across the country during the 21 day-lockdown period.

"The cargo essentially included COVID-19 related reagents, enzymes, medical equipment, testing kits and personal protective equipment (PPE), masks, gloves & other accessories of HLL and cargo requisitioned by State/union territories governments and postal packets," Puri said.

Amid the lockdown imposed to help curb the spread of coronavirus, domestic airlines and cargo operators along with the Indian Air Force have transported 15.4 tons of medical supplies in 62 flights between 26 to 30 March, said Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday.

The Centre told the apex court that the suggestion to sprinkle water and chemicals on migrants to sanitise them does not work scientifically and is not the right way.

It also asked the Centre to ensure that migration is stopped and to take care of food, shelter, nourishment and medical needs of the people and also to follow up of cases of the virus, also called COVID-19.

The top court, which observed that panic will destroy more lives than the virus, asked the Centre to get trained counsellors and community leaders of all faiths to calm down the migrants, who are kept in shelter homes across the country.

The Supreme Court Tuesday asked the Centre to set up a portal within 24 hours for the dissemination of real-time information on the coronavirus pandemic to counter the panic being spread through fake news.

A Doctor of mohalla clinic in Babarpur has tested positive for coronavirus, reported ANI. A notice has been put up in the area asking patients who had visited the clinic between 12 to 20 March, should self-quarantine at home for the next 15 days.

Times of India reported that keeping in line with the cooperative departments directive to housing societies to disallow its members to step out unless it is an emergency, several neighborhoods have got vegetables, grocery vendors allowed to set up shop inside housing societies.

We arrested Punjabi from Bhendi Bazar area under section 188 of the IPC as well as provisions of the Disaster Management Act. He was later released on bail, Senior Inspector Sanjeev Bhole of JJ Marg police station told PTI.

Sohail Salim Punjabis message read Mumbais Null Bazar, Bhendi Bazar, Dongri, Madanpura, Kala Pani, Sat Rasta area is uncontrollable by Police, Hence Military has been called. They will use force, lathi charge as well as firing to controll Mob.

A 28-year-old man was arrested in Byculla in Mumbai on Monday for allegedly circulating a message on WhatsApp that the military had been deployed in some parts of the locality to enforce the lockdown for the novel coronavirus outbreak with the mandate to fire to control mobs.

He has given Rs 5 lakh to 'Zomato Feeding India', which is helping families affected by the ongoing national lockdown, and another Rs 5 lakh to help aid the welfare of stray dogs.

Rohit, who is the vice-captain of the Indian ODI team, has donated Rs 45 lakh and Rs 25 lakh to the PM and CM's Relief Fund (Maharashtra) respectively.

Star India batsman Rohit Sharma has donated Rs 80 lakh to fight the rapidly-spreading COVID-19 pandemic, saying the onus is on the citizens to help the country get back on its feet.

Earlier, the MBMC had set up a 40-bed ward at the civic hospital, but now it is upgraded to a 100-bed isolation ward to house patients, Chandrakant Dange, MBMC commissioner, MBMC told the newspaper.

To combat the coronavirus outbreak, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC)-run Pandit Bhimsen Joshi Civic Hospital has been converted into a 100-bed isolation facility with immediate effect, reports The Hindustan Times .

The duo had shared a video showing the police beating upa man during the lockdown on several WhatsApp groups, he said, adding that posting such contents on social media is banned during the lockdown.

The Ulhasnagar police on Monday registered a case against former corporator and Sena leader Vijay Sawant and Raju Idani, while no arrests have been made so far, senior inspector Rajendra Kadam said.

An FIR was registered against two persons, including a Shiv Sena leader, for allegedly sharing a video of the local police assaulting a man during the COVID-19 lockdown in Ulhasnagar town of Maharashtra, police said on Tuesday.

One staff nurse of a hospital in Sector 6, in Panchkula has tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday. "She is in isolation now," Chief Medical Officer, Panchkula told ANI. The number of positive cases in Haryana stand at 22.

He said people will have to maintain social distancing while buying essential goods. Bhilwara has reported 26 positive cases out of the 83 coronavirus cases reported in the state so far.

For 10 days starting from 3 April, people should remain indoors. We are going to cancel all passes issued to media, public support groups or NGOs. Essential services will be delivered as per a time-table in the town, Bhilwara collector Rajendra Bhatt said.

Residents have been asked to remain indoors as the district administration has prepared a time-table to deliver essential services at doorsteps, they said.

With Bhilwara recording 30 percent of total COVID-19 cases in Rajasthan, the district administration plans to impose a stricter lockdown in the textile town for 10 days starting from April 3 by revoking passes issued to media and NGOs, officials said on Tuesday.

IndiGo, India's largest airline, had announced similar cuts a couple of weeks ago. GoAir, owned by the Wadia group, has asked employees to go on a rotational leave without pay.

Budget airline SpiceJet on Tuesday announced a pay cut for all employees, after the state-mandated lockdown grounded airlines in India for 21 days. Employees will take 10-30 percent deductions in their March pay with SpiceJet chairman Ajay Singh taking a 30 percent pay cut.

The health department has started screening of all the people residing in one-kilometre area around their house, he added. The number of positive cases in the state is now 101, a health official said here.

After the report was received from the KGMU on Tuesday morning, the Subhash Nagar area, where the family resides, has been sealed off and 5-kilometre area around their house has been made the buffer zone the CMO said.

"Five cases have been found positive in Bareilly. The samples of 6 members of a family of a youth, working in Noida and earlier found corona positive, were sent for testing and five of them, including his mother, father, brother, sister, and wife were found as positive," Chief medical officer, Bareilly, Dr Vineet Shukla said on Tuesday.

With five more people testing positive for coronavirus in Bareilly on Tuesday, the total count of COVID-19 cases in Uttar Pradesh has crossed the 100 mark, said officials.

"Those who are dying on way to home should be identified by the government and their bodies should be sent home. Families of such people should also be given Rs 25 lakh," Akhilesh said

The 21-day nationwide lockdown sparked an exodus of hundreds of thousands of migrant labourers who undertook long journeys from major urban cities on foot to their native places in the last five days, threatening to overturn the benefits of the lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to identify the people who died while making their way home and give Rs 25 lakh to their families.

Additional Chief Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said one person each has tested positive from Jhunjhunu, Ajmer, Dungarpur and Jaipur. The other 10 are evacuees from Iran who had landed at Jodhpur airport recently, Singh said.

Ten more Indian evacuees from Iran in Rajasthan have tested positive for the novel coronavirus disease. Fourteen more people have tested positive for coronavirus in Rajasthan, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases in the state to 93, an official said on Tuesday.

Thousands of Gujarat-based migrant workers had earlier started their journey on foot to reach Rajasthan following the announcement of lockdown last week to contain the spread of coronavirus.

These labourers are now being sent to shelter homes in Gujarat, said Inspector General, Gandhinagar Range, Mayanksinh Chavda, who rushed to the spot after getting information about the matter.

Over 500 migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar were stuck at the Shamlaji border town in Gujarat after the Rajasthan Police refused them entry, an official said on Tuesday.

It asked the Centre to prevent migration of people and take care of their needs of food, shelter, nourishment and medical aid.

It said these shelters should be run by volunteers and not the police, and there should be no use of force and intimidation.

"Panic will destroy more lives than the virus", the top court said and asked the Centre to get trained counsellors and community leaders of all faiths to calm down the migrants, who are kept in shelter homes across the country.

The Supreme Court asked the Centre on Tuesday to prevent migration of people due to coronavirus and set up within 24 hours a portal for disseminating real time information on the pandemic to counter the panic being spread through fake news.

Meanwhile, the health ministry said that with more than 1,200 cases of COVID-19 in India, the number of hotspots in country has increased.

R Gangakhedkar of the ICMR, one of the nodal agencies on India's action against the spread of coronavirus, said in the daily briefing on Tuesday, "Till now we have tested 42,788 samples, including 4,346 samples that were tested yesterday. It represents 36 percent of our capacity. 123 labs have been made functional, 49 private labs have been given permission. Yesterday 399 patients were tested in private labs."

"With respect to the Nizamuddin area, we all need to understand and appreciate that this is not the time to do fault finding. What is important for us is to take action as per our containment process in whatever areas we find a case," said Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry.

Addressing converns over the congregation that was held in Delhi's Nizammudin area of which several attendees have tested positive for coronavirus, the health ministry said that "fault finding" should be avoided.

First three COVID-19 patients in West Bengal have recovered, reports said, adding that they will remain in quarantine for the time being. Meanwhile, two new cases were confirmed for the infection in the state on Tuesday, the total cases are now 27.

It is estimated that from January 1 onwards, approximately 2100 foreigners had visited India for Tabligh activities, the statement said.

In a statement, the home ministry said while approximately 824 of them, as on 21 March, were dispersed in different parts of the country, 216 of them were staying at Nizamuddin Markaz, where several of them tested COVID-19 positive.

The government on Tuesday said as many as 2100 foreigners visited India for Tablighi activities since 1 January and all of them first reported at its headquarters in Delhi's Nizamuddin, which has apparently become a coronavirus hotspot.

In Madhya Pradesh, the total number of coronavirus positive cases on Tuesday rose to 66 in the state, of which 44 positive cases have been reported in Indore. Five people have died due to the infection till now in the state.

Italy on Tuesday observed a minute of silence and flags in the country were at half-mast in mourning for the 11,591 people who have died due to the coronavirus pandemic so far. Italy, one of the worst-affected countries, was declared as the epicentre of COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation (WHO) after the toll crossed that of China's.

"Moreover, the employees will also be treated as "on leave without pay" for the March 25-31 phase due to the suspension of air passenger services during the period, said the airline, which offered its aircraft and crew to the government for any "humanitarian mission" last week," the report said.

SpiceJet airline is likely to cut 30 percent of its employees's salaries in March, The Indian Express quoted Chairman Ajay Singh as saying.

The total number of positive coronavirus cases in Uttar Pradesh rose to 103 on Tuesday, with the highest number of cases reported in Noida with 39 cases.

"Persons who are bonafide residents of the state of Punjab and are travelling from other states to the state of Punjab would be screened," a government notification said.

All residents of Punjab returning from other states will be screened for coronavirus upon entry, the state government said on Tuesday.

"Crisil may not recognise missed payments as defaults if they occurred because of temporary operational challenges caused by the lockdown," the agency said.

Companies need not worry about missed payments impacting ratings if these are due to operational challenges in the lockdown, ratings agency Crisil said in a statement.

Three new coronavirus cases were reported in Uttar Pradesh's Noida and 26 cases were reporting in Rajasthan's Bhilwara on Tuesday.

Another COVID-19 death was reported in West Bengal on Tuesday, after which the toll in state rose to four, PTI quoted officials as saying.

The Delhi Police has written a letter to Delhi government seeking immediate action with regard to persons including 157 foreign nationals associated with Tablighi Jamaat meet in Nizamuddin and presently staying at various mosques and places in Delhi.

Sun Weidong, Chinese Envoy to India , said, "The 2nd batch of donation from Chinese charity organizations Jack Ma and Alibaba Foundations has arrived in Delhi today and been received by Indian Red Cross Society. Donation includes protective clothes, masks, respirators and ventilators. Chinese state-owned companies also provide assistance to their Indian partners. The Chinese people will stand firmly with the Indian people on the fight against COVID-19 and we'll get through hard times together."

"With this, Odisha now has four positive cases. The previous three are in various stages of recovery," reports said.

Meanwhile, a fourth COVID-19 has been confirmed case in Odisha. Reportedly, the patient is a 29-year-old male from the Bhadrak district with a travel history to Dubai. Efforts are on to isolate him from his family and to bring him to the coronavirus ward at SCBMCH in Cuttack, the state's largest govt-run hospital. He was asymptomatic and quarantined at home.

Five more COVID-19 cases from Bihar, including four from Siwan and one from Gopalganj have been reported on Tuesday. Total cases in the state are now at 21.

At least 15,000 people are listed for observation for coronavirus in Jammu and Kashmir, a media bulletin said on Tuesday. The bulletin also said that 9,895 people were being kept under home quarantine, while 350 were in hospital quarantine and 51 people were kept in hospital isolation. A total of 3,334 people were kept under home surveillance, while 1,371 had completed the surveillance period.

"Twenty-three laboratories in the Maharashtra (10 government and 13 private ones) have been approved by ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) for COVID-19 diagnosis. Reports from private laboratories are being evaluated before they are finalised," the state public health department said.

Maharashtra:Migrant workers staying in a shelter home in Nagpur allege that it lacks basic utilities.A worker says,"We don't have electricity&toilet facilities.We've to eat our meals near garbage. We were assured that we'll be fine but situation here is such that we can fall ill" pic.twitter.com/CI5608r49G

Migrant workers staying in a shelter home in Nagpur allege that it lacks basic utilities.A worker says,"We don't have electricity and toilet facilities.We've to eat our meals near garbage. We were assured that we'll be fine but situation here is such that we can fall ill."

Coronavirus Outbreak LATEST updates: The number of novel coronavirus cases climbed to 1,397 on Tuesday after 146 new infections were reported in the past 24 hours across the country, while the death toll due to the pandemic rose to 35, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The active cases of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) stands at 1,238, while three deaths  two in Punjab and one in Maharashtra  were reported, the ministry said in an updated data on Monday night.

The Union health ministry said that there has been an increase of 146 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, which takes the total number of COVID-19 positive cases rise to 1,397 in India (including 1238 active cases, 124 cured/discharged/migrated people and 35 deaths).

The Ministry of External Affairs (MHA) said that so far, 1,339 workers of the Tablighi Jamaat organisation have been shifted to Narela, Sultanpuri and Bakkarwala quarantine facilities in Delhi.

The statement also said that some have also been admitted to the LNJP, RGSS, GTB, DDU hospitals and AllMS in Haryana's Jhajjar. Rest of them are being currently medically screened for COVID-19 infections.

"Usually, all foreigners visiting India as a part of Tablighi team come on tourist visas. MHA had already issued guidelines that they should not indulge in missionary work on a tourist visa. Police will examine and take further action in case of violation of visa conditions," the statement added.

Several attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi's Nizammudin tested positive for the coronavirus in Tamil Nadu and Telangana, while 36 attendees were kept in quarantine in Madhya Pradesh, reports said on Tuesday.

50 people from Tamil Nadu who attended the gathering at the Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi, have been tested positive for coronavirus, Tamil Nadu health secretary Beela Rajesh said.

The government also said that out of 1,131 people who returned to the state from Delhi, where the around 2,000-strong congregation was held, 515 have been traced while the remaining 616 are asked to self-report.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday said that the Centre will take "strictest" action against those who violated visa rules and travelled to India for the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi's Nizammudin held on 13 March.

Several attendees of the congregation from across the country have tested positive for the coronavirus, and some have also died. The MHA also said that the foreigners will be blacklisted and FIRs will be filed against "those spreading false rumours on COVID-19 crisis".

A 52-year-old person has been found positive for coronavirus in Assam, state minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, adding that it is Assam's first COVID-19 patient. He is undergoing treatment at Silchar Medical College and his condition is stable, the minister said.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday said that seven positive cases have been reported in the state, two each in Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod. He said that additionally, one each was reported in Kollam, Thrissur, and Kannur. The total active cases are now 215.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Tuesday, "Amid all this gloom and grief caused by the pandemic, we have a very heartening story to share. An elderly couple from Ranni, of age 93 and 82, have left the hospital after being successfully treated for COVID-19. Good work health department.

Keep Hope Alive, We Shall Overcome."

R Gangakhedkar of the ICMR, one of the nodal agencies on India's action against the spread of coronavirus, said in the daily briefing on Tuesday, "Till now we have tested 42,788 samples, including 4,346 samples that were tested yesterday. It represents 36 percent of our capacity. 123 labs have been made functional, 49 private labs have been given permission. Yesterday 399 patients were tested in private labs."

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said that people using hashtags like 'Tablighi virus' after the Tablighi Jammat organisation which hosted a congregation in Delhi's Nizammudin, were "more dangerous than any virus that nature could ever conjure".

Several attendees from states across India have tested positive for coronavirus and some have succumbed to the infection.

Over 500 migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar were stuck at the Shamlaji border town in Gujarat after the Rajasthan Police refused them entry, an official said on Tuesday.

With five more people testing positive for coronavirus in Bareilly on Tuesday, the total count of COVID-19 cases in Uttar Pradesh has crossed the 100 mark, said, officials. 'Five cases have been found positive in Bareilly. The samples of 6 members of a family of a youth, working in Noida and earlier found corona positive, were sent for testing and five of them, including his mother, father, brother, sister, and wife were found as positive,' Chief medical officer, Bareilly, Dr Vineet Shukla said on Tuesday.

A doctor of mohalla clinic in Babarpur has tested positive for coronavirus, reported ANI. A notice has been put up in the area asking patients who had visited the clinic between 12 to 20 March, should self-quarantine at home for the next 15 days.

The 65-year-old man from Nayagaon near Chandigarh, who had tested positive for coronavirus succumbed to his illness on Tuesday morning. The total number of coronavirus cases in Punjab stood at 41 with 4 deaths.

AAP MLA Atishi Marlena urges for 'strong action' against Nizamuddin event organisers, stating that the event which took place between 13 to 17 march was illegal considering the Delhi government had banned gathering of more 50 people on 13 March itself.

Karnataka health minister B Sriramulu on Tuesday said that the government has information that around 45 people from Karnataka had taken part in the Nizamuddin congregation. The Tumkur resident (who died on March 27) is one of them, he said and added that 13 people have been traced so far.

Five more new cases have been reported in Maharashtra. Among the five, four cases were reported from Mumbai and one from Pune. The total number of positive cases in the state rises to 230, said Maharashtra Health Department on Tuesday.

Delhi's health minister Satyendar Jain told ANI that 24 people who were present at the Markaz building, Nizamuddin have tested positive for coronavirus, so far. He also said that around 1,500 to 1,700 people have been estimated by the government to have assembled at Markaz building.

Amid multiple reports which claim that the Markaz Nizamuddin had violated lockdown, the Markaz issued a detailed clarification into how they did not violate the lockdown announced by the government. With the help of the Health Department around 860 people have been shifted from Markaz building, in Nizamuddin to hospitals. Around 300 more people are yet to be evacuated, Delhi Police sources told ANI on Tuesday.

A 49-year-old woman who had tested positive for COVID-19 died in Madhya Pradesh, taking the number of coronavirus deaths in the state to five, an official said on Tuesday. She had no travel history and was already suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes, officials said.

A 68-year-old man from Thiruvananthapuram who had tested positive for COVID-19 died at Thiruvananthapuram medical college early Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, Delhi witnessed 87 coronavirus cases in Nizamuddin as area emerged as a hotspot after a religious meeting was held at Markaz by the Tableeghi Jamaat earlier this month.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region's COVID-19 count reached 170 on Monday with 47 people testing positive for the novel coronavirus, officials said. While 29 of the new infections are in Mumbai, the rest 18 are from other parts of MMR, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation officials said.

Delhi Police cordon off Delhi's Nizamuddin area after six people from Telangana who attended a religious congregation in there died due to the novel coronavirus. The Delhi government has also asked the police to register an FIR against the Maulana of Markaz in Nizamuddin area as some people have shown symptoms of coronavirus after taking part in a religious gathering in Delhi.

The number of coronavirus cases in the country rose to 1,251 on Monday while the number of fatalities reached 32, said the Union health ministry.

The government said there was no immediate plan to extend the 21-day lockdown period, which entered its sixth day on Monday, while the Indian Army dismissed as "fake" social media posts about a possible emergency declaration next month.

At 227, this is the largest one-day increase in the number of cases for India. The highest number of cases was reported from Kerala (202) while Maharashtra has 198 cases, said the health ministry.

However, according to the latest figures given by the Maharashtra government, the case count rose to 220, with 17 persons testing positive. Out of these 17, eight are from Mumbai, five from Pune, two from Nagpur, while one each from Nashik and Kolhapur, PTI quotes a state health official as saying. The state also reported the death of two more persons due to the deadly infection, taking the total number of deaths in Maharashtra to 10. Of these, an 80-year-old man died in a private hospital of Mumbai on March 28, but his sample tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, the official said. The city of Pune reported its first death after a COVID-19 patient who was on ventilator support died of multiple organ failure. The patient also suffered from diabetes and high BP, said the official.

Kerala reported 32 new positive cases of Covid-19, taking the total number of patients under treatment to 213 in the state with the worst affected Kasaragod district accounting for 17 fresh cases.The state also scripted history on Monday when an elderly couple was cured of the deadly virus.Thomas (93) and Mariyamma (88), from Ranni in Pathanamthitta district, admitted in Kottayam medical college were cured even as they battled with various age related complications.

With 25 new cases, the count of positive cases rose to 79 in Delhi.Karnataka reported five new cases taking the tally to 88 while Jammu and Kashmir reported 11 new cases taking the total to 49.24 people tested positive in Uttar Pradesh taking the total to 96. "Of the 24 new corona patients, 14 are from Meerut, seven from Noida (Gautam Buddh Nagar), and one each from Agra, Lucknow and Bulandshahar," Joint Director-cum-State Surveillance Officer under the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, Dr Vikasendu Agrawal, said in a statement. "In Meerut, 13 cases have been reported, all of which are relatives and acquaintances of one infected person," said another state health official.

In Punjab, a 42-year-old coronavirus-positive woman died at a Patiala hospital taking the COVID-19 death toll in the state to three, an official said. It is the second coronavirus-related death within 24 hours in the state where 41 people are confirmed so far to have been infected by the virus.The Ludhiana resident was admitted at the hospital on Sunday night, Patiala Civil Surgeon Harish Malhotra told PTI over the phone. She was complaining of breathlessness and had acute respiratory distress syndrome, he said, adding that she died around 1.30 pm on Monday, before the report of her samples confirming her as coronavirus positive arrived.

The state of Telangana also reported 1 death and 13 new cases taking the number of active COVID-19 cases in the state to 61. Details of the deceased person were not immediately known.

India in local transmission stage, says Union health ministry

Even as states reported a spike in numbers, the Union health ministry took a cautious approach and maintained that the country was in the local transmission stage. "It took 12 days for cases to rise from 100 to 1,000 in our country, whereas seven other developed nations having lesser population than us have seen multiple increase," Health ministry Joint Secretary Lav Aggarwal said while insisting that COVID-19 is still in the local transmission stage in India.

The ministry, however, in its Standard Operating Procedure issued on Sunday for transporting a COVID-19 case, had mentioned the current phase of the pandemic as "local transmission and limited community transmission".

"This SOP is applicable to current phase of COVID-19 pandemic in India (local transmission and limited community transmission), wherein as per plan of action, all suspect cases are admitted to isolation facilities. These procedures are meant to guide and be used for training ambulance drivers and technicians in transporting COVID19 patients," it read.

However, Agarwal attributed the slow pace of rise in cases in India to people's participation in strictly following the social-distancing guidelines and the collective preemptive actions taken by the Centre in tandem with state governments.

Speaking at the same press conference, Raman R Gangakhedkar, head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at the Indian Council of Medical Research, said 38,442 tests have been conducted till now, out of which 3,501 were done on Sunday. He said 47 private laboratories have been given approval for conducting COVID-19 tests and in the last three days, 1,334 tests have been done in private labs, he said.

"It is still below 30 per cent of or testing capacity," he said.

On reports about death of doctors due to heart attack apparently after consumption of Hydroxychloroquine recommended by ICMR for healthcare workers taking care of COVID-19 patients, Gangakhedkar said they do not have details of the cases but added that two doses leading to death seemed difficult unless the doctor had underlying health issues. "It is difficult for me to say anything as I do not know the profile of the patient," he said.

Over several people being allegedly quarantined in a particular area in Delhi's Nizamuddin after they showed symptoms of coronavirus infection, Agarwal said they initiate action as per the protocol.

Be it in Nizamuddin or any part of the country healthcare teams go and take action as part of the containment strategy, he said, adding the government was focusing on hotpsots from where large number of cases are being reported and working in tandem with states to implement rigorous contact-tracing, community surveillance and other containment strategies to break the chain of transmission.

Responding to a question over a video on social media showing a group of migrant workers allegedly being sprayed with a chlorine solution by the Bareilly municipal corporation personnel, Agarwal said the district magistrate has clarified it was some "overzealous" employees who did something which was not required.

"This is an overzealous action done by field officers either out of fear or out of ignorance. There are no guidelines in terms of spraying disinfectants on people," he said.

The video which had gone viral on social media had evinced strong criticism from many, including Opposition leaders.

Government seeks to ramp up manufacture of ventilator, protective gear

The health ministry also said the government has asked automobile manufacturers to use their facilities to make ventilators and added that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will start manufacturing 20,000 N-95 masks daily from next week.

According to the health ministry, over 14,000 existing ventilators are earmarked for COVID-19 patients in various hospitals of the country, while there are 11.95 lakh N-95 masks in stock. and additional masks have been distributed over the past three days.

The ministry also said 3.34 lakh personal protection equipment (PPE) coveralls are available with hospitals in the country and another 3 lakh, which have been donated, will be received from abroad by 4 April.

Besides, the ministry has asked the Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Defence, to manufacture 30,000 ventilators in the next two months in collaboration with local manufacturers while private Agva Healthcare in Noida has been given an order to manufacture 10,000 ventilators within a month.

In the meantime, orders have been placed with international companies such as Hamilton, Mindray and Draeger to supply ventilators, it said. The Ministry of External Affairs is also approaching suppliers in China for sourcing 10,000 ventilators from them, it said in a statement.

Two domestic manufacturers are producing 50,000 N-95 masks per day. This is expected to go up to 1 lakh daily within the next week as they are ramping up their production capacities, the health ministry said.

SC seeks status report on migrant exodus

Seeking to contain mass spread of the deadly virus, several states effectively sealed their borders to stop movement of migrant workers rendered jobless due to a nationwide lockdown. Haryana police said they have completely sealed all inter-state borders to prevent the movement of migrant workers, while the Uttarakhand government withdrew its earlier decision of allowing inter-district movement of people within the state.

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal warned district magistrates and deputy commissioners that strict action could taken against them for any laxity during lockdown. The lieutenant governor also told them to send anyone found roaming without an e-pass or a valid reason to district shelters set up by the administration.

Sources told PTI that Baijal wrote to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday, expressing displeasure over the handling of the migrant workers crisis, after thousands of people gathered at Anand Vihar ISBT violating the lockdown. Intense patrolling was initiated in borders areas of Delhi on Monday.

Meanwhile a 35-year-old migrant worker placed in home quarantine after he returned to his native Dhamtari district in Chhattisgarh from

Tamil Nadu allegedly committed suicide on Monday, police said. "Local health officials had asked him to be in home quarantine as a precautionary measure. He was checked by doctors till 29 March and showed no symptoms like cold, cough etc. On Monday, however, he hanged himself,"a police official said.

The Supreme Court also observed that fear and panic becoming was becoming "a bigger problem than the coronavirus", but stopped short of passing any order and sought a report from the government by Tuesday. Hearing two separate PILs which sought relief, including food, water, medicines and proper medical facilities, for thousands of migrant workers who are rendered homeless and jobless due to the lockdown, a bench of Chief Justice Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao said said before passing any direction, it would like to wait for the status report from the centre.

The government also clarified that there was no immediate plan to extend the 21-day lockdown amid fears that shutdown of businesses across the country to counter the spread of the virus may trigger severe economic and social distress.

The worldwide tally of deaths crossed 35,900, with more than 26,000 people dying in Europe. Globally, more than 7,40,000 people have been detected positive so far, out of which nearly 1,42,300 have recovered, as per various reports. In UK, Prince Charles appeared recovering and moved out of self-isolation, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entered quarantine after an aide tested positive for the deadly virus.

With inputs from PTI
Oregon plans to begin inspecting workplaces this week to evaluate employees complaints that their businesses are not doing enough to protect people from exposure to the coronavirus.

When Gov. Kate Brown ordered Oregonians to stay home a week ago to contain spread of the deadly virus, she exempted construction and manufacturing from the directive. She allowed many other businesses to continue operating, too, so long as they maintain a safe distance among employees and take additional steps to prevent the virus for spreading.

Hundreds of Oregon workers say their employers are failing that test. The Occupational Safety and Health division (Oregon OSHA) fielded more than 1,100 complaints about coronavirus issues last week, according to Aaron Corvin, spokesman for the division. (OSHA is taking complaints online.)

Surprise inspections could begin as early as Monday, according to Corvin, who said OSHA will not issue warnings.

If we inspect and find violations, we cite, Corvin wrote. If we identify and classify violations as serious, there will be a penalty.

OSHA will be looking for a fact specific determination that will evaluate whether the employer has addressed this recognized hazard in a fashion that appears to be credible.

Oregons approach differs from those in other states, including California and Washington, which have shuttered a broad array of industries. While Brown ordered some industries shuttered altogether, among them shopping malls, theaters, spas, bars and restaurants (except for takeout and delivery service) she gave others the latitude to decide for themselves whether they can operate safely.

Major Oregon employers including Intel, Precision Castparts and Lam Research have identified suspected coronavirus cases among their workers. Intel and Precision Castparts continued operating, though some employees work from home. Lam shuttered its Tualatin factory for a thorough cleaning last week but says it plans to resume operations Tuesday.

The governors stay-home order carried potential criminal penalties of up to $1,250 in fines and up to 30 days in jail for violators. However, OSHA does not enforce criminal law so any action it takes would not include potential jail time.

-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway |

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Shares of Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. HA, the parent company of Hawaiian Airlines, have plunged 44.6% compared with the industrys 35.6% decline in the past month. Hawaiian Airlines, like most other airline stocks, has been hit hard by the sharp drop in air-travel demand due to the coronavirus outbreak that has resulted in depreciation.

COVID-19 Woes Dent Growth

Due to the coronavirus-induced sharp drop in air-travel demand, Hawaiian Airlines withdrew its first-quarter 2020 and full-year guidance.

Moreover, the airlines trimmed its schedule for Neighbor Islands from Mar 25. This was in response to the quarantine order (effective Mar 26) from the Hawaii government asking travelers, who enter the state, to undergo a mandatory self-imposed quarantine of 14 days. The carrier will, however, continue to operate a network, essential for customers traveling within the state and the Hawaiian Islands.

Thanks to travel restrictions and evaporating demand, the carrier extended its inter-island cargo services to facilitate movement of certain essentials including food and medicine. With passenger revenues dwindling, Hawaiian Airlines focus on offering cargo charter services are expected to boost the top line.

With increase in COVID-19 cases and government restrictions, Hawaiian Airlines reduced its flight schedule nearly by 40% in April. Notably, other carriers are also resorting to significant capacity cuts, due to the above-mentioned factors. For instance, Copa Holdings CPA suspended all its operations effective Mar 22 through Apr 21. It became the first Latin American carrier to enforce such a strict action against the outbreak.

Additionally, JetBlue Airways Corp. JBLU will carry out a large number of flight cancelations this week and operate a schedule less than 50% its normal. The airline expects to cut flights even more in the coming month. Meanwhile, United Airlines UAL international schedule will be reduced by approximately 90% in April.

Story continues

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Federal prosecutors have criminally charged a Georgia man for allegedly conspiring to defraud federal and private health-care benefit programs "by submitting fraudulent testing claims" for coronavirus and genetic cancer screenings, authorities announced Monday.

The man, 49-year-old Erik Santos is accused in a complaint by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey of one count of conspiring to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute, and a single count of conspiring to commit health care fraud. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of both counts.

Prosecutors said that during a phone call on March 19, Santos explained how he viewed the coronavirus outbreak as a chance to make money.

"[W]hile there are people going through what they are going through, you can either go bankrupt or you can prosper," Santos said on that call, according to prosecutors.

During the same call, prosecutors said, "Santos noted that his other work was on hold because 'everybody has been chasing the Covid dollar bird.'"

Santos was arrested at his home in Braselton, Georgia, on Monday by FBI agents, and is scheduled to appear in Atlanta federal court later in the day, according to authorities.

Santos' alleged "scheme aimed to submit more than $1.1 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare," according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey.

U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito in a statement said, "The complaint in this case describes a defendant who saw the spread of COVID-19 as nothing more than an opportunity to profit personally."

"As the complaint alleges, he offered kickbacks in exchange for medically unnecessary tests  including potentially hard-to-obtain COVID-19 tests  thus preying on people's fear in order to defraud the government and make money for himself," Carpenito said.

Special Agent in Charge Gregory Ehrie of the FBI's Newark office said, "This defendant not only allegedly defrauded the government, he conspired to bilk his fellow citizens of a valuable resource that's in high demand."

"His profiteering is akin to receiving blood money," Ehrie said.

According to Carpenito's office, "Santos ran a marketing company that generated leads to testing companies."

"From November 2019 through the present, Santos and others engaged in a large-scale scheme to defraud Medicare by soliciting and receiving kickback payments from companies involved in clinical and diagnostic testing in exchange for steering to those companies individuals eligible for testing that Medicare would reimburse," the office said.

Prosecutors claim that Santos "agreed with others to be paid kickbacks on a per-test basis for submitting genetic cancer screening tests to diagnostic testing facilities, regardless of medical necessity." A genetic cancer screening is a diagnostic tool that tests for a genetic predisposition to cancer. Santos' scheme aimed to submit more than $1.1 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare.

Prosecutors also said that as the coronavirus pandemic grew, Santos used it as an opportunity "to expand his pre-existing kickback schemes and to capitalize on a national emergency for his own financial gain."

"Santos agreed with others to be paid kickbacks on a per-test basis for COVID-19 tests, provided that those tests were bundled with a much more expensive respiratory pathogen panel (RPP) test, which does not identify or treat COVID-19," the New Jersey U.S. attorney's office said in a statement.

"Santos sought to maximize his kickback profits and to bleed federal health care resources at a time when Medicare beneficiaries across the United States were in dire need of coverage for medical treatment and services."

A spokesman for prosecutors said they did not know if Santos has a lawyer.
LONDON  A day before they cease being working members of the British royal family, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan on Monday wound down their popular social media sites and transferred the management of their image and philanthropy to a new team of advisers in Los Angeles, where they recently moved.

The couple marked the milestone on the same Instagram page where they famously announced their plan two months ago to step back from their duties and relocate to North America. It was a quiet coda to the dramatic rupture between Harry and Meghan and the House of Windsor.

Acknowledging that the world had changed since their personal saga commanded breathless headlines, the couple said they would prefer that attention remain fixed on the coronavirus pandemic. They said little about their future, beyond noting that it would be affected by the crisis sweeping the world.

Whats most important right now is the health and well-being of everyone across the globe and finding solutions for the many issues that have presented themselves as a result of this pandemic, the couple said. We are focusing this new chapter to understand how we can best contribute.
With work at courts in West Bengal suspended owing to the spread of the coronavirus and the resultant nationwide lockdown, lawyers who are not in good financial health along with junior advocates are facing distress, West Bengal Bar Council Vice-chairman Siddhartha Mukhopadhyay said here on Monday.

Mukhopadhyay said that he has written to the state Law Minister seeking financial assistance from the state government, for such lawyers, to tide over the situation.

"I have also asked for financial assistance of Rs 50,000 to any lawyer, who may be inflicted with COVID-19, in the letter to Law minister Moloy Ghatak," he said.

Mukhopadhyay said that he will take up the issue at the next Bar Council meeting for making a representation to the state government so that the financially weak lawyers could get at least a one-time assistance.

"We would want to put a proposal before the government to give an amount to those lawyers with up to 15 years' practice and a different amount to those who have more experience," he told PTI.

He said assistance can be provided to member lawyers from the West Bengal Advocates Welfare Fund Trust, of which the Law Minister is the chairman.

Mukhopadhyay is a member of the trust in his capacity as the vice-chairman of West Bengal Bar Council. Anindya Sundar Das, a practising lawyer at the Calcutta High Court, said that not only junior advocates but some lawyers who do not have a good income despite having put in many years should get assistance, whether financial or in some other form to ensure that they can make do during the prevailing tough circumstances.

"The West Bengal Bar Council may come forward in aid of these lawyers apart from the state government," Das said.

Uday Shankar Chattopadhyay, another practising lawyer at the high court, said that apart from the lawyers, clerks, typists and other staff are also suffering owing to an almost total stop in work at the courts.

"Apart from the lawyers, these people related to legal practise should also be taken into account if any such assistance is considered by the government," Chattopadhyay said.

Anindya Raut, a lawyer who practises at the city's Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court, said several advocates in the court who are not so financially well-off as some of their brethren.

"An assistance to these lawyers may be thought of," he said.

Raut said that while on the one side there is the question of livelihood, on the other the lawyers must also abide by the government's directives and advice due to the lockdown.

The Calcutta High Court in a notification on Saturday said that it will hear petitions via video-conferencing through skype conference call because of the inconvenience faced by lawyers and litigants in physically attending court proceedings due to lockdown owing to the Novel Corona Virus spread.

It said that only extremely urgent matters will be taken up for hearing through video-conferencing.

The high court had been taking up hearing of only urgent matters since March 15 following the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

Chief Justice T B N Radhakrishnan had on March 24 ordered that the proceedings of the high court, its circuit benches at Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Japlpaiguri and the district courts would remain suspended from March 25 to April 9 owing to the prevailing situation over the Novel Corona Virus spread in the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
[March 30, 2020] The Standard Charitable Foundation Announces Grants to Support COVID-19 Response and Recovery

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Standard Charitable Foundation, Standard Insurance Company's charitable foundation, is contributing $250,000 to the Oregon Community Foundation's Oregon Community Recovery Fund. In addition, the foundation is making $25,000 grants to: Greater Cincinnati Foundation

Westchester Community Foundation

United Way of Central Virginia These organizations have designated funds to respond to the immediate and longer-term needs of their communities in this crisis. The Oregon Community Recovery Fund will rapidly deploy resources to community-based organizations at the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak. The immediate focus of the funds will be to fill the gaps in funding not met by the public or private sector during the crisis including: Addressing the increased need for child care during school and day care closures

Supporting hard-hit smallbusinesses

Addressing isolation of seniors and others during social distancing

Providing educational opportunities for kids during school closures



The foundation's giving is separate from the corporate giving of The Standard. Since 2007, The Standard Charitable Foundation, The Standard and its employees and retirees have contributed more than $35 million in grants and social investments. To learn more about The Standard Charitable Foundation, please visit www.standard.com/foundation.

About The Standard Charitable Foundation The Standard Charitable Foundation is the charitable foundation of The Standard. Founded in 2006, the foundation's mission is to make a positive difference in communities by supporting community development, education, disability and health organizations. While the foundation has a broad goal of making a positive difference in communities, it places special emphasis on helping individuals and families who have experienced a loss or setback such as a major disability or the loss of a loved one. Since 2007, The Standard, its employees and retirees and The Standard Charitable Foundation have contributed more than $35 million in grants and social investments. About The Standard The Standard is a family of companies dedicated to helping customers achieve financial well-being and peace of mind. In business since 1906, we are a leading provider of financial protection products and services for employers and individuals. Our products include group and individual disability insurance, group life, dental and vision insurance, voluntary (employee-paid) benefits, absence management services, and retirement plans and annuities for employers and individuals. For more information about The Standard, visit www.standard.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. The Standard is the marketing name for StanCorp Financial Group, Inc., and its subsidiaries: Standard Insurance Company, The Standard Life Insurance Company of New York, Standard Retirement Services, Inc., StanCorp Mortgage Investors, Inc., StanCorp Investment Advisers, Inc., StanCorp Real Estate, LLC, and StanCorp Equities, Inc. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005082/en/

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Biology researcher receives NSF CAREER award to measure soil microbe, grazer interactions

Monday, March 30, 2020

Lydia Zeglin, a microbial ecologist, has received an NSF CAREER award to study interactions between prairie grazers and soil microbes. | Download this photo.





MANHATTAN  A Kansas State University researcher aims to understand the depth of nature's social circle.

Lydia Zeglin, microbial ecologist and assistant professor in the Division of Biology, was awarded nearly $650,000 from the National Science Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development Program to research interactions between the tallgrass prairie's largest species  bison and cattle  and the smallest  soil microbes.



"The College of Arts and Sciences is very proud of Dr. Zeglin not only for receiving this prestigious NSF CAREER award, but also for the societal and economic impact her work will bring to Flint Hills life and the Manhattan community," said Amit Chakrabarti, dean of the college.



The interactions between grazers and soil microbes are important for prairie biodiversity and may affect how soil can remediate nitrogen pollution.



"We know how important grasslands are for carbon storage, but intact prairie ecosystems are also sponges for nitrogen," Zeglin said. "This is in part because the soil microbes can pick up nitrogen quickly and help keep it in the soil for a long time, even after plant tissue has decomposed."



Plants need nitrogen  a building block of proteins, DNA and other essential molecules  for healthy growth, but plants can only use so much. According to Zeglin, if it wasn't for soil microbes, anything extra could leach out of the soil and pollute groundwater, streams, rivers and lakes.



"There may be a balance between the plant uptake and the microbial activity that regulates good plant growth versus potential for pollution," Zeglin said. "There's a concept called nitrogen retention, which is sort of the beneficial ecosystem service that we are interested in making sure we are measuring and sustaining."



Zeglin's preliminary research suggests that cattle and bison may provide a service to the ecosystem by helping microbes spread their good deeds around the prairie.



"Grasslands evolved with bison and other large animals," Zeglin said. "One intriguing consideration is that bison and cattle can move microbes around as they pass across the landscape. They also redistribute nitrogen as they move around, which might help cultivate certain types of soil bacteria and archaea. Our plan is to collect samples in a way that enables distinguishing between the two mechanisms."



Zeglin's research will test soil from multiple prairie locations with a citizen scientist approach.



"Our ultimate goal is to understand the nitrogen cycle in all prairie soils better," Zeglin said. "In order to do that, we need to interact with more people to get more coverage of different prairie soils. We will be working with The Nature Conservancy, ranchers and students to contribute soil samples from bison- and cattle-grazed areas across the Flint Hills to expand the range of understanding."



Zeglin and students, including graduate students in her fall Microbial Diversity class, will perform detailed investigations of soil microbial diversity and activity some involving experimental manipulations  to learn whether soil chemistry determines microbial diversity, or vice versa. The results will be shared with high school science classes, undergraduate biology classes and private landowners, with an intent to expand the scope and dissemination of the science as broadly as possible.






A 44-year-old woman resident of Kalimpong town in West Bengal, who was admitted to a hospital in Siliguri after contracting Covid-19, died early Monday, officials said.

The patient died at 2am on Monday, Dr Praloy Acharya, the chief medical officer of Darjeeling district, said.

Dr PK Deb, principal of North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) where she died, also confirmed her demise.

According to the state health department bulletin on Sunday, a total of three people, including the Kalimpong woman who died later, had tested positive in the state.

The other two patients are two men, aged 52 and 66 respectively. The former is a serving doctor with the Indian Army, who is admitted at the army hospital in Kolkata.

The Kalimpong district authorities have started tracing other people who came in contact with the woman.

The woman saw a doctor at a private nursing home in Kalimpong on March 20, a day after she flew into the state from Chennai with her daughter.

The patient had normal blood pressure and no other ailments. Her only problem was that she was extremely overweight, the private doctor, who is now in home isolation, said.

A family member of the woman said she went to Chennai alone on March 7 and returned with her daughter on March 19 in a Chennai-Bagdogra flight that took off early in the morning.

On March 20, she was running a high fever. On the same evening, she went to a private nursing home in Kalimpong and saw a doctor, he said while speaking to HT.

Joint family, contacts

Her daughter studies engineering in Chennai and recently underwent a surgery.

The woman lived in a joint family.

Eleven members of her family, the doctor who treated her and his wife have been asked to stay in isolation at home, Kalimpong district officials said on condition of anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to the media.

The doctor, who treated her initially and is also attached to the Kalimpong district hospital, said the woman told him that she had returned from Chennai and had a fever.

She was coughing as well. When I saw her, I was wearing apron, mask and gloves. I suspected viral infection and suggested medicines and advised her to stay in isolation at home.

Also read: A marriage ceremony that turned into a Covid-19 hotspot in Bengal

The doctor said she came back to his private chamber in the afternoon of March 25 and said though she had no fever she was suffering from dry cough.

I advised her to go for an X-Ray. The report suggested viral pneumonia. I advised her to go for a test for tuberculosis and asked her to go to Siliguri and see a specialist, said the doctor.

I stopped seeing patients at the nursing home since March 25 evening after I suspected that the lady could have been infected by the coronavirus. I am staying in isolation since Saturday evening, he added.

Also read: Bengal men self-quarantine on tree to keep others safe

Dr Gyalmit Lecpcha, owner of the private nursing home said, We are trying our best to identify people with whom the doctor came in contact with since March 20.

On March 26, a second X-Ray and CT scan done at a private diagnostic centre in Siliguri reconfirmed the woman had viral pneumonia.

She was admitted at the isolation ward of NBMCH in Siliguri, 65km from Kalimpong, on the same day. Her samples were sent to Kolkata for tests since there is no testing facility in north Bengal.

When her condition deteriorated, she was shifted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and kept under ventilation, said a doctor at the hospital, requesting anonymity.

R Vimala, district magistrate of Kalimpong, and Prakash Barui, chief medical officer of health of Kalimpong district did not respond to calls from HT.

Though members of the womans family claimed she had limited interaction with others, locals in both Kalimpong and Siliguri fear she and the doctor could have come in contact with many people.

On March 19, while she was on her way to Kalimpong from Bagdogra, she spent an hour at the home of a relative at Jyoti Nagar in Siliguri, a member of the womans family said.

According to the state health departments daily bulletin issued on Sunday, 20 people have contracted Covid-19 in West Bengal and apart from the Kalimpong resident, another man has died till date.

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Britain's youngest ever female murderer has lost a bid to relax her jail regime after she plotted to split another inmate's head open and throw her down a staircase.

Sharon Carr, who stabbed an 18-year-old woman to death when she was just 12 in 1992, has lost a legal fight to have her strict prison restrictions reduced.

Carr was dubbed the Devil's Daughter for her horrific murder of stranger Katie Rackliff in which she stabbed her 32 times.

Sharon Carr, who stabbed an 18-year-old woman to death when she was just 12 in 1992, has lost a legal fight to have prison restrictions reduced

The murder was so brutal that police hunted an adult man rather than a 12-year-old girl.

Since her arrest, she has spent much of her jail time in solitary and will now continue to do so.

Her application for more relaxed prison restrictions was denied after it was discovered Carr had fantasised about killing a fellow inmate at the prion, according to The Sun.

High Court judge Mr Justice Julian Knowles wrote: '[Carr] had disclosed thoughts of wanting to murder another resident by splitting her head open with a flask and throwing her down the stairs to snap her neck.'

Katie Rackliff was stabbed 32 times in June 1992 after Carr attacked the hairdresser at random

Carr, who is now 40, was convicted of murder in 1997 after the schoolgirl attacked hairdresser Katie at random as she walked home from a nightclub in June 1992.

She was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 12 years which has long since expired.

But authorities consider her too unstable to be released from HMP Bronzefield in south-west London.

Carr has restricted prisoner status which she challenged but Mr Justice Knowles denied permission to seek a judicial review.

This means the murderer now faces remaining in a high security unit indefinitely.

Carr's murder of Katie, whose parents Helen and Joseph are pictured, was so brutal police hunted an adult man instead of a 12-year-old girl

Mr Justice Knowles said the public would be at risk if she moved to softer surroundings after hearing that Carr would form 'intense relationships with females that turned into violent fantasies when thwarted'.

Two years after Carr's murder in 1992, she attacked another schoolgirl with a knife in Camberley, Surrey.

While she was in a young offender's institute for the second knife attack, she tried to strangle two nurses and started bragging about killing Katie.

Police were called and she was convicted of the murder in March 1997.
According to the U.S. Postal Service: Coronaviruses are thought to be spread primarily through air-borne respiratory droplets resulting from a sneeze, cough or ordinary speech. Although the virus can survive for a short period of time on some surfaces, both CDC and the United States Surgeon General have indicated that it is unlikely to be spread from domestic or international mail, products or packaging.

The USPS recommends that mail customers follow the same Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines that apply to grocery shopping or running errands. Specifically, wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use a hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol after handling deliveries or collecting mail.

Will mail continue to be delivered to my home?



Yes. Mail delivery is deemed an essential service by the government. Americans rely on the timely delivery of everything from prescription medications to Social Security checks, and the Postal Service says it's also the leading delivery service for online purchases. Thus far, the Postal Service says it has experienced only minor operational impacts in the U.S. due to the coronavirus outbreak.

In a May 14 letter to Congress, AARP joined 19 other organization in urging lawmakers to provide the financial support necessary to prevent any disruption to mail delivery: In the course of this pandemic, the Postal Service has proven to be a lifeline for those Americans, especially those in rural communities, who are most at risk from the coronavirus. More than ever before, people are relying on the USPS to deliver their lifesaving prescription medications and other necessities, allowing them to remain safely at home. This is critically important for Americans with chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and asthma, who need prescription medicines on an ongoing basis and are most at-risk if they contract the coronavirus. Many Americans, especially those without internet access, have also long relied on the Postal Service for vital information about their health and finances. Simply put, throughout this crisis, the Postal Service has demonstrated its vital role in American society  allowing people of all ages stay home, stay informed, and stay safe.

Will election-related mail be delayed this year?

In a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Aug. 17, ahead of his testimony before Congress, AARP expressed growing concern that recent operational changes made at the Postal Service could compromise the health of older Americans as well as their ability to vote safely in the November elections.

While AARP shares your goal of ensuring the United States Postal Service (USPS) operates in an effective and efficient manner, we urge you to suspend any adjustments that could negatively affect service during the pandemic, Nancy LeaMond, AARP executive vice president and chief advocacy and engagement officer, said in the letter. Further, we urge the Postal Service to be more forthcoming and transparent regarding any changes, including a more detailed cost-benefit analysis of the operational changes you have made and will be making to assure timely delivery of all mail, including election-related mail.

In subsequent congressional testimony, DeJoy assured lawmakers that election-related mail would be delivered in a timely manner, as it was ahead of voting in 2018. The Postal Service will deliver every ballot, DeJoy told a Senate committee. The Postmaster General added that operational changes he initiated after he took the helm of the USPS on June 15 would be postponed until after Election Day on Nov. 3.

Are postal carriers following new safety guidelines?

Yes, carriers are wearing face coverings or masks in areas where its required by health authorities, and some mail delivery procedures are being temporarily modified to reduce health risks and conform to social distancing guidelines. For example, when a signature is required carriers will enter the first initial and last name of the recipient rather than having the recipient sign. Carriers and other postal employees may also ask customers to stand back or close screen doors when mail is being delivered to residences and businesses.

Are Post Office branches open during the outbreak?

Yes. Employees are being directed to practice social distancing when interacting with customers and follow health safety guidelines such as frequent hand-washing. Sick employees are being told to stay home.

In addition, cough and sneeze guards have been installed at counters, tape or other markers are being employed to enforce proper social distancing, and the number of customers in a location at one time is being limited. Customers entering branches are being asked to wear face coverings in areas where health authorities require them.

I need more stamps. If I don't go to the Post Office, where can I buy them?



Buy stamps online at usps.com. In addition to buying stamps, the online account with the Postal Service allows you to print shipping labels, request pickups and more  all without leaving home.

Stamps are also often sold behind counters at supermarkets, drug stores and other retailers, if you choose to make an essential trip (or if a caregiver is shopping for you).

I have family members who need hand sanitizer. I have extra. Can I mail it to them?

Since most hand sanitizers and wipes contain alcohol, which makes them flammable, the Postal Services requires them to be shipped by one of three surface-transportation methods: Retail Ground, Parcel Select or Parcel Select Lightweight. These services are available only at Post Office branches.

I need to send a letter overseas. Will it get there on time?

It depends. The Postal Service is warning of delays or suspension of international deliveries to and from dozens of countries due to flight cancellations and actions by foreign governments. (See the list of impacted countries.)

Can I still apply for a passport at the Post Office?

Yes, but only by appointment; no walk-ins. However, the U.S. Department of State, which issues passports, is warning of significant delays to issue a new passport or renew an expiring passport due to the pandemic.

Editors note: This story has been updated to reflect new information.


The Centre has instructed state governments and Union Territory administrations to seal state and district borders in order to prevent movement of migrant workers during lockdown, according to officials.

In a video conference with the Chief Secretaries and DGPs, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla requested them to ensure there's no movement as the lockdown continues.



PTI

"There has been movement of migrant workers in some parts of the country. Directions were issued that district and state borders should be effectively sealed," a government official said.

"Adequate arrangements for food and shelter of poor and needy people including migrant labourers be made at the place of their work," the official added.

PTI

The death toll in the country has risen to 25 and nearly 1000 people are infected. India is under a lockdown from March 25 to April 14 as the nation battles the deadly disease.

Several migrant workers are struggling to get back home as they are stranded as a result of everything being shut down. Their gathering in large numbers in certain areas does increase the chances of infection.

PTI

Worldwide the tally is 30,000-plus dead and 600,000-plus infected. The virus originated in China and was declared pandemic by WHO earlier in March.


A Rhode Island police officer just reminded the world that while the coronavirus pandemic can claim lives, shut down cities, and change life as we know it, it can't take away kindness.

The Warwick Police Department received a call on Friday night from a community service organization alerting authorities that an 87-year-old woman had no food in her home.

Officer Jill Marshall, who works with the department's Community Services Division, volunteered to conduct a welfare check and found the elderly woman, who was living with her disabled son, had nothing to eat.

Officer Marshall offered to go food shopping for the family -- and their cat.

"The officer asked for her grocery list and then went shopping," the Warwick Police Department posted on Facebook. "With the generosity of the market and members of the public who overheard the story, the officer was able to return with everything in the list."

Marshall had visited a local grocery store, which donated $25 to help cover the cost of groceries. When other people in the store heard of what Marshall was doing, they donated enough money to buy $100 worth of food for the family.

"I was ready to use my own money to help them but the generosity of those shopping and (grocery store) Shaw's paid for her list. I would have never left them and make them wait for food. That's just not humane," Marshall told CNN.

"I felt grateful and appreciative for those who overheard me and just pulled out their wallet to help. When I saw how happy and relieved her and her son were it truly made my night. I can't express how good that felt."

By Sunday, more than 230 cases of coronavirus and at least 2 deaths were reported in Rhode Island. The global pandemic has forced millions of people to distance themselves from family and friends, and has left grocery stores short on food and supplies.
A charity group handing out hand sanitiser and coffee to homeless people say they were moved on by police over concerns they were in breach of outdoor gathering and social distancing rules during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Sydney 24/7 Street Kitchen and Safe Space Community claimed they were the only group supplying essential items to rough sleepers in Sydneys Martin Place amid outbreak.

On Friday however, they said they were instructed to disperse by officers patrolling the area because they were defying current health advice by congregating in a public space.

Lance Priestley being moved on by police in Sydney's Martin Place on Friday. Source: Supplied

Organiser of the groups Coffee Brigade and Hand Sanitising Service, Lance Priestley, told Yahoo News Australia they were told to leave despite everyone observing social distancing rules.

They came at about 6.30pm and they were telling us that under the modified health legislation that it was an offence for us to set up like that, Mr Priestley said.

One of the things we were doing was getting all the people in the community to sanitise their hands because nobody else was doing that. But they told us we arent allowed to do it.

Mr Priestley said members of the homeless community were thanking the charity group profusely for providing the service, which sadly had now been forced to cease.

One officer moving the support group on apparently suggested the rough sleepers could purchase their own products with the additional funding recently made available by the government.

Given that many of the homeless people were from New Zealand however, Mr Priestly said not all of those who required the funding had access to it.

Mr Priestley (left) and two other support workers at their Martin Place set-up. This was before outdoor gathering limits were tightened to two people. Source: Supplied

Yahoo News Australia contacted NSW Police about the incident but a media spokesperson said inquiries over individual coronavirus incidents could not all be addressed due to a high volume of coronavirus-related requests.

We are encouraging the media to reinforce and prioritise the messages from the Prime Minister, NSW Premier and NSW Police Force Commissioner, as well as representatives from NSW Health, the response read.

Story continues

Homeless totally abandoned

While he held no malice towards officers on Friday who were simply following instruction, Mr Priestly feared long-term flow on effects of government policy would have even more of a devastating consequence.

Its leaving these people totally abandoned in the middle of a pandemic crisis, he said.

He expressed how it was nearly impossible for homeless people to self-isolate while living on the street, and similarly difficult for them to access housing, particularly in the current climate.

Mr Priestley fears the homeless population will balloon when the outbreak settles, as thousands of people who lost jobs during the closure of thousands of businesses struggle to get back on their feet.

He cited confusion over what would happen when the six-month moratorium on rental evictions was up, saying many could be left on the street if they were forced to pay up on skipped rent payments.

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 19:46:13|Editor: huaxia

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Staff members of the customs check the health declaration information of newly arrived inbound passengers in Chongqing, southwest China, March 29, 2020. (Xinhua/Huang Wei)

The Chinese mainland reported 30 new imported COVID-19 cases Sunday, bringing the total number of imported cases to 723.

BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- China has ramped up measures to stem the inflow of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said Monday.

The GAC has been conducting risk assessments toward key air routes, international cruise lines, flights and ships with big data, and gathered information while taking countermeasures and carrying out precise interception, said GAC official Song Yueqian at a press conference.

The customs also required the airlines and ships to conduct onboard body temperature tests and report to the GAC when any anomalies occur, according to Song.

All personnel inbound and outbound through airways or waterways must report their health condition. Online health declarations were encouraged to reduce the gathering of passengers, Song said.

Song noted that all confirmed cases, suspected cases, personnel with symptoms and close contacts shall all be transferred, quarantined and kept for observation.

Meanwhile, the GAC has been strengthening the allocation of testing instruments and reagents to improve the capability and efficiency of laboratory testing, Song said.

The Chinese mainland reported 30 new imported COVID-19 cases Sunday, bringing the total number of imported cases to 723. 
National capital Delhi reported 25 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of those infected to 97, the state health department said on Monday.

Out of the 97 confirmed cases, 89 are admitted at various hospitals, according to the Delhi Health Department.

Till Sunday night, the number of cases of the deadly Covid-19 stood at 72, including two deaths.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday ordered the registration of an FIR against a maulana for leading a religious congregation in West Nizamuddin in South Delhi after several people who attended it showed symptoms of coronavirus.

The Delhi government will launch a house-to-house mapping exercise in two nearby Nizamuddin colonies on Tuesday to check for more coronavirus cases.

On Monday, the Delhi Police cordoned off a major area in Nizamuddin West where several people had displayed symptoms of coronavirus after taking part in the congregation earlier this month.

Over 2,000 delegates, including those from Indonesia and Malaysia, attended the Tabligh-e-Jamaat congregation in Nizamuddin West from March 1-15, officials said. The south Delhi neighbourhood was virtually sealed following fears that some people may have contracted the highly contagious disease.
Private hospitals stand ready to share emergency departments and intensive care beds while taking on urgent surgeries for public patients to avert catastrophic scenes overseas where emergency rooms are overwhelmed by coronavirus cases.

And nurses from two of Melbournes biggest private health providers have have been redeployed to contact-tracing teams within the Department of Health to track down people who have been exposed to COVID-19.

Premier Daniel Andrews says the government has reached an in-principle agreement with private health providers to support the public system during the coronavirus pandemic. Credit:Justin McManus

Private hospitals will conduct category one procedures - those that are required within 30 days for conditions that may deteriorate quickly and become an emergency - for public patients.

Premier Daniel Andrews said an in-principle agreement had been reached with private hospitals to help the public sector cope if it was forced to deal with an influx of coronavirus patients.
Tampa-area law enforcement officials issued an arrest warrant Monday and charged a local pastor who has defied coronavirus-related bans on large gatherings, instead encouraging crowds as big as 500 people at one service this weekend, a sheriff said.

The Rev. Rodney Howard-Browne, told his congregants at the River at Tampa Bay Church on March 15 that he would close services only for the Rapture and that closings were for "pansies," was charged with unlawful assembly and violation of a public health emergency order.

He turned himself in and was charged with a second-degree misdemeanor, which carries a penalty of up to two months in jail and a $500 fine, said his attorney, Mat Staver with the firm Liberty Counsel. He paid his bond and was at home Monday night.

Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister and State Attorney Andrew Warren announced the charges at a news conference Monday, Fox 13 reported.

"There is nothing more important than faith during a time like this. And as a sheriff's office we'd never impede someone's ability to lean on their religious beliefs as a means of comfort, but practicing those beliefs has to be done safely," Chronister said in a video of his Monday news conference posted on Fox. "Last night I made a decision to seek an arrest warrant for the pastor of a local church who intentionally and repeatedly chose to disregard orders set in place by the president, the governor, the CDC" and local emergency officials.

"His reckless disregard for human life put hundreds of people in his congregation at risk and thousands who may interact with them in danger," Chronister said.

Chronister was asked at the news conference about social media rumors that the church had an arsenal of weapons, and whether officials were concerned. The sheriff said that in addition to weapons, Howard-Browne "has a vast security force he has deployed." Concern for safety, he said, was the reason the pastor wasn't arrested at the crowded church service, and instead officials talked to his attorneys about Howard-Browne turning himself in.

A message left with the church wasn't immediately answered Monday, but the River's website displayed a church statement dated March 18 that said it wouldn't be closing:

"We expect our police and firefighters to be ready and available to rescue and to help and to keep the peace. The Church is another one of those essential services. It is a place where people turn for help and for comfort in a climate of fear and uncertainty. Therefore, we feel that it would be wrong for us to close our doors on them, at this time, or any time."

Liberty Counsel issued a statement Monday, saying the church has spent $100,000 on a special air purification system, gives hand sanitizer to all who enter services and maintains a safe distance between parishioners.

"The Hillsborough County administrative order has so many exceptions it looks like swiss cheese," the Orlando-based firm said in the statement, adding that religious groups should get exemptions the way some other businesses have.

"I am astounded that Sheriff Chronister used his press conference to lecture about the Bible," the statement reads. "This is entirely inappropriate for a government official to take sides on religion."

The county's "Safer at Home" order, issued Friday, has exemptions that include essential military personnel, mass transit workers, farmers, journalists and contractors. It also says businesses able to maintain six feet of distance between people can operate. While the Liberty Counsel statement said the River church has "enforced the six-foot distance between family groups," the office of Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren said deputies witnessed the rule being violated firsthand Sunday when some 500 people were at the church.

Warren told The Washington Post that the law is settled as far as states being able to limit religious activity under certain circumstances. There is a compelling government interest of stopping the virus, the order is narrowly tailored to be temporary, and the church - like other services - can still reach its audience online.

News site Pix-11 in New York reported Monday that over the weekend, police broke up a bat mitzvah in Lakewood, New Jersey, that had 40 to 50 people in attendance. Police issued a citation for a violation to the state's stay-at-home order as well as a charge of child neglect, State Police Superintendent Patrick Callahan told Pix-11.

In a video posted March 15 by the group Right Wing Watch, Howard-Browne encourages members in a packed church to greet one another by shaking hands.

"This has to be the safest place. If you cannot be safe in church, you in serious trouble. We are not stopping anything. I have news for you. This church will never close. The only time the church is closed is when the Rapture is taking place. This Bible School is open because we're raising up revivalists, not pansies," he says to hearty applause and cheers.

Howard-Browne, originally from South Africa, has been invited to the White House to pray over President Trump. In July 2017, he posted an image of people with their hands on Trump, praying.

"Supernatural Wisdom, Guidance and Protection - who could ever even imagine - wow - we are going to see another great spiritual awakening," he wrote on Facebook with the image.
Instacart, the grocery delivery service that has become essential to many homebound Americans, saw some of its shoppers strike on Monday to demand more safety measures and hazard pay.

The strike did not affect Instacarts operations, according to the company, which had made several changes to placate the shoppers. It wasnt clear how many shoppers participated. Still, the effort achieved another goal, drawing media attention to the situation of gig workers who have become a critical lifeline to many people staying home to avoid contagion during the coronavirus pandemic.

This moment during the shutdown brings home the lack of protections for so many people who are now deemed essential workers, said Sage Wilson, a spokesman for Working Washington, a union-backed group that helps gig workers with collective actions and supported Gig Workers Collective, the group that organized the strike. Grocery delivery has moved from a convenience to a necessity. The Instacart workers need and deserve hazard pay and basic health/safety protections.

Meanwhile, Whole Worker, a group of workers at Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon, said in a blog post that they are planning a mass sick-out on Tuesday to demand guaranteed paid sick leave for workers who isolate or self-quarantine; reinstatement of health care coverage for part-time and seasonal workers; doubling their wages for hazard pay; and immediate shutdown of any location where a worker tests positive for COVID-19.

Whole Foods said in a statement, As we address unprecedented demand and fulfill a critical need in our communities, Whole Foods Market is committed to prioritizing our Team Members well-being, while recognizing their extraordinary dedication. The company is increasing base pay by $2 per hour, increasing overtime pay and giving workers two weeks of paid time off if they are quarantined or diagnosed with the coronavirus.

Instacart said it experienced absolutely no impact from the strike on Monday.

Today we saw 40% more shoppers ... compared to the same day and time last week, it said in a statement. Over the last 72 hours, more groceries were sold on our platform than ever before. Its shopper satisfaction survey registered the highest ever, it said.

San Franciscos Instacart has introduced several new features for shoppers this month. It expanded some health and safety guidelines, offered bonuses to in-store shoppers  who work as employees, unlike the shoppers who went on strike  and offered two weeks of paid sick leave to any shopper who was diagnosed with coronavirus or placed under quarantine.

Over the weekend it added a new default tip setting that defaults to a customers previous tip amount, and requires customers to manually indicate if they dont want to tip, reducing the likelihood that they will skip tipping.

Instacart said it would manufacture its own sprayable hand sanitizer and start distributing it to shoppers next week. Many of its shoppers had complained that they needed more protection since they are exposing themselves to people and public environments when they shop and deliver groceries.

Instacart did not directly address the strikers demands for hazard pay of $5 per order. Instead, it said that increased demand had boosted shopper earnings, and that customers were tipping more.

Reeling from a surge in demand, Instacart already had gone from a same-day service to offering delivery in several days. The company is seeking another 300,000 grocery shoppers nationwide, including 54,000 in California.

It said 250,000 people signed up in the past week to be full-service shoppers, whom it classifies as independent contractors. They roam store aisles to fill customers orders and deliver them. Of the new shoppers, 50,000 have started to work, it said.

Maria Nelson has been doing Instacart part time as she finished up a psychology degree at Santa Clara University, earning about $18 an hour from which she has to subtract gas and car maintenance. She plans to move in with her grandparents, who as seniors are in a high-risk group, so shes quitting Instacart.

I decided it wasnt worth compromising my grandparents health and my safety, she said. It made me really nervous. She also felt it was a huge red flag that Instacart took so long to provide sanitation supplies.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

She said that many customers dont seem to sufficiently recognize the risk Instacart workers are taking.

A lot of shoppers are exposing themselves and their families (to the virus) for other peoples convenience, she said. Customers dont always tip.

Some customers do something the shoppers call tip bait, offering big tips up front for their orders to lure an Instacart workers to shop, and then taking advantage of the ability to reduce tips after shopping is complete, she said.

It happens to a lot of people, especially for big orders with Clorox wipes, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, she said. If you couldnt get those items (because they were out of stock everywhere), the customer would take away the tip after the fact. Its really unfair.

Still, she said, Instacart will continue to draw workers.

There are enough people who are desperate enough because its their sole source of income, she said.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid
A non-resident Indian businessman in Kerala has donated his 9000 sq feet palatial home in Thrissur to be converted into an isolation ward for Covid-19 patients. Dubai-based entrepreneur Sohan Roy, who turned 53 on Monday, said it was his best birthday gift to his state which is struggling to find space to accommodate the increasing number of patients.

On Monday, the number of positive coronavirus cases in the state went up to 234 and those under observation crossed 1.50 lakh.

The majority of the world is in the clutches of the pandemic and Kerala has its own share. The state urgently needs more isolation wards and ventilators. So I feel it is my duty to help my state, the tycoon said.

He owns the Aries Group of companies which has a presence in 16 countries.

He said his 9000 square feet house in Desamangalam in Thrissur can accommodate many infected people. He said he will also donate at least 10 ventilators to the 10 worst affected districts.

Many such houses are locked up. If people provide these houses the government can convert them into good isolation wards and hospitals. No doubt the state will have to gear up now, he said adding his action may encourage other NRIs who own many locked-up homes in the state.

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As a prolonged drought has been parching the south-central Vietnamese province of Ninh Thuan for over a year, local residents who depend on the regions grasslands to feed their cattle struggle to keep their heads above water.

Residents in Ninh Thuans Thuan Nam District said they have survived more than one year with virtually no rain. The same situation has perpetuated for more or less two years in Phuoc Trung Commune in neighboring Bac Ai District.

The lack of rainfall has caused the local communities to be spread very thinly in their search for life-sustaining water sources.

The provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has pointed out tremendous challenges to local irrigation security, one of which is the fact that water levels in Ninh Thuans 21 reservoirs are only at 20 percent of their designed capacity.

Several reservoirs essential to irrigation in the area have completely dried up while more than 8,000 hectares of agricultural land is left uncultivated due to the severe water shortage.

If precipitation remains scarce, the local people might only be able to hold on for another month, said Ho Xuan Ninh, chairman of Bac Ai District, with a deep sigh.

To farmers in the semi-desert, the local flock of 200,000 sheep is hopefully their last resort. That hope, too, is trembling as the scorching wind and arid soil have driven morale low.

A resident walks on barren soil in drought-stricken Ninh Thuan Province, Vietnam. Photo: Mai Vinh / Tuoi Tre

A broken water pump is left on dried-up Ong Kinh Lake, one of the biggest lakes in Ninh Thuan Province, Vietnam. Photo: Mai Vinh / Tuoi Tre

A resident carries a stack of hay in Ninh Thuan Province, Vietnam. Photo: Mai Vinh / Tuoi Tre

Dead fish are washed up on the bank of a drying lake in Ninh Thuan Province, Vietnam. Photo: Mai Vinh / Tuoi Tre

Cattle graze on dried-up Phuoc Trung Lake in Ninh Thuan Province, Vietnam. Photo: Mai Vinh / Tuoi Tre

Two men pasture sheep in Ninh Thuan Province, Vietnam. Photo: Mai Vinh / Tuoi Tre

A woman carries a lamb in her arms on barren land in Ninh Thuan Province, Vietnam. Photo: Mai Vinh / Tuoi Tre

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Jammu, March 31 : The J&K High Court on Monday issued a series of directions to the government and its departments, while hearing public interest litigation pertaining to spread of coronavirus in the Union Territory.

The entire proceedings in the matter were conducted through video conferencing and video calls, and both judges heard the matter from their respective residences here.

The division bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Sindhu Sharma, on being apprised by amicus curiae that about 400 pilgrims from Bihar stranded at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine, are being asked to vacate their current lodgings, directed the Chief Executive Officer, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board and the Deputy Commissioner, Reasi to ensure that these pilgrims are not asked to vacate their current lodgings and their needs are fully provided till such time as the lockdown persists.

Directions were also issued to Secretary, Department of Health and Medical Education of both the Union Territories together with the IGP, Jammu, IGP, Kashmir and IGP, Ladakh to ensure that complete safety and security is provided to the personnel who are serving at all government facilities. Both UT governments were also directed to ensure that the accommodation, healthcare and the needs of the migrant labourers, if not already provided for, are addressed.

Taking into account the fact that despite nationwide lockdown, a large number of people are resorting to their usual strolls, loitering and morning walks in local parks etc, the court directed the law enforcing authorities and park owning authorities (all municipal corporations, development authorities) to prevent access to public parks, etc which are normally used for such purposes by the citizens.

The Ministry of External Affairs was also directed to look into the aspect of the evacuation of persons who are stranded and need to be evacuated to India on priority.

The Home Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir was directed to file an interim report regarding the functioning of the High Powered Committee constituted for the examination of the prisoners required to be released from prisons.

It also directed the Mission Director ICPS to scrutinise the estimates of Rs 33.64 lakhs for provision of the lease line connections to 24 locations of Juvenile Justice Boards and Observation Homes submitted by the BSNL at an earliest.

The court was apprised that back up facilities in the nature of inverters etc. in the JJBs have been provided so that video conferencing on available apparatus can be conducted.

It appreciated the manner in which the authorities in the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, as well as Ladakh, are addressing the current crisis.
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The city has provided urgent medical supplies to at least one of the Islands private hospitals -- Richmond University Medical Center -- during the coronavirus outbreak, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.

On Sunday evening, City Hall said it distributed a number of supplies to hospitals across the city including 476,565 N95 masks, 1.5 million surgical gloves and 835 ventilators to date.

De Blasio said the city has so far sent supplies to RUMC but noted that the Northwell Health hospital system, which Staten Island University Hospital is a part of, distributes supplies to SIUH as needed.

The city has provided supplies to RUMC in substantial numbers and well continue to do so, the mayor told reporters during a press conference beside the USNS Comfort Navy hospital ship that docked in Manhattan Monday morning at Pier 90.

The supplies for Staten Island University Hospital come from a combination of sources -- state, city  Northwell Hospital system, but Im keeping an eye and my team is on all of it, we really dont see a separation between public hospitals, voluntaries, independents in this kind of situation, were all working together, he continued when asked how his administration was handling hospital supply distribution to the citys private hospitals.

RUMC told the Advance it received a number of supplies from the city over the weekend including N95 masks, gloves, face shields and surgical masks, but could not immediately say exactly how much of each it received.

SIUH said all supplies from the city would have to go to Northwell Hospitals distribution hub first which would then decide where supplies are needed the most within the system.

SIUH could not say how many, if any, supplies the hospital received from the city to date, only saying the hospital has adequate personal protective equipment and is following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and Northwells existing clinical protocols.

The Department of Health said it does not provide a breakdown of the supplies the city distributes to local hospitals.

Both SIUH North and South sites receive routine shipments when requested from the health system, SIUH spokesman Christian Preston said.

Staten Island is the only borough without a public hospital and relies on private hospitals SIUH and RUMC.

RUMC IN URGENT NEED OF 15 VENTILATORS, HOSPITAL SAYS

RUMC said that right now it urgently needs 15 ventilators to brace for the surge of patients it anticipates will need to be treated.

SIUH said it recently got a shipment of ventilators from the Greater New York Hospital Association, but could not immediately be reached to elaborate on exactly how many of the machines it received.

We have enough ventilators right now for the immediate need, but obviously, were not planning for immediate, were planning for the patient surge that were anticipating right now, said RUMC spokesman Alexander Lutz.

We would need an additional 15 ventilators, so were hoping to get those  through our usual conduits that weve been working through and that includes New York State, New York City, the mayors office, the Greater New York Hospital Association and our own elected official delegation, Lutz continued.

However, Lutz was unable to say whether RUMC received any ventilators specifically from the city, or if this past weekend was the first time the hospital received supplies from the city during the outbreak.

The mayor said Monday that of the 400 ventilators the city recently received from the federal government, 100 were sent to public hospitals and 300 to voluntary and private hospitals.

Neither of Staten Islands two private hospitals could say recently exactly how many ventilators they currently have on hand.

RUMC said last week it was trying to get at least 45 more ventilators to the hospital from the state and the Greater New York Hospital Association.

While SIUH also said it was in the process of securing between 45 to 50 more ventilators and had already put in an order and was expecting a delivery soon.

THE USNS COMFORT

The 1,000-bed USNS Comfort will start to see patients as early as Tuesday. The ship will be staffed by federal medical professionals and will be used to treat non-coronavirus-related patients to free up beds at area hospitals.

Over the weekend, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the federal government approved plans to turn portions of the College of Staten Islands Willowbrook campus into a 1,000-bed field hospital and build out another 260 beds at the South Beach Psychiatric Center.

The South Beach Psychiatric Center will be used to treat positive COVID-19 cases only. But its still unclear who exactly will staff the CSI field hospital, when it will open and whether the site will be for positive coronavirus patients or non-positive coronavirus patients.

The heads of Staten Islands two private hospitals told the Advance on Tuesday that they are currently able to expand to 829 ICU and general hospital beds combined.

Asked last week whether he thought roughly 1,900 hospital beds was enough for the only borough without a public hospital to respond to the outbreak as Staten Islands case total creeps into the thousands, de Blasio vowed to keep looking for more capacity on the borough as needed.

FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER.

UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect that the citys Department of Health does not provide hospital-level data on the number of supplies it distributes to local hospitals.

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Because of unprecedented travel restrictions imposed by governments in response to the coronavirus pandemic, easyJet has stopped all commercial flights and grounded all its 344 Airbus aircraft across Europe. It may continue to operate some repatriation flights at government request.

Heres everything you need to know.

When will easyJet start up again?

The airline says: At this stage there can be no certainty of the date for restarting commercial flights. We will continuously evaluate the situation based on regulations and demand, and will update the market when we have a view.

But the airline says it has agreed with the Unite union to furlough all its UK-based cabin crew during April and May. I interpret that to mean easyJet does not expect to start operations on a meaningful scale until June at the earliest.

The current Foreign Office warning against non-essential travel abroad continues until 16 April 2020 but is likely to be extended.

I have an easyJet flight booked before the end of May. What are my options?

The crucial thing is: has the flight been formally cancelled? If it has, then you are entitled to a full refund to the original form of payment within seven days under European air passengers rights rules.

For the avoidance of doubt, that includes any return flight linked to the cancelled service.

So if you were planning to fly on 1 April to Spain and back again on 1 June, then you can get your money back  but only when you get official notification that the outbound flight is cancelled, or the day of departure goes past and it doesnt take off.

Many bookings for the next two months are still shown as operating normally.

The airline is allowing passengers to postpone their journeys or to take a credit voucher. In a world in which future flight options are uncertain and everyone needs cash, neither of these choices is optimal.

How do I get a cash refund?

It used to be so easy: when easyJet cancelled a flight, passengers would be sent a link that took them to the booking and they could request their money back online within seconds.

But easyJet  along with British Airways  has removed that option in a bid to persuade passengers to take vouchers instead.

To get actual money back you must phone the airline.

But I cant get through on the phone

That is the story from thousands of passengers who simply want their money back for a service that easyJet (or British Airways) cant deliver. The airline says: We are currently receiving an extremely high volume of calls and we understand the inconvenience this may cause.

You have a year from the date of the flight in which to call.

Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Show all 20 1 /20 Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Top: Nabi Younes market, Mosul Bottom: Charles Bridge, Prague Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Grand Mosque, Mecca Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Sagrada Familia, Barcelona Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Nabi Younes market, Mosul Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Basra Grand Mosque, Iraq Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Charles Bridge, Prague Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Taj Mahal hotel, India Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Dubai Mall, UAE Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Beirut March, Lebanon Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Gateway of India, Mumbai Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Cairo University, Egypt Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Amman Citadel, Jordan Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Beirut March, Lebanon Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Cairo, Egypt Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Cairo University, Egypt Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Victoria Memorial, India Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Amman Citadel, Jordan Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Amman Citadel, Jordan Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Sidon, Lebanon Reuters

Rather than the published number, you could try 0161 774 9879  which is the number for overseas calls. Press 1 for English and wait (the hold music is pretty good, thankfully).

I have asked the Civil Aviation Authority to look into the airlines decision to disable the online refund function.

Aren't I due compensation when an airline cancels a flight?

The European air passengers rights rules prescribed payments for short-notice cancellations of up to 600 (535) per person. But airlines need not pay if the cancellation is clearly beyond its control. The authorities accept that this is clearly the case with these cancellations.

Can I get a refund for flights booked in June?

Not yet. The presumption is that flights will go ahead. Wait until May to see what the picture is then.

I desperately need to fly. What can I do?

Use another airline. British Airways and other airlines are running both long- and short-haul operations from Heathrow. Departures on Monday morning include BA to many European cities as well as Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Manchester, as well as Boston and Tokyo.

Iberia has multiple flights to and from Madrid, while Aer Lingus has services to Dublin and Shannon.

Ryanair is operating a skeleton service of links between UK airports and Ireland with some flights to and from Continental Europe.

Will easyJet survive?

Yes. Like British Airways, Jet2 and Ryanair, easyJet is financially strong and well managed, and will be able to secure funding to see it through the coronavirus crisis.

My package holiday includes easyJet flights. Who do I ask for a refund?

Your contract is with the tour operator (the firm that put your holiday together). It should provide a full refund within 14 days. But Abta, the travel trade association is warning that many travel companies cannot meet this deadline.
The senior royals are set to meet at Sandringham (John Stillwell/PA)

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend the Commonwealth Day Service 2020 at Westminster Abbey on March 09, 2020 in London, England

David Beckham is an ambassador for the Duke of Sussexs Invictus Games (Dominic Lipinski/ PA)

Britain's Prince Harry (L) and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (R) attend a lunchtime reception hosted by the Prime Minister with Invictus Games competitors and community representatives in the citys central parkland, The Domain, in Sydney on October 21, 2018

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex watch a performance during their visit to Macarthur Girls High School in Sydney on the fourth day of their visit to Australia

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's decision to quit as senior royals will have been pushed to the back of the list of priorities as the royal family plays an important role during the coronavirus pandemic, a royal author has said.

Penny Junor said Harry and Meghan, who are walking away from the monarchy on Tuesday, are now "pretty irrelevant" and are likely to become a distant memory as the country battles the Covid-19 outbreak.

The duke and duchess are thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, preparing to step down as working royals, earn their own money and set up a not-for-profit organisation.

The situation will be reviewed by the monarchy in 12 months, leaving the door open in case of a change of heart.

Expand Close Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend the Commonwealth Day Service 2020 at Westminster Abbey on March 09, 2020 in London, England / Facebook

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Whatsapp Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend the Commonwealth Day Service 2020 at Westminster Abbey on March 09, 2020 in London, England

But royal commentator Ms Junor said, for now, the royal family and the country are focusing on more crucial matters.

She told the PA news agency: "I think for the time being Harry and Meghan probably will become a distant memory. It's very sad."

The Queen is expected to speak to the nation in a televised address, the Prince of Wales has coronavirus, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are supporting an initiative to boost the nation's mental health during lockdown.

Ms Junor said: "The royal family definitely has a role to play in crises like this.

"It's a great morale boost to have words from the Queen or words from William and to watch his children clapping the NHS workers. It's important.

"The monarchy does represent the nation to itself. They are there to express our emotions.

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"Prince Charles has got the disease so he's in there with us all. All of this is absolutely what the family is about and those members of the royal family that are on a limb now are pretty irrelevant."

Harry and Meghan delivered their bombshell statement in January, saying they wanted a dual role, earning their own money and supporting the Queen.

Expand Close The senior royals are set to meet at Sandringham (John Stillwell/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp The senior royals are set to meet at Sandringham (John Stillwell/PA)

But the plan was unworkable and the Queen had to hold a crisis summit to deal with the matter, which resulted in the couple walking away from the monarchy completely.

They returned from a stay in Canada to carry out a farewell flurry of engagements in London including appearing with the royals on Commonwealth Day, but in the wake of their final official engagement, the UK has been gripped in the growing coronavirus crisis.

"There are life and death situations for absolutely everybody," Ms Junor said.

"If people are not fighting for their lives, they're fighting for their livelihoods. We don't know what the world is going to look like when we come out of all of this.

"I'm afraid Harry and Meghan's decision is absolutely pushed to the back of the list of priorities."

Ms Junor said Harry, as a trained military man, would have been keen to help and disappointed not to be able to play a role.

"From what I know of Harry, he would be sad to be away and not able to help," she said.

"He's a very caring, nurturing sort of person and he's a soldier and soldiers step up when the going gets tough."
Health officials in three cities, Mumbai, Delhi, and Sangli, are keeping an eye on close to 500 people who may have been infected by four members of a family in Sangli, all of whom tested positive for Covid-19. The four also infected 19 other members of their extended family, including a two-year old, and two people who worked for them.

The officials have traced 434 low-risk contacts and 55 high-risk contacts of the family from Islampur, Sangli.

The test reports of the 55 high-risk contacts are awaited, while the 434 other contacts have been asked to go into home quarantine.

We are trying to track every person who came in contact with this family. Until now, we have successfully tracked 434 low-risk contacts and 55 high-risk contacts, said Sangli district collector Abhijeet Chaudhary.

To deal with the situation, state minister Jayant Patil (guardian minister of the district) has imposed strict restrictions on Islampur amid the lockdown.

The district health department has also sought details of co-passengers of the four on flights from Saudi Arabia to Delhi, and from Delhi to Mumbai. The four then hired a cab to drive down to Islampur.

Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic

On March 11, the four landed in Delhi from Saudi Arabia and did some sight-seeing. Two days later, they landed in Mumbai and later visited Crawford Market. It wasnt immediately clear whether they visited the Nizamuddin area in Delhi, which has emerged as another cluster of the infection.

In Islampur, between March 14 and 19, the family organised a religious function attended by relatives from the Sangli and Kolhapur districts. The district health department said the four were already showing symptoms at the time, but instead of being in quarantine, organised social events. The district health department said the four were in Saudi Arabia for almost a month. The 21 others infected lived in close contact with the four.

On March 19, one of the family members finally approached a private doctor. The Sangli resident later tested positive for the coronavirus. The other three also subsequently tested positive.

The district health department informed that this is the first case in the country in which the majority of the patients, who tested positive in large numbers, are from the same family.

On Monday, Sambhaji Bhide, founder of Shivpratishtan Hindustan, approached the district collector demanding that the family be booked for attempt to murder and violation of Epidemic Diseases Act 1897.
Oil prices plunged Monday to an 18-year low as the number of novel coronavirus cases worldwide surged past 700,000, reinforcing worries about the impact of the pandemic on the global economy. US and European stock markets moved higher despite the prospect of much of the world remaining in confinement for weeks to come. Crude oil struck the lowest levels since 2002, with Brent North Sea tumbling to $21.65 per barrel at one point. The benchmark US contract, WTI, briefly fell below $20.00. "Estimates for the (oil) demand side are being revised downwards on an almost daily basis, while on the supply side there is still no sign of any reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Russia" regarding their price war, Commerzbank said in a client note. There are warnings that oil could sink even further as storage tanks around the world approach full capacity. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, announced it would raise exports by 600,000 barrels per day to a record 10.6 million barrels per day in May. However US President Donald Trump held a phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin where they discussed oil prices as US producers are reeling. "If nothing comes out of Trumps call to Putin, oil prices could easily drop a couple dollars," said OANDA market analyst Edward Moya. The Kremlin said that Russian and US energy officials would hold consultations on the global oil market, but the news failed to lift WTI considerably and Brent fell further. In Asia, stock markets mostly fell following the steep drop on Wall Street and in Europe on Friday. Australia was out on its own -- its stock market surging 7.0 percent as the country's virus infections slowed, while after the close of trade in Sydney, the government unveiled an income-support plan worth US$80 billion. - Falling confidence - European stocks spent much of the day in the red on indications of the economic cost of the crisis. The EU's economic confidence index suffered its sharpest monthly fall ever in March, while experts said Germany's economy could contract by over five percent. However European stocks rose into positive territory as Wall Street pushed higher, even though jubilation over last week's enormous US stimulus package has largely faded. US President Donald Trump on Friday signed off Washington's stimulus measures worth more than $2 trillion. However, over the weekend, Trump extended social distancing measures until the end of April, after days of indicating he would like to lift restrictions that have been crimping businesses within two weeks. He said he now expected the country to "be well on our way to recovery" by June 1 -- dropping his previous target of mid-April. While the extension of the social distancing guidelines means that many non-essential businesses are likely to remain closed longer than previously expected, markets may be welcoming strong government action against the spread of the coronavirus. "The upshot -- and we think this might be resonating for the market -- is that the extension of this guideline will help in the effort to curtail the spread of the coronavirus, which is what everyone needs and wants as a flattening of the caseload curve will be an important signpost for relaxing some of the economic shutdown measures," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare. While the disease ravages populations and the global economy grinds to a halt with 40 percent of the planet in lockdown, experts are struggling to get a grip on the scale of the crisis that is forecast to cause a worldwide recession. Governments and central banks have acted to shore up the global economy, pledging around $5 trillion in stimulus support, with China on Monday joining the party by lowering bank borrowing costs and pumping billions of dollars into financial markets, while Singapore also eased rates. - Key figures around 1430 GMT - London - FTSE 100: UP 1.0 percent at 5,563.74 points (close) Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 1.9 percent at 9,815.97 (close) Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.6 percent at 4,378.51 (close) Milan - FTSE MIB: UP 0.3 percent at 16,872.41 (close) Madrid - IBEX 35: DOWN 1.7 percent at 6,659.90 (close) EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.7 percent at 2,747.69 New York - Dow: UP 2.3 percent at 22,124.55 Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.6 percent at 19,084.97 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 1.3 percent at 23,175.11 (close) Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.9 percent at 2,747.21 (close) Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 11.5 percent at $22.06 per barrel West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 6.4 percent at $20.14 per barrel Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1040 from $1.1148 at 2100 GMT Dollar/yen: UP at 108.03 yen from 107.88 Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2406 from $1.2450 Euro/pound: DOWN at 88.05 pence from 89.46 pence burs-rl/pvh
Several northeastern states have asked the Central government to sanction allocation of rice, fuel and cooking gas. According to the officials of Airport Authority of India, Alliance Air has been operating special cargo flights to carry various medical equipment, medicines, protective gears and medical necessities from Delhi to different northeastern states.

Guwahati: With two positive coronavirus cases found last week, the northeastern states on Sunday further stepped up their efforts to reach out to people and maintain the supply of essentials.

Many organisations and individuals have been donating money to the Chief Ministers' Relief Fund to aid the governments' efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

In Guwahati, Assam police declared a series of helpline numbers in all 33 districts besides a central control room facility in the police headquarters to address various issues arising out of the outbreak of COVID-19 and enforcement of lockdown.

Shops and markets, various commercial establishments, most offices, including educational institutions, were closed and vehicles remained off the road across Assam on Sunday, the sixth day of the nationwide lockdown. In some districts, people defied the lockdown and came out of their homes, prompting the police to use force, including baton charge.

However, at many places, the police distributed rice, vegetables, medicines and other essentials to the poor.

In Agartala, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb wrote to his counterparts in Delhi, West Bengal, Assam, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telengana, and Tamil Nadu for providing food, accommodation, security and health services to the people of Tripura stranded in their states.

In Nagaland, some groups, including associations, clubs, SHGs and civil society, have been extending community services to those in need during the lockdown period and assisting the government in whatever ways they can.

Nagaland government employees donated over Rs 26 lakh to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund to meet the expenses in dealing with COVID-19. The opposition Naga People's Front MLAs has announced donation of one-month salary to meet the exigencies.

In Mizoram, a 33-year-old woman was arrested in Aizawl for allegedly hiding her foreign travel details. According to health department officials, the wife and two children of the lone COVID-19 patient from Mizoram were discharged from a state-run hospital here after they tested negative for the disease.

In Manipur, apart from taking strict action against those violating curfew, the government has undertaken an extensive sanitisation programme. According to health officials, two isolation wards have been arranged at Regional Institute of Medical Sciences and Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences for possible COVID-19 patients.

In Meghalaya, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma reviewed the state's preparedness to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak.
A group of students from the University of Wisconsin  Madison have tested positive for coronavirus after a spring break trip to Alabamas beaches.

The universitys Health Services announced a cluster of COVID-19 related to a spring break trip to Gulf Shores. According to WKOW, the trip involved fraternity and sorority members who started their break in Nashville around March 13 and moved to Gulf Shores in Alabama around March 16.

UW Madisons Health Service is asking anyone who went on the trip, whether they have symptoms or not, to shelter in place and observe a 14-day-self quarantine.

Interactive map shows COVID-19 potential spread from spring break beach during coronavirus pandemic
It took more than a thousand calls to find out which taxi driver unknowingly gave a suspect a ride. Another job involved poring over 100,000 documents. Since the beginning of 2019, the National Polices Organized Crime and Drug Unit (Udyco) in the southern city of Malaga has had a unit that is exclusively focused on score settling in the Costa del Sol. The results reflect the groups effectiveness: most of the crimes from 2019 have been solved.

Its very demanding, its a non-stop job, says one of the specialized officers. So far, 16 people have been arrested, most for being either the alleged material or intellectual author of the murders.

If the operation goes badly and the drugs are seized by police, someone has to pay for it

The latest crime to be solved took place in January 2019. A businessman from Marbellas nightclub scene was shot around 15 times when he arrived home early in the morning. Two individuals were waiting for him outside his garage. The case marked the beginning of a grim year for the Costa del Sol. At the end of February, police arrested two alleged hitmen and four of their cronies, all of whom were from the Netherlands and members of a dangerous gang. They worked for large criminal organizations and traveled to Spain to kill their target. Indeed, the group was arrested when they were about to commit another crime in Spain.

Six murders

The fall of last year was a particularly bloody time on the Costa del Sol, which saw six murders. One of them took place on November 15 in a residential development called Andasol in Marbella. Two unknown individuals shot two people. One of the victims, 66, died at the scene. The other, 55, survived but was severely injured. Minutes after the murders, several members of Udycos team arrived at the crime scene and began a very complex investigation. The evidence indicated that a rival drug gang had tried to steal either money or merchandise from another, a ploy known in Spanish as a vuelco. This conclusion was driven by two factors: the use of firearms and the criminal history of the victims.

Police were able to connect the murders with a well-known Spanish drug dealer. Five days later, the officers identified the alleged perpetrators, two Romanian individuals, who were arrested two days later in their country. Police later arrested the mastermind of the killing in Marbella, as well as the surviving victim of the shooting and his wife for suspected drug trafficking.

In addition to these 11 arrests, police also tracked down the criminal behind the point-blank shooting of a Bulgarian man in October last year. The body of the victim, who had been shot 14 times, was found in a ditch on the outskirts of Marbella. After his body was found, officers began an investigation that they describe as methodical, ordered, detailed, constant and without a schedule. They combed every millimeter of the area looking for clues.

One of the biggest challenges police face when investigating these types of cases is that nobody talks

The officers initially found nothing. But after searching a much greater distance, they discovered the first clue: a shell located one kilometer away from the victims body. Ten days later, officers identified the alleged killer, who was also from Bulgaria. Not long after, the man was found in Germany, where he was arrested with the help of the German police. When the suspects car was intercepted, officers found traces of the victims blood, even though the vehicle had been carefully cleaned. International cooperation is also essential, explain sources from Udyco.

One of the biggest challenges police face when investigating these types of cases is that nobody talks. Even the victims family say they dont know why the person was killed. Often, families do not let officers into their homes and instead guard the door with their lawyers. If there is some type of cooperation, its more likely done to throw us off, the police officers say. Another problem is that the hitmen come from outside of Spain. They kill and leave, the officers explain. The hitmen cover their faces with masks and torch the car they traveled in.

The growing pressure from police and the constant drug seizures in Spain have put drug traffickers on edge as they suffer huge financial losses. Every mistake is costly, pushing criminals to look for new drug routes and impose personal guarantees. If the operation goes badly and the drug is seized by police someone has to pay for it, the officers explains. When the cost is a seven-figure sum, that someone may end up paying for it with their life.

English version by Melissa Kitson.
The ABC's medical expert Norman Swan has been tested for coronavirus after falling ill.

Speaking on ABC News Radio today, Dr Swan revealed he is self-isolating at home,

'OK so now I have to admit I'm at home because I do have symptoms and after I finish this I'm going to get tested,' he said.

The ABC's medical expert Normal Swan (pictured) is being tested for coronavirus after developing symptoms

Dr Swan studied Medicine at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland before moving to Australia and working for the ABC as a broadcaster.

He is a regular on 7.30 and RN Breakfast and hosts his own national radio show, the Health Report.

Tasmania has recorded its first coronavirus death, taking the national death toll to 18.

The victim was a woman in her 80s who died in the North West Regional Hospital.

Premier Peter Gutwein announced the news this morning as he banned public gatherings of more than two people.

He said: 'Tasmania now has its first death. All Tasmanians need to accept and understand that this is not a game. This is serious. People's lives are at risk.'

Mr Gutwein said officials are still deciding how much people who break the rule on gatherings should be fined.

The victim was a woman in her 80s who died in the North West Regional Hospital (pictured)

Tasmania has recorded its first coronavirus death, taking the national death toll to 17. Pictured: Young women wear masks

Meanwhile, people who gather in groups bigger than two in New South Wales face a $1,000 fine from midnight.

Repeat offenders can even face six months in jail under the Public Health Act.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said on Monday morning that he was prepared to be lenient over the new laws.

'We don't want to have to enforce these laws. We want to work with you,' he said.

He also announced that 1,200 Australians arriving from overseas today will be quarantined in hotels for two weeks to slow the spread of the virus.

On Sunday, 1,400 Australians arrived and were taken to hotels by the Army.

People who break social distancing rules face a $1,000 fine in New South Wales from midnight, Premier Gladys Berejiklian (pictured) announced today

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

Victorians who are caught with more than one other person except immediate family will be slapped with a $1,652 on the spot fine from Tuesday.

'If you are having friends over for dinner or friends over for drinks that are not members of your household, then you are breaking the law,' Premier Andrews said.

'If we allow our health system to be overrun, then people will die. That is just a price that is just not worth paying. No gathering with friends is worth someone's life,' he warned.

It comes as the number of cases in Australia soars past 4,000.

New South Wales saw 127 new cases in the past 24 hours.

In the 24 hours to Saturday morning there were 212 new cases and on Sunday morning 174 new cases were announced, meaning the rate of infection appears to be declining due to the restrictions.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian urged Australians over 70 to stay at home.

She said: 'If you are over 70 you shouldn't leave home at all. I know this is difficult and I appreciate that for some parts of the day, people might want to get out and exercise.

'That is OK, so long as you don't come into contact with anybody else.

'This disease, this virus is particularly - has a horrible impact on those who are older and vulnerable and it is time for us to protect the most vulnerable in the community.

'Can I stress please take care of each other and make sure people over 70 are not leaving their homes and make sure they have support.'
Kentucky attorney general Daniel Cameron on Friday emphasized his support for a statewide ban on abortion procedures during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.

Cameron released a statement after Planned Parenthood sued the state of Texas for deeming abortions a non-essential procedure, thus effectively halting abortions during the pandemic. Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, has already halted abortions in the state due to the coronavirus threat.

Kentuckys current ban on elective medical procedures exists to further the mandated policy of social distancing and to help conserve medical resources for use in fighting COVID-19, Cameron said. Abortion providers should join the thousands of other medical professionals across the state in ceasing elective procedures, unless the life of the mother is at risk, to protect the health of their patients and slow the spread of the coronavirus.

On Wednesday Planned Parenthood accused the governor and attorney general of Texas of playing politics with the abortion ban.

I find it extremely distressing . . . that we are trying to respond to a purely political fight that [Gov. Greg Abbott] started. Patients who need abortions are on a time-sensitive deadline, Sealy Massingill, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, told reporters.

Paxton responded that it was unconscionable that abortion providers are fighting against the health of Texans and withholding desperately needed supplies and personal protective equipment in favor of a procedure that they refer to as a choice.'

More from National Review
Some Facebook and Google employees said they feared being blamed by Democrats for a Trump reelection, while others said they did not want to be seen as acting in Democrats favor. Privately, some said, the best-case scenario for them in November would be a landslide victory by either party, with a margin too large to be pinned on any one tech platform.
An infant has tested positive for COVID-19, but is at home recovering from the virus, an official said Monday.

The infant, who was 10 days old at the time, was brought Saturday to the Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, where he tested positive for the coronavirus, township spokesman Phil Swibinski told NJ Advance Media.

The infant was discharged from the hospital Sunday and is in the care of his family, Swibinski said.

The news comes as the Illinois Department of Public Health announced Saturday that an infant under the age of 1 died from the coronavirus in Chicago.

There has never before been a death associated with COVID-19 in an infant, Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said in a statement. A full investigation is underway to determine the cause of death. We must do everything we can to prevent the spread of this deadly virus. If not to protect ourselves, but to protect those around us.

For the most part, children have been spared COVID-19. In China, only 2.4% of all reported cases occur in patients under the age of 18, according to the World Health Organization, and no young children reportedly died of the disease.

The higher risk of death continues to be for older residents and those with pre-existing conditions, but officials have cautioned that no one is immune.

As of Monday, New Jersey has at least 16,636 known cases of the coronavirus, including at least 198 deaths.

In North Bergen, there have been 158 cases of COVID-19 as of Sunday. Hudson County has the third-most cases in New Jersey with 1,314 as of Monday.

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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If Im a doctor in the hospital, I have one priority, the health of my patients  and of the doctors and staff members, said Roger Desjarlais, the Lee county manager who has been given emergency powers during the outbreak. If youre a community leader, its pretty complex. Even though no one in this community is making a very loud argument about economic recovery, when this is over, they are absolutely going to. And whatever decision we make today we will have to deal with in the next six months.
By Trend





The next plenary meeting of the spring session of the Azerbaijani Parliament has begun, Trend reports on March 30.

The agenda of the meeting chaired by Speaker of the Parliament Sahiba Gafarova includes 16 issues.

On the Gafarovas proposal, who declared the meeting open, a minute of silence was observed to honor the memory of innocent people who became victims of Armenian chauvinists over the past 100 years and the previous period.

Then the speaker touched upon the preventive measures being taken in Azerbaijan against coronavirus infection.

She noted that the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) to combat the virus are being followed in Azerbaijan, and the necessary preventive measures have been carried out.

Gafarova said that the Fund to Support Fight against Coronavirus was created in Azerbaijan, and that the parliament staff members transferred 250,000 manat ($147,000) to the fund.

The speaker emphasized that everyone should actively participate in the fight against the threat of coronavirus and observe the necessary recommendations in this regard.

She expressed confidence that the country will adequately cope with this challenge.
In the past few weeks, cities and states across the country have instructed people to stay home in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Going out for essentials like food is allowed, but that can be a risky proposition. Not only can grocery stores get crowded, social distancing protocol often means long lines just to get inside. The obvious alternative to all this is to shop online, but as several shoppers can attest, that experience can sometimes be even more frustrating. The state of online grocery deliveries is apparently a lot more fragile than anyone had anticipated.

One of the biggest problems is that delivery time slots are seemingly impossible to come by. After filling out their carts, customers would attempt to check out, only to find that all of the delivery options are suddenly unavailable. We spoke to a few shoppers, who told us of the various issues they encountered.

Mark Gerolimatos, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, said he's been unable to order groceries from Amazon Fresh for three to four days. "I found that using Fresh has become 'reFresh constantly,' not unlike trying to get tickets to some stupid concert," he said. After constant reloading, he was able to get a delivery time slot, but by then the cart was empty, as all the goods were gone. He also tried the Safeway app, but all slots were reserved as well.

Keenan from Los Angeles reported similar issues. "I've literally been trying to order Amazon Fresh for the past week or longer," he said. "I kept on top of it, and just kept trying day after day, multiple times per day and hour, which was exhausting to say the least [...] If you go through that entire process over and over as items continue to sell out, let me tell you that isn't fun." After trying for over a week, Keenan did eventually chance upon an open window for delivery and had his groceries delivered.

Both Keenan and Gerolimatos were not frequent users of online groceries prior to the coronavirus lockdown, as they are both able-bodied enough to shop for them in-person. But for many others, like the elderly or the disabled, online groceries are a valuable alternative to in-store shopping. Yasmin, a San Antonio attorney with AMC (Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita), a disorder that restricts her movements, was a frequent user of Instacart, Favor (a delivery service for HEB, a Texas-based grocery chain) as well as Amazon Fresh. But the coronavirus has changed that.

"I haven't been able to order anything," she said of both Amazon Fresh and HEB. "Every time I attempt to order groceries, I'm told that there aren't any slots and the earliest anything can be delivered is late next week." Yasmin does have a care provider, but she hasn't been able to go to the store for her as often as she'd like due to the size of the lines and the risk involved. In the meantime, Yasmin has a stockpile of toilet paper and food, but she's concerned that it'll run out. "I haven't been able to get any paper towels, and my care provider has had to go to many stores just to find milk," she said. "I can't tell you how anxious this has made me." Yasmin said she is lucky to even have a care provider and is worried about what would happen without her. "I would probably be in a much more dire situation than I am now."

Then there are those ordering groceries for their elderly parents. Angie from Seattle was trying to do so from Walmart but said there were no delivery slots for a whole week (though she was able to order successfully from Wegmans, another grocery store chain that was closer to her grandmother). Corey B. from Virginia was trying to use Instacart to deliver to his grandmother who's based in rural Massachusetts, but couldn't. "Instacart allowed me to select a delivery slot [...] then told me they couldn't make the delivery and I should reschedule (though they have no slots available at all)," he said. "My grandma is 96 and lives alone 500 miles away and was counting on this food to get by."

Several of these companies have provided statements that they're trying their best to meet demand. "We've seen an increase in people shopping online for groceries and are working around the clock to continue to deliver grocery orders to customers as quickly as possible," said an Amazon spokesperson. Amazon also limited the purchase quantities of high-demand items like toilet paper and stopped taking orders for non-essentials in France and Italy.

Instacart gave a similar statement: "As consumer demand continues to climb, our teams are working around the clock to ensure we can reliably serve the millions of customers turning to Instacart as an essential service provider. Over the last three weeks, Instacart has seen the highest customer demand in company history with billions of dollars of groceries being sold on our platform." As for the delivery window issue, the company said that they are "specific to individual store volume and shopper availability." It also announced plans to hire 300,000 additional Instacart shoppers over the next three months.

The reality is, prior to the coronavirus-fueled demand, online grocery deliveries have been a relatively tough sell in the US. Even though the idea has been around for several years now -- Peapod, arguably the country's first-ever internet grocery store was founded in 1989 -- it has never really caught on stateside.

A Kantar Consulting study in 2018 reported that while only 4.4 percent of grocery sales in the US are done online, that number is significantly higher in South Korea, where it's 19.1 percent. It's also higher in the UK and Japan, at 7.2 and 7.7 percent respectively. Much of that could be because the US is just so spread out compared to these other countries, plus there could also be a cultural component where Americans simply prefer to buy groceries in person. That's partly why so many online grocery services like Webvan and Kozmo failed. The only company to survive those early years is the aforementioned Peapod, which has so far focused on denser cities like New York City and Chicago, and has been far wiser with its money.

In recent years, however, it seems like online groceries have been on the rise. Walmart, Amazon, and Kroger have all made investments in the space. Amazon in particular has been aggressive in rolling out its Fresh grocery delivery service, which expanded to 18 cities last fall. Most of these companies also rely on independent contractors to deliver their groceries, which theoretically makes delivery cheaper to implement.

But the COVID-19 crisis has impacted the gig-economy too. Laurice Wardini, an Instacart shopper, tells CNBC that she tried to shop for groceries only to find that the store is out of stock of certain items, and has had to cancel the order as a result. Austen Risolvato, who was visiting her parents in Los Angeles from London, encountered a particularly troublesome Instacart experience that went beyond just deliveries.

"Our shopper was a really lovely woman that was great in a bad situation," Risolvato told Engadget. According to her, the shopper had a problem where the card issued to her by Instacart wasn't working in the store. After some back-and-forth, the shopper simply decided to use her own credit card to pay for it, and Risolvato would pay her back. Unfortunately, this resulted in the shopper having her account suspended, because she had accidentally used her mother's credit card instead of her own, and was subsequently accused of fraud.

"She's a single mom and this is her job," said Risolvato. "She's uploaded the receipts they requested to show that it wasn't improper use of the card. Their customer service has been insanely bad." Most recently, Instacart workers have also lobbied to go on strike over the lack of COVID-19 protections.

So far, it seems that the best way to be well-stocked with groceries is to plan ahead and make your order before you're out of supplies. Most of the major retailers like Amazon and Walmart simply recommend refreshing the page or checking back until there is a delivery slot (which, as we warned above, can take several days). You could try other smaller online delivery services such as Mercato that work directly with smaller high-end grocers. Alternatively, consider local resources like organizations that deliver CSA (community-supported agriculture) boxes of produce directly to your door. Some local farms, butchers and smaller grocers might also have their own delivery or pickup options.

That said, online deliveries might not be so difficult to come by in the future. As we mentioned, companies like Amazon and Instacart are investing in more resources and hiring more workers to meet the demand. Plus, panic-shopping should die down over time.

At first glance, it might seem like big companies like these would be able to handle online deliveries on a large scale; after all, these are huge multimillion-dollar corporations. Plus, there's the fact that companies like Amazon have spent years building a reputation of bold promises like same-day deliveries, two-hour delivery windows and being the one-stop-shop of your everyday life. Clearly, however, even with such a wealth of resources, the coronavirus pandemic has proven to be too much to handle.

Of course, the extent of the coronavirus pandemic hasn't affected just online grocery deliveries; every aspect of the economy has been hit hard. The fact that online grocery deliveries have failed to keep up with the increased demand due to the coronavirus is not surprising. But you can't blame consumers from feeling disappointed when, after all those grand promises, the service fails them when they need it most.
Amid the nationwide lockdown to



contain the spread of coronavirus, the Maharashtra government has set up 262 relief camps for migrant labourers where they will be provided food and shelter, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Monday.

Since the 21-day lockdown was announced last week, there has been exodus of migrant workers from big cities as they are desperate to return to their villages after being left jobless and many of them without food or shelter.

Thackeray earlier appealed to migrant labourers not to leave the state and assured to provide them all assistance.

In a tweet on Monday, the chief minister said food and shelter was being provided to migrant workers and homeless people at relief camps.

"Maharashtra government has set up 262 relief camps across the state which is presently providing shelters to 70,399 migrant labour or the homeless people to ensure that they have food, and a roof in this crisis," he tweeted.

The central government on Sunday ordered the sealing of state and district borders across the country in a bid to stop community transmission of coronavirus by migrant workers, and warned that violators will face 14-day quarantine.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his 'Mann Ki Baat' radio broadcast, sought the nation's forgiveness for the hardships caused by the stringent nationwide lockdown, saying it was necessary because the country was fighting a battle between life and death.

He, however, expressed confidence that "we will definitely win the battle" against the coronavirus menace.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Highlights 30 health care professionals, all from Atlanta-area hospitals, flew to New York They were on their way to help with the coronavirus outbreak in New York The photo is getting tons of appreciation

A photo of health care professionals from Georgia on a Southwest plane on their way to help with the coronavirus outbreak in New York is getting lots of love online.

The photo shows dozens of people, some wearing masks and gloves, holding their hands in the shape of a heart. It had been shared by tens of thousands on Facebook and Twitter, with many comments praising the health care workers for their bravery.

These brave souls soldier on in the midst of tremendous risk and exposure, constantly putting the needs of others above their own, Southwest Airlines wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday. Their selfless sacrifice is a beacon of light during such a dark time in our world, and no amount of gratitude and praise would ever be enough.

An Atlanta ramp agent took the photo of the health care workers, other passengers, and flight crew before the plane pushed back from the gate on Friday, Southwest Airlines spokesman Derek K. Hubbard said on Sunday.

There were about 30 health care professionals, all from Atlanta-area hospitals, who were on the regularly scheduled flight to LaGuardia Airport, Hubbard said.
Sixteen years can seem like an eternity in the tech world, yet Facebook has managed to remain relevant despite all the zillion privacy scandals. All this, while ensuring it continues to remain a profit-generating machine. Veteran technology journalist and Wireds editor-at-large Steven Levy explores just this journey in Facebook: The Inside Story.

When 19-year old Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Facebook to the world (called thefacebook.com back then) on 4 February 2004, it started off as an online slam book of sorts where Harvard students could interact with their college friends. Fast forward to 2020 and there isnt a day that goes by when the majority of us who are online, arent interacting with at least one Facebook product in our day to day life.

Sixteen years can seem like an eternity in the tech world, yet Facebook has managed to remain relevant despite all the zillion privacy scandals. All this, while ensuring it continues to remain a profit-generating machine. Veteran technology journalist and Wireds editor-at-large Steven Levy explores just this journey in Facebook: The Inside Story. Never before has any journalist got such unfettered access (three years) to Facebook staff as well as its founder. For this book, Levy conducted nine interviews with Zuckerberg. The result is a 530-page tome on what is easily a definitive account of Facebooks journey so far.

Levys writing style is quite approachable and he doesnt rely too much on jargons when putting his point across. While he has spoken to a lot of influencers in the Valley for this book, at no point does it seem like just one interview after the next. He has seamlessly interspersed story-telling with quotes.

Zuckerberg valued privacy till growth took precedence over everything else

One of the most striking aspects that we are introduced to at the earliest, is Zuckerbergs focus on privacy during the first instance of Facebook. Only verified students with a Harvard.edu email address would be allowed on the platform. This was in an era when being anonymous online was de rigueur. Forget sharing photos, in the early noughties even sharing your real name online was a big no-go area. To force people to use their real identities to access Thefacebook was a move far ahead of its time. This focus carried on well into later years, till the time Facebook decided to let software developers use application programming interfaces (APIs)  software that lets two applications talk to each other. These APIs not just increased the influence of Facebook beyond the site in 2011, but would also give developers access to user data which would show its nasty side only in the future. But I am getting ahead of myself.

If you have been following Facebooks trajectory for the last two years, its disregard for user data privacy was exposed after the Cambridge Analytica data scandal came to light in 2018. One would have believed that privacy was never a priority for Facebook. Period. So when you read the initial account of how Zuckerberg stressed on privacy during Facebooks infancy, it makes you wonder: What could have become of Facebook if data privacy was front and centre? Would it really be the close to the three-billion-plus-user-base behemoth it is today? Your answer is as good as mine.

Facebook didnt invent social networking

Levy goes much beyond a typical this startup was created in a garage narrative when telling the origin story of Facebook. It makes for the strongest part of the book and puts the current developments around Facebook in a much-needed context.

He has highlighted the various proto-social networks of the era (Sixdegrees, Friendster, MySpace, Google-owned Orkut), Zuckerbergs hacker mindset much before he entered Harvard, the hot-or-not prototype Facemash which was deservedly panned and the early ownership battles regarding Facebook with the Winklevoss twins. Thanks to the insider access, Levy also drops a lot of easter eggs throughout the book which have a blink-and-you-miss-it feel. Zuckerberg being colour blind; Kevin Systrom (who would go on to co-found Instagram) trying hard to get an engineering role at Thefacebook; Zuckerberg visiting the very same ashram in India that Steve Jobs had in his youth are a few that stand out.

The Book of Change  a manifesto for world domination online

Chapter six of the book blows you away with exactly the details one is craving for beyond the vast media coverage on Facebook. The Book of Change is a revelation, as it is the first time the world gets an unfiltered glimpse into the mind of the 22-year old Zuckerberg. You may love or hate him, but reading this chapter you cant help but be impressed at his vision so early on in the social networking game. Its here that you come to know that Facebook in colleges was just a gateway drug. Zuckerberg dreamed of world domination.

This was a journal Zuckerberg maintained in 2006 to note down ideas he had for Facebook. In addition to thoughts, he would also draw out detailed screen navigations and user interface features. Some of these thoughts such as Open Registration would eventually see the light of day in the coming years. Zuckerberg eventually destroyed this book, following the publishing of some of his unfortunate IM chats from his Harvard days on a news site. He didnt wish to leave any breadcrumbs for future investigations, he claims.

The man who wont let you easily delete your Facebook account, didnt want any of his thoughts or memories to stay permanent. Oh, the irony!

Levy got access to 17 pages of this journal. How? He claims to have received it in an envelope at his doorstep. From whom? We dont know. But it makes for the hero chapter of the entire book.

One of the most devastating revelations from these 17 pages is the existence of a phenomenon called Dark Profiles  a feature which let Facebook create a shadow profile for you even if you werent on Facebook - by extracting data shared by your friends. So say, I wasnt on Facebook at the time, and I searched my name on Google, a search result with my partly filled profile page on Facebook would show up. This would make onboarding new users that much easier.

Dark profiles or shadow profiles were always a matter of speculation over the years. While Facebook denies their existence, its ex-product VP Chamath Palihapitiya claimed that they did exist and were even searchable on Google.

The human side of Mark Zuckerberg

From a 20-something always seen in his trademark grey T-shirt to the suited CEO appearing before the Senate for a hearing, Zuckerberg has come a long way. Post the Cambridge Analytica scandal, his expressions have often invited words such as robotic, expressionless and other things that dont elicit any human emotion.

Levy does highlight some moments in Zuckerbergs life where he was vulnerable. Chief among them being his breakdown while in the middle of a funding deal in the early days. During a meeting with venture capital firm Accel in 2005, Facebook was being offered double the amount that The Washington Post was willing to invest. Zuckerberg took a loo break. After Zuckerberg didnt return for a long time, his partner went to check on him, only to find Zuckerberg lying on the floor of the mens room, weeping his eyes. Zuckerberg wasnt comfortable going ahead accepting money after having given a word to The Post. It harks back to a time where conscience mattered to Zuckerberg more than big bucks.

And then there are the bizarre instances of his staff blow-drying his sweaty armpits just as hes about to give a keynote address at F8!

As Facebook grows older, the jealous side of Zuckerberg also rears its ugly head. When in 2016, Zuckerberg was on a trip to Nigeria, the fact that the youth there loved using Instagram more, was a mild annoyance to him. Although Zuckerberg has said that he wasnt jealous of Instagram, the defence mounted to justify that is flaky. I had argued back in 2018 how Instagrams growth was sure to rile up things at the mothership Facebook. The exit of Instagram founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, without so much as a Good bye and good luck from Zuckerberg, didnt need stating the obvious.

Zuckerberg was also ruthless when it came to competition. After failed attempts to buy out another emerging social network, Snapchat, the Menlo Park company straight-up copied Snapchats features. Zuckerberg did the same with others including Twitter, Quora, FourSquare and many more. While a lot of the copying attempts failed miserably, Stories (lifted from Snapchat) hit the jackpot.

In many instances of the book, it seems as though Levy is taking Zuckerberg at face value and not really digging in with counter questions. The tone almost makes you feel empathy towards Zuckerberg as a poor little rich kid who just set out to code and make a social network. The fact that Zuckerberg is a genius is not under dispute in the book, or to anyone who has used Facebook. But Levy sometimes gets carried away when putting that point across. In comparison, Levys interactions with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg have a lot more bite to them.

Growth comes at a cost

Levy gets down to brass tacks in Part 2 of the book, wonderfully explaining the growth phase of Facebook. Move fast and break things, is an oft-heard mantra in the Facebook world which refers to innovating at lightning pace and not bothering if it would lead to disastrous consequences. In the initial days of Facebook, this quote was so entrenched in the company culture that new hires were asked to forget about the code-deployment cycles at their previous companies (which would go on for a couple of weeks at the very least) and be quick. If any code took the site down, a company-wide email was sent out, Congratulations! You brought the site down. Which means you are moving fast.

On the basis of your mileage and propensity to follow the nuts and bolts of technology, this middle portion of the book can get a bit dense. Even though Levy has tried to break things down for the non-tech savvy audience, things arent that easy to grasp always. At times it feels there are just too many people dipping in and out of every chapter.

Levy more than makes up for it in the final segment which is all about shining a light on all the controversies that rocked Facebook since the day Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States. The last five years have been one scandal after another where Facebook management was caught with its pants down. Whether it was fake news on its platform, Russian meddling in US elections, Cambridge Analytica data breach, the Facebook-powered Rohingya genocide in Myanmar, the New Zealand mosque shooting broadcast live on Facebook, the revelation that Facebook used a VPN app to scrape user mobile data to acquire competition, Zuckerberg and his team were consistently blindsided. Through conversations with Zuckerberg, Sandberg and a lot of top Facebook brass, Levy highlights the level of unpreparedness at the top.

In the pursuit of growth, Facebook never really gave a damn about its potential to harm democracies or societies, that might come with it. As soon as Facebook had hired Google veteran Sheryl Sandberg as its COO in 2008, the duties between Zuckerberg and her were split. While Zuckerberg would focus on the product, Sandberg would handle everything else which included policy work. Separating product (which is powered by engineering) and policy (which involves looking at the products social impact) was a flaw which would come to hound Facebook as it was exploited to a dystopian degree by the fake news factories and Russian troll accounts operating Facebook Pages. They were just using Facebook the way it was designed to be used. Thanks to lack of any policy overview, they were successful in spreading misinformation and weaponising Facebook.

Although Facebook heads claim they didnt see a lot of the issues coming, theres enough evidence of how advice, given in advance, was blatantly ignored. Any decision that would stop Facebooks growth was never considered. For instance, a Filipino journalist Maria Ressa got a taste of bots and pro-establishment bloggers spreading fake propaganda on Facebook (which was getting ranked higher than genuine news) in the Philippines, back in 2015. She reached out to Facebook about this, but didnt see any proactive action forthcoming. It reached a point where Ressa point-blank told Facebook authorities in August 2016, If you dont do anything about this, Trump could win.

One of the turning points in Facebooks history was the 2016 US Presidential elections. With the 2020 elections approaching, I would have loved to know how Facebook is preparing. Tricks that were used in 2016, will lead to little success. Knowing hackers, there are definitely new tactics on the horizon. I felt Levy didnt really manage to extract those out of Zuckerberg or any of the top honchos of Facebook, which was a downer.

Sheryl Sandberg gets a raw deal

Sheryl Sandberg is the second most important person at Facebook today. As compared to Zuckerberg, one gets a feeling that Sandberg has got a pretty raw deal in the book. Levy doesnt hold back any punches when evaluating her role during all the various scandals that Facebook went through. Post the 2016 elections, Sandberg was almost an absent COO. One can sympathise with that, given she had just lost her husband a year ago. But its during the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018, that one learns how Sandberg didnt really rise up to be the leader that one would expect her to be. Her shutting down the then chief security officer, Alex Stamos, for stating a fact in a board meeting, is just one instance of her high handed behaviour.

At some point, you feel bad for the way Sandberg has been written about. But when you read of instances of Sandberg not paying any heed to warnings given way in advance, you cant keep the sympathy up. A genocide caused by a company, which you are the COO of, doesnt reflect very nicely on you. On the topic of fake news, Sandberg maintains in a 2019 conversation with Levy, that maybe fake news existed but no one was thinking about it back in 2015. There are enough examples in the book which point to the contrary.

Ill go out on a limb and say that I wouldnt be surprised if Sandberg is the next big ticket departure from Facebook.

The trio who transformed Facebook at various stages

Apart from Sandberg who is still around Zuckerberg, there are two other personalities who are no longer with the company but who really catapulted Facebook at crucial points in its journey.

One of the most memorable scenes from the 2010 David Fincher film, The Social Network, was Sean Parker essayed by Justin Timberlake explaining Jesse Eisenbergs Mark Zuckerberg the goldmine that Facebook would become. Levy maintains that their real-life encounters werent as dramatic, but Sean Parker (co-founder of Napster and Valley networker par excellence) crossed paths with Zuckerberg at the most critical initial junctures of his growing company. Levy brings home the point that it was Parker who took on the boring work of gathering funds for Facebook, a task that didnt interest Zuckerberg at all. In fact, early Facebookers have gone so far as to say that were it not for Parker, Facebook wouldve been gobbled up by venture capitalists. Parker ensured early on that that never came to pass. Parker was eventually let go after he was arrested at one of his wild house parties where cocaine was consumed.

One of the critical phases in Facebooks journey once it figured out the platform was growth. Enter first-generation Sri Lankan Facebook VP Chamath Palihapitiya, who had already earned his chops at AOL. Palihapitiya was brought on board by Parker at a time when growth at Facebook had plateaued to 90 million users. By focussing on a metric called monthly active users (to note who was consistently using Facebook for a month and retaining those users), improving search engine optimisation for Facebook results on Google and adding a new feature called People You May Know, Palihapitiyas team solved the growth problem at Facebook, taking it closer to the billion users mark.

Regrets galore

A major venture such as Facebook certainly has many more important personalities, but Parker and Palihapitiya are important because these Facebook growth hackers would eventually regret what they enabled during their time at Facebook.

In 2017, Palihapitiya expressed tremendous guilt for having co-created a tool that was ripping apart the social fabric of how society works. He claimed that neither he nor his kids were on Facebook and he would keep it that way. In the same year, Parker also acknowledged that the social-validation feedback loop, that Facebook and all its contemporaries were boosting, was in fact exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology. God only knows what its doing to our childrens brains, Parker had said.

There is a whole Rolodex of names who today regret their role at Facebook in helping it get to where it is. Co-founder Chris Hughes is calling for the breakup of Facebook; WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton started the #DeleteFacebook movement on Twitter after the Cambridge Analytica debacle; former Facebook investor Roger McNamee wrote a book called Zucked: Waking up to the Facebook Catastrophe about Facebook not paying any heed to the misinformation that was rampant on its platform before 2016 US Presidential elections; Jared Morgenstern who co-created the Like button would express that his work led to degrading society and empowering Facebook to get richer by collecting user data.

Bottomline: A definitive guide on the most impactful startup of our generation

All said and done, Facebook: The Inside Story, completely delivers on the expectations I had from this book. Levy isnt new to this territory (he has previously profiled Google in a similar manner, with complete inside access) and the deep reporting comes through. It certainly helps that Levy is a known name in the Valley as that would have opened many doors. He manages to tread the path of access journalism very well preventing it from becoming a PR manifesto for Facebook.








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There has been much praise for Premier Francois Legault's leadership on the COVID-19 public health crisis.



However, the Premier's magnanimous words won't help pay the rent for those Quebecers whose places of employment have been shut down.



There ought to be a temporary suspension of rent payments until federal relief reaches those who need it as housing advocates have sought.



We've been asking the Quebec government to actually suspend all rents for April unless there's money coming from the Quebec government to help tenants to make payments for April, Maxime Roy-Allard of the Association of Housing Committees told CTV.



April 1 is fast approaching. How are scores of tenants in Quebec going to make the rent?



Legault showed leadership on closing down commercial establishments which could become venues for the further spread of the COVID-19 public health crisis.



But, he has shown great hypocrisy by failing to redress the socio-economic impact on the lives of Quebecers who don't have the Premier's plus $100,000/yr salary per year and all of his other savings to fall back-on as an elite member of Quebec's business community.



I applied for unemployment but I'm still worried until I get confirmation in the mail, said tenant Sara Feldman. I always paid my rent on time, never late. Ive never, never had a problem with that.



CTV elaborates that Quebec landlords are warning tenants that if they don't pay or fall behind, they could face "serious consequences".





A report released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives this week highlights that 23 per cent of Quebec households that rent have less than a week of savings to rely on.





"We definitely need to have something put in place to help tenants pay their rent," said Catherine Lussier, a community organizer with the Front d'action populaire en reamenagement urbain (FRAPRU).





Yes, evictions have for now been suspended in Quebec. But, Legault's lack of leadership for renters will mean that they could eventually be evicted under a mountain of debt for rent which they have had no income to pay as a result of the closure of places of work.
The big question is how much of these furloughs will lead to permanent layoffs. Rent the Runway, a pioneer in fashion rental, confirmed earlier Monday, that it was laying off its retail store staff and said it may not be able to reopen its stores that temporarily shuttered earlier this month. Its online subscription service still continues to operate.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30) - A group of local architects and engineers is working to build emergency hospitals for coronavirus disease patients out of shipping containers.

The group called Rapid Deployment (RaD) Hospitals is coordinating with the Department of Health to build these makeshift facilities as few private hospitals have announced that they already reached maximum capacity and can no longer accept more COVID-19 patients.

With rising number of cases, experts believe more hospitals will reach full capacity.

May sources sila ng mga masks, meron din gumagawa ng tents. Pero ano yung hindi naa-address right now? So we decided to focus on isolation and ICU (intensive care units), project head Mac Evangelista told CNN Philippines.

[Translation: They already have sources of masks and some are building tents. But what is not being addressed right now? So we decided to focus on isolation and ICU.]

RaD Hospitals design features a 151-square meter facility that will have twenty-four isolation rooms. It will also have nurse stations.

The group is now in the fund-raising phase. One facility will cost at least P2 million and thats just for labor.

Aside from money donations, the group is also calling on shipping companies to donate decommissioned container vans.

They also need donations for other construction materials such as steel and fiber cement.

Itong project hindi lang about helping the health industry. Tinitignan din namin na tumulong sa mga kasamahan natin sa constructionlahat ng projects on hold. Yung mga sume-sweldo ng arawan, ito na yung opportunity na kumita during these times, Evangelista said.

[Translation: This project is not just about helping the health industry. We are also looking forward to help people in the construction industry, whose projects are on hold. Those who earn their wages daily, this is an opportunity for them during these times.
Well into the coronavirus disaster that began unfolding last December in China, people began to notice brilliant blue skies replacing those normally choked with the heavy gray of air pollution. With workers staying home and factories closing down, unhealthy conditions that are part of everyday life in that country had lifted for the moment.

In Venice, as COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, took such a terrible hold, people began to notice the water had cleared in the canals of Venice, a result of boats being idled and the sediment remaining on the bottom.

Unintended positive consequences of impossibly miserable situations.

With requests becoming orders in recent days to stay at home in Lehigh Valley and Warren County as coronavirus cases and deaths mount, people might not yet have noticed the streets of the region havent been safer in years.

Police have.

But like Chinas skies and Italys canals, there are worries the decrease in calls for police services could reverse if the circumstances driving the current conditions change. And like Venices water, which is clearer but no more healthy, there havent been structural changes to public safety in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, just huge alterations in proximity of criminal to victim.

For the moment, however, Colonial Regional police Chief Roy Seiple said last week in an email exchange with lehighvalleylive.com, Dont jinx us.

Seiples department patrols the retail corridor along Route 248 in Lower Nazareth Township that features a Walmart, a Wegmans and a Target among numerous significant stores. It takes a lot of the departments time and resources each week to deal with the many minor crimes that such a shopping mecca draws.

Colonial Regional Police Chief Roy Seiple.lehighvalleylive.com file photo

We have not had a retail theft in at least a week. We were running five a week. Crime is almost unheard of, Seiple said in an email early last week that was followed days later with one that said it had gotten busier, but not dramatically so.

Call volume from the week of the eighth to this week is cut around half. Hardly any crashes. Wegmans has hired our off-duty officers to work from 06:30 to 22:30 hrs every day. No issues have been reported at either of the two stores" in Lower Nazareth and Hanover Township, Northampton County, Seiple reports.

In numerous interviews over the past week, police brass in communities from Hackettstown to South Whitehall Township, Blairstown Township to Palmer Township all had the same message: Reports of crime have dropped, in many cases dramatically so.

Calls for service are definitely down and as stores started closing, our typical and usual retail thefts stopped as well, Palmer Detective Jim Alercia said. Less people out and about, less things to call about. Even driving through the township the roads and parking lots are less congested.

Police are always wary about using the word quiet because saying it out loud seems to risk things changing. But Wilson Borough Chief Chris Meehan went there.

Its been relatively quiet, he said. Were still getting our normal calls for service but crime and arrests have been down.

Lopatcong Township Chief Jason Garcia said its not just in his small section of Warren County that this is taking place.

Statistics are showing crime rates going down all over the state, he said. People are heeding warnings. ... We are seeing a crime reduction.

Douglas Steinhardt, left, swears in police Chief Jason Garcia.lehighvalleylive.com file photo

District Judges Richard Yetter III and John Capobianco have held their positions in Northampton County for nine and 13 years, respectively. Each district judge in the county serves a week of nighttime duty on a rotating basis. Yetter and Capobianco were on as the coronavirus shutdown took hold.

Both noticed that they were afforded a bit more sleep.

Its unbelievable, Capobianco said. ... Its been considerably slower. It must be the virus. Thats all I can think of.

The only type of crime that hadnt dropped off was domestic-related, but even there, with everyone in close quarters, an anticipated surge has yet to occur.

I would agree crime as a majority has decreased, Blairstown Chief Scott Johnsen said. We have seen a very small rise in mental-health-related cases a well as domestics.

Slate Belt Regional Chief Jonathon Hoadley figures people at this point at doing whats expected of them.

There has been a subtle drop in calls," Hoadley said. A few domestics but not related to the stay-at-home initiative. No major crimes. Most people are following the guidelines so far. Hopefully the status quo is maintained.

While there have been instances of people spitting at folks and claiming to have the virus, the probably most spot-on crime happened in Allentown when a man in a surgical mask pulled an armed robbery. Wilson Borough had a robbery Saturday of a man in from New York City -- considered an epicenter of the growing viral outbreak.

But even the Lehigh Valleys biggest city -- the third largest on Pennsylvania -- is receiving fewer calls, Allentown police Chief Glenn Granitz said in conversations earlier and late in the week.

Still fair to say, he texted on Friday. Thats what we are currently experiencing.

South Whitehall Township police Chief Glen Dorney.lehighvalleylive.com file photo

In South Whitehall Township, where a reported attempted bank robbery last week turned out to be a man outside banging on the door, Chief Glen Dorney said the trend has held true in his municipality.

Yes, weve been much slower than normal, which is good, he said.

While Pennsylvania State Police Troop Ms Nathan Branosky, who is the public information officer for the barracks in Northampton and Lehigh counties as well as part of Bucks County, wouldnt talk about crime trends, he did get into the other major coverage issue for police in a region filled with jammed highways.

Weve seen a significant decrease in the number of motor vehicle accidents, the trooper said. Theres not as much vehicular traffic. It shows us more people at adhering to the governors order to stay indoors and we appreciate everyones efforts.

Something else no one wants to talk about is the benefit to officers safety when they have to have fewer interactions with the public. While most departments have made unspecified changes in order to help keep police personnel from getting COVID-19, they, like medical and fire safety personnel, have a duty to protect the public. And to perform that duty, they have to be in public, often within the six-foot safe zone encouraged by the experts.

So fewer crimes and crashes mean, overall, less risk of infection.

How long can the slowdown continue? If it takes too long for federal cash infusions to arrive on many door steps, or if the money doesnt hold up over an extended lockdown, will crime continue to take a holiday?

Easton police Chief Carl Scalzo, noting the current downturn but then asked about what happens down the line, said he has an enduring faith in the people in the city where he was raised to do the right thing in challenging circumstances.

But the question is out there. Anyone remember 1973 in New York City?

I think its in the forefront of everyones mind, Garcia, the Lopatcong chief, said. Its unknown whats going to happen next. Were in uncharted territory.

The goal, he added, is to weather the storm and hopefully well come out on top on this one.

For more information on the coronavirus, consult your state health department at health.pa.gov or covid19.nj.gov and the website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
By PTI

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has recorded its first death due to coronavirus, a 65-year-old diabetic man.

The man, who was being treated for the deadly viral infection at Colombo's Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH), died on Saturday, said Anil Jasinghe, Director General of the Health Services.

The patient had a history of high blood pressure and blood sugar, he said.

ALSO READ | Over 2,000 Indians stranded in Sri Lanka due to coronavirus lockdown

According to Health Ministry officials, the man had contracted the virus from Lanka's second coronavirus patient who was in contact with a group of Italian tourists.

As of Monday, there were 117 confirmed COVID-19 cases and one death in the island nation.

Nine persons have been cured of the disease, while 199 were under observation at designated hospitals across the country.

Meanwhile, the country continues to remain under curfew and a restriction remained imposed on foreign arrivals.

FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES HERE

Indefinite curfew will continue in Colombo, Gampaha, Kaluthra, Puttalam, Jaffna and Kandy, while for other regions, the ban will be lifted for eight hours -- from 6:00 AM to 2:00 PM -- on Monday.

The ban on foreign arrivals has been extended till April 7 to contain the spread of the virus.

The Commissioner General of Prisons said some 1,460 prisoners will be released in view of the coronavirus threat.

Those inmates will be released who are serving jail terms for failing to fulfil bail conditions, he said.

Last week there was a riot in the north central province jail, causing at least two deaths, as inmates feared that they may get infected by the virus.
Two specially equipped high-speed trains carried 36 patients from Mulhouse and Nancy to hospitals along France's western coast

Nancy: France staged its largest evacuation of coronavirus patients to date from hospitals in the hard-hit east on Sunday, increasing efforts to free up intensive care units as officials warned of an influx of serious cases in the coming days.

Two specially equipped high-speed trains carried 36 patients from Mulhouse and Nancy to hospitals along France's western coast, where the outbreak has been limited so far.

Dozens of hospital workers, flanked by police and soldiers standing guard, spent hours installing four patients in each wagon in an operation that began before dawn.

"We have to free up beds, it's absolutely crucial.... We're still seeing an increase in patient numbers," said Francois Brun, head of emergency services at the regional hospital in nearby Metz.

The evacuations came as Germany sent a military plane for the first time to Strasbourg to transport two patients to a hospital in Ulm.

Around 80 French patients have been hospitalised in Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg, European Affairs

Minister Amelie de Montchalin told France Inter radio. France has been evacuating dozens from the east over the past week, hoping to stay ahead of a crisis that Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has warned will only worsen over the next fortnight.

Overall, more than 4,600 coronavirus patients are in intensive care in France, many with severe respiratory problems requiring ventilators that officials worry could soon be in short supply.

On Sunday the national health service reported 292 new coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 2,606.

The daily toll was below the 319 deaths reported on Saturday, but the figures include only deaths reported in hospitals, and not at retirement homes or assisted-living facilities.
Harsh lockdowns aimed at halting the march of the coronavirus extended around the world on Monday as the death toll soared past 35,000 despite slivers of hope in stricken Italy and Spain.

In a symbol of the scale of the challenge facing humanity, a US military medical ship sailed into New York to relieve the pressure on overwhelmed hospitals bracing for the peak of the pandemic.

The tough measures that have confined some two-fifths of the globes population to their homes extended further with Moscow and Lagos both joining the roll call of cities around the globe with eerily empty streets.

The number of declared COVID-19 cases around the world topped 700,000, with 400,000 of those in Europe, while most of the confirmed deaths are also from the continent, according to an AFP tally.-

World leaders  several of whom have themselves been stricken or forced into isolation  are still grappling for ways to deal with a crisis that will have economic and social shockwaves unseen since World War II.

US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed closer cooperation on the pandemic and talked about plunging oil prices in a telephone call on Monday, the Kremlin said.

 Good for morale 

The navys USNS Comfort, which has space for 1,000 beds and a dozen operating rooms, docked just a day after Trump extended social-distancing measures in the United States until the end of April.

It will be good for morale, said NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio of the arrival of the Comfort, which will care for people requiring intensive care unrelated to the coronavirus, easing the burden on an overwhelmed hospital network.

In Russia, Putin on Monday urged residents of Moscow to very seriously respect a lockdown that has seen the closure of all non-essential shops, including restaurants and cafes, in Europes largest city.

Red Square in the heart of Moscow was deserted and the surrounding streets were quiet.

Anna, a 36-year-old web designer, said the lockdown would be hard for her and her five-year-old daughter. But I dont want Arina to get sick, she told AFP while on her way to buy some bread. So of course we will observe the quarantine.

Fears of a rise in cases drove Moscow to follow Italy, Spain and France in imposing full lockdowns, and Europe remains the epicentre of the pandemic with the death toll there passing 25,000 on Monday, according to an AFP tally.

 Work continues 

After weeks of life spent under a national lockdown in Italy, signs were emerging that its drastic actions could slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Even though the countrys death toll grew by 812 in 24 hours to 11,591, figures from the civil protection service showed the rate of new COVID-19 infections hitting a new low of just 4.1 percent and the number of people who had recovered reached a new high.

The data are better but our work continues, said Giulio Gallera, the chief medical officer of Lombardy, Italys worst-hit region.

Spain also announced another 812 virus deaths in 24 hours.

While the isolation measures have reduced the pressure on intensive care units, in the coming weeks it will be significant, said Maria Jose Sierra of the Spanish health ministrys emergencies centre.

Spain meanwhile joined the United States and Italy in surpassing the number of cases in China, where the disease first emerged in December in the city of Wuhan.

France however reported its highest daily number of deaths since the outbreak began, saying 418 more people had died in hospital.

 Nothing to eat 

Britain and Italy both warned at the weekend that measures to prevent the spread of the disease would be in place for months to come.

In Britain the disease has hit high profile figures including Prime Minister Boris Johnson and heir to the throne Prince Charles, who was out of virus isolation, according to royal officials.

In Israel, meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became the latest world leader to go into isolation and German Chancellor Angela Merkels third coronavirus test came back negative.

The lockdowns are causing hardship across the world but particularly in impoverished cities in Africa and Asia.

Africas biggest city, Lagos, was due to join the global stay-at-home from Monday, with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari ordering a two-week lockdown for its 20 million people. The measures, in force from 2200 GMT, also apply to the capital Abuja.

Two weeks is too long. I dont know how we will cope, said student Abdul Rahim, 25, as he helped his sister sell foodstuffs from a market stall.

Zimbabwe on Monday also began enforcing a three-week lockdown in the impoverished southern African country.

They need to be fed, but there is nothing to eat, vegetable vendor Irene Ruwisi said in the township of Mbare, pointing at her four grandchildren. How do they expect us to survive?

The shutdown has already put millions out of work and forced governments to rush through huge stimulus plans.

Experts in Germany, Europes economic powerhouse, said the virus would shrink output there this year by up to 5.4 percent.

The march of the coronavirus has also transformed the sporting and cultural calendar, with the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games announcing that it will open on July 23 next year.

SOURCE: AFP
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh on Monday announced that his administration is handing out 1,000 housing vouchers to low-income families amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The effort is part of a new partnership between the Boston Housing Authority and Boston Public Schools, Walsh said. Of the 1,000 vouchers, 500 for will be dedicated to families in shelters, and another 500 will go towards families at risk for displacement amid the spread of COVID-19.

All families have students in Boston Public Schools.

We know anxiety about housing goes beyond monthly payments," Walsh said on Monday. "Many families have been struggling to find or hold onto housing before this public health crisis even began.

Homeless families will be allowed to find housing in the private market with subsidized rents.

On Monday, Walsh also announced that the city is halting all eviction proceedings until the crisis is over.

Walsh said there are 825 cases of coronavirus in Boston, up 90 from Sunday. Two Boston residents have died, and 55 have made full recoveries. Statewide, there are 5,752 cases as of Monday.

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Swiss 100 franc bank notes are withdrawn from an ATM in the northern Swiss town of Kreuzlingen in this picture illustration

By John Revill

ZURICH (Reuters) - The outlook for the Swiss economy has sunk to its lowest level in five years, a leading indicator showed on Monday, in the first reading of how the coronavirus outbreak will hurt the country's export-driven economy.

The KOF Economic Barometer fell to 92.9 points in March, its lowest since the Swiss National Bank scrapped its Swiss franc peg to the euro <EURCHF=> in 2015.

The March reading, well below the long-term average of 100, points to the expected performance of the economy in six months time.

Michael Graff, head of economic forecasting at KOF, said he expected the barometer to decline in the months ahead and eventually reach levels last seen during the great recession of 2008/9, when it hit 60 points.

"There will be a big recession and a big loss of GDP, but how bad we do not know," he said.

"To determine what will eventually happen is outside the realm of economics and more in the realm of virology and politics," he said.

Two Swiss companies - engineering group ABB <ABBN.S> and cement maker LafargeHolcim <LHN.S> -- have already made profit warnings while the government has responded to the outbreak with a partial lockdown of some businesses.

The country's death toll has reached 257 people, while 14,336 people have tested positive for coronavirus.

KOF this month had outlined three scenarios for the Swiss economy this year, with its base case pointing to growth of 0.3%, well below the average rate of 1.7%.

However it highlighted one case marked by business uncertainty, increasing household debt, supply chain bottlenecks, and widespread liquidity problems.

In this scenario, accompanied by a strengthening Swiss franc, the economy could slip 2.3% this year, KOF said. The government has already forecast a contraction of 1.3%.

"I think our worst-case scenario published on March 16 is much more likely to come true now," Graff said. "That was based on a partial shutdown for a few months and an assumption that the virus will remain for around a year.

Story continues

"It's a safe bet to say we will see a decline in the readings next month as more people work from home and many companies don't respond because they are not operating at the moment, so we will have a bias here," he added.

Still, he did not think the downturn would lead to a big rise in unemployment, with the government supporting companies through its short-time working compensation scheme.

While manufacturing and tourism sectors would bear the brunt of the downturn, financial services would be relatively unaffected while pharmaceuticals - Switzerland's biggest export sector - could benefit.

(Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Michael Shields)
Burma Myanmar Military Gives Support to Religious Leaders, Govt on COVID-19 Prevention

Myanmar military personnel sanitize one of Mandalay's landmarks, the Maha Gandhayon Buddhist Monastery, on March 30, three days after the city announced its first confirmed case of COVID-19. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy

YANGONMyanmars regional military commanders have provided medicine, protective masks, hand sanitizer and conducted medical checks for religious leaders in different states and regions, as a contribution to government efforts to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19.

Over the past week, as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country has risen, regional military commanders visited monasteries, churches, mosques and Hindu temples to help disinfect the sites and meet with senior religious leaders.

Yangon Region military commander Major General Thet Pone visited the Archbishop of Yangon, Cardinal Charles Bo, provided the Catholic Archdiocese of Yangon with preventive supplies and conducted medical checks. A military medical team led by the regional commander also sprayed disinfectant at the Archdiocese headquarters.

The Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) said Sunday that the militarys North Command conducted medical checks and sanitation activities at its office and at churches in the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina.

According to the Office of the Commander-in-Chief, the regional commands conducted medical checks, sanitized religious sites and gave donations to senior Buddhist monks, nuns and leaders from other religions in Naypyitaw, Kachin, Shan, Kayah, Mon and Rakhine states and Tanintharyi, Sagaing, Bago, Mandalay and Yangon regions.

Though there may be a propaganda agenda behind the activities, the Office of the Commander-in-Chief stated on their website that they are conducting the activities as a form of cooperation with the government.

The military is also cooperating with the people and government, the Office of the Commander-in-Chief stated.

Many political analysts believe the relationship between the civilian government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmars powerful military leadership has worsened recently.

Military-appointed lawmakers in Parliament said attempts by the ruling National League for Democracy party to reform the military-drafted Constitution were a disruption to civilian-military relations and only served to sow mistrust.

The partys bid to amend the charter was defeated by military appointed-lawmakers and the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party.

However, military spokesperson Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun told reporters at a recent press conference in Naypyitaw that the military will collaborate with the government on efforts to control COVID-19 in order to protect national interests. He said the military has prepared military hospitals to be used as quarantine centers and has put medical teams on alert

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This has to be the safest place. If you cannot be safe in church, you in serious trouble. We are not stopping anything. I have news for you. This church will never close. The only time the church is closed is when the Rapture is taking place. This Bible school is open because were raising up revivalists, not pansies, he says to hearty applause and cheers.
The devastating impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) on the global economy has compelled Penn National Gaming, Inc. PENN to withdraw its previously announced 2020 guidance.

With the coronavirus pandemic showing no signs of abatement, most companies across the world are undertaking measures to tackle the situation. The companies are not only stalling productions but are also focusing on cost-cutting actions. Despite best efforts by policymakers, it is becoming more difficult for companies to survive amid such trying times.

To mitigate the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company initiated certain actions to reduce its operating expenses. Notably, the CEO and the board of directors have agreed to a pay cut effective from Apr 1, 2020. Moreover, the board has decided to furlough part of its corporate workforce, beginning from the aforementioned date.

President and chief executive officer of Penn National, Jay Snowden, stated, With all of our 41 properties in 19 states temporarily shuttered, like many others in the gaming and hospitality sector, we are making difficult decisions to help preserve our liquidity and ensure a brighter future for our Companys team members, customers, shareholders and other key stakeholders.

Moreover, to protect its business from this crisis, Penn National entered into an agreement with Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc. GLPI to divest its Tropicana Las Vegas property as well as a land in Morgantown, Pennsylvania. The transaction was valued at $337.5 million in rent credits. However, subject to negotiations, the deal is expected to consummate by Apr 30, 2020. Pursuant to the agreement, Penn National also has an option of acquiring GLPIs Hollywood Casino in Perryville, Maryland in the future..

Although, this deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome has claimed too many lives so far, the company shows enough resilience to fight the current calamity and emerge unscathed to welcome back its team members and guests when it is legal and safe. So far this year, shares of the company have plunged 53.9% compared with the industrys decline of 44.6%.

Story continues

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 13:48:20|Editor: Liu

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VIENTIANE, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The Lao government said Sunday that all international checkpoints will be closed for passengers exiting and entering Laos. However, goods transport is still permitted.

The measures were imposed from Monday to April 19 and changes could be made in accordance with further announcement, local daily Vientiane Times reported on Monday.

Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs was told to work with the relevant sectors to facilitate foreign nationals who want to return to their home countries.

Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith on Sunday issued an executive order intensifying prevention and control measures.

The measures were made following an emergency meeting between the cabinet and the National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control on Saturday.

People from all walks of life, including foreign expatriates in Laos, are not allowed to go out from their houses or accommodation for non-essential purposes.

"Passenger transport is temporarily suspended," the government's Spokesman Chaleun Yiabaoher told a press conference shortly after the prime minister signed the order.

Civil servants were told to work from home starting from Wednesday to April 19, except those in charge of essential duties.

People are prohibited from travelling to other localities or risky areas where infections were reported, except for essential trips permitted by authorities such as goods transport or going to hospital.

Outbreak fears in Laos escalated after thousands of Lao workers in neighboring countries, especially Thailand, where a widespread outbreak was reported, have rushed home, said the report.

The order prohibits organizing any event, party, celebration or meeting with more than 10 attendees in order to avoid crowded gatherings.

Referring to the prime minister's order, the spokesman warned distributors and merchants not to stock goods and increase prices unreasonably, especially food and medical equipment.

Chaleun also warned those circulating fake news trigging fear or panic would face punitive measures.

Laos has detected eight confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Saturday afternoon.
Colombia's last recognised leftist guerrilla group, the ELN, has announced a month-long ceasefire in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a statement released Monday said.

The rebels said they would unilaterally suspend military action from April 1 to the end of the month "as a humanitarian gesture."



The statement was disseminated by a group of Colombian senators who are seeking a peace process with the group.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ranchi, March 30 : Ranchi police on Monday raided a mosque here, where 24 people including 17 foreigners were hiding.

These people have been sent to isolation wards at Khel Gaon in Ranchi. Of the 17 foreigners, eight belong to Malaysia, three Britain, two West Indies, two Gambia, one each from Holland and Bangladesh.

Ranchi police got the information that some people were residing at a mosque called Badi Masjid situated under Hindpiri police station of Ranchi.

The police reached the mosque with a medical team. The people hiding there were found to be living in the mosque for the last one month.

Last week, nine Muslims were found to be hiding in a mosque at Bundu situated on the outskirts of Ranchi. They were sent to isolation wards. Some of them belonged to China.




Spanish Princess Maria Teresa de Borbon-Parma, 86, became the first royal to fall victim to COVID-19.

Maria Teresa, who was also known as "the red princess", died in Paris at 86-years-old, just weeks after Spain's King Felipe IV tested negative for the virus. Her brother, Prince Sixto Enrique de Borbon, announced the news via his social media account.



Born in July 1933, She was the second daughter of Francisco Javier de Borbon y Barganza who claimed the Carlist throne after the forced exile of Spain's King Alfonso.

Princess Maria Theresa received her doctorate in Hispanic studies from Paris-Sorbonne University and another in political sociology from the Complutense University in Madrid. She also studied Islam and how it connected to women's rights in Arab nations.

Maria Theresa was a known activist who fought for women's rights. She took part in making the Spanish Carlist party more liberal. She was given the nickname "the red princess" for her progressiveness and diplomatic attitude.

She earned her Spanish nationality in 1981. Maria Theresa has never been married and does not have children.

Get up-to-date with the latest coronavirus news:

Prince Charles, 71, tested positive for the deadly virus and is reportedly self-isolating in Scotland.

The royal family released the news on March 25 where they revealed the prince to be suffering from mild symptoms brought about by the coronavirus. They assured the public the royal member, along with his wife The Duchess of Cornwall, were observing self-quarantine in their home.

The news was not well-received by the public as NHS workers are still awaiting their chance to get tested for the global pandemic. Many claim Prince Charles was given preference over thousands of medical workers working on the frontline.

A Clarence House spokesperson addressed the issue, saying Prince Charles met the criteria required for testing. The palace refuses to release further details about his health.

In recent news, one of Queen Elizabeth's staff is reportedly infected with COVID-19. The queen's royal footman, who is tasked to walk the royal monarch's dogs, is now in self-isolation as required by medical guidelines.

The footman has reportedly served the queen for more than six years. He was promoted in 2019 where, in addition to walking the dogs, he was given the task of taking meals to the monarch as well as managing her post.

The royal footman saw Queen Elizabeth daily. His conditions, as well as the date of his diagnosis, remain unclear.

It is believed the monarch, who has relocated to Windsor Castle in Berkshire on March 19, has severely reduced her support staff. She has reportedly allowed most of her staff to continue their work from home.

The queen, who is now 93, would be considered a high-risk patient if she contracts the virus as she has had multiple health problems in recent years.

The royal family has taken extra precautions to ensure that the other members of the royal family, including Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, remain safe from COVID-19.
By Akbar Mammadov

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has urged international organizations to boycott the upcoming so-called presidential and parliamentary elections to be held in Azerbaijans occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region, saying that the elections constitute a clear violation of the international law and is an attempt to legitimize the region's occupation by Armenia.

The so-called presidential and parliamentary elections to be held on March 31, 2020 in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, is a manifestation of the efforts to unilaterally legitimize the current situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, which is contrary to international law. This step is a flagrant violation of international law, including the UN Security Council Resolutions and the OSCE principles.

At a stage when there are talks within the OSCE Minsk Process to find a peaceful settlement for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, holding the so-called elections in the occupied territories undermines the efforts towards a peaceful and lasting resolution. We call on the international community, including the OSCE Minsk Group, not to recognise these elections.

Turkey does not recognize these illegitimate elections that will constitute a new violation of Azerbaijan's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Turkey, as a member of the OSCE Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will continue to support efforts towards a fair and lasting solution, Turkish Foreign Ministry noted in the statement.

--

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Zan Moore was one of 13 people who arrived in the remote city of Jaen, Peru, for a meditation retreat on March 15. On that same day, the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency and closed its borders in an effort to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.

For the last 15 days, Moore, 34, and the rest of his group, all of whom are from Oregon or California, have been quarantined on a friends farm in Jaen. Soldiers are standing guard to restrict the movement of people across provinces within the country, leaving Moore and his group with no choice but to wait for aid from the U.S. Embassy.

Its been such a roller coaster, said Cheryl Moore, Zan Moores mother. I get really excited that something is happening and then, its up and down. I feel like we have a lot of people in our corner, but I cant help but wonder about other travelers. Its got to be so scary for so many people. Theres so many people all over the world in similar situations. It breaks my heart for my son and for people all over the world.

The State Department said last week that more than 50,000 Americans abroad were asking the United States for help getting home as countries closed their borders amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Initially, Americans stuck abroad said they received little guidance from local embassies or the State Department as they tried to find ways home. But the State Department has recently stepped up its efforts to help Americans abroad. The State Department says it has coordinated the repatriation of 25,181 U.S. citizens from 52 countries since Jan. 29, including 3,140 from Peru. The U.S. is ensuring that three flights a day -- two from Lima and one from Cusco -- continue to take off from Peru until at least April 1.

We are still working to connect people to commercial options where those flights are available and to lay on charter flights where they are not, said Ian Brownlee, the State Departments deputy assistant secretary for consular affairs. In some countries, we are seeing demand for repatriation already beginning to drop as we bring home hundreds or thousands of Americans. We strongly encourage those still overseas to take advantage of the flights we are coordinating while they remain available.

But while the State Department has been able to coordinate the safe return of thousands of Americans through its recent repatriation efforts, thousands of other Americans, particularly in remote areas, still remain stuck abroad.

With no commercial planes flying between provinces in Peru, Moore and his group have looked into arranging bus travel from Jaen to Lima, a 750-mile trip. They were able to find a local company that is willing to transport them to Lima for one of the flights arranged by the State Department, but they still need the Peruvian government and the U.S. Embassy in Peru to grant them permission to travel between provinces.

The group has been working closely with the office of Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Portland. They have also been in contact with Oregon senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, who have both been focused on aiding Oregonians stranded abroad as well.

While Im glad to have helped many Oregonians stranded overseas to return home both by raising this issue directly with State Department leadership and having my staff work round-the-clock, Ill keep working until there are similar happy reunions with loved ones for all the Oregonians stuck overseas in Peru and all countries, said Wyden in a statement.

Among the Oregonians who the State Department has aided are Dena Minato and her husband, Dave Kullowatz. The two retired teachers from Albany arrived in Peru on March 9 for a month-long vacation. After their plans were derailed, Minato and Kullowatz ended up spending two weeks at an Airbnb in Cusco, Peru, waiting for word from the U.S. Embassy that they had been booked on a flight back to the United States. They said they were thankful to have a gracious Airbnb host that made sure they were cared for during their extended stay.

We really didnt get any official word or confirmation about the shutdown of airports and borders until we walked into our Airbnb in Cusco, Minato said. Up until then, things were really not clear. We had very little time to adjust any plans.

Minato and Kullowatz were finally contacted by the U.S. Embassy in Peru Sunday night and boarded a flight to Miami with more than 100 other Americans on Monday morning, after signing a promissory note promising to pay back the U.S. government for arranging the LATAM Airlines flight. They expect the flight will cost each of them between $800 and $1,000. They will also have to book their own flights from Miami back to Oregon.

Stephanie Goldberger, 29, also managed to leave Peru and return to Portland last week after securing a seat on a charter flight separate from those organized by the State Department. Sheila Hornocker and six members of her family managed to return to Oregon City from Fiji only after Fiji Airways added a last-minute flight. Both Goldberger and Hornocker said they breezed through customs when they finally arrived back in the U.S. and were surprised that no medical checks were administered. There are only five reported cases of COVID-19 in Fiji, but there are 852 in Peru.

For all that our country is doing and saying we have to do, the (customs officers) did not ask us anything, Hornocker said. They said, Welcome home, stamped our passports and sent us on our way. No temperature check, no, You should self-quarantine, nothing. I find that the most worrisome.

Both Goldberger and Hornocker are now thankful to be back in the comfort of their own homes, even as they continue to adhere to Oregon Gov. Kate Browns stay home order. But in her home in Mosier, Cheryl Moore remains on edge as she continues to wait for her son to return home.

Its nerve-racking, she said. Right now, theyre in a safe place, but dang, we want those people home.

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com | @jamiebgoldberg

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
There is an inclining number of states and counties across the United States of America that are restricting the movement of their residents amid the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus had led to at least 220 million US citizens to stay at home, says an article.

From the latest records, there are at least 26 states in the US that had issued orders to residents to stay in their homes.

Some stated are calling it shelter-in-place order while others call it stay-at-home orders. The directives are unique in the state where it is being implemented. However, some common part of the orders is the avoidance of nonessential reasons for leaving their homes. Residents are being asked to stay inside as much as possible to prevent the further spread of the novel coronavirus.

The Orders are not Lockdowns

Despite these orders, you should not panic because they are not lockdowns. The orders still allow residents to continue tasks necessary for the health and safety of family and their pets. The orders do not prohibit citizens from buying at the grocery stores, going for a jog, walking the dog, buying medicine, and visiting the doctor.

Each state and local authorities in the US are given federal guidelines on what they should consider as 'essential' businesses during emergencies. However, in general, those businesses include grocery stores, food production businesses, healthcare businesses, pharmacies, shipping businesses, utility companies, and banking institutions. Also, law enforcement, emergency services, news outlets, and other governmental services are 'essential' businesses that are allowed to be open during these orders.

Here are some of the states from the US that are implementing these orders:

Check these out:

New Mexico

The governor of New Mexico Michelle Lujan Grisham released a public health order on Monday. The order requires non-essential businesses to suspend operations until April 10.

The order in the state took effect on Tuesday morning. The order asks residents of the state to remain inside their homes. Also, the order advises citizens to only go out if the errand is for health, safety, and welfare. Additionally, the order does not allow gatherings with more than four attendees.

California

The governor of California Gavin Newsom had released an announcement for a statewide shelter-in-place order on March 19.

The governor stated 16 critical sectors. These sectors include those that provide health care, food, and energy.

According to Newson, that it is a dynamic situation. He revealed that he does not expect the situation to continue for many months. However, he stated that the following eight weeks after his announcement is a crucial period.

Texas

The governor of Texas Greg Abbott had given local governments the decision to declare stay-at-home orders instead of declaring a state-wide order.

The counties in the states that implemented the stay-at-home policy are Tarrant County, Dallas County, Bexar County, Collin County, El Paso County, Harris County, Austin, and Hunt County.
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Earlier in the day, Iranian Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi said the number of infected people has taken a downward trend in 13 Iranian provinces, Xinhua news agency reported.Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif condemned the US insistence on anti-Iran sanctions amid the COVID-19 outbreak as "medical terror," once again urging the international community to disregard the "illegal" US sanctions.Kianoush Jahanpour, spokesman for the Iranian Health Ministry, said Iran is developing a stem-cell therapy that uses mesenchymal stromal cells to treat the patients infected with COVID-19.Doctors in Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran announced that they are considering the use of COVID-19 convalescent plasma, taken from those who have recovered from the disease, to treat the newly infected patients.In Damascus, a Syrian woman died upon arrival at a hospital over COVID-19, which is the first death case in the country. Meanwhile, four new cases were reported, raising the total number of infections in Syria to nine.Turkey, the second hardest-hit country in the Middle East, reported 1,815 new cases of COVID-19 infection, as the total number surged to 9,217. Meanwhile, 23 more people died in Turkey from the highly infectious disease, raising the death toll to 131.In its biggest single-day rise, Israel reported 628 new cases on Sunday, raising the total number of COVID-19 infections to 4,247. The death toll rose to 15, up by two from Saturday.The number of COVID-19 cases in Morocco rose to 463 on Sunday, up by 104 from Saturday, while the death toll increased to 26 after two more deaths were reported.The United Arab Emirates announced 102 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 570, the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention said.Qatar reported 44 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number to 634, of whom one has died and 48 have died.Iraq's Health Ministry confirmed 41 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of the infections to 547, of whom 42 have died and 143 have recovered.Tunisia reported 34 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 312.In Cairo, Egypt announced 33 new cases of COVID-19, raising the total number of infections to 609, including 40 deaths.The Central Bank of Egypt set new temporary limits for daily cash withdrawals and deposits for businesses and individuals as part of its efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19. The daily limit for deposits and cash withdrawals for individuals is 10,000 Egyptian pounds (636 U.S. dollars) and 50,000 pounds for companies.Kuwait reported 20 new COVID-19 cases, as the total number of confirmed cases in the country climbed to 255, of whom 67 have recovered.Oman reported 15 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 167, of whom 23 have recovered.Jordan confirmed the second death from the novel coronavirus and 13 new cases of infection, raising the total to 259.Jordanian Minister of State for Media Affairs Amjad Adaileh said all those who were quarantined at hotels in Amman and the Dead Sea will be sent home starting Monday after completing the necessary period in quarantine.Palestine on Sunday recorded six new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number to 104.Matthias Schmale, head of of UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, said he was gravely concerned about the spread of the virus in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza Strip, because of its vulnerable situation as a result of the 13-year-old Israeli blockade.The UN-backed government of Libya announced five new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number to eight. It also issued a ban on people's movement between cities in order to fight the COVID-19, while extending the previously imposed curfew, which will last 2 p.m. to 7 a.m. as of Monday.Tunisian Minister of Health Abdellatif Mekki said on Sunday that his ministry will soon start using new COVID-19 testing kits, which can produce results in just 10 minutes.A day earlier, Tunisian presidency announced that it received a batch of medical supplies and equipment from China to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.Source: IANS
Spectator USA has taken down the paywall on UK Dr. John Lees exposition of How to understand  and report  figures for COVID deaths. Dr. Lee makes makes this salient observation that is otherwise obscured in the discussion of death rates attributed to the virus:

You might think it would be easy to calculate death rates. Death is a stark and easy-to-measure end point. In my working life (Im a retired pathology professor) I usually come across studies that express it comparably and as a ratio: the number of deaths in a given period of time in an area, divided by that areas population. For example, 10 deaths per 1,000 population per year. So just three numbers: 1. The population who have contracted the disease

2. The number dying of disease

3. The relevant time period The trouble is that in the COVID-19 crisis each one of these numbers is unclear.

On point 2:

Unfortunately nuance tends to be lost in the numbers quoted from the database being used to track COVID-19: the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. It has compiled a huge database, with COVID-19 data from all over the world, updated daily  and its figures are used, world over, to track the virus. This data is not standardized and so probably not comparable, yet this important caveat is seldom expressed by the (many) graphs we see. It risks exaggerating the quality of data that we have. * * * * * It should be noted that there is no international standard method for attributing or recording causes of death. Also, normally, most respiratory deaths never have a specific infective cause recorded, whereas at the moment we can expect all positive COVID-19 results associated with a death to be recorded. Again, this is not splitting hairs. Imagine a population where more and more of us have already had COVID-19, and where every ill and dying patient is tested for the virus. The deaths apparently due to COVID-19, the COVID trajectory, will approach the overall death rate. It would appear that all deaths were caused by COVID-19  would this be true? No. The severity of the epidemic would be indicated by how many extra deaths (above normal) there were overall.

Read the whole thing here.
Some 139.4 million has been approved by Parliament to finance the construction of phase one of the Bolgatanga-Bawku-Polimakom road.

The amount is to be provided by HSBC Bank and KEW IPEX Bank GmbH and under the credit arrangement, the HSBC Bank Plc., United Kingdom will lend a total of up to 68,000,000.00 and km IPEX GmbH will also lead up to 72,000,000.

The agreements were presented to the House on March 24, 2020 by the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, on behalf of the Minister of Finance, and were approved by the House last Friday.

Government said good road infrastructure is a critical facilitator for rapid socio-economic development of the country through the improvement of accesses, reduction in travel times, congestion, vehicle operating costs and accidents.

The government has already implemented some major road infrastructure projects and continues to source funding for the implementation of additional critical road infrastructure projects in line with the infrastructure development agenda.

This is to ensure the operational efficiency of road transport in moving persons, goods and services, within and outside the country.

The 102.55km Bolgatanga-Bawku-Polimakom road starts from Bolgatanga Municipality as a dual carriage road for 2km and continues as a single carriageway through Zebilla, Bawku and ends at Polimakom.

The Finance Committee said in its report that in view of the importance of the road, the Government of Ghana commenced the construction of the Bolgatanga-Bawku-Polimakom road in 2016 with funding from the Road Fund.

Unfortunately, Road Fund was unable to release the needed funds to finance the project. As a result, the project has stalled, the committee noted.

Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr. Mark Assibey-Deborah, who moved for the adoption of the committee's report, said in line with Government's efforts to develop the country, HSBC Bank and KM IE'EX Bank GmbH have agreed to provide the needed funding for the road project.

PROJECT OBJECTIVE

According to him, the objective of the project is to reduce and improve waiting and travel times within the Bolgatanga and Bawku environs with consequent reduction in poverty and enhanced development in Ghana.

PROJECT SCOPE

The project road length is 102.55km (109.05 + 6.00 12.50) with a carriageway width of 3.65m x 2, and outer shoulders of 2.0m x 2, the report said and added that three new bridges are to be provided over Rivers Kulaa, Red Volta and White Volta, whilst the existing pipe culverts will be extended in addition to the construction of new ones.

PROJECT BENEFITS

The Committee observed that when completed, the road project will contribute significantly to socio-economic activities.

The road, when completed, will also reduce pedestrian and vehicular congestion and consequently cost of transportation for both passenger and cargo; enhance economic activities and improved public transport and standard of living of the citizenry; as well as create jobs for skilled and non-skilled labour in Bolgatanga, Bawku and its environs.

The Committee said the project was expected to be completed within a period of 17 months from the date of commencement.

---Daily Guide
The coronavirus pandemic is in the local transmission stage in India and there is still no sign of community spread, the government said on Monday, as the total number of cases rose to 1,071 and the death toll stood at 29.

Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health, said that 92 new cases and four deaths due to coronavirus have been reported in India since Sunday. "It took 12 days for cases to rise from 100 to 1,000 in our country, whereas seven other developed nations having lesser population than us have seen multiple increase," he said, as quoted by news ...
Disinformation usually begins with a post on Facebook which is then shared over Telegram or Viber, two online messengers popular in Ukraine.

The water service in Odesa, a port city in southern Ukraine, was suddenly overrun this week with calls from worried residents with a peculiar concern. Were officials really planning to run an antiseptic solution through the citys taps instead of water?

The calls were sparked by a message on social media claiming that: "Today, from 23:00 until the morning, antiseptic will be distributed" in the water system, The Daily Times reports.

The antiseptic supposedly included several different whiskies  a brand for each district. However outlandish the claim, Odesa's water agency still issued a clarification.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, false news stories have spiked in Ukraine, fuelled by mistrust of authorities and of Russia, which Kyiv says wants to sow instability.

"Before the pandemic, we received seven or eight requests each day to verify information," said Alyona Romanyuk, the founder of a platform that debunks false stories online. "Now there are around 100."

Among them, the Ukrainian security services denied rumors that authorities planned to douse the capital with disinfectant by helicopter.

Another claimed that medical services for pregnant women and cancer patients were disrupted due to COVID-19.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky himself denied "horror stories" that 400,000 Ukrainians were infected.

"False information spreads much faster than the virus," he said on television last week.

According to official statistics, Ukraine has confirmed 475 cases of the virus and 10 deaths.

Read alsoPsy-ops and disinformation campaign in Italy amid crisis

Yet some Ukrainians worry the government tally is far lower than the real number due to a lack of testing, while corruption has left many people suspicious of official statements too.

Disinformation usually begins with a post on Facebook which is then shared over Telegram or Viber, two online messengers popular in Ukraine.

But the effects can be felt offline too. In February, 72 people were evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the center of the coronavirus pandemic, and quarantined in Novi Sanzhary, a small town in central Ukraine.

Social media messages claimed the evacuees were infected and local residents clashed with police escorting those brought from China to the medical centre.

A report by the European External Action Service, which cited the incident, accused Kremlin-run media of spreading misinformation about the coronavirus. Moscow has rejected the accusations.

Read alsoRussia, China exploiting coronavirus in geopolitical game

Yet Ukraine says it has become a regular target of Russian misinformation since 2014, when Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula and threw its weight behind separatists in eastern Ukraine, a conflict that has claimed more than 13,000 lives.
Jammu and Kashmir Police officer Davinder Singh, who was arrested while ferrying two Hizb-ul-Mujahideen terrorists in a vehicle on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway earlier this year, has been sent to further custodial interrogation by a Delhi courttill April 3.

Special Judge Ajay Kumar Jain extended Singh's custody after Delhi Police said that he was required to be confronted with other accused Javed Iqbal, Syed Naveed Mushtaq andImran Shafi Mir arrested in the case.

Heard the IO (investigating officer) and peruses the record. Police custody is granted for further interrogation and identification of other accomplices and confrontation with other co-accused, the judge said.

The court also directed the police to conduct his medical examination after every 48 hours.

The police sought Singh's further custody, saying that the confrontation and further interrogation was required to unearth the larger conspiracy and role of the accused, to trace the details of financial transaction, to verify and trace other offenders.

It also told the court that the custody was required to establish the identity of main handler, defence advocate Prashant Prakash said.

Suspended DSP Davinder Singh was suspended from the Jammu and Kashmir Police in January this year.

The Special Cell had brought Davinder Singh to Delhi from Hira Nagar Jail in Jammu and Kashmir.

Earlier the court had sent Syed Naveed Mushtaq and others to police custody till April 3after the police said that he and other co accused were planning to execute terror attacks in Delhi and other parts of the country and targeted killings of protected person.

While seeking Mushtaq's custody, police had alleged that the accused was commander of Shopian district of Hizbul Mujahiddeen through his handler based in Pakistan.

The police said the accused used to chat with other co-accused and militants through various internet platforms, including darknet chat.

The accused, along with other militants of Hizbul Mujahideen, were planning to execute terror attack in Delhi and other parts of the country and targeted killings of protected persons, police had told the court.

The Delhi Police has filed an FIR under Section 120B of IPC. The FIR said that the youths of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab are being trained for carrying out terrorist activities.

The FIR also mentioned of D Company and Chhota Shakeel. According to the FIR, the Delhi Police Special Cell had received an input that the D Company is funding to pro-Khalistan terrorist organisations in Punjab.

Under this very FIR Davinder Singh was taken in custody.

The Special Cell had also interrogated Davinder Singh regarding the Khalistan angle, police said.

Although Davinder Singh is not named in the FIR, but the Special Cell has some inputs on the basis of which the enquiry will be done carried out and Davinder Singh will be questioned.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi, March 30 : A Delhi court has extended the police custody of tainted Jammu and Kashmir Police officer Davinder Singh, who was arrested while ferrying two Hizb-ul-Mujahideen terrorists, till April 3.

Special Judge Ajay Kumar Jain of Delhi's Patiala House Court observed, "Heard the investigating officer and perused the record. Police custody is granted for further interrogation and identification of other accomplices and confrontation with other co-accused." The order in this regard was passed on March 24.

His custody was sought by the Delhi police for confrontation with two other persons arrested in the case, to unearth larger conspiracy and trace the details of financial transaction.

While granting custody, the court directed the police to conduct his medical examination every 48 hours.

The tainted officer was nabbed from Jammu-Srinagar National Highway on January 11 while ferrying two militants -- Naveed Babu alias Babar Azam, his associate Asif Ahmad and a civilian.

Delhi Police's Special Cell had brought Davinder Singh to Delhi from Hira Nagar Jail in Jammu and Kashmir to the national capital, earlier this month, for interrogation in another case.
General Motors Co. has reached a $120 million settlement with owners who claimed that their vehicles lost value because of defective ignition switches, which have been linked to 124 deaths.

The preliminary settlement was filed on Friday night with the federal court in Manhattan and requires approval by U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman. It would resolve the last major piece of litigation stemming from ignition switches that could cause GM vehicles to stall and prevent airbags from deploying.

The automaker denied liability in agreeing to settle, court papers show.

GM has recalled more than 2.6 million vehicles since 2014 over the switches, covering vehicles dating back more than a decade earlier. It has also paid more than $2.6 billion in penalties and settlements, including $900 million to settle a U.S. Department of Justice criminal case.

Fridays settlement resolves claims by owners who said they suffered economic losses from buying vehicles they thought were defect-free, only to see the ignition switch problem hurt GMs brand, reputation and resale values.

GM will contribute up to $70 million toward the settlement, while a trust set up in connection with the Detroit-based automakers 2009 bankruptcy will contribute $50 million.

In addition, GM will pay as much as $34.5 million to cover legal fees and expenses of the owners lawyers.

GM believes the settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate, the automaker said. GM took the lessons it learned from the ignition switch recalls and has transformed its culture to focus on customer safety.

Prior to Fridays settlement, GM had resolved or obtained dismissals of most of the more than 3,000 personal injury and wrongful death claims overseen by Furman.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Mike Spector; Editing by Sandra Maler and Leslie Adler)
The Indian stock market continues trading in the red following Asian peers with Sensex is down 1,120.84 points or 3.76% at 28694.75, and the Nifty down 301.30 points or 3.48% at 8358.95.

IMF chief announced that the globe has entered into recession which would be worse than financial crisis seen in 2008-2009.

It is clear that we have entered a recession that will be worse than the one witnessed in 2009 following the global financial crisis, Kristalina Georgieva, IMF chief said in an online press briefing.

Among the sectors, Bank Nifty was down over 4 percent dragged by HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDFC First Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank which shed over 6 percent each followed by Federal Bank, Bank of Baroda, RBL Bank and YES Bank.

The Reserve Bank of India on March 28, 2020 said it has approved the amalgamation of Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India into Punjab National Bank, Syndicate Bank into Canara Bank, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank into Union Bank of India and Allahabad Bank into Indian Bank. The scheme will come into force with effect from April 1, 2020 and all the branches of Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India will function as branches of PNB branches; Syndicate Bank branches into Canara Bank branches; Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank branches into Union Bank of India branches and Allahabad Bank branches into Indian Bank branches. Following the consolidation, there will be seven large public sector banks and five smaller ones. There were as many as 27 PSBs in 2017, according to a report by CNBC-TV18.

RBI's statement comes after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's clarification on March 26 that the mega bank consolidation plan was very much on track and would take effect from April 1.

Nifty has been seeing erratic swings in a broader range and we do not see this changing any time soon. The range for the next week could be 7,600-9,500 levels. While mostly sectoral indices are trading in line with the benchmark index, defensive viz. FMCG, pharma and IT are looking comparatively stronger. Considering the scenario, traders should limit their positions and prefer only hedged trades, said Ajit Mishra, VP - Research at Religare Broking.

Nifty Auto was down over 5 percent dragged by Eicher Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, MRF, Tata Motors, TVS Motor Company and Bajaj Auto.

Moody's Investors Service has placed the ratings on Tata Motors on review for a possible downgrade. The review, which will be completed over the next 90 days, is on the Ba3 corporate family rating and Ba3 senior unsecured debt rating, Moody's said in a statement.

As per data shared by the SIAM, passenger vehicle sales in the domestic sector during April-February declined by 15 percent to 2.63 million units while commercial vehicle segment reported a fall of 22 percent compared to the same period last year.

Traders are advised not to take aggressive / leveraged bets and should ideally keep booking profits on a regular basis. For a time being, the strategy would be to take one step at a time and keep focusing on quality names, Sameet Chavan, Chief Analyst-Technical and Derivatives at Angel Broking

India VIX is up 3.20 percent at 72.64 level.

355 stocks hit 52-week low on BSE including JSPL, Eicher Motors, Sun TV, Cummins India, Future Retail, TVS Motor, Vedanta and Indian Oil Corporation among others.

373 stocks hit lower circuit including Future Retail, Indiabulls Ventures, IDFC and AU Small Finance Bank among others.

About 799 shares have advanced, 1284 shares declined, and 148 shares are unchanged.
by NAT da Polis

A travel ban has been imposed in the country. Schools, universities, mosques, restaurants, hammams and coffee shops were closed ten days ago. The death toll (130) is rising. Out of a population of 80 million, 10,000 people have tested positive so far. Many Turks have doubts about official figures.

Istanbul (AsiaNews)  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced new restrictions to stop the COVID-19 pandemic. He took the decision two days ago

The death toll, now at 130 deaths, is rising. Out of a population of 80 million, 10,000 people have tested positive so far. Ten days ago, schools, universities, mosques, restaurants, hammams and coffee shops were closed.

After describing the pandemic situation in the world, the president also announced, in agreement with a commission of experts, a travel ban within the country.

From now on, special travel permits will be required and flexible working hours will be applied in the public and private sectors, to accommodate the largest number of people staying at home.

Erdogan also announced that parks and archaeological sites will be closed as of this weekend, and that special public health commissions would be set up in every regions of the country.

The president proudly said that Turkey has the means and capacity to overcome this crisis. He stressed that the measures taken will be short-lived and that the country can expect a radiant future. Any new measures will be taken without panic.

He advised Turks to stay at home, delegating (i.e. passing the buck) to regional governors the power to impose local lockdowns

Two days ago, Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya, ordered a 48-hour general lockdown with spot checks across the city of 20 million, as well as on public transport.

Last Friday, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu announced a quarantine for 12 cities and villages in the countrys north-eastern region in order to block the spread of the coronavirus.

This follows the quarantine imposed on the town of Kendrili, 4,000 residents, along with four neighbouring towns. Kendrili is located in the Rize region, also in north-east of the country, near the Armenian border.

However, fear is growing among Turks because few trust the government's information.

Dr Mehmet Ceyhan, virologist and director of the coronavirus scientific board, told the Hurriyet newspaper that the situation is not comfortable, given that at least half the population has not immediately adapted to the measures imposed. For this, the next five days will be crucial.

According to a study by Prof Yusuf Savran of the Faculty of Medicine at the Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir (Smyrna), based on statistical data provided by Turkish authorities, the number of dead and infected is higher than in Italy. The Izmir Medical Association also disputes the official daily figures released by Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.

Many believe that the spread of COVID-19 in Turkey is due to refugees, but also to the easy entry into Turkey of Muslims of various origins. President Erdogan waived visa requirements for Muslims entering Turkey.
About 450,000 cafe and restaurant employees will have new conditions and pay arrangements under a deal struck between unions and industry groups to keep people employed during the coronavirus pandemic.

The deal, which is the third struck in recent days following new enterprise bargains covering administrative and hospitality workers, takes the total number of workers who have had their working conditions altered to more than 2 million.

Cafes and restaurants are only allowed to do takeaway service, forcing some to close their doors. Credit:Louise Kennerley

Restaurants and cafes will be able to drop their staff down to 60 per cent of their hours and pay, ask them to work in different roles, and direct them to take leave as part of temporary measures set to last until June 30.

The deal, negotiated between the Restaurant and Catering Association, United Workers Union and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, will go to the Fair Work Commission for approval in coming days.
A Harrisburg man has failed to convince a state appeals court that he doesnt deserve the life prison sentence he received for killing an off-the-books street vendor who was known as The Movie Guy.

Instead, the Superior Court panel backed a Dauphin County jurys finding that Dennis M. Robinson, now 29, casually shot 30-year-old Jermaine Dawson on Oct. 11, 2009.

Dawson sold bootleg videos to try to make a living. Investigators said Robinson shot him several times as Dawson pleaded with him to return his satchel of videos.

The irony was that Robinson didnt have Dawsons bag. A woman later found it at a city restaurant.

A witness to the killing told investigators that, when Dawson pleaded with Robinson, Robinson pointed a pistol at him and said, Stop following me before I spark (shoot) you.

During his 2011 Dauphin County trial, Robinson tried to blame another man  the prosecutions main witness Eric Greene-for the killing.

On appeal to the state court, Robinson accused the prosecutor of misconduct, claiming he didnt provide the defense with information regarding a deal supposedly made with Greene before the trial began. Robinson argued as well that his lawyer was ineffective.

In the Superior Courts opinion, Judge Jacqueline O. Shogan rejected Robinsons prosecutorial misconduct contention. She cited testimony from the prosecutor, former Chief Deputy District Attorney Johnny Baer, and from Greene that Greene had no deal for leniency in other criminal cases he faced at the time of Robinsons trial. So, Shogan noted, there was no such information to hand over to the defense.

Robinson claimed as well that his lawyer was in effective for, among other things, not presenting character witnesses. There is no evidence Robinson ever told his attorney about any such potential witnesses, Shogan found.

Anyway, Shogan concluded that character witnesses would not have counterbalanced the substantial evidence that Robinson had killed Dawson.
President Trump claimed during a briefing at the White House on Sunday that some hospitals and health care workers were "hoarding equipment, including ventilators" and suggested reporters and states look into the increased demand for masks.

Details: Trump's comments drew criticism from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and the Greater New York Hospital Association, which said health care workers "deserve better than their president suggesting that PPE is 'going out the back door' of New York hospitals," in reference to Trump singling out an unnamed state hospital to question why they were using so many masks.

A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted.

Zoom in: At the briefing, Trump questioned why there was such an increase in demand for masks, citing one New York hospital that he said is "packed all the time" that has gone from using 10,00020,000 masks per week to 200,000300,000.

"Something's going on, and you ought to look into it as reporters," he said. "Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door? How do you go from 10,000 to 300,000?"

"We do have a problem of hoarding. We have some health care workers, some hospitals, frankly  individual hospitals and hospital chains  we have them hoarding equipment, including ventilators. We have to release those ventilators, especially hospitals that are never going to use them. They have to release them."

Trump offered no evidence for his assertion, but his 2020 campaign team tweeted a video of Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) saying earlier this month, "There have been thefts of medical equipment and masks from hospitals. ... Not just people taking a couple or three, I mean just actual thefts of those products." Axios has contacted Cuomo's office for comment.

What they're saying: Biden said in a statement that Trump's claims were "ridiculous and completely false." "Todays conspiracy mongering from our president is among the most reckless and ignorant moves he has made during this crisis, and there have been many," Biden added. The former vice president also issued a challenge to Trump via Twitter:

A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted.

Why it matters: Per Axios' Joann Muller, the U.S. was caught flat-footed by the surge in demand for medical supplies needed in the treatment of the novel coronavirus with U.S. hospitals, doctors and nurses across the country reporting a shortage.

The president has invoked the Defense Production Act to direct manufacturers including General Motors to build ventilators for patients affected by the virus.

The U.S. has more COVID-19 cases than anywhere else in the world  more than 142,000 by early Monday, per Johns Hopkins data.

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
A couple have broken social distancing rules to marry in a traditional Islamic wedding in Melbourne with more than five guests attending the ceremony.

Footage showed the pair dancing with family and friends at the reception on Sunday, 7 News reported.

The wedding party danced in close proximity, ignoring government rules forbidding people from having a wedding with more than five people.

They also broke social distancing policies requiring people to stand at least 1.5m away from each other to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

A couple have broken social distancing rules to marry in a traditional Islamic wedding in Melbourne with more than five guests attending the ceremony

Victorian police did 1,430 checks on residents over the weekend to make sure they were adhering to social isolation rules.

Around 11 people were not at home but officers said they could have been at doctors appointments.

No one was fined but warnings were handed out to people in who people who failed to follow the rules.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

On Sunday, restrictions on social gatherings were further restricted by the federal government.

Victorians who are caught outside with more than one other person will be slapped with a $1,652 on the spot fine from Tuesday.

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said the possibility of community transmission was worrying officials the most, which was why the 'radical' new public interaction rules were needed.

Community transmission is the spread of the virus to a person without known links to a known case.

'It is of concern, particularly in Sydney and to a lesser extent in Melbourne and southeast Queensland,' Professor Murphy said during Sunday night's press conference.

'If you have outbreaks in the community, they can be much harder to detect and so we've broadened the testing criteria in those areas to make sure that we can detect and bring under control.'

The national death toll reached 16 following the deaths of two more people in Victoria and Queensland overnight, as new quarantine measures for international arrivals kick in across the country.

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy (right) said the possibility of community transmission was worrying officials the most, which was why the 'radical' new public interaction rules were needed

A man aged in his 80s died of coronavirus in hospital in Victoria, while a 75-year-old woman died in Queensland after travelling on the Ruby Princess cruise ship that docked in Sydney.

Announcing a new $1.1 billion health package to deal with the COVID-19 crisis earlier on Sunday, Mr Morrison said greater cooperation in terms of self-isolation and social distancing was delivering dividends.

'They are still strong rates of increase, there's no doubt about that,' the prime minister said.

'But as we take the measures that we have been taking and put them in place and we have the co-operation from the Australian people, then that obviously in turn that has an impact on how we are managing the spread of the virus.'

Do you know more about the wedding? Contact our reporter daniel.piotrowski@mailonline.com
: In an achievement in its battle against the coronavirus pandemic, an elderly couple, aged 93 and 88 who had tested positive and remained critical for days, have recovered completely, the Kerala government said on Monday.

Hailing from Ranni in Pathanamthitta, the aged people were parents of a man who came down from Italy along with his wife and son and tested positive for the disease early this month, the government said in a press release.

The aged couple had caught the disease after coming in contact with them and had been admitted to the Kottayam Medical College hospital.

They were already suffering from various age-related diseases and their condition was very critical in one phase of the treatment, a health department statement said here.

The expert treatment and care, given at the Kottayam Medical College, had brought them back to the life, it said, adding that health minister K K Shailaja congratulated all those toiled hard for their recovery.

Along with the seven-member team of doctors who led the treatment, 40 medical staff, including 25 nurses were actively took part in various stages of treatment, it said.

At present, their condition is satisfactory and the doctors said they would be discharged soon.

Their grand daughter and husband, who were tested positive of the virus, also recovered from the disease the other day.

A nurse, who took care of the elderly patients, tested positive for the deadly virus.

The minister spoke to the nurse and said the health department were fully with her.

Earlier, in the day, five family members of the elderly couple, including their son Abraham Moncy, wife and son, who had returned from Italy, had been discharged from Ranni district hospital after testing negative.

At a time when those above 60 are considered high risk category, the elderly couple, getting cured is an achievement for the Kerala government.

The three member family of Abraham Moncy, who had returned from Italy in February and two other relatives had tested postive and were in the isolation ward of the general hospital here since March 6.

They left for home on Monday after their samples returned negative.

The five from Ranni were given a warm send off by the hospital staff, including doctors, nurses and other medical staff who treated them for 24 days.

Their doctors, Dr Ashis Mohan and Dr Sharat said the five patients have been sent home after their tests were negative.

They will be in strict home quarantine for two weeks.

After which they will broght in our ambulance and their samples will be taken again for testing for being 200 per cent sure that they have fully recovered, they said.

Profusely thanking the entire medical staff on behalf of his family, Lijo Moncy said he was grateful to the government, the doctors and medical staff who took good care of them.

"We had tension, My father was given counselling....I have only words of thanks to all the staff who took good care of us."



The family also thanked Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and health minister K K Shailaja.

"It was due to our ignorance, we made a mistake", the youth and his parents, who had attended various functions and met relatives on their return, said.

They had taken two connecting flights from Venice in Italy to India on February 29 and had not reported to authorities on arrival.

Another relative said they never thought they would come out alive.

The hospital staff clapped and cheered as the five came out of the hospital.

They were given a cake, dinner and a kit containing essential commidities.

Their home was disinfected earlier.

The Italy returned family had been forcefully admitted to the general hospital's isolation ward on March 6 and tests later confirmed that they had contracted the virus.

Two other relatives, staying with them had also tested postive.

Two other relatives of the Italian family had been discharged on Sunday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 41-year-old man tested positive for coronavirus in Rajasthan on Monday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 60, an official said.

The man is a resident of Ladakh and had been evacuated from Iran. He had landed at the Jodhpur airport on March 25.

The man was in a quarantine facility and developed symptoms. He tested positive (for coronavirus) on Monday, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Rohit Kumar Singh said.

He added that the total number of coronavirus positive cases in the state has risen to 60.

Rajasthan is under lockdown since March 22 and massive survey and screening is underway, officials said.

A batch of 277 people, evacuated from Iran, had landed at the Jodhpur airport in Rajasthan last Wednesday.

Upon preliminary screening of the evacuees, mostly pilgrims, conducted at the airport, they were taken to the Army Wellness Facility set up at the Jodhpur Military Station.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
ISRO prepared a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket to launch an Earth-imaging satellite called GISAT-1; the launch has since been delayed indefinitely.

As the coronavirus-borne disease COVID-19 spreads around the world, India's space agency has responded by pausing launches and pivoting resources to develop ventilators and hand sanitizer, according to local media reports.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) oversees the country's launches and spacecraft missions, including its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket and the Chandrayaan-2 mission currently orbiting the moon. As work on forthcoming missions pauses, the agency has redirected its focus to aid the fight against COVID-19. We are designing a ventilator and making hand sanitizers and distributing them," S. Somanath, head of agency's Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, told the Times of India .

Related: Stunning photos show Earth from India's spacecraft headed to the moon

As of today (March 30), India has more than 1,000 positive cases of coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University .

Hand sanitizer is a critical ingredient to slow the spread of the virus; ventilators are vital for stabilizing patients who are critically ill with COVID-19 . In particular, the ventilator ISRO is working on is meant to be simple to operate, according to the report.

NASA is discussing similar measures , according to administrator Jim Bridenstine. During a virtual town hall held on March 25, he said that he and other agency leaders are coordinating with other branches of government to figure out how NASA can contribute. Such measures could include producing ventilators and working with existing ventilator manufacturers, NASA officials said.

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels . Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook .
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex have moved again. After leaving their roles as working roles, the pair moved to Canada. But recently, they retreated to LA amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Since their move, they have received some flack from people, including President Donald Trump for potentially needing the USA to fund their security. But that doesnt even seem to be the case.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex | Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry leave the UK

In January, Prince Harry and Meghan decided to leave their posts as senior royals in an effort to gain independence.

As agreed in this new arrangement, they understand that they are required to step back from royal duties, including official military appointments, Buckingham Palace said in a statement. They will no longer receive public funds for royal duties.

With The Queens blessing, the Sussexes will continue to maintain their private patronages and associations. While they can no longer formally represent The Queen, the Sussexes have made clear that everything they do will continue to uphold the values of Her Majesty. The Sussexes will not use their HRH titles as they are no longer working members of the royal family.

The pair then moved to Canada to live in relative privacy. They both returned to the UK for their final round of engagements, but are now living in LA.

Donald Trump disses Meghan Markle and Prince Harry

On Mar. 29, Trump took to Twitter to accuse Meghan and Harry of wanting America to pay for their security.

I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada, he tweeted. Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!

How do Meghan and Harry plan to pay for security?

Though Trump alleged otherwise, Meghan and Harry never intended to ask the United States to fund their security.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have no plans to ask the U.S. government for security resources, a spokesperson for the couple said in a statement, according to People. Privately funded security arrangements have been made.

Royal commentator Victoria Arbiter also shared the same sentiments.

Trump spouting off half-cocked as per usual, she tweeted. Harry & Meghan never had any intention of asking the US to pay for their security, but at least word from their spokesperson also serves as confirmation of their move for those who doubted it. Now if Trump could back to ventilators

How has coronavirus affected the royal family?

Prince Harry, Meghan, and baby Archie are currently isolating themselves in LA amid the pandemic. Harrys father, Prince Charles, tested positive for the virus.

The Prince of Wales has tested positive for Coronavirus, a spokesperson told CNN. He has been displaying mild symptoms but otherwise remains in good health and has been working from home throughout the last few days as usual. The Duchess of Cornwall has also been tested but does not have the virus. Per Government and medical advice, the Prince and the Duchess are now self-isolating at home in Scotland.

As of today, Charles has been released from self-isolation. The queen is at Windsor and Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge are with their family at their home in Norfolk.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-31 04:16:34|Editor: huaxia

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CAIRO, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Iran's confirmed novel coronavirus cases jumped by 3,186 to 41,495 on Monday. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was under quarantine after one of his aides was diagnosed with the virus.

The death toll in Iran from COVID-19 infection rose by 117 to 2,757. So far, 13,911 of the infected people in Iran have recovered, while 3,511 others remained in critical condition.

The latest figures indicated that the deadly virus has shown no signs of slowing down in Iran, which is the worst-hit country in the Middle East despite the government's hard efforts to stem its spread.

Iran's Ministry of Defense launched a mass production line of test kits for the novel coronavirus. At the same time, the government asked its citizens to avoid celebrating the Nature Day, which falls on April 1, in parks and countrysides to prevent the spread of the virus.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday once again lashed out at the U.S. sanctions for doubling the suffering of the Iranian people from the pandemic. "Fighting against coronavirus is a human campaign and disrupting it will be immoral and inhumane," he said.

Turkey, the second hardest-hit country in the Middle East, reported 37 more deaths, raising the death toll to 168, while the total number of infections rose by 1,610 to 10,827.

Turkey imposed quarantine on 39 settlements in 18 provinces, including one town, six neighborhoods and 32 villages, on Monday as part of the measures against the novel coronavirus.

Israel reported 448 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 4,695, the Israeli Ministry of Health said. Sixteen patients have died while 161 others have recovered so far.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced that Netanyahu will go into quarantine as one of his advisors was infected with the coronavirus. But it was announced later Monday that Netanyahu had tested negative for the virus.

Israel's Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon announced a 22.4-billion-U.S.-dollar emergency plan to support the Israeli economy and health system hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. This is the most significant economic program in the history of Israel.

Saudi Arabia reported 154 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of confirmed cases to 1,453, of whom eight have died and 115 have recovered.

Iraq confirmed 83 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections to 630. The death toll rose to 46, after four more deaths were added.

Morocco reported 71 new COVID-19 cases, raising the tally of infections to 534, while the death toll rose by seven to 33 from Sunday. The number of recoveries increased to 14, after one more recovery was reported on Monday.

Qatar reported 59 new COVID-19 cases, raising the tally of infections in the Gulf nation to 693.

Egypt confirmed 47 new cases and one more death from the coronavirus, raising the total number of confirmed cases to 656 and the death toll to 41.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) reported 41 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 611. The death toll in the UAE rose to five, after two new deaths were added on Monday.

Oman's Ministry of Health announced 12 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 179.

Kuwait reported 11 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 266. Five more patients recovered, raising the country's total recoveries to 72.

Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anas Al-Saleh issued an amnesty allowing residence violators to leave Kuwait during the period of April 1-30 without paying fines. The violators will be provided free tickets for leaving Kuwait.

Jordan reported two more deaths from the coronavirus and nine more cases of infection, raising the death toll to five and the tally of infections to 268.

Lebanon's Health Ministry announced eight new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number to 446, of whom 11 have died and 35 have recovered.

Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan announced that various public hospitals across the country are ready to receive suspected coronavirus patients.

Syria reported the second death from the coronavirus, which has infected 10 people so far in the war-torn country.
The Opelika-Auburn News reported that six people, including one on Sunday, have died at East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika since Friday, according to the Lee County coroner. Information concerning those deaths is being sent to ADPH, and the newspaper reports four of the victims were from Chambers County and two from Lee County.

The newspaper added that only one of the Chambers County deaths was reflected on the ADPH count of four fatalities statewide. The other deaths were from Jackson, Madison and Lauderdale counties in north Alabama.

With the exception of one update on Friday, Dothans Flowers Hospital has not released any information about its COVID-19 testing at that facility, but rather is sending all test data to ADPH for its total count. On Friday, a hospital official said it had no positive test results.

Additionally, Dothans Extendicare Health and Rehabilitation reported one positive COVID-19 and two negative test results last week. An article by al.com this weekend stated Extendicare is one of six nursing homes statewide with at least one positive case.

According to ADPH, Jefferson County still leads all counties with 246 confirmed cases.
They are largely shunned by society, ridiculed, stigmatized and forced to live a cloistered existence.

But for happy occasions like childbirth or a wedding, they are rarely welcome anywhere, and face the taunt and derision with characteristic nonchalance and, of course, respond with their typical sneering clap.

Society may have distanced itself from them in happier times but these bunch of eunuchs or transgenders, smelling of cheap lipstick and talcum powder, are playing good samaritans to the homeless and the hungry in the City of Joy as the coronavirus rampages through the world.

Shankari, a member of the community, was seen with others distributing rice, potatoes, dal and other food material to rickshawpullers, maid servants and daily wagers who have lost their jobs, at Garia.

"We have saved money for future like everybody else. But the plight of daily wagers in our locality has become unbearable for us. We canot sit idle. We will take care of them even if it means skipping a meal at night," said Shankari.

All in her team wear masks and exercise social distancing.

"We have distributed 1,000 kg of rice, 400 kg potatoes, 40 kg dal among the poor so far in our locality. We will continue to do so," said Shankari as those standing in a queue to receive the things looked at her, weary-eyed but with a faint smile laden with gratitude.

Thousands of kilometres away in Bengaluru, the transgender community is in distress.

Many of their folks, down with diseases caused by AIDS, contracted from clients for whom they are mere objects of carnal pleasure, find it difficult to meet their basic needs.

With streets empty and markets closed, many of them who depend on beggary for survival, are going without food.

"We are finding it difficult to get even one square meal. Nobody is coming forward to help us," a transgender said.

While pointing out that the government was helping labourers and other needy people, another transgender said, "What wrong have we done? The situation is such that we cannot go out and ask for money or food...at least provide us with food."



Some organisations like Ondede that works for transgender rights are working with well-wishers of the community to deliver groceries to their doorsteps.

Speaking to PTI, Akkai Padmashali, who leads Ondede, demanded a package for the community along with other vulnerable sections from the government so they don't starve and their medical requirements are met.

"I'm disappointed with the federal and the state government's response towards the community...We are the ones affected directly, our daily life is on the streets where we beg and get paid for sex.....our daily life is affected like any daily wager. There is no food, no money for rent, there are HIV positive people unable to buy medicines," she said.

Kolkatas Shankari is also worried, but has not hope.

Corona is a deadly virus. We have to bear with the hardships the lockdown has brought with it so we live and entertain people in future when things get better. For now, we are sharing with people whatever we have. We cannot live in isolation, she said.

She said over one lakh transgenders in different parts of state were facing hardships but we have to be strong and reach out to the poor."



Chhabirani, a transgender in Kamarhati area of North 24 Parganas, is busy distributing biscuit packets and home- cooked khichdi with two others at a naya basti slum.

"We are called hijra, we are butt of ridicule and jokes among many of you. But see, we are also humans, who are moved by the plight of all fellow humans. We cannot sit idle at home. We are here to help these people who are starving," Chhabirani, her voice betraying the stigma they faceand her visage the will to serve.

Asha, another member of the transgender community living in Entally said they will have to seek government help if the lockdown gets extended beyond April 14.

She gets angry when asked how much a eunuch may earn from motorists every day at traffic signals seeking alms. "No real hijra will beg for alms in public places. They are fakes, who bring disgrace to our community."



"We only sing and dance at festivals and during celebrations. We get out dues from people who are happy with our performances, her tone oozing with dignity and unmistakable strength of character.

These unsung heroes in the fight against the coronavirus that has brought the world to its knees didnt get a clap of appreciation on March 22 during the Janta curfew declared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi but that is rightfully theirs, too.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(LR) President Donald Trump speaks at a Keep America Great rally in Phoenix, Ariz., on Feb. 19, 2020; Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a ceremony in Jerusalem on Jan. 23, 2020. (JIM WATSON and EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP via Getty Images)

Trump and Putin Discuss Oil as Falling Prices Imperil Industry

President Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 30 about the threats to both nations energy sectors posed by the dual forces of the CCP virus pandemic and Moscows ongoing oil price war with Riyadh.

Trump told Fox and Friends on March 30 that he would speak with Putin after the interview.

One of the subjects were going to be talking about is energy. We dont want to have an industry thats wiped out. And by the way, bad for them and bad for everybody, Trump said.

The price of oil had dropped to roughly $20 a barrel on March 30, down from a peak of more than $64 at the beginning of this year. The plunge is driven by a standoff between Russia and Saudi Arabia over reducing production coupled with a steep decline in global demand due to the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus.

Russia and Saudi Arabia are fighting, and theyve driven down the price of oil. I never thought Id be saying that, but maybe we have to have an oil increase because we do. The price is so low now, Trump said.

This is a fight between Saudi Arabia and Russia having to do with how many barrels to let out. And they both went crazy.

The White House and the Kremlin didnt respond to a request for details about the conversation between the two leaders. Russian news agency Interfax confirmed the conversation and noted that Trump had requested the call.

The two leaders discussed the global oil market and the possibility of cooperation between the two countries on dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a message from the Kremlin relayed by Interfax.

The day before the call, the Russian government bought out the Venezuelan assets of Russian oil giant Rosneft in a move likely designed to skirt the sanctions imposed by Washington on Rosneft. Trump noted that he doesnt intend to lift any sanctions on Russia.

The CCP virus pandemic and the resulting plunge in crude prices will result in a leaner, stronger oil industry but raise the risk of shortages further down the line, Goldman Sachs analysts said on March 30.

Refiners across the world have been forced to halt operations because of steep falls in demand. This may in turn cause an oil shortage, pushing prices above the Wall Street banks $55 a barrel target for 2021, the bank said.

The oil price war is made irrelevant by the large decline in demand and has made a coordinated supply response impossible to achieve in time, Goldman said.

The national gas price average dropped for the fifth straight week on March 30, down 73 cents per gallon from the same time last year, according to GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan.

Refineries are either starting to throttle back crude runs, shut units completely, or in isolated situations for extremely challenged refineries, shutting down completely, De Haan wrote on Twitter.

Reuters contributed to this report.
T est, test, test. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called on governments to step up efforts to identify, isolate and contact people infected with coronavirus. Its a simple message, but no simple task. It will require millions of accurate tests for a disease that science and medicine have only known about for three months.

The WHOs reasoning is clear. Large-scale testing lets healthcare systems assess the toll an infection is having on a population, know which individuals need treatment, and prevent their contact with others, limiting the spread. Social distancing substantially reduces opportunities for transmission, but we cant all stay at home forever. More extensive testing and tracing will allow us to get on with our lives, while clamping down on the virus

In Britain, the race is on to roll out widespread testing. Millions of kits are being ordered from different manufacturers. Its hoped these will bring lockdown to an end more quickly, and allow NHS staff to get back to the front line as soon as possible if theyve fallen ill.

Theres a lot riding on this strategy. Yet its important to understand that when were dealing with such an unknown quantity as this new coronavirus, we cannot take anything for granted.

Until recently, UK testing was limited to hospital patients with Covid-19-like symptoms. This has protected our testing system from being overwhelmed, but denies planners a true picture of the scale of the problem. It also means anyone with a cough, including key workers who we need to be at work, stays at home, sometimes unnecessarily.

To rectify this, the Department of Health ordered 3.5 million testing kits. Public Health England initially said these would be made available within days, only for the Chief Medical Officer to point out that they would need to be evaluated for their accuracy. Quite right. Precision isnt guaranteed  Spanish authorities found that thousands of tests theyd bought gave inaccurate results.

Not all tests work in the same way. The test currently used in the UK looks for the genetic material of the virus in respiratory tract mucus. Its a relatively complicated process and takes time. A quicker method would be to search for antigens on the surface of the virus.

While I dont doubt the scientists advising the Government Im concerned about casual assumptions

But what if you want to find out how many people have had the virus already, and who may have developed immunity? This is where the antibody test comes in.

Antibodies are proteins generated by our immune systems in response to an infection. The presence of specific antibodies in your body would indicate that youve been infected, and that your immune system has responded to combat the coronavirus invader. Having antibodies does not necessarily guarantee immunity, although it might. This virus is just too new for scientists to understand everything about how the immune system reacts to it. Is it like measles  once youve had it, or been vaccinated, youre immune for life  or is it more like a cold?

Authorities, and the public, need to be alert to the possibility that antibody testing may not be a panacea, as there are still too many unknowns. While I dont doubt the scientists advising the Government, Im concerned that a few too many casual assumptions are being made and not enough questions asked.

It takes several days to generate antibodies to an infection, and their presence doesnt mean that the virus has gone. This test cannot therefore tell us whether or not someone has the virus now, only that theyve been exposed to it, and that theyre likely to be immune at the time of testing. This immunity may be lost in time.

Hospitals cannot afford to have large numbers of staff absent on the off-chance that they might be infected. But over-reliance on antibody testing to determine who can return to work risks incorrect assumptions based on what amounts to little more than an educated guess. Clearly, the consequences of getting this wrong could be catastrophic, with either too few staff running overcrowded hospitals, or perhaps worse, a sick doctor infecting vulnerable patients. NHS workers must therefore be repeatedly tested to ensure they remain free of the virus and that their immunity is maintained.

Listen to today's episode of The Leader podcast:



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Test, test, test may be the emphatic answer. But in the rush to find positive actions in response to this crisis, we mustnt assume its the answer to everything or over-interpret the results.
TOI 1338 b is a circumbinary planet orbiting its two stars. It was discovered by TESS. Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith

In 2021, NASA's next-generation observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), will take to space. Once operational, this flagship mission will pick up where other space telescopeslike Hubble, Kepler and Spitzerleft off. This means that in addition to investigating some of the greatest cosmic mysteries, it will also search for potentially habitable exoplanets and attempt to characterize their atmospheres.

This is part of what sets the JWST apart from its predecessors. Between its high sensitivity and infrared imaging capabilities, it will be able to gather data on exoplanet atmospheres like never before. However, as a NASA-supported study recently showed, planets that have dense atmospheres might also have extensive cloud cover, which could complicate attempts to gather some of the most important data of all.

For years, astronomers have used transit photometry (AKA the transit method) to detect exoplanets by monitoring distant stars for dips in brightness. This method has also proven useful in determining the atmospheric composition of some planets. As these bodies pass in front of their stars, light passes through the planet's atmosphere, the spectra of which is then analyzed to see what chemical elements are present.

So far, this method has been useful when observing massive planets (gas giants and "super-Jupiters") that orbit their suns at great distances. However, observing smaller, rocky planets (i.e., "Earth-like" planets) that orbit closer to their suns, which would put them within the star's habitable zone, has been beyond the capabilities of space telescopes.

For this reason, the astronomical community has been looking forward to next-generation telescopes like the JWST. By examining the spectra of light passing through a rocky planet's atmosphere (a method known as transmission spectroscopy) scientists will be able to look for the telltale indicators of oxygen gas, carbon dioxide, methane, and other signs associated with life (AKA "biosignatures").

As a stars light filters through a planets atmosphere on its way to Earth, the atmosphere absorbs certain wavelengths depending on its composition. Credit: ESO

Another critical element for life as we know it is water, so signatures of water vapor in a planet's atmosphere are a prime target for future surveys. But in a new study led by Thaddeus Komacek, a postdoctoral fellow with the Department of the Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago, it is possible that any planet with abundant surface water will also have abundant clouds (particles of condensing ice) in its atmosphere.

For the sake of this study, Komacek and his colleagues examined whether these clouds would interfere with attempts to detect water vapor in the atmospheres of terrestrial exoplanets. Due to the number of rocky exoplanets that have been discovered within the habitable zones of M-type (red dwarf) stars in recent years, like Proxima b, neighboring red dwarfs will be a major focus of future surveys.

As Komack explained to Universe Today via email, tidally locked planets that orbit red dwarf stars are well-suited to studies involving transmission spectroscopyand for a number of a reasons:

"Transiting planets orbiting red dwarf stars are more favorable targets than those orbiting sun-like stars because the ratio of the size of the planet to the size of the star is larger. The size of the signal in transmission scales as the square of the ratio of the size of the planet to the size of the star, so there's a significant boost in the signal going to smaller stars than Earth.

"Another reason that planets orbiting red dwarf stars are more favorable to observe is because the 'habitable zone," or where we expect there to be liquid water on the surface of the planet, is much closer-in to the star Because of these closer-in orbits, habitable rocky planets orbiting red dwarf stars will transit their star much more often, which allows observers to take many repeated observations."

Artists impression of a habitable exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star. The habitability of the planets of red dwarf stars is conjectural. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

With this in mind, Komacek and his team employed two models in conjunction to generate synthetic transmission spectra of tidally locked planets around M-type stars. The first was ExoCAM, developed by Dr. Eric Wolf of Colorado University's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), a community Earth-system model (CESM) used to simulate Earth's climate, which has been adapted to study exoplanet atmospheres.

Using the ExoCAM model, they simulated the climate of rocky planets orbiting red dwarf stars. Second, they employed the Planetary Spectrum Generator developed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to simulate the transmission spectrum that the JWST would detect from their simulated planet. As Komacek explained it: "These ExoCAM simulations calculated the three-dimensional distributions of temperature, water vapor mixing ratio, and liquid and ice water cloud particles. We found that planets orbiting red dwarf stars are much cloudier than Earth. This is because their entire dayside has a climate similar to the tropics of Earth, and so water vapor gets easily lofted to low pressures, where it can condense and form clouds that cover much of the dayside of the planet PSG gave results for the apparent size of the planet in transmission as a function of wavelength, along with the uncertainty. By looking at how the size of the signal changed with wavelength, we were able to determine the size of water vapor features and compare them to the uncertainty level."

Between these two models, the team was able to simulate planets with and without cloud cover, and what the JWST would be able to detect as a result. In the case of the former, they found that water vapor in the exoplanet's atmosphere would almost certainly be detectable. They also found that this could be done for Earth-sized exoplanets in just 10 transits or fewer.

An artists illustration of the James Webb Space Telescope, set to launch in March 2021. Credit: NASA/JWST

"[W]hen we included the effects of clouds, the number of transits JWST needed to observe to detect water vapor increased by a factor of 10 to 100," said Komacek. "There is a natural limit on how many transits JWST can observe for a given planet because JWST has a set nominal mission lifetime of five years, and the transmission observation can only be taken when the planet passes between us and its host star."

They also found that the impact of cloud cover was especially strong with slower-rotating planets around red dwarfs. Basically, planets that have orbital periods longer than about 12 days would experience more cloud formation on their daysides. "We found that for planets orbiting a star like TRAPPIST-1 (the most favorable target known), JWST would not be able to observe enough transits to detect water vapor," said Komacek.

These results are similar to what other researchers have noted, he added. Last year, a study led by researchers at NASA Goddard showed how cloud cover would render water vapor undetectable in the atmospheres of the TRAPPIST-1 planets. Earlier this month, another NASA Goddard-supported study showed that clouds will lower the amplitude of water vapor to the point that the JWST would eliminate them as background noise.

But before we go thinking that it's all bad news, this study does present some suggestions for overcoming these limitations. For instance, if mission time is a factor, the JWST mission can be extended so scientists will have more time to gather data. Already, NASA hopes to have the space telescope in operation for 10 years, so a mission extension is already a possibility.

At the same time, a lowered signal-to-noise threshold for detection could allow for more signals to be picked out of the spectra (though that would mean more false positives, as well). In addition, Komacek and his colleagues note that these results apply only to features that are below the cloud deck on exoplanets: "Because water vapor is mostly trapped below the water cloud level, the strong cloud coverage on planets orbiting red dwarf stars makes it incredibly challenging to detect water features. Importantly, it is expected that JWST will still be able to constrain the presence of key atmospheric constituents like carbon dioxide and methane in only a dozen transits or so."

Once again, these results are supported by previous research. Last year, a study from the University of Washington examined the detectability and characteristics of the TRAPPIST-1 planets and found that clouds are not likely to have a significant impact on the detectability of oxygen and ozone featurestwo key biosignatures that are associated with the presence of life.

So really, the JWST might only have difficulty detecting water vapor in exoplanet atmospheres, at least where dense cloud cover is concerned. The JWST should have no trouble sniffing out other biosignatures, clouds or no clouds. Great things are expected to come from Webb, NASA's most powerful and sophisticated space telescope to date, and it will all start next year.
New enrollment numbers show that lllinois' public school system for the first time does not have a white majority, with Latino, black, Asian and other racial groups combined eclipsing white students across the state's classrooms.

Whites fell to 49.76 percent of the student body this school year, the new data show, a demographic tipping point that came after years of sliding white enrollment and a rise in Latino, Asian and multiracial students.

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The black student population also has declined, but it still makes up almost 18 percent of the state's public school students.

The Illinois State Board of Education posted the fall enrollment figures online in December, but spokeswoman Mary Fergus cautioned that the numbers could change if districts make corrections in the coming months. Even a small change in the figures "could make all the difference," in whether minority students become the majority in Illinois schools, she said.

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The fall figures reported by districts are not far apart for 2013-14. White students: 1,023,382. Other racial groups: 1,033,110.

If those numbers hold, Illinois would be one of a dozen states  and the first in the Midwest  to have a school system in which minority students are in the majority, according to the most recent federal education data. Included in that category are Western and Southern states with large Latino or black populations, as well as the District of Columbia, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

The rise in minority students in schools can potentially affect everything from how states fund education to graduation rates, test scores and the teaching staff, said Kathy Christie, a vice president at the Education Commission of the States, a national group that tracks school policy and research to help improve education.

Black and Latino students still lag white students on national tests, she said, and low performance could hinder their chances to graduate.

"Obviously, we have to do a much better job with these kids  we just have to," Christie said.

The Tribune analyzed the 2013-14 fall enrollment data as well as enrollment statistics dating to 2002-03 for more than 900 public school districts, which include special education cooperatives, finding:

The Latino student population this school year exceeded half a million for the first time, with 507,264 students making up almost 25 percent of the school population. In 2002-03, there were about 350,000 Latino students, about 17 percent of the student body.

White students numbered 1,209,948 in 2002-03, almost 60 percent of the school population but dropped by about 186,000 students by 2013-14. The number of black students dropped from about 433,000 to 361,000 in that same period.

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Almost 20 percent of districts, including some special education cooperatives, have minority students in the majority in their schools. Most of those districts are in the Chicago area, with some having majority black populations and others having majority Latino populations.

Illinois' diverse student population doesn't match the diversity of its teaching staff. Based on 2012 state data, 83 percent of Illinois' public school teachers are white.

Christie said students need role models who look like them and understand their culture.

However, "the quality of that teacher is absolutely more important than what the teacher looks like," she said.

Likewise, Aviva Bowen, spokeswoman for the Illinois Federation of Teachers, said: "There is certainly value in having more diversity in our schools, though we wouldn't suggest a formula where the teaching staff was required to reflect the student population by some specific ratio. Student outcomes and success are far more complicated than that."

Fergus said the state has been working to close gaps in achievement between white and minority students and has pushed for more minority teachers and bilingual teachers, among other measures, in response to the changing racial makeup of schools.

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"We have seen this change coming, and we've been implementing some policy initiatives in recognition of that," Fergus said.

drado@tribune.com
While the property/casualty insurance industry is fighting attempts to force it to pay for the huge business income losses that it says most policies were never intended to cover, some individual insurers are finding small ways to assist the businesses and families being hurt by the coronavirus shutdowns.

Farmers Insurance has joined the growing list of insurers willing to temporarily add insurance coverage to policies of customers who are now using their personal autos to make restaurant, grocery, pharmacy and other deliveries. Customers will not be charged for this temporary additional coverage that Farmers is adding automatically.

We want our customers to know were here for them during this extremely challenging situation, said Keith Daly, president of Personal Lines for Farmers.

Allstate has also begun automatically covering customers who use their personal vehicles to deliver goods for a commercial purpose.

Although the state of Wisconsin has mandated that insurers add the delivery coverage to personal and commercial policies, and several states including Texas, Washington and Connecticut have asked insurers to consider doing so, these insurers are doing this voluntarily. Other insurers are expected to follow.

How People Perceive and Manage Risks Like Coronavirus How this virus outbreak presents a list of`hot buttons  that ramp up our perception of risk and sometimes make those perceptions differ from the evidence-based conclusions of medical officials. How Parametric Insurance Could Offer Hotels Relief from Cancellations Such policies define an insured event as a case when actual results diverge from forecasts because of unforeseen circumstances. The virus outbreak fits those criteria.

Property casualty insurers recognize that American businesses are facing unprecedented disruption, David A. Sampson, president and CEO of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA).

Many insurers and agents are implementing new measures to directly help policyholders. Insurers are adopting new technologies and remote solutions to minimize any interruptions in service. Meanwhile, even as insurers are protecting the safety of their employees and transitioning to remote workplaces and implementing employee travel bans, our industry is handling claims as we always have, the trade group chef said.

Insurance for delivery persons is not the only benefit being offered voluntarily in this crisis.

The pandemic is testing some health care systems to the limit and some doctors have come out of retirement to help. Medical malpractice insurer The Doctors Co. is providing free medical professional liability coverage to retired physicians formerly insured by the company who volunteer during the crisis. To qualify, the doctor must be providing professional services for no fee, salary or other compensation.

Today, our mission to advance, protect and reward the practice of good medicine is more important than ever. We appreciate our members lifesaving work during this crisis and want to make it as easy as possible for our retired members to assist, said Richard E. Anderson, MD, chairman and CEO of The Doctors Co.

In one of the industrys first voluntary efforts last month, Kentucky Employers Mutual Insurance Co. announced it will pay wage-replacement benefits for any first responder or employee in the medical field who is quarantined because of direct exposure to a person diagnosed with COVID-19.

Based on our interpretation of Kentucky workers compensation laws and given the unprecedented circumstances surrounding this pandemic, KEMI policyholders needed the assurance of knowing that KEMI will provide the appropriate care and benefits for those first responders affected by COVID-19, said Ryan Worthern, communications director for KEMI.

KEMIs announcement followed a decision by the Washington state Department of Labor and Industries to have the states workers compensation fund pay wage-loss and medical treatment expenses for any health care worker or first responder who is quarantined because of coronavirus exposure. That policy impacts every employee in the state who is covered by the state system.

Some insurers have moved to totally digital claims processing without in-person inspections while many are adjusting payment terms for hard-hit businesses and families.

Illinois Casualty Co., which insurers restaurants and taverns, has temporarily suspended all insurance premium billing for 30 days.

Some carriers are giving families and businesses affected by the shutdowns extra time to make payments. Allstates plan gives auto and homeowners policyholders the choice to delay two consecutive premium payments with no penalty or pay what they can afford, with no minimum payment required. The total unpaid balance will be spread across the remaining bills.

The Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation (BWC), the exclusive provider of workers compensation insurance in the state, is allowing insurance premium installment payments due for March, April and May to be deferred until June 1. The BWC serves 249,000 public and private employers. The deferred payments are estimated to total around $200 million.

While insurers are giving to charitable causes to help those affected by this crisis in the U.S. and across the globe, as they frequently do in times of catastrophes, one insurer was in a position to contribute something unique.

QBE North America is donating 95,000 3M standard face masks to hospitals around the country. The masks were part of QBE North Americas emergency preparedness supply and are being donated to a number of hospitals and medical facilities facing shortages in communities countrywide including Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, Hartford Hospital, and New York Presbyterian.

This donation serves as a sincere thank you to our healthcare workers, who are working tirelessly on the front lines of this battle, said Todd Jones, chief executive officer, QBE North America.

Reaching out to parents working and children schooling at home, The Allstate Foundation nonprofit partner, Playworks, is hosting #PlayatHome Recess live on Facebook at three times a day Monday through Friday. The show offers stretching, warm-ups, interactive games, cheers and cooldown activities. Playworks also offers a free game library, where families and educators can access ideas by age and length of time, with many fun ideas for small groups.

The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF) is sponsoring Every Day is a Reading and Writing Day, an online, researched-based and bilingual (English and Spanish) program providing literacy resources and activities for preschool children (ages 0-5 years) for free. It was developed through IICFs Early Literacy Initiative in partnership with Sesame Street and is supported by the insurance industry.

Health insurers are also stepping up. Health insurers including Aetna have said they will waive all co-pays for any patients hospitalized due to the coronavirus. Cigna is waiving customer cost-sharing and co-payments for COVID-19 treatment and will reimburse health care providers at Cignas in-network rates or Medicare rates. A number of health insurers have also waived patient co-pays for testing, doctor visits and telemedicine appointments for people with coronavirus symptoms.

Topics Carriers Workers' Compensation Property Casualty Market Medical Professional Liability
Theres no better time than now to take a minute to acknowledge and appreciate the efforts of all the doctors, in every corner of this world.

Traditionally, doctors dont have to risk their own lives to save others. But thats what it has come to today - doctors, nurses and paramedics are all on the frontlines of a war against COVID-19. Fighting the battle against an enemy that cant even be seen by the naked eye, so that we can stay safe at home. Many doctors and nurses are coming out of retirement to join this fight as well.

March 30 is observed as Doctors Day in the US. While in India, its on July 1st, theres no better time than now to take a minute to acknowledge and appreciate the efforts of all the doctors, in every corner of this world. Its not just their time, skill and energy that theyve offered. No, many have had to isolate from their families because they spend all day long in the company of patients who have an extremely contagious infection. While some of them are given PPE (government-mandated Personal Protective Equipment for medical professionals), many of them treat patients without it, at a huge risk to their own health. Thats the equivalent of going into battle without armour. Many of them are working around the clock to try and develop a vaccine for the virus or test medications that could help treat the infection. For so many of them, the fear at the back of their minds is being realized and theyre testing positive for the viral infection COVID-19. Some of them, including Dr Li Wenliang, are succumbing to the very disease theyre trying to treat.

All of their combined contributions are the reason for the 152,314 COVID-19 recoveries till date. At least for one day, instead of discussing and sharing the number of cases, we can shift the focus to the number of recoveries instead.

And on a day like this, in times like these, we wake up to news articles about how more doctors are now being evicted for this very contribution. People fear that these doctors may bring back the virus to their home and their localities. While our fear may be very real, so is their exhaustion and relief at making it back home. If you cant appreciate them, at least just leave them alone.

At the very basic level, heres what you can do to support doctors:

Stay indoors - as per the governments guidelines - so they can go to work.

Dont hoard essential medical supplies like surgical masks, gloves, ventilators and medical-grade sanitizers.

Support your neighbourhood doctors with groceries or childcare, offering to take care of them when theyre working.

Lend an ear - the emotional toll of this fight can be worse than the physical one.

If it is within your means, donate to a fund that provides them with protective gear.

Don't panic. It leads to chaos.

For more tips, read our article on Inventive Solutions to Treat Symptoms of COVID-19.

Health articles in Firstpost are written by myUpchar.com, Indias first and biggest resource for verified medical information. At myUpchar, researchers and journalists work with doctors to bring you information on all things health.
Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Health Minister Rajesh Tope (Left) and Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta (Right) at a press conference in Mumbai on March 20, 2020. Further tightening the clampdown in the state in view of the growing num Image Source: IANS News

Mumbai, March 30 : Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said the government has set up 262 camps for migrants across the state as Covid-19 deaths touched 9 with another 215 positive cases.

"These are presently providing shelter to 70,399 migrant labour/the homeless people, to ensure that they have food and a roof in this crisis," Thackeray said.

The development came as the problem of migrant labourers - both from other states and within, who have been stranded all over after the sudden lockdown implemented since March 25 at midnight.

This resulted in panic reactions as many made frantic attempts to leave the state and return to their homes-states amid uncertainties of jobs and availability of food, sanitation and medical facilities.

Their problems were highlighted when a group of 225 migrants made a daring escape from Telangana to Maharashtra to Madhya Pradesh to reach their home state Rajasthan in three container trucks, travelling 2,000 kms in 60 hours. - as IANS reported on March 28.

"Many more are entering or leaving the borders across the Maharashtra and it was very difficult to control or convince them. Now, since the government has started relief camps, the situation is expected to improve," said Advisor to CM Kishore Tiwari.

Officials say that more camps are expected to come up over the next couple of days for the migrants, but the exact numbers are still being collected from various districts.

On Sunday, Thackeray appealed to all migrants to remain calm and assured that the state would take full care of them even as CMs of various states have issued reciprocal appeals to the migrants in their respective domains.

The government also plans to increase the number of 'Shiv Thali' subsidised meal scheme to 100,000 plates per day while reducing rates from Rs 10 to Rs 5 now, with plans to enhance its availability.

In a related development, Larsen & Toubro Group Chairman A. M. Naik announced it has set up a Rs 500 crore fund per month to take care of its 160,000 contract workers including continued pay, lodging-boarding, etc.

Besides, the company also announced a donation of Rs 150 crore to the PM Cares Fund.

Till Monday, Maharashtra has recorded 215 Covid-19 positive cases and 9 deaths, the highest in the country.
Navalny denied review of business reputation dispute with Crimean meat plant

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

16:14 30/03/2020

MOSCOW, March 30 (RAPSI)  The Supreme Court of Russia has refused to reconsider a business reputation dispute between Alexey Navalny and Crimean meat processing plant Druzhba Narodov, according to court records.

Navalnys arguments cannot be a ground for the matter reconsideration by the Chamber for Commercial Disputes of the Supreme Court as they are directed at reevaluation of evidence in the case and challenging of findings of the lower courts, the highest instance has held.

Navalny has unsuccessfully challennged the Moscow Commercial Courts ruling of February, 2019, and the July, 2019, ruling of the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals.

The Moscow Commercial Court ruled in favor of Druzhba Narodov on February 12, 2019. The court declared information distributed by Navalny in one of his videos untrue and discrediting the plants business standing.

The statements read that the meat processing plant inflated prices for food products purveyed for the National Guard, delivered bad quality goods and accused the plant employees of embezzlement during supplies.

According to the court ruling, the defendant did not furnish evidence of credibility of the disseminated information.

On July 26, 2019, the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals upheld the ruling.




A PIL was moved in the Delhi High Court on Monday to provide medical insurance cover to media persons who are reporting on coronavirus, which has infected 1,071 people and claimed 29 lives in India.

The plea by advocate Arpit Bhargava was mentioned for urgent hearing before a high court joint registrar who said it would be taken up only after the ongoing lockdown to contain COVID-19 outbreak is relaxed.

The petition has sought directions to the central government to "provide medical and/or life insurance cover to each journalists, reporters and all other media persons, whether contractual/adhoc/permanent, of at least Rs 50 lakhs each".

He has said media persons have been exempted from the lockdown by the government to disseminate information about COVID-19 accurately and timely to the people and they are working round the clock "without caring for their own safety".

"Thus, welfare, safety and security of media persons also assume significance in this hour of crisis when cases of COVID-19 are increasing day by day in India," the petition said.

It further said that while the central government acknowledged the efforts of the health professionals in this time of crisis by coming out with a insurance scheme "whereby any health professional, who while treating COVID-19 patients, met with some accident, then he/she would be compensated with an amount of Rs 50 lakh".

"Surprisingly, media persons were left out from the said benefit for reasons best known to government despite the acknowledgement of efforts of media persons by the Prime Minister of India," it said.

"It is through the efforts of journalists, reporters and other media persons that there is no panic in India and constant updates on threat of coronavirus are being relayed and presented to public at large," it further said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WA Police drones will be deployed to public spaces to deliver audio warnings to those caught flouting social distancing rules in a move the Premier conceded was "extreme" but necessary.

The drones will be utilised at parks, beaches and cafe strips to ensure people are adhering to strict new gathering rules which ban people venturing outside in groups of more than two, unless they live together.

WA Police will be operating drones in public spaces to deter social gatherings. Credit:Glenn Hunt

The new "draconian" measures were announced by Premier Mark McGowan on Monday as part of WA's stage three restrictions.

"I understand this is extreme and draconian, this is not normal but we want to send a message to people," he said.
[March 30, 2020] Generex Biotechnology Subsidiary Olaregen Therapeutics' Wound Conforming Matrix, Excellagen, Awarded Strategic Acquisition Centers (SAC) Biologic Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) Contract

The BPA contract facilitates the sales and distribution of Excellagen across the VA systems 165 hospitals



Excellagen wound conforming matrix is used to manage wounds including Diabetic Foot Ulcers, that affect a staggering 21% of our veterans MIRAMAR, Fla., March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Generex Biotechnology Corporation ( www.generex.com ) (OTCQB:GNBT) ( http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/GNBT/quote ) proudly announced that the companys subsidiary Olaregen Therapeutics wound conforming matrix, Excellagen, has been awarded a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) contract from the National Strategic Acquisition Center (SAC) through the efforts of AvMedical, Olaregens Small Disabled Veteran Owned Small Distributor (SDVOSD) partner. The VAs National Contract and National BPA programs are used by VA medical centers, related facilities, specific State Veterans Homes, and other Federal facilities to procure select products based on clinical evidence, patient outcomes, and economic cost to the VA hospitals. The SAC awarded Excellagen a position on their biologics BPA through a rigorous evaluation of price, level of clinical evidence, and clinical efficacy that demonstrated the benefits of Excellagen for the management of hard to heal wounds. This award will expedite the purchasing of Excellagen at over 165 VA medical centers across the U.S. and Puerto Rico that treat veterans who suffer from diabetic foot ulcers, venous leg ulcers, and other difficult to manage wounds that disproportionately impact the veteran population. Anthony J. Dolisi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Olaregen and Chief Commercial Officer for Generex said, This is an exciting day for the commercialization of Excellagen in the VA Healthcare System. We started the BPA process with our distribution partner AvMedical back in August 2019, and we were always confident that Excellagen would offer positive clinical outcomes for veterans who are dealing with hard to heal wounds. Today Excellagen is bringing great outcomes to several large VA hospitals, and with this new contract, we expect to expedite the acquisition process for Excellagen across the system thanks to the upfront work that has already been completed and approved by the SAC. The streamlined BPA ordering procedures reduce procurement lead time and administrative costs for our VA customers, and we expect this to have a significant impact of future sales.



Dr. Lois Chandler, Chief Scientific Officer of Olaregen added, We were grateful earlier this year when we were invited to present to the SACs subject matter experts in Virginia. We detailed our strong body of clinical evidence that supported positive healing rates for patients and remained confident that Excellagen added additional benefits to those veterans who have diabetic foot ulcers and other hard to heal wounds. As one of the inventors of this product, I am so pleased that this new BPA contract will open the door to more veterans gaining access to this technology. Id like to congratulate Tony Dolisi and his team at Olaregen, Generexs 100%-owned subsidiary for achieving this huge commercialization milestone that will pave the way to significant revenues for Excellagen. This is the biggest news that we could have received from the SAC committee, as this award enables us to now fully commercialize Excellagen across the VA system, said Joseph Moscato, CEO of Generex. To date we have been painstakingly presenting our Excellagen data for approval by the Value-Added Committees (VACs) at individual VA hospitals, one by one. It has taken over a year to open only a few VAs through this arduous process, however, with this coveted accreditation by the SAC, all 160 VA hospitals can easily purchase Excellagen through the BPA. The pending S1, once it is made effective by the SEC, will provide the funding necessary to significantly grow Excellagen sales with the hiring of dozens of sales reps and increasing Excellagen manufacturing capacity to supply the 160 VA hospitals that treat over one million veterans with hard to manage wounds.

About Generex Biotechnology Corp.

Generex Biotechnology is an integrated healthcare holding company with end-to-end solutions for patient centric care from rapid diagnosis through delivery of personalized therapies. Generex is building a new kind of healthcare company that extends beyond traditional models providing support to physicians in an MSO network, and ongoing relationships with patients to improve the patient experience and access to optimal care. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This release and oral statements made from time to time by Generex representatives in respect of the same subject matter may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements can be identified by introductory words such as "expects," "plan," "believes," "will," "achieve," "anticipate," "would," "should," "subject to" or words of similar meaning, and by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. Forward-looking statements frequently are used in discussing potential product applications, potential collaborations, product development activities, clinical studies, regulatory submissions and approvals, and similar operating matters. Many factors may cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements, including inaccurate assumptions and a broad variety of risks and uncertainties, some of which are known and others of which are not. Known risks and uncertainties include those identified from time to time in the reports filed by Generex with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which should be considered together with any forward-looking statement. No forward-looking statement is a guarantee of future results or events, and one should avoid placing undue reliance on such statements. Generex undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Generex claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements that is contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Generex Contact: Generex Biotechnology Corporation Joseph Moscato

646-599-6222 Todd Falls

1-800-391-6755 Extension 222

[email protected]

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COPLEY TOWNSHIP, Ohio A 58-year-old woman died Sunday in a one-car crash, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

The crash happened about 6:45 p.m. Sunday on Jacoby Road and Wright Road. State troopers said in a news release that alcohol appears to be a factor in the crash.

Gwendolyn Wheeler, 58, of Akron, drove through a stop sign at the intersection and crashed into a tree, according to the state patrol.

Wheeler was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.

An ambulance took Wheeler to Akron General Hospital, where she died.

Read more from cleveland.com:

Cleveland police officers taken to hospital after helping person escape flooding

One dead, two injured in Saturday crash on Clevelands East Side

Cleveland mans jail sentence for violating probation on petty theft charge amid coronavirus pandemic counters public safety, judge finds

Downed wires close I-77 northbound, southbound lanes near Akron
Sassy, the 2-year-old pet of Ivan Moore, looks out the window at other cars parked Sunday at the church service held at the Cumberland Drive-In Theatre in Newville, Cumberland County, Pa. With social distancing a coronavirus mandate, religious communities are trying novel ways to continue to worship through the global pandemic. Read more

Gov. Tom Wolf asked President Donald Trump to declare Pennsylvania a major-disaster area on Sunday, key to unlocking millions of dollars in federal aid to help the state battle the sickness and economic devastation of the coronavirus.

The COVID-19 outbreak has taxed our commonwealth and our communities in ways that are almost incomprehensible, Wolf said, calling for assistance that will make a tangible difference in the lives of our friends and neighbors, and the dedicated public servants who are working in overdrive to support them.

Fifteen other states, including New Jersey and New York, already have the major-disaster designation.

Meanwhile, the financial pain of the pandemic reached Pennsylvania state workers, as the Wolf administration laid off about 2,500 part-time and seasonal employees and interns as the crisis strains cash flow, Spotlight PA reported.

Across the Philadelphia region, a rainy, overcast Sunday proved to be a day of deepening disruption. If a new normal lies ahead, as emerged in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, then it remains somewhere in the future.

SEPTA announced the suspension of overnight service on the Market-Frankford and Broad Street lines, starting Monday, to allow more time for cleaning vehicles and stations.

The number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Pennsylvania grew, again, in the previous 24 hours, while researchers at University of Washington forecast more sickness and loss.

 READ MORE: Coronavirus fears trigger hunger strike by immigration detainees at Pa. prison

They estimated that more than 3,000 Pennsylvanians may die by August, with 4,100 fatalities in New Jersey.

The national toll was predicted to reach 81,000  and that was based on states implementing strong social-distancing measures, according to the university scholars.

The United States continues to have more confirmed cases than any other country, more than 142,000 as of Sunday evening, compared with 98,000 in Italy and about 82,000 in China, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, predicted on Sunday that 100,000 to 200,000 Americans could die from among millions of cases.

He cautioned, though, that it could be too soon for firm projections, given that the impact of the virus is such a moving target.

 READ MORE: These are the volunteers helping test for COVID-19 in South Philadelphia

In New Jersey, Sea Isle City joined Ocean City in restricting access to its beach and promenade.

An additional 2,316 people tested positive, Gov. Phil Murphy said on Twitter, bringing the statewide total to 13,386. An additional 21 people died, increasing the state toll to 161.

Pennsylvania health officials announced on Sunday that 643 more people had tested positive for COVID-19, for a total of 3,394. Four more people died, raising the state toll to 38, according to Health Secretary Rachel Levine. So far, no children have died in the state.

Levine said 10.4 percent of all those tested were positive, about what was expected. If it was rising consistently more than 10 percent, that would be concerning.

The state is consulting a number of different models to prepare for a potential surge in cases and hospitalizations, she said.

The state health-care system has more than 4,000 ventilators, and her department also has a supply to deal with any surge, she said, touching on the shortages of important medical equipment. Were working to have ventilators for any patient who needs it.

The safety of elderly people remains a concern as the virus spreads. About 5% of nursing homes in Pennsylvania have had positive tests among seniors, who are often medically fragile and particularly vulnerable to the virus.

As of Sunday the state confirmed 64 cases in 36 nursing homes across Pennsylvania.

Levine pleaded with families to put off visits to make sure that our loved ones stay safe, adding that her mother lives in a personal-care home, and that she herself can no longer go there.

Angela Couloumbis and Rebecca Moss of Spotlight Pa. contributed to this article.
"Banh mi" is a popular food in Vietnam (Photo: VNA)

The week-long event is part of the activities to celebrate banh mi (popular Vietnamese street food) on the ninth anniversary of its admission into the Oxford English Dictionary.

It is also among a series of activities in the culinary tourism campaign launched by the municipal Department of Tourism.

The department coordinated with musician Nguyen Hai Phong and Brandbeats Music Agency to create a music clip I love Banh mi Sai Gon.

An animated image of Vietnams banh mi (bread) was featured on Googles homepage on March 24.

Googles move has contributed to promoting Vietnam's special snack to the world.

The name banh mi /bn mi/ is one of three Vietnamese words in the Oxford English dictionary, together with pho /f / and ao dai /a d/, proving its fame and popularity.

The first baguette in Vietnam dates back 130 years to the time when France colonised the country between the 1880s and 1954. The French usually cut it into small sections to serve with soup, curry or butter.

In 1970, wood-fired ovens were converted into larger brick kilns to bake in bulk, which gave the bread its Vietnamese identity.

From then on Vietnamese chefs began making variations. Instead of putting butter or jam on bread, they layered it with bacon, making it delicious and more convenient.

Banh mi has been developed across Vietnam. The flavours of the modern banh mi vary by region in Vietnam. In Hanoi in the north, the fillings are more simple than the original found in Ho Chi Minh City in the south, and include high-quality cold cuts. In the central coastal city of Hoi An, the meat used is served warm.

Vietnamese banh mi is present in countries where Vietnamese people live because it is easy to make and source ingredients.

It was ranked second in a story run by the Guardian about the World's Best Street Foods.

David Farley, a BBC writer specializing in travel and cuisine, praised banh mi as "the best sandwich in the world".

Meanwhile, late chef Anthony Bourdain, one of the most influential culinary experts in the world, complimented banh mi in his No Reservation programme on CNN.
FOLLOWING complaints from Likuyu villagers in Namtumbo District, Ruvuma region that Mkuju River project is delaying, the government is appealing for patience and assuring the residents that anytime it would resume once uranium prices become stable in the world market.

Making the revelation to this paper yesterday over the phone, Mining Commissioner Executive Secretary, Prof Shukrani Manya said that the project that focuses on uranium mining shook because the silvery-grey metals price fluctuated.

Let them calm down as their expectations will be met after the mining activities resume, because right now an investor, named Mantra Tanzania Limited, who has a special mining licence and ready for business, can not operate because the project is not profitable as a result of a shake in world price(s), he added.

Asked that supposing another investor crops up without waiting for world price(s) to stabilize, Prof Manya responded that: A mining licence isnt transferable in such way, and remember, the first investor has already invested in some areas, including carrying out feasibility studies.

Again, it is well known worldwide that currently world market isnt stable, hence, where is the new investor going to sell the minerals?

However, according to the Minerals Ministrys public notice issued on July 12, 2017 uranium price slipped from USD 65 per ratio in 2013 to USD 18.5 per ratio in the beginning of the year 2017, before slightly climbing to USD 23 per ratio in the same 2017 year.

On his part, Namtumbo District Council Chairperson, Mr Dan Nyambo also urged the villagers to be patient, because it would resume with a lot of benefits to them.

Explaining, he said that feasibility studies showed uranium will be mined in the area for more than 50 years, hence an assurance that many benefits will come to them.

The first way is through the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that directs an investor to set aside one per cent of the turnover for the CSR purposes.

The amount would be submitted to the Council and the villagers will decide social services it would fund be it education, health, road infrastructures or water projects among other things, he said.

Mr Nyambo said that the contract also directs 60 per cent of the projects manpower (both skilled and unskilled) should be carried out by locals; hence the villagers will also be assured of jobs.
What happened

Shares of cruise line stocks had another rough day on Monday as the market worried they may not come out of the COVID-19 crisis. Carnival Corp (NYSE:CCL) fell as much as 18.7% in early trading and is down 10.9% at 2:30 p.m. EDT. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (NYSE:RCL) was down 17.9% mid-day and is now down 15.9%. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NYSE:NCLH) fell as much as 18.3% and is now down 12.2%.

Last week, cruise companies found out they wouldn't be eligible for the first round of stimulus funds, making their turnaround much harder, and over the weekend the news didn't get any better.

So what

Over the weekend, it was reported that a Holland America Line ship, which is owned by Carnival, had an outbreak of COVID-19. Four people have died aboard the ship and two others have tested positive with more presumed to be sick with COVID-19-like symptoms. The ship was denied port in Panama and it's uncertain when sick crew and passengers will be able to get off, although healthy passengers have been ferried off to sister ship the Rotterdam.

At the same time, Carnival announced that it will suspend voyages until May 15, a month longer than previously expected. Management also said the company will offer a 125% credit on cancellations for future cruises for travelers who book a trip before the end of March 2022.

Not only is the delay in reopening normal operations going to make it difficult to survive this crisis, but more bad press about people contracting COVID-19 aboard cruise ships will also make the recovery more difficult. Investors have to be wondering how much demand there will be for cruises this summer if ships are operating by then. If news like this continues it's doubtful there will be a quick recovery.

Now what

I recently wrote that Carnival will have a hard time surviving the COVID-19 pandemic given its $1.8 billion in 2020 debt maturities and $4.8 billion in new ship commitments this year. Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line are in similar positions and a prolonged shutdown may force all three companies into restructuring.

There doesn't seem to be much light at the end of the tunnel for cruise line companies right now without some kind of bailout. But that seems unlikely given that each company is incorporated outside of the U.S. and pays little in U.S. taxes.

The news doesn't seem to be getting any better for cruise stocks and today may be the day any hope of any recovery after COVID-19 goes out the window. Investors should probably look elsewhere for top stocks in today's market.
PR-Inside.com: 2020-03-30 15:01:41

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 30, 2020 / Emgold Mining Corporation (TSXV:EMR)(OTCPINK:EGMCF)(FRA:EMLM) ("Emgold" or the "Company") announces it has completed the acquisition of 100% ownership of 21 patented and 60 unpatented mineral claims that make up the core of the New York Canyon Property, NV (the "Property") from Searchlight Resources Inc. (SCLT) ("Searchlight"). The Property hosts both copper oxide skarn and copper-molybdenum-gold-silver sulfide porphyry mineralization in three known targets - Longshot Ridge, Copper Queen, and Champion. As background:On July 16, 2019, Emgold announced it had signed a Claim Purchase Agreement with Searchlight to acquire 100% interest in the Property (at that time 21 patented and 60 unpatented mineral claims).On November 15, 2019, the Company announced that it had expanded the size of the Property by staking 92 additional unpatented claims.On February 11, 2020, Emgold announced it had signed an Earn-In with Option to Joint Venture Agreement with Kennecott Exploration Company ("Kennecott"), a subsidiary of Rio Tinto PLC (RIO:L)( RIO.AX)(RIO.N) for the Property. Kennecott can earn up to a 75% interest in the Property by completing US$22.5 million in exploration expenditures. Kennecott staked 265 unpatented mineral claims, expanding the Property to 21 patented and 417 unpatented mineral claims, totaling approximately 8,700 acres.The Property ownership, subject to underlying royalties and subject to transfer of the Searchlight claims to Emgold, will now be consolidated between Emgold and Kennecott and falls under the Earn-In with Option to Joint Venture Agreement between Emgold and Kennecott.Searchlight TransactionUnder the terms of the Claim Purchase Agreement between Emgold and Searchlight, Emgold, agreed to purchase a 100% interest in the 21 patented and 60 unpatented mineral claims comprising the Property (at that time) from Searchlight under the following terms:C$10,000 on signing the LOI (paid);C$40,000 on closing of the Transaction (paid);C$500,000 in common shares of the capital of Emgold at the date of closing of the Transaction, with the share price based on the 30-day volume weighted average price of the Company's share immediately prior to the announcement of the Transaction - 2,941,176 shares at C$0.17 per share, with the shares subject to Right of First Refusal provisions (paid);C$100,000 within 6 months of the date of closing of the Transaction;C$100,000 within 12 months of the date of closing of the Transaction; andC$100,000 within 18 months of the date of closing of the Transaction.In the Claim Purchase Agreement with Searchlight, Emgold had the option of accelerating the acquisition. If the outstanding payments (3 x C$100,000) were made on or before the 6 month anniversary of the closing of the Transaction, Emgold would be entitled to a 25% discount on the outstanding balance, reducing the amount of the payment due to C$225,000. Under the terms the Earn-In with Option to Joint Venture Agreement between Kennecott and Emgold (outlined below), Kennecott elected to pay this discounted payment to Searchlight, on Emgold's behalf, as part of its expenditures under the First Option.Kennecott TransactionUnder the terms of the Earn-In with Option to Joint Venture between Emgold and Kennecott:Kennecott will have an option (the "First Option") to acquire a 55% undivided interest in the Property by incurring US$5.0 million in expenditures over a 5 year period, of which US$1.0 million is a committed expenditure that must be completed prior to the 18 month anniversary of the Agreement.Kennecott will have a second option (the "Second Option") to earn an additional 10% undivided interest in the Property (for a total of 65%) by incurring an additional US$7.5 million in expenditures over a 3 years period.Kennecott will have a third option (the "Third Option") to earn an additional 10% undivided interest in the Property (for a total of 75%) by incurring an additional US$10 million in expenditures over a three year period.Any expenditure in excess of an option expenditure requirement in a given time period will be credited against subsequent option expenditure requirements. Kennecott may, at any time or from time to time, accelerate its satisfaction of the First, Second, or Third Option by paying Emgold money in lieu of incurring expenditures.While earning in, Kennecott will have the right to make exploration and development decisions.Kennecott must maintain the Property in good standing during the option period(s), including payment of BLM and County maintenance fees and make any underlying property payments due to Searchlight.Kennecott will have the right to elect to form a joint venture (the "Joint Venture") with Emgold upon completion of either the First, Second, or Third Option. Upon establishing a Joint Venture each participant will fund the joint venture according to its participating interest, with Kennecott acting as the Manager of the joint venture. If a party's participating interest falls below 10%, then such parties participating interest will be converted to a 1% Net Smelter Royalty, capped at US$25 million.Qualified PersonRobert Pease, C.P.G., a qualified person under the NI 43-101 instrument, has reviewed and approved the technical content of this press release.About EmgoldEmgold is a junior gold and base metal exploration company focused on Nevada and Quebec. The Company's strategy is to look for quality acquisitions, add value to these assets through exploration, and monetize them through sale, joint ventures, option, royalty, and other transactions to create value for our shareholders. Our Nevada properties owned or under option include Golden Arrow, New York Canyon, Mindora, Buckskin Rawhide East, Buckskin Rawhide West, and Koegel Rawhide. Our Quebec properties owned or under option include Casa South and a 50% interest in the East-West Property (with option to increase ownership to 55%).Golden Arrow is an advanced stage exploration project and core asset for the Company. Buckskin Rawhide East is an inlying property to Rawhide Mining LLC's operating Rawhide Mine. Casa South is adjacent to Hecla Mining Corporation's (HL) operating Casa Berardi Mine. East-West is adjacent to and on strike with Wesdome Gold Mine Ltd.'s (WDO) Kiena Complex (past producing Kiena Mine) and Osikso Mining Corporation's (OSK) Marban Bloc
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 22:39:15|Editor: huaxia

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CHENGDU, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Thick smoke enveloped a city in southwest China's Sichuan Province after forest fires broke out Monday afternoon, local firefighting brigade said.

The fire started on a local farm at 3:51 p.m. and quickly spread to nearby mountains due to strong winds, according to the information office of the city of Xichang.

Over 300 professional firefighters and another 700 militiamen were sent to the rescue. An emergency evacuation was initiated. No casualties have been reported.

Another 885 firefighters from other cities in the province have been dispatched along with 142 fire engines, six remote water supply systems and extensive firefighting equipment to Xichang.

Besides assisting evacuation, forces have also been deployed to protect key places and areas. Drones have also been used to monitor the development of the fire.
Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany has written to subscribers to apologise for long waits at call centres.

Here is his letter:

I want to apologise if you have been trying to call us but have been unable to get through.

Our call centres are very short staffed as a result of restrictions put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19.

For many of you that have tried to call, we simply havent been able to answer your calls or made you wait a very long time.

Im sorry and we are working hard to fix it for you.

1. We are giving priority to customers with service faults. For many Australians we are an essential service  keeping them informed through Sky News Australia, our international news channels or the ABCs news service.

2. We are prioritising customers facing genuine hardship through our website. We will do all we can to support the many Australians who are facing financial distress.

3. We are asking all other customers not to call at present and allow those in the greatest need to access the limited call centre capacity we have.

4. We are working hard to get our call centres back to capacity by working with other call centre providers and by hiring more call centre staff in Victoria and Queensland.

Fixing this situation is our number one priority and we are working around the clock to get our call centres back up to full strength.

While we do, we would appreciate you delaying your call for the next week to enable us to focus on faults or hardship.

Thank you for your patience, support and loyalty.

Please stay safe, stay positive, and look after one another.

Regards

Patrick Delany

Chief Executive Officer

Foxtel Group

PS: Please visit the updated support pages on our website for any non-critical enquiries. Online services are available at foxtel.com.au/update.
The on Monday cordoned off a major area in where several people showed symptoms of after taking part in a religious gathering a few days ago, an official said.

The gathering of around 200 people was organised without permission from authorities, police said.

"After we learnt that such an event was organised, we served notice to them for violating prohibitory orders and restrictions imposed owing to lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus," a senior police official said.



"Several people have been taken to hospital after they showed symptoms of and are being tested," the official said.

Earlier this month, Delhi Government had banned religious, social, cultural and political gatherings as well as protests comprising more than 50 people till March 31 in view of the outbreak.

Also nationwide restrictions were imposed on the movement of people for 21 days from Wednesday to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The police have been using drones for surveillance in order to check any violations.
Prince Charles has ended his period of self-isolation after last week testing positive for coronavirus, Clarence House has said.

The prince, 71, was confirmed to have tested positive for COVID-19 last Tuesday, when he took a test in Aberdeenshire.

He and his wife Camilla, 72, had gone to Scotland on Sunday 22 March, and as he experienced mild symptoms they were both tested for the virus.

He was confirmed to have it, but Camilla tested negative.

On Monday, Clarence House said: Clarence House has confirmed today that, having consulted with his doctor, the Prince of Wales is now out of self-isolation.

Read more: Coronavirus: Prince Albert 'didn't shake' Charles's hand as royals fight COVID-19

Prince Charles is now out of self-isolation, Clarence House has said. (Getty Images)

The Duchess of Cornwall will continue to self-isolate until she reaches the 14-day recommendation.

UK government guidelines say those who get symptoms of coronavirus, which can include a fever, a cough and loss of taste and smell, should self-isolate for seven days.

The guidance also states a whole household should isolate for 14 days if one person gets symptoms.

Charles was reported to have been working and in good spirits throughout his period of self-isolation, at his desk in Birkhall on the Balmoral estate.

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

Live: Follow all the latest updates from the UK and around the world

Fact-checker: The number of COVID-19 cases in your local area

6 charts and maps that explain how COVID-19 is spreading

Prince Charles was with the Royal Family on 9 March for the Commonwealth Day service. (Getty Images)

He was not bedridden, and conducted meetings by telephone, including one with former Labour leadership candidate David Miliband.

Read more: Coronavirus: Officials defend Prince Charles's test for COVID-19

Miliband is now president and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Charles is a patron of the IRCs UK arm.

He told Sky News last Thursday: I had a scheduled call with the Prince of Wales yesterday. Obviously getting the news in the morning of his coronavirus situation made me wonder whether he would postpone but he went ahead with the call.

Story continues

He was in very good spirits  he was obviously very engaged with the situation facing people in the UK.

Read more: Prince Charles offers tenants three-month rent deferral amid coronavirus pandemic

Officials in Scotland defended the decision to test the heir to the throne at a time when frontline NHS staff were not yet being routinely tested.

The Queen avoided shaking hands in her final public engagement. (Getty Images)

The nations chief medical officer said Charles was tested because he met the criteria, saying it was for clinical reasons.

There have been concerns about the Queens health, but she is reported to be unaffected, having not seen her son since 12 March.

His doctor estimated he was contagious around 13 March.

The Royal Family is following government guidance on coronavirus and has cancelled or postponed most engagements for the foreseeable future.

Trooping the Colour was the latest big royal event to be amended, with Buckingham Palace confirming on Friday that it would not go ahead in the traditional way, but plans are being made to mark the Queens birthday.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The coronavirus emergency is a brutal reminder that we pay a price for deregulating society in pursuit of profit.

Underlying the rapid disruption to our daily lives forced by the health crisis will be seismic changes to what we believe and how we will govern.

As a society we are being taught some old lessons. Let's hope everyone is listening.

For decades we were told that small government is good government.

And good government meant outsourcing, privatizing and deregulating every possible public function of government.

Under this philosophy of neoliberalism, corporations were virtuous and governments were sad relics.

Global supply chains were better than local manufacture of things like pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.

Workforces were casualized and vast numbers of temporary overseas workers were encouraged.

Cutting taxes became a holy goal of government. Strenuous attempts were made to privatise many aspects of health and education.

In many other areas these policies were successful.

As a result, governments handed over policy tools to unstable and profit driven forces of the market.

We created a small government and now we have a small democracy.

Underlying this approach was a philosophy that insisted that the greatest good was achieved if we act as a patchwork of selfish individuals competing in a free market.

As Margaret Thatcher said: "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families."

Whatever else it does, this approach ignores the existence of collective needs and treats people merely as consumers rather than the collective source of legitimacy for government.

As well, denying collective interests and shrinking most public institutions ultimately leads to less social cohesion.

We now need to come to our senses and acknowledge that economic relations through the market is not a model to be applied to all human relationships.

It took the current crisis to remind us that we are far more than individual consumers.

Rather, we are a society of citizens who share many common interests including an interest in the health of others who are far removed from ourselves both in physical distance and circumstance.

Both rich and poor can catch the virus and can be sources of infection for each other.

We have a common interest in a well funded system of public health which treats everyone equally on the basis of human needs not profits.

Similarly, we all have an interest in (and we benefit from) a literate, well skilled population created by public education.

The disastrous recent attempt to privatize technical education was a costly lesson.

The COVID-19 crisis can also teach us that we share a common fate in other things.

The warming of global temperatures underlines the fact that all humans share a single atmosphere.

There are no individual solutions to a heating planet.

Preserving the climate and the environment is something we have to do collectively.

Dealing with climate changeas with protecting public healthwill mean that governments must play a bigger and more public role in the future of Australia.

Explore further Is it time to nationalize the drug industry?
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 17:23:21|Editor: huaxia

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Rescuers work at the accident site after a train derailed at Yonghua Village of Yongxing County in Chenzhou City, central China's Hunan Province, March 30, 2020. One person was killed and 127 others injured after the train derailed in the city of Chenzhou in central China's Hunan Province Monday, local authorities said. The accident happened in Yongxing County at 11:40 a.m. when the train ran into a landslide, leaving five carriages derailed. The power generation car was caught on fire. The fire has been put out and all of the injured have been sent to hospitals, with four in serious conditions, local authorities said. The train, T179, was running from the city of Jinan, east China's Shandong Province, to Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong Province, according to China Railway Guangzhou Group Co., Ltd. (Photo by Li Yulong/Xinhua)

CHANGSHA, March 30 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and 127 others injured after a train derailed in the city of Chenzhou in central China's Hunan Province Monday, local authorities said.

The accident happened in Yongxing County at 11:40 a.m. when the train ran into a landslide, leaving five carriages derailed. The power generation car was caught on fire.

The fire has been put out and all of the injured have been sent to hospitals, with four in serious conditions, local authorities said.

The train, T179, was running from the city of Jinan, east China's Shandong Province, to Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong Province, according to China Railway Guangzhou Group Co., Ltd.

The interruption caused delays of 31 trains as of 1:30 p.m. The railway authorities have been adjusting routes to mitigate the impact.
The virus swept through the nursing home, taking the most vulnerable.

Some of the residents on ventilators to help them breathe began spiking fevers and were rushed to the hospital in irreversible shock.

And with a lack of rigorous infection controls, it spread like wildfire, leaving dozens of patients critically ill and sickening at least one staff member.

By the time it was over, 11 children were dead and another 36 had been infected.

More than a year before COVID-19 hit  now exacting a particularly deadly toll on nursing homes across the country  another virus stalked the floors of a long-term care facility in New Jersey, warning us how quickly and efficiently an outbreak can spread.

Like the coronavirus, which has killed more than 33,500 worldwide and 161 in New Jersey, the weeks-long adenovirus outbreak at the former Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in October 2018 was out of control before the danger was recognized. Its spread also was caused through close personal contact, such as touching or shaking hands, as experts have warned with COVID-19. And as with coronavirus, it was not until that chain of infection was finally broken did cases finally begin to subside late in 2018.

Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, head of the Senates health committee, said the Wanaque outbreak graphically showed how any virus can significantly affect those who are immunocompromised.

"And thats whats happening today, he said.

In the aftermath of the outbreak, Gov. Phil Murphy last August signed into law legislation sparked by the tragedy at Wanaque Center. The law requires long-term care facilities to submit outbreak response plans to the Department of Health.

The health department also called for all long-term care facilities who serve patients with ventilators to perform drills in the event of future outbreaks.

But Vitale said there was never a full investigation into how the crisis at Wanaque began. And if there were lessons learned from the events in 2018, some may well have been forgotten.

A VULNERABLE POPULATION

Months ago before the current epidemic reached crisis stage, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out an advisory warning of a new respiratory disease  coronavirus disease 2019 that was spreading globally and there have been instances of COVID-19 community spread in the United States.

But one of the initial footholds for COVID-19 in this country would turn up in a Washington nursing home, where 35 residents at the Life Care Center of Kirkland near Seattle have died thus far from COVID-19 complications. An investigation led by the CDC found that staff members at the nursing home inadvertently spread the coronavirus to other facilities where they worked.

Infectious diseases move quickly through nursing homes, said Ann Kohler, New Jerseys former Medicaid director and a retired national health care consultant. The patients are very frail with compromised systems. Failure to have very strong infectious control processes in place at all times, combined with not immediately putting them into place, results in the situation we saw at Wanaque, and whats happening now.

She stressed that COVID-19 is a new virus and very aggressive, making things much worse than other outbreaks, and nursing homes should assume that any patient with a respiratory illness has COVID-19 and immediately isolate the patient and impose infectious disease protocols.

New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli, who noted residents of nursing homes typically have underlying health conditions that make them more susceptible to the virus, said Saturday that 71 of the states 375 long-term care facilities have reported at least 1 COVID-19 case.

Many of the facilities deal with large numbers of infected residents.

Last week, St. Josephs Senior Nursing Home and Assisted Living Facility in Woodbridge was ordered by the state to shut down after 24 residents tested positive for the virus. At least three have died.

Residents being moved from St. Josephs Senior Home Assisted Living and Nursing Center in WoodbridgeScott Faytok | For NJ Advance Media

Two patients at a Princeton nursing home died from complications of coronavirus and at least four people linked to a nursing home in Montclair have died after testing positive for the virus as well.

At least on nursing home executive, John Cofrancesco, 52, of Bergenfield, who was the administrator at Family of Caring in Montclair, has died from the virus.

PROTECTING RESIDENTS

New Jersey officials in recent weeks have restricted access by visitors and vendors to nursing homes in the state, and issued an order halting services at adult day care centers in all counties.

Jon Dolan, who heads the Health Care Association of New Jersey, a trade group for assisted-living and nursing home operators, said the situation in New Jersey could have been far worse had it not been for infection controls and other measures put in place by many of the states long-term care facilities, in part because of lessons learned from Wanaque.

The only reason you dont see more infections is that were managing this, he said, crediting the staff and administrators and front line workers. To do this with so fewer resources than the hospitals is nothing short of miraculous.

He said Wanaque served as a warning for the state.

It was tragic what Wanaque went through, but Wanaque was the canary in the coal mine, said Dolan, pointing to the legislation that came out of the 2018 adenovirus outbreak as a factor in the preparations for what was to come with COVID-19. Were keeping our residents safe.

During the outbreak at the Wanaque Center, which has since been sold to new owners and changed its name, investigators early on raised issues of inadequate infection control measures and the lack of space needed to separate infected children from non-infected children, exacerbating the outbreaks severity.

At one point, the Department of Health had to raise a call for help from the Medical Reserve Corps, a network of nearly 5,000 volunteers who can be deployed to assist with public health emergencies. That same network is already being eyed for possible call-ups to assist with the escalating coronavirus response.

The number of new cases finally dropped at Wanaque only after more rigorous isolation measures were put in place.

Meanwhile, with predictions that the worst is yet to come in the ongoing coronavirus crisis, legislators say the states response to the current pandemic will need to be the focus of an in-depth review when the crisis abates.

When all this has ended, whenever that is, I think were going to be looking at the gaps, said Vitale, D-Middlesex, who held hearings on the Wanaque Center. Theres going to be a need for a full postmortem.

While he gave high marks to the Department of Healths response to the coronavirus outbreak, he said continuing stories about shortages of personal protection equipment for medical workers, such as masks, gloves and gowns, along with failures in the ability to test for the virus, point to serious shortcomings in the system that must be addressed long-term.

We need to look at everything, so when there is a next time, we can be even better prepared, Vitale said. And there will be a next time.

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Some customers waited 3-4 hours to make sure they got what might have been the last food from the Western Omelette downtown in Colorado Springs on Sunday, March 29, 2020. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
Amy Willerton has shared a heartwarming video marking the anniversary of her engagement to fiance Daniel Day.

The I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here star, 27, and her other half are currently on a sun-kissed trip to Xativa, Spain where they celebrated one year since Daniel popped the question.

In the video, Daniel picks Amy up and spins her around as they kiss with a picturesque view of the mountains in the background.

Romance: Amy Willerton, 27, has shared a heartwarming video marking the anniversary of her engagement to fiance Daniel Day

Alongside the video, the model wrote: 'Celebrated our engagement anniversary climbing hills today... and yes Ive bit the bullet and got @tiktok.

'Not a clue what Im doing and it hurts my head slightly. Hopefully I'll be dancing soon #fiance #anniversary #love'.

Amy and Daniel are parents to daughter Demelza who they welcomed in January.

The reality star recently shared a photo of her Cesarean scar on Instagram and wrote alongside it: 'Say hello to my little poochie! AKA my Demy Scar.'

Trip: The I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here star and her other half are currently on a sun-kissed trip to Xativa, Spain

'It may not be perfect but it gave me my perfect girl its gone down a lot over the weeks but there is still a lot of hardness and internal scar tissue which has left a little overhang, or some people call it the cesarean fold... Im doing daily massage on it which is helping so much'.

Last month, Amy divulged details of her 'bad mental health' day in a candid social media post and video.

Anniversary: In the video, Daniel picks Amy up and spins her around as they kiss with a picturesque view of the mountains in the background

Love: Alongside the video, the model wrote: 'Celebrated our engagement anniversary climbing hills today

Amy wrote: 'Revisiting my pregnancy cravings of #scotcheggs & #hotchocolate #7weeksold. Its looks like we are having a lovely lunch but 5mins before this pic was taken I was in floods of tears...

'I went to a clinic to get advice for long term contraception and just started crying and had to leave !!! I have no idea why maybe it was Gran? But for some reason I felt totally panicked about the whole thing!! Yesterday was a terrible day emotionally..

'I just gotta remember we all have bad days but I wanted to tell the truth about this pic yesterday as it all looks dandy in the house which it certainly was not but it doesnt mean everyday has to be!!!...

'Just a reminder to be nice to yourself when you feel like poo #itsoknottobeok ...do something nice for yourself!..

Still healing: Amy's recently shared a photo of her Cesarean scar. She wrote: 'Say hello to my little poochie! AKA my Demy Scar'

Her love: Last month, Amy divulged details of her 'bad mental health' day in a candid social media post and video (pictured with her baby daughter Demelza)

'I got the egg to make me feel better and had a cuddle with my girl x ... oh and the hot chocolate is not innocent either there is a shot of liquor in that #confessions'.

Amy revealed her pregnancy in October just six months after confirming her engagement to her partner of six years.

The blonde described her journey to parenthood as 'definitely the most wonderful engagement present we could ever wish for' in an interview with Hello! magazine.

The couple chose to wait two months longer than the recommended 12 weeks before revealing the pregnancy after they sought an amniocentesis to check for any disorders.

An amniocentesis can detect the chromosomal abnormalities that cause Downs, Edwards or Patau syndromes by taking a sample of the amniotic fluid that surrounds the baby by inserting a hollow needle into the uterus.
Chandigarh, March 30 : One more person died from Covid-19 in Punjab on Monday, taking the toll to three. The 42-year-old patient from Ludhiana was diagnosed positive after death, doctors said.

So far, 41 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the state.

She had been referred with acute respiratory syndrome to the Government Medical College, Patiala, on Sunday. Patiala Civil Surgeon Harish Malhotra told the media that after the death, her test reports confirmed that she was suffering from coronavirus.

The state had reported second death on Sunday. He was in close contact with the state's first Covid-19 casualty Baldev Singh. Both were 'granthis' -- the keeper and reader of the Sikh scripture.

They had returned from Germany and Italy and mingled freely with the people despite the home isolation advisory on landing at the IGI Airport in New Delhi on March 7.

Harbhajan Singh, 62, who died on Sunday due to cardiac arrest, was a resident of Hoshiarpur. He was undergoing treatment at Government Medical Hospital, Amritsar. Harbhajan Singh's wife, son, daughter-in-law and a neighbour are undergoing coronavirus treatment at Hoshiarpur.

Harbhajan Singh, a diabetic, was suffering from hypertension.

So far around 70 per cent of Punjab's positive cases have been traced to Baldev Singh, a resident of Banga town in the Nawanshahr district, who died from heart attack, but was diagnosed coronavirus positive after death.

Baldev Singh is suspected to have infected 27 people, comprising 14 family members.

The state government has been tracing Baldev Singh's acquaintances in Nawanshahr, Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar districts, the hotbed of NRIs.

Earlier in the day, two persons tested positive. One, a Mohali resident, is undergoing treatment at the PGI Hospital here, and another with travel history to Dubai is hospitalised at the Government Medical College, Patiala.

Of the 41 cases in the state, 19 have been reported from Nawanshahr, seven from Mohali, six from Hoshiarpur, five from Jalandhar, two from Ludhiana and one each from Amritsar and Ludhiana. The state on March 9 tested the first positive case for the coronavirus.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
On March 25, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a final consent judgment against Bryan Cohen, a former executive at a global investment bank who was charged with misappropriating confidential information he obtained through his position at the bank.

On October 18, 2019, the Commission charged Cohen with securities fraud for his participation in an international insider trading scheme. The complaint alleged that Cohen obtained nonpublic information about potential corporate acquisitions of Syngenta AG and Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc., each of whom had engaged his then-employer to provide related advisory services. According to the complaint, Cohen misappropriated this highly confidential information by tipping a trader based in Switzerland, who further tipped defendant George Nikas. Both the Switzerland-based trader and Nikas traded in the securities of Syngenta, and Nikas also traded in the securities of Buffalo Wild Wings, prior to market-moving public disclosures about the acquisitions of these companies, and as a result generated millions of dollars of illegal profits.

In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York filed criminal charges against Cohen, who agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiring to commit securities fraud, and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 28, 2020.

The Court entered a final judgment by consent that enjoins Cohen from violating the antifraud provisions of Section 10(b) and Section 14(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 and Rule 14e-3 thereunder. The final judgment also orders disgorgement of Cohen's ill-gotten gains, to be offset by the Order of Forfeiture to be imposed in the parallel criminal case. Cohen also consented to the issuance of an SEC order barring him from the securities industry and from participating in any offering of a penny stock.

The SEC's investigation was conducted by Caitlyn M. Campbell, David Makol, John Rymas, David Snyder and Assunta Vivolo of the Market Abuse Unit, Michael Foster of the Chicago Regional Office and Rua M. Kelly of the Boston Regional Office, with assistance from Darren Boerner of the Market Abuse Unit, James D'Avino of the New York Regional Office, and Carlos Costa-Rodrigues, Marlee Miller and Matthew Greiner in the Office of International Affairs. This case has been supervised by Joseph G. Sansone, Chief of the Market Abuse Unit. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Dr. Brandon White is a doctor in the ICU at UAB West hospital in Bessemer by day, battling the coronavirus with the same N95 respirator hes been wearing since last Thursday. He added a surgical mask on top as another layer to prevent infection until they ran low on supply.

By night he does telemedicine visits, and over the weekend he launched his pet project, a charity to hire local restaurants to feed healthcare workers battling the pandemic called BHMcares.

I know what it is like to not be able to eat, he said, adding that hospital cafeterias are often running on reduced hours right now.

Taking on and off all of the extra gear required for coronavirus makes it hard for workers to find time to go downstairs and stand in line to get food, so many are missing meals, he says.

Having a restaurant come in and bring 30 tacos for the ICU is probably going to feed at least half that unit that wasnt going to eat otherwise, he said.

BHM cares taco meal delivery for hospital workers battling the coronavirus

He says when he calls the families of his patients who are battling coronavirus, they ask how they can contribute.

People just want to help, so it seemed like a great idea to try to set up this charity to try, essentially try to funnel the community as a wholes interest in helping to our local restaurants to try to keep them afloat, he said.

BHMcares is one of several Alabama charity drives aimed at feeding healthcare workers treating coronavirus patients, including CareHealth, through a non-profit group called Urban Avenue, and Meals for Heroes through UAB in Birmingham.

BHMcares will serve hospitals across the city including St. Vincents, Brookwood Baptist, Grandview Medical Center, UAB, and Princeton Baptist.

Restaurants on board include Melt, Unos Tacos, Sol y Luna, Bamboo on 2nd, Slice, Fancys on 5th and Tostadas.

Each days donations to the charity will fund a different restaurant to deliver a meal to that days hospital. White hopes people donating larger sums will spread their gifts over multiple days to benefit various businesses and hospital staff workers.

White says as someone who routinely works at the ICU and even enjoys high pressure situations, coronavirus is completely different.

Its a lot of stress frankly, he said.

There is a fair amount of extra gear that we have to wear for one thing, he said, but many needed items, like masks and gowns are not available. [Related: 3 key medical supply shortages in Alabama: We have a tidal wave coming.]

The N95 mask hes been wearing for days was meant for a couple of uses at most, he says.

Dr. Brandon White says he's worn the same N95 mask for days

Providers are experiencing mental strain over possibly bringing the disease home to their families. Its not clear when this virus will end, and he says there is no good treatment plan to offer beyond support right now.

When asked if doctors are feeling that perhaps they wont be able to take whats ahead, the answer is no.

White is part of a group chat of ICU doctors statewide, some at UAB seeing the bulk of cases now, and others elsewhere where he says, (coronavirus) is pretty impressively ramping up.

He sees nurses at patients bedsides all day, coming and going 30-40 times, removing masks, gloves, and gowns over and over again, only to go back to the same cycle and start again.

We do this job for a reason. We want to do it, we want to help people, and were not going to abandon folks, he said.

To White, something as simple as a gifted meal truly boosts morale.

You see everybody kinda sit down and smile and say, Theres a reason Im doing this. People do care. It does matter.'
T wo of the UKs biggest food delivery companies have today announced they will be offering hundreds of thousands of free meals to NHS workers while they battle the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

This morning, Uber Eats announced it will offer 100,000 free meals to NHS workers and 200,000 free Uber rides, while Deliveroo also announced it will offer 500,000 free meals to NHS workers.

Anyone with an NHS email address can claim a 10 Uber Eats voucher and a 15 Uber voucher, while NHS workers in London can also use JUMP bikes free of charge to get to and from work.

Ubers CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, said: "The incredible nurses, doctors and support staff of the NHS are doing heroic work at the forefront of this crisis, and everyone at Uber thanks them for their extraordinary efforts. We hope we can help in a small way with meals and transportation as they work tirelessly day and night.

Deliveroo has secured hundreds of thousands of meal donations from its restaurant partners, namely Pizza Hut, Itsu and Neat Burger, which it plans to deliver to NHS sites across the UK in the coming weeks.

CEO and founder of Deliveroo, Will Shu, adds: Those in the NHS working night and day to save lives are the real heroes of this crisis, and we want to do our small part to support them and the vulnerable who arent able to leave their homes. Thanks to our dedicated riders, the generosity of our restaurant partners and their teams who are keeping kitchens open to serve those most in need, we hope to be able to make a difference.

Health secretary Matt Hancock commented separately on both Uber and Deliveroos initiatives, praising the food delivery companies for playing their part in helping NHS workers.

Of Deliveroos initiative, Hancock said: The nation needs the NHS like never before, and we must support every single colleague in the NHS. Im delighted that Deliveroo and partners are playing their part in this great national effort with half a million meals for the NHS. We can best come through this if we pull together.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A new model from the University of Washington shows that Ohio has more than enough hospital and intensive care unit capacity to handle the onslaught of expected coronavirus cases.

According to projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, Ohios coronavirus cases are expected to peak April 19, with 3,900 hospital beds needed, 585 of them in the ICU, and 468 ventilators.

Ohio has about 34,000 hospital beds at more than 100 hospitals across the state, and 2,500 ICU beds, according to data compiled by the Associated Press. The Washington study says Ohio has less than 1,300 ICU beds.

The predictions are far less dire than models Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton and Gov. Mike DeWine have cited at statehouse news briefings.

DeWine said Friday that hospitals need to build up beds and other capacity to three times what they currently have, with 6,000 to 10,000 newly diagnosed coronavirus patients a day in coming weeks. The state has used models from Ohio State University and the Cleveland Clinic.

On Monday, Acton said she wanted hospitals to at least double capacity, in time for a peak in mid- to late-April, depending on how successful successful distancing is. That includes increased staffing and equipment.

Our forecast, our weather station gets a little better each time, Acton said. It gets better with each day and more accurate... We already see from the stories from the front line; its a lot of work in ICUs and hospitals.

Acton said she believes the Washington model looks at peak capacity day-by day, but that coronavirus patients will have to remain in the hospital much longer than patients with other illnesses -- up to 20 days. She said scientists will continue to collaborate, to work through their projections.

You cant just look at who might be sick and the number of cases when theyre piling on top of each logarithmically," she said Monday.

Terry OSullivan, associate director of the Center for Emergency Management and Homeland Security at the University of Akron, said he expects a lot of controversy in modeling the effect of the coronavirus, mostly because there are so many unknowns.

A lot of this is guess work, OSullivan said. In the modeling world they refer to it as garbage in, garbage out. They are sophisticated models, but they are limited by the information and inability to fully anticipate the interaction of these variables. We dont know exactly whos been infected.

David Gurarie, who studies mathematical biology infectious diseases modeling and epidemiology at Case Western Reserve University, agreed.

The main challenge of COVID-modeling at present are big uncertainties of its transmission (rates, pathways), as well as recovery, pathogenicity (fraction of heavy infections over light/asymptomatic), fatality, Gurarie said in an email. It is believed, large pool of undetected (asymptomatic) hosts contributes to transmission, which creates large uncertainty for model prediction..

Given these uncertainties, Im not surprised two models ("UW " vs. Cleveland clinic) gave vastly different predictions.

The Washington study doesnt predict total cases, but says Ohio will peak at about 1,203 deaths total, with the model showing deaths could be between about 400 and 2,100.

The study examines every state, based on confirmed COVID-19 deaths from the World Health Organization, local and national governments, as well as COVID-19 utilization data from select locations." It estimates that approximately 81,000 people will die from the virus in the United States over the next four months -- less than the up to 200,000 warned by White House coronavirus coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx on Monday.

The latest Ohio Department of Health projection of the coronavirus curve.

Ohio is one of nine states with hospitals that wont be overwhelmed, according to the projections, which are updated daily.

Michigan, which has had about three times more coronavirus cases than Ohio, is forecasted to need nearly triple the ICU beds than it has available. The projection shows Michigan will have about 2,855 coronavirus deaths -- double Ohios.

New York, which is currently overwhelmed with coronavirus cases, is expected to peak 10 days before Ohio, in line with Actons predictions. The state has a more steeper projected spike, with an expectation of more than 11,000 ICU beds needed and only 718 available.

Study director Dr. Christopher Murray in a news release stressed that his projections are based on strict continuance of social distancing measures.

Our estimated trajectory of COVID-19 deaths assumes continued and uninterrupted vigilance by the general public, hospital and health workers, and government agencies, Murray said. The trajectory of the pandemic will change  and dramatically for the worse  if people ease up on social distancing or relax with other precautions. We encourage everyone to adhere to those precautions to help save lives.

Ohio State University said it will release more information on the methodology of its projections later this week.
By PTI

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government on Monday said sweet shops can remain open for a duration of four hours during the lockdown period, days after the apex body of sweetmeat outlets flagged concerns over wastage of milk and jobless staff.

"Sweetmeat shops/mithai shops may remain open during the (lockdown) period from 12 noon to 4 pm each day with the minimum number of staff only for take away and packed items," a government order said.

However, a number of sweet shop owner said though they welcomed the spirit of the order, the allotted time needs a relook as a business is likely to be sparse in that time span.

"We would request the administration to change the proposed timings to open the sweet shops for four hours during the first half, when people visit the markets and grocery shops," Poschimbango Mistanno Byabsayee Somity office-bearer Dhiman Das told PTI.

Das, who is also the owner of a popular sweet shop chain in the city, said his outlets will remain closed during the government-prescribed time from Tuesday.

Most well-known sweet makers also said they are in two minds about opening their shops at noon.

The ubiquitous 'rosogolla', 'sondesh', 'misti doi' have been off the platters of the sweet-toothed Bengalis during the unprecedented lockdown over the coronavirus threat.

Banks in West Bengal to function normally, relaxation in timings withdrawn

The State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) in West Bengal on Monday decided that banks will function from 10 am to 4 pm, withdrawing its earlier advisory of limiting the transaction hours till 2 pm in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, an official said.

The decision of the SLBC will be implemented with immediate effect, he said.

"There will be no relaxation in banking hours. The previous advisory regarding limited functioning from 10 am to 2 pm hereby stands withdrawn," UBI's General Manager and West Bengal SLBC Convener Mukti Ranjan Ray said in a statement.

All the bank branches, irrespective of locations, will now function in all the working days.

According to SLBC, the decision has been taken in view of the ensuing closing of the financial year and urgency of monthly salary and pension payments.

It has also been decided that ATMs will remain open and banking correspondents and customer service points should adequately be equipped to transact cash to cover their target groups, a SLBC statement said.

SLBC convenor has also advised banks to ensure timely credit of direct benefit transfers to the accounts of the beneficiaries of welfare schemes, and also allow withdrawals.

Prescribed social distancing norms and proper sanitisation should also be taken care of, the committee said.
Russia-led forces mounted 14 attacks on Ukrainian positions from 00:00 to 19:00 Kyiv time on March 30.

Ukraine has reported that its army casualties in Donbas on Monday, March 30, were the following: one member of the Joint Forces was killed in action, three were wounded in action, and another one sustained a combat-related injury.

"Today, March 30, one soldier was killed, three were wounded, and another one had a combat-related injury," the press center of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) Headquarters said in an evening update.

Read alsoUkraine reports 13 enemy attacks in Donbas on March 29

From 00:00 to 19:00 Kyiv time on March 30, Russia-led forces mounted 14 attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas.

Enemy troops used proscribed weapons, namely 82mm mortars, as well as grenade launchers, large-caliber machine guns, sniper rifles, and small arms.

"Members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired back to properly respond to each enemy attack," the JFO HQ said.
(Natural News) Around 100 scientists are stranded on a research ship in the Arctic after countries all over the world shut down their borders due to the coronavirus pandemic. The scientists are members of a project called the Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of the Arctic Climate, or MOSAiC. The expeditions goals include deepening human understanding of the Arctic environment.

The MOSAiC scientists all lived on board the Polarstern, a large German icebreaking vessel, which receives supplies whenever the 100 scientists are rotated out every six weeks for another group of around 100 researchers. The current group boarded the ship in February, and were scheduled to conduct their research until mid-April, when they were supposed to be replaced by a new team flying out from the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Norway.

However, all of their plans changed due to the global coronavirus pandemic. On Wednesday, the local government of Svalbard closed its borders to outsiders. The rest of Norway had closed its borders to foreigners on March 16, but Svalbards local government has a lot more leeway to decide on domestic matters and kept its borders open for a week longer. (Related: EU proposes closing ALL borders, effectively placing mainland Europe under lockdown.)

This means two things: The old team wont be able to disembark from the Polarstern and the new research team wont be able to leave Svalbard at their originally scheduled date. As a result, around 100 scientists and support personnel who were planning to relive the current Polarstern crew by mid April no longer had a flight out of Svalbard.

Theres no way to carry out these flights for the crew rotation, said Markus Rex, an atmospheric scientist for the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research and MOSAiCs expedition leader. That has a major impact on how we plan the expedition.

Luckily, they were able to reach an agreement with the Norwegian government, wherein the new team would stay in quarantine for 14 days, with health officials monitoring them for potential COVID-19 symptoms. Should they be cleared after the quarantine period, they will be allowed to leave. However, their planned chartered flight out to the Polarstern will no longer be available to them. MOSAiC organizers are now working to find an icebreaker ship willing to go out into the Arctic Ocean to meet the Polarstern.

Alternatively, organizers are also looking into whether the Polarsterns next resupply can be moved ahead of scheduled. MOSAiC had chartered Swedish icebreaker Oden to head north and rendezvous with the Polarstern in June. Organizers are looking into possibly moving that meeting forward to mid-May or earlier and sending a relief force with it.

In either scenario, the scientists currently on the Polarstern will be stuck on the ship for at least two weeks longer than they originally intended.

Rex said that the people on Polarstern are safe, they are in a virus free environment, they have all the provisions they need. They are focusing on science. While the cancellation of flights and the shuttering of borders leaves the future of the MOSAiC expedition in question, many of the scientists are determined to soldier on. However, Rex fully expects that many researchers signed up to join the expedition in the following months may not be able to leave their respective countries due to travel restrictions.

Svalbard preparing for the arrival of COVID-19

Svalbard, the agreed-upon embarkation for all of the scientists for the Polarstern, still has no confirmed cases of COVID-19. However, its home country, Norway, has, as of Friday, 3,156 confirmed cases, including 14 deaths.

Even so, the local government of Svalbard is preparing as much as it can for the first cases to arrive in the small archipelago of 2,300 residents.

We have not tested many people, said Bente Brataas, section chief at Longyearbyen Hospital, but those who we have tested, are in home quarantine. It may take up to three days before we receive answers to the tests.

The Governor of Svalbard, Kjerstin Askholt, is currently following the recommendations of the Norwegian central government when it comes to emergency preparedness.

Meanwhile, Svalbard residents have begun preparing for the worst. Ronny Stromnes, manager of the islands only convenience store, has been storing extra dried meats, canned milk, coffee and toilet paper  both for sale to other residents and for personal consumption. Stromnes says that the worst case scenario for Svalbard is that it becomes completely isolated due to the halting of travel into the archipelago.

The lack of travel into Svalbard means that the local economy, which is heavily reliant on the tourist industry, may collapse. For example, John-Einar Lockert, manager of tourist company Svalbard Adventures, is already preparing his staff for the possibility of layoffs. He sent out a notice warning his staff of this. While they have receives several bookings for the summer, theres no telling whether those will be able to push through due to

On the other hand, Stromnes is concerned that the pandemic may overwhelm Svalbards small hospital.

We are a small and vulnerable community with 2,300 residents. We have made plans for how to run society here if the virus gets here, such as how to ensure a continuous supply of energy and goods. But we are obviously not equipped for 30 to 40 people to be hospitalized.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

Vice.com

Sysselmannen.no 1

Avinor.no

WHO.int [PDF]

HighNorthNews.com

Sysselmannen.no 2
Welcome to the Star-Tribunes Energy Journal, a play-by-play of the past week in Wyomings wild world of energy. Im your energy and natural resources reporter, Camille Erickson. Sign up for the newsletter here.

A pair of energy companies with roots in Wyoming have donated several natural gas generators and computing modules to researchers searching for a cure to the novel coronavirus.

Casper-based Mesa Natural Gas Solutions contributed natural gas generators and Crusoe Energy Systems provided computing modules to help power research led by Folding@Home Consortium, launched by Stanford University. The various simulation processes that test out possible vaccines and therapies to fight the virus require significant amounts of electricity.

Scientists have tapped into Crusoe's computational systems powered by Mesa's natural gas generators in order to continue researching the virus remotely and conduct protein-folding simulation projects, according to the companies.

We jumped at the opportunity to fully support this effort to research this terrible virus that has paralyzed our country and the world, said Scott Gromer, president and CEO of Mesa, which was founded in 2014 by former U.S. military members. Mesa has in the past, and will always focus our companys resources to where they are needed most in society, whether that is emergency response after natural disasters or helping our partners search for a cure to COVID-19."

It's not just the coronavirus the two companies have been battling. They have also been working on flaring mitigation systems. An estimated 4.9 trillion standard cubic feet of flaring, or burning of natural gas, occurs around the world each year.

Mesa and Crusoe both assist oil and gas operators in mitigating flaring and making use of the abundant, inexpensive natural gas on-site. Instead of using costly diesel to power remote oil and gas fields, Mesa engineered natural gas generators to fuel everything from pumping units to large micro-grids. In turn, Crusoe can transfer the electricity from the generators to servers on a well site for computing tasks at a small but mighty data processing center. Using satellite internet, the company digitally transfers the output product.

Mesas boldness and support for Crusoe persists today as evidenced by their very generous contribution to the fight against COVID-19," Cully Cavness, president and co-founder of Crusoe Energy Systems, said in a statement. "Crusoe and Mesa are aligned as mission-oriented companies working to improve the environmental performance of the energy industry, and today we are also aligned in our goal to convert our industrys energy into the search for a cure.

Find out more about the innovations happening in Wyoming's leading industry with the Energy Journal 2020, published in Sunday's Star-Tribune.

Last week's news roundup

COAL

Wyomings Public Service Commission unanimously approved a new agreement with the states largest utility Tuesday to ensure the cost of generating and transmitting electricity across six states within the utilitys service territory remains equitably distributed.

In a letter addressed to President Donald Trump and congressional leadership, the National Mining Association urged federal officials Wednesday to relieve coal companies of obligatory royalties and other fees, in order to maintain healthy cash flow and keep coal mines running.

But the historic stimulus plan passed by the Senate didn't extend cash directly to all industries, including coal.

Powder River Basin Resource Council and Wyoming Outdoor Council wrote in a letter Wednesday that maintaining deadlines for various comment periods could put residents and state employees at unnecessary risk of infection and may lead to a suppression in public participation.

Gov. Mark Gordon will be issuing a formal response to the letter next week. In the meantime, the governors office is contacting state agencies to assess what rules and permits are open for comment and any factors limiting public participation. More on that here.

OIL & GAS

Oil and gas developers placed bids on nearly 72,000 acres of public land in Wyoming during this years first quarterly lease sale Tuesday, raising about $3.4 million, nearly 69 percent less than the previous quarter, according to the Bureau of Land Management.

WIND & SOLAR

A new material called perovskite has taken the field of solar energy by storm in recent years and holds commercial promise. University of Wyoming chemistry professor Bruce Parkinson called research into perovskite solar cells the hottest thing in photovoltaics.

When it comes to the mammoth machines transforming wind into electricity, technological advancements have exploded in the past half-century, arguably revolutionizing the electricity grid. Learn about the latest technological advancements and remaining challenges here.

WILDLIFE

A University of Wyoming scientist has led the charge to develop new ways to monitor reclaimed land. His solution involves cameras and drones.

Last week in numbers

Friday oil prices:

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) $22.60, Brent (ICE) $26.34

Friday natural gas:

Henry Hub $1.65, Wyoming Pool $1.34, Opal $0.36

Baker Hughes rig count:

U.S 728 (-44), Wyoming 19 (-1)

Quote of the week

Were in a strange, unprecedented time right now, and of course from our side of things, we just want to make sure our mines keep open and operating.

 Travis Deti, executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association

Follow the latest on Wyomings energy industry @camillereports

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WINNIPEG - The Manitoba government is planning to loosen some of the rules that control what it can say and do during pre-election periods, and the Opposition NDP says that changes are unfair.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/3/2020 (653 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kelvin Goertzen and other provincial health ministers wait to speak as a group before a meeting with the federal finance and health ministers in Ottawa, Monday, December 19, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

WINNIPEG - The Manitoba government is planning to loosen some of the rules that control what it can say and do during pre-election periods, and the Opposition NDP says that changes are unfair.

A bill now before the legislature would make several amendments to what is commonly called the "blackout period" on government advertising and activities in the months leading up to an election.

The current law prohibits the government and Crown agencies from advertising or publishing any information about their programs, with some exceptions such as important matters of public health and safety.

One new exemption being proposed by the Progressive Conservative government would allow cabinet ministers to speak on any issue under their portfolio, as long as government resources are not used to promote the event or publish the ministers' comments afterward.

Tory house leader Kelvin Goertzen said the government is trying to address concerns from the media and opposition that, in previous election years, ministers have not been made available to answer questions about important topics.

"There was a lot of confusion around (the law). It was stopping government from doing sort of routine things," Goertzen said.

"It was preventing ministers from speaking about issues because they were getting advice that they couldn't speak about a public issue."

But New Democrat legislature member Mark Wasyliw said the proposed exemption is too broad. Ministers would, if the bill is passed, be able to make all sorts of partisan promises using the profile of their ministerial title, he said.

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"Basically, you could have a minister standing in front of (Progressive) Conservative party headquarters in the middle of an election, making a ... government announcement and saying 'well, listen we didn't spend any taxpayer dollars on that,'" Wasyliw said.

"And that ... gets to the heart of the problem, which is abusing your office in pursuit of electoral advantage."

The bill would also allow government departments and Crown agencies to continue publishing information they regularly do, such as monthly health care statistics. Controversy erupted in the last election when the Tories wanted to release monthly data about wait times at Winnipeg emergency departments.

The proposed new law would also shorten the blackout period, in cases where governments stick to fixed election dates, to 60 days from 90. Goertzen said the time frame is more reasonable.

In cases where governments call early elections, such as The Tories did last year, the bill would require the government to announce a blackout period at least 32 days before calling an election. Combined with the minimum 28-day campaign period, the change would guarantee voters and opposition parties a 60-day heads-up prior to an election.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 30, 2020.
KALAMAZOO, MI  Art Hop has taken place on the first Friday of every month now for decades.

This coming Friday, like many other in-person events that had been planned before the coronavirus pandemic reached Michigan, the beloved local event is going virtual.

After Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered all non-essential businesses to close on Monday, community events like the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoos Art Hop have had to adapt to new circumstances.

Related: Kalamazoo prepares to stay at home to slow coronavirus spread

The April Art Hop, scheduled to take place Friday, April 3, will be held online as a way to connect with local artists while still practicing social distancing and protecting public health, Arts Council Executive Director Kristen Chesak said.

We discovered how to take Art Hop virtual, Chesak said. People can sit in their living room with a glass of wine and still connect with artists.

All artists are invited to join online from 5-8 p.m. Friday. The event is come one, come all, she said.

Artwork will be posted to the Arts Council Facebook page. Chesak said virtual Art Hop participants are encouraged to comment and create a discussion on the posts.

In addition to still images, artists can also post videos of performance art and music so all aspects of the arts are represented.

To get involved, artists can upload pictures of their pieces or videos to Facebook from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday and tag or check-in with Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo and use hashtags #Virtual #ArtHop.

Related: Michigan musicians feel sting from coronavirus stay-at-home order

Kalamazoo artist Dave Elhart has participated in many Art Hop events and has 10 pictures on deck to be displayed during Fridays virtual edition. He said he is looking forward to this months art event.

I think (the virtual Art Hop) is a good substitute, Elhart said, adding that art is very important in his life.

Art matters to me. I would be quite incomplete without doing it.

Art Hop has been around since 1986 and, through the years, has morphed into a collaboration between artists and local business. It has grown to become a well-known community celebration of art.

Aside from a prior decision to not hold one in January 2020 after the holiday rush, Chesak said an Art Hop has never been canceled.

Im sure the entire community has encountered a lot of firsts, she said, referencing the dramatic changes seen amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Every day is a new set of circumstances.

For some, during art is therapeutic and may be beneficial during these stressful times, Elhart said.

I am an advocate of art as a way of keeping in touch with yourself and capturing ideas, he said. It is good therapy.

One benefit to the online approach to Aprils Art Hop, Chesak said, is that it might help encourage new artists to get their pieces out there.

All artists in the community can participate," she said. "We are trying really hard to make sure we tell people its come one come all.

Complete coverage of coronavirus in Michigan.

PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus.

Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible.

Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores.

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.

Also on MLive:

Plan a Saturday night in to support Kalamazoo restaurants during coronavirus emergency

Great outdoors helps those around Kalamazoo cope with coronavirus stress, relieve anxiety

Police chief, sheriff address enforcement of governors stay home order in Kalamazoo County

Separated by glass, Kalamazoo couple celebrates 48 years of marriage
General Manager Agustin Carstens, who heads the BISan umbrella group for the worlds central bankswrote an opinion piece on Sunday saying urgent solutions beyond those used during the 2008 financial crisis were needed.

London: Governments and central banks need to step up efforts urgently to support their economies in the face of the coronavirus crisis, the head of the Bank for International Settlements said on Sunday.

General Manager Agustin Carstens, who heads the BISan umbrella group for the worlds central bankswrote an opinion piece on Sunday saying urgent solutions beyond those used during the 2008 financial crisis were needed.

Rules brought in after the 2008 crash were designed to prevent banks overextending themselves, but the worry now is that they are not stepping in and lending when the capital markets have slammed shut for many firms.

To give viable businesses a lifeline to tide them over the economic sudden stop wrought by Covid-19, a solution is needed to complete the last mile from potential lenders to those firms at the edge of the precipice, Carstens said.

Major central banks have rushed to pour trillions of dollars worth of emergency funding into the global banking system but that money needed to reach those who need it, Carstens said.

A first step towards bridging what he called the last mile would be for banks to use their capital buffers while a global freeze on bank dividends and share buybacks, was also needed.

A second step he recommended would be government-guaranteed loans by banks to small and medium firms, equal to the amount of taxes each paid last year, although it should only go to those that were profitable last year to limit scope for corruption.

These tax deferral loans could be securitized and refinanced by the central bank, with any losses to be borne by governments.

Finally he said, these principles must go global, building on central bank dollar swap lines to channel liquidity toward preventing global supply chains from unraveling.

Government guaranteed loans by banks to finance receivables, such as invoices for exports, could also be securitized and financed by a central bank facility.

For central bank liquidity to reach the far corners of the financial system, it must directly target individuals and businesses that need it most. Otherwise, central bank actions may be just pushing on a string, Carstens said.
"The Coffee Cartel" by Paul H. Barrett With The Coffee Cartel, I want to entertain the reader with a suspenseful tale that involves state-of-the-art surveillance and present a unique perspective on unsuspected cocaine addiction and theoretical world domination, Barrett said.

Paul H. Barrett, a Navy veteran and experienced yacht captain, recently published an adventure novel, The Coffee Cartel, which follows Paul Pilot as he discovers and investigates the worldwide spread of modified, super-addictive cocaine laced coffee that hooks each innocent, unsuspecting coffee drinker. This fictional expose sheds light on the horrors of drug addiction in our world.

Paul Pilot and his fisherman friend were out at sea roughly 20 miles away from Cuba on Pilots 55 Hatteras when they encountered intruders on their boat. The intruders are killed and Pilot, a retired FBI agent, discovers that these intruders were part of a drug cartel that circulate cocaine through coffee. Ultimately, Pilot stops the Cartel with the help of former FBI Associates, leading-edge surveillance, intense interrogations and a little luck.

Readers follow Pilot select Special Forces and all the FBI support required to stop ruthless villains operating cartel operations around the globe. Along his journey, Pilot falls in love with an Afro-Cuban woman named Sara Sonata, who he met in Trinidad.

Barrett wrote this book to inform readers how unsuspected drug addiction could impact humankind on a global scale. By providing this extreme example of drug circulation, The Coffee Cartel exposes readers to the severe consequences of innocent drug consumption.

With The Coffee Cartel, I want to entertain the reader with a suspenseful tale that involves state-of-the-art surveillance and present a unique perspective on unsuspected cocaine addiction and theoretical world domination, Barrett said.

The Coffee Cartel

By Paul H. Barrett

ISBN: 978-1-5320-8475-1 (softcover); 978-1-5320-8476-8 (e-book)

Available at the iUniverse Online Bookstore, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

About the author

Paul H. Barrett is a retired engineer, Navy veteran and musician. He has been a yacht captain for over 50 years and currently resides in Key West, Florida where he enjoys the ocean and listing to, reading and sharing mysteries of the land and sea. His book, The Coffee Cartel, illustrates his passion for the sea.

For Interview Requests & Review Copies, Please Contact:

LAVIDGE  Phoenix

480-648-7560

ktillman@lavidge.com

###
The world has never needed its puppies and kittens as much as it does now. No contact with other people or the outdoors has made fur babies the stars of every video conference, no matter how serious the discussion. Of course its that much harder caring for an animal that cant get its exercise, meet its friends or go for a walk, and doesnt even know why. Here are reminders on how to make the best of it.

Bust the myths: Instead of ignoring neighbours who seem convinced that your dog has the virus and is about to pass it on to everyone else, explain  ideally with the help of printouts of relevant information from the World Health Organization  that there is no evidence that pets can serve as a route for the spread of Covid-19.

Rajni Aggarwal, a pet parent in Delhi, says to protect her dog from stares and unkind comments, she now takes Poofu to a park a little further from her home. If people wont listen or believe, Ill go the extra mile for Poofu. My mom is bedridden; Poofu does some mad thing or the other and entertains us. We dont even need TV. So we three are doing fine.

Give and get cuddles: In tough times like these, our pets need as much love and compassion as we can give them, because they know something is wrong, says Prerna Uppal, a marketing executive from Mumbai and parent to Czar, a 12-year-old Labrador. Its soothing for me to give extra attention to him and soothing for him to get it.

Manilata, a Delhi-based researcher who goes by only one name, is at home with her cat, Lily. Her husband works in Patna. Cuddling up with Lily is helping both of us, she says. Since animals, particularly cats, are sticklers for routine, I make an effort to keep to as much of her normal routine as possible, and that gives me structure too.

Stay connected: Mani is part of the Facebook page, Fans of Cats, Delhi, and says this gives her a sense of community even in isolation. We share recipes of what to cook for our pets, since there is no longer cat and dog food being delivered; we also discuss how to keep our pets safe from prejudice, fear and ignorance.

Just a word of caution. If you are coughing or sneezing with the regular flu, dont be in close contact with your pets. They cannot spread Covid-19 but can contract other diseases, says Delhi vet Dr Ranjeet Kharb.

The World Health Organization currently advises that there is no evidence to suggest that dogs or cats can be infected with the new coronavirus.

Dogs and cats had contracted low-level infections of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (or SARS) during the 2003 outbreak, but even they had not become sick or transmitted the virus to humans, health experts say.

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COVID-19 has reached many regions of the United States of America. Most of the cases in the country are primarily in big urban areas. More than one-third of the United States counties are still COVID-19-free, says an article.

COVID-19 Statistics

Based on the compiled data by the Johns Hopkins University, 1,297 counties in the US have no confirmed cases of the COVID-19. There are a total of 3,142 counties in the United States.

The total number of counties with no COVID-19 cases has decreased rapidly.

85% of the total counties with no positive cases of the deadly disease are rural areas. Some of these counties are rural areas with a majority of Native Americans and Hispanic communities in the American Southwest and the white communities in Appalachia and the Great Plain. These places are not generally in contact with individuals who may transmit the virus to the citizens of these counties.

The counties with no case of the COVID-19 have a higher median age. Also, these counties have a higher proportion of citizens older than 60 years old. These people are the most vulnerable to the severe symptoms of the illness. In these places, there is a fewer number of intensive care beds. The median income in every household for these counties is also lower. This serves as a limit to the health care options in the area.

Check these out:

The Guidelines

The government had made guidelines to rate counties based on the risk of the novel coronavirus spreading. This helps empower local authorities to revise their social distancing orders.

Infectious disease experts are seeing an opportunity to prevent the fast spread of the novel coronavirus in places in the country that benefits natural isolation and social distancing. This is true if new cases of the COVID-19 in these areas can be detected immediately and are quarantined immediately. This allows health care networks to have more time to give needed care and reduce the mortality rate in the area.

However, these experts are also expressing their concern on irregular testing for the COVID-19 may be a way to mask outbreaks of the illness that may leave it unnoticed. This scenario may cause the overwhelming of rural health networks.

COVID-19 Tests in US Counties

According to an epidemiology professor at the University of California named Christine Johnson, these counties will get the epidemic or infection later parts of the duration of the pandemic. However, Johnson said she doesn't believe that they are protected because there is no place in the country that is isolated.

Johnson hopes that the cases in those counties are zero. She worries that the country may not be conducting enough tests in those counties.

In New Mexico, the governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham is already implementing aggressive measures to prevent the further spread of the Novel coronavirus in the state.
Displaced people and host communities all over the world are at heightened risk as the coronavirus pandemic spreads.

Here are some of the ways they  along with UNHCR staff and partners  are taking action to stay smart, stay safe and stay kind.

Check back here for update.

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On July 6, the Ambassador of Latvia to Ukraine Juris Poikans handed over medical equipment worth 25,000 euros to the Sloviansk Central Hospital. Assistance to the hospitals surgery department was provided thanks to financial assistance from the Government of Latvia and with the support of UNHCR in Ukraine.The ambassador expressed confidence that the provided medical equipment will be useful not only for the residents of Sloviansk, but also for the whole Donetsk oblast. During the visit, the delegation delivered humanitarian aid in form of medical equipment to the Sloviansk Central Hospital. In total, since 2014, Latvia delivered more than 400 tons of humanitarian aid to residents of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

On 30 June, Humanitarian Mission Proliska, with the financial support of UNHCR, provided food and water to people undergoing observation after crossing the EECP Novotroitske. On June 26, 17 people who slept for three nights in tents at the EECP Novotroitske were taken by bus for observation. On the fourth day of hell between the zero checkpoints, the Donetsk Regional State Administration decided to provide places for observation to people stuck between the EECPs Novotroitske and Olenivka due to the lack of smartphones to install the Diy Vdoma application. They were sent to a specially designated hospital in the region at a safe distance from the contact line, said Eugene Kaplin, Coordinator of the Humanitarian Mission Proliska.

In June, UNHCR completed distributing of COVID-related equipment to 16 medical institutions in Donbas that work with infected people, or with medical departments dealing with infectious diseases. Hospitals received personal protective equipment: respirators, gloves, protective clothing and screens, hand and surface disinfectants , and screening devices, for a total of more than 6,300 items. Our infectious diseases department currently serves people infected with coronavirus, which greatly affects the working conditions of staff and the level of safety of other patients. The department is located in a separate building, where it is vital for doctors to use personal protective equipment.We are very glad that we were given such enormous help. This is exactly what we needed. Thank you very much, said Volodymyr Vasyliovych, Chief Physician of the City Hospital 3 in Yenakiieve. The materials were provided to medical institutions of Donetsk, Makiivka, Horlivka, Dokuchaevsk, Yenakiieve, Shakhtarskyi, Toreza, Khartsyzk and Zhdanivka.

5 May. For IDPs who are now living in collective centers for IDPs the availability of hygienic and personal protective equipment is a key factor for maintaining their own health. Therefore, the use of masks, sanitizers and basic handwashing is the only solution for people to at least protect themselves from the risk of infection. UNHCR, together with the partner organizations Right to Protection and Slavic Heart, delivered 132 hygienic kits to 43 collective centers in Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Kharkiv oblasts. Distribution is being conducted through Nova Poshta (to the door) and some of our partners delivered the kits themselves. We hope this will help protect the health and wellbeing of local residents.

In April 2020, Vodafone Ukraine and UNHCR agreed to cooperate and support conflict-affected persons in east Ukraine by providing them with free mobile phone credit. Based on the data provided by UNHCR, Vodafone Ukraine made available free talk time to 2,489 people suffering from the effects of armed conflict and restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Ukraine. This will allow people, especially those whose mobility is limited, to stay connected without further depleting their limited resources. Since April 24, 2,489 people living in isolated villages along the contact line in the east of Ukraine have received 1000 free minutes within Ukraine or a monthly package of services (unlimited calls within Vodafone Ukraine and 500 Mb of Internet).

27 April 2020. Villagers in Staromarivka will be able to buy products, receive their pensions and get access to medical services. Upon negotiations between numerous humanitarian missions including NGO Proliska and JFO, one of the checkpoint crossings will renew its work allowing people to come to Hranitne village. With the support of UNCHR, a box with disinfectants, masks and temperature screening device was set up to check incoming people and make sure they follow quarantine rules.

See the impact of restrictions on crossing the contact line in east #Ukraine related to #COVID19 restrictions: 0.6 mln crossings in Donbas in March, almost 40% less compared with February .

For more see @UNHCRUkraine dashboard with data by @DPSU_ua https://t.co/NbjQVyOAGj pic.twitter.com/UHlHyh280F  Hugo Reichenberger  (@HugoReichenb) April 16, 2020

Providing #protection during #COVID19 also is providing information to displaced and conflict affected persons in who most need it. Find some of the frequently asked questions to @UNHCRUkraine and partners' hotlineshttps://t.co/UIEqwrqSMm (English) pic.twitter.com/yzE8ZLJLCc  UNHCR Ukraine (@UNHCRUkraine) April 16, 2020

During our #COVID19 #quarantine, it is easy for us to focus on our #QuarantineLife and loose sight of the challenges faced by those less fortunate. Especially those who are #displaced, affected by #conflict and #stateless. See how @UNHCRUkraine helps  https://t.co/msIPyQXgye pic.twitter.com/chjvOossRE  Hugo Reichenberger  (@HugoReichenb) April 20, 2020

On April 17, 500 protective masks were handed over to the staff of the medical point (FAP) in Zolote-4 and another 500 were handed over to the employees of the municipal institution Popasnyansky district center for social services.

Protective masks were sewn by local volunteers and materials for their production were provided by the Humanitarian Mission Proliska with the financial support of UNHCR in Ukraine.

To prevent the spread of the infection, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has decided to strengthen the quarantine measures introduced by April 24 throughout Ukraine. One of the mandatory restrictions is to wear a protective mask while in public.

Interested in knowing how we have been responding recently to #COVID19 in east #Ukraine ? With loudspeakers mask productiontea #protection monitoring and more! Check out @UNHCRUkraine's recent Flash Report on our #coronavirus response  https://t.co/AkIQcOpi60 pic.twitter.com/CbmdXKo0ZY  UNHCR Ukraine (@UNHCRUkraine) April 10, 2020

We are grateful to @UnileverUkraine for warming theof these elderly ladies in east #Ukraine  with a donation of @Lipton Tea! These ladies have endured over six years of conflict and now the fear and isolation of #COVID19 pandemic. Today, they are smiling again! pic.twitter.com/iipy9uZZWf  UNHCR Ukraine (@UNHCRUkraine) April 9, 2020

Lack of medical mask in Chasiv Yar, east ? Not under our watch decided Marina, who with other community members and sewing machines provided by @UNHCRUkraine, made masks  for the elderly and local #healthworkers to fight #COVID19! Thanks  donors!         pic.twitter.com/Ui6GLXIizn  Hugo Reichenberger  (@HugoReichenb) April 8, 2020

To prevent spread of #COVID19, @UN_Ukraine is stepping up its support throughout #Ukraine. Last week, @OCHA_Ukraine and @UNHCRUkraine organized a humanitarian convoy to transport @WHOUkraine health supplies and @UNmigration @people_in_need hygienic items across the contact line pic.twitter.com/3etwN10Qfy  Pablo Mateu (@MateuPablo) April 6, 2020

@MissionProliska under UNHCR funding purchased equipment and materials for sewing individual masks in 14 settlements on the contact line. Representatives of communities will provide them free of charge to doctors and employees of strategic enterprises of Donbass. pic.twitter.com/ns1TaozxFo  NGO Proliska (@MissionProliska) April 6, 2020

Office of @UNHCRUkraine partner @R2Protection in #Mariupol remains operational. Lawyers continue to consult the conflict-affected people on the situation in #Ukraine  #FAQs are about #EECP (changes, restrictions) & access to state services: pensions, medical & social assistance pic.twitter.com/fXmcrL2Sgp  UNHCR Ukraine (@UNHCRUkraine) April 3, 2020

Online group counselling during the quarantine is an opportunity for the most vulnerable people to receive information they need and answers to questions they have. Today representatives of Roma community thanked our lawyer for the crucial information provided. @UNHCRUkraine pic.twitter.com/MyELEJJ4Pl  Slavic Heart (@SlavicHeart) March 30, 2020

@MissionProliska supported by UNHCR provided State Emergency Service with water and tea for those who were unable to cross the contact line. About 40 residents of NGCA except for decisions on this issue at Stanytsia Luhanska EECP. pic.twitter.com/mDAkD96PsU  NGO Proliska (@MissionProliska) April 1, 2020

On 31 March, UNHCR Ukraine and its partner Humanitarian mission Proliska released a Protection Monitoring Report on needs in settlements nearby the contact line in east Ukraine. If it were to spread to areas along the contact line, COVID-19 could have a devastating impact. The population in isolated settlements along the contact line includes a large proportion of older persons (41 per cent) who suffer from the additional stress imposed by the armed conflict. Additionally, the infrastructure for prevention of the COVID-19 (such as plentiful clean water for hygiene) and response (medical facilities) has been weakened by the conflict. UNHCRs partner organization Proliska has a network of community workers who live in settlements along the contact line. They have compiled initial information about preparedness levels and the impact of quarantine measures in 119 settlements in a geographic area approximately five kilometers along the contact line in government-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine. Report contains some of the challenges identified.

@UNHCRUkraine & @MissionProliska are spreading #COVID19 awareness  messages in isolated villages along the contact line where people lack access to internet. This msgs by the Donetsk Obl. Administration respect #SocialDistancing & can be heard by those who are in #Quaratine pic.twitter.com/aCIE3cdCEY  UNHCR Ukraine (@UNHCRUkraine) March 31, 2020

Information on #COVID19 prevention measures is critical, especially in conflict-affected isolated villages in east #Ukraine where many of the residents are #elderly and vulnerable. @UNHCRUkraine joined forces with @MissionProliska and @WHOUkraine to ensure access to information pic.twitter.com/T6IUWjjKA2  Pablo Mateu (@MateuPablo) March 30, 2020

Eleven initiatives on medical masks production from the communities located nearby the contact line in east Ukraine were supported by UNHCR and its partner NGO Proliska during the week of 23  27 March. The community members will produce medical masks for medical workers, personnel of outpatient clinics, hospitals, nursing homes and employees of communal institutions and strategic enterprises working along the contact line in Donetsk and Lugansk regions. The masks will be made in line with the WHO recommendations.

On 27 March, staff members of UNHCR and NGO Right to Protection delivered a webinar lecture to 14 appeal court judges from different provinces of Ukraine on the protection of asylum seekers. The event has been organized by the National School of Judges and covered issued related to access to the territory and asylum procedures, RSD and court challenges in Ukraine. The participants were provided with the UNHCR position on the treatment of asylum seekers during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the latest information from Afghanistan, Eritrea, and Syria.

On 26 March, detergents provided to Refugee Temporary Accommodation Centers (TAC) by Unilever Ukraine: UNHCR partnered with Unilever Ukraine that has donated Domestos detergent products that contains hypochlorite, a disinfectant recommended by WHO. These were delivered to Temporary Accommodation Centers where refugees and asylum seekers reside. The products were delivered to TACs in Yahotyn where 84 persons reside; Mukachevo with 69 persons and in Odesa where 95 persons benefited from this support. Thank you Unilever Ukraine!

CleanProtected@UNHCRUkraine is grateful to @UnileverUkraine who provided refugees in Perechyn & Mukachevo dormitories with hygiene kitsand disinfectants.

Don't forget to wash your hands & clean the place you live inthese simple rules will help to fight the #COVID19 impact! pic.twitter.com/PtZnt8njSA  UNHCR Ukraine (@UNHCRUkraine) March 27, 2020

Wondering what language is it? Somali! @UNHCRUkraine shared with the State Migration Services @WHOUkraine information on #COVID2019 in 6 @UN languages and translations by UNHCR into Somali and Persian also spoken by #refugees. Now available in different cities of #Ukraine  pic.twitter.com/H62opwMP0W  UNHCR Ukraine (@UNHCRUkraine) March 27, 2020

World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 Prevention Posters in government controlled areas (GCA): On 25 March 2020, UNHCR finalized installing 200 WHO COVID-19 prevention posters in villages near the contact line. UNHCR also installed posters informing residents of recent legislative updates related to COVID-19 produced by the NGO Right to Protection (R2P). In total, UNHCR and its NGO partner Proliska reached 70 villages located near the contact line and 80 additional villages in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblast in GCA with 500 posters and 40 000 leaflets on COVID-19 prevention.

Since 2017 @UNHCRUkraine has been supporting a community center in Bakhmut (Donetsk oblast), first by rehabilitating its premises thanks to  @giz_gmbh funding. With machines we donated in 2018, volunteers are now sewing masks for the community in response to #COVID19 pandemic pic.twitter.com/A3UUHqh8u6  Pablo Mateu (@MateuPablo) March 25, 2020

Raising awareness in non-government controlled areas (NGCA): UNHCR and WHO joined forces to raise awareness of COVID-19 prevention in NGCA. UNHCR received 5,000 COVID-19 prevention posters from WHO that will be distributed in Donetsk NGCA by the Donbas Development Center, UNHCRs NGO partner in Donetsk NGCA. These will be distributed in social institutions located along the contact line such as in Debaltseve, Dokuchaevsk, Horlivka, Donetsk and Novoazovsk.

Psycho-Social Support (PSS): UNHCRs NGO partner Slavic Heart continues to provide PSS to survivors of SGBV along the contact line by Slavic Heart mobile teams equipped with sanitizing gel and individual masks. Slavic Heart also produced a series of videos on positive coping mechanisms during quarantine and self-isolation. The videos have been shared with a network of women, men, girls and boys living along the contact line via social messaging apps and email. Furthermore, a Viber chat of self-support has been established, so far there are 101 participants from locations on the contact line. Finally, a Facebook group has been created on women self-support with 34 participants so far.

We are grateful for the generous funding provided by @StatePRM  to @UNHCRUkraine  early in 2020, which allowed us to raise awareness on prevention of #COVID19 to isolated and conflict affected communities in east #Ukraine and refugees in  cities! Thank you @USAGov  ! pic.twitter.com/5n1cCGDXAv  UNHCR Ukraine (@UNHCRUkraine) March 20, 2020

Community mobilizing against COVID-19: In 2017, thanks to funding provided by GIZ, UNHCR rehabilitated an older building in Bakhmut that became a multi-functional community center called KvARTal. Thanks to sewing machines provided by UNHCR in 2018, the community has identified volunteers who are currently producing 200 masks that will be distributed to the most vulnerable community members using precaution measures. The materials used in the production of the masks were provided by the local authorities.

Thanks to @SweMFA 's unearmarked funding, @UNHCRUkraine rehabilitatedthis old kindergarten in east Ukraine and equipped it with 20 and 36 #handwashing basins. These are instrumental in teaching children about #hygiene and #COVID19 prevention! Thank you @SwedeninUA ! pic.twitter.com/7kBByIYSv2  UNHCR Ukraine (@UNHCRUkraine) March 23, 2020

Situation on the entry-exit checkpoints (EECP): UNHCR received reports that some persons were allowed to cross the government controlled side (GCA) of the contact line based on humanitarian consideration of their specific case (as they had a residence permit for GCA only) but were blocked as they reached the non-government controlled side of the checkpoint because of the closure of the contact line on 21 March. Therefore, these people had to return to GCA. UNHCR was informed of 13 cases on 23 March and seven cases on 24 March.

Meeting with Deputy Head of Donetsk Oblast Administration

On 23 March, UNHCR met with the Deputy Head of Donetsk Oblast Administration who is responsible for social welfare issues, as well as the Donetsk Oblast Heads of Social Protection and Health Departments. The Head of the Health Department is heading the oblasts multi-sectoral entity established to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. During the meeting, it was agreed that:

UNHCR received a voice recording of actions advising the population to respect the quarantine. These recordings will be broadcasted in localities along the contact by UNHCRs partner Proliska through loudspeakers provided by UNHCR.

At the authorities request, UNHCR will print maps of Donetsk oblast to be distributed to all state authorities in all localities along the contact line to be used in operationalizing the response to COVID-19. UNHCR provided the maps as of 24 March. On 26 March, copies of the maps (around 50) will be sent to Luhansk oblast administration in order to further distribute to Luhansk oblast and local administrations.

Authorities asked UNHCR to donate fabric to produce masks and medical gowns for hospitals. As a response, UNHCR is currently planning two projects implemented through community mobilization in which masks will be produced.

During the meeting, authorities informed that approximately 37,900 persons living near the contact line in Donetsk oblast are in need of special support with food and hygiene items. These persons are the recipients of different types of state social benefits and are unable to access these because of the quarantine measures in place. They all belong to high risk categories. The authorities also informed that some 11,500 persons who are physically unable to leave their homes because of disabilities and other reasons, are in need of material assistance (food and hygiene items).

Instalment of World Health Organization (WHO) posters in east Ukraine: on 18 March, UNHCR teams in east Ukraine started to place WHO COVID-19 posters to raise awareness on coronavirus. Two hundred posters that promote hand washing and other preventive measures will be placed in collective centers (photo right), isolated villages along the contact line (photo left), checkpoints, as well as in some locations in non-government controlled areas (NGCA). On 18 March, UNHCR and its NGO partner Slavic Heart started placing the WHO COVID-19 posters in collective centers for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sviatohirsk. Many of the IDPs who live there have disabilities and serious medical conditions.

Slavic Heart's mobile brigades of PSS are working in an intensive mode with support of @UNHCRUkraine Under the quarantine risks of SGBV and domestic violence increase exponentially. Mobile brigades in action. pic.twitter.com/Z3VLTHaSln  Slavic Heart (@SlavicHeart) March 24, 2020

On 19 March, UNHCR continued to place WHO COVID-19 posters in isolated villages along the contact line. According to an assessment in 2019, in these isolated settlements around 41% of family members are over the age of 60, and 13% have a disability. Furthermore, UNHCRs NGO partner Right to Protection produced, printed and is distributing posters with information on newly amended legislation related to pension payments, social services provision, etc.

Situation at the checkpoints in east Ukraine: UNHCR and its NGO partner Proliska and the Right to Protection have reinforced protection monitoring of the checkpoints in east Ukraine. On 18 March, UNHCR visited Novotroitske and Mariinka checkpoints. Normally these two checkpoints have about 7,000 crossings per day combined; yesterday just over 1,000 persons went to the NGCA and about 100 came to GCA. The number of crossings has dropped dramatically. Both checkpoints report that the number of people going to NGCA is ten times higher than those entering. People who cross continue to face difficulties at checkpoints. UNHCR witnessed four cases where parents got separated from their children or families due to being in different locations at the time of quarantine or having different residence registration. Nevertheless, both checkpoints have informed UNHCR and NGO Partners that they will make exceptions on humanitarian grounds and on an individual basis in consultation with the Joint Forces Operation, especially if individuals travel for purposes of medical treatment or attending funerals. Furthermore, the de facto authorities of NGCA in Donetsk have announced that their side of the contact line will close starting from 00:00 on 21 March. As a response, UNHCRs NGO partner Donbas SOS (this NGO manages a hot line conflict affected and internally displaced persons) is informing all callers about crossing the contact line, and they have set up an answering machine with information about the closing of the checkpoints.

People unable to cross: UNHCRs NGO partner Proliska is collecting information on the individuals who are unable to cross the checkpoints due to quarantine restrictions. In total Proliska registered 81 cases in the three days since introduction of the new restrictions (16 March). The majority of cases (52) were documented on the first day (Monday) as previously reported. Out of those, 31 were allowed to cross the checkpoints. Among documented cases, 35 were identified as vulnerabilities or specific needs (family separation, serious medical condition, caregivers of persons with serious medical conditions, and lack of accommodation for students). Of these vulnerable individuals, 21 were allowed to cross and 14 were not allowed. NGO Proliska is keeping in touch with those who were unable to cross and following up.

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) upgraded the status of the COVID-19 outbreak from epidemic to pandemic. A day earlier, on 10 March, Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees stated that COVID-19 can affect anyone and it is our collective responsibility to ensure that the global response includes all people. Since 16 March, the Government of Ukraine introduced restrictions aimed at mitigating the risks related to the spread of coronavirus infection. Among other measures, the restrictions related to crossing of the contact line in the east (through the Order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Joint Forces) and across the administrative border with Crimea (through the Decree 291-R of the Cabinet of Ministers as of 14 March 2020) were introduced. For the period of quarantine measures, the residence registration determines who can cross the contact line and in which direction: Individuals with residence registration in non-government-controlled areas (NGCA) or Crimea can enter NGCA/Crimea respectively, while individuals with residence registration in government-controlled areas (GCA) can enter GCA. In short, people are allowed to travel to the home registered in their passports. Under these regulations, IDP certificates are not considered as a proof of residence in GCA.

February 2019 report from our partner @R2Protection on the situation at checkpoints in east #Ukraine is now out. Situation has changed rapidly in last few days when crossing restrictions has led to very few civilians crossing. https://t.co/dNFEdgndxl pic.twitter.com/adjo2ab7pm  Pablo Mateu (@MateuPablo) March 19, 2020

Since the restrictions were announced less than 24 hours in advance, they have severely impacted freedom of movement across the contact line and caused a series of complications for persons who wanted to cross. On the first day of restrictions enforcement (16 March), NGOs, including UNHCRs partners Proliska, Donbas SOS and Right to Protection, received over 450 individual inquiries (in person through monitors present at EECPs and through hotlines) regarding problems with crossing. These include but are not limited to:

IDPs who traveled for a short-term visit to NGCA, (e.g., to check on their property) and could not return before the measures were introduced;

IDP students who have residence registration at their dormitories in GCA. The dormitories have been closed, and the students are not allowed to return home to their parents in NGCA;

Residents of NGCA with chronic illnesses; they depend on medicines available only in GCA;

Individuals with ID cards and without documents to confirm residence registration (e.g., at Maiorsk there are no ID reading machines);

Individuals without residence registration at all (many ID-holders from NGCA have not been able to obtain any document confirming residence registration);

Mothers who traveled for a short period and are separated from their minor children;

Women who have residence registration in GCA, but who actually reside in NGCA to care for elderly parents;

Couples who are separated because husband and wife have residence registration in different locations (GCA and NGCA);

Pensioners who came for verification/identification/other business, wish to return home, but cannot confirm residence registration in NGCA;

Examples of Individual Stories

Woman registered in Luhansk NGCA. She has an IDP certificate and lives in Kyiv. She went to NGCA to visit her newborn great-grandson. Now she cannot return home to Kyiv. Student, studying in Kyiv, and has only a student card. Both his university and hostel were quarantined. She was not allowed to travel to Donetsk to self-quarantine with her parents; she has nowhere to self-quarantine in Kyiv. An elderly woman, left Donetsk for GCA to receive her retirement benefits and register herself in Zaporizhia (although she actually lives in Donetsk city), but was refused to return home. Elderly woman registered in Ivano-Frankivsk (GCA), but actually lives in the city of Krasny Luch (NGCA). Went to GCA to buy medicine for her paralyzed husband and now cannot return home.

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YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. Singapores Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong urges China and the United States to refrain from making mutual accusations and unite efforts with the other countries to fight the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), TASS reported.

Even during the most favorable environment it is difficult to solve the current problem. If US and China continue the mutual accusations on the spread of COVID-19, this will not help to solve the problem in the future, the Singapore PM said in an interview to CNN.

He added that all countries need to unite efforts in fighting COVID-19, and Washington D.C. and Beijing should join that.

In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, central China. WHO declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus a global pandemic and named the virus COVID-19. Cases of coronavirus have been reported in over 195 countries.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Chinese medical experts visit a quarantine in Sihanoukville city in Preah Sihanouk province, Cambodia, March 28, 2020. The Chinese medical team landed in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, on March 23 to help combat the epidemic, as the Southeast Asian country has seen a spike in new confirmed cases in recent weeks. They have been working in Preah Sihanouk province from March 27 to 28, to help local health departments, China-invested enterprises and overseas Chinese prevent and control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Chen Duncai/Xinhua)
By Azernews





By Akbar Mammadov

Chairman of Pakistans National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) Ali Nawaz Chowhan has condemned the so-called "parliamentary and presidential elections" to be held in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, the Pakistan media reported on March 30.

Ali Nawaz Chowhan said that holding of election by Armenia in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh is against all international norms because the region is illegally occupied by Armenia.

I strongly condemn the holding of so called parliamentary elections and presidential elections of the illegal regime, established by Armenia in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh territory of Azerbaijan by the occupying forces of Armenia, which are to be held on March 31, 2020, and join my government and the UN in support of Azerbaijan. I also once again condemn the genocide committed by Armenia in the town of Khojaly against Azerbaijani civilians. Armenia will be accountable for its aggression and Genocide," said Ali Nawaz Chowhan.

Nagorno-Karabakh is Azerbaijans breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Groups efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
[March 30, 2020] JinkoSolar donates 1,000,000 masks worldwide in the battle against virus outbreak

SHANGHAI, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (the "Company," or "JinkoSolar") (NYSE: JKS), one of the largest and most innovative solar module manufacturers in the world, today announced that it will donate one million face masks and other protective equipment items to several countries severely affected by Covid-19 including Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Britain, Switzerland, South Korea, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Turkey, Portugal and Norway. The first batch of 50,000 as been packaged and shipped out on March 29th through green passage for export aid equipment under the assistance of local governments, Red Cross and other charity organizations.



This mass donation from JinkoSolar complements its ongoing efforts to support those countries hit by the coronavirus outbreak. The donations come at a time when governments are struggling to procure enough masks to supply hospitals, health care workers and others in critical and vulnerable professions. JinkoSolar said it will deliver these already-prepared one million masks to health care institutions in those epicenter regions in the coming week and would not decline direct requests for aid from hospitals.

This move follows the company's 12 million RMB donations to China Red Cross in Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Shanghai to set up a special funding to fiscally support medical and health care workers who had been working in the frontier line curing infected patients and saving lives. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jinkosolar-donates-1-000-000-masks-worldwide-in-the-battle-against-virus-outbreak-301031528.html SOURCE JinkoSolar

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Government Unveils $130 Billion Package To Keep People Employed (Photo: Twitter )

At least 4,093 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Australia and 18 people have died.

The virus has killed more than 23,000 people worldwide and continues to spread at a rapid pace.

Here is what is happening in Australia today:

1. Government Unveils $130 Billion Package To Keep People Employed

The Federal Government will inject $130 billion over next six months to support the jobs and livelihoods of what is anticipated to be six million Australians in need of a lifeline.

Designed to keep employees connected to their employers, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison said $1,500 will be available per fortnight, per employee for full and part time workers.

We will pay employers to pay their employees to keep them in the businesses, Morrison said.

Australians who receive the Job Keeper Payment cannot also receive the Jobseeker Payment from Centrelink.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the subsidy scheme for Australia is unlike those announced by other nations.

Its more generous than New Zealand scheme, it is broader than the United Kingdom scheme, as it applies to all employees not just those that have been stood down, he told reporters on Monday.

And its available to all eligible firms, not just small businesses as is the case with the Canadian scheme.

New Zealanders in Australia on the 444 visa will be eligible for the wage subsidy package.

2. Victoria Announces Stage 3 Restrictions

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews has once again urged residents to stay at home as he confirmed the state will enter Stage 3 restrictions at midnight on Monday.

Speaking to media at a Melbourne press conference, he said the state is enforcing Scott Morrisons rule of public gatherings being restricted to no more than two people. Victorians will receive an on the spot fine of more than $1,600 if the critically important ban is breached.

Related...

Australia Coronavirus Shutdown: What Is Still Open And What Is Banned

Coronavirus: Australian Arrivals Must Quarantine In Hotels, Army To 'Support The Enforcement'

Story continues

Coronavirus In Australia: Gatherings Restricted To 2 People, Everyone Advised To Stay Home

Like the PM announced Sunday night, Andrews said there are only four reasons people should leave the house; to go to work/school, seek medical attention, purchase essential groceries or exercise.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews has confirmed the state will enter Stage 3 restrictions at midnight on Monday. (Photo: Quinn Rooney via Getty Images)

If you are outside, or in your backyard, gathering in more than two people, if you are having friends over for dinner or friends over for drinks that are not members of your household, then you are breaking the law, he said.

You face an on the spot fine of more than $1,600 and Victoria Police will not hesitate to take action against you.

Explaining the restrictions are in place for no other reason than this is life and death, the Premier warned young people that this is not just about grandma, this is about all of us.

3. NSW Enforcing Restrictions, Ruby Cruise Passengers In Hospital

Gladys Berejiklian confirmed on Monday morning that NSW will also enforce the two-people rule, and asked for those over 70 to stay home.

Her message to younger people in their 20s and 30s was you are not immune from this.

Even if you are, you risk spreading it to people you love or spreading it to people in the community who are vulnerable and will lose their life because of this, she said.

Three crew members from the Ruby Princess cruise ship have also been rushed to hospital overnight. The ship has made recent headlines after 2,700 passengers were allowed to disembark in Sydney earlier this month, leading to several testing positive for Covid-19.

Passengers disembark from the Ruby Princess at Overseas Passenger Terminal on February 08, 2020 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo: Lisa Maree Williams via Getty Images)

4. Tasmania Records First Covid-19 Death

Premier Peter Gutwein confirmed Monday morning that Tasmania had recorded its first coronavirus-related death after a woman in her 80s passed away at North West Regional Hospital in Burnie.

He said the state will also follow the two-people rule, effective midnight, with provision of compassionate care being an additional reason you can leave the house.

Compassionate care would be checking on a neighbour or an elderly relative, he said, explaining the order will be in place for at least four weeks.

5. Banks Expanding Small Business Package

Last week banks indicated they would provide six-month repayment deferrals up to $3 million. On Monday Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh said the package will now support businesses with loans up to $10 million, and they can defer repayments for six months.

Commercial rent relief is also being provided, with landlords with loans up to $10 million being eligible for six months repayment relief.

In order for commercial landlords to access this package, they will be required to not terminate the lease of evict any tenants who is in arrears due to coronavirus.

This takes a huge burden and worry off the minds of those small businesses who are worried about their rent, said Bligh.

To be very clear, where landlords do the right thing by their tenants, their bank will do the right thing by them.

6. ACT Records First Death

The coronavirus death toll in Australia has hit 18 after a woman passed away from the virus in a Canberra hospital at the weekend.

ACT Chief Health Officer, Dr Kerryn Coleman confirmed the woman, aged in her 80s, acquired COVID-19 overseas.

It is why we need everyone to take the social distancing measures we are implementing seriously, Coleman said.

We need everyone to stay at home where possible, to practice good hygiene and to keep at least 1.5 metres away from others.

At least 4,093 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Australia and 18 people have died. New South Wales has the highest statistic at 1,981 cases. The virus has killed more than 23,500 people worldwide and more than 500,000 are infected.

Related...

Coronavirus: How To Get Tested In Australia

Coronavirus Centrelink Payments: Am I Eligible And When Do They Start?

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
Coronavirus: Netanyahu goes into self-isolation Awaiting epidemiological test after adviser tested positive

(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, MARCH 30 - Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu began self-isolating on Monday while waiting for epidemiological tests on an adviser of his team that had tested positive for COVID-19. The announcement was made by the prime minister's office, noting that the adviser's movements and contacts with Netanyahu would be studied. The end of the quarantine will be decided by the health ministry and the prime minister's personal doctor. Netanyahu's adviser for issues linked to Orthodox Jews, Rivka Palace, tested positive for the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. The media reported that she had been infected by her husband.



Paloch had been at the Israeli parliament on Thursday, where she met with several ministers and MPs. Video surveillance from the day will now be studied to understand whether she had contact with Netanyahu. Netanyahu will reportedly undergo a second COVId-19 test in two weeks, in any case.(ANSAmed).




It has been only three months since reports first emerged from China of an unknown virus causing unusual cases of pneumonia, and scientists and public health experts already know more about it and how it works than at the same point in earlier outbreaks.

But there's still a lot they don't know.

As the new coronavirus continues to spread around the world, here are some of the most important questions researchers and doctors  as well as policymakers and economists  are still trying to answer:

How contagious is the virus?

The virus spreads from person to person through small droplets from the nose or mouth via coughing or sneezing, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

It can persist on most surfaces up to several days, so in addition to directly inhaling the virus, you can become infected by touching something that has been contaminated and then touching your own nose, mouth or eyes.

There is some evidence that virus particles in the faeces of an infected person can transmit the disease through contact, but that remains unconfirmed.

How many people are infected, and how many do not show any symptoms?

So far, more than 7,00,000 cases have been reported worldwide, of which more than 127,000 have recovered and more than 33,000 have died.

Some researchers estimate that up to 80% of people who are infected show no or only mild symptoms and may not even know they are sick.

That would put the number of people who might have been infected in the millions. But we need many more studies and much more testing to close in on a more accurate number.

Are younger people less likely to die from the virus?

Younger people, while less vulnerable, can still develop COVID-19 - the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus - severe enough to require hospitalization. Just how much safer they are is still unanswered.

The WHO says older people with pre-existing conditions - such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease - appear to develop serious illness more often than others, while a U.S. health official said the mortality rate in males appears to be twice that of women in every age group.

Health officials have cautioned that anyone with those underlying conditions, as well as those with weakened immune systems, are at increased risk.

Can people be re-infected?

This is a key question  and we don't yet know the answer. There are a handful of cases of possible "reinfection" in recovered patients.

But most scientists believe those are more likely to have been relapses. A patient may feel better and test negative for the virus in their nose and throat, while the virus remains elsewhere in their body.

Fully recovered patients have antibodies in their blood that should protect them from fresh infection, but we don't know how long those antibodies will last.

With some viruses, antibodies fade faster. Even if they do persist, SARS-CoV-2 might undergo small changes over time, as flu viruses do each year, rendering the antibodies ineffective.

Several academic laboratories and medical companies are looking to produce blood tests to figure out who has been exposed to the virus and whether some people have developed immunity.

Serological testing will also give a better picture of the full extent of the pandemic.

Do we know when there will be treatments or a vaccine?

No. So far there are no vaccines or antiviral medicines specific to the new coronavirus. Treatment for now focuses on relieving symptoms such as breathing assistance.

Companies around the world are racing to develop vaccines. A few have launched early safety testing in humans, but experts say it could take a year or more to develop and test a vaccine.

Another complication: viruses can mutate quickly. Some scientists have already identified subtle changes since SARS-CoV-2 emerged in Wuhan, China, in December.

But recent studies show the virus is relatively stable, which suggests vaccines should still be effective when they become available.

Does the virus spread more slowly in hot places?

Some experts had hoped that the onset of summer will naturally slow the virus. But the European Centre for Disease Control said on Wednesday that it is unlikely to diminish its spread.

The WHO has also said that the virus can be transmitted in all areas, including hot and humid climates.

How long will the pandemic last?

We don't know. It will depend on a range of factors, from how long people continue to isolate and avoid group gatherings to when effective drugs or a vaccine become available.

President Donald Trump said this week that he hopes to "reopen" the U.S. economy by Easter Sunday on April 12. But he has faced criticism that such a timetable is too rushed and could lead to more people dying.

In Hubei province, the epicenter of China's coronavirus outbreak, life has started to return to normal after two months of lockdown. It remains to be seen whether such a return to normal spurs another outbreak.

Does the amount of exposure to the virus determine how sick someone gets?

Viruses enter the body and infect cells, using them as factories to make many millions of copies of themselves, so the number of virus particles that first enter the body has little effect on the eventual amount of virus in the system.

At the same time, more frequent exposure does increase the chance that the virus will enter the body in the first place.

When will the economy return to normal?

The International Monetary Fund expects the pandemic will cause a global recession in 2020 that could be worse than the one triggered by the 2008 financial crisis.

The depth of a recession, how long it will last and the nature of the recovery are a matter of debate.

Economists say it will largely depend on how long the lockdowns last  around a quarter of all humanity is currently in lockdown  and how far government support goes in helping individuals, businesses and markets survive the crisis.

Are the trillions of dollars in emergency spending helping?

Central bank measures have sought to keep financial markets functioning, including areas that keep the real economy humming, such as the markets where companies go to raise short term cash to pay staff and where cities go to raise money for roads and schools.

Steps taken by governments, such as the $2 trillion U.S. stimulus package, are expected to further help the economy by putting cash in the hands of individuals and providing additional funding to small businesses and companies.

Such measures still need to work through the system, however, and it remains unclear whether they will be enough.

Is it a good time to invest?

Some investors and bank strategists are starting to look at whether people should buy back into the world's stock markets, which have plunged some 25% from their highs in February.

US hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said this week he had turned increasingly positive on stocks and credit and was "redeploying our capital in companies we love at bargain prices that are built to withstand this crisis."

But with all the uncertainties, many more analysts and investors remain shy about calling the bottom of the market.
China has rolled out multiple measures to facilitate employment for soon-to-be college graduates facing unexpected challenges brought about by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Inspur Group, a tech company that focuses on cloud computing and big data, livestreams its job recruitment presentation at Tianjin University in north Chinas Tianjin Municipality. (Photo/Xinhua)

The country will further subsidize enterprises contributions to social insurance premiums, cut set amounts of taxes and fees, and provide guaranteed loans to help companies ensure employment for key groups such as college graduates. China cut 123.9 billion yuan in social security premiums for companies nationwide in February, with the number from February through June expected to exceed 500 billion yuan.

The country called for market-oriented approaches to bring about employment for college graduates, and is also encouraging urban and rural communities to recruit more of this future work force. East Chinas Shanghai plans to recruit over 1,000 new college graduates in the city to increase the number of community workers.

More options have been offered to ease pressure in the job market. At a press conference in late February, Chinas Ministry of Education encouraged college graduates to pursue higher education and join the military. According to the ministry, enrolment figures for masters degree students in the country is likely to increase by 189,000 this year, while bachelors degree programs will admit an additional 322,000 junior college students in 2020.

The country also called on companies, government investment projects and scientific research projects to provide more internship programs for college graduates.

Online campus recruitment drives jointly organized by colleges and employment service agencies have become the main channel for university graduates to find employment during this special period.

The Ministry of Education launched a 24-hour online campus recruitment program together with five major job-hunting websites in China last month, offering over 2 million jobs to college graduates. The Beijing Municipal Education Commission has been organizing online recruitment programs since February, attracting college graduates from universities including Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Renmin University of China.

In addition, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security launched an online recruitment campaign for job-hunters, including college students, on March 20. On the first day of its launch, 950,000 companies offered 5.7 million job positions, said You Jun, vice minister of the ministry, adding that employers will be offering more than 10 million positions during the campaign.
Following are the top stories at 10.15 pm:



NATION



DEL105 LDALL VIRUSCoronavirus: 92 new confirmed cases nationwide; Govt says no community transmission yetNew Delhi: Fighting the COVID-19 crisis on a war footing, the government on Monday reported 92 new confirmed cases of infection and at least four deaths across India but maintained it was still in the local transmission stage. The Supreme Court, however, cautioned that fear and panic are becoming a bigger problem than the coronavirus.

DEL139 VIRUS-LDALL MIGRANT WORKERS



COVID-19:Fear and panic bigger problem than coronavirus, says SC; seeks report from govt on steps taken to prevent migration of workers



New Delhi: Taking note of large-scale movement of migrant workers from cities to their native places on foot after the coronavirus lockdown, the Supreme Court on Moday said fear and panic is a "bigger problem than the virus", and sought a status report from the Centre by Tuesday on the measures taken to prevent the exodus.

DEL133 LDALL LOCKDOWN



Lockdown: States seal borders to stop migrants; Non-availability of labour hit supplies



New Delhi: Seeking to contain mass spread of the deadly coronavirus, several states on Monday effectively sealed their borders to stop movement of migrant workers rendered jobless due to a nationwide lockdown, but FMCG firms flagged non-availability of trucks and labour as a major challenge in ensuring supply of essential goods.

DEL110 VIRUS-LDALL FAKENEWS



Coronavirus: Fear factor combined with fake creates new 'infodemic' on social media



New Delhi: As India battles the deadly coronavirus pandemic, a fake 'infodemic' is also spreading on WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms with numerous false claims, including about an impending emergency declaration and an extension of the lockdown period.

DEL85 VIRUS-LDALL PRISONERS



Thousands of prisoners being released on interim bail or parole in view of coronavirus outbreak



New Delhi/Bhopal: Thousands of prisoners in overcrowded jails across the country are being released on interim bail or parole in an unprecedented step to prevent the spread of coronavirus and also to avoid any clashes, as authorities scramble to stop the pandemic in its tracks.

BOM38 MH-VIRUS-2NDLD DEATH



COVID-19: Maharashtra toll rises to 10; case count up to 220



Mumbai: The death toll from the new coronavirus in Maharashtra rose to 10 on Monday, while the count of COVID-19 patients climbed to 220 with 17 new additions, a state health official said.

MDS25 KL-VIRUS-LD CASES



32 new cases in Kerala, Elderly couple cured of virus



Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Monday reported 32 new positive cases of Covid-19, taking the total number of patients under treatment to 213 in the state with the worst affected Kasaragod district accounting for 17 fresh cases.

DEL152 PB-VIRUS-2ND LD DEATH



Coronavirus positive Ludhiana woman dies, death toll rises to three in Punjab



Chandigarh: A 42-year-old coronavirus-positive woman died at a Patiala hospital on Monday, taking the COVID-19 death toll in Punjab to three, an official said.

BOM12 GJ-VIRUS-LD DEATH



Gujarat reports 69 coronavirus cases, six deaths



Ahmedabad: The number of deaths due to coronavirus in Gujarat has gone up to six after one more patient succumbed to the infection, a senior health official said on Monday.

CAL2 WB-VIRUS-DEATH



Another COVID-19 patient dies in Bengal, death count 2



Kolkata: A woman infected with the coronavirus died at a state-run hospital in north Bengal on Monday, taking the total number of COVID-19 deaths in West Bengal to two, hospital sources said.

DEL86 VIRUS-KABUL-LD INDIANS



Coronavirus: 31 Indians, including diplomats land in Delhi from Kabul, sent to quarantine facility



New Delhi: A special flight from Afghanistan carrying 31 Indians, including diplomats and ITBP personnel, landed at the Delhi airport on Monday and the passengers were sent to a quarantine facility set up in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, officials said.

FOREIGN



FGN65 VIRUS-LD PAK



Pak PM plans roadmap to ensure uninterrupted food supplies as coronavirus cases rise to 1,664



Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan plans to announce a comprehensive roadmap to ensure uninterrupted food supplies across the country, as the number of coronavirus cases rose to 1,664 on Monday, underlining that local transmission of the deadly virus is increasing. By Sajjad Hussain



BUSINESS



DEL129 BIZ-2NDLD FMCG-WORKERS



Lockdown: Shortage of workers, transportation trucks poses challenge in ensuring supply: FMCG cos



New Delhi: Availability of workers at factories and trucks for transportation has emerged as the biggest challenges for FMCG firms in ensuring steady supply of essential items during the lockdown, according to FMCG majors ITC, Dabur India, Parle Products, GCPL and Jyothi Laboratories.

SPORTS



SPO-OLY-IOC-QUALIFIERS



IOC advises caution to IFs, says no immediate plans for rescheduling remaining Olympic qualifiers



Lausanne: New dates for the Tokyo Games will ease the pressure to immediately reschedule the remaining qualifiers, said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Monday, making it clear that no qualifying event will be held unless "fair access" and "appropriate preparation" is provided to the athletes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
'The josh is very high as we fight this global pandemic.'

Three frontline doctors -- those who first screen people with suspected COVID-19 cases before they are asked to go for tests and then subsequent isolation, quarantine and treatment -- tells Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com how bravely and systematically the pandemic is being handled.

Dr Kalyani Dongre, Resident Doctor, Department of Community Medicine

I wrote a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray as a member of the advisory committee, Central MARD (Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors) and we are the ones working in the frontline right now.

When I wrote this letter (on March 24), the crisis were very acute.

As soon as I issued the letter, I got a call from the chief minister's office within 4-5 hours and they assured better arrangements for personal protection equipments, N95 masks and sanitisers will be done in a better way for the medical staff working at the frontline of fighting the pandemic.

Immediately the same day we got all the requirements needed at BMC (BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation)-run hospitals.

Given the circumstances, the state government is trying its level best to provide us with the best they can.

As a responsible organisation we also understand that the state government cannot pull out all its resources and give us what we want. But to work fearlessly on the frontline we had requested for PPEs, N95 masks and hand sanitisers because most of us are working in three sectors: Screening, isolation and quarantine and treatment of COVID-19 positive patients.

For screening, we require different kind of setups at the OPDs (outpatient department) for checking people for symptoms.

I wrote this letter because all the resident doctors, interns and supporting staff working at the OPDs were using just one mask for three-four days. I am talking about the situation that existed on March 23.

By the same evening we got the stock and I think my letter brought out the urgency of the situation and desperation of the staff.

I also sent this letter to all the NGOs and other charitable organisations and we got a huge response from the state government and these NGOs.

NGOs are now providing us with masks, PPEs and even food because we were having shortage of food at these hospitals because the canteens are short-staffed and some of them are not working at all.

Taj Hospitality of the Tata Group has started providing lunch and dinner to our staff at the Kasturba, Sion, and KEM Hospital.

We are treating this pandemic in a phased manner. We are not exposing all the doctors right now at this stage; we are going in a step-wise manner.

Few of us are working in the disaster management cell, few are doing screenings at OPDs, few of us are working out of home where people call them and clear their doubts about COVID-19 symptoms and provide prescriptions on the phone for those not showing COVID-19 like symptoms and give further directions to those showing the symptoms for going for screenings at various BMC hospitals.

Few of us are treating patients who test COVID-19 positive.

Not just Mumbai, but other parts of Maharashtra are also facing the crisis and we are looking at it from a holistic view.

At places where the cases of COVID-19 positive are few, like in Nagpur, we are going all out with screenings and isolation programmes.

We have started the screening process even at places like Miraj, Ambejogai (small, tier II towns) and other smaller villages and block levels. The government is actually doing a fantastic job.

Everybody is stretched for resources; be it human resources or monetary resources, but the fight goes on.

***

Dr Satish Nair, MARD President, Screening patients at Nair Hospital's OPD

We are wholeheartedly with the government in fighting the pandemic and will go to whichever place the government want to post us.

We are ready to tackle everything as per our knowledge, or experiences. All our doctors have been trained to tackle it.

We are updating all our trained doctors with latest changes and guidelines issued by the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research), WHO (World Health Organisation). We are updating these doctors on an hourly basis.

On its part, the government is providing our doctors at the OPD who screen patients with necessary equipment like the PPEs, goggles, suits that protect us from head to toe, N95 masks, triple layered surgical masks and hand sanitisers to all our doctors and support medical staff at Nair Hospital.

All doctors working at the OPD have rotational duties. Staff from all the departments at Nair Hospital are adequately trained to handle the patients who come for screening at our OPD round the clock.

All the doctors working in the OPD wear PPEs 24x7 and only then screening the patients. Few of us are doing eight-hours, few are working for 12-hours depending upon the flow of patients at the OPD. Four-five doctors are present round the clock in every shift.

We follow all the protocols and guidelines issued by the ICMR, WHO and MARD while screening patients for COVID-19 symptoms.

It is mandatory to wear PPEs while screening the patients for protecting ourselves.

At the screenings after checking them for symptoms we also ask patients about their travel history, if they have come in contact with any (COVID-19) positive patient, and symptoms they are showing.

According to that we are taking decisions about if we have to send them for testing, ask them to be home quarantined or clear them as people showing no symptoms.

The consulting doctor takes a call after screening whether s/he must ask the patient to go for sample testing of her/his nasal or throat swab. That is the standard protocol followed after screening.

The swabs are then sent for testing and it then a different set of administrators and doctors take over from us.

We have already taken the Hippocratic Oath so there is no way we will go back on the oath. Not even a single doctor is refusing to do whatever work comes her/his way in our collective fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The josh is very high as we are fighting against this global pandemic.

'I'm assuring that all of us are ready to fight against this pandemic. So the morale of the doctors is quite high and we all are feeling confident that we will defeat coronavirus.

I can confidently say that none of our medical staff or patients who had come here till today for screening has tested positive or shown COVID-19 like symptoms. That is the intensity with which we are taking our protection and precautions seriously.

We do talk about how frontline doctors have been dying in different parts of the world, but not a single doctor working here is scared to tackle the load we are facing right now.

Being resident doctors who stay in hostels and somebody who are screening hundreds of patients every day for COVID-19 symptoms most of us have decided not to go back to our homes for the next two-three months not only because we want to avoid travelling at this stage, but also because we don't know how long will it take for us to control the spread of COVID-19.

Our people need us more than our families do at this time.

For now most of our families are a bit tensed; we will get to know their reactions only when we meet them. But when we speak on the phone they say they are feeling very proud that we are doing our bit to help fight this pandemic.

***

Dr Vishal Rakh screened travellers at Mumbai airport and is now posted at a BMC helpline centre

I worked at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport from March 6 to 22 and am now posted at BMC's helpline centre.

I was posted at the airport till all the airports were locked down for international traffic (on March 22). Now, I am engaged in managing panic calls and calls coming for seeking guidance at the BMC's helpline centre in Mumbai.

Here we are guiding people about COVID-19 symptoms, answering their queries, helping those panicking to calm down.

At the airport, a team of about 20 doctors would screen travellers. I was posted there from March 6 till March 22 for screening international travellers. Before March 6 screening was done by doctors sent by the central government along with the airport staff.

After the outbreak of COVID-19, a team of doctors from BMC-run hospitals was deputed there.

From March 6, all the doctors and medical staff at the CSMIA screened around 10,000 travellers daily.

Those who were suspected to show COVID-19-like symptoms were directly sent to the Kasturba hospital for testing. Those who travelled with people showing COVID-19-like symptoms were sent into quarantine for 14 days at the Seven Hills Hospital. If they too showed COVID-19 symptoms in those 14 days they too were tested for COVID-19.

Basically, when we were posted there, initially the passengers were not cooperative. After WHO declared it to be a pandemic everybody became aware of how serious the spread was and voluntarily co-operated for screenings and testing.

Still some people tried to outsmart the doctors by taking medicines like anti-diuretics so that they don't show any temperature during thermal screening and could have possibly escaped from our screenings.

Those who did not show symptoms like fever, cough or breathlessness were allowed to go home and asked to home quarantine themselves for 14 days.

Those suspects were reported to the IDSP (Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme). Then officials of IDSP department would call them on the phone to ask them if they have developed any of these symptoms. That helps the public health department to trace patients.

On an average we get 1,200-1,300 calls daily. These calls centre around asking for more information about the symptoms of COVID-19, what are the criteria for going for testing, what kind of prescription and travel history is required for one to become eligible for testing, about buying over the counter prophylactics like (hydrochloroquine) from pharmacy shops, and what should be the dosage and schedule of these prophylactics.

There are calls where people inform us about people from their society who have had just returned from international travel and whether that person has developed any symptoms or refusing to show willingness to go for testing.

Our public health department officials then trace the person's location and convince or force her/him to go for COVID-19 test.

Yesterday (Saturday), a person from a north Mumbai suburb called us up saying that a traveller arrived from London from March 10 in their society and is roaming around freely.

Immediately, our people traced him and admitted him to the Kasturba hospital because he showed symptoms. All his family members are now under home quarantine for 14 days.

Right now, most of the calls we get are from people who are panicking. Maximum cals are panic calls.

Even if a person develops a single symptom (like fever, or coughing, or breathlessness), even pharyngitis (common cold without breathlessness) s/he calls us saying s/he is showing (COVID-19) symptoms.

We share guidelines issued by the ICMR, WHO with that person and calm her/him down by either asking her/him to quarantine himself or talk to her/his family doctor or physician.

Only when a person shows some serious symptoms do we send our health officers to her/his home and decide upon the next line of action.

There are about five teams right now, each team comprising 15 people, doing eight-hour rotational duties attending calls.

We have a portal where we enter the name of the caller, her/his details, and symptoms which then automatically is available to the state health department online.

Depending on the signal that this data generates (a red signal means health officers visit the person's home for further clarification and decide upon subsequent action) our health officers take a call on how to proceed.
Iran, on March 29 temporarily freed nearly 1,0000 inmates from prisons in a bid to curb the spread of deadly coronavirus, international media reported citing judiciary spokesman, Gholamhossein Esmaili. The pandemic has till now infected 38,309 and killed 2,640 people across the Shiite nation.

Speaking in a televised address about the prisoners, Esmaili revealed, "As of now, around 100,000 have been released." This comes as the countrys president Hassan Rouhani recently ordered officials to extend the temporary leave of prisoners to April 20. The recent release would raise the number of free to more than double of the 54,000 released early this month.

Yemen adopts the same measure

Many other countries have also been freeing prisoners to stop the spread of the pandemic. On March 29, authorities in Yemen ordered the release of all Bahai prisoners as well as a pardon for Hamed bin Haydara, a member of the community, whose death sentence was recently upheld by an appeals court in Sana'a, according to an official statement issued by India's Bahai association. The international Bahai community welcomes the announcement and calls for its immediate implementation, it said.

Read: COVID-19: Afghan Govt To Release 10,000 Prisoners To Curb Spread, Excludes ISIS, Taliban

Meanwhile, the Afghanistan government on March 26 decided to release up to 10,000 prisoners in the wake of the coronavirus scare. Prisoners, including women and children, will be released on Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's decree. The Afghan government said that those being released will 'not pose a major threat'.

Read: Yemen Orders Release Of All Bahai Prisoners: India's Bahai Association

According to TOLO News, the Afghan Public Health Minister said that prisoner release was the only precaution in the absence of 'vaccine or treatment'. It was reported that criminals who have acted against national, international security and are imprisoned under terror-related crimes are not a part of this release. The Taliban or Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists are not included in this list. In India, Tihar Jail officials on March 28, announced that about 356 prisoners were released on 45-day interim bail while 63 have been released on emergency parole of eight weeks, as a preventive measure against the spread of deadly COVID-19.

Image: Unsplash/Pawel Czerwinski

Read: Coronavirus: Gujarat To Free 1,200 Prisoners For 2 Months

Read: Tihar Jail Releases Over 400 Prisoners To Decongest Jails Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
The number of novel coronavirus cases has been steadily increasing for days, most recently reaching more than 900 confirmed cases and 11 deaths statewide and 165 confirmed cases in the Houston region.

Houston residents have been ordered to stay at home, non-essential businesses have closed, school districts have announced plans to not let students return to campuses until at least April and city streets are more calm than ever before. As Houston learns to navigate life during a pandemic, health authorities such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are urging residents to stay smart and not give in to false rumors that could endanger their health.
A Co Laois priest has told of how he is using social media and the telephone to minister to parishioners during the Covid-19 crisis.

Fr Paddy Byrne, who is based in Abbeyleix, also told Newstalk Breakfast of how many elderly priests are now cocooning which has put more pressure on other members of the clergy.

Half of the priests in his diocese of Kildare and Leighlin are now cocooning, he explained. This puts a huge responsibility on the remaining clergy and it was at times like this, these vulnerable moments that there was a need for resilience and courage.

Fr Byrne said that while the normal means of expressing sorrow or passing of condolences were not available at this time, there were other ways to show the huge love out there.

The priest told of how he is using Facebook and Twitter and is phoning parishioners to pray with them. The message of hope was very important, he said.

He advised people not to worry about where we are going to be in April. Dont lose the gift of today. That is a recipe for good mental health.

Fr Byrne said that social distancing did not come natural to him, but that never had there been such a call to roll up the sleeves and he was very proud to be able to bring comfort, hope and solidarity.

Were in this together.

Fr Byrne said he had to be very careful as it was intuitive to practice empathy as part of his chaplaincy. He asked for a blessing for all health care workers and those responding to the needs of the sick.

It was important for the vast majority to weather this in their homes and he said young people were playing a blinder assisting with shopping for older people.

When we look back we will be mighty proud of this place we call home.

Meanwhile, a small number of parishioners have been described as "selfish" for putting pressure on priests to celebrate private masses.

The Bishop of Elphin, Kevin Doran, says a small minority have been asking priests to say Mass, and has appealed to people to follow the restrictions in place.

Elphin Diocese is committed to observing the present restrictions for the safety of all. Most parishioners understand this but a small minority is putting pressure on priests to say a private Mass for them. This is selfish. It contradicts the very meaning of communion.  Kevin Doran (@KevinElphin) March 29, 2020

He wrote on social media: "Elphin Diocese is committed to observing the present restrictions for the safety of all. Most parishioners understand this but a small minority is putting pressure on priests to say a private Mass for them.

"This is selfish. It contradicts the very meaning of communion."

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New Delhi, March 30 : The Fortis Memorial Research Institute (FMRI) here on Monday discharged three Covid-19 patients, two of which were siblings with travel history to the United Kingdom.

According to FMRI Gurugram, the patients had recovered after the treatment. While two patients were discharged on March 29, one was discharged on Monday.

The siblings, admitted with fever and cough on March 21, had tested negative for coronavirus. They were treated in an isolation ward. They have been discharged with home care advice.

The third patient, a 29-year-old man, had returned from the UK on March 18. He had symptoms of fever, cough and cold. "He tested positive for coronavirus and was admitted to FMRI on March 22. He responded well to treatment. He tested Covid-19 negative twice in the interval of 24 hours," said FMRI.

According to Dr Ritu Garg, FMRI facility director, "A 3-tier Covid defence structure -- screening, fever (FLU) clinics, and in-patient isolation facilities -- is in place at all Fortis hospitals.

"We are monitoring the situation and will do everything to expand the bed availability as per the requirement. We have also implemented necessary safety protocols to keep our doctors, nurses, other patients, visitors and staff safe," said Dr Garg.

Dr Manoj Goel, Director and Head of pulmonology, critical care and sleep medicine, said, "The oxygen therapy represents the major treatment intervention for patients with severe infection. Mechanical ventilation may be necessary in cases of respiratory failure refractory to oxygen therapy. Support for other failing organs, such as dialysis, may also be required".

He said there was no specific anti-viral treatment for Covid-19, and no vaccine was available. "However, in severe cases, a few drugs have been found to be useful in reducing the viral load, leading to improved outcomes," he said.

The hospital said The treatment for Covid-19 patients, essentially was symptomatic in the majority of patients and aimed at relieving fever, cough and shortness of breath, FMRI said. In mild cases, this might simply mean rest and fever-reducing medications, such as paracetamol for comfort, it added.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Montana Free Press

Glacier National Park announced it will temporarily close, as of 5 p.m. Friday, March 27, in coordination with the state of Montana, Flathead County, Glacier County, and the Blackfeet Tribe.

Were closed until we all feel that it is safe to reopen, Superintendent Jeff Mow said in an interview with Montana Free Press as the park closed.

Local and state health officials had raised health concerns about visitors traveling to the park from across the country and potentially transporting COVID-19, Mow said. The park receives around 3 million visitors each year. In January and February, the park recorded about 31,000 visits.

The Trump administration has been encouraging people to visit national parks amid the #Coronavirus pandemic. Officials in #Montana want that to stop. #COVID19 https://t.co/3V0YVj2Vsk  indianz.com (@indianz) March 24, 2020

Additionally, the park will put most seasonal hiring on hold. The park generally employs about 250 people, he said. Mow said he expects concessionaires, which employ an additional 1,200 seasonal employees, to put those jobs on hold as well.

Were not in a position to bring in hundreds of employees from around the country and the world at this point in time, Mow said. Were all in a wait-and-see mode. It wouldnt make sense to bring people in from all over the country and put them in isolation for 14 days before they start. It just doesnt quite make sense.

After U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt announced on March 18 that national parks would be free to visit, the park received about 800 vehicles on Saturday and Sunday, March 21-22, Mow said. With the park still in winter mode, there wasnt much space for the visitors to spread out, leading to crowded areas, Mow said.

Those are remarkable levels of visitation for this time of year. The parking lot at Lake McDonald, even though the lot wasnt plowed, the parking came close to exceeding the busiest summer days, Mow said. It was pretty clear people werent doing a good job of social distancing.

Mow said he thinks most of the visitors were local.

The rangers said most of the plates were Montana plates, which could be rental cars, Mow said. But in reality, with [Whitefish Mountain Ski Resort] closed last weekend, and listening to the Chamber of Commerce talk about occupancy rates in the valley, I dont think theres a lot of destination visitors around.

Mow said most park employees, himself included, have been working from home.

Were busier than ever, trying to stay connected with our employees. Its a very strange time, a very stressful time. Its been a lot of phone calls, Mow said.

Most of his focus now is on the summer season.

Were finding alternate ways to think about what this summer could look like, Mow said. Its really hard to predict the future. Well be doing a lot of planning and looking at different scenarios of, if we do get the opportunity to open the park, what will that look like?

Johnathan Hettinger is a journalist based in Livingston. Originally from Central Illinois and a graduate of the University of Illinois, he has worked at the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, the Livingston Enterprise and the (Champaign-Urbana) News-Gazette. Contact Johnathan at jhett93@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @jhett93

Note: This story originally appeared on Montana Free Press . It is published under a Creative Commons license

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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian dual national has been on temporary release from her five year prison term in Iran and for the first time, would be under formal consideration of clemency. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in April 2016 on spying charges which she has always denied.

According to reports, the potential offer of clemency will be recommended to the Iranian prosecutor generals office. Speaking to international media, her husband Richard Radcliff explained that the deputy prosecutor could either approve clemency or refer the file back to the supreme leaders office with a recommendation that she not be granted clemency, or it could just sit on his desk for a bit. He added that, following which, the supreme leader could either refuse a recommendation not to grant clemency or could follow it and specify that Nazanin not be granted.

But the default in the process following the supreme leaders proclamation last week is that the law requires eligible people to be granted clemency. He also said that it was a good sign that her file was put forward and that she was being treated like everybody else. Since her sentencing her September her term is to end in 10 months however, Iranian rev guards have threatened her to put on new charges and extended her term.

Read: Multiple Dead In Iran After Drinking Methanol To Cure Coronavirus

The 41-year-old was amongst the 85,000 prisoners, serving a prison term for less than five years, who had been released from the prison on March 17 due to the coronavirus outbreak. The mother of a British born Gabrielle Ratcliffe has been out of prison, for now, however, she is required to wear an ankle tag and remain within 300 metres of her parents home in Tehran where she is currently staying.

Read: Amid Lockdown, Indigo Operates Flight From Delhi To Jodhpur For Iran-returned Indians

Iran releases 1 lakh prisoners

Iran, on March 29 temporarily freed nearly 1,0000 inmates from prisons in a bid to curb the spread of deadly coronavirus, international media reported citing judiciary spokesman, Gholamhossein Esmaili. The pandemic has till now infected 38,309 and killed 2,640 people across the Shiite nation.

Speaking in a televised address about the prisoners, Esmaili revealed, "As of now, around 100,000 have been released." This comes as the countrys president Hassan Rouhani recently ordered officials to extend the temporary leave of prisoners to April 20. The recent release would raise the number of free to more than double of the 54,000 released early this month.

Image Credits: Twitter/ Atridad_Saadat

Read: Iran Temporarily Releases 1,00,000 Prisoners To Curb Coronavirus Spread

Read: Iran To Continue 'electronic Life' As COVID-19 Claims 2,640 Lives
Turkish police have detained 11 people, including the organisers and a DJ, after a weekend coronavirus house party in Istanbul where some guests dressed up as doctors, local officials said.

The party, thrown at a villa in the Buyukcekmece district Saturday night, was shared live on social media but received criticism for ignoring social distancing pleas.

"These idiots have organised a home party somewhere in Istanbul" one Twitter user posted.

"How come we will stop the spread of the virus despite those idiots!!!" Bars and nightclubs have been closed in Turkey by a circular issued by the interior ministry as part of efforts to contain the spread of the virus.

Police watched the social media broadcast then detained 11 people including the organiser, M.S. and M.E.C. and a DJ.

They were charged with "disobeying the regulations on infectious diseases", the Istanbul governor's office said in a statement late Sunday.

The authorities were working to identify other participants, it added.

In the video footage posted, some of those partying could be seen dressed up as emergency doctors with gloves and masks.

"I drank a lot of alcohol. Everyone was dancing with the music. I regret holding such a party at a time of coronavirus," M.S. told the police in his testimony, the private agency DHA reported.

Elif K, who broadcast the party live on social media, said around 80 people attended the party. "They were drinking and dancing. I later called a taxi and left."



The DHA said police released seven people after questioning them, but the other four were sent to court.

Turkey has so far officially recorded 9,217 cases of the new coronavirus while 131 people have died.

Authorities have taken a series of measures to try to slow the spread of the virus, from suspending international flights to shutting schools.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Turks to stay at home and adapt themselves to "voluntary quarantine" conditions.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Monitoring of gray whales impeded: As gray whales began their northern migration along the Pacific Coast earlier this month  after a year of unusually heavy die-offs  scientists were poised to watch, ready to collect information that could help them learn what was killing the whales. The coronavirus outbreak, however, has largely upended that field work  and that of incalculable other ecological studies nationwide. A large network of marine biologists and volunteers in California normally spends this time of year monitoring gray whales, documenting their numbers and counting strandings as the leviathans swim from Mexico to the Arctic. Up and down the West Coast and beyond, field research on a variety of endangered, threatened and migrating species has ground to a halt, and the animals are on their own now, as scientists are forced to stay at home. Last year, 215 gray whales were stranded on North America's Pacific Coast as they migrated north, sparking a federal investigation of this unusual die-off. This year, 49 have been stranded in Mexico. It's not just the study of whales. Hundreds of environmental and ecological monitoring projects are now on pause, creating marked data holes in several long-term analyses.




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Ford on Monday said it has struck a deal with GE Healthcare to begin manufacturing ventilators designed by a Florida company at a Blue Oval components plant in Michigan. Ford said it would build 50,000 units within 100 days and eventually scale up to 30,000 per month to help health care providers treat coronavirus patients.

Production will start the week of April 20 from its Rawsonville Plant, near Ann Arbor, of the Model A-E ventilator made by Airon Corp., which GE Healthcare is licensing and brought to Fords attention as part of a previously announced partnership to increase ventilator production. Ford said it will use more than 500 volunteer UAW workers who will receive full pay to make the units.

The Model A-E is said to be a less complicated version of a ventilator, a medical device that experts say is in critically short supply to help patients who have respiratory failure and need help to breathe because of the coronavirus. The unit operates on air pressure without the need for electricity and meets the needs of most coronavirus patients.

Ford last week announced plans to partner with GE Healthcare and 3M to make medical equipment including ventilators to help with the COVID-19 outbreak. Ford and GE Healthcare say progress is being made on efforts to have Ford manufacture a simplified form of the latters existing ventilator. GM on Friday announced it was partnering with Washington-based Ventec Life Systems to increase production of the latters ventilator from a GM plant in Indiana following a bizarre series of events in which President Trump attacked the company and its CEO, Mary Barra, and authorized the use of the Defense Production Act to require it to start manufacturing the devices.

GE Healthcare says it has already doubled production capacity for its ventilators at its assembly facility in Madison, Wis., during the first quarter and aims to double it again in the second quarter. Ford engineers and manufacturing employees have been working onsite there to help GE Healthcare ramp production more quickly.

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Ford says it will employ a number of tactics to help keep the UAW workers at Rawsonville safe and mitigate the risk of infection, including enforcing social distancing, pre-screening workers before they enter the building, using barrier shields and plastic face shields that a Ford subsidiary is making in suburban Detroit. The first crews will undergo training with the Ford engineering team that is currently developing the production process. Second and third shifts will eventually be added, Ford said.

Ford said the same protections would be in place for all workers once factories are re-opened. The company declined to say Monday whether it was still planning to reopen its facilities April 14. Michigan is currently experiencing a worsening coronavirus outbreak, with more than 1,000 new confirmed cases reported statewide since Sunday and 52 deaths.
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Coronavirus toll in Gujarat rises to 69

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Ahmedabad, Mar 30: Six new COVID-19 cases were reported in Gujarat, taking the total number of such patients in the state to 69, a health official said on Monday.

Of the new cases, five were found in Bhavnagar and one in Ahmedabad, principal secretary(health) Jayanti Ravi said.

Out of the five new cases reported from Bhavnagar, a 45-year-old woman died at a hospital late Sunday night, taking the total number of deaths due to coronavirus in the state to six, she said.

Coronavirus: Muslim woman donates savings for Hajj to RSS affiliate

The new patient from Ahmedabad is a 36-year-old man who recently returned from the US.

The other four patients in Bhavnagar are all men, the official said, adding that all these cases are of local transmission.

NEWS AT NOON, MARCH 30th, 2020

Two patients have so far been discharged in the state, she said.

Out of the total 69 patients in the state, 32 have history of travelling abroad, 33 contracted the infection through local transmission, and four have inter-state travel history, she said.

#Stayathome and send us your selfie

Out of the 61 active cases, two patients are on ventilator while the condition of 59 others is stable.
By PTI

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday asked the international community to urge India to release all political prisoners in Kashmir and allow unfettered access to medical and other essential supplies there.

The Foreign Office in a statement alleged that thousands of Kashmiri youth, members of civil society, journalists and Kashmiri leaders were in prisons, many of them at undisclosed locations and away from their families.

It asked the international community to "urgently demand from India the lifting of communication restrictions and allowing unfettered access to medical and other essential supplies.

"The Indian government must also be urged to immediately allow release of all political prisoners from Indian jails," it added.

Tensions between India and Pakistan have spiked since New Delhi abrogated the Article 370 of the Constitution to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in August last year.

India's decision evoked strong reactions from Pakistan, which downgraded diplomatic ties and expelled the Indian envoy.

India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of the Article 370 was its internal matter.

It also advised Pakistan to accept the reality and stop all anti-India propaganda.
Azerbaijan also bombarded Koti village of Armenias Tavush Province today, as resident of Koti Susanna Saratikyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am, adding that Azerbaijan bombarded the village for nearly 30 minutes.

As reported earlier, Azerbaijan also bombarded the Baghanis and Voskevan villages today, and a 14-year-old was wounded. At around 7 p.m., Azerbaijan made an attempt of sabotage penetration in the direction of the Armenian military posts in the Noyemberyan region of Tavush Province. Thanks to the operations of the Armenian border guard troops, the adversary was thrown back, and the information about the casualties is being specified. The Armenian side doesnt have casualties, two servicemen were slightly injured as a result of the operations and are at the medical center in Noyemberyan.
Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba assures that the there is no progress in formation of the Consultative Council as part of the Trilateral Contact Group political subgroup with the participation of representatives of occupying power in Donbas.

The minutes of the meeting were signed [on March 11 in Minsk]. The annex [to the minutes, which refers to the format of the Consultative Council] was not signed ... The situation around the Consultative Council has no progress," the diplomat said in an interview with the Yevropeyska Pravda online media outlet.

He emphasized that the structure of the Trilateral Contact Group for peaceful settlement of the situation in Donbas remained unchanged.

There is the invader  Russia, the state which defends  Ukraine, and the OSCE as a mediator. The position of the Foreign Ministry is very clear: the Ministry and I as a minister oppose any reformatting of the Trilateral Contact Group, the minister stressed.

Kuleba also said that when he was appointed as a minister, the issue of creation of the Consultative Council had already been elaborated, and he had faced the fact that "such a process already exists."

"But, as I said, the situation around the Consultative Council currently has no progress," the foreign minister said.

ol
JERUSALEM, March 30 (Reuters) - Israel is offering its second-biggest airport as a place for foreign carriers to park planes grounded by the coronavirus outbreak, an Israeli official said on Monday.

The number of planes in storage has doubled to more than 5,000 since the start of the year, according to date provider Cirium, with more expected as airlines cut back flights.

The Israel Airports Authority said it was in touch with several airlines about parking in Ramon Airport, in Israel's southern desert, which could accommodate about 100 planes.

"The site offers a good climate for preserving the planes, as well as security," authority spokesman Ofer Lefler said, adding that the price for parking would be determined in accordance with the eventual volume.

An eastern European airline had expressed interest in the offer, Lefler said, without providing further details.

Israel opened Ramon last year to encourage tourism to the nearby Red Sea port of Eilat and serve as a wartime alternative to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport, the country's main gateway.

With aviation volume slashed by the coronavirus crisis, there are now two daily domestic flights in and out of Ramon. (Writing by Dan Williams, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
At Luxembourg's request to set up a patient care facility next to the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (CHL), the Capellen-based NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) was able to respond quickly and adequately by deploying staff and equipment on site.

EMA (from left to right) Peter Dohmen, NSPA; Francois Bausch, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence ; Gilles Feith, general coordinator of Defence EMA NSPA Team EMA Group picture

The structure is operational since last Thursday. This morning, Francois Bausch, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, addressed words of thanks and appreciation to the NSPA staff for their responsiveness and commitment, prior to their return to their home port.

Press release by the Chief of Staff of the Luxembourg Army
2. Strikes

3. Justice Department probe

The Justice Department has reportedly started to probe a series of stock moves made by lawmakers ahead of the sharp market downturn sparked by the coronavirus outbreak. The inquiry, which is still in its early stages, has so far included outreach from the FBI to at least one lawmaker, Sen. Richard Burr, seeking information about trades. Burr, the North Carolina Republican who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, attracted public scrutiny after it was reveal he decided to sell between $628,000 and $1.7 million in stocks weeks before the full awareness of the crisis became public. Under insider trading laws, prosecutors would need to prove the lawmakers traded based on material non-public information they received in violation of a duty to keep it confidential. So far, there is no indication Burr used such information in his decisions.
" " Tony Lo Bianco points a gun on a subway in a scene from the 1971 film 'The French Connection.' The movie was shot guerilla-style all over New York. 20th Century-Fox/Getty Images)

Any film can be a guerilla film. Because the term doesn't apply to any particular genre, budget or style of directing. The main characteristic of guerilla films is that they're shot in public places without going through the proper permission channels.

The term "guerilla" is usually associated with rampant disregard for authority and convention. Unlike warfare of the same name, guerilla filmmaking is actually controlled, although it is subtly rebellious out of sheer necessity. This route is often taken because permit costs can rack up in a hurry, blowing what little budget an indie film has to work with. Even some big-budget films have shot certain scenes guerilla-style if getting permission is too big a hassle.

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"Probably more films than you might think at least have an element of it that was shot guerilla," says Noam Kroll, award-winning Los Angeles-based filmmaker and owner of post-production house Creative Rebellion. He notes that subway scenes in "Black Swan" were filmed without permits, although the rest of the movie was done on the up-and-up. "When I usually talk about a guerilla film, it's a film where the entire film was shot that way."

Also known as "run and gun" filmmaking, many guerilla filmmakers dodge permits (and let's face it, the law) in favor of the "do now, apologize later" approach. Cast, crew and equipment are usually minimal to avoid getting busted by security. In fact, you might walk right by a guerrilla film in progress without even realizing, if it's being done stealthily enough. Films that fail to fly under the radar get shut down in a hurry, which is clearly embarrassing and definitely disruptive to the film schedule!

Guerilla filmmaking has been around since the dawn of cinema, although there wasn't anything illegal about it in the good old days. "If you trace back to the early days of film everything was guerilla," explains Kroll. "Back then there was no need for a location permit. At some point down the road there were parameters and rules put in place specifically for shooting because it became so widespread."

After the rules changed, so did the tactics of penny-pinching producers. Fortunately, your last name doesn't have to be Spielberg, Ephron or Cameron to get a movie made (although it definitely helps). Deep pockets can certainly dress up a film and make the process easier, but many aspiring filmmakers have built respectable, successful careers on movies that cost little or nothing to make. Find out how they did it, next.
In a week where six Tennesseans died of the coronavirus, it is disheartening indeed to learn more people in our state died of suicide last week. While the actual number of those who took their lives across the state isnt yet known, the fact that nine in Knoxville died by their own hand within a 48-hour period last week is frightening.

What is worst is the prediction the coronavirus could kill as many as 200,000 Americans by the time it is corralled this summer, yet very silently it will create a perfect storm for those most susceptible to suicide in Tennessee and elsewhere. The threat of soaring suicide rates is just as real and as genuine as the virus, yet hardly on that scale, and the state of Tennessee has been woefully negligent of our growing mental health crisis for years.

Our mental health experts warn us the top causes of suicide in adults include prolonged exposure to stress, life and role transitions, a history of neglect, and seemingly insurmountable financial burden. Add those into a boiling cauldron where we are staggered by daily COVID-19 numbers, desperate opioid addicts, and the suddenly jobless who are unable to provide for their families. We are shuttered-in-place with our fears and our worries.

We are ordered to distance ourselves from anyone else, our children cant play with others, and our lives are most likely altered for years. Our churches are closed, along with almost every outdoors and recreation facility, by those horribly inept of the human condition. People are urged to stay inside, to wear face masks and, for Gods sake, we dont hug one another or go within six feet of another. We dont dare shake hands. Our groceries are delivered, depriving us from further seeing signs of life, and cabin fever  which is very real  is now pandemic as well.

During the Great Crash of 1929, suicides were at an all-time high for Americans. In 1929 it was 17.0 per 100,000 and by 1932 it had risen to 21.3. In comparison, today the American economy is suddenly far worse. During the Great Depression there were 665,000 unemployment claims in one week  for years thought to be the Mount Everest by measure  a cursed mark thought to be never equaled. But just this month a record 3.3 million Americans have filed for unemployment.

Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, was hardly surprised and, until our economy can function properly, she said, It could be that over 10 million people could lose their jobs by June, so these claims are going to be coming in steady."

Several days ago, Knox County (Knoxville) Mayor Glenn Jacobs told a reporter for the online news source, tennesseestar.com, Thus far, our reaction to COVID-19 has been to sacrifice the global economy, he said. The truth is: a sick economy produces sick people.

Jacobs, shaken by the uptake, explained, Last year, our medical examiner performed autopsies for 199 confirmed or suspected suicides from across the region, with 83 of those coming from Knox County. Over the past 48 hours that office has now examined nine suspected suicides, eight of which are from Knox County alone. For Knox County, thats almost 10 percent of last years total number in the past two days alone.

He wonders if we are taking the right approach in our fears. Is what we are doing now really the best? How can we respond to COVID-19 in a way that keeps our economy intact, keeps people employed, and empowers our people with a feeling of hope and optimism, not desperation and despair? he asked.

Dr. Martha Buchanan, director of the Knox County Health Department, was emotional in a televised statement. (The rash of suicides) are startling and disturbing and really, really challenging to think about how some of the things we have to do as a community right now could be contributing to these things, she said. The more important message today that I want to deliver is that now, more than ever, we need to be kinder and gentler with ourselves and with each other. If theres anybody out there whos struggling, I encourage you to reach out.

Just last month the Tennessee General Assembly has declared youth suicide at a crisis level in the state, this shortly before the coronavirus pushed all other pressing needs and cares temporarily off the table. Compelling data from the Tennessee Department of Health presented evidence that documented 508 Tennessee teens have died by suicide since 2009. The department defines youth suicide from age 10 to 19 (the third-leading cause of death for that age demographic in the state).

Rep. Rick Staples, D-Knoxville, wrote the joint House resolution that Governor Bill Lee signed in early February. "I have cared for young people and know their struggles," Rep. Staples said. "I have been involved in mentoring males for roughly 20 years. I have watched a different series of changes. Everything that was negative in life was affecting young people, even committing suicide. I have been talking about it for five years and something needed to be led out of the dark."

In his first State of the State address, Governor Lee said he was eager to invest $250 million in a K-12 student mental health trust fund (remember, this was before the coronavirus got its grip; now many changes must take place, but suicide will sadly remain and be part of the outcome.) There are 973,659 K-12 students enrolled in Tennessees public schools. If that money was allocated to each student it would be approximately $256, but Governor Lee said that it would serve as one-time funds to support the growth and placement of mental health support services in the state's most-at-risk schools.

One in five children has a mental health diagnosis in a year; 60 percent of children who receive mental health services do so in schools, Governor Lee said. "It creates a nightmare decision for the teacher," the governor explained in his State of the State speech. "When a student is struggling, they can either stop the learning process for everyone else in the classroom to help the one student or ignore that students needs."

The legislatures commitment to youth suicide was tremendous but suddenly the mental disease has gained a far-greater stage. The coronavirus will devastate many families, leaving overwhelming mental anguish and, candidly, great despair in its wake. Before the virus, suicide rates were up 40 percent in the last 17 years. What lies ahead for our fellow Americans is fearsome, and just as deadly unless we reach out to our fragile.

It behooves each of us to seek out those who suffer, to encourage and minster to those whose lives are challenged with more than they think they can bear. Coronavirus deaths will easily outdistance suicides, probably this week, but lets not forget the week that suicides led the state and to share hope is something all of us can do starting right now.

royexum@aol.com




via: CPA, Colombo

Mirusuvil Massacre a Accused Pardoned; No Reparations for Victimsa Families

On March 26, 2020, President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa granted a presidential pardon and released convicted death row prisoner and mass murderer, former Army Staff Sergeant R. M. Sunil Rathnayake. While the country is on lockdown due to COVID-19, the President has seized this opportunity to deal a lethal blow to the rule of law to show that military perpetrators of heinous crimes will be given cover at the highest level despite the rulings of the Supreme Court the highest court in our land. In pardoning Ratnayake, the President has given his blessing to a cold-blooded killer who murdered a five-year-old child and seven other innocent civilians.

The story of the civilian murders in Mirusuvil goes back to twenty years a on December 19 2000, nine Tamils civilians a including three teenagers and a five-year old child a travelled from Udipiddy to Mirusuvil, a village 16 miles from Jaffna town, in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. These persons were among those displaced from Mirusuvil due to the civil war who were resettled in a camp at Udupitty. Displaced family members used to obtain permission from the Sri Lankan Army to visit their homes. But on this day, those who visited their village never returned. It soon emerged that eight of the nine were killed by the Sri Lankan Army.

On December 24, 2000, one of the missing, recounted the incident and gave details about the whereabouts of the remaining eight. On his evidence when the police and the Magistrate went to the site there were no bodies except a skeleton of the animal in the toilet pit. After that when the Military a Police arrested the persons who were on duty in the area, Sergeant R.M. Sunil Rathnayake gave a statement to the Military Police stating that the bodies were removed from the toilet pit and buried somewhere else. Thereafter the Police and the Magistrate went to the site of the burial and exhumed the bodies. Four men and four children were found with throats slit and eyes blindfolded. Some corpses had their hands and legs chopped off.

The deceased belonged to four families. A single family lost four members, including children aged 13 and 5. Another lost two breadwinners. Two more also lost primary breadwinners.

Justice took more than a decade to wind its way but, against all odds, judgment was delivered at last. On June 24, 2015, former Army Sergeant R. M. Sunil Rathnayake who had been enlarged on bail pending trial was found guilty of murdering the eight civilians and was sentenced to death by the Trial at Bar consisting of three High Court Judges held in Colombo. On appeal against the said judgment a five a Judge bench of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka unanimously affirmed the conviction and sentence on April 25, 2019.

By granting the presidential pardon to Sergeant R.M. Sunil Rathnayake, power has been abused and justice has been forsaken. In a country where military perpetrators have rarely been held to account, leading ethnic distrust to fester into war, the President has granted a pardon to one of few men actually held accountable by our nationas highest court. His pardon is a direct challenge to judicial independence and will result in the further erosion and loss of confidence in the Sri Lankan justice system among war-affected communities.

For the four families directly affected, who have suffered from poverty and immeasurable personal loss, their small sliver of solace has been snatched away. When the sole surviving witness was previously visited by state intelligence officers soon after the presidential election, he expressed his apprehension that, he has no security or protection if the accused is released. Now that threat is real, and our laws and structures are hardly equipped to protect him.

It is a matter of regret and national tragedy that neither the state nor government authorities have over the years offered reparations or compensations to the families of the dead who have been deprived of their bread winners and are condemned to live in poverty for the rest of their lives.

Soon after the Presidential election, news media speculated that the Mirusuvil murderer was to be granted a presidential pardon and released. Affected families were terribly upset and lodged complaints before the Human Rights Commission in Jaffna and in the media. Right now, with the country in lock down, victimsa families are in no position to demonstrate their disapproval and distress. While pretending to save the country from COVID-19, the President is actually using his constitutional powers to fulfill his inflammatory electoral pledge to release awar heroesa from prison.

To put it in context, the country withdrew from its UNHRC commitments last month. The President declared that there are no disappeared persons, and those believed missing are all dead. His government has promoted suspected war criminals as head of operations in military sectors, and General Shavendra Silva is touted as a savior against COVID 19. The military is increasingly involved in all civilian activities. New roadblocks and checkpoints have been introduced solely in the Northern Province. And now a convicted mass murderer is pardoned and released by the President.

In perspective, the act of granting presidential pardon to a convicted criminal conveys the chilling message to the public that, irrespective of the gravity of the offence, offenders from the security forces will not be punished even if convicted by Court of Law and that any crime or violence committed against the ethnic communities will go unpunished. The security forces including the police already enjoying high degree of impunity will surely be further emboldened by the covert encouragement by the government to commit further atrocities against the hapless and vulnerable people. As organizations and individuals who are committed to the Rule of Law and to the protection of democratic values, we vehemently and unreservedly condemn the presidential pardon granted to Sergeant R.M. Sunil Rathnayake which said act will undoubtedly lead to further militarization of the society and contribute to disunity and distrust among communities in the country.

Endorsed by:

Centre for human Rights and Development (CHRD)

Womenas Action Network (WAN)

International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES)

Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA)

Human Rights Office a Kandy

Human Elevation Organization (HEO)- Ampara

Law and Society Trust (LST)

Eastern Social Development Foundation (ESDF)

Mannar Womenas Development Federation (MWDF)

National Fisheries Solidarity Movement (NAFSO)

Affected Womenas Forum (AWF)- Ampara

Rural Development Foundation (RDF)

Institute of Social Development (ISD)- Kandy

Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Prisoners (CPRP)

INFORM Human Rights Documentation Centre

Federation of Media Employeesa Trade Unions

Centre for Justice and Change, Trincomalee

Rights Now a Collective for Democracy

Right to Life Human Rights Centre

Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association

Movement for Land and Agriculture Reform (MONLAR)

Families of the Disappeared
Hy-Lite Injection Molding Services has three 300-ton, one 390-ton, and three 500-ton machines available for 24/7 operations. If we can be a small part of the solution in a national emergency, then we want to help.

To help with the heightened demand for injection-molded products during the COVID-19 outbreak, Hy-Lite is making their Contract Injection Molding Services available to companies nationwide. Located in Pensacola, Fla., the Hy-Lite facility houses seven injection molding machines capable of small, specialty and slow run projects.

We understand manufacturers of personal protection equipment and other supplies are running at maximum capacity and are challenged to keep up with demand, says Steve Beck, plant/technical manager for Hy-Lite, a U.S. Block Windows Company. If we can be a small part of the solution in a national emergency, then we want to help.

Were offering both the expertise and machinery we have on site to support the injection molding needs of inventors, plastic parts suppliers and manufacturers. Whether someone needs high volume parts or a small quantity of intricate pieces, we can handle a wide variety of needs.

Beck points out that, while Hy-Lite cannot manufacture safety masks or blow-molded items (such as hand sanitizer bottles), the company has many other options for supporting PPE needs.

Our team can take on injection molding projects for manufacturers running at capacity, whether its supplementing high-demand product production or taking over less-critical secondary lines that have had to be placed on the backburner, says Beck. We have three 300-ton, one 390-ton, and three 500-ton machines available at our place for 24/7 operation. This means we can tackle the small quantity runs and slow running parts because our machinery is always ready for projects.

Hy-Lite services are available on a contracted basis with speedy turnaround. Beck, who has been with Hy-Lite for more than two decades directing the companys injection molding and manufacturing operations, explains that Hy-Lite can supply products made with most thermoplastics.

From downstream assembly to packaging and shipping, we make this process turnkey for our customers. Were a Made in America company that wants to support the plastics needs of America during this difficult time.

For more details on working with Hy-Lite Injection Molding Services, contact Steve Beck at 888-256-2599 or visit http://www.hy-lite.com.

Hy-Lite, a U.S. Block Windows Company, is the leading manufacturer of acrylic block, glass block and decorative glass windows. The company's privacy product options include acrylic block shutters, accent panels, radius walls, partition walls and door inserts. Since 1988, the Pensacola, Florida-based company has been committed to providing residential and commercial construction professionals and homeowners with elegant, affordable privacy window designs.
The mounting coronavirus outbreak in Turkey has caught the government in a feeble financial state, leaving millions at grave economic risk. While many governments have opted for direct cash payments to cushion the economic shock of the pandemic, Ankara has delivered little in this respect, having run out of financial resources since a currency crisis in 2018. Pressure is building up on the government to deliver more to the vulnerable masses as experts warn the country has reached a make-or-break point in containing the fast-spreading contagion.

The concept of helicopter money  or free cash as if dropped from the sky  has emerged as a major social and economic measure in government efforts across the world to cushion the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The unconventional idea gained popularity during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis and earned Ben Bernanke, then the head of the US Federal Reserve, the moniker helicopter Ben for his advocacy of the concept.

By sharply hitting consumer demand, the coronavirus pandemic has set off a domino effect across economies that threatens to sink companies and households alike. Scrambling to contain the damage, the US, British and other governments have opted for dropping helicopter money to wage workers and the poor.

The large-scale programs in the 2008-2009 crisis relied mostly on monetary expansion measures by central banks, chiefly the US Federal Reserve, while fiscal expansion and public spending packages by governments were less prevalent. Today, however, monetary expansions appear less helpful in easing the panic as opposed to fiscal expansion policies and spending pledges by governments. The idea of helicopter drops on wage workers, the poor or those losing jobs is gaining support.

In the 2008-2009 crisis, budgetary discipline rules were flouted only for the purpose of rescuing companies. Although the current efforts involve that purpose, too, fund transfers to lower income groups have emerged as a distinct tool that governments hope will resuscitate demand. US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, for instance, are braving further budget deficits to disburse funds to lower income groups, among other measures. Washingtons budget deficit stood at 5.6% of gross domestic product last year, and Trump appears prepared to see the rate increase to up to 10%. In other economic powerhouses such as the United Kingdom and France, the rate stood respectively at 1.5% and 2.5% in 2019. Germany, for its part, had a surplus of 1%, but Chancellor Angela Merkel has also acquiesced to going into the red.

In sum, there seems to be a consensus that the coronavirus crisis cannot be managed with the usual market-economy approach and that state interventions are needed at the expense of budget gaps, money printing and even the nationalization of some companies.

The United States and United Kingdom have taken the lead in dropping helicopter money in a bid to alleviate the shock. Washingtons plan includes direct payments of $1,200 to American adults who earn less than $75,000 per year, while the British government has pledged to pay 80% of the salaries of employees unable to work, covering wages of up to 2,500 euros ($2,755) a month.

In Turkey, however, such direct cash injections form a tiny part in the stimulus package that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced March 18. The package  called an economic stability shield that Erdogan values at 100 billion Turkish liras (about $15 billion)  contains mostly tax breaks, payment deferrals and tax cuts for businesses.

One of the few social-minded measures expands access to assistance from the Unemployment Insurance Fund, called short work payment, which is paid over three months to employees of businesses forced to close temporarily. To benefit from the payment, employees are required to have worked at least 600 days in the past three years, and all Ankara did was reduce the condition to 450 days. The government remains under pressure to lift the condition altogether.

The package includes a pledge to hike the lowest pensions to 1,500 liras ($228) from the current 1,258 ($191), essentially a cosmetic measure.

The package allocates an extra 2 billion liras ($307 million) to the government-run Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundations, which provide various forms of aid to the needy. Accordingly, the monthly funds made available to the foundations will increase by a third to 180 million liras (some $28 million).

Few appeared satisfied with the measures and opposition parties rained criticism on the government. The main opposition Republican Peoples Party has called for monthly payments of at least 2,000 liras ($304) for needy families until the outbreak recedes, while the Future Party of former premier Ahmet Davutoglu has proposed an extra budget of 10 billion liras (some $1.5 billion) for the social assistance foundations, in addition to payments of 1,752 liras ($266) to 7.5 million low-income workers over three months, which requires another 40 billion liras (about $6 billion).

The criticism is unlikely to die down as the COVID-19 outbreak threatens to fuel unemployment in a country that already had 4.5 million jobless people last year. Fearful of joining the army of unemployed, many workers have had no choice but to brave the virus danger in crowded environments and continue heading to their jobs in factories, mines and construction sites.

While a social shield is a must for all vulnerable groups, including low-income workers, the jobless and those under the threat of losing jobs, the governments attempt to make do with token measures has to do with the fragility of the Turkish economy, which has worsened since the start of the outbreak.

Turkeys economic growth rate fell below 1% last year under the impact of the 2018 currency shock, yet a deeper recession was fended off through lavish use of central bank and treasury funds. The government even tapped 42 billion liras ($6.5 billion) from the central banks legal reserves, a sum the bank sets aside by law to use in extraordinary circumstances. While Ankaras tax revenues declined amid the economic downturn, its security spending, stemming mainly from its military venture in Syria, placed further strains on the budget. As a result, it entered 2020 with unprecedented deficits and debt.

Moreover, state banks have often sold hard currency in markets to prop up the embattled lira and rein in foreign exchange prices. The interventions have consumed $40 billion that the central bank could have kept as foreign reserves.

In sum, Turkeys economy was already weak and financial resources exhausted when the coronavirus hit, which explains why the government has been stingy.

Yet, pressure is growing on Ankara to do more. With many businesses closing shop, swelling the army of jobless, the government can hardly afford to ignore the calls for social support. To answer the calls, money printing appears inevitable down the road at the expense of further spoiling Turkeys financial outlook in the eyes of foreign creditors.
[March 30, 2020] Gallup International Association (GIA) and Impetus Research COVID-19 Snap Poll Finds Vast, Scared Majority Around the World

NEW DELHI, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Over 70% of Indians are worried that they or someone from their family may get infected by coronavirus, according to a snap poll conducted by Gallup International Association and Impetus Research. That's higher than the world average of 67% in 26 countries, the poll reveals. The breakneck scare of the pandemic coronavirus - COVID-19 - has disrupted and disturbed life over the past few weeks. Impetus Research is pleased to announce the results of a unique survey conducted on perception and precautions in wake of COVID-19 situation in India and across the world. The survey was conducted by Gallup International Association across over 26 countries, in an exclusive first Global Poll on COVID - 19 amongst a sample size of over 24,000 respondents. In India, Impetus Research, exclusive partner of Gallup International Association based in New Delhi, conducted a survey over phone and online mode in the past two weeks, with a realized sample of n = 1000, randomly selected population of India. The results attached here are comparative scoring of India v/s rest of the surveyed countries and is the first track of the series of surveys to be conducted over the next two months. Globally, about two-thirds express worries for themselves and their loved ones in relation to the coronavirus. Three-quarters say they are even ready to sacrifice some of their human rights if that helps India (85%). Most nations stand behind their governments in this battle. In India, as many as 83% agreed that Modi's government is handling the coronavirus well. At the same time, however, more than half of the respondents agree that the coronavirus threat may be exaggerated. People around the world do not know what to expect in the weeks to come - bad or good but Indians (60%) are much more optimistic than the rest of the world where 36% think the wrst is yet to come, another 36% believe the worst is already gone, and 27% believe that the situation will remain as it is.



In UK, 82% residents think the worst effects of this pandemic are yet to come, accompanied by people of the Netherlands (77%), France (70%) and Austria (68%). The residents of Azerbaijan (83% of them believe the worst is over), Kazakhstan (73%), Turkey (63%), Armenia (61%) and India (60%) are much more optimistic. People across the world do not know either if the spread of this virus is a deliberate affair, but they rather believe it is not. Meanwhile, they are taking action. Residents of Pakistan (majority of 72%) think the infection is a natural process, Germany (59%), Afghanistan (58%), United Kingdom (58%), Thailand (58%), USA (56%), whereas Indians (42%) are more likely to believe in the natural origin of the virus.

Meanwhile, in India, people are taking precautions to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The most common precautions are washing hands more frequently (82%), wearing medical masks [70%, and using hand sanitizer (64%)], with over 60% staying in their house or self-quarantining. Only 8% report not having taken any additional precautions. The official press release highlighting key findings from around the globe can be accessed here, while tables can be found here. Methodology: The Gallup International snap poll was conducted in over 26 countries around the world. In each country, a representative sample of men and women was interviewed over the last two weeks either face-to-face, via telephone or online. The margin of error for the survey is between +3-5% at 95% confidence level. About Impetus Research Impetus Research is a Private Limited company, with its head office in New Delhi, is a leading social and public opinion poll, marketing research agency known for reliable data collection and MR Support Services and Data Analysis. The company is also an active member of ESOMAR and Gallup International Association. For further details, please visit: www.impetus-research.com About Gallup International Gallup International Association (GIA) is the leading global independent association in market research and polling. For over 70 years Gallup International Members have demonstrated their expert ability to conduct multi-country surveys on a comparable basis and deliver the highest quality. Our more than 100 Members and partners are leading national institutes with a profound local knowledge of research methods and techniques, statistical sources, customs and culture differences of its own country and carefully selected by the Association Board. With only one Member agency per country, Members work together on a daily basis to share knowledge, new research techniques and tools, as well as to provide the most appropriate solutions to international research projects and service our clients to the best of our abilities. For further details, please visit: www.gallup-international.com Disclaimer: Gallup International Association or its members are not related to Gallup Inc., headquartered in Washington D.C. which is no longer a member of Gallup International Association. Gallup International Association does not accept responsibility for opinion polling other than its own. We require that our surveys be credited fully as Gallup International (not Gallup or Gallup Poll). Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1139044/Impetus_Gallup_COVID_19_Poll_2020.jpg

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The dismally increasing coronavirus cases across the globe have crippled global economy bringing lives of people to a standstill. This is the first time in the history of mankind something of this level has happened. In the wake of this global pandemic, many countries including India have imposed a country-wide lockdown to contain the spread of this deadly virus. Consequently, many people who earn wages on a daily basis have been left in the lurch. In such testing times, humanity and kindness are the qualities that help us get through life and this tough time. Turns out that humanity continues to stay alive despite what happens and proving this is an instance that occurred in Florida recently. according to a report in HT , an unknown customer left a tip of 10,000 USD (Rs. 7.5 lakh approx) at a restaurant called Skillets in Florida to be distributed amongst its staff members. What a kind soul! He did this in a bid to help staff members make their ends meet until the lockdown is lifted. This incident happened just a day before the state mayor asked all restaurants to shut down.

 Yelp

The owner of the restaurant revealed that the customer handed the money in cash to the manager of the restaurant, asking him to distribute it evenly amongst the staff members. There were a total of 20 employees working at Skillets and they all received 500 USD (Rs. 37,500 approx) each.

According to NBC, the owner spoke about the gentle customer and said, We have regulars who have been coming in forever, and theyre our friends but we dont always know their names. We know their faces, their orders, their favourite tables, but we dont know exactly who they are. Turns out, this one customer isnt the only one who surprised them with his kindness. The owner of Skillets also revealed that many servers received big tips from other customers in the past few weeks.

Owing to the current coronavirus crisis, the restaurant unfortunately has been forced to lay off 90 percent of its employees due to lack of funds. All restaurants were asked to close down. Its because of instances like these that people still believe in humanity, kindness and compassion. Kudos to all those people who are helping each other in the time of crisis.
On Friday when President Akufo-Addo address the nation, never did he mention that he has given power to the military or police to use brute force on citizens, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party has said.



According to the NPP Chairman known as Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, government isn't seeking to worsen the conditions of citizens by unleashing violence on them.



He therefore called on the various heads of the security to address the content of the videos going round that suggest that their personnel are ready to beat citizens who flout the directives of the President.



In an interview with Wontumionline.com, Mr. Antwi-Boasiako stated that "I am calling on the Ashanti Regional Minister and the Ashanti Regional Coordinating council to take a look at the video which is in circulation and creating fear. The Northern Sector Command of the military and Police must also provide information to calm lives. The President hasn't given anybody power to beat people.



He added that "The police can arrest people who flout laws. But people should first understand what the President said and shouldn't misinterpret it. The banks and other people offering essential services can all go to work."



Mr. Bernard Antwi-Boasiako therefore asked citizens to obey the orders of President Akufo-Addo and avoid running into unnecessary confrontations with the security services.



In an address by President Akufo-Addo to open up on updates to Ghana's enhanced response to the coronavirus pandemic stated that "Government is doing is intended to achieve five (5) key objectives  limit and stop the importation of the virus; contain its spread; provide adequate care for the sick; limit the impact of the virus on social and economic life; and inspire the expansion of our domestic capability and deepen our self-reliance."



He revealed that "Thus far, we have succeeded in halting any more importations of the virus into our country, and I thank the overwhelming majority of you for adhering to the good hygiene and social distancing protocols announced in my first broadcast to you."



However, President Akufo-Addo noted that "prevailing circumstances mean that stricter measures have to be put in place to contain and halt the spread of the virus within our country, especially in Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Kumasi, which have been identified by the Ghana Health Service as the hotspots of the infections. In doing this, we cannot afford to copy blindly, and do all the things some other well-developed countries are doing."



"We can defeat this virus if we all commit ourselves to respecting all the measures that have been outlined. I am confident that Ghanaians will comply with them, and the security services will not have to intervene, with extraordinary means, to enforce them. The love of country is deeply embedded in all of us, and I assure you that the security forces will conduct themselves with the necessary professionalism", he said.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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The large number of customers that have been helped continues to grow as the result of concerted efforts by front-line workers, contact-center agents and operations teams working diligently, Mathieu Labreche, spokesman for the Canadian Bankers Association, said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg.

On March 17, Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and National Bank of Canada released a joint statement introducing mortgage-deferral measures to aid Canadians homeowners experiencing financial hardships due to the coronavirus outbreak. The lenders said that customers in good standing can apply with deferrals available for an indefinite period.

Under the plan, payments are skipped for a period of time and interest accrued is added to the mortgages outstanding balance. The additional interest is incorporated in future monthly payments when they resume or upon renewal at the end of the mortgages term.

At the end of January, the banks combined mortgage balances amounted to about $1.06trn. The figure accounts for nearly two-thirds of the countrys overall mortgage market, according to data from Bank of Canada.

Last week, our contact centers in Canada received close to 80,000 calls per day, with calls to our mortgage and loan teams up 500%, Scotiabank chief executive officer Brian Porter said in a March 22 statement.
THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR TO U.S. PERSONS.



LOS ANGELES and TORONTO, March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Tinley Beverage Company Inc. (CSE:TNY and OTCQX:TNYBF) is pleased to announce that it has successfully passed its electrical inspections at its 20,000 square foot cannabis beverage bottling and distribution facility in Long Beach, California.

Key Inspection Completed at Long Beach

As previously disclosed, the buildout of the Companys specialized cannabis bottling facility was completed in late November, with the delivery and installation of a specialized transformer and electrical system being the key outstanding requirement. The local utilities have now completed this installation, and the facility has successfully passed its municipal electrical inspection. This has been the key outstanding approval needed on the project, and the Company is expecting the remaining building inspections to take place this week. As previously disclosed, the relevant regulatory bodies at the state level have indicated that the Companys cannabis entity has satisfied requirements for receipt of a cannabis manufacturing license, pending satisfactory municipal approvals from the City of Long Beach.

The Company has nearly completed the decommissioning of its Phase 2 bottling facility in anticipation of Phase 3 becoming operational, and it has manufactured inventory that it believes will be sufficient to last until this commissioning.

Continued Operations Under COVID-19 Exemptions

Cannabis dispensaries have been deemed essential services under the COVID-19 orders issued in California on Thursday, March 19, 2020. As a result, licensed adult use and medical dispensaries and the companies that supply them may continue operating under these orders. Dispensaries throughout the state have reported surges in demand as consumers stock up on cannabis, often with lineups comparable to grocery stores. With residents throughout the state under a stay at home order, fewer opportunities exist for consuming cannabis out of the home, potentially increasing the desirability of smokeless forms of cannabis, such as edibles and drinks. Much like home deliveries in groceries and other mainstream retail, cannabis home delivery services have reported an increase in demand. The Companys products have been restocked and are again available for home delivery throughout California. Ordering information is available at www.drinktinley.com.

Similarly, the Companys non-infused line of liquor-inspired tonics can continue to be manufactured and sold while the COVID-19 restrictions are in place, based on the grocery industrys status as an essential service. In addition to 150 BevMo! Stores, the Companys products are slated for trials in a national grocery and a national warehouse-style chain. The onboarding of additional grocery and warehouse-style chains, however, is impacted by these retailers focus on restocking shelves due to the surge in consumer demand since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as restrictions on product demonstrations. While these additional stores represent fewer than 10 outlets, these two additional chains collectively represent over 3,000 stores across the USA. Tinley therefore is endeavouring to complete these trials as soon as possible. The Company is continuing to present these products to buyers at retail chains throughout the country and will update the market as new listings are secured.

About The Tinley Beverage Company

The Tinley Beverage Company (Santa Monica, California) created the Becketts Tonics and Becketts 27 line of liquor-inspired, terpene-infused, non-alcoholic, cannabis-free beverages. It has also created Emerald Cup award-winning, cannabis-infused versions of these products under the Tinley Tonics and Tinley 27 brands. The Tinley branded cannabis-infused beverages are available in licensed dispensaries and delivery services throughout California; the Becketts-branded non-THC versions are increasingly available in mainstream food, beverage and specialty retailers, as well as on premises locations, throughout California and elsewhere in the USA. The Company has also built a 20,000 square foot cannabis beverage manufacturing, co-packing and distribution facility in Long Beach, California.

Forward-Looking Statements

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDER HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

This press release contains or refers to forward-looking information and is based on current expectations that involve a number of business risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statement include, but are not limited to, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals, political risks, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in the development of projects and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry. Forward-looking statements are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expected results. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company assumes no responsibility to update them or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances other than as required by law.

Products, formulations and timelines outlined herein are subject to change at any time. All figures CAD unless otherwise indicated.

For further information on The Tinley Beverage Company, please contact:
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A total of 5,655 people placed in quarantine in Hanoi after arriving from abroad have all tested negative for the novel coronavirus that causes the acute respiratory disease (COVID-19) in people, according to the citys chairman Nguyen Duc Chung.

They were the second batch of Vietnamese nationals and tourists who arrived at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi from overseas since March 18, Chung said on Sunday morning.

Vietnam has mandated that all arrivals from foreign countries from March 21 be placed under centralized isolation for 14 days.

Previously, only those arriving from epidemic-hit areas had to be quarantined.

All of the 5,655 cases were sampled and all [results] turned out negative [for the virus], Chung said.

He added that all operations at centralized quarantine camps in Hanoi are functioning well with no difficuties having emerged as yet.

Chung said that Hanoi authorities have also screened 3,082 arrivals who had previously not been subject to the mandatory quarantine.

Of these cases, 1,700 have been sampled with eight testing positive for the novel coronavirus, while nearly 1,400 others are still waiting to be tested.

The positive cases have been timely isolated and prevented [from spreading], Chung said.

Hanoi has reported 73 cases of COVID-19 infections so far, with 25 being traced to a major hospital.

The city has been asked to review its COVID-19 preparedness to make sure it is ready even when citywide lockdown must be imposed to curb the spread of the disease, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said during a teleconference on Sunday.

Nationwide, 194 COVID-19 patients have been confirmed, 55 of whom had recovered and been discharged from the hospital by Monday morning.

No fatality related to the disease has been recorded in Vietnam.

The novel coronavirus has infected nearly 722,200 people and killed about 34,000 globally, according to Ministry of Health statistics. Nearly 152,000 cases have recovered worldwide.

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JACKSON, Mississippi  Moss Point Mayor Mario King called on Gov. Tate Reeves Sunday to increase restrictions imposed because of COVID-19.

Reeves needs to shut down the state, King told WLOX-TV on Sunday. Moss Points 13,700 residents include 19 who have the disease, King claimed, although the Mississippi Department of Health is only breaking down cases by county, not city.

"This is serious," King said. "People are not social distancing, they are continuing to have large gatherings. We are going to have to step it up a notch."

King is among thousands of people who feel Reeves has done too little.

Reeves did not mention Kings comments during a Sunday afternoon livestream with Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the state health officer. But he did say there was the possibility of issuing some local shelter in place orders next week, depending on recommendations of scientists monitoring data on the spread of the virus.

They also discussed all facets of the fight against the virus, with Dobbs warning the worst is yet to come.

"We're going to see more deaths. We are going to see more outbreaks in nursing homes," Dobbs said. "This is the beginning of the bad part."

Earlier, Reeves held a 15-minute Facebook livestreamed prayer session Sunday morning, during which he prayed for help making the right decisions to reduce the outbreaks impacts in Mississippi.

State figures released Monday showed the number of COVID-19 diagnoses up by 89 for a total of 847. There were also two new deaths, bringing the statewide total to 16.

Reeves has declared a state of emergency, closed schools and ensured paid leave for local level employees, his office said Friday in an email.

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 those with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

The Mississippi Press Warren Kulo contributed to this report.
Malam Bala Galadima, Zaria Zonal Commandant of KadVS, said that KadVS made the arrest within Zaria metropolis.

File photo

The Zaria Zonal Command of Kaduna state Vigilante Service (KadVS) on Saturday arrested four bridegrooms for violating the ban on large gathering imposed by the state government over the coronavirus scourge.

Malam Bala Galadima, Zaria Zonal Commandant of KadVS, said that KadVS made the arrest within Zaria metropolis.

He added that the arrests were made at Lowcost, Mangwaron Babayo, Magajiya and Bakin Kasuwa settlements.

Four bridegrooms with few of their friends, who were arrested, are in our custody; they will soon be prosecuted, he said.

The Zonal Commandant said that the service had earlier reacted to intelligence information to facilitate the arrests of a bride, her groom and other guests at a marriage ceremony in the city on Wednesday.

According to him, the arrests were effected at Tudun Wada, Layin Yan Izala and Nagoyi areas.

The Kaduna state government had shut down schools and campuses as a precaution against the spread of coronavirus.

The government also banned public gatherings involving more than 50 people.

That the state government on Thursday announced a total lockdown of the state as additional measures to contain the novel Coronavirus ravaging the world.
Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, Ranking Member of the Health Committee of Parliament has asked the government to set up testing centers in other towns outside the lockdown areas in the Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi regions.



According to him, a number of people have traveled from the epicenters to other regions before the lockdown took effect so it will just be proper for the testing exercise to be carried out in these centers in order not to endanger the lives of residents in these areas.



Speaking on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' program, he commended the government for the partial lockdown exercise but urged that there should be a rapid testing exercise to ensure that the COVID-19 is contained.



The government just as he has heeded to our call for a lockdown, should also adhere to our call for the testing centers to be provided in all the remaining regions to ensure that everybody is tested and the necessary steps taken when others are confirmed positive.



"When we are able to do this then we are together fighting this COVID-19. We Should not wait for it to get to the level where we can not contain it and possibly fail in the fight against the disease," he said.



President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo has announced a two-week lockdown in the countrys two main regions starting Monday, 30th March in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus.



This comes after authorities reported 137 confirmed cases including 4 deaths.



According to him, there would be restrictions on the movement of persons in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area and contiguous districts for a period of two weeks.



Residents would only be allowed to go out to buy food, water, and medicines and to use public toilets.



There shall be, during this period, no inter-city movement of vehicles and aircraft for private or commercial purposes except for vehicles and aircrafts providing essential services and those carrying cargo, he said.



Ghana has suspended public events, closed schools and banned large gatherings in the wake of the pandemic.



Watch Video Below





Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Dominic Raab. Photo: UK public broadcast

The UK has outlined its plan to help tens of thousands of British travellers get back home amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab unveiled the repatriation airlift at a daily media briefing on Monday evening, saying this government is working around the clock to support, advise, and to get British travellers back home.

He said that the unprecedented amount of Britons stuck overseas  from backpackers to elderly couples on cruises, is in the hundreds of thousands.

Mr Raab said it would require a team effort, and officials are working with airlines and other governments to get people back home.

The plan, costing around 75m ($92.9m), includes:

Partnering with airlines British Airways (IAG.L), Virgin, Jet2, EasyJet ( EZJ.L), and an airline associated with VIP and corporate travel, Titan Airways, those companies will charter flights, when normal commercial ones are not available.

Raab also confirmed there will be priority countries where Brits are travelling from. Under the arrangements we are putting in place, we will target flights from a range of priority countries starting this week, he said.

Brits will have to book through a specific site and travel company, which will be made available by the Foreign Office.

Airlines will be responsible for alternative bookings at little or no extra cost.

The Foreign Office has now tripled the capacity of its call centres for queries from those stuck abroad.

Raab said the UK has already managed to help get 150,000 people home from Spain, 8,500 from Morocco, and 5,000 from Cyprus.

Where commercial routes remain an option, airlines will be responsible for getting passengers home. That means offering alternative flights at little to no cost where routes have been cancelled, he said.

That means allowing passengers to change tickets including between carriers. So for those still in those countries where commercial flights are still available, dont wait, dont run the risk of getting stranded. The airlines are standing by to help you. Please book your tickets as soon as possible.

Story continues

Where commercial flights are no longer running the government will provide financial support for special charter flights to bring UK nationals back at home.

According to the department of health, as of 9am on Monday 30 March, a total of 134,946 people in the UK have been tested for COVID-19 and 22,141 have tested positive. Those who have died from coronavirus now is at 1,408.

READ MORE: Coronavirus: EasyJet grounds all flights after repatriating 45,000 customers

Earlier today, one of Europes largest budget airlines, EasyJet announced that it would be grounding its entire fleet of planes due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The group confirmed in a statement on Monday 30 March that due to the unprecedented travel restrictions imposed by governments in response to stopping the spread of COVID-19, it will also be putting its cabin crew on a two-month leave of absence.

Yahoo Finance UK - Over recent days, it has helped repatriate more than 45,000 customers, having operated more than 650 rescue flights to

EasyJet also reiterated that it had worked with union Unite to collaboratively reach an agreement to furlough arrangements for its cabin crew. As of 1 April 2020, the crew will be paid 80% of their average pay through the government job retention scheme while they are on two month leave of absence.

It said that over recent days easyJet has been helping to repatriate customers, having operated more than 650 rescue flights to date, returning home more than 45,000 customers. The last of these rescue flights were operated on Sunday 29 March. We will continue to work with government bodies to operate additional rescue flights as requested.

READ MORE: Airlines to get only bespoke coronavirus support from UK government

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), an aviation industry trade group, said that airlines could lose between $63bn (50bn) and $113bn in revenues as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

A number of airlines have already collapsed or are seeking state aid amid the spread of COVID-19. For example, Flybe was pushed into administration, immediately grounding all of the airlines flights and putting around 2,400 jobs at risk. Even major international carriers, such as Virgin Atlantic are seeking state help.

On 24 March, UK chancellor Rishi Sunak warned the aviation industry that bespoke support would only be provided to companies if they cannot receive the required assistance from banks and shareholders.

In a letter to industry executives, Sunak said that that the government was prepared to enter negotiations with individual companies, but noted that the terms would be structured to protect taxpayers interests.
Lootah BCGas, a subsidiary of S S Lootah Group, a leading provider of gas utility and infrastructure services in the UAE, has announced a Covid-19 support programme worth Dh15 million ($4.08 million) in cooperation with Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The programme aims to support Lootah BC Gass residential and commercial gas utility customers in the UAE to face the challenges arising from the pandemic, said a statement.

Eng Yahya Lootah, CEO, S S Lootah Group, stated that Covid-19 support programme is in line with the decision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister of UAE, and Ruler of Dubai, to unite efforts to support business continuity and stimulate the UAE economy.

Lootah BC Gas has a long standing corporate social responsibility programme that supports sustainability in business community and society. We are glad to work in cooperation with Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry to stimulate the contribution of the private sector as a true partner in supporting government measures to mitigate the impact of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) on various economic sectors Lootah added.

Hamad Buamim, President and CEO of Dubai Chamber, praised Lootah BC Gass initiative, which comes at the right time and reflects a high degree of responsibility, stressing that this is not the first time the company has proven its high standards in the labour market, and its reputation as a responsible institution, serving the community with its various initiatives.

The private sector is a partner in dealing with such challenges, and its efforts and initiatives complement the effective governmental measures to counter the spread of Coronavirus. The private sector must continue to show solidarity and cooperation to overcome these challenges, moving forward, Buamim remarked.

Lootah BCGass Covid-19 support programme includes a package of direct financial support measures that benefit more than 50,000 residential customers as well as nearly 500 commercial establishments, most of which operate in the tourism sector, such as hotels and restaurants.

The financial support package includes discounts of up to 20% on gas consumption.

Lootah BCGas is committed to supporting customers and business partners to meet the challenges imposed by the current circumstances, in order to enhance their ability to fulfil their obligations, especially towards their workers in order to protect the skilled work force and maintain business continuity, Lootah said.

These financial support measure will be provided over a period of three months to both residential and commercial customers through a dedicated team operating out of the companys call centre in Dubai. We are committed to maintain the safety and health of our customers, employees and the wellbeing and stability of their families, as a true guarantee of business continuity Lootah added.  TradeArabia News Service
China: Funeral of 100-y-o underground bishop restricted by communist gov't

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Communist officials in China interfered with the funeral of an elderly underground bishop, citing concerns with spreading the coronavirus. However, some Chinese Christians believe the government restricted the funeral due to the bishops faith.

According to UCA News, the burial of Bishop Joseph Ma Zhongmu, Chinas oldest and only ethnic Mongolian bishop, was moved from 8 a.m. to 5 a.m. by government officials. Authorities also restricted people from attending his funeral, only allowing 15 Catholics, a bishop, and two priests to attend.

Bishop Ma, who was not recognized by the government, died on March 25 at the age of 100. He died of an age-related illness, said an official communication from Ningxia Diocese.

The government cited restrictions in place against gatherings as a step to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China. However, local Catholics suggested the interference was due "to the identity of Bishop Ma."

Authorities blocked the entire street and no priest could approach it. They also did not allow participants to bring mobile phones or take pictures, one source told UCA News.

Sources also pointed out that his obituary named him only as Father Ma Zhongmu as the late bishop belonged to the underground church, which is not officially recognized by Chinas communist government.

Bishop Ma was sent to jail during the Cultural Revolution along with other Catholic priests and released in April 1979. Although he was not recognized by the government, he maintained good relations with the authorities.

In recent years, China has upped its persecution of Christians, destroying churches, burning down crosses, and restricting religious expression online in efforts to sinicize religion, or bring it into unity with Communist Chinese culture.

Additionally, numerous reports have emerged of authorities across China enforcing policies that prohibit religious customs and rituals to be used during funerals.

In December, the government of Wenzhou citys Pingyang county in the eastern province of Zhejiang adopted the Regulations on Centralized Funeral Arrangement.

Under the new rules, clerical personnel are not allowed to participate in funerals, and no more than ten family members of the deceased are allowed to read scriptures or sing hymns in a low voice.

The new rules aim to get rid of bad funeral customs and establish a scientific, civilized, and economical way of funerals.

Last April, officials broke up an 11-person Christian funeral in the province of Henan that was honoring a deceased member of the congregation. Officials accused attendees of hiding their actions in the countryside and threatened them with jail time. The police registered the personal contact information of the attendees and told them that they could be investigated at any time.

When my father died, village officials threatened to arrest us if we didnt conduct a secular funeral. We did not dare to go against them, a villager from Gucheng town in Henans county-level city of Yuzhou told Bitter Winter.

My father had been a believer for several decades. He is persecuted even after death.

Recently, China Aid President Bob Fu warned that over the last two years, President Xi Jinpings war on religion has reached its worst in 40 years. He accused the president of turning faith into a tool for the indoctrination of Communist ideology.

Clearly the aim is to exterminate any independent faiths, he said, referencing not only the Christian faith, but the faith of Muslims, Buddhists, and others.

This is a very, very serious signal, he said.
[March 30, 2020] QSC Strengthens its Presence in the Netherlands

QSC announces the opening of QSC Netherlands BV, effective April 1, 2020. Based in Geldermalsen, QSC Netherlands BV will serve as the business development hub for Live Sound & Systems in the Benelux region as well as house QSC's EMEA service repair operation. The facility will offer service repair trainings for QSC distributor's service staff while also handling service and repair for QSC in Germany. QSC Netherlands also includes demonstration and training facilities for customers to experience QSC products first hand and receive hands-on classroom training. "QSC Netherlands BV is the next strategic step in expanding our regional footprint in the European region," says Ron Marchant, Senior Director Sales & Marketing, QSC EMEA. "This enables QSC to get closer to the market and to deliver even better customer experiences. We look forward to ramping up full operations when the global crisis surrounding COVID-19 is resolved." Willem van Zuilekom, Managing Director of QSC Netherlands, will lead the newly established QSC subsidiry. Van Zuilekom has decades of experience in the Pro Audio and AV industry. Prior to joining QSC in 2019, he held the position as Managing Director at Shure Distribution Benelux.



Eric Rutten also joins the Netherlands team as Service Manager, bringing his extensive product and in-depth technology experience to QSC. Jerry Koeleman, Service Support Engineer, will support Rutten. Geert Snijkers, QSC Business Development Manager for Benelux since 2018, rounds out the local team. QSC Netherlands is taking over service and repair for Germany from AED Repair who will continue to handle service and repair of Live Sound and Systems solutions in Benelux as well as Live Sound in France.

"We would like to use this opportunity to thank AED Repair for all the great work in the past years. We're looking forward to taking on these various responsibilities not only for Benelux but also for Germany and our European partners," adds Van Zuilekom. "With Geert, Eric and Jerry we have a highly motivated, experienced team with whom we are optimally positioned." Contact details: QSC Netherlands BV

Gerdinas Hof 61

4191 MX Geldermalsen

The Netherlands

Phone (News - Alert): +49 7261 65 95 550

Email: [email protected] High Resolution Images

https://go.aws/33WLxLO About QSC Founded over five decades ago, QSC is a globally-recognized leader in the design, engineering and manufacture of award-winning high-performance loudspeakers, digital mixers, power amplifiers, audio processors, digital cinema solutions, and the Q-SYS (News - Alert) software-based audio, video and control Ecosystem. Offering reliable, scalable and flexible solutions for professional installed, portable, production, corporate and cinema applications, QSC puts customers first with its highly-acclaimed sales, service, and support networks worldwide. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005701/en/

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Federal prosecutors in Alaska have charged a worker on a factory fishing boat with attacking another crew member who criticized him for serving food without gloves during the coronavirus pandemic.

Maurice Young was charged with assault within the U.S. special maritime and territorial jurisdiction for allegedly breaking another workers eye socket March 23, Alaska Public Media reported Saturday.

Young was a housekeeper and galley assistant on the 235-foot (72-meter) SeaFreeze America, which has about 65 crew members, prosecutors said.

The ship was about 120 miles (193 kilometres) east of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea during the alleged assault, prosecutors said in a court filing Friday.

A day earlier, a processor on the vessel criticized Young for serving food without using gloves, prosecutors said.

The victim noted his concerns about the virus to the defendant, the filing said.

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.

The disagreement escalated and Young suggested they fight, though the other worker declined, the filing said.

Young told a witness it might be his last day on the boat because he planned to attack the victim, prosecutors said.

The next day, Young approached the victim from behind, struck him in the face and continued the attack until a bystander pulled him away, prosecutors said.

The victim was transported on another fishing boat to Dutch Harbor, the major fishing port in the Aleutian Islands, before being flown to Anchorage for surgery for a broken orbital bone, court documents said.

Youngs initial court hearing was scheduled for June 8.

Prosecutors and United States Seafoods, which owns the SeaFreeze America, declined to comment.

Young did not immediately appear to have hired an attorney and could not be reached to comment.
The Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, has criticised President Muhammadu Buharis handling of the coronavirus pandemic saying the president had been conspicuously absent as the virus continued to gain a foothold across the country.

In a statement issued Monday and titled Between Covid and Constitutional Encroachment, Mr Soyinka said the president may have overstepped his constitutional boundaries.

Constitutional lawyers and our elected representatives should kindly step into this and educate us, mere lay minds, Mr Soyinka, a professor of comparative literature, began in the statement.

The worst development I can conceive is to have a situation where rational measures for the containment of the Corona pandemic are rejected on account of their questionable genesis. This is a time for unity of purpose, not nitpicking dissensions.

So, before this becomes a habit, a question: does President Buhari have the powers to close down state borders? We want clear answers.

During a nationwide broadcast Sunday night, the president directed a 14-day lockdown on Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory, the two places most affected by the outbreak. The lockdown also affected Ogun State due to its proximity to Lagos.

Mr Soyinka, who is on self-quarantine, said the country is not in a war emergency.

Appropriately focussed on measures for the saving lives and committed to making sacrifices for the preservation of our communities, we should nonetheless remain alert to any encroachment on constitutionally demarcated powers.

We need to exercise collective vigilance, and not compromise the future by submitting to interventions that are not backed by law and constitution.

A president who has been conspicuously AWOL, the Rip van Winkle of Nigerian history, is now alleged to have woken up after a prolonged siesta and begun to issue orders. Who actually instigates these orders anyway? From where do they really emerge?

What happens when the orders conflict with state measures, the product of a systematic containment strategy-  `including even trial-and-error and hiccups  undertaken without let or leave of the centre.

According to the respected constitutional lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, however, once a few rough edges are straightened, the presidents directives would be legal and constitutional.

Nigerias coronavirus cases rose to 111 as at Sunday night, with Lagos and Abuja recording 68 and 21 respectively.

Mr Soyinka said the countrys anti-COVID-19 measures, so far, have proceeded along the rails of decentralised thinking, multilateral collaboration, and technical exchanges between states.

The centre is obviously part of the entire process, and one expects this to be the norm, even without the epidemics frontal assault on the Presidency itself. Indeed, the centre is expected to drive the overall effort, but in collaboration, with extraordinary budgeting and refurbishing of facilities.

The universal imperative and urgency of this affliction should not become an opportunistic launch pad for a sneak re-centralisation, no matter how seemingly insignificant its appearance.

I urge governors and legislators to be especially watchful. No epidemic is ever cured with constitutional piracy. It only lays down new political viruses for the future.
In the past few weeks, cities and states across the country have instructed people to stay home in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Going out for essentials like food is allowed, but that can be a risky proposition. Not only can grocery stores get crowded, social distancing protocol often means long lines just to get inside. The obvious alternative to all this is to shop online, but as several shoppers can attest, that experience can sometimes be even more frustrating. The state of online grocery deliveries is apparently a lot more fragile than anyone had anticipated.

One of the biggest problems is that delivery time slots are seemingly impossible to come by. After filling out their carts, customers would attempt to check out, only to find that all of the delivery options are suddenly unavailable. We spoke to a few shoppers, who told us of the various issues they encountered.

Mark Gerolimatos, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, said he's been unable to order groceries from Amazon Fresh for three to four days. "I found that using Fresh has become 'reFresh constantly,' not unlike trying to get tickets to some stupid concert," he said. After constant reloading, he was able to get a delivery time slot, but by then the cart was empty, as all the goods were gone. He also tried the Safeway app, but all slots were reserved as well.

Amazon Fresh

Keenan from Los Angeles reported similar issues. "I've literally been trying to order Amazon Fresh for the past week or longer," he said. "I kept on top of it, and just kept trying day after day, multiple times per day and hour, which was exhausting to say the least [...] If you go through that entire process over and over as items continue to sell out, let me tell you that isn't fun." After trying for over a week, Keenan did eventually chance upon an open window for delivery and had his groceries delivered.

Both Keenan and Gerolimatos were not frequent users of online groceries prior to the coronavirus lockdown, as they are both able-bodied enough to shop for them in-person. But for many others, like the elderly or the disabled, online groceries are a valuable alternative to in-store shopping. Yasmin, a San Antonio attorney with AMC (Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita), a disorder that restricts her movements, was a frequent user of Instacart, Favor (a delivery service for HEB, a Texas-based grocery chain) as well as Amazon Fresh. But the coronavirus has changed that.

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"I haven't been able to order anything," she said of both Amazon Fresh and HEB. "Every time I attempt to order groceries, I'm told that there aren't any slots and the earliest anything can be delivered is late next week." Yasmin does have a care provider, but she hasn't been able to go to the store for her as often as she'd like due to the size of the lines and the risk involved. In the meantime, Yasmin has a stockpile of toilet paper and food, but she's concerned that it'll run out. "I haven't been able to get any paper towels, and my care provider has had to go to many stores just to find milk," she said. "I can't tell you how anxious this has made me." Yasmin said she is lucky to even have a care provider and is worried about what would happen without her. "I would probably be in a much more dire situation than I am now."

US-VIRUS-HEALTH-EPIDEMIC

Then there are those ordering groceries for their elderly parents. Angie from Seattle was trying to do so from Walmart but said there were no delivery slots for a whole week (though she was able to order successfully from Wegmans, another grocery store chain that was closer to her grandmother). Corey B. from Virginia was trying to use Instacart to deliver to his grandmother who's based in rural Massachusetts, but couldn't. "Instacart allowed me to select a delivery slot [...] then told me they couldn't make the delivery and I should reschedule (though they have no slots available at all)," he said. "My grandma is 96 and lives alone 500 miles away and was counting on this food to get by."

Several of these companies have provided statements that they're trying their best to meet demand. "We've seen an increase in people shopping online for groceries and are working around the clock to continue to deliver grocery orders to customers as quickly as possible," said an Amazon spokesperson. Amazon also limited the purchase quantities of high-demand items like toilet paper and stopped taking orders for non-essentials in France and Italy.

Instacart gave a similar statement: "As consumer demand continues to climb, our teams are working around the clock to ensure we can reliably serve the millions of customers turning to Instacart as an essential service provider. Over the last three weeks, Instacart has seen the highest customer demand in company history with billions of dollars of groceries being sold on our platform." As for the delivery window issue, the company said that they are "specific to individual store volume and shopper availability." It also announced plans to hire 300,000 additional Instacart shoppers over the next three months.

Coronavirus Pandemic Causes Climate Of Anxiety And Changing Routines In America

The reality is, prior to the coronavirus-fueled demand, online grocery deliveries have been a relatively tough sell in the US. Even though the idea has been around for several years now -- Peapod, arguably the country's first-ever internet grocery store was founded in 1989 -- it has never really caught on stateside.

A Kantar Consulting study in 2018 reported that while only 4.4 percent of grocery sales in the US are done online, that number is significantly higher in South Korea, where it's 19.1 percent. It's also higher in the UK and Japan, at 7.2 and 7.7 percent respectively. Much of that could be because the US is just so spread out compared to these other countries, plus there could also be a cultural component where Americans simply prefer to buy groceries in person. That's partly why so many online grocery services like Webvan and Kozmo failed. The only company to survive those early years is the aforementioned Peapod, which has so far focused on denser cities like New York City and Chicago, and has been far wiser with its money.

In recent years, however, it seems like online groceries have been on the rise. Walmart, Amazon, and Kroger have all made investments in the space. Amazon in particular has been aggressive in rolling out its Fresh grocery delivery service, which expanded to 18 cities last fall. Most of these companies also rely on independent contractors to deliver their groceries, which theoretically makes delivery cheaper to implement.

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But the COVID-19 crisis has impacted the gig-economy too. Laurice Wardini, an Instacart shopper, tells CNBC that she tried to shop for groceries only to find that the store is out of stock of certain items, and has had to cancel the order as a result. Austen Risolvato, who was visiting her parents in Los Angeles from London, encountered a particularly troublesome Instacart experience that went beyond just deliveries.

"Our shopper was a really lovely woman that was great in a bad situation," Risolvato told Engadget. According to her, the shopper had a problem where the card issued to her by Instacart wasn't working in the store. After some back-and-forth, the shopper simply decided to use her own credit card to pay for it, and Risolvato would pay her back. Unfortunately, this resulted in the shopper having her account suspended, because she had accidentally used her mother's credit card instead of her own, and was subsequently accused of fraud.

"She's a single mom and this is her job," said Risolvato. "She's uploaded the receipts they requested to show that it wasn't improper use of the card. Their customer service has been insanely bad." Most recently, Instacart workers have also lobbied to go on strike over the lack of COVID-19 protections.

Food delivery service, male worker holding grocery bag, express food order

So far, it seems that the best way to be well-stocked with groceries is to plan ahead and make your order before you're out of supplies. Most of the major retailers like Amazon and Walmart simply recommend refreshing the page or checking back until there is a delivery slot (which, as we warned above, can take several days). You could try other smaller online delivery services such as Mercato that work directly with smaller high-end grocers. Alternatively, consider local resources like organizations that deliver CSA (community-supported agriculture) boxes of produce directly to your door. Some local farms, butchers and smaller grocers might also have their own delivery or pickup options.

That said, online deliveries might not be so difficult to come by in the future. As we mentioned, companies like Amazon and Instacart are investing in more resources and hiring more workers to meet the demand. Plus, panic-shopping should die down over time.

At first glance, it might seem like big companies like these would be able to handle online deliveries on a large scale; after all, these are huge multimillion-dollar corporations. Plus, there's the fact that companies like Amazon have spent years building a reputation of bold promises like same-day deliveries, two-hour delivery windows and being the one-stop-shop of your everyday life. Clearly, however, even with such a wealth of resources, the coronavirus pandemic has proven to be too much to handle.

Of course, the extent of the coronavirus pandemic hasn't affected just online grocery deliveries; every aspect of the economy has been hit hard. The fact that online grocery deliveries have failed to keep up with the increased demand due to the coronavirus is not surprising. But you can't blame consumers from feeling disappointed when, after all those grand promises, the service fails them when they need it most.
Making changes: The Conference Centre at Citywest Hotel Dublin, as preparations are under way for it to become a Covid-19 isolation and step-down facility. Photo: Leon Farrell

A Dublin hotel and conference centre has become the first of a series of coronavirus centres for isolation and step-down care in Ireland.

The hotel part of the Citywest complex will provide beds for 750 people who are unable to self-isolate due to the nature of their own living arrangements. It will open at the end of the week.

Meanwhile, the Citywest conference centre is being turned into a step-down care facility for patients who are recovering from the infection.

The 450 beds earmarked for the facility will only be used once capacity in hospital settings has been exceeded. It will start operating, if needed, in two or three weeks' time.

Similar isolation and step-down facilities will be opened in Cork, Limerick and Galway.

Senior HSE officials announced the moves at the Citywest centre yesterday.

HSE chief executive Paul Reid said it was important to plan for the worst-case scenario. "We have to be prepared," he said.

The new centres are part of a ramping-up of preparations across the healthcare sector for the anticipated surge in coronavirus cases.

By utilising private hospital facilities and securing additional equipment, the HSE is set to double the number of critical care beds from 250 to 500.

As of yesterday morning, 88 patients with Covid-19 were in an ICU bed.

However, there are fears that number is likely to soar in the coming weeks.

Mr Reid said about 1,700 additional beds with ventilation support would be available, with plans to increase that number by 100 each week for the next 10 weeks.
According to the Ministry of Health, Turkeys death toll from the coronavirus increased by 23 to 131 yesterday, as the number of confirmed cases rose 1,815 to 9,217. Anonymous health care professionals told the press media that the number of deaths and cases is much higher than the official figures due to insufficient testing. The government still refuses to give details about cases and deaths, such as their age and location. As a result, suspicion of official government statements is growing among workers.

The government had to take new measures recently but it maintains its class-based response to pandemic, in line with other governments around the world: a policy of malign neglect, forcing the working class to stay at work to produce profit despite the surge of infections and deaths.

On the evening of March 27, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced additional measures to curb the coronavirus outbreak. Travel between cities is now possible only with authorization from local authorities. Flights to foreign countries, already reduced, are to be suspended. There are also new restrictions on public transport, as passengers are to be seated separately in public service vehicles.

However, workers continue to be exempted from these measures in the interests of big business. According to an Interior Ministry statement, shuttles carrying factory workers to work are exempted from restrictions on inter-city travel.

In the name of halting the pandemic, the government spuriously calls for stay at home or self-isolation. While the big companies hypocritically praise workers sacrifices, celebrities share the governments official stay at home postings on social media. Many companies in banking, insurance, technology, and R&D have switched to working from home, and many small businesses like cafes, restaurants, restaurants, gyms, hairdressers are temporarily suspended. Layoffs are mounting.

In many key sectors such as metal, textile, construction, however, millions of workers who cannot work from home are still forced to go work. Supporters of the governments stay at home policy maintain a two-faced silence on the fact that such workers are forced to risk illness and death in non-essential jobs.

For his part, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said, Everyone can declare their own state of emergency, the state does not necessarily have to declare it. That is, workers are forced to make an individual choice between endangering the lives of themselves and their families and staying at home in poverty.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu of the opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) did not criticize this ultra-reactionary policy, but instead asked for limited measures to slow the spread in Istanbul, Turkeys largest city and economic capital. Noting that Istanbuls public transport system still had around 1 million daily users last week, he said, if it is not possible throughout Turkey, at least in Istanbul we urgently need to a limited and controlled curfew.

Journalist Murat Yetkin in an article last week reported that Erdogan opposed a confinement policy recommended by the Coronavirus Scientific Committee and the Ministry of Health.

Yetkin wrote, Here are the things we can deduce by reading between the lines of what has been said, also considering the experiences of other countries and the information weve gathered thus far: The Coronavirus Scientific Committee and the Ministry of Health were both unable to convince President Tayyip Erdogan that the best way to slow the spread of Covid-19 could be through a policy of generalized isolation, not only for those over 65.

He ends his article by asking Why be so timid in taking the necessary steps? This is the biggest unknown.

In fact, the answer is clear: throughout the world, the ruling class focuses on measures not to contain the pandemic, but to bolster business against any fallout in a crisis-ridden economy by ensuring workers keep producing billions in profits for the super-rich. Capitalism is at war with the most urgent health needs of working people.

In his latest statement, Erdogan again underscored that continuing production and exports are our top priorities. Last week, President Erdogan had declared an Economic Stability Shield package for business totaling 100 billion Turkish liras (US$15 billion). The 19 measures include just two miserly offerings for working people.

In addition, while many people cannot get COVID-19 tests, a video showing pro-government businessmen getting tested in their private homes angered many workers. The daily Cumhuriyet has revealed that COVID-19 care in private hospitals is not free, though all private hospitals were declared by the ministry as pandemic hospitals to support public hospitals against the pandemic. Three patients had to pay about 4,000 Turkish liras.

Meanwhile, the anger among workers is erupting. While wildcat strikes erupted across Europe and America to demand the idling of plants during the pandemic, demands are growing in Turkey for paid leave for all workers, rejecting employers demands that workers continue to work despite the risk to their health and their lives. Against the official stay at home campaign, many artists and intellectuals are posting videos on their social media accounts to demand state-funded paid leave for all workers.

After some wildcat strikes by Istanbul construction workers, workers stopped production for three hours in a filter factory in the southern border city of Hatay against managements offer of unpaid leave. After this work stoppage, the firm had to accept workers demand for paid leave until April 30.

The main trade union confederations are collaborating with the government, isolating such strikes and playing a criminal role to keep workers on the job.

Fearing that strikes and protests will spread among workers, the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services reported that contract negotiations and strikes were temporarily halted across the country in a circular sent to address coronavirus measures.

The government has also launched a witch hunt against critics of its response to the pandemic. Hundreds of people have been detained since March 11 on charges of sharing provocative posts about coronavirus on social media.

As a clear sign of fear in the government about growing anger among workers, a truck driver named Malik Baran Ylmaz was detained yesterday for his social media post exposing the class character of the government response to coronavirus crisis.

In a video that was widely shared and watched tens of thousands of times, he said: You say stay at home Turkey! But how can we stay? I am not retired, public officer or rich. I am a worker. Im a truck driver. If I do not work, there is no bread. I cant pay my electricity, water, rent... I will either starve to death by staying at home or die from the virus. But if this virus does not kill me, your system will kill us.
Work being done Sunday, March 29, 2020 at the General Motors manufacturing facility in Kokomo, Indiana, where GM and Ventec Life Systems are partnering to produce Ventec VOCSN critical care ventilators in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. GM

General Motors is quickly moving to repurpose parts of two U.S. automotive factories to manufacture health-care supplies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. GM's efforts, which have received the ire and, more recently, praise of President Donald Trump, include manufacturing FDA-cleared Level 1 surgical masks at a manufacturing facility in Warren, Michigan, and Ventec VOCSN critical care ventilators at a components plant in Kokomo, Indiana. The automaker Sunday night said both projects are progressing, including plans this week to begin making surgical masks at the facility in suburban Detroit. Production of the ventilators, in partnership with Washington-based Ventec Life Systems, is expected to begin as soon as possible, with shipments starting as soon as next month. "This pandemic is unprecedented and so is this response, with incredible support from GM and their suppliers," said Chris Kiple, CEO of Ventec Life Systems, in a release last week. "Healthcare professionals on the front lines deserve the best tools to treat patients and precision critical care ventilators like VOCSN are what is necessary to save lives."

GM releases photos of work going on at Kokomo, Indiana plant on ventilator project. Source: GM

Trump's ire turns to praise

Two days after criticizing GM's response and a reported $1 billion cost to build ventilators for the government, Trump on Sunday commended the automaker twice for its efforts. "General Motors is doing a fantastic job. I don't think we need to worry about General Motors," Trump said Sunday night, according to Reuters. He also said, "They really seem to be working very, very hard. I think I'm getting very good reports about General Motors." GM says it is donating its resources at cost. Trump criticized GM and CEO Mary Barra in a tweet on Friday, saying the company wanted "top dollar" for making ventilators. He also suggested he would invoke the Defense Production Act to force companies to make them. The Korean War-era statute can force certain American companies to produce materials that are in short supply in a national emergency. Tweet Following GM confirming it will build critical-care ventilators with Ventec Life Systems in Indiana, Trump ordered GM to make the ventilators under the Defense Production Act.

Repurposing plants

Repurposing parts of facilities from automotive to health supplies is an in-depth process and not something that can be done overnight. "Ventec, GM and our supply base have been working around the clock for over a week to meet this urgent need," GM said in a statement last week following Trump criticizing the automaker's speed in producing the ventilators.

Brad Page readies the clean room Wednesday, March 25, 2020, as General Motors ramps up to begin manufacturing FDA cleared Level 1 surgical masks at its Warren, Michigan manufacturing facility. GM

Just for production of the masks, a small group of workers had to ready a "clean room" that involved sterilizing the entire area, training and readying supplies. Similar things are being done in Indiana, where the automaker is preparing space for 1,000 United Auto Workers-represented workers to build the much-needed ventilators. The workers will be paid but are volunteering to do the work. UAW Vice President Terry Dittes, who oversees the union's GM Department, said the UAW is "all in  to find ways to partner together to flatten this curve and save lives."

General Motors and Ventec Life Systems are partnering to convert the GM Kokomo, Indiana ERC building for the production of Ventec ventilators in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. GM
Anyone in NSW who leaves their house without a "reasonable excuse" could spend up to six months in prison and face an $11,000 fine under an emergency ministerial directive gazetted overnight.

The public health order, which enacts Sunday's recommendations of the national cabinet, gives police sweeping power to enforce the latest round of restrictions designed to limit the spread of coronavirus in Australia.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Monday. Credit:AAP

The NSW Public Health (COVID-19 Restrictions on Gathering and Movement Order 2020) makes it unlawful to leave your place of residence except "to obtain food or other goods and services", work and education that cannot be done from home, exercise, medical or caring reasons, and a limited number of other reasons.

It also bans gatherings of more than two people in public places, unless those people are members of the same household, or the gatherings are "essential for work or education". Unlike the order in Victoria, the NSW order does not appear to explicitly ban gatherings in people's residences.
Mike Tindall has celebrated the end of his 'first week of home-schooling' daughter Mia during the coronavirus outbreak.

The former England rugby ace, 41, who lives in Gloucestershire with his wife Zara Tindall, 38, and Mia, five, and Lena, one, posted an Instagram to reveal he was enjoying a skinny lager to mark the occasion.

Sharing a snap of the drink with his 27,000 followers, he commented: 'First home schooling week done...Stay safe and have a great weekend (at home please).'

It comes as parents across the country, including Prince William, 37, and Kate Middleton, 38, take on home-schooling their children after schools were closed amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

Mike Tindall, 41, revealed in an Instagram post that he is home-schooling eldest daughter Mia, 5, during the coronavirus outbreak (pictured, with wife Zara)

Schools across the country closed on March 20 along with those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as coronavirus wreaked havoc in the UK.

Zara and Mike and their children live on Princess Anne's Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucester, with Mia's school presumed to be close by.

They have three dogs, ten horses, as well as a similar number of cars including Land Rovers, a horsebox and a Jaguar F-Type.

Mike will likely be happy to have his daughter settled in the same household as him now that she is being home-schooled, having previously insisted that he would not send her away to a boarding school.

He shared a snap on Instagram over the weekend revealing he was celebrating the end of the first week with a lager

The former rugby ace urged his followers to 'stay safe' and 'stay at home' amid the coronavirus pandemic

The move flies in the face of Royal tradition as many of the family have attended elite schools like Gordonstoun, including Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Zara herself.

In 2016, he commented: Im certainly not keen on sending Mia away to a boarding school at the other end of the country,

I know many people who say boarding was the making of them because they forged great independence from their parents, but I dont really want her to be distanced from us.

The former England rugby captain, who attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Wakefield, added: My school was a public one and plenty of my mates lived in, but I was just a day student and it definitely didnt do me any harm. If anything, I enjoyed the best of both worlds.

The former rugby captain has previously spoken out against sending his children to boarding school (pictured with Mia and Lena in September 2019)

'Personally, Id rather she attend a school thats nearby, where well always be on hand if she needs us. Anything else goes against my instincts.

Mike's post comes mere weeks after he and Zara both attended the every day of the four-day Cheltenham racing event, despite ongoing fears about the coronavirus pandemic.

Arriving ahead of the Gold Cup  the festival's climax  with his wife Zara Phillips, the Queen's eldest granddaughter, Mike said: 'Do I feel that cancelling everything is going to solve it? I'm not entirely sure.'

At the end of February, the couple returned from a ski trip in Northern Italy and reportedly opted not to quarantine themselves because they were not showing symptoms of the virus.
Add zoom-bombing to the list of new terms were learning during the coronavirus pandemic, and Illinois State University is among its victims.

Zoom-bombing refers to someone disrupting or gate-crashing a meeting or online class using Zoom webinar platforms and sharing racist, sexist, vulgar, violent, pornographic or similar undesirable images or language.

ISU spokesman Eric Jome at least one class experienced someone in the chat forum making some racial remarks and apparently he broke into the audio section at one point.

The faculty member was able to exclude the person, said Jome.

Very quickly, we started hearing this was happening at other universities across the country, he said.

InsideHigherEd.com reported that the University of Southern California and Arizona State University were among school hit by zoom-bombers.

The Los Angeles Times reported that school districts and a Chipotle business meeting also have been victims of this new type of cyberattack.

Scott Walter, Illinois Wesleyan University librarian and interim co-chief technology officer, said he was unaware of any zoom-bombing of classes at IWU and none had been reported to the Information Technology Services Help Desk.

The ITS Teaching and Learning with Technology team is working with faculty colleagues to provide assistance to any faculty new to technologies like Zoom that have been adopted for class use, said Walter.

According to a post on ISUs Twitter feed, Some online classes may have been recently disrupted by hateful or bigoted activity. Reports suggest these are caused by persons outside the university.

Jome said the ISUs Office of Administrative Technologies and the Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology are working to get information to faculty and staff on how to tighten up their security and adjust some of their settings to thwart future zoom-bombing attacks.

A blog post from Zoom on How to Keep Party-Crashers from Crashing Your Zoom Event includes several recommendations, such as only allowing the host to show their screen, setting up password protections and muting participants.

The first rule of Zoom Club: Dont give up control of your screen, said the post.

Claire Lamonica, CTLT director, said, Its hard to measure the impact on institutions of higher ed specifically, as the data is largely anecdotal.

She said, I think the main lesson is that no matter how much you do to prepare for any given situation, you cant prepare for every scenario. We have to be prepared to continue learning and adjusting in the moment.

ISU just switched to all online classes as the universities, like others nationwide, ended on-campus, face-to-face classes to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Some people are familiar with this kind of system and for others theyre in their first week of putting it into practice, said Jome. Were seeing zoom-bombing occurring across the country. Its a learning curve for everyone.

He said, Its an unfortunate circumstance of the early administration of this practice.  Were getting information to our faculty and staff so they can adjust.

Lamonica said, In higher ed we spend a lot of time telling our students that they need to be life long learners, and at this moment in history were having a chance to model life long learning for them.
Rapper Bugzy Malone has revealed he is 'lucky to be alive' after he was seriously injured while riding his quad bike.

Malone, 29, whose real name is Aaron Davies, took to social media from his hospital bed to share his injuries with the world and reassure fans he was 'ok' after he was thrown off the vehicle in a collision in Bury, Greater Manchester, last Wednesday.

The post comes less than a week after images showed the rapper left dazed and lying on his back on the kerbside from facial injuries after he crashed into an Audi.

Taking to Twitter the musician wrote: 'They tell me i'm lucky to be alive, I sustained serious injuries and at the time I lost consciousness but what I do remember is the none stop love, and just want to say thanks for all the well wishes and prayers you lot caught me off guard with all the support! #ImOk.'

The rapper Bugzy Malone (pictured), 29, took to social media from his hospital bed to tell fans he was 'lucky to be alive'

The rapper, whose real name is Aaron Davies, was left with facial injuries after he was involved in a collision in Bury, Greater Manchester, last Wednesday

Malone was left lying on his back on the kerbside after he crashed his bike into an Audi near a T-junction

The rapper had been riding on what appeared to be a motorised trike through Manchester earlier this month when an Audi pulled out of a T-junction giving the grime star no time to react before he ploughed into driver's door.

Footage from the incident then showed Malone's bike falling onto its side and he was thrown from his vehicle in front of shocked onlookers who raced to his aid.

The songwriter, famed for his album King Of The North, was left lying on his back on the kerbside with blood pouring from his facial injuries, with one bystander saying it appeared his nose was 'hanging off'.

Witness Lewis McMullen shared a clip of the performer clearly dazed and surrounded by shattered glass in the aftermath of the collision.

The rapper took to Twitter to thank well-wishers for their messages of support and prayers

The rapper (pictured before crash) was thrown off his vehicle in front of shocked onlookers who raced to his aid

The rapper (pictured at the Gentleman screening in 2019), who is famed for his album King Of The North, is being monitored in hospital

It is unclear if the driver of the Audi, which was left with smashed bodywork and windows, was injured in the collision.

The social media user wrote above the video: 'Bugzy Malone wrapped up big time in Bury.'

Following the crash, the musician's management team said he was being monitored in hospital and his injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.

The Bugzy Malone Team tweeted: 'I can now confirm that @TheBugzyMalone is in a stable condition. He remains in hospital whilst being monitored and assessed.

'He would love privacy for him and his family while recovering so let us leave him at peace until stable enough to make a comeback on social media.'

Paramedics rushed to the rapper's aid after he was involved in a collision in Greater Manchester last week

Images from the scene showed the rapper's bike after he was involved in the collision

The rapper had been riding on his motorised trike when an Audi pulled out of a T-junction and Malone ploughed into driver's door

They later added: 'It's been a very craaazy last 24hrs which was not obviously intended & shows how quick life can turn.

'I just wanted to say to everyone who has wished and prayed for bugzy & anyone in general, stay safe and keep healthy, keep your loved ones close and live your life! Thank You.'

Shortly after the crash a spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police said: 'Shortly before 9.20pm last night police were called to Rochdale Road, Bury, to reports of a collision involving an Audi car and a quad bike.

Following the crash, Greater Manchester Police asked anyone with information to contact them

'Emergency services attended and the driver of the quad bike - a 29-year-old man - was seriously injured and taken to hospital for treatment.

'His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

'No arrests have been made and inquiries are ongoing.

'Anyone with information should contact 101, quoting incident number 2677 of 25/03/20. Reports can also be made anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.'
Thiruvananthapuram, March 30 : A Kerala virologist with decades of experience on Monday alleged that India had failed to do the right thing at the right time in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Senior virologist T. Jacob John told IANS that the central government did not ensure a system was in place to respond to the unfolding medical crisis and was now responding on a day-to-day basis, which was wrong.

"The Mahabharata war got over in 18 days. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given us three-day bonus. Will that be enough? India has failed to do the right thing at the right time. It is now doing the right thing at the wrong time. There was lot of time with the government. The first thing that should have been done was to set up a task force to advise the government as this is a 'human problem' and not an administrative one," said the senior virologist with around six decades of professional expertise in dealing with infectious diseases at the highest level.

Winner of the prestigious Dr BC Roy Award, he served at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, from 1967 to 1995, apart from 15 years as chief of the Centre of Advanced Research in Virology. John presently lives a semi-retired life at Vellore.

"First, we were told that 14 hours is enough, then it was said 80 districts in the country will go in a lockdown. Then came the 21-day nationwide lockdown. Now, we are told by a senior bureaucrat that there is no plan to extend the lockdown beyond April 14. These are all soothing words," John remarked.

John said what he was experiencing was a "deep moral anger".

"What the statement should have been is that 'we will re-assess the situation after two weeks'. That would have been a hugely credible statement. Let me ask -- 'what if the Prime Minister extends it by another 21 days?', 'what will happen to today's statement by the senior official?'" asked John.

The health professional pointed out that no doubt the lockdown was essential, but then it could have been done in a planned manner.

"Timing could have been planned -- everyone knew that positive cases are on the rise. The authorities could have announced well in advance that the lockdown would begin when the total positive cases crosses a fixed number. Had it been done, the present issues of the migrant labourers out on the streets would not have arisen," he said.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
PubWest has published an open letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos asking him to direct his company to provide relief to the publishing industry during the Covid-19 epidemic. The letter calls on Amazon to support independent publishers by placing a moratorium on certain fees and by making books more of a priority for shipping as soon as possible.

The letter reads as follows:

March 30th, 2020

Dear Mr. Bezos,

On behalf of the small and midsize book publishers throughout the United States and Canada who produce books for your customers, we are writing to request a moratorium on certain fees during these unprecedented and difficult times.

Amazon has publicly stated its decision to prioritize delivery of essential medical and household staples during this crisis. While this is an understandable start, we hope you revisit and expand upon this position as soon as possible in recognition of the essential human need for access to information, as well as the critical mental health support that connection and escape via reading can provide.

Amazons customers depend on publishers to deliver quality books that sell, and we publishers--either directly or via our distributors--depend on sales through Amazon, which requires both exceptionally deep discounts and the payment of various fees in order to remain as qualified vendors. Depending on the vendor relationship, these fees typically include freight allowances, co-op, ASAP fees, and Enhanced InStock Protection Program. As these fees have increased over time, publishers profit margins have shrunk to minimums in the best of times. We are now facing the worst of times with the recent pandemic of COVID-19, and what was previously difficult is now untenable. The decrease in Amazon book sales in addition to the closure of nearly all retail book channels for the near and foreseeable future is already severely impacting the viability of smaller publishers, authors, and other content creators across the United States and Canada.

In the interest of better serving your customers by helping to preserve a stable publishing industry, we ask that Amazon waive three of the four fees listed above: co-op, ASAP, and Enhanced InStock Protection, retroactively from February 2020 through at least June 2020, though potentially longer given all the unknowns in this situation.

As Amazon has risen to the responsibility of providing essential supplies to people around the world, we ask that you provide this financial relief for publishers In order to continue providing your customers with the books they need, to visibly promote your support of small businesses, and most importantly to help our essential industry survive.

Amazon began life as a bookseller. We ask that you acknowledge this core relationship and help us in our time of need.

Sincerely,

The PubWest Board of Directors, representing 230+ book publishers and associated companies
Abdisalan Hassan Hersi, governor of the Nugaal region in Somalia was killed in a suicide blast that occurred on March 28 in Garowe. According to reports, Al-Shabaab, an armed fundamentalist group based out of East Africa, claimed the responsibility for the suicide attack. Abdisalan Hassan Hersi was rushed to a hospital in Garowe, the capital of Puntland, where he succumbed to his injuries and was declared dead.

Read: Bomb Blast At Lucknow Court: Target Lawyer Sanjeev Lodhi Accuses Jitu Yadav, Blames Admin

According to reports, the governor died an hour after he was admitted to the hospital with blast wounds. A source at the hospital told the press that Abdisalan Hassan Hersi was in critical condition when he was admitted to the hospital and it was highly unlikely that he would have survived the blast injuries. Media reports say, a former police commander and a civilian were also wounded in the attack and are now being treated in the same hospital.

Read: BIG: Gujarat ATS Nabs 1993 Mumbai Serial Blast Accused Munaf Halari On Pakistani Passport

Several eyewitnesses who were present at the time of the blast reportedly described that an attacker went running to the governor's vehicle before detonating the bomb, killing himself on the spot and injuring three others, including Abdisalan Hassan Hersi, who later died in the hospital. As per reports, the responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Al-Shabaab group in a statement.

Read: Unknown Terrorists Orchestrate IED Blast In Manipur's Imphal; Link To Republic Day Drawn

Al-Shabaab

Al-Shabaab is a terrorist group that pledges allegiance to Al-Qaeda in 2012 and is fighting the internationally recognised government of Somalia. The group has suffered major setbacks in the past few years as they lost the capital Mogadishu in 2011 and lost most of their strongholds in the region. The militant group currently controls parts of Somalia's rural areas. According to a 2014 report, Al-Shabaab's troop strength was estimated at 7,000 to 9,000 militants. The group also operates in parts of Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Yemen.

Read: Police Diary Accessed As 1993 Mumbai Blast Convict Goes Missing; Son Wishes For His Arrest

(Image Credit: AP)


A Catholic priest who flouted self-quarantine rules has been transferred to the Mbagathi Hospital isolation ward.

Father Nicholas Maanzo, who hails from Kitui Central, returned to Kenya from Ireland via Italy on Monday, March 23 and was duly instructed to self-isolate for 14 days.

However, on Tuesday night, the man of the cloth was spotted at the Barclays Bank ATM in Kitui town. He also attempted to access Magunas supermarket but was not allowed because it was about to close.

The following day(Wednesday, March 25) Kitui Central Sub-county DCI boss Nzioka Singi, who was accompanied by Kitui County health officers, went to the priests home at Kihara village where they reportedly let him off with a warning.

Singi said the priest did not show any signs of illness, adding that he(Father Maanzo) admitted his mistake and apologised for the risk he had posed.

We visited him to establish why he flouted the self-quarantine rules. He has explained that he did not have any food and therefore ventured out to look for food, said Singi.

You are just lucky that you do not show any signs of illness. Health officers have confirmed that your temperature is okay and you do not seem to be ill. But you must know that you committed a serious mistake by leaving your home to go to town, Singi told the priest.

On Saturday night, a team of medical staff backed by security personnel went to his at around 11 pm and took him away in an ambulance. Officials said he was transferred to Mbagathi hospital after exhibiting coronavirus-like symptoms.

We took him away to Mbagathi for tests. He is only a suspect (of Covid-19) until we get the official results. He had some symptoms, that is the reason a decision to refer him to Mbagathi was reached, an official told reporters.
Josna Begum lives with her son in a house with four other families in a slum in Bangladeshs capital, Dhaka, the worlds most densely populated city. Distancing is impossible for us, she said.

The 35-year-old, who occupies a single room with her 12-year-old son and earns $100 a month as a domestic worker, shares the single kitchen in the house with 22 other residents.

The Bangladeshi government this week ordered a nationwide shutdown to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus in a country considered at high risk because hundreds of thousands of overseas workers have returned home from Italy and other virus hot spots. All businesses were ordered closed except food markets, pharmacies and other essential services, and people were told to stay indoors and keep a safe distance from each other.

But in Dhaka, a city of more than 10 million where the average home is less than 120 square feet and a million people live in slums, that is easier said than done.

From Mumbai to Rio de Janeiro to Johannesburg the same story is playing out in some of the worlds most unequal regions, where tens of millions live in crowded slums without adequate water, sanitation and access to health care.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

The future of this pandemic to a greater extent will be determined by what happens in very large and densely populated countries, Dr. Michael J. Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organizations health emergencies program, said this week.

Experts believe the virus is mainly spread through droplets expelled from the mouths and noses of infected people when they speak, cough or sneeze, traveling 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 meters) before gravity pulls them to the ground. And while most people suffer mild or moderate symptoms like cough or fever, in older adults and people with other health problems the risk of pneumonia or death is far higher.

Social distancing, while necessary in the face of such an easily spread virus, envisions a citizen who is able to live in the most desirable way, said Hyun Bang Shin, a professor of urban studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Injustices and inequities that have basically been embedded are being exposed in face of this outbreak.

Abu Bakar, 74, who lives with his family of three in a makeshift two-room structure in a slum in northern Jakarta cant imagine how social distancing could work. For me it is more important to keep myself clean, he said.

But even that can be nearly impossible in an area regularly ravaged by seasonal flooding from the murky, trash-filled water of a neighboring reservoir. Marks on the walls show the flooding can be as high as 2 feet.

In the sprawling slum, where thousands lived crammed together in dilapidated structures with poor ventilation and narrow walkways, Bakar says that even if he were to become sick, he wouldnt be able to isolate himself.

And thats far from the only problem, said Elisa Sutanudjaja, of the Jakarta-based Rujak Center for Urban Studies.

Theres a major lack of clinics, sanitation, and other utilities. So for many its not only the lack of space thats a concern, she said.

In Mumbai  where the city and its suburbs have seen a tenth of Indias nearly 900 cases  53-year-old Abrar Salmani lives with 11 family members in a house so small that many regularly sleep outdoors in the Bhim Nagar slum.

The unemployed weaver said most families dont have access to water and rely on communal washrooms for bathing. Our demands to have a water pipeline havent been answered for years, he said.

In the Gaza Strip, where 2 million Palestinians lived squeezed into 140 square miles and more than half are unemployed, the arrival of the virus this week prompted the territorys Hamas rulers to order the closure of cafes and wedding halls, and to cancel Friday prayers at mosques. Residents were urged to stay at home and refrain from close contact.

But with chronic power shortages of at least eight hours a day, its hard for Gazans to stay inside their homes. And the traditional conservative Muslim society frowns upon a handshake being declined, let alone a kiss on the cheek.

My friend was upset after I refused to shake hands with him, even though I tried to explain to him this is because of the coronavirus, 53-year-old Yasser Anan said. Eventually, because he is dear to me, I had to kiss his forehead in apology.

Across Africa, home to some of the worlds fastest-growing cities with badly strained infrastructure, authorities worry that the virus could swiftly spread through slums and impoverished townships. Tear gas and gunfire have been used in a couple of cities in a rough bid to enforce social distancing. So far the continent of more than 1.3 billion people has nearly 3,500 cases, but with the global shortage of testing kits the actual number could be higher and health experts have warned that the rising rate looks like that of Europe.

In Nigerias seaside city of Lagos, Africas largest with more than 20 million people, authorities have scrambled to spread the word about the virus among slum dwellers. In the vast Makoko slum, where shacks are built on stilts and sewage runs into the sea, residents listened with a mix of fear and defiance.

Biodun Edward scooped up a handful or the murky water and drank it. Let (authorities) come and test it, theres no disease here, he declared.

Firstly, the smoke in the air will ward off disease, strong alcohol, he added, then pulled a piece of ginger root from his pocket and called it protection.

In South Africas crowded, impoverished townships, tens of thousands of workers pack into groaning minibus taxis for commutes with little or no protection. At home, extended families squeeze into a single room or two and communities draw water from collective taps. A countrywide lockdown began Friday.

Coronavirus scares us since were living in a shack, said one Soweto resident on the outskirts of Johannesburg, Mando Masimola. We dont know how well survive if the virus infects us.

In Latin American and the Caribbean, experts are warning the virus could kill untold numbers in the poorest sectors of society, where not working means not eating, people live packed together and few have access to health care, let alone sophisticated medical care.

Quarantine here is impossible, said Raull Santiago, founder of two charities in the favelas, or slums, of Rio de Janeiro.

Its wall to wall, there are homes of two or three rooms with six people living inside, he said on Twitter, along with a photo of tightly packed brick houses in the Complexo do Alemao favela. How do you do it?

The first person to die in Rio de Janeiro state was Cleonice Goncalves, a 63-year-old woman who worked as a maid for a family in Leblon, one of Rios wealthiest neighborhoods. The woman of the household was infected during a trip to Italy but didnt tell Goncalves, the victims brother told local media. Concalves, who had hypertension and diabetes, fell ill and died on March 17.

Theres a large population of working people ... that are just going to be unable to simply stay home, said Geoff Ramsey, a Washington-based researcher at the Washington Office on Latin America.

Were looking at a region thats going to be deeply, deeply impacted by the global pandemic.
TANZANIA, Tanzania - The U.N. humanitarian chief warned Monday that the 10 cases of COVID-19 and one death confirmed in Syria are just the tip of the iceberg, and judging from other countries a devastating impact can be expected on vulnerable communities.

Mark Lowcock told the U.N. Security Council that all efforts to prevent, detect and respond to COVID-19 are impeded by Syrias fragile health system, noting that only around half the countrys hospitals and primary health care facilities were fully functional at the end of 2019.

He said efforts to prevent and combat the virus are also impeded by high levels of population movement, challenges to obtaining critical supplies including protective equipment and ventilators, and difficulties of isolating in crowded camps for the displaced with low levels of sanitation services.

With the Syrian conflict entering its 10th year this month, Lowcock said, over half the population has been forced to flee their homes, more than 11 million people in the country including nearly 5 million children need humanitarian assistance, almost eight million people dont have reliable access to food, over 20 per cent more than last year, and 500,000 children are chronically malnourished.

He said humanitarian needs in Syria remain enormous, with data showing clear evidence of deteriorating conditions since December, including increased rates of stunting  a consequence of child malnutrition, from which it is rarely possible fully to recover. In the last rebel-held stronghold in northwest Syria, he said, almost 3 out of 10 displaced children under the age of five are stunted.

U.N. special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen told the council that after terrible violence, an uneasy calm prevails on the ground  and now, Syrians face a new potentially devastating threat in COVID-19.

He echoed U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres call for an immediate global cease-fire in all conflicts to tackle the coronavirus, warning that Syria is at high risk of being unable to contain the pandemic.

In northwest Syria, he said, there has been a significant decrease in violence, especially in aerial attacks and ground operations. Sporadic incidents continue, involving all sides. And in the northeast, he expressed appreciation that arrangements between key parties including Russia, Turkey, the United States and Syrians, also continue to broadly hold.

But in both the northeast and northwest, there is a real risk of hostilities resuming, Pedersen said in a video briefing to the council. If that happened, the pre-existing dangers to civilians would be multiplied by the pandemic and the virus would spread like wildfire, with devastating effects for the Syrian people  humanitarian, societal and economic. It could rebound across international borders.

He urged all countries to avoid this scenario by cementing existing arrangements into a nationwide cease-fire.

Pedersen said the U.N. is engaging concerned countries to put aside all hurdles and ensure humanitarian exemptions so critical items can be moved into Syria urgently to combat COVID-19. I welcome the initial engagement by the United States with us in this regard, and stress the need for utmost urgency. he said,

He gave no details but the U.S. State Department said $16.8 million of nearly $274 million that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Friday in emergency health and humanitarian aid to 64 of the worlds most at-risk countries in response to the pandemic would go to Syria.

U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft strongly supported a sustained cease-fire, not another tactical pause that allows Syrian forces and their Russian and Iranian allies to rest before resuming their campaign of terror in the northwest. She also urged more U.N. cross-border operations, criticizing Russia and China for blocking a crossing in the northeast that has prevented badly needed medical aid and equipment from getting into the area.

The Security Council meeting by video conference was closed, but a number of speeches were released by the U.N. and some council nations.

The council issued a press statement after the meeting expressing concern at the humanitarian situation in Syria and the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and called for unimpeded humanitarian aid deliveries and a sustained period of calm throughout the country.
President Donald Trump abruptly walked back hopes of reopening the United States (and its economy) by Easter Sunday (April 12) after experts presented him with projections that, even if existing measures remained in place, millions of Americans will still be infected and as many as 200,000 could die from the coronavirus. The president extended federal coronavirus guidelines on things such as social distancing until at least the end of April.

Trump sharply criticized General Motors over the weekend for not moving more quickly to start making ventilators. But on Monday, after GM pledged to start making ventilators at an Indiana plant, Trump had nothing but praise for the company, saying they are doing a fantastic job.

The USNS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship, has docked in New York City, providing the beleaguered city access to about 1,000 beds and a dozen operating rooms.

A federal judge has temporarily banned Ohio officials from using an Ohio Department of Health order forbidding nonessential surgeries during the coronavirus pandemic to prevent abortions from being performed in the state.

By the numbers

World cases and deaths: 777,286 confirmed cases, 37,140 deaths

U.S. cases and deaths: 160,020 confirmed cases, 2,953 deaths

Ohio cases and deaths: 867 confirmed cases, 15 deaths, 223 hospitalizations

General information

Coronavirus timeline: How the coronavirus spread from cases in China to Ohio in less than three months

Coronavirus in Ohio: Department of Health opens call center to field questions, open 7 days a week

Ohio is under a state of emergency because of the coronavirus. What does that mean?

Coronavirus patients can take a turn for the worse two weeks into the illness, experts say

Kids and coronavirus: Children have come down with COVID-19, but usually with milder symptoms

Coping with coronavirus: Guide aims to ease fear of pandemic disease

MetroHealth Dr. Amy Ray offers helpful coronavirus advice in video

Can you have coronavirus without knowing it? Absolutely.

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Risk/mitigation factors

Hypertension could be a leading factor in coronavirus deaths: Heres what to know

How will coronavirus affect allergy sufferers?

Heres why mitigating the pandemic curve matters

What you might not know about using face masks to protect against coronavirus

Will the shingles vaccine help me fight coronavirus? No. Heres why

Coronavirus update: Virus could live up to 24 hours on cardboard, 3 days on plastic and steel, study says

Coronavirus and lungs: How do smoking, vaping, air pollution affect respiratory illnesses?

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ACE2: How researchers think coronavirus attacks cells, and how it could be stopped

Coronavirus and the lungs: Does COVID-19 cause more severe pneumonia or ARDS than other viruses?

Hygiene/etiquette

Washing your hands: Best public restroom etiquette in the age of coronavirus

How to protect yourself from coronavirus: An infocomic goes viral

Ohio health department chief regularly cites school study on hand-washing. What does it say?

Coping at home

Compiling a COVID-19 coronavirus quarantine prep kit: What you should have on hand at home

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Homemade hand sanitizer to battle coronavirus? Dont use denatured alcohol -- or vodka

10 essential tips to working from home during the coronavirus outbreak

Working from home? These 10 must-have items will make the transition easier

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Have a back-up plan for pets in case you get sick with coronavirus, Cleveland APL says

Coronavirus and food: 5 things to know for novice chefs at home

Worried about coronavirus on your food? 165 degrees is universal safe cooking temperature, but not often necessary

How to avoid a census worker coming to your door during coronavirus crisis

FAQ: Everything you need to know about getting Ohio unemployment amid coronavirus outbreak

What to read during coronavirus isolation: Cleveland authors, literary leaders offer book recommendations

40 podcasts to enjoy during coronavirus isolation

Travel

Could Ohio shut down travel for coronavirus quarantine?

Travel in the age of coronavirus: Some Clevelanders cancel trips, others wait and see
While gender determination can aid in the prevention of a child inheriting genetic diseases linked to a specific sex chromosome, more couples are pursuing this procedure for non-medical and emotional reasons.

Currently, 73% of U.S. fertility clinics offer Gender Selection.(1) Dr. Mark P Trolice, founder of The IVF Center, reports that couples opt to employ this advanced reproductive technology to pursue having a child of a particular gender rather than leaving it up to nature. While gender determination can aid in the prevention of a child inheriting genetic diseases linked to a specific sex chromosome, more couples are pursuing this procedure for non-medical and emotional reasons. And although the concept of sex selection is not without controversary, Dr. Trolice reports such patient requests have caused increased acceptance rates at fertility centers.

Why this sudden popularity? Gender selection can be a valid option for certain scenarios, such as a couple with two daughters from prior marriages who now want a boy to carry on the husbands family name.(2) Or for a couple with sons seeking to gender select after their only daughter died in an accident. (3) In fact, several high-profile couples recently turned to gender selection, including former Miss Great Britain, reportedly Kim Kardashian and her husband, Kayne West, and Chrissy Teigen and her husband, John Legend. (4)(5) Teigen, while undergoing medical infertility treatment, also opted for gender selection, which adds to about 25% to the total cost. (6)

The Fertility Doctor

There are many ways to establish a family, counsels Dr. Trolice, who offers patients empathy based on he and his wifes own struggle with infertility. For more than ten years, we had the unique perspective of being a fertility patient while I practiced as a fertility specialist, says Dr. Trolice who ultimately chose to build his family through adoption, resulting in a family with five children.

Dr. Trolices recent publication, The Fertility Doctors Guide to Overcoming Infertility Discovering Your Reproductive Potential and Maximizing Your Odds of Having a Baby, aims to educate all women, men, and couples about the options and statistics behind fertility concerns. Dr. Trolice, a fertility specialist for over 25 years, also has an established practice, Fertility CARE: The IVF Center, which he began in 2003. He prioritizes educating his patients for realistic expectations. For example, if gender selection is chosen as a treatment, Dr. Trolice assures there is no certainty the IVF cycle will result in a normal embryo of the desired gender, or even that it will result in a live birth. Further, there is a very small but possible chance the technology will result in a gender/chromosomal error so testing during pregnancy can be confirmatory. He also speaks on the topics of egg and sperm donation and freezing, surrogacy, and adoption.

Fertility Advances Despite Public Scrutiny

Beginning with the first IVF birth over 40 years ago, ART has always faced scrutinyincluding the practice of gender selection. In an article published in Facts, Views & Visions in ObGyn, it was noted that sex selection treatment for non-medical reasons was increasing worldwide. (8) In 2015, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine released their Ethics Committee opinion that fertility specialists are under no ethical obligation to provide or refuse to provide non-medically indicated methods of sex selection. (11)

Another study examined the attitudes towards sex selection between primary care doctors and Physician Providers of Clinical Sex Selection Services(9) which revealed the latter group empowered women to make well-informed family planning decisions.

Dr. Trolice stresses that assisted reproductive treatments are in an amazing era of technological advancement. However, ethics and integrity dictate that intense oversight is always the gold standard to ensure safety and proven outcomes. Dr. Trolice is annually bestowed the American Medical Associations Physicians Recognition Award and is a recipient of the Social Responsibility and Advocacy Leadership Awards from the National Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) Association. He has also consistently been recognized as one of Americas Top Doctors since 2007.

The Fertility Doctors Guide to Overcoming Infertility: Discovering Your Reproductive Potential and Maximizing Your Odds of Having a Baby is an authoritative infertility book written by Mark P. Trolice, MD, FACOG, FACS, FACE; Director, Fertility CARE: The IVF Center and Professor of the University of Central Florida College of Medicine. This book is meant to be a companion guide through every step of an individuals infertility journeyincluding explanations on the most optimal time to conceive, advice regarding the right time for an evaluation by a fertility specialist, recommendations for evidence-based diagnostic testing and treatment including IVF, avoiding exploitation and discussions on alternative family building, such as egg/sperm donation, surrogacy, and adoption. Buy his book on Amazon.

About Dr. Mark P. Trolice

Mark P. Trolice, M.D. is double Board-certified in Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility and Obstetrics & Gynecology. He has the unique distinction of being a Fellow of the American Colleges of Obstetrics and Gynecology (FACOG), Surgeons (FACS), and Endocrinology (FACE). Dr. Trolice is a member of The Physicians Council of RESOLVE and is a recipient of the Social Responsibility and Advocacy Leadership Awards by The National PCOS Association. In addition to authoring numerous articles in medical journals and textbooks, Dr. Trolice published The Fertility Doctor's Guide to Overcoming Infertility: Discovering Your Reproductive Potential and Maximizing Your Odds of Having a Baby in January 2020 as a resource for all those building a family. For more information, visit http://www.marktrolicemd.com.

1. Cha, Ariana. Rise of Custom Babies Sets off Ethics Alarms. impresa.pagina24.com.mx/WashingtonPost.pdf.

2. Rosen, Peg. Boy or Girl?: Three Moms' Stories of Gender Selection. Parents, 8 June 2019, parents.com/pregnancy/my-baby/gender-prediction/boy-or-girl-three-moms-stories-of-gender-selection/.

3. Scott, Kirsty. Bereaved Couple Demand Right to Baby Girl. The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 5 Oct. 2000, theguardian.com/uk/2000/oct/05/humanrights.world1.

4. Cha, Ariana. Rise of Custom Babies Sets off Ethics Alarms. impresa.pagina24.com.mx/WashingtonPost.pdf.

5. Ridley, Jane. We Spent $100K to Guarantee a Baby Girl. New York Post, New York Post, 7 July 2015, nypost.com/2015/07/06/we-spent-100000-to-guarantee-a-baby-girl/

6. Choo, Dr. Shelly. Chrissy Teigen's IVF Backlash: How Common Is Baby Sex Choice? NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 26 Feb. 2016, nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/chrissy-teigen-s-ivf-backlash-how-common-baby-sex-choice-n526621.

7. Flammia, Dino. A Growing Trend - NJ Parents Pay $25k to Guarantee a Baby Girl. New Jersey 101.5, 5 Feb. 2018, nj1015.com/a-growing-trend-nj-parents-pay-25k-to-guarantee-a-baby-girl/.

8. de Wert, G, and W Dondorp. Preconception Sex Selection for Non-Medical and Intermediate Reasons: Ethical Reflections. Facts, Views & Vision in ObGyn, Universa Press, 2010, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4086011/

9. Puri, Sunita, and Robert Natchtigall. The Ethics of Sex Selection: A Comparison of the Attitudes and Experiences of Primary Care Physicians and Physician Providers of Clinical Sex Selection Services. Fertility and Sterility, 2010, fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(09)00472-5/fulltext.

10. Heitz, Jenny. IVF Gender Selection: Is It a Slippery Slope? Parentology, 21 Jan. 2020, parentology.com/ivf-and-gender-selection-is-it-a-slippery-slope/.

11. Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Use of Reproductive Technology for Sex Selection for Nonmedical Reasons. Fertility and Sterility, U.S. National Library of Medicine, June 2015, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25956364.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 08:59:27|Editor: huaxia

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TOKYO, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks opened sharply lower Monday as ongoing concerns over the global economic impact of the coronavirus continued to weigh on investor sentiment.

As of 9:15 a.m., the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropped 627.24 points, or 3.23 percent, from Friday at 18,762.19.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, fell 47.13 points, or 3.23 percent, at 1,412.36.

Air transportation, bank and insurance issues comprised those that declined the most in the opening minutes after the morning bell.
You are here: Business

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec), China's largest oil refiner, saw its net profits decline in 2019, the company said Sunday.

Net profits attributable to shareholders stood at 57.59 billion yuan (about $8.1 billion) in 2019, down 8.7 percent year on year, the company said in a report filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The total operating revenue came in at nearly 2.97 trillion yuan, up 2.6 percent year on year.

The sales revenue of refined oil products decreased, mainly dragged down by lower oil prices, said the company.

The earnings per share stood at 0.48 yuan, according to the report.
India has surpassed the 1,000-mark in total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases, and the country has seen 29 related deaths. Globally, more than 724,000 people have been infected by the virus. Of them, 152,000 have recovered so far and over 34,000 have died.

Last week, the United States had reported more than 16,000 cases of infected people in a single day, becoming the country with most cases of infection worldwide. Now, it has close to 143,000 cases. The next most affected are Italy, with nearly 98,000 infected people, and China with 82,000.

Heres the latest on cases in India:



Earlier, to tackle the spread of the virus, Prime Minister called for a 14-hour Janata curfew on March 22. And later, a 21-day nationwide had to be enforced to contain the infections.

Several measures have also been taken to support the slowing economy, and schemes to provide relief to the people whose livelihoods have been affected by the nationwide

However, in the absence of a source of income, migrant workers in big cities, especially New Delhi, have been forced to violate the and find a way to go back to their hometowns. These workers, mostly daily-wage earners, are finding it difficult to pay for their food, rent and daily expenses, despite state governments best efforts to provide for their immediate needs.

A media report claimed the pandemic is rapidly expanding its footprint in India and might have entered stage three. However, the government denied these claims.

Besides, an extensive report after speaking to more than a dozen front-line physicians across the country showed that none had reported a spike in patients with respiratory ailments suggesting Covid-19 yet, even as all agreed it was just a matter of time.

Talking of migrant workers exodus, these were seen mostly in industrial and commercial centres like Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Kolkata on Saturday, leading to fears that long queues of people jostling and pushing could lead to a surge in cases.

You fear the disease. But I fear hunger more, not corona, said one of the migrant workers fleeing from the capital to his hometown in Uttar Pradesh.

Fearing a renewed surge of (Covid-19) cases by the movement of migrant labourers, the central government cracked down on state administrations across India, and ordered that not only should labourers stay where they were, but that the administration must take steps to ensure their well-being.

There also have been reports claiming the government might extend the lockdown beyond the stipulated 21 days, but the government has denied these reports, too.

The Union has also stated that the course of Covid-19 tends to be more severe in the case of the elderly population, resulting in higher mortality. It has, therefore, issued a health advisory, listing some "dos" and "don'ts" for reducing the transmission of the virus among the aged sections.

The number of active Covid-19 cases in India is 942 so far. 99 people have been cured and one person who tested positive has migrated out of the country.




HQ Trivia, the live game-show app that shut down in February and laid off its entire staff, is unexpectedly returning tonight with a new show.

Driving the news: The company has been acquired by an undisclosed investor who has been working to restart operations.
Caledonia Mining Corporation Plc  Notice of Availability of AGM Materials

Posted by Publisher Internet

Caledonia Mining Corporation Plc?(the \Company\  (NYSE American: CMCL, AIM: CMCL, TSX: CAL -? https://www.commodity-tv.com/play/caledonia-mining-stronger-free-cash-flows-from-2020-on-dividend-increased/ ) announces that documents comprising a notice of annual general meeting of shareholders (the ?AGM?) and a management information circular ? solicitation of proxies together with a proxy form are now available at:

https://www.caledoniamining.com/investors/shareholder-information/#shareholder-meeting-documents

The AGM will be held at Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel, Rue de l\-\-Etau, St Helier, Jersey JE2 3WF, Channel Islands on Wednesday, May 6, 2020 commencing at 9:00 a.m. (UK time).

Shareholders are encouraged, given the current COVID-19 pandemic, to vote online or by proxy in accordance with the instructions on the proxy form which they will receive from the Company?s registrar.
Numbers will tell the story of the Great Lakes this year, experts say, with water-level forecasts and damage estimates already combining to raise concern across Michigan.

Watch for the lakes to set monthly records and possible all-time records, say the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Detroit office, where staff monitors, records and warns as lake levels change.

As of mid-March, all (are) well above their long-term monthly average levels, according to the Army Corps.

Further, they said, it is projected that water levels on all 5 lakes will rise over the next month.

Related: Great Lakes high water is going to affect everyone in Michigan

and As the Great Lakes surge to record heights, coastal areas face a time of reckoning

The water level increases, in turn, are threatening to flood Michigans 3,288 miles of shoreline. Spring rainfall totals will be a factor.

Here are the net changes as of March 27 over the previous year:

Lake Superior: -1 inch

Lakes Michigan and Huron: +14 inches

Lake St. Clair, north of Detroit and the connector to Lake Erie: +11 inches

Lake Erie: +12 inches

Lake Ontario: +9 inches

The Lake Michigan shoreline between Tiscornia and Jean Klock parks in St. Joseph, Mich., Saturday, March 14, 2019. New homes along this stretch of beach must be set back approximately 200 feet from the waters edge, per a 2012 city ordinance.Garret Ellison | MLive

One variable affecting Great Lakes levels is rainfall. So far, in most of Michigan, there will not be a major snowmelt to send melted snow into the lakes and rivers that, in turn, feed the big lakes.

But the state has seen record- and high rainfall over the past several years, meaning the spring rains could inundate storm drains and farm fields, in addition to waterways. The high water isnt just a shoreline issue, said Jarrod Sanders of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Environment.

The rest of the state is saturated, too, he said.

This website offers guidance on flood warnings in Michigan.

Here is how the lake levels will change by April 27:

Lake Superior: +3 inches

Lakes Michigan and Huron: +4 inches

Lake St. Clair, north of Detroit and the connector to Lake Erie: +5 inches

Lake Erie: +3 inches

Lake Ontario: +8 inches

A dock is submerged in high water levels in Center Lake in Michigan Center, Michigan, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018.Claire Abendroth

Meanwhile, communities on all coastlines already are keeping track of what needs to be repaired  along with estimates of what those repairs will cost.

Many are reporting their numbers to the Michigan Municipal League, which compiled a statewide list that shows the breadth of impact across the state. The total as of early March: $63 million.

Some of the most expensive examples are along Lake Michigans coastline:

Flooding along Lakeshore Drive by North Beach in South Haven, Michigan on Friday, March 6, 2020. The National Weather Service issued a warning for North-Northwest winds at 30 to 40 mph, gusting to 50 mph and for the waves to be 15+ feet mid-morning.Joel Bissell

South Haven, $16 million: Significant damage to coastal area and riverbank, beach erosion, damage to infrastructure of marina, stormwater and utilities. Adding protection for water filtration plant is on a city list of projects.

Muskegon, $10.7 million: Repair portion of Lakeshore Trail, which collapsed; needs to stabilize Beach street shoreline.

Frankfort, $10 million: Damage to Mineral Springs, along Lake Betsie.

Petoskey, $4.5 million: Relocation of storm sewer, damage along Bayfront Park.

Ludington, $3.6 million: Flooding of intersection, damage to Maritime Museum, erosion issues.

Grand Haven, $3.5 million: Flooding of city streets from overflowing storm drains.

This bike trail between Petoskey and Charlevoix, Michigan, collapsed as high Great Lakes water sends strong waves higher on the shoreline. Communities now face expensive erosion repair.

In other areas, examples of repairs include:

Ontonagon, on Lake Superior, needs to rebuild the East Pier path and make repairs at Marina Park and island boardwalks. Estimate: $1.18 million

Sault Ste Marie, also on Lake Superior, needs to repair electric utilities and fuel lines in addition to fixing erosion damage. Estimate : $727,000.

Lexington needs to stabilize land to keep our water intake structure from falling into Lake Huron. Cost: about $15,000.

Mayor Scott McLellan of Rogers City looks over the wintery scene at the marina. High Lake Huron levels may leave it damaged this summer, just when the city is counting on tourism.

Rogers City hasnt totaled how much it will take to repair beaches and parking lots, and keep lake water from flooding its wastewater treatment plant.

Tawas Citys water front park has flooded, prompting the purchase of 48,000 sandbags.

All five of the Pointes along Lake St. Clair are experiencing shoreline damage. Grosse Pointe Park has an eroded storm drain, and Grosse Pointe Shores had to repair a sinkhole on Lakeshore Drive. The total is more than $500,000.

Longbridge Road near Pentwater in Oceana County was flooded by 6-8 inches of water since May 1, forcing its closure to motorists.

Michigans roads also face short- and long-term fixes due to high water. So far, the Michigan Department of Transportation is estimating $100 million in costs.

The damage affects both Great Lakes shoreline roads and some riverbanks near inland lakes adjacent to the big lakes that are experiencing flooding.

The highest cost estimate comes from a new bridge between Whitehall and Montague, towns north of Muskegon. Existing drainage is no longer functioning, causing flooding and damage.

In Baraga County in the Upper Peninsula, US-41 needs to be raised 3 feet due to water covering it. That comes with an $11 million pricetag. The same is happening to M-35 from Menominee to Escanaba, requiring an additional 1.5-foot of grading, costing $9.5 million.

Road crews move boulders onto a shoreline near M-25 in Sanilac County in an effort to combat erosion.Courtesy of MDOT

Sanilac, in Michigans Thumb, is home to M-25 along the shoreline of Lake Huron. Erosion to the 60-90 foot bluffs affected the road already, and now it needs to be moved. A portion needs a protective wall installed mid-slope. Total cost: Almost $18 million.

Short-term repairs on M-185 around Mackinac Island already cost about $1 million when it washed out due to waves. But it will cost $6.2 million, the state estimates, to raise the grade and do other fixes.

The roadside experience is changing in Michigan. A scenic turnout is washing out on US-2 in Manistique ($100,000), and a roadside park in Charlevoix needs to be stabilized ($410,000).

M-185 around Mackinac Island in Michigan was washed out from shoreline erosion at certain points when this image was taken in October 2019.

State parks also make sure of the Michigan shoreline, with dozens of them dotting the coast. Officials still are working on listing and totaling repair estimates, Parks Director Ron Olson of the Department of Natural Resources said recently.

Weve spent over $6 million so far, he said, because of high water damage over the last couple of years.

With the spring inventory underway now, he said, we have over 30-some sites, big, medium and small that have been either already impacted or we project impact.

So far, 61 campsites are not usable, out of 14,000 in the state park system. Because each campsite generates revenue, the potential for more to be removed from service - including due to inland flooding - will mean less money earned this year toward the repairs.

The beach at Orchard Beach State Park in Manistee is gone, and a historic shelter near the steps to the beach needs to be moved. Estimated cost: $1 million.

The state maintains 19 of Michigans 80 harbors of refuge, and those must be available for boaters. Unclear is what that will take.

Olsen cautions that two years after Houghton was devastated by rainfall that reaches 7 inches in one hour, that community and the parks system is still working on fixes. Some of the damage was to culverts and old railroad grades that had survived nearly a century. Repair without damaging the natural area takes a special touch, he said.

Meanwhile, many shoreline homeowners also are grappling with the high water. The state does not provide protection for private property, but the severity has prompted the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy to dedicate staff time to fast-tracking permits for shoreline construction.

From October to December, 468 property owners filed shoreline protection permits, with 557 filing the previous quarter. By the end of March, nearly 500 permits for Great Lakes shoreline work had been approved so far in 2020. Most are on the western shoreline of Lake Michigan.

While there is no overall dollar value available to quantify the private damage, the work is taking a toll on homeowners. Municipal officials say some coastal owners have newer and expensive homes, while others are watching long-time family cottages at risk. Either way, insurance is unlikely to cover any erosion damage, officials said. Theres impact to both taxable values and community well-being, they added.

Lake Michigan erosion claimed Patricia "Tish" Gancer's beach house, pictured on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2020, in White River Township, near Montague, Mich. (Cory Morse | MLive.com) Cory Morse | MLive.com

Communities this spring will be grappling with the debris from the lake erosion. From full houses falling into the water to decks, staircases and trees, all create a problem on beaches - and in the water, if there are boaters.

Many municipalities are considering how to systematize beach-clean up, which will add to their maintenance costs. A few, depending on how bad it gets by Memorial Day weekend, may have to close some beaches if the debris is extreme.

72 High Great Lakes water levels

Meanwhile, whats happening in Michigan is also taking place along shorelines in other states. The 10,000-mile Great Lakes shoreline wends around eight U.S. states and Canada. About 4.2 million people live within 2 miles of Great Lakes coasts.

Related: As the Great Lakes surge to record heights, coastal areas face a time of reckoning

East of Lake Ontario early this year, the water flow averaged 368,300 cubic-feet of water per-second through Long Sault and the Moses-Saunders dams on the St. Lawrence River. For comparison, thats more than four times the average annual flow over Niagara Falls.

Related stories:

Great Lakes high water is going to affect everyone in Michigan

Michigans shoreline towns struggle to survive Great Lakes high water

As the Great Lakes surge to record heights, coastal area face a time of reckoning

More Great Lakes coverage
Migrant workers in the national capital took to the roads as they couldn't get essentials like food and the Delhi government made matters worse by arranging buses that offloaded these people at state borders, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Monday.

His remarks come in the backdrop of an exodus of migrant workers from cities in several states to their homes in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, with many setting out on foot due to non-availability of transport during the 21-day nationwide lockdown.

"At a time when we should help each other, the Delhi government disconnected the electricity and water connections of these people (migrant workers). During the lockdown, these people did not get food, water, milk and other essential items and they took to the roads," Adityanath said at a high-level meeting with government officials in Gautam Buddh Nagar.

"To make matters worse, the Delhi government arranged DTC buses to ferry and offload these people at state borders," he said.

The chief minister instructed the officials to formulate a strategy to "quickly stop" the movement of migrant workers.

He also asked them to identify industries where there is no possibility of spread of coronavirus and where workers reside within the campus.

He cited the example of brick kilns where there is low community interaction within the workers.

"Officials can speak to the owners of such industries and advise them not to shut down, but ensure social distancing. If that happens, labourers will continue to be employed and not migrate," Adityanath suggested.

He said the officers should ensure that employers pay their workers and they should also speak to landlords and request them to provide relief to their tenants.

"If possible, they can waive one month's rent. If not, tenants should be given an additional month or two to pay the rent," he added.

During the meeting, the chief minister directed officials to monitor social media and take action against those circulating false or misleading messages.

He said migrant workers panicked after a false message claiming that the lockdown would last three months went viral online.

He asked officials to take strict steps, including legal action, to stop such rumours.

Adityanath also directed the state officials to ensure that needy people benefit from the government's relief schemes and ensure coordination with banks.

"Those who have bank accounts, money should be credited in their accounts and get bank accounts opened for people who do not have one. If additional residential complexes are needed, then the Noida Authority, Greater Noida Authority and the Yamuna Expressway Authority should identify places and arrange for them," he said.

Principal Secretary Medical Education and Nodal Officer of the district Rajneesh Dubey; Commissioner, Meerut, Anita C Meshram and CEOs of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authorities were present at the meeting held at the Gautam Buddha University.

Commissioner of Police, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Alok Singh; District Magistrate B N Singh; Chief Medical Officer Anurag Bhargava and others also attended the meeting.

Sixteen new coronavirus cases were reported in UP on Monday, taking the total tally in the state to 88. Gautam Buddh Nagar district alone has reported 38 cases, officials said in Lucknow.

Of the 88 patients, 14 have been discharged, they said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Glenn Fine, acting Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Defense, testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill, Washington, on Dec. 6, 2017. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Pentagons Top Watchdog to Oversee $2 Trillion Rescue Package

The Pentagons top watchdog has been given an additional duty: to oversee the distribution of the $2 trillion CCP virus rescue bill.

Glenn Fine, the acting Inspector General for the Pentagon, has been appointed to chair the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), one of three key oversight mechanisms attached to the rescue package.

President Donald Trump on Friday signed the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill meant to fuel the fight against the pandemic and sustain the hard-hit economy as the nation takes drastic measures to stop the spread of the disease.

Like similar measures taken in other countries, Americas stimulus package is the largest of its kind in modern national history.

The appointment of Fine in his oversight role was announced on Monday by the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE).

The committee wields an $80 million budget, and is tasked with oversight and preventing and finding fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement.

Mr. Fine is uniquely qualified to lead the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, given his more than 15 years of experience as an Inspector General overseeing large organizations11 years as the Department of Justice Inspector General and the last 4 years performing the duties of the Department of Defense Inspector General, said CIGIE Chair Michael E. Horowitz.

Another oversight mechanism is the appointment of a special inspector general to oversee $500 billion in funds to be doled out by the Treasury to support industry and bolster the economy. That inspector general will be nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate.

The rescue package law also stipulated the establishment of a Congressional Oversight Commission appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

The stimulus package includes $500 billion in loans to industries, $100 billion for hospitals, $58 billion in aid to airlines, $150 billion for states and local governments, and $45 billion for disaster relief.

The Department of Defense will receive $10.5 billion, including $1.5 billion for the U.S. National Guard. The Pentagon has been deploying resources to help states handle the surge of patients with COVID-19, the disease the CCP virus causes.

Americans who meet an income criteria will each receive $1,200. Married couples will receive $2,400 and $500 per child.

Prior to signing the bill, Trump called the stimulus package historic.

This will deliver urgently needed relief to our nations families, workers and businesses and thats what this is all about, the president said.

Ivan Penchuocov contributed to this report.
Islamabad, March 30 : Hundreds of Pakistani truckers and their helpers were stranded on the Afghan side of the border at two main border crossings despite Prime Minister Imran Khan orders for opening the border for good transport, it was reported on Monday.

The Chaman and Torkham border crossings with Afghanistan and the Wagah border crossing with India were closed earlier this month in an attempt to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has infected nearly 1,600 people and killed 16 of them, The Express Tribune reported.

The border closures have now been extended for two more weeks.

Zahidullah, a member of the Afghan Transit Standing Committee, told The Express Tribune that around 1,500 trucks carrying shipping containers are stuck at Chaman and 800 at Torkham since last month.

Additionally, around 1,000 trailers were stranded on the Afghan side of the border to enter Pakistan.

"They are over 6,600 drivers and their helpers in these trucks and their life is at risk," he said, adding that the drivers have run out of cash and food and are living in miserable conditions.

"They are selling oil and tyres of their vehicles to meet their needs." One of the drivers stranded at Chaman said he has been stuck at the border crossing since last month due to which his family is facing immense difficulties and they do not have cash to buy food.

"We demand that the prime minister and the army chief direct the authorities concerned to let us cross the border," the driver told The Express Tribune.
Operation COVID Safety, the national security task force enforcing the COVID-19 Safety Operations, says all is set for the lockdown of Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) and Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area, as directed by the President.



Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Dr Sayibu Pabi Gariba, Director, National Operations, Ghana Police Service, and a Member of the Operation COVID Safety, said in line with the Presidential Directive as part of the effort to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country, the combined team of the police, the armed forces and other security agencies would be on the ground from 0100 hours on Monday, March 30, to enforce the lockdown in the affected areas.



Speaking on Sunday at a press briefing, he said there would be roadblocks at the Weija Tollbooth on the Accra-Winneba Road, at Adam Nana on the Kasoa-Amansaman Road, at Kakraba Junction on the Kasoa-Nyanyano Road.



The rest are Ayi-Mensah Toll Both on the Accra-Akropong Road; Asutsuare Junction on the Tema Akosombo Road; Oyibi on the Accra Dodowa Road; Santo on the Ashaiman-Madina Road, and at Tsopoli on the Tema Akosombo Road; as well as along the Tema-Accra Beach Road.



Within the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area, there would roadblocks on the Kumasi-Mampong Road at Mamponten; Takyi Number Two on the Kumasi-Obuasi Road, and all other principal roads leading into Kumasi.



DCOP Dr Gariba said their deployment would also cover market centres, shopping malls, and all the other areas that have been articulated by the President.



We have set up our operations command centres, we have done our briefings. We have also deployed resources to the locations. Some crash barriers have been sent to appropriate locations within the day. And then of course our vehicles, logistics are in place, he said.



So, by the time that the President has set, you will see our security agencies in place.



We are set to enforce the Presidential Directive. But this is a humanitarian operation and that is how we are going to run it. It is not an operation that is going to intimidate the people, DCOP Dr Gariba said.



We are looking at the sensitivity of the people; we are serving and that is how we are going to run it. But in going forward we also want to convey to the people that security is a joint effort and joint action. We want to appeal to Ghanaians that they must also support the security agencies in delivering this (all) important task the President has given us. We want their cooperation and collaboration.



He said his men would ensure that the Presidential Directive was enforced to the letter; adding that those in the exemption category would be granted passage once they can prove their identity with valid identification cards.



And we will also make sure that we are flexible to be able to engage the people to serve them to serve the purpose of the country, he said.



We look at these operations as a humanitarian operation. It is not a war. It is a humanitarian operation. We are all fighting the coronavirus. So we need support from the population to be able to do that. We are not going to intimated anybody.



He said the task force was rather going to support the Ghana Health Service and the people of Ghana to be able to fight the coronavirus pandemic and achieve the overall objective of the President.



DCOP Dr Gariba said their operations for the enforcement of the restrictions of movement of persons would go according to the demarcations that have been outlined by the President.



He said the task force was going to mount roadblocks along the peripheries of the demarcations but for security operations to be able to get the maximum effect, they were going to do outer cordons and inner cordons.



Colonel William Nortey, the Director of Army Operations, representing the Ghana Armed Forces, said the armed forces are providing military assistance to the civil authority with the police in the lead, adding that we are in the background supporting.



He said on the military side, they have mobilised over 2,000 army, navy and air force to support the police in executing the task.

Source: GNA









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Asia-Pacific countries on high alert for COVID-19 as more confirmed cases, deaths reported

HONG KONG, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Asia-Pacific countries kept reporting more COVID-19 infections and deaths on Sunday, as Indonesia saw the highest death toll in Southeast Asia, while Australia imposed stricter measures to contain the pandemic.

The Indonesian government said on Sunday the death toll of COVID-19 in the country climbed to 114, the highest in Southeast Asia.

The number of confirmed cases jumped to 1,285, and 64 patients have recovered.

More venues in Australia are to be closed to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the country, while more stringent restrictions are put to public gatherings, said Australian Prime Minister (PM) Scott Morrison on Sunday evening.

In addition to the institutions and businesses already closed last week, more public areas are to follow suit, including public playgrounds, outside gyms and skate parks. They are to be closed from Monday.

Both indoor and outdoor public gatherings are limited to two people, but "states and territories will determine whether they proceed to make this an enforceable limit."

Meanwhile, the Australian government also announced the 1.1-billion-Australian dollar (about 678-million-U.S. dollar) package, which includes funding for mental health and domestic violence support, emergency food services and Medicare, Australia's universal health care system.

A total of 150 million Australian dollars (92.5 million U.S. dollars) will be spent on domestic, family and sexual violence initiatives after data from Google revealed a 75 percent uptick in searches related to domestic violence since the government introduced social distancing measures.

Thailand confirmed 143 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total infections to 1,388.

One more fatality was reported, bringing the death toll to seven.

In Malaysia, a total of 34 people have died of the COVID-19 as of Sunday with 150 newly confirmed cases, bringing the total to 2,470, said the Health Ministry.

A total of 388 have been cured and discharged from hospital, while 73 are currently being held in intensive care and 52 of those are in need of assisted breathing.

Japan on Sunday reported that the total number of COVID-19 infections has risen to 1,799.

Of the new cases, 68 were confirmed in Tokyo, the second consecutive day the capital city logged more than 60 cases.

The death toll stands at 65, including 10 from the virus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship.

A team of Chinese medical experts, along with medical materials, arrived in Lao capital Vientiane by a chartered plane Sunday morning to assist Laos to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chinese medical team includes experts in various fields such as infection prevention and control, intensive care, epidemics, and laboratory testing. They also brought along with medical supplies.

Laos has detected eight confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Saturday afternoon.

New Zealand confirmed the first death of COVID-19.

A woman in her 70s passed away in Greymouth Hospital in West Coast region, South Island early Sunday morning. She tested positive for the virus on Friday morning.

South Korea reported 105 more cases of the COVID-19 compared to 24 hours ago as of midnight Sunday local time, raising the total number of infections to 9,583.

Eight more deaths were confirmed, lifting the death toll to 152. The total fatality rate came in at 1.59 percent.

Myanmar's Foreign Affairs Ministry announced temporary suspension of all types of visas for foreign nationals from all countries with effect from March 29 till April 30 as part of measures to control the risks of COVID-19 spread on Sunday.

The announcement included the suspension of the issuance of all types of visas (including social visit visa) to all foreign nationals, except diplomats accredited to Myanmar, United Nations officials resident in Myanmar and crew of ships and aircraft operating to and from Myanmar.
Peter Purves, 81, is best known for having presented Blue Peter and Crufts and lives in Suffolk with his wife Kathryn Evans.

Im a trusting person  I trust what people say to me and my first instinct is to always believe them.

The first time I began to understand this might not always be the case was at boarding school.

The person I considered to be my best friend had come over to spend part of the holidays at my parents house. But when we returned to school, he wasnt my friend any more. I just didnt get it.

Peter Purves, 81, (pictured) who lives in Suffolk, explained the importance of not taking people 100 per cent at face value

It affected me but I didnt learn anything from it. Ultimately, it took another incident to prove to me I ought to examine things more carefully. I was joint managing director of a video production business with a friend when we were persuaded to allow a mixed media group to take us over. A small sum was involved and guarantees of a future salary.

But they immediately changed our companys name and  just before Christmas  told us they were closing us down. What a great present. That was a real lesson. Until then Id believed the people were honest.

It has worked in my favour sometimes, though. Once, I was invited to go along to what seemed to be a reputable video company who had some programme ideas for me  something to do with fishing for a beluga whale on my own in the Black Sea. It sounded preposterous but I said, Come back to me when youve fleshed it out a bit more.

Shortly afterwards, a programme appeared on television where they had fairly well-known people who had been scammed into believing the offer was genuine and were so keen to get it they behaved rather stupidly. And thats what I think they hoped I would do.

Having said this, I still like to think the best of people, but I dont always take them at 100 per cent face value nowadays. And my wife helps keep me on the straight and narrow too!

Peter Purves is a brand ambassador for YuMOVE  the UKs No.1 veterinary joint supplement brand and is lending his voice to Life In The Old Dog Yet  a campaign to remind the UKs 10 million dog owners that dogs age faster than you think.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday declared that the authorities had been able to restore order on the capitals streets in a sharp contrast to the situation on Friday and Saturday when tens of thousands of migrant workers gathered for a ride home to their hometowns in UP and Bihar.

The situation had become a little alarming. In the last two days, the situation has come under control, Kejriwal said right at the beginning of his video statement on Monday evening. The chief minister also spoke about how the authorities were strictly enforcing the lockdown and turning back people who tried to cross into Delhi from neighbouring Haryana to reach Ghaziabad. There is very strict patrolling, the chief minister said.

The chief ministers emphasis on strict enforcement of the lockdown comes a day after Lt Governor Anil Baijal sent him a sharply-worded letter, asserting that the city governments inability to maintain the lockdown could lead to widespread infection and loss of lives.

It nudged the elected government to act decisively at this stage.

We must remember that we cannot afford to fail as this is a now or never time for all of us!, the Lt Governor said.

Also Read: Covid-19 outbreak is a test for political systems | HT Editorial

Baijals letter referred to the numerous joint meetings that they had held where he was always told that all arrangements are in place to provide essential services to the poor and needy to ensure that they stay where they are.

He contrasted these assurances with the situation over the weekend when large crowds of migrant workers marched on foot with their families on roads.

This unfortunate situation, the Lt Governor said in his letter seen by HT, shows there was perhaps a failure to make adequate and timely arrangements for food, water and shelter and to reach out to these poor workers, which led to their mass exodus.

This single lapse could defeat the very purpose of the lockdown and impose a very heavy cost on the entire nation, Baijal said.

The Lt Governors comment echoed the deep concern that had been expressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah over the possibility that some of the migrant workers may have been infected and may have spread it to others.

It was on account of this concern that Home Secretary AK Bhalla had ordered all state governments to place the thousands of migrant workers in government-run quarantine facilities before they can be allowed to return home.

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I know startups need to be agile, especially in this time of coronavirus, but even so I had not really imagined within the space of a few days I would totally change how the Suite Set operates.

Sales have continued to be stagnant but online engagement has increased. I feel like the product has become second to the service element of the business.

This isn't ideal in a financial sense, but it seems the only way to engage with my customers at the moment.

Sally Branson Dalwood is changing how her business operates. Credit:Eddie Jim

From a structural perspective, my husband's 15 year old business has ceased operation this week. This was the business our family income came from and the savings from this business funded our startup.
UPDATE: Cops find 35 men at Lakewood religious school, charge 2 with violating N.J. coronavirus lockdown, police say

A Lakewood couple who hosted a gathering Sunday of 40 to 50 people on the lawn and street in front of the home have been charged with five counts of child endangerment and the husband was charged with violating the ban on gatherings due to the coronavirus outbreak, authorities said.

Eliezer Silber, 37, and his wife Miriam Silber, 34, were informed that large gatherings in New Jersey have been banned for more than a week due to the worsening coronavirus pandemic, the Ocean County Prosecutors Office said in a statement.

The Siblers were charged with child endangerment because their five kids were present at the gathering, police said. Eliezer Silber was also charged with violating a rule or regulation adopted by the governor - specifically Executive Order No. 107. Gov. Phil Murphy signed the order on March 21.

Both were given summons requiring a future appearance at Ocean County Superior Court in Toms River and the party-goers, some of whom were blocking the street, were told to leave.

The party is the latest large group gathering to be broken up by Lakewood police. Police have previously put a stop to at least three weddings. As of Sunday afternoon, there were 371 COVID-19 cases in Lakewood, among the highest totals in the state. Ocean County had 835 cases.

As I have previously stated, my sworn duty to protect all of the residents of Ocean County. That obligation applies across the board, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer said in the statement. My office will prosecute any individual who defies or breaks the law, state of emergency or otherwise. Everyone must respect and follow the law. The men and women of the Lakewood police department have done an exceptional job in the face of a public health crisis. Their efforts are commendable."

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BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's keynote speech at the G20 Extraordinary Leaders' Summit illustrates China's role as a responsible country, experts have said.

Xi put forth four proposals at Thursday's summit via video. He called on G20 members to be resolute in fighting an all-out global war against the COVID-19 outbreak, forge a concerted global effort to control and treat the virus, support the leading role of international organizations to tackle the pandemic, and bolster coordination of global macro-economic policy.

"Xi's speech during the summit is a good example of the global power's responsible behavior," said Dr. Benyamin Poghosyan, chairman of the Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies of Armenia.

Xi's emphasis on international solidarity and China's large-scale assistance to other nations in the fight against COVID-19 "are of utmost importance," the expert said, expressing appreciation for China's efforts and sacrifices in battling the epidemic which has bought time for other nations to be better prepared.

Xi's call for all G20 members to restore confidence in the global economy by cutting tariffs, removing barriers and facilitating unfettered flow of trade, shows the world what a truly responsible major country should do under Xi's leadership, said Constanza Jorquera, a scholar at the School of Politics of at Diego Portales University in Chile.

China's anti-epidemic measures such as locking down hard-hit cities and imposing large-scale quarantines once drew criticism, but the measures have proven necessary during the crisis, Jorquera said.

Xi's emphasis on China's efforts to stabilize the global economy, his proposal to enhance macro-economic policy coordination, and his call for G20 members to work collectively, are needed to instigate a global recovery, said Maher Al-Haj, general manager of Al-Atta'a Foundation, affiliated to Dar Al-Watan for Press and Publication.

Echoing Xi's remarks, Fadi Qattar, CEO of Muscat Media Group, said that victory over the global epidemic requires cooperation and support of all countries, leaders and people.

Xi's proposal for holding a G20 health ministers' meeting demonstrates China's commitment to fighting the pandemic and advancing the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, said Swaran Singh, professor at the Center for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament at India's Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The fact that G20 leaders have already accepted the proposal reflects their satisfaction with China's efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, the expert added.

China's success has brought hope to humankind, enabling the country to play a leading role in the global fight against COVID-19, Singh said.

Xi's speech reflects China's humanitarian spirit and moral principles in dealing with international and regional issues, said George Alam, a writer and political analyst from Lebanon.

Countries and leaders should respond to the Chinese president's call to take a more unified approach to limit the impact of the crisis on the global economy, Alam said.

Xi's call for an all-out global war against the COVID-19 outbreak is an invitation for countries to set aside their own interests and strive for the greater well-being of humanity, said Kamel Mhanna, president of Amel Association International, a Lebanese non-governmental organization.

"The Chinese president presents a truly remarkable human model" to combat the pandemic, Mhanna said.
Restriction of movements in some parts of Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Kumasi is in full force for two weeks, as a way of controlling the spread of the dreaded novel Coronavirus in Ghana.



These areas are described by the Ghana Health Service as the epicenters, where substantial numbers of the virus have been recorded.



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Friday during his fourth televised address to the nation since the outbreak of the Coronavirus in Ghana, noted that the lockdown which is subject to review, is to achieve five key objectives.



These are  limit and stop the importation of the virus; contain its spread; provide adequate care for the sick; limit the impact of the virus on social and economic life; and inspire the expansion of our domestic capability and deepen our self-reliance.



He added, There is no one-size-fits-all approach to this pandemic. We have a unique situation in our country, and we must take it into account in dealing with the disease, whilst meeting all the six key WHO guidelines on the most effective ways of combating the pandemic.



Even though it may be said that the number of our infections is still, relatively, low, if we act now purposefully, we have a chance of preventing an escalation of our numbers.



President Akufo-Addo explained in his broadcast that, everyone resident in the areas where the lockdown is implemented must stay at home for the next two weeks.



However, if you must go out, it must only be to get essential items such as food, medicine, water, undertake banking transactions, or to use public toilet facilities. But, as much as possible, stay at home," he stated.



There shall be, during this period, no inter-city movement of vehicles and aircrafts for private or commercial purposes for the areas of the restrictive measures, except for vehicles and aircrafts providing essential services and those carrying cargo. Riders of motorbikes are not allowed to carry any additional person, and all intra-city passenger vehicles, such as trotros and taxis, must reduce the number of passengers in order to observe appropriate social distancing and hygiene protocols. Additionally, all commercial vehicle stations shall observe appropriate hygiene protocols and social distancing, he stressed.



Ghanas case count has increased to 152 as of Sunday March 29, 2020, with five deaths.

The Ghana Police Service, in collaboration with other security services such as the Army, Nevy, Airforce, has since deployed security personnel across the capital and some parts of the Ashanti Region.



This is to protect the lives of citizens living in the areas that will be affected by the restrictions.



The "humanitarian exercise" as described by the Police will ensure that there is law and order in the restricted areas.



Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Dr Sayibu Pabi Gariba, Director, National Operations, Ghana Police Service, who is also a Member of the Operation COVID Safety, said at a press conference in Accra that the combined team of the police, the armed forces and other security agencies would be on the ground from 0100 hours on Monday, March 30, to enforce the lockdown in the affected areas.



He stated, "There would be roadblocks at the Weija Tollbooth on the Accra-Winneba Road, at Adam Nana on the Kasoa-Amansaman Road, at Kakraba Junction on the Kasoa-Nyanyano Road.



The rest are Ayi-Mensah Toll Both on the Accra-Akropong Road; Asutsuare Junction on the Tema Akosombo Road; Oyibi on the Accra Dodowa Road; Santo on the Ashaiman-Madina Road, and at Tsopoli on the Tema Akosombo Road; as well as along the Tema-Accra Beach Road."



He added that within the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area, there would roadblocks on the Kumasi-Mampong Road at Mamponten; Takyi Number Two on the Kumasi-Obuasi Road, and all other principal roads leading into Kumasi.



DCOP Dr Gariba noted that their deployment would also cover market centres, shopping malls, and all the other areas that have been articulated by the President.



Exemptions



Some individuals and institutions providing the following services shall be exempted from the restrictions:



i. Members of the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary;



ii. production, distribution and marketing of food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, medicine, paper and plastic packages;



iii. environmental and sanitation activities;



iv. staff of VALCO;



v. road and railway construction workers;



vi. mining workers;



vii. fisherfolk;



viii. members of the security agencies assigned lawful duties;



ix. staff of electricity, water, telecommunications, e-commerce and digital service providers;



x. staff of fuel stations; and



xi. media.









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Credit: The Conversation

In 1997, a bestselling book by Jared Diamond purported to explain how the West "won" world dominance based on the good luck of geography, and because western countries were the first to industrialise.

Fast forward to 2020, and to COVID-19. Geography still matters, but the West is no longer "winning."

Despite initial mistakes, it seems China has been successful at containing the virus, and other countries such as South Korea and Singapore have, so far, been able to dramatically slow the rate of infection.

Western countries were slow to respond and are paying a very high price. As of March 30, Italy had 98,000 confirmed cases and 10,800 COVID-19 deaths.

While cross-country comparisons on confirmed cases are problematic because of large differences in testing, the United States currently has more than 137,000 confirmed casesthe highest in the world, more than in China.

This number will get much larger very quickly if cases continue to double every few days.

The number of Americans who will die will soon be in the thousands, and possibly tens of thousands, if the US does not do much more at a national level to ensure physical distancing.

If the current growth rate continues, parts of its health system, especially intensive care units, will be overwhelmed.

Exponential growth

Currently, the rate of infectionwithout sufficient measurestracks very closely exponential growth.

This allows us to accurately predict, with a basic disease spread model, the minimum, maximum, and most likely number of confirmed cases, at least for the next week or so (although it should be noted that an increased rate of testing will increase this number).

The data tells us that for countries in the earlier phase of the pandemic such as Australia the number of confirmed cases doubles every few days.

In Australia it began by doubling roughly every four days, and is now doubling every seven days. (The number undoubtedly underestimates the rate of infection.)

Australia had about 2,000 confirmed cases on 24 March. Given rates of infection and changes in growth, our forecasts of infections made on March 27 for Sunday March 29 ranged from 3,950 to 4,460.

Robust short-term predictions

The actual reported number on Sunday March 29 was 3,984, near the low end of that range.

Our forecast for 6pm on Wednesday April 1 now ranges from 5,080 to 5,970 cases, with 5,220 most likely.

For Thursday April 2 the range is 5,510 to 6,835, with 5,715 most likely.

Until physical distancing has had an effect, exponential growth is as good as certain. This will make our forecasts robust.

The current measures might already be cutting infection growth rates, but it is too early to tell. Even stricter measures will be needed to cut the number infected.

With sufficient physical distancing, Australia could end up with an infection rate as low as 1%. By comparison, if it fails to control the infection by not implementing sufficient physical distancing, it could end up with a much worse rate of 20%.

The payoff from going hard and going early

What is the difference in the number of deaths between an infection rate of 1% versus 20%?

Overseas death rates suggest Australia could face an additional 48,000 premature deaths without distancing. This is equivalent to about 30% of annual deaths in Australia.

Although recent evidence suggests young people might be more vulnerable than previously thought, those premature deaths would be clustered in the old and those with other illnesses, and those also in remote Indigenous communities, should the virus get there.

Economists use the value of an economic life for cost-benefit analysis of public projects. It is a measure of society's willingness to pay to reduce the risk of an additional death.

Using the New South Wales Treasury's value of a statistical life of $4.2 million, the economic loss of 48,000 premature deaths amounts to some $200 billion, or about 10% of Australia's annual economic output.

This means it makes sense to act early and hard before the infection rate gets too high, cutting it as quickly as possible. The Spanish Influenza pandemic suggests aggressive physical distancing works.

The question Australians should ask of their leaders is this: is strict physical distancing a cost worth paying?

Costs and benefits from distancing

The main economic benefit from insufficient physical distancing would be that, at least initially, more Australians would stay employed, there would be more economic activity, more taxes would be paid, and government would need to spend less.

But not imposing a lockdown or equivalent measures would come at the cost of a higher infection rate, which would also mean more non-pandemic patients might die because of insufficient beds or medical equipment or staff to look after them.

A higher infection rate would also increase the death rate of pandemic patients as there would be fewer ventilators available to treat each one.

And the economy would suffer even without sufficient physical distancing, although the worst would be delayed. Many people would still get sick and be unable to work until they were recovered.

A much higher infection rate would also isolate Australia from the rest of the world. Why would any country want Australians to visit if it had high rates of infection, and why would anyone from another country want to visit Australia?

The wage subsidy provides a way out

A high enough wage subsidy for all workers (including part-timers and casuals) who cannot work because of control measures, coupled with the already announced additional $550 a fortnight COVID-19 supplement to the Jobseeker Payment, could provide most Australians with enough income to survive and pay the bills during a lockdown.

Such an approach combines "sharing the burden" with "flattening the curve," a two-fold economic and public health approach that would save lives while minimizing economic disruption, especially for younger and casual workers who are the most disadvantaged by severe physical distancing.

It's the smartest and safest strategy, and Australia appears to be adopting it.

Our model for the spread of the infection is an adapted [SEIR-M] model. It is still under development and needs further validation and also peer-review.

For now, we assume a homogeneously mixed population. We are also working on a spatially explicit model to account for more complex population contact.

Our current results are roughly in line with changes in basic growth rates and their projections by state.

We will continue to provide forward projections that can then be compared with actual numbers.

All data is sourced from state and commonwealth websites.

A valuable discussion of this and more complicated infectious disease models is found on the University of Melbourne Pursuit website.

Explore further Combined social distancing measures prove effective in reducing spread of COVID-19: research

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
A Kilkenny mother-of-two who stabbed a man in the arm with a scissors has been released on bail pending sentence.



Claire Burke (30), originally from Co Killkenny and with an address Seville Place, Dublin 1, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm at Temple Lane South, Dublin 2, on November 12, 2018. She has 13 previous convictions.



The court heard that the sentencing hearing was due to take place last week, but had to be adjourned as the prosecuting garda was self isolating.



Appearing in place of the prosecuting garda, Garda David Dineen told Antonia Boyle BL, prosecuting, that on the night in question, Burke and another woman approached a man walking home with a bicycle.



Burke told the man that she could sell him grass for 15. When he handed over the money, the woman began walking away and replied What money? when the man asked for his money back.



The man stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder. Burke took a pair of scissors out of her top and stabbed the man in his left wrist. She also tried to stab him in his right leg, but he moved out of the way.



During the assault, the other woman encouraged another man to steal the injured party's bike. This man was later arrested by gardai and the bike was recovered.



Gda Dineen agreed with Luigi Rea BL, defending, that his client was living on the streets at the time of the incident and that the offence was an attempt to raise funds to purchase drugs. He agreed that Burke is now entirely clean of drugs.



Judge Melanie Greally said it is a very nasty offence indeed which deserves some element of a custodial sentence. She said she proposed to release Burke on bail and order a probation report.



Judge Greally said that given the current circumstances, she was giving Burke an opportunity to demonstrate she can build on the progress made in prison. She adjourned the matter for finalisation on October 13, next.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30)  The Department of Social Welfare and Development will be distributing social amelioration cards in preparation for the distribution of cash assistance in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cash aid between P5,000 to P8,000 will be given to vulnerable sectors of society such as persons with disabilities, senior citizens, pregnant mothers, homeless persons and workers in informal sectors, the DSWD said.

This move is in accordance with the newly signed law, Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, which seeks to address the threats and impact of COVID-19 in the country.

Those who want to avail of the financial aid must fill out and submit the social amelioration card to be included in the local government's list of beneficiaries, the DSWD said.

According to the department, the card records the family profile and is supposed to be filled out by the head of the family. It contains details such as the number of individuals in the household, his or her occupation and average income.

Beneficiaries may be asked to show proof of status, such as senior citizens ID for senior citizens, or barangay certification for homeless persons, DSWD spokesperson Irene Dumlao said.

She said the DSWD will be giving out the cards to local government units, which in turn will distribute them to the barangay levels.

Itong social amelioration card will be the basis of the government in providing the necessary assistance, Dumlao said. She added that it will also serve as proof that a beneficiary has received the cash aid from the LGU once released.

While Dumlao said she doesnt want to call this an application process to secure cash assistance, she noted that it is important that people still coordinate with local officials to make sure they get help.

The spokesperson said the DSWD is still coordinating with LGUs on the schedule of submission of the list of beneficiaries and the distribution of cash aid. The DSWD will also give away food packs for families affected by the COVID-19 crisis, which will be coursed through LGUs.

CNN Philippines Correspondent Xianne Arcangel contributed to this report.
Two Armenian young men handed over gloves and masks to help people in overcoming the spread of the coronavirus.

They were captured by cameras when the reporters were shooting police officers who applauded medical staff of the hospital in Clamart, France.

Young people said they had bought masks, gloves and food to hand it over to those in need.

This is the least thing we can do, unfortunately, one of them said.

The men refused to reveal their names, but said they are of Armenian origin.

This our mentality, one of them said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 19:55:02|Editor: huaxia

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Background Video: The United States has reported more than 140,000 confirmed #COVID19 cases by Sunday, and President Donald Trump extends national social distancing guidelines to April 30. (Xinhua/Tan Yixiao, Hu Yousong)

Trump said that hydroxychloroquine is being administered to 1,100 patients in New York along with Z-Pak, or azithromycin.



WASHINGTON, March 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that the country is stepping up the development of treatments for COVID-19 patients, including experimenting with the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine and blood-related therapies.

Addressing a White House briefing, Trump said that hydroxychloroquine is being administered to 1,100 patients in New York along with Z-Pak, or azithromycin.

"It's very early yet. It only started two days ago. But we will see what happens," he said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is also allowing the emergency use of a blood-related therapy called convalescent plasma as an experimental treatment for seriously ill patients, Trump said.

This file photo taken on Oct. 10, 2019, shows U.S. President Donald Trump speaking to reporters before leaving the White House in Washington D.C. Oct. 10, 2019. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

The therapy involves taking blood plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19. New sick patients will be transfused with the blood to boost their immune systems, Trump said, adding that early results are promising.

Convalescent plasma that contains antibodies to the novel coronavirus is possibly effective against the infection, the FDA said in a news release.

Though the administration expressed optimism for these therapies, medicine and immunology experts remain skeptical for the results and safety of the treatments.

Robert Schooley, professor of medicine at the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at the University of California, San Diego, told Xinhua the evidence that hydroxychloroquine benefits patients is still not very solid.

"There are risks from these medications, especially in the case of chloroquine, and they should not be taken except under close medical supervision," Schooley said.

Chairs are covered with plastics due to the outbreak of COVID-19 at Union Station in Washington D.C., the United States, March 29, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Chloroquine can cause sudden death by causing abnormalities in cardiac rhythm, and this risk is potentially increased by the simultaneous use of azithromycin, he warned.

Stanley Perlman, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa, told Xinhua there is no data supporting the use of these drugs, unless they have some sort of anti-inflammatory effects.

He said the blood-related therapy may work if delivered in the early stages of the disease before people become sick, though finding enough convalescent plasma may be an issue.

To push more testing, the FDA authorized on Friday a new test developed by U.S. medical devices company Abbott Laboratories.

The test could deliver positive results in just five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes, with 50,000 such tests expected to be conducted per day from next week, according to the company.

Vaccine development is moving along very rapidly, said Trump, adding the United States is quickly unleashing every tool possible to vanquish the virus.

Robert Schooley (L), professor of medicine at the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), speaks in an interview with Xinhua in San Diego, the United States, Feb. 28, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Ying)

"While developing vaccines, we need to use epidemiological interventions such as the ones used in China, and recently in the United States, and drugs as they come along to seek to reduce the morbidity and mortality caused by this virus as much as possible," Schooley said.

Trump announced that federal social distancing guidelines would be extended to April 30.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the mitigation efforts are taking effect and the extension of the social distancing guidelines is a "wise and prudent decision."

Deborah Birx, response coordinator of the White House COVID-19 task force, said social distancing efforts could save hundreds of thousands of American lives.

Trump said the death rate in the country is likely to peak in two weeks, and he hopes the country will be on its way to recovery by June 1.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States has topped 143,025 as of Sunday night, with 2,506 deaths, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

(Article by Xinhua Reporter Tan Jingjing) 
President Nana Akufo-Addo has charged nominees of the Board of Trustees (BOT) for the proposed national Covid-19 Response Trust Fund to do everything within their mandate to complement the government's efforts aimed at supporting the vulnerable and needy in the Ghanaian society as the country battles to stop the spread of the novel Coronavirus in the nation.



In an interaction with the nominees of the Board of Trustees for the Covid-19 Response Public Trust Fund he proposed in his address to the nation on the 27th of March 2020, President Akufo-Addo indicated that he decided to meet with them ahead of the completion of the legal formalities for the establishment of the fund by the Attorney General to draw their attention to the fact that the fund is to compliment the work of government to deal with the impact of Covid-19 on the disadvantaged in the country.



"You have been put together for this exercise essentially to complement the efforts the government and the state is making over this crisis especially with a particular focus on the considerations that have to be made for the needy and the vulnerable. Whatever monies we raise, that is the target," President Akufo-Addo said.



Government Support



The President assured the nominees that they will have the full support of the entire government machinery in the course of executing this mandate given to them.



"The machinery of government will be aligned to be able to support you for the work that you will be doing," President Akufo-Addo noted.



Trust Accounts



The President urged the Bank of Ghana (BOG) to support the Board of Trustees to open Bank Accounts in selected banks through which potential contributors, both home and aboard, can use to deposit their donations to guarantee proper accountability of all funds realised.



Chairperson of the Board



Chairperson nominated for the proposed Covid-19 Trust Fund, Chief Justice Rtd. Justice Sophia Akuffo, in a brief response noted that they accept the challenge thrown to them by the President and they will work very hard to mitigate the likely effect on the target group for the setting up of the fund.



"We undertake to bear the charge you have placed on us with full integrity and efficiency so as to make sure that all our outcomes are transparent, they are quality and they fulfil the purpose for which the Trust is being set up," Justice Rtd. Akuffo said.



Members of the Board



The eight-member Board will be chaired by former Chief Justice Rtd. Sophia A. B. Akuffo. The other members of the board are Archbishop Justice Akrofi, former Anglican Bishop of Accra and former Archbishop of the Church of the Province of West Africa; Mr. Jude Kofi Bucknor, Mrs. Gifty Afenyi Dadzie, Else Addo Awadzi; Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Ofori Sarpong; Chief Executive Officer of the Special Ice Group of Companies, Dr. Abdul-Sameed Tanko, and Dr. Collins Asare, who will also serve as the Secretary to the Board.

Source: GNA









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Toronto Public Health employees staffing a COVID-19 hotline as well as other pandemic and unrelated roles have been told to stay home after eight workers at the health units headquarters downtown tested positive for the coronavirus.

There are 67 other cases of people who have come in close contact with those confirmed positive and who also need to self-isolate, the public health unit said Monday night.

The entire building at 277 Victoria St. near Yonge-Dundas Square was also closed after staff reportedly moved between floors and stations, requiring cleaning of the whole location.

The site has reopened, but limited to workers wearing protective equipment, Dr. Eileen de Villa, who heads the public health unit, said Monday.

Given that COVID-19 is spreading in our community, we were prepared for this unfortunate situation, de Villa said, confirming the eight staff were home in self-isolation.

De Villa, who is Torontos medical officer of health, acknowledged the many personal sacrifices of her team and their commitment to responding to the pandemic. She also said it is possible more public health staff will become sick.

I am truly very, very proud and consider it the highest privilege of my career to be part of such an incredible team of health professionals, said deVilla. They are truly second to none.

In an emergency message sent Sunday night, employees at 277 Victoria St. were told to self-isolate if they were at the building in the previous 10 days and to not report to work on Monday.

De Villa did not say what areas of the building or sections of work had been specifically affected.

According to an email sent by a CUPE Local 79 representative to staff, obtained by the Star, affected areas included a confined space on the 10th floor where hotline workers were and the entire ninth floor, where most staff were working on the COVID-19 response.

One Toronto Public Health employee  who spoke to the Star on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the outbreak and were concerned for their job  said they were aware that six of the confirmed staff cases were related to The Works, a supervised injection site run by the city on the main floor of the building.

An email sent March 23 from Toronto Public Healths incident manager for COVID-19, Dr. Michael Finkelstein, confirmed at least one case at The Works.

Asked Monday about the hotline  which puts public health employees in touch with people seeking assessment, as well as in touch with those they are monitoring as presumed or confirmed cases  de Villa said that they have other hotline locations and they have been continuously training staff to work the phones and perform other roles.

The hotline had previously been inundated with calls, but with increased staff numbers wait times are currently, low and on some points over the weekend there was no wait time at all, de Villa added on Monday

The Works site  the largest of its kind in the city  remained closed on Monday, according to Zoe Dodd, with the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society, a blow in the fight to manage the citys overdose crisis.

On Monday, de Villa also noted that public health officials tracing the coronavirus outbreak often involve staff conferring about cases in meetings, making it challenging to maintain social distancing-and providing the opportunity for spread among employees.

We have done our best in order to provide for a safe work environment, and the health and safety and well-being of our staff as well as the health, safety and well-being of our community is the top priority, she said.

The union email outlined new cleaning protocols to be put in place, as well as signage about high touch cleaning during each shift ahead of the building reopening for some employees.

De Villa said Monday that shed asked the majority of staff to work from home, but some who are not symptomatic would be returning to the office and wearing appropriate personal protective equipment  including face masks  for the next 14 days to prevent any further spread.

Those staff, de Villa said, are doing essential work in the response to COVID-19, which cannot be done remotely. Most of those are involved in contact tracing, which is heavily paper-based, de Villa said.

A new location for Toronto Public Health staff is also being set up in the North York Civic Centre to help with social distancing protocols, according to information distributed by Toronto Public Health to managers and supervisors and obtained by the Star.

Screening at all Toronto Public Health locations would also be put in place, the union email said.

Local 79 President Dave Mitchell said the union remains in contact with the public health unit.

We are closely following the plans to reopen the site and are urging Toronto Public Health to implement heightened safety precautions to protect these staff members and the critical work they do in helping track and manage the spread of COVID-19, he said in a statement.

Coun. Joe Cressy, who chairs the citys board of health, said the city, like the country, is seeing a difficult reality for frontline workers.

While I have confidence in our medical officer of health and the team to be able to both combat this escalating outbreak of COVID-19 in the city and take care of their own . . . theres no sugarcoating it. This hurts.
New Delhi: The April-May-June (AMJ) season is likely to be warmer than normal in most parts of the country, according to India Meteorological Departments (IMD) seasonal outlook for temperatures during the summer season released on Monday.

IMD is also monitoring temperature data in all districts and sharing it with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). According to scientists, various agencies are correlating this temperature data with Covid-19 cases and transmission patterns -- the pursuance of a yet unproven theory that high temperature is the silver bullet that could stop spread of the coronavirus disease.

A non-peer-reviewed study by Sun Yat-sen University in Chinas Guangzhou, published on February 22, contended that every 1-degree-Celsius rise in temperature reduced the spread of the disease, and concluded that the Sars-CoV-2 viruss sensitivity to high temperature could prevent it from spreading in warmer countries during the summer.

Another non-peer-reviewed study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health last month, however, pointed to sustained Sars-CoV-2 transmission in diverse climate conditions, from cold and dry provinces to tropical locations even within China, and concluded that weather alone not necessarily lead to decline in case counts.

IMD said a link between temperature and the virus is yet to be established.

There is no established link between temperature and virus transmission. We are only trying to study if there is. Sharing anything on this will only create confusion because we are at a critical stage. Once data is analysed, we can arrive at a conclusion. We can expect to hit 35 degrees Celsius in north India in early April, and 40 degrees Celsius by April-end. Already parts of central and peninsular India are recording maximum temperature of 35 degrees or more, said DS Pai, senior scientist at IMD Pune.

This summer, the frequency of heat waves in the core heat wave (HW) zone is also likely to be slightly above normal, according to IMDs outlook. Regions that can expect average maximum temperature to be 0.5 to 1 degrees Celsius above normal include east and west Rajasthan, west Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Konkan, Goa, central Maharashtra, Marathawada, north and south interior Karnataka, coastal Karnataka, Rayalaseema and Kerala.

States and regions where the average minimum temperature is likely to be warmer than normal by more than 1 degree Celsius include east and west Rajasthan and Gujarat.

According to the outlook, there is 40% probability that maximum temperatures in the core heat wave zone during April to June 2020 will be above normal. The core HW zone covers Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa,Telangana, Marathwada, central Maharashtra and coastal Andhra Pradesh.

Currently, there is a warm El Nino-Southern Oscillation (Enso)-neutral condition prevailing over the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The latest Monsoon Mission Coupled Forecasting System (MMCFS) forecast indicates that the Enso-neutral conditions are likely to continue during the entire forecast period.

West Odisha has already recorded 40 degrees Celsius. Summer is approaching, but there is a delay in north India because of an unusually high number of western disturbances (WD). There were over six WDs in March. Another WD is expected today which will again bring rain to some regions of northwest India and reduce maximum temperature for a few days, said RK Jenamani, senior scientist at National Weather Forecasting Centre.

According to IMD, a heat wave is recorded when the maximum temperature is 4-5 degrees Celsius above normal in regions where the normal maximum temperature is more than 40 degrees; and 5-6 degrees above normal where the normal maximum temperature is less that 40 degrees. A heat wave is also declared when the actual maximum temperature remains above 45 degrees Celsius at any place irrespective of its normal maximum temperature.
(Netflix)

Key art for new Netflix film Extraction has landed online featuring a brooding Chris Hemsworth.

The new action film, written by Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo, is coming to the streaming service on 24 April.

Previously titled Dhaka, Extraction is the directorial feature debut of Sam Hargrave, a stunt coordinator who worked with the Russo brothers as Chris Evans stunt double on Captain America: Winter Soldier.

He went on to become fight and stunt coordinator on Captain America: Civil War, and shot some second unit on Avengers: Infinity War.

Check out the new artwork below.

(Netflix)

Heres the synopsis: Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) is a fearless black market mercenary with nothing left to lose when his skills are solicited to rescue the kidnapped son of an imprisoned international crime lord.

Read more: The best 4K TV deals

But in the murky underworld of weapons dealers and drug traffickers, an already deadly mission approaches the impossible, forever altering the lives of Rake and the boy.

(Netflix)

Its produced by Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Mike Larocca, Chris Hemsworth, Eric Gitter, and Peter Schwerin, and was filmed on location in India and Thailand in 2018.

It is based on the Oni Press graphic novel Ciudad, created and developed by the Russo Brothers, Andre Parks, and Fernando Leon Gonzalez, published in 2014 from Oni Press.
AFP via Getty Images

Donald Trump is suggesting the United States should treat Germany more like an enemy because the two countries were adversaries in World War II as the president again lobbied for closer US-Russian relations.

If he turns the off-the-cuff remark into US policy, Mr Trump would try fundamentally overhauling the post-World War II global power dynamic that saw Western countries bring Germany into their sphere while combating Moscow and fighting the spread of communism in the post-war era. But with little opposition to the American-German alliance in Congress, especially the GOP-run Senate, such a plan would face ample pushback  including from within his own party.

Mr Trump, during another wildly cascading "Fox & Friends" call-in, launched into a remarkable diatribe about Germany and Russia  and how the United States should treat each country  after being asked about what he and Russian President Vladimir Putin would discuss during a planned telephone conversation Monday morning.

The American leader repeated his long-espoused view that it would be a "good thing" if Washington and Moscow had a warmer relationship, noting he has been saying so since he was first a presidential candidate. Despite his five-year-old contention, the Cold War adversaries remain rivals on the global stage.

"They also fought World War II. They lost 50 million people," Mr Trump said of Russia, then the Soviet Union.

"Germany was the enemy. ... And Germany's [now], like, this wonderful thing," he added, suggesting the now-democratic European power is not-so wonderful in his eyes.

In true Trumpian form, he attempted to give himself some distance from the suggestion, saying of his Germanic ancestry: "Look, it's fine," Mr Trump said of US-German relations. "It's in my heritage."

The US president has grown frustrated at times with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was close with former President Barack Obama and has not always followed Mr Trump's demands or advice.

Story continues

Notably, Ms Merkel in 2018 called on NATO to have a tougher stance against Russia. At home, her Christian Democratic Union political party typically proposes the toughest policy prescriptions for how to deal with Mr. Putin's government.

Mattia Nelles, of the nonpartisan Atlantic Council, has written about a "typical German desire to be on good terms with Russia."

After all, Germany imports $22bn in energy products from Russia, according to ComTrade and TradingEconomics.com. It also buys billions more in copper, aluminum, steel and other crucial materials from Russia, making the relationship one of economic necessity for Berlin.

Despite Mr Trump's veiled call for countries to treat Germany as more foe than friend, Ms Nells' has written that the widespread German view of warm relations with Mr Putin's government "generally is in line with the EU's Russia policy and involves criticising Russia for its illegal activities and pushing back through sanctions, while at the same time trying to engage through trade and civil society or cultural cooperation."

Heather Conley, a former senior State Department official now with the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies, recently called Mr Trump's coronavirus foreign policy approach "personality-driven" and "blame-driven" and "devastating," saying it "has great real-world implications for America's leadership in the world and our allies and partners.

"What happens if you don't like Angela Merkel of Germany? And so this personality dynamic is the new normal, unfortunately," she said on a recent call with reporters. "And it completely neuters the institutions and all the relationships that make the types and the mechanics of crises like these work."

Read more

Listen to the latest episode of The Independent Coronavirus Podcast
A Scottish man has been filmed hurling abuse at a family who went for a walk on a New Zealand beach despite the nation being in lockdown.

The family were walking along Browns Bay Beach in Auckland on Saturday morning when the man swore at them while driving past.

New Zealand has declared a state of emergency and is in lockdown, but people who live in the same household have been cleared to leave once a day for exercise.

The stranger decided to get out of his car and chase after the family.

His outburst was filmed by the mother, who was walking with her husband and three young kids.

A Scottish man was filmed hurling abuse about social distancing at a New Zealand beach as they took a walk during the nationwide lockdown

'He said that we were a bad example, that we were walking as a group and we weren't two metres apart from each other,' the mother, who wished to remain anonymous, told the NZ Herald.

'I repeatedly kept trying to explain to him that we were one family living in one house in one bubble.'

Despite the mother's explanation, the furious man continued to scream at the family, shouting: 'You're not teenagers so you should know better!'

'Stay apart! That's all i'm asking. What the problem is is you telling everyone it's okay to stay in a f**king group.'

The woman and her husband tried to calm him down, insisting they were a family living in the same household.

New Zealand entered a near-total lockdown more than a week ago with grocery shopping and local walks one of few things Kiwis are still allowed to do.

They are otherwise confined to their homes unless they are essential workers who have to leave the house to do their jobs.

All of Government controller John Ombler reiterated that households were allowed to go outside together during a press conference on Saturday.

The family were walking along Browns Bay Beach (pictured) in Auckland on Saturday morning when the man swore at them while driving past

'You can leave the house for physical exercise by yourself or with other members of your household, stick to your bubble. By all means, go for a short walk or run in your neighbourhood,' he said.

But the Scottish man on the beach refused to listen to the family and instead unleashed a torrent of abuse which the mother described as 'foul and disgusting'.

'My sons were getting very upset and I started crying because I was so shocked that someone would hurl such horrible words at you just walking as a family. I still can't understand it,' she said.

The family now refuse to return to the beach, despite it being within walking distance of their house.

'There's no chance that we'll get our three boys to the beach again for a family walk, absolutely none,' the mother said.
Los Angeles, March 30 : Actor Nico Santos, who portrayed Oliver T'sien in "Crazy Rich Asians", shared with the world the news that his stepfather has passed away after battling COVID-19.

Taking to his Instagram account to share a photo of his late stepfather and his mother, the 40-year-old Filipino-American actor wrote: "This is my stepdad Sonny and my mom Tita." "My Tito Sonny passed away yesterday after losing his battle with COVID-19," he added, according to a report in aceshowbiz.com.

Remembering Sonny as "a kind, caring man," the "Superstore" actor shared that Sonny was "friendly to a fault." "He always greeted strangers walking past him with a chipper 'Good Morning!' and a big smile. He had a great laugh that filled the room with joy." In his post, the actor brought up the distressing side of coronavirus.

"The loss of my stepfather is devastating but what has gutted me is that this pandemic has kept my family apart," he stated. "We were unable to be with him during his last days. I can't hold my mother as she mourns her husband. I can't hug my brother as he contemplates a world without his father.

"I can't wipe away the tears from my nephews' eyes as they wonder why their Lolo Sonny isn't here anymore." Santos said that his mother "is also fighting COVID-19." On a positive note, he assured that she "has not required hospitalisation" for the time being.

Near the end, he thanked everyone "who offered up prayers, love and assistance to our family during this difficult time", and asked them "to pray and send healing energy to my mom" before expressing hope that "all of you are staying safe and healthy."
The Chinese embassy refuted media reports that allegedly advocated for Taiwan's participation in the WHO, saying they "seriously violated" the 'one-China' principle.

The statement came following media reports that advocated Taiwan's participation in the World Health Organization.

According to China's 'one-China' policy, there is only one Chinese government and that the island of Taiwan is a breakaway province that belongs to China.

"The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations restricted to only sovereign states," said Counselor Ji Rong, the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in India.

"According to the relevant resolutions of the UN and WHO, and the WHO Constitution, Taiwan has no right to join WHO as a part of China," the spokesperson said.

"Any questions about Taiwan's participation in international organizations must be arranged under the One-China principle," he said in a statement.

Ji claimed that the articles "seriously violated" the 'one-China' principle and sent wrong signals to Indian people. "The Chinese Embassy in India hereby expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Catholic Social Services, in collaboration with the Diocese of Rapid City and with the blessing of Diocesan Administrator Father Michel Mulloy, announces the establishment of a COVID-19 response fund for western South Dakota families.

CSS will allocate the funds, prioritizing applications from households anywhere in western South Dakota that meet one or more of the following conditions:

1) A household member who has a positive test for COVID-19, which has adversely impacted the familys income.

2) Temporarily lost employment due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has adversely impacted the familys income.

3) Health care providers in the family whose employment has resulted in financial hardships for the family.

4) Lost income due to a lack of childcare.

5) Members with pre-existing medical conditions that has caused them to self-quarantine, resulting in financial hardship for the family.

At this point, CSS has limited financial resources to assist with this effort and the amount of assistance per household will depend on available funding and the number of applicants. To apply for assistance, please visit the Catholic Social Services website at cssrapidcity.com to access the application form, or call CSS at 605-348-6086 for information. Anyone interested in contributing to these efforts, please send donations to: 529 Kansas City St., Ste 100, Rapid City, SD 57701 or go to cssrapidcity.com/relief webpage and click on the donate here button.

Father Mulloy encourages all Catholics in western South Dakota to pray for all those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and to continue to support their local parishes that depend on financial contributions normally collected during Sunday Mass.
The musicians indeed did so when they launched into excerpts from the last movement of Tchaikovskys Fifth. To see these young artists  each in his or her own home, most wearing Civic Orchestra of Chicago shirts  was to appreciate anew what the music means to these individuals.
The draft law amending the state budget does not provide for reduced funding of the Ukrainian army.

As for this budget, we have several principled positions. First, the army and military budgets wont be cut, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal announced at a meeting of the agenda-setting meeting in the Parliament, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to him, this concerns the issues of modernization of the military armaments, the construction of housing for the military, as well as the reform of the defence industry complex.

"The troops will be provided with all the necessary protection," Shmyhal assured.

As a reminder, the bill No. 3279 on amendments to the state budget envisages a decrease of UAH 122.9 billion in budget revenues for 2020, including the cuts in general fund worth UAH 121.77 billion.

The Verkhovna Rada plans to consider and approve the changes to the state budget on Monday, March 30.

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Fred Rogers, of that oh-so-famous "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood," recalled that when he was a child and was alarmed by disasters on the news, his mother told him: "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping."

The same is true in the Baton Rouge area during the coronavirus outbreak. We asked our readers to tell us about acts of kindness, and there are many. We will continue to post your stories to shine a light on these good Samaritans, or, as Mr. Rogers might say, these good neighbors.

If you've got a story to share, send it to features@theadvocate.com. Please include everyone's full name and city where they live.

Keeping up with the Joneses

Rhonda Perdue tells us her daughter and her family have been especially helpful.

Perdue and her daughter, Sarah Jones, own the UPS Store on Coursey Boulevard. Following Gov. John Bel Edwards' stay-at-home order, they furloughed their two employees, and Perdue's age puts her in a higher risk category. Since her husband, Tim, is considered an essential employee at a refinery, Perdue has been home alone and Sarah is running the store solo.

"She works alone from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., six days a week, in order to keep our employees safe," Perdue wrote, "and protecting me all the while meeting the needs of the customers, practicing safe distancing and trying to stay healthy herself. She is a superhero in my eyes!"

Sarah's husband, Michael, works full time but checks in on Perdue, bringing groceries and lunches. Their son, Walter, a senior at St. Amant High School, helps his mom at the store when he is not studying or working at Ascension Parish Animal Hospital as a technician.

"He recently gave blood when he received the call saying there is a need for blood donations," Perdue said. "He plans to join the Army National Guard in May 2020. Knowing that the National Guard has been called to service regarding the COVID19 pandemic, I asked him if this would change his decision to enlist and he said, 'No, if anything, it makes me want to join even more. They need me.' I am very proud of him as Im sure you can imagine. As you can see it is hard to 'Keep up with the Joneses.' They have a high bar and wont settle for anything less."

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+7 Louisiana churches using social media, 'drive-in' services, more to reach congregations amid coronavirus Religious leaders are suddenly relying on YouTube, Facebook and even the parking lot of a Dirt Cheap bargain store to reach worshippers amid t

Life Source lifeline

As a nursing home hospice nurse for Life Source Services, Lorraine Crifasi has seen end-of-life tragedy compounded by restrictions on visitors caused by the coronavirus, leaving residents confused and lonely and family members anxious. Her team has facilitated FaceTime calls between residents and loved ones.

"Oh the relief, joy, and tears experienced during these calls!" she said. "Many family members had not been in contact with their loved one since the restrictions were enforced.

"I am tickled to see the wonder on many of the older residents faces. Not only surprise when a family member appears on the screen, but delight in viewing their own image! I am truly blessed to be a part of this tender experience."

Can I get a little vanilla with that? Being furloughed from your job is unpleasant. Having a kind boss makes it much better. Cassandra Garza worked at the Woodhouse Day Spa in Baton Rouge until three weeks ago, when the virus outbreak forced it to suspend operations. Rachel Ransom, the general manager at Woodhouse, asked her and her colleagues how they were doing. "I responded truthfully but somewhat jokingly: I am making French toast, and it looks like we used the last of our vanilla extract, but that were doing fine!" Garza said. When Ransom brought Garza her last paycheck, she brought a little something extra  vanilla extract. "I thought that was just so random, but extremely thoughtful and awesome!" Garza said. "It was a small gesture, but it just made me feel cared for. Experimenting with baking brings me joy. During this difficult time it's important to find joy and to be kind whenever possible. Thank you so much, Rachel!"
YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. Georgia has declared curfew. ARMENPRESS reports Gruzia Online informs that people's movement will be restricted from 21:00 to 06:00, Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Gakharia announced.

''Full-scale quarantine is declared during the state of emergency. Starting from 21:00 to 06:00 people's movement on foot or by transport is forbidden, Gakharia said.

Under the regime of quarantine people aged 70 or above are not allowed to go out. There will be exceptions only for the cases if the citizens goes to a grocery, pharmacy or medical facility nearby his house.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan
If you are building a properly diversified stock portfolio, the chances are some of your picks will perform badly. But the last three years have been particularly tough on longer term Chongqing Iron & Steel Company Limited (HKG:1053) shareholders. Unfortunately, they have held through a 64% decline in the share price in that time. And over the last year the share price fell 45%, so we doubt many shareholders are delighted. Furthermore, it's down 25% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders. Of course, this share price action may well have been influenced by the 16% decline in the broader market, throughout the period.

See our latest analysis for Chongqing Iron & Steel

While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

Chongqing Iron & Steel became profitable within the last five years. That would generally be considered a positive, so we are surprised to see the share price is down. So given the share price is down it's worth checking some other metrics too.

Revenue is actually up 52% over the three years, so the share price drop doesn't seem to hinge on revenue, either. This analysis is just perfunctory, but it might be worth researching Chongqing Iron & Steel more closely, as sometimes stocks fall unfairly. This could present an opportunity.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

SEHK:1053 Income Statement March 30th 2020

We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Having said that, most people consider earnings and revenue growth trends to be a more meaningful guide to the business. So it makes a lot of sense to check out what analysts think Chongqing Iron & Steel will earn in the future (free profit forecasts).

Story continues

A Different Perspective

We regret to report that Chongqing Iron & Steel shareholders are down 45% for the year. Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 17%. Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 18% per year over five years. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. To that end, you should be aware of the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Chongqing Iron & Steel .

Chongqing Iron & Steel is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on HK exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
President Donald Trump said U.S. health officials should have a "good idea" whether an anti-malaria drug being tested as a treatment for COVID-19 is effective in fighting the coronavirus in "the next three days."

"Hydroxychloroquine is something that I have been pushing very hard," Trump said Monday morning during an interview on Fox News. "I think we're going to have a good idea over the next three days because it's been used now in New York at my request -- 1,100 people. It's been used. I think that's better than testing it in a laboratory. But the doctors tell me no."

There are no proven therapies for the treatment of COVID-19 and U.S. health officials expect a vaccine could take 12 to 18 months.

New York state last week began the first large-scale clinical trial using a combination of chloroquine and Azithromycin to treat the coronavirus after the Food and Drug Administration fast-tracked the approval process.

Trump has repeatedly touted chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as a "game-changer" even though the drugs have not been put through rigorous clinical trials to fight CV-19, which has infected more than 730,000 people worldwide in three months. Trump earlier this month directed the FDA to examine whether the drugs can be used to prevent or treat the coronavirus.
Yesterday morning, the homepage of the New York Times made for grim reading. NYCs 911 system is overwhelmed, one headline read. Who should be saved first? another asked, Experts offer ethical guidance. Amid the coverage of the present, horrifying state of things, one prominent story looked back in time, at the period between late January and early March. It did not offer readers any respite; rather, it traced the current problems to a lost month during which officials failure to test widely for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, blinded the US to its advance. Six reportersMichael D. Shear, Abby Goodnough, Sheila Kaplan, Sheri Fink, Katie Thomas, and Noah Weilandinterviewed more than 50 experts and officials, who attributed the testing failure to technical flaws, regulatory hurdles, business-as-usual bureaucracies, and lack of leadership at multiple levels. As Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, of Boston University, told the Times, Testing is the crack that split apart the rest of the response, when it should have tied everything together.

Federal officials arent the only ones who have questions to answer about their initial response to the spread of the coronavirus; state and local governments do, too. When journalists have asked such questions, theyve sometimes gotten answers; other times, however, theyve met with blanket denials, and/or the insinuation that in light of the present emergency, bygones should be allowed to be bygones, at least for now. Yesterday, we heard that reasoning from Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, on CNN. When Jake Tapper played footage of de Blasio saying, as recently as March 13, that New Yorkers should go about their daily lives, de Blasio replied that We should not be focusing, in my view, on anything looking back on any level of government right now. Tapper pushed backde Blasio, he pointed out, had himself made critical remarks about Trumps early handling of the crisis. You can ask all the questions you wanttheyre fair, de Blasio said. But I think the time to deal with these questions is after this war is over, because literally, here in New York City, it feels like a wartime environment.

Related: Glowing coverage of Cuomo also raises difficult questions

Such logic may sound fair, but its faultyand not just because politicians shouldnt get to write journalists questions for them. Assessing the mistakes that got us here isnt an indulgent distraction and asking officials about them isnt gotcha journalism. First and foremost, we are, as we speak, living the results of those mistakesthe rising infection and death counts arent apropos of nothing, and situating them in context isnt exactly looking back. Thats true of lots of stories, but its especially true of this one, since many of the dynamics surrounding the coronavirusand the measures taken to slow its spreadmanifest with a time delay. And sunlight, as the cliche goes, can disinfectpublicizing our leaders mistakes to this point increases the odds that theyll rectify them, or avoid similar mistakes, going forward. Waiting until after this war is over is too long to wait.

Instead of listening, some of our leaders are instead choosing to slam the press, or shut it out altogether. President Trumpwho has long favored that approachhas bashed news coverage throughout the coronavirus crisis. Yesterday, he was at it again, respectively accusing Yamiche Alcindor, of PBS, and Jeremy Diamond, of CNN, of threatening language and of dishonesty, when they were simply asking the president about questionable things hed said last week. Its not just Trump. On Saturday, Mary Ellen Klas, a reporter with the Tallahassee bureau of the Miami Herald and the Tampa Bay Times, was turned away from a briefing with Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida; state officials said Klas was denied entry in response to concerns she (and others) had raised about social-distancing practices at press conferences, but First Amendment organizations called that a thin excuse to dodge scrutiny. (Last weekend, the Heralds editorial board criticized DeSantiss crisis management so far, and called on him to act like you give a damn.) Yesterday, another Florida Republican, Sen. Marco Rubio, tweeted that some in the media have been unable to contain their glee & delight about confirmed virus cases in the US surpassing Chinas official count.

This, of course, was a terrible thing to sayas many in the media pointed out in response, journalists, just like everyone else, have been affected by this crisis, on levels from the financial to the deeply personal. As Rubios tweet circulated yesterday, so did the news that Maria Mercader, a veteran of CBS News, had died after contracting the virus. Mercader isnt the only person our industry has lost since this began. Were not asking questions about politicians failures for fun, or to be difficult; were drawing attention to them because we want them to stop. That shouldnt need to be said, but there we are.

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Some of our leaders have taken a different tone toward the press than Trump, Rubio, et al. Yesterday, Phil Scott, the Republican governor of Vermont, posted a video to Twitter in which he called on residents of his state to offer financial support to local news outlets. Were fortunate to live in a country where free speech and the freedom of the press are constitutional rights, Scott said. Its a fundamental part of who we are as Americans. He continued, There are times I dont like the way a story comes out, but accountability and facts are so importantespecially nowand you deserve transparency and the truth. The merits of transparency and the truth dont expire just because the facts are in the past.

Below, more on the coronavirus:



Other notable stories:

ICYMI: Why did Matt Drudge turn on Donald Trump?

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Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among other outlets. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop.
Last year marked a slight decrease in global technology M&A activity from the blockbuster year that was 2018  when SAP bought Qualtrics for $8 billion, IBM acquired Red Hat for a staggering $33 billion and Broadcom picked up CA Technologies for $18.9 billion in cash.

As of the end of Q3 2019, technology M&A deals worth $245 billion had been announced globally, marking a decrease of 25% year-on-year according to GlobalData.

Which mergers and acquisitions does 2020 have in store? If January alone is anything to go by, there will be no slowing of major deals across the industry, with security already proving to be a hot area.

Here are the biggest technology acqusitions of 2020 so far, in reverse chronological order:

14 December: Vista Equity Partners buys Pluralsight for $3.5B

Private equity firm Vista Equity Partners has agreed to buy the Utah-based training software specialist Pluralsight for $3.5 billion in cash, a small premium on its market cap at the time of the sale of $2.94 billion.

[Also on Computerworld: Utah's four SaaS unicorns come of age]

Founded in 2004, Pluralsight provides online training software-as-a-service (SaaS) that allows companies to offer employees bespoke training courses, or individual contributors to sign up to hone their IT skills. The enterprise version of the platform also comes with analytics, allowing HR and IT leaders to see where they have skills gaps and to identify training requirements for tech staffers. Pluralsight went public on the Nasdaq in 2018, seeing its stock price dip during the pandemic this year before rebounding to its IPO price this month.

Todays announcement is an exciting milestone for Pluralsight as we begin the next phase of our evolution, Aaron Skonnard, cofounder and CEO of Pluralsight, said in a statement. Through this partnership with Vista, we will be able to move faster and be more agile, accelerate our strategic vision and, ultimately, deliver deeper, more powerful solutions that help companies adapt and thrive in the digital age. We are relentlessly focused on helping enterprises improve and optimize their technology workforce and providing the most effective path to skills transformation for their technology teams."

Vista focuses on investments in enterprise software companies and also counts the likes of Apptio, Datto and Jamf in its portfolio.

1 December: Salesforce to acquire Slack for $27.7B

Salesforce saved the biggest software acquisition of the year (so far) until last, snapping up the popular workplace communication company Slack for $27.7 billion in stock and cash.

The deal brings together two software-as-a-service (SaaS) giants, with Slack seeing explosive growth since its founding in 2009. It also marks the biggest acquisition of Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff's career, blowing the $15.3 billion deal for data visualisation specialist Tableau last year out of the water. For context, the final price is more than Microsoft paid for LinkedIn ($26.2 billion) in 2016 and is only topped by IBMs $34 billion purchase of Red Hat in 2018.

This is a match made in heaven," Benioff said in a statement. "Together, Salesforce and Slack will shape the future of enterprise software and transform the way everyone works in the all-digital, work-from-anywhere world. Im thrilled to welcome Slack to the Salesforce Ohana once the transaction closes."

[Also on Computerworld: Why a Slack acquisition would make sense for Salesforce]

Despite its popularity, Slack hasn't fared particularly well since it went public in June 2019 via a direct listing. Fierce competition from Microsoft Teams and videoconferencing tools such as Zoom, combined with continued struggles with profitability, has pushed the company's stock price down by as much as 40% over that period.

The SaaS company expects to make close to $850 million in revenue for the 2021 financial year, but is still running at a loss despite having 130,000 paying users at last count. In Salesforce, it joins a company that recently passed an annualized run rate of $17 billion. Slack cofounder and CEO Stewart Butterfield will continue to lead the company after the deal closes.

30 November: Facebook acquires Kustomer for $1B

Facebook announced that it is acquiring New York-based startup Kustomer in November, for a reported $1 billion.

Founded in 2015, Kustomer has built an omnichannel customer relationship management (CRM) platform, specifically focused on the contact center. Facebook is increasingly keen to connect customers of its Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram services with businesses and is fully aware of the need for businesses to seamlessly talk to their customers across a broad variety of digital channels.

"Facebook plans to support Kustomers operations by providing the resources it needs to scale its business, improve and innovate its product offering, and delight its customers," Dan Levy, Vice President of Ads and Business Products, and Matt Idema, COO, WhatsApp, wrote in a joint statement. "That way, more people will benefit from customer service that is faster, richer and available whenever and however they need it, whether its phone, email, web chat or messaging."

10 November: Adobe to acquire Workfront for $1.5B

Adobe announced the acquisition of project management tool Workfront for $1.5 billion at the start of November.

Utah-based Workfront is a task management and collaboration tool that operates in a highly competitive space alongside the likes of Microsoft Project and Planner, Wrike, Asana, Smartsheet, Liquid Planner, monday.com, Jira, Trello and Clarizen. Unlike those firms, it focuses on specifically helping marketing professionals get their work done, aligning well with Adobe  specifically its Experience Cloud product.

Workfront counted 3,000 customers and 1 million users at the time of the acquisition, including a number of shared customers with Adobe, such as Deloitte, Under Armour, Nordstrom, Prudential Financial, T-Mobile, and The Home Depot.

Adobe and Workfront share a common affinity to help the modern marketer thrive in an ever-evolving, increasingly demanding setting, Workfront CEO Alex Shootman  who will remain in the role  said in a statement. Were excited to join Adobe and believe this will be a tremendous opportunity for our customers and partners.

29 October: Marvell Technology to acquire Inphi for $10B

The semiconductor market continued to consolidate at a rapid pace toward the end of 2020, when Marvell Technology announced that it will acquire Inphi in a $10 billion cash-and-stock deal. This followed AMD's purchase of Xilinx earlier in October and Nvidia buying Arm in September, marking a major shake-up of the industry.

The two California-based firms will combine to form a chip company worth around $40 billion and plan to focus on building high-performance chips for data centers and 5G wireless infrastructure.

Inphi specializes in optical-networking chips, which are most commonly used in cloud data centers and by telcos to power their 5G networking infrastructure. Marvell has historically been strong in similar areas, making the acquisition highly complementary.

Marvell and Inphi share a vision to enable the worlds data infrastructure and we have both transformed our respective businesses to benefit from the strong secular growth expected in the cloud data center and 5G wireless markets Ford Tamer, president and CEO of Inphi said as part of the announcement. Combining with Marvell significantly increases our scale, accelerates our access to the next generations of process technology, and opens up new opportunities in 5G connectivity.

27 October: AMD to acquire Xilinx for $35B

Merger-and-acquisition activity in the semiconductor market continued to boom in late October when AMD announced it would acquire Xilinx in a $35 billion all-stock deal.

Xilinx specializes in programmable processors aimed at high-performance use cases like video file compression and digital encryption, and will help AMD compete with Intel in data centers. Both US firms also outsource the manufacturing of their chips, primarily to Taiwan, and use modular design principles, so there are immediate synergies to be seen in the deal.

Our acquisition of Xilinx marks the next leg in our journey to establish AMD as the industrys high performance computing leader and partner of choice for the largest and most important technology companies in the world, AMD President and CEO Lisa Su said in a statement.

The Xilinx team is one of the strongest in the industry and we are thrilled to welcome them to the AMD family. By combining our world-class engineering teams and deep domain expertise, we will create an industry leader with the vision, talent and scale to define the future of high performance computing.

Xilinx CEO Victor Peng will take the role of president, responsible for the Xilinx business and strategic growth initiatives when the companies are combined in 2021.

12 October: Twilio to acquire Segment for $3.2B

Cloud communications specialist Twilio made a splashy acquisition in October, picking up customer data platform Segment for $3.2 billion in an all-stock deal.

Both San Francisco-based companies specialize in application programming interfaces (APIs) that make collecting and consolidating customer data (Segment) and communicating via digital channels (Twilio) easier than building this functionality from scratch.

Data silos destroy great customer experiences, Jeff Lawson, co-founder and CEO of Twilio, said in a statement. Segment lets developers and companies break down those silos and build a complete picture of their customer. Combined with Twilio's Customer Engagement Platform, we can create more personalized, timely and impactful engagement across customer service, marketing, analytics, product and sales.

Twilio hopes that by bringing Segment's rich customer data together with its variety of engagement channels it can enable something close to personalized customer outreach at scale  the modern day holy grail for many marketeers.

13 September: Nvidia to acquire Arm for $40B

Chipmaker Nvidia confirmed the planned acquisition of UK-based chip designer Arm in September for $40 billion in a combined stock-and-cash deal. The purchase sees the Japanese telco Softbank part with an asset it only acquired in 2016.

Simon Segars and his team at Arm have built an extraordinary company that is contributing to nearly every technology market in the world. Uniting NVIDIAs AI computing capabilities with the vast ecosystem of Arms CPU, we can advance computing from the cloud, smartphones, PCs, self-driving cars and robotics, to edge IoT, and expand AI computing to every corner of the globe," Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA said in a statement.

Based in Cambridge, England, Arm designs chips for companies such as Nvidia and its rivals to manufacture. "As part of NVIDIA, Arm will continue to operate its open-licensing model while maintaining the global customer neutrality that has been foundational to its success, with 180 billion chips shipped to-date by its licensees," the company said.

In terms of Nvidia's commitment to the UK, it outlined in the announcement that Arm will remain headquartered in Cambridge," and the company will continue to "attract researchers and scientists from the UK and around the world."

"I thought that Arm was the best tech company to come out of the UK in the last 50 years. I thought that its original sale to Softbank in 2016 for $32 billion was a mistake and should have been stopped by HMGovt at that time. I thought allowing Softbank to offload to Nvidia was an even bigger mistake on so many fronts," analyst Richard Holway at TechMarketView said.

8 September: Progress Software acquires Chef for $220M

In September, Progress Software announced it was acquiring the infrastructure-as-code pioneer Chef for $220 million in cash.

This acquisition perfectly aligns with our growth strategy and meets the requirements that weve previously laid out: a strong recurring revenue model, technology that complements our business, a loyal customer base and the ability to leverage our operating model and infrastructure to run the business more efficiently, CEO Yogesh Gupta said in a statement.

Chef and Progress share a vision for the future of DevSecOps and Progress will provide the scale to further drive Chefs platform forward and deliver additional value to our customers, said Chef CEO Barry Crist.

The price tag shows that Chef has had a hard time maintaining its early momentum in the highly competitive open source DevOps tooling space. When it last raised funding in 2015 the company was valued at $360 million.

13 July: HPE picks up Silver Peak for $925 million

Hewlett Packard Enterprise made a big commitment to the SD-WAN (software-defined networking in a wide area network) market in July when it announced its intention to buy Silver Peak for $925 million.

Founded in 2004, Silver Peak specialises in WAN technology and will join HPE's networking brand Aruba.

"Our Unity EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform is highly complementary to HPE's industry-defining SD-Branch offerings and it will become the centerpiece of Aruba's WAN edge strategy," Silver Peak CEO David Hughes wrote in a blog post. "Upon closing the deal, we will become part of HPE's Aruba division, bringing together the industry's most comprehensive end-to-end secure networking portfolio from the data centre to the campus, to branch and remote worker locations."
The late Professor Stephen Schneider  the father of global warming hysteria  was not a man who let uncertainty trouble him.

He gained fame by insisting that were headed for a disastrous warming of Earths climate. But before that, he declared with equal confidence just the opposite.

He said we were headed for a disastrous ice age.

That was back in the 1970s, before global warming became the environmental fad.

Many other scientists shared his ice-age fears.

In those days the New York Times and Washington Post brought us daily warnings that wed better keep those long johns handy. Were in for a long-term temperature plunge, said the climate Cassandras of the day.

But  oops  that view soon was abandoned as assbackward. Schneider and other doomsayers abruptly reversed their hysteria. Trade in that parka for good air conditioning, they said. Its gonna get really hot!

But not so fast, says a guy named Gregory Wrightstone. Maybe Schneider was right the first time.

Wrightstone is  as described by a chorus of detractors  a climate denier, a climate contrarian, a climate flat-earther, a climate Neanderthal, a climate fascist, etc.

Hes a science writer, educated as a geologist, who persists in subjecting the global-warming panic to skeptical scrutiny.

In his book Inconvenient Facts, he notes that our planet is, in geologic terms, nearing the end of its current interglacial warming period.

Earth for thousands and thousands of years has gone through cycles of climate change, through warm periods and cold, as scientifically measured by ice core samples taken in Antarctica and Greenland.

The warm periods, judging by past cycles, last 10,000 to 15,000 years. And were now in the 11,000th year of the current warm cycle. So maybe its best to hold onto that old goose-down parka, says Wrightstone.

A catastrophic deep freeze could be upon us any day now, just as the father of global warming once suggested himself.

Or, maybe not. On the other hand, the current warm era might go on for a few thousand years more. Such is the uncertainty of climate science.

Wrightstone is not trying to hype ice-age hysteria as an antidote to global-warming hysteria. Hes simply making the point that when it comes to planetary climate there are countless complicating factors and unknowns.

Much of the fear-mongering of climate-change science derives less from data gathered from empirical observation than from data tweaked by computer modeling. Climate-change science has a political agenda as its unmistakable leitmotif.

Yes, were in a warming trend. But as skeptics note, thats neither unusual nor unprecedented. It was, says Wrightstone, warmer than it is today for 6,100 of the last 10,000 years.

Its also true, he concedes, that carbon dioxide  the so-called greenhouse gas  has risen to 406 parts per million (ppm) in modern times. But theres no scientific reason to believe, as many Chicken Little activists declare, that the sky is falling.

Its not likely that 406 ppm is a tipping point, given that the average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over the last 600 million years was 2,600 ppm.

Among todays congregations of climate apocalyptics, carbon dioxide is the No. 1 evil pollutant bedeviling the environment.

Bernie Sanders seems to rate this compound of carbon and oxygen as the most malevolent of artifacts ever left behind by robber-baron capitalism.

Spluttering and gesticulating with earnest animation, he says that the sale of carbon fuels ought to be made a criminal offense. Put your local gas station manager in the slammer alongside your local meth dealer.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden has pretty much adopted the Sanders position on the horrors of climate change and the urgency of imposing dire, drastic, desperation measures.

Sand must be thrown into the gears of the economy, goes the progressive line of thinking. Fear not, progressives add, this will create millions upon millions of high-paying green jobs. Yeah, sure it will.

The climate apocalyptics gloss over the reality that carbon dioxide  actually constituting only 0.04 percent of our atmosphere  is essential to life.

The most prevalent greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is, by the way  by far  water vapor. I.e., clouds. Should the EPA regulate clouds? Outlaw them as criminal?

Yes, carbon dioxide is produced when you drive your car or turn on your air-conditioning. (Also when you exhale or crepitate.) Its produced, too, by plant respiration, the decomposition of biologic matter, livestock flatulence and other natural phenomena.

Carbon dioxide actually is, to an extent, a blessing, a plant nutrient that has made the world warmer and greener.

We are lucky to live in a warm period of agricultural bounty. As Wrightstone notes, such periods in history have coincided with great human advancements  the Renaissance, for example. Cold periods have historically coincided with stagnation, deprivation and misery.

Meanwhile, climate anxiety seems more inclined to raise questions than provide definitive answers.

Among the many natural factors known to affect earth temperatures are solar activity, ocean currents, volcanic activity below the ocean surface and on land, cyclical variations in earths tilt and orbit and so on.

Yes, and human activity too. Likely. To some degree.

But to what degree?

How much climate change precisely may be attributed to human pollution? And how much to natural variation, including the factors just listed?

Thats the multi-trillion-dollar question. And shouting down skeptics by likening them to Holocaust deniers and insisting the debate is over is no answer to the question.

Copenhagen environmental statistician Bjorn Lomborg calculates that King Canute-type proposals put forward commanding global warming to recede like the tides would cost on the order of $1.5 trillion a year yet yield practically nothing in return.

Under the most optimistic scenario, he calculates that a $1.5 trillion annual hit on the economy would get us a barely measurable long-term reduction in global temperatures  a mere, fractional reduction of 0.31 degrees Fahrenheit.

But never mind data. Political dogma now asserts  in lockstep unanimity  that global warming is, by gosh, the No. 1 existential threat America faces today. Case closed. Slammed shut. No further debate permitted.

And there are those politicians and activists who are now striving to link the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic to global warming.

Business-as-usual congressional Democrats contrived to load up coronavirus-recovery legislation with irrelevant political pork in the form of climate-change mandates.

This effort was in line with the activist credo enunciated by Rahm Emanuel when he was President Obamas chief of staff. You never let a serious crisis go to waste, said Emanuel. And what I mean is that, its an opportunity to do things you could not do before.

Those who are inclined to favor a bossy, meddling, know-it-all government have elaborate schemes for setting the global thermostat just so, in order that humans, henceforth and forever, may enjoy balmy, moderate weather.

But such activists blur the details of how exactly this state of climate nirvana is to be achieved. The part they skip over is that a tamed climate is actually to be achieved:

 By higher gas prices and electricity rates aimed at discouraging use of fossil fuels.

 By ratcheting up regulatory measures and costs to subsidize wind turbines, solar panels and other renewable energy measures.

 By a ban on fracking, thereby ending Americas status as a leading global energy producer. And thereby rendering the world more dependent on Russia and on unstable fossil-fuel producers in the Middle East.

 By rationing energy, whether intentionally or not, through fuel-shortage brownouts and blackouts.

 And  as now, thanks to the coronavirus  by curtailing emissions via a shutdown or hobbled economy.

Hunker down! Tighten that belt! Abjure all conveniences! The new hallway monitors of our lives such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez tell us humankind must now pay the debt it has run up on creature comforts. Time to do without!

Lomborg, the Danish guy, has a different idea. Why not launch an energy version of the Manhattan Project or Apollo 11 mission? Maybe we could have fewer, meddling, quagmire military missions in distant lands and apply those funds instead toward breakthrough energy research.

Why not seek a real energy breakthrough rather than fritter away tax dollars on research calculated to reach preordained conclusions promoting global warming political panic?

Why not pursue the objective of real energy alternatives, as opposed to patch-work alternatives like solar and wind with their technological limitations including energy storage and transmission issues?

Where, by the way, are the hundreds of thousands of 400-ft. tall wind turbines and millions of acres of solar arrays necessary to service metro areas going to be located? The answer to that question is likely to be a deafening cry of Not, by God, in my neighborhood!

And where, if not from carbon-fuel sources, are we to get the millions of tons of steel, copper, cobalt, lithium and other component materials for wind turbines and solar arrays? Should we enact laws decreeing that 50 percent of such materials shall be extracted from moon beams by the year 2030?

Its one thing to push wind and solar as incremental, supplemental measures. Its another thing altogether  namely, abject folly  to mandate them as substitutes to radically reduce or eliminate the use of gas, oil and coal, as many states are doing.

Why go on pushing renewables as priority energy sources when we know full well they cant meet economic needs or come remotely close to doing so?

The U.S. Energy Information Administration is inclined at every opportunity to sing hosannas in behalf of renewable energy. But even it projects that renewables will provide only 38 percent of global electricity needs by 2050.

That leaves carbon fuels to go on carrying 62 percent of the load. Either that or we can accept energy rationing via brownouts and blackouts. And poor nations can go on accepting deprivation. Nearly a billion people in the world have no access to electricity and to the health and sanitary benefits that come with it.

If a wintry climate cycle does come along one of these days, our great-great grandchildren surely will be most grateful for our foresight and effort in finding real energy alternatives.

But maybe not so much if we merely wish them lots of luck and leave them shivering amid wind turbines, solar panels, massive regulatory bureaucracies and the ruins of a wrecked economy.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 19:21:56|Editor: huaxia

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Girls play at Khamer displaced camp in Amran province, Yemen, March 21, 2020. In Amran province, northern Yemen, more than 5,000 displaced people live in hundreds of tents lined up as far as the eyes can see. They say inadequate sanitation and lack of healthcare make them vulnerable to deadly diseases, particularly if the novel coronavirus breaks out. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua)

AMRAN, Yemen, March 30 (Xinhua) -- In Amran province, northern Yemen, more than 5,000 displaced people live in hundreds of tents lined up as far as the eyes can see.

They say inadequate sanitation and lack of healthcare make them vulnerable to deadly diseases, particularly if the novel coronavirus breaks out.

"We are vulnerable to epidemic diseases including the coronavirus ... In the camp, the displaced lack medical care and even the protective mask," Maher Qassem, one of the displaced in Khamer camp, told Xinhua.

"There must be precautionary procedures to protect the displaced against epidemics," Qassem, 37, said.

Although Yemen has not recorded any case of COVID-19 so far, there are fears that a potential outbreak could pose grave pressure on the country that suffered five years of civil war and has more than half of its health system damaged.

In the past two weeks, the rival parties have both imposed health precautionary measures in major cities, including halt of school classes and domestic travel for two weeks.

However, the health authorities are still struggling to cope with the already existing problems such as cholera, malnutrition and dengue fever.

"I was displaced to this camp in the Khamer area because of the war. Someone here gave me a blanket to cover my children but we still suffer from cold and hunger," Omar Hassan, another displaced, told Xinhua.

Abdu Ahmed, his wife and nine children have also fled the war to this camp, but they complain of dire circumstances.

"We were displaced from Al-Wazaia village (in Taiz province) to here because of the war, and our condition now is very hard with no blankets or food," he said.

Over 3 million displaced people in Yemen rely on assistances from the United Nations aid agencies regularly since the country slid into civil war in late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi group seized control of much of the country's north and forced the Saudi-backed government of president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.

The grinding war has entered its sixth year with no end in sight yet.

The United Nations is trying to end the war that has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed over 20 million to the brink of starvation.

For Qassem, he hopes the war will end.

"We hope the war will end, so we can go back to our homes to live as we were before."


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After Ramayan and Mahabharat's return to the television screen, people have now started demanding re-telecast of Indias first-ever superhero drama Shaktimaan.

Overwhelmed by the growing demand, Mukesh Khanna, who portrayed the role of Shaktimaan in the serial, has spilled the beans and said a sequel is on the cards.

In an interview to Bombay Times, the actor said he has been working towards coming up with the second edition of the Shaktimaan for a while.

For the last three years, we have been working towards bringing out the second edition of Shaktimaan, which is contemporary, but rooted in our values because people wanted to know, aage kya hua, the actor said, adding, I feel whenever we return to work after this crisis, I will be in a better position to bring out the second part because the demand for it is higher than ever before.

Some other shows are also making a comeback on DD. Here is the list of such shows:

Chanakya : Directed by Chandraprakash Dwivedi, this one is planned for daily telecast in the afternoon time bands of DD Bharti from 1st week of April, 2020.

Upanishad Ganga: Produced by Chinmaya Mission Trust and directed by Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi, it is also scheduled for afternoon slots on DD Bharti starting 1st Week of April, 2020.

Shriman Shrimati: This rib tickling comedy produced by Markand Adhikari is scheduled for a comeback on DD National from April 2020 in the 2 PM slot.

Krishna Kali: 18 episodes of this show are scheduled for a daily telecast at 8:30 PM on DD National.

Follow @News18Movies for more
New York City and environs present as our own version of Wuhan. It is a public health dystopia. I was encouraged on Saturday when President Trump stated that he was considering a quarantine on New York, New Jersey, and parts of Connecticut. It sounded like a good idea to me. I thought it made perfect sense.

What is the argument against it? According to the Wall Street Journal, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo decried the quarantine idea a declaration of war on states that would crash financial markets and result in legal challenges. A lockdown is what they did in Wuhan, China, and were not in China, Cuomo said on CNN Saturday evening.

What is he talking about? Im not entirely sure. I take it as an allusion to the American constitutional regime versus the Chinese Communist regime. The argument needs to be fleshed out, but Cuomo obviously prefers to shut down the discussion, or the thought underlying it.

To the extent that an argument underlies Cuomos comment, Cuomo must believe that a quarantine would be unconstitutional. Andrew McCarthy usefully addresses the legal issues in the NR column Does President Trump Have the Power to Issue a Quarantine Order? The Journal quotes legal experts on both sides of the question. Im with Andrew McCarthy; I think the president has the authority to order a quarantine under the circumstances.

President Trump climbed down from the idea of a quarantine on Saturday night. Apparently in lieu of a presidential quarantine order, the CDC issued a travel advisory on Saturday urging residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to refrain from non-essential domestic travel for 14 days, effective immediately. I take it that President Trump assessed the costs versus the benefits (including the political element of each) in coming down against a quarantine.

What is to be done? I wonder if a more limited kind of quarantine might not make sense. We are in lockdown in Minnesota. As of this moment, the states data attribute 9 deaths and 39 hospitalized as a result of the virus. We are told that we are early in the curve that will result in a death spiral. Why hasnt the governor called on the airlines to limit air travel from New York to Minneapolis? There is no harm in asking and it would draw attention to the public health hazard that New York presents to those of us in flyover country.

The problem with shutting down discussion is that it prevents us from developing our own informed assessment of the costs versus the benefits of the options before us. The impetus to shut down discussion courses in the veins of the White House reporters and the rest of the mainstream media. We can see it every day in the White House task force briefings and in the media organs that empower Andrew Cuomo and his like with their support. They really dont want us to be in a position to make up our own minds and do something about it.

The graph below (via Erick Erickson) is a few days old, but it raises the question. What is to be done, or what else is to be done?
There are usually thousands of incredible performers that tread the boards up and down the country on a nightly basis, bringing laughs, cheers and excitement to punters in their droves. For those who want that extra dose of celeb-y stardom, here are the famous faces you can book for right now for shows happening soon. No one knows how long the coronavirus is going to be going on for, but we have high hopes that these shows will be there when theatre does return.





David Tennant in Good

David Tennant

 Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage

David Tennant is back on stage in this gripping drama, which follows a philosopher as he comes to terms with the Nazi doctrines of the 1930s. A heavy subject matter but we can't wait to see Tennant come into his own on a West End stage once more. Playhouse Theatre, from 6 October





Amber Davies and Louis Smith in Bring It On tour

Louis Smith and Amber Davies in Bring It On: the Musical

 Uli Weber

The musical, which features co-composer and co-lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda, will have its eagerly anticipated UK premiere later this year with a storming Southbank Centre run over Christmas. Who wouldn't want a helping of Louis Smith and Amber Davies to help spread some festive cheer? UK tour to open this year, with Southbank Centre run from 9 December to 10 January 2020





Beverley Knight in The Drifters Girl

Beverley Knight

 Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage

It's no secret that the award-winning actor is an absolute musical powerhouse, so seeing Beverley Knight back in a brand new musical both in Newcastle and the West End will be a theatre highlight of the 2020 calendar. The piece, about the music of The Drifters, will definitely have some pretty stellar tunes. Theatre Royal Newcastle, 5 to 19 September, and Garrick Theatre, from 1 October.





Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Steve Pemberton in The Pillowman

Martin McDonagh, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Steve Pemberton

 Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage

Martin McDonagh's gripping black comedy is back on stage, with a starry cast led by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Steve Pemberton. We're buzzing for the prospect of this one. Duke of York's Theatre, 24 Jul to Sat 17 Oct





Rhys Ifans in To Kill a Mockingbird

Rhys Ifans

 Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage

The iconic Broadway production is finally coming to UK shores, with one of the most versatile and exciting actors in the leading role. Rhys Ifans will inject something magical into Harper Lee's text (adapted by Aaron Sorkin) and we're intrigued to see what the result is. The show runs until the end of October so will likely be sticking around for a while. Gielgud Theatre, from 21 May





Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford in Sunday in the Park with George

Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford in the New York production of Sunday in the Park with George

( Matthew Murphy)

It is meant to kick off its West End run in June by which point all the virus nightmares may have subsided, so we can't wait to see Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford return to Sondheim's iconic musical Sunday in the Park with George. Savoy Theatre, from 5 June





Too many to name in City of Angels

Hadley Fraser, Rebecca Trehearn, Rosalie Craig and Vanessa Williams

( three left: Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage, far right: David Gordon for TheaterMania)

Though its official opening night was meant to be this week, City of Angels is booked into the Garrick Theatre until September, so we're pretty sure we'll have a chance to watch the star-studded re-mounting of Josie Rourke's adaptation of the iconic musical. You really don't want to miss this. Garrick Theatre, until 5 September





Alexandra Burke in My Best Friend's Wedding

Alexandra Burke

 Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage

Alexandra Burke heads up a brand new musical based on the film about a couple of late-20-somethings that promise to marry each other if they don't find anyone else. It features a shedload of Burt Bacharach and Hal David songs so will probably be a cockle-warming experience with lots of romance to boot. Tour opens at Theatre Royal Plymouth, from 16 September





Samantha Barks in Frozen

Samantha Barks will star as Elsa in Frozen, it has been confirmed

 Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage

Samantha Barks, of Les Mis and Pretty Woman fame, returns to the West End in a big way in the stage version of the blockbuster smash Disney film. We don't know who else will be joining her as of yet, but seeing Barks back and ready to let loose with "Let It Go" is a very exciting prospect. Theatre Royal Drury Lane, from 30 October





Arinze Kene in Get Up, Stand Up!

Bob Marley (left) and Arinze Kene (right)

 Left: Fifty-Six Hope Road Music, Adrian Boot. Right: Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage

Bob Marley is an iconic musical figure, so it'll be extra special to see his story come to life on stage, with stalwart performer Arinze Kene of Misty fame in the lead role. We're already excited and it doesn't open for another 10 months! Lyric Theatre, from 6 February 2021





Carrie Hope Fletcher in Cinderella

Carrie Hope Fletcher

 AKA

A brand new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical is always an occasion, and seeing Carrie Hope Fletcher tackle one of the most iconic stories in history is an equally intriguing proposition. The show will also re-open the swankified Gillian Lynne Theatre, which is having some construction work done to it. Gillian Lynne Theatre, from 9 October





Sheridan Smith in Cilla

Sheridan Smith

 Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage

The only thing more exciting than seeing Sheridan Smith taking on the role of Cilla once more is the fact that the show will be heading to a few venues up and down the country after a four-week spell in Liverpool. Liverpool Empire from 23 September then tour





Imelda Staunton, Andy Nyman, Jenna Russell in Hello, Dolly!

Andy Nyman, Jenna Russell and Imelda Staunton

 Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage

Where does the list stop on this one  Tyrone Huntley, Clare Halse and more will be joining the Queen herself Imelda Staunton, Fiddler's Andy Nyman and theatre legend Jenna Russell in a hotly anticipated re-staging of the brilliant Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart musical. Adelphi Theatre, from 11 August





Jessica Chastain in A Doll's House

Jessica Chastain in A Doll's House

 Charlie Gray

Jamie Lloyd's season at the Playhouse Theatre has sadly been cut short before the Emilia Clarke-led The Seagull had got out of previews. We're hoping the new revival of A Doll's House starring Jessica Chastain will find its way in front of punters at some point later in the year  Chastain is an incredible performer and Ibsen may well show her talents at their finest. Playhouse Theatre, from 10 June 2020





Mark Gatiss in A Christmas Carol

Mark Gatiss

 Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage

Gatiss will be playing Jacob Marley in this new version of Dickens' classic, which has its premiere in Nottingham this Christmas with direction by Adam Penford. After that it will be hopping down to London, for a further run at Alexandra Palace Theatre. Nottingham Playhouse, 30 October to 14 November then Alexandra Palace Theatre, 27 November to 10 January





Amanda Abbington, Reece Shearsmith and Frances Barber in The Unfriend

Amanda Abbington, Reece Shearsmith and Frances Barber

 Seamus Ryan

Mark Gatiss is having a busy second half of the year  before starring in his own version of A Christmas Carol, he is also directing Steven Moffatt's brand new play down in Chichester  The Unfriend. The piece has a starry cast of its own  Amanda Abbington, Reece Shearsmith and Frances Barber appear in the comedy, which might have already sold out... Minerva Theatre Chichester, 17 July to 22 August





Whoopi Goldberg and Jennifer Saunders in Sister Act

Whoopi Goldberg and Jennifer Saunders

 Matthew Murphy and Oliver Rosser

While the beginning of the tour has been sadly disrupted, the London run of Sister Act with Whoopi Goldberg and Jennifer Saunders is currently planned to go ahead at the Eventim Apollo. It's going to be fabulous baby and we can't wait to see Goldberg back on a UK stage! Eventim Apollo, from 21 July





Kevin Clifton in Strictly Ballroom

Kevin Clifton

 Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage

Baz Luhrmann is a tonic for even the worst of times, so seeing a new touring production of his deeply joyful Strictly Ballroom is giving us life. Craig Revel Horwood directs, with Kevin Clifton stepping out of his Strictly shows to step into the production. Tour opens 26 September in Nottingham
YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. iUniversity, the first Armenian online educational platform, has been launched in the National Polytechnic University of Armenia (NPUA), the government told Armenpress.

iUniversity serves the NPUA, including the Gyumri, Kapan and Vanadzor branches, as well as the universitys college and high school.

The online platform allows to register all beneficiaries, create a list of subjects and homework for each group and class, study materials, e-library, enables to download video lectures, as well as allows students and school-children to ask their questions to teachers and lecturers, etc.

It also allows to monitor the online study process to find shortcomings and gaps to control the process and propose new tools to improve the shortcomings.

The NPUA expressed readiness to provide all the opportunities and technical service of iUniversity to those educational facilities which need that.

Armenia has declared a state of emergency on March 16 to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). All schools, universities, public places are currently shut down. The state of emergency is effective until April 14. According to the latest data, number of people infected with the new coronavirus in Armenia is 482.





Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan






Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday issued directives to the Health Department to constitute teams for Gautam Buddh Nagar, Meerut and Ghaziabad to combat coronavirus there.

Adityanath issued the directives while chairing a meeting of heads of various committees constituted for controlling the spread of coronavirus.

He also reviewed the ongoing lockdown situation, a statement issued by the CM's office said.

Aditynath said that community kitchens must be made operational in each and every district of the state, and district magistrates should make teams to inspect these facilities.

He also said that efforts should be made to spread awareness through public address system about social distancing.

Awareness should also be spread about health department guidelines to combat coronavirus, the statement said.

Orders were also given to issue passes (as per the need) to employees of e-commerce companies and blood banks for their smooth movement during the lockdown period.

The UP Chief Minister instructed the nodal officers to ensure that they take the call of stranded people, and that their problems are addressed.

The nodal officers have also been told to submit a detailed report to the government, the statement said.

Meanwhile, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi told reporters here that the CM will be visiting Ghaziabad, Agra and Meerut on Tueday -- the "hotspots" of COVID-19 outbreak in the state for inspection.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
This article by Jeff Schogol originally appeared on Task & Purpose, a digital news and culture publication dedicated to military and veterans issues.

The Navy will not receive any new recruits at its boot camp in Great Lakes, Illinois, after one recruit tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), said Cmdr. David Hecht, a spokesman for the Chief of Naval Personnel.

"There are no recruits that will be showing up this week," Hecht told Task & Purpose on Monday. "They will be moved to next week, and from there the arrival of recruits will continue on schedule."

USNI News editor Sam LaGrone first reported on Sunday that a Navy recruit at Great Lakes had tested positive for coronavirus.

Military health professionals are investigating whether any other recruits or staff members came in close contact with the recruit with coronavirus, Hecht said on Monday.

"The barracks and other areas that the recruit came in contact with are being thoroughly cleaned in accordance with CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] disinfectant and sanitation guidelines," Hecht said.

News that the Navy is suspending the arrival of new recruits to Great Lakes came the same day that the Marine Corps announced it would not receive any new recruits at Parris Island, South Carolina.

All new Navy recruits have been asked to restrict their movements for two weeks before shipping to Great Lakes, Hecht said. Each recruit will have his or her health and temperature checked before shipping to Great Lakes.

The recruits will then be quarantined at Great Lakes for two weeks before beginning their training, he said.

Group sizes will be limited during training and the installation's active-duty staff will remain on the base for at least 30 days to decrease the chance of spreading the coronavirus, he said.

"We are trying to provide a 'protected bubble' as much as possible around our recruits and staff as possible," Hecht said.

More articles from Task & Purpose:
A mother striking her nine-year-old son repeatedly across his back and body with an electrical cord was not exercising parental discipline, but committing a crime, the Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled.

On June 6, 2018, Guadalupe Pava, of Indianapolis, was witnessed hitting her son with a cord in such a way as to cause "too many to count" red, linear welts on his back, arms, legs and chest, according to court records.

Following an investigation by the Department of Child Services, Pava's son was removed from her home and Pava ultimately charged with battery by an adult against a child under age 14, a level 5 felony, records show.

According to court records, Pava did not deny at her trial that she struck her son with the cord. Instead, she claimed she was disciplining her son for wrongdoing, as is her right as a parent under Indiana law.

Specifically, records show Pava testified her son had disobeyed her by pinching his two-year-old sister's leg. She also said she told her son that day to let her know when his sister's diaper needed changing, but her son again disobeyed her by removing his sister's diaper himself.
The energy, the traffic, the crowds are all gone. Only the vacant streets remain, waiting for the actors to return to the stage.

Second Avenue in Manhattan Bryan Derballa for The New York Times

The lights are still on in Times Square. Billboards blink and storefronts shine in neon. If only there were an audience for this spectacle.

But the thoroughfares have been abandoned. The energy that once crackled along the concrete has eased. The throngs of tourists, the briskly striding commuters, the honking drivers have mostly skittered away.

In their place is a wistful awareness that plays across all five boroughs: Look how eerie our brilliant landscape has become. Look how it no longer bustles.

This is not the New York City anyone signed up for.

Times Square Mark Abramson for The New York Times

A playground in the West Village Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi for The New York Times

A man delivers groceries to a family in the Bronx. Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York Times Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn Marian Carrasquero for The New York Times

Utica Avenue station in Crown Heights, Brooklyn Juan Arredondo for The New York Times

Yet this is what it has become in the week after nonessential businesses were ordered to shut down and people were implored to heed a stay-at-home mandate for their own protection.

Here alone, the coronavirus has already stolen hundreds of lives, less than a month after New York confirmed its first positive case. The coming weeks look even more grim. Most know someone stricken with the virus, and the number of cases only grows.

So too does an uneasiness within a city suddenly forced to be everything it is not.

Manhattan offers the starkest contrast to its former self. An imposing destination when flooded with a work force and enraptured tourists, it has been whittled down to a bleak grid.

The other more residential boroughs have retained some liveliness, but they are also subdued. Neighbors keep to themselves, and the clusters that gather at bus stops and the grocery checkout line observe a wary separation.

Some events break the sense of isolation: when communities organized a clap and whistle in unison, or when a motorcycle brigade sped down Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, their engines shouting into the silence.

Bikers ride down Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. Jonah Markowitz for The New York Times

Staten Island Ferry Stephen Speranza for The New York Times

A food pantry in the Bronx Juan Arredondo for The New York Times A family in Bushwick Gareth Smit for The New York Times

Green-Wood cemetery in Brooklyn Sarah Blesener for The New York Times

It is an odd thing to keep ones distance in a place where strangers lives are meant to intertwine in fantastic and untidy ways. Where public spaces like Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station draw in people from a thousand different origins. Where you live because you want, in many ways, to brush up against this citys peculiar rhythms.

Those who arrive with wide-eyed aspirations have the same intent as the travelers and the locals. Get out and experience all that vibrancy. Be social. Go see cool stuff, no matter the hour.

But the foot traffic has plummeted as residents shuffle off to living quarters that seem to have shrunk even smaller without the usual escapes. Online video chats, a quaint diversion, are void of those serendipitous encounters that only occur outside our homes.

And now the city appears like a rented backdrop in need of a cast and millions of extras. Restlessness and uncertainty lie behind all the closed doors.

A CVS in Manhattan Stephen Speranza for The New York Times

The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

The Bow Bridge in Central Park Jeenah Moon for The New York Times Fine Fare Supermarket in Inwood Desiree Rios for The New York Times

Millys pizza parlor in Brooklyn Jose A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times

The streets are not entirely empty. In Central Park and Prospect Park, families out for a breath of air stroll past friends with a wave. Bicyclists take advantage of friendly roads. A woman walks her horse near the Lincoln Tunnel.

And there is still a heartbeat within the city, buoyed by those who must continue showing up to work, their jobs deemed vital. They sit inside hushed subway trains and buses and make their way across forlorn stations. They trudge along sidewalks that feel joyless and foreboding at night.

There are the restaurant owners who live off hope that the takeout orders will be enough to keep their business afloat; the masked health care workers gearing up for another fight against a pandemic; the emergency workers weary from a fathomless crisis.

And then there are the street vendors, public utility employees, delivery workers, mail carriers, trash collectors, auto mechanics, food bank operators, bodega owners  crucial players keeping the engines of the city at a quiet hum.

Perhaps this is a respite from the usual cacophony. The troves of ambling sightseers had been maddening. The subways were always jammed, the morning rush crushed our souls. The mess of cars, the packed bars, the incessant pressure to engage were constant thorns.

And yet.

Perhaps the return of such ordinary troubles will be a relief in this city that was never designed for solitude.

A carriage horse in Midtown Manhattan Bryan Derballa for The New York Times

A fruit seller in Jackson Heights Ryan Christopher Jones for The New York Times

A bus stop in Chinatown Mark Abramson for The New York Times Dans Supermarket in Inwood Desiree Rios for The New York Times
At least 11 troops killed and 10 others wounded in three separate attacks targeting checkpoints, defence ministry says.

Taliban attacks in Afghanistans north and south have killed at least 11 Afghan soldiers and policemen, the countrys defence ministry and a provincial official said on Monday.

The violence comes even as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani last week announced his 21-member team would negotiate peace with the Taliban, only to have his political opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, reject it as not inclusive enough.

The Taliban has not claimed responsibility for the latest attacks.

According to the defence ministry, the rebels targeted a military checkpoint in a multi-pronged attack in the district of Arghandab in southern Zabul province on Sunday night, killing at least six troops.

In northern Baghlan province, at least five members of the security forces were killed and six others were wounded when their checkpoint came under a Taliban attack on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Puli Khumri, said Mabobullah Ghafari, a provincial council member. That attack also took place on Sunday.

On Monday, a sticky bomb attached to a vehicle detonated in the capital of Kabul, wounding at least four people, said Firdaus Faramraz, a spokesman for the Kabul police chief.

At lest four people were wounded when a sticky bomb attached to vehicle detonated in Kabul [Rahmat Gul/AP Photo]

Afghanistans political turmoil and the rivalry between Ghani and Abdullah have impeded each step toward talks with the Taliban  negotiations that were supposed to follow a peace deal that Washington signed with the Taliban armed group last month.

The deal calls for the eventual withdrawal of all 13,000 US soldiers from Afghanistan in exchange for guarantees from the Taliban that it would not allow Afghan soil to be used against US security interests. The deal has been touted as Afghanistans best chance yet of ending the 18-year-old war, which began following the US invasion of the country.

But Ghani and Abdullah, who also declared himself president in a parallel inauguration ceremony earlier this month, have been locked in a power struggle that has prompted Washington to say it would cut $1bn in assistance to Afghanistan if the two couldnt get their act together.

The Taliban is to send 10 representatives to the US-led coalition base in Bagram, north of Kabul, to oversee the release of their prisoners. That release is also part of the deal signed with the US that calls for the release of 5,000 Taliban and 1,000 government personnel and Afghan troops held captive by the Taliban.

Jawed Faisal, spokesman for the Afghan National Security Advisers office, said on Monday that Afghan officials and the Taliban agreed during a video conference that the Taliban should send its technical team to Kabul for face-to-face discussions on the release of Taliban prisoners.

The International Committee of the Red Cross would provide assistance in this matter, Faisal added.
In 2019, the countrys saved 492,000kWh of power  equivalent to VND917 million (US$39,400).

Focussing on the theme Loss of biodiversity, Earth Hour 2020 drew attention to the immediate need for halting nature and biodiversity loss for the sake of our health and well-being.

This years campaign called on organisations and individuals to take action and contribute their initiatives to change consumer behaviour such as saving energy, limiting the use of plastic and saying no to wildlife consumption, thereafter realising the goals of adapting to climate change and protecting the green planet.

As social gatherings are not allowed due to health crisis of COVID-19, this years Earth Hour campaign in Vietnam was held digitally and through posters, with limited events of large crowds.

Launched by the World Wide Fund for Nature and partners as a symbolic lights-out event in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour is now one of the world's largest grassroots movements for the environment, engaging millions of people in more than 180 countries and territories. It has become a catalyst for positive environmental impact, driving major legislative changes by harnessing the power of the people.

Vietnam first joined the campaign in 2009. The event in Vietnam has been sponsored by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
TDT | Manama

Ithmaar Bank, a Bahrain-based Islamic retail bank, yesterday said it revised branch and office timings and has taken additional precautionary measures to help contain the Coronavirus (COVID-19) virus.

Starting 24 March 2020, all Ithmaar branches are operating from 8 to 1 pm and its head office from 8:30 to 2:30 pm only. Besides, the bank closed its Galali and Salmabad branches on Saturday, which will continue like that until further notice.

Earlier last week, Ithmaar Bank closed Budaiya and Manama Souq branches. All 42 ATMs continue to operate. As part of its public awareness campaign, the Bank is urging customers to bank online as almost all Ithmaar Bank transactions can be completed online.

The bank, already following MOH recommended sanitation protocols, also started limiting the number of customers present in a branch at any given time and providing appropriate waiting arrangements to ensure customers are seated at least a meter from one another. These are challenging times for all of us, said Ithmaar Bank Chief Executive Officer, Ahmed Abdul Rahim.

However, if we all do our part, we can collectively overcome even the greatest of challenges, he said. This is a responsibility we have always taken very seriously, and we remain as committed as ever to playing a real and meaningful role in the community, added Abdul Rahim assuring that it is closely following all relevant directives, from both the MOH and the CBB.

Ithmaar Bank also initiated its own public awareness campaign, including sending out SMS messages to customers and reposting MOH public awareness messages on the banks social media platforms.

In 2019, Ithmaar Bank launched a customer-centric chat service on the WhatsApp Business social media platform to help further improve its customers banking experience.

Customers can message Ithmaar Bank Call Centre on 13303030 to request information through WhatsApp about products and services, as well as make general inquiries like Thimaar draw dates and winners list, as well as ongoing promotions and campaigns.
Dominic Raab has been mocked for licking his finger during the latest coronavirus update in Downing Street.

The Foreign Secretary was filling in for Boris Johnson as the Prime Minister is self-isolating after testing positive for the deadly bug.

But viewers spotted the 46-year-old MP wetting his finger to turn a page, despite government advice warning people not to put their hands in their mouths.

The Foreign Secretary (pictured licking his finger today) was filling in for Boris Johnson as the Prime Minister is self-isolating after testing positive for the deadly bug

Twitter users flocked to ridicule Mr Raab and asked why he would risk his health when the PM, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Chief Medical Officer Chris Witty are all out of action due to the virus.

One social media user posted: 'Dominic Raab decides he doesn't want the job any more and opts for a week of isolation instead...'

Another person put: 'Why the hell has Dominic Raab just licked his finger to turn his notes over on live telly?!'

One wrote: 'When Dominic Raab licked his finger I facepalmed so hard I think I fractured my skull. My hand is literally wedged in my forehead.'

A woman said on Twitter: 'I'm sorry but did Dominic Raab just lick his finger to turn a page?'

One man commented: 'Come on Dominic Raab, this is basic Public Health Message delivery 101. Do better.'

And another added: 'Dominic Raab decides he doesn't want the job any more and opts for a week in isolation instead.'

Twitter users flocked to ridicule Mr Raab and asked why he would risk his health when the PM, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Chief Medical Officer Chris Witty are all out of action due to the virus

It comes as the coronavirus outbreak in the UK may finally be starting to slow after the daily death toll dropped for the second day in a row, with 180 new fatalities.

A total of 1,408 people in Britain have died from the killer infection, while more than 22,000 cases have been officially diagnosed.

But the true size of the outbreak remains a mystery because of the UK's controversial policy to only test patients in hospital.

England recorded 159 new deaths in the last 24 hours, while Wales reported 14, Northern Ireland six and Scotland one.

The UK's spiralling coronavirus death toll has jumped to 1,408 after 180 more fatalities were recorded in a single day

During his speech, Mr Raab revealed 'tens of thousands' of stranded Britons would be flown home in a 75million partnership between the Government and airlines.

But his finger licking became the memorable moment of the press conference as people both questioned his decision and joked about it.

One wrote 'Yes, that's our designated survivor. I bet you feel safe now', while another said: 'Finger licking page turners are grim. Just go the whole hog and lick the words off the page.'

One user put next to a picture of the foreign secretary 'do as I say, not as I do', and one man added: 'Dominic Raab demonstrating the best way to spread Covid-19.'

A man commented: 'Stay home, protect the NHS. Save lives and don't lick your fingers like I do.'

And one social media user added: 'Why does the government insist on ignoring the advice given by the government.'

More Twitter users piled in on the Foreign Secretary for his mistake during the press conference in Downing Street

At the briefing, the Government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said people being admitted to hospital with the virus is going up 'in a constant amount'.

But he assured the public the fact the NHS was seeing an extra 1,000 patients a day with coronavirus-related admissions was 'not an acceleration' and that the health service was coping.

Public Health England figures revealed the number of coronavirus tests carried out in the last 24 hours actually fell - despite Government promises to ramp up testing.

Some 8,278 swabs were carried out in the 24 hours to 9am yesterday, compared to 9,114 the previous day.

The UK's coronavirus deaths are compared to Spain, France, Italy, China, South Korea, Germany and the US in this Public Health England chart

The confusion fuelled anger about the UK's lacklustre approach to testing and raised questions over how Germany is managing to carry out more than 500,000 a week.

While the latest figures suggest the spread of the virus may be slowing in the UK, there 'aren't enough numbers in the UK' to draw conclusions about the outbreak yet, according to Professor Michael Levitt, who accurately predicted the demise of China's crisis after analysing the raw data.

Professor Neil Ferguson, a leading disease expert at Imperial College London, agreed it was hard to say how Britain's epidemic was progressing.
Cooped up in my own little WFH lazaretto, Im spending too much time on Twitter. Then again, its all some of us have left after the pubs were cordoned off and normal human social interaction was replaced by something called Zoom.

It has its uses, though, Twitter, and I am struck by how many of the same vicious tribal divisions we suffered during the Brexit crisis are being reproduced in this Covid-19 crisis. The Leave and Remain armies havent been demobbed; they are regrouping to fight new battles, prosecuting the never-ending culture war in new theatres of combat.

To take a rather extreme example, I offer yesterdays Mail on Sunday spread  I discovered it via Twitter, of course  under the headline Did Barnier Infect BoJo? This is what my colleague John Rentoul calls a question to which the answer is no, or QTWTAIN. It referred to a meeting between Barnier and the UKs Brexit negotiating team, supplemented by a flowchart and no clinical or other evidence whatsoever.

I suppose the answer to the question might better be: Maybe, but he might also have got it when he was shaking hands with everyone on a Covid-19 ward. In fact the writers surpassed themselves with a supplemental QTWTAIN in the opening paragraph: Could this be the ultimate revenge for Brexit?

It is indicative and telling in the easy conflation of Brexit and an entirely apolitical microorganism.

So what do we see now? Like Brexit, each tribe has its own dogma, heroes and experts. For the corona-sceptics the heroes are, once again, Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. The corona-sceptic dogma is that we should not sacrifice personal liberty and the economy in the name of what is probably an overstated threat best dealt with via herd immunity.

It has its favourite scientists and studies: the ones that are upbeat about finding cures and minimising the excess death toll, arguing that coronavirus is merely bringing deaths of those with underlying conditions forward a bit (so thats sort of all right then, it is implied). They like the studies such as the Oxford analysis that suggests many of us have had the disease without realising it.

There are outriders in this gang too, familiar to us from past arguments  including Tim Martin who has implied that you cant get Covid-19 in a Wetherspoons pub. These people blame China for the Chinavirus, wanting a reckoning later on; they mock Brussels difficulties in coordinating EU member states. Their allies in the press write articles (such as that one in the Mail on Sunday) and think pieces entitled The self-pitying woke generation needed a war  and in coronavirus theyve got one.

The other side, the corona-istes, criticise Johnson and Trump for being complacent, pointing to the better records of Germany and Korea in tackling the outbreak. They stress the deadly nature of the pandemic and point to Imperial College scientists who suggested that there would be maybe 250,000 deaths if the government didnt change course (which of course it did).

This tribe claim the trillions spent on rescuing the British economy during this unprecedented time shows that Jeremy Corbyn was right all along (he agrees), and that the wicked Tories left the NHS too weak to cope. They regret that the British didnt join the joint EU ventilator procurement programme, and their heroes are the clinical staff who speak out about shortages of masks and gloves.

The divisions  cultural and generational  are as visceral as they were under Brexit, but, so far, much less evenly matched. Unlike the painful irreconcilability of the 48-52 split, recent polls suggest that Johnson is enjoying the support of three out four voters during this crisis, with a vast lead over his opponents. That is one reason why you shouldnt pay too much attention to social media, I suppose.

The irony is that the politicians themselves are, this time round, far more collegiate and consensual than the Brexit leaders ever were, and the two cultural tribes still are. The Tory Matt Hancock and Labours John Ashworth are like brothers in arms, constructively battling to defeat a common enemy.

Johnson, going out on the biggest spending spree since the Second World War, semi-nationalising the economy, has dropped the Venezuela socialism jibes against Corbyn. John McDonnell is not so far away from Rishi Sunak these days. Party politics has in effect been suspended, and the Brexit argument shelved.

Our political leaders, remarkably, seem to want to work together, stop the bickering and call a truce in the culture wars. Maybe they should point out to their various followers in the press and the keyboard warriors on social media that theres a ceasefire on?
PHOENIX - Authorities say a 22-year-old man fatally shot a Phoenix police commander and wounded two other officers as they tried to remove him from a home after his roommates complained he was acting erratically.

Cmdr. Greg Carnicle, a 31-year-old police veteran who was set to retire in the fall, and the two other officers were shot Sunday night as they walked up stairs in the house after Jacob Emry Mcilveen refused to leave, said Phoenix police spokeswoman Sgt. Mercedes Fortune.

Mcilveen remained in the home several hours after the injured officers were removed. He eventually walked out of the home armed with a handgun and was killed by police.

Officer Marissa Dowhan, a three-year police veteran, and Officer Alicia Hubert, who has nearly two years of service, are expected to survive their gunshot wounds, officials said.

Its unclear what erratic behaviour prompted Mcilveens roommates to kick him out.

Fortune said there initially was no indication that things would turn bad. Mcilveen remained calm and co-operative as officers helped Mcilveen carry his belongings out of the home.

But then Mcilveen stopped co-operating as he slammed the door to the house and left the officers outside.

Carnicle, 56, and two other officers then entered the house and were climbing the stairs when Mcilveen came out of an upstairs room and opened fire.

The injuries prevented the officers from getting out of the house, so other officers went inside and helped them out.

Carnicle, who is survived by a wife and four adult children, worked in several positions in the police department, mostly recently overseeing evening and weekend patrol operations.

Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said she was approached last summer by Carnicle about finishing his career as a duty commander for patrol officers.

It speaks volumes to his tenacity, to his work ethic, to the fact that he was up for being a police officer, said Williams, who knew Carnicle for 30 years. And thats where he wanted to finish his career.

Britt London, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, a union representing officers, said Carnicle was his supervisor 20 years ago and demonstrated how he took a genuine interest in the lives of other officers.

When Londons young daughter had a health emergency, Carnicle showed up at the hospital with a teddy bear and waited with his family. That resonated with me for the rest of my career, London said. You dont find that kind of caring in this tough-guy world that we work in.

Carnicles family released a public statement through the police department, describing him as a selfless man who was always there for family, friends, fellow officers and others.

We know he will live on through the character and love he built in our family. We are strong because of him and we will do our best to live to the fullest to honour him, the family said.

The most recent death of a Phoenix police officer in the line of duty was in March 2019, when Officer Paul Thomas Rutherford was struck by a vehicle.

The last officers killed by gunfire were Officer David Van Glasser in May 2016 and Detective John Thomas Hobbs in March 2014.
The coronavirus pandemic has not stopped the MH17 trial in The Hague. Although the meetings are held online and the next one is scheduled for June, unprecedented worldwide attention and the diligent work of investigators give hope for an objective verdict and a triumph of justice. Piet Ploeg, chairman of Stichting Vliegramp MH17 (MH17 Disaster Foundation), which will unite the relatives of the majority of MH17 victims, spoke about the atmosphere around the MH17 case in the Netherlands and possible forecasts for its completion.

Question: Mr. Plug, does the Dutch society lose interest in the MH17 case today, given the extremely difficult situation with the coronavirus pandemic and all the problems it has brought?

Answer: Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic is a topical issue for the country, as this tragedy affects everyone. It has also been a long time since the MH17 disaster. However, the interest in the MH17 trial remains high. They still ask me in the street and are interested in the situation surrounding the court case. This tragedy is etched in the collective memory of the Dutch. If you ask any Dutchman what he did on the day flight MH17 was shot down, he will surely recall all the circumstances.

Q: Is the MH17 case covered enough by the Dutch media?

A: Yes, it is, however, of course, first of all, during peak events. In particular, on the eve of the trial, almost all the media paid attention to this topic  they spoke with relatives of the dead, gave reports, reconstructed events, and held talk shows on the topic.

Q: Do you feel that Russian propaganda is trying to influence public opinion? If so, what should be done to resist it?

A: First of all, this is noticeable in social media, also in "news stories" from Russian media, the government and embassies of the Russian Federation in the Netherlands and abroad. In addition, there is a noticeable amount of tweets on Twitter in the Russian language that either call into question the JIT (Joint Investigation Team) investigation or blame Ukraine for the MH17 disaster. There are also Dutch "journalists" or pro-Russian bloggers who are also very active. We also drew attention to statements by the Malaysian prime minister, who called the JIT investigation biased and political.

Despite all these efforts to disperse the attention of the public and polarize their views, the relatives of the dead and much of the Dutch still have great confidence in the JIT investigation. In a spring poll in 2019, 95% of relatives of those killed said the JIT was working well. My observation is that propaganda and disinformation are actually not successful. However, it is easy to guess what impact propaganda has on the Russian population.

In my opinion, it is difficult to resist these attempts of influence. However, our MH17 Disaster Foundation has warned relatives about disinformation. Sometimes it's better not to read Twitter.

Q: Whom does the Dutch society consider as the main culprit in the tragedy?

A: At first, they were separatists, but now there's a clear shift towards the perception of Russia as a country as the main culprit of this disaster.

Q: Does the Dutch society trust Dutch justice?

A: Yes, the vast majority of Dutch people are convinced of the fairness of Dutch justice and the independence of the judiciary. This is evidenced by various studies that have been conducted in recent years. The Dutch judiciary is ranked high in global rating in terms of public confidence.

Q: Do you personally think that the Dutch authorities are determined to resolve this case? What result do you expect personally?

A: You have to distinguish between two institutes: the prosecutor's office and the court. The Public Prosecution Service is definitely decisive and very committed to bringing this case to a close. Every effort is being made to achieve this goal. I am personally convinced that the Public Prosecution Service is doing its best to persistently investigate and prosecute suspects.

The judiciary has a different function. The court adjudicates on the evidence provided by the prosecution and defense regarding the arguments of Pulatov. And the court does so independently, regardless of the political situation. In my opinion, what matters most to the court is that it makes a justified decision based on the case files and the charges. It is important that the court adhere to the principle of impartiality and not make statements about the case in advance.

Personally, I still do not know what the result will be like. Undoubtedly, the public prosecutor's office will provide overwhelming evidence, but in the end, their assessment falls within the prerogative of the court. Of course, I hope that the prosecution will bring the real culprits to account and that will eventually lead to conviction. But we have to wait and see.

Q: We see that now charges are brought only against individuals. Do you think that in the future Russia will be charged as a state?

A: Some time ago, the governments of the Netherlands and Australia brought formal charges against the Russian Federation for its role in the MH17 plane crash. That is, it concerns the responsibility of the state. Diplomatic negotiations are being held between the Netherlands, Australia and the Russian Federation. And these conversations are also a prerequisite for possible litigation in the future. It will probably only be possible if the negotiations do not lead to agreement. However, I would not be surprised if proceedings are launched against the Russian Federation in the International Criminal Court in the future.

About 400 relatives of the victims lodged complaints against Russia with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The government of the Netherlands has also decided to exercise its right to intervene in the procedure. In fact, the authorities are doing this to support the grievances of relatives. Therefore, several lawsuits have been opened against the Russian Federation.

Q: Do the Dutch society and you personally trust Ukraine and its existing authorities that they are also determined to bring this matter to a close?

A: If we believe statements by the JIT, then I have to conclude that Ukraine will adhere to its agreements on the MH17 case. The latest evidence of this is the renewal of the cooperation agreement.

However, the decisions of the Ukrainian authorities regarding witness/suspect Tsemakh, as well as the constant replacement of prosecutors during the investigation, make a somewhat controversial impression. Despite the fact that the MH17 case is very important to Ukraine, the presence of internal interests is also observed...

Q: What should the public in the Netherlands do, and how should Ukraine react to possible attempts by Russians to delay criminal proceedings?

A: The public in the Netherlands really can't do anything about it. The only thing is to remain steadfast and trust the JIT and the court. We just know that by this time Russia has been actively opposed to this process, and it will continue to do so. This means that the process will take more time. But we have a saying in the Netherlands "Honesty lives longer than anything else," and we mean that lies are always detected over time, and the truth always remains the truth. We have confidence and patience.

Dmytro Ditiuk-Snitsarenko, Defense Express, for Ukrinform

Photo credit: Iryna Drabok
John McNesby, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, is shown in a file photo from September 2019. Read more

Philadelphias police union has agreed to a one-year contract extension due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mayor Jim Kenney, during a news conference Monday afternoon, confirmed the deal and said his administration was confident it could also strike one-year extensions with the three municipal unions representing blue-collar and white-collar workers along with the firefighters. Those negotiations are underway.

We did this now so our employees could focus on the health crisis at hand rather than a month of contract negotiations, Kenney said.

John McNesby, president of Lodge 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police, on Sunday evening posted details of the extension on Facebook.

McNesby said the union and city officials reached the deal over the weekend, a shift in tone from three years ago, when the FOP contract expired in June and a new deal was not reached until August.

With the economy, stock market, and general fund taking severe dives, I approached the city to possibly extend our contract by one year, McNesby wrote. The way things were looking, we wouldnt be able to present any testimony for months, and if we were to receive a new deal, it probably would not be very favorable.

The contract extension gives Philadelphias 6,300 police officers a 2.5% pay increase May 1, followed by a $750 signing bonus July 1.

A smaller group of deputies represented by the FOP in the Sheriffs Office get a 2.25% percent increase and a $400 bonus.

The extension makes no changes to pension provisions, medical coverage, or residency requirements for police officers.

This will give us a year for the economy to recover and give us a clearer picture on what we will be dealing with, McNesby wrote on Facebook, thanking Kenneys administration for working on the extension.

Kenneys staff has confirmed that some police officers have tested positive for the coronavirus but declined to say how many.

Kenney said the city remains committed to changes in the Police Department, which has been rocked by sexual harassment complaints.

Under this extension, allegations of harassment or discrimination will be investigated by the employees relationship unit of the Office of Human Relations, rather than by the Police Department itself, Kenney said. We are still committed to seeking discipline and other operational reforms and a new long-term contract that will be negotiated next year.

The city and FOP agreed to a three-year deal in August 2017 for the contract that had expired two months earlier. That contract, which included raises of about 3% in each year, cost the city $245 million.
A Washington County senior care center with a known coronavirus outbreak now has enough tests to screen all residents and staff, a top administrator said Monday.

Regency Park had been scrambling to secure testing from a private lab after the Oregon Health Authority said it would not provide tests for residents and workers.

At least eight residents and six workers there have tested positive for coronavirus. One of the residents, a 90-year-old woman, has died. Regency Park provides assisted living and care for people with dementia, and many of the residents are in their 80s.

The outbreak there is the second largest at a senior care facility in Oregon to be publicly disclosed, and it appears to be the second largest at a single location in all of Oregon. Fifteen residents and an undisclosed number of workers have tested positive at a veterans nursing home in Lebanon, while OHSU Hospital on Monday said 12 of its staff have tested positive.

Regency Park secured tests from a lab on the East Coast for analysis, said Tom Stanley, a founder of Cascade Living Group, which owns and operates the Washington County facility.

Stanley encouraged operators of other senior care centers to beginning lining up access to tests now, so theyre prepared if or when an outbreak hits.

I would be scouring every source that I have to grab test kits, PPE, foggers, paper products, he said.

He also said its important for operators of senior care centers to understand that the responsibility will fall to them  not government officials. Stanley asked the Washington County health department to test all residents and staff at Regency Park, near Beaverton, but was turned down by the Oregon Health Authority.

The Oregon Health Authority previously said it was reserving tests for outbreaks in senior facilities but reversed course as more private testing came online and more Oregonians have been hospitalized, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported last week.

I would definitely say dont give up, Stanley said. The government agencies have their own challenges. Theyre trying to manage and allocate scarce health care infrastructure.

Stanley said Washington County officials, at the guidance of the state health authority, initially discouraged widespread testing at Regency Park. But last week, amid reporting by The Oregonian/OregonLive, he said the tone shifted and officials helped ensure testing samples could be collected at the facility.

I do think your story helped us in our relationship with Washington County, he said.

Regency Parks efforts to secure testing initially included a local health care system, which provided a little over 30 tests, Stanley said. But Regency Park also reached a deal with a lab on the East Coast, which he declined to publicly identify, that is providing additional tests so more than 150 residents and staff can be tested.

Stanley said Regency Park placed an order for the tests on March 24 but didnt know if theyd actually arrive, so he didnt disclose that information. The kits showed up Friday, he said.

I believe were going to complete our testing today, he said.

Stanley announced Monday afternoon that two more residents tested positive, taking the total to eight, and that three more employees tested positive, for a total of six.

Stanley said he expects itll take two to three days to find out if others who live or work in the facility have tested positive.

Stanley has been posting updates on his companys website telling residents and the public about confirmed cases. He encouraged other operators of senior centers to disclose the information because its the right thing to do.

Theres a lot of vulnerable people and that creates anxiety, he said.

Im a firm believer that the more transparent we are, the more information we put out there for people to consider, the easier it is for all concerned to deal with their stress and anxiety.

-- Brad Schmidt; bschmidt@oregonian.com; 503-294-7628; @_brad_schmidt

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
There are fears that it will be used to further curb independent voices and a free press, she said. Hungary has made several arrests in recent weeks of people accused of spreading fake news over the number of coronavirus cases in the country, even though many believe the real number of infections is higher.
Like many Americans, you may be wondering just how much money you can expect from the coronavirus stimulus package approved last week by Congress.

President Donald Trump signed the $2.2 trillion economic package on Friday, with support for families, businesses and health care providers, among others.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said the money should arrive within the next three weeks. Checks will be directly deposited to accounts on file with the federal government from previous income tax filings. If youve never filed remotely, checks will arrive by mail.

Individuals will receive up to $1,200, married couples can expect up to $2,400, with $500 added for every child in the household.

However, there are income restrictions. Anyone earning more than $75,000 as an individual or $150,000 as a couple may see a smaller amount. Those earning $99,000 or more as an individual or $198,000 as a couple arent eligible for a check.

Grow, a personal finance website published by CNBC and Acorns, has created a calculator that factors in your filing status, annual income and the number of kids you have, which you can find by clicking here.

Those taxpayers who are retired or disabled are still eligible to receive checks as long as their Social Security benefit income does not exceed the individual limit.
WESTERLY, RI (AP)  The Rhode Island National Guard started going door to door on Saturday in coastal areas to inform any New Yorkers who may have come to the state that they must self-quarantine for 14 days while Gov. Gina Raimondo expanded the mandatory self-quarantine to anyone visiting the state.

Raimondo also ordered residents to stay at home, with exceptions for getting food, medicines or going to the doctor, and ordered nonessential retail businesses to close Monday until April 13 to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. She also directed realtors and hotel operators to include new requirements that any out-of-state residents must quarantine for 14 days in their purchase agreements.

UNEMPLOYMENT: Macys furloughs most of its 130,000 staff amid pandemic

State Police set up a checkpoint on I-95 in Hope Valley on Friday where drivers with New York license plates must stop and provide contact information and were told to self-quarantine for two weeks, WPRI.com reported.

If New Yorkers don't comply, they face fines and jail time, Raimondo said, adding that that's not the goal.

I want to be crystal clear about this: If you're coming to Rhode Island from New York you are ordered into quarantine. The reason for that is because more than half of the cases of coronavirus in America are in New York," Raimondo said, adding that it's not meant to be discriminatory.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the order "reactionary" and unconstitutional, saying he'd sue Rhode Island if the policy isn't rescinded but believed they could "work it out."

"I understand the goal ... but theres a point of absurdity, and I think what Rhode Island did is at that point of absurdity," said Cuomo, a Democrat. We have to keep the ideas and the policies we implement positive rather than reactionary and emotional.

Houston coronavirus updates: Inmate tests positive, beaches close, Metro suspends Park-and Ride

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he had spoken with some governors and was considering some type of a quarantine to prevent people in New York and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut from traveling. Trump Late Saturday, though, he tweeted that a travel advisory should be administered and not a quarantine.

Trump told reporters at the White House that it would be for a short period of time, if we do it at all. He said he had spoken with Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., and Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., the country's epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbot on Thursday joined other states in imposing quarantines on air travelers from the New York area, including New Jersey and Connecticut, and New Orleans, two places where COVID-19 outbreak is more severe. The Republican said travelers who dont comply with the 14-day quarantine risk jail time, adding that state troopers would conduct visits to make sure people were staying put.

In Rhode Island, which reported its first two deaths from COVID-19 on Saturday, a team of a Westerly police officer and a Guard member were visiting stately and modest coastal homes in the Westerly neighborhood of Watch Hill collecting contact information from New Yorkers and telling them to self-quarantine. They expected to go to about 1,000 homes over a few days.

"This is more of an education tool to make people aware and comply with what we are asking them to do, said Westerly, Rhode Island, police chief Shawn Lacey. We are certainly hope it doesnt get to enforcement action that has to happen."

HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Live coronavirus updates

Reha Kocatas, a New Yorker who arrived March 22 from the Bahamas to his Rhode Island home, said his wife and two children were visited by a police officer and a national guardsmen. Already under a 14-day quarantine per a state order because he had arrived from outside the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Kocatas said he volunteered information to the authorities including the number of people in the home, when they entered Rhode Island and his and his wifes date of birth.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

But he questioned why it was necessary to send a police officer to his door.

It seemed like a pretty large waste of resources for something that could have been volunteered through an online form pretty quickly, he said.

If New Yorkers are such high risk individuals, why are we putting first responders in front of these individuals is a little questionable since there is no action item at the end of the day," he continued. "They werent going to remove us. It seemed like bureaucratic grandstanding. The local community that happens to be here believes that its a waste of precious resources when time is the essence in preparing for other things."

Ramaindo said only an estimated 50% of Rhode Islanders are complying with social distancing, with crowds spotted at a beach, groups at parks, crowds at big box stores and house parties. As a result, she banned gatherings of more than five people and urged people to limit interactions to the same five.

For those who are not complying with social distancing: I've said it last week, I'm going to say it again, knock if off. You are risking the lives of everyone in this state, she said.

FURLOUGHS: These companies have furloughed or laid off Houston and Texas workers due to virus

People able to work from home must do so, she said. Residents who work in Massachusetts and must go to work, must self-quarantine after work at home, she said.

For most people, the virus 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, or death.

____

AP photographer David Goldman contributed to this report from Westerly, R.I.
The Hero Group has pledged Rs 100 crore as an aid for the ongoing COVID-19 relief-efforts in India. Half of this sum, which is Rs 50 Crore, will be contributed to the PM-Cares Fund and the remaining Rs 50 crore will be spent in other relief efforts.

The Hero Group companies contributing to this fund include Hero MotoCorp, Hero FinCorp, Hero Future Energies, Rockman Industries and Hero Electronix.

Hero Enterprise and AG Industries have also contributed to this fund.

Dr Pawan Munjal, CEO, Hero MotoCorp said, Our country, and indeed the entire world, is currently facing an unprecedented challenge in the form of COVID-19. In such critical times, it is of utmost importance and urgency that we all come together and support the marginalized sections of the society, along with those who are in dire conditions. In the extended Hero family, we are humbled in making this contribution, partially to the PM-Cares Fund and remaining towards relief efforts through other channels. I also urge the citizens of our country to support the Honble Prime Minister and local authorities by staying home and help in stopping the spread of the pandemic coronavirus.

BML Munjal University at Dharuhera in Haryana has offered its 2000-bed hostel for use as an isolation and treatment ward by the local health department.

Hero Future Energies, one of the countrys leading companies in the wind and solar energy sector, is distributing food items and hygiene kits to people spread across 150 villages around its project sites.

Hero FinCorp will offer a special subsidized product to the customers impacted by COVID-19 in order to help small businesses with working capital and retail customers with their daily needs. The SME product has been designed to help re-start their businesses and stabilize their cash flows. Repayment will be structured to suit the customers ability.

Hero MotoCorp, the worlds largest manufacturer of motorcycles and scooters will distribute masks, sanitizers, gloves and 100 ventilators to hospitals and health departments for necessary use. Hero MotoCorp has also offered to donate more than 60 motorcycles to the health departments in the rural areas in various states. The motorcycles - having undergone the necessary modifications  can be used as mobile ambulances.

Hero MotoCorp is also distributing more than 10,000 meals to daily wage workers, stranded labourers and homeless families in several areas of Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

These meals are being prepared by the kitchen staff at the companys manufacturing facilities in Gurgaon and Dharuhera in Haryana; Neemrana in Rajasthan; Haridwar in Uttarakhand, Halol in Gujarat and Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh and the Companys R&D facility  the Centre of Innovation and Technology (CIT) in Jaipur. These meals are being distributed under the direct supervision of the local police departments and government authorities.

Hero MotoCorp is also providing food packets at shelter homes, especially for the most vulnerable in society  children, the elderly and those struggling with illness. These meals are being distributed with the help of NGOs - Akshay Patra in Jaipur and Wishes and Blessing in Delhi.

Recognizing that the immediate needs of communities, Hero MotoCorp is also distributing 2,500 ration kits for the families in Delhi, Maharashtra and Kerala.

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The Punjab government's decision to allow industrial units to commence their operations did not find favour from a section of industrial sectors particularly MSME segment which said it is not feasible in view of rising coronavirus cases.

The state government on Sunday had said the owners of all industrial units and brick kilns could commence production if they have enough space to accommodate migrant labourers and provide them with food and take all hygiene precautions.

Several industry representatives were of the view that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) cannot start operations, though big industrial units which have provision for workers' accommodation could only consider of starting operations.

Because of curfew restrictions, non-essential factories remained shut in the state.

"This is not feasible at all for the cycle industry. There are no raw material supplies to the industry. Whatever finished goods that had already been sent had not been unloaded yet because of disruptions in trucks movement. Shops (selling bicycles) are shut (because of curfew) then where the fresh supplies will go, asked Avon Cycles Managing Director Onkar Singh Pahwa on Monday.

Industry representatives further pointed out that they were not in a position to accommodate workers at the factory units because of space constraints.

They further feared if any worker gets infected with coronavirus, it would put lives of other workers and people in danger.

How can we make arrangements for workers' accommodation if the state government cannot do, asked a Ludhiana-based hand tool maker S C Ralhan.

There can always be chances of any worker getting infected and if it happens, the owner of an industrial unit will be blamed for not taking adequate precautions, said Ralhan.

United Cycle and Parts Manufacturers Association president D S Chawla accused the state government of not consulting with industry associations before taking the decision of allowing start of factories.

If we open factories, will it not we be responsible for defying 21-day lockdown orders, Chawla asked.

If workers are allowed to work in factories, how will it be ensured workers do not get infected, said Chawla and demanded that the decision should be reversed.

After announcing decision to allow industry to start operations, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had said it would be beneficial for both, the industry owners as well as the labourers who had lost their employment and homes in the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown, and had been left to fend for themselves.

The directions came amid reports of migrant labourers getting stranded across the nation, and the problem assuming ominous proportions with such labourers gathering in large numbers at borders in many states.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani troops made a subversive penetration attempt in the direction of Armenian positions in Noyemberyan region of Tavush Province. The adversary has been repelled but at the same time they targeted Baghanis and Voskevan villages and injured a child from Voskevan, ARMENPRESS reports spokesperson of MoD Armenia Shushan Stepanyan informed.

''Today at about 19:00 the Azerbaijani troops made a subversive penetration attempt in the direction of Armenian positions in Noyemberyan region of Tavush Province. Thanks to the activities of the Armenian border guard units the adversary has been repelled. Information on casualties are being clarified. The Armenian side has suffered no casualties. Two servicemen received light injuries during the operation. At the same time they targeted Baghanis and Voskevan villages, as a result a child was injured, who was in the balcony of the house at that time'', Stepanyan informed.

She also noted that the situation on the border has calmed down, and the Armed Forces of Armenia will take adequate measures for restraining the shameful activities of Azerbaijani troops during the period of pandemic and the Azerbaijani military-political leadership will bear the entire responsibility of the consequences.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan
By Sudarshan Varadhan CHENNAI (Reuters) - India's electricity use plummeted to levels last recorded in March 2015, government data showed on Saturday, due to a nationwide lockdown to arrest the spread of the coronavirus. India used 2.59 billion units of electricity on March 27 - the third day of the three week national lockdown ordained by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. That was lower by nearly a fourth compared with the average consumption during the first three weeks of March before the lockdown was enforced

By Sudarshan Varadhan

CHENNAI (Reuters) - India's electricity use plummeted to levels last recorded in March 2015, government data showed on Saturday, due to a nationwide lockdown to arrest the spread of the coronavirus.

India used 2.59 billion units of electricity on March 27 - the third day of the three week national lockdown ordained by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. That was lower by nearly a fourth compared with the average consumption during the first three weeks of March before the lockdown was enforced.

The energy hungry nation's power consumption was lower on March 1, 2015 - when the country's total electricity generation capacity was more than 25% lower than the current potential.

Barring three eastern states, all regions registered a fall in demand as all offices and industries other than those considered essential have been shut.

Power sector experts say essential industrial activity such as mining in mineral-rich states such as Odisha and Jharkhand, which also produce steel, could have resulted in higher electricity use.

Electricity consumption in auto manufacturing states of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu saw power use falling over 26%, while the western state of Gujarat saw a 43% fall compared with the first three weeks' average.

Bihar, a state heavily dependent on agriculture with relatively low industrial consumption, used higher than average electricity, raising concerns that the shutdown may not have been fully observed in all areas.

Relatively higher temperature could have contributed to increased residential consumption.

The Chairman of Bihar State Power Holding Company Ltd did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment. The Managing Director of South Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd was not reachable.

Power analytics firm EMA Solutions' real time data showed higher consumption in Bihar during most parts of the day except from 0600 hours to noon.

Consumption in Bihar rose to 76.3 million units, over 10% higher than the average during the first three weeks of March. India's third most populous state has recorded higher power use on all three days of the lockdown.

Uttar Pradesh, the state's neighbour to the east which saw higher electricity use on the first two days, witnessed a decline in consumption on Friday, the data showed. The state's use of electricity in the night and early morning fell significantly, EMA data showed.

(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Mark Potter)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Bluefish We are here2help our customers run their businesses without worrying about the lockdown or upcoming issues due to the crisis. We can help companies revitalize their services by engaging with their customers via chatbots that add the human touch

With the worldwide lockdown, global work culture is undergoing a shift where companies are embracing remote working and digital mediums to stay connected. However, this results in businesses opting for a leaner workforce which equates to fewer people attending to customer queries, creating an adverse impact on the overall business.

Dallas based Impiger Technologies has come up with a resolution to help companies support their operations in these times of crisis. Its AI Chatbot platform, Bluefish is here2help and is bringing in human intervention in the form of chatbots for the affected organizations free of charge for the first 3 months. This negates the need for an upfront payment and eases off the financial pressure off the organizations.

By offering its chatbot solution for free for the first three months, Impiger will facilitate the SMB community to stay connected with customized chatbots for their businesses even during the lockdown period. These chatbots are equipped with interactive features that will resonate with their organizational message and complement the human tasks, refining them further.

With Bluefishs assistance, users will now be able to:



Address customer queries through live chatbots

Maintain visibility despite the less or no workforce

Retain customers and give 360-degree customer experience

Attract new customers

Jude Ramayya, CEO, Impiger Technologies states, We are here2help our customers run their businesses without worrying about the lockdown or upcoming issues due to the crisis. We can help companies revitalize their services by engaging with their customers via chatbots that add the human touch".

About Impiger Technologies

Impiger Technologies is a Dallas based digital transformation organization helping customers achieve their business orientations and goals by leveraging technology. The organization offers expertise in AI, Mobile App Development, Web Development, Cloud Solutions, and much more!
The Czech government said Monday it had extended measures taken to combat the spread of the coronavirus, including restricted freedom of movement, by 10 days until April 11.

"The restriction on free movement outside people's homes except necessary errands... has been extended until April 11, 0400 GMT," the office of Prime Minister Andrej Babis said in a tweet.

Exceptions from the measure originally set to last until April 1 include trips to work, family visits, shopping, walks in nature and funerals.

Czechs are also urged to wear face masks outdoors and not associate with more than one other person at a time with the exception of family members.

The EU member state of 10.7 million people had 2,942 confirmed COVID-19 cases including 25 people who had recovered and 23 deaths as of Monday evening, the health ministry said.

The Czech government closed the country's borders as well as most shops, all pubs, cinemas, theatres and other facilities as the virus began to spread across Europe earlier this month.

These measures will also stay in force at least until April 11, the government said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
If someone shows symptoms, theyre given gloves, a face mask, and extra harm reduction supplies so they can self-quarantine, said Aaron Arnold, executive director of Prevention Point Pittsburgh. Read more

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HARRISBURG  After working with people with substance use disorder for nearly a decade, its second nature for Clayton Ruley to remind them not to share syringes for injecting drugs. But over the last three weeks, hes had to add a new refrain:

Dont share pipes or cigarettes or anything that touches your mouth, he explains. The droplets of saliva could spread coronavirus.

Thats new information for a lot of people, said Ruley, director of community engagement and volunteer services at Prevention Point Philadelphia, which offers harm reduction services like sterile syringe exchange and overdose prevention kits. Many people in active addiction havent received information about the coronavirus or how to stay safe, Ruley said.

If youre actively using, you dont have the means to check CBS or NBC all the time, he said.

And people in addiction may not trust messages from police or government officials as much, he added. Thats where sterile syringe programs come in.

As food pantries close, homeless shelters stop taking new entrants, and hospitals prepare to meet overwhelming demand, sterile syringe exchanges are one of the last places where people in addiction can turn for vital care and public health information amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although technically illegal in Pennsylvania, about 20 syringe exchange programs operate across the state, according to the Pennsylvania Harm Reduction Coalition. They allow people to access free sterile syringes and dispose of used ones in an effort to stop the spread of disease.

The programs have been deemed a life-sustaining service by the state Department of Health, allowing them to stay open amid the shutdown of other businesses and nonprofits. Advocates hope this could be a sign that Pennsylvania is finally ready to legalize sterile syringe programs.

The COVID-19 outbreak is exposing holes in all our systems, said Devin Reaves, executive director of the Harm Reduction Coalition. One of those gaping holes in Pennsylvania is the lack of legal services designed to serve drug users and people who live outside. ... I believe  and hope  in the future people will be more open and ready to listen to public health officials" about the benefits of syringe services.

Syringe exchanges are legal in more than two dozen states, including neighboring Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York. They have been shown to reduce the rates of HIV and hepatitis C transmission, and increase the chance of someones entering treatment.

Bills to legalize the programs have been introduced several times in the Pennsylvania legislature, but none has ever passed. Just before the outbreak of COVID-19, Sens. Pat Browne (R., Lehigh) and Anthony Hardy Williams (D., Phila.) published a bipartisan memo saying they planned to try again.

Now the issue seems even more pressing, both said.

After the virus subsides, certainly we will all be talking about areas of health care that push back pandemics and fight viruses, Williams said. Sterile syringe exchanges do just that. So Id expect it to be at the forefront of a lot of conversations as we go forward.

Browne said, Anything were doing to alleviate the health-care system, like reducing infections and overdoses, is crucial. Thats one of the reasons syringe programs have relevance not just for the opioid crisis but for the current one.

For Pam, a former home health aide who runs syringe exchange services in the Wilkes-Barre area, legalization would provide peace of mind. (She asked that her last name be withheld for legal protection.)

Pam started the services after her 22-year-old daughter died of a drug overdose and her brother nearly lost a leg to an infection from a dirty needle. For more than a year, shes been providing syringes, naloxone  the overdose reversal medication  and food to about 20 individuals a week.

She recently switched the services to every two weeks and is keeping more distance during hand-offs. Last week she brought the participants six bottles of Dial hand soap and five jugs of water. Shes been texting them reminders to wash their hands and practice social distancing.

I dont know how else they would get the info, she said. Even the soup kitchen that many of them visited has limited hours and switched to takeout only.

At Prevention Point Pittsburgh  the only syringe exchange program outside of Philadelphia that is also legal under a local ordinance  staff have been trying to raise awareness of COVID-19 for weeks. Since early March, they have been including a tip sheet in supply bags that discusses coronavirus transmission and isolation measures.

If someone shows symptoms, theyre given gloves, a face mask, and extra harm reduction supplies so they can self-quarantine, said Aaron Arnold, executive director of the nonprofit. If the person wants medical help, the staff can arrange that, too.

Although the program has traditionally served people who inject drugs, Arnold said it has recently been handing out more pipes and mouthpieces for people who smoke cocaine or methamphetamine and are concerned about transmission through saliva.

The organization first started offering safer smoking equipment two years ago when there was a hepatitis A outbreak in Pittsburgh, Arnold said.

Now people are starting to see its not just about hepatitis or HIV. Our services can provide a direct protective factor for COVID-19, too, he said.

In Central Pennsylvania, the Lancaster Harm Reduction Project has added bars of soap and bath wipes to the supplies handed out to nearly 100 people in multiple cities each week. Melinda Zipp, director of outreach for the project, said clients are finding it increasingly difficult to access social services, housing and shelters, and even bathrooms to wash up.

Staff at each of the syringe service programs said theyre taking precautions with social distancing and using protective gear like gloves and masks when available, but their main focus is keeping services running for the people who need them.

We take running syringe service sites as seriously as hospitals take running emergency departments, said Arnold, of Prevention Point Pittsburgh. Hopefully people will start seeing us as a critical part of the health care infrastructure  pandemic or no pandemic.

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J&J says it has $1bn deal with the US government to create factory capacity for more than 1 billion doses of vaccine.

Johnson & Johnson said on Monday it made a $1bn deal with the United States government to create enough manufacturing capacity for more than 1 billion doses of a vaccine it is testing to fight the new coronavirus that has killed more than 34,000 people around the world.

Johnson and Johnson said it had selected its own lead vaccine candidate and would start human testing of its experimental coronavirus vaccine by September, with an eye on having it ready for emergency use in early 2021, the drugmaker said on Monday.

J&J also committed more than $1bn of investment along with US agency Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to co-fund vaccine research, expanding a previous collaboration.

The new coronavirus, which began in Wuhan, China, has infected people in most countries around the world. The US now has the most cases globally and many of them are in New York, where hospitals are reporting a scarcity of resources to treat the COVID-19 respiratory disease it causes.

A patient was dosed with Moderna Incs vaccine in an early-stage trial earlier this month, making it the frontrunner in the race to develop a viable vaccine.

J&J said in January it had begun working on a possible vaccine for the coronavirus, using the same technologies used to make its experimental Ebola vaccine.

President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that social curbs ordering businesses to shutter and people to stay home and limit travel will be extended until April 30. In recent days, Trump has called on private sector partners from General Motors to United Parcel Service to help in the fight against coronavirus.

Billions of people around the globe are currently on lockdown or being asked to stay at home. In India, 1.3 billion people last week were ordered to stay home for 21-days. Some economists and health officials have warned that the hit of coronavirus will be particularly devastating on poor and developing countries, where hospitals are underresourced and vaccines out of reach.
A mother has been accused of coughing in the face of a B&M store security guard after telling him she had coronavirus.

Leanne Stapleton, 39, was arrested on March 27th during lockdown after she was allegedly caught shoplifting in the bargain store.

Prosecutors say that in order to try to get away Stapleton deliberately coughed at the guard at the store in Dundas Arcade, Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire.

She has appeared before Teesside magistrates where she was remanded in custody by District Judge Helen Cousins.

Leanne Stapleton, 39, was arrested on March 27th during lockdown after she was allegedly caught shoplifting in the bargain store (pictured)

Stapleton did not enter a plea and will appear before the court again on Thursday April 2nd via videolink from prison.

The defendant, of Londonderry Road, Stockton, has been charged with theft and common assault by deliberately coughing in the guard's face.

The charges come after the director of public prosecutions said last week that people who deliberately coughed at police officers and emergency services while claiming to have coronavirus could face up to two years in jail.

Middlesbrough Mayor Andy Preston, though not commenting on Stapleton's case, has called for tough sanctions for those caught carrying out 'coughing assaults.'

He said: 'The situation we face right now is so serious that serious trouble-makers  especially those involved in disgusting assaults like this - need to be dealt with much harder than normal.

'Anyone doing horrific acts like this should be locked up straight away for the protection of everyone else.'

Over the weekend Cleveland Police issued eight fixed penalty notices to people roaming around during lockdown.

Community Safety Chief Inspector Scott Cowie reiterated the message that people must adhere to the new regulations in order to protect the NHS and save lives.

He said: 'Whilst we now have the powers to enforce protection in order to help save lives and protect our NHS, policing by consent is at the heart of our public service.

'We will continue to encourage and support our communities to comply with the restrictions, but it's right that our officers are now able to enforce against those who disregard these measures and put others at risk.

'We are urging people to adhere to the government's guidelines and not to make unnecessary journeys. Where people are going out to exercise, they should do this in the local vicinity of their home and not travel across the county.'
In 2017, Stafford Sheehan handed a friend an unusual bottle of booze. He had made it himself  but not the usual way. A chemical physicist, Dr. Sheehan had invented a process to make alcohol from carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas associated with climate change, not cocktail hour.

I said, Hold on, you made this from carbon dioxide? recalled his friend, Gregory Constantine, who worked in marketing for Smirnoff. Now the two are in the vodka business, using Dr. Sheehans technology and marketing it as a way to fight global warming.

Their company, Air Co., was one of 10 finalists for a pair of $7.5 million prizes to be awarded this year to the teams that can devise the most profitable use for carbon dioxide, which causes global warming by trapping the suns heat when released into the atmosphere by power plants, cars and industry. The five-year competition, the Carbon XPrize, was designed to create a financial incentive to capture carbon dioxide and use it profitably, instead of releasing it.

However, just as the Brooklyn vodka makers  along with the nine other finalists from as far afield as Nova Scotia (stronger concrete), India (an ingredient in pharmaceuticals) and China (a plastics replacement)  were approaching the finish line, the competition has been delayed by the coronavirus crisis.
Haryana police said on Monday they have completely sealed all inter-state borders to prevent the movement of migrant workers and effectively control the spread of COVID-19, after a large number of labourers from UP, Bihar and Odisha set out on foot for their homes.

The workers are being persuaded to move into temporary shelters and the local administration and social workers are serving food there, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Navdeep Singh Virk said.

"Police officers and jawans posted at various 'nakas' are providing all possible help to the people especially to the poor, homeless, needy and sick ones," he said in a statement.

Some of the migrants, however, said they were facing problems in the shelters.

Many migrant workers, most of them daily wagers, said they did not have money or work and their contractors did not pay them after the 21-day countrywide lockdown was announced on March 24.

Haryana government had started enforcing a lockdown in the state before March 24.

Chief Secretary Keshni Anand Arora said a list of migrant workers and labourers from UP, Bihar and Odisha has been shared with deputy commissioners and they would pursuade them to move into the shelters.

On Sunday, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar ordered the deputy commissioners to completely seal the inter and intra-state borders, after a large number of migrant workers started walking down from Panipat, Gurugram and Faridabad to towards Delhi on their way home in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Virk said industrialists and factory owners have been advised to extend help to their workers.

During the lockdown, only essential and emergency services are allowed; cargo movement has also been allowed on state and national highways.

So far 610 FIRs have been registered in connection with violation of the lockdown, 745 persons arrested and 3,407 vehicles impounded.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Chinese city of Wuhan where the novel coronavirus outbreak first surfaced  was partially reopened on Saturday after a two-month lockdown. Even as some passenger and subway trains resumed operations, residents of the city had questions of their own.

According to a report of the Radio Free Asia (RFA), there is growing doubt among the residents over the official figure of 2,500 deaths in the city, and many believe that the numbers are far greater than whats being reported.

China reported a drop in new coronavirus infections for a fourth day as drastic curbs on international travellers reined in the number of imported cases, while Wuhan saw no new case for a sixth day as businesses reopened, according to Reuters.

As the week began, seven funeral homes in Wuhan have been disbursing cremated remains of 500 people to the kin of the deceased. This has left many residents feeling sceptical about the official figures released by the authorities.

"It can't be right... because the incinerators have been working round-the-clock. How can so few people have died?" a Wuhan resident told RFA. He added the funeral homes had started giving out the ashes and commenced interment ceremonies on Monday.

At present, seven funeral homes are running in Wuhan. The RFA report, citing a news website Caixin.com, claimed 5,000 urns  almost double the number of deaths reported  had been distributed by Hankou Funeral Homes supplier in a single day.

Some posts shared on social media claimed that all seven funeral homes in Wuhan are giving out 3,500 urns per day in total, the report added.

Families were told by the funeral homes that they will try to conclude the cremations before the traditional grave-tending festival of Qing Ming on April 5, which would mark a 12-day process starting March 23, the report said.

If one were to go by these estimates, it would imply that around 42,000 urns would be handed out during the said period.

A resident of Hubei province told RFA that most people now feel that over a staggering 40,000 people had died in Wuhan before and during the lockdown.

"Maybe the authorities are gradually releasing the real figures, intentionally or unintentionally, so that people will gradually come to accept the reality," the resident, who gave only his surname Mao, was quoted as saying by RFA.

Another highly placed source close to the provincial civil affairs bureau told RFA that many people had passed away in their homes, without receiving any treatment or diagnosis for Covid-19.

The source added the city had witnessed 28,000 cremations within a span of a month, indicating that the estimates over a two-and-a-half-month time-frame was not exaggerated.

Wuhans residents have also alleged that the officials were trying to buy out the silence of the residents through monetary offers.

Chen Yaohui, a local, told RFA that city officials were giving out 3,000 yuan as funeral allowances" to the families of the deceased, adding not a single resident believes the official death toll.
Today, the FCC announced a few additional measures to help the US during the coronavirus pandemic. Chairman Ajit Pai shared plans for a $200 million COVID-19 Telehealth Program, which would equip healthcare providers with the broadband connectivity and devices they need to provide telehealth services. The FCC also eased off its ongoing crackdown on cell phone subsidy abuse, saying that it won't de-enroll participants until at least May 29th.

The COVID-19 Telehealth Program would use funds allocated for the FCC in the CARES Act. If approved, it would provide select applicants with full funding for eligible telehealth services and devices. Pai also presented plans for a longer-term Connected Care Pilot Program, which would make $100 million available over three years to help health care providers implement telehealth services, with an emphasis on serving low-income Americans and veterans.

The FCC also said that, during the pandemic, it won't kick users out of its Lifeline program, which provides monthly discounts on broadband and voice services to low-income customers. Lifeline providers are normally required to de-enroll subscribers who they believe are no longer eligible, but the FCC says it will suspend that requirement until at least May 29th.

The Pai-era FCC is notorious for cracking down on alleged Lifeline abuse. In November, a Center for Public Integrity investigation found that the FCC's aggressive stance may be hurting low-income households more than it helps. Since 2017, enrollment has dropped by 2.3 million people. In the District of Columbia, 49 percent of Lifeline users lost their subsidies between March 2018 and June 2019, and Mississippi, Wyoming and Puerto Rico saw similarly drastic drops.

"Our priority right now is keeping Americans connected to broadband and phone service when they need it most. These proactive measures will go a long way in minimizing the risk that a low-income consumer might lose service during the COVID-19 crisis," Pai said in a press release.

US wireless carriers have already pledged to suspend cancellations during the COVID-19 outbreak, and AT&T, Comcast, Sprint and T-Mobile have taken additional steps to keep subscribers connected.
Ukraine boosts farm produce exports by 8%, to almost US$4 bln in Jan-Feb

12:40, 30.03.20 1201

In total, the foreign trade balance in agricultural products amounted to US$2.6 billion.
A worker in the Bustleton Station Post Office in Northeast Philadelphia has tested positive for COVID-19, the U.S. Postal Service confirmed Monday.

It is unclear when the employee tested positive or what actions the Postal Service is taking at the location. A spokesperson declined to offer any information about the individual or their current health status, citing privacy laws. The location remained open Monday.

The safety and well-being of our employees is one of our highest priorities, a spokesperson said in a statement. To ensure the health of our employees, we are continuing to follow recommended strategies from the CDC and local health departments. We also continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation on a nationwide basis.

Health experts say the risks are low that COVID-19 will remain on envelopes or packages and infect anyone who handles them. They suggest avoiding touching your face and washing your hands after handling any deliveries.

Post offices nationwide remain open, but the Postal Service has instituted a number of measures aimed at protecting the public and its workers. Within stores, customers are kept at least six feet apart, and appointments are required for passport applications.

 READ MORE: Can I get the coronavirus from mail or food delivery? The risk is tiny, and you can make it even smaller.

The National Association of Letter Carriers, which represents letter carriers employed by the Postal Service, has told members to avoid ringing doorbells. Instead, they suggest knocking on doors in places others likely havent touched and using social distancing guidelines when interacting with customers.

Nationwide, there have been 178 postal workers who have tested positive for COVID-19, as of Monday afternoon. The Postal Service employs over 630,000 workers.
Kathmandu, March 30

The Cabinet meeting that decided to extend the nationwide lockdown imposed to control the spread of coronavirus infection until April 7 also took some major decisions to address the social and economic crisis at the various levels triggered by the virus outbreak.

Here are the highlights:

1.

Discounts on electricity and telephone charges

The government has decided to provide a 25-per cent discount on the charges of electricity for the month of Chaitra if the household consumption is below 150 units.

Private telecommunications companies have been directed to provide 25-per cent discount on the data and voice call charges during the lockdown period.

2.

Discount on school fees and house rents

The government has directed the private secondary schools to waive all the applicable charges except the fees for residence for one month.

The government has told private enterprises, mainly those in the tourism industry, to pay the wages to their staff for the month of Chaitra. In return, the government has assured that it will cover the expenses related to the social security fund on their behalf.

Likewise, the private house owners have been told not to charge any rent on the tenants for one month. The government has announced to waive the rental tax for that period.

3.

Extension of tax payment deadlines

The government says the customers shall not pay any fine for late payment if they pay electricity, drinking water and telephone bills for the months of Phalgun and Chaitra (mid-February to mid-April) by the end of Baishakh (mid-May). Likewise, transport offices should not make the citizens pay any fine for the delayed renewal of driving licence, route permits, and vehicle registration till mid-May.

The tax payment deadline of April 12 has been extended till May 7 for various enterprises.

The government has decided to exempt customs charges on the import of health and medical equipment until the next notice.

4.

Insurance for health workers and security personnel

The government has decided to insure all health workers deployed in the control of Covid-19 outbreak and treatment of patients for Rs 2.5 million. All security personnel involved in the related assignments will also be insured.

5.

Ban on import of luxury vehicles

Until the next notice, no one can import any vehicle that costs more than USD 50,000 (approximately Rs 6 million). The government has also imposed a ban on the import of peppercorns, betelnuts, peas and date fruits.

The decision aims at saving the foreign exchange reserves of the country.

6.

Foreign debts worth over Rs 22 billion

The government has decided to receive foreign debts worth over Rs 22 billion in total from various donor agencies such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Asian Development Bank. The loan will be used to provide relief to the people affected by the coronavirus crisis.
The Oregon Health Authority reported 84 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, and the death toll from the illness now stands at 18 in the state.
On Tuesday federal Health Minister Greg Hunt announced he had struck a deal with private hospitals to integrated their 34,000 hospital beds with the public system - including their ICU beds that account for one-third of the national ICU capacity. The move takes the Australia's ICU bed count from 2200 to 4400. The ultimate target is 7500 intensive care beds. New guidelines by Australias peak intensive care organisation make provisions for a minimal impact pandemic to a full-blown overwhelming impact that assumes ICUs cant cope with the numbers of COVID-19 patients needing ventilators. In an overwhelming scenario, critically ill patients would be treated in areas without pre-existing critical care infrastructure, the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Societys (ANZICS) COVID-19 guidelines say. Under such a scenario, medical teams would make carefully calibrated, yet agonising, decisions about discharging patients they would have otherwise kept in ICU, and choose not to admit others.

But bed count was too crude a measure for ICU capacity, senior staff specialist of intensive care, ANZICS board member and co-author of the guidelines, Dr Mark Nicholls, said. "What good are beds in a coronavirus pandemic without enough ventilators or specialised healthcare teams to use them?" Loading Earlier this month NSW Health deputy director Susan Pearce said she had ordered 500 more of the life-saving breathing machines, and expected to order more. RPA has 57 ventilators and another 40 on order. Its intensivists expect they will need all 97 at once. Anaesthesia machines can be converted into ventilators, and veterinarians are taking inventory of their human-grade ventilators in case they are needed.

Dr Nicholls said the true measure of ICU capacity would come down to staffing. We have an extremely specialised workforce that everyday looks after very sick patients and they are our most valuable resource, Dr Nicholls said. "Then we have about 100,000 healthcare workers in NSW. We have this huge workforce that we can call on to help us look after COVID patients, Dr Nicholls said. The COVID-19 teams - staff in close contact with coronavirus patients - would have a segregated roster from clean teams working in the rest of the hospital. With non-essential elective surgeries cancelled, anaesthetists and anaesthesia nurses can be re-deployed to ICUs.

With many of the same skill sets as their intensive care colleagues, these anaesthesia teams will be particularly crucial, forming resuscitationists and intubation teams, the ANZICS guidelines say. Loading Instead of the current 1:1 critical care nurse to patient ratio, ICUs would move to a mixed-team model, where the most senior and experienced ICU intensivists and and nurses would manage less experienced healthcare workers who are equipped with some level of critical care training. Hospitals have already begun identifying nurses trained to care for critical patients, including those on desk duties or in university jobs, paediatric ICUs or recently retired. Ward nurses and physiotherapists and pharmacists would be called in to work alongside trainee intensive care and anaesthesia doctors.

Social workers would look after the families isolated from their loved ones in ICU and junior medical and nursing staff with little or no ICU training could take over paperwork and inventory duties. The COVID teams would undergo temperature checks at the beginning of each shift and any ICU staff at risk of severe complications if they were to contract the virus would be re-assigned. That goes for anyone with chronic respiratory or immuno-compromised conditions and pregnant staff. It was absolutely vital that this healthcare workforce stays healthy, Dr Nicholls said. Losing one person to contamination or infection could knock-out an entire team to 14 days quarantine. There will need to be a suite of initiatives to support the families of these healthcare workers, including child minding and caring for elderly relatives. Staff who cant go home will need to be put up in accommodation.
Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have launched coordinated efforts to control swelling crowds of migrant workers retreating from the National Capital Region (NCR) amid a 21-day lockdown over the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, arranging about 2,500 buses to take people off the streets, and providing shelters and food to them.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a three-week lockdown on Tuesday to break the chain of infections of the disease, which has killed at least 32,000 people worldwide.

The decision, however, left millions of people who live off daily earnings out of work, as factories, hotels and other businesses shut to facilitate social distancing measures. The migrant workers began leaving big cities for their hometowns hundreds of kilometres away, a phenomenon that experts said ran counter to the objective of the lockdown.

The Centre on Sunday ordered the effective sealing of borders to curb mass movement and announced measures to aid those in need of shelter and food. However, the three states kept in constant touch to transport the hordes of migrant workers  about 100 million of them across India form the backbone of the economy  to their hometowns or back to their rented accommodations in NCR.

OVERNIGHT EFFORTS AT ANAND VIHAR

Authorities were able to disperse thousands gathered in Delhi late on Saturday by ferrying them to ISBT Kaushambi in Ghaziabad and then deploying UP State Road Transport Corporation buses to take them back to their hometowns. Visuals of hordes of people walking along arterial roads and gathering at the Anand Vihar bus terminal were widely shared on social on Saturday, highlighting the plight of the stranded workers of the informal sector.

Overnight, the size of the gathering at Anand Vihar reduced to about 2,000 from 50,000 the night before. The work to clear the area began at 11pm, when the Delhi government pressed into service 570 buses and the UP government sent around 1,000 buses.

To reduce the movement of migrant workers within the Capital and just outside its borders, the city administration suspended the movement of its DTC and cluster buses, except a few that were seen carrying workers of essential services.

It was an overnight operation and by 5am, Anand Vihar was mostly cleared. Our DTC and cluster buses were deployed to ferry people to areas that were within the 50-70km radius. The entire operation was carried out in coordination with the Delhi police and the UP and Haryana governments, said transport minister Kailash Gahlot.

For longer routes such as Bareily and Kanpur, the Anand Vihar ISBT was opened to allow private buses sent by the UP government and ensure orderly movement of passengers with appropriate social distancing, the minister said.

Similar steps were also taken by the authorities of the adjoining states, as they anticipated that the total objective of the nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19 would fail if such mass exodus that involved the gathering of people in close proximity was not stopped immediately, he added.

Jagtap Singh, who worked at a toy factory in Shahdara before it was shut, said: We have been told that UP buses are waiting at Lal Kuan to take us to the interiors of the state. I have to go Itawa. He spent Saturday night shuttling between the Anand Vihar and Kaushambi bus terminals but failed to board a bus due to the massive crowd.

ACTION SHIFTS TO LAL KUAN

By Sunday morning, the action shifted from Delhi to Lal Kuan on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, where hundreds of buses were deployed to transport migrant workers to different cities. According to estimates by officials, at least 150,000 arrived at ISBT Kaushambi. This prompted the Uttar Pradesh government to contact officials in Delhi and Haryana to control the situation and enforce the lockdown.

The Haryana government, responding to the call by the UP administration, sent a large fleet of about 1,000 Haryana Roadways buses to evacuate the stranded migrants. The buses from Haryana have come to Lal Kuan via Eastern Peripheral Expressway and ferrying passengers free of cost to different cities in UP. The payment to the Haryana government will be made through government-to-government transfer of funds. But nothing is charged from passengers, said Praveen Kumar, inspector general (Meerut range).

We hope that the ferrying of passengers from Lal Kuan will also be stopped soon, probably in a day or two, otherwise more and more people will keep coming, he added. The buses of Haryana arrived from different depots at Delhi, Sonepat, Panipat, Rohtak, Jind, Palwal and Faridabad continued ferrying stranded passengers to Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Rampur, Bareilly and Agra among others till late on Sunday.

Krishan Kumar, a driver from the Delhi depot of Haryana Roadways, said: Our drivers have come with buses that have diesel tank capacity of 250 litres and 400 litres. The first set of buses can reach up to 300km distance and come back while the other category of buses (400 litres) can go up to 1,000km and return. Our drivers are not well-versed with UP areas and roads but we are taking help of Google Maps for the purpose. We have been told to ferry passengers free of cost.

By afternoon, an estimated 50,000 people had gathered at Lal Kuan. They were boarding and leaving in buses till late at night. We are also trying to dispatch maximum of migrant workers who have gathered at Lal Kuan. Our officials are in touch with Delhi government and Delhi Police and making efforts that no more people arrive at ISBT Anand Vihar. At present, we are not allowing people into Ghaziabad from the Delhi border but the figures of those still waiting at Delhi-UP border should not swell. Otherwise the purpose of sealing the borders get defeated, said Prashant Kumar, additional director general (Meerut zone).

Ombir Sharma, vice president, Haryana Roadways, said: We are helping migrant labourers who are stuck due to the lockdown. Delhi-Gurugram border has been closed therefore we are taking them to Uttar Pradesh border via Manesar and Rajasthan.

After the lockdown, workers from different states started heading towards their homes in different districts of Haryana as well as states such as Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, and some to Madhya Pradesh. Following the directives given by the state government, we are running buses from the Gurugram and Faridabad borders to drop them to nearby locations, said Sharma.

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, in a video conference with officials of different districts, directed to close the state and district borders.

Sanjay Rawat, inspector, Vasant Kunj police station, was deployed at the Gurugram-Delhi border and said they had orders not to allow migrant labourers to cross the stretch in a group. This move is to ensure they are protected and social distancing is maintained to prevent transmission of coronavirus, said Rawat.

On National Highway-48, the Gurugram Police could be seen sending back groups of migrant workers towards Manesar. They followed the migrants to ensure they did not resume retreating to their hometowns.

Lankesh Singh, who worked as a farmhand in Pataudi and wanted to board a bus to Bareilly, said: We have returned from the Delhi border. But we will again go back till they dont allow us. We cannot stay here as there is no work for us.
Rome, March 31 : The coronavirus pandemic claimed 11,591 lives in locked-down Italy up to Monday, as the cumulative number of cases reached 101,739, according to the latest data by the Civil Protection Department managing the national emergency response.

The country also registered the highest daily increase in the number of COVID-19 patients recovered at 1,590, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

The death of 812 COVID-19 patients was registered on a daily basis, compared to 756 in the previous 24 hours, Civil Protection Department chief and extraordinary commissioner Angelo Borrelli told a press conference.

The number of active infections rose by 1,648 against the previous day, reaching 75,528. Of those, some 3,981 people were currently in intensive care, and 27,795 were hospitalized in normal wards.

"The majority of people who have tested positive -- namely 43,752 or about 58 percent (of positive) -- are isolated at home, because asymptomatic or with light symptoms," Borrelli said.

The official also highlighted the positive trend in recoveries, which grew by 1,590 cases in 24 hours to 14,620 by Monday.

"This is the highest daily increase of recoveries registered since the coronavirus has started spreading across our country, and the emergency began," the Borrelli stressed.

By topping 100,000, Italy reported the second most cumulative number of coronavirus cases in the world, just after the United States, and was followed by Spain and China.

At geographical level, the most affected regions by the pandemic remained Lombardy (25,006 active cases), Emilia Romagna (10,766), Veneto (7,564), and Piedmont (7,655), all of them in northern Italy.

However, the worst-hit Lombardy seemed to be seeing a timid light at the end of the tunnel, according to local authorities.

"The increase in the number of infections keeps slowing down ... with 1,154 new positive cases compared to yesterday, when we had 1,592 more cases," Lombardy's Welfare Councillor Giulio Gallera told a press conference broadcast live on social media and TV networks from Milan.

Lombardy's death toll remained very high (6,818), with a daily increase of 458 fatalities, higher than 416 a day earlier, according to Gallera.

Top health authorities confirmed a slowdown in the contagion there. "In Lombardy -- and especially in the worst-hit areas of Lodi and Bergamo -- the number of infectious respiratory events for which regional emergency vehicles have been called is markedly reduced," Higher Health Council (CSS) president Franco Locatelli told the press conference alongside Borrelli.

"Interventions (deploy of emergency vehicles ) on the territory have halved compared to March 14-15," Locatelli said, adding that the country was moving "in the right direction." "We must not change our strategy, absolutely. The return to normality will be a gradual process ... the goal is to contain the situation now, and prevent further hotbeds," he stressed.

Looking at health workers on the frontline of the emergency, some 63 doctors were among those who have died due to the infection -- of which at least 11 over the last 24 hours -- the National Federation of the Orders of Doctors and Dentists (FNOMCeO) said on Monday.

In addition, 8,358 health professionals (comprising doctors, nurses, and other sector workers) were among those who tested positive, according to the latest available statistics by the National Health Institute (ISS) updated to March 29.

Nicola Zingaretti, the leader of the country's main Democratic Party, said on Monday that he is cured from the coronavirus, more than three weeks after he became the country's first high-profile politician contracting the coronavirus.

On the political side of the crisis, meanwhile, the central government's latest step to help local authorities face the economic impact of the emergency met with a mixed response.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's cabinet late on Saturday had announced it would allocate some 400 million euros (440 million U.S. dollars) to municipalities in order to provide food coupons to households struggling to buy basic goods in these weeks.

This is because many poor and low-income families across the locked-down country have remained without a source of income while the halt imposed to all non-essential economic activities continues.

The amount, however, was deemed limited by the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI) on Monday.

ANCI vice-president Roberto Pella further explained the financial provision was indeed welcomed, but it could "suffice up to mid-April." "It is necessary to think about the months that lie ahead, and the amount of 1 billion (euros) could be an effective first response to the (needs of) 8,000 Italian municipalities," all-news TV channel SKY TG24 quoted Pella as saying.

At 12 a.m. on Tuesday, on the initiative of the ANCI, Italian mayors will put all flags at half-mast and municipalities will observe one and a half minutes of silence as a sign of national solidarity.

Private citizens and firms have so far donated 63.8 million euros (70.2 million U.S. dollars) to a special bank account opened by the Civil Protection Department and devoted specifically to the emergency.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Caprice has branded Peter Andre 'unprofessional' for calling her 'foolish' for 'undermining a doctor' on Jeremy Vine during a recent coronavirus debate.

Pete, 47, had said in his OK! column: 'I didnt see Caprice Bourrets appearance on Channel 5s Jeremy Vine programme last week, but I heard that she was slammed by viewers for arguing with a qualified doctor about how to contain the coronavirus.

'She apparently claimed that she knew just as much as the health experts because shed read reports online.

Caprice EXCLUSIVE: Model has slammed 'unprofessional' Peter Andre after he said she was 'foolish to undermine a doctor' during a recent coronavirus debate on Jeremy Vine

'If Caprice was intentionally trying to undermine the doctor, then shes absolutely foolish, because its the medical professionals who are being told first hand what is going on. I know who Id listen to!'

But a source close to the model told MailOnline: ''Caprice feels it was unprofessional for Pete to call someone out when he didnt have his facts right.

'Caprice would never undermine a doctor or a specialist in their field. She was simply questioning the doctor as the World Health Organisation had contradictory information.

Pete had said in his column; 'If Caprice was intentionally trying to undermine the doctor, then shes absolutely foolish, because its the medical professionals who are being told first hand what is going on. I know who Id listen to!' (stock photo)

'It was a debate show and Caprice was directly referencing the World Health Organisation who is the authority in this space. A lot of these key facts are referenced in the media.'

The source continued 'Caprice referenced the WHO guidelines and that we should learn from other territories that successfully contained the virus such as Taiwan and Singapore who wore masks and closed all schools early and then went into lockdown in order to prevent the spread and assist healthcare with the overload.

'It is a bit ironic that we are actually following those same steps now which is what Caprice was referencing two weeks ago.

She's not happy about it: Caprice also shared her thoughts in the comments sections of one of Peter's most recent Instagram posts about his daughter Amelia

'Someone in Petes position who writes a column that hundreds of thousands of people read has a responsibility to be objective and have the decency to watch the clip and get the facts correct.

'It seems really unfair of him to comment on something that he hasnt even seen.

MailOnline has contacted Caprices representative for comment.

Moreover, Caprice, 48, also took to the comments section on one of Pete's recent unrelated Instagram posts to say exactly what she felt.

She penned: 'I hope you and your family are staying healthy and well. Im writing in reference to what you wrote about me in Ok magazine. The information is incorrect and Id like to rectify.

'I challenged the doctor, not because I thought I knew better but because WHO (world health organisation) said things that contradicted what the doctor was saying.

'I had read the statements from WHO in a newspaper. My information was not taken from a random person that worked at the paper. It would have been nice if you were a bit more objective and watched the entire conversation between myself and the doctor on the Jeremy vine show instead of accessing your sources from a third party.

'Im just seeking answers to better protect my family and community against this very scary virus. Anyways, more importantly, I hope that you and your beautiful family stay safe and well xx.'

Row: Caprice had previously got into a row with medical expert Dr. Sarah Jarvis during an appearance on the Jeremy Vine Show on Monday, as they discussed coronavirus

Just a fortnight ago, Caprice had found herself at loggerheads with a medical expert during an appearance on the Jeremy Vine Show, as they discussed coronavirus.

The erstwhile Dancing On Ice contestant was seen debating with Dr. Sarah Jarvis on how best to curtail the pandemic's growth when she insisted the UK should be following Taiwan and Singapore's model with a two-week shutdown.

As she shared her view, Caprice was told by Dr. Jarvis: 'No disrespect, but unless you have read every scientific paper and statistical modelling paper thats come out you cannot argue with me on that. You can have an opinion but its not a fact.'

Showing no signs of relenting, the star stood firm as she shot back: 'But I can, I have an opinion. Let me read you the facts: In Taiwan and Singapore early on everyone was wearing surgical masks'

'Which make no difference at all,' Dr. Jarvis boomed back at Caprice, who refused to back down as she said: 'Sorry, I let you so let me finish'

Closed: Caprice had said the UK should follow Taiwan and Singapore's model with a total shutdown and also spoke about wearing a face mask

Host Jeremy then interjected as he explained to Caprice: 'Alright, but Sarah is the expert, but go on.'

'This is from a newspaper! This is from somebody from WHO!' Caprice said, before the discussion was eventually brought back to Dr. Jarvis.

Caprice drew the ire of Dr. Jarvis when she suggested that the UK goes into a total shutdown for two weeks - a model which she insisted had worked in Asia. This was before the UK did in fact go into lockdown.

The Channel 5 show was filmed without a live studio audience for the first time in its history, amid attempts to curb the spread of the deadly virus.

However, a large number of viewers were aghast at what they saw, taking to Twitter in droves to ask why Caprice was even invited to debate such a topic on the show.

Expert: Jeremy Vine interjected, telling Caprice: 'Alright, but Sarah is the expert, but go on'

Twitter: Dom Joly led a host of Twitter users in expressing disagreement with Caprice's stance

Wrote one viewer: 'No disrespect to Caprice. She has to earn a living and everything but seriously broadcasters stop putting ill informed people up against experts. This is life and death stuff and TV has a duty to inform.'

'At a time of national crisis why the hell @theJeremyVine would you have #Caprice on there giving out information from a newspaper,' queried another. 'Come on...we deserve better than this!!! For bl**dy shame on you! Give the airways over to professional people who can give the RIGHT information.'

Stated a third: 'Caprice "debating" a qualified doctor about the coronavirus, is a crystallised version of everything wrong with our culture and general discourse.'

Dom Joly also chimed in on the episode as he tweeted: 'This is just embarrassing  stick to experts  shouldn't even be having this kind of debate using people who've "read stuff in papers".'

Facts: Caprice drew objections from Dr. Jarvis as she read facts on the virus from a newspaper

Aghast: A large number of viewers were aghast at what they saw, taking to Twitter in droves to ask why Caprice was even invited to debate such a topic on the show

Dr. Jarvis herself retweeted Dr. Zoe Williams, who stated: 'Just a reminder that @DrSarahJarvis is a doctor and a media medic. Caprice is a celebrity! Be careful who you listen to out there. Sense would say that the Dr is more likely to be correct!'

However, Caprice also had a number of supporters on the micro-blogging site, with one stating: TBF on Caprice, she started the debate wrongly. The article she is referring to is from a top medical spokesperson in China.. And that approach works.

'Dr Sarah Jarvis for the sake of her medical career has to obide by Gov guidelines.. Which we are now understanding is wrong!' [sic]

The viewer continued of Dr. Jarvis: She would be risking her professional reputation by going against them [government guidelines].

'However the WHO are correct and our Gov should hopefully see that and change tac when they realise they've screwed up.. However it might be too late.' [sic]

Studio audience: The Channel 5 show was filmed without a live studio audience for the first time in its history, amid attempts to curb the spread of the deadly virus

Agreeing: Caprice also had a number of supporters on the micro-blogging site, insisting that she was right to express the need for the UK to go for a total shutdown - this was before the lockdown was actually enforced

Another said: 'Caprice is right tho? Not on 2 weeks being sufficient but her broader point about lockdown being the proven method of limiting virus stands I think.' [sic]

After Caprice exited the studio, a source close to the star told MailOnline slammed 'so-called experts' for encouraging anything other than closing things down to halt the spread of coronavirus.

'Caprice believes we should follow Taiwan and Singapore's lead in how they have tackled the coronavirus early on and ultimately have controlled and contained the spread of the virus,' said the source.

'She is concerned like many others over the lack of clarity from so called experts and believes the UK should have followed Taiwan and Singapore in shutting all UK schools early on!'

Caprice's fiery debate comes days after she was seen stepping out wearing a mask covering her nose and mouth, after narrowly avoiding catching coronavirus.

Jaw-dropping: Hours after her appearance on the show, Caprice stepped out in glam style, wearing a sleeveless grey dress with a plunging neckline and cinched waist

The model wore the protective item as she headed out in London on Friday to record for a podcast, with sources exclusively telling MailOnline that Caprice was 'left shaken' over the COVID-19 pandemic.

A source revealed that Caprice had a near-miss with the virus, after a friend of hers caught it, and she is now 'following every precaution necessary' to avoid falling ill.

Her appearance comes after sources say the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak is starting to hit home for Caprice.

'It's starting to hit close to home and [Caprice] was rationed to one toilet roll and one kitchen roll per person at Costco,' the inside told MailOnline.

'Her covershoot with Global Woman Magazine has also been cancelled and rescheduled at the last minute because one of the crew tested positive with coronavirus.'

Taking precautions: Caprice was seen stepping out wearing a mask covering her nose and mouth, after narrowly avoiding catching coronavirus, in London on Friday

They added: 'She told the pal that it is quite scary and if the photoshoot was only one day before, she could have been infected.

'It has shaken her up and she is quite concerned. She is now being very careful and following every precaution necessary to avoid contracting the virus.'

Caprice has been keeping a low-profile over the last few months, after bowing out of this year's series of Dancing On Ice following a 'tough few months'.

She had started on the series with professional skating partner Hamish Gaman, but was later forced to pull out of the show after the pair became embroiled in a bullying row.

The star was reportedly left too scared to speak during Dancing On Ice training after Hamish enforced a 'three strikes and you're out rule' if she didn't do exactly what he said  making her feel like mistakes were not allowed.

Caprice was put into an alternative pairing with Oscar Peter but subsequently decided to quit the ITV series altogether to 'recover and look after herself and her family'.

'Tough': Caprice has been keeping a low-profile after quitting Dancing On Ice following a bullying row with her skating partner Hamish Gaman (pictured above on the ITV series)

Hamish later told Hello! magazine that he was moving on from the drama after deciding to propose to fiancee Amelia, who he met on Tinder four years ago.

He said: 'I've known for a long time that I want to spend the rest of my life with Amelia but what I've been through made me keen to make that commitment to her sooner than we'd anticipated.

'For the past few months I've been in a dark place which I couldn't have got through without her. Recent events have made me realise just how much I love her. Planning our wedding together has brought light to the darkness.

Hamish continued: 'Without Amelia I don't know what I would have done. When you're in the public eye, you expect to read and hear gossip about yourself, but I never thought it would affect my mental health as much as it did.

'I found it hard to sleep and eat, and would wake up with anxiety. Amelia has been my absolute rock.'
Taiwan's health minister Chen Shih-chung (C) gives a thumb up as he poses with demonstrators on the sideline of the World Health Organization annual Assembly in Geneva, May 21, 2018.

Taiwan is capable and willing to cooperate with every country to combat the spread of the coronavirus, President Tsai Ing-wen said Monday, following a kerfuffle over the weekend in which a World Health Organization (WHO) official appeared to dodge a question about granting the democratic island membership.

On Friday, Hong Kongs RTHK interviewed WHO assistant general-director Bruce Aylward by video link about international responses to the pandemic that has infected some 775,000 people and left more than 37,000 dead. The RTHK reporter asked more specifically about Taiwan, which so far has seen only 306 confirmed cases and five deaths in a population of 24 million.

When asked whether the WHO would consider giving Taiwan membership, Aylwardwho in February led a WHO team to the epicenter of the virus in Chinas Wuhan city and had praised the governments response, despite questions over its transparencypaused for several seconds before saying he was unable to hear and requested that the interviewer proceed to the next question.

When pressed further on Taiwan, the line appeared to disconnect, but the journalist contacted Aylward again and asked how the islands authorities had done so far in trying to contain the virus. At that point, Aylward said weve already talked about China, before going on to praise the response by China as a whole and then ending the conversation.

The video interview went viral soon after it aired and comes amid an ongoing controversy over how the WHO works with Taiwan and China, which considers the island part of its territory and has blocked it from membership.

Interview response

Later on Friday, Taiwans foreign minister Joseph Wu said in a message posted to Twitter that the WHO should set politics aside in dealing with a pandemic, adding that Taiwan had received widespread praise for its handling of the virus in media reports from more than 40 countries.

These reports do not mistake us as part of China & #TaiwanCanHelp, he wrote.

On Sunday, the WHO issued a statement noting that Aylward did not answer a question on Taiwans response to the COVID-19 outbreak during his interview with RTHK, referring to the disease caused by the coronavirus.

It added that the issue of Taiwans membership is up to WHO Member States, not WHO staff, but said that the organization is working with all health authorities facing the outbreak, including Taiwanese health experts.

As of Monday, the WHO appeared to have removed an earlier listing of Aylward as an assistant director-general from its website.

Also on Monday, President Tsai replied to the WHOs statement saying she hoped that all countries after experiencing this outbreak would better understand Taiwan's capabilities and areas of contribution, to seriously consider Taiwan's participation in the global response to the pandemic.

Taiwan's stance has always been clear: it is capable and willing to work with countries in health protection, and is also willing to share useful experiences, she said.

Different standards

The WHO ended Taiwans observer status at its annual World Health Assembly in 2016, the same year Tsai, of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, was elected. Beijing has stepped up efforts to undermine Taiwans bid for recognition from the international community as an independent nation since then.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has come under fire for praising China, despite Beijing failing to respond to the outbreak initially and resisting cooperation with the international community.

Meanwhile, Taiwan said it has been left out of discussions despite its relative success at containing the virus, which it claims it warned the WHO about in December but was ignored. The WHO only declared a pandemic in March.

While hospitals around the world have been overwhelmed by coronavirus cases, and crucial supplies are running out in other countries, Taiwan's government had its public health response already in place after developing it in the wake of the 2003 SARS epidemic.

In spite of having more than a million of its nationals living or traveling to mainland China and millions of tourist arrivals from China annually, and in spite of the outbreak exploding ahead of the Lunar New Year travel rush, the island has managed to stave off a major outbreak in the community so far.
A flight carrying 35 Indians from Afghanistan landed at the Delhi airport on Monday and the passengers were being sent to an ITBP quarantine facility set up in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, officials said.

They said the Kam Air flight from Kabul landed at about 2:40 pm at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport.

The 35 passengers are being screened with temperature guns by ITBP personnel at the tarmac and will be sent to the quarantine facility in the Chhawla area of southwest Delhi.

The facility already has 481 Indians who were recently rescued from COVID-19 affected Rome in Italy.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China uses the outbreak to expand its trade volume

Trump has been searching for supplies to fill the mounting need for equipment to protect healthcare workers caring for coronavirus patients.

A planeload of desperately needed medical supplies arrived in New York from China on Sunday, the first in a series of flights over the next 30 days organized by the White House to help fight the coronavirus, a White House official said.

A commercial carrier landed at John F. Kennedy airport carrying gloves, gowns and masks for distribution in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, three hard-hit states battling to care for a crush of coronavirus patients.

20 FLIGHTS CARRYING MEDICAL SUPPLIES

The goal is to expedite the arrival of critical medical supplies purchased by the companies over the next 30 days, using planes instead of ships to reduce the shipping time.

At President Trumps direction we formed an unprecedented public-private partnership to ensure that massive amounts of masks, gear and other PPE will be brought to the United States immediately to better equip our health care workers on the front lines and to better serve the American people, Kushner said in a statement.

Medical workers across the country are clamoring for equipment to protect themselves from infection as they deal with the flood of virus victims.

The first plane, funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, carried 130,000 N-95 masks; nearly 1.8 million surgical masks and gowns, more than 10.3 million gloves; and more than 70,000 thermometers.

The flight from Shanghai, China, was the first of about 20 flights to arrive between now and early April, the official said. Additional flights will carry similar gear from China, Malaysia and Vietnam, the official said. It will be allocated based on need, the White House official said.
Workers in Ontarios long-term care homes deserve additional personal protective equipment and a $4-an-hour raise for their crucial COVID-19 efforts, says Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca.

Del Duca would also like to see thousands of foreign-trained health professionals be allowed to practise in Ontario because of the high demand for doctors and nurses during the pandemic.

In a letter Monday to Premier Doug Ford, he praises the Progressive Conservative government for its efforts in containing the virus.

Thank you for your actions on price gouging, supply chain management and limiting gatherings to no more than five people in Ontario. These are important measures. I know things are moving quickly and there are new developments every day, the Liberal leader wrote.

Yesterday, your government moved to suspend certain regulations under the Long-Term Care Act, expanding the potential workforce in long-term care homes, he said.

That has raised safety concerns from nurses, personal support workers, and the elderly residents of those facilities.

Del Duca urged the Tories to immediately at the very least, double the budget for PPE (personal protective equipment) from $75 million to $150 million.

The changes made to the supply chain of PPE are very important, he said, referring to Fords push to ensure more gear is being manufactured and distributed.

They must be coupled with the long-term care homes being connected to those regional supply management tables. Due to high risk of the residents and staff, long-term care homes ought to be a priority when PPE supplies become available.

The Liberal leader also recommends a $4-an-hour raise for every long-term care worker for next three months to offset the lost pay from limits on the number of facilities caregivers can work in during the crisis.

Many care providers work in more than one care facility, he said, noting the recommendation from Dr. David Williams, Ontarios chief medical officer of health limiting the number of facilities a worker can work in is creating difficult choices and financial hardship for care providers and their families.

Del Duca also suggested iPads or other tablet computers be provided to the homes so loved ones can talk to their families, would help families stay connected, improve mental health and keep residents from feeling fully isolated.

Finally, he asked Ford to examine the feasibility of turning to the thousands of foreign-trained doctors and nurses, who are not licensed to practice in Ontario, for their help during the pandemic.

Fast-tracking the approval of professional credentials could help regions in need of more health workers.

There are 13,000 foreign-educated doctors and 6,000 foreign-educated nurses whose expertise can assist the province at this time, he said.

Other jurisdictions, like New York state, are taking this approach.

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In its first week starting March 27, the firm purchased meals from Michael's Cuisine and Buffalo Brothers to serve workers at UNTHSC COVID-19 Testing and Emergency Call Centers and the City of Fort Worth's Emergency Operations Center, where Mayor Betsy Price came to show her support. Next week's purchased meals will be from Joe T. Garcia's Mexican Restaurant and other local restaurants to serve workers at Texas Health Resources, Cook Children's Hospital and staff and guests at Catholic Charities and Safe Haven of Tarrant County. Higginbotham also made monetary donations to the Tarrant Area Food Bank and the Fort Worth Food & Wine Foundation's Restaurant Worker's Relief Fund.

"Our employees believe in giving back to the community," said Higginbotham Chairman and CEO Rusty Reid. "We want to be of service and hopefully inspire other businesses to follow our lead during this time." In the coming weeks, the Higginbotham Helps program will support multiple restaurants and serve a number of organizations and hundreds of community service workers.

"Rusty and the team at Higginbotham have found a brilliant way to provide our hometown heroes working on the frontlines with delicious meals while supporting our local restaurants," said North Texas Community Foundation President and CEO Rose Bradshaw. "This is another fantastic example of how the firm gives back on a daily basis to this community. The North Texas Community Foundation has been honored to steward Higginbotham's philanthropy. Since 2011, the firm's employees have contributed $2.5 million to local charities. Well done!"

About Higginbotham

Higginbotham is a single source for insurance and financial services that brokers business insurance, employee benefits, retirement plans, executive benefits, life insurance and home/auto insurance from more than 250 regional and national carriers. It supplements coverage with in-house risk management, benefit plan administration and human resources services. The firm was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, with more than 40 additional offices statewide and in Oklahoma, Georgia and California serving domestic and international customers. Higginbotham ranks by revenue as the nation's 24th largest independent insurance brokerage firm, making it the largest Texas-based broker (Business Insurance, July 2019). Visit www.higginbotham.net for more information.

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Sudhir Suryawanshi By

Express News Service

MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday ordered that the bodies of all persons who died of coronavirus would be cremated, irrespective of their religion. The notification, however, was withdrawn within hours as it kicked up a huge controversy.

The notification, issued by BMC Commissioner Pravin Pardeshi, said the bodies of Covid-19 victims had to be cremated, whatever their religion, because of health concerns. Only five persons can attend the funeral and rituals of touching the body should be avoided, it further said.Mumbai has so far reported 92 positive cases and six deaths.

FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES HERE

If anyone insists on burial, he will be permitted only if he takes the body out of Mumbais jurisdictions. Transport and other arrangements/expenses will be borne by the family of the deceased, stated the circular.

Congress legislator Aslam Sheikh, the citys guardian minister, took strong objection to the circular saying it was biased towards the minority community. The Christian community also raised objections, saying the dead should be laid to rest as per their respective religious rituals and practices.

ALSO READ: Maharashtra earmarks Rs 45 crore for food, shelter to migrant workers

The NCP also objected to the prejudiced circular of the BMC, which is controlled by the Shiv Sena.

The BMC was forced to amend the circular. The amended circular said the bodies can be within the city if the burial ground is big enough. It also stated that the body should be wrapped up in a plastic bag that will obstruct the decomposing process.
People with hard-to-reach cancers in the kidney, gut and prostate will have improved hope for early diagnosis and treatment with new research aimed at increasing the shelf life of revolutionary radiation drugs.

Funding of AU$2.5 million will kickstart a two-year manufacturing research project that will harness the combined expertise of the School of Chemistry, Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre to increase the shelf-life of radiation drugs, so they can be shipped to patients globally.

Telix Pharmaceuticals and Cyclotek, with co-funding from of the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (IMCRC), will contribute AU$1 million to the project and will lead the research to create a manufacturing production process. They will also work with external partners, iphase Technologies and GenesisCare, to develop and streamline the manufacturing process.

Radiation drugs, known as 'radiopharmaceuticals', can be used to locate and see cancer cells in the body, including hard-to- reach places using the imaging technology, Positron Emission Tomography (PET).

By capturing the radio isotope in a selective 'cage like' molecule and fusing it to a targeting molecule, the radiation can be directly transported to the cancerous cells for detection of tumours.

In the case of kidney, neuroendocrine and prostate cancers, there are specific 'homing' molecules that can transport the radioactive cargo to the cancer cells, including those that are hidden in the hard-to-reach nooks and crannies of the body like the gut, kidney and prostate.

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Again, the process makes it possible to diagnose cancer cells that would otherwise go undetected. Once diagnosed, a higher energy radioisotope can then be used to destroy the cancer cells.

The ability of the drugs to target cancer cells also reduces the number of healthy cells that are damaged by more traditional ways of administering radiation therapy.

"It has taken years of basic research at the School of Chemistry, Bio21 Institute, to develop the carrier compounds that are the principle behind this technology," said Professor Paul Donnelly from the School of Chemistry, Bio21 Institute at the University of Melbourne. "It's exciting to see these compounds being developed for clinical use and manufacture."

Currently, isotopes are being produced locally within the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre for cancer patients by the company, Cyclotek.

"The challenge is to create radio-labelled diagnostic and therapeutic agents with a longer half-life, that lend themselves to manufacture and distribution beyond the hospital walls," said Michael Wheatcroft of Telix Pharmaceuticals.

Mr David Chuter, the CEO and Managing Director of the Innovative Manufacturing CRC, said the manufacturing research project will open up a world of potential to treat cancer more effectively.

"The project will build the foundation to safely and cost-effectively manufacture life changing targeted cancer radiation drugs in Australia, and export them to the world."
Theres something about quilts that conjures up tradition, community and a sense of home. Theres a history and mythology that hangs about them as thick as the scent of mothballs. Quilts capture remnants of who we areand, in the hands of artist Melissa Sarris of Chatham, they can also express who we are becoming, individually and collectively.

A fabric artist who spent 25 years making quilts and, for the last decade, a maker of socially engaged art, Sarris partners with nonprofit organizations to create experiences that share common elements with the quilting bees of old. For example, her Stitching Exchange project, supported by RISSE (Refugee Immigrant Support Services of Emmaus), Hudson Family Literacy and Up-Stitch, uses sewing as a common language to connect immigrants living in the Capital Region to one another and to their craft. In a series of workshops, participants created translation pillows embroidered with their names in their native languages and in English, and hosted a Mending Day during which they offered their sewing skills to the public while practicing their English skills.

Historically, quilting was a social opportunity where people would work togetherthere was a collaborative component, Sarris said in a recent interview. Quilting and sewing bring people together, and remind us that inside were all the same. Shes currently working on a plan to keep the Stitching Exchange participants in touch virtually while physical distancing is in place.

Art, says Sarris, is all about translation. With her 2018 workshop series Hip Hop Sew, based at the Troy Boys & Girls Club, Sarris helped kids age 5 up to teens to translate their favorite music into designs on cloth-covered magnets and hand-printed fabric, which later came together in a quilt that was exhibited at the Arts Center of the Capital Region. In her Embroidery project, she took the words of incarcerated men, responding to questions about how they see themselves, and printed them on linen fabric. Hanging at the Collar Works Gallery in Troy, they were gradually made visible through the hands of viewers who were invited to embroider the words with colorful floss, one letter at a time.

Sarris didnt start out working with either fabric or socially engaged art; she was a photography major at the School of Visual Arts in New York City,and also experimented with performance art and sculpturemaking paintings with mud and capturing images with homemade pinhole cameras. Then one day, she found herself in a fabric store and was captivated by the bolts upon bolts of material arranged by hueas she says, if you like color, its like being a kid in a candy store.

Sewing only by hand for the first couple of years, she began creating quilts and fabric art, teaching herself as she went. Her work was displayed at juried craft venues across the country and in the collections of the Renwich Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Peoples Place Quilt Museum and Cambridge Artist Cooperative.

In 2010, ready for a change, she enrolled in the MFA program at the University at Albany, and was exposed to socially engaged art during her first semester.

It turns out I had been doing it all along, but I didnt know what it was called, she said. Socially engaged art sits at the intersection of conceptual art and community engagement. It involves working with people in collaboration to make something together, and that something isnt always an object, sometimes its an experience.

In one of her first projects after grad school, Drawing from Memory, people riding the Staten Island Ferry could call an 800 number and relate a childhood memory with the theme of water. On the other end of the line, an artist sitting in the terminal listened closely and made a drawing of the story, which the traveler could view once they arrived and eventually take home.

Venturing into socially engaged art gave me a space to consider what I believe to be important for me as an artist to pursue: fostering kindness, generosity and connection in a world where it is always needed, Sarris said. Because she no longer makes art that can be sold, she relies on grants and volunteers to make the work possible, she said.

In a 2017 partnership with the organization ReEntry Columbia, Sarris created the Sewn Together program for incarcerated men and women at the Columbia County Jail in Hudson, using materials usually considered contrabandneedles, thread, scissors, pinsto facilitate a process that was both creative and therapeutic.

Art gets at how you feel pretty quickly, whether youre a maker or a viewer, Sarris reflected. Built into any studio art class is the critique, the opportunity to look at what youve made and have other people tell you what theyre seeing. Sewn Together led to another project at the jail, called Personality Quilts. I asked people to think about what fabrics they were drawn to and why  colors, patterns, textures, Sarris explained. People could pick whatever they wanted, to express how they wanted to be seen and what they wanted to become. The finished quilts now hang in the lobby of the jail.

Sarris says working with fabric can be a source of comfort in challenging times - such as during the coronavirus crisis - as well as a useful skill; she noted that Up-Stitch is now organizing volunteers to sew masks for local medical professionals, using donated supplies.

Color is a wonderful resource for expressing emotion, she said. I can imagine people creating a simple project for themselves right nowpicking one small piece of fabric each day that somehow references the feeling of that day, and eventually putting them all together. From our earliest memories, we have the sensation of our fingers touching fabric, and thats very comforting and sustaining.

Tresca Weinstein is a frequent contributor to the Times Union.
By Sam Richards

Bay City News

MARTINEZ (BCN)

Lisa Mills is a nurse, and she said she knows the value of motivation and support.

"People in these essential jobs are pushing through longer shifts now, dealing with more emotional strain," said Mills, who wanted to show appreciation for those workers - medics, police, fire, restaurant workers, grocery workers and others.

So in the spirit of community efforts including Mill Valley's nightly "howl" in support of medical workers, and the nightly singing of home-bound Italians who nonetheless raise their voices for medical personnel changing shifts nearby, Mills organized a sort of drive-by Sunday serenade as a boost for the essential workers. It was sort of a combination of the Howl and the Sunday drive-by of about a dozen Morello Park Elementary School teachers through their students' neighborhoods, waving to the kids out the windows.

Mills mobilized participants via the Martinez Rants and Raves Facebook page, and asked that all drivers play Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" on car radios or boom-boxes.

One of those drivers Sunday was Pat Sobocinski of Martinez.

"I love this town - it's really close-knit, and everybody seems to be helping everybody," she said. "I'm just doing what I can do."

A caravan of about 20 vehicles departed the Alhambra High School parking lot on Alhambra Avenue and hit the lightly trafficked streets at about 6:20 p.m. Sunday, with emergency blinkers blinking, windows open and "Don't Stop Believin'" coming out of virtually all the windows. The procession headed north past a Contra Costa County Fire Protection District station, the Martinez Police Department station, and through downtown before heading back south.

Mills had also asked people to play "Don't Stop Believin'" at around 6 p.m. Sunday, even if they weren't driving. And some did.

"We drove past some people playing the music on their phones," Mills said.

Among those who joined the motorcade Sunday were Martinez Mayor Rob Schroder and the owners of a downtown restaurant and of a nearby wine bar.

Mills was thrilled with the turnout, and said she wants to make this a weekly event while the coronavirus emergency lasts. And she expects more people to be part of it next week. She has one request, though - more volume.

"I know someone who wants to come next week and they have big speakers," Mills said. "I don't know why it wasn't louder."

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Hidden business rates charges are catching out farmers and many rural businesses with solar PV installations, according to rural energy experts.

Supermarket chain Lidl has recently hit the headlines after being stung with a 528% rise in business rates because of solar PV installations on its store roof.

Many farms could also be in line for a costly bill if they dont take action, warned energy consultant Roadnight Taylor.

Although a lot of farm businesses may fall into the category of being agriculturally exempt, others wont," explained senior consultant, Richard Palmer.

"Its important to get your array expertly and independently checked to find out if you have a business rates obligation.

Modelling business rate implications for solar installations at different scales and configurations can inform the feasibility of a project and mitigate your liability, he said.

Farms using more than 90% of the generated electricity on-site will fall under the agricultural exemption, as long as the electricity is being utilised for agricultural purposes only, but bizarrely the worst hit are those using between 50% and 90%.

"Those using below 50% will see the liability six to eight-fold lower," Mr Palmer said, adding: "The issue with Lidl is that its using most of the generated electricity on-site, and it is not agriculturally exempt.

Additionally, complexities around temporary micro-generation exemptions can lead to farmers mistakenly concluding that they are not liable for business rates.

Farmers can easily get caught out. For example, a farm tenant with an existing array of 120kWp who wanted to add a further 30kWp would have inadvertently lost his agricultural exemption as he would now be consuming less than 90% of the generated energy on site.

"However, we advised a solution whereby the landlord invested in the second array to sell the electricity to the tenant," Mr Palmer said, "This avoided a potentially significant business rates liability.

Many farms and estates have diversified their businesses and created downstream supply chains such as farm shops and food processing.

In these cases, existing or adding solar PV, and indeed battery storage, could make a business liable for rates.

Navigating these hazards is where expert energy flow data modelling becomes invaluable: Models provide both technical and financial detail to inform business decision-making.

"Knowledge is power  and we have built a bespoke business rates model to account for this specific risk, said Mr Palmer.

If you have an existing array, a business rates liability could be accruing year-on-year. A new farming client to us wasnt aware that his 140kWp array was amassing cost at a rate of 7,500 per annum, he warned, But we were able to advise a strategy to stop this issue in its tracks."
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 30, 2020 17:52 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e6b59b 1 City Jakarta-police,toll-road,Jakarta-transportation,quarantine,COVID-19,novel-coronavirus Free

Despite calls from President Joko Jokowi Widodo to limit travel across regional borders in an effort to curtail the spread of COVID-19, there are not yet any restrictions on traveling into or out of Jakarta, according to the Jakarta Police.

All toll roads in the city will continue to operate normally, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Yusri Yunus has said.

"Jakarta hasn't applied any regional quarantine, yet, so we are currently still disseminating information on social distancing. Any decision on a regional quarantine will be determined by the central government," he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Jokowi instructed his Cabinet to impose stricter rules on large-scale physical distancing coupled with "civil emergency policies" in an effort to contain the worsening COVID-19 outbreak in a Cabinet meeting on Monday.

Regardless, Yusri said the Jakarta Police together with the Indonesian Military (TNI), state-owned toll operator PT Jasa Marga and related institutions had conducted joint training in preparation for the worst-case scenario of Jakarta being under quarantine.

He also stressed the importance of social distancing as stipulated in the National Police chief edict issued on Mar. 22, which prohibits any mass gatherings. (trn)
THE Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has decided to appeal against the refusal by a Dar es Salaam court to admit as evidence a crucial document in 1bn/- economic trial, involving Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) Line implementation project estimated at 15tri/-.

In a notice of intention to appeal filed at the Kisutu Resident Magistrates Court on Friday, the DPP indicated that the prosecution would appeal to the High Court to challenge Principal Resident Magistrate Thomas Simbas ruling delivered on March 25, 2020.

Take notice that the Director of Public Prosecutions, being dissatisfied with the ruling delivered on March 25, 2020, where the court rejected admission of a prosecution exhibit, do hereby intend to appeal to the High Court against the ruling, reads part of the notice.

The document sought to be tendered is a Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) Investigation Report on review of the project bidding process under which the prosecution has sought to tender in evidence to support the trial of three accused persons.

In the impugned decision, the magistrate ruled in favour of the trio, Reli Assets Holding Company (Rahco) former Director General Benhadard Tito, ex- Rahco Company Secretary Emanuel Massawe and businessman Kanji Mwinyijuma, saying such documents was inadmissible.

The magistrate gave such a decision after going through competing submissions presented by the prosecution, led by officer with the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) Magela Ndimbo and defence counsel Peter Kibatala and Jeremia Ntobesya.

He pointed out that a prosecution witness, Dr Laurence Shirima, who is PPRA Chief Executive Officer, had told the court before producing the intended exhibit that the document was received by his office and later stamped, thus, he could have easily identified it through seals.

According to him, having closely scrutinised the document the magistrate found that the seals alleged to have been stamped on the document were unreadable and that it was uncertain where they came from.

The document is supposed to be sealed on every page, but even when it was sealed, the seal is unreadable. The witness said he identified the document because of the seal, but it is unreadable.

It is unknown where this document comes from. The court refuses to accept this exhibit, he ruled. Following such a ruling, the magistrate adjourned the trial to April 1, 2020 for hearing. In the trial, the accused are alleged to have committed the offences between 2014 and 2015.

The accused are charged with conspiracy, abuse of position and occasioning over 1bn/- loss in transactions relating to railway upgrade.

They allegedly conspired to commit the offences contrary to the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Act between September 1, 2004 and September 30, 2015.

It is alleged that on February 27, 2015, at Rahco offices in Ilala District, while discharging his duties, being the managing director of the company, Tito intentionally abused his position by procuring Rothschild (South Africa) Proprietary Limited.

According to the prosecution, such a company was procured as a transaction adviser for the project to upgrade the central corridor rail line in Tanzania by a single source method without the approval of Rahco Tender Board, an act which violated the Procurement Act.

Between March 12 and May 20, 2015, at Rahco offices, Tito and Massawe allegedly abused their positions by signing a letter for appointing the South African company and failure to submit a consultancy services contract between the company and Rahco to the Attorney General for vetting.

The two accused between May 20 and June 20, 2015, at Rahco offices, allegedly abused their positions by signing the consultancy agreement and failure to submit copies to the Attorney General, Controller and Auditor General, Internal Auditor General and Tanzania Revenue Authority.

Between March 1 and September 30, 2015, at Rahco offices, by their wilful acts, all the three accused procured consultancy services from Rothschild (South Africa) Proprietary Limited, which was not rendered, thereby causing loss of $527,540, which was paid as advance.

Tito was charged with an additional count of abuse of his position that on August 18, 2015, allegedly awarded China Railway Construction Corporation construction work of 2km of SGR line at Soga worth $2,312,229.39 without approval of Rahco Tender Board.
The number of Arizonans out of work and seeking benefits took another big jump, more than tripling in a week.

New figures from the state Department of Economic Security show there were 88,592 initial claims filed in the week ending Friday. That compares with 29,333 the week before  and fewer than 3,000 at the end of February.

The numbers represent a tsunami of sorts at the agency: Those new claims are nearly triple the number of people who already were getting unemployment insurance at the end of last week.

And the 30,309 continuing claims for the week ending March 28 is itself a 73% increase in the number of people who were collecting benefits the week before that.

All that is bound to eventually take a toll on the nearly $1.1 billion the state has in a special trust account financed by a tax that employers pay on the first $7,000 of each workers salary.

Total benefits for last week were $3.24 million, compared with $3.04 million the week before. And none of that counts the latest new claims.

Arizona law says that those laid off through no fault of their own are entitled to one-half of what they were making. But Arizona sets a maximum payment of $240 a week; only Mississippi at $235 is lower.

Gov. Doug Ducey, asked about that last week, noted that the federal rescue package approved by Congress adds up to $600 a week more. Those benefits are expected to last up to four months.

To ensure state eligibility for the federal dollars, the Legislature approved a measure that expands eligibility to cover those who cannot work because of COVID-19, whether because they have it, they have been furloughed, or they are at home taking care of someone because of the virus.
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DETROIT (AP)  A truck collided with a pedestrian bridge early Friday in Detroit, sending a portion of the span onto a freeway and blocking traffic along part of the heavily traveled thoroughfare, authorities said.

No one was injured in the collapse onto westbound Interstate 94, Lt. Mike Shaw, a Michigan State Police spokesman, said in an email.





. . .
Four more counties have been added to Pennsylvanias stay-at-home order in an effort to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Gov. Tom Wolf announced the expansion of the order on Monday, at the same time saying that schools and non-life-sustaining businesses will remain closed indefinitely, lifting any promise of a targeted reopening.

"We're going to keep our schools and businesses closed as long as we need to ... to keep Pennsylvanians safe," Wolf said in an afternoon news conference live-streamed online. "If we want to save lives, we must continue to distance ourselves from each other."

The stay-at-home order will cover 26 counties when it goes into effect at 8 p.m. Monday for Carbon, Cumberland, Dauphin and Schuylkill counties.

It is already in effect in Allegheny, Beaver, Berks, Bucks, Butler, Centre, Chester, Delaware, Erie, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton, Philadelphia, Pike, Washington, Wayne, Westmoreland and York counties.

The order for all counties will remain in place until at least April 30, weeks longer than originally expected, the governor announced Monday.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has ordered schools and businesses to remain closed beyond April 6.Joe Hermitt | jhermitt@pennlive.com

Wolf said counties placed under the order either have been done so at the request of local leadership or because there was a demonstrated need based on the spread of the coronavirus, which as of Monday was confirmed in 59 of the states 67 counties, having infected 4,087 Pennsylvanians and killed 48.

The administration has sought to avoid a statewide stay-at-home order, but Wolf said it is an option if COVID-19 continues to spread.

What does a stay-at-home order mean? For most of us, its not much different than the social distancing already practiced since schools and most businesses were closed.

Wolfs order seeks to restrict residents movement to only essential matters. According to the governors order, that means:

Ensuring the health and safety of family members and pets, like obtaining medicine, visiting doctors and getting supplies to work from home.

Getting necessary services or supplies for themselves or their family, household members or pets, or delivering those services or supplies to others.

Traveling to care for relatives or pets in another household, for volunteer efforts or to aid the elderly, minors, dependents or other vulnerable people.

Going to work at a life-sustaining business . (Anyone performing life-sustaining travel does not need paperwork to prove the reason for travel.)

Getting to and from educational institutions for distance-learning materials, meals or related services.

Traveling home from outside the county, or for non-residents to return home.

Any travel required by law enforcement or court order.

Residents can still go outside, take walks, runs or hikes as long as they avoid large crowds and take proper precautions. There is no curfew.

Life-sustaining businesses will remain open. You can still go to the grocery store, the pharmacy, the doctors office and other businesses given exemption according to the governors list (embedded below). Restaurants will be open for takeout or delivery only.

Other businesses must remain closed, as per a statewide shutdown order that went into effect March 20.

Schools must also stay closed, as they have been since March 16, and are required through an emergency school law enacted on Friday to make an effort to pursue distance-learning education programs for students.

If you may have been exposed or exhibit the symptoms of COVID-19  fever, cough and shortness of breath  contact your health care provider.

For more information on the coronavirus, consult your state health department at health.pa.gov and the CDC website.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Follow him on Twitter @SteveNovakLVL and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on Monday urged government to ramp up testing facilities to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 infection and immediately provide personal protection equipment to doctors and paramedical staff to help them treat patients without risking their lives.

Citing data put out by Haryana's Health Department in its bulletin on COVID-19 as on March 29, he said it mentions that the number of people who returned from foreign nations was over 12,000 but in all only 650 tests had been carried out.

Quoting from the bulletin, he said, 12,531 people came from abroad in recent weeks as per the bulletin on March 29, but only 650 have been tested for the virus. Question is why test of 11,881 others has not been done so far?



"Why tests of their family members or those who possibly could have come into their contact have not been done. This is the first step we have to take if we have to stop spread of coronavirus in its tracks," he said.

Surjewala also expressed dissatisfaction over the speed of building up testing facility in the state.

We are not ramping up the testing, which is the key to prevention. Checking community spread is the key to prevention. Designated hospitals and putting dedicated medical staff exclusively for these suspected or positive coronavirus cases is the key to prevention. Unfortunately, the government has not done anything in this regard so far, the Congress' chief spokesperson told a media conference which he addressed via a video link.

Surjewala, who is former legislator from Haryana, said the entire state is together in this fight against coronavirus but questioned the government's preparedness to deal with the situation.

We are not here to criticise the Khattar government, but it is our duty to give suggestions so that the state can be saved from this pandemic. God forbid, if the spread of this virus turns into a community infection, how will states like Haryana deal with it? he asked.

The Congress leader wondered that with only two testing facilities at present available at PGIMS, Rohtak and Bhagat Phool Singh Medical College at Sonipat and both having capacity of not doing more than 100 tests a day how will suspected cases travel from other corners of Haryana to get their tests done when there is lockdown.

He asked the government when will doctors, nurses and other paramedical staff who are in the frontline of this battle, have adequate protection?



Until March 31, India needed nearly 7.5 lakh hazmat suits, 60 lakh 3-ply and N-95 masks and one rore surgical masks. When will these be made available? he askedFor COVID-19 patients or suspected patients, disposable bed sheets are not available in hospitals in Haryana, which increases the chances of the spread of infection among other vulnerable patients.

The question is how can we effectively fight the pandemic in such a situation? he asked.

He suggested that in each district, a free testing lab should be opened for testing COVID-19.

For all coronavirus suspected and confirmed cases separate isolation facility should be set up to keep them separated from other patients. A designated hospital should be set up and dedicated medical staff should be put exclusively for the suspected or positive patients, he said, adding medical waste generated from such patients should be disposed by special incinerators.

All doctors, nurses and paramedics should be given double salary for three months and the ex-gratia of Rs 50 lakh, announced for them, should be hiked.

He claimed 20,000 contractual employees, including half of them from health department and the Safai Karamcharis in rural areas, whose services are critical at this juncture, have not got their wages for the past three months.

Replying to a question, Surjewala said, We are giving constructive suggestions and pointing out to the government where there are lacunae. If they remove these, state can be saved, but if they decide to throw our suggestions into dustbin just because these are coming from the opposition, then state will have to face the consequences.

To another question, he said in this hour of crisis, the Congress workers too are doing their best lending a helping hand to ensure that food is available to those in need.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(Newser)  Social distancing doesn't mean you can't still socialize. In Indiana, Fort Wayne is suggesting residents go outside every night and wave to their neighborsfrom the recommended distance of at least 6 feet apart. "Now is the time to look after one another, even from a safe distance," the city posted on its official Facebook page last week. As CNN reports, other cities, including Grand Rapids, Mich., and Sandusky, Ohio, have put out similar calls. One block in Albany, NY, is stepping outside every night at 6:15pm, Chris Churchill reports for the Times Union. On a recent night, one resident wore a tuxedo for the occasion and sipped from a glass of scotch. And KOAA reports that a Colorado Springs neighborhood has been putting on "dancing from a distance" parties with the help of local radio stations.

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"When the music starts, I don't have to think about it anymore ... It's a serious situation, but at the same time, it doesn't have to rule our lives," says one of the Colorado Springs dancers. "I hope that the rest of the city, the state gets involved, and we can really make Colorado go viral for a good reason," adds a DJ at one of the participating radio stations. Churchill, who visited the Albany neighborhood, writes: "In Italy, one of the nations most ravaged by COVID-19, people confined to their apartments are emerging to sing from their balconies. In neighborhoods around the world, including mine, families are painting hopeful rainbows and taping them in their windows. On streets far and near, neighbors are coming outside to dance and play music togetheror to applaud for the medical workers who are most fighting this battle most intensely. On Fleetwood Avenue, they're coming out to wave." (Read more uplifting news stories.)
An assisted living facility in Ridgefield that has seen six residents die as a result of a coronavirus outbreak has moved out those who have tested negative for the virus and not shown symptoms.

We are now also safely and securely temporarily moving residents who have tested negative and have not shown symptoms to an off-site location to lessen the risk of spreading the virus, said Amanda Cillo, a spokeswoman for Benchmark Senior Living, Sunday.

As of Sunday night, she said those moves had been completed.

Benchmark Senior Living runs Ridgefield Crossings, an assisted living facility off Route 7 near the Danbury border.

As of Monday, at least six former residents of the facility have died from COVID-19, and at least 22 employees and residents have tested positive for the illness.

Town officials said at least 77 people in Ridgefield have tested positive as of Tuesday afternoon. Besides the deaths reported among Ridgefield Crossings residents, one other person from a private home died, bringing the towns total death toll to seven.

Elizabeth Gabriele, a Ridgefield resident whose mother lives at Ridgefield Crossings, said her mother was not moved, and to her understanding only residents of the memory care facility were being moved out.

We would be notified if they were moving my mom," Gabriele said.

A spokesman for Benchmark Senior Living said it was not immediately clear whether the company could disclose which facility residents had been moved from, citing HIPAA restrictions.

State officials are also looking at moving nursing home residents who test positive for the disease to other facilities, including re-opening nursing homes that have closed.

Some of those facilities have been shuttered and may only need some upgrades like to the HVAC systems, or similar improvements to make them workable to receive patients, said Max Reiss, a spokesman for Gov. Ned Lamonts office.

In neighboring Massachusetts, state officials took a more extreme step over the weekend, moving residents of a Worcester nursing home out to make way for coronavirus patients, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Cillo said families of Ridgefield Crossings, which is an assisted living facility, not a nursing home, were notified of the move.

We are also consulting with medical experts as to the best course of action for those who have tested positive, including exploring off-site locations equipped to provide higher levels of care, she added.

The facility has been sealed off to most visitors, including family members, for weeks.

On March 12, days before an 88-year-old man who lived at Ridgefield Crossings became the first person in the state to die of the disease, Gov. Lamont signed an executive order giving public health officials the ability to curtail nursing home visits.

Lamont has said he wants to avoid a situation like Washington State, where 37 people died at a single nursing home after the virus raced through the community.

Several other senior care facilities around the state have also reported COVID-19 cases, and one other has seen residents die.

Three residents of Evergreen Health Care Center in Stafford Springs, a community north of Hartford, have reportedly died from the disease, and at least five people have been infected. The nursing home is operated by Athena Health Care Systems, which runs Laurel Ridge next to Ridgefield Crossings.

At Sharon Health Care Center in Sharon, a nursing home also run by Athena, one longterm resident tested positive and was placed in isolation, according to Timothy Brown, a spokesperson for the company. The womans roommate was also isolated, Brown said March 22.

Laurel Ridge, a nursing home on the same campus as Ridgefield Crossings previously shared part-time nursing aides, but that practice stopped as of March 23, Brown said.

A resident also tested positive for the disease at Benchmark Senior Living at The Village at Buckland Court, an assisted living facility in South Windsor, Cilla said.
Landlords and managers of tower blocks are facing urgent calls to remove cladding, despite coronavirus social distancing measures, as new tests show just how fast flames can spread.

In the past cladding was used to improve the appearance of tower blocks and green policies encouraged the use of cladding to improve insulation to make buildings more energy-efficient.

But the recent tests show that cladding previously assessed to be safer than that used on the Grenfell Tower burns almost as quickly as the aluminium and plastic panels (ACM) blamed for the disaster.

High-pressure laminate panels (HPL) cover many buildings in the UK, however, the government has only recently agreed to support and fund their removal.

The beginning of the test which was privately commissioned by the MCRMA

Government ministers had previously suggested that removing this type of cladding was less of a priority than removing the ACM type which covered the Grenfell Tower.

Footage of the new flammability tests, obtained by BBC News, shows flames reaching the top of a 9m (30ft) test wall in seven minutes and 45 seconds with temperatures approaching 700C.

The test should last 30 minutes and the temperature recorded should stay below 600C.

The results not only prove HPL cladding systems are not up to the required standard but the alarming speed at which flames could spread on a residential building block.

The test was intended to simulate cladding on a residential building block catching fire

Identical tests carried out by the government showed the Grenfell type of ACM cladding, failed in between five and six and a half minutes meaning the HPL cladding is almost just as bad.

The new tests on HPL cladding were commissioned privately by the Metal Cladding and Roofing Manufacturers Association (MCRMA).

Dr Jonathan Evans, a member of the MCRMA, said the results were 'shocking' and raised questions about the lack of government action to get this type of cladding removed.

He said: 'With the vast majority of the country staying at home due to Covid-19 restrictions, it is even more important that people immediately understand the risks of the buildings they occupy.'

In the beginning the cladding appears to be withstanding the flames, preventing their spread

The rivets holding the panels together popped out of place allowing more oxygen to get in

'Even if the fire doesn't initially spread quickly, do not be complacent as it can accelerate rapidly once it takes hold.'

He pointed out that, for around six minutes, the cladding itself was not burning extensively but then the fire quickly took hold in joins between the panels and raced to the top of the test rig.

Another serious concern was the way the panel popped out the rivets holding them in place when on fire, allowing the flames to spread and creating space for more air to fuel the fire.

The MCRMA has withheld the brand name of the two products tested, but the HPL cladding is a 'standard' version of a product widely used in the construction industry.

The flames reached the limits of the test 22 minutes 15 seconds earlier than expected

The test is stopped after 7 minutes 45 seconds. It should last 30 minutes to meet standards

Dr Evans said he commissioned the test because the government had not done enough to highlight the dangers of HPL cladding, which is made from paper combined with resin.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government only made the test results of a more fire-resistant HPL type of cladding publicly available last year.

Grenfell type ACM cladding, however, has been extensively tested, triggering a building safety crisis when it was found to spread fire rapidly.

Dr Evans said the government's expert advisers appeared to be suggesting that ACM was 'uniquely dangerous' without being honest about the wider issues with cladding to the construction industry or the general public.

The government issued advice stating that the ACM cladding used at Grenfell 'presents a significant fire hazard' and action should be taken to remove it 'as soon as possible'.

The advice for HPL cladding of the type tested has never been as urgent.

Residents were trapped in the inferno at Grenfell Tower in the Lancaster West estate near Ladbroke Grove. The inferno was exacerbated by widely used ACM cladding

The government has merely stated that: 'These systems should be remediated.'

Despite the perception that HPL cladding is safer than the ACM cladding, there have been significant fires involving HPL cladding.

In November 2019, a fire decimated a student accommodation block, The Cube, in Bolton, which was covered with the same class of HPL cladding tested by the MCRMA.

If the MCRMA tests carried out on HPL panels last week had been done in 2017, when the government tested the Grenfell style ACM cladding, it may have resulted in HPL panels being removed from buildings as well.

Thankfully no-one was killed in The Cube fire, but 200 firefighters were called out, and students had to be rehoused while the building was repaired.

The government has since asked to see the privately commissioned test results and has commissioned further research.

Last week Housing and Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said the removal of dangerous cladding was 'absolutely essential' and should continue despite the coronavirus crisis, or while maintaining social distancing.

Since the Grenfell fire, the government has been asked to pay eye-watering sums of money for ACM cladding to be taken down.

In the wake of Grenfell, councils and housing associations were given 600m to fund the removal of ACM cladding.

In May 2019, the government paid another 200m for ACM cladding to be removed from privately owned buildings.

Only since the beginning of this year has the government extended the scheme to cover a wider range of problematic building materials including HPL cladding.

An extra 1billion will now be made available to achieve this.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said it had already clarified that the type of high-pressure laminate panel tested, with a fire classification of Class C or D, was unsafe and should not be used on high-rise buildings.

'We have listened to leaseholders and the government has recently announced a 1bn fund to remediate high-rise buildings with unsafe cladding.'
Sometimes you can't control the curveballs life throws at you. But you can strive to bring a little light and laughter in face of the most difficult times.

When Houston-based photographer Yuli Vargas first thought about how she could make a positive difference in this pandemic, she was uncertain.

"I was really bummed. Many of my photo shoots were cancelled," Vargas said.

STAY POSITIVE: Here are 15 new pieces of good news amid coronavirus pandemic

Then, a friend of hers encouraged her to think of something she could do for her Rancho Verde community on the east side of Houston, near Channelview.

"Maybe this will be something for people to look at that will be positive, instead of all the negative stuff that we're seeing," Vargas said.

That's when she came up with the idea to do a creative neighborhood photo shoot, showing how all of her neighbors were surviving "Pandemic 2020." Most importantly, the photo shoot was also a fun tool to encourage people to "stay home, stay safe."

"I told them, 'You don't have to pay anything. Just have fun for free,'" Vargas said.

At first, Vargas' photo shoot only drew three neighbors. Then, it blossomed to to 13 sessions a day.

"They loved the photo shoot!" Vargas said. "One neighbor said, 'I'm so glad you did this, because this uplifted my spirits.'"

CORONAVIRUS EXPERT: 'Real possibility' Houston is the next major hot spot

Vargas added that she also had families who wanted to bring smiles and signs of encouragement to first responders who were working on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak.

"One of my favorites is of the elderly couple, who held up this sign, 'We're too old for this!'" Vargas said. "When I saw their sign, I just started laughing."

Vargas said that at first when news of the pandemic spread, she didn't want to even venture out of her home. But her photoshoot idea inspired her and ended up bringing smiles and unity to the entire neighborhood.

"It was cool to see neighbors helping each other out during this situation," Vargas said.

alison.medley@chron.com
The City of Laredo has confirmed three additional cases of COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Laredo to 35.

As of 12:00 p.m., 252 people have been tested for the novel coronavirus. 110 tests have returned negative, with 107 tests still pending results.
A sharp drop in demand for food-to-go has prompted Greencore to introduce a string of measures to reduce costs.

The business said it was eliminating all non-essential operating costs and tightening its food to go production network, furloughing staff using the governments Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

In, addition the board and the executive directors have taken a voluntary 30% cut in fees and salary for three months, with other senior management taking a 20% salary cut.

Since the UK governments escalating measures to combat the outbreak, consumer demand and shopper behaviours have changed rapidly, stated the company.

There has been a marked reduction in demand for the groups food-to go-categories in grocery retail, which has been partly offset by the sustained volume growth in the groups other convenience categories.

Greencore added it was working with customers and government agencies including the NHS and local communities to provide fresh prepared food to consumers and frontline workers during the pandemic.

It has also carried out a range of precautions and safety measures for staff, focusing on social distancing across its manufacturing and distribution network.

Greencore has suspended financial guidance for the current financial year as a result of uncertainty around the duration and impact of Covid-19, adding that its outlook in the 2019 full year results statement should no longer be considered current.

While the duration and impact of this pandemic remains uncertain, all of our stakeholders are continuing to work together to protect the business, it stated.

The board is ensuring that Greencore remains a purposeful and hugely relevant business, feeding the UK right through this period, and importantly that it is also equipped with the team, strategy, reputation and balance sheet to accelerate forward when the pandemic passes.
Bihar has been exposed to "a potential explosion of COVID-19 in near future with its borders "choking with people" on account of large-scale exodus of migrants from places like Delhi, a key aide of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said here on Sunday.

Sanjay Kumar Jha, who is the minister for water resources and a national general secretary of the JD(U) which is headed by the chief minister, rued that despite having followed "the finest protocols", "COVID-19 stares menacingly at Bihar and the nationwide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi "looks defeated".

Follow latest updates on the COVID-19 pandemic here

The chief minister on Saturday had also disapproved of the move by governments of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi to ferry thousands of people from the Delhi-UP border to their places.

In a flurry of tweets, Jha launched a veiled attack on the Arvind Kejriwal government without mentioning the Delhi CM or his Aam Aadmi Party by name saying "those who have driven people away from Delhi are being hailed while those who took care to follow #lockdown21 in letter and spirit are being falsely accused".

In an indirect reference to reports that AAP supporters had allegedly raised an alarm that the lockdown could be extended for months together and got migrants transported to the Delhi-UP border on buses, Jha said, "For some, their narrow priorities and mischievous politics weighed over everything else".

"Suddenly, like in Harry Potter books, lakhs started to flee Delhi and today Bihars borders are choking with people," he lamented.

Also Read: Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths

The mass exodus, he said, has "not only put Bihar in a quandary but also exposed us to a potential explosion of COVID-19 cases in near future, since people on borders insist on going to their respective homes".

He added that on Saturday, the chief minister had spoken to all those who matter in Delhi and apprised them of the impending danger that the mindless yet engineered push from Delhi poses for us all.

"COVID-19 stares at Bihar menacingly!" he tweeted tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

"Under CM Sri @NitishKumar Bihar followed finest protocols upon call by PM @narendramodi of a lockdown to combat coronavirus. The norm of social distancing was vigorously followed along with aggressive communication outreach to sensitize people," he said, expressing regret that the efforts could come undone because of the large-scale influx.

"We understand our responsibility towards all people hailing from Bihar," he said adding that a total of 78 Aapada Rahat Kendras (disaster relief camps) have been set up across the state, including along its borders with Nepal and states like UP, West Bengal and Jharkhand, where people were being provided with assistance like food, shelter and medical facilities.

"At the state's borders, people are being quarantined and subject to medical examinations. We are committed to ensuring health and safety of all our citizens," Jha added.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 09:41:29|Editor: mingmei

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ZAGREB, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The first batch of medical supplies from China, 12.5 tons in total, arrived on Sunday at the Zagreb airport, the Croatian government said, calling it "another example of high-quality cooperation" between the two countries.

Another 10 tons of Chinese protective equipment arrived in Frankfurt on Saturday and will be transfered to Croatia later Sunday.

Chinese Ambassador to Croatia Xu Erwen said that China is ready to share its experience on prevention, control and treatment of COVID-19 with Croatia, provide medical supplies, and strengthen international cooperation in the fight against COVID-19.

"China will always stay with the Croatian government and people to overcome the current difficulties until the final victory," the Chinese embassy said in a press release on Sunday.

Croatia confirmed 713 cases of COVID-19 as of Sunday afternoon since the first case was reported on Feb. 25. Six patients have died.

Health Minister Vili Beros said on Sunday that Croatia's defense against the novel coronavirus will be significantly strengthened with China's help.
BCN decided my actual title to this blog was too long (limited to 150 characters) so I had to shorten it (above) but I am putting the full title right here (below)...

Automotive Commercials often show their cars driving through the downtown business districts of large cities while the streets are devoid of other cars.

You have probably never thought much about this happening but I notice it every time I watch an Automotive Commercial because I am a Highly Trained Mediocre Automotive Retiree.

The Coronavirus is going to make the filming of Automotive Commercials Easier and Less Expensive

To film a Commercial the Automotive Companies have found it necessary to pay for extended periods of time to have the entire Commercial Film Crew waiting on side streets for the main streets to be empty of cars.

Usually they have to stay there waiting for weeks before the Main Street becomes empty and, when it does, they have to run out of the side street and set up all their equipment and film the commercial before cars start appearing again.

More often than not, they get up to the very end of the commercial only to see the whole thing ruined by a vehicle that drove into the middle of all of what they were doing.

One time I saw a bunch of clowns appear. They were the beginning of the Barnum and Bailey Circus Parade.

In life we should appreciate the positive things that come our way while they are coming our way. Appreciate this

Now all of this Time, Money and Effort will not be wasted because the Coronavirus has made all of the Downtown Streets in the Good Ole USofA empty and available for the filming of Automotive Commercials.

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Several years ago there was a technique used in Automotive Commercials that really confused me. The cars were shown Sliding Sideways on Ice Covered Lakes. I never understood why a person would be tempted to get rid of their perfectly good car that was very practiced at driving straight down a road and replace it with a car that Slid Sideways on a Frozen Lake.

This lack of understanding of the ever evolving Automotive Industry was probably why the Automotive Gods whispered into my confused ears, Fella, maybe you ought to retire.

************

Another interesting thing (probably only interesting to Fella) about Automotive Commercials is the fact that many of them are now being filmed with the Cars Being Driven on Bridges.

Have you noticed that, for about the last year or so, many Automotive Commercials are being filmed with the cars driving on bridges? If you have not noticed, you will now start noticing because I have just brought it to your attention.

However, there is a Coronavirus Problem obstructing the filming of Automotive Commercials on Bridges. Many of our bridges coming out of our Big Cities are too crowded to allow for Automotive Commercial Filming. This is especially true of the bridges leading out of New York City.

Would I kid u?

Smartfella
WILMINGTON, Del., March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Following a new development in the TransPerfect Global, Inc. case, Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware announced a new mailer would be sent to 115,000 households in the state condemning the Court's lack of transparency.

Per a new motion filed by counsel for TransPerfect Global, Inc. and CEO Phil Shawe last week, the Chancery Court had extended the already "unprecedented confidentiality" offered to court-appointed custodian Robert Pincus and Partner Jennifer Voss from Skadden Arps for their billing practices to now include every single word from any objections made to those bills. According to the motion, "a compelling public interest is created when a Court-appointed, quasi-judicial, State actor with absolute and sweeping judicial immunity, uses his control of the company he was appointed to oversee to direct payment to his own firm for upwards of $10 million without ever presenting any invoices for the work allegedly performed to the Court or to the Company."

Said Chris Coffey, Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware's Campaign Manager, "Chancellor Andre Bouchard's repeated refusal to implement transparency measures regarding disclosure of Skadden's billing practices in this case is an affront to all standards of judicial integrity and ethics. The people of Delaware deserve to know why their courts are allowing custodians to take indiscriminately from the companies under their jurisdiction."

The mail piece will go out this week.

Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware is a group made up of more than 5,000 members including employees of the global translation services company TransPerfect, as well as concerned Delaware residents, business executives and others. They formed in April of 2016 to focus on raising awareness with Delaware residents, elected officials, and other stakeholders about the issue. While their primary goal of saving the company has been accomplished, they continue their efforts to fight for more transparency in the Delaware Chancery Court. For more information on Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware or to join the cause, visit DelawareForBusiness.org .

Contact: Chris Coffey, [email protected]

For a copy of the mailer please contact Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware Campaign Manager, Chris Coffey at [email protected]

SOURCE Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware

Related Links

http://www.delawareforbusiness.org


Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-31 03:21:24|Editor: huaxia

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AMMAN, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Jordan said the number of deaths from the novel coronavirus reached five on Monday.

Jordan's Health Minister Saad Jaber said two more deaths were confirmed since Sunday, increasing the overall number of deaths to five, according to a statement by the Prime Ministry.

He added that a total of nine coronavirus cases were reported on Monday, increasing the number of confirmed cases to 268.

Also Monday, seven patients were discharged from hospital after recovering, he added.

Jordan's Minister of State for Media Affairs Amjad Adaileh said the number of curfew violations is on the decline. He called on the public to stay home and abide by curfew instructions.

Also, Jordanian authorities on Monday discharged 1934 people from hotels in Amman, Dead Sea, and Aqaba, after a two-week compulsory quarantine implemented on all arrivals to the kingdom before Jordan suspended all flights on March 17, state-run Petra news agency reported. Enditem
CHICOPEE  Deputy Police Chief Lonny Dakin has been placed in charge of the forces day-to-day operations while Chief William Jebb is on medical leave following an aortic aneurysm.

Jebb was admitted to Wing Memorial Hospital on March 12 with shortness of breath, and discomfort in his chest. Following testing, he was transferred two days later to Baystate Medical Center, where he underwent an 8-hour open heart surgery to replace his aortic valve, remove an aortic aneurysm, and bypass surgery on the main artery to his heart, according to a statement from Public Information Officer Michael Wilk.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Jebb will remain at home during his recovery, Wilk said.

Jebb has been in regular communications with Dakin, Mayor John Vieau, and his administrative staff, Wilk said.

A 33-year-year police veteran, Jebb was named police chief in July 2014.
Dino Melaye, former senator representing Kogi West Senatorial district, has reacted to President Muhammadu Buharis nationwide broadca...





Dino Melaye, former senator representing Kogi West Senatorial district, has reacted to President Muhammadu Buharis nationwide broadcast.





President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday placed 14 days ban on all movements within Abuja and Lagos State due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak across the world.





Reacting, Melaye, in a series of tweets on his official Twitter page on Sunday night, said it was an absurdity for President Buhari to take over the affairs of any State without the express approval of the State House of Assembly.





According to Melaye, the President acted outside his powers to restrict the movement of Nigerians without the approval of the National Assembly.

Melaye tweeted: You will recall that I had a broadcast one week ago asking for the lockdown of Abuja and Lagos. This buttresses the fact that I support measures to contain the Coronavirus pandemic but it must be done in accordance with the law. Nigeria is practicing constitutional Democracy.





And it is an absurdity for the President to take over the affairs of any state without d express approval of d State House of Assembly. In the Presidential broadcast today, the President did not invoke his power of Emergency as prescribed by S.305 of d Constitution of Nigeria.





And even if invoked, it must be with the approval of the National Assembly. The President acted outside his powers to restrict movement without approval of the National Assembly. I, therefore, advise Mr. President to take appropriate constitutional steps and do the needful quickly.





As we need lockdown. This is a very important decision but must be done in line with all democratic norms. God bless Nigeria as I pray for divine intervention from God Almighty. Only Him can rescue us.
It is a well-known fact that airline stocks did not fly high in 2019 and the beginning of 2020 due to headwinds like lackluster cargo business and revenue loss following flight cancellations because of the grounding of Boeing 737 MAX jets. Even as the downsides persist, the coronavirus pandemic crippled airlines all the more with air-travel demand shrinking.

The extremely sorry state of affairs is reflected in the share price depreciation of leading U.S. carriers, namely Delta Air Lines DAL, American Airlines AAL, United Airlines UAL, Southwest Airlines LUV, Alaska Air Group ALK and JetBlue Airways JBLU, which have declined 50%,51.7%,63.4%,33.7%,56.2% and 48.4%, respectively, since the beginning of February.

Airlines Resort to Various Measures to Tackle Crisis

With airlines witnessing more cancellations than bookings, the companies are seeing a massive drop in passenger revenues, which account for bulk of their top lines. In fact, many people are unwilling to fly in a bid to stay safe and avoid contracting the COVID-19 from a fellow passenger.

In an effort to combat the coronavirus-induced sharp plunge in demand, airlines are trimming capacity. Evidently, Alaska Air Groups subsidiary Alaska Airlines aims to reduce 70% of its capacity for April and May. Moreover, United Airlines plans to slash its total scheduled capacity for April by 68% including 90% international capacity reduction. Moreover, the carriers announced a slew of cost-cutting measures. For instance, Delta plans to curb capital expenditures by a minimum $2 billion this year. It is also offering voluntary short-term unpaid leaves, apart from freezing recruitment.

The above measures were clearly not enough as is evident from the fact that airlines sought financial aid from the U.S. government to tide over the ongoing crisis. Consequently, airlines were criticized by some market watchers for their large-scale buybacks, dividend payments and consequently, less cash savings.



Story continues

Government Stimulus Package: A Reality

After several deliberations, the Senate passed an emergency relief package on Mar 25. The House of Representatives passed the stimulus package on Mar 27 with President Donald Trump legalizing it the same day.

Of the total fund worth $2 trillion, U.S. airlines are eligible to receive roughly $60 billion in loans as well as grants. Per the package, U.S. passenger airlines are eligible to get $25 billion in grants for covering their payroll expenses over the next six months. Moreover, a similar sum is doled out in the form of unsecured loans/loan guarantees.

Will Package Provide Only Near-Term Relief?

Despite the hefty amount, this rescue relief is anticipated to provide only short-term breather to the battered airline stocks. For instance, management at airline heavyweights, Delta and United Airlines, stated that the monetary assistance took care of sustaining jobs only through Sep 30, 2020. Moreover, significantly dwindled air-travel demand will take a long time to rebound even after the coronavirus pandemic subsides. For instance, United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz and president Scott Kirby expect "demand to remain suppressed for months after that, possibly into next year."

In the event of slow recovery in air-travel demand, management at United Airlines stated that it may condense workforce in the long run. We fear that other airlines may follow suit, in the event of demand remaining stifled for a long time. In fact, the Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) JetBlues CEO Robin Hayes warned that "the writing is on the wall" that travel demand will not be restored anytime soon.

You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Moreover, as a condition for receiving the above-mentioned financial help, airlines had to suspend share buybacks and dividends.



Notably, suspension of the above shareholder-friendly measures does not augur well for investors as the lure of steady dividends often leads them to put their hard earned money into the stock market. Thus, this could be another major blow to the already-struggling airline stocks.

Come what may, we expect investor focus to remain on this burning issue. To this end, we advise investors to watch this space for further updates.

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Workers for Instacart, a grocery shopping and delivery service, began a nationwide walkout in the United States today to protest the companys refusal to protect them or provide hazard pay during the coronavirus pandemic. They have vowed not to return to work until the company meets their demands. Instacart employs more than 150,000 workers across the country.

The planned walkout is part of a nationwide and international fight by workers to demand safe conditions, including strikes and protests by Amazon workers, sanitation and public transit workers and workers in the auto, steel and meatpacking industries. Amazon workers in Staten Island plan to strike Monday, and workers at Whole Foodsalso owned by Amazonplan to strike Tuesday.

The coronavirus pandemic has increased demand for shopping and delivery services dramatically, as many people stay at home or in quarantine. Last week, Instacart announced plans to hire 300,000 new workers during the next three months to meet this demand.

(Stock Image)

Instacart workers (or shoppers, as the company calls them) have been demanding for weeks that the company institute the most elementary safety measures. We dont feel safe at work and we dont feel we have the tools to keep customers safe, said Ashley, a full-service shopper in Washington who is participating in the walkout. The shoppers I know who arent sick are certainly not at their mental best. Its a very dehumanizing and draining job right now.

Instacart has still not provided essential protections to shoppers on the front lines that could prevent them from becoming carriers, falling ill themselves, or worse, said Instacart Shoppers and Gig Workers Collective in a statement posted on Medium on Friday . They are profiting astronomically off of us literally risking our lives, all while refusing to provide us with effective protection, meaningful pay, and meaningful benefits.

We havent been offered any type of cleaning products or funds to purchase such products, said Sarah, a shopper participating in the walkout. We havent been given any real information on how best to take precautions. They are doing the bare minimum and even making it hard for those who are diagnosed with COVID-19 to get paid time off.

The walkout centers on four demands. Shoppers demand that Instacart provide them with protective supplies such as hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, and soap at no cost. They demand an extra $5 per order as hazard pay and a default tip of 10 percent of the order total. They demand an extension and expansion of pay for workers impacted by COVID-19anyone who has a doctors note for either a preexisting condition thats a known risk factor or requiring a self-quarantine, according to Fridays statement. Finally, they demand that the company extend the deadline to qualify for these benefits beyond April 8.

On Friday, after the shoppers announced todays walkout, Instacart extended its offer to provide 14 days of pay to any worker diagnosed with COVID-19 through May 8. It also announced bonuses for certain employees, based on the number of hours worked. The company did not, however, agree to provide hazard pay or even the most basic protective supplies.

Instacarts response to our demands lacks substance and does nothing to protect us, worker Vanessa Bain responded in a tweet. Conceding to one demand is way too little, way too late. They can kick rocks. Our call for an emergency walk-off still stands.

The announcement of the walkout had already exposed the insincerity of Instacarts promises to compensate sick employees. Instacarts promise to pay shoppers up to 14 days of pay if diagnosed or placed in mandatory quarantine not only falls short but isnt even being honored. Instacart knows its virtually impossible to meet their qualifications and is ignoring shoppers pleas for more substantial and preventative help, the statement of the Instacart Shoppers and Gig Workers Collective said.

Many Instacart shoppers are gig workers that the company classifies as self-employed contractors. They are not guaranteed a minimum wage, and the average pay for one order of groceries is a mere $7, according to a former shopper. Furthermore, these shoppers have no paid time off, and Instacart does not contribute to unemployment insurance for them.

Some Instacart shoppers are full-time employees, however, who assemble orders in grocery stores but do not make deliveries or receive tips. Instead of providing in-store shoppers with the necessary protective gear, the company has recommended social distancing, which is impossible in crowded supermarkets. Instacart has denied in-store shoppers demands for hazard pay and wage increases, according to Jorge, a shopper who posted an open letter to the company on Twitter. Instead, it has offered, on a case-by-case basis, a maximum of only seven consecutive calendar days of unpaid time off.

Last year, shoppers became angry when Instacart reduced the default tip on the companys app to 10 percent. The company refused to negotiate with them. In response, shoppers walked out from November 3 through November 5. The company retaliated by discontinuing the quality bonus that it had paid for good work. This spiteful act amounts to a pay cut of as much as 40 percent, depending on the order.

The low pay is something thats been an issue for a long time, but its a heightened issue now because sick people with no savings, or even next months rent, arent able to stay home, said Ashley. Instacarts temporary paid sick leave has hoops most of their workforce cant jump [through].

I have watched pay cut after pay cut, to where I was seeing a 50 percent or more decrease weekly, said Sarah. Its so hit or miss, and honestly the majority of what I do make is usually tips, and not Instacart payment, which means these customers are paying a bunch to Instacart, and we shoppers see barely any of that money.

Whole Foods workers have announced their intention to conduct a sick-out tomorrow, March 31, with a flyer circulating online reading: We put ourselves at risk! We have demands!

Whole Foods workers demands include three weeks paid time off for everyone, not when we get sick but so we dont get sick! In addition, workers demand double hazard pay. Dont tell us were not emergency workers. Make the $2 wage increase permanent. The flyer concludes, The crisis has shown that we are worth more. We are no longer scared, but you should be.

Sanitation workers in Pittsburgh, autoworkers in Detroit, bus drivers in Birmingham, Alabama, and Amazon workers in New York and Italy have all walked off the job after coworkers tested positive for the novel coronavirus. I know other jobs are also walking out for mistreatment right now, and I support that, said Ashley. Being in public right now is well known to be dangerous and bad for the community. People should be compensated for that risk and protected if theyre forced to take it.
https://www.aish.com/jw/s/Evidence-for-the-Exodus.html

Examining the historicity of the biblical exodus.

The following is adapted from the authors new book, Ani Maamin: Biblical Criticism, Historical Truth and the Thirteen Principles of Faith (Maggid, 2020).

Thanks in no small part to the Internet and the ubiquity of social media, popular exposure to the findings of biblical criticism has increased exponentially. And much of it focused on one issue: the historicity, or especially the non-historicity, of the biblical exodus. Here Id like to offer an academic defense for the plausibility of the exodus event.

The case against the historicity of the exodus is straightforward, and its essence can be stated in five words: a sustained lack of evidence. Nowhere in the written record of ancient Egypt is there any explicit mention of Hebrew or Israelite slaves, let alone a figure named Moses. There is no mention of the Nile waters turning into blood, or of any series of plagues matching those in the Bible, or of the defeat of any pharaoh on the scale suggested by the Torahs narrative of the mass drowning of Egyptian forces at the sea.

No competent scholar or archaeologist will deny these facts. Case closed, then? For those who would defend the plausibility of a historical exodus, what possible response can there be?

Lets begin with the missing evidence of the Hebrews existence in Egyptian records. It is true enough that these records do not contain clear and unambiguous reference to Hebrews or Israelites. But that is hardly surprising. The Egyptians referred to all of their West-Semitic slaves simply as Asiatics, with no distinction among groups  just as slave-holders in the New World never identified their black slaves by their specific provenance in Africa.

More generally, there is a limit to what we can expect from the written record of ancient Egypt. Ninety-nine percent of the papyri produced there during the period in question have been lost, and none whatsoever has survived from the eastern Nile delta, the region where the Torah claims the Children of Israel resided. Instead, we have to rely on monumental inscriptions, which, being mainly reports to the gods about royal achievements, are far from complete or reliable as historical records. They are more akin to modern-day resumes, and just as conspicuous for their failure to note setbacks of any kind.

Well have reason to revisit such inscriptions later on. But now lets consider the absence of specifically archaeological evidence of the exodus. In fact, many major events reported in various ancient writings are archaeologically invisible. The migrations of Celts in Asia Minor, Slavs into Greece, Arameans across the Levant  all described in written sources  have left no archeological trace. And this, too, is hardly surprising: archaeology focuses upon habitation and building; migrants are by definition nomadic.

There is similar silence in the archaeological record with regard to many conquests whose historicity is generally accepted, and even of many large and significant battles, including those of relatively recent vintage. The Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain in the 5th century, the Arab conquest of Palestine in the 7th century, even the Norman invasion of England in 1066: all have left scant if any archaeological remains. Is this because conquest is usually accompanied by destruction? Not really: the biblical books of Joshua and Judges, for instance, tell of a gradual infiltration into the land of Israel, with only a small handful of cities said to have been destroyed. And what is true of antiquity holds true for many periods in military history in which conquest has in no sense entailed automatic destruction.

Actually, there is more to be said than that. Many details of the exodus story do strikingly appear to reflect the realities of late-second-millennium Egypt, the period when the exodus would most likely have taken place  and they are the sorts of details that a scribe living centuries later and inventing the story afresh would have been unlikely to know:

There is rich evidence that West-Semitic populations lived in the eastern Nile delta  what the Torah calls Goshen  for most of the second millennium. Some were slaves, some were raised in Pharaohs court, and some, like Moses, bore Egyptian names.

We know today that the great pharaoh Ramesses II, who reigned from 1279 to 1213 BCE, built a huge administrative center out of mudbrick in an area where large Semitic populations had lived for centuries. It was called Pi-Ramesses. Exodus (1:11) specifies that the Hebrew slaves built the cities of Pithom and Ramesses, a possible reference to Pi-Ramesses. The site was abandoned by the pharaohs two centuries later.

In the exodus account, pharaohs are simply called Pharaoh, whereas in later biblical passages, Egyptian monarchs are referred to by their proper name, as in Pharaoh Necho (2 Kings 23:29). This, too, echoes usage in Egypt itself, where, from the middle of the second millennium until the tenth century BCE, the title Pharaoh was used alone.

The names of various national entities mentioned in the Song at the Sea (Exodus 15:1-18)  Philistines, Moabites, Edomites, et al.  are all found in Egyptian sources shortly before 1200 BCE; about this, the book of Exodus is again correct for the period.

The stories of the exodus and the Israelites subsequent wanderings in the wilderness reflect sound acquaintance with the geography and natural conditions of the eastern Nile delta, the Sinai peninsula, the Negev, and Transjordan.

The book of Exodus (13:17) notes that the Israelites chose not to traverse the Sinai peninsula along the northern, coastal route toward modern-day Gaza because that would have entailed military engagement. The discovery of extensive Egyptian fortifications all along that route from the period in question confirms the accuracy of this observation.

Archaeologists have documented hundreds of new settlements in the land of Israel from the late-13th and 12th centuries BCE, congruent with the biblically attested arrival there of the liberated slaves; strikingly, these settlements feature an absence of the pig bones normally found in such places. Major destruction is found at Bethel, Yokneam, and Hatzor  cities taken by Israel according to the book of Joshua. At Hatzor, archaeologists found mutilated cultic statues, suggesting that they were repugnant to the invaders.

The earliest written mention of an entity called Israel is found in the victory inscription of the pharaoh Merneptah from 1206 BCE. In it the pharaoh lists the nations defeated by him in the course of a campaign to the southern Levant; among them, Israel is laid waste and his seed is no more. Israel is written in such a way as to connote a group of people, not an established city or region, the implication being that it was not yet a fully settled entity with contiguous control over an entire region. This jibes with the Bibles description in Joshua and Judges of a gradual conquest of the land.

To sum up thus far: there is no explicit evidence that confirms the exodus. At best, we have a text  the Tanakh  that exhibits a good grasp of a wide range of fairly standard aspects of ancient Egyptian realities. This is definitely something, and hardly to be sneezed at; but can we say still more? I believe that we can.

One of the pillars of modern critical study of the Bible is the so-called comparative method. Scholars elucidate a biblical text by noting similarities between it and texts found among the cultures adjacent to ancient Israel. If the similarities are high in number and truly distinctive to the two sources, it becomes plausible to maintain that the biblical text may have been written under the direct influence of, or in response to, the extra-biblical text. Why the one-way direction, from extra-biblical to biblical? The answer is that Israel was largely a weak player, surrounded politically as well as culturally by much larger forces, and no Hebrew texts from the era prior to the Babylonian exile (586 BCE) have ever been found in translation into other languages. Hence, similarities between texts in Akkadian or Egyptian and the Tanakh are usually understood to reflect the influence of the former on the latter.

Comparative method can yield dazzling results, adding dimensions of understanding to passages that once seemed either unclear or self-evident and unexceptional. As an example, consider how at the Seder table we recall how God delivered Israel from Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Most would be surprised to learn that this biblical phrase is actually Egyptian in origin: Egyptian inscriptions routinely describe the Pharaoh as the mighty hand and his acts as those of the outstretched arm.

Why would the book of Exodus describe God in the same terms used by the Egyptians to exalt their pharaoh? We see here the dynamics of appropriation. During much of its history, ancient Israel was in Egypts shadow. For weak and oppressed peoples, one form of cultural and spiritual resistance is to appropriate the symbols of the oppressor and put them to competitive ideological purposes.

In contemporary times a good example of this was seen in Israel during Operation Protective Edge, the last round of conflict with Hamas in 2014. Hamas leaders in Gaza produced a Hebrew language propaganda video aimed for the Israeli home front. Featuring a jingle Arise! Attack!, it displayed Hamas terrorists launching missiles at Israeli civilian targets. But the video backfired. Israelis immediately began producing spoofs of Arise, Attack, in soulful piano, and a capella. Arise!, Attack! was a must-play track at weddings. Israelis were demonstrating the dynamics of appropriation: taking the symbols and propaganda of those who threaten them, and re-employing them as tools of cultural resistance.

But in its telling of the exodus, the Torah appropriates far more than individual phrases and symbols. In fact, it adopts and adapts one of the best-known accounts of one of the greatest of all Egyptian pharaohs. The paramount achievement of Ramesses II (reigned 1279-1213 BCE)  known also as Ramesses the Great--occurred early in his reign, in his victory over Egypts arch-rival, the Hittite empire, at the battle of Kadesh: a town located on the Orontes River on the modern-day border between Lebanon and Syria. It is believed to have been the largest chariot battle in history. Upon his return to Egypt, Ramesses inscribed accounts of this battle on monuments all across the empire. Ten copies of the work, known as the Kadesh Poem, exist to this day. These multiple copies make the battle of Kadesh the most publicized event in the ancient world. Many Egyptologists believe that the Kadesh Poem was a widely disseminated little red book, aimed at stirring public adoration of the valor and of Ramesses the Great.

Some 80 years ago, scholars noted an unexpected affinity between the biblical descriptions of the Tabernacle and the illustrations of Ramesses camp at Kadesh in several bas reliefs that accompany the Kadesh Poem. In the image below of the Kadesh battle, the walled military camp occupies the large rectangular space in the reliefs lower half:

The throne tent of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel. W. Wreszinski, Atlas zur altagyptischen Kulturgeschichte Vol. II (1935), pl. 169.

The camp is twice as long as it is wide. The entrance to it is in the middle of the eastern wall, on the left. (In Egyptian illustrations, east is left, west is right.) At the center of the camp, down a long corridor, lies the entrance to a 3:1 rectangular tent. This tent contains two sections: a 2:1 reception tent, with figures kneeling in adoration, and, leading westward (right) from it, a domed square space that is the throne tent of the pharaoh. All of these proportions are reflected in the prescriptions for the Tabernacle and its surrounding camp in Exodus 25-27, as the two diagrams below make clear:

To complete the parallel, Egypts four army divisions at Kadesh would have camped on the four sides of Ramesses battle compound; the book of Numbers (ch. 2) states that the tribes of Israel camped on the four sides of the Tabernacle compound.

Some scholars suggest that the Bible reworked the throne tent ideologically, with God displacing Ramesses the Great as the most powerful force of the time.

With my interest piqued by the visual similarities between the Tabernacle and the Ramesses throne tent, I decided to have a closer look at the textual components of the Kadesh inscriptions, to learn what they had to say about Ramesses, the Egyptians, and the battle of Kadesh. What I realized is that the similarities extend to the entire plot line of the Kadesh poem and that of the splitting of the sea in Exodus 14-15. It is reasonable to claim that the narrative account of the splitting of the sea (Exodus 14) and the Song at the Sea (Exodus 15) reflects a deliberate act of cultural appropriation. If the Kadesh inscriptions bear witness to the greatest achievement of the greatest pharaoh of the greatest period in Egyptian history, then the book of Exodus claims that the God of Israel overmastered Ramesses the Great by several orders of magnitude, effectively trouncing him at his own game.

The two accounts follow a similar sequence of motifs and images seen nowhere else in the battle accounts of the ancient Near East. Here are the main parallel elements: Ramesses troops break ranks at the sight of the Hittite chariot force, just as Israel cowers at the sight of the oncoming Egyptian chariots. Ramesses pleas for divine help, just as Moses does and is encouraged to move forward with victory assured, just as Moses is assured by God. Bas reliefs depict the Hittite corpses floating in the Orontes River:

Most strikingly, Ramesses troops return to survey the enemy corpses. Amazed at the king's accomplishment, the troops offer a victory hymn that includes praise of his name, references to his strong arm, and tribute to him as the source of their strength and their salvation. Likewise, The Israelites survey the Egyptian corpses and offer a hymn of praise to God  the Song of the Sea in Exodus 15  that contains many of the same motifs found in the hymn of praise by Ramesses troops. Ramesses consumes his enemy like chaff (cf. Exodus 15:7). Both the Kadesh Poem and the Exodus Sea account conclude with the king (Ramesses and God respectively) leading his troops peacefully home, intimidating foreign lands along the way, arriving at the palace, and being granted eternal rule.

The latest copies of the Kadesh Poem in our possession are from the reign of Ramesses himself, and there are no references to it, or clear attempts to imitate it, in later Egyptian literature. There is no evidence that any historical inscriptions from ancient Egypt ever reached Israel. This suggests that it is unlikely that an Israelite scribe living centuries later would have known about the Kadesh Poem, let alone borrow from it to inspire his own people.

Proofs exist in geometry, and sometimes in law, but rarely within the fields of biblical studies and archaeology. As is so often the case, the record at our disposal is highly incomplete, and speculation about cultural transmission must remain contingent. We do the most we can with the little we have, invoking plausibility more than proof. The parallels I have drawn here do not prove the historical accuracy of the Exodus account, certainly not in its entirety. But the evidence adduced here can be reasonably taken as indicating that the poem was transmitted during the period of its greatest diffusion, which is the only period when anyone in Egypt seems to have paid much attention to it: namely, during the reign of Ramesses II himself. In appropriating and transvaluing the well-known composition of the Kadesh Poem of Ramesses II, the Torah puts forward the claim that the God of Israel had far outdone the greatest achievement of the greatest earthly potentate.

While all this may be compelling as an argument for the historicity of an Exodus event  is it kosher? Can we actually say that God borrows pagan texts  even if only to polemicize against them  and incorporates them into his Holy Torah? Maimonides, for one, believed so. Maimonides writes that he searched high and low to learn as much as he could about the ancient Near East, and in his Guide to the Perplexed bemoans the fact that he didnt know more about the subject. For Maimonides many of the mitzvot pertaining to sacrificial worship in the Temple, were, in fact, adaptations of pagan practices. Maimonides believed that the Torah took forms of worship that were familiar to the Israelites in Egypt and tweaked them in a way that bring them closer in line with monotheistic belief. The medieval exegete R. Levi b. Gershom (Ralbag) states that the Torah God wrote was written utilizing the literary conventions of the times (commentary to the Torah, very end of Sefer Shemot). And Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, was fully comfortable with the idea that there may have been inspiring stories and just laws that pre-existed the Torah, that were then chosen by God for inclusion in his holy Torah.

When we gather on the night of Passover to celebrate the exodus and liberation from Egyptian oppression, we can speak the words of the Haggadah with honesty and integrity: We were slaves to a pharaoh in Egypt.

Click here to order your copy of Ani Maamin: Biblical Criticism, Historical Truth and the Thirteen Principles of Faith (Maggid, 2020)

Material in this essay first appeared in Mosaic Magazine (https://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/history-ideas/2015/03/was-there-an-exodus/).
A woman has been arrested here



for allegedly sharing fake information pertaining to COVID-19 on WhatsApp, a senior police officer said on Monday.

She had apparently claimed in her post that 15 people have tested positive for novel coronavirus in New Alipore area of the city and that the state government was suppressing the information, the officer said.

The woman, in her early 30s, was arrested on Sunday after a few people in the locality, who had received the message on a WhatsApp group, lodged a complaint with the New Alipore police station, he said.

A resident of Jyotish Roy Road in the area, she failed to provide any proof to justify her claim, the officer said, adding that the WhatsApp group admin has been asked to delete the post.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
All Business: Will insurance protect your business from COVID-19 losses? It depends

By TRISTAN SWANSON

Miller Nash Graham & Dunn

Swanson

The economic fallout from COVID-19 has been swift and severe. Moratoriums, quarantines and governmental orders of all types have and, will continue to, upend daily life and impose severe economic consequences on Washington businesses.

While the federal government struggles to prop up the overall economy, many businesses are looking to what, if any, specific relief might be had. This search inevitably leads to insurance.

However, whether an insurance policy will provide assistance depends on the type of insurance purchased, the wording of individual policies, and, potentially, the particular circumstances surrounding each business's loss.

POLICIES THAT MAY HELP

 Business income loss insurance: Almost every Washington business carries business income loss insurance. These policies are usually triggered by some variation of direct physical loss or damage to insured property.

While there is an overall precedent in Washington, courts nationwide have found things like bacteria and dangerous gases can constitute direct physical loss  meaning that courts may find that a property that is contaminated with the COVID-19 virus has suffered physical damage. This is good news to Washington policyholders. With rare exception, Washington courts will read insuring language broadly, in favor of coverage.

That said, policyholders should not expect insurers to greet their claims with open arms. Insurers are already pushing back on factual grounds (which may prove immaterial  like whether the business can show an actually infected person visited) and through exclusions for delay, loss of market, loss of use, and, in some instances, for losses caused explicitly by viruses.

Business income loss policies also usually provide civil authority coverage. This coverage kicks in when access to a business has been prohibited by a government directive due to a direct physical loss or damage event occurring somewhere other than the insured property itself.

Given the recent local and statewide decrees in Washington, winning the threshold argument  whether access has truly been prohibited as the result of the various COVID-19 governmental decrees  appears straightforward. However, policyholders still have to deal with same direct physical loss or damage issue insurers are likely to latch onto.

 Industry-specific coverage: Insurers write different coverages for different industries. Thus, it is fairly common for restaurants/retail operations to carry coverage for communicable disease events. While these coverages may still carry physical loss or damage requirements they often specifically allow mitigation and assessment costs to be recovered.

Small changes like these in policy language can often open doors for policyholders. Moreover, the more a court believes an average purchaser of insurance would think they had purchased insurance for a disease event like COVID-19, the more likely the court is to find that the policy provides coverage. This is especially true in Washington.

In the same vein as communicable disease event coverage, some polices in fact contain pandemic event endorsements.

Coverage under such endorsements can be triggered by an infected person entering the insured premises or an announcement by a public health authority that a specific location has been closed due to a pandemic event. Policyholders will want to comb their policies for such endorsements and, if the facts permit, began assembling their claim to be presented to their insurers.

Trade disruption insurance, dependent property business income insurance, pollution liability and cleanup coverage, and travel insurance are other examples of industry-specific coverages which may respond to COVID-19 related loss.

All these policy forms should be reviewed (the sooner the better) and, if coverage is a possibility, a claim should be made with careful attention to the specific policy language employed.

GATHER EVIDENCE

Initial coverage for COVID-19 losses will likely depend not only on the wording of an individual policy but also how the policyholder's actual loss materialized.

While these facts might not always matter from a legal perspective, policyholders will likely find insurers more receptive to claims where, for example, the policyholder has evidence that an infected person entered their premises. Likewise, the policyholder will need prove up its profits and loss  these statements will be given strict (and often unfair) scrutiny by insurers.

In every case, careful review of factual issues and contemporaneous documentation may mean the difference between a successful claim and an expensive wild goose chase.

KNOW YOUR DEADLINES

Most first-party policies (like business income) contain suit limitations clauses which essentially preclude a policyholder from bringing a breach of contract action against an insurer more than year (or sometimes two years) after direct, physical loss occurred. Knowing these deadlines is essential.

Likewise, policyholders should be aware that individual coverages may contain their own deadlines. For example, communicable disease coverages may require reporting the loss within 30 days of an order from a public health authority.

The same is true in the third-party/liability insurance context. For example, a professional liability claim brought on the basis that a person was sickened due to a business staying open will need to be reported within the policy's reporting period or all possibility of coverage for the claim will be lost. And claims-made pollution cleanup policies may require that the need for cleanup of contamination be reported to the insurer before any costs are incurred, in order for those costs to be reimbursed by the carrier.

These are difficult economic times in almost every industry. While there may not be an insurance solution for every COVID-19-related loss, it is certainly worthwhile for any Washington business to take a long look at pursuing an insurance claim.

Washington is one of the best states in the country to be a policyholder and the hope for almost every commercial enterprise is that the courts will recognize that Washington businesses paid premiums to their insurance carriers with situations exactly like this in mind  and then hold them to their coverage responsibilities.

Tristan Swanson is a partner at Miller Nash Graham & Dunn. His practice focuses on construction, real estate, and insurance coverage disputes.





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Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia said on Monday it will raise its oil exports to a record 10.6 million barrels per day starting from May despite a global supply glut, escalating a price war with Russia.

Oil prices are languishing at 17-year lows as the coronavirus pandemic threatens a painful global recession that could further sap demand.

Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter which already announced a sharp production increase for April, said it would add additional supplies to the global market, deepening a glut.

"The kingdom plans to raise its petroleum exports by 600,000 bpd from May, so total exports will increase to 10.6 million bpd," said an official at the energy ministry, cited by the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

The announcement came as US President Donald Trump, a close ally of the Saudi crown prince, spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday about plunging oil prices and the impact on US producers.

The two leaders agreed to hold US-Russia "consultations" about prices through their energy ministers, the Kremlin said.

Saudi Arabia had been exporting around 7.0 million barrels per day under an output reduction agreement among a 24-member producers' alliance known as OPEC+ which included Russia.

Its Gulf neighbour the United Arab Emirates has also pledged to pump at least one million bpd more from next month.

Riyadh said earlier this month it was raising exports after a production cut agreement among top producers flopped in early March.

OPEC+ failed to reach an agreement on further production cuts to shore up sagging prices as the coronavirus hit the global economy hard.

In an effort to grab market share, Saudi Arabia immediately announced a substantial increase in its production to 12.3 million bpd and exports to 10 million bpd at the beginning of April.

The energy ministry said it would secure the increase from two sources, by using natural gas in the domestic market to free up oil for export and also as domestic consumption drops because of the coronavirus.

Story continues

Despite the oil crash piling pressure on the Saudi economy, analysts say its latest moves are part of a deliberate long-term strategy to capture greater market share by pressuring its high-cost rivals including US shale producers.

"The kingdom could theoretically be the last man standing, given (its) financial reserves and the ability to borrow money if necessary," said research group JBC Energy.

"For pretty much everybody else in the industry, including US shale and Canadian oil sand companies, it is set to be a much more existential threat, with months of lower production at prices close to zero."

- 'Harder for renewables' -

Saudi Arabia has shrugged off criticism that its aggressive strategy could bankrupt its oil-producing rivals, indicating it was no longer willing to play the role of "swing producer" that bears the burden of stabilising the markets.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman "has embarked on a policy of capturing market share rather than trying to set the price," said Bernard Haykel, a Saudi expert at Princeton University.

"By keeping prices depressed, Saudi policy will not just drive more expensive forms of oil production out of the market; it will also make it harder for renewable energy to compete with fossil fuels -- at least in the near term."

The price of oil struck its lowest levels in more than 17 years on Monday, with Brent North Sea crude tumbling to $22.58 per barrel at one point.

There are warnings that oil could sink even further as storage tanks around the world fill to capacity.

In a letter last week to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a group of US senators accused Saudi Arabia and Russia of waging "economic warfare against the United States".

"During this time of pandemic and global economic crisis, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia has chosen to settle scores in the oil market," the senators wrote in the letter.

"Riyadh's motivation may be multi-faceted -- to punish the Russians, to capture near-term market share, to destabilise long-term investment in American energy."

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Lundbeck reports headline results from phase IIa AMBLED study of foliglurax in Parkinsons disease

Details Category: Small Molecules Published on Monday, 30 March 2020 10:02 Hits: 2500

The AMBLED study did not show a statistically significant reduction in OFF time (primary endpoint) nor an improvement of dyskinesia (secondary endpoint)

The development programme of foliglurax will be terminated

The termination of the project will, as announced on 6 February 2020, impact the financial guidance for reported EBIT, which has been changed from a range of DKK 2.2  2.7 billion to a range of DKK 1.4  1.9 billion

VALBY, Denmark I March 27, 2020 I H. Lundbeck A/S (Lundbeck) today announced that the phase IIa study (AMBLED) of its novel selective positive allosteric modulator of the glutamate 4 receptor (mGlu4 PAM), foliglurax, for the treatment of Parkinson's disease did not meet the primary study endpoint. There was no statistically significant difference in change from baseline in OFF time versus placebo after a 4-week treatment period. The difference in change from baseline versus placebo was 0.27h and 0.44h for the 10 and 30 mg doses (twice daily) respectively, as assessed by the Hauser diary. Neither of the foliglurax doses separated from placebo on dyskinesia (secondary endpoint). The study showed an acceptable clinical safety and tolerability profile in patients with Parkinsons disease.

The AMBLED study is a phase IIa randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study involving 157 subjects diagnosed with idiopathic Parkinsons disease for at least three years, being treated with a stable regimen of levodopa-based therapy and experiencing OFF time (end-of-dose wearing off) and dyskinesia. They received either 10 mg or 30 mg foliglurax twice daily as an adjunct to levodopa for a 28-day treatment period. The primary endpoint of the study was the change from baseline in the daily awake OFF time based on subject Hauser diary entries, while dyskinesia was assessed by the change from baseline in the UDysRS score as a secondary endpoint.

Dr. Johan Luthman, EVP and head of R&D at Lundbeck said:

We are disappointed that foliglurax did not demonstrate sufficient efficacy for patients living with Parkinsons disease. We have made the difficult decision to discontinue the development of the foliglurax program to focus our resources on more promising programmes.

Lundbeck is conducting additional analyses to understand the totality of the foliglurax data. The results from the study will be published in the near future following international publication guidelines.

Financial guidance

Following the negative outcome of the AMBLED study, Lundbeck has decided to write-down the full value of foliglurax of EUR 100 million (approximately DKK 750 million). The write-down will have no impact on the financial guidance for revenue, EBITDA, core EBIT or cash flow. However, the reported EBIT guidance will be changed from a range of DKK 2.2  2.7 billion to a range of DKK 1.4  1.9 billion. The write-down will be recognized through R&D costs.

Financial guidance

DKK Previous FY 2020 guidance Revised FY 2020 guidance Revenue 17.4  18.0 billion 17.4  18.0 billion EBITDA 3.9  4.4 billion 3.9  4.4 billion Core EBIT 3.5  4.0 billion 3.5  4.0 billion Profit from operation (EBIT) 2.2  2.7 billion 1.4  1.9 billion

About foliglurax

Foliglurax (PTX002331/Lu AF99757) is a small molecule acting as a selective positive allosteric modulator of the metabotropic glutamate 4 receptor (mGlu4 PAM) and may restore the glutamatergic/dopaminergic dysfunctions thought to underlie motor complications in patients living with PD.

A single- and multiple-ascending oral dose phase I trial (NCT02639221) in healthy volunteers with foliglurax was successfully completed in 2016. The results showed that foliglurax appeared safe and well tolerated with a satisfactory pharmacokinetic (how the drug is processed in the body) profile.

In July 2017, Prexton (acquired in March 2018) initiated a phase IIa clinical trial (NCT03162874) with foliglurax. The trial enrolled 157 patients with Parkinsons disease for at least 3 years, in 46 sites across six European countries (Germany, France, Austria, Spain, Italy and UK).

AMBLED was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel-arm study assessed the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of foliglurax as an adjunct to levodopa-based therapy in reducing motor fluctuations in patients experiencing OFF time and dyskinesia. They received foliglurax either 10mg or 30mg twice daily for 28-day treatment period, followed by 14-day follow up period.

The primary outcome measure was the change from baseline in the daily awake OFF time (i.e. time where the treatment does not work) based on patient diary entries between the start and end of the treatment period (28 days) while dyskinesia was assessed by the change from baseline in the UDysRS score as a secondary endpoint.

About Parkinsons disease

Parkinsons disease is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder that leads to progressive deterioration of motor function, affecting around 6 million people worldwide with approximately 60% of patients exhibiting motor fluctuations that generally start 25 years after treatment initiation.

Parkinsons disease is diagnosed upon the occurrence of the cardinal motor symptoms resting tremor, muscle rigidity (stiffness) and slowed movement (bradykinesia). The disease is characterized by the progressive degeneration (loss) of dopaminergic brain cells as well as dysfunctions (or imbalance) in other neurotransmitters systems such as the glutamatergic pathway. Current therapies, mainly aiming at replacing or mimicking dopaminergic effect, gradually loose efficacy and results in debilitating complications such as OFF time (re-emergence of PD symptoms) or uncontrolled movement (dyskinesia).

About H. Lundbeck A/S

H. Lundbeck A/S (LUN.CO, LUN DC, HLUYY) is a global pharmaceutical company specialized in brain diseases. For more than 70 years, we have been at the forefront of neuroscience research. We are tirelessly dedicated to restoring brain health, so every person can be their best.

An estimated 700 million people worldwide are living with brain diseases and far too many suffer due to inadequate treatment, discrimination, a reduced number of working days, early retirement and other unnecessary consequences. Every day, we strive for improved treatment and a better life for people living with brain diseases  we call this Progress in Mind.

Read more at www.lundbeck.com/global/about-us/progress-in-mind.

For additional information, we encourage you to visit our corporate site www.lundbeck.com and connect with us on Twitter at @Lundbeck and via LinkedIn.

SOURCE: Lundbeck
India doesnt have a data protection law or a dedicated law on cybersecurity.

Also, there is no specialised law on privacy. Experts say this complicates the scenario for businesses as they continue to be liable for breach in client data even when employees work out of the home.

As work from home (WFH) becomes the new normal - at least for the next few weeks - businesses are rushing to put in place more structured WFH policies, say employment law experts.

While business continuity is the primary concern of most corporate, what complicates the matter is the need to ensure the security of client data even in a WFH scenario.

Companies need to quickly realise that when they are allowing work from home, including mission-critical work, they become intermediaries under the Information Technology Act 2000.

"Hence, they are duty-bound to comply with the parameters of due diligence and other compliances under the Indian cyber law, rules and regulations, says cyber law expert Pavan Duggal.

India doesnt have a data protection law or a dedicated law on cybersecurity.

Also, there is no specialised law on privacy. Experts say this complicates the scenario for businesses as they continue to be liable for breach in client data even when employees work out of the home.

While some employers - mostly in the tech space - already had WFH policies, others had telecommuting agreements.

For a majority of businesses, WFH was more of an informal understanding on a case-by-case basis, say experts.

Employers have started reviewing their policies and formalising their practices, says Vikram Shroff, head of HR Laws at Nishith Desai Associates.

Atul Gupta, partner, Trilegal, points out data confidentiality provisions would apply even while an individual is working from home.

Employers would be advised to remind employees of the same and educate them on best practices to ensure that data continues to remain secure.

Shroff says an employer could initiate legal action for a breach of the employment contract and WFH policy/telecommuting deals.

Take the instance of the $190-billion technology industry in India that employees 4 million people, and is involved in several mission-critical operations for global clients.

To transition the bulk of its workforce to work out of home required several regulatory approvals from various government departments, apart from the consent of clients.

Companies have sought permission from their clients for enabling work from home and built internal crack teams to manage security and privacy issues, says a note prepared by Nasscom.

The tech industry is still ironing out some teething regulatory issues with the government, says the industry lobby group.

Experts say companies looking at this transition must immediately first come up with detailed WFH policies, put them up on their websites, and get electronic consent from regular employees.

Only those employees who agree with such policies should be allowed to work from home, say experts.

The company should first ensure they have virtual private networks and cloud solutions so that basic security is taken care of even in a WFM environment, says G V Anand Bhushan, partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co.

All security protocols that are normally in place relating to not sharing of passwords, shredding of printed documents, not creating back-ups, and not using unsecured networks should be rigorously maintained, he adds.

Companies have to do far more capacity building among their employees while working from home in these transient times, says Duggal.

Photograph: Reuters
Another attempt scored 246 votes with the required minimum being 226.

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has again voted to appoint Maksym Stepanov as the country's new health minister.

Respective resolution No. 3290, which was drafted by the government, was backed by 246 Members of Parliament out of the 346 registered in the session hall on Monday, March 30.

Read alsoUkraine's Rada sacks health, finance ministers amid virus crisis

This was a second attempt to vote on Stepanov after the first try (resolution No. 3284) had failed earlier on March 30, having scored only 217 votes with the required minimum being 226.

Prior to that, parliamentarians had dismissed Illia Yemets from the health minister's post.
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) share price fell in early trade today after the auto firm said has suspended all its manufacturing operations across India due to rising number of coronavirus cases and in compliance with directive of the government.

Share price of M&M plunged 8.16% to Rs 271.50 compared to the previous close of Rs 295.65 on BSE.

Total 0.49 lakh shares changed hands amounting to turnover of Rs 1.34 crore on BSE.

Market capitalization of the firm fell to Rs 34,330 crore in early trade. The large cap stock has fallen after three days of consecutive gain.

It has lost 58.73% during the last one year and declined 47.83% since the beginning of this year.

Mahindra & Mahindra is trading lower than its 5 day, 20 day, 50 day, 100 day and 200 day moving averages.

"In light of heightened concern on spread of Coronavirus and pursuant to the directive of the Indian government, we wish to inform you that company has suspended all its manufacturing operations across India. The business of the company has been affected over the last few weeks and will continue to be impacted due to the current crisis. The duration of this shutdown will depend upon directives issued by the respective government authorities in this regard. The company will continue to closely monitor the situation and take appropriate action as per regulatory guidance," the firm said.

On March 22, 2020, the company had announced suspension of manufacturing operations at Nagpur Plant with immediate effect and Chakan (Pune) and Kandivali (Mumbai) from March 23, 2020.

Share Market LIVE: Sensex drops 1,000 points, Nifty at 8,380; All sectors in red

Stocks in news: SBI, Maruti Suzuki, NTPC, Bank of India and more

Rupee vs Dollar: Rupee slips 32 paise to 75.21 amid coronavirus scare
South-east Asian governments are taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to crack down on critics, according to Human Rights Watch.

As the disease has spread throughout the region, HRW's Asia director Brad Adams says four authoritarian regimes in particular have started to tighten their grips on what their citizens can say and do online, and in public.

"The governments of Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines and Myanmar are all taking actions against their critics," he said.

A security guard wearing a protective mask assists a woman in Manila. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte authorised sweeping quarantines to fight the coronavirus. Credit:AP

The number of cases across the region is growing rapidly but unevenly. Singapore has managed to keep a reasonably tight lid on case numbers through strict measures such as contact tracing. It has so far reported 844 infections and three deaths.
A University of Utah-led consortium to improve the design of medical devices welcomes Rice University as its newest partner. The Human Factors MEdical DevIce Consortium (hfMEDIC) serves as a consulting resource for medical device manufacturers looking to improve usability and safety of their products.

"For medical devices, it always comes down to: Is it usable or not?" says Frank Drews, professor of psychology and director of hfMEDIC. "And if something is not usable, well, you don't use it. That has a huge impact on the effectiveness of treatment."

Human factors

Just as user interface/user experience experts work to make tech experiences easier to use, researchers in human factors work to improve the usability of biomedical devices with the aim to reduce adverse outcomes such as errors. One example is a kit designed by Drews, who holds adjunct appointments in anesthesiology, biomedical informatics and other departments, and his colleagues. Central venous catheters, or central lines, are placed in large veins to deliver medications and fluids, but they're a significant source of risk for infections, as they provide an access point for pathogens.

"We developed kits that actually guide nurses through the process of inserting and maintaining those central lines," Drews says. In the course of a study to evaluate the kits, they reduced central line infections to nearly zero. They chose to not patent the design of the kits. "And now many manufacturers have adopted this approach and now these central line maintenance kits are considered industry standard," Drews says.

Assembling the team

In 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began issuing guidance for human factors and usability engineering for new devices. Some large manufacturers employed product development engineers, while academic researchers in the field worked somewhat independently. Mid-sized manufacturers may not be able to devote resources to full-time engineers, however. That's where hfMEDIC comes in. The consortium connects the needs of industry with the expertise of a network of researchers. "We are trying to really organize a concerted effort," Drews says, "addressing these problems where right now all of the device manufacturers are just doing it by themselves."

###

At the U, Drews is joined by Andrew Merryweather, associate professor of mechanical engineering, and director of the Ergonomics and Safety Program. His team includes graduate and undergraduate student researchers and engineers.

Additional partners

What does the addition of Rice University bring to hfMEDIC? "Expertise," Drews says, particularly that of professor of psychological sciences Pat DeLucia. "It's really increasing our resource base," Drews continues. "Having another pool of potential members in Texas and pulling from a larger pool of graduate students and undergraduate students." The students gain valuable experience, he says, that can translate into a career in human factors engineering in industry.

"I am excited about joining hfMEDIC and working with Frank Drews, who is a leader in the field," DeLucia said. "Being a consortium member gives faculty and students at Rice opportunities to work with industry and government partners to improve medical devices and other components of heath care, and ultimately to enhance patient safety."

The consortium also includes academic partner North Carolina State University and industry partner AbbVie.

Interested potential partners, whether from academia or industry, can visit hfmedic.org or contact Drews at frank.drews@psych.utah.edu
On Monday, March 30 at 10a.m. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is joined by Prosper Portland Director of Economic Development Tory Campbell, Portland Housing Bureau Director Shannon Callahan and Cort OHaver, President & CEO, Umpqua Bank to share the latest on economic relief work happening in the city.

CORONAVIRUS IN OREGON: THE LATEST NEWS

This comes a day after the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that President Donald Trump approved a major disaster declaration for Oregon, freeing federal emergency aid to supplement Oregons fight against the coronavirus.

Watch livestream here:
Panaji, March 30 : In a public appeal, the state Directorate of Health Services on Monday said, that those who travelled on a Vistara flight from Mumbai to Goa on March 22, which incidentally carried a COVID-19 positive patient, should report to the health authorities without delay.

"One of the patients declared positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) on March 29 at Goa Medical College has travel history from New York to Mumbai and then by Vistara domestic flight UK861 from Mumbai to Goa on March 22," a notice issued by DHS on Monday said.

"Hence, people currently in Goa who had travelled on the said flight are appealed to immediately report to Helpline 104 or call 0832-24218100/2225538 or report to the nearest Health Centre," the notice also said.

The person who travelled on the flight is one of the five COVID-19 positive cases in Goa and had travelled to Goa from the Bahamas via New York.
Austrian officials announced on Monday that they were making the wearing of masks in supermarket mandatory in a bid to curb the coronavirus outbreak there, the first time a European government has taken such a step.

As of the moment these masks are handed out in front of supermarkets [and] it will be compulsory to wear them in supermarkets, Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz said, adding that the aim in the medium-term was for people to wear them in public more generally as well.

Underlining the departure from European practices, Kurz said: I am fully aware that masks are alien to our culture. This will require a big adjustment.

For health experts in East Asia who for months have encouraged the public to wear face masks amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Austrias announcement could be seen as belated vindication in what has become something of an East/West divide in the debate over whether the measure helps reduce the spread of coronavirus.

While infection rates for places like Hong Kong and Japan where masks are being worn, despite the lack of more drastic measures like lockdowns  remain low, their European counterparts are considering whether face masks should be made mandatory to help flatten the curve.

The masks to be distributed in Austria are below medical grade and aimed at preventing the wearer from spreading it to others by coughing or sneezing, Kurz said, adding: Currently the infections are far too high.

According to the database compiled by Johns Hopkins University, Austria has 9,377 confirmed cases, only the ninth most among European nations, and 108 deaths.

Hours after Kurzs announcement, though, Germany  with 57,298 confirmed cases and 455 deaths  signalled it might move in the same direction.

Health ministry spokesman Hanno Kautz said that wearing masks in public may have a role to play when Germany starts unwinding the lockdown measures that are now in place.

Story continues

Such masks, he said, could help protect others from contracting the illness from the wearer.

Last week, the president of the German Medical Association, Klaus Reinhardt, made a similar recommendation, telling Germans: My advice: Get simple protective masks or make your own and wear them in public spaces.

The level of European readiness to embrace face masks as a public measure contradicts earlier rejection of such a practice widely accepted and promoted by East Asian epidemiologists and officials.

Leading infectious diseases experts in Hong Kong, for example, have been asking the public to wear face masks since January, when the virus broke out in Hubei province in mainland China. Ex-pats in Hong Kong have been criticised for not wearing masks like much of the rest of the population have been doing.

Comparative trajectories have indicated that East Asian countries with high percentages of public mask-wearing  including Hong Kong and South Korea  have had flatter curves of infection than the US and most European countries, where mask-wearing is not part of the public mindset.

There has been no dedicated research determining the correlation between mask-wearing and infection rate among countries.

In Britain, Dr Shunmay Yeung, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has publicly advocated against the need for face masks, contending that the virus is not floating in the air and is transmitted primarily through physical touch.

One of the problems if lots of people who dont need face masks are using face masks or stockpiling them, it means that there arent enough face masks available where theyre really needed, she says in one video, uploaded in mid-March and often replayed on the BBC. The vast majority of people are not susceptible to getting a severe infection.

By Monday, however, the capacity of Britains health care system was facing enormous pressure, with confirmed cases and fatalities on the rise. Before the government announced a lockdown last week, Asians in Britain reported facing hostile treatment when they wore face masks.

In an interview with Science, a peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a top Chinese health official called it a major oversight that Americans and Europeans have not been wearing face masks.

The big mistake in the US and Europe, in my opinion, is that people arent wearing masks, George Gao Fu, director general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said.

This virus is transmitted by droplets and close contact. Droplets play a very important role  youve got to wear a mask, because when you speak, there are always droplets coming out of your mouth.

More from South China Morning Post:

This article Coronavirus: Austria, in a shift, requires mask-wearing in supermarkets to cut pandemics spread first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2020.
Gautam Budhh Nagar, March 30 : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday gave a dressing down to senior district officials on the efforts made to tackle the coronavirus spread amid a 21-day nationwide lockdown.

During a meeting on the Gautam Buddh University campus here, a visibly angry Chief Minister said that the spike in suspected and confirmed coronavirus cases in the district was due to official apathy and negligence and their tendency to play politics against each other.

During an inspection of different places in Gautam Budhh Nagar, he said that the current situation was a result of lax imposition of the lockdown in the district.

In the meeting, he said that timely action by district officials against Ceasefire company and others responsible could have prevented at least 20 coronavirus cases in the district.

He questioned officials why the control room to tackle the pandemic had not been set up despite the fact that he had sounded an alert and given necessary directions two months ago. He said that if the control room was indeed set up, why was there an increase in suspected and confirmed corona cases.

The meeting was held ame in the wake of increase in the number of suspected and confirmed coronavirus positive cases in the district that adjoins Delhi.

When some officials tried to explain the situation, Yogi Adityanath angrily cut them short and alleged that officials did no work and instead were busy throwing allegations at each other.

At least 34 corona cases have been reported from the district so far.

The Chief Minister warned of strict action and cautioned officials posted in other districts of Uttar Pradesh against dereliction in duty while fighting against the spread of coronavirus.

A sum of Rs 51 lakh collected by staff of Noida Authority was handed over to the Chief Minister for the fight against coronavirus.

(Sanjiv Chauhan can be contacted at sanjiv.c@ians.in)
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30)  It was just a normal day at the hospital. But that Friday was a bit extra special for Dr. Jose Luis Sollano III. In just a few hours, hell be home to spend the weekend with his family and friends. Something that only happens once every three weeks.

And just before the end of his day at the hospital  a patient complaining of general body weakness came his way. The patient was then admitted for cardiac problem.

After attending to the man, he went back doing his rounds.

Then the much-awaited weekend came.

Dr. Sollano made the most out of it. He attended a family gathering and went out to see some friends.

Sunday night, Dr. Sollano came down with a cold.

I was about to have chills so I took paracetamol and multivitamins cause I was afraid something like this would happen, Dr. Sollano said in an online video interview with CNN Philippines.

The following day, bad news greeted the young doctor. The patient who complained of general body weakness and cardiac problem tested positive for COVID-19.

Contact tracing began. Dr. Sollano was among them, of course. But unlike many other contacts of the patients, the young doctor easily had a cold and itchy throat, so the hospital asked him to take the COVID-19 test.

As soon as the testing kits were available, samples of the patients contacts were collected including those of Dr. Sollanos.

Results came out after 48 hours.

Dr. Sollano recalled, As soon as I was swabbed, I was sent home, quarantined right away, strict quarantine, then after two days I found out that I was positive on March 12 and I am DOH PH45

In a very quick turn of events Dr. Sollano has been an addition to the number of confirmed COVID 19 cases in the country.

He is now DOH PH 45.

I was exposed to the patient, maybe less than 3-5 mins, he came in, asked me to explain the ECG tracing very minimal exposure, Dr. Sollano said.

He got a call from the hospital and the Health Departments officer in Quezon City.

Back then, there were still some rooms that can accommodate them, so he was asked to get ready for admission.

Dr. Sollano shares the moment I found out I was okay like any doctor. We just take the necessary precautions. But the time it sunk in, I cried but just because I was causing hassle already, I never want to be the person to be causing stress. Everythings so fast and everyone involved is close to me thats friends, family, theyre going to be quarantined, theyre going to be out of work and then more importantly I did my rounds

Patients, colleagues, nurses, consultants and family who came in contact with Dr. Sollano were placed in quarantine.

Beyond symptoms

And so the quarantine began. Alone in his hospital room, Dr. Sollano wasnt only battling the disease, he was also battling with his mind.

He remembered the people he saw over the weekend aside from his family and friends.

The patients because I put everyone at risk and these people are people who have comorbidities or other diseases and I put them at risk for having the severe type of Covid. The reason I wasnt nervous about my self  Im young, I dont have comorbidities, so based on statistics, I have a very low chance to be a severe case, but everyone else, especially the patients that I exposed, were at risk for having severe cases," he said.

His thoughts were equally difficult to fight with.

The guilt there actually set in when we had a Viber group where we had all the people under quarantine updating ourselves to the doctors and infectious control specialists Most of the peoples exposures was me. I was kind of emotional, it got me depressed that time because  like you see all of these posts on FB, Instagram, social media na hospitals are being overwhelmed, people are undermanned and  I was the cause as much as I know no one wanted this, Im their initial exposure and I caused a lot of stress," he said.

But Dr. Sollano added it wasnt something he cant conquer. For him, it was just a matter of seeing the positive in every situation.

If theres anything Id like people to take from this actually, its this one huge massive opportunity. Its an opportunity for everyone in all senses," he said. "First, to educate yourselves on whats happening with the world; executing what is being told especially right now, we have protocols we need to follow, we need to be disciplined, we need to be responsible about certain things, and lastly, we need to encourage people to do what is being told of us right now, we are part of a bigger purpose right now.

Treating the disease

From a cold to itchy throat, Dr. Sollano also felt something quite different, but he didnt have fever.

When I went to the hospital something thats peculiar to me was my senses of taste and sense of smell, I didnt think it was anything, it was very benign, Dr. Sollano recalls.

Upon reading several medical journals and articles, he later found out that its something common to some COVID-19 patients.

Dr. Sollano said the treatment for patients depend on their symptoms.

The World Health Organization said theres still no drug specific for treating COVID 19 and that it will take at least 12 months to produce a vaccine against the viral disease.

In Dr. Sollanos case, he was given Oseltamivir, an antiviral drug.

According to medical websites, its used to treat influenza.

Aside from Oseltamivir, Dr. Sollano also took zinc sulfate for his immune system consistently.

Four days later, he no longer exhibited any symptom.

But he cant go home just yet.

Pending results

Initially, the hospital didnt want to discharge him until he tests negative. But since the medical institution needed the facility for more severe cases, he was allowed to return home, but still under strict isolation.

Dr. Sollano says the delays in the release of results cause concern not just for himself, but many others who have been waiting.

My swabs were taken March which is a positive one, I have pending results from swabs of March 12, 14 and 24. To be discharged kasi before since it was early stages, I need to be taken two swabs which are two days apart, then strict quarantine for 14 days then I can go back to work. 

However, until now, results of his tests have not been released.

As of March 30, Dr. Sollano has been in quarantine for 21 days.

During the Laging Handa Briefing held on March 26, Health spokesperson Undersecretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire says there are delays in releasing of results due to backlogs.

Sa ngayon po ang standard processing time natin is really 24-48 hours pero sa nagyon po dito po sa Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, tumatagal po tayo ng 5-7 araw dahil nga po sa nangyayaring backlog pero ang kanilang commitment, nakausap po natin sila kanina, matatapos na po lahat ng backlog in 2-3 day, and pagkatapos po non, well have our realtime results already na sinasabi nating 24-48 hours, she said.

Light in the time of COVID

Instead of focusing on the negative, Dr. Sollano said he got by the days alone in his room seeing the bright side amid these dark times.

At the end of the day its also an opportunity for yourself  talk to that friend youve always wanted to talk to, that you havent talked in so lang. Dance, sing, make a video, cook, do Tiktok. These are things na you can do for yourself (that) youve always wanted. Its a break, yes, its also an opportunity to do more good, but yon nga, do something you can do for yourself," he said.

He believes its not something Filipinos cant beat.

"We may not be the most equipped country but we are more capable in fighting this. We have shown this time and time again. Together we can get through this  a little bit of discipline, sacrifice and patience definitely, well go a long way, he added.

Once sure that hes negative of COVID 19, PH 45 will return to the hospital, no longer as a patient, but as a doctor joining the front line once again.

I want to go back to work rightpeople have been stressed out, theyre tired especially right now, since everyones down so people are on the brink of getting burned out. If I can do my part in helping, I want to go back to work as soon as I can, Solano said.
Six new houses have been completed for tenancy in a Laois estate.

Welcoming the news that six young families will receive the keys and sign their tenancy agreement for homes in The Orchid, Stradbally, Cllr Tom Mulhall said these are people that would have on the Laois County Council housing list for some time.

These houses were part of a housing development that planning permission was granted in 2005, but due to the recession that started in 2008 six houses on this development were not complete.

For some years leading up to 2018 Laois County Council would have expressed an interest in these houses but there seemed to be quite a difference between the asking price and the offer and then there eventually was a price agreement.

The then director of housing Michael Rainey and the chief executive John Mulholland applied to the department of housing for funds to purchase and complete these houses, with the support of our Minister Charlie Flanagan the application was successful.

Funding approved was 1.3million. As a result the purchase was complete and the building completion works went to tender and all works are now complete to a very high standard

Cllr Mulhall said he will be encouraging Laois County Council housing section to purchase more vacant and incomplete homes in the Stradbally area because there are still some from Stradbally in need of local authority housing.

I will also be calling on the new Government to bring in legislation to increase the income threshold for applicants to become eligible to be approved on the housing list. At present in Laois the income limit per applicant is 28,000 so if your income is over that limit and under 45,000 you are not able to get on the housing list and you would not be eligible for a rebuilding Ireland home Loan these income earners are caught between a rock and a hard place until something changes," he said.
In this handout provided by the Department of Defense (DoD), a Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) weapon, a precision-guided munition weighing 21,500 pounds, at the Eglin Air Force Armament Center in Valparaiso, Fla. on March 11, 2003. (DoD via Getty Images)

Federal, State Agencies, Courts Undermine Efforts to Free US From Chinas Stranglehold on Rare Earths

News Analysis

The Trump administrations ambitious goal of reestablishing U.S. preeminence in the extraction and refining of rare earth elements is being thwarted by two federal regulatory agencies and conflicting rulings by federal courts.

If the status quo is allowed to stand, it will help perpetuate Chinas near-monopoly on 17 rare-earth minerals that are key components in an array of commercial and military devices.

These include computer screens, rechargeable batteries, and MRI scanning systems, as well as a host of military applications, including precision-guided weapons, communications equipment, high-strength magnets, and night-vision goggles.

After successive administrations had largely ignored the geopolitical implications of U.S. dependence on China for critical minerals, the Trump White House abruptly reversed course. In December 2017, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13817: A Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals. It called on agencies across the federal government to develop a strategy to reduce the nations susceptibility to disruptions of critical mineral supplies.

This was followed up by the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act in December 2019, which, among other things, prohibited the Department of Defense and its contractors from acquiring certain sensitive materials from non-allied countries, including Iran, China, Russia, and North Korea.

That same month, Reuters reported that the U.S. Army had asked mining companies for proposals on the cost of a pilot plant to process so-called heavy rare earths, a highly sought-after type of minerals used in advanced weaponry.

Regulatory Bottlenecks

Despite the Trump administrations recognition of the strategic importance of rare earths, its efforts to create a reliable domestic supply of the crucial minerals are being undermined by bureaucrats deep within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). These agencies share jurisdiction over the Clean Water Act (CWA), which, among other things, regulates the discharge of pollutants into the nations waterways.

The EPAs and the Corps interpretation of that jurisdiction has brought them, along with state regulators in California, Oregon, Idaho, and Washington, into conflict with a promising source of U.S. rare earths, namely, deposits of sand or gravel in the beds of rivers and lakes in the West.

There, the most efficient, economical, and environmentally responsible method for recovering minerals from these underwater streambed sediments is through a technique known as small-scale suction dredge mining. The process involves passing water and sediment over a sluice tray, which separates out the sought-after heavier metals, and then discharging the remaining material back into the water.

Suction dredging is permitted under federal mining laws. But the practice has been stopped in its tracks in recent years, because regulators in California and Oregon refuse to issue the necessary permits. Washington state is expected to join those two soon, as its legislature has passed a bill prohibiting all forms of motorized mining in streams where Endangered Species Act-listed fish are present. This would effectively ban suction dredging in those streams.

These states can do this because EPA has delegated administration of a key section (402) of the Clean Water Act to the states. This has enabled state regulators to block suction dredging, saying the mere movement of pre-existing material in jurisdictional waters constitutes an addition of a pollutant under the CWA.

That interpretation has been upheld by the U.S. 9th and 11th Circuit Courts and by the Oregon Supreme Court. However, this interpretation is at odds with prior rulings by the D.C. and 6th Circuit Courts of Appeals, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Petitioned

Determined to resolve a clear-cut disagreement among the courts about the reach of the term addition, a group of mining associations, county governments, and individuals have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court decision allowing the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to require in-stream miners to obtain an EPA Section 402 permit under the CWA.

In an amicus brief filed with the high court in February on behalf of the plaintiffs, Paul J. Beard II of the Los Angeles law firm of FisherBroyles LLP asked the justices to determine whether an overzealous and atextual interpretation of the Clean Water Act will snuff out the work and passion of modern-day forty-niners

Noting that the CWA prohibits the discharge of any pollutant by any person without a permit, Beard noted that a discharge of any pollutant is defined in the statute as any addition of any pollutant to navigable waters [i.e., jurisdictional waters] from any point source.

Beard added that suction dredging adds nothing (let alone pollutants) to the water in which the activity is conducted, but has been deemed by the Oregon Supreme Court to be subject to the Clean Water Acts prohibition against adding pollutants to jurisdictional waters.

In a significant development, the Supreme Court in February ordered the Oregon DEQ to respond to the plaintiffs petition, a clear sign that the high court is taking the case seriously.

The 402 program has morphed into and acts as a land-use prohibition in conflict with federal mining statutes, making mining claims worthless, said Clark Pearson, a director of legal research at Public Lands for the People, a California-based nonprofit dedicated to preserving the rights of the public to access and use public land.

These states have used the 402 program to prohibit the otherwise lawful practice of suction dredging, imposing draconian rules backed by dubious science, and the threat of fines that can reach $51,000 per day, Pearson said.

There is nothing inherently wrong with EPA delegating some of its programs to state environmental agencies. But when states blatantly disregard the letter of the law, EPA should step in and tell state agencies that 402 permits arent required for suction dredging.

Had EPA preemptively notified the offending state agencies that their interpretation of the CWA was in violation of the law, their actions undermining the recovery of valuable minerals from streambeds could have been avoided.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has aggressively pursued reforms at the agency and may not be aware how those responsible are overseeing the 402 program.

The beneficiary of Americas regulatory morass is the government in Beijing, which has long recognized the strategic importance of rare earths and now controls more than 95 percent of these minerals supply chain.
Due to the rising demand for low-cost electricity from its five dedicated power consuming states, Tata Power Company (TPCL) has decided to restart its loss-making ultra mega power plant (UMPP) in Mundra. The company had shut down most of its units in the recent past because of the lower price realisation and mounting losses. Recently, the five states -- Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra and Rajasthan -- have agreed to pass on the raw material and power production costs to consumers, but the process is lengthy and it needs approval from Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC).

"In deference to the demands of the states and the extraordinary condition, we have decided to restart the Mundra UMPP units," TPCL said. Considering India's present condition when the country is impacted by Covid-19, it is time for us to contribute to the might of the country, the company executive said.

Mundra UMPP can provide low-cost power for the consumers in these states, the executive added. However, it is not clear when the company can sign the revised power purchase agreements (PPAs) with the five states.

Tata Power's major wealth drain is its 4,000 MW ultra mega power plant at Mundra, Gujarat, run by subsidiary Coastal Gujarat Power (CGPL). The project has been jinxed ever since it was commissioned in March 2013.

It has made profits only once over the last eight years. The company has informed the power ministry that it would be forced to stop operating this imported coal-based plant -- built at a cost of Rs 18,000 crore -- after February unless the five consumer states allow pass-through of additional fuel costs to consumers.

The plant has not been able to generate working capital for operations and made cumulative losses of about Rs 11,000 crore, which has been funded by Tata Power and equity financing of Rs 5,000 crore.

Tata Power had won the project in an open auction by quoting the lowest tariff of Rs 2.26 per unit, which it believed, would be viable if it used cheap coal from Indonesia where it had stakes in coal mines. Soon after, in 2010, the Indonesian government banned export of coal below the global rate, upsetting Tata Power's calculations.

The Supreme Court in October 2018 asked the CERC to decide on changes in PPAs for three imported coal-based plants in Gujarat to let them pass on higher fuel costs to consumers. In April 2019, Adani Power, which had also set up a plant at Mundra, expecting to use the Indonesian coal and was in a similar fix, was allowed by CERC to pass through the increased costs to consumers.

Also Read: Coronavirus impact: Supply chain disruption to cost auto industry Rs 6,080 crore

Also Read: Coronavirus scare: Foreign tourist arrivals growth hit record low in February

Also Read: Coronavirus: Govt denies lockdown extension, says 'no such plan'
Banks will allow commercial landlords to delay their loan repayment by up to six months to prevent thousands of businesses from being evicted, as the financial sector braces for a lengthy "hibernation" across the economy.

Lenders on Monday said a support package for business borrowers would be expanded to include an extra $100 billion of loans, as they move to help more companies survive the measures introduced by the federal government to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

Australian Banking Association chief executive Anna Bligh said the policy would help thousands of small businesses that would otherwise face being evicted. Credit:AAP

It came as the chief executive of National Australia Bank, Ross McEwan, and Commonwealth Bank chief executive, Matt Comyn, both raised doubts about whether business would effectively be put into "hibernation" for six months, a timeframe the federal government has hinted at as it ramps up "social distancing" policies.

NAB's Mr McEwan told The Australian Financial Review's banking and wealth summit on Monday: Im not too sure that companies can actually hibernate for six months. It would be a very, very big strain on everybodys balance sheet, but well have to wait and see how long the impacts of this virus go for.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 12:15:05|Editor: huaxia

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NANJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec), China's largest oil refiner, has built a new meltblown non-woven fabric production line in eastern China's Jiangsu Province, which will boost the raw material supply to face mask producers.

Face masks have become a daily necessity in people's self-protection against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. As the essential material to make masks, the non-woven fabric is the filtering layer in the middle part of the mask to absorb dust, bacteria and pollen.

Sinopec Yizheng Chemical Fibre Limited Liability Co. in Jiangsu put its first meltblown cloth production line into operation Sunday night. It is designed to have a daily output of 1 tonne of the fabric, which is enough for producing over 1 million medical masks.

The chemical firm has planned to build 12 such production lines. Once in full operation by end of May, they can ensure the supplies to produce 18 million medical masks a day.

Sinopec is the upstream producer of the polypropylene raw materials in the industrial mask chain. Faced with the market shortage of masks and rising prices, the company has invested 300 million yuan (42 million U.S. dollars) to build the production facilities in its subsidiary of Sinopec Beijing Yanshan Petrochemical Co., Ltd. in Beijing and Sinopec Yizheng Chemical Fibre in Jiangsu.

Wan Tao, secretary of the Party committee of Sinopec Yizheng Chemical Fiber, said it took 35 days for the company to design, build and install the production line from scratch before putting it into production, 18 days ahead of the original plan.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lees COVID-19 Unified Command announced the following actions taken for a COVID-19 outbreak at the Gallatin Center for Rehabilitation and Healing. Unified Command is a joint operation between the Tennessee Department of Health, Tennessee Department of Military and the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

"Unified Command has worked in partnership with the Gallatin Center for Rehabilitation and Healing and local partners in testing residents, transporting the sick and further evaluating those at risk," said Unified Command Director Stuart McWhorter. "This situation has escalated quickly and we urge nursing homes and assisted care facilities to reach out to us as soon as cases are identified within their populations."

The following timeline outlines actions taken by the COVID-19 Unified Command. The Gallatin Center for Rehabilitation and Healing will undergo further investigation and is believed to have followed proper protocols at this time.

Sunday, March 22

Governor Lee signs Executive Order 17 restricting outside visitors to assisted living facilities and nursing homes.

Friday, March 27

The State of Tennessee, through the Unified Command of TDH, Military, and TEMA, worked with the Gallatin Center for Rehabilitation and Healing to transport 23 residents to Sumner Regional Medical Center on Friday, March 27. On short notice, the State mobilized to arrange the transport of the residents through an ambulance strike team of EMS professionals from Sumner County, Cheatham County, Dickson County, First Call, and MedicOne. EMS strike team members are highly-trained for these types of emergency health situations, and stand-up quickly to provide valuable life-saving care. The health emergency at the private Gallatin facility necessitated quick decision-making on the part of State and Local emergency professionals to act for the well-being of these residents.

Saturday, March 28

More than 20 National Guard personnel onsite assisted Gallatin Center with COVID-19 testing for all residents and staff. Residents exhibiting symptoms were isolated pending results. Further guidance was issued to all nursing homes and assisted care facilities across the state, outlining reporting expectations and best practices.

Sunday, March 29

Results were returned with 59 additional residents testing positive for COVID-19. These residents are now being transported to Sumner Regional Medical Center for care. Thirty-three members of the Gallatin Center staff have tested positive and are now isolated at home. The State of Tennessee is facilitating deep cleaning and disinfecting of the facility and providing supplemental support for residents who currently do not have COVID-19.

This is an ongoing situation and details will be provided as they are available.

More information regarding COVID-19 Unified Command response is available here.
TeamsHub by Cyclotron unifies governance and adoption for Microsoft Teams with employee engagement and corporate communications. This new website offers quick and easy access to essential information and features. It also offers an understanding of its innovative approach using modern design frameworks and automation.

The website has a clean design, and content focused on the companys mission to provide a solution resulting in faster adoption, seamless governance and a highly engaged workforce using Microsoft Teams. The new website goes live today, March 30, 2020, and is located at the same address https://teamshub.io

"We are excited about our new website launch and the robust information it provides for customers, investors, and partners to better understand TeamsHub by Cyclotrons innovative technology," said Amber Bahl, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cyclotron. "We believe that this new site will allow our visitors to have a very informative experience as we continue to grow and increase our market presence."

"Our solution can ease administrative overheads, streamline governance and make adopting Microsoft Teams efficient and fun" added Mr. Sunil Kumar, Director of Engineering and Chief Architect of TeamsHub by Cyclotron. Im proud and excited that were bringing this turnkey approach to our customers, said Steve Ellson, VP of Sales at Cyclotron.

The website will be updated regularly with news of feature launches, technical blogs, essential client information, and testimonials as well as corporate milestones. Visitors are encouraged to explore the website and follow our blogs at https://teamshub.io/blog/ and press releases at https://teamshub.io/investor-relations/

For more information on TeamsHub by Cyclotron, please contact sales@cyclotrongroup.com

About Cyclotron Inc

We address the toughest challenges by providing hyper-efficient strategy and consulting, digital transformation and technology implementations using operational frameworks. We partner with leading technology providers to drive innovation and effectiveness in the workplace. Headquartered in San Francisco, Cyclotron Inc. currently employs over 50 associates worldwide. For more information, visit the companys website at http://www.cyclotron.com
New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo warned through advertisements that thousands of people could die from Coronavirus (Covid-19) in New York if more effective measures are not taken.

Cuomo made the statement after hearing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio say the city has medical supplies for just another week.

According to a publication in the New York Times this Sunday (March 29), there was an increase of 237 deaths from coronavirus (Covid-19) in the state, the largest in a day since the outbreak of the virus began.

In Cuomo's projections, the crisis facing New York is expected to get even worse in the coming days.

For the governor, it is impossible to analyze the latest figures without seeing thousands of people die.

New York Covid-19 cases increase 7,200 in just one day

According to the latest update, New York confirmed an increase of 7,200 cases of Covid-19 in just one day. With the new data, the state totals 59,513 cases this Sunday.

According to the New York Times, approximately 8,500 people are hospitalized because of the coronavirus, representing a 16% increase from Saturday to Sunday.

Among those hospitalized, 2,037 are in intensive care units, all equipped with ventilators.

Cuomo commented on people's despair over the pandemic that has claimed thousands of victims in several countries. "When will this end?" Said the governor, referring to the most common question from the population.

New York workers must stay home until April 15

Among Governor Cuomo's recommendations to slow the spread of the coronavirus is to follow the quarantine imposed by the state. According to him, non-essential workers should stay at home until April 15.

Cuomo also requested that public and private hospitals work together across the state.

Discuss this news on Eunomia

He commented that there is an artificial wall between the two systems at this time.

According to the NYTimes, "This wall has to fall," said the governor, calling for the union of public and private hospitals to face the coronavirus crisis.

Union to beat the pandemic in New York

In addition to the efforts of government officials, many health professionals, most of whom are retired, have shown a willingness to work in hospitals, should the situation worsen further.

Among the various ways to collaborate to reduce the spread of the coronavirus is the cancellation of any non-essential domestic travel for up to 14 days.

Amid the growth in the number of people infected, there are positive cases of recovery, such as a Westchester County resident who was treated and discharged. It is the second case of cure and New York Blasio's mayor is also looking for other ways to alleviate the problem. He requested President Donald Trump to send more doctors, in addition to military and civilian nurses from across the United States.
By Associated Press

NEW YORK: The coronavirus outbreak could kill 100,000 to 200,000 Americans, the U.S. government's top infectious-disease expert warned on Sunday as smoldering hot spots in nursing homes and a growing list of stricken cities heightened the sense of dread across the country.

Faced with that grim projection the possibility and that even more could die in the U.S. without measures to keep people away from each other, President Donald Trump extended federal guidelines recommending people stay home for another 30 days until the end of April to prevent spread of the virus.

Trump's extension of the original 15-day guidelines was a stark reversal just days after he suggested restarting the economy in about two weeks and came after Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made the dire prediction of fatalities, adding that millions in the U.S. could become infected.

By evening, the U.S. had over 139,000 infections and 2,400 deaths, according to the running tally kept by Johns Hopkins University, though the true number of cases is thought to be considerably higher because of testing shortages and mild illnesses that have gone unreported.

Worldwide, more than 710,000 infections were reported, and deaths topped 33,000, half of them in Italy and Spain, where hospitals are swamped and the health system is at the breaking point.

New York state  where the death toll closed in on 1,000, up by more than 200 from the day before  remained the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, with the vast majority of the deaths in New York City. But spikes in infections were recorded around the country, not only in metropolitan areas but in Midwestern towns and Rocky Mountain ski havens.

This is not going to get better soon, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

The virus is moving fast through nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other places that house elderly or otherwise vulnerable people, spreading like fire through dry grass," Cuomo said.

New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio asked the federal government to deliver 400 more ventilators to city hospitals and warned that the city will run out of masks, gowns and other hospital supplies in a week if they don't get resupplies.

Since the U.S. saw its first major outbreak of the coronavirus earlier this month  centered at a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington  a stream of facilities have battled infections among residents and staff.

FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES HERE

A week ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 147 nursing homes in 27 states had patients with COVID-19. The problem has only worsened since.

In Woodbridge, New Jersey, an entire nursing home relocated its residents after two dozen were confirmed infected and the rest were presumed to be. In Louisiana, at least 11 nursing homes, largely in the New Orleans area, have reported cases. In Mount Airy, Maryland, a death linked to the virus was recorded in a home where 66 people were confirmed infected.

Residents' loved ones are being kept away to try to slow the spread of the virus.

I have a feeling that I very likely may never see my mother again, said James Preller, whose 94-year-old mother, Ann Preller, is a resident at Peconic Landing, a retirement community near Greenport on New York's Long Island where seven have died in the past two weeks.

Brian Lee of Families for Better Care, an advocacy group for those living in long-term care facilities, said in a nursing home, "when we see an outbreak that's uncontrolled, it's practically a death sentence. But he also said the way residents are being walled off from the outside world is as much of a concern as the virus itself.

In New York, the virus is overwhelming some of the city's poorest neighborhoods, with data showing high rates of infection in densely packed areas with big non-English-speaking populations.

Dr. Craig Smith, who heads the surgery department at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, said the hospital will probably be forced into apocalyptic scenarios in the coming weeks in which ventilators and intensive care unit beds will need to be rationed.

Yesterday tried my soul, he wrote in an online posting.

Worry for the poorest was being echoed around the world.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and lead to death.

About 150,000 people have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins.

Trump on Saturday backtracked on a proposal to quarantine New York and neighboring states amid criticism and questions about the legality of such a move. But the CDC issued a travel advisory urging all residents of New York City and others in New York state, New Jersey and Connecticut to avoid all nonessential travel for 14 days.

Shocking as that is, it stopped short of the restrictions imposed in Europe or elsewhere. Parisians are fined if they try to leave the city, South Africans can't buy liquor, and Serbians are upset over a ban on walking their dogs. In Italy, burials are being held with only one family member.

Some U.S. states began to try to limit exposure from visitors from harder-hit areas. Rhode Island National Guard troops went door to door in coastal communities to find New Yorkers. Florida is setting up checkpoints to screen visitors from Louisiana. Texas said it would require drivers from Louisiana to self-isolate for two weeks.

Few areas of the country have escaped untouched: West Virginia reported the states first death linked to the new coronavirus on Sunday, leaving Hawaii and Wyoming the only remaining states with no reported deaths linked to the outbreak.

As others tightened controls, China continued to ease its restrictions, following the ruling Communist Partys declaration of victory over the coronavirus. Flights from Hubei province at the epicenter of the country's outbreak resumed Sunday.
Leopard-like animal seen in posh Chandigarh locality, residents told to stay indoors

India

oi-PTI

Chandigarh, Mar 30: A leopard-like animal was spotted in Chandigarh's Sector 5 residential area on Monday morning, following which police made announcements in the area asking people to stay indoors.

Even though the police said the animal was a leopard, wildlife activists are not sure about the claim.

"After the leopard was spotted, we made announcements asking people to stay indoors," Station House Officer (SHO), Sector 3 Police Station, Inspector Jaspal Singh said.

Effortless: Video of leopard climbing tree with prey leaves netizens stunned

However, wildlife activists said they were not sure that the animal was a leopard, adding that efforts were on to catch it.

SHO Singh said the animal has entered a house in Sector 5.

"So far, the wild animal has not harmed anyone. After it was spotted in the morning, we alerted wildlife officials and now they are trying to take it out of the house safely," he told PTI.

The SHO said it was not immediately known from where the animal could have come.

With people staying indoors during the 21-day nationwide lockdown, wild animals, including endangered ones, have been spotted on the deserted streets at several places in the country over the past few days.

Numbers on decline: After tigers, is it time for 'save leopard' project in India

"On Sunday, I spotted a few stags crossing a road in the Sector 5 area," SHO Singh said.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, March 30, 2020, 17:29 [IST]
After four sessions of gains and consolidation, the benchmark indices fell sharply on March 30 with the BSE Sensex falling below 29,000 levels due to sharp correction in banking & financials, auto, metals and realty stocks.

At close, the BSE Sensex was down 1,375.27 points or 4.61 percent at 28,440.32, and the Nifty50 fell 379.15 points or 4.38 percent to 8,281.10.

The broader markets also caught in a bear trap as the Nifty Midcap index was down nearly 3 percent and Smallcap index fell over 2 percent.

The volatility remained higher today as India VIX rose 1.5 percent to 71.50. "Volatility is likely to persist in the market in the near term as investors assess the impact of the corona virus-induced lockdown on the economy," Sundar Sanmukhani, Head of Fundamental Research Desk at Choice Broking told Moneycontrol.

Here are 5 key factors that weighed down the market:

Weak Global Cues

The global markets continued to fall amid increasing COVID-19 cases worldwide, especially in US and Europe.

Asian markets, barring Australia, closed Monday's session in the red. Japan's Nikkei, China's Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng were down 0.9-1.6 percent after 3-4 percent fall in US markets on Friday.

However, Australia's ASX 200 rallied 7 percent after the government said it will spend $80 billion over the next six months to protect jobs.

European markets also traded lower with France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE down 0.4-1 percent at the time of publishing this copy.

Reports suggest that the lockdown could extend upto six months as the United States and some European countries announced further restrictions on the general public. Australia already said the country could extend the lockdown for up to six months to control the spread of COVID-19, while India, last week, announced a 21-day lockdown.

Recession Fears

IMF chief announced that the globe has entered into a recession which would be worse than the financial crisis of 2008-2009.

"It is clear that we have entered a recession that will be worse than the one witnessed in 2009 following the global financial crisis, Kristalina Georgieva, IMF chief said in an online press briefing.

The coronavirus pandemic has driven the global economy into a downturn that will require massive funding to help developing nations, she said on March 27.

The rise in Coronavirus Cases

The rapid increase in COVID-19 cases has been a cause of concern for the entire world including the financial markets. The novel coronavirus has butchered all asset classes and forced the world to fall into recession.

As of March 30, more than 7 lakh cases have been reported and over 34,000 have died due to the novel disease. The US has seen a significant rise in cases in the last month, and New York has now become the epicentre of the outbreak.

In India, more than 1,100 people have contracted COVID-19 and 31 have died.

Fall in Crude Oil Prices

The virus-led lockdown in major parts of the world reflected in the behaviour of oil prices as they fell more than 9 percent intraday today to hit more than 17 years low.

"Further fall in crude oil prices extending last week losses as the global coronavirus pandemic worsened and the Saudi Arabia-Russia price war showed no signs of abating kept the sentiments sober," Sundar Sanmukhani said.

International benchmark Brent crude futures traded at $22.99 a barrel, the lowest level since October 2002, down 7.8 percent from the previous close. Oil prices have now plunged 68 percent from its 2020 high seen in early January.

Technical View

The Nifty50 fell 4.3 percent to form small bodied red candle which resembles an Inverted Hammer pattern on the daily charts.

An Inverted Hammer is a reversal pattern in which the index trades near its opening levels. It has a long upper shadow, small or no lower shadow, and a small body.

The index formed an Inverted Hammer or Shooting Star kind of candle on the daily chart which indicates a pause in bounce back if follow up supply happens on next trading sessions. However, it still requires confirmation.

"8,000 would be seen as key support. Traders are advised not to take aggressive/leveraged bets and should ideally keep booking profits on a regular basis. For a time being, the strategy would be to take one step at a time and keep focusing on quality names," Sameet Chavan, Chief Analyst-Technical and Derivatives at Angel Broking told Moneycontrol.
The Saudi-led military coalition on Monday said it carried out multiple air strikes on Yemen's rebel-held capital Sanaa in retaliation for missile strikes on Riyadh.

The operation was aimed at destroying "legitimate military targets" including Huthi ballistic capabilities which "threaten civilian lives", the coalition said in a statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Residents in Sanaa reported multiple explosions after the coalition's bombing campaign began.

The Huthi-run Al-Masirah television reported at least 19 air strikes on a number of targets in Sanaa, including military bases and a military academy. The operation comes after Saudi air defences intercepted Huthi ballistic missiles over Riyadh and the border city of Jizan late Saturday.

The attacks left two civilians wounded in Riyadh, which is under a 15-hour curfew to limit the spread of coronavirus, according to Saudi state media.

It was the first major assault on Saudi Arabia since the Huthi rebels offered last September to halt attacks on the kingdom after devastating twin strikes on Saudi oil installations.

Fighting has also escalated between the Huthis and Riyadh-backed Yemeni troops around the strategic northern districts of Al-Jouf and Marib. The rebels stormed a key governmental military camp in Al-Jawf after heavy clashes on Monday, according to Yemeni military sources.

The escalation comes despite a show of support on Thursday by all of Yemen's warring parties for a UN call for a ceasefire to protect civilians from the coronavirus pandemic.

Saudi Arabia, the Yemeni government and the Huthi rebels all welcomed an appeal from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for an "immediate global ceasefire" to help avert disaster for vulnerable people in conflict zones.

On Sunday, UN special envoy Martin Griffiths reiterated the call for an immediate cessation of hostilities to help avert the "potentially disastrous consequences" of the coronavirus outbreak.

Yemen's broken healthcare system has so far recorded no case of the COVID-19 illness, but aid groups have warned that when it does hit, the impact will be catastrophic.

The country is already gripped by what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Saudi Arabia is also scrambling to limit the spread of the disease at home. The kingdom's health ministry has reported 1,453 coronavirus infections and eight deaths from the illness so far.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
URBANA, Ill. (AP)  An eastern Illinois man was charged Monday with murder for allegedly fatally shooting his live-in girlfriend and her adult daughter over the weekend, a prosecutor said.

Jonathon Perry, 28, was arraigned Monday afternoon after being charged with two counts of first-degree murder for both killings, said Troy Lozar, chief criminal deputy with Champaign Countys states attorneys office.
John Elkann, Chairman and CEO of EXOR, lead investor in the financing: "More important than ever to work for an innovative and sustainable future."

NEW YORK, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Via, the company that provides digital infrastructure to power public mobility in cities around the world, announces today that it has raised a Series E financing led by EXOR. The financing values the company at $2.25B and will enable Via to advance its vision of efficient, accessible, and equitable public mobility.

Via's technology powers the next generation of public transportation, helping cities move beyond a system of rigid routes and schedules to a fully dynamic network. Via's algorithm efficiently combines, in real time, multiple passengers or packages headed in the same direction, significantly reducing urban congestion and emissions while providing a high quality and lower cost mobility service. Available in more than 70 cities in 20 countries, and growing rapidly, Via is the world's leading provider of technology-enabled public mobility solutions. To date, the Via platform has provided over 70 million rides around the world. Via's success has been achieved by working closely with its more than 100 partners across municipalities, public transit agencies, transportation operators, major corporations, schools, and universities to optimize their transport systems.

Building on its deep understanding of transit networks, ability to provide efficient on-demand and pre-scheduled transport, and highly modular platform, Via is actively supporting cities during this critical time, helping partners provide emergency transit of goods as well as essential personnel. Via's emergency services and transit network optimization expertise are being utilized across the world in locations as diverse as Berlin, Ohio, and Malta, to support communities impacted by COVID-19.

Leading Via's Series E financing, EXOR will invest $200M in the company, and Noam Ohana - head of EXOR Seeds, the early stage investment arm of EXOR - will join Via's Board of Directors. New investors Shell, Macquarie Capital, and Mori Building also participated in the round, as did existing investors Pitango, 83North, Hearst Ventures, Ervington Investments, Planven Ventures, Broadscale Group, and RiverPark Ventures.

Via Co-founders Oren Shoval and Daniel Ramot said, "We are honored to partner with John, Noam, and the EXOR team to help cities provide accessible, affordable, and environmentally-friendly transit to their residents. Especially in these difficult times, we greatly value EXOR's commitment to Via's vision of a dynamic, data-driven public mobility system that provides more cost-effective and equitable transport to communities everywhere. During this emergency period, we are proud to apply our technology and operational expertise to assist cities with optimizing transit networks, transporting essential workers, and delivering goods and services to individuals in need."

Commenting on the investment, John Elkann, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EXOR said: "At this uniquely challenging moment it is more important than ever to work determinedly for the innovative and sustainable future beyond these difficult days. Partnering with Daniel and Oren and their outstanding team to support the development of their powerful problem-solving technology confirms our strong and positive engagement with them and underlines EXOR's continuing commitment to building great companies for a better tomorrow."

About Via

Via is reimagining how the world moves, from a system of rigid routes and schedules to fully dynamic networks. Via's mobile app connects multiple passengers who are headed the same way, allowing riders to seamlessly share a premium vehicle. First launched in New York City in 2013, Via's technology is now deployed globally, including in Europe as ViaVan. Today Via and ViaVan partner with over 100 public transportation agencies, private transit operators, taxi fleets, private companies, school districts, and universities, seamlessly integrating with transportation infrastructure to power cutting-edge mobility. For more information, visit ridewithvia.com .

About Exor

EXOR is one of Europe's largest diversified holding companies controlled by the Agnelli family. For over a century, EXOR has made successful investments and built great companies worldwide with a culture that combines entrepreneurial spirit and financial discipline. With a Net Asset Value of around $26bn as at 31st December 2019, its portfolio is principally made up of companies in which EXOR is a leading shareholder: PartnerRe, Ferrari, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, CNH Industrial, Juventus FC and The Economist Group.

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Up to 200 prisoners will be given temporary early release (Michael Cooper/PA)

The temporary early release of up to 200 prisoners has been announced by Northern Ireland justice minister Naomi Long.

There is yet to be a confirmed case of coronavirus in the regions prisons, but Ms Long said that, in anticipation of that moment and strained staffing levels, she now considers it necessary to release some prisoners early.

Last week the department of justice said 163 prison officers out of a 1,200-strong workforce are self-isolating due to Covid-19.

Minister Naomi Long has today issued a Written Ministerial Statement regarding the temporary early release of some sentenced prisoners @NIPrisons #Covid_19



For the full statement visit https://t.co/1qOyzzLiMe pic.twitter.com/s9ibEPUEx7  Justice NI (@Justice_NI) March 30, 2020

Ms Long described the decision as a significant one which should only be taken when there is no alternative.

Such a move is contrary to the ethos of the justice system and will cause distress to victims and their families, she said.

However, in the context of the pandemic we are facing, and to ensure as far as possible the safety and wellbeing of staff and those in our care, it is, I believe, an appropriate and reasonable step.

Ms Long said she anticipates the release of fewer than 200 individuals and each will be assessed against criteria.

Justice minister Naomi Long visits Maghaberry Prison, Lisburn (Michael Cooper/PA)

There are currently 1,521 prisoners in Northern Ireland.

Prisoners serving a life sentence, detained under the mental health act, those serving a sentence for a terrorist offence and those deemed a risk are among those who will not be eligible for early release.

These individuals will be subject to a number of NIPS applied conditions including a curfew, a requirement to follow all Public Health Agency guidance during the current emergency period, a ban on victim contact, an alcohol ban and a ban on having any engagement with the media, she said.

The challenges over the coming days will be great and in closing it is right that I pay tribute to the staff of the Northern Ireland Prison Service who on our behalf are providing a vital public service in the most difficult of circumstancesNaomi Long

It is important to note that prisoners released under Rule 27 may be recalled to prison at any time, whether release conditions have been broken or not.

The minister added: The challenges over the coming days will be great and in closing it is right that I pay tribute to the staff of the Northern Ireland Prison Service who on our behalf are providing a vital public service in the most difficult of circumstances.

The work of prison staff is seldom seen but it should never be underestimated.

Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie supported Ms Longs announcement.

Of course some questions will arise, not least how you enforce an alcohol ban when the individual is confined to their home, and how will they play catch-up with the benefits system in such a short period of time, he said.

These are issues to be answered when the time comes, but for now the justice minister has the support of the Ulster Unionist Party in taking this action.

Decreasing the prison population is a crucial means of slowing the spread of Covid-19 and keeping both prisoners and prison staff safePatrick Corrigan, Amnesty International

We are clear and mindful that this decision was not taken lightly or in isolation but in order to protect prisoners, prison staff and aid in the fight against Covid-19.

SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone called for careful management of the scheme.

There is a clear need to protect people working for and in the care of the Prison Service from the impact of coronavirus, particularly where there are instances of doubling up in cells, he said.

A highly regulated release scheme is, in our view, appropriate but it must be managed carefully to protect prisoners and the victims of crime.

We must be assured, however, that anyone who is released will have a robust support network around them.

Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International UKs Northern Ireland programme director, said it was a difficult but correct decision.

Decreasing the prison population is a crucial means of slowing the spread of Covid-19 and keeping both prisoners and prison staff safe, he said.

In addition to those prisoners who were due to be released automatically during the next three months, the justice minister should also consider a temporary release of older prisoners and those with an underlying health condition who would be more susceptible to the effects of the virus.
HOUSTON-(March 28, 2020) - Houston Methodist received FDA approval Saturday to become the first academic medical center in the nation to transfuse donated plasma from a recovered COVID-19 patient into a critically ill patient. This treatment was fast-tracked to the bedside over the weekend as the death toll in the COVID-19 pandemic soared to more than 2,000 people across the United States, with more than 100,000 Americans sick from the virus.

Houston Methodist physician scientists began recruiting blood plasma donors on Friday from among the approximately 250 patients who have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus at Houston Methodist hospitals. Willing donors were immediately identified, who each give a quart of blood plasma in a procedure much like donating whole blood. Plasma from someone who has recovered from COVID-19 contains antibodies made by the immune system and used to kill the virus. Transfusing this antibody-rich plasma into a COVID-19 patient - a patient still fighting the virus - may transfer the power of the antibodies into a healing, possibly life-saving therapy.

The first recovered COVID-19 patient to donate plasma was an individual from the Houston metropolitan area who has been in good health for more than two weeks. The plasma was transfused into a COVID-19 patient on Saturday evening at Houston Methodist Hospital

Known as convalescent serum therapy, the concept dates back more than a century, when similar treatments were used during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, a diphtheria outbreak in the 1920s, a flesh-eating bacteria epidemic in the 1930s, and during other outbreaks of infectious diseases. While literature abounds on the theory that immunity can be transferred from a healthy individual to a sick individual using convalescent plasma, results have varied. A description of the treatment of five patients in China was published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggesting that the treatment was beneficial.

"Here at Houston Methodist, we have the capability, the expertise and the patient base from our health care system, and we feel obligated to try this therapy," said Houston Methodist President and CEO Marc Boom.

"There is so much to be learned about this disease while it's occurring," he said. "If an infusion of convalescent serum can help save the life of a critically ill patient, then applying the full resources of our blood bank, our expert faculty, and our academic medical center is incredibly worthwhile and important to do."

Houston Methodist recruitment began as soon as the FDA issued regulatory guidelines for the study earlier last week. Physician scientists at Houston Methodist already had designed and validated a COVID-19 molecular test two months ago and were prepared to begin collecting data when COVID-19 patients started arriving. The Houston Methodist IRB and regulatory affairs experts reviewed the treatment protocol rapidly and secured the FDA approval this weekend.

In New York City earlier this week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that patient recruitment for plasma donations would begin in a matter of days and initially would focus on the heavily hit New York City suburb of New Rochelle, NY.

Eric Salazar, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator and a physician scientist in the Department of Pathology and Genomic Medicine at the Houston Methodist Hospital and Research Institute, said a review of COVID-19 patients' charts indicates that nearly two-thirds of the patients may meet the criteria to donate plasma. Patients with critical underlying conditions and advanced age will not be eligible to donate.

Under FDA guidelines, Houston Methodist's convalescent serum therapy treatment is classified as an emergency investigational new drug protocol (eIND) that requires FDA approval for each patient infused with donated convalescent serum. Houston Methodist physician scientists will seek additional FDA approval for follow-up studies, possibly a multicenter national trial on the effectiveness of convalescent serum therapy against the COVID-19 virus.

The process for donating plasma is similar to donating blood and takes about an hour. Plasma donors are hooked up to a small device that removes plasma while simultaneously returning red blood cells to their bodies. Unlike regular blood donation in which donors have to wait for red blood cells to replenish between donations, plasma can be donated more frequently, as often as twice a week.

"Convalescent serum therapy could be a vital treatment route, because unfortunately there is relatively little to offer many patients except supportive care, and the ongoing clinical trials are going to take a while. We don't have that much time," Salazar said.

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WINONA  With the anticipation that the Winona County Fair will proceed as normal, the Winona County Fair Board is asking for nominations for the best residents of Winona County.

The board is seeking nominations in the following categories: Hall of Fame, King and Queen, and Outstanding Senior Citizen. The 162nd Winona County Fair is scheduled for July 8-12 in St. Charles.

The Hall of Fame includes individuals who volunteer in their communities or at the fair, represent agriculture, serve a role in county government or have been or are an integral part of the business community of Winona County. Five Hall of Fame honorees will be recognized at the fair.

The King and Queen may be couples or individuals. The board is looking for people who have a strong connection with the Winona County Fair, and who would enjoy "reigning" during the five-day run of the fair.

The Outstanding Senior Citizens award will honor one male and one female who will represent Winona County at the Minnesota State Fair 2020 Outstanding Senior Citizen Competition. Nominees must be age 70 by June 1 and must do volunteer activity that is unpaid and demonstrates a commitment to their local community. The volunteer activity must be done after reaching the age of 65.

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Nominations should be mailed to Winona County Fair, P.O. Box 646, St. Charles, MN 55972 or e-mailed to winonacountyfair@juno.com and must be received by April 24. Nominators must include their name, address and phone number, and a written statement why the individuals should be considered. An address and phone number is also required for each nominee.
As the coronavirus has made its way around the world, more than 160 countries have closed schools. Nearly 90% of the worlds student population is now out of class.

In Singapore, Australia, Sweden and Taiwan -- and a few states in the U.S. -- school is still in.

That policy decision is becoming harder to justify by the day. Singapore recently reported a pair of coronavirus clusters linked to government-sponsored preschools. Australian teachers are considering a strike. Normally strict attendance rules have been relaxed, with some leaders encouraging parents to keep their kids home as part of wider virus containment efforts, even if the schools are open.

In defense of keeping schools open, officials in the few holdouts say they can contain the outbreak without taking a radical action that, they fear, could do more harm than good. They cite early medical research that children are not as affected as the virus and concern about the stresses of having kids at home for working parents already facing deep economic uncertainty.

After Singapores recent school-based outbreaks, the city-state agreed to move to a four-day school week, but Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong appeared to rule out a nationwide shutdown.

I think we should look at schools as individual schools rather than one whole system, he said. We confine and we rub out that cluster, but it does not mean that I must shut the whole system down.

Health Care Shortage

Australia banned most public gathering places this week, shuttering bars, cinemas, shopping malls and gyms, and calling a halt to weddings and even funerals.

But closing educational facilities may not have the same effect on containment, the countrys deputy chief medical officer said, and may in fact worsen the strain on the health-care system as the government estimates that 30% of essential health workers will have to stay home to supervise their children.

We know that without closing schools the burden on the health care workforce already exists, said Rochelle Wynne, professor of nursing for Western Sydney local health district. Theres going to be a massive shortage  over 10,000 critical care nurses are needed to be redeployed from other areas to meet the demand. And thats just critical care beds alone.

Some schools are now worrying about a shortage of cleaning supplies and toilet paper, and teachers are worried that students, parents or their coworkers may be carriers -- or that they themselves could unknowingly expose others.

We were all quite anxious about it. Teachers were wearing gloves and we were washing our hands constantly, said Lea Lockwood, a parent and English teacher in Bendigo, a regional town in south east Australia. Everything should be shutting down!

Parents are encouraged to keep children at home where possible, but the teachers union is pushing Prime Minister Scott Morrison for definitive closures sooner, rather than later.

Sweden has also kept its schools open in part to ease the burden on parents who work in essential jobs, including health care. Elsewhere in Europe, governments have closed schools but are trying to keep some facilities running for the children of health-care workers.

Conflicting Evidence

Swedens health authority also assessed the chance that healthy children would transmit the disease as very small. Singapore has relied on the same logic to keep its schools open. The city-states education minister Ong Ye Kung pointed to advice by Dale Fisher, a professor and chair of the World Health Organizations Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network.

A lot of the swabs that we have taken from family clusters have shown that while the parents might have had the disease and had symptoms, the children are completely well, even though they tested positive, Fisher said in an article in the national paper, The Straits Times.

Other research suggests that kids are in no way immune to serious symptoms and complications. One pre-publication study of more than 2,000 pediatric patients with the coronavirus in China reported that the virus was generally less severe in young people, but young children, particularly infants, are vulnerable.

And even if not very sick themselves, infected kids could still be contagious. A study of 36 pediatric cases in China published this week found that half of the infected kids showed no obvious signs of the disease, making them covert spreaders of the pathogen.

Research is not yet conclusive on whether infected children are contagious, and if so, how contagious they are.

If this was a flu outbreak, said Benjamin Cowling, head of the epidemiology division at Hong Kong University, closing schools would have a big effect on transmission, because children are more susceptible to infection and more contagious when infected. But for Covid-19, the potential effect is not so clear.

Controversial Decisions

The decision to close schools is often as controversial as the decision to keep them open. In Washington State, where the coronavirus first took hold in the U.S., Governor Jay Inslee extended two-week local closures to a six-week statewide shutdown.

As much as theyre worried about the virus spreading in one of the countrys biggest metropolitan areas, parents are divided, said Tim Robinson, a spokesman for Seattle Public Schools. Some say how dare you close schools and some are saying how dare you not close schools, he said.

Only a handful of U.S. states have not mandated school closures as of Thursday and the majority of students nationwide are staying at home.

The biggest obstacle to closing schools is a question of equity, said Jason Tan, an associate professor at Nanyang Technological Universitys National Institute of Education in Singapore. Not everyone has a laptop or a tablet to support online learning, and remote instruction is a challenge for younger kids regardless. Low-income families could miss out on free school meals.

Globally, experts predict incidents of child abuse will rise with the drop in oversight and services that, in part, schools provide.

In New York City, where about 75% of public school students are classified as low-income and one in 10 are homeless, the citys Department of Education is still providing three free meals daily for all children. Around 850,000 meals are served to students each school day, and of these, over 700,000 meals are provided at no charge to the students.

The federal economic stimulus package that President Donald Trump is expected to sign also addresses some of the societal gaps created by school shutdowns. Parents who stay home or quit their jobs because they no longer have adequate daily childcare will be eligible for unemployment benefits, up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave at 67% of an individuals normal pay.

Taiwans Success

While public anxiety is rising in Singapore and Australia over a surge in infections, Taiwan has kept schools open without seeing a spike in virus cases.

Less than 100 miles from mainland China, the island of 24 million reported its first case of coronavirus in January. The government was among the first places to cut off flights from Wuhan, promptly followed by a ban on travel to and from the rest of the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau.

At the time, Taiwan extended its school break to late February. Mask rationing and distribution, strict testing and up to $33,000 fines for breaching quarantine have resulted in just 267 infections as of Friday.

Schools have remained open without interruption since students returned on Feb. 25. But heightened measures have been in place. Schools with more than 1,000 students are required to have at least 10 entrance lanes for temperature checks and dividers are places on students desks to separate them.

Its really a tough decision to make. There are public health concerns about transmission because so many people gather in schools, said Tan, the Nanyang professor. But its not a straightforward thing to do.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-31 00:49:14|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BARCELONA, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The Catalan government on Monday started distributing medical supplies sent from China to help combat the coronavirus, the region's Health Councillor Alba Verges announced.

"Healthcare supplies are beginning to reach health and social care centers. The protection of healthcare workers and professionals working in nursing facilities and essential services is a priority that we will continue to work for day by day," Verges told a news conference.

Two planes filled with the medical supplies, including the one million masks, arrived in Zaragoza over the weekend. The material was then transported via road to a center in Logaritme, on the outskirts of Barcelona, where it was sorted and distributed to hospitals and nursing facilities across the city.

Spain has purchased over two million face masks, one million protective suits and 25,000 rapid testing kits for health centers across Spain, according to the Catalan Health Department. The rest will arrive in the coming days.

According to the Generalitat de Catalunya, Catalonia's local government, the purchase was made possible by the collaboration of the Chinese community in Catalonia, which has provided contacts and shared knowledge of the production and distribution of preventive material.

Verges said this week's priority would be to expand intensive care units (ICUs) and increase the number of hospital beds in vacated hotels and pavilions.

"There is a huge mobilisation being done to attend to all the people and make sure the health professionals caring for patients have the adequate material," she said.

The Spanish Ministry of Health reported that a further 812 people have died of coronavirus in the country, fewer that the 838 deaths registered on Sunday and the 832 on Saturday. The total number of COVID-19 fatalities in Spain is now 7,340.

Meanwhile, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases has climbed to 85,195 with 6,398 new cases. This is slightly below the 6,549 new cases confirmed on Sunday and considerably less than the 8,189 new cases registered on Saturday and the 7,871 confirmed on Friday.
A charity leader and father-of-12 claims he was moved on by police for handing out hand sanitiser and coffee during the coronavirus pandemic.

Sydney's 24-7 Street Kitchen and Safe Space Community, who provide assistance to homeless people in Martin Place, shared pictures of their run-in with police on Friday.

Lance Priestley, who organises the group's Coffee Brigade and Hand Sanitising Service, was photographed wearing a face mask in front of three NSW Police officers.

Lance Priestley, who organises a coffee and hand sanitising service for homeless people in Martin Place, was photographed wearing a face mask in front of three NSW Police officers. He claims they were moved on by police

'The NSW Police Force Central LAC just gave our The Coffee Brigade/Hand Sanitising Service move on orders at Martin Place,' the Facebook post began.

The community group - who were told to disperse for failing to exercise social distancing - said they take the COVID-19 threat 'very seriously' and have done everything in their power to address the health crisis.

'We have sourced hand sanitisers, for ourselves and the homeless community to use safely,' the post continued.

'We have sourced face masks for the crew, and others in the pipeline for the rough sleeper community to use.

'We are the only group so far that's been asked to move on at Martin Place.'

The incident occurred before Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday evening announced public gatherings would be restricted to two people.

Sydney's 24-7 Street Kitchen and Safe Space Community provide assistance to homeless people in Martin Place. They shared pictures of their run-in with police on Friday

WHAT IS SOCIAL DISTANCING? Social distancing is a term used by health authorities to help slow the spread of coronavirus by keeping an appropriate distance between people. Australian health authorities recommend at least 1.5 metres between each person at all times. This is because coronavirus can be transmitted by: Coughing

Sneezing

Being in the same space for a long period

Touching the same surface Social distancing also refers to limiting physical contact with each other as much as possible which has led to authorities encouraging people to work from home, avoid crowded spaces and public transport as much as possible. Source: Australian Department of Health Advertisement

Mr Morrison also urged those over 70 to stay at home and ordering the closure of playgrounds, skate parks and outdoor gyms.

But Australians have already been advised to exercise social distancing, which includes staying at home where possible and keeping a distance of 1.5 metres between other people.

Sydney's 24-7 Street Kitchen and Safe Space Community claim a police officer said homeless people would be able to access extra money from the government during the pandemic.

But according to Mr Priestley, there are a number of homeless New Zealanders who were not able to receive the benefits.

'We were there at the request of the homeless community who identified inadequate service gaps from registered charities. We were tailored to exactly fulfil those gaps,' the Facebook post said.

'The lack of services tonight include no coffee at this time of night.

The community group said they take the COVID-19 threat 'very seriously' and have done everything in their power to address the health crisis. 'We have sourced hand sanitisers, for ourselves and the homeless community to use safely,' the post continued

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

'There is a total absence of safe accessible hand sanitising for the homeless community on any night at Martin Place.'

Before the government's latest restrictions on public gatherings, the group said their normal kitchen night would still go ahead.

'Other grassroots and Mutual Aid groups might take note that COVID-19 emergency laws could well be used to shut them down,' Sydney's 24-7 Street Kitchen and Safe Space Community said.

'We ask everyone to comply with and exceed the government recommendations on COVID-19.'

Mr Priestley, a father-of-twelve, is dubbed the 'King of the Homeless' and 'the Mayor of Martin Place'.

A NSW Police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia they were receiving multiple inquiries about coronavirus-related stories and could not facilitate all requests.

'We are encouraging the media to reinforce and prioritise the messages from the Prime Minister, NSW Premier and NSW Police Force Commissioner, as well as representatives from NSW Health,' the spokesperson said.


United Nations, March 30 : An Indian UN Assistant Secretary General, dealing with the UN pension fund investments, has resigned suddenly, according to a spokesperson.

No reason was given for the resignation of Sudhir Rajkumar that was announced on Sunday by Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Rajkumar also held the title of Representative of the Secretary-General for the investment of the assets of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund.

The resignation is to be effective on Tuesday, Dujarric said.

The announcement was unusual coming on a Sunday and with a very short notice period.

Dujarric said: "The Secretary-General has accepted the resignation and thanks Mr Rajkumar for his service in managing the assets of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund. The Secretary-General wishes Mr Rajkumar the very best in his future endeavours." Rajkumar was appointed to the position in 2017.

He had earlier been the head of the global pension advisory programme at the World Bank Treasury, providing advisory services to pension funds for several countries, according to the UN.

He had also been a member on the External Advisory Committee on Investments of the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Investment Committee of the United Nations Office for Project Services, and as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the International Centre for Pension Management.

Before joining the World Bank in east Africa, he worked in a managerial capacity with Shriram Group in India.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 17:18:27|Editor: huaxia

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CHONGQING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Ford's new Lincoln Corsair vehicles rolled off the production line on Sunday in its factory in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, marking the U.S. automaker's major step to promote its Lincoln brand in the Chinese market.

It is the first time for the Ford luxury brand to produce its vehicles in a region outside North America, according to Changan Ford Automobile Co. Ltd., a joint venture between China's Changan Automobile and Ford.

The new model is priced between 246,800 yuan and 345,800 yuan (about 34,800 to 48,770 U.S. dollars) according to five different options of car configuration, said Anning Chen, president and CEO of Ford China.

Chongqing is one of the largest automobile production bases in China with factories of more than 10 auto manufacturers, including Changan Auto, Changan Ford, SGMW and Beijing Hyundai, and over 1,000 auto parts and accessories manufacturers.
The year is 480. Three hundred Spartans, joined by a small force of Greeks, defend the mountain pass of Thermopylae against the invading Persians. If the 300 Spartans had stayed home and if Persians had won the Greco-Persian Wars, the Western concept of freedom most likely would not exist. Authoritarian monarchy would have been the norm, and it would have taken a group of people much like the Spartans to champion again values like protection, free will, and freedom over imperialism, coercion, and authoritarianism. Of course, such a defense could have happened, but it might have been harder knowing that the Spartans and other Greeks defending freedom at the Battles of Thermopylae, Salamis, and Platea had not been able to do it.

Although the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. happened about one hundred years before the great philosopher and defender of freedom Aristotle was born, the Greeks still had a concept of defending the city-state, the polis. A plethora of poleis existed throughout Greece since about the eighth century B.C. Each city-state zealously guarded its autonomy, desiring the freedom to live according to its own dictates, not another city-states, or more importantly, authoritarian regimes, opinions. While the governments of poleis sometimes differed (Athens had a democracy while Sparta had an oligarchy) and even fought against one another, almost all the Greek city-states did agree in at least one aspect: the Persians were authoritarian, had no concept of freedom, enslaved its people, and must be defeated. Thus, even though Aristotle had not yet described the Greek ideal of freedom, all the city-states defended their independence against enemies foreign and domestic, particularly in the case of the Battle of Thermopylae.



Spartans hold back Persian forces at Anopaea, a single-file pass near Thermopylae. Spartans hold back Persian forces at Anopaea, a single-file pass near Thermopylae.

This great battle in 480 happened during the Greco-Persian Wars in which King Xerxes of Persia was attempting to gain more territory. A group of Greeks, including Spartans, Athenians, and others, banded together to fight against the Persian menace. In order to achieve hegemony over the Greek mainland, Xerxes planned to attack by land and by sea. The loose coalition of Hellenes (ancient Greeks) identified the mountain pass of Thermopylae and the cape of Artemisium as the key defense land-and-sea points respectively and sent a conglomeration of Greeks headed by King Leonidas of Sparta to protect Thermopylae. Because the Olympic games were occurring at the same time as the expected Persian invasion, the Greek alliance sent only a small advance guard. Leonidas sent the local contingent to defend Anopaea, a single-file pass near Thermopylae, while the 300 Spartans and others remained on the narrow, yet somewhat larger pass of Thermopylae. The Persian assault began on August 17 and lasted for three days before the Persians finally killed the 298 Spartans who had defended the mountain pass with another small Greek contingent of roughly three to four thousand men. Before the Spartans and others died, however, they had slain twenty thousand Persians.

While the Battle of Thermopylae was technically a defeat for the Greek coalition, it was also a conquest. It marked the beginning of several important Greek victories against the Persians and represented a morale shift among the Greeks. Even though almost all of the 300 Spartans (two men had defected) had died, they had fought vigorously and valiantly, refusing to merely submit to the Persians. Encouraged by such Spartan actions, the other surviving Greeks fought with greater dynamism against the Persians. Although the Greeks finally beat the Persians in the Battle of Platea in 479 B.C., thus ending the Greco-Persian Wars, many scholars attribute the eventual Greek success over the Persians to the Spartans defense at Thermopylae. Had the Spartans and other later Greek armies fled in fear, it is likely that a Persian victory would have promoted imperialism over protection, coercion over free will, and authoritarianism over freedom.

By its very nature, the Persian Empire was expansionistic. Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, and other Persian kings all wanted to expand the influence of Persia throughout the known world. The Greeks, on the other hand, desired to protect the land they owned against invaders. Until Alexander the Great of Macedonia, they did not yearn for a world empire; the Greeks enjoyed their small poleis and the freedom they had in each one to select a government for the area, such as Athens democratic system (although still different from todays democracies) and Spartas oligarchy. If the Persians had been victorious in the Greco-Persian Wars, the Persians might have created the first world empire and required Greek city-states to submit to the Persian monarchy, not allowing the ideas of democracy and freedom to flourish. Although the Persians showed more clemency than other ancient empires like the Assyrians, governors accountable to the king ruled the different regions or satrapies. While the Greeks could have kept their customs and religion, it would have been more challenging to maintain their unique governments since the Greek satrapies would be required to pay taxes to the Persian Empire. Rather than existing as separate entities, the Greek poleis would have been absorbed by the invasive Persian government.

As a part of this empire, the Persians would have emphasized coercion over free will. As historian Paul Cartledge observes, Herodotus, the ancient Greek historian, recounts how the Persian King Xerxes drove his men into battle with whips while the Greeks fought of their own free will: [The Spartans] did not have to be whipped to make them fight with all their might. . . Whips were only for slaves, not free men; they were appropriate for a barbarian master to use on his slave subjects, but out of the question for the citizen soldiers of a free Greek polis. If the Persians had won, the king would have whipped the Greeks to make them fight, rather than allowing the Greeks to decide on their own to defend the ideal of freedom. Such an action would have turned the Greeks into barbarians and slaves instead of freemen, thus eliminating the distinction between the Greek poleis and the Persian Empire.

In fact, the Greeks might even change their understanding of key virtues like freedom since they would be treated like slaves. Instead of learning about freedom, the Greeks would discover authoritarianism where the kings will trumps the desires of anyone else. In his book Thermopylae, Cartledge references the contrasting language that Herodotus uses to describe the Greeks and Persians: Since Spartas system stood for freedom, it follows that the Great Kings stood for slavery. If the Persians had won, the Greeks would have grown to accept what they formerly defined as slavery as freedom. The ideals that motivated the Spartans to fight against the Persians at Thermopylae would have died under the Persians.

Americans can thank the Greeks, and especially the Spartans, for things they love and sometimes take for granted like the Constitution, Chick-fil-a, and capitalism. Had the Spartans not stood up, there may not have been enough freedom-loving Greeks left to defend against the Persians. As the renegade Spartan Demaratos tells King Xerxes before the battle in Herodotuss The Histories, Now know this: if you subjugate these [Spartan] men and those who have remained behind in Sparta, there is no other race of human beings that will be left to raise their hands against you. For you are now attacking the most noble kingdom of all the Hellenes, and the best of men.
One in every four NHS doctors is off work sick or in quarantine, according to the head of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP).

Professor Andrew Goddard said the level of illness and self-isolation was already seriously affecting emergency departments, particularly in London.

Some hospitals are really at the limit, he added. Within London its very, very difficult at the moment, you cant underestimate how difficult it is.

It will come to other places. Birmingham is also struggling.

He said it was still unclear whether the 25 per cent off work would increase or ease off as testing of NHS staff allows people to come out of isolation.

At the moment, we think its more doctors self-isolating with family members, though there are some off sick themselves, Professor Goddard added.

Of course the worry is we will lose more people to Covid-related illness.

He said hospital wards across England are going from normal wards to Covid wards very quickly to ease the pressure on intensive care units.

On Sunday the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said around one in five nurses had taken time off work to self-isolate.

However there are early signs the rate of hospital admissions is slowing, according to the author of a report which warned of mass deaths if the UK did not introduce strict controls.

Professor Neil Ferguson from Imperial College London told BBC Radio 4 said: It has not yet plateaued, so the numbers can still be increasing each day, but the rate of that increase has slowed.

He said this evidence of slowing applied less to the mortality rate because deaths are lagged by a long time from when measures come in force.

But if we look at the numbers of new hospital admissions, that does appear to be slowing down a bit now.

Prof Ferguson said two or three per cent of the population  up to two million people  had been affected the epidemic, although it was spreading at different rates in different parts of the country.

Additional reporting by agencies
AUBURN HILLS, Mich., March 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Nexteer Automotive today reported annual results for its fiscal year ended December 31, 2019. The Company's 2019 financial results were impacted by various environmental challenges including lower OEM light vehicle production across all regions, led by a decline in China, a GM-UAW labor strike in North America interrupting vehicle production, reduced revenue from a North America customer's vehicle platform transition and unfavorable foreign currency.

Nexteer reported 2019 revenue of US$3.576 billion which was lower by 8.6% when compared with 2018. Profit attributable to equity holders for the year was US$232.4 million, a reduction of 38.8% compared with 2018, largely reflecting the impact of lower revenue. During 2019, Nexteer generated US$117.9 million in cash flow from operating activities less cash used for investing activities and the balance sheet remained strong at December 31, 2019. Nexteer's Backlog of Booked Business stood at US$26.4 billion at the end of 2019  a 4.4% increase year-over-year from 2018.

"While the macro environment broadly impacted the automotive industry in 2019, united as a strong and resilient One Nexteer team, we navigated the year's challenging landscape and continued to position Nexteer for future success. As a leader in intuitive motion control, we are focused on winning the long game and believe our strategies for profitable growth will benefit Nexteer and our shareholders over the long-term," said Guibin Zhao, CEO of Nexteer Automotive.

Strong Bookings & Backlog

Despite headwinds, Nexteer achieved strong performance in bookings, new business conquests and backlog. Nexteer secured US$7.0 billion in new bookings of which 50 percent were conquest awards. Notable expansion was achieved in Europe with a breakthrough Dual Pinion EPS customer win  a global first in this EPS architecture  secured in 2019. Nexteer also grew its backlog to US$26.4 billion.

Globalization & Diversification Across Customers, Product & Regions

In addition to a solid backlog, Nexteer further diversified across customers, products and markets with 45 customer program launches during the year (compared to 22 launches in 2018). These programs spanned multiple customers, product lines, and regions  including Nexteer's first Brush EPS launch in India, as well as the first EPS launch from Nexteer's new production facility in Morocco.

Nexteer also expanded its global footprint to capitalize on growth opportunities, further globalize engineering expertise, drive efficiencies and enhance customer responsiveness. Footprint expansion included the opening of the Asia Pacific Technical Center in Suzhou, China in January 2020, as well as a software center in Bengaluru, India and EPS production facilities in Liuzhou and Wuhan, China in 2019. In addition, Nexteer's new Morocco facility went from field to factory in 10 months and launched its first EPS program in late 2019.

Technology Leadership in Intuitive Motion Control

Nexteer earned GM's PRIME Supplier Status and Ford's Allied Business Framework (ABF) Supplier status. Both signify a long-term commitment and strategic collaboration as GM and Ford strive to realize their visions for a Connected, Automated, Shared and Electric (CASE) future.

Nexteer is also exploring shuttling goods through a development partnership with a leader in Last Mile Delivery Services. Nexteer is leveraging its 10 FIT Steering Systems and dual-path processing software for a test fleet application in 2020.

In addition, Nexteer teamed with Continental, CNXMotion (a Nexteer-Continental joint venture) and others on an autonomous people mover project. As announced by Michigan's Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, on October 22, 2019, the team "will provide a fixed-route shuttle, utilizing three, automated 15-passenger vehicles. There will also be capacity for a 'shuttle train,' carrying groups of up to 45 people at one time". The demonstration will feature Nexteer's Steer by Wire, software technologies and systems integration expertise.

2020 COVID-19 Impact

While Nexteer's annual results focus on its fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, the Company is actively monitoring and responding to the rapidly developing worldwide situation regarding COVID-19.

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic as the virus has continued to expand throughout Asia, Europe and North America, with many countries and jurisdictions declaring state of emergencies and implementing public safety actions in an attempt to contain further spread. The Company has taken commensurate actions outlined by both health agencies as well as complying with country-specific mandates.

During the course of February and March 2020 many of the Company's OEM customers announced plans to temporarily close their production facilities in China, Europe and North America. As a result, the Company is coordinating closely with each of its impacted customers and is adjusting production at its manufacturing and supporting facilities in the United States, Mexico, China, Poland and elsewhere as necessary.

Nexteer is unable to predict additional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic at this time due to the dynamic situation and undefined impacts on afflicted regions' economies as well as the inherent difficulty in predicting potential impact on the Company's facilities, employees, customers, suppliers and logistics providers.

ABOUT NEXTEER

Nexteer Automotive (HK 1316), a global leader in intuitive motion control, is a multi-billion dollar global steering and driveline business delivering electric and hydraulic power steering systems, steering columns, driveline systems, as well as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving enabling technologies for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The company has 28 manufacturing plants, four technical / software centers and 14 customer service centers strategically located in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The company serves more than 60 customers in every major region of the world including BMW, Fiat Chrysler, Ford, GM, PSA Groupe, Toyota and VW, as well as automakers in India and China. www.nexteer.com

SOURCE Nexteer Automotive

Related Links

http://www.nexteer.com


Iran begins use of plasma for COVID-19 patients

03/29/20

By Ghanbar Naderi, Press TV, Tehran

As the proportion of patients infected with COVID-19 continues to rise in Iran, Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran is facilitating access to COVID-19 convalescent plasma for use in patients with COVID-19 infections. This is while a number of the medical staff in the hospital are among the plasma donors who have been infected and have recovered recently.



Official Iran's statistics on coronavirus as of March 30

Infections: 41,495

Deaths: 2,757

New Cases: 3,186

Recovered: 13,911

The method has been used in the past to treat diseases such as polio, and in previous outbreaks of respiratory infections similar to COVID-19.



The decision came after Ali Akbar Velayati, head of Masih Daneshvari Hospital, said they would begin to treat critically ill patients with plasma. So far, over 1,000 infected cases have been treated in the center.



The plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 may contain antibodies to the virus that causes the disease and might be effective against the infection. The plasma must be collected from recovered patients who can donate blood, have had no symptoms for 14 days, and have had negative results on COVID-19 tests.

Iran says US sanctions are targeting every aspect of its economy. This is while many world leaders have called on Washington to suspend the restrictions that have negatively impacted Iran's efforts to curb the outbreak. Washington has so far rejected the calls.

Iranian scientists working on stem cell therapy to treat Covid-19 patients

Source: Mehr News Agency, Tehran

A group of Iranian scientists is doing research on the possibility of using stem cells to cure coronavirus patients.



According to Masud Soleimani, who recently came home from illegal detainment in US, the research is being carried out with the support of the Health Ministry in two Tehran-based hospitals of Shariati and Masih Daneshvari.



Masud Soleimani

The news came as some local media had earlier quoted Soleimani as saying that a drug for the disease has been developed.



In an interview with Mehr News Agency on Saturday night, Soleimani dismissed the reports as inaccurate, noting that this is not a drug but a method that is still being worked on.



The results of the first phase of its clinical trial will be announced soon by the Health Ministry, he added.



According to the latest announcement on Monday, the number of confirmed cases of the COVID-19 has hit 41,495 in the country. 13,911 patients have recovered so far while the virus has claimed 2,757 lives.
As Saudi Arabia scrambles to contain its coronavirus outbreak, its health minister said Monday the government will pay for the treatment of anyone in the country who is diagnosed with COVID-19.

Health Minister Tawfiq al-Rabiah said those experiencing symptoms should take the test for the virus. He added that citizens and residents  including expats and those in violation of residency laws  who tested positive would have their medical expenses covered by the government.

We are all in the same boat, Rabiah said at a news conference, according to Reuters.

The kingdom has the highest rate of infection in the Gulf region, with a reported eight deaths and 1,453 confirmed cases. The Health Ministry reported Monday that the first group of citizens quarantined as a precaution after their arrival in Saudi Arabia were able to return home.

Saudi Arabia has prohibited movement between its provinces, imposed a partial nationwide curfew and is no longer issuing visas for Muslims wanting to visit the holy sites of Mecca and Medina. Under the new emergency regulations, curfew violators will be fined 10,000 Saudi riyals ($2,662) and handed jail time after multiple violations.

Amid a shortage in supplies at hospitals and pharmacies, the government seized more than 5 million medical masks illegally hoarded by private sellers, the state news agency reported Sunday.

King Salman has warned of a more difficult road ahead as the country grapples with falling oil prices, a slowed-down economy and a surge in new coronavirus cases. The 84-year-old royal recently chaired the virtual conference of leaders from the worlds richest economies, known as the G-20, who convened to discuss a coordinated global response to the pandemic.
Coronavirus: Muslim woman donates savings for Hajj to RSS affiliate

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Mar 30: A Muslim woman from Jammu and Kashmir has donated her savings of Rs 5 lakh, meant for the Hajj pilgrimage, to the RSS-affiliated 'Sewa Bharati' after apparently being "impressed with the welfare work" done by the outfit amid the lockdown due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Khalida Begum, 87, who saved Rs 5 lakh for Hajj, was forced to defer her plans for the pilgrimage due to the lockdown.

Hajj is the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the holiest city of Muslims.

"Khalida Begum ji was impressed with the welfare work done by the Sewa Bharati in Jammu and Kashmir during the tough time the country is passing through due to sudden outbreak of COVID-19 and decided to donate Rs 5 lakh to the organisation," Arun Anand, head of RSS media wing Indraprastha Vishwa Samvad Kendra (IVSK), said.

#Stayathome and send us your selfie

The woman wants that this money should be used by the community service organisation Sewa Bharati for the poor and the needy in Jammu and Kashmir. She had saved this amount for performing Hajj, plans for which she deferred due to the present situation, Anand said.

"Khalida Begum ji was among the first few women in Jammu and Kashmir who got educated in a convent. She is the daughter-in-law of Colonel Peer Mohd Khan, who was president of the Jana Sangh," he said.

Jana Sangh was also an associate of RSS and later became the Bharatiya Janata Party.

NEWS AT NOON, MARCH 30th, 2020

Anand said despite her age, she had been very active in welfare works for the women and the downtrodden in Jammu and Kashmir. Her son, Farooq Khan, a retired IPS officer, is presently serving as an adviser to the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor.

Coronavirus death toll in India rises to 29; positive cases surpass 1,000-mark

Meanwhile, since the lockdown was announced, Sewa Bharati volunteers across the country have been providing food and other essential items to the needy. The Sangh-affiliate's volunteers were seen on Saturday managing crowd and providing food to them at the Anand Vihar bus terminal in Delhi.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, March 30, 2020, 12:24 [IST]
All schools in Ho Chi Minh City will remain closed until at least April 19 as the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic has not been subdued.

In its latest directive, the municipal Peoples Committee asked all K-12 students, as well as university and college students, in the southern metropolis to stay home through April 19.

Meanwhile, all vocational school students will not resume school until at least May 3.

The move further extends a two-month school closure in Ho Chi Minh City due to COVID-19.

Relevant agencies will review the COVID-19 situation by April 19 to decide whether students can go back to school after the date or continue to stay home.

In the meantime, all certification exams for foreign languages, information technology, skills education, and extracurricular activities are also suspended until further notice.

The Peoples Committee of Ho Chi Minh City had earlier ordered schools closed through March 29.

Schools across Vietnam have remained shut since the end of the Lunar New Year holiday in early February, with the closure being repeatedly extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Local departments of education and training, together with the education ministry, have been applying alternative teaching methods such as online lessons and educational television to keep students focused on schoolwork.

COVID-19, a respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus that first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has infected nearly 722,200 people and killed more than 34,000 globally, according to Ministry of Health statistics.

About 151,800 cases have recovered worldwide.

Vietnam has so far confirmed 194 infections, with 55 having been successfully treated and discharged from the hospital as of Monday morning.

Ho Chi Minh City has reported 45 cases, ten of whom have walked out of the hospital free of the virus.

No fatality related to the disease has been recorded in Vietnam.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
The Holland America Line ship where four people have died, two have tested positive for covid-19 and 189 report flu-like symptoms made it through the Panama Canal on Monday morning after days of uncertainty.

Since March 22, the number of people reporting flu-like symptoms on the Zaandam has risen steadily, from 42 initially to 189 as of early Monday morning. The cause of death for the four passengers has not been confirmed.

Now comes the next big question: Where will it be allowed to dock? The operator, owned by Carnival Corp., has been hoping to let passengers disembark at Port Everglades, the cruise port in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The Zaandam is accompanied by another Holland America ship, the Rotterdam, where passengers who showed no symptoms were transferred over the weekend. There are 1,442 people on that ship and 1,048 on the Zaandam.

Tweets from the official Port Everglades account Sunday afternoon said the cruise line had not received official approval to enter; Holland America will have to submit a plan "that addresses a long list" of requirements from local, state and federal officials. Broward County Commissioner Michael Udine said Monday morning in a tweet that the U.S. Coast Guard would require a plan to be submitted and approved before the ships could enter U.S. waters.

The Port Everglades account said it would take about three days to arrive in South Florida after getting through the canal.

In a statement early Monday, the cruise line thanked officials in Panama - who initially denied the request to cross the canal - for their "humanitarian consideration and the compassion."

"We are still finalizing the details for where and when our guests will disembark," the company said, "and are asking for the same compassion and humanity to be extended for our arrival."

Zaandam left Buenos Aires on March 7; after suspending operations on March 13, Holland America tried to end the cruise in Chile on March 16 so passengers could fly home, but authorities would not let anyone disembark.
A Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court on March 30 adjourned the hearing on the bail plea filed by Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor until April 3.

Kapoor last week applied for bail on the grounds that if he remained behind bars, he might contract COVID-19.

In his bail application, Kapoor says he has chronic immunodeficiency syndrome, which makes him susceptible to lung infection, sinus and skin disorders.

Apart from this, the former banker has been suffering from bronchial asthma, which still requires inhalers. He also has hypertension and anxiety problems for the last two years.

"When the government can release 60,000 prisoners owing to the risk of COVID-19, why not him, who is 62 years old and suffering from many diseases that increase his COVID-19 infection risk," a member of Kapoors legal team told Moneycontrol.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

The Enforcement Directorate arrested Kapoor on March 7 over money laundering charges. More than Rs 30,000 crore loans, which were sanctioned during Kapoor's tenure at Yes Bank, are currently under the scanner. Up to Rs 20,000 crore loans have turned non-performing assets.

The Kapoor family has created more than 102 companies which are also under investigation.

The Central Bureau of Investigation has already issued a production warrant for Kapoor. However, the agency has not taken custody so far and might wait for the end of COVID-19 crisis. The CBI and ED have both registered two cases each against him.

Currently, Kapoor is lodged in Taloja jail, on the outskirts of Mumbai. His judicial custody will end on April 2.
The Delhi Police Retired Gazetted Officers Association on Monday donated Rs 3 lakh to the relief fund announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help fight the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

"We appeal to citizens to abide by the law and cooperate with the concerned authorities concerned by following the restrictions imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus," said Jaipal Singh, secretary, the Delhi Police Retired Gazetted Officers Association.

On Saturday, Modi announced setting up of the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES) to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have shared their final post before they step down from royal duties.

Prince Harry, 35, and Meghan Markle, 38, who will drop the royal from their titles tomorrow after giving up their positions as senior members of the Firm, posted a message to their account this evening.

The couple, who are rumoured to be living in Malibu with 10-month-old Archie, promised to continue their charity work behind the scenes, and revealed they were focusing 'the new chapter to understand how to best contribute'.

Encouraging followers to be strong and positive amid the pandemic, they thanked fans for their support and said they looked forward to 'reconnecting soon', with the post reading: 'Thank you for your support, inspiration and commitment to the good in the world.'

The post, which had the comments switched off, racked up thousands of likes within minutes and signed off with 'Harry and Meghan'. The comments on their remaining posts appear to also have been switched off.

Prince Harry, 35, and Meghan Markle, 38, who will drop the royal from their titles tomorrow after giving up their positions as senior members of the Firm, posted a message to their account this evening

Shared on their traditional navy blue template, the message begins by addressing the coronavirus pandemic, and reads: 'As we can all feel, the world at this moment seems extraordinarily fragile.

'Yet we are confident that every human being has the potential and opportunity to make a differenceas seen now across the globe, in our families, our communities and those on the front linetogether we can lift each other up to realise the fullness of that promise.'

It continues: 'What's most important right now is the health and wellbeing of everyone across the globe and finding solutions for the many issues that have presented themselves as a result of this pandemic.

'As we all find the part we are to play in this global shift and changing of habits, we are focusing this new chapter to understand how we can best contribute.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's farewell message in full As we can all feel, the world at this moment seems extraordinarily fragile. Yet we are confident that every human being has the potential and opportunity to make a differenceas seen now across the globe, in our families, our communities and those on the front linetogether we can lift each other up to realise the fullness of that promise. Whats most important right now is the health and wellbeing of everyone across the globe and finding solutions for the many issues that have presented themselves as a result of this pandemic. As we all find the part we are to play in this global shift and changing of habits, we are focusing this new chapter to understand how we can best contribute. While you may not see us here, the work continues. Thank you to this community - for the support, the inspiration and the shared commitment to the good in the world. We look forward to reconnecting with you soon. Youve been great! Until then, please take good care of yourselves, and of one another. Harry and Meghan Advertisement

'While you may not see us here, the work continues.'

Concluding by thanking their followers, it says: 'Thank you to this community - for the support, the inspiration and the shared commitment to the good in the world. We look forward to reconnecting with you soon. You've been great.'

The couple, seen at their engagement photocall in 2017, who are rumoured to be living in Malibu with 10-month-old Archie, promised to continue their charity work behind the scenes, and revealed they were focusing 'the new chapter to understand how to best contribute

Shared on their traditional navy blue template, the message begins by addressing the coronavirus pandemic, and reads: 'As we can all feel, the world at this moment seems extraordinarily fragile., before concluding that they 'will reconnect soon'

Harry and Meghan officially depart from the royal family tomorrow night.

Prince Harry and Meghan are reportedly set to reveal their new brand and charity this week, with Instagram being their launch platform of choice.

Between them Harry and Meghan boast 11.3million followers on their current SussexRoyal Instagram account, and are expected to launch a series of projects following the announcement of the image revamp.

The move is set to spark an upsurge in activity for both Prince Harry and Meghan, who have been laying the foundations for life after royal duty.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who carried out their final round of royal duties in Britain this month (pictured at the Commonwealth Day service on March 9), are planning the launch of their new non-profit organisation for next month

Meghan, 38, is understood to have 'heaps of projects in the works' after stepping back from her duties, spanning across various areas, to help the couple become financially independent.

The former actress' first gig after quitting the royal family was revealed on Thursday - with Meghan voicing a Disney documentary on elephants.

Meghan is also said to be interested in writing another recipe book following her hsuccessful 2018 Grenfell charity work with Together: Our Community Cookbook.

It was launched in September 2018 as the Duchess's first major solo endeavour as a member of the royal family.

Harry and Meghan fled their temporary Vancouver base with young son Archie amid the ongoing coronavirus threat which is sweeping the globe.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will wind down their UK foundation and headquarter their new charitable venture in North America (pictured in London this month)

After attending the Commonwealth Day service last week (Duchess pictured) Harry and Meghan jetted back to Canada and are plouging ahead with their new transatlantic life before moving on to LA

A Sussex spokesman was prompted to respond after the President of the United States took to Twitter to state the US would not pay for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's security protection, following their recent move from Canada.

Last month, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex posted a statement on their website confirming that they had been asked to drop their 'Sussex Royal' brand as part of their agreement to step down as senior royals.

It emerged Harry and Meghan had abandoned their bid to trademark the Sussex Royal brand.

Documents filed at the Intellectual Property Office showed a request to use the names Sussex Royal and Sussex Royal Foundation for commercial and charity activities in the UK had been removed.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrive to attend The Mountbatten Festival of Music at the Royal Albert Hall in London

The statement read: 'The Duke and Duchess of Sussex do not intend to use 'Sussex Royal' or any iteration of the word 'Royal' in any territory (either within the UK or otherwise) when the transition occurs Spring 2020.'

It comes amid reports the couple hope to settle permanently in North America, with sources claiming they want to raise baby Archie away from the spotlight in the UK.

They will now no longer use their Sussex Royal Instagram account or update their sussexroyal.com website, but it will continue to exist.

Harry and Meghan, who are now living in Los Angeles in California, will spend the next few months focusing on their baby son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, and privately supporting their existing charities and developing their future non-profit venture.

Harry and Meghan are seen in South Africa in September with Archie. They now aim to raise him out of the limelight

A spokeswoman for the Sussexes said the post marked their transition on Tuesday from working members of the royal family.

'The Duke and Duchess of Sussex would prefer that in the immediate weeks and months, the focus remains on the global response to Covid-19,' she said.

She added: 'The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will spend the next few months focusing on their family and continuing to do what they can, safely and privately, to support and work with their pre-existing charitable commitments while developing their future non-profit organisation.'

The couple, who are breaking away from the monarchy to earn their own money in the US, have had to ditch using Sussex Royal as their brand name.

The Queen and her senior officials were said to have ordered Harry and Meghan to drop the use of the word 'Royal' because it could have led to accusations they were cashing in on their royal status.

The Sussexes agreed to the change, but appeared to show their dissatisfaction, with their website previously stating that the monarchy had no jurisdiction over the use of the word 'royal' overseas.

From March 31, they will no longer be working royals nor use their HRH styles.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will wind down their UK foundation and headquarter their new charitable venture in North America, it was revealed this month.

Meghan and Harry have appointed Catherine St Laurent as their new chief of staff and executive director of their non-profit organisation.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who carried out their final round of royal duties in Britain last week, are planning the launch of their new non-profit organisation for next month.

Yet it is feared the announcement scheduled for April could be derailed by the ongoing coronavirus crisis and forced to delay.

The Sussexes are yet to flesh out what their new entity will look like, other than outlining it will support their 'global charitable, campaign and philanthropic work'.
TV personality Sandra Martin has revealed that four people close to her have died following battles with COVID-19, amid the ongoing pandemic.

The former Gogglebox star, 58, urged the public to follow government advice to self-isolate and practice social distancing as she disclosed that she'd lost loved ones to the virus, including her sister-in-law and uncle.

Heartbroken Sandra told Metro.co.uk of her sister-in-law: 'She did have underlying health issues before she passed away and my brother, who is now in self-isolation is absolutely devastated by it.

Tragedy: TV personality Sandra Martin has revealed that four people close to her have died following battles with COVID-19, amid the ongoing pandemic

'When I found out I started to cry and my daughter told me to pack my bags so I am staying with her in Brixton at the moment.

'My friends dad died first, then my brothers wife died, my uncle died and my good friend from Brixton died, it is all so tragic. What is going on?'

The bubbly TV personality went on to reiterate the importance of following safety guidelines, as she continued: 'I know some people are doing the right thing and only going out if necessary but people will keep dying if they dont listen.'

Heartache: The former Gogglebox star, pictured with her co-star Sandi Bogle, announced her sister-in-law died of coronavirus on Friday

Sandra's interview comes days after she revealed her devastation after her brother's wife tragically lost her life to the respiratory disease just days after being admitted to hospital for treatment.

Taking to Twitter to share the devastating news, Sandra wrote: 'AM CRYING. MY BROTHER WIFE JUST DIED OF CORONAVIRUS R.I.P MY SISTER IN LAW.' [sic]

Sandra revealed her brother's wife and their daughter had been rushed to hospital several days ago after suffering from coronavirus symptoms  a high fever and a dry persistent cough.

Pain: The bubbly star has been left devastated after her brother's wife tragically lost her life to the respiratory disease just days after being admitted to hospital for treatment

She urged people to follow the UK government's advice and stay in doors to avoid catching the disease or spreading it.

She wrote: "AM NOT HAPPY EVERYONE. ..MY BROTHER WIFE AND SISTER IS IN HOSPITAL WITH DAT BLOODY CORONVIRUS...

'MY BROTHER IS SELF ISOLATING. ..THIS HAS MADE ME VERY UNWELL...WEN IT HITS YOUR DOORSTEP YOU FEEL THE PAIN...

'AM CONSTANTLY PRAYING. .MY HEART GOES OUT TO EVERYON.' [sic]

Devastating: She later took to the site to reveal, '20TH OF MARCH I TOLD YOU MY BROTHER WIFE AND HER DAUGHTER WAS IN HOSPITAL WITH CORONVIRUS'

Way back: Sandra starred in the Channel 4 show alongside best pal Sandi Bogle from its beginnings in 2013 until her exit in 2017

She later took to the site to reveal: '20TH OF MARCH I TOLD YOU MY BROTHER WIFE AND HER DAUGHTER WAS IN HOSPITAL WITH CORONVIRUS. ...

'WELL JUST SPOKE TO MY BROTHER AND THEY ARE BOTH STILL IN HOSPITAL BUT CRITICAL NOW. ..THE HOSPITAL CALL MY BROTHER 10AM THIS MORNING HE IS AT HIS WIFE SIDE.PRAY'.

The sad news comes as the death toll in the UK reached 1,228 on Monday, and a total of 19,522 confirmed cases across the country.

Sandra starred in the Channel 4 show alongside best pal Sandi Bogle from its beginnings in 2013 until her exit in 2017.
The device can help in emergency times.

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The recent invention may help hospitals during emergencies.

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Slovak scientists Samuel Furko and Daniel Furko developed an alternative to artificial lung ventilation. Its use has been confirmed by the testing conducted at the Department of Simulation and Virtual Medical Education of the Comenius Universitys Faculty of Medicine.

Among the main benefits of Q-vent is the ease of use and low price, the TASR newswire reported.

Easy construction

Samuel Furko and Daniel Furko both work at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Comenius University in Bratislava. They developed the device in cooperation with Dalibor Gallik of Comenius Universitys Faculty of Medicine and Patrik Palacka of the National Oncology Institute.

The scientists were inspired by the critical situation the coronavirus outbreak caused in Italy. The lack of medical devices including lung ventilators can also be expected in Slovakia.

Our simple alternative to artificial lung ventilation can be used when no standard device is available in hospitals, the authors said, as quoted by TASR.

They came up with the idea in early March and developed three various prototypes during the following weeks. The final product is composed of basic components so that it can be constructed in a very short time.

The construction price of the Q-vent device is about 80. Its authors say they can produce about 15 pieces a day.

Help to Italy and Spain

Q-vent has already been tested during a six-hour operation, and its usability has been confirmed by testing in simulated conditions as well. The next step will be to test it in a real environment.

We hope these tests based on clinical observation will help us improve it, and well use the revelations in the new generation of this device, Samuel Furko and Daniel Furko said, as quoted by TASR. Were also putting together a working group that may help us bring the device to Italy and Spain.
File image: Jair Bolsonaro

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro has threatened to fire his health minister if he publicly criticises the way the South American country has handled the coronavirus outbreak.

According to a report in Independent, Brazils Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta has been at odds with Bolsonaro over his refusal to take COVID-19 seriously, dismissing the pandemic as just the sniffles.

The Brazilian President has been campaigning against isolation measures and openly flouting social distancing guidelines. On March 29, he visited a market area just outside the Brazilian capital to press home his case for keeping Latin America's largest economy ticking, instead of locking down activities to combat the spread of the deadly virus.

According to the report, Mandetta told Bolsonaro during a cabinet meeting that he will be left with no choice but to criticise him if he fails to pay heed to the guidelines issued by the government. To this, Bolsonaro said, If he did so, I would fire him.

Mandetta also reportedly told Bolsonaro that he doesnt agree with the latters proposal to isolate only the old and the ill as a way to curtail the spread of coronavirus, as well as reduce the economic impact of the pandemic.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

During a press conference, Mandetta said his measures will be guided by scientific experts, explaining that isolation should be undertaken by everyone as the countrys health services was not adequately equipped to deal with a sudden surge in patients.

Click here for LIVE updates on coronavirus pandemic

He also said chloroquine, which is used to treat malaria and defended by Bolsonaro as a possible solution to the health crisis, was not a cure for the coronavirus and could be toxic if used without medical advice.

Despite confirmed Brazilian cases of COVID-19 almost tripling in seven days to 4,256 by March 29, Bolsonaro has continued to deny the gravity of the disease, calling it "a small cold" that would kill only old people. The disease has caused 136 deaths in Brazil so far, and almost 34,000 globally.

Bolsonaro, as a part of his Brazil cant stop campaign, has been putting up videos, encouraging Brazilians to keep working to earn their incomes while taking precautions not to catch COVID-19. His campaign was banned by a federal judge in Rio de Janeiro, and his posts were pulled down by Twitter.

He has also lashed out at state and municipal officials who, in steps aimed at saving lives implemented tough lockdowns, closed non-essential businesses and banned public meetings, even in churches.
The Senate managed to come together to pass an unprecedented $2 trillion coronavirus relief package, but not before a small group of Republican senators reminded us of the narrow-minded condescension their party directs toward the working poor. Trumpism holds its own malicious  indeed, dangerous  strains of contempt, but the malevolent disdain the broader GOP holds for the less affluent has been among its hallmarks for generations, since long before Donald J. Trump became president.

Before the Senate approved the aid package, four GOP senators  Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Rick Scott of Florida  insisted that the unemployment benefits in the bill were too generous and would encourage those lazy, low-income folk not to work. They ultimately relented but had threatened to hold up the entire desperately needed deal if their demands to reduce unemployment checks were not met.

In a Wednesday interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Graham called the bill "Bernie Sanders on steroids." Following up on Twitter, Graham insisted, "Only in Senator @BernieSanders world does it make sense to pay people more NOT to work than TO work. I am all for making peoples salaries whole. However, I am not for increasing people's salary through the unemployment insurance system."

Has Graham listened to anything the public health experts have been saying about the need for all Americans except essential workers to stay home rather than go to work? We absolutely need to pay people not to work. I have refrained from patronizing fast-food restaurants over the last few weeks because I fear that low-wage employees who live from paycheck to paycheck will keep serving food even if they are ill.

The Grand Old Poohbahs act as if unemployment benefits are generous support payments that would allow laid-off workers to enjoy lobster dinners and trips to the day spa. Hardly.

In normal times, unemployment benefits amount to a percentage of the worker's last salary, usually somewhere around 45 percent. According to The New York Times, the national average is about $385 a week. The $2 trillion aid bill would add $600 a week for the next four months  a temporary boost in assistance that cannot encourage long-term unemployment.

That's hardly a windfall for families who will struggle to pay rent, buy groceries and keep the lights on and water flowing before they can return to their jobs. And many won't be able to return. Some businesses won't recover from the economic devastation wrought by the novel coronavirus. They will go bankrupt, leaving workers to struggle to make up lost income. Already, more than 3 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits in the past few days  the biggest jump in recorded history.

While looking down their noses at average working folk, the Republican Gang of Four found nothing to criticize in the generous aid they intend to offer to huge companies. As The Washington Post has reported, the bill contains low-interest loans and grants for companies that have failed to pay taxes, flouted safety regulations and misused the bailouts they received during the Great Recession. Among the companies that stand to benefit is Boeing, whose corporate greed led to two airplane crashes within five months, killing hundreds of passengers.

But an embrace of corporate greed and corruption that lives side by side with disdain for the working poor is a hardy strain in the Republican Party, one watered and fertilized by the presidency of Ronald Reagan. His first presidential campaign emphasized tales of alleged welfare fraud, most of which seemed to be based on just one actual case. According to the Pew Research Center, 42 percent of people on the conservative side of the political spectrum believe people are poor because they don't work hard enough, while only 12 percent of people on the liberal side believe that.

For the record, economists do acknowledge that a generous social safety net may encourage a tiny percentage of workers to take advantage of the system by failing to pull their own weight, but they also warn that a stingy social safety net will dump a certain percentage of struggling workers overboard  people who will end up destitute no matter how hard they work. In a nation as rich as this, I'd rather err on the side of generosity. Clearly, though, the Grand Old Poohbahs disagree.

Meanwhile, reports from across the country show low-wage grocery store workers  deemed essential in this crisis  falling ill to the coronavirus. They can hardly practice social distancing, especially the checkout clerks who stand so close to customers. Did Lindsey Graham and his allies think about them?
Walmart bringing convenience to daily life

By:Wu Qiong | From:english.eastday.com | 2020-03-27 08:51

Facing new market demands as people are gradually going back to work across China, Walmart has rapidly adjusted its commodity offerings by increasing the proportion of convenient fresh food. While promoting "fast cooking dishes" and a "ready-to-cook" series, it is leveraging direct imports to increase supply and accelerating the development of its private brands items. Moreover, a community selling service has been launched. All these measures are aimed at supporting people's livelihood and providing convenience.

The company has also overcome a workforce shortage through a staff-sharing recruitment program, and initiated a 100-million RMB program of rental reduction for tenants, as part of its contribution to the pandemic control and production resumption.

Ensure store supplies and stabilize prices

From the outbreak of COVID-19, it has been in Walmarts core values to place associates and customers as top priority. Walmart immediately initiated an emergency operation working group and related contingency plans to safeguard the health and safety of its associates and customers through high sanitization standards at more than 400 Walmart stores and Sams Clubs across the country.

For instance, Walmart disinfected all places that customers and associates touch such as checkout counters, the front desk, storage cabinets, display cabinets, handles, handrails and the floors, and provided associates with necessary protective gear.

To ensure that Walmart stores and Sams Clubs in the communities are well-stocked with daily necessities at stable and trusted prices, the merchandizing, supply chain, and operation teams worked out plans with improved workflows and operational procedures. Supplies of vegetables, meats and other daily necessities have been increased by 50%.

In addition to the existing 28 vegetable processing plants, Sams Club temporarily added three processing plants, completed their remodeling and putting them into production within one single day. Since the 2020 Chinese New Year, the vegetable supply of Sams Club has been five times that of normal. During this period, 31 plants kept working to ensure the supply and delivery of vegetables to clubs in 20 cities. At the peak, replenishment had to be carried out every 2-3 hours.

(Walmart stores across China have stayed opened and stocked during the pandemic)

On February 26, Sams Club launched a range of imported chilled beef from Australia via air freight in batches, in order to expand current replenishment channels. The first batch of more than 100 tons of imported chilled beef has already arrived.

Affected by the pandemic, the distribution and sales of agricultural products across the country have been severely hindered. Learning of the situations in various parts of the country through media and government, Walmart efficiently integrated internal resources through cross-functional collaboration, and contacted farmers in affected regions for direct purchase of fresh agricultural products. While solving the problem of farmers sales difficulties, it has ensured supplies, and kept the quality of vegetables for consumers at a stable and even lower price. The total amount of vegetables benefiting from the campaign in February reached nearly 500 tons.

New e-commerce measures to meet new demands

In Hubei, the epicenter of COVID-19, as many people were quarantined in their residential areas, Walmart immediately upgraded its Walmart Daojia (WMDJ) service and launched a community selling model, providing a group delivery service to communities. Using location based services (LBS) technology, WMDJ is able to expand its online service area beyond a radius of 3km to supply more local residents. Orders are sorted by communities and delivered twice a day. Community selling has been well received by customers. For instance, the Walmart store at Peace Avenue in Wuhan delivered over 500 orders to communities in one day, greatly enhancing the efficiency of WMDJ.

(Walmart has rolled out community selling in Wuhan: orders are sorted by communities and then delivered directly to them)

Facing the explosive online demand, in early February, WMDJ started its store pickup service in around 250 Walmart hypermarkets nationwide to overcome the challenge of staff shortage. Customers can place orders online from 9AM to 3PM every day and pick the goods up by themselves without freight within three hours. In addition, Walmart associates fully support e-commerce business. Everyone regardless of job position can pick online orders with a picking device.

(Walmart associates fully support e-commerce business and leverage shared staff to increase efficiency and meet the surging online demand.)

Shared staff relieve labor shortage

Due to the pandemic, many companies had to close their operations, while Walmarts over 400 stores across the country have stayed opened every day, ensuring stable prices and supplies. At the same time, Walmart faced a staff shortage brought by the surge in demand. In this special period, the company announced a recruitment plan and welcomed employees from companies affected by the pandemic to work at Walmart hypermarkets, supermarkets and Sam's Clubs across the country. To date, 9,000 part-time associates from over 100 companies in catering and entertaining industries have been recruited.

In terms of the safety of frontline associates, Walmart associates are required to take body temperature checks and wear face masks before going to work. Walmart sourced masks, disinfectant powder and hand sanitizer for over ten weeks from suppliers in multiple countries like the U.S., Japan and South Korea. The company has given 40 masks to each associates family members and has spent more than RMB 100 million on masks and protective equipment.

Besides, Walmart China along with professional institutions opened a 24-hour hotline to provide psychological counseling services for associates in need. The company also launched associate incentive programs including commuting and accommodation subsidies, online order picking incentives and an attendance subsidy.

Over RMB 10 million donations and 100 million rental reduction

In response to the public health crisis surrounding COVID-19 in Wuhan and across Hubei province, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation have committed more than USD $1.5 million (approx. RMB 10.44 million) to support relief efforts.

On March 14, Walmart China announced the company would initiate a RMB100-million program for rental reduction to support retail tenants, waiving rents and management fees for February 2020 with tenants that have reopened at Walmart hypermarkets, supermarkets and Sam's Clubs across China, and for February and March with those in Hubei, Chongqing and Wenzhou. In January, Walmart had already halved the rents and management fees for all the tenants at Walmart stores and Sam's Clubs in China from January 25 to February 8.

Walmart has kept a close eye on the development of the COVID-19 pandemic and has joined hands with our business partners, government and NGOs to fulfill our social responsibilities, said Daniel Shih, chief corporate affairs officer of Walmart China.We continue to do our best to ensure the health and safety of our associates and customers in more than 400 Walmart stores and Sams Clubs across China. We are aware of the challenges facing frontline workers in many sectors and industries. Were grateful for their contributions to fighting the pandemic and were proud to support them as we work to overcome these difficult times together.
The army has been working with building contractors to construct a 4,000-bed hospital in London to tackle the coronavirus.

COVID-19 patients will be treated at the NHS Nightingale, a new facility built at Londons ExCel centre.

Initially, 500 beds equipped with ventilators and oxygen will be used to treat the seriously ill, but the number of patients is expected to rapidly increase.

The NHS will also build more temporary hospitals in Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and Scotland.

Before the scale of the crisis became clear, the UK was believed to have had one of the lowest proportions of intensive care units in Europe, but the NHS says 33,000 beds are now available for COVID-19 patients.

On Monday, it was announced that cabin crew from airlines will join doctors and nurses in staffing the new Nightingale hospitals across the country.

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Staff at Virgin Atlantic and EasyJet have been invited to volunteer at the facility at the ExCel and those planned in Birmingham and Manchester.

Their salaries will continue to be paid by the airlines.

EasyJet has written to its 9,000 UK-based staff, including 4,000 cabin crew trained in CPR, to invite them to give their time to the NHS.

Read more: NHS doctor pleads for more coronavirus protective equipment

Virgin Atlantic will begin writing to 4,000 of its employees on Monday and will prioritise getting in touch with those who already have the required skills.

St John's Ambulance has already said that hundreds of people will give their time at the Nightingale hospital in London.

Ruth May, chief nursing officer for England, said the NHS needs "all the support we can get".

She added: "Thousands of nurses, medics and other expert staff are returning to work alongside us, but we need everyone to do their bit  whether that is working in one of our current health or social care services, working in the Nightingale Hospital, volunteering to help the NHS or following government advice to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives."

Coronavirus: what happened today
On Saturday morning, about 30 nurses and their relatives could be seen at the Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx protesting over the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and staff shortages as the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc in the largest health care system in the US. Nurses were carrying signs saying, Patients before profits and We Risk our Lives to Save Yours #ppenow.

The Jacobi Medical Center is part of NYC Health + Hospitals, the citys public hospital system. One nurse told CBS New York, Prior to coronavirus, we were told they were one-time use, you use them for a patient and they went in the garbage. Now all of a sudden, the CDC is saying that its fine for us to reuse them and these choices are being made not based on science, theyre being made based on need. Another nurse told the New York Daily News, Were all at risk if we lack the supplies we desperately need. Its a pandemic. If we get sick, our community gets sick. We are all people and our patients deserve better.

Nurses protesting outside the Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx

At a news conference, another nurse said: We have a number of workerstwo in this hospital, two nursesfighting for their lives in the ICUs right now. She slammed the statement of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio who claimed that the city had enough PPE for hospital staff for another week. Following the publication of a picture showing nurses at Mount Sinai West in trash bags last Thursday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo claimed that nurses at the hospital had all the PPE they need.

The nurse from the Jacobi Medical Center responded, telling the Daily News: We will not let any health official or government official say that we have enough until every health care worker has an N95 for every time they interact with a COVID-19 patient.

The WSWS spoke to a paramedic who worked in the Bronx during the protest on Saturday. He said, They were protesting about the lack of staff. Now that many of their staff have called out sick, nurses have to do twice as much work. It used to be a ratio of 3:1 [three patients per nurse] for an intubated patient, now it is 6:1. Thats unheard of. Its not a safe ratio. It used to [even earlier] be a ratio of 1:1. A lot of the nurses are crashing.

New York is now the epicenter of the global coronavirus pandemic. As US cases surged above 142,000 on Sunday, New York state accounted for 59,648 cases, an increase of almost 7,200 in 24 hours. Of these, 33,768 are in New York City. The city also saw the single deadliest day in the pandemic so far this weekend, with 237 people dying from Saturday to Sunday, bringing the total number of dead to 965. On the night of Friday to Saturday, 50 patients died at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens alone, the center of the outbreak in New York City.

Speaking to the LIC Post, a doctor at Elmhurst Hospital warned, An impending humanitarian crisis is about to happen in Elmhurst. The virus is absolutely rampant within the community and we have lines out the door of people who dont feel well. Elmhurst is home to a large, multi-ethnic working class community and is very densely populated. The doctor explained that this was a central factor contributing to the rapid spread of the virus, People are living in multigenerational units with lots of families of all ages crammed into small spaces. If one family member is told to isolate  they really have nowhere to go.

In interviews and social media posts, paramedics and nurses have described the horrific deterioration in public health. Within the span of two to three weeks, the COVID-19 patients they encounter have gone from having fevers and coughs and being discharged from the hospital to now having organ failure and respiratory and cardiac arrest. Some news reports also suggest a much faster deterioration in the health of some COVID-19 patients, who go from being seemingly healthy to dying within a matter of 24 or 48 hours.

With overfilled morgues, hospitals are storing and carrying away the bodies of victims in improvised refrigerated trucks. The overcrowding of emergency rooms and the shortage of rooms and hospital beds has led to situations where those who are infected with coronavirus are frequently placed in close proximity to those who are not.

So far, 2,900 hospital beds have been constructed at the Javits Convention Center by the US military with the support of the federal government. Another 1,000 beds are expected to come in with a Navy ship later this week. An emergency field hospital is now also being built in Central Park with 68 beds especially equipped for respiratory care. However, all of this falls dramatically short of the immediate need: State officials estimate that that New York will need up to 150,000 hospital beds and an additional 37,000 ICU beds to cope with the crisis, which is not expected to peak before the second half of April or early May.

New York University, Cornell University, Columbia University and Rutgers University in New Jersey have all encouraged their medical seniors to graduate early and join the workforce immediately to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Bodies of deceased COVID-19 patients outside Maimonides hospital in Brooklyn. The image was shared with the press by a nurse

The city is also in need of at least 30,000 to 40,000 ventilators. However, President Donald Trump has dismissed the call for help from the state government, questioning that the city actually needed that many ventilators. At a press conference on Sunday, Trump also suggested that the need for PPE was likewise exaggerated, implying that hospital workers were in fact misappropriating PPE.

The criminal indifference expressed in the official response to the unfolding disaster, from both the Trump administration and Democratic state and city officials, is taking a severe toll on the city population as a whole, with health care workers bearing the brunt of a failing health care system.

With an untold number of nurses and doctors having already been infected, city guidelines now force hospital staff and first responders to continue to work if they are asymptomatic, even if they tested positive for COVID-19. If they have a fever, they can stay at home for only 7 days, without hazard pay. If they dont have a fever, they have to return after 3 days. People who have been infected with COVID-19 are known to be infectious for two to four weeks, and the quarantine period recommended by the World Health Organization is 14 days.

A nurse told Buzzfeed News, If we are COVID positive, we are expected to work for as long as we are asymptomatic. However, we cannot get tested unless we are symptomatic. They dont want to test us because, at the rates we are exposed, we are likely all sick and we dont know it. He added, that they were rationed in PPE to absurdity. They were given one disposable mask and one disposable gown that we must sign out for, that is expected to be used for five 12-hour shifts before they will be replaced  A week ago we were instructed to take off our masks at work. Now we are being instructed to wear them at all times because so many of us are testing positive.

At the Mount Sinai West hospital in Manhattan, where the nurse manager Kious Kelly died of COVID-19 last week, an ER doctor complained of only receiving one N95 mask per week with no instruction on how to properly clean it: We were trying to clean it and put it back on our face. It smelled terrible and who knows if it was even working.

Along with nurses and doctors, first responders are among those most open to being exposed to the virus. About 20 percent of all of New York Citys 4,500 ambulance workers, including EMTs, paramedics and supervisors, are now out sick, mostly because they either have the virus or were exposed to it. Two of them are in critical condition.

Meanwhile, the number of emergency medical calls to the citys 911 dispatch center continue to rise and break new records on a daily basis. On Thursday, over 7,000 calls were placed in a system that typically responds to 4,000 a day.

The flood of 911 calls is causing extended delays of up to three hours for ambulances and forcing Emergency Medical Service personnel to make difficult triage decisions. In what is almost a complete reversal of protocol within a 911 system that is accustomed to transporting patients with even the mildest conditions, many of the callers conditions are now deemed too benign for transport to the emergency room and they are instructed to stay home in overcrowded apartments where they will possibly infect their cohabitants as their condition further deteriorates.
PARIS (Reuters) - France used two high-speed TGV trains and a German military plane to move more than three dozen critically ill coronavirus patients on Sunday to ease the pressure on overwhelmed hospitals in eastern France. The Grand Est region was the first in France to be hit by a wave of coronavirus infections that has rapidly moved westwards to engulf the greater Paris region, where hospitals are desperately adding intensive care beds to cope with the influx.

PARIS (Reuters) - France used two high-speed TGV trains and a German military plane to move more than three dozen critically ill coronavirus patients on Sunday to ease the pressure on overwhelmed hospitals in eastern France.

The Grand Est region was the first in France to be hit by a wave of coronavirus infections that has rapidly moved westwards to engulf the greater Paris region, where hospitals are desperately adding intensive care beds to cope with the influx.

The specially adapted TGV trains carried 36 patients to the Nouvelle-Acquitaine region in the southwest, where a line of ambulances waited outside Bordeaux station.

"We urgently need to relieve congestion in the region's intensive care units, because you have to stay one step ahead," Francois Braun, head of the SAMU paramedics, told RTL radio.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Saturday warned France's 67 million people that the toughest weeks in the fight against epidemic were still to come. The number of coronavirus deaths surpassed 2,000 this weekend and the country is in virtual lockdown.

Hospitals are racing to add intensive care facilities, sometimes taking ventilators out of operating theatres as they build makeshift units. Student medics are being drafted in and retired doctors are returning to the wards.

President Emmanuel Macron has deployed the army to help to move the sick while a field hospital has been set up in the eastern city of Mulhouse.

Paramedics in hazmat suits loaded several patients on life-support into a German Airbus A400M aircraft in Strasbourg for transfer across the border to the German city of Ulm.

European Affairs Minister Amelie de Montchalin hailed the German aid as a symbol of European solidarity, though she expressed frustration at the failure of European Union members to agree on economic tools to mitigate the sharp downturn.

More than 662,700 people have been infected by the coronavirus globally and 30,751 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

(Reporting by Richard Lough and Jean-Stephane Brosse; Editing by David Goodman)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Shocking footage has emerged of a foul-mouthed woman screaming racist abuse and spitting at two sisters while accusing them of 'bringing coronavirus to Australia'.

The incident unfolded at Marrickville, in Sydney's inner west, in front of horrified witnesses at 3pm on Monday.

Sophie Do, 23, and her sister Rosa, 19, were crossing Petersham Road when the irate woman and her friend made the first of their racial slurs.

'Two girls walked passed us yelling racist things like ''stay away from them, they've got coronavirus'',' Rosa told Daily Mail Australia.

Video captured by the sisters and onlookers showed the woman, in a grey sweatsuit, antagonise the two sisters before attempting to kick them.

The argument broke out in the streets of Marrickville, in Sydney's inner west, at around 3pm on Monday

'Hate crimes against Asians have increased and I've seen disgusting videos from all around the world. I never thought I'd be in one,' Sophie (left with her sister) said

'I simply could not tolerate it so I yelled back and said ''Excuse me? What did you just say? Say it again'',' Rosa said.

The 19-year-old university student said the two women continued to taunt her and her sister.

The woman in grey was captured on the footage screaming: 'I've got a knife in my bag... you little Asian dog.'

'Get out of here now, who do you think you're talking to,' she continued to scream while shaping up to the sisters.

When Sophie and Rosa called the women out for being racist and asked them to walk away, the woman in grey responded: 'I'm not going to walk you dumb s**t.'

Video captured by the sisters and shocked onlookers shows the woman antagonise the two sisters while screaming at them

Rosa said the young women started walking away before coming back to abuse them again.

'She was untying her jumper from her waist and putting her bag on the ground, ready to fight me,' Rosa said.

The woman was then seen trying to kick Rosa's back, but Sophie quickly managed to pull her away.

A bystander then rushed to intervene.

But when he told the two women to leave Sophie and Rosa alone, she spat at them, getting saliva in Rosa's left eye and in her hair.

The woman in grey was captured on the footage screaming: 'I've got a knife in my bag you little Asian dog'

Sophie (left) said no one should be able to get away with racial attacks, which have ramped up in recent months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pictured with sister Rosa

'Asian b**ch. You brought corona here. Eat a bat again you dumb wh***,' she continued while walking away with her friend.

Witnesses then helped Rosa flush her eye out before she and Sophie went to the doctor and the police station to file a report.

Sophie said no one should be able to get away with racial attacks, which have ramped up in recent months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

'Hate crimes against Asians have increased and I've seen disgusting videos from all around the world. I never thought I'd be in one,' Sophie said.

'It made me feel afraid for my sisters' safety. I knew that if I retaliated, it would've ended badly for us both.

'So I kept my cool. I knew I took the best approach to ensure we got out of the situation safely.

'You brought corona here. Eat a bat again you dumb wh***,' she continued while walking away

Sophie Do (left) and her sister Rosa (right) were crossing the road in Marrickville when they were targeted by a racist woman who accused them of bringing coronavirus to Australia

'It made angry but mostly disappointed that we even had to hear some of the things she was saying and then be physically assaulted.'

Videos of the incident have since gone viral, with thousands of Australians condemning the the racist act.

'All the racists have something to do with failure in life,' one person wrote.

'That girl in grey ought to be ashamed of herself and her actions,' said another.

'I am so so sorry that you and your sister had to deal with this kind of disgusting inexcusable behaviour,' another person commented.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted NSW Police for comment.
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Linkedin Ivany Atina Arbi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 30, 2020 18:01 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e6b77c 1 Politics omnibus-bill-on-job-creation,omnibus-bill,house-of-representatives,COVID-19 Free

Civil society groups have urged the House of Representatives to halt the deliberation of a controversial omnibus bill and focus on the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country during its current sitting session, which was opened on Monday.

"We demand the House stop deliberating the bill, which particularly endangers poor families, during the COVID-19 pandemic," the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) said in an Instagram post on Sunday.

The omnibus bill, which is aimed at amending 73 existing laws and consist of 15 chapters and 174 articles, has gained criticism from activists who argue that the bill will harm the interests of workers.

The Federation of Independent Workers Unions said the bill would significantly relax outsourcing restrictions and eventually make employees "contract workers during their whole lives."

The YLBHI also urged the House to keep watch on the government's measures to handle the rapidly escalating health crisis as to avoid further social, economic and health impacts.

"The House, together with the government, should reallocate state funds for COVID-19 relief," the YLBHI said, adding that among spending that could be reallocated included salaries of the House members and government officials.

The legislature should also assure that the public get fast, accurate and reliable information from the government regarding the pandemic.

Read also: Guide to omnibus bill on job creation: 1,028 pages in 10 minutes

Similarly, the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) also urged the House to stop deliberating the bill, saying that lawmakers should focus on demanding that the government ensure supplies of basic needs for the public during the outbreak.

"This includes ensuring food supplies, access to clean water, sanitation and financial assistance for poor people," Walhi campaign coordinator Edo Rakhman said.

The House opened the new sitting period on Monday after having been in recess for a month since Feb. 28 amid the government's policy of physical distancing to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

House Speaker Puan Maharani previously said that all House activities would be directed to the handling of COVID-19 during the health crisis.

As of Monday, Indonesia had reported 1,414 coronavirus infections in the country, with 122 cases that have turned fatal.
(Bloomberg) -- Australias banking chiefs are braced for a nightmare scenario of a 10% economic contraction, shockingly high unemployment and spiraling loan losses as shockwaves from the coronavirus ripple through the economy.

As Prime Minister Scott Morrisons administration follows other countries in shutting down large segments of the economy to try to stem the viruss spread, signs of individual and business tolls are starting to multiply.

Tens of thousands of workers have already been sent home as retailers and airlines all-but close and queues outside job centers lengthen. Australias lenders are watching this play out in real time, with hardship telephone numbers ringing off the hook as consumers and businesses try to access relief packages.

Banks are the ICU unit of the economy, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Shayne Elliott said Monday at an Australian Financial Review event -- conducted online due to the pandemic. Corporates and households will come into care and we will have this unfortunate role at some point of having to decide who comes out at the end.

A week ago, Commonwealth Bank of Australia Chief Executive Officer Matt Comyn said he would have estimated the economy would shrink by about 5% in the first quarter. Now, a 10% contraction is a reasonable assumption, Comyn said at the same event. No question there are going to be higher loan losses.

The nations banks have special dispensation from the competition authority to co-operate throughout the crisis and have banded together to launch a range of hardship measures, including allowing consumers to suspend mortgage payments for up-to six months.

National Australia Bank Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Ross McEwan echoed his counterparts on the dire outlook for the economy.

I think you will see very, very large GDP drops, he told the the same forum. Unemployment will also go shockingly high for a period of time.

Story continues

NABs economics research team said Friday the jobless rate could soar to 12% and hold there for the remainder of the year.

Right now, the three CEOs emphasized that the focus is on getting through the crisis and being prepared to help the economy reboot on the other side. In the medium term, thats likely to mean tough choices about who gets help.

There is no playbook for this, McEwan said. Weve not seen this sort of health and financial crisis at the same time.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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At the center of the U.S. government's $2 trillion economic stimulus package in response to the coronavirus pandemic are direct payments that will put money in the wallets of most Americans. The hope is that those payments -- as much as $3,400 for a family of four, even higher for bigger families -- will tide over struggling households until the virus spread slows and shuttered workplaces can reopen.

1. How much money should I expect to get?

If you earn less than $75,000, or you and your spouse collectively make less than $150,000, you'll get $1,200 for each of you plus $500 for each child under 17. Those amounts are reduced for people with higher incomes, and individuals with $99,000 in earnings (or $198,000 for a couple) get nothing, even if they have children. You must have a Social Security number to be eligible for a payment, which will not be taxed. Kyle Pomerleau, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, estimates that 165 million people, or 93% of all tax filers, will get some benefit, with about 140 million of them getting the full amount. Seniors whose only income is from Social Security and veterans who rely solely on disability payments will receive the payments.

2. How will the IRS calculate my income?

If you've filed a tax return this year, the IRS will use the information you provided there about your 2019 income, marital status and dependents. (The usual deadline for filing tax returns, April 15, has been pushed back to July 15 this year in another response to the pandemic.) For those who haven't submitted tax documents this year, the IRS will use data from last year's filings. Americans who don't earn enough to be required to file a tax return can submit one to the IRS now to make sure the agency has accurate information on them.

3. How quickly will I get the money, and how?

How quickly is an open (and important) question. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said he wants the payments to go out within three weeks. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said President Donald Trump hopes the Internal Revenue Service can start sending the money much sooner than that, on April 6. The IRS has not weighed in on timing, but former agency officials say both of those timeframes are overly optimistic; they point to previous stimulus check payments that took about two months to reach taxpayers. As for the method, a Senate Republican aide who helped draft the legislation said that for households for which the IRS has direct-deposit information -- which is about half of those eligible for the money -- those payments will go straight into people's accounts. Checks sent in the mail will take longer to reach people, the aide said. The government is also contemplating using pre-loaded debit cards to send the payments to people who don't have bank accounts.

4. Why is the timing important?

Recipients will, of course, be anxious for the money to help pay bills. But market-watchers also will want to know when the U.S. economy might see a burst of consumer spending.

5. What happens if my money doesn't show up?

If a payment doesn't hit your bank account or mailbox, or you get less than you think you're owed, you can make claim for what you think you're owed on the tax return you file in 2021. You also could try calling the IRS in hopes of reaching someone on the other end. When the IRS sent stimulus checks in 2008, calls to the agency more than doubled, and many taxpayers weren't able to get their questions answered, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.

6. How much will this cost the U.S. government?

The Joint Committee on Taxation, the official congressional scorekeeper on such matters, says the cost will be $292.4 billion over a decade. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a think tank, had offered a similar estimate, $290 billion. Another group, the Tax Foundation, pegs the cost at $301 billion.
Maputo (Mozambique) 29 March 2020 (SPS)- Saharawi President addressed a condolence letter to the President of Mozambique, H.E. Filipe Nyusi, condemning the latest terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado perpetuated on March 23 and 25th.

With strong condemnation and enormous sadness, we received in the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic the news of the terrorist attack On the 23rd and 25th of this March, in the two towns of Quissanga and Mocimboa da Praia, province of Cabo Delgado, which left many victims and destroyed numerous public installations and amenities, the letter reads.

President Ghali extended his condolences to his Mozambican counterpart and to the families of the victims, on behalf of the Saharawi People and Government.

He further considered that the SADR is certain of the ability of the Government and people of Mozambique to pass this ordeal to defeat the threat of terrorism, thanks to your wise leadership, good governance and the deep consciousness of People of Mozambique, in line with the efforts already done to restore and establish peace and security.

He further seized this opportunity to express our solidarity and support to Your Excellency and through you to the people of Mozambique, Wishing you more progress and stability, the letter concludes. (SPS)

90/500/60 (SPS)
For the past two weeks, worst-case scenarios have played out in the minds of family members of prison inmates.

A husband with severe respiratory issues getting COVID-19 and no access to life-saving treatment. An indefinite social isolation that looks more like solitary confinement. Riots as fearful prisoners, fuelled by rumours and lack of information, panic or protest.

We dont have the death sentence in Canada, said one woman, whose husband is serving a 10-year sentence and will be eligible for day parole at the end of the year.

You have to think about human life. You cant just think... theyve done something bad so they dont deserve to live, she said.

Mondays announcement that two inmates and nine staff in a maximum-security prison in a remote part of Quebec have tested positive for COVID-19 renewed calls from advocates for a compassionate, responsible approach that includes releasing some prisoners to free up space in prisons.

The Port-Cartier Institution, which has the capacity for 237 inmates, is one of Canadas most isolated penitentiaries, said Justin Piche, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa. Just think about the potential for transmission in penitentiaries located near medium-sized municipalities and large urban centres that staff members come in and out of every single day.

Compared to the general population, the prison population has a disproportionately higher number of mental health issues, addictions and illnesses, including higher prevalence of diseases that compromise the immune system. Indigenous men and women are overrepresented, making up 30 per cent of the 15,000 people in federal prison but only five per cent of the general population.

Theyre a cross-section of the more marginalized and vulnerable members of our society, said Howard Sapers, who conducted the Independent Review of Ontario Corrections and is a former federal Correctional Investigator.

Advocates have suggested releasing non-violent offenders and offenders nearing their statutory release dates  a move that could free up space in the institutions to allow for social distancing and less risk to the inmates who remain. Temporary absences, currently suspended, could be reintroduced for medical reasons.

The federal government is dithering. They are playing with peoples lives and they need to take action immediately, Piche said, noting that provinces have already taken steps to release low-risk offenders from jails. You can tell who is really considered disposable in Canada right now.

Some inmates could safely return home and others could go to halfway houses, which should also be working to move people into their homes to free up space, Piche said. The money saved from keeping those people in custody could be reallocated to allow for community supervision and housing supports, he said.

Like many who have family in provincial jails and prisons across the country, Dinny Dickson worries what will happen to staff and inmates with many of the latter vulnerable to begin with  as the virus spreads.

Inmates, the retired social worker said, do not have the same access to health care as people in the community. She fears many will become terribly sick, with poor care, and some of them are going to die.

Her son Brian Dickson was convicted of first-degree murder in 2014 in the 2011 killing of York University student Qian (Necole) Liu. He is serving his sentence in a British Columbia prison.

Its going to be like a dirty seniors home, said Dickson. What we are doing to people (in jails) is unconscionable.

The potential for a crisis has been recognized by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said Sunday that the government is very concerned about the fact that our correctional institutions could be places where  are places where there could be greater vulnerability to COVID-19.

Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair has asked both the Commissioner of the CSC and the Chair of the Parole Board of Canada to determine whether there are measures that could be taken to facilitate early release for certain offenders, according to a statement from his office on Monday.

The CSC said Monday they are currently conducting an analysis of the offender population to be in a position to make evidence-based recommendations.

Meanwhile, the Parole Board of Canada continues to conduct hearings remotely, considering the health risk from COVID-19 as a factor. They did not say whether more hearings are being conducted and said the number of parole applications granted in the past two weeks is not currently available.

As of Saturday, tests had been conducted on 50 federal inmates with 45 returning negative and two positive, with three tests pending, CSC said. There are approximately 15,000 people in federal prisons across the country. Twelve CSC employees have tested positive for COVID-19 and are in isolation.

Cases have also begun to show up in the provincial jail system where the province has said some low-risk offenders nearing the end of their sentences are being released early. Between March 13 and March 25, 2020, the total inmate population in Ontarios adult correctional system decreased by 1,286 from about 7,400, according to a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Solicitor General.

On Thursday the province confirmed positive tests for an inmate and a guard at the Toronto South Detention Centre.

A youth services officer at the Roy McMurtry Youth Centre tested positive late last week for COVID-19 after returning home from travelling, an Ontario Public Service Employee Union (OPSEU) official confirmed Monday. The Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services employee is at home in isolation and expected to make a full recovery.

Peter Harding, who sits on the Ministry Employee Relations Committee, said he is satisfied infection control protocols were followed and none of the youth inside the facility have tested positive for the virus, or appear to have symptoms. There are currently between 50 and 60 youth at the provinces largest youth detention facility located in Brampton, Ont.

Harding said the ministry is taking adequate security measures including temperature screening to prevent COVID-19 from spreading inside the provinces six secure youth detention facilities.
Dutch English French

The measures to contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus have an important impact on the global economy and consequently also on our company.

Our focus is on the health and safety of our employees, our tenants, suppliers and users of the spaces we lease or make available.

We are in direct contact with our tenants to assess the situation on an individual basis.

The retail part of our consolidated real estate portfolio is at present most impacted. The current circumstances do at present however not impair the contractual lease obligations, unless otherwise defined by local legislation or regulation.

As a regulated real estate company (SIR/GVV) with a real estate portfolio spread across the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (53%), Belgium (31%) and Austria (16%) and operating in the asset classes offices (46%), retail (48%) and logistics (6%), the company is partially exposed to the possible consequences of the abovementioned measures.

Without these extraordinary circumstances, the rental income in 2020 would have reached a level comparable to that of the past year. Given the strict, limiting government measures taken within the framework of containing the spread of the Covid-19 virus since mid-March 2020 in the 3 countries Leasinvest Real Estate operates in, and depending on the duration of these measures, this can entail, especially in the retail segment, a substantial reduction in rents received and an increase in overdue rents, as an important part of the tenants were required to close their shops, and could ask Leasinvest Real Estate, as landlord of the buildings concerned, for compensation.

Besides this, we expect an impact on the valuation of the participation (10.70%) in Retail Estates, as its share price has strongly decreased over the past weeks.

Given the uncertainty with regard to the duration and the impact of the measures taken by the different governments, the company can at present not assess the impact on the 2020 company results. The debt ratio is however expected to increase on 31 March 2020, but will remain below the 60%-threshold. The company monitors the impact of the measures in the markets it operates in on a permanent basis and will consider further investments in this context.

Nevertheless, we wish to emphasize that Leasinvest Real Estate disposes of solid and fixed shareholders, a high-quality real estate portfolio, confirmed and sufficient credit lines (headroom of ca.  90 million on 31 December 2019) and good relationships with its banks, in order to bridge this period.

We also wish to confirm that the aforementioned events do not impact the events of the closed financial year 2019, as mentioned in our Annual financial report 2019 that is currently available (Dutch version) on https://www.leasinvest.be/en/investor-relations/reports/ . Consequently, and as announced by the company on 19 February, the payment of a gross dividend of 5.25 EUR per share will be proposed at the next general meeting of 18 May.

Anyone who wishes to receive a printed copy of the Annual financial report 2019 is asked to register on https://www.leasinvest.be/en/investor-relations/ir-contact/

For more information, contact



Leasinvest Real Estate



MICHEL VAN GEYTE

Chief Executive Officer

T: +32 3 238 98 77

E: michel.van.geyte@leasinvest.be On LEASINVEST REAL ESTATE SCA



Leasinvest Real Estate SCA is a Public BE-REIT (SIRP/OGVV) that invests in high quality and well-located retail buildings and offices in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Belgium and Austria.



The real estate portfolio of Leasinvest is spread across the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (53%), Belgium (31%) and Austria (16%).



The public BE-REIT is listed on Euronext Brussels.







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Clearly, a large group of people in Worcester werent practicing social distancing Friday night.

But some of the people at the party are also accused of violating weapons laws and trying to fight police after officers discovered two guns while responding to the scene.

Worcester police were called to the area of May and Mason streets around 9 p.m. Friday for a report of gunshots. Officers discovered shots had been fired but no one had been hurt.

Just over an hour and a half later, police were called to 46 May St. for a report of a large fight. The group ran just before police arrived.

Then, just before midnight, police were called to the same location. A group of 50 people were arguing and talking loudly about guns that were present at the party, police said.

Two officers who arrived at the scene recognized several people as being gang-affiliated, according to police. The officers heard the people speaking about guns at the party.

When officers knocked on the door, they observed individuals inside take a backpack and try to run away, police said. Officers entered the residence to break up the large party.

People inside the party were pat-frisked and checked the backpack. Police said a loaded handgun was found inside the backpack.

Luna Kona, 21, who lives at the May Street residence, was arrested now faces several firearms charges along with a disorderly conduct charge. She had the backpack when police arrived.

Officers searched the residence and found another gun, according to police.

Police said a 17-year-old male refused to take his hands out of his pockets and pushed an officer at the scene. The teen was charged with assault and battery on a police officer, resisting arrest and other charges.

A second 17-year-old male is accused of rushing toward the disturbance to stop the arrest. The second teen tried to incite the crowd, police said. He was charged with interfering with police, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.

As police worked to control the scene, a third man, identified later as 19-year-old Jason Rumrill, began to scream at police and challenged officers to fight him, police said. He was charged with disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct.

The arrests continued as police said 18-year-old Andrew Nguyen was screaming and causing a disruption in the neighborhood, causing multiple neighbors to look out their windows and open their doors. He was told to leave, but didnt, according to police. He is also facing disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace charges.

Police also arrested 21-year-old Rashad Thomasson on outstanding warrants.

A Worcester police spokesman said those at the party clearly werent adhering to social distancing guidelines amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed the life of 56 people in Massachusetts as of Monday.

Officials said on Monday there were 101 COVID-19 cases in Worcester with that number expected to rise.

Police across Massachusetts said people are not being arrested for failing to practice social distancing.
WUHAN, China  The city at the center of Chinas virus outbreak was reopening for business Monday after authorities lifted more of the controls that locked downs tens of millions of people for two months. I want to revenge shop, one excited customer declared as she traversed one of Wuhans major shopping streets,

Customers were still scarce, though, as those who did venture out were greeted by shop employees who wore masks and carried signs that told them to keep a safe distance.

Among them was this teacher, who was visiting her family when most access to the city of 11 million was suspended Jan. 23 to stem the coronavirus spread.

Im so excited, I want to cry, said the woman, who gave only her English name Kat as she eyed the wares in the Chuhe Hanjie pedestrian mall.

After two months trapped at home, I want to jump, she added, jumping up and down excitedly.

A teacher in the eastern city of Nanjing, Kat was among those trapped in Wuhan when the central Chinese manufacturing hub was shut down as the virus spread.

While governments worldwide were tightening travel and other controls, the ruling Communist Party has rolled back curbs on Wuhan and other areas as it tries to revive the worlds second-largest economy after declaring victory over the outbreak.

The city in Hubei province is the last major population center still under travel controls. Residents were allowed to go to other parts of Hubei but could not leave the province. Restrictions on other Hubei residents were lifted March 23. The final curbs on Wuhan end April 8.

Wuhan became the center of the most intensive anti-disease controls ever imposed after the virus emerged in December. Some researchers suggest it may have jumped to humans from a bat at one of the citys wildlife markets.

The ruling party suppressed information about the outbreak and reprimanded doctors in Wuhan who tried to warn the public. As late as Jan. 19, city leaders went ahead with a dinner for 40,000 households to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

Local leaders held one more event, a Jan. 22 holiday gala at which musicians and actors were sniffling and coughing, before the government acknowledged the severity of the problem. The next morning, residents awoke to news that their sprawling city that straddles the Yangtze River was cut off from the outside world.

Police set up roadblocks at expressway entrances. Only truckers leaving the city to collect food and a handful of other drivers with official passes were allowed through. Bus and subway service was shut down.

Restaurants, shops, cinemas and other businesses were ordered to close, leaving streets empty and silent in a foreshadowing of controls that would spread to other countries. Families were ordered to stay home.

Restrictions spread to cities near Wuhan and eventually expanded to cover some 800 million people, more than half of Chinas population.

Wuhan became the center of a massive effort to treat the sick, understand the virus and stop its spread. Two temporary hospitals with more than 1,000 beds each were built and a third one was set up in an exhibition center. Hundreds of military doctors and nurses were dispatched to the city, along with tons of medical supplies.

President Xi Jinping visited Wuhan for the first time March 10 in a show of official confidence that the virus was under control. The next day, the government began to ease controls on Hubei, allowing some factories and other businesses deemed essential to reopen.

On Monday, about 75% of shops in the Chuhe Hanjie mall in the city center were open but many imposed limits on how many people could enter. Shopkeepers set up dispensers for hand sanitizer and checked customers for signs of fever.

Buses and subways started to run again Saturday and the train station reopened, bringing thousands of people to the city.

At the same time, the ruling party rolled out a massive propaganda effort to portray its leaders as the heroes of the outbreak and deflect accusations they allowed the virus to spread due to politically motivated foot-dragging.

Government spokespeople have suggested the coronavirus origin is unknown, contradicting earlier official statements that it came from Wuhan. A foreign ministry spokesman said the virus might have been brought by visiting American military officials, a claim that prompted an angry response from Washington.

Wuhan suffered 2,547 coronavirus deaths, accounting for about 80% of Chinas total fatality toll of 3,186 as of Sunday, according to the National Health Commission. The country had a total of 81,470 confirmed cases, though both the number of cases and the death toll are believed to under count the real number of victims.

Officials are under orders to revive manufacturing, retailing and other industries while also preventing a spike in infections as people return to work.

This week, visitors to Wuhan were required to report how they arrived and their reason for coming. Hotel guests were checked twice a day for fever. They were required to show a code on a smartphone app that tracks the users health status and travel.

Authorities set aside five hotels to quarantine visitors, including foreigners who lack Chinese identity cards. Hotel staff in protective coveralls sprayed guests and their luggage with disinfectant.

Passengers who wanted to board a public bus had to show the smartphone health code to volunteers in red vests.

Customers at the upscale Wuhan International Mall were greeted by employees who wore masks and carried signs that said, Please wear masks all the way. Please dont gather. Please keep a safe distance.

Automakers and other manufacturers in Wuhan reopened but said they needed to restore the flow of components from suppliers before production can return to normal levels.

Some were waiting for employees who went to their hometowns for the Lunar New Year holiday and were stranded when plane, train and bus service in areas deemed at high risk were suspended.

The owner of a candy shop in the Chuhe Hanjie mall said two of her four employees were back at work but she wasnt sure whether the others were willing to come back.

Weve only prepared a little stock, said the owner, Li Zhen. Most people are still afraid of the virus.

A poster at the entrance to the mall asked customers to wear masks and cooperate with fever checks.

A banner nearby said, Wuhan We Are Coming Back. Thank You.

Two women in protective clothing that identified them as medical workers were surrounded by pedestrians who waved Chinese flags at them in a gesture of gratitude. Li gave them bags of candy.

We may have to wait for a while to see when things can return to normal, Li. said

___

McDonald reported from Beijing. Associated Press producer Olivia Zhang contributed to this report.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-31 00:54:48|Editor: huaxia

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by Keren Setton

JERUSALEM, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Israel's unemployment rate has climbed to over 23 percent by Monday, as the impact of the coronavirus looms larger in the country.

Before the outbreak of the global crisis, Israel's economy was in a good position, where the unemployment had remained at fewer than four percent. Now with tightened restrictions aimed at slowing down the spread of the virus, more than 750,000 have registered as jobless.

The majority of them are workers who have been sent on unpaid leave. While it is believed the majority of those on unpaid leave will be able to return to their jobs once the crisis is over, there is no certainty.

So far, the government has announced it will offer a generous package of benefits for the market, small businesses and the unemployed. But details of the program have yet been published. According to the Israeli media, the size of the package will be around 22 billion U.S. dollars.

But because the economic blow came at a time when Israel was doing well financially, recovery will probably be speedier. The Bank of Israel estimates that the unemployment rate at the end of 2020 will drop to seven percent.

According to the International Labor Organization, 25 million people around the world could be unemployed as a result of the pandemic and the subsequent measures to curb it.

On Sunday, the Israeli cabinet was supposed to convene over both the stimulus and recovery package as well as further restrictions. The meeting did not take place. Reports on Israeli news outlets suggested a disagreement between health officials who wanted a complete lockdown on the country and financial officials who feared such measures would deal a deadly blow to the economy.

"We must re-open the economy in a few weeks," said Elise Brezis, head of the Aharon Meir Center for Economic Policy at Bar-Ilan University.

"Israel cannot maintain the level of quarantine for so long as China did. The Israeli economy is not as centralized. The private sector in Israel has greater weight in its economy," she explained.

Since the outbreak in Israel, over 4,000 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 with 16 deaths from the virus.

Currently, Israelis are required to stay home except for a few extraordinary cases, while restaurants and certain shops are only allowed to make deliveries.

Many workers have been given the option to work from home. Lagging behind other countries, Israel is much lower in labor productivity for complicated reasons.

"The world was already experiencing change due to automation and globalization that also leads to exponential change, but the rate of the change due to the coronavirus is greater," said Keren Litani, a researcher and lecturer on the future world of work.

"The rate of disruption the virus creates is significant. Many professions crashed at once. The coronavirus has a faster impact than thinking machines have," Litani added.

For Brezis, the Israeli professor, the major change will be in the international system after the pandemic recedes.

"What is happening will accelerate the change. It shows that the U.S. hegemony is gone," she told Xinhua.
Charles Dickens was the peerless chronicler of the Victorian era  so what might he have made of our modern age of wisdom and foolishness?

The Journalists' Charity, which the writer helped found, has launched a competition to mark the 150th anniversary of his death to discover just that.

Budding writers are being urged to take advantage of the lockdown to unleash their inner Dickens and pen a portrait in 300 words of a 21st century character who might have captured his imagination were he living today.

These short pieces - written with Dickens' descriptive flamboyance - should describe characters who could hold their own beside Ebenezer Scrooge, Miss Havisham and Oliver Twist.

The competition, which is open for entries until June 9, will be judged by a panel including Dickens' great-great grandson and representatives from the Dickens Fellowship.

The Journalists' Charity - with the support of the Dickens Fellowship - has asked writers to create and pen a portrait of a 21st century character they believe could have become a Dickensian classic (Pictured: Charles Dickens)

The winning character will be brought to life in an illustration by Fleet Street cartoonist Stanley 'Mac' McMurtry.

'This is such a wonderful competition, full of rich potential and modern-day relevance,' Ian Dickens, president of the Dickens Fellowship said.

'The joy of Dickens is the range of characters that inhabit every page. Drawn from acute observation of those he knew and those he chanced upon, they connect with the reader because we all recognise elements within them.

'And such rich pickings continue to place themselves firmly in front of us every day, if we bother to stop, listen and imagine. I can't wait to meet them.'

The competition, which is open for entries until June 9, will be judged by a panel including Dickens' great-great grandson and representatives from the Dickens Fellowship

These 300-word pieces should describe characters who could hold their own beside Ebenezer Scrooge (pictured: Alastair Sim), Miss Havisham and Oliver Twist

Ramsay Smith, chairman of the Journalists' Charity, added: 'Our charity is delighted to launch this competition with the support of the Dickens Fellowship.

'As a pioneer of the charity, Charles Dickens embodied a remarkable charitable spirit that has remained at our core for more than 150 years.

'Journalists the world over are doing a brilliant job reporting the Coronavirus pandemic but the reality is that many, particularly freelance journalists, are facing an extremely challenging time.

'This competition provides a great opportunity for people  journalists and non-journalists alike - to put their creative skills to work in these strange times. We hope everyone who holds the works of Dickens dear will take part.'

Pictured: Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham (left) and Jeremy Irvine as Pip (right) in Great Expectations

Pictured: Jack Wild as the Artful Dodger (left) and Ron Moody as Fagin (right) in Oliver!

Board members from the Journalists' Charity will make up the judging panel alongside Mr Dickens, Professor Malcolm Andrews, editor of The Dickensian and Professor Jenny Hartley, editor of The Selected Letters of Charles Dickens.

The competition is open to everyone and is free to join, though participants are encouraged to make a donation to The Journalists' Charity.

Proceeds from the contest will go to assist journalists who are facing hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Entries must be received by email or post by 5pm on June 9, 2020 - the 150th anniversary of the death of Charles Dickens.

Submissions can be sent to Dickens@journalistscharity.org.uk or by mail to Dickens House, 35 Wathen Road, Dorking, Surrey, RH4 1JY.

Full details and rules can be found at www.journalistscharity.org.uk/dickens.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced there are now 1,326 confirmed COVID-19 coronavirus cases in South Africa.

Ramaphosa said there have been three deaths in the country as a result of the virus.

The president made the statement as part of an address to the nation on Monday evening.

He thanked South Africans for staying at home and obeying the rules of the 21-day lockdown, and added that these actions will help stop the spread of the virus.

Confirmed cases rise

The presidents announcement comes after Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize announced on 29 March that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in South Africa had risen to 1,280.

Additionally, Mkhize said the second death documented as a result of the virus was that of a 74-year-old man who had been in ICU in a private hospital in Ladysmith. He had travelled to the Kruger National Park with his family and returned with flu-like symptoms.

It has been reported to us that the deceased patient had an underlying skin cancer condition (melanoma), which had already complicated, said Mkhize.

The deceaseds family, 14 health workers, including 3 specialist doctors who were in contact with him, are now in quarantine and being monitored.

Do not wear a mask and gloves

The Western Cape Health Department has warned South Africans against wearing gloves and masks during the 21-day lockdown, stating these items can actually help to spread the coronavirus.

Many people feel that they can protect themselves against COVID-19 by wearing personal protection equipment such as gloves and masks as a precaution, the department said.

If you are not ill and not in close contact with someone who has coronavirus, you do not need to wear a mask or gloves.

Scientific evidence proves that by wearing a mask, if it is not needed, you may put yourself at higher risk because you fiddle with the mask and then transfer germs from your hands to your face.
With domestic violence rates in Belarus among the highest in Europe and few legal protections, some women are turning to self-defense classes.

On an early Saturday morning some 15 women gather in one of the ubiquitous,gray, three-story buildings on the outskirts of Minsk.

There are coffee and snacks to grab, and chairs are already evenly placed in a circle. The spacious room where we meet is a gym in its everyday life, but we arent here to get into shape.

The next two days will be part martial arts lessons, part support group.

This is the essence of Wen-Do: a method of self-defense and assertiveness training to empower women to fend off harassment and speak up for themselves.

Courses such as these are relatively new and not yet widespread. There are many reasons why the idea of womens self-defense is not more popular in Belarus: a wide variety of gender-based stereotypes, a tendency to blame the victims of violence, and a persistent belief in a strong mans shoulder. And yet every second woman suffers different forms of violence, with nearly every third being abused physically.

Wen-Do covers a wide variety of physical and verbal techniques. Women learn how to fight back and respond to wrist and arm holds and how to escape bear hugs and choke holds.

Olga Laniewska. Courtesy photo.

Far from being just about self-defense, Wen-Do also focuses on consent, awareness, and avoidance of threatening situations. We will gain these skills during the next two days.

The group members are all different. Tall and short. Blond and dark-haired. Students and professionals. We are in our 50s or just turned 16. We met just a moment ago, but already feel friendly toward each other.

But when Olga Laniewska, our trainer, suddenly asks us to shout, we stare at each other in confusion. It is a women-only course. But however safe and comfortable the atmosphere is, it is not easy to start screaming when youre surrounded by near-strangers.

Olga urges us on:

Attackers know perfectly well that women often feel too ashamed to react when they are sexually assaulted. But your voice is your weapon. Use it.

This time, we dont hesitate to shout.

Breaking Blocks and Stereotypes

Natalia (her name has been changed upon request), a PhD student, needed to resolve an issue with her doctoral adviser. He would abuse his position by constantly asking her personal questions about her family and her husband. She felt dependent on her advisor but wanted to stop this unwanted attention.

At Wen-Do sessions, women share real-life experiences of physical or verbal aggression, whether from strangers or known attackers. Harassment on the street. A violent husband. An assault at school. A co-worker who crosses too many boundaries.

Women then discuss and role-play situations to build self-confidence and react in a way that works best for them.

In Natalias case, she practiced her posture, body language, voice, and use of specific words until she was happy with the outcome.

Participants in a WenDo class in Minsk. Courtesy photo.

As she told me a few months later, when her adviser approached her again, she was able to stop his questions politely but firmly.

He never behaved in the same abusive way again, Natalia says. He probably understood that I wouldnt allow this anymore.

Curiously, she says, their relationship has actually improved since then.

What was your husbands reaction when you signed up for the course? I ask.

He is very supportive and open-minded, she says. But sometimes he doesnt understand why Wen-Do and the subject of domestic violence, since our relationship is not abusive. When she was 19, someone tried to rape her. Although she was able to escape, the fear stayed with her.

Another student, Alina, 24,experienced domestic violence at home. Wen-Do taught her how to set boundaries and not allow others to violate them. Now, a few months later, she tells me it is still difficult for her to say no without guilt. But she is learning.

At the end of each days session, the participants break a piece of wood with a blow of the hand. Just as in martial arts, this is a vital part of the training, when a person shows their strength and courage. For those in my group, this was a moment of empowerment and resolution.

It boosts your self-confidence levels. Without it, its impossible to defend yourself, group member Hanna Parkhomenka says.

Natalia, Hanna, and Alina are among 900 women who have taken a Wen-Do course in Belarus since the first one almost four years ago.

Does this mean they all know where to hit an aggressor? I ask Laniewska, the only Wen-Do trainer in Belarus and one of very few Russian-speaking trainers internationally.

Its not just about kicks and blocks, though I teach those too, she says.

Ideally, after a woman learns Wen-Do, she doesnt allow herself to be abused or attacked in the first place, because she is aware of her boundaries and what behavior she finds unacceptable, Laniewska says. The main focus of Wen-Do is to avoid threat and assault if possible. During the sessions, we talk about how this is even more important in Belarus, where the legal concept of self-defense is not fully elaborated.

In 2016, Laniewska received her Wen-Do training certification in Poland, where she had lived for 15 years, through the Autonomy Foundation, an NGO. It took 18 months and many interviews and conversations with psychologists until she was certified. She then moved back to Belarus, partnered up with Radislava, an organization that helps domestic violence victims, and began offering self-defense classes  free, when Radislava can raise the funds. When theres no money from sponsors, Olga gives paid workshops. If a group cant afford it, she works for free.

Wen-Do can be adapted for all ages and abilities. Courses typically last 12 hours, spread over two days. Laniewska teaches mostly in Minsk, although she has also given classes in Hrodna, Navapolack, Brest, and other cities outside the capital.

Studies Show Positive Outcomes

Empowerment through self-defense is not new. Yet its positive effects are clear, advocates say.

In Canada, where Wen-Do originated in the 1970s, the method was incorporated into a sexual assault resistance program designed for first-year female students at three Canadian universities. The results, published in 2015, were impressive. According to the authors, the training was correlated with a 46-percent reduction in completed rape and a 63-percent reduction in attempted sexual assault in the following year, compared to a control group of students.

A similar study of college students who took a self-defense class, conducted by Jocelyn Hollander of the University of Oregon, came to similar conclusions. The report said women who took the class experienced significantly fewer sexual assaults during the subsequent year than women enrolled in other classes at the same university.

Womens self-defense training appears to have positive benefits in other societies as well. In 2014, Stanford researchers found that adolescent girls in the slums of Nairobi reported a more than one-third drop in rapes in the year after taking a 12-hour self-defense program.

In Europe, although the Council of Europe advocated free self-defense training for girls and young women more than 20 years ago, little has been accomplished on the national level, a European Parliament report stated in 2016.

In Poland, municipal governments or employers have sometimes financed Wen-Do courses.

Wen-Do supplies the tools to build self-confidence and assertiveness.But it is no cure-all, explains Agnieszka Biela, a psychologist and a certified Wen-Do instructor based in Sosnowiec in southern Poland. A woman cant be in a situation of active domestic violence, because it requires more targeted help and can have the opposite effect, making her feel disempowered.

Wen-Do practitioners need to know when to call on outside help, Biela says, recalling a woman in one of her classes who was living with an abusive partner. Luckily, she told us about the violence at home, and we could refer her to an intervention center.

Biela explains that from a psychological point of view, Wen-Do focuses on the ability of women to fulfill their human potential and encourages self-exploration. We as Wen-Do trainers show a woman that she is an expert on her own life, Biela says.

In a survey prepared by the Autonomy Foundation after one Wen-Do workshop, nearly all the 54 women polled said they could have avoided many threatening situations in adult life if given the opportunity to take a workshop during their teenage years. Half the women used the skills they learned within a few months after the training.

Focus on Prevention

Ilya Murashko is not happy that mostly men attend his self-defense classes in Minsk.

Lets face it: women need to learn how to protect themselves more than men. Together with the elderly and people with disabilities, they are more often assaulted than men, he says.

In addition to classic Krav Maga, a fighting and self-defense method, Murashko teaches setting and communicating personal boundaries, and recognizing dangerous situations at an early stage. Sound familiar?

Yes, it is similar to Wen-Do. Both are crucial for assault prevention, he says.

The drawback, Murashko says, is that Wen-Do courses may be too short for women to master skills and make them a habit. Thats exactly what Olga Kutas, one of the women from my Wen-Do group, told me: The effects of a single course could quickly get lost in womens everyday tasks.

But as Lena Bielska explains, while some physical defense tricks might be soon forgotten, as time goes on, the implanted seed of self-respect will grow. Bielska is a ertified Wen-Do instructor and a co-founder of the Lublin branch of HerStory, a nonprofit that works in the areas of gender equality and discrimination. She says thats why it is crucial that a trainer focuses on womens empowerment and confidence, not just martial arts. Besides, it happens that women participate in Wen-Do workshops several times and some go on to take an advanced course.

Bigger Toolbox Needed to Stop Domestic Violence

Assertiveness training is not easy to instill in a society that expects a woman to be sweet, mild-mannered, and meek. Women are supposed to handle problems without making a scene. They are brought up to be nice.

Things are changing, Olga Yanchuk says about the stereotypes and the social risks that lie in wait for a woman who stands up for herself.

Yanchuk, a sociologist, is the general secretary of the YWCA branch in Belarus, a non-governmental organization that advocates for women and offers leadership training. Yanchuk recently launched a project called Womens Safety. Similarly to Wen-Do, the main focus is on boosting womens self-esteem. The project offers paid online video lessons and personal consultations with a psychologist on personal boundaries and various forms of domestic violence.

As long as there is no law against domestic violence in Belarus  President Alyaksandr Lukashenka dismissed the idea as foolish last fall  Yanchuk believes its especially crucial for women to learn how to defend themselves and set their boundaries. A woman learns how to listen to herself and her body. She can then more easily recognize the first signs of potential violence, tension, or discomfort.

Yanchuk and her 8-year-old daughter have also participated in a Wen-Do course. The fact that my daughter understands that she has the right and need to protect herself is the greatest outcome of the training, Yanchuk says.

That, and the wooden block that she broke with her bare hand, which she brought home as her trophy, she laughs.

Hanna Liubakova is a freelance journalist from Belarus, currently based in Poland.
A s the coronavirus pandemic continues, with the UK expecting a significant period under lockdown, the Muslim community is among those determined to see no one left behind.

The UK's largest and oldest Muslim youth organisation AMYA, which has a membership exceeding 8,000, has introduced new initiatives to support people in need during the pandemic.

Noor Hadi, from London, is one of Britain's youngest Imams and said the organisation's aim is to contribute to society "at all levels".

He told the Standard: "Our key objective is to serve and contribute to society at all levels through active integration and engagement."

A young Muslim volunteer drops off food deliveries to a neighbour in need / Noor Hadi/AMYA UK

"Under AMYA's motto 'Love for All Hatred for None', our purpose is to engender the spirit of discipline, love and service to the wider community irrespective of people's beliefs, race or gender.

"We also believe a nation cannot be reformed without reformation of its youth - so we have introduced structured activities for young people to keep them engaged."

Volunteers aged between 16 and 40 are working in 24 regions across the UK to serve local community members in need.

Many of those who have signed up are offering daily videos featuring life hacks, mental health tips, spiritual development reminders, and ideas for ways to occupy yourself at home.

Mr Hadi added: "Some of our more sporty members and Imams have dedicated their time to create daily online content to help people at home stay fit during this period - with six workout sessions a week, and three targeted at those aged under 15.

"They're live videos, so people can interact with one another, it's a pretty fun way to get fit, all in the safety of your home. We also have challenges and kahoot quizes to take part in and leaderboards which you can climb."

AMYA are also offering a hotline service for people in need of help. Before the lockdown, in line with social distancing advice, members assisted with running errands such as buying groceries, collecting prescriptions and medication, donating to food banks or providing meals to people in their homes.

Mr Hadi said: "So far we have helped dozens of people this way, and the response has been very good. The numbers are increasing every day."

Muslim volunteers delivering meals / Noor Hadi/AMYA UK

According to Mr Hadi, AMYA members have long been giving back to the community by participating in activities such as blood donations, visiting senior citizens and planting more than 50,000 trees to date across the UK.

He said: "Muslims of AMYA are literally the Muslims for Humanity.

"Our sole purpose and reason for why we are doing this is to act upon the teachings of Islam, which state that to help and alleviate the hardship and suffering of others is a great virtue, an act of faith and a means of seeking nearness to God.

"We're still developing even more ways to help people during this difficult period."
More than 13,380 people have now tested positive for COVID-19 in New Jersey.

Gwyneth Murray-Nolan, who says she has all the symptoms for coronavirus  labored breathing, a rising fever and a terrible, hacking cough she has been unable to shake  does not believe those numbers for a moment.

After days of trying to get tested, including a long night in a hospital emergency room where doctors told her  after she had passed out  that they assumed everyone with her symptoms was positive, she was sent home, and told there were others far sicker. The 43-year-old mother of two still says she does not know if she carries the virus.

She called it her Night of the Living Dead.

The experience of trying to get tested is just a nightmare, she said, describing her hours in a frigid medical triage tent last Tuesday as nothing less than scary. I just dont think the results were seeing is real.

Recalling the ten others in the ER just like her, who also were not tested, she believes the numbers of those with COVID-19 in New Jersey are far, far higher than anyone imagines.

New Jersey officials acknowledge they are not testing everyone for the virus because they dont have the resources. While the statewide numbers show a large number of negative test results, they include the numbers from private testing labs. The states own protocols, however, mandate that only those with clear coronavirus symptoms will be tested at the public sites. That means many carrying the virus are not being counted.

The viral tests they are doing now are part of the work to flatten the curve. But at this point, with testing prioritized to those with symptoms, social distancing is hopefully doing more to flatten the curve and shortening the length of the outbreak, said Henry F. Raymond, an associate professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health and an epidemiologist.

For Murray-Nolan, though, her ongoing inability to get an understanding of her own symptoms has left her in a black hole.

The Cranford attorney said she has been sick for ten days and has tried unsuccessfully to get tested three times. Initially she said her primary care physician didnt even know where to send her.

I was sent to an urgent care facility on March 17, which was not set up yet or ready to take COVID-19 patients and that facility sent me to another urgent care. When seen by a doctor after a three-hour wait, I was told they have no tests there, even though I met all of the criteria with fever, cough, sore throat, and runny nose, she said.

She was sent home and told to monitor her symptoms.

Last Tuesday night, a week after she had been at the facility, she was again taken to urgent care after labored breathing and a higher fever, and then was sent to Overlook Medical Center in Summit.

I waited three hours in a tarp and prefabricated room attached to the entry to the ER entrance in a metal chair with no visitors permitted. It was freezing cold. There was one nurse for all of those patients, Murray-Nolan said. There were about ten people ahead of me all treated by the same nurse who was doing intake and trying to monitor and take vitals. At some point after three hours, I passed out and hit my head. I dont know and cant recall the details, and no one could tell me what happened.

The doctor who finally saw her told her they were presuming everyone positive who comes in with the symptoms, but had stopped testing at 6:30 that evening, she said, because they ran out of tests. Every doctor and nurse, she recalled was working like crazy, and had far too many patients waiting to be seen.

They couldnt even give me an IV because theyre worried about running out of basic supplies, she said. They told me we know you are sick, but there are people upstairs who are younger than you and are dying.

A spokesman for Overlook would not discuss specifics of any patient, but said Overlook has continued to test patients for COVID-19 based on a medical assessment for symptoms and other signs indicating infection. This includes, but not limited to, evidence of a fever, cough or diagnostic tests such as chest x-rays. Based on these assessments, we determine whether a patient meets the criteria for a COVID-19 test, or is well enough to be advised to self-monitor under quarantine at home.

The spokesman, Rob Seman, said Overlook has been able to continue to test and treat patients for COVID-19 uninterrupted due to careful stewardship of our resources, as well as donations and support from the community in recent weeks of supplies and personal protective equipment. At no time have patients been denied the medically-appropriate care or resources.

Now back home, Murray-Nolan is still coughing, has a slight fever, but feels somewhat better than she did in the ER.

She still has not been tested.

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Among the most dire situations, more than 3 million Afghans live in Iran, which is one of the main hot spots for the disease, with nearly 30,000 cases, and 2,234 deaths, reported by the end of last week. As tens of thousand of Afghans return home, nearly all of the confirmed coronavirus cases in Afghanistan have been among those coming from Iran. Last week, Afghanistans health ministry warned that half of the countrys almost 39 million people might be infected, the report noted.
Lightfoot has told the Tribune the right candidate for the post would be someone who understands that federal oversight, which is aimed at improving how officers treat citizens, can transform the department for the better. Shes also emphasized professionalism and her desire to have a more proactive police force as key factors shes considering.
The episode highlights how states across the country have grown leery of out-of-town license plates and visitors amid the spread of the coronavirus, as people flee cities that have been hit hard by the pandemic for vacation homes and wide-open spaces elsewhere.

In Rhode Island, police officers and National Guard members were deployed to collect contact information from out-of-state drivers at the state border and inform them they must self-quarantine. Hawaii, which thrives on tourism, is asking visitors to stay away for a month. The Outer Banks of North Carolina are shut to nonresidents. And in Alaska, almost all people, whether or not they live there, must quarantine themselves upon arrival.The roommates in Maine used a radio to contact the Coast Guard and a drone to keep an eye on the group outside until the authorities arrived, the sheriffs office said.

The group had dispersed by the time law enforcement arrived, the sheriffs office added, but it was apparent that the tree had been cut down and dragged into the roadway to block it.

The sheriffs office said deputies learned that there is a general belief by some island residents that the Cripple Creek residents are supposed to be quarantined because they came here from another state and could have Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

But the authorities found that the three roommates had been living in Vinalhaven for about 30 days, much longer than the two-week quarantine guideline issued by public health officials, and that none of them had any symptoms of the virus.
Contact tracing is one of the few ways of curbing the global coronavirus epidemic. Bluetooth can be useful for tracing people who might have been in contact with infected people. The method also raises big privacy issues.

While theres neither a vaccine nor a cocktail of antibiotics that can successfully cure a patient of COVID-19, its not entirely impossible to stop the Coronavirus epidemic. The key to curbing the contagion that has now infected 199 countries is to conduct extreme contact tracing. Health officials not only need to find and isolate infected patients, but also those who came in contact with that person. The Ebola virus outbreak that occurred in 2016 in Africa was contained using this method and experts believe, the novel Coronavirus can also be contained in a similar way.

Tracing who the infected person came in contact with can get quite cumbersome, especially in a country like India with one of the highest population densities in the world. Officials may not be able find out the exact number of people who came in contact with an infected person by interviewing and interrogating. Its also noted that nearly half the transmission occurs before the person even starts showing symptoms. The virus could be spreading for days before anyone can even realise they are infected.

Modern technology may have a solution, albeit with a big caveat.

Pandemic researchers across the world have claimed that tapping into cellular services can help track the contagion and warn people who may have been exposed. Some have propagated using GPS services to track large gatherings of people, while some are relying on Bluetooth technology to identify smartphones (and their owners) who may have come in close contact with people infected by the SAR-COV-2 virus.

And thats exactly what GOQII, the India-based fitness tracking and preventive healthcare app has set out to do. Currently in beta testing, the GOQII fitness tracking app has launched a Contact Tracking feature that relies on Bluetooth to find out the number of devices you have come in close proximity with. This feature will help track every movement, activity and also track those who have been in close contact with them and this app feature will effectively help in social distancing as is recommended by the WHO, writes Anusha Subramanian on the GOQII blog. Anusha is a two-time award winning journalist and a health and fitness enthusiast.

Implementing Bluetooth-based contact tracking

The contact tracking feature on the app can be used to track your movement and activity to ensure prevention and quick detection of virus carries. Its essentially self tracking with Bluetooth aiding the memory. For instance, you can track cab drivers, e-commerce delivery agents, and other people you come in contact with. This is important because if you become infected or someone you may have come in contact with become infected, you will be able to trace it yourself and let the authorities know.

The feature presently lets you store your body temperature, COVID-19 symptoms that you may be experiencing, food and activity log with location, log contacts, cab driver and delivery agent details who have served you. By using Bluetooth on your smartphone, you can easily recall who you came in contact with. The app stores data of nearby Bluetooth devices with time to help find out potential patients.

The real benefit of this feature can only be realised once a lot of people start using it. The contacted list has to be uploaded (with the consent of the user) and will be mapped with the database of other users. A large percentage of the population has to be using it to make it more effective.

Bluetooth over GPS?

GOQII is not the only app in India thats trying to track secondary and tertiary SARS-COV-2 infections. The Indian Government itself have come out with an app that tracks user location every one hour and warns if you have come in contact with a COVID-19 patient. However, GPS might not be accurate enough to detect close proximity with people. Bluetooth, in this case, helps.

Theres some history to back up the claim as well. Singapores health department in particular is using Bluetooth-based contact tracking to perform real-time tracing. People are asked to join the Trace Together app and to keep their Bluetooth on. Upon encountering a COVID-19 positive person within a two meter proximity, the app will set off an alert all users for 30 minutes.

These are extraordinary times, but should we give up digital privacy?

If not for this unprecedented situation, making an app that tracks people using GPS and Bluetooth would have faced severe backlash. But these are not normal times. Yes, you may expose your location to other people or even give up some data about your Bluetooth device (and yourself) in the process, but experts believe that if helps keep the contagion under check, its a necessary evil.

We dont live in a culture of public trust when it comes to data. We live in this age that has been called the age of surveillance capitalism, where.. our data is abused and exploited, a ScienceMag article quoted David Leslie, an ethicist at Alan Turing Institute as saying.

The biggest example of this is China. The country known for its widespread surveillance on citizens deployed its mass surveillance tools to classify individuals by their health status and restrict their movements. Israel too has reportedly repurposed its spying infrastructure to trace contact. We are definitely in untested waters here, but these arent normal times to begin with.

Having said that, GOQII claims the app does not share user data immediately. Its up to the user to provide consent and there too, the user can control whether they want to share their logs publicly, or with their friends or keep only to themselves.
By Express News Service

GHAZIABAD: The Ghaziabad district administration has deployed 1,500 buses to take the migrant workers who had returned from Delhi and Bihar due to the coronavirus lockdown to their native districts where they will be checked for COVID-19 symptoms, a senior official said.

District Magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey said all the migrants who had arrived here have been sent to their native districts.



COVID-19 LIVE | 28 dead in India, positive cases cross 1100; Centre suspends four Delhi govt officials



As many as 1,500 buses were pressed into service after sanitization. Around 2,000 workers had gathered at Laal Kuan this morning (Sunday). They were also facilitated to go back to their homes, that too without any cost, he said.

Authorities of all those districts have been informed so that a medical checkup of the migrants may be conducted when they alight from the buses. Any person showing symptoms would be sent to hospital.



The Centre has ordered a 14-day quarantine of all migrant workers who travelled after violating the lockdown which has been imposed to check the spread of coronavirus.



Meanwhile, Senior Superintendent of Police Kalanidhi Naithani said that they are taking extraordinary precautions so that no untoward incident may take place following the influx of people.
Zimbabwe on Monday began a 21-day lockdown to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Health care advocates and the business community are generally supportive, but have aired concerns they say the government needs to address.

We are worried that even as our numbers remain low there is possibility of wider community spread and transmissions. Further, in about two months time winter will be upon us, creating conditions ideal for more infections. There is need to take decisive measures now against the pandemic. said President Emmerson Mnangagwa speaking on state television Monday, justifying the lockdown aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19.

So far, there are only nine confirmed cases of the virus in Zimbabwe, and only one death.

But to keep the numbers down, the government is requiring people to stay in their homes for the next three weeks, except when buying food and other essentials. Schools are shut down, as are most businesses.

Speaking via WhatsApp, Fortune Nyamande, the chairman of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights, welcomed the lockdown. However, he said the lockdown needs to supplemented by increased efforts to detect COVID-19 cases.

The lockdown on its own is not a panacea to solving the COVID19 pandemic. The lockdown needs to be supplemented by additional measures such as increased case detection, increased community surveillance and as you are aware only less than 200 have been tested for coronavirus in Zimbabwe. These are very low and pathetic figures. So for us to contain this outbreak, during the lockdown lets test more people, said Nyamande.

The countrys business owners will be in a tough spot during the next three weeks, with most deprived of income.

Sam Wadzai is from the Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation Zimbabwe. Via Whatsapp, he explains the vendors dilemma.

This lockdown is only in the best interest of this country. After all we have to be united to fight this deadly virus. But at the same time we also encourage the government to ensure that they put in place support mechanisms to continue so that people are able to survive during this lockdown period. We expect this to be done as quickly as possible so that people dont die of hunger, he said.

President Mnangagwa was expected to meet with business owners Monday to discuss their concerns over loss of revenue during the 21-day lockdown. So far, the government has made no guarantees of financial support.
Aurangabad, Mar 30 (UNI) Opposition party leader Devendra Fadnavis has conducted an online review meeting in the state capital in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

According to an official press statement released on Sunday evening, at present about 1.25 lakh party workers are pressed into spreading awareness about all the necessary precautionary steps needs to be taken to fight off the crisis and providing essentials to the poor and vulnerable.

Work regarding the same has started in about 450 mandals of the state along with community kitchens being set up in 300 places. Meanwhile, blood donation programme has kicked-off in 10 districts and over 1,000 villages have been sanitised, the former Maharashtra chief minister told media.

Mr Fadnavis appreciated the initiatives being taken by his party to provide food, medicines, seeds and fertilisers to the farmers.



He further said that there is a need to implement the lockdown strictly across the country and urged the party workers to ensure that the rules of social distancing are adhered to while helping the masses.



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close-up photo of investor Warren Buffett

Youd think Warren Buffett would be licking his lips in anticipation right now. After all, there are currently hundreds of excellent stocks that have fallen to downright reasonable valuations.

Its also easy to argue that the man many call The Oracle of Omaha has been waiting his whole career for such an opportunity. One of the keys to Buffetts many billions has been gobbling up assets when theyre unloved. He simply sits back, accumulates cash, and then will pounce when theres a buying opportunity.

And yet, Buffett hasnt done anything. If the world is suddenly flush with bargains, why hasnt Warren Buffett announced an acquisition or two? What exactly is he waiting for, anyway?

Lets take a closer look at what Buffett may potentially be thinking. Heres why I think he hasnt been very active at this point.

Its too early

Many investors  me included  feel like weve just been through the longest month of our lives. The speed at which everything turned to chaos surprised most everyone. It feels like weve been through a six-month bear market.

Warren Buffett is wired a little differently. Like the rest of us, hes probably glued to the television, eagerly awaiting the next shoe to drop. But hes also been through a bunch of turbulent markets before. Hes likely content to wait, knowing these things have a way of getting worse before they get better.

Remember, the market plunged for months in 2008 before Buffett started wheeling and dealing. Many companies are in dire straits today, but its too early for most. Theyre hoping for a V-shaped recovery.

Behind the scenes

Just because Warren Buffett hasnt announced a big deal doesnt mean he isnt buying stocks behind the scenes, however. I think well see Buffett added significantly to his portfolio of publicly-traded securities the next time Berkshire Hathaways portfolio is released publicly, which is slated for the early part of May.

One Canadian stock that Buffett might be buying today is an old favourite. Restaurant Brands International (TSX:QSR)(NYSE:QSR) is the parent company of some of the worlds best fast food brands, including Tim Hortons, Burger King, and Popeyes Chicken. Together, these three brands do more than US$32 billion in worldwide sales and have more than 26,000 locations.

Story continues

Remember, Buffett helped finance the company before, taking on preferred debt to help the acquisition of Tim Hortons go through.

Im the first to admit the near-term doesnt look good for the fast food industry. But good investors shouldnt worry about short-term issues. They need to be concerned with the long-term. And as Warren Buffett knows, restaurant volumes at the companys brands will be back to normal soon after these coronavirus issues are behind us.

Buffett should also be attracted to Restaurant Brands suddenly cheap valuation. A little over six months ago, Restaurant Brands shares were over $100 each.

These days, the stock trades hands on the Toronto Stock Exchange at $56 despite recently reporting 8% sales growth in 2019 and adjusted earnings of US$2.72 per share.

And although Warren Buffett doesnt usually care about dividends, I should note QSR shares yield a robust 4.9%.

The bottom line

Warren Buffett is notoriously patient, and hes been sitting on a huge hoard of cash for years now. The moment hes been waiting for has finally arrived, but he isnt doing much of anything.

Investors must remember that we could still be in the early innings of a bear market. Buffett is patiently waiting for the right moment, trying to find the best time to put his cash to work. I think thatll come in the next couple of months.

In the meantime, however, Id wager that the Oracle of Omaha is quietly buying up cheap stocks  like Restaurant Brands International.

The post Why Isnt Warren Buffett Buying Distressed Assets During This Market Crash? appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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Fool contributor Nelson Smith owns shares of Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). The Motley Fool recommends RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL INC and recommends the following options: long January 2021 $200 calls on Berkshire Hathaway (B shares), short January 2021 $200 puts on Berkshire Hathaway (B shares), and short June 2020 $205 calls on Berkshire Hathaway (B shares).

The Motley Fools purpose is to help the world invest, better. Click here now for your free subscription to Take Stock, The Motley Fool Canadas free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Motley Fool Canada 2020
Nine people have died in a string of killings as Britain entered its second week under the coronavirus quarantine.

The bodies of four people and a dead dog were found at a house in Sussex after a man was charged with killing his wife in South Wales.

An NHS nurse was also stabbed to death in the street in South Yorkshire and three died in an apparent murder-suicide in Hertfordshire.

It comes on the seventh day of Britain's unprecedented lockdown to slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

Mother-of-three Victoria Woodhall, 31, was stabbed multiple times yesterday evening outside her home in the village of Middlecliffe, near Barnsley, South Yorkshire

Anthony Williams (left), 69, is accused of killing wife Ruth (right), 67, at their semi-detached home where they had been self isolating

Detectives are investigating the deaths of a father, his wife and their daughter at a house in Hemel Hempstead

Two adults and two children were found dead on Sunday evening at a house in Woodmancote, Sussex (pictured, the scene tonight)

Two adults and two children were found dead on Sunday evening at a house in Woodmancote, Sussex.

Women's aid say more resources are needed amid the coronavirus lockdown as domestic abuse cases surge Northern Ireland's main domestic violence charity has called for more resources as it braces itself for a surge in the number of cases due to coronavirus. Women's Aid urged a 'guaranteed commitment' from Stormont' ministers following restrictions imposed on movement and official encouragement to stay at home. Police are also geared up for more cases of domestic violence as homes are put under strain by extended periods of self-isolation, a senior commander said. A Women's Aid statement said: 'We need resources and a guaranteed commitment across the whole of the UK to support all victims of domestic violence and abuse. 'We are in uncharted territory and all domestic violence charities are bracing themselves for a marked increase in numbers of people coming forward.' Home Secretary Priti Patel has said victims who are isolated with their abusers during the lockdown sparked by Covid-19 will not be forgotten. According to Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) statistics, while overall crime has decreased, domestic abuse incidents and crimes with a domestic abuse motivation have increased. In 2019 there were 31,705 incidents, a rise of 399 (1.3%) on the previous year and one of the highest recorded since 2004. The number of crimes reached 18,033, an increase of 2,322 (14.8%). There were 17 domestic abuse incidents and 10 domestic abuse crimes per 1,000 population. Five of the 11 policing districts showed an increase in incidents and all districts had higher levels of crime. Advertisement

Police found the bodies - believed to be from the same family - and the dog after responding to a report of concern for the occupants.

A spokesman confirmed the force has launched a murder inquiry after the grim discovery at around 6.45pm on Sunday.

Today, 69-year-old Anthony Williams from Brynglas, Cwmbran, South Wales, appeared in court accused of murdering his 'lovely' wife during self-isolation.

He was arrested after police found his Ruth, a former school dinner lady, 'unconscious and unresponsive' at their property.

The mother of one, from Cwmbran, South Wales, died later in hospital of suspected head injuries.

The couple had been married for 45 years and neighbours said they appeared to be 'devoted' to each other.

Williams, who denies the charges, appeared at Cardiff Magistrates' Court this morning for a two-minute hearing in which he spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and address.

He was remanded in custody by District Judge Stephen Harmes and is due to appear at Cardiff Crown Court tomorrow.

Former ASDA supermarket worker Ruth was found unconscious shortly before 7am on Saturday.

It is understood she received her injures several hours before the 999 call was made from the couple's 160,000 semi on the Brynglas Estate.

The retired couple had a daughter Emma who was said to be 'devastated' by the tragedy.

More than 100 tributes were paid to the Ruth describing her as a 'lovely and kind' mother.

A neighbour said: 'She was a smart and attractive woman with a great sense of humour.

'She always had a smile and a little twinkle in her eye - it's such a shock that she had gone.

'She and her husband seemed to be devoted to each other, there was nothing to say this was going to happen.'

The tragedy happened in one of the UK's worst coronavirus areas outside London with 514 confirmed cases.

Ms Williams (pictured) was found 'unconscious and unresponsive' at the property and died later in hospital of suspected head injuries

The couple had been self isolating at their home in Brynglas, Cwmbran, South Wales

A spokeswoman for Gwent Police said: 'Gwent Police received a call to an address in Brynglas, Cwmbran at around 6.50am on Saturday 28 March.

'67-year-old Ruth Williams was found unconscious and unresponsive at the premises. She was taken to the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport where she sadly died. A 69-year-old man was arrested, he's since been charged with murder.'

In South Yorkshire, NHS nurse and mother-of-three Woodhall, 31, was stabbed multiple times last night outside her home in the village of Middlecliffe, Barnsley.

Her husband Craig Woodhall, a former soldier, who she had two sons and daughter with, was later arrested by police. The children were unharmed.

The fork lift truck driver, 40, who married Mrs Woodhall seven months ago, is currently in custody to be questioned about the killing.

Due to the coronavirus lockdown the gruesome day-light killing, which took place at around 5pm on Sunday, is thought to have been witnessed by many locals residents.

Shortly after a neighbour appealed for help on social media, claiming Mrs Woodhall had been killed 'in front of people in the street'.

Police, paramedics and Yorkshire Air Ambulance rushed to Windsor Crescent, but Victoria, who was a nurse at Rotherham General Hospital, was pronounced dead.

Woodhall was later arrested.

The NHS nurse Police, who worked at Rotherham General Hospital, was pronounced dead at the scene

Forensic teams arrive to the scene of a murder after mother-of-three Victoria Woodhall, 31, was stabbed multiple times outside her home in the village of Middlecliffe, near Barnsley

The NHS nurse and mother-of-three was stabbed multiple times yesterday evening outside her home

A South Yorkshire Police spokesman said: 'A 40-year-old man is currently in custody after a 31-year-old woman was stabbed during an incident in Barnsley yesterday evening.

'Emergency services were called to Windsor Crescent, Middlecliffe, just before 5pm, following concerns that a woman had been stabbed.

'Sadly, the woman was pronounced dead when officers arrived at the scene. The man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in custody.

'There will continue to be an increased police presence in the area today as officers continue to carry out enquiries.'

A forensics tent is now in place on the area of the pavement and road outside the marital semi-detached home where Victoria was killed.

Crime officers have also been paying attention to a white Seat Leon, which is believed to be Victoria's. It has since been towed away.

A neighbour, who did not wish to be identified, said: 'I feel so sorry for the children. They have lost a lovely mum.'

The couple only got married in September. Victoria was a nurse at Rotherham General Hospital.

Whilst the reasons for these attacks are unknown, they come as campaigners warned the lockdown would make it 'tougher than normal' for families at risk of domestic violence.

Rachel Williams, of Stand Up to Domestic Abuse, said: 'We know there's a massive influx likely and it will be a pandemic on a pandemic.'

Rachel, who was shot by her late husband Darren after years of domestic abuse, said: 'The perpetrators and the victims would normally spend some parts of the day in work or socialising. That could give the victims breathing space and someone to talk to.

'The children are also not in school which means they don't have a safety net - and in some cases a decent meal. Now they're all sharing their surroundings 24/7 with no breathing space. It will be tougher than normal.'

Detectives are investigating the deaths of Gary Walker, 57, his wife Caroline, 50, and their 24-year-old daughter Katie after the were found at their home by emergency crews on Sunday in Hemel Hempstead.

Detectives are investigating the deaths of a father, his wife and their daughter at a house in Hemel Hempstead. Pictured: Fire fighters at the scene

Gary Walker, 57, his wife Caroline, 50, and their 24-year-old daughter Katie after the were found at their home by emergency crews on Sunday

Officers were called to Stuarts Close shortly after 12.30pm yesterday and the three people were pronounced dead at the scene.

A blue tent has been erected outside the house, which still had its windows open this morning. The house and the neighbouring property were cordoned off.

But investigators now suspect that the tragic incident was the result of a murder-suicide involving the family members.

Major Crime Unit Detective Inspector Iain MacPherson said: 'We are dealing with three suspicious deaths and are not looking for anyone else in connection to this incident at this time.'

Britain remains on lockdown in a bid to stem the deadly coronavirus which has swept across the world and is now ripping through the country.

But in a good news today the outbreak in the UK may finally be starting to slow after the daily death toll dropped for the second day in a row, with 180 new fatalities recorded overnight.

A total of 1,408 people in Britain have now died from the killer infection, while more than 22,000 cases have been officially diagnosed - but the true size of the outbreak remains a mystery because of the UK's controversial policy to only test patients in hospital.

England recorded 159 new deaths in the last 24 hours, while Wales reported 14, Northern Ireland six and Scotland one.

It marks the first time the daily increase in deaths has fallen for two days straight, dropping from 209 on Sunday and 260 on Saturday - in what was Britain's darkest day in the crisis yet.

The UK's spiralling coronavirus death toll has jumped to 1,408 after 180 more fatalities were recorded in a single day

Despite the growing number of cases and deaths recorded overnight, Britain's coronavirus outbreak looks to be slowing down, leading experts said today. Pictured: Paramedics in hazmat suits take away a man that collapsed in a Lidl in south east London

Medical staff wearing protective masks and clothing in a Ambulance outside St Thomas' hospital in London on Sunday

But there are fears of a fresh spike in fatalities tomorrow because officials will count deaths outside of hospitals for the first time. Until now, the figures have not included people who succumbed to the virus before being admitted to hospital.

Meanwhile the number of confirmed cases in Britain appears to also be flattening, with just 2,619 new positive tests in the last 24 hours - an 8 per cent rise from yesterday's daily increase of 2,433.

But experts predict the true number to be more than two million because of the Government's decision to only test patients so ill they are admitted to hospital.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab today stood in for the PM at Downing Street's daily coronavirus conference tonight while Boris Johnson self-isolates after contracting the virus.

Mr Raab revealed 'tens of thousands' of stranded British travellers would be flown home under a 75million new partnership between the Government and airlines.

At the briefing, the Government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance also said the number of people being admitted to hospital with coronavirus is going up 'in a constant amount'.

But he assured the public the fact the NHS was seeing an additional 1,000 patients a day with coronavirus-related admissions was 'not an acceleration' and that the health service was coping.

On another rollercoaster day in the coronavirus crisis:

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab unveils 75m repatriation plan to fly home 'tens of thousands' of Britons stranded abroad due to coronavirus crisis;

Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said the number of people being admitted to hospital with coronavirus is going up 'in a constant amount';

Public Health England figures revealed the number of coronavirus tests carried out in the last 24 hours actually fell - despite Government promises to ramp up testing capacity;

The UK's outbreak might actually be 'starting to slow' but deaths will keep rising, says government expert Neil Ferguson as he suggests up to 2million people might already have been infected;

EasyJet grounded its entire fleet of 330-plus planes as coronavirus continued to wound Britain's airlines - just ten days after the airline paid a 174million dividend to shareholders including to its founder Stelios;

Prince Charles was today allowed out of self-isolation one week after being diagnosed with coronavirus and is in 'good health', royal aides have said;

Many supermarket deliveries are not reaching over 70s and key workers including bus drivers and food delivery drivers are being turned away from stores;

Police armed with new powers to enforce the lockdown are continuing to shame suspected wrongdoers  including the MP son of former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock;

F1 teams produced a breathing device that could stop coronavirus patients having to go into intensive care, and should be in hospitals within days;

Health minister Helen Whately sparked confusion when she admitted that while the government now has the 'capacity' to carry out 10,000 coronavirus tests a day it might not have done so yet;

Ministers have finally ordered 17.5 million antibody testing kits so they can check a quarter of the population in bid to get key staff back to work;

Economists have warned the crisis could cause UK GDP to plunge by 15 per cent and unemployment to double as the FTSE 100 fell more than 2 per cent.

The number of hospital admissions for patients with coronavirus is broken down by areas in England - with London suffering the most

The UK's coronavirus deaths are compared to Spain, France, Italy, China, South Korea, Germany and the US in this Public Health England chart

Daily increases in cases appear to be slowing for the first time in the outbreak - but scientists maintain the worst is still to come and say the apparent slowdown should be taken with a pinch of salt
The European Tour have confirmed the postponement of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Mount Juliet.

The Tour made the call today owing to the continuing threat posed by the spread of coronavirus.

The tournament, which was scheduled to be the European Tours second Rolex Series event of 2020, was to be held at the Kilkenny venue from May 28 to 31, with Major Champion Graeme McDowell as host.

"The decision to postpone the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open follows consultation with all stakeholders and was made with public health and well-being as our absolute priority," said Keith Pelley, European Tour Chief Executive. "Our thoughts are with everyone right now and we are all united in trying to fight the spread of the pandemic.

"With this in mind, we will continue to evaluate all aspects of our 2020 European Tour schedule, and discussions on the rescheduling of postponed events will remain ongoing until we have clarity on the global situation."

Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman & CEO, Dubai Duty Free, said: "We fully support the European Tour in their decision to postpone the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open. The most important thing right now is the health and safety of all the players, the spectators, the sponsors and organisers, so its the right decision."

Graeme McDowell, tournament host, said: "As important as the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open is to all of us, everyones health is our only concern. My thoughts are with everyone affected by the crisis and I hope everyone keeps safe and well during these difficult times."
by Nirmala Carvalho

Millions of people made unemployed, return to their villages of origin. Premier Modi apologizes for the difficulties caused by the total blockade. Parishes, dioceses and Christian associations assist migrants, Dalits and refugees. Priest: "They call them 'rat eaters'. Our help is a blessing.

Mumbai (AsiaNews) - Dioceses all over India are rushing to respond to the tragedy of the poor, who suffer most from the quarantine imposed across the country to contain the coronavirus infection.

Speaking to AsiaNews, Msgr. Felix Machado, archbishop of Vasai and secretary general of the Indian Episcopal Conference (CBCI), declares: Over the years, the intensive and extensive network of our Small Christian Communities are serving people. Our Unit leaders all over India, know the details of the people living in their zones. We also refer to them as Basic Human Communities, as not one is excluded".

The fragile conditions of the poor are causing a humanitarian crisis. The blockade of the country has left millions of people unemployed in the big cities, mostly economic migrants who flocked to cities from rural areas in search of better conditions. The little they earn they send home to families left behind in the villages.

Migrants like Goutam Lal Meena, who earns 400 rupees a day in Gujarat (4.8 euros). Having lost his job, and given the interrupted transport throughout the territory, he returned home on foot, covering about 300 km. Social media, TV channels and newspapers are full of these stories of despair, such as that of a group of textile workers who traveled 500 km from Rahtak (in Haryana) to Kanpur (in Uttar Pradesh).

Faced with this human tragedy, yesterday the prime minister in his weekly radio broadcast, apologized for the difficulties caused by the total blockade, in particular for the poor. However, he added, "there was no other way" to curb the rapid spread of the pandemic. Today the number of infected people has risen to 1,164, the deaths to 30.

Fr. Warner DSouza, parish priest of the church of St. Jude of Malad and secretary of the Commission for pastoral initiatives of the archdiocese of Mumbai, has launched programs for the most needy of the community.

They include suspending the       from families who cannot afford to contribute; reorganizing the budget set aside for the cultural celebrations of the next two months to reserve it for the poor; insuring the payment of the rent to a family in the community of St. Michael who has not been able to pay the installment for seven months.

Archbishop Machado reports that " All our Dalit and Tribals, Migrants of every caste and creed, rendered homeless and jobless due to the lockdown are being taken care of Selflessly , by the Clergy, Religious and Nuns of Vasai Diocese, Many of them are construction workers, and many have lost their jobs, many travel with their families. The Church is always a Mother, looking after her children, especially those in need, and in these special times, the Church in India is indeed a Mother, providing for her children in times of need.

The diocese of Nashik in Maharashtra is also working with migrants and Dalits. Msgr. Lourdes Daniel reports: All our priests and churches help every person who knocks on our door. Nobody will be left hungry. The Church is for everyone, be they a refuge, a Dalits or tribals without discrimination. The most serious situation is in the Ahmednagar district, where there is a high concentration of poor people."

The social arm of the archdiocese of Nagpur has distributed food to 350 poor migrant families who are stuck in the area and cannot return home. Archbishop Elias Gonsalves says: "My heart is with those who suffer. I ordered the directors of the Nagpur and Amravati associations to start assisting seasonal workers and those employed in brick factories. May the Lord help us to help them."

Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore has started distributing food and temporary shelters for refugees stranded in the archdiocese. He stresses that " we cannot just become sympathetic on-lookers and give them only our lip service, which has no meaning at all! Even if it demands a great sacrifice on our part, we should re-double our efforts". He has outlined a transversal care plan: Christian doctors, nuns and hospitals must take care of the sick and reserve entire wards for the care of the infected; he has converted some Catholic schools for the hospitality of migrants, homeless people and refugees; each parish must involve volunteers to bring food and other goods to the poor of the communities.

In Uttar Pradesh Fr. Anand Mathew of the Indian Missionary Society is coordinating various society interreligious organizations in the province of Varanasi. They distributed 5 kg of rice, 5 kg of wheat flour, half a liter of mustard oil, half kg of lentils, vegetables, soap, salt, masks, bread and biscuits to about 1,000 families from various religious and social categories "The marginalized - he says - the Dalits and the vulnerable are called 'rat eaters' and are forced to feed on grass. This campaign is a blessing for them."
Principal Economic Advisor to the government of India Sanjeev Sanyal on Monday cautioned of a second wave citing Japan and Korea due to the Coronavirus crisis. Taking to Twitter, he stated that it is not good and that their initial success in controlling the virus may prove to be untenable. He further added that the global responses are based on the two countries' strategies.

Currently, a total of 1,866 cases of Coronavirus have been detected in Japan, while 54 deaths have been reported in the country due to the virus. Further, 424 people have been reported to have recovered. Meanwhile, a total of 9,661 cases of Coronavirus have been reported in South Korea, while 158 deaths have been reported. However, the number of cases have been rising in recent days, and it was to a report on this that Sanyal was reacting.

The Coronavirus crisis

Presently, there are around 721,412 confirmed cases of COVID-19 which has led to the death of around 33,956 people. Meanwhile, around 151,004 people have reportedly recovered. The US is at the top of the charts with respect to Coronavirus cases, with over 1.2 lakh infected.

Read: Big allegation against Kejriwal; Sirsa claims Delhi CM used officers to sabotage COVID war

Read: WATCH: Ivanka Trump posts a message from self-quarantine as Coronavirus grips the US

Meanwhile, in India, as of date there are over 1000 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19. Out of all the states, Kerala and Maharashtra have reported the most in the country. Meanwhile, over 25 people have died so far due to the deadly virus. Due to the outbreak, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had put India under a national lockdown for 21 days. Further, India has also closed the India-Pakistan border and restricted passenger movement at the border with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Myanmar.

Read: Priyanka Vadra writes to telecom chiefs; bats for free calling amid Covid lockdown

Read: COVID-19: Ghazipur school converted into temporary shelter home for migrants
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Dr. Ashish Jha, the Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, said that the coronavirus death toll 100,000-200,000 that Trump is celebrating is horrible.

Dr. Jha said on MSNBC, And those are grim numbers. And 100,000 to 200,000 Americans dying from this disease, it was completely unnecessary, but here we are and looking forward. If we do a good job moving forward, and that requires social distancing finally getting our testing up and running and getting our hospitals ready, yeah, that is within the sort of range of what we might experience. No one should feel solace that thats great, a great job done. That is a completely horribly high number.

Jha also said that the deaths were avoidable, Oh, it was completely avoidable. And, look, we all know that for two months our government didnt take it seriously. We know that. Thats been sort of  thats a well-known, well established. Even in the last few weeks as the reality has become very, very obvious to most Americans, there are still political leaders who have not taken it seriously. We still had spring breakers in Florida who probably have now spread those infections across the country. We still havent gotten our hospitals ready. So Im hoping that this press conference marks a turning point where everybody begins to take it seriously. I think a majority of Americans have, but there have been too many political leaders who have still been acting like this is not a serious problem.

Video:

Dr. Ashish Jha, the Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, shot down Trump's claim that only 100,000-200,000 coronavirus deaths was a good job. He called the spread of the virus in the US totally preventable. pic.twitter.com/DhdxbhZmtD  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 29, 2020

Trumps claim that if only a few hundred thousand people die in the US from coronavirus it means that he did a good job was a joke because the US had ample warning and resources to cut down the spread of the virus from the beginning, but Trump spent those critical early weeks calling the virus a hoax and giving US supplies to the Chinese.

None of this had to happen. With proper early testing and distancing, the death toll could have been exponentially lower.

Trump bungled the response and now he wants credit for potentially killing hundreds of thousands of Americans with his incompetence.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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We're breaking down what you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic by answering your questions. You can send us your questions via email at COVID@cbc.ca and we'll answer as many as we can. We'll publish a selection of answers every weekday on our website, and we're also putting some of your questions to the experts on the air during The National and on News Network.

So far we've received hundreds of emails from all corners of the country. Your questions have surprised us, stumped us and got us thinking, including a number of questions about food and groceries from Canadians concerned about contamination, including this question from Carol H.

Do I need to wipe down surfaces on delivered items and groceries? What cleaning products should be used for each? How should I clean fresh fruits and vegetables?

According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, there are no reported cases of food or food packaging being associated with the transmission of COVID-19.

But a recent study suggests the virus can persist on surfaces, such as cardboard.

Based on the results of this study, here's just how long the virus can last on various surfaces:

Plastic or stainless steel for two to three days.

Cardboard for 24 hours.

Copper for four hours.

However, the study found the amount of virus that is found on the surfaces might not be enough to get infected and further research is needed.

As for packaged items from the grocery store, epidemiologist Dr. Rama Nair suggests rinsing them with soap and water if possible, or at least a disinfectant wipe approved for use against coronavirus. Nair adds that fresh fruits and vegetables should be rinsed as soon as they are brought into your home.

"We don't have enough data to know how long it can stay on the food; it will depend on many factors. Therefore, as a precaution it is better to wash ... since we know washing with soap and water destroys the virus," he said.

If you choose to disinfect your deliveries, use soap and water, and wash your hands after unpacking your items. For other options, read more here to help you decide what works best for you!

Story continues

Read more about how to shop for groceries during a global pandemic here.

We are self-isolating as we returned to Canada last week. Are we able to go for a walk if we practise physical distancing?

A lot of questions from Canadians were about outdoor time, including this one from Bob and Dee F. who are self-isolating after travelling, but want to get outside for a little exercise. So what's OK?

Health Minister Patty Hajdu says Canadians returning from other countries must take self-isolation seriously, instructing people to "rest in your house for 14 days, no exceptions." That means no walks, unless you have a big backyard with a fence.

While it might be frustrating, these guidelines are now mandatory for anyone who has been travelling outside Canada.

CBC News put together tips about how to self-isolate at home.

Is COVID-19 harmful to either the mother or baby in pregnancy? Are pregnant women an at-risk population?

Jamie T. wonders whether pregnant women need to self-isolate to protect themselves. Based on early clinical trials, there is no evidence to suggest transmission of the virus from an infected mother to her fetus. While there have been reported cases of newborns with the virus, it's likely those were a result of intimate contact with an infected mother.

CBC News Network Host Aarti Pole recently spoke with Dr. Jon Barrett, head of maternal fetal medicine at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, who says that "pregnant women are not more at risk" than other members of the population. Though he adds, "we're getting new data all the time, so it could change."

However, there are currently no special precautions for expectant mothers outside of the guidelines for the general population.

Women in their third trimester who are close to delivery should also consult with their health-care provider to get the latest information about their hospital's labour and delivery guidelines and protocol as those policies evolve.

Who qualifies for help with their rent or mortgage?

A number of Canadians want to know if there's help for homeowners and renters. Nazila S. writes, 'Who can apply for the $500 assistance for rent?"

The federal government has not announced any money specifically for renters. But renters might qualify for other financial support being offered in some provinces, while homeowners can investigate mortgage deferral. Read more here to learn more.

David Donnelly/CBC

British Columbia is offering up to $500 in rent relief. The province is also pledging to suspend evictions and freeze rent increases.

Ontario is halting most evictions during the pandemic. Quebec's rental board has suspended eviction hearings

The six big banks are offering homeowners a mortgage deferral of up to six months, but you'll have to talk to your bank to sign up. Canadians who have lost their jobs, because of the pandemic are more likely to qualify.

However, look carefully at the terms of any deferral. Your mortgage interest will mount during the deferral and that means higher payments in future.

Edmonton mortgage broker Jason Scott explains how the deferral process works on CBC's Radio Active. You can find a lot more answers here.

Self-isolating in a full house: How do I practise physical distancing with roommates?

Paige S. lives in the basement, and another family lives upstairs, which can make physical distancing or self-isolation more complicated.

CBC News explains measures you can take to protect yourself and your housemates.

These include:

Maintaining a distance of two metres while in the same room and wearing a mask if necessary.

Not sharing household items like dishes, drinking glasses and utensils.

Cleaning and disinfecting frequently used surfaces.

Washing your hands frequently.

Read more here for tips about how to practise physical distancing with roommates or family.

Keep your questions coming by emailing us at COVID@cbc.ca.
Vice Chancellor Mufti Abdul Qasim Nomani of Deoband-based Durul Uloom on Monday offered to hand over one of the buildings of the theological school to the Uttar Pradesh government to serve as an isolation ward for COVID-19 patients.

The Durul Uloom's Mohtmim (vice chancellor ) has written to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath making this offer, a spokespersons for the school told PTI over phone.

The head of the Deoband school has said the Darul Koran building of the school is located adjacent to the main highway and if the government finds it appropriate, the school would like to offer its services for helping the country in the drive against the COVID-19 pandemic, the spokesman said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The seal of the F.B.I. hangs in the Flag Room at the bureau's headquaters in Washington, D.C., on March 9, 2007. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Actor Arrested by FBI for Selling Fake COVID-19 Cure

Hollywood actor Keith Lawrence Middlebrook has been arrested by the FBI for selling what he claimed to be a cure for COVID-19 that he also said he developed, according to a news release issued by the Department of Justice on Wednesday, March 25.

As indicated by the news release, authorities arrested him on federal fraud charges, as he claimed to have developed the alleged antidote for the cure and a disease prevention pill, and solicited investments for a fraudulent company that he said could mass-produce the products.

NTD refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Partys coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.

Middlebrook was arrested after a criminal complaint was filed, which charged the actor of attempted wire fraud, according to the release. If convicted, he could go to federal prison for a maximum of 20 years.

The complaint alleges that Middlebrook claimed to have personally developed a patent-pending cure and a treatment that prevents coronavirus infection, even though every major health authority has warned that there is no specific antiviral treatment for COVID-19 and no vaccine to prevent coronavirus infection, the release stated.

The actor was taken into custody after a meeting with an undercover FBI agentposing as an investorto deliver the pillsthe ones that Middlebrook claimed was the cure for the virus.

The news release explained the process of Middlebrooks fraudulent investment scheme: Middlebrook fraudulently solicited funds with promises of massive profits for a company he called Quantum Prevention CV Inc. (QP20), and he falsely claimed to at least one potential investor that Earvin Magic Johnson was a member of the board of directors, according to the affidavit in support of the complaint.

Johnson, whose name was used for the purpose of the fraud, was not aware of this and told the investigators that he had no knowledge of Middlebrooks alleged company.

QP20, according to Middlebrook, would mass-produce the pills he claimed would prevent COVID-19. Upon receipt of investor funds, Middlebrook would issue shares in both QP20 and Quantum Cure CV 2020 (QC20), another alleged corporation Middlebrook claimed would market the serum that could cure COVID-19 patients within two to three days, the complaint alleges, according to the news release.

Middlebrook claimed that a patient who tested positive for the CCP Virus recovered after receiving the injections. He also claimed that Investors who come in at ground level say $1M will parachute with $200M  $300M at a minimum, according to the news release.

Authorities warned people about scams like these at times of crisis, and Nick Hanna, the United States Attorney said that people will target the general publics fear and weaknesses with lies and scams.

During these difficult days, scams like this are using blatant lies to prey upon our fears and weaknesses, Hanna said. While this may be the first federal criminal case in the nation stemming from the pandemic, it certainly will not be the last. I again am urging everyone to be extremely wary of outlandish medical claims and false promises of immense profits. And to those who perpetrate these schemes, know that federal authorities are out in force to protect all Americans, and we will move aggressively against anyone seeking to cheat the public during this critical time.

From NTD News
UL graduate Courtney Lalande poses for her senior photos on Friday, March 20, 2020 in Lafayette, LA. Courtney Lalande will not be able to walk across then stage during graduation because the university is going to online courses and will be moving back to Florida.
LONDON  A Ugandan national has died from the novel coronavirus sweeping the UK, officials confirmed on Sunday, March 29.

The deceased identified as Pastor Charles Paddy Kayiwa is the first Ugandan national to succumb to coronavirus.

A statement issued on late Sunday night by Pastor Peter Kasirivu the proprietor of Ggaba Community Church confirmed Pastor Kayiwas passing on in London.

[Pastor Kayiwa] was a friend, a revivalist, fellow soldier in Kingdom, Pastor Kasirivu wrote.

Reports indicated that Pastor Kayiwa tested positive for coronavirus a few days ago and he has been receiving treatment.

Pastor Kayiwa has been the lead pastor of Alpha & Omega Ministries  UK Charlton.

The UKs coronavirus death toll has hit 1,228 in a rise of 209 in just 24 hours.

The tragedy grew overnight as the virus battle draws comparisons to Britains wartime efforts.

Tens of thousands are receiving food parcels across the UK as the frontline fight against the coronavirus rages on.

Those deemed most vulnerable to coronavirus have started to receive the packages in the biggest effort to deliver supplies to those in need since the Second World War.

UK prime minister Boris Johnson who tested positive addressed the nation last night as he continued his self-isolation.

In it he warned of an approaching critical peak moment and urged people to continue following lockdown rules to reduce pressure and demand on the NHS.

UK administration has asked the public to stop all non-essential travel, work from home if at all possible and limit exercise to one walk outside a day.

Related
The coronavirus pandemic has thrown unprecedented challenges for Indias health infrastructure and healthcare services. It is also instilling a behavioural change among the 1.3 billion people in India. As the country goes through the 21-day lockdown and summer approaches fast, access to safe water is going to emerge as one of the biggest problems for many states.

In the war against Covid-19, personal hygiene and frequent handwashing have become the main weapons. As water availability for domestic use gets scarce by the day, how the common Indian is going to stick to those basic safety measures is anyones guess. Going by a survey, a little over 80% of Indian households have access to just about 40 litres of water a day. In rural households, the scenario becomes worse as only about 20% have pipe-water supply. Lets look at Odishas example.

As per the NSS 76th round survey, 14% of households in the state do not get sufficient drinking water throughout the year. It is, in fact, one of the four worst-performing states in the country as far as availability of piped water is concerned because a whopping 56% of the households depend on hand pumps for their daily dose of water. At least 19% of households in Odisha have to trek a minimum of 1 km to fetch drinking water every day.

A similar scenario prevails in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and many other states. Urban India does not fare any better. In Meghalaya, over 11% of households have to cover a kilometre on foot to meet their everyday requirement. It is 10% in AP and 6% in Odisha. As summer sets in, water will assume prominence. Lack of water supply will force people to come out to fetch their daily needs, that too in large numbers. If the threat of Covid-19 persists beyond mid-April and into May, this may pose another big hurdle towards containment efforts. While the states are currently preoccupied with Covid-19, they should also start preparing for water scarcity right now.








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One very disturbing practice in Toronto as compared to other cities across Canada is how taxpayer-supported public facilities have been taken over by apparent cliques, which exploit these spaces for private and commercial gain.



I work for a not-for-profit and charitable organization, which seeks to serve authors and artisans while supporting literacy and a food drive for the homeless and working poor.



I have become quite disturbed seeing some of my fellow Torontonians rummaging through garbage cans for food.



With that being said, in our efforts to find a venue in Toronto, I was quite shocked at the exploitative basic rent charges of such public institutions like the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Ryerson, and their inflated private catering charges.



Finally, we settled for the 'Bram and Bluma Appel Salon' on the second floor of the Toronto Public Library, which seemed to be more reasonable than all the other crazy prices for renting bare rooms at local museums, community college, universities, and other such taxpayer-supported venues in Toronto.



Having settled on this Toronto Public Library facility, the savings in renting their Salon though shockingly began to be erased by surcharges from their private subcontractors.



For example, can you believe that they sought to charge us nearly $1000 just to rent one microphone for a few hours?



This was about 10 times the cost of our getting a microphone system on our own.



Their subcontractor also sought to charge over four times more on setting-up booths for our authors and artisans.



They were even blocking our authors and artisans from bringing their own tablecloths so they could charge us for that too!



So, you might think, why didn't we just get services from these cheaper private contractors?



No dice! That's because of apparent exclusive Sweetheart" deals that these private subcontractors have with the Toronto Public Library, which prevents any not-for-profit and charitable organizations from approaching far cheaper subcontractors.



When we tried to look at the Salon before we had rented it, did you know that the security guards blocked second floor Toronto Public librarians from showing the facility?



It is therefore apparent that the Salon is being run by some private clique at the Library that is responsible for commandeering exploitative commercial arrangements on behalf of the clique.



How is the Toronto Public Library system being allowed to have these apparent sweetheart arrangements with commercial interests?



Do they have no shame in taking away vitally needed money from charitable causes; but also how their exploitation subverts the ability of organizations to support cultural life in our city?



How are these commercial subcontractors being allowed to take money out of charitable causes likeours and into the pockets of exploitative monopolies?



As a result of the prevailing coronavirus situation, all our investment made in the marketing of our event under the exploitative conditions imposed by the Toronto Public Library has now been swallowed-up as a result of the State of Emergency Public Health decree.



Thanks to the Toronto Public Library, our efforts to support authors, artisans, literacy, and a food drive has turned into a mountain of debt.



The Bluma and Appel Salon should be responsibly operated as a community space for not-for-profit and charitable organizations in Toronto in order to support fundraising and cultural life, and ought not to represent an opportunity for a clique at the library to use such space for profiteering. No private company should be allowed to have a monopoly on servicing organizations using that space.





Furthermore, organizations like ourselves that had cancelled events as a result of the coronavirus deserve compensation and should not be left with mountains of debt.





Do you seek to make a donation pledge? Please email agorakanata@gmail.com for more information.


Bala Chauhan By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: Procurement of key medical equipment has become a big challenge for India in its fight against the novel coronavirus, because of its dependence on imports.China is the sole supplier of personal protection equipment (PPE) and N95 masks to India. The probe for the PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) realtime test to confirm nCoV infection is imported from Germany and enzymes are supplied from the US and Singapore. But Germany and US are running short of kits because of their own demand, said a source.

The supply lines of medical infrastructure, required are getting choked because of the huge demand from across the world. There are long queues for medical cargo and the minimum period of procurement is 7-10 days, he said.

Earlier the government would route its bulk purchases through certified agents who would take the risk of deferred payment or payment on landing or delivery. There are no agents now. Chinese manufacturers are demanding 100 per cent advance payment for the supply of masks and PPEs. We have identified some trusted suppliers, and they are being verified, he added.Faced with an acute crisis of N95 masks, the government is now looking to domestic manufacturers and is roping in textile and allied industries. Masks will need certification.While the WHO has been pressing for more tests for a reasonable assessment of the spread of the coronavirus, shortage of test kits has been a roadblock.

Head of the department of neurovirology at NIMHANS, Dr V Ravi, who is also a member of the Karnataka COVID19 Special Task Force, said ideally there should have been more tests for the virus, but there are not enough kits. We have ramped up tests for COVID-19 after March 10, said Dr Ravi.

The senior virologist pointed out that the Indian Council of Medical Research has placed an order for 1 lakh PCR test kits, which will be distributed to 118 test centres. Each centre is expected to carry 200 tests per day on those who are symptomatic, he said.

The Centre on Friday announced antibody tests to confirm whether a person has a previous history of viral infection. These test kits are imported from China and South Korea. The kits will have to be validated, Dr Ravi said.
(Newser)  Mexicans may not want to imitate the behavior of their president. Just one day after the country's deputy health minister urged the population to stay at home, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador traveled to Badiraguato, well known as the birthplace of El Chapo. He made his visit on Sunday, which also happened to be the 30th birthday of the former drug kingpin's son. Once there, video captured him approaching El Chapo's 91-year-old mother as she sat in her car and shaking her hand. Reuters reports he's then heard saying he received her letter. The AP reports the letter was one apparently sent last month that asks permission for her to be able to enter the US to visit her son.

story continues below

It adds that Lopez Obrador was asked about bucking social distancing practices with the handshake and replied by saying it was the respectful thing to do. "It's very difficult humanly. I'm no a robot." In another scene captured on video, a man known as a rep for the Guzman family puts his arm around the president. The Guardian notes that the leader "has been widely criticized for his lackadaisical response to coronavirus," and was catching flack for having an apparent connection with the family. (Read more Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador stories.)
Nearly a fifth of religious Americans still attending worship services: poll

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Nearly one in five United States adults who consider themselves religious are still attending worship services amid concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, according to a newly released poll.

The poll was conducted March 23-25 by three political scientists: Paul Djupe of Denison University, Ryan Burge of Eastern Illinois University, and Andrew Lewis of the University of Cincinnati. It focused on a national sample of 1,038 people who said they attend services more often than never, with the margin of error being 3 percent.

The researchers found that while 88 percent of respondents said that their house of worship canceled services or was closed, 17 percent were still attending in-person services of some kind, as reported by Buzzfeed News.

Djupe speculated that  some of the 17% who said they were still attending in-person services, may have been referring to smaller worship groups outside of their churches or temples, though this was not a question that had been asked in the survey, Buzzfeed reported.

The poll also found that 22 percent of respondents said that they were encouraged to attend in-person worship services because of the virus.

Additional findings were published in a report titled "Would They Rather be Dead Right? Support for Congregations Staying Open."

Djupe and his colleagues asked respondents if they agreed with the statement "The freedom to worship is too important to close in-person religious services due to the coronavirus."

Among respondents whose church was open, 48.9 percent either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, while 32.5 percent of respondents whose church was closed agreed or strongly agreed with the statement.

When asking if they trust clergy to have their best health interests at heart, 65.3 percent of respondents whose church was closed agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, while 51 percent of respondents whose church remained open agreed or strongly agreed.

"There are multiple dimensions on which to think about the tension between public health and corporate worship, but perhaps the most salient, especially for Americans, is when a social good bumps up against their rights," wrote Djupe.

In recent weeks, large numbers of churches have canceled their in-person worship services in response to concerns that the gatherings could spread the coronavirus.

While many congregations have switched to online worship, some churches have decided to continue holding services in spite of the pandemic concerns.

For example, Solid Rock Church, a megachurch based in Ohio, announced that they were not going to cancel their in-person services, receiving much criticism online for the decision.

There is no pressure from Solid Rock Church to require anyone to come to our services. We are respectful of every individuals right to choose either to come to our service or to watch online, stated the church.

We do believe that it is important for our doors to remain open for whomever to come to worship and pray during this time of great challenge in our country.

While Ohio Governor Mike DeWine did exempt houses of worship from an executive order banning large gatherings, he took to social media to implore churches to close in response to the pandemic.

We did not order religious organizations to close, but my message to EVERYONE is that this is serious. When you are coming together, whether in a church or wherever - this is dangerous, stated DeWine on Twitter.

We have the ability to do religious services other ways. I implore religious leaders to think about their congregations. Gathering in groups is dangerous.
Sysco, the nations largest food distributor, has furloughed and laid off some workers in response to the economic fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The Houston company, which has more than 69,000 employees globally, did not disclose the number of sales, warehouse, transportation and support employees worldwide who are furloughed or laid off. Sysco said it would continue to pay benefits to its non-union employees who are furloughed.

The expense reductions that are required are difficult, Chief Executive Kevin Hourican said in a video message to employees on Friday. The actions we are taking are necessary, and they will ensure that we will remain a strong company from a financial and strategic perspective.

Coronavirus updates: Stay informed with accurate reporting you can trust

Sysco, which provides food to restaurants, schools, hotels and office cafeterias, said the coronavirus outbreak has caused a dramatic reduction in its business as consumers increasingly heed public health recommendations and mandates to stay home to slow the spread of the virus. Most schools and corporate offices are now closed, and restaurants and hotels have seen a steep drop in customer traffic.

While hospital business has remained strong and some restaurants have pivoted to takeout and home delivery, those efforts have not been enough to outweigh declining sales.

We have seen swift and dramatic declines in the volumes of our outbound customer demand, Hourican said.

Sysco is now reducing hours for some of its employees, cutting capital investments to non-critical projects and is pivoting its business to new markets, including retail grocery. The company said it is not seeking a government bailout.

The layoffs in response to the coronavirus fallout are the latest round to hit Sysco employees in recent years. Sysco a few years ago outsourced information technology work to India, and last year laid off nearly 300 finance and accounting staff at its shared services center in Cypress.

In addition, Sysco consolidated its French and hospitality subsidiaries and closed some facilities in Canada and Europe, laying off an undisclosed number of workers.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Houston food service giant Sysco marks 50th anniversary as challenges mount

Earlier this year, Sysco outsourced all of its U.S. customer service functions, laying off at least 30 employees in the Houston area and others nationally. The food distributor partnered with Cognizant, a New Jersey outsourcing firm, to manage its customer service as part of a new centralized customer care model that would allow for extended hours and a single point of contact for Syscos customers.

The company on Friday said it partnered with Cincinnati-based Kroger, the nations largest grocery chain, to offer temporary work for furloughed Sysco workers at some Kroger distribution centers. Sysco employees who have been furloughed can work for Kroger for 30 days or more.

This agreement will benefit many of Syscos associates by creating good work opportunities with a respected company, while at the same time helping to alleviate strain in the food supply chain due to a surge in demand at retail stores, Hourican said in a statement.

paul.takahashi@chron.com

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In Germany, a court sentenced a 31-year-old Tunisian man to 10 years in prison for planning a biological bomb attack with the deadly poison ricin, which is isolated from the seeds of the castor bean plant.

He is said to have ordered the beans online. One can isolate a lethal amount of ricin from them, under the right circumstances.

The sentence was issued last Thursday, March 26, 2020. The arrests are believed to have prevented what would have been Germany's first biological attack, said police in Munich.

Sief Allah H., 31, was found guilty of producing a biological weapon and of planning a serious act of violent subversion.

From AFP:

An Islamic State sympathizer, the perpetrator had ordered castor seeds and explosives on the internet in order to build the toxic bomb, a spokesman for the higher regional court in Duesseldorf said. () His German wife, 43, stands accused of helping him build the bomb, but she is now being tried separately after the court accused her defense lawyers of attempting to spin out the case with a 140-page statement on Thursday [26 Mar 2020]. Her trial will resume on 1 Apr 2020. The couple "wanted to create a climate of fear and uncertainty among the German population," Judge Jan van Lessen was quoted by DPA as saying on Thursday [26 Mar 2020]. He added that they had produced enough ricin to potentially kill up to 13 500 people. The couple have been on trial since June last year [2019] following their arrest in 2018 by an anti-terrorist squad that found 84 milligrams of the toxin in their Cologne apartment.

Read more:

German court sentences Tunisian for ricin bomb plot
OKLAHOMA CITY - Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Sunday joined other governors in requiring air travellers from New York and other coronavirus hot spots to quarantine when travelling to his state.

Travellers who fly from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, California, Washington state and Louisiana must self-quarantine for 14 days if they head to Oklahoma, according to Stitts executive order. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and others have issued similar orders.

The Oklahoma State Department of Health reported Sunday that the states death count from COVID-19 had risen to 16, an in crease of one over the day before. There are now 429 confirmed cases in 44 of the states 77 counties, up from a total of 377 on Saturday.

The newest death is an Oklahoma County man aged 50-64, the health department said. Deaths are also reported in Cleveland, Tulsa, Pawnee, Wagoner, Sequoyah and Creek counties.

Counties where the virus is confirmed must comply with Stitts Safer at Home order on that requires non-essential businesses to temporarily suspend services until April 16.

Groceries stores remain open.

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.
Pakistani troops engaged in firing and mortar shelling along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday in violation of the ceasefire, officials said.

Pakistan Army violated the ceasefire along the LoC by firing from small arms and shelling with mortars in the Mankote sector, a defence spokesman said.

Indian Army is retaliating befittingly, he said.

There were a total of 646 incidents of ceasefire violations along the International Border (IB) as well as the Line of Control (LoC) between January 1 and February 23 this year, Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik said on Wednesday.

Over 3,200 ceasefire violations by Pakistan troops were recorded in 2019.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, left, and Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

It was bad enough that Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was seen shaking hands with a 92-year-old woman Sunday, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

But what really upset many Mexicans was not that the president was failing to obey his own orders for social distancing, nor that the woman was elderly and therefore most at risk.

It was that she is the mother of notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

A 30-second video of their brief meeting quickly went viral, and by Monday the phrase "Narco President" was trending on Twitter, along with hashtags about the importance of staying inside.

El presidente @lopezobrador_ saludo de mano a la madre de Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, Consuelo Loera, durante su gira por la comunidad de Badiraguato, en Sinaloa



 Nota: https://t.co/q07ke4dcA8 pic.twitter.com/OPFq6vcM0O  Proceso (@proceso) March 30, 2020

"The President, instead of canceling his tours and attending to the serious crisis caused by COVID-19, has prioritized meeting with the mother of a drug trafficker and the grandmother of a fugitive," said a statement released Monday by a coalition of senators from the opposition National Action Party.

Journalist Pascal Beltran del Rio riffed on Twitter that the president had "failed to keep a healthy distance. In more ways than one."

Since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 struck Mexico in late February, Lopez Obrador's response to the pandemic has been erratic, and at times baffling.

For weeks he openly ignored the advice of public health officials, embracing supporters, kissing their children and joking that he was relying on good-luck charms to protect him in the crisis.

Story continues

And he has continued his traditional weekend tours around the country, even as two Mexican governors with whom he recently met announced that they are positive for COVID-19, and his undersecretary of health, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, begged Mexicans to stay home to contain the spread of the disease.

This is the last chance we have. We cant lose it, Lopez-Gatell said in a somber news briefing Saturday. We are saying to everyone: Stay at home.' Its the only way to reduce this virus.

The government says 993 people have tested positive for the disease, and 20 have died from it.

On Saturday night, it looked like Lopez Obrador might have turned a corner. He recorded a long video address in which he implored Mexicans to stay inside. "We have to be in our homes," he said. "We have to maintain a safe distance.

The next day, he traveled with a large caravan of people to the remote mountain hamlet of Badiraguato, Sinaloa, in a region known for marijuana and poppy cultivation. The president, who was accompanied by the state's governor, said he was there to observe progress on construction of a new road.

At the entrance of the village of La Tuna, where Guzman was born, the government caravan stopped, and Lopez Obrador got out of his SUV and strode up to a shiny, white pickup truck, where Guzman's gray-haired mother, Maria Consuelo Loera Perez, was sitting in the passenger seat.

"Don't get out," the president told her while shaking her hand. "I received your letter," he said.

The president also spoke briefly with Jose Luis Gonzalez Meza, a lawyer for the family.

At a news conference Monday in Mexico City, Lopez Obrador explained that Guzman's mother had sent him a letter  for the second time  pleading for his help.

The March 20 letter, which the government made public, said she hopes to visit her son, who is in a maximum security prison in Colorado after being convicted last year on drug trafficking and murder charges.

"Unfortunately I must inform you that the efforts of your government to help me receive a humanitarian visa ... have been rejected by the [U.S.] government," said the letter, which was composed on a typewriter.

Loera begged Lopez Obrador to continue to help her, and also took a jab at officials in the previous Mexican administration who had overseen Guzman's extradition, saying, "Nothing would make me and my family happier than seeing him in a Mexican prison, where he belongs."

Lopez Obrador told journalists that he would continue to support Loera for humanitarian reasons but added that the decision of whether to admit her to the prison ultimately depends on the U.S. government.

He said he was moved by her predicament.

"Mothers have a special and sublime love for their children," said Lopez Obrador, who said Loera told him "that she does not want to die" without seeing her son.

The exchange shocked many in Mexico, where organized crime has contributed to record high homicide rates in recent years. Some were quick to note that the president's visit coincided with the 30th birthday of Guzman's son, Ovidio Guzman Lopez.

Last fall, Mexican federal forces briefly captured Ovidio Guzman Lopez at his home in the city of Culiacan. But when Sinaloa cartel gunmen took control of the city, taking hostages and blocking exits out of town, federal forces relented and released Guzman Lopez.

While some in Mexico praised the government's decision to deescalate the situation in order to save civilian lives, others questioned whether Guzman Lopez's release was a sign of collusion between the government and the cartel.

Lopez Obrador rejects those claims. He has repeatedly said that, unlike his predecessors, he doesn't want a war with drug traffickers, saying the militarized approach of past governments didn't work.

On Monday, he lashed out at his critics for turning the encounter with Guzman's mother into a "scandal" and said some of them had done more to hurt the country than she had.

"Sometimes I have to shake hands, because it is my job," he said. "How could I not give my hand to a lady? How am I going to leave her with her hand waiting?"
We're in trouble. Weeks, even days ago, I never thought that I'd have to pen such words. As a result of Covid-19, we're essentially being forced to navigate waters that are not only unchartered but also as stormy as can be. When I tune into the world around I'm hearing countless distress calls from individuals to large companies. Very few, it seems, have been unaffected by the pandemic.

As a locally-based property group, we realise that when travel restarts, our greatest support may initially come from the domestic market. To this end, weve already launched a bouquet of enticing travel specials, encouraging more South Africans to visit our properties later in the year. This will ensure that were able to continue to run our lodges, support our staff and, at the same time, offer South Africans a chance to visit our properties at largely reduced rates. We believe wholeheartedly that we will all get through this, as long we stick together and support each other.

We live life at a fast pace. So much so, that we barely get time to reflect. That's why I, together with other influencers, will be supporting the #SAWineLockdown initiative. Guided by a daily wine topic of the day, we will be encouraging wine-lovers to unpack their wine cellar and taste or show us which wineries they have supported over the years. Its time to reflect back on what you have learned and, more importantly, the good memories. Once lockdown is over, we will be ready to stock up again and will have a list of 21 wines to look out for!

Day 3 of 21 for the #sawinelockdown - show us what Chenin you have at home  pic.twitter.com/Tr4tDyGFtC  Thewinegirlcapetown (@thewinegirlCT) March 29, 2020

Most of my income comes from my magazine articles and the content or ads on my blog. All have currently been halted, meaning Ive lost 80% of my income. My aim now is to reach out to international magazines that are open to submissions from freelancers, trying to offer discounts on advertising on my blog, to encourage corporates and others with continued salaries to advertise small businesses, etc. Im also trying to move into writing outside my usual scope and more on the mental health side, wellness and environmental impact pieces.

In a very short period, weve had to come to terms with communal grief that is only experienced every few generations. In a very helpful article, author Scott Berinato reminds us that The loss of normalcy; the fear of economic toll; the loss of connection. This is hitting us and were grieving. Collectively. We are not used to this kind of collective grief in the air.My work in the travel industry sees me wearing several hats. The biggest of these is that of a travel journalist. To explore South Africa and share her with our people and a very interested foreign audience is a great privilege. Living through a period of travel restrictions and lockdown is an unprecedented challenge for many and, as a result, Ive had to pause all travelling. Many publications have understandably also put a temporary hold on commission work.Another hat I wear is that of a qualified tour guide. As youd imagine all guiding is now also on hold and it will, unfortunately, take much longer than the allotted lockdown period for the industry to recover. Of course, the amount of hotels, lodges and restaurants that have had to close is simply devastating.The truth is there are 1.4 million of us in the tourism industry  that is 1.4 million people who have dedicated their lives to promoting South Africa and serving in tourism. With an estimated 9% contribution to our GDP, tourism is one of South Africas biggest industries. Its understandable that there are so many distress calls being heard. I spoke with three people whose companies or industries have all been impacted, wanting to hear what some of the initiatives have been in response.First, I spoke with Lauren Ritchie, the CEO of Rare Earth Retreats, and she shared some of her reflections with me:The wine industry has also been servery affected, notwithstanding the loss of income from closed tasting rooms and restaurants. As I write this, the lockdown also affects the work around harvest and exports. I asked Leanne Beattie of The Wine Girl Cape Town, an avid social media wino, what she and others are doing in this space:Lastly, fellow travel writer Lauren Manuel of The Travel Manuel shared:I think it was the great Celtic writer John ODonoghue who said that hope is calling beauty out of its places of hiding. It was always been the sacred role of a travel writer to give hope by pointing out the stories of beauty. The beauty found in thousands of spaces, places and people.The impact of the coronavirus may be the biggest obstacle that weve had to face to date but, thankfully, not all the distress calls are white flags. While there will be casualties and great losses, there are voices of hope to be heard in the storm. The reality is that weve had a fair share of challenges to deal with in the past and while we may not always have all the resources wed like, South Africans are some of the most resourceful people Ive met.In the past, South Africa has heavily depended on the tourism industry and as the situation around this pandemic begins to recover, it will look to us even more. When that time comes, I know we will be found ready to meet the task and wave the SA flag even. For there are still many stories to be told, places to be visited and beautiful people to meet.
The burial ceremony of Reverend Sister Henrietta Alokha, Principal of Bethlehem Girls College who lost her life while rescuing students after a gas explosion earlier this month in Abule Ado community of Lagos State, was held yesterday in Atani -Uromi, Edo state.

The burial ceremony of the Reverend Sister was attended by her colleagues, loved ones and family members.

President Buhari also paid tribute to the late Principal. In a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity Mr Femi Adesina, Buhari saluted the heroic spirit of the Reverend Sister Henrietta Alokha.

The statement read;

As remains of the Principal of Bethlehem High School, Abule-Ado, Lagos, Rev. Sis. Henrietta Alokha, is laid to rest, President Muhammadu Buhari joins staff members and students in mourning the huge loss to the school, and the country. The President believes Sis. Alokhas choice to lay down her life for the students she loved deserves commendation, while taking into consideration her contributions to the educational development of the country through piety, diligence and charity. President Buhari salutes her courage and heroism, assuring that posterity will remember her sacrificial spirit, rescuing children kept under her care, and putting her own life on the line. The President prays that the almighty God will accept her soul, comfort her family, and all those she lived and died for. President Buhari, again, condoles with all those who lost their loved ones and property in the pipeline explosion, praying that God will strengthen them in the trying period.

See more photos below;
Lockdown-like restrictions to return in Maharashtra? Here's what CM Uddhav Thackeray has to say

Maharashtra assures to look after migrant labourers

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Mumbai, Mar 30: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has assured that his government will take care of all migrant labourers and provide them basic necessities like food and water.

The 'Shiv Bhojan' scheme offering meal at Rs 10 will now be available at Rs 5 from April 1, he said in a webcast.

Thackeray said the state has already set up 163 centres across the state to provide food and water to the migrant labourers.

"The state will protect them and provide food, but they should not leave their place. I understand that they are anxious but they should not leave. They should avoid increasing the risk of infection, he said.

NEWS AT NOON, MARCH 30th, 2020

Migrants driven home due to lack of food, money

In view of the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus, several migrant labourers are left with no work and hence, they are leaving the state to return to their native places.

A number of them have been marching on foot, while some tried to make their way out of the state in goods trucks and tempos, but were caught during police checking.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra has gone up to 193 with 12 more people testing positive for coronavirus, a health official said on Sunday.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, March 30, 2020, 8:25 [IST]
Prince Charles is set to pay 2million every year in security costs for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle while they live in the US, according to a royal source.

The royal couple's security bill could cost anywhere up to 4million, and Prince Charles is expected to pay a 'private contribution' toward the bill.

A royal source said: 'Charles has agreed to pay a ''private contribution'' to the Sussexes.

'It will not be revealed how much and what that is used for, but it is believed to be around 2 million. It would not be a surprise if it went into meeting the bill for security.

'However, the Prince of Wales does not have an infinite amount of money. The total income from the Duchy of Cornwall is annually around 21million.'

Prince Charles is set to pay 2million every year in security costs for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle while they live in the US, according to a royal source

A royal source said the pair's stepping down removes any obligation on the US government to pay for their security

Security costs are expected to be so high because Metropolitan Police are not allowed to carry guns in the US, so the couple may be forced to use private guards.

Meghan and Harry have insisted they never intended to ask Donald Trump for help with security costs after the President tweeted to say US taxpayers would not contribute towards protecting them.

'The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have no plans to ask the U.S. Government for security resources,' a Sussex spokesman set yesterday. 'Privately funded security arrangements have been made.'

Today the palace refused to comment about whether this meant UK taxpayers would no longer have to contribute towards any future bill.

The Sussexes' quick fire reply came hours after Mr Trump said the couple should foot the bill for their bodyguards, now they have moved across the border to LA from Vancouver where Canadian police helped with security.

Meghan Markle is seen taking baby Archie and her dogs, Guy (left) and Oz (right), for a walk with two security following behind, in Vancouver, Canada, on January 19

Trump said: 'I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada . Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!'





The bill for their security, which includes a roster of nine highly skilled British officers shuttling between the UK and US, is estimated to be as much as 8 million a year and is covered by British taxpayers through the Metropolitan Police budget. They also received support from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Royal sources had said that if Harry and Meghan wanted help with security from the Secret Service in the US, which protects international diplomats, a request would have to be made to the State Department.

Ultimately the decision would have rested with Trump, and he made clear today that the US taxpayer would not help fund the couple's security.

It is not known what the 'private' security arrangements Meghan and Harry claim to have made are.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and ten-month-old baby Archie made a last minute dash across the border from Canada to the US this week to start their new life in LA. President Donald Trump has said the US won't help with security costs once they settle to live there

It emerged last week that the duke, 35, and duchess, 38, had moved to California before the border with Canada closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Meghan's mother Doria lives in Los Angeles, and the former actress grew up there. The couple took a private jet with their son Archie, ten months, just before non-essential travel between Canada and the US was suspended.

Trump has the final say over whether the couple can have US-funded diplomatic protection in the US, because Harry will no longer be classed as an 'international protected person' when he completes the final phase of Megxit next week, according to a royal source.

Their decision to move to California came shortly after the Canadian authorities said they would refuse to contribute to the cost of protecting them with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after March 31.

They have been clear from the beginning that they wish to 'stand on their own feet' and there are already lucrative contracts in the pipeline, including one with the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Norman Baker, former Home Office Minister and author of And What Do You Do?: What The Royal Family Don't Want You To Know, told the Mail on Sunday yesterday: 'They're going to Los Angeles in order to make packets of money. There will be waterfalls of dollars cascading their way. And they're now private citizens. Why should we pay for them?

'We can't have a situation in which members of the Royal Family can choose to live anywhere in the world, however dangerous, and expect us to pay. The dangers in LA are much more significant than in the backwoods of Windsor.'

The Prince's chances of building a good relationship with the US President may have been undermined when a leaked phone call saw him say Mr Trump has 'blood on his hands'. Russian hackers managed to connect to the couple's Canadian bolthole where they persuaded the prince that he was speaking to Swedish eco-activist Greta Thunberg and her father.

In the calls Harry took aim at the President's environmental record, he said: 'I think the mere fact that Donald Trump is pushing the coal industry is so big in America, he has blood on his hands'.

He later added: 'Unfortunately the world is being led by some very sick people so the people like yourselves and younger generation are the ones that are going to make all the difference.'

Meghan has also had issues with President Trump in the past, blasting him as 'misogynistic' and 'divisive' in a television interview before he was elected to office.

Last year the President hit back at the former actress saying: 'I didn't know she was nasty'.

Harry and Meghan caused quite a stir earlier this year when they made the shock announcement that they were quitting Royal life and leaving the UK.

The Megxit process will finally be complete on Tuesday when the couple will stand down as senior Royals.

Trump has the final say on whether the U.S. will foot the bill for the couple. In a tweet on Sunday, he knocked back the idea, saying: 'I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada . Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!'

A royal source said the pair's stepping down removes any obligation on the US government to pay for their security.

The UK and US have a long standing reciprocal agreement when it comes to bodyguards protecting diplomats and members of the Royal family.

President Trump's Secret Service agents would have been allowed to carry their weapons on his state visit and likewise bodyguards for the Queen and Prince Charles when they made official trips to the US.

But Harry's exit from the Royal family means he is no longer considered an 'international protected person' and so these rules don't apply.

The couple would have had to rely on President Trump to make an exception to cover the costs, the source said.

'It will be down to Harry or his Met Police protection officers to ask for help,' they said.

'There is a reciprocal agreement between the US that allows protection officers to carry their weapons. But Harry is no longer a serving royal and that is why his protection in Canada from the Mounties was withdrawn.

'Someone is going to have to ask the State Department, and ultimately the decision rests with Donald Trump, for assistance. Harry cannot live in the US without armed protection.'

Given Meghan's criticism of the US leader  and snubbing him at a Buckingham Palace banquet  it's not surprising that Trump doesn't feel so generous to the pair.

The LAPD and California Governor Newsom's Office did not return a request from DailyMail.com about their involvement in the couple's security plans.
President Donald Trump told Fox News interviewers Monday morning that his next phone call was to Russian President Vladimir Putin  and that the two men would talk about an oil price war and sanctions imposed by the U.S.

As he contends with the coronavirus pandemic confronting the nation and the world, Trump once again fumed about the Mueller report, calling it a 'hoax,' and said the U.S. should try to 'get along' with Russia.

'We talk about trade and we talk about trade a lot. They would love to be able to do trade with our country. Its been very much hindered by the nonsense thats been going on,  Russia, Russia, Russia  which has turned out to be a total hoax' Trump vented.

Donald Trump told Fox News he would speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday. He said 'literally thats my next call.'

Trump told 'Fox and Friends' interviewers during his call-in appearance that one topic that would come up would be the trade war between Russia and Saudi Arabia that helped spark a steep drop in financial markets.

'Thatll be one of the subjects well be talking about is energy. We dont want to have an industry thats wiped out,' said Trump.

'This is a fight between Saudi Arabia and Russia having to do with how many barrels to let out. And they both went crazy,' Trump said.

He didn't directly respond to a question about who proposed the call, but indicated trade  and sanctions  would get discussed.

'Were going to talk,' Trump said.

'We talk about trade and we talk about trade a lot. They would love to be able to do trade with our country. Its been very much hindered by the nonsense thats been going on  Russia, Russia, Russia, which has turned out to be a total hoax,' Trump said.

Trump predicted Vladimir Putin would bring up U.S.-imposed sanctions that punished its election interference and other conduct

In this file photo US President Donald Trump (R) attends a meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin during the G20 summit in Osaka on June 28, 2019

An employee looks on at Saudi Aramco oil facility in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia October 12, 2019.The Saudis are embroiled in a price war with Russia

A Saudi man stands in front of a screen of stock prices at ANB Bank in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia March 15, 2020

Trump fumed about the Mueller report, which was released almost a year ago in April 2019, as well as the former FBI director he fired, James Comey.

'The whole thing turned out to be a hoax. And it really stops us from getting along with other countries. Its an important country and we should get along with all countries if possible,' Trump said. He said of his appointment to talk to Putin that it was 'literally thats my next call.'

Trump fielded a question from host Brian Kilmeade, who brought up a range of malign Russian activities, from 2016 election interference to backing U.S. adversaries and suspected poisonings on foreign soil.

'Im the one that put the sanctions on Brian, nobody else.

'Ive been tougher on Russia than any president in the history of the country,' he said. He predicted Putin would 'probably' ask about sanctions relief.

'I was the one that sanctioned him. Theyre very heavily sanctioned, they dont like that. Frankly We should be able to get along,' Trump said. The administration has imposed sanctions on Russia, but Trump also resisted bipartisan congressionally imposed sanctions, ultimately signing onto them.

'When you say about by lifting sanctions, you make it sound like Im the soft guy,' he scolded Kilmeade. 'Russia got away with murder. Everybody got away with murder against us,' he said.

Trump also brought up Russian battlefield sacrifices decades ago before it became a Cold War adversary.

'They also fought World War II. They lost 50 million people. They were our partner, in World War II. Germany was the enemy. And [now] Germany's like this wonderful thing ... now we don't talk to Russia, we talk to Germany. I mean, look, it's fine. I want to talk to Germany,' Trump said.

'No one talks about that,' he said.

Trump avoided repeating a past debunked claim that his father, Fred, was born in Germany.

'My father was born  Germany its in my heritage it might be in your heritage,' Trump said.
NANCY APPEALS TO TOURISM CONGRESS TO DONATE

PILLOWS, BEDDINGS TO QUARANTINE CENTERS

...says TCP in a unique position to complement hospitals

Senator Nancy Binay today appealed to members of the Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP) to donate pillows and beddings to COVID-19 quarantine centers.

"The hospitals and quarantine centers are already too overwhelmed and preoccupied. Broadly speaking, the TCP can be the backline in this fight against COVID-19 by giving out soap, donating pillows and linens, at iba pang kagamitan para sa mga quarantine centers natin," said Binay, who chairs the Senate Committee on Tourism.

According to government quarantine guidelines, all local government units are required to establish isolation units.

"The TCP is in a unique position to help and complement our hospitals and local quarantine centers. They have the backbone in providing viable solutions to quarantine challenges at this very critical time. Even donating soap can already spell hope," Binay pointed out.

The procurement of bedding essentials amid halted production is a key issue that must not be overlooked, said the lawmaker.

Binay noted that tourism establishments are well equipped to respond to the challenge of constantly changing sheets.

"Daily reality ng mga hotel, inn, at iba pang hospitality establishments ang pagsiguro na malinis ang tutulugan ng kanilang customers. They are definitely well-equipped to deal with the issue of hygiene," said Binay.

She expressed confidence that many establishments would answer the call for help, despite the tourism industry also taking a massive hit due to the global pandemic.

"This would require sacrifice on the part of the private sector, pero naniniwala akong marami sa mga partners natin sa Tourism Congress ay willing naman tumulong at gawin ang makakaya para malagpasan natin ang krisis na ito," Binay added.

The TCP is government's private sector counterpart created under the Tourism Act of 2009 (RA 9593). TCP represents tourism establishments like hotels, resorts, theme parks, travel and tour operators and other stakeholders in the country's tourism industry.
United States Senators Lamar Alexander and Marsha Blackburn and Reps. Tim Burchett, Steve Cohen, Jim Cooper, Scott DesJarlais, Chuck Fleischmann, Mark Green, David Kustoff, Phil Roe, M.D., and John Rose on Monday urged President Trump to quickly approve Governor Bill Lees request for additional federal assistance for the state of Tennessee to assist with the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the last two weeks, the federal government has approved more than $2 trillion to help keep payroll checks coming, to relieve the financial burden on Americans and to assist states and cities with the cost of and consequences of containing COVID-19. Governor Lee has now asked for further specific assistance under the nations disaster relief laws, and we support his request.

The coronavirus pandemic has already forced the state to take unprecedented actions to protect Tennesseans and slow the spread of the virus. As of March 28, there have been 18,388 tests performed, with 1,373 confirmed cases, 6 deaths and 118 hospitalization across 58 counties. We anticipate those numbers will continue to rise. This disaster has already, and will continue to place a significant financial burden on the State, local government, and impacted individuals.

The full text of the letter is below and available online here.

Dear Mr. President:

On behalf of the State of Tennessee, we are writing to express our support for Governor Bill Lees request to declare a major disaster pursuant to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief Act as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic beginning on January 20, 2020.

During the last two weeks, the federal government has approved more than $2 trillion to help keep payroll checks coming, to relieve the financial burden on Americans and to assist states and cities with the cost of and consequences of containing COVID-19. Governor Lee has now asked for further specific assistance under the nations disaster relief laws, and we support his request.

The coronavirus pandemic has already forced the state to take unprecedented actions to protect Tennesseans and slow the spread of the virus. As of March 28, there have been 18,388 tests performed, with 1,373 confirmed cases, 6 deaths and 118 hospitalization across 58 counties. We anticipate those numbers will continue to rise.

This disaster has already, and will continue to place a significant financial burden on the State, local government, and impacted individuals. Governor Lee has already issued seven Executive Orders in response to the coronavirus pandemic, including issuing a State of Emergency, deploying 300 members of the Tennessee National Guard to support testing, forming a Coronavirus Task Force to lead Tennessees response, prohibiting gatherings of 10 people or more, and prohibited non-essential medical procedures. Additionally, 25 counties and 34 individual cities have also declared a local state of emergency and while schools are closed the Tennessee Department of Education has established 800 sites across the state where children can receive two meals a day.

However, Tennessee needs additional resources. Governor Lee has submitted a request for Public and Individual Assistance, Hazard Mitigation, and approval to federally fund the deployment of Tennessee National Guard members in support of Tennessees COVID-19 response, under Title 32.

We strongly urge you to approve Governor Lees request, and we hope you will consider our States request as soon as possible. Our offices can provide you with any additional information should you have any questions.




Indian Ambassador to the United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu on Monday briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the developments and challenges pertaining to COVID 19 and ways in which India and US effort can partner to overcome them.

"Privileged to participate in a videoconference with Prime Minister on efforts to combat COVID19. Briefed PM on developments and challenges pertaining to COVID19 and ways in which India and the United States can partner to overcome them,"Sandhu said in a tweet.

The Prime Minister held a video conference with the head of Indian diplomatic missions in which he discussed the coronavirus pandemic.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla also attended the video conference.

The United States has reported 144,672 positive cases of the coronavirus and 2,599 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A nurse holds a completed test with patient samples at a drive-through testing site for coronavirus, flu and RSV in Seattle, Washington.

Lindsey Wasson/Reuters

Georgia resident Erik Santos was arrested Monday and charged with participating in a $1.1 million Medicare fraud scheme.

According to the charges, Santos received kickbacks from medical testing companies by sending fraudulent claims for coronavirus and cancer tests.

Accepting payment for patient referrals for healthcare services to be paid for Medicare or Medicaid is illegal under a federal law called the Anti-Kickback statute.

"[W]hile there are people going through what they are going through, you can either go bankrupt or you can prosper," Santos told a government informant, according to the complaint.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

A Georgia man was arrested Monday on charges that he ran a months-long fraud scheme where he sent Medicare recipients to take unnecessary tests  including people he told to get tested for the coronavirus.

His actions led to the submission of over $1.1 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, according to the charges.

Federal prosecutors in New Jersey charged Erik Santos, 49 of Braselton, Georgia, with one count of conspiring to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute and one count of conspiring to commit health care fraud.

The charges say Santos operated a marketing company and, since November 2019, has sent the names of patients who were eligible for Medicare reimbursement to medical testing facilities, even if those individuals did not require such testing.

The complaint alleged he and "others"  not named in the complaint  solicited and received kickback payments from the testing companies on a per-test basis.

Prosecutors say Santos shifted from cancer screening kickbacks to coronavirus kickbacks

For months, Santos received kickbacks for sending the names of patients eligible for Medicare reimbursement to companies that conducted genetic cancer screenings, the complaint alleges.

More recently, he pivoted toward receiving kickbacks to companies offering tests for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, provided that those tests were bundled with a much more expensive respiratory pathogen panel (RPP) test, which does not identify COVID-19, prosecutors say.

Story continues

"It is unfortunate that we have people in our country who will capitalize on others' suffering to make a buck," Gregory W. Ehrie, the special agent in charge of FBI Newark, said in a press release. "But this case takes things to a new low. This defendant not only allegedly defrauded the government, he conspired to bilk his fellow citizens of a valuable resource that's in high demand. His profiteering is akin to receiving blood money."

"[W]hile there are people going through what they are going through, you can either go bankrupt or you can prosper," Santos told an FBI informant on a phone call on March 19, according to the complaint. "[T]he good thing is we're opening a lot of doors through this coronavirus testing."

According to the US Office of Health and Human Services, the Anti-Kickback Statute prevents paid-for referrals in the medical industry for drugs, supplies, or healthcare services for Medicare or Medicaid patients.

"The U.S. Attorney's Office and our law enforcement partners are focused on protecting the public from this kind of despicable pandemic profiteering, and will act quickly to halt the fraud and bring the perpetrators to justice," US Attorney Carpenito said in a statement.

Santos told the informant that his other operations were halted in favor of the coronavirus scam because "everybody has been chasing the Covid dollar bird," the complaint said.

Coronavirus-related scams are on the rise

Chris Hacker, the special agent who leads the FBI bureau Atlanta said in a statement Santos' arrest shows that while the agency has had to "adapt" due to the novel coronavirus, it is "continuing to protect our citizens and uphold the Constitution."

Since the first reported cases of the novel coronavirus in the US, the country has struggled with a lack of adequate testing supplies.

There has been a slew of coronavirus-related scams that have appeared since fears of the virus in the US began to materialize in February. As Business Insider reported, the Internal Revenue Service warned Americans that it wouldn't call them to solicit information to receive their stimulus check.

YouMail, a company that tracks scam calls, told Business Insider that some scammers had already begun to incorporate the coronavirus into their usual scam pitches in attempts to further mislead people they called.

A representative for Santos couldn't be reached for comment. A spokesperson for the Department of Justice told Insider that it did not yet know who would be representing him.

According to the complaint, Santos was scheduled to appear Monday afternoon in a federal court in Atlanta.

The novel coronavirus has so far infected at least 153,245 people in the United States and killed more than 2,800, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Read the original article on Insider
At least Phil and Jean believe there's a road to recovery after his surgeries. But at nursing facilities nationwide, the new restrictions have left relatives of many elderly patients  particularly those who are dying  wondering if or when they will be able to see each other to say goodbye. That's because, under the new guidelines, issued in mid-March, visitations are strictly limited to patients in certain compassionate-care situations, such as end of life. Even then, there can be differences of opinion between a family and facility staff about whether a loved one is indeed dying.



Defining end of life

The CMS has no hard and fast definition. When asked during a press conference to define end of life or imminent death, CMS Administrator Seema Verma deferred to a colleague, who said the agency does not specifically define end of life  that should be left up to the facility and the family to decide together.

In other words, even in the midst of this terrible crisis, there is no simple answer.

This is a very difficult question, admits Manuel Eskildsen, a physician and clinician-educator in the division of geriatrics at UCLA School of Medicine. A great amount of literature has been written on this, and even doctors can't always tell when patients are dying. It's really hard to tell. It's human nature that we're all optimistic, and we tend toward overstating how long someone has to live."

A good death

It's not just the term imminent death or end of life that is desperately seeking definition. In this unimaginable, new environment, so, too, is the very concept of what makes a good death.

Everyone has his own idea of what a good death means, says Eleanor Feldman Barbera, a psychologist and long-term care expert. For many, it's the concept of a roomful of family members gathered around the bedside so that each of them can say a private farewell.

For those in nursing homes, that's not possible now, Barbera notes. With restrictions in place to protect vulnerable residents, an individual family member may need to act as an emotional proxy for family and friends. That person may be savvy enough with technology to arrange a video chat so that other family members can say their goodbyes, Barbera says.

In cases in which the grieving family member is too fragile to handle these duties, nursing home staff can be enlisted to assist.

New situations, new rules

That family member must come to grips with a new, very rigid set of CMS rules mandated during visits. And it entails a lot more than handwashing. Visitors will be equipped with personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face masks. Loved ones also must restrict their visit to the resident's room or whatever space the facility designates. Toughest of all is the physical separation.

The guidance suggests that guests refrain from physical contact with residents and others in the facility by practicing social distancing, including avoiding handshakes or hugging, and remaining six feet apart from everyone, including the person they are visiting. Anyone who has a cough, sore throat or shortness of breath is barred from entering, even in end-of-life situations, according to CMS guidelines.

Reach out for assistance

If you're denied entrance to a facility for reasons that you consider unfair, one of the best moves, traditionally, would be to reach out to the nursing home's ombudsman (a resident advocate). Every nursing home has one.

The Ombudsman Program is run by the Administration on Aging. Most state ombudsman programs are housed in their State Units on Aging. In 2018 the ombudsman program investigated over 194,516 complaints and provided information on long-term care to another 409,311 consumers, according to The National Long-Term Care Ombudsman Resource Center.

If you are having trouble locating the ombudsman, contact the Eldercare Locator (eldercare.acl.gov or 800-677-1116), a nationwide service of the Administration on Aging that connects older Americans and their caregivers with trustworthy local support resources.

But while ombudsmen can be helpful on many occasions, how open and available they would be with all that's going on right now might be very limited, observes Eskildsen. It is probably better to work directly with the facility's staff, he adds.

Experts stress that it is important to pursue all avenues of recourse and to let parties unaffiliated with the facility know of any concerns.

Saying a final goodbye

This, of course, is a very personal decision. But David Reuben, chief of the division of geriatrics at UCLA, recalls that when his father was nearing the end of his life following a stroke, some years ago, Reuben quickly flew into town to be at his bedside and say goodbye while his father was still lucid and aware of his presence. For me there was nothing to be gained beyond that conversation. I said my goodbye when he was still coherent, Reuben adds.

In the end, it's all about trying to make those final days better not just for the person who is dying but for those who are grieving the loss. People want to be close to someone they love who is dying because it's their last opportunity to say goodbye, says Michael Shochet, senior cantor at Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Virginia. If they miss that opportunity, they never get it back."

More Coronavirus Information for Caregivers
CHICAGO, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Adam Abbas, co-head of fixed income at Harris Associates L.P., adviser to the Oakmark Funds and an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers, has been appointed co-manager of the Oakmark Equity and Income Fund.

Mr. Abbas will join current portfolio managers Clyde McGregor and Colin Hudson on the management team, effective March 30, 2020. Mr. McGregor has managed the Fund since its inception in 1995. Mr. Hudson has managed the Fund since 2013.

"Colin and I are excited to have the opportunity to work closely and collaborate with Adam. We believe the Fund and its shareholders will benefit significantly from his years of fixed income expertise," says Mr. McGregor.

Mr. Abbas, 38, joined Harris Associates in 2018 after serving as the lead portfolio manager at KVK Credit Opportunity Fund, portfolio manager at Driehaus Capital Management, senior research analyst at Neuberger Berman/Lehman Brothers and analyst at Huron Consulting Group. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and the University of Chicago.

Edward Wojciechowski will step down from his role as co-portfolio manager and continue to serve the firm as a U.S. equity analyst.

"We want to thank Eddie for his seven years of service. We are grateful for his investment knowledge and contributions to Fund shareholders," says Mr. Hudson.

The Equity and Income Fund, incepted in 1995, seeks income and preservation and growth of capital. It's primarily made up of U.S. equity and fixed income securities. The Fund's assets were $11.6 billion as of December 31, 2019.

ABOUT OAKMARK AND HARRIS ASSOCIATES

The Oakmark Funds are a mutual fund family that utilizes a long-term value investment approach. Oakmark's investment philosophy centers on the belief that superior long-term results can be achieved through investing in companies priced at a significant discount to what Harris believes is a company's intrinsic value, with strong growth prospects and owner-oriented management teams. Oakmark's assets under management totaled approximately $71.6 billion as of December 31, 2019. More information about the Oakmark Equity and Income Fund and other funds in the Oakmark family is available at oakmark.com.

Harris Associates L.P., a Chicago-based investment management firm founded in 1976, serves as the adviser to the Oakmark Funds. Harris Associates also manages U.S., international and global portfolios for institutional and high-net-worth investors worldwide. Including Oakmark, assets under management at Harris Associates totaled approximately $120 billion as of December 31, 2019. More information about Harris Associates is available at harrisassoc.com.

Before investing in any Oakmark Fund, you should carefully consider the Fund's investment objectives, risks, management fees and other expenses. This and other important information is contained in a Fund's prospectus and summary prospectus. Please read the prospectus and summary prospectus carefully before investing. For more information, please call 1-800-OAKMARK (625-6275).

ABOUT NATIXIS INVESTMENT MANAGERS

Natixis Investment Managers serves financial professionals with more insightful ways to construct portfolios. Powered by the expertise of more than 20 specialized investment managers globally, we apply Active Thinking to deliver proactive solutions that help clients pursue better outcomes in all markets. Natixis Investment Managers ranks among the world's largest asset management firms1 with more than $1 trillion assets under management2 (934.1 billion).

1 Cerulli Quantitative Update: Global Markets 2019 ranked Natixis Investment Managers as the 17th largest asset manager in the world based on assets under management as of December 31, 2018.

2 Assets under management ("AUM") as of December 31, 2019 is $1,048.4 billion. AUM, as reported, may include notional assets, assets serviced, gross assets, assets of minority-owned affiliated entities and other types of non-regulatory AUM managed or serviced by firms affiliated with Natixis Investment Managers.

SOURCE Harris Associates L.P.

Related Links

http://harrisassoc.com


Nordstrom is manufacturing 100,000 masks that will be distributed to healthcare workers looking after patients during the coronavirus pandemic.

The American fashion retailer, which is based in Seattle, released a statement online outlining how it is playing its part throughout the Covid-19 outbreak.

The company began its statement by saying these are uncertain times, stressing that everyone across the globe is feeling the impacts of Covid-19  including us at Nordstrom.

During this challenging moment in time, we are looking at unique ways to help in our communities and highlighting how others can join together to make a difference, the company stated.

We are the largest employer of tailors in North America, so were learning how to leverage those capabilities to help with the medical supply shortage.

Nordstrom explained that it has teamed up with one of its partners, manufacturing solutions factor Kaas Tailored, which has members of the Nordstrom alterations teams based in Washington, Oregon, Texas and California.

These workers have been tasked with sewing more than 100,000 masks, which once made will be sent to Kaas Tailored to be sanitised.

The masks will then be sent to Providence Health and Services, a non-profit Catholic healthcare system that operates in hospitals across six US states.

On the Kaas Tailored website, people can enquire about contributing towards making masks, by offering materials or offering to make masks at home.

Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Show all 15 1 /15 Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A rose is delivered by drone to a woman on Mother's Day in Jounieh, Lebanon AFP/Getty Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Women dance on their balcony as a radio station plays music for a flash mob to raise spirits in Rome Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A skeleton stands on a balcony in Frankfurt, Germany AP Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies The film Le ragazze di Piazza di Spagna is projected on a building in Rome AP Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A woman uses a basket tied to a rope to pull a delivery of groceries up to her balcony in Naples, Italy EPA Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies DJ Francesco Cellini plays for his neighbours from the rooftop terrace of his flat block in Rome Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A woman gestures from her balcony in Barcelona EPA Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Cellist Karina Nunez performs for her neighbours at the balcony of her flat in Panama City Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies DJ Nash Petrovic live streams a set from his roof in Brooklyn Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies People applaud medical workers from their balconies in Modiin, Israel Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A Brooklyn resident relaxes in a hammock hung on their balcony Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Residents toast during a "safe distance" aperitif time between neighbours in Anderlecht, Belgium Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Musician Adam Moser plays for neighbours from his balcony in Budapest, Hungary Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A man and his son on their balcony in Brooklyn Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A man sits alone on a roof terrace in Rome Reuters

Members of the public in the US can also donate supplies by finding a local donation site in 41 US states using the website GetUsPPE.org. PPE stands for personal protective equipment.

Nordstrom said it is also continuing to support our trusted partners like the Seattle Foundation, which has established a Covid-19 Response Fund to support communities who are disproportionately impacted by this public health emergency.

In addition, the retailer has partnered with YouthCare, an organisation that is working to end youth homelessness in Seattle, by helping young people have access to nutritious food during this time.

The firm is also supporting the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a non-profit organisation that supports LGBT+ youth and their families.

Additionally, were supporting Hetrick-Martin Institute emergency meal service programme to continue to serve young people, most of whom are currently experiencing homelessness, during this outbreak, Nordstrom said.

The retailer concluded its statement by sharing ideas of ways individuals can help others during the pandemic, such as by doing grocery shopping for others and supporting local organisations.
SEATTLE, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 26, 2020, Digital Marketing Agency, Actuate Media released a blog post answering the question, Should I Advertise During COVID-19? With many states implementing the Stay Home, Stay Safe orders, it means that there will be a lot more people relying on the web to not only communicate and entertain but also to research and shop.

Should I Advertise During COVID-19

Many businesses facing the hardships of COVID-19 maybe enticing the idea of canceling their digital advertising, but there could be a hidden opportunity for many businesses if they can afford to keep going. Pent up demand, the potential of less competition, lower costs, and much more. In addition, now is the time to develop a new process for new revenue streams, or finally start the projects that have been put off for too long, like a website redesign.

COVID-19 is affecting everyone and businesses nationwide. Many businesses have momentarily pause advertising services, some have closed permanently, yet some are thriving amidst this global pandemic. With a huge increase of people stuck at home, the more they will rely on technology to stay entertained, productive, and connected.

"With more people at home trying to find something to occupy their time, now is the time to engage with them," Actuate Media states. "They want your YouTube videos so they can learn how your service can help them live better lives or solve a problem. They want to read and consume the content in your blog."

Right now, is the time citizens will stay home and quarantine themselves to reduce the risk for themselves and others. In turn, it is the best time for your business to rely on search engine marketing and social media marketing platforms to meet current and future demand. With less open businesses, this hardship brings opportunities for your business to market and reach the minds of new and existing customers.

About Actuate Media: Actuate Media is a digital marketing agency with offices in Seattle, WA, and Tampa, FL. Founded in 2016, Actuate Media specializes in digital marketing giving its clients a competitive edge in their industry. We have helped hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses, transparently navigate the complexities of digital marketing including web design, SEO, PPC and much more.

Media Contact:

Brad Holly

206-707-5009

[email protected]

SOURCE Actuate Media
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 30 2020

The Indonesian Society of Respirology (PDPI) has said diagnostic test kits for tuberculosis could be modified and used for COVID-19, but that it is up to the government if it wants to employ the device to fight the deadly disease.

The government has so far used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and antibody test kits for coronavirus testing in the country. Critics, however, say the government has not been aggressive enough in testing, raising concern that the country has been under-reporting cases.

Faisal Yunus, a member of the PDPI advisory board, said doctors in Indonesia had always conducted rapid molecular tests to detect tuberculosis using the diagnostic kits, called Xpert TBM/RIF. In the past, the doctor said, those kits were equipped with cartridges that could only detect tuberculous meningitis bacteria and its specimens resistance to Rifampicin, an antibiotic to treat several bacterial infections.

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Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, has arrived Lagos. He was transferred from Abuja to Lagos to continu...





Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, has arrived Lagos.





He was transferred from Abuja to Lagos to continue his treatment for coronavirus.





Kyari was conveyed to Nigerias commercial hub in an air ambulance, Daily Trust reports.





The top government official tested positive after he returned from Germany.

Nigeria currently has over 110 cases.





Meanwhile, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says it is looking for

6,000 people who have had close contact with persons infected with coronavirus.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 30, 2020) - Japan Gold Corp. (TSXV: JG) (OTCQB: JGLDF) ("Japan Gold" or the "Company") announces the resignation of Dr. Michael Andrews and Mr. John Carlile as officers of the Company and the appointment of Ms. Rafaela Vartuli as Corporate Communications Manager.

Michael Andrews has relinquished his responsibilities as President and Chief Operating Officer in order to focus on his other business activities. Those responsibilities have been assumed by the Company's Chairman, John Proust.

John Carlile has relinquished his responsibilities as Executive Vice-President in order to focus on his other business activities.

The Company would like to thank Dr. Andrews and Mr. Carlile for their roles as officers and looks forward to their continuing contributions as directors of Japan Gold.

The Company further announces that it has retained Rafaela Vartuli as Corporate Communications Manager.

On behalf of the Board of Japan Gold Corp.

"John Proust"

Chairman & CEO

About Japan Gold Corp.

Japan Gold Corp. is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused solely on gold exploration across the three largest islands of Japan: Hokkaido, Honshu and Kyushu. Japan Gold has a country-wide alliance with Barrick Gold Corporation to jointly explore, develop and mine certain gold mineral properties and mining projects. Japan Gold holds a portfolio of 30 gold projects which cover areas with known gold occurrences, a history of mining and are prospective for high-grade epithermal gold mineralization. Japan Gold's leadership team represent decades of resource industry and business experience, and Japan Gold has recruited geologists, drillers and technical advisors with experience exploring and operating in Japan. More information is available at www.japangold.com or by email at info@japangold.com.

For further information please contact:

John Proust

Chairman & CEO

Phone: 1-778-725-1491

Email: info@japangold.com

Story continues

Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as such term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/53914
Harry and Meghan said they will focus on their family for the next few months. (Getty Images)

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have said they will focus on their family in the next few months as they enter a new chapter outside the Royal Family amid a global pandemic.

The Sussexes told fans you may not see us here as they shared what is likely to be their final statement on the Sussex Royal Instagram page, having pledged not to use the word royal because of copyright issues in the UK.

They signed it off with their first names in what appears to be a transition, having previously ended statements with their titles, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Their future plans may be somewhat delayed as the world grapples with the outbreak of COVID-19.

In the post, Harry and Meghan said: Whats most important right now is the health and wellbeing of everyone across the globe and finding solutions for the many issues that have presented themselves as a result of this pandemic.

As we all find the part we are to play in this global shift and changing of habits, we are focusing this new chapter to understand how we can best contribute.

While you may not see us here, the work continues.

They added: We look forward to reconnecting with you soon. Youve been great!

Until then, please take good care of yourselves, and of one another.

The couple, who are dropping their HRH styles, signed off Harry and Meghan.

It is the strongest hint yet that the coronavirus pandemic has prevented some of their work as they set up a nonprofit organisation.

Read more: 'LA paparazzi don't play by the rules': Harry and Meghan will be 'fair game' in California

In an accompanying statement about their life as they stop being senior working royals, they said: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will spend the next few months focusing on their family and continuing to do what they can, safely and privately, to support and work with their pre-existing charitable commitments while developing their future nonprofit organisation.

Story continues

A spokeswoman for the couple said the royals want to see a focus on tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

The couple completed their last engagements in early March but only formally step down at the beginning of April. (Getty Images)

Read more: Why the US would never have been asked to pay for Harry and Meghan's security

The couples Instagram and website will no longer be updated, and royal spokespeople from Buckingham Palace will not comment on their behalf.

The spokeswoman confirmed the widely reported appointment of Catherine St Laurent as Harry and Meghans new chief of staff, who will also serve as executive director of their new non-profit organisation.

St Laurent previously worked as senior communications officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and on global projects at HSBC.

US agency Sunshine Sachs will take over the Sussexes media and communications for the interim period, along with former Sussex Royal Foundation press officer James Holt in the UK.

The spokeswoman added the couples UK home, Frogmore Cottage near Windsor Castle, would continue to be their British residence, and reiterated they would repay the 2.4 million Sovereign Grant expenditure on the refurbishment of their home, pay rent and meet the running costs of the property.

The couple had planned to launch a royal foundation in the spring, but the spokeswoman said the winding up process has begun on that, as they were not able to use the word royal.

Instead, they will launch a non-profit in the US at some point.

Harry and Meghan won't use the word royal from 1 April. (Getty Images)

However, Harrys travel initiative Travalyst, will be a non-profit organisation based in the UK.

In light of the coronavirus outbreak and its detrimental impact on modern life, the spokeswoman added: The duke is working closely with each of the Travalyst partners to better understand how this non-profit organisation can aid in global recovery, especially by supporting communities, wildlife and the environment at the same time.

Read more: Harry and Meghan's Sussex Royal director quits as couple plans non-profit

The spokeswoman said the couple had also expressed their thanks to their Sussex Royal trustees for their invaluable support and counsel in recent months.

Their trustees have included broadcaster Kirsty Young, coffee tycoon Professor Stefan Allesch-Taylor, former Barclays businessman Steven Cooper and Karen Blackett, chairwoman of media agency MediaCom UK.

The statement and post comes soon after Harry and Meghan were forced to explain some of their security arrangements.

Read more: Why living in California could appeal to Prince Harry and Meghan

Donald Trump, the US president, tweeted to make it clear that the US, where they are now living, would not pay for their security.

Prince Harry will base Travalyst in the UK. (Getty Images)

It forced the Sussexes to issue a statement explaining they would not have made the request and have made private arrangements for their security.

The US would not have had an obligation to contribute to their security arrangements.

The Sussexes made a last-minute dash to Los Angeles last week, getting over the border before it was closed to tourists to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

They arrived in California during a lockdown, with the state governor having issued stay at home orders.

Harry and Meghan have also been impacted by COVID-19, after Clarence House revealed Prince Charles, the dukes father, had tested positive.

However the Duke of Cornwall has come out of self-isolation, after a period of seven days, though his wife Camilla will have to continue to isolate for another week.
Kelly Ripa got her start in 1990 when she starred as Hayley Vaughan Santos in All My Children.

And the TV personality made some lifelong friends during her 10+ year run on the soap opera.

She emotionally paid tribute Monday to co-star John Callahan on Live with Kelly and Ryan, after he died over the weekend at age 66 of a 'massive stroke.'

Emotional: Kelly Ripa paid tribute to her co-star John Callahan on Live with Kelly and Ryan on Monday

Flashback: Kelly with John Callahan and his ex-wife Eva LaRue in an old snap

The 49-year-old opened up: 'I had a really a bad weekend this weekend. A very dear friend of mine for many, many years, almost 30 years, passed away over the weekend.

'He was a great actor, a really good friend. One of the funniest people Ive ever met. He was the ex-husband of my first-born sons godmother, Eva LaRue.'

LaRue, 53, who played Callahan's wife on the show as well, married her co-star in 1996, welcoming daughter Kaya, 18, in 2001 before divorcing in 2005.

Ripa continued: 'His name was John Callahan. He was 66 years oldway too young to be taken from us. A gentleman of, I mean, Ryan, you never knew each other but you two would have loved each other.

Gone too soon: Ripa continued: 'His name was John Callahan. He was 66 years oldway too young to be taken from us. A gentleman of, I mean, Ryan, you never knew each other but you two would have loved each other'

Life imitating art: Eva LaRue, 53, who played Callahan's wife on the show as well, married her co-star in 1996

Proud parents: They welcomed daughter Kaya, 18, in 2001 before divorcing in 2005

'He would say the funniest things and we were all going through our brains about all of the funny, like the funny Callahan-isms over the years. He was just one of these guys and you know and he just died way too soon.'

The Hope & Faith star also revealed that their friendship continued into a new generation with their own children.

She added: 'His daughter and my daughter are good friends, theyre the same age and I just want everyone to know, Eva and Kaya, that we are thinking of you and we are just so sad and so devastated.'

Callahan died Saturday after suffering a 'massive stroke' Friday at his Palm Desert, California home.

He and Ripa starred together for eight years on All My Children, where she also met her husband Mark Consuelos, 49.
In our era of scientific breakthroughs and technological advancement;

Scientists, Biologist, Virologist, Medical Doctors, Nurses and other ancillary health workers have fought and won many battles against various diseases since the inception of time till date including the dangerous Ebola Virus which havocked many West African Countries in 2015. The world fought two successive dangerous wars (WW 1 &2) and yet there was an order and a cease fire. These wars and diseases affected various economies but long lasting solutions and contingent measures were put in place for human survival.

A new dimension of military arsenal development emanated with nuclear nucleus, intelligence agencies became Time Traveler's for information, the economists and finance fraternity developed institution to provide support to economies, eg the Briton Woods institution.

Fast forward to 2020, the world is fighting an invisible enemy either created artificially or by natural occurrences through our ecological environment. Despite the scientific, medical, economic, financial, military and religious powers the world can boast of, we are at a standstill and galavanting for solutions which our newest, fearless, bravest, smallish, self coronated and styled tiny virus (COVID-19) has brought to us. This virus, although very tiny, fears no borders, personality nor military capabilities. It has become a free flowing agent resting at places of comfort, convenience, stressing health facilities and sending many people into their graves.

The answer to this pandemic is in a self styled paradoxical Pandora's box cushioned with conspiracy theories yet to be unfolded. The terrene for the battle is not favourable and not easy, people are falling like mangoes in their thousands with no stalk and support, the mortuaries are exhausted and still some nations are recording more casualties than ever within a day. The health workers at the fire and forefront are in the battle without much weapons and ammunitions to stand against this little enemy which some super powers believed its a hoax and downplayed the threats it poses while others including my fellow Africans passed funny superstitious, religious, unscientific and conspicuous comments, allegations and beliefs.

Moving forward is perilous, standing still is suicidal and flinching backwards (retreating) is not an option. This enemy does not give room for delayed planning, contingency plans, reorganizing, retooling and the worse is to surrender. We are in a battle without rules of engagement and a commander. The enemy is concealed among the citizenry and operating covertly like an undercover secret service agent taking us out one after another irrespective of class, profession, position, race or age.

We are in a battle where you cannot surrender to the enemy and cannot also come into negotiation for peace. The United Nations have no agenda for peace with our current and common enemy because we are all in this together. To mitigate the undesirable impact of the virus, The World Health Organization has issued the order stay home or seek shelter for some of its employees. The center is shaking indeed. We are in a war that other stronger states with good weapons and ammunitions (medical system, facilities and professionals) have been overwhelmed. Our supposed commanders lost focus right from the beginning and the enemy (COVID-19) have already advanced deep into our territories.

However there is hope for us to defeat our common enemy without surrendering to it. We can do this by coming together to adopt the draconian, drastic, and rather unfavorable measures the Chinese used. This is not the time for human right advocacy and sheer display of democratic credentials. This is the time to sacrifice our freedom now for a good future. Let do away with the conspiracy theories and fight this battle. I am of the firm believe and optimism that we can definitely win without much casualties. Let put in our maximum best, eliminate fear and panic, manage the situation, abide by the guidelines and the God Almighty will protect us against the traps of the fowler.

By: Thywill Nana Bawiah: The Person of Interest
BEIJING, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation ("Sinopec Corp." or the "Company") (HKEX: 386; SSE: 600028;NYSE: SNP) today announced its annual results for the twelve months ended 31 December 2019.

Financial Highlights

In accordance with IFRS, the Company's turnover and other operating revenues reached RMB 2.97 trillion , up 2.6% year-on-year at a historic high; Operating profit increased 4.8% year-on-year; Profit attributable to equity shareholders of the Company was RMB 57.5 billion . Basic earnings per share were RMB 0.475 .

, up 2.6% year-on-year at a historic high; Operating profit increased 4.8% year-on-year; Profit attributable to equity shareholders of the Company was . Basic earnings per share were . In accordance with ASBE, the Company's operating profit was RMB 90.0 billion . Profit attributable to shareholders of the Company was RMB 57.6 billion . Basic earnings per share were RMB 0.476 .

. Profit attributable to shareholders of the Company was . Basic earnings per share were . In accordance with IFRS, the Company's liability-to-asset ratio as at the end of 2019 was 50.04%, maintaining a sound financial position. Cash and cash equivalents amounted to RMB 60.3 billion as at 31 December 2019 ,

as at , In upstream, greater efforts were made in oil and gas exploration, achieving satisfactory results in increasing reserves, stabilizing oil production, increasing gas output, and reducing costs. The domestic oil and gas reserve replacement ratio reached 138.7%, and market share of natural gas further increased. Operating profit of the refining segment totaled RMB 30.6 billion ; Operating profit of the chemicals segment was RMB 17.2 billion ; Operating profit of the marketing and distribution segment was RMB 29.1 billion .

; Operating profit of the chemicals segment was ; Operating profit of the marketing and distribution segment was . Taking into account the Company's profitability, shareholder returns and the future development, the Board of Directors proposed a final dividend of RMB 0.19 per share. Combined with the interim dividend of RMB 0.12 per share, the total dividend for the year is RMB 0.31 per share. Dividend payout ratio reached 65.3%.

Business Highlights

In 2019, the global economy slowed down while China maintained an overall stable with its gross domestic product (GDP) up by 6.1%. International oil prices fluctuated in a wide range while domestic market saw rapid growth demand for natural gas and fierce competition in oil products due to abundant supply, and chemicals prices decreased. The Company actively addressed market changes by pursuing innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development. Through implementing specialized development, market-oriented operation, internalisation and overall coordination, we pushed forward all aspects of our work, and achieved solid operating results.

Exploration and Production segment: pressed ahead with high efficiency exploration and profit-oriented development, continuously reduced cost and expenditure on all fronts. Tangible results were achieved in maintaining oil production, increasing gas output and reducing cost. We reinforced venture exploration and preliminary exploration in new areas which led to new discoveries in Tarim, Sichuan and Erdos basins. In natural gas development, we constantly pushed forward capacity building in Fuling, Weirong, and West Sichuan gas fields, expanded the market and sales, and promoted coordinated development along the value chain.

and Erdos basins. In natural gas development, we constantly pushed forward capacity building in Fuling, Weirong, and gas fields, expanded the market and sales, and promoted coordinated development along the value chain. Refining segment: continuously optimised product mix and the production volume of high-value-added products have been further increased. We optimised the production plan for low sulfur fuel oil and reduced cost. We leveraged our advantage in production and sales, and moderately increased export of oil products. We made structural adjustments, comprehensively optimized production and ensured safety and reliability of the refining facilities. We improved the marketing and distribution systems and realised a growth momentum in high grade products.

Marketing and Distribution segment: brought our advantages of integrated production and marketing network into full play, adhered to the guideline of "achieving gains in both sales volume and profits", coordinated allocation of resources, expanded sales and increased profit, and achieved sustained growth in both total sales volume and retail scale. We strengthened development and marketing of company-owned brands, and promoted the innovation of non-fuel business model and its market-oriented reform, to speed up the development of non-fuel business.

Chemicals segment: adhered to the development philosophy of "basic plus high-end", sped up advanced capacity building. We optimized products slate, enhanced integration among production, marketing, R&D and application, vigorously promoted the development and application of new products, and raised the proportion of new and specialty products. We deepened targeted marketing and service, realizing full sales.

Mr. Zhang Yuzhuo, Chairman of Sinopec Corp. said, "In 2019, global economy slowdown while China's economy remained overall stable. With international oil prices fluctuating within a wide range and new production capacity for refinery and petrochemicals being excessively released, market competition increased dramatically. As a result, the internal and external risks and challenges faced by the Company have increased significantly. In such a complicated and difficult market, with focus on both short and long-term goals in mind, the Board of Directors adhered to the guideline of pursuing progress while maintaining stability. Furthermore, it concentrated on modernizing the company's corporate governance systems and capabilities, and deepening reforms to sustain continuous growth and development. Under the management's leadership, our employees demonstrated dedication and a conscientious and responsible work spirit, and implemented all practices with discipline and in a professional manner. Significantly, the Company achieved better than expected operating results and made new progress in all fronts as we continuously deepened reform, exercised effective risk management, stabilised growth, and adjusted the operating structure while guaranteeing safety. Looking into 2020, the global economy will face more instability and uncertainty brought by the outbreak. Although the Chinese economy may be temporarily impacted, China's solid economic fundamentals will remain unchanged. We believe that as the control and prevention of outbreak continues to improve domestically, the domestic demand for petroleum and petrochemical products that was suppressed and frozen will rebound quickly.the Company will continue to adhere to the overall strategy of "making progress while maintaining stability," and to that end will implement new development philosophies and energy security strategies, as well as further strengthen corporate governance. The Company will also continue to focus on supply-side structural reform and continue to leverage its advantages of integration, aiming to realize a development pattern with energy resources as the backbone, clean energy and synthetic materials as two development wings, and new energy, new economies, and new fields as important growth points. The Company will continue to deepen the reform of its systems and mechanisms, further improve its corporate governance system and enhance governance capabilities. With headquarters acting as the center of restructuring, the Company will further advance reforms of its management system and market-oriented operation mechanism. It will strengthen construction of its systems, improve management, and better mobilize initiatives in every aspect so as to constantly increase the ability to create synergies, raise efficiency and mitigate risks. I firmly believe that with the concerted efforts of our Board of Directors, management and entire staff, as well as support from our shareholders and the community, Sinopec Corp. will surely develop in distinct ways that are more efficient and of higher quality, which in turn will create greater value for shareholders and the community."

Business Review

Exploration and Production

In 2019, we implemented the action plan of redoubling efforts in oil and gas exploration and production, actively pressed ahead with high-efficiency exploration and profit-oriented development, accelerated the systematic integration of natural gas production, supply, storage and marketing, continuously reduced cost and expenditure on all fronts, and achieved tangible results in maintaining oil production, increasing gas output and cutting cost. We reinforced venture exploration and preliminary exploration in new areas which led to new discoveries in Tarim, Sichuan and Erdos basins. The Company's newly added proved reserves in China reached 587 million barrels of oil equivalent, with domestic reserve replacement ratio at 138.7%. In crude oil development, we proceeded with the capacity building in Shunbei oilfield, strengthened profitable production capacity of hard-to-recover reserves in mature fields, intensified EOR technology breakthrough and application, and ensured steady production. In natural gas development, we constantly pushed forward capacity building in Fuling, Weirong, and West Sichuan gas fields, expanded the market and sales, and promoted coordinated development along the value chain. The Company's production of oil and gas reached 458.92 million barrels of oil equivalent, with domestic crude production reaching 249.43 million barrels and natural gas production totaling 1,047.78 billion cubic feet, up by 7.2% year on year.

In 2019, the operating revenues of this segment was RMB 210.7 billion, representing an increase of 5.3% over 2018. This was mainly attributed to the rise of realised price and sales volume in natural gas as a result of the expansion of natural gas business. In 2019, the operating profit of the exploration and production segment was RMB 9.3 billion, representing an increase of RMB 19.4 billion compared with 2018. The segment reinforced efficient exploration and profit-oriented development, enhanced stable production of crude oil, accelerated construction of natural gas production-supply-storage-sale system and actively expanding market and promoting sales, strengthened cost control, and effectively improved profitability.

Exploration and Production: Summary of Operations



Twelve-month periods ended 31

December Changes 2019 2018 % Oil and gas production (mmboe) 458.92 451.46 1.7 Crude oil production (mmbbls) 284.22 288.51 (1.5) China 249.43 248.93 0.2 Overseas 34.79 39.58 (12.1) Natural gas production (bcf) 1,047.78 977.32 7.2

Refining

In 2019, with market-oriented approach, we optimised product mix to produce more gasoline and jet fuel, increased production of high value-added products, and lowered diesel-to-gasoline ratio to 1.05. We optimised the production plan for low sulfur fuel oil and reduced cost. We leveraged our advantage in production and sales, and moderately increased export of oil products to keep a relatively high utilization rate. We promoted quality upgrading projects and made structural adjustments, comprehensively optimized production and ensured safety and reliability of the refining facilities. We improved the marketing and distribution systems and realised a growth momentum in high grade lubricants and grease, LPG, asphalt and sulphur. In 2019, the Company processed 249 million tonnes of crude oil, and produced 160 million tonnes of refined oil products, up by 3.4%, with gasoline and kerosene up by 2.6% and 7.8% respectively year on year.

In 2019, the operating revenues of this segment was RMB 1,224.2 billion, representing a decrease of 3.1% over 2018. This was mainly attributed to the decrease in products prices compared with the same period of last year. In 2019, the unit refining cash operating cost (defined as operating expenses less the processing cost of crude oil and refining feedstock, depreciation and amortisation, taxes other than income tax and other operating expenses, then divided by the throughput of crude oil and refining feedstock) was RMB 178 per tonne, a decrease of 1.4% over 2018. In 2019, the operating profit of the segment totaled RMB 30.6 billion, representing a decline of RMB 24.2 billion compared with 2018.

Refining: Summary of Operations



For the twelve months

ended 31 December Changes 2019 2018 (%) Refinery throughput (million tonnes) 248.52 244.01 1.8 Gasoline, diesel and kerosene

production (million tonnes) 159.99 154.79 3.4 Gasoline (million tonnes) 62.77 61.16 2.6 Diesel (million tonnes) 66.06 64.72 2.1 Kerosene (million tonnes) 31.16 28.91 7.8 Light chemical feedstock production

(million tonnes) 39.78 38.52 3.3 Light yield (%) 76.38 76.00 0.38 percentage

points Refining yield (%) 94.98 94.93 0.05 percentage

points

Note: Includes 100% of the production of domestic joint ventures.

Marketing and Distribution

In 2019, confronted with fierce market competition, the Company brought our advantages of integrated production and marketing network into full play, adhered to the guideline of "achieving gains in both sales volume and profits", coordinated allocation of resources, expanded sales and increased profit, and achieved sustained growth in both total sales volume and retail scale. With focus on customer need, we adopted a flexible and targeted marketing strategy, and improved our services. We upgraded our distribution network to further strengthen our existing advantages. We accelerated the construction and operation of CNG stations and explored the development of hydrogen fueling stations. Total sales volume of refined oil products for the year was 255 million tonnes, up by 7.3% year on year, of which domestic sales volume accounted for 184 million tonnes, up by 2.3%. Meanwhile, we strengthened development and marketing of company-owned brands, and promoted the innovation of non-fuel business model and its market-oriented reform, to speed up the development of non-fuel business.

In 2019, the operating revenues of this segment was RMB 1,431 billion, representing a decrease of 1.1% over 2018. In 2019, the operating profit of this segment was RMB 29.1 billion, representing an increase of 24% compared with 2018.

Marketing and Distribution: Summary of Operations



For twelve months

ended 31 December Changes 2019 2018 % Total sales volume of refined oil products

(million tonnes) 254.95 237.69 7.3 Total domestic sales volume of refined oil

products (million tonnes) 184.45 180.24 2.3 Retail (million tonnes) 122.54 121.64 0.7 Direct sales and Wholesale

(million tonnes) 61.91 58.61 5.6 Annualised average throughput per station

(tonne/station) 3,992 3,979 0.3

As of 31

December 2019 As of 31

December 2018 Changes

from the end of

previous

year (%) Total number of Sinopec-branded service

stations 30,702 30,661 0.1 Company-operated 30,696 30,655 0.1

Chemicals

In 2019, the Company followed the development philosophy of "basic plus high-end", sped up advanced capacity building, and optimised business portfolio layout. We persistently fine-tuned chemical feedstock mix to increase the yield and lower cost. We optimized products slate, enhanced integration among production, marketing, R&D and application, vigorously promoted the development and application of new products, and raised the proportion of new and specialty products. We further adjusted facility structures to enhance the dynamic optimisation of facilities and product chain, and improved the utilisation based on market demand. Ethylene production in 2019 reached 12.49 million tonnes, up by 8.5% year on year. The differential ratio of synthetic fiber reached 90%, and the ratio of new and specialty products in synthetic resin reached 65.3%. We also promoted targeted marketing and service to further expand our business, with total chemical sales volume increased by 3.3% to 89.50 million tonnes, realising full sales.

In 2019, the operating revenue of the chemicals segment was RMB 495.2 billion, representing a decrease of 9.4% as compared with that of 2018. This was mainly due to sharp decrease in prices of chemical products as a result of the concentrated release of new capacity, as well as the change of supply-demand structure. In 2019, confronted with the business cycle correction and decreased chemical margin, the Company strengthened the coordination among research, development, production and marketing, continuously reinforced the profit prediction based on the market, optimised the structures of feedstock, product and facilities,, intensified allocation of resources, pushed ahead with targeted marketing and precise service strategy, and achieved steadily growing sales volume of petrochemicals. The operating profit of this segment was RMB 17.2 billion.

Major Chemical Products: Summary of Operations Unit of production: 1,000 tonne







For twelve months

ended 31 December Changes 2019 2018 (%) Ethylene 12,493 11,512 8.5 Synthetic resin 17,244 15,923 8.3 Synthetic fiber rubber 1,047 896 16.9 Synthetic fiber monomer and polymer 10,029 9,343 7.3 Synthetic fiber 1,289 1,218 5.8

Note: Includes 100% of the production of domestic joint ventures.

Research and Development

In 2019, with the emphasis on innovation-driven strategy, the Company accomplished notable results in deepening reform of R&D mechanism, promoting innovation platforms such as joint R&D centers and incubators, and making breakthrough in key and frontier technologies. In upstream, research in gas enrichment theory and exploration technologies of marine phase medium and large gas fields in Sichuan Basin made headway, leading to breakthrough in gas reserve. Our proprietary rotary steering drilling system was successfully applied in Shengli oilfield. In refining, we developed various formulations for low sulphur fuel oil and passed engine tests and endurance tests. Our high-grade gasoline and diesel engine oil met the latest international standards and realised industrial production and commercialization. In chemicals, the start-up of the second generation high-efficiency and environment-friendly aromatics facilities was successfully started up. The anthraquinone method of producing hydrogen peroxide in fluidised-bed reactor and PPTA technology realised industrialization. In addition, the framework type code of a novel structured zeolite SCM-15 synthesised by us has been approved by the Structure Commission of International Zeolite Association. In 2019, the Company had 6,160 patent applications at home and abroad, among which 4,076 were granted. We also won six second prizes of National Sci-Tech Progress and one second prize of NationalTechnology Invention, and one gold, three silver and three excellent prizes of National Patent Awards.

Health, Safety, Security and Environment

In 2019, the Company constantly promoted and fully implemented the HSSE management system. We enhanced overall health management, and established safeguarding mechanism for occupational, physical and psychological health. We surveyed and rectified safety hazards, took stringent measures to control risks and supervise safety and operations of contractors, and achieved sound results. We upgraded our capacity in all-dimension risk prevention and control as well as emergency response, further enhancing security management. In 2019, we actively practiced green and low-carbon growth strategy, further promoted the green enterprise campaign and ecological conservation, and accomplished all emission reduction targets. Compared with 2018, energy consumption per 10,000 yuan of output was down by 0.4%, industrial fresh water usage was down by 1.1%, COD of discharged water down by 2.1%, and SO2 emissions down by 3.9%. All solid waste was properly treated. For more detailed information, please refer to "Communication on Progress for Sustainable Development 2019 of Sinopec Corp."

Capital Expenditures

In 2019, focusing on quality and profitability of investment, the Company continuously optimised its capital projects, with total capital expenditures of RMB 147.1 billion. Capital expenditure for the exploration and production segment was RMB 61.7 billion, mainly for Shengli and Northwest crude oil development projects, Fuling and Weirong shale gas projects, phase I of Xinqi gas pipeline, phase I of Erdos-Anping-Cangzhou gas pipeline, Qingdao-Nanjing gas pipeline, Wen 23 and Jintan gas storage projects, as well as overseas projects. Capital expenditure for the refining segment was RMB 31.4 billion, mainly for Zhongke Refining and Petrochemical project, Zhenhai, Tianjin, Maoming and Luoyang refining upgrading projects. Capital expenditure for the marketing and distribution segment was RMB 29.6 billion, mainly for construction of service stations, oil products depots, pipelines and non-fuel business. Capital expenditure for the chemicals segment was RMB 22.4 billion, mainly for Zhongke, Zhenhai, Gulei and Hainan projects, ethylene revamping for Sinopec-SK and Sinopec-SABIC projects, phase II of Hainan high-efficiency and environment-friendly aromatics project, Sinopec-SABIC polycarbonate project and Zhongan coal chemical project. Capital expenditure for corporate and others was RMB 2 billion, mainly for R&D facilities and information technology projects.

B usiness Prospects

In 2020, despite the increasing instability and uncertainty of the international political and economic situation, and the inevitable impact on China's economy by coronavirus outbreak in the short term, we expect the fundamentals sustaining sound economic growth in China to remain unchanged. Domestic demand for energy and chemical products will be relatively weak in the first half, but the accumulated demand is expected to be released rapidly after outbreak. Considering oil-producing countries' abundant supply capacity, global demand growth, inventory levels, and geopolitics, we expect that the international oil prices will fluctuate at a low level.

In 2020, adhering to the principles of "reform, management, innovation, and development", the Company will focus on optimisation of the entire business value chain, as well as market expansion, risk prevention, and seizing opportunities so as to do our best to reduce the negative impact of the coronavirus outbreak and the slump of crude oil price, and strive to achieve healthy business performance. Due to the outbreak, the adjustment of the Company's production plan for 2020 is currently underway. We will confirm the production plan according to the market trends in the future.

Exploration and Production, under the low oil price circumstance, we will optimise projects implementation, enhance high-quality exploration, and reduce cost and expenditure to expand resource base and realize sustainable development. In crude oil development, more efforts will be made in promoting capacity building of Shunbei Oilfield, Tahe Oilfield, and the Oilfield at the western margin of the Junggar Basin, and we will strengthen profit-oriented development of mature fields. In natural gas development, we will accelerate capacity construction of key projects, and promote integration of production, supply, storage and marketing so as to maximize the value of the business chain. Preliminarily, we plan to keep a stable production volume of curde oil and realise a positive growth for nature gas.

Refining, under low oil price circumstance, with the coordination of production and sales, domestic and overseas markets, the Company will optimize utilization rate and production scheduling, and promote efficient operation of its refining business chain. We will optimize the allocation of crude oil, coordinate crude oil supply chain, and reduce procurement costs. More efforts will be made in restructuring product slate, increasing products tailoring for market demand and changes. We will accelerate low-sulfur bunker fuel projects and the revamping of storage and transportation facilities to rapidly expand market share.

Marketing and Distribution, balancing volume and profit, and leveraging the advantages of integration of production and sales, the Company will continuously improve the quality of its operations. We will vigorously carry out targeted and differentiated marketing to continuously improve our services with focus on customer need. We will accelerate the construction of smart service stations, coordinate the layout of natural gas and hydrogen stations, and consolidate and expand network advantages. More efforts will be made in boosting innovation in non-fuel business models, vigorously developing proprietary brands, creating differentiated competitive advantages, so as to drive rapid growth in non-fuel business.

Chemicals, the Company will focus on the "basic + high-end" development concept, speed up advanced capacitybuilding, continuously deepen structural adjustment, and improve our competitiveness and profitability. We will optimize facilities and product chain, and improve utilization rate and production scheduling based on market demand. Efforts will be made in adjusting feedstock slate to improve product yield and reduce cost. We will coordinate production, marketing, research and application, and redouble our efforts in developing new products and increase the production of high value-added products. Meanwhile, we will improve targeted marketing and services, enhance e-commerce platforms, actively explore overseas markets and continuously expand market share.

Research and Development, we will continue to implement the innovation-driven development strategy, deepen mechanism reform, accelerate key technology breakthrough, improve innovation capabilities to strive for quality development. In oil and gas exploration and development, we will strive to make technology breakthrough in ultra-deep oil and gas, tight oil and gas, shale oil and gas, etc. In refining, we will accelerate the research of heavy oil processing, oil quality upgrading, and promote the application of technologies such as needle coke. In chemicals, we will continuously improve the package technologies of ethylene and aromatics, strengthen the research and development of photoelectric materials and degradable materials, and accelerate the industrialization of large-tow high-performance carbon fibers. At the same time, we will focus on advancing research on cutting-edge technologies and new areas to achieve future business development through technology innovation.

Capital Expenditures, preliminary capital expenditures for the year 2020 are budgeted at RMB 143.4 billion. We will dynamically optimise capital projects based on future market trends. Preliminarily, RMB 61.1 billion will be invested in exploration and production with focuses on the production capacity building of Shengli and Northwest crude oil development projects, Fuling and Weirong shale gas field, and the construction of natural gas pipelines and storage facilities as well as overseas oil and gas projects. The refining segment will account for RMB 22.4 billion, mainly on the construction and commissioning of the Zhongke project, and structural adjustment projects of Zhenhai, Tianjin, Maoming, Luoyang. RMB 22.0 billion is budgeted for marketing and distribution with emphasis on service stations, depots and storage facilities for refined oil products, pipelines and non-fuel business. The share for chemicals will be RMB 32.3 billion which will be used on the construction of Zhongke, Zhenhai and Gulei projects, ethylene revamping of Sinopec-SK and Sinopec-SABIC projects, Sinopec-SABIC polycarbonate project, Jiujiang aromatics project and Zhong An coal chemical project. The capital expenditure for corporate and others will be RMB 5.6 billion, mainly for R&D facilities and information technology projects.

Appendix: K ey financial data and indicators

FINANCIAL DATA AND INDICATORS PREPARED IN ACCORDANCE WITH ASBE

Principal accounting data

Items For twelve months

ended 31 December Changes over the same

period of the

preceding year (%) 2019 (RMB million) 2018 (RMB million) Operating income 2,966,193 2,891,179 2.6 Net profit attributable to equity shareholders

of the Company 57,591 63,089 (8.7) Net profit attributable to equity shareholders

of the Company after deducting extraordinary gain/loss items 54,271 59,630 (9.0) Net cash flows from operating activities 153,420 175,868 (12.8)

At 31 December 2019 (RMB million) At 31 December 2018 (RMB million) Change from the

end of last year (%) Total equity attributable to equity

shareholders of the Company 739,169 718,355 2.9 Total assets 1,755,071 1,592,308 10.2

Principal financial indicators

Items For twelve months

ended 31 December Changes over the same

period of the

preceding year (%) 2019 (RMB) 2018 (RMB) Basic earnings per share 0.476 0.521 (8.7) Diluted earnings per share 0.476 0.521 (8.7) Basic earnings per share after deducting

extraordinary gain/loss items 0.448 0.493 (9.1) Weighted average return on net assets (%) 7.90 8.67 (0.77) percentage

points Weighted average return on net assets after

deducting extraordinary gain/loss items (%) 7.45 8.20 (0.75) percentage

points Net cash flow from operating activities per

share 1.267 1.453 (12.8)

FINANCIAL DATA AND INDICATORS PREPARED IN ACCORDANCE WITH IFRS

Principal accounting data

Items For twelve months

ended 31 December Changes over the same

period of the

preceding year (%) 2019 (RMB million) 2018 (RMB million) Operating Profit 86,198 82,264 4.8 Net profit attributable to owners of the

Company 57,465 61,618 (6.7) Net cash generated from operating activities 1.267 1.453 (12.8)

At 31 December 2019 (RMB million) At 31 December 2018 (RMB million) Change from the

end of last year (%) Equity attributable to owners of the Company 738,150 717,284 2.9 Total assets 1,755,071 1,592,308 10.2

Principal financial indicators

Items For twelve months

ended 31 December Changes over the same

period of the

preceding year (%) 2019 (RMB) 2018 (RMB) Basic earnings per share 0.475 0.509 (6.7) Diluted earnings per share 0.475 0.509 (6.7) Return on capital employed (%) 8.99 9.25 (0.26) percentage

points

The following table sets forth the operating revenues, operating expenses and operating profit / (loss) by each segment before elimination of the inter-segment transactions for the periods indicated, and the percentage changes between 2019 and 2018.



For twelve months

ended 31 December Changes 2019 2018 (RMB million) (%) Exploration and Production Segment





Operating revenues 210,712 200,191 5.3 Operating expenses 201,428 210,298 (4.2) Operating profit / (loss) 9,284 (10,107)  Refining Segment





Operating revenues 1,224,156 1,263,407 (3.1) Operating expenses 1,193,524 1,208,580 (1.2) Operating profit 30,632 54,827 (44.1) Marketing and Distribution Segment





Operating revenues 1,430,963 1,446,637 (1.1) Operating expenses 1,401,856 1,423,173 (1.5) Operating profit 29,107 23,464 24.0 Chemicals Segment





Operating revenues 495,234 546,733 (9.4) Operating expenses 478,083 519,726 (8.0) Operating profit 17,151 27,007 (36.5) Corporate and others





Operating revenues 1,484,822 1,368,583 8.5 Operating expenses 1,484,758 1,377,876 7.8 Operating profit / (loss) 64 (9,293)  Elimination of inter-segment (loss) (40) (3,634) 

About Sinopec Corp.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest integrated energy and chemical companies in China. Its principal operations include the exploration and production, pipeline transportation and sale of petroleum and natural gas; the sale, storage and transportation of petroleum products, petrochemical products, coal chemical products, synthetic fibre, fertiliser and other chemical products; the import and export, including an import and export agency business, of petroleum, natural gas, petroleum products, petrochemical and chemical products, and other commodities and technologies; and research, development and application of technologies and information.

Sinopec sets 'fueling beautiful life' as its corporate mission, puts 'people, responsibility, integrity, precision, innovation and win-win' as its corporate core values, pursues strategies of value-orientation, innovation-driven development, integrated resource allocation, open cooperation, and green and low-carbon growth, and strives to achieve its corporate vision of building a world leading energy and chemical company.

Disclaimer

This press release includes "forward-looking statements". All statements, other than statements of historical facts that address activities, events or developments that Sinopec Corp. expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including but not limited to projections, targets, reserve volume, other estimates and business plans) are forward-looking statements. Sinopec Corp.'s actual results or developments may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors and uncertainties, including but not limited to the price fluctuation, possible changes in actual demand, foreign exchange rate, results of oil exploration, estimates of oil and gas reserves, market shares, competition, environmental risks, possible changes to laws, finance and regulations, conditions of the global economy and financial markets, political risks, possible delay of projects, government approval of projects, cost estimates and other factors beyond Sinopec Corp.'s control. In addition, Sinopec Corp. makes the forward-looking statements referred to herein as of today and undertakes no obligation to update these statements.

SOURCE China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation
A week or so ago, while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was presumably snug at home doing puzzles with his wife and watching "Top Gun," New Yorkers stuck in Peru were joining crowds outside closed airports, making panicked, unanswered phone calls to the U.S. embassy, and searching for word that their government had a plan to get them home.

They're just some of the approximately 50,000 Americans who were stranded overseas as countries canceled flights and closed borders in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Mr. Pompeo's tweet about his weekend social-distancing plans did not sit well with lawmakers, who have sharply criticized the State Department's slow and muddled response to the travel disruptions. Amid the confusion and the mixed messages, where was his leadership?

The lack of information helped sow fear among stranded Americans and led some to conclude they had to fend for themselves, even at the exorbitant cost of chartering private flights.

State Department officials say they're making progress and have brought home thousands of Americans from around the world. That's encouraging. Yes, this is a huge lift at a time of international crisis. But we hope, too, that they're giving stranded travelers accurate, regular updates on the plans to get them home. Even when it cannot act, the government can communicate. That's what leadership looks like.

Extend the CVA window

If earlier arguments for extending the Child Victims Act "look-back" window weren't enough to convince lawmakers, the pandemic should give them all the persuasion they need.

The law provided a one-year period in which survivors of sexual abuse could file claims against their alleged abusers, regardless of the statute of limitations. That window is scheduled to close in August.

But even before the state court system scaled back its operations in response to the outbreak, hundreds of victims were denied their shot at justice because they couldn't find lawyers willing to take on claims that were unlikely to result in a big payout. Now, with all nonessential court filings suspended, they can't sue at all.

Like everything else during this health crisis, the pursuit of justice is being necessarily delayed. To fulfill the intent of the CVA and give abuse survivors the full measure of what New York pledged to them, lawmakers must extend the look-back window.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

A break for monthly tax filers

The small-business community reacted with a sigh of relief to news that the state will forgive penalties and interest on late sales tax payments. But their relief was followed by confusion as it became clear that the waiver will be extended only to businesses that submit their sales taxes quarterly and annually; monthly filers aren't eligible for the break.

That group includes many restaurants, and the New York State Restaurant Association is urging state tax officials to extend the waiver to monthly filers. This is a reasonable change: Waiving their late-filing penalties would ease a little more of the pressure on small businesses hit hard by the societal shutdown. For those businesses that are struggling to stay viable during this crisis, every bit could help.
North Korea on Monday warned it could cut off dialogue with the United States and slammed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for urging the international community to maintain sanctions on its regime.

Pompeo last week told nations to "stay committed to applying diplomatic and economic pressure" over the North's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes while calling on the nuclear-armed state to return to talks.

A string of weapons drills by Pyongyang has come during a prolonged hiatus in disarmament talks with the United States and despite recent overtures from Washington offering help to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement released by the North's official Korean Central Agency, an unnamed official in charge of negotiations with the US called Pompeo's remarks "ludicrous".

"Listening to Pompeo's ludicrous language made us give up on any hopes for dialogue," the official said, adding: "We will walk our way." The American diplomat had "unleashed insult at a country with which his president was willing to forge a good relationship", the official continued, referring to Donald Trump's letter sent to



North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressing an intent to cooperate in anti-epidemic efforts.

"It is puzzling who the real commander in chief is in the US," the official said. The criticism came after the North said it had successfully tested "super-large multiple rocket launchers" on Sunday.

Analysts say the North continues to refine its weapons capabilities more than a year after a summit between Kim and Trump broke down in Vietnam. Negotiations have since been deadlocked over sanctions relief and what the North would be willing to give up in return.

North Korea is under multiple sets of sanctions from the United Nations, United States and others over its banned weapons programmes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bassey Offiong

A 25-year-old Western Michigan University student from Detroit died Saturday after contracting the coronavirus, DetroitNews has reported.

The student, Bassey Offiong, was expected to graduate with a chemical engineering degree in a few weeks.

His sister, Asari Offiong, said her brother told her he was turned down several times for the coronavirus test in the Kalamazoo area while living off-campus despite having fever, fatigue and shortness of breath.

I told him to ask them to test him, Offiong said. He said they refused to test him.

One medical staffer told him he had bronchitis, she said. She said he had no known prior health issues. Offiong said she wasnt ready to disclose the locations where he was denied a test.

He was hospitalized at Beaumont in Royal Oak and spent the last week on a ventilator in their intensive care unit. She called her baby brother sweet and humble and a gentle giant. She last saw him a week ago.

I know God has him in his presence, Offiong said. He loved God.

He was a member of the Christ the King Miracle Church in Redford Township.

Bassey Offiongs dream was to start his own organic makeup line with Loreal that would enhance womens beauty, his sister said. He was a graduate of Renaissance High School in Detroit.

Hes just someone who thinks so big, she said.

Western Michigan University President Edward Montgomery said Offiong had enormous potential.

On behalf of the entire Bronco community, I want to extend my deepest condolences to his entire family, including his sister, Asari, who has been generous in communicating with us regularly, Montgomery said in a press release from university and Kalamazoo County health officials. They are in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.

University officials announced Friday that three students had tested positive for the virus.

We urge everyone to help us fight community spread by following the Governors executive order, said Jim Rutherford, health officer for the Kalamazoo County Health & Community Services Department.

Stay home and, if you must go out for essential items, stay safe by taking preventative measures.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 30



Trend:



The scientific sphere is switching to digital mode In Turkmenistan, Trend reports with reference to online-newspaper Turkmenistan.ru.

A meeting of the Parliament on the subject was held via videoconference. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov announced a decision on the transition of the scientific sphere of Turkmenistan to digital mode from 2020 through 2025. The MPs also discussed a plan covering necessary measures for its implementation.

According to the plan, transferring to the digital sphere, Turkmenistan's research activities will reach a new level in five years. This format of work will help to create links between science, education and production. Those links will provide scientific, technical and intellectual support for the digital transformation of the national economy.

The implementation of this program will help to create a sustainable system that will be based on IT technologies. It will also be possible to achieve close interaction between science and production in accordance with world best practices.

Earlier at a meeting of the Parliament, the head of state underlined the need to switch many areas to the digital mode due to the threat of coronavirus.
An Indian expat in Dubai has emerged as one of the unsung heroes in the time of coronavirus lockdown in the Gulf nation as everyday he hits the road on his bike to do food deliveries to ensure that people don't step out of their houses during the closure.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), of which Dubai is a member, has reported 570 cases of coronavirus and three deaths. The UAE has extended the nationwide lockdown till April 5.

Home deliveries of food items have been exempted from the purview of the lockdown.

Murali Shambantham, a delivery man working in Dubai for the past 15 years, said he never thought that he would have to face such unprecedented times.

However, the 42-year-old, who continued with his regular job amid the lockdown, said he is grateful that he is being able to support a family of four back in Tamil Nadu's Ariyalur town, the Khaleej Times reported on Monday.

"Someone needs to do this jobFood is an essential item. How can you deprive someone of food? If we don't step up, how will people who do not have running kitchens in their homes eat?" he asked.

Shambantham, however, is aware of the risk of exposure from people who are seemingly asymptomatic.

Masks and gloves are his weapons against the deadly viral infection as he hits the road on his two-wheeler to do food deliveries for a Dubai-based Indian restaurant.

"I know it can be contracted through cough droplets or by touching infected surfaces. Therefore, I make sure to wear gloves and mask to protect myself, apart from regularly sanitising hands even after I park my bike. I also maintain a certain physical distance and lean forward to handover the parcel," Shambantham said.

He said food delivery men cannot constantly keep feeling threatened. They need to be committed to their professions.

"It's not merely about the bills that we have to pay, but we must ensure our customers are fed and keep it going for everyone," Shambantham was quoted as saying by the report.

He underlined that people are also careful while collecting food parcels.

"They touch the bottom of the packet, while I hold the top. Customers also come out of their apartment blocks quickly, without making us wait for long, as at present, we are not allowed to enter the lobby," Shambantham said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Addressing the media on March 26, soon after announcing a mega package to help the poor tide over the coronavirus crisis, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was asked about the government's plans to help the aviation sector.

There was no answer. The finance minister ignored the question.

"Clearly not a priority" is how an aviation industry executive ruefully put it.

A day later, on March 27, the US government announced $50 billion as an aid to the country's airlines in the form of grants and loans. The US government is not alone.

Earlier in March, the Australian government waived charges worth $450 million that airlines in the country had to pay. Similarly, governments in Sweden, New Zealand and Singapore have provided relief to their aviation industries.

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Industry association IATA has warned that, "without immediate government relief measures, there will not be an industry left standing. Airlines (globally) need $200 billion in liquidity support simply to make it through".

So, what is stopping the Indian government from following suit; especially after CEOs of airlines, asked for help to pay salaries? Already, all the airlines, including IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet and GoAir, have been impacted in varying degrees.

The reasons are many.

The perception

Despite airlines increasingly becoming a preferred mode of transport, it is still regarded as a rich man's indulgence. This is not without reason. While the domestic aviation industry handles about 350 million passengers a year, Indian Railways transports more than 500 million customers in just a month.

It has not helped that with promoters such as Vijay Mallya and Naresh Goyal - both of whom are facing investigations of different kinds - the industry really does not get any brownie points.

Also, the past experience with grants has not been ideal. After the 9/11 crash, American airlines were given billions of dollars in aid but that did not prevent large scale job losses. Union leaders alleged that the money did not reach the worker on the ground.

So, there could be good reasons for the government to push aviation down the priority list when it comes to a rescue package. Not to talk about the money it will need to infuse into Air India and keep the national airline flying, with the disinvestment process most likely delayed.

The case

At the same time, there is also a case to help the airlines.

It is a growing industry. As IATA Director General Alexandre De Juniac pointed out in his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the industry employs about six million and contributes to 1.5 percent of the GDP. The current disruption due to COVID-19 could lead to over 5.5 lakh people losing their jobs.

Not just that. A robust aviation industry is imperative to move cargo and people within the country and internationally. A disruption in this network will slow down other sectors.

The solution

So, how can the Indian government give aid to the airlines and also ensure that the grant reaches down to most junior employees?

Like in the US, where the government gave part of the aid on the condition that there will not be any furlough or pay cuts, the Indian administration can also do the same.

Also, the aid can be in the form of loans that need to be repaid within a stipulated period of time. Probably, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has already enabled the banks to lend cheap loans through the measures it announced on March 27.

Do the airlines warrant zero-interest loans?

Help can also come in other ways, including a waiver or cut in charges that airlines have to pay. The government, though, will have to keep in mind the needs of airports which have also asked for help. A huge cut or waiver on charges that airlines pay to the airport can lead to the latter taking up arms.

The fine balance would be to help the industry and at the same time, make them accountable for the aid.
As per reports, a group of 175 people from Delhis Nizamuddin area are being tested for coronavirus after being exposed to the infection at the gathering in a mosque that had visitors from Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan.

Representative Image -AFP

One man who attended the event has died and two of them have tested positive for coronavirus, this event happened earlier this month.

This was one of the largest groups which tested at the same time, over a suspicion that they might have got the novel coronavirus as it gets transmitted from one person to another.

Though there is still no clarity over the establishment that the man who died was from Tamil Nadu. The event area has been sealed and police are patrolling to ensure that nobody breaks the quarantine rules. Drones are also being used to monitor the movement of people as a precaution against the COVID-19 disease.

Around 2,000 people are in quarantine in this populated locality in south Delhi. Many of them are being shifted to other parts of the city.

Representative Image -AFP

The gathering of Tableeghi Jamaat preachers at the Banglawali masjid which happened in the mid march have surfaced worries among the attendees.

Some of visitors to the event include a preacher who died last week in Srinagar due to coronavirus. He had also visited Deoband Seminary in Uttar Pradesh before reaching Kashmir.

Other foreign visitors include an Indonesian and Six of Saudi citizens ,who were sent back by the government of India.

Around 1200 people are still inside the mosque where a medical camp has also been set up to check if anyone may have symptoms.

Some officials said that contact-tracing is on to identify the person who has been exposed to this virus in Delhi, Srinagar and Deoband. The worst and most worrying situation is that many of the visitors traveled from various parts of the country and after the event they left in 20-30 buses but most numbers of devotees have stayed back at the place (mosque).

One man who is in Andhra Pradesh tested positive was also an attendee of this event.

This event can get us into a worst case scenario as this could give us a huge jump in coronavirus cases. As per March 30, the positive cases 1,071 and 29 deaths.
India's largest drug maker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries said its Halol manufacturing site in Gujarat had been classified as Official Action Indicated (OAI) by USFDA.

The OAI status implies that the USFDA may put all new approvals from the Halol facility on hold till the outstanding corrective actions are completed.

Sun Pharma will be able to manufacture and supply already-approved products from the facility to the US market.

But, if the company fails to satisfactorily address the regulatory concerns raised by USFDA, it may get a warning letter. The US drug regulator inspected the plant between December 3 and 13 and issued a Form 483 (inspection report) with eight observations. USFDA classifies an inspection into three categories such as OAI, VAI (Voluntary Action Indicated), and NAI (No Action Indicated). While NAI means clean chit, VAI means minor changes which the company can voluntarily act upon.

The facility has 19 abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) and two new drug applications (NDAs) pending approval from Halol for the US market. US supplies from Halol, as of now, contribute approximately 3-4 percent of Sun Pharma's consolidated revenues.

Sun Pharma has consolidated revenue of Rs 28,686.28 crore in FY19.

"We do not anticipate any major supply disruption for existing products due to the OAI classification. We will work with the USFDA to ensure that there is no shortage in supplies to the US market," Sun Pharma said in a statement to stock exchanges.

"Although the Baska facility is USFDA approved and can manufacture injectables, it cannot manufacture some of the dosage forms filed from Halol. Hence, a backup of such products may not be possible," Sun Pharma added.
Two more coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients died in Maharashtra on Monday, taking the toll to 10, as 17 fresh cases of the infection (Sars-Cov-2) were reported in the state. Maharashtras case count has risen to 220.

A 78-year old man from Mumbai died in a private hospital, while a 52-year old man died at a private hospital in Pune. State health minister Rajesh Tope said 39 patients have been discharged from various hospitals after they recovered from the infection.

Of the 17 new patients, eight are in Mumbai, five in Pune, two in Nagpur and one each in Nashik and Kolhapur, read a state health department statement.

The 78-year-old was suffering from high blood pressure and heart ailments, while the Pune patient had diabetes and high blood pressure, according to health department officials.

Meanwhile, after a few patients, who tested positive on Monday, were found to be from densely populated areas in Mumbai and Pune, the state government has issued instructions to all district authorities to take precautions to contain the spread.

State government officials have expressed fear of a rapid spread of the virus in these localities owing to the density of population. Two from Gultekadi at Pune and four from Worli-Koliwada have tested positive. Both areas are densely populated, where there is high risk of community transmission. The patients have no foreign travel history and had come in contact with Covid-19 patients. We fear that there could be a number of people that had come in contact with these people, a key official from the state government said.

Against this backdrop, the state government has asked district authorities to ensure proper sanitisation of slums and densely populated areas. They have also been directed to identify people who had come in close contact with the Covid-19 patients. According to the official, the spread of the virus in slums is a matter of grave concern for the government as it could lead to a rapid community spread. We are still maintaining emphatically that it is not a community spread. Local authorities have been doing contact tracing and isolation . The sanitisation of the area, be it slums or otherwise, is being regularly done by local authorities, said Tope.

The minister said that during their video conference with district collectors from Varsha bungalow, the official CM residence, on Monday, district authorities have been directed to ensure all private clinics are open. After our appeal to the people, blood collection has begun effectively in various parts of the state. I spoke to the Union health minister today, requesting them for adequate supply of N-95 masks and PPE (personal protective equipment) sets from the Centre, he said. Tope said the collectors have also been told to ensure smooth supply of essential commodities and grains so that people do not unnecessarily step out of their house to stock up these commodities.

Meanwhile, various isolation facilities at government hospitals and buildings saw 4,538 people admitted since January 18 after they complained of fever, cough and cold. Tests of 3,876 of them turned out negative, while 220 tested positive. As many as 19,161 people are in home quarantine and 1,224 are in institutional quarantine.

In response to the Central governments appeal of ensuring adequate arrangements for migrant workers and people stranded in the state, Maharashtra government has opened 262 shelters across the state. Chief secretary Ajoy Mehta held a meeting of the state executive committee of disaster management and released 45 crore for the arrangement of shelter, food and health facilities to stranded workers in various parts of the state. For Konkan and Pune divisions, the government has released 15 and 10 crore respectively, while four other divisions (Nashik, Nagpur, Amravati and Aurangbad) have been given 5 crore respectively.

Similarly, labour minister Dilip Walse Patil has directed labour officials at the district level to ensure mid-day facility for migrant and construction workers. The minister said that at least 2 lakh construction workers from various construction sites will benefit from the scheme.

Meanwhile, governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari held a review meeting with Thackeray and key officials from the government. The governor has directed the government to made adequate arrangements for food, shelter and medicines to the migrants living in various camps across the state. He also insisted for the immediate monetary assistance to construction workers. Thackeray apprised him about the steps taken by his government for fighting Covid-19.

The Mumbai police on Monday home quarantined all families in 22 chawls in Dahisar, after three positive cases of Covid-19 were reported in Dahisar on Saturday.

The collector of Mumbai island city, Rajeev Niwatkar, also announced that a special control room and helpline have been set up to tackle the Covid-19 outbreak. The number of the helpline is 022-22664232. BMC also started a helpline for migrant workers who were spotted in large numbers on highways walking to their hometowns in other India states. The helpline number 1800-22-1292 will be available from 9am to 9pm every day, and will make available food packets, grocery packets, and shelter for homeless or stranded labourers.

In Mumbai, the 78-year-old who died had acute respiratory distress and was admitted at a private hospital on March 27 . He had no foreign travel history. His was a known case of hypertension and ischemic heart disease. He succumbed to his infection on March 28, however, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) confirmed him as a case of Covid-19 on Monday after getting his swab test report on Sunday night.

We have taken samples from five of his close contacts, including his househelp, said a health officer. We are also trying to ascertain his source of transmission as he didnt have travel history, added the officer.

In addition to this, a 52-year-old Covid-19 patient died on Monday at a private hospital in Pune, becoming the first death in the city. The man was suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure and was undergoing treatment at the Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital. His samples turned out positive for coronavirus on March 22 and he died on Monday. The man was on ventilator support. He died of multiple organ failure, said Murlidhar Mohal, mayor, Pune.

Of the 10 deaths in the state so far, seven have been reported in Mumbai and one each in Navi Mumbai, Buldhana and Pune. There is one suspected Covid-19 death of an 86-year-old woman. She is the mother of the 49-year-old man who tested positive for Covid-19 along with his househelp from Ghatkopar. The deceased tested negative for the virus in the first test, but later started developing symptoms and succumbed to it on Monday in a private hospital. BMC has collected her swab samples for a test for confirmation.

In Jaslok Hospital, a nurse has been identified with Covid-19, while treating a patient with another illness who had no international travel history. Later, he was found asymptomatic of Covid-19. Currently, the nurse is undergoing treatment in the isolation ward of the hospital. After a few days, he was noticed having symptoms and was immediately shifted to the isolation ward. All the medical and non-medical staff who came in direct or indirect contact with the affected patient have been identified and screened and have been quarantined as per protocol, reads the statement issued by the hospital.

On the other hand, according to the data released by the BMC health department, in the past 24 hours, 47 cases have been reported in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). Of which, 38 are from Mumbai and 9 from Navi Mumbai.

Total number of positive coronavirus cases reported in MMR has increased to 170, of which 126 from the city and 44 from Navi Mumbai. Moreover, 18 of 47 samples of positive cases were sent to a private lab, which was later reconfirmed at government labs, read the statement.

Deputy chief and finance minister Ajit Pawar has demanded Maharashtra gets a special package of 25,000 crore from the Central government to combat Covid-19 and boost the economy. The three-week lockdown has resulted in the shutdown of industries, services and other sectors. The last month of the financial year witnesses huge collection of taxes and duties, which is unlikely to be accumulated now. To tackle the unprecedented economic challenge, the Centre should extend a package of 25,000 crore to Maharashtra, Pawar has said in a letter to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

He also has demanded that dues of 16,654 crore with the Centre towards the devolution of Central taxes and aid be released before March 31.

The state government has also decided to set a protocol for private practitioners, making it compulsory to refer patients with coronavirus-like symptoms to government hospitals immediately. The decision was taken after the government found that private practitioners keep treating such patients at their level for longer period.

(with inputs from Eeshanpriya MS)
A teenager is dead and his sibling was hospitalized after a targeted attack in their home Monday morning, according to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus.

At around 1:30 a.m., a 17-year-old, answered a knock on the door of his home in the 400 block of Aransas Avenue. When he answered the door, he was shot, McManus said. The teenager died before authorities arrived, police said.
After working a 12-hour shift at Huntsville Hospital for Women and Children, Lauren Zito found hope scribbled on the sidewalk Thursday night.

As a registered nurse who assists mommies and their newborns at the hospital, Zito doesnt really feel like she is on the frontlines of fighting COVID19. But the risk of bringing home the virus to her immunocompromised grandmother wears on her daily. As a precaution, she strips down in the garage as soon as she gets home and washes off the day in the guest bathroom downstairs before entering the main part of the house.

Anxiety, anger and fear of the unknown ran wild in Zitos mind Thursday night until she stumbled upon a series of positive colorful, positive messages and pictures that trailed from the hospitals entrance to the garage where hospital employees park.

If you are arriving, thank you for what you are doing, one message said.

If you are leaving, thank you for what you have done, said another.

Tough times dont last. Tough teams do!

And Zitos favorite: Your smile is more contagious than COVID19

Goosebumps rose on Zitos arms as she admired the messages. She doesnt know who did it, but she has a message for them.

Honestly, for the ten minutes I spent walking and reading, I forgot about all my worries, Zito said. What an amazing thing for someone to do, to take the time out of their day to think of our staff during this difficult and emotional time. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reminding me to breathe.

Zito, like many Alabamians, are trying to find moments of joy and peace during a pandemic. Some found comfort by helping total strangers. Others are finding solace by spreading joy to children. Many of them found happiness after enduring the tug of war between the grief over their pre-coronavirus life and the acceptance of a new normal.

If theres one community thats making sure the kids are alright, its Alabamas teachers.

Daphne Elementary School teacher Melissa Spriggs wasnt aware that March 12th would be the last time she would see most of her third-grade students in Baldwin County. On that day, a Thursday, her 23 students had just finished the last chapter in math. By the following Monday, only 11 students were in her class. By March 19, all of Alabamas public schools were closed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Spriggs was hoping to see her kids again when classrooms were supposed to be open on April. Since Daphne Elementary ends at third grade, Spriggs current class will enter into a whole new building next school year.

Gov. Kay Ivey ordered all school facilities to remain closed on Thursday and for schools to finish the school year using alternative methods of instruction, such as online learning. Spriggs got choked up as she talked about how she would welcome her kids every school day with a high-five or a hug. Now those things are forbidden.

To know that I wont ever get to hug them again is insane, Spriggs said.

Thanks to social media, Spriggs and another Daphne Elementary teacher, Autumn Zellner, found a remedy for their grief. They decided to organize a teacher parade. The trend of teachers hopping in their cars and riding around their students neighborhood with posters adorned with positive messages has tugged heart strings across the country. A few have been planned in Alabama.

So Spriggs and Zellner planned one for their schools neighborhood.

On Monday, March 23, Daphne Elementary students waved at their teachers during the almost two-hour parade. To practice social distancing and safety, the students werent allowed to come near the teachers cars and the teachers stayed in their vehicles. But the students expressed how much they loved and missed their teachers with their signs.

Teachers made their own signs to let the students know that they are loved, missed and that they were going to be OK. Zellner kids needed to hear those words. She said they are also absorbing the anxieties of COVID19 as they hear the worry in their parents voices as they talk about money and the potential of their grandparents getting sick. Citizens over the age of 65 are more likely to suffer from severe symptoms if they get the virus.

Zellner believes the parade gave the kids peace of mind.

They have their moms and dads, but they also have us, Zellner said, We love them. They are our babies. We wanted to let them know that we are still here, and everything is going to be OK.

The students and teachers werent the only ones who benefitted from the parade. Spriggs said it was a positive influence on her daughter who rode with her during the parade.

I told her, We are doing this so we can make other people smile, Spriggs said. So she kept saying Wheres another kid? I want to make them smile. It grew my teacher heart and my momma heart to put kindness out and put so much love back.

Although the kids wont be back in a traditional classroom setting again, the parade was proof of something stronger: That they were more than just teachers, parents and students  that they were a family. And the family was going to get through this tough time, Zellner said.

We feel so isolated at times. We cant see our friends and we cant see our students, she said. But this was a nice little reminder that our community is amazing. We have amazing parents. We have amazing students and it was neat to see how we can all come together - that we are not isolated.

Another tightknit family is the food service industry.

A statewide ban prohibiting restaurants and bars from allowing customers to dine in has put a chokehold on Camille Henrys revenue stream at Crestwood Coffee Company in Birmingham. Her staff of five usually gets about 30-35 hours a week each. Now they are barely getting 20.

We are kind of like a community gathering space and a big part of our business is people coming in with their laptops to work, study or sit with family and friends to have a sandwich or a coffee, Henry said. Obviously, we have not been able to do that right now. So, this has definitely impacted our revenue.

Despite the financial woes, Henry has created a relief fund on GoFundMe so she can feed the services workers who have fed the community for so long. She wants to raise $4,500, which will provide 300 free meals for Birminghams food service workers. She has raised more than $3,000 since she started the fund on March 17.

Bartenders, servers and other members of the food service industry can grab a free meal simply by coming to Crestwood coffee and telling the staff they are part of the food service industry.

Henry wasnt expecting so much support when she created the GoFundMe, especially since many people outside of the service industry are also expecting financial insecurities during the outbreak. Henry expresses her love for others by making meals for them, and she thanked the donators who are allowing her to do that.

Despite all the fear and uncertainty in our daily lives now, the overwhelming community response to this call for help has reminded me that there is still so much that is good and kind in the world, Henry said. The people who have come in for meals have given us far more than weve given them  solidarity, community, conversation and more thanks and praise than we deserve.

The best things, I think, to come out of all of this is the way that people are coming together to support their communities and their neighbors, she said.

One of Kathryn Chews greatest joys in life is harnessing the time-traveling power of food. As a pasta and pastry chef at Bottega, a renowned Italian restaurant in Birmingham, Chew crafts dishes that remind people of their grandmothers kitchen, the comforting meals their mother made after a bad day or their grandfathers homemade chocolate chip cookies.

But Chew has been separated from that love  and many others - since COVID19 forced many businesses to close. Along with her culinary career, Chew is also a bartender and a musician known as Kat Delacruz. Chew said her life started to feel empty when she was furloughed from all three of her jobs.

But one thing that has buoyed her happiness is starting and managing a Facebook group called Quarantine Cuisine. The more than 3,000-member group is not only place where people can share their dishes, recipes and the successes  as well as failures  of making those meals. But it's also a space where people can get mentored by experienced cooks and get connected to local farmers during a time when some store shelves are still almost empty of produce and meats.

She started the Facebook group while staring at her pantry filled with random, non-perishable items like canned ravioli and tuna, ramen noodles and crackers. Chew and her partner called them their rations.

I knew many of my fellow chef friends would soon be reaching into their wheelhouses of creativity to feed their families without the luxury of having farm-fresh, first-rate ingredients, Chew said. Then I imagined a world of five-star chefs living off Vienna sausages and hamburger helper and thought it would be fun to start a food group since we would only be able to communicate online.

People from all over the world have joined a group whose description is a page for the everyday Doomsday Chef. The group has evolved into space to vent and heal through food. One minute a member will post about their sous vide lamb shanks. The next minute, its about leftover hotdogs with hash browns. The juxtaposition of the posts makes everyone laugh, Chew said.

Conversations between the chef mentors transform into peer counseling sessions as members adjust to a life where they must socially distance themselves from their friends.

They are all finding hope and inspiration from each other and hearing their testimonies of how much support and joy they are getting from the group lifts me up so much, Chew said. I get to witness perfect strangers lifting each other up and sharing ideas. It brings tears to my eyes some days.

The sense of community cultivated from Chews Facebook proves a theory she has known for a long time: Food  like love and hope - brings the world together.

One thing everyone can agree on, no matter their social status, their demographic, or their political views, is that food is wonderful, She said. No political jargon can make you close your eyes and be transported to that trip you took abroad or that favorite childhood memory, but food can. It is universal. It is family.

And we are now all sitting at the same table.
Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast / Photos Getty

A burst of fresh data on the prevalence of silent, or asymptomatic, carriers of the 2019 novel coronavirus points to the looming danger of ending Americas national shutdown early.

Classified Chinese government data suggest silent carriers could make up at least one-third of the countrys positive cases of the 2019 novel coronavirus, Hong Kongs South China Morning Post recently reported. Approximately 43,000 people in China who had tested positive for COVID-19 last month had no immediate symptoms. And those cases were not included in the official national tally of confirmed cases, which had hit 80,000 at the end of February, the paper said.

Last week, China reported no new local infections for the first time since the outbreak started in December. And after weeks of lockdown, the city of Wuhanwhere the global pandemic originatedsaid on Tuesday that public transportation was reopening and that residents would be allowed to leave the city itself starting on April 8.

But as extensive testing continues, authorities in Wuhan have found new cases of asymptomaticor mildly symptomaticinfection, sparking concerns about how many contagious people have been circulating freely. Fresh data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Friday about a nursing home in Washington state only served to compound those fears.

Four Ways Experts Say Coronavirus Nightmare Could End

Almost everybody thinks theres the potential of a second wave after we relax the restrictions, said Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University and an expert on U.S. readiness for pandemics.

Theres no good timeframeits certainly not by Easterthat well be starting to loosen up, he continued, referring to President Donald Trumps suggested finish line. But once we do, people who did not have coronavirus will be going out to spaces where silent spreaders might be.

With Americans still getting acclimated to a quasi-national shutdown, and Trump repeatedly suggesting restrictions might ease in a matter of days or weeks, the prospect of silent spreaders wreaking epidemiological havoc looms large.

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The biggest danger here is that this is like a stealth attack in that you have no idea that the person you have come into contact with is contagious, said Dr. Adrian Hyzler, the chief medical officer for Healix International, which provides medical information to organizations whose clients travel internationally. It makes it so much more difficult to try to contain the spread of the virus.

For obvious reasons, silent carriers are not nearly as notorious in the public imagination as super-spreaders, or patients who are extra contagious. A possible super-spreader in the United Kingdom may have transmitted the virus to nearly a dozen people before realizing he was sick earlier this year. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization previously claimed that pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic transmission of the new coronavirus was relatively rare.

But newer studiesout of Japan, Italy, South Korea, and now Washington statehave called that assertion into question. And research suggests that silent spreaders can be just as dangerous to a community.

The CDC released a study on Friday of the outbreaks spreadspecifically via asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic patientsin a long-term care facility in King County, Washington. The report found that approximately half of all residents with positive test results did not have any symptoms at the time of testing, suggesting that transmission from asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic residentswho were not recognized as having [the coronavirus] infection and therefore not isolatedmight have contributed to further spread.

These findings have important implications for infection control, according to the CDC, since current interventions for preventing the viruss transmission, in part because of the shortage of tests, primarily rely on the presence of signs and symptoms to identify and isolate residents or patients who might have COVID-19. Patients were cohorted, or separated, according to which ones had symptoms. But that method of intervention no longer makes sense if there are asymptomaticor silentspreaders within a community, especially one that is at high risk of severe infection.

Researchers previously published a study in the journal Science on March 16, finding that 86 percent of all infections in China before Jan. 23when the government there instituted severe travel restrictionswere undocumented because they were mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic.

They may, for the most part, have experienced some symptoms at some point, Jeffrey Shaman, a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University who worked on the study, explained to WBUR radio. But it didn't keep them home, didn't stop them from getting on public transportation, going to work, going to school, getting on airplanes and going on business trips.

Because those individuals didnt feel sickor didnt know they were sickand kept traveling through the community, the researchers found that this group of people contributed to the vast majority of the spread of the virus, added Shaman, who called the phenomenon stealth transmission.

In a letter to the International Journal of Infectious Diseases in February, a group of Japanese experts led by epidemiologist Hiroshi Nishiura at Hokkaido University wrote that the growing data outside of China indicates that a substantial number of cases are underdiagnosed. Nishiuras group estimatedbased on the number of asymptomatic Japanese patients who were evacuated from the epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan, Chinathat about 30.8 percent of cases were asymptomatic.

Of course, American authorities know even less than their foreign counterparts about how many cases there are, period. The same goes for silent spreaders.

This is partly because health systems are just overrun with sick people, as well as a scarcity of testing kits, said Hyzler, adding that a trial in a small Italian town where all 30,000 people were tested revealed that asymptomatic or very mildly symptomatic people represented a whopping 70 percent of all cases, of which an unknown number were able to transmit the virus to others.

Redlener noted that, while much is still unknown, the vast majority of Americans with the virus will be mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic, and we really have to be careful not to relax our stringent requirements too soon.

The U.S. health system has generally not tested individuals without symptoms unless they are especially wealthy or well-connectedlike NBA players or Sen. Rand Paulor else health workers with known exposure. And in many places in the U.S., authorities are discouraging testing except in the case of severe symptoms, meaning American officials have limited data on the number of asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic cases, with few exceptions.

Hyzler said there were two key assumptions that likely went into the decision to begin opening up Wuhan again: that there are very few unidentified silent spreaders transmitting the infection throughout the community, and that the incubation period is 14 days.

If authorities are correct on both points, it might well be safe to resume public transportation and to allow travel to and from the city. But if theyre incorrect, Hyzler cautioned: We will certainly start to see a second wave of cases emerge in China.

Fortunately for Wuhan and its surrounding province, Chinas zealous testing means that authorities would likely detect a new wave right away before it spread very far, according to Arnold Monto, a professor of epidemiology and global health at the University of Michigan who has advised both the World Health Organization and the Defense Department on communicable diseases.

But unless the U.S. rapidly expands its testingand zealously tracks individuals whove had contact with confirmed casesAmericans wont have that same advantage.

Both Hyzler and Monto said they hoped the U.S. government could learn from its weeks of delays, as well as failures abroad. But theres no guarantee.

Vice President Mike Pence took heat this past week for claiming that federal officials may soon recommend that critical workerseven those whove been exposed to the virusreturn to work, as long as they wear a mask.

Its premature to try to put a time limit on this, said Monto, who emphasized the importance of continued social distancing throughout the country to control the surge of cases from overwhelming hospitals.

From an epidemiological standpoint, one lockdown would be better than waves of lockdown, he said. With waves, all youd be doing is letting it up again and then youre back where you started. I think if were still seeing an overwhelming number of cases in hospitals, its too early to lift a lockdown.

Ultimately, Hyzler argued, there are two main ways that authorities can try to ensure that an end to social distancing isnt premature. One is so-called herd immunity, or, as he put it, if a good percentage, maybe as many as 70 percent of people... have been infected and therefore, we assume, have an immunity against a re-infection. The other is whats called antibody testing, or, as Hyzler explained, once you can show that someone has had the virus, and they no longer need to self-isolate and can return to work. (To be clear, the jurys still out on whether some patients who already had coronavirus can be re-infected.)

But without enough tests, Monto said, we have no idea at this point how many people may be mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic. After the dust settles, he said, scientists will likely make an effort to collect blood samples, which can detect antibodies for the virus after a person has recovered.

Well know the numbers only after the fact, he added.

Redlener was more optimistic: The hope is that we get to a point where mass testing will be possible.

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Over 3,000 vulnerable households in Armenia, with elderly people and people with disabilities and large families in Shirak, Tavush and Lori regions will receive humanitarian aid packages thanks to the support of the European Union, the European Commission said.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic in the Eastern Partnership, European Commission has reallocated 140 million for the most immediate needs in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine.

In Armenia, a project with the Red Cross will be launched in the coming days to support the elderly, vulnerable families, and people with disabilities. By the summer, and as part this package, the Commission will the launch of the Eastern Partnership Solidarity Programme which will target the most affected parts of the populations through civil society support and notably sub-grants to smaller, local organisations. Additionally a new call for proposals, worth 3 million, was launched on 25 March, to support civil society organisations contribute to social well-being, including those impacted by the COVID19 outbreak.

This will be complemented by a new support programme targeting Armenian SMEs worth 13 million. The EU is also exploring to mobilise over 30 million from existing programmes in coordination with the Armenian government.

The EU is also reorienting ongoing support programmes to address Armenia's needs to respond to the pandemic. As a result, 1.75 million has already been disbursed under a Public Finance Policy Reform budget support programme to provide immediate support to the government.

In parallel, a new Twinning programme of the Ministry of Emergency Situations in partnership with the Swedish and Lithuanian civilian protection agencies has been approved and will start soon to improve civil protection and disaster risk management. The Commission also stands ready to provide assistance to Armenia through TAIEX, its peer to peer instrument, by using EU Member States expertise, experience and examples of good practice on assessing emergency preparedness response scheme and health systems.
TGS Nopec (TGSGY) is a service provider to oil and gas companies. Both of the component companies were started in 1981 before merging in 1998. TGS' primary business is to provide geoscience data to energy companies worldwide.

As noted on the company's website, "TGS is committed to providing the global energy industry with the right subsurface data, in the right place, at the right time, so that our customers can make informed drilling decisions... we are the principal resource for global geoscientific data products and services in the oil and gas industry."





The company's business is focused on multi-client surveys. This model shares the cost of acquiring survey data among multiple exploration and production (E&P) firms, along with a portion funded by TGS, which avoids duplicative work and results in substantially lower costs. Survey data enables E&P companies to make more intelligent decisions - information that can help them decide whether or not they should commit tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars to drill a well.

Much of TGS Nopec's survey work is pre-funded, which means that one or more of their clients has committed to licensing the data before the acquisition process has begun. After its initial work, TGS Nopec retains ownership and control of the data, which can be licensed to others (called "late sales"). This accounts for a significant portion of the business. As shown in the 2018 annual report, one-third of TGS' revenues were attributable to late sales from surveys completed in 2014 or earlier. As you can imagine, this comes with high incremental margins.

One of the key attributes that has drawn me to TGS Nopec is their asset-light business model. Note that they do not own their own ships and equipment, or even employ their own seismic crews. The data acquisition is outsourced. What TGS is responsible for is processing the data. Considering that the industry is prone to boom / bust cycles, the ability to control the cost structure to is critical to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the business. As an example, note that oil and gas seismic spending declined by more than 50% from 2012 to 2018.

Story continues

As shown below, revenues for TGS Nopec have been volatile over the past 15 years, with the declines as of late roughly mirroring the industry result. The company's revenues in 2017 to 2019 were roughly 40% below the peak result in 2012.

The same has also been true for the company's profitability. To give some sense for the long-term (full cycle) results, the company's revenues over the past five and 10 years have averaged $550 million and $670 million, respectively. In terms of operating income, the company has averaged $140 million and $250 million over the past five and 10 years, respectively.

In terms of capital allocation, TGS has returned most of its earnings to shareholders. Over the past five years, dividends have totaled $430 million, equal to roughly 80% of TGS' adjusted net income over the same period. As noted during the 2019 Capital Markets day event, "It is the ambition of TGS to pay a cash dividend that is in line with its long-term underlying cash flow."

In addition to dividends, the company has repurchased its own shares last year:

"For 2019, 1.65 million shares were repurchased at an average price of NOK 237.7 per share, corresponding to a total cash spending of $43.4 million."

Note that the stock currently trades at 110.3 Norwegian Kroner ($10.45) per share - more than 50% below the average price paid to repurchase shares in 2019.

The company plans on paying a dividend of NOK 3.47 per share in the first quarter, with an expectation that this rate would be maintained throughout 2020. If that proves accurate, the current dividend yield is north of 10%.

Shortcut

One shortcut that I use to assess business quality is long-term stock performance. While equity returns can be noisy in the short-term due to changes in market perception, I have found that the long-term returns on a stock are generally comparable to gains in intrinsic value. In the case of TGS, the performance of the stock suggests solid results for the business over the past 15 years.

But while the stock has performed wonderfully over the past 15 years, that has not been the case lately: the stock is down by more than 50% over the past year. That reflects the expected impact on the industry from lower oil prices. Based on where things stand today, we are likely to see a significant reduction in E&P spending around the world, with less demand throughout the supply chain - including for TGS Nopec. As noted in a recent report from Goldman Sachs, seismic is quick to see spending freezes in a downturn.

A recent Bloomberg article headline sums it up nicely: "The Global Oil Market is Broken."

I'm not in the position to intelligently comment on the energy industry. One thing I am confident in saying is that eventually, as reserves deplete, additional investment will be required. E&P companies will search for new resources to pull out of the ground, with others like TGS supporting those efforts. That will require supply and demand to come back into balance; until then, TGS has a business model and a balance sheet that I believe will enable them to survive through the downturn.

Given the boom/bust nature of the industry, I don't think it makes much sense to focus on earnings in any given year. Instead, I think we should try to value the business on full cycle results. As I noted earlier, TGS has averaged $140 million and $250 million in annual operating income over the past five and ten years, respectively.

Currently, the company has an enterprise value of $1 billion, with a market cap of $1.3 billion less than that and $320 million in net cash at year end 2019. Using $200 million a year as a baseline, the stock is trading at roughly five times normalized operating income. That sounds reasonable to me.

For what it's worth, TGS has traded at nearly four times EV / Ebitda over the past decade; today, it trades at closer to 1.5 times trailing EV / Ebitda. All that said, I still don't know the industry that well. I have no way of knowing if I'm missing something here. Put differently, I might be the patsy at the poker table.

For that reason, I don't plan on buying the stock. My hope is this article will put me in contact with some individuals who are more knowledgeable about this company and can point me in the right direction.

Disclosure: None

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Citywide

On Monday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said that the city's shelter-in-place order has been extended to at least May 1, 2020. Initially put in place on March 17, the order was originally scheduled to expire next Tuesday, April 7.

More details will be announced tomorrow, but "for the sake of planning, you should definitely plan to stay at home until at least May," Mayor Breed says.

The decision was expected by many, as President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that social distancing guidelines should be extended nationwide through the end of April. The state of California also has a stay-at-home order in place that has no definite end date.

As of Monday at 9 a.m., there are 374 confirmed COVID-19 cases in San Francisco. Six people have died from the virus, and 58 are hospitalized with it.

Mayor Breed emphasized the seriousness of the situation as the reason the "city has been pretty much shut down."

We're working to slow the spread of coronavirus in San Francisco, but we know that the challenges we face are going to get tougher.



The public health order for people to say safe in their homes will soon be extended until at least May 1. More details to come soon.  London Breed (@LondonBreed) March 30, 2020

In other COVID-19 news, Laguna Honda Hospital has become a site of particular concern, with 11 people nine staff members and two patients  testing positive for the virus. Dr. Grant Colfax, director of the SF Department of Public Health (DPH), said that he expects the situation at the hospital to get worse.

District 7 Supervisor Norman Yee, whose district includes the hospital, says it has been completely closed off to visitors. "A tough decision," he said.

Colfax said that DPH is now also sending health inspectors to conduct inspections at the city's single resident occupancy hotels (SROs), where they will be focusing to check if hygiene and cleaning protocols are being followed. They will also let residents know who to call in case they get sick.

Story continues

Asked if any residents will be moved to different facilities if proper procedures aren't being followed, Colfax said that the focus right now is on testing residents with COVID-19 symptoms, so they can self-quarantine.

Yee and Breed once again urged San Franciscans to only go out for essential needs, to wash hands and to practice social distancing by staying at least six feet away from others when going outside.

Breed noted that this weekend appeared to show better adherence to the social distancing rules by San Franciscans. "Things looked like somewhat of a success," she said.

As we reported on Friday, Ocean Beach, Crissy Field and Baker Beach parking lots were closed in order to promote social distancing.
T wo shameful thieves have admitted stealing bicycles belonging to NHS workers from a hospital in Nottingham during the coronavirus pandemic.

David Moran, 35, of Courtleet Way, and Craig Lancaster, 29, of Camrose Close, both Nottingham, will be sentenced in April after pleading guilty at the citys magistrates court on Monday.

They admitted stealing bicycles from outside Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham.

Chief Superintendent Rob Griffin from Nottinghamshire Police, who oversaw the forces investigation into the thefts, said: This is a shameful crime which has targeted our NHS colleagues at a time when they were working tirelessly to protect the public they serve.

The speed and seriousness with which this case has been dealt with should leave anyone who thinks they can target hard-working members of our NHS in no doubt that they will be caught and that they will be dealt with robustly.

The Crown Prosecution Service said Moran pleaded guilty to five counts of burglary, theft of a pedal cycle and common assault of an emergency worker.

Lancaster pleaded guilty to five counts of burglary, theft of a pedal cycle, common assault of an emergency worker and obstructing a constable in the execution of his duty.

Janine Smith, the chief crown prosecutor for the East Midlands, said: The CPS is committed to supporting NHS and emergency workers and will play our part to ensure those who target them in criminal offences will be brought to justice.

It was therefore particularly important to charge these defendants and ensure they were dealt with expeditiously through the courts. We will now be preparing the case for the sentencing in April.
By Roslan Khasawneh

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Supertanker freight rates are on the rise for a second time this month as producers, refiners and traders scramble to secure ships to transport crude or store a fast-growing global glut of oil, industry sources said.

Freight rates for very large crude-oil carriers (VLCC) along the Middle East Gulf to China route were assessed at about $180,000 a day on Monday, up from some $125,000 on Friday and a weekly low of about $90,000 a day on Wednesday, according to several ship broking sources.

"Its difficult to say whether or not the rates will be sustained, or at what levels, but generally looking at Saudi's export plans for the coming months at more than 10 million barrels per day (bpd) - as well as the demand for floating storage - then you can expect freight rates to remain strong," said Anoop Singh, head of tanker research in Asia at Braemar ACM Shipbroking.

"But how strong is the question," said Singh, adding that forward prices for VLCCs for the second quarter were trading at some $170,000 a day for the Middle East to China route.

GRAPHIC: Oil tanker freight rates jump again https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/xklpykgqpgd/VLCCRatesMar302020.png

With world demand for oil forecast to plunge 15 million to 20 million bpd, a 20% drop from last year, traders are increasingly being forced to park crude in storage to take advantage of a record gap between spot and future prices.

The contango spread between May and November Brent crude futures has hit a record $13.45 a barrel while the six-month spread for U.S. crude widened to minus $12.85 a barrel, the biggest discount since February 2009.

In a contango market, prices in the short term are lower than in future months, which encourages traders to store oil for sales in the future at a higher price.

"Almost all the spot (tanker) deals right now have floating storage tied into them - that's the only way to make money. You're not going to make money trading the cargo now," said Ashok Sharma, managing director of shipbroker BRS Baxi in Singapore.

While onshore storage space is typically cheaper than floating storage, traders are increasingly seeking to store oil on tankers as onshore space becomes increasingly scarce.

Story continues

VLCC time charter rates for floating storage jumped to as much as $120,000 per day by Monday, up from about $40,000 per day at the start of the month, the shipping sources said.

Even at those rates, by storing oil onboard VLCCs for six months, traders could lock in as much as $7 million to $8 million in profit at current market prices, the sources said.

This is the second time this month freight rates have spiked after a surge in demand to ship the flood of crude oil unleashed by a battle for market share between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

(Reporting by Roslan Khasawneh; Editing by David Clarke)
Charleston area restaurant owners who wont have enough cash to cover rent on Wednesday should talk to their landlords as soon as possible, commercial real estate experts say.

Communication is truly the key, says Hamlin OKelley, a partner with Buist Byars & Taylor, a Charleston-based real estate firm.

It sounds hokey, but were all in this together," O'Kelley said. "Its not your usual I just didnt pay rent this month. 

This week marks the first rent cycle in South Carolina since the advent of rules promoting social distancing, including the closure of restaurant dining rooms statewide. The sudden financial blow of similar mandates across the country has been so intense that national chains including The Cheesecake Factory and Subway have warned landlords not to expect April 1 rent checks.

Due to these extraordinary events, I am asking for your patience, and frankly, your help, The Cheesecake Factorys CEO wrote in a letter to landlords that those experienced in real estate transactions say could provide a model for independent restaurateurs.

Every landlord in the country knows whats going on and they know these conversations have to take place, Chris Fraser, managing director of Avison Youngs South Carolina office, says. What everyone wants is for that tenant to reopen and re-staff.

S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald Beatty on March 17 halted evictions, ordering courts to suspend all eviction proceedings and barring them from accepting new eviction filings until May 1. Other states and cities have adopted similar measures, with rumors swirling in some places that government assistance will take the form of rent forgiveness.

OKelley and Fraser warn it is far too early to speculate on political intervention, so both advise tenants to treat rent as a payment which must be addressed, if not made in full.

For instance, Fraser says, its unclear at this early date whether banks will be instructed to deal with existing mortgages in a way which will affect property owners repayment schedules.

Landlords are already talking to their lenders, but again, its a lot different than the last recession because everybody sort of has the same problem: You cant pay me, and I cant pay you.

In the meantime, Fraser suggests restaurant owners consult the attorneys who helped them figure out their leases in the first place. An attorney should be able to help a renter sort out if he or she committed to an operating hours clause, or other provisions that could technically put the tenant in default.

Additionally, force majeure clauses, or other act-of-God stipulations which could appear tenant-friendly, may not apply in this case.

The leases we have written say you have to pay rent, no matter what, OKelley says. And tenants often sign it. Remember, nobody made the tenant take this space; there are plenty of places you can open.

At this point, there is no blanket recommendation for what tenants should request when initiating a negotiation. Restaurateur John Currence of the Big Bad Breakfast chain, which operates one location in Charleston, generally suggests that fellow owners request a full abatement, then fall back on offering to pay a portion of triple-net expenses, which include taxes, insurance and utilities.

Theres not going to be a single shoe that fits, Fraser says.

He adds its still unknown whether restaurants which offer takeout will be viewed by landlords and lenders as doing what they can to keep the lights on, or if future governmental intervention will reward restaurants which shut down completely.

OKelley concurs that he cant read landlords minds.

Still, he stresses, Landlords arent cruel people, theyre just not. If (restaurant owners) can pay, great, thats fabulous. But they know what their revenue is. As soon as they finish reading this story, they should call their landlord.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday during his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat' apologised for taking harsh steps to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

He said, "I apologise for taking these harsh steps which have caused difficulties in your lives, especially the poor people. I know some of you would be angry with me also. But these tough measures were needed to win this battle."

He further said, "The battle against COVID-19 is a tough one and it did require such harsh decisions to keep the people of India safe."

He also spoke to people who had suffered from the virus attack and had recovered. He asked them to take their stories forward. He spoke to doctors and asked them how they were dealing with the attack.

For the first time since India went into the lockdown in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Modi presented his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat'. The programme had invited suggestions from individuals.
Growing up in the Sixties and Seventies, queues seemed as quintessentially British as Ladybird books and fish and chips. In that orderly world, we let older people and pregnant women go first  the rest of us waited.

At bus stops, wed arrange ourselves in a tidy line. Queues at the greengrocer and butcher were cheerful, gossipy things. Rare examples of pushing in would be greeted by tutting tongues, until someone would point to the back of the line, saying, Excuse me, the queue starts there.

Queuing became part of the British character in the early 19th-century, when shops replaced open-air markets. It reached its apotheosis during World War II, when housewives would wait in line for hours for rationed goods.

Leah Hardy argues queues were once quintessentially British and polite, safe, socially-distanced spaces should remain after the global health pandemic. Pictured: A social distancing supermarket in Singapore

But over the past few decades, weve seen a collapse in queuing. That organised line at the bus stop has morphed into a sharp-elbowed huddle. Entering a train carriage has become more me first than after you.

But could there be change in the air? Could social distancing teach us to relearn the civilised system of queuing? Weve got a long way to go, but today, a friend excitedly called to report that her local deli, where yummy mummies once aggressively clashed pushchairs, now operates a one-in, one-out system obeyed by everyone.

Could social distancing be teaching us the civilised system of queuing?

Of course, this queuing is happening for the worst of reasons  a vicious virus that is keeping us from our loved ones.

But might we, in future, maintain our polite, safe, socially-distanced spaces, curb our impatience and let vulnerable people go first?

Wouldnt that be worth waiting for?
The number of COVID-19 cases in the region rose again this weekend, as Gov. Tom Wolf asked for a federal disaster designation for Pennsylvania in order to get more federal aid. As cases rise, testing and medical technology continue to be top of mind for many. Unable to get tests in certain states, some are test hopping to get tested in others. And major labs and individuals are both working to create makeshift ventilators, valves, and other tools to help with the outbreak.

 Josh Rosenblat (@joshrosenblat, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

Pennsylvanias governor yesterday asked President Donald Trump to declare his state a major-disaster area. That is key to unlocking millions of dollars in federal aid to help the state battle the sickness and economic devastation of the coronavirus. Wolf wants Pennsylvania to join 15 other states, including New Jersey and New York, that already have the designation.

The state government is feeling the financial pain of the pandemic as the Wolf administration laid off about 2,500 part-time and seasonal employees and interns, Spotlight PA reported.

Also, the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Pennsylvania grew again yesterday. In Philadelphia, cases are all over the city," according to a health department spokesperson. As for a projection of how many people in Pennsylvania will get infected with the coronavirus, scientific modeling is trying to find an answer. But the region is already bracing for a surge in cases and is prepping new hospital and quarantine beds. Officials warn that the peak still hasnt arrived.

Michael Campbell, 61, had a dry cough, then chills and a 102-degree fever. He wanted to be tested for the coronavirus. He called the Montgomery County Health Department and, he said, was instructed to self-isolate in his Glenside home. But, he wanted to know for sure if he had the coronavirus.

He drove to Wilmington, took a free drive-through test, and was later notified that he tested positive. His daughter, a coworker, and a church friend are all sick.

Across the region, potentially sick people are hopping from test site to test site, hoping to find answers. And some experts say that the test hopping has the potential to spread the virus and put more people at risk.

Theres a growing online group of designers, engineers, and medical professionals trading insights on making medical equipment to help fight the coronavirus outbreak. And when Tod Corlett joined in, the industrial designer and Thomas Jefferson University professor was working on a request issued by his dean: make Jefferson a ventilator.

Three days later, he assembled a motorized prototype from pieces of metal, plastic, and wood in six hours. Hundreds of labs worldwide are working on similar tasks as fast as they can to help hospitals that face shortages.

What you need to know today

Through your eyes | #OurPhilly

Were still showing love ... but were just doing it a little differently these days. Thanks for the pic, @tlbtb.

Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and well pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out!

Thats interesting

Opinions

Its not OK to let the majority fall behind while a minority sprint ahead: kids in private schools that made the transition to online learning, or whose parents pay high property taxes for access to the best public schools. We cant allow this to become the Lost Year of Learning for those not at the tippy top of the economic ladder.  writes Inquirer columnist Maria Panaritis about the troubling disparity in schools abilities to deliver online learning.

The people who are too essential to social distance share with my colleagues how their lives have changed since the coronavirus hit  and what scares them about their jobs now. My colleagues Kevin Riordan, Abraham Gutman, and Elena Gooray interviewed an ER doctor, a public transportation supervisor, a grocery store manager, an ICU nurse, a fire department EMT, and more.

Columnist Helen Ubinas writes about one Philadelphia familys story that illustrates how the pandemic is playing out for lots of working-class families living paycheck to paycheck.

What were reading

A fitness startup that was founded in Philly is giving New York City hospital workers access to thousands of wellness classes, Technical.ly reports.

The Biggest Loser relaunched earlier this year. Has it delivered on its promise to be a kinder and gentler version of the show? Outside explores the answer.

Netflixs breakout during the social-distancing era is a documentary series about an eccentric zoo entrepreneur. Tiger King is addictive. I clicked, writes Rachel Syme for the New Yorker, and suddenly seven hours had passed.

Your Daily Dose of | Drive-In Church

Multiple churches in the Newville area of Pennsylvania held Sunday services at the Cumberland Drive-In Movie Theater. Hundreds of cars pulled in, following along on 88.7 FM. It shows how one Pennsylvania religious community is adapting to the coronavirus. You can view more pictures from the service here.
Twelve days ago, General Motors put hundreds of workers on an urgent project to build breathing machines as hospitals and governors pleaded for more in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

But President Donald Trump, claiming the company wasn't moving fast enough, on Friday invoked the Defense Production Act, which gives the government broad authority to direct companies to meet national defense needs.

Experts on managing factory production say GM is already making an extraordinary effort for a company that normally isn't in the business of producing ventilators.

"That is lightning-fast speed to secure suppliers, learn how the products work, and make space in their manufacturing plant. You can't get much faster than that," said Kaitlin Wowak, a professor at the University of Notre Dame who focuses on industrial supply chains.

GM expects to start making ventilators in mid-April, ramping up to a rate of 10,000 per month at as quickly as it can.

The company is working with Ventec Life Systems, a small Seattle-area ventilator maker, and both say the Defence Production Act of 1950 doesn't change what they're doing because they're already moving as fast as they can, fronting millions in capital with an uncertain return.

"I don't think anybody could have done it faster," said Gerald Johnson, GM's global manufacturing chief.

Peter Navarro, Trump's assistant for manufacturing policy, said Saturday that invoking the act was needed because GM dragged its heels for days" in committing to the investments to start making ventilators at an automotive electronics plant in Kokomo, Indiana.

It was only a few days earlier that Trump had been holding up GM and Ford as examples of companies voluntarily responding to the outbreak without the need for him to invoke the act.

Then on Friday, he slammed GM on Twitter and during his daily briefing for foot-dragging.

On Sunday, he was back to praising the company during another briefing: "General Motors is doing a fantastic job. I don't think we have to worry about them anymore."



But GM says it had been proceeding on the same course all along.

The company got into the ventilator business on March 18 after being approached by stopthespread.org, a coalition of CEOs trying to organize companies to respond to the COVID-19 disease that has already claimed more than 30,000 lives globally. The organization introduced GM to Ventec, which makes small portable ventilators in Bothell, Washington.

The automaker pulled together manufacturing experts, engineers and purchasing specialists, and the next day had people at Ventec's facility, a short distance from a nursing home where the virus killed at least 35 people.

They worked on speeding up Ventec's manufacturing. A few days later, GM assigned more engineers and purchasing experts to figure out how it could make Ventec's machines.

Some Ventec parts makers couldn't produce enough widgets fast enough, so GM went to its own parts bin to find suppliers to do the job, Johnson said. At the same time, GM was shutting down its car and truck factories temporarily due to worker fears about the virus.

Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan law and business professor, said he thought Trump would commend GM and use it as an example for other manufacturers in the coronavirus fight.

"What came out was a smack on the head," he said.

Gordon, who teaches a class in commercialization of biomedical goods, said Trump likely will claim credit when GM starts making the machines. "This is an election year, and on all sides you're going to see political theatre," he said.

Critics have urged Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act broadly to control the production, supply and distribution of ventilators and protective gear for hospital workers who are running short. That's what the act was meant to do, and it was not for use against a single company, Gordon said.

Even with increased production from all ventilator makers, however, the US might not have enough of the life-saving machines. US hospitals have about 65,000 of the ventilators that are sophisticated enough to treat critical coronavirus patients.

It could probably cobble together a total of 170,000, including simpler devices, to help with the crisis, one expert says.

A doctor at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre estimates that 960,000 people in the US will need to be on ventilators, which feed oxygen into the lungs of patients with severe respiratory problems through a tube inserted down the throat.

Doctors hope social distancing will stop a huge number of people from getting sick simultaneously, flattening the curve of the illness so they can use one ventilator to treat multiple patients.

Trump, in several appearances Friday, accused GM of promising 40,000 ventilators, then reducing the number to 6,000. He also said the company wanted higher prices than previously discussed.

Ventec, which is negotiating with the government to provide more ventilators, said it only changed numbers and prices at the request of government agencies, which asked for a range of quantities and prices.

The company said it's selling the ventilators, which can treat severe virus patients, at distributor cost, and it has offered scaled down versions for a lower price.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
If you pay attention to the titles of TV episodes, youd have gotten a clue about the plot of episode 8 in Homelands final season. That installment bears the title Threnody(s), a word Merriam-Webster defines as a lamentation for the dead; elegy.

For fans whove been following Homeland, that would have suggested the death of at least one of the two major characters. It might have referred to Haqqani (Numan Acar), the Taliban leader sentenced to death after a show-trial in the table-setting episode 7.

Yet, as sympathetic as Haqqani has become in recent episodes, the potential plural in the title Threnody(s) warned of death(s) in the region, and that put the fate of Max Piotrowski (Maury Sterling) into question as well.

[Spoiler alert: Plot details through Homeland season 8 episode 8 follow.]

Among the allies Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) has counted on over the years, Max has been among the most loyal. But that chapter of their lives ended in a crushing episode that also featured Afghanistan and Pakistan descending into chaos.

Max met his end without any pomp and circumstance

Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison in HOMELAND, Threnody(s) | Sifeddine Elamine/SHOWTIME.

In the chilling episode 7, Max went from looking like a Taliban bargaining chip to a key figure in U.S.-Afghan relations. That shift followed the arrival of Jalal, Haqqanis estranged son. And it nearly drew Carrie into a shootout in hopes of saving Max.

But before Carrie could rush in, Yevgeny (Costa Ronin) stopped her. He knew it was a suicide mission for Carrie to take on 10-12 men and, whats more, Yevgeny knew the U.S. had better ways to ensure Maxs safety. Back in Washington, D.C., the U.S. president trued to make it happen.

Speaking with Afghan president Gulam, President Hayes (Sam Trammell) got the U.S. a 24-hour delay for the execution of Haqqani. That would allow special forces to make their move and possibly save Max. However, adviser John Zabel (Hugh Dancy) convinced Hayes that Max wasnt worth it.

Within moments, Gulam had Haqqani shot dead. And almost immediately after, Jalals team mobilized  but not before shooting Max dead (almost as an afterthought). Seen from Carries point-of-view from far away, the abruptness and cold-bloodedness of Maxs death didnt make it any less painful.

Afghanistan and Pakistan both look ready to explode

Numan Acar as Haissam Haqqani in HOMELAND | Sifeddine Elamine/SHOWTIME.

Carrie is shattered after witnessing the execution of Max. And as she sobs over his dead body, Homeland fans say goodbye to a low-key, oddball character who became beloved several seasons back. (Max first appeared in the Homeland preimiere.) Later, speaking with Yevgeny, Carries pays tribute to Max, whom she acknowledges she took for granted.

In Kabul, where Haqqani had a much more cinematic death, all cease-fires and dreams of peace between the Afghan government and Taliban forces have ended. And Jalal did his best to grab power with a shameless display of political opportunism.

Back in D.C., Zabel gets his hands on the video of Jalal falsely claiming responsibility for the assassination of President Warner (Beau Bridges). Almost instantly, he passed the unverified bit of what he called intelligence to Hayes.

The rookie president did exactly what inexperienced leaders do: He took the bait. And when Hayes threatened Pakistan to apprehend Jalal or else, Homeland set the table for the series final four episodes. Whatever happens, we can be certain there will be blood in the streets.

Of course, theres also the matter of Carrie. Though Saul promised to retrieve her without incident, special-ops forces didnt play along. The final image  of Carrie pulling a gun on U.S. troops before exiting with Russian spies  guarantees at least one more great storyline to come. Carries just about defected this time.

Also see: Homeland: Claire Danes Husband Hugh Dancy Plays a Particularly Sinister Character
The Bachelorette New Zealand has made history by having two female leads in one season - but the move hasn't been without controversy.

And the shocks keep coming, with one of the two women walking away from the show's finale having chosen no one - just like former Bachelor Nick 'The Honey Badger' Cummins did in 2018 when he failed to choose between Sophie Tieman and Brittany Hockley.

Dr Lesina Nakhid-Schuster, 32, walked away from the show a single woman after having turned down finalists Aaron McNabb and Quinn Ryan.

All by herself! Dr Lesina Nakhid-Schuster, 32, (pictured) walked away from The Bachelorette New Zealand a single woman after having turned down finalists Aaron McNabb and Quinn Ryan on Monday night's finale

She told Aaron in an emotional scene: 'You know this was such a hard decision for me but I've decided I don't want to take anyone to the final rose.

'What I wanted out of this experience was to find my forever person, and if I hadn't found that I didn't want to pretend that I had.'

The doctor went on to say that she was happy with her decision, calling it 'empowering'.

Lesina told Aaron in an emotional scene: 'You know this was such a hard decision for me but I've decided I don't want to take anyone to the final rose'

Too bad! Aaron (pictured) was the last man standing but Lesina confessed: 'What I wanted out of this experience was to find my forever person, and if I hadn't found that I didn't want to pretend that I had'

The doctor went on to say that she was happy with her decision, calling it 'empowering': 'I feel empowered enough at this second... and it's okay that I left this with no one,' she said

Let down: Quinn Ryan was Lesina's runner-up and also went home alone

She said on the show: 'I feel empowered enough at this second... and it's okay that I left this with no one'.

Her fellow Bachelorette Lily McManus, 22, had a rather happier ending, finding love with one of the contestants.

Lily handed the final rose to Wanaka-based clothing designer Richie Boyens.

First, she gently turned down the runner-up, former radio personality Jesse Williamson.

The one! Her fellow Bachelorette Lily McManus, 22, (pictured) had a rather happier ending, finding love with one of the contestant

Pick! Lily handed the final rose to Wanaka-based clothing designer Richie Boyens (pictured)

Sweet: 'You're the person who I want to make me breakfast in the morning and I've never been so happy to be a normie with you,' she told him

Not him: First, she gently turned down the runner-up, former radio personality Jesse Williamson (pictured)

Lily told him: 'You're a beautiful, gentleman inside and out. But this isn't about you anymore - it's about us now, and my heart is telling me it's not us. You make me really happy and I know you're going to make someone else happy.'

She had better news for Richie, telling him that she hoped they could settled down together.

'You're the person who I want to make me breakfast in the morning and I've never been so happy to be a normie with you,' she told him.
Reconstructed images of what MG J0414+0534 would look like if gravitational lensing effects were turned off. The emissions from dust and ionized gas around a quasar?are shown in red. The emissions from carbon monoxide gas are shown in green, which have a bipolar structure along the jets. CREDIT ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), K. T. Inoue et al.

Astronomers obtained the first resolved image of disturbed gaseous clouds in a galaxy 11 billion light-years away by using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).

The team found that the disruption is caused by young powerful jets ejected from a supermassive black hole residing at the center of the host galaxy. This result will cast light on the mystery of the evolutionary process of galaxies in the early Universe.

It is commonly known that black holes exert strong gravitational attraction on surrounding matter. However, it is less well known that some black holes have fast-moving streams of ionized matter, called jets. In some nearby galaxies, evolved jets blow off galactic gaseous clouds, resulting in suppressed star formation. Therefore, to understand the evolution of galaxies, it is crucial to observe the interaction between black hole jets and gaseous clouds throughout cosmic history. However, it had been difficult to obtain clear evidence of such interaction, especially in the early Universe.

In order to obtain such clear evidence, the team used ALMA to observe an interesting object known as MG J0414+0534. A distinctive feature of MG J0414+0534 is that the paths of light traveling from it to Earth are significantly distorted by the gravity of another 'lensing' galaxy between MG J0414+0534 and us, causing significant magnification.

"This distortion works as a 'natural telescope' to enable a detailed view of distant objects," says Takeo Minezaki, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo.

Another feature is that MG J0414+0534 has a supermassive black hole with bipolar jets at the center of the host galaxy. The team was able to reconstruct the 'true' image of gaseous clouds as well as the jets in MG J0414+0534 by carefully accounting for the gravitational effects exerted by the intervening lensing galaxy.

"Combining this cosmic telescope and ALMA's high-resolution observations, we obtained exceptionally sharp vision, that is 9,000 times better than human eyesight," adds Kouichiro Nakanishi, a project associate professor at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan/SOKENDAI. "With this extremely high resolution, we were able to obtain the distribution and motion of gaseous clouds around jets ejected from a supermassive black hole."

Thanks to such a superior resolution, the team found that gaseous clouds along the jets have violent motion with speeds as high as 600 km/s, showing clear evidence of impacted gas. Moreover, it turned out that the size of the impacted gaseous clouds and the jets are much smaller than the typical size of a galaxy at this age.

"We are perhaps witnessing the very early phase of jet evolution in the galaxy," says Satoki Matsushita, a research fellow at Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics. "It could be as early as several tens of thousands of years after the launch of the jets."

"MG J0414+0534 is an excellent example because of the youth of the jets," summarizes Kaiki Inoue, a professor at Kindai University, Japan, and the lead author of the research paper which appeared in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. "We found telltale evidence of significant interaction between jets and gaseous clouds even in the very early evolutionary phase of jets. I think that our discovery will pave the way for a better understanding of the evolutionary process of galaxies in the early Universe."

The research team members are:

Kaiki T. Inoue (Faculty of Science and Engineering, Kindai University), Satoki Matsushita (Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics), Kouichiro Nakanishi (ALMA Project, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan/School of Physical Sciences, SOKENDAI), and Takeo Minezaki (School of Science, the University of Tokyo) .

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Asia Modi Seeks 'Forgiveness' From India's Poor Over Coronavirus Lockdown

A migrant worker and her son run towards a bus as they return to their village during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Ghaziabad, on the outskirts of New Delhi, India on March 29, 2020. / REUTERS

MUMBAIIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the nations poor for forgiveness on Sunday, as the economic and human toll from his 21-day nationwide lockdown deepens and criticism mounts about a lack of adequate planning ahead of the decision.

Modi announced a three-week lockdown on Tuesday to curb the spread of coronavirus. But the decision has stung millions of Indias poor, leaving many hungry and forcing jobless migrant laborers to flee cities and walk hundreds of kilometers to their native villages.

I would firstly like to seek forgiveness from all my countrymen, Modi said in a nationwide radio address.

The poor would definitely be thinking what kind of prime minister is this, who has put us into so much trouble, he said, urging people to understand there was no other option.

Steps taken so far will give India victory over corona, he added.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India rose to 979 on Sunday, with 25 deaths.

The government announced a US$22.6 billion economic stimulus plan on Thursday to provide direct cash transfers and food handouts to Indias poor.

In an opinion piece published on Sunday, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflotwo of the three winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2019said even more aid for the poor is needed.

Without that, the demand crisis will snowball into an economic avalanche, and people will have no choice but to defy orders, they wrote in the Indian Express.

The lockdown is expected to exacerbate Indias economic woes at a time when growth had already slumped to its lowest pace in six years.

Migrant crisis

There still appears to be broad support for strong measures to avoid a coronavirus catastrophe in India, a country of some 1.3 billion people where the public health system is poor.

But opposition leaders, analysts and some citizens are increasingly criticizing its implementation. In particular, they say the government appears to have been caught off guard by the mass movement of migrants following the announcement, which threatens to spread the disease into the hinterlands.

The Govt had no contingency plans in place for this exodus, tweeted opposition politician Rahul Gandhi as images of migrant laborers walking long distances to return home dominated local media.

#ModiMadeDisaster was a top trending topic in India on Sunday on Twitter.

Police said four migrants were killed on Saturday when a truck ran into them in the western state of Maharashtra. Also on Saturday, a migrant collapsed and died in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, according to a police official.

We will die of walking and starving before getting killed by corona, said migrant worker Madhav Raj, 28, as he walked by the road in Uttar Pradesh.

On Sunday, several hundred migrants in the town of Paippad, in southern Kerala State, gathered in a square demanding transport back to their hometowns.

The central government has called on states to provide marooned laborers with food and shelter, and Modis supporters slammed state governments on Twitter for failing to properly implement the lockdown.

In Indias cities, too, anger was rising.

We have no food or drink. I am sat down thinking how to feed my family, said homemaker Amirbee Shaikh Yusuf, 50, in Mumbais sprawling Dharavi slum.

There is nothing good about this lockdown. People are angry, no one is caring for us.

The following is the spread of the coronavirus in South Asias eight nations, according to government figures:

* Pakistan has registered 1,526 cases, including 13 deaths.

* India has registered 979 cases, including 25 deaths.

* Sri Lanka has registered 115 cases, including one death.

* Afghanistan has registered 128 cases, including 3 deaths.

* Bangladesh has registered 48 cases, including 5 deaths.

* Maldives has registered 28 cases and no deaths.

* Nepal has registered 5 cases and no deaths.

* Bhutan has registered 4 cases and no deaths.

You may also like these stories:

Coronavirus Deaths in China Top 2,600 as Hubei Records More Infections

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On March 30, 2020, James Corden will host a primetime special episode of The Late Late Show Starring James Corden called Homefest. The special will feature musical artists and entertainers from their own homes and encourage viewers to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Heres how to watch The Late Late Show Starring James Corden special Homefest featuring Billie Eilish, BTS, Dua Lipa, and other stars.

James Corden | John Paul Filo/CBS via Getty Images

James Corden will host Homefest from his garage

For the Homefest episode, Corden will host the episode from his garage. While other late-night shows have switched to digital content like The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, this will be Cordens first digital episode of the show since in-studio production stopped due to coronavirus.

I dont think any of these shows are going to be anybodys finest hour. But I also do think theres a notion where we have to kind of put our heads down and carry on. I think we have to try and show up as soon as we can, Corden told Vanity Fair about late-night shows changing how they are made.

Now's a great time to call dibs on the comfiest spot in the living room because #HomeFest is TOMORROW!



Music from @billieeilish with @finneas, @DUALIPA, @johnlegend, @AndreaBocelli & @BTS_twt + "visits" from Will Ferrell, @davidblaine and more.



See you Monday @ 10PM on @CBS! pic.twitter.com/AQnmopxOcX  TONIGHT! HomeFest: A Late Late Show Special @ 10pm (@latelateshow) March 29, 2020

Executive producers of The Late Late Show Ben Winston and Rob Crabbe released a joint statement about the Homefest special.

Since The Late Late Show came off the air, we have been thinking of different ways to try and make a show at this time, said Winston and Crabbe. We are going to try to put on the best show we can, to entertain, raise awareness, raise money and hopefully lift spirits. Shooting from James garage may be far from perfect, but under the circumstances we hope it can help someone, somewhere, who needs some cheer right now.

Several artists will perform for Homefest

In addition to Corden hosting the show from his home, artists around the world will perform from the safety of their homes. Dua Lipa will perform from London and BTS will perform from South Korea. Andrea Bocelli will perform in Italy, and Billie Eilish, FINNEAS, and John Legend will perform in Los Angeles. David Blaine, Will Ferrell, and other celebrities are also expected to make appearances.

The primetime special will encourage viewers to follow guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. Corden will also use Homefest to motivate viewers to donate to two different charities, Feed the Children and The CDC Foundation.

Great way to pass a bit of time until @BTS_twt's appearance on #HomeFest tomorrow night! https://t.co/QVvQmYr6A4  TONIGHT! HomeFest: A Late Late Show Special @ 10pm (@latelateshow) March 29, 2020

Most times, when there would be a fundraiser or a telethon or any of those things, they are in reaction to a finite moment, Corden told Vanity Fair. This is a very difficult thing to think of in those terms. Because it isnt a finite moment. We dont even know where we are in the graph of it. So much of it is unknown. So its a really tough one to judge.

How to watch James Cordens Homefest

Homefest will air on Monday, March 30 at 10 p.m. EST on CBS. For viewers interested in streaming the primetime special, The Late Late Show is available on CBS All Access, the networks streaming platform. There are multiple subscription options available for CBS All Access, as well as a free trial offer available for first-time subscribers.
National oil marketing companies have come out on Sunday allaying the fears of consumers about product shortages, saying there is absolutely no shortage of any fuel, especially cooking gas, which is being supplied to customers at their doorsteps

Mumbai: National oil marketing companies have come out on Sunday allaying the fears of consumers about product shortages, saying there is absolutely no shortage of any fuel, especially cooking gas, which is being supplied to customers at their doorsteps.

On average, the daily supply of cooking gas has gone up by at least 35-40 percent since the lockdown, in spite of working with minimal staff, the companies said.

The collective assurance of uninterrupted supplies of all oil products, especially LPG cylinders, by Indian Oil, BPCL and HPCL, come amidst panic booking of cooking gas by consumers since the national lockdown imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.

This, coupled with staff shortage, has led to some delays in the initial days of the lockdown but now it has been normalised, they added.

Talking to PTI in Mumbai on Sunday, Mukesh Kumar Surana, the chairman and managing director of the ONGC-run Hindustan Petroleum said, there is absolutely no room for consumers to worry about LPG shortages at all.

"I assure all public that there is no shortage of any oil products at all. All the more let me assure that there is absolutely no shortage of LPG at all. In fact, our LPG plants are working at over capacity to meet any spike in demand. I request all not to engage in the panic booking of cooking gas," Surana said.

Explaining how HPCL has augmented LPG supplies, he said at the national level the daily supply has gone from 12 lakh cylinders to 15 lakh a day for his company.

In Mumbai, HPCL has supplied 56 percent more cylinders on Saturday, from 34,000 to 51,000, while in Pune the spike in supplies is 54 percent, he added.

Surana also said, HPCL has equipped all its delivery boys with masks, sanitisers and also trained them in social distancing. Accordingly, they have been asked not to carry cylinders to individual homes but to the society gates as there are restrictions on entry for outsiders at many societies.

"Unfortunately, we had many instances of cylinders being returned from many societies in the city which is a logistical problem as wastage of resources, who are anyways are in very short supply," Surana rued.

Similarly, the second-largest player, BPCL said its daily LPG supplies in Maharashtra has gone up by 32 percent, while the same is up 40 percent in Mumbai and 37 percent each in Navi Mumbai and Thane, a BPCL spokesman told PTI.

In an interview to PTI earlier in the day in New Delhi, the IOC chairman said there is absolutely no need to worry about any shortage of fuel items.

"We have mapped demand for all fuel for the entire April and beyond. We have refineries operating at levels enough to meet all of the demand. Besides all bulk storage points, LPG distributorships and petrol pumps are functioning normally. There is absolutely no shortage of any fuel," Singh said.

At another level, the oil companies are also out in the media explaining that there is no shortage of LPG.

While IOC has released an ad on the DD with the chairman Sanjiv Singh himself assuring of uninterrupted supplies of all oil products, especially LPG, and also launched a Twitter campaign saying it is delivering gas with the help of the police machinery, BPCL is undertaking social media campaign on its Facebook page, Twitter handle and the Instagram page since the lockdown was announced.

The BPCL campaign promises LPG delivery at the door step, assuring ample product availability and also exhorting sanitisation methods and social distancing.

In IOC ad, the chairman is assuring the public of absolutely no issues in supplying all petroleum products, especially cooking gas and kerosene, and that all its depots, and LPG bottling plants, including import terminals, are functioning at full capacity.

"All our stakeholders and our employees are working round the clock to ensure that supplies are normal. I once again assure everyone that all the products are available for all customers and there is absolutely no need for any panic booking," says Singh.

IOC''s Twitter campaign says ''home delivery of LPG cylinders is on as usual and the delivery chain is being supported by the state police. Citizens need not expose themselves to health by going personally to distributors.
Plenty of cops get a new job after retirement. Police experience lends itself to working security gigs.

Scott Laughton wasnt interested in security.

Heading into the end of his 25-year career with the Park Ridge police department in Bergen County, he was studying hard to get his nursing degree from Bergen Community College.

Between taking classes and clinicals, studying and holding down his police job, he was working around the clock" to get that degree, he said Sunday.

It [nursing] was something I could do anywhere in the world, he said. He wanted to continue helping people, his favorite part of working as a police officer. He figured he could lend aid in a disaster zone when one struck, like Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, or in Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Who knew that three months into my first job Id be doing disaster relief? he said.

Laughton works as a nurse in the observation unit at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, one of the areas hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. A doctor compared it to a war zone" last week.

The hospital is beginning clinical drug trials to fight the virus, which has more than 13,000 confirmed cases statewide. Bergen County had more than 2,000 confirmed cases of the virus according to the latest state numbers.

Observation units are normally a halfway point between the emergency room and admission to the hospital. But in the past two weeks, the floor has become a coronavirus treatment unit.

We were doing every kind of nursing except for infectious diseases. Now its all infectious diseases, he said.

Like a hospital in South Jersey, Holy Name is using baby monitors to sometimes check on patients remotely and limit use of personal protective equipment (PPE), which hospitals nationwide are burning through.

Sunday Positivity!!!!! The following is a post from a manager at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, highlighting the work... Posted by Park Ridge Police Department on Sunday, March 29, 2020

As a sign of appreciation, his boss, Nurse Manager Lisa Cifalino, posted about him on Facebook. She included a photo of Laughton with his trusty Crocs - provided after a donation - to wear at work because theyre easy to clean, and so he can change into his own shoes before going home to his family.

The Park Ridge police later shared that post and photo to their page. Laughton said people have been coming out of the woodwork to message him and wish him well.

In the hard times, people really start to come together, he said.

But the Desert Storm veteran shied from the attention somewhat. He mentioned Cifalino has posted several other "heroes of the day on her page since then - shes now up to six, shouting out an oncology nurse, patient care technicians and others working on that floor.

He praised them right back, saying: "They put their fear aside and go get their work done.

Im no different than anybody else, Laughton said. Im just a new nurse trying to figure out what Im doing.

He sees some similarities between his former role as a police officer and his current as a nurse on the front lines against the coronavirus.

Being able to be a calm head in a chaotic environment, is one similarity.

More than 20 years ago, Hurricane Floyd brought the state to a halt, producing record flooding in some spots. It totaled the Park Ridge library and municipal building. The entire police headquarters was lost.

After the restructuring of the hospital unit, and some things being in different places, it was like the same thing, doing it over again, he said.

After speaking with NJ Advance Media, Laughton - not the Philadelphia Flyers player! - had just gotten home and was eager to wash up, decompress and rest after six shifts in a row.

Im just me and doing my job, he said. Dont thank me. ... Theres not a cop, EMT Ive known all my life who wouldnt do the same thing."

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JBrandt_NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
The Dumka police on Monday registered FIRs against two persons for allegedly spreading coronavirus- related rumours on social media, a senior official said.

Dumka Deputy Commissioner Rajeswari B. said the FIRs were registered with the Shikaripara police station against Amol Sekhar Tudu and Varun Pal.

The two belong to Shikaripara block in Dumka district, the police said.

In a tweet message, the DC said, Do not spread rumours & create panic in the district, we will take strict action against people doing it.

She said barring some main roads all the border areas of the Dumka district have been closed.

Pakur district Deputy Commissioner Kuldip Choudhary said a bus carrying migrant labourers was stopped on the borders of Mahespur and Littipara and they were sent to a quarantine facility for fourteen days after the medical tests.

They would be sent to their homes after the quarantine period, the DC said.

Choudhary also told reporters in Pakur that directions were issued afresh to the sub-divisional officers, circle officers and block development officers to seal borders of the district and any person coming to the district should be tested before being sent to the nearest quarantine/isolation facility.

A letter from Transport Secretary K. Ravi Kumar, a copy of which has been released to the press, directed Dhanbad Deputy Commissioner Amit Kumar to take appropriate action against a person for fleeing from Chhattisgarh to Dhanbad amid the nationwide lockdown for containing spread of COVID-19 in the country.

The man identified as Sumant Kumar is a native of Dhanbad but was presently residing in Korba in Chhattisgarh.

A Giridih report quoting Nimiaghat police station officer Sailendra Mahato said that one person died and two others were injured when their pick-up van collided with a tanker on GT road under the police station area Monday.

The van was returning from West Bengals Asansol after delivering vegetables to ease supply during the lockdown period, the police officer said.

The deceased was identified as Sonu Joshi, who hailed from Kalipahadi under South police station, Asansol.

An official release quoting RIIMS Director Dr D K Singh said that the isolation ward has 100 beds and fourteen ventilators and the hospital has the capability to test as many as 180 samples per day and necessary steps are being taken to increase its testing capability.

Officials said there was no report of any confirmed coronavirus case in the state so far.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio gave a stark warning to people still riding the city's subways during the COVID-19 quarantine: if you see a crowded train, do not get on it.

The mayor made the comments while discussing how the city would have to 'tighten even further the rules' if New Yorkers did not 'really honor social distancing.'

He explained to NY1 that while talking with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), he learned that while fewer people had been riding the subway, occasional pockets of congestion existed due to service issues.

The mayor made the comments while discussing how the city would have to 'tighten even further the rules' if New Yorkers did not 'really honor social distancing'

'Apparently what is happening in part because a train has broken down, there is service delay, fewer trains are coming and people are crowded on them,' de Blasio stated

'Apparently what is happening in part because a train has broken down, there is service delay, fewer trains are coming and people are crowded on them,' de Blasio stated.

'I understand people are trying to get somewhere, but no one should be getting on a crowded train. Spread out throughout the train. Wait for the next train.'

The mayor did not specify at what time exactly this was happening but asserted that the New York Police Department (NYPD) would intervene when necessary to break them up.

'The PD is going to go out there, if they see any overcrowding they are going to split it up,' de Blasio continued. 'Pull people off the train, move them along into different cars, whatever it takes.

'This is literally about protecting people's lives. So anyone who sees it, call 311 and anyone who sees a crowded train, do not get on it.'

He continued: 'I understand people are trying to get somewhere, but no one should be getting on a crowded train. Spread out throughout the train. Wait for the next train'

The mayor did not specify at what time exactly this was taking place but asserted that the New York Police Department (NYPD) would intervene when necessary to break them up

'But if we have to keep tightening, we are going to do it very quickly,' de Blasio said.

'So the rule is this in my point of view, if you see a crowd, if you see people not practicing social distancing, call 311 right away so we can dispatch the NYPD and the other agencies to deal with it.'

His message comes as the city continues its intense battle against COVID-19.

As of Monday morning, there were more than 36,000 cases of the virus in New York City; 790 have died.

On Sunday, Mayor de Blasio announced that New Yorkers who break social distancing rules and continue to congregate face fines of up to $500.

The state has said all nonessential businesses must close, banned gatherings and ordered people stay six feet away from each other in an effort to stop the spread of coronavirus.

As of Monday morning, there were more than 36,000 cases of the virus in New York City; 790 have died

Speaking at his daily press briefing the mayor said he 'certainly authorizes fines in parks and playgrounds if needed' for those flouting the rules. He said: 'You've been warned and warned and warned again.'

Deaths in the city are at 790

New York's death toll soared to 1,218 on Monday

De Blasio added: 'Now it's as simple as this: if someone is told by an officer, disperse, keep moving, you're not distanced and they don't follow the direct instruction from officer or they say they're doing it and then they'd come back right away, I'm comfortable at this point that they will be fined.

'My understanding is the fines are in the range of $250 to $500.'

Refrigerated trucks were seen parked outside several of the largest medical centers throughout the five boroughs over the weekend.

Brown tents with medical officials inside who do rapid evaluations of potential coronavirus patients were seen outside of some facilities as the city experienced a surge of deaths. On Sunday alone, 98 people died within a span of just seven hours.

The last time that New York City deployed a fleet of makeshift morgues outside hospitals was in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
By PTI

GENEVA: The United Nations (UN) called Monday for a USD 2.5-trillion aid package to help developing countries weather the COVID-19 pandemic, including debt cancellation and a health recovery "Marshal Plan".

A report from the United Nations Conference on Trade, Investment and Development (UNCTAD) noted that two-thirds of the global population who live in developing countries (excluding China) face "unprecedented economic damage" from the crisis.

"It is a matter of immediate urgency for the international community to co-ordinate appropriate economic rescue packages with a more global reach to address the looming financing gap which many developing countries are now imminently facing," the report said.

In the two months since COVID-19 began spreading beyond China, developing countries have been hit hard by capital outflows, currency depreciations, and lost export earnings, notably from falling commodity prices and declining tourist revenues.

In most areas, the impact is worse than during the 2008 financial crisis, UNCTAD said.

"Economic fallout from the shock is ongoing and increasingly difficult to predict but there are clear indications that things will get much worse for developing economies before they get better," UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said in a statement.

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The report was released as the number of cases soared past 700,000, including more than 33,500 deaths, and with nearly 3.4 billion people under lockdown.

While leading economic powers have put together unprecedented government rescue packages, UNCTAD stressed that developing countries do not have "a magic money tree".

"Lacking the monetary, fiscal and administrative capacity to respond to this crisis, the consequences of a combined health pandemic and a global recession will be catastrophic for many developing countries," it warned.

UNCTAD's head of globalisation and development strategies Richard Kozul-Wright pointed out that the world's 20 largest economies had "promised to do 'whatever it takes' to stop their firms and households from taking a heavy loss of income."

"But if G20 leaders are to stick to their commitment of 'a global response in the spirit of solidarity,' there must be commensurate action for the six billion people living outside the core G20 economies," he said.

ALSO READ: UNESCO wants nations to share coronavirus information

Monday's report called on the global community to provide an aid package of USD 2.5 trillion (2.3 trillion euros) to developing countries.

That included a USD 1.0-trillion liquidity injection made possible by reallocating existing special drawing rights at the International Monetary Fund, as well as a new, large allocation.

It also included USD 1.0 trillion in debt relief, as well as a USD 500-billion "Marshall Plan for Health Recovery" funded from already-pledged but never delivered official development assistance.

UNCTAD said that over the past decade, wealthy countries had failed to dish out USD 2.0 trillion in promised development aid to developing countries.
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The effort to move community classes online has been a large feat. Some of these campuses educate as many students as the larger four-year campuses and with 115 colleges, the state's community college network is the largest higher education system in the country.

"Our main focus has been helping to support students through this crisis," said system Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley.

The campuses are governed by local boards of trustees but his office has been working to help the campuses transition to online instruction. Oakley issued an executive order earlier this month to clear the way for all campuses to begin online teaching.

"We're taking a hard look at what regulations need to be suspended in order to allow the colleges to do the work they need to do to support students," Oakley said.

The impact of those actions will be felt in the coming weeks as many colleges enter the second week of online instruction and some, like the nine-campus Los Angeles Community College District, begin online teaching on Monday. Educators say the goal is to continue instruction, not necessarily turn faculty into model distance educators. But some student reactions suggest colleges' efforts may not be enough to counter the impact of the current crisis.

ALL HANDS ON DECK

Glendale Community College begins its second week of online instruction on Monday. Its effort to train faculty to teach online provides a window into how educators were able to make the most of a chaotic situation.

The task appeared straightforward on Friday, March 13. The college was set to start online courses the following Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday were set aside to train its 850 professors.

Then the results of a faculty survey came in.

"Half of them said we need more time. And about 15% said they didn't even think they'd be ready at the end of the week," said Glendale College history professor Roger Bowerman. He's also the president of the faculty union.

It was bad news.

Some professors had never used Canvas, the online platform for class assignments and tests. In an emergency meeting, faculty and administrators decided to clear the whole week for training. Only one of those days ended up being in-person.

"By Monday night, it became clear that the state was going to mandate social distancing and so by Tuesday we were already doing remote instruction," with faculty using the online platforms they'd use to teach as a way of teaching each other how to use them, Bowerman said.

Departments were divided up into groups that included at least one expert in distance education.

"The English division created buddy systems so that people with skills were paired with people that needed help," Bowerman said.

He said a survey at the end of the training week showed 85% of faculty were ready to teach online.

The first day of online teaching went well for many professors.

"I was able to get through and actually hold a lecture exactly the way I would in class," said kinesiology professor Erin Calderone.

"I would go through the slides, I would ask students if they had any questions, we had discussions either verbally or over the typed chat," she said.

Online teaching is not ideal for her field. Kinesiology is the study of body movement and many of her students want to become personal trainers or work in some aspect of sports. Calderone is trying to use as many parts of her online class platform as she can to engage students.

Erin Calderone is a kinesiology professor at Glendale Community College. She's made the transition to online teaching. (Erin Calderone)

STUDENT: THIS IS NOT WHAT I SIGNED UP FOR

No matter how engaging the professors make the classes, some of their efforts will meet with the reality that online learning is not what some students signed up for.

"I just learn better when I'm in a school setting," said Tom Dormer, one of Calderone's students.

"It's just something about actually being on the campus and you know, sitting down in class and in getting the lesson and hands on stuff and being able to ask the teacher right away right there and to break it down," Dormer said.

He's highly motivated to do well this semester because he needs his classes to transfer to a four-year university in the fall.

Motivation, though, won't be enough for many community college students to overcome what this crisis is throwing at them: lost jobs and many more hours during the day caring for family instead of studying.

"I just think about parents, single parents who now have their kids at home when they're trying to go to school," said Molly Mercer, a counselor at Glendale College.

"How are they going to take their classes from home while they're trying to take care of their kids, and teach their kids, and feed their kids at home," she said.

Those, and other vulnerable students, no longer have the face-to-face counseling and other support that kept them in classes.

DON'T PENALIZE STUDENTS

Some Glendale College professors said about one in 10 students haven't shown up to online class. Bowerman, who's teaching one history class this semester, said an additional 10% percent are struggling to cope emotionally or having problems with technology.

"So what faculty are encouraged to do is try over the next couple of weeks to engage them. And if you can't engage them, if they've seemed to disappear we're going to drop them from our classes so they don't get a fail," he said.

The state chancellor is well aware of this concern.

Eloy Ortiz Oakley is chancellor of 115-campus California Community Colleges system.

"There are certainly some temporary challenges with students being able to continue their education. I would hope that less than 10% actually drop out," Oakley said.

The community college system's Board of Governors granted Oakley emergency powers earlier this month. He used them nearly two weeks ago to remove academic penalties for withdrawing from a class and rules that limited tuition refunds. He said he plans to take more action.

"We also are trying to make it easier for the colleges to support students," Oakley said, "from everything from grading policy to extending their semesters and ensuring that the colleges have what they need to support students as they convert to this new online environment."

L.A.'s community colleges, which enroll 142,000 students, begin online instruction on Monday. Leaders there have been stepping up laptop distribution to students.

"I absolutely do not think it's going to be a lost semester. I feel like faculty have really stepped up and students will be able to complete their work," said Andra Hoffman, the president of the district's Board of Trustees.

She said faculty are coming up with multiple ways to connect students to learning, and campus counselors are working hard to reach students. The goal, she said, is to keep students on track to graduate or transfer, because a college degree will help them once this crisis is in the rearview mirror.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 11:00:27|Editor: Xiang Bo

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PHNOM PENH, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Ministry of Health (MoH) announced in a statement on Monday that four more persons were tested positive for COVID-19, raising the total number of the confirmed cases in the country to 107.

The new patients included a French man and three Cambodians, the statement said.

The 61-year-old French patient had recently returned to Phnom Penh from Guyana, it said, adding that among the three Cambodians are a 20-year-old female student returning to Phnom Penh from Britain, a 36-year-old man returning to Kampong Cham province from Japan, and a 30-year-old man working at a casino and karaoke club in Poipet City in Banteay Meanchey province.

They have been placed under quarantine for treatment at designated hospitals, the statement said.

Cambodia has so far recorded a total of 107 confirmed cases of the virus, the statement said, adding that 23 of them have recovered.
S ecret Spotify is our weekly series delving into the outer reaches of the streaming service. Every Monday, we unearth a hidden gem  each with no more than 50,000 plays  and tell you the story behind the music. With all of us staying indoors for a while yet, we'll have plenty of time to discover new music  hopefully these tracks can set you off in the right direction.

This week, it's Comunhao by Nelson Angelo e Joyce.

As Nelson Angelo and Joyce Silveira Palhano de Jesus began to record an album in 1972, the Brazilian music scene was coming to the end of an incendiary period.

In the late 1960s, a tidal wave of radical music, art, literature and more  broadly referred to as tropicalia  had swept through the country, enraging the nations hardline government but enlivening its artists. Both Angelo and Joyce (as she was known professionally) were involved in the movement. Angelo played guitar as part of Clube da Esquina, a leading collective of the scene helmed by Milton Nascimento. Joyce wrote many of her own songs, but also sang those written by the likes of Caetano Veloso, a tropicalia titan who, after being exiled for his art, would eventually return to Brazil to become one of its biggest musical stars.

Angelo and Joyce met when they toured as part of the group A Sagrada Familia and, in 1970, formed another band called A Tribo. Their connection was more than just musical though  around that same time, they got married and had two daughters.

All that history feeds into the incredible album they wrote together in 1972, simply called Nelson Angelo Y Joyce. Its a confluence of the various threads of tropicalia: sensual, deeply grooved, with otherworldly melodies and dashings of psychedelia. The track Comunhao is a stand-out, with the duos serene, oscillating vocals fluttering over an acoustic guitar. Its intoxicating, and the various plops of percussion and avian whistles in the background strengthen the brew.

The whole album has a dreamlike quality to it, but it would seem that both artists soon awoke from the reverie. By 1975, they had separated both musically and romantically, embarking on their own paths. Angelo is still releasing music to this day, and Joyce went on to become an international touring artist. She gained a new lease of popularity in the 90s, when Brazilophile DJs such as Gilles Peterson began playing her tracks in London clubs.

It probably has something to do with why Nelson Angelo e Joyce is so hard to come by on vinyl now. Its been reissued a few times, but even those are snapped up pretty much immediately by those in the know. An original pressing from 1972 is worth its weight in gold  theres currently one going for more than 700 on the online vinyl marketplace Discogs.

Fortunately, the album is also on Spotify, and with each song currently on less than 50,000 streams, we think its time more people knew about it.

Once youve made your way through this album, delve back into the tropicalia era to find more music made in a similar vein. To get you started, wed highly recommend Gal Costas self-titled album (1969), Caetano Velosos second self-titled album (1969) and Clube da Esquina by Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges (1972), on which Angelo plays guitar.

Listen to Comunhao by Nelson Angelo e Joyce on Spotify:
Given the twin facts that Oman has only around five billion barrels of estimated proved oil reserves (barely the 22nd largest in the world) but is still dependent on the hydrocarbons sector for over 80 per cent of its national budget revenues, the ongoing oil price war is posing some very big problems for the Sultanate. Even before the outbreak of outright hostilities between Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the U.S. began, Oman had a budget breakeven price per barrel of Brent of over US$85 and this is going higher by the day. As it stands, according to legal sources in Abu Dhabi spoken to by OilPrice.com last week, the Sultanate needs to raise at least US$7 billion very quickly just to keep the budget from falling off a cliff, and nearer US$10 billion to keep rolling funding going for key projects, including the flagship Duqm programme.

The key problem that Oman has faced has been that it has had no real choice - given its lack of oil and gas reserves - but to focus on building a presence in the higher-value petrochemicals sector, which it started to do in earnest the last time that the Saudis engaged in a price war, beginning in 2014, a senior oil industry source in Muscat told OilPrice.com last week. It was, and is, a very good idea in the circumstances but the problem with it is that it involves a lot of upfront spending in advance of big returns flowing in much later down the line, and this leaves a mid-range funding gap, which is what we have now, he added. The effects of this have been magnified by the lack of revenue offset that comes from the oil that Oman does manage to produce as a result of the slide in world oil prices, he underlined.

In fact, Omans entire national hydrocarbons strategy hangs in great part on its finishing the landmark Duqm Refinery Project (DRP). As of the end of 2019, the entire construction and development work at the site was just 45 per cent complete. Given that it was around 5 per cent complete at the beginning of that year, this might be regarded as an achievement but the project has been treading water now for a number of years. In fact, as long ago as 2014, various comments from the Sultanate stated that it would begin to award the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts worth US$65 billion from that year. Related: Russias Plan To Bankrupt U.S. Shale Could Send Oil To $60

Spread over a 900 hectare site, the joint venture between the Oman Oil Company (OOC) and Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) is intended to have a 230,000 barrels per day (bpd) capacity in the first instance and will be the lynchpin of the Duqm Special Economic Zone. Despite it taking one full year from the official commencement of work on the DRP in 2018 to the beginning of 2019 for it to make just 5 per cent progress, the official view was that it was going to be completed by the end 2021. This has now moved to 2022 but the truth is that it is impossible to say when precisely because the money is not there.

The key turning point in this regard for the project came towards the end of 2016 when the UAEs International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) said that the Duqm project no longer fitted its overall investment strategy, in light of the impending merger at the time of IPIC with the Mubadala Development Company, and withdrew from the project. This was followed in November by the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the OOC and the Kuwait Petroelum Corporation (KPC) for co-operation on the construction of the refinery. This included an undisclosed degree of funding, although OilPrice.com understands that this was not even half of the then-estimated cost of US$6 billion (the estimate is now US$7 billion). This involvement was expanded in February, when KPI formally acquired a 50 per cent stake in the refinery.

At around the same time as IPIC withdrew from the project, the refinery operator  the Duqm Refinery & Petrochemical Industries Company (DRPIC)  in tandem with the OOC, appointed a number of global banks, led by regional heavyweight Credit Agricole, to advise on the optimal methods to obtain the funding for the project, which included not just bond issues but also direct investment from foreign sources. These overtures found particular favour with China, which as part of a broad-based investment into Oman pledged the required funding to cover the completion of the Duqm refinery. However, it came with the usual Chinese caveats of being allowed to build massive far-reaching infrastructure projects. Oman has little choice but to accept the Chinese conditions but it [Oman] wants to try to use as much of its own funding as it can for these key strategic projects to limit Chinese power where possible, said the Muscat source.

In this context, the Duqm refinery will be a vital cog in Omans intended petchems infrastructure. It will function alongside the US$4.6 billion Liwa Plastics Project (LPP) industrial complex, also near the Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Companys (ORPIC) Sohar refinery in SEZAD. These are specifically designed to enable Oman to capitalise on the synergies with the existing refinery and the growing global market for plastics. Industry estimates are that the global demand for polypropylene will increase by nearly 4 per cent every year until the mid-2020s (with a corollary yearly rise in revenues of around 5 per cent over the same period), and a fully operational LPP would allow Oman to increase its production capacity of polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE)  the two most utilised plastics products in the world  by one million tonnes per year, to 1.4 million tonnes per year. Related: How COVID-19 Could Spark The Next Recession

In order to avoid even more Chinese influence, Oman is currently looking at raising funds both as a consequence of the reorganisation of its oil and gas sector and through the possible sale of part of one or more of its state hydrocarbons companies. In the case of the former, according to the Muscat source, allowing semi-state-owned Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) to operate on an even more independent basis would enable it to issue its own bonds or take on syndicated loans to boost its capital base. Its a decent prospect, as it steadily produces around 600,000 barrels per day of oil, although extraction in Oman is not the easiest in the world, and it has plans to increase this figure to around 700,000 [barrels per day] within the next five years, he added.

Maybe one of the partners will buy more [Shell holds 34 per cent of PDO, Total 4 per cent, and Partex 2 per cent, with the remainder held by the Oman government], or maybe one of the companies working elsewhere in Oman would have an interest, he underlined. Only recently, Italys Eni began drilling activities in Block 52, and separately Omans Oil & Gas Ministry signed a new exploration and production sharing agreement with a joint-venture consortium comprising French super-major, Total, and Thai state-owned PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP), for the rights to explore and develop the non-associated gas resources within Block 12. In addition, BP has maintained an upstream presence in Oman since 2007 and is currently working on the Khazzan tight gas field.

In the case of the latter, meanwhile, the part-IPO of part of ORPIC has been considered by the Oman government since 2014. The attractiveness of this proposition to investors was enhanced by last years integration of nine core businesses of ORPIC and Oman Oil under the new identity of OQ (the O stands for Oman, incidentally, and the Q for Sultan Qaboos, in characteristically modest Middle Eastern style). According to official figures, in 2019 the new company offered more than 30 products sold to over 2,000 clients in over 60 countries. It had estimated revenue for the year of US$20 billion, with an EBITDA of US$2.2 billion and net profit of US$556 million, while the asset base stands at US$27.9 billion. The previous stake amount being considered was 15-20 per cent but the current thinking is for anything up to 25 per cent of the company to be sold, according to legal sources in Abu Dhabi.

By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
$220bn in lost income; nearly half of all jobs in Africa wiped out; UNDP warns of economic devastation for poor nations.

The coronavirus outbreak threatens to disproportionately devastate the economies of already impoverished countries as they gear up to tackle a health crisis with extremely limited resources, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has warned.

The socioeconomic hit on poor and developing countries will take years to recover from, UNDP said in a report released on Monday, stressing that income losses in those countries are forecast to exceed $220bn. Nearly half of all jobs in Africa could be lost, it also warned.

For vast swathes of the globe, the pandemic will leave deep, deep scars, UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner, said. Without support from the international community, we risk a massive reversal of gains made over the last two decades and an entire generation lost.

The loss in income could have severe repercussions for societies, including in areas such as education, human rights and food security. UNDP also warned that hospitals and clinics in developing countries are likely to be overrun and underresourced, further risking the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Up to 75 percent of people in least-developed countries lack access to soap and water.

COVID-19 can quickly overwhelm the fragile and overstretched health systems of many countries. So far, we have seen epidemic in countries said to have advanced health systems but even they have struggled to cope, Mandeep Dhaliwal, Director of UNDPs HIV, Health and Development Group, told Al Jazeera.

We must urgently focus on effective COVID-19 responses in developing and emerging economies, especially to reach those most vulnerable like slum dwellers, prisoners, migrants and refugees.

Governments worldwide have ordered businesses to shutter and billions of people to stay home in an effort to fight coronavirus.

Last week, Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued a 21-day lockdown for the countrys 1.3 billion people. The order stranded millions of migrant workers who were forced to walk hundreds of miles to their home villages after public transport shut down. Half of the population in India lives below the poverty level.

The urgency to act to stem the spread of COVID-19 is being felt in Africa as well. In Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta recently ordered sweeping measures to slow the coronavirus outbreak, which some fear will bring more economic hardship. Informal labourers account for 83.6 percent of the Kenyas total workforce.

There was a lot of hope generated for this decade. Now that picture is looking quite bleak, Ahunna Eziakonwa, Assistant Secretary-General and Director of UNDPs Regional Bureau for Africa, told Al Jazeera.

The devastation is going to be unprecedented particularly in Africa where countries have survived Ebola and the financial crisis but nothing on the scale of what is about to hit the continent.

Eziakonwa added that countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Central African Republic already have existing crises including protracted conflict and millions of internally displaced persons. The DRC is still battling the Ebola outbreak. Other nations suffer from natural disasters. Tanzania has just been hit with a huge flood.

You have a crisis on top of a crisis. These countries and many like them have millions of people who were dependent on humanitarian assistance for survival, and now with restrictions in place to fight coronavirus, aid will not be able to reach them, she said.

A lockdown may seem like a good strategy to halt the spread of coronavirus but for masses of people in developing countries it is simply not an option.

Communities do not have water and soap. They are unable to sit home and wait. There is no food, they earn their income on a daily basis, Eziakonwa added.

On Friday, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stressed the need to provide debt relief to developing countries. In addition to activating emergency programmes that offer grants and loans, the two financial institutions called on official bilateral creditors to provide immediate debt relief to the worlds poorest nations.

Poorer countries will take the hardest hit, especially ones that were already heavily indebted before the crisis, the World Banks President David Malpass, told the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the steering committee of the IMF.

Many countries will need debt relief. This is the only way they can concentrate any new resources on fighting the pandemic and its economic and social consequences, he said, according to a text of his remarks.

Malpass said the bank had emergency operations under way in 60 countries and its board was considering the first 25 projects valued at nearly $2bn under a $14bn fast-track facility to help fund immediate healthcare needs.

Meanwhile, UNDP says it is supporting health systems in China, Ukraine, Iran, Eritrea, Nigeria, and Vietnam, among others. It estimates it will need a minimum of $500m to support 100 countries, where the long-term effect will be particularly felt by the most vulnerable and marginalised groups.
[March 30, 2020] Data Center Rack Market Worth $5.9 Billion by 2025 - Exclusive Report by MarketsandMarkets

CHICAGO, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a market research report "Data Center Rack Market by Component (Solutions and Services), Rack Type (Open Frame and Cabinets), Rack Height, Rack Width, Data Center Size (Small and Mid-sized Data Centers and Large Data Centers), Vertical, and Region  Global Forecast to 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global Data Center Rack Market is expected to grow from USD 3.8 billion in 2020 to USD 5.9 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.4% during the forecast period. Factors driving the growth of the Data Center Rack Market include the increasing deployments in data center colocation facilities and increasing server density. Browse in-depth TOC on "Data Center Rack Market" 108  Tables

41  Figures

147  Pages Download PDF Brochure:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=210971325 Based on component, the solutions segment to hold a larger market size during the forecast period As more organizations are building their own data centers to meet precise performance and cost objectives, the need for flexible racks and cabinets to accommodate this equipment will continue to increase. The current IT infrastructure is unable to cater to the rising data demands of end users. There is a dire need for flexible and efficient infrastructure to support modern data center performance demands. Data center racks and enclosures enable managers to store, cool, power, manage, and secure critical IT equipment. Based on rack type, the cabinets segment to hold a larger market size during the forecast period Rack cabinets offer security, better cooling flexibility, and data center equipment protection from harsh environments and conditions. They focus on cooling, power distribution, cable management, and environmental monitoring, thereby providing a reliable rack-mounting environment for mission-critical equipment to function effectively. Rack cabinets are expensive and are generally preferred by organizations that require added security. Based on rack width, the 19 inch segment to hold the largest market size during the forecast period



19 inch racks enable optimal airflow and cable management that can easily support future data center changes. These racks are mostly used for housing servers in data center facilities. 19 inch racks are the most commonly used for housing data center equipment. 19 inch racks offer the required flexibility and can be easily integrated into individual rack zones. Based on region, North America to account for the largest market size during the forecast period

North America is expected to contribute to the market, in terms of revenue during the forecast period, by the virtue of being a technologically advanced region, having high number of early adopters, and the presence of major market players. Moreover, this region has the largest cloud services, which is expected to cause an increase in investments related to the technological development of the existing infrastructure, contributing to the growth in the number of data center facilities. The region is also experiencing a high demand for data center rack solutions specifically designed for colocation facilities owing to the presence of large number of colocation facilities in this region. Speak to Analyst:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalystNew.asp?id=210971325 Market Players: The Data Center Rack Market comprises major providers, such as Eaton (Ireland), Rittal (Germany), HPE (US), IBM (US), Cisco (US), Fujitsu (Japan), Dell (US), Schneider Electric (France), Vertiv (US), AGC Networks (India), Legrand (France), Oracle (US), Belden (US), nVent (UK), Panduit (US), Great Lakes Data Racks & Cabinets(US), Tripp Lite (US), IMS Engineered Products (US), Rahi Systems (US), and Chatsworth Products (US). The study includes the in-depth competitive analysis of these key players in the Data Center Rack Market with their company profiles, recent developments, and key market strategies. Browse Adjacent Markets: Data Center and Networking Market Research Reports & Consulting Browse Related Reports: Data Center Rack Server Market by Form Factor (1U, 2U, and 4U), Service, Tier Type (Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, and Tier 4), Data Center Type (Mid-Sized, Enterprise, and Large Data Centers), Industry, and Region - Global Forecast to 2024

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/data-center-rack-server-market-53332315.html About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model  GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact:

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Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Kuala Tanjung, North Sumatra  Mon, March 30, 2020 13:15 654 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e4c349 1 Business Kuala-Tanjung,North-Sumatra,Sumatra-Utara,port,Malacca-Strait Free

Kuala Tanjung Port in North Sumatra made its debut in the global container market, with its first shipment on Saturday, as Indonesia bids to tap into the lucrative Strait of Malacca shipping trade dominated by Singapore and Malaysia.

The container shipped to Port Klang in Malaysia on Saturday was the first of weekly shipments, according to PT Prima Multi Terminal, which manages the Kuala Tanjung Multipurpose Terminal (KTMT).

The regular shipment will send containers from companies operating near Kuala Tanjung, including organic chemical producer PT Unilever Oleochemical Indonesia -a subsidiary of consumer goods giant PT Unilever Indonesia- and consumer goods company PT Multimas Nabati Asahan -part of agribusiness giant Wilmar Group.

This is a milestone for Kuala Tanjung Multipurpose Terminal, after our success in domestic loading and unloading, Prima Multi Terminal director Robert MP Sinaga told The Jakarta Post at the launch.

We are branching out into commercial international shipping, Robert said.

Kuala Tanjung replaced Belawan as the main trading port in North Sumatra, capitalizing on the ever growing manufacturing sector in Sumatra. Under the current expansion plans, it will become the largest port in the country.

The COVID-19 pandemic did not stop Kuala Tanjung from moving ahead with the start of container shipment.

Robert said the company had taken precautionary measures by providing personal protective gear for crew. It collaborates with the Thousands Islands Port Authority, customs and excise office and port health office in monitoring the health of the crew and cleaning the ships.

PT Forecastle Indonesia, the shipping company for container operations, partners with Singapores Legend Logistics Asia.

Kuala Tanjung is very suitable as an international container export hub since it is located around the Strait of Malacca, which connects the Malay peninsula and Sumatra, Forecastle Indonesia president director Dhiny Afriyanti said.

We are planning a weekly trip to Kuala Tanjung Port, Dhiny said.

When Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi inspected the facility and progress of the development on March 3 he vowed, We want to turn this into an international hub. (mfp)
The estate of an Ohio woman fatally mauled by her neighbors dogs will receive $3.5 million to settle a lawsuit against a county and its dog warden, a newspaper reported.

The lawsuit was filed after Klonda Richey, 57, was killed outside her Dayton home by two Cane Corso mastiffs on Feb. 7, 2014. The complaint said Richeys death was preventable had the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center and its former director been more responsive to her multiple complaints about the dogs.

Richeys estate and attorneys involved in the lawsuit will receive the money after Montgomery County Commissioners give final approval next week, the Dayton Daily News reported.

Richey told acquaintances she had been harassed by the dogs owners and built a high fence to protect her and her 20 cats. Richey also told other neighbors she lived in fear of the dogs.

Records showed that before the mauling, two area agencies fielded about 60 calls and complaints related to the dog owners home between the end of 2011 and February 2014.

The settlement should bring peace to the family and some closure, said Judy Dodge, president of the Montgomery County Commissioners.

The dogs owners were found guilty in Dayton Municipal Court of two misdemeanor counts of failure to control the animals.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Ohio
Egypt condemned the recent two ballistic missile attacks launched by Yemen's Houthi group on the Saudi cities of Riyadh and Jazan, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

"The Egyptian government and people stand in solidarity with their counterparts in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and support all the necessary procedures taken to maintain the security and stability of the kingdom," the statement said.

Saudi military officials said on Sunday that the two ballistic missiles launched by Houthi militia were intercepted but two civilians were lightly injured by debris from their explosion over residential districts.

Yemen has been locked in a civil war since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized control of much of the country's north and forced the Saudi-backed government of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.

Over the past five years, Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military coalition against the Houthis in Yemen in support of Hadi's internationally-recognized government.
The NDC MP for Builsa North, James Agalga has described the establishment of the COVID-19 Fund to attend to the emergency needs of the country in the wake of coronavirus outbreak in Ghana.

James Agalga who is also a Ranking Member of the Parliamentary Committee on Defense & Interior says it is needless.

According to him, the establishment of the COVID-19 Fund is just a duplication of existing funds set up by the state to address the needs of the country in emergency situations.

He said it was not for nothing that the Disaster Fund which was established following the passage of the NADMO Act in 2016, was set up.

The Disaster Fund, he noted, is meant to address the needs of the country in emergency situations like the country now finds itself in and also outlines measures under which contributions could be made into it.

He said for the country to solicit the help of the public in dealing with the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, it is important for the government to operationalize the Disaster Fund.

I know the Presidents intentions are good and he should be applauded for his efforts. But once again, when I pondered over the issue critically, I felt that this exercise of setting up a COVID-19 Fund was unnecessary in the first place. Why do I say so? You all aware that I had the occasion to file a question directed at the Minister of the Interior to appear before this House to appraise the House about the status of Disaster Fund set up under the NADMO Act, 2016. When the Minister appeared, I think we are all witnesses to what transpired. He fumbled badly because the Fund set up under the NADMO Act, 2016 has not been operationalized. That particular Fund is meant for emergency situations like this. So, rather than set up a new Fund which needs to be taken through the legislative process  a law would have to be enacted by parliament to give legal effect to the COVID-19 Fund, I am of the view that the National Disaster Management Fund that was set up in 2016 ought to be operationalized. In short, the setting up of the COVID-19 Fund is duplicitous and thereby, unnecessary. Let us operationalize what is already in existence for this particular emergency situation.

Hon. Agalga was speaking to journalists on the sidelines on Parliamentary sitting on Monday, March 30, 2020.

President Akufo Addo in a state address announced the establishment of a COVID-19 Fund to deal with the outbreak of the disease and also donated his three months salary to the fund.

The Fund will be managed by an independent board of trustees chaired by the immediate past Chief Justice, Sophia Akufo Addo to receive contributions and donations from the public to assist in the welfare of the needy and the vulnerable.

---kasapafmonline
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A traveller who was supposed to be self-isolating after flying into Sydney was allegedly caught by police more than 35kms from his home three times in the one weekend.

Matthew Adam Stephan, 30, from Edensor Park in the city's south-west, has been charged by NSW Police after officers claimed he repeatedly breached coronavirus quarantine orders on Saturday and Sunday.

Stephan had flown back home from Jordan on March 18. Like all other passengers entering the country from overseas, he was ordered to go into self-isolation for two full weeks over COVID-19 concerns.

But police claim Stephan spent much of the past weekend gallivanting around Sydney.

Matthew Adam Stephan, 30, is accused of breaching self-isolation three times on the one weekend. He was meant to be staying at a home in Edensor Park, in Sydney's south-west

Court documents say Stephan was meant to be at home in Edensor Park (1). He was first allegedly caught by police in Pagewood (2) at 1.20am on Saturday, March 28. He then ran into officers on Pitt St, in the city's CBD, at 10pm that same day (3). On Sunday, he was allegedly caught trying to flee serviced apartments police had quarantined him in (4) at Camperdown

Court documents said officers allegedly found him breaching quarantine once in the city's east on Saturday morning, again later in the CBD much later that same day and a third time on Sunday afternoon.

Stephan was first allegedly caught in Pagewood, not far from Sydney airport, by Eastern Suburbs Command proactive crime squad officers, at about 1.20am on Saturday morning.

He was fined $1,000 for failing to comply with the Public Health Act.

Later that day, police claim they ran into him again, catching him in Pitt St, the main pedestrian mall in the city's CBD, about 10pm that evening.

Stephan, who is known to police, was then arrested and charged with failing to comply with a ministerial direction.

Officers also alleged he was also breaching his bail conditions for a separate matter.

He was directed to go into quarantine at a serviced apartment complex monitored by NSW Health in Camperdown, in Sydney's inner west.

But he tried to leave the facility between 3pm and 3.05pm on Sunday, police alleged in court documents seen by Daily Mail Australia.

A police source claimed to The Australian that Stephan tried to leave just minutes after he was dropped off.

'As police were about to leave he was sighted in the basement telling NSW Health staff he was going back to his mum's place,' the source was quoted saying.

On Monday, Stephan's lawyer Mostafa Daoudie told Magistrate Margaret Quinn that his client's mother had 'concerns about his mental health'.

Police and Army Reserve stand by on Sunday as they wait to take return travellers to their quarantine hotels

Return travellers are now being forced into quarantine at hotels, as of Saturday evening. Above, a new arrival at Sydney Airport and on right, a member of the Army reserve, which is assisting the quarantine program

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

The magistrate ordered Stephan be taken from the police cells to St Vincent's Hospital for a mental health assessment and detention.

If he is not found to be mentally ill Stephan will return to court on Tuesday, the magistrate said.

Outside court, Mr Daoudie said: 'Today's outcome was the best for my client and the community.

'My client suffers from a number of mental health problems that will be addressed.'

Stephan was lashed by the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, David Elliott, in a media statement.

He was condemned as 'reckless and selfish' over the allegations.

'I commend police on their continued efforts to ensure those who breach self-isolation directions face the full force of the law,' Mr Elliott said.

In New South Wales, someone who breaches a quarantine order can face a maximum fine of $11,000 and six months' imprisonment.

From midnight, the NSW government will enforce new laws banning outside gatherings of more than two people, under drastic new coronavirus restrictions.




By Ofeliya Afandiyeva

Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia were Azerbaijans top three trade partners among the Gulf countries in January-February 2020, local media reported, citing the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee.

During the reporting period, the country's trade turnover with Iran amounted to $60.1 million, with the UAE - $6.1 million, and with Saudi Arabia - $2.7 million.

The trade turnover with Iran and the UAE decreased compared to the same period in 2019 while the figures indicated an increase in turnover for Saudi Arabia.

In addition, these countries are also the top three Gulf countries for the volume of products imported to Azerbaijan.

According to the provided report, imports from Iran amounted to $51.7 million, from the UAE - $3.4 million, and from Saudi Arabia - $2.3 million.

Its should be noted that Azerbaijan increased imports from Saudi Arabia in this period, while imports from Iran and the UAE decreased.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
US Navy hospital ship arrives in New York City to help relieve the crisis that has killed more than 1,200 in the city.

New Yorks governor put out an urgent plea for medical volunteers, and a Navy hospital ship pulled into port as coronavirus deaths in the city mounted and hospitals buckled in what authorities say could be a preview of what other communities across the United States could soon face.

Please come help us in New York now. We need relief, Governor Andrew Cuomo pleaded as the number of dead in New York State climbed past 1,200, with most of those victims dying in New York City.

Whether its Detroit, its New Orleans, it will work its way across the country, Cuomo added.

Elsewhere around the world, hard-hit Italy and Spain saw their death tolls climb by more than 800 each even as the World Health Organizations emergency chief said cases in the two countries are potentially stabilising. At the same time, he warned this is no time to let up on tough containment measures.

A US Navy hospital ship with 1,000 beds arrived in port in New York on Monday to help relieve the crisis gripping the city. The USNS Comfort  also sent to New York City after 9/11  will be used to treat non-coronavirus patients while packed hospitals deal with those with COVID-19.

The USNS Comfort passes lower Manhattan in New York Harbor during the outbreak of COVID-19 in New York City [Mike Segar/Reuters]

Nurses and other medical professionals who have volunteered to help have also begun arriving.

Anyone who says this situation is a New York City-only situation is in a state of denial. You see this virus move across the state, you see this virus move across the nation. There is no American who is immune to this virus, Cuomo said.

As he announced the latest death toll, he said, Thats a lot of loss, thats a lot of pain, thats a lot of tears, thats a lot of grief that people all across this state are feeling.

Criticising President Donald Trumps politicising of the crisis, Cuomo told MSNBC earlier on Monday: The science people, the government professionals, have to stand up and look the president in the eye and say this is not a political exercise. This is not press relations. Its not optics. The tsunami is coming.

Three-quarters of a million people around the world have become infected, and more than 35,000 have died, according to a running count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

The US reported over 140,000 infections and more than 2,500 deaths, with New York City the nations worst hot spot.

New hotspots to take off

Dr Anthony Fauci, the US governments top infectious-disease expert, warned that smaller cities are about to see cases take off the way they have in New York City.

What weve learned from painful experience with this outbreak is that it goes along almost on a straight line, then a little acceleration, acceleration, then it goes way up, he said on ABCs Good Morning America programme.

New hotspots of the disease have started to surface in Florida, Michigan and Louisiana, as state officials seek more help in fighting the outbreak.

Fauci told CNN on Sunday that the pandemic could ultimately kill between 100,000 and 200,000 people in the US if mitigation is unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Monday that the number of COVID-19 hospitalisations in the state had doubled over the past four days, while the number of ICU patients tripled.

He did not immediately give figures for those totals.

Last week, the US Congress passed a $2.2 trillion emergency relief bill, promising billions to US states.

Non-coronavirus patients will be treated on board the USNS Comfort to free up hospitals on land[Carlo Allegri/Reuters]

Trump said on Sunday that he would extend the guidelines aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus to April 30, from his original target of Easter on April 12.

Americans are now being called on to prepare for another 30 days of severe economic and social disruption, as schools and businesses are closed, and public life is upended. One in three Americans remains under state or local government orders to stay at home to slow the spread of the virus.
The 25 coronavirus patients



reported from one family at Sangli in Maharashtra were found to be living in a congested set up, which might have led the infection to spread fast among them, officials said.

Initially, four family members who returned from Saudi Arabia tested positive for coronavirus on March 23. Within a week of it, 21 more family members, including a two-year-old boy, were found to have contracted the infection.

The district administration, however, maintained that so far there is no 'community transmission' of the viral infection, as only known contacts have been exposed to it.

"These 25 patients from Islampur tehsil belong to a big family living in a congested housing set up and because of that, they got infected," Collector Abhijeet Chaudhari told PTI on Sunday.

District civil surgeon C S Salunkhe said all the patients are from one big family and they live "side by side" in Islampur.

"Majority of the family members were in touch with each other round-the-clock, that is why the exposure took place," he told PTI.

The family's secondary contacts have not been infected, so community transmission is ruled out, he said.

"If a coronavirus positive person coughs in the house, his droplets spread on objects in the room. The common objects are handled by everyone in the house and this is the way the virus spreads," he explained.

He, however, said since all the positive cases are from one "vertical" (family), it is actually better from the control point of view.

"Following the detection of initial cases, we admitted several people from the family even if they did not have any symptoms and that proved beneficial as we could detect a large number of cases," said Salunkhe.

In fact, the detection of the large number is good because if they remained undetected, all these coronavirus positive people could have been roaming in the community, he said.

"After the detection of all these positive cases, the issue got highlighted in the town and people chose to stay indoors," he added.

When Chaudhari was asked about any lapses in quarantining the four family members who returned from Saudi Arabia, he said they arrived at the Mumbai airport on March 12 and that time, the stamping process was not started.

"The four family members should have taken precaution by remaining in home quarantine after they came back to Sangli," he said.

The list of Sangli residents returning from foreign locations which was shared with the district administration, did not have names of these four passengers in it.

"These four people were traced during our own checking here on March 18," he said.

The collector said a 'containment zone' has been created in one-km radius of the area where the family lives in Islampur and 325 of their 'non-close contacts' have been home quarantined to further check the spread of infection.

"There is no community transfer as exposure to the virus has taken place only among known contacts. But as a precautionary measure, we have set up a containment zone in one km radius where the cases were found and health screening of people is going on," he said.

Samples of 47 family members and their close-contacts were sent for testing and 25 of them turned out positive for coronavirus.

"All the 25 family members are currently admitted at an isolation facility in Sangli. They are undergoing treatment and their health is stable," Chaudhari said.

"Though the remaining family members have tested negative, we have kept them under institutional quarantine and they are being monitored," he said.

At least 325 non-close contacts of the family have also been traced and home quarantined and a medical team is monitoring their health, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pour said more tests for the virus are being conducted in the county, and she expected more positives to result. She also noted that Douglas County has enough hospital beds and ventilators to handle more COVID-19 cases.

Hospitals in Douglas County still have 620 available beds that can handle coronavirus cases, Pour said. And of the 264 ventilators available at hospitals, she said, only 57 are being used.

This weekend, Stothert said, she visited the Target near 120th and L Streets and the Trader Joes at One Pacific Place. Both stores, she said, were taking steps to limit public interaction. Signs near the cash registers at Target instructed shoppers to stand 6 feet apart. A Trader Joes employee was handing out disinfectant wipes at the entrance.

Stothert also drove by a Home Depot and a Walmart, both of which she said looked like madhouses. She encouraged people to visit stores only for supplies that are absolutely necessary.

The mayor applauded bars and restaurants that have largely complied with the health directive. She also stressed that staying home can save lives.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's leading expert on coronavirus, said he believes keeping people in isolation for the duration of April should stunt the spread of coronavirus but that there will be 'mini outbreaks' in cities across America.

Fauci appeared on Good Morning America on Monday morning a day after President Trump announced he was extending the government's 15 day guidelines on staying indoors to 30 days.

Fauci said there were 'intensive discussions' that led up to the decision and that neither he nor any other experts believed 15 days would ever be long enough to stop the virus from spreading.

As of Monday morning, there were more than 140,000 cases of the virus in the US and more than 2,500 people had died.

Scroll down for video

Dr. Fauci said on Monday morning that he believes April will be long enough to stunt the spread of coronavirus

FULL INTERVIEW: NIAD Director Dr. Fauci explains to @GStephanopoulos why new coronavirus timeline guidelines extended through end of April. https://t.co/YERumXFiuI pic.twitter.com/eZ9VjEGlq1  Good Morning America (@GMA) March 30, 2020

In New York City, the epicenter of the virus, there are more than 33,000 cases of the virus and 776 people have died.

Dr. Fauci is optimistic about the new 30 day deadline, saying: 'I think April might do it but we have an open mind.

'We said 30 days is a solid amount of time. Fifteen was too little. None of us felt it was adequate,' Fauci said.

He said that President Trump asked him if there was a possibility it would have to go on for even longer and that Fauci said it is possible.

'We said we didn't think so, but there's always that possibility depending on the efficiency of the mitigation efforts,' he said.

Fauci said it was 'clear' that the country would not be ready to resume business as usual after just two weeks of social distancing.

'It was clear the dynamics of the outbreak, what was going in New York, New Rochelle, and New Orleans, was clearly still on uptick.

'To pull back before you've turned a corner would have been imprudent.That would have merely regenerated the spike to go up,' he said.

While New York City is the undoubted epicenter of the virus in the US, Dr. Fauci said other cities like New Orleans are 'percolating'.

In New Orleans, there are 1,350 cases and 73 deaths.

Fauci said while New Orleans is a smaller city than New York, the spike it is showing in cases is 'worrying'.

'Certainly New Orleans is in that area it's worrisome. The spike and peak are starting to resemble New York.

'It's a smaller city but the dynamics of the outbreak are worrisome. We're also worried about Detroit, they're showing signs it will pick up.

'L.A. we worry about. It looks like they may have the opportunity and the misfortune of spiking up.

'If you look around the country, there are smaller cities that are percolating along.

'We've learned from painful experience that it goes along and you have a little acceleration, then it goes way up.

There are now more than 142,000 cases of coronavirus in America and 2,500 have died

National Guard troops at the Javits Center in New York City, one of several field hospitals

An elderly man is transported from Lenox Hill Medical Pavilion to an ambulance on March 29

'We've seen it in New York, we've seen it with our colleagues in Italy, France, Spain -it looks like it's low level then it starts to accelerate then it goes way up.

'We're going to have all these mini outbreaks throughout our country,' he said.

Trump said on Sunday that as many as 200,000 may die in the US by the time the pandemic is over. Fauci said it was not implausible but that there was no way of knowing.

'Even if the guidelines are extended, we will lose more people, exactly how many more we will lose is uncertain depending on the efficiency of the mitigation efforts

Trump extended social distancing guidelines on Sunday until the end of April

'The number of deaths will probably peak by a certain point but you'll still get a number of cases that go up which will ultimately lead to less deaths because the cases anticipate the death rate.

'We had such a surge earlier that within 2 weeks you can have a peak in the death rates, the death rates start coming down, but you can have another curve which is the rate of the new infections.

'They're complicated curves that overlap each other,' he said, adding that the recent jump in deaths from 1,000 Americans to more than 2,500 was 'very, very sobering'.

Fauci said that he and the other experts were able to 'convince' President Trump to extend the guidelines and that he 'listened' to them.

He also said that he was hopeful about drugs being trialed now that may serve as a treatment and that a vaccine may be ready by fall, which is when the virus may reappear seasonally.

'We have a couple of trials that have around 200 patients now. A couple of others are being tested.

'By early summer, late spring, we'll get a signal on one of those drugs of whether or not it works,' he said.

A vaccine will take much longer.

'The process, at rocket speed, takes about a year to a year-and-a-half so if we cycle with this peak and it comes back next fall, we might have the early components of a vaccine to counter that outbreak,' he said.

President Trump said on Sunday that he would think he'd done a 'good job' if he is able to keep the death toll beneath 200,000.

He said it was because experts had predicted 2.2million people would die if he did 'nothing'.

'Its a horrible number,' Trump said, but added, 'We all together have done a very good job.'
The FTSE 100 regained lost ground today as it closed up nearly 1 per cent after a top expert revealed signs of a slowdown in coronavirus hospital admissions - and Britain's daily death toll dropped again.

The index of Britains biggest companies finished up 53 points or 0.97 per cent at 5,564 this afternoon, in a solid rebound after opening down this morning.

The FTSE - which rose 6 per cent last week - suffered a 2 per cent fall in early trading this morning over mounting fears that the global shutdown to fight the pandemic could last for months.

But it rose later on, after Professor Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London and author of a report which warned of mass deaths if the UK did not introduce strict controls, said there were signs the rate of hospital admissions was slowing.

Mr Ferguson said social distancing measures brought in by the Government appeared to be having an effect on the numbers.

Also, the daily death toll fell for the second day in a row, with 180 new fatalities overnight. As of today, a total of 1,408 people in Britain have died from coronavirus.

It marks the first time the daily increase in deaths has fallen for two days straight, dropping from 209 on Sunday and 260 on Saturday - the worst day in the UK so far.

Investors in Britain were also boosted by movements in the US as the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 459 points or 2.12 per cent to 22,096 after a flat opening.

It comes after Asian shares fell overnight and oil prices dipped again amid fears the crisis will cause major harm to economies despite the efforts of central banks.

TODAY: The FTSE 100 gradually rose throughout today after falling 2 per cent in early trading

LAST WEEK: The FTSE 100 index finished at 5,510 last Friday, rising 6 per cent overall last week

JPMorgan economist Bruce Kasman said it continued to mark down GDP forecasts 'as our assessment of both the global pandemic's reach and the damage related to necessary containment policies has increased.'

They now predict global GDP could contract at a 10.5 per cent annualised rate in the first half of the year.

Overnight, Japan's Nikkei dropped 2.7 per cent, while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.7 per cent, though that was up from early lows.

Central banks have mounted an all-out effort to bolster activity with rate cuts and massive asset-buying campaigns, which have at least eased liquidity strains in markets.

China today became the latest to add stimulus with a cut of 20 basis points in a key repo rate.

A woman wearing a face mask walks past a bank's electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index at Hong Kong Stock Exchange today

Singapore also eased as the city-state's bellwether economy braced for a deep recession, while New Zealand's central bank said it would take corporate debt as collateral for loans.

Rodrigo Catril, a senior FX strategist at NAB, said the main question for markets was whether all the stimulus would be enough to help the global economy withstand the shock.

'To answer this question, one needs to know the magnitude of the containment measures and for how long they will be implemented,' he added.

'This is the big unknown and it suggests markets are likely to remain volatile until this uncertainty is resolved.'

It was therefore not encouraging that UK authorities have now warned lockdown measures could last at least six months.

People are reflected in a window showing a drop in share price numbers of the Tokyo Stock Exchange today

The Deputy Chief Medical officer Dr Jenny Harries warned yesterday that Britons should not expect to get back to 'normal life' for six months or even longer.

She said it will not be clear whether the 'social distancing' lockdown is working for another two or three weeks - after Easter - with deaths set to rise further.

US President Donald Trump yesterday extended guidelines for social restrictions to April 30, despite earlier talking about reopening the economy for Easter.

Japan today expanded its entry ban to include citizens travelling from the United States, China, South Korea and most of Europe.
Thousands of costume designers, tailors and seamstresses have come together to make urgently-needed scrubs for NHS workers in a nationwide effort coordinated by an A&E nurse.

Ashleigh Linsdell, 29, who is a nurse at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Lincolnshire, set up Facebook group, For The Love Of Scrubs, last Monday.

More than 9,000 people have since joined to help make PPE clothing from their homes, but they are in desperate need of funding.

Ashleigh Linsdell, 29, who is a nurse at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Lincolnshire, has made a Facebook group urging volunteers to make scrubs for NHS workers. Pictured: Ashleigh centre, with her colleagues

Ashleigh revealed Merseyside Hospital have asked volunteers to produce 400 sets of scrubs, because they're struggling to cope with demand. Pictured: Scrubs produced by a volunteer

Self-taught seamstress Ashleigh, said she started making scrubs for her colleagues a week ago, after they ran out and had to wear 'undignified' paper clothing.

She said: 'Imagine wearing a set of paper scrubs for an entire shift.

'They're not dignified - if you bend over they split, it's just horrible.

'There's a huge nationwide demand for scrubs.

'Merseyside Hospital, for example, has asked for 400 sets of scrubs, they're really really struggling.

'Retired NHS workers and new volunteers for the pandemic can't wear their own clothes, and there's not enough uniform for them.

The nurse who has a four-year-old daughter, said healthcare workers can get through more than ten sets of scrubs per shift. Pictured: A set made by a volunteer

'As this (pandemic) becomes bigger, and it will - we're not even at UK peak yet, that's due this week - we're expecting it to be hell in A&E.'

Ashleigh who has a four-year-old daughter, said she appealed for help sourcing wholesale material for her homemade scrubs on a Facebook group, and within two days received messages from hundreds of people who were 'desperate to help.'

Having been a nurse for seven years, she revealed that healthcare workers can get through more than 10 sets of scrubs per shift, especially those working in 'covid zones' who have to change more than usual to avoid spreading the virus.

Ashleigh said within the first two days of setting up For The Love Of Scrubs, an army of volunteers made 260 sets of scrubs for their local hospitals.

They will be posted directly to launderettes at 20 hospitals around the UK, where they are washed before being used to ensure coronavirus is not passed on through them.

Ashleigh (pictured) and her husband George Linsdell, who is an engineer, have been coordinating their efforts from home

Many of the volunteers are unable to purchase polycotton to make scrubs because they're out of work. Pictured: Scrubs made by a volunteer

The nurse and her husband George Linsdell, who is an engineer, are coordinating the effort from their home.

But many of their volunteers are self-employed people who are currently out of work, and cannot afford to purchase more polycotton material which scrubs are made from.

Ashleigh said: 'It's now proving really difficult trying to get the materials out to people who really want to help.

'I'm hoping that by raising awareness we can get materials and stock out to people who are desperate to help but otherwise unable.'

'I can't even put into words how fantastic it is that people want to help though,' she added.

Building on the Government's online campaign urging people to stay at home, the innovative nurse is urging those with sewing machines who want to help the NHS to StayHomeAndSew.
Coronavirus 2019-nCoV Blood Samples Medical Concept

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads pandemonium across global economies, Canada is stuck in a rut. Unemployment is soaring with over half a million filing for unemployment in the country. Despite the overall worsening situation, however, Prime Minister Trudeau insists that the situation is not bad enough for the government to take emergency measures to force people to stay at home.

You might be getting increasingly concerned about your financial security amid the market volatility caused by the coronavirus crisis.

Today Im going to discuss how a state of emergency could prolong the market crash and a stock you can consider investing in to insulate your capital.

Provincial governments declaring emergencies

Nova Scotia became the latest Canadian province to declare a state of emergency. Gatherings of more than five people are completely off limits as per the announcement of the emergency. Premier Stephen McNeil is saying that the measure is necessary because people are ignoring the importance of social distancing at this time.

Nova Scotia police have been given the power to enforce social distancing. Individuals who continue to fail observing social distancing can be fined $1,000. Businesses who fail to encourage the same are facing fines of $7,500 according to the state of emergency.

Canadas stimulus package to counteract a recession

Prime Minister Trudeau insists that Canada should not declare a federal state of emergency. A state of emergency during which the government forces everybody to practice social distancing could result in a prolonging of the market crash. Trudeau has announced a stimulus package of $82 billion to aid the Canadian economy in these challenging times.

A total of $27 billion from the stimulus package will go directly to businesses and Canadian citizens to keep them afloat during this time to decrease the rampant unemployment. The main reason is to keep as many Canadians employed during this time as possible. The aid is going to help businesses subsidize their wages to keep them from going belly up.

Story continues

The remaining $55 billion will go toward the tax deferral system to further help Canadian citizens during this time. Keeping more cash in the market at this time can help the overall economy recover faster as things eventually move towards normalcy.

Options to consider at this time

During a recession, the worst fears are losing your capital due to investments in falling stocks. I think it is necessary to consider defensive options to invest in so you can insulate your capital from these turbulent times. Consider investing in a stock like BCE Inc. (TSX:BCE)(NYSE:BCE).

The telecom sector is one of the industries likely to weather the storm of a recession better than most others due to the vital role it plays. No matter how bad the economic situation becomes, people still need access to the internet, and they need to communicate with each other.

BCE is the leading telecom company in the country, with mobile and wireline networks spanning across Canada. It is one of the most successful operators in the industry. BCE has constantly strived to improve its infrastructure over the years.

Its latest projects include offering its customers fiber-to-premises and plans to delve into the 5G sphere that will be the next big thing for global telecom.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc, BCE will be under pressure to reduce its bills. While the company could lose a share of its profits, its still likely to generate significant revenue during the crisis.

Foolish takeaway

At writing, the stock is trading for $54.96 per share. The stock is up 18.35% from March 23, 2020, as the overall stock market experiences a slight recovery from the overall market decline.

Investing in defensive stocks is the best possible way to secure your financial situation in these uncertain times.

A stock like BCE paying you 6.06% dividends could be a fantastic equity to consider adding to your portfolio to insulate your capital.

The post How a State of Emergency Could Prolong the TSX Market Crash appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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Fool contributor Adam Othman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

The Motley Fools purpose is to help the world invest, better. Click here now for your free subscription to Take Stock, The Motley Fool Canadas free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Motley Fool Canada 2020
Shop owners can continue selling Easter eggs during the coronavirus pandemic, a trade body has announced after reports officials had told them the products were non-essential.

Some convenience stores had been visited by police and health officers who told them that chocolate eggs were not deemed essential during the lockdown, according to the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS).

The body  which represents over 30,000 retailers across the UK  blamed overzealous enforcement and misreading of the rules, and advised its members to continue selling a range of products.

The government has defined which stores can remain open, and that includes convenience stores, including newsagents and off-licences, said ACS chief executive James Lowman.

There is no government definition of which products can be sold within those stores.

He added: In the cases where officers have challenged retailers and shoppers in this way, its brought confusion, distracted retailers in the busiest weeks of their lives and increased the interactions between people at a time when the government is trying to minimise them.

According to official government guidance, off-licences, supermarkets, pharmacies as well as newsagents and corner shops are permitted to stay open during the pandemic.

However, there is no specific details on what those shops remaining open can and cant sell.

It came after a number of incidents last week in which police and authorities were accused of heavy-handedness during the outbreak.

A police officer in Edgware, northwest London, was accused of lacking common sense after he issued a ticket to a bakery using chalk on the pavement to enforce social-distancing.

Following a conversation with the officer in question, the Met later confirmed it had rescinded the fine.

On Sunday, Derbyshire Police came under fire after officers poured black dye into the Blue Lagoon in Buxton to deter swimmers from using the pool.

Just a few days earlier, the force was accused of nanny policing for using drones in the Peak District to stop people from travelling to the beauty spot to walk.
A convicted terror plotter accused of filming up strangers' skirts has been granted bail with strict conditions, after a court was told CCTV does not show him committing the offences and no photos or videos were found on his phone.

Mazen Touma was arrested in January after he allegedly went to Kmart stores in Chatswood and Bondi Junction on January 10 and 16, leaned down with his mobile phone and attempted to film up the skirts of two adult women.

Police allege CCTV provides a clear picture of the first incident, while a store security guard witnessed the second incident.

On Monday, a NSW Supreme Court bail application heard that Mr Touma was previously jailed for at least 10 years in October 2008 after he pleaded guilty to acquiring ammunition, explosives and documents in preparation for a terrorist act.

Prosecutor Alex Poulos said the current case is "chalk and cheese" when compared to Mr Touma's background, but the past conviction was a relevant matter because his strict parole expired two months before the alleged upskirting.
Few modern writers so remind me of the famous Virginia Woolf quote about fiction as a spiders web more than Argentinian fabulist Jorge Luis Borges. But the life to which Borges attaches his labyrinths is a librarians life; the strands that anchor his fictions are the obscure scholarly references he weaves throughout his text. Borges brings this tendency to whimsical employ in his nonfiction Book of Imaginary Beings, a heterogenous compendium of creatures from ancient folk tale, myth, and demonology around the world.

Borges himself sometimes remarks on how these ancient stories can float too far away from ratiocination. The absurd hypotheses regarding the mythical Greek Chimera, for example, are proof that the ridiculous beast was beginning to bore people. A vain or foolish fancy is the definition of Chimera that we now find in dictionaries. Of what he calls Jewish Demons, a category too numerous to parse, he writes, a census of its population left the bounds of arithmetic far behind. Throughout the centuries, Egypt, Babylonia, and Persia all enriched this teeming middle world. Although a lesser field than angelology, the influence of this fascinatingly diverse canon only broadened over time.

The natives recorded in the Talmud soon became thoroughly integrated with the many demons of Christian Europe and the Islamic world, forming a sprawling hell whose denizens hail from at least three continents, and who have mixed freely in alchemical, astrological, and other occult works since at least the 13th century and into the present. One example from the early 20th century, a 1902 treatise on divination from Isfahan, a city in central Iran, draws on this ancient thread with a series of watercolors added in 1921 that could easily be mistaken for illustrations from the early Middle Ages.

As the Public Domain Review notes:

The wonderful images draw on Near Eastern demonological traditions that stretch back millennia  to the days when the rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud asserted it was a blessing demons were invisible, since, if the eye would be granted permission to see, no creature would be able to stand in the face of the demons that surround it.

The author of the treatise, a rammal, or soothsayer, himself attributes his knowledge to the Biblical Solomon, who was known for his power over demons and spirits, writes Ali Karjoo-Ravary, a doctoral candidate in Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Predating Islam, the depiction of demons in the Near East was frequently used for magical and talismanic purposes, just as it was by occultists like Aleister Crowley at the time these illustrations were made.

Not all of the 56 painted illustrations in the manuscript depict demonic beings, the Public Domain Review points out. Amongst the horned and fork-tongued we also find the archangels Jibrail (Gabriel) and Mikail (Michael), as well as the animals  lion, lamb, crab, fish, scorpion  associated with the zodiac. But in the main, its demon city. What would Borges have made of these fantastic images? No doubt, had he seen them, and he had seen plenty of their like before he lost his sight, he would have been delighted.

A blue man with claws, four horns, and a projecting red tongue is no less frightening for the fact that hes wearing a candy-striped loincloth. In another image we see a moustachioed goat man with tuber-nose and polka dot skin maniacally concocting a less-than-appetising dish. One recurring (and worrying) theme is demons visiting sleepers in their beds, scenes involving such pleasant activities as tooth-pulling, eye-gouging, and  in one of the most engrossing illustrations  a bout of foot-licking (performed by a reptilian feline with a shark-toothed tail).

Theres a playful Bosch-ian quality to all of this, but while we tend to see Boschs work from our perspective as absurd, he apparently took his bizarre inventions absolutely seriously. So too, we might assume, did the illustrator here. We might wonder, as Woolf did, about this work as the product of suffering human beings attached to grossly material things, like health and money and the houses we live in. What kinds of ordinary, material concerns might have afflicted this artist, as he (we presume) imagined demons gouging the eyes and licking the feet of people tucked safely in their beds?

See many more of these strange paintings at the Public Domain Review.

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Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness
It was an interesting decision when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle declared they were stepping down as senior working members of the British royal family as the duo always seemed happy and poised. As the tabloids picked them apart, the pair never wavered.

In October 2019, in a stunning ITV documentary, "Harry and Meghan: An African Journey," it became apparent how the pair were struggling in the midst of the spotlight and in an institution in exclusion.

London's weather resulted in a perfect photo op of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on Thursday night which created quite the buzz in social media.

Prince Harry and Markle emerged for their first public joint appearance since they announced they were to become financially independent from the royal family in January.

Hundreds - if not thousands - of photographs were captured of the duke and duchess in their last week of royal engagements. The photo that stood out was Prince Harry and Markle at the Endeavor Awards sharing an umbrella as rain sprinkled down.

The royal photographer behind the iconic photo is being lauded. According to his website, the award-winning photographer has long documented the Sussexes since before their engagement.

One user congratulated him and wrote that he captured all the best shots of their visit.

The recently surfaced photo of the pair showed they seem to still be starring in a romantic comedy after marriage. The photo of them huddled together was snapped by Samir Hussein.

Also Read: Kate Middleton, Prince William Split: What Really Happened in Their Past 'Trial Separation'

The Sussexes were grinning at one another, resolutely unbothered by a torrent of camera flashes and the weather.

They were heading into Mansion House to commemorate the milestones of wounded servicemen and women.

According to Hussein, "It was pouring down with rain, which can be very tricky when shooting flash photography and also meant Harry and Meghan would be under an umbrella, which usually means it's hard to get clean photos of the couple."

"Little did I know these elements would come together so spectacularly to produce a timeless image of the couple."

Before the duke and duchess arrived, he talked to the royals' press officer so he could try to place himself in the right spot in the photographers' pen.

This photo came to symbolize Prince Harry and Markle's resilience and joy in the midst of the drama of Megxit. It went on to become a singular image from the evening.

As they walked toward Hussein, he noticed a camera flash being repeatedly shot from the crowd behind Prince Harry and Markle.

"I knew that if that light could be lined up to be right behind as they walked then it could create a dramatic photo, acting like a backlight in a studio shot," the photographer said.

The snapshot was described by Hussein as "one in a million" due to the alignment of elements, including "perfect timing, great lighting, strong symbolism, and amazing subjects."

Hussein has been photographing royals for more than 12 years.

Related Article: Prince Philip Dead: Hoax Stories Circulating Online After Duke Allegedly Made Funeral Requests

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Neil Clifford, chief executive of Kurt Geiger, has given up his 500,000-a-year pay until his stores open again after the coronavirus threat.

'It's a small sacrifice,' the boss of the shoe company said. 'It's the only thing I could have done. I wanted to send a message to my staff that we are all in this together.

'I probably earn 30 times more than one of our employees so I am super lucky and I didn't feel I could go on drawing my salary at a time like this.'

Making a difference: Neil Clifford has given up his 500,000-a-year pay until his stores open again after the coronavirus threat

He has a new motto for the business in a time of pandemic: 'Kindness is the new luxury.' Immediately after closing his 55 UK stores on March 21, he decided to give away free shoes that would otherwise have been left unsold to NHS workers.

The idea came from his niece, Kerry Morrison, 36, who works as a speciality nurse in the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, Clifford's home town.

'She is on the front line. She joked that free shoes would be nice. So I said, yes, we'll do that. 'I expect we will end up giving away 50,000 pairs of shoes, men's and women's, worth about 5m.

'We deliver a bag of electronic gift cards to every hospital in the cities we have stores. Each card is charged with 100 so you just go to the website and spend it.

'This weekend we gave them to the Royal Free in Hampstead, north London. Once we have done every hospital we will go back to the beginning and we won't stop until our stores reopen. We will also offer 50 per cent off everything in our stores until the end of the year if you work for the NHS. We are just trying to bring a bit of happiness and lightness. Everyone is doing their best, this country is amazing.'

Clifford, 52, has been a retailer all his life and never seen times as tough as this. He left school in the 1980s with one O-Level in art and started work on a youth training scheme in Debenhams in Portsmouth.

From those unpromising beginnings, he worked his way to the top via the Burton Group, before joining Kurt Geiger, then owned by the Fayed family, in 1995. A decade later, he embarked on a management buyout.

The business is now majority owned by private equity firm Cinven, which has a 79 per cent stake. Clifford and the rest of the management own 21 per cent.

Luxury: Kurt Geiger employs 2,500 staff

'Cinven have been incredibly supportive, which has given us the confidence to approach this crisis trying to be helpful to others. We bank with Lloyds and they are being very supportive too, they have been great.'

It helps that the company has halved its debts in the past three years, and is now carrying 50m of borrowings. And Clifford notes ruefully that before the crisis, Kurt Geiger, which employs 2,500 staff, had just celebrated a record year.

He is also urging his staff to join the NHS Volunteer Responders scheme, which is trying to recruit an 'army' of 250,000 to support those who will contract the virus by delivering medicines, helping people get to medical appointments, bringing them home from hospital and making regular calls on those isolating at home.

'All of our employees are getting paid full salary. We want to turn our staff into the Kurt Geiger kindness squad.'

The nerve centre of the business is now Clifford's home which he shares with his wife and three teenage children. Considering what things will be like post-pandemic, he says: 'The world will be a more fragile place and everyone will have to be more generous and thoughtful.

'I don't think we are just going to go back to where we were, and people might not feel indulging themselves in designer goods is quite right for a while. It might come back slowly. But people are still going to need shoes.'
Bicyclists and a pedestrian pass through a quiet Manhattan street, on March 26, 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic in New York. (Mark Lennihan/AP Photo)

On the Way to a Cure: The Exit Strategy for the CCP Virus and Our National Quarantine

Commentary

President Donald Trump is entirely correct to offer Americans hope that theres an end in sight: that America could reopen by Easter.

It probably wont happen that soon, but without some hope, American society and the lives of Americans will begin to fray and disintegrate in tragic and dangerous ways.

Heres why the president has a reason to offer this hope.

To date, theres been no cure for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, commonly known as coronavirus*, that most likely originated in the Wuhan Level-4 biological lab.

Hospital treatments for serious cases have been limited to relieving symptoms and using ventilators until patients recover on their own. Without a cure, some of the most serious cases die, even when on a ventilatorand theres a current shortage of ventilators.

However, extremely promising drugs are now being tested and used by doctors around the world, such as chloroquine, remdesivir, and hydroxychloroquine, as well as plasma from recovered patients. The results are looking successful. You could call them the cure.

So its time for Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and other medical authorities to broadly announce the fact, and recommend these as the first treatment for all patients.

These treatments have the promise to make infection by the CCP virus far less risky for everyone, and coupled with increased testing, slow and eventually halt the spread, long before a vaccine is ready.

Whats the best moment to reopen the United States? As soon as therere sufficient quantities of these drugs distributed around the country and doctors are educated to use them as a primary treatment. Then infections can be cured rapidly and patients on ventilators will be a thing of the past. The president should call for mass production of these life-saving drugs.

President Trump broke the good news about chloroquine and a possible early reopening, but many doctors may be reluctant to prescribe the drugs for off-label uses.

Dr. Fauci has the unique stature to specifically recommend that these be used as the standard treatment. After all, in a radio interview, Fauci said of course he would prescribe chloroquine, and mildly suggested doctors could prescribe it, too. So he knows it works, but may be too cautious to declare it as a cure. In this national emergency, delaying such a declaration can result in thousands more deaths and a continued national quarantine for perhaps many more months.

Some may wish to perpetuate the emergency for political gain. Democrats, statists, and others have a stake in perpetuating the economic damage, establishing Chinese-style social control, and packing future congressional relief bills with their socialist dreams.

A target of Easter or sometime in May might actually be achievable, because a war-time production-level of these drugs and test kits could result in every hospital and pharmacy having sufficient quantities to start to eradicate the disease within weeks.

The wrong things to do would be to require these FDA-approved drugs to undergo time-and-life-consuming randomized controlled trials specific to coronavirus, or turn a short period of flattening the curve social distancing into a permanent police-state quarantine until a vaccine is ready.

The standard in this emergency for the use of existing FDA-approved drugs should simply be this: Do patients recover without worse side-effects? Thats it, period.

Americans need hope. And work. Without a hope of a near-term end to the shutdown and a return to work, could the United States survive on lockdown for months or perhaps a year when a vaccine would be ready?

Imagine more than half of all small businesses, farms, and entrepreneurs bankrupt, or most hourly workers without means of support other than bailouts and welfare. Stock market and real estate values collapsed. Recovery could take a decade or longer because bankrupt people wont buy products and services if reopening takes many months or a year.

Mass unemployment, even with regular stimulus checks, creates the conditions for starvation, crime, despair, suicides, riots, and even revolution.

While the United States is shutdown, our totalitarian enemies wont be. Count on that. China, Iran, Russia, North Korea, terrorist groups, and every Third World country with designs on their neighbors will take terrifying advantage of the United States and our allies being crippled.

As an epidemiologist, Faucis cautious medical instincts may be to keep everyone in the United States self-quarantined for many months or until a vaccine is ready for mass distribution. Hes a doctor and wants to entirely halt infections, and while thats admirable, theres a balance, as President Trump expressed: We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself.

Hope. Thats what Americans need in this crisis. And a cure. And both are what President Trump offered with his hint of an Easter miracle, and support for potential cures like chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine. Rollout of these drugs can make the presidents hope of a reopened, healthy, and thriving America into a reality.

*The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Partys coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.

Art Harman is the president of the Coalition to Save Manned Space Exploration. He was the legislative director and foreign policy adviser for Rep. Stockman (R-Texas) in the 113th Congress, and is a veteran policy analyst and grassroots political expert.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The 1,000-bed hospital ship USNS Comfort sailed up the Hudson River today and moored on Pier 90 in midtown Manhattan, where it will treat non-COVID-19 patients to ease pressure on local hospitals as they battle with the pandemic.

The Navy ship had sailed several days ahead of schedule from its moorings in Norfolk, Virginia, where it was undergoing maintenance when the CCP virus pandemic reached U.S. shores.

President Donald Trump personally went to the Virginia dock two days ago to bid the Comfort farewell, fulfilling his earlier promise to kiss it goodbye.

The Comfort is one of two Navy hospital ships drafted in to help with the battle with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

The death toll from the virus in New York City is 776, with over 1,000 deaths across the state of New York.

Just a few blocks down from the Comfort, FEMA is setting up a 3,000-bed field hospital at the Javits Convention Center with the Armys assistance as a temporary medical facility, to ease the bed shortage.

With the department of defense having just 2 percent of the nations hospitalsthe majority of which are not set up for infectious diseasesthe military had warned they could provide only limited direct medical support.

However, the Army and National Guard have been called on to support in other ways.

The Army Corps of Engineers has so far engaged 15,000 troops to help with seven FEMA Mission Assignments to help build emergency hospitals.

Officials say that the Javits Center could help provide the blueprint for similar facilities to be set up as the CCP virus potentially sweeps into other states. So far, according to KKTV, 181 such sites have been identified.

The other Navy hospital ship, the Mercy, arrived in Los Angeles on Friday.

The ship will serve as a referral hospital for non-COVID-19 patients currently admitted to shore-based hospitals, and will provide a full spectrum of medical care to include critical and urgent care for adults, the Navy stated in a news release March 23.

This will allow local health professionals to focus on treating COVID-19 patients and for shore-based hospitals to use their Intensive Care Units and ventilators for those patients.

States have mobilized a total of over 13,880 National Guard troops, according to a March 28 statement.

The president announced last week that federal funding was being made available to the National Guard in Washington, California, and New Yorkgranting Title 32 statusleaving the governors free to activate units without worrying about the cost.

Officials emphasized that the March 22 announcement didnt mean the National Guard had been federalized, and were not now under the command of the president.

That Title 32 status is no different than when the National Guard responds to natural disasters, wrote the head of the National Guard, Gen. Joseph Lengyel, on Twitter.

Governors and adjutants general, who know best what is needed on the ground, will continue to command Guardsmen and women and use them where they are needed most.

The reservist National Guard, organized under the Department of Defense, is predominantly a state resourcethe modern-day heir to organized state militias.

The default legal position is that Guardsmen are commanded by the state governor, not the federal government.

Federalizing the Guard would strip the Guard of the ability to engage in law enforcement. This is because a military force under the command of the president is forbidden by the Posse Comitatus Act to be used on U.S. citizens to enforce the law.

From The Epoch Times
The Yellowknife Women's Society is creating emergency housing and a managed alcohol program for people living in homeless shelters or other overcrowded situations who need to self-isolate during the COVID-19 crisis, but an unexpected issue with the building's insurer could lead to weeks of delays.

On Friday, the society announced it had signed a purchase agreement with the Arnica Inn to use the property for transitional housing, with funding promised from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and the N.W.T. government.

On Monday morning, the society's executive director, Bree Denning, told CBC that beginning later this week, around 25 people in need of emergency housing will be moving into the inn.

However, around 2 p.m. Monday, Denning said she was told that Intact Insurance, who was insuring the property, had "reneged" on its coverage and gave the society 30 days to find a new insurance company. Denning said Intact didn't provide a reason but the society is currently working on getting a new insurer for the building.

She said it could be weeks before they're able to house any participants.

Chantal Dubuc/CBC

"Our housing is for people who are in shelters or other overcrowded situations who need to socially distance themselves because they have risk factors," Denning said.

"We're reaching out to shelters and individuals who we know have advanced age, lung function issues, are immunocompromised ... who are staying at shelters or staying in overcrowded conditions who need to be able to keep away because their risk of severe illness is very high."

The program is being funded by the territorial government, though Denning is unsure what the total cost will be.

Providing alcohol, cigarettes

While people in the program will be allowed to leave the property, Denning said they'll be provided with food, alcohol and cigarettes so they don't have to. Supplying substances also means people won't be forced to turn to things like rubbing alcohol, household cleaner, or used cigarette butts to feed their addictions, Denning said.

Story continues

"It's startling to see how quickly it can be put in place when it serves public health interest. I'm questioning why this couldn't have been done before." - Yellowknife Women's Society executive director, Bree Denning

"We need to find out who's going to be staying with us and we'll purchase based on that. What we're trying to do is ... tailor what we purchase and what we provide to that person's preferences," Denning said.

"If someone is a sherry drinker and all we're providing is vodka, they might not be interested in it. We also don't want to make a hard alcohol drinker out of a beer drinker. We want to make sure we're moving people toward less harmful substances instead of the other way around."

Denning said support staff and security will also be on-site.

Kirk Pennell/CBC

The territorial government has been looking at the viability of a managed alcohol program in the territory for almost two decades. The N.W.T. Housing Corporation is working to create a temporary housing and managed alcohol program of its own for people experiencing homelessness who have COVID-19 symptoms or are awaiting test results, Denning said. No one from the territorial government would comment on the program but said an announcement will be made later this week.

"It's startling to see how quickly it can be put in place when it serves public health interest. I'm questioning why this couldn't have been done before," Denning said.

"What I would hate to see is we get these managed alcohol programs in place and people start to benefit from them and taper down and make changes in their lives. Then when [COVID-19] is no longer the issue of the day, we pull all those supports away."

Arnica Inn renovation on hold

Denning said after the threat of COVID-19 has subsided, the society will begin renovations to convert 42 units at the inn into transitional housing for people in need.

While the project now has the green light, it hit a roadblock last month. The society applied for funding from the CMHC's co-investment program last year. Under that program, the crown corporation would have paid for about 75 per cent of the project if the territorial government kicked in the other 25 per cent.

The society had asked for $4 million from the CMHC, conditional upon a $660,000 contribution from the N.W.T. Housing Corporation. Regular MLAs lauded the arrangement as "a great deal."

Much to the surprise of the women's society, its application was rejected on Feb. 14 after the CMHC said the territorial government refused to support the program, something the N.W.T. Housing Corporation denies.

Denning said, after many meetings, the territorial government agreed to provide the funding and asked the CMHC to reopen it's funding application. The owners of the Arnica Inn, the TC Group of Companies, has allowed the society to buy the property with a deferred payment option while it works out the funding agreement with the CMHC, Denning said.

Before renovations can begin the society has to do upgrades on the building, but the surveyors and experts required to do those upgrades live outside the territory. The N.W.T. border is currently closed to non-residents with few exceptions, so Denning said it could be a while before that happens.

No one from the territorial government was immediately available for comment.
By PTI

MUMBAI: National oil marketing companies have come out on Sunday allaying the fears of consumers about product shortages, saying there is absolutely no shortage of any fuel, especially cooking gas, which is being supplied to customers at their doorsteps.

On average, the daily supply of cooking gas has gone up by at least 35-40 per cent since the lockdown, in spite of working with minimal staff, the companies said.

ALSO READ: Dharmendra Pradhan speaks to Saudi Oil Minister for uninterrupted crude, LPG supplies

The collective assurance of uninterrupted supplies of all oil products, especially LPG cylinders, by Indian Oil, BPCL and HPCL, come amidst panic booking of cooking gas by consumers since the national lockdown imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.

This, coupled with staff shortage, has led to some delays in the initial days of the lockdown but now it has been normalised, they added.

We assure all our Indane customers that there is currently no shortage of LPG, and domestic cylinders are being supplied as per usual: Indian Oil Corporation. #CoronavirusLockdown pic.twitter.com/4LzhDcaYnw  ANI (@ANI) March 29, 2020

On Sunday, Mukesh Kumar Surana, the chairman and managing director of the ONGC-run Hindustan Petroleum said, there is absolutely no room for consumers to worry about LPG shortages at all.

"I assure all public that there is no shortage of any oil products at all. All the more let me assure that there is absolutely no shortage of LPG at all. In fact, our LPG plants are working at over capacity to meet any spike in demand. I request all not to engage in panic booking of cooking gas," Surana said.

Explaining how HPCL has augmented LPG supplies, he said at the national level the daily supply has gone from 12 lakh cylinders to 15 lakh a day for his company.

In Mumbai, HPCL has supplied 56 per cent more cylinders on Saturday, from 34,000 to 51,000, while in Pune the spike in supplies is 54 per cent, he added.

ALSO READ: IOC sees 30% rise in LPG cylinder demand in Bengal due to panic-buying

Surana also said, HPCL has equipped all its delivery boys with masks, sanitisers and also trained them in social distancing.

Accordingly, they have been asked not to carry cylinders to individual homes but to the society gates as there are restrictions on entry for outsiders at many societies.

"Unfortunately, we had many instances of cylinders being returned from many societies in the city which is a logistical problem as wastage of resources, who are anyways are in very short supply," Surana rued.

Similarly, the second largest player, BPCL said its daily LPG supplies in Maharashtra has gone up by 32 per cent, while the same is up 40 per cent in Mumbai and 37 per cent each in Navi Mumbai and Thane, a BPCL spokesman told PTI.

In an interview to PTI earlier in the day in New Delhi, the IOC chairman said there is absolutely no need to worry about any shortage of fuel items.

"We have mapped demand for all fuel for entire April and beyond. We have refineries operating at levels enough to meet all of the demand. Besides all bulk storage points, LPG distributorships and petrol pumps are functioning normally. There is absolutely no shortage of any fuel," Singh said.

ALSO READ: LPG supplies normal in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry; no need for panic booking: OMCs

At another level, the oil companies are also out in the media explaining that there is no shortage of LPG.

While IOC has released an ad on the DD with the chairman Sanjiv Singh himself assuring of uninterrupted supplies of all oil products, especially LPG, and also launched a Twitter campaign saying it is delivering gas with the help of the police machinery, BPCL is undertaking social media campaign on its Facebook page, Twitter handle and the Instagram page since the lockdown was announced.

The BPCL campaign promises LPG delivery at the door step, assuring ample product availability and also exhorting sanitisation methods and social distancing.

In IOC ad, the chairman is assuring the public of absolutely no issues in supplying all petroleum products, especially cooking gas and kerosene, and that all its depots, and LPG bottling plants, including import terminals, are functioning at full capacity.

"All our stakeholders and our employees are working round the clock to ensure that supplies are normal. I once again assure everyone that all the products are available for all customers and there is absolutely no need for any panic booking," says Singh.

IOC's Twitter campaign says 'home delivery of LPG cylinders is on as usual and the delivery chain is being supported by the state police.

Citizens need not expose themselves to health by going personally to distributors.
Confusion over whether bridges are closed, partly closed, or will close definitely on April 1

PHUKET: After only this morning laying down the law and denying unauthorised people and vehicles permission to cross the bridges into and out of Phuket, Phuket Vice Governor Supoj Rotreuang Na Nongkhai late today said that some people in special circumstances are being allowed through, explained a report by the Phuket office of the Pubic Relations Department which has now been pulled down off the official PR Phuket Facebook page.

COVID-19Coronavirustransport

By The Phuket News

Monday 30 March 2020, 10:16PM

A screenshot of the PR Dept post now removed, causing confusion over whether or not Phuket people are still allowed to return home over the bridges. Screenshot: PR Phuket / Facebook

The bridges were closed to all unauthorised traffic at midnight last night by order of the Phuket Governor.

Under the order no vehicles are to be permitted across the bridges except rescue services and ambulances and those engaged in delivering the following:

gas and petrol

construction materials

medical equipment and supplies

parcel and mail delivery

all forms of printed media

All drivers must follow officials instructions or face legal action for breach of the Emergency Decree Act, Governor Phakaphong warned in the order. (See story here.)

Vice Governor Supoj Rotreuang Na Nongkhai this morning appealed for the public to not attempt to leave the island or try to enter Phuket by bridge following people being turned away in droves since the bridges were closed.

He said that a lack of understanding among the public about the closure of the bridges  especially the fact that some vehicles, and people, were still allowed to pass  was the root of the problem.

Some people, including officials, understand that this announcement does not cover to everyone, so I repeat again that the only people allowed across the bridges are those exceptions listed in the announcement.

Even then, those people must pass strict screening procedures, V/Gov Supoj said.

We are asking all drivers [not on the list of exceptions] to not come to the bridges. New COVID-19 cases are being confirmed in Phuket each day. We must control the spread and ensure the safety of the Phuket people as best we can, he added.

Asked about people in vehicles turning up at the Phuket Check Point wantin to enter or exit Phuket, Vice Governor Supoj assured, We tell them to go back. We cant let them in. We have already announced officially to shut down the bridges.

That includes anyone who lives or works in Phang Nga province. They are under the same conditions, he said.

This evening, a post by on the official PR Phuket Facebook page reported that Vice Governor Supoj said that some extra exceptions needed to be allowed, namely Phuket people wanting to come home, and others wanting to leave Phuket to go home.

Special permission will be granted case by case, he said.

Such consideration is needed to to allow entry at this stage, such as Phuket people coming home, but they must present their identification to officers to clearly confirm identity and their place of residence, Vice Governor Supoj said.

People travelling in groups of four to five will not be allowed to pass, and any people from other provinces coming back into Phuket because they work here must present evidence from their employer to prove that they do actually work in Phuket, he added.

As for people who live in Baan Tha Chatchai, the northernmost village in Phuket beside the bridges, and anyone else who lived in Phang Nga but worked in Phuket, including officials, Vice Governor Supoj was very clear.

This is not a condition for being allowed across the bridges, and the provincial government will issue a letter to all government agencies prohibiting travel outside Phuket. Officers in Phuket must perform their duties from within Phuket only, he said.

Although the PR Phuket report posted earlier this evening was corroborated by national TV news reports throughout the day and even repeated by other government agencies, the post has since been removed. (Click here.)

Of note, unlike any of the official reports for weeks now, the now-removed report did not include the repeated warning of the penalties for posting fake news.

The Phuket News is waiting for a hopefully more definitive report from the government as to whether the bridges are now closed to all regular traffic, partly closed, or will be derfinitely closed come April 1.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 21:29:36|Editor: yhy

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FRANKFURT, March 30 (Xinhua) -- A higher percentage of German mechanical engineering companies said they are being affected by the coronavirus pandemic, a latest survey from the German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (VDMA) showed on Monday.

The percentage of companies whose operations are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic rose to 84 percent from 60 percent nearly two weeks ago, and 45 percent of those affected said they suffer from "serious" or "noticeable" supply chain disruptions, according to the VDMA's latest survey covering 965 member companies.

Disruptions in supply chains are particularly prevalent in Italy, followed by Germany, China, France and the United States, the survey results showed.

"However, the situation in China and South Korea seems to be easing slightly. In addition, many engineering companies are reporting a significant increase in orders from their Chinese customers," VDMA chief economist Ralph Wiechers said in a statement.

Meanwhile, nearly 96 percent of the companies surveyed are expecting a decline in sales in 2020, and 60 percent of them estimate these declines will be in the range of 10 to 30 percent. Three-quarters of the companies surveyed have already made capacity adjustments, and 12 percent found staff reductions an issue, according to the VDMA.

The industry survey also found nearly three-quarters of the companies are considering cutting back their investment plans for 2020 due to "uncertain business prospects and liquidity bottlenecks".

"Helping to get the investments back on track will be one of the most urgent political tasks for the post-Corona period," said Wiechers.

Germany has been the world's third-largest machinery producer since 2013, with a sales volume of 296 billion euros (326 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019, slightly down from 300 billion euros the previous year.

The past year was already challenging for many mechanical engineering companies, and 2020 will again be "a great challenge for everyone" due to the coronavirus pandemic, Wiechers commented in a recent statement.

The VDMA economists said that there will probably be catch-up effects in the second half of 2020, but they will "by no means" be able to compensate for the losses incurred in the meantime.
GREENWICH  The number of Greenwich residents who have been diagnosed with the coronavirus has reached triple digits as a group of anonymous residents made a sizable donation of masks to Greenwich Hospital.

There were 113 Greenwich cases as of Monday, up from 77 on Friday. Greenwich Hospital was treating 90 patients with the virus as of Monday, but they were not all town residents because the hospital takes in patients from the wider region.

We are now just going into our in-house kind of over-capacity beds as we call it, Diane Kelly, Greenwich Hospitals COO, said on Monday afternoons media call with First Selectman Fred Camillo. There are beds in locations we have identified in the hospital that are not in our traditional bed count ... but they can easily be taken care of in a safe manner in the confines of the campus.

Kelly said they were setting up 95 over-capacity beds at Greenwich Hospital, which has 206 beds, 32 of which are for newborns. She said they have just started to use those 95 beds, which are usually used for day or ambulatory procedures. They are now converted into overnight spaces.

We started moving into that Sunday night, Kelly said. Were able to take care of everybody coming to us. We have plans for each of these stages, and as we continue to get new people in, we are continuing to discharge. The number of patients in the hospital is always a very fluid number.

The hospital reported that 41 coronavirus patients have been discharged.

Making a big donation

On Monday, a group residents, who asked to remain anonymous, delivered more than 10,000 masks to Greenwich Hospital and Greenwichs first responders, with another 2,000 set to go to Greenwich Emergency Medical Service, Camillo said.

The hospital, which is part of the Yale New Haven Health System, is continuing to hold up when it comes to supplies, Kelly said.

The Yale New Haven Health System ... has been sending us our supplies as needed, Kelly said. We, of course, are being careful with those supplies and were making sure were conservative, but not at the expense of our employees. Were all being mindful of it, but we have not had shortages.

Camillo said a nonprofit called Greenwich Comes Together will be formed to help meet the needs of first responders and health care workers. It may also help local small businesses and perhaps even individuals, he said.

We are talking to attorneys and this is a something that could even outlive the coronavirus crisis, Camillo said. Were hopeful with a permanent 501(c)3 this will be available for lots of different needs in Greenwich.  There will be some silver linings to come out of this and we certainly want to make sure Greenwich Hospital, our health care workers and our first responders have all the personal protective equipment that they need for the coming months.

Stopping the spread of the virus

Of the 113 residents diagnosed with the coronavirus, the Department of Health said one patient is in the age range of 10 to 19; 11 are ages 20 to 29; 18 are ages 30 to 39; 17 are ages 40 to 49; 22 are ages 50 to 59; 23 are ages 60 to 69; nine are ages 70 to 79; and 12 are over the age of 80.

The town has put in place strict social-distancing guidelines, including closing all town parks and beaches, the libraries, the civic centers and the Senior Center. The state has asked non-essential businesses to close and restricted restaurants to takeout and delivery only.

Stricter measures may be necessary, Camillo said. Grocery stores are still open, but there are discussions statewide of limiting the number of people who can go in at once. Norwalk is restricting stores to one family member at a time.

It would be preferable for the businesses to set those limits  and a lot of them have been really terrific about it, Camillo said. Some have even reached out to us first. Under an emergency declaration, we have the power, but right now I think people are doing the right thing and theres no need for any governmental action.

If residents are concerned that others are not following the guidelines, they should call the Greenwich Police Departments non-emergency number at 203-622-8004, Camillo said. The 911 emergency line should not be used for those kinds of calls.

This is not meant to be a tattle-tale phone line, Chief of Police James Heavey said. This line is for reporting the congregation of people and other non-emergency (coronavirus)-related calls.

Anyone who is showing mild symptoms should contact their doctor for information, but those with serious symptoms should call 911.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.com
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India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Kolkata, Mar 30: A 77-year-old man from the city tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, taking the total number of people afflicted with the dreaded virus to 22, a senior health official said.

The septuagenarian was admitted to a private medical facility on Sunday evening with fever, cough and severe respiratory issues, he said.

The elderly man, whose travel history is yet to be ascertained, is on ventilator support at an isolation unit of the hospital, the official said.

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The total number of COVID-19 cases has risen to 22 in West Bengal, including two deaths.

NEWS AT NOON, MARCH 30th, 2020

A 44-year-old woman from Kalimpong in Darjeeling district became the latest fatality on Monday morning. She breathed her last around 2 am at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, officials said.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, March 30, 2020, 12:25 [IST]
It's going to be bloodbath in the aviation sector as a result of Covid-19 outbreak. With passenger operations of all commercial airlines coming to a grinding halt till April 14, probably even beyond, the industry enters a phase of large-scale disruption. According to aviation consultancy firm CAPA, Covid-19 would cost the sector $3.6 billion (Rs 27,200 crore) in just three months. As a result, Tata Sons might be forced to operate just one airline from amongst the two (Vistara and AirAsia India) that it is operating now.

"This may be the right time for Tata Group to rationalise its airline portfolio. This event is going to cripple the entire industry, and Tata Group will be in a position to back just one airline instead of two," says Kapil Kaul, CEO (South Asia), CAPA.

As per data submitted with the ministry of civil aviation, both AirAsia India and Vistara have continuously posted operating losses between FY15 and FY19. Vistara, for instance, posted (provisional) operating losses of Rs 846.1 crore in FY19 in comparison to AirAsia India's Rs 703.04 crore operating losses in the same financial year. In FY19, operating losses of nearly all large carriers, including Vistara and AirAsia India, swelled considerably as compared to the previous financial year.

"Post Covid-19 world is going to be entirely different. The biggest worry is that if this situation gets prolonged, some airlines would shut down. The stronger airlines, especially IndiGo, would likely withstand the impact and restart services with depleted operations. But there seems to be bleak future for loss-making carriers," says an aviation analyst.

Though it's not clear that which Tata Group entity will likely bear the brunt; the rough journey of AirAsia India since inception makes it more vulnerable to the current challenging environment.

Business Today's queries to AirAsia India and Vistara remained unanswered until the publication of this piece.

Both Vistara and AirAsia India commenced operations around the same time though Vistara has grown to be slightly bigger with 41 aircraft (Airbus A320s, Boeing 737-800NG and 787-9) in its fleet covering 36 destinations in India and abroad. AirAsia India, in comparison, has 29 aircraft (A320s) covering 21 destinations. AirAsia India, a joint venture with Tony Fernandes-run AirAsia Bhd, was first to start services in June 2014 from its Bengaluru hub soon after the government allowed 49 per cent FDI (foreign direct investment) into an Indian airline.

The former chairman of Tata Sons Cyrus Mistry was critical about the AirAsia India venture from the beginning. The piling up of losses, slow expansion and the constant exit of C-suite executives made the AirAsia investment far from being healthy. But despite this, Tata Group upped its stake in the venture from 30 per cent initially to 51 per cent last year. Then in 2016, the airline created controversy when a forensic report by Deloitte revealed alleged irregular transactions with fictitious companies mandated by its first CEO Mittu Chandilya. This was followed by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation into alleged lobbying and irregular transactions by AirAsia's Fernandes and other airline executives. Recently, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned Fernandes in a probe for allegedly violating rules of securing overseas flying rights and money laundering.

Tata Group has been reportedly mulling over exiting from AirAsia India for some time now. With so much baggage, it seems that the group has not been able to find a buyer for its stake. Vistara, on the other hand, has been expanding relatively faster, and has taken delivery of its first Dreamliner recently to pursue international ambitions. Vistara, in which the group owns 51 per cent stake (49 per cent is with Singapore Airlines), remains the only private full-service carrier (FSC) in the domestic market after Jet Airways' demise. "Nothing can be ruled out at the moment. With a smaller fleet and lesser number of flying destinations, AirAsia India has garnered more market share (7.3 per cent in February 2020) than Vistara (6.7 per cent). They must be doing something right," says an aviation consultant.

For Tata Group, getting into aviation was more of an emotional decision given that the group's patriarch JRD Tata pioneered the concept of aviation in the country by founding Air India in 1932. Tata Group's keen interest in expanding its aviation vertical has been fairly known. In 2018, when Air India floated the EoI (expression of interest) document for 76 per cent stake sale, the group was considered a front-runner in the race; though it backed out later due to concerns flagged by the board. Last year, its name was doing the rounds when the troubled Jet was up for sale. Early this month, Vistara chairman Bhaskar Bhat had said that they were evaluating the prospects of bidding for the national carrier.

With the global coronavirus outbreak, the situation has turned upside down in a short span for every corporate group, including Tatas. Perhaps, the time is not too far when the group has to make some tough decisions.

Also Read: Coronavirus impact: Supply chain disruption to cost auto industry Rs 6,080 crore

Also Read: Coronavirus scare: Foreign tourist arrivals growth hit record low in February

Also Read: Coronavirus: Govt denies lockdown extension, says 'no such plan'
In these difficult times, let me start on a positive note. Tamanna Ali of Bareilly was pregnant. She was due to deliver any day, but her husband was stuck in Noida. Due to the complete lockdown, there was no way he could reach his wife. There was no one who could even take Tamanna to the hospital.

As soon as Hindustan correspondent, Avinash Pandey, came to know of her struggle, he informed the SSP of Bareilly about it. The SSP spoke to the Noida Police commissioner who, in turn, spoke to the additional commissioner of police, Noida, Ranvijay Singh, and asked him to help this couple. Singh arranged a vehicle for Tamannas husband. The Noida police also ensured that the vehicle was not stopped en route to Bareilly. A little after Anees Khan reached his wife, she delivered a baby boy. The couple named their son Ranvijay Khan after the police officer who helped them in their hour of need. Hopefully, when he grows up, Ranvijay Khan will carry forward the Indian tradition of communal harmony and devotion to duty.

It is heartening that many people and organisations in India have come together with the government to tackle the coronavirus challenge. With each passing day, the bonds of cooperation are becoming stronger. But a lot more need to be done on this front.

Let us first examine the international context.

In Britain, the prime minister, the health secretary and the heir to the throne, Prince Charles, have tested positive for the coronavirus. It was only recently that the British prime minister was heard saying in a press conference that the coronavirus disease, Covid-19, was being presented in an exaggerated manner. This careless attitude has jeopardised not only his life that those of his countrys citizens. This mighty empire on which the sun never set has been laid low, as everyone else, by an even mightier virus.

The United States (US) too is in panic mode. True to form, President Donald Trump did not take this disaster seriously in the initial phase. Thats why the US is now caught in an unprecedented crisis. Its surprising that the US, the most powerful country globally, with its cutting-edge technology and medicine, was caught short when the disaster hit. New York, one of the finest cities in the world, has been among the worst affected.

Its governor is unhappy with the Trump administrations handling of the situation. The kind of political squabbling on display in the US shows that community spirit and harmony are built on very shaky foundations. It is true that the severity of any epidemic cannot be predicted, but the US, with its economic might and scientific talent, has proved unimaginably inadequate in its ability to mobilise medical and health services for a stricken population.

The situation is worse in Europe. In Spain and Italy, the death toll is increasing steadily. There is a shortage of coffins for those who have died of the virus.

Its understandable that these countries are unhappy with China, which cannot entirely escape some of the blame for not being more transparent when the virus surfaced in Wuhan. It would seem now that Trump may blame China to cover up his own shortcomings in the upcoming presidential elections.

China has also not held back from needling the US on this issue. As the US administration struggles to save lives, Chinese President Xi Jinping has been offering to donate ventilators to European countries. Clearly, he wants to win their support.

Turn to the domestic context now.

Some people allege that the national lockdown does not amount to a comprehensive solution. What was the option at a time when it is impossible to tell who may have the infection and yet be asymptomatic? It is alarming to see photographs of tempos and trucks, people packed like sardines in them, transporting them back to their homes in villages. This is the way how the virus will spread to rural areas, which have very poor health care facilities.

If we succeed in containing or even reducing the impact of the community transmission stage of this infection, India will go down in the annals of medical history. The time has come for Indian society to realise its responsibilities and adopt social distancing for the greater common good. We need to lend a helping hand to the poor as much as we can. This is our tradition. No government can tackle such a crisis of this magnitude just through money and welfare schemes. We must all rise to the occasion.

Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan

The views expressed are personal

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Lockdown hitting the top of the countrys scenario has led to video conferencing between FM NirmalaSitharaman and RBI. The discussion would be on planning to borrow INR 5.36 lakh crore from the market.

RBI & Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman will set up a meeting tomorrow (31 March 2020) to finalise on the borrowing plan for the first half. The government plans to borrow INR 5.36 lakh crore from the market in 2020-21, more than estimated value (INR 4.99 lakh crore) of the present year.

While presenting Budget for 2020-21, Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman had said, "Net market borrowings for the year 2019-20 would be Rs 4.99 lakh crore and for the year 2020-21, it would be Rs 5.36 lakh crore".

she also added, "A good part of the borrowings for the financial year 2020-21 would go towards capital expenditure of the government that has been scaled up by more than 21 per cent.

However, the Govt would concentrate on utilizing the amount to address the crisis caused by COVID-19 on the countrys economy. Gross borrowing has been pegged marginally higher than the ongoing fiscal and would be 7.8 lakh crore for the next fiscal year comparedto INR 7.1 lakh crore estimated this year. It includes repayments of past loans and interests.

According to sources, the meeting between the Finance Ministry and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will be held through video conferencing for the first time as there is lockdown across the country.

It also stated that post meeting the borrowing calendar for issuance of dated government securities and short term papers will be announced in the evening.
In an interview, Hagel said the men were not among the most radical at Guantanamo but acknowledged that officials were not able to guarantee they would not conduct or incite violence against the United States. Knowing like you always do that theres never any certainty, we tried to get as many assurances as we could, he said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30) The Philippines is seeking donations of additional medical equipment including ventilators and respirators amid the rapid rise of COVID-19 cases in the country, the Health Department said.

"When it comes to equipment, basically po ang binibigay sa atin at ang tanging hingi rin naman kung sakali'y tayong nakakapag-request, ay mga ventilators," Health Undersecretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire said in a Laging Handa media briefing on Monday.

[Translation: When it comes to equipment, basically what are given to us and what we're requesting for are ventilators.]

"Gusto natin na dumami pa ang ating ventilators and respirators, sa iba't ibang parte ng ating bansa to prepare for the eventuality kung kailanganin natin," she added.

[Translation: We want to have more ventilators and respirators in all parts of the country to prepare for the eventuality that we would need them.]

Vergeire earlier said the government has "pending requests" to international agencies for donations of the said medical equipment. In a Sunday briefing, she said donations may come in a few weeks' time.

As of DOH's latest record (March 28), there are 84 available mechanical ventilators in hospitals around Metro Manila. Of this number, 39 are in public hospitals.

There are likewise 485 available ventilators outside the capital region, Vergeire noted.

Meanwhile, interns from the University of the Philippines College of Medicine research team are also aiming to develop a prototype respirator for the local frontliners.

The group is looking for donations for the following: Computer Fan 5V DC x 3 units; Pool/Bed Electric Inflator; and 30A Electronic Speed Controller.

The Philippines has recorded 1,418 cases of the infectious disease as of Sunday, including 71 fatalities and 42 recoveries.
Vlad Coric, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Biohaven commented, "Rimegepant is the first CGRP targeting therapy to complete pivotal trials that demonstrate efficacy in both the acute and preventive treatment of migraine. The magnitude of effect in the rimegepant treated arm of a 4.5 day reduction at 3 months in this study was on the higher end of what has been demonstrated by other approved preventive drugs for migraine patients with similar baselines. We believe rimegepant has the potential to change the paradigm of migraine treatment, offering patients the potential for dual-therapy action  acute and preventive treatment  in one simple dose and convenient formulation." Dr. Coric added, "We believe that, for prevention, the ability to take an oral medication every other day rather than recurring injection/intravenous therapy provides patients with a simple, less invasive method of treatment and may allow patients to feel more in control of their migraine. If successful in expanding our label for NURTEC ODT to include prevention, patients for the first time will have the convenience of one oral medication to treat their migraine across the spectrum instead of having to mix different acute and preventive medications."

Richard B. Lipton, M.D., Professor and Vice Chair of Neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System, Director of the Montefiore Headache Center commented, "I see many patients who are discouraged by the limited current preventive treatment options and continue to look for a better way to prevent disabling migraine attacks. This is the first time that patients may be able to use a single drug for both acute and preventive treatment. Particularly impressive is the fact that the primary outcome measure of reduction in monthly migraine days was achieved with every other day dosing. I believe that rimegepant will fulfill significant unmet needs for my patients as an oral agent that provides acute and preventive treatment benefits."

This pivotal study enrolled patients with both episodic and chronic migraine. The study evaluated the efficacy and safety of rimegepant 75 mg (n=370) dosed every other day for the preventive treatment of migraine versus placebo (n=371) in patients who had migraine for at least one year and 4 to 18 moderate to severe migraine attacks per month over three months prior to enrollment. During the one-month observation period, patients experienced on average 10.7 migraine days during the 4 week month, with 7.4 migraine days of moderate to severe pain intensity migraine during the same period.

Robert Croop, M.D., Chief Development Officer  Neurology at Biohaven added, "These data demonstrate rimegepant's broad range of clinical activity to potentially provide a new oral preventive treatment option for people with migraine. The magnitude of effect in the rimegepant treated arm with favorable safety and tolerability suggest that rimegepant could be a best-in class oral therapy for both preventive and acute treatment of migraine. We look forward to sharing detailed results from the study at upcoming medical conferences and continuing to advance this innovative oral treatment for the preventive treatment of migraine."

The safety profile seen in the 370 patients who received rimegepant 75 mg every other day was consistent with prior clinical trial experience. There were no cases of ALT or AST > 3 x ULN and bilirubin > 2 x ULN. An independent liver monitoring panel did not determine any ALT/AST elevations to be in the categories of probably or definitely related to study drug. Discontinuation rates were higher in the placebo arm, largely driven by a greater number of placebo patients (6%) withdrawing consent compared to rimegepant treated participants (3%). Additional efficacy and safety study results will be shared at medical conferences later this year.

Biohaven Conference Call Information

Biohaven is hosting a conference call and webcast on Monday, March 30, 2020, at 8:30 a.m. ET. Participants are invited to join the conference by dialing 877-407-9120 (toll-free) or 412-902-1009 (international). To access the audio webcast with slides, please visit the "Events & Presentations" page in the Investors section of the Company's website.

About Rimegepant

The activity of the neuropeptide CGRP is thought to play a causal role in migraine pathophysiology. Rimegepant is a CGRP receptor antagonist that works by reversibly blocking CGRP receptors, thereby inhibiting the biologic activity of the CGRP neuropeptide.

About Migraine

Nearly 40 million people in the U.S. suffer from migraine and the World Health Organization classifies migraine as one of the 10 most disabling medical illnesses. Migraine is characterized by debilitating attacks lasting four to 72 hours with multiple symptoms, including pulsating headaches of moderate to severe pain intensity that can be associated with nausea or vomiting, and/or sensitivity to sound (phonophobia) and sensitivity to light (photophobia). There is a significant unmet need for new treatments as more than 90 percent of migraine sufferers are unable to work or function normally during an attack.

CGRP Receptor Antagonism

Small molecule CGRP receptor antagonists represent a novel class of drugs for the treatment of migraine. For acute treatment, this unique mode of action potentially offers an alternative to other agents, particularly for patients who have contraindications to the use of triptans or who have a poor response to triptans or are intolerant to them. Prior studies have shown that agents such as injectable antibodies that inhibit the CGRP pathway have clinical utility for the preventive treatment of migraine.

About NURTEC ODT

NURTEC ODT (rimegepant) is indicated for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura in adults. NURTEC ODT is not indicated for the preventive treatment of migraine. NURTEC ODT should not be taken by patients with hypersensitivity to NURTEC ODT or any of its components. If a serious hypersensitivity reaction occurs, discontinue NURTEC ODT and initiate appropriate therapy. Serious hypersensitivity reactions have included dyspnea and rash, and can occur days after administration.

In a clinical trial, the most common adverse reaction was nausea (2% in patients who received NURTEC ODT compared to 0.4% in patients who received placebo). Hypersensitivity, including dyspnea and rash, occurred in less than 1% of patients treated with NURTEC ODT. For more information about NURTEC ODT, visit www.nurtec.com.

About Biohaven

Biohaven is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative best-in-class therapies to improve the lives of patients with debilitating neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases. Biohaven's neuroinnovation portfolio includes FDA-approved Nurtec ODT (rimegepant) for the acute treatment of migraine and a broad pipeline of late-stage product candidates across three distinct mechanistic platforms: calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonism for the acute and preventive treatment of migraine; glutamate modulation for obsessive-compulsive disorder, Alzheimer's disease, and spinocerebellar ataxia; and myeloperoxidase (MPO) inhibition for multiple system atrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. For more information, visit www.biohavenpharma.com.

Forward-looking Statement

This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The use of certain words, including "believe", "continue", "may", and "will" and similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties, including statements that are based on the current expectations and assumptions of the Company's management about NURTEC ODT as an acute treatment for patients with migraine. Forward-looking statements include those related to: the Company's ability to effectively commercialize NURTEC ODT, delays or problems in the supply or manufacture of NURTEC ODT, complying with applicable U.S. regulatory requirements, the expected timing, commencement and outcomes of the Company's planned and ongoing clinical trials, the timing of planned interactions and filings with the FDA, the timing and outcome of expected regulatory filings, the potential commercialization of the Company's product candidates, the potential for the Company's product candidates to be first in class or best in class therapies and the effectiveness and safety of the Company's product candidates. Various important factors could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those that may be expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements. Additional important factors to be considered in connection with forward-looking statements are described in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 26, 2020. The forward-looking statements are made as of this date and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Biohaven Contact

Vlad Coric, M.D.

Chief Executive Officer

[email protected]

Media Contact

Mike Beyer

Sam Brown Inc.

[email protected]

(312) 961-2502

NURTEC and NOJECTION are trademarks of Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd.

SOURCE Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd.

Related Links

https://www.biohavenpharma.com


Following the citys Stay Home, Work Safe order, Animal Care Services has made changes to its procedures, but public safety patrols are still in place.

That was the case recently when two ACS officers responded to a call for an injured cat in a Northwest Side neighborhood. On the way, the officers were temporarily diverted by a trio of roaming dogs crisscrossing the street.

After ACS cadet John Cortez parked the truck, lead ACS officer Annamarie Cozzi stepped out and calmly approached the canines.

Thats the dog whisperer right there, Cortez said. She has a way.

Cozzi led a large dog to his owners yard, leaving him behind a white picket fence that she secured tightly with cable ties. With help from nearby residents, she picked up the ringleader, a small, brown terrier, and secured him in a kennel.

Come on, you need to go home, Cozzi said. Lets go find out who your mama and daddy are.

The third one, a large feral dog, slunk away through a patch of thick green grass while Cozzi was occupied with the others.

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Assistant Director Shannon Sims said its business as usual at the agency, with a heavy modification to the process for officers in the field and services that include quarantines, adoptions, fosters and animal intakes.

He said ACS has maintained a 90 percent or higher live release rate of healthy, treatable animals in spite of all the challenges. The rate represents the number of animals that left the shelter alive through adoption, returned to owner, trap-neuter-release or transfer to rescue partners.

ACS spokeswoman Lisa Norwood said the shelter takes in 30,000 animals a year.

Sims said ACS re-evaluated shelter quarantine practices for bite cases and obtained waivers from the state to address limited space. ACS staff built an electronic system so that when an animal enters quarantine, officers in the field take a one-minute video of the animal that is emailed to bite investigators. The clip is placed on the teams website, and a veterinarian can conduct the entrance and exit exams via telemedicine.

Thats allowed us to keep a lot of animals that would otherwise be here for 10 days at home while still fulfilling the quarantine requirement, Sims said.

He said ACS sweeps teams have been diverted from nuisance calls to first response public safety calls. He said all ACS officers go on patrol with a full-body bio Tyvek suit in case they have to interact with someone possibly infected with the coronavirus.

All officers are essential personnel, Sims said, and are still providing service to the community.

To help prevent the spread of disease, the insides of all vehicles are deep-cleaned and disinfected each shift, officials said.

Animal shelters have long dealt with disease outbreaks, and cleaning protocols are ingrained, Norwood said. The habits practiced in the kennels have a natural place in the field as well.

While there are numerous human and animal health experts who agree theres no evidence pets can transmit COVID-19 to their people, everyone in our community should still be practicing good hygiene habits with our companion animals, she added. Hand-washing, sanitizing our hands is one of the best ways to fight off any disease.

Sims said ACS is asking residents who pick up roaming animals to call 311 for an ACS officer to collect them. The dispatchers who take the calls are monitoring the network from their homes.

ACS operations manager Bethany Colonnese said the agency has moderated the procedure for visitors to the shelter, requiring appointments for all public services.

She said the front lobby is closed and that only critically injured animals are being accepted as intakes over the counter.

To comply with social distancing, curbside pickup is in place for residents adopting or fostering rescue animals.

Colonnese said owner surrender of animals is done only on a limited basis, depending on space at the shelter.

Were just trying to recruit fosters and keep up with adoptions as best we can, she said.

Vincent T. Davis is a reporter in the Greater San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | vtdavis@express-news.net | Twitter: @vincentdavis
Nearly a millennium and a half ago, red light streaked the night sky over Japan. Witnesses compared it to the tail of a pheasant -- it appeared as a fan of beautiful red feathers stretched across the sky. Since the event, scientists have studied the witness accounts written in the year 620 A.D. and speculated about what the cosmic phenomenon could have actually been. Now, researchers from The Graduate University for Advanced Studies may have found the answer.

They published their results on March 31, 2020 in the Sokendai Review of Culture and Social Studies.

"It is the oldest Japanese astronomical record of a 'red sign,'" said Ryuho Kataoka, a researcher with the Department of Polar Science in the School of Multidisciplinary Sciences at The Graduate University for Advanced Studies and the National Institute of Polar Research. "It could be a red aurora produced during magnetic storms. However, convincing reasons have not been provided, although the description has been very famous among Japanese people for a long time."

The problem with the aurora hypothesis, according to Kataoka, is that auroras do not look like pheasant tails. Instead, they are ribbon-esque, waving across the sky. It could have been a comet, some researchers speculated, but comets do not often appear red.

To better understand the phenomenon, Kataoka and his team adjusted their view -- literally. The magnetic latitude of Japan was 33 degrees in 620, compared to 25 degrees today. The pheasant tail appeared to be about 10 degrees long, placing it well within the area that would be affected by a strong magnetic storm.

"Recent findings have shown that auroras can be 'pheasant tail' shaped specifically during great magnetic storms," Kataoka said. "This means that the 620 A.D. phenomenon was likely an aurora."

The researchers plan to continue examining literary references for modern scientific relevance.

"This is an interesting and successful example that modern science can benefit from the ancient Japanese emotion evoked when the surprising appearance of heaven reminded them of a familiar bird," Kataoka said.

Pheasants are culturally significant in Japan and have been for generations. They were considered messengers of the heaven in traditional Japanese folklore. According to Kataoka, it is likely meaningful that the historical records used the shape of a pheasant's tail to describe the "heavenly" phenomenon of the fan-shaped auroras.

"We hope to continue exploring this collaboration between science and literature," Kataoka said.

###

Other contributors include Kozue Shiomi and Nobuo Kokubun, both with the Department of Polar Science in the School of Multidisciplinary Sciences at The Graduate University for Advanced Studies and the National Institute of Polar Research; Kazuaki Yamamoto, with the Department of Japanese Literature in the School of Culture and Social Studies in The Graduate University for Advanced Studies and the National Institute of Japanese Literature; and Yasunori Fujiwara, of the Department of Polar Science in the School of Multidisciplinary Sciences at The Graduate University for Advanced Studies.

The original paper was written in Japanese and a copy of the abstract is available in English at http://www.bunka.soken.ac.jp/journal_bunka/16_02_kataoka/index_en.html

About the Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS)

ROIS is a parent organization of four national institutes (National Institute of Polar Research, National Institute of Informatics, the Institute of Statistical Mathematics and National Institute of Genetics) and the Joint Support-Center for Data Science Research. It is ROIS's mission to promote integrated, cutting-edge research that goes beyond the barriers of these institutions, in addition to facilitating their research activities, as members of inter-university research institutes.

About National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR)

The NIPR engages in comprehensive research via observation stations in Arctic and Antarctica. As a member of the Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS), the NIPR provides researchers throughout Japan with infrastructure support for Arctic and Antarctic observations, plans and implements Japan's Antarctic observation projects, and conducts Arctic researches of various scientific fields such as the atmosphere, ice sheets, the ecosystem, the upper atmosphere, the aurora and the Earth's magnetic field. In addition to the research projects, the NIPR also organizes the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition and manages samples and data obtained during such expeditions and projects. As a core institution in researches of the polar regions, the NIPR also offers graduate students with a global perspective on originality through its doctoral program. For more information about the NIPR, please visit: https://www.nipr.ac.jp/english/
A 4-year-old Alabama girl went missing for two days after leaving her rural home. Luckily she was found safe with her dog Friday afternoon.

Evelyn Vadie Sides' grandmother, Harriet Sides, said, "I'm so happy and grateful to God for watching over my beautiful granddaughter and bringing her safely back to us.''

On a Wednesday afternoon, Evelyn Vadie was taking her dog for a walk when the caretaker saw the girl and disappeared after a second she turned her head.

Jones said, "The call was from a caretaker for the child, a friend of the family, she reported that she and the 4-year-old missing girl identified as baby Sides were outside in the back of the residence, that literally, she was there one moment and then she looked up and the little girl had disappeared from her view."

She was last seen in the 5000 block of Lee County Road 66 in Loachapoka, a town about a half-mile west of Auburn around 2:30 pm. The caretaker also watches Evelyn's infant sister. Evelyn is described as 3-feet tall and weighing 40 pounds. She has red hair and green eyes with a red mark on her nose. She was wearing a short-sleeve floral dress when she disappeared, FOX 10 of Mobile reported.

Lee County Sheriff's Office spokesman Andrew Peacock told AL.com said that foul play was not yet suspected in the case.

The searching proceeded with early today and includes the use of helicopters and drones, Peacock said. As a result of the innovation being used, authorities is not requesting volunteers as of now since they should have the option to monitor individuals and their whereabouts. Searchers are additionally riding a horse.

Read Also: 9-year-old Florida Girl Found Dead After Missing For 4 Years

On Friday, sheriff's officials declared that volunteers are presently welcome. "Able-bodied persons in good physical condition are preferred due to densely wooded terrain and the scope of the search,'' authorities said.

After days of searching for Evelyn, Lee County Sheriff's Office spokesman Andrew Peacock said that a dog was with her the whole time protecting the girl, The Birmingham News reported.

Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said Evelyn was responsive, alert and talking, she was in good shape along with the dog.

"No words are capable of describing everyone's relief, we are just, ecstatic might be a good word... and the best part is she is with her mama." Jones said after the girl was reunited with her parents, according to FOX 6 in Birmingham.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers from multiple agencies had joined in the search for her through the wooded area though not dense, and sparsely populated. The search effort continued Thursday and Friday.

Jones said, "Our thanks just don't seem like enough, but they have our sincere and heartfelt thanks for the sacrifices they made -- all the volunteers that came with one goal in mind and that was finding this little girl and getting her back to her mom and dad, which just happened a few minutes ago,"

Related Article: Missing Colorado Boy Pronounced Dead, Stepmother Arrested For Murder

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On the sixth day of indefinite curfew in the state, as many as 70 labourers who had recently returned from Nepal have been put in quarantine, health officials said on Monday.

They had travelled to India between March 14-20. Nepalese constitute the major workforce in the apple-growing regions of the state. Nepalese who recently travelled to Rohru had made their way from the interstate border between Uttrakhand and Himachal Pradesh in Kuddu which is 14km from the main town in Rohru.

Nepalese who travelled to Rohru stayed at accommodations provided by orchard owners. Some of them have been kept in different facilities earmarked for suspected Covid-19 patients.

Migrant workers on Monday made beelines at different localities and suburbs in Shimla town as many non-government origanisations distributed cooked meals and ration packets to them during the curfew relaxation hours. However, the majority of social organisations whether in Shimla or outside the state could only provide ration supplies to limited number of people. Interestingly, social workers and political activists uploaded their pictures on their social media accounts publicising ration distribution. The government had sought help from social organisations to come forward to feed migrant labourers. There are scores of complaints of labourers being abandoned by contractors in the state. Meanwhile, the director-general of police Sita Ram Mardi appealed people to stay indoors and help the migrant labourers.

Disaster relief fund to be used for migrant workers

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said as per the guidelines of the Centre, the State Disaster Response Fund can now be utilised for the provision of food to people stranded in lockdown.

He said to ensure necessary arrangements for migrant labourers stranded due to lockdown, a district-wise integrated report has been prepared. He added that a total of 6,943 labourers reached at different villages of the state after February 15, but no one was found with flu-like symptoms. He said free ration has been distributed to 9,629 migrant labourers and arrangements for stay of 1,735 workers have been made different panchayats.

Two suspected Covid-19 cases test negative

Two suspected Covid-19 were admitted in the isolation ward of Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital in Shimla town, the authorities said on Monday.

There samples have been sent for testing at Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), Shimla.

Samples of both the patients were tested negative at IGMC.

DDU chief medical Officer Jitendra Chauhan said that the duo along with three others, all residents of Tutikandi locality, returned Shimla on March 20 from Ambala. A doctor from Ambala informed us that five people, who came in direct contact with a Covid-19 patient, have returned to Shimla and should be quarantined.

The district health authorities managed to trace them and two of them, who have shown symptoms of flu, have been admitted at the hospital while three others are home quarantined, said Dr Chauhan. Their samples have been sent for testing and reports are awaited, he said.

22 quarantine centres set up in Hamirpur

As many as 22 quarantine facilities comprising 1470 beds have been set up in Hamirpurpur district to fight the spread of Covid-19 infection, said deputy commissioner Harikesh Meena. Out of these, five centres each have been set up in sub-divisions Hamirpur and Bhoranj and four each in Nadaun, Sujanpur and Badsar. The doctors in charge for all these centres have also been deployed. Proper management of food, including sanitation has been made at these centres, Meena added.
The Congress on Monday demanded that the central government bring in a law or rule to ensure there is no retrenchment of workers in the private sector for six months till August in the wake of lockdown due to coronavirus.

Congress spokesperson Gaurav Vallabh also said the central government should bear 70 per cent of salary and wage bill of MSME sector for three months from March to May 2020.

He said there are around 4.25 crore MSMEs in India as of 2019 and the contribution of the sector to GDP is 29 per cent, which is about Rs 61 lakh crore.

Assuming the wage bill of MSMEs to be 10 per cent of turnover one can consider Rs 6.1 lakh crore as the wage bill and it comes to around Rs 50,000 crore for one month.

He said 70 per cent of this is around Rs 1 lakh crore and assuming that approximately 45 crore are employed this works out to only Rs 2,200 per person employed.

Vallabh also demanded that truck drivers, which are the backbone of the economy, should be extended support at this crucial time.

"The government has to support these people by providing immediate driver advance to transporters by Direct Benefit transfer (DBT) to the extent of 3 months of their wages," he said.

The Congress leader said there are around 30 lakh truck drivers in our country and the total burden will be around Rs 25,000 crore.

This will also ensure a smooth supply chain, he said.

"The central government should come out with a law to ensure that there is no retrenchment in any sector or company whatsoever for next 6 months (March August, 2020)," he said.

He said 15 per cent of the workers are on the lower end of the corporate salary structure and the government should pay half their salaries.

"If the government pays half the salaries of such employees for the next six months, it requires only Rs 3.78 lakh crore, which is only about 1.5 per cent of the country's GDP.

"This is possible fiscally and this will ensure that no employee will suffer due to the lockdown or its effect on the economy," he said, adding that the Congress is making the suggestions as a constructive opposition.

He also said that the prime minister should apologise for the "insensitive" remarks of some of his ministers.

"If you have to apologise, do so to the migrant labour and daily wagers who are made to suffer.

"If you have to apologise do so for the actions of some of your ministers, who are cooking, playing 'Antakshari' or watching TV at home and making insensitive remarks," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Alarming maps reveal which parts of Australia have been worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic, as the total national cases soars to 4,220.

New South Wales - Australia's epicentre of the COVID-19 infection - is starting to see a decline in new cases, but infections in Sydney's eastern suburbs continue to climb.

There are now 1,918 cases of coronavirus in NSW, with 212 of those confirmed on Saturday and 174 cases on Sunday.

Latest national figures show a drop in the increase of cases from as high as 30 per cent a day to about nine per cent, just over a week after the borders were closed to non-residents.

But cases in areas that have emerged as the country's hotspots for infection continue to steadily rise.

On Friday, Waverley in Sydney's east surged from 105 to 137 cases - a 30 per cent jump - while in the city's northern beaches infections climbed from 68 to 101 - a spike of 48 per cent.

Sydney City has 100 cases, while 76 residents in the affluent suburb of Woollahra have tested positive.

Thirty cases came from a bar in Bondi, 14 from a Bondi restaurant, 34 from a wedding in Stanwell Tops, south of Sydney, while there were 14 cases at Henderson Lodge in Ryde.

Waverley surged from 105 to 137 cases, while the northern beaches increased to 101 cases from 68 on Friday

Metrpoloitan Melbourne has 653 of the state's total 821 cases, while 146 are in regional Victoria

Some of the cases involving the Bondi backpackers came from two parties at the Boogie Wonderland at the Bucket List Bondi on March 15, and a party at Club 77 on the same date.

President of the NSW Australian Medical Association Dr Kean-Seng Lim said it's premature to assume the curve has already started to flatten, which could lead to Australians becoming complacent about maintaining social distancing measures.

'The last few days have seen a reduction in the number of new cases picked up and this was to be expected because most of the cases were occurring in people who had come back to Australia from overseas or had direct contact with an infected person,' he told The Daily Telegraph.

'So a large part of the initial rise was actually because there was a rise in coronavirus in all of that. However, we still have to remember there has been some community transmission within Australia.'

Sydney City has 100 cases, while 76 residents in the affluent suburb of Woollahra have tested positive

Melbourne's Stonnington council area, which included the affluent suburbs of Prahran, Toorak (pictured), Glen Iris, and Malvern, is the city's hotspot with 71 cases

NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said while the figures could suggest the curve is beginning to flatten, Australians must still be cautious.

Meanwhile, Victoria has 821 confirmed COVID-19 cases, up by 56 from Sunday.

Metropolitan Melbourne has seen 653 of those cases, while 146 are in regional Victoria.

New South Wales and Victoria coronavirus hotspots NSW: Northern Beaches - 101 Woollahra - 76 Sydney City - 100 Waverley - 137 VICTORIA: Stonnington (Prahran, Toorak, Malvern, Glen Iris) - 71 Mornington Peninsula - 45 Boroondara - 40 Melbourne - 38 Greater Geelong - 37 Glen eira - 37 Banyule - 35 Advertisement

Melbourne's Stonnington council area, which includes the affluent suburbs of Prahran, Toorak, Glen Iris, and Malvern, is the city's hotspot, with 71 cases.

The Mornington Peninsula has 45 confirmed cases, followed by 40 cases in Boroondara, in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

Experts warned the next two weeks will to critical as to whether the curve is really flattening or if it's just a pause with a new wave of infections to follow.

The country had 3,984 cases with 16 deaths on Sunday night, passing 4,000 the next morning, with 344 new positive tests on Sunday.

This was a just a 9.4 per cent increase from Saturday's 3,640 cases and a massive drop from the 26.2 per cent jump on March 22.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison touted the figures while at the same time bringing in more draconian restrictions banning gatherings of more than two people.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said people in their 20s and 30s were the worst offenders when it came to flouting social isolation rules and she implored them not to put the vulnerable at risk.

Unless there was a significant and unexpected spike in COVID-19 cases in the state, the current restrictions would not be revised for a month, she said.

'I just want to assure everybody things are in review constantly - this is based on expert advice,' Ms Berejiklian said on Monday.

'Health experts have told us they'd like to maintain the restrictions we've put in place for at least the next month and then assess.'

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said police would no longer issue cautions for those flouting self-isolation rules - with $1000 on-the-spot fines to be issued.

Police could also arrest and charge those repeatedly ignoring health orders, with a maximum penalty of six months in prison.

Crowds are seen on Bondi Beach ahead of its closure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus on March 21

'The power of discretion is such an important one for police - in fact, it's our strongest power. But I'll ask police today to really be out there enforcing this,' Mr Fuller told reporters.

'We would much rather work with the community on this.'

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews flagged $1600 spot fines for people caught breaching the restrictions in his state.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

'We're not doing this for any other reason than this is life and death,' he said in Melbourne.

'If we allow our health system to be overrun, then people will die. That is a price that is not worth paying.'

Australian Medical Association president Tony Bartone said it was clear the virus was spreading faster in some parts of the country than others, naming Sydney and Melbourne as hotspots.

'If we see continuing community transmission, that's going to be the first sign that we're going to have to need to move to that (complete lockdown) stage,' he told ABC television.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt says there have been early signs of the curve flattening, with the infection rate dropping from 25 per cent to the low teens.

'These results are telling us what we are doing is working,' he told the ABC.

Prof Kelly said health officials were working on the 'exit strategy' for lifting restrictions but warned it was still months away.

'Obviously we want to see the curve not only flattening but starting to bend downwards, and then making that decision about when to take the foot off the brake will be very difficult,' he said.
Health Authorities in Goa are now trying to find all passengers who had travelled on Vistara's Mumbai to Goa flight on March 22, after one of the passengers who had also taken the flight was confirmed positive for coronavirus. Goa has so far reported five confirmed coronavirus cases.

In a public notice, Goa's Directorate of Health Services has asked all passengers and crew who travelled on the Vistara flight from Mumbai to Goa on March 22 to report to health officials as soon as possible.

"One of the patients declared positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) on March 29 at Goa Medical College has travel history from New York to Mumbai and then by Vistara domestic flight UK861 from Mumbai to Goa on March 22," a notice issued by DHS on Monday said. "Hence, people currently in Goa who had travelled on the said flight are appealed to immediately report to Helpline 104 or call 0832-24218100/2225538 or report to the nearest Health Centre," the notice also said.

The infected passenger is among the five COVID-19 positive cases in Goa who had recently travelled to Goa from the Bahamas through a layover in New York.

"We have provided all relevant information to the authorities for contact tracing. Staff who had operated the flight or come in contact with the passengers have been asked to self quarantine." a Vistara Spokesperson said.

Chief Minister of Goa Pramod Sawant had earlier announced that the government had decided to sanitise all the primary health centers and public places from Monday.

Coronavirus has so far claimed 30 lives in the country and infected nearly 1,100 people. The world so far has recorded around 30,000 deaths leaving more than six lakh infected.

Also Read: Now all goods - essential and non-essential - can move in coronavirus lockdown

ALso Read: oronavirus in India Live updates: Govt denies extension of 21-day lockdown
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Two hospitals in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City on Monday announced that 30 patients of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), are now clear of the pathogen, including patient No. 17 who was believed to kick off the second wave of infections in Vietnam.

Twenty-seven of the patients were discharged from the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases while the other three walked out of a field hospital in Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City.

The 30 patients will self-isolate at home for 14 days in accordance with the Ministry of Healths regulations.

The National Hospital for Tropical Diseases is still treating 53 COVID-19 patients.

The countrys active cases currently stand at 139.

The Ministry of Health said on March 6 that 26-year-old N.H.N. had tested positive for the virus, becoming Vietnams patient No. 17.

Vietnams first batch of 16 patients had been discharged from the hospital by February 26 and the country recorded no new infection between February 13 and March 5.

Patient No. 17 had traveled to Italy, France, and the United Kingdom before returning to Hanoi on flight VN0054, operated by national carrier Vietnam Airlines, on March 2.

She was believed to conceal her history of travel to virus-hit regions in Europe to dodge quarantine when carrying out immigration procedures at the aiport.

Many other patients have been traced to this flight, mostly foreigners.

Patient No. 17s aunt and chaffeur were also sickened by the virus after coming into close contact with her.

Four critically ill patients, including the aunt and a 69-year-old Briton, have been showing positive signs, Luong Ngoc Khue, a senior official from a national committee on COVID-19 prevention, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

The British patient has pre-existing conditions but he stands a good chance of initial recovery, Khue added.

Vietnam has confirmed 194 COVID-19 cases so far, 55 of them having been pronounced fully recovered.

The country is ramping up its battle against the novel coronavirus by banning mass gatherings and requiring citizens to avoid going out, unless under really necessary circumstances, and to wear face masks whenever outdoors.

It has closed non-essential services like bars, pubs, clubs, massage parlors, kaorake lounges, cinemas, tourist sites, and online game centers, among others.

The central government has ordered restaurants in major cities like Hanoi, Hai Phong, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City, and Can Tho City to offer takeaways and deliveries while telling diners in the other provinces to serve no more than 10 customers at a time.

Inbound and domestic flights have been restricted, with foreigners denied entry.

Vietnam says it will by all means keep the patient count under 1,000 for as long as possible.

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Two days after the Tata Group pledged Rs 1,500 crore to fight the coronavirus pandemic, Tripura deputy chief minister Jishnu Devvarma on Monday wrote to Tata Trusts chairman Ratan Tata seeking material assistance to tackle the virus in the state.

Devvarmas wish list includes 100 ventilators, 50,000 Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and alcohol-based hand sanitizers each, 1,00,000 N95 masks and 500 makeshift tents for patients.

Follow coronavirus live updates here.

.. The situation solicits contribution from every possible side to hold us together. Tata Trusts has been a pioneer organization in stepping up to situations like this. The contribution of your organization to the North East Indian States also has been widely appreciated. I would like to bring to your kind attention about the requirement of following materials to prevent COVID-19 from becoming a huge outbreak in the State of Tripura, the letter reads.

.... In view of the above, I would request you to kindly look into the requirement and extend your cooperation for donating to the extent possible so that the State may prevent COVID-19 from becoming a huge outbreak, Devvarma said in the letter.

The deputy chief minister also said that his government has already adopted certain preventive steps to contain spread of the disease.

The state government asked people to maintain social distancing, stay indoors and avoid coming out of their homes unless it is required during the lockdown period.

No one has yet tested positive for positive for coronavirus in Tripura.

On Saturday, the Tata Group while pledging the funds to fight coronavirus said they will be utilised for providing protective equipment to medical personnel, respiratory systems for treating increasing cases, testing kits to boost testing in the country and setting up treatment facilities for those already infected. The group has also said that it will train health workers and the general public to empower them against coronavirus
The number of coronavirus cases in the US is likely to peak around Easter, the US president Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox & Friends.

Were doing a lot of things and we dont want to [ease restrictions] too soon, Trump said. Around Easter, that's going to be the highest point, we think.

We think April 30 is a day where we can see some real progress. And we expect to see that, short of June 1, we think the death, its a terrible thing to say, will be brought to a very low number.

On Monday, Trump said the guidance he received from top health officials was that between 1.6 million and 2.2 million people could have died without restrictions.

"If we didnt do anything, 2.2 million people could have died," Trump said.

As of Monday morning, over 2,500 people have died from coronavirus in the US. The total number of cases exceeded 143,000.
Editors Note 31/3/2020:

Al Jazeera has retracted this opinion piece, in which the author argued that Tunisias coronavirus measures, including closing the countrys mosques, were linked to Islamophobia. Given that the closing of all houses of worship has been vital to prevent the spread of the virus, Al Jazeera can no longer be a platform for the central argument of the op-ed.
The Ministry of Transport green-lit the Civil Aviation Authority of Viet Nams proposal to limit domestic flights from Ha Noi and HCM City to other cities and provinces to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Bamboo Airways has just announced it will reduce the frequency of domestic and charter flights.

Domestic airlines are allowed to transport passengers with a frequency of one flight a day on certain routes, including Ha Noi-HCM City and vice versa, Ha Noi-Da Nang, Ha Noi-Phu Quoc and vice versa; HCM City-Da Nang, HCM City-Phu Quoc and vice versa.

The instruction, issued late on Sunday, is effective from midnight Sunday to April 15.

In special cases when there is a need to transport passengers from local airports to Ha Noi and HCM City and vice versa, airlines may ask the Civil Aviation Authority of Viet Nams permission in each specific case, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, the CAAV has asked Vietnamese airlines to refund, change itinerary and extend flight validity for affected passengers without collecting any extra fees.

The ministry also asked airlines to strictly adhere to the Ministry of Healths regulations on the isolation of foreign flight crews and mandatory electronic health declarations by passengers before boarding, as well as other preventive measures.

Airlines cut flights

Following the ministrys request, national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines on Monday announced it would reduce the frequency of domestic flights.

It will operate one flight from Ha Noi to HCM City and vice versa, and one flight from Ha Noi and HCM City to Da Nang and Phu Quoc and vice versa to serve urgent needs.

Scheduled flights on three days (March 30, 31 and April 1) from Ha Noi to HCM City will depart at 9m and the HCM City-Ha Noi flight will take off at 14:00. On April 1, the plane departs HCM City to Ha Noi at 15:00. Flights on remaining routes will be adjusted flexibly.

On routes not listed above, planes will be grounded until further notice.

The airline will help affected passengers change flights and itineraries in accordance with the airline's regulations.

Earlier, Vietnam Airlines announced from March 28, it would cut its 35 domestic routes to eight with about 10 per cent of total seats compared to normal plans. Crew members on all of its flights will be equipped with protective gears and tested for COVID-19.

Vietnam Airlines suspended international flights until April 30.

Following Vietnam Airlines, Bamboo Airways has also announced it will reduce passenger transport services.

From March 28 to April 15, Bamboo Airways decided to make temporary adjustments for both regular flights and charter flights, including reducing the frequency of domestic flights and applying stringent medical standards on all flights.

The airline will suspend charter flights from abroad during the next two weeks. One-way flights departing Viet Nam (the return flight being empty) may still be considered with authorities permission.  VNS
A Force for Good: Why WHO Should No Longer Shut Out Taiwan

Commentary

Taiwan, like Canada, is a multicultural country. Its residents migrated mainly from the South Pacific islands and the southern coast of China in the 13th century, and again during the 17th to 19th centuries. Over the past 400 years, Taiwan has been ruled at various times by the Dutch Republic, Spain, House of Koxinga, Qing Dynasty, Japan, and the Chiang Kai-shek regime. Democratic reforms began in the 1980s, but it wasnt until the first presidential election in 1996 that Taiwan truly became a democracy.

Today, Taiwan is an independent country with solid borders, effective government, and diplomatic relations. It shares the same values of democracy, freedom, rule of law, and human rights with Canada. It is the 22nd-largest economy in the world and Canadas 12th-largest trading partner. Statistics database Numbeo gave Taiwan the highest ranking on the Health Care Index by country in 2020, with a score of 86.71, while in 2019, CEOWORLD magazine ranked Taiwan highest on its Health Care Index. It also has a leading position in the fields of technology, biology, chemistry, and engineering.

Taiwan is internationally renowned for its political rights and civil liberties. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has publicly praised Taiwan as a democratic success story, a reliable partner, and a force for good in the world. However, Chinas rise to power and its imposition of its so-called one-China principle on the U.N. system led to the situation that Taiwan cannot be recognized as a sovereign country. Under the Chinese regimes influence in the international community, Taiwan has also been denied membership of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Since the outbreak of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, in Wuhan last December, more than 33,000 have died and more than 190 countries have been affected. Taiwan, originally predicted to become the second-most infected country after China, has created a worldwide medical miracle due to determined efforts of the government and the people, keeping the confirmed cases to only about five people infected per million population, with just two deaths as of March 29.

A March 10 NBC News article titled What Taiwan can teach the world on fighting the coronavirus, praised the governments success in preventing an epidemic by implementing eight measures in a timely manner: setting up a command centre, being alert and proactive, taking quick and decisive action, using technology to detect and track cases, ensuring availability of supplies, educating the public, getting public buy-in, and using experience gleaned from the SARS outbreak in 2003.

Taiwans achievement has not gone unnoticed. An article in the scientific journal Nature suggested that, in light of Taiwans success, its time for WHO to reconsider its stance toward the island nation, stating: Taiwans alienation is an inexcusable liability for global health.

Many mainstream media in the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand have published similar reports. British newspaper The Telegraph said Taiwans efforts to prevent an outbreak sets sets the gold standard on epidemic response.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has stated publicly that giving Taiwan observer status in World Health Assembly meetings is in the best interest of the international health community, and that Taiwan is an important partner in the fight against the pandemic.

Taiwan has sufficient experience and capabilities to assist the international community in supporting the World Health Organizations aim of achieving the highest attainable standard of health for all human beings. No citizen of any country should have to live without the universal values guaranteeing the right to health, regardless of race, religion, political beliefs, economy, or social condition.

Let the COVID-19 pandemic be a time for change. The international community should not, out of political considerations, allow the authoritative regime of the Chinese Communist Party to continue excluding the good force of democratic Taiwan from the World Health Organization any longer.

The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Partys coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.

Michael Sun is the director of the Community Cultural Centre affiliated with the Overseas Community Affairs Council in Toronto.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
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Linkedin Sausan Atika (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 30, 2020 17:29 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e69596 1 City Jakarta-COVID-19,COVID-19,math,model,public-health Free

Home to more than 10 million people, Indonesias capital is already the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, but it may have to deal with a sixfold increase in infections that experts say the city administration would not be ready to handle.

Drastic measures are deemed necessary to address the escalating health crisis as the number of positive cases nationwide rose past 1,400 with 122 deaths as of Monday. Jakarta accounts for roughly half of these figures with 698 cases and a death toll of 74.

In a worst-case scenario, the city may be looking at the possibility of handling up to 8,000 COVID-19-positive cases, Jakarta Military Command chief Maj. Gen. Eko Margiyono estimated.

Based on a simulation [discussed in a meeting] of Jakartas Forkopimda [Leadership Communications Forum], the worst-case scenario may give us between 6,000 and 8,000 positive cases in the city, Eko said in a press conference last week.

City officials were either unreachable or could not elaborate on the model used to come up with the figures, although some say that preparations for the worst are underway.

The Jakarta administration has prepared [for the number of COVID-19 cases] rising to 500, 1,000 or even 8,000 cases, Jakarta Health Agency head Widyastuti said in a written statement recently.

In one scenario based on how bad the onset of COVID-19 symptoms is in a patient, the 8 percent of patients with severe symptoms and the 12 percent with serious symptoms would be treated first at referral hospitals, where they would have full access to intensive care and emergency facilities.

The remaining 80 percent of COVID-19 cases  people exhibiting only mild symptoms of the disease  would be referred to wards with fewer facilities, Widyastuti said.

However, public health experts have expressed reservations about the projection for the worst-case scenario, noting that estimates may still be too far removed from reality on the ground.

Nurul Nadia, a public health specialist from the Center for Indonesian Strategic Development Initiatives (CISDI), questioned the mathematical model used as the basis of the projection, which is deemed conservative compared to other studies.

She cited several models stating the proportion of the global population that will be infected by the coronavirus ranges between 20 percent, as Harvard School of Public Health epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch has found, and up to 50 percent or even more.

Does [the projection of 8,000 cases] include the assumption of our countrys limitations with regard to testing people? If, not then the figure does not represent the real conditions, she told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

A public health expert from the University of Muhammadiyah, Prof. Dr. Hamka Hermawan Saputra, expressed a similar concern, comparing the situation in Jakarta with that of Chinas Wuhan, ground zero of the COVID-19 pandemic and home to 11 million people.

Jakarta is pretty similar to Wuhan from a demographic perspective. The [case number] in Wuhan reached tens of thousands, and they imposed strict lockdown rules, said Hermawan, who is also on the Indonesian Public Health Expert Association (IAKMI)s COVID-19 task force.

Chinese authorities put Wuhan into lockdown beginning Jan. 23  nearly two weeks after the first reported COVID-19 death  when the Hubei administration recorded some 400 cases. As of Saturday, Wuhan has more than 50,000 confirmed cases and over 2,000 deaths.

Previously, Hadi Susanto, a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Essex in Britain, projected that Jakarta would reach its peak when 50 percent of the population was infected.

Read also: Some 70,000 Indonesians could be infected with COVID-19 before Ramadan, scientists say

Experts argue that Jakartas healthcare system would not even be able to cope with the administrations lower worst-case projection of 8,000 cases at a time. Hence, stringent measures needed to be taken immediately, they say.

For Hermawan, the lack of medical workers and a shortage of protective gear are of utmost concern. For every additional [patient that is treated], there are 10 medical workers who need to be monitored [for the disease]. We arent ready yet, even now, he told the Post.

Looking at the trend, we are heading toward [the worst-case scenario].

As the number of cases keeps rising, the city administration has called upon the help of medical volunteers to pad the limited number of medical workers for virus-positive patients, suspected patients and persons under observation.

Hermawan suggested that the central government should recruit medical workers from outside the capital and enforce priority treatment for referral hospitals, general hospitals and makeshift facilities, as well as those who could treat themselves at home.

A public health expert from the University of Indonesia, Hasbullah Thabrany, however, said challenges would remain, as the nation only had around 1,200 lung specialists considered proficient in examining respiratory illnesses caused by the virus. We can have general doctors and nurses ready within a month, but that is not the case for lung specialists, he said.

Containing the spread of COVID-19 should be the governments main focus, he said, suggesting fines as a deterrent for people violating physical distancing measures.

This unprecedented situation has triggered public outcry on social media, urging the government to impose a lockdown through hashtags and slogans, with #LockDownNasionalSerentak (SimultaneousNationalLockDown), #KarantinaWilayah (RegionalQuarantine) and Jakarta Sudah Gawat Darurat (Jakarta is in an emergency state) trending on Twitter over the weekend.

Read also: Indonesian government under pressure to impose lockdown as death toll tops 100
Bareilly/Prayagraj (UP): They face a social stigma and are usually shunned by society, yet, transgenders in Bareilly and Prayagraj are coming forward to provide food and water to migrant labourers who are returning home after the lockdown.

About 50 transgenders in Bareilly are providing food to 100 people every day.

"There are several families who are daily wage workers and they depend on daily earning for food. We are serving food to them because we feel that serving humanity is the best service," said Prema, a transgender.

She said that her group of friends, about 50, plan to start a community kitchen to provide hot cooked food but are waiting for necessary permission form the local administration.

"At present, we are giving biscuits and fruits to the people," she said.

In Prayagraj, another group of about 30 transgenders are serving food and water bottles to travelers and also the homeless.

"We have stationed ourselves near the temples because most of the homeless and migrants come here for relief. We are using our savings to help people caught in the lockdown," said Ishwari, a transgender.

Rajesh Kumar, a migrant labourer, who was provided food by the group on Sunday, said, "We always ridicule these people but today, they have been my saviour. After going without food for almost 70 hours, they gave me food and water."

Rajesh has travelled on foot from Meerut, where he works in a biscuit factory, to Prayagraj and is on his way to his village in Varanasi.

Ishwari and her group said that they were also educating people about the COVID-19 and were taking all precautions and following the guidelines of the district administration.
The Lebanon VA Medical Center beginning Tuesday will limit services available to veterans at five of its community clinics.

Lebanon VA officials on Monday announced that its five community clinics located in Wyomissing, Mechanicsburg, Lancaster, Pottsville and York will be limiting services to protect the safety of veterans and employees during the coronavirus pandemic.

All scheduled outpatient community clinic visits will be conducted via a telephone or video visit or rescheduled as appropriate, according to a press release from the medical center.

Walk-in appointments at VA clinics will not be available.

Labs will only be drawn at the main Lebanon campus.

RELATED: More veterans test positive for coronavirus at Lebanon VA

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on Saturday confirmed four veterans had tested positive for the coronavirus at the Lebanon VA Medical Center.

Officials at the medical center said the test results of two veterans were positive on Saturday. One of the veterans remains in respiratory isolation, officials at the medical center said.

There are more than 778 veterans who have tested positive for having coronavirus at veterans administration facilities, according to the department.

The medical center said its taking precautionary measures to help slow the spread of it to other patients and staff.

A health care provider team remains available to address the health care needs of veterans. Veterans who need a telephone appointment can call (717) 272-6621, ext. 5105.

Veterans can also send a secure message via My HealtheVet to their provider or visit www.myhealth.va.gov.

Pa. schools closed for indefinite period

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For nearly 40 years, Patricia Duffy has sat at her husbands side. The two are inseparable, having built a life together, having raised three children together.

And now, they fight cancer together.

Duffy, a Byram Township resident, is a native New Yorker  the Big Apple grit runs through her blood. Shes a fighter, his advocate, and even at 70, not afraid to lob an expletive or two.

Last month, her husband, Ted, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. His doctors found it early, Patricia Duffy explained Sunday, and he fits into a small percentage of patients who could make a full recovery after surgery.

Everything was going as planned, with a procedure scheduled for March 26  and then the coronavirus pandemic clenched the entire health care system.

Morristown Medical Center moved the surgery to April 15. But Patricia Duffy fears the vast spread of COVID-19 will only escalate, reaching its apex around that time and forcing another postponement.

Devastated is not a big enough word, she said, fighting back tears as she expressed the dilemma she and her 85-year-old husband find themselves in. Theres a hypothetical priority going on here. To me, its just unacceptable.

As a surge of COVID-19 patients strains the states health care system, shortages of medical workers and life-saving equipment such as ventilators are forcing hospitals to make difficult decisions. They increasingly have to choose between cancer patients like Ted Duffy and those critically ill with coronavirus as supplies dwindle and doctors and nurses themselves are exposed.

Do they make cancer patients, still shaken by their diagnoses, wait anxiously for surgery? Do they operate and potentially expose them to COVID-19? Do they risk using a ventilator that could save a coronavirus patients life?

These are the painstaking conversations happening behind the scenes as the pandemic threatens to overwhelm hospitals in New Jersey, which has the second most cases in the country at more than 13,000.

On Saturday, three hospitals alerted the state Health Department that they were going on divert status, giving themselves a four-hour break from accepting new patients. On Sunday, four did. The alerts reveal how some acute care facilities are being pushed to their limit as the number of patients infected by and dying from the coronavirus quickly mounts.

Prioritizing health care is not easy, experts say, and theres no one-size-fits-all solution. But these are the dilemmas New Jersey doctors suddenly find themselves contemplating, especially at hospitals seeing an influx of COVID-19 patients, like in Hackensack.

Were trying our best, said Dr. Andre Goy, the chairman and director of the John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center. Its a difficult time, and were doing all we can to protect our patients.

There are several reasons some cancer surgeries are being postponed, Goy explained. For one, resources are being dedicated to intensive care units. Its also possible for a cancer patient, particularly those having chest procedures, to develop COVID-19 while in the hospital, which could have fatal consequences.

In some cases, delaying surgery is necessary, especially if the patients cancer doesnt have signs of aggressivity," Goy said.

The situation is fluid at the MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper in Camden, director Frank Spitz says. High-risk cancer patients with slow-growing tumors may have their surgeries delayed, mostly to protect them from COVID-19. If chemotherapy or radiation can be used, Spitz said, doctors are implementing those treatments and pushing back surgeries.

These are challenging decisions, Spitz said. We talk about the risk of infection. I let the patients know the current situation in the hospital.

Patricia Duffy says she was told theres a shortage of ventilators, and if her husband needed one post-surgery, doctors would have to decide between him and a COVID-19 patient.

To be clear: Duffy harbors no ill will toward the doctors at the Carol G. Simon Cancer Center at Morristown Medical Center. She knows what its like to be on the other side  she was a registered nurse in New York City for nearly 50 years.

I was on the forefront when NYC was hit with the AIDS crisis, she says. We had patients coming in, they were full-blown AIDS patients. There were no isolation techniques in place at the time. Nobody knew how you could get this, how it spread.

What she doesnt understand  and refuses to accept  is how the sprawling campus at Morristown Medical Center cant find a way to move her husbands surgery to another wing.

I found it astounding that one of the largest hospital systems in North Jersey couldnt dedicate or find a way to continue treating other people with surgical needs, Duffy says. They said, No, no, this is cancer surgery. Its not elective surgery. All of a sudden, Wednesday afternoon, it became elective surgery.

In a statement, Atlantic Health System said the goal is to continue care for each cancer patient at Morristown and its other hospitals.

As always, each patient is evaluated individually by a multidisciplinary team, and any decisions are made together with the patient, the statement said. Among the factors we take into consideration are the type of cancer, stage of the cancer, treatment that was received or is planned, previous cancer history, overall health, age and test results.

On Thursday, the Duffys sat in agony, mulling the what-ifs. Its been an emotional, tearful couple of weeks.

Ive never experienced stress like this in my life, Patricia Duffy says.

The two find solace in prayer, and each other. Even before the postponement of the surgery, Patricia Duffy faced the inevitability that she would not be by her husbands side as he recovered. Like many other facilities, the hospital has limited visitors to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Weve just been at each others side for years, says the grandmother of six. The thought of that was really devastating to him and myself. We had to discuss if we could go through that, if we could separate that way.

Fighting for her husband, Patricia Duffy says, has been an exercise in futility. A call to Gov. Phil Murphys office? Voicemail full. A call to the Department of Health? No one there to answer. Shes reached out to her congressman to no avail.

Having her story told, she explains, is the last resort. But she knows shes not the only one.

We want to be an example of whats happening, she said. Its not just about us."

NJ Advance Media reporter Susan K. Livio contributed to this report.

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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The Lucknow police has registered a case against 24 people for violating the lockdown imposed to control the spread of coronavirus by offering namaz at a mosque here, officials said on Monday.

The case was registered on Sunday after some people gathered to offer namaz at a mosque in Chaupatia area under Saadatganj police station area in the evening, they said.

Police said the group, including 12 unidentified persons, has been booked under Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hyderabad, March 30 : The Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IIT-H) on Monday asked the central government to consider adopting 'bag valve mask' as an alternative to meet surge in demand for ventilators, both in India and other countries, to treat COVID-19 patients.

While the conventional ventilators are expensive, hard to produce, and not portable, Professor B.S. Murty, Director, IIT Hyderabad highlighted that 'bag valve masks' are small devices, which are used to deliver breathing support in emergency situations that are inexpensive, easy to produce, and portable - which therefore have every quality that is required in this crisis.

They are the most common of these devices is the bag valve mask, often called by the proprietary name of 'Ambu Bag,' that is used for resuscitation in emergency situations.

"Our estimate of the cost is that it can be manufactured for less than Rs 5,000, or one-hundredth the cost of a conventional machine. The cost of manufacturing six million of these devices will be probably less than that of the inadequate number of 60,000 conventional machines mentioned above," said Murty and Professor V Eswaran, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, IIT Hyderabad.

"The cost is so low that it can be considered a single-use device that will be given over to a single patient, and never used again. It needs to be manufactured, however, on an industrial scale, in millions, within a short time of a few months," the professors said.

The professors noted that while 'bag valve mask' are currently hand-powered and therefore not suitable for continuous use as a ventilator, it would be easy to design a similar device powered by an electrical source, which could be a car battery, apart from the conventional power supply.

It could be made portable, and therefore adopted in villages and other areas without a power supply and be inexpensive enough to manufacture in bulk.

It is estimated that there are around 40,000 ventilators in India at present, mostly in the private hospitals, they said.

The professors said that assuming a low six per cent infection rate, in case COVID-19 advancement in India continues, in the Indian population of 1.3 billion, that would mean that around 80 million people would get affected.

Of these 80 million, at least five per cent (4 million patients) would require ventilators. Each of these five million patients would need ventilators for around 21 days, thereby blocking that machine for at least that amount of time.

Further, the machines are not portable and are found only in high-end hospitals in large cities, so patients from villages would need to be transported to these cities.

"We cannot depend on the conventional ventilators for a solution to this crisis," the professors said.
The Indian High Commission in the UK took to Twitter to clarify that no evacuation flights were being scheduled for Indians. The Indian mission refuted WhatsApp forwards that stated that stranded Indians are being evacuated from the UK onboard Air India flights.

The WhatsApp message says, "If anyone knows anyone who is stuck in London, Air India is operating evacuation flights from DEL and BOM. They will need to contact the Indian High Commission in London to figure out about a seat. These are on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd of April DEL LHR DEL. Apr 3rd BOM LHR BOM." As referred in the message, DEL is Delhi, BOM is Mumbai and LHR is Heathrow airports.

The Indian High Commission said that these are just rumours and asked Indians not to pay any heed to them. "High Commission notes with dismay that some rumours are being spread even in such trying times. We request all not to pay attention to rumours. Stay connected with us for updates," it said.

Such a misleading message is being spread. Please do not share it with others. At this difficult time please refrain from spreading rumours. Stay connected with us for updates. @RuchiGhanashyam @CGI_Bghm @IndiaInScotland pic.twitter.com/ElzOF9zWWP - India in the UK (@HCI_London) March 29, 2020

It further added, "Such a misleading message is being spread. Please do not share it with others. At this difficult time please refrain from spreading rumours. Stay connected with us for updates."

This WhatsApp message as well as the High Commission's clarification comes as many Indians find themselves stuck in the country following the travel ban imposed by India. Amid the lockdown, the Boris Johnson government stated that they will extend till May 31 the visas of Indians whose documents are expired or are due to expire.

India has already brought in citizens from Iran and Rome. They have appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to arrange similar evacuation flights from the UK.

Also read: Coronavirus in India Live updates: Active COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra soar to 215, highest in the country

Also read: Now all goods - essential and non-essential - can move in coronavirus lockdown
CIMCO awards Gebr Pfeiffer contract for Togo mill

ICR Newsroom By 30 March 2020

CIMCO, part of the CIM Metal Group, has awarded Gebr Pfeiffer the contract for an MVR 6000 C-6 mill for its grinding plant in Lome, Togo. Gebr Pfeiffer will supply the mill and the process design while Intercem will build the grinding plant.



The MVR 6000 C-6 mill will be used to grind cements ranging from CEM I to CEM IV. The mill has a drive power of 6400kkW to produce CEM I at 370tph with a Blaine fineness of 3800cm2/g.



The plant is scheduled to come online in the 1Q21.

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Florida's government faces backlash as hundreds of residents still flood the state's beaches amid the coronavirus pandemic instead of shutting them down.

Despite criticism for keeping the beaches open, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he has no regrets for allowing people to use the public space and even compared the beaches to the New York City subway system.

"Do you hear the same people complaining about the New York City subway system being open?" he said at a press conference on Saturday. "I mean, give me a break. Which one is more conducive to having Covid-19 spread or any respiratory virus? It's not even close."

He went on to say residents in NYC are "packed in like sardines" when riding the subway compared to Floridians out in the open on the beaches.

A spokesperson with the Metropolitan Transit Association (MTA), which runs the NYC subway, criticised Mr DeSantis' comments for comparing the subway to the beaches.

"Keeping the beaches open does not get doctors, nurses, police, firefighters, grocery and food delivery employees to and from work - the subways do and there is nothing more essential," the spokesperson told the New York Daily News. Police officers are also working in NYC to limit the number of people in train cars to prevent riders being "packed in like sardines".

Mr DeSantis claimed residents were practising social distancing on the beaches, which was enforced by authorities in each area.

But footage from Saturday showed St Johns County beaches packed with beachgoers, many of whom were not practising social distancing measures asked by the federal government. These pictures circulated on Twitter, with many calling for the beaches to close statewide over fears that them remaining open would impact the spread of the virus.

It was later announced by officials that St Johns County beaches would be closed starting Sunday.

"We have taken as many measures as possible up to this point to preserve our residents' ability to access their beach. Unfortunately, those visiting the beach continue to ignore CDC guidelines regarding crowd size and personal distancing. In order to maintain public safety and respect the State of Florida's Executive Order, we had no choice but to close the coastline to public access today," Hunter S. Conrad, St. Johns County Administrator, said in a statement. "We will continue to be methodical in our approach to closings related to Covid-19, and like every decision we have made to this point, we will open the beaches at the appropriate time when it is safe to do so."

Other areas in Florida, like New Smyrna Beach, remained open on Sunday and showed beachgoers ignoring regulations.

"Volusia County Government continues to encourage people to stay at home and consider self-isolating. Volusia County Beaches Safety Division will continue to monitor beachgoers to ensure compliance with social distancing guidelines," City of New Smyrna Beach wrote in a Facebook post Sunday.

The Independent contacted the City for a comment on if it was considering closing down its beaches.

Governor DeSantis previously said he has no intentions to issue a stay-at-home order for the entire state of Florida or mandate for all beaches to close. Instead, officials in hotspot locations like the Miami area have ordered those residents to stay home.

The governor has also put the spread of Covid-19 on people coming from New York and the states around it. He placed a 14-day self-quarantine order on anyone travelling from New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey.

Florida cases rose on Sunday to 4,950 people infected from the virus and 60 deaths.
The Centre has ramped up its initiatives to meet the growing demand for protective equipment and other medical essentials in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

The Ministry of Health has already placed an order for the production of at least 40,000 ventilators.

Bharat Electronics Ltd. has been asked to manufacture 30,000 ventilators in the next two months in collaboration with local manufacturers. Automobile manufacturers have been asked to manufacture ventilators.

Agva Healthcare, Noida has been given an order to manufacture 10,000 ventilators within a month. Their supplies are expected to commence in the 2nd week of April: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare #Coronavirus https://t.co/yxx1J2QZ7A  ANI (@ANI) March 30, 2020

Another Noida-based company has been given an order to manufacture 10,000 ventilators within a month. Their supplies are expected to commence in the second week of April, news agency ANI reported.

The government has also placed an order for the production of around 21 lakh Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for those involved in the screening and treatment of coronavirus patients. As many as 11 domestic producers of PPE coveralls have qualified for the production.

At present, over 3 lakh PPE coveralls are available with various hospitals in the country. Another 3 lakh donated coveralls will reach India April 4.

They are supplying 6-7,000 pieces per day and are expected to go up to 15,000 per day by mid-April. One more domestic manufacturer has qualified today and is being given orders for 5 lakh PPE coveralls: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare #Coronavirus https://t.co/Q8FvGZ2L38  ANI (@ANI) March 30, 2020

According to health ministry, International Committee of the Red Cross has donated 10,000 PPE coveralls to India. India has also ordered 10 lakh PPE kits from a Singapore-based platform.

With respect to protective N95 masks, the health ministry has said that two domestic manufacturers are producing 50,000 units daily. The production is expected to go up to 1 lakh per day within the next week.

2 domestic manufacturers are producing 50,000 N95 masks per day. It's expected to go up to 1 lakh per day within next week. Hospitals in India have 11.95 lakh N95 masks in stock. Addl 5 lakhs were distributed during last 2 days & 1.40 lakhs being distributed today:Health Ministry pic.twitter.com/waKxtjSde3  ANI (@ANI) March 30, 2020

Hospitals in India have 11.95 lakh N95 masks in stock. Additional 5 lakhs were distributed during the last two days and 1.40 lakhs being distributed today, the ministry stated as reported by news agency ANI.

The number of coronavirus cases in the country is on a rapid rise. The Ministry of Health on Monday updated the national tally to 1,071. The figure includes 942 active cases, 99 cases of recoveries and 29 deaths.
200,000 KEY UNIONISTS FIGHT FASCIST THREAT TO AUSTRALIAN PEOPLE

Eleven Federal trade unions with a membership of over 200,000 will throw their full weight into a campaign against attempts to impose Fascism on the Australian people.

In Sydney Town Hall last week the powerful Metal Trades Federation called on the ACTU to organise a nation-wide campaign for repeal of all anti-trade union and repressive legislation.

Five hundred delegates, shop stewards and officials of unions comprising the federation carried a resolution describing this legislation as increasingly menacing to the working class.

A manifesto, issued by the eleven Federal unions and endorsed by the Federation, declares that the alarming growth towards fascism in Australia is shown by:

The brutal batoning of legal observer Fred Paterson, MLA, and many Brisbane trade unionists taking part in a peaceful procession on March 17.

The anti-trade union, strikebreaking legislation of the Hanlon, Hollway, and Playford Governments.

The hysterical demands by Liberal and Country Party leaders and others for the suppression of the Communist Party, and further measures to destroy trade union militancy.

The eleven unions which issued the manifesto include Ironworkers, Boilermakers, Blacksmiths, AEU, Moulders, Sheet Metal Workers. Miners Federation, FED and FA, Waterside Workers Federation, Seamen and ARU.

The manifesto was supported by the town hall meeting of 500 shop stewards, union delegates and officials, representing unions in the Metal Trades Federation.

Those present pledged themselves to support the principles of the manifesto and to fight for a free, democratic Australia.

GATHER ALL FORCES

The text of the manifesto is:

The great Australian trade union movement, the chief guardian of traditional living standards and the main stronghold of democracy, must gather together all its forces to defeat attempts to impose fascism on the people of Australia.

The Queensland legislation has been described by the Queensland Labor Council as the most vicious anti-working-class legislation ever introduced in Australia. It bans picketing and gives the police power to arrest without warrant and to enter any premises, including union offices and meetings, at any time.

It bans the publication of the strikers side of the case and prohibits the display of signs and posters soliciting support for striking unions.

Police are given full power to use force against striking unionists wherever they deem it necessary.

The purpose of this, and similar legislation in other States, is to outlaw strikes, legalise scabbery, smash organised picketing, intimidate workers and, above all, to destroy trade unionism.

HITLER PRECEDENT

Similar repressive legislation by German Governments preceded the coming to power of Hitler in 1933. Hitler also attempted to blame the Communists for all Germanys industrial and political ills and proclaimed the banning of the Communist Party to be his main aim.

When Hitler came to power, however, he suppressed not only the Communist Party but also the Social Democratic Labour Party and the Free German trade unions, including the Christian trade unions. Communists, Social Democrats, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, all who protested against forced labour at starvation wage-rates were persecuted and herder into concentration camps without distinction.

The terrible tragedy of the German labour movement was that the great trade unions, that could have done so much, did so little to unite and fight fascism while it was still in its formative stages.

To prevent this tragedy being repeated in Australia, the Federal unions that subscribe to this manifesto call on all Australian workers to unite their forces and fight with the utmost determination to defend their traditional liberties.

The right to strike, the right to picket, the right to assemble without police interference, and the right to publicise our cause without police censorship, are traditional rights won in 100 years of struggle and essential to the very existence of free trade unions in Australia.

FIGHT BAN MOVE

The great trade unions have always maintained the unassailable right of individual members of their own religious and political beliefs and will fight to uphold these rights against any move to ban the Communist Party or any other working-class organisation.

To defend democratic rights and defeat growing fascism before it has time to gain a foothold on Australian soil, the whole trade union movement must unite in a campaign for the repeal of Hanlons Industrial Law Amendment Act, Hollways Essential Services Act, Playfords Industrial Disputes (Inquiry) Bill, Dr Evatts approved Defence Projects Protection Act and all similar anti-trade union, anti-democratic legislation.

The working-class movement, providing it is firmly united, is much stronger than the forces of reaction and fascism. United struggle now will safeguard trade union and democratic rights.

This article originally appeared in Tribune in March,1948.
Following UWSNs motto United We Fight, United We Win, T1 Payments is proud to give back to the community during this time of global distress. With our donation, we hope to relieve hardships for many in the community, said Donald Kasdon of T1 Payments. We need to unify to stay strong and help those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

T1 Payments, a leader in high-risk merchant processing, is donating to the United Way of Southern Nevadas (UWSN) Emergency Assistance and Community Needs Fund in an effort to assist those impacted by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the Las Vegas community.

United Way of Southern Nevada unites the Southern Nevada community to improve peoples lives from cradle to career. UWSN is bringing together non-profits, corporate partners, schools, governmental agencies and the community, to help low-income families and those who have been laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

T1 Payments contribution will fund non-profits that are providing critical services, such as food pantry, rent/mortgage assistance, utility assistance, mass shelter options, and served meals to those impacted by COVID-19.

With our donation, we hope to relieve hardships for many in the community, said Donald Kasdon of T1 Payments. We need to unify to stay strong and help those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following UWSNs motto United We Fight, United We Win, T1 Payments is proud to give back to the community during this time of global distress.

T1 Payments hopes to increase awareness and fund programs to continue supporting and bringing everyone in the community together.

For more information about how to donate to help low-income families and hospitality workers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, visit the United Way of Southern Nevada website.

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Five years ago more than 40 babies born in Jamaican hospitals became infected with lethal bacteria - half of them died.

The bacteria Klebsiella, like the coronavirus, is spread from person-to-person or via contaminated surfaces. It can be killed by hand-washing with warm soapy water.

The situation caught the attention of technology student Rayvon Stewart based in Jamaica who set about finding a way to curb the spread of harmful germs.

"I made a determined decision that I was going to find a solution to limit the transfer of pathogens to multiple surfaces, thereby saving lives," says Rayvon.

Young innovators in health

I met Rayvon at the Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting (CHMM) in Geneva last year. He was among the finalists shortlisted for last years Commonwealth Health Innovation Awards. He took part in an exhibition on the theme Universal Health Coverage: Reaching the unreached, ensuring that no-one is left behind which highlighted how young people are tackling age-old challenges with modern technology and disruptive thinking.

The event underlined Commonwealth commitment to empowering young people as outlined in our charter and also our contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

I spoke to five extraordinary innovators who made it as finalists of the Commonwealth Health Innovation Awards which recognise outstanding young people whose groundbreaking projects have made a real impact in helping their countries achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3, which is to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

William Wasswa was working on a digital pathology platform for automated diagnosis and classification of cervical cancer from pap-smear images. Then there was Midia Hassan using 3D printing technology to provide prosthetics to amputees living in refugee camps and poverty zones.

Another timely invention is that of Nitash Jangir who was one of 15 finalists at our SDG innovation awards. Nitash invented a neonatal breathing support device for low resource settings, with multiple powering options. It maintains respiration and oxygenation in premature neonates with Respiratory Distress Syndrome by providing constant airflow and pressure to keep the lungs open during transport to a tertiary care setting.

I was struck by the ability of young minds to find solutions to real problems in their communities, and their persistence in finding support to scale-up their projects.

In Rayvons case, he focused on the most common places where bacteria and viruses could easily be left by one person and picked up directly by another. He came up with what he calls Xermosol- a simple-to-install device that automatically disinfects door knobs and handles after each use.

The innovation uses ultraviolet light to target and specifically kill harmful microorganisms, while being harmless to human beings.

The potential to save lives

The potential impact of Rayvons invention could now be even more important than when he first conceived it, as the world battles the frightening COVID-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus lives up to two or three days on stainless steel and metal, and several hours on fabric depending on factors such as temperature and humidity.

Field and laboratory testing has validated Xermosols efficiency in killing more than 99.9% of deadly pathogens. In addition to health facilities, Rayvon hopes it could help reduce transmission of germs in other public spaces such as schools and businesses.

Tests carried out in conjunction with University of Technology, Jamaica and University of the West Indies show Xermosol destroys organisms such as MRSA and E-coli and destroys viral cells such as influenza virus H1N1.

This is a huge step in the fight against microorganisms and offers new ways of thinking around combatting viral cells such as Coronavirus.

Supporting young people to innovate

Rayvon says the recognition he received from the Commonwealth Health Innovation Awards was a key moment in Xermosols progress, generating immense interest in the project.

But now the production of Xermosol faces a number of considerable challenges - from development funding to finding a manufacturer to mass produce.

Financing options are mostly focused on large-scale innovation, but the Commonwealth is exploring and proposing that all 54 member-countries go into partnership with the Global Innovation Fund to help young innovators like Rayvon.

Over the past two years, the Commonwealth Youth Health Network has worked closely with the Commonwealth Secretariat and member states to leverage the unique capabilities of young people and drive forward progress toward SDG3 (which includes a bold commitment to end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other communicable diseases) and health-related development goals.

Citizens aged under 30 comprise 60 per cent of the Commonwealths population - a proportion that is 10 per cent higher than the global average. In the course of my interaction in and with our member countries I am continually impressed by the drive of these 1.4 billion young people. They have the ideas, energy and talent to make a huge difference in their communities  and they are doing so.
This week, I had a conversation with U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to discuss national responses to the COVID-19 outbreak and how the U.S. Department of Education can assist Montana schools. I encouraged flexibility for Montana schools. We also discussed equitable alternative education delivery and what that looks like in rural Montana, especially for special education and other at-risk student groups.

As communities across Montana were forced to rapidly adapt in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, I was encouraged by how deliberately school administrators, teachers and families stood up to lead through unprecedented circumstances. Even before the governor announced a statewide closure of Montanas schools, the Office of Public Instruction (OPI) had been in communication with school leaders while urging the governor and federal agencies to waive certain requirements for schools in the event of locally declared closures.

Since the announcement of statewide school closures, the OPI has been in constant contact with Montanas local school leaders, recognizing that Montana is a local control state. The OPIs message has been consistent; schools and families deserve flexibility in these extraordinary times. To date, I have successfully advocated for the following waivers;

 Allowing flexibility in delivering school nutrition services.

 Canceling federally mandated standardized tests.

 Rescinding bus regulations to allow for the delivery of remote education and nutrition services.

 Eliminating required student instruction hours to allow for innovative distance learning.

Parents, teachers and school leaders are focused on the health and safety of their students while continuing to provide education and nutrition services. Burdensome federal and state mandates are the last thing they should have to worry about at this time.

I have OPI specialists who have been working tirelessly to support all aspects of student and school needs. As we look ahead to school doors opening again, I am proud of Montanas students, parents, teachers and school administrators for your tremendous leadership in uncertain times. As your superintendent of public instruction, I am here to support you.

Elsie Arntzen is Montana's superintendent of public instruction. She is a Republican running for re-election.

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ANYONE watching local TV Sunday night, March 29, 2020, must have seen it.

Regular programming was suddenly interrupted by breaking news: a plane about to take off from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in the capital suddenly caught fire, killing all eight passengers.

The aircraft turned out to be a West Wind 24 operated by Lionair Inc. It was on a medical evacuation mission to Haneda, Japan.

According to a news report, those killed were the pilot, Capt. Mario Medina Jr., co-pilots Ren Edward Ungson and Melvin de Castro, Dr. Cenover Nicandro Bautista II, flight medic Edmark Jael, nurse Conrado Tomeldan Jr., Canadian patient John Richard Hurst and his assistant Marilyn Vergara de Jesus, who holds an American passport.

AviationUpdatesPH tweeted Sunday night that the aircraft was chartered by the Department of Health (DOH) to ferry essential medical supplies across the country.

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines Deputy Director Don Mendoza said the same plane had been used to ferry medical supplies to Iloilo on Saturday, March 28.

All the other news on the incident made no mention of the plane being chartered by the health department.

One report said airport authorities were tight-lipped about why the medical evacuation was taking place.

My heart goes out to the families and friends of the victims, but I couldnt get these nagging questions out of my head as I watched the news conference of Transportation General Manager Ed Monreal Sunday night.

Mind you, he did confirm that the plane was on a medical evacuation mission to Japan. But he didnt say what the patients condition was.

Again, Monreal probably didnt have all the details yet because the incident had just happened. I understand that. Also, he is a transportation official, not a health official. But I automatically assumed that it had something to do with the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Am I way off mark here?

Well, I shouldnt dwell so much on assumptions so I wont. It wouldnt be fair to the victims families and friends, anyway. But I think the DOH should issue a statement on this matter. The agency doesnt want everybody to think that it was, once again, dishing out special treatment.

Story continues

Yet, of all the questions during the press conference, one caught my attention and left me scratching my head.

One reporter asked, Aside from the two foreign nationals (on board), what was the nationality of the other passengers?

Ha?
Trump called Putin about the crash in oil prices, and the two agreed to discuss a way forward.

Prices of global oil benchmark Brent crude nosedived to the cheapest levels in 18 years on Monday, while United States benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude briefly fell below $20 per barrel, as plummeting demand from coronavirus disruptions and another salvo from Saudi Arabia in its oil price war pounded the sector.

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed during a call on Monday to have their top energy officials meet to discuss the crash in global oil markets, according to the Kremlin. Earlier in the day, Trump called the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia crazy.

The recent crash in oil prices  which has seen the major benchmarks record losses for five straight weeks  has threatened higher-cost oil drillers in the US and around the globe with bankruptcy.

Brent futures fell $2.43, or 9.8 percent, to $22.50 a barrel by 14:40 GMT, while US WTI crude fell $1.22, or 5.7 percent, to $20.29. Earlier in the session, Brent fell as low as $21.65 per barrel, its lowest since March 2002, while WTI dropped to $19.85.

The nearly two-decade low is being fed by a coronavirus demand hit, worsened by an oil price war between the worlds top exporters of crude.

Saudi Arabia and Russia have promised to flood the market with oil in April after talks collapsed earlier this month between the Saudi-led Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies led by Russia  a grouping known as OPEC+.

Riyahd said it would lift all restrictions on its oil output after Moscow refused to support a deep output cut.

In an interview with Fox News Channel on Monday, Trump said: I never thought Id be saying that maybe we have to have an oil [price] increase, because we do.

The price is so low now theyre fighting like crazy over, over distribution and over how many barrels to let go, he added.

Oil analysts, however, say there is only so much the US can do.

There have been plenty of times the US has pushed the Saudis to change their oil policy. How effective that has been is another story, Gregory Gause, head of the International Affairs Department at Texas A&M University, told Al Jazeera.

He recalled the US exercising its influence over Saudi oil policy in 1986, when the administration of then-President Ronald Reagan pushed the Saudis to limit production and push prices up.

At the time, the Saudi strategy of opening the taps to discipline other OPEC members had forced prices down substantially, and the effect on the US oil industry was severe, said Gause. Vice President Bush was sent to Riyadh to push the Saudis to work in the opposite direction.

This time, it is US shale oil producers that are suffering. With crude prices so low, it is now costing oil firms to stay active, some analysts say. Production will have to be halted as storage capacities fill up to the brim.

US stockpiles at Cushing in Oklahoma rose more than four million barrels last week, the biggest increase in over 10 years, according to data provider Genscape. For this reason, supertanker freight rates continued to rise for the second time this month alone.

Goldman Sachs analysts warned on Monday that demands from commuters and airlines, which account for about 16 million barrels per day of global consumption, may never return to previous levels.

And despite calls from Trump to quit the oil price war, Saudi Arabia and Russia have yet to heed it. Both sides have indicated that they can wait out a price crash.

Riyadh said on Monday that it plans to boost its oil exports to 10.6 million barrels per day from May.

The Russians and Saudis appear to be leveraging rock-bottom oil prices to impose a downsizing of the US shale oil industry, Jim Krane, energy analyst at Rice Universitys Baker Institute, told Al Jazeera.

From their perspective, shale has been free riding on sacrifices made by other producers. Free riding was never going to be a viable long-term strategy for shale, Krane said. At some point, the Saudis were going to have to fight back.
Gayathri Mani By

Express News Service

Tens of thousands, forced into quarantine or lockdown to keep out a deadly contagion turning cities into graveyards across the globe, and, struggling to fetch essentials at a time their nearest grocer has downed shutters, maybe wondering could anything be worse. Well yes, there is. While the coronavirus has doubtlessly unleashed a wave of terror and left a grim trail of death and desolation across the world, an even deadlier virus maybe sweeping our streets unchecked. One which makes a section of our populace put unsolicited and unflattering labels on people who have nothing to do with the global pandemic.



Life under lockdown has been even harder to bear for students and working people from the Northeast, so much so that some have second thoughts about setting foot outside their homes to buy groceries fearing racial slurs or attacks.



COVID-19 LIVE | 28 dead in India, positive cases cross 1100; Centre suspends four Delhi govt officials

Easy targets



In one such incident, a Manipur girl, studying at Delhi University, lodged a complaint against a 40-year-old man claiming that he spat on her at Vijay Nagar, near the North Campus, and passed a racist comment  Corona is here. The incident drew anger and contempt from fellow settlers from the Northeast. However, the expression of anger did little to put a check on racial profiling and discrimination, as more such incidents in the city came to light in the subsequent weeks. Videos of name calling and harassment of people from the Northeast flooded social media platforms and went viral.

Slurs such as coronavirus, Ladakhis, Mongoloid faces and squinted eyes are clearly audible in these videos. Seized of the rising cases, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) asked Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to identify the perpetrators and act against them. The 40-year-old, who spat on the 25-year-old Manipur girl, was arrested and identified as Gaurav Vohra, a resident of Model Town.

Unsavoury experiences



Being called names such as Chinese, Momos, Chowmein and Ch***I is nothing new for people from the Northeast residing and settled in Delhi. However, a new label  Coronavirus  is being put on us in the wake of this viral outbreak. Whats scary is that were even being harassed. The other day, I was on the Metro when some passengers stood behind me and started talking about coronavirus the moment they realised I was from the Northeast. Not done, they even made fun of me. I was eventually forced to get off the train and take another, said Lembi, a media professional from Khundrakpam in Manipur, who resides at south Delhis Chittaranjan (CR) Park.

I have been living in Delhi for the last ten years and, yet, whenever I step out, I am made to feel like an alien. It feels uncomfortable to have people gawking at you, she said. Alana, an activist who has been working extensively to raise awareness on racial discrimination, said she is been hearing about 4-5 incidents of name-calling and harassment faced by Northeast people every day, from across the country, since the deadly contagion hit our shores. In several other incidents, Northeast people, especially students and professionals residing in Munirka and Safdarjung Enclave, have been asked to vacate their rented accommodations for fear that they may be taking the disease next door.

In another incident, a student, out recently to fetch groceries and essentials in Noida, was turned away by a vegetable vendor as she was from the Northeast. Sharing her unseemly experience, a student of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), who hails from the Northeast, said, I was walking to the campus from Ber Sarai when two girls spotted me and started muttering under their breath about coronavirus. They even made a comment that was downright racist. Often, when Im walking, I get stared at so much that I start checking if my clothes are in order. Im made to feel that theres a problem with me.

However, it isnt just now that we are facing such issues. Theres hardly a time of year when we are not mocked at or harassed. People, including the so-called learned ones, make us feel like we dont belong here by passing racist comments, she said. Earlier this month, a DU student was harassed and allegedly molested by a group of men during Holi celebrations in Kamala Nagar. The men allegedly threw balloons at her and shooed her off, saying, Go away coronavirus.

Treated like aliens



Its sad to be targeted in your own country even after so much sensitisation and awareness. Many of my friends have been asked to vacate their apartments. Where will they go? People should show more sympathy and help us, as were living away from our families. Were targeted day-in and day-out. How many complaints can we file? It may be a lockdown for others but for us, its curfew, Ngipwem Rebecca Chohwanglim, a 1st-year PhD student at JNU, told this correspondent.

Since the virus started spreading, messages flooded my Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages, asking if I have coronavirus. Were not even considered Indians. Since we have Mongoloid features, were often mistaken for Chinese people. We may look like them but it doesnt mean that were carrying the virus. People chant corona the moment they spot us, Arpita Dutta, a DU student from Assam, said.

Also a lawyer, Alana said, A number of cases have been reported from Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, Gujarat and, of course, Delhi. On an average, 4-5 cases are reported daily. However, not all cases come to light.

Recently, a group of Northeast people went to shop for groceries and food items in Noida when they were told by a shopkeeper that he wont sell to them as theyre behind the corona outbreak. I was getting my niece home from college after clearing her exam formalities and hailed an e-rickshaw. However, the passengers refused to sit next to her, as shes from the Northeast. We waited at a bus stop for 15 minutes when an elderly woman drove up to them and offered them a lift. However, that was before she realised where my niece is from and drove off, Alana recalled. I have been witness to several incidents where people put on a mask or covered their faces with a dupatta and changed course the moment they spotted a person from the Northeast, she added.

Prejudice in time of unity



Ramananda Sen, a professor at Kirori Mal College, which is affiliated to DU, said, Cases of harassment and racial discrimination are on the rise. Students are being told to vacate rented accommodations. Also the president of Northeastern Teachers Union, Sen said he has written to chief ministers of Delhi, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, urging them to take up the rising harassment of Northeast people with the Prime Minister and MHA.

Law enforcement agencies must act swiftly against anyone accused of racial discrimination. Social awareness programmes in the city could also help dispel myths around Northeast people, he added.

Police help at hand Delhi Police and the Special Unit for North Eastern Residents (SPUNER) issued an advisory on March 23 for ensuring the safety of Northeast people in the city.

Were not just receiving complaints from Delhi but also from elsewhere in NCR. Such behaviour towards Northeast people cant be tolerated. Weve asked them to remain indoors and step out only in the event of an emergency. The Delhi government has opened a helpline number and weve set up a separate cell for Northeast people. Weve also launched helpline numbers through which they can seek assistance in procuring essential items, Hibu Tamang, ACP, Delhi Police, said.

Deliberate acts



MP Bezbaruah, former secretary in the Union tourism ministry, who headed a panel monitored by the MHA and Supreme Court, said, Those spitting on Northeast people and calling them names are infected with the virus of hatred. These incidents cant be attributed to ignorance about the Northeast people. These are deliberate and targeted acts. I believe firm and swift action is needed against those behind such incidents.
The Colombian government announced it will be releasing more than 10,000 prisoners under house arrest during the coronavirus pandemic, a week 23 inmates died during a prison riot.

The National Penitentiary and Prison Institute will grant temporary release to detainees who are over the age of 60.

Also among the 10,850 prisoners eligible to be placed in home confinement are pregnant women and mothers with children under the age of three.

The government will also allow terminally ill prisoners, convicts with sentences of less than five years and those who have served at least three-fifths of their sentences, to be released.

Vice President Marta Lucia Ramirez said she reached out to the Ministry of Justice on Saturday to advise against the release of prisoners convicted of sexual abuse crimes.

The body of a male prisoner lies on the roof of La Modelo, a jail in Bogota , Colombia, where an inmate riot over fears of the coronavirus left 23 detainees dead on March 22. On Saturday, the government announced it would placing 10,850 prisoners in home confinement in an effort to prevent them from being infected

Paramedic tends to one of the 90 injured inmates following a prison riot in Colombia on March 22. Prisoners were calling for elderly inmates and those with preexisting conditions be moved to other locations and be put in isolation as a result of the coronavirus epidemic

The massive release will not include inmates convicted of war crimes, genocide and/or crimes against humanity.

Detainees who in the past were found guilty of corruption and crimes against minors will be barred from being put under house arrest. The government also said it will not release any prisoner who in the past was tried or is currently facing trial under the court for Justice and Peace or by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace.

The government's decision to place some of its prison population under house arrest comes on the heel of 23 prisoners dying after a rebellion broke out March 22 at La Modelo in Bogota, where detainees blasted the penitentiary's sanitary conditions.

The riot also left 90 inmates injured.

Colombia has announced the massive temporary release of detainees in its prison system in an effort to stem the flow of COVID-19

Colombia's Vice President Marta Lucia Ramirez said she reached out to the Ministry of Justice on Saturday to advise against the release of prisoners convicted of sexual abuse crimes

Prisoners were demanding that elderly inmates and those with preexisting conditions be moved to other locations and be placed in isolation, said Jhon Leon, director of Judicial Solidarity, an organization that works to improve inmate conditions.

The coronavirus global pandemic has left 35,307 dead and 156,875 sickened as of Monday.

The Andean nation has registered 10 deaths and 702 confirmed cases due to COVID-19.
With a flu-like illness outbreak, four people dead and confirmed cases of COVID-19, it's been a horrific week for the 1,243 passengers  including 247 Canadians  stuck aboard the Zaandam, a Holland America Line cruise ship currently sailing off the coast of Panama.

Now passengers can add more problems to the list: Although the Zaandam was allowed to pass through the Panama Canal Sunday night, passengers still don't know for certain where the cruise ship will dock, and when they'll be able to return home.

The ship had plans to dock and let passengers disembark in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., but politicians there are now concerned about letting in a coronavirus-hit ship.

"We have enough to deal with, with our folks in Florida," said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a news conference Monday, where he detailed the toll that COVID-19 is taking on his state.

"They're not wanting us there, so where are we going to go?" said Zaandam passenger Cheryle Stothard, of Toronto. She and her husband have been confined to their cabin for the past week because of the illness outbreak.

"Going through the Panama Canal is useless if we can't get off in Florida," said the 71-year-old.

Submitted by Cheryle Stothard

Since cutting short its South American cruise on March 14 due to the growing COVID-19 pandemic, the Zaandam has been seeking a place to dock so passengers can return home.

On Friday, Holland America announced that four "older" passengers had died and that many others were exhibiting "influenza-like illness symptoms." Currently, 73 passengers and 116 crew members are sick.

The Zaandam is carrying 586 crew members  one of whom is Canadian.

None of the dead is Canadian. Holland America didn't provide a cause of death for the four passengers but said that the ship tested "a number" of patients for COVID-19 on Thursday, and two were positive.

Submitted by Chris Joiner

Passengers grew hopeful on the weekend after learning that the Zaandam could pass through the Panama Canal.

Story continues

But Holland America's plan to dock in Fort Lauderdale isn't a done deal because Broward County, which includes the city, has yet to give the green light.

Broward County Commissioner Michael Udine told CBC News that the county is already overrun with COVID-19 cases  more than 1,000 to date  so he's apprehensive about letting in a ship that will add to its problems.

"We're a hotspot here. Our medical facilities are taxed," said Udine. "If there are sick people that have to come off, I want them to be able to come off  but where are they going to go? What hospitals are going to be able to take them?"

'Somebody's got to let us dock'

Udine's apprehension is upsetting for passenger Margaret Tilley, who's desperate to return to her home in Nanaimo, B.C.

"Let's have a little compassion," said the 71-year-old. "It just doesn't seem right. Somebody's got to let us dock."

The Zaandam began its cruise on March 7 and had initially planned to dock on March 16 in Punta Arenas, Chile, to let passengers off early. However, the country refused to allow passengers to disembark, so the ship set course for Fort Lauderdale.

On the weekend, Tilley and her husband  along with 795 other passengers  were moved to the Zaandam's sister ship, the Rotterdam. Holland America sent the ship, along with medical supplies and more staff, to rendezvous with the Zaandam and transfer "healthy" passengers to the Rotterdam.

Just let us get straight from the boat to a vehicle and to the airport. We don't want to stay in Fort Lauderdale. - Margaret Tilley, passenger

Both ships were able to pass through the Panama canal. Tilley said she wants Broward County to know that the healthy Canadians onboard won't be a burden and just want to get home.

"Just let us get straight from the boat to a vehicle and to the airport. We don't want to stay in Fort Lauderdale."

Submitted by Margaret Tilley

Udine said that all the passengers would have to be quarantined upon arrival, because some could be asymptomatic.

"There's a lot of things that are going to need to be worked out by this cruise ship before they simply get disembarking in Broward County."

Udine said the county will review a plan for how Holland America will handle the situation and likely make a decision soon.

Meanwhile, more passengers are feeling unwell. Stothard said that she and her husband Tony have both developed a runny nose and cough. That means they must remain in their cabin, on board the Zaandam along with the ill passengers who are in isolation.

"We've got to get off," said Stothard. "The longer we stay on here, the more cases we're going to have."

Submitted by Margaret Tilley

Why did they go on a cruise?

Some CBC readers wondered why passengers boarded a cruise on March 7 when COVID-19 was spreading globally.

CBC News asked several Canadian passengers aboard the Zaandam this question. They responded that when they started their journey, there were very few COVID-19 cases in South America.

The continent didn't have any reported cases until one was confirmed in Brazil on Feb. 26.

Some passengers also said that, when they were set to begin their trip, there was no opportunity to get a refund.

Tilley and her husband left Nanaimo on Feb. 28 and travelled for a week in Argentina before their cruise. She said only in hindsight does she see the warning signs.

'[The virus] was in China," she said about that time period. "We thought South America would be safer."
The Deputy Finance Minister, Charles Adu Boahene has officially launched the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund.

The fund seeks to raise funding from the private sector to support the Ghana government's effort to address the Covid-19 pandemic.

The initiative, by some business leaders in the private sector, is aimed at partly financing the government's interventions and equipping select health services and supply chain facilities and activities to deal with the coronavirus spread.

The (10) trustees of the fund have each contributed GHS 100,000, constituting GHS 1 million and will further raise a minimum of GHS 100 million from individuals and corporations to complement their initial efforts and the government's fight against Covid-19, explained Edward Effah, Chairman of Fidelity Bank and a trustee at the launch in Accra.

The Deputy Finance minister Charles Adu Boahene declared the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund formally launched.

He said, Part of the Income Tax Act is an allowance for [tax] rebates for donations of worthwhile causes, so we are going to deem this as a worthwhile cause so that you can get some tax deductions for it.

Mr. Adu Boahene also donated three months of his salary to the COVID-19 fund and called on all Ghanaians to support the fight against the pandemic.

Deputy Health Minister Alex Abban commended the exceptional initiative by the private sector.

Now with Covid-19, things aren't going on as they should. So you may even be waiting to count your losses. That's very obvious, yet in the midst of all this and probably the imminence of losing some business, you went out of your way to decide that you would show love even when it's going to cost you some kind of pain.

CEO of the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors Senyo Hosi, also a trustee and moderator of the launch event called for generosity and responsibility from all and sundry to help stem the spread of coronavirus.

The best way to show love at this time is actually to stay away from people but not your money. You can't keep your money from what has to be done.

Individuals and corporations may contribute towards the fund via cash, online payment, mobile money and swift transfer.

The Covid-19 fund is set up in a way that will ensure transparency and accountability as all donations and disbursements will be published on the fund's website. All donations may also be made through the website .

Some of the fund trustees present at the event, Director CH Group, Kweku Bediako, Edward Effah, Chairman Tropical Cable & Conductor, Tony Oteng Gyasi and Senyo Hosi presented the seed fund of GHS 1million to the fund manager and health and finance ministries.

The fund will be administrated by Fidelity Bank Ghana, managed by Stanlib Ghana Ltd., with Ernst & Young as fund auditor, Bentsi Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah as legal partners and Dream Oval as Digital and Digital Marketing partner. The Global Media Alliance will provide all the necessary media support.

The Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund trustees include Chairman Tropical Cable & Conductor Anthony Oteng-Gyasi, Chairman of Fidelity bank Edward Effah, Director CH Group Kwaku Bediako, CEO Woodfield Energy Ltd. John Taylor, Chairman, Wilkins Engineering Ltd. Omane Frimpong, Managing Director of Bamson Group Kwame Ofosu Bamfo, Group Chairman, Kasapreko, Kwabena Adjei, Charman of Svani Group Ltd., CEO, The Multimedia Group and CEO, Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors, Senyo Hosi.
With the coronavirus pandemic sweeping across the world, and many locking down in their homes, some are dreading the idea of going through the crisis alone.

But advocates of Honjok, the South Korean art of being at peace with yourself in time of isolation, believe the self-isolation could actually provide a perfect moment to practice self-acceptance.

The practice relies strongly on the concept of sologamy, which is the idea that the best partner in life that you can find is yourself.

The authors of a new book on the topic argue the principle is moving mindsets 'away from associating alone time' from being without other people, and 'towards being "with" ourselves.'

ARE YOU AN INTROVERT, EXTROVERT OR AMBIVERT? When talking to people you dont know, do you feel: A. Awkward.

B. Energized.

C. It depends on the people. Do you recharge your batteries best by: A. Grabbing some alone time.

B. Socializing with a group friends and/or strangers.

C. Balancing time alone with time with close friends. When do you find you are most productive? A. Working in a quiet and peaceful space on your own.

B. Working in a busy cafe or office; you need stimulation.

C. You can be productive in both environments. Would those closest to you say you are: A. Quiet and reserved.

B. Outgoing and chatty.

C. Sometimes outgoing but can be quiet too If you are out socializing, would you rather spend your time: A. Connecting in deep conversation with one good friend.

B. Chatting and mingling with a group of people, including strangers (friends you hadnt met yet).

C. It depends on your mood but ideally a bit of both. When communicating with someone new do you tend to: A. Talk the most.

B. Listen the most.

C. Balance talking and listening relatively equally. When surrounded by other people, would you rather: A. Blend into the background.

B. Be in the spotlight.

C. You are comfortable being the centre of attention but not for too long. Would you rather immerse yourself in: A. A good book.

B. A good movie.

C. It depends on your mood but you like books and movies After spending time surrounded by other people in a noisy and busy atmosphere, do you feel: A. Drained and invisible.

B. Energized and invincible.

C. Mostly energized, but drained if its for too long. When making decisions are you: A. Cautious.

B. A risk-taker.

C. You spend time weighing the pros and cons but are happy to take informed risks. When surrounded by other people do you tend to: A. Observe and listen.

B. Lead and start conversations.

C. Join in. Do you prefer to: A. Have some time to daydream.

B. Be busy and active.

C. Do a bit of both When it comes to asserting yourself in social situations, do you find it: A. Difficult.

B. Easy.

C. It depends on the situation. Does being alone: A. Energize you.

B. Bore you? Or make you feel like youre missing out.

C. Mostly energizes you. If you answered mostly As, you lean towards introversion. If you answered mostly Bs, you lean towards extroversion. If you answered mostly Cs, you lean towards ambiversion. If you answered a combination of As, Bs and Cs, you are most likely an ambivert. Wherever you fall on the spectrum is perfectly okay. Its how you use this information to inform your choices about alone time and social time which matters most. Advertisement

In Honjok: The Art of Living Alone, clinical counsellor Francie Healey and Chinese-Canadian journalist Crystal Tai explain how the Honjok can help us get through these trying times.

The term honjok was born out of two South Korean terms: 'hon', meaning 'alone' and 'jok', meaning 'tribe.' It refers to the growing movement against the traditional Korean vision of family and happiness.

Tai and Healey explain that the Honjok movement was born out of a surge in feminism in South Korea, where women were told being wives and mothers was a sure lock on happiness.

Honjok states that being alone doesn't necessarily lead to loneliness and that differentiating between the two is key to being happy in your own skin.

Advocates for the South Korean practice of Honjok believe self-isolation is actually the key to accepting oneself and finding happiness (stock image)

The authors explain that loneliness is based on feeling as though you have no social support to help you cope, but that being alone can be enjoyable.

Tips for embracing alone time Go for walks and leave your phone at home in order to take in your surroundings. Pay attention to your senses.

Try online classes in order to explore new hobbies to get out of your comfort zone.

Learn to cherish time at home. Look at the window and look for the details in your surroundings. Put your favourite music on and dance in your room.

Find your favourite spot in your house or apartment and relax in it with a cup of tea.

Schedule 15 minutes of a creative activity everyday as a break from work.

Use creative writing, doodling, drawing or painting as a conduit for your emotions. Don't critique it or polish it, but tap in your creativity to silence your busy mind. Invest in good tools, such as paints and brushes or a good notebook and paint.

Make a list of your accomplishment so as to boost your confidence.

Make a list of the things you are thankful for in the moment.

Plan your hopes and future with an optimistic mindset.

Write a letter of thanks or apology without sending it. Advertisement

The philosophy views deep friendship as a key to overcoming loneliness.

It suggests that one can overcome loneliness by having a few well-chosen friends, as opposed to a hoard of friends with perhaps shallower connection.

The authors argue that by choosing to focus on friends you have a deep connection with is the best way to be happier with yourself, rather than socialising.

Meanwhile, individuals should embrace the idea of 'sologomy', and celebrate themselves in a figurative 'marriage' as a form of proclamation of self-love.

Honjok makes the point that, because humans are social beings, a part of us seeks to belong with others, and to please others.

However, the idea of being happy alone doesn't have to clash with the fact we need interactions.

Rather than rejecting others, it means embracing the notion of belonging to yourself.

The authors explain that people can feel alone even when they're in a relationship or surrounded by people.

But they argue: 'You can be completely alone, yet still feel connected to and supported by others.

'When you know you have supportive relationships, you can feel better about the prospect of being on your own.'

They also stress that alone time should be seen as contemplative time, where you can focus on producing good work that matter to you.

Journalist Crystal Tai (left) and clinical counsellor Francie Healey (right) explain how alone-time can be used to practice introspection and why being alone doesn't necessarily lead to loneliness

They explain: 'Contrary to the notion of contemplative moments being a waste of time, investing in self-reflection to develop self-awareness and compassion actually helps you save time by gaining a better understanding of what matters most so you can invest time in those areas.

Honjok: The Art of Living Alone is published by Eddison Books on April 23

'You get to decide at what level you want to be involved in the world, at what point you lose yourself, and where the balance.

They also explain that having some alone-time might give you an opportunity to reflect on what you want and allow your creativity to develop.

But while they argue that being alone can be a time of reflection, they also argue the importance of dealing with your feelings as they arise.

They explain that rather than suppressing how we feel, we should embrace and express emotions when we feel them in order to understand why we feel the way we do.

'By releasing our emotions and letting them flow, we can work through them and move forwards,' they explain.

Honjok: The Art of Living Alone is published by Eddison Books on April 23
The Wuhan epidemic is bringing to light many regulations and processes that have needlessly impeded efforts to fight the virus by private industry, as well as by government. Quite a few such regulations are now being suspended, causing many to ask, why did we have them in the first place?

At Center of the American Experiments web site, economist John Phelan offers a textbook example from our state of Minnesota. Minnesotas governor has ordered a draconian shutdown that is devastating the states economy and will bankrupt thousands of small businesses. Why? As elsewhere, to flatten the curve. The concern is that Minnesota doesnt have enough hospital beds and, especially, enough ICU beds to accommodate COVID-19 patients who will need them during the height of the epidemic. That is the fundamental reason why millions of Minnesotans have been ordered to stay home, at great cost.

But why is the state so short of hospital beds? John Phelan explains. (Forgive the long quote, but the point is vitally important. Links are omitted.)

In 1984, Minnesota enacted a hospital construction moratorium. This prohibits the building of new hospitals as well as any erection, building, alteration, reconstruction, modernization, improvement, extension, lease or other acquisition by or on behalf of a hospital that increases bed capacity of a hospital. Whenever hospitals or provider groups propose an exception to the moratorium, the Minnesota Legislature requires the Department of Health to conduct a public interest review.

***

[I]t is incredible to note that, as with [Certificate of Need] laws, the purpose of this system is to make it harder to provide hospital beds in Minnesota. [Researcher Patrick] Moran says: Policymakers hoped that the moratorium would be more effective than CON in reducing the growth of hospital beds. They would appear to have been successful. In the twenty years from 1984 through 2004, 16 exceptions were granted permitting just 94 additional licensed beds. As the chart below shows, between 1996 and 2016, the number of licensed beds in Minnesota actually fell by 921 while the population increased by 81,000. 

The moratorium fixes supply the supply of beds. This encourages medical providers to shift them around in search of the best return. Moran explains: Many hospitals have strategically banked beds, allowing them to circumvent the review process. In 2005, while there were only 11,650 available beds, there were 16,392 licensed beds in the state, allowing many hospitals to rely on unused bed capacity when they expand services. This is why, as the chart above shows, in 2016 29% of licensed beds were unavailable.

We are now paying a heavy price for government policies that deliberately suppressed the building of new hospital capacity in our state. How did such a crazy policy come to be?

No doubt, many Minnesotans would be wondering why state government seeks to limit the expansion of hospital beds. The rationale for Minnesotas hospital moratorium is no different from the rationale for [Certificate of Need] laws. The only reason we favor the former over the latter is, as Patrick Moran points out, that we think it will be more effective at limiting hospital expansion. Policymakers want to do that  they claim  because otherwise medical providers would over-invest in capacity which would drive up prices, raise health care costs, and restrict access to these services for the poor. This is a bizarre argument. The reason we dont have a McDonalds on every block isnt because state government protects us from this, but because it makes no economic sense for McDonalds to expand capacity with no regard to the demand for it. And, in fact, research finds that [Certificate of Need] laws  or analogous laws like Minnesotas moratorium  do little to increase access to health care for the poor, but, instead, limit the supply of such services. But then that is their express intention. As my colleague Martha Njolomole wrote last week: Findings show that controlling for other factors CON laws seem to limit access to healthcare, fail to increase the quality of care, and contribute to higher costs. Additionally there is proof that repealing CON laws is highly beneficial to states. Researchers have found that states that have removed these rules have more hospitals and more ambulatory surgery centers per capita. They also have more hospital beds, dialysis clinics, and hospice care facilities. Patients in non-CON states are more likely to utilize medical imaging technologies and less likely to leave their communities in search of care. Though CON advocates sometimes claim that the rules protect rural facilities, states without CON laws have more rural hospitals and more rural ambulatory surgery centers than states with CON laws.

This is just one of many instances where irrational laws and regulations have impeded our ability to respond to the Wuhan virus. Via InstaPundit, this excellent piece by the New York Post editorial board, titled How Red Tape Has Crippled Americas Coronavirus Response. I will cite just one example from the editorial:

It took weeks for the feds to waive regs even on coronavirus testing kits. For more than a month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention only allowed the use of its test  which proved to be inaccurate much of the time  even as companies were champing at the bit to produce better and faster kits.

Perhaps one silver lining of the Wuhan virus is that Americans will see, vividly demonstrated, how poor regulation not only makes all of us poorer, but can threaten our lives. This could provide renewed energy for President Trumps assault on the federal swamp during his second term, and for similar efforts in the states.
The Head of the European Commission in Dublin outlines the work of the EC in combating the Covid 19 pandemic and the medical and economic initiatives currently being advanced.

The Covid-19 virus knows no borders. It is only by working together, through resolute and co-ordinated action, that Ireland and Europe can win the battle against it. Such action will save lives, limit the economic damage and prepare for as rapid a

recovery as possible. The European Commission is pulling out all the stops to achieve this.

The loss of so many people to this deadly virus is a tragedy on a scale unimaginable even just a few short weeks ago. The incredible efforts of doctors and nurses, and the work of those who provide essential services to the population, in Ireland and

across Europe, is a source of great pride.

I am also proud that European countries are pulling together to fight Covid-19, including when faced with unprecedented challenges at home. Germany is taking patients from Northern Italy. Luxembourg is taking patients from France. Another illustration comes from medical supplies, with France, Germany and Austria each having sent at least one million masks to Italy.

Such European solidarity is a vital ingredient to getting through the crisis. Indeed solidarity goes beyond our borders as

evidenced by the 56 tonnes of protective clothing sent to China during the height of their epidemic and the help we are and will have to increase to developing countries as the epidemic spreads around the globe.

In the shorter-term, ensuring our health services can deal with the pandemic is the top priority. While national governments are in the driving seat here, the EU has a big role to play in standing alongside governments in the battle to protect citizens. The EUs clout is enabling us to secure vital medical equipment at a fair price.

To help address the shortage of such equipment, the European Commission has launched, jointly with Ireland and other EU countries, a series of procurement initiatives. Tenders have already been successfully completed for personal protective

equipment, such as gloves, face-masks and goggles. Offers from suppliers covered, and in some cases exceeded, all the equipment requested. The EU is now working flat out to secure ventilators, laboratory equipment and test kits, and these efforts should bear fruit shortly.

In the longer-term, the development, production and deployment of a vaccine is vital in the COVID-19 battle. The Commission has therefore reoriented existing research and is making new funding available to this end. It has mobilised 140 million of

funds for vaccine research, and selected 17 new projects. The Commission has also made  80 million available to Cure Vac, a global leader in this effort, for its work on a vaccine.

EU countries have many lessons to learn from each other in the fight against this new virus. To this end, the Commission has established an expert panel, composed of a team of Europes top epidemiologists and virologists, to formulate science-based

best practice advice and help guide the EU response.

As Ireland knows only too well, the safe return of people stranded abroad is a pressing priority. The EU is doing all it can to ensure citizens are reunited with their families as soon as possible, and is working 24/7 with national governments to this end. Thanks to repatriation flights organised through the EUs Civil Protection Mechanism, well over 2,000 people have got home to Europe, including from China, Japan, the US, Morocco, Tunisia, Georgia, the Philippines and Cape Verde. More

than 80 further repatriation flights are planned.

On the economic and social front, the pandemic is sending an extremely sharp and cold wind through the length and breadth of Ireland and Europe. No sector is being left untouched, with many households and workers enduring huge knock-backs. The European Commission has acted to ensure a co-ordinated response, granting national governments unprecedented powers to pump money into the health service and provide a financial lifeline to businesses, workers and households hit hard by the

pandemic.

The Commission has also launched a massive investment initiative to tackle the challenges posed by the pandemic, with EUR 37 billion available to provide liquidity to small businesses and the health care sector. While the pressing need is to fight the pandemic and its immediate consequences, we must also look further ahead and work out how to help Ireland and Europe get back to normality.

Work is therefore starting on a co-ordinated exit strategy and recovery plan that puts our economies on a sustainable footing, preserves European values and strengthens our way of life. European leaders are committed to doing everything that is necessary to protect their citizens and overcome the crisis.

While the pandemic is placing a great burden on all of us, by working together, first at an EU level and then globally, we can emerge stronger from this battle, and our communities can become closer and more resilient going forward.
MEDFORD, Ore.  Public health officials in Jackson County say that one more positive case of the COVID-19 coronavirus has been found in the county, bringing the total to 20.

Over the past few days, Jackson County Public Health has said that the area is now in the phase of "rapid community spread" of coronavirus.

It is best that everyone be cautious and not assume that one location is safer than another, said Jackson Baures, Jackson County Public Health Division Manager. COVID-19 is spreading in our community, and this is why practicing social distancing, that includes staying home and minimizing outings, is so critical right now.

In some cases, the County has released demographic information about the diagnosed individuals. While cases have skewed toward people age 50 or above, there have been several cases of people in their 30s.

Officials in southern Oregon have preferred to use back-tracking investigations to quietly contact any people who have been in close quarters with the individual, followed by quarantine and monitoring for symptoms.

RELATED: Fifth person tests positive for COVID-19 in Josephine County

With the latest test results in Oregon and across the United States, there is more evidence of active community spread of COVID-19, and Jackson County said that this is something they have expected to see in Oregon and in Jackson County.

Governor Kate Brown released new executive orders that take additional steps to ensure that Oregonians stay home in order to slow the spread of COVID-19 on Monday.

Under the new executive orders are directives for individuals to maintain social distancing. These directives state during the ongoing state of emergency that, to the maximum extent possible, individuals are to stay home or at their place of residence.

"We understand the difficulties of practicing social distancing, this is not something we are used to doing, and we miss being close to family and friends," Jackson County said in a statement. "But, by practicing social distancing and staying home, we are slowing the spread of COVID-19 and protecting those who are more likely to suffer severe complications from COVID-19. Those most vulnerable are include adults 60 and older, or anyone with a serious health condition, including lung or heart disease, diabetes, or anyone who has a suppressed immune system."

Here are what individuals should and shouldnt do:

Do:

Stay home as much as possible; this includes kids

Stay at least 6 feet away from others any time you are out

Go out only for essentials (groceries and medical care)

Exercise outside (hiking, biking) only if you can be 6 feet apart from others

Have video and phone chats

Drop food off to neighbors who cant go out

Dont:

Gather in groups

Get together with friends (no drinks or dinners)

Have playdates for kids

Make unnecessary trips

"Social distancing is the most critical action Jackson County residents need to take right now in order to slow the spread of COVID-19 and protect the health of the community," health officals said. "By slowing the spread of COVID-19, we are flattening the curve. The curve is the number of people projected to contract COVID-19. The faster the infection curve rises, the quicker the local healthcare system gets overloaded beyond its capacity to treat people. By slowing the infection rate, the infection curve flattens, allowing our healthcare system to operate and care for those who need it. Stay home and save a life."
COLUMBIA COUNTY  Columbia County Public Health Director Jack Mabb said he's concerned that a reshuffling of patients from downstate hospitals to upstate hospitals could impact his county's ability to keep residents safe during the coronavirus pandemic.

He made the remarks Monday morning on local radio station WGXC 90.7, which covers a geographic area from Troy to Poughkeepsie and Middleburgh to Great Barrington.

"Am I concerned about it?" he said. "Im concerned because my job is to be concerned about Columbia County residents and if somebody needs a ventilator and all the ventilators are full at the hospital, Im concerned about it."

A reshuffling has not yet happened, but New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said repeatedly in recent days that health systems across the state, including upstate, need to work together to accommodate an overflow of patients. On Monday, he said he was in talks with hospitals statewide and that they are going to set a "load threshold" that determines at what point they will transfer patients to less-full hospitals.

New York City is currently the epicenter of cases statewide and nationally, and its hospitals are becoming increasingly overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. On Monday, some relief arrived: The USNS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship with 1,000 beds, docked in New York Harbor and the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan officially came online as a temporary medical facility that can hold up to 2,500 beds.

38 positive for coronavirus at Rikers, NYC jails

Raniere sentencing postponed until May 21

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"We have hospitals in upstate New York that are experiencing none of this  where they have staff capacity, they have bed capacity," Cuomo said Monday when asked about patient reshuffling. "We need you now, here in this fight and engaged, and thats a totally different concept."

Several upstate counties are still expressing concern, however, about a surge of New York City-area residents flocking upstate to their second homes. They worry it could increase community spread and strain their small, regional health systems.

Mabb said about a third of the county's 35 confirmed coronavirus cases are people who came up from New York City to their second homes in the county.

Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson is able to "very rapidly" boost its staffed bed capacity by 65 percent, chief medical officer Clifford Belden said at a news conference last week. With a little more time and "some additional help" from the state, the hospital could "go well beyond" that number, he said.

The hospital, which serves both Columbia and Greene counties and is part of the Albany Medical Center hospital system, generally has six to seven ICU beds staffed at any given time, he said.

"We will be able to likely more than double that with our surge plan," Belden said last week.

Mabb said Monday that the county's Office of Emergency Management has identified 11 buildings that could be converted into temporary medical facilities should they be needed. One is the old ShopRite on Healy Boulevard in Hudson.

As of Monday, four people were hospitalized with the virus in the county, including two residents of the Pine Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Philmont. An elderly resident of the home who contracted COVID-19 died over the weekend, marking the county's first known coronavirus death, the county reported Saturday.

The nursing home currently has five confirmed cases of COVID-19 among residents, Mabb said Monday. The three who are not hospitalized are being treated at the home and are all isolated to one wing. On Friday, there were four known cases at the home and four others suspected.

Mabb said Monday that "a couple" of tests for other residents in the home have come back negative.

Countywide, 40 people were under mandatory quarantine on Monday and 60 to 70 were under precautionary quarantine, he said.
New York City has reported its first death of a child from coronavirus as Gov Andrew Cuomo begs for help amid the rising cases in the state.

The age of the child has not been revealed but, according to NBC, the minor did have an underlying medical condition.

As of Monday evening, New York state had a total of 1,218 deaths, prompting Cuomo to issue an urgent appeal for medical volunteers. New York City's death toll rose to 790 on Monday.

'Please come help us in New York, now,' the governor said, adding that confirmed coronavirus cases in the state have surpassed 66,000.

New York City has reported the death of a child as Gov Andrew Cuomo begs for help as coronavirus cases continue to rise in the state. Bodies are seen being loaded into the back of a refrigerated truck in Brooklyn on Monday

As of Monday evening, New York state had a total of 1,218 deaths, with the majority being in New York City, prompting Cuomo to issue an urgent appeal for medical volunteers (pictured at an emergency hospital in Central Park on Monday)

An estimated 80,000 former medical professionals have already stepped up to volunteer.

Authorities have also warned that the crisis pushing New York's hospitals to the breaking point is just a preview of what other cities across the US could soon face.

Cuomo said the city needs 1 million additional health care workers.

'We've lost over 1,000 New Yorkers,' he said. 'To me, we're beyond staggering already. We've reached staggering.'

At the same time the governor's appeal went out, Navy hospital ship Mercy, pulled into port with 1,000 beds to help relieve pressure on New York's hospitals.

The child's death comes just two days after Illinois reported that an infant with COVID-19 died on Saturday.

Cuomo (pictured Monday) said the city needs 1 million additional health care workers

'There has never been a case of COVID-19 death in an infant,' said Illinois Public Health Director, Dr Ngozi Ezike.

'If you havent been paying attention, maybe this is your wake-up call,' Ezike said.

The risk of death and severe illness from COVID-19 is greater for older adults and people with other health problems.

In most cases, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, which can include fever and cough but also milder cases of pneumonia, sometimes requiring hospitalization.

Children have made up a small fraction of coronavirus cases worldwide.

At the same time the governor's appeal went out, Navy hospital ship Mercy (pictured docking on Monday) pulled into port with 1,000 beds to help relieve pressure on New York's hospitals

A letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Chinese researchers earlier this month reported the death of a 10-month-old with COVID-19.

The infant had a bowel blockage and organ failure, and died four weeks after being hospitalized.

Separate research published in the journal Pediatrics traced 2,100 infected children in China and noted one death, a 14-year old.

The study found less than six per cent of children were seriously ill.

As of Monday afternoon, there were more than 5,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in Illinois and 73 deaths.

Illinois is under a stay-at-home order, with all non-essential business and travel banned.
The Reserve Bank on Monday proposed to change the convenors of State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) in view of the merger of 10 public sector banks into 4 with effect from April 1.

With the mega merger, 6 public sector banks will cease to exist from April 1, necessitating changes in the convenorship.

The convenorship of merged banks will be transferred to anchor banks.

The government on March 4 notified the amalgamation scheme as part of its consolidation plan to create bigger and stronger banks in the public sector.

As per the scheme, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India will be merged into Punjab National Bank (PNB); Syndicate Bank into Canara Bank; Allahabad Bank into Indian Bank; and Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank into Union Bank of India.

Following the merger, PNB will become the SLBC convenor of Delhi. Currently, the responsibility rests with Oriental Bank of Commerce, RBI said in a notification.

For Tripura and West Bengal too, convenorship will be transferred to PNB from United Bank of India, it said.

The new SLBC convenor for Andhra Pradesh will be Union Bank of India as Andhra Bank is being amalgamated with the Mumbai-based lender.

Even for Karnataka, Syndicate Bank will transfer the responsibility to Canara Bank which is going to acquire the former. Similarly, district lead bankers would also be revamped. As many as 111 districts will see new lead bankers beginning next fiscal.

SLBC came into existence under Lead Bank Scheme as per RBI guidelines. SLBC is an inter-institutional forum at state level ensuring coordination between the government and banks on matters pertaining to banking development.

The forum plays a vital role in various matters including financial inclusion and promotion of government schemes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Express News Service

CHENNAI/COIMBATORE/ERODE: Eight more persons tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, taking the total tally to 50. Three of these are from the same household, including a 10-month-old baby boy and his mother who is a doctor. All the patients are said to have had direct or indirect contact with the two Thai nationals and their Indian friend, who earlier tested positive for COVID-19 and are being treated at Erode IRT Hospital. Health Minister C Vijayabaskar confirmed the news on Twitter. The persons were identified through contact tracing. All of them have been isolated for treatment, he tweeted.

Doctor now patient

Of the eight persons, four are in Erode and four in Coimbatore. The first patient is a 29-year-old female doctor working with the Southern Railway. A native of Kerala, she was working in Erode until she was transferred to Podanur in Coimbatore on March 21. She reported for duty on March 23, and the very next day she fell sick. She was admitted to the ESI Hospital where she is currently under treatment. Two tests were done and both showed her positive for the virus.

Three of her contacts  her 10-month-old baby, 59-year-old mother, and 51-year-old domestic help  have also tested positive. They are under isolation at the ESI Hospital. Her 31-year-old husband and two-year-old child have tested negative. Sources say she could have contracted the virus from a former railway employee who was in contact with the Thai nationals. The employee, a 63-year-old man, later tested positive and is undergoing treatment at the IRT Hospital. The man reportedly visited the Erode Railway Hospital where this doctor was practising. A press release stated that the doctors family, which tested positive at ESI Hospital, was previously residing at Railway Colony in Erode. On Sunday morning, the area was sealed and disinfected.

50

Tally in Tamil Nadu rose on Sunday. So far one person died and five have been discharged after recovery
BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya on Monday slammed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the AAP government's claims on providing food to people. Taking to Twitter, he stated that while CM Kejriwal has claimed that they are feeding around four lakh people in the national capital amid the national lockdown, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has claimed that they are feeding around 20 lakh people.

Slamming the Delhi government, Malviya claimed that no food delivery van has been spotted on the streets. Taking a dig at them, he stated that they "cook and deliver and Twitter."

Kejriwal claimed they are feeding 4L people in Delhi, Sisodia claimed 20L, instead of verifying their claims, given huge migrant outflow, cheerleaders in media clapped furiously.



Not one Delhi govt food delivery van spotted on streets. Perhaps they cook on Twitter, deliver too!  Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) March 30, 2020

Kejriwal assures citizens

Amid the national lockdown, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday assured the citizens of having no scarcity of the essential services in the national capital. According to him, it is their responsibility to make sure all the citizens of Delhi get the services.

According to the Chief Minister, they will help set up the helpdesk and generate E-Pass immediately for smooth processing for those who are providing essential services without an I-card. Along with it, he had stated that the Delhi police have generated a helpline number for those who are facing any issues during the lockdown. He had added, "We will make sure nobody is left hungry."

Read: Coronavirus: UK to deliver 50,000 care packages a week containing food amid crisis

The Coronavirus crisis

As of date, India has reported over 1,100 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19. Out of all the states, Kerala and Maharashtra have reported the most in the country. Meanwhile, over 25 people have died so far due to the deadly virus. Further, India has also closed the India-Pakistan border and restricted passenger movement at the border with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Myanmar. On Sunday evening, the MHA took action against four Delhi government bureaucrats for alleged dereliction of duty pertaining to the migrant exodus that the capital has been witnessing.

Read: Coronavirus crisis: People show random acts of kindness amid lockdown

Presently, there are around 723,222 confirmed cases of COVID-19 which has led to the death of around 33,989 people. Meanwhile, around 151,798 people have reportedly recovered. The US is at the top of the charts with respect to Coronavirus cases, with over 1.2 lakh infected.

Read: BIG: L&T to give teeth to India's Coronavirus fight; Rs 150 cr PM-CARES fund tip of icberg

Read: COVID-19: Parents turn their garage into 'club quarantine' for son's 21st birthday
Samples of a 38-year-old man who



died in Ujjain three days ago came out positive for coronavirus on Monday, an official said.

With this, the death toll due to coronavirus has gone up to three in Madhya Pradesh.

Earlier, a 65-year-old man from Indore and a woman from Ujjain died of coronavirus here.

"We got a report from a lab of Indore-based Government Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College on Monday morning that the 38-year-old man had coronavirus infection," Ujjain's Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr Anusuiya Gawli told PTI.

The man died on March 27 night. He was admitted to Madhav Nagar Hospital of Ujjain in a critical condition and died after an hour of undergoing treatment.

"According to doctors, the man had high blood pressure and complained of chest pain and discomfort during admission to the hospital. At first glance, he looked like a heart patient," Gawli said.

The deceased was a resident of Amber Colony in Ujjain, the state public relations department said in a release.

His blood and swab samples were sent for testing as he had virus-like symptoms.

He visited the state's Neemuch district, located close to border adjoining Rajasthan, five days before he fell ill. He came in contact with some people of Rajasthan at a party there. After his return to Ujjain, he was down with fever, cold and cough, the release said.

A survey was underway in Amber locality to check the spread of the viral infection, it added.

Earlier in the morning, the authorities confirmed eight new coronavirus cases in the state, taking the total number to 47.

So far, Indore has reported the maximum 27 cases, followed by Jabalpur- eight, Ujjain-five, Bhopal-three, and Shivpuri and Gwalior- two each.

As of now, 44 active cases are being treated in different districts.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A village in Uttar Pradesh (UP) is bearing the brunt for having its name rhyme with the novel coronavirus. People from Korauna, located in the Sitapur district of UP, are facing discrimination from outsiders ever since the outbreak of the infectious disease.

No one is willing to come out; people are terrified in our village. When we tell people we are from Korauna, they avoid us. They don't understand that it's a village, not someone infected with the virus," Rajan, one of the residents of the village, told ANI.

He further added that other people are so scared that they do not even want to answer phone calls.

Another resident, Sunil, shared a similar concern with the news agency, If we are out on roads and the police enquire where we are headed to and we tell them that we are going to Korauna, they look unsettled. What can we possibly do if our village has such a name?, he asked.

Ramji Dixit, another local, said,  When we call people and tell them that we are calling from Korauna, they immediately cut our calls thinking someone is playing a joke on them.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

India is currently on a three-week lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus and flatten the curve. According to the latest data, there have been 29 deaths and over 1,000 reported cases of coronavirus in India.
John Krasinski on his new web show SGN (Credit: YouTube)

With movie shoots postponed and cinema releases kiboshed, Hollywood stars are reacting in different ways to the coronavirus lockdown.

And actor and director John Krasinski is being more industrious than most, by launching a new YouTube show called Some Good News.

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

Live: Follow all the latest updates from the UK and around the world

Fact-checker: The number of COVID-19 cases in your local area

Explained: Symptoms, latest advice and how it compares to the flu

Using some pretty lo-fi graphics  and armed with good news stories from his social media followers  The Office star and director of A Quiet Place presented and posted the first of his shows yesterday.

It featured coverage of the celebration of health workers around the world last week, as well as other cockle-warming moments that have emerged in spite of the global health crisis being caused by COVID-19.

Carell and Krasinski (Credit: YouTube)

Impressively for a first show, it also featured a slot on the 15th anniversary of the US version of The Office, hauling in a top-drawer celebrity guest in Steve Carell, Krasinski's co-star on the long-running sitcom.

Read more: A Quiet Place II release delayed

The pair reminisced about the series, which first aired on March 24, 2005, and ran for nine series and 201 episodes, taking Krasinski from his job waiting tables to worldwide stardom.

Some of the most fun memories, personally or professionally, are intertwined and connected with that show, said Carell.

Without a doubt. Listen I know everyones talking about a reunion, hopefully one day, we just get to reunite as people. And just all get to say hi, added Krasinski.

I really think youre going to make something of yourself, Carell joked.

Since The Office kick-started Krasinski's on-screen career, he's since moved into writing and directing, penning hit sci-fi thriller A Quiet Place for Netflix.

The movie's sequel, A Quiet Place Part II, managed to squeeze in its world premiere in New York on March 8, before the city  and much of the world  went into lockdown in an attempt to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Paramount had planned to release the movie in late March, but it's now been postponed, with the intent to release it later this year.
Part-time workers most at risk of losing their job stand to gain an income boost from the Morrison government's $130 billion wage subsidy plan while low income full-time employees will need a modest top-up from their businesses to survive.

A special breakdown of the national jobs market by the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre shows tens of thousands of part-time sales assistants, bar tenders, chefs and kitchenhands will benefit most from the generous $1500 a fortnight subsidy.

Part time bar tenders and baristas could end up with bigger pay packets under the government's $130 billion JobKeeper package. Credit:Wayne Taylor

The centre found before the JobKeeper policy announcement, up to 1.1 million additional jobs were at risk of being lost as the national economy was shut down to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

More than 350,000 jobs were at risk of being lost in NSW, 291,000 in Victoria, 245,000 in Queensland and 125,000 in Western Australia.
Sana Shakil By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: After being displaced from their houses twice now, around three dozen people have found refuge in two rooms and a hall of a Madrassa in Mustafabad. When their homes were looted and destroyed in the recent communal riots in North East Delhi, most victims of violence had found refuge in the Eidgah relief camp, being run by Delhi Wakf board.

However, they lost their temporary shelters too which were closed after Prime Minister Modi decided to enforce a nationwide curfew.

One of these twice-displaced people is 56-year-old Shama Parween. She shares a room with 13 other women and children, including her sister Zarina and her children. Shama Parween and Zarina fled from their houses in Govind Vihar due for the fear of rioters. Fourteen other members of Parweens family, including four grandchildren, the youngest of which is three months old, are staying at this madrassa.

Parween and her family understand the risks of staying so close to each other in the wake of the global pandemic Coronavirus. But returning to their houses and living in separate rooms is an option not open to them.

We did try going back there four days ago but people there threatened us of dire consequences. They say they wont let Muslims return. What do we do? We have no money. No one can go to work, Parween says, asking her daughter to cover her mouth and nose, and ensuring that her 12-year-old grandson wears a triple-layered mask.

Parweens younger sister Zarina, her husband, three sons and a daughter, have a similar story and same concerns. Zarina says, We do not know how we will survive if were forced out of this small space too. My husband cant earn anything during the lockdown. So we cant afford a new place...

Before she could complete the sentence, Zarinas 15-year-old daughter says, Ammi we will not return. They did not even spare our cuckoo (referring to their pet rooster who was allegedly killed by rioters).

In the next room, Nasreen who lives with her husband and her 18-year-old son, is praying. God seems to be angry with all of us. That is why even developed countries have not managed to find a cure for this disease. Only prayers can help people now. We have no money and no place to go. We have been told to look for a place but we have not been able to find anything. Returning to our house is not possible, says Nasreen, who owns a house in Shankar Vihar.

Another family of five, which came here from the relief camp near Al-Hind hospital, has a similar story. They would rather die of corona than by the swords of the rioters.

How do they expect us to go back? Will the government and the police protect us if the rioters attack us again? No, they will save the rioters and let us die, says an 18-year-old Arshi (name changed), whose family has a house in Shiv Vihar, one of the worst affected areas in the recent riots at North East Delhi. In another corner of the hall, men of the families sit in a huddle.

The relief work for riot victims has come to a halt since March 21 because of a bureaucratic hurdle  Waqf board, coordinating the relief work, doesnt have a chairperson after Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan vacated the chair. The compensation package announced by Wakf board hasnt been distributed.

The board had announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh each and 60000 each for families whose houses were damaged in the riots. Officials say that cheques were prepared and were to be handed over soon but the work got halted due to Khans exit.

Locals say Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Haji Yunus gave Rs 3000 and some rations to around two hundred families who were staying at the Eidgah camp after it was completely cleared on March 24. Almost a hundred other families also staying at the camp got nothing. With the 3000 Rs, the families managed to find a small room but complain that the ration is getting over. Some families are living at the places of their relatives.

While the families staying at the madrassa have no means to find a place, the caretaker of the madrassa Mohammad Saqib Qazmi is in a dilemma on how to handle the situation. The administration and the police, he says, is pressurising him to evict these people because of the social distancing measures prescribed by the central government. Qazmi says he has so far allowed the people live in the madrassa at the request of Delhi Wakf board which gave him a meagre amount of Rs 22,000 for the welfare of 54 riot survivors, of which some have since left.

Qazmi says he cannot push the people away, who he knows are extremely vulnerable. But without government support, he does not know if he can manage the expenses of so many people. The daily expenses of the victims is coming to around Rs 8,000 even now although we have shifted some people to rented accommodations. There were 54 of them. These people are very poor and clueless. They need help especially when there is a pandemic. I understand it is a serious disease but I cannot throw them away. If Wakf Board is not functional, Delhi government should step in. Welfare of the riot victims is more the responsibility of the government than the Wakf Board.

Qazmi adds he has been getting regular calls from activists to accommodate more people who were evicted from the relief camps but the madrassa is hard-pressed for resources. We are taking care of the people from madrassa and mosque funds but the funds are not coming any more. People are not coming to mosques due to the shutdown. Where will the money come from? Wakf board officials tell me they will take care of the expenses but because they dont have a chairperson, that will take time. How am I supposed to do all this in the meanwhile? Am I Delhi government?

Following the riots in North East Delhi areas, there relief camps were set up for displaced riot victims. While the largest camp at Eidgah was being managed byWakf board, one at Babu Nagar (housing around 20 families) was being managed by the Delhi government and another near Al-Hind hospital (housing around 30 families), which was initially being managed by private authorities but was later co-managed byWakf board.

Officials say that the relief camps were to be continued for some time more but with the outbreak of COVID-19, the removal of camps became inevitable. Delhi government had engaged around 15 officials for supervising the relief work for riot victims but with the shutdown and mass exodus of migrant workers, most of the officials have now been asked to take care of relief camps for migrant workers, according to sources.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 01:28:54|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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OTTAWA, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Sunday that he will continue self-isolating after his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau announced her recovery from COVID-19 Saturday.

Speaking to reporters outside Rideau Cottage Sunday morning, Trudeau said he is "very happy" that his wife has recovered, but he will continue to self-isolate as he cannot rule out that he acquired the coronavirus from Sophie.

Sophie announced Saturday that she had received the "all clear" from her doctors. She contracted the coronavirus earlier this month.

Trudeau entered self-isolation on March 12 after Sophie's positive test for COVID-19.

He added that he will continue to live and work at home until he has no reason to believe he could have been exposed to COVID-19 for more than 14 days.

Trudeau also announced new funding of millions of dollars to help children, seniors and the homeless affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. "We promise to help everyone through this tough time."

As of Sunday afternoon, there were 5,878 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 63 deaths in the country.
YEREVAN.  The government will provide financial support to hired workers and individual entrepreneurs in Armenias private sector that is most affected by the spread of coronavirus. Specifically, it is about hired workers and individual entrepreneurs in hotel and hostel, public catering, tourism, barber shops and beauty parlors, retail trade.

Hired workers are considered beneficiaries if they were the abovementioned sectors employees from March 13 to 30.

"The support is provided as a lump sum," said Nairi Sargsyan, an aide to the prime minister, adding that this amount would range between 68 and 136 thousand drams.

Sargsyan also noted that this support is not directed to employers but to hired workers. "The total budget [for this assistance] exceeds 10 billion drams," he added, in particular.

And Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in turn, said that this applies to about 127,000 beneficiaries, but the respective data have yet to be clarified.
SACRAMENTO  California has long struggled with an overburdened prison system, crowding inmates into lockups that were designed to hold tens of thousands fewer people. Now activists are sounding the alarm that those cramped conditions could foment an explosion of the coronavirus.

After urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to release thousands of the oldest and most medically vulnerable inmates, lawyers filed an emergency motion last week asking federal judges to intervene.

Scott Kernan, a former secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation under Gov. Jerry Brown, said the politics of criminal justice are getting in the way of state officials acting swiftly. Their opportunity to prevent a coronavirus outbreak among the prison population may have passed, he said.

Its not a matter of if, its a matter of when, and just how bad its going to get, Kernan said. The propensity for violence and for problems to occur in the system is primed when everybody is scared. And everybody is scared.

California prisons report three inmates and 17 staff members across the state have tested positive for the coronavirus.

The corrections department said it was deep-cleaning common areas and quarantining inmates with symptoms. Regular family visits have been canceled and transfers between prisons limited. On Friday, the department began temperature screening everyone who enters prisons, including employees.

Newsom said the very strong isolation protocols and other steps his administration has taken are sufficient. He rejected the idea of discharging large numbers of prisoners early, saying at a March 23 news conference that it could exacerbate problems such as homelessness and the strain on the health care system if inmates cant find jobs or build new lives as the economy grinds to a halt.

I have no interest, and I want to make this crystal clear, in releasing violent criminals from our system, and I wont use a crisis as an excuse to create another crisis, Newsom said. Thats not the way we will go about this. We will do it in a very deliberative way.

He signed an executive order the next day suspending prison intake for 30 days and directing that people convicted of felonies continue to be held in local jails instead. The order also temporarily halted parole hearings while a videoconferencing alternative could be set up.

Kate Chatfield, a senior policy adviser for the criminal justice advocacy group the Justice Collaborative, said Newsoms approach does not resolve the fundamental problem of Californias overcrowded prisons.

A decade after a federal court ordered California to reduce its inmate population to less than 137.5% of capacity, the state is still barely under that cap. There are more than 114,000 people housed in its main prisons, which were designed for about 85,000.

Many inmates live in dormitories, stacked in bunk beds and sharing five toilets for 100 people, Chatfield said. Guards and other staffers are also entering the prisons every day, potentially bringing the virus in with them or back out to their families.

If someone gets the coronavirus, it will spread like wildfire, she said. Social distancing is impossible.

Hand sanitizer is banned for inmates because of the alcohol content, so Laila Aziz sent extra soap, shampoo and laundry detergent to her husband, who is incarcerated in Lassen County for being an accomplice to a murder during a robbery. She said he told her that prisoners were fashioning masks out of beanies, T-shirts and old underwear to protect themselves.

They feel as though they are not considered human, so if anything goes wrong, they are going to be left to die, said Aziz, who is also the program director for a local criminal justice advocacy group in San Diego.

Prisons recently began installing hand sanitizer stations in dining halls, according to the corrections department.

Chatfield organized more than two dozen groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of California, to sign a letter two weeks ago calling on Newsom to release inmates over age 60 and those with chronic illnesses to parole supervision, because they at are higher risk of complications from the coronavirus. They said the state could also open space in prisons by immediately releasing anyone with a sentence ending this year or in 2021.

Chatfield likened Newsoms comment about not releasing violent criminals to 1990s crime panic talk. Nearly 40,000 people cycle out of the prison system every year as they reach the end of their sentences, and advocates simply want Newsom to move faster to release those at lowest risk of re-offending, she said.

A few states are taking steps to reduce their inmate populations to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, including Iowa, which planned to expedite the placement of 700 prisoners already approved for parole or work release. But in California, the action has largely been at the local level.

Alameda County granted early release this month to nearly 250 inmates, while a judge authorized the release of 26 detainees in San Francisco. The Los Angeles County sheriffs Department reported last week that it had released 1,700 inmates from county jails who had less than 30 days left to serve or were being held on bail of less than $50,000.

The three-judge panel that first ordered the population cap on California prisons in 2009 recently convened a task force of state officials and advocates to address the coronavirus response. Despite daily meetings for hours by phone, the conversations have largely broken down, said Don Specter, executive director of the Prison Law Office advocacy group.

They listen and we talk to them, but its not a negotiation. Its a one-way street, said Specter, who is involved in a pair of lawsuits against the state seeking better mental health and medical resources for prisoners.

He and nearly a dozen other attorneys filed an emergency motion Wednesday asking the federal judges to require further inmate releases, because prison walls cannot stop the spread of pandemic disease. The states response is due Monday.

The lawyers argued that while Newsoms 30-day intake freeze was a good step, that will reduce the prison population by only a few thousand people, far less than needed.

Specter said they were seeking between 10,000 and 15,000 releases, though he added that it was urgent to get prisons below 100% capacity so there is room to move people around.

Nina Salarno Besselman, president of the victim advocacy group Crime Victims United, said it was a bogus argument and activists were doing a disservice to inmates, who would have limited housing options and no job prospects if they are released while millions of people are being laid off. Facing financial stresses, they would be more likely to turn back to crime to survive, she said, especially while law enforcement is too focused on the coronavirus crisis to provide the usual parole oversight.

We really are throwing them to the wolves, she said. The best place they can be right now is in the state prison where they have access to medical care.

Alexei Koseff is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: alexei.koseff@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @akoseff
Top Congress leaders will discuss the implication and consequent problems of the 21-day country-wide lockdown imposed to check the spread of the novel coronavirus infection at the party's working committee meeting on April 2.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) will meet on April 2 through video conferencing to discuss the party's strategy on the issue, AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal said.

"A meeting of the Congress Working Committee will be held on Thursday, April, 2. The meeting will be conducted through video-conferencing," he said on Twitter.

The Congress has been critical of the government's handling of the situation arising out of the COVID-19 lockdown, saying it has halted all economic activity and is causing problems to the labourers, the poor and the marginalised.

The party has also accused the government of not taking adequate steps to mitigate the plight of the migrant labour force. Rahul Gandhi has suggested a nuanced approach to tackle the coronavirus outbreak rather than the total lockdown.

Ninety-two new cases and four deaths due to COVID-19 have been reported in India since Sunday taking total cases to 1,071 and the number of deaths to 29, the Health Ministry said on Monday while reiterating that there has been no community transmission of the virus as of now.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ile De Noirmoutier: On their peaceful island off Frances Atlantic Coast, some locals watched, with growing dread and rage, the images from Paris. As rumors began circulating about an imminent nationwide lockdown to stem the coronavirus outbreak, hordes of Parisians jammed into trains.

There was no doubt about their destination.

A local mayor, Noel Faucher, moved to block the only bridge to the mainland. But national authorities said it would be illegal.

Overnight, the islands population nearly doubled, to 20,000. Nearly two weeks after the nationwide lockdown went into effect March 17, there are about 70 suspected cases of the coronavirus on the island.

In France and across Europe, affluent city dwellers have been decamping epicenters of the crisis to their second homes, where proximity to the sea or mountains lessens the discomfort of confinement. But they also bring fears that they will spread the virus to regions with few hospitals to handle a surge of the sick, putting at greater risk local residents who tend to be older and have limited incomes.

The influx into second homes has ignited anger over what the global pandemic is laying bare: the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor.

Unlike the second-home-owning class, many Europeans face the likelihood of spending weeks in quarantine in cramped spaces. Some have been laid off, while others must continue to work, sometimes with limited protection, in low-paying jobs that require contact with people.

According to locals and Parisians on the island, some urbanites arrived in Noirmoutier and headed straight to the beach. In retribution, tires of about half a dozen cars with Paris plates were slashed.

Noirmoutier has no facility to treat serious conditions, with the closest emergency unit more than 25 miles away, Faucher said.

Tensions were particularly high the first few days after the Parisians descended on the island.

The Parisians were hoarding. At a bakery called LEpine, one Parisian left with 20 baguettes. At an organic supermarket, another Parisian filled a shopping cart with $325 worth of groceries. Locals and Parisians fought over fresh vegetables delivered at 10 a.m.

Things have calmed down thanks to law enforcement, Faucher said. A helicopter flies over the beach to enforce a new ban, reporting trespassers to police officers on the ground. Patrol officers have issued 50 warnings to people flouting confinement rules.

Norimitsu Onishi and Constant Meheut c.2020 The New York Times Company
Bailiffs are still chasing people for council tax payments even after the Government brought in coronavirus social distancing rules.

Enforcement officers were still hounding homes until at least last Tuesday despite people self-isolating, the Civil Enforcement Association said.

And self-employed 'repo men' may have been working after this as it has not been banned by the ministry of communities and local government.

Enforcement officers were still hounding homes until at least last Tuesday despite people self-isolating, the Civil Enforcement Association said (file photo)

The CEA, which represents more than 1,800 bailiffs, warned officers to wear rubber gloves during visits but did not stop them from making repossessions.

It flies in the face of the Government's coronavirus lockdown rules - implemented on Tuesday - that only key workers should be operating as usual.

And it comes just days after the CEA said bailiffs around the country would stop all repossessions during the crisis.

The country's three largest debt charities - Citizens Advice, Money Advice Trust and Step Change Debt Charity - called for the PM to stop local authorities calling in debts until the pandemic passes.

A spokesman for Citizens Advice, which is calling for a three-month tax break, told the Times: 'Aggressive collection of council tax at a time when people are concerned about the health and financial consequences of Covid-19 is plain wrong.'

Bailiffs recover around 2.6million of debts for local councils each year, with much of it from council tax and parking.

Despite the coronavirus lockdown, those in debt will still get calls and emails chasing payments.

MailOnline has contacted the the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for comment.

On Friday CEA Chief Executive Russell Hamblin-Boone said debt collections would be put on hold and bailiffs would use their vans to help the NHS.

The UK's spiralling coronavirus death toll has jumped to 1,408 after 180 more fatalities were recorded in a single day

Mr Hamblin-Boone told the Mirror: 'Despite the false information circulated by debt advice charities, enforcement agents are not enforcing debts.

'Many agents are working with the NHS to support the voluntary initiative and many firms have changed the use of their fleet vehicles to support deliveries of supplies.

'The only activity relating to unpaid bills they are still carrying out was to offer extensions.

He added: 'Where people are being contacted it is to extend payment plans or offer payment holidays.'

CEA Chief Executive Russell Hamblin-Boone (pictured) had said debt collections would be put on hold

Further clarity was outlined in a letter produced by the bailiffs association and sent to Local Government Minister Robert Jenrick to outline the changing situation.

It read: 'In the last week, since the CIVEA guidance was published and government advice updated, there has been a complete suspension of enforcement visits, whether to recover unpaid court fines, penalty charge notices, council tax or non-domestic business rates.

'Where a skeleton staff continues to operate remotely, local authorities have requested that a Iight-touch communication is maintained.

'This is primarily identifying vulnerable people and offering extensions to repayment plans and payment holidays.'

It said certain vehicles used within the day-to-day work of debt collection had instead been registered for the use of NHS volunteers.

The letter added: 'Where agents and contact centre staff have been furloughed, firms are allowing staff to volunteer to support the NHS voluntary initiative.

'In many cases, firms have registered fleet vehicles for change of use to be used by volunteers.'

It is also noted it could be many months before normal service resumes, with bailiffs association placing no set time limit on their revised operations.
Logistics base in Port Loko, Sierra Leone. Credit: United Nations

A new research paper examining the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak in Africa could hold crucial insights for policymakers grappling with the novel coronavirus pandemicnamely, the importance of public engagement and trust during health crises.

The study, co-authored by Darin Christensen, assistant professor of public policy in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, shows that where people lack confidence in their health providers, they are less likely to seek testing and treatment when they feel sick. This stymies efforts to identify, treat and isolate infected patients to limit further contagion.

By the end of the Ebola outbreak in early 2016, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated there were more than 28,000 cases of the disease in West Africawith roughly half coming from Sierra Leone. Simple interventions that encouraged people to seek treatment increased reporting of Ebola cases by 60%, which the authors estimate reduced the virus' reproduction rate by 19%.

"The epidemic generated tremendous fear, and families faced tough choices about whether to care for loved ones at home or report to clinics for testing and, if needed, isolation," said Christensen, a political economist who holds a joint appointment with UCLA's political science department. "That choice may seem obvious in a rich country. But in poorer countries, like Sierra Leone, citizens often have little confidence that health providers will treat them with compassion or deliver effective care. Interventions that build that trust encourage timely testingexactly what was needed to contain Ebola and, now, COVID-19."

Conducted across 254 government-run health clinics covering approximately 1 million peoplemore than 15% of Sierra Leone's populationthe research tested the effects of two interventions aimed at increasing public involvement with, and trust in, the country's health system.

Under the first intervention, community members participated in meetings with local health clinics, and articulated complaints and suggestions designed to improve health services.

The clinic staff also shared public health advice with community members, like encouraging women to come into the clinic to give birth. This experiment turned patients into "accountability agents who hold health system actors to account," according to the paper.

The other intervention was an incentive program that gave out awards to health care workers at clinics that were doing a good job of providing services. The intent was to motivate providers to encourage their clinics to provide a higher quality of care.

The study found that these accountability interventions prior to the Ebola outbreak spurred a vast increase in testing and the reporting of Ebola casesincluding those who tested both positive and negative for the virus. The reporting did not reflect higher rates of disease in the areas that benefited from the interventions. The higher rates of testing resulted in more effective containment, and ultimately, there were 30% fewer deaths among Ebola patients in the areas that benefited from the interventions.

As governments, particularly in less-developed countries, seek to contain the spread of COVID-19, "there has rightfully been a lot of focus on the test kits and other equipment needed to fight this virus," Christensen said. "But it's also important to think about how we encourage people to change their behaviorto get tested, to self-quarantine. Our research suggests that strengthening ties between health providers and the communities they serve could bolster containment efforts as the current pandemic spreads to poorer countries.

"Many governments don't have the capacity or mandate to enforce strict restrictions on travel or gatherings," Christensen continued. "They must appeal to their citizens to voluntarily change behavior. The Ebola epidemic demonstrates that public engagement and confidence help determine whether people heed those calls."

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

More information: Building Resilient Health Systems: Experimental Evidence from Sierra Leone and The 2014 Ebola Outbreak: Building Resilient Health Systems: Experimental Evidence from Sierra Leone and The 2014 Ebola Outbreak: darinchristensen.com/files/sl-  untability-ebola.pdf
[March 30, 2020] Estrella Media Teams Up with Top Regional Mexican Recording Artists to Launch "Cuidate," an Emblematic Music Video for its #SiSePuede Community Empowerment Campaign

Estrella Media, Inc. a leading vertically integrated, multi-platform, Spanish-language media company in the U.S., announced today that its radio group launched the music video "Cuidate" (Take Care of Yourself), as part of its #SiSePuede (Yes We Can) community empowerment campaign for COVID-19 prevention. As an extension of its ongoing effort to keep the U.S. Latino community informed and encouraged during the coronavirus pandemic, Estrella Media's radio group has added and launched "Cuidate," a new musical collaboration with some of Regional Mexican music's top recording artists. The song was penned and performed by Francisco "El Chulo" Rivera, featuring Luz Celeste, both former contestants on EstrellaTV's hit talent competition show "Tengo Talento, Mucho Talento." "The project came together in a very organic manner. Before the song took shape, we knew it had to have a positive message of hope for our community. Our Estrella Media radio and TV production teams worked very closely with the artists who participated, and we are all very proud of the end result and the opportunity to share this with the comunity we serve," stated Pepe Garza, director of programming, Que Buena Radio KBUE 94.3 FM/103.5 FM.



The "Cuidate" music video premiered on all of Estrella Media's radio, TV and digital platforms on Thursday, March 26th and continues to be available on its digital and social media channels. The artists who collaborated on this effort include Los Huracanes del Norte, Pancho Barraza, Los Sebastianes, Carin Leon, Eden Munoz of Calibre 50, Adrian Chaparro and Giovanni of Banda el Recodo. The #SiSePuede campaign is part of Estrella Media's ongoing social responsibility efforts to continue providing reliable news coverage for the community, which includes the latest safety protocols being recommended by government officials and the CDC to prevent the continued spread of COVID-19. Estrella Media's community-first approach with the #SiSePuede campaign is also an opportunity to inspire the Latino community to stand together and remind them that in unity we can and will defeat this pandemic.

About Estrella Media, Inc. Estrella Media, Inc., is a leading vertically integrated, multi-platform, Spanish-language media company operating across top U.S. Hispanic markets. Producing over 2,500 hours annually of original TV programming at the Estrella Studios in Burbank, CA (News - Alert), the company is one of the largest U.S. producers of Spanish-language TV content. The company's EstrellaTV Network is distributed through owned and operated TV stations, TV network affiliates and related digital media properties. The EstrellaTV programming catalog, consisting of over 7,500 hours of original Spanish-language television programming, is one of the largest libraries of content produced in the U.S. for the U.S. Hispanic marketplace. Additionally, Estrella Media is one of the most prolific developers and producers of Spanish-language radio talent and programming. The company's Don Cheto Radio Network features one of the nation's most popular radio talents and its highly-rated radio programming formats are distributed through owned and operated radio stations, affiliated stations and related digital media properties. To learn more about Estrella Media and see company updates, please visit www.estrellamedia.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005636/en/

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With no separate rooms in their homes, seven men in West Bengals Purulia district spent days on a tree after they were advised to stay in isolation over fears they could be infected with coronavirus when they returned from Chennai to their village on March 24.

The men worked as wage labourers in the capital city of Tamil Nadu.

They stayed on a machan, wood and bamboo platform, that was already set up by residents of Bansgarh village to save themselves from wild elephant herds that often wander into human habitations in this region in search of food.

Also read: 57-year-old Bengal mans source of Covid-19 infection unknown

The machan is equipped with lights, said an officer at the local Balarampur police station.

Since our homes are small, we cannot afford to spare a room for just one person. We thought the machan was a ready solution. We did not have any sign of flu when we returned but were asked to stay away from our families, Bijoy Singh Loya, one of the seven men, said.

Also read: Trinamool Congress uses Covid-19 lockdown to reverse electoral fortunes

The administration came to know about the arrangement from local media reports and the men were taken to a government facility.

Local people create shelters on trees so that these can be used when herds of elephants enter their villages. These seven persons used such pre-existing shelter to isolate themselves from their families, Rahul Majumdar, Purulias district magistrate, said.

On Saturday, we arranged for their isolation at a government facility, Majumdar said.

Eighteen people have contracted Covid-19 and one man has been killed in the state till date, according to the Union ministry of health.
Gun retailers in New Jersey can now open as an essential business during the coronavirus outbreak, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday in a reversal of his previous position on this issue.

Murphys decision to deem firearm dealers an essential business follows guidelines issued by the federal Department of Homeland Security, which added gun dealers, ranges and manufacturers to its list of essential business guide for its coronavirus response on Saturday.

It wouldnt be my definition, but thats the definition at the federal level and I didnt get a vote on that, Murphy, a Democrat, said at his daily coronavirus press briefing Monday.

The gun shops may re-open by appointment only and under limited hours, Murphy said. He said the state would continue to enforce its regulations on gun sales.

Murphys decision also comes after a federal lawsuit was filed by the New Jersey Second Amendment Society to reopen gun stores, calling Murphys initial decision an infringement on a residents Second Amendment rights. The head of that group, Alexander Roubian, had condemned the governors decision during two press briefings last week.

I respect the Second Amendment, Murphy told Roubian at a briefing last week. I have gotten not one complaint from anybody that they were trying to buy a gun and they couldnt.

Gun shop owners, who were experiencing a spike in sales in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, believed they are considered essential because they supply weapons and ammunition to current and retired law enforcement.

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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The Asian Development Bank on Monday approved a USD 2 million grant to boost Pakistan's capacity to respond to the coronavirus pandemic as the number of confirmed cases rose sharply in the past two days in the country, according to a media report.

The number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan reached 1,664 while the death toll stood at 21, health officials said on Monday, underlining that local transmission of the deadly COVID-19 is increasing.

"The ADB recognises the extraordinary burden of this pandemic on Pakistan and is committed to supporting Pakistan in the fight to control COVID-19," said ADB Country Director for Pakistan Xiaohong Yang.

The Express Tribune reported that the grant, financed from the Asia Pacific Disaster Response Fund, will help fund the immediate purchase of emergency medical supplies, personal protective equipment, diagnostic and laboratory supplies, and other equipment.

This grant will help strengthen COVID-19 detection, improve infection prevention and control, and boost Pakistan's capacity to respond to the pandemic, the top ADB official said.

The ADB's assistance echoes the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan for COVID-19 and Pakistan's National Action Plan for Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), which includes preventive measures, containment efforts, and treatment of infected persons, the paper said.

Given the urgency of the required support, the ADB will use the most flexible and expeditious approaches to facilitate procurement of the required medical supplies and equipment.

Last week, Pakistan decided to seek USD 3.7 billion additional financing from three multilateral creditors, including a loan of USD 1.4 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to cope with the challenges being posed by the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Earlier, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank committed to providing USD 588 million to Pakistan for its emergency response to fight the coronavirus and to address the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Real Virus Death Toll in Wuhan Could Be 12 Times Official Figure

Information provided by residents at the epicenter of the CCP virus in Wuhan, China, indicates that the real death toll there could be over 32,000, which is 12.7 times the official figure.

The Hubei provincial health commission announced on March 23 that in the whole of Wuhan, 2,524 people had died of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. Wuhan is the capital of Hubei.

Medical specialists reports in the Lancet and other magazines revealed that Chinese authorities have been lying about the virus outbreak since day one. The real situation in Wuhan and the whole of China has been covered up.

Recently, as the families of those who died of the virus were permitted to collect their relatives cremated remains from seven government-run funeral homes with crematoriums, a clearer idea of the true death toll began to emerge.

Wuhan Residents

Wuhan taxi driver Mr. Yin recently went to a local funeral home to retrieve his mothers ashes.

His mother died on Feb. 1. He said his mother got a CT scan the day before she died. Doctors from three hospitals said that her lungs were infected severely with the CCP virus. However, the hospital wrote that she died of respiratory failure on her death certificate.

Yin told the Chinese-language Epoch Times on March 28 that his mothers body was sent to the funeral home from the hospital and cremated directly. He did not have a chance to see her one last time.

Since the city was locked down on Jan. 23, government authorities had not allowed people to bury the ashes urns, and from Feb. 2, the authorities didnt allow people to pick up their relatives ashes until March 23. In other words, the majority of the ashes of the deceased who died from Jan. 23 to March 23 were saved at funeral homes.

Yin went to the funeral home on March 24 to retrieve his mothers ashes. The urns were countless The entire lobby was full of urns Some of them were even placed outside the door [due to lack of space], Yin said.

Wuhan resident Mr. Ding also lost his mother to the virus. He told the Chinese-language Epoch Times the Wuchang funeral home informed relatives of the deceased that the facility would release 500 urns per day, in order to ensure that all urns were distributed by April 4 for the Qingming Festival, a traditional Chinese holiday when people pay their respects to their ancestors.

The Yangtze River and buildings in Wuhan, China, on March 29, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

An Estimate

Wuhan has a total of eight government-run funeral homes: seven have crematoriums, while the eighth is dedicated to serving Hui Muslims and conducts burials.

According to a March 26 report by Chinese financial magazine Caixin, the Hankou funeral home bought 5,000 urns within 24 hours.

Staff then took a photo of the facilitys stock room, showing 3,500 urns inside. We can thus assume that the facility distributed 1,500 urns in 24 hours (5,000 minus 3,500 equals 1,500).

Assuming that the Hankou funeral home distributed the same number of urns every day from March 23 until the Qingming Festival, there would be at least 18,000 bodies (1,500 multiplied by 12 days) in Hankou. In Wuchang, there would be 6,000 bodies (500 multiplied by 12 days).

The Yushunshan funeral home in Caidian district is about two-thirds the capacity of the Wuchang facility, according to a staff member at Yushunshan. Thus, we could estimate that Caidian burned the remains of two-thirds that of Wuchang, or 4,000 bodies.

The Jiangxia, Huangpi District, Xinzhou District, and Qingshan funeral homes each have a similar capacity, which is about half of Wuchangs. Then we might estimate that they burned about 12,000 bodies (6,000 divided by 2, then multiplied by 4 equals 12,000).

We can estimate that the total number of urns distributed by all 7 facilities is roughly 40,000 (18,000 + 6,000 + 4,000 + 12,000).

In order to determine the number of deaths from the CCP virus, deaths from other causes must be accounted for. According to the latest statistics released by Hubei authorities, roughly 47,900 died in 2018. That means there was an average of 131 deaths per day.

The time between the citys lockdown on Jan. 23 to when funeral homes reopened on March 23 is 60 days. Assuming that in a typical year, there are 131 non-virus-related deaths per day, then there were roughly 7,860 non-virus deaths in that period (131 multiplied by 60).

Thus, we can estimate that the death toll due to the virus is at least 32,140 (40,000 minus 7,860).

On top of this, there were CCP virus patients who died in Wuhan before Jan. 23. But we ignore this data here.

Authorities also sent 40 mobile furnaces to Hubei Province in the middle of February, each capable of burning five tons of medical waste and bodies a day. It is unclear whether those were used to burn bodies that died from the virus.

Passengers arrive in Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan, China, on March 28, 2020. (Getty Images)

Hidden Truth

Throughout the spread of the CCP virus, the governments data has been false.

On Feb. 29, a group of specialists from Chinas Center for Disease Control and Prevention published a report based on studying over 70,000 virus cases.

The specialists revealed that 104 people were infected with the CCP virus in December 2019. Wuhan authorities announced on Dec. 31 that there was an initial viral pneumonia outbreak among 27 people.

The specialists said the first medical staff to be infected with the CCP virus was diagnosed on Dec. 27. Then, between Jan. 1 to Jan. 20, 151 medical staff were infected with the virus in Wuhan. 49 were infected in other cities of Hubei, and another 30 were infected in other provinces.

Medical staff infections are a sign that the virus is capable of human-to-human transmission.

But authorities denied that the virus could spread among humans until Jan. 20. That day, a top epidemiologist working for the central government first announced that the virus was being transmitted among family members.

In March, The Epoch Times obtained four documents from the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, which were statistical data sheets about diagnostic test results in the city on March 14.

The documents listed that in total, the city tested 16,234 samples on the day. Of those, 373 were positive with the CCP virus. Among the positives, 91 samples were first-time positives.

Meanwhile, the government only reported four new infections in Wuhan that day.

The Wuhan government recently allowed businesses to reopen and citizens to return to work. The government admitted that there are people who can relapse after recovering or are asymptomatic, but that they would not be counted as new infections. In fact, some of them can spread the virus to others.

The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Partys coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.
People in a gray sedan flashed gang signs at the vehicle with the 21-year-old before someone in the back seat of the sedan pulled out a gun and started shooting just after midnight Monday in the 1300 block of South Lake Shore Drive, police said.
FILE PHOTO: Signage is seen outside the entrance of the London Stock Exchange in London

By Sruthi Shankar and Devik Jain

(Reuters) - The UK's exporter-heavy FTSE 100 closed higher on Monday, helped by a jump in AstraZeneca's shares and a weaker pound, but the prospect of a prolonged coronavirus-led shutdown in Britain weighed on midcap shares.

The FTSE 100 index <.FTSE> rose 1%, recovering from early losses as AstraZeneca <AZN.L> gained 4.4% after U.S. regulators approved its treatment against an aggressive type of lung cancer in previously untreated patients.

A weaker pound following a Fitch's cut to Britain's sovereign debt rating also helped the big dollar earners on the index.

However, the general mood was that of caution as investors were left wondering if the massive steps taken by policymakers over the pat weeks will be enough to shield global growth as many economists warn of a sharp economic slump.

The FTSE midcap index <.FTMC> fell 1%, with shopping centre operator Hammerson <HMSO.L> sliding 22% to the bottom after it suspended its final dividend and said the outbreak would have a material impact on its earnings.

Adding to woes for domestic businesses, a senior medical officer said on Sunday some lockdown measures in Britain could last months and only be gradually lifted.

"I think the markets want to have hope, but the reality is there is still more pain to come in the short-term," said Louise Kernohan, investment director for UK Equities at Aberdeen Standard Investments.

The U.S. government passed a $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill last week, while the UK government's commitment to pay 80% of the wages of workers who are temporarily laid off, and monetary policy easing by major central banks, had sparked a bounce in global stocks last week.

Still, the FTSE 100 is still headed for its worst month in more than three decades and is down about 28% since hitting a peak in January.

Shares in aerospace suppliers Rolls-Royce <RR.L>, Meggitt <MGGT.L> and Senior <SNR.L> fell between 12% and 14% after another bearish call from JPMorgan.

Story continues

The U.S. bank, which assumes a 38% drop in global air traffic in 2020, cut earnings estimates for the sector, and expects credit rating firms including the S&P to downgrade Rolls-Royce to non-investment grade.

Travel stocks have taken a beating, as the fast-spreading coronavirus triggered lockdowns globally, forcing airlines, and cruise and travel operators to scramble for cash to survive.

The wider travel and leisure index <.FTNMX5750> fell 1.6%, with low-cost airline easyJet <EZJ.L> sliding 7.2% after revealing it had grounded its entire fleet and furloughed cabin crew for two months under a government job retention scheme.

"Within each sector, there will be relative winners and relative losers. The investors' job now is to choose the ones that will survive and hopefully will come out stronger after this - based on liquidity and balance sheet," said Aberdeen's Kernohan.

Battered shares in BP <BP.L> and Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> gained even as Brent crude plunged to its cheapest in 18 years on fears about the economic hit from the pandemic as well as a price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia. [O/R]

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr and Giles Elgood)
A 34-year-old woman, who has



recovered from COVID-19, now regrets her decision to travel abroad which resulted in her contracting the infection, and has urged people to remain indoors to check the spread of the deadly virus.

The woman, a resident of Ambawadi locality in Ahmedabad, was discharged from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Hospital here on Sunday after she recovered from the disease.

She returned from Finland earlier this month and developed coronavirus symptoms following which she was admitted to the hospital and tested positive on March 18.

Residents of her housing society gave her a rousing welcome by clapping and blowing a conch when she reached her home on Sunday.

Talking to some reporters over phone on Monday, the woman appealed to people not to step out of their homes in this situation.

"From my personal experience, I must say that there is no alternative to staying at home. The risk of going abroad I took was absolutely not worth it. You are safe till you are at home," she said.

She was among the first few coronvairus patients reported after the outbreak of the disease in Gujarat.

"When I went abroad, I took all possible precautions. I was wearing the N95 mask, cleaning my hands with sanitiser at regular intervals and also maintaining distance from others, and yet, I contracted the infection. So, my advice to everyone is to stay indoors and contact a government hospital if you develop any symptoms," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The number of coronavirus cases worldwide recently topped 500,000, and its expected to keep climbing.

In the U.S., where there are over 100,000 confirmed cases, certain regions are being hit significantly harder than others. And the growing number of cases is worrying many public health experts, including NYU Langone Health Assistant Professor Alison Bateman-House.

Im deeply concerned about where we see spikes happening right now, Bateman-House said. The latest Ive seen is we anticipate spikes in Boston, which has a relatively good health care system, Detroit, [and] New Orleans. These are places that have already been hit hard for numerous reasons over the last decade or so, and now to have a public health epidemic on top of everything. Im deeply concerned.

Coronavirus cases continue to rise in the U.S. (David Foster/Yahoo Finance)

Detroit, devastated by the 2008 Financial Crisis, declared bankruptcy in 2013. New Orleans, which was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina back in 2005, accounts for nearly half of all coronavirus cases in Louisiana. Some attribute it to Mardi Gras celebrations that occurred at the end of February.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said that officials in the city were likely caught by surprise until the number of cases kept growing.

It putters along and you think youre OK, then it starts to go up a little and then bingo  it goes up in an exponential way, Fauci told CNN. Thats whats happening in New Orleans right now.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens as President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Briefing Room, Tuesday, March 24, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Other public health experts were also sounding the alarm on the spread to other U.S. cities.

Coronavirus is going to hit every city in America, Harvard Global Health Institute Director Dr. Ashish Jha said. There is no question about it. New York is going first. Will [the spread] be at the same ferocity? It may or may not in different cities. ... I am incredibly worried about Louisiana, and specifically New Orleans. I am very worried about Atlanta.

Im worried about emerging situations in New Orleans, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, among others. In China no province outside Hubei ever had more than 1,500 cases. In U.S. 11 states already hit that total. Our epidemic is likely to be national in scope. pic.twitter.com/jfN6YYRT07  Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) March 27, 2020

Trying to build upon a very shaky foundation

Story continues

Although public health officials have recommended putting restrictions in place, like shelter-at-home orders, not every state has followed suit. So far, only 23 states have it on a statewide level. Other states have it on a city or county level.

It really is your local mayors, your governors, who are making these decisions, and most of the people dont have public health backgrounds, Bateman-House said. And its been systematically defunded for years, so youre suddenly trying to build upon a very shaky foundation in a crisis situation.

Patients wearing face masks and personal protective equipment wait on line for COVID-19 testing outside Elmhurst Hospital Center, Friday, March 27, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Social distancing has been one of the top recommendations for containing the spread of the virus. This means keeping six feet apart from others at all times, and only leaving the house for essential things, like grocery shopping or seeing the doctor. Some local officials have had to enforce social distancing measures, like police officers breaking up large groups of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

What were seeing across the nation is very different, Bateman-House said. Some places only have a few cases at this point. Other places like New York City, where I live, are in the middle of a mass epidemic. So, the responses happening on the ground are very differential, and I think thats disturbing to those of us in the public health world who do believe that we need to implement social distancing as quickly as possible, especially given the fact that people can spread the virus before they even have the start of symptoms.

Were in the middle of a terrible, terrible situation

More than half of the coronavirus cases in the U.S. are based out of New York, which has been deemed the national epicenter of the outbreak in the country. Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters that the city is planning to close certain streets, and possibly public parks and playgrounds to enforce social distancing.

I think New York is probably one of the best case scenarios and right here, were in the middle of a terrible, terrible situation, Bateman-House said.

With the virus starting in China and then hitting Italy particularly hard, why havent Americans done more to prepare for the outbreak? Bateman-House has one particular theory.

Over half a million people have been infected with coronavirus worldwide. (Graphic: David Foster/Yahoo Finance)

When we started hearing the numbers from Italy, I think there was this perception amongst many people: Thats Italy, it will be different here, sort of overestimating how good the U.S. health care system is and how, in comparison, ill-prepared the Italian system was perceived to be, she said.

However, she continued, the Italian health care system is actually really great, but I think we had a false sense of comfort that things would be better when they got to the United States. And now that its in the United States, I think the most important thing here is to keep in mind that public health is a local government responsibility. Its not a federal responsibility. Its not something that the CDC steps in and tells every locality what to do.

Adriana is a reporter and editor for Yahoo Finance. She can be reached at adriana@yahoofinance.com. Follow her on Twitter @adrianambells.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 14:55:10|Editor: ZD

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A man wearing a face mask waits for a bus at the CBD of Perth, Australia, March 30, 2020. Social gatherings have been limited to two people in key Australian states, as the number of COVID-19 cases nationally passed 4,000 and virus related deaths reached 18. (Photo by Zhou Dan/Xinhua)

SYDNEY, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Social gatherings have been limited to two people in key Australian states, as the number of COVID-19 cases nationally passed 4,000 and virus related deaths reached 18.

New payments to keep workers in jobs were also announced, costing the government 130 billion Australian dollars (79.8 billion U.S. dollars).

Two Australian regions, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), recorded their first COVID-19 related deaths.

State leaders enacted stricter social distancing measures following advice from Prime Minister Scott Morrison who said that the cooperation of all Australians was vital in stopping the spread of COVID-19.

"Up until now, there has been a restriction of 10 people in a gathering in an outdoor area or in a shopping centre or anything like this. That advice has now been strengthened to say that it should be reduced to two persons in public spaces and other areas of gathering," Morrison said.

The advice said all Australians should continue to stay indoors as much as possible, however this was not directly enforceable in most regions.

Stricter rules came into effect in the southern island state of Tasmania with Premier Peter Gutwein taking an unapologetically direct approach.

"From midnight tonight, unless you are going to work or school, getting essential or medical supplies, exercising (or) providing compassionate care, you will need to remain in your primary place of residence and you will be committing an offence if you don't," Gutwein said.

Meanwhile, Australians returning to the country entered a mandatory 14 day quarantine, many in luxury hotels overlooking the world famous Sydney Harbor.

Those returning from overseas were confined to their rooms with police and Australian Defence Force personnel ensuring that the isolation was enforced.

Also, the federal government announced further economic subsidies to support businesses and individuals affected by the pandemic.

Morrison announced a 130-billion-Australian-dollar (79.8 billion U.S. dollar) package which involved payments for workers, through their employers, to soften the blow for individuals, and maintain a viable workforce for when the crisis ends.

"With the twin battles that we face and that we fight against a virus and against the economic ruin that it can threaten. This calls for unprecedented action," Morrison said.

"It's been about keeping Australians in jobs, keeping Australian businesses in business, and it's been about cushioning the blow for those who most significantly will be impacted by strengthening our social safety net."
Using coronavirus, Pakistan rakes up Kashmir issue at UN

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Mar 30: Pakistan has yet again raked up the Kashmir issue and this time the country has linked it to the coronavirus outbreak.

Pakistan's Foreign Office made public the letter written by its foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to the UN Secretary General and the president of the security council. In the letter he describes as dire humanitarian situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistan also urged that Kashmiri prisoners be released in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. It also in a separate statements said that restrictions must be lifted in Kashmir due to the outbreak of the virus.

India has maintained that Kashmir is an internal issue. Pakistan has tried raising the Kashmir issue on several international forums since Article 370 was abrogated on August 5. However it has failed to gain any traction on the same.

First death in Kashmir: 65-year-old religious preacher dies of coronavirus

NEWS AT NOON, MARCH 30th, 2020

Qureshi in his letter rejected India's contention that normalcy had been restored in Kashmir. He said that India had in fact intensified ceasefire violations along the Line of Control since December. He said that peace and stability in South Asia would depend on a lasting solution on the Kashmir issue.

The Pakistan foreign office expressed concern over the detention of several persons in Kashmir, including Hurriyat leaders. Pakistan called on the world community to demand the lifting of communication restrictions and also allowing unfettered access to medical and other essential supplies in Kashmir.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, March 30, 2020, 9:20 [IST]
Former Vice President Joe Biden, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, speaks during a virtual press briefing on a laptop computer in this arranged photograph in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., on Wednesday, March 25, 2020.

Joe Biden's campaign is looking to expand its fundraising operation as it prepares to take on President Donald Trump in the general election.

Officials within Biden's organization have discussed bringing in a new group of regional fundraising advisors, including former aides to Sen. Kamala Harris' and Pete Buttigieg's campaigns, who could help them expand their donor network, according to people familiar with the matter. These people declined to be named because the talks were private.

Biden had a strong March, raising more than $30 million in online donations, as the coronavirus has pushed his campaign into a fully online platform, including virtual town halls and fundraising events. This shift has made it even more imperative for the campaign to beef up its digital fundraising operation as Trump and the Republican National Committee have amassed a formidable war chest.

The RNC and Trump's campaign, along with their joint fundraising committee, combined to raise more than $86 million in the month of February, according to the RNC's press release. It was their best month of digital fundraising. The Biden campaign raised just over $18 million in the same month, while the Democratic National Committee brought in close to $12 million but is $6 million in debt.

The first quarter ends Tuesday. Then all campaigns and committees will begin filing their quarterly and monthly fundraising totals with the Federal Election Commission.

Biden still hasn't wrapped up the Democratic nomination, as several states have postponed their primary elections to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus. Despite a lead in delegates, bolstered by several big wins on Super Tuesday and beyond, he remains in a primary fight with Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Biden and members of his team have privately signaled they have begun reaching out and taking a look at hiring people who used to work for the Buttigieg and Harris campaigns, these people said. After dropping out, Harris and Buttigieg endorsed Biden for president. Several of Biden's allies in the business community have recommended Harris to be his running mate.

Anthony Mercurio, a former fundraising consultant for Buttigieg, is among the names that have been floated to Biden's team, according to former Ambassador Rufus Gifford, who is aiding Biden with fundraising. Gifford previously told CNBC that he was pushing Mercurio to the campaign, a pro-Biden super PAC and the DNC.

Mercurio has recently spoken with members of the Biden campaign, along with some of the other groups interested in possibly bringing him on, one of the people noted.

People within the Biden campaign have privately indicated that they're looking at the resume of Brandon Hynes, a DNC finance director, who focuses on the West and Midwest, another one of these people noted. Hynes' LinkedIn page says he has worked to raise money for the DNC in states such as Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming. He was previously a finance director for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign.

A spokesman for Biden declined to comment. The DNC did not return a request for comment.

The moves to beef up fundraising come as as Biden's new campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, takes the reins of an operation that's trying to stay in the national spotlight as Trump, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, other state leaders and members of Congress soak up the spotlight as they battle the spread of the coronavirus.

Biden's bundlers have adapted to campaign life in a world dominated by the outbreak, telling new donors that they don't need to meet the former vice president to believe in his message, these people said.

"My pitch is simple: 'Who do you want leading this country? Donald or Joe?'" said one of Biden's fundraisers who works on Wall Street. "You don't need to meet with Joe, just give money."
Open source

A woman passed away in Syria, with Covid-19 coronavirus defined as the cause of death. SANA news agency reported that on March 30.

"A woman died as soon as she had arrived at a hospital as an emergency case, and after conducting a test on a sample from her, it was clear she had Coronavirus", the message said.

Doctors confirmed the very fact of infection with Covid-19 when they ran the post mortem tests.

The overall number of infected in Syria currently makes ten people. Four new cases have been spotted, SANA reports without any time period reference.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, the number of people infected with coronavirus increased to 475. This is reported by the Ministry of Health.



As of 22:00 on March 29, the number of cases increased by 57. In general, 10 fatal cases have already been recorded in Ukraine.



It is also reported that six patients have already been cured of coronavirus in the country, a repeated laboratory study did not detect the virus in them.
By now everyone in America knows that COVID-19 is no joke. Quite disturbing numbers are growing and lots of people find themselves locked up inside their homes either by stay-at-home orders or self-quarantine.

Just trying to protect yourself and your family will help the front-runners fight the virus. Another important thing is to stick together, unite against the danger of pandemic. Maybe go shopping for older relatives or neighbors. Support your community spiritually and mentally, stay positive, encourage people not to panic. Ask yourself, what can you do to contribute. Keep focused, forget political differences for a while. Remember, we are all Americans, and together we can overcome this.

These constitute self-evident modus operandi for sane folks. Not so with left knuckleheads. Trumps declaration that during his presidency its going to be America First, made the left mad as a March hare from day one. Now the UK Guardians Richard Wolffe reports with mockery that America is first in the world with coronavirus cases. He has mentioned that this piece of news will not please anyone, but nevertheless presented it with undisguised joy. There is a sound of pure ecstasy between the lines of Wolffes hypocritical sadness: Hallelujah! Pandemic happened in the US on Trumps watch! No matter that the Chinese tried very hard for about a month to cover up the expansion of COVID-19 from the entire world. Never mind that Trump issued a travel ban on flights from China back in January, as usual accompanied by liberal media screams of racism. Finally, the Left wildest dream came true -- during the Trump presidency America is in trouble, and that's awesome news for the progressives.

The undeniable fact that the Left eagerly employs baseless accusations and outright lies is no news. Similarly, in impuissant rage they utilize purposefully disrespectful, abusive remarks. Richard Wolffe categorizes the president of a great country as a con artist. Additionally, he avails himself to the following concocted statement: [Trump] represents the greatest, the biggest, and the most tremendous failure of leadership in living memory. He has made America great again in ways nobody could ever imagine or conceive. Now, what does it say about the author of this statement?

Certainly, Wolffe is not alone in applauding the spread of coronavirus in the U.S. Julia Ioffe, currently with GQ, shared her America first joy with the world. This is the same Julia Ioffe who in 2016 was fired from Politico for publishing a sexually obscene tweet about Ivanka Trump. Like many of her ultra-liberal camp, Ioffe has no boundaries in her noxious accusations. In 2018 she claimed that Trump radicalized more people than ISIS. Later she was forced to back-pedal on that statement.

And finally, no less than Hillary Clinton joined the choir of America First hecklers.

He did promise America First Clinton wrote as soon as the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. has reportedly outpaced China. No matter that the availability of testing kits in America has drastically increased while the reliability of Chinese reporting on COVID-19 is in question. Thank God for the 2016 election results!

Not for the first time has the Trump-hating syndrome produced an inevitable side effect of hating America. The Left continues to play political games at the time of great public danger.
MONROE COUNTY, MI - Police are searching for a man and his son after they went missing shortly after launching their boat in South Rockwood.

Police say 29-year-old Justin Oaks and his son, 6-year-old Jaxon Oaks, left their house at approximately 9:48 a.m. Sunday.

They launched their boat from the Downriver Marina at approximately 10:30 a.m.

The last contact with Justin was at 12:35 p.m. via cell phone, according to WXYZ Detroit.

Justin has a full beard and was wearing a tan vest and blue jeans. The boat is a 14-foot Grumman Aluminum flat bottom camouflage boat.

Police say Jaxon was wearing a camouflage jacket, tan hat and blue sweatpants and has a missing front tooth and black glasses.

Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call 911.
Kerala police on Monday launched a massive crackdown on rumour-mongers and instigators of unrest, a day after a village here witnessed a massive protest by migrant workers violatingthe 21-day lockdown announced by the Centre to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Kottayam district Collector P K Sudheer Babu issued orders under Section 144 of the CrPC prohibiting assembly of more than four people in Kottayam district.

The prohibitory orders were issued as a measure "to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the district," officials said.

The orders were issued following reports submitted by the district police chief and sub-divisional magistrate, stating there were instances of public gathering in the district even after the government announced measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, officials said.

District Police Chief G Jaidev said cases have been registered against some identified people for unlawful assembly violating the lockdown orders issued by the government as part of measures taken by the government to prevent the spread of the virus.

He said a person, a migrant worker, has been taken into custody in connection with the incident and is being interrogated.

Prima facie the police suspect a conspiracy behind the incident, the district police chief said.

Those who instigated the workers will be arrested, the district police chief said.

A team has been constituted toinvestigate the case, Jaidev said.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had said on Sunday there was a conspiracy behind it and lashed out at the "forces" which were trying to create unrest in the society by provoking the working class during the coronavirus pandemic.

Local leaders of ruling CPI(M) have alleged role of some radical elements in creating unrest in Payippad village.

Seeking transportation to travel to their native places, hundreds of migrant workers took to the streets in Payippad village, near Changanassery, on Sunday, violating the 21-day nationwide lockdown.

The Kerala government quickly stepped in to defuse the tension by deploying police force and sending the Kottayam district authorities to pacify the agitating migrant workers, who are called guest labourers in the state.

The district collector and superintendent of police held talks with the migrant workers and managed to send them back to their camps.

The authorities have assured the migrant workers that all facilities would be provided for their comfortable stay in the state during the lockdown period.

The government, however, rejected their demand for travel facilities citing directives issued by the Central government banning movement of people outside the dwelling place.

"They are saying that they want to go to their native places. That is practically impossible", the district Collector had told reporters after talking to the workers.

Officials said the workers demanded traveling facilities to reach their native places as being arranged for the people in other states including Delhi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
HERKIMER, N.Y.  Herkimer County is requiring people visiting the county or returning from travel to self-quarantine for two weeks in an effort to limit the spread of coronavirus.

County officials say anyone who was in the greater New York City area after March 14 for more than 24 hours must self-isolate for 14 days. People who were in other areas outside of New York City are also required to quarantine for 14 days, with the exception of state and federal officials or medical professionals.

The Herkimer County Public Health Department also asks people to follow the domestic travel safety guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Otsego County has also issued similar guidance, asking anyone traveling to the area from New York City to contact the county Department of Health and self-isolate for two weeks.
MANILA, Philippines  Thousands of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test kits from a number of countries have arrived in the Philippines specifically from China, Singapore, South Korea and India.

The latest to arrive were 40,000 test kits from Singapore which arrived Sunday evening (March 29).

The Department of Health (DOH) assured all COVID-19 test kit donations are screened and tested for accuracy before they are used for public testing.

Nagsasagawa po ang RITM ng parallel testing ng mga tests kits natin gamit po ang protocol ng World Health Organization, (The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine has been doing parallel testing on the kits following protocols set by the World Health Organization)  explained DOH Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire.

Vergeire said donated test kits and those provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) both undergo tests using similar samples or specimen.

The DOH only recommends public use if both kits yield parallel results.



Through this process, the DOH discovered that some test kits yielded poor accuracy rate.

During a press conference, Vergeire mentioned that the first batch of test kits from China yielded only 40% accuracy and therefore did not allow its use.

In response, Beijing through its embassy in Manila clarified that the test kits passed the standards.

The Embassy said it immediately checked with DOH which clarified that the two batches of 2,000 BGI PCR-type test kits and 100,000 Sansure PCR-type test kits donated by the Chinese government have been assessed by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) to be at par with the World Health Organization provided kits.

And those test kits are of high quality and standards and have no accuracy problems, the China Embassy in Manila said in a statement.

At this moment of crisis, we should fight in solidarity to overcome the epidemic at the earliest date. The Chinese Embassy firmly rejects any irresponsible remarks and any attempts to undermine our cooperation in this regard, it added.

Story continues

In a follow up statement, the DOH clarified that the faulty test kits referred to by Usec. Vergeire of having poor accuracy rate was a different brand of test kits that was proposed to be donated by a private foundation.

Those test kits were already discarded, the DOH said.

The DOH apologizes for any confusion that previously issued statements have caused, the Health Department said.

Meanwhile, the DOH said it is expecting more positive cases of COVID-19 with the arrival of additional test kits from donor countries.

Vergeire stressed that the DOH is not just doing a random testing to identify COVID-19 positive individuals.

Sa pamamagitan ng contact tracing, aktibo po nating hinahanap ang mga posibleng na infect ng COVID-19, (Through contact tracing we are actively identifying all individuals who might have been infected by COVID-19) the official said.

Dahil dito asahan po ninyo na tataas pa ang bilang ng mga confirmed cases sa mga susunod na araw. Mainam na rin po na ating nalalaman kung ilan at sino pa ang nagpositibo para sila po ay mabigyan agad ng tamang pag-aalaga (Because of this, expect the rise in number of confirmed cases in the coming days. It is better that we are able identify them and to know the number to immediately provide them proper care), she added.

At present, all four national testing laboratories across the country are doing 80 to 160 tests a day on top of the 900 to 1,000 tests a day being done by RITM in Manila. MNP (with details from Aiko Miguel)

The post DOH clarifies faulty test kits not from China appeared first on UNTV News.
Activists are warning that conditions at crowded camps in southeast Bangladesh are leaving a million Rohingya refugees at risk of contracting the virus.

Activists are warning that conditions at crowded camps in southeast Bangladesh are leaving a million Rohingya refugees at risk of contracting the new coronavirus.

Internet shutdown in and around the camps is making the situation even more dangerous.

Al Jazeeras Mohammed Jamjoom reports.
A furniture shop located 250-300 metres away from the Kalindi Kunj Road, which was the venue of the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protests in Shaheen Bagh until the site was cleared by the police owing to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown early this week, was gutted in a fire on Sunday evening, fire officials said.

Officials said that five fire tenders doused the flames within an hour and no casualty was reported from the incident spot.

The police said that they are inquiring into the incident and trying to find the cause of the fire.

Delhi Fire Services (DFS) director, Atul Garg, said that at 8.46pm, the fire control room received a call regarding a fire in a furniture shop. We sent five fire engines. Our firemen have controlled the flames and the situation is under control. Nobody was hurt, Garg said.

A police officer said that it was a single shop built over a 200 square yard-area in Shaheen Bagh with some residential buildings nearby. There was in the space outside the shop as well.

The fire started around 8.40pm and by the time fire tenders reached the spot and doused the flames, it had engulfed the entire shop and furniture outside. Everything was gutted. The shop was closed when the fire started, the officer said.

RP Meena, DCP (south) said that prima facie, it appears the fire caused a loss of 4 lakh.

The DCP said that panic gripped the neighbourhood as soon as locals saw the flames and came out of their homes. Nearly 500 residents tried to douse the flames by throwing buckets of water on the flames. However, the presence of wooden items helped the fire spread rapidly. The police personnel reached there and dispersed the crowd. Locals were asked to return home, the officer said.

Whether the fire began due to any short circuit or somebody deliberately set the shop on fire is being probed, added the officer.
The lights were all low and it was kind of erie because March 13 was our last day [of classes inside the building], McGrail said. We use goggles several times a week, so I knew where all the goggles would be in the chemistry classrooms and we have some standard areas we keep them in biology and physics classrooms. It was nice to come across boxes of gloves that were unopened because I know those are going to be helpful too.
Photographs of street dogs in the corridors of major hospitals put the focus on hospital conditions

Srinagar: Photographs and videos portraying allegedly chaotic conditions in some of Jammu & Kashmirs hospitals have gone viral on social media even as ten more persons tested positive for the deadly Covid-19 virus in the union territory on Monday.

One photograph showed stray dogs roaming freely in a corridor of the government-run Chest Disease (CD) Hospital in Srinagar, which is a designated facility for Covid-19 patients. A pinned tweet accompanying the photo read, Im shocked, I was just talking to my cousin and another patient over phone -- both COVID-19 +ve patients at CD Hospital. Dogs are in the ward attacking patients. Also doctors asked them to get medicines from outside. Is this our healthcare system level?

In another tweet, the same person, Khalid Rathore, said his cousins medical reports clearly showed him as a suspect for Covid-19 but he has been put together with confirmed positive cases of the disease. Just checked medical reports of my cousin, which clearly show 'suspect for COVID-19' that means he has not been yet confirmed +ve for the same. Then why has he been kept with +ve cases where he can easily and is likely to get infected?

Last week, a woman Covid-19 suspect fled the hospital in the dead of night and later reported at Srinagars Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS). Her family sought to justify her act, saying she left the hospital after a pack of stray dogs entered the premises. Srinagars mayor Junaid Azim Mattu had, after photographs showing dogs inside the hospital went viral, promised to secure the premises by erecting a wall.

Last weekend, as many as 26 Covid-19 suspects jumped quarantine at Srinagars Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial (JLNM) Hospital amidst chaos triggered by a violent protest over poor medical facilities. The protesters allegedly broke furniture and window panes in the hospital and were joined in the rampage by their relatives.

However, as per a statement by Srinagars DC Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, all the quarantine fugitives were quickly traced and brought back to the hospital with the help of the police.

The authorities here admit that hospitals and other medical facilities in the union territory, mainly in the Kashmir Valley, have become overcrowded due to the influx of confirmed and suspected Covid-19 cases. "Were making every possible effort to make everyone who is with us comfortable. Any gaps that might be there will be filled and all weaknesses removed soon, said Dr. Naveed Nazir Shah, HOD at CD Hospital in a video message.

The government on Monday reported ten new positive cases of Covid-19 including three from Jammu division and seven from the Kashmir Valley, taking the total number of corona positive patients to 48. With one more person from Ladakh testing positive at a hospital in Jodhpur, Rajasthan ,following his evacuation from Iran, the number of patients in or from the landlocked region has risen to 14.

Officials said that while most of Ladakhs Covid-19 patients are recovering at Lehs Sonam Narboo Memorial Hospital, out of J&Ks 48 positive cases, 44 remain active, two have recovered and the remaining two have passed away.

In J&K, as many as 11,644 travellers and persons in contact with suspected cases are currently put under surveillance which include 355 persons who are in hospital isolation or quarantine. A report from Jodhpur said a 41-year-old male resident of Ladakh among those evacuated from Iran last week was found COVID-19 positive at the MDH Hospital.

Back home, the doctors at SKIMS claimed that the 67-year-old woman from Srinagars Khanyar area, who became the Valleys first case of Covid-19 has recovered as she tested negative for the novel disease. G.H. Yatoo, nodal officer for coronavirus at SKIMS, said the samples of the woman sent to the viral diagnostic lab have tested negative, adding that she would, however, be kept in quarantine for a period of 14 days before a decision to discharge her or not could be taken.
A growing number of imported coronavirus cases in China risked fanning a second wave of infections when domestic transmissions had "basically been stopped", a senior health official said on Sunday, while eased travel curbs may also add to domestic risks.

China, where the disease first emerged in the central city of Wuhan, had an accumulated total of 693 cases entering from overseas, which meant "the possibility of a new round of infections remains relatively big", Mi Feng, spokesman for the National Health Commission (NHC), said.

Nearly a quarter of those came from arrivals in Beijing. "Beijing, the capital, still bears the brunt of the risks," said Xu Hejian, spokesman for the Beijing government, told reporters.

"There`s no reason to lay back and relax yet. It`s not a time when we can say everything is going well."

Most of those imported cases have involved Chinese returning home from abroad. A total of 3,300 people have now died in mainland China, with a reported 81,439 infections.

China was widely accused of a delayed response when suspected cases first emerged in December, with a young doctor reprimanded for "spreading rumours" when he tried to raise the alarm.

But the world`s most populous country has since won praise from the World Health Organization for its efforts to lock down affected areas and isolate patients.

In the last seven days, China has reported 313 imported cases of coronavirus but only six confirmed cases of domestic transmission, NHC`s data showed.

There were 45 new coronavirus cases reported in the mainland on Saturday, down from 54 on the previous day, with all but one involving travellers from overseas.

Airlines have been ordered to sharply cut international flights from Sunday. And restrictions on foreigners entering the country went into effect on Saturday.

Five more people died on Saturday, all of them in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province. It has reported only one new case in the last 10 days.

Saturday marked the fourth consecutive day that Hubei recorded no new confirmed cases. The sole case of domestically transmitted coronavirus was recorded in Henan province, bordering Hubei.

On a cold and rainy Sunday, Wuhan streets and metro trains were still largely empty. The Hubei government said on its official WeChat account that a number of malls in Wuhan, as well as the Chu River and Han Street shopping belt, would be allowed to resume operations on Monday.

With traffic restrictions in the province lifted, Wuhan is also gradually reopening borders and restarting some local transportation services.

"It`s much better now," a man, who gave his surname as Hu, told Reuters as he ventured out to buy groceries in Wuhan.

All airports in Hubei resumed some domestic flights on Sunday, with the exception of Wuhan, which will open to domestic flights on April 8. Flights from Hubei to Beijing remain suspended.

A train arrived in Wuhan on Saturday for the first time since the city was placed in lockdown two months ago.

Restrictions have also been eased on people looking to return to the capital, although the procedure still appears much more vigorous as it`s done on an application approval basis.

More than 7,000 have returned to Beijing from Hubei by charted trains or private cars, Mao Jun, a Beijing government official, said on Sunday.

But as travel restrictions are rolled back, concerns about asymptomatic cases have intensified. Gansu, a province in northwestern China, reported a new case on Sunday of a traveler from Hubei who drove back on a health code declaring the person free of virus.

It is unclear how the person became infected, according to the report by state broadcaster CCTV.

As scientists worldwide scramble to fight the battle against the coronavirus, a Chinese research institute said this week it has developed a nanomaterial that can absorb and deactivate the coronavirus, and that it is looking to work with companies to apply the technology in making air purifiers and face masks.

Lab tests by a CDC branch in China`s Anhui province showed the material deactivated 96.5-99.9% of the coronavirus, the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics under state think tank Chinese Academy of Sciences said in a statement.
- Kenya has so far confirmed 38 cases of COVID-19 with one death and two recoveries recorded as of Saturday, March 28

- Of the 38 cases, Nairobi leads with 28 followed by Kilifi with 6, Mombasa with 2, while Kajiado and Kwale have registered 1 each

- Acting director general in the Health Ministry Patrick Amoth urged all the 47 counties to prioritise treatment of the pandemic

The government has directed all counties to suspend all minor and elective surgeries in preparation for coronavirus emergencies as the number of cases continue to soar daily.

Kenya has so far confirmed 38 cases of COVID-19 with one death and two recoveries recorded as of Saturday, March 28.

READ ALSO: CS Mutahi Kagwe says son, niece on quarantine over COVID-19

Acting director general, Ministry of Health Patrick Amoth. Photo: MoH.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Senator Sakaja, 2 sons impress with rap song on coronavirus prevention

In a statement on Wednesday, March 25, acting director general in the Health Ministry Patrick Amoth urged all the 47 counties to prioritise treatment of the pandemic that has threatened to halt operations in the country.

"Following the increase in the number of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases in the country, there is necessity to direct all our available resources towards combating further spread and prepare for intensive management of patients who may need critical care,"

Health CS Mutahi Kagwe confirmed seven new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, March 28. Photo: Ministry of Health.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: DP Ruto aungana na polisi, asema kafyu lazima itekelezwe kikamilifu

This letter is hereby to request you to cancel all elective surgical procedures except obstetric cases at your facilities to redirect resources towards combating this disease," his statement read.

Of the 38 cases, Nairobi leads with 28 followed by Kilifi with 6, Mombasa with 2, while Kajiado and Kwale have registered 1 each.

"In the last 24 hours, a total of 81 samples from suspected cases have been analysed. We have received confirmation of seven people who have tested positive for coronavirus. Four are Kenyans, two Congolese nationals and one Chinese national. This now brings the number to 38," Kagwe said.

The government has so far tested 833 persons for the coronavirus disease.

From Sunday, March 29, it shall embark on mass testing for all those persons who arrived in the country last week and are currently under mandatory quarantine at various facilities.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

Opinion : Uhuru has failed this country -Angry Kenyan rants | Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Lockdown, state of emergency, health measures or simple recommendations African governments are adopting a variety of strategies to deal with the Covid-19 epidemic.

State of emergency

Many States have decreed a state of emergency, a mechanism that makes it possible to govern by decrees or simple administrative measures, and therefore deal quickly with any danger.

Senegal, Kenya, Cote dIvoire, and also Guinea and Niger have taken this route. It makes it possible to adopt measures that temporarily reduce individual freedoms, including curfews that prohibit movement or trade at night.

Dakar and Niamey are now under curfew as are Abidjan and Bouake in Cote dIvoire. Similar measures have been decided in Mauritania, Egypt, and Gabon.

Guinea, like many other countries, has decided to close restaurants, bars, schools, universities, churches and mosques for two weeks. Similar measures are taken in Togo.

Economic fallout

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) warned that measures being taken in Asia, Europe and North America such as social distancing and regular hand washing will be a particular challenge for countries with limited internet connectivity, dense populations, unequal access to water and limited social safety nets.

Besides, beyond the loss in lives, the pandemic will have a devastating fallout on African countries economies as international and regional organizations predict the loss of nearly half of jobs in the continent due to coronavirus.

The ECA said the continent will be hit harder with a heavy and durable economic toll, which will threaten progress and prospects, widen inequalities between and within countries, and worsen current fragilities.

African countries need support in preparing for the health crisis, and for the economic fallout. ECA said.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on its part issued this Monday a call to action from the international community to assist developing countries with the enormous fallout they are expected to face due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The UNDP, which said in a statement that the crisis in developing countries threatens to devastate economies and increase inequality, warned that nearly half of all jobs in Africa could be lost, and noted that income losses are expected to exceed $220 billion in developing countries.

Without support from the international community, we risk a massive reversal of gains made over the last two decades, and an entire generation lost, if not in lives then in rights, opportunities, and dignity, Achim Steiner, administrator of the UNDP said in a statement.
Joint diseases, such as knee osteoarthritis, are common in the elderly population and severely impair their quality of life. Conventional treatments like artificial joint replacements offer temporary relief but come with several disadvantages, including limited functionality and the need for replacement. A better solution is to find a way to promote tissue regeneration in joints: interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) hydrogels, when injected into joints, do exactly this--by acting as scaffolds for the growth of new cells and mimicking the cellular environment. However, existing techniques to develop IPNs are tedious: they require the addition of chemicals via multiple steps, which limits their practical application. Thus, there is a need for better techniques that can make the process of tissue regeneration easier.

In a new study published in Chemistry of Materials, scientists from Japan, including Asst Prof Shigehito Osawa and Prof Hidenori Otsuka of Tokyo University of Science, found a new method for developing tissue regeneration scaffolds. Prof Otsuka explains, "Generally, the formation of IPN gels is a cytotoxic, multistep process: it involves constructing a network, followed by the addition of chemical reagents or subjecting them to external stimuli, such as temperature or changes in light irradiation, to form the other network. We wanted to create a novel scaffold using a one-step process, which could overcome the limitations of existing IPNs."

To begin with, the scientists wanted to find self-assembling compounds that could form independent 3D networks without interfering with each other. They began by selecting a peptide called RADA16, which--under physiological conditions--forms a network owing to electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions. Then, they turned to a biopolymer called chitosan (CH) and a compound called polyethylene glycol (PEG), which form networks with each other via chemical reactions. Because the mechanisms of network formation in RADA16 and CH/PEG were drastically different, the scientists speculated that these networks would not interfere with each other. By simply mixing the two compounds, they found that this was indeed true. Prof Otsuka explains, "We mixed the two materials, RADA16 and CH/PEG, and found that they successfully formed heterologous IPNs. Moreover, these IPNs did not interfere with each other, as it turns out that the RADA16 networks form first, followed by the slower assembly of CH/PEG networks."

Next, the researchers wanted to check if the proposed IPN could effectively act as a scaffold to promote the growth of healthy chondrocytes (cells that produce cartilage). The scientists tested the scaffold using human cells and found that cells are embedded uniformly in the hydrogel, effectively generating functional cartilage tissue. In fact, in mice, implanting human chondrocytes within the hydrogel scaffold led to cartilage formation over a period of 8 weeks, even surpassing the performance of conventional tissue scaffolds! The biggest advantage of this technique was that not only did it successfully regenerate cartilage tissue, it was also performed in just one step or "pot," making it much simpler than existing techniques.

These findings could potentially overcome the limitations of tissue regeneration and pave the way for further applications such as drug delivery, diagnosis, and surface modification. Not just this, Prof Otsuka is optimistic that owing to the ease of the technique, it can be produced domestically, which could lead to significant social and economic benefits. Prof Otsuka concludes, "Our research has opened doors to the use of regenerative medicine for autonomous cartilage generation as an alternative to artificial joints, leading to significant improvement in patients' quality of life and benefiting the society overall."

###

About The Tokyo University of Science

Tokyo University of Science (TUS) is a well-known and respected university, and the largest science-specialized private research university in Japan, with four campuses in central Tokyo and its suburbs and in Hokkaido. Established in 1881, the university has continually contributed to Japan's development in science through inculcating the love for science in researchers, technicians, and educators.

With a mission of "Creating science and technology for the harmonious development of nature, human beings, and society", TUS has undertaken a wide range of research from basic to applied science. TUS has embraced a multidisciplinary approach to research and undertaken intensive study in some of today's most vital fields. TUS is a meritocracy where the best in science is recognized and nurtured. It is the only private university in Japan that has produced a Nobel Prize winner and the only private university in Asia to produce Nobel Prize winners within the natural sciences field.

Website: https://www.tus.ac.jp/en/mediarelations/

About Professor Hidenori Otsuka from Tokyo University of Science

Prof Hidenori Otsuka completed his Ph.D. from the Division of Natural Science Chemistry, Tokyo University of Science (TUS) Graduate School, and currently heads his own laboratory at TUS. With more than 100 research publications to his credit, his research focuses mainly on the basics and applications of physical chemistry, especially colloid and surface chemistry.

Funding information

This research was supported by the Science Research Promotion Fund "S19-707-00" from the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan (PMAC) and the Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows "19J13789" from Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS).
As many as 2,442 labourers hailing from Karnataka have been brought back in 62 buses by the state government from Maharashtra

Belgaum: As many as 2,442 labourers hailing from Karnataka have been brought back in 62 buses by the state government from Maharashtra on Sunday, in the backdrop of nation-wide lockdown following COVID-19 outbreak.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday urged migrant labourers not to leave the state owing to the nationwide lockdown and assured that the Maharashtra government will look after their interests.

Hundreds of migrants, a majority of whom are daily wage workers started rushing to their native places from different states amid uncertainty over their livelihood following the announcement of a 21-day nationwide lockdown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week in order to contain the spread of novel coronavirus.
Press Release

30 March 2020

Hosts on Airbnb are offering NHS and other frontline medical staff free places to stay, and Airbnb will waive all fees associated with the stays.

The initiative is a local expansion of Airbnb's global ambition to connect 100,000 COVID-19 responders with accommodation.

Nearly 1,500 places to stay have already been offered by hosts in the UK.

Advertisements

Hosts on Airbnb are offering NHS and other frontline medical staff free places to stay while they carry out their critical work, and Airbnb is waiving all fees for the stays. Hosts across the UK can opt into the programme and offer an entire home property through Airbnb's Open Homes platform, created in 2012 to meet the needs of people requiring emergency housing.

The initiative is a local expansion of a new global program by Airbnb to help house 100,000 healthcare professionals, relief workers, and first responders battling the coronavirus outbreak around the world. Nearly 1,500 places to stay have already been offered by hosts in the UK.

"The entire country is behind our heroic NHS and medical staff as they battle the coronavirus outbreak. We have made it our priority to stand with the Airbnb community to do what we can to help. By working together, we can ensure that frontline workers can find a free and convenient place to stay as they continue their critical work. We thank our doctors and nurses across the country from the bottom of our hearts and are grateful to hosts who have already opened their homes during these difficult times." - Patrick Robinson, Director of Public Policy at Airbnb

Airbnb staff will offer direct support to NHS hospitals and trusts, and other healthcare organizations, and help their frontline staff book accommodation.

The initiative builds on programs already launched in Italy and France where Airbnb and local partners, including the French Government, announced that doctors, nurses, caregivers and other medical support staff who are responding to the outbreak in the country can access accommodation on Airbnb. More than 8,000 hosts so far have offered their homes in Italy and France and 20,000 globally.

Are you a host who can make your space available to NHS and other medical staff?

Any host who is willing to provide free accommodation to frontline healthcare professionals should visit airbnb.co.uk/d/medicalstaysuk for details.

Are you a NHS hospital, trust, or other healthcare organisation searching for accommodation for staff?

To get set up on the platform and help your frontline staff book accommodation please visit airbnb.co.uk/d/medicalstaysuk for more information.

Are you a doctor, nurse or healthcare worker looking for a place to stay?

Please visit airbnb.co.uk/d/medicalstaysuk for more details.
Angry residents of Akyem  Manso near Akyem  Oda in the Akroso  Manso  Asene District of the Eastern Region, have expressed their anger over sand-winning activities in the community.

The residents have accused their chief, Obrempong Sintim Poku III, who doubles as the Benkumhene of the Akyem Kotoku Traditional Area for allegedly being behind the illegal sand  winning in the area.

The Mmrantehene of Akyem  Manso, Kwadwo Boateng, who is leading a community crusade against the chief said the illegal mining and sand winning practices have caused degradation of farmlands, pollution of water bodies and put a lot of farmers out of business.

According to him, the chief is giving 'cover' to a certain man who is illegally doing mining and sand winning for the past three years without permit from the Assembly as well as the Environmental Protection Agency.

He claimed the sand winning activities has resulted in the spread of water-borne diseases and caused destruction to the biodiversity of the area.

He said they have made several reports to the Police for action but nothing seems to be done about it.

Visit

When Daily Guide visited the area over the weekend, many farmlands had been destroyed and water bodies polluted as a result of the sand winning activities.

Residents

Some residents claimed that their lands have been damaged and rendered unproductive, while beautiful landscapes that offer pleasant sceneries have been ruined.

A Unit Committee Member in the area said the situation is getting out of hand and the regulatory authorities should step in without any further delay.

Chief's Reactions

Obrempong Sintim Poku III when contacted denied the allegations against him.

According to him, the person behind the mining is operating with a permit, adding that he only gave him the green light to mine on the stool lands and not individuals lands as the residents claimed.

The chief said the crusaders led by the Mmrantehene are working for a faction in a chieftain dispute in the town and they are being sponsored by a rival chief to smear him.

DCE

However, when contacted , the Akroso Manso Arsene District Chief Executive, Alex Incoom, said he is not aware the miner has permit for his activities.

He stated categorically that the assembly does not have any knowledge about sand winning in the community and said the DISEC will soon meet on the matter and invite the chief and the affected farmers to hearing of the matter and take the necessary actions on it.

---Daily Guide
BJP president J P Nadda on Monday appealed to party workers to donate at least Rs 100 each to the PM CARES Fund and inspire 10 others to contribute as well, saying this is the need of the hour.

"I appeal to all of you to make your contribution to PM Cares Fund. Our small support can make a huge contribution. I request every BJP worker to contribute at least Rs 100 to PM Care Fund and inspire 10 others to contribute as well," Nadda said in a message.

This is the need of the hour and BJP workers with their small donations can make a big contribution, he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the PM's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund as part of his government's efforts to combat the coronavirus and asked people to contribute generously to it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As the coronavirus pandemic spreads rapidly across Canada, doctors are sounding the alarm, even as they brace for the worst. Physicians and other medical professionals are concerned that the scenes of overwhelmed healthcare systems, particularly in Italy and Spain, could soon become reality across Canada due to the lack of any surge capacity in hospitals.

Epidemiological models indicate that the country could experience a sharp rise in cases, with the available infrastructure being overwhelmed within weeks. A study of Ontarios capabilities carried out by the University of Toronto, Sunnybrook Hospital, and the University Health Network found that the province would run out of intensive care beds and ventilators in 37 days even if it manages to cut current infection rates by half. The study assumed that the average stay in an intensive care unit (ICU) ward would be eight days and that a quarter of ICU beds could be dedicated to coronavirus patients. The authors point out that even if more beds are made available, this would only alleviate conditions slightly. For example, dedicating 75 percent of all ICU beds to COVID-19 cases would buy a mere two additional weeks for the province.

Doctors have criticized the varying messages from different levels of governments and across jurisdictions. Dr. Michael Warner, the director of critical care at Michael Garron Hospital in Toronto, derided the response of officials to the impending crisis in a recent interview. He drew attention to the limited efficacy of social distancing, especially when the public has not been given clear and consistent instructions on what it precisely entails. He pointed to the suggestion, initially made by Ontarios provincial government, that meetings of 50 persons or less were acceptable.

Warner drew similarities between Canada and Italy. He noted that the virus has ravaged the wealthy north of Italy (as opposed to the countrys much poorer south) where the healthcare system resembles Canadas. On March 23, the Ontario and Quebec governments announced the shutdown of all nonessential services, but Warner said he fears Canadians will come to regret their having waited that long. The reality is that the provincial governments have allowed large sections of nonessential manufacturing, construction, and various resource industries to continue operating, unnecessarily exposing hundreds of thousands of workers and their families to the threat of infection.

Dr. Warner drew a bleak sketch of what might transpire in the coming weeks. He pointed out that Ontario only has 400 ICU doctors serving a population of 14 million people. A COVID-19 attack rate of 30 percent with five percent of those infected requiring intensive care would result in 200,000 new ICU patients. This would mean ICU physicians caring for 500 patients each, whereas they normally attend to a dozen or so each day. This scenario does not consider the inevitability that doctors (as well as other healthcare workers) will contract the virus themselves and require isolation or treatment.

In British Columbia, doctors wrote to the provincial NDP government to warn of the precarious position that hospitals are in, due to shortages of equipment and personnel, and to criticize the authorities failure to implement partial shutdowns as in Ontario and Quebec. The government has instead called for self-isolation of recent travellers and those who have had mild symptoms for at least two weeks.

A letter to the chief provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, which was signed by over 200 doctors, called for the closure of all nonessential businesses and tighter social distancing measures (the province has continued to allow gatherings of up to 50 people). Henry dismissed these proposals as unnecessary. Rallying behind the government, the president of the provincial doctors association authored a letter calling on members to close ranks behind the governments messaging.

However, social distancing can only accomplish so much. The World Health Organization (WHO) has stressed that breaking the transmission of the disease is paramount, and that this can only be accomplished by combining social distancing with mass testing and systematic contact-tracing to isolate positive cases. The WHO described not testing as akin to battling a fire blindfolded. Early analysis of success stories from South Korea as well as Italy reinforce this analysis. A study of the COVID-19 response a team of epidemiologists led in the Italian town of Vo demonstrated how systematic testing and retesting could eradicate the coronavirus. All the residents of the small town of 3,300 near Padua were tested, enabling the identification of the many asymptomatic cases, with all positive cases subsequently quarantined, and treated if symptomatic.

Hospitals are using a number of stopgap measures to prevent a calamity on the scale of what has taken place in Italy. Procedures deemed not to be urgent, including cancer surgeries, are being postponed, and patients awaiting transfer to other facilities (usually long-term care facilities) are being put in temporary housing, including hotel rooms. Doctors and nurses usually assigned to different wards are being trained to work in the intensive care units. Thousands of medical residents whose exams have been delayed due to the pandemic outbreak may receive provisional qualifications, while retired doctors and nurses are being encouraged to offer their assistance.

These provisions fall well short of what is necessary to strengthen the healthcare system to confront the surging pandemic. Moreover, the diversion of scant resources, both equipment and personnel, to fighting the pandemic will invariably result in increased deaths from conditions other than COVID-19, as overwhelmed hospitals postpone treatments and diagnostic tests.

Dr. Warner also noted that the government has not taken other measures to prepare, such as putting in place educational systems to assist in training other medical professionals who may be needed in intensive care units. In addition to medical workers, orderlies and custodial staff are needed for decontaminating surfaces and preparing beds.

Personal protective equipment is also in short supply, necessitating the reuse of gowns, masks, and other equipment, which increases the risks to doctors and nurses. However, the greatest concern remains the shortage of ventilators. Doctors have criticized the paltry 300 additional units acquired by the Ontario government in recent weeks as being well short of what is needed. Ventilators are usually needed for at least 3 weeks for each patient. In a situation where approximately 4 percent of those infected with COVID-19 according to some estimates require a ventilator, many patients will be left without the treatment they desperately need to survive.

The federal Liberal government and its provincial counterparts have done virtually nothing to tackle the disastrous conditions in the healthcare system that are the product of decades of austerity and privatization. While handing hundreds of billions of dollars to the banks and big business, the Trudeau government has announced a paltry $1 billion in additional healthcare funding. It is in currently haggling with over 2,000 for-profit companies, all of whom are seeking to secure their own pound of flesh during the pandemic, to produce urgently needed medical equipment and supplies.

This inept and haphazard response, which expresses the ruling elites contempt and criminal disregard for the health and well-being of working people, is forcing medical professionals to prepare to make harrowing choices. Hospitals are putting in place protocols to determine who among the gravely ill receives treatment and who will be left without the medical help they need. With the ostensible aim of relieving severely overworked physicians from having to take such painful decisions, British Columbia has instituted a system whereby a committee, composed in part by medical ethicists, will decide how to allocate scarce resources, effectively choosing who is to be given medical help and who is to be left to die.

The fact that such arrangements will not only be used in a handful of cases, but on a mass scale, can be seen if one considers the situation in Nanaimo, a mid-sized city on Vancouver Island with 90,000 inhabitants. Michael Kenyon, an intensive care doctor at a local hospital, provided an estimate to the Globe and Mail that around 900 residents will require a ventilator. This was based on the relatively conservative assumption that 25 percent of Nanaimos population would get infected, with 4 percent of those with COVID-19 requiring intensive care. However, Kenyon told the Globe he has just 14 ventilators. What am I going to do with 14 ventilators? he stated. I can tell you what Im going to do: Im going to do what theyre doing in Italy and Im going to take 70-year-olds off the ventilator, and then 60-year-olds off the ventilator and eventually 50-year-olds off the ventilator, and Im going to give them to 30-year-olds with three kids.
YEREVAN, 30 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 30 March, USD exchange rate up by 2.37 drams to 500.80 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 6.12 drams to 554.34 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.10 drams to 6.30 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 11.31 drams to 620.19 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 157.20 drams to 26040.3 drams. Silver price down by 0.51 drams to 230.49 drams. Platinum price up by 56.54 drams to 11947.01 drams.
In a bid to contain the rapid spread of coronavirus infection that has killed over 2,000 people in the United States, President Donald Trump on Sunday (local time) announced to extend the measures under social distancing guidelines till April 30.

Briefing the press at the White House on COVID-19, the President said, "We will be extending our guidelines to April 30 to slow the spread."

"On Tuesday, we will be finalizing these plans and providing a summary of our findings, supporting data and strategy to the American people," CNN quoted him as saying.

As of Sunday evening, the tally of COVID-19 infections in the US surged past 139,000, while at least 2,425 people were reported to have succumbed to the killer bug.

The Trump administration had issued guidelines on social distancing on March 16 aimed at containing the virus outbreak.

The guidelines, which were initially made for a 15-day time frame, urged Americans to avoid accumulating in groups of more than 10 people and advised that older people stay home.

On Sunday, Trump said he hoped the country will be on its way to recovery by June 1.

"A lot of great things will be happening," the president noted with a tone of alarm.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued the travel advisory Saturday, urging residents of the three states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to "refrain from nonessential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately."

The states would have "full discretion" on implementing the advisory, which exempts employees in critical fields.

The United States surpassed China and Italy this week, with more than 13,00,00 positive cases, becoming the country with the most confirmed cases worldwide. And the growing number of cases has also revealed new demographics facing severe illness.

Cases of young adults developing severe illnesses have been more widely reported, but children were thought to be avoiding the harshest effects.

On Saturday, state officials reported the death of an infant under age 1 who tested positive for coronavirus and is believed to be the youngest person to die of the virus in the United States.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Leaders in the central city of Da Nang have requested that punishment be strictly imposed on organizers of an online game event that was held despite effective restrictions on mass gatherings amid the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic.

The request was made on Monday afternoon by Da Nang vice-chairman Le Trung Chinh in a document sent to his subordinates in Ngu Hanh Son District, where the gaming event in question took place on Saturday last week.

On Saturday afternoon, the districts authorities found out 117 people were gathering at Cocobay Resort, including 96 gamers and spectators of the PUBG (PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds) Mobile Pro League 2020 Spring Split - Vietnam tournament.

The league of the online multiplayer shooter game was taking place only one day after Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc called on all Vietnamese citizens and residents to step up measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The measures include restrictions on large gatherings from 0:00 Saturday, March 28, until the end of April 15. Specifically, meetings or events that gather more than 20 people in the same room must be canceled.

The organizers of the tournament were thus booked by local officials for organizing a mass gathering.

They also failed to present an authorization certificate for the tournament at the request of the officials on Saturday afternoon.

The Ngu Hanh Son District authorities have also sealed the venue used for hosting the event.

On Monday afternoon, vice-chairman Chinh also requested districts administrations to make lists of residents who have been to Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi, where at least 25 COVID-19 patients have been confirmed, and Buddha Bar in Ho Chi Minh City where at least 13 people have caught the virus after partying there.

Da Nang has reported six COVID-19 cases, with three of them having recovered.

Meanwhile, Vietnam has confirmed 194 infections, 55 of whom have been discharged from the hospital as of Monday afternoon.

No death related to the viral disease has been recorded in the country.

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T he Scottish Exhibition Centre (SEC) in Glasgow will be converted into a temporary field hospital to help boost bed capacity amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking at a briefing on Monday at the Scottish Government headquarters in Edinburgh, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the hospital could be operational within a fortnight and will initially have 300 beds.

The facility could eventually be expanded to accommodate more than 1,000 patients in total.

Similar temporary hospitals are being set up in London, Birmingham and Manchester in response to the Covid-19 crisis.

Ms Sturgeon stressed the NHS "might not need to use the exhibition centre", with 3,000 of the 13,000 hospital beds across Scotland's public hospitals set aside exclusively for Covid-19 patients.

She said there was a need to "prepare the NHS for the incredibly difficult weeks that lie ahead", however.

The first minister also confirmed that six more people infected with the virus have died in Scotland, bringing the nation's overall death toll to 47.

More than 1,563 people across Scotland have now tested positive for Covid-19 as of 9am on Monday, up 179 from 1,384 on Sunday.

Chief medical officer Dr Catherine Calderwood said the actual number of Scots with the infection is now estimated at more than 100,000, however.

Meanwhile, there will be a temporary suspension of breast, bowel and cervical cancer screening programmes in a bid to free up NHS capacity during the ongoing crisis, Ms Sturgeon said.

The First Minister also revealed 10,000 people had responded to the Scotland Cares volunteering campaign, which was launched earlier on Monday, within the first four hours.
TMC MP Derek O'Brien on Monday said the need of the hour is to focus on the needs of people instead of trolling and spreading fake

In a statement, the Rajya Sabha leader and national spokesperson of the party said this was time when every institution of the country and its citizens must come together.

"We are in a national crisis. Citizens and government, Centre and states, all parties and institutions: we are in this together. In such a critical hour, disappointing to see the usual trolls resort to #FakeNews, the lowest level of political propaganda. Please desist, at least till COVID-19 is defeated. Let us focus on taking care of those who need it the most," he said.

TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had recently written to 18 chief ministers to take care of the migrants from the state.

TMC leader Derek O'Brien also reached out to DMK's M K Stalin, Shiv Sena's Aditya Thackeray and other parties on the migrants issue.

The number of COVID-19 cases climbed to 1,024 and the death toll touched 27 after two fresh deaths were reported on Sunday evening in the country, according to the Union Health Ministry.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 21:47:54|Editor: huaxia

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A man inspects a stable hit by air strikes at the Military College in Sanaa, Yemen, on March 30, 2020. The Saudi-led coalition launched on Monday 15 air strikes on "military targets" in Sanaa, the residents and the Houthi-run media said. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua)

SANAA, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi-led coalition launched on Monday 15 airstrikes on "military targets" in Yemen's Houthi-held capital Sanaa, the residents and the Houthi-run media said.

The airstrikes hit Houthi militia's "military targets" in the north and south of Sanaa, including the Military College, the al-Daylami Military Airport and the Television Hill in the north of Sanaa, as well as the Attan Military Camp and al-Hafa military camp in the south of the capital, according to residents and the Houthi-run al-Masirah television.

Meanwhile, the coalition forces said they targeted "stores of ballistic missiles in Sanaa which threaten the lives of civilians," according to a statement aired by the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television.

The airstrikes on Sanaa were the first by the Saudi-led coalition since last September when the Iran-backed Houthi militia said they would stop launching ballistic missiles and drone attacks against the Saudi capital of Riyadh if the coalition halts airstrikes on Sanaa.

On Sunday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for cross-border missile and drone attacks on several Saudi cities including Riyadh.

The Saudi air defense forces said they intercepted and destroyed ballistic missiles and drone attacks on Riyadh and civilian airports in the southern border cities of Jazan and Najran, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi group seized control of much of the country's north and forced the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of Sanaa.

The Saudi-led military coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in early 2015 to support Hadi's internationally-recognized government.
By PTI

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday held a telephonic conversation with OIC Secretary-General Yousef A Al-Othaimeen during which he discussed the situation in Kashmir and the world in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Foreign Office said in a statement that exchange between the two covered the situation arising out of COVID-19 pandemic, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's responses, and developments in Jammu and Kashmir.

The minister claimed that "continued restrictions on communication and movement" in Kashmir "were preventing unfettered supply of medicines and other essentials, as well as dissemination of information needed to combat the disease," the FO said.

He also highlighted concerns regarding the possibility of spread of coronavirus among a large number of Kashmiri youth.

On Monday, 11 fresh cases of the coronavirus were reported in Jammu and Kashmir, which include three from Jammu and eight from Kashmir, taking the total number of cases in the Union Territory to 49.

Qureshi also talked about the communal violence in New Delhi in February.

The OIC is a 57-member grouping of Muslim majority nations, including Pakistan.

The OIC has usually been supportive of Pakistan and often sided with Islamabad on the Kashmir issue.

Pakistan has been unsuccessfully trying to drum up international support against India for withdrawing Jammu and Kashmir's special status on August 5 and bifurcating it into two Union territories.

India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 was its internal matter.

It also advised Pakistan to accept reality and stop all anti-India propaganda.

Qureshi said the pandemic posed a grave challenge to the entire humanity, including OIC member states.

The OIC, together with the Islamic Development Bank, needed to play an effective role in helping members cope with the challenges, he added.
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y., March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, April 7, the Center for Environmental Policy at Bard College (Bard CEP) will lead a virtual teach-in on climate solutions and climate justice, focusing on ambitious but feasible state and local solutions to help solve climate change by 2030. The teach-inpart of Bard CEP's Solve Climate by 2030 (Solve Climate) projectfeatures 50 university-led webinars in almost every state, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, and at international sites in South America, Asia, and Europe through the Open Society University Network. "As learning and activism moves online, it is essential to continue teaching about this central global issue," says Bard CEP Director Eban Goodstein. "This teaching event is designed to engage secondary education, higher education, and local communities across the nation and around the world in a critical discussion about local climate solutions."

All teach-ins are free and open to the public. For information, including start times, and to register for your local teach-in, visit solveclimateby2030.org. Solve Climate by 2030 is made possible by support from Clif Bar & Company.

As university and high school teachers scramble to move classes online due to the new coronavirus pandemic, Goodstein says the teach-in provides a ready-made lesson plan for college and high school classrooms. Solve Climate has teaching guides here for follow-up discussion, including entry points from every discipline: philosophy, political science, engineering, natural science, art, and economics. Community-level viewing events will be hosted at colleges and universities, high schools, community groups, and faith organizations. All of the webinars will be recorded and available for future discussions.

Goodstein says solving the energy half of climate change by 2030 is looking more likely than it was four years ago. "The cost of solar, wind, batteries and electric vehicles have plummeted," says Goodstein. "In many cases, they are already less expensive then polluting fossil fuelsand getting cheaper every day. The important action on climate is now in cities, at local electric utilities, and with states. The challenge is bad local laws and regulations that are slowing the clean energy revolution."

For more information about the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, visit bard.edu/cep.

SOURCE Bard College

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Patients pose with doctors (top row) at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, March 28, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh.

A Hanoi hospital has marked the nations largest single-batch release of Covid-19 cases to date, discharging 27 patients including eight foreigners Monday morning.

Pham Ngoc Thach, director of the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanois Dong Anh District, said all 27 people have tested negative for the new coronavirus at least twice in a row, which meets the criteria set by the Health Ministry for their discharge.

Among the released is Nguyen Hong Nhung, 26, identified as "Patient 17," the first confirmed infection in the capital city who set off a spate of other infections.

"Patient 17" was the first to start the second phase of infection in Vietnam on March 6 after the nation had gone 22 days straight without recording any new cases. She was confirmed infected four days after returning from London and spread the virus to at least four people.

A 25-year-old Vietnamese tour guide who was among the discharged said he improved physically and mentally after more than three weeks at the hospital.

"Doctors monitored us every day. There were difficult moments but I got over them," he said, thanking the medical staff.

Vietnam has so far confirmed 194 Covid-19 infections. With Mondays discharge, the number of patients released from hospital has jumped to 52.

The National Hospital for Tropical Diseases is currently treating 60 other Covid-19 patients.

Many of the currently active cases are Vietnamese nationals returning from Europe and the U.S. and foreigners coming from the same regions.

The government decided Sunday to suspend all international flights to Vietnam and limit flights from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to other provinces and vice versa in the coming two weeks.

Starting March 22, Vietnam suspended entry for all foreign nationals, including those of Vietnamese origin and family members with visa waivers.

To date, the Covid-19 pandemic has killed more than 33,900 people as it spread to 199 countries and territories.
Roving street markets, or Tianguis as they are called in Mexico, are set up in one borough one day, and moved to a different one the following day.

An army of vendors mount them at dawn, sell their wares to hundreds of shoppers during the day, and dismount these iconic images of Mexican markets at night.

With no enforced shutdowns by the government these markets continue to operate.

How will these people who live day-by-day survive through the coronavirus pandemic if more and more people choose to stay home instead of shop, or if they are forced to shut down like it's happening in other countries in the region?

Susana Ruiz Torres, 49, met her husband Joaquin Aguirre, 62, at the Tianguis 26 years ago.

Now her daughter Victoria Aguirre and her two granddaughters and a grandson are part of the family crew that helps her sell vegetables 5 to 6 days a week in at least three different locations of the city.

With the quarantine entering phase 3 the only obvious thing is that kids will still be lending a helping hand with schools closed for the foreseeable future.

Susana's family do not have savings and depend on what they produce on a daily basis in order to go by.

While the first two weeks of quarantine have cut at least 30% of their customers they can still make a living.

Last night the deputy Secretary of Health Hugo Lopez Gatell urged citizens to comply not just with the obligation not to go outside, leaving Susana to ponder exactly how are they supposed to go through without support of the government in case they are finally enforced to go out.

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.

On Sunday the market was an old shadow of its former self, with scattered clients arriving later than expected, few of them wearing face masks and still some elders venturing out to shop for groceries.

Around 400 kiosks were set up Saturday at Union Avenue, 30 percent less than what they are used to seeing.

Each Kiosk employs 2 to 3 people on average and as a whole the street market can normally take 10,000 visitors each day.
MIAMI, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- To address expanding global travel restrictions and provide peace of mind in guest travel planning, Royal Caribbean Group is extending its Cruise with Confidence cancellation policy through September 1, 2020. The updated policy enhances planning flexibility by allowing cancellations up to 48 hours prior to sailing for any reason. Guests will receive a full credit for their fare, usable on any future sailing of choice in 2020 or 2021.

"Guests are reacting positively to our Cruise with Confidence policy," says company chairman and CEO Richard Fain, "because it enables them to make informed decisions and to better manage complicated travel plans during this unprecedented time of uncertainty."

The extension applies to both new and existing cruise bookings. In addition to easing concerns of booked guests, Fain says the policy enhances consumer confidence to schedule new bookings, knowing last-minute travel adjustments will incur no penalty.

"We want our guests to feel they can safely keep their existing cruise bookings or schedule new sailings," says Fain, "because this policy gives them more freedom and flexibility."

The policy applies to all cruises with sailing dates on or before September 1, 2020, and applies to the company's global brands Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, and Azamara. For individual brand policy details and for information on the Silversea policy, please visit the respective brand websites: Azamara: https://www.azamara.com/cruise-with-confidence, Celebrity: https://www.celebritycruises.com/cruise-with-confidence, Royal Caribbean International: https://loyaltoyoualways.com/service/cruisewithconfidence1/m, Siversea: https://www.silversea.com/temporary-amendment-to-cancellation-policy.html.

About Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL) is a global cruise vacation company that controls and operates four global brands: Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Azamara and Silversea Cruises. We are also a 50% joint venture owner of the German brand TUI Cruises and a 49% shareholder in the Spanish brand Pullmantur Cruceros. Together these brands operate a combined total of 61 ships with an additional 17 on order as of December 31, 2019. They operate diverse itineraries around the world that call on all seven continents. Additional information can be found on www.royalcaribbean.com, www.celebritycruises.com, www.azamara.com, www.silversea.com, www.tuicruises.com, www.pullmantur.es, or www.rclinvestor.com.

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A Beacon Hill bill would offer a workaround for people seeking to notarize power of attorney documents, wills, deeds and other forms during the coronavirus pandemic, offering them a remote option to make the forms official during Massachusetts state of emergency.

According to the state Department of Public Health, 48 people in Massachusetts have died as of Sunday after contracting the coronavirus. Massachusetts has 4,955 confirmed coronavirus cases as of Sunday, up from 4,257 on Saturday.

The fast spread of the virus prompted Gov. Charlie Baker to issue a stay-at-home advisory, making notarization difficult. Notarizing a document is a service that traditionally requires face-to-face interaction, and notaries are not listed as essential workers under the governors declaration.

The legislation, S. 2882, would authorize a Massachusetts attorney or a paralegal, who would be under the supervision of an attorney, to notarize a document over video chat during the state of emergency.

The bill would need to be taken up by the Senate and the House before it could head to the governors desk to be signed and become law.

Real estate attorneys who pushed for the legislation argued their clients wouldnt be able to move forward with real estate transactions during the pandemic. The virtual notarization option would allow them to make deeds, mortgage and other closing documents official.

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, many folks are subject to the governors stay at Home order or dont feel safe traveling outside to an attorneys office for a real estate closing. Meanwhile, while the economy heads towards a recession, real estate is one of the few assets with available equity for consumers, real-estate attorney Richard D. Vetstein wrote on the Massachusetts Real Estate Law Blog.

Sen. Bruce Tarr, who filed the bill, said the provisions could offer a lifeline to families drafting emergency plans in the wake of the pandemic.

It might be a power of attorney. It might be a will. It might be a trust or something that might be attendant to circumstances that people are facing as a result of the pandemic, an illness or something that might be life-threatening that might cause them to take measures to protect themselves and their families, said Tarr, a Gloucester Republican.

Heres how it works:

An attorney and the signer hop on a video chat. The signer presents identification and sends the signed documents to the attorney.

The attorney checks the documents. The attorney must draft and sign an affidavit confirming the documents were notarized remotely and all the requirements were met.

The attorney can also stamp the documents, in addition to issuing an affidavit, according to the bill.

The documents must be sent to the corresponding agency. For real estate transactions, the documents must be recorded with the Registry of Deeds.

The video conferences must be recorded and kept on file for 10 years.

The bill is not meant to replace notary publics, but rather offer an alternative while non-essential businesses are closed to in-person services.

The remote option would cease three business days after the state of emergency is lifted, according to the bill.

This is not something that is intended to be permanent, but it is responsive to the climate that we find ourselves in, Tarr said.

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Its early morning, the first week of the Stay at Home Order in the State of Illinois, the first week of virtual services, virtual homegroups, and Im wondering to myself what will become of my church and the thousands of other churches around the country, different sizes, different circumstances, different finances.

I take a walk through the center of my town to pray. The stores and restaurants all closed, no cars on the streets, no children in the parks, no people getting on the trains, and I start wondering, will this place ever come back? I pray for the healing of my city.

I find myself worrying about the frontline workers in the hospitals, about the vulnerable in my church and on my block. I worry about my family, our future and myself. This worry starts to consume me, even debilitate me. I feel nausea in my stomach. What will become of my church? my job? My family, my life? It feels apocalyptic in the worst of ways.

Its really been a stunning few weeks.

The Isaiah Apocalypse

So somewhere, half way along my walk, seeking the presence of God in my frailty, I begin to dwell in the texts of Isaiah 24-27, what some people call the Isaiah Apocalypse. And I hear those words O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you, I will praise your name; for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure. (25:1 NRSV).

I try to center my self in God. I come to this slowly. I have to pass through a time of releasing the panic, allowing myself to give up any control, and somehow allow myself to be centered in the gravitas of God, this Isaiah 25 reality of God. I look to the sky, dwell in the presence of the most High God who comes to me in Jesus by the Spirit. God is working. He will work in and through this. He will not extract us from this upheaval, this suffering, but he will strengthen us for the journey through it and to the other side. He will make again a rich feast for all peoples (25:6). Can I be led to know God this way in His presence?

Leading into His presence is what pastors do. But we have to go there first. It could take some time. This time, finding this place took me three days. But I cannot lead people there, I cannot lead from there, if I am not there myself. But when we get there, we will walk with our churches, our neighborhoods and the least of these among us through this tumultuous time. There will be a glorious feast on the other side.

Image: Photo by Filip Mroz on Unsplash

Watching cable news is so disturbing. In the midst of all the blaming of the other side, the self-preservation, the grandstanding of our leaders in Washington, I need to be present to God. I intentionally turn off the cable news. I need to steady myself in Gods presence. Those who are of steadfast mind, Isaiah says, God will keep in peace  in peace because they trust Him (26:3). This is the kind of leadership we need midst the world of Cable News.

During these days I often take a few minutes to listen to Pepper Choplins We Are Not Alone (I love this Mennonite choirs rendition). Those words connect me to the reality of God with us. We are not alone, we are not alone for God is with us He will make us strong, we will press on, for God is with us. Listening to these words gives me this marvelous sense of Gods presence in and among His people in this neighborhood. That God is moving and working. Im just joining in. More than I ever I need to do things like this to steady myself in His presence.

This is what Gods people do. This defines who we are in Christ. This is how we pastors can lead through a time like this.

Scurrying to Put Services Online

All over North America pastors have been scurrying to put worship, Sunday gatherings and sermons on various online platforms. And this has been surprisingly well received and helpful. Our church was immensely blessed this past Sunday with a virtual worship gathering. So Im all in for developing media to communicate and coordinate worship and the hearing of the gospel. Nonetheless, is this all that the church can do in response to the coronavirus?

We know there are many people who are isolated, vulnerable and scared, prone to being lonely and depressed. Online services are good but not enough for these people. Indeed, they are not enough for me. So I encourage myself and all pastors during this time, no matter how big or small your congregation, to put the bulk of your time into multiplying as many micro social interactive spaces as is safely possible.

For instance, lets organize small house gatherings that meet virtually via zoom or another platform. Where people can share, connect, talk about the needs, fears and pains of the neighborhood. Where we can be made aware of the vulnerable among us, not just our church, but in our neighborhoods. Where we can pray together for ourselves and our neighborhood. Let us pastors, elders, and house group leaders make sure we go see people face to face safely, knock on their door, stand at least 6 ft away, connect, ask how they are, pray the gospel of Jesus over them, encourage them with the gospel, that Jesus is Lord, He is working in and through this, God is doing something new!! Then lets unleash all the people of God to do the same. Lets make a couple of phone calls a day connecting with people, especially the vulnerable among us, in the same way. Think small, start small. Even if only you can do it, a little at a time, I contend you have no idea where God will take this. Surely some of us will need to develop new people skills. But oh the space that shall be opened up for God to work among us.

Gods Working for A New Future

This virus comes on the heels of some of the worst failures of church in our lifetimes in North America. And now COVID-19 is forcing us to stay at home, be local, tend to Gods working among people in their lives. But if we ground ourselves in God who is present and working among us, if we lead one another via His great presence in faith and trust, if we do the little things of cultivating Kingdom in small interactive spaces, I believe God is birthing something new. Once the coronavirus dissipates and society returns to its daily routines we will have a deeper, thicker church. It may not look the same as before. It may be less impressive in the eyes of the flesh. But this renewed church will be rich in the life of the Kingdom. In ways we never could have imagined prior to COVID-19, this renewed church will witness to the rule and reign of Jesus Christ, the hope of the world. I pray it be so, Amen!

By David Fitch

One of 4 pastors at Peace of Christ Church, Westmont IL

BR Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology, Northern Seminary Chicago
Old Mutual Ghana, a major player in the insurance and pensions industry in Ghana has donated a total of 175 Veronica buckets to 7 institutions in the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions, in our bid to support governments effort to fight covid-19 pandemic in Ghana.



The institutions are:



1. Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital

2. Tema general Hospital,

3. 37 Military hospital,

4. Greater Accra Regional Hospital,

5. Childrens Hospital,

6. Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA),

7. Korle Bu Teaching Hospital,



This year, Old Mutual marks 175 years of operations across the African continent hence the number of Veronica Buckets that were delivered. At Old Mutual, Corporate Social Responsibility is one of the core pillars of our Responsible Business philosophy and in our discussions with partners, we noted with deep concern the impact Covid-19 would have on the countrys economy and hence the need to join government in this fight.



Old Mutuals Group CEO, Mr. Tavona Biza said, We are following a robust and comprehensive Covid-19 Response Plan that is updated regularly as we monitor the latest developments in Ghana. Our plan includes contingency measures to limit direct exposure to the virus and to ensure that we continue to operate smoothly and honor our commitments to our employees and customers. These range from working together to create a healthy workplace, to paying out their claims and steering their savings and investments through turbulent markets.



As a business that is 175 years old, Old Mutual has the operational resilience and expertise to deal with challenging environments. As a responsible business, that is responsible for the communities in which we operate in, we take the wellbeing of our employees, customers and business partners very seriously., he added.



In addition to the donations, the business has put up sensitization messages across its branches and sent messages to all customers to take precautionary measures against covid-19. There are aerobics sessions on Old Mutual Ghanas Facebook page for all people working from home to partake in to keep fit while at home.











Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Rukmini Roy, a 25-year-old student in the third of her four years at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, said that the feared spread of COVID-19 got in the way of weeks of electives, where she would have been working with doctors with various areas of expertise.

"I was to start with hematology and oncology," said Roy, who is a Decatur native. But then the coronavirus crisis hit, derailing the plans.

"A lot of people are upset because they signed up for their specialty that they really wanted to get to see and get experience in," she said. "But it's good experience to know that anything can happen at any time."

Dr. Jerry Kruse, dean and provost of the school and CEO of the SIU Medicine clinical practice, said the national health situation has caused changes at the school and the clinics. More study and physician visits are being done virtually  by smartphone or computer. The scheduled May 16 graduation ceremony at the UIS Performing Arts Center has been canceled. Plans are to send diplomas by mail. He said something might be done online to mark the graduation, but it won't be in person.

And, Kruse said, the Association of American Medical Colleges issued guidance that medical students should be pulled from clinical responsibilities for now.

"I think a lot of that was because of the shortage of personal protective equipment," he said, which is needed by the attending physicians. Medical students don't yet have medical degrees and are not calling the shots on patient treatment, he said.

"It's for the safety of everyone," he said.

While medical students are not interacting with patients, he said, they are still working in small groups on "problem-based learning," where they figure out how to handle cases with varying diagnoses and social circumstances  similar to case studies in law school. But it is being done via computer, Kruse said, yielding "glowing" reports from students.

"They love doing it that way," he said.

He also said some students have volunteered to provide child care for attending physicians. "It's really an incredibly valuable service."

The four-year SIU physician training program  with medical students spending their first year in Carbondale and the next three years in Springfield  has had about 72 students per year, though larger classes will be phased in as the next first-year group is supposed to grow to 80.

In addition, the school and network of clinics also has about 80 physician assistant students in a two-year program, 60 graduate students getting master's degrees or doctorates in the medical sciences, and 72 "med prep" students who are college graduates taking two years of courses to pave the way to medical schools. There are also about 350 residents and fellows who are in specialty training. Residents and fellows have medical degrees and continue to treat patients.

As for SIU Medicine clinics, Kruse said, he thinks changes in patient interaction brought on by the virus crisis could change long-term practices  to the advantage of patients and doctors.

"We've learned that patients like virtual visits much better than we ever thought they would," Kruse said. His experience working with physicians in other countries, where physical exams were performed on only a small percentage of in-person visits, also helped demonstrate to him that telemedicine could be effective for a majority of visits.

"I think we're learning that the way we encounter patients for the future probably will be a lot different because the virtual visit, for a large number of things we see, is perfectly fine," he said. "Hopefully Medicare, Medicaid and the insurers will learn that too, because we think we can deliver (a) better quality of care at a lower cost."

The attempt, he said, would not be to "do any shortcuts here at all," but to "make the best decisions for our patients and to do that with the tools that are most effective, most efficient, most equitable, because we need to reach populations that we don't, and we can do that in a better way with these new tools."

Roy, a Decatur native who last week was continuing her studies from Bloomington, Ind., where her parents have moved, said she will probably aim to go into internal medicine.

"Doctors make a huge difference, and healthcare workers as a whole work as a team to fight what is happening right now," Roy said of the virus. "I definitely feel very lucky to be in the profession right now."

MONDAY UPDATE: Coronavirus in Central Illinois
Delhi's Patiala House court on Monday (March 30) sent has sent Jammu and Kashmir Police officer Davinder Singh, who is accused of allegedly ferrying two Hizb-ul-Mujahideen terrorists, to further custodial interrogation till April 3. Davinder Singh was arrested for allegedly ferrying two Hizb-ul-Mujahideen terrorists in a vehicle on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway earlier this year.

Delhi Police submitted before the court that the accused police officer needs to be confronted with other accused Javed Iqbal, Syed Naveed Mushtaq and Imran Shafi Mir who have also been arrested in the case. The court directed the police to conduct his medical examination every 48 hours.

Earlier, the court had sent Syed Naveed Mushtaq and others to police custody till April 3, after police told the court that they were planning to execute terror attacks in Delhi and other parts of the country.

The Delhi Police filed an FIR under Section 120B of IPC alleging that the youths of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab are being trained for carrying out terrorist activities.

Suspended DSP Davinder Singh was suspended from the Jammu and Kashmir Police in January this year. The Special Cell had brought Davinder Singh to Delhi from Hira Nagar Jail in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Delhi Police has filed an FIR under Section 120B of IPC. The FIR said that the youths of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab are being trained for carrying out terrorist activities.

The FIR also mentioned of D Company and Chhota Shakeel. According to the FIR, the Delhi Police Special Cell had received an input that the D Company is funding to pro-Khalistan terrorist organisations in Punjab.

Under this very FIR Davinder Singh was taken in custody. The Special Cell had also interrogated Davinder Singh regarding the Khalistan angle, police said.

Although Davinder Singh is not named in the FIR, the Special Cell has some inputs on the basis of which the inquiry will be done carried out and Davinder Singh will be questioned.
Over the coming weeks and months the resilience of our financial and healthcare systems will be severely tested. Previously allocated resources are already being rapidly redeployed to contain the spread of COVID-19 and minimize the economic fallout.

But amidst this unprecedented public health crisis our resolve to combat climate change will also face an important test, and its one we cant afford to fail.

There will be pressure on government and industry to cut back on climate action spending. There will be calls to cancel or postpone previously announced programs or regulations designed to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

For example, two-thirds of small businesses recently surveyed by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business already have the federal carbon tax in their cross hairs, arguing the tax should be scrapped as part of COVID-19 relief efforts. In a letter to the prime minister, 65 oil and gas executives from Alberta have asked for the carbon tax to be suspended.

Admittedly, this pandemic will likely do more to lower global GHG emissions over the next six months than any single policy or international agreement. Some estimates show that global demand for oil is already down by 10 per cent  a drop of roughly by 10 million barrels a day. During Chinas COVID-19 lockdown, satellite images showed that emissions virtually vanished.

It makes sense. Travel restrictions and self-isolation policies mean fewer airplanes flying, reduced transit activity, and a decline in driving. Businesses and factories are consuming less fuel and electricity because of the plunge in economic activity.

But Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, describes this as a short-term blip that shouldnt be taken for granted. It shouldnt be an excuse to pull back from climate action.

As economies bounce back  and they will  emissions will quickly climb again and the serious threats we face from climate change will remain, wrote Birol in a recent blog post. Those threats range from increasingly severe and unstable weather to more flooding and forest fires to the rise and spread of diseases  old and new. In this sense, COVID-19 is a taste of what the future holds if climate change is left unchecked.

We should not allow todays crisis to compromise our efforts to tackle the worlds inescapable challenge, said Birol.

In that spirit, its important to keep the future of our cleantech sector top-of-mind as federal stimulus dollars work their way through the system. Hundreds of companies across Canada are developing the technologies and services that are crucial in the battle against climate change. These companies export worldwide into virtually every sector of the economy, from oil and gas, construction, mining and agriculture to power generation, transportation and chemicals.

Its a sector that has attracted billions of dollars in foreign direct investment to Canada and created thousands of highly skilled jobs. It represents the future low-carbon society we aspire to have. But now it faces an existential threat, and we risk losing our highest potential companies and the strong momentum that has been built over the past decade.

One immediate action the government should take is to boost access to capital. The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) and Export Development Canada (EDC) could divert more funding to support direct equity investments in cleantech, and urgently syndicate with existing and new investors to leverage more capital sooner.

On the debt side, BDC and other federal programs could speed up the processing of transactions, defer interest and principal payments, remove the requirement for personal guarantees on loans, and convert sub-debt into equity. Theres also a big opportunity to increase and accelerate the amount of funding that flows through grant programs.

Just as critical, however, is how Ottawa moves forward with its stimulus package. Reports of multibillion-dollar bailouts for Canadas oil and gas sector and the airline industry have raised some important questions.

Will there be strings attached? Or, will financial support be used by these industries to fund business as usual activities?

Will other sectors that are more actively advancing the clean economy get the same supports, such as low-interest loans and loan guarantees?

Any planned stimulus for incumbent industries must ensure that Canadas climate and sustainability goals are included as conditions of spending. Procurement policy must be clearly integrated into economic stimulus for large industrial sectors, including oil and gas, aviation, construction, transportation, mining and agriculture.

This is an opportunity for Canada to turn lemons into lemonade. The tens of billions of stimulus dollars that will soon be flowing through our economy should not be wasted on sustaining old approaches and behaviours that have slowed down, not advanced, efforts to rein in global GHG emissions.

This is consistent with what IEAs Birol has been advising as governments work to counter the economic damage caused by coronavirus. These stimulus packages offer an excellent opportunity to ensure that the essential task of building a secure and sustainable energy future doesnt get lost amid the flurry of immediate priorities.

We can do this.

Tyler Hamilton works with cleantech companies from across Canada as an advisor with the non-profit MaRS Discovery District in Toronto.

Read more about:
Canada needs more health care workers to combat coronavirus. (Zoltan Balogh/MTI via AP)

An infection control epidemiologist believes it may be the opportune time for the Canadian health system to be flexible and integrate foreign physicians who may not have gained licenses in Canada.

We cant manufacture doctors, we cant manufacture nurses, we have these experts and we should make use of them, because the situation will become extremely desperate soon, said Furness, an assistant professor of information in health policy at the University of Toronto.

Last week, the Irish Medical Council told government officials they should incorporate refugee and asylum seekers who were trained as doctors in their home countries, but not in Ireland.

Much like Canada, the council insisted their priority was to bring back retired doctors first, but noted that these doctors could provide essential support to their efforts of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Provinces across Canada announced theyre already moving towards bringing back retired nurses and doctors back to the frontlines, as cases of coronavirus increase.

Last week, the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario announced more than 3,300 nurses signed up to get back into the health system.

But Furness said hes come across dozens of individuals who could jump into the health system to help the cause.

I know a number of foreign-trained physicians, I teach them, this is a talent pool that we should absolutely be tapping into, said Furness. We should have thought of this before even the Irish did, because we probably have proportionately far more.

While Canada has adopted and began to aggressively recommend social and physical distancing and taken precautionary steps of shuttering businesses, Furness noted adding additional bodies to the health field is the second route to flattening the curve.

To attenuate the numbers of cases, thats why weve been doing social distancing, thats why weve shut down our economy... the other thing we can do is increase capacity to the health system, he said.

Story continues

Colin Furness, an assistant professor of information in health policy at the University of Toronto and infection control epidemiologists believes health systems in Canada should integrate foreign-trained physicians immediately to help fight against the outbreak of COVID-19.

Not all doctors, however, may be trained in infectious diseases and Furness says just having them practice their specialities in order to allow doctors in the system to move to intensive care units could be a way forward.

We still have to cover off all these other areas, so even just thinking of all the other essential services that might be shorthanded, he said. Reshuffling and re-assigning is what makes the most sense.

But Furness acknowledged the health system may not want to reduce its regulations at this time for fear of not being able to return to normal after the pandemic.

If you give up that control, that gatekeeping control, you may never get it back, that would be the fear, said Furness.

Gaining access to Canadas system

Foreign physicians trying to practice in Canada need to have a medical degree from a globally accredited school, need to be licensed by the Medical Council of Canada, have post-graduate training in modern medicine and be certified by one of the three regulatory colleges in the country.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. said they are adopting an emergency registration policy for recently retired doctors and physicians who are licensed elsewhere in North America, and some fellows in their final year of residency. However, they said these exceptions are not being currently considered for foreign nationals.

Out east, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) wrote in an email response they will expedite the process of providing final year resident physicians with a restricted certificate to be able to practice.

This is an evolving situation and the CPSO continues to work closely with our partners at the Ministry of Health and the OMA to ensure that we are providing the support and resources necessary to expand access to safe and appropriate care for Ontarians, a spokesperson for the college wrote in an email.

An attendant in full protective gear aides people through the entrance of the Assessment Centre at Sunnybrooke Hospital in Toronto. (Rene Johnston/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Despite his belief the situation will start to get worse, Furness doesnt foresee the bodies that represent doctors coming forward and making the request to get foreign trained doctors into the system.

The medical profession wouldnt be the first to stand up and say, We need to fill our ranks with people who we said last month couldnt practice medicine, he said.

It could and should come from the provinces, there is no question.

At least one province is considering the move, according to a spokesperson for Ontario health minister Christine Elliot.

Ontario Health is actively engaged on contingency planning that includes leveraging Ontarios thousands of unlicensed internationally educated health professionals to help address gaps, a spokesperson for Elliot wrote in an email email.

Across the globe, doctors and nurses are being infected with the virus, with at least 13 health care workers testing positive for COVID-19 just a week ago. With those health care workers then needing to be quarantined, the body count of medical professionals continues to drop.

We need bodies, this will get worse, and when it does, well look around and say we shouldve and couldve, said Furness.
The likelihood of getting visceral leishmaniasis may be affected by living conditions in Nepal. Credit: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0

A new study conducted in Nepal highlights household hygiene as key to eliminating visceral leishmaniasis, a disfiguring and often fatal disease caused by the Leishmania donovani parasite that is transmitted by the bite of the sandfly.

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is the largest parasitic killer disease in the world after malaria, with 90 percent of cases found in Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan. Known as kala-azar in Nepal and the Indian sub-continent, it is characterised by high fever, enlargement of spleen and liver, muscle atrophy and anaemia.

The study, published this month in PLoS, explored various factors that foster sandfly breeding, both within and outside households in the districts of Palpa, Morang and Saptari that are endemic for leishmaniasis.

Megha Raj Banjara, an author of the study and researcher at the central department of microbiology, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, says the work focused on different kinds of housing and residential plots in these districts and their bearing on the occurrence and transmission of visceral leishmaniasis.

Banjara says the aim was to help design preventive measures against the spread of the disease by considering the material used in the structure of households and its effect on sandfly distribution and incidence of visceral leishmaniasis, something that was hardly studied.

According to Banjara, the probability of contracting leishmaniasis was greatly enhanced by sacks stored near sleeping areas, and cracks in the walls and floors of houses that are built of bamboo and daubed with animal dung. Similarly, the presence of animals and plants in the immediate environment outside households was found to attract sandflies.

"The need for having screened windows and well-structured, finished walls for vector control should be stressed at the community level," says Banjara. "Frontline health workers should provide proper information to communities regarding VL transmission, house and environment as risk factors, and the need for protective measures."

"Given the alarming increase of VL in previously non-endemic areas of Nepal, these findings, among others, will provide policymakers to better understand hidden transmission factors, and encourage future studies," he adds.

Axel Kroeger, professor at the University of Freiburg's Center for Medicine and Society, Germany, and affiliated with the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, WHO, says "dark and poorly ventilated houses have been known for centuries to provide ideal conditions for the transmission of tuberculosis, but housing conditions are important for many other health issues".

It is also well-documented that insect-transmitted diseases like malaria, lymphatic filariasis or dengue are closely related to housing conditions, particularly to open windows or doors that allow mosquitoes entry or poor ventilation that does not disturb their flight, says Kroeger.

The risk of contracting the disease is increased if the floor is damp (providing ideal conditions for their larvae), if the household is untidy (providing hiding spaces for the adult sandflies), using old bamboo timber for the walls of the house (providing food for the adult sandflies) or having a toilet outside the house, which exposes people to sandfly bites.

According to Kroeger, the study is an example of how local environmental conditions are important for disease-transmitting insects. "The study approach may also be useful for other areas as an opportunity to study in detail the complex relationships between housing and health."

Explore further Sugar withdrawalkilling the leishmania parasite

More information: Lina Ghassan Younis et al. Housing structure including the surrounding environment as a risk factor for visceral leishmaniasis transmission in Nepal, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases (2020). Journal information: PLoS ONE , PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases Lina Ghassan Younis et al. Housing structure including the surrounding environment as a risk factor for visceral leishmaniasis transmission in Nepal,(2020). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008132

Provided by SciDev.Net
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 30

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

During the plenary session held today, Azerbaijans parliament has discussed the issue of the country's joining another international document, Trend reports on March 30.

The draft law "On joining the Intergovernmental Agreement for Dry Ports" was discussed at sessions of parliamentary committees and recommended for discussion at the parliaments plenary session.

Following the discussions at the plenary session the proposal was put to a voting and adopted.

The agreement was signed at a meeting of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand on November 7, 2013. The document envisages development of dry ports within the national programs, laws and regulations. It reflects such issues as the signing, ratification, approval, accession and entry into force of the document.

The document also reflects clauses providing for the establishment of working groups on dry ports, amendments within the agreement implementation, the procedure for changing and amending the documents main content, withdrawal from the agreement and other issues.
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The woman in Central China's Henan Province was confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 after coming into contact with an asymptomatic patient, who also got the virus from another asymptomatic patient."A recent study showed the infectivity of asymptomatic patients (having no clinical symptoms but testing positive for COVID-19) could be nearly the same as confirmed cases," the report said on Sunday.Scientists with the Ningbo Center for Disease Control and Prevention in East China's Zhejiang Province found that 6.3 per cent of confirmed cases' close contacts were ultimately infected with the virus."The percentage for asymptomatic patients' close contacts was 4.4 per cent. Such a difference is of no statistical significance," the report mentioned.Yang Zhanqiu, a Wuhan-based virologist, told the Global Times "that there may be an estimation of at least 200,000 virus varriers with no symptoms currently in China".The asymptomatic patients have strong physical immunity or carry weak virus with less virulence.According to Yang, this is why they don't show symptoms but still spread the virus in the early stage of infection.Asymptomatic patients show no symptoms as the majority of them could be in the incubation period.The number of infected cases has crossed 7 lakh globally, with nearly 34,000 deaths.Source: IANS
The Numbers on My Parents Arms By Jerry Bagel I wrote the book to illustrate the personal account about my parents experience during the Holocaust, said Bagel. I wanted to show readers my parents day-to-day experiences and the raw truth of what they endured.

Dr. Jerry Bagel learned how to count by the numbers on his parents arms. He grew up listening to the traumatic stories that his father, Sam, and mother, Helen, endured during the Holocaust. The Numbers on My Parents Arms reveals the resilience that his parents embodied and how they never stopped pursuing their dreams regardless of what they went through.

Bagel vividly captures his parents story of survival, focusing on the historical and educational aspects of the Holocaust that will captivate readers. Even though his parents went through hell and back, they resurrected themselves to a new life filled with family, happiness and thankfulness. The book provides research that the author conducted with testimonies and memoirs from other survivors who were in the same place at the same time as his parents.

I wrote the book to illustrate the personal account about my parents experience during the Holocaust, said Bagel. I wanted to show readers my parents day-to-day experiences and the raw truth of what they endured.

From his fathers mantra I will survive another day to his mothers attempted suicide by refusing to work for six weeks in Auschwitz, Bagel educates individuals on the personal journeys that Holocaust survivors experienced and captures the lives of those who were perished

The Numbers on My Parents Arms is a brutally honest depiction that encompasses the historical, personal and geographical elements of a time that will never be forgotten.

The Numbers on My Parents Arms

By Jerry Bagel

ISBN: 9781532079689 (softcover); 9781532079696 (hardcover); 9781532079672 (eBook)

Available at the Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iUniverse Online Bookstore

About the author

Author Jerry Bagel, the son of Sam and Helen Bagel grew up on a chicken farm in East Windsor, New Jersey. Recognizant that his holocaust survivor parents were different than his Jewish and non-Jewish friends parents. He attended the Hightstown school system from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Upon completion of his Dermatology residency at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City in 1985, he returned home to East Windsor to open his dermatology practice. He is deeply appreciative of his parent's strength and support. The Numbers on My Parents Arms is Bagels introduction into the world of writing.

###

General Inquiries, Review Copies & Interview Requests:

LAVIDGE  Phoenix

Grace Bywater

480-998-2600 x 534

gbywater(at)lavidge(dot)com


By Trend

Herbal medicines are being tested to treat patients infected with the coronavirus at the Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences of Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran, said professor of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical SciencesMansour Amin, Trend reports citing Tasnim news agency.

According to Amin, the drug made with a plant-derived flavonoid has been tested on 10 patients at Razi Hospital in Ahvaz.

Amin added that five coronavirus carriers reacted positively to this drug and preliminary results show that the drug is effective in the treatment of COVID-19.

The professor expressed hope that the remaining patients will also react positively to this drug.

"If the results are positive, the drug can be tested on other patients with the approval of the Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical Education of Iran," he said.

Iran is one of the countries heavily affected by the rapidly-spreading coronavirus. According to recent reports from the Iranian officials, over 38,300 people have been infected, 2,640 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 12,300 have reportedly recovered from the disease.

The country continues to apply strict measures to contain further spread of the disease. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease.

The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on February 19.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Political context of the state of emergency

By Malkhaz Matsaberidze

The Coronavirus pandemic in Georgia is exacerbating, with the government having announced the state of emergency. In the fight against the pandemic, the opposition is showing solidarity with the authorities, but fears the possible political consequences of the state of emergency that could hinder electoral reform and a possible postponement of the 2020 parliamentary elections.On March 21st, at the Prime Minister's nomination under the constitution, President Salome Zourabichvili issued a decree declaring a state of emergency throughout the country. On the same day, the Parliament unanimously approved the decree by 115 votes. This session of the Parliament was attended by representatives of the opposition parties - the United National Movement and European Georgia. The state of emergency was declared for one month, until April 21st. However, the situation is uncertain with regard to the spread of the virus at this time.On March 23rd, the quarantine was announced in Bolnisi and Marneuli municipalities. This is related to the discovery of the danger of large-scale spread of the Coronavirus in the regions. A local woman, who had been infected with COVID-19, was not practicing social distance and continued to work as a shopkeeper. She had also been to a wake, where she had contact with dozens.The education processes and flights, and part of the public transport, are completely on hold due to the virus. A large number of the residents of the cities have moved to rural areas, where they feel safer. This may explain the long queues in supermarkets; people, preparing to flee to the regions, stocked up on grocery products. The residents, living in the regions, became worried about the large influx of people from the cities, fearing that they would bring the virus with them.Announcing the state of emergency, President Salome Zourabichvili noted that it would not take a political dimension:Neither freedom of speech, basic individual rights, nor freedom of the media, nor political rights are restricted. The state of emergency does not include a curfew.However, the announcement of a state of emergency has already had significant implications for Georgian politics. The public debate needed for the constitutional amendments has ceased since in a state of emergency prohibits it.Authorities say the constitutional amendments will continue to be discussed after the state of emergency is lifted and parliament will be able to approve it before the election, but the date of the elections is under question. When declaring a state of emergency, Zourabichvili noted that parliamentary elections would take place only six months after having terminated the state of emergency.Parliamentary elections in 2020 are scheduled for the end of October. If the state of emergency is lifted on April 21st, there are still six months left before the election, but will the state of emergency have to go on for longer? The opposition does not talk about postponing the elections yet and hopes that they will take place in October.The position of the Georgian Orthodox Church is another widely discussed issue. At a March 7th synod, which lasted for seven hours, it was decided that the rules of communion and the rule of prayer in churches would not change, containing the danger of spreading the virus further. Anyone who thinks that its not good to go to a church, may they visit the leader (Lenin) at the Mausoleum, said Bishop Jacob.Some also linked the state of emergency to the March 21st decision by the Synod. The authorities are reluctant to give direct instructions to the Church and hope that the Church itself will make some changes due to the dangers related to the pandemic.Much depends on the position of the Church as the peak of the Coronavirus epidemic is expected from the first occurrence at 7 to 8 weeks. The first case in Georgia was identified on February 26th, so the peak of the epidemic falls on April 15-22nd, which coincides with the Orthodox Easter.What does the peak of the Coronavirus mean for Georgia? Some infectious disease doctors suggest it could mean up to a thousand cases. However, if all goes well and the spread of the epidemic can be prevented, the magnitude may be much smaller.If we look at the history of the state of emergency, this is the fifth case of a state of emergency in Georgia in the last two decades. The state of emergency was introduced for the third time throughout the country. The previous two cases, however, were not related to an epidemic, but to the acute internal political controversy. For the first time, Shevardnadze declared a state of emergency in 2003. It was announced on November 22nc, during the Rose Revolution, but refused to use the army and resigned.The Second State of Emergency was announced by Saakashvili on November 7th, 2007 when he dispersed the opposition rally and Imedi TV. Then, Saakashvili stepped down to ease the situation and early parliamentary elections were scheduled.The state of emergency was also announced after the 2008 August War in a few regions on September 3rd.There were also two cases of local and regional emergencies that were linked to epidemics and natural disasters. A state of emergency due to the outbreak of Avian Influenza was introduced on February 28th in Khelvachauri district; On August 22nd, 2017, a state of emergency was declared over fires in the Borjomi and Ateni Gorge.
Eight new COVID-19 cases have



been found in Madhya Pradesh, taking the total number of coronavirus patients in the state to 47, a senior health official said on Monday.

Of the eight new cases, seven were reported from Indore and one from Ujjain, Government Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College Dean Dr Jyoti Bindal told PTI.

So far, 27 coronavirus cases have been found in Indore, eight in Jabalpur, five in Ujjain, three in Bhopal and two each in Shivpuri and Gwalior, the official said.

Out of these, 45 patients are admitted in different hospitals of the state, while two persons - a man from Indore and a woman from Ujjain- earlier died while undergoing treatment here.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 03:06:44|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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PRAGUE, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis on Sunday called on U.S. President Donald Trump to introduce mandatory wearing of the mask in public to help curb COVID-19 spreading.

Babis, in a tweet message, asked President Trump to try to tackle the pandemic the "Czech way." "Wearing a simple cloth mask decreases the spread of the virus by 80 percent! Czech Republic has made it OBLIGATORY for its citizens to wear a mask in the public," he tweeted.

He also shared with Trump a video shot under the slogan Masks4All (masks for all) explaining the reasons for wearing masks. The video encourages everyone to spread it to other countries where people do not use masks in the pandemic.

In another tweet message, the prime minister said that he had sent a video to most European presidents and prime ministers calling on people to wear masks.

The Czech Republic put into effect of the measure of obligatory wearing a face mask in public ten days ago.
The Health Ministry on Monday termed the hosing down of home-bound migrants with a chlorine solution in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district "overzealous action" by field staff out of fear or ignorance, and said they have been reprimanded by the district magistrate.

The incident, caught on video and shared on social media, took place at Bareilly's Satellite bus station on Sunday.

A state government official has argued that such spraying of people is permitted internationally. But the authorities did not follow the right procedure, he said.

However, a fire brigade official said the migrants were sprayed with a solution containing sodium hypochlorite. It is often used to keep swimming pools sanitised.

Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health Lav Agarwal, while responding to a question regarding the incident during a press conference, said the district magistrate concerned has already clarified that it was some overzealous employees who did something which was not required.

"He has reprimanded all those officials. It was an overzealous action by field officers either out of fear or ignorance. There are no guidelines in terms of spraying disinfectants on people," Agarwal said.

The clip showed several migrants squatting on the ground as men in protective suits hosed them down. Someone is heard telling people to shut their eyes as the spraying begins. Several people in the group, which included women and children, complained of a burning sensation in the eyes.

As a row erupted over the incident, District magistrate Nitish Kumar blamed it on "overzealous" civic body personnel and said action is being taken against them.

Those affected were seen by the chief medical officer, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Karnataka State Wakf Board has directed all mosques in the state to play its audio messages through its loudspeakers four times a day to spread awareness about coronavirus.

In an official notification on Sunday, the chief executive officer of the State Wakf Board said the mosques will have to play the audio message in three languages sent by it.

These messages must be played at 10 am, 4 pm, 6 pm and 8 pm.

The notification has been marked to all the police commissioners, deputy commissioners at the district and the superintendents of police.

Already mass prayers at mosques have been stopped. Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa thanked the Muslim community for cooperating with the state government and agreeing to perform their daily prayers at home instead of mosques.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Writing on behalf of all members of News Broadcasters Federation (NBF), Arnab Goswami, President, NBF, has sought I&B Minister, Prakash Javadekars, intervention in the move by some vested interest to stop the publication of TV ratings measured by BARC India.

In a letter to the Minister, a copy of which has also been sent to relevant authorities at BARC, Goswami pointed out that these vested interests are doing so to protect their commercial interests. He added that they are also falsely claiming to represent the news broadcasting industry of India, which unlike them is doing real time public service broadcasting in this period.

He implored that news channels are completely and totally dependent on publication of TV ratings to run our business and urged that if news channels also face a situation when ratings are stopped, we will be destroyed and our organisations will be at peril.

Also read:

NBF now seeks ad industry's help, says news broadcasters are doing public service

COVID-19 Impact: NBF calls immediate measures to overcome business crisis

We reproduce Arnab Goswamis letter below:

Dear Mr Javadekar,

I am writing to you on behalf of all members of News Broadcasters Federation (NBF).

It has come to our notice that there are attempts made by some vested interest to put pressure via the ministry to stop the publication of ratings measured by BARC. I am informed that some of these vested interests, who are trying to stop ratings in this period, are doing so to protect their commercial interests, and falsely claiming to represent the news broadcasting industry of India, which unlike them is doing real time public service broadcasting in this period.

You are aware that the efforts of the news channels have been appreciated by one and all, including the Prime Minister in his recent video conference with owners and editors of some news channels. In order to continue the effort, which in this period involves creation of informative and relevant news content while covering the entire country at a time when communication and transport is not easy, our hundreds of thousands of professionals are working round the clock, and taking this battle on the frontlines to ensure that COVID-19 is defeated.

If news channels also face a situation when ratings are stopped, we will be destroyed and our organisations will be at peril. Mr Minister, while individual channels or bodies may claim to speak for us, let me assure you that they are only defending their short term interests at a time when they can shut down their programming while news channels work round the clock in this national effort against COVID-19.

We are completely and totally dependent on publication of TV ratings to run our business. We are doing committed public service broadcasting in this period of national emergency.

On behalf of all the members of the NBF I am requesting you for your urgent intervention to not allow this sinister move to stop the publication of TV ratings which is being done by vested interests alone. This if implemented will destroy the news broadcasting industry of India, which is doing an incredible job at this important time.

I am marking a copy of this to the relevant authorities at BARC for their information as well.

Once again, we request you to not allow any such decision or any such communication from MIB or anyone associated with your ministry to BARC, which is creating a sense of deep worry among news broadcasters and taking their attention away from the collective goal of defeating COVID-19, ensuring the lockdown is successful and we as a nation come through this together.

Yours Sincerely,

Warm Regards,

Arnab Goswami

President, NBF
The Ministry of High Technological Industry of Armenia is presenting the details of the grant contest declared to help overcome the challenges for prevention of the spread of the coronavirus.

The grants will be given for the projects of companies that offer innovative and effective solutions, with a total budget of AMD 22,000,000.

The evaluation of the applications will be conducted in two stages. The usefulness and feasibility of the project will be evaluated in the first stage, and the 15 projects with the maximum points will be evaluated in the second stage. Details regarding the standards of and mechanism for evaluation are presented on the website of the ministry.

After the competition, grants in the amount of AMD 10,000,000, 5,000,000, 3,000,000, 2,000,000 and 2,000,000 will be granted for implementation of the top five projects, respectively.

Applications can be submitted online before April 3, 2020 (0:00 a.m.) by this link.
London, March 30 : Some 20,000 former staff of the UK's National Health Services (NHS) have returned to work to help the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has revealed in a video posted online on Monday.

Thanking the doctors, nurses and other former professionals who have returned to the NHS, as well as the 750,000 members of the public who have volunteered to help the country through the pandemic, Johnson said in the video posted on Twitter: "We are going to do it, we are going to do it together," the BBC reported.

"One thing I think the coronavirus crisis has already proved is that there really is such a thing as society," he said, while contradicting the view of late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, that "there is no such thing as society".

Johnson, who is self-isolating after testing positive for the virus last week, said the public appeared to be obeying the restrictions set out by government to slow the spread of the virus, adding that train use was down 95 per cent and bus use down 75 per cent.

In another development, a Downing Street source confirmed on Monday that Dominic Cummings, Johnson's chief adviser, has developed symptoms of the virus and was self-isolating at home.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has also tested positive for the disease.

Johnson's announcement on Monday comes a day after England's deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries said on Sunday that it could be six months before life returns to "normal", the BBC reported.

Harries said this did not mean the country would be in "complete lockdown" for half a year, but distancing measures would be reviewed every three weeks and reduced gradually over a period of around three to six months.

However, she said it was "plausible" restrictions could continue for longer.

As of Monday, the UK has reported 19,784 confirmed coronavirus cases, with 1,231 deaths.
Tobacco firm supports construction of Tabora girls dormitories By ALLAN NTANA in Tabora ALLIANCE One Tobacco Tanzania Limited (AOTTL) donated building materials worth 24m/-to the Tabora Regional Commissioner (RC), Aggrey Mwanri to support construction of girls secondary school dormitories in the region.

Speaking at the handing over occasion, AOTTL Agronomy Director, David Mayunga said the donation will help in constructing girls' dormitories in four secondary schools in Tabora and Uyui districts in the region.

He said Alliance One Tobacco Tanzania Limited value child education, that's why they have decided to support the region so as to improve learning environment.

He added that the materials will be allocated to four secondary schools namely Idete and Nsimbo in Uyui District and Ndevelwa and Itonjanda in Tabora municipality.

Mayunga briefed that the donated materials included 270 long iron sheets, 300 bags of cement and 320 rough bars.

He said Idete will get 220 iron sheets and 80 rough bars and Nsimbo will be given 50 iron sheets and 100 bags of cement while Ndevelwa and Itonjanda each will get 100 bags of cement and 120 rough bars.

'We value child education as enshrined in our Agricultural Labor Practices (ALP) program, we believe every child must be given the opportunity to go to school, realize their potential and excel, for this reason we discourage child labor among tobacco growers', he said.

Mayunga noted that in some areas children walk up to 15 km on the way to school, this causes many drop outs, truancy and early pregnancies among the school girls', that's why they selected these schools.

Tabora Regional Commissioner (RC), Aggrey Mwanri thanked the AOTTL for the support as it will significantly accelerate their efforts toward abolishing truancy, early pregnancy and childhood marriage among their students.

He revealed that the constructed dorms will render good attendance, punctuality and high performance in schools hence called for other stakeholders to help them so as to accomplish their goals.

Tabora and Uyui District Commissioners Komanya Kitwala and Gift Msuya applauded a good job done by the tobacco company for reinforcing their efforts toward construction of dormitories in all secondary schools.
Rome: Andrea Napoli doesn't fit the usual profile of a coronavirus patient.

At 33, he is in perfect health, with no history of respiratory disease. And he is in top physical shape, thanks to regular workouts, including water polo training.

Still, Napoli, a lawyer in Rome, developed a cough and fever less than a week after Italy's premier locked down the entire nation, including the capital which had continued life as usual while the virus raged in the north. Until that day, Napoli was following his routine of work, jogging and swimming.

From fit to intensive care: Rome lawyer Andrea Napoli. Credit:AP

He received a positive diagnosis for COVID-19 three days later.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Cairo, Egypt  Mon, March 30, 2020 12:01 654 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e48067 2 World coronavirus,Middle-East,infection,authoritarianism,COVID-19,SARS-CoV-2,pandemic,health,infectious-diseases Free

Armored vehicles in the streets, hundreds arrested, smartphone surveillance -- sweeping measures to fight the coronavirus have raised concerns in the Middle East over the erosion of already threatened human rights.

As the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic, more than three billion people are now living under lockdown and, in some cases, strict surveillance.

While there is widespread acceptance that robust measures are needed to slow the infection rate, critics have voiced fears that authoritarian states will overreach and, once the public health threat has passed, keep some of the tough new emergency measures in their toolkits.

This concern is amplified in the Middle East and North Africa, with poorly ranked human rights records, a cast of authoritarian regimes able to bulk up security apparatuses largely unopposed and many states already reeling from political turmoil and economic hardship.

The sight of military vehicles patrolling otherwise empty roads to enforce curfews or lockdowns in countries such as Morocco and Jordan stands in stark contrast to mass protests which last year brought down leaders in Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon and Sudan.

The region had as of Saturday recorded 2,291 COVID-19 deaths out of 35,618 confirmed cases, according to figures collated from states and the World Health Organization, which has urged "concrete action" from governments to contain the virus.

Authorities have curtailed movement, clamped down on gatherings and arrested those who disobey the confinement orders.

In Jordan, where King Abdallah II signed a decree giving the government exceptional powers, hundreds of people have been arrested for breaking a curfew.

While the government said the powers would be used to the "narrowest extent", Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Amman not to abuse fundamental rights for the cause of combatting the virus.

In Morocco, known for its muscular security policy, the arrests of offenders -- who risk heavy fines and jail time -- have generated little protest and are even praised on social media.

Like many countries, Morocco has bolstered a campaign against misinformation, but the adoption without debate of a law on social media controls has elicited concern.

'Accelerate the repression'

Many are crying foul over surveillance in Israel, where domestic security agency Shin Bet, usually focused on "anti-terrorist activities", is now authorized to collect data on citizens as part of the fight against COVID-19.

Embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew criticism for imposing the measure with an emergency decree as a parliamentary committee didn't have enough time to rule on it.

In an editorial published by the Financial Times, Israeli historian and best-selling author Yuval Noah Harari warned that, "if we are not careful, the epidemic might ... mark an important watershed in the history of surveillance.

"A big battle has been raging in recent years over our privacy. The coronavirus crisis could be the battle's tipping point," he said.

In Algeria, more than a year into an unprecedented popular movement known as "Hirak", it took the emergence of the pandemic to pause weekly protests.

But rights groups have accused Algerian authorities of using the health crisis to crack down on dissent via the courts.

"The Hirak has suspended its marches but the #Algeria government has not suspended its repression," HRW's Eric Goldstein wrote on Twitter after journalist Khaled Drareni, who had been arrested several times for covering the protests, was put in pre-trial detention on Thursday.

Lebanon faced similar accusations as police on Friday night dismantled tents in the heart of the capital Beirut where protesters had maintained a sit-in to keep up pressure on authorities.

The authorities "are taking advantage of the fact that people are preoccupied with their health and confined to repress any dissenting voices," activist and film director Lucien Bourjeily tweeted.

In the fledgling democracy of Tunisia -- a former police state where security apparatuses have seen little reform -- many have denounced heavy-handed police enforcement of pandemic-related movement restrictions.

The Tunisian League for Human Rights has requested clarifications on social distancing measures after people expressed frustration online over apparently arbitrary police interventions.

Prisoners of conscience

In Egypt, authorities have targeted media questioning low official virus infection figures.

British newspaper The Guardian said its correspondent was forced out of the country over an article that suggested authorities were underreporting cases.

With the number of cases rising, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government imposed movement restrictions and threatened heavy fines and prison sentences for non-compliance.

In a country lacking an independent media or judiciary, families of prisoners of conscience sounded the alarm over the possibility of a coronavirus outbreak in overcrowded and unsanitary prisons.

Amnesty International has called for the "immediate and unconditional" release of political prisoners, estimated by rights groups to number around 60,000, only 15 of whom have so far been let out by Egyptian authorities.

Jordan, Tunisia and Sudan have ordered thousands of inmates to be freed to limit the risk of contagion.

Activists in the Gulf too have called for the release of political prisoners held in what HRW researcher Hiba Zayadin said are often overcrowded and unsanitary conditions with limited access to health care.

Kuwaiti activist Anwar al-Rasheed asked on Twitter, "In the midst of this pandemic, is it not yet the time to release prisoners of conscience?"
Thrios state of the art and customizable contact center solution coupled with TELUS Internationals CX expertise is an unbeatable combination, driving better customer outcomes, revenue growth and the ability to adapt to rapidly changing market dynamics.

Thrio, Inc. today announced a partnership with TELUS International, a leading provider of multilingual customer experience and digital IT solutions for global and disruptive brands.

TELUS International will provide Thrios award-winning, AI-powered CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) platform to their clients under the name Cloud Contact 360 (CC360) as one part of its work from home solutions. The pure cloud, omnichannel customer experience platform features powerful automation tools, a complete suite of digital channels (email, chat, SMS, social), inbound and outbound voice engines, and AI-driven situation routing and journey management.

We are thrilled to partner with TELUS International and have our Thrio offering made available to TELUS Internationals customers and partners. CC360 enables advanced customer care deployments seamlessly and in record time, said Lance Fried, CMO of Thrio. This partnership reflects the growing market appetite for modern cloud contact center solutions across all industries looking to take advantage of the numerous benefits of operating in the cloud.

The launch of our CC360 platform in partnership with Thrio is another exciting step in our ongoing journey to increasingly deliver superior customer experiences by leveraging agile and innovative AI-powered solutions and the cloud to shift the competitive landscape, said Jim Radzicki, Global Vice-president, Strategic Partnerships, TELUS International. "Thrios state of the art and customizable contact center solution coupled with TELUS Internationals CX expertise is an unbeatable combination, driving better customer outcomes, revenue growth and the ability to adapt to rapidly changing market dynamics.

About Thrio, Inc.

Thrios team consists of leading contact center experts who develop and market modern, cutting edge technology and reliability that aims to redefine contact center industry standards. Thrios groundbreaking CCaaS platform features advanced native process automation capabilities, inbound and outbound voice engines, a complete suite of digital channels (email, chat, SMS, social), and a range of AI tools built right in. To learn more, please visit http://www.thrio.com.

About TELUS International

TELUS International focuses on the value of human connection to design, build and deliver high-tech, high-touch customer experiences powered by next-gen digital solutions. With almost 50,000 team members as well as delivery centers across North and Central America, Europe and Asia, TELUS International empowers customer experience innovation through digital enablement, spirited teamwork, agile thinking, and a caring culture that puts customers first. The company's solutions cover customer experience, digital transformation, content moderation, IT lifecycle, advisory and digital consulting, risk management, and back-office support. Fueling all stages of company growth, TELUS International partners with some of the worlds most disruptive brands from fast-growing tech, financial services and fintech, games, travel and hospitality, and healthcare industries. The company serves clients in over 50 languages. Learn more at: telusinternational.com.

For more information, please contact:

Thrio

Lance Fried

Chief Marketing Officer

858-248-0098

Lance.Fried@Thrio.com

TELUS International

Ali Wilson

Media Relations

604-328-7093

ali.wilson@telusinternational.com
Airport staff unload boxes of face masks and medical supplies from an airplane of Air China, in Athens, Greece, on March 21, 2020. Photo: Xinhua

As one of the first countries to get the COVID-19 outbreak under control, China has become one of the main suppliers of medical supplies urgently needed to combat the global pandemic. However, more than one European country recently claimed that Chinese products failed to meet quality standards. The Dutch government Saturday ordered a recall of hundreds of thousands of masks imported from China and had distributed to hospitals, saying they were not up to standards. Some Western media outlets apparently made sensational reporting, tending to politicize the issue.

Views expressed on the Chinese internet held that China is doing a hard but thankless job to assist Western countries in containing the epidemic and if it ends up with lawsuits about product quality, it's better we stop what we are doing.

We believe in the face of quality disputes, calmness is required and both sides shouldn't exaggerate the issues. Politicizing this kind of dispute could jeopardize cooperation in the virus fight and should be avoided in any case.

It's self-evident that quality problems with medical products would cause more concern than products in other fields. Theoretically, there is a possibility that some of China's aid and exported medical goods don't meet standards. Foreign orders are large and urgent, but not all Chinese manufacturers specialize in this industry. Some have been temporarily converted to production. Coupled with the fact that standards in different countries are inconsistent and it's hard to coordinate at such a critical juncture, the issue has become particularly complicated.

China must strictly demand medical suppliers ensure quality and quantity and that no enterprise be allowed to put profits above social responsibility and morality. When other countries question product quality, we should, first of all, make relevant investigations. Enterprises involved must be severely punished, or prosecuted, should quality defects really exist. We will never cover up for them or give them opportunities to evade responsibilities.

Ensuring the quality of medical supplies, be they foreign assistance or commercial exports, under the current circumstances concerns people's life and also is of great importance to the reputation of "Made in China" and even China as a whole. Anyone who tarnishes that reputation will not be tolerated.

Therefore, it's suggested the country strengthen management of medical supply exports, enterprises be urged to take orders, produce and export in a more responsible manner so that defective products are destroyed within China and all materials shipped to the frontline of the coronavirus fight have superb quality. Disqualified medical products should not be allowed to be sold regardless of whether they are for domestic or foreign markets.

Governments and media of other countries should maintain a rational attitude when they assume a quality problem in China-imported medical products. They shouldn't exaggerate the issue or hype the "Made in China" label on purpose to stimulate public opinion. It's immoral to do that.

As the whole world urgently buys from China, omissions may still occur even under tightened Chinese management. China is making active efforts to supply products to relevant countries out of great goodwill. The importers should also deal with disputes with reciprocal goodwill. If public opinion in relevant countries makes a big deal of the quality disputes, this could easily be seen as deliberate provocation by the Chinese public.

It's hoped countries import medical products from reputable Chinese companies. As far as the Global Times knows, some foreign governments are reluctant to choose importers from the list of trustworthy companies recommended by Chinese embassies, worrying there may be State-owned enterprises. Instead, they are more willing to directly contact Chinese companies themselves. They shouldn't make rush decisions in case they purchase inferior products from disqualified companies, triggering a public opinion spat and disrupting epidemic control cooperation.

China has controlled the epidemic situation mainly by relying on its own produced medical materials. The Chinese products are undoubtedly reliable. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been so many countries placing orders with China. If there is any problem, let's solve it together.
Noida: An FIR has been filed against a Noida based company named 'Cease fire' for hiding travel history of employees who had recently returned from foreign visit. Chief Medical Officer, Gautam Budh Nagar, Anurag Bhargava registered the FIR against the company on Sunday (March 30,2020) under the Pandemic Act 1897.

It is alleged that the employees of this company had returned from abroad and are responsible for spreading coronavirus infection in Noida. The company didn't make any necessary arrangements to check the employess and prevent the spread of coronavirus. The employees of the company were also not home quarantined after their return from foreign trip and they continued visiting the workplace.

After the registration of FIR, the police is preparing to take action against the company. The complaint has been sent in writing to SHO of Thana Expressway.

The accussed private company makes fire extinguishing equipment in Noida. As per information some employees of the company are residents of 'Paras Tierra Society' of Noida, due to which 4 more people of the society got the corona infection. The society was sealed after the cases were reported.

Earlier, Gautam Buddh Nagar CMO Anurag Bhargav had stated that 13 people from the company had tested positive for coronavirus.

A total of 31 cases have been found positive in Gautam Budh Nagar till date out of which 17 people became coronavirus positive due to the negligence of 'Cease Fire' company.

Uttar Pradesh has so far 78 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as at 9 am on Monday. The total cases of coronavirus in India has gone up to 1024.
Florence Nightingale, who was born 200 years ago, is rightly famed for revolutionising nursing. Her approach to caring for wounded soldiers and training nurses in the 19th century saved and improved countless lives. Her ideas on how to stay healthy still resonate today  as politicians give official guidance on how best to battle coronavirus.

For example, although Nightingale did not fully subscribe to the idea that many diseases are caused by specific micro-organisms known as germs until she was in her sixties, she was well aware of the importance of hand washing. In her book Notes on Nursing (1860), she wrote: Every nurse ought to be careful to wash her hands very frequently during the day. If her face, too, so much the better.

During the Crimean War (1853-1856) Nightingale had implemented hand washing and other hygiene practices in British army hospitals. This was relatively new advice, first publicised by Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis in the 1840s, who had observed the dramatic difference it made to death rates on maternity wards.

Nightingales attention to international medical research and developments was just one factor behind her ability to make effective interventions in public health. Like many public health experts of her age, Nightingale considered the home to be a crucial site for disease-preventing interventions. This was the place where most people contracted and suffered from infectious diseases. (The same is true today: in Wuhans coronavirus outbreak, around 75-80 per cent of transmissions were reportedly in family clusters.)

Notes on Nursing was more of a public health instruction book than a nursing manual. It advised ordinary people how to maintain healthy homes  particularly women, in accordance with the world view of the time. There was straightforward advice on everything from how to avoid excessive smoke from fireplaces (dont let the fire get too low, and dont overwhelm it with coal) to the safest material with which to cover walls (oil paints, not wallpaper).

Nightingale strongly counselled that people open windows to maximise light and ventilation and displace stagnant, musty and corrupt air. And she advocated improving drainage to combat water-borne diseases like cholera and typhoid.

In her view, all domestic interiors must be kept clean. Dirty carpets and unclean furniture, she wrote with characteristic bluntness, pollute the air just as much as if there were a dung heap in the basement.

A painting of Nightingale in Therapia hospital (Getty) (Rischgitz/Getty Images)

Notes on Nursing also called upon the mistress of every building to clean every hole and corner of her home regularly, for the sake of her familys health. But Nightingale also recommended a more holistic approach to health. She encouraged soldiers to read, write and socialise during their convalescence so they would not sink into boredom and alcoholism.

Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Show all 15 1 /15 Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A rose is delivered by drone to a woman on Mother's Day in Jounieh, Lebanon AFP/Getty Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Women dance on their balcony as a radio station plays music for a flash mob to raise spirits in Rome Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A skeleton stands on a balcony in Frankfurt, Germany AP Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies The film Le ragazze di Piazza di Spagna is projected on a building in Rome AP Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A woman uses a basket tied to a rope to pull a delivery of groceries up to her balcony in Naples, Italy EPA Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies DJ Francesco Cellini plays for his neighbours from the rooftop terrace of his flat block in Rome Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A woman gestures from her balcony in Barcelona EPA Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Cellist Karina Nunez performs for her neighbours at the balcony of her flat in Panama City Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies DJ Nash Petrovic live streams a set from his roof in Brooklyn Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies People applaud medical workers from their balconies in Modiin, Israel Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A Brooklyn resident relaxes in a hammock hung on their balcony Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Residents toast during a "safe distance" aperitif time between neighbours in Anderlecht, Belgium Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies Musician Adam Moser plays for neighbours from his balcony in Budapest, Hungary Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A man and his son on their balcony in Brooklyn Reuters Coronavirus culture from rooftops, windows and balconies A man sits alone on a roof terrace in Rome Reuters

Good data

During her youth, Nightingales father had introduced her to a leading practitioner of statistics, then a brand new academic field, and paid for her to have a mathematics tutor. During and after the Crimean War, Nightingale seized on statistics as a way of proving the effectiveness of different interventions.

She went on to produce her famous diagrams, which demonstrated the high proportion of soldiers deaths caused by disease as opposed to battle wounds, and became the first woman admitted to the London Statistical Society in 1858.

Nightingale encouraged soldiers to read, write and socialise during their convalescence so they would not sink into boredom and alcoholism

Thereafter she designed questionnaires to obtain data on such questions as the sanitary condition of army stations in India, or the mortality rates of the indigenous populations in Australia. Her guiding principle was that a health problem could only be effectively tackled once its dimensions were reliably established.

In 1857, around a year after returning from the Crimean War, Nightingale suffered a severe collapse, now believed to have been caused by a flu-like infection called brucellosis. For much of her subsequent life, she was racked with chronic pain, often unable to walk or leave her bed.

Working from home

Having been declared an invalid, she imposed a rule of seclusion on herself because of pain and tiredness rather than from fears of contagion  a form of self-isolation that extended to her closest family (though she still had servants and other visitors).

An illustration of Nightingale make her nightly rounds during the Crimean War in the 1850s (Getty)

During her first years of working entirely from home, Nightingales productivity was extraordinary. As well as writing Notes on Nursing, she produced an influential 900-page report on the medical failings during the Crimean War, and a book on hospital design.

This was in addition to setting up the Nightingale Training School for nurses at St Thomas Hospital in London in 1860, and a midwifery training programme at Kings College Hospital in 1861, plus advising on the design of a number of new hospitals.

Later in the 1860s, Nightingale proposed a reform of workhouse infirmaries to make them high quality taxpayer-funded hospitals; and also worked on sanitary and social reforms in India. All of this she accomplished without leaving her house (though government ministers sometimes came to her home for meetings).

Having said this, it is worth remembering that Nightingales was a privileged form of self-isolation. Her fathers fortune, derived from Derbyshire mining interests, meant she had no money worries.

She lived in a nice house in London with various assistants and servants to help, shop and cook for her, and had no children to look after. Her entire waking time could be devoted to reading and writing.

So while this is an appropriate time to recall and celebrate the huge contribution Nightingale made to modern nursing and public health care, we shouldnt feel too bad if we dont quite live up to her high standards of isolated productivity.

Richard Bates is a research fellow in history at the University of Nottingham. This article first appeared on The Conversation
The islands highest court is to review the law this week raising hopes of abolition.

Taipei, Taiwan  Wendy had just moved in with her new partner when the couple found themselves unexpectedly charged with a crime: criminal adultery.

The old childhood friends had started seeing each other after Wendy, a dual Taiwanese-American citizen in her 40s, returned to the island.

Her partner had already initiated a separation from his Taiwanese wife after their marriage broke down.

But in Taiwan, where divorce typically requires mutual consent, his decision to move in with Wendy meant their actions could be considered a crime.

We were really freaking out because we had no idea, Wendy said of the period after being served lawsuits for attempting to pohuai jiating, or break the family.

Its [odd] Taiwan is on the forefront of legalising gay marriage and yet they have this archaic law.

Wendy, who asked to be identified by another name due to Taiwans defamation laws, soon found that even after going through a divorce in the United States, dissolving a marriage in Taiwan was far more complicated.

Adulterous couples like Wendy and her partner risk as many as 22 months in prison under Taiwanese law, according to Hsiao-Wei Kuan, a professor at National Taipei Universitys Department of Law.

In practice, most of those found guilty are sentenced to three to four months in prison for which they can pay a fine, averaging around 90,000 New Taiwan dollars ($3,000), but that figure does not include the thousands more in legal fees many individuals are forced to pay to defend themselves.

Despite its increasingly progressive reputation after legalising same-sex marriage, Taiwan is one of the only non-Muslim places in the world to still criminalise adultery. It is also the last place in East Asia following South Koreas decriminalisation in 2015.

In 2015, South Koreas Constitutional Court abolished a 62-year-old law that made adultery a crime. Taiwan is now the only country in the region with such legislation [Lee Jin-man/AP Photo]

Even as the law is seen to unfairly target women, it has largely remained on the books because of its overwhelming popularity. It was supported by 80 percent of the Taiwanese public, according to the last available survey in 2013 by the Ministry of Justice.

Times, however, may be changing as Taiwans constitutional court prepares to hear oral arguments on the criminal adultery law on March 31.

Carrot and stick

Experts like Kuan say while many women support the adultery law  they are also the ones who are more likely to face prosecution. Women make up slightly more than half of those prosecuted in adultery cases.

While that might not sound excessive, that compares with other crimes in Taiwan where women account for only about 5 to 15 per cent of defendants.

The reason, Kuan said, is that the victim can both initiate and withdraw criminal adultery charges.

In many cases, it is common for a married woman to initiate a suit against their estranged husband and his new partner only to later forgive the man and withdraw the suit while continuing to prosecute the other woman. Married men, by contrast, are more likely to pursue charges against both equally.

The law can be used for a variety of reasons, a key one being that unlike countries such as the US, Taiwanese cannot obtain a no-fault divorce. Spouses must either mutually consent or prove a reason for the divorce, such as adultery or abuse.

In many cases, however, the adultery law has become a way to secure more attractive divorce settlements, with cases withdrawn after couples agree to settle out of court.

Kuan said this reflected deep problems within Taiwans civil courts.

Why would you use this criminal procedure to get money? I think thats the failure of the civil court: you cant get as much money for their alimony or other compensation, she said.

The threat of prosecution is also used by spouses to encourage an errant partner to return home  either through a direct threat of prosecution or by making their lives more difficult.

Anna, a European living in Taiwan who also asked that her real name not be disclosed, found herself threatened with expulsion from her graduate programme several years ago when the wife of her then-Taiwanese boyfriend contacted administrators in a bid to break the couple up.

While her partner had separated from his wife before he met Anna  something she later learned his ex-partner was still unhappy about  she said she did not fully understand the consequences until she was summoned to a university office several months later.

She said this [relationship] is illegal in Taiwan and you can get into prison or get arrested and also if we find out that this is true you might have to be expelled from the university. To save my own a**, I said it was all a lie, Anna said, believing at the time  in her mid-20s  that she was too young to fully understand the consequences.

I was so in love with him and we had a good relationship, she said. The relationship ended several months later due to other strains but not before she was harassed on Facebook and forced to defend herself for a second time to her university.

Constitutional changes

As a review of anti-adultery law progresses in the constitutional court, Bob Kao, a Taiwanese-American lawyer who writes about legal issues in Taiwan, said the legislation could finally be overturned.

In the past, the constitutional court has been the governments favoured avenue to push through controversial issues that have not received widespread support from the public.

Taiwan legalised same-sex marriage in 2019, but adultery remains a crime [David Change/EPA]

In 2017, the court interpreted Taiwans definition of marriage as unconstitutional, paving the way for the legalisation of same-sex marriage last year even after it was rejected in a nationwide referendum amid opposition from conservative Christian groups.

Its like the same-sex marriage issue where the government and the Legislative Yuan didnt want to do something about it because of its popularity, so they punted the responsibility to the constitutional court, he said.

The criminal adultery law was last ruled as constitutional in 2002, but the legalisation of same-sex marriage may present a new and significant challenge.

For historical reasons, the law refers to a couple as being composed of one man and one woman  the same issue as its former marriage law  raising questions of equal protection before the law, according to the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights.

The TACPR, however, said they will submit an amicus brief to have the law struck down entirely rather than extended to include all couples.

Right now the government excessively interferes with private relationships, said Hannah Liu and Allison Hsieh, a paralegal and legal manager respectively, interviewed together at the TACPR offices in Taipei.

Who can enter into marriage and who can divorce should not be interfered with by the government and should be the decision of individuals.

Diminishing evidence

The adultery law also faces challenges from privacy laws which have reduced the amount and kind of evidence  often collected by Taiwans vast industry of private investigators advertising marriage health checks and adultery checks  that can be presented at court.

A review by the Ministry of Justice of adultery cases between 2009 and 2019 found that two-thirds ended without prosecution, the most common reasons being insufficient evidence in nearly half of all cases followed closely by withdrawn prosecutions.

In Wendys case, dozens of photos were taken by a private investigator showing her and her partner entering and leaving their home or walking outdoors, whereas in the past, photos of adulterous couples would have caught them in more intimate moments.

The case was ultimately thrown out this year due to insufficient evidence, but not before her partners ex-wife reportedly spent $100,000 to secure evidence against the couple.

Wendy says her legal problems are not over yet because she has been threatened with an independent prosecution while her partners and his future ex-wifes divorce proceedings continue.

Honestly, initially I was very, very worried, Wendy said. Am I going to go to jail for this? This is crazy. But then as I started to learn more and more about it, in the end its just about money and its sad. Shes getting compensated  but she spent 100,000 US dollars on bogus evidence. I think somebody took advantage of her.
OFX Daily Market News





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AUD  Australian Dollar

The Australian dollar rose through 0.61 US cents through trade on Friday, buoyed by a continued run in improved risk sentiment. The Australian dollar closed the week higher against the greenback, up nearly 1.37% for the day reaching a high of 0.6199, its highest level in the last 10 days. The Aussie regaining nearly 300 bps from its weekly low to retake the 0.61 handle on the back of broad-based selling pressure surrounding the USD which seems to have provided a boost to the Australian currency. Last week we saw a sharp jump in US jobless insurance claims which has added potency to an already sizeable drop in the US dollar since the Federal Reserve introduced new measures that were essentially intended to curb its strength. Locally talk of a third stimulus package in Australia that will support businesses that lose all their customers and would otherwise shutdown during lockdown has helped keep the Aussie strong after a good week. In the continued fight against the Coronavirus (Covid19) on Sunday night Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told all Australian not to go out in public with more than one other person while all public spaces including parks, playgrounds, skateparks and outside gyms will be closed from midday tomorrow.

Looking ahead this week in Australia and all eyes will be on Wednesdays Reserve Banks Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes and Building approvals. Followed by Fridays release of both AIG Construction Index and Final Retail Sales for the month of February. On the data front in the US this week we will start on Monday with Pending Home Sales for the month of February. On Tuesday we will see the release of US Consumer Confidence. Finally on Friday all eyes will be on the US Unemployment Rate decision. From a technical perspective, the AUD/USD pair is currently trading at 0.6147. We continue to expect support to hold on moves approaching 0.6125 while now any upward push will likely meet resistance around 0.6200.

Story continues

Key Movers

Last week the Greenback posted its biggest weekly decline against a basket of currencies as trillions of dollars worth of stimulus efforts by governments and central banks helped temper a rout in global markets driven by the coronavirus (Covid19) pandemic. The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday approved a $2.2 trillion aid package, the largest in American history, to help people and businesses cope with the economic downturn inflicted by the coronavirus (Covid19) outbreak. The United States now has 85,594 people counted as infected, up from 68,211 on Friday. Unemployment claims jumped to a record 3.3 million last week, from 281,000 the previous week and easily ahead of the previous record of 695,000 set in October 1982, only served to fuel market expectations that the Federal Reserve would pump more money into the economy. US Equities were also down 3.5% on Friday ending a three-day rebound for US equities, the first such streak of gains since mid-February.

Expected Ranges

AUD/USD: 0.5850  0.6250 

AUD/EUR: 0.5330  0.5780 

GBP/AUD: 1.9530  2.0450 

AUD/NZD: 1.0050  1.0350 

AUD/CAD: 0.8450  0.8650 





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The post Aussie dollar breaks through 61 US cents appeared first on .
Scientists have made a breakthrough in the development of a new generation of electronics that will require less power and generate less heat.

It involves exploiting the complex quantum properties of electrons -- in this case, the spin state of electrons.

In a world first, the researchers -- led by a team of physicists from the University of Leeds -- have announced in the journal Science Advances that they have created a 'spin capacitor' that is able to generate and hold the spin state of electrons for a number of hours.

Previous attempts have only ever held the spin state for a fraction of a second.

In electronics, a capacitor holds energy in the form of electric charge. A spin capacitor is a variation on that idea: instead of holding just charge, it also stores the spin state of a group of electrons -- in effect it 'freezes' the spin position of each of the electrons.

That ability to capture the spin state opens up the possibility that new devices could be developed that store information so efficiently that storage devices could get very small. A spin capacitor measuring just one square inch could store 100 Terabytes of data.

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Dr Oscar Cespedes, Associate Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy who supervised the research, said: "This is a small but significant breakthrough in what could become a revolution in electronics driven by exploitation of the principles of quantum technology.

"At the moment, up to 70 per cent of the energy used in an electronic device such as a computer or mobile phone is lost as heat, and that is the energy that comes from electrons moving through the device's circuitry. It results in huge inefficiencies and limits the capabilities and sustainability of current technologies. The carbon footprint of the internet is already similar to that of air travel and increases year on year.

"With quantum effects that use light and eco-friendly elements, there could be no heat loss. It means the performance of current technologies can continue to develop in a more efficient and sustainable way that requires much less power."

Dr Matthew Rogers, one of the lead authors, also from Leeds, commented: "Our research shows that the devices of the future may not have to rely on magnetic hard disks. Instead. They will have spin capacitors that are operated by light, which would make them very fast, or by an electrical field, which would make they extremely energy efficient.

"This is an exciting breakthrough. The application of quantum physics to electronics will result in new and novel devices."

How a spin capacitor works

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In conventional computing, information is coded and stored as a series of bits: e.g. zeroes and ones on a hard disk. Those zeroes and ones can be represented or stored on the hard disc by changes in the polarity of tiny magnetized regions on the disc.

With quantum technology, spin capacitors could write and read information coded into the spin state of electrons by using light or electric fields.

The research team were able to develop the spin capacitor by using an advanced materials interface made of a form of carbon called buckminsterfullerene (buckyballs), manganese oxide and a cobalt magnetic electrode. The interface between the nanocarbon and the oxide is able to trap the spin state of electrons.

The time it takes for the spin state to decay has been extended by using the interaction between the carbon atoms in the buckyballs and the metal oxide in the presence of a magnetic electrode.

Some of the world's most advanced experimental facilities were used as part of the investigation.

The researchers used the ALBA Synchrotron in Barcelona which uses electron accelerators to produce synchrotron light that allows scientists to visualise the atomic structure of matter and to investigate its properties. Low energy muon spin spectroscopy at the Paul Scherrer Insitute in Switzerland was used to monitor local spin changes under light and electrical irradiation within billionths of a meter inside the sample. A muon is a sub-atomic particle.

The results of the experimental analysis were interpreted with the assistance of computer scientists at the UK's Science and Technical Facilities Council, home to one of the UK's most powerful supercomputers.

The scientists believe the advances they have made can be built on, most notably towards devices that are able to hold spin state for longer periods of time.

The research collaboration involved the University of Leeds, the ALBA synchrotron in Barcelona, Spain, the Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland; and the Science and Technologies Facilities Council and the University of St Andrews, both in the UK. Drs. Tim Moorsom and Matthew Rogers, from Leeds, were the lead authors.
COVID-19 is now spreading within Missoula County rather than just being brought in from outside, and a fast increase in the number of cases here is possible, a county health official said Monday.

Missoula City-County Health Department Incident Commander Cindy Farr announced the detection of "community spread" during her Monday briefing. She said adhering to social distancing measures and Gov. Steve Bullock's shelter-in-place order is important to try to limit the spread of the highly contagious respiratory illness.

Until this weekend, "weve been able to trace all of our cases to travel outside of Missoula County or contact with another confirmed positive case," she said. "The situation has now changed, and the community spread means were likely going to see more cases in Missoula, and we could potentially see a very rapid increase in the number of cases that we have here."

As of early afternoon Monday, there were 12 confirmed cases in Missoula County, the third-highest number in the state. Gallatin County still had the most cases in the state by far, at 67. In Montana, 171 people have fallen ill.

Missoula Countys cases include two men and one woman in their 20s; one woman and one man in their 30s; one woman and one man in their 40s; three men in their 50s; and one woman and one man in their 60s.

During her Monday briefing, Farr also said that a healthcare worker in the county had tested positive for the coronavirus, but individuals who had neither experienced symptoms nor been contacted by health authorities did not need to worry about exposure.

Tests taken in Missoula County are being processed by the Montana Public Health Laboratory, which generally provides results the next day, and private labs operated by LabCorps, Quest and Mayo, whose turnaround times are typically 5-7 days.

Farr said the county remains constrained by limited testing supplies, and people with symptoms, those in a high-risk occupation, and those with a high vulnerability are prioritized for testing.

I dont know how many people we have the current capacity to test, she said, predicting that it would be a few weeks before the county receives nasal swabs it had ordered. Weve put in orders from the strategic national stockpile and private vendors, she said, trying every avenue to get the supplies that we need.

The supply chain just hasnt quite caught up to the demand at this point.

She said that once more testing supplies arrive, the county plans to open a temporary testing site at the Fairgrounds and broaden access.

Also on Monday, Health Officer Ellen Leahy told the City-County Health Board that the department has spent about $54,000 in reserve funds on fighting the pandemic, $44,000 of that on personnel costs, and expects to receive $135,000 from the federal government via the state. The City of Missoula, meanwhile, has closed its playgrounds, explaining that operating them in compliance with (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommendations proved impossible.

Parks, trails and open space remain open, but users are asked to maintain a distance of at least six feet between one another.

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The whole thing is surreal, said Gonzalez, a full-time student at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. I joined the National Guard so I could help wherever I was needed. I figured it would be in another state or somewhere Ive never been. But this is my home, and Im able to do something to directly help my friends and neighbors. Its very special in that way.
President of the United Nations General Assembly, Tijani Muhammad-Bande, has condemned the recent killing of several Nigerian soldiers by terrorists in Borno State.

Mr Muhammad-Bande, who is Nigerias Ambassador to the UN, reacted to the incident in a tweet on Monday.

Twenty-nine soldiers died when Boko Haram fighters ambushed their convoy at Gorgi Village in Borno State, according to the Defence Headquarters.

Coordinator of the Defence Media Operations, John Enenche, a major general, said 39 others were wounded in the attack which occurred on March 23.

The Nigerian envoy said the attack was more disturbing coming amid the coronavirus pandemic.

My condolences on the recent heinous attacks in #Nigeria by Boko Haram. I join the international community in its condemnation.

These callous acts are more worrisome in light of the #COVID19 pandemic.

With Nigerias leadership and global cooperation, we will defeat terrorism, he said in the tweet.

(NAN)
The Manitoba government announced eight new probable cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, which brings the provincial total of lab-confirmed positive and probable positive instances up to 72.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 29/3/2020 (654 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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The Manitoba government announced eight new probable cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, which brings the provincial total of lab-confirmed positive and probable positive instances up to 72.

This follows an extremely busy week for the provinces health-care professionals, where cases more than tripled following the 20 confirmed cases from March 23.

As of Sunday afternoon, the province confirmed that five of these 72 cases can be found in the Prairie Mountain Health Region.

Manitoba also saw its first COVID-19 related death on Friday, which prompted the province to restrict indoor and outdoor public gatherings to no more than 10 people starting today. This includes places of worship and family events such as weddings and funerals.

However, these new measures under the Public Health Act do not apply to any facility where health care or social services are being provided, like child-care centres and homeless shelters.

Retail businesses, including grocery stores, shopping centres, pharmacies and gas stations, must ensure that patrons are separated by one to two metres at all times.

During Sundays press conference, Dr. Brent Roussin, the province's chief public health officer, said Manitobans need to abide by these new regulations and practise good social distancing at the same time to help stem the tide of the coronavirus outbreak.

"We all have that role to limit the impact of this virus on Manitobans," he said. "The best way to limit that impact is to stay home if you can. If you must go out, then strictly practise those social distancing strategies: stay two metres from other people (and) frequently wash your hands."

Roussin also took the time to reiterate that young people should also take these new public safety precautions to heart, since theyre not immune from the effects of the virus.

"We know that the highest-risk individuals are those with underlying medical conditions as well as those over the age of 65, but we have seen severe outcomes in younger individuals as well," he said.

On the operational side of things, Shared Health chief nursing officer Lanette Siragusa said their online assessment tool received around 10,000 web hits on Saturday and approximately 330,000 visits since it launched on March 17.

When asked if she thinks that Manitoba has already "flattened the curve," whereby the rates of infection are increasing at a manageable rate, Siragusa said it is too early to tell.

"Theres been two admissions to critical care, weve had one death and we have one patient in hospital right now," she said on Sunday morning. "So that, to us, is pretty flat, but well have to keep watching. Its really too early to say. Were going to have to watch the trends and watch the volume over time."

Additionally, Roussin wanted to remind everyone on Sunday that clinical trials for a COVID-19 prevention drug are currently underway at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

"The medication is hydroxychloroquine. Its been used for malaria, also for rheumatologic conditions," Roussin said. "Right now  we dont have a proven therapy, so these trials are essential to try to give us those results on whether we may have an effective pharmaceutical intervention."

Roussin mentioned that U of M officials are hoping to recruit as many volunteers as possible to help speed up the process.

Anyone eligible to take part in this study, including those who have tested positive for COVID-19 or have been in close contact with someone infected with the virus, is asked to visit covid-19research.ca for more information.

All other information on the developing COVID-19 outbreak in Manitoba can be gleaned from manitoba.ca/covid19/.

 kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @KyleDarbyson
Television medico Dr Andrew Rochford has pleaded with patients to stop stealing essential medical supplies from hospitals after almost 200 bottles of hand sanitiser disappeared in a single shift.

In one case a pump pack was emptied and its contents replaced with water, leaving doctors and nurses fighting coronavirus to falsely believe they were sanitisting their hands between patients.

Dr Rochford, who has appeared on television programs including The Project and Studio 10 and still works in a Sydney hospital's emergency department, revealed the thefts in a Twitter post.

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Television doctor Andrew Rochford has pleaded with the public to stop stealing essential medical supplies from hospitals after almost 200 bottles of hand sanitiser disappeared

An exasperated Dr Rochford explained how such selfish acts by patients and visitors were endangering the lives of doctors, nurses, other hospital workers and the sick

An empty shelf once stacked with hand sanitiser sits above soap in a Sydney chemist earlier this month. The product has become almost impossible to buy during the coronavirus crisis

The 40-year-old physician said people stealing essential supplies and protective equipment such as face masks and gloves were putting lives at risk.

He captioned the post: 'Please don't steal essential supplies and protective equipment from our hospitals. It protects us so we can protect you. Thanks.'

'I understand everyone's scared, everyone's stressed, but we need to leave the protective equipment in the hospitals,' Dr Rochford said in the accompanying video.

He then held up a bottle of a hand sanitiser, which is vital to maintaining good hygiene in the COVID-19 crisis and is in short supply at supermarkets and chemists.

'We started a shift with 200 of these, full,' Dr Rochford said. 'By the end of the shift there was only 10 bottles left.

'We actually found that somebody had emptied one of these bottles and filled it with water.

New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard said he was 'mortified' to hear of reports of hand sanitiser thefts, including that dispensers were being ripped from walls

'So for an entire shift there were medical workers sanitising their hands, between patients, using water.'

An exasperated Dr Rochford explained how such selfish acts by patients and visitors were endangering the lives of doctors, nurses, other hospital workers and the sick.

'You've got to understand how dangerous that is, not only for other patients but for us,' he said.

'We need to leave the masks, we need to leave the protective equipment in the hospitals.

'Because that's not only putting our lives at risk, it's putting everybody else's lives at risk.

'I get it, guys - everyone's scared and stressed. But it will be OK. Just please leave the protective equipment in the hospitals. We need it.'

New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard said he was 'mortified' to hear of reports of hand sanitiser thefts, including that dispensers were being ripped from walls.

'I cannot think of anything more appalling,' Mr Hazzard said. 'These are frontline staff who will keep you and your family alive.'
Brasilia: Jair Bolsonaro's campaign to keep people working and the economy going has hit two new hurdles.

Twitter on Sunday, Brasilia time, blocked two posts from the Brazilian President for violating its COVID-19 rules.

President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro at a press conference on Fruday. Credit:Getty Images

The rules require people to remove tweets that include, among others: "denial of global or local health authority recommendations to decrease someones likelihood of exposure to [the disease] with the intent to influence people into acting against recommended guidance, such as: 'social distancing is not effective'..."; as well as "description of treatments or protective measures which are not immediately harmful but are known to be ineffective."

Bolsonaro's tweets followed his visit to a street market just outside the national capital on Sunday to push his case for keeping Latin America's largest economy ticking instead of locking down activities to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami ordered companies employing workers from other states tocontinue to provide food, shelter and medical facilities to them.

He also ordered the District Collectors to ensure that the companies comply with the order.

In case the labourers from other states have moved out of their place of work and have reached railway/bus stations, then the District Collectors of those places should house them in temporary shelters and provide them food.
SPRINGFIELD  Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White said he supported the federal governments decision to extend the deadline for REAL ID enforcement.

Starting Oct. 1, all domestic and international air travel would require REAL ID-compliant licenses, but President Donald Trump has announced the deadline would be extended amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Some states have struggled to meet the demand for REAL ID-compliant licenses ahead of Oct. 1.

The decision to extend the enforcement date of REAL ID is the proper and necessary action during this time of uncertainty and crisis, White said in a statement. The guiding principle of my decision making will, and must, continue to focus on the health and safety of all Illinoisans. This move by the federal government embraces this philosophy and I commend them for it.

White had joined with the National Governors Association, other states, government leaders and the travel industry to urge the Department of Homeland Security to extend the enforcement date because of the pandemic. In Illinois, many driver services facilities have been shuttered to reduce the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus that emerged in late 2019 from Wuhan, China.

The Department of Homeland Security has not yet established the new federal deadline, according to a news release from Whites office.

Existing Illinois drivers licenses or ID cards will continue to be accepted at airports, military bases and secure federal facilities until a new deadline is set by the federal government, according to a news release from Whites office.

White said he would continue to monitor the situation was eager to learn of the new enforcement date.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

More than three quarters of New Zealand's retail food waste is being saved from landfill, in stark contrast to Kiwi households, Otago researchers say.

A new study by a team of University of Otago researchers from the Departments of Food Science and Human Nutrition has found about 77 percent of food waste produced by food retailers is diverted to other destinations.

Approximately 46 percent of the food saved from landfill is turned into animal feed and 15 percent is donated to food rescue charities.

Globally, about one third of all food production is wasted, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.

New Zealand is one of 193 nations to ratify the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which includes the aim to reduce food waste by 50 percent by 2030.

The new Otago study is the first to quantify retail food waste in New Zealand, and identify motivators and barriers to reducing it.

It estimates that, on average, New Zealand households produce almost 10 times more food waste than supermarkets.

Co-author Professor Sheila Skeaff, from the Department of Human Nutrition, says consumers need to stop blaming supermarkets for food waste and realize most food waste happens in the home.

"Reducing food waste is one of the most practical things people can do to help reduce the impacts of climate change," she says.

Data for the study was collected from 16 supermarkets in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, from all three of New Zealand's major retail chains: Countdown, New World and Pak 'n Save.

Full waste audit results obtained from 11 of those stores found that of all food wasteincluding food diverted to animal feed and food donationfresh vegetables made up 27 percent of food waste and diverted product, followed by bakery at 23 percent, meat and fish at 19 percent, fruit at 17 percent and dairy at six percent.

Of the food waste specifically sent to landfill, the biggest contributors were dairy at 23 percent, meat and fish at 21 percent and bakery at 21 percent.

Interviews with staff from all 16 stores produced some surprising results.

Many interviewees were highly motivated to reduce food waste in their supermarkets due to environmental concerns, and felt it was their responsibility to set a good example to their organizations and wider communities.

Professor Skeaff says this is surprising because similar overseas studies have shown supermarket staff are more focused on the cost savings of wasting less food.

Study interviewees also expressed pride and satisfaction at donating food to vulnerable community members.

One retailer commented: "I too am a citizen of this planet. I care, my team do care, we actually take a lot of pride in how much we divert we literally donate tonnes of food to the community."

However, interviewees also identified the biggest barrier to reducing food waste was the challenge of obtaining buy-in from staff to manage waste responsibility.

Retailers said that without sufficient training and education, staff lacked clarity and purpose for why they were required to carry out waste minimization purposes.

Another major barrier was concern about food safety, with retailers preferring a cautious approach when diverting food waste to animal feed or charities.

Professor Skeaff says policies that enable food donation, whether to food rescue or for other uses, are crucial in ensuring food waste is not sent to landfill.

"Food date labeling is a key cause of food waste and policymakers should consider simplifying the type of date labels used."

However, reducing food waste cannot be done by one part of the supply chain alone, she says.

"We need a co-ordinated effort if we are going to reach the SDG goal to halve global food waste by 2030."

"Policymakers need to set the strategy and short-term targets to get us there and hold the sector to account by monitoring progress towards achieving the target."

Professor Skeaff and her study co-authors, Francesca Goodman-Smith and Miranda Mirosa, recommend supermarkets further reduce food waste by educating consumers, better forecasting practices, repurposing as much food as possible in-store and continuing to partner with businesses and charities who can re-purpose food waste.

They say consumers need to start taking responsibility by buying fresh food in small quantities more than once a week so it doesn't go bad, eating leftovers, storing food correctly and using best-before dates as a measure of quality, not safety.

Explore further The unintended consequences of stockpiling: food waste

More information: Francesca Goodman-Smith et al. A mixed-methods study of retail food waste in New Zealand, Food Policy (2020). Francesca Goodman-Smith et al. A mixed-methods study of retail food waste in New Zealand,(2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2020.101845
I f, like me, youre a skincare junkie, youll want your skin to always look as fresh, plump and glowy as possible.

Just 10 minutes of facial self-care a day can help bring confidence into the rest of our lives, a ritual that takes the sting out of leaving the house with a blemish, scar or patch of redness  even if we arent leaving the house all that often these days...

A huge number of men and women feel this way about their skin regimen, which is why the skincare industry is such a saturated place. From antioxidants to SPF to skin peels, were drowning in a sea of products that promises to keep our skin looking its best.

So how can we differentiate between them all? The simplest way, of course, is to look at what everyone else is spending their hard-earned pounds  or in this case, dollars  on. After all: money talks.

With one unit sold every minute of every day in the US, there is one product that Ive been dying to get my hands on: the LOreal Paris Revitalift Filler Renew with 1.5 per cent hyaluronic acid. It is the undisputed bestseller in the anti-ageing skincare market.

LOreal Paris Revitalift Filler Renew

In fact, it has proved so popular across the pond that skincare obsessives in the UK have been smuggling it back to Blighty ever since it launched last year. But now we dont have to after LOreal has finally launched it in here. Having tried it for myself, I can safely say: not only does it work, it will make you feel fabulous as well.

With a pricetag of 24.99, you may be wondering: what exactly does it do? The simple answer is, it rehydrates skin leaving your face feeling plump and moisturised. The super-ingredient in the serum, hyaluronic acid, is a synthetic version of a carbohydrate molecule that is already found in our body, designed to keep our faces hydrated by absorbing moisture from the air around us and the deeper layers of our skin. As we age, our natural levels of hyaluronic acid deplete, so applying the molecule topically can enable our skin to continue to steal moisture from other sources, keeping it plump and reducing fine lines linked to dehydration. Hurrah.
Portable medical tents are set up outside of The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) emergency room last week. The United States now has the most coronavirus cases in the world. Read more

In the scramble to find PPE  personal protective equipment, an acronym unknown to most just a month ago  some unexpected groups have stepped up with donations to help out the areas hard-pressed hospitals, all of which say they are running critically short of protective gear.

Museums and art schools, it turns out, use PPE virtually daily in their conservation departments and to care for and create artworks.

Take Moore College of Art and Design, the venerable school just off Logan Square. When officials at the school heard about hospital shortages of such things as N95 respirator masks, gowns, and gloves  the essence of PPE  they knew they could help.

We have an awesome school nurse, a Moore spokesperson said.

Because of that nurse, Moore happened to have a pandemic supply of goods stockpiled, according to the spokesperson.

Moores cache of 200 N95 masks, used by doctors and nurses in the forefront of COVID-19 treatment, and 250 gowns will be going to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where the school sends ill or injured students in normal times.

Moores faculty members are helping out with the effort, too, utilizing their unique skills. Nasheli Ortiz-Gonzalez, chair of fashion design, was contacted by a doctor, an acquaintance, who described dwindling supplies of simple yet critically important supplies.

She then formed an online sewing group, recorded a tutorial on how to make masks, and sewed 20 of them in two hours on Thursday. The masks will go to different hospitals.

At the University of Pennsylvania Museum, hard by the Penn Medicine cluster of buildings in West Philadelphia, as word of shortages spread, officials knew they had a stockpile of PPE stashed away.

The head of conservation went down into the belly of the beast  the museums basement storage  and basically gave them everything, said a museum spokesperson.

As a result, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania has received a powered air-pressure respirator, used by the museum in laser cleaning, plus 50 boxes of nitrile gloves, which offer advanced protection, a couple of pairs of goggles, 35 pairs of safety glasses, four boxes of N95 mask respirators, and one box of 8210 respirators. Add to that four partial boxes of gowns, and 20 older N95 masks.

Lynn Grant, the museums head conservator, did some serious rummaging. The donations were delivered to HUP at the end of last week.

Anna Dhody, curator at the College of Physicians of Philadelphias Mutter Museum, closed now for more than two weeks, returned to the building on South 22nd Street last week and gathered up 20 boxes of gloves, a pair of wrapped goggles, gowns, packages of hair nets, respirator cartridges, and a few full-body Tyvek suits.

Down in the basement conservation lab, she pulled out everything she could find that might be useful to hospitals.

The hospitals need them more than we do right now, Dhody said. Rummaging around for quite a while, and making sure that the proper temperature and humidity were being maintained in specimen storage areas, she finally found three packages of N95 masks.

Dhody had hoped for more but realized that most who work in the Mutter conservation lab use their own respirators. Finding three made her very excited.

These are going to go to the front lines, to people who need them, Dhody said. "Hopefully, we can save some lives.

The cartload of supplies was picked up by Penn medical students at the end of last week. The med students have organized PPEnn PALS, a growing effort to gather supplies from across the region for donation to HUP, although the effort is almost certain to be broadened to include other facilities as the pandemic engulfs the region.

Charlotte Tisch, a first-year med student at Penn, studied Egyptian archaeology in college and was well-aware that art museums would most likely have supplies of masks, gloves, and other PPE mainstays.

She hit pay dirt at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Barnes Foundation, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. These institutions contributed a significant supply of masks, respirators, gloves, shoe covers, and Tyvek suits to front-line health-care workers at HUP.

As of last week, the students had solicited and delivered more than 5,650 face masks, 1,700-plus N95 respirators, more than 380 face shields and safety glasses, more than 500 boxes of gloves, and 1,100 pairs of sterile surgical gloves, according to Noa Erlitzki, a first-year student at Penn medical school and a leader of PPEnn PALS. Most of the supplies were donated by Penn labs, the Penn Museum, and area art institutions, she said.

People are dying, Erlitzki said. At Penn, the need is so urgent, the supply so low, that theyve implemented radical mask policies. Masks are to be worn at all times, stored onsite, and reused over several days, she said. These masks are ordinarily for a single use.

PPEnn PALS is still seeking donations, as is a broad coalition of students from Penn, and Temple, Thomas Jefferson, and Drexel Universities, who have formed the Philadelphia Organization for Health Professions Students (POHPS). POHPS has more than 2,000 area medical students, all focused on combating COVID-19 in a variety of ways.

We all want to help out during this crisis, Tisch said. Through my background in museum conservation, I know museums have PPE and hoped theyd consider helping out. We have been overwhelmed and humbled by their generosity. Their willingness to prioritize the needs of health-care workers and their communities is inspiring. I hope museums in other cities will follow suit.

For inquiries involving PPEnn PALS email PPEnnPALS@gmail.com.

Inquiries to the Philadelphia Organization for Health Professions Students can be directed to Ramie Fathy, a third-year med student, at ramiefathy@gmail.com.

To make donations directly to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, go to the HUP coronavirus donation webpage at www.pennmedicine.org/coronavirus/donations or call 800-789-7366.

To make donations to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, go to Jeffersons medical-supply donation webpage at www.jeffersonhealth.org/coronavirus-covid-19/medical-supply-donation or call 800-533-3669.

For donations to Temple University Medical Center, go to the hospitals coronavirus support website at www.templehealth.org/2019-novel-coronavirus#support-efforts or call 215-707-2000.

To make donations to Einstein Medical Center, go to the hospitals donations website at www.einstein.edu/ppe or call 484-622-7013.
By Azernews





By Akbar Mammadov

The US administration has ended funding for removing land mines in Azerbaijans occupied Karabakh region.

As the last year, this year the Trump administration did not recommend providing financial assistance to the so-called Nagorno-Karabakh regime for humanitarian purposes. Trump and his entourage did not include this issue in the budget for the next two years, political analyst Zaur Mammadov wrote in his Facebook page.

This year, as the last year, the Armenian Diaspora took actions to prevent the decision of the Administration in Congress. More than 75 congressmen have already said they will vote in favor of aid. I remembered that last year this figure was 90, Mammadov said.

The analyst stressed that the funds allocated for mine clearance in Karabakh are used by the political elite there for their own interests. Over the years, demining process has not been carried out by the Armenians, only by Azerbaijan through ANAMA, and really great work is being done.

In the meantime, according to the Armenian media, the real reason behind the United States' move to suspend its demining assistance to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region is reportedly the Armenian sappers' presence in Syria.

A fact which is thought to have angered Washington, causing it to issue repeated warning to the authorities, the Armenian media writes.

It should be noted that U.S. officials made the decision to halt their support of the program in spring of 2019, which led a months-long battle between the federal government and pro-Armenia members of Congress who fought to get the funding restored. However, it seems that the Trump administration has not been convinced.
OTTAWA, March 30, 2020 /CNW/ - The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is closely monitoring the measures that are being implemented in Canada Post facilities to minimize the risk, albeit low, of COVID-19 spreading via the postal system. Our members can rest assured that our priority is their health and safety.

"People are relying on the postal system to keep the economy going and getting vital goods to their homes," comments Jan Simpson, CUPW National President. "They need to know whether their mail is safe. It's critical that we do all we can, and we will stay vigilant as the situation develops each day."

CUPW asks that customers wash and disinfect mailboxes, handrails and door handles daily if possible. Please allow adequate space for social distancing with postal workers on delivery, respect the posted social distancing protocols in post offices, and please don't go to the post office if feeling ill.

The Public Health Agency of Canada maintains that risk of infection via surfaces and objects is low. It is recommended to use simple disinfectants on surfaces, and wash hands well before touching one's own eyes, nose or mouth after contact with objects from outside one's home. The agency says there is no known risk of the virus entering Canada on parcels and packages.

Postal workers, though, touch more items and surfaces in a working day than most people, and extra precautions are justified.

Positive results confirming infection of two postal workers in St. John's last week spurred a series of measures to contain the risk. CUPW believes Canada Post took the proper measures and wishes a prompt and full recovery to the workers who are ill and quarantined, as the rest return to work today.

CUPW has called on Canada Post to take a number of steps to make our workplaces and the post system itself safer. These measures include extra Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) like gloves and masks; hand sanitizer and wipes for enhanced cleaning and disinfecting high-touch surfaces; scheduling changes and other adjustments to work methods to enable social distancing at work. Through joint health and safety work between CUPW and Canada Post, and through collective pressure of concerned members, CUPW has seen some positive results, but more can still be done. PPEs are rolling out and postal workers are taking every appropriate precaution to protect their customers, themselves and their families.

"In this crisis, some things are coming into focus more clearly than ever in our lifetimes," says Simpson. "In labour, we've always said 'An injury to one is an injury to all,' and now it seems like everyone, trade-unionist or not, gets it. Our safety and our health is interconnected. We all have a part to play, and we are all literally saving lives when we are careful and thoughtful in our behaviour."

SOURCE Canadian Union of Postal Workers

For further information: or for interviews contact [email protected]

Related Links

www.cupw-sttp.org


Man, the first season of The Bachelor really moved fast. Were only in week three, rose lovers, and Alex has already narrowed his harem down from eight ladies to four, in what Harrison calls the most shocking Invitation Night yet. (Nope, still dont like it. Say rose ceremony, dude!)

Lets recap!

ABC

As the sun rises on the Ladies Villa (nope), Chris Harrison is already out front to greet Alexs friends Sam and Stephanie. They will be living in the guest house for the next few days! the host tells the women. Im sorry is Harrison wearing a T-shirt?

ABC

My bad  its a T-shirt over another T-shirt. I was so distracted by Harrisons unconventional wardrobe choice that I almost missed his big message: There will be three intimate one-on-one dates this week. Alex, Sam, and Stephanie will choose which three women get on the single dates based on their answers to a series of compatibility questions. Trista, youre up first!

I have to say, some of these compatibility questions are quite thoughtful: Have you ever been to a movie alone? Which do you think is more important: Mercy or Justice? Do you vote? And some are quite basic: How do you important do you think sex is in a healthy relationship? Leave it to Rhonda to give the most reality-TV friendly answer:

Get it, gurl.

The date box arrives (nope, dont like it), and guess who gets the very first one-on-one date?

Of course its Ms. Sex Swing! And hold up, shes divorced? Shes 23! And her ex-husband was 17 years her senior?? AND he wouldnt let her wear her Wonder Woman costume around the house??? (She also has a cowgirl outfit, btw.) To you and me, all of these facts may sound like red flags. To the Bachelor, all he hears is: SEXY ROLE-PLAY COSTUMES! Shes incredibly sexy, fun, laughs a lot, notes Alex. And [she] revealed some adventurous things about herself which I found very appealing.

Amanda and Alex share a hot-n-heavy smooch in the limo before arriving at A Thousand Cranes for a sushi dinner. The Bachelor cant stop raving about his dates creative sexuality which he calls a gift. Gross, dude. Just eat your California roll. Soon enough, he and Amanda are making out again, much to the discomfort of this poor server who just wants to deliver the next course.

Story continues

I really hope producers gave her a huge tip.

After dinner, Alex and Amanda get naked so he can give her a massage. And thats not the only thing he wants to give her. Weve already proven to each other that kissing has taken things to a new and better level, says Alex. And that makes the temptation to sleep with her even greater. Slow your roll, buddy! Fantasy Suites arent until episode 5! Fortunately, though, Alex knows its too soon to get intimate with any of the ladies. Still, he and Amanda stay out until 4 a.m.

Date box (nope) No. 2 arrives the next morning, and the winner of the second one-on-one is

Our future Bachelor Nation queen, Trista! Her date may not be as fancy as Amandas but its arguably more intimate: Alex invites her over to his (TV) house so they can cook dinner together. The Bachelor is extremely nervous around Trista, as he should be. This date is the most important date of the year, he tells us. Tonight is my night to win her over or not, so Im feeling a little bit of pressure.

Though theyre both novice cooks, they manage to put together an edible meal  and we actually see them eat it! There are no bungee cords in sight, but Alex decides to take a leap of faith by telling Trista how much he likes her and that she gives him butterflies. Her response is less than encouraging.

ABC

This is awesome, she says, gesturing toward her plate of food. To be fair, Trista goes on to tell Alex that she tends to put up this wall when it comes to relationships, because shes worried about getting hurt. Either way, the Bachelor is very disappointed. I dont think she feels a ton of chemistry yet, if at all, he says. I thought maybe this is the perfect woman, and Im not convinced of that now  and its kind of a bummer.

Meanwhile, back at the ladies villa (nope), date box No. 3 arrives bearing news of a group date for Rhonda, LaNease, Kim, Cathy, and Christina. That means Shannon gets the final one-on-one date for the week. Shes excited, but also aware that the other women are not happy about it. I know Rhonda shot a little look at me, sighs Shannon, and there were a few people that were really upset. And Alex realizes that theyre still upset the next day when they join him for horseback riding at Saddlerock Ranch in Malibu.

ABC

Theyre all mad at me, says the Bachelor. I was glad these women didnt have guns. As far as you know, buddy.

In an effort to assuage the ladies, Alex starts pulling them for one-on-one chats. Rhonda goes first, perhaps because the Bachelor thinks shes a genius and more mature than the other women. The personalized attention, however, does not work. None of them are any happier with me, he says. Theyre just like, Give me the rose or kick me out! (That would have been an excellent title for The Bachelor.)

At last, its Shannons time to shine. And her one-on-one is historic, rose lovers: Its The Bachelors first-ever Pretty Woman date! Cathy, the 22-year-old grad student, says this is fitting, because she finds Shannon princessy and thinks she lives a materialistic lifestyle. Its hard to take Cathys critiques seriously, though, because she delivers them while wearing a bathmat around her shoulders.

ABC

Alex and Shannons date begins with a trip to Escada, where she tries on a variety of sparkly evening gowns. From there, they head to the Four Seasons, where a romantic dinner awaits them in the Presidential Suite. But first, the Bachelor has one more surprise for his hooker with a heart of gold date.

ABC

When choosing a wife, nothing is more important than seeing how she looks draped in diamonds  am I right, rose lovers? But Shannon is happy, not only because the jewelry is nice, but because Alex respected her decision not to kiss on the first date. Even without a smooch, the Bachelor LOVES his date with Shannon: I literally had visions of her as, like, the mother of my children.

Ok, so Shannons a lock for a rosebut what about the rest of the ladies? When Invitation Night (nope) arrives, Alex is nervous. Tonight is going to be like breaking up with four girlfriends at once, he frets. While the night starts out with light chit-chat  Cathy uses her time with the Bachelor to ask him about his workout regime  things get more serious when Alex sits down with LaNease.

You dont feel weird at all, I mean, about like, dating someone whos not in your, likeIm not in your same race, she says. How do you feel about that? LaNease is obviously nervous about asking the question, which is understandable (remember, this is 2002)  and she deserves major props for bringing it up. Alex says he feels fine about it, and he hints that hes planning to give LaNease a rose.

That said, he must know that she was dating someone right before she went on the show, so next Alex heads over to Amanda and asks her what she knows about LaNeases ex-slash-kind-of current boyfriend. Of course, Amanda cant wait to tell the Bachelor that LaNease was crying about her ex as recently as last night. Shes not over it, says Amanda.

Perhaps realizing she was a bit frosty on her one-on-one date, Trista makes a point of finding Alex and telling him that she does feel a connection with him. Oh good Lord  can somebody get the hose? Cathys doing her cheerleading routine.

ABC

Kim the nanny thinks Alex is too nervous around her, but he counters that by sticking his tongue down her throat.

Tink tink tink! Chris Harrison and his Butter Knife of Bad News arrives to tell Alex that its decision time. So who will make Alexs final four? Of course, he cant choose until he watches their private video messages.

ABC

Shes talking about the horseback riding date  get your head out of the gutter!

Rose ceremony roll call: Amanda, Shannon, Kim, and Trista have won a hometown date, meaning Rhonda, Christina, LaNease, and Cathy are headed home in a Reject Van. Rhonda seems hit the hardest. I think he made the wrong choice, she says tearfully. Shannon, she says, is here for the wrong reason  she wanted a ring on her finger before she even met the man. As for Trista, Rhonda thinks shes just hanging around and hoping that Alex will grow on her. Shes getting so upset that she starts having a panic attack and cant catch her breath. Producers call an ambulance  our first-ever Bachelor ambulance, rose lovers! Nearly brings a tear to my eye.

How do you feel about the final four, rose lovers? I, for one, am surprised Kim made the cut  but I guess Alex just finds her hot. Post your thoughts below, and Ill see you back here next week for the first-ever Hometown Dates episode.

The Bachelor season 1 is streaming on Tubi TV.

Related content:
Ministers are today at the centre of a row over the supply of vital ventilators for the NHS after firms claimed their offers of machines were not picked up quickly enough.

The government is trying source thousands of artificial respirators after Health Secretary Matt Hancock said they are the 'big thing' needed in the fight against coronavirus.

But two firms have claimed their offers to source or produce machines for the UK were not responded to soon enough, resulting in the government 'missing the boat'.

Direct Access, a firm based in Nantwich, Cheshire, is said to have told the government it could source 5,000 ventilators per week for three weeks with potentially a further 10,000 machines further down the line.

Meanwhile, another firm, MEC Medical, which makes ventilator parts, apparently said it could have provided 500 ventilators if ministers had responded to an offer of help 'straight away'.

Michael Gove, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, said yesterday he was 'very sorry' if companies had not been contacted after offering ventilator help

Ministers have faced intense pressure to explain why the offers were not taken up given that the government is scrambling to find and purchase as many of the machines as it can.

However, a government source said both companies had been responded to and the offers were found not to be as simplistic as had been made suggested.

A government spokesman said: 'We had an overwhelming response from businesses across the UK offering their support, and we are very grateful to Direct Access for their effort.

'Unfortunately Direct Access' plans for a possible future supply of ventilators did not stand up to due diligence, so we did not take their proposal forward.'

Direct Access's boss, Steven Mifsud, told the Nantwich News website last week that 'time is a luxury that we as a nation do not have' as he accused the government of having a 'manana' attitude to the issue - the Spanish word for 'tomorrow'.

But in comments reported by The Telegraph today, Mr Mifsud said there had now been 'an incredible and improved concentrated effort by our Prime Minister, the Government and the Department of Health to source the required medical equipment'.

The offer made by Direct Access was raised with Michael Gove, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, yesterday during an appearance on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.

He said he was 'very sorry if that company says that it did not get a reply' as he committed to investigate the matter.

At the moment the NHS has 8,000 ventilators with a further 8,000 on order from existing manufacturers.

The government is also working 'at pace' to approve designs of new ventilators which have been put forward by manufacturers after ministers issued a 'call to arms'.

Numerous companies, including Dyson, are now working to get prototypes approved so they can move into production.

Asked about the testing of the new machines, a government spokesman said: 'That work is on going. They will all be at different stages of the regulatory process depending on when they have supplied the machines and all the relevant information to the regulator.

'They are working at pace on this and are trying to conduct the tests as quickly as they can.

'Obviously, we are dependent on delivery of the actual machines themselves in order to be able to test they are safe.'
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA - When it comes to social distancing how well are Northern Californians following the guidelines? One website suggests that several counties in our region aren't doing well.

According to the website, unacast.com, some counties do the worst among others in the state.

Action News Now is following the latest on coronavirus cases in Butte, Glenn, Modoc, Shasta, Tehama and Trinity counties.

The website gave these grades below:

Butte County, D grade, the average distance traveled went down 5%.

Glenn County, F grade, the average distance traveled went up to 22%.

Modoc County, C grade, the average distance traveled went down 21%.

Shasta County, D grade, the average distance traveled went down 10%.

Tehama County, F grade, the average distance traveled went up to 11%.

Trinity County, F grade, the average distance traveled went down 5%.

Glenn and Tehama counties are among the worst among five counties that follow social distancing guidelines, the other three that do poorly are Alpine, Inyo and Siskiyou counties.

The top five counties that do well in practicing those guidelines are Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara and Sierra counties.

Overall California did well with a B grade.

To check out the website yourself, CLICK HERE.
Nor is Planned Parenthood a small business deserving of relief funds as the Chinese Wuhan Virus, incubated in a Chinese lab, sweeps across the globe. Yet both abortion and Planned Parenthood are high on the Democrats' critical list as they fight to exploit a killer virus to preserve the taxpayer-funded ability to end the lives of the unborn.

Texas governor Greg Abbott, in order to preserve precious medical resources and equipment during the Wuhan Virus crisis, has issued an executive order properly defining abortion as nonessential surgery. This prompted a lawsuit from those who insist that killing the unborn is really women's health care:

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), along with other pro-choice groups, filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton and several other state officials over a temporary ban on elective abortion during the coronavirus pandemic. The ban was issued as part of an executive order by Abbott aimed at conserving medical equipment and the capacity of the health care system after warnings from health care professionals that patients sick with the coronavirus might overwhelm hospital capacity and deplete supplies, such as personal protective equipment for doctors and nurses.

Makes sense to me that as we panic over whether we have enough hospital beds, ventilators, personal protective equipment, and other essential medical supplies, we suspend activities that involve the ending of a human life in favor of activities that save human lives.

Yet the pro-abortion zealots prattle on about abortion being a constitutional right even though it is mentioned nowhere in the Constitution. The right to keep and bear arms is mentioned in the Constitution, but those who say abortion is essential say gun ownership is not. We must be able to end the life of the unborn even as some jurisdictions are saying having a gun to protect the lives of our families in these uncertain times is nonessential. Close the gun shops, but keep the abortion facilities open is the logic of the liberal mind..

NARAL Pro-Choice Texas complained in a tweet: "Abortion is essential healthcare and a time-sensitive procedure. Forcing Texans to remain pregnant when they don't want to be, especially during a pandemic is cruel and a threat to public health."

Well, a ban on elective abortions in Texas would protect unborn women, wouldn't it? There are a whole host of procedures that people are being forced to postpone. Now many people can't see their doctor except maybe on a video conference call, but they can visit an abortion facility? You can't get a CT scan, but you can get an abortion. It might be informative if, when the stats of virus infections and deaths are shown in a chart on TV, the number of human lives ended through abortion during the same period were shown alongside.

Abortion is not health care. It is a life-ending pandemic. Even if the health of the mother is at risk, health authorities have said it is never necessary to kill the child to save the mother. Yet Democrats have persisted in trying to exploit a legitimate health care crisis to promote abortion. From the beginning, House speaker Nancy Pelosi has tried to load up the various virus relief bills with pro-abortion pork.

Pelosi, who likes to hide behind her Catholicism when convenient, pushed to include abortion protections in the first coronavirus relief bill, a move roundly condemned by GOP senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska:

"While schools are closing and hospitals are gearing up, Speaker Pelosi is waging unnecessary culture wars. Speaker Pelosi should be fighting the coronavirus pandemic, not politicizing emergency funding by fighting against the bipartisan Hyde Amendment," Sasse told National Review in a statement. "We need to be ramping up our diagnostic testing, not waging culture wars at the behest of Planned Parenthood. Good grief."

Not to be outdone, Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, while alleging coronavirus incompetence on the part of Trump, possibly costing additional lives, left out the part about his Senate Democrats blocking the Born Alive Infant Protection Act to save infants who survive an abortion.

Pelosi did not give up, breaking up a hard-won Senate compromise on the latest virus relief package, delaying it for a week, in order to try to funnel more taxpayer cash to Planned Parenthood. As LifeSiteNews reported:

For the second time in as many weeks, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is attempting to exploit the coronavirus crisis to push her abortion agenda on the American people[.] ... Now, Pelosi is trying to include funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion company in the bill to provide economic relief for small businesses, even though Planned Parenthood is a profitable abortion corporation that technically is a nonprofit. As The Hill reports, Pelosi wanted to include Planned Parenthood in the mix with small businesses so it could get taxpayer dollars over the objections of pro-life Americans.

Gov. Abbott is trying to save lives, both of the unborn and of those infected with the Chinese Wuhan Virus. His actions and attitude are in stark contrast to those of another governor, Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia. Democrats like Northam believe in abortion from conception until birth and even after, beholden as they are to an intolerant left that says "reproductive care" includes leaving a newborn baby on a table, making him comfortable until he dies, as Northam states.

In an interview with WTOP Radio on January 30, Northam described his support for legalization of late-term abortion  even as a mother is "dilating," per state delegate Kathy Tran  and took the concept further, discussing euthanizing newborn babies even after comforting and "resuscitating" them: When we talk about third-trimester abortions, these are done with the consent of, obviously, the mother, with the consent of the physicians  more than one physician, by the way The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mothers.

This is not health care, and abortion is not a necessary surgical procedure. Democrats embrace, condone, and promote infanticide. Their idea of women's health care is to toss babies born alive and gasping for air on a cold table, where they will never have to worry about being infected with the coronavirus.

Daniel John Sobieski is a former editorial writer for Investor's Business Daily and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.
A cargo aircraft of SCAT Airlines landed at Boryspil International Airport (Kyiv) on March 29 delivering another batch of medical supplies from the Chinese city of Xiamen needed to combat the spread of coronavirus.

The aircraft delivered 300 thousand respirators, 35 thousand protective suits, 1.8 million medical masks and other means of protection, the press service of the head of state reported.

After the sanitary processing, the cargo will be delivered to the logistics warehouse and then transported to hospitals of all regions of Ukraine. The means of protection will also be provided for the needs of the National Police and military personnel.

In addition, 100 thousand PCR tests will arrive at night by another flight.

We will have two additional planes starting from Tuesday. It will help pharmacies to quickly fill the market with available masks and other means of protection, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Secretary of the Coordination Council on Combating the Spread of COVID-19 Kyrylo Tymoshenko said.

The second shipment from China was coordinated by the Office of the President and Ukrainian diplomats who were in constant contact with Chinese central and local authorities.

At night the plane flies to China for the next cargo.

ish
(Newser)  Formula One team Mercedes has helped to develop a breathing aid that could keep coronavirus patients out of intensive care and ease some pressure on Britains strained health service. As part of a combined effort involving seven Britain-based teams, Mercedes worked with engineers at the University College London and clinicians at University College London Hospital to adapt and improve a device that bridges the gap between an oxygen mask and the need for full ventilation. The device, known as continuous positive airway pressure, has been used extensively in hospitals in Italy and China to deliver oxygen to the lungs of coronavirus patients during the pandemic, reports the AP.

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UCL said the adapted devices have been recommended for use in Britain and that 100 of them are being sent to its hospital for clinical trials. There is the potential for quick roll-out by Mercedes to hospitals across the country. Tim Baker, a professor from UCL's department of mechanical engineering, said clinicians called on the "capability of Formula One" to reduce a process "that could take years down to a matter of days," with the adapted device taking less than 100 hours to develop from an initial meeting. Read the full story for more on the F1's "Project Pitlane."

(Read more coronavirus stories.)
Shah Rukh Khan has a mischievous sense of humour and does not spare his wife of nearly three decades, Gauri Khan, from his jokes either. During a joint appearance on Rendezvous With Simi Garewal in 1997, he joked that she made his life miserable by relentlessly pursuing him and he was forced into marrying her.

When host Simi Garewal asked how their love story began, Gauri said that they met for the first time at a party and soon became friends. Shah Rukh jokingly interrupted, She had the hots for me. She was running after me. She kept calling me up and really made my life miserable. Then, I had to finally give in.

Simi laughed and asked Shah Rukh how he gave in, to which he quipped, She has a really large family. Like, 15 people. They pinned me down and said, Marry her. I said, Okay, Ill marry her. Please dont beat me up. They have a big family and I was all alone, so I had to give in and marry her.

I was forced into this marriage. Its like child abuse. I am going to report this to the social activists, he added, sending Gauri and Simi into splits. With a cheeky grin on his face, he insisted, No, really. I even called up Maneka Gandhi (then Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment). I have been calling everybody, but nobody is helping me.

Shah Rukh then joked that he was no longer alone and now that there was another Khan in the picture (his son Aryan was born just two weeks before the episode was shot), they would get their revenge from Gauri.

Also read: How much did Khans contribute towards coronavirus relief? Nikhil Dwivedi says Salman, Shah Rukh spend substantially

Shah Rukh and Gauri got married on October 25, 1991, in a traditional Hindu ceremony. He borrowed a suit from the sets of Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman for the wedding. The couple has three children - Aryan, Suhana and AbRam.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Saudi Arabia is hijacking mobile phone data to track the movements of its citizens living in the US, new information leaked by a whistleblower suggests.

Data shows that the kingdom's three biggest mobile phone providers sent millions of requests to a major US provider asking for information that would allow the kingdom to identify the location of Saudi-registered phones in the country.

In total, almost 2.3million requests for data were sent per month between November last year and March this year - meaning individual phones were being tracked up to 13 times per hour.

Saudi Arabia is hijacking mobile phone data to track its citizens living in the US, new data leaked by a whistleblower has suggested (file image)

A whistleblower told The Guardian that the data shows Saudi Arabia is 'weaponising' mobile networks to run surveillance on its citizens abroad.

'There is no other explanation, no other technical reason to do this,' they said.

The apparent spying operation works by exploiting a system called SS7, which is used to connect mobile users calling or messaging from different countries.

Mobile phone companies can legitimately request information on users through the SS7 system including location data, which is used to register roaming charges.

But the new data suggests that Saudi Arabia is using its three biggest providers - Saudi Telecom, Mobily and Zain - to send millions of spurious requests.

Data on individual phones was being requested up to 13 per hour, the Guardian reported, which would allow anyone looking at it to build up an accurate picture of the owner's movements.

There is no evidence that the Saudi mobile companies, which did not respond to requests for comment, knew their networks were being used in this way.

Saudi embassies in the US and UK also did not respond to requests for comment.

While the data did not reveal the identities of the phone owners who were being tracked, Saudi Arabia is known to keep a close eye on regime critics living overseas.

The video secretly installed software on his phone that allowed for a huge amount of data to be extracted, shortly before it was revealed that Bezos was having an affair.

While the data does not identify whose phones were being tracked, the kingdom is known to keep a close eye on dissidents living overseas (pictured, Mohammed bin Salman)

Jamal Khashoggi (left) was killed in 2018 by a Saudi hit-squad while writing columns critical of the Saudi regime for the Washington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos (right). Bezos's own phone was hacked by a message sent from Bin Salman's cell number

In 2018, Jamal Khashoggi - a former regime insider turned critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

It is thought he was murdered by a hit-squad after an attempt to persuade him to return to the Kingdom and stop his criticism failed.

At the time of his murder, Khashoggi was a columnist for the Washington Post where he regularly wrote articles criticising Bin Salman.

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos also had his phone hacked after being sent a video file from a phone number belonging to Bin Salman.

It is thought the video file secretly installed a piece of software on his phone that allowed huge amounts of data to be drained.

The hack took place a short time before Bezos's affair with Lauren Sanchez was revealed, ending his marriage.

International investigators including UN special rapporteurs say it is likely the hit-squad was sent to Turkey on the direct orders of Bin Salman.

Saudi Arabia, after initially denying it had anything to do with the murder, has admitted that members of its security forces were responsible for killing Khashoggi.

However, the country insists they went 'rogue' and the murder was not ordered by senior leadership.

Eleven men were eventually put on trial behind closed doors over the killing, with five of them sentenced to death.

Three others were sentenced to a combined 24 years in prison, while three more were released.

All of those convicted are able to appeal. There is no indication that any of them have had their sentences carried out.
Bacon isnt just for breakfast anymore. Heres a sampling of restaurants throughout the region where you can dig into some sinfully delicious strips of bacon from breakfast right through to lunch, dinner and even dessert. Lock 29 with Rebel Hill...
BELOIT, Wis., March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- First Community Credit Union (FirstCCU) hosts Local Gift Card Giveaway to show support for local small businesses.

From now until April 21, 2020, FirstCCU is giving community members the opportunity to win gift cards to local small businesses when they comment on their favorite giveaway posted on FirstCCU's Facebook page. Prizes include gift cards featuring the following local businesses:

First Community Credit Union

Mac's Pizza Shack in Janesville, WI

Sneakers in Janesville, WI

Bushel and Pecks in Beloit, WI

Bagels and More in Beloit, WI

McEachran Homestead Winery in Rockford, IL

Prairie St. Brewery in Rockford, IL and many more

"We're not only here to link arms our community members during this uncertain time by offering financial relief packages, but we're committed to doing our part to help promote and support local business as well," says Jack Gill, president of FirstCCU. "We're all in this together and FirstCCU is rolling up its sleeves to help!"

Remember to follow & like FirstCCU's Facebook page to stay up-to-date with the latest updates, promotions & giveaways facebook.com/FirstCCU. For more information about this giveaway and for the official contest rules, visit: https://firstccu.com/support-local-giveaway

To learn more on how FirstCCU is responding to COVID-19 and for financial relief options, visit firstccu.com/coronavirus.

First Community Credit Union is a member owned financial institution serving four full-service branch locations in Beloit, Janesville, and Monroe, WI and Rockford, IL. With more than 20,000 members and $168 million in assets, FirstCCU is a Bauer Financial 5-Star Superior Safety rated credit union for more than 18 consecutive years. Membership with the credit union is open to anyone who lives or works in Dane, Grant, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Kenosha, Lafayette, Racine, Rock, Walworth, & Waukesha County in WI as well as Winnebago, Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, McHenry, Ogle, & Stephenson in IL. For more information, please visit www.firstccu.com.

Media Contact:

Kristi Hanson, marketing director

[email protected]

(608) 758-4530

SOURCE First Community Credit Union
Pacific Gas & Electric is warning its elaborate plan for getting out of bankruptcy might collapse if the utility cant pay for its crimes in a deadly Northern California wildfire by taking money away from a fund set up to compensate thousands of victims for their losses.

The latest twist in an already complicated saga emerged this week after PG&E disclosed it will plead guilty to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter for neglecting to properly maintain equipment that ignited a 2018 wildfire that destroyed three towns in Butte County.

PG&E will pay a $4 million penalty as part of the plea agreement, but plans to do so by drawing upon a $13.5 billion settlement that it reached with wildfire victims as part of its bankruptcy case.

Although the $4 million represents a tiny fraction of the $13.5 billion fund, the notion that PG&E may be siphoning away any money earmarked for fire victims to pay for its criminal behavior is provoking more outrage about a company already widely unpopular for its role in other catastrophic wildfires, a malfunctioning gas line that blew up a neighborhood, and its bungling of power outages.

It is my sincere hope that PG&E finds another way to pay the penalty because its not what I want, and it certainly doesnt look good for PG&E in terms of the public relations or the overall optics, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey told The Associated Press.

Ramsey, though, said he has no control over where PG&E gets the money to pay the fine.

PG&E also says its hands are tied by a clause included in the settlement with wildfire victims that won bankruptcy court approval three months ago. The provision requires all fines and other penalties arising from the wildfires that drove PG&E into bankruptcy last year be paid from the victims fund.

If PG&E doesnt abide by the settlement terms, the company said it could cause other deals reached in its complex case to unravel. In addition to the victims fund, PG&E has negotiated another $12 billion in settlements with insurers and government agencies, and also has lined up commitments to raise tens of billions of dollars through stock sales and loans to help the company continue to operate after it gets out of bankruptcy. PG&E also expects to pay $1.6 billion to the lawyers, bankers and other specialists that help it put together its bankruptcy deals.

Any revisions to its past settlements risks investors walking away from their commitments to provide the funding essential to the companys ability to make payments to victims, PG&E said in a statement Friday.

But PG&E already has made several other changes to its plan since reaching the settlement with wildfire victims. The latest, reached with Gov. Gavin Newsom, came just a week ago. PG&E left the crack open for making a change that would allow it to pay its criminal penalty without tapping into the victims fund if it can get the necessary consents.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali has made it clear throughout the case that he is unlikely to approve any plan that doesnt pay the wildfire victims as much as possible. The judge could still prevent PG&E from using the victims fund to pay its criminal fine.

Some of the more than 81,000 victims who filed claims in PG&Es bankruptcy case already have been raising doubts about whether the $13.5 billion will be enough to pay everyone for the losses of loved ones and property in a series of 2017 and 2018 fire that killed nearly 130 people and destroyed more than 25,000 homes and other buildings. Two of the victims, Kirk Trostle and Adolfo Veronese, recently resigned from a 11-person committee overseeing peoples claims in the bankruptcy case because of their misgivings over the settlement with PG&E.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics California Catastrophe Natural Disasters Fraud Wildfire
New Delhi, March 30 : Delhi Lt. Governor Anil Baijal on Monday reviewed the preparedness on coronavirus and said the fight against COVID-19 rests on two pillars -- staying at home and social distancing.

Baijal had the daily video conference meeting with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and officials, including Chief Secretary and Police Commissioner from the Raj Niwas.

"Discussed further measures to enforce lockdown and maintain social distancing to contain the spread of corona as per instructions of the Government of India," the LG tweeted.

He said the fight against corona rests on two pillars -- "stay at home & social distancing".

The country is under a 21-day lockdown from March 25 midnight.

While India has reported over 1,050 cases of COVID-19, Delhi has witnessed 72 cases so far.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Photo: Contributed

Spring break is over in most of Canada but provincial governments and teachers' unions are still trying to figure out how learning will resume at home, which for many parents has been transformed into a workplace and now a classroom.

Shelley Morse, president of the Canadian Teachers Federation, said her main concern is that some students won't have access to the technology they need to continue schooling at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"If you only have one device in your household and two parents need it for work and students need it for their school work it's going to create many challenges and create inequities for sure," she said from Wolfville, N.S.

"We have issues all across Canada with high-speed internet and the fact that in some areas you don't even have that."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he will make a COVID-19-related announcement in the coming days pertaining to youth. Morse said she hopes will involve access to technology for students.

Karl Butler, a Grade 12 student in Guelph, Ont., has been grappling with at-home schooling.

"For some classes they have plenty of communication with us so we can actually do stuff in those classes, but for other classes they're like, do work you had before. Good luck. And that's about all they've told us."

A video conference in a computer science class has allowed students to ask questions while lessons and worksheets have been posted online for a physics class, said Butler, who is aiming at a career in engineering.

"It's just hard not being able to ask any questions to the teacher from the lessons so you're not fully understanding it going into the worksheet. And as well they can't walk through a problem with you so you don't really know how they want it for a test."

Butler said students also worry how their marks from limited tests they took at school will factor into acceptance by universities.

Butler, who has applied to three universities in Ontario and one in British Columbia, said he sympathizes with teachers as they await direction from their unions via Ontario's Education Ministry on how to teach remotely.

"Several of my teachers have emailed me saying they haven't been told what's happening. So they don't know what's happening as much as we don't."

The Ontario government has said classes will resume following March break. In British Columbia, schools are closed indefinitely while the B.C. Teachers Union and the Education Ministry come up with a plan.

Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce said he has been in discussions with the presidents of teachers' unions in that province on how to support students at home.

In a statement, he said they are also discussing strengthening professional development for teachers to better support students online and outside the classroom, as well as professional care on issues like mental health and special education needs.

In an online video message, schools superintendent Jordan Tinney told teachers in Surrey, B.C., that they should remain out of their schools unless a principal has asked them to go to the building.

A rotation will be arranged so staff to get any needed materials, said Tinney, whose school district is the largest in B.C.

"If teachers need technology and photocopying, we need to know when they will be in the building, who will use the copier, and then we will have a cleaning protocol for the copier after each use and for any classroom they have visited."

Jacqueline Loewen, who teaches kindergarten in Delta, B.C., said teachers in the district expect to get more information through an online conference next week but there's a lot of uncertainty about how students will be taught.

"It's been a very anxious kind of time wondering what is expected of us," she said, adding she may post a video of herself reading a book and ask parents to help her students respond to it.

Loewen said she is concerned about the impact of an ongoing disruption to classroom learning for children.

"If it goes as long as to the end of June, then September will be a whole different start than usual because our kids will be at different levels depending on how much they were able to do with their family, because even over summer kids regress," she said.

Loewen is also worried about children whose mental health and learning needs are not being met by specialized school staff as well as students who depend on breakfast and lunch programs at school.

"There's huge concerns. It's heart breaking."
In the wake of coronavirus pandemic, rampant racial discrimination has been reported from various parts of the country.

In yet another incident of racial discrimination, two students from the northeast were today denied entry to a supermarket to buy groceries in Mysuru, Karnataka.

The video of the same is going viral on social media.

In a video shared by Twitter users, two students who went to 'More' supermarket to buy groceries were denied entry by the staff and security who said "they were not Indians."



The students even showed their Aadhaar card to prove their nationality, but were still not allowed to enter. They had to leave without any groceries.

Twitter

One of the students, Yokai Johnny Konyak, posted the video on Instagram and wrote, "The world is fighting the pandemic together, nobody should sleep without food. Whether it be Indian, foreigner or northeastern or whatever, remember we are humans first and underneath every skin colour or face runs the same blood that is red. (sic)

According to reports, action has been taken against those who denied entry to the students. An FIR has been lodged in Krishnaraja Police Station. The manager and staff of the outlet have been taken into custody.

The incident received a lot of flak on social media, with people saying that it's not just the pandemic India is fighting but this mindset too.

In Karnataka, these boys from #nagaland were not allowed to enter a store because they don't look Indian enough. While we all fight #coronavirus , folks from #northeast are also fighting another virus that plagues India. pic.twitter.com/upLVvwF4iH  abhineet mishra (@AbhineetMishraa) March 29, 2020





A few days ago, a Delhi man spat on a Manipuri girl and hurled racial abuses. He was arrested soon.

With the spread of the deadly coronavirus pandemic across the world, racism has found a platform too. There have been several incidents where people from across the world are calling Chinese people names, and some even termed the Coronavirus as the Chinese virus.

People hailing from the northeast have been the usual targets of xenophobic and racist attacks in the wake of the novel virus, which has claimed thousands of lives across the world.
In a Monday morning phone interview on Fox News, President Donald Trump voiced support for hazard pay for medical staff on the front lines of the fight against the coronavirus.

The presidents comments come less than 24 hours after he insinuated that medical workers in New York were stealing protective equipment.

In an emailed question to Fox and Friends, a nurse named Wendy asked the president if there were any plans for hazard pay for medical staff that are in direct contact with the virus.

She also noted that she does not qualify for help from the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill.

Mr Trump said his administration is looking at that and examining ways of doing it primarily through the hospitals.

He described medical workers as incredible, brave, and warriors.

Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin later added his support for providing medical workers with hazard pay.

I think I agree with the president, I think that makes a lot of sense, Mr Mnuchin said.

When we get to the next bill in Congress, thats definitely something we will put in the next bill, he added, referring to the next step in the stimulus response to the coronavirus.

The presidents praise for medical staff is in contrast to remarks made on Sunday. At a press briefing, in which questions were asked about the shortage of personal protective equipment in New York hospitals, Mr Trump said: Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door?

Mayor Bill de Blasio said the presidents comments were incredibly insensitive and insulting to medical staff on the front lines of the citys coronavirus response.

New Yorks health care workers deserve better than their President suggesting that PPE is going out the back door of New York hospitals, said Kenneth Raske, president of the Greater New York Hospital Association, in a statement.

There is no evidence of any looting of medical supplies, and hospitals have been warning staff for weeks not to take masks home with them.

On Monday morning, New York state had more than 60,000 confirmed cases and more than 1,000 deaths.
Kathy Absolon is watching her mother peer out the main-floor nursing home window.

Behind the glass, the 88-year-old is beaming.

Outside, Absolon, her sisters and niece are drumming, singing their mothers favourites, The Cherokee Morning Song and, The Bear Healing Song.

Jennie Absolon lives in the Region of Waterloos Sunnyside Home while recovering from a fractured elbow. A few residents, her new friends, pop up behind her, ushered in by staff. They all stand, watching through the window.

On a dollar-store whiteboard, Kathy writes the words, Can you hear? Jennie and her friends nod yes, with wide smiles.

In normal times, Kathy and Jennie would be playing the hand drums side-by-side, like the Absolon women of the Bear Clan from the Flying Post First Nation have always done.

In an attempt to limit the spread of COVID-19, the Ontario government has told long-term care homes to ban all visitors, except for residents who are dying.

Like influenza or other outbreaks that fell the most fragile, the novel coronavirus quickly found its way into long-term care. Homes in Oshawa, Stoney Creek, Markham and in Toronto, at the Sunnybrook Veterans Centre and Seven Oaks, have reported cases. New cases are reported, almost daily.

Kathy Absolon, with her sisters and niece, drum for her mother, Jennie, in front of Sunnyside Home, a long-term care home operated by the Region of Waterloo. Jennie, 88, can't leave the home while she recuperates from a fractured elbow, so her family connects with her from outside the home.

Overseas, COVID has devastated nursing homes. Reuters reports that dozens of residents in Italian nursing homes are dying each day.

Seniors Advocate Laura Tamblyn Watts calls long-term care homes in Canada ground zero for COVID-19, because the people living there are so fragile.

And yet, to keep residents strong, the homes must be full of life.

In nursing homes across Ontario, the requirement of self-isolation is threatening residents need for emotional engagement to remain vital.

Absolon knows that for her mom, living behind locked doors cuts deep.

When she was young, she was taken from her family and put in a residential school. She wanted to leave. And when she couldnt, she cried and cried.

After the government issued the directive to close long-term care to visitors, Jennie asked if she could go out with her family for the day. The nurse had to say no.

I told my Mom, we will call you every day to have that connection and contact, said Absolon, an associate professor in the faculty of social work at Wilfrid Laurier University and director of its Centre for Indigegogy of the Indigenous Field of Study.

We want to stay in contact so that she knows she is loved.

In homes across Ontario, staff are helping residents see their families from afar.

Window visits are becoming a thing, said Lisa Levin, CEO of Advantage Ontario, which represents not-for-profit, charitable and municipal homes.

Levin said her association launched The Bright Lights in Dark Times Project to share creative ideas from homes, like asking children to draw happy-face pictures with messages for residents. In Vaughan, a chef baked and delivered St. Patricks Day cookies to a retirement home. (The ministry allows home-cooked meals as containers can be sanitized.) Others have started writing letters. Seniors love getting letters, she said.

Levin watched a video of Absolon and her sisters window visit.

It was so moving...The sounds of the chanting and the drumming to me shows the sorrow, pain and hope at the same time.

Staff at homes like the Rekai Centres, with homes on Wellesley St. and Sherbourne St. in downtown Toronto and Primacare Living in St. Catharines, Brampton and London, are organizing window-visit schedules.

Families arrange a specific time for workers to bring their loved one to a window for visits with grandkids waving or dogs with noses pressed against the glass. Families are buying white boards or Bristol board and colour markers, making signs that say I love you Grandma. Homes are also working with families to schedule virtual visits, through Skype or Facetime.

Before COVID-19, staff at Primacare Living had been going through training inspired by the Butterfly model. Now called Meaningful Care Matters, the program teaches workers to focus on the feelings of residents and the importance of social connections and purpose in day-to-day life. That training is now on hold but workers, who are screened before every shift for a temperature above 38 degrees or other COVID-19 symptoms and exposure, are asked to continue hugging and holding the hands of people in their care.

What we cannot do in our homes is stop touching people, said Primacares Jill Knowlton. We have to hug people.  This is human, dignified care. The touch, the hug, the moments that say You matter.

The essence of humanity is human connectedness. And when you are separated the way we are in this particular situation, it is devastating.

Social isolation protects against COVID-19, but other than a deadly outbreak, loneliness is considered one of the most debilitating aspects of life in a nursing home.

Thats why Tamblyn Watts, of CanAge, a seniors advocacy group, wants the long-term care ministry to ask operators to find ways to keep people emotionally connected to families, staff and each other. She tweets daily tips for seniors, families and homes, like Tuesdays suggestion for a social-distancing sing-a-long to big band hits, everyone two metres apart.

Im not saying dont fight the virus with everything we do, but the next most important thing we need to do is to ensure we are emotion-focused and to ensure wellbeing emotionally and mentally, otherwise older adults in long-term care will suffer twice.

Before COVID-19, many residents were settled into the trusting routine of eating and dressing with the familiar face of a loved one. Without their presence, Dr. Samir Sinha believes many residents and hospital patients will now feel lost, leading to agitation, depression or even delirium, an acute state of confusion.

A non-essential visit actually is an essential visit when (a relative) is the only person that they will allow to feed them or to dress them, said Sinha, director of geriatrics at Sinai Health and the University Health Network.

I think right now the goal of the ministry of health is to make sure these people are protected as much as possible from COVID. I think family and residents and staff are realizing that these directives have unintended consequences.

Sinha said that last weekend a 103-year-old man in the hospital became agitated when the people caring for him were strangers, not his daughter or the caregiver who normally stays with him at his home 24 hours a day.

Most of the government criteria (for visitors) that Ive seen across the country, that are being quickly implemented, dont talk about an older person with advanced dementia who is at high risk of delirium or behavioural issues, he said.

If we cant meet their care needs, we know all too well that things can get complicated very quickly and their overall care can be compromised.

At Sheridan Villa in Mississauga, administrator Marianne Klein tries to calm people, moment by moment. One of five long-term care homes operated by the Region of Peel, Sheridan Villa had been transforming its care model through Meaningful Care Matters training.

The other day I walked out the elevator and one of our residents was playing the piano for other residents, she said. Moments like this happen because staff empower residents to find purpose for themselves and others. At the Davis Centre in Bolton, in the early stages of emotion-focused training, art therapy classes continue with the teacher connecting through Skype projected onto a large screen.

Klein is also turning her attention to staff, to support those who are trying to juggle jobs with families and keep everyone healthy. Its a struggle in an industry that is constantly short-staffed.

I came in this morning and talked to one of my staff and it almost brought me to tears, because she spoke about her situation and childcare, Klein said.

I told her, I understand how you feel, because I have a 12-year-old daughter. Kleins voice cracked. While there were no cases of COVID-19 in Sheridan Villa, Klein said she is living alone so there is no risk of cross-infection.

For the last week my daughter has been staying with my parents who are also pretty high-risk and I am keeping pretty close tabs on all three of them.

This week, the ministry of long-term care issued a temporary order allowing homes to redeploy staff as needed to different jobs throughout the home.

When the Region of Waterloo closed its three seniors day programs, those workers were sent to the Sunnyside nursing home to focus on resident engagement, including arranging window and virtual visits.

We know there are a lot of people who dont have family or friends or their friends are in the community and they cant see those people anymore, said Connie Lacy, the regions director of seniors services.

Jennie Absolon knows she is blessed with daughters and a husband who visit her, holding window tea parties or drumming circles.

She loved watching her family performing outside. I just feel so thrilled. I feel so good that I am holding it in my heart.
Aihik Sur By

Express News Service

HYDERABAD: One must have seen the viral videos from China where a public address system mounted on a drone tells an elderly citizen, who was out on the streets without wearing a mask during the lockdown period, to go back into his house. This may soon become a reality in Telangana.

The Express has learnt that the State government is mulling the possibility of scaling up the usage of drones in combatting the Covid-19 outbreak.

It has been meeting various drone companies and taking their inputs in this regard. Such companies have proposed to the State the various uses of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

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The major use of an UAV in this fight is spraying of disinfectants. Drone companies from the city have explained to the State that the technology can be used in sanitising public spaces such as railway stations, special economic zones and so on.

They claim that drones can complete the work much faster than people. However, there are also other major uses for drones. The camera and speaker-equipped drones can be used to enforce lockdown and prevent people gathering at public places. They say it can be deployed in sensitive areas, where instructions would be given to people through drones.

The State has also been apprised by the drone companies on how drones equipped with thermal sensors can detect temperatures of individuals in a crowd in public spaces.

These drone companies are finding inspiration from China and South Korea, where medical staff identified new Covid-19 cases using this technology. However, when contacted, IT and Industries Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan said there were no such plans to expand the use of drones. And as for the spraying of disinfectants, Ranjan said its efficacy was not known yet.

As of now, the Karimnagar Municipal Corporation has used Marut companys drones for spraying disinfectants in the area where 10 Indonesians and one local had tested positive for Coronavirus.

The drones sprayed disinfectants at the District Collectorate, rhythu bazaars and other public spaces. On Thursday, Narayanpet District Collector Hari Chandana said they were also using drones to fight Coronavirus in the district.

Prem Kumar Vishlawath, co-founder of Marut Drones said, At a time when countries across the world are going for lockdowns owing to the ongoing pandemic, drones have emerged as a plausible solution to both spraying disinfectants and advising people to stay at home. Drones could prove a best solution to reduce infections, monitor peoples movement, crowd control, and delivery of medicines to those who are quarantined as well as elders.

Not just in the cities in Telangana, but in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Coimbatore, drones are being used to contain the spread of Covid-19.

While Bengaluru and Coimbatore have been using UAVs to spray the disinfectants, the Mumbai police are using it to monitor curfew and lockdown.
When the COVID-19 pandemic reached Manitoba, Rashmi Saxena and her husband started doing what they could to check on their neighbours and help the people in their community.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/3/2020 (654 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

When the COVID-19 pandemic reached Manitoba, Rashmi Saxena and her husband started doing what they could to check on their neighbours and help the people in their community.

Still, Saxena felt she could do more.

On March 13, she created We Got This  Winnipeg, a Facebook group where people can seek or offer information, assistance and supplies during this time of social distancing.

Within two days, 1,000 people had joined the group. Now, it has more than 2,000 members.

In one post, a retired nurse offered to do laundry for single parents and elderly people who dont have laundry facilities in their apartments.

In another post, an educational assistant with more than 20 years of experience offered to give resources and support to parents who are at home full time with their kids.

People have asked for diapers or help with their employment insurance applications.

"People are taking, but theyre also giving back," Saxena says. "Were already witnessing a sense of community. People are coming together."

The 39-year-old human-resources professional was born and raised in Meerut, a city in India located two hours northeast of New Delhi.

She credits her parents with teaching her "you get what you give."

Saxena and her husband Ankur Aneja moved to the United States in 2007. They relocated a few times as a result of Anejas work as an IT consultant, including stints in Atlanta, and Petaluma, Calif.

They moved to Winnipeg from South Brunswick, N.J., in January with their eight-year-old son, Kabir.

"(Winnipeg) is great," Saxena says. "People are really friendly. The only thing were trying to get used to is the weather."

Saxena is no stranger to volunteering. In Petaluma, she was involved with the parent-teacher association at her sons school.

"I believe very strongly that kindness goes a long way... and we should have each other's backs in times of need."  Rashmi Saxena

She also started a support group on Facebook where Indians living in Sonoma County can make new friends, exchange information and organize get-togethers.

The COVID-19 pandemic is scary, she says, adding she tries to limit her new exposure to updates on whats happening in Winnipeg.

"We are a little anxious about how it is going to turn out, and we are praying that this passes quickly," she says.

In the meantime, the family is practising proper hygiene and social distancing, purchasing only as much as they need and trying to help others any way they can.

They recently spent a day distributing care packages and food to Winnipeggers in need.

Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

After two weeks of monitoring the We Got This  Winnipeg group, Saxena sees two needs that she wants to highlight.

First, she asks that people or schools with extra laptops or iPads donate them to children who are now getting their education at home and dont already have access to this technology.

Second, she has noticed people are struggling to find places to quarantine themselves.

"If we can get some help finding people places to self-quarantine, I think that would be great," she says.

"I believe very strongly that kindness goes a long way... and we should have each others backs in times of need."

If you know a special volunteer, please contact aaron.epp@gmail.com.
Mumbai, March 30 : Actress Urvashi Rautela on Monday took to social media and shared a throwback picture that sees her strike a scorching pose in a blue bikini.

Sharing the stunning image, Urvashi gave her fans a message amid the coronavirus outbreak.

"Spread smiles, not germs," she wrote.

Reacting to the post, a user commented: " Beautiful." Another one wrote: "what a smile." Urvashi's picture was taken in Maldives a while back.

Despite the fact that she is yet to break into the top league of Bollywood actresses, Urvashi has emerged as a major sensation and influencer on social media with a following that seems to be burgeoning by the day, thanks to her pictures and video posts that range from the goofy to the gorgeous. Her dance videos as well as clips of funny antics are a huge hit, as are her still pictures that define fashion and oomph.

On the film front, Urvashi, who was last seen in the multistarrer comedy "Pagalpanti", will be next seen in the comedy drama "Virgin Bhanupriya".

-- Syndicated from IANS
The scene at the collision in Smithfield this morning. Credit: Dublin Fire Brigade

Emergency services rushed to the scene this morning in Dublin city centre after a truck and a Luas tram colided at a junction.

A red line tram derailed after a collision with a truck at the Benburb and Queen St junction in Smithfield at 9am in Dublin 7.

The male driver of the tram was rushed to the Mater Hospital hospital with non-life threatening injuries with no other injuries reported.

Gardai and paramedics from Dublin Fire Brigade attended the scene.

Expand Close A red line Luas collided with a truck in Dublin city centre this morning. Credit: Dublin Fire Brigade / Facebook

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Whatsapp A red line Luas collided with a truck in Dublin city centre this morning. Credit: Dublin Fire Brigade

Traffic diversions are in place for the coming hours.
Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian president, has threatened to fire his health minister if he publicly criticises his handling of the countrys coronavirus outbreak, according to a report.

The Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper claims health minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta clashed with Mr Bolsonaro over his refusal to take Covid-19 seriously, having previously dismissed it as just the sniffles.

Refusing to follow Mr Mandettas own advice, the president has continued to campaign against isolation measures and, over the weekend, visited a market area outside Brasilia to press home his case for keeping Latin Americas largest economy ticking over.

The health minister reportedly told the Brazilian leader during a cabinet meeting on Saturday he would have no choice but to criticise him for failing to heed government advice put to the public.

Bolsonaro replied that, if he did so, he would fire him, claims Estado.

Mr Mandetta also reportedly told the president that he could not defend his proposal to isolate only the old and the ill as a way of reducing the economic impact of the pandemic.

In a later press conference, the health minister said his measures would be guided by scientific experts and he called on people to stay at home because the health services cannot cope with a surge in cases of infection.

He also said chloroquine, which is used to treat malaria and defended by Mr Bolsonaro as a possible solution to the health crisis, was not a cure for the coronavirus and could be toxic if used without medical advice.

Mr Mandetta has been at odds with Mr Bolsonaro since the president greeted supporters rallying outside his office on 15 March.

As the countrys coronavirus outbreak has spiralled, with the number of cases almost tripling in seven days to 4,256, Mr Bolsonaro said that Brazilians need to keep working to earn their incomes while taking precautions not to catch Covid-19.

He has also lashed out at state and municipal officials who, in steps aimed at saving lives, have implemented tough lockdowns, closed non-essential businesses and banned public meetings, even in churches.

The far-right leader has continued to deny the gravity of the disease, calling it a small cold that would kill only old people.

On Friday, he cast doubt on the state of Sao Paulos official death toll from the outbreak, the highest in the country, accusing the governor of manipulating the numbers for political ends.

Im sorry, some people will die, they will die, thats life, Bolsonaro said in a television interview.

Recent modelling by researchers at Imperial College London suggests that as many as 1.1 million people could die in Brazil if no action was taken to limit the spread of Covid-19. If drastic containment measures are implemented, the research suggests up to 44,200 lives will be lost.

To date, the virus has infected more than 3,900 people in Brazil and killed 114.

Additional reporting by Reuters
Popular Nollywood actor, Uche Maduagwu, has taken a swipe at Tacha after she made a video where she mentioned President Buhari.

Recall that earlier, Mr Maduagwu expressed his displeasure towards Tacha when she pointed out that she would rather isolate in the UK against staying in Nigeria.

However, the reality TV star retured to Nigeria and made a video calling out the president for keeping mute on the coronavirus issue in the country.

READ ALSO  Mercy Stands Out From Other BBNaija Housemates  Maduagwu

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The actor, reacting to Tachas videos, asked her to focus on her makeup and fabulous lifestyle and keep the president off her lips.

See His Post Here:
As the nation continues to battle against Coronavirus, the Kerala High Court, on Monday, heard a petition filed against Karnataka's decision to block its border with Kerala and stated that no lives should be lost in the name of fighting coronavirus.

Kerala High Court said, "The current problem should be resolved amicably. Both the Union government and the Karnataka government should rise to the occasion."

The Centre had earlier informed Kerala High Court that the movement of goods and medical services qualify under essential services which are permitted despite the lockdown, and also directed the government to give priority to the movement of such goods and services.

READ | Kerala reports 32 new COVID-19 cases on Monday; tally rises to 213

Meanwhile, the Karnataka government has asked for a day to clarify its stand in the matter. The matter will be taken up for further hearing via video conferencing on Tuesday.

The Kerala government has also submitted the action of the Karnataka government to close the border and has called it illegal, as all the national highways in the country come under the jurisdiction of the National Highway Authority.

Meanwhile, Congress MP Rajmohan Unnithan has also moved to the Supreme Court seeking directions to open the Karnataka-Kerala border to allow movement of ambulances and other emergency vehicles for the transport of essential items to Kerala.

READ | Coronavirus: Congress MP from Kerala moves SC for the opening of borders with Karnataka

Coronavirus crisis in India

As of date, over 1071 positive cases have been reported of the pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) and at least 29 deaths have been reported to date. India has suspended all visas and barred travel from Afghanistan, Philippines, EU, UK, China, Malaysia and mandatory 14-day quarantine from several other countries and a complete nationwide lockdown till April 14 has been imposed.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a relief package for the poor and the affected persons due to the deadly Coronavirus. According to the minister, the package is worth Rs 1.7 lakh crore, under the Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Yojana. Meanwhile, India has also closed the India-Pakistan border and restricted passenger movement at the border with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Myanmar.

READ | COVID-19 lockdown: Hospital in Karnataka's Mangaluru starts WhatsApp telemedicine service

READ | Kerala HC grants bail to under-trial prisoners till April 30 amid nationwide lockdown

(With inputs from ANI)
The story about ten nationals of Guinea breaching the security cordon around the country and arriving Tamale is worrying.

Although we appreciate the challenges posed by our porous frontiers we would be quick to ask that this particular case considering the health crisis we are confronted with should not be glossed over.

Ignoring the subject and treating it as one of many before it would suggest that we are in normal times which we are not.

A probe into the matter would be appropriate and the findings made public.

Earlier Daily Guide had called the attention of the authorities, Ghana Immigration Service, National Security apparatus, the Ghana Police Service and the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) to how some political appointees are discouraging frontline security personnel from doing their work.

This followed credible information that some DCEs are fond of calling the security personnel to let go Burkinabes who come into the country on motorbikes even during this closure of borders.

Such interference would not inure to the dividends the President seeks to achieve on our behalf when he ordered the frontiers shut.

The Tamale issue refers. It would be important to trace the source of the lapse which enabled the intruders to travel as far as Tamale a journey of over a hundred and fifty miles from the frontier.

It would be worthwhile to determine factors which facilitated their movement and subsequent checking into a hotel in Tamale. Such hospitality facilities have laid-down protocols the breach of which can be costly and even dangerous.

Their subsequent positive test to Covid-19 is a matter of concern to both the residents of Tamale and beyond.

The Northern Regional Security Council should be commended for their prompt action in apprehending the Guinean nationals.

The EU have somewhat suspended the free movement of their nationals as was the case before the pandemic. The ECOWAS free movement protocols should for now be suspended. We do not therefore expect our neighbours unfettered entry for now because after all our frontiers and main international airport in Accra have been shut. Any breach such as entering when this directive of closure is still in place is an affront to our laws and should be dealt with accordingly.

We have learnt about their possible deportation though. That certainly is in order but should come after compelling them to disclose the details of how they came into the country regardless of the border closure.

Those who facilitated the breach should be made to face the music because such deterrence is required to give the necessary impetus to the President's directive and for people to be responsible.

Those who are seen to have been involved in the scandal should be made to face the music.

It is just unfathomable how a bona fide Ghanaian would facilitate the entry into Ghana of foreign nationals when such actions are injurious to the health of the nation at this time of a pandemic.
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People of St. Maarten, both at home and abroad, I hereby address you, as Prime Minister and Chair of the EOC (Emergency Operations Center), in an update for today Sunday, March 29, 2020, as part of the process to keep the community of St. Maarten informed about the latest developments and Governments COVID-19 preparedness, prevention, mitigation and response measures.





In a meeting of the EOC held today, March 29, 2020, on increasing measures to ensure the safety and security of the population in this COVID-19 period, I have made several decisions in relation to the movement of persons in and around St. Maarten and increased controls in movement across the border in collaboration with our French counterparts.





I hereby inform you that the Government of St. Maarten will be increasing its restrictions as per article 1 of the General Police Ordinance, which allows for special measures in extraordinary circumstances. This regulation will restrict movement and authorize the police to enforce the request I made to our people on Friday, March 27, to STAY AT HOME, and to practice extreme social distancing when necessary to be out for essential services.





This regulation will require our citizens to carry a document on them, signed by their employer, declaring the need for them to travel to work, or one which describes which essential service they are traveling to or for. This document will be available for download by the citizens of St. Maarten on Governments website www.sintmaartengov.org/coronavirus as of Monday.





Also, in collaboration with our French counterparts, the Prefet Sylvie Feucher, the gendarmes, and our police department, will continue to patrol the borders in order to restrict any non-essential movement across borders as well. This is in an effort to reduce the possibility of the spread of the COVID-19 virus. As such, all residents of St. Maarten/St. Martin needing to cross the border will only be able to do so for either work purposes or health purposes and will be required to carry a new document that will be available on both Governments website for download.





Our St. Maarten residents will continue to give/receive essential services. However, Government services will be by appointment only.





Effective Monday, March 30, 2020, all licensed restaurants including street vendors will only be able to sell/deliver food. It is strictly forbidden to sell alcoholic beverages at these establishments.





This is in order to minimize the chance of persons gathering at these establishments in a social atmosphere where proper social distancing of 1,5  2 meters is observed. The business closures at 6:00 PM each day and business closures on Sundays will remain in effect.





Additionally, as of Monday, March 30, 2020, a curfew will be implemented at 8:00 PM until 6:00 AM the following morning to allow for the majority of workers to get home in time. This curfew is implemented in order to restrict movement except for emergencies during these hours and has been added in order to ensure that no unnecessary movement occurs during the established business closure times.





Persons traveling to essential work, before and after the established curfew (6:00 AM and after 8:00 PM) will be exempted from this measure. For example, those persons working night shifts and early morning shifts, including security guards, nurses, radio hosts, etc.





The Ministerial Regulation signed by the Minister of Justice will be published on Monday and will be enforced by our men and women in blue, in collaboration with our French counterparts. Again, I want to remind you that these restrictions are put in place in order to protect you in these COVID-19 times.





Requests for military assistance in advance of a major outbreak are still being processed by the Dutch government. Other requests for financial and other assistance for medical equipment and personnel are also still not forthcoming, therefore we ask the general public to continue to comply with the measures put in place to avoid further spread of the virus on our tiny island. We have had no new confirmations of COVID 19 cases and our 2 hospitalized and 4 isolated patients remain in stable or good condition.





We are finalizing the negotiations to establish a government-controlled quarantine/isolation facility in order to minimize the movement of quarantined and isolated persons, specifically those who may be taking chances and venturing out in public.





As I conclude my address, I ask for something very simple. Save a life by staying at home. Stay at home because you matter! I pray that you are listening carefully to what Im saying. You matter! We are resilient and hopeful people AND we will get through this period. The Emergency Operations Center ESF coordinators are all working in the best interest of you and your families.





Follow our Government Radio station  107.9FM for official information, statements, and news updates or visit the Government website at www.sintmaartengov.org/coronavirus and our Facebook Page: Government of Sint Maarten.





God bless you, the people of St. Maarten and God bless St. Maarten as we all work together to keep her safe from the spread of this COVID-19 virus.




What do chocolate, migratory birds, flood control and pandas have in common? Many countries benefit from ecosystem services provided outside their nations. This can happen through economic relationships, biological and geographical conditions, but we hardly know how and where these ecosystem service flows occur. Scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) show in a recent study, published in the journal Global Environmental Change, how interregional ecosystem service flows can be identified and quantified.



"Ecosystem services are not constrained by borders," says Prof. Aletta Bonn, who works on ecosystem services at the UFZ and in. "For example, one country benefits from agricultural products originating from other continents or flood protection provided by floodplains in a neighboring country." These close links between distant regions arising from ecosystem services are known as telecoupling.



Understanding these flows can help to recognize the value of intact nature, identify global drivers of biodiversity loss or soil erosion in distant regions, and develop measures for more sustainable management. "It is important to understand the interlinkages and the environmental costs caused by domestic consumption of ecosystem services in other countries," says Aletta Bonn. "This information can then be used in political decisions, such as fair trade standards, environmentally and socially acceptable certification, and financial compensation measures."



But how can ecosystem service flows be identified, quantified and ultimately balanced between countries? The researchers investigated these issues in their recent study. As part of this, they examined the extent to which Germany uses ecosystem services that are provided in other countries.



"In previous work, we had already developed a conceptual framework for quantifying interregional ecosystem service flows," says Aletta Bonn. "Here, we differentiated between four types of flows which were examined for Germany in more detail." The scientists assessed trade flows using cocoa imports as an example and their impact on biodiversity in the producing countries.





"It turns out that approximately 85 percent of imported cocoa comes from only five mainly West African countries - Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Togo. Significant impacts on biodiversity are considered for Cameroon and Ecuador due to cocoa trade with Germany," says Dr. Janina Kleemann, former UFZ researcher and now at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. In the "migratory species" category, the scientists investigated the importance of migratory birds for German agriculture. "Our results indicate that Africa's tropical and subtropical climate zones provide a habitat for the majority of migratory bird species that make an important contribution to pest control in German agricultural landscapes," explains Janina Kleemann.



Ecosystem services associated with flood protection are assigned to the "passive biophysical flow" category. Here, the researchers concluded that Germany benefits by almost two-thirds from flood regulation provided in other countries' floodplains, and in return also exports around 40 percent flood regulation to downstream neighboring countries such as the Netherlands. In the "information flows" category, the loan of a Chinese giant panda to Berlin Zoo served as a case study. The research team highlighted the political, economic, scientific and cultural aspects of this exchange for the relationship between Germany and China.





"To place our study on a sound basis, we collaborated in an interdisciplinary, international team of ecologists, economists, geographers, and social scientists," explains Aletta Bonn. The UFZ study is one of the first studies to identify, systematically quantify and assess several interregional ecosystem services flows for a specific country using examples. Awareness and understanding of these flows is the first step towards fairly balancing ecosystem services use and sustainable resource management.





"When we know-how and to what extent we influence global biodiversity with our consumption patterns and international trade, we can make better decisions regarding individual and national consumption of resources and develop adequate measures for sustainable management," says Aletta Bonn. "Our study clearly demonstrates that countries such as Germany bear a global responsibility to protect and conserve biological diversity worldwide."
The Mumbai University on Monday appealed to all its teaching and non-teaching staff and affiliated colleges to donate their one day's salary for the Chief Minister's COVID-19 relief fund, varsity officials said.

Twelve more coronavirus positive cases were reported from Maharashtra today.The Maharashtra Health Department has confirmed that five cases have been reported from Pune, three from Mumbai, two from Nagpur, one each from Kolhapur and Nashik.With this, the total number of positive COVID-19 cases in the state mounted to 215.The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has confirmed a total of 1071 confirmed COVID-19 cases in India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
On Womens Day, 94-year-old Second Lt., Platoon Commander Rama Mehta of Azad Hind Fauj, reminisces her days spent fighting for independence

Britain shall always rule the waves this popular refrain at a Christian school in Burmas Rangoon now known as Myanmar and Yangon respectively would stay with teenage Rama Mehta (Khandwala) like a battle scar. While she was unable to do much as a young girl, as an adult she would use the phrase as motivation to fight for Indias Independence from the British.

While Indian soldiers were fighting in World War II as a part of the British Army, people in Burma, Singapore and Malaysia were gathering to form an army that could fight against the British rule in India. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the face of Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army, INA), said in a famous speech: Tum mujhe khoon do, mein tumhe azadi dunga (give me blood and I will give you freedom) inspired a 16-year-old Mehta to join INA in 1942 to to aide in Indian fight against British colonisation.

After listening to Netajis speeches, I was filled with nationalism and confidence and I joined INA, says the now-94-year-old as she welcomes us into her Mumbai based home, where she lives alone and spends her day reading books and teaching Japanese to two of her students.

Back in the days, she was the Second Lieutenant, Platoon Commander, and a Guard of Honour in the Azad Hind Fauj. She is also the oldest tourist guide of government of India to receive the Best Tourist Guide award by President of India Ram Nath Kovind in 2017.

The era of queens

Born in an affluent family in 1926, Mehta joined the INAs Rani Jhansi Regiment as a sepoy, at the age of 17 with her sister Neelam. She was put into the Rani Jhansi regiment by her mother Major Leelavati Mehta, who was the recruiting officer of training in INA and was a part of the Indian Freedom Movement for several years.

There were more than 1,000 queens (as Netaji would call them) in the regiment recruited from Malaysia, Bangkok and Singapore to fight for Indias Independence. They all assembled in Rangoon for the Chalo Dilli Movement, she recalls.

Headed by Dr Laxmi Sehgal, Mehta underwent rigorous training for around eight months and was trained to use stun guns, machine guns, rifles, and other war weapons. She also underwent nursing training to treat soldiers on the frontlines.

I used to cry a lot. I had never seen that life before. I had all the comforts of the world as a child. Waking up early and participating in marches was not easy, she shares, further recounting that she later made friends with other women soldiers, and she was the first among other women officers to join Indian soldiers at the frontline.

I would never get time to eat, even; there would be wounded soldiers all the time. There was constant bombing at the frontline and you just have to run to safe places, she adds.

People don't know what war is

As a soldier, Mehta at a very young age had suffered the deepest wounds and scars of war. Initially, women in the INA never went on frontlines, but the women in Rani Jhansi Regiment would pester Netaji to send them on the battlefields.

We wanted to serve the nation and be a part of the fight equally. Netaji was concerned for us so didnt send us in the beginning but then he agreed and I was selected among other few women, gushes Mehta, who says that while she lived her best days in the INA, wars are torturous.

People dont know what war is. We have seen that closely. We have seen people dying every minute. We used to spend hours in trenches, reminisces the veteran.

She further elucidates that there were attacks by British Army every night and they would usually choose full moon nights.For years, we hated full moon nights. As soon as we would hear the danger siren, we would run to our trenches and stay there till we hear cleaning sirens, she shares.

Although the former soldier has several painful memories, she also has a fond recollection of her meeting with Netaji. In the seven-acre camp where Mehta was stationed, she was allotted the post of a sentry guarding the camp.

I was strolling around the camp at night with a rifle on my shoulder and I slipped. I was injured and hospitalised in a military hospital. Netaji came to meet me and I started crying. He said The war has not started yet. You will be there on the frontline, and if you cry like this then how will you fight? Be bold and brave. Think about attaining Indias freedom. These words motivated me and I just forgot my pain, she recalls with a smile.

A high price to pay

From the (approximately) 75,000 soldiers were fighting for Indians independence, over 30,000 soldiers lost their lives. Many soldiers were kept in prison and tortured to death, while women were harassed and tormented after INA lost the war in 1945. Mehta, her mother, and sister were on house arrest for over six months.

We didnt see the outside world; the British army was spying on us. It was so uncomfortable. When a British soldier asked me that why I joined INA, I boldly told them that I want the Independence of India, she states, adding that once she came back to India in 1946, she stayed with her family in Mumbai and later was given an opportunity to join politics via the Congress party by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

I declined. I didnt want to join politics but wanted to serve the country, and I became a tourist guide with the government of India, she reveals.

It has been over seven decades since India successfully got her independence, but the INA veteran, clad in a simple blue salwar-kameez, still sits alone sometimes and thinks about the days in INA. She cries when she thinks of Netaji.

I cried when I heard the first speech of Jawaharlal Nehru after India got the Independence. Netaji wanted this in his entire life and he wasnt there to see that. The unfortunate part is that Nehru, Patel, and Mahatma Gandhi never gave recognition to Netaji. That was sad. We didnt get the freedom because of Gandhi or Nehru but majorly because of Subhas Chandra Boses army, she asserts before signing off.
Nguyen Van Dung (L) is summoned to a police station in HCMC for spreading false news on the city lockdown plan, March 30, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Quoc Thang.

A 20-year-old company driver has been fined VND10 million ($420) for posting false news of a 14-day HCMC lockdown.

Nguyen Van Dung, working in the citys Tan Phu District, said in a March 26 Facebook post that Ho Chi Minh City would be placed under lockdown for 14 days from March 28 over the Covid-19 pandemic.

After this false information sparked public concern, he was summoned by local police and admitted that he hadnt bothered to check the information before sharing it on social media. He said he was only doing it to warn people about the worsening pandemic situation and not for personal publicity or approval.

Under current regulations, individuals who post fake news on social media can be slapped with fines of up to VND15 million ($650), but Dung was considered for a more lenient punishment as he had a good family background, it was his first violation and he had sincerely admitted his wrongdoing, police said.

Police officials said that besides Dung, many other Facebook accounts shared the lockdown information on social media, prompting city authorities to dismiss such rumors publicly.

While Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked major cities to prepare for lockdown scenarios, no such order has been passed. Phuc has banned crowds of more than 20 people and ordered all localities across the country to close non-essential businesses from March 28 until April 15, saying the country has entered a two-week critical stage in its Covid-19 battle.

On March 26, police in HCMC cooperated with the citys Department of Information and Communications to identify 18 Facebook accounts posting this piece of fake news. Of these, eight have removed the post after the city government officially dismissed the rumor, while five accounts in Binh Dinh, Dong Nai and Quang Tri have not yet deleted their posts. Five accounts in foreign countries that have posted the false information have not been dealt with.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in Vietnam in late January, authorities have slapped fines on hundreds of individuals for posting fake news on Covid-19, including three celebrities.

Vietnam has so far confirmed 194 Covid-19 infections. With 27 patients in Hanoi released Monday, the number of patients discharged from hospital has gone up to 52.

To date, the Covid-19 pandemic has killed more than 33,900 people as it spread to 199 countries and territories.
Microsoft is pulling out of an investment in an Israeli facial recognition technology developer as part of a broader policy shift to halt any minority investments in facial recognition startups, the company announced late last week.

The decision to withdraw its investment from AnyVision, an Israeli company developing facial recognition software, came as a result of an investigation into reports that AnyVision's technology was being used by the Israeli government to surveil residents in the West Bank.

The investigation, conducted by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and his team at Covington & Burling, confirmed that AnyVision's technology was used to monitor border crossings between the West Bank and Israel, but did not "power a mass surveillance program in the West Bank."

Microsoft's venture capital arm, M12 Ventures, backed AnyVision as part of the company's $74 million financing round which closed in June 2019. Investors who continue to back the company include DFJ Growth and OG Technology Partners, LightSpeed Venture Partners, Robert Bosch GmbH, Qualcomm Ventures, and Eldridge Industries.

Microsoft first staked out its position on how the company would approach facial recognition technologies in 2018, when President Brad Smith issued a statement calling on government to come up with clear regulations around facial recognition in the U.S.

Smith's calls for more regulation and oversight became more strident by the end of the year, when Microsoft issued a statement on its approach to facial recognition.

Smith wrote:

We and other tech companies need to start creating safeguards to address facial recognition technology. We believe this technology can serve our customers in important and broad ways, and increasingly were not just encouraged, but inspired by many of the facial recognition applications our customers are deploying. But more than with many other technologies, this technology needs to be developed and used carefully. After substantial discussion and review, we have decided to adopt six principles to manage these issues at Microsoft. We are sharing these principles now, with a commitment and plans to implement them by the end of the first quarter in 2019.

Story continues

The principles that Microsoft laid out included privileging: fairness, transparency, accountability, non-discrimination, notice and consent, and lawful surveillance.

Critics took the company to task for its investment in AnyVision, saying that the decision to back a company working with the Israeli government on wide-scale surveillance ran counter to the principles it had set out for itself.

Now, after determining that controlling how facial recognition technologies are deployed by its minority investments is too difficult, the company is suspending its outside investments in the technology.

"For Microsoft, the audit process reinforced the challenges of being a minority investor in a company that sells sensitive technology, since such investments do not generally allow for the level of oversight or control that Microsoft exercises over the use of its own technology," the company wrote in a statement on its M12 Ventures website. "Microsofts focus has shifted to commercial relationships that afford Microsoft greater oversight and control over the use of sensitive technologies."
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Linkedin Charles Beraf (The Jakarta Post) Ende, East Nusa Tenggara  Tue, March 31 2020

Hunting time: Dayak tribespeople, armed with wooden blowguns, search for their prey in a Kalimantan forest. In some Dayak communities, the customary law permits hunting only in a specific zone. (Antara/Zabur Karuru)

Today we are facing COVID- 19, which is spreading faster than any other pandemic. While new diseases keep emerging, the previous ones that were thought to be controlled have returned, usually with new and more deadly strains.



Cholera and other old threats, such as influenza, malaria and tuberculosis, have become more deadly through mutation and growing resistance to antibiotics. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and avian influenza have caused major human suffering and devastated the worlds economy.



We realize now that those infectious diseases are not only spreading faster, but they appear to be emerging more quickly than ever before. The main reason is that unprecedented numbers of people are on the move and a highly mobile world provides numerous opportunities for the rapid spread of infectious diseases.



According to the World Health Organization, since 2001, more than 118,000 epidemic cases around the world have emerged and now can develop in a matter of days into a pandemic.



Due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, some countries have imposed a community quarantine or even nationwide lockdown to break the chain of virus transmission. In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte announced strict immigration curbs and a halt on domestic land, sea and air travel to and from Manila. In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has suspended pilgrimages to Mecca, while in Jerusalem, Al Aqsa Mosque has been closed over concerns about the outbreak.



Such efforts might be effective, but only temporarily, and not efficacious enough to eradicate the coronavirus around the world.



The coronavirus and other previous viruses actually constitute socioecological problems, relating to how human beings as the micro-cosmos keep the equilibrium in the universe as the macro-cosmos. Equilibrium means an equal relation between one species and another. An unequal relationship, such as domination of one species over another, causes ecological dysfunction that can manifest in various problems, including deadly viruses.



Some viruses, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which originated in non-human primates in Central and West Africa, or Ebola, which was transmitted to people from wild animals, and the new coronavirus, which was also transmitted between animals and people, show that our ecosystem is in a critical state.



This is not the fault of the animals, but humans who cut down the forest and expand industrial activities by which animal microbes have pathways to adapt to the human body. So, those cases should inspire us to evaluate the ways we deal with other species and our Mother Earth, and to reconcile with them.



We might realize that in the globalization era and under a capitalist system, being equal with other species seems difficult, but the ongoing pandemic should serve as shock therapy to teach us not to look down on human viruses but to seek ecological remediation.



The environmentalist Aldo Leopold once wrote a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community; it is wrong when it tends otherwise. Yes, now we may need a coronavirus lockdown, but more important than that we should leave our narrow shell, open our mind and respect other species in the universe.



Recently I conducted research on conservation practiced by the Dayak Seberuang tribe in West Kalimantan. The tribe depends primarily on forest resources for subsistence and income generation. Economically, they live on rubber plantations.



Other activities such as hunting, fishing and livestock rearing are practiced for subsistence. Forest timber and non-timber products are used by the tribe: wood for building or repairing houses, leaves of trees for medicines, firewood for cooking, animals and fruits for consumption. The use of the forest resources is managed by customary law, through which tribe members have rights to limited extraction within each forest zone (protected, reserve and utilization zones).



The adat (customary) system plays an important role in the management of the forest. Some areas of the forest can be privately owned. However, much of the forestland is owned collectively by the tribe, with each member enjoying the right to use it.



The adat law defines the number and size of trees that each household may fell each year. To ensure

adherence to the rules, tuai adat will take turns patrolling the forest every year, observing wild animals, clarifying the boundaries and checking boundary markers.



According to Lukas Bandar, a temenggung (tribe leader), the Dayak Seberuang tribe has been trying to keep its relationship with the forest as a source of water, food, materials, medicines, and also to keep the tribe united against outside forces, such as pollution (plastic waste) and any industrial activities that damage their forestland. If the relationship is hurt (freshwater or groundwater depletion and pollution), then the tribe will get a tulah (plague) that devastates the community.



Prominent biologist Rob Wallace believes that agriculture industry around the world has caused COVID-19 and any future zoonotic viruses. The capital-led agriculture that replaces more natural ecologies offers the exact means by which pathogens can evolve the most virulent and infectious phenotypes (Marx21, March 11,2020).



The Dayak Seberuang tribe does not follow agriculture industry. Their farming is guided by customary law, which allows tribe members to farm traditionally only in utilization zones, rather than protected or reserve zones. Such a system has so far protected them from any plagues that evolved from their forestland.



Preserving the equilibrium as the Dayak Seberuang have done should be an urgent concern. The coronavirus is zoonotic, meaning that it can jump from animals to humans. Its spread, as well as eradication, depends on our socioecological relations with other species. The better our relationship the greater our chance of survival.

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President Trump's response to COVID-19 has been rambling, chaotic, and petty. Lagging rather than leading international efforts to fight the virus, the US is grappling with crippling deficiencies in its political and health systems. But there is one controversial aspect of Trump's crisis response that is on point.

Donald Trump's phrasing is crude and clumsy, but he is right to keep awareness of the origins of the pandemic alive. Credit:AP

In his often rambling and incoherent press conferences President Trump has meticulously labelled COVID-19 as the Chinese virus". The phrasing is crude and clumsy. Its most likely inflamed racists in America and elsewhere. But his instincts are right. A cannonade of Chinese Communist Party corona-propaganda is being coordinated across the globe. Its vital that democratic nations stand up against it. That means, regrettably, while we fight this virus, we also need to sustain awareness of how Chinas authoritarian system let the pandemic slip. Through this crisis, shielding democracies from the lure of techno-authoritarian state models like Chinas will be a constant challenge. So too will be securing challenges to democracy at home.

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In an analysis of Chinese government messages The New York Times concluded that a concerted effort is underway by the Chinese Communist Party to position China as the leading global power fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting positive aspects of the Chinese governments response to the virus, and disputing that the virus originated from Wuhan, China. Official Chinese media sources and government spokespeople have asserted that the virus might have originated in Italy last November or the United States last September: some have fanned sinister online allegations that the US military was behind the spread of the virus.
People who have coronavirus without realising are an 'unknown threat' to others, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejikilan has warned.

'What is a concern to all of us is that unknown level of community transmission that you might get if people don't have symptoms,' she said on Tuesday morning.

'That's the real threat - people walking around without symptoms while they have this disease.'

Some coronavirus patients show no symptoms at all but may still be infectious.

There are now 2,032 confirmed cases of the virus in New South Wales, up by 113 since Monday

The Premier said everyone should assume they have the virus and stay at home to save lives.

'That's why it is important to assume that you have it, and to act like you have it,' the Premier said.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

There are now 2,032 confirmed cases of the virus in New South Wales, up by 113 since Monday morning.

Health officials are ramping up testing in the city's eastern suburbs after a cluster broke out among backpackers in Bondi.

Last night three crew members on the Ruby Princess, which is anchored at sea off Sydney with 1,000 crew on board, were rushed ashore to hospital.

There are currently nine cruise ships that are either docked in New South Wales waters or just into international waters.

There are no passengers on board but thousands of crew are not being allowed off as police urge the ships to return to their ports of origin.

Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said: 'The Federal Government has issued warning notices to them to return to their port of origin and I think they should listen to those warnings.

'Of course we will continue to show humanitarian care to those individuals who need it.

'We will continue to allow them to have fuel and food. But it is time to go to your port of origin.'
The coronavirus pandemic is set to cost Ghana GHS9.505 billion, according to Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister.

This will be 2.5 percent of Ghanas revised GDP.

Speaker, the total estimated fiscal impact from the shortfall in petroleum receipts, shortfall import duties, shortfall in other tax revenues, the cost of the preparedness plan, and the cost of Coronavirus Alleviation Programme is GH9,505 million, he said when he appeared in Parliament today, Monday.

The effect of the virus on the economy will worsen because Ghana just began a two-week partial lockdown of Accra, Tema, Kumasi and Kasoa.

This fiscal impact is as a result of the shortfall in petroleum duty, shortfall in import duty and shortfalls in other tax revenue, the cost of the preparedness plan and the cost of the coronavirus alleviation programme, the Finance Minister indicated

Import duties, for example, will fall short of target by GHS808 million for the 2020 fiscal year, the minister indicated.

The pandemic will also take a toll on Ghanas GDP growth.

Mr. Ofori-Atta said a preliminary analysis of the impact of the Coronavirus menace on the real sector shows that the 2020 projected real GDP growth rate could decline from 8 percent to 2.6 percent with an outbreak and 1.5 percent with a partial lock-down.

The Minister also explained that the overall fiscal deficit will increase from the programmed GH18.9 billion to GH30.2 billion, which will be 7.8 percent of revised GDP.

The primary balance will correspondingly worsen from a surplus of GH2,811 billion (0.7 percent of GDP) to a deficit of GH5.6 billion (1.4 percent of GDP), he added.

Mr. Ofori-Atta also announced that the GHS1 billion Coronavirus Alleviation Programme will be funded from the Ghana Stabilisation Fund.

The Minister is also seeking the support of Parliament to amend the relevant laws to lower the cap of the Stabilisation Fund from $300 million to $100 million to enable the government scoop the excess funds to bridge the gap created by the economic impact of the pandemic.

Mr. Ofori Atta said the equivalent of the $100 million announced by the President to help with Ghanas handling of the virus is ready.

I wish to assure that money has been secured and is available to be disbursed in accordance with public financial management procedure.

---citinewsroom
The energy sector has been hit by a triple whammy, and the pain is being felt throughout the broader industry. Even historically more conservative corners of the space, like the midstream niche, are getting whacked. But for intrepid investors willing to act while there's blood in the streets, now could be a good time to find bargains. Enbridge (NYSE:ENB) and Magellan Midstream Partners (NYSE:MMP) both offer high yields and fee-driven businesses. Let's take a look to see which of these two midstream names might be right for you.

1. Working in midstream

Both Enbridge and Magellan operate in the midstream space within the broader energy sector. Generally speaking, they both help move oil and natural gas, getting paid for the use of their pipelines and other assets. The price of the products going through their systems is not the primary driver of their financial results. So they are both a more conservative way to get exposure to the energy space than, say, an upstream-focused name that drills for these commodities.

That said, Enbridge and Magellan aren't immune to low oil and gas prices, which can lead drillers to pull back, thus reducing demand for midstream services. Moreover, as oil drillers pull back, there could be fewer opportunities for growth until prices recover. So low oil prices are a headwind, but not in the way that it would be for an oil driller.

The problem is that the pain is acute today in the oil patch. For starters, the massive growth in U.S. onshore oil and natural gas production was a key driver of new business for Enbridge and Magellan. However, that same production expansion left the world oversupplied with oil and gas, and kept energy prices relatively low and range bound. OPEC was attempting to handle this with production cuts, but a rift with Russia has squashed that effort. Now the spigots are open, and oil prices have plunged even lower. Oil companies are announcing plans to cut back even further than they had already. And now COVID-19 has brought the global economy to a virtual standstill, which will keep demand for oil and gas soft and allow inventories to build up. Even after the world gets back on its feet, it will take some time to work off excess supply stuck in storage. In other words, low energy prices are likely to linger.

This isn't the end of the world for companies like Enbridge and Magellan, but it does mean they will likely be facing headwinds for a while.

2. On balance (sheets) ...

At times like these, investors should be very concerned with an investment's balance sheet. The goal is to find names that can use their financial strength to at least muddle through a period of adversity. On that score, Magellan comes out on top, with a financial debt-to-EBITDA ratio of around 3 times. In fact, it just held a conference call to review with analysts just how strong its finances are. The highlight: Despite the oil price plunge, Magellan isn't altering its 2020 spending plans, and it expects to stay within its targeted leverage range. Enbridge, however, isn't exactly far behind when it comes to financial strength, with a financial debt-to-EBITDA ratio of roughly 4.8 times. Yes, that's higher, but not outlandishly so. And it's within the company's target range of 4.5 to 5 times, so Enbridge is clearly comfortable with this level of leverage right now.

The bigger takeaway here is that Magellan has historically trended toward the low end of the midstream sector when it comes to leverage. The benefit of that is showing today. Enbridge, meanwhile, has generally made more aggressive use of leverage. In fact, Enbridge's leverage has spiked into the high single digits several times because of things like acquisitions. If you own or buy Enbridge, you need to keep a closer eye on leverage. It's not a big issue today, as leverage has come down over the last year or so, but it has been in the past.

3. Size and scale

Another important thing to consider is a company's size and diversification. While both Enbridge and Magellan provide services to oil and natural gas customers, Enbridge is by far the larger and more diversified entity. Magellan, in fact, is downright tiny in comparison. For example, Enbridge's portfolio spans across North America (Magellan basically only operates in the United States). Enbridge estimates that it transports 25% of North American crude and 20% of the natural gas consumed in the United States (Magellan wouldn't even come close to those figures). On top of moving oil and gas via pipelines, Enbridge also owns natural gas utilities (serving 3.8 million customers) and a collection of renewable power assets (1.8 gigawatts of power), while Magellan only owns midstream assets.

This is not meant to suggest that Magellan is too small to matter in the midstream space, only that it isn't as big as Enbridge. In fact, that gives it the opportunity to expand more easily, since it takes less to move the top and bottom lines. But Magellan has been pulling back on the growth front during these difficult times since, right now, growth isn't the goal for the partnership -- getting by is the target. So this particular benefit of being small isn't particularly important right now.

Enbridge, meanwhile, has a larger and more diverse base of business to fall back on to muddle through today. However, because of its scale, Enbridge also believes it can still find enough profitable avenues of investment within its broad collection of assets to allow it to keep putting money to work even today. So growth is still on the table despite the energy market malaise, and that's largely because of Enbridge's massive scale and diversified business lineup.

4. Distribution/dividend strength

Magellan is a master limited partnership (MLP), so it pays distributions to unitholders. Enbridge is a regular corporation (it recently bought all of its MLPs in a simplification move), so it pays dividends. There are tax implications to this, including the need to deal with a K-1 if you own Magellan. So for those looking to keep things simple, Enbridge has a big edge (though it is Canadian, so you'll have to deal with the impact of foreign taxes). With that out of the way, Magellan currently has a 12.5% yield compared to around 8.5% for Enbridge. Dividend investors looking to maximize their current income might find that yield advantage appealing, especially in light of Magellan's more conservative leverage profile.

Don't jump just yet. Both of these midstream players have strong histories of rewarding investors. Magellan has increased its distribution annually for 19 consecutive years (every year since its IPO). Enbridge has increased its dividend annually for 24 years. Magellan covered its distribution by 1.2 times in 2019 (which has historically been considered strong coverage in the industry) and is saying that it believes that today's difficult energy market will only push that down to 1.1 times in 2020. Enbridge looks to pay out roughly 65% of its cash flow and is basically sitting at roughly that level right now, with enough free cash flow beyond the dividend to keep investing in its business. In fact, it just recently upped its dividend by 10%! If it can keep finding and funding organic investment opportunities, dividend growth should continue and likely at a higher level than Magellan can muster as it battens down the hatches. Magellan's higher yield is really a reflection of investor concern that it won't weather this downturn as well as Enbridge. That is, in fact, a very realistic view of the situation.

If you had to pick

Magellan is not a bad midstream investment and has always operated using a very conservative, unitholder-friendly approach. But right now it looks like Enbridge is better positioned to deal with the energy industry downturn while continuing to reward investors with dividend and business growth. The threats each faces are very real, and you'll need to keep a close eye on leverage at Enbridge, but it looks like Enbridge is a better option than Magellan today. And that remains true even though it has a lower yield.
DARIEN  If there is anything the community can do for Kristina Gregory, who has been battling COVID-19 for two weeks, it is listen to her advice.

As the number of confirmed cases and fatalities continue to surge in Connecticut, Gregory says everyone needs to take this pandemic seriously. Stay home, she says, and above all  practice social distancing.

I cant implore people enough to wake up. This is not funny. Everyone is suffering, she said Sunday in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media. The longer you mess around, the longer this will go on. You think this cant happen to you  youre wrong.

Gregory is a healthy, physically fit 51-year-old woman, but she said, the virus leveled me.

The wife and mother of two Darien middle schoolers has been an active volunteer in town  she served as a communications liaison parent for Royle School, and worked with Opus for Person-to-Person, and the YWCA Darien/Norwalk. She now works for Brown Thayer Shedd Insurance Agency.

The beginning

Gregorys experience began shortly after Darien schools were closed on March 12 and her agencys office also shut down with employees working remotely.

On the morning of March 14, Gregory said her chest began to feel tight  but she had been doing heavy bench pressing and assumed it was muscular.

Related: Town-by-town breakdown: Coronavirus cases in CT

The following morning, Gregory woke up feeling symptoms similar to the flu.

I had body aches, chills, a headache, she said. Gregory said, in particular, the headache was one of the more painful symptoms. Being aware of the coronavirus pandemic, Gregorys husband moved into the guest bedroom and she quarantined herself in the master bedroom that had its own bathroom.

Testing

On March 16, Gregory felt worse. She developed a low-grade fever and felt chills and sweats. She reached out to her primary doctor, who advised her to go to the Stamford Hospital emergency department. Gregory waited in the car while her husband signed her in and brought her a mask and gloves.

The hospital brought her to a separate isolation area where she was first tested for flu to rule it out. The flu test came back quickly and she was tested for COVID-19  that test included swabs in both nostrils and the back of the throat.

She did not register a fever at Stamford Hospital, but Gregory said that was likely because she had taken an Advil for her excruciating headache.

Gregory was told the test results would be back in three to five days. Despite no results, she assumed she had the coronavirus. She returned home and informed anyone she had been in contact with in the previous two weeks.

Waiting for results

Gregory said she had no known exposure.

I dont know where I got it or how I caught it, she said.

For several days, her symptoms remained similar.

I slept a lot  18 hours a day, she said. She, along with her family, forced herself to eat to consume needed calories for strength. Gregorys symptoms still included tightness in her chest but she  who has no history of respiratory issues  was not plagued by the bad cough others have experienced.

Related: Coronavirus in Darien: The latest  Saturday, March 28

On March 21, Gregory lost her senses of smell and taste  and as of Sunday, they have not returned.

Gregory said she was told her test results would be back within three to five days. But Gregory said she waited 11 days and found out Friday she tested positive for COVID-19. Gregory said her family was told the delay was due to a backlog in test results.

Gregory has already registered with Mt. Sinai and the Red Cross to donate antibodies to help others suffering from the virus. Mt. Sinai has announced it plans to initiate a procedure known as plasmapheresis, where antibodies from recovered patients will be transferred into critically ill patients, with the expectation that the antibodies will neutralize it.

Gregory said she was aware of three other people she had come in contact with who tested positive or had shown symptoms. In terms of how the virus travels, she said her mother visited before schools and the town shut most operations down.

She returned to her small town, and visited my sister  and now my sisters boyfriend has tested positive. Did he get it from me? I dont know, she said.

Another impact of the virus was on Gregorys family, who are not showing symptoms but have been separated from her for most of the last two weeks.

Gregory credits her husband for actively cleaning and sterilizing surfaces throughout their home. She has also kept her quarantined area clean.

My younger son, Nathan, is very attached. He really missed physical contact, Gregory said. Though she is no longer keeping herself quarantined from her immediate family members in the home, she is still keeping physical contact to a minimum.

Still, there was some positives. Nathan, 11, has learned how to make the proper cup of tea.

She also walked her older son, Peter, 13, an eighth-grader, through making dinner on FaceTime.

Everyone learned a little bit, Gregory said. She is also back to having meals with her family in person versus on FaceTime, albeit at the far end from them at a long table.

Each day gets a little better, Gregory said. Im a pretty physical, active person  I do hardcore workouts  and Im not there yet. I dont have that kind of strength. I do low-impact stuff and just recently left the house with our family to walk the dog.

Gregory also said her Darien friends and neighbors have offered support through her ordeal.

The warning

But as much as she loves the community, Gregory is seeing and hearing behavior that leaves her frustrated that this pandemic is not being taken seriously. Gregory referred to an acquaintance she learned of who had flown to Miami with the airfare cheapened by a coronavirus discount.

Im a very very healthy person and I got absolutely leveled by this disease, she said. Playing in your neighborhood, with your friends. You cant do that right now. You have to stick to your own family, as hard as that is.

I was in absolute agony for days and I couldnt get relief from anything, she said.

She said it is disappointing to hear that people are hanging out and not taking this seriously.

This is no joke, she said.
EasyJet's founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou today justified the decision to pay a 174million dividend to shareholders including around 60million to his family just ten days before it grounded all its 330 planes today.

The Luton-based airline employs 9,000 staff and is the first in the UK to stop all flights and mothball all jets since the coronavirus pandemic took hold in Britain, killing 1,408 so far.

Sir Stelios said today the now-controversial dividends were agreed in February when 'the world looked like a much happier place' and the cash was 'automatically' paid to shareholders on March 20 and were 'impossible to stop'.

In an extraordinary statement the billionaire also said calls for him to give the money back were 'naive' and 'malicious', adding easyJet 'is not a charity'.

The grounding of easyJet's gigantic fleet came just days after calling for a state loan to help them survive.

Justifying the 170million payout Sir Stelios, who with his siblings are the largest single shareholders in the carrier with a 34 per cent stake, insisted that the dividends were 'legal' and 'rightful'.

He said: 'The reality of the situation is the dividend was legally at the point of no return on the 6th of February, or at the very latest on the 27th of February 2020. The world looked like a much happier place on the 6th of February and the dividend was rightfully paid to all shareholders'.

The billionaire founder of easyJet Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou (pictured in Monaco where he lives) was awarded a 60million dividend from the ailing business ten says ago. It grounded all its planes today and furloughed staff

EasyJet planes are seen grounded at Edinburgh Airport this morning as all its 1,000-plus routes closed for at least two months

In a lengthy statement he said the payments could not have been stopped.

He said: 'The dividends by the 20th of March we already paid automatically via a complex web of bank accounts where the shares are held and it is impossible to stop it for some shareholders but not for others'.

Sir Stelios is threatening to seek the removal of board members unless the airline withdraws from a contract with Airbus to provide 107 aircraft which he said will cost 4.5 billion.

In his statement today he said journalists who asked whether he would hand his dividend back were 'naive/malicious', adding: 'I am perplexed as to how that would work?', adding: 'To be used how? To pay that money straight over to Airbus? And what is the consideration for such a gift? Or is it meant as a selfless charitable donation? Charity towards which deserving cause exactly? easyJet is not a registered charity to receive donations and neither is Airbus. That's not how publically listed companies work'.

EasyJet today grounded its entire fleet of 330-plus planes as coronavirus continued to wound Britain's airlines.

The airline serves 159 airports and 1,051 routes, has 9,000 UK-based staff including 4,000 cabin crew.

The company has worked with union Unite to agree two-month furlough arrangements for cabin crew which means that crew will be paid 80 per cent of their average pay up to 2,500-a-month through the Government job retention scheme.

Virgin Atlantic will ask the British government for a package of commercial loans and guarantees worth hundreds of millions of pounds, the Financial Times reported.

Other carriers including airlines such as Loganair and Eastern Airways, and Norwegian Air Shuttle are also considering to ask for state aid, the newspaper added.

But British ministers want bigger airlines with wealthy shareholders will weather the storm without the need for billions in taxpayer cash.

The Luton-based carrier said the measure 'removes significant cost' as the aviation industry struggles to cope with a collapse in demand caused by the outbreak of the virus.

It insisted it 'maintains a strong balance sheet' and revealed it is in 'ongoing discussions with liquidity providers'.

EasyJet said in a statement: 'As a result of the unprecedented travel restrictions imposed by governments in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the implementation of national lockdowns across many European countries, easyJet has, today, fully grounded its entire fleet of aircraft.

'Over recent days easyJet has been helping to repatriate customers, having operated more than 650 rescue flights to date, returning home more than 45,000 customers. The last of these rescue flights were operated on Sunday March 29.

We will continue to work with government bodies to operate additional rescue flights as requested.

How coronavirus has affected airlines in the UK over the past month Flybe: Europe's largest regional airline collapsed on March 5 after months on the brink, triggering 2,400 job losses and left around 15,000 passengers stranded across the UK and Europe. Flybe's owners, a consortium including Virgin Atlantic, the Stobart Group and hedge fund firm Cyrus Capital, blamed coronavirus for hastening the ailing airline's collapse. Flybe operated up to 50 UK routes, accounting for 40 per cent of all domestic flights, and was used by 9.5million passengers a year. British Airways: The International Airlines Group, which also includes Iberia and Aer Lingus, said on March 16 that there would be a 75 per cent reduction in passenger capacity for two months, with boss Willie Walsh admitting there was 'no guarantee that many European airlines would survive'. easyJet: The airline with 9,000 UK-based staff including 4,000 cabin crew grounds its entire fleet of 344 planes on March 30. The Luton-based carrier said parking all of its planes 'removes significant cost' as the aviation industry struggles to cope with a collapse in demand. Loganair: The Scottish regional airline said on March 30 that it expects to ask the Government for a bailout to cope with the impact of the pandemic. Loganair will go to the government despite being told by Finance Minister Rishi Sunak last week that airlines should exhaust all other options for funding, before asking for help. Jet2: The budget holiday airline has suspended all of its flights departing from Britain until April 30. A number of Jet2 flights turned around mid-air earlier this month while travelling to Spain when a lockdown was announced in the country. Virgin Atlantic: The airline said on March 16 that it would have reduced its lights by 80 per cent by March 26, and this will go up to 85 per cent by April. It has also urged the Government to offer carriers emergency credit facilities worth up to 7.5billion. Ryanair: More than 90 per cent of the Irish-based airline's planes are now grounded, with the rest of the aircraft providing repatriation and rescue flights. Advertisement

'At this stage there can be no certainty of the date for restarting commercial flights. We will continuously evaluate the situation based on regulations and demand, and will update the market when we have a view.'

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of easyJet, is threatening to seek the removal of board members unless the airline withdraws from a contract with Airbus to provide 107 aircraft which he said will cost 4.5 billion.

The billionaire and his family are the largest single shareholders in the carrier with a 34% stake.

He described the Airbus deal as 'simply shareholder value destroying'.

He added that unless his concerns are addressed by noon on Wednesday, he will call for extraordinary general meetings every seven weeks and attempt to remove a non-executive director on each occasion.

In response to the letter, easyJet said it is 'working with suppliers to defer and reduce payments where possible including on aircraft expenditure'.

Airports and airlines struggling for survival as a result of coronavirus have accused ministers of U-turning on a promise of special support.

This month Chancellor Rishi Sunak said he was preparing a support package to help the aviation industry deal with the biggest challenge in its history.

He was rumoured to be finalising a multi-billion rescue deal for the industry, which could have seen the Government purchase stakes in the hardest-hit airlines.

However, the Chancellor has now told industry leaders that the Treasury will only provide support 'as a last resort' - and only if individual companies have 'exhausted other options'.

The Airport Operators Association (AOA), which represents UK airports, last night accused the Government of abandoning the sector amid fears some airlines could collapse within weeks.

Chief executive Karen Dee said: 'After having publicly announced a support package for airports and airlines, we're surprised by where we find ourselves today. Our industry will now have to fight on its own to protect its workforce and its future.

'With passenger numbers approaching close to zero, UK airports have seen a major drop in revenue. They are taking unprecedented steps to safeguard airport staff and operations through this crisis, which could include in some cases considering shutting down for a period of time. This could have major impacts for UK communities and businesses.'

The AOA has demanded a support package that included measures such as relaxing regulations relating to mandatory training requirements, extending business rate relief to airports and deferring all aviation taxes for the duration of global flight restrictions.

NHS asks thousands of first aid-trained easyJet and Virgin airline staff to help battle coronavirus Air cabin crew will join doctors and nurses in staffing the new Nightingale hospitals built to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the NHS has said. Staff at Virgin Atlantic and EasyJet have been invited to volunteer at the new 4,000-bed clinic being built at the Excel centre in east London, and those planned in Birmingham and Manchester. Their salaries will continue to be paid by the airlines as an astonishing 750,000 other Britons joined the NHS volunteer army in just five days. Many first-aid trained cabin crew across the world have been grounded as countries have closed borders and cancelled flights amid the Covid-19 pandemic. EasyJet has already written to its 9,000 UK-based staff including 4,000 cabin crew trained in CPR to invite them to give their time to the NHS. Virgin Atlantic will begin writing to 4,000 of its employees on Monday and will prioritise getting in touch with those who already have the required skills. Those who join up will be given expert training and will then perform support roles such as changing beds under the guidance of trained nurses. Advertisement

Virgin Atlantic has also urged the Government to offer a 7.5 billion bailout, while the Balpa pilots' union warned last week that aviation companies could begin 'winding down' in the coming days without more support.

Plummeting passenger numbers have forced airlines such as EasyJet and Ryanair to ground their entire fleet, while bigger carriers such as BA and Virgin Atlantic have cut schedules by up to 90 per cent.

Airports have warned they could close within weeks due to flatlining footfall. Many of the country's smaller regional airports were already struggling before the pandemic following the collapse of Flybe earlier this month.

In his letter to the industry, the Chancellor says: 'Given the significant importance of the aviation sector to our economy and economic recovery, the Government is prepared to enter negotiations with individual companies seeking bespoke support as a last resort, having exhausted other options.

'However further taxpayer support would only be possible if all commercial avenues have been fully explored, including raising further capital from existing investors and discussing arrangements with financial stakeholders.'

The Mail understands the decision not to provide a single package of support was taken after it became clear that each aviation company had very different needs.

Sir Richard Branson has pledged 215million to support Virgin Atlantic, which he part-owns, but the airline is still calling for a taxpayer bailout.
Three, one of Ireland's biggest phone networks, has been fined 51,000 by the Communications Regulation ComReg.

The financial penalty was levied because Three failed to provide some of its customers with contracts on a durable medium, such as an email or letter.

A ComReg investigation found that between July 2017 and November 2019, Three failed to provide 57,147 of its 'affinity plan' customers with a contract on a durable medium, contrary to Regulation 12 of the Consumer Information, Cancellation and Other Rights Regulations, 2013.

These customers had signed up to the contract via JV Facility, who carry out telesales for Three.

The law specifies that customers must have access to their contract on a durable medium, meaning they can easily access their contract in order to understand it.

ComReg noted that this made it difficult for the affected Three customers to recognise and identify the main characteristics of their plan, such as the call, text, data and roaming allowances they had.

The Commission was also concerned that customers consideration of their right to cancel the contract, within the statutory 14-day cooling-off period, was hindered as a result.

EU regulations stipulate that consumers have the right to withdraw from a contract made online or by phone within 14 days.

Three has paid the penalty in full and has agreed to undertake a number of remedial measures including contacting the affected customers and providing them with confirmation of their contract including information about the 14-day cooling-off period.

Three has also published a corrective statement on its website explaining how it has contravened the regulations.
VANCOUVER, March 30, 2020 /CNW/ - UrtheCast Corp. (TSX:UR) ("UrtheCast" or the "Company"), a leading provider of information-rich products and services in the rapidly growing and evolving geospatial and geo-analytics markets, has rescheduled the reporting of its annual financial statements, management discussion and analysis and Annual Information Form in respect of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 (the "2019 Disclosure") beyond the previous expected date of March 30, 2020. UrtheCast now expects to release its 2019 Disclosure on or before May 14, 2020.

The logistics of the Company's financial statement preparation and audit processes have been impacted by government action in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including severe restrictions on movement affecting our employees and operations in France and Spain. In rescheduling the 2019 Disclosure, the Company is relying upon the Canadian Securities Administrators' blanket relief, which, in light of COVID-19 and its impact on market participants, provides a 45-day extension for periodic filings normally required to be made by issuers on or before June 1, 2020. Similar relief has been provided by the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Until the 2019 Disclosure is filed, the Company's management and other insiders will remain subject to a trading blackout pursuant to the Company's Insider Trading Policy, a copy of which is available on our website. The Company will continue to issue press releases and material change reports as required by applicable securities laws and regulations, and, as required by the aforementioned blanket relief orders, will issue a further press release within 30 days to provide an update on the release of its 2019 Disclosure, any expected rescheduling of its Q1 2020 financial disclosure and other business developments.

Material Business Developments

Since the date of the Company's most recently disclosed interim financial statements for the period ending September 30, 2019, there have been the following material business developments:

CAD$1.4 Million SADI Reimbursement

In March 2020, the Company received reimbursement for CAD$1.4 million of eligible costs under its previously announced funding arrangement with the Government of Canada's Strategic Aerospace and Defense Initiative (SADI) Program. The payment was made pursuant to a waiver granted by SADI while the Company continues to seek an alternative credit facility, as required to comply with certain covenants under the SADI Program.

CAD$2.0 Million Financing

As announced on February 3, 2020, the Company completed a CAD$2.025 million financing with SMF Investments Limited, consisting of an unsecured convertible debenture of the Company which accrues interest at 17% per annum and has a maturity date of March 31, 2020. SMF Investments Limited was also issued 4,171,677 common share purchase warrants by the Company. Complete terms of this financing are described in the Company's Material Change Report dated February 10, 2020, available on our SEDAR profile.

Deferral of Second Instalment Payable to Land O'Lakes

As announced on February 3, 2020, the Company and Land O'Lakes agreed to defer the remaining US$4.25 million of the second purchase price instalment for the Geosys acquisition, which had been due February 14, 2020. With this deferral, US$0.75 million is to be paid on April 1, 2020 through a setoff of amounts owed by Land O'Lakes under its 13-year services agreement and US$3.5 million is to be paid by April 14, 2020.

Payment Deferral under 25.0 Million Sabadell Secured Term Loan

In March 2020, Banco de Sabadell, S.A., a lender to UrtheCast in connection with a secured term loan which is secured against the assets of the Deimos Imaging business, agreed to a further deferral to June 1, 2020 of principal repayments of 1.35 million and 4.0 million, respectively, which were previously due on January 31, 2020, in exchange for a partial principal payment of 0.15 million plus accrued interest. The extension will provide the Company with additional time to complete the proposed sale of the Deimos Imaging business.

Extension of Existing Loans

As announced on February 3, 2020, the lenders of the previously announced US$12.0 million one-year term loan entered into on January 14, 2019 extended the maturity date to April 14, 2020, and a fee of US$0.2 million is payable to the lenders. The Company is in constructive discussions with its lenders for extensions of the maturity dates under the Company's (i) US$1.5 million secured term loan entered into in June 2019, (ii) US$1.5 million secured term loan entered into in July 2019 and (iii) convertible debentures in the aggregate principal amount of CAD$6.6 million issued in September 2019.

Corporate Update

As previously disclosed, the Company has received a number of indicative term sheets from institutional investors to finance the UrtheDaily satellite constellation project and has been actively working towards satisfying due diligence requirements and to negotiate final terms. The Company continues to make progress in this competitive process and remains focused on finalizing a binding commitment. With regards to the sale of its Deimos Imaging business, the Company continues to engage in due diligence activities with interested parties in order to secure a binding sale agreement.

While management remains confident in its strategy and is pleased with the progress of the above discussions, there can be no assurance that the Company will enter into binding agreements with respect to the financing of the UrtheDaily constellation or the sale of the Deimos Imaging business.

Impact of COVID-19

Like all businesses, the Company is navigating the rapidly changing operating and market dynamics caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and government efforts to mitigate its effects. The Company's highest priority is the health and safety of its employees, and we have taken all recommended steps to allow employees to work remotely while continuing to maintain our operations and serve our customers without interruption.

To date, other than with respect to the aforementioned financial reporting and audit process delays, we have not experienced any material disruption in our business operations as a result of COVID-19. As indicated above, we continue to execute and reach payment milestones under our government contracts and are working closely with our advisors to complete the UrtheDaily constellation financing and sale of the Deimos Imaging business. We are continuing to monitor the situation closely and are prepared to further adjust our operations in Spain, France, the U.S. or Canada as needed to ensure minimal disruption to our business. While we expect that the general market downturn occurring globally may have near-term impacts on new data and geo-analytics services sales and collection of receivables from customers, the Company's medium- and long-term outlook are strong and our strategy remains unchanged.

About UrtheCast

UrtheCast Corp. is a Vancouver-based company that serves the rapidly growing and evolving geospatial and geo-analytics markets with a wide range of information-rich products and services.

For more information, visit UrtheCast's website at www.urthecast.com.

Forward Looking Information

This release contains certain information which, as presented, constitutes "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information involves statements that relate to future events and often addresses expected future business and financial performance, containing words such as "anticipate", "plan", and "expect", statements that an action or event "may" or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions and includes, but is not limited to, statements relating to: UrtheCast's expectations with respect to raising capital and continuing as a going concern; expectations regarding UrtheCast's ability to meet its obligations and satisfy its liabilities under its existing indebtedness and to negotiate any necessary extensions to its existing loans or further compliance waivers under funding agreements, such as the SADI funding program; expectations regarding discussions of, and the proposed and/or planned sale of all or substantially all of Deimos Imaging and its related business and the negotiations with interested parties in respect thereof; expectations with respect to its ability to enter into a financing arrangement for the build, launch and commissioning of the proposed UrtheDaily satellite constellation, and to otherwise raise proceeds from a debt or equity offering, achieve the required leverage and contracted value ratios and satisfy the conditions of its indebtedness and business needs generally, and the status and timing of any discussions in respect thereof; UrtheCast's ability to complete the second closing of the acquisition of Geosys; expectations regarding the performance of key subcontractors and the completion of certain customer contracts or achievement of payment milestones under the Company's contracts; expectations regarding its plans, and the timing thereof, to build, launch and operate the UrtheDaily Constellation; and expectations regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the Company, it operations, sales and global markets generally.

Such statements reflect UrtheCast's current views with respect to future events, and are necessarily based upon estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by UrtheCast as at the date of this press release, are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors could cause UrtheCast's actual results or performance to be materially different from expectations that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, among others: the Company's ability, or inability, to rectify its current cash constraints and to continue as a going concern; the Company's ability to enter into a financing arrangement for the UrtheDaily constellation, and any delays or failures in the design, development, construction, launch and operational commissioning of the such constellation; the Company's ability to comply with debt and repayment obligations and avoid the exercise of lenders' rights, including with respect to seizing secured assets; unexpected increases in fixed or variable costs; lower than expected revenues from Geosys or the Company's other products and services; the loss of key personnel; unexpected delays in operations caused by key subcontractors; a worsening crisis caused by COVID-19, such as the mandatory closure of businesses, a disruption in credit markets, declines in sales orders, insolvency of customers or subcontractors, riots, geopolitical tensions, trade restrictions or other adverse and unknown outcomes from this unprecedented situation; the Company's ability to fund its future operations, which is contingent on its efforts to raise additional financing and/or sell certain assets of the Company; legal claims made by lenders, shareholders or suppliers of the Company in connection with its operations and/or performance; the Company's ability to successfully complete a sale of, or other transaction that would monetize, Deimos Imaging on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, or a significant further delay in the sale process; UrtheCast's ability to fund the remaining installments for the purchase price of the Geosys transaction or otherwise successfully complete the final closing of the Geosys acquisition; loss, reduction in scope, termination, failure to satisfy conditions precedent or decline in general of the Company's agreements or relationships with its key partners, including Land O' Lakes, Inc. and purchasers of advance data purchase subscription agreements for the data expected to be provided by the UrtheDaily constellation; risks related to the government funding received by UrtheCast and risks arising from breach or default of obligations under the related agreements with certain government agencies; delays or disputes with customers regarding the payment milestones under the Company's data imagery, engineering services or value-added services contracts, which often include complex criteria and/or performance by third parties to successfully complete the contract and obtain payment; legal and regulatory changes, or the Company's failure to comply with listing requirements and other rules of the TSX and/or regulations of applicable securities authorities in Canada; and; as well as those factors and assumptions discussed in UrtheCast's Annual Information Form dated March 29, 2019 and Management's Discussion & Analysis for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019, both of which are available under UrtheCast's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. UrtheCast cautions readers that such factors and uncertainties are not exhaustive and that should certain risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying estimates or assumptions prove incorrect, actual results, performance or achievements may vary significantly from those expected. There can be no assurance that the actual strategies, results, performance, events or activities anticipated by the Company will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, the Company.

UrtheCast undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by Canadian securities laws. Readers are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

SOURCE UrtheCast Corp.

For further information: Sai Chu, Chief Financial Officer, +1 (604) 669-1788

Related Links

www.urthecast.com


After a long and successful 39-year career as a nurse working for Britains National Health Service, Bev Vaughan never thought that she would be dusting off her uniform after she retired in 2016.

The coronavirus pandemic changed all of that.

My uniform is clean, my shoes are polished and I am ready to go back, said Vaughan.

A 58-year-old retired matron from Portsmouth on the southern coast of the United Kingdom, Vaughan is one of an estimated 20,000 former or retired members of the NHS who have heard the call of duty and are returning to work to help alleviate the strains that coronavirus has put on hospitals and clinics around the country.

MORE: Trump extends coronavirus social distancing guidelines to April 30

PHOTO: A 58-year-old retired matron from Portsmouth, United Kingdom, Bev Vaughan is one of an estimated 20,000 former or retired members of the NHS who are returning to work to help alleviate the strains that coronavirus has put on hospitals. (Bev Vaughan)

They want me to work in what is called the COVID Silver Command. It is a hub that helps the nurses across the organization by fielding phone calls, emails, a bit of running around taking supplies here, there and everywhere.

Vaughan added that she is fortunate to be in a position that allows her to return to work and mobilize so quickly to help combat the spread of coronavirus while supporting the system that she dedicated her life to.

Once you are a nurse, you are always a nurse, said Vaughan. You work in a very close-knit community. I just feel really privileged to be in a position where I am still registered as a nurse so I am in a position where I can fairly quickly go back.

MORE: National Guard to deploy against coronavirus in NY, California, Washington

PHOTO: A 58-year-old retired matron from Portsmouth, United Kingdom, Bev Vaughan is one of an estimated 20,000 former or retired members of the NHS who are returning to work to help alleviate the strains that coronavirus has put on hospitals. (Bev Vaughan)

But in spite of all of her experience, Vaughan admits that she is anxious about going back.

There will be some anxiety. I think every first day at work is a difficult time. In many ways, even though I am anxious, I am looking forward to making my contribution.

According to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, she isnt the only one either.

Johnson posted a video while in self-isolation to social media on Sunday night thanking all of the returning NHS workers and volunteers around the country who are giving up their own time  and potentially putting themselves in harms way  to help support the NHS.

Story continues

MORE: Coronavirus shuts down major cities, Trump asks Americans to avoid groups over 10 people

Thanks to everyone who has been staying at home. By delaying the spread of the disease we can reduce the pressure on our NHS, and that's how we hope to save many thousands of lives.#StayHomeSaveLives pic.twitter.com/kxdqItMYSE  Boris Johnson #StayHomeSaveLives (@BorisJohnson) March 29, 2020

Thank you, by the way, to everybody who is now coming back into the NHS in such huge numbers, said Johnson. Just this evening I can tell you we have 20,000 NHS staff coming back to the colors, doctors and nurses, it is the most amazing thing and that is, of course, in addition to the 750,000 members of the public who have volunteered to help us get through this crisis.

For Vaughan and the other 20,000 medics returning to work, the timing couldnt be more crucial.

Professor Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians, told the Press Association on Monday that an estimated 25% of doctors are currently off work in the U.K. due to either having contracted coronavirus themselves or because a family member or a person they live with has had to isolate after exhibiting symptoms.

Said Goddard: At the moment, we think its more doctors self-isolating with family members, though there are some off sick themselves. This is really impacting a lot in emergency departments and London is in a much worse position than elsewhere at the moment, but it will come to other places.

PHOTO: A 58-year-old retired matron from Portsmouth, United Kingdom, Bev Vaughan is one of an estimated 20,000 former or retired members of the NHS who are returning to work to help alleviate the strains that coronavirus has put on hospitals. (Bev Vaughan)

But for Vaughan, and for the thousands of other people like her, it is about a sense of duty to the public during a national crisis.

We havent quite hit the mushroom yet but, trust me, its coming, warned Vaughan. I think there are more nurses who will probably listen to me and say yes, I can go back. Once you are a nurse, you are always a nurse.

Matt Graveling contributed to this report.

'Once a nurse, always a nurse': 20,000 former UK medics return to battle coronavirus originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
New York, March 30, 2020 --The Committee to Protect Journalists today launched the #FreeThePress campaign to call for the unconditional release of all jailed journalists to ensure their safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the past four years, CPJ's annual census has found a record-high number of journalists in jail because of their work -- at least 250. Those journalists now face a potential death sentence.

The World Health Organization has said prisoners are particularly vulnerable to the virus, as self-isolation in jail is impossible, and prisoners are routinely denied medical treatment.

CPJ has long held the view that jailing journalists for what they publish, broadcast, or write is a violation of international law, said Joel Simon, CPJ's executive director. But our current appeal is of a humanitarian nature. COVID-19 is spreading rapidly through prisons. We urge world leaders to take quick and decisive action to free all journalists behind bars, as a matter of life and death.

CPJ also published a petition and an open letter to world leaders demanding the immediate release of imprisoned journalists. The campaign will feature video messages from formerly imprisoned journalists. The campaign will culminate on World Press Freedom Day, May 3, 2020.

CPJ's coronavirus response page includes news coverage of journalists being arrested, assaulted, or censored for their work on the virus, as well as Q&A interviews with reporters on the front line. CPJ Emergencies is regularly updating its physical, digital, and psychosocial safety advice, which is available in more than 15 languages, and journalists and newsrooms can submit questions to CPJ's safety experts.

CPJ suggests the hashtag #FreeThePress on social media.
Students enter the Taipei American school on March 18, 2020 in Taipei, Taiwan. (PHOTO: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images )

By Faris Mokhtar and Sybilla Gross

(Bloomberg) -- As the coronavirus has made its way around the world, more than 160 countries have closed schools. Nearly 90% of the worlds student population is now out of class.

In Singapore, Australia and Taiwan -- and a few states in the U.S. -- school is still in.

That policy decision is becoming harder to justify by the day. Singapore recently reported a pair of coronavirus clusters linked to government-sponsored preschools. Australian teachers are considering a strike. Normally strict attendance rules have been relaxed, with some leaders encouraging parents to keep their kids home as part of wider virus containment efforts, even if the schools are open.

In defense of keeping schools open, officials in the few holdouts say they can contain the outbreak without taking a radical action that, they fear, could do more harm than good. They cite early medical research that children are not as affected as the virus and concern about the stresses of having kids at home for working parents already facing deep economic uncertainty.

After Singapores recent school-based outbreaks, the city-state agreed to move to a four-day school week, but Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong appeared to rule out a nationwide shutdown.

I think we should look at schools as individual schools rather than one whole system, he said. We confine and we rub out that cluster, but it does not mean that I must shut the whole system down.

Health Care Shortage

Australia banned most public gathering places this week, shuttering bars, cinemas, shopping malls and gyms, and calling a halt to weddings and even funerals.

But closing educational facilities may not have the same effect on containment, the countrys deputy chief medical officer said, and may in fact worsen the strain on the health-care system as the government estimates that 30% of essential health workers will have to stay home to supervise their children.

We know that without closing schools the burden on the health care workforce already exists, said Rochelle Wynne, professor of nursing for Western Sydney local health district. Theres going to be a massive shortage  over 10,000 critical care nurses are needed to be redeployed from other areas to meet the demand. And thats just critical care beds alone.

Story continues

Some schools are now worrying about a shortage of cleaning supplies and toilet paper, and teachers are worried that students, parents or their coworkers may be carriers -- or that they themselves could unknowingly expose others.

We were all quite anxious about it. Teachers were wearing gloves and we were washing our hands constantly, said Lea Lockwood, a parent and English teacher in Bendigo, a regional town in south east Australia. Everything should be shutting down!

Parents are encouraged to keep children at home where possible, but the teachers union is pushing Prime Minister Scott Morrison for definitive closures sooner, rather than later.

In Europe, schools are mostly closed but governments have attempted to keep some facilities running for the children of health-care workers.

Conflicting Evidence

Singapore says the emerging science on the virus supports its decision to keep schools open in the city-state. The virus doesnt affect the young as much as adults, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung said, citing advice by Dale Fisher, a professor and chair of the World Health Organizations Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network.

A lot of the swabs that we have taken from family clusters have shown that while the parents might have had the disease and had symptoms, the children are completely well, even though they tested positive, Fisher said in an article in the national paper, The Straits Times.

Other research suggests that kids are in no way immune to serious symptoms and complications. One pre-publication study of more than 2,000 pediatric patients with the coronavirus in China reported that the virus was generally less severe in young people, but young children, particularly infants, are vulnerable.

And even if not very sick themselves, infected kids could still be contagious. A study of 36 pediatric cases in China published this week found that half of the infected kids showed no obvious signs of the disease, making them covert spreaders of the pathogen.

Research is not yet conclusive on whether infected children are contagious, and if so, how contagious they are.

If this was a flu outbreak, said Benjamin Cowling, head of the epidemiology division at Hong Kong University, closing schools would have a big effect on transmission, because children are more susceptible to infection and more contagious when infected. But for Covid-19, the potential effect is not so clear.

Controversial Decisions

The decision to close schools is often as controversial as the decision to keep them open. In Washington State, where the coronavirus first took hold in the U.S., Governor Jay Inslee extended two-week local closures to a six-week statewide shutdown.

As much as theyre worried about the virus spreading in one of the countrys biggest metropolitan areas, parents are divided, said Tim Robinson, a spokesman for Seattle Public Schools. Some say how dare you close schools and some are saying how dare you not close schools, he said.

Only a handful of U.S. states have not mandated school closures as of Thursday and the majority of students nationwide are staying at home.

The biggest obstacle to closing schools is a question of equity, said Jason Tan, an associate professor at Nanyang Technological Universitys National Institute of Education in Singapore. Not everyone has a laptop or a tablet to support online learning, and remote instruction is a challenge for younger kids regardless. Low-income families could miss out on free school meals.

Globally, experts predict incidents of child abuse will rise with the drop in oversight and services that, in part, schools provide.

In New York City, where about 75% of public school students are classified as low-income and one in 10 are homeless, the citys Department of Education is still providing three free meals daily for all children. Around 850,000 meals are served to students each school day, and of these, over 700,000 meals are provided at no charge to the students.

The federal economic stimulus package that President Donald Trump is expected to sign also addresses some of the societal gaps created by school shutdowns. Parents who stay home or quit their jobs because they no longer have adequate daily childcare will be eligible for unemployment benefits, up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave at 67% of an individuals normal pay.

Taiwans Success

While public anxiety is rising in Singapore and Australia over a surge in infections, Taiwan has kept schools open without seeing a spike in virus cases.

Less than 100 miles from mainland China, the island of 24 million reported its first case of coronavirus in January. The government was among the first places to cut off flights from Wuhan, promptly followed by a ban on travel to and from the rest of the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau.

At the time, Taiwan extended the school summer break to late February. Mask rationing and distribution, strict testing and up to US$33,000 fines for breaching quarantine have resulted in just 267 infections as of Friday.

Schools have remained open without interruption since students returned on Feb. 25 to minimize disruption to peoples lives. But heightened measures have been in place. Schools with more than 1,000 students are required to have at least 10 entrance lanes for temperature checks and dividers are places on students desks to separate them.

Its really a tough decision to make. There are public health concerns about transmission because so many people gather in schools, said Tan, the Nanyang professor. But its not a straightforward thing to do.

 2020 Bloomberg L.P.
With twelve more tested positive in the state, the number of the positive patients in the Maharashtra has touched 215.According to the state health department, among the positive patients five are from Pune, three in Mumbai, two in Nagpur and one each in Nashik and Kolhapur.

According to the reports received by the state health department on Monday morning, 12 more patients have tested positive. Two of them are from a slum in Market Yard in Gultekadi Pune. City administration has expressed fear of more people having come in their contact duet to the high density of population in the slum. Two patients tested positive in Nagpur had had come into the contact of a businessman who had tested ositive a few days ago. The Nagpurs businessmen had visited Delhi a few days ago.

A day after chief minister Uddhav Thackeray appealed Maharashtra to stand together in the challenging times; Saamana the mouthpiece of his party Shiv Sena has attacked prime opposition party Bharatiya Janata Party. The newspaper edited by Rashmi Uddhav Thackeray has criticized the BJP for not standing by the state government. The prime opposition party has acting against the national unity and has lost the social sense. When other parties donated one months salary of their legislators to the chief minister fund, the BJP has directed its MLAs and MLCs to deposit the salary drawn from the government in partys relief fund. The party has done partiality even in these challenging times, the editorial said.

Thackeray on Sunday had said in his address through live stream had said that it is an emergy-like situation now. The number of cases has started rising and it will rise even further. However, we want this rise to be restricted This is the phase when multiplication of cases will startIf we stop its spread now, it can be contained and we will win this war. Its time everyone shoulders responsibilities, he said. Thackeray also said that there could be a rise in pneumonia cases and that private hospitals need to be more careful

Meanwhile, police continued to take action against the people stepping out of their homes. Police took action against two truck drivers in Seweri and Charkop in Mumbai for carrying migrant workers illegally. Similar action was taken against many vehicles on national highway in Dhule in North Maharashtra for crammed passengers in their vehicles illegally.

Though the state government decided to shift the vegetable market at Dadar to nearby grounds, the state administration received complaints about the violation of the social distancing norms their. People had flocked to at the markets set up at Somaiya Ground in Sion and Backbay Ground in Bandra in morning. Police have now directed the traders to follow the norms and make customers to form queues by maintaining adequate distance. After our restrictions on the inflow of the vehicles at the APMC market in Vashi, less than 100 truckloads of vegetable and fruits were allowed on Monday, said an official from the state control room at Mantralaya.

Maharashtra government has opned more than 160 centres to provide the meal thalis under Shiv Bhojan Thali scheme at Rs 5 to homeless and the migrant workers who have stranded in state due to the lockdown.
- Dagoretti South MP John Kiarie has been summoned by the DCI over his claims on social media

- The MP was summoned to the Kabete Police Station to bee grilled on his details where he claimed there were 7,000 Kenyans in mandatory quarantine

- Head of criminal investigations at Kabete Police Station confirmed that Kiarie was being questioned and promised to tell more at a later date

Dagoretti South MP John Kiarie has been summoned by the DCI over his lengthy post on social media in which he claimed the government was not fully open on matters relating to coronavirus.

The MP was summoned to the Kabete Police Station and grilled on his details regarding his inflated numbers on those in mandatory quarantine.

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Francis Wanjau, head of Kabete Criminal Investigative office, confirmed that Kiarie was being questioned and promised to give more details at a later date.

"We are still questioning him and cannot confirm at this point whether he will be released or detained for the night, Wanjau said.

Kiarie in his online statement said that the health minister was only speaking of the numbers that had been tested and not everyone in quarantine.

He added that in May, Kenya was looking at a situation where there will be more than 10,000 positive cases of the COVID-19.

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While appearing for a presser, the health minister Mutahi Kagwe, disputed the claims as false.

He said those in quarantine were only 2,050 distributed across hotels and institutions.

The visibly angry Kagwe said it was wrong for anyone to view the fight against COVID-19 as a government affair since it was not.

"It is disheartening for those in the position of leadership to perpetuate false information that has got nothing to do with the real cases. Trying to gain political mileage out of a disease is as immoral as anyone could imagine," said the health CS.

Kiarie in his social media post also asked the government to handle the areas set for quarantine and not leave the work to the county government as they did have the capacity to do so.

Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly.

Opinion : Uhuru has failed this country -Angry Kenyan rants | Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
More than 4,200 Australians have contracted COVID-19, and 18 have died

Locals said the tribute will become a regular event every Sunday evening

Hundreds were seen cheering, clapping and whistling on their balconies

Hundreds were seen cheering, clapping and whistling on their balconies

Residents in two apartment buildings near Brisbane paid tribute to medial staff

Hundreds of people gathered on their balconies to applaud the doctors and nurses saving lives during the coronavirus pandemic.

Residents in two adjacent apartment buildings in Redcliffe, north of Brisbane, simultaneously cheered for all medical services staff around the country.

Local Tanya Moore captured the heartwarming tribute on Sunday night.

'We're doing a clap on Marine Parade for all the frontline workers,' Ms Moore said while filming hundreds of her cheering neighbours. 'Showing our appreciation.'

Residents in two adjacent apartment buildings in Redcliffe, north of Brisbane, simultaneously cheered for all medical services staff around the country

Ms Moore said she didn't know who came up with the idea of the orchestrated applause.

'I'm not sure... but I got a message from my neighbour saying we are all going to do this clapping thing,' Ms Moore told the Redcliffe and Bayside Herald.

'People don't know how to show their appreciation for those on the front lines and this was the Aussie way to show support.'

Ms Moore said the tribute lifted the spirits of her neighbours and other residents during self-isolation.

'It was nice, everyone was giving a wave, there was a real camaraderie and everyone pulled together,' she said.

Ms Moore said the applause and cheers will become a regular event, with plans to do it at 7pm every Sunday.

Premier Anastasia Palaszczuk said 33 new cases have been diagnosed in Queensland overnight, taking the total to 689.

So far 4,200 Australians have now been diagnosed with the virus, including 55 in intensive care

Three people have died from the virus in Queensland.

A total of 4,220 Australians have now been diagnosed with the virus, including 55 in intensive care.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

Health experts and leaders are cautiously optimistic about the slowing growth rate in virus cases but have put even tougher restrictions in place, banning gatherings of more than two people, apart from families.

The states are enforcing this with fines ranging from $1000 in NSW up to $13,345 in Queensland.

Australians have been urged to stay at home unless they are working, studying, attending medical appointments or collecting essential supplies.

People over 70 and those who live with a chronic illness are being told to stay at home and self-isolate for their own protection.

The tougher restrictions come as Tasmania and the ACT recorded their first deaths, bringing the nation's toll to 18 people.
T he UK's coronavirus lockdown is set to last at least until mid-April - and possibly for several more months to come.

That's months without going to pubs, bars and clubs, which are a major part of many people's social lives.

A fake letter has been circulating on social media claiming to represent the Government. The letter wrongly says that Brits are no longer able to buy alcohol as a health risk.

Here we look at advice on alcohol consumption during the coronavirus lockdown.

Could alcohol be banned in the UK?

The Government has said that there is no chance of an alcohol ban in future, despite what the fake letter says.

Pubs and bars may have been closed to encourage social distancing. But supermarkets and off licences remain open and alcohol is available to buy, as long as you drink it at home.

Punters go for a drink before pubs and bars close to stop Coronavirus 1 /14 Punters go for a drink before pubs and bars close to stop Coronavirus People outside O'Neills pub, in Clapham, London PA A man wearing a protective face mask sits in a pub, on the day Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered all pubs to close in response to the number of the coronavirus disease cases REUTERS Lot of people went to the pub, despite Boris Johnson asking the nation not to be tempted to have one last drink REUTERS People at a Cardiff nightclub after Boris Johnson announced that all pubs, restaurants and gyms were to close Matthew Horwood Boris Johnson, is seen on a television screen in a pub in London as the spread of the coronavirus disease continues REUTERS A man drinks in the BrewDog pub in the Cowgate Getty Images Staff wear face masks at Mussel & Steak restaurant in Edinburgh Getty Images The Bricklayer's Arms pub in West Putney displays a sign warning customers it has closed 2020 Getty Images People are seen drinking inside a pub in London Getty Images The Alexandra pub in Worthing, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered pubs and restaurants across the country to close tonight PA Pub goers enjoy a final evening of drinking in a J.D. Weatherspoon's in London Getty Images

Has alcohol been banned anywhere?

Alcohol is reportedly no longer for sale in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, to combat an increase in domestic violence that began during the lockdown there, according to the country's health minister.

Can alcohol prevent you catching coronavirus?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has debunked this claim.




As the coronavirus continues to spread among humans around the world, conservationists are warning of its possible risk to another group: Africa's endangered mountain gorillas.

Congo's Virunga National Park is home to about 30 percent of the world's mountain gorillas. The park is barring visitors until June 1 because scientists believe the gorillas may be able to catch the new coronavirus.

Neighboring Rwanda also is shutting downvisitorand research activities in three national parks that are home to gorillas and chimpanzees.

Mountain gorillas can contract some respiratory diseases that humans contract. A simple cold can kill a gorilla, says the Worldwide Fund for Nature. That is why park visitors are not supposed to get too close to gorillas. Rules call for a 7-meter distance between gorillas and humans.

About 1,000 mountain gorillas live in protected areas in Congo, Uganda and Rwanda. Permitting the public to visit these areas is important and profitable. However, COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, led Virunga park officials to order the temporary ban.

Conservationists have welcomed the decision.

Paula Kahumbu leads the Kenya-based conservation group WildlifeDirect. She says that "every possible effort must be made" to protect mountain gorillas because so few are left in the wild.

"We know that gorillas are very sensitive to human diseases," Kahumbu said. "If anyone has a cold or a flu they are not allowed to go and see the gorillas. But, she said people can spread the virus before they show any signs of infection. So, visitors could put those gorillas at risk."

Even under normal conditions, park measures to protect the gorillas from tourists may not be enough.

Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is the founder and leader of the Uganda-based Conservation Through Public Health. She noted a study done this year by her organization and Ohio University. It looked at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. She said the research showed that the rule separating gorillas and tourists was ineffective.

Kalema-Zikusoka said the study showed that the seven-meter rule was violated almost every time a group of visitors entered the park. She said visitors were to blame about sixty percent of the time. In the other cases, it was the gorillas that moved too close to the humans.

Uganda has not announced a shutdown of gorilla park tourism. However, the number of visitors from Europe and other places has sharply decreased.

The mountain gorilla population shrank severely in the past 100 years because of disease and hunting, which is illegal. Mountain gorillas have been listed as endangered since 1996. But, their population is now growing.

Tourism brings much foreign money into Rwanda and Uganda. Tourism earnings are important in efforts to protect mountain gorillas. Officials can use it to help local communities or invest in anti-hunting operations. A gorilla tracking permit costs up to $600 in Uganda. A similar permit costs more than $1,000 in Rwanda.

Some observers worry a decrease in tourism during the coronavirus crisis could endanger gorillas. Hunters might become more active if they think the crisis has weakened security.

Im Ashley Thompson.

The Reuters News Agency reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

respiratory - adj. having to do with breathing

allow - v. to permit

tourist - n. one who visits a place for pleasure

tracking - adj. to follow or watch closely
Looking for a tasty Thai meal near you?

Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the top Thai spots around Tampa, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of the best spots to venture when cravings strike.

Shoppers in the Tampa area usually spend more in March at restaurants than any other month of the year, according to data on local business transactions from Womply, a software provider that helps small businesses get more reviews. Daily spending at Tampa-area restaurants rose to $428,632 for the metro area in March of last year, 15% higher than the average for the rest of the year.

Hoodline offers data-driven analysis of local happenings and trends across cities. Links included in this article may earn Hoodline a commission on clicks and transactions.

1. Thai 5 Fast Food

First on the list is Thai 5 Fast Food. Located at 3424 S. Dale Mabry Highway in Virginia Park, the Thai spot, which offers salads and noodles, is the highest-rated Thai restaurant in Tampa, boasting 4.5 stars out of 285 reviews on Yelp.

2. Thailand Restaurant

Next is Gandy-Sun Bay South's Thailand Restaurant, situated at 5252 S. Dale Mabry Highway. With four stars out of 106 reviews on Yelp, the Thai spot has proved to be a local favorite.

3. Thai Prime Kitchen & Bar

Carver City's Thai Prime Kitchen & Bar, located at 4142 W. Boy Scout Blvd., Suite 5 AND 6, is another top choice, with Yelpers giving the bar, sushi bar and Thai spot four stars out of 347 reviews.

4. Palm Thai

Palm Thai, a Thai spot in Tampa Palms, is another much-loved go-to, with 4.5 stars out of 76 Yelp reviews. Head over to 17022 Palm Pointe Drive to see for yourself.

This story was created automatically using local business data, then reviewed and augmented by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
The Alliance for Bakery Students and Trainees (ABST) has cancelled its annual conference, which was due to take place on 19-21 June 2020.

However, it has announced a date for next years event, which will be hosted at the Alton Towers Hotel in Staffordshire on 11-13 June 2021.

The ABST committee has been monitoring the Covid-19 situation continuously over the past weeks, and we have decided to cancel our 2020 conference. Government guidelines currently stipulate the rulings on gatherings, but more importantly, our students will not be able to attend, stated ABST.

Colleges are practising accelerated learning, which will end their educational year by Easter, and term will not resume until September. We are extremely disappointed by this, but we have to ensure that the safety and wellness of our members is protected.

It added that it was first and foremost an organisation dedicated to supporting students and still intended to do this. As such, it has asked for those in the industry who can offer advice, mentorship or work experience to get in touch.

Your support during this turbulent time will be appreciated more than ever by students who are heading into industry.

Several bakery-related events have been cancelled or postponed as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, including Britains Best Loaf and Cake International.
A cocoa plantation in West Africa Credit: Janina Kleemann

What do chocolate, migratory birds, flood control and pandas have in common? Many countries benefit from ecosystem services provided outside their nations. This can happen through economic relationships, biological and geographical conditions, but we hardly know how and where these ecosystem service flows occur. Scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the German Centre for integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) show in a recent study, published in the journal Global Environmental Change, how interregional ecosystem service flows can be identified and quantified.

"Ecosystem services are not constrained by borders," says Prof. Aletta Bonn, who works on ecosystem services at the UFZ and iDiv. "For example, one country benefits from agricultural products originating from other continents or flood protection provided by floodplains in a neighbouring country." These close links between distant regions arising from ecosystem services are known as telecoupling. Understanding these flows can help to recognise the value of intact nature, identify global drivers of biodiversity loss or soil erosion in distant regions, and develop measures for more sustainable management. "It is important to understand the interlinkages and the environmental costs caused by domestic consumption of ecosystem services in other countries," says Aletta Bonn. "This information can then be used in political decisions, such as fair trade standards, environmentally and socially acceptable certification, and financial compensation measures." But how can ecosystem service flows be identified, quantified and ultimately balanced between countries? The researchers investigated these issues in their recent study. As part of this, they examined the extent to which Germany uses ecosystem services that are provided in other countries.

"In previous work, we had already developed a conceptual framework for quantifying interregional ecosystem service flows," says Aletta Bonn. "Here, we differentiated between four types of flows which were examined for Germany in more detail." The scientists assessed trade flows using cocoa imports as an example and their impact on biodiversity in the producing countries. "It turns out that approximately 85 percent of imported cocoa comes from only five mainly West African countriesIvory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Togo. Significant impacts on biodiversity are considered for Cameroon and Ecuador due to cocoa trade with Germany," says Dr. Janina Kleemann, former UFZ researcher and now at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. In the "migratory species" category, the scientists investigated the importance of migratory birds for German agriculture.

"Our results indicate that Africa's tropical and subtropical climate zones provide a habitat for the majority of migratory bird species that make an important contribution to pest control in German agricultural landscapes," explains Janina Kleemann. Ecosystem services associated with flood protection are assigned to the "passive biophysical flow" category. Here, the researchers concluded that Germany benefits by almost two-thirds from flood regulation provided in other countries' floodplains, and in return also exports around 40 percent flood regulation to downstream neighbouring countries such as the Netherlands. In the "information flows" category, the loan of a Chinese giant panda to Berlin Zoo served as a case study. The research team highlighted the political, economic, scientific and cultural aspects of this exchange for the relationship between Germany and China.

"To place our study on a sound basis, we collaborated in an interdisciplinary, international team of ecologists, economists, geographers and social scientists," explains Aletta Bonn. The UFZ study is one of the first studies to identify, systematically quantify and assess several interregional ecosystem service flows for a specific country using examples. Awareness and understanding of these flows is the first step towards fairly balancing ecosystem services use and sustainable resource management. "When we know how and to what extent we influence global biodiversity with our consumption patterns and international trade, we can make better decisions regarding individual and national consumption of resources and develop adequate measures for sustainable management," says Aletta Bonn. "Our study clearly demonstrates that countries such as Germany bear a global responsibility to protect and conserve biological diversity worldwide."

Explore further Biodiversity crisis: Technological advances in agriculture are not a sufficient response

More information: Janina Kleemann et al, Quantifying interregional flows of multiple ecosystem services  A case study for Germany, Global Environmental Change (2020). Janina Kleemann et al, Quantifying interregional flows of multiple ecosystem services  A case study for Germany,(2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102051
Maksym Stepanov replaces Ilya Yemets in the position of the Minister of Health of Ukraine

A surgeon by education, worked as a former director of the printing house "Ukraine" and as a Head of the Odesa State Regional Administration, who did not want to resign

Maxym Stepanov replaces Ilya Yemets in the position of the Minister of Health of Ukraine on March 30, 2020.

Biography

Maksym Stepanov was born in 1975 in the city of Skovorodino, Amur Region (Russian Federation).

In 1998 he graduated from Donetsk State Medical University with the degree of a surgeon, in 2004 - Kyiv National Economic University ("international economics").

In 1999, Stepanov was appointed a Deputy General Director of the "Trade House "Gas Ukraine" company, a subsidiary of Naftogaz-Ukraine.

Two years later, he took the post of deputy general director of CJSC Veche Industrial and Financial company and worked in the State Tax Administration of Ukraine in 2003-2004.

From 2004 to 2008, he was the head of the board of directors of the Republican Legal Union LLC.

For the next two years, Stepanov was the first deputy head of the Odesa Regional State Administration - Mykola Serdyuk, and then, in 2011, he took the chair of the director of the state-owned enterprise "Ukraina" Polygraphkombinat until 2016.

In December 2016, Stepanov won the competition for the position of the head of the Odesa Regional State Administration, outstripped 30 of his competitors, and in January 2017 he was introduced as the new head of the regional state administration.

In 2019, the then president Petro Poroshenko signed a decree on the dismissal of Stepanov, but he refused to leave the post and said that the president had exceeded his authority, and Cabinet of Ministers should make decisions like this.

In April of 2019, the government approved his dismissal.

Declaration

According to the declaration, filed by Stepanov in May 2019, his wife owns an apartment in Kyiv with a total area of 340.9 square meters and a parking lot. The family of the newly appointed Head of the Ministry of Health also owns the right to rent an apartment in Odesa with an area of 196.3 square meters.

Stepanovs wife has two elite cars: the 2013 Lexus GX460, worth over $30,000, and the 2016 Lexus LX 450, for over $110,000. The minister himself drives a Range Rover for $100,000.

The Stepanovs also declared more than 10 expensive pieces of jewelry and watches, including Rolex, Breguet, Piaget. The Ministers wife also declared a fur coat.
TORONTO, March 29, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. (Kirkland Lake Gold or the Company) (KL.TO) (KL.TO) (ASX:KLA) was informed on Friday, March 27, 2020 that a worker who had been at Detour Lake Mine earlier this month has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. The worker arrived at the mine with no symptoms on March 12th, began showing symptoms and self-isolated on March 14th and was taken from site on the morning of March 16th. All protocols were followed while the worker was on site. He received a positive result on Thursday, March 26th and informed the Company on Friday, March 27th.



All Detour Lake Mine employees were notified upon the Company being informed of the positive test on March 27th with instruction to be particularly vigilant in self-monitoring for signs of symptoms, particularly until March 30th (14 days after the workers departure from site). Employees were also instructed to complete the Ontario health self-assessment and to self-isolate and consult medical staff if the results indicated a need to do so. In addition, the Company has been informed by public health officials involved in the case, that all persons identified by the worker as having been in close contact have been contacted directly by the Porcupine Health Unit and instructed to seek a medical assessment and to self-isolate if advised to do so. Following a request by the Company, the Porcupine Health Unit visited Detour Lake Mine on Saturday, March 28th to review the Companys health and safety protocols related to the COVID-19 virus.

The Company is not aware of any workers at Detour Lake Mine, or at any of its other operations or offices, that are showing symptoms or are in self-isolation at site.

At Kirkland Lake Gold, nothing is more important than the health and safety of the Companys workers, their families and the communities in which they live and work. In response to the unprecedented challenges posed by COVID-19, a number of health and safety protocols have been introduced. The Companys response to COVID-19 is being constantly reviewed as developments occur and will be adjusted as required to ensure the wellbeing of the Companys employees.

Story continues

Health and Safety Protocols

Remote work : Employees that can work from home are being instructed to do so.





Suspension of non-essential work and visits to site : All non-essential work has been suspended, including all exploration activities and the transitioning of Detour Lake Mine to reduced operations (lowering the on-site workforce from approximately 1,100 to 300). All non-essential visits to our operations are now prohibited until further notice.





Medical screening : All people arriving at work are subject to medical screening; everyones temperature is taken and they are required to complete the World Health Organizations medical questionnaire.





Site and camp hygiene: Increased cleaning and sanitizing have been introduced, particularly in commonly visited areas; hand washing stations have been added, work areas and equipment are being wiped down with sanitizer after use. (A deep cleaning and disinfection of the workers housing quarters and surrounding working areas was completed immediately after learning of the positive test results.)





Medical care: Working with medical professionals, processes have been established for the isolation, testing and care of employees showing signs of illness.





Mandatory social distancing: Start and finish times are being staggered to minimize the gathering of people; chairs are being removed and spaced out in meeting areas and lunchrooms; work teams are being reduced in size and workers separated by floor markings and barriers in confined areas, with meetings largely being done using video conferencing.





Food safety: Initiatives include adding hand-washing stations in all eating areas; removal of self-service food options (salad bars, etc.), individual wrapping of meals and desserts, keeping silverware and trays behind counters and providing them separately.





Job protection: Job protection for workers in quarantine or self-isolation due to COVID-19, or those needing to miss work to care for children during school closures.

About Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd.

Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. is a growing gold producer operating in Canada and Australia that produced 974,615 ounces in 2019. The production profile of the Company is anchored by three high-quality operations, including the Macassa Mine and Detour Lake Mine, both located in Northern Ontario, and the Fosterville Mine located in the state of Victoria, Australia. Kirkland Lake Gold's solid base of quality assets is complemented by district scale exploration potential, supported by a strong financial position with extensive management expertise.

For further information on Kirkland Lake Gold and to receive news releases by email, visit the website www.klgold.com .

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains statements which constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of Kirkland Lake Gold with respect to future business activities and operating performance. Forward-looking information is often identified by the words "may", "would", "could", "should", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" or similar expressions and include information regarding the reduction of operations at the Detour Lake Mine and anticipated effects thereof, the ability of the Detour Lake Mine to fully resume operations effective April 30, 2020, the ability of the Company to continue operations at the Detour Lake Mine in light of the pandemic and the anticipated effects of the Companys COVID 19 response plan.

Investors are cautioned that forward-looking information is not based on historical facts but instead reflect Kirkland Lake Gold's management's expectations, estimates or projections concerning future results or events based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made. Although Kirkland Lake Gold believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking information are reasonable, such information involves risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed on such information, as unknown or unpredictable factors could have material adverse effects on future results, performance or achievements of the combined company. Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information are the following: the future impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic and government response to such pandemic, the ability of the Company to continue operations at its mine sites in lieu of the pandemic and the risk of future shut downs as a result thereof; future development and growth potential of the Companys projects; future exploration activities planned at the Canadian and Australian properties; risks relating to equity investments; risks relating to first nations and Aboriginal heritage; the availability of infrastructure, energy and other commodities; nature and climactic conditions; currency exchange rates (such as the Canadian dollar and the Australian dollar versus the United States dollar); risks associated with dilution; labour and employment matters; risks in the event of a potential conflict of interest; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; changes in applicable laws; and compliance with extensive government regulation. This forward-looking information may be affected by risks and uncertainties in the business of Kirkland Lake Gold and market conditions. This information is qualified in its entirety by cautionary statements and risk factor disclosure contained in filings made by Kirkland Lake Gold, including its annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2018 and financial statements and related MD&A for the financial year ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 filed with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com .

Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although Kirkland Lake Gold has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Kirkland Lake Gold does not intend, and do not assume any obligation, to update this forward-looking information except as otherwise required by applicable law.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT

Anthony Makuch, President, Chief Executive Officer & Director

Phone: +1 416-840-7884

E-mail: tmakuch@klgold.com
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 12:39:24|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the G20 Extraordinary Virtual Leaders' Summit on COVID-19 via video link in Beijing, capital of China, March 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

"Xi's speech during the summit is a good example of the global power's responsible behavior," a political analyst said.

BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's keynote speech at the G20 Extraordinary Leaders' Summit illustrates China's role as a responsible country, experts have said.

Xi put forth four proposals at Thursday's summit via video. He called on G20 members to be resolute in fighting an all-out global war against the COVID-19 outbreak, forge a concerted global effort to control and treat the virus, support the leading role of international organizations to tackle the pandemic, and bolster coordination of global macro-economic policy.

"Xi's speech during the summit is a good example of the global power's responsible behavior," said Dr. Benyamin Poghosyan, chairman of the Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies of Armenia.

Xi's emphasis on international solidarity and China's large-scale assistance to other nations in the fight against COVID-19 "are of utmost importance," the expert said, expressing appreciation for China's efforts and sacrifices in battling the epidemic which has bought time for other nations to be better prepared.

A Chinese team of health experts sent to provide assistance to contain the COVID-19 outbreak in Iraq work in Baghdad, Iraq, March 25, 2020. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

Xi's call for all G20 members to restore confidence in the global economy by cutting tariffs, removing barriers and facilitating unfettered flow of trade, shows the world what a truly responsible major country should do under Xi's leadership, said Constanza Jorquera, a scholar at the School of Politics of at Diego Portales University in Chile.

China's anti-epidemic measures such as locking down hard-hit cities and imposing large-scale quarantines once drew criticism, but the measures have proven necessary during the crisis, Jorquera said.

Xi's emphasis on China's efforts to stabilize the global economy, his proposal to enhance macro-economic policy coordination, and his call for G20 members to work collectively, are needed to instigate a global recovery, said Maher Al-Haj, general manager of Al-Atta'a Foundation, affiliated to Dar Al-Watan for Press and Publication.

Echoing Xi's remarks, Fadi Qattar, CEO of Muscat Media Group, said that victory over the global epidemic requires cooperation and support of all countries, leaders and people.

Xi's proposal for holding a G20 health ministers' meeting demonstrates China's commitment to fighting the pandemic and advancing the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, said Swaran Singh, professor at the Center for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament at India's Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The fact that G20 leaders have already accepted the proposal reflects their satisfaction with China's efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, the expert added.

China's success has brought hope to humankind, enabling the country to play a leading role in the global fight against COVID-19, Singh said.

Local people greet members of the third Chinese medical team with an elbow bump instead of handshake as the medics arrive at Milan Malpensa Airport in Milan, Italy, March 25, 2020. (Xinhua)

Xi's speech reflects China's humanitarian spirit and moral principles in dealing with international and regional issues, said George Alam, a writer and political analyst from Lebanon.

Countries and leaders should respond to the Chinese president's call to take a more unified approach to limit the impact of the crisis on the global economy, Alam said.

Xi's call for an all-out global war against the COVID-19 outbreak is an invitation for countries to set aside their own interests and strive for the greater well-being of humanity, said Kamel Mhanna, president of Amel Association International, a Lebanese non-governmental organization.

"The Chinese president presents a truly remarkable human model" to combat the pandemic, Mhanna said. 
Sunday afternoon I was looking at the homepage of The New York Times and I saw the headline, "The U.S. Tried to Build a New Fleet of Ventilators. The Mission Collapsed."

The subhead was, "As the coronavirus ravages Americas health care system, a canceled federal contract helps explain the acute shortage of medical equipment." (The article also was on the front page of Mondays Times.)

Oh wow, I thought, another government contracting horror story.

And that indeed was how the story was pitched. The efforts "highlight the perils of outsourcing projects with critical public-health implications to private companies," the article states; "their focus on maximizing profits is not always consistent with the governments goal of preparing for a future crisis."

But if you look at the story more carefully, the messages are actually very different ones.

The story begins in 2006, after the 2003 SARS crisis. That year a unit was established in HHS called the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, with a mandate to prepare medical responses to chemical, biological and nuclear attacks, as well as infectious diseases.

In its very first year, the civil servants in the agency started looking at the supply of ventilators for a disease pandemic. This was a low-visibility problem, to put it mildly. Even for this new agency, ventilators hardly had anywhere near the panache of higher-visibility threats such as bioterrorism or terrorist nukes.

Yet, as so often happens in government, there were public servants whose job it was to think about problems nobody else was thinking about.

"In its first year in operation," the article reports, "the research agency considered how to expand the number of ventilators." Keep in mind how few people were thinking about this issue back then. The agency "estimated that an additional 70,000 machines would be required in a moderate influenza pandemic."

But it wasnt just that agency officials were aware of the problem. They didnt simply realize they needed to buy more ventilators. They thought the ventilators they would buy needed to be better and cheaper. There were not only not enough ventilators, but the "ventilators in the national stockpile were not ideal. In addition to being big and expensive, they required a lot of training to use."

So the agency convened a panel of experts in November 2007 to devise a set of requirements for a new generation of mobile, easy-to-use ventilators. The goal was to reduce the price per unit from $10,000 to $3,000. So, although having thought about the problem the easiest thing to do would have been simply to throw money at the problem, these officials thought about the need to innovate in what kinds of ventilators they were buying, a riskier course of action since new ventilator designs might not work. Contrary to the view that bureaucrats avoid risk, thats not what happened here.

A year later, in 2008, the government organized a source selection to seek "companies that were interested in designing and building the ventilators."

So the first thing the government did right was to pay attention to the problem in the first place and to think innovatively about the need not just to buy more ventilators but to buy better and cheaper ones.

Then the second thing the government did right was to choose a good contractor. Rather than going to a big, established medical device maker from among the contracting usual suspects, they went to Newport Medical Instruments, a small outfit in Costa Mesa, Calif. This was Newports first work ever for the government.

The third thing the government did right was not simply to write a blank check to the company. The agency paid the company a fixed price of about $6 million to develop the ventilators; all the other revenues the company would get were to depend on selling the ventilators to the government. "Being a small, nimble company," according to the article, "would help [Newport] efficiently fulfill the governments needs.

The government hoped the new ventilators would be "so attractive that the commercial market would want to buy them, too," one official said. So the government could negotiate a good deal on the ventilators it would buy itself because the company would have the opportunity for significant non-government sales. This is again a great contracting strategy, though we cant tell from the article whether the government thought about that from the beginning and understood they did not need to write a blank check.

Newports executives, the article stated, "bet they would be able to make up for any losses by selling the ventilators around the world. It would be very prestigious to be recognized as a supplier to the federal government, said Richard Crawford, who was Newports head of research and development at the time. "We thought the international market would be strong, and there is where Newport would have a good profit on the product."

The fourth thing the government did right was to manage the contract well. "Every three months, officials with the biomedical research agency would visit Newports headquarters. [The company] submitted monthly reports detailing the companys spending and progress." The federal officials "would check everything," said. "If we said we were buying equipment, the company said, "they would want to know what it was used for. There were scheduled visits, scheduled requirements and deliverables each month."

In 2011, Newport shipped three working prototypes from the companys California plant to Washington for federal officials to review. The head of the CDC got a demonstration in a small conference room attached to his office. "I got all excited," he says. "It was a multiyear effort that had resulted in something that was going to be really useful."

In April 2012, a senior HHS official testified before Congress that the program was "on schedule to file for market approval in September 2013." After that, the machines would go into production.

Then, sadly, the effort went south -- but not because of anything the agency did wrong. Only a month after the testimony, Covidien, a large medical equipment supplier, bought Newport. Covidien soon demanded additional funding and a higher sales price for the ventilators. "Government officials and executives at rival ventilator companies said they suspected that Covidien had acquired Newport to prevent it from building a cheaper product that would undermine Covidiens profits from its existing ventilator business."

With the effort stalled out, Covidien asked in 2014 to be released from the contract, which the government granted. That same year the agency awarded a new contract for ventilators to Phillips Electronics, a Dutch giant.

The article for some reason doesnt explain why, but developing the new ventilator has taken a long time. Six years later, the new ventilators have been approved and will finally be delivered midyear. I can only speculate why. One possibility is that the big company was less nimble than the small one. A more political explanation would be that this was less of a priority in the current administration than in the previous one.

However, be all that as it may, to me the most important story for students of public management (though I will confess of far lower priority to people who understandably care only about whether ventilators are ready or not) is a story of feds doing their jobs very well. Since nobody else is likely to give them credit for a job well done, with this blog post I hereby want to do so.
Thiruvananthapuram, March 30 : Hours after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressed his displeasure against the protest by migrant labourers in the Kottayam district and said those behind it would "be brought to book", the police registered the first arrest of a migrant labourer hailing from West Bengal.

Ahead of the arrest the district collector announced prohibitory orders under Sec 144 in the Kottayam district.

The police informed the media that apart from arresting Mohammed Rinju, the police have registered cases against 2000 migrant labourers for staging the protest on Sunday at Payipadu.

The police before recording the arrest checked the calls made by Rinju and it was found out that he had interacted with the media, before the protest was staged.

Vijayan pointed out that it was a purported act by vested interests, out to create trouble and would be dealt with strongly.

And the police started their probe on Sunday night itself and checked the mobile phones of many migrant labourers at Payipadu near Changnacherry in Kottayam district.

On Sunday morning, an estimated over three thousand migrant labourers from various states gathered at Payipadu in violation of the lockdown and demanded that they be sent back home.

They also staged a protest and after almost two hours they were chased away by the police.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
The direct oral anticoagulant rivaroxaban dramatically cut the likelihood of serious venous thromboembolism (VTE) in people recovering from lower limb orthopedic surgery requiring immobilization in comparison with enoxaparin, another anticoagulant agent, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session Together with World Congress of Cardiology (ACC.20/WCC).

The new data revealed that rivaroxaban cut the risk of major VTE by 75% without increasing the risk of bleeding, a common concern in patients taking a blood thinner. This international, double-blind, randomized controlled trial is the first to compare rivaroxaban against enoxaparin, a low molecular weight heparin, for clot prevention in people recovering from non-major orthopedic surgeries who often must restrict movements of the affected limb for a period of time to promote healing. However, even a brief period of reduced mobility can heighten a person's risk of developing dangerous blood clots that can lead to deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a condition where clots form in the veins of the legs, or pulmonary embolism, when clots travel and get lodged in the lungs.

"We must prevent VTEs in these patients because some can lead to pulmonary embolism, which can be fatal," said Nadia Rosencher, MD, senior consultant and anesthesiologist at Paris University, France, and one of the study authors. "This study represents a major step forward in our treatment of patients after many orthopedic procedures because it proves that we can more effectively prevent thrombosis with a once-daily oral medication versus a daily injection with the same safety."

Rosencher said taking injections of enoxaparin can be very cumbersome for patients, who sometimes require a nurse to help administer the medication. Additionally, this is a young population with a median age of 40 years, who often need to get back to work or caring for a family without added complications.

Rivaroxaban works by blocking the activity of the clotting protein factor Xa. It's known to be a strong anticoagulant, so researchers said they were somewhat surprised and reassured to find that bleeding risk was the same as with enoxaparin.

While most contemporary clinical guidelines recommend using anticoagulants to prevent blood clots after major orthopedic surgeries, including total knee and total hip replacements, that put patients at higher risk for VTEs, there is less agreement about prophylactic thrombosis treatment in patients at moderate risk for clots--for example, those undergoing ankle surgery, ligament repair or knee arthroscopy. Millions of people in the U.S. undergo these procedures each year and may need blood thinning to prevent clots from forming.

"In Europe, all the guidelines agree that some level of thromboprophylaxis should be given, but overall there is no agreement on what should be done for the patient population who remains at moderate risk for clots because of being immobilized during their recovery," Rosencher said. "In many ways these data are a win-win for patients--a pill with no jump in major bleeding events."

The study included 3,604 patients from 10 countries who were deemed to be at moderate VTE risk post-surgery by the investigator. Patients had to be immobilized for more than 15 days to be included. Patients were randomly assigned to receive rivaroxaban (10 mg once daily by mouth) or enoxaparin (40 ml once daily by subcutaneous injection). Because it was double-blinded, all patients received an injection and a tablet, so people in the rivaroxaban group took a daily pill but also got a placebo injection. Overall, patients had a median of 28 days of reduced mobility--1 in 3 were immobilized for one to two months, and 2 in 3 had to restrict activity for two weeks and up to one month.

The primary efficacy outcome of major VTE was the composite of symptomatic distal or proximal DVT, pulmonary embolism or VTE-related death during the treatment period and follow-up for one month, or asymptomatic proximal DVT at the end of treatment, which occurred in 4 out of 1,661 patients (0.24%) in the rivaroxaban group and 18 of 1,640 of patients (1.1%) in the enoxaparin group. Prespecified secondary outcomes were major and clinically relevant nonmajor bleeding, defined based on other studies, overt thrombocytopenia (low platelet count) and death from any cause. Bleeding rates did not differ between the rivaroxaban and enoxaparin groups (1.08% and 1.04%, respectively, for major plus nonmajor clinically relevant bleeding; 0.57% and 0.69%, respectively, for major bleeding). There were no deaths in either arm except one that occurred at the end of study follow-up and after a liver transplant.

"We saw a high number of patients in the low molecular weight heparin group with proximal asymptomatic DVT by compression ultrasounds, and these are quite dangerous as they can lead to pulmonary embolism that carries a high death toll," Rosencher said. "We expect to see expanded indications for rivaroxaban in other patients based on these data."

Rivaroxaban is currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to prevent DVT that may lead to a pulmonary embolism after elective knee or hip replacement surgery; in some countries, it has a broader label to include use after lower-limb orthopedic surgery.

###

This study was simultaneously published online in the New England Journal of Medicine at the time of presentation. The trial was supported by Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Saint-Etienne (France) and Bayer.

ACC.20/WCC will take place March 28-30, bringing together cardiologists and cardiovascular specialists from around the world to share the newest discoveries in treatment and prevention. Follow @ACCinTouch, @ACCMediaCenter and #ACC20/#WCCardio for the latest news from the meeting.

The American College of Cardiology envisions a world where innovation and knowledge optimize cardiovascular care and outcomes. As the professional home for the entire cardiovascular care team, the mission of the College and its 54,000 members is to transform cardiovascular care and to improve heart health. The ACC bestows credentials upon cardiovascular professionals who meet stringent qualifications and leads in the formation of health policy, standards and guidelines. The College also provides professional medical education, disseminates cardiovascular research through its world-renowned JACC Journals, operates national registries to measure and improve care and offers cardiovascular accreditation to hospitals and institutions. For more, visit acc.org.
MOSCOW  Russias propagandist in chief was seconds away from starting his show on state television, a two-and-a-half-hour fiesta of flattery celebrating President Vladimir V. Putins coolheaded response to the coronavirus pandemic and Russias calm in contrast to the lockdowns and panic gripping Europe and the United States.

Then came an alarming update on Russias situation from the mayor of Moscow. Because of the viruss accelerating spread, the mayor decreed on Sunday evening, all residents of the capital would be forbidden to leave their homes starting Monday and will need special passes to move around the city.

By late Monday, at least 14 Russian regions and the countrys second biggest city, St Petersburg, had announced that they, too, were ordering residents to stay at home, indicating that the worlds largest nation, a vast territory covering 13 time zones, could soon be in lockdown.

For weeks the Kremlin and its cheerleaders in the state news media have insisted that, unlike Italy, Spain and, more recently, the United States, Russia could tackle the virus without major disruption.
Capacity at the Montgomery County Womens Center has been decreased as a precaution to help stop the spread of COVID-19 but the center is still open and providing services.

Weve been able to adapt but I think the most realistic thing to say is its day-by-day, minute-by-minute because things are shifting that obviously impact how were able to do the service delivery, but all of our programs are still working, in one capacity or another, said Montgomery County Womens Center President Sarah Raleigh.

Capacity at the shelter is limited to allow for social distancing. Raleigh said the center has had to turn people away during this time of limited capacity but has worked with other care providers to find open beds.

Honestly, its been a really scary time, she said. Because there is such a scarcity of available beds for people fleeing violent homes.

Limited capacity

The center is typically a 70-bed shelter, but even the limited capacity at this time fluctuates based on who comes in. Single women will be given their own room, women and their children will be given their own room, but strangers will not be roomed together. The number of staff in the shelter has also been limited.

Even though our census is obviously lower with the number of people were able to assist in our residential facility, their needs really havent decreased, Raleigh said. For victims of domestic violence, this is an extremely dangerous time, and we certainly see a number of cases that will be calling in on our hot-line, and while we always have people in crisis I think it might look a little bit different because of all the uncertainty out there.

Raleigh said increases in calls to the crisis line have been off and on. These days people in crisis are seeking all manner of assistance services.

Weve never weathered anything like this, she said. Some of the calls that we are taking arent necessarily for our services but they are people that are in crisis that need assistance.

Connecting to services

The center works with numerous other organizations in the area to connect people to services, and like the center, those organizations are doing things differently these days, but theyre still open. Together theyre collecting goods like toilet paper and dry goods as those items have become limited.

The advocacy program looks very different these days. Because of the new rules at local hospitals, advocates are no longer allowed inside the emergency room but can drop people off and be with them over the phone. But even if hospitals hadnt implemented the rule, for the safety of the advocated Raleigh said the center would likely have made that decision on its own.

Adjusting programs

All the other programs have adapted to be more online or over the phone. Counseling services are over the phone, the crisis hotline is up and running, and community outreach has largely moved to social media.

Were not shut down, it just looks really different, Raleigh said.

Legal services are still proceeding with open cases even as some courts are closing to help stop the spread.

Financially, the center has had to close its resale shop that supplied significant unrestricted funding for the shelter and its programs.

Thats scary, Raleigh said. We are certainly very conscious of the fact that we are running through our dollars very quickly.

Raleigh said the center is talking to foundations and donors in the area but, like most nonprofit organizations its budget is limited.

What she wants now is for people to stay home and take all CDC precautions and recommendations so that this can pass as quickly as possible. Needs-based services everywhere are already feeling the strain. Several clients of the center now living in transitional housing have lost their jobs due to COVID-19 and calling the unemployment hot-line had them on hold for hours.

Everyone, in one way or another, is struggling and hurting and uncertain, Raleigh said. So, the best thing we can do are take precautionary measures as quickly as we can so that were able to get this under control.

jamie.swinnerton@chron.com
On March 18, the operators of Maze ransomware posted a press release announcing that they would stop all activity versus all kinds of medical organizations until the stabilization of the coronavirus situation. The ringleaders of the DoppelPaymer and CLOP ransomware programs made similar promises, even saying they hadnt targeted hospitals beforehand.

It was a surreal moment for me, given how much hospitals and health care organizations have suffered at the hands of ransomware operators over the course of the past several years. As recently as February, Maze, for instance, was threatening to release stolen health care information if a clinic network in Texas refused to pay extortion demands. Ransomware attacks have affected more than 1,000 health care organizations in the United States alone since 2016, with costs totaling more than $157 million, according to a recent analysis. And that doesnt even include the massive WannaCry ransomware attack on the U.K.s National Health Service in 2017.

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Some cybercriminals may be sincere about scaling back their illegal activities right now. But theres reason to believe those promises arent worth muchthese organizations have shown few qualms about interfering with life-saving medical care in the past. And even if there are a few more ethical criminals out there, certainly plenty of cybercrime operations are ramping up as more and more professional activity is forced online by social distancing measures, and hospitals are increasingly desperate to keep their systems up and running.

In response to coronavirus-related cybercrime, a number of ad hoc, informal volunteer networks of cybersecurity first responders have sprung up to help health care organizations deal with online threats during this crisis. For instance, Cyber Volunteers 19, or CV19, is facilitating matchmaking between cybersecurity experts and health care organizations across Europe in need of help protecting their computer systems. The group already has more than 3,000 volunteers, founder Lisa Forte told Forbes last week. The European CV19 initiative inspired a similar group in Australia that will also extend assistance to health care service providers in New Zealand, founder Louisa Vogelenzang told CSO Online, adding that the group had more than 40 volunteers already.

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The U.S.-based Coveware and New Zealand-based Emisoft have announced a joint initiative to help hospitals respond to and recover from ransomware attacks for free. In Canada, the SecDev group has formed to provide similar protections under a mission centered on three basic principles:

1) No hospital should close because of a ransomware attack;

2) No patient should go untreated as a result of cyberattacks; and

3) No essential service should be held hostage to malicious cyber actors.

Ideally, of course, these are principles that would apply under all circumstances.

Its inspiring to see both criminals and white hat hackers volunteer to help protect hospitals during this period. But its also easy to imagine how quickly these initiatives could go sideways if a criminal were able to infiltrate one of these volunteer groups and get access to a health care providers systems. Because of how quickly these groups are forming, and how much is (necessarily) being coordinated online through sites like LinkedIn, its important to vet members carefully and be sure everyone is, in fact, who they claim to be. Thats one of the reasons that, even though ransomware is a global threat, it makes sense for these groups to emerge regionally, so that members are able to check one another and work with trusted partners.

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When hospitals fall victim to ransomware, everything slows down. Health care providers have to switch to paper records, lab results have to be transmitted in person, it takes longer to schedule personnel and admit patients and treat themassuming the hospital is able to continue admitting patients at all. The quickest way to get things back up and running may seem to be giving the attackers what they want, but that only makes everything worse in the long run. So cyberdefense volunteers are especially essential right now because its a more critical moment than ever to shield hospitals from having to pay ransoms. Even if one or two ransomware operators are willing to forgo targeting hospitals right now, there are many others who will view it as an opportunity.

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And if hospitals start conceding to attackers demands to make ransom payments, those attacks will only accelerate. Ive written before that the only good reason to pay a ransomware demand is to save lives, and if ever there were a moment when paying ransoms might seem to save lives, this would seem like one. But signaling to attackers that there is a good opportunity to make money by targeting hospitals right now will harm patients more than it helps them. Perhaps the first handful of hospitals hit will be able to make paymentsbut they wont be able to continue doing that, and many other hospitals all over the world will find it impossible. To dissuade criminals from targeting hospitals right now, we must not rely on their supposed promises and ethics. We need to make clear that there is no money to be made from attacking these institutions. Hospitals that are targeted right now should avail themselves of all the free help and assistance they can to restore their systems without lining criminals pockets and providing them with incentives and resources to continue their attacks.

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And long-term, we need to think about how to do a better job of protecting our hospitals and other critical infrastructure and providing them with the kinds of assistance that are currently mobilizing through ad hoc networks through more stable, robust, and formalized channels. Its wonderful that there are so many people volunteering to help protect hospitals from cyberattacks right now, but its also shameful that we need them to fill these roles because we have so poorly protected our most critical institutions. Theres already been some movement on that front in the United States. Late last year, Congress passed the DHS Cyber Hunt and Incident Response Teams Act of 2019, which would aim to establish some of those capabilities within the Department of Homeland Security.

But its probably going to be a while before governments are able to focus on making serious progress on cybersecurity. When they do, we need to remember the lessons of this period, especially the need for a standing organization of trusted first responders to help mitigate and contain online incidents.

March 31, 2020: This article was updated to clarify that the Coveware and Emisoft are offering assistance to COVID-related efforts worldwide, not just in the U.S.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
New Delhi, March 31 : Hero Group has pledged Rs 100 crore as aid for the ongoing Covid-19 relief-efforts in India.

Hallf of this sum, Rs 50 crore, will be contributed to the PM Cares Fund and the remaining Rs 50 crore will be spent in other relief efforts.

The Group companies contributing to this fund include Hero MotoCorp, Hero FinCorp, Hero Future Energies, Rockman Industries and Hero Electronix.

"Hero Enterprise and AG Industries have also contributed to this fund," the Group said.
Many churches have admitted that their coffers have been adversely affected by the ban on religious gatherings as directed by the government and aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country.



Since the ban came into force on March 14, many churches have used various means to get their congregations to send in their offerings and tithes, while the churches also use social media to reach them with messages and homilies.



However, a number of churches have admitted that asking people to send in the offerings has not been effective, as yields from offering are dwindling.



Many churches with whom the Daily Graphic spoke in Kumasi and Accra indicated that digital offerings were yet to catch up with their congregants.



MoMo not effective



For the second week running, churches continued to display MoMo numbers on television screens and Facebook as they shared the Word of God for offerings, seed sowing and tithes, but, according to them, it was work in progress.



The inflows (offerings) have been disappointing, an anonymous pastor disclosed to the Daily Graphic in Kumasi.



None of the churches the Daily Graphic spoke with was willing to state how much it received by way of offering before the ban, as against what it received now.



The general thread that ran through their conversation was the lamentation that offerings had dwindled.



While he was not ready to indicate how much had come through mobile money since the ban, one pastor said: Nothing much to talk about. For now, it has not been effective, but we are not giving up and will find other means of reaching the faithful to still give to support Gods work, as that has not been banned.



Holiday for offering



The local pastor of a well-known charismatic church in Kumasi who wanted to remain anonymous told Daily Graphic: "Here at the local level, offerings are virtually non-existent because we all follow the service on TV from the headquarters in Accra, with a number being displayed for offering to be made."



"I am unable to say how much is received, compared with the traditional church service, but, definitely, it will not be the same. Some church members believe it's a holiday to give to God. It is more of an offering holiday, if there is anything like that," he said.



"A few, though, have been faithful here at the local level. We have received a few tithes and one or two offerings, but generally it's been disappointing," he added.



He reckoned that what is going on being a new development, it would take a while for members to adjust to the situation.



Gods work must go on



The story was no different at a well-established apostolic church, also in Kumasi, where the Head Pastor corroborated what others had said.



"Everything is down; we hardly receive anything. But we are encouraged to preach the message of salvation, no matter what," he said.



He said if it had to do with offerings alone, services would have been truncated.



The pastor said much as it took money to bring the message of God to homes, the church could not force people to give.



Irrespective of whether people give or not, Gods Word must be shared. His work must go on. It takes faith and belief in His Word to honour Him. This is a test for true Christians," he added.



Focus not on offering



At the St Cyprian Anglican Church at Fante Newtown, the Head of the Media Committee, who is also in charge of the Facebook live streaming, Mr Samuel Ampadu-Kyei, gave a totally different account.



"We have not displayed any number for offering since last week. Our focus is not on the offering; our main aim for now is how to win souls for Christ and intercede for the nation in this difficult moment," he said.



He said with that background, it would be difficult to do a comparative analysis, since no offering had been collected since President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's directive.



Christian duty



A number of operatives of the orthodox churches, such as the Roman Catholic, the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and the Methodist Church, with whom the Daily Graphic spoke said most of their members knew their Christian duty and had found means to send their offerings, while some had begun sending in their tithes.



Many of our members are doing well with their offerings. We are in Lent and the three pillars of Lent are fasting, praying and giving, so a number of them are carrying out these duties.



Naturally, what comes in is not the same as what may have been realised if there were regular services. Nothing is coming in from the Children and the Youth ministries and other services such as midweek and Friday services.



A number of people have also started paying their tithes, a session member of a Presbyterian Church branch said.

Source: Daily Graphic









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A teenager charged with assault after allegedly spitting at a garda and then claiming he had the Covid-19 virus has claimed the incident was only "a big joke".

Adam Olden (19) appeared before a special sitting of Cork District Court arising out of an alleged incident in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Gardai attended Deanrock Estate in Togher, Co Cork, at 2.30am.

It is alleged that Mr Olden approached one of the responding officers, spat at him and then claimed that he had the coronavirus.

Judge John King was told that Mr Olden, of Leamlara Close, Togher, Co Cork, was charged at Bridewell garda station with assault and two offences under the Public Order Act.

Inspector Pat Murphy said Mr Olden has insisted the incident was "a joke".

Sergeant Kevin Joyce said that the defendant "is now claiming this morning that it was all a big joke".

Insp Murphy said that as a result of the incident: "He [Olden] has taken two gardai off the streets," with the garda who was allegedly spat at in precautionary self-isolation.

Defence solicitor Eddie Burke said that his client had no virus symptoms and was a hard-working young man who had never come to Garda attention.

The judge granted bail but imposed an 8pm-6am curfew, directed that Mr Olden stay away from intoxicants and inform gardai if he intends to leave his nominated address.

He was remanded until Wednesday.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday held a telephonic conversation with OIC Secretary General Yousef A Al-Othaimeen during which he discussed the situation in Kashmir and the world in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Foreign Office said in a statement that exchange between the two covered the situation arising out of COVID-19 pandemic, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's responses, and developments in Jammu and Kashmir.

The minister claimed that "continued restrictions on communication and movement" in Kashmir "were preventing unfettered supply of medicines and other essentials, as well as dissemination of information needed to combat the disease," the FO said.

He also highlighted concerns regarding the possibility of spread of coronavirus among the large number of Kashmiri youth.

On Monday, 11 fresh cases of the coronavirus were reported in Jammu and Kashmr, which include three from Jammu and eight from Kashmir, taking the total number of cases in the Union Territory to 49.

Qureshi also talked about the communal violence in New Delhi in February.

The OIC is a 57-member grouping of Muslim majority nations, including Pakistan. The OIC has usually been supportive of Pakistan and often sided with Islamabad on the Kashmir issue.

Pakistan has been unsuccessfully trying to drum up international support against India for withdrawing Jammu and Kashmir's special status on August 5 and bifurcating it into two Union territories.

India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 was its internal matter. It also advised Pakistan to accept the reality and stop all anti-India propaganda.

Qureshi said the pandemic posed a grave challenge to the entire humanity, including OIC member states.

The OIC, together with the Islamic Development Bank, needed to play an effective role in helping members cope with the challenges, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Funding for the states Pure Michigan tourism promotion program found itself on the wrong side of Gov. Gretchen Whitmers veto pen for the second time on Monday.

The line item was among those Whitmer stuck last year after lawmakers passed a budget they didnt negotiate with her office. When the parties came together to restore some of that funding in December, Pure Michigan wasnt included.

The governor and lawmakers agreed to include it in another supplemental, but the governor Monday vetoed the spending in that bill unrelated to fighting coronavirus as part of an agreement with House and Senate leaders.

Its one of a number of cuts Whitmer made, noting the economic impact of COVID-19 would make state revenues decline.

Related: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer approves $150M for coronavirus relief, vetoes other spending as economy slumps

Its understandable given the environment were in, said Justin Winslow, Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association president and CEO.

As of numbers released Sunday, there are 5,486 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Michigan and 132 people have died.

The state is currently working to stop the spread of COVID-19, including by ordering the dining rooms of bars and restaurants closed. Hotels remain open, but amenities like restaurants and gyms are shuttered, and non-essential workers are ordered to stay at home.

Winslow said nobody is arguing Pure Michigan should be funded in this moment. But he pointed to Illinois, which channeled $14 million meant for tourism promotion there into grants to help hospitality businesses that are hard-hit.

Thats a concept we like and are pushing, Winslow said.

Of the 600,000 people employed by the hospitality industry, Winslow said, half have been laid off. In a survey MRLA conducted March 23-26, they found 11 percent of restaurants statewide will permanently shutter within the next 30 days. They estimate that a quarter to a third of hospitality businesses will never re-open.

I dont think any industry was more immediately hit or more substantially hit by COVID-19 than the hospitality industry, and weve already seen that impact be dramatic, Winslow said.

Related: Michigan restaurants struggle to survive solely on takeout

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops ) and when you go into places like stores.

Read more:

Michigan restaurants struggle to survive solely on takeout

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer approves $150M for coronavirus relief, vetoes other spending as economy slumps

Michigan coronavirus cases soar past 5,000; 21 new deaths reported

Monday, March 30: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

In Michigans coronavirus crisis, testing may not matter for sick individuals. But for public health, its key
Meeting to be held today to confirm sites for North Wales field hospitals

This article is old - Published: Monday, Mar 30th, 2020

A multi agency meeting is set to be held today that will confirm the location of sites that will be used for field hospitals to help deal with the pandemic.

On Saturday sister site Deeside.com reported how Deeside businesses had been called upon to source industrial equipment for the development of a field hospital in North Wales.

Health Secretary Vaughan Gething announced on Friday that Cardiffs Principality Stadium, is to be used as a field hospital with capacity for up to 2,000 beds costing 8m, with further sites in Wales. On a smaller scale, Health Boards in Wales appear to be scoping for suitable sites to create temporary hospital wards. Work is underway to convert part of Scarlets training ground in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire into a makeshift hospital ward along with other sites.

As of yet there has been no such public acknowledgement of work taking place in North Wales. Yesterday a joint statement from several Conservative MPs asked for urgent action to ensure the area is not left behind in ensuring adequate capacity to treat coronavirus patients.

Vale of Clwyds Dr James Davies, who recently announced he would be returning the NHS to assist during the crisis, said: It is imperative that North Wales is not overlooked in the provision of the Covid-19 treatment facilities we are likely to need.

North Wales needs its own field hospitals. We are determined to ensure that Betsi Cadwaladr gets the support it needs to deliver this.

It is essential that the NHS, military and other disciplines work together so that lives are not unnecessarily lost.

The NHS is devolved in Wales, so we need to be clear what access Welsh patients will have to local facilities or whether they will need to use provision in Manchester and Birmingham.

Robin Millar MP (Aberconwy) added:Our discussions with the chairman of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board demonstrate both he and the chief executive grasp the urgency and importance of this matter.

We are grateful that they are driving this forward and they have called a multi- agency meeting for Monday to confirm sites, timescale, process and clear resource requirements.

We want to be absolutely sure that North Wales is as prepared as all other regions of the UK.
Minister Simon Harris has stated that Ireland cannot return to normal after Easter Sunday as the Covid-19 virus will be in Ireland for the foreseeable future.

Although the nation was recommended to stay in for a two week period and only allowed to leave their homes for essential purposes such as food shopping and for medical reasons, the Minister does not believe that Ireland should return to normal after April 12.

Speaking to FM104, Harris stated that he is unsure how long restrictions will remain in place, he acknowledged that people are "suspending normal life" but he urged people to continue to be a united Ireland and continue abiding by these regulations.

Minister Harris expressed concern about the mental health of the nation as he noted people miss friends, families, socialising, going to work and being allowed further than 2KM from their homes, but that this is a necessary reality should Ireland ever want to return to normal.

With an intensive and proactive approach, Minister Harris hopes to see a statistical improvement on confirmed Covid-19 cases on April 12. The government aim to push the virus out of communities and into homes where it can be contained.

Currently there are 46 testing centers in Ireland, with 10,000 people waiting to be tested. This represents a decrease in waiting as approximately 40,000 people were waiting to be tested in previous weeks. Ireland has procured 100,000 testing kits to be delivered weekly from now.

Minister Harris emphasised that our current situation is "pretty serious and pretty significant" and urged people to stay at home.
Ahmedabad-based Intas Pharmaceuticals has donated two million tablets of hydroxychloroquine, an old malaria molecule, for a World Health Organisation (WHO) endorsed study to enable the largest COVID-19 trial in the world involving up to 40,000 frontline healthcare workers.

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), also used to treat auto immune disorders like Rheumatoid Arthritis, is found be effective in treating Covid 19 patients and many of the affected countries are currently experimenting with it.

The global study, due to start shortly, involves 40,000 frontline healthcare workers looking after COVID-19 patients.

The study will be led by scientists from the University of Oxford and is funded by the UK based Wellcome Trust. The study will also pool international experts across multiple continents.

Intas Pharmaceuticals, one among the top ten drug companies in India, is the largest supplier of generic medicines to the UK National Health Service (NHS). Intas is also giving two million tablets for placebo, a standard trial protocol.

Binish Chudgar, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Intas Pharmaceuticals said, "I am extremely proud that Intas is leading the way and playing an important part in the current COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to providing scientific advice, our teams are working around the clock in challenging times, to manufacture the required hydroxychloroquine and matching-placebo for this vital study".

"We are in a race against time to find effective treatments and preventive measures as the COVID-19 pandemic grows. What we already know is that chloroquine has antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 in cell culture, as it does for the related SARS-CoV," said Dr William Schilling, co-lead investigator, Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Thailand.

According to Professor Nicholas White, Wellcome Trust Fellow and consultant in infectious diseases at the University of Oxford, the hypothesis for this study is that chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine might both slow viral replication in exposed subjects, attenuating or preventing the infection.

"Given the extensive experience in clinical practice, established safety and tolerability profile, if it proves effective then it would be a readily deployable and affordable preventive measure for high risk individuals such as healthcare workers", he said.

Also Read: Coronavirus impact: Supply chain disruption to cost auto industry Rs 6,080 crore

Also Read: Coronavirus scare: Foreign tourist arrivals growth hit record low in February

Also Read: Coronavirus: Govt denies lockdown extension, says 'no such plan'
(TNS) - Battling fatigue, chills and a severe cough, Chris Dunlap spent an entire day either on hold or calling state hotlines that rang and rang, searching for a way to be tested for the coronavirus.Melissa Lambert said she and her daughter both were denied COVID-19 tests at a hospital, despite having textbook symptoms like fever, shortness of breath and chest pain.And Susan Smith and her fianc\u00e9 were sick for weeks and had their doctors request tests, only to receive calls from a pair of labs saying they wouldnt test them because they didnt meet federal criteria.Despite the opening of testing sites across the state, New Jersey residents say there has been a confounding lack of coronavirus testing in hospitals, doctors offices, urgent care centers and Federal Emergency Management Agency sites. Even when people exhibited clear symptoms of COVID-19, they still were denied tests, more than a half-dozen people told NJ Advance Media.Their stories offer a snapshot of how the state failed to make testing accessible for many in the month since the novel virus invaded New Jersey.And with hundreds of symptomatic people being turned away, many fear the lack of testing has hindered  and possibly undermined  the states ability to comprehend the full scope of the epidemic.How is the government planning on getting the proper numbers if theyre not testing people with symptoms? said Lambert, who lives in Sparta. How do they know who has it?The official figures reported each day are likely just a fraction of the total cases, given the limited testing in the state and across the country, experts say. They blame strict criteria and a shortage of test kits.The tests that we need are just not here, said Judith Lightfoot, chief of infectious disease at Rowan University. Were just not testing the numbers. Youve seen the number of tests Italy has done, what Spain has done, what other countries have done."Were not doing that amount of testing. We just arent.Positive coronavirus cases in New Jersey surged to 13,386 Sunday, the second-highest total of any state in the country, with 161 deaths. Restricted by kit availability and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria, the number of tests being administered each day is climbing, but failing to keep up with demand, residents and health experts say.It has prevented officials from viewing the full picture of the outbreak.We were not prepared for this, Lightfoot said. We are way behind, and were playing catch up.Impossible to get testedLaboratories have administered at least 29,822 coronavirus tests since the outbreak started, with a positive rate of 35%, Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said Saturday.Persichilli and Gov. Phil Murphy have acknowledged the need for expanded testing. But they also said the state must continue to prioritize tests for the sickest or highest-risk individuals.New Jersey ranks 19th in the country in per capita testing, but Murphy dismissed the metric, saying the state has been one of the most diligent in the U.S. for COVID-19 testing.Ill put our aggressive testing of symptomatic individuals up against any other place in the country, if not this world, Murphy said Friday during a media briefing in Trenton.In an interview March 17, Persichilli said theres a difference between really needing the test and wanting the test. I dont believe anyone who needs the test is not getting it, she said.But residents who have tried to get tested are telling another story.Dunlap, 36, said a day after his symptoms began, he had a virtual appointment with his doctor, who told him the office didnt have any coronavirus tests and directed him to the state hotline. Dunlap, who lives in Cranford, called New Jersey 211, the states 800 number for coronavirus information and the Union County Health Department.I tried all of them, he said. It just rang.After a day on the phone, he gave up.From a public health standpoint, the officials cant make decisions if a 10th of the cases are actually on the books, said Dunlap, who believes he had COVID-19. Its definitely anxiety producing.Meanwhile, last weekend, Suzanne Pirozzi-Toro, who lives in Cliffwood Beach, said her 22-year-old daughter woke up with a dry cough, chills, body aches and a fever over 100 degrees. They tried to get her tested by her primary care physician and at Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel, but Pirozzi-Toro said both places would not give them a test.Its impossible to get tested, Pirozzi-Toro said. Its just like they dont want you there.Smith, of Cherry Hill, was eventually able to get tested at Cooper University Hospital on March 16, and her results were negative. But her fianc\u00e9 was never able to get tested, even though his doctor ordered the test for him.The lab called back and asked if hed been out of the country or in contact with a confirmed or suspected case, she said.Since the answer was no, he wasnt tested.She said, Call the Department of Health. Its their criteria,'" Smith said.Overwhelming demandThe Department of Health relies on CDC guidelines, which recommend doctors prioritize testing for people who are hospitalized, have health problems or other risk factors, or have traveled or had contact with a person with COVID-19.Private labs arent bound by the criteria, but residents who contacted NJ Advance Media say doctors still tell them they are limited by CDC guidelines.Jeff Marsh, 35, has been trying to get tested at medical facilities in Morris County since March 9 after experiencing a fever, aches and chest tightness. He was isolating in a room, trying not to get his pregnant wife sick, while getting the runaround," he said.The physician says to call the ER, and they are the only place testing. The ER says they dont have it and wont test me if I come in, and only will test [someone in] extreme distress, Marsh said March 17, nine days after his fever first started. The ER says to call the hotline. The hotline number is always busy and never works. The health department doesnt answer.Peter Root, 58, of Pennsville, took his 62-year-old husband to the ER on March 14 because he had a fever, cough, shortness of breath and diarrhea. Flu tests came back negative, and the doctor diagnosed him with an upper respiratory tract infection and sent him home without a test.Root said he was told, We dont have that.You dont get diarrhea from an upper respiratory tract infection, he said. In the beginning youre hearing testing is key  and then you cant get a test.More hospitals are testing now, and drive-thru testing sites have been set up, but the demand remains overwhelming.The FEMA testing sites at Bergen Community College and PNC Bank Arts Center in Monmouth County have reached capacity before they even opened their doors, turning away lines of cars stretching for miles.Essex and Burlington counties have set up testing sites, but limited appointments to 100 or 180 a day. And officials in Camden County on Thursday said an otherwise-ready drive-thru testing site at Camden County College is still at least three weeks from opening because they cant get testing kits.Testing supplies even at commercial labs remain in short supply.Were literally turning away hundreds of people, said William Schuler of Immediate Care, which has seven urgent care sites in New Jersey.Lightfoot said the lines at the FEMA testing sites alone are evidence that not enough testing is available. And until widespread testing occurs, the true scope of the pandemic in New Jersey will remain unknown.For all the citizens we have, there are more people trying to get tested than we can handle, Lightfoot said. Its a big problem.Matthew Stanmyre may be reached at mstanmyre@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattStanmyre. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @RebeccaJEverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.2020 NJ Advance Media Group, Edison, N.J.Visit NJ Advance Media Group, Edison, N.J. at www.nj.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Washington, D.C., March 30, 2020  Swedish authorities should make every effort to locate missing journalist Sajid Hussain Baloch and ensure his safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On March 2, Baloch, a Pakistani exile and editor-in-chief of the English and Balochi news website Balochistan Times, disappeared from his home in Uppsala, Sweden, according to a statement by the Balochistan Times editorial board issued on March 28 and news reports. A case on the disappearance was filed with Swedish police on March 3, according to that statement.

Wajid Hussain Baloch, Sajids brother, who remains in Pakistan, told CPJ via messaging app that the family withheld any public announcement of the journalists disappearance for weeks in order not to interfere with any possible police investigation.

Baloch fled Pakistan in 2012 after receiving threats related to his reporting on the separatist conflict in Balochistan province, according to those news reports. He lived in exile in several countries before seeking asylum in Sweden in 2017, according to reports.

The Balochistan Times covers human rights abuse in the province, according to CPJs review of its output.

Swedish police should step up efforts to find Sajid Hussain Baloch and keep his family closely informed of any developments, said Steven Butler, CPJs Asia program coordinator. The disappearance of a journalist who focused on one of Pakistans most sensitive issueshuman rights in Balochistanand who escaped Pakistan because of threats he received, is especially concerning.

The journalists brother told CPJ that the family did not know who might be behind the disappearance. We dont know whom we are fighting, he said, adding that Swedish police had given no word to the family on the status of the investigation.

CPJ called the Swedish police, and was patched through to an officer overseeing the case, who did not answer the call.

Last month, Pakistans Federal Investigation Agency issued a statement demanding that Gul Bukhari, a Pakistani columnist based in the United Kingdom, appear in Pakistan for questioning or else the agency would file terrorism charges against her, as CPJ documented at the time.
Burma Naypyitaw Health Bosses Hopeful COVID-19 Under Control in Myanmars Capital

Police providing security at a quarantine center in Naypyitaw. Thiha Lwin / The Irrawaddy

Naypyitaw  After the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Naypyitaw on Saturday, three suspected cases were discovered and nearly 500 people are being kept in quarantine, according to the Naypyitaw Health Department.

Some 180 people who have returned from Thailand and Malaysia are being kept in quarantine at hospitals in Zabuthiri, Dekkhinathiri, Zayarthiri and Pobbathiri townships, and around 300 more are in the Nay Pyi Taw City Development Committee Guesthouse, according to Dr. Myat Wunna Soe of the Naypyitaw Health Department.

The returnees have been quarantined since March 25, he said.

International fights are no longer landing at Naypyitaw Airport. So we are less likely to be affected than Yangon and Mandalay. And the number of those who have returned from overseas is also low compared with other regions and states. I think we will be able to control the situation, Dr. Myat Wunna Soe told The Irrawaddy on Sunday.

Myanmars civil aviation authority on Sunday said no international commercial passenger flights will be allowed to land in Myanmar until April 31 to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Dr. Myat Wunna Soe said Naypyitaw Health Department has plans to turn more township hospitals into quarantine centers if necessary.

The Naypyitaw authorities on March 26 instructed that karaoke venues and massage parlors in the capital be closed and for restaurants to only offer takeaways. Restaurants along the Yangon-Mandalay Highway have also been ordered to close.

The COVID-19 patient in Naypyitaw is a 58-year-old Swiss woman who works for the United Nations. She tested positive for COVID-19 last week and is in intensive care at the 1,000-bed Naypyitaw General Hospital.

She flew from Switzerland and arrived in Naypyitaw via Bangkok on March 18. She might have contracted the virus from her father who was suffering from COVID-19. She said she had been isolated within the M Gallery Hotel in Naypyitaw.

Passengers on her fight, airport security staff, her taxi driver, M Gallery Hotel staff and other hotel guests will be monitored for two weeks, deputy Naypyitaw mayor U Ye Min Oo told The Irrawaddy.

As of Sunday, Myanmar had 10 COVID-19 cases with two new cases in Yangon, according to the Ministry of Health and Sports. One of the new cases is a man who returned from Thailand on March 23.

The ministry warned that the country faced a high risk of a big outbreak as more than 23,000 migrants had returned from Thailand in the last 10 days.

The World Health Organization said on Monday there were more than 638,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in 203 countries and over 30,100 deaths.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

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DANVILLE (BCN)

At least one person was killed Sunday night in a two-vehicle crash involving a motorcycle on Interstate Highway 680 just north of the El Pintado Road interchange in Danville, and all lanes of the freeway at the accident scene were closed as of 8:45 p.m., the California Highway Patrol said.

The accident was reported in the northbound lanes of I-680 at 8:13 p.m. Sunday, the CHP said. One victim was found in the middle of the freeway, and officers were looking for a possible second person who may have been riding on the motorcycle.

Further information was not immediately available.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Ride-hailing major Ola is in discussions with various state governments and the Centre to offer its transportation and kitchen services amid the 21-day lockdown across the country.

Ola, which is already working with the Karnataka government, is in talks with other States and the Centre to extend its transportation services to help facilitate transit of healthcare professionals, senior citizens, government officials and quick response teams who need mobility options.

Ola co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal in a tweet said: "Thank you Sir! Were humbled to join hands with GoK and other state Governments in offering all support we can in these times. @Olacabs driver-partners and @Olafoods_India kitchen staff are proud to join various essential service providers in #IndiafightsCorona #StrongerTogether".

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayan in a tweet said Ola has agreed to provide 500 vehicles for COVID-19 related activities in Karnataka.

He added that these vehicles will be used for commuting by doctors and for COVID-19 related activities.

According to sources, Ola is engaged in conversations with Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Telengana, and similar proposals have also been sent to Health Ministry and Prime Minister's Office.

A source said government departments are helping with required permits and procurement of protective gear wherever applicable to ensure safety of the drivers.

Also, driver earnings on a cost to cost basis are being provided by the government.

Ola has also offered to prepare food from its cloud kitchens (over 40 in six cities) and transportation of the food to major nodal centres for the government to supply to medical professionals, daily wagers, migrant labourers, and security teams on ground, the source added.

An e-mail sent to Ola did not elicit a response. On March 23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a three-week national lockdown as part of efforts to combat the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Over 1,000 people in India have tested positive for coronavirus so far with 29 deaths being reported.

With the implementation of the lockdown , the government has allowed only people in essential services like healthcare, banking and media to commute. Limited mobility options have made it difficult for these people to travel to their workplace.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Scientists at MIT have developed a way to 3D print soft, flexible neural implants that they say can gently conform to the brain's contours and monitor activity over longer periods.

Such flexible electronics could be softer alternatives to existing metal-based electrodes designed to monitor brain activity, the researchers said.

They may also be useful in brain implants that stimulate neural regions to ease symptoms of epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, and severe depression, according to the research published in the journal Nature Communications.

The team developed a way to 3D print neural probes and other electronic devices that are as soft and flexible as rubber.

The devices are made from a type of polymer, or soft plastic, that is electrically conductive.

The team transformed this normally liquid-like conducting polymer solution into a substance more like viscous toothpaste -- which they could then feed through a conventional 3D printer to make stable, electrically conductive patterns.

The team printed several soft electronic devices, including a small, rubbery electrode, which they implanted in the brain of a mouse.

As the mouse moved freely in a controlled environment, the neural probe was able to pick up on the activity from a single neuron. Monitoring this activity can give scientists a higher-resolution picture of the brain's activity, and can help in tailoring therapies and long-term brain implants for a variety of neurological disorders.

"We hope by demonstrating this proof of concept, people can use this technology to make different devices, quickly," said Hyunwoo Yuk, a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.

"They can change the design, run the printing code, and generate a new design in 30 minutes. Hopefully this will streamline the development of neural interfaces, fully made of soft materials," Yuk said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi, March 30 : The Centre has asked automobile companies to manufacture ventilators to tide over any shortages in treating COVID-19 patients.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare tweeted that these companies are working towards producing ventilators.

Earlier, the government had asked several leading automobile players such as Maruti and Mahindra to look into the possibility of manufacturing of ventilators.

At present engineers of Mahindra Group are working on manufacturing prototypes of ventilators, while Maruti Suzuki India has entered into an arrangement with AgVa Healthcare to scale up the production of ventilators.

In the US, companies such as Ford Motor and GM have been roped in for manufacturing the life saving medical equipment.

Besides, the ministry tweeted that Bharat Electronics has been asked to manufacture 30,000 ventilators in the next two months in collaboration with local manufacturers.

"Over 14,000 existing ?#ventilators earmarked for ?#Covid_19? patients in various hospitals in the country," the ministry tweeted.

Furthermore, the ministry tweeted that AgVa Healthcare, Noida has been given an order to manufacture 10,000 ventilators with a month.

The supplies from AgVa Healthcare are expected to commence in the second week of April.
For better, for worse, with stroke and in Covid-19, until death do us part.

One elderly couple have showed us that love transcends age and boundaries. Even in the time of the coronavirus and being engaged in a long-distance relationship, their commitment to each other stands strong.

The pairLiong May Swan, a Singapore Citizen and Tom Iljas, a Swedish Nationalheld their solemnisation ceremony on 28 March 2020. Except that things did not pan out according to what they had initially planned: a restaurant ceremony.

With social distancing and precautionary measures implemented due to COVID-19, Tom and May had to give up on their dream wedding. They cancelled the ceremony scheduled at Dempsey Hill and decided to hold a family event at home instead.

Unfortunately, even that reality did not materialise for the pair, who intended to move to Sweden to spend the rest of their lives together after registering their marriage on 28 March 2020.

Unexpected Stroke Episode

78-year-old May, who is also a local fiction writer, suffered a stroke on 16 Marcha week prior to her planned wedding with Tom. As a result, she had to be warded at the hospital.

On 25 May, May was transferred to Alexandra Hospitals Specialised Rehabilitation Ward 3 to undergo physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy.

elderly couple gets married

Photo: Alexandra Hospital

It was revealed that Tom took notice of Mays deteriorating health when he was in Singapore. After their solemnisation ceremony, he planned to bring her to Sweden so he could be by her side to care for her instead of letting her live on her own.

And so, the ceremony went ahead as plannedeven if that means having to change the venue once more: at the bedside of Alexandra Hospital.

This would not have been possible if not for an Advanced Practice Nurse, Sister Wendy Yue, who leads the specialised rehabilitation ward. She had gathered the hospitals Operations and Communications teams after she first heard of the patients predicament.

Story continues

This is the first time that a ceremony like this will be held from inside a clinic, according to Alexandra Hospital.

Elderly Couple Gets Married: A simple and Dignified Ceremony

The hospital was only given a 36 hours turn around to make the necessary preparations, which included yellow flowersMays favourite colourand a dedicated space for the solemnisation on the morning of 28 March 2020.

It was described as a simple, dignified ceremony respecting the precautionary measures of Covid-19. Two of the adjacent clinics were re-opened and social distancing measures of one metres apart and the no more than 10 pax rule were also observed.

Elderly couple gets married, with the help of staff from Alexandra Hospital. | Photo: Alexandra Hospital

The wedding solemnisation of Tom and May is yet another testament to the dedication and efficiency of Singapores healthcare system and heroes.

The RoM ceremony was said to be presided by Dr Daniel Lee Kok-Pheng. Representatives from Alexandra Hospital (AH) such as the Chief Nurse and Lead nurse of the specialised rehabilitation ward and physiotherapist of AH also graced the wedding.

elderly couple gets married

Photo: Alexandra Hospital

Walking Down Memory Lane

Both Tom and May were said to be widowed in the early parts of their lives and experienced years of loneliness for two decades.

While someif not manywould have given up entertaining the possibility of finding a new love or companion, the couple crossed paths and found each other 10 years ago.

Photo: Alexandra Hospital

Their first encounter was through an online community group that connected people with shared interests, which included discussion of a wide range of socio-political topics.

With all long-distance relationships, a lot of commitment is required from both parties. Tom and May had shuttled between the two countries to visit each other and Tom would make trips to see May which stretched over indirect, long-haul, 13-hour flights between Sweden and Singapore.

The couple often visited each other overseas, and both have children of their own in their previous marriages. | Photo: Alexandra Hospital

The couples experience thus far and them who believed in sharing the message of hope, amid the trying times had inspired the staff of Alexandra Hospital.

This takes courage. We are very inspired. So we want to help them, said APN Wendy Yue of Alexandra Hospital.

Congratulations to the couple!

Our massive congratulations to this elderly couple gets married! | Photo: Alexandra Hospital

Also read:

Dad Shares Entire Experience of Being A Suspected COVID-19 Case in Singapore

Malaysian Couple Holds Drive-thru Wedding Amid Covid-19 Outbreak

The post Elderly Couple Gets Married at Alexandra Hospital Amid Restrictions For COVID-19, Stroke appeared first on theAsianparent - Your Guide to Pregnancy, Baby & Raising Kids.
TORONTO, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Orvana Minerals Corp. (TSX: ORV) (the "Company" or "Orvana") today announces that on March 29, 2020, Spain's government passed new legislation extending and broadening the reach of the national lockdown (the "Extended Lockdown Order"), initially declared on March 14, 2020, to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain (the "Initial Lockdown"). As announced in the Company's news release on March 16, 2020, the Initial Lockdown did not have a material impact on the Company's operations or logistics at its mining operations at the El Valle and Carles mines (collectively, "OroValle"). However, the Extended Lockdown Order now includes an order for all non-essential workers to stay at home until April 9, 2020. The Extended Lockdown Order will halt all "non-essential" activities (which currently includes extractive industries including mining) starting Monday, March 30, 2020. Currently, the Extended Lockdown Order is planned to expire on April 9, 2020.

In compliance with the Extended Lockdown Order, the Company has temporarily reduced its normal mining operations at OroValle to the minimum essential activities allowed under the Extended Lockdown Order. Orvana intends to resume normal production at OroValle when the Extended Lockdown Order expires on April 9, 2020. In the meantime, a smaller workforce will be maintained to oversee critical aspects of the operation, with the primary goals of maintaining environmental compliance, maintaining the integrity of underground operations, and facilitating an efficient ramp up to normal operation levels once the Extended Lockdown Order expires.

Due to the uncertainty of the extent of the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic could have on operations at OroValle, the Company is reviewing strategies to preserve cash and deferring capital programs where appropriate.

In light of the mandated temporary suspension of operations at OroValle, the Company is also reviewing its production guidance initially issued on November 26, 2019. The Company expects to update its guidance promptly, as soon as the effects of the Extended Lockdown Order in Spain are determined with more certainty and as part of the Q2 2020 reporting process.

While the COVID-19 situation evolves, the Company is continuously assessing the potential impacts on operations and adhering to directives from the central and local governments. The Company will provide further updates to the market promptly, as the COVID-19 situation affects operations. To date, there have not been any known reported cases of COVID-19 originating from any of the Company's mining or other sites. Throughout this period, the Company continues to be focused on the health and safety of its workforce, which includes taking such precautions as:

Communicating to employees the importance of adhering to OroValle's health and safety protocols;

Enforcing hygiene protocols consistent with pandemic containment guidelines;

Restricting visitor access;

Mandating office staff to work from home;

Following the advice of health and local governmental authorities; and

Implementing the following interaction protocols:

an object sharing protocol to reduce the use of shared working tools as much as possible;



a personal distance protocol to avoid physical contact and maintaining a minimum distance between people at all times; reducing time spent in the shift changeroom to a minimum; and avoiding overlapping of personnel during shift changes;



a meeting protocol to restrict in-person meetings to those that are absolutely necessary; promoting the use of technology to convene virtual meetings;



a physical barrier protocol to relocate work teams to create isolated work areas; minimizing contact with personnel in other work teams; and



a response protocol that sets out defined actions to be taken in the event of suspected cases.

The Company's Don Mario gold-silver property in Bolivia continues its care and maintenance phase, as previously announced on November 8, 2019, while development and engineering of the oxides stockpile is being advance. The small team of essential employees at Don Mario are following both Orvana and governmental requirements relating to the containment of COVID-19.

ABOUT ORVANA - Orvana is a multi-mine gold-copper-silver company. Orvana's assets consist of the producing El Valle and Carles gold-copper-silver mines in northern Spain, and the Don Mario gold-silver property in Bolivia, currently in care and maintenance. Additional information is available at Orvana's website (www.orvana.com).

Cautionary Statements - Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements made herein constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, potentials, future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "believes", "expects", "plans", "estimates", "intends" or "anticipates" or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will" or "are projected to" be taken or achieved) are not statements of historical fact, but are forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements herein relate to, among other things, Orvana's ability to achieve improvement in free cash flow; the potential to extend the mine life of El Valle and Don Mario beyond their current life-of-mine estimates including specifically, but not limited to in the case of Don Mario, the processing of the mineral stockpiles and the reprocessing of the tailings material; Orvana's ability to optimize its assets to deliver shareholder value; the Company's ability to optimize productivity at Don Mario and El Valle; the effect of COVID-19 on the Company's operations; estimates of future production, operating costs and capital expenditures; mineral resource and reserve estimates; statements and information regarding future feasibility studies and their results; future transactions; future metal prices; the ability to achieve additional growth and geographic diversification; future financial performance, including the ability to increase cash flow and profits; future financing requirements; and mine development plans.

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of such statements, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. The estimates and assumptions of the Company contained or incorporated by reference in this news release, which may prove to be incorrect, include, but are not limited to, the various assumptions set forth herein and in Orvana's most recently filed Management's Discussion & Analysis and Annual Information Form in respect of the Company's most recently completed fiscal year (the "Company Disclosures") or as otherwise expressly incorporated herein by reference as well as: there being no significant disruptions affecting operations, whether due to labour disruptions, supply disruptions, power disruptions, damage to equipment or otherwise; permitting, development, operations, expansion and acquisitions at El Valle and Don Mario being consistent with the Company's current expectations; political developments in any jurisdiction in which the Company operates being consistent with its current expectations; certain price assumptions for gold, copper and silver; prices for key supplies being approximately consistent with current levels; production and cost of sales forecasts meeting expectations; the accuracy of the Company's current mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates; and labour and materials costs increasing on a basis consistent with Orvana's current expectations.

A variety of inherent risks, uncertainties and factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control, affect the operations, performance and results of the Company and its business, and could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results expressed or implied by forward looking statements. Some of these risks, uncertainties and factors include the affect of COVID-19 on the Company's operations and workforce, fluctuations in the price of gold, silver and copper; the need to recalculate estimates of resources based on actual production experience; the failure to achieve production estimates; variations in the grade of ore mined; variations in the cost of operations; the availability of qualified personnel; the Company's ability to obtain and maintain all necessary regulatory approvals and licenses; the Company's ability to use cyanide in its mining operations; risks generally associated with mineral exploration and development, including the Company's ability to continue to operate the El Valle and/or Don Mario and/or ability to resume long-term operations at the Carles Mine; the Company's ability to successfully implement a sulphidization circuit and ancillary facilities to process the current oxides stockpiles at Don Mario; the Company's ability to acquire and develop mineral properties and to successfully integrate such acquisitions; the Company's ability to execute on its strategy; the Company's ability to obtain financing when required on terms that are acceptable to the Company; challenges to the Company's interests in its property and mineral rights; current, pending and proposed legislative or regulatory developments or changes in political, social or economic conditions in the countries in which the Company operates; general economic conditions worldwide; and the risks identified in the Company's disclosures. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company's forward-looking statements and reference should also be made to the Company's Disclosures for a description of additional risk factors.

Any forward-looking statements made herein with respect to the anticipated development and exploration of the Company's mineral projects are intended to provide an overview of management's expectations with respect to certain future activities of the Company and may not be appropriate for other purposes.

Forward-looking statements are based on management's current plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions and, except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should assumptions related to these plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions change. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Orvana Minerals Corp.

Related Links

www.orvana.com


Former Vice President Joe Biden rolled out a new way to try to reach voters amid the coronavirus crisis, hosting a podcast from the Wilmington, Delaware home where he is practicing social isolation like many Americans.

'Its a scary time. A lot of people out there confused things are changing every day, every hour. So I wanted to have this conversation with you now if we could,' Biden said, at the top of what he said would be a weekly podcast.

His first interview subject was Ron Klain, who headed an Ebola virus task force during the Obama administration. Biden says Klain, an outside campaign advisor now, was his 'first choice' for the position back then.

Former Vice President Joe Biden hosted a podcast from his home in Wilmington

The pair traded friendly questions, and Klain tore into Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

'The coronavirus isnt Donald Trumps fault, but how we responded to it is, and theres no issue that illustrates that more than this testing fiasco,' Klain told him in the podcast, called 'Here's the Deal,' a reference to a favorite Biden catch phrase.

'Donald Trump didnt take the steps needed to get the testing in place. As a result compared to almost every other developed nation. Were behind on getting people tested,' Klain said.

Biden interiewed Ron Klain, who ran the Ebola virus response in 2014

Biden is seeking ways to break through as President Trump commands the spotlight with his coronavirus response

Biden stopped campaign rallies as the virus started to rage

Vice President Joseph Biden (R) and Ebola Response Coordinator Ron Klain (L), participate in a meeting regarding Ebola at the Eisenhower Executive office building November 13, 2014 in Washington, D.C.

Biden responded: 'Im determined that this should not be political. This is not about partisan politics. Its about how rapidly we can put in motion the initiatives that are going to save peoples lives and get us through this process.'

Klain used the platform to compliment Biden and Obama. Listeners could click on convenient tabs to donate to Biden's campaign.

'What you and the president told me on day one was to put science first,' Klain told him.

'You were there, you remember it very well,' Klain told Biden.

'I think by contrast, what weve seen here with the Trump response to coronavirus is a failure of both things. The president notoriously is rejecting the advice of scientists and doctors. Hes not listening to people who are telling them he didnt in January and February when these experts were telling him we have a big problem. He was going out and downplaying the problem,' Klain continued.

'He just wasn't listening to these great experts we have in the government,' Klain said of Trump  who on Sunday backed off a stated hope of reopening big parts of the country by Easter. Instead, Trump said he would continue stay-home guidelines through the end of April to try to slow the spread of the virus.

'And I know its also very, very different from the way youve been thinking Mr. vice president about the response to coronavirus,' Klain told him.

'You dont have to be a doctor and you dont have to be clairvoyant to know where theyre going to need these hospitals,' said Biden, who called for Trump to use the military weeks ago to stand up temporary hospitals.

Trump's approval hit 49 per cent in the latest Gallup poll last week, with disapproval at 45 per cent. Biden stopped holding campaign rallies just as he amassed a big delegate lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders and became a strong favorite to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Some states have postponed their primaries since then.

Trump has called himself a 'wartime president' and is commanding the spotlight. He flew to Norfolk Saturday to see off the USNS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship that arrived Monday in New York Harbor.

Biden called for increasing the size of Social Security checks and forgiving a minimum of $10,000 for student loans during the outbreak.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) that has so far claimed over 14,500 lives globally as of 23 March has strengthened the case for intra-African regional value chains and trade, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

In an interview with Africa Renewal, Mr. Stephen Karingi, the Director of the Regional Integration and Trade Division at the ECA, said the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) could help mitigate the effects of COVID-19, especially on pharmaceuticals and foodstuffs.

A rapid and ambitious implementation of the AfCFTA will go a long way in hastening the recovery from COVID-19 impacts while inoculating Africa against future adverse effects of shocks such as this, said Mr. Karingi.

Pharmaceuticals

Africa spends US$16 billion on drugs annually and depends heavily on China and other countries in Europe and Asia for its pharmaceutical supply, some of which are badly affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. Karingi said African countries could start manufacturing the drugs themselves, which would not only be cheaper but would also help secure the quality and safety of supply; and contribute to financial sustainability as import bills are increasing across the continent.

Local production of pharmaceuticals across select hubs can support inter-regional trade for mutual economic benefits but also support investments locally, he said.

Producing pharmaceuticals on the continent is also important given the need to tackle local diseases that make no investment case for large external pharmaceutical companies. Good examples are antibiotics and other infectious disease drugs, which big manufacturers no longer want to produce.

The AfCFTA, said Mr. Karingi, creates an environment conducive for African regional value chains, regional champions, and eventually continental champions.

These can be leveraged as a springboard for nurturing African multinationals and creating jobs and prosperity, he said.

Food imports

Just over a dozen African countries including South Africa, Ghana, Cote dIvoire are net exporters of food, but they largely do not sell within the continent. With many countries importing foodstuffs such as wheat, rice, fish and milk from COVID-19 affected countries in Europe, Middle East and elsewhere, Mr. Karingi sees a role for the AfCFTA to cushion against shocks.

We need to maintain momentum on AfCFTA as a mechanism for building long term continental resilience and volatility management by increasing, for example, intra-African trade on basic food products.

However, Mr. Karingi says the current border closures and travel limitations for COVID-19 containment may make it difficult to conclude the outstanding negotiations on rules of origin and tariff offers, which are needed for trade to start under the AfCFTA on 1 July 2020.
Help India!

By Chand Mahal Ruby and Ruhail Andrabi

On 25th March the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, announced a 21 days countrywide lockdown, millions of subaltern communities got pushed into what can be hailed as a long anticipated financial and social apocalypse. With the unprecedented threat of Coronavirus entering the Indian subcontinent, social distancing had already become a new neoliberal term in the discourse of capitalism and by imposing these European strategies within the Indian context in restricting the global pandemic, the state has miserably failed to understand the internal dynamics of the country  home to millions of people who are daily wage laborers. As the noted Cambridge professor David Runciman argues, Coronavirus has revealed the nature of power. It has given free hand to the state to use coercive measures in foucauldian language to discipline the bodies of the country.

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It will take no rocket science to understand that the subalterns are the most marginalized people at a time of a global pandemic having the highest chances of taking over a country struggling with an alarmingly inadequate doctor-patient ratio. The supposed lockdown on 1.3 billion Indians has although cleaned the air, made animals reclaim their natural habitats and some even, roaming around cities while birds chirp merrily from dawn till evening but it has pushed subalterns in the country into the black hole of vulnerability. With about 80% of Indians employed in the informal sector the question is necessary. Are they ready to fight the virus with empty stomachs?

TV news in the past few days have been filled with thousands of migrant laborers and their families walking home on foot up to 700 km. These labourers, stranded in alien provinces far away from home in UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, amid nationwide lockdown and no rail services, have walked to the Anand Vihar bus terminus and stood in a queue as long as 3 kilometers, carrying children as young as 3 months old on their shoulders. They have absolutely no way to live in rented accommodations nor can they afford private vehicles for their journeys. The government needs to answer the question that why these migrant laborers capability of reaching home timely and safely has been compromised when the urban elite had been given enough warning and time to reach their homes with regular announcements of flight closures and so on?

These people who are already at the bottom line for survival, for whom basic necessities in the common days are a struggle, how will they make do in the harsh days of a virus outbreak? The uncontrollable nature of this disease and our would be inability to control it as a developing nation, has, surprisingly been admitted even by the jingoistic national media. So the questions that constantly perturb us are, Why the state did not take any steps in the month of February when we were witnessing lessons in process across China and Italy?

Even now when the state has taken steps to include precautionary measures although too late, Why are there no tangible strategies for this population who have only two options in their hands, either die of starvation or become the host of deadly virus thats hovering over our heads? Not only it reveals the incompetence of the state, but gives a glimpse that there are incumbent members at the forefront of policy planning.

With no prior planning, now the state and central government must address the problem of these migrant workers. Although the state governments have started to provide food and buses to the stranded migrant laborers on their way to home, is that sufficient? What happens when this mass of daily wage laborers reach back to their villages? The subaltern women who go out to work in the field, in the construction streets, to homes to clean  What about them? They will not be able to sit inside the sanctity of their homes with hunger looming around for long. The notion of space is different for the subaltern working women, who are not bound to the confines of their kitchens. They are doubly pressured to work inside the house and outside, with bypassing the dominant notions of gendered spaces both inside and outside their homes. Their intersectionality of oppression demands them to work both inside and outside. As Bama has talked about the Dalit women working both inside and outside their homes in Sangati, similarly bell hooks has talked in the context of black women, who cannot afford the luxury to stay at home and do only housework.

With the laborers out of work now and back to confines of their mud houses, landless laborers would be left with no option but to work in the fields with no stockpiles of food waiting for them in the cash crop economy of our villages, which are not self-sufficient to sustain all. All these migrant laborers of various skills now back in their villages will create an amplified workforce leading to a fall in labor prices. Will the villages be able to provide so much work to both their people and the migrants who fled cities in the Corona outbreak? Will the landless laborers be able to sustain themselves in villages? This is the harvest season of mustard and sugarcane followed by wheat harvest in April. Work for men and women would be there in the fields in the harvest seasons but how they will work is a question amid fear of being perceived as carriers of the virus. Also, would they be able to move to the field if community transmissions reach villages? How would the farmers be able to sell their produce easily with no policy measures taken for it? These are the issues that we are going to face in the upcoming days. Is the state ready to tackle it?

Let us imagine, the prime minister, like always makes a magical appearance at night on televisions introducing new relief packages or policies for them, then what are the chances of its success? The chances of cent percent success of any government policy are miniscule especially with a policy getting implemented on an urgent basis in the highly bureaucratic country which is insensitive to deal with the public especially the police who use their power to control the supposedly unruly and subjugate them as mere objects. This global emergency is also a litmus test for the developing countries to prove their competency against the deadly pandemic. This current Coronavirus pandemic is more than a medical crisis rather it also reflects the contours of the political crisis that have emanated because of the negligence of the neo-liberal governments that denied the emergence of public health institutions. This emergency acts as an experiment which could help us to relearn and re-strategize our approaches that we continue to adopt in the economy, healthcare, sustainable development and education. The government should realize that instead of investing on statues, warfare technology and advertisements they must make the public its priority and focusing on sophisticated healthcare technology.

When there are 1.3 million people roaming around the streets and dying due to poverty, the task of the state should be their household management rather than framing the laws that have created disharmony in the country. The state should take the necessary steps before the country would plunge deeper into the looming catastrophe thats slowly consuming the country in its claws.

(Chand Mahal Ruby and Ruhail Andrabi are both Research Scholars in Jamia Millia Islamia)
In Islam, the religious instruction is to bury the dead. Cremation is forbidden





by Mass L. Usuf





Triple tragedy! Not being able to be close to your loved one at the time of his/her death. The death itself. Then, the undignified send off. These are the after-effects of a Covid-19 death. It is a deeply painful experience for the loved ones which no word dares to express. A feeling that will keep on upsetting you, renewing the grief each time and this will continue for quite some time after the loss. All of us are destined to die and die only once. Funerals are, therefore, unique as it takes place only once and it is overwhelming. Any stricken family normally tries to seek transitory consolation by ensuring that the loved person is given a dignified and memorable farewell. If this is also not possible, what can anyone do? Such are wickedly drowned in hopelessness, helplessness and extreme vulnerability unable to fulfil whatever is desired to the departed soul. This state further engulfs them with an inextricable sense of sorrow.









Before continuing further, in these most trying circumstances, it is very important that we recognise with honour and respect those in the frontline of this pandemic. The medics and all the ancillary services directly or indirectly engaged in the frontier. They are bravely fighting this war on our behalf, you and me, obviously putting their life at high risk. We ought to remember that they too have families.





President Gotabhaya Rajapakshe and his government being aware of this great danger are doing their best, the bureaucracy, the task forces and the various adhoc bodies that have been formed are all struggling in facing this challenge. Those persons in uniform and others are also rendering a huge service. So many others, all of whom cannot be named herein, deserve our prayers, well wishes and gratitude. Let us shed all our differences and collectively bond to face and overcome this scourge unitedly.





Sky Burial, Burial, Cremation





Almost everyone, some way or the other, is bounded by religion and religious traditions. Naturally, the disposal of a dead body is also bound by religious significance since the deceased has departed from his/her earthly sojourn. Beliefs, traditions, rituals and practices dictate as to how the dead has to be laid to rest. The ancient Zoroastrians believed that the burial or cremation of the corpse would pollute water and soil which was forbidden in their religion. Therefore, in India, a Parsis dead body is placed in a built-up place called a Dakhma known as the Tower of Silence. Here birds of prey like vultures would devour it. This 3,000-year-old ritual is called sky burial.





The Tibetan Buddhists also practise Sky burials in their traditional methods of body disposals. It is their belief that such a disposal illustrates the impermanence (anicca) of life.





In Islam, the religious instruction is to bury the dead. Cremation is forbidden.





Today, in this crucial and challenging times, the third of the triple tragedy lies in the thought of a loved one being cremated. An absolutely unacceptable proposition to a Muslim or a Jew and for most Christians. It is unimaginable for a Muslim to allow his/her loved one to be cremated. This religious sentiment has to be recognised with humanity and mutual respect. It is not something new that is demanded but has been in practise for thousands of years as is in all religious traditions.





It must be emphasised that this prohibition in Islam is flexible. Islamic jurisprudence has provision for cremation if that is what is medically required for the common good of all the living beings  maslahah (public interest). Rationally, in addressing this topic, specific to burial, what needs to be looked at is the medical viewpoint.





Medical Science Considerations





Incubation: According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the incubation period for the novel corona virus is estimated at 5 to 6 days, ranging from 0 to 14 days. When compared with the Ebola virus, the incubation period, or the time interval from infection to onset of symptoms, is from 2 to 21 days. Comparatively, Ebola virus is a high-risk contagion identified as a fatal disease.





Mortality Rates: The death rate for Ebola virus disease (formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever) can go up to 90%. The mortality rate of the new coronavirus is around 1% according to UKs chief medical officer, Chris Whitty. The World Health Organizations director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, talked of 3.4%. (The Guardian, 24.03.2020).





Infection After Death: Levels of Ebola virus remain high after death, thus bodies of those who have died from Ebola virus disease must be handled only by people wearing appropriate personal protective equipment and must be buried immediately. WHO advises that bodies of people who may have died from Ebola virus disease should be handled only by trained burial teams, who are equipped to properly bury the dead, safely and with dignity.

(https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/ebola/frequently-asked-questions).





In contrast, the after-death infection in Covid-19 is explained very clearly by the Royal College of Pathologists, U.K. It states as follows with regard to the risk to Mortuary staff, it is greater from visitors than the deceased from the Covid-19. (h ttps://www.rcpath.org/G200-TBPs-Guidance-for-care-of-





Burials: Ebola virus can persist in used needles, syringes or vials for several weeks. The virus can persist in the body fluids of survivors for many months, and can be transmitted well after recovery, or in rare cases can result in relapse - as we have already seen during the outbreak. Despite the high-risk levels of the Ebola virus disease 26,000 safe and dignified BURIALS had been conducted as per the remarks by Dr. Ibrahima Soce Fall (World Health Organization Assistant Director-General, Emergency Response, 6 March 2020 Statement).





From a medical science point of view burial of a covid-19 corpse has been accepted.





Countries Which Allow Burials





The protocols for BURIAL of the deceased of the Covid-19 are already in place in several countries.





NSW Government, Australia: In the Statement on handling of bodies by funeral directors, it said that Funeral directors and mortuary personnel are unlikely to contract COVID-19 from deceased persons infected with the virus, however the following precautionary strategies should be used to minimise public health risks and to prevent spread of disease: (https://www.health.nsw. gov.au/Infectious/factsheets/Pages/covid-19-funeral-directors.aspx)





Nevada, USA: At this time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that decedents with COVID-19 may be BURIED or cremated according to the familys preferences. The state of Nevada specifically clarified and said Decedents with COVID-19 can be buried or cremated. (National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), 23.03.2020)





Malaysia: Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) has issued strict orders on how to prepare covid-19 bodies for BURIAL. (THESTAR, 24.03.2020).





India: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in India has issued these guidelines for its citizens with regard to protocols to be followed in the case of BURIALS. ( https://www.indiatoday.in/information/story/coronavirus-death-india-how-handle-covid-19-dead-bodies-1657799-2020-03-20 ).





United Kingdom: The National Burial Council has been working with Public Health England to best plan for facilitating the BURIAL of Muslims who pass away from COVID-19. In answer to the question, What is the UK Government position on enforced cremation?, the following was the reply.





On 23 March, the UK Government has confirmed that the emergency legislation to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic will now recognise the importance of ensuring faith communities are able to bury the deceased instead of cremating in the event of significant deaths due to Coronavirus. The legislation has now made clear that enforced cremation against the wishes of the individual, will not take place when there are burial facilities available.

(https://mcb.org.uk/community/burialfaqs/)





Europe: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) Technical Report: Decedents with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 can be BURIED or cremated as usual. (Stockholm: ECDC; 2020).





An examination of these precedents will help us to formulate our local policy in this regard. It is very clear that there is no danger to public in burying the dead from Covid-19. Of course, the final wish of the deceased and/or the family members have to be respected. Anyone who wishes to be cremated, such wish has to be carried out. In any event, a Muslims wish will always be a burial. Those who died of the Ebola virus disease had been buried even though it was a more infectious virus. In comparison, there should not be an issue in burying the decedents of the Covid-19 virus. However, it is extremely important that guidelines for handling covid-19 bodies are strictly followed.





The end.




A Delhi court has granted bail to three persons, arrested for allegedly not moving away from the Shaheen Bagh anti-CAA protest site and obstructing police officials, so as to de-congest jails in view of coronavirus.

Metropolitan Magistrate Jitendra Pratap Singh granted relief to Shan Mohammed, Syed Masood Ahmed, Syed Taseer Ahmed taking into account the directions of the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court to de-congest already overpopulated prisons in the wake of coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic.

The court however imposed certain restrictions on them, including that they cannot mobilise a crowd at the protest site.

The court further directed them not to post any opinion regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register, National Register Citizen on any social media, instant messengers or give any interview in this regard to print and electronic media.

It granted bail to the three persons on furnishing a bail bond of Rs 25,000 each and two sureties of like amount.

It is well known that in the current scenario in the wake of COVID-19 epidemic, the Supreme Court of India and the Delhi High Court have both passed the directions regarding the de-congestion of already overpopulated prisons. The bail has been opposed by the state (police) primarily on the ground that the applicants might mobilise a crowd at the protest site which could prejudice the maintenance of law and order and affect adversely the efforts of the state to contain the spread of coronavirus.

In view of this court, this reasonable apprehension can be addressed by imposing suitable restrictions on the applicants. Accordingly, this court allows the bail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 25,000 with two sureties of like amount, the court said.

It further directed the accused to mark attendance at Shaheen Bagh Police Station every Monday at 10 AM during investigation of the case and not to visit the site at Shaheen Bagh for the purpose of any protest.

They shall not participate in any meeting/gathering where more than five people in total including the applicant are assembled during the existence of the directions of the Centre and the state government due to COVID-19, the court said.

It directed them to comply with the directions of the Centre, state government and local self-governing bodies, made to contain the spread of the Coronavirus.

They should not tamper with evidence, regularly appear before the court on each and every date of hearing and not leave the country without permission of the court, it said.

During the hearing, the police opposed the bail applications saying they have disobeyed the directions of the Centre and the state government regarding the lockdown and prohibition of protests gathering which were made to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The police alleged that the accused did not pay any heed to the directions of the police officials to remove themselves from the protest site and obstructed the police from discharging their duties.

If released on bail, they may mobilise large crowd at the protest site and it might pose problems of law and order, the police claimed.

The counsel for the accused told the court that they were innocent and has nothing to do with the alleged offence and they are likely to be infected with the coronavirus if detained for long.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Road to 270 is a weekly column leading up to the presidential election. Each installment is dedicated to understanding one states political landscape and how that might influence which party will win its electoral votes in 2020. Well do these roughly in order of expected competitiveness, moving toward the most intensely contested battlegrounds as election day nears.

The Road to 270 will be published every Monday. The column is written by Seth Moskowitz, a 270toWin elections and politics contributor. Contact Seth at s.k.moskowitz@gmail.com or on Twitter @skmoskowitz.

Rhode Island

Rhode Island

Rhode Island was more competitive in the 2016 than it has been since 1988. Given that Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 16%, this means little for its top-line electoral fortunes in November. It could, however, indicate a future where Republicans can credibly compete.

The tiny state  its the smallest of them all  packs enough people in to give it four Electoral College votes rather than the minimum of three (although it might not be so lucky following the upcoming Census). Most of the population lives in the coastal and urban areas which favored Clinton while inland ones voted for Trump. In this way, the state looks like the country: its coastal and urban communities are Democratic and its inland ones are Republican. Before we get too deep into the states current political and demographic condition, well look back before it was a state.

Becoming A State

Providence Plantations, the first European settlement in the territory that would become Rhode Island, was established in 1636 as a haven for non-traditional religious views. The Founders of the U.S. Constitution would later be inspired by one of the settlements ideals in particular  the separation of church and state.

Other settlements quickly followed and in 1644, they united and formed the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The colonys economy relied on the slave trade  selling rum in exchange for slaves and molasses (with which to make more rum). Fed up with British control and taxation, Rhode Islanders attacked and burned a British ship off their shore. The event, known as the Gaspee Affair, was one of the first examples of violent resistance and edged the colonies closer to revolution.

The first of the 13 colonies to declare independence and the last to ratify The Constitution, Rhode Islanders had an independent streak. They preferred the decentralized Articles of Confederation and only approved the new constitution after promises of a Bill of Rights.

After the American Revolution came the Industrial Revolution and Rhode Island was again at the forefront of change. The states first textile machine came in 1787 and its first mill established in 1790. Rhode Island would become home to textile, machine parts, and jewelry industries. Immigrants and Rhode Islanders in search of jobs moved to urban areas, particularly those around Pawtucket (where the first textile mills were established) and Providence.

These workers, though, were excluded from state politics through the mid 1800s. Residents without property couldnt vote and rural regions had outsized representation in the state legislature. In an attempt to take back power from the Yankee rural elite, Thomas Dorr established a populist party in 1841 with which he created a new government with a new constitution. The existing government quickly ended what is known as The Dorr Rebellion but, in a win for the urban working class, began allowing the landless, native-born, population to vote.

Civil War, Economic Boom, Shift to Democrats

During the Civil War, Rhode Island fought with Lincoln and the rest of the north. In fact, the state was one of the first to abolish segregation in public schools, an act taken in 1866. Rhode Island would vote, along with its northern neighbors, reliably Republican though the 19th Century.

After the war, Rhode Islands economic and demographic trends continued. Industrial jobs dominated the economy and workers packed into cities to get those jobs. In the cities of Pawtucket, Providence, Central Falls, and Woonsocket, manufacturing and whaling reigned. Newport, in the state's south, was reserved for the wealthy. Summer beach homes and mansions filled the wealthy enclave, distinguishing it from the working-class character in the states north.

All through this booming economy, Rhode Island would vote Republican. It did so in every election from 1856 through 1924 except one year, 1912, when Republicans split their vote between William Taft and Theodore Roosevelt.

As the economy began to stumble in the 1920s, Republicans lost their grip on the state. Due in part to the popularity of a synthetic silk called Rayon, the textile industry took a hit in the 1920s and Rhode Islanders lost jobs. Democrats also organized growing urban, Catholic, immigrant, and labor communities into a voting coalition that, along with economic frustration, tipped the state to Democrat Alfred Smith in 1928. With the advent of Great Depression and Franklin Roosevelts popular New Deal, Rhode Island shifted further into the Democratic camp  a transition that would never be reversed. From 1928 through 2016, the only Republicans to win the state would be the moderate Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956 and Richard Nixon and Ronald Regan in their landslides of 1972 and 1984.

World War II to 2020

World War II changed the states economy. As textile mills went out of business, the state manufacturing capacity shifted towards ship and submarine building. The Navy became the states largest employer and the defense industry continued to build up around it.

Demographic change accompanied the economic one. After the war, soldiers and urbanites left the cities  with their cramped living conditions, bad schools and unsafe streets  for the more comfortable suburbs. Providence lost nearly 70,000 residents between 1950 and 1970. Meanwhile, Cranston and Warwick, outside the city, nearly doubled in size. Natural and man-made disasters  including hurricanes in 1954, 1955, 1985, and 1991 and oil spills in 1989 and 1996  disrupted urban renewal development meant to draw Rhode Islanders back into the cities. Providences population peaked in 1940 at 254,000 and bottomed out in 1980 at 157,000.

During this period, immigration to Rhode Island continued. Even as the cities were shrinking from 1950 to 1980, the state grew by over 150,000. Immigrants were simply moving into the suburbs and then the outer suburban rings and rural towns, including Charlestown, Glocester, Narragansett, Scituate, and West Greenwich.

The defense industry took more hits in the 1970s when the Navy decided to relocate its destroyer fleet out of Newport and deactivate the Naval Air Station at Quonset Point. While Newport still has a naval station and defense manufacturing continued for another two decades, the drawdown and end of the Cold War all but ended manufacturing as the states economic backbone.

In its place came the service industries of tourism, education, finance, and business. Tourists came for the states history, beaches, environment and natural charm. Students and educators came for the Providence-based Ivy League, Brown University. Businesses including Citizens Bank and CVS Pharmacy moved their headquarters to the state in the 1990s. While manufacturing is continuing to shrink, the state still produces submarines, ships, jewelry, and silverware.

Today, Rhode Island ranks 13th in portion of the population with a Bachelors Degree and 18th for median household income. These stats are less impressive when compared to Rhode Islands rich and educated New England neighbor states. The state also has a high cost of living, tight business regulations, notoriously deficient infrastructure, and sluggish GDP growth, low factory wages, public corruption, and a large budget deficit. Most of these problems have plagued the state for decades and continue today.

Democratic Dominance and a Turn to Trump

Rhode Island has voted Democratic in every presidential election since 1988, doing so with double digit margins each year. No Republican would win a single of the states five counties from 1988 until Donald Trump managed to flip one in 2016.

At the turn of the Century, Rhode Island was clearly Democratic but not geographically divided like it is today. In 2000, Al Gore beat George Bush by 29%. That year, there was not a clear geographic split that determined if a town or congressional district voted more heavily Democratic or Republican than another. Communities across the state voted for Gore.

Compare that to the 2016 election in which Hillary Clinton carried the state by a smaller 16%. This time, the election featured a clear geographic divide  communities on the coast and in metro areas supported Hillary Clinton while those inland voted for Trump. The reason behind this geographic split, however, lies in demographics.

The state is about 72% white, 16% Hispanic, 8%, black, and 4% Asian. The demographic group that has shifted most toward the GOP in recent years is non-college educated white voters. This population makes up 51% of the state.

If we look at the town in which Trump received the highest percentage of the vote  Scituate, which is located in the center of the state  we see that, relative to the state as a whole, it is far whiter (96% to 72%), less educated (33% to 40%) , and less wealthy ($63,000 to $93,000 median household income) than the state as a whole. While Al Gore received only 6 votes fewer (less than .01% of the vote) than Bush in 2000, Donald Trump clobbered Clinton by 25% in 2016.

If we now look to Clintons best city  Providence  we see that, compared to the state, it is far more diverse (43% Hispanic and 16% black) than the state overall. While, in 2000, Al Gore received 74% of the vote, Clinton managed 81% in 2016. A similar trend can be seen in the wealthy enclaves and beach towns along coast.

These two examples illustrate the dominant trends in Rhode Island. First, the white working-class voters who populate the states inland communities are shifting rightward. Second, the more diverse communities, as well as the rich, educated coastal ones, are sticking with, or moving towards, Democrats.

Even with these internal changes, however, the state as a whole looks safe for Democrats. While it will be instructive to see if Donald Trumps populist message is again able to appeal to slices of the state, the big picture is clear: Rhode Island will be blue in November.

Next Week: Utah
The group illness phase of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in Hungary is about to be replaced with the mass illness stage, Parliamentary Secretary and Deputy Minister of the Cabinet Office Csaba Domotor announced on Sundays Kossuth Radio program.

He added that the speed of the spread is not the important factor; the goal is to prevent the national health system being overwhelmed.



Domotor also noted that there are no people in the country whose life would not be affected by this epidemic.



"Thanks go to the millions of Hungarians who show extreme discipline these days, and special recognition is deserved for those who stand up and fight the virus," he said.



The politician reminded listeners that the Parliament will decide on Monday about the extent of the measures to be taken during the emergency. He said no one knows how many months we will have to fight the virus.



MTI Photo: Zoltan Kelemen
Newly released images show a number of 'unidentified projectiles' believed to have been fired by North Korea into the sea last Sunday, South Korea's military has said.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the projectile launched on Sunday morning landed in water off the North's eastern coast.

Local media reported that 'a super-large multiple rocket launcher' had been used.

North Korea has fired a series of missiles and artillery shells in recent weeks in an apparent attempt to upgrade its military capability amid deadlocked nuclear talks with the United States.

The testing of what local media call a super-large multiple rocket launcher in North Korea, in this undated photo released on March 28, 2020 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency

The talks have stalled since the breakdown of a second summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump in Vietnam in early 2019.

Projectiles were fired towards the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, Yonhap news agency reported earlier this week, citing the South's military joint chiefs of staff.

This was the fourth round of such launches this month by Pyongyang, as the world struggles with the coronavirus pandemic - and as a prolonged hiatus in disarmament talks with the United States drags on.

A little over a week ago, the nuclear-armed North fired what were believed to be two short-range ballistic missiles.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the projectile launched on Sunday morning landed in water off the North's eastern coast

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (L) and US President Donald Trump shake hands on June 30, 2019, during a meeting on the south side of the Military Demarcation Line that divides North and South Korea

A day later, North Korean state media announced that US President Donald Trump had sent a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un detailing a plan to develop ties.

The report cited Kim's powerful sister Kim Yo Jong, who warned that the apparently good personal relationship between the two leaders would not be enough to kickstart broader relations.

'In the letter, he... explained his plan to propel the relations between the two countries of the DPRK and the US and expressed his intent to render cooperation in the anti-epidemic work,' an apparent reference to the coronavirus pandemic, she said in the statement reported by the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

In this image released by Korea's Korean Central News Agency on March 22, a missile is fired from an unknown location in the country

A senior US administration official confirmed Trump had sent a letter to Kim, 'consistent with his efforts to engage global leaders during the ongoing pandemic'.

Analysts say the North has been continuing to refine its weapons capabilities more than a year after a summit between Kim and Trump broke down in Hanoi.

The deadlock is over sanctions relief and what North Korea would be willing to give up in return.

Pyongyang is under multiple sets of United Nations, US and other sanctions over its weapons programmes.

The North set for Washington a unilateral end-2019 deadline to offer fresh concessions, and in late December, Kim declared his country no longer considered itself bound by moratoriums on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests.
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The coverage on this live blog has ended  but for up-to-the-minute coverage on the coronavirus, visit the live blog from CNBC's Asia-Pacific team. All times below are in Eastern time. Global cases: More than 766,300

Global deaths: At least 36,873

US cases: More than 153,200

US deaths: At least 2,828 The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

7:06 pm: Judges slow abortion bans in Texas, Ohio during pandemic

A federal judge Monday temporarily blocked Texas' efforts to ban abortions during the coronavirus pandemic, handing Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers a victory as clinics across the U.S. filed a wave of lawsuits to stop states from trying to shutter them during the outbreak. A new Ohio order is also unconstitutional if it prevents abortions from being carried out, a separate judge ruled Monday. The ruling instructed clinics to determine on a case-by-case basis if an abortion can be delayed to maximize resources  such as preserving personal protective equipment  needed to fight the coronavirus. If the abortion is deemed necessary and can't be delayed, it's declared legally essential. Taken together, the rulings were signs of judges pushing back on Republican-controlled states including abortion in sweeping orders as the outbreak grows in the U.S. In Texas, the ruling came down after state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, said abortion was included in a statewide ban on nonessential surgeries. Associated Press

7:02 pm: Australia enacts sweeping lockdown powers to combat coronavirus spread

People in Australia's most populous state of New South Wales, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Australia, could be heavily fined or jailed for leaving their home without a good reason from Tuesday under sweeping new powers designed to slow infection rates. The public health order, enacted late on Monday, comes amid warnings that it is too early to tell whether an apparent slowdown in infection rates across the country in recent days meant the outbreak was being brought under control. "What we need to consider is the community-to-community transmission that we might not even know about," New South Wales (NSW) Premier Gladys Berejiklian said in Sydney. New South Wales has 2,032 confirmed cases of the virus, almost half the country's total, authorities said. The national death toll stands at 19. Reuters

6:49 pm: American Airlines plans to apply for coronavirus aid, offers partial pay for employee leave

Digital signs in the baggage claim area at McCarran International Airport display guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on protection from the coronavirus on March 19, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ethan Miller | Getty Images

American Airlines said it will apply for government aid to soften the blow from a record drop in travel demand. The carrier is also offering partial pay to entice workers off its payroll. The Fort Worth-based airline said it expects about $12 billion of the $50 billion set aside for airlines in a sweeping coronavirus relief bill Congress passed last week. The aid includes $25 billion in grants for passenger airlines in exchange for not furloughing or cutting the pay rates of their employees through Sept. 30. The other half is in loans. American's statement that it will apply for the funding is the clearest yet from airlines on the coronavirus aid as executives parse through the details. The rescue package came with some strings attached to it, including equity stakes for the federal government and requirements for carriers to keep paying employees and maintain certain air routes. Leslie Josephs

6:41 pm: Department of Defense watchdog appointed Inspector General for $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package

The Defense Department's internal watchdog will serve as newly named chair of The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, a body created to oversee the roughly $2 trillion stimulus deal that President Donald Trump signed into law last week in response to the economic devastation wrought by the coronavirus outbreak. Glenn Fine, the acting inspector general of the Department of Defense, was appointed by another committee of IGs assigned by the new law to name a chair. Fine will oversee a board of fellow inspectors general, all responsible for monitoring their respective departments. They include the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Justice, Labor, as well as the Treasury, the Small Business Administration and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Lauren Hirsch

6:35 pm: Airbnb extends coronavirus cancellation window to May 31, sets aside $250 million to pay hosts for missed stays

Airbnb announced it will allow guests to receive full refunds for any trips starting on or before May 31 that were booked prior to March 14, as the company continues to struggle through the coronavirus' impact on the travel industry. The company will also set aside $250 million to pay hosts for the missed bookings. Airbnb announced the decision in a letter sent to hosts in an effort to rebuild Airbnb's relationship with its partners. Previously, the company had said that it would allow guests to cancel and receive full refunds for trips between March 14 and April 14. That decision overrode many hosts' existing cancellation policies that ensured they still received partial payments for those bookings. Many hosts harshly criticized Airbnb for that decision, and several told CNBC that they would be moving their properties onto other websites and into the long-term rental market. Sal Rodriguez

6:27 pm: Field hospital goes up in New York City's Central Park

Volunteers help distribute supplies during Samaritan's Purse Emergency Field Hospital set-up with 68-bed respitory care units in Central Park's East Meadow to provide care for seriousl ill patients with COVID-19, New York, NY, March 30, 2020. Anthony Behar | Sipa | AP

A new field hospital in New York's Central Park is set to open Tuesday and will treat coronavirus patients. The temporary hospital will be located in Central Park's East Meadow in front of Mount Sinai Hospital, according to a spokesperson for the Mount Sinai Health System. The new hospital will house 68 beds. It was constructed through a partnership between Mount Sinai, aid organization Samaritan's Purse and intergovernmental agencies and will "provide care for patients seriously ill with COVID-19," according to the spokesperson. Hannah Miller, Adam Jeffery

5:55 pm: Washington opens up website for people to report businesses violating the state's stay-at-home order

Washington Governor Jay Inslee said during a press conference on Monday that people and businesses who do not follow the state's stay-at-home order can face potential criminal charges. Inslee said his office had received thousands of calls about people and businesses that are not complying with the other. When authorities learn that someone hasn't followed the order, they will first give the person or business a warning, then the state will use citations or suspend licenses or business permits, and finally, if the first two steps don't work, those people will be considered for civil or criminal charges, Inslee said, which can amount to a gross misdemeanor. "Taking people to court is the very last thing that will be considered," Inslee said. The officials emphasized anyone reporting gatherings in violation should use a form on the state's coronavirus website, and not call 911 for non-emergencies. "If you see gatherings that are in violation of this order, we'd like you to use your best judgement and decide whether to notify local law enforcement or this site we've opened up," Inslee said. "Citations can be used, and as a last resort, we can arrest people. That's the last thing we want to do," Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste said. Kif Leswing

5:45 pm: India adds more resources to stop virus, but gaps remain

Police inspector Rajesh Babu (L) wearing coronavirus-themed helmet speaks to a family on a motorbike at a checkpoint during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus in Chennai on March 28, 2020. Arun Sankar | AFP | Getty Images

India is adding more resources to tackle its increase in coronavirus cases by announcing that private hospitals may be requisitioned to help treat virus patients, and turning railway cars and a motor racing circuit into makeshift quarantine facilities. The steps were taken after a nationwide lockdown announced last week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi led to a mass exodus of migrant workers from cities to their villages, often on foot and without food and water, raising fears that the virus may have reached to the countryside, where health care facilities are limited. Indian health officials have confirmed more than 1,000 cases of the coronavirus, including 29 deaths. Associated Press

5:40 pm: Hockey apparel company sees heavy demand for medical face shields

Hockey gear maker Bauer announced last week that it would shift its production to make face shields for medical workers, and the demand for the product has already surpassed what it can churn out in a month. Ed Kinnaly, CEO of Peak Achievement Athletics, Bauer's parent company, said on "Closing Bell" that the business has seen demand for almost 1 million units. Bauer is selling the products to hospitals on a break-even basis, Kinnaly said.

"Demand way outstripping supply at this stage  We turned on production full-speed today. We're going to be able to produce 20-25,000 units a week, ramping up to about 70,000 units a week later in April," Kinnaly said.  Jesse Pound

5:30 pm: Newsom says California has ordered over 100 million N95 masks

California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Monday in an interview with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg that the state had ordered 101 million N95 masks. The masks are an important piece of protective equipment worn by health workers while treating patents who might have the COVID-19 coronavirus, and have been in short supply as demand surged. "Let me tell you specifically, as of this morning we have distributed 32.9 million N95 masks. We have ordered 101 million more N95 masks," Newsom said. "When you hear people talking in the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands they're not having an honest conversation with you. We need to be talking in the millions, tens of millions, and in a state as large as ours, hundreds of millions." Several large California companies have donated N95 masks in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Apple donated 10 million masks, and Facebook donated 700,000 that it had previously stockpiled. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said last week that he planned to donate 250,000 N95 masks to hospitals. Kif Leswing

5 pm: Washington, DC residents to remain at home

Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a stay-at-home order for the nation's capital on Monday. Those found guilty of violating the order, which is considered a misdemeanor, could be subject to a fine of up to $5,000 and face imprisonment of no more than 90 days, according to Bowser. Residents of the city are still allowed to leave their homes to perform an essential job and for essential activities such as obtaining food or medicine. People are also able to engage in certain outdoor recreational activities. --Hannah Miller

4:45 pm: Crowds gather to watch the arrival of the USNS Comfort in New York, ignoring social distancing

The USNS Comfort, a U.S. Navy hospital ship, arrives at New York Harbor during the coronavirus pandemic on March 30, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images) Jose Perez | Bauer-Griffin | GC Images | Getty Images

The arrival of the USNS Comfort in New York Harbor drew crowds, even as city and state officials are ordering residents to practice social distancing as the coronavirus spreads. The 1,000-bed Navy hospital ship will be housing patients not afflicted by COVID-19 to help alleviate the strain New York hospitals are going through right now. Pictures on social media showed people crowding at Pier 90 to get photos of the ship, drawing criticism. The USNS Comfort's sister ship, the USNS Mercy, has already been deployed and moored in Los Angeles where it has been serving patients since Sunday. Riya Bhattacharjee

The USNS Comfort pulls into a berth in Manhattan during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, March 30, 2020. Carlo Allegri | Reuters

4:35 pm: Ford, GE plan to produce 50,000 ventilators in 100 days

Ford Motor and GE Healthcare plan to produce 50,000 ventilators within the next 100 days at a facility in Michigan amid the coronavirus pandemic. Production of the critical care devices is expected to begin with United Auto Workers union members on April 20, according to executives at both companies. The facility at Ford's Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, Mich. will be able to produce 30,000 ventilators a month after early-July, officials said. Ford expects to produce 1,500 by the end of April, 12,000 by the end of May and 50,000 by July 4, officials said.  Michael Wayland

4:30 pm: L.L.Bean is pitching in to make medical masks

L.L.Bean is using material from its dog beds to make medical masks, CEO Stephen Smith told CNBC's Courtney Reagan. "It's breathable. It's very durable. It's washable," Smith said, noting the idea came from employees who started to experiment. L.L.Bean is so far making around 5,000 per day, Smith said. Smith also called on Congress to pass additional relief measures that help more U.S. retailers. Smith said his concern was concentrated around "middle market retail"  not companies selling essential goods like groceries or small mom-and-pop stores. These companies in the middle have so far been "missed" by relief measures, Smith said. "I think it's a really serious situation, and I actually don't think it's getting enough attention," Smith said. - Kevin Stankiewicz

4:15 pm: California governor is trying to recruit thousands of new medical workers with a new Health Corps

Logistics Specialist 1st Class Tavares Littleton, from Chicago, raises the National Ensign during morning colors aboard the hospital ship USNS Mercy, which was deployed to serve as a referral hospital for non-coronavirus disease (COVID-19 patients) currently admitted to shore-based hospitals, in Los Angeles, California, U.S. March 29, 2020. U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ryan M. Breeden/Handout via REUTERS.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new effort dubbed the California Health Corps to get thousands of new health care workers out into the field to help support a potential flood of patients with COVID-19. On Twitter, Newsom asked retired doctors, nursing students, members of medical disaster response teams, nursing students, medical students, medical assistants, emergency medical technicians and other professionals to sign up to work in California. According to the website, those who sign up will be given a salary and malpractice insurance. Locations will vary, depending on regional needs. The governor's order says the state can suspend certain certification or licensing requirements during the emergency. Christina Farr

4 pm: Stocks continue their rebound from coronavirus plunge, Dow jumps 3%

Stocks rose on Monday, building on a strong rally from last week as the U.S. extended measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 688 points, or 3.2%. The S&P 500 climbed 3.4% while the Nasdaq Composite closed 3.6% higher. Tech stocks such as Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon led the way higher for Wall Street. Microsoft jumped 7% while Alphabet and Amazon climbed 3.3% and 3.4%, respectively. The Dow is now up 20% from its coronavirus sell-off low reached on Monday while the S&P 500 has risen more than 17% from those levels. The Nasdaq has bounced more than 13%. Fred Imbert

3:55 pm: Virginia under stay-at-home order until June 10

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam issued a statewide stay-at-home order that is effective immediately. The order extends until June 10, making it one of the longest statewide mandates implemented so far. Northam advised residents that they should now only leave their homes for groceries, medical treatment, work or exercise. "Don't go to the store for just one thing," Northam said. "Wait until you have a list. If you're traveling from out of state, stay in quarantine for 14 days. Every age group needs to act responsibly and stay home." Hannah Miller

3:47 pm: San Francisco extends shelter-in-place through April

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the Bay Area's shelter-in-place order will be extended until May 1. "We're working to slow the spread of coronavirus in San Francisco, but we know that the challenges we face are going to get tougher. The public health order for people to stay safe in their homes will soon be extended until at least May 1. More details to come soon," Breed said in a tweet. The mandate, which bans all non-essential trips outside the home, started at midnight on March 17 and was initially set to expire on April 7. San Francisco has 374 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and six deaths. San Francisco officials also released a statement regarding a growing outbreak of the coronavirus inside Laguna Honda Hospital. In response, the CDC has sent San Francisco infection control nurses from the California Department of Public Health and infectious disease physicians and epidemiologists. Laguna Honda Hospital currently has 11 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Nine of the cases are staff and two are residents. Jasmine Kim

3:41 pm: 3M scrambles to meet demand for face masks

The maker of Post-It notes and Scotch Tape is also the maker of perhaps one of the most desperately needed medical supplies in the world right now. A face mask. The $32 billion Minnesota conglomerate 3M is one of the world's largest manufacturers of N95 filtering face masks, which have been in high demand in the U.S. and around the world since the coronavirus outbreak. Robert Ferris

3:25 pm: AA meetings, addiction counseling move online as social-distancing guidelines limit group gatherings

With stay-at-home orders across the U.S., meetings and counseling sessions for those who struggle with addiction issues are now taking place online during the coronavirus pandemic. These types of resources are more needed than ever, according to addiction groups, mental health counselors and individuals who struggle with substance abuse issues. "I don't know what I would have done if I had been in this situation when we didn't have access to virtual meetings," said a 26-year-old woman from Brooklyn, New York, who participates in Alcoholics Anonymous. When she spoke with CNBC, she was 62 days sober and planning to attend 90 meetings in her first 90 days of sobriety. She said a recent meeting she attended through the video conferencing platform Zoom had over 1,000 people in it. In her experience, virtual meetings are very similar to the in-person ones she's gone to in New York City: A speaker talks for 10 to 20 minutes and then people share their experiences if they're willing. Zoom has a "raise hand" feature that allows people to indicate if they want to speak, though not everyone is able to in large groups. Donations are made through the mobile payment app Venmo rather than a collection basket. "It's almost too easy because I can take a meeting sitting in my bed," the woman said. Hannah Miller

3:21 pm: Amid outbreak, 49% of companies considering layoffs, more than one-third freezing new hires

Nearly 50% of companies say they are at least somewhat likely to conduct layoffs over the next three months due to coronavirus COVID-19, while more than one-third of firms (37%) say they have already instituted a hiring freeze. That's from an online survey of more than 250 companies, varying in size and sector, conducted from March 2026 by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the oldest outplacement firm in the U.S., which works with companies on transitions services for employees. At that time the survey launched, coronavirus cases had just passed 18,000 in the U.S.; companies were advising employees to work from home; states such as California, New Jersey, Connecticut and New York had started to institute statewide stay-at-home orders; and all but nonessential businesses began shuttering. Forty-nine percent of companies told Challenger, Gray & Christmas they are very or somewhat likely to conduct layoffs in the next three months, while 11% reported they have conducted permanent layoffs; another 7% have conducted temporary layoffs. Sully Barrett

3:04 pm: Italy to extend lockdown measures until Easter

The area around Colosseum is empty of tourists during the Coronavirus emergency, on March 30, 2020 in Rome, Italy. Antonio Masiello | Getty Images

The Italian government said it would extend a lockdown to prevent a further spread of the coronavirus outbreak at least until Easter, Health Minister Roberto Speranza said in a statement. "Our evaluation is that all containment measures should be extended at least until Easter (April 12). The government will move in this direction," the health minister said after a meeting with the scientific committee. Italians have been under lockdown for three weeks and the restrictions were due to end on Friday. Italy, the world's hardest hit country which accounts for more than a third of all global fatalities, saw its total death tally rise to 11,591 since the outbreak emerged in northern regions on Feb. 21. Reuters

2:52 pm: Oil drops to 18-year low as global demand evaporates

U.S. oil dropped to an 18-year low as demand continues to evaporate, and as Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ nations prepare to ramp up production. With much of the world in lockdown as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, demand for oil has fallen off a cliff. People aren't traveling and business has slowed, reducing the need for jet fuel and gasoline. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 6.6%, or $1.42, to settle at $20.09, its lowest level since February 2002. Earlier in the session the contract shed more than 9% to trade at a session low of $19.27. International benchmark Brent crude fell 9.2% to trade at $22.63 per barrel, a price last seen in 2002. Despite WTI's 55% slide this month, some analysts think there could be even more downside ahead. Raymond James analyst John Freeman said on Monday that a "nightmarish scenario" has been created and crude could "test the $10/bbl threshold." Pippa Stevens

2:44 pm: Congress will not to return to DC until April 20

Both the House and Senate have no plans to return to Washington for at least three weeks after passing an unprecedented $2 trillion bill that aims to limit the economic destruction from the coronavirus pandemic. The House "is not expected to meet" before April 20, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's office told representatives on Monday. When the Senate passed the stimulus legislation last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate would not take any votes until the same day. Hoyer's office noted that the House could return to the Capitol earlier than expected, if needed, during the evolving crisis. McConnell previously said the Senate would be "nimble" and could come back to Washington before April 20 as well. Jacob Pramuk

2:30 pm: Many college students and other adult dependents are not eligible to receive a stimulus relief check

The IRS is preparing to send most Americans one-time stimulus relief checks in response to the coronavirus pandemic. But the bill excludes anyone 18 and older, who can still be claimed as dependents on another person's tax return. In fact, people who can be claimed as a dependent, even if they are not, are not eligible for a payment, Janet Holtzblatt, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, tells CNBC Make It in an email. "A taxpayer is allowed to claim a full-time student between the ages of 19 and 24 as a dependent, so the parent will not get $500 for a college student, nor can the college student generally claim $1,200," says Holtzblatt. The parent will still receive their $1,200 check, if eligible. Alicia Adamczyk

2:17 pm: Iconic photos of the USNS Comfort arriving in NYC

The USNS Comfort passes the Statue of Liberty as it enters New York Harbor during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City, U.S., March 30, 2020. Mike Segar | Reuters

Two days after President Donald Trump took part in a departure ceremony for the USNS Comfort at Naval Station Norfolk on March 28, the massive hospital ship sailed into the New York City harbor to provide much needed medical help to a city overwhelmed with fighting rising cases of the coronavirus. As positive COVID-19 cases continue to rise, New York City has already converted the Jacob K. Javits Center into a temporary hospital and is setting up another field hospital in Central Park to help relieve the strain. The USNS Comfort will focus on providing medical services to those not afflicted by the coronavirus as hospitals continue to struggle to treat patients with the virus. Here's a roundup of photos that stand out, curated by CNBC's photo editor. Adam Jeffery

2:02 pm: Richard Branson's rocket company Virgin Orbit to begin mass producing ventilators

Richard Branson's California-based rocket company Virgin Orbit partnered with medical researchers and developed a ventilator device that the company plans to mass produce and send to hospitals around the United States to fight coronavirus. Virgin Orbit's device compresses medical ambu bags, which help patients with COVID-19 to breathe. Ventilators deliver air to the lungs through a pump that is placed in the windpipe but there's a mounting shortage of the devices in the U.S. While Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart noted in a video that the company is working with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval, he said the company hopes "to get a helpful unit into hospital as soon as possible." The company does not have precise timeline for when FDA approval could come. But Virgin Orbit is hopeful that the approval process will only be a few days, as the ventilator devices fall under the FDA's "Emergency Use Authorization" authority. That authority essentially allows the FDA to fast track limited approval for devices during a crisis. Virgin Orbit expects to be able to make hundreds of thousands of the devices per week in the near future, an industry person familiar with the situation told CNBC. Michael Sheetz

1:58 pm: Israel's Netanyahu tests negative for coronavirus

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tested negative for the coronavirus on Monday after a parliamentary aide was confirmed to be carrying the virus, though the 70-year-old leader would remain in isolation, a spokesman said. Spokesman Ofir Gendelman said on Twitter that Netanyahu, his family and staff all tested negative, but "he will remain quarantined until further instructions are issued by the Ministry of Health." Reuters

1:50 pm: France sees worst daily death toll, 4th country to report 3,000 virus deaths

Doctors tend to a patient arriving on a wheelchair at the reception of the Emergency Room, set up in a tent, in a courtyard of the Henri Mondor Hospital in Creteil, near Paris, on March 30, 2020, on the fourteenth day of a lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) in France. Bertrand Guay | AFP | Getty Images

French health authorities reported 418 new deaths from coronavirus, taking the total to 3,024 or an increase of 16%, France becoming the fourth country to cross the 3,000 fatalities threshold after China, Italy, and Spain. The daily government tally only accounts for those dying in hospital but authorities say they will very soon be able to compile data on deaths in retirement homes, which is likely to result in a big increase in registered fatalities. Health agency director Jerome Salomon told a news conference that the number of cases had risen to 44,550, a rise of 11% in 24 hours. Reuters

1:48 pm: New York Gov. Cuomo issues nationwide call for doctors and nurses

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on health-care workers across the United States to travel to New York to help the state battle what is the worst coronavirus outbreak in the nation. "Help New York. We are the ones who are hit now," Cuomo said at a press conference from the Jacob K. Javits Center, which was converted into four temporary hospitals by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last week. "That's today, tomorrow it is going to be somewhere else ... It is going to work its way across the country." Will Feuer, Dan Mangan, Berkeley Lovelace

1:29 pm: GM making progress on building ventilators, masks as Trump praises automaker's coronavirus efforts

General Motors is quickly moving to repurpose parts of two U.S. facilities from automotive to health care supplies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. GM's efforts, which have received the ire and, more recently, praise of President Donald Trump, include manufacturing FDA-cleared Level 1 surgical masks at a manufacturing facility in Warren, Michigan, and Ventec VOCSN critical care ventilators at a components plant in Kokomo, Indiana. The automaker Sunday night said both projects are progressing, including plans this week to begin making surgical masks at the facility in suburban Detroit. Production of the ventilators, in partnership with Washington-based Ventec Life Systems, is expected to begin as soon as possible, with shipments starting as soon as next month. Michael Wayland

1:20 pm: Dow jumps 500 points as coronavirus measures extended, Johnson & Johnson leads the gains

Stocks built on a strong rally from last week as the U.S. extends measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 500 points, or 2.2%. The S&P 500 climbed 2.4% while the Nasdaq Composite traded 2.9% higher. Tech stocks such as Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon led the way higher for Wall Street. Microsoft jumped more than 5% while Alphabet and Amazon climbed 2.6% and 3.6%, respectively. Fred Imbert

1:17 pm: Some workers won't qualify for beefed-up unemployment in the coronavirus relief package

The $2 trillion coronavirus relief package President Trump signed into law Friday significantly expands unemployment benefits for out-of-work Americans. The law pays laid-off and furloughed workers an extra $600 a week, for up to four months, and extends existing state benefits by 13 weeks. It also offers jobless benefits to previously ineligible groups, such as gig workers and freelancers. Yet, some could receive smaller payments than others or miss out entirely. Tip workers

Gig, self-employed workers without pay records

Social assistance programs

Workers in southern states

People frustrated by volume

Non-English speakers and disabled Americans Nearly 3.3 million people filed first-time claims for unemployment last week  shattering the previous record, set in 1982, by around 2.6 million people, according to the Labor Department. Greg Iacurci

1:09 pm: Small business owners face tough decisions as they wait for government loans to arrive

Jeanie Wright was planning for a year of major growth in 2020 with her confection business, Alaskan Sweet Thing's. The company makes gourmet taffy, popcorn, fudge and more from glacier water, selling online and at its retail location. A big part of her business comes from tourists traveling to Alaska, as the state has become a major cruise destination. Then coronavirus hit, lobbing a major blow to the tourism that some 90% of her business relies on. "The whole tourist industry in Alaska has just been decimated  there are no ships scheduled to cruise here until July. The season normally starts at the end of April. The border to Canada has been closed and air flights are severely impacted," Wright said. "I don't think most people want to get on a plane and come up here." Wright, like many small business owners on Main Streets around the country, is facing down impossible decisions  like whether to keep her four employees on board, one of whom is her older sister  as they apply for loans that might offer them a chance to stay afloat amid the disruption caused by the efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19. Kate Rogers, Betsy Spring

1:02 pm: FEMA sends refrigerator trucks to NYC to serve as temporary mortuaries for coronavirus victims

Times Square is seen empty in New York, United States on March 29, 2020. New York's famous Times Square has been on sleep due to Covid-19 pandemic. Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending refrigerator trucks to New York City to serve as temporary mortuaries for deceased coronavirus patients, Thomas Von Essen, the agency's regional administrator, said. "We are sending refrigeration trucks to New York to help with some of the problem on a temporary basis," he said at a press conference with Mayor Bill de Blasio as local officials welcomed the Naval medical ship the USNS Comfort to New York City. Von Essen said the military has provided 42 people to the Manhattan Medical Examiner's Office where there is a "desperate need" for help in Queens. When asked whether Madison Square Garden would be converted into a temporary mortuary, Van Essen ruled out that idea. De Blasio said the city is preparing for a "horrible increase in the number of deaths." Noah Higgins-Dunn

12:45 pm: UK makes deal with airlines to fly thousands of stranded Brits home

The U.K. government said it's made a deal with airlines in an effort to fly home British citizens who are stranded abroad. Speaking in a daily press conference, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it was unclear how many people were currently stuck overseas, but the numbers were in the "hundreds of thousands." Airlines have canceled swathes of flights  with some grounding their fleets completely  as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent travel restrictions. The airlines involved in the agreement are British Airways, Virgin, easyJet, Jet2 and Titan Airways, Raab added. He said the cost of the flights would be affordable and vulnerable people would get priority. The U.K said it would spend up to 75 million ($93 million US) on the effort. Raab was standing in for U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was confirmed as having the coronavirus last week and is currently self-isolating. Katrina Bishop

12:38 pm: Disney's Iger will forgo salary as new CEO takes 50% pay cut due to coronavirus constraints

Visitors attend Disney California Adventure theme park on February 25, 2020 in Anaheim, California. Bob Iger, who was CEO of Disney since 2005, is being replaced by Bob Chapek, who previously ran the company's parks, experiences and products division. David McNew

Disney Executive Chairman Bob Iger will forgo his salary and new CEO Bob Chapek will take a 50% pay cut as the coronavirus pandemic hit businesses around the world, according to an internal email obtained by CNBC. Other executives will take pay cuts as well, Chapek said in the email. Employees at the vice president level will have their salaries reduced by 20%, senior vice presidents by 25% and executive vice presidents and above by 30%, according to the email. Iger has long been among the top-paid executives in the entertainment and media industry. In 2019, the former Disney CEO earned $47.5 million, down from $65.6 million in fiscal 2018. Chapek's base salary is $2.5 million, according to his employment agreement for his newly-received CEO role. He also is eligible for incentive-based compensation including a $7.5 million annual target-based bonus and an annual equity-based long-term incentive grant of $15 million. It's not immediately clear which part of his compensation will be eligible for the 50% reduction. Lauren Feiner, Sarah Whitten

12:27 pm: Coronavirus job losses could total 47 million, unemployment rate may hit 32%, Fed estimates

Millions of Americans already have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus crisis and the worst of the damage is yet to come, according to a Federal Reserve estimate. Economists at the Fed's St. Louis district project total employment reductions of 47 million, which would translate to a 32.1% unemployment rate, according to a recent analysis of how bad things could get. The projections are even worse than St. Louis Fed President James Bullard's much-publicized estimate of 30%. They reflect the high nature of at-risk jobs that ultimately could be lost to a government-induced economic freeze aimed at halting the coronavirus spread. "These are very large numbers by historical standards, but this is a rather unique shock that is unlike any other experienced by the U.S. economy in the last 100 years," St. Louis Fed economist Miquel Faria-e-Castro wrote in a research paper posted last week. Jeff Cox

12:19 pm: Gov. Cuomo welcomes USNS Comfort to NYC

A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter flies above USNS Comfort as it enters New York Harbor during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City, U.S., March 30, 2020. Mike Segar | Reuters

Gov. Andrew Cuomo welcomed the arrival of a Navy hospital ship that will relieve New York hospitals dealing with a rapidly expanding load of coronavirus patients. The USNS Comfort will provide roughly 1,000 hospital beds, and 1,200 personnel to New York, Cuomo said on Twitter. It will be used to treat patients that don't have COVID-19 to free up other hospital rooms for coronavirus patients, the governor has previously said. President Donald Trump ordered the dispatch earlier this month of the USNS Comfort to New York and her twin, the USNS Mercy, to Los Angeles to assist with the outbreak there. Will Feuer, Dan Mangan

12:09 pm: Violators of Maryland stay-at-home order could face prison time, $5,000 fine

Members of the Maryland Army National Guard work to set up a triage tent in the parking lot outside of the emergency room at Adventist HealthCare White Oak Medical Center on March 19, 2020 in Silver Spring, Maryland. Drew Angerer | Getty Images

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan issued an executive order with a stay-at-home directive for the entire state. He said those who violate the order would be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to one year in prison and a $5,000 fine. The order is effective 8:00 p.m. Monday. "No Maryland resident should be leaving their home unless it is for an essential job or for an essential reason," Hogan said at a press briefing. Residents will still be allowed to leave their homes for food, medicine or medical attention. The state previously closed all nonessential businesses. Hannah Miller

11:54 am: WHO says early data shows some drugs 'may have an impact' on coronavirus, but more research is needed

World Health Organization officials said early research shows that some drugs "may have an impact" on fighting the coronavirus, but the data is extremely preliminary and more research needs to be done to determine whether the treatments can reliably fight COVID-19. There is "some preliminary data from non-randomized studies, observational studies, that indicate some drugs and some drug cocktails may have an impact," Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO's health emergencies program, said during a press briefing at the agency's headquarters. "A number of drugs" have shown promise in treating other coronaviruses, including SARS and MERS, that may be helpful in fighting COVID-19, he said. "Some of those drugs may impact the length of disease, some may impact the severity of disease and the dosages of those drugs when they're given to what patient at what stage of the disease has not been standardized," Ryan said. "We have never had a comparison group where we've had a randomized approach to treatment with the drug or not treatment with the drug." Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

11:43 am: Feds charge Georgia man with billing for fraudulent COVID-19, cancer testing claims

Federal prosecutors have criminally charged a Georgia man for allegedly conspiring to defraud federal and private health-care benefit programs "by submitting fraudulent testing claims" for coronavirus and genetic cancer screenings, authorities announced Monday. The man, 49-year-old Erik Santos is accused in a complaint by the U.S. Attorney's Office of New Jersey of one count of conspiring to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute, and a single count of conspiring to commit health care fraud. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of both counts. Prosecutors said that during a phone call on March 19 Santos explained how he viewed the coronavirus outbreak as a chance to make money. [W]hile there are people going through what they are going through, you can either go bankrupt or you can prosper," Santos said on that call, according to prosecutors. Dan Mangan

11:37 am: Cramer warns stock market short sellers about betting against science in coronavirus crisis

CNBC's Jim Cramer argued that stock market short sellers are unwisely doubting the ability of scientists to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. "This is a day where you say, if I'm short I'm betting against science, not betting against the lackadaisical attitude of many people in the country, " Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street." Short sellers take positions on the hope that the market will drop. Cramer's comments came shortly after Johnson & Johnson announced plans to start human trials on an experimental COVID-19 vaccine by September, earlier than the pharmaceutical giant had previously stated. The company also said the vaccine could be available for emergency use authorization in early 2021. Kevin Stankiewicz

11:24 am: Coronavirus death toll in Italy's Lombardy rises by around 458 in a day

The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy, the epicentre of Italy's contagion, has risen by around 458 in a day to some 6,818, a source familiar with the data said. The daily deaths were up from Sunday's tally of 416. The number of cases in the region, which includes the country's financial capital Milan, increased by some 1,154 to around 42,161, the source said. The increase in cases was much smaller than the 1,592 new cases registered on Sunday and the 2,117 new cases on Saturday. Reuters

11:09 am: Macy's will start furloughing most employees this week as it copes with significant sales losses

Macy's store in New York City. SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images

Macy's said the majority of its employees will be furloughed beginning this week as it copes with significant sales losses during the coronavirus pandemic. The retailer declined to say how many employees will be affected by the furloughs. It said it's lost most of its sales, even as it remains open online, and that's why the cuts are necessary. Sales have plummeted since all of its stores temporarily closed in mid-March. The retailer has suspended its dividend, drawn down a line of credit, frozen hiring and canceled some orders. "While these actions have helped, it is not enough," the company said in a statement. Melissa Repko

10:58 am: Trump says US officials should have 'good idea' if malaria drug works in three days

President Donald Trump said U.S. health officials should have a "good idea" whether an anti-malaria drug being tested as a treatment for COVID-19 is effective in fighting the coronavirus in "the next three days." "Hydroxychloroquine is something that I have been pushing very hard," Trump said Monday morning during an interview on Fox News. "I think we're going to have a good idea over the next three days because it's been used now in New York at my request -- 1,100 people. It's been used. I think that's better than testing it in a laboratory. But the doctors tell me no." There are no proven therapies for the treatment of COVID-19 and U.S. health officials expect a vaccine could take 12 to 18 months. Berkeley Lovelace, Jr.

10:48 am: Carnival suspends another month of cruises

Carnival Cruise line, which is owned by parent Carnival, said it has extended its suspension of North American operations until May 11. The announcement is an extension of a 30-day suspension of North American operations announced on March 13. "As COVID-19 continues to impact global health and commerce, we are sorry to extend our pause in our operations until May 11," Carnival Cruises said in a statement. The company said it is working with customers and travel agents to refund affected purchases. Will Feuer

10:40 am: Historic $2 trillion CARES Act will be an economic lifeline for gig workers and freelancers

The $2 trillion federal stimulus package known as the CARES Act, signed into law by President Trump on Friday, will be a lifeline to many gig workers and freelancers. The law takes unprecedented steps to provide a social safety net for the self-employed. It offers an additional $600 a week in unemployment insurance, bringing weekly payouts to the $800- to $900-a-week range when state benefits are added, to workers including the self-employed. Elaine Pofeldt

10:05 am: February pending home sales jump over 9% annually, ahead of major coronavirus impact

A sale pending sign is posted in front of a home for sale in San Anselmo, California. Justin Sullivan | California

Homebuyer demand was strengthening markedly just before COVID-19 began its spread across the U.S. Pending home sales, which measure signed contracts on existing homes, rose a stronger than expected 2.4% in February compared with January. Sales were up a steep 9.4% annually, according to the National Association of Realtors. That is the highest pace in exactly three years. "February's pending sales figures show the housing market had been very healthy prior to the coronavirus-induced shutdown," said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist. "Numbers in the coming weeks will show just how hard the housing market was hit, but I am optimistic that the upcoming stimulus package will lessen the economic damage and we may get a V-shaped robust recovery later in the year." Diana Olick

9:56 am: Virtual and solo home touring soars amid coronavirus fear

Like all interaction in the age of COVID-19, home touring is moving online and going solo. Zillow, a home listing site, said it saw a 191% increase in the creation of 3D home tours in the first weeks of March, compared with the average number created in February. Even before the coronavirus, listings including a 3D Home tour were saved by users 50% more, and those homes sold on average 10% faster. Redfin, a real estate brokerage, saw a 494% increase in requests for agent-led video home tours two weeks ago. At the beginning of last week, 18.9% of tour requests from Redfin.com were video-chat tours, up from 0.2% at the beginning of March, a 94-fold increase. Diana Olick

9:43 am: USNS Comfort arrives in New York City to treat non-coronavirus patients

The USNS Comfort is set to dock some time around 10 a.m. and it will be ready to take in patients within 24 hours. While the ship won't be able to treat people with COVID-19, its 1,000 beds and 12 operation rooms are ready to bolster the health care system. NBC News

9:34 am: Dow rises 200 points as Wall Street continues last week's rebound after virus measures extended

Stocks rose on Monday, building on a strong rally from last week as the U.S. extends measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 227 points higher, or 1.1%. The S&P 500 climbed 1.5% along with the Nasdaq Composite. Fred Imbert

9:30 am: Yum Brands CEO to forgo 2020 salary to fund general manager bonuses

Yum Brands CEO David Gibbs will forgo the rest of his base salary in 2020 to fund one-time $1,000 bonuses to the company's nearly 1,200 restaurant general managers across KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and The Habit Burger Grill. His salary will also help fund the Yum Brands Foundation Global Employee Medical Relief Fund, according to a Monday regulatory filing. The fund will provide financial hardship grants to those directly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, including company and franchise restaurant employees. Yum plans to also accept donations to the fund. King stood to make $900,000 from his salary this year, excluding any performance-based bonuses. Amelia Lucas

9:21 am: Facebook commits $100 million to support news media hurt by the virus crisis

Facebook pledged $100 million in financing and advertising spending to support news organizations, including local publishers in the U.S., reeling from pressure due to the coronavirus pandemic. Facebook's donation includes $25 million in emergency grant funding for local media, and $75 million in marketing spend for news organizations globally, it said. The social network said the first round of its grants went to 50 local newsrooms in the U.S. and Canada. Reuters

9:15 am: Cepheid's rapid coronavirus test may eventually be used in mobile locations

The 45-minute COVID-19 test developed by Cepheid may eventually be able to determine results from mobile locations, Dr. David Alland, chief of infectious diseases at Rutgers' New Jersey Medical School, told CNBC. Rutgers University is validating the test from Cepheid, which last week received emergency authorization from the FDA. "We hope ultimately to have these tests up in .. mobile vans so we can go around testing that way," Alland said on "Squawk Box." "Since the results are so fast, you get actionable information that we think will be very helpful with decisions about quarantine, hopefully about treatment." Kevin Stankiewicz

9:00 am: How the US fell behind countries like South Korea in coronavirus testing

The deadly coronavirus pandemic has stopped the world in its tracks, and exposed a weak spot in the United States' preparedness for a public health emergency. In the critical first weeks of the outbreak in the U.S., one problem after another prevented doctors, clinics, and labs around the country from testing enough people. Now, the U.S. is months behind in understanding the true scope of the virus. Testing capacity is finally ramping up, but is it too late?

8:54 am: Stock futures rise as investors brace for another volatile week

U.S. stock futures were slightly higher Monday morning, following sharp gains last week, as the number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. continued to rise at an alarming rate over the weekend. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures traded 135 points higher, indicating an opening gain of about 70 points. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures also rose slightly. Earlier, futures had pointed to opening gains. A 6% drop in crude prices capped gains for the stock futures as big declines in oil has triggered selling in other areas of the markets. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were last seen at $20.28 per barrel. Fred Imbert

8:44 am: Amazon workers plan to strike at Staten Island warehouse to demand protections

Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island plan to strike on Monday to call attention to the lack of protections for employees who continue to come to work amid the coronavirus outbreak. Nearly 100 workers at the facility, known as JFK8, plan to participate in the work stoppage. The employees will walk out and "cease all operations" until their demands are heard by site leadership, said Chris Smalls, a management assistant at JFK8 and a lead organizer of the strike. Smalls and other associates said they've grown increasingly concerned about coming into work after an employee tested positive for the virus there last week. An Amazon spokesperson told CNBC it was supporting the individual who is in quarantine and asked anyone who was in contact with the individual to stay home with pay for two weeks. The facility has remained open. Annie Palmer

8:32 am: Dr. Birx predicts up to 200,000 US deaths

The White House coronavirus response coordinator said that she is "very worried about every city in the United States" and projects 100,000 to 200,000 American deaths as a best-case scenario. In an interview on "TODAY," Dr. Deborah Birx painted a grim message about the expected fatalities, echoing that without doing any measures they could hit as high as 2.2 million, as coronavirus cases continue to climb throughout the U.S. "I think everyone understands now that you can go from five to 50 to 500 to 5000 cases very quickly," Birx said. "I think in some of the metro areas we were late in getting people to follow the 15-day guidelines" she added. NBC News

8:21 am: UK's Prince Charles, 71, out of self-isolation and in good health

British heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, who had tested positive for coronavirus, is out of self-isolation after seven days and is in good health, his spokesman said. After consultation with his doctor, he is now out of self-isolation, his Clarence House office said. He will resume meetings and take exercise in accordance with government and medical guidelines. However, his wife Camilla, who tested negative for coronavirus, will remain in self-isolation until the end of the week in case she too develops symptoms. Reuters

8:16 am: Tokyo Olympics get a new date

The Tokyo Olympics will open next year in the same time slot scheduled for this year's games. Tokyo organizers said the opening ceremony will take place on July 23, 2021  almost exactly one year after the games were due to start this year. This year's games were scheduled to open on July 24 and close on Aug. 9. But the near exact one-year delay will see the rescheduled closing ceremony on Aug. 8. "The schedule for the games is key to preparing for the games," Tokyo organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori said. "This will only accelerate our progress." Associated Press

8:12 am: Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu to go into quarantine

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office says he will enter self-quarantine after an aide tested positive for coronavirus. The office said that Netanyahu has undergone a test and will remain in quarantine until he receives results or is cleared by the health ministry and his personal doctor. His close advisors are also isolating. His office says the step is a precaution prior to the conclusion of an epidemiological investigation. Netanyahu's adviser for parliamentary affairs, Rivka Paluch, tested positive. More than 4,300 Israelis have been infected with the new virus and 15 have died. Associated Press

8:01 am: New US cases outpace world

7:59 am: Johnson & Johnson says human testing of its coronavirus vaccine to begin by September

Johnson & Johnson said human testing of its experimental vaccine for the coronavirus would begin by September and that it could be available for emergency use authorization in early 2021. J&J also said it has committed more than $1 billion of investment along with U.S. agency Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, to co-fund vaccine research. Will Feuer

7:28 am: Trump extends distancing guidelines

President Donald Trump reversed himself on Sunday evening, extending the national social-distancing guidelines to April 30 in an effort to keep the projected death toll in the U.S. from reaching 100,000. Trump' previously said he wanted the country to reopen for business by Easter. Public health experts have warned that loosening restrictions by Easter, on April 12, would result in unnecessary death and economic damage. Trump had suggested that the coronavirus death rate would likely peak within two weeks. "Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory has been won," Trump said at an evening press briefing. The president claimed Sunday that Easter was just an "aspiration" and he hopes the country will "be well on our way to recovery" by June 1. Emma Newburger

7:25 am: Virgin Atlantic asks UK for financial help

Sir Richard Branson Getty Images

Virgin Atlantic asked the U.K. government for emergency financial help in addition to the coronavirus package made available to all British companies, a source familiar with the situation said. Britain-based Virgin Atlantic, which is 51% owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin group and 49% by Delta Air Lines, made a proposal to the government's advisor Rothschild and is hoping to get a response by early next week, the source told Reuters on Monday. It was not clear whether Virgin could receive commercial loans and guarantees or whether the government could take a stake in the airline. British Transport Minister Grant Shapps said in a report of a transport committee meeting published on Friday that everything was on the table. Reuters

7:21 am: Spain's health emergency chief tests positive

A healthcare worker dressed in protective gear takes samples from a driver at a drive-through testing point for the COVID-19 disease at the University Hospital in Burgos on March 28, 2020. Cesar Manso | AFP | Getty Images

Spain's health emergency chief Fernando Simon, who leads the country's response to the coronavirus epidemic and maintains regular contact with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, has tested positive for the virus, a top health official said. Speaking at a daily news conference where she replaced Simon, Maria Jose Sierra said the trend in daily infections had changed since the introduction of lockdown measures, with new infections now rising at roughly 12% a day, compared with around 20% before March 25. Reuters

7:18 am: Italy's death toll surpasses 10,000 as prime minister warns of rising 'nationalist instincts'

Italy is the worst-hit country by the pandemic so far in Europe, with the highest number of deaths and cases among its 60 million citizens. Now, it's prime minister is warning that Europe is not doing enough to help Italy. "If the EU does not live up to its vocation and its role in this historical situation, will citizens have more confidence in it or will they permanently lose it?," Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte asked during an interview with El Pais. He added that the risk of a higher anti-EU sentiment was "obvious" as a result. "Nationalist instincts, in Italy, but also in Spain and elsewhere, will be much stronger if Europe is not up to the task," he said. Silvia Amaro

7:15 am: Apple supplier Foxconn's profit down 24% in last quarter of 2019

Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn reported a 23.7% fall in profit in the last three months of 2019 as it braces for the impact from the coronavirus pandemic that has hit demand from key customers such as Apple. Foxconn, which assembles iPhones at factories in China, reported net profit of $1.6 billion, according to Reuters calculations, slightly above average consensus estimates compiled by Refinitiv. The world's largest contract electronics manufacturer did not give any explanation for the decline in the same period a year earlier. Foxconn is among manufacturers worldwide grappling with the fallout from coronavirus restrictions that have disrupted supply chains and hurt demand. Reuters

6:55 am: US crude dips below $20 as lockdowns hurt demand

Oil prices fell sharply, with U.S. crude briefly dropping below $20 and Brent hitting its lowest level in 18 years, on heightened fears that the global coronavirus shutdown could last months and demand for fuel could decline further. Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, was down $1.92, or 7.7%, at $23.01, after earlier dropping to $22.58, the lowest since November 2002. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude dropped $1.03, or 4.8%, to $20.48. Earlier in the session, WTI fell as low as $19.92. The price of oil is now so low that it is becoming unprofitable for many oil companies to remain active, analysts said, and higher-cost producers will have no choice but to shut production, especially since storage capacities are almost full. "Global oil demand is evaporating on the back of COVID-19-related travel restrictions and social-distancing measures," said UBS oil analyst Giovanni Staunovo. Reuters

6:43 am: Carnival's Cunard extends suspension of cruises to May 15

Cunard's Queen Mary 2 is among the ships registered in Bermuda. Source: James D. Morgan | Cunard Line

Carnival's luxury cruise ship operator Cunard said it will extend the suspension of all voyages by a month to May 15 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Carnival, also the operator of two coronavirus-stricken Princess cruises, already temporarily suspended several of its ships due to concerns over the rapidly spreading COVID-19 crisis. Cunard, which extended the suspension from April 11, said it would provide a 125% credit for future cruise to travelers impacted by the suspension. The credit can be redeemed against a new booking before the end of March 2022. Theme park operator Walt Disney and several other retailers have also extended temporary closures as the health crisis worsens. Reuters

6:08 am: Sweden defends its more relaxed coronavirus strategy

While the rest of Europe imposes severe restrictions on public life and closes borders and businesses, Sweden is taking a more relaxed approach to the coronavirus outbreak. Unlike its immediate neighbors Denmark, Finland, and Norway, Sweden has not closed its borders or its schools. Neither has it closed nonessential businesses or banned gatherings of more than two people, as the U.K. and Germany have. The country's lead epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told CNBC on Monday that although his country's strategy to tackle the virus was different, the aim was the same. "My view is that basically all European countries are trying to do the same thing  we're trying to slow down the spread as much as possible to keep health care and society working ... and we have shown some different methods to slow down the spread," he told CNBC. "Sweden has gone mostly for voluntary measures because that's how we're used to working," Tegnell added. "And we have a long tradition that it works rather well."  Holly Ellyatt

5:53 am: Boris Johnson's senior advisor Dominic Cummings has coronavirus symptoms

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, has symptoms of coronavirus and is self-isolating at home, Sky News said Monday. He started developing symptoms over the weekend and will be staying in contact with the rest of the Downing Street team during his quarantine period, No. 10 has confirmed, Sky reported. Johnson and his health minister, Matt Hancock, announced on Friday they have tested positive for the virus. Prince Charles also has COVID-19.  Holly Ellyatt

5:02 am: UK lockdown could last six months; US and Europe prepare for longer restrictions
Pedestrians pass by Macy's Department store at Herald Square as it sits closed in the wake of the CCP virus outbreak on March 18, 2020, in New York City. (Victor J. Blue/Getty Images)

Macys Furloughs Majority of Employees as Retailers Adjust to Pandemic

NEW YORKMacys announced on March 30 that it will temporarily halt paying the majority of its 125,000 employees who were sent home when the retailer shuttered its stores amid the spread of the CCP virus pandemic.

Affected workers will continue to receive health benefit coverage at least through May, with Macys paying their premiums. The company expects to begin bringing workers back on a staggered basis once its retail business restarts.

Macys, one of the nations largest retailers, closed its stores on March 18 to do its part to help stop the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19. Since then, the company has taken a range of steps to stay afloat, including suspending dividend payments, drawing down its line of credit, freezing hiring and spending, pausing capital projects, canceling orders, and extending payment terms.

While these actions have helped, it is not enough. Across Macys, Bloomingdales, and Bluemercury brands, we will be moving to the absolute minimum workforce needed to maintain basic operations, Macys said in a statement. The COVID-19 outbreak continues to take a heavy toll on Macys Inc. business.

The retailers online business is still operating.

Macys didnt specify how many employees would be furloughed and didnt respond to a request by The Epoch Times for details.

Around the country, businesses large and small have resorted to furloughs, layoffs, and workforce reductions as both workers and customers have stayed home in obeyance with federal guidelines and local orders. Last week, jobless claims soared to a record high of nearly 3.3 million.

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis estimated that more than 66 million people work in occupations that are at high risk of layoffs, as the stay-at-home orders related to the spread of the CCP virus continue. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told Bloomberg radio on March 30 that unemployment could continue to grow to between 10 and 41 percent, but should rebound after the virus is defeated.

Were expecting the unemployment rate to spike, Bullard said, noting that the federal relief package will help those who lose their jobs. But once the virus goes away, well be able to return to normal.

Hopefully, if this all works smoothlyand theres a lot in the legislation as wellwell be able to come out on the other side and get the economy rocking again.

The move by Macys is a sign that even big-name retailers are taking drastic steps to cushion the blow from the massive losses from in-store sales.

Nordstrom said last week it was furloughing a portion of its corporate staff. Shoe company Designer Brands Inc., which operates DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse, furloughed 80 percent of its workers, effective this past weekend.

More than 204,000 retail stores in the United States are temporarily closed, accounting for 43 percent of the total retail floor space, according to data from GlobalData Retail. Discounters, grocers, and wholesale clubs that sell essential items like groceries remain open.

The day before the Macys announcement, President Donald Trump extended federal social distancing and sanitary guidelines until April 30. Although the guidelines arent compulsory, a vast number of Americans and businesses have complied in order to help the nation mitigate the losses from the pandemic.

Elsewhere, such as in New York, the lockdowns are mandatory. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on March 29 extended the statewide stay-at-home order for two weeks.

Analysts expect more furloughs to come as retailers scramble to pay their employees from fast-dwindling cash reserves. Labor is the single biggest monthly fixed cost for retailers, according to investment research firm Cowen & Co. The firm recently reported that department stores have enough cash to make it to about five to eight months with their stores temporarily closed. Macys has enough for five months, Cowen said.

When announcing the temporary closures, most retailers said they would keep paying their workers, but they were looking at a two-week timetable. That moment has now passed and the furloughs have become increasingly necessary as the CCP virus rapidly spreads.

Nationwide, there were more than 160,000 confirmed cases and almost 3,000 deaths from COVID-19 as of March 30. New York is the epicenter of the outbreak, with more than 40 percent of the confirmed cases.

Unlike layoffs, furloughed workers remain employed by their companies without pay. As the pandemic mitigation measures continue to put stress on retailers, it remains to be seen whether some of the furloughs become layoffs.

Rent the Runway confirmed earlier March 30 that it was laying off its retail store staff and said it may not be able to reopen its stores that temporarily shuttered earlier this month. Its online subscription service still continues to operate.

Swedish retailer H&M said earlier this month that it may be forced to permanently lay off some of its employees after temporarily closing most of its stores globally. Analysts believe that already ailing stores with heavy debt loads such as J.C. Penney, and J. Jill may have to dramatically close more stores or be pushed closer to bankruptcy.

Trump has suggested that the effects on the economy from protracted lockdowns could surpass that of the pandemic itself. The president wants to open up the economy as soon as possible, initially hoping that some measures would be relaxed by Easter. The president now expects the peak of the outbreak to arrive in two weeks.

Challenging times are ahead for the next 30 days, and this is a very vital 30 days. Were sort of putting it all on the line this 30 days. So important because we have to get back, Trump said at the White House on March 30.

But the more we dedicate ourselves today, the more quickly we will emerge on the other side of the crisis, and thats the time were waiting for. The more we commit ourselves now, the sooner we can win the fight and return to our lives and they will be great lives, maybe better than ever.

The White House is expected to soon release guidelines to assist states and localities in making decisions on whether to relax, tighten, or maintain social distancing measures.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Correction: an earlier version of this article stated an incorrect number for the upper boundary of the Feds unemployment projection. The Fed projected unemployment of up to 41 percent.
Parents have claimed supermarkets are preventing them from shopping with their children as part of a crackdown on social distancing rules.

Many grocers have limited the number of people allowed inside a supermarket at once, with others asking customers to remain at least two metres apart amid the UK's coronavirus outbreak.

Supermarkets have seen a significant rise in footfall throughout March, with shoppers seen lining the streets with trolleys as they wait to enter stores and stock up on essentials.

Major stores have now opted to set aside dedicated shopping hours for the over-70s and vulnerable - and NHS workers - so these groups are able to keep their fridges full.

But parents have criticised chains including Aldi, Sainsbury's, Asda and Tesco after they were allegedly refused entry to stores when they arrived with their children.

All four supermarkets have confirmed to MailOnline that children are permitted to enter their stores.

People queue outside a central London Sainsbury's Local amid the coronavirus crisis today

One grandmother took to Twitter after her daughter - who is a single mother - was allegedly turned away from an Aldi store because she had her five-year-old daughter with her.

'@AldiUK since when did you stop children going into your shops? My daughter tried to go shopping today with her five-year-old daughter but was told she couldn't go in with her daughter,' she said.

'She's a single mother what is she supposed to do with her? I am beyond angry.'

Another shopper claimed she witnessed a single parent being told to leave her four and six-year-old children in the car outside an Aldi supermarket.

Parents have claimed supermarkets have prevented them from shopping with their children as part of a crackdown on social distancing rules (Pictured: Shoppers outside a Sainsbury's in Saltburn)

One grandmother took to Twitter after her daughter - who is a single mother - was allegedly turned away from an Aldi store because she had her five-year-old daughter with her

She said: 'Aldi are refusing to let mums and their children in to do shopping!

'What are single parents meant to do with their children. A single parent who has a four and six year old was told to leave them in the car!

'Disgusting! There is a three-week wait for delivery.'

A third customer said: 'A friend visited @AldiUK this morning and has been told that she has to leave her four kids at the front of the store whilst she does her essential food shop.

'She's a single mom and has no choice but to take her kids shopping as she has nobody to look after them.'

Parents have also hit out at Sainsbury's for allegedly not allowing families to enter stores with their children

Parents have also allegedly been turned away from Asda stores despite the supermarket insisting families with children will be permitted to enter.

'Asda are allowing one person only from each household... I just got turned away with my son,' one shopper said.

'Luckily I could leave him outside if I wanted as he's old enough. Kinda concerned for the single parents with younger children and no family/support though.

'How can they shop?'

Another added: 'I was at Asda with my seven-year-old this week and was told by security guards that I would be "allowed in this time but next time I'd need to work something else out"!

'Unfortunately many of us do not have the privilege of leaving our children safe at home. I will shop elsewhere'.

Similar scenes were reported at Tesco and Asda, with one customer claiming a single mother was asked to leave her five-year-old child outside the shop alone

A third claimed an Asda store in Reading, Berkshire was also not 'allowing any children' inside despite claims by the supermarket that this 'isn't the case.'

Similar scenes were reported at Tesco, with one customer alleging a single mother was asked to leave her five-year-old child outside the shop alone.

'Bunch [of] heartless staff around my area,' she said. 'Told a SINGLE mother to leave her five-year-old child alone outside because they aren't allowing children into the shop.

'And because she refused, they wouldn't allow her in.'

Parents have also hit out at Sainsbury's for allegedly not allowing families to enter stores with their children.

Parents have also allegedly been turned away from Asda stores despite the supermarket insisting families with children will be permitted to enter

Shoppers stand two metres apart as they wait to enter a Sainsbury's supermarket which is now enforcing restricted entry to avoid overcrowding amid the coronavirus pandemic

How is YOUR supermarket limiting customers? Many grocers have limited the number of people allowed inside a supermarket at once, with others asking customers to remain at least two metres apart amid the UK's coronavirus outbreak. ASDA In Asda stores, the number of people allowed inside has been capped depending on the size of the supermarket and the number of workers. A spokesperson said: 'Where needed, we are limiting the total number of shoppers we allow into a store at any one time. 'If possible, it would help us greatly if you could bring fewer family members when visiting our stores. This will help us maintain social distancing guidelines we already have in place.' ALDI Aldi is also capping the number of customers allowed inside each store at once. This is at the discretion of each store manager as stores are all different sizes. LIDL Lidl said last week it is 'implementing a crowd control system with immediate effect' in an attempt to manage social distancing in stores. SAINSBURY'S Sainsbury's has put in place a queuing system outside stores to control crowd sizes. People have been asked to stand two metres apart. TESCO Tesco is also limiting the number of people permitted to be inside a store at once. A Tesco spokesman told the Sun: 'We know how hard NHS staff are working at the moment. 'So we are opening our doors for them an hour earlier on Sundays, to help them access the things they need and as a thank you for all they are doing.' Advertisement

'So when did you decide to stop allowing children into your stores?' one shopper said.

'I was refused entry with my son and security told me to leave my seven-year-old outside ALONE! I am a single parent!'

When contacted by MailOnline, a spokeswoman for Sainsbury's confirmed children are permitted to enter stores.

Asda said it 'absolutely does not have a ban on children coming into our stores', but added it is 'limiting the total number of shoppers we allow into a store at any one time.'

'If possible, it would help us greatly if you could bring fewer family members when visiting our stores. This will help us maintain social distancing guidelines we already have in place,' a spokesman said.

Aldi also confirmed there are no restrictions to people shopping with other family members, but said customers have been asked for one person per household to shop alone wherever possible.

Tesco added it has not banned children from its stores but it is also encouraging customers to shop with no more than one other person to help maintain social distancing measures.

The alleged crackdown on supermarket entry comes as the UK's coronavirus death toll jumped to 1,408 after 180 more fatalities were recorded in a single day.

England reported 159 deaths overnight, while Wales recorded 14, Scotland six and Northern Ireland one.

The daily increase in deaths in the UK has fallen for two days in a row, dropping from 209 on Sunday and 260 on Saturday - in what was Britain's darkest day in the crisis yet.

But there are fears of a fresh spike in fatalities tomorrow because officials will count deaths outside of hospitals for the first time.

Meanwhile the number of confirmed cases in Britain has now soared past 20,000 after hundreds of positive tests in the last 24 hours.

But experts predict the true number to be more than two million because of the Government's decision to only test patients so ill they are admitted to hospital.
The flag of North Korea is seen in Geneva

By Josh Smith

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the ocean off its east coast on Sunday, the latest in an unprecedented flurry of launches that South Korea decried as "inappropriate" amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

Two "short-range projectiles" were launched from the coastal Wonsan area, and flew 230 kilometers (143 miles) at a maximum altitude of 30 kilometers (19 miles), South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff reported.

"In a situation where the entire world is experiencing difficulties due to COVID-19, this kind of military act by North Korea is very inappropriate and we call for an immediate halt," South Korea's JCS said in a statement, according to Yonhap news agency.

Japan's Ministry of Defense said they appeared to be ballistic missiles, and they did not land in Japanese territory or its exclusive economic zone.

They would be the eighth and ninth missiles launched in four rounds of tests this month as North Korean troops conduct ongoing military drills, usually personally overseen by leader Kim Jong Un.

That would be the most missiles ever fired in a single month by North Korea, according to a tally by Shea Cotton, senior researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

"Coming this early in the year, the only time we've seen tests this frequently were in 2016 and 2017, both of which were huge years for North Korea's missile program," he said in a post on Twitter.

All of the missiles fired so far this year have been small, short-range weapons, such as the KN-24 fired during the last launch on March 21.

But Kim has warned that North Korea is developing a new "strategic weapon" to be unveiled this year, with analysts speculating that it could be a new long-range ballistic missile, or a submarine capable of launching such missiles.

United Nations Security Council resolutions bar North Korea from testing ballistic missiles, and the country has been heavily sanctioned over its missile and nuclear weapons programs.

Story continues

MILITARY DRILLS CONTINUE

This month's military drills have been conducted despite a border lockdown and quarantine measures imposed in North Korea in an effort to prevent an outbreak of the new coronavirus.

South Korea and the United States have postponed some of their joint military exercises because of the coronavirus outbreak in South Korea.

Politically and economically isolated, North Korea has not reported any confirmed cases, though some foreign experts have expressed doubts.

In the past, North Korea has typically conducted military drills, including tests of its ballistic missiles, in March as the wintry weather turns warmer. For the previous two years, however, it had avoided such springtime launches amid denuclearisation talks with the United States.

Those talks have since stalled, and this year's string of tests and military drills appear aimed at underscoring North Korea's return to a more hard-line policy, said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists.

"There is an element of projecting a business-as-usual image amid the COVID-19 situation, but I think it's not overriding," he said. "These tests do allow Kim Jong Un to show that he's sticking to the hard-line policy he laid out in December 2019."

(Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Rosalba O'Brien & Simon Cameron-Moore)
Stranded for the past 18 days on the Italian cruise liner Costa Victoria, 153 Indian crew members, have released a video appealing the Indian government to rescue them off the coast of Italy. The Indians have been on board the ship since March 1, which had confirmed 1 COVID-19 case - six days ago. The ship has been docked 60 km off the Roman coast at Civitavecchia, ever since.

Coronavirus LIVE Updates: India at 'local transmission' stage; total cases at 1071

153 crew members request evacuation

With folded hands, huddled in one of the quarters, the masked crew members requested, "Modiji, we are speaking from Costa Victoria. We are 200 crew members here. Our ship is caught in the middle of the ocean. As some passengers tested positive to Coronavirus, we have been kept in quarantine".

They added, "We are suffering and not able to communicate with our families. Food is being delivered to our cabins and we don't know where we are or where we are headed. Please do some arrangements to evacuate us Indians from this place. We are ready to be quarantined in India if needed. So please help us Modiji."

UP govt 'sanitises' migrant workers entering Bareilly; Congress warns of COVID-19 spread

The video which was released by the group is 7 days ago. The group released yet another video on Monday stating that they cannot release another group video as they are quarantined. Assuring that they can speak to families via WhatsApp, one of the crew members said that the Philipines government has tested their nationals and is arranging for their return. He added that the crew's company has said that the Indian embassy has not responded to their pleas and requested PM Modi to rescue them.

BMC bans burial of COVID-19 bodies; conditions applied after NCP neta intervenes

Australians to be rescued

Reports state that more than 200 Australians passengers onboard the ship have been told that they will be flown to Perth on Sunday if they do not test positive for Coronavirus. The Australian passengers onboard Costa Victoria and Costa Luminosa have been told that a Qatar flight will fly them off Rome. Passengers from both ships expressed their relief, but also anger at the situation they found themselves in.

Karnataka govt demands all 'home quarantined' cases to send selfies every 1 hour to verify

India flies out stranded Indians amid Coronavirus

India has flown out several stranded Indians from Wuhan, Iran, Italy etc and also facilitated the return of several foreign nationals stuck in India to their home countries. India has suspended all visas and barred travel from Afghanistan, Philippines, EU, UK, China, Malaysia and mandatory 14-day quarantine from several other countries. The Prime Minister has issued a 21-day countrywide lockdown starting from 25 March to April 15 and has banned all air travel - domestic and international to and from India. The country has seen 1071 cases till date with 29 deaths.
There have been a lot of questions asked by the community in Cleveland and City Manager Kelly McDonald has the Top 10 questions and answers that have come up the most.

1. Question: How are city meetings being conducted?

Answer: City council meetings are being conducted by (Video conferencing application) Zoom and also shown on Facebook Live. The governor has temporarily suspended some of the requirements for open meetings (that allows cities) to conduct business by teleconference or video conference. Emergency meetings only require one hour posting prior to the meeting, and must meet requirements of an emergency meeting. Regular meetings going forward will follow all other guideline and remain Zoom/Facebook Live until the emergency declarations are lifted. Notice of all meetings will continue to be posted on our website, as usual, as well as we push the notifications out on all social media. This is for the safety of our council and others that may want to attend the meeting at this time.

2. Q: Are city offices open? What are the hours of business?

A: City facilities are closed to the public, but we are open for business. City employees are currently working so there should be no interruption of services. Normal business hours are 8 a.m.- 5 p.m. After hours, weekends or holiday needs can be dispatched through the police department at 281-592-2622. You can also view our website www.clevelandtexas.com where there is a page dedicated to COVID-19.

3. Q: Will my water be disconnected if I cant pay my bill?

A: The city is temporarily halting disconnections due to non-payment, which applies to business and resident accounts. This is an effort to help the customers through this trying time, but also helps stop the spread of the virus through hand washing and proper hygiene. Many are worried about how their families will make ends meet, especially for those who have had hours cut or lost their job due to the pandemic. The city, like other entities, are offering payment extensions on their water bill and waiving late fees. It is recommended that customers continue to pay what they can on their bills so that when this crisis is over they are not left with an extremely large water bill that causes them further issues.

4. Q: Who can I call for questions, or if I believe I may have the virus?

A: Liberty County has a line set up for questions - you can dial 211, hit Option 6 and you can speak with a person for general questions or speak with them if you think you may have the virus and they can advise what you need to do.

5. Q: Are there any test centers in Liberty County?

A: There are currently no test centers in Liberty County. Some doctor offices, as well as some hospital facilities do have test kits, but are limited?

6. Q: Can I leave my house to shop if needed or check on a family member?

A: You may travel for specific reasons listed in Liberty County Executive Order. Shopping for groceries, traveling for pharmacy or healthcare, veterinary services, or to check on a family member that you care for is permissible. Travel to and from work, if you are essential personnel, is permissible. Most companies are issuing letters to their employees or issuing identification badges for their use.

7. Q: Is the Dairy Day event canceled?

A: Dairy Day officials have canceled this event, including the parade. They are working on an option for a possible virtual auction and will keep their participants informed.

8. Q: I have an event scheduled at the Civic Center - will that be canceled?

A: Persons with events scheduled at the Civic Center have been contacted and either rescheduled or canceled events through the end of April. We will determine events in the upcoming months and those persons will be contacted going forward.

9. Q: Do I need a letter from my employer to cross the county line for work?

A: It is a good idea to have a letter from your employer, or some type of identification, should you be deemed an essential employee. County lines are not closed, which gives travel to and from still open.

10. Q: How do I know if my business is essential?

A: There is a laundry list of essential businesses listed in the Executive Order. If you have a business you are not sure of you can contact the Country Judge or County Attorneys office for clarification, or view the Executive Order posted on the citys website www.clevelandtexas.com.

For further information related to the Executive Order signed by County Judge Jay Knight, please contact below:

County Judge Jay Knights office

Office phone: 936-336-4665

Fax: 936-336-4518

County Attorney Matthew Poston

Phone: 936-336-4650

Fax: 936-336-4568

Kelly McDonald is the Cleveland City Manager
People are so cooped up and feeling like lots of things have been canceled, so there was probably even more excitement about doing it this way, Jacobs said. People would get to see other family members on the Zoom and actually have something to look forward to.
A version of this article first appeared in the "Reliable Sources" newsletter. You can sign up for free right here.

Numbers that matter right now:

The rapidly rising death toll. The projections of additional potential deaths in the weeks ahead. The length of time until the expected peak. The death rate. The number of confirmed cases. The number of people who have Covid-19 symptoms, but haven't been tested. The number of 911 calls in major metro areas like New York. The staffing levels at area hospitals. The number of available beds. The number of additional beds that may be needed. The current count of ventilators. The supplies of PPE. The capacity levels of local morgues. The unemployment rate. The length of time that social distancing measures will remain in effect. The modeled death toll if the restrictions are eased.

Numbers that don't matter right now:

Television ratings.

That's why it was so disgusting to see President Trump bragging about the ratings for the White House's coronavirus task force briefings. Talking about ratings while people are dying and others are pleading for help? It is beneath any human being. I said on "CNN Newsroom" that members of Trump's inner circle need to intervene and help him get out of his own way.

But I'm not holding my breath. Trump launched into an anti-CNN tirade during a Sunday afternoon presser, claiming that the network is "not trusted anymore" and that "people are not watching CNN anymore."

Again let me say: TV ratings don't matter right now. Viewership is up, across the board, but networks are wary of publicizing the numbers for the same reasons that they didn't tout their record ratings after 9/11. I'm not going to get into all the specific metrics. But for purposes of fact-checking the president's lie, the month of March has been CNN's most-watched month since September 2005, when the Gulf Coast was recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

As an anchor and correspondent, I feel the pressure. I know that our ratings are well above average right now. People need reliable sources that aren't minimizing OR overstating the threat. That's what we have to keep doing. That's something the president should encourage, not seek to destroy.

Ratings reality check

Brian Lowry writes: It seems ridiculous to have to point this out right now, but here goes: Trump has a long history of exaggerating or outright lying about TV ratings, dating back to his claims that "The Apprentice" was the No. 1 show on TV long after it wasn't. And his series of tweets about viewership of his news conferences, quoting a NYT story that (certainly in terms of the headline) could have been a bit more sophisticated itself, overlook a series of disclaimers and qualifiers too long to mention...

 Kevin Kruse tweeted: "If all you care about are your TV ratings, remember that President Nixon attracted an estimated 110 million viewers for his resignation speech."

Haberman's reporting

"I think the president is doing very little other than watching media coverage right now," the NYT's Maggie Haberman told me on Sunday's "Reliable Sources."

"He doesn't have the rallies for the feedback. He's just watching television and having meetings about this issue, and I think he's more sensitive to negative coverage than he normally is... so what he's doing is lashing out."

 The bottom line re: his recent spate of anti-media attacks: "He doesn't want people to believe real time accounts that they are seeing..."

"Reliable Sources" highlights

-- Doctors and nurses are alerting the public through social media, sometimes by smuggling videos out of hospital wards. Dr. Esther Choo said rules restricting press access at hospitals should be revisited so that the public has a view inside virus-stricken ERs. "Some of this information is important for public health," she said...

-- The New Yorker editor David Remnick said Trump's "lies," narcissism, and "lack of empathy" have "led to disaster. Has led to delay. And this will be -- and I think history will prove this -- this will be something that's paid in human lives. And that's an enormous tragedy..."

-- With warehouse employee protests looming, I talked with Amazon's top spokesman Jay Carney about how the company is addressing the pandemic...

Stephen King's sharp critique of Trump's mixed messaging

The "Reliable" team had been working on booking Stephen King for months... and I had planned to fly to Florida to interview him in person. Instead, we talked via his webcam on Sunday morning. "People are saying to me 'we're living in a Stephen King world,' and all I can say is, boy, I wish we weren't," King said re: the horror novel nature of this moment.

>> King also said Trump's handling of the pandemic is "almost impossible to comprehend." Watch...

Trump lashes out at Alcindor, demands she "be nice"

Oliver Darcy writes: Amid a global pandemic killing thousands of Americans, Trump disparaged CNN, NYT, and PBS at his press conference on Sunday, while saving his praise for a fringe right-wing network that has a history of peddling conspiracy theories.

Trump lashed out at PBS correspondent Yamiche Alcindor and said she should be friendlier toward him. Trump's outburst came after Alcindor noted that Trump had previously told Sean Hannity he was not sure if states would actually need the total number of ventilators they have requested.

"Why don't you act a little more positive?" Trump asked. He added, "Be nice. Don't be threatening. Be nice." Alcindor pushed back, noting she was effectively repeating what he had previously told Hannity, but Trump wasn't having it. When Alcindor came to ask her second Q, Trump cut her off and the microphone was taken away from her...

Diamond gives back the mic

Darcy continues: When Trump called on him later in the press conference, CNN's Jeremy Diamond instead handed Alcindor the mic so that she could ask her second question. Alcindor asked which health experts Trump had spoken to that had said more people could die from an economic recession than the virus. Trump didn't directly answer.

After the press conference, Alcindor tweeted, "I'm not the first human being, woman, black person or journalist to be told that while doing a job. My take: Be steady. Stay focused. Remember your purpose. And, always press forward."

"These are direct quotes, sir."

Darcy adds: When Diamond got a chance to ask his question, he pressed Trump on last Friday comments about not phoning governors who are not "appreciative." Trump accused Diamond of lying and taking him out of context, but Diamond pointed out that he was reading "direct quotes." As Daniel Dale put it, "Reporters read Trump quote back to him, Trump denies and attacks." Check out Dale's fact-check here, titled "Trump falsely denies saying two things he said last week..."

Trump praises OANN

Darcy sends one more note: At the presser, Trump lavished praised on a personality from the far-right cable channel One America News. The attendee asked Trump for a response to networks that are wary of airing his lengthy press conferences in full. "Boy that's a nice question," Trump said. "Thank you very much." When Trump called on her for a second time, she bizarrely asked the same question again... which is quite revealing, when you think about it...

FOR THE RECORD

-- Applause for health care workers is nice, Jake Tapper said Sunday, but "politicians getting them the box of N95 masks, that would be even better. The fact that too many professionals don't have them  that's a national disgrace." (Mediaite)

-- ICYMI: Read the NYT's reconstruct of America's "lost month," when "Americans were left largely blind to the scale of a looming public health catastrophe..." (NYT)

-- Read more of Sunday's "Reliable Sources" newsletter... And subscribe here to receive future editions in your inbox...

-- Manuel Roig-Franzia and Sarah Ellison report on the "history of the Trump war on media..." (WaPo)
NHS England has confirmed that a parent can accompany sick children to hospital.

A viral social media post terrifying parents into believing they will not be able to stay with children who show symptoms of coronavirus has been exposed as a hoax.

The post, which has been shared thousands of times, reads: "Biggest wake up call ever.

If your child gets this virus, they're going to hospital alone in a van with people they don't know to a room they dont know to be with people they don't know.

You will be at home without them in their time of need. Think about it, stay in."

The viral post terrifies parents into thinking they can't accompany sick children to hospital.

Celebrities including Kerry Katona and Rochelle Humes shared the post, with Katona writing: PLEASE STAY AT HOME!!!!!!!!!!! I was sent this which has scared the sh** out of me but I tell you what I know Im not leaving my house! Im a mother of 5 my anxiety is through the roof!

I havent posted this to scare people but seeing pics of bloody idiots in groups sunbathing it feels people are still not getting what it going on! Please stay safe everyone sending you all love and light.

Katonas post has now been flagged by Instagram as containing false information.

Parents have been duped into thinking they could not accompany their child in an ambulance if they have suspected coronavirus. (Glyn Kirk/AFP)

Gillian Johnston is a mum-of-two from Buckinghamshire. She told Yahoo News UK: I read the post and it terrified me. It freaked me out so much I kept bursting into tears. Parents have enough to worry about at the moment without extra scaremongering.

Jackie Wilson saw the post on her Facebook page and said: However well intentioned, this horrifies me  and Im compliant. Shaming and instilling fear is not acceptable, whatever the motives.

The NHS has since updated its guidance on who can visit patients affected by coronavirus. A parent or appropriate adult can accompany a child and an immediate family member or carer can visit a person receiving end-of-life care.

Social media misinformation

The scam is just one of multiple fake stories that have spread across social media during the coronavirus outbreak, but the government is determined to clamp down on such stories.

Tory MP Damian Collins has warned against sharing coronavirus-related fake news and called for knowingly peddling misinformation related to the COVID-19 outbreak to be made an offence.

Story continues

He has also partnered with Infotagion, a free-to-access website, to launch an online service to combat falsehoods during the pandemic.

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

Live: Follow all the latest updates from the UK and around the world

Fact-checker: The number of COVID-19 cases in your local area

6 charts and maps that explain how coronavirus is spreading

Collins, former chairman of the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, has partnered with Infotagion, a free-to-access website which allows members of the public to post screenshots of coronavirus-related information they have received online.

A team organised by Collins  who led the government investigation into disinformation and fake news  will check what users submit against official sources and give traffic-light answers on whether it is true or false.

Tory MP Damian Collins warned against sharing coronavirus-related fake news as he launched an online service to combat falsehoods during the pandemic. (Tom Dulat/Getty Images)

He said: Lots of the debate around fake news has been in the political context, around election campaigning, but here we are seeing it in a public health crisis.

In some ways, this is the first public health crisis in the age of social media disinformation, and therefore it requires a different response.

The MP said it should be an offence for someone to knowingly and maliciously spread disinformation that could be harmful to public health.

I think [it] should be an offence to do that, and should be an offence for social media companies not to take that content down, he said.

The service, in collaboration with media and technology company Iconic Labs, will provide users with links to trusted information sources, such as the World Health Organization, or official government guidance.

Coronavirus: what happened today
Spain reported Monday 812 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, while more than 6,000 new confirmed cases made it the third country, along with the United States and Italy, to surpass Chinas total.

Spanish authorities put the country on lockdown two weeks ago to try to stop the rapid spread of the virus.

The tactic has been used by governments all over the world, including new restrictions Monday in Moscow allowing people only to leave their homes for essential jobs, shopping for food or medicine, or for a medical emergency.

FILE - Lagos Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu (C), squeezes his way through a crowded market to monitor compliance measures to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus at the Mile 12 Market in Lagos, Nigeria, March 26, 2020.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari announced stay-at-home orders for the countrys capital, Abuja, and its largest city, Lagos, and said that travel to and from other parts of the country should be avoided.

Authorities in Zimbabwe ordered a three-week lockdown starting Monday, while similar measures in Nepal, Slovenia and Argentina are being extended.

In the United States, which has the most cases worldwide, the state of New York has passed the somber milestone of 1,000 deaths.

A 68-bed field hospital is under construction in New York's Central Park to handle those infected with the novel coronavirus. (VOA/Vladimir Badikov)

Hospitals in New York City are set to get some relief with Mondays arrival of the Navys USNS Comfort hospital ship, which will clear space for coronavirus patients by taking those in need of care for conditions other than the virus. Its sister ship, the USNS Mercy, began taking patients Sunday at the port of Long Beach, outside Los Angeles.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced U.S. guidelines on social distancing to prevent the virus from spreading would be extended to the end of April.

Italy, which has by far the most deaths and has been under strict lockdown for weeks, reported more than 750 more deaths Sunday, but saw signs of hope with a slowdown in new infections.

Nurses put on their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) before starting to work on the preparation of the Intensive care unit in the new Covid-19 Hospital on March 29, 2020 in Verduno, near Alba, Northwestern Italy.

An Italian government official told Italy's Sky TG24 television that while everyone wants to return to life as usual, talking about such a move at this point is inappropriate, and that the lockdown measures set to expire Friday will inevitably be renewed.

Several world leaders have focused on the economic impact of the crisis, often drawing criticism amid mounting case counts and death tolls.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro ran afoul of Twitter rules with several posts featuring videos in which he met with groups of people and questioned the need to shut down businesses and keep people from gathering.

Twitter said it would ban posts that go against public health recommendations and encourage ineffective prevention techniques that could increase the likelihood of people getting sick. The social media company deleted two of Bolsonaros posts, saying he violated the policy.

Don Marcello Crotti, left, blesses the coffins with Don Mario Carminati in the San Giuseppe church in Seriate, Italy, March 28, 2020.

Worldwide, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases stood at about 725,000 with 34,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics early Monday.

Victims include popular Japanese comedian Ken Shimura, whose death was reported late Sunday. The 70-year-old was hospitalized March 20 with a fever and breathing problems.

Chinas government is starting to encourage businesses to reopen as health officials keep an eye on the threat of imported cases after making vast progress in essentially eliminating locally transmitted cases.

China was the first country to report cases of the new coronavirus and put in place its own strict lockdowns, especially in the city of Wuhan, which accounted for the highest number of the more than 81,000 infections in China.

With hospitals all over the world facing an influx of patients and short supplies, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres highlighted their contributions in a late Sunday Twitter post.

Health workers worldwide continue providing critical assistance to those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, often through personal sacrifice. Im grateful for their courage, commitment and sacrifice, he said.
Father of convicted ex-police colonel Zakharchenko freed from prison - lawyer

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

11:50 30/03/2020

MOSCOW, March 30 (RAPSI) - Viktor Zakharchenko, the father of convicted ex-anticorruption official Dmitry Zakharchenko, has leaved prison after completion of his sentence for embezzlement, his lawyer Valeria Tunnikova has told RAPSI.

Viktor Zakharchenko received 4 years in prison and was fined 800,000 rubles ($12,500) for embezzlement in April 2019. Another defendant ex-board chairman of the Moscow Hypothec Agency bank Vladimir Koryevkin was sentenced to 4.5 years behind bars and a 900,000-ruble fine ($14,000).

In November, the Moscow City Court reduced Zakharchenkos sentence to 3 years and 9 months. The court removed the wording with the use of job position from the charges. The sentence of Koryevkin, was mitigated by 6 months.

According to investigators, the father of Dmitry Zakharchenko was fraudulently employed at the Moscow Hypothec Agency bank but did not do any actual work. Damage caused to the bank reached as high as 5 million rubles ($80,000). Investigators believe that Koryevkins actions caused damage estimated at 1.5 million rubles (over $23,000).

The bank recognized as injured party in the case filed a 12.3-million-ruble ($155,000) claim against the defendants.
Grimm was NBCs procedural show with a supernatural spin. The series had all of the classic elements of a cop show, which appealed to action lovers. But instead of run-of-the-mill characters, Grimm reimagined suspects and victims as magical creatures ripped from the pages of Grimms Fairy Tales. The show hooked viewers for six seasons and 123 episodes before calling it quits.

Grimms ensemble cast included the now-married couple David Giuntoli, who currently co-stars in A Million Little Things, and Elizabeth Tulloch of the forthcoming Superman and Lois. Both stars have created a buzz for their work, but its Tulloch who recently created a Twitter storm surrounding it.

Elizabeth Tulloch | Phillip Chin/Getty Images for Warner Brothers Television)

Elizabeth Tulloch calls out Netflix

Tulloch took to Twitter in response to Netflixs move to discontinue streaming episodes of Grimm. The beloved show had been available on Netflix in certain regions outside the United States, including Europe, Turkey, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and South Korea, according to thenetline.com. The streaming giant did not renew the contract, which expired in 2020.

In a tweet, Tulloch wrote, Hey Netflix, we want Grimm back! These are trying times and we all need a little Monroe pick-me-up with a side of Nicks jawline!

Twitter users hopped on board to agree with the actresss comment. One fan chimed in saying, Totally agree on that request, bring back Grimm.

Another watcher tweeted, Yes! There was no Grimm on Netflix here in Luxembourg. Please bring back Grimm.

The comments from around the globe keep flowing in, all gushing over Grimm.

It was one of my dad and [my] favorite shows. We never missed an episode in its original broadcast and we re-watched from scratch on Netflix, one fan mused.

Tulloch has plenty of company when it comes to missing Grimm on Netflix. Her tweet has been retweeted hundreds of times, with over 2,300 likes and counting.

Grimm has another streaming home

The terms of the Netflix agreement did not allow for Grimm to air in the U.S. on the streamer, but fans were quick to remind Tulloch that the show is available on Amazon Prime Video for the time being.

A particularly passionate fan confessed, Im bingeing Grimm right now on Prime! Its like my 5th time!

Another follower tweeted, Ive been bingeing Grimm on Prime Video! Its one of the few shows my husband and I never missed. Now were watching again.

Still, for others, re-watching Grimm is a way to fill the Tulloch-shaped void on TV as viewers anxiously await the actresss next project.

Gotta have something to binge until we get Superman and Lois, quipped one Tulloch devotee.

Grimm could leave Prime Video for Peacock

NBCUniversal plans to launch the streaming service, Peacock, in the Spring of 2020. The new platform will house movies, series, sports, news, and unscripted programming. Since Grimm was an NBC show, it could eventually find a home on Peacock. The contract terms between NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video will determine if and when Grimm will be discontinued on Prime. But for now, Grimm fans can get their fix on Amazons streamer.

The CW has plans to launch Tullochs new show, Superman and Lois in the Fall of 2020. The show also stars Tyler Hoechlin as the Man of Steel.

Read more: Manifest Fans Have Spoken, and Heres Why They Want Zeke Gone
Every investor on earth makes bad calls sometimes. But you want to avoid the really big losses like the plague. So consider, for a moment, the misfortune of Australian Agricultural Projects Ltd (ASX:AAP) investors who have held the stock for three years as it declined a whopping 80%. That'd be enough to cause even the strongest minds some disquiet. And over the last year the share price fell 56%, so we doubt many shareholders are delighted.

See our latest analysis for Australian Agricultural Projects

Australian Agricultural Projects isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. Generally speaking, companies without profits are expected to grow revenue every year, and at a good clip. That's because it's hard to be confident a company will be sustainable if revenue growth is negligible, and it never makes a profit.

In the last three years Australian Agricultural Projects saw its revenue shrink by 14% per year. That is not a good result. Having said that the 42% annualized share price decline highlights the risk of investing in unprofitable companies. This business clearly needs to grow revenues if it is to perform as investors hope. There's no more than a snowball's chance in hell that share price will head back to its old highs, in the short term.

You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

ASX:AAP Income Statement March 30th 2020

It's probably worth noting that the CEO is paid less than the median at similar sized companies. It's always worth keeping an eye on CEO pay, but a more important question is whether the company will grow earnings throughout the years. This free interactive report on Australian Agricultural Projects's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

While the broader market lost about 19% in the twelve months, Australian Agricultural Projects shareholders did even worse, losing 56%. Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 4.4% per year over five years. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Australian Agricultural Projects better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Australian Agricultural Projects is showing 6 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 4 of those shouldn't be ignored...

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We will like Australian Agricultural Projects better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on AU exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Sheila Brosnanwoke up Sunday morning thinking about what she would have been doing that day had her bridal shower not been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

When her fiance, Terence Gavin, suggested they take a car ride as a distraction, Brosnan, 35, of Ashburn, Virginia, agreed.

When the couple walked outside their apartment complex, Brosnan said she noticed a group of people gathering outside for a birthday party.

"I even looked at my fiance and said, 'I hope those people are being socially distant there,'" she recalled. "'I dont know who they are but I hope theyre following the rules.'"

PHOTO: Friends gathered for a bridal shower for Sheila Brosnan in a parking lot during the coronavirus pandemic. (Kerry Ames/Meredith Wyatt)

As Brosnan walked closer, she realized they were her friends -- who surprised her by holding her bridal shower in the parking lot, stationed on blankets and in beach chairs and car trunks safely 6 feet apart from each other.

"I think its the nicest thing anyone ever has done," said Brosnan. "I felt really, really loved."

MORE: Coronavirus live updates: FDA gives anti-malaria drugs emergency approval to treat COVID-19

Brosnan, an elementary school librarian, said it also struck her that the friends and colleagues gathered were people she had not seen in more than two weeks, since schools in Virginia closed and people began practicing strict social distancing to slow the spread of coronavirus.

"We were far apart but we just kept looking at each other and saying hi," said Brosnan. "It was emotional seeing these faces that I love so much but have not seen in recent weeks."

PHOTO: Friends threw a bridal shower for Sheila Brosnan in a parking lot during the coronavirus pandemic. (Kerry Ames/Meredith Wyatt)

Brosnan and Gavin were scheduled to wed on June 6, 2020, the weekend of Father's Day, a day they chose as a way to honor their late fathers.

With most of their family and friends coming from New York City, Chicago and New Orleans, three cities hit hard by coronavirus, Brosnan and Gavin decided to postpone their wedding until Nov. 28, 2020, the next date that both their church, Saint Theresa Catholic Church, and reception venue, Belmont Country Club, were available.

Story continues

"I didnt realize how emotional it was going to be [to postpone the wedding] and how attached Id become to that date," Brosnan said. "It was in my heart at that point."

MORE: Im 28. My boyfriend and I both tested positive for COVID-19. Here's my message.

On Saturday, before Brosnan and Gavin had decided to postpone the wedding, Brosnan's friends decided to throw her the surprise bridal shower less than 24 hours later.

"We didnt want our lovely friend to miss out on traditions because of bad luck timing," said Kerry Ames, who helped organize the shower.

The friends decorated with signs and streamers, created a beach chair throne for Brosnan in the middle of the circle and brought her gifts and coffee and doughnuts.

PHOTO: Friends threw a bridal shower for Sheila Brosnan in a parking lot during the coronavirus pandemic. (Kerry Ames/Meredith Wyatt)

Brosnan said she's been trying to keep perspective through quarantine and having to reschedule her big day. The shower, she said, was another sign to just keep focusing on the "good stuff."

"That shower, walking out and seeing some of my closest friends, it was like everything is going to be okay because people are good and kind and they take care of each other," she said. "Now I need to pay it forward too."

Friends throw surprise bridal shower in parking lot during coronavirus pandemic originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com






The global automotive industry has mobilized its collective manufacturing to address the coronavirus pandemic. General Motors was the first to step up with a manufacturing plan, which the Trump administration tacitly approved when it invoked the Defense Production Act, but not before being criticized by the president for its initial efforts.

GM has now been authorized to build ventilators, but was that a result of Trump's prodding, or in spite of it?

The New York Times describes the efforts undertaken by GM and Ventec to come up with a viable solution: "While much of the U.S. economy has ground to a halt because of the coronavirus outbreak, several dozen workers in orange vests and hard hats were hauling heavy equipment on Sunday at a General Motors plant in Kokomo, Ind."

"The crew was part of a crash effort to make tens of thousands of ventilators, the lifesaving machines that keep critically ill patients breathing. The machines are in desperate demand as hospitals face the prospect of dire shortages. New York State alone may need 30,000 or more," the article said.

After GM briefed the administration on its plans, Trump criticized them for being too costly and limited in scope. Some General Motors public relations representatives, normally quiet when it comes to matters of politics, expressed frustration with the administration and pride in the company's efforts to contribute during the crisis.

One employee, calling Trump's Twitter rant about the company's proposal "a fib," said, "Never been more proud of my company & the commitment to co-create ventilators in order to save lives."

And while GM's plans never changed, Trump reversed his criticism Monday, and even said that GM is "doing a fantastic job" of preparing to build ventilators for patients who are unable to breathe on their own.

The full feature is available on the NYT website for free, as the publication has suspended subscription charges for pandemic-related news; we encourage you to read it and draw your own conclusions.

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The CBI filed a charge sheet against 12 people on Monday in connection with a Rs 220-crore scholarship scam in Himachal Pradesh, officials said.

The agency has named five of the then officials of K C Group of Institutions in the case of irregularities in disbursal of pre-matric and post-matric scholarships for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and minorities, the police said.

The then officials of the Directorate of Higher Education -- Arvind Rajta, Mala Mehta, Shriram Sharma, Surinder Mohan Kanwar, Ashok Kumar, Virender Kumar -- have been named as accused in the charge sheet.

The then officials of K C Group of Institutions -- Saroj Sharma, B S Sandhu, Hitesh Gandhi, Prem Pal Gandhi, Kiran Choudhary -- and Surinder Pal Singh, who was the head cashier at the Central Bank of India, Nawanshahr, Punjab, have been named as accused.

The CBI had registered a case last May on the request of Himachal Pradesh government, agency spokesperson R K Gaur said.

It had taken over the investigation of a case earlier registered by the police against unknown persons on allegations of misappropriation of funds in the disbursement of the scholarships, the spokesperson added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Millions of white-collar workers are telecommuting from home to stay safe as the coronavirus extends its terrifying reach across America. But millions of other workers  supermarket cashiers, pharmacists, warehouse workers, bus drivers, meatpacking workers  still have to report to work each day, and many are furious that their employers are not doing enough to protect them against the pandemic.

Some companies are not providing their workers with gloves or hand sanitizer, and some are even prohibiting employees from wearing masks for fear of frightening customers. Many workers feel theyre putting their lives on the line each day by interacting with customers who might be infected and by working in places theyre convinced have not been adequately sanitized against the virus.

Fearing retaliation, American workers are generally far more reluctant to stick their necks out and protest working conditions than are workers in other industrial countries. But with greater fear of the disease than of their bosses, workers have set off a burst of walkouts, sickouts and wildcat strikes.

With their employers business booming, workers at Instacart, the grocery delivery service, have called for a strike on Monday, demanding that the company provide hazard pay and more personal protective supplies. Workers at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island threatened a walkout on Monday if the company did not close the building and thoroughly clean it after several workers tested positive.
Jon Jones, the UFC light heavyweight champion, is expected back in court on April 9 after being arrested in Albuquerque for DWI and negligent use of a firearm last week

Newly released police body cam footage shows UFC star Jon Jones telling police during his recent DWI arrest that he was going 'stir crazy' at home amid the ongoing pandemic, which prompted him to drive after he admittedly drank vodka.

Jones was booked on four charges in Albuquerque last week, including aggravated DWI and negligent use of a firearm.

He was found in a Jeep with the engine running at around 1am on Thursday, according to police, who found a half-empty bottle of tequila behind the passenger's seat along with the black handgun.

Jones denied firing the weapon but allegedly failed a breathalyzer test twice.

As seen in video distributed by the Bernalillo County District Attorney, Jones tried to explain that he was engaging with homeless people when the police arrived.

'I got stir crazy. I got pulled over just being nice, being nice to the homeless people,' Jones said. 'I literally just got stir crazy. I just wanted to have a drive. This is my first drive in two weeks. And I saw these homeless guys, I was being nice to them, having conversation with them, treating them like humans.'

Jones did not deny drinking when the officer approached his black Jeep.

The police found Jones (in the driver's seat) in a Jeep with the engine running at around 1am on Thursday, according to police, who found a half-empty bottle of tequila behind the passenger's seat along with the black handgun. Jones did not deny drinking to the officer

After following the officer's finger with his eyes, Jones was asked to step out of the car for field sobriety tests, which proved difficult for the UFC light heavyweight champion. At one point while struggling to walk a straight line, Jones told the officer that he suffers from short-term memory loss and attention deficit disorder (ADD)

After following the officer's finger with his eyes, Jones was asked to step out of the car for field sobriety tests, which proved difficult for the UFC light heavyweight champion. At one point while struggling to walk a straight line, Jones told the officer that he suffers from short-term memory loss and attention deficit disorder (ADD).

'I have to start over,' Jones told the officer after revealing his ADD.

The officer allows him to start over and Jones completes the test.

He's also asked to count backwards from 47 to 32.

'Forty-four, fourth-three my daughter's dyslexic,' Jones said mid-test before struggling to complete the test.

Jones was told he's being arrested after another test, this one involving the alphabet, and was then placed into the back of a police cruiser.

While in the cop car, Jones can be heard asking: 'Sir, if it's not too much, could you roll down the window?'

The UFC light-heavyweight champion was later released and is to appear in court on April 9.

Jones was respectful to the officer during the arrest and appeared to get emotional at times

Jones, 32, is regarded by many as the greatest mixed martial artist of all time but his life outside of the cage has been littered with indiscretions.

He fled the scene and was given 18 months probation.

Only last year, Jones was charged with misdemeanor battery in a strip club after allegedly lifting a woman off the ground in a choke-hold before slapping her in the genitals.

He denied the allegations at the time and later pled no contest to disorderly conduct.

He was also arrested for drink driving in 2010, pleading guilty after slamming his Bentley into a pole in New York.

The American was also found guilty of a hit-and-run in 2015. According to an Albuquerque Police Department arrest warrant, Jones went through a red light and crashed into another vehicle driven by a pregnant woman, who broke her arm.
Storyful

Several people were killed in a car bomb explosion described locally as a suicide attack near Mogadishu airport on January 12.Ahmed Abdihadi, who was driving nearby and recorded this footage, said he thought it was a vehicle explosion.Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, a local journalist, cited security sources as saying government officials were targeted.Spokesman Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu said the government condemned the cowardly attack.He said at least four people died. An official with the ambulance service said at least eight had died, local media said.The Mogadishu news outlet Allbanaadir said Al Shabaab had claimed responsibility for the attack. Credit: Ahmed Abdihadi via Storyful
Shelley Davies waits for her delivery at Plants and Friends./Douglas Zimmerman/SFGate

For more coverage, visit our complete coronavirus section here.

Eleven individuals with ties to San Francisco's Laguna Honda Hospital have tested positive for COVID-19, health officials said Monday. Of the cases, nine are among staff and two are residents; all are in good condition.

"We expect the situation to unfortunately get worse," S.F. Public Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax said of the outbreak at the long-term care facility for the elderly, owned and operated by the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

Colfax said that based on the data from around the world, long-term care facilities are at the highest risk for outbreaks.

I expect more cases of coronavirus in the Laguna Honda community among staff and residents," he said.

Laguna Honda is calling in additional resources to address the situation, including staff and expertise on long-term care and infection control from the DPH system. UCSF and Sutter are being deployed to strengthen the response.

Colfax said Monday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sending infectious disease doctors and two epidemiologists. In addition, it has assigned a dedicated staff member at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta.

The two patients who tested positive are in a unit of the hospital with 60-plus patients. The doors of this area have been closed and are guarded by police to stop patients from leaving.

Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com.

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:

Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on coronavirus here.
Amid reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre is planning to declare emergency in mid-April to tackle the coronavirus menace, the Indian Army on Monday (March 30) clarified that this is absolutely fake news.

Army tweeted saying that people are circulating fake and malicious messages on social media about likely declaration of emergency in mid-April and employment of Indian Army, veterans, National Cadet Corps and National Service Scheme help the civil administration in fighting the coronavirus.

"Fake and malicious messages are circulating on social media about likely declaration of emergency in mid April and employment of IndianArmy, Veterans, NCC and NSS to assist the civil administration. It is clarified that this is absolutely FAKE," tweeted Army.

Fake and malicious messages are circulating on social media about likely declaration of emergency in mid April and employment of #IndianArmy, #Veterans, NCC and NSS to assist the civil administration. It is clarified that this is absolutely FAKE. pic.twitter.com/YnbLnBZGY0  ADG PI - INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) March 30, 2020

Earlier on Monday, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba rejected reports that the Centre was planning to extend the 21-day nationwide lockdown imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus COVID-19 in the country. Gauba rejected such claims stressing that their is no such plan.

"Im surprised to see such reports, there is no such plan of extending the lockdown," he said.

On Sunday (March 29), PM Modi had said in his first Mann ki Baat address to the nation after the announcement of lockdown that this was the only option to fight coronavirus pandemic. The prime minister apologised to the people of the country for the imposition of lockdown and said that he was aware of the fact that poor were angry with him, but he had no choice other than calling for the lockdown in order to defeat coronavirus.

I had no choice but to make these decisions to fight the coronavirus... no one wants to take these decisions but if you look at the world, you need to take these decisions, he said.

"Many people must be angry at me for imposing the lockdown, I understand your problems. The fight with corona is a fight between life and death and we have to win it," added the prime minister.

PM Modi also urged the people of the country to show courage and resolve and follow "Lakshman Rekha" for several days more. The prime minister noted that the fight against the deadly virus is tough and it required tough actions to keep millions of Indians safe.

Total number of coronavirus cases in India jumped to 1071 on Monday, including 942 active cases, 99 cured/discharged cases and 29 deaths and 1 migrant patient as per Ministry of Health and Family Welfare data.
274 Israeli citizens have been evacuated from Nigeria following the outbreak of coronavirus in the country.

Mr Yotam Kreiman, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Israeli Embassy in Abuja oversaw the evacuation process which is part of the Israeli governments effort to protect its citizens from contacting coronavirus (COVID-19).

Speaking to newsmen at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, Kreiman stated that the evacuation became necessary due to the global increase in cases of the COVID-19 pandemic.

READ ALSO  Israel Adesanya Maintains Unbeaten Record, Defeats Yoel Romero

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The Israeli nationals were evacuated on a direct flight to Israel by a private Nigerian airline, making it the first time there will be a direct flight to the country from Nigeria. Passengers onboard the aircraft include embassy staff and others working for private companies in Abuja.
Bajaj Finance was top in the Sensex pack, tanking nearly 12 per cent, followed by HDFC twins, Tata Steel, ICICI bank, Kotak Bank and Maruti

Mumbai:

Equity benchmark Sensex plummeted over 1,375 points on Monday, tracking heavy losses in banking and auto stocks, amid an unsettling spike in Covid-19 cases.

After plunging over 1,500 points during the day, the 30-share BSE barometer ended 1,375.27 points or 4.61 per cent lower at 28,440.32.

Similarly, the NSE Nifty fell 379.15 points, or 4.38 per cent, to close at 8,281.10.

Bajaj Finance was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, tanking nearly 12 per cent, followed by HDFC twins, Tata Steel, ICICI bank, Kotak Bank and Maruti.

On the other hand, Nestle India, Tech Mahindra, HUL and Axis Bank were the top gainers.

"Indian markets started the week on a negative note tracking volatile global cues in Asian markets as coronavirus-fuelled volatility gripped global equities and other financial markets, with oil prices seen plunging," said Narendra Solanki, Head- Equity Research (Fundamental), Anand Rathi.

The selloff intensified in the second half of the session after multiple ratings agencies cut India's growth outlook, despite the RBI's massive actions to spur the economy, he added.

Fitch Solutions slashed its estimate for India's GDP growth in the fiscal starting April 1 to 4.6 per cent due to weaker private consumption and contraction in investment amid the coronavirus outbreak, costing economies around the globe.

India Ratings and Research too revised its FY21 GDP growth forecast down to 3.6 per cent from 5.5 per cent.

On the global front, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday said the world has entered a recession as bad or worse than in 2009.

Bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul ended in the red. Benchmarks in Europe were also trading on a negative note.

International oil benchmark Brent crude fell 4.47 per cent to USD 26.70 per barrel in futures trade.

On the currency front, the rupee depreciated 65 paise to 75.54 against the US dollar in intra-day trade.

The number of Covid-19 cases climbed to 1,071 in India on Monday, while the death toll rose to 29, according to the union health ministry.

Deaths around the world linked to the pandemic crossed 30,000 over the weekend.
The number of coronavirus cases in the country is on a rapid rise. The Ministry of Health on Monday updated the national tally to 1,071. The figure includes 942 active cases, 99 cases of recoveries and 29 deaths.

Maharashtra and Kerala continue to sit at the top of the Covid-19 tally with the highest number of cases in the country.

Heres a statewise breakup of coronavirus active cases, deaths and recoveries across the country.

Maharashtra

With 193 Covid-19 cases, Maharashtra is the worst-hit state by coronavirus infection. The state has registered 8 coronavirus deaths so far while 25 patients have been recovered and released.

Kerala

The southern state has 194 positive cases of coronavirus as per the latest data by the Ministry of Health. The state has witnessed one Covid-19 death. 19 people have successfully recovered.

Karnataka

The state has recorded 80 Covid-19 cases and 3 deaths. 5 people have been cured and discharged.

Uttar Pradesh

75 people have been infected from Covid-19 in the state. While 11 people have recovered from Covid-19 in Uttar Pradesh, no one has died from the infection here.

Telangana

69 positive cases of coronavirus have been reported here so far. One person has made a recovery from the virus while one has died from Covid-19.

Delhi

As many as 53 people have been tested positive of coronavirus in the national capital. Two people have died from the infection while 6 people have made a recovery, as per the health ministrys data.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has urged citizens not to step out of their homes and has assured that no one will go to sleep on an empty stomach. He also assured a smooth supply of all essential commodities across the National Capital Territory and said that the administration is prepared to handle 100 Covid-19 cases in a day.

Gujarat

Prime Minister Narendra Modis home state has registered 58 coronavirus cases and one recovery so far. As many as 5 people have died from the infection in the state.

Rajasthan

The state has 57 positive cases of coronavirus with no reported cases of fatalities. Three patients have recovered from the infection.

Tamil Nadu

The southern state has registered 50 Covid-19 cases and seen four recoveries. Tamil Nadu has seen one patient die from Covid-19.

Haryana and Punjab

The neighbouring states have 33 and 38 Covid-19 cases respectively. While one person has died in Punjab, Haryana has seen no deaths. 17 people have been recovered from coronavirus in Haryana, one in Punjab.

Madhya Pradesh

The state has reported 33 positive cases of coronavirus. Two people have died from Covid-19 here.

Besides this, Jammu and Kashmir has 31 positive cases of coronavirus. Two people have died from the infection while one was cured. Andhra Pradesh has 19 positive Covid-19 patients and one case of recovery. West Bengal has 19 people who tested positive for the infection with one death.

In Chandigarh, 8 people were found infected from Covid-19. Chhattisgarh has recorded 7 cases of coronavirus. In Bihar, 11 people have tested positive for coronavirus, one has died.

Uttarakhand has 7 coronavirus patients, two patients have recovered from the virus. Goa has reported 5 cases of Covid-19 infection. Himachal Pradesh has 3 cases, one patient has died. Odisha also has three Covid-19 positive patients. Andaman has recorded 9 coronavirus cases.

States and Union territories with just one positive Covid-19 case include Manipur, Mizoram and Pondicherry.

On Monday, India entered the sixth day of the 21-day long nationwide coronavirus lockdown announced by PM Modi to break the chain of Covid-19 infection in the country.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: A video has surfaced on social media showing a group of migrant workers being given a chemical bath on the road by the Bareilly municipal corporation personnel. The civic body officials can be seen spraying some disinfectant chemicals on the migrants.

The batch of migrants had de-boarded a bus which ferried them from Delhi over the weekend. The entire batch of migrants was made to squat on the road at the bus station and a mass disinfection exercise was carried out by the personnel under protective kit.

The personnel undertaking the exercise can be heard asking the migrants and their family members to close their mouth and eyes before being sprayed the disinfectant.

As per the sources, the disinfectant allegedly used in the spray was a solution of sodium hypochloride and water. However, facing criticism for the exercise, the district authorities went on the back foot saying that the disinfectant was not a chemical but a plain solution of chlorine in water.

This is beyond disgusting.

Inhuman.

Migrants labourers were made to sit & were sprayed with disinfectant in UP's Bareilly district India.

Would they do this on passengers who came from abroad ??

Aren't we morally Dead pic.twitter.com/BvtIWcF9Vn  Mohammed Habeeb Ur Rehman (@Habeebinamdar) March 30, 2020

However, Bareilly district magistrate Nitish Kumar, when confronted, assured to look into allegations that migrant workers were sprayed with a disinfectant. We have already taken the cognizance of the video doing rounds on social media. All those who were allegedly given the chemical bath are being treated under the supervision of Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Bareilly, said the DM.

He explained that the Bareilly Municiapl Corporation and Fire Brigade department were mandated to sanitize the bus carrying the migrants. But in order to take a proactive approach, they took this step. Action has been initiated against those who were involved in the exercise, said the Bareilly DM.

After the chemical bath, many of the migrants complained of itiching and irritation in the eyes. According to Dr Sunil Verma, a general physician in Lucknow, it was a reaction caused by the solution containing chlorine. However, he claimed that hypochroride solution is used as a disinfectant for surfaces

and not human beings.

As per an estimate, over 25,000 migrant workers from Bareilly have arrived in the district.
Reliance Industries has donated Rs 500 crore to PM's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situation (PM CARES) Fund to help government in the fight against coronavirus. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the emergency relief fund on Saturday last week to invite contributions from the citizens as the country continues to battle COVID-19.

"Reliance Industries (RIL) today announced a donation of Rs 500 crore to PM CARES Fund in response to the call by the Prime Minister to support the nation's fight against the coronavirus onslaught... in addition to the financial contribution to the PM's Fund, the company has also provided contributions of Rs 5 crore each to the governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat to support their fights against the COVID-19," the company said in a statement on Monday.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus in India Live updates: DMRC staff donates 1-day salary to PM CARES Fund

The company has also scaled up its capacities to produce one lakh masks and thousands of protective gear for health workers daily.

Reliance also said it plans to serve 50 lakh free meals across the nation in the next 10 days and scale up rapidly to more meals and newer areas. It has also promised free fuel across the country to notified emergency response vehicles.

Last week, RIL started a 100-bed dedicated hospital in Mumbai as part of its initiatives against coronavirus.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus: Virat Kohli, Anushka Sharma donate to PM-CARES, Maharashtra CM Relief Fund
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have responded to President Donald Trump's comments over the cost of their security in the United States after it was reported they had moved to California.

Last week, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, whose roles as senior members of the royal family will officially come to an end this week, reportedly moved to Los Angeles, where Meghan grew up.

On Sunday, Trump addressed the couples move on Twitter, where he said that the country would not be covering the costs of Prince Harry and Meghans security.

I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen and the United Kingdom, the president said. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the US, however, the US will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!

However, according to the duke and duchess, they never planned to ask the US to pay for their security costs.

In a statement shared with the BBC, a spokesperson for the couple said: The duke and duchess have no plans to ask the US government for security resources. Privately funded security arrangements have been made.

The duke and duchess announced they will continue to require security despite stepping back from the royal family in January, after reaching an agreement with the rest of the royal family.

At the time, the couple said in a statement shared to their website: It is agreed that The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will continue to require effective security to protect them and their son.

This is based on The Dukes public profile by virtue of being born into The Royal Family, his military service, the Duchess own independent profile, and the shared threat and risk level documented specifically over the last few years.

Mr Trumps announcement came after the Canadian government said it would stop covering the cost of the couples security in February, as a result of the duke and duchesss change in status.

According to Canada's Office of the Minister of Public Safety, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RMCP) provided protection to Prince Harry, Meghan and their son Archie intermittently since November 2019.
Press Trust of India

The mass extinction that killed nearly 70 percent of the Earth's land animals 252 million years ago may have played out at different times on land and in the sea, according to the study of fossils from South Africa and Australia.

The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, found new ages for fossilised vertebrates that lived just after the demise of the fauna that dominated the late Permian era 299 to 251 million years ago.

According to the researchers, including those from the University of California (UC) Berkeley in the US, ecosystem changes during this mass extinction event began hundreds of thousands of years earlier on land than in the sea.

The later marine extinction, in which nearly 95 percent of ocean species disappeared, may have occurred over the time span of tens of thousands of years, they said.

Until now scientists believed that a series of volcanic eruptions, occurring in large pulses over a period of a million years were the primary cause of the extinction, the current study said.

But the lag between the land extinction in the Earth's Southern Hemisphere and the marine extinction in the Northern Hemisphere suggests different immediate causes, the researchers said.

"Most people thought that the terrestrial collapse started at the same time as the marine collapse and that it happened at the same time in the Southern Hemisphere and in the Northern Hemisphere," said paleobotanist Cindy Looy, study co-author from UC Berkeley.

"The fact that the big changes were not synchronous in the Northern and Southern hemispheres has a big effect on hypotheses for what caused the extinction," Looy said.

She said the mass extinction in the ocean may have had different mechanisms compared to the one on land.

The scientists believe that global changes such as a warming climate, a rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and an increase in ocean acidification may have occurred around the end of the Permian period, and the beginning of the Triassic and likely contributed to the extinction.

On land, they said, this extinction is best documented in Gondwana, the southern half of the supercontinent known as Pangea that eventually separated into the continents we know today as Antarctica, Africa, South America and Australia.

In the South African Karoo Basin, the researchers said populations of large plant-eating animals shifted from the now-extinct Daptocephalus groups to the Lystrosaurus.

In the ocean, they added that the extinction is best documented in the Northern Hemisphere, in particular by Chinese fossils.

Looy and her team estimated the ages of zircon mineral crystals in a well-preserved volcanic ash deposit from the Karoo Basin.

They said the sediments from several metres above the dated layer were devoid of Glossopteris pollen, suggesting that these seed ferns, which used to dominate late Permian Gondwanan floras, became extinct around that time.

According to the study, at 252.24 million years old, the microscopic silicate crystals in zircon that form inside volcanoes are 300,000 years older than dates noted earlier for the Permian-Triassic (P-T) boundary in China.

This means that the sediment layer assumed to contain the P-T boundary in South Africa was actually at least 300,000 years too old, the scientists explained.

"Our new zircon date shows that the base of the Lystrosaurus zone predates the marine extinction with several hundred thousand years, similar to the pattern in Australia," Looy said.

"This means that both the floral and faunal turnover in Gondwana is out of sync with the Northern Hemisphere marine biotic crisis," she added.
India's leading engineering and construction conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is set to donate Rs 150 crore to the Prime Ministers Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) to fight against the Coronavirus crisis.

According to an official release by the company, they will be participating in fighting against the virus through funds, community welfare plans and other measures.

As per the release, the company has set an outlay of Rs 500 crore per month to support around 160,000 contract workers by paying their wages amid the lockdown. Along with it, L&T is considering transforming its training centres and other establishments into isolation wards. They are also looking to supply critical healthcare equipment to the hospitals. Apart from this, the conglomerate has also offered to use its community Health and Medical Centres 24x7 and ambulances for COVID-19 patients.

Further, the release stated that a business unit of the company-- L&T Smart World & Communication -- has installed smart technologies in over 20 major cities in the country that will help several state governments and the local authorities to fight against the virus.

The PM CARES Fund

On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Prime Ministers Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund), where citizens can contribute to aide the government's efforts in supporting those affected by disasters. This fund will provide relief to the affected from any walk of life dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation. PM Modi also urged Indians to donate generously. The fund is chaired by PM Modi and includes Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Read: 14 medical staff from Delhi's RML hospital including 6 doctors and 4 nurses quarantined

The Coronavirus crisis

As of date, India has reported over 1,000 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19. Out of all the states, Kerala and Maharashtra have reported the most in the country. Meanwhile, over 25 people have died so far due to the deadly virus. Due to the outbreak, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 announced 21-days national lockdown. Further, India has also closed the India-Pakistan border and restricted passenger movement at the border with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Myanmar.

Read: 'No decision on extending 21-day Coronavirus lockdown': Govt sources put rumours to rest

Presently, there are around 723,222 confirmed cases of COVID-19 which has led to the death of around 33,989 people. Meanwhile, around 151,798 people have reportedly recovered. The US is at the top of the charts with respect to Coronavirus cases, with over 1.2 lakh infected.

Read: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan urges PM Modi to reopen Karnataka border for Covid-19 patients

Read: AIIMS to convert Trauma Centre into COVID-19 hospital
President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian continues to hold discussions on preventing, overcoming and treating the novel coronavirus pandemic with international partners and, in this context, President Sarkissian today held a video call with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of India to Armenia Kishan Dan Deval.

The Armenian president and Indian Ambassador touched upon the situation created as a result of the novel coronavirus in their respective countries and the steps that are being taken to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and overcome it. They also exchanged views on the measures being taken to reduce the tremendous damages that the spread of the coronavirus is causing to the countries economies and to restore the economies, etc.

Stating that India has recorded great development and advancement in the areas of biology, particularly molecular biology and the drug industry, including the production of generic drugs, President Sarkissian discussed the opportunities for cooperation in these areas.

The parties reached an agreement to exchange information about the situation and solutions through direct communication on a regular basis.
When the Chinese media and online sites were almost overwhelmed by officially-promoted praise for the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, an internal migrant worker involved in this years rapid construction of Wuhans coronavirus hospitals attracted popular attention.

He published a blog on social media that exposed the plight of the construction workers, which underscored the brutal social reality facing the Chinese working class as a whole.

The worker was involved in the construction of Leishenshan Hospital, one of the two temporary hospitals built by thousands of workers in just two weeks during the initial period of the pandemic. Thousands of workers arrived from all over China to work around the clock on the two sites.

Migrant construction workers in Beijing

The government has used the swift construction of the two hospitals as a propaganda tool to promote nationalism and the regimes totalitarian system, with the official media referring to Chinese speed or the Chinese miracle.

However, behind such speed and the supposed miracle is the real situation of Chinas workers. Exploited by employers and labour hire companies, they work an average of 12 hours a day and frequently suffer wage arrears and deductions. Poor sanitary conditions and safety protection facilities have also caused dissatisfaction. But these unsafe conditions have been deliberately downplayed or ignored by the official media.

The workers blog soon had more than 40,000 reposts and comments, but it was quickly deleted, and related discussions were restricted. The suppressed post stated:

We are workers involved in the construction of Leishenshan Hospital. We participated in the construction of isolation wards; weve seen a lot of patients from the ward and ambulances every day. Now that we have finished our work, the company placed us into a residential prefabricated housing area for migrant workers in order to quarantine us. Four to five people live in a room for quarantine. Is this called quarantine? Is this safe?

Hundreds of people working together would be affected if just one person becomes ill. However, in order to save money, the company did not arrange a hotel for us to isolate, and also arranged dozens of security guards to monitor us.

Later, after the local workers in Wuhan could go home, the company started to arrange single prefabricated rooms for us, tardily. But we cannot go in and out freely; our movement is restricted. Just because we are not local workers, they detained us at this place.

The construction company and the labour dispatching company, they exploited us and deducted our wages. Hundreds of millions of funds were taken away by them. We are now controlled by them. People dont know our situation at all. Please circulate this and expose them.

Local workers in Wuhan can already go home, but we migrant workers have been detained here because other cities also refuse to accept workers who have worked in Leishenshan. But what about our lives? We have parents, wives, children. They need money, they need to live. We cant wait here forever!

We only ask for justice, because at the beginning they promised us 14 days of quarantine and said that then we could leave. If that was postponed for any reason, they would continue to give us living allowances. But now we have nothing. They treat us as refugees and dont give us money.

Hundreds of workers have protested several times. The day before yesterday, a fight broke out. The police took the workers away and locked them up. There are conflicts every day, and the police often come to suppress us.

The salary paid to us by the hospital is deducted by the company, and there is not much money in our hands. Now that they treat us like this, we are very helpless. Violence and protest have become part of daily life. We are too tired to live. Except for the 14-day quarantine subsidy, the government and the company never gave us even a penny after that. Where are all the donations and appropriations to Wuhan?

Please circulate. We hope that the media and journalists will come here to see the real situation of the workers.

Here are some of the comments on the blog, posted on the internet:

1. My mother is a doctor, and the situation is the same for doctors. Doctors sometimes receive subsidies and sometimes nothing. Food is donated but we have to pay for it.

2. We are all abandoned tools after use.

3. Dont let the voice of praise fill my screen; there is still a lot of injustice and exploitation in the world.

4. Its so shameful! They promised so much when they deceived people into work, and after the work, they threw the workers away as garbage! When the government asked people to support the construction, it did not tell people that such a betrayal would occur.

5. They oppress the people who cant make a soundsanitation workers, security guards, construction workersall to be enslaved by the ruling class. The ruling class always speaks of noble dedication, which is just a cover for their exploitation of workers.

What the worker described in his blog is by no means an isolated case. It is a true portrayal of the conditions of millions of working class people who are exploited by capitalism in China.

The worst-affected are the migrant workers and those hired through the labour dispatch system. A large section of Chinese workers are classified as migrant workers. Many of them are from rural areas and are denied equal treatment under the restrictions of the residential registration system. They have been under the pressure of economic and social status inequality for a long time.

Labour dispatch means that a company contracts part of its business to a third party, usually another company. This third party is responsible for dispatching workers to work for the original company. The third-party company is responsible for all the working conditions and salary distribution for the dispatched workers. Under this system, companies labour costs have been reduced, and so have the conditions and basic rights of workers. As a result, those workers are at the bottom level of the economy, where they often feel they cannot make a sound.

In addition, workplace conditions are poor. In order to reduce corporate costs as much as possible, the company and the capitalist government not only pay no attention to workplace safety and workers safety training, they also deduct from wages the cost of necessary labour protection equipment, such as masks, helmets, gloves, etc.

As a result, suicides by disabled workers and protests by sick workers have repeatedly occurred. As the blog reveals, the ruling class will choose profit, without hesitation, over workers health. According to incomplete statistics, in the past six months, more than 290 safety accidents have occurred in China and there were more than 640 accidents in 2019.

While Beijings capitalist government praises the Chinese miracle in the media as part of the nationalist propaganda of the Stalinist ruling party, the working class is paying the price through their sweat, blood and tears. But this is leading to growing struggles. In the past year, there have been more than 1,300 strikes and protests in China.
Tens of listed companies plan to spend trillions of dong to buy treasury stocks in an aim to prevent stock prices from falling.

The Vietnamese stock market has lost $30 billion worth of capitalization value in the last two weeks.





However, some shares have begun swimming against the current in recent trading sessions, including Gemadept, Vietnam Electric Equipment, Sao Ta and PAN Group.



While most shares saw prices sliding last week, the shares of these companies increased. This was because the four companies announced a plan to buy back tens of million of shares from the market.

The total amount of money the enterprises plan to use to buy treasury stocks may be up to trillions of dong. PAN intends to buy up to 10 percent of shares in circulation, about 21.6 million shares.

The total amount of money the enterprises plan to use to buy treasury stocks may be up to trillions of dong. PAN intends to buy up to 10 percent of shares in circulation, about 21.6 million shares.



After several trading sessions which witnessed sharp falls in share prices, a series of enterprises are rushing to buy treasury stocks. At least six companies have made similar moves, from banks (TP Bank) to real estate firms (Dat Phuong Group, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Housing Development) to yarn manufacturers (Soi The Ky).



The Ba Ria-Vung Tau Housing Development has approved a plan to buy 2 million shares in Q2. Cuong Thuan Idico plans to buy 15.7 million shares, VRC Real Estate and Investment 10 million shares, or 20 percent of total shares in circulation.



Explaining their moves, enterprises said market share prices are lower than the real value, so buying treasury stock is a reasonable step to protect the benefits of enterprises and shareholders.



In some cases, the positive effects can be seen even before the purchases are made.



Appropriate agencies have also begun taking actions to support the stock market. Tran Van Dung, chair of the State Securities Commission (SSC), said it now takes one day to follow the procedures to buy treasury stocks instead of seven days.



Phan Dung Khanh from Maybank Kim Eng Securities said spending money to buy treasury stocks is a natural action at this moment.



Major shareholders and related persons are also buying shares.



The son of Hoa Phat Groups chair Tran Dinh Long registered to buy 20 million HPG, a deal worth hundreds of billion dong. Chair of Novaland Bui Thanh Nhon wants to buy 5 million NVL after buying 9.4 million shares. Chair of REE Nguyen Thi Mai Thanh has registered to buy 15 million REE.

Le Ha

VP Bank shifts FE Credit to joint stock company The news that VP Bank has decided to shift its subsidiary FE Credit, specializing in consumer lending, to a joint stock company from a limited company has stirred up the public.
We feel this new subscription option will help our existing and new customers financially...

Neuralog, Inc., the worldwide leader in well log scanning, printing, digitizing, and archiving technologies for the petroleum industry, today announced the availability of Neuralog Pro to its family of well log data analysis and management software. The all-in-one integrated system incorporates all Neuralog software modules in a single license at an industry-low price. With no minimum commitment, Neuralog Pro provides geologists at independent producers and larger enterprises a budget-friendly alternative for comprehensive access to, and interpretation of, well log data.

With the recent dramatic downturn in oil prices, we accelerated the launch of Neuralog Pro, said Ken Land, President and CTO of Neuralog. In our nearly 30 years in the petroleum industry, weve been through many ups and downs alongside our customers. We feel this new subscription option will help our existing and new customers financially with a smaller upfront investment and improve their productivity with flexible access to our entire well log software portfolio.

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Currently available to customers in the US and Canada, Neuralog Pro is includes access to the entire family of Neuralog software modules in one all-inclusive price. Neuralog modules include:



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Neuralog is hosting a release webinar featuring the latest version of the companys automated well log digitizing system NeuraLog 2020. The interactive webinar will be held on Tuesday, March 31 and will provide additional details on Neuralog Pro and include a Q&A portion for participants. More information on the webinar can be found on the Neuralog Blog.

For more information about the benefits of Neuralog Pro, visit https://www.neuralog.com/pages/Neuralog-Pro, sign up for an informational demo at Neuralog.com, or contact Neuralog at 281.240.2525 or sales@neuralog.com.

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An Post has not clarified the future of jobs at its mail centre in Portlaoise, according Laois Offaly TD Brian Stanley.

The Sinn Fein TD issued a statement after An Post said things were never busier at the Portlaoise Mail Centre where 200 staff work. However, it did confirm that international parcels were no longer being processed there and customs services would also be relocated to a new centre in Dublin.

Dep Stanley was concerned about the implication of the loss of the parcels service.

The facts are parcels are gone to Dublin. This is a huge loss to Laois as parcels are the one area that is not decreasing. Ordinary mail volumes are dropping rapidly not just in this country but across Europe due to the switch to email.

"Regarding packaging, An Post have not confirmed their intentions with their Dublin operations for later this year regarding diverting small packaging. This is still a major and important part of the business in Portlaoise as packaging levels continue to be high.

"Of course, ordinary mail levels are going to be high due to the current health emergency and the diversion of mail from Cork. This does not address the medium to long term issue of the absence of replacement business for the sharp drop that will continue in ordinary mail volumes and any removal of packaging services to Dublin, he said.

An Post opened a 15 million 50,000 sq metre plant in Dublin last December. The hub can process 13,000 parcels every hour and transforms the parcels operation from a manual set-up to a 90% automated process.

The Irish Times reported at the time that Garrett Bridgeman, Managing Director, An Post Mails & Parcels, said An Post would modify its staffing levels as it moves its focus from letters to parcels but there would not be any mass redundancies as a result.

An Post closed its Cork mail centre last year.
Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

WASHINGTON  U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher said on Monday that a coronavirus test she took last week came back negative.

Fletcher had been in self-quarantine awaiting coronavirus test results since Thursday after flu-like symptoms, including a 101-degree fever. She said in a statement she tested positive for a different respiratory illness, but she is now on the mend.
Enforcement Directorate is looking at the role played by these officials in the opening up of some routes to private airlines

New Delhi: At least four former senior officials of the Union Civil Aviation Ministry are under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in its money-laundering probe into losses suffered by Air India due to a multi-crore aviation scam during the UPA regime.

According to sources, the agency wants to know what role these four former officials played in allowing some private airlines to operate on specific routes.

These sources, however, refused to divulge the identity of the four former public servants.

The ED has already examined senior Congress leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram in connection with the case. His statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The case pertains to the purchase of 48 aircraft from Airbus and 68 from Boeing for around Rs. 70,000 crore in 2007.

In December 2005, the Manmohan Singh cabinet approved the deal for Air India to purchase 68 aircraft from Boeing. A year later, Indian Airlines signed up to buy 43 more planes from Airbus.

The two national carriers were later merged in 2007 to operate under the brand Air India. This merger is being probed by the ED and CBI.

It is suspected that the contract to buy 43 aircraft from Airbus was finalised by a panel of ministers headed by P Chidambaram in 2009. Former aviation minister Praful Patel was earlier grilled by the ED on three occasions in connection with this deal.

"The aircraft purchase order was reportedly cleared by an EGoM (empowered group of ministers) headed by P Chidambaram and the merger was cleared by an EGoM (group of ministers) headed by another senior cabinet member of the Manmohan Singh government. Both decisions were ratified by the cabinet," sources said.
VADUZ, Liechtenstein, and Seoul, South Korea - Liechtenstein Blockchain Innovator LCX declare another association with ICON Foundation. ICON Foundation and LCX have signed a memorandum of understanding and concurred on a long term partnership. The rise of tokenization is changing the monetary business. New advanced protections, otherwise called security tokens, in light of blockchain innovation, may open trillions of dollars in as of now illiquid resources, and result in an 
Spain's total number of coronavirus cases rose to 85,195 on Monday from 78,797 on Sunday.

The toll due to the infectious virus in Spain rose to 7,340 on Monday from 6,528 on Sunday.

Spain's total number of confirmed cases has now surpassed China's 81,470 confirmed cases, according to the latest data.

The number of new patients requiring ICU treatment at 324 in the past 24 hours, was also slightly lower.

However, Spanish Health Ministry officials have been warning that ICUs are near capacity, with the total number of patients requiring ICU treatment now at 5,231, according to CNN

2,071 people have recovered in the past 24 hours to make a total of 16,780, according to the figures of the Health Ministry.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Repeated discoveries of an obscure, offshore natural gas known as flammable ice will bolster Chinese claims to a sea thats contested by five other Asian governments.

China extracted 861,400 cubic meters of flammable ice, a natural gas hydrate, for a daily average of 28,700 cubic meters during a mission that started in February, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday.

The findings give China new cause to use the sea, despite protests from other countries, while ensuring energy supply for its 1.4 billion population, analysts say. China would gain an even more solid footing in the sea if it began licensing flammable gas extraction technology to other countries or partnering with them to extract it, the scholars add.

A new discovery simply strengthens their argument about why China should remain in the sea to pursue oil and gas, said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapores public policy school.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam claim all or parts of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea. China calls roughly 90% of the waterway its own, overlapping zones claimed by the other governments and causing occasional clashes.

China took a lead over the past decade by landfilling tiny islets for military use. Chinese technology, such as drones and underwater surveillance systems, is considered more advanced than the knowhow of Southeast Asian claimants.

International law would not recognize an energy discovery as cause for claiming sovereignty, Araral said.

Although the other claimant governments are busy at home managing Covid-19 disease caseloads, they are expected to take note eventually if China expands exploration. The discovery site, called Shenhu, is located in undisputed Chinese waters 320 kilometers from the mainland shore.

So far, I havent (seen) any official diplomatic protests from the Vietnamese side, but I think that they are closely watching the development, said Nguyen Thanh Trung, Center for International Studies director at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City.

Flammable ice lies under other tracts of the seas, meaning other countries will take interest, said Stuart Orr, professor of management at Deakin University in Australia.

Flammable ice

Chinas minister of land and resources said the country mined flammable ice at sea for the first time in 2017 after about two decades of research, according to Xinhua. Because it can be ignited like ethanol, the gas is called flammable.

One cubic meter of ice equals 164 cubic meters of regular natural gas, Xinhua said. The energy source that also occurs in Arctic tundra zones is considered clean and easy to transport yet hard to commercialize.

The 2017 effort at Shenhu, which is about 1,225 meters deep, produced less gas than the recent one, Xinhua said.

Sino-foreign joint exploration

The flammable ice haul this month will let China showcase technological prowess and seek exploration partnerships with other countries, said Collin Koh, maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Other claimants to the sea lack their own flammable ice technology, Koh said. The four Southeast Asian claimants actively explore, however, for oil and conventional natural gas.

There should be some substantial interest from many other countries in accessing the technology that China has developed, which would give China the option of either licensing or choosing to share these capabilities with countries of interest, and that could provide it with significant political leverage in a world thats worried about sources of low-cost energy, Orr said.

The Chinese leadership sees this discovery as a chance to remove foreign multinational energy drillers from the disputed sea, Koh said. Deals between Southeast Asian states and firms from Europe, India and the United States let foreign players into a waterway that Beijing sees as Chinese.

China is long aware that Southeast Asian countries will be turning to the foreign multinational energy corporations for this sort of venture, and all the while China wanted to be seen as a viable partner, Koh said.
Evening Standard

Britons who are asymptomatic who return a positive lateral flow test will no longer need to get a confirmatory PCR test, the government has confirmed. It comes after the self-isolation period for fully vaccinated people who have Covid was cut to a week last month in a bid to reduce staff shortages. The UK Health Security Agency said the new testing regimen was temporary and the chances of a false positive result were very low because Covid is so prevalent.
A hardline conservative power broker and three area pastors filed a petition with the Texas Supreme Court Monday arguing that Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgos stay-at-home order violates the Constitution by ordering the closure of churches and failing to define gun shops as essential businesses.

The emergency petition for a writ of mandamus, filed by anti-LGBTQ Republican activist Steven Hotze and pastors Juan Bustamante, George Garcia and David Valdez, contends Hidalgos order undercuts the First Amendment by limiting religious and worship services to video or teleconference calls. Pastors also may minister to congregants individually.

Hotze and the pastors argue the order also severely infringes on Second Amendment rights by closing gun stores. The order does not define gun shops as essential businesses, though Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion Friday that stay-at-home orders cannot force gun stores to close or otherwise restrict sales or transfers.

Hidalgos order, issued March 24, requires most businesses to close and directs residents to stay home unless they are getting groceries, running crucial errands, exercising or going to work at a business deemed essential. The directive is aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus, and it came a day after chief executives at the Texas Medical Center unanimously called for the county to implement a shelter-in-place order.

Other counties, cities and states have implemented similar orders in a bid to flatten the curve, or prevent the virus and COVID-19, the disease it causes, from spreading so fast that it overwhelms hospital systems. Some Texas conservatives oppose the orders, with some arguing that the cost of effectively shutting down large swaths of the economy is too high. Many other large Texas counties have ordered churches to close and shift to online services under their respective orders.

Experts at the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and around the country have stressed that in the absence of a vaccine, the best way to fight the coronavirus is to keep people apart.

Throughout the petition, Hotze and the pastors argue that the circumstances presented by coronavirus do not excuse unlawful government infringements and the free exercise of religion...should not be sacrificed at the altar of political expediency. They also contend that Hidalgos order picks winners and losers.

People of faith are prohibited from worshipping in person, most private businesses are prevented from operating, gun shops are ordered closed, and people are not allowed to associate together in groups  these are some of the individual freedoms Judge Hidalgo has chosen to sacrifice, the petition reads.

It goes on to list several exempted businesses, including liquor stores, yard maintenance crews, furniture suppliers and bicycle repair shops.

Because her hand-picked losers have been shuttered, her self-identified winners are allowed to thrive while other private businesses are closed indefinitely, the petition continues.

The court has given the county until Tuesday to respond to the emergency petition, according to Jared Woodfill, the attorney representing Hotze and the pastors.

Hidalgo spokesman Rafael Lemaitre declined to address the specifics of the litigation, but said: Public health and science must drive our response, and the science is clear: If we fail to take adequate steps to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, people will die. We continue to urge folks to take this seriously.

First Assistant County Attorney Robert Soard said county officials view the order as necessary to deal with the extraordinary crisis that Harris County, Texas and the country are facing as a result of the coronavirus.

Soard said the order does not intend to close gun stores and weve not advised any gun stores to close, as far as Im aware. He also said Paxtons opinion makes clear that gun shops in Texas will remain open.

As for the First Amendment challenge, Soard said there is nothing in the order that prevents churches from broadcasting services. He said Hidalgo crafted the order as precisely or narrowly as she could to allow people to worship as they choose.

The county attorneys office was drafting its response Monday, he said.

University of Houston constitutional law professor Peter Linzer said the order is on firm legal standing because services may continue remotely over video, phone or one-on-one ministering.

That is a distinction that any rational person should be able to recognize, Linzer said. There is a constitutional right to go to church, but that doesnt mean its absolute. Its not just a building, its not just its membership, its not just Sunday service. Its pastoring and all the other things that go into the ministry  and all those things are still allowed.

In Harris County, many churches preemptively ended in-person services before the county's order went into effect. Among those who acted ahead of the county was Second Baptist Church of Houston, where Hotze and Woodfill are members.

In Washington State, which has seen a significant number of cases, nearly every member of a 60-person church choir has tested positive or exhibited coronavirus symptoms after meeting for practice, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Meanwhile, the pastor of a megachurch in Tampa Bay, Florida was charged this week with defying the county's stay-home order by having two packed church services.

In a video posted to YouTube late last month, Hotze advised that people take multivitamins and not worry about the virus, which he said is "all media hype" and "fake news."

Hotze then compared the virus to the flu or dysentery, and accused Democrats of having "weaponized the coronavirus" to hurt President Donald Trump.

Marc Boom, CEO of Houston Methodist, called the lawsuit disheartening and reckless, and said it is potentially endangering lives.

"Were still on the wrong side of this curve. The numbers are still going up, Boom said. They need to be going down before we loosen up the stay-at-home restrictions. Our political and business leaders are working together to loosen things up in a responsible way."

Lisa Gray contributed to this report.

jasper.scherer@chron.com

robert.downen@chron.com
Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

The state of Connecticut is automatically extending sales tax deadlines to the end of May for the states smallest businesses and inn operators, including those with returns and payments that were due Tuesday.

Accounting organizations have been pressing federal and state tax authorities to push back tax deadlines, arguing that stay at home orders nationally in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are making it difficult for tax preparers to assist clients as traditional deadlines approach.
Patients undergoing heart bypass surgery lived longer and had better outcomes when surgeons used a segment of an artery from their arm, called the radial artery, instead of a vein from their leg, called the saphenous vein, to create a second bypass, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session Together with World Congress of Cardiology (ACC.20/WCC).

After 10 years of follow-up, data showed that using the radial artery rather than the saphenous vein was associated with a statistically significant decrease in the combined rate of deaths, heart attacks and repeat revascularization procedures, said Mario Gaudino, MD, professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York and principal investigator for the study. There was also a significantly lower incidence of the combined endpoint of deaths and heart attacks.

The choice of an artery or a vein to create the second bypass is one of the most important unresolved questions in contemporary bypass surgery. This study offers the first evidence from randomized trials to show that patients live longer and have better outcomes when surgeons use the radial artery instead of the saphenous vein to create the second bypass." Mario Gaudino, MD, professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York and principal investigator for the study

Bypass surgery, also known as coronary artery bypass graft surgery or CABG, is the most frequently performed heart operation in adults, accounting for about 60% of all heart surgeries performed annually in adults in the U.S. A section of an artery in the chest is used to create a "detour" for blood to flow around a blocked coronary artery (one that carries blood to the heart).

When multiple bypasses are needed, most heart surgeons use the saphenous vein from the leg to create most of them, Gaudino said. Yet consensus guidelines in both the U.S. and Europe recommend using arteries instead of the saphenous vein. Findings from observational studies have suggested that patients do better and that bypasses created using the radial artery last longer than those that use the saphenous vein. Most heart surgeons, however, have resisted switching to the radial or other arteries because doing so would add some time and complexity to the heart bypass operation, Gaudino said. Until now, no clinical trials have definitively shown that patient outcomes are better when the radial artery is used, he added.

For the RADIAL study, Gaudino and his team combined the results from five trials in which patients receiving bypass surgery were randomly assigned to get a second bypass from either the radial artery or the saphenous vein. The trials enrolled a total of 1,036 patients whose average age at the time of their surgery was 67 years, and 70% were men. The trials were performed in five countries: Australia, Korea, Italy, Serbia and the United Kingdom. The primary endpoint was the combined rate of death, heart attack or need for a second procedure to treat the same artery. The co-primary endpoint was the combined rate of death or a heart attack.

In results reported in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2018, Gaudino and his team found that after an average of five years of follow-up, patients who received radial artery vs. saphenous vein bypasses had significantly fewer heart attacks and repeat procedures to open a blocked artery, but the death rate was similar in the two groups.

The current study includes an additional five years of follow-up from patients enrolled in the original trials. After a median of 10 years, patients who received radial artery vs. saphenous vein bypasses had about a 23% reduced risk of experiencing the primary or secondary endpoint event. Use of the radial artery was associated with about a 27% reduction in deaths, a 26% reduction in heart attacks and a 38% reduction in repeat procedures. Women appear to benefit the most from the use of the radial artery.

The study is limited in that the results are from a pooled analysis of several small trials rather than one large trial, and the number of patients was relatively small, Gaudino said.

"Our overall sample size of just over 1,000 patients is fairly small, especially considering that bypass surgery is such a widely performed operation," he said. "These results are important, but they do not give us a final answer. We need a large randomized trial to confirm these findings."

Gaudino said he hopes that this confirmation will come from the ongoing ROMA trial, of which he is the lead investigator. This international trial aims to enroll 4,300 patients undergoing bypass surgery in centers all around the world. It will test whether outcomes are better for patients who receive two or more arterial bypasses compared with patients who receive just one. Initial results are expected in about five years.
All teachers and school staff, including those with children of their own, must continue going to work this week despite classes being taught online and student numbers at some schools dropping to below two per cent.

Jane*, a Catholic Primary School teacher, said her school normally had 250 students but with learning being delivered online this week, that number had dropped to just four kids.

WA students are learning online as schools close early ahead of April holidays. Credit:James Alcock

The four pupils are children of essential frontline healthcare workers and will be supervised by a teacher in one room while they take online classes.

Regardless of this small number attending, all staff  teachers, education assistants, administration, grounds are expected to be at school during school hours, Jane said.
By Katanga Johnson

WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Monday that it should not ban short-selling of shares, amid speculation on further measures the agency might take to arrest a market rout that stems from fears the coronavirus will spark a global recession.

The statement, by SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, comes after other countries, including Spain, Italy and South Korea, have moved to curtail short-sellers, who borrow shares and then sell them, betting their price will fall before the short-sellers buy back the shares and return them, pocketing the difference.

"You need to be able to be on the short side of the market in order to facilitate ordinary market trading," Clayton said in an interview on CNBC on Monday, adding that he understands the concerns by some investors but does not favor a ban.

In 1938, the SEC adopted a so-called uptick rule to prevent short-sellers from putting more pressure on a security that was quickly declining but pulled it back in 2007 as electronic trading began to take over Wall Street.

Later, in 2010, the SEC adopted an alternative uptick rule that imposed restrictions on short-selling only when a stock has triggered a circuit breaker by declining in price by at least 10 percent in one day. Under the alternative rule, once the price of the security is above the current national best bid, the practice, which critics say can exacerbate market moves amid panic selling, is permitted.

On Monday, Clayton added that the agency is monitoring concerns of trading whipsaw during extreme volatility.

"We need market integrity, but we believe we're taking care of it with the alternative uptick rule," added Clayton.

Some analysts say short-selling bans undermine free markets, as well as limit accurate asset pricing and dampen trading volumes, which in turn raises transaction costs for all investors. Even more, others point out that bourses already have safeguards like circuit breakers to slow markets during bouts of extreme volatility.

The effectiveness of short-selling bans has also been questioned by some academics and institutions, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

"The current U.S. short-selling framework has held up amid heavy volumes and is serving its purpose. Adding restrictions will only make the current problem worse," said Michael Pedroni, an international policy expert at the Washington-based hedge fund lobbying group Managed Funds Association. (Additional reporting by Lawrence Delevingne in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

BP has promised its employees their jobs are safe over the next three months, while the oil major considers ways to cut costs with crude prices plunging.

Chief Executive Officer Bernard Looney said the company would take calm, deliberate action to manage its capital costs in response to oils historic crash. The measures will not include include making any BP staff redundant over the next three months, he said in a LinkedIn post.
'I wouldn't expect this level of migration to go on beyond Tuesday.'

'We expect the movements to come down to a trickle or even to stop at all these places.'

IMAGE: Migrant workers wait to board a bus to their native villages at Kaushambi in Ghaziabad, on Saturday. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo

The National Disaster Response Force has stepped in to manage the massive migration triggered by the nationwide lockdown.

Satya Pradhan, director general of the NDRF, tells Subhomoy Bhattacharjee how his team is dealing with the situation.

Edited excerpts:

What is your brief on the migration crisis?

It is to reduce the sense of fear among the people. We are there to make them feel that they shall get help.

The buses are there to ferry them. So we are also there to guide them in queues, try to ensure they maintain some physical distance among themselves.

Our big role, however, is to reduce the fear among the migrants.

Nationally, which areas are the hot spots?

There are three sets of critical places we have identified nationally. These are in Bihar, in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and on the Delhi-UP border.

We have put Anand Vihar under our Delhi battalion; Lal Kuan in Ghaziabad has been taken over by the Ghaziabad battalion; Benares battalion is monitoring Lucknow and the highways.

The Bihar battalion is at Gopalganj and Kaimur borders of Bihar with UP. They are also at the Tilaiya and Jamui border of Bihar with Jharkhand.

These are the places through which the steam of migration has been massive.

We started the crowd management operations since Saturday. Our teams were in position at these most crowded sites by early afternoon.

How long do you expect the rush to continue?

We have done quite a bit of analysis. I wouldn't expect this level of migration to go on beyond Tuesday.

We expect the movements to come down to a trickle or even to stop at all these places.

My force will be present at all these stations till it happens, which should be over in the next two-three days.

Were you prepared for this rush? It has been one of a kind!

We had been ramping our operations for quite some time. We had begun to orient the airport staff, mostly at international airports from 31 January onwards.

For instance when the first flight of students from Wuhan came over, we were there to assist the Bureau of Immigration.

We sent a team including doctors and paramedics who explained the procedure to the staff there about how to deal with the incoming passengers, the protocol to segregate the luggage carriers and so on.

This was institutionalised for all flights coming from abroad, subsequently.

We then used February to cover the sea ports too. So when this rush came we were prepared. I must add that this has been the biggest mobilisation of the NDRF, ever.
By Trend

As part of the global response to the coronavirus outbreak, the European Commission stands by Eastern partner countries and has reallocated 140 million for the most immediate needs in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Armenia, Trend reports citing the European Commission.

In addition, the Commission will also redirect the use of existing instruments worth up to 700 million euros to help mitigate the socio-economic impact of the coronavirus crisis.

Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi said: These are very difficult times not only for the EU, but for our partner countries as well. We are doing all we can to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on human lives and livelihoods. We are responding both to the immediate needs of the health systems, as well as longer term needs to the most vulnerable groups in society and small and medium-sized enterprises, which are the backbone of the economies in the six countries.

At the request of the partner countries, the Commission will respond to immediate needs by supporting the supply of medical devices and personal equipment, such as ventilators, laboratory kits, masks, goggles, gowns, and safety suits. The European Commission is working with the World Health Organisation (WHO), and is deploying 30 million to ensure these necessary supplies are jointly purchased and effectively distributed to the health systems of the six countries in the coming weeks. In addition, the funds will support national health administrations to train medical and laboratory staff and carry out awareness raising measures to the wider population.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 17: Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to be the next Secretary of Education, testifies during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill January 17, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., left, poses with Asher Kockler and his sign for a family member during a rally in Portland, Ore., Friday, Jan. 27, 2017. Several hundred supporters gathered with Oregon congressional leaders in protest against Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)

President Trumps nominee for education secretary will likely get a thumbs-up on Tuesday from a Senate committee, advancing her nomination to the Senate floor. But Michigan billionaire and philanthropist Betsy DeVos faces fierce opposition from education and civil rights groups, many of whom have stood up to oppose her in just the past few days.

DeVos, a well-known advocate of school choice, faces a vote on Tuesday in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. If it takes place as scheduled, lawmakers on both sides expect her nomination to be approved by a party-line vote. Republicans narrowly control the committee, as well as the Senate.

But groups that advocate for students with disabilities, among others, oppose her confirmation, saying in a few cases that they doubt DeVos even understands the details of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the 1975 law that guarantees a free appropriate public education to disabled students.

Under intense questioning from Democrats during her Jan. 17 confirmation hearing, DeVos suggested that states should be able to decide whether schools must follow the law. She later said she may have been confused about IDEAs requirements.

The hearing prompted Robert Pianta, dean of the University of Virginias Curry School of Education, to write that he was was deeply dismayed by her performance in the hearing. It was, in a word, disqualifying, he wrote in The Washington Post last week.

DeVos last week sought to clarify her position. In a letter to Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), she said she is committed to enforcing all federal laws and protecting the hard won rights of students with disabilities.

But disability-rights advocates had already raised an alarm. In a letter sent to lawmakers the same day, Denise Marshall, executive director of The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc., a special education advocacy group, said DeVos manifested an appalling lack of knowledge of educational concepts, the difference between the federal and state statutes that govern education, and basic facts about public education. Specifically, her lack of knowledge of the IDEA is disturbing and offensive to us.

Story continues

Marshall said DeVos stance, whether due to confusion or ideological belief, is unacceptable and clearly indicates that Ms. DeVos is unqualified to serve as Secretary of Education.

Marshall also challenged DeVos proposal to give vouchers to disabled students, saying DeVos has advocated for vouchers writ large as if they solve every familys dilemma, without committing to protect students against discrimination in private schools or privately managed public charter schools.

Marcie Lipsitt, a Michigan activist who has filed hundreds of federal complaints against schools, school districts, state education departments and other public agencies to make their websites accessible to people with vision and hearing disabilities, said DeVos proposal to offer vouchers wont help most low-income families in places like Detroit and Flint, Mich. As an advocate, I don't share one inch of common ground with Betsy DeVos, she said.

On Monday, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights urged lawmakers to reject DeVos. Shes just not qualified to do that job, said Liz King, the groups director of education policy, who called DeVos appointment abnormal from a bipartisan perspective.

The group joined others opposing the nomination, including about 2,700 students and alumni of DeVos alma mater, Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., and more than 345,000 people who have signed a Change.org petition.

Casey Rogers, the Lakewood, Colo., mother of two who started the petition, said that after watching DeVos Jan. 17 hearing, I knew that if she were to be confirmed, the educational system under her leadership would most likely not be held accountable for educating my child with special needs appropriately. The results of such a change would likely be profoundly negative for my daughter, as well as for other children with special needs. I just couldn't sit back and simply watch this happen.

While DeVos confirmation is expected, her position on IDEA rankles enough Republicans that they might abstain or vote against her nomination, said Daniel Losen, director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLAs Civil Rights Project. Combined with other factors, including DeVos holdings in education-related companies, There may be Republicans who arent expressing concerns who have some, he said.

So far, few if any Republicans have come out against her. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush earlier this month wrote in USA TODAY that DeVos "will cut federal red tape and be a passionate advocate for state and local control of schools."

Bush, a former GOP presidential contender added, "In the two decades that I have been actively involved in education reform, I have worked side-by-side with Betsy to promote school choice and put the interests of students first. I know her commitment to children, especially at-risk kids, is genuine and deep."

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), a former U.S. education secretary who chairs the HELP Committee, has steadfastly supported DeVos, writing in a Washington Post op-ed last week that Democrats desperately are searching for a valid reason to oppose Betsy DeVos for U.S. education secretary because they dont want Americans to know the real reason for their opposition.

DeVos, he wrote, has spent more than three decades helping children from low-income families choose a better school, a policy that Democrats resent, even as wealthy families choose their childrens schools every day.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the committee's ranking member, on Monday asked that Tuesday's vote be postponed, saying she still had questions about DeVos' "tangled finances, potential conflicts of interest, and plans to privatize and defund public education."

Follow Greg Toppo on Twitter: @gtoppo

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump education nominee opposed by special ed advocates
President Donald Trump and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listen to White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx speak in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington on March 29, 2020. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Health Officials Urged Trump to Extend Social Distancing Guidelines

Some of Americas top public health officials urged President Donald Trump to extend social distancing guidelines that are aimed at slowing the spread of the CCP virus. On Sunday, Trump extended the guidelines, originally issued on March 16 for two weeks, to April 30.

We felt that if we prematurely pulled back, we would only form an acceleration or rebound of something, which would put you behind where you were before, and thats a reason why we argued strongly with the president that he not withdraw those guidelines, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said during an appearance on Monday on CNNs New Day.

And he did listen, Fauci added.

Fauci said he and Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator for the task force, showed Trump models showing the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, was not slowing down.

He looked at them, he understood them, and he shook his head and said, I guess we got to do it,' Fauci said.

Trump told reporters on Sunday that modeling put together by Birx, Fauci, and other top health experts demonstrate that the mitigation measures we are putting in place may significantly reduce the number of new infections and, ultimately, the number of fatalities.

A paramedic walks next to a makeshift morgue set outside Lenox Health Medical Pavilion as the CCP virus outbreak continues in New York, on March 29, 2020. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

Melissa Sweeney, LPN, helps Renee Grimm don her personal protective equipment before dealing with a patient at Madigan Army Medical Centers enhanced CCP virus screening site Winder Clinic on Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Washington, on March 24, 2020. (John Wayne Liston/U.S. Army/Handout via Reuters)

More than 90 percent of Americans say theyre staying home as much as possible, putting their lives, their careers, their educations, and their dreams on hold out of devotion to their fellow citizens and to their country. Social distancing: Thats the way you win, he added, praising Americans for shared sacrifices.

According to figures from experts, Trump said, the peak, or the highest death rates, will hit in two weeks.

Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won, he said. Therefore, the next two weeks, and during this period, its very important that everyone strongly follow the guidelines.

Trump said last week he wanted to open the country back up by Easter.

The guidelines (pdf) include directives on what to do if someone feels ill or someone in their household tests positive and were sent to Americans nationwide in the mail in addition to being posted online and repeatedly stressed by public officials.

Older people and those with underlying health conditions were asked to stay home and away from other people while everyone was asked to avoid gathering in groups of more than 10 people and work from home whenever possible.

Preventative measures including washing hands, avoiding touching ones face, sneezing or coughing into a tissue or the inside of ones elbow, and disinfecting frequently used items and surfaces as much as possible were also included.
Cork County Council has backtracked somewhat on a decision to close all its Civic Amenity Sites (CAS) to the public after a number of councillors said this would have a huge impact on people who would otherwise be unable to dispose of food and other perishable waste.

The local authority decided to close the sites after studying new public health measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19, which were issued last Friday.

While CAS were not specifically listed as an essential service nationally they would generally require customers to travel more than the restricted 2kms.

Council chief executive Tim Lucey said that during the there had been an 80% increase in the volume of waste being presented to CAS compared with the period before the first control measures were introduced on March 12.

He said people were using the opportunity of school and other workplace closures to clear waste that they had been holding for long periods.

This additional activity caused difficulty in maintaining physical separation to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The council closed all the sites yesterday, but following consultation with officials in its Environment Directorate has decided to reopen them, but only for specific waste and not recyclable materials.

The move was welcomed by Cllrs Marcia D'Alton and Seamus McGrath who said many people were not living on private waste collections routes and had no other way of disposing of the food waste etc than using a CAS.

It is now proposed to reopen them for acceptance of essential waste only under the following conditions which are necessary to provide critical waste management services, while discouraging the making of unnecessary journeys and providing for the safety of staff and the public in compliance with the Health Protection Guidelines:

The service will be provided only for acceptance of essential waste, to discourage unnecessary journeys in compliance with the National Public Health Protection Guidelines. The Civic Amenity Sites will accept normal domestic waste only. This includes black bag waste for disposal, limited to three bags maximum per customer along with domestic bottles and cans for recycling. Black bag waste for disposal should have the bag tied securely and then placed into a second bag and tied before arrival at the CA Site. No commercial vehicles or trailers will be allowed access. Only one person per vehicle can enter the site. All customers must place the waste into the receptacles themselves. Site operatives will not be able to assist. Payment for black bag waste will be on a price of 4.00 per bag. Weighing will not be possible as it increases the handling required. Physical distancing of a minimum 2m must be observed by all customers. As the sites will not be accepting garden waste, timber and metal waste, bulky items, WEEE, oils or paints etc, the normal 3 entry charge will be waived for the period of the current health protection measures being in place. Customers are requested to bring the exact payment for the waste that they are bringing to site.

Civic Amenity Sites will return to their normal operating days and times from tomorrowow, Tuesday, March 31.
Lucknow, March 30 : BJP legislators are now involving themselves in providing relief to the common people during the ongoing Covid-19 crisis and the ensuing nationwide lockdown.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and BJP General Secretary Sunil Bansal have asked all party legislators and workers to extend all possible help to the people during the lockdown.

UP minister Brijesh Pathak has turned his residential phone number into a helpline and has asked people to contact him if they require any help for food. He claims that his control room works round the clock for people who are in need.

Banda BJP MLA Prakash Dwiwedi said that he has provided food to at least 5,000 workers, labourers and homeless people.

He has also set up a control room to facilitate relief work, which includes home delivery of food packets.

Dwiwedi claimed in a press release that he is also providing food to monkeys.

"I have sent two quintals of gram and two quintals of wheat to a local saint along with Rs 50,000. I am doing my bit in this crisis," he said.

BJP General Secretary Bansal on Monday asked all party workers to provide food to at least five to 10 families every day at the booth level and send a report to the party headquarters.

Every party worker has also been asked to contribute a minimum of Rs 100 each into the PM-CARES fund.

Majority of the legislators in UP have already announced contribution form their MLA funds for fighting the Covid-19 crisis.

However, some of them are clearly hesitant to go out among the people and supervise the relief work.

These MLAs are posting their videos on the social media in which they can be seen doing yoga, playing with their children, watching television and exercising within the confines of their homes.

Naraini BJP MLA, Raj Karan Kabir, has isolated himself in his farmhouse and has stopped taking calls.

Tindwari BJP MLA Brijesh Prajapati announced on his Facebook page that as per the Prime Minister's directive, he is observing lockdown and is helping in household chores that include making tea in the kitchen.
Three municipal corporations in



Maharashtra have started using mobile phone apps specifically designed to help curb spread of coronavirus, a senior official said on Monday.

Navi Mumbai, Thane and Panvel municipal corporations are using the Coviguard and Covicare apps, developed with the support of Directorate of Industries, the official said.

Municipal corporations in Kalyan-Dombivali, Ulhasnagar and Bhiwandi would be using the apps soon, he said.

Harshadeep Kamble, Secretary (Small and Medium Industries) and Development Commissioner (Industries) of Maharashtra told PTI that the Coviguard app has been developed in order to keep in touch with people who are quarantined at their homes.

"This app is going to be a medium to keep the health department officer updated about the medical condition of home quarantined people and also to keep in touch with these people for queries on the virus," the senior IAS official said.

Home quarantined patients will need to download this mobile application, he said, adding the health department of the municipal corporation will be in regular contact with those patients.

Covicare, another mobile application, has also been developed to municipal corporation in areas where health surveys are to be done, he said.

"App links will be sent to representatives of housing societies and details of society members would have to be submitted on the app," the official said.

The apps were developed by a young entrepreneur Vikas Aute from Panvel, under the guidance of the state Development Commissioner (Industries).

The apps are proving useful in getting health statistics of residents and can also provide information on area-wise spread of coronavirus, the official said.

The apps provide government authorities access to information on specific persons 24x7 and help the quarantined citizens communicate online with a built-in facility of personalised chats.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
HOLMDEL, N.J., March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corporation (NYSE: MNR) today announced the acquisition of a new 153,000 square foot industrial building located at 747 Mill Park Drive, Lancaster, OH at a purchase price of $17,874,148. The property is net-leased for 10 years to Magna Seating of America, Inc., a division of Magna International. The building is situated on approximately 24.5 acres.

Michael P. Landy, President and CEO, commented, "We are very pleased to add Magna to our all-star tenant roster. Reflecting the mission-critical nature of this project to both Magna and the Columbus economy, Vice-President Mike Pence attended the groundbreaking ceremony of this development on July 30th. We are very fortunate to have in Monmouth a company with a balance sheet and business model that can not only withstand these turbulent periods but can perform well throughout. We look forward to reporting additional high-quality acquisitions during the year."

Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corporation, founded in 1968, is one of the oldest public equity REITs in the world. We specialize in single tenant, net-leased industrial properties, subject to long-term leases, primarily to investment-grade tenants. Monmouth Real Estate is a fully integrated and self-managed real estate company, whose property portfolio consists of 116 properties, containing a total of approximately 23 million rentable square feet, geographically diversified across 30 states. In addition, the Company owns a portfolio of REIT securities.

SOURCE Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corporation
MIDDLETOWN  Following the announcement last week that two individuals at Connecticut Valley Hospital had contracted coronavirus in as many days, the administration said it doesnt expect to offer updates about individual positive Covid-19 tests any longer, citing privacy laws.

We announced the initial cases, first in a staff person and then in a patient, to indicate that the virus was present in the facility, public information officer Diana Shaw said about the state-run mental health and substance use disorder treatment facility in Middletown.

State and federal privacy laws prohibit the release of information about specific patients and their health conditions, she added.

The administration expects to offer updates about COVID-19 cases in the aggregate. We may even provide periodic updates about the presence of COVID-19 in our facilities, according to Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services spokeswoman Mary Kate Mason.

On Tuesday, CVH reported a worker was infected. The individual last reported to work March 10 and called out sick the next day with flu-like symptoms, a release said.

The individual, who had a fever and cough, was tested March 14, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was notified of the result March 23, Shaw added. Seven other staff who were in close contact with the individual were out of work on self-quarantine.

Two days later, the hospital alerted the public that a psychiatry patient was positive for the illness. The person was cared for in the general psychiatry division of the hospital, officials there announced.

We continue to remain vigilant in maintaining an environment that is healthy and safe. Hospital staff are dedicated to caring for the physical and mental health of our patients and to providing the highest quality of care through this public health crisis, state DMHAS Commissioner Miriam Delphin-Rittmon said in a prepared statement.

The facility has a quarantine and isolation plan staff follow with suspected or confirmed Covid-19 cases or exposure to infected people, according to Shaw. Patients who show symptoms of Covid-19 are isolated in designated spaces and tested, she said. Those believed to have been exposed to Covid-19, but are without symptoms, are being quarantined and monitored.

If a quarantined patient begins to show symptoms, they are moved to isolation and tested for the virus, she said.

Meanwhile, employees are being referred to their primary care providers for evaluation, potential testing and treatment, she said. Staff who miss work due to symptoms or a diagnosis of Covid-19 must provide DMHAS Human Resources with a fitness for duty form completed by their medical provider prior to returning to work.

For up-to-date information on coronavirus in Connecticut, visit portal.ct.gov/Coronavirus.
Most of the time, Annie Philbrick would be happy to see the cafe in her bookstore bustling with customers. But three weekends ago, the crowd inside Savoy Bookshop and Cafe in Westerly, Rhode Island, only registered as trouble.

Governments were asking people to stay home to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Her busy shop was now a public health threat. We were providing a space for people to come that wasnt really safe anymore, she said. So she decided to shutter the doors of Savoy and her other store in Mystic, Connecticut, Bank Square Books, before either state mandated their closure. It was terrible to have to make that decision, because thats what we provide, she said. Bookstores provide this community-gathering space.

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The coronavirus crisis, and the requirement that nonessential businesses close their doors while Americans isolate themselves, has already wreaked havoc on the economy, leading to a record 3.3 million people filing for unemployment the week of March 16. Many of them worked at small businesses for which the pandemic might be an existential threat. In a 2016 study, the median small business had enough cash to last just 27 days, while a 2018 survey found that 21 percent would fail after a month without cash flow. Bookstores run on even slimmer margins than the typical mom-and-pop shopbut the ones that have survived in the Amazon era have made it for a reason.

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Until this month, independent bookstores were experiencing something of a cultural, if not necessarily financial, renaissance. Where theyve persevered, they are often beloved community institutions, not just selling goods but bringing people together around events and serving as a central gathering place. They can also be ad hoc sanctuaries in times of difficulty. Historically, were the ones whove served as havens of comfort, reassurance, and information to many people in need during a crisis, said Bradley Graham, co-owner of Politics and Prose in D.C. We feel a closure to the public particularly acutely given that weve always prided ourselves on being there for communities in need during past crises.

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That many of these businesses have become such neighborhood fixtures helps explain the anguish and betrayal many people felt when two of the best-known bookstores in the country abruptly cut their workers as the pandemic began shutting down retail in mid-March. On March 16, McNally Jackson, an independent bookstore in New York City, announced it would lay off more than 80 employees. Then two days later, Powells Books, the giant independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, laid off the vast majority of its staff.

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Many fans of Powells, in particular, seemed to be shocked that such an iconic business would take so drastic a step. But the economics of bookselling have always been a challenge. Youre dealing with a fixed-price product, said Pamela French, executive director of the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, which offers financial assistance for bookstore employees in need. The price of the goods they sell is printed right on the covers. And their other costsrent, electricity, internet, payrollare more or less fixed, too. There is rarely any extra cushion when a crisis hits.

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With the coronavirus outbreak, the turbulence for independent bookstores came hard and fast. Frenchs organization received more than 240 applications for assistance from bookstore employees in the span of 10 days, coming from across the country. Thats about closer to 18 months worth of volume for us, she said. The weekend before we spoke, the organization had gotten an average of one request every 15 minutes. The volume is definitely something like weve never seen before.

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For some stores, laying off hourly workers may be a way to ensure they could get unemployment benefits. Thats the call that Philbrick made, furloughing 32 employees at her two stores so that they could collect unemployment insurance and other financial assistance while the shops were closed. It was awful, she said. But she ran the math and decided they would be better off getting those benefits than on her payroll with their hours cut. She hopes that she can eventually bring them all back once she reopens.

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For now, all that remain at Savoy Bookshop and Bank Square Books are two managers, a bookkeeper, and a social media manager. Philbrick and her skeleton crew are now shipping books for online orders and offering curbside pickup. Shes not sure how long she can last on that revenue. It certainly helps keep the lights on, but it certainly doesnt provide the income were used to, she said. Shes asked the landlords at both locations to freeze her rent. Looking at her books, she thinks she can make it through the end of the Connecticut order to close nonessential businesses through April 22. But at some point, she may have to close for good. Just lock the doors and turn the lights off and send everybody home and lay off the remaining staff.

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The coronavirus shutdown is like no other shes faced, even the one in 2012, when her Mystic store flooded during Hurricane Sandy. But with that, The tide came in and the tide went out, she said. I saw an end to that. She knew roughly about how long it would take to move all the books out, rip out the floors and repaint the walls, and reopen her doors. But now, The future is so uncertain, we dont know how long this is going to go on, she said. The tide hasnt gone out yet.

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How are other bookstores weathering this crisis? By getting creative, by tapping whatever reserves they have, and by counting on some of that accumulated community goodwill.

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Weve transformed the store into a distribution center, said Michael Fusco-Straub, co-owner of Books Are Magic in Brooklyn, New York. Almost like we had to switch the kind of business we are in 24 hours. After the store closed to browsing on March 16, the staff turned it upside down, creating stacks of books to be able to access them as quickly as possible to fulfill online orders. The four days before we spoke, business had been even higher than normal. My fingers hurt from tapping in manually  all the credit card stuff, he said.

People are ordering from all over the place [and] including these wonderful notes  thanking us for remaining in business, he said. Its been incredible.

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Still, Fusco-Straub assumes the pace will slow the longer this goes on. And one of the shops core services is now gone. When he and his wife, author Emma Straub, decided to open Books Are Magic three years ago, they wanted to be extremely events-focused, trying to offer something nearly every day. But after carrying out a week of events in mid-March, they had to shut their in-store programming down.

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Fusco-Straub is lucky: Hes been conservative enough with his spending over the years to be able to keep his whole staff on payroll so far. Hes committed to paying them what they would normally make for their regular shifts through April 4. Anyone who takes a day off doesnt eat into his or her paid leave. But hes wasnt certain yet what would happen in early April.

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Its been just as hard to pause programming for Sarah Hollenbeck, co-owner of Women & Children First, a feminist bookstore in Chicago. We have a very strong mission, she said. Its rooted in these real-life gatherings. Miss Linda has done story time every Wednesday since 1984; now thats been canceled along with all other events for the near future. After the 2016 election, the store became a hub for people to come and just cry and have these really intimate moments with strangers, Hollenbeck said. But it cant serve that purpose during this crisis. Not to mention that ticket and book sales at events were one of the stores main sources of revenue. Its been pulled out from under us, she said. Everything weve been striving for we now have to reimagine.

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Now Hollenbeck and two other staff members go into the store every day to fulfill online orders. That takes a lot more time. The stores website warns shoppers that it could take two to three weeks for orders to arrive. Were working as fast as we can, she said. The good news is that there is a ton of demand, with orders coming in from across the countryso much so that online sales have been beating the baseline she and her co-owner set that would allow them to meet their most basic expenses. Its whats keeping us afloat, she said. Still, shes had to reduce her staffs hours, and some have left and filed for unemployment.

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The day before I spoke to Graham at Politics and Prose, he had decided to close his doors, a week ahead of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowsers order to close nonessential businesses. Staff is working either inside the store or from home to help fulfill orders. Weve seen a surge in online orders, he said.

Graham moved some of his author talks online, allowing authors to attend from their homes and for customers to not only watch and ask questions but click links at the bottom to buy the books and support the store. The first had more than160 viewers. Hes also moved some of the class offerings online, such as a discussion of a travel memoir and another of Seamus Heaneys poetry. Were focused on just trying to hang on as long as we can, he said. He hopes to keep being able to pay employees, but as revenues dwindle, were going to have to look at trimming staff.

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The strategies these owners have implemented are being copied at independent bookstores nationwide: offering curbside pickup where possible, fulfilling online orders, and moving events online. Online shoppers are keeping some propped up for now. After a surge of orders, Powells announced it had rehired 100 employees to process them (although the union representing the stores employees says only some of them are booksellers, while the rest are managers doing jobs usually done by union members). Independent bookstores online sales have spiked dramatically, Dan Cullen, senior strategy officer at the American Booksellers Association, wrote in an email. However, even with this increase, online sales will not fully recoup lost sales.

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Independent bookstores need help if theyre going to be able to reopen after the current crisis subsides. It could come from publishers, who could extend the payment deadline for books that were ordered before the crisis. They could also consider simply forgiving some of those invoices entirely, although they may also feel a hit if shuttered bookstores and a recession mean declining book sales.

Then theres aid from the government. The Small Business Administration has offered loans, and while they come with good terms, they still have to be paid back eventually. The recent congressional relief package includes emergency grants and forgivable loans for small businesses if they keep employees on their payrolls, but that requires extensive paperwork and the faith that their loans will indeed be forgiven down the road. There is also only so much money$349 billion in loans and $10 billion in grantsto meet astronomical need. It will likely take more federal funding to keep stores from shuttering nationwide.

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The years leading up to this current moment were good ones for independent bookstores. Over the past few years, there has been growth in the number of indie bookstores, fueled by both a commitment to ongoing innovation of their businesses and their unique and very strong ties to their local communities, Cullen said. His membership has grown for the past nine years in a row, and annual sales had grown in recent years.

But without more financial assistance, communities across the country could lose a central institution. Philbricks Bank Square Books has been open for 30 years. We are the cornerstone of our community, she said. I cant imagine us not being there.
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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is holding a press conference Monday to update the public on the coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 33,400 people in the city as of Sunday evening.

On Thursday, de Blasio said early estimates show that at least half a million New Yorkers could be unemployed because of the coronavirus, which has shuttered schools and businesses in the state. He also criticized the federal government for not providing enough funding to the city in its $2 trillion relief package.

Over the weekend, Samaritan's Purse and Mount Sinai Health System in New York City began erecting a field hospital in Central Park. The hospital is located in front of Mount Sinai Hospital in the park's East Meadow and is scheduled to open on Tuesday, a spokesperson said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel advisory on Sunday for residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to avoid non-essential travel for 14 days to combat the virus spread.

The coronavirus has infected at least 143,000 people in the U.S. and had killed at least 2,500 people, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Read CNBC's live updates to see the latest news on the COVID-19 outbreak.
Patients 189 to 194, aged 46, 49, 36, 23, 21 and 42, are female employees of the Truong Sinh Company, which provides food and other logistics services to the hospital.

Of Vietnam's current total of 194 confirmed Covid-19 cases, 25 are associated with the Bach Mai, one of the largest public hospitals in the country.

On Saturday night, the Vietnamese Army's chemical division disinfected the hospital after several Covid-19 infections were linked to it.

Earlier that day, the hospital had suspended admitting new patients and was isolated. Nearly 5,000 staff and patients at the hospital have been ordered to take Covid-19 tests.

Among Vietnams 194 patients, 28 have recovered and 25 discharged from hospitals.

Many of the currently active cases are Vietnamese nationals returning from Europe and the U.S., foreigners coming from the same regions and those whod come into contact with both groups of people.

The government decided on Sunday to suspend all international flights to Vietnam and limit flights between Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other localities in the coming two weeks.
The independent Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry in Banbridge, Co Down (PA)

An abuse survivor has welcomed a decision to proceed with the opening of applications for a compensation scheme despite the coronavirus lockdown.

Applications will open on Tuesday although the planned public event will no longer take place.

Jon McCourt of the North West Victims group said it was a positive move.

Abuse victim and campaigner Jon McCourt of the North West Victims group (PA)

Victims have already endured long delays in their campaign for recognition and compensation.

Paying compensation to those who suffered harm when they were in homes run by the church and state was among recommendations from the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) public inquiry in 2016.

It examined allegations of physical, emotional and sexual harm of children in residential institutions between 1922 and 1995.

But the collapse of Stormont in January 2017 delayed that process.

In December, the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, David Sterling, said the application for abuse payments for those victims and survivors of historical abuse would open in March.

Mr McCourt had expressed concern the opening of the process could be delayed due to the ongoing coronavirus lockdown, while understanding the difficulties it posed.

He welcomed the development that the launch of the redress process will happen as planned on Tuesday.

However the pandemic will still have an impact on other steps planned.

It is understood that applications will initially be made online through a solicitors office, while face-to-face meetings may not be able to take place initially due to social distancing rules.

The Headline Building, which is the office of the Redress Board, is currently closed as a safeguard against Covid-19, while the record storage facility at the Public Records Office for Northern Ireland (PRONI) is operating with limited capacity.

Mr McCourt said access to the records is essential for verification purposes for applicants who gave evidence to the HIA inquiry.

This will all add to the length of time it will take to make and process applications, he told the PA news agency.

But 10 years and four months after bringing the issue of Historical Institutional Abuse to the Assembly chamber, and three years and two months after the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry report was released, we are finally seeing the launch of the Redress Process.

We do not underestimate the uncertainty that there has been over the start of the redress process.

It has been a long time getting to this point.
In a statement from the President of Ireland on the Covid-19 pandemic Michael D Higgins has called on the people of Ireland to "stay the course" adding "our solidarity is vitally important. Let us not forget ever that we are not travelling through the darkness alone, but that we are on this journey together."

He said: In this crucial week, when we are being asked to take yet more stringent measures to stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus, may I to take the opportunity to congratulate you and thank you for your solidarity and vigilance.

"All of our efforts together are making a difference. I am well aware that it is not easy, what we are asked to do.

"We are being asked to keep our distance  from loved ones, from relatives, work colleagues, and from all those we meet on a daily basis and who give our lives meaning.

"For all of us, this is a difficult ask. For too many, it is extremely painful not to be able to be there for those who need them, and not to be able to share the grief of our families, neighbours and friends in these difficult times.

"Sabina and I are acutely aware of the pain and hardship so many of you are experiencing, and we would like to send our deepest sympathies to those who have been bereaved in recent days and weeks as a result of the pandemic.

"All of what we continue to do now is about saving lives, slowing the virus, and caring for the most vulnerable. May I take this opportunity, as President of Ireland, to thank again all those who continue to work to keep our communities healthy and safe.

"So many in our health service, in the Defence Forces and An Garda Siochana, but also in food production and retail, and in our public utilities, continue, day in and day out, to deliver the products and services we have come to dependent on.

"Everywhere in Ireland, countless people are working tirelessly and selflessly to ensure the best care possible for those affected by the Coronavirus and the safety of all our citizens and I wish to express our shared gratitude to you all for the outstanding contribution you are making.

"At this time, when our everyday lives have changed beyond recognition, and when so much of what we have been accustomed to is no longer possible, we are being tested. And in these difficult times, our solidarity is vitally important.

"Our solidarity now means that we need to keep our distance physically. Solidarity now also means supporting those in our communities who need us, or who are vulnerable. And it means looking beyond our borders, finding ways to support those countries that are struggling to cope and whose health care services are in danger of collapsing.

"So much of what we are being asked to do now will bear fruit in the weeks that will follow. It is therefore important that we keep the faith, stay patient, and vigilant.

"The days ahead will be difficult, for all of us, but what a memory it will be when the virus has passed, to know that we gave of our best. Let us not forget ever that we are not travelling through the darkness alone, but that we are on this journey together.

"Let us stay the course, and ensure that we arrive at our destination, together, all of us.

"Beir beannacht.
As of today, half of mankind is confined at home because of the coronavirus pandemic, although the severity of the confinement varies greatly depending on countries and regions. This situation must be all the more disconcerting given that, less than a month ago, many government officials and public-health experts were still claiming that Western countries would be able to weather the storm without any difficulty and encouraging people not to change their behavior because of the virus. On that point, Trumps handling of this crisis has been atrocious, but as Zeynep Tufekci recently pointed out, hes hardly the only one to have underestimated the seriousness of the threat.

Although I think people underestimated the seriousness of the threat until recently, many now seem to underestimate how much uncertainty there is about what is going to happen. To be clear: No matter where we are headed exactly, this is no flu. As of March 29 in France, 2,606 people who tested positive for COVID-19 had died in hospitals alone. Perhaps even more worrisome, there were already 4,632 people in intensive-care units, up from approximately 1,500 one week earlier. Between the number of people who left intensive care because they had died and those who left because their condition had improved, it means that probably almost twice as many people have already required admission to intensive care since the beginning of the outbreak in France. By comparison, during the entire 201819 season, 490 people who had the flu died in hospitals, and 2,915 people required admission to intensive care. Not only are we already way past that with the COVID-19 pandemic, but, even in the most optimistic scenario that I consider plausible, those figures will be at least 15 times higher.

Although it seems clear now that COVID-19 is putting health-care systems around the world under considerably more stress than the flu does, and although Im strongly in favor of confinement until we know more, I think there is still much uncertainty about exactly how bad the situation is and that people are wrong to assume that this pandemic will kill millions of people. That apocalyptic prediction found strong support on March 16, after a team of prestigious epidemiologists at Imperial College London published a paper on their simulations of the epidemic. Their simulations undermine the strategy of curve-flattening, which consists of slowing the spread of the pandemic to prevent hospital services from being overwhelmed by the number of cases to be treated without seeking to suppress it completely.

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Indeed, according to the results of their simulations, the policies that have been proposed to implement such a strategy would not prevent hospital systems from being overwhelmed even in developed countries: In the best-case scenario, the need for ICU beds would be eight times greater than our capacity. If nothing is done, the death toll would be over 2 million in the United States, and, even in the best-case scenario, policies aimed simply at slowing the pandemic without suppressing it would only halve that figure. The authors of the study therefore conclude that, in order to avoid carnage, trying to mitigate the pandemic would be insufficient and that only a strategy aimed at suppressing it was viable. However, their simulations show that it would then be necessary to remain confined until a vaccine or other pharmaceutical solution became available. That could take more than a year.

The problem is that, as I argue in a very long piece in which I dissected the model in detail, its doubtful that we can trust the results of those simulations. In a nutshell, the model used to carry them starts by generating a population of several million individuals (the size varies depending on the country for which we want to simulate the spread of the epidemic) distributed over the territory in such a way as to reproduce the distribution of the population in reality. At each step of the simulation, each corresponding to a period of eight hours in reality, the model calculates the probability that each individual was infected during the period. The probability is based on the people he or she met at work, at home or at school, and in the community and on whether they were infected.

The different policies that can be adopted to fight the epidemic affect the rate of contact between people in each of these environments and, therefore, affect the results of the simulation. The main goal of this exercise was to predict with precision how different combinations of policies would stress the health-care system and affect the eventual death toll. Once a combination of policies has been chosen, one just has to run the simulation for a while to see how the pandemic unfolds over time. The authors of the study ran this simulation several times with different combinations of policies in place to see how each affects the spread of the epidemic. Thats how they arrived at the conclusions I described briefly above.

But as I explain in the piece, its unlikely that we can trust the findings of those simulations. Not only could the authors of the study have specified the model in many very different though equally sensible ways, but they also had to make many largely arbitrary assumptions about the value of the models parameters. We just dont know how trying other specifications of the model or how using different values for the parameters would have affected the results. We have no way to know, as the simulations require huge computational resources and are very time-consuming.

For example, the authors of the study make the hypothesis that a policy of confinement would reduce contacts outside the household but increase contacts within the household by 25 percent. But why 25 percent rather than 50 percent or 75 percent? The authors had no reason to choose a value of 25 percent, but they had to choose some value, and, as I have just explained, they could not try every value in the wide range of values that were intuitively plausible. Intellectually I find this kind of model very interesting, but there are far too many degrees of freedom in the specification of the model and in the choice of parameters for this exercise to be really useful for decision-making. In particular, as long as we dont have the results of a serological study based on a large random sample, which Germany is apparently about to do, it will be hard to know with a reasonable degree of certainty what the infectionfatality rate is and what the ratio of infected people to those who require hospitalization is. The value of those parameters no doubt has a very large influence on the results of this kind of simulation.

As I also explain in my piece, the situation is really very weird. The data we have are difficult to interpret, generally of poor quality and often difficult to reconcile with one another. For example, why do so few people seem to have died of the virus in countries like Germany and Japan, compared with Italy or even Spain and France, when the virus has presumably been circulating in Germany and Japan just as long or even longer? A whole host of theories, some of which I find plausible, have been put forward to explain the inconsistencies, but the truth is that for the moment they remain speculative and we just dont know. This conclusion, that we are not in a position to know with any degree of certainty what is going on, is consistent with the result of a recent survey of experts, which found that even they didnt really know what is going to happen.

Its possible that the number of deaths in countries such as Germany and Japan will soon explode, but its also possible that it will stay relatively low. I have no doubt that the coronavirus is intrinsically more dangerous than the flu, but one theory that I personally find quite plausible is that its not intrinsically as dangerous as we might have feared  its just that we have no vaccine, and so nobody is immune, and that our health systems are more fragile than we might have thought. Consequently, if only a few things go wrong at the beginning of the epidemic, it just takes something a little worse than what were used to for the situation to get out of control and turn into a disaster. That would explain why bodies are piling up in Lombardy and in some places in France and Spain, while in many other places the situation seems more or less under control. But this just a theory, and I also wouldnt be surprised if the virus really were intrinsically much more dangerous than the flu. I think that we will know more in a little while, but for the time being we have to admit this uncertainty.

But this uncertainty is not a reason not to act. The most important point I want to make is that we dont need complicated mathematical models of dubious epistemic status to prepare for the worst. The economic consequences of locking down everyone are very serious, but if we dont do it and the worst comes to pass, the consequences will be even more severe, including for the economy. Im not American, but I think there are enough reasons at this point to fear that something really bad is going to happen unless you take strong measures to prevent it. At the end of a two-week lockdown, you can reevaluate in light of what scientists will have learned by then. If it turns out that the virus is less dangerous than we feared, a lockdown of two weeks will not have been the end of the world, but if the virus really is as dangerous as we fear, youll be happy that you did it.

In France, the government waited before making the decision to order a lockdown. Although we also dont know exactly what is going to happen, I think its already clear that were going to have to remain confined for longer because we hesitated. The number of people who need to be hospitalized grows faster than linearly, so by waiting to order the lockdown (which presumably will flatten the curve after a while), the government has ensured that, by the time the epidemic reaches a plateau, the hospitals will be fuller than they would otherwise have been. That in turn means that well have to wait longer before its safe to relax the lockdown, because, if we do so as soon as a plateau is reached, any influx of patients would immediately overwhelm the hospital system again. I would advise my American friends not to make the same mistake we did.

More from National Review
Voters in Solon and in the Orange City School District who have not yet cast their ballots for Issues 18, 19 and 30 in Ohios primary election will have another opportunity to do so in April.

On March 25, Ohio lawmakers approved a plan for an all-mail primary election running through April 28. The state legislature opted for this procedure after the original March 17 election was canceled due to concerns about spread of the coronavirus.

In Solon, Issue 19 would create a new zoning district -- a multifamily residential and special needs classification called R-3-C. It would be implemented for properties at the southwest corner of Aurora Road and Portz Parkway, the site of the proposed Solon Community Living project.

Ara and Leslie Bagdasarian are co-founders of Solon Community Living, a nonprofit that seeks to create a safe and community-accessible neighborhood for those who have disabilities. Their daughter, Julie, 28, and son, Alex, 26, both have Fragile X syndrome, a genetic condition that causes a range of developmental issues, including learning disabilities and cognitive impairment.

Rob Frankland, the citys planning director, said only people with ADA disabilities and associated specialist caregivers would be permitted to live within an R-3-C development.

The 8.84 acres of city-owned land where Solon Community Living would be developed is currently zoned for single-family homes.

An affirmative vote both citywide and in the affected Ward 6 is needed for passage of Issue 19.

Issue 18 proposes broadening restaurant uses permitted within Solons existing C-2 (restricted commercial) and C-6 (general commercial) zoning districts. If it passes, all of the citys major commercial zoning districts would allow the full range of restaurant-use types.

The amendment would add fast-food restaurants as a permitted use within the C-2 district, which covers the Uptown Solon Shopping Center and its vicinity on Kruse Drive.

It would also add sit-down, casual and fast-food restaurants as permitted uses within the C-6 district, which currently allows no restaurant uses. This district covers the area of Aldi, Hobby Lobby and Marcs on SOM Center Road and the west side of Solon Road, between Bainbridge and Aurora roads.

Issue 30 is a 0.95-mill renewal levy for the purpose of operating and maintaining Orange Community Education and Recreation programming and facilities.

It is described on the ballot as being for the benefit of the Orange City School District, but that is because the Orange Board of Education oversees Ohio Community Education and Recreation. All funds from the levy would go to OCER.

If Issue 30 passes, it would cost the owner of a home valued at $100,000 about $28 per year. But this is not a tax increase; it is a renewal.

Mail-in ballots

In the revamped Ohio primary election process, voters who have not yet cast ballots must complete absentee ballots and postmark them by April 27. The process starts with requesting an absentee ballot application.

In the coming days, all registered voters in Ohio will receive a post card with instructions for how to request an absentee ballot. Anyone who hasnt cast a ballot already must either print out a paper application or call their county elections board and request that one be mailed to them.

Those who have voted in person or by mail already dont have to do anything. Votes that have been cast this will be counted.

Completed applications must be mailed to the county elections board and received by April 25. Election officials will then mail a blank ballot with a postage-paid envelope.

Voters then have until April 27 to complete the ballot and mail it back to the elections board office. Ballots may also be dropped off at a curbside county election ballot box by 7:30 p.m. April 28.

Read more from the Chagrin Solon Sun.
COUNTING is under way in the election for the 26th Seanad.

Three Limerick politicians are hoping to be elected to the upper house, with Maria Byrne, Fine Gael and Paul Gavan, Sinn Fein looking to secure a second term.

And Fine Gael man Tom Neville, who lost his Dail seat at the general election, is hoping to have better luck in this Seanad Eireann election.

He should know his fate by tomorrow, as boxes opened in Dublin Castle at 4pm today in the Cultural and Educational Panel.

Mr Neville is one of 21 candidates seeking five seats on this panel.

Tomorrow at 4pm, counting in the agricultural panel will commence. Ms Byrne, also an unsuccessful general election candidate is hoping to secure one of 11 seats here. There are 24 other candidates in the race here.

And on Wednesday afternoon, counting in the 11 seat Labour panel will commence. Union activist Mr Gavan is hoping for a berth here, and is on the ballot paper along with 19 other candidates.

Limerick-born solicitor Linda OShea-Farren is also hoping to win a Seanad seat and is contesting the Industrial and Commercial Panel. The former Presentation and Laurel Hill pupil has been based in Dublin for the past 25 years. She is a member of the NUI Senate and a governor at UCC.

There are 60 seats in the Seanad and the election follows on the general election.

Of these,43 seats are divided among five vocational panels: Culture and Education; Labour; Agriculture; Industrial and Commercial and finally, Administrative. Six seats are reserved for universities.

Councillors, newly elected TDs and outgoing senators are eligible to vote for the panels. There are also six university seats: three for Trinity College and three for the National Universities of Ireland. Graduates have a right to vote for these seats.

In addition, the Taoiseach, elected by the new Dail, appoints 11 senators. The new Seanad cannot be completed until a government and Taoiseach are agreed. This could have implications for any new legislation proposed after next weeks count.

Unlike Dail elections, each Seanad vote is counted in batches of 1,000. This is to aid the redistribution of surpluses, due to the small size of the electorate.

Stay with the Leader for updates on how the Limerick candidates are progressing, and follow @nick468official on Twitter.
via REUTERS

Defense Secretary Mark Esper is looking at extending the deployment of a reaction force sent to the Middle East to counter Irans militia network, according to three sources and documents provided to The Daily Beast.

The 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division arrived in the Mideast in January after Iranian-backed militias attacked the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. The roughly 3,000 paratroopers operate as an immediate reaction force, built to deploy on short notice to global hotspots.

The extended deployment, said to be requested by U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Gen. Kenneth Frank McKenzie, would signal that the military does not believe the spread of the novel coronavirus has reduced the risk of violent escalation with Irans Iraqi militia network.

But its causing confusion and alarm within the brigade, which is currently in Kuwait while Esper has ordered a 60-day freeze on troop movements overseas. Sources told The Daily Beast that seeking the deployment extension was McKenzies call, not a result of the freeze, although the extension would last through the end of the freeze.

Trump, Iran, and Where The Forever War Was Always Headed

We hate that this was an unplanned deployment and that its impossible to have any certainty about when we will get home, a soldier in the brigade told The Daily Beast.

Even if its stupid and we have to deal with Iranian militias, its part of the job. But we just hate the uncertainty.

Its unclear when the brigade was supposed to return home. One source said their deployment was open-ended and at the pleasure of McKenzie. But a different source said that before Espers stop-movement order, the brigade had prepared for redeployment home. Ahead of a decision, the brigade is operating on the expectation that it will remain in the region until the end of May, which would roughly coincide with the anticipated end of the COVID-19 movement freeze.

On Monday, a notice from the brigade commander, Col. Andrew Saslav, said the decision on the brigades tour was in Espers hands after CENTCOM requested the extension.

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I know this is a crazy time, thanks for all you are doing. I know it is frustrating for you and your families, but we will get through it, Saslav wrote in a message shared with The Daily Beast.

Representatives for the brigade and CENTCOM deferred comment to the Pentagon. For operational security reasons, we are not going to discuss internal deliberations, planning factors or redeployment timelines of specific units, said Cmdr. Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesperson.

McKenzie, in remarks earlier this month, has said he believes the public-health crisis acutely afflicting Iran makes the Islamic Republic more likely to escalate, not less. Following a rocket attack that killed two U.S. service members and a British ally, U.S. warplanes targeted weapons caches associated with Iraqi militias backed by Iran on Mar. 12, while Iraqi officials protested that the U.S. had killed Iraqi soldiers and policemen.

Tensions with Iran are one thing. There are tensions within the military about Iran as well. The U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Robert Pat White, has warned McKenzie and the Pentagon that American escalation against whats known as the Iran threat network in Iraq jeopardizes the entire U.S. mission in Iraq. That warning was first reported by The New York Times and confirmed by The Daily Beast.

The background for the decision on the brigade, according to the Times, is a Pentagon directive on options for a broad campaign across Iraq against the militia network. That prompted Lt. Gen. Whites objections on the costs of such a campaign. The Times reported that its leading proponents are Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser Robert OBrien. Esper and the senior U.S. military officer, Army Gen. Mark Milley, are reportedly wary.

Targeting the Iranian threat network in Iraq represents mission creep. The U.S. has operated in Iraq since 2014the latest installation of a U.S. involvement in Iraq stretching back to 1991to attack the so-called Islamic State, not Iran. Since the U.S. in January assassinated Iranian external security chief Qassem Soleimani, Iraqi officials have rejected the use of its territory for a war by both Washington and Tehran.

The policy debate is less urgent to brigade service members than the disruption to their lives it has caused.

With normal 9-12 month deployments, where you have months of notice beforehand, you know when youre getting home, the soldier said. We still have no goddamn idea when. Next week, June, 6 months? Who knows.

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With dwindling revenues following the ongoing lockdown in the state, the Telangana government on Monday decided to implement pay cut for government employees, including All India Services Officers and pensioners.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao held a review meeting on the state's finances in the backdrop of the coronavirus lockdown and impact on the revenues.

After the meeting it was decided to cut 75 per cent of salaries of the Chief Minister, Ministers, MLAs, MLCs, chairmen of various corporations and local public representatives, an official release said.

There will be a pay cut of 60 per cent in AIS officers such as IAS, IPS and IFS while it will be 50 per cent in state government employees.

However, the government spared Class IV employees, outsourcing and contract employees with just 10 per cent cut.

the cut will be 10 per cent for Class IV retired employees and for all others it will be 50 per cent.

Salaries and pensions of all Employees of all public sector corporations and government aided organisations will also be deducted by 50 per cent.

The release did not clarify when the dues will be paid.

Condemning the pay cut, the Telangana BJP, in a statement, said it was a hasty decision.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Barely hours after it issued a circular on Monday directing that all Covid-19 casualties in Mumbai will have to be cremated, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) withdrew it.

Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik took to Twitter to announce that the BMC has withdrawn the circular after he spoke to Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi.

This is to bring to your kind attention that I have spoken to @mybmc Commissioner Mr. Praveen Pardeshi regarding the circular issued by him for cremation of those who have lost their lives due to the #CoronaVirus.

The said circular has now been withdrawn.  Nawab Malik     (@nawabmalikncp) March 30, 2020

The BMC had earlier said all Covid-19 casualties in Mumbai will have to be cremated to minimise possibilities of spreading the virus.

All bodies of #COVID19 patients should be cremated irrespective of religion. Burial will not be allowed. The funeral should not involve more than 5 people, Commissioner Pardeshi had said in the circular.

It also said that rituals of touching the body should be avoided.

Later, BMC commissioner Praveen Pardeshis was revised citing that if there is availability of a big burial site then burial can be permitted.

Follow coronavirus live updates here.

Under the Epidemic Diseases Act, local authorities are empowered to decide on the steps, including disposal of bodies to curb the spread of disease.

The BMC also said that 47 more people tested positive for coronavirus in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) on Monday while the death toll rose to eight.

Among the over 200 people infected by the virus in Maharashtra, 25 are from a single family in Sangli district.

The number of coronavirus positive cases in India has soared to over 1000 while the death toll has risen to 29 so far as India battles to stop community transmission.
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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 31)  President Rodrigo Duterte warned government officials who dare to embezzle money from the COVID-19 aid fund that they will face immediate suspension and arrest.

Duterte in his address late Monday night, more than seven hours past the 4pm tentative schedule, said that officials should never dip into the COVID-19 fund or else he will "detain" them.

Kung mamulitika ka tapos mabalitaan na 'yon ang nagawa mo, I will suspend you ora mismo. And for those who are really absconding the money, I will detain you I said. Maybe I will release you pagkatapos ng COVID. Hindi ako nananakot, he said in his speech.

[Translation: If you will politicize this and I find out that you did it, I will suspend you right away. And for those who are really absconding the money, I will detain you I said. Maybe I will release you after COVID. I am not scaring you.]

He added that some officials think that they own what they receive from the government.

That is not yours, neither it is mine, Duterte said.

Moreover, he stressed that this is neither the time for profiteering and hoarding, as he talked about the implementation of a price freeze on basic commodities.

The price freeze on commodities is already in effect and measures to curtail hoarding and profiteering are already in place. Uulitin ko, hindi ito panahon para kumita. Hindi ito panahon ng pagsasamantala, he said.

[Translation: The price freeze on commodities is already in effect and measures to curtail hoarding and profiteering are already in place. I will repeat, this is not the time to earn money. This is not the time to be taking advantage.]

Duterte signed the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act on March 24, which grants him additional powers to tackle the COVID-19 crisis in the country, including the power to reshuffle funds in this years budget to provide assistance to the poor.

Under this law, Duterte should deliver a weekly report to Congress every Monday, where he would detail what the government has done in the past week to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Philippines now has 1, 546 cases Monday, including 78 fatalities, and 42 recoveries.

Health authorities urge the public to practice proper hygiene and social distancing in order to slow down the spread of the viral disease.
Oslo, 29 March 2020: The Board of Adevinta ASA today approved the annual accounts for 2019. There are no changes compared to the preliminary annual accounts published on 12 February 2020.

The Annual General Meeting of Adevinta will be held on Tuesday 5 May 2020 at 11:00 CEST at Schibsted ASAs offices at Akersgata 55 in Oslo, Norway. The notice and attendance/proxy forms are attached. All documents to be processed in the meeting will be made available on www.adevinta.com.

Due to the COVID-19 situation, Adevinta shareholders are urged to vote by the use of proxy forms prior to the meeting and not physically attend. It is expected that the Annual General Meeting can be followed live from the Companys website www.adevinta.com to enable shareholders monitoring the meeting. The Company may be prevented from arranging the meeting as a physical meeting.

The shareholders should note that additional information on proceedings of the meeting may be given on short notice and announced on the Company's website and through a stock exchange announcement.

Adevintas Board and Executive team are monitoring the development and impact of COVID-19 in our markets. The Groups top priority is protecting the health and safety of its employees, and it is implementing all recommended precautions to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. Adevinta is at all times complying with provisions and guidelines issued by relevant authorities.

It makes a deep impression to see the challenges people are facing every day. In this serious situation it is important for us to act responsibly both as corporate citizens and as employers. A large portion of our colleagues are working remotely, yet we are still delivering a fully functional service to our users and customers, and we expect this to continue, says CEO Rolv Erik Ryssdal.

We are leveraging the strength and reach of our marketplaces by putting them at the service of society through various solidarity initiatives.

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Continues Rolv Erik Ryssdal: With our wide reach and trusted brands, Adevintas marketplaces play an important role locally, and we are proud to contribute efforts to support our communities. For example, across our sites we have taken measures to root out fraud and remove any ads trying to profit by selling face masks or gloves. We have amplified public health messages, and quickly developed product features which make it easy to post, find and promote ads offering help or vital services during this crisis.

Adevinta is also taking measures to support professional clients in difficult situations.

Our teams are working to identify our customers needs and constraints, depending on the situation in the individual market, and to mitigate these where possible. As a market leader in most of our geographies, we have a special responsibility. We aim to navigate the rough waters together with our clients, and to come out on the other side with strengthened ties.

During this fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the public in most of Adevintas markets have faced significant restrictions in terms of social contact and mobility, which has affected activity on Adevintas online classifieds sites.

During March we have seen negative development for display advertising, as some clients choose to defer or cancel their marketing campaigns. We have also faced a decline in traffic and volume of new ads listings, compared to the same period last year in our key markets. This will have a negative impact on revenues in the first quarter of 2020. Our visibility regarding the market development in the second quarter and onwards is limited, so we cannot at this stage quantify the financial impact, Rolv Erik Ryssdal says.

Adevinta is actively monitoring the business implications of the epidemic and is implementing measures to mitigate the effects of lower activity.

We have flexibility in our cost base, and we are adapting our spending to this new context. We have reduced marketing spending, limited recruiting and reallocated resources where needed. Adevinta will continue to focus on our strategic priorities by improving the quality of our services and deepening our long term relationships with our customers. We remain committed to further enhancing our value proposition for our clients and users, comments Rolv Erik Ryssdal.

Adevintas balance sheet is strong. At the end of 2019, the Group had a liquidity reserve of 172 million, which has been further strengthened by 300 million through the refinancing and expansion of our bank facility to 600 million. Adevinta had a net interest-bearing debt/EBITDA ratio of 0.7x at the end of 2019, which is well below the Groups previously-communicated target range of 1.0-4.0x.

Concludes Rolv Erik Ryssdal: With strong market positions and solid financials, we believe we are well equipped to navigate this unprecedented situation. We will continue to rely on our highly talented teams to provide best-in-class service, and to be well-positioned to seize opportunities as they come.

- End-

Adevinta Investor Relations

Marie de Scorbiac

Head of Investor Relations

+33 6 14 65 77 40

ir@adevinta.com

Jo Christian Steigedal

Investor Relations

+47 415 08 733

ir@adevinta.com

Adevinta Media Relations

Melodie Laroche

Corporate Communications

+33 6 84 30 52 76

melodie.laroche@adevinta.com

About Adevinta

Adevinta is a global online classifieds company with generalist, real estate, cars, jobs and other internet marketplaces in 16 countries, connecting buyers seeking goods or services with a large base of sellers. Its portfolio spans 36 digital products and websites, attracting 1.5 billion average monthly visits. Leading brands include top-ranked leboncoin in France, InfoJobs and Milanuncios in Spain, and 50% of fast-growing OLX in Brazil.

Forward-looking information

Matters discussed in this announcement may constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and may be identified by words such as "believe", "aims", "expect", "anticipate", "intends", "estimate", "will", "may", "continue", "should" and similar expressions. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions. Although the Company believes that these assumptions were reasonable when made, these assumptions are inherently subject to significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond its control. Such risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors could cause actual events to differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in this release by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and cannot be relied upon as a guide to future performance. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update, review or revise any forward-looking statement contained in this announcement whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the

Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

Attachments
Pandemic or No Pandemic, Learning Must Go On

Commentary

The king is dead. Long live the king.

This ancient saying means that the monarchy continues even after the king dies. It signifies stability at a time of major change. No matter how different the new king might be, the institution of the monarchy endures.

One could say the same about schools in this time of dramatic change. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools across Canada are closed. But learning goes on, thanks to the work of teachers.

In some form or another, teachers have transitioned, virtually overnight, into distance educators. With regular classes suspended and increasingly strict restrictions on public gatherings enforced by provincial governments, teachers cannot have in-person interactions with their students. This means that teachers must find creative ways to connect with them.

The good news is that teachers have stepped up to the plate. Across the country, teachers are conducting video conferences with their students, making phone calls, sending emails, and photocopying work packages for families without internet access. Considering the instability and upheaval students are experiencing, it is comforting for them to have some sense of normalcy and reassurance from their teachers. And parents are thankful for the work that teachers are doing.

Some social media pundits have used the pandemic as an opportunity to scapegoat teachers and accuse them of sitting at home doing nothing. Anyone who claims that teachers arent working doesnt know how much effort they are putting in to salvage whatever is left of the school year. Theres nothing easy about transforming in-person classroom instruction into distance learning, and yet teachers across the country are doing exactly that.

In the last week alone, I created about a dozen instructional videos, conducted Google Meet video chats with each of my classes of students, participated in several online staff meetings, started revising tests and assignments to deliver in a distance learning format, and responded to many emails from students and parents. Other teachers are working equally hard.

Lets not forget that in the midst of this transition, teachers must also deal with their own family issues and health concerns.

One positive thing to come out of this health emergency is that it has forced governments and teachers unions to set aside some matters and work together for the common good of students and their parents. As a case in point, the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation put a halt to its work-to-rule sanctions for the duration of the crisis. This makes it possible for Saskatchewan teachers to go into their school buildings outside of regular work hours to organize learning material for their students. Obviously, Saskatchewan teachers recognize that now is not the time for restrictive job sanctions which will hurt their students.

Apparently, B.C. teachers agree with Saskatchewan teachers. Last week, the British Columbia Teachers Federation reached an agreement with the B.C. government after nearly a year of acrimonious negotiations and threats of job action. Only a few short weeks ago, a teachers strike looked likely. No doubt the pandemic played a major role in getting both sides to set aside their differences and to quickly hammer out a mutually acceptable agreement.

Labour issues are, of course, important, but it is even more important to safeguard the health and welfare of all Canadians.

Even in Ontario, where teachers unions have been at war with education minister Stephen Lecce for months, there are signs of a thaw in labour relations. Lecce has been making public statements of gratitude to teachers for their work in the midst of this crisis, while leaders of the teachers unions have expressed a willingness to work with Lecce to ensure that Ontario students are looked after.

The unions have also made it clear that while classes are suspended for the time being, teachers are still on the job and are expected to be available to students during every school day. For example, the Manitoba Teachers Society recently sent a memo to its members reminding them that their first responsibility is to their students and that all teachers must provide meaningful learning opportunities for students to experience/explore while learning from home. In other words, pandemic or no pandemic, teachers remain on the job.

Unfortunately, it looks like it will be many weeks before the public health restrictions can be safely lifted. While regular classes will not resume soon, learning still continues. Obviously, learning is going to look different for students from different grades and from province to province. Families without easy access to computer technology are at a significant disadvantage, although some school divisions have already begun sending electronic devices home to help students keep in touch with their teachers.

Even though we are in the midst of a global pandemic, teachers and school administrators are working extremely hard to ensure their students arent left behind. Pandemic or no pandemic, learning must go on. And across the country, it is.

Michael Zwaagstra is a public high school teacher and author of A Sage on the Stage: Common Sense Reflections on Teaching and Learning.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Alphabet Inc.'s GOOGL Google is leaving no stone unturned to help the society in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread, the rising number of infected patients calls for better infrastructure and safety for the comparatively lesser number of healthcare workers. Hospitals are grappling with the rapid spread of the virus, and shortage of medical equipment including face masks and ventilators.

Amid such a situation, Google will donate more than $800 million (645 million pounds) in funds to produce medical supplies in an effort to fight COVID-19.

As part of the donation, the company will provide $340 million in Google ad credits to small and medium businesses to help them produce medical devices and personal protective equipment in a bid to combat the growing crisis. In addition, it will offer $250 million in ad grants to the World Health Organization and many government agencies.

We believe the latest effort of Google is a positive during this coronavirus-induced global crisis. This is likely to instill investor optimism in the stock.

Alphabet Inc. Price and Consensus

Alphabet Inc. Price and Consensus

Googles Growing Endeavors

Alphabet has been making all the necessary efforts to combat this situation.

Google recently launched a website in the United States that offers information related to coronavirus symptoms, treatment and preventive remedies from the World Health Organization.

In addition, its health-care division called Verily recently launched a COVID-19 screening and testing website under Project Baseline. Notably, this particular site offers screening and potential free testing of coronavirus. The website requires users to begin with the eligibility questionnaire. Further, it asks willing users to take the test, sign a COVID-19 Public Health authorization form that allows Verily to collect their information required for the screening process.

Currently, the project is limited to California residents with special focus on Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. Notably, Verily is in talks with the State of California to further expand the project to other counties.

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Per Bloomberg, Verily has successfully conducted tests for around 20 people on the very first day of COVID-19 screening.

Apart from this, Alphabets search division Google is striving to provide coronavirus-related information that will comprise symptoms, risk factors and testing, among others, via another website that is currently at a developing stage.

We believe all these endeavors will continue to drive customer momentum and strengthen its competitive position against other companies.

Competition Intensifies

We note that competition is intensifying among tech companies in managing and preventing the society from the virus by means of their robust technologies.

Companies like Amazon AMZN, Baidu BIDU and Microsoft MSFT, among others, are taking strong measures to help government and people efficiently manage this pandemic situation.

Recently, Amazons cloud computing arm Amazon Web Services (AWS) collaborated with Conduent (CNDT) in a bid to manage the coronavirus pandemic in an efficient way.

In addition, Amazon announced that Whole Foods stores will dedicate an entire hour to serve only senior citizens in an attempt to keep them safe from crowd, as they are more susceptible to COVID-19 infection. Moreover, the company has recently undertaken an initiative to bolster the Same-Day Delivery program by making same-day delivery service available in the cities of Philadelphia, Phoenix, Orlando and Dallas for Prime members.

Meanwhile, Baidu has allowed access to its Linearfold algorithm to scientific and medical teams for the secondary structure prediction of Covid-19 RNA sequence.

Microsoft has unveiled a COVID-19 tracker tool that offers up-to-date infection statistics of every affected country on the tracker. Moreover, the tool provides access to various coronavirus-related articles and other information.

Nevertheless, Googles strengthening initiatives to fight against coronavirus are likely to keep it ahead of the pack.

Zacks Rank

Alphabet currently carriesa Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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Arizona Universities Face Lawsuit Over Unrefunded Housing, Dining Fees

Students have filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Board of Regents, seeking refunds for room, board, and fees from the governing body of Arizonas three public universities.

The lawsuit alleges that the University of Arizona (UA), Arizona State University (ASU), and Northern Arizona University (NAU) have refused to provide a refund of housing, dining, and other costs to students who move out of the campuses due to the ongoing pandemic.



After Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey declared a public health emergency, the Board of Regents announced that the three universities would move classes online and encouraged students to move out of their campus residences.

Adam Levitt, an attorney representing the students, said in a press release that the lawsuit was filed on behalf of all students who made full payments for this spring semester but did not get the services they paid for.

For the 2019-2020 academic year, according to Levitt, undergraduate room and board fees alone at the UA were $13,350. They were $13,510 at ASUs Tempe campus, and $10,780 at NAUs Flagstaff campus. At this time, the UA is offering a credit to students toward the next years housing and meal plans, while ASU and NAU have said they are not planning to provide any refunds.

U of A has refused to return to students the full pro-rated, unused portion of their room and board payments for the semester, and a small housing credit for the next academic year is useless for any student who did not intend to live on-campus during the 2020-2021 academic year, Levitt said. These students lives have been turned upside down in the wake of the global pandemic, and all they and their families are asking is to not be required to pay for services that they are not presently receiving.

The purpose and goal of our lawsuit is to ultimately require the Arizona Board of Regents to return those funds to the rightful owners of those funds, the students and their parents, Levitt said, reported The Arizona Republic.

Michael Crow, president of the ASU, previously said during an interview that students asking for refunds was inappropriate amid the public health emergency.

The funny thing is that somebody declares a national emergency and theyre talking about bringing out martial law in California. And then people ask us, are we going to give them a refund? Are you kidding me? I mean, thats what you want to talk to us about is a refund? said Crow. So, like I said, were offering full, full service. Well sort all of this out at some point, but were not going to sort it out now. Thats like 48th on a list of 48 things.
The United Nations has launched a $2 billion humanitarian appeal to help nations with weak health systems amid coronavirus pandemic. The coordinated global humanitarian response plan (HRP) is aimed at fighting COVID-19 in some of the most vulnerable countries where millions of lives are at risk due to the public health crisis.

The world is only as strong as the weakest health system. This COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan aims to enable us to fight the virus in the worlds poorest countries and address the needs of the most vulnerable people, wrote UN Secretary-General in the foreword of the plan.

The response plan revolves around three strategic priorities which include containing the spread of coronavirus pandemic and decrease morbidity and mortality. It also emphasises on the decreasing the deterioration of human assets and rights, social cohesion and livelihoods.

The financing requirements for the response plan over nine months period, starting in April, is estimated at $2.012 billion which only represent the initial estimate of funding amid additional needs due to coronavirus. The interagency plan has been organised by the UNs Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Read: Coronavirus Crisis: People Show Random Acts Of Kindness Amid Lockdown

Weaker health care systems

Countries with some of the best public health care systems around the world are struggling to mitigate the crisis and economically poorer nations are most vulnerable to the pandemic. According to the latest report, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide is around 7.2 lakh with the United States, Italy and Spain the worst-hit.

However, countries like Iran with a weaker health system amplified by crippling sanctions from the United States could worsen the situation. Iran has already warned about another wave of coronavirus outbreak as some Iranian nationals ignored the guidelines issued by health officials.

Read: Hassan Rouhani Defends Iran's Response To Combat Coronavirus Outbreak

According to a state TV, government spokesperson Ali Rabiei said that some people ignored the advisory and travelled during Iranian New Year holidays which could cause a second wave of the virus outbreak. Iran has reported over 38,000 coronavirus cases and 2,640 deaths, the fourth-highest in the world.

Read: Trump Extends Stay-at-home Plan Until April End As Coronavirus Cases In US Cross 142,000

Read: 'No Decision On Extending 21-day Coronavirus Lockdown': Govt Sources Put Rumours To Rest

(Image: Twitter / @UNOCHA)
One of the most ambitious steps by doctors in the UK is to harvest the blood plasma of coronavirus survivors to help those lacking the anti-bodies to fight the COVID-19 disease. With increasing numbers of cases and death without an anti-vaccine to cure patients, doctors are resorting to using 'hyperimmune' people who survived their encounter with COVID-19.

The plan that can save thousands

Doctors in the UK are now planning to conduct a radical solution in curing coronavirus patient by harvesting the blood plasma of survivors. They will use the blood plasma of those who contracted COVID-19 and developed hyper immunity in their system after getting exposed to the coronavirus.

This gives hope to many that the application of this medical procedure can save more patients.

One of the main targets of the blood plasma is patients with pneumonia caused by the coronavirus. Experts hope that this cure will lessen the number of patients needing ventilators in the intensive care units (ICU) of hospitals.

This treatment will be given to those in close contact with COVID-19 patients, from NHS staff and family members, as soon as treatment is proven successful to others. Medical staff are putting their faith in blood plasma to stop the spread of the coronavirus and help lessen cases that are taxing the resources of the National Health Service (NHS).

Why is it relevant?

The majority of those who have recovered from COVID-19 are assumed to have a significant number of anti-bodies in their system. This blood plasma will be harvested to help other patients, since the blood plasma contains anti-bodies which are vital to defeat the virus.

Experts are now looking for the coronavirus survivors who beat this highly-communicable disease. They will be asked to donate blood for storage and treatment.

What will be given to recipients will be 'convalescent plasma' or blood plasma from coronavirus survivors. They will be part of a clinical trial with consideration for medical funding if proven effective.

Also read: Coronavirus Outbreak Second Wave? Recovered Wuhan Patients Testing Positive Again

An application to the National Institute for Health Research has been asked for two trials to run, Professor David Tappin, a senior research fellow at the University of Glasgow is the head of the study.

Professor Tappin added that "Start-up will need to be faster than is normal, with most other trials usually taking months or years to get approvals and to begin."

Objectives of the clinical trials

These trials will look for definitive proof that 'convalescent plasma' is able to reduce the chances of infections in caregivers. Hopefully, this can also be effective in stopping the patients from slipping until a ventilator is finally available in the ICUs.

Another reason is to heal to severely afflicted with COVID-19 and of course, lessen the alarming death toll.

Tappin added that these trials are crucial and will reveal if the proposed treatment does work. However, it will not be the best solution. While this might lessen the spread of the virus to health personnel and their families, it may not be as effective to patients who have severe complications.

Prof Robert Lechler, the president of the Academy of Medical Sciences and the organization commented that his group will do similar convalescent plasma trials too.

Next steps in finding COVID-19 survivors

The NHS Blood and Transplant are trying to find more donors, added their spokesman. Once the plasma is transferred, the patient will replicate the anti-bodies. There is a collective effort to make it happen. Collecting the blood plasma from coronavirus survivors is just the start, as the blood will then be checked and screened by medical experts.

Related article: Increased Hydroxychloroquine Demand Due to COVID-19 Risk Lives of Lupus Patients as Drug Supply Dwindles

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Nearly all of the United States is currently under full or partial shelter-in-place orders to slow the coronavirus pandemic, leaving just six states as the lone hold-outs.

As of Monday afternoon, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Arkansas have no mandatory shelter-in-place directives at the city or state level.

Some nonessential businesses have been told to close, however. For example, Las Vegas' famed casinos were ordered by Governor Steve Sisolak to close until April 16.

Utah, Wyoming, Alaska, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Maine have partial lockdown orders; individual cities have declared shelter-in-place mandates but the state as a whole has not. You can see a more granular state-by-state breakdown here.

Every state in the U.S. has confirmed COVID-19 cases and all but Hawaii and Wyoming have reported at least one death.

MORE: How bad will the next few weeks be for California as coronavirus cases surge?

Many health experts argue that the key to slowing down COVID-19's worldwide spread is limiting social contact before the virus takes hold in the community.

"Theres no virtue in waiting," Yale professor of epidemiology Gregg Gonsalves told The Guardian. "Social distancing and business closures are meant to be a preventative. Theyre not to be seen as something you do when it gets really bad  its to keep it from getting really bad."

On March 19, California became the first state in the nation to declare a statewide shelter in place. Twenty-eight other states followed suit. The New York Times estimates at least 248 million people in the U.S. are currently under some kind of shelter-in-place order.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey told reporters on a conference call she was not declaring a statewide lockdown (although the state's largest city, Birmingham, has done so). "Yall, we are not Louisiana, we are not New York state, we are not California," Ivey said.

"I think we have to be responsible, we are Iowans," Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds echoed recently. "I shouldn't have to issue an order to say that you need to be responsible and stay home if you're sick."

On Monday, President Donald Trump extended his social distancing guidelines through April 30. Though not mandatory, the guidelines ask that Americans stay at home as much as possible and avoid gatherings of 10 or more people.

Editor's note: A previous version of this story stated that eight states had shelter-in-place orders. On Monday afternoon, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey announced he is mandating shelter-in-place for the state. Jackson in Wyoming has also now implemented mandatory shelter-in-place.

Katie Dowd is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: katie.dowd@sfgate.com.
Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday flouted his government's social distancing guidelines against the spread of the coronavirus by mixing with supporters on the streets of Brasilia and urging them to keep the economy going.

"What I have been hearing from people is that they want to work," the president told a street vendor in one of several videos posted on his Twitter account.

"What I have said from the beginning is that 'we are going to be careful, the over-65s stay at home'," he said.

"We just can't stand still, there is fear because if you don't die of the disease, you starve," the vendor is seen telling Bolsonaro, who responds: "You're not going to die!"



In another video, the president calls for a "return to normality," questioning quarantine measures imposed by governors and some mayors across the giant South American country as an effective containment measure against the virus.

"If it continues like this, with the amount of unemployment what we will have later is a very serious problem that will take years to be resolved," he said of the isolation measures.

"Brazil cannot stop or we'll turn into Venezuela," Bolsonaro later told reporters outside his official residence.

On Saturday, Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta highlighted the importance of containment as a means of fighting the coronavirus, which has already infected 3,904 people in Brazil, leaving 114 dead, according to the latest official figures.

"Some people want me to shut up, follow the protocols," said Bolsonaro. "How many times does the doctor not follow the protocol?" "Let's face the virus with reality. It is life, we must all die one day."



In the four videos posted on his Twitter account, Bolsonaro is seen surrounded by small crowds as he walked about the capital.

Bolsonaro has described the coronavirus as "a flu" and advocated the reopening of schools and shops, with self-isolation necessary solely for the over-60s.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 21:11:07|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- China has been actively making efforts to set up a green channel to facilitate the air cargo transportation of anti-epidemic supplies at home and abroad, according to the State Post Bureau.

The State Post Bureau created the green channel by coordinating enterprises in the mail delivery business via multiple methods such as implementing overseas transfers, increasing charter flights and opening air routes.

These efforts are sustaining the delivery of China's domestic medical emergency supplies, daily necessities and express mail in the nationwide joint anti-epidemic fight.

Meanwhile, they represent crucial support for the international prevention and control of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Major players of China's air cargo industry, such as SF Airlines, China Postal Airlines and YTO Airlines, are contributing to the anti-epidemic fight at home and abroad.

To date, SF Airlines has opened multiple new international cargo air routes and carried around 210 charter flights. From March 1 to 14, cargo flights of the airline sent 108 tonnes of medical and other supplies to 39 countries and regions.

China Postal Airlines had sent 24 charter flights with 42,000 airmail items, weighing around 292 tonnes.

Cainiao, Alibaba's logistics subsidiary, is planning to send 200 charter cargo flights to facilitate two-way logistics into and out of China, aiming to ensure anti-epidemic supplies and express mail of cross-border e-commerce.

China is cultivating its burgeoning air cargo industry. To date, SF Airlines, China Postal Airlines and YTO Airlines have seen the fleet of all-cargo freighters exceed 100, and international cargo air routes exceed 30.

China will continue to add more charter flights and open new air routes to guarantee the smooth transportation of living necessities and medical supplies, said Jin Jinghua, a senior official with the State Post Bureau.

At present, domestic- and foreign-owned international cargo flights in China total 930 per week, which is close to the level recorded before the outbreak.
Halton Region police are investigating a fatal crash in Milton after a stolen car plunged into a pond.

The incident occurred just before 7:15 p.m. Sunday near Bronte Street North and Steeles Avenue West.

Police said a silver Mercedes was was travelling north on Bronte when it suddenly left the road, crashed into a hydro pole and plummeted into a small pond east of the roadway.

The vehicle was recovered from the pond after several minutes and the lone male occupant was rushed to the hospital, Staff Sgt. Jeff Dunham said in a news release.

The driver, a 34-year-old Windsor man whose name wasnt released by police, was pronounced dead at Milton District Hospital.

Police said that investigators at the scene learned that the car was stolen.

The forces reconstruction unit is investigating the collision.

Anyone with information can call police at 905-825-4747 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
Lisa wrote: My husband works across the country and travels home on the weekends. We have been doing this for about eight months, with me staying behind until our boys finish their senior years  one in high school and one in university. He is now working from home until further notice. So now he is able to stay for an extended period of time. We have all missed each other so much and waking up with him home on Monday morning was our silver lining.
The senior MI5 officer who led the investigation into the poisoning of the Skripals and organised security for the London Olympics, has been appointed the new head of the service.

Ken McCallum, who has been working for the Security Service for 25 years, had been the head of counter-terrorism after extensive experience dealing with republican and loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland before focusing on Islamist extremists and cyber warfare.

Mr McCallum becomes the 18th director general of MI5, succeeding Sir Andrew Parker who retires after seven years in the post. This is the first part of changeovers at the top of Britains security and intelligence services. MI6 chief, Alex Younger, is also expected to retire this year after serving for six years as C. Both the men had extended their term in office to oversee the Brexit process.

Candidates from outside the services have been considered for the post, however Mr McCallum had been viewed as the firm favourite for the MI5 job, it was felt, with the need for continuity in uncertain and hazardous times.

It was also felt that Mr McCallums long-standing working relationship with European counterparts will be of great value as the UK leaves the European Union, with details of the security arrangement still to be finalised

Mr McCallum, who is Scottish, went to a state school, as did Parker. He graduated with a degree in mathematics from Glasgow University and is said to be keen on engaging with the private sector in a number of fields.

The Security Service stated that one of the new heads main priorities would be concentrating on the challenges of technology. There is recognition of rapidly increasing threats of cyber attacks from hostile states, terrorist groups and organised crime.

There are also rising dangers from hacking and disinformation campaigns, with investigations into Russian interference into the US Presidential election, which took Donald Trump to the White House, and charges of the Kremlin trying to manipulate votes in elections and referendums in Europe.

Mr McCallum also organised security for Londons 2012 Olympic games (Home Office/PA)

The latest example of a state organised misinformation offensive, it is claimed, is the orchestrated claim by the government in Beijing that the coronavirus pandemic did not start in China, but the result of a secret US and Western operation.

One of the issues Mr McCallum will inherit is the continuing controversy of the involvement of Huawei into the UKs 5G network. Boris Johnsons government faced a commons revolt over letting in the Chinese company, and there is likely to be renewed pressure from the US administration on the issue in the aftermath of the fallout of the row over coronavirus and charges of Chinese subterfuge.

In one of his last public statements, Parker said that he found it increasingly mystifying that security agencies are not able to read encrypted messages of terror suspects who they are tracking. The result, he held, is that cyberspace has become a wild west, unregulated and inaccessible to authorities.

However, the intelligence and security services will also have to deal with the very real violent threats, say officials, from extremists, far right as well as Islamist groups and "lone wolves".

There is an expectation that after seeing the devastation, in lives as well as economic terms, by Covid-19, terrorist groups may try to intensify efforts to acquire biological and chemical capabilities.

Mr McCallum said in a statement: MI5s purpose is hugely motivating. Our people  with our partners  strive to keep the country safe and they always want to go the extra mile. Having devoted my working life to that team effort, it is a huge privilege now to be asked to lead it as director general.

The home secretary, Priti Patel, said: Since becoming home secretary, I have worked closely with Ken and Im delighted to appoint him as the new director general. We are facing unprecedented national security threats and Im confident that his experience and vision will allow the UK to meet those challenges head on.

I also would like to pay tribute to Sir Andrew Parker, who has led the service through a very challenging period which saw the threat to the UK evolve rapidly. He has served his country with dedication and commitment and I thank him for his efforts.
A man has been Tasered and arrested after allegedly claiming he had Covid-19 and coughing over police officers.

The Metropolitan Police firearms command said on Twitter that the suspect had walked up to officers in a car in Haringey, north London, and "shouted that he had coronavirus before deliberately coughing saliva all over them".

He then began to physically attack them, officers said, before he was Tasered and arrested, police say.

The suspect was later tested for the virus and found not to have it.

Last week, director of public prosecutions Max Hill warned the public that using Covid-19 as a threat against emergency workers would be treated as a crime that could lead to up to two years in prison.

Deliberately coughing at other key workers such as supermarket staff could be prosecuted as a common assault, which could mean up to six months in prison.

Mr Hill said: "Let me be very clear: this is a crime and needs to stop. The CPS stands behind emergency and essential workers and will not hesitate to prosecute anybody who threatens them as they go about their vital duties."

Before and during Coronavirus lockdown - In pictures 1 /44 Before and during Coronavirus lockdown - In pictures AP Buckingham Palace AP Piccadilly Line tube AP Big Ben AP Millennium bridge AP Wembley Stadium AP St Pancras International train station AP Downing Street AP Victoria Station AP Regent Street AP The Mall leading to Buckingham Palace AP London's National Gallery in Trafalgar Square PA Edinburgh's Royal Mile PA Barry Island, South Wales PA Bath PA Bath PA London's Waterloo station PA London Bridge PA London's Canary Wharf Jubilee Line platform PA London's Canary Wharf Station PA London's Buckingham Palace PA London's Tower Bridge PA London's Leicester Square PA London's Millennium Bridge with St Paul's Cathedral PA London's Criterion Theatre PA London's Palace Theatre PA London's Phoenix Theatre PA London's Canary Wharf Station PA Bournemouth beach PA Bath PA Bath PA Barry Island, South Wales PA Bournemouth beach PA

The warning came after Darren Rafferty, 45, from Dagenham, admitted on Wednesday to deliberately coughing at Metropolitan Police officers before claiming he had Covid-19.

He admitted causing grievous bodily harm to his former partner and three counts of assault on an emergency worker and faces sentencing next month.

Elsewhere, David Mott, 40, of no fixed address, was jailed for 26 weeks on Wednesday after "coughing and spitting" at police officers in Blackburn who had stopped and questioned him about being with two others following the announcement of stricter social distancing rules on Monday night, Lancashire Constabulary said.
Students at Liberty University are more likely than most to understand the specialness of this biblical lesson. It is one of the few stories in which Falwell should not be assigned the part of an ass. For that matter, he does not even deserve the role of Balaam, who at least was open to instruction. Instead, Falwell has charged the angel straight on and  in defiance of nearly all public health experts  reopened the Liberty dorms in the middle of a pandemic. Now, according to the New York Times, at least one student has tested positive and several more have shown coronavirus-like symptoms.
Face masks sewed by workers of the University hospital are seen, as the spread of the CCP Virus continues in Essen, Germany, on March 30, 2020. (Reuters/Leon Kuegeler)

Face Masks Confiscated by Czech Police Imported by Chinese Businessman With Links to Regime: Report

Hundreds of thousands of face masks recently seized by Czech police in an anti-trafficking operation were imported into the country by an overseas Chinese businessman with close links to Beijing, according to an investigative report by local media.

On March 16, police raided a warehouse of a private company in the northwestern Czech town of Lovosice, where they seized 680,000 masks and 28,000 ventilators. About 100,000 face masks were labeled as Chinese Red Cross aid to Italy.

The medical supplies were imported by Czech-Chinese businessman Zhou Lingjian, a prominent figure in the Chinese regimes influence operations in the country, Aktualne.cz reported on March 26.

Zhou runs an influential Czech Chinese-language media outlet, the Prague Chinese Times, and heads the largest overseas Chinese association in the country, the Czech Qingtian Hometown Association. The association is a member of the Czech Association for the Promotion of the Peaceful Unification of China, a group known to be a front organization for the Chinese Communist Partys United Front Work Department, the agency responsible for the regimes overseas influence operations.

The revelations come as the Chinese regime ramps up its efforts to portray itself as a humanitarian leader amid the global pandemic. As part of a campaign to divert attention away from its initial mishandling of the CCP Virus outbreak in Wuhan, the regime has dispatched medical experts and sent supplies to hard-hit countries in Europe and elsewhere, in a bid to present itself an exemplar in global containment efforts.

According to Aktualne.cz, Zhou sold the masks to a Czech reseller who then attempted to sell the supplies to the government at twice the normal cost.

Italy-Czech Dispute

Meanwhile, the confiscated aid to Italy led to a diplomatic spat between the Czech Republic and Italy last week. After an outcry by Italian media over the seizure, the Czech Republic sent 110,000 masks to Italy as compensation.

The Italian embassy said that Czech authorities confirmed that humanitarian aid found in the warehouse was stolen, Czech media Hospodarske noviny reported. Meanwhile, the Czech minister of foreign affairs, Tomas Petricek, told Aktualne.cz that the police raid was targeting an organized group that most likely had committed fraud.

Zhous associate, Mr. Yu, told the outlet that the aid was originally supposed to be sent on a direct flight from China to Italy, but was canceled. It was then supposed to be sent by car from Prague to Italy, but this was scrapped after the borders were closed. The outlet noted, however, the Czech border remains open to trucks and cargo.

Mr. Yu added that Zhou sold part of the masks to the Czech reseller at the usual price because he didnt want to deal directly with the Czech government.

Czech Collection Drive

Back in February, Zhous local Chinese association was at the forefront of a Czech collection drive to send medical supplies to China. Zhou collected 780,000 surgical masks and more than 30,000 single-use surgical coats and N95 respirators. He had planned to send the equipment back to China via logistics company Cainiao, an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, according to a Feb. 17 report by Chinese state-run news website China Internet Information Center.

But Filip Jirous, a researcher at the Czech-based China-focused think tank Sinopsis, suggested that the supplies may not have made it to China.

This created suspicion that the material [seized at the warehouse] is actually from the local Chinese collection, Jirous said in a March 26 tweet.
Qantas' international pilot group has voted in favour of a new pay deal that will cover proposed non-stop services to London and New York after the airline threatened to bring in outside pilots to operate the flights.

But the airline's ambitious "Project Sunrise" is on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic which has devastated airlines globally, despite pilots backing the plan to launch ultra-long haul flights from Sydney and Melbourne in 2023.

Pilots have approved a crucial wage deal, but Qantas has deferred ordering new aircraft for Project Sunrise. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Qantas had a March deadline to place a multibillion-dollar order with Airbus for a new fleet of up to 12 A350-1000s jets to operate what would be the longest commercial flights in the world. The carrier said it needed pilots to agree to a new pay deal which included "productivity benefits" to make the Project Sunrise business case stack up before it could make the order.

Last month, Qantas threatened to hire a separate workforce of pilots if they rejected the deal.
With Washington dialing up the economic pressure on Tehran, an Iranian government spokesperson blasted the United States for its indictment of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro.

No international law allows the US to interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries and prepare the ground for a coup, overthrow or aggression against an independent state, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Seyyed Abbas Mousavi said on Friday.

The US governments unilateralism and shameless enforcement of domestic law beyond borders have reached its climax," Mousavi added.

The US Justice Department unveiled criminal charges against Maduro and other current and former senior Venezuelan government officials on Thursday. The indictments, which were the result of a years-long investigation by federal prosecutors across three US cities, accused the 57-year-old leader of narco-terrorism, drug trafficking and corruption.

The unsealed indictments accuse Maduro and members of his inner circle of running a criminal enterprise known as the Cartel de Los Soles (Cartel of the Suns) that colluded with the Columbia-based insurgent group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, known as the FARC, to flood the United States with cocaine.

The US State Department meanwhile offered a $15 million reward for information that could lead to Maduros arrest.

The Donald Trump administration has kept up the pressure on both Iran and Venezuela amid the coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, the US Treasury Department imposed fresh sanctions on 20 companies, Iranian officials and individuals with ties to the regimes Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other US-designated terrorist groups.

Iran is experiencing the regions worst coronavirus outbreak, with more than 32,000 reported cases of COVID-19 and 2,378 deaths.

The White House has resisted calls from some world leaders and human rights organizations to ease its maximum pressure campaign of sanctions against Iran, which Tehran says is hampering its ability to contain the virus. Officials in Iran have increasingly taken to social media to condemn the US for what it calls economic terrorism.

Earlier this month, the US blacklisted more than a dozen companies in the United Arab Emirates, China, Hong Kong and South Africa for allegedly engaging with Irans petrochemical industry.
New Delhi, March 30 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday asked all envoys of India across the world, during an unprecedented video-conference, to identify countries for procurement of medical equipment and ensure smooth international trade for essential supplies through the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the video-conference with the heads of all the missions of India worldwide, Prime Minister Modi advised the diplomats to ensure that commerce in essential supplies, logistics chains and remittances are unaffected, through their coordination with foreign partners.

He also asked the envoys to "identify in their countries of accreditation best practices, innovations, scientific breakthroughs and sources to procure medical equipment, for India's fight against the coronavirus." A ministry of external affairs statement said, the video conference - the first such event for Indian missions worldwide - was convened to discuss responses to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Explaining the reasoning of his decision for a countrywide lockdown for 21 days, the Prime Minister said extraordinary times require extraordinary solutions. "This was an unavoidable step taken to fight this pandemic, but it was also hugely consequential, as the closure of the globalised system has had an extensive and far-reaching impact upon the international transport system, financial markets and the global economy," he said.

India, he pointed out, had taken early steps in response to this pandemic from mid-January this year, to reduce the risk of importing the infection, and thereafter to prevent a large outbreak.

The Prime Minister complimented heads of missions for their efforts to evacuate Indians stranded abroad in some of the epicentres of the crisis. He also exhorted them to ensure their own health and safety, and that of their teams and families and attend to the problems of Indians stranded in various foreign countries.

In response, 10 heads of mission, in Beijing, Washington DC, Tehran, Rome, Berlin, Kathmandu, Abu Dhabi, Kabul, Male, and Seoul outlined their efforts to help Indians stranded abroad, in particular, students and workers.
Chandigarh, March 30 : With five new coronavirus cases reported on Monday in Chandigarh, the total such cases in the Union Territory rose to 13, doctors said.

The new cases are of an NRI couple who returned from Canada and a family of three, the primary contact of a COVID-19 patient.

The NRI couple, aged 32 and residents of Canada, has been admitted to Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) in Sector 32. They have tested positive.

Similarly, three family members, including mother, of a coronavirus patient also tested positive in the GMCH. He is a 22-year-old man from Chandigarh who returned from Dubai on March 11.

He had developed fever in home quarantine on March 25, the 15th day of his return, and tested positive on March 27.

"Bad news, one new corona positive case in Chandigarh. Dubai returned. Symptoms detection on 15th day. Unusual. Tracing his contacts. All will be quarantined," Chandigarh Adviser Manoj Parida had said in a tweet.
The Cambodian government confirmed Monday morning four new coronavirus cases in the country, bringing the tally to 107, with Prime Minister Hun Sen to adopt the state of emergency law on Friday this week.

The four new cases include one French national and three Cambodians. Among the three Cambodians, a 30-year-old man from Banteay Meanchey province, worked at a casino and a karaoke bar.

Another man, a Kampong Cham native, had returned on Friday from a trip to Japan, and the third Cambodian with the disease returned on Friday from a trip to England. The French national, 61, had travelled from the South American country of Guyana.

Cambodias COVID-19 tally has seen a significant increase this month, even though its numbers remain low compared to its neighbors and far lower than some European countries and the United States.

Speaking to the media at the National Assembly, Hun Sen addressed the countrys response to the viral pandemic, announcing that the government finished a draft law to enforce a state of emergency, though not providing any details of its scope.

Article 22 of the Constitution allows for the King to declare a state of emergency after consulting with the Prime Minister and presidents of the National Assembly and Senate.

Now the draft is finished. I will lead the cabinet meeting tomorrow on [March] 31st to discuss the draft before the meeting scheduled on Friday, he said.

I think the law is just a means to be ready and in hand when the situation is out of control, Hun Sen, adding that he has not seen the situation needed to use this law yet. But he said the law will be enacted and promulgated by the King in an expedited manner.

He announced that all casinos have been ordered closed starting April 1 and has even banned the export of regular white rice and paddy rice, a key export product mainly to Vietnam and Thailand, starting April 5.

Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watchs deputy director for Asia, said Hun Sens government had continually downplayed the threat of the virus but it seemed the prime minister had now realized a public health crisis was opportune for him to assume even more dictatorial powers.

Giving [Prime Minister] Hun Sen more powers at this stage will probably just enable him to make bigger, more rights abusing mistakes going forward, and once again, it will be the Cambodian people who suffer, he said in an email.
This time last week, there was one confirmed case of coronavirus. How things have changed.

City of Midland officials reported the 12th and 13th cases of coronavirus  the 12th in six days  in Midland County on Sunday.

The 12th confirmed case is a male in his 20s  the source of exposure is to a known case, a press release from the city stated.

The 13th confirmed case is a male in his 20s  the source of exposure is related to travel within the United States, stated a press release sent two hours later.

Confirmed case No. 12 is an outpatient and self-quarantine is taking place at home, according to the release.

Confirmed case No. 13 was tested by a private provider and is self-isolating at home. The source of exposure is related to travel within the United States.

The 13 cases in Midland County are more than comparable to counties across the region. In Taylor County -- Abilene resides -- there were seven cases as of Saturday evening. There were three in Tom Green County -- San Angelo-- and three in Ector County -- Odessa. City of Odessa officials reported four new cases on Sunday  the third and fourth in three days.

Medical Center Hospital President and CEO Russell Tippin announced at a Facebook live press conference Sunday night that a 58-year-old male and a 55-year-old female tested positive for COVID-19. They had been at MCH for the last three days and remain in isolation.

The hospital has tested 39 people, Tippin said. Fourteen are pending approval from the health department to go up to the state; 11 are waiting on results.

Earlier in the day, the city of Odessa reported a husband and wife in their 60s tested positive.

The source of their exposure is currently unknown, according to the press release from the city. The man is currently at the hospital in Odessa and the woman in self-isolating at home.

Odessa Mayor David Turner stated Sunday in a Facebook Live post that he will to issue an order that puts stricter measures in place in Odessa (a modified shelter in place). He has previously said this weekend that his mother has been tested for COVID-19. Turner also said he has not been exposed to the virus.

I have not been within 10 feet of her and Ive worn an N-95 mask and protective gear when I have been around her, Turner said. I have not put anyone in any danger of exposure to COVID-19. I understand the severity of the public health crisis we are currently in, and I want all of you to be assured the safety and well-being of my family, my staff, and the City of Odessa are of the utmost importance to me.

Midland Mayor Patrick Payton again stated Sunday  in an email to the Reporter-Telegram  there will not be any proposed changes from him unless the city council makes a change at its special meeting on Tuesday.

Texas Department of State Health Services reports that Midlands 13 confirmed cases would tie for 25th among counties statewide (as of numbers reported by 8 p.m. Saturday). Eight counties have more than 100 confirmed cases. Midland also has more than one-third of the cases of Lubbock County, which has 41, according to DSHS.

Four other counties closer to Midland-Odessa with confirmed cases include Martin, Crane, Gaines and Dawson, which have one each.
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The central government and State Bank of India have warned citizens against a fake Unified Payments Service (UPI) ID created by scamsters for collecting money under PM CARES Fund.

To help the government fight the coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appealed to the citizens to donate to the PM CARES Fund.



Beware of Fake UPI ID being circulating on the pretext of PM CARES Fund.#PIBFactcheck: The correct UPI ID of #PMCaresFunds is pmcares@sbi#PMCARES#IndiaFightsCoronapic.twitter.com/eHw83asBQ9

 PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) March 29, 2020



Dear Customer, thank you for notifying us about this UPI ID. We have immediately alerted our UPI team on the issue. We sincerely appreciate your alertness. We would like to make everyone aware that the authorised VPA (UPI ID) for donations towards the PM Relief Fund is (1/2)

 State Bank of India (@TheOfficialSBI) March 30, 2020

Through the PIB FACT Check Twitter handle, the government clarified that pmcares@sbi is the correct ID, and requested donors to be careful.Some SBI customers also raised the issue of the fake UPI ID.

The Delhi Police said the fake UPI ID was highlighted by twitter user @bishwesh0604 , Mint reported.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

Donations to the fund can also be made via debit and credit cards, net banking, and RTGS/NEFT.

India has so far recorded 1,071 cases of COVID-19, and 27 deaths, according to the health ministry.

Since March 28, the fund has seen large amounts of donations from several individuals and organisations.

Follow our full coverage here
An NHS worker has revealed how a vile yob spat in her face while she walked home from a 10-hour shift, as health bosses warn that the coronavirus crisis has triggered a surge in attacks on doctors and nurses.

Sama Shali, 33, fears she was targeted by the unidentified yob as she was still wearing her ID badge for the The Christie Hospital in Withington, south Manchester.

It comes as hospitals are warning workers not to wear their uniforms in the street and to cover their security lanyards amid a spike in abuse aimed at NHS staff, with Piers Morgan vowing to name and shame thugs who target health professionals.

Sama stopped walking after she heard a man on a bicycle say something to her as she headed to a tram station in Didsbury.

She said: 'He said something to me and I took my earphones out to hear what he said. I asked him if he could give me some space as he was quite close to me and then he spat in my face.'

Since the coronavirus pandemic landed in Britain NHS workers have suffered a number of thefts and attacks from the public:

Two doctors were approached for the ID badges in a failed mugging in Lewisham

Nurses are being called 'disease spreaders' and are being heckled in the street

A community care nurse had her car stolen with thousands of pounds worth of equipment inside in Longsight, Greater Manchester

Wayne Harvey, 32, stole an A&E receptionist's handbag and assaulted a security guard at George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton.

A doctor was forced to hand over cash in Harlow, Essex last Wednesday

Muggers took ID cards from staff near University College Hospital in London

Troll tells Staffordshire paramedic she 'was the reason the Covid-19 death toll is rising' after she posted a viral selfie

Pharmacists are also being 'intimidated' and 'sworn at' by customers

Chief Nursing Officer tells the British public: 'Listen and respect' NHS staff

Sama Shali, 33, was spat at twice as she walked home from a 10-hour shift at The Christie Hospital in Withington, in Manchester. Fortunately two women were on hand to picture the yob

Sama, 33, is concerned her ID badge for The Christie Hospital was the reason for the thug to approach her in West Didsbury on Wednesday. NHS staff have been advised not to wear their uniform on their way to work

Sama continued: 'I was so shocked and I told him I was going to ring the police. He just started circling me on his bike and then he did it again - he spat at my face again.'

Thankfully for Sama, who lives in Stretford, there were two women running nearby who saw the incident and were able to take a photo of the man and make him leave her alone.

Sama said: 'I am so grateful to the women that helped me. But I am so shocked and upset about it - I just dont understand why it happened to me.

'I am scared he might have had coronavirus and wanted to spread it. Now I am scared that I could pass it on to my colleagues or patients.

'We are short-staffed and I am scared of the impact it will have on my team if I become ill.'

Sama, who has worked in the NHS since 2015 and was previously a pharmacy manager at HMP Manchester, currently works in the cancer research department at The Christie Hospital.

Nurses are being called 'disease spreaders' while being heckled and spat at in the streets, according to Royal College of Nursing director Susan Masters

University College Hospital, pictured, has seen its staff targeted by muggers in the past week. Doctors and nurses are now being told not to wear uniform on their way into work

She fears the attacker may have targeted her as her work lanyard was on show.

Man, 27, is charged with punching hospital worker in the face, breaking his cheekbone A hospital worker has suffered a fractured cheekbone after he was punched in the face. Greater Manchester Police said Daniel Shevlin, 27, had been charged with Section 20 assault and an offence under Section 4a of the Public Order Act after the alleged incident at Salford Royal Infirmary on Sunday. Officers were called just before 1.50pm to reports a man had assaulted a member of NHS staff at the hospital. The staff member - a man in his 50s - required treatment for a fractured cheekbone but has since been discharged, police said. A force spokesman said Shevlin, of no fixed abode, had been remanded in custody and was due to appear at Manchester and Salford Magistrates Court on Monday. Meanwhile, a Brighton man has been charged after three police officers were allegedly spat at by a man claiming to be infected with coronavirus. Police were responding to a report of criminal damage at a block of flats in Albion Street at about 5.50pm on Saturday. The incident led to the arrest of Peter Davy, 65, unemployed, of Albion Street, Brighton, who is due in court on Monday. He is charged with: three counts of assaulting an emergency worker; using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause fear of violence; and using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress. He was remanded in custody to appear at Brighton Magistrates Court. Advertisement

Sama said: 'When I went home I had about three showers, not just because I felt dirty but because I was so upset.

'I spent all of the next morning crying.'

Healthcare workers have been abused and mugged for cash and ID cards amid the coronavirus crisis.

Piers Morgan today vowed to name and shame any thug targeting NHS workers.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain he said: 'We will keep naming and shaming, both here and on Twitter.

'Anyone who's behaving like this needs to be named, shamed and dealt with. Until the message gets home to these thick skulls.

'This is a fight we're all in. People are going to die and the priority is saving lives.'

Chief nursing officer Ruth May says she is 'shocked' to hear of the attack:

'Our NHS and social care staff are pulling out all the stops in the face of an unprecedented global health threat, so I am shocked at some of the stories I am hearing of NHS staff being assaulted, spat at or attacked for their ID badges.

'I was deeply moved by the country coming together to clap our carers last week and the many stories of generosity colleagues from businesses and members of the public, but these inspiring displays of gratitude are at risk of being overshadowed by the stupid behaviour of an idiotic few who are putting lives at risk.

'So I am calling on the public to respect and listen to NHS staff, because you may be needing them very soon  please stay at home, wash your hands and save lives.'

The Royal College of Nursing says its members have been called 'disease spreaders' as they head to work on the frontline of the NHS in recent days.

Nurses and doctors have been told not to head to work in their uniform on their way to work and to keep their ID badges hidden, to avoid being preyed upon by petty thieves.

It comes after a thieves tried to mug doctors for their ID cards near Lewisham Hospital and University College Hospital in London.

On Thursday nurses were sent an email advising them not to wear uniform, while other medical staff have been told not to show their NHS ID badges.

The email read: 'Until further notice, can all nurses no longer wear their uniforms to travel to and from their place of work,' according to The Times.

'I'm not surprised, sadly. I know people are worried and upset and we are easy targets,' one nurse told the paper.

Last week a doctor in Harlow, Essex was approached by a gang of three youths who took him to a cash machine and forced him to withdraw cash.

More than 500 has been raised since a community nurse from Manchester had her car stolen from her drive last Wednesday. The car had her medical kit inside.

Two weeks ago thieves targeted two doctors outside Lewisham Hospital and tried to steal their NHS badges.

Doctors in London have been targeted for their NHS ID badges in London. The ID cards can get staff discounts at restaurants and shops, most of which have closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Stock image

The thieves, who approached the staff members as they walked through a park around the back of the hospital, were unsuccessful.

A similar incident is now thought to have happened at University College Hospital, after two doctors were mugged nearby.

Staff are now being told to keep their badges hidden and only show them to official staff or to a patient.

Pharmacists are also being 'intimidated' and 'sworn at' by customers, according to national pharmaceutical bodies.

Leyla Hannbeck, Chief Executive of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMP), said: 'Pharmacy teams do not deserve to be treated unkindly, sworn at and attacked for going over and beyond during these difficult times. Their efforts should be appreciated and applauded.'

Susan Masters, the Royal College of Nursing's director of policy, told The Times: 'I hear from community nurses that they are being heckled at and verbally abused and called 'disease spreaders'. This is abhorrent behaviour, it must stop.'

Greater Manchester Police is trying to find the man who spat at Miss Shali.

He is described as a white man in his 30s, who was wearing a black jumper with black jeans and was riding a red bicycle.

No arrests have been made.

Anyone with information should contact police on 101 quoting incident number 2139 of 25/03/2020.
A couple from Chengalam in Kottayam district of Kerala, who have recovered from the deadly coronavirus infection has only one message for those infected persons and those under observation. Dont panic, though the isolation period is tough, you will be able to recover from the infection.

Talking to regional TV channels, the young couple Robin and Reena who contracted the virus from Reenas Italy-returned parents appreciated the dedicated service of the doctors and paramedical staff who helped them come out of the mental trauma during the 21 days of hospital stay.

Initially when tested positive for the virus we were shocked and in deep mental trauma. We were scared by the newspaper reports and social media news on the escalating number of Covid deaths in China and Italy. We were also worried about our daughter. She was with us in the hospital though the child was not infected. We got world class treatment at the Kottayam government medical college. The doctors and other staff were keen on boosting our confidence and it is their committed efforts that brought us back to life. We were also upset by the social media abuse of Reenas parents Robin told TV channels.

The in-laws of Robin, who returned from Italy, were widely blamed by the local residents and social media for spreading the virus in Ranni of Pathanamthitta district, by allegedly skipping the health check-up at Cochin international airport.

We should completely cooperate with the government and the health authorities as they are trying hard to prevent the virus spread, the couple asserted.

The couple has been discharged from the hospital and now under home quarantine.
A new police website encouraging New Zealanders to report neighbours they suspect of breaking lockdown rules during the coronavirus outbreak has crashed because of the volume of complaints.

Police said around 4,200 claims were made during the first 24 hours after the service went live on Sunday, amid reports of parties, rugby games and people out playing frisbee.

Mike Bush, New Zealands police commissioner, said it showed citizens were passionate about everyone complying with the nationwide restrictions.

The vast majority of Kiwis or people inside New Zealand are complying brilliantly ... they know that to stay home saves lives, said Mr Bush.

At the same time, those people who are complying are very passionate to ensure that others comply.

Under strict lockdown rules, everyone in New Zealand is required to stay at home, except to exercise, go to supermarkets and pharmacies, or go to work in essential services  with all non-essential businesses and schools closed.

The police website is back up again after crashing on Monday. Around 1,000 of the first days reports were reportedly related to businesses allegedly flouting lockdown rules, while the rest were about individuals.

The website was set up after more than 2,000 people called a national hotline last week to complain about alleged violations.

Police have so far arrested three people for persistent breaches of the rules, according to The New Zealand Herald.

On Saturday, police were called to backpackers party involving up to 60 people in the resort town of Queenstown.

Mr Bush said at a press conference that the revellers had decided upon very poor advice that they could follow social distancing measures together in one bubble.

The police commissioner said it mass gathering and the backpackers had been told by officers to break up into much smaller groups.

Given its New Zealands large tourist industry, backpackers accommodation has been deemed an essential service and can remain open so long as strict rules are followed. Common areas have been shut and contact is to be maintained only with people staying in the same room.

The police commissioner said it was not okay for tourists to continue to travel the country in camper vans, and warned them to stay where you are.

Prime minister Jacinda Ardern has been doing news conferences via Facebook for more than 30 minutes a day, sometimes taking queries as she livestreams from bed in a sweater.

New Zealands tally of 589 coronavirus infections, and one death, is smaller than other countries, such as its larger neighbour Australia, which has 4,200 cases and 17 deaths.
Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy has tested positive for the coronavirus Covid-19.

RTE confirmed that the radio and TV presenter has the virus. The station said Ryan is doing well at home and hopes to be back at work soon.

"Like so many other people in Ireland, I tested positive but I was in the very fortunate position to have a very unintrusive experience, which I now have come to the end of.

"While I've been at home watching television and listening to the radio, I have been bowled over by the extraordinary work of our front line heroes and their families who continue to make Ireland a healthier and safer place. I look forward to being back to work really soon," he said.

Oliver Callan will continue to host The Ryan Tubridy Show on RTE Radio 1. Plans for this Friday's Late Late Show will be issued in the coming days.

Oliver Callan has filled for Ryan for the past week while Miriam O'Callaghan presented the most recent edition of the Late Late. It said at the time that he had been suffering from a persistent cough which is a symptom of the illness.

Ryan went through a dummy testing process for Covid-19 when he last presented the show.

His fellow RTE presenter and Laois native Claire Byrne also tested positive but has also since recovered.
A photo of Georgia healthcare professionals on a Southwest Airlines flight traveling to New York to help with the mounting coronavirus outbreak is being praised on social media.

The photo shows dozens of people, some wearing masks and gloves, holding their hands in the shape of a heart.

Southwest Airlines shared the encouraging snapshot on Instagram, but its reach has transcended onto Facebook and Twitter, where tens of thousands of users have praised the healthcare workers for their bravery.

Southwest Airlines shared a photo of about 30 healthcare professionals from Atlanta, Georgia, flying to New York City to help overwhelmed medical staff during the coronavirus outbreak

Southwest Airlines spokesman Derek K. Hubbard said on Sunday that an Atlanta ramp agent captured the photo before the flight took off for LaGuardia Airport.

Southwest Airlines wrote: These brave souls soldier on in the midst of tremendous risk and exposure, constantly putting the needs of others above their own. Their selfless sacrifice is a beacon of light during such a dark time in our world, and no amount of gratitude and praise would ever be enough.

More than a dozen healthcare professionals from Atlanta answered the call this past Friday evening to serve in New York. This photo embodies it all: bravery, courage, and sacrifice. If it were easy, everyone would do it, but we know that is not the case.

So to all the first responders, medical professionals, healthcare workers, and anyone else on the front lines today and every day to keep us safe, thank you.

As of Sunday night, New York City has recorded more than 33,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and at least 776 deaths

On Sunday, 104 people died of coronavirus in New York City after a staggering 222 died the prior day

Social media users were blown away by the healthcare workers commitment to saving lives and treating the coronavirus pandemic.

So much gratitude to all these men and woman putting themselves in harms way to save people, one woman wrote.

Another wrote: So very grateful & proudAmazing angels in our healthcare system being serving by Southwests warriors.

In New York City, there are 33,474 confirmed cases and at least 776 deaths. New York State alone reported nearly 60,000 confirmed cases of the disease as of Sunday.

The US has amassed 142,630 infections and a death toll of 2,509.

Healthcare workers in the country's pandemic epicenter describe the front lines as a 'war zone' as they battle to treat hoards of nervous patients and ration dwindling medical supplies

In the country's pandemic epicenter, medical staff have described hospitals - with the influx of patients, soaring infection cases and lack of protective supplies - a 'war zone.'

In a letter to President Trump about the health crisis, City Council Members Francisco Moya and Carlina Rivera asked the federal government for more medical personnel and supplies.

'The conditions at Elmhurst and Queens Hospitals are grave,' they wrote.

'If you speak with any of the staff there, the desperation in their voices is unmistakable. Doctors describe scenes in apocalyptic terms. Patients are reportedly dying in the emergency room still waiting for a bed.

Pictures taken of local area hospitals show throngs of concerned residents, many in face masks and gloves, in line to receive coronavirus testing.

Video shared Monday show dead bodies being loaded onto a refrigerated truck with a forklift outside a Brooklyn hospital.

A man recording the footage repeats 'this is real', 'take it seriously' and 'stay inside', as the bodies are driven along the road.

The clip was shared the same day a nurse at a Manhattan hospital shared an image of inside of one of the trucks, lined on either side with body bags.

Across the city, residents donning face masks and gloves wait in line to undergo coronavirus testing at local hospitals. Pictured: 'Patients wearing face masks and personal protective equipment wait on line for COVID-19 testing outside Elmhurst Hospital Center'

A 38-year-old nurse at a Manhattan hospital shared this image yesterday of the inside of one of the refrigerated trucks lined on either side with the dead bodies of covid-19 victims

The 38-year-old took the photo at the end of his shift on Sunday 'to show people' the 'ghastly reality' of the coronavirus in the US, he told Buzzfeednews.

'It is the ghastly reality of what we deal with and where some of us have ended up already,' he said.

He added that one of the people laying in the truck was a woman he had comforted as she dies.

'I never had the patience to sit with somebody I'd just met until they took their last breath. But I really liked this lady's cardigan and pajamas so I decided to stay and get to know her a little,' he said.

New York City hospitals set up makeshift morgues outside of their facilities to handle the overflow of victims as the pandemic continues to hit the Big Apple hard.

The last time that New York City deployed a fleet of makeshift morgues outside hospitals was in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Makeshift morgue trailers sits alongside Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City on Sunday

But on Sunday, Trump suggested healthcare workers in New York City and other places were hoarding surgical masks during a wild and free-wheeling media briefing that lasted 90 minutes.

Trump from the White House Rose Garden urged reporters at the briefing to investigate New York hospitals, saying typical requests for masks have gone dramatically up.

He also admitted that he would consider it a 'win' and a 'very good job' if he can manage to keep the death toll from coronavirus to between 100,000 and 200,000 since estimates put it at more than 2 million if he did nothing.

'How do you go from 10,000 to 20,000 masks to 300,000?' he asked.

Trump acknowledged that 'even though this is different' referring to the coronavirus outbreak, that reporters at the briefing 'ought to look into it.'

He then expanded on his comments to suggest masks were disappearing in 'numerous places.'

President Trump (pictured) suggested healthcare workers in New York City and other places were hoarding surgical masks

Gov Andrew Cuomo (pictured) hit back at Donald Trump's claims that he's exaggerating New York state's medical needs by saying: I operate on facts and data and numbers and projections... all of them say you could have an apex needing about 40,000 ventilators

'Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door?' Trump asked at the briefing.

Trump previously accused Gov. Andrew Cuomo of exaggerating New York state's medical needs, specifically ventilators.

He said: 'Governor Cuomo and others they say they want 30,000 of them. Thirty thousand!'

'Think of this, you go to hospitals and they have one. And now all of a sudden everybody is asking for these vast numbers.'

Trump also said Cuomo was 'complaining' too much. Cuomo hit back on Friday by saying he creates protocol based on facts, not opinions.

The US leads the word in coronavirus cases, totaling in at 142,630 confirmed diagnoses and 2,509 deaths

Pictured: A Samaritan's Purse crew works on building a 68 bed emergency field hospital specially equipped with a respiratory unit in New York's Central Park across from The Mount Sinai Hospital on Sunday

He said: 'I don't have a crystal ball. Everybody is entitled to an opinion, but I don't operate here on opinion.

'I operate on facts and data and numbers and projections... all of them say you could have an apex needing about 40,000 ventilators.'

As Covid-19 cases increase, the Trump administration announced they would extend the country's coronavirus lockdown until April 30.

This comes after Trump initially suggested Easter as the deadline, much to the skepticism of medical professionals, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams.

Fauci told CNN: 'I think what the President was trying to do, he was making an aspirational projection to give people some hope.'

Dr. Adams told Good Morning America that some areas of the country could still be battling coronavirus cases into Labor Day.

An official date to reopen the economy and citizens to return to work has not been announced.
An executive order newly signed by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gives medical staff more flexibility during COVID-19 pandemic.

The order signed Sunday, March 29 lessens restrictions and allows qualified physicians assistants and nurses to help with treating patients with coronavirus, according to a news release from the governors office.

The coronavirus is a respiratory disease and, with the new order, medical students, physical therapists and emergency medical technicians are allowed to work as respiratory therapist extenders under the supervision of respiratory therapists, physicians and other applicable professionals, the order states.

During the coronavirus emergency, it is important to provide care to patients and it is reasonable and necessary to provide temporary relief from some requirements and restrictions around medical services, the order said. Workers can assist and provide support appropriate to the professionals education, training and experience, according to the order.

As of 3 p.m. Sunday, March 29, the state of Michigan reported 5,486 cases of coronavirus and 132 deaths attributed to the disease.

Related: Michigan coronavirus cases soar past 5,000; 21 new deaths reported

Michigans dedicated health care professionals continue putting their lives on the line every day during this unprecedented crisis, and we must do everything we can to empower them to do their jobs, Whitmer said in the statement. This executive order temporarily sets aside some existing rules to allow qualified physician assistants, nurses and other health care providers to treat COVID-19 patients and help slow the spread of this virus in every corner of our state.

The latest information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.

PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops ) and when you go into places like stores.

Its not too late to get your flu shot! While the influenza vaccine does not protect against COVID-19 infection, it can help keep you healthy during the flu season.

More coronavirus coverage on MLive:

Gov. Whitmer takes action to protect jails, detention centers from coronavirus

Sunday, March 29: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Kent County sees largest spike yet in new coronavirus cases
Over the past two weeks, Ive been thinking a lot of how Christians throughout history understood their responsibility to care for the sick and dying, rather than running for the hills like so many of their pagan neighbors. In many ways, the earliest Christians were the earliest first responders, risking their own lives and even losing them, because of what they believed about Christ, about their own lives, about the salvation and love of neighbor, and about human dignity.

In our cultural moment, one in which God has graciously given us knowledge of mitigating the spread of disease, as well as the distinctly Christian legacy of hospitals, the love of neighbor, involves things such as social distancing so as not to endanger others. But does that mean we disengage completely? How should Christians love their neighbors at this time?

Almost from the start of this coronavirus threat, even before it was called a pandemic, Dr. Ed Stetzer of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College and Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church have been working to gather resources and equip pastors and ministry leaders for this challenge. They, in partnership with others have launched a new website, CoronavirusAndTheChurch.com.

The resources there are helping churches and pastors with everything from developing online worship and education, to communicating with and caring for their own people, to reaching out to the most vulnerable in their communities, including the elderly, sick, and unemployed. And they are collecting stories of innovative things that are already being done, by Christians, right now.

Tomorrow night, Tuesday, March 31 at 8 PM Eastern Time, Ed Stetzer will join me for a free webinar How Christians Can Love Their Neighbors During the Coronavirus. Though this webinar is the first session of a 5-part short course on responding to our cultures brokenness, we are also offering it completely free to anyone, even if they are not signed up for the rest of the course.

This webinar is for anyone who wants to know how to make a difference in the midst of this crisis, and how Christians are already making a difference taking the love of Christ and the message of salvation to our culture right now.

If youre not available at 8pm eastern tomorrow, sign up anyway. The session will be recorded and everyone who registers will receive a link to the video afterward.

During this free webinar, Ed and I will be discussing best practices, some of which have been developed in just the past few weeks by Christ followers from across the country. And Christians are doing this. Today. Weve already shared examples on Breakpoint of Chinese Christians, who despite fierce persecution by their own government, passed out face masks and ensured that strangers were supplied with food. Or an Alabama megachurch, who already had a huge medical clinic ministry, that turned its parking lot into a Coronavirus testing center.

And of course, my favorite story to date, is of how a YWAM base here in my backyard of Colorado Springs pivoted on a dime, from a business as ministry operation training folks around the world to an organization mobilizing churches and Christians in their own community. With lettuce. If you missed that story, come to BreakPoint.org to hear my conversation with director Josh Imhoff on our BreakPoint podcast.

In Acts 17, as Paul describes the one true God to the pagan Epicureans and Stoics, and he declared that God determines the exact times in which people live and the boundaries of their dwelling places. In other words, its no accident that we find ourselves in this time in history, in the cultures and communities where many of us are locked down. Our faith and these circumstances are not accidental. God has placed us in this moment, in this place, to be the hands and feet of Christ in this world at this time.

Please come to BreakPoint.org today to register for this Free Webinar with Ed Stetzer: How Christians Can Love Their Neighbors During the Coronavirus.

Publication date: March 30, 2020

Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Daisy

BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931  2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.

John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
Biden spent the past week ramping up his digital operation as the COVID-19 crisis mounted. And he recently made an important move, hiring a new campaign manager, Jennifer OMalley Dillon, a veteran of the Obama and Beto ORourke campaigns and a key operative behind some of the digital rebuilding after 2016. We are going to have the most integrated, most effective data and digital operation that we have seen on the progressive side because of the foundation and the work that has been done over the last several years, she said in an interview.
Xiaojian Yao recalls watching with shock as a new contagion swept across mainland China in late January; the number of infections grew each day, so too did the death count.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/3/2020 (654 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Xiaojian Yao recalls watching with shock as a new contagion swept across mainland China in late January; the number of infections grew each day, so too did the death count.

The Winnipeg virologist had a professional interest in the outbreak because of his role as director of the University of Manitobas Laboratory of Molecular Human Retrovirology, and he had a personal interest: the threat was encroaching on Beijing, where he is from.

Shock quickly turned to resolve for the 63-year-old professor. He became determined to contribute research that would help contain, treat and control the highly contagious COVID-19 virus.

"The virus has spread so fast because the whole population is vulnerable to viral invasion," Yao said by phone from his laboratory at Max Rady College of Medicine. "So I say vaccines are the key, thats why so many groups in the world right now are working on vaccine development.

"Im a virologist, so my only concern is the virus pandemic."

Yao is the lead investigator of a research team at the University of Manitoba studying a potential vaccine for COVID-19. His proposal was one of six selected by the federal government this month to receive funding specifically for vaccine research, with $326,578 coming from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and $270,550 from Research Manitoba.

Worldwide, members of the scientific community have started the difficult task of analyzing and understanding the novel coronavirus. Researchers are racing to find diagnostics, drugs and ultimately vaccines to be used in the battle against the disease.

Yaos laboratory is working around the clock to test whether the receptor binding domain of COVID-19 could be a vaccine candidate, and researchers are using a university patented technology platform to test the theory.

"The pandemic happened so fast, so to use our technology to deliver a coronavirus vaccine, this is my dream," Yao said.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Yao believes the work of researchers around the globe, which is being accelerated by increased government funding, means a treatment will be found.

"Im very excited. I work every day now in the laboratory," he said. "Im very happy to contribute, and I will do my best if I can develop a vaccine that can be used to combat this virus were fighting."

Yaos area of expertise is human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). His academic record stretches back more than 40 years. He received his medical degree from Suzhou University of Medicine in China in 1983 and worked as a physician before turning to research.

Yao said he was fascinated by the nature of viruses, how they survive and function within the host. He left medicine to complete his doctorate in molecular biology and retrovirology at the University of Montreal. In 2004, he was attracted to Manitobas research community and joined the U of M.

Yao says the technology they will trial with the novel coronavirus is unique to the U of M and represents a significant contribution to the overall body of research on COVID-19.

A molecule of the virus  called the spike protein  is key to infecting a host cell and is the main target of the hosts immune responses. Previous studies into SARS have shown the receptor binding domain of that virus has multiple epitopes (a molecule fragment) that produce potent neutralizing antibodies.

The antibody can bind to SARS and interfere with its ability to infect a cell. The question is whether the receptor binding domain of COVID-19 will behave similarly and produce an immune response.

Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

The study is poised to lay the groundwork for the development and production of other vaccine candidates in the effort to control the pandemic. Trials on animals will begin this week, Yao said.

He made of point of wanting to reassure the public.

He said the work of researchers around the globe, which is being accelerated by increased government funding, means a treatment will be found.

Yaos colleagues at the university have launched a clinical trial to determine whether common malaria medication can be used against COVID-19, and his collaborators across Canada and at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg are aggressively pursuing solutions.

"Other virologists, we will do our best to develop some way to make some treatments, prevention and vaccine available," he said. "There are so many people who are working, so who will be the fastest?"

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca
States with Republican governors were generally slower to react to the coronavirus outbreak and implement social distancing guidelines than their Democratic peers, according to a new study released by the University of Washington.

The study looks at a number of potential variables for understanding differences in response times between states  including state income, how neighbouring states reacted, state economics and the a states political makeup  and reported that it was unambiguous that political variables are the strongest predictor of the early adoption of social distancing policies.

All else equal states with Republican governors and Republican electorates delayed each social distancing measure by an average of 2.70 days (95% CI: 249 to 2.88), a far larger effect than any other factor, including state income per capita, the percentage of neighbouring states with mandates, or even confirmed cases in state.

Though there are exceptions to the rule  the study specifically notes the responses of Governor Mike DeWine in Ohio and Governor Larry Hogan in Maryland, both Republicans, who were quick to react to the virus  the data suggest that Republican states, especially those heavily populated by supporters of Donald Trump, were slower to act.

Holding constant other variables, including the 2016 Trump vote share, at their observed values in each state, on average, Republican governors delay each state-level social distance measure by 1.68 days, the study concluded. At the same time, holding constant the Governors party affiliation, states with more Trump voters were less likely to adopt social distancing.

The data suggested that  barring unforeseen positive developments in the fight against the virus  the delays caused by partisan action would likely be massive, raising a states peak caseload of infected individuals by 30.6 percent.

The studys authors suggest that Republican governors  particularly those who have historically aligned their views and policy goals with the president  were likely influenced by the presidents initial downplaying of the danger the virus posed during its early days of transmission in the US.

Countering the message from public health leaders, the White House downplayed Covid-19. On 4 March 2020, President Trump insisted that Covid-19 was similar to the flu; two days later, he falsely claimed the situation in Italy was improving and that the US was handling coronavirus much better than other industrialised countries the study said. As late as 15 March 2020, with reported cases rising rapidly, Trump still maintained that the epidemic within the US was under control.

Fox News was also tagged as a likely contributor to the delay in response from many Republican governors.

Fox Business host Trish Reagan insisted the pandemic warnings were a Democratic hoax and another effort to impeach the president, while Sean Hannity, another Fox News personality, validated the conspiracy theory that coronavirus was an effort by the deep state to manipulate markets, suppress dissent and push mandated medicines, the study said.

Since her false claims regarding the virus, Ms Reagan has left Fox Business.

The studys data had tangible examples beyond the paper. The differences in leadership could be seen even between cities; in Florida, the Democratic mayors of Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach imposed closures during Spring Break weeks despite significant economic losses to help fight the spread of coronavirus.

Across the state, the Republican mayor of Clearwater left the beaches open, generating troubling photos of thousands of spring breakers packed together. A day prior, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had advised against gatherings of more than 50 people.

According to The Guardian, 15 of the 21 states to issue stay-at-home orders have been run by Democrats, while states run by Republican governors have tended towards downplaying the severity of the virus.

Governor Jim Justice of West Virginia told his constituents on 16 March to go out and eat at restaurants and go to grocery stores.

The night before, governor of Oklahoma, Kevn Stitt, tweeted a now-deleted photo of himself and his sons at a crowded restaurant, commenting: Its packed tonight.

The study suggested that these leaders are likely prioritising their electoral and career ambitions, and that responding to constituents and party line expectations may not always produce the best results for the overall public.

Recommended Secret recording reveals GOP senator comparing coronavirus to 1918 flu

Why do Republican governors and states with Republican voters seem to resist social distancing policy, even controlling for many potential confounders? We strongly believe that realistic assessments of decision-making by elected officials must take electoral motivations and career ambitions seriously  as impolitic as that may be, the study suggested. Elected officials, regardless of party, must be responsive to the concerns fo their voters and party leaders. However, this essential feature of democratic representation does not inevitably produce the best policy outcome.

The study concluded that, while politics wasnt the sole motivator in how Republicans reacted, political headwinds were significantly greater for Republican governors in Republican-leaning states, and issued a dire warning if that trend continues.

If Republican governors and states with Republican majorities continue to lag behind, the cumulative impact on those states, and on the country as a whole through spillovers, could be vast.
Jill McCorkel (left) and Cynthia Alvarado (right) walk near City Hall. McCorkel, a professor of sociology and criminology at Villanova University, worked with her students to help advocate for women lifers. Alvarado was their first case, and she was just released from prison thanks in part to McCorkel's advocacy. Read more

In the 1990s, sociologist Jill McCorkel began interviewing women in prison just as their numbers began to explode  not because women were committing more crimes, but because of mandatory minimums that extended harsh sentences even to those with peripheral involvement in a case.

What she found, over and over, was "women not fully understanding the criminal-justice process, and being leveraged by police and by prosecutors against the men in their lives. Often, they wont give information because theyre scared of the guy or in love, and then they end up getting hit with charges in a retaliatory fashion.

Now a professor of sociology and criminology at Villanova University, McCorkel is waging an uphill fight to reverse that trend, working with students to correct what she sees as disproportionate sentencing for many women. Theyre examining female lifers cases, one by one, helping some of them file applications for commutation  just a dozen women in Pennsylvania have received that relief in the last half-century  and others by reinvestigating in order to unearth grounds for future appeals.

On one of the last March days before the courts closed and students scattered under threat of the coronavirus, they finally got a break in their first case: Cynthia Alvarado, who had served more than 11 years of a life sentence, was ordered released, a win that resulted from tireless legal work, the Villanova teams advocacy, and one wild coincidence.

In 2008, addicted to Xanax, Alvarado had driven her cousin Oscar to Fairhill Square Park to buy drugs. But while she waited in the car, Oscar pulled out a gun  and in the melee that followed he fired into a crowd. He jumped into the car, and Alvarado sped away. She did not learn until later that a bystander, a woman named Marta Martinez, was killed.

A witness, a woman who had been in the car with them, testified at the trial that Alvarado had urged her cousin to use the gun. With that evidence, she was charged with second-degree murder, or participating in a felony  Oscars gunpoint robbery of a drug dealer  that resulted in a death.

The jurors hesitated, skeptical of the witness. They repeatedly asked about the definition of accomplice liability, and whether helping after the fact could count. The judge assured them it could, and both cousins were sentenced to life without parole.

That verdict was overturned in federal court last year, based on that flawed jury instruction. And the District Attorneys Office offered a deal: Alvarado could plead guilty to third-degree murder, and get 11 to 22 years in prison.

Then, McCorkel wrote a letter  as did her husband, Brad Mellinger, who was, it turns out, the inquisitive juror who kept sending the judge questions about the nature of accomplice liability. He was shocked when, years later, McCorkel showed him the docket and he learned Alvarado had been sentenced to life.

I was convinced that she was not guilty of conspiracy, Mellinger wrote, calling the sentence an unjust outcome.

The only way I was willing to consider her guilty via accomplice liability was if her assistance to her co-defendant after the shooting, in and of itself, would qualify.

McCorkels letter focused on the research she and the teams of students in her classes conducted. That included walking through the decade-old crime scene to assess whether witnesses accounts were plausible given the terrain (they were skeptical). They also raised questions about witnesses interviewed by a detective who was later fired after he was found to have tampered with evidence. And, they challenged the credibility of the key witness against Alvarado, a woman who had received a deal for probation on her own criminal charges after testifying in the case.

On March 11, Alvarado, 39, pleaded guilty to murder and robbery  in exchange for a new deal that would result in her immediate release from prison.

The next day, just as the city was beginning a slow, coronavirus shutdown, Alvarado was home after 11 years in prison. She was now a grandmother, her daughters grown up.

She joined McCorkel for lunch at a restaurant with sweeping city views, then made her way toward the probation office to check in. Alvarado admitted shed thrown out the first letter McCorkel sent her in prison. I thought it was someone just trying to ride the wave of mass incarceration, she said.

But when McCorkel wrote again, explaining more about the project and her familys own odd connection to the case, Alvarado said, I was crying, it was surreal. After that, it just seemed like amazing things started happening, with everything her and her students were able to obtain.

I feel like when Dr. McCorkel speaks, people listen," she said.

At her sentencing, dozens of students were in the courtroom, alongside Alvarados siblings, her friends, and her two daughters.

Anna DalCortivo, 24, flew back on spring break from graduate school at the University of Minnesota to witness it. I think there was a lot of injustice, said DalCortivo, who had worked on the case as an undergraduate at Villanova, so it was important for me to show my support for her and her family, and to help bring her home.

Susan Lin, Alvarados lawyer, said its hard to say exactly what role the students advocacy played in the case. But the emotional support  including reentry planning and identifying mental-health and other service providers  was crucial. It made a difference that she had a community of people to come back to, she said.

Seeing the outcome for Alvarado gave a measure of hope to Yvonne Newkirk, an activist whose own daughter, Stacey Newkirk-Smalls, is serving a life sentence. Newkirk teared up watching the court proceedings in Alvarados case. It means someone cares to take the time to look into a process thats flawed."
The coronavirus death toll



rose to six in Gujarat as one more patient succumbed to it in Bhavnagar, a health official said on Monday.

A 45-year-old woman, who earlier tested positive for coronavirus, died at a hospital inBhavnagar late Sunday night, principal secretary (health) Jayanti Ravi said.

The woman had also suffered a stroke about two weeks back, she said.

So far, three deaths have been reported in Ahmedabad, two in Bhavnagar and one in Surat.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Jan-Somma-Hammel

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y -- The Military Sealift Command hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, steams into New York City under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge at 9:21 a.m., Monday morning. The USNS Comfort is a hospital ship that was built in 1976 and is sailing under the flag of the USA. Her length overall (LOA) is 893.99 feet, and her width is 105.74 feet. The ship has 1,000 beds and 12 operating rooms that could be up and running within 24 hours of its arrival. It's expected to bolster a besieged health care system by treating non-coronavirus patients while hospitals treat people with COVID-19. It's not the first time the Comfort has been to NYC, the ship was deployed to New York to render assistance following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

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Jan Somma-Hammel

The last time the ship was seen off Staten Island was under much different circumstances, when it was open for public tours in Stapleton during Armed Forces Day celebrations.

The Navy announced over the weekend that Fleet Week is canceled this year, in light of the health crisis.

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Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort to arrives in the New York Harbor. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)

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Charlene Nickloan waves a flag from the Matthew Buono war memorial in Staten Island, N.Y., as the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort arrives in New York Monday March 30, 2020. Nickloan, who came out with her family, said it was exciting to see the ship "it's so patriotic for us." The ship has 1,000 beds and 12 operating rooms that could be up and running within 24 hours of its arrival on Monday morning. It's expected to bolster a besieged health care system by treating non-coronavirus patients while hospitals treat people with COVID-19. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

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Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort to arrives in the New York Harbor. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)

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The USNS Comfort is escorted by tugs as it arrives in the New York Harbor. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)

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Navy personel line the deck as the USNS Comfort arrives in the New York Harbor. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)

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Staten Islanders welcome in the USNS Comfort at Buono Beach. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)

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The Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort arrives in New York, Monday, March 30, 2020. It's expected to bolster a besieged health care system by treating non-coronavirus patients while hospitals treat people with COVID-19. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

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The USNS Comfort is escorted by tugs and helicopter as it arrives in the New York Harbor. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)

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Navy Hospital Ship USNS Comfort travels up the Hudson River as the coronavirus pandemic continues to overwhelm medical infrastructure on March 30, 2020 seen from West New York, New Jersey. Docked at Pier 90 on the West Side of Manhattan the hospital ship will provide another thousand beds for non-COVID-19 patients. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

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The Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort docks in New York, Monday, March 30, 2020, as seen from Hoboken, N.J. (Photo courtesy/Emily Motroni)

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The Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort docks in New York, Monday, March 30, 2020. The ship has 1,000 beds and 12 operating rooms that could be up and running within 24 hours of its arrival on Monday morning. It's expected to bolster a besieged health care system by treating non-coronavirus patients while hospitals treat people with COVID-19. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

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New York Go. Andrew Cuomo, left, speaks as he stands beside Rear Adm. John B. Mustin after the arrival of the USNS Comfort, a naval hospital ship with a 1,000 bed-capacity, Monday, March 30, 2020, at Pier 90 in New York. The ship will be used to treat New Yorkers who don't have coronavirus as land-based hospitals fill up with and treat those who do. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

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New Yorkers peer through a fence at Pier 90, recording the moment on their cell phones, during the arrival of the USNS Comfort, a naval hospital ship with a 1,000 bed-capacity, Monday, March 30, 2020, in New York. The ship will be used to treat patients who do not have coronavirus so the land-based local hospitals can devote all their resources to treating those who do have the virus. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) AP

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The USNS Comfort from Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, arrived at Manhattan's Pier 90 at 10:42 a.m.The ship, like other Naval hospital ships, contains 12 fully equipped operating rooms, 1,000 hospital beds, laboratory facilities and an oxygen-producing plant. The ship is staffed by federal medical professionals, and will be used to treat non-coronavirus-related patients to free up beds at area hospitals. (Staten Island Advance/Sydney Kashiwagi)

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The USNS Comfort from Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, arrived at Manhattan's Pier 90 at 10:42 a.m.The ship, like other Naval hospital ships, contains 12 fully equipped operating rooms, 1,000 hospital beds, laboratory facilities and an oxygen-producing plant. The ship is staffed by federal medical professionals, and will be used to treat non-coronavirus-related patients to free up beds at area hospitals. (Staten Island Advance/Sydney Kashiwagi)

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Sept. 2001: The Hospital Ship USNS Comfort docks September 17, 2001 in Manhattan. The ship was deployed to New York to render assistance following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. (U.S. Navy Photo by Eric J. Tilford/Getty Images)

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Sept. 2001: USNS Comfort, one of MSC's two hospital ships, has diverse capabilities - from providing assistance to New York City's emergency relief personnel following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center - to being deployed to the Indian Ocean in support of a possible contingency in the Middle East. The Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort steams into New York City Sept. 14, 2001, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. (U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Preston Keres)
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday announced a 130 billion dollar package to support the wages of up to 6 million citizens in the country affected by the coronavirus outbreak that has claimed the lives of 18 people and infected over 4,000 across the nation.

The package will see the government pay wage subsidies of 1,500 Australian dollars every two weeks per employee to help struggling businesses keep people in work, The Age reported.

"Now is the time to dig deep. We are living in unprecedented times.The jobkeeper subsidy will be worth 1,500 dollars a fortnight and paid to employers to pay their employees," Morrison told reporters in Canberra.

Australia has so far recorded 18 deaths and reported over 4,000 infections, health



authorities said.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Morrison further tightened the measures of social distancing and urged people over 70s to remain at home.

Morrison said to reduce the outdoor and indoor gatherings to only two people with an exception to same family members and warned that limits were now enforceable by authorities in most states and territories.

He said the rule would allow people to complete their daily exercise and was important, particularly for women, as they would not be forced to walk or run alone.

Morrison said people were now been told to leave their homes only to shop for food or other essential supplies, to seek medical care, to exercise under public gathering rules or for work and education if these cannot be conducted remotely.

The latest coronavirus deaths were reported from Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) where the health authorities reported the deaths of two 80 years-old women over the weekends.

ACT Chief Health Officer Kerryn Coleman said the of the first death in Canberra was a reminder for residents on the need to take social distancing seriously.

"This is particularly important as we will continue to see the number of cases increase and local transmission start to occur in the ACT," she said.

According to authorities, the number of coronavirus infections were on rise in the Australian state of Victoria.

Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday said the state tally was at 821 positive cases and the residents will now be seeing stricter measures on social distancing as the stage three restrictions would be effective from Tuesday midnight to minimise the disease spread.

"Victoria has moved to stage three and that involves a ban with an on-the-spot fine of more than USD 1,600 if you breach it, on gatherings with more than two people, other than those in your household," Andrews said.

Meanwhile, New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian said the total number of cases rose to 1,918 while the state police have been given the power to enforce bans on gatherings of two or more people.

"If you can work from home, you should. If you can learn from home, you should. If you can stay at home, you should," Berejiklian said.

According to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre, more than 32,000 people have died of the coronavirus and 684,652 have been infected globally.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
APC Mandate Defenders (APCMD) has reacted to the critical statement issued against President Muhammadu Buhari's broadcast to the nation last night by Timi Frank, saying it's not time for criticism but time to support Nigerians irrespective of political orientation.

It will be recalled that the political activist had described President Buhari's nationwide broadcast as worst than the dreaded coronavirus disease among other uncharitable comments.

But, in a counter-statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of APCMD, Mr. Ifeanyi Emeka, the group said Mr. Timi Frank ought to have understood the enormity of the challenges posed by COVID-19 and make his own contribution to support the nation instead of picking faults with Mr. President speech.

The group further noted that in the next 14 days, vulnerable Nigerians would need the support of privileged persons like Timi Frank to assist them in keeping the health guidelines as well as the directive to stay at home and stay safe so as to avoid further spread of the disease, but in his characteristic manner, Timi Frank dodged the national responsibility and took the easy route of looking the other way.

We had expected Timi Frank to make donation or volunteer himself to the service of the nation in this emergency period but all he could do was to stay in his comfort zone and issue critical statement discouraging those who had volunteered their money, time, efforts and resources to help the government and people of Nigeria to contain the spread of the virus.

In United States and other countries affected by COVID-19, it is the Presidential Taskforce on Coronavirus that coordinates all efforts, supervises and documents contributions made by individuals and organisations for transparent and accoutable distribution of relief materials to citizens but here in Nigeria, Timi Frank who has never made any sacrifice to the nation is telling people to do otherwise.

Timi Frank should be told that this is not the time to divide the nation along it's fault-lines but time to make necessary sacrifice for the survival of our dear nation.

We therefore urge Nigerians to ignore the political activist and support the President and the Presidential Taskforce Against COVID-19 as they work tirelessly to eradicate the disease from Nigeria.

Signed:

Mr. Ifeanyi Emeka,

National Publicity Secretary,

APC Mandate Defenders
My worry is poverty and hunger. The world community has to think of some sort of a debt write-off for countries like us, which are very vulnerable, at least that will help us in coping with the corona virus.





by Ali Sukhanver





Natural calamities and disasters have ever been hostile to the peace and serenity of all human societies. Today it is the Corona, somewhere in the 14th century it was the Plague commonly known as the Black Plague and Black Death. That devastating epidemic resulted in the deaths of more than 200 million people in Eurasia and its climax was observed during the period of 1347 to 1351 in Europe. Reports say that the plague created a number of religious, social and economic upheavals, with profound effects on the course of European history. Another report on the consequences of the Black Death says, Half of Paris's population of 100,000 people died. In Italy, the population of Florence was reduced from 110,000120,000 inhabitants in 1338 down to 50,000 in 1351. At least 60% of the population of Hamburg and Bremen perished and a similar percentage of Londoners may have died from the disease as well. In London approximately 62,000 people died between 1346 and 1353. The story does not stop here; this scourge gave birth to so many economic and social problems. The most important problem was that of the lack of lobourers. With such a large population decline wages soared in response to a labor shortage. According to the Decameron Web, The plague had large scale social and economic effects. People abandoned their friends and family, fled cities, and shut themselves off from the world.













Funeral rites became perfunctory or stopped altogether, and work ceased being done. Today the Corona virus is dragging the world to the same direction.





The world was not a global village in the days of the Black Death; there were time-taking distances but now those long distances have been shortened to hours and days. Even for the viruses, journey from one place to the other place is as easy as it is for human beings. We see that this Corona Virus has spread throughout the world in just a few weeks. From US to Afghanistan, no country is safe from this virus. The severity of its consequences could be more severe than that of the Black Death. Another important fact is that fighting with Corona needs a lot of financial resources and certainly countries like Pakistan dont have such resources. In case this disease spreads here in Pakistan, it wont be possible for the government, which is already under the burden of billions and trillions of dollars debts, to control it vehemently.





The prime minister of Pakistan Mr. Imran Khan, in a recent interview with the Associated Press of Pakistan, has expressed his concerns over the possible upsetting impacts the corona-virus might have on the countries facing economic instability and unsteadiness. He said, My worry is poverty and hunger. The world community has to think of some sort of a debt write-off for countries like us, which are very vulnerable, at least that will help us in coping with the corona virus. Whatever said the Prime Minister is really worth-consideration. The scenario towards which he has tried to draw the attention of the world had once destroyed the whole social and economic fiber of the world somewhere in the 14th century. Imran Khan is very right in saying that exports would fall off, unemployment would soar and an onerous national debt would become an impossible burden. The consequences of this scourge would not remain limited to Pakistan only, India and many of the African countries would also be facing the horrible consequences of this scourge. He further said, If a serious outbreak happens in the country, the governments efforts to lift the economy out of near-collapse would begin an unstoppable slide backward.





To stop this pandemic from spreading further, the government of Pakistan is doing all best possible. Learning a lesson from Italy, the government of Pakistan has put a ban on public gatherings in public parks, schools, colleges, universities, shopping malls and even in the mosques. With the help of radio, TV, newspapers and social media, the government is trying to make the public aware of the precautionary measures with reference to the Corona virus. In some cities of Pakistan even the cafes and restaurants have been stopped from working till next orders. Italy currently has the highest number of Corona virus cases in Europe. Reports say that the corona virus cases in Italy surged from hundreds to thousands within two weeks, from a few hundred in the third week of February to more than 3,000 in the first week of March and crossed 10,000 on 10 March. On 15th March 2020, it was 24747. The only reason behind this so rapid increase in the number of Corona Virus affected patients is that the public in Italy did not take the precautionary measures imposed by the government serious.





Certainly, the people of Pakistan have realized the severity and gravity of the matter and they are doing all possible cooperation with the government in fighting against the Corona Virus. Situation would soon get better and the cruel Corona virus will have to get out of Pakistani borders. Pakistanis are a brave nation; they know very well how to defeat disasters and how to counter the calamities. Moreover we pray for the complete safety and protection of the whole world from the cruel clutches of the Corona disaster.
Cruise (Photo : Image by Ed Judkins from Pixabay )

Image by Ed Judkins from Pixabay



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Florida's governor said Monday that he does not want a cruise ship with passengers suspected to be suffering from coronavirus to dock in his southern US state.



The Holland America Line vessel, the Zaandam, passed through the Panama Canal overnight as the company searched for a port that will allow passengers to disembark.



"We view this as a big, big problem and we do not want to see people dumped in southern Florida right now," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told Fox News.



"We cannot afford to have people who are not even Floridians dumped into South Florida," he said. "I'm in contact with the White House on this."



The Zaandam, which is carrying 1,800 passengers, went through the Panama Canal from the Pacific side overnight and into the Caribbean after canal authorities reversed a decision to block its passage.



It was followed a couple of hours later by its sister ship, the Rotterdam, which the company dispatched from San Diego to take on the healthiest of the passengers aboard the Zaandam.



The Zaandam had been stuck in the Pacific Ocean since March 14 after dozens of those on board reported flu-like symptoms -- including four who subsequently died -- and several South American ports refused to let it dock.



Holland America Line president Orlando Ashford said in a video message that the company was trying to find a destination for the stricken ship.



Ashford said the mayor of Fort Lauderdale -- which had been the ship's intended destination -- had also said the Florida city could not take the risk of accepting the passengers.



The situation was "difficult and unprecedented," Ashford said.



Fort Lauderdale mayor Dean Trantalis said allowing the Zaandam to dock in his city was "completely unacceptable" because no special assurances have been given about the passengers' onward travel arrangements.



"No assurances have been given that they will be escorted from the ship to either a treatment facility or placed in quarantine. This is completely unacceptable," Trantalis said on Twitter.



"We cannot add further risk to our community," Trantalis said.



"There are many places on the eastern seaboard where this ship could dock and be dealt with in a much more controlled environment," he said.



"The problem here is that Port Everglades sits in the very middle of a vast urban area."



Passengers showing no signs of the virus were ferried to the Rotterdam off Panama on Saturday. The Rotterdam had arrived from San Diego carrying medical staff, testing kits and food for the beleaguered vessel.



In his message, Ashford said he wanted to dispel a "myth" that one was a "healthy ship" and the other a "sick ship."



"Whether you're isolated on the Zaandam or isolated on the Rotterdam, the way that we protect the health of those of you that are healthy is to make sure that you're isolated safely while we figure out where it is that we're going to take you."



Apologizing to passengers, Ashford said: "It's been a tough last several days."



The Zaandam left Buenos Aires on March 7 and was supposed to arrive two weeks later at San Antonio, near Santiago, Chile.



Since a brief stop in Punta Arenas in Chilean Patagonia on March 14, it has been turned away from several ports after reporting that some people aboard were suffering from flu-like symptoms.



US passenger Laura Gabaroni pleaded for help Sunday, saying that the ports that had turned the Zaandam away would have the deaths of passengers on their conscience.



"Four people are now dead, and that is on the head of all the people along the way who turned us away," Gabaroni told AFP.


In Their Opinion: US must come to the rescue of health providers
A Manchester man who returned to a supermarket 15 minutes after police drove him home for flouting coronavirus lockdown rules and told them he could 'do what he wants' has been fined 500.

Police drove Steven Mackie, 53, home from a Tesco store in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, after he began approaching customers in a queue on Saturday. On the journey home he began kicking and punching the inside of the police van and warned officers he would return 'no matter what they said'.

True to his word, police arrested Mackie at the Tesco store at 5.45pm after he refused to keep two metres apart from the public, upon his arrest, unemployed Mackie said: 'I can do what I want.'

Steven Mackie was arrested on Saturday after police caught him ignoring social distancing rules twice in the space of 15 minutes. The 53-year-old has been handed a fine at Stockport Magistrates Court

Mackie, of Stamford Street, Stalybridge, was taken to the police station, where he added: 'I was six feet away according to Boris Johnsons guidelines. What a waste of money and time this is. Six officers attending, have you got nothing else better to do.'

Unemployed Mackie was produced from custody on Monday at Stockport Magistrates Court and was wearing a blue protective mask - the only person in the courtroom to do so.

He pleaded guilty to one count of failing to maintain public health and causing public disorder and nuisance but the court heard the maximum penalty for the new offence under the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) Regulations 2020 was an unlimited fine.

Police up and down the country have started fining people for flouting lockdown rules set out by Boris Johnson a week ago.

Seven days since the PM placed the country under lockdown, police in Scotland have issued 25 fines to people ignoring new coronavirus rules.

Kirsten Collins, defending, said: 'There is nothing that the defendant disputes. It was a stupid decision and he regrets his actions. He is embarrassed by his own behaviour.'

She said there was a history of mental health issues and that he intended to go to his GP to seek assistance.

Mrs Collins asked magistrates to impose a fine he could pay as a large penalty would 'leave him with even less money and less options'.

Mackie apologised from the dock to chair of the bench Neill Brettell.

Mr Brettell replied: 'Its a little bit late. What happens if you have infected anybody?

Steven Mackie leaves Stockport Magistrates Court. Mackie told police: 'I can do what I want' after he approached customers at a Tesco supermarket and was out of the house without a good reason

'No-one likes to self isolate. No-one likes the lockdown. But the majority of people know it is going to help save lives. Do you want to kill people?'

The defendant said: 'No.'

Mr Brettell said: 'Are you going to do it again?'

'No,' repeated Mackie.

Mr Brettell went on: 'I am not allowed to send you to prison, the law does not allow it but I hope this fine really hurts you.'

Mackie was also ordered to pay 85 prosecution costs and a 50 victim surcharge.

He must pay the total amount in weekly instalments of 5 and was told he would go to prison if the sum was not paid on time each week.

Mackie gave the magistrate a thumbs-up sign before he later walked free from court.
New Delhi: Bhojpuri actresses Aamrapali Dubey and Akshara Singh have been lauded by their fans for their contribution to fight the deadly coronavirus which has brought the entire world to a standstill. Aamrapali has donated Rs 2.5 lakh while Akshara has contributed Rs 1 lakh. Aamrapali has donated Rs 1 lakh each to Chief Minister's Relief Funds (CMRF) of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and Rs 50 thousand to Maharashtra CMs Relief Fund.

After the news of Aamrapalis donation hit headlines, she was flooded with messages from fans appreciating her efforts and many said that she has set an example. To which, Aamrapali replied by saying, I just tried to do my bit towards humanity, you guys please do yours.

It is to be noted that the Bhojpuri stunner didnt post about her contribution on social media, it was her loyal fans who first shared the news, after which she thanked some of them personally on Instagram.

Meanwhile, Akshara posted a photo of herself with a cheque of Rs 1 lakh and shared that she will donate the amount to Bihar CMs Relief Fund to fight coronavirus. She categorically mentioned that she wasnt in favour of sharing her photo, but some people in the industry asked her to do so. Take a look at her post here:

The coronavirus pandemic has engulfed the entire world and has posed serious challenges for the health and economic security of millions of people worldwide. In India, the spread of coronavirus has been alarming. The number of coronavirus cases has already crossed 1,000 and the death toll is 29 as of Monday morning.
Industry bodies have appealed to the government seeking extension of the current financial year, ending March 31, by at least three months till June-end, citing the present economic situation amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Representatives from industry chambers including CII, FICCI and Assocham met officials of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs here last week and apprised the government of the issues being faced by them, and gave various suggestions.

"In the current scenario, any financial statement prepared for April 2019 to March 2020 will not give true and fair view as it does not represent one complete business cycle of the entity. Hence, it is imperative to increase the given period to disclose the correct picture of business performances of a company," the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) told the ministry in its submission.

It further argued that the current economic situation in India and the world over has resulted in impaired valuations of all assets, including commodities and financial assets.

CII also called for allowing companies to pass circular resolutions for restricted matters without the requirement of conducting a board meeting for approving such matters for a period up to June 30, 2020.

"With the current backdrop of coronavirus, the entire economy is getting stagnated for at least a couple of quarters which are kind of missing quarters for corporates. Further, to view the annualised financial statement of any corporate entity, one has to appropriately factor in the impact of current quarter," it said.

Section 179(3) of Companies Act, 2013 read with Rule 8 of the Companies (Meeting of Board and its Powers) Rules, 2014, provides certain matters to be dealt with by the Board of Directors only by means of resolutions passed at meetings of the Board and these matters cannot be passed by circular resolution.

These matters include making calls on shareholders in respect of money unpaid on their shares; authorising buyback of securities; issuance securities, including debentures, whether in or outside India; approving financial statement and the Board's report; among others.

As follow-up of the meeting, Assocham has submitted a representation to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs stating that extension by three or six months for finalisation of annual accounts would be required to reflect the true and fair statement about businesses.

"This once-in-century kind of an event like virus attack would hopefully recede in the next few weeks or months. It would be only after normalcy returns in the economy that the companies would be able to resume their regular operations. Return to normalcy is required for any fair statement of accounts," Assocham Secretary General Deepak Sood said.

The chamber's letter to Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman and the MCA Secretary Injeti Srinivas recommended that forbearances be given under the Companies Act, 2013.

"AGM for all companies should be allowed to be held within six months of 30th June, 2020, or 30th September 2020 i.e., latest by 31st December, 2020 or 31st March 2021 respectively, and on case-to-case basis. Subsequent relaxation is also desirable in terms of extension of time for filing income-tax returns for companies," Assocham said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Anguishing. Thats the first word Mtuccis Restaurants President John Haas uses to describe what it was like for him and other company leaders to furlough about 200 employees amid fallout from the new coronavirus.

Its literally the worst possible thing that could happen, Haas said.

Haas and Mtuccis are not alone.

Strict measures designed to slow the spread of COVID-19 have had a devastating effect on New Mexicos business community and workforce. Restaurants and bars, forced to adapt to the closing of their dining rooms, are trying to find ways to subsist on takeout orders and delivery alone. Other businesses are figuring out whether they have what it takes to run on remote work. Meanwhile, thousands of New Mexicans are suddenly finding themselves unemployed or furloughed.

Under the extraordinary circumstances, it would be tough to expect that businesses would step up their charitable giving.

But its happening more than you might think.

There are the big guys, so to speak  the Thornburg Foundation is offering $240,000 in grants to Albuquerque- and Santa Fe-area nonprofits that serve vulnerable populations affected by the coronavirus pandemic, while the PNM Resources Foundation is giving away $200,000 to nonprofits with programs aimed at increasing community safety. The New Mexico Gas Co. has donated $150,000 to the New Mexico Association of Food Banks. The Emergency Action Fund, which was set up by the Albuquerque Community Foundation and United Way of Central New Mexico to fund local nonprofits, had raised $300,000 by Wednesday, with corporate gifts from Wells Fargo, Sandia National Laboratories, Bank of America, Nusenda, U.S. Eagle and Public Service Company of New Mexico. National waste management company Veolia North America donated 2,000 surgical masks to Albuquerque-area hospitals.

But its not just the corporate giants and major utilities lending a hand.

Take Mtuccis, for example. The restaurant group is trying to support its own by giving away more than 200 meals each day to furloughed employees and their immediate families, as well as by donating all carryout tips to the furloughed workers.

Then theres Pizza 9, which has donated gift certificates for more than 50,000 personal-size pizzas to school districts around the state to distribute to students  a gift that got an assist from The Printers Press Inc., an Albuquerque company that waived printing expenses on the rush order of certificates.

Terri Cole, president and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, said the organization gave hospitals 250 N95 masks donated by businesses in the construction sector  200 from B&D Industries and 50 from Southwest Abatement. Jaynes Corp. and American National Insulation donated another 250 masks.

Earlier this month, when closure seemed imminent for many, other restaurants chose to donate their perishables rather than let the food go to waste, said Carol Wight, CEO of the New Mexico Restaurant Association.

David Romero, owner of Frost Gelato at Uptown, was one. Romero gave away all the freshly prepared gelato and other products in his store March 20, and donated fresh fruit and nearly 100 gallons of milk to local hospitals and first responders.

Even at the individual level, business leaders are stepping up, said Leadership New Mexico President Patty Komko, pointing to Red River real estate broker and Leadership New Mexico alumnus Rob Swan, who offered on social media March 21 to help anyone in the Red River or Questa areas worried about food availability connect with local whole animal sources.

Swan, who offered to help butcher and process animals at no cost, said Wednesday that he doesnt think anybody is going hungry as a result of COVID-19.

(But) when your freezers full of meat, its one thing less to worry about, he said.

Twisters and Circle K are offering free coffee to health care workers and first responders. El Patron staff visited local emergency rooms to give away about 200 burritos to ER workers. And Steve Echols of the nonprofit Wings for Life International is giving away refurbished bicycles for kids and adults who want to exercise while stuck at and near their homes.

The list goes on, and on, and on.

Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce CEO Ernie CdeBaca said whats so notable about these and other efforts is the very grim future facing New Mexico business owners  particularly those who own smaller companies.

These are the ones that really make you feel good about people, CdeBaca said. In all reality, theyre facing very difficult decisions on their own.
The Peoples Council of HCM City has approved a financial support package worth US$116.55 million to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19 and to support employees affected by the pandemic.

Delegates at an extraordinary meeting held on Friday by the HCM City Peoples Council.

The decision was made at an extraordinary meeting held last Friday in the city.

The Peoples Council approved the amount suggested by the city Peoples Committee on Thursday. The money will be sourced from the city budget reserve.

Accordingly, the city will provide support of VN90,000 ($4) per person per day for those subject to medical quarantine (in residential areas designated for quarantine and classification before they are moved to concentrated quarantines areas). However, people subject to self-quarantine at homes will not qualify for the support.

Patients being treated for COVID-19 at medical examination and treatment facilities in the city will also receive the same amount.

Police, military and other forces involved in COVID-19 activities will receive VN90,000 per person per day. Medical workers will receive VN120,000 per person per day.

Of the total amount, the city expects to spend VN323 billion ($13.7 million) for quarantine activities in concentrated quarantine areas and for treatment. This involves an estimated 10,000 quarantined people and 100 infected people.

The city also expects to spend about VN126 billion ($5.3 million) to support people subject to quarantine in residential areas for classification before they are moved to concentrated quarantine areas.

The city also expects to spend about VN112 billion ($4.7 million) for face masks (antibacterial, washable and usable 10 times) for three months for students, and sanitation workers in 22 districts who are participating in COVID-19 prevention activities. Three masks per person per month will be given.

HCM City will also provide VN1 million per person per month for workers who have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, these workers must not be entitled to unemployment benefits under State regulations.

The support period is based on the actual number of days that employees have been unemployed, but should not exceed three months. This will be effective from April through June.

According to the city Peoples Committee, the number of subsidised employees is expected to be about 600,000, with total support of about VN1.8 trillion ($76.2 million).

The Peoples Council has also agreed to give 10 specialised vehicles using negative pressure to the Health Departments 115 Emergency Centre.

The city also plans to spend more than VN250 billion for information dissemination, and training on prevention and control of COVID-19.

Nguyen Thi Le, chairwoman of the city Peoples Council, said it was vital to adopt support policies to contain COVID-19 and help workers so that people can trust in and be confident about the guidelines set by the State and the Party.  VNS

HCM City to provide $42 monthly allowance to people losing jobs due to COVID-19 The HCM City Party Committee has approved paying an allowance of US$42.5 a month to people losing their livelihoods due to the COVID-19 pandemic from the outlay meant for paying wage hikes this year to city officials.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a request Saturday night asking residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to curtail non-essential travel in order to help limit the spread of the coronavirus.

It delivered the details of what President Donald Trump called a "strong travel advisory" for the three states.

"The CDC urges residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to refrain from non-essential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately," the Atlanta-based agency said on its website Saturday around 10 p.m. EDT.

It noted, "This Domestic Travel Advisory does not apply to employees of critical infrastructure industries, including but not limited to trucking, public health professionals, financial services, and food supply."

The CDC said the governors of the tri-state area "will have full discretion to implement this Domestic Travel Advisory."

New York City has emerged as the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in America with nearly 30,000 cases, making up 57% of the state's total of 52,318. New Jersey has over 11,100 and Connecticut has more than 1,500.

Earlier in the day Trump had floated the possibility of quarantining his hometown of New York City.

Some people would like to see New York quarantined because it's a hot spot," Trump told reporters from the White House South Lawn as he departed for Norfolk, Virginia, to see the U.S. Naval ship Comfort depart for New York.

"I'm thinking about that right now."

The idea drew a strong rebuke from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who said the restrictions would pit state versus state and were likely illegal.

Later in the day, Trump issued a tweet that signaled a change of plans.

"On the recommendation of the White House CoronaVirus Task Force, and upon consultation with the Governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, I have asked the @CDCgov to issue a strong Travel Advisory, to be administered by the Governors, in consultation with the Federal Government," he tweeted. "A quarantine will not be necessary. Full details will be released by CDC tonight. Thank you!"

Story continues

Already, governors in Texas, Florida, Maryland and South Carolina have ordered people arriving from the tri-state region to self-quarantine for at least 14 days upon arrival.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo placed his entire state under a shelter-in-place order that took effect March 22. The order, called New York on Pause, requires residents to stay home "to the maximum extent possible" and do their jobs remotely. It also bans all nonessential gatherings of individuals "of any size for any reason."

Residents can leave their homes for solitary exercise or to obtain essential services or items, including trips to the grocery stores. When in public, they must keep a 6-foot distance from others.

Contributing: Joseph Spector, Westchester Journal News

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: CDC asks New York-area residents to stop traveling
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  To help contain the spread of the coronavirus, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in the Gaza Strip has launched a media campaign to encourage students to use the online courses broadcast on its media outlets, Rawafid website and Voice of Education Radio.

The radio outlet, which was established in 2012 to broadcast live 12th-grade lessons, was upgraded early this year with improved equipment and technology. Virtual classes have been greatly expanded since Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared a state of emergency March 5 to counter COVID-19, closing all schools and universities.

Gaza universities, such as the University of Palestine, Al-Quds Open University, the Islamic University of Gaza and Gaza University, have also called on their students to follow the universities' e-learning programs.

Speaking to Al-Monitor, Voice of Education Radio director Tamer al-Sharif said that once the state of emergency was declared, the radio station promptly began including lessons for all grades in its broadcasts, banking on the success of the previous streaming videos of higher-level courses. He added that the interactive live broadcasts of the lessons help to improve students' understanding of the subjects.

The radio stopped its regular broadcast and was quick to broadcast lessons targeting all school levels for 12 hours, in cooperation with skilled and competent teachers."

He added, "The number of views was way more than anticipated, with 6 million views of the courses in a week. Also, the number of followers of the radio stations Facebook page spiked from 70,000 to 280,000 in one week.

The streaming of these grades lessons so far is limited to the state of emergency. All videos are saved so students can watch them again later if they wish.

Sharif said that in past years, the ministry has used distance education as an aid in the learning process under normal circumstances.

The obstacles to e-learning in the Gaza Strip mainly involve power outages, subpar internet networks in general, and insufficient awareness among students and their families of the importance of e-learning. Some parents and students leave sarcastic and frustrating comments on the radios Facebook page.

Hatem Al Asouli, head of the media department at Gaza University, told Al-Monitor the university is keen to employ e-learning technologies and programs in the service of students and the learning process. Even before the state of emergency was declared, many lecturers, especially in communication sciences and languages, used Google Classroom in particular lectures, as it aligns with the nature of the courses they teach.

Google Classroom is being used as a key program for all majors at Gaza University, and lecturers are allowed to use all aid programs such as Zoom, Facebook and WhatsApp groups, he said.

He explained that the coronavirus crisis has advanced the use of such programs and the recorded lectures are being uploaded without any delay so the students don't feel that the learning process was interrupted.

Asouli said e-learning programs have a wide audience among university students, adding the thing that distinguishes e-learning is that students are able to watch the videos whenever they have the chance, given that the lectures are uploaded on time and always available online.

Commenting on the main obstacles to e-learning at Gaza University, he explained that computers or smartphones are not available to some students, and not all students and lecturers are familiar with these programs. He pointed out that the universitys administration sought to form ad-hoc technical committees to help solve problems the students face, and the media departments students launched a help others initiative to assist anyone without access to e-programs.

Speaking to Al-Monitor, sixth-grader Rital Ahmed explained that she is now following the lessons on the Voice of Education Radios Facebook page, and she communicates with her teacher on WhatsApp for questions.

I am glad to catch up on the lessons from home. I really hope to get back to school very soon, she said.

Ezzedine Salameh, a student at the University of Palestine, told Al-Monitor the slow internet connection makes it hard for him to follow all lectures, and he has no laptop at home. He indicated that e-learning is effective in some developed parts of the world where economic and technological capabilities are readily available, unlike in the besieged Gaza Strip where most of the residents suffer from poverty and experience power cuts. Salameh called on the university to allow students to take tests online in the wait for the crisis to end.
Nearly 1,000 people have been sent to put out a forest fire that started Sunday afternoon in southwest China's Yunnan Province, local authorities said.

In addition to over 130 professional firefighters and over 800 local officials and residents, six fire engines and two helicopters were also dispatched to extinguish the fire, according to the county government of Nanjian under Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture.

The government said no casualties were caused and an investigation into the cause of the fire is underway.
Connecticut court marshals last week were told to check suspects held in lockup for the coronavirus by taking their temperatures with oral thermometers but were not given cleaning supplies or protective equipment, according to their union president.

The plan was quickly scrapped after union President Joe Gaetano, who represents the states 680 judicial marshals, complained about the practice.

It seems to me that should be screened at the police departments since they have the first exposure, Gaetano said. They all should be screened before they are brought to court. I think they should not only be screened and brought directly to DOC if they have symptoms, but then they should probably go into isolation for 14 days.

Symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough and difficulty breathing. The disease is quickly spread by close person-to-person contact and from surfaces that may have come in contact with the virus, prompting Gov. Ned Lamont to ban large gatherings, close schools and prohibit restaurants from dine-in seating.

Everyone should be screened before they get to court, said Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, who is the co-chairman of the states Judiciary Committee. Winfield expressed frustration last week as he tried to gather information from state agencies on how they are protecting the public and offenders during the coronavirus pandemic.

There should be a plan in place and they should be screened before they get to court, Winfield said. I think that any time someone enters our system, thats the point when they should be screened.

He questioned why a plan hadnt been formed on how to deal with those held for arraignment and wondered whether the state agencies that deal with criminal justice had any longstanding emergency plans in place.

It seems like a lot of policies are being created right now, Winfield said. But if youre coming up with a plan right now, Id say youre too late.

Judicial Branch Chief Court Administrator Judge Patrick Carroll had closed the bulk of the states courts to the public on March 19 and narrowed activities in courts that remained open to high priority functions, including criminal arraignments in an attempt to limit exposure to the virus.

Carroll further restricted the publics access to the courts Thursday after four Judicial Branch employees tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Three courthouses, including the Litchfield Judicial District in Torrington, have been closed. A marshal at the Torrington courthouse tested positive for COVID-19 last week. The Danbury court was closed indefinitely last week after a clerk who served the public through a glass window also tested positive.

Chief Justice Richard Robinson and I fully recognize the disruption that these further steps will create," Carroll said in a press release announcing the closings. "However, the COVID-19 crisis is unlike any other crisis the Branch has weathered in my 24 years as a judge. Drastic steps must be taken to prevent drastic consequences, and we believe that such actions will help mitigate, rather than accelerate the pandemic."

There were 155 arraignments for those who were held overnight by police at 13 courthouses throughout the state from March 19 to 24, according to Judicial Branch officials. During the same time period, there were 283 arraignments of those arrested on domestic violence charges but were not held.

Those charged in domestic violence cases but not held must appear before a judge on the next available court date. Those held on charges at police departments must also be arraigned at the next available court date.

Gaetano and other union officials who represent employees of the Judicial Branch, including probation officers and clerks, contend that more should be done to screen offenders who are coming into the lockups and must appear in court and then be transported to a DOC facility if they continue to be held.

Our bail commissioners are being sent to police departments to interview those being held with no protections, said Ron Nelson, the president of AFSME Local 749, which represents 1,300 Judicial Branch employees, including clerks, probation officers and bail commissioners. They were told to use the CDC guidelines; stand six feet way and throw away pen when youre done.

DOC officials said they regularly collaborate with local and state police and the Judicial Branch. But DOC spokeswoman Karen Martucci did not respond to questions on whether any discussions took place on who should be screening suspects who are being held for arraignment and could potentially wind up at one of the states prisons.

State police routinely send most people who are arrested directly to a DOC facility to be held until they are brought to court for arraignment, Trooper Josue Dorelus said.

It depends on the timing of the arrest but we normally dont hold people for more than a few hours, he said.

His agency instituted a new policy as of March 13 that allows troopers to have EMS personnel transport any suspects who may have symptoms of COVID-19 to a medical facility to be checked out before the arrest process continues.

If they are screened and deemed to be OK, they would be released back to us and held for court or transported to a DOC facility, Dorelus said.

Norwalk police have been screening suspects with questions, said Lt. Jared Zwickler. If someone is experiencing symptoms, it would go up the chain of command about what to do next, he said.

Theres no harm in screening them at every point, Zwickler said. Its a public health concern. Its really for everyones benefit.
Lakewood School in Twin Lakes will move to a non-traditional school calendar beginning next fall, district administrator Christine Anderson announced last week.

It will move to a customized balanced calendar that will slightly shorten the traditional summer break and allow for more interim sessions.

This calendar, the first in the area to be introduced, was created collaboratively with Lakewood staff, students, families and input from peers around the state, Anderson said. This model integrates an innovative approach to learning and student support.

The goal is to reduce academic regression typically called summer slide or learning loss due the instructional downtime of a 12-week summer long vacation. While Anderson said it is not year-round schooling, it will offer a full year of academic instruction through a more evenly distributed approach than the traditional nine-month instructional calendar.

During interim sessions, Lakewood will offer students optional enrichment opportunities to supplement learning and increase social and developmental growth. Student services, such as transportation, breakfast and lunch, will also be available during these sessions.

We are excited about the opportunities the balanced calendar will provide our students, staff and families, Anderson said. Our students will have access to increased learning experiences incorporating STEM and STEAM approaches.

Under the new calendar, approved March 16 by the Lakewood Board of Education, the school year will start Aug. 12 and end June 11. There will be a two-week interim session in mid October, a one-week interim session Jan. 4-8 following a two-week winter break, an interim session in March following spring break and a summer interim session from June 28 through July 16, 2021

We modeled it after several schools in Wisconsin and Illinois, Anderson said. A parent from one of the schools even attended our first focus group session to answer questions. In addition, during the process, we contacted the Department of Public Instruction on a regular basis to ensure that all guidelines are being followed.

Student ambassadors will help determine which clubs, activities and learning options most appeal to them. Anderson said there should be little to no impact on a students ability to participate in sports, combined music and other events with other Wilmot Union High School feeder K-12 districts.

We explored all of these options and came up with solutions with the group, she said.

The calendar also offers students and families more consistent access to support and services and will reduce the amount of time spent building routines and classroom procedures, which will increase the amount of time for active learning, Anderson said.

The idea is also to decrease student absences related to appointments, vacations and other commitments, as these can be scheduled by families during the interim sessions.
A frontline New York City surgeon has penned a heartbreaking message to her young children in case she dies from the disease she has worked around the clock to battle.

New York City pediatric surgeon Cornelia Griggs posted an image of herself wearing a regular face mask, makeshift protective equipment covering her head, and an open neck medical gown on Twitter yesterday.

She captioned the image: 'My babies are too young to read this now. And theyd barely recognize me in my gear. But if they lose me to COVID I want them to know Mommy tried really hard to do her job.'

Accompanied with the tweet was the #GetMePPE hashtag, which medical professionals are using to demand proper protective clothing from the government so they can battle the coronavirus.

New York City doctor Cornelia Griggs (pictured) said she wanted her 'babies' to know she 'tried really hard to do her job' if she dies from COVID-19

Griggs can be seen in another Twitter post, without proper PPE, while at a frontline hospital in the battle against the coronavirus

Griggs, pictured at a previous posting in 2018 in Boston, accompanied her tweet with the #GetMePPE hashtag

At the time of writing, the post had 7.9k comments, almost 98k shares and 500k likes.

The heart-rending tweet comes as cases and deaths from the coronavirus in New York pummel both city and state. In New York State, 59,568 cases have been recorded, with at least 1,126 deaths. Of those cases, 33,700 were within the five boroughs, as were 776 of the fatal victims.

Twitter users immediately hailed Griggs a hero.

One user said: 'To Cornelia's babies when they are old enough to understand. There are millions of us who are eternally grateful for your mother's strength and dedication under fire. Your mother is what making a contribution is all about. Be proud of her.'

A medical worker wearing protective clothing pushes a stretcher outside the Elmhurst Hospital Center in the Queens borough of New York, U.S., on Thursday. New York City is at the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, putting historic pressure on a world-renowned healthcare system as the number of confirmed cases in the area grows exponentially

Another added: 'Your post choked me up. God bless you and protect you. I hope you receive the PPEs needed. Thank you for your work. Your children will be proud of you and may you live a long life and feel it! Thank you!'

Some on Twitter used the post as an opportunity to blast the government's response to the covid-19 pandemic.

'Broken heartThis is not a sacrifice you should have to make in the richest country in the world. Im so sorry America is letting you down and thank you so much for the lifesaving work you do,' tweeted @EvaMcGregor.

Last week it was reported that an employee at a New York City hospital where nurses were forced to wear garbage bags as gowns died of the disease.

Kious Kelly, 48, died at Mount Sinai West hospital in Manhattan last Tuesday night, a week after he was admitted upon testing positive for coronavirus, according to the New York Post.

A shocking photo posted to Facebook shows three nurses at Mount Sinai West wearing black garbage bags as makeshift protective gowns

A shocking photo posted to Facebook showed three nurses at Mount Sinai West wearing black garbage bags as makeshift protective gowns.

President Trump's response and lack of preparation for the pandemic has been widely criticised and the administration is facing questions about whether the United States has enough hospital beds and supplies to treat those infected.

A 100-page government document, issued earlier this month and reported on by The New York Times, warned the pandemic will last 18 months or more, could come in several waves and cause critical shortages of medicines, equipment, and staff.

'Shortages of products may occur, impacting health care, emergency services, and other elements of critical infrastructure,' the plan warned.

'This includes potentially critical shortages of diagnostics, medical supplies (including PPE and pharmaceuticals), and staffing in some locations.'
Australians have been urged to support elderly neighbours who have been told to stay indoors amid the coronavirus pandemic.

On Sunday Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced further lockdown measures and banned more than two people from gathering in a public place while urging those over 70 to stay at home.

He also announced the closure of playgrounds, skate parks and outdoor gyms.

Health Minister Greg Hunt told Sunrise that Australia still had a 'long way to go' despite a dip in infection rates.

He has called on young people to step up and support the elderly and those with chronic illnesses who will struggle the most to access supplies.

Health Minister Greg Hunt has urged Australians to help their elderly neighbours through the coronavirus crisis

'We are in this together as a country as a nation as people as friends and as family and we are all going to have to support each other this is something we have never known,' Mr Hunt said.

'In decades to come this will be known as the great generation, I hope and I believe, because they will do what has to be done and Australians are overwhelmingly do it but now is the time to do more.

'And this means that if you have to shop for an elderly neighbour, if you have to provide support for someone who has chronic disease, when you do your shopping make sure you are shopping for them and leave the things outside their door.

'Work with your community. We are doing everything we can but no government can do this alone.'

Mr Hunt said that although it was essential to isolate and implement social distancing to save lives, Australians should not turn their backs on each other.

People over 70 and those aged over 60 with health conditions have been told to stay at home under tighter government restrictions announced on Sunday night. Pictured is elderly couple Michael, 65, and Susan, 66, Stauntin arriving back in Australia from London on Saturday before being placed into isolation

On Sunday Mr Morrison said people should now only leave their house for four reasons. These include work, exercise, for supplies or medical attention.

Chief Medical officer Brendan Murphy said the country is seeing the first early promising signs of 'flattening the curve', with the growth rate of new infections dropping from over 25 per cent into the low teens.

The daily rate of new coronavirus cases in Australia is decreasing but politicians warn restrictions must continue

To support the measures, additional services have been implemented to help those in self-isolation.

From Monday, Telehealth will be rolled out across the country allowing doctors to provide medical consultations online and pharmacies in conjunction with Auspost who will offer a free delivery of prescription medication to homes once a month.

Woolworth has also launched a $80 coronavirus 'survival box' available in NSW, ACT, and VIC, containing basic groceries that use delivery channels such as Auspost to distribute goods to people faster.

Meanwhile, families still wanting to see vulnerable loved ones will have to restrict their visits to meet the government's requirements.

Grandparents pictured in Bondi on Sunday wore face masks as their grandchildren came to visit

Photos taken at Bondi on Sunday show a mother taking her kids to see their grandparents who wore facemasks and stood metres away.

The two-person ban on gatherings applies to indoor settings, such as private homes and properties, but not workplaces, offices, schools and households.

States will enforce the restriction with a fine, with Victorians caught breaching the rule to be hit with $1,652 on the spot.

NSW is yet to announce how the penalty, but it is expected to be in line with previous restrictions which have been enforced under the Public Health Act with breaches carrying $11,000 fines, six months imprisonment, or a $1000-on-the-spot fine.

So far, there have been 4167 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia including 17 deaths.
The US drug regulator has classified the pharma major's Halol facility in Gujarat as Official Action Indicated (OAI).

In an exchange filing made on Sunday 29 March 2020, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries said that OAI classification implies that the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) may withhold approval of any pending product applications or supplements filed from this facility till the outstanding observations are resolved. There are 19 abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) and 2 new drug applications (NDAs), which were filed from the Halol facility, currently awaiting approval for the US market.

The company continues to manufacture and distribute existing products for the US market, thereby not likely to have any adverse impact on current business from the facility. US supplies from Halol, as of now, contribute approximately 3-4% of the company's consolidated revenues .

Sun Pharma continues to cooperate with the USFDA and will undertake all necessary steps to resolve these issues and to ensure that the regulator is completely satisfied with the company's remedial action. It remains committed to being cGMP compliant and in supplying high-quality products to its customers and patients globally.

On 13 December 2019, the company had informed about the inspection conducted by the US drug regulator at its Halol (Gujarat) facility from 3 to 13 December 2019 and issuance of Form 483 by USFDA with eight observations.

Shares of the drug maker ended 0.12% lower at Rs 338.15 on Friday.

Sun Pharma is the world's fourth largest specialty generic pharmaceutical company and India's top pharmaceutical company.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered that all loans received from government institutions be given a three-month moratorium. The p...

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered that all loans received from government institutions be given a three-month moratorium.





The president announced the directive during his state broadcast on Sunday.





The moratorium is applicable to loans issued by the Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture, Nigeria Export Import Bank, TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni.





For on-lending facilities using capital from international and multilateral development partners, I have directed our development partners and negotiate concessions to ease the pain of the borrowers, the president said.





For the most vulnerable in our society, I have directed that the conditional cash transfers for the next two months be paid immediately.





Our internally displaced persons will also receive two months of food rations in the coming weeks.





Buhari also urged Nigerians to support the vulnerable in their communities with whatever they may need.





Zainab Ahmed, the minister of finance, budget and national planning, had earlier said the government was working to identify vulnerable people in the society to whom stipends would be given.





The minister had said fiscal incentives could not be announced in a rush due to the countrys fragile fiscal situation.





The COVID-19 outbreak in the country has crippled some businesses after state governments announced movement restrictions and a ban on large gatherings to reduce the spread of the virus.





As at 9pm on Sunday, Nigeria had recorded a total of 111 confirmed cases of the disease.












Photo: Thinkstock.com

A survey conducted one week ago found more than 50% of B.C. households had already experienced an immediate income reduction due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Leger Research, on behalf of Bromwich+Smith Licensed Insolvency Trustees, conducted the poll of 750 people in B.C., Alberta and Ontario over a 24-hour period on March 23.

The poll also found that 19% of British Columbians were already behind on bill payments, with credit cards, utilities and cell phone bills the first to lag. The survey indicated 47% of B.C. residents are worried about falling behind at some point in the future.

The results are quite staggering really, Leger Research senior vice-president David de Lange said in a press release. Of course, we get a sense of what is happening when we read the news, but the survey results make it far more real.

The poll revealed B.C. residents (34%) will reach out for federal and provincial government assistance to help with their financial woes, while another 25% said they didnt know what to do nor what action they should take immediately.

During these unprecedented times, it is important that British Columbia residents know it is okay to reach out to professionals for financial advice, Bromwich+Smith vice-president Jasmine Marra said. There is no shame in struggling with finances. We are all in this together.

If you are unable to pay your debts as they become due, B.C. residents need to reach out to access government programs offered, call their mortgage lender to see if a deferral could work for them or call a licensed insolvency trustee to understand if restructuring debts makes sense for their current state.

Bromwich+Smith has a Kelowna office, but the company is offering video consultations during the pandemic.
A young woman has been caught by authorities in China after trying to dodge coronavirus quarantine despite having a fever.

The woman, who is a Chinese citizen, had flown back to her home country from Germany, where she was studying, to avoid the escalating pandemic.

Social media footage shows her jumping out of a window from a bus, which was taking her to an isolation facility from the airport. She was immediately tackled to the ground by a group of hazmat-clad health officers.

Passengers are seen standing in a line to scan their health code and fill in the health registration forms in Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport today

It came after international students scrambled to get a ticket to fly home after the number of cases in China dropped sharply but soared in Europe.

Chinese state media warned that the swarms of travellers would 'highly likely' trigger a second wave of infections after the country claimed to have largely contained the epidemic.

The female student reportedly had a persistent high temperature after arriving in the eastern Chinese city Qingdao from Frankfurt yesterday.

She was waiting on a mini bus with other air passengers who were due to be transferred to a designated quarantine point.

The unidentified resident was 'eager to go home' as she attempted to run away, according to the press. She later tested negative for the coronavirus and has been put under mandatory isolation.

An oversea student has been caught 'trying to break free from coronavirus quarantine' despite having fever symptoms after flying back to China to avoid the escalating pandemic

Chinese officials have ordered passengers arriving from virus-hit countries to be quarantined for 14 days. Airport staff are pictured taking air passengers' temperatures in Chengdu today

Chinese officials have ordered passengers arriving from virus-hit countries to be quarantined for 14 days. International flights have also been reduced as the nation seeks to curb the contagion from 'imported cases'.

The new restrictions come as China sees a rising number of cases imported from abroad, threatening to spoil its progress to contain the epidemic.

A second coronavirus outbreak in China is 'highly likely' and 'even inevitable' as the pandemic escalates, China's state newspaper has warned.

Loopholes in the health screening process and inadequate quarantine measures for people arriving from abroad are the main factors for the looming new crisis, according to state-run Global Times.

The stark warning comes as former epicentre Hubei Province, apart from its capital Wuhan, is set to lift travel restrictions tonight after being locked down for two months.

It also comes as Wuhan has registered its first native infection, a doctor, after reporting zero cases for five consecutive days.

Airport security staff members wearing protective suits check information of inbound passengers at Shanghai Pudong International Airport yestday

The National Health Commission recorded a total of 723 coronavirus cases from abroad as of yesterday. A bus driver sits inside of a bus which is used to transfer international passengers from Pudong Airport to a designated quarantine hotel in Shanghai

The National Health Commission recorded a total of 723 coronavirus cases from abroad as of yesterday. The deadly disease has infected over 81,000 people in China and at least 3,300 people have died.

Meanwhile, the global count of confirmed cases has surpassed 721,000 with 33,881 deaths.

Spain has become the third country to surpass China's coronavirus infection total after the number of cases rose by almost 6,400 overnight.

Health authorities said Monday that they had diagnosed a total of 85,195 cases of the virus, up by 6,398 from 78,797 reported the day before. China has reported more than 82,000 cases.

The US - with more than 140,000 confirmed cases - and Italy - with almost 100,000 - have also surpassed China's figure. There are nearly 20,000 infections in the UK and the death toll has rose to 1,228.

The UK's coronavirus outbreak looks to be slowing down because of the Government's unprecedented decision to put Britain in lockdown, one of Number 10's leading experts said today.

Professor Neil Ferguson claims to have detected 'early signs' that the spread of the life-threatening infection was being curbed by the draconian measure, with the rate of increase in hospital admissions easing.
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As the coronavirus spreads throughout Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis finally took action this weekendnot to instate social distancing or quarantine requirements, like many other governors have done, but to target visitors from New York and New Orleans. DeSantis, a Republican, set up checkpoints on the highway to identify cars from the New York City area and Louisiana, which are suffering intense outbreaks. State troopers will stop these drivers, direct them to self-quarantine, and threaten them with 60 days in jail if they dont comply.

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Its certainly true that residents of COVID-19 hot spots should not flood other states, though theres no evidence that a wave of coronavirus refugees is descending upon Florida. But while DeSantis patrols the borders, Floridas outbreak is already spiraling out of control: As of Monday morning, there were nearly 5,500 COVID-19 cases in the state, and 63 deaths attributed to the disease, a rapid spike from the previous few days. The viruss exponential growth in Florida indicates that cases are poised to skyrocket. Yet DeSantis is defying public health advice that might slow infections within the state. As he announced the interstate checkpoints last weekend, Floridians flocked to the many state beaches that remain open. In the absence of statewide leadership, counties have tried to enact their own measures, with mixed results. Duval County closed its beaches, but neighboring St. Johns County did not, leading residents of the region to swarm its coastline. Beachgoers packed the stretch of sand just south of the county line. Until DeSantis shuts down the state beachesa move he still firmly resistsresidents will continue to congregate, despite public health experts warnings that they will exacerbate Floridas coronavirus outbreak.

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Floridas first coronavirus case was announced on March 1. Since then, the virus has been permitted to spread nearly unchecked. As other governors shut down nonessential businesses, DeSantis allowed beaches, bars, restaurants, and amusement parks to remain open for weeks at the height of colleges spring break season. Inevitably, spring breakers contracted the virus and spread it throughout the state weeks ago. Despite DeSantis fixation on out-of-state visitors, the vast majority of Floridas coronavirus patients are residents of the state who likely contracted the virus from other residents through community spread. DeSantis cannot resolve this crisis by vilifying tourists. The infections are coming from inside the state.

DeSantis has also promoted misinformation about COVID-19, falsely contradicting Anthony Faucis assertion that the state was experiencing community spread. And he still resists any kind of statewide shutdown, insisting that he cannot lock down our society with no end in sight, echoing Trumps claim that we cant have the cure be worse than the problem. On Monday, the governor finally signed a toothless order that advises residents of southeast Florida, the hardest-hit region, to stay inside. But the safer at home order, which merely urges residents to stay inside, appears to be weaker than the shelter in place order that members of Congress requested. Local officials like state Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, a Democrat, have also denounced its limited scope, saying a patchwork approach will not cut it.

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So why is DeSantis refusing to compel all Floridians to stay home? From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, DeSantis has adopted whatever policies seem to mollify Donald Trump. That is no surprise. During the 2018 Florida gubernatorial primary, Trump endorsed DeSantis, effectively clinching the nomination for the previously obscure congressman. In return, Trump expects DeSantis to ensure that hell win Florida in the 2020 presidential election. But the governor has reportedly done little to help Trump, neglecting the states Republican infrastructure necessary to churn out GOP voters while paying insufficient fealty to the president. On March 5, Politico reported that the bad blood between the two men might soon spill out into the open.

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It has notprobably because in the intervening weeks, DeSantis has adopted Trumps disastrously negligent, hands-off approach to the virus.

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Trump has richly rewarded DeSantis for toeing the White Houses line. The president showered DeSantis with praise at a Saturday press briefing, declaring: Hes a very talented guy. Hes a very good governor. Everyone loves him. Hes doing a fantastic job for Florida. The federal government has also given Florida adequate medical supplies from the national stockpile while denying them to states with Democratic governors. According to the Washington Post, for instance, Maine asked for a half-million N95 masks and received about 5 percent of what it requested. Florida, by contrast, requested 430,000 surgical masks, 180,000 N95 respirators, 82,000 face shields, and 238,000 glovesand received it all within three days.

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The notion that criminals are bringing the coronavirus into Florida is a red herring.

And yet, despite doing everything Trump could ask for, DeSantis has failed miserably to contain COVID-19. The state still isnt testing nearly enough people, allowing the virus to spread silently while county officials implement public health measures that Desantis rejects. In the Miami region, infections may soon reach New York City levels, straining hospital capacity and forcing doctors to ration scarce equipment like ventilators. DeSantis has responded to this emerging catastrophe by looking the other way and continually targeting New Yorkers. In addition to the interstate checkpoints, the governor has stationed members of the National Guard at Floridas airports, where troops screen travelers from the New York region and direct them to self-quarantine for two weeks. After all the hard work, DeSantis explained, we dont want it to now get seeded as people flee the hot zone. His spokeswoman decried New Yorkers visiting Florida, accusing them of carrying the virus into Florida, unwittingly or not.

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Randy Fine, a Republican state representative and DeSantis ally, was even more explicit in maligning New Yorkers. Seems like some of our friends from New York are trying very hard to make us like New York, Fine said on Monday. We dont know how many people those criminals spread the virus to here.

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The notion that criminals are bringing the coronavirus into Florida is a red herring. The governor and his associates seem to have settled on that narrative to distract from their calamitous mismanagement of the states outbreak. By scapegoating New Yorkers, they are drawing attention from the reality that Florida is already undergoing community spread, and has been for weeks. The number of cases in Florida is not exploding because malevolent New Yorkers are importing COVID-19 into an otherwise pristine state. It is exploding because Floridians are passing the virus between each other, and DeSantis has done shockingly little to contain community spread.

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Instead, DeSantis is crafting an us vs. them narrative: The good people of Florida must protect their state from invasion to save themselves. He has fallen back on border security, a familiar tactic. Trump, too, has made border closures a cornerstone of his flailing efforts to contain the virus. On Saturday, the president floated (then scrapped) a plan to quarantine the New York region, claiming that Florida had been helplessly overrun with New Yorkers. This focus on limiting interstate travel only obscures the fact that state and federal governments must more aggressively combat COVID-19, which is already in every stateand spreading more quickly in states that wont shut down.

As coronavirus cases in Florida skyrocket, it will be increasingly difficult for DeSantis to lay culpability at the feet of intruders who snuck in from another state. The question now is whether DeSantis is willing to risk his relationship with Trump by imposing public health measures that actually contain community spread, or whether he will play along with the presidents fantasies. It is, for many Floridians, a question of life or death.

For more on the impact of the coronavirus, listen to Tuesdays episode of What Next.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will announce their new brand and charity on Instagram this week, a source has claimed.

The Duke, 35, and Duchess of Sussex, 38, who officially step back as senior royals in a bid to become 'financially independent' on Tuesday, are set to make the announcement on social media - including a non-profit enterprise.

'They've said they don't want a foundation but have held talks with experts in the US and Canada on how they can achieve their aims outside the Royal Family,' a source said, according to The Sun.

'A post will explain everything. It's very Harry and Meghan to announce their plans on Instagram.'

The Duke, 35, and Duchess of Sussex, 38, will announce their new brand and charity on Instagram this week, a source has claimed. Pictured, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attending the Commonwealth Day Service 2020 on March 9, 2020 in London

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and their baby son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor meet Archbishop Desmond Tutu during their royal tour of South Africa on September 25, 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa

It comes after President Donald Trump to Twitter on Sunday and said the US will not pay for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's security protection - adding they should foot the bill for their bodyguards, now they have moved across the border to LA from Vancouver where Canadian police helped with security.

Trump said: 'I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in

'Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!'

However, the royal couple have insisted they never intended to ask Donald Trump for help with security costs.

The royals are reportedly going to be sharing the update with their 11.3 million Instagram followers

The Duchess of Sussex's first gig after quitting the royal family was revealed last week - with Meghan voicing a Disney documentary on elephants (pictured with Prince Harry)

'The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have no plans to ask the U.S. Government for security resources,' a Sussex spokesman set yesterday. 'Privately funded security arrangements have been made.'

Last week, the Duchess of Sussex's first gig after quitting the royal family was revealed - with Meghan voicing a Disney documentary on elephants.

Her fee for the project is going entirely to the Elephants Without Borders charity - an organisation dedicated to conserving wildlife and helps protect the animals from poaching.

Meghan agreed to do the voiceover after a direct request from filmmakers, and it is understood that she recorded it in London this autumn after seeing footage of the documentary.
Actor Rita Wilson called herself a 'COVID 19 survivor' after returning home from quarantine in Australia.

Rita who tested positive for the coronavirus alongside husband Tom Hanks in Australia earlier this month in an Instagram post thanked God for both her good health and continued success.

As the couple acclimatised back into normal life in Los Angeles, Rita marked the importance of the date, 29 March, while sharing a series of pictures.

"This date, March 29, represents a time of great happiness. I was on Broadway starring with Larry David in his play Fish In The Dark before finding out I had been diagnosed with breast cancer. March 29 also marks five years of being cancer free after having had a bilateral mastectomy.......One year ago on March 29, I was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a street, that as a child, I'd walk on and read all the names of the stars I admired, never believing one day my name would be on one of those stars. And one year ago today, I released my fourth album, Halfway to Home," Rita wrote.

She further added: "All of this would not be possible without good health. So, today, March 29, I am celebrating the beauty of this life, the blessings God has given, and my continued good health, even now as a Covid-19 survivor. Please take a moment today to acknowledge the amazing creation your bodies are and to thank it for doing so much."

Expressing her gratitude Wilson thanked god, fans, and also the medical professionals who got her through that time.

Celebrating the beauty of life she concluded, "I am celebrating the beauty of this life, the blessings God has given , and my continued good health, even now as a COVID 19 survivor. Please take a moment today to acknowledge the amazing creation your bodies are and to thank it for doing so much.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In times of crisis all we want is to be with our family, but for those with vital roles during the coronavirus pandemic, this poses a great risk. Linda Stewart speaks to three frontline staff who are staying away from their dwellings to protect their loved ones.

A&E nurse Ruth McGreevy (27), from Newtownards, has moved into an Airbnb accommodation in Bangor in order to protect her mum and siblings who fall under the high risk category. Her boyfriend is Philip (31), a computer technician

A&E nurse Ruth McGreevy has had fond memories of the Ulster Hospital since childhood when she was a frequent visitor due to her asthma.

Now on the frontline in the fight against coronavirus, the 27-year-old from Newtownards is poised for the toughest battle of her life as the hospital prepares for a flood of patients hit by coronavirus.

Although patients infected with Covid-19 have already started to appear at the Ulster Hospital - and there have been some deaths - there is still a sense that it is the calm before the storm.

"We shut down a bit of the A&E to cater for people coming in, where we could call people in and treat them, send them to the ward or send them home. And then the past couple of weeks we've been closing off more and more of the A&E," Ruth says.

We're all very nervous. I don't even think it's about the people coming in - people are worried about taking it home Ruth McGreevy, nurse

"Obviously, the doctors and the managers are concerned that it's coming because they're shutting it down and we're getting more in-depth training on how to deal with the really sick patients that come in. So it's a bit scarier now that all this is taking place - everyone's on tenterhooks just waiting for this to hit.

"All the wards have been emptied out to deal with this when it arrives and it's quite bizarre lately going to the ward and seeing lots of empty beds, because that hasn't happened in years."

The staff have been getting special training in the personal protection they will wear, including masks, aprons and gloves.

"And then there are things like infection control, how to stop the spread. We're learning how to work ventilators and respiratory equipment," Ruth says.

"That's quite daunting - nurses generally wouldn't really be doing much of that, but now we're being taught it just in case we get into the circumstances where we might have to use them.

"We're all very nervous. I don't even think it's about the people coming in - people are worried about taking it home.

"We all have families at home and sick people and children and things. You're so scared of walking it back into your house, because you never know what will happen. You hear of people getting younger and younger with no medical history who are dying from this, so it's scary."

Ruth has a long association with the Ulster Hospital - she was born prematurely and had bad asthma when she was young, and spent a lot of time in the hospital.

"I just had lots of admissions with my chest as I had quite a lot of asthma attacks, so I was just in and out with that into Maynard Ward. They were always so nice and kind and my sister Eleanor was quite unwell as a child, so we spent a lot of time visiting her when I was little - I was just always around hospitals."

It was this early experience that spurred her to become a nurse.

"I was struck with just how much a bit of kindness can do for someone," Ruth says.

"You can be so unwell and someone just giving you a nice smile or being kind - the smallest gesture can go a long way. Making someone a cup of tea sometimes goes a lot further than any other medication you can give them."

Expand Close Close family: Ruth (far right) with her mum and sisters / Facebook

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Whatsapp Close family: Ruth (far right) with her mum and sisters

After leaving school, Ruth went to Queen's University Belfast and worked as a healthcare assistant while studying to be a nurse. She is now an adult-trained A&E nurse in the Ulster Hospital.

"Basically, it's people walking in unwell, so it's like doing bloods and ECGs, trying to figure out what's wrong with people. Lately, I've been dealing with cardiac arrests and things like that, dealing with car accidents."

Ruth lives with her mum Belle (67) and sisters Sarah (33), Eleanor (32) and Kirsty (29).

In the past week she has been forced to make the difficult decision to move away from her family in order to protect them from the danger of infection.

"I'm the youngest, and I didn't want to do it but my mum is 67, and she's diabetic and has high blood pressure," Ruth says.

"My oldest brother Alex recently had four strokes and he was on chemotherapy treatment with quite an unusual disease that he has - nobody's really heard of it. So he's on chemotherapy and he would have quite a low immune system. My sister Eleanor has MS and my sister Kirsty is on immunosuppressant drugs for a stomach problem. I feel like a walking super-virus going into my house.

"I was thinking about it for a few weeks but I hadn't really talked to my mum about it - I didn't want to bring it up until I thought it was really necessary.

"But in the last week especially I noticed that a lot of the patients I've been looking after had been going off to the ward and were taken very unwell or there were people passing away. So, in my eyes I could see it escalating quite a lot and I felt like it was time to go." Ruth says her family was very upset that she had to move out. She was the youngest and had never been away from home for a long period of time.

"I'm only moving to Bangor - it's not far but it's more that I can't come into the house and have a proper conversation with them," she says.

"My mum was very upset about it - she's just worried. She keeps saying she might not see me again."

Expand Close Ruth with boyfriend Philip Ferguson / Facebook

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Whatsapp Ruth with boyfriend Philip Ferguson

Ruth keeps in touch with her family and her boyfriend Philip (31), a computer technician, using video chat.

"I haven't seen him in a month," she says.

Along with another nursing colleague, Ruth has moved into an Airbnb accommodation at Gray's Hill in Bangor thanks to the generosity of the couple who own it.

"They've given us the use of their house completely rent-free which is amazing - it's so kind," she says.

"The kindness we've been shown at the moment is immense - like every day there's more things being sent off to us. We'll keep laughing, saying we'll be rolling out of here after coronavirus because people are feeding us so much.

"We're getting pizzas and doughnuts, and a big coffee van was up the other day giving everyone free coffee and sandwiches and everything. People are donating hand creams because we've washed our hands until they're cracking and bleeding - people are giving us everything."

The toughest thing just at the moment is all the new training, Ruth says.

"They're saying things are going to get a lot harder for us because obviously this disease is airborne, so it's when we go into the big proper masks that it will be scary.

"You're just aware that you can't take them off," she says.

"It's just the fear in people's eyes because they're not allowed any visitors. So it's trying to comfort those people - they're so unwell and scared, and they can't have anyone in their family with them.

"All you can do is just try and be as kind and caring as you can, staying with them, explaining why it's happening, why their family can't come in, we'll look after them the best we can. It's just being there to hold their hands when they need it."

Ruth pays tribute to all the staff who are doing their bit to combat the disease.

"It takes an army in here," she says.

"To move a single patient to the ward, the whole corridor has to close because obviously people can't walk into the corridor when you're moving - so the amount of porters it takes and then the whole area has to be cleaned after one patient moves. The amount of people it takes to move one person is crazy. And you couldn't do it without everybody - the teamwork going on at the minute is amazing.

"I know the Down A&E has closed, so the staff from the Down A&E have just come up today to the Ulster. So that's extra doctors and extra nurses coming up, which is great."

Ruth says the whole thing is very scary but the key thing is to try to keep positive.

"It's all going to be over soon hopefully and if we all just do as we're told it will be over sooner rather than later, hopefully, and we'll come out the other side," she says.

"It really does prove how great everybody is that works for the NHS, not just nurses. We're being supported at the minute, but it really isn't just us - it's everybody. It's amazing seeing everyone pulling together."

The social worker

Social worker Maria McNamee (41), from Londonderry, has moved in with a friend in Castlefin, Donegal, because she is concerned about putting her partner Gareth at risk

I live with my partner of 11 or 12 years - it's just me and him," she says.

"He has two of the conditions that put him at a really high risk - he has type one diabetes and is on immunosuppressants for Crohn's disease. Each one of those would have put him in the at-risk category but the two together complicate things a bit more."

Over the weekend the couple discussed the risk and made the difficult decision that Maria should move out.

"Because I'm still working and I'm out and about in contact with people, we decided the risk was too high," she says.

Expand Close Forced separation: Maria McNamee and partner Gareth / Facebook

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Whatsapp Forced separation: Maria McNamee and partner Gareth

"Even before I moved out we were practising a bit of social distancing at home - we had moved into separate rooms and we stayed in separate parts of the house.

"I really thought we could just continue to do that - we didn't go out with friends, we didn't have people calling.

"We genuinely thought this would have been OK but the more we learned about the virus and how it is transmitted, it was like a bang at the weekend.

The difficult thing is not knowing how long it's going to be for - if someone said it would be for 'X' amounts of weeks it would be easier, but it's not knowing when I'm going back to my own environment Maria McNamee, social worker

"It was a really tough thing to do and we just felt it had to be done.

"We made the decision over the weekend and I packed my bags and left for work on Monday morning, not to return really. The difficult thing is not knowing how long it's going to be for - if someone said it would be for 'X' amounts of weeks it would be easier, but it's not knowing when I'm going back to my own environment.

"It's a bit hard for us doing it - I can't even imagine what it's like if you have children."

Maria has moved in with a friend in Castlefin and works from home quite a lot, but there are still days when she has to go to the office or carry out home visits.

"Even though the rest of my family are living locally I'm still not seeing them either," she says.

As a social worker with the looked-after children service, much of Maria's work involves visits to children, families and foster parents.

"We've stepped some of that down but we're doing a lot of phone support and there are still children that we need to visit," she says.

"It's a tough job, so when you don't have your own home comforts around you and your own routine of what you do, it's really tough.

"This is the start of it - it's been okay and it's a lovely place, but I can only imagine when you're two, three, four weeks down the line, and that's only the start of it.

"I think there's a real sense of people getting on with it and you are having to dig deep - I think everybody is doing it. I am so lucky with what I have here - for others out there, it must be so hard for them."

The paramedic

Paramedic Rab McCoy (51), from Coleraine, has moved into a B&B to protect vulnerable family members from infection. He is married to Tanya and has two children, Robbie (16) and Rachel (16)

It was really from a personal point of view - there were a couple of things," he says.

"It was a matter of timing for me, trying to gauge the timing for this curve that is talked about in the news.

"I realised early on that I couldn't work from home.

"My wife had had a couple of bouts of cancer and had undergone radiotherapy and chemotherapy and had her spleen removed, so it was a decision we talked about. It was a no-brainer."

The paramedic was granted a period of emergency leave by the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service in order for him to prepare his family for his absence - including his elderly mother-in-law and his brother, who lives in semi-sheltered accommodation.

Expand Close Better times: Rab McCoy with wife Tanya and their children Robbie and Rachel / Facebook

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Whatsapp Better times: Rab McCoy with wife Tanya and their children Robbie and Rachel

"I cleared all that up and that allowed me the time to prepare for stepping out of the home setting for an extended period of time. I moved out a couple of days ago," he says. Rab admits it will be tough to be away from his family at such a difficult time.

"I was quite emotional. My wife is a fantastic woman, a very brave lady and quite stoic, and the kids have been quite good too, but it has upset the whole lot of us and there were a few tears," he says.

"My plan is to come up round the house, wave through the window and do a few wee things - I've a neighbour to look out for as well - but no physical contact. I'll not be coming within the two-metre range - it's too big a risk. No washing or anything like that.

"It's complete detachment, other than waving from quite a distance away. I'm blown away by the courage of our staff, it's unbelievable. We've had numerous calls today and our guys are being sensible but very brave - all ranks as well.

"The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service have been very helpful through the whole thing, too," he adds.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 15:26:07|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, March 30 (Xinhua) -- A man in Hong Kong was sentenced to three months in prison on Monday for breaching the compulsory quarantine regulation, the first person jailed for such violations in the Special Administrative Region (SAR) since the COVID-19 outbreak.

The 31-year-old man pleaded guilty at the Fanling court on Monday morning that he intentionally provided a fake home address to the nurse on duty when entering Hong Kong through Shenzhen Bay Port on March 8, according to local media.

The judge said the man's act of providing false information was selfish and showed disregard of social safety, and could frustrate the joint efforts of the Hong Kong society to fight the epidemic.

Facing the COVID-19 outbreak, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government has imposed compulsory quarantines on inbound visitors at home or quarantine centers. Violators face maximum imprisonment for six months and a fine of 25,000 Hong Kong dollars (more than 3,000 U.S. dollars).
Pastor Samuel Olu Opajobi, is the Community Development Committee (CDC) Chairman of Ifako-Ijaiye, in this interview with Olanrewaju Adesanya he called on Lagos State government to put more fund in emergency management and further engage the Community in security issues among other things.

How did you emerge as the CDC Chairman of a well populated LG like Ifako-Ijaiye?

In Ifako-Ijaiye, we have four forum, Ogba, Iju, Ifako, Obawole-Onibata forum, we have been rotating it and now that is the turn of Obawole-Onibatas turn, my people asked me to go for it given the way I worked closely with the last Chairman, its actually by election and I won .

Any challenge since you resume office?

To be sincere with you since, since my assumption of office we have been enjoying the cooperation of the Local Government, even the state government as well has been good to us, the only thing I can say is the population explosion in the CDC which I dont see as a challenge, compared to the last CDC we now have more people to manage in terms of number, since I have been elected as the Chairman I cannot say I really have any challenge. The only area we can call a challenge which has now been resolved is our monthly support from the LG and this has been reviewed upwardly.

Can you say you are enjoying the support of the LG as a result of the CDC cooperation with the LG in the area of revenue generation?

Definitely, since I assumed office as the CDC chairman, I have made it compulsory for our people to pay all their levies, like our annual CDA renewal, I set up a committee to help the people, you dont need to go to the LG government as individual to pay your bill, the Committee help you pay to the bank and distribute the receipts and we copy the LG. At our last meeting, I told all the Community Development Association (CDA) Chairmen that they should go to their respective CDAs and ensure that any bill sent from the LG particularly to the Lockup shops, they collect and help the people pay to the bank, they should not pay cash to any LG official, it is now the responsibility of the CDA chairmen to go round the community, to the luckup shops as soon as the LG serves them the bills and help them pay to the bank. So, in a way, we have been able to limit the work of the LG officials to bill distribution while we take up the payment aspect.

Can you say this has been able to block revenue leakages and increase the IGR of the Local Government?

I cant really say since I wasnt privy to how much the LG was making before so I dont really know if this has led to increase in the revenue but, this is just the style we decide to adopt in Ifako-Ijaiye and the CDA Chairmen are cooperating with me and the LG can attest to it that this is a good strategy.

What are the areas you need governments intervention in your community?

Well, first of all, I want the monthly subvension to be regular, you know we hold our meetings where we discuss community development from time to time, if people sacrifice their time to attend meetings and you cannot give them transport fare they may not come next time. Although, with the support of our able chairman, Apostle Oloruntoba, it has been regular but we want it to be more regular.

Another area where we need governments intervention is in the area of roads, not only here where I live alone, even at Ogba, Iju, Ifako and other areas, roads are bad, even if it is grading, the local government can help us do the grading before the state government comes to our aid.

As CDC Chairman you have been organising sensitization programme across the LG since the coronavirus pandemic broke out, tell us about this.

Yes, we are doing this in obedience to the instruction given to us by the state governor, when the pandemic broke out, governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu invited us to the state house as community leaders and asked us to go back into our communities and continue to educate our people about the deadly virus and ways they can prevent themselves from contracting the virus, this informed our decision to carry out this exercise.

Immediately I came back from the meeting with the governor, I called my exco members and made them see the need to begin aggressive sensitization in our community, then we began, the first we had which was the first of its kind in Lagos, had a huge turn out, various stakeholders, market women, artisans, healthy professionals, security agencies, community leaders, students representatives, media men, governments functionaries were all represented.

What would be your advice to CDC where there are pockets of crisis here and there?

There is no area where they dont have their own issue, it could be more in some areas, we thank God in Ifako-Ijaiye, but some other CDC where they have large concentration of non- yoruba speaking community may not be this lucky, but what I will advise is that, as community leader you must always see all the people as one regardless of their tribe, accept that Lagos is a metropolitan city and therefore you must learn to tolerate others.

As CDC Chairman you dont wait until there is crisis before you relate with the people, visit the mechanics workshops, talk to the artisans, relate with the market women, meet with the hausa community, the Igbos and dont discriminate, be close to them all.

Moreso, make sure you carry along the security agencies in all the happenings in your community, for instance, whenever we hold our meetings we usually invite the police, the DSS, and other security agencies so they come to listen to the security challenges from the people directly and know how to identify the flash points and know what to do. I dont joke with security issue that is why I dont take it lightly with anyone who fails to pay his security due within the Community.

As a community leader, what is your advice to the government of Lagos State regarding disaster management with recent explosions?

Government should learn to work with the Community for information, in the area of pipeline vandalism, the Community people can be engaged. The Lagos State government should put more fund in disaster management and be more prompt in emergency response, Lagos is a highly populated city and because of our system incidents like the Abule- Ado explosion should be prepared for and met with prompt response.
Commissioners Discuss County COVID-19 Plans

The Hill County Commissioners' Court met in a regular session Tuesday, March 24, and addressed several agenda items relating to the county's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.



Commissioners voted to extend the emergency disaster declaration originally issued by County Judge Justin Lewis Thursday, March 19. The original order was only in effect for seven days until the commissioners' court took action to extend it.



The local declaration followed the state's disaster declaration and Governor Greg Abbott's order that closed all bars, dining rooms, restaurants and gyms across the state to walk-in traffic through at least Friday, April 3. The governor's order also closed schools until April 3, limited nursing home visitation and limited social gatherings to no more than 10 individuals.



While the court had the option of putting the order in place for up to 90 days, commissioners opted to follow the timeline in the governor's order and keep it in place through April 3.



The judge pointed out that the situation is rapidly developing and the order will be revisited by the court at its regular meetings to determine if it is still necessary. Lewis also has the authority to terminate it without the court's approval if the situation suddenly changes.



The local declaration will ensure that the county is eligible to be reimbursed for any expenses incurred due to the COVID-19 situation.



Following the declaration, the county mandated Monday, March 23, that any game rooms in the county must also close under the order.



Lewis said that the big question had been whether the county was planning a shelter-in-place order like McLennan County. Hubbard has already issued its own order, but Hill County had not issued such an order as of The Reporter Newspaper press time Friday, March 27.



"The answer is no," the judge said. "I'm not proposing that at this time."



Lewis said that the decision was based on not having the facts to support the drastic measure, pointing out that the governor's order had just gone into effect and he would like to give those measures a little time.



The judge said that he is also in regular contact with the county's health authority, Dr. James Earhart, and as of the previous evening, he did not believe it was necessary due to there being no confirmed cases in the county, no confirmed community spread and the lower population density of Hill County compared to McLennan County.



"I'm afraid a stay-at-home order right now is a reaction to facts that we don't have," Lewis said. "I'm not saying we would never do it. I just don't see it being a rational decision at this point for Hill County."



Lewis pointed out that the situation is rapidly developing and he is providing daily updates on the situation to employees and to the community through social media, Hill County Emergency Management and Hill County media outlets.



The judge encouraged everyone to continue following guidance to curb the spread. "This is a serious thing," the judge said, "and we're only going to avoid giving it to people by social distancing."



He added that the county is listening to the experts and health authorities to make decisions. "We're not making political decisions," Lewis said. "We're making scientifically-driven decisions."



The judge said, "We have to balance virus (response) and community good. We have people on one end locked in place, and on the other end not doing anything. There has to be a middle ground that we can come to and make this work for all of us."



Discussing a shelter-in-place order, Lewis added, "There's a learning curve for us. I don't want to say neverthat it can't happen or won't happen. I'm just saying that right now, the data doesn't support it."



Hill County Emergency Management Coordinator Tom Hemrick said that in his conversation with emergency personnel across the state, this is an unusual situation that is new to everyone. "This is so unique," Hemrick said. "This doesn't follow any of the rules."



Lewis explained that rumor control is also important in a time like this. "We do have people who are intentionally causing distress and misinformation right in our own community," he said. "That is despicable to me. It is beyond despicable that you would take this opportunity to stand on your own soapbox and draw a little attention to yourself at the expense of your fellow humans and community members."



He continued, "If you make false reports, remember that we're under a public disaster declaration. There are some pretty enhanced penalties for those things, so be careful what you put out there."



As of press time Friday, Texas was reporting 1,731 cases of COVID-19 resulting in 23 deaths. Over 23,000 Texans had been tested as of Friday.



This number is changing daily, and the latest count can be found on the Texas Department of State Health Services website at www.dshs.state.tx.us/coronavirus.



In other related agenda items, the court approved the purchase of Zoom video conferencing software to facilitate meetings and court activities being conducted remotely to assist with social distancing.



The telecommunications policy and emergency closing policy for county offices were also reviewed and updated to allow employees of certain offices who can work remotely to do so at the discretion of officials or department heads.



Commissioners also reported that they were working to repair damage from the recent rainfall, and Lewis once again stressed the importance of responding to the 2020 Census. More information about the census is featured on page 1 of this edition.




Thieves are stealing vital equipment from ambulances, putting lives at risk during the coronavirus crisis.

The NHS is now warning staff to hide their uniforms due to a surge in attack on health workers.

North East Ambulance Service warned that the continuing theft of vital personal protective equipment from ambulances could 'severely impede our combined efforts to keep people safe' after being hit with four such incidents.

It comes as nurse Sama Shari, 33, was spat on by a yob in Withington, south Manchester.

Sama Shali, 33, was spat at twice as she walked home from a 10-hour shift at The Christie Hospital in Withington, in Manchester. Fortunately two women were on hand to picture the yob

Sama, 33, is concerned her ID badge for The Christie Hospital was the reason for the thug to approach her in West Didsbury on Wednesday. NHS staff have been advised not to wear their uniform on their way to work

Head of risk at North East Ambulance Service, Alan Gallagher, said of the spate of thefts: 'NHS staff like ours are facing incredible challenges in the current climate, both personally and professionally, but because of their unwavering dedication to the people in our communities, they continue to come to work to help people in their time of need.

'To hear about such selfish acts of theft is incredibly disappointing and we will not tolerate it.

'The impacts of such acts could severely impede our combined efforts to keep people safe. Those responsible should consider the wider impact that their actions could have on the community and their own emergency care, should they ever need it.

A union has warned the lack of protective equipment will cause a staffing crisis and bring the ambulance service to the brink

Mr Gallagher said: 'As a result, all vehicles will now carry minimal stocks. All of our vehicles are fitted with CCTV and anyone attempting to board one whilst the crew are treating patients is likely to be caught on camera and the footage provided as evidence to the police.'

His remarks come after An NHS worker has revealed how a vile yob spat in her face while she walked home from a 10-hour shift, as health bosses warn that the coronavirus crisis has triggered a surge in attacks on doctors and nurses.

Sama Shali, 33, fears she was targeted by the unidentified yob as she was still wearing her ID badge for the The Christie Hospital in Withington, south Manchester.

It comes as hospitals are warning workers not to wear their uniforms in the street and to cover their security lanyards amid a spike in abuse aimed at NHS staff, with Piers Morgan vowing to name and shame thugs who target health professionals.

Sama stopped walking after she heard a man on a bicycle say something to her as she headed to a tram station in Didsbury.

She said: 'He said something to me and I took my earphones out to hear what he said. I asked him if he could give me some space as he was quite close to me and then he spat in my face.'

Since the coronavirus pandemic landed in Britain NHS workers have suffered a number of thefts and attacks from the public:

Two doctors were approached for the ID badges in a failed mugging in Lewisham

Nurses are being called 'disease spreaders' and are being heckled in the street

A community care nurse had her car stolen with thousands of pounds worth of equipment inside in Longsight, Greater Manchester

Wayne Harvey, 32, stole an A&E receptionist's handbag and assaulted a security guard at George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton.

A doctor was forced to hand over cash in Harlow, Essex last Wednesday

Muggers took ID cards from staff near University College Hospital in London

Troll tells Staffordshire paramedic she 'was the reason the Covid-19 death toll is rising' after she posted a viral selfie

Pharmacists are also being 'intimidated' and 'sworn at' by customers

Chief Nursing Officer tells the British public: 'Listen and respect' NHS staff

Sama continued: 'I was so shocked and I told him I was going to ring the police. He just started circling me on his bike and then he did it again - he spat at my face again.'

Thankfully for Sama, who lives in Stretford, there were two women running nearby who saw the incident and were able to take a photo of the man and make him leave her alone.

Sama said: 'I am so grateful to the women that helped me. But I am so shocked and upset about it - I just don't understand why it happened to me.

'I am scared he might have had coronavirus and wanted to spread it. Now I am scared that I could pass it on to my colleagues or patients.

'We are short-staffed and I am scared of the impact it will have on my team if I become ill.'

Sama, who has worked in the NHS since 2015 and was previously a pharmacy manager at HMP Manchester, currently works in the cancer research department at The Christie Hospital.

Nurses are being called 'disease spreaders' while being heckled and spat at in the streets, according to Royal College of Nursing director Susan Masters

University College Hospital, pictured, has seen its staff targeted by muggers in the past week. Doctors and nurses are now being told not to wear uniform on their way into work

She fears the attacker may have targeted her as her work lanyard was on show.

Man, 27, is charged with punching hospital worker in the face, breaking his cheekbone A hospital worker has suffered a fractured cheekbone after he was punched in the face. Greater Manchester Police said Daniel Shevlin, 27, had been charged with Section 20 assault and an offence under Section 4a of the Public Order Act after the alleged incident at Salford Royal Infirmary on Sunday. Officers were called just before 1.50pm to reports a man had assaulted a member of NHS staff at the hospital. The staff member - a man in his 50s - required treatment for a fractured cheekbone but has since been discharged, police said. A force spokesman said Shevlin, of no fixed abode, had been remanded in custody and was due to appear at Manchester and Salford Magistrates' Court on Monday. Meanwhile, a Brighton man has been charged after three police officers were allegedly spat at by a man claiming to be infected with coronavirus. Police were responding to a report of criminal damage at a block of flats in Albion Street at about 5.50pm on Saturday. The incident led to the arrest of Peter Davy, 65, unemployed, of Albion Street, Brighton, who is due in court on Monday. He is charged with: three counts of assaulting an emergency worker; using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause fear of violence; and using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress. He was remanded in custody to appear at Brighton Magistrates' Court. Advertisement

Sama said: 'When I went home I had about three showers, not just because I felt dirty but because I was so upset.

'I spent all of the next morning crying.'

Healthcare workers have been abused and mugged for cash and ID cards amid the coronavirus crisis.

Piers Morgan today vowed to name and shame any thug targeting NHS workers.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain he said: 'We will keep naming and shaming, both here and on Twitter.

'Anyone who's behaving like this needs to be named, shamed and dealt with. Until the message gets home to these thick skulls.

'This is a fight we're all in. People are going to die and the priority is saving lives.'

Chief nursing officer Ruth May says she is 'shocked' to hear of the attack:

'Our NHS and social care staff are pulling out all the stops in the face of an unprecedented global health threat, so I am shocked at some of the stories I am hearing of NHS staff being assaulted, spat at or attacked for their ID badges.'

'I was deeply moved by the country coming together to clap our carers last week and the many stories of generosity colleagues from businesses and members of the public, but these inspiring displays of gratitude are at risk of being overshadowed by the stupid behaviour of an idiotic few who are putting lives at risk.

'So I am calling on the public to respect and listen to NHS staff, because you may be needing them very soon  please stay at home, wash your hands and save lives.'

The Royal College of Nursing says its members have been called 'disease spreaders' as they head to work on the frontline of the NHS in recent days.

Nurses and doctors have been told not to head to work in their uniform on their way to work and to keep their ID badges hidden, to avoid being preyed upon by petty thieves.

It comes after a thieves tried to mug doctors for their ID cards near Lewisham Hospital and University College Hospital in London.

On Thursday nurses were sent an email advising them not to wear uniform, while other medical staff have been told not to show their NHS ID badges.

The email read: 'Until further notice, can all nurses no longer wear their uniforms to travel to and from their place of work,' according to The Times.

'I'm not surprised, sadly. I know people are worried and upset and we are easy targets,' one nurse told the paper.

Last week a doctor in Harlow, Essex was approached by a gang of three youths who took him to a cash machine and forced him to withdraw cash.

More than 500 has been raised since a community nurse from Manchester had her car stolen from her drive last Wednesday. The car had her medical kit inside.

Two weeks ago thieves targeted two doctors outside Lewisham Hospital and tried to steal their NHS badges.

Doctors in London have been targeted for their NHS ID badges in London. The ID cards can get staff discounts at restaurants and shops, most of which have closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Stock image

The thieves, who approached the staff members as they walked through a park around the back of the hospital, were unsuccessful.

A similar incident is now thought to have happened at University College Hospital, after two doctors were mugged nearby.

Staff are now being told to keep their badges hidden and only show them to official staff or to a patient.

Pharmacists are also being 'intimidated' and 'sworn at' by customers, according to national pharmaceutical bodies.

Leyla Hannbeck, Chief Executive of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMP), said: 'Pharmacy teams do not deserve to be treated unkindly, sworn at and attacked for going over and beyond during these difficult times. Their efforts should be appreciated and applauded.'

Susan Masters, the Royal College of Nursing's director of policy, told The Times: 'I hear from community nurses that they are being heckled at and verbally abused and called 'disease spreaders'. This is abhorrent behaviour, it must stop.'

Greater Manchester Police is trying to find the man who spat at Miss Shali.

He is described as a white man in his 30s, who was wearing a black jumper with black jeans and was riding a red bicycle.

No arrests have been made.

Anyone with information should contact police on 101 quoting incident number 2139 of 25/03/2020.

A union has warned the lack of protective equipment will cause a staffing crisis and bring the ambulance service to the brink as thousands of workers self-isolate.

A staggering 4,100 ambulance workers have self-isolated across just eight trusts - London, Yorkshire, North East, Wales, East Midlands, South Central, South East Coast and North West, research by the GMB showed.

The union said its ambulance members report being given no access to personal protective equipment (PPE) even when being sent to treat patients suspected of having Covid-19.

When supplies are getting through, they are often out-of-date masks with stickers over the expiry dates, said the union.

Not all workers who are self-isolating will have COVID-19 but the lack of testing for frontline workers means that potentially thousands of key workers are having to stay at home at the time they are needed most.

GMB national officer Rachel Harrison said: 'The lack of protective equipment for our frontline workers is nothing short of a national crisis and it's going to bring services to the brink.

'We've got thousands of workers self-isolating.

'Some will have the virus after working without proper protective gear, others might just have a cold and could be at work but without testing there is no way to know - it's creating a capacity issue and putting more people at risk.

The lack of testing for frontline workers means that potentially thousands of key workers are having to stay at home

'Out-of-date masks are being issued as standard, with stickers placed over expiry dates as if somehow that means the equipment is safe to use.

'Our members are trained in how to be safe, they know that they're being put at risk but are worried too that lack of protection means they're taking this virus home to their loved ones. That's just plain wrong.

'The Government need to act now to get PPE to the front line, and immediately start testing frontline staff as a priority.

'GMB is demanding PPE for all staff who need it and testing for all staff.'
Does the prospect of going outside give you a fright?

Stay home, wear your best costume and give Quarantine-O-Ween a try.

What is Quarantine-O-Ween, exactly?

For one, its something to do for everyone stuck at home social distancing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

You simply put on a Halloween costume and share pictures of your off-season attire on social media using the hashtag #QuarantineOWeen. Decorations, horror movies, candy and ghost stories are also welcome.

Quarantine-O-Ween arrives Tuesday, March 31, in lieu of October 31. This means you can get dressed up as Joe Exotic from Netflixs Tiger King seven months early!

The idea for the socially distanced holiday comes from the Halloween community, where Halloween is celebrated 365 days a year. From there, the idea made its way to a Women in Parks and Recreation Facebook Group, where Noreen Wilpiszeski saw it.

Wilpiszeski, recreation director for Middlesex Borough, posted about the event on the recreation Facebook page.

We have had over 800,000 hits on the post and its gone as far as South Africa, so its really gotten a great reach," she tells NJ Advance Media.

Since events have been canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak, shes tried other ways to lighten the mood, like making 100 sanitized go-bags containing crafts and chalk and placing them around town. The impromptu Halloween celebration comes at a great time, she says, given the fact that the boroughs Easter egg hunt was scheduled to be this Saturday, but was obviously canceled due to the pandemic.

Most likely Im going to be putting on my hippo onesie," she says of her own Quarantine-O-Ween costume.

Justine Clemente-Roome, 29, of San Diego, was the first to share the #QuarantineOWeen hashtag on Instagram about a week ago after a friend mentioned the idea. She goes by the name ghostine on social media.

In the Instagram community, at least the community that I follow very closely, theres a very avid, very dedicated, very enthusiastic Halloween community of people that are just supportive of the holiday year-round. Its just kind of the lifestyle," she tells NJ Advance Media.

Its the 31st, were all stuck at home. Why not?

Noreen Wilpiszeski, recreation director for Middlesex Borough, in the hippo onesie she plans to wear for Quarantine-O-Ween.Noreen Wilpiszeski

Some may not appreciate anything macabre during such a grim time, but Clemente-Roome sees Quarantine-O-Ween as a way of putting a spin on the fear that were already dealing with on a daily basis. After all, ritual, including holidays, can hold the potential to calm and unite, even when were physically apart. Social media and video chats can sub in for carefree days going door-to-door for candy, or nights out partying in our costumes.

Its trying to incorporate some normalcy, take us out of the this stir-crazy restlessness that were in," she says. Everyone just kind of feels like theyre in this limbo of life right now.

Roxanne Rhoads designed the orange-and-black Quarantine-O-Ween image that has been circulating far and wide on social media.

Halloween fun in the time of corona, she wrote on the graphic, which she shared several days ago on Instagram.

She saw the concept posted online at The Samhain Society, a Halloween group she frequents where likeminded bloggers and vloggers gather to celebrate all things that go bump in the night.

We like any excuse to put out our decorations and dress up," Rhoads tells NJ Advance Media. At least some of her Halloween decor stays up all year.

Later, Spirit Halloween, the national costume retailer based in Egg Harbor Township, picked up on the vibe and shared her invitation on Instagram.

All of a sudden it was just everywhere," says Rhoads, 43, of Flint, Michigan, author of the book Haunted Flint." She runs the website A Bewitching Guide to All Things Halloween.

Normally, Rhoads sees a lot of halfway to Halloween celebrations pop up around May 1 or 2. Shifting the occasion was no problem, especially since spring parties are canceled indefinitely.

People really need something to look forward to right now, something to brighten things up," she says. So many things have been canceled: kids programs and graduations. Its just a collective feeling of disappointment."

Whether wearing a costume can inject a little fun into routine homeschooling or provide an excuse to play Monster Mash," its one way to shake things up when days start to meld into one long binge-watching session.

This definitely gives an opportunity for a fun, creative outlet, Rhoads says. Everyone can do it from home.

Social distancing precludes trick-or-treating, but families could stage a scavenger hunt or trunk-or-treat for candy in the living room, driveway (in the customary place: their cars trunk) or yard (limited to your immediate household).

Dont have a costume? Get creative with what you have in the house, Rhoads says. Have kids make masks out of craft supplies and makeup. Watch a scary movie. Tell ghost stories (maybe not of the pandemic variety), as if everyone is gathered around a campfire.

Clemente-Roome plans to wear a Bride of Frankenstein costume to match her infant son, Revan, who will be Frankensteins monster. Maybe theyll even livestream the occasion, she says.

Who doesnt love Halloween and dressing up?"

Have a tip? Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.

Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.
The police went into Fattys Smoke Shop in Beverly Hills, a small city surrounded by Waco, last Wednesday about 10 a.m., owner Jesse Singh recalled. His business, they informed him, is not considered essential under McLennan Countys emergency order, issued the previous day as part of the governments increasingly restrictive efforts to slow COVID-19, the viral disease racing across the country.

They also told my customers they were illegally out of the house because this wasnt an essential business, he said.

Singh balked, noting the countys emergency order permitted health care operations to remain open, and that his shop sold CBD oil, among other products, which many people use to treat a variety of ailments. My parents use it for arthritis, he said.

The officers left, but returned later that evening, writing Singh a ticket for violation of the emergency plan  a fine of up to a $1,000 per day. He remained closed Thursday, but the store was back and open for business on Friday and Saturday, with strict social distancing measures and an official letter of complaint from his lawyer to the county firmly in place.

The latest: Interactive maps, charts show spread of coronavirus in Texas

On Sunday the police returned, this time threatening the clerk with a personal $1,000 fine, Singh said. The shop closed around 11 a.m.

Apart from apparently being one of the first punitive actions taken against a business for remaining open in violation of a countys coronavirus emergency declaration, the dispute could foreshadow future legal battles as the business shut-down drags on.

It also highlights the challenge of enforcing a patchwork of emergency orders across the country and state when details of the directives can be open to interpretation.

The assignment of essential vs. non-essential businesses seems arbitrary based on the current order in McLennan County, Singhs lawyer, Hunter Shurtlett, wrote in a March 27 letter to County Judge Scott Felton. Currently, convenience stores as well as liquor stores are designated as essential businesses. Customers of Fattys rely on CBD products for severe health concerns and purchase the products for health care purposes.

For subscribers: Texas AG says gun sales cannot be restricted by stay-home orders

Different counties have taken different approaches to the essential-business-only orders, both in identification and enforcement. Galveston County is really looking for voluntary compliance, Judge Mark Henry told the Texas Tribune. Collin County has permitted businesses to remain open but urged that they follow social distancing best practices.

Similar variations can be found for owners of shops that sell vaping equipment and CBD products who are seeking guidance.

Austin and Travis County appear to have been in the minority of jurisdictions specifically listing the shops as non-essential in their initial stay-home orders. MaryJae owner Francisca Anciso said she was disappointed to see her business listed as a must-close.

We were hoping to go off the whole gray area thing, she said.

Texas Take: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

According to the Fort Worth business hotline, CBD shops may remain open but only for phone ordering and curbside delivery, like restaurants. But Tarrant Countys hotline said the shops were to remain completely closed as non-essential.

In Harris County, CBD shops are not essential health care businesses under the emergency order and should not be open, a spokesman for Judge Lina Hidalgo wrote. As Judge Hidalgo has noted, any ambiguities in the Stay Home, Work Safe order should be resolved in favor of staying home or staying closed.

Dallas Countys emergency order may have been ambiguous until Judge Clay Jenkins tweeted on March 25 that vape shops and sellers of CBD oil are not essential businesses.

Bexar County and San Antonio both agree that CBD shops are non-essential and should remain closed. That would come as a surprise to Vincent Gabriel, whose CBD American Shaman shop in Balcones Heights was open Saturday.

Gabriel said he checked with city officials before proceeding. Were following all the protocols we ought to be, he said. Were being very cautious.

Singh said his two other Fattys stores, in Bryan and San Marcos, remain open, as well. In fact, he said Brazos County officials contacted him to advise him on proper protocol for retailers.

But Beverly Hills Police Chief Thomas Schmidt said he is taking a strict interpretation of McLennan Countys definition of essential healthcare businesses. And by his reading Fattys is not a pharmacy.

Everybody else who had a smoke shop has complied, he added.

Felton, the McLennan County judge, did not respond to an email Sunday. But Singh said he hopes county authorities will eventually come around to seeing his products as essential, as well.

Its a misperception issue, he said. The police department is not aware that perfectly decent, good people use this.
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Granted, he has tried to knit these justifications together by talking about the health impact of recessions. This sounds reasonable at first. But think about it a little more. Will the health impact of the recession that will come if we shut shops now be that much larger than the health impact of the recession when we shut shops in a few weeks time?

In either situation, the recession will be deep. And will that relatively small extra health impact outweigh the lives lost as the virus spreads? We cant know for sure, but we have a right to see the governments workings. If the government has decided to, say, save 100,000 jobs over the long term at the cost of 2,000 lives now, it should tell us. Instead, we are being treated like children.

There is a political saying that the voters always get it right. Its a judgment that is hard to sustain if you look at events in the United States. And with that in mind, it is worth recalling the last election here. There were many factors, but mostly it seemed as though we had chosen to stick with a sitting prime minister, a knockabout Aussie bloke with no big plans, in the hope of ending a long period of chaos. We wanted a leader who would manage, not act. Who wouldnt bother us.

My deep concern is that the government is still acting from that instinct. Certainly many medical experts seem to share that concern and in the past days criticism has intensified. There have been serious warnings that we may share Italys fate, that our intensive care units will be overrun. The governments experts have said these predictions are wrong but not with the level of detail that might give us confidence.
Islamabad: With the increase in the number of people getting killed by the deadly coronavirus and the increase in the number of people who have died, there is a furore all over the world. So far, many global leaders and celebrities have been infected with this virus. In this episode, Pakistan's PM Imran Khan has also been found to be Corona positive.

Number of corona infected increased in Pakistan, death toll crosses 16

Foreign media has claimed that Pakistan PM Imran Khan is infected with corona. There has been a stir in Pakistan since then. Pakistan's Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhary went to Biffer after the news of Imran Khan's Corona positive in the media. He said that this news is totally wrong and PM Imran Khan is healthy.

World's first corona patient gives this statement about disease

Pakistan's Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhary tweeted with his official Twitter handle, writing that you are a journalist and not an ordinary troller... Such information should not be carried forward without any investigation and without any basis... Imran Khan is absolutely healthy and fine. So far 1415 cases of coronavirus have been registered in Pakistan, while 12 people have lost their lives.

US troubles may increased if there is no break of corona

This foreign channel says that Prime Minister @ImranKhanPTI tests positive coronavirus. If true its really dangerous.Whats happening man ?#Corona pic.twitter.com/KyqQvosjhU  Azaz Syed (@AzazSyed) March 27, 2020

Number of Corona patients increased in Nepal, lockdown extends for week
Sitapur : , March 30 (IANS) Located about 90 kilometres from Lucknow, this tiny hamlet is in deep distress.

Almost overnight, the village and its residents have become the object of ridicule by outsiders and all because of its name - Korauna - that sounds similar to the deadly virus corona.

"Even our relatives joke about the similarity in the name and tell us that they will not visit Korauna. If we tell any stranger where we live in, we are greeted with amused glances. One person who called on my phone -- apparently a wrong number -- said 'How are you still alive?' - when I told him that I was from Korauna," said Raju Tripathi, a local resident.

Korauna, incidentally, is the first halt of the 84-Kosi Parikrama -- a pilgrimage that is undertaken by thousands, a fortnight after the Holi festival every year.

"The name of the village has been existing for decades, but suddenly, we are being treated as pariah," said Gokul, a local farmer.

The village, located in the Misrikh tehsil, has a population of about 9,000 people and the village also has a government primary school and other amenities. In fact, it is one of the better-developed villages in the state.

Gokul said that once the lockdown is lifted, the villagers will get together and request the government to change the name of the village.

"In any case, Korauna does not mean anything and the corona memory is going to live for long. It is better to opt for a change of name rather than face barbs and ridicule in the coming years," he said.

Incidentally, Korauna is still protected from coronavirus.
In a big relief to the MNREGA workers in Uttar Pradesh during the nation-wide lockdown, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Monday that Rs 611 crore has been deposited directly into the bank accounts of around 27.15 lakh beneficiaries of the scheme in the state.

Interacting with four labourers, each from Bahraich, Varanasi, Sonbhadra and Deoria through video conferencing from his official residence, Adityananth also informed them that the state government has made a provision of providing food grains for free to the workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA).

According to an official spokesperson, the chief minister said at a time the whole world is terrified of the epidemic, the Rural Development Department and the State Bank of India worked together to deposit Rs 611 crore into the accounts of more than 27.15 lakh MNREGA workers of the state.

All the women beneficiaries of 'Jan Dhan Yojana' will get an additional Rs 500 per month in their bank accounts. Apart from this, the Government of India will provide Rs 1,000 per month to the old, destitute women and disabled pension holders for three months, he said.

Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Adityanath said in order to save the country from the virus and in the interest of its future, a nationwide-lockdown has been declared and along with that an economic package of Rs 1.70 lakh crore announced.

The chief minister said that looking at the situation arising out of migrating labourers due to the lockdown, the Centre is also making efforts to provide 1 kg of pulses and free gas cylinders for three months to the labourers.

He claimed that in the last three years, with the BJP in power in Uttar Pradesh, the state has achieved in increasing the man-days under the MNREGA scheme.

In 2016-17, a total of 15.69 crore man-days were created, 24.32 crore lakh man-days were made available for employment generation in 2019-20, the chief minister said.

All bank officials are working with full dedication and on a war footing to win this battle against the coronavirus epidemic, Adityanath said and thanked the chief managed of the State Bank of India for keeping the bank branches open for public till 4 pm.

The government will provide aid to all the needy, farmers and the poor in a time-bound manner through Central and state government's welfare schemes, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As a constable in the Metropolitan Police, Spike Townsend dealt with his force's response to the 2004 Tsunami  coordinating a reception area at Heathrow Airport for people returning from the disaster zone.

Now retired, the 54-year-old is running something else of vital importance  an emergency 'command centre' in his local pub where a team of volunteers organise help for those affected by the coronavirus crisis.

Mr Townsend was inspired to start the scheme around the time ex-Met chief Lord Stevens wrote in an article in the Daily Mail earlier this month, urging former officers to come out of retirement to help the country in its time of need.

Spike Townsend, 54, is running an emergency 'command centre' in his local pub in Colne Engaine, Essex, where a team of volunteers can organise help for those affected by coronavirus

The 'Colne Engaine Community Response' - manned from 10am to 8pm each day - only launched last Wednesday but is already making an impact and boosting morale. Pictured is Mr Townsend

The nerve centre of the retired cop's initiative is the Five Bells pub in the village of Colne Engaine in Essex, which across the parish has about 400 homes and a population of around 1,000.

The 'Colne Engaine Community Response'  manned from 10am to 8pm each day  only launched last Wednesday but is already making an impact and boosting morale.

Already signed up as volunteers are another ex-police officer, a former fireman, a retired ambulance controller and an ex nurse. 'So we have got a good set of skills in our village,' said Mr Townsend today.

'I have 70 volunteers based on all around the parish who I can call on for assistance. We are targeting over 70s, those who are identified as vulnerable by the NHS and those self-isolating because of illness.

The nerve centre of the retired cop's initiative is the Five Bells pub in the village of Colne Engaine in Essex, which across the parish has about 400 homes and a population of around 1,000

The 'Colne Engaine Community Response'  manned from 10am to 8pm each day  only launched last Wednesday but is already making an impact and boosting morale

'As of today, we have done 23 responses to requests for aid from picking up groceries and medicines to welfare chats with people who are feeling a bit low or upset. It's across the age range, but it is mainly targeting the vulnerable who have most need.

'Over the weekend, we also answered a request for an emergency plumber to help an elderly couple with a bathroom leak.

'We are also making enquiries to see if we can become a local distribution centre for NHS emergency food and medical packages, so we can keep track of our community needs and lessen the burden on the delivery system.

'Obviously people are very worried but keeping connections with each other is very important. The mood is extremely positive in wanting to help others.'

Already signed up as volunteers are another ex-police officer, a former fireman, a retired ambulance controller and an ex nurse. 'So we have got a good set of skills in our village,' said Mr Townsend today

'I have 70 volunteers based on all around the parish who I can call on for assistance. We are targeting over 70s, those who are identified as vulnerable by the NHS and those self-isolating because of illness,' said Mr Townsend

Mr Townsend, who left the Met in 2016, went on: 'The volunteer command centre was set up following a conversation I had with the publican at the Five Bells pub, Darren, talking about how, if we went into lockdown, we could help our community.

'So I got in touch with the parish council, the church and several other little community groups to see if they would be happy for me to set up a response centre so we could map, coordinate and help people in need in the village. Darren provided his restaurant with a telephone line and dedicated email address.

'I thought because of my policing experience, including being involved in the Met's response to the Tsunami disaster, that I could coordinate things and set it up.'

Mr Townsend said he put out an appeal for people to man the operations centre and then for a network of volunteers to give aid and assistance around the parish.

'The operations centre at the pub is manned 10am to 8pm each day,' he added. 'We are not a 24 hour response, although someone is always at the pub, so if someone needs urgent help outside these times they need to call 999.'

On Friday, Scotland Yard chief Cressida Dick made an impassioned plea to retired Met officers to return to work to help meet increased demand during the coronavirus outbreak in London.

Mr Townsend, who left the Met in 2016, went on: 'The volunteer command centre was set up following a conversation I had with the publican at the Five Bells pub, Darren, talking about how, if we went into lockdown, we could help our community'

'So I got in touch with the parish council, the church and several other little community groups to see if they would be happy for me to set up a response centre so we could map, coordinate and help people in need in the village. Darren provided his restaurant with a telephone line and dedicated email address'

With Britain's biggest force facing a huge strain on resources, former constables and sergeants who left it in the past five years are being offered work in a paid or voluntary capacity.

The force also wants those nearing retirement to consider delaying their departure to deal with the crisis.

Dame Cressida said: 'Demands on us will grow and vary over the coming weeks but I want people to know and see the Met is here for them.'

The Yard commissioner said she is writing to retired police constables and sergeants to ask them to re-join in those ranks, either on a full or part-time basis.

The force also wants those nearing retirement to consider delaying their departure to deal with the crisis

Officers who retired at the rank of inspector or above are being asked to consider joining the special constabulary for at least 16 hours a month, or they can volunteer in other roles.

Dame Cressida said: 'Police officers overwhelmingly join 'the job' to help people and to make a difference, and that desire will be as strong today as it was the very first day they joined.

'I am hopeful that these exceptionally experienced and knowledgeable former colleagues choose to come and be part of our team and support London at this extraordinary time.'
Police on Monday asked people in



Pune district of Maharashtra not to spread rumours or false information regarding coronavirus in the name of April Fool's Day jokes or pranks on social media.

The Pune rural police have issued a notification in this regard.

The notification warned of penal action under section 188 of the IPC if a person is found circulating misinformation and rumours related to the deadly disease on social media platforms.

Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) prescribes punishment for disobeying any order duly promulgated by a public servant. The punishment includes imprisonment for a term which may extend up to six months, or with fine which may extend to Rs 1,000, or both.

"On April 1, as a custom people, friends, relatives play harmless pranks with each other by spreading hoax among each other.

"However, in the current situation when a lockdown is in force to contain the spread of coronavirus, people should not spread any such information or messages or rumour regarding virus and lockdown on social media which can create confusion among people and may lead to violation of lockdown," stated NarayanShirgaonkar, sub-divisional police officer, Pune rural police, in the notification.

He said people found spreading misinformation and hoaxes will be penalised under IPC section 188.

"Even the administrators of messaging applications should caution the group members on the issue and change the settings to "admin only", the officer added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
AMG Chairperson Estee Maman added "This is our pledge to both Zimbabwe and South Africa as we are corporate citizens in both countries. We will be monitoring the situation as we disburse the funds in the sincere hope that, along with efforts from dedicated critical staff on the ground and respective Governments, we may find a breakthrough during this difficult time. We are committed to play a part in our own way and urge everyone to remain resolute whilst following measures set by the authorities."
T he chief of the World Health Organisation has said that unity is the "only option" we have to defeat the coronavirus.

Tedros Adhanom, director-general of the WHO, made the statement during a press conference in Geneva as the pandemic continued to rage around the world.

Nearly 738,500 people have been infected globally and around 35,000 have died.

Meanwhile, in the UK the number of people who have died after testing positive for coronavirus rose to 1,408.

On Monday, Mr Adhanom said he was "encouraged" by the solidarity shown by countries around the world.

The World on Coronavirus lockdown 1 /60 The World on Coronavirus lockdown Getty Images A UK government public health campaign is displayed in Piccadilly Circus Reuters Chinese paramilitary police and security officers wear face masks to protect against the spread of the new coronavirus as they stand guard outside an entrance to the Forbidden City in Beijing AP A usually busy 42nd Street is seen nearly empty in New York AFP via Getty Images Bondi Beach, Australia Getty Images Military vehicles cross Westminster Bridge after members of the 101 Logistic Brigade delivered a consignment of medical masks to St Thomas' hospital Getty Images View of the illuminated statue of Christ the Redeemer that reads "Thank you" as Archbishop of the city of Rio de Janeiro Dom Orani Tempesta performs a mass in honor of Act of Consecration of Brazil and tribute to medical workers amidst the Coronavirus (COVID - 19) pandemic Getty Images Rome AFP via Getty Images An Indian man paddles his bicycle in front of a mural depicting the globe covered in a mask, as India remains under an unprecedented lockdown over the highly contagious coronavirus Getty Images Aerial view of the empty 9 de Julio avenue in Buenos Aires in Argentina AFP via Getty Images A view of an empty Grand Canal Reuters Las Ramblas, Barcelona, Spain Getty Images Aerial view of the empty Central cemetery in Bogota, Columbia AFP via Getty Images The facade of the Palacio de Lopez (seat of the government palace) AFP via Getty Images Miami, Florida AFP via Getty Images Aerial view of the empty Simon Bolivar park in Bogota AFP via Getty Images An LAPD patrol car drives through Venice Beach Boardwalk AP Venice Beach, California Getty Images Los Angeles, California Getty Images Surfers Paradise is seen empty in Australia Getty Images Many shops stand shuttered on the Venice Beach boardwalk Getty Images Empty escalators are seen at a deserted train station during morning rush hour after New South Wales began shutting down non-essential businesses Reuters A nearly empty Times Square in New York AFP via Getty Images Caracas AFP via Getty Images Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador AFP via Getty Images A general view of an unusually quiet Midland Park in Wellington, New Zealand Getty Images A general view of an unusually quiet Civic Square at lunchtimein Wellington, New Zealand Getty Images A policeman rides his motorcycle wearing a face mask in front of a closed shopping mall in Buenos Aires, Argentina AFP via Getty Images Florida Keys AP The historic Channel 2 Bridge closed to fishermen, bikers and pedestrians in Florida Keys AP The Beach on Scenic Gulf Drive near Seascape Resort in south Walton County, Florida sits empty of tourists AP Surfers Paradise is seen empty in Australia Getty Images A deserted Rajpath leading to India Gate in New Delhi AFP via Getty Images A general view is seen of a closed Luna Park in Sydney, Australia Getty Images A general view is seen of a closed Luna Park in Sydney, Australia Getty Images Empty roads are pictured following the lockdown by the government amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Kathmandu, Nepal Reuters An empty New York Subway car i AFP via Getty Images The empty pedestrian zone is seen in the city of Cologne, western Germany, AFP via Getty Images Place de la Comedie in the city of Montpellier , southern France AFP via Getty Images An empty street in Kuwait city AFP via Getty Images A building is covered by the Portuguese message: "Coronavirus: take precaution" over empty streets in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil, AP A general view shows an empty street after a curfew was imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters Parliament of Canada is pictured with empty street during morning rush hour AFP via Getty Images A near empty beach on Southend seafront in England PA Near empty Keswick town centre in Cumbria, England PA

"We continue to be encouraged by the signs of global solidarity to confront and overcome this common threat", he said.

"The commitment of G20 countries to work together and improve production and equitable supply of essential products shows that the world is coming together, and coming together is the only option we have. Unity is the only option we have to defeat this virus.

"Yesterday, I sent a tweet with a single word 'Humility'. Some people asked me why, why I sent a single word? Covid-19 is reminding us how vulnerable we are, how connected we are, and how dependent we are on each other. In the eye of a storm like Covid, scientific and public health tools are essential, but so are humility and kindness.

"With solidarity, humility and assuming the best of each other, we can and we will overcome this together."

Coronavirus: How has sport been affected?

Mr Adhanom also thanked countries for contributing to WHO's preparedness fund.

"Two months ago the WHO published the strategy preparedness and response plan with an initial ask of 675 million dollars to support countries to prepare for and respond to Covid-19," he said.

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"We are very grateful to the many countries and foundations that have contributed. More than 622 million US dollars have been contributed so far.

"Ensuring free movement of essential health products is vital for saving lives, and curbing the social and economic impacts of the pandemic. Earlier today I spoke to trade ministers from G20 countries about ways to address the chronic shortage of personal protective equipment, and other essential medical supplies.

"We call on countries to find ways to work with companies to increase production."
On Sunday, the number of coronavirus cases crossed the 1,000-mark. According to the data released by the ministry of health, the national tally now stands at 1,024 cases of which 901 are active cases, 95 people have been cured and 27 people have died from Covid-19. Over 15 lakh people have been screened at various airports till now.

Here are the key developments:

1. Maharashtra and Kerala continue to be the most Covid-19 affected states in the country with over 200 cases.

2. The tally in the national capital is inching toward the 100 mark. Delhi reported a steep rise in the number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases on Sunday, adding 23 new infections of SARS-CoV-2 that took the Capitals tally to 72 from 49.

3. PM Modi will interact with major non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as well as the heads of Indian missions on Monday evening to get their feedback on the Covid-19 measures.

4. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation via his monthly radio programme Mann ki Baat on Sunday and said that the harsh measure of lockdown is essential to fight against coronavirus.

5. On Sunday, the Centre rapped the state governments and directed them to ensure that no movement is allowed within cities, on highways or across the borders. The Centre said that states have enough funds to look after the migrant workers and ensure that they get all possible assistance along with their daily wages at the place of their work.

6. Delhi Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday urged migrants not to leave the city because it would defeat the purpose of the 21-day national lockdown.

7. Indias top research organisations are taking the Covid-19 challenge headon . The National Institute of Immunology in Delhi will sequence the virus to see whether the one infecting travellers from different parts of the world is the same or has undergone changes.

8. The Centre said on Sunday that all goods in addition to essential commodities will be allowed to move across states, relaxing rules to unclog highways where hundreds of trucks have been stuck since last week.

9. The government on Sunday said that those migrant workers and daily wage earners who moved in the period of the lockdown to go to their native place will need to be quarantines at government facilities for at least 14 days.

10. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday said that the state will pursue rapid testing to detect possible community transmission of coronavirus (Covid-19).

The country entered the sixth day of the 21-day long nationwie Covid-19 lockdown on Monday.
Britain's Prince Charles came out of self-isolation on Monday, seven days after it was confirmed that he had tested positive for coronavirus, a royal spokesperson said.

The 71-year-old heir to the British throne had been self-isolating on the Queen's Balmoral estate in Scotland after he had been tested by the National Health Service (NHS) in Aberdeenshire last week.

"Clarence House has confirmed today (Monday) that, having consulted with his doctor, The Prince of Wales is now out of self-isolation," his spokesperson said.

His Clarence House royal office said the prince was in "good health" and was following the government's restrictions as he carries on working from home.

His wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, had tested negative for the deadly virus at the same time, but the 72-year-old had also been self-isolating separately in Balmoral.

The royal couple were tested last Monday after they had flown out to Scotland in a jet and have remained there since then.

"It is not possible to ascertain from whom the Prince caught the virus owing to the high number of engagements he carried out in his public role during recent weeks," Clarence House had said at the time.

Prince Charles, who made international headlines as he switched to the non-contact 'namaste' as a form of greeting just as the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic, spent seven days of quarantine at his Birkhall home on the royal Balmoral estate.

The Buckingham Palace previously said 93-year-old Queen Elizabeth II last saw her son on March 12, and was "in good health" as she remains in Windsor Castle with husband Prince Philip, 98.

The UK remains under a stay-at-home lockdown with strict social distancing rules in force as the death toll from the virus hit 1,228 and the number of confirmed cases pegged at 19,522.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
30 Mar - After donating a thousand face masks to the elderly in Hong Kong via good friend William So, Dicky Cheung recently revealed that he is donating another set of masks to Italy.

The actor shared several photos of boxes with the words "Suitable for Medical Use" written across it, and wrote, "Since the beginning of the outbreak, we sent medical supplies to Hubei, then donate masks to the grassroots citizens in difficulty, and today we are sending masks to Italy."

"I am not trying to put a halo on myself. In this pandemic, this is such a small act. I just want to give the residents of this world a little more love and positive energy! I hope to use this opportunity to encourage everybody to give more! Pray God to bless you all well!" he added.

Italy is currently the worst hit country when it comes to its COVID-19 death tolls of more than 7,500, surpassing China with Spain following behind.

(Photo Source: Dicky Cheung Instagram)
PORT ANGELES, Wash.  A western Washington man has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for hunting violations in one of the largest poaching cases in state history.

Jason Hutt, 29, of Sequim was sentenced last week in Clallam County Superior Court after entering an Alford plea to five counts of unlawful hunting of big game and single counts of waste of wildlife, unlawful hunting of wild birds, hunting of wild animals, bail jumping and possession of methamphetamine.

An Alford plea means Hutt does not admit guilt but admits there is enough evidence to support a conviction.

"What I did was wrong," Hutt told Superior Court Judge Brian Coughenour. "I'm here to deal with it."

State Department of Fish and Wildlife investigators said Hutt and an accomplice  Wyatt Beck  illegally killed several bears, deer and elk in Clallam and Jefferson counties in the summer of 2018.

Matthew Roberson, Clallam County deputy prosecuting attorney, said Hutt is the first person in the state to go to prison on a first-degree unlawful hunting of big game conviction since the charge became a ranked felony.

"This is the first poaching case that I'm aware of where there's prison involved, and I think in this case it is merited," Roberson said.

Beck, 24, also of Sequim, pleaded guilty in Clallam County Superior Court Jan. 30 to four counts of unlawful hunting of big game with accomplice liability.

He was sentenced to 240 hours of community service and 30 days on electronic home monitoring.

State game officers, working with Clallam County sheriff's deputies and the Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team, discovered illegally-hunted or illegally-possessed river otter pelt, bobcat pelt and a harlequin duck carcass while serving a search warrant at Hutt's residence last Aug. 30, court papers said.

Fish and Wildlife Officer Bryan Davidson said Hutt collected elk and deer heads as trophies. Roberson said Hutt had more than 40 antlers and animal skulls at his residence.

Beck and Hutt were also ordered to split $8,000 fines.

 The Associated Press
T he global spread of coronavirus has forced us all indoors and seeking digital alternatives to face-to-face interactions, whether its meetings on Zoom, hanging out with friends on Houseparty, or using apps like Babylon to FaceTime our GPs. For digital fertility clinic Apricity, however, its always been this way.

Started by French entrepreneur Caroline Noublanche in 2017, the clinic aims to revamp the fertility treatment process by allowing women to conduct much of it online. That could be in the form of video consultations, online fertility assessments or communication with the clinics nurses and specialists via the Apricity app.

The way we live and work has shifted in recent years, and while no one could have anticipated the current situation it has proven the need for online solutions in a more pronounced way, explains Noublanche.

The current lockdown does mean Noublanche is spending more time at home as shes accustomed to taking weekly trips back and forth on the Eurostar between her home in Paris and London, where Apricity is based.

Shes used to the travel. Her first company, mobile app Prylos which she started aged 27 in 2004, was acquired by the Swedish phone company Doro and Noublanche stayed on to work in its app and software arm.

After five years, she became the entrepreneur-in-residence at Kamet Ventures, a tech incubator backed by a 100 million fund from the insurer Axa with offices in Paris, London and Tel Aviv. Noublanches aim was to develop something new in healthcare, with one potential idea around preventative medicine. Luckily, an email from a doctor at a UK fertility clinic sparked what would eventually become Apricity.

He said he had amazing success rates because he monitored patients closely during the initial phases of treatment, spoke to them regularly, and was able to better customise treatment. I thought, what if we can create an algorithm that can replicate the brain of this brilliant doctor?

An algorithm to predict fertility treatment wasnt going to be enough for Noublanche though. Fertility issues affect one in seven couples in the UK, with many seeking private treatment for IVF or egg freezing if they are unable to access the services through the NHS. It can be a long, stressful and appointment-jammed process. It can take between one year to 18 months of your life and they can be a very painful few months that puts a lot of stress on couples, says Noublanche. What we wanted to do is be there to help people create a life and to live theirs.

When people sign up to Apricity, they have access to the clinics fertility nurses and healthcare advisers seven days a week via the app. Noublanche describes them as a project manager, to help co-ordinate appointments as well as offer advice. Instead of visiting a physical clinic for appointments, healthcare workers come to you for blood tests or scans, or you can visit a physical partner clinic, which includes Lister and Harley Street Fertility Clinic in London. Apricity also puts patients in touch with counsellors.

Its Fertility Predictor uses AI based on data from the UKs fertility regulator HFEA to predict which treatment is better suited to a patient.

The clinic opened in the UK last January, with the first Apricity baby born at the end of the year.

Its patients pay about 6,000 for IVF, which is around the going rate. A new partnership with AXA Healthcare will see the insurance giant offer its services as a benefit to staff. The logic is sound: fewer appointments and happier staff should boost productivity.

The company brought in 744,000 in revenues last year and has raised 5.25 million from Kamet Ventures and AXA.

The Covid-19 lockdown hasnt changed the clinics work too much. The clinical team, fertility advisers and patients all are based in London, though the companys tech and product team are in Paris. All 30 of its staff have been working remotely for the past two weeks but the benefit of being a virtual clinic means things are still able to operate smoothly.

It has changed the companys targets, however. The clinics aim for 2020 was to treat 350 patients before the end of the year, putting it in line with Londons mid-sized clinics though some patients have had to postpone treatment given the current circumstances.
Dino Melaye has reacted to the nationwide broadcast of the president in his address to Nigerians as it concerns the coronavirus pandemic.

Melaye kicked against the lockdown order President Buhari issued on Lagos, Abuja and Ogun state, stressing that Buhari acted outside his power.

The president, on Sunday, announced a lockdown in these states as part of efforts to stop the spread of Coronavirus in Nigeria.

READ ALSO  FULL SPEECH: Buharis Nationwide Broadcast On Coronavirus

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Reacting to the new directive, Melaye stated that President Buhari lacks the power to call for the restriction of movement without the express approval of the National Assembly.

See His Post Here:
A man aged in his late 20s has been charged in connection with an aggravated burglary in the Mahon area of Cork.

The man will appear before Cork District Court tomorrow morning.
Just because a business does not make any money, does not mean that the stock will go down. For example, biotech and mining exploration companies often lose money for years before finding success with a new treatment or mineral discovery. But while the successes are well known, investors should not ignore the very many unprofitable companies that simply burn through all their cash and collapse.

Given this risk, we thought we'd take a look at whether Mako Gold (ASX:MKG) shareholders should be worried about its cash burn. In this report, we will consider the company's annual negative free cash flow, henceforth referring to it as the 'cash burn'. We'll start by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves in order to calculate its cash runway.

View our latest analysis for Mako Gold

How Long Is Mako Gold's Cash Runway?

A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. When Mako Gold last reported its balance sheet in December 2019, it had zero debt and cash worth AU$1.5m. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through AU$3.7m. That means it had a cash runway of around 5 months as of December 2019. That's a very short cash runway which indicates an imminent need to douse the cash burn or find more funding. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years.

ASX:MKG Historical Debt March 30th 2020

How Is Mako Gold's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

Mako Gold didn't record any revenue over the last year, indicating that it's an early stage company still developing its business. Nonetheless, we can still examine its cash burn trajectory as part of our assessment of its cash burn situation. Over the last year its cash burn actually increased by 16%, which suggests that management are increasing investment in future growth, but not too quickly. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but investors should be mindful of the fact that will shorten the cash runway. Admittedly, we're a bit cautious of Mako Gold due to its lack of significant operating revenues. We prefer most of the stocks on this list of stocks that analysts expect to grow.

Story continues

How Easily Can Mako Gold Raise Cash?

Given its cash burn trajectory, Mako Gold shareholders should already be thinking about how easy it might be for it to raise further cash in the future. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. Commonly, a business will sell new shares in itself to raise cash to drive growth. By comparing a company's annual cash burn to its total market capitalisation, we can estimate roughly how many shares it would have to issue in order to run the company for another year (at the same burn rate).

Mako Gold's cash burn of AU$3.7m is about the same as its market capitalisation of AU$3.5m. Given just how high that expenditure is, relative to the company's market value, we think there's an elevated risk of funding distress, and we would be very nervous about holding the stock.

How Risky Is Mako Gold's Cash Burn Situation?

As you can probably tell by now, we're rather concerned about Mako Gold's cash burn. In particular, we think its cash burn relative to its market cap suggests it isn't in a good position to keep funding growth. And although we accept its increasing cash burn wasn't as worrying as its cash burn relative to its market cap, it was still a real negative; as indeed were all the factors we considered in this article. Looking at the metrics in this article all together, we consider its cash burn situation to be rather dangerous, and likely to cost shareholders one way or the other. Taking a deeper dive, we've spotted 6 warning signs for Mako Gold you should be aware of, and 3 of them are concerning.

Of course Mako Gold may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of companies boasting high return on equity, or this list of stocks that insiders are buying.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Michigan is shutting down. Between an order by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to close non-essential businesses and social distancing measures being taken, businesses across the state are closing their doors and hoping theyll be able to open them again when the coronavirus pandemic is over.

But that doesnt mean they are alone in their struggles -- the federal and state government as well as local organizations are trying to pitch in to help businesses weather the pandemic.

As part of the weekly series MichMash, MLives Cheyna Roth and WDETs Jake Neher talk about what is being done across the state to help small businesses.

Listen to Roth and Nehers full conversation on the player above, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Not only are businesses closing now because of COVID-19, but events that many businesses depend on for revenue, in some cases to keep them open for the year, are being canceled.

That includes the 2020 North American International Auto Show in Detroit that was originally scheduled for June at the TCF Center, formerly known as Cobo Center. Its a huge event that brings in people from all over the world -- people that local businesses rely on to patronize their shops.

The center will be used for at least six months as health officials continue to battle the ongoing spread of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

On the west side, the Tulip Time Festival in Holland has also been canceled due to coronavirus. The nine-day event brings in tens of millions of dollars to the small city of Holland, and businesses in the area are already bracing for the one-two punch of coronavirus and then the cancellation of the festival.

But there are a lot of people out there looking for ways to help small businesses through this time. Especially as businesses step up by offering free food to those in need and retooling their businesses to make things like hand sanitizer and personal protection equipment for hospitals to help out.

TechTown Detroit is raising $250,000 to help local businesses through this crisis as part of their Small Business Stabilization Fund, which includes grants up to $5,000 for brick and mortar businesses with 10 employees or less.

Ned Staebler the president and CEO of TechTown, said that Detroit small businesses had hoped that this would be a time where Detroit was growing to new levels instead of in a serious crisis.

It does feel like we were starting to turn a corner and this is obviously going to throw a wrench in that, he said. Our goal is to provide as much runway to these businesses as possible until the cavalry arrives.

The state is also pitching in. The Michigan Strategic Fund approved a $20 million economic relief program meant to help struggling small businesses make payroll and cover their bills during the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak.

There is also a massive two trillion dollar federal stimulus package for the nation. But while there is a lot of help coming in, were still a long way away from getting these businesses back on track.

PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops ) and when you go into places like stores.

Its not too late to get your flu shot! While the influenza vaccine does not protect against COVID-19 infection, it can help keep you healthy during the flu season.

More coronavirus coverage on MLive:

Michigan state Rep. Isaac Robinson dies

Michigan governor announces new unemployment programs for workers hit by coronavirus pandemic

In Michigans coronavirus crisis, testing may not matter for sick individuals. But for public health, its key
Halting rice exports to stabilise food supplies

On March 25, the Government Office issued Document No.2280/VPCP-NN on assessing the supply and situation in the rice export industry. Accordingly, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc assigned the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) to lead and co-ordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to establish inspection teams to work with localities and exporters to monitor supply, reserves, and contract implementation.

This move was implemented after continuous but contradictory proposals from the MoIT and the MoF regarding suspending rice exports, to ensure that there is sufficient rice for the domestic market in the event that the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread.

Commenting on the governments new move, Huynh Thanh Ngan, founder of Hapi Agricultural Organic Trading and Production Co., Ltd. told VIR, Its ok to stop signing new contracts, but forcing us to immediately renege on existing deals gives us difficulties.

According to Ngan, although a decision has been made on exporting rice, it has pushed companies, dealers, and farmers into difficulties. Right now, her company has eight contracts, under which 3,000 tonnes of organic rice must be exported as scheduled in March and April, and 2,000 tonnes in May and June.

In addition to this, she has also signed offtake agreements with farmers for 10,000 hectares of rice from the summer-autumn crop with a deposit of VND5 million ($217.40), along with seed cost per hectare. Within a week, we can negotiate and lose 10 per cent of contract revenue. But in the long term, without being able to give exact answers, we will have to compensate cancelled contracts and handle inventory, which will negatively affect farmers, said Ngan. Our product is organic, high-quality, Japanese brown rice, and the quality will be reduced by 50 per cent if we cannot export it within a month.

Ngan elaborated on the current difficulties of working directly with organic rice farmers. Unlike enterprises exporting non-organic rice, we cannot quit our contracts with farmers, because of issues of sustainable development and reputation.

Meanwhile, Pham Thai Binh, general director of Trung An Hi-tech Farming JSC, said that the governments fresh move has reduced the price of rice by VND300 (1 US cent) per kilogramme. We have prepared for the expense of having packed goods returned and maintaining our inventory. If enterprises are forced to stop exporting rice, we will have to completely break our plans of sustainable export and production, to which we have been committed for many years, Binh told VIR.

Regarding food security, Binh stated that it does not only mean having enough output to meet the needs of domestic consumers in all circumstances, the output also needs to be sold at an appropriate price in proportion to the farmers labour and the true value of rice.

The last many years proved that Vietnam has never lacked food. Moreover, over the years, to find markets for the entirety of its output, Vietnam has to export 6.5 million tonnes a year, he said. Even the pandemic and climate change have not impacted rice fields, as areas of the Mekong Delta have successfully adjusted planting times so the output has been much higher than in 2019.

According to the MoIT, preliminary statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customs showed that in the first two months of 2020, rice exports reached nearly 930,000 tonnes, earning more than $430 million, a rise of 30.5 per cent in volume and 38 per cent in turnover, compared to the same period in 2019. In some markets, export volume increased sharply, ensuring that the domestic price of rice grew by around 20-25 per cent. Exports to China reached more than 66,000 tonnes in total, equivalent to $37 million. However, the largest market for Vietnam in the first two months of the year has not been China but the Philippines, which accounts for 36 per cent of the total turnover or 357,000 tonnes, equivalent to $155 million, up 13 per cent in volume and 23 per cent in turnover on-year.

Next is Iraq, with exports of up to 90,000 tonnes, equivalent to $48 million. Ranking third is Malaysia, up 149 per cent in volume and 128 per cent in turnover, accounting for nearly 10 per cent of total volume and 9 per cent of the total export value of Vietnamese rice.
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The UK's coronavirus outbreak looks to be slowing down because of the Government's unprecedented decision to put Britain in lockdown, one of Number 10's leading experts said today.

Professor Neil Ferguson claims to have detected 'early signs' that the spread of the life-threatening infection was being curbed by the draconian measure, with the rate of increase in hospital admissions easing.

But Professor Ferguson - one of the authors of a bleak Imperial College London report that convinced Downing Street to ramp up its efforts to stop the crisis after warning that 250,000 Brits could die under a controversial plan to build-up 'herd immunity' - warned deaths are still likely to rise sharply as they lag two or three weeks behind the new infections.

He also suggested that up to three per cent of the UK - around two million people - might already have been infected, and said the figure could be as high as five per cent in London.

The slight glimmer of optimism emerged after Boris Johnson delivered a rallying cry for Britain to work together, thanking everyone who was contributing in a video from his quarantine bunker in Downing Street.

But deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries has warned that Britons should not expect a return to 'normal life' for six months, and possibly longer.

A Nobel Prize-winning scientist from Stanford University today also claimed that the coronavirus outbreaks in New York City and Italy were burning out.

Professor Michael Levitt, who accurately predicted the demise of China's crisis after analysing the raw data, added Spain's outbreak also looks to be slowing - but added there 'aren't enough numbers' to say the same for the UK.

On another rollercoaster day in the coronavirus crisis:

The Prime Minister contradicted Tory predecessor Margaret Thatcher by saying there 'is such a thing as society' as he hailed 20,000 retired medics returning to the NHS

F1 teams produced a breathing device that could stop coronavirus patients having to go into intensive care, and should be in hospitals within days;

Health minister Helen Whately admitted that while the government now has the 'capacity' to carry out 10,000 coronavirus tests a day it might not have done so yet;

Ministers finally order 17.5 million antibody testing kits so they can check a quarter of the population in bid to get key staff back to work;

Police armed with new powers to enforce the lockdown are continuing to shame suspected wrongdoers  including the MP son of former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock;

Economists have warned the crisis could cause UK GDP to plunge by 15 per cent and unemployment to double as the FTSE 100 fell more than 2 per cent;

EasyJet grounded its entire fleet of 330-plus planes as coronavirus continued to wound Britain's airlines - just ten days after the airline paid a 174million dividend to shareholders including to its founder Stelios;

Professor Neil Ferguson said he had detected 'early signs' that the spread was being curbed by lockdown, with the rate of increase in hospital admissions easing

Leading epidemiologist Prof Ferguson warned deaths are still likely to rise sharply as they lag two or three weeks behind the new infections

WHO IS PROFESSOR MICHAEL LEVITT? Professor Michael Levitt and two fellow academics won the 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry for their pioneering work on using computers to understand complex chemical processes. But he is a biophysicist at Stanford University and not an epidemiologist - a branch of science that studies the spread of diseases, such as COVID-19. But Professor Levitt, who has monitored the coronavirus outbreak in his own time, told an Israeli publication earlier this month: 'I can analyse numbers.' He predicted that China would record around 80,000 cases and 3,250 deaths, after watching the outbreak slow down in mid-February. China has so far recorded around 81,000 cases and 3,300 deaths - despite the infection toll jumping by around 30 per cent each day at the beginning of the outbreak. He argued exponential growth models were wrong because they assume 'you keep meeting new people'. Professor Levitt added: 'If you consider your own social circle, you basically meet the same people every day. 'You can meet new people on public transportation but even on the bus, after sometime most passengers will either be infected or immune.' In an interview with the Los Angeles Times hoping to alleviate the fears of millions, the 72-year-old said: 'We're going to be fine.' Advertisement

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, leading epidemiologist Professor Ferguson said: 'We think the epidemic is just about starting to slow in the UK right now... it is the result of the actions people have taken and governments have taken.'

He said the number of deaths was a reliable indicator of an outbreak, but gave you the picture from two to three weeks ago.

'In the UK we can see some early signs of slowing in some indicators - less in deaths as deaths do lag by a long time...

'But if you look as the number of new hospital admissions per day for instance, that does seem to be slowing down a little bit now.'

Professor Ferguson stressed the rates of hospital admissions had 'not yet plateaued' but the rate of increase looked to be slowing.

He also said the epidemic was spreading at different rates in different parts of the country.

'It is quite clear across the country, the epidemic is in different stages in different parts of the country,' he said.

'In central London it could be as many as 3 per cent to 5 per cent of the population has been infected - maybe more in individual hot spots. In the country as a whole in the UK, maybe 2 per cent or 3 per cent.'

He said antibody tests, currently in final stages of validation, would be 'critical' to the understanding of the epidemic, adding they would 'hopefully' be available in days.

Dr Harries told a Downing Street press conference last night that people should not be viewing the coronavirus crisis as something that will blow over soon.

She said it will not be clear whether the 'social distancing' lockdown is working for another two or three weeks - after Easter - with deaths set to rise further.

But even if the draconian restrictions do succeed in 'squashing' the peak of the outbreak, reverting to a 'normal way of life' immediately would probably lead to a disastrous new spike in infections.

Stanford University's Professor Levitt said the crisis in Italy, Spain and the worst-affected parts of the US was 'turning', whereas in the UK it was continuing to get worse.

He added: 'New York City, which everyone is so sad about, is turning. It's passed its midpoint.

'Its [outbreak] is no longer accelerating, it's put the brakes on. New York is on the mend.

'In the UK, there aren't enough numbers and too many separate outbreaks.

'Italy has turned the corner, Switzerland has turned the corner. We hope, but we're not sure yet, that Spain has also joined this select club of people who have passed the midpoint'.

It comes as a health minister promised the Government was 'ramping up' its capacity to test health and social care staff to get ahead of the crisis.

Helen Whately sparked confusion when she said the UK now had the capacity to do 10,000 tests a day - although at the weekend around 7,000 a day were actually carried out.

'Within the next three weeks we expect to get to 25,000 tests a day,' she told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

'The really important thing about that - the effort to test NHS and social care staff - is that we can prioritise the testing to parts of the health and care system where we have particular staff shortages so that we can help by testing people so that we can identify if they are negative so they would no longer need to isolate and they can go back to work.'

Ms Whately said that work was going on to develop an antibody test which would show whether people have had the coronavirus.

'I am not going to confirm when that is going to arrive. Work has been going on to bring that forwards because that will be really helpful to our battle against coronavirus,' she said.

She said that more than 170 million items of personal protective equipment had been delivered to health and social care organisations, but acknowledged that there had been delays in getting it to staff.

'I know that there have been delays in getting that to the front line in some places but the reality is it has been a huge challenge getting stock out,' she said.

Some 20,000 former NHS staff have returned to help in the fight against coronavirus, Boris Johnson announced in a video message

Formula One engineers have helped develop a new breathing device for coronavirus patients (one pictured)

EASYJET GROUNDS ENTIRE FLEET AMID CORONAVIRUS CRISIS EasyJet has today grounded its entire fleet of 330-plus planes as coronavirus continued to wound Britain's airlines - just ten days after the airline paid a 174million dividend to shareholders including to its founder Stelios. The company has worked with union Unite to agree two-month furlough arrangements for cabin crew which means that crew will be paid 80 per cent of their average pay through the Government job retention scheme. EasyJet, whose largest base is London Gatwick and serves 159 airports and 1,051 routes, has 9,000 UK-based staff including 4,000 cabin crew. The grounding of its gigantic fleet came just over a week after the airline pressed ahead with a 174million payout to shareholders - days after calling for a state loan to help them survive - and one third of the cash went to founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou. Virgin Atlantic will ask the British government for a package of commercial loans and guarantees worth hundreds of millions of pounds, the Financial Times reported. Other carriers including airlines such as Loganair and Eastern Airways, and Norwegian Air Shuttle are also considering to ask for state aid, the newspaper added. But British ministers want bigger airlines with wealthy shareholders will weather the storm without the need for billions in taxpayer cash. The Luton-based carrier said the measure 'removes significant cost' as the aviation industry struggles to cope with a collapse in demand caused by the outbreak of the virus. It insisted it 'maintains a strong balance sheet' and revealed it is in 'ongoing discussions with liquidity providers'. Advertisement

Meanwhile, Formula One engineers helped develop a new breathing device for coronavirus patients. The Mercedes team and academics at University College London took just four days to produce the first 'continuous positive airway pressure' (CPAP) device - 100 of which are now going into clinical trials at a hospital in north London.

The equipment - which pushes air and oxygen into a mask to inflate a patient's lungs - is an alternative treatment for people too frail to undergo invasive ventilation procedures.

It has already been signed off as safe for medical use by the MHRA safety watchdog and should complete its clinical trial to prove it helps patients at University College London Hospital by the end of this week.

The technique has been widely used in Italy, where ventilators are in short supply.

Ventilator 'rationing' has also begun at one London hospital, with bosses ruling that only patients with a 'reasonable chance of survival' should be allowed them.

The Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains team deconstructed an existing CPAP machine - which was previously used to treat sleep apnoea - that had fallen out of patent.

They improved on the design and have the tools and equipment to construct 300 a day for the NHS. If other F1 teams contribute they believe they could make 1,000 a day with just a week's notice.

Professor Mervyn Singer, a critical care consultant at UCLH, said: 'These devices will help to save lives by ensuring that ventilators, a limited resource, are used only for the most severely ill.

'While they will be tested at UCLH first, we hope they will make a real difference to hospitals across the UK by reducing demand on intensive care staff and beds, as well as helping patients recover without the need for more invasive ventilation.'

Professor Tim Baker, a mechanical engineering expert at UCL, added: 'Given the urgent need, we are thankful that we were able to reduce a process that could take years down to a matter of days.

'From being given the brief, we worked all hours of the day, disassembling and analysing an off-patent device. Using computer simulations, we improved the device further to create a state-of-the-art version suited to mass production. We were privileged to be able to call on the capability of Formula One.'

The collaboration was conducted through 'Project Pitlane' - a collective of UK-based Formula One teams responding to the Government's call for assistance with the manufacture of medical devices.

For those elderly or 'at risk' patients with underlying immune or respiratory conditions, the CPAP device may not be strong enough, however.

EasyJet has today grounded its entire fleet of 330-plus planes as coronavirus continued to decimate Britain's airlines

MERCEDES F1 AND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON ENGINEERS DEVELOP NEW COVID-19 BREATHING DEVICE Formula One engineers have helped develop a new breathing device for coronavirus patients. The Mercedes team and academics at University College London took just four days to produce the first 'continuous positive airway pressure' (CPAP) device - 100 of which are now going into clinical trials at a hospital in north London. The equipment - which pushes air and oxygen into a mask to inflate a patient's lungs - is an alternative treatment for people too frail to undergo invasive ventilation procedures. It has already been signed off as safe for medical use by the MHRA safety watchdog and should complete its clinical trial to prove it helps patients at University College London Hospital by the end of this week. The technique has been widely used in Italy, where ventilators are in short supply. Ventilator 'rationing' has also begun at one London hospital, with bosses ruling that only patients with a 'reasonable chance of survival' should be allowed them. The Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains team deconstructed an existing CPAP machine - which was previously used to treat sleep apnoea - that had fallen out of patent. They improved on the design and have the tools and equipment to construct 300 a day for the NHS. If other F1 teams contribute they believe they could make 1,000 a day with just a week's notice. Professor Mervyn Singer, a critical care consultant at UCLH, said: 'These devices will help to save lives by ensuring that ventilators, a limited resource, are used only for the most severely ill. 'While they will be tested at UCLH first, we hope they will make a real difference to hospitals across the UK by reducing demand on intensive care staff and beds, as well as helping patients recover without the need for more invasive ventilation.' Advertisement

A senior consultant at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust told the Daily Telegraph that invasive ventilators for those who are extremely unwell are being restricted on 'medical grounds' not because of a lack of capacity.

The trust said that 'very poorly patients' require ventilators for two or three weeks, which would not be in their best interests.

The consultant added: 'With this infection you need a couple of weeks on a ventilator, so with resources being used for such a long time, you have to be reasonably certain the person is going to get better.

'Delaying their death for two or three weeks is not the right thing for them or for society.'

Meanwhile, easyJet has today grounded its entire fleet of 330-plus planes as coronavirus continued to wound Britain's airlines - just ten days after the airline paid a 174million dividend to shareholders including to its founder Stelios.

The company has worked with union Unite to agree two-month furlough arrangements for cabin crew which means that crew will be paid 80 per cent of their average pay through the Government job retention scheme.

EasyJet, whose largest base is London Gatwick and serves 159 airports and 1,051 routes, has 9,000 UK-based staff including 4,000 cabin crew.

The grounding of its gigantic fleet came just over a week after the airline pressed ahead with a 174million payout to shareholders - days after calling for a state loan to help them survive - and one third of the cash went to founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

Virgin Atlantic will ask the British government for a package of commercial loans and guarantees worth hundreds of millions of pounds, the Financial Times reported.

Other carriers including airlines such as Loganair and Eastern Airways, and Norwegian Air Shuttle are also considering to ask for state aid, the newspaper added.

But British ministers want bigger airlines with wealthy shareholders will weather the storm without the need for billions in taxpayer cash.

The Luton-based carrier said the measure 'removes significant cost' as the aviation industry struggles to cope with a collapse in demand caused by the outbreak of the virus.

It insisted it 'maintains a strong balance sheet' and revealed it is in 'ongoing discussions with liquidity providers'.

EasyJet said in a statement: 'As a result of the unprecedented travel restrictions imposed by governments in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the implementation of national lockdowns across many European countries, easyJet has, today, fully grounded its entire fleet of aircraft.

'Over recent days easyJet has been helping to repatriate customers, having operated more than 650 rescue flights to date, returning home more than 45,000 customers. The last of these rescue flights were operated on Sunday March 29. We will continue to work with government bodies to operate additional rescue flights as requested.

'At this stage there can be no certainty of the date for restarting commercial flights. We will continuously evaluate the situation based on regulations and demand, and will update the market when we have a view.'

Formula One engineers from Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains have helped develop a new breathing device for coronavirus patients. The team deconstructed an existing CPAP machine - which was previously used to treat sleep apnoea - that had fallen out of patent

The Mercedes team and academics at University College London took just four days to produce the first 'continuous positive airway pressure' (CPAP) device - which will keep patients out of ICU because they don't need to be sedated. File image used

Professor Rebecca Shipley, UCL Mechanical Engineering, and Professor Mervyn Singer, UCL Medicine, who helped develop the device

NHS ASKS THOUSANDS OF FIRST AID-TRAINED EASYJET AND VIRGIN AIRLINE STAFF TO HELP BATTLE VIRUS Air cabin crew will join doctors and nurses in staffing the new Nightingale hospitals built to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the NHS has said. Staff at Virgin Atlantic and EasyJet have been invited to volunteer at the new 4,000-bed clinic being built at the Excel centre in east London, and those planned in Birmingham and Manchester. Their salaries will continue to be paid by the airlines as an astonishing 750,000 other Britons joined the NHS volunteer army in just five days. Many first-aid trained cabin crew across the world have been grounded as countries have closed borders and cancelled flights amid the Covid-19 pandemic. EasyJet has already written to its 9,000 UK-based staff including 4,000 cabin crew trained in CPR to invite them to give their time to the NHS. Virgin Atlantic will begin writing to 4,000 of its employees on Monday and will prioritise getting in touch with those who already have the required skills. Those who join up will be given expert training and will then perform support roles such as changing beds under the guidance of trained nurses. St John's Ambulance have already said that hundreds of people will give their time at the first Nightingale hospital in London. Corneel Koster, chief customer officer at Virgin Atlantic, said: 'We are grateful to the NHS for everything they are doing in extremely challenging circumstances and we're committed to doing all we can to support the national effort against the rapid acceleration of Covid-19.' EasyJet has said it is 'proud' its staff can support medics at this 'crucial time'. Tina Milton, director of cabin services, added: 'The NHS is at the forefront of dealing with this health emergency but the training and skills our cabin crew have, working closely with the medical professionals, could help make a real difference.' Ruth May, chief nursing officer for England, said the NHS needs 'all the support we can get'. She added: 'Thousands of nurses, medics and other expert staff are returning to work alongside us, but we need everyone to do their bit  whether that is working in one of our current health or social care services, working in the Nightingale Hospital, volunteering to help the NHS or following government advice to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.' Health Secretary Matt Hancock initially hoped to recruit 250,000 members of the public  but the target was trebled following the huge response. Nearly half a million people pledged their support in the first 24 hours after the appeal went out on Tuesday, including many workers who had lost their jobs as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Last night the NHS revealed the 750,000 target had been hit and the appeal closed, to be re-opened in the coming weeks. Officials are processing the applications, which involves carrying out background and identity checks and allocating individuals to one of four key roles. Those who have signed up will be helping the 1.5million vulnerable patients who have been told to completely shield themselves from the outside world as they are particularly at risk of contracting the virus. Roles include collecting groceries and medications, making regular phone calls to help those at risk of isolation and driving them from urgent hospital appointments. Some volunteers will also transport medicine and other equipment between NHS sites. Advertisement

Airports and airlines struggling for survival as a result of coronavirus have accused ministers of U-turning on a promise of special support.

This month Chancellor Rishi Sunak said he was preparing a support package to help the aviation industry deal with the biggest challenge in its history.

He was rumoured to be finalising a multi-billion rescue deal for the industry, which could have seen the Government purchase stakes in the hardest-hit airlines.

However, the Chancellor has now told industry leaders that the Treasury will only provide support 'as a last resort' - and only if individual companies have 'exhausted other options'.

The Airport Operators Association (AOA), which represents UK airports, last night accused the Government of abandoning the sector amid fears some airlines could collapse within weeks.

Chief executive Karen Dee said: 'After having publicly announced a support package for airports and airlines, we're surprised by where we find ourselves today. Our industry will now have to fight on its own to protect its workforce and its future.

'With passenger numbers approaching close to zero, UK airports have seen a major drop in revenue. They are taking unprecedented steps to safeguard airport staff and operations through this crisis, which could include in some cases considering shutting down for a period of time. This could have major impacts for UK communities and businesses.'

The AOA has demanded a support package that included measures such as relaxing regulations relating to mandatory training requirements, extending business rate relief to airports and deferring all aviation taxes for the duration of global flight restrictions.

Virgin Atlantic has also urged the Government to offer a 7.5 billion bailout, while the Balpa pilots' union warned last week that aviation companies could begin 'winding down' in the coming days without more support.

Plummeting passenger numbers have forced airlines such as EasyJet and Ryanair to ground their entire fleet, while bigger carriers such as BA and Virgin Atlantic have cut schedules by up to 90 per cent.

Airports have warned they could close within weeks due to flatlining footfall. Many of the country's smaller regional airports were already struggling before the pandemic following the collapse of Flybe earlier this month.

In his letter to the industry, the Chancellor says: 'Given the significant importance of the aviation sector to our economy and economic recovery, the Government is prepared to enter negotiations with individual companies seeking bespoke support as a last resort, having exhausted other options.

'However further taxpayer support would only be possible if all commercial avenues have been fully explored, including raising further capital from existing investors and discussing arrangements with financial stakeholders.'

The Mail understands the decision not to provide a single package of support was taken after it became clear that each aviation company had very different needs.

Sir Richard Branson has pledged 215million to support Virgin Atlantic, which he part-owns, but the airline is still calling for a taxpayer bailout.

It comes after it emerged air cabin crew will join doctors and nurses in staffing the new Nightingale hospitals built to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the NHS has said.

Staff at Virgin Atlantic and EasyJet have been invited to volunteer at the new 4,000-bed clinic being built at the Excel centre in east London, and those planned in Birmingham and Manchester.

Their salaries will continue to be paid by the airlines as an astonishing 750,000 other Britons joined the NHS volunteer army in just five days.

Many first-aid trained cabin crew across the world have been grounded as countries have closed borders and cancelled flights amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

EasyJet has already written to its 9,000 UK-based staff including 4,000 cabin crew trained in CPR to invite them to give their time to the NHS.

Virgin Atlantic will begin writing to 4,000 of its employees on Monday and will prioritise getting in touch with those who already have the required skills.

Those who join up will be given expert training and will then perform support roles such as changing beds under the guidance of trained nurses.

Britain's medically trained air crew could be heading to the new NHS Nightingale Hospital at the ExCel Centre in London

St John's Ambulance have already said that hundreds of people will give their time at the first Nightingale hospital in London.

Corneel Koster, chief customer officer at Virgin Atlantic, said: 'We are grateful to the NHS for everything they are doing in extremely challenging circumstances and we're committed to doing all we can to support the national effort against the rapid acceleration of Covid-19.'

EasyJet has said it is 'proud' its staff can support medics at this 'crucial time'.

Tina Milton, director of cabin services, added: 'The NHS is at the forefront of dealing with this health emergency but the training and skills our cabin crew have, working closely with the medical professionals, could help make a real difference.'

Ruth May, chief nursing officer for England, said the NHS needs 'all the support we can get'.

She added: 'Thousands of nurses, medics and other expert staff are returning to work alongside us, but we need everyone to do their bit  whether that is working in one of our current health or social care services, working in the Nightingale Hospital, volunteering to help the NHS or following government advice to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.'

Health Secretary Matt Hancock initially hoped to recruit 250,000 members of the public  but the target was trebled following the huge response.

Nearly half a million people pledged their support in the first 24 hours after the appeal went out on Tuesday, including many workers who had lost their jobs as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

Last night the NHS revealed the 750,000 target had been hit and the appeal closed, to be re-opened in the coming weeks.

Officials are processing the applications, which involves carrying out background and identity checks and allocating individuals to one of four key roles.

Those who have signed up will be helping the 1.5million vulnerable patients who have been told to completely shield themselves from the outside world as they are particularly at risk of contracting the virus.

Roles include collecting groceries and medications, making regular phone calls to help those at risk of isolation and driving them from urgent hospital appointments. Some volunteers will also transport medicine and other equipment between NHS sites.

Volunteers, whose services will be needed for at least three months, will be able to devote as much or as little time as they can. They can log on as being on duty and ready to take tasks, and will be contacted by a call centre run by the Royal Voluntary Service.

If they cannot fulfil a role it will be given to someone else nearby.

Boris Johnson last night declared 'there is such a thing as society' as he hailed the army of volunteers answering the call to tackle coronavirus.

In a pointed contradiction of Margaret Thatcher, below, Mr Johnson said the altruism induced by the epidemic showed that people did not think only of themselves.

The former PM sparked controversy in 1987 when she declared there was 'no such thing as society', adding: 'People must look after themselves first.' In an online video last night, Mr Johnson suggested her view had been disproved by recent events.

Pledging to beat the virus, the PM said: 'We are going to do it, we are going to do it together... One thing I think the coronavirus crisis has already proved is that there really is such a thing as society.'

Speaking from his flat in Downing Street where he is in self-isolation after contracting the virus, Mr Johnson revealed that more than 20,000 former medics have now returned to the frontline, despite the risks.

He also praised the extraordinary public response which has seen more than 750,000 people sign up in days to volunteer for tasks like delivering supplies to the vulnerable.

Mr Johnson said the public appeared to be obeying the terms of the lockdown, with train use down 95 per cent and bus passenger numbers down 75 per cent.

'Thank you to everybody who's coming back into the NHS in huge numbers,' he said. 'We have 20,000 NHS staff coming back to the colours.

'It's a most amazing thing. And that's in addition to the 750,000 members of the public who have volunteered.'
Due to coronavirus concerns, visitors from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut as of 7 a.m. Monday were banned from Lehigh Valley Health Network Family Birth and Newborn Centers, according to a news release.

As well, visitors from anywhere who either have COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, or meet criteria of suspected infection wont be allowed in as well, the hospital network said.

There is a growing concern that people who have the virus but are showing no symptoms could expose others to COVID-19, the Salisbury Township-based hospital network said.

Visitors will not be allowed in the triage area unless delivery appears imminent", the hospital network said. This should help in preserving supplies of personal protective equipment, the news release said. Those visitors, even if they are the single allowed support person, will have to wait in their car or leave the hospital campus until the patient is admitted for delivery, the hospital network said. These visitors can return to pick up the patient if she is discharged, the hospital network said.

Visitors from the three states -- and other areas as designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or other governing bodies -- are prohibited until further notice, the hospital network said.

Patients from these regions may have a visitor who has not been in these high-risk areas, the hospital network said, adding that it will be checking photo IDs as proof of address.

If a mother is suspected of having COVID-19 and separation with the newborn is performed as recommended by CDC, the visitor can move between the mothers isolation room and newborn isolation room/nursery," the news release said. Ideally, that person would become a newborn visitor and no longer visit the mother, the hospital network said. If the mother and baby are in the same room, the visitor would stay in the room to mostly care for the newborn, the hospital network said.

Potential visitors with COVID-19 or meeting one of the following criteria for being suspected of being infected with not be allowed in the facilities:

COVID-19 testing pending

High risk exposure to someone with confirmed COVID-19 (less than 6 feet for more than two minutes)

Symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 infection including fever, cough and shortness of breath

Mothers-to-be with COVID-19 will be cared for at the facility, the hospital network said.

Visitors will undergo daily monitoring during the hospital stay  temperature and assessment of symptoms, the hospital network said.

Patients are asked to wear masks throughout their stay and are asked to bring their own, the hospital network said. If they dont have a mask, one will be provided. Visitors are asked to bring their own masks.

One consistent person will remain the entire stay, the hospital network said. Meals can be provided by patient food services. Any visitor who leaves the facility during may not return, the hospital network said.

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Researchers led by biomedical engineers at Tufts University invented a microfluidic chip containing cardiac cells that is capable of mimicking hypoxic conditions following a heart attack - specifically when an artery is blocked in the heart and then unblocked after treatment. The chip contains multiplexed arrays of electronic sensors placed outside and inside the cells that can detect the rise and fall of voltage across individual cell membranes, as well as voltage waves moving across the cell layer, which cause the cells to beat in unison in the chip, just as they do in the heart. After reducing levels of oxygen in the fluid within the device, the sensors detect an initial period of tachycardia (accelerated beat rate), followed by a reduction in beat rate and eventually arrhythmia which mimics cardiac arrest.

The research, published in Nano Letters, is a significant advance toward understanding the electrophysiological responses at the cellular level to ischemic heart attacks, and could be applied to future drug development. The paper was selected by the American Chemical Society as Editors' Choice, and is available with open access.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death worldwide, with most patients suffering from cardiac ischemia - which occurs when an artery supplying blood to the heart is partially or fully blocked. If ischemia occurs over an extended period, the heart tissue is starved of oxygen (a condition called "hypoxia"), and can lead to tissue death, or myocardial infarction. The changes in cardiac cells and tissues induced by hypoxia include changes in voltage potentials across the cell membrane, release of neurotransmitters, shifts in gene expression, altered metabolic functions, and activation or deactivation of ion channels.

The biosensor technology used in the microfluidic chip combines multi-electrode arrays that can provide extracellular readouts of voltage patterns, with nanopillar probes that enter the membrane to take readouts of voltage levels (action potentials) within each cell. Tiny channels in the chip allow the researchers to continuously and precisely adjust the fluid flowing over the cells, lowering the levels of oxygen to about 1-4 percent to mimic hypoxia or raising oxygen to 21 percent to model normal conditions. The changing conditions are meant to model what happens to cells in the heart when an artery is blocked, and then re-opened by treatment.

Heart-on-a-chip models are a powerful tool to model diseases, but current tools to study electrophysiology in those systems are somewhat lacking, as they are either difficult to multiplex or eventually cause damage to the cells. Signaling pathways between molecules and ultimately electrophysiology occur rapidly during hypoxia, and our device can capture a lot of this information simultaneously in real time for a large ensemble of cells." Brian Timko, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Tufts University School of Engineering, and corresponding author of the study

When tested, the extracellular electrode arrays provided a two-dimensional map of voltage waves passing over the layer of cardiac cells, and revealed a predictable wave pattern under normal (21 percent) oxygen levels. In contrast, the researchers observed erratic and slower wave patterns when the oxygen was reduced to 1 percent.

The intracellular nanoprobe sensors provided a remarkably accurate picture of action potentials within each cell. These sensors were arranged as an array of tiny platinum tipped needles upon which the cells rest, like a bed of nails. When stimulated with an electric field, the needles puncture through the cell membrane, where they can begin taking measurements at single cell resolution. Both types of devices were created using photolithography - the technology used to create integrated circuits - which allowed researchers to achieve device arrays with highly reproducible properties.

The extracellular and intracellular sensors together provide information of the eletrophysiological effects of a modeled ischemic attack, including a "time lapse" of cells as they become dysfunctional and then respond to treatment. As such, the microfluidic chip could form the basis of a high throughput platform in drug discovery, identifying therapeutics which help cells and tissues recover normal function more rapidly.

"In the future, we can look beyond the effects of hypoxia and consider other factors contributing to acute heart disease, such as acidosis, nutrient deprivation and waste accumulation, simply by modifying the composition and flow of the medium," said Timko. "We could also incorporate different types of sensors to detect specific molecules expressed in response to stresses."

This work was supported by grants from Tufts Collaborates, the Department of Defense (W81XWH-16-1-0304), the American Heart Association (Grant-in-Aid 16GRNT27760100) and the Tufts Summer Scholars Program. The research was performed at the Tufts Micro- and Nanofabrication Facility.

First author of the study was Haitao Liu, visiting scholar at Tufts University School of Engineering, Co-authors included Ning Hu, also a visiting scholar; Rotimi Bolonduro and Breanna Duffy, both PhD candidates; undergraduates Akshita Rao and Jie Ju; Zhaohui Huang of the School of Materials Science and Technology at China University of Geosciences; and Lauren Black, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Tufts.
The Inspector-General of Police, Muhammed Adamu, has set up a committee to investigate the cause of last Saturdays explosion at Ilu-Abo in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State.

Although no life was lost in the incident, it left a crater in the middle of the expressway, injured about a dozen persons and damaged several houses, including a church and a school.

The Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operation), Abdulmajid Ali, made the stance of the police boss known on Monday while briefing the Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, on what the police had done so far on the matter.

Mr Ali visited the governor shortly after visiting the scene of the incident along Akure-Owo expressway. He said members of the committee include police officers from the Police Bomb Disposal Squad (Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit.

He was accompanied on the visit by Kaka Imam, who stood in for the Director-General of Geological Survey Agency, Nigeria, AbdulRasaq Garba.

The DIG said he had visited the scene of the incident with his team, while officials of the geological survey agency had also taken a sample of the soil. He assured that the committee would come out with an acceptable report.

He commended the state governor for his display of maturity when he visited the scene, noting that the police were not sleeping on the issue and that they were working to unravel the mystery behind the blast.

The investigation is coming on the heels of controversies surrounding the preliminary report of the police which announced that the incident resulted from explosives being transported through the state to Edo State for industrial use.

Some groups in the state, including Afenifere and the Peoples Democratic Party, had expressed fears that the explosion could be the mastermind of people with the intention to cause harm to residents.

Yet another twist to the tales emerged when a team of researchers from Obafemi Awolowo University attributed the incident to a meteor.

A meteor is what happens when a meteoroid  a small piece of an asteroid  burns up upon entering earths atmosphere, creating a streak of light in the sky.

The researchers led by Adepelumi Adekunle, a professor of geophysics and earthquake engineering at OAU, concluded that the meteor impacted the location from an angle of 43 degrees, creating the huge crater found on the location.

Mr Akeredolu commended the Nigeria Police for the steps taken so far.

He said while he was not against other views, particularly from the OAU experts, who claimed that the incident was caused by an asteroid, he was still relying on the initial information he got from the Commissioner of Police.

I am not saying the Professor was right or wrong and I am not making any conclusion, he said.

I have been speaking with some experts and they said if we were unable to find debris of the shattered truck within one kilometer radius from the spot of the incident, that shows the incident was not caused by explosive devices.

Already, the debris of the truck that was carrying this explosive devices that created a very large crater on the express road, have been seen. This is not new; there are similar incidents with pictorial evidence.

I am also relying on eyewitnesses accounts, particularly, the driver, who drove the vehicle and who is currently recuperating at our State Teaching Hospital, Akure.

I am very sure that if it was an asteroid, the NASRDA would have picked this when coming to earth. This is not what we can hide. I am already in touch with the Minister for Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu.

The governor, however, called for calm, urging the people to wait for the results of tests being carried out on the site of the blast.
How to Stop the Virus Now

The only way to quickly halt its transmission and safely reopen economy is to test *everyone*, and have virus carriers self-isolate

Commentary

There is a relatively simple way to stop the coronavirus dead in its tracks. It might sound impossible at first, but its well within our capabilities, and its far less costly and disruptive than what countries around the world are doing now.

To give you some perspective on the issue, lets go back in time to the AIDS crisis that was emerging in the 1980s. When AIDS was first identified in 1981 (HIV, the virus that caused it, wasnt identified until 1984), the disease was spreading mainly among gay males and intravenous drug users. Because carriers of the virus might be asymptomatic for years, however, it was only a matter of time before it jumped into the mainstream population, thus putting the entire population at risk.

In 1988, U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop did something both unprecedented and outrageous to try to get the AIDS epidemic under control: He sent an explicit eight-page pamphlet about AIDS to all 107 million households in the United States. The pamphlet talked about every possible kind of sex act, and, so there could be no misunderstandings, it mentioned the word condom 20 times.

We can stop the spread of AIDS immediately, Koop said, by changing our behavior, and he was remarkably frank about what behavior that was. It wasnt until 1996 than an effective cocktail of medicines was developed to extend the lives of AIDS sufferers, and we still dont have a vaccine, so Koops gambit, although controversial at the time, is now seen as heroic.

Like HIVand unlike the common cold or SARSthe coronavirus can be transmitted by asymptomatic carriers, which allows it to spread rapidly and without peoples awareness. In some respects, however, the coronavirus is far more dangerous than HIV, because HIV transmission requires risky sex or an infected needle, whereas the coronavirus can be passed along merely by a cough or a sneeze, or even by the remnants of a cough or sneeze on a surface.

Because the coronavirus can be transmitted so easily, and because virtually all of the asymptomatic carriers of the virus have no idea theyre carrying it, the number of people suffering from COVID-19the sometimes fatal illness caused by the coronavirusis, at this writing (March 25), doubling worldwide every six days.

Even more disturbing, the number of COVID-19-related deaths is also doubling at this rate, and in some countries, the rate of doubling is even faster than the worldwide rate. In the United States at the moment, the number of COVID-19-related deaths appears to be doubling about every three days.

Both China and South Korea began implementing drastic measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 within weeks of having identified the problem: massive testing for the virus, restrictions on in-person interactions, large-scale quarantines, the closing of businesses and factories, and so on. As a result, the doubling time in South Korea has slowed to about 13 days, and, if we can believe the numbers China is reporting, transmission there might now have stopped completely.

Other countries have failed to stop transmission for a variety of reasons, among them: a lack of resources, poor leadership, poor discipline, and an inability to control misinformation.

In the United States, some of our leadersamong them President Donald Trump and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrickunderstandably concerned about the devastating impact the coronavirus is having on our economyare now beginning to talk about reversing some of the restrictions that were put in place to try to slow the spread of the virus.

Without measures in place to slow the spread, researchers at the University College London recently estimated that the virus could cause upwards of 2.2 million deaths in the United States within a few months. Although that number might seem impossibly high, thats just how doubling works.

A temporary hospital in Indio, Calif., on March 29, 2020. (Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images)

If 100 people died today from COVID-19a milestone in the United States which we in fact reached on March 23and if a doubling time of three days persisted, then the number of deaths would increase each day until we hit 200 on March 26. Three days later, we would be at 400, then 800, 1,600, 3,200, and so on. Just 30 days of this kind of doubling would result in an astonishing 393,581 deaths.

The sad and very disturbing truth is that we hit that next doubling milestone200 deathsa day early. We hit it on March 25. That could mean the doubling time is actually faster than three days, which means that huge number I just showed you might be too small.

Whatever the actual growth rate turns out to be (no one knows for sure, because this virus is new), the hodgepodge of ways in which were currently trying to slow the rate of transmission is causing enormous confusion, reflected, among other things, in a calamitous drop in stock prices. As more people lose their livelihoods and the number of deaths continues to increase, we risk societal collapse, or at least widespread panic.

Yet there is a relatively simple way to halt the spread of the coronavirus fairly rapidlyor at least on a pace we can control. The solution to the coronavirus problem is to test everyone, and then for people who are infected to self-isolate.

This solution was demonstrated on a small scale in study reported a few days ago in The Guardian. Researchers at the University of Padua tested all 3,300 residents of the Italian town of Vo and separated those carrying the virusboth symptomatic and asymptomaticfrom those who were virus-free. Transmission stopped immediately.

Could we test all 329,425,643 men, women, and children in the United States? It sounds like a tall order, but its not much different than taking the census, and the only bodily fluid needed is a small amount of nasal mucus (yes: snot). Because of economies of scale, the per-unit cost of 300 million tests will likely be less than a dime, but even if, taking administrative costs and the usual inefficiencies into account, the total cost of each test turns out to be $20, the $6.5 billion price tag for Universal Coronavirus Testing will still be $600 million less than well be spending this year alone on the Census.

Just today, it was announced that researchers at three universities in the UK have developed a cheap coronavirus test that people could administer at home, although it will still take a $100 machine to analyze the results. Theyre exploring now how to mass-produce the necessary hardware. Also promising: On March 28, the FDA approved a 15-minute test for use in the United States.

And heres an interesting possibility: With 334 million tests on the line in the United States aloneperhaps even billions over timethe same companies that manufacture those cheap at-home pregnancy tests might quickly develop a dirt cheap, self-contained, at-home test. Just shove it up your nose, and, seconds later, a plus-sign on the device says youre carrying the virus, and a minus-sign says youre not. Disposable devices of this sort could even be used to screen people entering venues where its especially important that infected people not minglethe White House, perhaps?

And how about dividing people up? The doubting Thomases among you are undoubtedly imagining entire U.S. Army regiments, tanks and all, tearing up your suburban lawns, but in reality, the vast majority of us will divide ourselves up.

I know this not just because Ive been a psychologist for a long time but because two of my own children, having barely made it out of Madrid recently, quarantined themselves in their bedrooms a week ago. They wiped down the doorknobs and railings with antiseptic wipes after they came home, and I havent seen them since. We text and Skype frequently, and I leave their favorite foods and drinks outside their doors every few hours. (I just left chocolate chip cookies.)

Theyre each in college, and their courses are all online, so theyve got plenty to do. All in all, its not a bad arrangement.

If my kids were still little, Id go into quarantine with them and take my chances. Many uninfected people will make similar choices when Universal Testing is underway.

The vast majority of virus carriers will choose to self-quarantine, and the government can sweeten the deal with financial incentives; that will help immensely with people who cant report to work because of their infection.

Since some people also need sticks, virus carriers who knowingly expose uninfected people to the virus could be penalized with fines or even jail, but I think social pressureplus those financial incentives, of coursewill likely reduce the number of inconsiderate jerks to near zero.

A researcher works on the development of a vaccine against the new coronavirus COVID-19, in Belo Horizonte, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, on March 26, 2020. (Douglas Magno/AFP via Getty Images)

As for that proposal to have only elderly people isolate themselves, all I can say is: WTF. Isolating seniors wont slow the spread of the virus one single jot. Its not elderly people who need to self-isolate, its the people who are carrying the virus.

Perhaps the extraordinary benefits of Universal Testingor just Testing, if you will (thats Testing with a capital T, because theres testing, and then theres Testing)have already crossed your mind. Here are four that stand out for me:

First, by depriving the virus of its hosts, Testing will soon obliterate it. Unlike HIV, which can wreak havoc on a persons body over a period of months or years, most cases of COVID-19 are mild, and people typically recover within 10 to 14 days. Serious cases might still result in death, of course, but at least there will be no new cases.

Doubt me if you like, Thomas, but if Testing is done right, it could, for all practical purposes, banish the coronavirus from human bodies in a matter of weeks, and thats sans vaccine or cure. (You cant work this kind of magic with HIV, unfortunately, because it attacks the immune system itself, so people with AIDS cant kill the virus and recover on their own.)

Second, it will greatly reduce the likelihood that our hospitals and medical resources will be overwhelmed. This is because we will know, fairly precisely, how many people might need those resources, and, of course, because the number of carriers will stop its exponential growth. In fact, with transmission having stopped, the number of people needing medical attention will rapidly decrease, and it will do so in an orderly and predictable manner.

Third, Testing will end the confusion and fear. Right now, everyone is afraid of everyone else, because no one knows whos carrying the virus and who isnt. We dont even know whether we are carriers. Universal Testing solves that problem.

And fourth, Testing will end the financial crisisperhaps within days of when Testing begins. It will immediately end the uncertainty that has been plaguing the stock market because it will get the virus under control. It will also allow virtually all of those closed schools and businesses to open their doors againeven the theaters and restaurants. Why? Because there are currently 65,564 confirmed cases of the virus in the United States (click here for the latest count), which means that a half million people are probably infectedhell, lets say its 2 million. That still leaves 332 million people who are now free, once again, to go to stadiums, attend classes, sit at actual tables in restaurants, and fly from Charlotte to Chicago.

The census costs U.S. taxpayers money. Universal Testing has the potential to save businesses and taxpayers trillions of dollars, as well as to rescue thousands of businesses from bankruptcy.

So much for the United States. How do we rapidly end the coronavirus pandemic worldwide?

You already know the answer.

Koops 1988 flyer didnt end the AIDS epidemic, but at least he was thinking Bigat least he was thinking Everyone. Lets think even bigger now and get rid of this damn virus.

Robert Epstein, a former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today, is senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology. The author of 15 books and more than 300 articles, he is working on a book called How Google and Facebook Ate Your Brain, and How You Can Get a New One. Follow him on Twitter: @DrREpstein. To read Epsteins other new article about the coronavirus, click on The Doubling Problem. The article explains how rapidly the virus will spread unless drastic measures are taken.

This article has been updated to note the approval of a 15-minute coronavirus test by the FDA.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 16:44:58|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese medical experts arrive at the Simon Bolivar International Airport, in La Guaira, Venezuela, on March 30, 2020. China has sent a team of medical experts to Venezuela to help the country fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced Monday. The team has arrived on Monday, she said. (Xinhua/Marcos Salgado)

BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- China has sent a team of medical experts to Venezuela to help the country fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced Monday.

The team, organized by the National Health Commission, consists of experts selected by the health commission of Jiangsu Province, Hua said at a press briefing.

The team has arrived on Monday, she said.
Nathalie Becerra-Mora, a doctoral student in chemistry, is pictured late last year in the universitys Integrated Microscopy and Graphics Expertise Center, or IMAGE Center. (Photo by Russell Bailey)

Research continues at SIU as faculty make adjustments to health emergency

by Tim Crosby

CARBONDALE, Ill.  When it comes to ongoing, high-level research, a health emergency such as COVID-19 can impede and threaten projects that are in progress.

At Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where research is a hallmark setting it apart from many other institutions, faculty and student researchers are finding innovative ways to continue their work.

Gary Kinsel, professor of chemistry and biochemistry and vice chancellor for research, said the university remains committed to fulfilling its role as a leading research institution, even during the ongoing medical emergency.

Most research done at any given time is part of a much larger project with both short and long-term goals, Kinsel said. These projects address critical issues related to health, the environment, societal needs, energy availability and more. While researchers may have to adjust their focus during this time, all of these efforts will position them to re-engage with their research as soon as this crisis is past.

Kinsel said a top priority is maintaining basic functions in labs with personnel and supplies.

Beyond this, the situation remains quite fluid, he said. We continue to receive updates from the federal government and state funding agencies with respect to budgeting of funded projects, timelines for project completion, reporting requirements, etc., and we are adapting to these changes as they are communicated to us. We are also looking to support the community and the region by reaching out to Southern Illinois Healthcare with offers of equipment, personnel and personal protective equipment supplies.

Campus-wide adjustments

The state directive to stay at home to stem the spread of COVID-19 impacts every aspect research at SIU. In some cases, the effect is straightforward. Research facilities such as the Mass Spectrometry Facility can have limited operations. Mary Kinsel, associate scientist and director of the facility, said it will accept no samples from off-campus sources, while students working toward graduate degrees there are staying at home to read the literature, analyze data, and write up results.

We also will be checking on our instruments to make sure no damage occurs during this period, Mary Kinsel said. We will try to respond to requests to analyze on-campus samples where possible, although samples requiring extensive processing and lengthy analysis times will have to wait until we return to normal operations.

In other cases, researchers are not only moving courses on online instruction, but trying to creatively solve the challenges presented in their laboratories.

Across the SIU campus, faculty researchers report varying challenges to maintaining their research projects. From ensuring an ongoing supply of laboratory items to prohibited international and even local travel, however, challenges are largely being met with creative solutions, alternative approaches and new regulations. In some cases, plain old patience and positive thinking are playing a role, too.

Extra caution in medical labs

Keith Gagnon, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the SIU School of Medicine, said his labs have been reduced to only essential functions, with the number of student researchers inside limited to no more than five at a time.

Usually, we have around 15 students in there doing work at any given time, and were very strict about enforcing all our safety rules, Gagnon said, adding that all student researchers must wear N95 respirators along with their lab coats, gloves and eye protection, as well as observe social distancing protocols. Were keeping it down to only the essentials operations and maintenance, as the chancellor said.

Gagnons research involves ALS, also known as Lou Gehrigs disease, as well as gene therapy approaches using CRISPR technology to improve its potential effectiveness and safety. To that end, Gagnon maintains several research grants from the National Institutes of Health, as well a privately sponsored research contract with a company.

Keeping work alive

One serious challenge he faces is keeping the limited quantity of special human cell lines viable during the limited operations. The cells are used to screen for potential therapies at the molecular level.

Cells are like pets: You have to feed them and change them every day, he said. Were freezing some of them, but thats a risk as you dont know if you can revive them. And some of our cell lines are derived from human patients, and you cant purchase them or otherwise obtain them again if theyre lost.

A lab that is shuttered or otherwise compromised project might also lead to losing his private research funding, which, along with the NIH grants, provides substantial support to his lab, its student workers and his research.

Recalibrating for the times

In the meantime, Gagnon is focusing his students classroom assignments on reading and writing scientific literature, which is always a major part of the process. All students, he emphasized, are not required to come to the lab, meaning the few who do come in are there by choice.

He worries what might happen if the medical emergency continues for a long period of time and is hoping funding agencies will be understanding and generous given its impact on research labs like his.

Hes also concerned about continued access to critical lab supplies.

These are the sorts of things Im worrying about. Im afraid if we sort of limp along for months and we end up having to shutter labs what might happen to all those concerns, he said. But every major research institution is in the same situation. We may have an advantage being located away from a major metropolitan area.

Travel restrictions cause issues

Across campus, anthropology Professor Roberto Barrios worries his latest anticipated trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands might be delayed or canceled by the ongoing emergency. Under contract to University of the Virgin Islands, Barrios is charged with drafting the five-year social section of the territorys Hazard Mitigation and Community Resilience Plan. Doing so requires face-to-face interviews and observations, which will guide him in formulating a plan for protection and disaster recovery that fits with the local culture and social landscape.

Along with an advanced undergraduate student, Barrios has visited the territory twice this year; once in January and once in March. Then everything changed.

Our last fieldwork visit in March was completed just as the virus was expanding to Europe, Barrios said. On the last day I was in the territory, the first case of COVID 19 was being announced on the Island of St. Croix. We were fortunate that we concluded this second round of fieldwork right before.

Protecting vulnerable populations

The virus hit as the Virgin Islands population still reels from hurricanes Irma and Maria. That, coupled with the virtual absence of a health care infrastructure there, makes the population highly vulnerable to the ravages of COVID-19, Barrios said. But the timing of their visit allowed the researcher to gather time-critical information concerning how the territory can absorb compound disasters, which are disasters that follow in close succession prior to recovery from the first.

We have dozens of hours of recorded interviews to transcribe and analyze as well as sections of the plan to draft with our current data, Barrios said. So at the present time our work is not being negatively affected, and we are using the time allowed to us through the shelter-in-place order to work on the analysis and writing we are well-positioned to conduct.

Barrios plans a third round of data-gathering this summer, although the unknown nature of the virus spread through populations is preventing specific plans at the moment. Theres also the major question of such travel inadvertently reigniting the pandemic in that area.

Our biggest concern is when the shelter-in-place restrictions will actually be lifted and to make sure we are not carriers of the virus when we return, Barrios said. We prioritize the well-being of our interview respondents above all else and we want to make sure we do not play any role in infecting the people with whom we interact.

Time will tell

Gary Kinsel said he agrees the duration of the stay-at-home orders is probably the biggest concern for researchers at SIU.

While SIU absolutely supports this order as the best approach to slow the spread of the virus, it will present ever increasing challenges to the researchers on campus as the length of time that researchers must perform their work remotely increases, he said.
Bhawanipur: A major fire broke out at South City Galaxy apartment located in Bhawanipur area of Kolkata on Monday (March 30,2020). The fire broke out at the 16th floor of the apartment. However, there is no casulaties reported in the incident.

The local residents of the place helped in evacuating the occupants of the 16th floor. None were injured in the incident.

More than 10 fire tenders were immediately rushed to the spot. The fire fighters are trying to put out the blaze and a skylift or a hydraulic ladder was deployed at the spot.

Sound of loud explosion was heard from the apartment and the fire alarm is still ringing in the apartment.

(Further details awaited)
Traders have warned suburban shopping strips could be wiped out for good unless landlords show leniency on rents for at least the next 12 months.

"It makes my mind boggle that landlords arent coming to the party. The landlord plays the most important role in the survival of the Chapel Street precinct," Melbourne's Chapel Street Precinct Association general manager Chrissie Maus said.

Traders at Chapel Street in Prahan have warned some landlords still aren't offering long-term flexibility.

On Sunday evening, Prime Minister Scott Morrison outlined a six-month moratorium on evictions for both residential and commercial tenancies where the individuals had been financially affected by coronavirus shutdowns. He urged commercial lease holders to contact landlords to "sit down, talk to each other and work this out".

However smaller operators said that advice is not straightforward because traders need to negotiate rates beyond the next six months and some landlords have been slow to negotiate even prior to the moratorium on evictions.
It could have been Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's last chance to give a proper goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II. However, they chose to break up with the monarch in the most disrespectful way.

A new report emerged online revealing that Prince Harry and Meghan cut their ties with the Queen through an e-mail.

"Shortly before they came back to London in early January, Harry contacted his grandmother and father by e-mail to tell them he and Meghan wanted out," a source told Daily Mail.

The source directly pointed out the discourteous act of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex before they dropped their bombshell announcement.

Since Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles did not want Harry to "rush into anything," they ordered him to make his request in writing and look for some ideas other than leaving.

The source added that Her Majesty and the heir to the throne understood their decision to step down as senior members of the royal family, but they did not want him to decide on his own without having second thoughts.

However, the Duke of Sussex thought that the command might be a way for the Queen and his father to keep him in the family and delay their plans. He then hastily pushed the exit button and announced their departure as senior royals.

Alhough it caused more headaches to the Queen, another source recently shared that they are trying to reconcile and iron out everything before the scheduled farewell.

"Meghan told her inner circle of friends that Harry has been communicating with Prince William and the queen on a pretty consistent basis," the insider said, proving that they are trying their best to work it out.

Meghan, The Most Impolite Royal?

In the same report, another royal insider expressed their dismay over the fact that the Duke of Sussex gave up everything and even burned his connections with every royal family member for Meghan.

Moreover, they also believed that Meghan successfully got what she always wanted.

"One of the earliest signs that Meghan was determined to do it her way occurred when the Queen invited her to Chester after her wedding in June 2018," the report by Daily Mail stated.

According to the publication, Angela Kelly, Queen Elizabeth's personal assistant, told Meghan to wear a hat since Queen Elizabeth II would be wearing one, too. In the royal protocol, it is a must for every member to follow Her Majesty's style as a sign of respect.

However, the Duchess went against the wave and attended the event bareheaded.

The alleged rudeness of Meghan towards the Queen became a recurring scene since then.

For instance, Harry and Meghan received massive backlash after they released a lengthy message on their website detailing their transition before they officially leave the monarchy in March 2020.

One of the lines read: "While there is not any jurisdiction by The Monarchy or Cabinet Office over the use of the word 'Royal' overseas, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex do not intend to use 'Sussex Royal' or any iteration of the word 'Royal' in any territory (either within the UK or otherwise) when the transition occurs Spring 2020."

The whole statement made Good Morning Britain broadcaster Piers Morgan call them out for their "staggering disrespect" to the monarch.
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The editorial board of Viet Nam News, the English-language newspaper of the official Vietnam News Agency, has announced it will suspend its daily print edition for 16 days after a reporter in Hanoi had been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

The suspension will begin on Tuesday, March 31, and last until the end of April 15, the newspaper announced in a statement posted to its website on Monday.

"The decision became imperative once one of our staff tested positive for the [novel coronavirus] yesterday," the post reads.

On Sunday, the Ministry of Health announced 14 new cases of COVID-19, including T.H., a Viet Nam News reporter.

The 43-year-old woman had conducted an interview with a former French ambassador to Vietnam on March 12. The diplomat was diagnosed with the disease on March 26.

She is the first reporter to have come down with COVID-19 in Vietnam.

"Many of those who have come into contact with her at our office will now have to stay isolated either at health centers or their homes," the statement continues.

"It has thus become impossible for us to bring to you the print, hardcopy version of [Viet Nam News]," the newspaper said in its statement, adding that readers' print subscription will be automatically transferred to the next 16 days.

The reporter in question reportedly visited the newspaper's headquarters on the tenth floor of a building at No. 79 Ly Thuong Kiet Street in Hanoi immediately after her interview with the former ambassador on March 12.

She was in contact with a number of colleagues that same day.

The building and her residence in Cau Giay District were disinfected by Hanoi authorities on March 27.

A temporary lockdown was imposed on the newspaper's headquarters at noon on Sunday and briefly lifted on the same day.

Viet Nam News is an English-language daily published by the Vietnam News Agency, the official news service of Vietnam.

Its daily print edition was first published in 1991.

Vietnam has confirmed 194 cases of COVID-19 infections to date, with 25 having fully recovered and been discharged from the hospital.

No deaths attributed to the disease have been reported in the country.

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An Oklahoma family held a special prom at home for their daughter and a foreign exchange student whos staying with them.

Tania Lebron told KOCO-TV that she and her husband, Luis, host Areg, a foreign exchange student from Armenia studying at Southmoore High School, at their home in Moore.
A Melbourne aged care worker has been diagnosed with coronavirus just days after working at a nursing home with vulnerable residents.

The Assisi Centre staff member last worked on Wednesday at the home in Rosanna, in Melbourne's north-east, ahead of developing any symptoms.

Assisi Centre in Rosanna. Credit:Wayne Hawkins

Assisi Centre chief executive Paul Cohen informed families of the diagnosis on Monday, but said health authorities had deemed the case low-risk.

"I am sorry to inform you that one of our staff, who last worked in St Claire on Wednesday March 25, has today tested positive for COVID-19. She is the first one of our staff to test positive for the virus," Mr Cohen said in a letter, supplied to Nine News and seen by The Age.
If we've learned anything as investors, it's that market sentiment can shift at the drop of a dime.

After shrugging off the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) for months in China, Wall Street came to the realization in mid-February that this was an illness that had serious health and economic implications in our own backyard. Subsequently, we witnessed the S&P 500 log 10 if its 13-biggest single-day point declines (along with its seven-largest single-session point gains) in a span of 24 sessions, beginning Feb. 24, 2020. We also watched in awe as the broad-based index shed over a third of its value in less than five weeks.

The promise and peril of dividend stocks

As stock valuations have dropped, dividend yields have begun to soar, which is both a blessing and a potential curse.

Generally speaking, dividend stocks tend to handily outperform publicly traded companies that don't pay a dividend. According to a 2013 report from J.P. Morgan Asset Management, dividend stocks that initiated and grew their payout over a 40-year period between 1972 and 2012 delivered an average annual return of 9.5%. This compares to the average annual return of just 1.6% for the typical non-dividend-paying stock over this same period. These numbers alone should rightly have investors flocking to profitable, time-tested dividend stocks during the coronavirus crash.

But there's a potential problem with this dart-throw thesis. A study from Factset Reseach Systems and Mellon Capital has also shown that the higher dividend yields rise, the riskier the investment becomes for investors. Since yield is a function of price relative to payout, a plunging stock price coupled with a struggling business model could give income seekers false hope that they're landing a cash machine when, in reality, they've just fallen for a yield trap. This makes ultra-high-yield stocks  a company that I'm arbitrarily defining as paying an 8% or higher annual yield  particularly worrisome and worthy of extra scrutiny.

However, there are three ultra-high-yield stocks that, following the COVID-19 crash, look to be bargains. Not only do I believe that investors can trust these stocks, but I suspect that buying now could make income-seekers willing to reinvest their payouts rich over the long run.

Altria Group: 9.2% dividend yield

For many investors, the idea of investing in a tobacco producer probably hasn't even crossed their mind. That's because giants like Altria Group (NYSE:MO), the U.S. company behind premium brand Marlboro, have been contending with health agencies focused on getting adults to smoke less. In the U.S., adult cigarette smoking rates are now at an all-time low. This would, presumably, bode poorly for Altria. But there's more to this story than meets the eye.

One of the selling points for Altria is the addictive nature of nicotine. Even though adult smoking rates have been on a precipitous decline in the U.S., and total cigarette shipment volume fell 7.3% in 2019, companywide sales actually grew by nearly 1%, net of excise taxes. The reason? Altria has significant pricing power on its products, especially Marlboro, which accounts for over 43% of U.S. premium tobacco market share.

Altria has also done an exceptionally good job of taking care of its shareholders. This is a company that's pretty consistently repurchased its common stock throughout the years, thereby lowering its outstanding share count and providing a lift to earnings per share. Last year, Altria repurchased 16.5 million shares for a cost of $845 million, with an expected $500 million in repurchases planned for 2020.

Investors also won't want to overlook Altria's alternative tobacco options. It made a $1.8 billion equity investment into Canadian pot stock Cronos Group last March, giving a 45% stake, and has been launching IQOS, a heated tobacco device, in various markets throughout the United States. Like its peers, Altria is hedging its future bets beyond just tobacco.

Currently yielding north of 9%, there may not be a safer ultra-high-yield stock you can buy.

Mobile TeleSystems: 11.6% dividend yield

Another stock that may not exactly be on investors radars (but should be) is Russian telecom giant Mobile TeleSystems (NYSE:MBT). Russia has one of the highest wireless saturation rates in the world, and its currency, the ruble, has proven less than stable at times. Yet, neither of these concerns supersedes the many positives that MTS, as the company is also known, brings to the table.

Perhaps the single-biggest growth driver for MTS is the upcoming infrastructure upgrades to 5G. Improving infrastructure is an ongoing process that doesn't happen overnight, but for a business that relies on high-margin data, the end result should be a considerable uptick in data usage. MTS is likely to see a multiyear technology upgrade cycle both within and outside major Russian cities, and this should lead to a resurgence in the company's wireless growth rate.

Another key driver for Mobile TeleSystems is that it has expanded its operations beyond just being a wireless company. MTS offers enterprise cloud services, satellite television, and loan services through MTS Bank. As of the end of 2019, total assets for MTS Bank grew by 18%, with a nearly 44% improvement in gross loans. For the year, net profit almost doubled for MTS Bank, albeit it still remains a small contributor relative to the wireless segment. Look for these ancillary businesses to take pressure off of Mobile TeleSystems' consistently profitable, but traditionally slower-growing wireless segment.

Currently valued at 8 times next year's forecasted earnings, according to Wall Street, and sporting an almost 12% yield, this is an overseas giant that income seekers can trust.

Valero Energy: 8.6% dividend yield

A third ultra-high-yield dividend stock that could make investors rich over the long-term is Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO), the largest independent refiner in the United States.

If you've been somewhat keeping track of the oil market in 2020, you're probably well aware of why Valero and its refining peers have been beaten down. A brewing price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia has pushed West Texas Intermediate crude down to prices per barrel that haven't been seen in about 18 years. This drop-off in crude pricing, along with a serious decline in global demand for refined products as a result of mitigation measures put in place to halt the spread of COVID-19, has sacked the entire oil industry -- upstream, midstream, and downstream.

However, things may not be as bad as they appear on the surface for Valero. While there will, undoubtedly, be some short-term drawdown in refined-product demand in the U.S. with coronavirus mitigation measures still in place in a number of major cities, other data points are positive. For instance, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows a continued drawdown in total gasoline barrels since the end of January. This is a typical cyclical pattern demonstrating that people are still driving and demanding gasoline.

What's more, refiners tend to benefit from lower crude prices. Since these are businesses that purchase crude to then process into usable products, a lower WTI price means reduced input costs. Conversely, low oil prices typically lead to increased consumer and enterprise demand. In other words, as soon as a few months from now we could see a resurgence in refined-product demand and explosive profit growth for Valero.

Don't let this unique and likely short-term crisis scare you away from this top-notch energy dividend stock.
A mother-of-four who faced the extraordinary heartbreak of her youngest son being diagnosed with cancer has used her experience to help other families struggling to cope with the stress and uncertainty of the coronavirus crisis.

Rachel Cunliffe, 42, and her husband Regan, 45, had already been brought to their knees by a horrific car accident and their five-year-old son Theo's leukaemia diagnosis in the space of a month before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic on March 11.

The New Zealand couple, who raise their four children Eli, 11, Austin, nine, Montana, seven, and brave little Theo in Kaukapakapa, northwest of Auckland, have had many difficult conversations with their little ones since the beginning of 2020.

Ms Cunliffe believes these conversations prepared her young family to cope with the challenges of coronavirus, by teaching them to accept often overpowering emotions and understand that it's okay to ask for help.

She shared everything she has learned on Facebook to help others adjust as New Zealand enters the second week of its month-long lockdown - one of the most restrictive quarantines in the world - designed to slow the spread of coronavirus.

Scroll down for video

The Cunliffe family (pictured with French students Alexis Martin and Flavie Meriaux who they are hosting at their home in Kaukapakapa on New Zealand's north island in February 2020) believe their recent challenges have prepared them for the uncertainty of life under lockdown

A MOTHER'S ADVICE FOR COPING WITH CORONAVIRUS 1. It's normal and OK to find it hard to sleep, eat, concentrate and lose short term memory in the short term. Having a daily afternoon nap or walk outside helps me. 2. The people who call or message to do regular check ins with you to see how you are doing that day are pure gold. They don't need to give you answers, just listen and show long term ongoing emotional support. Can you pick one person to do this for? 3. Ask for help. (I'm still learning.) Small or big, you will find generosity and support from the most surprising people in your life too. Call or text 1737 in NZ for mental health support, day or night. They have helped me hugely, especially after the car crash. 4. Avoid saying "I hope you're good." Or anything starting with "I hope..." When things aren't good, what do you say in response? You shut down. Nurses often start by saying "Gosh you've had it awful lately!" You can relax and say, yes I have. And then you're away talking, and things don't feel quite so bad. 5. Stop bombarding others with info. It's too much to take in when you're in trauma mode. I just can't face reading really long lists of ideas (and I love reading!). 6. Try to be kind and forgiving. Everyone in your house will have big feelings and at different times. Try not to dump on them, but to someone outside your house who can listen to your feelings and help keep you sane. Can you still find ways to help others too when things are at their worst for you? Source: Rachel Cunliffe Advertisement

Theo Cunliffe was diagnosed with leukaemia on January 9, 2020, at just five years of age

The family's life changed forever when Theo was diagnosed with leukaemia on January 9.

'It rocked our world,' Ms Cunliffe told Daily Mail Australia.

Just weeks later, on their way home from a consultation with Theo's doctor, the couple were involved in a terrifying car crash which saw them smash into a truck when it lost control of its trailer on State Highway 16.

Mr Cunliffe swerved his car to the left so the truck could 'take the side of the car as an impact point'.

'I imagine it would have been lights out of me [if I didn't move],' he told Daily Mail Australia in February.

The car was completely destroyed, but the Cunliffe's miraculously walked away unscathed.

The Cunliffe's were on their way back from an appointment with Theo's doctor when the accident occurred. Their car (pictured after the crash) was completely destroyed

Ms Cunliffe said it's important to adjust how we speak to people during these extraordinarily difficult times, using open ended questions to encourage meaningful discussion instead of using phrases that shut down the conversation.

'You have to adjust how you talk to people. Ask how their day has been or how they are feeling rather than using a catch all that doesn't need an answer,' she said.

She appreciates people who ask how her day has been instead of simply assuming it has by saying 'I hope you had a good day'.

Regan and Rachel Cunliffe and their four children (left to right) Austin, Montana, Theo and Eli had already endured an incredibly difficult year before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020

The family had already endured an incredibly challenging 2020 before New Zealand recorded its first confirmed case of coronavirus on March 3, and Ms Cunliffe believes these past struggles have inadvertently helped them to accept the 'new normal' of life under lockdown.

'We said goodbye to overseas travel straight after Theo was diagnosed and stopped going to crowded places like cinemas and restaurants because he was going to be immuno-compromised,' she said.

'We went into a similar sort of lockdown a bit earlier than the rest of the country.'



FIVE WAYS TO EASE CORONAVIRUS ANXIETY 1. Go for a walk 2. Sit with nature and take deep breaths - freshly mowed grass and sounds of the ocean send calming messages to the brain 3. Exercise hard by going for a run or riding on a bike, either indoor or outdoor. Anxiety has trouble holding on when you are getting your blood flowing. 4. Listen to music. It doesn't matter if it's a head banger or a calming song. The key is to transport yourself to a place in your head where you feel safe and happy. Music memory can do this successfully. 5. If no one in your household is contagious or been in contact with anyone, it is good to share a hug with someone you trust. If this is not possible give a friend or family member thumbs up signs, blow kisses, wink  anything that involves acknowledgement and shows that you care. Source: Dr Lorraine Corne Advertisement

Ms Cunliffe was inspired to share her advice after seeing a friend post on Facebook asking people to stop bombarding her with grim news of coronavirus.

'It's exactly what happens when you have a child diagnosed with cancer,' she said.

'People send you all these "tips" and "tricks" at the beginning which are overwhelming and not very helpful, and then the messages fade away.

'It means so much more to have friends check in on your every few days with a simple "how are you?" instead, people who stay with you for the long haul.

'We're all in it for the long haul with coronavirus together, so I think it's so important we look out for each other.'
Governor Tate Reeves offered a moment of prayer for Mississippi via Facebook on Sunday morning.

Prayer has power. On this Sunday morning, as we avoid gatherings like in-person church services, I am asking people across Mississippi to join my family in a moment of prayer for our state. Posted by Tate Reeves on Sunday, March 29, 2020

I believe in the power of prayer. I believe God is in control as the Bible teaches us. I will never hide that and invite you to join me in prayer tomorrow morning at 9:30 on FB Live.  Tate Reeves (@tatereeves) March 29, 2020

In the video, Reeves stated that he is taking the proper precautions to protect Mississippians.

He also made mention of his executive order that prevents 10 or more people from gathering together.

Copyright 2020 WLBT. All rights reserved.
Two flights with nearly 300 British nationals who were stranded in Peru due to the coronavirus pandemic were able to leave the country Sunday.

Organised by the British Foreign Office, the flights took off from a military base near the international airport in Lima.

In the days leading up to their departure, the British nationals had been staying in private homes and hotels throughout the country.

British Ambassador to Peru said on Sunday, "This today will be our third flight leaving Peru for the UK" and added that "tomorrow will have two British Airway flights flying back from Lima to London".

Peru's President Martin Vizcarra virtually shut down Peru last week, closing hotels, restaurants and the international airport, leaving thousands of international travellers and tourists stranded.

Peru currently has 852 confirmed cases and 18 recorded deaths related to the virus.

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.

The new coronavirus has caused a global pandemic that has sickened at least 720,000, killed 33,000 worldwide, crippled economies and forced restrictions on the movement of millions of people in an effort to stop the virus from spreading further and overwhelming health care systems.
Several medical schools across the US are considering early graduation for senior students to enable them to enter the healthcare system that is coming under strain and meet the growing demand for medical personnel as coronavirus cases in the country increase rapidly.

New York Universitys Grossman School of Medicine announced last week that it is planning to allow senior students to graduate early in response to New York Governor Andrew Cuomos directive to get more physicians into the health system more quickly.

A CNN report said at least 69 students at the NYU medical school want to graduate three months early to help in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

According to the report, executive vice dean at the medical school Steven B Abramson said the university asked about 122 students, who are set to graduate this year, whether they would be willing to start their internship at New York hospitals in April instead of waiting until July. Nearly 70 students have volunteered to graduate, Abramson said.

It is awe-inspiring and just says a lot about our students and their dedication to take care of people who are sick and to be part of a team of doctors taking care of these patients, he said. The report quoted Gabrielle Mayer, a 4th year medical student who is planning to join the primary care/internal medicine programme at NYUs Bellevue Hospital, as saying that it was an easy decision for her.

Knowing that we are waiting to graduate and join the workforce, that we have the skill set that seems needed and valuable right now, it was such an easy decision to join my co-residents, co-interns, the 26-year-old said.

The school is now waiting for final approval from the New York State Department of Education, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. If the approval comes through, students will be placed in internal medicine programmes or emergency rooms at NYU-affiliated hospitals in the area.

New York is the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak in the US and the medical infrastructure in the state has come under tremendous strain as the number of coronavirus cases skyrocket. The state now has more than 52,000 COVID-19 cases.

According to the CNN report, the New York University became the first medical school to consider early graduation for its senior students and now other medical schools are considering doing the same.

While the AAMC has not yet surveyed its member medical schools, the (Liaison Committee on Medical Education) has been working with several other schools that are considering or offering their students the option of graduating early, said Alison Whelan, chief medical education officer for the Association of American Medical Colleges.

In Massachusetts, all four medical schools are in discussions with the Massachusetts Health and Human Services (MHHS) to have a fast-track option. The Tufts University School of Medicine, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the Boston University School of Medicine and the Harvard Medical School are all contemplating the idea, the report quoted MHHS Secretary Marylou Sudders as saying. New York Governor Cuomo has announced three new sites -- South Beach Psychiatric Centre in Staten Island, Westchester Square in the Bronx and Health Alliance in Ulster County -- to serve as a place for emergency beds. The sites will add 695 more beds to the states capacity. Additionally, in a new approach, the state will begin designating some facilities only for COVID-19 patients. Three sites -- South Beach Psychiatric Facility in Staten Island, Westchester Square in the Bronx and SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn -- have been identified to provide over 600 beds, specifically for COVID-19 patients.

The federal government has also approved four new sites in New York for constructing temporary hospitals by the Army Corps of Engineers. These sites are at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, the Aqueduct Racetrack facility in Queens, CUNY Staten Island and the New York Expo Centre in the Bronx.

These temporary hospitals will add 4,000 beds to the states capacity. These sites are part of the Governors goal of having a 1,000-plus patient overflow facility in each New York City borough as well as in Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Last week, Cuomo had announced that more than 40,000 healthcare workers, including retirees and students, have signed up to volunteer to work as part of the states surge healthcare force during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with more expected to sign up in the coming weeks. Additionally, over 6,000 mental health professionals have signed up to provide free online mental health services
Two young beachgoers have been slammed for stepping around the barriers at a Sydney beach that was closed to stop the spread of coronavirus.

A TikTok user went to Coogee Beach in Sydney's eastern suburbs with a friend last Sunday after it was barricaded shut to stop people from flocking to the shores and infecting others with COVID-19.

Despite the closure, the teens filmed the moment they walked around the barriers while holding beach towels and uploaded the video to Tik Tok.

A mobile police command van could be seen parked behind them to warn people not to enter the beach.

A TikTok user went to Coogee Beach in Sydney's eastern suburbs with a friend last weekend (pictured)

The TikTokker told Daily Mail Australia she wasn't aware the beach would be closed that day.

'We went down to the beach but we didn't know there would be barriers,' she said.

She added that police were patrolling the area making sure people were adhering to the 1.5metre social distancing policy enforced to stop the spread of the virus.

The video drew criticism from other users who claimed it was irresponsible, but she brushed them off.

'How about no,' one user wrote.

'How about yes,' she replied.

'Part of me wishes corona was deadly to young people just to teach them a lesson,' another wrote.

'Most of the people on the beach were 40+,' the teenager replied.

A mobile police command van could be seen parked behind them to warn people not to enter the beach

The teens filmed the moment they walked around the barriers (pictured) at Coogee beach

'I don't know how you can justify doing this... It's like you want to end up like Italy,' another person wrote.

Italy has recorded more than 10,000 fatalities due to the virus. The number accounts for a third of deaths from the bug world-wide.

Hundreds continued to ignore the 1.5metre social distancing guidelines this weekend, which are designed to keep Australians safe from the highly contagious disease.

Sunbathers soak in the rays at Coogee in Sydney on March 22. The popular beach was closed along with ten others across the city

There have been 4,167 cases of COVID-19 in Australia so far. Sixteen people have died

People in Rushcutters Bay, in Sydney's eastern suburbs, and Cronulla in the Sutherland Shire, with scores of people getting together at the park, going on walks and playing group sports.

Such activities were either banned or limited to a maximum of ten people this week under new measures to help curb the spread of infection.

It promoted the NSW government on Saturday night to close a number of popular beaches 'until further notice' - including Bondi, Bronte and Palm Beach in the city's north.

Surf Life Saving, in response to the social distancing order, has also closed Maroubra, Clovelly and Gordons Bay.

Eight people in New South Wales have died from COVID-19 - half the number of deaths from the virus Australia-wide.

There were 1,918 cases across the state a of midday on Monday.
Blue and White Party Leader Benny Gantz speaks during a nomination ceremony on October 23, 2019 in Jerusalem, Israel. Amir Levy | Getty Images

Israel's leading opposition candidate, Benny Gantz, has agreed to form a unity government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ending a political deadlock that forced three elections in less than a year. The unexpected announcement sent shockwaves through Gantz's Blue and White party over the weekend, and comes after he warned former allies in the party that leading Israel into a fourth round of elections was not an option. Citing the coronavirus outbreak, he asked leaders to put "personal scores aside." On Monday, the government announced that the 70-year-old Netanyahu has gone into self-quarantine after an aide tested positive for the coronavirus. He and his close advisers will remain in quarantine until cleared by a doctor.

A 'betrayal' for much of Israel's opposition

Gantz, 60, a former general and Israel Defense Forces chief, had previously vowed he would never enter into a unity government with the rightist Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, who faces three criminal indictments on corruption charges. The move toward a coalition was seen as a betrayal by many within Blue and White, ultimately leading to an amicable disintegration into four parties and two factions. "The coronavirus pandemic appears to be accomplishing something that three elections couldn't  it's forcing Israel's deeply divided leaders to put the health and safety of the nation ahead of their own political fortunes," Israeli-American political analyst and author Joel Rosenberg told CNBC over the weekend. Under the agreement, Netanyahu will lead the country for 18 months, then allow Gantz to take over as prime minister. President Donald Trump called Netanyahu on Friday to congratulate him on the fact that a government would be formed under his premiership. Israel has reported over 4,300 coronavirus cases, including 15 deaths. The country of nearly 9 million has put partial lockdown measures in place to stem the spread of the virus.

The 'dawn of the post-Bibi era'?

Netanyahu, whose nickname is Bibi, will now serve his fifth term in office, but many have questioned if this is the end of the road. "It is possible we are seeing the dawn of the post-Bibi era," Rosenberg said. For Netanyahu allies, Gantz's announcement was a welcome one. Former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, told CNBC "the biggest victor is the state of Israel, which now has a government capable of grappling with this monumental crisis." Israel's latest elections in March left Gantz and Netanyahu in a standoff, after last year's September and April votes failed to give the country a government. While no single party has ever won an election in Israel outright, the prime minister must control at least 61 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. On Sunday, Netanyahu met with Gantz and Blue and White official Gabi Ashkenazi in an effort to establish a national emergency government to deal with the coronavirus, according to a Gantz spokesperson.
As a nurse, nothing is more heartbreaking than providing the best care possible to a terminally ill patient but watching them die with intolerable suffering.

That is why I support An Act Concerning Aid in Dying for Terminally Ill Patients (HB 5420). This compassionate legislation would allow terminally ill patients to have the option to request prescription medication they can decide to take if their suffering becomes unbearable, so they can die peacefully in their sleep, at home, surrounded by loved ones.

This bill is modeled after the nations first medical aid-in-dying law that took effect in Oregon in 1997. In addition to Oregon, Washington, D.C., and eight other states representing more than one-fifth (22 percent) of our nations population have authorized medical aid in dying: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, Vermont, and Washington State.

Contrary to claims by opponents, there is not one documented case of abuse, coercion or misuse involving this end-of-life care option in the combined 40-plus years of experience with it in these 10 jurisdictions.

There are more than a dozen safeguards in these laws and the Connecticut aid-in-dying bill.

Safeguards include requiring the terminally ill person to be mentally capable of making their own medical decisions and physically capable of self-ingesting the medication. These safeguards prevent people with advanced dementia from using this end-of-life care option, as well as people with severe disabilities who are unable to self-ingest the medication.

A Journal of Medical Ethics report about Oregons medical aid-in-dying law confirms that these safeguards work: Rates of assisted dying in Oregon...showed no evidence of heightened risk for the elderly, women, the uninsured...people with low educational status, the poor, the physically disabled or chronically ill, minors, people with psychiatric illnesses including depression, or racial or ethnic minorities, compared with background populations.

In addition, a New England Journal of Medicine research article concluded: there are no substantial cost savings for medical aid in dying. There is a simple explanation: 90 percent of terminally ill patients who utilize medical aid in dying in Oregon are enrolled in relatively inexpensive hospice care covered by Medicare and Medicaid.

The Connecticut legislation complies with the Center for Disease Control and Preventions requirements for how medical professionals should code death certificates. The CDC defines the cause of death as the underlying reason the person died or the disease or injury that initiated events resulting in death. If the cause of death were listed as ingesting aid-in-dying medication, instead of the underlying terminal illness, like cancer or ALS, it would distort vital statistics about what diseases cause death and adversely affect public health policy decision making. Doctors are free to note on the death certificate that the aid-in-dying medication was one of the events leading up to the persons death, just not the underlying cause.

Contrary to opponents claims, there is absolutely no evidence that medical aid in dying impacts suicide rates. If you compare the suicide ranking of states between 2005 and 2017, you will see that nearly every state that passed laws authorizing medical aid in dying dropped in the rankings after they passed them. Experience also demonstrates that authorizing medical aid in dying actually prevents suicides among the terminally ill because when empowered at the end of life, and offered a gentle option, people arent forced to take their lives by violent means, afraid and alone, to end their suffering.

All of this evidence helps explain why last year both the American Nurses Association (ANA) and Connecticut State Medical Society (CSMS) dropped their opposition to medical aid in dying. The new ANA policy states: Nursesmust remain objective when discussing end-of-life options with patients who are exploring medical aid in dying. The new CSMS policy states: The CSMS is committed to protecting its members freedom to decide what medical aid-in-dying options to provide to patients in accordance with each physicians personally held values, beliefs a nd ethical standards.

Perhaps most importantly, state polls show Connecticut voters want the option of medical aid- in-dying by a 2-1 margin, including a majority regardless of party affiliation, age, gender or whether they live with a disability or not .

After debating medical aid-in-dying legislation for seven years, it is time for our lawmakers to pass it.

Shannon Sanford is a registered nurse in Seymour. She has a masters degree as an oncology clinical nurse specialist from the Yale School of Nursing.
A 70-year-old man is the first confirmed case of COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus, in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas authorities said Monday.

READ MORE: Laredo officials confirm three additional COVID-19 cases, totaling 35 in the Gateway City

He had just returned from a trip to New York, according to state officials. He remains at the ISSSTE hospital.

A state spokesperson said the patient underwent two tests, one on Thursday and the other one on Saturday. He underwent the second testing because the results were not conclusive.

The Tamaulipas State Government said that the state has a total of eight confirmed cases of coronavirus while seven others are suspected. Of the seven, none are in Nuevo Laredo.

The count was official as of 10:30 a.m. on Monday.

Among the other municipalities that have confirmed cases are Ciudad Madero and Matamoros with two apiece while Altamira, Reynosa and Victoria all have one. Reynosa has five suspected cases while Mante and Victoria both have one.

There has been one death  a 55-year-old woman from Reynosa who had frequently traveled to both Arlington and Houston.

In a release Monday, Tamaulipas Secretary of Health Gloria Molina Gamboa told the population to remain under isolation for two more weeks to prevent more from being infected.

READ MORE: 70-year-old woman is first Laredo coronavirus death recorded

Gamboa added that the next 14 days would be key to stop transmission of the disease.
Led by LJI scientist Erica Ollmann Saphire, the global effort will streamline and accelerate the development of effective treatments for COVID-19

LA JOLLA, CA--La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) has been awarded a $1.73 million grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish a Coronavirus Immunotherapy Consortium (CoVIC) as part of the foundation's global efforts to stem the tide of the current coronavirus outbreak, the Institute announced today. Antibody therapies are often the first novel therapies advanced for an emerging infectious disease.

Headquartered at LJI, CoVIC will serve as a clearinghouse to understand which antibodies are most effective against the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and to accelerate the research pipeline to provide immunotherapeutics in order to protect vulnerable individuals from severe manifestations of COVID-19 in all parts of the world including low-resource settings.

This effort is being funded as part of the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator launched in early March by the Gates Foundation, Wellcome and Mastercard. The Accelerator provides fast and flexible funding at key stages of the development process to de-risk the pathway for drugs and biologics to prevent and treat COVID-19.

The effort is led by Erica Ollmann Saphire, Ph.D., a professor in LJI's Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, who draws on her broad research experience guiding the development of antibody drugs and galvanizing a global research coalition that helped define which therapeutic antibodies effectively combat disease in humans infected with Ebola virus.

"Antibody therapies represent the most rapid novel therapeutic path forward for emerging viruses such as SARS CoV-2," says Saphire. "Potent antibody treatments can protect frontline health care workers, contacts, and others who are likely to have been exposed."

Antibody-based immunotherapies can also treat those who have already become sick, lessening disease and improving survival. The most potent antibodies will provide crucial insights to help guide the development of vaccines to stop the current outbreak and protect against future pandemics.

Unlike your everyday, common-cold-causing coronavirus, every few years a new variant of coronavirus emerges that ravages the body's organs and the new disease--dubbed COVID-19 by the World Health Organization--is no exception in its most severe manifestation.

The new coronavirus strain is genetically closely related to SARS-CoV, and therefore has been named SARS-CoV-2. For most patients, SARS-CoV-2 causes flu-like symptoms that start out with a fever and cough that progresses to pneumonia. But in the most severe cases, immune cells flood the lungs trying to clear away the damage and repair lung tissue. Normally, this process is highly regulated but when the immune system spirals out of control, healthy tissue is attacked causing even more damage, which can result in respiratory failure highlighting the urgent need for therapeutics that can treat critically ill patients.

CoVIC is an academic-industry, non-profit collaborative research effort that will bring together scientists from around the world and enable them to share and evaluate candidate antibodies side-by-side in a blinded, multidisciplinary analysis. Together, they will identify ideal therapeutic combinations, the assays that best predict efficacy, and the features that provide protection.

Speaking to the extraordinary speed at which this massive effort is coming together, Stephen Wilson, PhD, and LJI Chief Operating Officer stated, "In real time, the Gates Foundation has enabled the Institute to quickly shift research priorities, mobilize the tremendous expertise and resources available at the institute and, through collaboration, have a global impact."

The consortium's database will be housed at LJI and run by Alessandro Sette, Dr. Biol.Sci., and Bjoern Peters, Ph.D., who are both professors in LJI's Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research and who have almost two decades of experience running the Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resource (IEDB). The IEDB gives biomedical researchers worldwide free access to a rapidly growing catalogue of epitopes--the specific, molecular structures that the immune system uses to tell friend from foe--involved in autoimmunity, infectious and allergic diseases, as well as organ and tissue transplantation.

Vaccine immunologist Shane Crotty, Ph.D., also a professor in the Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, will coordinate complementary vaccine efforts with ongoing work on therapeutic antibodies. Crotty's work has been instrumental in spurring a shift from the trial-and-error approach that has dominated the field of vaccine development in the past and has paved the way for the rational design of immune-based treatments.

###

Please visit CoVIC.lji.org for more information after the embargo lifts.

About La Jolla Institute for Immunology

La Jolla Institute for Immunology is dedicated to understanding the intricacies and power of the immune system so that we may apply that knowledge to promote human health and prevent a wide range of diseases. Since its founding in 1988 as an independent, nonprofit research organization, the Institute has made numerous advances leading towards its goal: life without disease.
More than 60,000 people including migrant labourers, tourists and pilgrims from other states are stuck in Uttarakhand due to the lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus, officials said.

The majority of them are labourers and most are stranded in the border districts of Haridwar and US Nagar that house the main industrial hubs of the Himalayan state, said officials.

In Haridwar district over 5,000 labourers from neighbouring states and states hill districts are stranded while in US Nagar there are at least 50,000 labourers from other states as well it sown hill districts are stuck.

Follow coronavirus live updates here.

District information officer of Haridwar, Archana (who used only her first name) said the administration was taking care of at least 5,000 labourers stranded there.

These labourers are mainly from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar as well as from the hilly districts of our state who work here in various industrial units. As the government has stopped all inter-state and intra-state transport, they are staying here only with their food and other arrangements being made by the district administration, she said.

According to the Haridwar district administration, apart from the labourers, there are at least one thousand tourists and pilgrims from other states who are stuck in the district.

Seema Nautiyal, district tourism officer Haridwar said, As per our information, there are a total 153 foreign tourists and 1,001 domestic tourists and pilgrims stranded in Haridwar. Due to the lockdown, they are staying at their present accommodations only. We are making all possible efforts to help these stranded tourists and pilgrims by providing them with food and other arrangements as required.

The other major bordering district of US Nagar is the one where there are a maximum number of labourers stranded - at least 50,000, said officials.

We hardly have any tourist but maximum labourers from other states and hilly areas here. There are about 80,000 to 1 lakh labourers who work here. Many have already left for their native places while some are still here whom we are providing food, said Prashant Singh, assistant labour commissioner, US Nagar.

Many labourers working at different places had left for their native places in neighbouring states and districts on foot after the lockdown was announced. Apart from this many pilgrims and tourists were also sent to their home states including some Gujarati pilgrims from Haridwar in buses arranged by the government.

State cabinet minister and government spokesperson, Madan Kaushik said, We are ensuring every possible help to the stranded people. The government is providing food to at least 15,000 tourists and pilgrims who are stranded here.

Kaushik said, As there is no movement of any buses and trains due to lockdown, they are staying at their present accommodations mostly. Government is making all possible efforts to help them.

Earlier on Monday, Kaushik visited the 24-hour Covid1-19 control room in the Police Lines in Dehradun. During his visit, he spoke to the authorities and lauded their efforts. Seven people have so far tested positive for coronavirus in Uttarakhand.

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FIGHTING COVID-19 IN CUBA, CHINA, AND THE UNITED STATES

Governments, according to Thomas Jefferson, are supposed to guarantee peoples rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. COVID-19 has put peoples lives and health in the spotlight now. What kinds of tools do governments have at their disposal to protect lives and health?

Cuba has the advantages of forward-looking leadership, well-orchestrated state planning, and long-time prioritisation of health care. Additionally, government leaders elevate scientific and technological training. Theyve established research capabilities, used results to advance health care, and marketed bio-medical products on a worldwide basis. The Cuban people and leaders know about disaster planning, as demonstrated by preparations prior to hurricanes hitting the island. Likewise, planning and putting the public good first have enabled Cubans to cope with the disaster of a sixty-year-long economic blockade set up to make them suffer.

A survey of Cuban media reports suggests that Cubas government and people are prepared to handle COVID-19s visit to the island. At this point, only seven people there have been identified as infected with COVID-19, all having recently arrived from abroad. Here we highlight Cubas assistance to China, where the epidemic mushroomed first and most dangerously, so far.

Cuban President Fidel Castro in 1965 pushed for the development of the National Center for Scientific Research. The centre attracted medical graduates aspiring to scientific careers and spawned a succession of other biomedical research institutes. Castro in 1981 learned about research in Texas on interferon, a new drug that showed promise in treating certain types of cancer and also viral infections. Two Cuban researchers soon were studying interferon in Houston. Within months, six more had gone to Finland, where interferon had been developed, to learn about production methods.

In a short time, the Cubans were manufacturing the drug, treating patients, and marketing interferon abroad. The ChangHeber company, a Chinese-Cuban joint venture for which Cuba provides scientific support, has been producing interferon and other drug products since 2007. As the COVID-19 epidemic progressed in China, Cubas government made special administrative arrangements and sent experts to China so that ChangHeber might be able to serve Chinas needs.

Unfortunately, the effectiveness of drug therapy, interferon included, in treating severely ill patients infected with COVID-19, a new illness, has yet to be scientifically validated. Even so, for Cuba to lend a hand to desperately ill people in China represents another in a series of heroic undertakings Cuba has carried out in the name of human solidarity. And Cuba once more has displayed dedication to science as an essential human resource.

China has its own strengths, as mentioned in laudatory editorial comment appearing in the prestigious British medical journal Lancet. One learns that in many countries health ministers are scrambling [...]. By striking contrast, the WHO-China joint mission report calls Chinas vigorous public health measures toward this new coronavirus probably the most ambitious, agile and aggressive disease containment effort in history [...]. Chinas success rests largely with a strong administrative system that it can mobilise in times of threat, combined with the ready agreement of the Chinese people to obey stringent public health procedures. [...] [T]here are important lessons that presidents and prime ministers can learn from Chinas experience.

The United States is not so lucky. Planning ahead to serve human needs is not a strong point for the US government. Dealing with the present crisis, the government seems to regard science as an afterthought. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the face of public health in the United States and locus of epidemiologic overview, had lost government funding prior to the pandemic. (The word epidemiology, taken from the Greek, literally says study of what is upon the people; the what signifies disease.)

Testifying on 11th March before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, CDC director Robert Redfield, MD, betrayed a casual attitude toward science. A scientist himself, the former US Army officer had made several important early contributions to the scientific understanding of HIV.

First-term Democratic Congressman Harley Rouda from California, one of the seven who overturned Republicans in their districts, asked him this: So, we could have people in the United States dying for what appears to be influenza, when in fact it could be the coronavirus or COVID-19?

Redfield replied that Some cases have been actually diagnosed that way in the United States to date. The revelation passed without further questioning. The US media paid no attention. News services in China pounced on the statement.

Epidemiologists ought to have been interested in the timing of the epidemics onset in the United States. Vagueness on the matter, as suggested by Redfields testimony, betrays a remarkable lack of scientific curiosity.

What the public knows is that the first case of imported coronavirus showed up on 21st January. The first cases of possible community-acquired coronavirus appeared on 26th February. On 14th February, the CDC indicated persons with influenza-like symptoms would be tested for COVID-19 in various US cities. The results of any testing werent made public, although Redfields testimony may allude to them.

The possibility even emerges, if some Chinese reports are to be entertained, that US people were being infected in January, not long after Chinese authorities on 31st December, 2019, informed the World Health Organisation of an outbreak of a new form of coronavirus infection. Suspicion prevails in China, especially on social media, that the epidemic may have manifested first in someplace other than China.

US public health authorities so far seem uncurious about other information possibly contributing to a scientific understanding of the disease origins. They are silent, for example, on the presence of 280 US athletes and assistants in Wuhan, China, from Oct. 18-27, 2019. That was six weeks or so before people in that city fell ill to COVID-19 infection. Wuhan had hosted 9,308 athletes from 100 countries who were participating in the Military World Games.

Additionally, public health epidemiologists have shown no sign of curiosity about the findings of a Taiwanese virologist who focused on the multiplicity of COVID-19 strains in the United States. He noted that, by contrast, a single strain of the virus prevails in other countries. Citing an example pointing to the significance of the discrepancy, the expert observed that the single strain of the virus active in Taiwan prevailed only in Australia and the United States. Australians did not carry the infection to Taiwan. Infection in Taiwan, therefore, traces back to the United States, he suggests.

The pandemic has provided, in effect, a laboratory-like demonstration of what is known: That people do better when states can plan ahead, apply national resources unequivocally to the public good, put science in the service of the people, and practice international solidarity. These are characteristics of socialist societies.

People do less well, as in the United States, when their health and welfare are subjected to the greed of moneyed interests, and when science is sold to the highest bidder.

Peoples World
The toilet paper shortage has wreaked havoc on sewage systems as people flush wet wipes, paper towels and old clothes down the toilet.

Coronavirus panic buying has stripped many essential items from supermarket shelves around the country - especially toilet paper, which has become near impossible to find.

The shortage has caused people to turn to alternatives in the bathroom which have caused pipes to clog and form fatbergs, creating major headaches for plumbers and utilities.

A shortage of toilet paper is causing people to use alternatives in the bathroom, which is clogging drains and sewage systems around the country

WHAT YOU SHOULD NOT FLUSH DOWN THE TOILET: - Wet wipes or baby wipes - Cotton buds - Contraceptive devices like condoms - Nappies - Feminine hygiene products like tampons or sanitary pads - Medication or needles Source: Unitywater Advertisement

Rhett Duncan from Queensland water and sewage service Unitywater said a lack of toilet paper is forcing people to take desperate measures.

'We've heard people are using all sorts of things in these desperate times  old clothes is one of those, newspapers, and wet wipes and paper towel,' he told ABC.

Some wet wipes brands on their packaging say they can be flushed down the toilet, however they are the cause of a huge portion of the blocked drains seen by plumbers around the country.

Scott Moorhead from Townsville Water said the number of residential blockages due to wipes is increasing and could become an expensive fix for residents.

'In a normal year, it's costing us $2 million but in the last month or so, it has been a rapid increase,' Mr Moorhead said.

Toilet paper is mass produced in Australia, but panic buying forced big supermarket chains including Woolworths, Aldi and Coles to impose a limit on rolls for customers.

Rolls in supermarkets have begun to slowly replenish as panic buying has started to die down, with Mr Duncan giving advice to those using alternatives to toilet paper.

'If it's not toilet paper, it doesn't belong in the toilet,' he said. 'Don't flush it. Bag it. Bin it.'
On a recent afternoon inside the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, Gov. Andrew Cuomo inspected a bulwark in his self-declared war on the coronavirus. Two major generals and a colonel flanked Cuomo as he approached a lectern in his field khakis and a polo shirt. More than 150 pallets worth of critical medical supplies had been assembled. A squad of soldiers from the National Guard stood by. Millions tuned in to watch the live briefing.

Persuading President Donald Trump to dispatch the Army Corps of Engineers to build four new temporary hospitals in the massive Manhattan convention center had not been easy, but it was now underway. You do what you have to do, Cuomo said. That's the New York way. That's the American way. Meanwhile, #PresidentCuomo was trending on Twitter.

Cuomo returned to Javits the following day with another message for Trump: The situation is dire, and people will die without more supplies from the federal government. You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators?" Cuomo asked. "What are we going to do with 400 ventilators when we need 30,000 ventilators?" Trump, he said, faced two choices: Force private industry to make them, or tap the federal governments emergency stockpiles. The president says its a war, Cuomo said. Well, then act like its a war.

There are no bombs or bullets flying, but with the death toll from the coronavirus rising, the three-term governor is certainly following his own advice. A state helicopter transports him around the state by day. He issues executive orders by night. And every midday he plays comforter in chief to the masses, his daily briefings a modern-day update on President Franklin Delano Roosevelts famous fireside chats.

The president says its a war. Well, then act like its a war.

This is a war, Cuomo said in mid-March. It's a long-term war. He has hammered home the dire need for more supplies, drawing an analogy between the missiles produced during World War II and the ventilators badly needed for additional intensive care units. We have to make those missiles, we have to make those ventilators, get them made, and that's what the president's talking about, Cuomo said. But the question is, how will we manage it now? How will we operationalize and mobilize, and that's why the federal government is going to be key.

Last week, Cuomo invoked World War II again, this time seeking to reassure his fellow Americans. They talk about the greatest generation, the generation that survived World War II, he said. Dealing with hardship actually makes you stronger. Life on the individual level, on the collective level, on the social level. Life is not about avoiding challenges. ... And then life becomes about overcoming those challenges. That's what life is about. And that's what this country is about."

The governor, who has exhorted retired nurses to enlist, has also likened health care workers to troops on the front lines. Can you imagine the nurses who leave their homes in the morning, who kiss their children goodbye, go to a hospital, put on gowns, deal with people who have the coronavirus? Cuomo asked. They're thinking all day long, oh, my God, I hope I don't get this. Oh, my God, I hope I don't get this and bring it home to my children. You want to talk about extraordinary individuals  extraordinary."

Famous as a micromanager with a domineering command over state politics, Cuomo in recent weeks has wrangled emergency power from the state Legislature, prodded Trump into authorizing the state to expand its testing for the virus and secured some federal help in boosting the capacity of a health care system straining to meet rising demand. And while COVID-19 cases are expected to hit a peak in coming days, Cuomo is simultaneously waging battles on other fronts  finalizing a state budget with a multibillion-dollar shortfall that is growing by the day, and seeking to cushion the blow to New Yorkers hammered by a severe economic crisis.

We have to make those missiles, we have to make those ventilators.

In some ways, this is all a well-trodden path for Cuomo, who has performed the political choreography of managing crises  floods, blizzards, hurricanes, terrorist attacks, Ebola  throughout his time in state and federal government. Only this time, the stakes are far higher and the spotlight is much brighter. And so far, taking on the trappings of a military leader seems to be working. While two of his chief political rivals, Trump and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, spent weeks trying to downplay the threat of the deadly virus, Cuomo has won widespread praise for his forceful response.

Prevailing in a life and death struggle is hard enough, but doing it in a way that translates into political success is not easy. If theres anything to all those #PresidentCuomo and #CuomoForPresident tweets, it could make him a formidable early frontrunner for the White House in another four or eight years (or, as some suggest, even sooner). WAMC radio host Alan Chartock asked Cuomo last week if his longtime denials of interest were Shermanesque. Would he not run if nominated, nor serve if elected? I'm not going to run for president, Cuomo replied. I don't want to be vice president. I want to be the best governor I can be and I want to make a meaningful difference in this state. Thats my ambition.

A number of military generals or war heroes  including George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt (who was elected New York governor after charging up San Juan Hill) and Dwight D. Eisenhower  went on to become president. For every Eisenhower and Grant, however, there are many more Douglas MacArthurs, George McClellans, John Fremonts and Wesley Clarks whose political ambitions fell short.

Closer to home, the careers of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie highlight how a major crisis can make a politician a national figure overnight. Like Cuomo, neither one was actually a military leader. Both men enjoyed immense popularity, but squandered it with a lack of effective follow-up, according to Bruce Gyory, an adjunct professor of political science at the University at Albany. You cant coast on being Americas mayor from 9/11 or Americas governor from Sandy and then not follow up on other things, Gyory said. The Bridgegate scandal doomed Christie, while Giulianis 2008 presidential bid fizzled and his questionable maneuvers on behalf of Trump left his public reputation in shambles.

While Cuomo has long had an affinity for FDR, another analogy can be drawn to Roosevelts predecessor, Herbert Hoover. A trained engineer, Hoover first found fame as the head of a successful food program that saved nine million Europeans from starvation during World War I. "He scolded, threatened, and out-bullied every human obstacle," one contemporary wrote of his efforts. Presidential chatter followed. Hoover is certainly a wonder, Roosevelt himself wrote in 1920. I wish I could make him President of the United States. There could not be a better one." Twelve years later, in the midst of the Great Depression, people were throwing tomatoes at Hoover, and Roosevelt won the presidency in a landslide. A lot can change in politics, especially when the stock market crashes and millions of lives are in danger.

As for FDR, there are some parallels between the crisis that he faced in the early days of the Great Depression when he was still governor of New York and what Cuomo confronts today. The economy sputtered. Unemployment shot up. The incumbent president struggled to inspire confidence across the political spectrum. Cuomo is not waging a war in the literal sense. Aside from the limited involvement of the National Guard and the U.S. military, he is mostly leaning on the state government to get things done  just like FDR nearly a century ago.

Cuomo is also not the first politician to stretch the meaning of the word war. The appeal of a martial response is obvious. The pandemic is an emergency threatening the lives of millions of people in New York and across the country. Injecting some rhetorical urgency can make the difference between things getting done, or not. Words matter, Cuomo said while describing the battle on the homefront in mid-March. Were fighting the virus and were fighting fear and panic, he said on the Today Show. But wars are hard to win. Just ask Lyndon B. Johnson, who lost his wars against poverty and communists alike.

Unlike many past leaders, Cuomo has stated an achievable aim in his war against the virus. Slowing the rate of infections has been a key tactic, a point Cuomo makes repeatedly. Throughout his first month as a wartime governor, that message has increasingly won Cuomo more national exposure at what appears to be a crucial moment in American history.

The economy is tanking. Many Americans have hunkered down in their homes in fear of a deadly virus. Trumps reelection is in doubt. The presumptive Democratic nominee  former Vice President Joe Biden  has largely dropped out of the public eye, while Cuomo is popping up on national television multiple times a day. All the while, even his critics agree that the notoriously relentless governor has not changed much. As he told his brother, Chris Cuomo, on CNN on a recent night, Im doing what I do, and I've been doing it the same way.
: The Hindustan Aeronautics



Limited has pledged Rs 20 crore from its CSR fund to the Prime Ministers Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund.

In addition, the Bengaluru-headquartered defence PSUs employees have pledged their one day salary amounting to Rs. 6.25 crore.

"This is a small step from HAL in supporting the Governments ongoing efforts in the fight against the novel Corona virus pandemic, HAL CMD R Madhavan, said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
South Korea's election watchdog said Monday it has decided to stop the absentee ballot process for next month's general election for citizens living in more countries and territories due to the coronavirus pandemic. The National Election Commission said the process will be suspended at 41 more diplomatic missions around the globe, meaning eligible South Korean voters cannot cast absentee ballots for the April 15 elections. The decision will raise the number of affected missions to 65 in 40 countries, including the United States. The number of affected voters is estimated at 80,500, which accounts for 47 percent of eligible overseas voters. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
A 23-year-old man was arrested for coughing on a police officer after saying he was infected with the coronavirus.

The deputy from the Martin County Sheriff's Office was assaulted after pulling over Christian Perez on Sunday for reckless driving.

Perez, who was allegedly driving under the influence, was provided a protective mask after claiming he had tested positive for COVID-19.

He then removed it during the exchange and started coughing on the cop.

Christian Perez was arrested Sunday in Florida for coughing on a police officer after claiming he had the coronavirus

Perez was apprehended for driving without a license, threatening a public servant and assaulting a law enforcement officer.

According to the Miami Herald, Perez was being held on a $26,000 bond as of Monday.

'We have zero tolerance for this despicable behavior, and anyone who threatens the health and lives of my deputies will face the maximum charges,' Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said.

The state of Florida had 63 deaths and 5,472 positive coronavirus cases as of Monday.

A large number of police officers across the United States have been tested positive after being exposed to the deadly virus while out in public as part of their job.

The United States Department of Justice issued a statement last Wednesday, announcing terror charges would be brought up against anyone targeting 'specific individuals or the general public, to the purposeful exposure of others' because it considers the coronavirus to be a 'biological agent.'

'Threats or attempts to use COVID-19 as a weapon against Americans will not be tolerated,' Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said.
Much of the focus in coming days will be on federal court, where three lawsuits pertaining to the election were consolidated into one over the weekend. The state and national Democratic parties are seeking to expand absentee voting; groups that work to mobilize voters want to delay the election; and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin and others want to allow people to be able to vote absentee without a witness.
Accordingly, the CBE has set new limits for cash deposits and withdrawals from banks and ATM machines.

Ahram Online provides answers to clients FAQs.



Q: What are the new daily limits for cash deposits and withdrawals?



A: EGP 10,000 for individuals and EGP 50,000 for enterprises, except for entrepreneurs withdrawals for their due disbursements.



Q: What are the new daily limits for cash deposits and withdrawals carried out through ATM machines?



A: EGP 5,000.



Q: Why has the CBE taken these moves?



A: - To avoid overcrowding in branches and before ATM machines, particularly during payroll and pension disbursement.



- To implement health procedures and maintain a safe distance to help contain coronavirus.



- To urge clients to rely on electronic payment methods and banking transfers instead of cash, especially that fees on electronic transactions have been halted for six months.



Q: Which transactions are exempted from the new procedures?



A: - Government deposits for electricity, natural gas, water, and oil bills with a commitment to daily deposit limits.



- Public and private sector enterprises.



- Cheques submitted to the CBEs set-off.



- Cheques worth more than EGP 10,000 will be cashed with EGP 10,000 and the rest over several days. An option to open a new account for the client or to transfer the rest of the sum to the clients account in other banks without fees is possible.



- Credit card dues and attached liabilities, including letters of credit.



Q: For how long will the new limits be applied?



A: The CBE said the new limits are provisional, and will be applied for at least 15 more days.



Q: What are the current working hours of banks?



A: Banks open for clients from 9.30 am to 1.30 pm. For employees, the working hours extend from 9 am to 2 pm.



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A coronavirus jab could be ready for health workers and the most vulnerable by January next year, the British doctor overseeing the international hunt for a vaccine has said.

Dr Melanie Saville, from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), said a vaccine could be rolled out under an 'emergency protocol' before it has been officially licensed for use.

She said there would need to be a 'prioritisation for those who need it most' which would likely see NHS workers and those most vulnerable getting it first.

Dr Melanie Saville, from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), said a coronavirus vaccine could be ready by January

However she told the Daily Mail that British citizens in isolation would 'remain vulnerable' until a vaccine is developed.

The Oslo-based CEPI is funding eight Covid-19 vaccine trials across the world. It has just received 210million in UK foreign aid money  making Britain the world's largest donor.

Last night, major US healthcare firm Johnson & Johnson announced that it had a potential vaccine that could be available for emergency use in early 2021.

But it is still behind Boston based biotech firm Moderna, funded by CEPI, which began human testing earlier this month.

Another potential vaccine is being developed at the University of Oxford.

Dr Saville said: 'Normally vaccine development can take maybe ten years, maybe 20 years. What we are trying to do is reduce that to a 12-18 month time frame.'

She said the vaccine could be available to some as soon as January.

Boston based biotech firm Moderna, funded by CEPI, began human testing earlier this month

'If all were to go well, we could anticipate there should be a vaccine that could be used more widely, at least under some kind of emergency authorisation process', she said.

Such a process would see vaccines that have had clinical trials and are deemed safe by scientists rolled out before they have been officially approved for use.

Dr Saville said the World Health Organisation and international organisation Gavi, which receives 300million in UK aid a year, will play a critical role in determining which countries need it first and who exactly.

The objective is to get millions of doses ready but crucially that will still leave billions waiting.

She added: 'At the beginning it takes a while to make the very large doses of vaccines that are needed.

A vaccine could be rolled out under an 'emergency protocol' before it has been officially licensed for use

'That is why there really does need to be a prioritisation for those who need it most, with a view that the capacity will be developed so that it will be very widely available.'

This could be health care workers 'who obviously it is very important to keep them healthy and safe', or other vulnerable groups, she said.

Asked if there was a danger of rolling out the vaccines before they have been officially approved, Dr Saville said: 'Always safety is paramount with vaccines so it is always important to make sure you are following volunteers in clinical trials carefully.'

She said lockdown and social distancing measures were important so the NHS has the capacity to 'blunt the curve in terms of the number of cases'.

She said: 'That actually buys time for the vaccine developers, so all of the people in isolation are going to remain vulnerable.'
By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum has published a new publication to mark its 50th anniversary.

The publication hihghlights the museum`s history and its collections, including pile and pileless rugs, fabrics, clothes, embroidery, jewelry, metal art, ceramics, wood, glass and others.

Separate chapters are devoted to the exhibitions, international relations, as well as Shusha branch, which, temporarily functions in the museum`s main building in Baku.

The publication provides art lovers with useful information from stunning photographs to archival documents.

Each chapter is prepared by leading art historians and specialists in this field. The book is translated into Azerbaijani, English and Russian.

For more information, please visit the museum`s official website:

Unique Azerbaijani carpets are well-known all over the world for their quality and high artistic value.

The Land of Fire has seven carpet producing regions including Baku, Shirvan, Guba, Tabriz, Karabakh, Ganja and Gazakh and each of them has their own technology, typical patterns and colors.

Founded in 1967, Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum displays some of the best examples of the carpet weaving art.

The museum, initiated by Latif Karimov, an outstanding scientist and carpet weaver is beautiful inside and out. The new building of the Carpet Museum, designed in the form of a rolled carpet, opened in the Baku Seaside Park in 2014 and all carpets were transferred to this museum.

Today the museum hosts many events, such as exhibitions, international symposiums, and conferences.

In 2019, the museum received the national status for its significant contribution in popularization and promotion of the Azerbaijani Carpet Weaving Art.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Lauren Laverne and Greg James will take part in the mass singalong (PA Wire/PA)

Five radio stations across the BBC network will come together for a live singalong to lift the nations spirits as people remain at home in these challenging times.

BBC Radio 1, Radio 2, 6 Music, 1 Xtra and the Asian Network will join forces for the BBCs Great British Singalong on Thursday at 9am in a multi-way simulcast.

Each station will contribute one song that listeners can join in with, the BBC said.

Join us on @BBCR1, @1Xtra, @BBCRadio2, @BBC6Music and @bbcasiannetwork for the biggest singalong the radio has ever seen!



Listen live from 9am on Thursday on BBC Sounds.



More information: https://t.co/5AFFXehwXT pic.twitter.com/6vSIqXsCg7  BBC Sounds (@BBCSounds) March 30, 2020

Radio 1 Breakfast Show host Greg James will lead the effort on his show, with Dermot OLeary, who is covering for Zoe Ball, on Radio 2.

Lauren Laverne will be on 6 Music, Dotty will be on 1Xtra and Harpz Kaur will be on the Asian Network.

Listeners can make suggestions for the singalong, but the presenters  who will be broadcasting from their own, separate studios due to the rules around social distancing in the coronavirus pandemic  will have the final choice.

James said: Nothing brings people together quite like radio does. Its been a great comfort for me to have a focus during this extraordinary time.

Im so glad the listeners find what were currently doing a useful distraction as well.

He added that he cant wait to annoy all the 6 Music listeners with my choice.

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OLeary told listeners to warm up their vocal cords, and Laverne said: Im so glad that as radio presenters we can continue to unite and entertain listeners during such a challenging time and what better way to bring people together than a singalong?

Dotty added: Few things bring us together in the way that music does so I hope the national singalong can play some small part in reinforcing that real sense of community that has and will continue to carry us through the most difficult of times.

I look forward to lifting the nations spirits with these shared anthems on Thursday.

Greg James, Dermot OLeary, Lauren Laverne, Dotty and Harpz Kaur will take part in the Great British Singalong on Thursday (BBC)

Kaur said that she is so excited to be teaming up with the rest of the stations to play some massive tunes out on Thursday morning.

Im 100% going to be singing my heart out in the studio and I cant wait to see which five tracks we end up with.

The controller for BBC Popular Music Lorna Clarke said: In these challenging times, we know that many people have been turning to radio as a lifeline.

The live broadcasts from our amazing presenters are providing people with a sense of community and some much-needed escapism at a time where many of us are feeling distant from our loved ones. Well be keeping that spirit up on Thursday morning as all our pop music stations come together in what is sure to be a very special moment.

Listeners will be able to join in on Thursday by tuning in to any of the five stations at 9am on the radio or on BBC Sounds, and also by using the hashtag #UKSingalong on social media.
The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) this week rushed to publication a special article describing critical points for combatting the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic for older adults and those in long-term care.

The article offers a summary of current information and evidence, noting the imperative for understanding and acting upon the "ABCDs" of the COVID-19 crisis:

How to foster awareness of key clinical differences for older adults.

How to initiate quick, appropriate behaviors to manage infections, particularly in long-term care.

How to begin COVID-19 containment and maximize preventive interventions (especially in long-term care)

How to empower healthcare leaders, policymakers, and government agencies to make decisions that address rapid access and results of testing and treatment, as well as the costs and societal impacts of the pandemic.

"All aspects of life have changed dramatically for now," note the authors: Heather D'Adamo, MD; Thomas Yoshikawa, MD; and Joseph G. Ouslander, MD. "The groups most susceptible to COVID-19 are older adults and those with chronic underlying chronic medical disorders...In this article, we provide information, insights, and recommended approaches to COVID-19 in the long-term facility setting."

The article is available to all for free at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jgs.16445. Researchers, clinicians, and the public can also track COVID-19-related research published in JAGS by visiting https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/doSearch?AllField=COVID-19&SeriesKey=15325415.

JAGS also is soliciting articles related to COVID-19 for rapid review and publication. These articles, which can be anything from reflections to original research, can be submitted by visiting https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15325415.

###

About the American Geriatrics Society

Founded in 1942, the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) is a nationwide, not-for-profit society of geriatrics healthcare professionals that has--for 75 years--worked to improve the health, independence, and quality of life of older people. Its nearly 6,000 members include geriatricians, geriatric nurses, social workers, family practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, and internists. The Society provides leadership to healthcare professionals, policymakers, and the public by implementing and advocating for programs in patient care, research, professional and public education, and public policy. For more information, visit AmericanGeriatrics.org.

About the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Included in more than 9,000 library collections around the world, the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) highlights emerging insights on principles of aging, approaches to older patients, geriatric syndromes, geriatric psychiatry, and geriatric diseases and disorders. First published in 1953, JAGS is now one of the oldest and most impactful publications on gerontology and geriatrics, according to ISI Journal Citation Reports. Visit https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15325415 for more details.
More than a quarter of a million people have received the Covid-19 emergency unemployment payment.

The Department of Social Protection said by close of business on Friday, payments were issued to 283,000 people.

It said these payments are in addition to the 201,000 people in receipt of standard jobseeker payments as of Friday  an increase of 19,000 on the figure at the end of February.

Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty told RTE radio the 350 euro per week payment will provide much-needed immediate assistance to workers who have lost their jobs.

The department has received 323,000 individual requests for supports from people who have lost their jobs in just 14 days.

Over 283,000 #COVID19 related unemployment payments are being made this week, 90%.

15,000 applications were deemed ineligible for a variety of reasons, for e.g. because individuals were not fully unemployed, under 18 years of age or not previously employed.  MerrionStreet.ie (@merrionstreet) March 30, 2020

Ms Doherty said she is expecting a rise in applications for the new wage subsidy scheme, after further coronavirus restrictions were announced on Friday.

Some 16,000 companies have signed up for the scheme so far.

The scheme will refund employers up to a maximum of 410 euro for each qualifying employee  the equivalent of 500 euro per week before tax.

A Department spokesman said the level of payments reflects the unprecedented demand for the departments income supports over the past two weeks.

Some payments were withheld for various reasons, with approximately 15,000 not meeting eligibility criteria  ie, if they were not previously in employment, under 18 years of age or were still in employment.

A further 8,700 had invalid Personal Public Service (PPS) numbers and 6,600 had invalid International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs).

The department is working very hard to resolve any issues, such as invalid IBANs or PPS numbers, with legitimate applications and is contacting the people concerned directly over the next few days.

[snippet1]987600[/snippet1]
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About 15 years ago, I spent a few weeks at a small community hospital in Zambia, helping to staff the primary care clinic and attend some of the rounds on the small inpatient units there. The inpatient pediatrics unit was full of young children suffering from malaria or measles, often both. One particularly stark evening, a young couple walked in with an infant wrapped in a scarf carried softly on her mothers back. They stumbled into the hospital waiting room and gently unwrapped their baby who couldnt have been more than two weeks old. They had walked for three days from a remote village when the baby first fell ill. She was burning with fever, severely dehydrated, and barely breathing. The hospital staff quickly started an IV and gave her some medication, but it was clear she was deteriorating rapidly. There was no ventilator, so we gently started to bag her while the pediatric head attending, and I began to discuss her care. With a ventilator and appropriate intensive care support, this baby would have a chance.

Here in this small village in an understaffed and under-equipped hospital, her chances were close to hopeless. I wasnt ready to accept that and spent the night and the better part of the next day bagging her, refilling her IV fluids, and hoping for change. Her parents sat quietly at her side, stroking her cheek, and periodically holding her tiny hand. The nuns who ran the hospital spoke with me several times and finally came to me late in the day and told me this type of thing happens all the time. It was time to let her go. I put down the bag and placed my hand on the mothers shoulder. She sagged with defeat and wrapped her body around her daughter while her husband stood solemnly at her side. I had never felt more defeated and helpless and went to seek comfort from my colleague and friend.

How can we bear it? I asked him. This happens all the time? Why do we come here?

He paused before he responded. Yes, it happens all the time. But part of our job here is to bear witness to what is happening. That is important; it has meaning and significance. Someone should know.

Years later, I helped to start a residency to train residents to care for underserved populations in low resourced settings. Their inpatient rotations were at a disproportionate share hospital with limited access to state of the art equipment, technology, and personnel in a historically oppressed and underserved community. Every year we recruited students who were committed to this type of medicine and came to us energized and passionate to implement social justice and systemic change. Inevitably, about 2-3 months into residency, every intern found themselves in my office, shaken, defeated, and hopeless. What they were witnessing were patients traditionally ignored by a broken system, suffering, and dying from illnesses that were a direct result of a lack of access to appropriate resources. Existing in a society that has the best technology and the best treatment for most illnesses but not having the option to access those resources can be unfathomably demoralizing.

In those moments, what I found myself repeating to those residents was what my friend had told me years before. What is happening here will happen whether you are here or not. Your first job is to bear witness. That has meaning, and it has significance. We do what we can do. Take care of them, look at the system, advocate for change.

When I first heard about medical schools fast-tracking graduation for students and shifting young residents into high need areas to fight the pandemic of COVID-19, I thought of how panicked those students and residents must feel. Asking them to step in to fight a battle we dont know how to win, and envisioning them witnessing the suffering and death of multiple people due to lack of resources and a broken system is terrifying. Asking them to risk their own safety and that of their families due to a paucity of protective equipment is beyond the pale. My more experienced colleagues whisper to each other that we too are afraid of serving on the front lines, but inevitably someone says, I guess this is what we signed up for. The truth is none of us signed up for this.

As medical professionals, we do sign up for quite a bit of sacrifice. We work long hours, miss holidays and family gatherings, miss meals, and sleep while we sit with people at their most vulnerable, their most exposed. It can be an incredible honor and an incredible burden to bear. So maybe it doesnt seem to be such a stretch to ask us to sacrifice our safety in the name of our jobs. I think what gives most of us pause is not our own safety but the risk we will then bring home to our families. How can we be asked to choose the lives of strangers over the ones that we love when their only risky choice was in choosing to love us?

In my area, we are expecting a surge of cases any day, and I have been asked to step in if needed to staff sections of the hospital. Without hesitation (well, maybe a little hesitation), I have agreed to serve in whatever capacity I can. But when residents, students, and colleagues have reached out, I have told them that there is absolutely no shame in choosing to say no. What is happening is unprecedented in our lifetime, and the lack of resources to protect our patients and ourselves is astounding and frankly, reprehensible. Our national leadership has failed us at every level, and no one could possibly fault someone for choosing not to step into the line of fire. But if they do choose to serve and undoubtedly find themselves in those moments of feeling defeated, helpless, and hopeless, I have told them to remember what I told them those first few months of residency. Our first job, when faced with the reality of our broken system, is to bear witness and to tell the story of what we have seen. There is meaning and there is significance in that. Then we do what we can, look at the system, advocate for change.

Deborah Edberg is a family physician.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
Hungarys parliament endorsed a bill on Monday giving nationalist premier Viktor Orban the sweeping new powers he says he needs to fight the new coronavirus pandemic.

Critics at home and abroad have condemned the anti-coronavirus defence law, saying it gives Orban unnecessary and unlimited power and is a means of cementing his position rather than battling the virus.

After declaring a state of emergency on March 11, the new law gives Orban the power to indefinitely rule by decree until the government decides the emergency is over.

It removes the current requirement for MPs to approve any extensions to decrees. Elections cannot be held either during the emergency period.-

It also introduces jail terms of up to five years for anyone spreading falsehoods about the virus or the measures against it, stoking worries for press freedom.

The measures come into effect as of midnight on Monday.

The parliament, where Orbans Fidesz party enjoys a dominant two-thirds majority, passed the bill by 137 votes to 53.

At the end of the emergency, all powers will be fully restored to parliament, said Orban after the vote, dismissing opposition fears of a long-running period of rule-by-decree.

The vote marked another controversial milestone in Orbans fractious decade in power.

Since the self-styled illiberal nationalist won power in 2010, he has transformed Hungarys political, judicial and constitutional landscape.

The 56-year-old has frequently clashed with European institutions, NGOs and rights groups, with Brussels suing Hungary for breaching EU values  charges fiercely denied by Budapest.

The EUs Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said Monday the European Commission evaluates the emergency measures taken by Member States with regard to fundamental rights.

This was particularly the case for the law passed today, he added.

Among the international bodies expressing concern over the bill before it became law were the UN human rights office, the Council of Europe, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Orban has given short shrift to criticism of the coronavirus law, accusing critics of alarmism and telling European nit-pickers to let Hungary defend itself against COVID-19.

 Imaginary demons 

Justice Minister Judit Varga told foreign reporters last week that the constitutional court could provide oversight, while parliament could revoke the decrees at any time.

The opposition were fighting imaginary demons and not dealing with reality, she said.

A government spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs said Monday that the decrees were also time-limited by the pandemic itself, which hopefully ends one day.

Last week, opposition MPs warned they did not trust Orban not to abuse indefinitely granted special powers. They refused to support fast-tracking the bill without time deadlines.

Many cited a so-called state of crisis caused by mass migration that Orbans ruling Fidesz party declared in 2016 and which remains in place, despite migration numbers to Hungary having fallen sharply since then.

 Principles of democracy 

Akos Hadhazy, an independent MP, told AFP that Orban did not need any extraordinary empowerment as his party already controlled parliament. Instead, he said, the ruling party had set a trap for the opposition.

Pro-government media had accused the opposition of encouraging the virus by rejecting the bill.

Beyond further increasing his power, Orbans goal was to present a bill that cannot be supported by opposition MPs, so that they can be blamed throughout the emergency for not supporting the government in times of crisis, said Andras Biro-Nagy, an analyst at the Budapest-based Policy Solutions think-tank.

National unity is not Orbans way of doing politics, he told AFP.

The fiercely anti-immigration Orban has blamed migration for bringing the virus to Hungary, saying primarily foreigners brought in the disease.

The first two confirmed coronavirus cases in the EU member state of 10 million were Iranian students.

Hungary has since reported a total of 447 cases with 15 deaths. More than 13,300 tests have been carried out, the government said Monday.

The press and non-governmental organisations now have a particularly important role to play in controlling the government, said a statement after the vote by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee refugee rights group.

SOURCE: AFP
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday wrote letters to chief ministers of Delhi and 17 other states urging them to help the people of Uttar Pradesh staying in their respective states as they are unable to return home due to the nationwide lockdown.

The Delhi government, as well as governments of other states, should take care of food, health, shelter and other necessities of the migrants from UP living in their respective states, he wrote in the letters.

In turn, Yogi assured the CMs that people of their states in UP will be taken proper care of. The Uttar Pradesh government will provide them all assistance, including basic facilities and proper healthcare, Yogi assured in the letter.

Delhi and the other 17 states are presumed to have a good number of migrants from UP.

A state government spokesperson said the chief minister also visited Noida on Monday to review the situation in Gautam Buddha Nagar district where the maximum number of Covid-19 positive cases-31 has been reported till Sunday. He held a meeting with the district administration and health officers to assess the arrangement in the hospitals and measures taken to check the spread of the disease.

In the evening, the CM also visited the control room established by UP government in Delhi to review the measures being taken to provide assistance to migrants from UP living in the city.

The exodus of thousands of migrant workers from Delhi on Saturday led to a nationwide outrage, forcing the union ministry of home affairs to issue an order directing the states to implement the lockdown order strictly.

The exodus also led to a political slugfest between Uttar Pradesh and Delhi governments. AAP leaders, including deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and Raghav Chadha, blamed the UP government for the exodus. The UP CMs advisor Mritunjay Kumar countered the attack by blaming the Delhi government and AAP leaders for exodus of the migrants.

In the letter to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and other chief ministers, Yogi said the Uttar Pradesh government has appointed senior administrative and police officers in all the states to assist the migrants during the lockdown. The officers will coordinate with the state government for basic needs, health and security of the migrants from UP staying there, he said.

Yogi also drew the attention of the chief ministers toward the spread of coronavirus in various countries.

To intensify the fight against the virus, the UP government has taken several measures and the state government machinery is working with full devotion and commitment. The state government has constituted 11 committees of senior officers to implement government orders. The grievances of people are being disposed of through the chief ministers helpline and control rooms established in all the 75 districts, he said.

A state government spokesperson said the chief minister also appealed to the people of UP residing in other states to stay where they are during the lockdown. The state government will make adequate arrangements for their food, shelter and security. The movement of people will defeat the purpose of the lockdown and might spread the disease as well, he said.

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President, Leadership New Mexico

Leadership New Mexico is proud to introduce its Core Class of 2020: 41 leaders from 18 communities and a broad range of businesses and experiences.

The class is passionate about a common goal: to improve our state with well-informed and committed leaders. In this edition of the Business Outlook, the 24th Core Class shares their thoughts on leadership, the future of our state, and their Leadership New Mexico program experience.

Leadership New Mexico was founded in 1995 by a small group that strongly believed that New Mexicos future depends in large part upon the quality of leadership at all levels and all parts of the state. The result was the creation of a nonpartisan, statewide organization dedicated to development of well-informed leaders.

In the subsequent 24 years, Leadership New Mexico has provided more than 1,750 business, community and government leaders with valuable insights and nonpartisan perspectives on New Mexicos opportunities and challenges.

Leadership New Mexicos four programs  the Core Program, the Local Government Leadership Program, the Connect New Mexico Program and the Alumni Program  create a network of leaders and expands their knowledge of New Mexicos key issues, inspiring them to contribute to positive change in New Mexico. Issues addressed include education, health and human services, environment, water and natural resources, economic development, New Mexico state, local and tribal governments, crime and the judicial system, as well as leadership development.

The Core Program was established in 1996 for senior level leaders. The program consists of six sessions, each in a different community and region of New Mexico over the course of 10 months.

Each session features presentations by respected experts in their fields who generously donate their time to share their knowledge and experiences.

The Local Government Leadership Program created in 2003 is for municipal and county officials, school board members, New Mexico National Guard members and regional councils of government. The program is a partnership with New Mexico Counties, the New Mexico Municipal League and the New Mexico School Board Association. The program provides knowledge needed to effectively and ethically undertake local government responsibilities. It meets for two 2-day sessions.

Connect New Mexico, the Next Generation of Leadership Program that was introduced in 2007, is tailored to the needs of young professionals ages 25 to 40. The program combines elements of the Core Program and Local Government Leadership Program to develop participants leadership skills as well as a greater understanding of New Mexicos systems, strengths and challenges.

The Alumni Program launched in 2001 has steadily grown and evolved. Through Alumni or Lifetime Membership, graduates from all three Leadership New Mexico programs can continue their professional development and statewide networking through social and educational events across the state. In addition to the Alumni Program tour of the Spaceport in February, the program will host other events throughout the year including a tour of the Trinity Site at White Sands Missile Range, the Fall Leadership Update, and a Lifetime Member Balloon Fiesta Mass Ascension Breakfast.

The enduring value that Leadership New Mexico delivers to participants beyond their program experience is reflected in the organizations tremendous graduate involvement. Without the many active Leadership New Mexico graduates who donate their time to assist with programs and events, Leadership New Mexico would not be the unique organization it is today.

Further, over 260 graduates and others have become Lifetime members with a one-time gift to Leadership New Mexicos Endowment. Lifetime members receive additional benefits such as a networking breakfast at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

While the focus and content of each Leadership New Mexico program differs, the organizations primary goal remains constant: to improve our state with well-informed leaders. Graduates return to their businesses and communities to share their new knowledge and insights.

They also become part of a statewide network of informed and dedicated leaders that put their insights to action. Our graduates have a profound impact on the state and are building a stronger future for all of us through their leadership.

Patty Komko is a co-founder of Leadership New Mexico. She and Steve Griego are both lifetime members.
Army Major General Timothy E. Gowen was appointed as the 30th Adjutant General of Maryland effective, September 1, 2019.

As I write these words, the soldiers and airmen of the Maryland National Guard are on the front lines of our response to the coronavirus pandemic. They're risking their health--and perhaps their lives--to fight an enemy they can't see or hear, and against which the weapons they might otherwise carry into battle are useless.

They do this willingly, even eagerly, because service to the community, state, and nation is what they volunteered to do, and COVID-19 is perhaps the greatest single threat our country faces today.

Working with the Maryland Department of Health to support screening and testing clinics and the City of Baltimore to operate food and school lunch distributions, they are seeing, up close and personal, the needs of our own communities.

But one thing they will not see is a paycheck from the federal government. Despite the "U.S. Army" and "U.S. Air Force" emblazoned on the front of their uniforms, the federal government has thus far declined to authorize activation of Guard members under Title 32 of the United States Code, except in California, New York, and Washington.

What that means is that the brave men and women in the other 51 U.S. states and territories are responding to COVID-19 in a status known as "state active duty." This means they are not eligible for a host of federal protections, including protection from employment discrimination resulting from their service and--most significantly, given the nature of the emergency--military medical care.

Also critical is the disparity in pay scales among the states, which is often lower than Title-32 military pay. A double whammy, considering even Title-32 pay is often lower than what Guardsmen earn on the civilian jobs or small businesses they left to answer the call to duty.

For the public, it means a critical funding mechanism for ensuring a robust, continuing response from their National Guard is going unused. Title-32 funds have already been allocated to the states for the purpose of training our National Guard members during weekend drills, annual training, and military schools. These funds are literally available right now.

Although states will be reimbursed for emergency expenses thanks to the President's emergency declaration, this process is neither automatic nor speedy. That means that state funds, which might otherwise be available for other purposes--such as economic stimulus after the crisis has passed--will be tied up for the 18 months or so it normally takes the federal government to process state claims.

As of today, every state and territory has activated its National Guard to support COVID-19 emergency response operations, with the majority of these troops serving on state active duty. Over the past two weeks, governors, through the National Governors Association, have expressed to President Trump the need for states' National Guard to operate under Title 32 authority.

Our governors are not asking the President to "activate" or "mobilize" the National Guard. They are merely asking for authority to use federal funds that have already been provided to the states.

The National Guard provides the best military response for emergencies like the one we face today. We are neighbors helping neighbors. The communities we serve in are the ones in which we live. We have the long-established relationships with the local and state agencies we are supporting that are essential to a rapid, effective response to the crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented challenge to our nation, but as we have witnessed time and time again, the National Guard, serving under the command and control of their respective governors, can save lives and speed recovery. To that end, it is critical for the President and Secretary of Defense to authorize use of the National Guard under Title 32 without delay.

-- The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration.
RAPID CITY, S.D., March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Black Hills Corp. (BKH) today announced that members of its senior management team will visit with equity investors March 30 and March 31 during the virtually- hosted Mizuho Energy Summit 2020. The materials produced for these meetings will be available on the Black Hills Corp. website at www.blackhillscorp.com under the Investor Relations section prior to the meetings. In preparation for the equity investor meetings, Black Hills is providing a business update regarding its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and related impacts on the companys business.



The company is continuing to execute its business continuity plan and has implemented a comprehensive set of actions for the health and safety of its customers, employees, business partners and the communities it serves. Black Hills is committed to providing safe and reliable service during the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, the company has not experienced significant issues in the operations and delivery of energy to its 1.3 million customers.

Our hearts go out to all those impacted by COVID-19 and we are doing our part to reduce the transmission of the virus, said Linn Evans, president and CEO of Black Hills Corp. Our employee team has responded admirably to the challenges posed by the ongoing pandemic as they keep themselves, customers, business partners and communities safe. We continue to safely deliver the essential energy services that are the backbone of our local economies.

For the first quarter, Black Hills is not expecting significant impacts to utility sales volumes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company continues to closely monitor loads, particularly in states that have implemented more restrictive stay-at-home executive orders or recommendations.

The company is monitoring supply chains, lead times for key materials and large capital projects. To date, supply chains are operating with limited impact to availability of supplies and materials, and capital projects are ongoing without material disruption to schedules. Contingency plans for potentially rescheduling projects are ongoing due to the impacts of COVID-19.

Story continues

Black Hills continues to maintain adequate liquidity to operate its businesses and fund its capital program. The company has shifted short-term funding from its commercial paper program to its $750 million revolving credit facility to take advantage of better pricing. The company has no material upcoming debt maturities until late 2023, and as of March 27 has $455 million of liquidity which includes cash and available capacity on its revolving credit facility. The company continues to monitor the capital markets and intends to issue at least $300 million of long-term debt this year to help fund the companys currently disclosed capital investment program.

Black Hills is reminding customers facing financial hardship due to COVID-19 that there are various assistance options and programs available to help them. Customers can visit www.blackhillsenergy.com for more information.

Recognizing the fluid nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, Black Hills is continually monitoring its business, supply chains, government actions and funding needs and will adjust as necessary to safely and effectively serve customers and communities and keep employees safe and well.

Black Hills Corporation

Black Hills Corp. (BKH) is a customer-focused, growth-oriented utility company with a tradition of improving life with energy and a vision to be the energy partner of choice. Based in Rapid City, South Dakota, the company serves 1.28 million natural gas and electric utility customers in eight states: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.

Investor Relations

Jerome E. Nichols

605-721-1171

jerome.nichols@blackhillscorp.com

24-Hour Media Relations Line

888-242-3969

Caution Regarding Forward Looking Statement

This news release includes forward-looking statements as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. We make these forward-looking statements in reliance on the safe harbor protections provided under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this news release that address activities, events or developments that we expect, believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future are forward looking statements. This includes our expectations about the timing and completion of our financing plans, continuity of supply chain, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions which we believe are reasonable based on current expectations and projections about future events and industry conditions and trends affecting our business. However, whether actual results and developments will conform to our expectations and predictions is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that, among other things, could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, the risk factors described in Item 1A of Part I of our 2019 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC, and other reports that we file with the SEC from time to time.

New factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in forward looking statements emerge from time-to-time, and it is not possible for us to predict all such factors, or the extent to which any such factor or combination of factors may cause actual results to differ from those contained in any forward-looking statement. We assume no obligation to update publicly any such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
As the coronavirus rages across the United States, mainly in large urban areas, more than a third of U.S. counties have yet to report a single positive test result for COVID-19 infections, an analysis by The Associated Press shows.

Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University shows that 1,297 counties have no confirmed cases of COVID-19 out of 3,142 counties nationwide.

'They'll be later to get the infection, they'll be later to have their epidemics,' Christine K. Johnson, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Davis warned.

'But I don't think they're going to be protected because there's nowhere in the U.S. that's isolated', she added.

The number of counties without a positive coronavirus case has declined rapidly, dropping from over half as the AP was preparing to publish.

Of the counties without positive tests, 85 per cent are in rural areas - from predominantly white communities in Appalachia and the Great Plains to majority Hispanic and Native American stretches of the American Southwest - that generally have less everyday contact between people that can help transmit the virus.

At the same time, counties with zero positive tests for COVID-19 have a higher median age and higher proportion of people older than 60 - the most vulnerable to severe effects of the virus - and far fewer intensive care beds should they fall sick.

Median household income is lower, too, potentially limiting health care options.

Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University shows that as of Monday morning 1,297 counties have no confirmed cases of COVID-19 out of 3,142 counties nationwide

Cattle rancher Joe Whitesell rides his horse in a field near Dufur, Oregon, as he helps a friend herd cattle. Tiny towns tucked into Oregon's windswept plains and cattle ranches miles from anywhere in South Dakota might not have had a single case of the new coronavirus yet, but their residents fear the spread of the disease to areas with scarce medical resources

The demographics of these counties hold major implications as the Trump administration develops guidelines to rate counties by risk of the virus spreading, empowering local officials to revise social distancing orders that have sent much of the U.S. economy into free fall.

President Donald Trump on Sunday extended the country's voluntary national shutdown for a month, significantly changing his tone on the coronavirus pandemic.

Experts in infectious disease see an opportunity in slowing the spread of coronavirus in remote areas of the country that benefit from 'natural' social distancing and isolation, if initial cases are detected and quarantined aggressively.

That can buy rural health care networks time to provide robust care and reduce mortality.

But they also worry that sporadic testing for coronavirus could be masking outbreaks that - left unattended - might overwhelm rural health networks.

New York City remains the epicenter of the nation's outbreak.

But several other cities including Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Boston are now being monitored as potential hotspots, threatening to push the overall case count in the US higher and higher.

'Every metro area should assume that they will have an outbreak equivalent to New York,' Dr Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus response coordinator, told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday morning.

Counties that have zero confirmed COVID-19 cases could raise a red flag about inadequate testing, Professor Johnson said.

'I hope the zeros are really zeros - I worry that theyre not doing enough testing in those regions because theyre not thinking theyre at risk,' she said.

In New Mexico, a state with two million residents spanning an area the size of Italy, Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has moved aggressively to contain the coronavirus' spread with a statewide school shutdown and prohibition on most gatherings of over five people.

Nearly half of the state's 33 counties are free of any positive coronavirus cases.

New Mexico is among the top five states in coronavirus testing per capita, though some virus-free counties aren't yet equipped with specialized testing sites beyond samplings by a handful of doctor offices.

Torrance County Manager Wayne Johnson said plans are being made for the first three dedicated COVID-19 testing sites in the high-desert county of 15,000 residents that spans an area three times the size of Rhode Island.

A statewide stay-at-home order is keeping many residents from commuting to jobs in adjacent Bernalillo County, the epicenter of the states COVID-19 infections, with 93 confirmed cases out of a state government tally of 208 as of Saturday night.

'We dont have any test sites open, and part of that is that we dont have any needs for the test yet,' Johnson said. Still, Johnson said he worries that an outbreak could overwhelm the county's sole medical clinic and an all-volunteer corps of emergency medical technicians.

The states first of two coronavirus-related deaths occurred March 22 within a southern oil-producing region in Eddy County, where two other positive tests have surfaced.

A man in his late-70s died shortly after arriving at a hospital in Artesia, and tested positive postmortem. He had previously visited two health clinics, and at the hospital five staff were quarantined for possible exposure even though they wore face masks.

State Deputy Epidemiologist Chad Smelser said health officials have continued to painstakingly retrace the steps of infected patients and notify people who came into contact with them. There are dozens of connections per infection on average.

'We know the details of his prior visits in the health care system,' Smelser said of the deceased Eddy County patient. 'We've worked with those physicians to assess their exposure. And we do not believe that he acquired it in the health care setting.'

State health officials say it is unclear how many people have been tested for coronavirus in each county.

Medical experts say uneven testing patterns across the country make it difficult to gauge whether remote areas are really better off.

'Its a fundamental unknown,' said Benjamin Neuman, a virologist at Texas A&M University in Texarkana. 'I think there is some truth to that notion that there are lower infection rates out there' in rural areas.

He said he fears for homeless populations and undocumented migrants.

We hope they stay safe. Those would be hard places to get rid of the coronavirus, Neuman said.

Complaints that testing is not readily available extend to the crossroads town of Crossett in southern Arkansas, where surrounding Ashley County has no confirmed coronavirus cases.

Disabled veteran Marty Zollman, 42, of Crossett says his wife, a clothing store clerk, and teenage daughter sought coronavirus testing this week for fever and flu-like symptoms at a local health clinic and were turned away.

'We might be contagious, but no one will test her,' Zollman said of his wife, Janet, who was awaiting surgery for breast cancer. 'They keep turning her down. They dont have a source of testing.'

He lashed out at Trump for indicating that testing is readily available. 'Now its time for me to call his bluff. If hes got the equipment ... hes got to provide it,' Zollman said.

Mike Johnston, a clerk at the Maupin Market in tiny Maupin, Oregon, wipes down the ice cream case to protect customers from the new coronavirus

In New Mexico, along the southernmost finger of the Rocky Mountains, Mora Valley Community Health Services and a companion agency attend to elderly patients living in extreme poverty in Mora County, where there have been no confirmed COVID-19 infections and few if any people tested.

With a population of 4,500 that is more than 80 per cent Latino, the county is among the economically poorest in the nation. Average combined household income is $27,000.

'There's elderly out there that have dementia, who don't have a family ... who eat out of cans,' said Julian Barela, CEO of Community Health Services, which ordinarily provides a steady stream of Medicaid and Medicare patients with health, dental and behavior health services.

Under new state directives, the clinic has scuttled all non-emergency appointments - most of its caseload - to comply with a measure designed to conserve dwindling supplies of protective gear such as masks, gloves and gowns for health care workers, Barela said. The clinic has yet to see a patient with telltale symptoms of coronavirus worth testing.

Barela said it has been alarming to turn away patients who feel they need attention as new federal grant money arrives.

'We don't have an emergency backlog, it doesn't seem reasonable that we're just shut down,' he said. 'We should not operate the same as New York. There is no reason for it.'
By Trend

The United States Government is providing $1.1 million assistance to Georgia to combat COVID-19 pandemic, Trend reports citing Georgian media.

The US Department of State announced that the United States has provided nearly $139 million as health assistance to Georgia, and the total US assistance to the country in the past 20 years has exceeded $3.6 billion.

Earlier, US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan praised the Georgian government for its proactive steps to contain the spread of COVID-19.

As of today, a total of 18 individuals have recovered from the new coronavirus in Georgia out of the 91 confirmed cases.

On March 21, Georgia declared a state of emergency until April 21 to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths expressed concern over the recent escalation on the ground in Yemen stressing that all parties to the conflict need to concentrate on averting the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) from spreading, United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a press briefing on Monday

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th March, 2020) UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths expressed concern over the recent escalation on the ground in Yemen stressing that all parties to the conflict need to concentrate on averting the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) from spreading, United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a press briefing on Monday.

"Our special envoy Martin Griffiths said that he was alarmed by the continued escalation on the ground and aerial activities in Yemen, particularly, in and around Marib governorate and the attack against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia claimed by Ansar Allah [the Houthi movement]," Dujarric said. "He recalled that Yemen needs its leaders to focus every minute of their time on averting and mitigating the potentially disastrous consequences of a COVID-19 outbreak.

"

Dujarric also said Griffiths reiterated UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' humanitarian ceasefire in order to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Sunday, the Houthis claimed they were behind a series of rocket and drone attacks on the Saudi capital Riyadh as well as what they called "sensitive" military and economic targets on three border cities. Saudi Arabia retaliated by attacking Yemen's stronghold of Sanaa.

Houthis said the strikes were in response to earlier airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition on Sanaa and areas close to the northern Yemeni border.
Barclays, one of the biggest lenders in Europe to the fossil fuel industry, on Monday set itself a target to reach "net zero" for its own carbon emissions and the activities it finances by 2050. The British bank's action follows pressure from a group of investors, coordinated by campaign group ShareAction, which in January filed a resolution urging it to phase out fossil fuel lending.
NORWALK  As the city continues to have the most coronavirus cases in the state, the mayor on Monday praised local businesses for following his new protocols on social distancing.

According to data released from the state, Norwalk has 271 cases, followed by Danbury with 218 cases. There were 45 new cases reported in Norwalk as of Monday.

Westport, which previously led the state in the highest number of cases following an outbreak at a large house party, now has 115 cases with only one new case since Sunday.

Norwalk officials said they will share additional case data each day showing the total cases and age ranges of those with the illness.

According to recent data, the bulk of the Norwalk cases have been in people in their 30s and 50s.

On Friday, Norwalk became the municipality with the most cases in the state with 105 reported cases. Over the weekend, these numbers skyrocketed by 60 percent, prompting Rilling to close all city parks and beaches to vehicular traffic and reduce store capacities. Rilling also sent out a message to residents telling them to stay home unless going to the store and encouraged only one person per household to do the necessary shopping.

I was pleased to see local businesses implementing additional physical distancing protocols (Monday). These measures will go a long way in helping slow down the spread of coronavirus, Rilling said. I know that my emergency orders have upset some residents. I wish I didnt have to take such drastic measures, but the health and safety of our entire community is my top priority. We are all in this together, and as our data shows, this virus does not discriminate based on age. Everyone one of us can be at risk, and we all have to do our part.

The latest data from the state shows theres now 2,571 positive cases of COVID-19 in Connecticut and 517 people hospitalized. There are 1,445 cases in Fairfield County.

Norwalk has lost five residents so far to COVID-19, including former city clerk Mary Roman.

erin.kayata@hearstmediact.com
First Minister briefing: There is evidence that the disease is moving east to west across the United Kingdom

This article is old - Published: Monday, Mar 30th, 2020

The First Minister Mark Drakeford has given some insight to how the coronavirus spread is thought to be taking place, with a hotspot being identified possibly due to more testing taking place in that area.

The full briefing video can be found below which contains the full information given out today.

The First Minister has explained why geographic breakdown of coronavirus related figures is not taking place in Wales.

Mr Drakeford was asked the question in the now regular Welsh Government daily briefings, and was asked if death related data would again be released more specifically.

The First Minister said, I think the answer will lie in the numbers, because the numbers in Wales are still relatively low. If you share them out between all seven health boards, it becomes relatively possible to identify those individuals by name and circumstance. The reason were not doing that is in order to protect the privacy of those individuals and their families.

If we do get to a point where the number of deaths that we are announcing moves beyond the point where at a local health board level it will be possible to do that, we will revisit the way in which we are announcing things. But, because the numbers are where they currently are, were not announcing them at a disaggregated level in Wales, in order to protect the privacy of individuals and families had such a difficult time.

The First Minister was also asked about testing, and told the public that NHS staff were being tested, Since the 18th of March over 1000 tests of NHS staff in Wales have now been carried out. Many of those people are then released back to the frontline, because the point of concentrating on those staff is that we didnt want to people self isolating in circumstances where they werent affected by the disease.

Im not aware that we published figures that break down the thousand into people who hadnt didnt have the virus, but what I am confident about is that that approach has succeeded in doing what we wanted to do, to make sure that people who dont have coronavirus arent staying at home unnecessarily by testing those people. Theyre back in the front line and doing the vital work we need them to do.

Antibody testing will be used soon in Wales with the immediate focus again being for frontline NHS staff. The First Minister explained, Its a blood test and it will let people know whether they have already had the disease, and whether they have immunity to future attacks. Our intention is to introduce the antibody test in the same way as we have introduced the existing antigen test. In other words, as supplies of that new test become available, the first call for it will be frontline NHS staff because again, we want to make sure that as many of those are able to carry on in work as possible.

We will then extend it inside the NHS and outreach to social workers, providing help for people in their own homes or in residential care and then we will move on to other groups beyond that, including when volume of testing is sufficient to members of the public.

A question was asked about the spread of the virus, and if there were any specific concerns. The First Minister said there are hotspots around the UK, including in Wales.

An issue in Gwent was referenced, with speculation that it could be a hot spot due to having a very early case of a member of health boards staff acquiring the virus and therefore testing in Gwent was carried out more vigorously and more widely and more earlier than in other parts of Wales, and we may simply be partly picking up the result of that. It looks like theres more there, because weve tested more people there than elsewhere. 

The First Minister said, There is evidence that the disease is moving east to west across the United Kingdom, and Newport is right at the eastern end of Wales and therefore would be expected if that was the case. Population density was also referenced, The more people that are in an area, the faster the disease circulates.

Wrexham.com asked about plans to ensure the local authorities are able to deal with the costs that they are incurring to their local responses, the First Minister said, Weve created a 30 million pounds fund that weve already announced for local authorities, helping them for example to deal with a homelessness population in Wales who are particularly exposed to Coronavirus. Were announced 7 million pounds to make sure that local authorities could continue to meet the need for free school meals here in Wales.

We have very strong daily contact with the Welsh Local Government Association, and are determined to go on using part of the fund, the 1.1 billion pounds weve announced last week, to recognise the extra challenges that local authorities face.
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Linkedin Suleiman Al-Khalidi (Reuters) Amman, Jordan  Mon, March 30, 2020 06:45 654 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e3339f 2 World Syria,coronavirus,death-toll,COVID-19,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,health,novel-coronavirus Free

Syria's health ministry said on Sunday that a woman who died after being rushed to hospital for emergency treatment was found to have been infected by coronavirus in the country's first officially reported death from the disease.

Syria also said its confirmed cases rose to nine from an earlier five cases, but medics and witnesses say there are many more. Officials deny a cover-up but have imposed a lockdown and draconian measures including a nationwide night curfew to stem the pandemic.

The moves to shut businesses, schools, universities, mosques and most government offices, as well as stop public transport, have spread fear among war-weary residents.

Several cities saw panic buying, with residents saying they saw food shortages and a surge in demand that pushed up prices ahead of the start of the curfew.

The United Nations says the country is at high risk of a major outbreak because of a fragile health system devastated by a nine-year war and lack of sufficient equipment to detect the virus, alongside large numbers of vulnerable people.

The World Health Organization has warned that the country has a limited capacity to deal with a rapid spread of the virus.

On Sunday, the army announced an end to a call-up of army reserves. It has already ended conscription in what military defectors said was an attempt to prevent the spread of the virus among the rank and file.

The government also banned movement of people between governates. Security forces manned checkpoints around provincial cities and only allowed army vehicles and essential services to pass, witnesses said.

Opposition figures and independent politicians point to Damascus' strong ties with Iran, the worst affected country in the region, as a source of possible contagion.

They say the virus is also being transmitted by members of Iranian-backed militias who are fighting alongside the Syrian army, as well as Shi'ite pilgrims who visit shrines in Syria.

Western intelligence sources say Iran's proxy Shi'ite militias continue to cross the Qaim border crossing between Iraq and Syria, where they have a strong presence across the country.

Senior Syrian army officers have in recent days taken leave of absence and been ordered not to mingle with the Iranian-backed militias, military defectors say.

Syrian officials said Damascus airport has halted commercial flights, and the government has also ordered the closure of its main border crossings with neighboring states.

Thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims have been arriving in Syria to visit the Sayeda Zainab shrine in Damascus, a neighborhood that also houses the main headquarters of the Iranian-backed militias.

Iraqi health officials confirmed on Sunday that returning Shi'ite pilgrims from Syria have tested positive for the coronavirus, raising concern that such travel could be a source for a wider spread of the disease.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 13:46:08|Editor: yhy

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Container trucks loaded with coal cross the Shiveekhuren border point in Mongolia, March 30, 2020. Mongolia has gradually resumed coal exports to China by reopening its border with the neighbour, which has made visible progress in containing COVID-19, authorities said Monday. (Xinhua)

ULAN BATOR, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia has gradually resumed coal exports to China by reopening its border with the neighbour, which has made visible progress in containing COVID-19, authorities said Monday.

Mongolia opened its Shiveekhuren border point on Monday, a week after the country resumed coal exports to China through Gasuunsukhait border point, Finance Minister Chimed Khurelbaatar said Monday.

Khurelbaatar said he expects to fully recover deliveries of coal to China soon.

The Mongolian government in February suspended coal exports to China in a bid to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in its country.

Mongolia exported 2.9 million tons of coals to China from Jan. 1 to mid-March this year, down 47 percent from the same period last year, according to the Chinese embassy in Mongolia.
Nevada COVID-19 Response, Relief and Recovery Task Force, a recently-formed public-private partnership overseen by Gov. Steve Sisolaks office and the Nevada Health Response Center, has established the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund. The task force is headed by former MGM CEO Jim Murren, who was recently appointed by Gov. Sisolak to lead the states recovery efforts. Nevada Community Foundation is serving as fiscal agent for the fund, which will be used for the following charitable purposes:

To make grants and payments to assist the State of Nevada and its political subdivisions in responding to COVID-19;

To provide assistance and supplies to first responders and healthcare providers (individuals and institutions);

To aid Nevada nonprofits in addressing and recovering from the COVID-19 emergency;

To provide assistance to Nevada residents impacted by the COVID-19 emergency, particularly those most vulnerable because of health, economic or other circumstances; and,

To take such actions and make such payments as Nevada Community Foundation determines appropriate to respond to the COVID-19 emergency.

Online donations to the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund may be made here: https://www.nevadacf.org/donate-now/.

I am deeply appreciative of Gov. Sisolaks leadership as we work to assemble a robust and comprehensive team to help Nevada prepare for, respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, said Murren. The Fund will help to ensure our state has the resources it needs to effectively deal with this crisis. It will take all of us to prevail. Collectively, we can generate the funding necessary to help protect and support the citizens of our great state, and put Nevada back on track once the crisis has passed.

We are honored and humbled to partner with Gov. Sisolak, Jim Murren and a host of stakeholders, nonprofits and partners to help Nevada recover from the COVID-19 virus, said Gian Brosco, president and CEO, Nevada Community Foundation. Unprecedented in scope and impact, this global pandemic will have far reaching effects on our state that can only be overcome if we work together. We are committed to doing all we can to support the mission and efforts of the task force and the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund.

On Mar. 18, Nevada Community Foundation established a COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund which was jumpstarted with a $10,000 donation from the Duncan and Irene Lee family. Duncan Lee chairs the Nevada Community Foundation board. Now, as result of the partnership with the task force, the original fund will be merged with the new COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund that has significantly enlarged the scope of eligible beneficiaries to which funds may be distributed.

Nevada joins many other states and cities across the country that are tapping community foundations to help raise and grant funds quickly to those most in need. According to data compiled by the Community Foundation Public Awareness Initiative, nearly 170 community foundations spanning 49 states and the District of Columbia have already created Covid-19 response funds to mobilize more than $238.7 million nationwide.

For information and frequently asked questions about the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund, please visit the Nevada Community Foundation website here and/or email info@nevadacf.org.
Irish food producers are facing a major crisis with the closure of lucrative markets worth hundreds of millions to the sector, Bord Bia has warned.

The meat industry alone has seen at least a third of its 1bn market in the UK wiped out overnight with the closure of restaurants and food service outlets, said Bord Bia CEO Tara McCarthy.

She told the Sunday Independent that once these markets were gone, there was no guarantee they would come back.

She appealed to Irish consumers to support smaller food producers in particular which are set to be worst hit from the shutdown. "It's been a sharp shock to the system over the last two weeks. For many companies, working capital is one of the key hits," said McCarthy.

A loosening of EU state aid rules may become a key part of the fightback and negotiations are under way, she said.

Just two months ago, Bord Bia announced that the sector's exports had reached an historic high of 13bn in 2019.

McCarthy said it was impossible to say how big a dent the coronavirus would put in that figure, but important sectors such as meat, seafood and alcohol had all taken immediate and substantial hits.

"The UK market took about 265,000 tonnes of beef in 2019, 47pc of our total exports," said McCarthy, adding that this had been worth 990m in total. About 45pc of that went into the retail sector, 30pc into food service and 25pc into manufacturing.

"So we've lost that 30pc of the market that went into food service. Yes, you've had a boost in the retail segment from shoppers but they're shopping for different products.

"Instead of the steak bought by food service they are buying the mince that many of us are more likely to cook at home. That is a different price proposition."

McCarthy said the agency was already working to "figure out what the reset will look like and what behaviours that consumers are now adapting to will stick when all of this is over". She said: "Will there be a sentiment of looking at small businesses and wanting to support artisan or wanting to support buying your own local nationality? And, as an export-oriented country, how do we prepare for and be ahead of that?"

McCarthy said Bord Bia was already examining how markets such as China, which is beginning to emerge from its Covid-19 shutdown, are adapting in the aftermath.

She said: "We also have to start looking for inspiration at the big thinking that was done after other hits that the world has taken, for example in the legacy of the financial crisis."
Sunny, a golden retriever in Manitou Springs, Colo., is being a helpful neighbor during the coronavirus pandemic.

KKTV reports that Sunny lives with his owner, Karen Evelth, and lives next door to Renee Hellman. Hellman is self-quarantined because of her health.

They have been neighbors for more than 10 years.

Evelth said Sunny goes next door and gets Hellmans grocery list then brings it back to her. Evelth purchases the groceries then takes them to Hellman, according to KKTV.

Evelth said Sunny has been going back and forth ever since the coronavirus pandemic started weeks ago.

What a wonderful thing, just a sweet thing, Hellman said. So he started doing the schlepping, back and forth. Its been fun, its been a real treat.

MORE CORONAVIRUS NEWS
Dont expect life to get back to normal in New Jersey soon as the coronavirus outbreak continues to escalate, Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday during two morning television shows.

This will bleed meaningfully into May," Murphy said during a phone interview on Fox-5s Good Day New York.

The governor was asked about when the near-lockdown restrictions on travel and indefinite closure of many retail businesses might be eased in New Jersey, which has the second-most coronavirus cases in the country.

Im not sure when the right moment will be, Murphy said, noting that hed rely on health officials and experts for guidance.

During a second morning interview on Pix 11, Murphy reiterated that social distancing restrictions could continue into May.

Thats just the reality. Were all going to have to stay the course, Murphy told Pix 11, urging for real patience and noting he may consider tighter restrictions if needed.

We look at things constantly," the govrnor said. "Social distancing is our prime weapon, if not our only weapon, outside the medical sphere.

Last week, Murphy said school closures in the state will last well into next month, saying he wont be prepared to revisit the closure until at least April 17, at the very earliest. He said he wouldnt likely make another announcement about the future of schools until closer to that date.

In New Jersey, at least 13,386 people have tested positive for coronavirus. There have been at leasst 161 deaths.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump backed off on his previous talk of re-opening the nations economy by Easter  April 12  by extending the voluntary national shutdown for a month as sickness and death from the coronavirus pandemic rise in the U.S.

The initial 15-day period of social distancing urged by the federal government expires Monday and Trump had expressed interest in relaxing the national guidelines at least in parts of the country less afflicted by the pandemic. But instead he decided to extend them through April 30.

As of 8 a.m. Monday, more than 143,000 people in the United States have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. More than 2,500 have died.

In the Fox-5 interview, Murphy again emphasized the ventilators and personal protection equipment for doctors and nurses are New Jerseys biggest needs during the coronavirus pandemic. He also expresses concerns about hospital capacity as the number of cases grows.

Last week, Murphy announced four pop-up hospitals are planned for the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, the New Jersey Convention Center and Exposition Center in Edison, the Atlantic City Convention Center, and a state Urban Search and Rescue Facility thats yet to be determined.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Soledad "Chole" Alatorre, shown in 2017, died March 25. The cause of death was unknown. (Selene Rivera / Hoy)

If donning a swimsuit was the best way for Soledad Chole Alatorre to organize Latina garment workers, then she was going to do it.

The Mexican immigrant had arrived to Los Angeles in the 1950s with a mission: to help her exploited countrymen in el Norte. She did this with a people-power play of sorts that starred her as Chekhovs gun.

Alatorre would join a company that relied on low-paid immigrants illegally in the United States, and quickly get promoted to supervisor. With the newfound leeway, she surreptitiously taught workers about their rights and urged them to agitate for better pay.

Management would find out, then fire her. The employees would walk out. A union usually followed. And Alatorre would move on to the next challenge.

Thats how she found herself one day in a one-piece, in the name of labor.

She joined a manufacturer that had a contract for Rose Marie Reid, the glamorous beachwear brand that styled the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Rita Hayworth. Bosses noticed Alatorres svelte figure and asked her to model the latest designs, then walk around the factory floor so seamstresses and other trabajadoras could make any necessary adjustments.

The company quickly shut down once they realized Alatorre's goals, but the experience sealed her legend. In labor and activist circles across California, she preached a provocative message  undocumented immigrants deserve rights, too, and can be mobilized into a force. That message went from heresy to the mainstream and forever altered politics in California and beyond.

Alatorre died March 25 at age 94 in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi, where she was born. The cause of death was unknown.

She was an extraordinary person, said Rodolfo Acuna, who documented Alatorres career in his Occupied America: A History of Chicanos and is professor emeritus of Chicano studies at Cal State Northridge. She never wavered from her message. She was never compromised.

She wasnt always as appreciated because she wasnt this big, fiery speaker in public, said California State Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, who said she was inspired to become an activist as a college student after seeing Alatorre help strikers at a Bay Area tortilla factory in 1975. She said regular, simple things that people believed in.

Story continues

Alatorre was raised in a union household by a father who regaled his daughters with tales of U.S. labor history; he told her about executed anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti and about the Haymarket Riot. After marrying into a wealthy family at 19, Alatorre followed her husband to Ensenada for a job that didnt materialize. Along the way, she saw caravans and camps of braceros, Mexican men who were hoping to cross into the United States, legally or not, for work.

The scene radicalized her. It was very sad [and an] embarrassing situation for my country, Alatorre told the Los Angeles Times in 1984.

Snippet from a July 19, 1984 Los Angeles Times profile of Alatorre (Los Angeles Times)

Alatorre ended up working with the Maritime Union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Teamsters, United Auto Workers, and others. It was through this world that she met Chicano activist Bert Corona, who told his biographer she was possibly one of the best organizers that I have ever known, male or female.

He was particularly impressed with how Alatorre succeeded despite the racism and misogyny she endured from fellow labor leaders at the time. It didnt matter to the workers she helped, Corona marveled. They knew that a person as experienced and effective as Chole was better than almost any man."

Together, they founded the Centro de Accion Social Autonomo (Center for Autonomous Social Action), and Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, groups focused on helping undocumented immigrants at a time when even mainstream Latino civil rights organizations reviled them.

They offered legal and social advice, protested immigration raids, and urged the media to eschew the term illegal alien in favor of undocumented immigrant  all the norm today but unheard of in the late 1960s.

For Alatorre, she was an advocate partly to force the United States to reckon with its hypocrisy.

Now they complain about all the undocumented people, she told The Times in 1984, but man, they showed them the way.

Rarely in the spotlight, Alatorre nevertheless participated in many of the crucial battles Mexican Americans in Southern California fought. She accompanied Robert Kennedy through East Los Angeles during his 1968 presidential campaign, at one point dragging him away from adoring throngs with such ease that he joked during a rally at the Greek Theatre later that night that Alatorre saved my life.

In the 1970s, she helped bring attention to forced sterilization of Mexican American women in Los Angeles and went to San Diego to protest against the Ku Klux Klan. Her longtime association with Hermandad Mexicana saw Alatorre help in renters' strikes, the opening of day laborer centers, and pushes for more Latino representation on television.

As she advocated for immigrants' rights, Alatorre also persuaded a generation of Southern California union members that they, too, should care about the issue. Among her acolytes are former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, current L.A. City Council member Gil Cedillo, and Durazo, all of whom fused immigrants and labor to create a resurgent movement throughout the city that turned into a political powerhouse.

A mural of Soledad "Chole" Alatorre in Highland Park. (L.A. Taco)

She would always tell us there was no way to build the kind of power for workers to be treated fairly unless everyone was going to be included, especially undocumented immigrants, said Durazo. She did it from the point of view that it was not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do.

Alatorre remained active even as she turned 90, participating in amnesty marches and holding citizenship classes at Mary Immaculate Catholic Church in Pacoima, the city where she lived in for over 50 years until moving back to San Luis Potosi two years ago. To the end, she insisted that activists forsake their differences as well as glory to work for el pueblo.

"Divisions don't help when you're looking to protect the rights of the most vulnerable," she told a reporter in 2017. "La causa should be bigger than your ego."
London, March 30 : Patients currently dying from the coronavirus in the UK were infected around a month ago before a lockdown and social distancing measures were put in place, experts have said.

As of Monday, the UK has reported 19,784 confirmed coronavirus cases, with 1,231 deaths.

Professor James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute at the University of Oxford, said: "It can take up to two weeks from infection to onset of symptoms. For over 80% of people these symptoms are mild, for the much smaller number who develop the most serious illness, intensive care is needed around 10 days later." "For those who do not recover but die, data from China suggests this takes around another four days. The tragic deaths today will be from people infected roughly a month ago. It is inevitable that there will be more tragedies for families ahead," the Metro newspaper quoted the Professor as saying.

He however, emphasised that by following the government's advice on social ditancing, the British public can "reduce the final death toll".

"We must expect and welcome changes in government advice as science, medicine and social science work together to learn more." The UK's highest daily increase in deaths is 260, confirmed by the Department of Health on Saturday.

Eleanor Riley, professor of immunology and infectious disease, University of Edinburgh, said it would be "most unwise" to infer any trend from "a single day's data", reports the Metro newspaper.

Professor David Spiegelhalter, chairman of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge, said: "It is still too early to claim that the curve is beginning to flatten off.

"It is also important not to over-interpret counts for single days: delays in reporting can lead to the numbers varying far more than one would expect by chance alone."
She burst onto the scene in Hollywood with career-launching parts in The Horse Whisperer and Blue Crush 20 years ago, and today she's still going strong with upcoming parts in three fascinating new films.

Actress Kate Bosworth graces the cover of Flaunt Magazine this month, dressed exclusively in Bottega Veneta's Spring/Summer 2020 collection, in a sizzling photo spread that calls to mind an earthy, chic and desert-set ambiance.

The Superman Returns star, 37, reflects on the early stages of her career in the feature article, along with how turns in the Academy Award-winning 2014 film Still Alice, along with marrying her acclaimed director husband Michael Polish the year prior to that, have informed and enriched her evolution as an actor and aspiring filmmaker.

Cover girl; Kate Bosworth wore a sparkly gold dress with plunging neckline for Flaunt magazine

Sizzling: The actress appears ina photo spread that calls to mind an earthy, chic and desert-set ambiance

About her start in the business, Kate reflected: 'For so many years I was a young blonde actress, getting pats on the head.'

People would regularly underestimate the intellectual starlet, saying things like, '"Oh youre cute, can you not have an opinion?" "Oh, you read?" "You got into Princeton?!"'

Thankfully, Bosworth kept in mind what inspires her as an artist, and was able to rise above the chatter.

'The reason I do what I do is to connect with people,' she said. 'I love the feeling I get when I know Ive impacted others.'

Drama: The Superman Returns star reflects on the early stages of her career in the feature article, along with how turns in the Academy Award-winning 2014 film Still Alice, along with marrying her director husband Michael Polish, have enriched her evolution as an actor

About her start in the business, Kate reflected: 'For so many years I was a young blonde actress, getting pats on the head'

One major point of impact came when Kate landed the role of eldest daughter to Juliane Moore's character in Still Alice, the film which won Moore an Oscar for best actress.

Bosworth shared the incredible and surprising way she got that part in the first place  by reaching out to the author of the novel upon which the film is based, Lisa Genova.

'I reached out to [Lisa] over Twitter to share how much her book affected me, because my grandparents suffered from Alzheimers,' Kate remembered.

And when the actress asked if she had considered turning the book into a film, Genova shared that the project was already happening and when on to recommend Bosworth for the role of Anna.

Chicness to spare: Kate was dressed exclusively in Bottega Veneta's Spring/Summer 2020 collection for the Flaunt spread

Impassioned: 'The reason I do what I do is to connect with people,' she said

'Thats literally how I got the part,' Bosworth recalled. 'I had known Julianne Moore for many years and really wanted to work with her. I remember being really nervous on that project because it was subject matter that felt very personal, very raw, but I was also nervous to work with Julie. Everyone felt that waywhen youre working with one of the greats, its amazing.'

Up next, Kate will appear alongside Mel Gibson and Emile Hirsch in Force Of Nature, a heist movie combined with a hurricane disaster film, to be directed by her husband Polish, 49.

The pair met on the set of her 2013 film Big Sur, and they've collaborated on other films, including the socially-conscious 2017 project Nona, which shined the light on human trafficking.

Another upcoming film on Bosworth's docket is Wild Indian opposite Jesse Eisenberg, a thriller centering around two Native American men who cover up the murder of a schoolmate.

Kate is also gearing up to play Sharon Tate in a new film directed by her husband, and although the famous Manson murder victim has already receltny been portrayed by both Margot Robbie (in Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood) and Hilary Duff, the new movie will be the first film about Tates life made with the approval and input of her family.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 06:48:36|Editor: huaxia

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QUITO, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has hit 57 in Ecuador, with 1,890 people testing positive, the deputy minister of health, Julio Lopez, said on Sunday.

The latest report adds nine more names to the list of fatalities and 67 new cases to the total over a 24-hour period, the official said in an online press conference broadcast on public television.

The majority of fatalities (37) and infections (1,376) were centered in the southwest province of Guayas, home to the bustling industrial port of Guayaquil.

To contain the epidemic, the government declared the province a special security zone, and deployed both military troops and police officers to the region to enforce prevention measures.

Key government officials were also dispatched to coordinate the efforts, including Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner and Health Minister Juan Carlos Zevallos.

According to the ministry, the virus is present in 23 of the country's 24 provinces, where a curfew and quarantine are in place as part of a nationwide state of emergency.

Of the total confirmed cases, 1,595 are well enough to be recovering at home under self-quarantine, and three have recovered, the ministry said.
Former President of Maldives, Mohammad Nasheed on March 29 took to Twitter to express his gratitude to India for helping the nation battle the coronavirus pandemic. In the tweet, Nasheed thanked the Indian government for sending essential food items and medicines. The Maldives has till now reported 17 cases of the infection.

A big thank you to the Government and people of India  for sending us vital food and medicine at this difficult time. pic.twitter.com/BoszbAZuo6  Mohamed Nasheed (@MohamedNasheed) March 29, 2020

Maldives had earlier contributed USD 2,00,000 to the emergency fund created by SAARC leaders. The donation was appreciated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who said that such things strengthened the collective battle against the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. "Deeply appreciate the contribution of USD 200,000 by Government of Maldives to the COVID-19 Emergency Fund. It strengthens our resolve in this collective fight against the pandemic," he wrote in the tweet.

Read: Oklahoma Coronavirus Cases Rise To 429, Now 16 Deaths

SAARC members warm up to PM Modi's Corona emergency fund call

Afghanistan and Maldives on March 21 pledged to contribute USD 1.2 million to SAARC Corona Emergency Fund proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Earlier, Bhutan and Nepal also pledged nearly USD one million and USD 100,000 respectively to the SAARC Corona Emergency Fund. PM Modi said that it was wonderful to see SAARC leaders taking initiatives that are adding strength to the collective fight against Coronavirus.

Read: Nobel Laureate And Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaar Tests Positive For Coronavirus

Read: Rajasthan NGO Takes Responsibility To Distribute 7 Lakh Masks To Fight Coronavirus

Talking about the contribution, a spokesperson for the President of Afghanistan Sediq Sediqqi reportedly said that the Afghan government believed in joint collaboration and strengthening partnership to fight the rapidly spread coronavirus. Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid also took to Twitter to announce that the country will be joining the initiative to tackle the challenges posed by Coronavirus pandemic. Shahid wrote that the country will be contributing USD 200,000 to tackle the virus outbreak.

Image: Twitter/MohamedNasheed

Read: Afghanistan, Maldives Pledge $1.2 Million To SAARC Coronavirus Emergency Fund

Read: Here's The Press Release Of Senior SAARC Health Professionals' Coronavirus Videoconference
Gopinath Rajendran By

Express News Service

When did you realise cinema was your calling?



After scoring less in my 12th grade, I joined St. Josephs College for a course in Computer Science. I spent a lot of time in the library. One day, my Tamil professor gave us the assignment of reading a book written by Vannadasan and narrating it to the class. When my turn came and I was reading it, the bell rang, but no one left the class. Thats when I got the confidence that I could narrate a story well. The professor also spotted that talent in me and gave me the contact of his brother who was studying direction in Balu Mahendra Institute.

After establishing that contact, we made short films. I got to know that Nalan sir was looking for assistants. I met him, we discussed for a long time and that discussion ventured into the film, No Country for Old Men. I spoke about how the film does not have a background score which he did not think was true. Then we went to an editors house to check, and when he got to know that I was right, he told me to join his team.

What have you learned from your directors?



Handling people is an art and I learnt that from Nalan sir. He knows what he wants and gets that from his artists without even them realising it. He would often say, No sollalam, aana no solradhu avangalukku theriya koodathu. Ravi anna is very close to me as I know him from his associate days. Hes like an elder brother. He is a perfectionist and gives importance even to minute details.

Whats the oddest or most memorable thing you have seen or done as an AD?



While shooting Soodhu Kavvum, we were a small team -- almost like an indie film. We would cover our face with handkerchiefs to protect us from dust and would use whatever set item we could get our hands on and use it for crowd management. One day, I was doing that with my face covered, but the people were clearing faster than usual. Thats when someone told me that I was pointing a fake gun at them while asking them to clear the space. Thankfully, I did not get into any trouble.

Whats one area of filmmaking you had a tough time with, but are better at now?



As I read a lot of books, I learnt a lot of theories. Only during its execution did I realise that all this bookish information is not actually necessary. Practical knowledge is more relevant and useful. Considering the films I primarily worked on, I had a hard time adapting.

What is your take on present-day cinema?



The Tamil film industry can be in a much better state than what it is now. Two famous producers said recently that they listened to 400 and 600 stories each and they did not like even one out of it. The reason is they did not listen to stories of assistant or associate directors but those who had no connection with films whatsoever. Those who have practical knowledge about making a film know the artists, budgets and many things and 90 per cent of them would be having a good script.

That said, these producers are not ready to do films without known actors in it. Malayalam films have great stories made in small budgets that give ample scope for the actors to perform and result in decent profits. Here, the mindset is to do big films with a huge budget. For that, they have to rope in bigger stars and theatres and distributors are also playing it safe by buying just those films.

Whats one thing that you think you can bring to Tamil cinema?



Many in the industry do not understand real-world problems. They live in the digital world and these celebrities seem to be happy with the feedback that they get via social media platforms. Thats why doing films with YouTube celebrities is a trend now. The system that controls this industry is dead. Theres a dire need for a change in dynamics and one person cannot change it. Thanks to certain YouTube channels, people think a film runs only for a weekend or three days. That mindset should be changed. Films that run for weeks together are still there. Even Malayalam films are running for a month in Chennai.

Who would be the dream cast and/or crew for your debut project?



For my story, an actor like Ashok Selvan would do it. It needs someone who is a known face but is not moulded by an image and I think he fits the bill perfectly.
MOSCOW - Muscovites got a four-hour notice Sunday night on a sweeping quarantine that will keep them inside their homes unless they are walking a pet, taking out the trash or visiting the nearest grocery store. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin's decree did not take effect until midnight, but the confusion was immediate.

Within an hour, prominent Russian lawmaker Andrei Klishas questioned the legality of Sobyanin's order, arguing that only federal authorities could impose such restrictions. While some state media said there was not a curfew for the Moscow region, video of police announcing one from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. circulated on social media.

It capped a week of mixed messaging from Russian authorities on the coronavirus pandemic, as President Vladimir Putin has delegated enacting tough measures to others. He has been silent as Moscow has declared a stricter quarantine than most European cities, prompting one blogger for the popular Echo of Moscow independent radio station to wonder whether Sobyanin is now making the key decisions for Russia.

"It's a natural separation of responsibilities for Putin, who is the czar and the father of the nation who can contribute only the good news," said Andrei Kolesnikov, chairman of the Russian Domestic Politics and Political Institutions Program at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

For a country spanning two continents ravaged by the pandemic, Russia has a relatively low number of confirmed cases: 1,836. But the number of new cases per day has been steadily increasing, with Monday's 302 new diagnoses setting another high.

In a televised speech Wednesday, Putin addressed the country's coronavirus response for the first time, postponing a vote on constitutional amendments and declaring paid time off this week for the whole country. But Putin stopped short of mandatory commercial closures or stay-at-home orders, prompting many Russians to book travel to the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.

That led to clarifications from various officials, but not Putin. Sobyanin ordered all parks, restaurants, spas and other nonessential businesses closed for the week - a restriction that Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin then extended to the entire country - while presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russians should work or study remotely rather than treat the week like a holiday.

A day after Putin's address, Peskov also declared, "We have no epidemic" in Russia, undermining Sobyanin's tough talk. The Kremlin then said Monday that Sobyanin consulted with Putin before announcing a quarantine for Moscow.

"I think the problem is that within the Kremlin, in a way, they have gotten so used to the idea that in some ways they can define the narrative and the narrative will shape reality," said Mark Galeotti, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank in London. "Of course, this is a different way around. This is actually a reality that has to shape the narrative."

In a poll conducted earlier this month by the independent Levada Center, just 16 percent of Russian respondents said they "fully" trusted the country's official coronavirus data. Even Sobyanin doesn't trust it; he told Putin in a televised meeting that the number of actual cases is likely "significantly" higher because of insufficient testing.

Roughly two-thirds of Russia's confirmed coronavirus cases are in Moscow, so Sobyanin, a technocrat who was tapped to head Russia's coronavirus task force, has taken on the "bad cop" burden for Putin, Galeotti said. Tatiana Stanovaya, head of the R. Politik think tank, wrote on the Telegram messaging app that Sobyanin "has turned out to be Russia's biggest European" by imposing strict measures similar to those in France, Italy and Spain.

Even Mishustin has seemingly been following Sobyanin's lead. A pattern has emerged in the past week of Sobyanin first announcing restrictions for Moscow before Mishustin then applies them to the rest of the country.

But while Putin has been largely - and conspicuously - silent, analysts said there is little doubt that he has had the final say behind the scenes. If the coronavirus pandemic turns catastrophic in Russia, Putin will not be able to shift blame solely to Sobyanin, Carnegie's Kolesnikov said, pointing to Putin's already slumping approval ratings. A March poll by the Levada Center put his latest rating at 63 percent, nearing his 2013 low of 61 percent.

"Everyone understands that this is the same power," Kolesnikov said. "I think that an average Russian citizen doesn't separate Putin from Mishustin or Mishustin from Sobyanin. Nevertheless, Putin is the main responsible person."
30.03.2020 LISTEN

Barring any last-minute change, party folks in the NPP will be called to a Constituency Delegates Conference on 25th April 2020 to elect parliamentary candidates in "parent constituencies" for the 2020 general elections.

As has been the practice in previous elections, the processes leading up to the election has been opening of nominations, picking of nomination forms, filing of nomination forms, vetting of candidates and declaration of qualified candidates. The party also made provision for an appeal by candidates who feel dissatisfied after the vetting.

In the Ashanti region, there has been controversies in a number of constituencies including Kwabre East. By the close of nominations, two persons had filed: the incumbent, Hon Francisca Oteng Mensah, and Lawyer Anthony Osei-Poku.

The two appeared before the regional vetting committee and were duly vetted. Few days after the vetting, a list emerged, purported to have been produced by the vetting committee outlining candidates who were successful at the vetting and therefore qualified to contest in the elections. For Kwabre east, only the incumbent's name was on this list.

Lawyer Osei-Poku was not informed of his supposed "disqualification". He only learnt from the list. He therefore petitioned the appeals committee at the headquarters and was given a hearing. We are yet to receive the verdict of the appeals committee. Their verdict would bring finality to candidates cleared to contest in Kwabre East in the upcoming primaries. Until then, there is no parliamentary candidate in the constituency as the party chairman Mr. Opoku Agyemang Bonsu cautioned party officers to be careful in dealing with the matter at hand.
By Trend

The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic SOCAR and Norwegian Equinor company signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of labor safety and environmental protection, Trend reports referring to SOCAR.

SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev received Head of the representative office of the Equinor company in Azerbaijan Fawad Quraishi on March 30. The issues arising from the plans for the development of the Karabakh field were discussed during the meeting.

"The views on the prospects for cooperation in new spheres, including those related to the industrial safety, were exchanged," SOCAR said.

The parties announced about the discovery of a new Karabakh field in Azerbaijan with 60 million tons of oil during a successful drilling operation on March 19, 2020.

During the meeting, a new cooperation agreement was signed between SOCAR and Equinor Absheron AS. The new agreement covers technical safety, fire protection, public health and environmental protection, transport safety and emergency rescue services in the projects that SOCAR and Equinor Absheron implement both independently and jointly.

The document was signed by Abdullayev and Quraishi. The parties agreed to exchange experience, procedures and relevant documents in the abovementioned areas, exchange practical knowledge to prevent possible accidents, minimize environmental impact, exchange statistics on incidents, as well as events of environmental importance.

The agreement also envisages the exchange of practice and a database on the application of international standards for technical safety and fire protection, flexible recapitalization of possible accidents, exchange of experience in the management of atmospheric waste, including greenhouse gases, the organization of meetings, seminars and consultations between the parties on the abovementioned issues.

Drilling of the first appraisal well at Karabakh oil field was launched on December 23, 2019. The well was drilled in water depth of 180 meters by the Dada Gorgud semi-submersible drilling rig operated by SOCARs Caspian Drilling Company (CDC). The discovered volumes of oil and gas are satisfactory for pursuing commercial development of the Karabakh field.

The preliminary estimated geological reserves of the field reach more than 60 million tons.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
MONROED  Monroe has six positive coronavirus cases, and town officials are offering free resources over the phone for those needing assistance.

First Selectman Ken Kellogg, in a CodeRED update Sunday, confirmed the six positive cases, adding that we should all expect to have additional cases in the days ahead, just as other towns in Fairfield County are experiencing.

I want to emphasize the Governors order that now limits social and recreational gatherings to no more than five people, said Kellogg. While our parks and trails have plenty of open space to enjoy safely, you must maintain social distancing.

I implore everyone to follow these requirements so that further restrictions do not become necessary, he said.

Kellogg said that as the community gets ready for another week of living in a way that may have seemed unimaginable less than a month ago, remember to focus on what we can control.

The first selectman pointed residents to links on the towns website for things to do at home, reminders to take a stress-break and how to access support services.

Remember that we must remain connected while doing our part to keep our neighbors safe. Were all in this together, said Kellogg.

Residents who are stressed, anxious, isolated or having difficulty concentrating are urged to contact town social worker Jessica Champagne. Champagne can provide resources by phone through the towns free telehealth service.

To schedule an appointment with Champagne, call 203-913-6955 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

brian.gioiele@hearstmediact.com
By Express News Service

ROURKELA: The lockdown may have brought normal life to a standstill but agriculture activities in the ongoing Rabi season in Sundargarh district seem to be unaffected.Various farming activities including crop harvesting are underway. Till third week of February, the district achieved a crop coverage of 94,021 hectare (ha) including 50,467 ha of irrigated and 43,554 ha of non-irrigated land. This was slightly higher than the target of 93,694 ha for 2019-20 Rabi season.

Recently, the State Government removed restrictions on sale of fertilizers and pesticides by registered dealers to meet the demands of farmers. Chief district agriculture officer Laxmi Narayan Dash said farming and allied activities are going on smoothly as the sector has been exempted from the lockdown. Farmers are freely carrying out farming activities and also taking their harvested crops to markets. Sources said, vegetables crops are being harvested and sent to markets.

Cereals including paddy, wheat and maize were cultivated over 2,127 ha while pulses like horse gram, biri, moong, gram, fieldpea, lentil and cowpea were grown over 37,431 ha. Besides, 14,000 ha have been covered with oilseeds like til, castor, niger, linseed and sunflower. Vegetables crops were grown over 34,300 ha and spices over 5,853 ha.

Dash said most of the pulses and oilseeds crops are in harvesting stage. Moong crops, which were sown late, are in flowering to growth stage while paddy is in tillering stage. Similarly, maize crop is being harvested while vegetables are getting harvested in between with fresh sowing, The overall condition of standing crops is good, he added. Sources informed that the late variety of standing paddy crops would reach harvesting stage in May.

Crop cover

Sundargarh achieves crop coverage of 94,021 ha

till third week of Feb

Cereals including paddy, wheat and maize cultivated over 2,127 ha

Pulses like horse gram, biri, moong, gram, fieldpea, lentil and cowpea grown over 37,431 ha

14,000 ha covered by til, castor, niger, linseed and sunflower cultivation.

Vegetables crops grown over 34,300 ha, spices in 5,853 ha


A husband, his wife and their daughter have died in a suspected double-murder-suicide at a house fire in Hemel Hempstead.

Detectives are investigating the deaths of Gary Walker, 57, his wife Caroline, 50, and their 24-year-old daughter Katie after the were found at their home by emergency crews on Sunday.

Officers were called to Stuarts Close shortly after 12.30pm yesterday and the three people were pronounced dead at the scene.

A blue tent has been erected outside the house, which still had its windows open this morning. The house and the neighbouring property were cordoned off.

But investigators now suspect that the tragic incident was the result of a murder-suicide involving the family members.

Major Crime Unit Detective Inspector Iain MacPherson said: 'We are dealing with three suspicious deaths and are not looking for anyone else in connection to this incident at this time.'

Detectives are investigating the deaths of a father, his wife and their daughter at a house in Hemel Hempstead

A blue tent has been erected outside the house, which still had its windows open this morning. The house and the neighbouring property were cordoned off.

Today marks the seventh day of Britain's unprecedented lockdown to slow the spread of deadly coronavirus - with residents told to only leave their homes for one daily exercise session, vital goods or medical attention.

Reports of the fire were raised by neighbour Peter Downer who saw smoke coming from the bathroom at the front of the end of terraced four bedroom house in Stuarts Close at 12.30pm yesterday.

Mr Downer, 67, said: 'We called the fire brigade when I saw smoke coming from the toilet. We were shocked when we heard what happened.

'They were a quiet family and had lived here for a long time.'

He said Gary had worked as a draughtsman, Caroline had previously worked at a supermarket. Both were in their 50s. Their daughter Katie, 25, worked with animals.

Detectives are investigating the deaths of a father, his wife and their daughter at a house in Hemel Hempstead. Pictured: Fire fighters at the scene

Another neighbour said: 'They were a lovely family. They had been here for about 30 years. It is a terrible tragedy. We dont know what happened.'

Katies older sister Sarah is reported to have said on social media: 'I have lost my whole family.'

It is believed the couple also have a son as well.

Fire and forensic officers were at the scene today and yesterday.

A forensic officer puts on a protective suit before entering the property in Hemel Hempstead

Officers were called to the Stuarts Close property (pictured) shortly after 12.30pm today and the three people were pronounced dead at the scene

In an update, Hertfordshire Police said: 'Detectives have launched a murder investigation following an incident in Hemel Hempstead yesterday.'

'Police were called at 12.34pm to a property in Stuarts Close, Hemel Hempstead.

'Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service were already in attendance as there was a fire at the address.

'Officers and paramedics attended but sadly three people were pronounced dead at the scene. Formal identification is yet to take place however they are believed to be two women, aged 50 and 24, and a man, aged 57."

A forensic officer wearing a protective suit, hair net and face mask was seen by a police vehicle at the scene

The street remained cordoned off after the fire. Two women and a man died as the fire swept through the property

Detective Inspector Iain MacPherson, from the Beds, Cambs and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, said: 'Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the three people who have sadly died.

'We are treating this as an isolated incident. Our early inquiries have led us to believe there is no threat to the wider community.

'Our thoughts are with those who have been impacted by this incident.

'We are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident and forensic officers and the fire investigation team remain at the location as part of this.'
Wholesale giant Costo is set to give its workers a significant pay increase to recognise their efforts during the coronavirus pandemic.

All casual workers at Costco's 12 Australian stores will receive an additional $3-an-hour back-dated from March 2 and extending to April 5.

Staff who receive a salary will be handed a lump sum of $750.

Staff members (pictured) in mask assists shoppers buying toilet paper at Costco Perth on March 19

Gerard Dwyer, the National Secretary of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association said other companies trading through unprecedented time of crisis should also follow suit.

'Other major supermarket chains, which have been very busy, should step up immediately,' he said.

'Without the efforts of these workers, households would find it increasingly difficult to get the food, fuel and medical supplies they need while keeping the general community as safe as possible.'

Mr Dwyer is calling for an Essential Service Payment of $5-an-hour to be implemented for all workers at supermarkets, pharmacies, petrol stations and convenience stores.

As other members of the community are being told to stay at home, these workers are continuing to put themselves at risk for the community, he said.

'Costco's action sets an example for the others. It is an acknowledgement of the service Costco workers are providing  an acknowledgement of the risks they are taking to keep the community fed and healthy,' Mr Dwyer said.

Shoppers line the aisles at Costco Perth as wholesaler limited toilet paper sales to one per customer in response to COVID-19 panic buying

A shopper inspects the cold storage section with her dog in the trolley at Costco Perth

In response to the recent surge in panic-buying brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Costco CEO Patrick Noone said the store is making adjustments to deal with the current situation.

'We've increased our protocols in sanitising surfaces, including shopping cart handles, merchandise shelves, front-end belts and registers,' he said.

'Limits have been implemented on certain items to help ensure more members are able to access the merchandise they want and need.

'Our buyers and suppliers are working to ensure in-demand merchandise as well as everyday favourites are available in our warehouses.'

Costco currently has around 4000 staff in Australia.
Bangladesh garment manufacturers says fashion retailers have cancelled or put on hold more than USD 3 billion in orders due to the coronavirus outbreak, though a handful have agreed to pay anyway.

The data from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association released Monday reflected both orders already made or in the works and planned orders from the country, which is the world's second largest exporter of clothing after China.

The cancelled orders, according to reports to the BGMEA from manufacturers, included tens of millions in purchases from many big buyers, including European buyers C&A and Inditex, Primark of Ireland, Britain's Marks & Spencer and Tesco and U.S. retailers like Walmart and Target.

Bangladesh is just beginning to feel the direct impact of the pandemic and its government has ordered a shut down of most businesses to help contain it. But shocks to the country's export markets have been cascading into its economy for weeks. A survey of factory owners in Bangladesh released Friday showed millions of Bangladesh factory workers being sent home without the wages or severance pay they are owed.

The BGMEA reported that USD 1.8 billion in orders have been put on hold and another USD 1.4 billion have been cancelled. Cancellations of planned orders, for April-December, amounted to nearly USD 1.7 billion, it said.

The figures are conservative because they exclude orders that would go to multiple buyers.

The new data were incorporated into a report by Pennsylvania State University's Center for Global Workers' Rights and the Worker Rights Consortium, a Washington, D.C.-based rights organization,.

Bangladesh manufacturers and groups have been appealing to big retailers to honor their commitments to suppliers.

Sweden's H&M has said it will pay suppliers for orders already under production. PVH, which owns the Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Heritage brands, has told suppliers it is releasing invoices that had been put on hold since March 18. Later invoices will gradually be processed.

The commitment for orders already under production or finished products not yet shipped would enable factory owners to get financing to tide them over, said a letter to suppliers seen by The Associated Press.

PVH and H&M are doing the right thing, in contrast to the long list of brands refusing to pay for goods workers have already made for them," said Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium.

Big Western brands came under heavy pressure to improve conditions in factories after huge fires and other disasters killed hundreds of workers.

The store closures and other disruptions from the virus outbreak are straining a fragile supply chain in which big buyers have been squeezing their suppliers for years. More than 1 million of the more than 4 million garment workers in Bangladesh already have lost their jobs or have been furloughed because of order cancellations and the failure of buyers to pay for canceled shipments.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Press Secretary to the Lagos State Government Gboyega Akosile took to his Twitter account to announce that the Governor of Lagos State Jide Sanwo- Olu has set in motions to intervene in the fight to stop the spread of the deadly disease.

Akosile said that the Emergency food response stimulus package included Rice , garri , bread ,pepper and beans, stating that it was given out FREE to communities.

Gboyega tweeted earlier today

@gboyegaakosile

To ensure food security in Lagos at this trying times , Gov @jidesanwoolu set in motion 2 interventions

Emergency Food response stimulus package( 1 pack contains 5kg rice/5kg garri/3kg beans/ 2 loaves of bread/ 200g dry pepper) given FREE to households in indigent communities 

To ensure food security in Lagos at this trying times, Gov @jidesanwoolu set in motion 2 interventions Emergency Food response Stimulus package (1 pack contains 5kg rice/5kg garri/3kg beans/2 loaves of bread/ 200g dry pepper)-given FREE to households in indigent communities. pic.twitter.com/VJRBASaxAa  gboyega akosile (@gboyegaakosile) March 29, 2020
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday (March 30) posted animated yoga videos in response to a query during his 'Mann Ki Baat' radio show on Sunday (March 29) about how he was maintaining his fitness amid the 21-day nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country.

The videos posted by the prime minister depict various yoga asanas that are practised by him to remain fit and active.

"During yesterday's #MannKiBaat, someone asked me about my fitness routine during this time. Hence, thought of sharing these Yoga videos. I hope you also begin practising Yoga regularly," the PM tweeted.

During yesterdays #MannKiBaat, someone asked me about my fitness routine during this time. Hence, thought of sharing these Yoga videos. I hope you also begin practising Yoga regularly. https://t.co/Ptzxb7R8dN  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 30, 2020

"I am neither a fitness expert nor a medical expert. Practising Yoga has been an integral part of my life for many years and I have found it beneficial. I am sure many of you also have other ways of remaining fit, which you also must share with others...The Yoga videos are available in different languages. Do have a look. Happy Yoga practicing," he added.

On Sunday, during his "Mann ki Baat" episode since the imposition og 21-day lockdown on April 24, the prime minister also narrated about what people across India are during while remaining indoors during the lockdown.

"I saw on social media people are dusting off their tablas and Veenas and practicing. You should do the same. Re-explore your passion, look inwards instead of going out," said the Prime Minister.

"I will post videos on social media on what I do. Maybe you can use the videos. I am not a fitness expert, nor a yoga teacher. I am only a yoga practitioner. Maybe these will help you during the corona lockdown," suggested PM Modi.
Has the Wuhan virus nudged China toward the virtues of peaceful co-existence? The first place to look for a sign of that is the Japanese Foreign Ministry record of intrusions into Japanese waters around the Senkaku Islands:

The big jump in incursions in late 2012 was due to President Xis accession to the throne. Going into 2020 there has been no change in Chinese aggression as indicated by the rate of incursions. The Chicoms are still baiting the Japanese.

They are also building a highway towards the Vietnamese border town of Po Thiung. In their last attack on Vietnam in 1979 the Chicom forces suffered from poor logistics and so probably wont attack until that highway is completed. Unfortunately Google looks to me almost as if it were infested with Chinese agents of influence, since the imagery over the area on Google Earth hasnt been updated for a couple of years.

In late February a Chinese warship lased a U.S. Navy P-8 flying 380 miles west of Guam, which is about two thirds of the way from the Philippines towards Guam. So Chinas level of aggression hasnt moderated at all.

Which means war with China is still coming, virus or no virus, because the situation in the South China Sea cannot be resolved any other way. China wants all the islands claimed by Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines, for one, wont give them up without a fight. The death and wealth destruction caused by the Wuhan virus is just a warmup to the main event  war with China.

The Chicoms will start that war with a surprise attack and, in the words of former Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert O. Work, the United States and its allies will have to eat the salvo. After that it will largely be a slugfest with missiles and torpedoes. The only ground campaign will be in north Vietnam with Chinese armor being ground up by Vietnamese ATGMs, 40 years after the last such event.

The threat of the coming war with China has made the Department of Defense take the results of war gaming exercises seriously. Systems that will be shot down or sunk too readily are being dropped from production, including the Triton drone, and production of the Ford class carriers are being stopped at four.

Development of technology over the last 20 years has favoured the defense because enemy ships and planes can be detected and engaged at far greater ranges. China is building big amphibious assault ships to take the Vietnamese bases in the South China Sea. But these can be sunk by missiles fired from mainland Vietnam. Missiles are far cheaper than ships and planes and theoretically China could be defeated by expenditure of a fraction of what the Chicoms are spending.

But we dont want the potential for it to be a damn close-run thing, as Wellington said of Waterloo. The bigger the margin of safety, the better. An idea to that end has come from an unlikely place, a website called Defense One, set up by the Trump-haters at The Atlantic, associated with the evil Council on Foreign Relations. That article complains that Americas allies are becoming a nuclear-proliferation threat. Never mind that the worst people in the world, the North Koreans and the Iranians, are developing nuclear weapons and the systems to deliver them.

The South Koreans made an attempt to develop nuclear weapons in the 1970s and were stopped by the United States. The United States also stopped a more recent attempt by the South Koreans to deploy longer range missiles which could reach the northern end of North Korea, in the interests of pacifying North Korea -- which went on to develop nuclear weapons anyway. The Trump administration until recently had tried to extract $5 billion per annum from South Korea to pay for the American troops there, which worked out at $172,000 per soldier per annum. But $5 billion per annum would pay for a thousand or more long-range surface-to-surface missiles per annum, providing far greater overmatch against the North than boots on ground.

Decades ago, Donald Trump, opining on geostrategic issues, said that he would understand if South Korea and Japan acquired nuclear weapons. The importance of those countries doing so is not in deterrence but in guiding how Chinas war ends. At the moment the likely sequence is:

China launches surprise attack. Slugfest with missiles and torpedoes sees China losing most of its fleet at sea. Chinas seven bases in the South China Sea are suppressed and occupied with Chinese forces attempting relief and resupply severely mauled. Nobody wants to set foot on mainland China so stalemate follows. China threatens to nuke individual Japanese and Taiwanese cities unless they capitulate and yield up great areas of seabed and associated islands, and threatens to nuke Los Angeles if the United States retaliates after the Chicom nuclear attacks.

The crystal ball cant see any further. Lots of doubt is created. A lot would depend upon the character of the U.S. president at the time. If South Korea and Japan possessed 30 or 40 warheads in the half megaton range, that would create a lot more Mutually Assured Destruction for the Chicoms and they would be the ones suffering from doubt and unexpected developments.

The warheads could be leased from the U.S. stockpile with the lease term being up to five years beyond the ending of Chinese military occupation of their South China Sea bases. Just about everything the Obama regime did was wrong, including making Japan give back 330 kg of weapons grade plutonium, on the insistence of the Chicoms. For the sake of peace, it is time to send that plutonium back in the form of warheads. When that happens, we will all sleep more soundly.

David Archibald is the author of American Gripen: The Solution to the F-35 Nightmare
Scammers have sent out a text message claiming all Westpac accounts have been frozen unless customers click on a link and provide their account details.

They tried using the coronavirus chaos to fool unsuspecting Australians with the SMS caps lock title: 'Important message from Westpac'.

'For the safety of our customers due to the recent COVID-19 virus, all customers are required to review and update their personal details,' it said.

'You will be unable to use Westpac services until you have done so.'

Scammers have sent out a text message claiming all Westpac accounts have been frozen unless customers click on a link and provide their account details. They tried using the coronavirus chaos to fool unsuspecting Australians with the SMS caps lock title: 'Important message from Westpac'

A Westpac spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia had added this scam to its security website.

'We are aware of this scam and have reported it and created a scam alert on our Westpac Security Centre which includes this specific example, as well as information on the latest scams and how customers can protect themselves,' she said.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said this scam was among 'several different COVID-19 themed phishing text campaigns' masquerading as coming from large private companies.

'The ACCC is aware of this scam and we are working with partner agencies to remove the phishing website,' a spokeswoman said.

Phishing scams are attempts to trick consumers into providing bank account details, passwords and credit card numbers.

'They contact you pretending to be from a legitimate business such a bank, telephone or internet service provider, and ask you to provide or confirm your personal details,' the ACCC said.

A Westpac spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia had added this scam to its security website

'Phishing messages are designed to look genuine, and often copy the format used by the organisation the scammer is pretending to represent, including their branding and logo.

What to do if you receive a scam text or email Do not click on the links Delete If you have provided details, contact your bank immediately Advertisement

'They will take you to a fake website that looks like the real deal, but has a slightly different address.'

Australians are urged to avoid clicking on any links or opening attachments in emails purporting to come from a bank.

The ACCC said an internet search using the exact wording in an email or text message could show a copycat fraud.

'Do an internet search using the names or exact wording of the email or message to check for any references to a scam  many scams can be identified this way,' it said.
It has been announced that Standardbred horseman Paul Anthony Ciambro, 58, of Moraine, Ohio, passed away at his home on Tuesday, March 24, 2020.

He was born April 27, 1961 in Dayton, OH the son of Paul A. Sr. and Linda Ciambro.

In addition to his parents, Paul is survived by his son, Anthony (Jessica Rowe) Ciambro; granddaughter, Callie Jo; siblings, Michael Ciambro; Lisa Johnson and Toni Ciambro and nieces, Brittany and Leah as well as other extended family members and many friends.

Paul attended Wilbur Wright High School and served for a short time in the United States Army. He dedicated the majority of his life to harness racing where he became very skilled in his trade and was privileged to do something he loved.

Services will be private at the convenience of the family. In lieu of flowers or contributions please extend your prayers to Pauls family.

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Newcomer  Kettering Chapel (937-293-4141) is assisting the family

Newcomer Funerals website obituary and information is available here.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Paul Ciambro.

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The death sentence for a Japanese man over the mass murder in 2016 of 19 mentally impaired people at a care home near Tokyo was finalized Tuesday as he withdrew his appeal the previous day.

Satoshi Uematsu, 30, a former caretaker at the Tsukui Yamayuri En facility in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, also injured 26 people in the rampage, in what the Yokohama District Court called incomparable to other incidents.

His defense counsel had filed an appeal on Friday, but Uematsu had told Kyodo News two days after the March 16 verdict that he would drop the appeal since it would be "wrong" to continue the trial at higher courts.

The deadline for his appeal to a high court was midnight Monday.

Uematsu also said he expected to receive the death penalty but was "not convinced" that he deserved it.

He said during his trial that disabled people who are unable to communicate "create unhappiness in society."

At the heart of the trial was whether Uematsu was mentally competent during the rampage.

The district court ruled that he was, rejecting his defense counsel's argument that he had been influenced by his marijuana use.
Air-deprived COVID-19 patients could be paired up on the same ventilators at New Orleans-area hospitals as early as weeks end, Gov. John Bel Edwards told national TV audiences Sunday, describing the grim buddy system as he pleaded for more of the life-saving machines.

On the ground in New Orleans, among the hardest hit communities in America for coronavirus cases and deaths per capita, Edwards and Mayor LaToya Cantrell later toured the mammoth Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, where workers were scrambling to stand up a 1,000-bed step-down medical facility for COVID-19 patients.

The operation, which Edwards pledged would be up and running by April 5, is for patients coming off hospitalization who are not fragile  a medical spillway to relieve an expected flood of new cases expected to crest across a stressed state hospital system starting early next week.

They dont need to be on ventilators or in an ICU bed, Edwards said. We will surge beyond that if we need to.

Edwards also revealed that his stay at home order, which is due to run until April 13, may well have to be extended. Meanwhile, the Trump administration extended its own social distancing guidelines through April 30, following an initial 15-day period.

We may be in this fight for a long time, Edwards said. Save your second-lines for later this year.

That plea, among repeated calls by Edwards and Cantrell to maintain social distancing, came on a day in which 14 more people in Louisiana were reported to have died from the pandemic, with 225 new cases diagnosed.

Those figures were both significant reductions from the previous day, but so were the number of tests results that came back  a downward blip that officials said may have been the result of a glut of backlogged test results coming back overnight Friday.

"We do not know where the curve is," Cantrell said. "Therefore, we need you to stay at home."

Several more nursing homes statewide were reported as containing "clusters" of more than one coronavirus case, raising the total to 20, according to a new report by the Louisiana Department of Health.

The nine new facilities added to the health department's list include: Jo Ellen Smith Living Center, Lakeview Manor Nursing Home, St. Jude's Nursing Home and St. Martin's Manor-Christopher Homes, all in New Orleans; Guesthouse of Slidell Nursing Home; Marrero Health Care Center; Riverbend Nursing and Rehab in Belle Chasse; the Southeast Louisiana War Veterans Home in Reserve; and Montclair Park Assisted Living in Shreveport.

As of Friday, there were at least five cases reported at Chateau D'ville in Donaldsonville, four at St. James Place in Baton Rouge and Vista Shores in New Orleans and at least two at Chateau de Notre Dame in New Orleans  all previously identified clusters. At Lambeth House in New Orleans, the first known cluster in the state, the death toll reached 13.

Though there were positive signs  Edwards cited a reduction in the rate of positive results  he maintained that there was no clear evidence of a significant dampening of the alarming projections for the state.

The timetables for the point in the pandemic that Louisiana health officials fear most  when projected hospital bed and ventilator needs are expected to outstrip supply  remain largely on target for the coming days.

By around April 4, the New Orleans area is set to run out of ventilators, the equipment needed by those most badly afflicted by the coronavirus. Hospitals in the region are set to run out of beds by roughly April 10, Edwards said.

In Louisiana's coronavirus fight, everyone from doctors to crafters needed as volunteers As Louisiana hospitals and first responders reel from a surge in coronavirus infections and equipment shortages, medical experts, universities

Officials still hope that wont become reality and are working with local hospitals to increase the states medical resources.

We still have a great need to flatten the curve, Edwards said, urging residents to abide by the restrictions in place to limit face-to-face contact. We dont see yet that were off the trajectory that weve been on.

One bright spot: Edwards said deliveries of N95 masks to hospitals have been ramping up, suggesting that shortages would begin to ease.

The prospect of a significant increase in ventilators was more tenuous, the governor said during a morning round of national talk show interviews.

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Shared ventilators and retrofitted breathing devices are among the leading makeshift options left, absent a flurry of life-saving gear, he said.

It was a message bluntly aimed at extracting more ventilators from the feds, private vendors or any other source. Edwards, who says the state is short thousands of the machines, said he hopes the federal government will cut Louisiana into the Federal Strategic National Stockpile, but that his repeated request for 5,000 ventilators from the stockpile have yet to be fulfilled.

In the past couple weeks, Louisiana has requested 12,000 ventilators from various sources and only procured 192, Edwards said.

Im making the case as emphatically as I can, he said. I just have to believe its not falling on deaf ears this time.

Meanwhile, the federal government is helping Louisiana equip the massive convention center with 1,000 COVID-19 beds.

Once patients are well enough to leave the hospitals, many will then be transferred to the convention center for the final hours or days to free up hospital beds for incoming patients. The goal is to shrink hospital stays for COVID-19 patients that nationally run about 10 days, state officials said. Officials stressed that people arent to show up at the Convention Center with symptoms of COVID-19 for their initial care.

The state inked two contracts for the convention center deal in recent days, and will pay a combined nearly $72 million to build and staff the facilities through private vendors, said Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne.

Trump adds 30 days to social distancing guidelines as coronavirus spreads Bracing the nation for a death toll that could exceed 100,000 people, President Donald Trump on Sunday extended restrictive social distancing 

The construction deal is a $33.4 million contract and the state will pay $38.3 million for a staffing service, though the federal government is slated to pick up 75% of those costs.

The state is also erecting a 250-bed facility for persons under investigation, who are patients that health officials suspect may have the coronavirus but don't have official test results. That facility that will be staffed in part by U.S. Navy officials.

Were doing everything we can," Edwards said on Face the Nation. "The biggest issue in the near term, however, is ventilator capacity and it is the one thing that really keeps me up at night."

The 225 new cases reported Sunday were down from 569 new cases reported the day before.

Louisiana coronavirus stay-at-home order 'may well have to be extended', John Bel Edwards says It's very possible that the stay-at-home order for Louisiana will be extended past April 13 as the number of known coronavirus cases and death

The number of reported deaths, 14, also was down from Saturdays report of 18 new deaths.

Looking at the data another way, there was just a 6.8% increase in total cases statewide Sunday, compared to a 20.7% increase in that number between Friday and Saturday.

And Orleans Parish saw just a 4% increase between Saturday and Sunday, its 52 new cases being the lowest one-day increase in the city since March 17, according to Jeff Asher, a crime analyst who tracks trends for the New Orleans City Council and other clients.

However, as state health officials underscored, the state data also showed a decrease in the number of new tests completed and reported in the last 24 hours, which could likely account for fewer people testing positive for COVID-19.

Five new coronavirus-related deaths in Orleans, Jefferson parishes; see Sunday totals Overall known cases of the novel coronavirus continued to increase in Louisiana on Sunday, with the Department of Health reporting new totals 

Overall, there were 2,710 new tests reported on Sunday, a 28.7% drop from the 3,802 new tests reported Saturday. State data showed fewer commercial tests reported, which make up the bulk of testing in Louisiana.

"This is a small number of tests," Aly Neel, a spokeswoman at LDH, said. "We do not feel comforted, and no one else should."

The number of coronavirus patients in Louisiana who are hospitalized -- and those on ventilators -- has risen steadily. Five days earlier, 271 patients were hospitalized and 94 were on ventilators. As of Sunday, 1,127 patients were hospitalized and 380 were on ventilators.

Edwards and Cantrell expressed a shared frustration with the lack of tests and delays in people with symptoms receiving results. Cantrell said a bottleneck in a federal phone bank set up to deliver those results to patients has led to delays of several days in some cases. She said the city took on some of that job beginning Friday, hoping to speed the process.

Though Edwards said that nobody is happy with the number of tests that have been administered, he also said Louisiana is now in the top-5 nationally in per capita testing.

Staff writer Della Hasselle contributed to this story.
With the nation hobbled by the coronavirus crisis , the U.S. Supreme Court continues work on McGirt v. Oklahoma , the only Indian law case set for argument during the current term.

In an order issued on Monday morning, the justices granted time for both the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and the U.S. Department of Justice to argue at the upcoming hearing, alongside counsel for Jimcy McGirt, the Indian inmate whose rights are at issue in the closely-watched case. The argument is still scheduled to take place on April 21, amid coronavirus social distancing guidelines, travel advisories and other restrictions in place at least through the end of that month.

The members of the highest court in the land already took the historic step of postponing cases that were to be argued in March. Rescheduled dates have not been announced as the building itself in Washington, D.C., remains closed to the public "until further notice."

The justices have not said anything yet about their workload for the last two weeks in April, during which McGirt is to be heard. A request for comment has been placed with the court's public information office.

The US Supreme Court continues work on McGirt v Oklahoma, with argument in Indian law case still scheduled for April 21 amid #COVID19 social distancing guidelines, travel advisories & other restrictions. Will update if Court provides further information. https://t.co/vubExibnRC pic.twitter.com/WI0FSioQOG  indianz.com (@indianz) March 30, 2020

At issue is whether McGirt can be prosecuted by the state of Oklahoma for a crime that occurred within the boundaries of the reservation promised to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation by treaty. He argues that reservation continues to exist as Indian Country, meaning the state lacks jurisdiction over him as an Indian.

"Here," McGirt's attorney wrote in the February 4 opening brief , "the simple, dispositive, and undisputed fact is that none of the relevant statutes, from 1890 through statehood, contain clear language of disestablishment."

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation is also defending its homelands from disestablishment. An amicus brief filed last month says Congress has never taken clear steps to diminish the reservation, which consists of an estimated 3 million acres in eastern Oklahoma.

"Only two identified junctures exist at which disestablishment might have taken place: 1901 and 1906," the February 11 brief reads. "At both junctures Congress enacted provisions that, far from abolishing the reservation, evidenced Congresss intent to preserve it, and at both junctures the surrounding history provides ample confirmation."

Jimcy McGirt is currently serving time in the Oklahoma correctional system for crimes committed in 1997. Source: Source: OK Offender / OK Department of Corrections

On the opposite side of the argument is Oklahoma. The state prosecuted McGirt for heinous crimes -- the sexual assault of a child -- and intends to keep him in prison for several hundred years.

"In a series of statutes leading up to statehood, Congress systematically removed legal distinctions that separated tribal members from non-members in the Indian Territorysubjecting all to the same laws in the same courts," the March 13 brief argues. "Congress then transferred that race-blind territorial jurisdiction to the new courts upon statehood."

As with the last case in which the status of the reservation was at issue, Indian Country is standing with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Advocating for the interests of hundreds of tribes , the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center , the Native American Rights Fund , the National Congress of American Indians , along with prominent politicians from Oklahoma, former U.S. Attorneys from Democratic and Republican administrators, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and other allies, have submitted briefs.

"The only criminal jurisdiction affected by the outcome in this case is the jurisdiction over crimes committed by by or against tribal citizens," the brief submitted by the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center states. "And no sovereign has a greater interest in prosecuting these violent crimes than Tribal Nations, particularly where the crime is committed against a Native child."

Were the Supreme Court to reaffirm the status of the Creek Reservation, crimes committed by Indians can be prosecuted by the federal government, as all well as by tribal government. With the McGirt pending, the U.S Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma did just that, successfully securing a guilty plea in another case in which the state had tried to assert jurisdiction over an Indian.

"This United States Attorneys Office takes seriously its special trust responsibility to prosecute violent crimes in Indian Country, said U.S. Attorney Trent Shores , a citizen of the Choctaw Nation who was named to his position by President Donald Trump and serves as chair of the Native American Issues Subcommittee at the Department of Justice , a body that develops and guides policy in Indian Country.

Despite such assertions, the Trump administration is not siding with Indian Country in McGirt. The Department of Justice argues that subjecting millions of acres in eastern Oklahoma to federal jurisdiction is just too much for federal prosecutors in the Northern District, as well as the Eastern District, to handle. A brief also claims the federal district courts in those regions would be overwhelmed.

"If the courts decision were applied to all five tribes, the district courts and U.S. Attorneys Offices for the Northern and Eastern Districts of Oklahoma could expect approximately 13 times as many felony cases annually," the March 20 filing reads. "A decision in petitioners favor thus would require a great increase in the dockets of federal district courts and federal law-enforcement presence and resources."
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Australia's coronavirus infection rate has fallen by two-thirds in the last few days in the first real sign the country may be flattening the curve.

Latest national figures show a drop in the increase of cases from as high as 30 per cent a day to about nine per cent, just over a week after the borders were closed to non-residents.

However, experts warned the next two weeks will to critical and see whether the curve is really flattening or if this is just a mirage with a new wave of outbreaks to come.

The country had 3,984 cases with 16 deaths on Sunday night, passing 4,000 the next morning, with 344 new positive tests on Sunday.

This was a just a 9.4 per cent increase from Saturday's 3,640 cases and a massive drop from the 26.2 per cent jump on March 22.

Australia's increase in coronavirus cases has plummeted in the past few days, falling from a 26.2 per cent jump on March 22 to just 9.4 per cent on Sunday. This graph shows the number of new cases each day since March 12 in red - they sharply rise until a week ago when they begin to flatten out. As shown by the black line, though the number of new cases a day is still higher than early in the outbreak, the rate of increase has dropped dramatically and is still falling

The country had 3,984 cases with 16 deaths on Sunday night - the last full day of figures from all states. The total number passed 4,000 the next morning with a further 165 cases and two deaths reported by afternoon Monday

Prime Minister Scott Morrison touted the figures while at the same time bringing in more draconian restrictions banning gatherings of more than two people.

But if the trend continues, the government could possibly consider easing these measures within weeks, along with forced closures of many businesses.

Australia's flattening curve by the numbers Date March 12 March 13 March 14 March 15 March 16 March 17 March 18 March 19 March 20 March 21 March 22 March 23 March 24 March 25 March 26 March 27 March 28 Match 29 New cases 24 50 42 49 77 79 116 142 167 196 281 362 430 285 378 370 460 344 Total cases 159 209 251 299 376 455 568 710 877 1,073 1,354 1,716 2,146 2,431 2,810 3,180 3,640 3,984 % Increase 17.8 31.4 20.1 19.1 25.8 21.0 24.8 25.0 23.5 22.3 26.2 26.7 25.1 13.3 15.6 13.2 14.5 9.4 Advertisement

Australia recorded its biggest daily rise on Saturday of 460 cases, and 370 and 378 the two days before.

However, during that time the total climbed by more than 1,000, so each day was a smaller percentage rise than the last.

The 460 rise now looks more like an outlier and infectious disease experts expect the number of new cases per day to level out in the weeks ahead.

'It's encouraging, certainly in the numbers have been declining over the past week,' University of NSW associate professor James Wood said.

'We want to keep the numbers per day the same as they are now without any further social controls. That would keep the infection rate dropping.'

Dr Wood attributed the the rush of cases a week ago to Australians flocking back from overseas, bringing coronavirus with them.

These included the 271 infected passengers on three cruise ships that were allowed to disembark in Sydney Harbour last week with no checks in a border security bungle.

'It's much worse almost everywhere else and we had a surge of cases with people coming back in before quarantine requirements [began] so that bumped our cases up massively last week,' Dr Wood said.

'We don't yet know the consequences of all those cases (how sick they will get) and it will take a week or so before they play out.'

Dr Wood said that meant the weekend's new case numbers were likely a truer figure, and could fall further once the effects of government restrictions started to show.

'By the end of the Easter break we should have a good idea of if our current measures are working,' he said.

Mr Morrison on March 23 closed pubs, gyms, cafes, and restaurants in 'stage 1' of lockdown procedures, and banned large gatherings.

Stage 2 began just three days later on March 26 when nail salons and other businesses with close contact were shut and gatherings slashed to 10 people.

From Sunday all overseas arrivals are quarantined in hotels for 14 days (a couple are pictured at Crown Promenade Hotel in Melbourne), instead of trusted to self-isolate themselves, meaning the risk of them passing on the virus was virtually zero

Australia's numbers were not helped by the 271 infected passengers on three cruise ships (Ruby Princess pictured) that were allowed to disembark in Sydney Harbour last week with no checks in a border security bungle

Dr Wood said there was a limit to how far the rates of increase in cases would fall as Australians overseas could still return, with thousands landing in airports every day.

'We are going to keep getting overseas cases. Our travel numbers have crashed but the number of cases in the source countries has gone up,' he said.

'We've been getting 100 overseas cases a day in NSW and I don't see that dropping in the next month.'

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

However, from Sunday all overseas arrivals are forcibly quarantined in hotels for 14 days, instead of trusted to self-isolate themselves, meaning the risk of them passing on the virus is virtually zero.

Health authorities are now more concerned with local cases - especially community transmission, where the source of the infection is unknown.

This would mean coronavirus was spreading through Australia undetected and if it got out of control could lead to a renewed epidemic.

Community transmission cases ballooned in NSW from 88 on Thursday to 145 on Friday, 170 on Saturday, and 207 on Sunday.

Local cases traced to a known source or cluster, which are of much less concern, rose from 221 to 351 in the same timeframe.

'The two things that may trigger a more severe shutdown are if the local number goes up significantly  particularly the cases where we don't know the source  or we start to see people come into hospital who we didn't know about,' Dr Wood warned.

Dr Wood said he expected to see a hospitals and ICU beds under a bit more pressure in dealing with the rush of overseas patients as they got sicker.

'It gets very severe as you get over 70 years of age. At least three per cent of cases will need to be in ICU,' he said.

'I expect ICU and hospital numbers to rise rapidly over the next week as it takes a week or two for people to get really sick.'

However, if the curve continued to flatten as it had in recent days, fewer patients would add to these numbers as patients recovered and went home.

Scott Morrison on Sunday told Australians over 70 to stay inside for their own protection. This scene in Sydney's Bondi is about as close to visiting grandparents as children can get as a result

Gatherings of more than two people were also banned, meaning this outdoor group exercise in New Farm Park in Brisbane would be illegal and cut to a one-on-one training session (with appropriate social distancing)

Australia's deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly also outlined the positive trend in the country's growth of infections at a press conference on Monday afternoon.

'While we were on a steep rise a week ago, that has stabilised over the last few days and that is good news and reflects probably two things,' he said.

'One, that we are having less people coming in from overseas. That measure we took over two weeks ago is starting to bite and so very few people, Australians, are coming back from overseas now and that is decreasing the numbers we are getting from that.

'A large number of people have come from a cruise ships... so they have been large numbers over recent times.

'The stabilisation of numbers is what we are looking to do, that flattening of the curve so that we can have enough hospital and intensive care resources over the coming weeks if indeed we need those.'

However, Dr Kelly said the measures Mr Morrison put in place on Sunday night were necessary to make sure coronavirus didn't take hold, particularly via community transmission.

'But this is not a time to take the foot off the brake. We really need to redouble our efforts to work as a society to make sure we are doing everything we can to slow the spread of the virus,' he said.

Scenes like this on Bondi Beach are what prompted the government to clamp down on gatherings to prevent local transmission the virus, now the biggest concern with the borders closed

Coronavirus is still running rampant through Europe and North America with outbreaks beginning in Africa, South Asia, and South America.

But in East Asia where the virus began, life is beginning to slowly return to normal in a few countries that have already flattened the curve.

China claimed to have just 45 new cases on Sunday and South Korea 105 - the two countries hardest hit in the early days of the pandemic.

Both these countries imposed border closures or quarantines on international arrivals in the past few days as they now view the biggest threat to be outside their borders.
ZURICH (dpa-AFX) - The UBS Group AG (UBS) announced that its AGM will take place on 29 April 2020. The company noted that it will not be possible to physically participate in the AGM. Voting rights can only be exercised through the independent proxy. The AGM will be held in German and broadcast live in both English and German. The company stated that Nathalie Rachou and Mark Hughes are nominated for election to the Board at the AGM. David Sidwell, Isabelle Romy and Robert Scully will not stand for re-election. As previously communicated, the Directors proposes an ordinary dividend of $0.73 in cash per share for fiscal 2019. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
By Monday evening, four Montanans had died from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. At least 177 had fallen ill and 12 people around the state are hospitalized, according to information from the state.

The four people who have died include a man in his 70s from Lincoln County and a resident from Madison County.

Sunday night the Cut Bank Pioneer Press newspaper reported that Toole County resident Bev Rogers had died of COVID-19.

And on Monday morning, in a video posted to the Toole County Health Department's Facebook page, Blair Tomsheck, who works at the health department, confirmed the second death of a resident there, bringing the statewide total to four. She did not provide information about the person's age, gender or anything else.

Last week the Marias Medical Center said employees at the Marias Heritage Center have tested positive for COVID-19. Those facilities are in Shelby, in Toole County.

This situation also exposed others to COVID-19 and, as such, we expect that there could be other positives, the press release said.

The Marias Heritage Center is a 40-unit retirement and assisted living facility.

Gov. Steve Bullock on Monday released a statement about the deaths and also saying the state was working to get additional resources to the county.

Losing two more Montanans to COVID-19 is a blow to our statewide community. Todays news is a heartbreaking reminder to us all that we must continue to do everything we can to slow the spread of this disease. Montanans in every corner of our state are keeping the family and friends of these Montanans in our hearts, Bullock said.

Bullock's office said it was notified of the deaths Monday and is aware of the risks to the senior community in Toole County, which has six cases, and is working to deploy additional resources to the health care system. That includes sending additional personal protective equipment for health care providers and using health care staff from other areas of the state, the governor's office said Monday.

Toole County commission chair Joe Pehan said Monday that health care facilities there are on lockdown and patients and residents are not allowed out of their rooms, to help prevent the spread of the virus. Employees wear protective suits when delivering meals.

"We're taking every precaution to keep everyone safe and keep this from spreading in all our facilities," Pehan said. "The whole town, we're on the governor's shelter-in-place (order) so there isn't hardly any movement in the town of Shelby whatsoever."

Gallatin County still has the most cases in the state, by far, at 69.

Yellowstone has 28 cases; Missoula has 12; Lewis and Clark has 11; Butte- Silver Bow and Flathead each have nine; Cascade has seven; Toole has six; Madison and Lincoln have four; Park, Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, Broadwater and Lake all have three; Jefferson has two; and Ravalli, Meagher, Roosevelt and Hill all have one.

By Monday evening, COVID-19 tests for 4,411 Montanans had been processed at the state lab in Helena. That number does not include tests facilities have sent to private labs.

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Herstory Lessons pays tribute to women whose accomplishments are hidden from history, but who have made an impact on the world. In celebration of Women's History Month, "GMA" is highlighting these hidden female figures who have made a critical contribution to our culture.

On September 11, 2001, Heather "Lucky" Penney was chosen for a high-stakes mission that could have changed the course of American history.

Her goal was to intercept United Airlines Flight 93, the flight then-believed to be heading to another target such as the U.S. Capitol, but now known as the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.

What she didnt know at the time was that her father, a United Airlines pilot, couldve been flying that very plane.

PHOTO: Heather 'Lucky' Penney was a fighter pilot called upon to potentially risk her life to protect the nation during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. (ABC News)

MORE: Herstory Lessons: The inspiring story of the 1st black female reporter for The Washington Post

When asked if shed do it all over again, Penney told "GMA," "Absolutely. Even with daughters, even with my life now."

PHOTO: Heather Penney is best known for defending American skies during the 9/11 terror attacks. (Courtesy Heather Penney)

Penney was born at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona in 1974.

"Aviation has always been in my blood. As a matter of fact, I'm a third-generation pilot," Penney said.

Her father, John Penney, was a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who had flown during the Vietnam War before he later became a commercial pilot for United Airlines.

"I learned early on that as long as I stayed quiet and didn't touch anything that my dad would let me tag along," Penney said.

Penney got her pilots license at 18. But it wasnt until she went to college in 1992 that she learned women werent allowed to be fighter pilots. Realizing she couldnt pursue her dream, she turned to liberal arts, majoring in English. Then, in 1993, Congress opened combat aviation to women.

"I didn't learn about this change in the law that allowed me to enter the cockpit until I was in graduate school," Penney said.

PHOTO: Heather 'Lucky' Penney speaks to veterans at the Southern Utah Veterans Home in Irvins, Utah, about her experiences on Sept. 11, and how she was ready to make the ultimate sacrifice, Sept. 11, 2019. (Chris Caldwell/The Spectrum & Daily News via USA Today Network, FILE)

In 1996, Penney began following in her fathers footsteps. She applied to and was hired at the District of Columbia Air National Guard.

Story continues

Two years later, Penney began her career when she was commissioned as an Air Force officer. She started undergraduate pilot training in Texas, and earned her aviation nickname.

"Lucky is my call sign. Realistically, it's a play off of my last name, 'Lucky' Penney ... It's given to you by your fighter squadron after you become combat mission ready," Penney said.

Three years after Penney stepped into the cockpit -- and being among the first wave of America's female fighter pilots -- 9/11 happened.

MORE: For a mother and her 2 daughters at Delta, piloting is a family business

At the time, Penney was a rookie pilot in the 121st Fighter Squadron of the D.C. Air National Guard, which hadn't yet had a female F-16 fighter pilot before.

"It's incredibly physically demanding and very intellectual," Penney said of flying an F-16.

PHOTO: Heather Penney, Lockheed Martin Director United States Air Force Systems at Lockheed Martin, speaks during the Breaking the Gender Barrier panel at the Air Space, Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Md., Sept. 19, 2017. (Chad Trujillo/U.S. Air Force)

Penney described the morning of 9/11 as crisp and clear, with blue skies. She was in a meeting when someone said an aircraft flew into the World Trade Center. At first, like much of the world, they thought it was a tragic accident.

"It wasn't until he came back the second time and said, 'A second aircraft flew into the second World Trade Center. It was on purpose,'" Penney said.

Penney said at that time in Washington, D.C., there were no missiles in place to defend the Capitol, there were no armed aircraft standing by and that there was no system for something like this.

"So the Secret Service calls us and gives us that authorization to launch -- our director of operations at the time, he was a major, Marc Sasseville, [he] looked at me and said, 'Lucky, you're with me,'" Penney said. "And he told Dan Caine and Brandon Rasmussen, who took off after us, he told them to wait until they had missiles."

PHOTO: Heather 'Lucky' Penney was a fighter pilot called upon to potentially risk her life to protect the nation during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. (ABC News)

In the meantime, someone needed to get airborne to stop the hijacked plane. Penney and Sasseville would fly together but in separate planes. It was not just a pact. It was a potentially fatal mission.

"We all knew that this was a one-way mission ... if we were successful, we wouldn't be coming back," Penney said. "[We] were prepared to sacrifice our lives to protect our nation. We had no missiles, no armament onboard. And so we knew that if we were able to find this airliner that we would have to crash our jets into [it] to prevent it from getting to the United States Capitol," Penney said.

PHOTO: Heather Penney with her father, John Penney, a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel. (Courtesy Heather Penney)

In the tense and confusing moments after the New York and Pentagon attacks, their mission was to stop Flight 93 from hitting another location and to take it down, along with everyone on board.

"It never occurred to me that my dad, who was a pilot for United at the time, could have been airborne on that day. He had been flying routes up and down on East Coast," Penney said. "My mother figured it out weeks afterwards that that actually could have been him in the cockpit. As for me, that thought never crossed my mind. And if it had, it wouldn't have changed it."

Penney accepted her fate and the fate of those on board. All of their lives would have to be sacrificed for the possibility of saving others.

PHOTO: Heather 'Lucky' Penney was a fighter pilot called upon to potentially risk her life to protect the nation during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. (ABC News)

MORE: This all-female team of aviation technicians is taking the industry to new heights

As luck would have it, she would not have to carry out that mission. The heroic passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93 fought the terrorists to regain control and crashed the plane into a field in Pennsylvania.

PHOTO: Heather Penney was among the first wave of America's female fighter pilots. (Courtesy Heather Penney)

"The true heroes, if you think about it, are the passengers on Flight 93. And the first responders who rushed into the buildings, not just stood outside. Or the people who are in the buildings who helped each other, or even the workers who cleaned up Ground Zero, knowing that that work would eventually kill them. But doing it anyways because our nation needed the healing," Penney said.

"In the weeks and the months that followed, I did what everyone else in my squadron did, which was fly, combat air patrols ... I didn't really feel like I needed to process anything because I didn't feel like what I did was special or unique," Penney said.

She went on to fly two combat tours in Iraq and eventually took a job at Lockheed Martin, where she worked to communicate between engineers, programs and Air Force customers.

Today, shes a senior fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, and works on defense policy, research and analysis.

Shes also a mom to two girls. And she still flies.

"We all have that capacity but we don't have to wait for history, that we can all do something that changes somebody else's life today," Penney said. "And it might be a minor kindness. It might be just having a little bit extra courage to do the right thing. Or overcoming our own fears again to do that thing that needs to be done."

Herstory Lessons: Female pilot was prepared to give her life to stop the 9/11 attacks originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com
To the Virginia Tech community,

In recent days, the first confirmed cases of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Southwest Virginia have emerged. Included among these cases is a member of the Virginia Tech community, a student living off campus in Blacksburg who is believed to have been exposed during recent international travel. According to the New River Health District, our student is receiving care and has been in self-isolation, with no known exposures to the public. There is no evidence of a risk of community spread and we wish the student a quick recovery.

The Virginia Department of Health, working with our own health professionals, has identified the individuals who came in contact with the student and is managing the situation to prevent further exposure in this case. Based on the experiences of other Virginia communities, and those throughout the country, it is likely that more cases will be identified in the coming days and weeks. Going forward, all cases will be noted on Virginia Techs COVID-19 website. Our thoughts are with everyone in the Hokie community nationwide and around the world who is dealing with the effects of the virus.

By now you all should be aware of the current procedures we have in place to continue instruction online, maintain research and critical operations, and keep our employees on the payroll, while also following state mandates and recommendations to minimize the spread of the virus. It is more important than ever for you to stay informed by visiting vt.edu/covid-19 and reading the Daily Email.

I strongly encourage you to follow public health guidelines to stay at home and practice social distancing to keep our community healthy and ensure that we continue to have the capacity to care for and manage the needs of those who become ill. There is strong evidence that communities that take decisive action to #flattenthecurve have fewer cases of COVID-19.

Our local community has created a task force to share resources and expertise to meet the needs that arise. I encourage you to support the local businesses who are working to provide food and essentials within the guidelines issued by the governor and Virginia Department of Health. In addition to the serious health concerns, this situation is potentially devastating for businesses and community partners, many of which have supported Virginia Tech for generations. Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Montgomery County are a crucial part of what makes our campus a unique and a special place. We could not ask for better partners, neighbors, and friends.

I want to speak directly to our students, those in Blacksburg as well as those in communities across the country. Whether you are here on the Blacksburg campus, in off-campus residences, or in another community, it is your individual and collective responsibility in the spirit of Ut Prosim (That I May Serve) to respect and protect yourself and others by following public health guidelines. If you are on campus or in town, continue to follow state and university guidelines regarding social distance and limited contact. Stay at home if you can. You are here because this is the safest and perhaps the only place you had to go, a place you share with a broad community of people whose generous spirit of friendship and hospitality makes Virginia Tech feel like home.

This semester we will all face challenges, and we will all have opportunities to have a positive impact on the lives of others. Thank you for everything you do to support our community.

In the spirit of Ut Prosim,

Tim Sands,

President
Geneva Wood, 93, is coronavirus free.

The Family of Geneva Wood

Geneva Wood, 90, was hospitalized with the coronavirus in early March.

Days later, the hospital called in her family to say their goodbyes.

While her prognosis looked bleak, Wood survived and credited her family, God, and potato soup for her recovery.

Here is the recipe for the simple soup. It's not a cure, but it looks soothing.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

When the now 90-year-old Geneva Wood was a child, her mother taught her how to make potato soup. Ever since, she's made it for herself when she felt sick.

That recipe came in handy this month when Wood was hospitalized with the coronavirus.

Having lived a full life, Wood, of Kirkland, Washington, declined ventilation and was expected to succumb to the illness.

After a few weeks of medical oversight and visits from her family, she made an unlikely recovery.

She credited family, God, and potato soup for her survival.

To be clear, potato soup is not a cure for coronavirus.

Still, her granddaughter, Kate Neidigh, who posted the family recipe on her Instagram, gave Insider permission to share it with readers.

The Wood family potato soup.

Kate Neidigh

Ingredients:

1 small sweet onion

2 medium Russet potatoes

milk (to consistency)

half and half (to consistency)

and black pepper

First, finely dice sweet onion and peel and cut Russet potatoes into bite-sized pieces.

Put the vegetables into a pot and cover them with just enough water that they are submerged.

Boil until the potato starts to fall apart and do not drain.

Add milk and half and half to the desired consistency and heat through, but don't boil.

Add black pepper to taste.

The recipe makes two bowls, but can make more depending on how much milk or half and half is used, her daughter said.

"She stretches it to four bowls," Cami Neidigh said.

Wood's daughter, Cami Neidigh, told Insider that the family brought the soup to the hospital for her mother.

Story continues

When Wood fell ill, she was recovering from a stroke at the Life Care at Kirkland nursing home.

After being released from the hospital on March 24, Wood is now back at her own home under the watchful eye of her children.

While the soup might have been soothing, Cami Neidigh thinks it was her mother's strength and independence that helped her pull through.

Read the original article on Insider
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 16:33:38|Editor: yhy

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WASHINGTON, March 29 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that the country is stepping up the development of treatments for COVID-19 patients, including experimenting with the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine and blood-related therapies.

Addressing a White House briefing, Trump said that hydroxychloroquine is being administered to 1,100 patients in New York along with Z-Pak, or azithromycin.

"It's very early yet. It only started two days ago. But we will see what happens," he said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is also allowing the emergency use of a blood-related therapy called convalescent plasma as an experimental treatment for seriously ill patients, Trump said.

The therapy involves taking blood plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19. New sick patients will be transfused with the blood to boost their immune systems, Trump said, adding that early results are promising.

Convalescent plasma that contains antibodies to the novel coronavirus is possibly effective against the infection, the FDA said in a news release.

Though the administration expressed optimism for these therapies, medicine and immunology experts remain skeptical for the results and safety of the treatments.

Robert Schooley, professor of medicine at the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at the University of California, San Diego, told Xinhua the evidence that hydroxychloroquine benefits patients is still not very solid.

"There are risks from these medications, especially in the case of chloroquine, and they should not be taken except under close medical supervision," Schooley said.

Chloroquine can cause sudden death by causing abnormalities in cardiac rhythm, and this risk is potentially increased by the simultaneous use of azithromycin, he warned.

Stanley Perlman, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa, told Xinhua there is no data supporting the use of these drugs, unless they have some sort of anti-inflammatory effects.

He said the blood-related therapy may work if delivered in the early stages of the disease before people become sick, though finding enough convalescent plasma may be an issue.

To push more testing, the FDA authorized on Friday a new test developed by U.S. medical devices company Abbott Laboratories.

The test could deliver positive results in just five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes, with 50,000 such tests expected to be conducted per day from next week, according to the company.

Vaccine development is moving along very rapidly, said Trump, adding the United States is quickly unleashing every tool possible to vanquish the virus.

"While developing vaccines, we need to use epidemiological interventions such as the ones used in China, and recently in the United States, and drugs as they come along to seek to reduce the morbidity and mortality caused by this virus as much as possible," Schooley said.

Trump announced that federal social distancing guidelines would be extended to April 30.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the mitigation efforts are taking effect and the extension of the social distancing guidelines is a "wise and prudent decision."

Deborah Birx, response coordinator of the White House COVID-19 task force, said social distancing efforts could save hundreds of thousands of American lives.

Trump said the death rate in the country is likely to peak in two weeks, and he hopes the country will be on its way to recovery by June 1.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States has topped 143,025 as of Sunday night, with 2,506 deaths, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Meghan Markles new documentary with Disney is about to hit the studios streaming service. The former Suits star worked on the project last summer, lending her voice as the films narrator. With Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry setting up a new home in Los Angeles, royal watchers have accused her of breaking royal protocol by working with Disney while she was still a part of the monarchy.

Meghan Markle | Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage

Inside Meghan Markles deal with Disney

Last summer, Meghan agreed to narrate an upcoming Disney documentary titled Elephants. She donated her entire salary from the project to a charity she and Harry have worked with in the past, Elephants Without Borders.

The Duchess completed the voiceover work in the fall and the movie is scheduled to hit Disney+ on April 3. The premiere date is only a few days after Prince Harry and Meghans exit from the royal family becomes official.

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has her first post-royal job: narrating a Disney documentary about elephants  watch the trailer: https://t.co/BQzyvpLrMW  ET Canada (@ETCanada) March 27, 2020

Meghan Markles passion for elephants is what drew her to the project in the first place. In 2017, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex cared for elephants and met with workers who look after the animals during a trip to Botswana.

While they both have connections to elephant charities, Harrys interactions with Disney CEO Bob Iger sparked rumors that he was the one who got Meghan the job in the first place.

The Duchess of Sussex takes heat for Disney deal

At the premiere of The Lion King last summer, Harry was caught talking to Iger about Meghans desire to do voiceover work. According to Express, a clip from their interaction clearly shows Harry telling Iger that Meghan is very interested in doing a job with you, shes good at voiceovers.

The video caused quite the stir for the royals, who traditionally do not do work on projects outside of the world of charity. Little did anyone know that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would announce their departure from the monarchy six months later.

The truth behind Harry's Disney voiceover work request for Meghan:



The Duchess recorded the voiceover for Disneynature's new film Elephants in autumn 2019, after being approached by the filmmakers, Mark and Vanessa Berlowitz, earlier in the summer. https://t.co/iO7At6CWc2  Tinabop (@tinabop29) March 28, 2020

At the time, the media dubbed Meghan the Duchess of Disney and many royal experts felt like it was inappropriate for her to work with a for-profit business.

Some royal watchers even accused Meghan of breaking royal protocol by agreeing to narrate the documentary while she was an active member of the royal family.

Did Meghan Markle break royal protocol?

Royal watchers are convinced that Meghan broke royal protocol by agreeing to work with Disney on the documentary. Members of the royal family usually only work with charities, which is one reason why Meghan gave up acting in the first place.

While it might appear as though Meghan Markles deal with Disney is against royal protocol, expert Charlie Lankston explained why the Duchess is in the clear. For starters, Meghan did not receive any money from her work on the documentary. Instead, she donated her earnings to a charity in Africa.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle received a lot of backlash for breaking the royal family's protocol, even though they technically didn't do anything wrong. https://t.co/FBoPJKrRLp  E! News (@enews) May 11, 2019

Secondly, the movie is not set to premiere until after Harry and Meghan leave the royal family, so any money Disney earns from the project will happen after the couples exit becomes official.

Its worth noting that this project took place before Meghan officially stepped down as a member of the Royal Family, Lankston shared. Now that date is March 31 and this documentary is due to come out on April 3. I dont think theres any coincidence there with the timing.

The Sussexes accused of emailing Queen Elizabeth about their exit

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their exit from the royal family in January and have spent the past few months ironing out the final details of their departure. The announcement sent shockwaves through the royal family, and it remains unclear when they told the monarchy about their decision.

According to Page Six, one source claims that Harry and Meghan told Queen Elizabeth about their plan to leave over email. The insider says that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex sent Her Majesty the email while they were staying in Canada over the holiday season.

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Archie have a new place to call homehttps://t.co/99zanylEYv  ET Canada (@ETCanada) March 27, 2020

Her Majesty was shocked. People were angry the Queen had been so disrespected, the insider added.

As part of their departure from the monarchy, Harry and Meghan will become financially independent from the crown and will be spending most of their time in Los Angeles. Exactly how the couple plans on making money is yet to be seen but restarting Meghans acting career is definitely an option.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markles exit from the royal family will become official on March 31. Their decision to leave will be reexamined in 12 months.
New Jersey residents still wont have to pump their own gas for the foreseeable future as the state battles the coronavirus outbreak, Gov. Phil Murphy said on Monday.

Weve given no thought to changing that for the time being, Murphy said at the Trenton War Memorial during his daily coronavirus briefing, where he announced New Jersey now has at least 16,636 cases, including 198 deaths.

Oregon, the only other state with a self-service prohibition, temporarily lifted its ban in response to the outbreak.

Instead, just keep to social distancing rules while at the pump, the governor said.

In 2018, after Oregon lifted its ban for smaller, rural communities, Murphy said he had no plans to change the way New Jerseyans get their gas. Its not on our list, he said, days ahead of being sworn in as governor.

Murphy has maintained his stance since then. Last year, he joked he would not commit political suicide by going near who pumps the gas in the state.

Murphy, like other elected officials, has taken unprecedented steps to slow the spread of the virus. He has closed all schools in the state, ordered people to stay at home except for necessary travel, banned social gatherings, and ordered non-essential retail businesses to close until further notice. Officials have promised to prosecute those who violate the orders.

Sign up for text message alerts from NJ.com on coronavirus in New Jersey:





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Asian Paints said Amit Syngle, chief operating officer, will succeed KBS Anand as the managing director (MD) & CEO with effect from 1 April 2020.

KBS Anand, MD and CEO, will retire from the services of the company from 31 March 2020. Amit Syngle will hold the position as MD & CEO for a period of three years upto 31 March 2023. The announcement was made on Saturday, 28 March 2020.

The paint maker's consolidated net profit jumped 20.23% to Rs 764.43 crore on a 2.99% increase in net sales to Rs 5,420.28 crore in Q3 December 2019 over Q3 December 2018.

Asian Paints is engaged in the business of manufacturing, selling and distribution of paints, coatings, products related to home decor, bath fittings and providing of related services.

Shares of Asian Paints fell 0.25% at Rs 1,602.25. The stock traded in the range of Rs 1,561 to Rs 1,619 so far.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
SHANGHAI, March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Junshi Biosciences (HKEX: 1877), a leading innovation-driven biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapies, announced its audited consolidated annual results of the Company and its subsidiaries for the full-year ended December 31, 2019.



Financial Highlights (IFRS):

Total revenue was RMB775 million, mainly due to the sales of toripalimab since its commercialization in February 2019.

Due to continued investment in research and development ( R&D ), our R&D expenses were RMB946 million, representing a 75.8% increase from that in 2018. With constant progress in key clinical trials and the introduction of co-R&D and license-in projects, the Companys R&D pipeline expanded to small molecule drugs and antibody drug conjugates.

), our R&D expenses were RMB946 million, representing a 75.8% increase from that in 2018. With constant progress in key clinical trials and the introduction of co-R&D and license-in projects, the Companys R&D pipeline expanded to small molecule drugs and antibody drug conjugates. Selling and distribution expenses were RMB320 million, mainly due to the launch and commercialization of toripalimab.

Total comprehensive expense was RMB741 million, representing a slight increase from RMB715 million in 2018, mainly benefits from the contribution of toripalimab sales, but offset by the increase in R&D expenses and administrative expenses.

Net cash from financing activities was RMB594 million, principally attributable to net cash from the exercise of over-allotment option of H shares amounting RMB404 million in our initial public offering of H shares on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited.

Net cash used in investing activities was RMB952 million, mainly due to (1) the Lingang Production Bases construction. The Lingang Production Base is expected to enhance our current production capacity by ten times; and (2) diversification of our R&D pipeline and expansion to small molecule drugs and ADCs through equity investment.

Business Highlights

We have achieved significant progress with respect to our product commercialization, clinical trials, pipeline expansion and construction of production bases in the year of 2019, including:

As of the date of this announcement, we have developed a product pipeline comprising 21 drug candidates which covers a wide variety of disease areas associated with high levels of unmet medical needs, using our core platforms and through collaborations with third parties;

As of the date of this announcement, there were 14 pivotal registered clinical trials covering a broad spectrum indications for toripalimab being conducted simultaneously, including: urothelial carcinoma (UC), nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), melanoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC), triple-negative breast carcinoma (TNBC), esophageal carcinoma (EC), hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), gastric carcinoma (GC) and renal cell carcinoma (RCC);

Toripalimab has been well recognized in academic research during the year. Relevant study results have been published in journals such as Monoclonal Antibodies (mAbs), Journal of Hematology & Oncology, Annals of Oncology and Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO). In addition to the outstanding publication track-record in top academic journals, toripalimab related research was also presented in a series of influential academic conferences such as American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), World Conference for Lung Cancer (WCLC) and Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO). With the clinically-proven safety and efficacy, toripalimab is recommended in the 2019 edition of the CSCO Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Melanoma;

TAB004/JS004 (anti-BTLA monoclonal antibody) Investigational New Drug (IND) was approved for clinical study by the US FDA. We are currently conducting Phase I clinical trial in the United States. TAB004/JS004 was also approved for clinical trial by the National Medical Products Administration of China (NMPA) on January 23, 2020;

NDA application for UBP1211 (Humira biosimilar) to NMPA was submitted, and it was accepted in November 2019;

JS005 (anti-IL-17A monoclonal antibody) has received the Clinical Trial Approval from NMPA in August 2019. Phase I clinical trial of JS005 is expected to complete the first patient enrollment in the first half of 2020; and

Our Lingang Production Base with 30,000L capacity in Shanghai, constructed in accordance with the Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) standards, has obtained the Drug Production License issued by the Shanghai Medical Products Administration.

Product Pipeline

At present, we have 21 drug candidates, including 13 original innovative drugs independently developed by the Company and 8 drugs jointly developed with our partners. Our diversified drug pipeline covers different R&D stages. Our first product, JS001 (i.e. toripalimab), was officially launched for sale with approved indication of locally advanced or metastatic melanoma after standard treatment failure. Nine candidates obtained IND approvals from NMPA, including:

JS001, which was conditionally approved for marketing, commenced clinical trials for indication expansion;

UBP1211 (a biosimilar of Humira) was accepted for New Drug Application (NDA) by NMPA;

JS002 (a recombinant humanized anti-PCSK9 monoclonal antibody for injection) commenced Phase II clinical trial;

JS501 (a biosimilar of Avastin);

JS003 (a recombinant humanized anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody for injection);

JS101 (a pan-CDK inhibitor);

TAB004/JS004 (a recombinant humanized anti-BTLA monoclonal antibody for injection);

JS005 (a recombinant humanized anti-IL-17A monoclonal antibody for injection) commenced Phase I clinical trial; and

UBP1213 (a recombinant humanized anti-BLyS monoclonal antibody for injection) is being prepared for clinical trial.

Two candidates obtained approval from the US FDA for clinical trial:

JS001 commenced Phase Ib clinical trial in the United States.

TAB004/JS004 is the worlds first anti-BTLA monoclonal antibody for cancer treatment approved for clinical trial, and commenced Phase I clinical trial in the United States.

Twelve candidates are in the preclinical research stage, and an IND application for JS108 (a recombinant humanized anti-Trop2 monoclonal antibody-Tub196 conjugate for injection) has been submitted to the NMPA.

About Junshi Biosciences

Established in 2012, Junshi Biosciences is committed to developing first-in-class and best-in-class drugs through original innovation and becoming a pioneer in the area of translational medicine to provide patients with effective and affordable treatment options. On December 24, 2018, Junshi Biosciences was listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong with the stock code: 1877.HK. The Company has established a diversified R&D pipeline comprising 21 drug candidates with therapeutic areas covering cancer, metabolic diseases, autoimmune diseases, and neurologic diseases. Product types include monoclonal antibodies, fusion proteins, antibody drug conjugates, and small molecule drugs. With a combined 33,000L fermentation capacity in two GMP facilities at Shanghai and Wujiang, Junshi has established the manufacturing infrastructure to support commercialization and provide our partners and patients with high-quality products through a global supply chain network. For more information, please visit: http://junshipharma.com/en/Index.html

Contact Information

IR Team:

info@junshipharma.com

+ 86 021-2250 0300
Stock market LIVE Updates: Indices off opening lows; Nifty above 8,500-mark; Bajaj Finance, M&M, IndusInd Bank among top losers

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At 09:01 hrs IST, the Sensex is down 236.43 points or 0.79% at 29579.16, and the Nifty down 301.00 points or 3.48% at 8359.25.

Benchmark indices are trading weak in the pre-opening session with Nifty below 8400.

China is also working to help its auto spare parts manufacturers resolve cash flow problems, Xin said.

Autos account for a big portion of Chinas overall industrial production, and are the main driver of the countrys retail sales.

There is still not enough demand for autos, Xin told reporters according to Reuters, as the outbreak of the coronavirus has dramatically cut private consumption.

China may issue new policies to stimulate demand for automobiles, with the countrys auto industry still facing difficulties, Xin Guobin, vice minister of industry and information technology, said on Monday.

There was much uncertainty about whether funds would have to buy or sell for month- and quarter-end to meet their benchmarks, many of which would have been thrown out of whack by the wild market swings seen over March.

We continue to mark down 1H20 global GDP forecasts as our assessment of both the global pandemics reach and the damage related to necessary containment policies has increased, said JPMorgan economist Bruce Kasman. They now predict global GDP could fall at a 10.5% annualized rate in the first half of the year.

Asian shares slid on Monday and oil prices took another tumble as fears mounted that the global shutdown for the coronavirus could last for months, doing untold harm to economies despite central banks best efforts.

The meeting between the Finance Ministry and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will be held through video conferencing for the first time as there is lockdown across the country, the sources said.

According to sources, the government would resort to front-load its borrowing plan to deal with the challenges posed by COVID-19 on the economy.

The Finance Ministry and RBI will hold a meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) to decide on the government's borrowing plan for the first half of 2020-21 amid the lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Bajaj Finance, M&M, IndusInd Bank, UPL and ONGC led the decline among Nifty constituents while Cipla, TCS and ITC were the top gainers.

All the sectoral indices were trading over 2-4 percent lower.

Strides Pharma Science has received the Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) for the inspection conducted by the USFDA in January 2020 at Companys flagship facility KRS Gardens, Bangalore.

The Nifty Realty Index was down nearly 4 percent, while Nifty Bank index dropped 3.25 percent or 660 points dragged by RBL Bank, IDFC First Bank and Bandhan Bank.

The dollar was holding close to its lowest since 17 March, touched on Friday, making gold cheaper for investors holding other currencies

Spot gold was up 0.3 percent at $1,621.85 per ounce. US gold futures rose 1 percent to $1,641.80.

Gold prices edged up on Monday as the US dollar hovered near a two-week low touched in the previous session, while coronavirus lockdowns tightened across the world and stoked fears of economic damage, lifting demand for safe-haven bullion.

The oil markets have been slammed by demand destruction caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the Saudi Arabia-Russia price war that is flooding markets with extra supply.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell as far as $19.92, near an 18-year low hit earlier this month, and was last trading down 5.4 percent, or $1.17, at $20.34 a barrel.

Brent futures were down 6.7 percent, or $1.68, to $23.25 a barrel after earlier dropping to $23.03, the lowest since November 2002.

Crude oil benchmarks fell sharply on Monday, with Brent hitting its lowest since November 2002, as the global coronavirus pandemic worsened and the Saudi Arabia-Russia price war showed no signs of abating.

The rupee had settled at 74.89 against the US dollar on Friday.

The rupee opened weak at 75.17 at the interbank forex market and then fell further to 75.21, down 32 paise over its last close.

Forex traders said weak opening in domestic equities dragged the local unit amid mounting fears of a coronavirus-led economic slowdown.

The rupee fell 32 paise to 75.21 against the US dollar in opening trade on Monday, as investors braced for a prolonged period of uncertainty as coronavirus-induced lockdowns tightened across the world and in India.

The reversal by Trump, which he said would be disclosed in greater detail on Tuesday, came as the US death toll topped 2,460 from the respiratory disease, according to a Reuters tally, with more than 141,000 cases, the most of any country in the world.

President Donald Trump on Sunday extended his stay-at-home guidelines until the end of April, dropping a hotly criticized plan to get the economy up and running by mid-April after a top medical adviser said more than 100,000 Americans could die from the coronavirus outbreak.

Ma Jun, a central bank adviser told state media that China still has ample room for monetary policy adjustment and the rate decision took into consideration the return of Chinese companies to work, the global virus situation and a deterioration in the external economic environment.

The central bank did not give a reason for the move.

The Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) said on its website that it was lowering the 7-day reverse repo rate to 2.20 percent from 2.40 percent.

Chinas central bank unexpectedly cut the rate on reverse repurchase agreements by 20 basis points on Monday, the largest in nearly five years, as authorities stepped up measures to relieve pressure on an economy ravaged by coronavirus pandemic.

Physical gold dealers struggled to meet surging safe-haven demand last week, especially in Singapore, as the outbreak choked global supply chains, while massive discounts were offered in India amidst a lockdown.

The dollar was holding close to its lowest since 17 March, touched on Friday, making gold cheaper for investors holding other currencies.

Spot gold was up 0.3 percent at $1,621.85 per ounce. US gold futures rose 1 percent to $1,641.80.

Gold prices edged up on Monday as the U.S dollar hovered near a two-week low touched in the previous session, while coronavirus lockdowns tightened across the world and stoked fears of economic damage, lifting demand for safe-haven bullion.

But even as Shanghai basks in success, for cash-seeking companies and their bankers the question is whether China can maintain this momentum as the coronavirus continues to cause massive disruption in global financial markets.

A total of 33 companies raised $7.31 billion floating on the Shanghai main board and the citys start up-focused STAR market, according to Refinitiv data for the first quarter, easily outstripping New Yorks Nasdaq where 17 companies raised $5.13 billion via IPOs.

Shanghai has topped global initial public offering (IPO) league table for the first time in nearly three years, even as the coronavirus epidemic which originated in China rocked markets around the world.

The dollar fetched 107.55 yen in early Asian trade, against 107.88 yen in New York on Friday.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 was down 3.26 percent or 631.50 points at 18,757.93 in early trade, while the broader Topix index dropped 3.17 percent or 46.30 points to 1,413.19.

Tokyo stocks opened down more than three per cent Monday, as traders fret about the spreading coronavirus with a higher yen against the dollar also weighing on the market.

Axis Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack jumping nearly 6 percent

Sensex trimmed the losses in the early morning session and was trading 388 points or 1.30 percent at 29,426.67 while the broader Nifty was down 105.30 points or 1.22 percent at 8,554.95 at around 10.50 AM.

Economists said the changes are the most aggressive easing since the 2009 financial crisis and also come as the central bank forecast deflation and a sharp economic contraction in 2020.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) manages monetary policy through exchange rate settings, rather than interest rates, letting the Singapore dollar rise or fall against currencies of its main trading partners within an undisclosed band.

Singapores central bank aggressively eased its monetary policy on Monday, as widely expected, with the city-states bellwether economy bracing for a deep recession due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The letter was signed by the chief executives of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Alaska Air Group, JetBlue Airways Corp, Southwest Airlines Co, Hawaiian Airlines and Atlas Air Worldwide. It was also signed by senior executives at UPS Corp and FedEx and the head of an airline trade association.

In a letter dated Saturday and seen by Reuters, carriers wrote that given the urgent and immediate need, it is essential that these funds be disbursed as soon as possible.

Major US airlines asked the US Treasury to move quickly to release up to $58 billion in government grants and loans and recommended a formula to divide up the money.

The market capitalisation of all BSE-listed companies stood at Rs 1.11 lakh crore in the early seeion on Monday, down from Rs 1.12 lakh crore on Friday.

Sensex plunged 1,000 points to to 28,708 while broader Nifty was down below 8,400-level, reported Financial Express.

The investors lost about 1.42 lakh crore worth wealth in early trade on Monday as market fell sharply in the opening session.

"Responding to the call given by Prime Minister of India, the company will donate Rs 150 crore to the PM-CARES Fund," the company said in a statement.

The company said it has set aside an outlay of over Rs 500 crore per month to support about 1.60 lakh contract workers by continuing to pay their wages during the ongoing lockdown and providing them with food and basic amenities at labour camps, while maintaining the COVID-19 prevention and containment protocol.

L&T joins a list of other corporates including Tata Group and Reliance Industries who have come forward to offer their support to fight this unprecedented crisis.

Engineering and construction giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T) on Monday announced Rs 150 crore donation to the PM-CARES Fund to fight the coronavirus outbreak and said it has set aside over Rs 500 crore per month to support about 1.60 lakh contract workers.

The contribution is in addition to the ongoing activities being already undertaken through Srinivasan Services Trust (SST), the CSR arm of the group, it added.

This is in line with the company''s continuous endeavour to ensure prosperous and sustainable communities, TVS Motor Company said in a statement.

The company is contributing on behalf of various group firms like TVS Credit Services Ltd, Sundaram-Clayton Ltd and others, it said.

TVS Motor Company on Monday said it will donate Rs 25 crore to the prime minister's Relief Fund (PM-CARES) for battle against COVID-19 pandemic.

Market analysts said the fall in gold futures was mostly in tune with weak spot demand.

The yellow metal for June delivery declined by Rs 462, or 1.06 percent, to Rs 43,083 per 10 gram in 975 lots.

On the Multi Commodity Exchange, gold prices for April delivery fell by Rs 354, or 0.81 percent, to Rs 43,217 per 10 gram in a business turnover of 85 lots.

Gold futures on Monday fell 0.81 percent to Rs 43,217 per 10 gram as participants offloaded their holdings tracking weak global trend.

In contrast to sharp price declines in many commodities, coffee prices are higher on strong demand and expectations that supplies, which were tight even before the virus spread, will tighten further. Growers in major exporters Brazil and Colombia, among other countries, have seen prices rise.

The global pandemic has prompted governments around the world to impose severe restrictions on movement in a bid to stem the spread of the virus. Supply chains are backing up as air freight capacity plunges and companies struggle to find enough truck drivers and shipping crews.

Coffee importers in some of the largest consuming countries are stockpiling, bringing forward orders by up to a month to avoid shortages if supply chains are disrupted by coronavirus lockdowns.

It also said it would provide banks with T$200 billion ($6.61 billion) of financing to support companies hit hard by the virus impact.

The central bank this month cut interest rates for the first time in more than four years to a new low of 1.125 percent, and reduced its growth forecast for the export-oriented economy amid growing fears that the coronavirus could trigger a global recession.

There is room for more interest rate cuts in Taiwan, but they will not be reduced to zero or into negative territory, and the government will offer more funds for small- and medium-sized companies if needed, its central bank said on Monday.

Bajaj Finance was the top loser in the Sensex pack tanking nearly 9 percent followed by HDFC at 8.04 percent

Sensex plunged 843.44 points or 2.83 percent to 28,972.15 in the afternoon trade while the broader Nifty was down 231.55 points or 2.67 percent at 8,428.70 at around 12.10 pm.

The BRLLR for all new floating rate loans for all personal loans and retail loans of all asset classes and floating rate loans to MSMEs, shall be 7.25 percent effective from 28 March 2020, the state-owned lender said.

The BRLLR linked to RBI Repo Rate is revised downwards in line with the reduction on Reserve Bank of India Repo Rate from 5.15 percent to 4.40 percent, it said.

Bank of Baroda on Monday said it has slashed the interest rate on loans for retail, personal and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to 7.25 percent with effect from March 28. Bank of Baroda, has reduced its Baroda Repo Linked Lending Rate (BRLLR) by 75 basis points with effect from 28 March 2020, it said in a statement.

AGL will soon commission the remaining 9 MW Skhalta hydro power project, which is also a component of the overall Shuakhevi project scheme, it said in a statement.

Adjaristsqali Georgia - a joint venture between Tata Power, Norway''s Clean Energy Invest (CEI) and International Financial Corporation- is setting up a 187 MW of hydro project at a cost of around USD 500 million. It has now commissioned 178 MW of the total capacity.

Private utility Tata Power on Monday said it has commenced commercial operations of 178 MW Shuakhevi hydro power project in Georgia.

The communication on "measures regarding ensuring availability of recharge vouchers and payment options for prepaid services" comes in the backdrop of 21-day lockdown imposed in the country to deal with the outbreak and spread of coronavirus pandemic.

"...you are required to take necessary steps as deemed fit including extending the validity period to ensure that all prepaid subscribers can enjoy uninterrupted services during the period of lockdown," TRAI said in a communication to all operators on Sunday.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has also sought details of the steps being taken to ensure availability of uninterrupted telecom services to such customers on a "priority basis".

Sector regulator TRAI has asked telecom operators to extend the validity period of prepaid users to ensure that subscribers get uninterrupted services during the 21-day nationwide lockdown.

Most trade and industry officials now agree that Indias vegetable oil demand - predominantly palm oil and soyoil - will fall below previous years 23 million tonnes.

Edible oil consumption in India, the worlds biggest importer of the cooking medium, trebled over the past two decades as the population grew, incomes rose, and restaurants sprang up to cater to a crowd that started eating out more often.

Demand for vegetable oil in India is poised to fall for the first time in decades as restaurants have pulled down their shutters to comply with a government order that imposed a 21-day nationwide lockdown to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

The investment announcement comes at a critical time for India, as the already sagging economic growth is feared to be taking a heavy hit due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Manila-based body will be investing in the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund's (NIIF) fund of funds which will ensure that the actual money invested will be a few times more than the $100 million.

Multilateral institution Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday announced a $100 million funding for the Indian infrastructure sector through the government-promoted NIIF.

The increase would roughly match the nearly 17 trillion yen in additional bonds Japan sold in 2009 to fund stimulus measures during the global financial crisis.

The additional 16 trillion yen ($149 billion) in bonds comes on top of the governments existing plan to sell nearly 129 trillion yen of Japanese government bonds (JGBs) in the fiscal year beginning in April.

Japan will boost government bond issuance by $149 billion from July to fund a massive stimulus package aimed at combating the hit to the economy from the coronavirus pandemic, two government sources told Reuters on Monday.

Bajaj Finance was the top loser in the Sensex pack tanking over 10 percent followed by HDFC at 8.90 percent

Sensex plummeted 1,028.07 points or 3.45 percent to 28,787.52 while the broader Nifty was down 274.20 points or 3.17 percent at 8,386.05 at around 1.10 pm.

Barring IT all sectors were trading in red, broder indices too witnessed selling pressure and were trading with down fall of 2 percent.volatility likely to persist in the market in the near term as investors assess the impact of the corona virus-induced lockdown on the economy, Sanmukhani said.

"Fears mounted that the global shutdown due to coronavirus could last for months which dented the sentiments. Further fall in crude oil prices extending last week losses as the coronavirus pandemic worsened and the Saudi Arabia-Russia price war showed no signs of abating kept the sentiments sober. Market although was trading down by 3 percent, it showed some recovery from early losses on report that there were no plans to extend the country-wide lockdown which gave some relief to Investors," he said.

Market started the week on a lower note tracking weakness in global peers as number of coronavirus cases increased around the globe, said Sundar Sanmukhani, head of Fundamental Research Desk, Choice Broking.

It has requested to send entries for Innovate2BeatCOVID having solutions to healthcare challenges as low-cost ventilators/respiratory solutions and Personal Protective Equipment, it added.

Marico Innovation Foundation has invited med-tech entrepreneurs, corporates and innovator to solve the med-tech challenges faced in the on-going COVID-19 crisis with a prize of Rs 2.5 crore, the company said a statement.

FMCG firm Marico and ATE Chandra Foundation have launched a nationwide hunt for innovative solutions to healthcare challenges during Covid-19 crisis.

Simon Cooper, CEO of Corporate, Commercial & Institutional Banking at Standard Chartered, said: Clearly theres a cost for companies to switch into these hugely in-demand items, so its an area where we can help them get up and running more quickly. At the same time, we want to make sure that existing manufacturers and service providers get the support they need.

Companies in scope include all those associated with helping to tackle Covid-19, including manufacturers and distributors in the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare providers, as well as non-medical companies that have volunteered to add this capability to their manufacturing output - goods in scope include ventilators, face masks, protective equipment, sanitisers and other consumables.

Standard Chartered announced today that it will commit $1 billion of financing for companies that provide goods and services to help the fight against COVID-19, and those planning the switch into making products that are in high demand to fight the global pandemic.

"We would work closely with our member banks and credit institutions to define the data reporting framework basis (after) the announcements made by the RBI governor, so that during the moratorium period there is no adverse impact on the credit histories and CIBIL Score of borrowers," the company said in a statement.

The move came after the RBI announcement of a 3-month moratorium for servicing all the term loans as a measure to contain the economic fallout due to the lockdown to contain coronavirus spread.

Credit information company Transunion Cibil on Monday assured borrowers that data reporting will be aligned to RBI's moratorium announcement and there will not be any dent to credit histories as a result of it.

"Based on requirements received from various states on urgent basis, the senior officials of the ministry coordinate with supply agencies for providing required material which can be further transported to the desired destinations," said a statement by the ministry on Monday.

The country is under a 21-day lockdown from March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus and all domestic and international commercial passenger flights have been suspended for this period.

The Civil Aviation Ministry on Monday said it is coordinating with the state governments to ensure cargo flight operations so that medical equipments and related essential items reach all parts of the country to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

Ind-Ra said it expects India to clock a 2.3 percent growth for the June quarter, down from its expectation of a 4.7 percent gross domestic product (GDP) expansion in March quarter.

The report comes amid a crippling impact on economic activity due to the three-week lockdown till 14 April which is expected to only aggravate the difficulties around growth that were existing before the pandemic. Some watchers are also estimating for a contraction of the economy in the June quarter.

It has assumed that a full or partial lockdown will continue till end of April and economic activities will be gradually restored only after May.

Domestic credit rating agency India Ratings (Ind-Ra) on Monday cut its FY21 growth forecast to 3.6 per cent amid coronavirus-related worries.

These companies are currently producing 40,000 litres of sanitisers per day and it will be increased to 60,000 litres soon, he said.

There has been a spurt in the demand for sanitisers following the outbreak of coronavirus in the state and to deal with this, the government issued licences to 27 distilleries and 15 sanitiser-manufacturing companies, principal secretary, Excise, Sanjay Bhoosreddy said.

Uttar Pradesh government has issued licences to 42 companies to make 40,000 litres of sanitisers every day in order to ensure adequate supply, officials said on Monday.

Mother Dairy, which is a major milk supplier in the national capital region with sales of over 30 lakh litres per day, has started home delivery for senior citizens in few localities of Delhi like Moti Bagh, Defence Colony and Greater Kailash, said Pradipta Sahoo, business head of Safal.

Last week, Mother Dairy had doubled its supply of fruits and vegetables in the Delhi-NCR at over 300 tonnes per day, as customers began panic-buying of household essentials after announcement of the 21-day nationwide lockdown.

Mother Dairy on Monday supplied around 250 tonnes of fruits and vegetables to its retail stores 'Safal' across Delhi-NCR to meet local demand, which has now stabilised with no panic-buying from customers.

This is an incentive to keep people on, doing actual work ... they can keep them on the books, on the payrolls, the prime minister said.

We must have a running economy to get through this, Morrison said in a televised news conference.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the six months of funding was necessary to ensure businesses were able to retain staff and were able to bounce back when the crisis had passed.

Australia will spend A$130 billion ($79.85 billion) to subsidise the wages of an estimated 6 million people, marking a third tranche of stimulus designed to limit the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic on the countrys economy.

It said despite the Rs 1.7 lakh crore economic package announced last year, private consumption growth would come under strong headwinds over the coming months.

"At Fitch Solutions, we are revising India's FY2020/21 (AprilMarch) real GDP growth forecast to 4.6 per cent, from 5.4 percent previously, which reflects our view for a slowdown from our FY2019/20's estimate of 4.9 percent," the rating agency said.

The growth estimate for 2020-21 fiscal (April 2020 to March 2021) compares with a 4.9 percent forecast in the current 2019-20 that ends on Tuesday.

Fitch Solutions on Monday slashed its estimate for India's GDP growth in the fiscal starting April 1 to 4.6 percent due to weaker private consumption and contraction in investment amid coronavirus outbreak, costing economies around the globe.

In view of the production loss during peak season and disruption in value chain due to the lockdown, the sector is facing a severe cash flow problem, impeding its ability to cope with wage and other related obligations, CCPA chairman Vivek Goenka said in the letter on Sunday.

The Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations (CCPA), the largest body of tea producers in the country, wrote a letter to the Union commerce ministry, seeking a relief package for the sector which is "passing through an acute financial crisis" in the last five years.

The tea industry has sought a financial package from the Centre to tide over the coronavirus crisis as production in the gardens came to a halt in the wake of the ongoing 21-day nationwide lockdown, an official said on Monday.

The capital market community, including the regulator, the market infrastructure institutions such as stock exchanges, depositories, clearing corporations and various intermediaries like stock-brokers, depository participants and mutual funds among others have risen to the occasion, the brokers' body said in a statement.

The markets continue to remain open and function as usual.

The Indian capital markets have been declared a service essential to the economy and exempted from the nationwide lockdown prescribed by the government to control the COVID19 pandemic.

BSE Brokers' Forum on Monday lauded the efforts of market participants as they brave the risk of their health and the inconvenience of travel, amid the nationwide lockdown, to ensure smooth functioning of the country's capital markets.

Sensex tanked 1,304.08 points or 4.37 percent to 28,511.51 while the Nifty was down 353.55 points or 4.08 percent at 8,306.70 at around 2.45 pm.

According to a communication of the WTO, the consultations took place on 21 November last year in Geneva with a view to reach a satisfactory settlement of the matter.

As per the process of resolution of a trade dispute under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, after filing a case both the trading partners would engage in consultations for the resolution of the issue. If both the sides fail to do so, the complainant can ask WTO to set up a dispute panel to resolve the dispute.

Separate customs territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu had filed a case against India, September last year, over imposition of import duties by India on certain ICT products, including telephones for cellular networks; machines for reception, conversion and transmission or regeneration of voice, images or other data; and parts of telephone sets, alleging breach of global trade norms.

Taiwan has sought establishment of a dispute panel by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in a case against India''s import duties on certain information and communication technology (ICT) products, including mobile phones.

As part of the partnership envisaged, OYO is offering sanitised beds and facilities in certain Covid19 exclusive hotels it's identified within its network in the proximity of Apollo Hospitals in 6 cities namely, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata for the purposes of self-quarantine and isolation for suspected Covid19 patients that require medical observation and supervision.

The objective is to create isolation and quarantine facilities away from the main hospitals in cities across the country and reduce the burden on hospitals providing acute care.

This is part of Project Stay I (Stay isolated) where Apollo hospitals are partnering with select hotel brands to create isolation rooms in hotels with light medical supervision for quarantine and creating a barrier before people come into the hospitals.

Oyo announced that it has been working closely with Apollo Hospitals to develop and support accommodation requirements of suspected COVID-19 patients requiring quarantine/self-isolation.

India will adopt the stricter BS-VI emission norm from April 1, transitioning from BS-IV.

"A firmer date will be announced closer to the time of launch," the company said.

Isuzu Motors India said that owing to the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic and resultant inconvenience it has been causing people, the company has realigned its plans to introduce its BS VI models.

Japanese utility vehicle manufacturer Isuzu on Monday said it has pushed the launch of BS-VI compliant vehicles in India to the later part of second quarter of 2020-21 due to coronavirus pandemic.

China's manufacturing sector has steadily resumed production after the shutdown due to COVID-19, with 98.6 percent of the major industrial firms nationwide having restarted work as of Saturday, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Monday.

A reverse repo is a process in which the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding, with an agreement to sell them back in the future.

China, which came to a standstill due to the coronavirus outbreak for over two months, cut the Reverse Repo Rate (RRR) by 20 basis points on Monday to facilitate more lending as the world's second largest economy ramped up the manufacturing sector to almost 100 per cent of its capacity to make up for big losses.

Additional 5 lakh masks were distributed during the last two days and 1.40 lakh were distributed on Monday.

The ministry informed that over 14,000 existing ventilators are earmarked for COVID-19 patients in various hospitals in the country while there are 11.95 lakh N-95 masks in stock.

The Health ministry said that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will begin manufacturing 20,000 N-95 masks per day within the next week.

The Centre has asked automobile manufacturers to use their facilities to produce ventilators to boost the country's capacity of such machines in view of rising COVID-19 cases.

We want to keep the engine of our economy running through this crisis," Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Canberra. His unprecedented $130 billion package includes wage subsidies of up to USD 1,500 per two weeks to businesses to keep workers on the job.

Shares fell in London, Paris and Tokyo but surged 7 percent in Australia after the government promised more recession-fighting stimulus.

World markets started the week with fresh losses as countries reported surging numbers of infections from the coronavirus that are forcing shutdowns of travel and business in many regions.

"Olacabs has agreed to give 500 OLA vehicles for #Covid_19 related activities in Karnataka. These vehicles will be used by the government for commute by doctors and Covid 19 related activities. Greatly appreciated move by @olacabs and its CEO @bhash ! #IndiaFightsCorona," Ashwath Narayan tweeted.

Karnataka deputy chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan on Monday said Ola Cabs has agreed to give 500 vehicles to the government for transporting

The convenorship of merged banks will be transferred to anchor banks. The government on March 4 notified the amalgamation scheme as part of its consolidation plan to create bigger and stronger banks in the public sector.

With the mega merger, 6 public sector banks will cease to exist from April 1, necessitating changes in the convenorship.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday proposed to change the convenors of State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) in view of the merger of 10 public sector banks into 4 with effect from 1 April.

In a circular, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said a differentiation in treatment of default, on a case to case basis, needs to be made as to whether such default occurred solely due to the lockdown or loan moratorium.

The move follows a three-month moratorium on payment permitted by the Reserve Bank of India to mitigate the burden of debt servicing due to disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure continuity of viable businesses.

Markets regulator SEBI on Monday asked credit rating agencies not to consider as default any delay in payment of interest or principal loan amount arisen solely due to the nationwide lockdown conditions.

Bajaj Finance was the top loser in the Sensex pack plunging nearly 12 percent. Other major losers included HDFC, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Maruti and Mahindra & Mahindra.

As many as 924 shares have advanced, 1,320 shares declined, and 168 shares are unchanged.

The Sensex plunged 1,375.27 points or 4.61 percent at 28,440.32 and the Nifty was down 379.15 points or 4.38 percent at 8281.10 at close.

#CNBCTV18Market | #Rupee extends losses, trading at 75.54/$ Note: Refer the chart as per Dollar pic.twitter.com/xnFmmyxArc

As part of the partnership envisaged, OYO is offering sanitised beds and facilities in certain Covid19 exclusive hotels it's identified within its network in the proximity of Apollo Hospitals in 6 cities namely, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata for the purposes of self-quarantine and isolation for suspected Covid19 patients that require medical observation and supervision.

The objective is to create isolation and quarantine facilities away from the main hospitals in cities across the country and reduce the burden on hospitals providing acute care.

This is part of Project Stay I (Stay isolated) where Apollo hospitals are partnering with select hotel brands to create isolation rooms in hotels with light medical supervision for quarantine and creating a barrier before people come into the hospitals.

Oyo announced that it has been working closely with Apollo Hospitals to develop and support accommodation requirements of suspected COVID-19 patients requiring quarantine/self-isolation.

India will adopt the stricter BS-VI emission norm from April 1, transitioning from BS-IV.

"A firmer date will be announced closer to the time of launch," the company said.

Isuzu Motors India said that owing to the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic and resultant inconvenience it has been causing people, the company has realigned its plans to introduce its BS VI models.

Japanese utility vehicle manufacturer Isuzu on Monday said it has pushed the launch of BS-VI compliant vehicles in India to the later part of second quarter of 2020-21 due to coronavirus pandemic.

China's manufacturing sector has steadily resumed production after the shutdown due to COVID-19, with 98.6 percent of the major industrial firms nationwide having restarted work as of Saturday, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Monday.

A reverse repo is a process in which the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding, with an agreement to sell them back in the future.

China, which came to a standstill due to the coronavirus outbreak for over two months, cut the Reverse Repo Rate (RRR) by 20 basis points on Monday to facilitate more lending as the world's second largest economy ramped up the manufacturing sector to almost 100 per cent of its capacity to make up for big losses.

Additional 5 lakh masks were distributed during the last two days and 1.40 lakh were distributed on Monday.

The ministry informed that over 14,000 existing ventilators are earmarked for COVID-19 patients in various hospitals in the country while there are 11.95 lakh N-95 masks in stock.

The Health ministry said that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will begin manufacturing 20,000 N-95 masks per day within the next week.

The Centre has asked automobile manufacturers to use their facilities to produce ventilators to boost the country's capacity of such machines in view of rising COVID-19 cases.

We want to keep the engine of our economy running through this crisis," Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Canberra. His unprecedented $130 billion package includes wage subsidies of up to USD 1,500 per two weeks to businesses to keep workers on the job.

Shares fell in London, Paris and Tokyo but surged 7 percent in Australia after the government promised more recession-fighting stimulus.

World markets started the week with fresh losses as countries reported surging numbers of infections from the coronavirus that are forcing shutdowns of travel and business in many regions.

"Olacabs has agreed to give 500 OLA vehicles for #Covid_19 related activities in Karnataka. These vehicles will be used by the government for commute by doctors and Covid 19 related activities. Greatly appreciated move by @olacabs and its CEO @bhash ! #IndiaFightsCorona," Ashwath Narayan tweeted.

Karnataka deputy chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan on Monday said Ola Cabs has agreed to give 500 vehicles to the government for transporting

The convenorship of merged banks will be transferred to anchor banks. The government on March 4 notified the amalgamation scheme as part of its consolidation plan to create bigger and stronger banks in the public sector.

With the mega merger, 6 public sector banks will cease to exist from April 1, necessitating changes in the convenorship.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday proposed to change the convenors of State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) in view of the merger of 10 public sector banks into 4 with effect from 1 April.

In a circular, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said a differentiation in treatment of default, on a case to case basis, needs to be made as to whether such default occurred solely due to the lockdown or loan moratorium.

The move follows a three-month moratorium on payment permitted by the Reserve Bank of India to mitigate the burden of debt servicing due to disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure continuity of viable businesses.

Markets regulator SEBI on Monday asked credit rating agencies not to consider as default any delay in payment of interest or principal loan amount arisen solely due to the nationwide lockdown conditions.

Bajaj Finance was the top loser in the Sensex pack plunging nearly 12 percent. Other major losers included HDFC, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Maruti and Mahindra & Mahindra.

As many as 924 shares have advanced, 1,320 shares declined, and 168 shares are unchanged.

The Sensex plunged 1,375.27 points or 4.61 percent at 28,440.32 and the Nifty was down 379.15 points or 4.38 percent at 8281.10 at close.

Stock market Latest Updates: The market erased the gains from the previous sessions on Monday amid concerns over the rising coronavirus cases globally.

Sensex plunged 1,375.27 points or 4.61 percent at 28,440.32 and the Nifty was down 379.15 points or 4.38 percent at 8281.10 at close.

About 924 shares have advanced, 1,320 shares declined, and 168 shares are unchanged.

Bajaj Finance was the top loser in the Sensex pack plunging nearly 12 percent. Other major losers included HDFC, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Maruti and Mahindra & Mahindra.

Market continued to extend the morning losses in the afternoon trade amid rising coronavirus cases and subsequent concerns over global lockdown.

Sensex plummeted 1,460.84 points or 4.90 percent to 28,354.75 while the Nifty was down 381.05 points or 4.4 percent at 8,279.20 at around 2.55 pm.

Bajaj Finance shares plunged nearly 12 percent in the afternoon trade.

Sensex plummeted 1,028.07 points or 3.45 percent to 28,787.52 while the broader Nifty was down 274.20 points or 3.17 percent at 8,386.05 at around 1.10 pm even as the coronavirus cases mounted across the world.

Bajaj Finance was the top loser in the Sensex pack tanking over 10 percent followed by HDFC at 8.90 percent

Sensex plunged 843.44 points or 2.83 percent to 28,972.15 in the afternoon trade while the broader Nifty was down 231.55 points or 2.67 percent at 8,428.70 at around 12.10 pm.

Bajaj Finance was the top loser in the Sensex pack tanking nearly 9 percent followed by HDFC at 8.04 percent.

Indices off opening lows; Nifty above 8,500-mark; Bajaj Finance, M&M, IndusInd Bank among top losers

Asian share markets looked set for a rocky start on Monday as US stock futures took an early spill amid fears the global shutdown for the coronavirus could last for months, doing untold harm to economies.

E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 skidded 1.7 percent right from the bell, while Nikkei futures pointed to an opening loss of around 500 points.

Central banks have mounted an all-out effort to bolster activity with rate cuts and massive asset-buying campaigns, which has at least eased liquidity strains in markets.

Canadas central bank on Friday surprised with an emergency rate cut to 0.25 percent and a program of quantitative easing, while New Zealand policy makers on Monday launched a loan program for corporates to meet liquidity needs.

Rodrigo Catril, a senior FX strategist at NAB, said the main question for markets was whether all the stimulus would be enough to help the global economy withstand the shock.

To answer this question, one needs to know the magnitude of the containment measures and for how long they will be implemented, he added. This is the big unknown and it suggests markets are likely to remain volatile until this uncertainty is resolved.

With that in mind, it was not encouraging that British authorities were warning lockdown measures could last months.

While President Donald Trump had talked about reopening the US economy for Easter, on Sunday he extended guidelines for social restrictions to 30 April and said the peak of the death count from the respiratory disease could be two weeks away.

Bond investors looked to be bracing for a long haul with yields at the very short end of the curve turning negative and those on 10-year notes dropping a steep 26 basis points last week to 0.67 percent.

Early on Monday, Treasury futures climbed anew and pointed to a fresh fall in yields. That drop has combined with efforts by the Federal Reserve to pump more US dollars into markets, and dragged the currency off recent highs.

Indeed, the dollar suffered its biggest weekly decline in more than a decade last week.

Against the yen, the dollar was pinned at 107.80, well off the recent high at 111.71. The euro was firm at $1.1118 after rallying more than 4 percent last week.

The retreat in the dollar proved a fillip for gold, which was up 0.4 percent on Monday at $1,625.18 an ounce.

It has been little help for oil as Saudi Arabia and Russia show no signs of backing down in their price war.

Brent crude futures lost 89 cents to $24.04 a barrel, while US crude fell 96 cents to $20.55.
Toto Wolff has denied reports that he could quit Mercedes and join billionaire Lawrence Stroll at Aston Martin.

Wolff's contract as team boss expires this year, and former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone thinks his relationship with new Daimler CEO Ola Kallenius is not great.

"At the moment he has other problems than the Formula 1 team," Ecclestone told f1-insider.com.

"If I was him (Kallenius), I would sell the team at the end of 2020. What does Mercedes have to prove after six world titles in a row?" he added.

As for Wolff, Ecclestone thinks it is very interesting that the Austrian has suddenly become very close with Racing Point owner Stroll.

"As far as I know, Wolff decided long ago to leave Mercedes and join with Stroll at Aston Martin. For the past two years they've been like identical twins," he said.

Wolff, though, denies it.

"The story is not true. I am not becoming CEO of Aston Martin," the Mercedes team boss told motorsport-total.com.

But if Mercedes does quit F1, Ecclestone thinks the German marque should continue to supply its engine to other teams.

"Why not make McLaren the factory team again and put the star on the car of all the other customers?" said Ecclestone.

(GMM)
Lara Worthington's mother has lashed out at 'Twitter trolls' who said she shouldn't be complaining about her hotel room while in quarantine in Sydney.

Sharon Bingle, 63, returned to Australia on an international flight on Monday and, like other travellers, must stay in a hotel for 14 days at the taxpayers' expense to limit the spread of coronavirus.

She has been housed in an inner west hotel with a rustic and 'industrial chic' look, which she believes is inadequate.

Hitting back: Lara Worthington's mother, Sharon Bingle, has responded to 'Twitter trolls' who said she shouldn't be complaining about her hotel room while in quarantine in Sydney

Sharon and her daughter shared photos to social media of the room, highlighting its rusted chairs, cork board features and exposed concrete ceiling.

But it didn't take long for amateur sleuths on Twitter to research the hotel and dig up pictures that paint the rooms in a far more flattering light.

One person even suggested the venue had 'the type of stripped back, industrial chic digs that celebs would pay a premium for'.

Not good enough? In accordance with the government's rules on Australians returning from overseas, Sharon has been housed in a Sydney hotel with a rustic and 'industrial chic' look - but she believes her accommodation is inadequate

Smoke and mirrors? However, it didn't take long for amateur sleuths on Twitter to research the hotel and dig up pictures that paint the rooms in a far more flattering light

Sharon has furiously hit back at her critics on Instagram, saying that professional photos of the hotel don't reflect the room she was assigned.

She shared a WHO magazine article about her experience at the hotel which included positive reviews from TripAdvisor. 'Again, not true. You nasty Twitter trolls will believe anything,' she wrote.

In another post, she disputed claims her rusted chair had originally come with a pillow, saying: 'This is not my chair... lies. We all need to be mindful before we open our mouth. Australian media, shame on [you]. Print the truth.'

'Not true': Sharon has furiously hit back at her critics on Instagram, saying that professional photos of the hotel don't reflect the room she was assigned

Dispute: She shared a WHO magazine article about her experience at the hotel which included positive TripAdvisor reviews. 'Not true. You nasty Twitter trolls will believe anything,' she wrote

The hotel saga began when Lara Worthington complained about her mother's accommodation while in quarantine in Sydney on Monday morning.

The 32-year-old model tweeted photos of Sharon's living conditions and wrote: 'Don't think this looks like a five-star accommodation to me.

'The next 14 days here for my 63 year old mum... This is unacceptable.'

Controversy: The hotel saga began when Lara Worthington (left) complained about her mother's accommodation while in quarantine in Sydney on Monday morning

Unimpressive? Sharon, 63, returned to Australia on an international flight on Monday and, like other travellers, must stay in a hotel for 14 days to limit the spread of coronavirus. Lara shared this Twitter post decrying the 'unacceptable' conditions at her mother's Sydney hotel

With two thirds of the country's COVID-19 cases from or closely linked to overseas travellers, vacant hotels are being used to house new arrivals so they are not able to spread the disease.

While reports suggest travellers have been placed in high-end accommodation, Lara found her mother's hotel inadequate.

Lara shared unflattering photos of the small room - which appears to have an intentionally rustic look - and also noted that Sharon was 'showing heavy symptoms' of coronavirus.

'Don't think this looks like a five-star accommodation to me': Lara shared unflattering photos of the small room and also noted that Sharon was 'showing heavy symptoms' of coronavirus

Missed the mark: Lara faced a Twitter backlash, with fans calling her comments 'tone deaf'

'It's not meant to be five-star luxury': The majority of Lara's followers agreed that the safety of the community should take priority over the comfort of international arrivals

Lara soon faced a backlash on Twitter, with fans calling her comments 'tone deaf'.

One person tweeted: 'It's quarantine, not an extension to your luxury holiday. Less complaining would be appreciated, we are all making sacrifices and doing it tough.'

Another wrote: 'Seriously? So maybe she should have come home earlier. I have no sympathy - there was no guarantee of five-star accommodation. You take what you get and just because she's your mum doesn't mean she is entitled to five-star service.'

A third tweeted: 'Five star or not is absolutely besides the point; spare a thought for those worse off (and there plenty).'

The majority of Lara's followers agreed that the safety of the community should take priority over the comfort of international arrivals.

Not impressed: Sharon herself has been complaining about the hotel on her personal Instagram account. She expressed disgust at the cereal breakfast (left) and vegetarian casserole dinner (right) provided by the hotel

Depressing: One of the photos showed the bedroom looking sparse and uninviting

'WTF': She shared this photo of a slightly stained towel

Sharon herself has been complaining about the hotel on her personal Instagram account.

She expressed disgust at the cereal breakfast and vegetarian casserole dinner provided by the hotel, and also shared a close-up photo of a slightly stained towel.

Meanwhile, she insisted she was sick enough to be in hospital and said it was 'unexceptionable' [sic] for her to stay in a hotel room for 14 days.

It's unclear where Sharon was travelling from, but it's possible she was visiting her daughter in Los Angeles, where Lara lives in a $10.9million mansion with her actor husband, Sam Worthington, and their two sons, Rocket and Racer.

The couple are expecting their third child.

No worries! This woman was sent to the Hilton Sydney for her 14-day quarantine after arriving in Australia. She shared photos of her lavish suite and seemed happy with the arrangement

Not bad! In Melbourne, people are being accommodated in the Crown Promenade, where guests typically pay at least $233 per night

Other Australian travellers staying in hotels for 14 days of isolation have complained they are living in 'quarantine hell' with no fresh air and terrible food.

In Sydney, travellers are being sent to numerous hotels, including the InterContinental, Swissotel and the Novotel on Darling Harbour, where rooms start from $200 per night. (Sharon was not staying at any of these hotels.)

In Melbourne, people are being accommodated in the Crown Promenade, where guests typically pay at least $233 per night.

As of midday Tuesday, there are 4,514 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia, including 19 deaths.
COVID-19, or coronavirus, is an inert, infectious protein molecule to which no one may have natural immunity. The actual rate at which the virus kills remains undetermined.

But, we do know that humanitys mortality rate is holding steady at 100 percent. People die from natural and non-natural causes every day. Statistics reveal that, despite the coronavirus outbreak, in February and March, overall American deaths occurred at normal seasonal rates.

Once the coronavirus panic has passed  and it will  American medical science must focus on curing another national epidemic: For nearly four years, Trump Derangement Syndrome, a virulent affliction with persistent underlying symptoms exposed by coronavirus coverage, has dealt mortal blows to the credibility and careers of progressive Democrats and national media.

Few of them appear to understand that the coronavirus death rate drops as more people are diagnosed with, but survive it. Fewer have grasped that reporting the most diagnosed cases doesnt make America the epicenter of the outbreak; it only means weve tested more people. The statistical interrelationship of population size, per capita testing, infections, survival and coronavirus mortality rates eludes them.

President Donald Trump, cabinet members and medical experts have televised transparent daily progress briefings about and answered questions concerning national policies, commitments and resources available/resources necessary to fight the epidemic. The briefings have encouraged public, private sector involvement and personal responsibility.

President Trumps highly-visible, hands-on leadership, somewhat-uncharacteristic patience with and direct responses to media questions, and his deferrals to medical experts on testing, treatment and policy matters have inspired viewer/listener confidence. Accordingly, more Americans approve of Mr. Trumps job performance overall, and approval of his administrations response to the coronavirus outbreak has spiked.

Conversely, Democrats and allied national media are desperately trying to exploit the pandemic by characterizing things President Trump says as lies, and anything he does as late, insufficient, wrong and/or immoral.

In January, the left called Mr. Trump xenophobic for shutting down flights from China, the source of the pandemic, a measure 95 percent of Americans consider necessary. Then, they declared naming its known point of origin as racist, despite having used place names for West Africa Ebola and Zika Virus during Barack Obamas presidency.

One outlet claimed Trump lied when he said Google was developing a national coronavirus website. Google did. The Washington Post ran a false piece alleging that Trump dissolved the White House pandemic response office. In February, former-VP and presidential aspirant Joe Biden claimed that Trump had cut funding for the Center for Disease Control and the National Institute of Health. He did not.

In late February, the New York Times claimed that the Trump administration had muzzled Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Fauci appears almost daily in televised briefings.

In mid-March, NBC, NPR, Newsweek, Esquire and Joe Biden (again) falsely claimed that President Trump rejected World Health Organization coronavirus test kits and blocked testing.

Last week, the Washington Post headlined, The coronavirus recession is exposing how the economy was not strong as it seemed. No, what coronavirus exposed are the difficulty of crisis-closed businesses to survive without sales and the Posts ignorant bias.

Arguably, Democrats/medias greatest prevarication is that President Trump called the coronavirus a hoax. In fact, while Democrats, media and the nation were distracted by partisan impeachment proceedings, on Jan. 6, the Trump administration was already addressing the coronavirus outbreak, and taking measures to limit its spread here.

Now, certain reflexive critics are throwing shade on promising coronavirus treatments mentioned during administration briefings that are already being prescribed in France and Italy.

Unsurprisingly, Trump-deranged Democrats and national media have become the least-trusted sources for coronavirus information.

His detractors would rather blame Mr. Trump for every death and economic setback than see the nation heal and prosper. By politicizing coronavirus  everything, really  they are failing America and destroying the credibility upon which their careers depend.

Regular Americans want  need  to believe that we are all in this together. We could be again, but only if science finds a cure for Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Contact columnist Jerry Shenk at jshenk2010@gmail.com
In an interview on Sunday with Jake Tapper, Nancy Pelosi wasn't shy about stating her opinion that Trump is responsible for deadly denial and delays about the coronavirus. She holds this position although America currently has one of the lowest coronavirus mortality rates in the world. She also has walked away from her own shameful delay on the emergency funding bill, which she tried to turn into a Democrat wish list.

Not only did Pelosi blame Trump for inaction, but she tried through her language to tie Trump to the Watergate impeachment, saying, "What did he know and when did he know it?" She also brought in Nero, telling Tapper that "as the president fiddles, people are dying."

What did the President know and when did he know it? People are dying. pic.twitter.com/523KQLG5xV  Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) March 29, 2020

That's what Pelosi and her fellow Democrats are saying now, but they sang a different song two months ago, when Trump, on January 31, stopped flights from China. Dr. Anthony Fauci later said, "One of the things we did rights was very early cut off travel from China to the United States."

At the time, Democrats were appalled. Pelosi called Trump "un-American":

The Trump Admins expansion of its un-American travel ban is a threat to our security, our values and the rule of law. Barring more than 350 million people from predominantly African countries from traveling to the US, this rule is discrimination disguised as policy.  Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) February 1, 2020

Biden mumbled something about Trump being hysterical and xenophobic:

Bill de Blasio, who's now living in a shell-shocked twilight zone as New York City almost collapses under the weight of the coronavirus, was busy telling people to get out and have fun:

Since Im encouraging New Yorkers to go on with your lives + get out on the town despite Coronavirus, I thought I would offer some suggestions. Heres the first: thru Thurs 3/5 go see The Traitor @FilmLinc. If The Wire was a true story + set in Italy, it would be this film.  Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio) March 3, 2020

Less than two weeks later, Democrat politicians in New York urged people to make a point of attending New York's massive Lunar New Year parade as a show of defiance against Trump:

Despite #coronavirus fear mongering, today's #LunarNewYear parade in Chinatown is a joyous show of pride.



If you missed it, make a point of coming here later to support local businesses during this difficult time. #DineInChinaTown  pic.twitter.com/IhyKAgiQjj  Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) February 9, 2020

Today our city is celebrating the #LunarNewYear parade in Chinatown, a beautiful cultural tradition with a rich history in our city. I want to remind everyone to enjoy the parade and not change any plans due to misinformation spreading about #coronavirus. https://t.co/bwCnIb7j8H  Commissioner Oxiris Barbot (@NYCHealthCommr) February 9, 2020

The NYC Health Commissioner didnt seriously say this...did she? pic.twitter.com/Oh9Q8hsnvA  Jack M. Posobiec, IWO (@JackPosobiec) March 27, 2020

Another two weeks after that, when the coronavirus was starting to suck the oxygen out of all other news and was ramping up in Europe, Pelosi was in San Francisco urging people to go to Chinatown and telling everyone it was safe:

The whole cycle repeated itself in early March, when Trump closed travel from Europe. Once again, Democrats and fellow-traveling NeverTrumps were practically beating each other to death in the rush to speak into microphones and send tweets denouncing Trump for being hysterical, hate-filled, xenophobic, and irrational. Here, again, are some representative samples:

I wrote about the foolish, nativist policy that Trump is imposing on Europe. I spoke with an infectious-diseases expert who says it doesnt address the current coronavirus risk in the United States, and note its corrupt similarity to his prior travel ban. https://t.co/g3rNMc6c2A  Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) March 12, 2020

1. There is a shortage of the Coronavirus testing reagent.



2. Much of the reagent supply comes from Europe.



3. Pissing off Europe by not giving them prior notice of the travel ban was totally unnecessary.



Cornavirus response is chess. Trump is playing checkers.  Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) March 12, 2020

Why ban travel from Europe when the United States already has more coronavirus cases than many European countries? Trump has just created a crisis with some of our closest allies  who were not notified beforehand  for no good reason. In @PostOpinions: https://t.co/ZbUK53rInU  Max Boot (@MaxBoot) March 12, 2020

It's the height of chutzpah for people who have been wrong at every major junction in dealing with coronavirus to tell the American people that Trump is killing them. What's killing people in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other major coronavirus hubs is that they've been listening to Democrat politicians instead of to Trump.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced a $130 billion package to support the wages of up to 6 million Australian throughout the coronavirus crisis.

The "Jobkeeper" subsidy will be worth $1500 a fortnight and paid to employers to pay their employees.

"Our goal is to protect lives and livelihoods of Australians to protect and preserve the economy that we depend on," he said.

Mr Morrison warned that many countries "may see their economies collapse" throughout the crisis.
Complaints come from the Philippines, Malaysia, Spain and Czechia. The accuracy of the Chinese kits is around 30-40 per cent when it should be 80 per cent. Chinese diplomats go into a defence mode. The Netherlands pulls 600,00 defective masks.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews)  More and more countries are reporting defective made-in-China quick coronavirus test kits, presently in use only in China and South Korea.

About 23 Chinese companies are selling this type of medical kits abroad. the BGI Group, Chinas largest genetic research company, is producing 600,00 kits per day, up from 200,000 in February.

After claiming a peoples victory against the epidemic at home, the Chinese government is now sending medical supplies abroad to fight the COVID-19 virus. Many observers believe that Beijing is trying to rebuild its image after it suffered from its initial response to the crisis.

Last Saturday, Philippine authorities announced that only 40 per cent of the 100,000 test kits bought from the BGI Group and Sansure Biotech, another Chinese company, were accurate.

The following day, after a formal protest by the Chinese embassy in Manila, Philippine health authorities changed their tune, claiming that the accuracy of the kits purchased from China falls within the standards set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The Malaysian government has complained about the poor accuracy of test kits from China. According to local media, the country's hospitals are gearing up to get the equipment from South Korea and Taiwan.

Spain and Czechia (Czech Republic) have encountered the same problem. The Spanish government said this week that it was going to return some 9,000 test kits bought from Chinese Bioeasy, citing a 30 per cent accuracy, far lower than the 80 per cent required by the US Food and Drug Administration, a standard Spain uses.

At present, Spain har ordered medical materials from China for a total of US$ 465 million, including ventilators and protective gear.

The Shenzhen stock exchange, where Bioeasy is listed, announced that it will open an investigation.

The Chinese embassy in Spain has tried to limit the damage, pointing out that the company in question has no license to export test kits, but Bioeasy claims that its products are certified for sale in Europe.

For its part, Czechia paid US$ 546,000 for 150,000 Chinese quick coronavirus test kits, 80 per cent of which were faulty.

Text kits are not the only problem. The Dutch Health Ministry said on Saturday it had recalled 600,000 face masks manufactured in China because they failed to meet safety requirements.
Asymptomatic carriers may be more than previously imagined, and they may be responsible for viral shedding and disease transmission.

There is mounting evidence for some unsettling COVID-19 findings; asymptomatic carriers may be more than previously imagined, and they may be responsible for viral shedding and disease transmission.

What makes COVID-19 especially dangerous from a public health perspective is that it is quite transmissible (an infected person can infect 2 to 3 people on average) and that, unlike SARS and MERS, there are many exhibiting mild or no symptoms. While COVID-19 is less deadly than SARS (around 2% mortality rate compared to 10%), less sick people seem to be spreading the infection without realizing, hampering containment efforts.

Data from quarantine facilities from Wuhan have suggested that between 5 to 10% people considered recovered tested positive again on retesting. While this could be a result of faulty testing (some Chinese academicians believe that the tests used in China were only up to 50% accurate; the whistleblowing Dr Li Wenliang actually tested negative several times before being accurately diagnosed), it further raises concerns about unchecked community transmission.

It is less likely that the same person can get infected twice in such a short period, according to virologists. However, this does not mean that people are no longer contagious.

Can those who test negative continue to transmit the disease?

A study published in the American Thoracic Societys American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine last week presented data from 16 patients who had tested negative according to two PCR tests. It found that at least half the patients could be shedding the virus even after testing negative - throat swabs on alternate days showed remnants of the virus in the body.

The patients remained contagious between one to eight days after testing negative. The median age of patients was 35.5 years, and the average duration of symptoms was 8 days.

The researchers also suggested that more severe infections could lead to longer shedding times, but more research is needed to study this claim.

While the study was small, it adds to the evidence of asymptomatic spreaders. The Diamond Princess, the cruise ship that was docked outside Japan because of positive cases, surprised experts worldwide with the rapid spread of infections despite cautionary measures and repeated testing. About 700 out of 3700 passengers ended up infected; studies have shown that around 18% of them showed no symptoms. These asymptomatic cases probably propelled infections in the vessel.

What are the implications of the findings?

The researchers from the Thoracic Society recommended that those who have mild symptoms should self-isolate up to two weeks after symptoms pass. Given that the virus may still be shedding, it is best to practice social distancing to limit transmission.

This is supported by a previous study in the New England Journal of Medicine that showed that asymptomatic people shed a considerable amount of virus. Further, children have so far been shown to not suffer grievously from the disease, but they can also be transmitting the disease.

For more tips, read our article on How COVID-19 Spreads.

Health articles in Firstpost are written by myUpchar.com, Indias first and biggest resource for verified medical information. At myUpchar, researchers and journalists work with doctors to bring you information on all things health.
The regime claims there have no coronavirus infections and nobody has died from the epidemic.

The Japanese daily quoted intelligence sources from South Korea, the U.S., and Japan as saying the outbreak started in the border region but is now spreading across the impoverished country, and military training has been halted.

More than 100 North Korean stationed near the Chinese border are thought to have died of coronavirus since late February, the Yomiuri Shimbun claimed Sunday.

Last week, the official [North] Koran Central News Agency said that about 2,280 North Koreans including returnees from abroad and those who came into contact with them have been put "under medical monitoring" across the country.

"The regime says that there are no confirmed cases there because they have no test kits," a source said.

The daily speculated that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and senior military officers were seen without masks recently in a bid to calm public fears but that the situation is in fact serious.

On March 13, U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Robert Abrams said he is sure that the North has not escaped the outbreak. "What I do know is that their armed forces has been fundamentally on lockdown for about 30 days, and only recently have they started routine training again," Abrams said. "As one example, they didn't fly an airplane for 24 days."


Clusters of coronavirus cases have been identified in nursing homes and hospitals in Ireland - raising fears the country's death toll could spike again after a leap of almost a third at the weekend.

In total, 17 clusters - where multiple people within a group become infected - have been identified in nursing homes, while 16 have been linked to hospitals.

Sixteen nursing home clusters and 12 hospital clusters are located in the east of the country, likely in and around Dublin which has been hard-hit by the virus.

Infections in nursing homes and hospitals are particularly worrying, because older patients and those with pre-existing conditions are more likely to die from the virus.

Ireland has confirmed 46 deaths from coronavirus - an increase of 10 between Saturday and Sunday, a jump of almost 30 per cent - and 2,615 cases.

Seventeen coronavirus clusters have been linked to Irish nursing homes and another 16 to hospitals, raising fears of another spike in deaths because the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions are most at risk (pictured, an armed officer conducts checks in Dublin)

A woman carries a placard through the empty streets of Dublin with a bible verse on it, which says: 'Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me'

Data on the clusters was released by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre on Sunday, analysing data reported up to midnight on Thursday the previous week.

The analysis found that 445 cases of the virus had been reported in healthcare workers, 60 per cent of whom had no history of foreign travel before reporting symptoms.

That tallies with wider data that shows the majority - 55 per cent - of cases in Ireland as a whole are believed to have picked up the infection within the country.

The data also showed that 58 per cent of patients being admitted to intensive care with coronavirus infections were aged over 55.

When the group was expanded to include those aged over 45, it accounted for 85 per cent of admissions to ICU.

Data also showed that a narrow majority - 53 per cent - of people with confirmed coronavirus infections were male.

Eight of the latest victims were male, two were female. Six of the deaths occurred in the east of the country, three in the north west and one in the south.

The rise comes after the country was put under a sweeping lockdown with people ordered to remain in their homes for all but a limited set of specific circumstances until April 12.

The figures were reported hours after it was announced that a Dublin hotel and conference centre will be the first of a series of new coronavirus centres for isolation and stepdown care.

The new centres are part of a ramping-up of preparations across the healthcare sector in Ireland for the anticipated surge in cases.

Ireland's coronavirus death toll has jumped by a third in one day with ten further fatalities bringing the total to 46. Pictured: Police patrolled the N11 in Dublin today

HSE chief executive Paul Reid (pictured) said about 1,700 additional beds with ventilation support would be available, with plans to increase that number by 100 each week for the next 10 weeks

Health chiefs also detailed efforts to increase critical care capacity today amid fears that ICUs could be overwhelmed at the peak of the outbreak.

They said the peak was expected in the middle of April but cautioned it was impossible to predict the exact timing.

On Sunday afternoon the first of dozens of planned flights transporting more than 200 million euros of personal protective equipment from China landed at Dublin airport.

HSE chief operations officer Anne O'Connor (pictured) predicted around 1,200 ICU beds would be required in the peak of the outbreak

The weekend marked the start of a further major clampdown on movement in Ireland.

The restrictions were ordered by the Government on Friday night amid fears that critical care hospitals will soon exceed capacity.

People have been ordered to remain in their homes in all but a limited set of specific circumstances until Sunday April 12.

Eight of the latest victims were male, two were female. Six of the deaths occurred in the east of the country, three in the north west and one in the south.

The median age of the 10 people who died was 77.

Ireland's chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan expressed his condolences.

He said: 'While we continue to build our capacity for intensive care, our strategy remains to prevent people from needing intensive care in the first place.

'We know the virus will not survive if we prevent it from passing among ourselves.

'The enhanced restrictions announced on Friday aim to slow down and restrict the spread of the virus.'

The usually-bustling Moore Street Market was left empty today after Ireland imposed lockdown rules

The Citywest hotel in Dublin will provide 750 rooms for people who are unable to self-isolate due to the nature of their own living arrangements. It will open at the end of the week.

The Citywest conference centre is being turned into a stepdown care facility for coronavirus patients who are recovering from the infection.

The 450 beds earmarked for the facility will only be used once capacity in hospital settings has been exceeded.

It will start operating, if needed, in two or three weeks' time.

Similar facilities will be opened in other urban centres across Ireland, including Cork, Limerick and Galway.

Senior Health Service Executive officials announced the moves at the Citywest centre on Sunday morning.

By utilising private hospital facilities and securing additional equipment, the HSE is set to double the number of critical care beds from 250 to 500.

As of Sunday morning, 88 patients with the bug were in ICUs in Ireland.

However, there are fears that number is likely to soar in the coming days and weeks.

HSE chief executive Paul Reid said about 1,700 additional beds with ventilation support would be available, with plans to increase that number by 100 each week for the next 10 weeks.

Irish Defence Forces logistics vehicles arrived at Dublin Airport today to pick up a delivery of medical supplies from China

An AerLingus aircraft arrived at Dublin Airport with a delivery of medical supplies from China

HSE chief operations officer Anne O'Connor predicted around 1,200 ICU beds would be required in the peak of the outbreak.

She said it was impossible to be certain when that peak might come but said HSE planning models suggested it could be mid-April.

'I don't know that any of us can really say exactly when the peak is going to be,' she said.

'We are certainly working towards the peak in mid-April - so over the next two to three weeks. And that is what we are planning for, but clearly we don't know.

'But we do have to work on some basis when it comes to planning, so we are planning for a peak kind of between the 10th and the 14th of April, around that time.'

Mr Reid said the hospital system would come under significant pressure as he acknowledged that the HSE was nervous about what lay ahead.

'Our hospital system in particular will be under significant pressure in the coming weeks,' he said.

Mr Reid urged the public to support healthcare workers in any way they could.

'I know the public is nervous, our healthcare workers are very nervous too and we are nervous for them,' he said.

'So it is going to be a difficult period. So this is a special call-out from me as the CEO of the HSE to really support our healthcare workers in the coming weeks.'
Lara Worthington (nee Bingle) has complained about her mother Sharon's hotel accommodation while in quarantine in Sydney.

Sharon, 63, returned to Australia on an international flight on Monday and, like other travellers, must stay in a hotel for 14 days at the taxpayers' expense to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Lara, 32, tweeted photos of her mother's living conditions and wrote: 'Don't think this looks like a five-star accommodation to me... This is unacceptable.'

Scroll down for video

'It's quarantine, not a luxury holiday': Lara Worthington has complained about her mother Sharon's hotel accommodation while in quarantine in Sydney. Pictured together

Unimpressive? Sharon, 63, returned to Australia on an international flight on Monday and, like other travellers, must stay in a hotel for 14 days to limit the spread of coronavirus. Lara shared this Twitter post decrying the 'unacceptable' conditions at her mother's Sydney hotel

With two thirds of the country's COVID-19 cases from or closely linked to overseas travellers, vacant hotels are being used to house new arrivals so they are not able to spread the disease.

While reports suggest travellers have been placed in high-end accommodation, Lara found her mother's hotel inadequate.

The model shared unflattering photos of the small room - which appears to have an intentionally rustic look - and also noted that Sharon was 'showing heavy symptoms' of coronavirus.

'Don't think this looks like a five-star accommodation to me': Lara shared unflattering photos of the small room and also noted that Sharon was 'showing heavy symptoms' of coronavirus

Missed the mark: Lara faced a backlash on Twitter, with fans calling her comments 'tone deaf'

'It's not meant to be five-star luxury': The majority of Lara's followers agreed that the safety of the community should take priority over the comfort of international arrivals

Lara soon faced a backlash on Twitter, with fans calling her comments 'tone deaf'.

One person tweeted: 'It's quarantine, not an extension to your luxury holiday. Less complaining would be appreciated, we are all making sacrifices and doing it tough.'

Another wrote: 'Seriously? So maybe she should have come home earlier. I have no sympathy - there was no guarantee of five-star accommodation. You take what you get and just because she's your mum doesn't mean she is entitled to five-star service.'

A third tweeted: 'Five star or not is absolutely besides the point; spare a thought for those worse off (and there plenty).'

The majority of Lara's followers agreed that the safety of the community should take priority over the comfort of international arrivals.

Not impressed: Sharon herself has been complaining about the hotel on her personal Instagram account. She expressed disgust at the cereal breakfast (left) and vegetarian casserole dinner (right) provided by the hotel

Depressing: One of the photos showed the bedroom looking sparse and uninviting

Smoke and mirrors? However, professional images of the hotel suggest Sharon may have taken deliberately unflattering photos

'Help': Meanwhile, Sharon insisted she was sick enough to be in hospital and said it was 'unexceptionable' [sic] for her to stay in a hotel room for 14 days

'WTF': She shared this photo of a slightly stained towel

Sharon herself has been complaining about the hotel on her personal Instagram account.

She expressed disgust at the cereal breakfast and vegetarian casserole dinner provided by the hotel, and also shared a close-up photo of a slightly stained towel.

Meanwhile, she insisted she was sick enough to be in hospital and said it was 'unexceptionable' [sic] for her to stay in a hotel room for 14 days.

It's unclear where Sharon was travelling from, but it's possible she was visiting her daughter in Los Angeles, where Lara lives in a $10.9million mansion with her actor husband, Sam Worthington, and their two sons, Rocket and Racer.

The couple are expecting their third child.

No worries! This woman was sent to the Hilton Sydney for her 14-day quarantine after arriving in Australia. She shared photos of her lavish suite and seemed happy with the arrangement

Not bad! In Melbourne, people are being accommodated in the Crown Promenade, where guests typically pay at least $233 per night

Other Australian travellers staying in hotels for 14 days of isolation have complained they are living in 'quarantine hell' with no fresh air and terrible food.

In Sydney, travellers are being sent to numerous hotels, including the InterContinental, Swissotel and the Novotel on Darling Harbour, where rooms start from $200 per night. (Sharon was not staying at any of these hotels.)

In Melbourne, people are being accommodated in the Crown Promenade, where guests typically pay at least $233 per night.

As of Monday afternoon, there are 4,165 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia, including 18 deaths.
Traveling locust swarms in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, that had reached the size of Manhattan in some places, are still growing in East Africa, and the problem is now compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.

Driving the news: New cases of coronavirus have been discovered in much of the region this month, and the pandemic also is slowing the delivery of pesticides that can kill the insects.

"In Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia widespread breeding is in progress and new swarms are starting to form, representing an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods at the beginning of the upcoming cropping season, the UNs Food and Agriculture Organization said last week.

The organization added: "Along with climate shocks, conflict and acute food insecurity, the East Africa region now faces a hunger threat from Desert Locust. This is a scourge of biblical proportions."

State of play: The locusts could multiply by 400 times this year, as swarms are maturing and will be ready to lay eggs beginning in early April.

That could decimate crops in a region that relies on agriculture for about one-third of its GDP and more than 65% of employment.

The big picture: East Africa was the standout performer for economic growth in the African subcontinent prior to the locust outbreak, and with more cases mounting in Africa's two economic hubs, South Africa and Nigeria, the continent's growth could grind to a halt.

New swarms also are forming in Yemen, and Iran, which both have been ravaged by violent clashes for much of the past year, and the selloff in oil markets has compounded the economic toll.

On the positive side: Government agencies say the locust situation is under control in Sudan, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iraq, Pakistan and India.

Go deeper: Locust swarms put millions at risk of starvation across Africa and Asia
A fire at Fantasy Island Amusement Park was extinguished late Sunday in Beach Haven.

The blaze was contained to the ice cream parlor at the Long Beach Island amusement park and doused as of 9:30 p.m., according to a statement on Fantasy Islands Facebook page.

Thanks to the incredible response of the many fire and police departments on Long Beach Island, there are no injuries, and everyone is safe at this time, the statement said.

A photo shared on social media showed flames and smoke coming from the park. More information on the fire was not immediately available.

The park features 18 rides, boardwalk games, carousel and other attractions.

Sad news on #lovelyLBI tonight - Fantasy Island Amusement Park had a fire by the ice cream parlor. It was knocked down... Posted by Lovely LBI on Sunday, March 29, 2020

Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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JONESBORO, Ark. - Three days after a photo posted on Facebook showed an Arkansas doctor looking through a glass door to see his 1-year-old son crawl for the first time, the familys home in Jonesboro was destroyed by a tornado.

Dr. Jared Burks is keeping himself away from his wife and son, Zeke, because he is working in a hospital, including the emergency room, and potentially exposed to the coronavirus, wife Alyssa Burks told KATV-TV.

Not going to pretend that I didnt bawl like a baby when he left to go back to work. We miss him, but we are doing what we have to do, Alyssa Burks wrote of her husband at the time.

The photo was posted Wednesday and the northeast Arkansas city of about 75,000 people was struck by a tornado on Saturday, destroying the Burks home, according to Alyssa Burks.

We are all safe. Our house is gone. Jared was inside, but he survived by the grace of God. Zeke and I were at my moms house. Please pray for us as we begin to pick up the pieces, she wrote Saturday on her Facebook page.
Chicago: Johnson & Johnson says it and the US government will invest $US1 billion ($1.6 billion) to create enough manufacturing capacity to make more than 1 billion doses of a vaccine it is testing to stop the new coronavirus that has killed more than 35,000 people around the world.

As part of the arrangement, the US government will pay $US421 million to support the company's efforts to build new manufacturing capacity in the US.

J&J said it had selected its own lead vaccine candidate and would start human testing by September, with an eye on having it ready under an emergency use authorisation in early 2021, far quicker than the typical 18-month period that it takes for vaccines to be tested, approved and then manufactured.

J&J Chief Scientific Officer Dr Paul Stoffels said the company had to start ramping up manufacturing capacity now, even before it has a signal that its experimental vaccine candidate works. The company will start making the vaccine at risk, without knowing for sure that it works.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 12:25:43|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- China's manufacturing sector has steadily advanced production resumption, with 98.6 percent of major industrial firms nationwide having restarted work as of Saturday, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said Monday.

Around 89.9 percent of employees in industrial companies with an annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan (about 2.84 million U.S. dollars) had returned to their posts, Xin Guobin, vice minister of the MIIT, told a press briefing.

In Hubei, the average work resumption rate of industrial firms have surpassed 95 percent by far.

The production and operation of large pharmaceutical companies producing vitamin, antibiotic, antipyretic and analgesic ingredients have returned to normal, according to the vice minister.

Meanwhile, 76 percent of small and medium-sized enterprises have restarted to work nationwide.

Some 92 leading enterprises in key industries have helped boost the work resumption of more than 400,000 their upstream and downstream enterprises, Xin said.
After a lack of legislative action last week from the GOP-led Legislature, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said his administration plans to purchase 10,000 ventilators and 1 million protective face masks to assist with the states response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The decision comes as the number of people in the state with confirmed cases of the respiratory disease topped 1,000 Sunday. It also comes a week after Evers proposed a $700 million legislative package meant to address health care needs related to the outbreak, extend the statewide public health emergency indefinitely until it is revoked by the Legislature, and boost health care staffing.

The legislation also would waive the states voter identification requirement for the April 7 election, as well as extend the online registration deadline and waive the witness signature requirement for those voting absentee.

In a Friday email to legislative leaders, Chris Patton, deputy secretary for the Department of Administration, underscored the importance of quickly acquiring the protective equipment.

As we have relayed to you consistently during our daily calls, time is of the essence, Patton said in the email. We do not have the luxury of weeks or months to respond to this crisis. The publics health and safety must be our top priority, and we must have the ability to adapt quickly to the changing circumstances that COVID-19 presents.

However, Republican leaders have expressed reluctance to spend state dollars until they have a firm grasp on how Wisconsins share of a federal stimulus package will be allocated. President Donald Trump signed the $2 trillion stimulus package Friday, which includes $2.2 billion for Wisconsin  $1.9 billion of which will go directly to the state with the remainder allocated for some local jurisdictions, including Dane and Milwaukee counties.

The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau has said that Evers administration can use existing federal dollars in the states account to cover the estimated $500 million in equipment, hiring costs and other expenses. Those funds could later be replaced by incoming federal stimulus dollars.

In a Saturday email to Evers, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said  citing conversations with the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau  that the governor has had the authority to make the equipment purchases without legislative approval.

Again, we implore you, Vos and Fitzgerald said in the email. Please do not wait any longer to buy ventilators and masks. Do it now.

The clash between Evers and GOP leaders comes more than a week after both parties said they have begun daily communications to respond to the public health emergency.

In a Saturday email to Vos and Fitzgerald, Evers chief of staff Maggie Gau said the state already has procured more than 100,000 respirators, 260,000 face masks, 48,000 face shields, 40,000 surgical gowns and 70,000 pairs of gloves, but more is needed to properly protect health care workers, first responders and the public.

Gau added that the department will use its authority to expedite purchasing efforts.

We simply will not wait for the Wisconsin legislature or the Trump Administration to act, Gau said in the email. Too many Wisconsin lives are at stake.

Pressing for passage

In addition, officials in Evers administration pressed Vos and Fitzgerald on the need for the legislative package, which also would allocate up to $200 million over the biennium to the Department of Administration and $300 million to the Department of Military Affairs to fund costs related to the coronavirus response. Both departments also would have the ability to request additional dollars from the state budget committee, if necessary.

The proposed legislation also would allow for the addition of 64 new employees at the Division of Public Health at a cost of $10 million; provide $17 million in grant funds for local public health agencies; prohibit the cancellation of insurance policies during the pandemic; and allocate $20 million in local government emergency assistance.

Evers also has proposed expanding funding to programs that assist child care providers, those unemployed as a result of the outbreak and organizations that assist the homeless.

The legislation also would repeal the one-week waiting period to receive unemployment insurance. GOP leaders last week said they would be more interested in suspending the requirement, rather than a full repeal.

According to preliminary numbers from the Department of Workforce Development, Wisconsin saw more than 105,000 initial unemployment claims last week alone due to the outbreak and subsequent shutdown of all nonessential businesses in the state. There were about 5,600 initial claims made in the same span last year.

GOP pushback

In the joint email, Vos and Fitzgerald expressed concern over the overall scope and cost of Evers proposed legislation.

Earlier this year, Wisconsin was expected to close out the biennium with a general fund balance of about $620 million, but lawmakers last week said the state likely no longer has extra dollars in the budget.

Our current general fund balance cant support that request, so we are very concerned about the impact on other vital parts of state government if we are not careful in the use of state dollars, Vos and Fitzgerald said in the email.

As of Sunday, 1,112 Wisconsinites had tested positive for the respiratory disease, according to the Department of Health Services, an increase of 123 from Saturday. More than 15,000 people have tested negative and 13 have died, including one in Dane County.

Public Health Madison and Dane County reported a total of 183 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county as of 4:30 p.m. Sunday, up from 172 cases reported Saturday.

We cannot possibly overstate the severity of this situation, the importance of flexibility to respond appropriately and expeditiously to COVID-19, and that any delay in action due to an inability to be nimble could have catastrophic consequences for the people of our state, Patton said in a Friday email to legislative leaders.

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Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone and his family were left reeling after the untimely death of Stallones eldest son, Sage Moonblood Stallone, in 2012. He was just 36 years old. The actor has since reflected that there is no greater pain than when a parent loses a child.

I am imploring people to respect my wonderfully talented sons memory and feel compassion for his loving mother, Sasha, Stallone, 73, wrote in a statement to CNN on the occasion of Sages passing, because this agonizing loss will be felt for the rest of our lives.

A photo of Sage Stalone (Shutterstock | s_bukley)

Sage was found dead in his Los Angeles apartment next to his housekeeper on July 13, 2012. The housekeeper had been asked by Stallones mother to make a house call after Sages lawyer, George Braunstein, failed to get in contact with his client. In the wake of his sons passing, Stallone pleaded with the news media to cease speculating over Sages cause of death.

Sage was our first child and the center of our universe, Stallone wrote in his statement to CNN, and I am humbly begging for all to have my sons memory and soul left in peace.

Stallone pictured on the set of the World War II film Victory, directed by John Huston, 1981 (Getty Images)

The police that arrived at Sages abode on July 13, 2012, reported no signs of foul play or forced entry to the apartment. The coroner eventually concluded that the cause of death was atherosclerosis, a sometimes-fatal degenerative heart condition, which tragically brought on a heart attack.

Braunstein told People that Sage had been full of life and was a wonderful, loving person.

The last time I talked to him a few days ago he was saying he was getting married, Braunstein continued, he had a lot of things he was working on and seemed very enthusiastic. There was no indication there was any problem.

Stallone attends the Annie Leibovitz Book Launch presented by Vanity Fair at Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles on Feb. 26, 2014 (Getty Images | Kevork Djansezian)

Sage was born on May 5, 1976, to Stallone and his ex-wife Sasha Czack; the couple also share another son, Seargeoh, 41. As a teen, budding actor Sage appeared alongside his father in Rocky V and later Daylight in 1996.

Sage was also a filmmaker and very invested in the industry. As an adult he co-founded a passion project named Grindhouse Releasing, dedicated to the restoration and preservation of motion pictures historically held in very low regard, as the company describes.

Stallone attends the screening of The Specials during the 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, on May 25, 2019 (Getty Images | Vittorio Zunino Celotto)

Stallone spoke of his sons lasting impact upon his own acting career while accepting the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in the film Creed in January 2016. In the movie, Stallones character, Rocky Balboa, develops a bond with the son of his former opponent; the star intimated that he had drawn inspiration from his relationship with Sage.

To be frank, any time you can vent emotions that are real, I think its very, very helpful, said the actor, as per Variety. Most importantly I wanted to respect [Sages] memory, and I think we did.

Family is everything, Stallone said later that same night, when interviewed on the red carpet.

Actor Sylvester Stallone and wife Jennifer Flavin and daughters Sophia Rose Stallone, Scarlet Rose Stallone, and Sistine Rose Stallone at the premiere of Creed. (Shutterstock | Jaguar PS)

Since 1997, Stallone has been married to the American model and business owner Jennifer Flavin. The couple share three daughters: Sophia, 23, Sistine, 21, and Scarlet, 17. All three sisters followed their father into the glitz and glamor of Hollywood by being chosen for the joint role of Miss Golden Globe at the 2017 awards ceremony, the year following their fathers win.

The Stallone sisters are close with their father. [It] was emotionally overwhelming, Sistine told The Hollywood Reporter, recalling watching Stallone receive his award. Its such an indescribable moment to see such a well-deserved accomplishment finally come to him.
In the wake of lockdown due to coronavirus outbreak the sale of petroleum products has come down to 15 per cent, said M Somasundaram, a senior official of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) said on Monday.

"The requirement of petroleum has come down drastically to only 10-15 per cent. To meet the market demand, our depot is now only operating every alternate day," Somasundaram told ANI.

He said that two teams of employees have been made to meet the requirments arising out of the situation.

Jitesh Joshi, Operations Officer, said that every worker's temperature is checked and hands sanitised before they are allowed to enter the depot.

"For drivers and cleaners we have three layers of protection system - thermal sensing, hand sanitisation and washing hands with a solution for 20 seconds," said Kundu Prakash, HSSE Assistant Manager.

Due to the lockdown, the staff at the BPCL retail outlets have been provided masks and sanitisers and truck drivers are getting food packets, he added.

The 21-day lockdown in the country to prevent spread of coronavirus was declared on Tuesday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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San Francisco, 30 March 2020: The Report Mechanical Ventilators Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (Critical Care, Neonatal, Transport & Portable), By Region (Latin America, North America, APAC, Europe, MEA), And Segment Forecasts, 2019 - 2026

The global mechanical ventilators market size is expected to reach USD 7.13 billion by 2026 registering a CAGR of 6.6%, according to a new report by Grand View Research Inc. Growing geriatric population and technological innovation in respiratory care devices are the major factors driving the market. Moreover, increasing incidence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and respiratory emergencies is contributing to the market expansion. On the other hand, budgetary constraints faced by the ventilator manufacturers and healthcare may impede this growth.

However, innovations in the field of Positive Airway Pressure (PAP) devices and improvement in battery life of transport and portable devices are projected to have a positive impact on the mechanical ventilators market growth. According to the estimates by the WHO, currently, approximately 90% of COPD deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Therefore, rise in prevalence of such diseases along with the introduction and availability of portable, cost-effective, and easy-to-use products for the treatment of respiratory conditions is expected to drive the market in the years to come.

Access Research Report of Mechanical Ventilators Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/mechanical-ventilators-market

Further key findings from the study suggest:

Critical care ventilators are expected to account for over 39% of the overall market share by 2026 owing to the technological advancements, such as Spontaneous Breathing Trial (SBT) and AutoTrak

Transport and portable product segment is expected to record the highest CAGR of 7.24% during the forecast years. These devices are widely used in hospitals as they provide faster and continuous care to patients even prior to their arrival in the hospital premises

North America is the dominant regional market, in terms of revenue, owing to growing geriatric population, which is leading to a corresponding rise in the incidences of respiratory disorders

Asia Pacific and Latin America are expected to witness lucrative growth over the forecast period due to the presence of untapped opportunities, rising expenditure levels, and favorable government initiatives

Some of the key companies in the market include Draeger Medical, GE Healthcare, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Teleflex, and Smiths Medical

These companies focus on product development to improve their global presence and ensure sustainability

Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/medical-devices

Grand View Research has segmented the global mechanical ventilators market on the basis of product and region:

Mechanical Ventilators Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2026)

Critical Care Ventilators Accessories

Neonatal Ventilators Accessories

Transport & Portable Ventilators Accessories

Others

Mechanical Ventilators Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2026)

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

Middle East & Africa

Access Press Release of Mechanical Ventilators Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-mechanical-ventilators-market

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

For More Information:www.grandviewresearch.com
Official news agency KCNA says tests involved a super-large multiple rocket launcher and was of great significance.

North Korea confirmed on Monday a series of missiles tests, claiming the test a day earlier of what state media said were super-large multiple rocket launchers had been a success.

North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Sunday, the latest in a series of launches that South Korea has called inappropriate as the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic.

KCNA news agency said the launch was aimed at examining the strategic and technical features of the super-large multiple rocket launchers, which have been tested a number of times since last August usually overseen by leader Kim Jong Un.





KCNA, the official news agency, did not mention Kims attendance at the latest test, which was led by governing party vice chairman Ri Pyong Chol and conducted at the Academy of National Defense Science.

The operational deployment of the weapon system of super-large multiple rocket launchers is a crucial work of very great significance in realising the partys new strategic intention for national defence, Ri was quoted as saying during the test, without elaborating.

The test-fire was conducted successfully, KCNA added.

It marked the fourth round of tests this month since North Korea staged military drills and resumed missile launches following a three-month break.

Talks between the United States and North Korea on denuclearisation have been largely stalled since the collapse of the summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Hanoi in February 2019.
Army personnel have decontaminated the premises of Command Hospital in the city and identified those that came in contact with a doctor there who have tested positive for COVID-19, an official statement said here on Monday.

People found to have come in direct contact with the doctor were relocated to a separate quarantine facility with full medical and administration support, it said.

The army doctor, who had travelled to Delhi between March 12 and 17 and participated in professional discussions in the national capital, had tested positive for COVID-19 at the Eastern Command Hospital on March 29.

"In a swift response, Indian Army teams quickly isolated the facility and identified the direct contacts of the doctor in Kolkata," the statement said.

The workplace and the premises of the Command Hospital have been decontaminated with three teams working overnight, it said.

The statement also said that further actions were in progress to establish contact with those who might have come in close proximity of the doctor, while he was at the national capital and during transit.

"All actions will be taken to proactively contain the issue," it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A rise in the number of unsupervised children using video-chatting apps while their parents work from home has created the "perfect storm" for cyber safety, reports The Age's crime reporter Erin Pearson.

Parents are being warned that periods of extended home isolation could be accompanied by an increase in paedophiles lurking on the popular social media video apps that their children are using such as Houseparty, Zoom, WhatsApp and TikTok.

Apple's top five free apps on Tuesday Coronavirus Australia Houseparty ZOOM WhatsApp TikTok

Cyber safety expert Susan McLean said those wanting to harm children would be looking to take advantage of the social isolation rules, with criminals skilled at exploiting online opportunities to gain access to young people.

A Victoria Police spokesman said they encouraged people to speak with police if they believed they or their children had fallen victim to this behaviour online.

Anyone who discovers prohibited or inappropriate material online can contact the eSafety Hotline via esafety.gov.au. Reports of suspected criminal activity can be made to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or a local police station.
Reliance Industries' chief Mukesh Ambani on Monday committed a further Rs 500 crore to the Prime Minister's COVID-19 fund, topping up over the multi-crore initiative of India's first coronavirus hospital, meals to the needy, and fuel to emergency vehicles.

In addition to the financial contribution to the PM's Fund, Reliance Industries has also provided contribution of Rs 5 crore each to the governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat to support their fight against COVID-19, said a company statement.

"Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) today announced a donation of Rs 500 crore to PM CARES Fund in response to the call by the Prime Minister to support the nation's fight against the coronavirus onslaught," it said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet on Tuesday expressed appreciation for the company's efforts.

The entire Reliance team has been making effective contributions in the fight against COVID-19. Be it in healthcare or assisting people, they have been active. I thank Mukesh & Nita Ambani Ji for contributing to PM-CARES and for their other work towards defeating Coronavirus. https://t.co/XEcmW6eNmx Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 31, 2020

The company has also announced a host of other initiatives in a bid to play its part in the battle against the pandemic.

"We are confident India will conquer the coronavirus crisis sooner rather than later. The entire Reliance Industries team is with the nation in this hour of crisis and will do everything to win this battle against Covid-19," said Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of RIL.

Nita Ambani, Founder Chairperson of Reliance Foundation, said, "As the nation comes together to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, all of us at Reliance Foundation stand in solidarity with our countrymen and women, especially those on the frontlines to whom we pledge our full support. Our doctors and staff have helped set up India's first Covid-19 Hospital and are committed to supporting the government in exhaustive screening, testing, prevention, and treatment of Covid-19."

The need of the hour is to support marginalised and daily wage communities, she said adding "through our meal distribution programme, we aim to feed lakhs of people daily across the country".

Reliance Industries earlier announced it has opened a 100-bed hospital dedicated exclusively to treating COVID-19 patients. It has also announced a total of five million meals to be handed out to the financially deprived over the next 10 days, with more meals and more areas being added in the coming days. The organisation is also contributing one lakh masks everyday to healthcare workers at the frontline.

Its other initiatives include free fuel to medical and emergency response vehicles, several schemes under Reliance Jio to bolster seamless telephone connectivity, and consistent supply of essential groceries via Reliance Fresh.

The company said it will continue to evaluate the ongoing healthcare conditions and assess its contributions accordingly.

Disclaimer: News18.com is part of Network18 Media & Investment Limited which is owned by Reliance Industries Limited that also owns Reliance Jio.
A nurse has described what it is like to be on the front line of the coronavirus outbreak inside a COVID-19 clinic in hospital.

Michelle Caulfield is a supervising associate nurse manager in The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne who is working with coronavirus patients in a specialised clinic in the emergency department.

The Alfred launched their COVID-19 screening clinic on March 12 and Ms Caulfield has tested hundreds of patients for the deadly disease.

'We say the swabs  like a cotton bud fed up the nose to the nasopharynx  are like tickling people's brains,' Ms Caulfield told The Herald Sun.

'It was organised madness.'

A nurse wearing protective clothing greets a patient outside The Alfred COVID-19 screening clinic on Thursday

The clinic was launched on March 12, with Ms Caulfield saying staff take extreme precautionary measures to protect themselves against the disease

Ms Caulfield said her staff have treated people aged from their 20s to their 90s in the hospital and have extreme precautionary measures in place to protect them from contracting the virus.

Staff wear their personal protective equipment which includes a white non-permeable gown with mask, goggles and gloves to see every patient, before removing it after treatment.

Ms Caulfield said staff are incredibly careful and take every measure to stop them from carrying the disease out of the hospital and potentially infecting others in their home lives.

'It's a lot of on and off,' she said. 'Lots of hand hygiene. But I'm confident the protocols protect us.'

Team members conducted simulation training for extreme cases of the disease while wearing their protective gear, with Ms Caulfield saying she feels prepared to face all patients who come through the clinic.

Two patients died from coronavirus in the haematology and oncology ward in The Alfred last week, causing 60 hospital staff to self-isolate.

Two patients died from coronavirus in The Alfred last week, with Ms Caulfield saying staff are doing everything they can to keep their morale high on the job

The number of patients ebbs and flows per shift, but are steadily increasing as the outbreak of disease continues.

Despite the setbacks, Ms Caulfield said staff are keeping their morale high however they can, including having a live stream of Melbourne Zoo in the tea room.

Ms Caulfield said the public have been listening to the advice of health authorities and only coming to the hospital if they need urgent attention while remaining calm in the clinic.

'It's hard at the moment because so many colds and viruses are going around that fit the criteria,' she said. 'But better to be safe than sorry.'

'That's our motto: prepare for the worst and hope for the best.'
Thousands of elderly and vulnerable people across Britain claim they cannot get access to online delivery slots amid the coronavirus crisis.

Shoppers have slammed Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Asda after they failed to provide enough availability for their elderly relatives who are 'shielding' indoors for three months because they are at greater risk of dying from the virus.

Many with parents over 70 say they have been unable to register them for Government-approved priority slots and they fear they may soon run out food.

Meanwhile 'key workers' from carers, binmen and teachers, say they are being turned away from supermarkets during their special opening hours because they don't work for the NHS.

It comes as new data suggests panic buying could be easing off with Britons increasingly opting for online shopping instead.

Thousands of elderly and vulnerable people across Britain claim they can't get access to online delivery slots. File image of Tesco delivery van in Surrey yesterday

People took to social media to complain their elderly parents are unable to access delivery slots

Figures from Starling Bank claim their 1.25million customers are not shopping in store as much as they were two weekends ago.

A spokesman said that stockpiling at supermarkets peaked on Saturday March 14, with in-store purchases back down to pre-coronavirus levels by last weekend (March 21).

This is putting extra pressure on online delivery, with supermarkets urging fit and healthy customers to come in store.

One person hit out at Sainsbury's for 'abandoning' their 81-year-old mother on Twitter. They said: 'My mother is 81 and a loyal customer.

'For the last 10 years I have been purchasing her shop on my online account (delivered to her address and nectar).

'She has now been abandoned by Sainsbury's as I am unable to book her a delivery. Pls reply.'

Another Twitter user, Christopher Hawke, begged the supermarket to help his 78-year-old mother.

He lives in Manchester and is desperately trying to help his mother, who lives on her own in Plymouth, but said he is unable to connect to the vulnerable/elderly dedicated phone number.

Meanwhile key workers, including refuse workers and social carers were turned away from various stores during their designated quiet periods

Meanwhile key workers, including refuse workers and social carers were turned away from various stores during their designated quiet periods.

Full list of key workers Health and social care This includes but is not limited to doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, care workers, and other frontline health and social care staff including volunteers; the support and specialist staff required to maintain the UK's health and social care sector; those working as part of the health and social care supply chain, including producers and distributors of medicines and medical and personal protective equipment. Education and childcare This includes nursery and teaching staff, social workers and those specialist education professionals who must remain active during the COVID-19 response to deliver this approach. Key public services This includes those essential to the running of the justice system, religious staff, charities and workers delivering key frontline services, those responsible for the management of the deceased, and journalists and broadcasters who are providing public service broadcasting. Local and national government This only includes those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of the COVID-19 response or delivering essential public services such as the payment of benefits, including in government agencies and arms length bodies. Food and other necessary goods This includes those involved in food production, processing, distribution, sale and delivery as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines). Public safety and national security This includes police and support staff, Ministry of Defence civilians, contractor and armed forces personnel (those critical to the delivery of key defence and national security outputs and essential to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic), fire and rescue service employees (including support staff), National Crime Agency staff, those maintaining border security, prison and probation staff and other national security roles, including those overseas. Transport This includes those who will keep the air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport modes operating during the COVID-19 response, including those working on transport systems through which supply chains pass. Utilities, communication and financial services This includes staff needed for essential financial services provision (including but not limited to workers in banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure), the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors (including sewerage), information technology and data infrastructure sector and primary industry supplies to continue during the COVID-19 response, as well as key staff working in the civil nuclear, chemicals, telecommunications (including but not limited to network operations, field engineering, call centre staff, IT and data infrastructure, 999 and 111 critical services), postal services and delivery, payments providers and waste disposal sectors. Source: Gov.uk Advertisement

One woman claimed a group of binmen had been turned away from a Morrisons store in Witham, Essex.

She wrote: 'I am really disappointed and disgusted in your Witham store. You turned away some bin men this morning during your key worker time.

'They are a PUBLIC SERVICE. They are KEY WORKERS.'

A man called Phil Mumberson works as a medicine delivery driver for pharmacies and hospitals.

He has a letter to prove he is a Government-approved key worker, but was turned away from his local supermarket.

One social care worker says she was left devastated after being refused entry to Morrisons.

She wrote on Twitter: 'I've been turned away from your key worker slot social care are working round the clock to care for millions of vulnerable adults & children.

'We are partners with the NHS they can't work without us!! But apparently the fire service can go in!!'.

Sainsbury's has teamed up with the Government to identify vulnerable or elderly people who need food delivery services while they 'shield' from coronavirus risk for 12 weeks at home.

People can register themselves or get someone to do it on their behalf, with many already flagged as a priority using the government database.

Other supermarkets, including Ocado, Waitrose, Aldi and Lidl are doing the same.

Tesco is reserving 9am to 10am slots on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for elderly and vulnerable customers and Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays for NHS workers.

They have no policy on the extended list of 'key workers'.

Asda is opening up an hour earlier on Sundays to ensure NHS workers can get their food supplies, but do not have a 'key worker' policy either.

Sainsbury's has been letting NHS and social care workers in for half an hour before stores open Monday to Saturday since March 23.

They require everyone they let in ahead of opening time to be carrying an NHS badge, meaning anyone who doesn't work in healthcare is refused entry.

Morrisons has a similar policy of letting NHS workers shop at 9am on a Sunday before other customers are allowed in.

They have no specific policy for generic key workers.

Sainsbury's said in a statement: 'As of Wednesday 25 March, we had proactively contacted 270,000 customers who had already given us information that meant we could identify them as elderly or vulnerable. We had also booked slots for 115,000 elderly and vulnerable customers.

'Our customer careline is working at full capacity and we are able to give an additional 8,000 customers a day access to delivery slots over the phone. We are doing our very best to offer delivery slots to as many people as possible and would urge everyone to keep trying.'

They added that they have made opening hours the same across all major stores so shelves are stocked throughout the day, not just after opening.

A Tesco spokesman told MailOnline: 'We know that it's difficult to get a delivery slot for online shopping at the moment due to high demand, and we ask those who are able to safely come to stores to do so, instead of shopping online, so that we can start to free up more slots for the more vulnerable.

We're looking at every opportunity to increase the number of slots available and by introducing a limit of 80 items per online order we'll be able to get more orders onto each van, helping us to ensure all customers can get the essentials they need.

'The government has asked us to prioritise some of our slots for people they've identified as most vulnerable and who don't have their own support network and we are working quickly to put this into place.'

MailOnline has contacted the other supermarkets for comment.
First, you need to know that tuna noodle casserole is absolutely not my jam. On paper I seem like the exact right audience: Im not picky, I love a baked pasta, and I must have at least one can of tuna (ideally the olive oil-packed stuff) in my pantry at all times, in case of a mealtime emergency. But something about the creamy, dairy-laden sauce turns me offto the point that Ive managed to never try a bite of the real thing in almost 30 years of being alive.

So a few months ago, when a friend and I visited Saint Julivert for the first time, and saw one on the menu, I surprised even myself by suggesting that we order it.

Saint Julivert is a neighborhood seafood restaurant in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, the latest from chef and owner Alex Raij (also behind El Quinto Pino, Txikito, and La Varaall Spanish stalwarts in NYC). On the menu, the tuna noodle casserole is billed as a crispy tuna bake and, full disclosure, Id read about it in a review before our dinner date, so I knew it wasnt the beige and gloopy stuff of my nightmares. Instead, Raijs tuna bake is a deep brick red, thanks to a toasty, complex tomato sauce, with crunchy, blackened blistered spots across the top from a stint under the broiler. It comes to the table in a very cute single-serving cast iron skillet topped with a sprinkling of herbs and a plop of sunny aioli, which adds a bit of richness to every bite. I demolished it, and had to have a frank discussion with myself when the empty dish was cleared away. Was I a tuna noodle casserole person now? Possibly, but only in a world where the Alex Raij version reigned supreme.

Tuna Taste Test Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Beatrice Chastka

The secret behind the tuna bake at Saint Julivert is that its only part tuna noodle casserole; the other source of inspiration is fideua, a toasty, tomatoey, paella-style dish from northern Spain. Instead of rice, fideua is made with short, skinny noodles, which you toast until golden brown in oil to keep them from losing all their texture later, when theyre cooked. Raij follows that technique at Saint Julivert, toasting pasta (she likes tiny tubes, like ditali or mezzi rigatoni) before setting them aside to build a smoky, slightly spiced tomato sauce. The toasted pasta cooks right in the sauce, first on the stove and then in the oven, with the flaked canned tuna stirred in.

Story continues

"Toasting the pasta gives it a whole different dimension," says Raij. "It's able to absorb and retain so much more flavor while it cooks, and brings a little nuttiness to the dish as well." The mash up marries her roots in Minneapolis in the 70s and 80s with the Spanish and Moorish flavors that her restaurants are known for. "It's a midwestern tuna casserole-meets-baked ziti with my own perspective and personal experience layered on. I knew it would be a curiosity for people, not just because it's unique and improvised, but also because it's not typical seafood restaurant fare."

Cooking all my meals at home for the past few weeks, relying on pantry staples, I couldnt stop thinking about Saint Juliverts comforting and bright tuna bake, and resolved to make a version for myself. This recipe is simple and happens all in one 10-inch cast iron skillet (more practical than the little guys but distinctly less adorable), finished with a similar sprinkling of fresh herbs, if you have them, and a spoonful of creamy aioli. If youve never made aioli before, dont worry: its as easy as emulsifying a salad dressing, and the results put jarred mayo to shame. In fact, I have to insist you at least try it, as nothing balances out the tomato sauceand lends the tuna a little luxurious coating of fatin quite the same way. I recognize that this may be exactly what the creamy sauce in regular tuna noodle casserole is doing, but at this rate Ill never know for sure. Its only toasty, tomatoey, fideua-style tuna casserole for me, from here on out.

Spicy TomatoTuna Noodle Skillet Casserole With Aioli

Kendra Vaculin

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, Saint Julivertand the other restaurants owned by Alex Raijhave had to close. Consider donating to support the team here.

Originally Appeared on Epicurious
WASHINGTON - Siding with public health experts' dire projections, President Donald Trump on Monday defended his decision to extend restrictive social distancing guidelines through the end of April, while bracing the nation for a coronavirus death toll that could exceed 100,000.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/3/2020 (653 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., walks to her office after signing the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act after it passed in the House on Capitol Hill, Friday, March 27, 2020, in Washington. The $2.2 trillion package will head to head to President Donald Trump for his signature. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

WASHINGTON - Siding with public health experts' dire projections, President Donald Trump on Monday defended his decision to extend restrictive social distancing guidelines through the end of April, while bracing the nation for a coronavirus death toll that could exceed 100,000.

Challenging times are ahead for the next 30 days, Trump said during a Rose Garden press conference. He called refraining from public outings our shared patriotic duty during the outbreak.

The comments came a day after Trump made a dramatic course reversal and announced that he would not be moving to ease the guidelines and get the economy back up and running by Easter, as he said last week he hoped to do.

In the face of stark projections from his team and searing images of overwhelmed hospitals in his native New York City, Trump instead extended to April 30 the social distancing guidelines, which had been set to expire Monday. Many states and local governments already have stiffer controls in place on mobility and gatherings.

The worst that could happen is you do it too early and all of a sudden it comes back, Trump said during a nearly hour-long call-in interview with Fox & Friends" as members of his coronavirus task force fanned out across other media outlets to warn the virus' spread was only just beginning.

Trump's impulse to reopen the country, driven by pleas from business leaders, met a sober reality check from health experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert, who on Sunday said the U.S. could experience between 100,000-200,000 deaths and millions of infections from the pandemic.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens during a briefing about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room, Friday, March 27, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

That warning hardened a recognition in Washington that the struggle against the coronavirus will not be resolved quickly even as Trump expressed a longing for normalcy.

It would not have been a good idea to pull back at a time when you really need to be pressing your foot on the pedal as opposed to on the brakes," Fauci said Monday on CNN, describing how he and Dr. Deborah Birx, the coronavirus task force co-ordinator, had convinced Trump to reconsider.

We showed him the data. He looked at the data. He got it right away," Fauci said. "It was a pretty clear picture. Dr. Debbie Birx and I went in to the Oval Office and leaned over the desk and said, Here are the data. Take a look. He just shook his head and said, I guess we got to do it.

Americans are now being asked to prepare for at least another 30 days of severe economic and social disruption, with schools and businesses closed and public life upended. A majority of Americans remain under state or local government orders to stay at home to slow the spread of the virus, and employment claims have already skyrocketed.

Trump said it was pretty unlikely that he would need to issue a nationwide stay-at-home order, adding he was in touch with governors on their actions.

Trump spoke with the nation's governors Monday, as did other members of his administration. Birx told the governors that it's several weeks away from the peak of the curve for the United States. Trump said that modeling projected substantially more deaths if the nation did not incorporate social distancing.

I thought that was a very important study they did and it sure solved a lot of problems in my own mind and maybe in your minds," Trump said in an audio that was obtained by The Associated Press.

President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the Rose Garden of the White House, Monday, March 30, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland voiced appreciation for the $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill that Trump signed into law last week and the president's acknowledgement that states will need more help, but he also emphasized that governors are still frustrated" about a scarcity of medical supplies.

Governors also remain unsatisfied with the availability of testing kits to screen patients for the virus.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the U.S. had now tested more than 1 million samples for the coronavirus.

But it wasnt clear if that figure represented actual patients or samples processed. With a population of over 330 million, 1 million patients tested would represent about one-third of 1 per cent of all Americans. By comparison, South Korea has tested roughly twice as many people as a percentage of its population. Still, Trump boasted testing was at a level that no other country has reached."

Public health experts have estimated the U.S. should be testing between 100,000 and 150,000 patients daily to track and contain the virus. Azar said the U.S. is testing nearly 100,000 samples per day." Vice-President Mike Pence said nearly three weeks ago that 4 millions tests were being distributed around the country

"I can tell you that every single governor in this United States understands the importance and the fact that we are way behind the curve on test kits, said Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

The federal guidelines that Trump elected to continue recommend against group gatherings larger than 10 and urge older people and anyone with existing health problems to stay home. People are urged to work at home when possible and avoid restaurants, bars, nonessential travel and shopping trips.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, listen as President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the Rose Garden of the White House, Monday, March 30, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

For more than a week, Trump had been bombarded by calls from outside business leaders who urged him to begin reopening the nation's economy, at least in places with low infection rates, and warned of catastrophic consequences that could damage his reelection chances if it remained shuttered for much longer.

Trump told Fox & Friends that nobody" was more worried" about the economic impact on the country than he was. But he said, We want to do something where we have the least death."

Trump, who has largely avoided talk of potential death and infection rates, cited projection models Sunday that said 2.2 million people or more could have died had social distancing measures not been put in place. And he said the country would be doing well if it "can hold" the number of deaths down to 100,000."

In addition to the numbers, Trump said he was moved by harrowing scenes from New York, particularly hard-hit Elmhurst Hospital in his native Queens. He described the images he'd seen on television with body bags all over, in hallways. I've been watching them bring in trailer trucks  freezer trucks ... because they can't handle the bodies, there are so many of them. ... I've seen things that I've never seen before.

But experts warn that those scenes could play out across the country, as the virus spreads. Birx and Fauci said even areas that have so far been spared must prepare for the eventuality that they, too, will become hot spots, with undetected cases likely in existence now.

Fauci said on ABC's Good Morning America that smaller U.S. cities are now ripe for the kind of acceleration that has occurred in New York.

If you look throughout the country there are a number of smaller cities that are sort of percolating along, Fauci said. It looks like it's low level, it starts to accelerate, then it goes way up."

The U.S. had more than 140,000 COVID-19 cases reported by Monday morning, with more than 2,500 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins.

Most people who contract COVID-19 have mild or moderate symptoms, which can include fever and cough but also milder cases of pneumonia, sometimes requiring hospitalization. The risk of death is greater for older adults and people with other health problems. Hospitals in the most afflicted areas are straining to handle patients and some are short of critical supplies.

In the Fox & Friends interview, Trump also said his administration was considering providing hazard pay for medical professionals who are on the front lines of the pandemic. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin agreed, telling Fox Business Network in a separate interview that the idea makes a lot of sense and is definitely something well put in the next bill. Some lawmakers have said a fourth economic relief package eventually will be needed.

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Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday she wants the House to be ready as soon as it returns, perhaps in late April, to approve a fourth bill boosting the economy and strengthening the response to the virus. She said she wanted the package to improve broadband, bolster hospitals and state and local governments and increase direct payments to Americans.

Pelosi said it should also strengthen safety requirements for first responders and medical workers and broaden workers' leave for caring for relatives.

For weeks, Trump had minimized the gravity of the pandemic, and Pelosi on Sunday accused Trump of denial in the crisis and called it deadly."

Trump lashed back on Fox Monday morning.

She's a sick puppy in my opinion," Trump said. "I think it's a disgrace to her country, her family

__ Associated Press writers Alan Suderman in Richmond, Virginia, Rachel La Corte in Olympia, and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
New Delhi: Union Health Ministry on Monday (March 30) clarified that the country is still in the local transmission stage, fit reaches the community transmission stage, the Ministry will admit it but the country is not there yet while responding to question on the outbreak of coronavirus COVID19 pandemic.

Addressing a press conference, Luv Aggarwal, Joint Secretary of Health Ministry, said that as of now, 3.34 lakh PPEs are available in various hospitals across the country, adding "About 60,000 PPE kits already procured and supplied by the government." Notably, the Indian Red Cross Society has arranged 10,000 PPEs from China are being distributed.

It has been clearly stated by the Ministry of Health that if even one per cent of people in the country did not follow the lockdown, then the 99 per cent effort will go in vain.

Aggarwal said that there are 92 new cases of COVID-19 and four deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking total cases to 1071 while the number of deaths reached 29 in India.

"He, however, added that the statistics after the lockdown indicate that we are in the right direction. It took 12 days from the 100th to the 1000th case to come up, whereas in the developed countries the figures increased rapidly. We have got positive results to some extent.

According to him, the ministry of development of Northeastern Region has also given its nod to run exclusive cargo flights to supply medical equipment and emergency goods in that part of the country.

On a viral video showing disinfectant being sprayed on migrant workers, Aggarwal said that Bareilly District Magistrate has clarified that some employees took an overzealous step due to ignorance, adding "Required action has been taken against those employees."

Meanwhile, R Gangakhedkar, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that 38,442 tests have been conducted till now out of which 3,501 were done on Sunday, adding "it means we are still at less than 30 per cent of our testing capacity. In the last 3 days, 1,334 tests have been done in private labs."

From the Ministry of Home Affairs, PS Srivastava said that Home Secretary on Sunday directed states/UTs to direct District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police to ensure food and shelter for stranded workers besides full wages by employers.

"They were also directed to ensure that landlords don't ask for rent from labourers," Srivastava added.
(Photo : KCNA on Reuters ) North Korea Fires Again! While Everyone Worries About Coronavirus, N. Korea Tests 'Super-Large' Rocket Launchers (Photo : KCNA on Reuters ) North Korea Fires Again! While Everyone Worries About Coronavirus, N. Korea Tests 'Super-Large' Rocket Launchers

North Korea has done it again, four times in a row in March. As per the South Korean government, the military team of N. Korea under the leadership of Kim Jong-un has fired another set of missile tests on Sunday, Mar. 29. This was confirmed by the country's main news agency, the next day, wherein they said that the government created tests for their 'super-large' rocket launchers. Though it is only a practice launch, the impact of the rocket launchers is no joke.

North Korea tests 'Super-Large' rocket launchers; 4th launch in a month-- What does this mean?

Despite the world crises that everyone is now experiencing with the viral Coronavirus disease, North Korea has been facing a different challenge on their part. The country has recently made its 4th launch of rocket launchers within March on Sunday. No one knows what these practices have been about.

According to KCNA-- N. Korea's main news agency-- via Al Jazeera, the launch was aimed at examining the strategic and technical features of the "super-large multiple rocket launchers." As reported via the South Korean government, two short-range ballistic missiles were fired from the eastern city of Wonsan. It had a maximum altitude of around 50km before it fell to the sea and flew for approximately 255 miles.

Kim himself personally examined these operations, but on Sunday, KCNA said that their leader was not present at the time. The latest testing was done with the presence of governing party vice-chairman Ri Pyong Chol and was conducted at the Academy of National Defense Science.

South Korea condemns N. Korea for testing missiles while the world is in health chaos

South Korea has already expressed their dismay with their Northern part after all the missile testings they've done from the recent weeks.

"In a situation where the entire world is experiencing difficulties due to Covid-19, this kind of military act by North Korea is very inappropriate, and we call for an immediate halt," said South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Meanwhile, N. Korea still reiterated that they had no cases of positive Coronavirus in the country. This claim, however, was not believed by most experts who are now worried about the health of all the citizens in N. Korea.

Experts worry about N. Korea's missile testings

Just like S. Korea, military experts are now bothered with N. Korea's practices of missile testings. Since it is now their fourth missile test in a month, it was said to be unusual.

"This March is now tied for the most DPRK missiles launched in a month (alongside August 2019). Coming this early in the year, the only time we've seen tests this frequently was in 2016 and 2017, both of which were huge years for North Korea's missile program," said Shea Cotton, who also posted details of missile tests that have taken place over the years.

BBC interviewed Cotton, and he said that N. Korea seemed to be doing more missile testings soon.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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Related:

An Easy Way to Cut Your Business's Carbon Footprint

The Path to Intelligent Ambiance

How the Clean Energy Fuels Alternatives Are Affecting the Diesel Market



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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are in no rush to have a second baby but and want to settle in their new home in California first, a source has claimed.

Speaking to Us Weekly, an insider claimed the couple will be trying for a sibling for Archie soon, but want to give their firstborn as much attention as possible.

They told the publication: 'They're still enjoying these precious early days with him. They're committed to having another baby, but don't want to put too much pressure on the situation.'

The source added that Archie, now 10 months, is 'super smart' and 'is a strong baby'.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are in no rush to have a second baby but and want to settle in their new home in California first, a source has claimed. They are pictured in October in London

'He can sit up without support and roll over, and he's almost crawling. He can't talk yet, but he's trying!'

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle spectacularly quit the royal family in January and moved to a 10million mansion in Vancouver.

But they have left Canada for good to set up a permanent home in Los Angeles, a royal insider has claimed.

The source added that Archie, now 10 months, is 'super smart' and 'is a strong baby'. Meghan and Harry are pictured in their first picture with Archie in May last year

The Duke and Duchness of Sussex decided to leave Vancouver Island amid fears the US-Canada border could close due to coronavirus.

The pair wanted to be close to 'their new team of Hollywood agents and PRs' as well as Meghan's friends and mother Doria, the source told The Sun.

They are now believed to be in lockdown in the Hollywood area with ten-month-old baby Archie.

As news of the shock move broke, Doria was seen out walking her dog in the View Park area of Los Angeles on Thursday.

The Duke and Duchness of Sussex decided to leave Vancouver Island amid fears the US-Canada border could close due to coronavirus. Meghan is pictured at the Royal Albert Hall in March

They are also believed to be building a 3 million UK 'bolthole' near their favourite private members' club Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire.

The area has special significance to the couple as they enjoyed romantic getaways to the 725-a-night club - often called 'Butlins for toffs' - at the beginning of their relationship.

Meghan held her two-night hen do there in 2018 where she enjoyed social media-free time with her closest friends.
Midland ISD heads into week No. 3 of its post-spring break schooling, and academic enrichment is still the goal, according to Midland ISD officials.

The district has been busy delivering meals to students, and last week, district officials started putting academic materials in front of their 26,000-plus students through a paper packet or online. Midland ISD officials stressed that the material was for academic enrichment purposes only and would not be graded. Heading into this week, that remains true.

Right now, were not taking grades, said Katie Atkins, Midland ISD chief of staff. We are not expecting this to replicate an eight-hour day. We know that were in a very unusual situation, but we do want to keep our kids minds in play. You want to keep (students) academically engaged.

This is not coming from a punitive standpoint; youre coming from a supportive role at this point in time.

Atkins said that as the district moves toward an online learning environment, Google classrooms will be considered. The district also has to consider a low-tech option for those without access to the internet, she said.

Midland ISD is working to put hot spots it currently has available in the hands of students who attend Early College High School at Midland College. They are continuing their core classes online.

On tap for the district this week, a new set of packets will be available at sites across the city where students are picking up meals, and a Facebook Live session in Spanish is planned for Wednesday. Facebook live sessions, typically featuring Superintendent Orlando Riddick, have been in the 4 p.m. hour.

For those interested in class rankings, the district is working with the Texas Education Agency on the issue.
Working capital management remains a critical part of an SME's operations, either contributing to growth or causing a slump.

While you monitor cash conversion cycles in your business, it is important to consider the fact that most SMEs in India receive payments only after 90 days of providing goods or services, as per an IFC report.

This can cause severe gaps in working capital, leading to delayed payments to staff, reduced raw material and inventory purchase, machinery or equipment shortfalls, and other restrictions that can stunt the growth of your enterprise.

By bridging this gap in time with a working capital loan, you can ensure that your SME's daily operations remain steadfast and can further pursue new market opportunities.

Bajaj Finance Limited, the lending arm of Bajaj Finserv offers small businesses fast and collateral-free finance with a tailored Working Capital Loan that brings numerous advantages to your fingertips.

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What's more, it can help you prepare for bulk orders or assist you during the off-season when you face a dip in sales without putting your entire enterprise at risk.

Enjoy speedy processes to attend to time-sensitive needs

Quick access to finances can help your capitalise on opportunities, cater to lucrative demand or buy needed assets. For instance, an SME engaged in the intelligence sector may need to deploy critical software to serve clients.

Here, investing in data security is paramount, and may require a heavy initial investment. For all urgent needs like these, the Working Capital Loan from Bajaj Finserv is ideal.

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This caters to your business' dynamic needs and can even help you lower your working capital EMIs by up to 45per cent.

Apart from these benefits, the Bajaj Finserv allows you to manage the loan easily with an online account. Be it checking your loan repayment schedule, principal and interest statements or outstanding balance, you can monitor all needed information regarding your working capital loan from anywhere and at any time.

To get started now, simply check your pre-approved offer and enjoy instant approval on a deal that is customised for you. This allows you to avail of working capital fast and expand, diversify and grow your enterprise stress-free!

This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Police in Maine are investigating an alleged incident in which armed residents used a tree to block a man's driveway in order to quarantine him and his roommates from the coronavirus.

The man, who is renting the house in the town of Vinalhaven in the Fox Islands, left the house to check on a severed cable line Friday afternoon and discovered that a tree was blocking his path, the Knox County Sheriffs Office said.

Several people with guns allegedly approached the resident and yelled at him, according to the sheriffs office.

MORE: Gun sales on the rise as coronavirus concerns spread

The man ran back into the home and he and his roommates used a VHF radio, their only means of communication, to contact authorities, the sheriffs office said.

PHOTO: A boater motors past lobster boats moored off North Haven, Maine, Monday, March 16, 2020. (Robert F. Bukaty/AP)

Several law enforcement entities arrived in the area and found the felled tree but no group of people, the sheriffs office said in a Facebook post. It was apparent that the tree had been cut down and dragged into the roadway to block it.

The town has an order that mandates that anyone who came onto the island recently had to self-isolate. However the man said that he and his two roommates arrived last month, before the cutoff point for the order.

The sheriffs office said they believe the tree was an attempt to block the exit of those from out of state from leaving the house, and that they will continue to investigate.

Whether someone is a Maine resident or not, they have the right to free movement and anyone who infringes upon that free movement is potentially violating the law, the office said in a statement.

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Maine sheriff investigating claim that armed men cut down tree to force neighbor's quarantine originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
New Delhi, March 30 : The Supreme Court has been moved, seeking a direction to the Karnataka government to open the borders with Kerala, particularly the Kasargod-Mangalore border at Talappadi, to allow movement of ambulances, trucks and non-essential items to Kerala.

The plea has been filed by Rajmohan Unnithan, MP from Kasaragod constituency. Kasaragod is the northern district of Kerala that shares most of its boundary with Karnataka.

Unnithan has submitted such a blockade, at a time when supply of commodities has been hit hard and a medical emergency has plagued the country, is a violation of Articles 21 and 19(d) of the Constitution.

"This ill-planned and dangerous blockade has claimed the life of a 70-year-old woman, who was denied entry to Karnataka for urgent medical treatment available only at the medical hub of Mangalore," said the plea.

Unnithan said it had blocked national highways, state highways and major district roads to Kerala causing shortage of essential and non-essential items, like food and medical supplies, in Kerala.

"The people from Kasaragod in Kerala rely upon the medical facilities of the Mangalore district in Karnataka and its adjacent areas," said the petitioner.

The apex court has been urged to issue a direction to the Karnataka government to register an FIR and set up a special investigation team (SIT) under the supervision of this court to probe authorities, including the police officers, for the death.
This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (yellow)also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19isolated from a patient in the U.S., emerging from the surface of cells (blue/pink) cultured in the lab. (Courtesy of NIAID-RML)
MARIA MANIC SPEAKS OUT ABOUT TEDDY HART'S MOST RECENT ARREST

Ring of Honor star Maria Manic posted the following video in regard to Teddy Hart's most recent arrest:

Edward "Teddy Hart" Annis was arraigned on Friday 3/27 on charges of strangulation resulting in wounding/bodily harm this morning in Richmond, Virginia following his arrest the previous afternoon, Thursday 3/26.

The victim in the case was named publicly as Manic, who Hart had been dating off and on for several months. Prior to Hart being arrested yesterday, Virginia-based independent wrestler Ace Montana posted a video on his Facebook page where he exits a house, telling someone (believed to be Manic) to lock the door behind him. After exiting the house, he confronts Hart, warning him that the police have been called and that "she would be pressing charges" while threatening Hart that he needed to leave. In the video, Hart denied ever touching Manic before heeding Montana's orders and leaving the immediate premises.

Montana wrote the following blurb for the video: "I literally had to pull my gun on #Teddyhart ?? and throw him out of my friends house?. This piece of sh** literally choked out and physically assaulted Maria Manic and would not let her get help. she texted me Im in danger never ever did I think I would meet a piece of sh** like this guy who has now been arrested with a felony against him. I dont think this guy knew how close to death he was. #f***youteddyheart This video is me kick[ing] him out before the cops came and arrested him???." Note - PWInsider.com has censored the expletives from the original post.

Hart is currently being held without bail at Richmond City Jail and is scheduled for a hearing on 4/22 at 2:15 PM.

Under Virginia law, strangulation is considered a class six felony. Should Annis be convicted, he could be looking at 1-5 years imprisonment and a fine of $2,500.

Yesterday's arrest is the third for Hart in the State over Virginia over the last six weeks.

Hart's legal issues began when he was arrested in Richmond after being pulled over by authorities on 2/12. According to court records, Annis was charged with possession of a schedule III narcotic and possession with intent to sell or distribute. According to Virginia law, Possession of a Schedule III controlled substance is a Class 1 misdemeanor and can be punished with up to 12 months in jail and a fine up to $2,500. Possession of a Schedule III controlled substance by a prisoner (Va. Code 53.1-203(6)) is a Class 5 felony, punished with up to 10 years in prison and a fine up to $2,500. According to SwangoLaw.com, narcotics that fall under Schedule III in Virginia include anabolic steroids, ketamine, codeine, and hydrocodone. Court records also indicate Hart was charged with not carrying/exhibiting his registration card or license, improperly mounted license plates and failure to use lights with wipers. Those charges are still pending.

In a now-deleted YouTube video featuring a phone conversation between Annis and Manic, who he was in a relationship with, Annis stated that after the 2/9 Ring of Honor Free Enterprise event (which he was visiting at in Baltimore), he left Manic at their hotel in Maryland and drove to Virginia to get marijuana. He stated he was alone as Manic had "hit her head hard" during an angle where she was put through a table on the ROH event. Hart stated he was pulled over due to an ongoing issue with his license plate not matching the registration for his car, something he claimed had been "taken care of." Authorities searched his car and found marijuana and steroids. In the video, Hart stated he had a "prescription" but does not clarify which he has a prescription for. According to court records, Annis has charged with possession of a schedule III narcotic, possession (first offense) and possession with intent to sell or distribute. Steroids would fall under a schedule III description under Virginia law. In a previous video released by Manic several days before, she referred to steroids in Hart's car as being the reason for his arrest. Hart claimed that authorities have already discovered all is OK with his car and that it will be released back to "his company." Hart stated that he hoped to get the situation cleared up and get back to performing for fans as soon as possible, saying he was born to perform and make others happy.

Hart was released under house arrest, staying at an apartment that Virginia-area wrestler Pork Chop Johnson had arranged for him, only to be taken back into custody for violating the rules of his house arrest on 3/4 after Johnson had kicked him out of the apartment. Hart was released from that arrest on 3/19 and seven days later, was arrested again, on far more serious charges.

Hart has a 4/23 court date at 9 AM regarding the charges from his February arrest, so he'll be making back and back appearances in court that week as he has a 4/24 hearing for the stangulation charge.

Annis was released from his MLW contract in December 2019 after several requests to be cut loose from his contract.

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(CNN)  The United States will extend its set of social distancing guidelines until April 30, President Trump said in a coronavirus news briefing at the White House on Sunday.

"We will be extending our guidelines to April 30 to slow the spread," the President said. "On Tuesday, we will be finalizing these plans and providing a summary of our findings, supporting data and strategy to the American people."

As of Sunday evening there are more than 135,800 cases of coronavirus in the United States. At least 2,391 people have died.

Trump's administration issued guidelines on social distancing on March 16 aimed at containing the coronavirus outbreak.

The guidance, which initially had a 15-day time frame, urged Americans to avoid groups of more than 10 and advised that older people stay home.

Trump hopes the country will be on its way to recovery by June 1, he said Sunday.

"A lot of great things will be happening," the President said.

Travel advisory issued for tri-state area

Residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have been advised not to travel domestically.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued the travel advisory Saturday, urging residents of the three states to "refrain from nonessential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately." The states would have "full discretion" on implementing the advisory, which exempts employees in critical fields.

President Donald Trump had contemplated issuing an enforceable quarantine for parts of those states, then later said it will not be necessary.

"The fact of the matter is, people really aren't traveling a whole lot," New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said when asked about the advisory on ABC's "This Week" Sunday. "A travel warning, we're fine with."

Murphy added that his state is "all in on flattening the curve."

The CDC advisory came as some state officials began implementing their own restrictions on visitors from outside their states.

Florida is implementing its own strategies to slow the spread of the virus by setting up checkpoints for motorists entering the state, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Saturday.

According to a news release from the Florida Department of Transportation, travelers will be required to fill out a form with their travel history and contact information. Motorists coming from "areas with substantial community spread" including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Louisiana will be required to isolate themselves for 14 days, the news release said.

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas expanded an executive order requiring people traveling to his state from certain places to be quarantined for 14 days.

The previous order mandated a quarantine for people flying into Texas from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and New Orleans. The expanded version, announced Sunday, includes anyone driving into Texas from Louisiana, and anyone flying from the cities of Miami, Detroit, Chicago and Atlanta. It also includes Washington state and California.

More than two-thirds of the US population face restrictions

As of Saturday, at least 215 million Americans were under various stay at home or shelter in place orders, according to a CNN count based on census data. By Monday, that number will reach 225 million, meaning more than two thirds of the country's population will be facing those restrictions.

And the growing numbers have also revealed new demographics facing severe illness.

Cases of young adults developing severe illnesses have been more widely reported, but children were thought to be avoiding the harshest effects.

On Saturday, state officials reported the death of an infant under age 1 who tested positive for coronavirus and is believed to be the youngest person to die of the virus in the United States.

An investigation is underway to determine the cause of death, the Illinois Department of Public Health said.

Police and nurses are falling ill

Those charged with treating patients and maintaining order are feeling the effects of the pandemic as well.

A nurse for Jackson Health System in Miami, Araceli Buendia Ilagan, has died due to complications from the coronavirus, according to a Jackson Health spokeswoman. One colleague said the nurse, who worked in the intensive care unit, was "vital and irreplaceable."

Ilagan's death also has her colleagues worried about their own health and safety.

"Now everyone that works with her in the unit is scared that they may be carrying the virus as well," a nurse who worked closely with Ilagan told CNN.

Meanwhile, 12 nurses at the University of Illinois Hospital have tested positive for coronavirus, the state's nursing association said.

ln New York City, 730 uniformed NYPD officers and 96 civilian employees are infected with the coronavirus, according to a law enforcement official. Twenty-nine of them are hospitalized and one is in critical condition, the official said.

At least 4,662 officers -- about 12% of the department -- are out sick, either with the coronavirus or other ailments, the official said.

In a rare step, the NYPD is advising officers and employees with underlying conditions to seek permission from their commanding officers to work from home, the official said. Pregnant staff are being advised to do the same.

New York City's police department lost its first detective to Covid-19, marking the third death of an NYPD employee to the disease.

Gov. Cuomo paid homage to the detective, Cedric Dixon, in a news conference Sunday, along with Kious Kelly, an assistant nurse manager at New York City's Mt. Sinai Hospital who also lost his life.

Cuomo described what they and all first responders do as an "act of love and courage," driven by their "passion and belief in helping others."

"I don't even have the words to express my admiration for them," the governor said.

A push for medical supplies grows

Medical staff nationwide have struggled to maintain an adequate supply of personal protective equipment, hospital beds and ventilators.

The shortage of personal protective equipment drove a group of New York nurses to protest outside the Jacobi Medical Center on Saturday, demanding the supplies they need to do their jobs safely.

"If we get sick, our patients will get sick. This is for our entire community," said Kelley Cabrera, a registered nurse. "If you look at what we are wearing in comparison to others countries, it's unacceptable."

The medical center said that although the staff has adequate supplies, there is a nationwide shortage and conservation measures are in place.

Trump approved four more emergency hospitals in New York. The facilities in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx will provide 4,000 beds.

Another 1,000 beds will be available this week in a temporary overflow hospital at Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, and an additional 1,000 beds will be on the USNS Comfort set to arrive in New York on Monday, Cuomo said.

But officials believe the state will need 140,000 beds when it reaches the apex of the pandemic in 14 to 21 days, Cuomo said.

The administration will also facilitate the production or acquisition of "100,000 additional units" of ventilators over a 100-day period, Trump said.

"Maybe we won't even need the full activation," said Trump of the Defense Production Act, which he invoked Friday. "We will find out, but we need the ventilators."

Large corporations are also stepping up to feed the supply gap. New Balance announced Friday on Twitter that its US factories will work on developing, manufacturing and delivering facial masks to hospitals. The same day, Delta Air Lines announced it will fly medical professionals for free to areas significantly impacted by coronavirus.
Modern skyscrapers in business district

Last week, Prime Minister Trudeaus $82 billion aid package jumped to $107 billion, as the direct support portion was increased to $52 billion. The newly enhanced package consists of a mix of cash payouts and tax deferrals, along with increased eligibility for EI.

If youre out of work due to COVID-19, you can benefit from the package, which includes sizeable cash transfers. The following are the four main types of benefits you can get.

Cash payouts

The most direct benefit you can get from the COVID-19 aid package is a monthly cash payout. If youre out of work or sick due to COVID-19, you may be eligible for up to $2,000 a month for four months. This program is similar to EI, but temporary, and with lower eligibility requirements.

Primarily, you dont need to have paid into EI to receive this benefit. For the self-employedmany of whom dont pay into EIthats a big plus.

EI sickness waiver

If youre eligible for EI payments, you may have an easier time getting them now. According to the Canada.ca Support for Individuals page, you no longer need a medical note to claim EI for sick leave, which could greatly expedite the process of receiving EI by sparing you the need to see a doctor first.

Tax deferrals

For investors, the biggest benefit coming in in the COVID-19 aid package is tax deferrals.

As of March 30, you have until June 15th to file your taxes, and until September to pay amounts owing.

Why is this a big benefit for investors? Put simply, because it spares you interest and penalties. If you own a dividend stock like Fortis Inc (TSX:FTS)(NYSE:FTS), youre going to have to report taxes on both cash payouts and capital gains. If you dont pay up in time, you can receive penalties.

It goes without saying that those penalties can eat into your returns. Now, thanks to the extensions on filing and payment, youre less likely to be hit with them.

Reduced minimum RRIF withdrawals

A final benefit you could receive in the COVID-19 aid package is reduced RRIF withdrawals.

Story continues

By law, you have to withdraw a certain amount of money from your RRIF every year. At age 71, the amount is 5.3%. It goes up every year after that. As part of the COVID-19 aid package, minimum withdrawals were reduced across the board, which means you can leave a lot more money in the account and watch it grow.

Lets continue our example of an investor holding Fortis sharesbut now lets imagine theyre in a RRIF. To make matters simple, lets say that individual was 71 years old, and had $100,000 worth of FTS in their account. By law, this investor would need to withdraw at least 5.3% of their holdings each year.

This would mean either cashing out 5.3% of the stock or using dividends to cover the withdrawal. Fortis yields 3.8%, so its dividend payments could almost cover a years worth of mandatory withdrawals. However, the investor would need to sell at least some to get up to 5.3%.

Under the new COVID-19 plan, the amount you need to withdraw is reduced by 25%. So, a 71-year-old investor holding Fortis shares could cover more of their withdrawal just with dividends, without needing to sell of part of their position. The end result is more money left to compound in the RRIF.

The post Canadians: Heres What You Get From Trudeaus $107 Billion COVID-19 Aid Package appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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By Akbar Mammadov

The head of Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh, Tural Ganjaliyev, has received death threats from Armenians through social networking websites.

Senior Advisor at Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno Karabakh region of Azerbaijan Samir Mammadov shared information about death threats from Armenians against Tural Ganjaliyev on his Facebook page.

Sadly, we are receiving death threats from the Armenian side. It first started as hate messages and insults and now has turned to assassination threats. Especially the head of the Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, Member of the Azerbaijani Parliament from Khankendi - Tural Ganjaliyev is being targeted.

We urge the Armenian side to stop their Azerbaijanophobia campaign and embrace the peace process by supporting the peaceful coexistence of the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan within the territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan," Mammadov said.

He added that methods used by ASALA, the Armenian group recognized as a terrorist organization by the US and a number of European countries, will not work on the Nagorno-Karabakh's Azerbaijani community.

In the meantime, Tural Ganjaliyev told local media: They even threaten us with murder and terrorist attacks. They send information about the actions of the ASALA terrorists and the Nemesis group of the Dashnaks, realizing that the same thing will happen to me."

These threats are pushing us to continue our work and expose occupants even more actively, the head of the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh added.

Ganjaliyev also informed public about virtual terror against the Azerbaijan community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, writing on his Facebook page.

As our activities irritate the Armenian side, Armenian social media users repeatedly send us insulting messages to the official page of the community and to my personal page, as well as reports about the closure of the pages, write negative comments on the pages, Ganjaliyev said.

It should be noted that the Twitter account of the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh was removed as a result of the massive virtual attacks of the Armenian side before. The community was able to restore its Twitter page later.

Nagorno-Karabakh is Azerbaijans breakaway region which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The Minsk Groups efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Crowds gathered to watch the USNS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship with 1,000 beds for patients, arriving in New York City to alleviate the strain on the city's hospitals as it continues to battle the coronavirus pandemic - despite being warned to stay at home.

The ship arrived at New York Harbor on Monday morning. It will welcome patients who do not have coronavirus but who still need care in order to clear out the city's other hospitals for those who have tested positive for COVID-19.

It came as the death toll in New York City hit 790 and more than 36,000 cases were recorded. New York City is the epicenter of the virus in the US.

The USNS Comfort came to New York City after 9/11 to help care for some of the thousands wounded. That was also the last time the city saw as many makeshift morgues in the street to cope with the death toll of the virus.

On Monday, crowds gathered near Pier 90 to watch the Comfort arrive.

They gathered despite Mayor Bill de Blasio warning that he may start fining people $500 if they are seen breaking social distancing guidelines in public.

At a press conference on Monday, he said what was needed was 'battlefield medicine' and that Sunday, April 5, was 'D-Day'. He is asking for more help from the government by then.

Scroll down for video

Crowds of New Yorkers at the New York Harbor on Monday for the arrival of the USNS Comfort on Monday despite being told by the Mayor and Governor to stay at home

Dozens flocked to Pier 90 to watch the ship come in on Monday despite being told by the governor to stay at home

People push themselves against the railings to watch the USNS Comfort arriving in New York on Monday

The USNS Comfort arrives in New York City on Monday morning with 1,000 beds on board to welcome non-coronavirus patients. The ship is pictured steaming past the Statue of Liberty

The Comfort was escorted by a fleet of smaller vessels and a helicopter flew overhead on Monday before it docked

The ship arrives at New York Harbor with the city in the background under a heavy fog on Monday morning as the NYC death toll soared to 790

The ship arriving in New York Harbor on Monday morning to bring critical resources that will alleviate the strain on New York City's hospital systems

Sailors stood at a safe distance from one another as the ship docked on Monday, unlike the crowds at the harbor

Across the US, there are now more than 142,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 2,500 people have died.

The USNS Comfort is one of two Navy ships that the government deployed last week to try to ease the burden of the virus on hospital systems in two of the worst hit areas; New York and the west coast.

The USNS Mercy was deployed to Los Angeles. It has already started welcoming patients.

On Monday, the Comfort steamed into New York Harbor at around 10am. It will bring with it more than 1,000 medical personnel and more than 100 operating rooms.

In addition to the Comfort, a makeshift hospital has been set up in the Javits Center - where there are 2,500 people will be cared for.

Gov. Cuomo said he wanted to build eight in total to add another 8,000 beds to the city's hospital system.

On Monday, speaking at the harbor as the ship arrived, he said: 'That is going to be welcome news and I want to thank all of the people that worked so hard to do this. This is a major enterprise.

The Navy ship arriving in New York City on Monday bringing with it 1,000 more hospital beds to New York's crippled system

The Comfort docking at Pier 90 in Manhattan on Monday morning a week after Trump announced he was sending it

Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke briefly at Pier 90 as the ship docked to herald its arrival. He said he has a 'smart plan of action' about how to handle the virus that does not involve waiting 'for the storm to hit'

Mayor Bill de Blasio gave a press conference to tout the importance of the ship's arrival. He said it added another hospital to the city

Others watched from their homes as the ship was docked on Monday

'The Javits Center, what is going on there is truly extraordinary. Everybody is working together to get that facility up and running. It has been transformed in just a week.

' And it really is a great, great partnership and frankly it's inspiring to see everyone working together for one cause.

'We're speaking with a number of my colleagues, governors all across the nation, Democrats and Republicans, have sent the same message to all of you. What you see happening in New York is not unique. Yes, we're more dense. Yes, we're bigger than most places. But, this virus spreads among Americans.

'This virus does not discriminate. It doesn't discriminate by age. It doesn't discriminate by party. It affects all Americans, and what you're seeing in New York is going to spread across this country.'

'New York is just the canary in the coal mine. And I've said to them, prepare soon, prepare early, get your preparations in place. I don't think that any American is immune from this virus. Because no American is immune from this virus. And if there's ever a time that we need to work together it is today.

'The President's right. This is a war. And what does this nation do when it's at war? It comes together. And it acts as one. And that's what we need to do today. New Yorkers, thank this nation for the help they're giving New Yorkers today, and we will reciprocate the favor.

'And what we're learning here, and the training that's going on here, is going to benefit the places all across this nation in the coming weeks and the coming months,' he said.

He defended his decision to ask for more ventilators than he needs immediately, saying he is asking for what he will need in a few weeks time when the pandemic peak happens in New York City.

'I've dealt with disasters all across this country. I've worked in the federal government, I've dealt with dozens of disasters.

'If you wait to prepare for when the storm hits, you lose. Because it's too late,' he said.

He has also resisted suggestions by President Trump that he would quarantine the state of New York and has lashed out at Rhode Island Governor. Gina Raimondo for saying anyone who enters her state from New York has to self-quarantine for two weeks.

The Mount Sinai hospital system in New York City is setting up the temporary treatment facilities outside six of its hospitals - five in New York City and one in Long Island - as it prepares for a projected influx of COVID-19 patients.

The USNS Comfort docking in the New York Harbor on Monday morning

More than 1,000 medical personnel staff the ship, which is one of two that have been deployed to deal with the crisis

The Navy ship traveling under the Verrazzano Bridge on Monday morning before it docked

Navy personnel on the upper deck of the USNS Comfort as it steams into New York Harbor on Monday morning

Hundreds of sailors took to the ship's upper deck as it arrived in New York City on Monday morning

The ship chugs along the Hudson River next to the Staten Island Ferry - which is still operating but on a drastically reduced service

'The tents will be critical in helping us limit the spread of the disease between patients and staff,' hospital officials said in a statement last week, adding that they will expand the emergency room 'footprint'.

On Sunday workers began erecting tents in Central Park that will service overflow patients at Mount Sinai West Hospital.

The Central Park site is located near Columbus Circle, a few hundred yards from the Mount Sinai West emergency room on W 59th Street.

Workers were seen unfolding massive tents and spacing them out on a grassy field where dozens of boxes of supplies waited to be unpacked.

Mount Sinai West made headlines earlier this month after a photo emerged of three of its nurses wearing black garbage bags as makeshift gowns amid a dire shortage of personal protective equipment. One of its nurses, 48-year-old Kious Kelly, died at the hospital after contracting coronavirus.

On Monday, Dr. Fauci - the White House coronavirus expert - said other cities across the country are 'percolating' and show signs they may too see a spike like New York's.

USNS MERCY DOCKS IN LOS ANGELES AND IS ALREADY RECEIVING PATIENTS

The USNS Mercy arrived in Los Angeles this on Sunday to welcome patients and ease the strain on California's hospitals.

It will perform the same role in L.A. as the Comfort in New York; welcoming patients who do not have the virus in order to clear up beds in the rest of its hospitals.

In L.A., there are more than 2,000 cases of and 37 people have died. The numbers have not caught up to New York City by any stretch, but there are fears the city may soon see a spike.

On Monday morning, Dr. Anthony Fauci - the most authoritative voice on the subject - said he would 'not be surprised' if as many as 100,000 die in the US from the virus by the time the pandemic is over.

He said he is looking at L.A. as the next possible epicenter, after New York, along with other cities that are 'percolating' like Detroit and New Orleans.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom was the first to issue a stay-at-home order to try to stop the spread before it happened.

The USNS Mercy has docked in Los Angeles and is already receiving patients

The Mercy at Port of Los Angeles on Sunday after arriving to welcome its first patients

A Navy medic treats a person on the USNS Mercy on Sunday. None of the patients on the ships have coronavirus but they are being taken there to free up beds in the hospital system
New Delhi, March 31 : Apollo Hospitals Group on Monday announced 'Project Stay I', an initiative, with partnership with SBI, OYO, Hisdustan Unilever among others to creating isolation rooms in hotels with medical supervision for quarantine.

In a statement the the healthcare group said that "Project Stay I is an innovative initiative to strengthen the bulwark against COVID-19 by creating isolation rooms in hotels with light medical supervision for quarantine and creating a barrier to ensure people recover without spreading the virus, and or be supervised so they can move to medical care at the right time." It said that to ensure affordable, safe rooms overnight, clean environments, Apollo Hospitals has joined forces with Hindustan Unilever, State Bank of India, OYO Rooms, Lemon Tree, Ginger hotels and Zomato to launch a social impact initiative on isolation care called "Project Stay I" (Stay Isolated).

Prathap C. Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Group said, "I am happy that we are launching another important part of project Kavach where technology and innovation is helping create out of the box solution to help people. This is the future of India where we are responsive, innovative and inclusive" Commenting on the development, Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and Group CEO, OYO Rooms said: "We want to work with state governments and private institutions to problem solve and assist in the fight against COVID-19. Our partnership with Apollo Hospitals has been developed to ensure we utilize capacity where possible to create highly sanitized pay per use quarantine facilities under the guidance and supervision of medical professionals. This is an unprecedented situation which requires all of us to find new ways to work together and rise to the occasion."

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
U.S. oil dropped to an 18-year low on Monday as demand continues to evaporate, and as Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ nations prepare to ramp up production. With much of the world in lockdown as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, demand for oil has fallen off a cliff. People aren't travelling and business has slowed, reducing the need for jet fuel and gasoline. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 6.6%, or $1.42, to settle at $20.09, its lowest level since February 2002. Earlier in the session the contract shed more than 9% to trade at a session low of $19.27. The contract had briefly traded below the key $20 per barrel mark on March 20, although it was in thin trading on a contract that was set to expire. International benchmark Brent crude fell 8.7% to settle at $22.76 per barrel, a price last seen in 2002. The drop-off in demand comes just as the OPEC+ production cuts expire. Beginning April 1 the 14-member cartel and its allies will be able to pump as much oil as they please, and Saudi Arabia is among the nations that has vowed to ramp up its production.

A gas flare burns an oil worker monitors a water tank while loading saltwater from an oil well storage tank near Sidney, Montana. Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Given the hit to both supply and demand, analysts are projecting that despite WTI's 55% slide this month  its worst on record  there could still be more downside ahead. "With the effects of COVID-19 continuing to weigh on global demand, it's likely global crude storage capacity maxes out in 2Q20, creating a nightmarish scenario and the possibility that crude could test the $10/bbl threshold," Raymond James analyst John Freeman said in a note to clients Monday. As the outlook becomes bleaker, Bank of America again downgraded its oil price forecasts on Monday, and expects to see both contracts "temporarily trading in the teens in the coming weeks." "On a quarterly basis, we expect to see the steepest decline in global oil consumption ever recorded," the firm's analysts led by Francisco Blanch added. Oil's swift and steep decline has caused energy companies to slash capital spending plans. U.S.-based exploration and production companies have been among those hardest hit. As these companies struggle to breakeven with depressed oil prices, some analysts are saying a wave of consolidation and bankruptcies could be ahead. "The oil market supply chains are broken due to the unbelievably large losses in oil demand, forcing all available alternatives of supply chain adjustments to take place during April and May: Onshore product storage surge, refinery run rate cuts globally, massive increase in floating storage deals and upstream supply shut-ins," said Rystad Energy's head of oil markets Bjornar Tonhaugen. The firm expects demand to fall by more than 16 million barrels per day in April. As demand waned, OPEC earlier this month proposed additional cuts of 1.5 million barrels per day. But OPEC ally Russia rejected the cuts, which kicked off a price war between the nation and OPEC's de facto leader Saudi Arabia. The kingdom slashed its official oil prices, and has said it will ramp up production to 12.3 million barrels per day in April. In February, the nation produced roughly 9.7 million bpd. Amid the ongoing price decline, the U.S. has tried to intervene. On Monday President Trump spoke with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, where the two agreed to hold talks on the oil market at the ministerial level, according to a report from Reuters.
One of the country's peak trade unions has slammed a proposal by LNG giant Woodside to adopt 14-week swings for workers on its North West operations as resources companies scramble to stop the spread of COVID-19.

An expression of interest was sent to workers last week, floating three-month swings that would include two weeks in isolation at Karratha and 12 weeks of work.

Woodside has floated 14-week rosters to stop the spread of COVID-19. Credit: Supplied

WA resources companies have been given special exemptions by the state government to continue their operations but last week images emerged of miners not adhering to social distancing guidelines on site or at airports, prompting Premier Mark McGowan to call on them to improve their efforts.

In the message, Woodside said it realised the roster was "an immense ask" and reiterated it was only a proposal.
New Delhi, March 30 : The Centre has asked automobile companies to manufacture ventilators to tide over any shortages in treating Covid-19 patients.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in a tweet on Monday, that these companies are working towards producing ventilators.

The government had earlier asked several leading automobile players such as Maruti and Mahindra to look into the possibility of manufacturing ventilators.

At present, engineers of Mahindra Group are working on manufacturing prototypes of ventilators, while Maruti Suzuki India has entered into an arrangeme nt with AgVa Healthcare to scale up the production of ventilators.

In the US, companies such as Ford Motor and GM have been roped into manufacturing the life saving medical equipment.

Besides, the Ministry tweeted that Bharat Electronics Ltd has been asked to manufacture 30,000 ventilators in the next two months in collaboration with local manufacturers.

"Over 14,000 existing #ventilators earmarked for #Covid_19 patients in various hospitals in the country," it said, adding that AgVa Healthcare, Noida has been given an order to manufacture 10,000 ventilators with a month.

The supplies from AgVa are expected to commence in the second week of April.
The Married At First Sight experts could be 'replaced' after they expressed being unhappy with their wages, a new report claimed on Monday.

According to New Idea, John Aiken, Mel Schilling and Dr Trisha Stratford had a 'crisis meeting with producers' where they complained over pay packets.

The three are reportedly paid just $50,000 a year, and while that amount has been rising, with the success of the show, the magazine claims they want more.

Panel: The Married At First Sight experts could be 'replaced' after they expressed being unhappy with their wages, a new report claimed on Monday. Pictured: Mel Schilling (left), Dr Trisha Stratford (centre) and John Aiken (right)

However, the talks led to concerns that the trio may be replaced instead of receiving a pay rise.

An alleged source reportedly told the magazine: 'It could be time for some fresh faces... MAFS viewers won't care too much if John, Trish and Mel don't return. It won't affect ratings.'

The magazine goes on to claim that the three, have 'minimum input into the casting process and are fed lines by producers' - making them replaceable.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Channel Nine for comment.

Pay up? According to New Idea, John Aiken, Mel Schilling and Dr Trisha Stratford had a 'crisis meeting with producers' where they complained over pay packets. The three are reportedly paid just $50,000 a year. The magazine claims they want more

The psychologists have been the source of controversy, with viewers often questioning their expertise.

Recently, viewers have called out expert John Aiken for pointing out the obvious during last Wednesday's episode.

While discussing Drew Bauer and KC Osborne's relationship, the 49-year-old told fellow experts Mel Schilling and Dr Trisha Stratford that Drew's biggest challenge is that he's set his life up to be a single musician.

Out? However, the talks led to concerns that the trio may be replaced instead of receiving a pay rise

And it seems the remark left fans of the show baffled, and they were forthright in sharing their views in a number of tweets.

'It's truly amazing to see how much expert John Aiken is able to sense the most obvious things,' one wrote.

Another wrote: 'Experts say Drew's life is set up to be single. So why [did the] stupid experts pick him as a contestant?'

One fan commented: 'I don't know about you but the so-called expert John Aiken doesn't seem as into this season as he normally is.'

Married At First Sight continues Tuesday at 7.30pm on Channel Nine

An alleged source reportedly told the magazine: 'It could be time for some fresh faces... MAFS viewers won't care too much if John, Trish and Mel don't return. It won't affect ratings




Kuleba called on citizens abroad who have sufficient means to stay in the foreign country pending quarantine.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said 11,449 Ukrainians expect evacuation from around the world.

"At present, the number of citizens around the world awaiting evacuation is 11,449. This figure is dynamic since some are constantly evacuating, while some, on the contrary, change their mind and decide to evacuate, informing the embassy or consulate," he said during an online briefing at the Foreign Ministry, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

Kuleba called on citizens who have sufficient means to stay in the foreign country pending quarantine.

Read alsoNumber of confirmed coronavirus cases in Ukraine rises to 480 by Monday morning

"Since travel puts you in danger. You cannot make a long trip without touching surfaces, without communicating with people, and you never know where you'll be at risk of infection," he said.

The minister stressed that now is the "critical period" and that "the coming weeks will be decisive."

"For your safety, it is advisable that you stay where you are these weeks  this is a much safer option for you," Kuleba added.

As UNIAN reported earlier, according to the Foreign Ministry, as of 21:00 on March 29, 144,698 citizens have returned to Ukraine with the assistance of diplomatic institutions since the beginning of evacuation measures.
(TNS)  Melissa Malone's young daughter recently asked her if there would be peaches for the family to pick this year.At first, the question puzzled Malone, town administrator for Natick, Mass."Although an odd question as to whether we'll have peaches seems to come out of left field, it really isn't because her whole world has been upended," Malone said. "It's difficult conceptually for people to deal with something that is so radically different, and that includes children and professionals."Malone has been scrambling over the past few weeks to begin planning for the ballooning impacts of the new coronavirus on Natick's town budget.Roughly four days into the spiraling crisis, it became clear to her that Natick needed to prepare for long-term, potentially significant losses that, without swift action, could limit the town's ability to serve its more than 35,000 residents.Malone said Natick will likely lose about $4.3 million in local taxes and fees, including revenue from restaurants and hotels, in the current fiscal year alone, a drop she called "exponential and dramatic." But she expects those losses are only the beginning of a fiscal crisis she described as the most difficult moment of her career."This is a 180 day-plus event, and that is what we need to plan for," she said. "And I didn't make that number up. That is the number in looking at what was happening on the other side of the globe that seemed reasonable. That, I think, is what we have to plan for."Malone has already begun talking to department heads in Natick about what can be cut from the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. Plans to hire more police officers and Department of Public Works employees are now on hold."We're doing a full-scope review of all of our departments so that we can make sure that we're finding every savings possible," she said.A few weeks into the coronavirus crisis, several municipal finance officials in the area said the pandemic could have a sizable impact on municipal budgets, which fund everything from schools to first responders to economic development. Many are already planning cuts and considering when they might need to dip into rainy day funds."I think ultimately what taxpayers and residents care about is services," said Michael Herbert, Ashland's town manager, "making sure that we're providing the services that you expect out of a full-service municipality, and that you're moving forward and creating the type of community that people have expressed that they want, in terms of things like community development projects."Ashland is in the process of designing and engineering a new public safety building and school, and while design plans for those projects remain ongoing, the town is forecasting significant revenue losses that could impact projects like those down the road.The new coronavirus hit just as cities and towns were finalizing their budgets for next year, and while Ashland has not yet adjusted its fiscal 2021 budget, Herbert and Finance Director Brittany Iacaponi are planning to revisit the budget to see if it should be revised in coming weeks."I think people need to understand that if budgets get bad enough, that we then have to start looking at reductions in municipal services," Herbert said. "Now, we're in a fortunate position right now where that's not being considered. I know a lot of other communities are already talking about having to do that. But if this thing continues and things get bad enough, we do have to look at a reduction of services."Most municipalities in the area are expecting less state aid and lower revenues in local taxes, some of which come from residents coping with layoffs or reduced hours.Framingham has already decided to waive interest and penalties on late payments from taxpayers, an effort to relieve financial pressure on residents who have been most affected. Waiving those fees will result in about a $100,000 loss this fiscal year, and about a $200,000 loss in the next one.Cities and towns are also coping with additional expenses related to the new coronavirus. Framingham has already spent about $40,000 on technology needed to support remote work for municipal employees and officials, as well as additional expenditures for public health and safety, Chief Financial Officer MaryEllen Kelley told theon Friday.Both Framingham and Ashland have now created spending codes and accounts specifically for coronavirus-related costs using guidance from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, or MEMA, which put together a list of coronavirus-related expenses that would be eligible for reimbursement.Expenses on the lengthy list include emergency operation center-related costs, vaccinations for survivors and emergency workers to prevent outbreaks, durable medical equipment, child care and mass mortuary services.Cities and towns are starting to receive grants from the state Department of Public Health to offset coronavirus costs  $200,000 to Framingham, $6,700 to Ashland, $13,000 to Natick  and while the relief funds are helpful, Malone said they likely won't be enough."At this point, I don't have a dollar amount that I can say that I'm expecting to receive, and while we're very appreciative of every dollar, I still think we're going to have to go through this exercise of looking through every budget to see what we can find because I don't think that that will be sufficient to cover all of our costs," Malone said.Many municipal finance professionals are looking for a reference point as they start to prepare for a crisis that is still unfolding.While any data is helpful at this point, most officials said this moment differs greatly from what happened in 2008.Herbert said the new coronavirus seems to be a bottom-up crisis, where job losses in parts of the economy like the service industry are causing reverberations on Wall Street, a scenario he described as "kind of like the reverse" of the 2008 economic downturn."We were actually prepared, I think, for a downturn that would even approach 2008 levels, at least on the municipal side," Herbert said. "But this is something like we haven't seen before."In Natick, town officials have begun scouring the Town Hall basement for files that would show how the 9/11 terrorist attacks impacted the town."Again, it's not going to be perfect, but we do recognize that there's great things and thought that can come from reviewing the history of what's happened," Malone said.Not all cities and towns are sounding the alarm bells that Malone is. Some municipal leaders say that while they are watching the coronavirus crisis closely, they have not yet started to plan for the long-term impacts that Malone and others are preparing for."It's important that people be thinking about this stuff, but to be cutting budgets or making decisions like that in the heat of this emergency, in my opinion, is premature," said Northborough Town Administrator John Coderre. "Any drastic moves at this stage would be, in my opinion, an uninformed knee-jerk reaction."Interim Hopedale Town Administrator Robert Reed, like Coderre, said he's focused on immediate emergency management."At present, I don't think it's going to be a huge economic impact," Reed said. "We're trying to conduct business as usual."
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 30, 2020) - Getchell Gold Corp. (CSE: GTCH) (OTCQB: GGLDF) ("Getchell" or the "Company") a leading Nevada focused Gold and Copper exploration company, today announced that its near term strategy to advance its assets is not impacted by the COVID-19 Corona virus. The Company continues to monitor the situation and is in compliance with all government guidelines.

To that end, Getchell has taken possession of all of the physical data, digital data, core, cuttings, storage and logging facilities associated with the recently optioned Fondaway Canyon ("Fondaway") and Dixie Comstock projects. (refer to Company news release dated January 7, 2020 for further details).

The Company is currently completing a new Fondaway technical report as a basis for an open-pit mining scenario and mineral resource estimate. The 2017 technical report (see details below) envisioned an underground operation and set the model parameters accordingly. The new Fondaway technical report will involve a comprehensive synthesis and geological reinterpretation of the substantial volume of data received. The data set was amassed over decades of work across multiple exploration and small-scale mining campaigns. The objective of this internal assessment of the data is to integrate the geology, structure, alteration and mineralization into a revised 3D model that will provide the basis for:

1) A comparison of the revised 3D model with the geologic model used for the 2017 historic resource estimate;

2) Assessing the impact of including the 2017 drill program results (7 holes totaling 2,534 metres) that were not used for the 2017 historic resource estimate;

3) A new, third party, NI43-101 Mineral Resources Estimate and Technical Report; and

4) Guidance on the next phase of exploration in support of a Preliminary Economic Assessment.

"This is a low-cost strategy which could yield significant results for shareholders and we look forward to updating the market as the results of our efforts materialize," said CEO Bill Wagener.

2017 Fondaway Technical Report

The 2017 Technical Report on the Fondaway Canyon Project was commissioned by Canarc Resources Corp. and was authored by Techbase International Ltd. The project has a historical estimate of Indicated resources of 409,000 oz. Au contained in 2,050,000 tonnes grading 6.18 g/t and Inferred resources of 660,000 oz. Au contained in 3,200,000 tonnes grading 6.4 g/t, using a 1.8 m width cut-off and a cut-off grade of 3.43 g/t Au.

This historic resource estimate was completed by Techbase International Ltd of Reno, Nevada, and it is contained within a NI 43-101 report dated April 3, 2017 that was commissioned by Canarc Resource Corp of Vancouver, B.C., Canada. The resource estimate was compiled only from drill holes that could be validated (591 holes @ 49,086 m), a sufficient amount to deem the historic resource as reliable. Using Techbase software, a method of polygons was used along each vein. With a minimum 0.10 opt Au and 1.8 m horizontal vein width used as cut-off parameters, twelve veins had sufficient composited intercepts within the sulfide mineralization for the estimate. No capping or cutting of grades was applied. The historical resource estimate used classifications in accordance with NI 43-101 standards, namely, "indicated" and "inferred". A review and/or re- calculation of the historic resource is required by an independent Qualified Person to confirm these as current resources as defined by NI 43-101. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources; and the issuer is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources.

Scott Frostad, P.Geo., is the Qualified Person (as defined in NI 43-101) who reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.

About Getchell Gold Corp.

The Company is a Nevada focused gold and copper exploration company listed on the (CSE: GTCH) and (OTCQB: GGLDF). Getchell Gold is directing its efforts on its most advanced stage asset, Fondaway Canyon, a past gold producer with a significant in-the-ground historic resource estimate. Complementing Getchell's asset portfolio is Dixie Comstock, a past gold producer with a historic resource and two earlier stage exploration projects, Star Point and Hot Springs Peak.

For further information please visit the Company's website at www.getchellgold.com or contact the Company at info@getchellgold.com.

Mr. William Wagener, Chairman & CEO

Getchell Gold Corp.

+1 303 517 8764

info@getchellgold.com

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed this press release and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Not for distribution to U.S. news wire services or dissemination in the United States.

Certain information contained herein constitutes "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the private placement and the completion thereof and the use of proceeds. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "will" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, including: the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, use of proceeds from the financing, capital expenditures and other costs, and financing and additional capital requirements. Although management of Getchell have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward looking information. The Company will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/53924
A medic checks a ventilator in the intensive care unit of a newly inaugurated hospital in Chennai on March 27, 2020. (AFP)

Chennai/Salem: Tamil Nadu health authorities on Sunday intensified house checks across 11 districts as the number of Covid-19 positive cases in the state touched 50, up by eight cases in 24 hours. The new cases included a baby boy.

Health secretary Beela Rajesh sought to soften the blow, saying all the eight cases that tested positive on Sunday were from Erode district and were already in isolation at the designated Perundurai Government Hospital there, or under observation.

Erode collector C Kathiravan said the eight positive patients in the district include one of the seven Islamic preachers from Thailand who visited Erode district recently and three of their local contact persons. All of them are under observation in the isolation ward. Two other Islamic clerics have tested positive for the virus.

On Sunday alone, Kathiravan said four people from Erode, who were among the contacts of the Thai preachers, tested positive for the virus. Including a ten-month-old baby, they are all from one family. They were recently shifted to a Coimbatore hopsital.

In neighbouring Salem district, six patients including four Islamic clerics from Indonesia have tested positive, while 13 others are under monitoring in the Mohan Kumaramangalam General Hospital.

Dr Beela Rajesh clarified that blood samples taken from three people who died on a single day in Kanyakumari General Hospital on Saturday have all returned negative, thereby showing that they were not corona-related deaths.

Though the total number of positive cases has jumped to 50 in Tamil Nadu, the number includes five who were discharged after treatment, she said.

Tamil Nadu has conducted intense surveillance of 43,538 new foreign returnees detected through passport tracking, the health secretary said; and 1,763 blood samples have been taken from them and sent for testing.

Health workers have been conducting checks in individual houses in 11 vulnerable districts including Virdhunagar. In Tiruppur district alone, 27,720 persons were checked and of them 50 have been found to have symptoms of coronavirus.

In Salem district, 80,000 persons were checked of whom 20 showed symptoms of the virus, while in Chennai city one lakh persons were checked. Follow-up actions including house quarantine and admission to isolation wards where necessary were being taken in all these cases, Dr Rajesh said.

The person who tested positive in Chennai on Saturday had a travel history to the US while another engineer in Virudhunagar who tested positive had also contact history, she said.

The total bed capacity for coronavirus-related patients across Tamil Nadu including government hospitals and select private hospitals has now been augmented to 17,000, the health secretary said.
The Lagos State Government on Monday discharged five coronavirus patients who were receiving treatment at Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba.

This is coming days after the government announced that six of the patients had recovered and would be discharged soon.

The total number of those who have recovered is now eight.

According to the state government, the patients, who had been in quarantine for four weeks, were finally discharged after multiple test results showed that they were now fully recovered from the disease.

One of the discharged patients, Oluwaseun Osowobi, who is the director of Stand to End Rape, an organisation fighting against rape in Nigeria, took to Twitter to narrate her experience in the isolation centre.

She said she contracted the virus in the United Kingdom at a post-Commonwealth event.

Life finds ways of throwing LEMON at me. Ive struggled coming forward, but I want to inspire hope. I returned to Nigeria from the UK post-Commonwealth event (I totally enjoyed) & fell ill. As a responsible person, I self-isolated. Days after, I TESTED POSITIVE FOR COVID-19.

Before returning, I had planned several interviews, I was scheduled to start a fantastic consultancy job & was also expecting to sign a contract worth millions. I lost them all!!! I had to self-isolate and also inform people I came in close contact with to get tested. #COVID19.

My friend & I kept calling @NCDCgov to get tested? What if we didnt persist? No info on my test result. At 12 a.m, an ambulance was at my house. I woke from sleep & was crying. I got to the isolation center, but no one was there to receive me. I waited in the ambulance for TWO HOURS.

The nurses eventually came out & treated me like a plague. I sat in the ambulance feeling rejected. No questions about how I felt. So many questions about my travel history. Same information I had provided to NCDC & Lagos State Government during profiling.

She said after two hours, she was finally taken in for attention.

After two hours, I was taken to my space.I felt lonely, bored & disconnected from the outside world. Few days after, another patient came in. We bonded. Days later, patients trooped in. Are people observing self-isolation & social distancing? I was so scared for Nigeria.

The next days were tough. No appetite. The nausea, vomit & stooling was unbearable. Im a blood type A & #COVID19 dealt with me. Ill share daily symptoms & recovery process in a video tomorrow. I thought I was going to die & contemplated a succession plan for @StandtoEndRape. I was on drugs daily. Sometimes, Id take 8 tablets in the morning, 13 tablets in the afternoon, 10 at night. My system threw everything out!

Fighting for life

Ms Osowobi narrated how she battled for survival.

Water, food, soap & all disgusted me. But Id look at the wall & force myself to stay hydrated  drank ORS. I FOUGHT TO LIVE! I FOUGHT!!

Days after, the Doctors shared good news that I tested negative. I shared this news w/ family & friends! My blood sample was taken & I also tried to donate my plasmapheresis to help others. I hoped to be discharged. I waited to be discharged, but for two days, nothing happened.

I was unsure of what was going on. Why havent I been discharged? Should I be in the same ward? Could I get reinfected? I was worried but remained calm. On the 3rd day, Doctors said, well, we worked w/ the info we had of you testing negative, but one result came back positive.

Youll stay a few more days. You know we take nose, mouth & sputum samples.

Am I still positive ? I asked. No, youre negative, the Doctor replied. The Doctor apologised for the delay. I was anxious to go home but remained calm. I wanted to be free from this pain.

I continued the medication and asked to be in a separate ward. Sadly, I remained in the same ward as all other rooms were full. My ward had people who were positive. What if I get re-infected? For them, I was a beacon of hope & they needed me gone to register the progress.

My family & friends were becoming anxious. People in my ward who earlier celebrated the news of my result suddenly lost hope. Why are you still here? You shouldnt be here with us. You should be separated from us now People in my ward muttered. I tried to calm them.

Today, I am PROUD to inform you that I MURDERED COVID-19 & have tested NEGATIVE TWICE! I HAVE BEEN DISCHARGED I bless God for His mercies. The nurses at IDH Yaba were fab. They deserve accolades for their hard work.

Thank you Governor @jidesanwoolu for coming to see me. Thanks to @ProfAkinAbayomi, the health team at IDH + Lagos State. The food was good! Thanks to @dondekojo for helping me get help. Thanks to my chat buddy, @akintonmide. Thank you @KelechiAFC & @lailajohnsonsal for the mental & material support. They protected my identity!

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Thanks to everyone who called, sent messages and tried to contact me. I am grateful and well. This experience reminded me of the value of friendship. Some people I refer to as friends speculated about this, but never reached out to check. Thank you still. Back to the grind!

Huge thanks to my family, @Triciabiz & Sola Odetola who were my backbone. Some stigmatised me based on a PUNCH article with subtle messages like why did she come back to Nigeria? Nigeria is my home.

Coronavirus is NOT a death sentence. People can survive and I HAVE! We should encourage people to get tested & stop the stigma. Practice social distancing and stop the spread. @NCDCgov & State Governments need to improve their testing capacity. Test mild/asymptomatic cases too. Sending strength to everyone who is fighting to beat #COVID19, she narrated.

Contacts:

Nigeria now has a total number of 111 coronavirus cases spread across 10 states and the FCT.

Of the 111 confirmed cases, Lagos has 68; the FCT 21, Oyo seven and Ogun three. Enugu, Edo, Bauchi and Osun all have two cases each while Ekiti, Rivers, Benue and Kaduna all have one case each. Nigeria has so gar recorded two deaths.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday ordered a lockdown of Lagos, Abuja and Ogun State to contain the disease as NCDC said it will help trace contacts.
Many disingenuous things have been said during the coronavirus crisis, some of them by the president of the United States himself. But right near the top must be three letters issued last week  from the American Council on Education (ACE), activist groups led by the National Womens Law Center (NWLC), and 18 Democratic attorneys general  calling for the Department of Education to halt the release of long-anticipated regulations that will restore due process to the handling of sexual-assault cases on college campuses. DeVoss proposed rule would ensure basic rights for accused students  notice, access to evidence, a live hearing, and the ability to have a lawyer or advocate cross-examine adverse witnesses  that are often or almost always absent in the current Title IX process imposed by Obama-era guidance. That system has yielded more than 170 university setbacks in lawsuits filed by accused students in state or federal court.

In its letter, ACE argued that at a time when institutional resources already are stretched thin, colleges and universities should not be asked to divert precious resources away from more critical efforts in order to implement regulations unrelated to this extraordinary crisis. The NWLC letter spoke similarly, but leaned harder on the supposed harm to students: Finalizing the proposed rule would also unnecessarily exacerbate confusion and uncertainty for students who are currently in pending Title IX investigations and hearings, which have already been delayed and disrupted by the pandemic. The letter from the attorneys general expressed similar language.

While its hard not to admire their chutzpah, their arguments are provably nonsense.

First, the universities have known for more than 16 months  since November 2018  that these regulations were coming. They have had ample time both to tell the government what they think of the regulations and to start planning for their inevitable release. If some of them have failed to plan ahead, hoping that the regulations would never be released or that a lawsuit by victims groups would enjoin them immediately following their release, that isnt the fault of the coronavirus.

Story continues

Second, do you know whos going to have a lot of time on their hands in the next six months? Title IX coordinators. Why? Because the number of Title IX cases is about to drop precipitously.

In recent years, schools have been more interested in staffing their Title IX offices than their humanities departments. The Title IX coordinator at the University of Michigan, whose 2018 sexual-misconduct policy a federal judge recently declared unconstitutional, earns $139,000, overseeing five Title IX investigators who earn almost $500,000 together. And as any Title IX coordinator can tell you, Title IX cases are fueled by college students being in close proximity to each other, often with alcohol nearby. Take away the proximity and the alcohol, and you take away the vast majority of Title IX cases. Moreover, figuring out how to implement these regulations can easily be handed on Zoom calls.

The real reason colleges might want to avoid remote meetings is that they might produce a more permanent record that in-person meetings can avoid. Thats what happened in 2017 at St. Josephs University. Because a Title IX official was on maternity leave, some of the schools meetings about Secretary DeVoss interim 2017 guidance occurred virtually. The university decided to keep its pre-2017 policy, even as communications between St. Josephs administrators and the absent Title IX official produced a record acknowledging their procedures might have run afoul of the due-process requests in the guidance.

So this is, in fact, the perfect time for the Education Department to implement the new regulations.

Third, its clear that these interest groups  and their political allies  are just trying to delay long enough for a new administration possibly to take over. The coronavirus crisis is unlikely to recede completely before the 2020 election. If Joe Biden wins, he will withdraw the proposed regulations immediately, which will be much harder to do if theyve actually been implemented. ACE and the NWLC know this, which is why theyre making this argument now. Seeing them exploit the coronavirus to run out the clock brings to mind the old quote from a cartoon in The New Yorker: How about never  is never good for you?

And you dont have to take our word for it. ACE president Ted Mitchell called these new regulations a step in the wrong direction, saying they would impose[] a legalistic, prescriptive one-size-fits-all judicial-like process on universities. The NWLC was even more blunt, calling the proposed regulations disastrous, confusing and illogical, and devastating for survivors (emphasis in original), and even opining that due process is clearly a red herring.

This is all nonsense. The new Title IX regulations may wind up being Betsy DeVoss greatest legacy. They will finally restore balance and fairness to a process that, due to the Obama administrations overreach, had little of either.

The time is now. Lets hope the administration issues these regulations soon and ignores this galling attempt to twist a genuine crisis for political ends.

More from National Review
Immigration advocates have requested the Trump Administration to release the immigration detainees due to at least one detainee having tested positive in detention facilities. Advocates fear that tight quarters may cause the spread of the virus to spike immediately.

The United States immigration detention facilities hold about 37,000 detainees. Most of them have pre-existing conditions making them vulnerable to the coronavirus. Migrants are often held in open quarters with beds 3-feet apart and with not enough masks and other protection.

Immigration Detention Facility Conditions

According to one detainee, Marco Battistotti, who is currently held at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Bristol County Jail, people in the facility are panicking and are overwhelmed with fear.

Battistotti is among the 100 detainees at the county jail in Massachusetts. Along with his fellow detainees, he signed a request letter released by a local immigration lawyer detailing the current condition inside the facility. Their letter also indicates their request for release as they wait for their hearings.

The agency released a report of a 31 year old migrant from Mexico who tested positive for COVID-19. He was held in Bergen County, New Jersey. They have announced steps to ensure that each detainee and staff is protected but they have not indicated if they are looking into testing those suspected to be exposed to the virus. No comments have been made regarding the condition of the facility.

More on Immigration:

Request for Release

Trump Administration along with ICE is trying to balance their immigration policy during the pandemic. ICE confirms that they will temporarily adjust their operations to focus on apprehending individuals who pose a risk to public safety or those who are subject to mandatory detention due to previous or ongoing criminal cases.

American Civil Liberties Union and other immigraion advocates are filing a lawsuit in different states such as California, Maryland and Pennsylvania asking for the immediate release of immigration detainees, especially those who are deemed high risk in contracting the virus.

Other advocates have also asked a court in Los Angeles to require the office of Refugee Resettlement for the release of qualified migrant children to their sponsors who are found to be without parents or legal guardians and held in government-contracted shelters for more than 30 days. According to them, 2 staff from 2 facilities similar to it have been tested positive for the virus.

On Monday, a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ordered the immediate release of a 37 year old woman who claims to be threatened with death by a Mexican drug cartel.

The situation in detention facilities are similar to the conditions in jails and prisons. The main difference between them is that most of the individuals detained by ICE have no criminal records and are only held due to immigration concerns.

With the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the United States, ICE commits to screen new detainees and is currently isolating those who show symptoms of the virus. Detainees feel these measures do not guarantee their safety at all.
Even during a once in a lifetime crisis Qantas boss Alan Joyce remains strategic and plays a long game, Elizabeth Knight writes.

Until a week ago the devastating pandemic that will cost his airline billions in lost revenue also presented an opportunity to see off its weaker domestic competitor, Virgin Australia.

Rivals even during happier times, Alan Joyce and Paul Scurrah have become fierce opponents in the battle for government help.

Thus a government bailout for Virgin - particularly one that involves the state ultimately converting a loan into Virgin shares - is Joyces worst nightmare. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests the $1.4 billion loan Virgin is seeking would convert into a stake of a little less than 70 per cent based on the current share price.

Such an outcome would dilute Virgins five major shareholders who together own 90 per cent of its shares (Etihad, Singapore Airlines HNA, Nanshan and Richard Branson) to less than 30 per cent.

You can read the full opinion piece here.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on March 30 warned that the "new way of life" that the country has adopted in the thick of the Coronavirus outbreak might be extended. The statement comes after the country confirmed a total of 38,309 cases and 2,640 deaths. One of the worst-hit countries in the world, Iran confirmed its first case on February 19, however speculations of the virus reaching the country in January have emerged. Iranian Health Minister on Monday announced that more 123 people had died from the virus that found its roots in China's Wuhan in December 2019.

Hassan Rouhani said that the 'new way of life' that has been adopted is for everyone's benefit and that "these changes will likely have to stay in place for some time," Arab News reported. In an Iranian Cabinet meeting, the President further said that the country must prepare to live with Coronavirus until a treatment or vaccine is discovered.

READ| Another batch of 275 Indian citizens brought back from Iran, quarantined in Jodhpur

Coronavirus in Iran

Despite the soaring cases in the country, Iran refrained from announcing a total lockdown until Wednesday, when the country banned all intercity travel. Without imposing an official lockdown, the Iranian regime urged people to stay at home "as much as possible." Schools and universities in some provinces were closed in late February and the measure was later extended to the whole country. On a positive note, Rouhani said he had been told by top health experts and doctors that "in some provinces we have passed the peak (of the epidemic) and are on a downward trajectory".

Coronavirus in Iran hit the highest political ranks in government with several officials and figures being diagnosed with the novel disease. Iran's Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi, who was one of the foremost affected government officials has returned to public life now. In the most recent cases, the brother of former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami was affected.

READ| Coronavirus Outbreak: Top adviser to Iran's Ali Khamenei quarantined with virus symptoms

READ| Iran Minister coughs, wipes sweat amid Coronavirus briefing, hours prior to his diagnosis

(With AP inputs)
Harsh lockdowns aimed at halting the march of the coronavirus extended around the world on Monday as the death toll soared past 35,000 despite slivers of hope in stricken Italy and Spain.

In a symbol of the scale of the challenge facing humanity, a US military medical ship sailed into New York to relieve the pressure on overwhelmed hospitals bracing for the peak of the pandemic.

The tough measures that have confined some two-fifths of the globe's population to their homes extended further with Moscow and Lagos both joining the roll call of cities around the globe with eerily empty streets.

The number of declared COVID-19 cases around the world topped 700,000, with 400,000 of those in Europe, while most of the confirmed deaths are also from the continent, according to an AFP tally.

World leaders -- several of whom have themselves been stricken or forced into isolation -- are still grappling for ways to deal with a crisis that will have economic and social shockwaves unseen since World War II.

US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed "closer cooperation" on the pandemic and talked about plunging oil prices in a telephone call on Monday, the Kremlin said.

'Good for morale'

The navy's USNS Comfort, which has space for 1,000 beds and a dozen operating rooms, docked just a day after Trump extended social-distancing measures in the United States until the end of April.

"It will be good for morale," said NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio of the arrival of the Comfort, which will care for people requiring intensive care unrelated to the coronavirus, easing the burden on an overwhelmed hospital network.

In Russia, Putin on Monday urged residents of Moscow to "very seriously" respect a lockdown that has seen the closure of all non-essential shops, including restaurants and cafes, in Europe's largest city.

Red Square in the heart of Moscow was deserted and the surrounding streets were quiet.

Anna, a 36-year-old web designer, said the lockdown would be hard for her and her five-year-old daughter. "But I don't want Arina to get sick," she told AFP while on her way to buy some bread. "So of course we will observe the quarantine."

Fears of a rise in cases drove Moscow to follow Italy, Spain and France in imposing full lockdowns, and Europe remains the epicentre of the pandemic with the death toll there passing 25,000 on Monday, according to an AFP tally.

'Work continues'

After weeks of life spent under a national lockdown in Italy, signs were emerging that its drastic actions could slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Even though the country's death toll grew by 812 in 24 hours to 11,591, figures from the civil protection service showed the rate of new COVID-19 infections hitting a new low of just 4.1 percent and the number of people who had recovered reached a new high.

"The data are better but our work continues," said Giulio Gallera, the chief medical officer of Lombardy, Italy's worst-hit region.

COVID-19: world toll. By Valentine GRAVELEAU (AFP)

Spain also announced another 812 virus deaths in 24 hours.

"While the isolation measures have reduced the pressure on intensive care units, in the coming weeks it will be significant," said Maria Jose Sierra of the Spanish health ministry's emergencies centre.

Spain meanwhile joined the United States and Italy in surpassing the number of cases in China, where the disease first emerged in December in the city of Wuhan.

France however reported its highest daily number of deaths since the outbreak began, saying 418 more people had died in hospital.

'Nothing to eat'

Britain and Italy both warned at the weekend that measures to prevent the spread of the disease would be in place for months to come.

The USNS Comfort medical ship moves up the Hudson River as it arrives on March 30, 2020 in New York. By Bryan R. Smith (AFP)

In Britain the disease has hit high profile figures including Prime Minister Boris Johnson and heir to the throne Prince Charles, who was out of virus isolation, according to royal officials.

In Israel, meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became the latest world leader to go into isolation and German Chancellor Angela Merkel's third coronavirus test came back negative.

The lockdowns are causing hardship across the world but particularly in impoverished cities in Africa and Asia.

Bags with food and clothes donated for homeless people hang on a so-called gift fence in Leipzig, eastern Germany. By Ronny Hartmann (AFP)

Africa's biggest city, Lagos, was due to join the global stay-at-home from Monday, with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari ordering a two-week lockdown for its 20 million people. The measures, in force from 2200 GMT, also apply to the capital Abuja.

"Two weeks is too long. I don't know how we will cope," said student Abdul Rahim, 25, as he helped his sister sell foodstuffs from a market stall.

Zimbabwe on Monday also began enforcing a three-week lockdown in the impoverished southern African country.

"They need to be fed, but there is nothing to eat," vegetable vendor Irene Ruwisi said in the township of Mbare, pointing at her four grandchildren. "How do they expect us to survive?"

A lone cyclist makes his way in the usually bustling part of downtown Harare. By Jekesai NJIKIZANA (AFP)

The shutdown has already put millions out of work and forced governments to rush through huge stimulus plans.

Experts in Germany, Europe's economic powerhouse, said the virus would shrink output there this year by up to 5.4 percent.

The march of the coronavirus has also transformed the sporting and cultural calendar, with the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games announcing that it will open on July 23 next year.

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Two nurses walk in front of the Emergency Room of the local hospital in Cremona, near Milan, Italy, on March 20, 2020. (Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images)

Italy Records Daily Decrease in CCP Virus Cases, 812 Deaths Reported

Italy on Monday reported a drastic decrease in the number of new COVID-19 cases while announcing that 812 people died in the past 24 hours, raising the total to 11,591.

The Civil Protection Agency said on Monday that the number of new cases of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which is also known as the coronavirus, has dropped to 4,050, which is the lowest number since March 17, hitting a total of 101,739 cases overall, according to state-run ANSA.

More than 5,200 cases were reported Sunday, and 5,974 cases were reported Saturday. The agency also reported that nationwide, 14,620 people have recovered compared to 13,030 the day before.

Italys largest daily death toll from the CCP virus pandemic was registered Friday when 919 people died. Another 889 deaths were reported on Saturday and 756 were reported on Sunday, authorities said.

Health authorities on Monday noted that the more than 1,500 recoveries from the virus in 24 hours were the single-largest increase since the pandemic started.

Carabinieri officers, wearing protective suits, pull a coffin in Ponte San Pietro, near Bergamo, Northern Italy, on March 28, 2020. (Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images)

The virus first emerged in mainland China late last year before spreading to nearly every country in the world, killing tens of thousands of people.

Each of us must respect the instructions of the authorities and we must follow the indication to stay at home and go out only for the bare essentials because only by respecting these measures will we be able to defeat the virus as soon as possible, said Civil Protection head Angelo Borrelli in a news conference.

Italy implemented a nationwide lockdown earlier this month, shutting down nearly all aspects of everyday life.

We are going in the right direction and we must not change our strategy in the slightest, said Health Council chief Franco Locatelli. It will not be a process of returning to normal from nothing to everything, it will be gradual. But the goal is to be able to contain the situation now, prevent further epidemic outbreaks, especially such as those seen in Lombardy and in other parts of northern Italy.

Italians face steep fines of up to 3,000 euros ($3,350) for defying government orders of going outside for food and essential items only, Reuters reported last week.

Elsewhere in the European Union, Spain on Monday reported 812 virus fatalities in the past 24 hours while reporting more than 85,000 people have been infected, according to El Pais.

The government is controlling the situation, it is dealing with the situation in the best possible way, said Health Minister Salvador Illa at a news conference on Monday afternoon.
JClean Weather Technologies, an incubatee company in Pune's Scitech Park has developed a new technology to disinfect closed spaces and rooms. The technology, named Scitech Airon, was developed under the Nidhi Prayas program initiated by the Department of Science and Technology (DST). It reduces the viral load of a closed space by 99.7 per cent within an hour, depending on the room size.

The machine can be used to disinfect spaces which have been occupied by coronavirus patients ensuring that the doctors, nurses and other care staff in quarantine facilities do not catch the virus. The technology also increases the body's resistance to external factors for 20-30 days.

The Airon has been tested by several international labs in closed spaces like houses, hospitals, schools, farms, industries etc. It is capable of killing a range of viruses, bacteria and fungal infections and can disinfect a room from several allergens. It also decomposes pollutants like Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Dioxide and volatile gaseous organic compounds.

The Scitech Airon ioniser machine generates negatively charged ions that chemically react with the proteins on the outer walls of these microorganisms and other allergens leaving them ineffective and harmless.

JClean has received Rs 1 crore from DST for manufacturing and scaling up the product. 1,000 units will be ready for installation in several hospitals across Maharashtra soon.

Also Read: Coronavirus in India Live updates: 2-year-old among 4 new COVID-19 cases in Noida; 80-year-old dies in Mumbai

Also Read: Coronavirus: 65-year-old man in Mohali with no travel history tests positive
From the White House to the county courthouse, the coronavirus pandemic has drastically upended the 2020 election

From the White House to the county courthouse, the coronavirus pandemic has drastically upended the 2020 election.

Many Democratic leaders now doubt their national party convention will take place as planned in July, while President Donald Trumps determination to hold the Republican convention could collide with life-or-death realities.

Both Trump and former vice-president Joe Biden are wary of holding public events too soon and may not engage in full-fledged campaigning until the summer.

And hundreds of congressional, statewide and local candidates, who are always overshadowed in presidential years, are turning to the role of good Samaritan  aiding with groceries and hiring people newly out of work in an effort to stay visible without being insensitive to the crisis.

The virus has fundamentally transformed political life in America, affecting how candidates communicate with voters, raise money from donors and confront their opponents. This is for now the countrys first virtual campaign as the risk of disease physically separates candidates from the people they seek to represent and pushes office-seekers from Biden on down to appeal to homebound voters and contributors through balky web videos.

Even when more traditional electioneering resumes, the nature of this race will be profoundly different.

The outbreak, which has already claimed more than 2,000 lives in the United States and well over three million jobs, has thrust the public health threat and economic downturn to the forefront in races up and down the ballot this year.

Incumbents at every level, starting with Trump, will be judged on how they prepared for and steered the country through a crisis that has turned the life of nearly every voter upside down.

This is the question that is going to dominate the election: How did you perform in the great crisis? said Representative Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, who has cancelled fundraisers and instead scheduled tele-town hall events with guests like the provost at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Centre.

The duration of the election season itself is likely to shrink significantly. The presidential campaign, which typically dominates news coverage for much of the year, could look more like one of Britains six-week General Election sprints. Should the two major American candidates return to the stump before the fall, they will most likely be crowded out by the grim accounting of the countrys worst pandemic in over a century.

Regional disparities in how the virus is spreading could mean that office-seekers may be able to campaign in parts of the country that are less hard-hit. And if the social distancing measures in place mitigate the outbreak, the contenders could return to the parade and banquet circuit sooner than some anticipate.

But until the spread of the virus slows, there is likely to be little interest in the presidential race and even less in state and local races.

Representative Sean Casten, D-Illinois, has culled his campaigns phone bank list to voters 60 or older. Rather than ask them policy questions or trumpet his accomplishments, Castens volunteers ask if they need any health and safety information and provide a list of senior-only hours at local supermarkets.

Nobody wants to talk about my thoughts on carbon pricing, said Casten, who was a renewable energy executive before he was elected to Congress in 2018.

At the moment, there effectively is no campaign of any consequence to voters who are consumed with their familys safety and well-being.

Every issue in my district is impacted by this, said Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican who represents much of New Yorks vast North Country. This is going to be an economic issue; its going to be a higher ed issue; its going to be a border issue.

The long sweep of US history is filled with presidential elections that took place during times of war and upheaval, but there is little modern precedent for a campaign unfolding against a backdrop of such widespread national fear.

The closest comparison may be the New York mayoral race in 2001, when the 11 September terrorist attacks loomed over the citys election. In presidential politics, the Vietnam War, assassinations and civil rights struggles shaped the 1968 campaign and seemed to reveal a country coming apart.

But some historians believe the closest comparison to this year, the last time the entire nation was consumed by a single issue, may be 1944, when the threat of Nazi Germany and imperial Japan fully mobilised American citizens behind the war effort.

That was the last time there was this sort of disruption in our daily lives and change in rituals, said Doris Kearns Goodwin, a presidential scholar, noting that millions were deployed in arms and those who remained home lived with rationed goods. But at least people then could go to work, be part of the effort to win the war.

Sensing opportunity, Trump has sought to portray himself as a wartime leader in daily televised news briefings. It has given him a bump in the polls, with his approval ratings creeping up toward 50 percent as Independents and some Democrats rally behind him, while Biden, the likely Democratic nominee, is largely drowned out by the president and even Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York.

Its a defining moment, said Henry Barbour, a Republican National Committee member from Mississippi, adding of Trump, The more he reassures Americans, gives them the facts and delivers results, the harder it will be for Joe Biden.

A race that turns entirely on the response to the current health and economic crises could also render other traditional campaign markers less important  if they happen at all.

While Trump is loudly insisting his convention will go on in Charlotte, North Carolina, in late August, it remains to be seen whether the Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, would allow such a large gathering in his states most populous city.

Democratic officials are even more skeptical about their convention.

Hundreds of local and state conventions have already been canceled or become mail-in, telephone or online events. Theres talk among some Democrats of conducting the national convention online or through the mail, with some operatives and fundraisers discussing a one-night television event that could replicate a star-studded awards show.

The DNC is going to have to start considering that this convention will have to be held in other ways, said Ken Martin, the Democratic chairman in Minnesota who is also president of an organisation of state Democratic leaders.

For now, Democrats are using a barrage of ads to try to remind voters of Trumps initial dismissal of the viruss severity, but its been difficult to broadly divert attention from the threat of the moment.

Some in the party, however, believe the president will ultimately be held to account for his slow response and the unfolding damage to the economy and will suffer from the new light the crisis will cast on domestic issues in the fall.

The administrations court case to repeal the ACA takes on a very different meaning, said Guy Cecil, who runs a Democratic super political action committee, referring to the legal effort to strike down Obamacare in its entirety.

But the larger question for Trump may be whether he can sustain the appearance of a wartime leader able to summon Americans to sacrifice.

The president has already displayed impatience and pique that could damage his reelection chances, lashing out at governors, refusing to take any responsibility for the coronavirus crisis and suggesting Americans can return to life as usual in a way that experts say could exacerbate the spread of the virus.

His campaign is already discussing the possibility of a rally-style event in one of the less-affected states in late April, although one adviser said those discussions are preliminary.

While they would have preferred to use the months before Biden formally claims the nomination to define the former vice president to their advantage, Republicans generally believe this crisis has done little to diminish Trumps prospects.

His campaign continues to raise money online at a brisk pace, but Republican officials privately conceded it has been harder to raise money without events featuring the president.

Fundraising has been even more difficult for other candidates on the ballot, who often rely more on big-dollar, in-person events rather than internet solicitations.

Corry Bliss, a Republican strategist, said he expects fundraising totals for federal candidates from the first three months of the year to be down about 20 percent from what they would have been without the pandemic.

In Missouri, Nicole Galloway, the state auditor and a Democrat, is running for governor. On Thursday night she held a virtual cocktail hour by teleconference with a few dozen invited supporters.

With framed photos of her three children over her shoulders, Galloway told around 60 supporters that Missouris Republican governor has been following her lead in responding to the pandemic, answered questions about education funding and professed sadness that she couldnt travel the state in person.

In the small frames atop the screen, supporters could be seen pouring and mixing drinks. One Missouri donor had distributed a recipe for a drink called The Democrat, inspired by the native son Harry Trumans fondness for bourbon.

Galloway is hardly the only candidate being creative.

In Georgia, Lynne Homrich, a Republican running for the House, announced her campaign would hire 20 people who had been laid off from local businesses, augmenting a paid campaign staff of five before her 19 May primary.

Homrich, a former Home Depot executive, began sorting through dozens of emails from people seeking campaign staff work  which in the age of virus means calling or writing people from ones own home.

Hiral Tipirneni, a former emergency room doctor running for Congress in Arizona, said she spends just as much time explaining the details of the pandemic  in phone calls, video chats and during Facebook Live sessions  as she does asking people to vote for her in November.

They have medical questions, Tipirneni said. Its a scary time, and whatever I can do to alleviate some of those fears, its a moral responsibility.

Jonathan Martin, Reid J Epstein and Maggie Haberman c.2020 The New York Times Company
A hunter has killed an iconic lone wolf known as Takaya whose epic journey through the backyards of a city to live alone on a Canadian island earned him worldwide fame.

Takaya, whose name means 'wolf' to the indigenous Songhees people, was the subject of a BBC documentary last year, and was followed for his peculiar hermit-like behaviour.

Before he was killed by a hunter last Tuesday, the wolf lived alone on Discovery Island in British Columbia for eight years, and was followed for six of them by wildlife photographer Cheryl Alexander.

Pictured: An undated front-facing shot of Takaya who roamed a remote island off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. Takaya was shot and killed by a hunter on Discovery Island last Tuesday

Pictured: A locator map shows the Oak Bay Islands, which includes Discovery Island, where Takaya lived for eight years

'It's a combination of intense rage and also just intense sorrow,' Alexander said, according to the Times. 'It is a huge loss.'

Takaya piqued the world's interest for his unique survivalist behaviour, journeying through cities and swimming two miles to reach the picturesque Discovery Island, just off the coast of Oak Bay in Victoria.

On his epic journey, the wolf bedded down in the backyards of homes on Vancouver Island and evaded police as he wandered through the British Columbia's capital.

Once settled on the island, he appears to have picked up techniques of sea birds, digging out prey from wells he had dug.

He was a rare species of canine known as the sea wolf, which thrive in coastal environments, living off salmon and shellfish rather than larger mammals like deer.

Sea wolves are pack animals but Takaya appeared to be content with his self-isolation.

In the months before his death, the wolf ventured out from seclusion on the island to find a mate, but was shot with a tranquiliser after two days of wandering through the city of Victoria.

Pictured: Undated photo of Takaya. Takaya piqued the world's interest for his unique survivalist behaviour, journeying through cities and swimming two miles to reach the picturesque Discovery Island, just off the coast of Oak Bay in Victoria

Police moved the creature to Vancouver Island, where he was killed by a hunter last Tuesday.

British Columbia's conservation agency said Takaya died near Shawnigan Lake, a village on the island.

The agency said they decided not to return the wolf to his home on Discovery Island as he may have left again to search for food.

'The senseless trophy killing of Takaya, the iconic "lone wolf" made famous by his stay on Discovery Island, once again brings to the fore the full-spectrum persecution of Canis lupus in British Columbia, Chris Genovali, executive director of Raincoast Conservation Foundation (RCF), told Canada's National Post.

The foundation added that an estimated 1,200 wolves are killed for sport each year.

On Sunday, thousands of Takaya's fans were to send off the iconic lone wolf with a collective howl.
With four more cases reported on Monday, Covid-19 count in the city goes up to 32.

Pune district on Monday reported the first death of a Covid-19 positive patient. The total number of deaths due to Covid-19 in the state has now reached ten.

A 52-year-old male patient, according to the district administration, was on the ventilator at a private hospital. The person had been working in Thane, but lived in Pune. The patient had no foreign travel history and was also suffering from liver cirrhosis, diabetes and high blood pressure along with the Covid-19 disease.

Pune district collector Naval Kishore Ram confirmed the death saying, A 52-year-old male patient who was admitted at the Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital and was in a serious condition, died on Monday. The patient was also suffering from liver cirrhosis.

The patient tested positive for the infection on March 24 and since then was in a serious condition. PMC health officials said that the patient died due to multiple organ failure while the state health department said that the details of the cause of death needs to be ascertained.

Pune mayor Murlidhar Mohol said, The said patient was suffering from multiple diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure and was admitted due to his these conditions at the hospital on March 22 and later it was found that he was also infected with the Sar-Cov-2 virus. He was being treated for all these conditions. Unfortunately, on Monday he was declared dead by the doctors at Deenanath Mangeshkar hospital in Pune.

The deceased was electrically cremated at Punes Vaikunth crematorium at 4pm, following the World Health Organisation (WHO) protocols of cremating a Covid-19 infected person, said Dr Rajhans Prasad, chief of intensive care unit at Deenanath Mangeshkar.

This is the 10th death reported in the state due to Covid-19, with seven deaths in Mumbai, one in Thane and one in Buldhana, according to the state health department.

Four more cases reported, city count rises to 32

Four more cases were reported in the city late Sunday night. Two of them are close contacts of a Covid-19 positive patient and two have foreign travel history. All of them have been admitted to Naidu Hospital. The two patients are the brother (38) and sister-in-law (36) of a Covid-19 positive patient, a 46-year-old man with no foreign travel history, who is currently admitted at Sahyadri Karve road, who tested positive on March 24. Currently, six members of the same family are infected with the Sars-Cov-2 virus.

In addition, to these two close relatives, earlier on March 28, three more close relatives of the patient, the wife (39), his father (66) and mother (55) were admitted at Naidu. The third and the fourth case reported have a travel history to Bermuda. The man and his wife both have tested positive. So, the city count goes up to 32.
Photo shows, from left to right, Riley Bottom, Kelly Huffman, and Kathleen Conner. Credit: Huffman lab, UC Riverside.

Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, have explored the relationship between parental alcohol consumptionbefore conception in the case of fathers and during pregnancy in the case of mothersand offspring development.

In a paper published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, the researchers report that when alcohol-exposed male mice mated with alcohol-naive females, the offspring displayed significant deficits in brain development. Specifically, the neocortex, the most complex part of the mammalian brain responsible for complex cognitive and behavioral function, had patterning deficits where abnormal gene expression led to miswiring of connections. Although neither these mice nor their mothers had ever been exposed to alcohol, their brains showed changes consistent with a mouse model of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, or FASD.

"People have known about the dangers of maternal drinking during pregnancy for years; however, the safety of paternal drinking while trying to conceive has barely been considered," said Kelly Huffman, an associate professor of psychology who led the study and whose lab generated the FASD mouse model. "Our research shows that fathers' exposure to alcohol leading up to conception can have deleterious effects on the child's brain and behavioral development."

In a second paper, published in Neuropharmacology, Huffman's team reports that when female mice were given choline, an essential nutrient, along with alcohol during their pregnancies, the negative outcomes associated with prenatal alcohol exposure, such as smaller body weight, brain weight, and abnormalities in the anatomy of the neocortex, were reduced in the offspring. This suggests choline supplementation could prevent the adverse outcomes associated with prenatal alcohol exposure.

"Our work shows that prenatal choline supplementation, when administered at the time of prenatal alcohol exposure, improves abnormal brain and behavioral development in offspring," Huffman said. "It rescues some of the phenotypes associated with FASD."

Sins of the father

In the first study, male mice consumed alcohol for approximately two-three weeks before mating with alcohol-naive females. Huffman's team found this preconceptual paternal alcohol exposure altered neocortical gene expression and connectivity in their offspring. The offspring also demonstrated atypical features such as increased anxiety or hyperactivity and reduced motor function, consistent with some documented behavior patterns of children born to alcoholic fathers.

"Fathers who consistently consume moderate to high amounts of alcohol leading up to conception may negatively impact offspring development due to the exposure to the paternal sperm," Huffman said. "In our previous study, we described how the paternal germ line specifically can transmit heritable changes through multiple generations after a single prenatal alcohol exposure. Clearly, the paternal environment before conception is critical for healthy offspring development."

Additionally, the team found male offspring generally seem to be more adversely affected than female offspring by paternal alcohol exposure in terms of increased hyperactivity, impaired coordination, and impaired short-term motor learning abilities.

The study is the first to examine the effects of preconceptual paternal alcohol exposure on the gross anatomical development of the neocortex, including genetic patterning and circuit development, coupled with extensive behavioral analyses in the affected offspring. Huffman's team plans to extend the mouse study to investigate whether the effects of paternal alcohol consumption on the offspring are transmitted to subsequent generations.

Huffman was joined in the research by graduate students Kathleen E. Conner and Riley T. Bottom.

Nutrient to the rescue

Depending on maternal age, up to 18% of pregnant women in the United States report alcohol consumption during their pregnancies. Gestational or prenatal alcohol exposure can produce problematic deficits in offspring. In mice, prenatal alcohol exposure, via maternal drinking, results in gross developmental abnormalities, including decreased body weight, brain weight, and brain size. Also, the exposure causes profound abnormalities in the patterning of an infant's neocortex and the resulting circuitry, or connections, necessary for precise function.

In the second study, Huffman's team exposed pregnant mice to 25% alcohol, the usual dose for the FASD model, as well as about 640 milligrams per liter of choline chloride supplement throughout the pregnancy. Her team's goal was to test potential rescue effects of choline supplementation on abnormal neocortical and behavioral development induced by prenatal alcohol exposure.

Choline, a vitamin-like essential nutrient, is a methyl group donor and is crucial for proper brain development as it generates the methyl group that attaches to DNA and affects gene expression. Given the transgenerational effects of prenatal alcohol consumption discovered by the Huffman lab, Huffman's team believed co-administration of choline with alcohol could mitigate the deleterious effects of the exposure.

"Our findings suggest that providing methyl group donors, such as choline, to alcoholic women during pregnancy could be effective in reducing the extent of the damage that prenatal alcohol exposure can cause," said Bottom, the first author of the research paper. "This could possibly reduce the multigenerational transmission of FASD in our prenatal alcohol exposure model."

Huffman and Bottom were joined in the study by Charles W. Abbott III, a former graduate student in Huffman's lab. This work is a major component of Bottom's dissertation research.

Explore further Drinking alcohol while pregnant could have transgenerational effects
By AFP

BAGHDAD: For Saad Malik, losing his father to the novel coronavirus was only the beginning of his nightmare.

For over a week, cemeteries across Iraq refused to allow the elderly man's burial.

Fearing the respiratory illness could somehow spread from the corpses to nearby population centres, Iraqi religious authorities, tribes and townspeople have sent the bodies of COVID-19 victims back to hospital morgues, where they are piling up.

"We couldn't hold a funeral for him and haven't been able to bury his body, even though it's been more than a week since he died," Malik told AFP, his voice laced with bitterness.

ALSO READ | Coronavirus outbreak: Iraq extends nationwide curfew until April 11

"Can you imagine that across this huge country Iraq, there aren't a few square metres to bury a small number of bodies?" In Islam, a person must be buried as soon as possible after death, usually within 24 hours.

Cremation is strictly prohibited.

Iraq has confirmed more than 500 COVID-19 cases and 42 deaths from the respiratory disease, but the real numbers are likely much higher as few of the country's 40 million people have been tested.

Authorities have declared a countrywide lockdown until April 11, urging citizens to stay at home and adopt rigorous hygiene routines to forestall the spread of the virus.

But in some areas, local powers are getting even stricter.

Northeast of the capital Baghdad this week, tribal figures prevented a team of health ministry officials from burying four bodies in a cemetery the state had specifically designated for COVID-19 victims.

FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES HERE

When the delegation tried to take the bodies to another burial ground southeast of Baghdad, dozens of local townspeople turned out in protest.

Ultimately, the bodies were returned to the morgue.

One Iraqi living near Baghdad told AFP "we decided to block any burials in our area."

"We panicked over (the health of) our children and families."

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), which is leading the global response to the pandemic, coronavirus is transmitted through droplets and surface contact.

There is no scientific evidence yet that it could spread via corpses, according to Iraqi health ministry spokesman Seif al-Badr.

He said the government was taking all possible precautions when burying bodies, including wrapping them in bags, disinfecting them and placing them in special coffins.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the country's top Shiite cleric, has said those who lost their lives to the disease must be wrapped in three shrouds and insisted authorities facilitate burials.

But rejections of burials have continued, including in the two shrine cities of Karbala and Najaf, where one of the world's largest cemeteries is located.

An Iraqi medic in Najaf told AFP the health ministry had tried to intervene directly to convince Najaf authorities to allow burials of COVID-19 victims, to no avail.

The medic, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he had witnessed one widower beg authorities to release his wife's body.

"Just give me the body and I'll bury her in my own home," the heartbroken husband had said.

"This is the situation after just 40 deaths. What happens if it gets worse? Where will we put the bodies?" the medic asked.

Many in Iraq have been bracing themselves for a rise in cases in the weeks ahead, but the country's hospitals are ill-prepared to deal with large numbers.

They have been ravaged by decades of conflict and have received little investment in recent years, leaving them woefully bereft of medicine and equipment.

Doctors, too, have been threatened, kidnapped and even killed in recent years over ransoms or under pressure from relatives of patients.

According to the WHO, there are only 14 hospital beds in Iraq for every 10,000 people.

By way of comparison, France -- currently overwhelmed by the spreading virus -- has 60 beds for every 10,000 people.

To try to fill the gap, Iraqis are stepping up with inventions of their own.

Medical engineer Moqtada al-Zubaidi has created a hospital bed encased in plexiglass, which includes a respirator with oxygen tanks, an air conditioning unit, a bell to ring nurses and a flat-screen television.

"It's an invention with humanitarian purposes. We proposed the name 'the bed of life' because it provides security and reassurance to people who are sick," he said.

Zubaidi is awaiting approval from the health ministry to produce more beds, which cost USD 4,000 (3,600 euros) each.

But for many fellow Iraqis disheartened by the rising death toll, such measures may be too little, too late.

Salem al-Shummary, Malik's cousin, had tried to help Malik bury his father and was left scarred by the experience.

"We're not fazed by death anymore. We just have one dream: to bury our dead," he told AFP.
By Mike Spector and Jessica DiNapoli

NEW YORK (Reuters) - American Airlines Group Inc is in advanced talks to hire Guggenheim Securities co-chairman James Millstein for advice on tapping a $50 billion industry relief package available from the U.S. Treasury Department to cope with the coronavirus pandemic, people familiar with the matter said.

Millstein is one of Wall Street's most seasoned debt restructuring bankers and from 2009 to 2011 was the chief architect of the Obama administration's overhaul of certain financial firms the government had bailed out, including insurance giant American International Group Inc.

While American Airlines has said it has not yet decided whether it will seek U.S. government aid, Millstein's anticipated appointment indicates the largest U.S. airline is actively preparing for such a move and girding for negotiations with Treasury officials.

Coronavirus relief legislation enacted last week provides up to $25 billion in loans and loan guarantees for U.S. airlines that have suffered from an unprecedented decline in passengers, with an additional $25 billion available in direct cash grants that could result in the U.S. government receiving ownership stakes in the companies.

Were Millstein to be hired, he would be advising American Airlines on the form and terms of aid it should pursue and how to navigate the U.S. Treasury Department's process for requesting the financial assistance, the sources said. Advice given to the Fort Worth, Texas-based company would be done in his own capacity, independent of Guggenheim, the sources added.

The sources cautioned that no decision on American Airlines accepting U.S. government aid had yet been made and requested anonymity to discuss the confidential preparations.

American Airlines declined to comment, while Millstein did not respond to a request for comment.

American Airlines said last week it would be slashing its capacity 60% in April compared with the same period a year ago and up to 80% in May due to a dramatic reduction in customers and travel restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus. Its shares have lost roughly half their value in the last five weeks, giving it a market capitalization of about $6 billion.

Story continues

The company disclosed this month it had access to more than $7.3 billion of liquidity. Its long-term debt as of the end of December totaled about $23.9 billion.

American Airlines Chief Executive Doug Parker said last week that the company would be eligible for up to $12 billion in total U.S. aid. He added that combining government relief with a "relatively high available cash position" would "allow us to ride through even the worst of potential future scenarios."

Some terms of the cash grants "aren't currently well defined," Parker said, adding that the company was not yet certain it would meet the conditions necessary to receive those funds. He said he expected the aid terms "will not be onerous."

Millstein, a former Lazard Ltd banker, has worked on bankruptcies and other challenges facing many U.S. conglomerates over the last two decades, including representing unionized workers in labor negotiations with General Motors Co and other automakers.

Millstein sold his restructuring advisory firm to Guggengeim in 2018. He most recently advised Puerto Rico on its debt woes, as well as California on how to best grapple with catastrophic wildfires and the bankruptcy of power utility PG&E Corp.

Millstein worked with Parker when he advised US Airways on its merger with American as part of the latter's bankruptcy reorganization in 2013. Parker was CEO of US Airways before assuming the same role in the combined company.

POTENTIAL STRINGS ATTACHED

Should American Airlines seek government aid, it may be forced to accept conditions. Requirements for airlines receiving cash grants include continuing to fly in and out of all U.S. airports that currently have commercial air service, and agreeing to avoid involuntary furloughs of employees, both through the end of September.

The aid would also include restrictions on executive compensation and stock buybacks, as well as suspension of dividend payments. Similar strings are attached to government loans.

United Airlines Holdings Inc and Delta Air Lines, the other two largest U.S. carriers, have expressed cautious optimism about the government assistance, while warning further measures would be required to stabilize their businesses.

(Reporting by Mike Spector and Jessica DiNapoli in New York. Additional reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter "Ping An" or the "Group", HKEx:2318; SSE:601318) announced that Ping An is in the top 10 in the Global 500 2020 rankings released by the leading brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance. Ping An climbed five places to number nine among global brands. Ping An ranked first among global insurance peers and 2nd among global financial peers.

The ranking shows that Ping An's brand value increased by 19.8% year on year to USD69,041 million. It was the fastest growing brand in terms of brand value among the top 10 companies in the list. Ping An's brand value has grown rapidly in recent years, with a rise in the Brand Finance Global 500 rankings for three years in a row (2017: 79th, 2018: 30th, 2019: 14th, 2020: 9th).

Brand Finance is the world's leading independent brand valuation consultancy. It evaluates thousands of brands every year. The Brand Finance Global 500 is recognized internationally and is the only global brand ranking endorsed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The Brand Finance Global 500 mainly evaluates the brand value of a company in three areas: the Brand Strength Index, Brand Royalty Rate and Brand Revenues, focusing on corporate sustainable development, customer services and corporate social responsibility.

Ping An achieved steady business growth in 2019, as the Group pursued its "finance + technology" and "finance + ecosystem" transformation strategies and continued to enhance its data-driven operational capabilities. The numbers of users, customers, contracts per customer and profit per customer of integrated financial services have all recorded significant growth. In 2019, operating profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company rose 18.1% year-on-year to RMB132,955 million (USD19,012 million). Net profit grew 36.5% year on year to RMB164,365 million (USD23,504 million). Net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company rose 39.1% year on year to RMB149,407 million (USD21,365 million).

Regarding customer services, Ping An maintained its customer-centric philosophy and applied technological innovations to the development of retail financial products and the improvement of customer services, in order to boost efficiency, enhance risk management and offer excellent products and service experiences. As of 31 December 2019, the number of retail customers of the Group increased by 11.2% compared to the previous year, contracts per customer increased 3.9% to 2.64, and operating profit per customer increased 13.0% year on year to nearly RMB613 (USD87.66). Operating profit of the retail business increased by 25.7% year on year to RMB122,802 million (USD17,560 million), accounting for 92.4% of the Group's operating profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company. In 2019, the Group acquired 36.57 million new customers, of which 40.7% were sourced from internet users within the Group's five ecosystems  financial services, health care, auto services, real estate services and smart city services.

Ping An also furthered its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)-driven sustainable development transformation. With the strategy of "finance + technology" and in collaboration with stakeholders, Ping An has managed to balance its interests in a green environment, harmonious society and sustainable economic development goals based on its five ecosystems. As of 31 December 2019, Ping An's responsible investment reached RMB954,449 million (USD136,486 million), the insured amount of sustainable insurance reached RMB121.21 trillion (USD17.33 trillion) and green credit lines granted amounted to RMB59,056 million (USD8,445 million).

In 2019, Ping An also expanded the Ping An Rural Communities Support program from poverty alleviation to include sustainable development of rural communities, including industry promotion, healthcare and education support. The program covers 21 provinces or autonomous regions across China, with the total poverty alleviation funds granted of RMB15.745 billion (USD2.251 billion). Through the program, 949 village and township clinics were upgraded, 11,175 village doctors were trained, 1,054 village primary schools upgraded, and 11,826 village teachers trained.

Ping An said, "Going forward, Ping An will continue to further its 'finance + technology' and 'finance + ecosystem' strategies in order to empower financial services with technologies, further refine its one-stop integrated financial services, enhance customers' satisfaction and continue to create value for customers and shareholders. Ping An will continue to strengthen investment and application of fintech and healthtech, actively participate in the construction of smart city, better fulfill social responsibility and help people pursue a better life."

In the Brand Finance Global 500 2020 rankings, Chinese brands have entered a new era. In the past decade, the aggregate brand value of the Chinese companies in the rankings has increased by 1,100% to USD1,334 billion from USD111 billion, surpassing the aggregate brand value growth of all the other countries and regions. The growth rate of Chinese companies' brand value is eight times faster than the growth rate of the overall brand value on the ranking. According to the ranking, the top 10 global companies are Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Facebook, Walmart, Ping An and Huawei.

- End -

About Ping An Group

Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. ("Ping An") is a world-leading technology-powered retail financial services group. With over 200 million retail customers and 516 million Internet users, Ping An is one of the largest financial services companies in the world.

Ping An has two over-arching strategies, "pan financial assets" and "pan health care", which focus on the provision of financial and healthcare services through our integrated financial services platform and our five ecosystems of financial services, health care, auto services, real estate services and smart city services. Our "finance + technology" and "finance + ecosystems" strategies aim to provide customers and internet users with innovative and simple products and services using technology. As China's first joint stock insurance company, Ping An Group is committed to upholding the highest standards of corporate reporting and corporate governance. The Company is listed on the stock exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

In 2019, Ping An ranked 7th in the Forbes Global 2000 list and 29th on the Fortune Global 500 list. Ping An also ranked 40th in the 2019 WPP Millward Brown BrandZTM Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list. For more information, please visit www.pingan.cn .

SOURCE Ping An Insurance Group Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.pingan.cn


With the entire country in a state of lockdown and relocation becoming an impossibility in these COVID-19 times, tenants, co-living and student housing firms are all in negotiation mode with landlords, trying to arrive at a consensus on extending existing rental agreements until the time the pandemic ends.

Recently, the central government decided to allow employees, who were due to vacate their official premises, to retain their accommodation for another 75 days until May 31.

The Noida Administration on March 28 passed an order asking landlords to collect rent from their worker tenants only after a month.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on March 29 asked landlords in Delhi not to force their tenants to pay rent for two to three months. He even went to the extent of stating that his government would pay rent if tenants were unable to do so.

With the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown affecting retail activities, Lodha Group has also announced full waiver for its retail partners until the retail operations restart.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

YourSpace, a student housing company, is helping students who have decided to stay back, move to buildings they have decided to keep open. It is negotiating with landlords to offer a rent waiver at least until the time colleges are shuts due to the unprecedented situation. In some cases, it is asking landlords to extend the lease by a couple of months.

Its all on a case-by-case basis. In most cases landlords have been supportive. They understand that the market is depressed and may not be easier for them to get on board a new tenant in a lockdown situation and have in some cases even offered to take a rent reduction, says Nidhi Kumra, co-founder and CEO, YourSpace.

We have tried a mix and match of what works with each landlord. Some have virtually agreed to extend the lease agreement for three months, in some cases we have settled for a combination of no rent for two months but extended the agreement for two months. Some have agreed not to charge us anything for now but a higher rent post July. It is a zero loss situation for the landlords because lets not forget some have to service EMIs with their rental income, she explains.

Coming to the rescue of the stranded

Nestaway Technologies, a managed home rental network, has decided to commit up to $1 million in waived fees and service charges for new tenants moving into the over 6,000 units due to the coronavirus outbreak.

As cities are going through near lockdown, the company intends to offer its inventory of over 6,000 full houses and more than 4,500 private rooms across 19 cities in India to tenants, especially young professionals staying in PGs at preferential rates and under special terms until things return to normal.

Young people in PGs in cities are caught between a rock and a hard place during these times. On one hand, most of them are from small towns and can't go back home as their homes may not have broadband to avail work from home. "In this situation, we want to be meaningfully helpful to them - we just slashed our one-time charges by a flat 50 percent for everyone moving from a PG to our homes. If things worsen further, we will work with our owners to make it further affordable," the company said.

Ismail Khan, Chief Business officer, Nestaway Technologies, points out that most rental agreements have a force majeure clause inbuilt into them.

We are trying to reach out to the landlords. We are not making a general request for rent waiver but looking at it on a case-by-case basis. To some we are providing an option wherein they can continue with 50 percent rent for now and then review the situation after three months; some landlords are open to a relaxation period for two months, he says.

And how do they get the agreements registered? All our processes are digitised, he says.

For doctors and nurses who may have been forced to evict, he says that most of the properties held by the company follow a No Touch Move-In concept which means that the tenant can simply move into the property he likes by unlocking a smart lock installed to the property online.

A tenant can book a property online, get an agreement online and move into the property with no touch involved. Weve received bookings from doctors and nurses who have been stranded for this product. We are giving waivers to all such people  those who have been stranded or evicted from their houses, Khan told Moneycontrol.

Landlords agreeing to extensions online

Saurabh Garg, co-founder and CBO, NoBroker.com, says that most landlords have virtually agreed to extend the rent agreements by three months. This is an extraordinary situation  its impossible for tenants to move out and difficult for landlords to get a new one, he said.

Registering fresh agreements is also a challenge in these times, especially in Maharashtra where a tenant and the landlord have to get a biometric test done and link it with their Aadhar card.

People have to visit the registration office to complete these formalities. Even though NoBroker has enabled online rent agreements, the last-mile visit to the registrars office is a must. In a lockdown situation, this has been suspended. Both parties are now mutually deciding to do it post the lockdown, deciding on the terms and agreements for now and saying they would sign the agreement later, he explains.

Nitin Jain, a real estate broker at Prudential Realtors, says that most people plan to relocate or shift during Navratras but that activity has come to a halt this year on account of COVID-19.

Most of them are stuck. Relocation companies too are shut. In such a situation, tenants are requesting for extending their lease agreements until the lockdown is lifted with a 15-day grace period. This is being agreed to between the landlord and the tenant online, he says, adding commercial space tenants are asking for rent waivers as their businesses are shut on account of the lockdown.

Anurag Mathur, CEO, Savills India, says that the situation is akin to any other sector which have taken a hit because of the pandemic and subsequently the lockdown. While we cannot say for certain how it will play out in terms of rentals both in commercial and residential, what we expect is that rental agreements which are up for renewals in the immediate future may get some grace periods. Landlords may agree to extend leases as these are uncertain times for everyone," he says.

Whats the legal recourse?

A Delhi-based landlord told Moneycontrol that this is a two-way street. There has to be trust between the landlord and tenant, especially in times like this. I would not refuse to extend the lease further till such time the problem persists and a solution is found. Nobody would be able to buy stamp papers at this point in time. Extensions have to be mutually agreed to. Trouble is at both ends and it would be foolish not to consider an extension.

As renewal of existing rent agreements (lease or licence) to extend its tenure is contractually driven by the parties, it is possible to extend the term of the agreements which are due to expire, for a shorter period like 3-5 months, even during the ongoing national lockdown.

The parties will have to mutually agree on such extension/renewal (unless the existing agreement contains a renewal provision) and draw up a simple fresh agreement for the extended term. Considering the current crisis and future uncertainty, landlords are likely to agree for an extension, say legal experts.

Considering physical meetings are not possible under the current lockdown, the fresh agreement can be executed electronically by the parties, says Kunaal Shah, Partner, Trilegal.

This agreement will have to be stamped upfront prior to signing. In this regard, the online stamp duty payment portals continue to remain active in most cities, he said

In terms of registration of the fresh agreement (if required) - applicable registration law provides for a four-month window (with an additional four-month grace period) for completing the registration formality. Accordingly, registration of the fresh agreement can be completed within the aforesaid timelines, once the present lockdown is lifted and the concerned sub-registry offices start functioning normally, he adds.
NEW YORK  New Yorks governor urgently appealed for medical volunteers Monday amid a staggering number of coronavirus deaths, as he and health officials warned that the crisis unfolding in New York City is just a preview of what other U.S. communities could soon face.

Please come help us in New York now, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said as the states death toll climbed by more than 250 people in a day to a total of over 1,200, most of them in the city. He said an additional 1 million health care workers are needed to tackle the crisis.

Weve lost over 1,000 New Yorkers, Cuomo said. To me, were beyond staggering already. Weve reached staggering.

Even before the governors appeal, close to 80,000 former nurses, doctors and other professionals were stepping up to volunteer, and a Navy hospital ship, also sent to the city after 9/11, had arrived with 1,000 beds to relieve pressure on overwhelmed hospitals.

Whatever it is that they need, Im willing to do, said Jerry Kops, a musician and former nurse whose tour with the show Blue Man Group was abruptly halted by the outbreak.

He returned to his Long Island home, where he volunteered to be a nurse again. While waiting to be reinstated, Kops has been helping at an assisted-living home near his house in Shirley, N.Y.

The spike in deaths in New York was another sign of the long fight ahead against the global pandemic, which was filling Spains intensive care beds and shutting millions of Americans inside even as the crisis in China, where the outbreak began in December, kept easing.

More than 235 million people  about two of every three Americans  live in the 33 states where governors have declared statewide orders or recommendations to stay home.

In California, officials put out a similar call for medical volunteers as coronavirus hospitalizations doubled over the last four days and the number of patients in intensive care tripled.

Challenging times are ahead for the next 30 days, and this is a very vital 30 days, President Donald Trump told reporters. The more we dedicate ourselves today, the more quickly we will emerge on the other side of the crisis.

In Europe, meanwhile, hard-hit Italy and Spain saw their death tolls climb by more than 800 each, but the World Health Organizations emergency chief said cases there were potentially stabilizing. At the same time, he warned against letting up on tough containment measures.

We have to now push the virus down, and that will not happen by itself, Dr. Michael Ryan said.

More than three-quarters of a million people worldwide have become infected and over 37,000 have died, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. reported more than 160,000 infections and over 3,000 deaths, with New York City the nations worst hot spot. New Orleans, Detroit and other cities also had alarming clusters.

Anyone who says this situation is a New York City-only situation is in a state of denial, Cuomo said. You see this virus move across the state. You see this virus move across the nation. There is no American who is immune to this virus.

Some hospitals are now parking refrigerated trailers outside their doors to collect the dead. At two Brooklyn hospitals, videos posted by bystanders and a medical employee showed workers in masks and gowns loading bodies onto trailers from gurneys on the sidewalk.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. governments top infectious-disease expert, also warned that smaller cities are likely about to see cases take off the way they have in New York City.

What weve learned from painful experience with this outbreak is that it goes along almost on a straight line, then a little acceleration, acceleration, then it goes way up, he said on ABCs Good Morning America.

In other developments around the world:

 Bells tolled in Madrids deserted central square and flags were lowered in a day of mourning as Spain raced to build field hospitals to treat an onslaught of patients. The death toll topped 7,300.

 In Japan, officials announced a new date for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics  summer of 2021  as a spike in reported infections fueled suspicions that the government had been understating the extent of the countrys outbreak in recent weeks while it was still hoping to salvage the Summer Games.

 Moscow locked down its 12 million people as Russia braced for sweeping nationwide restrictions.

 Israel said 70-year-old Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is quarantining himself after an aide tested positive for the virus. In Britain, Prince Charles, the heir to the throne who tested positive, ended his period of isolation and is in good health, his office said.

Italys death toll climbed to nearly 11,600. But in a bit of positive news, the numbers showed a continued slowdown in the rate of new confirmed cases and a record number of people recovered.

We are saving lives by staying at home, by maintaining social distance, by traveling less and by closing schools, said Dr. Luca Richeldi, a lung specialist.

At least six of Spains 17 regions were at their limit of intensive care unit beds, and three more were close to it, authorities said. Crews of workers were frantically building more field hospitals.

Nearly 15% of all those infected in Spain, almost 13,000 people, are health care workers, hurting hospitals efforts to help the tsunami of people gasping for breath.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause severe symptoms like pneumonia. More than 160,000 people have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins.

In China, the crisis continued to ease. It reported Monday 31 new COVID-19 cases, among them just one domestic infection, and the city at the center of the outbreak, Wuhan, began reopening for business as authorities lifted more of the controls that locked down tens of millions of people for two months.

I want to revenge-shop, one excited customer declared.

Japanese automaker Toyota halted production at its auto plants in Europe, but all of its factories in China resumed work Monday.

___

Associated Press writers around the world contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
New York: A supervisor urged surgeons at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in Manhattan to volunteer for the front lines because half the intensive-care staff had already been sickened by coronavirus.

ICU is EXPLODING, she wrote in an email.

A doctor at Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan described the unnerving experience of walking daily past an intubated, critically ill colleague in her 30s, wondering who would be next.

Another doctor at a major New York City hospital described it as a petri dish, where more than 200 workers had fallen sick.

Two nurses in city hospitals have died.

The coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than 30,000 people in New York City, is beginning to take a toll on those who are most needed to combat it: the doctors, nurses and other workers at hospitals and clinics. In emergency rooms and intensive care units, typically dispassionate medical professionals are feeling panicked as increasing numbers of colleagues get sick.

I feel like were all just being sent to slaughter, said Thomas Riley, a nurse a Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, who has contracted the virus, along with his husband.

Medical workers are still showing up day after day to face overflowing emergency rooms, earning them praise as heroes. Thousands of volunteers have signed up to join their colleagues.

But doctors and nurses said they can look overseas for a dark glimpse of the risk they are facing, especially when protective gear has been in short supply.

In China, more than 3,000 doctors were infected, nearly half of them in Wuhan, where the pandemic began, according to Chinese government statistics. Li Wenliang, the Chinese doctor who first tried to raise the alarm about COVID-19, eventually died of it.

In Italy, the number of infected heath care workers is now twice the Chinese total, and the National Federation of Orders of Surgeons and Dentists has compiled a list of 50 who have died. Nearly 14% of Spains confirmed coronavirus cases are medical professionals.

New York Citys health care system is sprawling and disjointed, making precise infection rates among medical workers difficult to calculate. A spokesman for the Health and Hospitals Corp., which runs New York Citys public hospitals, said the agency would not share data about sick medical workers at this time.

William P. Jaquis, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, said the situation across the country was too fluid to begin tracking such data, but he said he expected the danger to intensify.

Doctors are getting sick everywhere, he said.

Last week, two nurses in New York, including Kious Kelly, a 48-year-old assistant nurse manager at Mount Sinai West, died from the disease. They are believed to be the first known victims among the citys medical workers. Health care workers across the city said they feared many more would follow.

Riley, the nurse at Jacobi, said when he looked at the emergency room recently, he realized he and his colleagues would never avoid being infected. Patients struggling to breathe with lungs that sounded like sandpaper had crowded the hospital. Masks and protective gowns were in short supply.

Im swimming in this, he said he thought. Im pretty sure Im getting this.

His symptoms began with a cough, then a fever, then nausea and diarrhea. Days later, his husband became ill. Riley said both he and his husband appear to be getting better, but are still experiencing symptoms.

Like generals steadying their troops before battle, hospital supervisors in New York have had to rally, cajole and sometimes threaten workers.

Our health care systems are at war with a pandemic virus, Craig R. Smith, the surgeon-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, wrote in an email to staff on March 16, the day after New York City shut down its school system to contain the virus. You are expected to keep fighting with whatever weapons youre capable of working.

Sick is relative, he wrote, adding that workers would not even be tested for the virus unless they were unequivocally exposed and symptomatic to the point of needing admission to the hospital.

That means you come to work, he wrote. Period.

Arriving to work each day, doctors and nurses are met with confusion and chaos.

At a branch of the Montefiore hospital system in the Bronx, nurses wear their winter coats in an unheated tent set up to triage patients with symptoms, while at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, patients are sometimes dying before they can be moved into beds.

The inviolable rules that once gave a sense of rhythm and harmony to even the busiest emergency rooms have in some cases been cast aside. Few things have caused more anxiety than shifting protocols meant to preserve a dwindling supply of protective gear.

When the pandemic first hit New York, medical workers changed gowns and masks each time they visited an infected patient. Then, they were told to keep their protective gear on until the end of their shift. As supplies became even more scarce, one doctor working in an ICU said he was asked to turn in his mask and face shield at the end of his shift to be sterilized for future use. Others are being told to store their masks in a paper bag between shifts.

It puts us in danger, it puts our patients in danger. I cant believe in the United States thats whats happening, said Kelley Cabrera, an emergency room nurse at Jacobi Medical Center.

An emergency room doctor at Long Island Jewish Medical Center put it more bluntly: Its literally, wash your hands a lot, cross your fingers, pray.

Doctors and nurses fear they could be transmitting the virus to their patients, compounding the crisis by transforming hospitals into incubators for the virus. That has happened in Italy, in part because infected doctors struggle through their shifts, according to an article published by physicians at a hospital in Bergamo, a city in one of the hardest-hit regions.

Frontline hospital workers in New York are now required to take their temperature every 12 hours, though many doctors and nurses fear they could contract the disease and spread it to patients before they become symptomatic.

They also say it is a challenge to know when to come back to work after being sick. All medical workers who show symptoms, even if they are not tested, must quarantine for at least seven days and must be asymptomatic for three days before coming back to work.

There is also the fear of bringing the disease home to spouses and children. Some medical workers said they were sleeping in different rooms from their partners and even wearing surgical masks at home. Others have chosen to isolate themselves from their families completely, sending spouses and children to live outside the city, or moving into hotels.

I come home, I strip naked, put clothes in a bag and put them in the washer and take a shower, one New York City doctor at a large public hospital said.

Because the pathogen has spread so widely, even medical workers not assigned directly to work with infected patients risk contracting the disease.

A gynecologist who works for the Mount Sinai hospital system said she had begun seeing women in labor who were positive for the coronavirus. Because she is not considered a front-line worker, she said, restrictions on protective gear are even more stringent than on COVID-19 units. She said she was not aware of any patients who had tested positive after contact with doctors or nurses, but felt it was only a matter of time.

Were definitely contaminating pregnant mothers that were assessing and possibly discharging home, said the doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity because her hospital had not authorized her to speak.

Mount Sinai said in a statement that it had faced equipment shortages like other hospitals, but added the issues had been solved in part by a large shipment of masks that arrived from China over the weekend. The hospital moved mountains to get the shipment, the statement said.

This week, the Health and Hospitals Corp. recommended transferring doctors and nurses at higher risk of infection  such as those who are older or with underlying medical conditions  from jobs interacting with patients to more administrative positions.

Michael Schwirtz c.2020 The New York Times Company. Somini Sengupta, Brian M. Rosenthal, Joseph Goldstein, Michael Rothfeld and Jason Horowitz contributed reporting.
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The $2 trillion coronavirus relief package President Donald Trump signed into law Friday significantly expands unemployment benefits for out-of-work Americans. The law pays laid-off and furloughed workers an extra $600 a week, for up to four months, and extends existing state benefits by 13 weeks. It also offers jobless benefits to previously ineligible groups, such as gig workers and freelancers. Nearly 3.3 million people filed first-time claims for unemployment last week  shattering the previous record, set in 1982, by around 2.6 million people, according to the Labor Department. "It truly is, in a lot of ways, a very generous package," said Chris Moran, a partner in the labor and employment practice group at law firm Pepper Hamilton in Philadelphia. Yet, some could receive smaller payments than others or miss out entirely. Here are some of those groups.

Tip workers

Workers who derive a big chunk of their paychecks from tips, like waiters and bartenders, may get smaller unemployment checks than they hope to. It largely depends on whether an employer reports those tips as income. States determine the size of unemployment checks based on a worker's prior wages, generally over the last four quarters.

Tips are considered part of compensation for unemployment benefits. But some employers underreport that tip income. The state, without a record of tips, would pay a smaller unemployment check  one based off of nontip income. In some extreme cases, such a worker may not have enough income to qualify for unemployment, according to a House Ways and Means Committee document. However, it's likely these workers would still qualify for a smaller federal payment, depending on the state, it said.

Gig, self-employed workers without pay records

While gig and self-employed workers are newly eligible for unemployment benefits, they may not qualify if they don't have the proper work and pay documentation. This will largely depend on forthcoming guidance from the Labor Department about the kinds of acceptable documentation, and states' interpretation of that guidance  currently among the biggest wild cards in the unemployment expansion, experts said. More from Invest in You:

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Need quick cash? Turn here before tapping your 401(k)

5 ways to ensure the outbreak doesn't cripple your retirement savings Without the right paperwork, gig and self-employed workers may not be able to collect Pandemic Unemployment Assistance ($600-a-week payments) and other unemployment aid, said Stephen Wandner, a labor economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. "For [Pandemic Unemployment Assistance], they will accept lots of different kinds of records, but if you didn't pay federal taxes, don't have pay stubs, have records of what you were paid, you're not going to be able to apply," Wandner said. The same logic applies to under-the-table workers paid in cash.

Social assistance programs

Some lower-income Americans receiving social assistance in means-tested programs could be hurt by expanded unemployment benefits. Federal unemployment benefits count as income for some of these programs. (Those in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program are exempted from this rule.) Unless states say otherwise, expanded unemployment benefits could raise income enough to disqualify some jobless Americans from certain state programs, like those offering assistance to low-income people with respect to utility bills and child-care expenses, Moran said. "I don't think they would [exclude the income] in most places," Moran said.

Workers in Southern states

Unemployment assistance varies greatly among states in terms of the size and duration of payments and the number of jobless workers who can collect. In North Carolina, for example, only 10.5% of unemployed workers collect unemployment insurance benefits, the lowest share of any state, according to the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. New Jersey, on the other hand, has the largest share  about 52% of jobless workers get benefits, about five times more than in North Carolina. Twenty-nine states have a share of jobless workers eligible for benefits of less than 25%, according to the institute. Less-generous programs are concentrated among Republican-leaning Southern states, experts said.

Eligibility for expanded benefits will largely hinge on how each state applies the new law. To get expanded benefits, for example, states must sign an agreement with the federal government. It's a strong likelihood that all states will do so, but it's possible that some won't, Wandner said. "Many who become unemployed in states that don't pay many people won't get the $600 or expanded state benefits," Wandner said. "That will be a big group of people, and it will be extremely uneven [among states]."

Those frustrated by volume

State systems are being overloaded and stretched as jobless Americans apply for unemployment in record numbers, experts said. Many in-person offices are closed due to social distancing rules, leaving telephone and online applications as the only options. High volume has crashed some state websites and clogged up phone systems. Some jobless people may give up if frustrated by the process, said experts, who recommended applying during off-peak hours.

Non-English speakers and disabled Americans
NO doubt it has been a strange few weeks for all of us in the light of the outbreak of Covid-19, so an update would be in order.

While everyone either catches up with the latest box-sets or struggles to navigate the remote desktop software on their computers so they can work from home, I am changing tack.

For the time being, rather than writing the usual fortnightly column, I will instead be providing a weekly update on all the latest healthcare advice and any local efforts to help those most vulnerable.

You may or may not already be aware that general practice surgeries have changed the way they normally work in response to the change in demands.

There has been a move towards a full triage service either online or on the telephone for anyone wishing to consult with a GP.

The current advice if you have either a new continuous cough or a fever (or, of course, both) is to stay at home and use the online NHS 111 service to find out what to do next  try not to ring 111 if you dont have to. Do not go to your GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital.

The situation is fluid at present and with numbers of covid-19 cases expected to rise greatly over the coming days and weeks, the way we work may need to change further in order to deal with that increase; not least because some NHS staff will also need to begin to self-isolate.

This may mean that surgeries and community services are working with a skeleton crew and so staff from different surgeries may be drafted to and fro to help out.

I would therefore stress how vital it is that everyone follows strict social distancing along with any other advice provided. We must all work together to avoid unnecessary pressures on a system that is going to be at full stretch.

As mentioned above, if you do have a question about what to do, the NHS website is the starting point. If at any stage you are advised to attend a GP surgery, please follow the instructions you have been given carefully. Please do NOT just try to walk into the surgery.

At the time of writing, there have been 5,018 confirmed cases of covid-19 and 223 deaths in the UK. These numbers will rise and in order to slow this rise down as much as possible we need to be taking all the necessary precautions.

The virus in question, known as SARs-Cov-2, is one for which we have no innate immunity. In other words, our immune systems have not built up any defence to it yet. Although those in high risk categories are most at risk of experiencing the more life threatening complications, it is unpredictable in all age groups and so we must ALL pay attention to the social distancing advice.

Its no use saying Ill be fine, Im pretty healthy  first, because no one can be sure and, second, because if you pass it on to three or four other people they may not fare so well.

The key is not just about preventing deaths from the virus itself but also about reducing deaths from other conditions that might otherwise be prevented if the health service were not under strain and intensive care units were not full.

The demand for groceries and toilet paper has garnered a lot of media attention. The same thing is now happening with medications. There is currently an unprecedented demand for prescriptions which is having an effect on both surgeries and pharmacies. That is not a cue to rush out and order your medications  instead, everyone should try to manage their medications as normally as possible. Please do not stockpile and please note the following...

1. We are asking that people are issued one months medication at a time as opposed to the two or three months worth that some people usually request.

2. Please look after our pharmacists. They are rather busy as one might imagine and, as such, many are now advising a five-day turnaround for prescriptions.

3. If you have not required an inhaler for several years, please do not request one. Supplies of inhalers are beginning to be affected and they need to be available for people that use them every day. If you are asthmatic, the advice is to use your inhalers as you normally would do. For more information if you are asthmatic, visit Asthma UK.

4. Ibuprofen has been in the news as something which, according to a lot of unreliable sources, makes covid-19 worse. There is no firm evidence to support this and certainly anyone who takes anti-inflammatories for existing conditions should not stop their medications. However, official advice has shifted amid the uncertainty about ibuprofen and so you should just take paracetamol should you develop the symptoms of covid-19.

5. Despite anecdotal and unreliable stories on social media, there is absolutely no evidence that ACE inhibitors (a type of medication used for high blood pressure) are not safe to take during the current outbreak.

The European Society of Cardiology has released a statement stressing this lack of evidence and strongly advising patients to continue their usual hypertensive medication.

6. Please could patients contact their practices to nominate a pharmacy for their prescriptions to be sent electronically if this has not already been set up. We would ask that patients dont come to the practice itself to request prescriptions. For those who are registered with a dispensing practice, they will continue to receive their medications in the usual way but please request your prescriptions online or via email.

7. We cannot provide letters regarding self-isolation for employers but there is an isolation note facility via 111 online.

These are unprecedented times and, while a lot of people are concerned about their businesses and livelihoods, others are anxious about the situation as a whole. Mental wellbeing is vitally important and the World Health Organisation has offered some holistic advice regarding this.

This includes simple measures such as minimising contact with news that causes distress if prone to anxiety. Perhaps limit updates to once or twice a day from a trusted source. Be careful when using social media  trust nothing on there for definitive medical or scientific advice, however authentic it may seem.

Despite these reservations, nevertheless, I should add that social media has an important role when used properly. For those wanting to help out the community, there is a co-ordination effort going on via the Henley Covid-19 Mutual Aid Group on Facebook.

Self-care may become more important in the coming weeks and the NHS website is a good resource for this. Even if self-isolating, that is no excuse not to be active. There are plenty of ways to do this within the confines of your own home. Just be a bit

creative.

Overall, be sensible. Panicking about this will help no one but ignoring it is even more unhelpful. If we all use common sense and follow the advice that is provided by trusted sources, we can avoid many of the projected worst-case scenarios.

On behalf of the local GP network, we would like to thank everyone for the support and patience already received. Stay safe and there will be an update in a weeks time, at which point there may be further information on some of the plans already in the pipeline.
In addressing the COVID-19 as the health crisis it is, it is critical that New Mexicans also support the health of our economy. We should make every effort to support our local businesses in unique ways  ordering take- out, purchasing gift cards and services remotely. However, the easiest way for New Mexicans to help our economic future is to complete the 2020 U.S. Census.

Today, New Mexicos economy is getting squeezed in all directions. Oil prices have plummeted, and small businesses are suffering as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving many New Mexicans unemployed. While New Mexico tries to weather these challenges, the third leg on our states economys stool, federal funding, may also be in jeopardy. New Mexico is reliant on about $7 billion of federal funding  funding that is based on the U.S. Census. At a time where many of us feel helpless in facing these tremendous problems, the census is the one area where we have individual control.

This last legislative session, the governor secured additional funding for census outreach to ensure every New Mexican is counted. However, because of COVID-19 pandemic, direct outreach may be difficult to navigate. That is why the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce is urging all New Mexicans to complete the census, either by mail or online, and personally encourage and help their friends, family members and neighbors to do the same.

Ten years ago New Mexico was last in the nation in the census count, jeopardizing more than $7 billion in federal programs and countless jobs each year at our three national laboratories, three Air Force bases and miles of beautiful public lands. New Mexico is more reliant on federal funding than any other state in the union and will be even more dependent, given the unprecedented economic struggles we are facing today.

For each person the census does not count, New Mexico may lose $3,745 per year. The loss of this funding will lead to increased unemployment, diminished resources for our schools and a decrease in countless federally funded services and programs, crippling our economy. For example, Medicaid in New Mexico, which the federal government funds at more than $4 billion per year, could lose up to $32 million each year for the next 10 years without a proper count. An undercount could also lead to New Mexico losing one of our three congressional seats, giving New Mexico less representation in Washington.

While most of us are staying at home and social distancing, it is critical we take a moment and complete the census. The $7 billion in federal funds that New Mexico receives each year supports thousands of jobs and economic opportunities throughout our state. During these uncertain times for public health and our economy, we must all come together to do what we can to support the health of our local economy. Please respond to the census and help secure federal dollars for New Mexico. Our states economy simply has too much to lose if you dont.
Athens, GA (30605)

Today

Cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day. High 57F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds early will give way to generally clear conditions overnight. Low 36F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Around 132,000 jobs could be lost in a worst-case economic depression if the coronavirus shutdown lasts until August, a prominent economist has said.

The forecast by business advisory firm EY also said the economy would shrink by 10% if the economy remains mothballed until August in an extended lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus.

But EYs chief economist Neil Gibson said further policy levers such as Vat cuts could mitigate the economic damage.

And if the disruption ends as soon as May, there would potentially be 78,000 job losses and 97,000 people put on furlough for part of the year  paid 80% of their wages by the Government if their employer has no work to give them.

The economy would shrink by around 6.7% in that scenario.

The figures for projected job losses include self-employed jobs - so that some of the figures could cover individuals who hold more than one job.

In its worst-case scenario, EY also predicted that a further 125,000 people would be furloughed for part of the year if the shutdown continues into August.

The hope would be that we would be able to get a significant number back relatively soon. Neil Gibson

With 910,000 total workforce jobs in Northern Ireland, the worst-case scenario of 132,000 job losses could mean that one in seven posts is at risk.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Mr Gibson said that the job losses would affect a range of sectors.

The obvious areas that will take a significant impact are those which are customer-facing, such as tourism, culture, arts and high street retail. There are parts of retail doing very well, but when you think of high street shops, you also have to think how quickly will people feel willing to go into a shop as we may keep social distancing measures in place for some time.

But he said many jobs could come back towards the end of 2020 and into 2021.

The hope would be that we would be able to get a significant number back relatively soon.

But that is the biggest unknown  whether this will turn out to be a relatively short-lived hiatus or whether lasting damage has been done.

The government has been adopting support very quickly and rapidly.

He said the timing of the lockdown in the spring and early summer months would also hit the housing market, during a traditionally busy time for house sales, as well as affecting the construction sector, which also carries out a lot of work in the spring and summer.

And he said that when the extent of the economic effects become clearer later in the year, there would also be further policy options which could be adopted by the government.

The government has been adopting support very quickly and rapidly but by the time we get to autumn, there may be some further policy requirements - for example, which might tide over tourism until spring 2021.

That might mean extensions to the pay roll support, or more direct grants, or perhaps even choices on Vat cuts and the Executive could extend the rates holiday.

" When we get to autumn well know much better how badly sectors have been hit and then might be the time to consider more tailored measures for those sectors affected the most. The policy message so far has been whatever it takes and we would expect this approach to continue and hopefully avoid some of the most damaging potential economic impacts.

An estimated 10,000 jobs were lost when the effects of a close-down in non-essential retail, restaurants and pubs were first felt. Manufacturers have also made major job loss announcements, with Thompson Aero in Portadown cutting 350 jobs. Quinn Industrial Holdings in Co Fermanagh has also announced its putting 600 staff onto the governments furlough scheme.

Graham Reid, partner at EY Ireland, said: Businesses across the country are grappling with the challenge of making the right decisions in this time of huge uncertainty.

The challenge were facing is unique and in stark contrast to previous recessions.

We are now experiencing both a supply side and demand side shock.

Very few businesses contemplated the impact a pandemic would or could have.
LYNCHBURG, Va.  As Liberty Universitys spring break was drawing to a close this month, Jerry Falwell, its president, spoke with the physician who runs Libertys student health service about the rampaging coronavirus.

Weve lost the ability to corral this thing, Dr. Thomas Eppes said he told Falwell. But he did not urge him to close the school. I just am not going to be so presumptuous as to say, This is what you should do, and this is what you shouldnt do, Eppes said in an interview.

So Falwell  a staunch ally of President Donald Trump and an influential voice in the evangelical world  reopened the university last week, igniting a firestorm, epidemiologically and otherwise. As of Friday, Eppes said, nearly a dozen Liberty students were sick with symptoms that suggest COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. Three were referred to local hospital centers for testing. Another eight were told to self-isolate.

Liberty will be notifying the community as deemed appropriate and required by law, Falwell said in an interview Sunday when confronted with the numbers. He added that any student returning now to campus would be required to self-quarantine for 14 days.

Of the 1,900 students who initially returned last week to campus, he said more than 800 had left. But he said he had no idea how many students had returned to off-campus housing.

If I were them, Id be more nervous, he added, because they live in more crowded conditions.

For critical weeks in January and February, the nations far-right dismissed the seriousness of the pandemic. Falwell derided it as an overreaction driven by liberal desires to damage Trump.

Although the current crisis would appear epidemiological in nature, Eppes said he saw it as a reflection of the political divide.

If Liberty sneezes, there are people who dont like the fact that Liberty sneezed, he said in an interview. Mr. Falwell called me to listen to a view that wasnt exactly his. Great leaders do that type of thing.

The city of Lynchburg, Virginia, is furious.

We had a firestorm of our own citizens who said, Whats going on? said Treney Tweedy, the mayor.

Some Liberty officials accuse alarmed outsiders of playing politics. Tweedy has called Falwell reckless. And within the school, there are signs of panic.

Im not allowed to talk to you because Im an employee here, one student living on campus wrote in an email. But, he pleaded, we need help to go home.

Under the Falwell familys leadership, Liberty University has grown in five decades from a modest Baptist college to an evangelical powerhouse with cash investments and endowments of nearly $2 billion, nearly 46,000 undergraduates and a campus that sprawls across Lynchburg and neighboring counties in Virginia. Total enrollment, including online students, exceeds 100,000.

The institution is a welcome and generous presence in this Blue Ridge Mountain region, where the percentage of Lynchburg residents living in poverty is twice the state average. Liberty and its Thomas Road Baptist Church donate goods and services; its medical students conduct free health screenings; and its students participate in city beautification, maintenance and charity projects.

The university was founded by Falwells famous father as a bastion of social conservatism, one that was unabashedly combative as it trained what it called Champions for Christ. If anything, the younger Falwell has made it more so since his fathers death.

The mayor and city manager here, Bonnie Svrcek, felt relieved two weeks ago, when Falwell assured them that he fully intended to comply with Virginias public health directives and close the school to virtually all students, most of whom were scattering for spring break. Then he changed his mind.

We think its irresponsible for so many universities to just say closed, you cant come back, push the problem off on other communities and sit there in their ivory towers, Falwell said Wednesday on a radio show hosted by a far-right conspiracy theorist, Todd Starnes.

Were conservative, were Christian, and therefore were being attacked, he said.

Michael Gillette, a former mayor of Lynchburg and a bioethicist now working with its hospitals on rationing scarce ventilators, disagrees.

To argue that criticism of Liberty is based on political bias is unfounded and unreasonable, he said. Liberty just did not take this threat as seriously as others have.

Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia, Lynchburg city officials and a growing number of Liberty students, parents and employees have urged Falwell to reverse course, but such pleas have only prompted a stream of often conflicting statements.

Our messages did change throughout the week as the governors orders changed. We had to adapt, Falwell said.

Falwell initially said only international students or those with nowhere else to go would remain. Then he welcomed back a much larger group of about 1,900 students to campus housing last week, in addition to faculty members and staff. Others returned to off-campus rentals in Lynchburg.

Students who remained at home had to return last week to clean out their rooms, a requirement that was later relaxed. Faculty members were at first ordered back to campus, even though they would be teaching online. Then some were allowed to work from home. Falwell also waffled on whether the school would issue refunds to students who did not return for the semester before announcing Friday that most would receive a $1,000 credit for next years bills.

Falwell and his administration have worked to tamp down dissent. After a Liberty undergraduate, Calum Best, wrote on his personal Facebook page that students should receive refunds, he said Libertys spokesman, Scott Lamb, called his cellphone to berate him. Asked about the call, Lamb said he was simply objecting to an error in the post, and Best was spinning.

After Marybeth Davis Baggett, a professor, wrote an open letter asking the universitys board of trustees to close the campus, Falwell mocked her on Twitter as the Baggett lady.

Jeff Brittain, a Liberty parent, wrote on Twitter, Im as right wing as they get, bud. But as a parent of three of your students, I think this is crazy, irresponsible and seems like a money grab. Falwell replied, calling him a dummy.

All of this has left even his critics scratching their heads.

Its honestly hard to figure out what his motives are, Best, the student who wrote the Facebook post, said in an interview. If he had purely political motives, hes being way more conservative than even Trump is being right now. Trump is at least allowing doctors to say their piece. Jerry is not. It kind of shocks me at this point.

On campus, the administration says it is adhering to Virginias public health mandates, but students are flouting them. While security guards appear to be enforcing state advisories requiring a 6-foot distance from others and gatherings of no more than 10 people, students are still assembling in closer proximity to eat, play sports, study and use dormitory restrooms. Decals slapped on furniture that say Closed for Social Distancing have wound up on laptops and car bumpers. Study tables are farther apart, but shared computer terminals remain. While some students are trying to adhere to social distancing guidelines, they live in group houses, pile onto city buses and crowd the few businesses that remain open in Lynchburg.

It was not supposed to be this way. As the number of reported cases of the coronavirus in Virginia began rising, Tweedy said Falwell personally assured her that the school would not fully reopen. We have some students who cannot go anywhere or they have nowhere to go, she recalled his telling her. The number on that day was 300 or so students, and even if it was a few more, we said, OK, well, thank you.

But as spring break drew to a close in mid-March, all Liberty students were encouraged to return.

We never discussed numbers, and I never told them the dorms would be closed, Falwell said Sunday. Were going to have to agree to disagree on what was said.

Falwell runs Liberty his own way, and his word is law. Professors are not tenured and can be fired at will. The administration controls the student newspaper.

Falwell echoes Trumps talking points on the coronavirus, which he often calls the flu.

Its just strange to me how many are overreacting to the pandemic, Falwell said on Fox & Friends on March 10. It makes you wonder if there is a political reason for that. Impeachment didnt work, and the Mueller report didnt work, and Article 25 didnt work, and so maybe now this is their next attempt to get Trump.

Lynchburg is particularly ill-prepared to become a hot spot. Hospitals in the region have a total of 1,174 beds, only 55 of them intensive care, according to a recent analysis by the Harvard Global Health Institute. Those must serve 217,000 adults, nearly 50,000 of whom are 65 or older. Tests for the coronavirus remain in short supply.

Falwell has played down the dangers of his decision in interviews with the news media, where he has even suggested that the coronavirus is a North Korean bioweapon. On Fox News, he blithely asserted that the cure rate for COVID-19 is 99.7% for people under 50, adding that we have talked to medical professionals, numerous medical professionals, before making this decision.

An archived version of Libertys website said those medical professionals included the schools own public health faculty and campus health providers as well as Dr. Jeffrey Hyman of Northwell Health, New Yorks largest health care provider.

When contacted by The New York Times, Northwell Health denied that Hyman provided any formal guidance to Liberty, adding that he is not an infectious disease specialist. In a statement, the hospital system said that Hyman was a personal friend of the Falwell family who told them in private conversation that reconvening classes would be a bad idea.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
No cases of coronavirus have been so far detected in Syrian refugee communities in Lebanon. A few suspected cases, however, are being closely monitored and have been isolated pending test results. Such an announcement by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) dismisses alarming but unfounded rumors that Covid-19 is being spread by Syrian nationals in the country. Displaced communities have been under strict confinement for three weeks now in certain regions of the country, imposed by local authorities long before the government declared general mobilization to curb the spread of the covornavirus.

Residents of informal camps are now obliged to stay home, and only one person per camp (usually the Shawiche who is the person nominated by other refugees to act as the settlement supervisor and decision-maker) is allowed to go out to get supplies for them.

The same restrictions are applied on tenants who are only allowed to leave their apartments when absolutely necessary. Many municipalities have even launched disinfection campaigns in certain regions.

Except that the Syrian refugees today are sounding the alarm. Aware of the danger, they are ready to respect the confinement measures as much as needed out of concern for their health and that of others. Yet, they desperately need aid, mainly food and sanitation supplies, to allow them to survive, avoid contamination ... and not to starve.





We will not die from coronavirus, but from hunger

These severe restrictions prevent the refugees from working. Even the informal daily jobs they used to handle in normal times, such as in farming, construction or transportation, are no more available. This prompted a resident of Ersal to share his despair via social networks. "We will not die from the coronavirus, but from hunger," he cried in a video posted on Facebook. "We don't even have enough (money) to get a bundle of bread."

Luckily, no cases of coronavirus have been so far reported in Ersal where 80,000 displaced Syrians are following the containment guidelines to the letter. "Each family lives in autarky and each camp is observing self-isolation," said Abou Ibrahim, director of the Syrian association Sawaed Alkher, which is handling disinfection in the local camps, with the support of the local authorities. He, however, warned that the situation is delicate and stressed the necessity to provide the refugee communities with means to fight the coronavirus. "Don't forget the Syrian refugees," he said, explaining that they need soaps, detergents, disinfectants, masks, gloves and "everything necessary to clean up the camps." The virus's spread within refugee communities "would be a catastrophe for both, the displaced and the Lebanese population."

In the Bekaa, the message is the same. "It is a blessing that no coronavirus case was registered and that the refugees are well aware of the danger. But to stay confined and survive, they need food and sanitary assistance," said Muzna el-Zohori, a Syrian refugee, student and humanitarian activist . The young woman spoke of "the total destitution" of displaced Syrians in Lebanon, who have had neither the right to go out nor go to work, since the new coronavirus was detected in the country. "They have been drawing on their reserves for three weeks, after having suffered successively from economic crises, the shortage of dollars and the aftermath of the popular uprising. And some have nothing left," she lamented. Besides, the directives issues by the local authorities risk allowing "the Shawiches or those responsible for the informal camps to take advantage of the situation and exploit the residents." Hence the need for UNHCR and international agencies to assist the displaced Syrians. "With forced unemployment, the aid granted to the most disadvantaged families is insufficient," she insisted. And so far, only a few informal camps have been disinfected in the Bekaa. "





Prevention and awareness since the month of February

The UNHCR is well aware that the coronavirus pandemic is making Syrian refugees who already live in poverty even more vulnerable. However, it is now focusing on health risks and fighting the spread of Covid-19, in coordination with the Lebanese government, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. This is crucial, given "the serious overcrowding" in Syrian informal camps and rental accommodation. "We have been increasing prevention and awareness campaigns for Syrian refugees since February, including precautions to be taken, instructions on hand washing, and also distribution of soap, detergents and disinfectants," said Lisa Abou Khaled, UNHCR spokesperson in Lebanon.

At the same time, the UN organization is discussing with the Lebanese authorities modalities in case infection cases are registered and hospitalization is required. That would require increasing hospital bed capacities, given the current limited capacity, with the possibility of setting up field hospitals, as part of the national plan to combat the coronavirus outbreak, according to Abou Khaled.

UNHCR is thus ready to secure the necessary funds to cover the costs of testing and treating Syrian refugees and plans to set up confinement tents to prevent contagion from spreading. Abou Khaled explained that the financial aid plan to support the most vulnerable remains unchanged. Besides the additional compensation for winter heating, 20% of refugee families registered with the UNHCR will continue to receive 260,000 LL per month and 40% of families will continue to cash 40,000 LL per month per person from the World Food Program.





Solidarity

Is the response to the needs of Syrian refugees to face coronavirus sufficient, at a time the government has openly expressed its inability to take care of the refugees, whether Palestinians or Syrians? Ziad el-Sayegh, an expert in public policies and refugee affairs, assured that "UNHCR protocols are very firm and are transmitted by WHO." He, however, drew attention to "essential issues" related to the survival of refugees and displaced persons in Lebanon, namely the repercussions of the financial and economic crisis on these communities in these times of prevention against the coronavirus, and while the UNHCR makes preventive medicine its priority. Solidarity among the refugees themselves and between them and their host communities, as well as "the modalities of cooperation" between the Lebanese authorities and the UN during and after the coronavirus are also to be reviewed. "The authorities must not only consider a national plan to fight the spread of the virus, but also provide an economic response to the refugees and the host communities," el-Sayegh said. He hoped that this crisis will would give way to solidarity discourse, which is likely to give birth "to a collective and individual responsibility".





(This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour on the 25th of March)




Msgr. Warduni says this is not the time to "be pessimistic", even if the celebrations "are not the same", "solidarity" is required. Chaldean patriarchate issues indications for Holy Week "adapted" to these "exceptional circumstances". In these dark times, "greater unity" between Christians and Muslims.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) - "In the whole history of Christianity there has never been an Easter like this" of closure and isolation, where everything "seems suspended" and "the future is very uncertain" as if in times of the war, refelects Msgr. Shlemon Audish Warduni, auxiliary bishop of Baghdad.

Speaking to AsiaNews the right-hand-man of the Chaldean patriarch stresses, however, that "we are children of hope" and Christ "once again comes to give us back our lives". In these dark times, adds the prelate, the coronavirus emergency has brought "greater unity" between citizens of different faiths, "between Muslims and Christians".

The faithful - says Msgr. Warduni - they need this hope to be strengthened, that they can receive the love of Christ and follow the liturgy "even from a distance. This is not the time "to be pessimistic", he adds, even if the celebrations "are not the same" and the possibility of moving or participating in the services is limited. Many people - says the prelate - think that there is no salvation. Instead, Jesus comes to give his life and this is a source of consolation. We Christians must shout it out loud, we must not be afraid. "

In a note released over the weekend, the Chaldean Patriarch Card Louis Raphael Sako stresses that it is necessary to "adapt" the functions of Holy Week and Easter to these "exceptional circumstances". This year, confirms the cardinal, "we will not be able to celebrate as we used to do in the past" due to the "rapid and unexpected spread" of the new coronavirus. Furthermore, for this last week of Lent "we will continue to celebrate masses in churches, even in the absence of the faithful except for a limited number of people who work inside".

For Palm Sunday the Chaldean Church intends to decorate the places of worship with olive branches. The traditional washing of the feet will not be held on Holy Thursday, while bishops and priests will recite vespers in each parish on Friday, keeping their distance. There will be no faithful in the churches the next day and midnight mass will be held, canceled in the past for security reasons. On Easter Sunday the function of the feast will be accompanied by the sound of bells, as a "sign of shared hope in the fight against the invisible enemy".

Finally, the patriarchate underlines some guidelines, renewing the invitation "to stay at home" and follow the instructions of the government. For confessions one must "make an appointment with the priest, taking all precautions". Families can form small prayer groups, following functions thanks to the internet.

For Holy Thursday, each house can place a photo of the last supper at the center of the table, with flowers and candles, replacing it the next day with a crucifix. "Decorated eggs can be used as a symbol of joy and hope for the Risen Christ", together with prayers for the sick and health workers.

"Entering the churches and seeing them empty - says the auxiliary of Baghdad - is a great pain. However, this is not the time of despair but of solidarity also on an international level ". On the one hand, he notes, "it is necessary to respect the rules but on the other hand, we need to find a new way to fully live our faith, whose center is the resurrection. We must make Christians, but not only, aware that hope is at the center of our actions ".

The coronavirus emergency, finally explains Msgr. Warduni can also be an occasion for renewed unity between Christians and Muslims. "People are heard on television, even Sunni or Shiite Muslim brothers - he confirms - who remember Christ and this is a beautiful fact". Regardless of religious or ethnic background "there is greater awareness of being united against a common threat. We hope - he concludes - that people will feel this hope that comes from the resurrection, to be builders of a new world ".
LEWISBURG  A Union County hospital has reported its first death from the coronavirus.

Evangelical Community Hospital just outside Lewisburg made the announcement Monday, adding that it will not provide further information about the individual.

The hospital reported it has tested 194 individuals for the coronavirus and of the 101 results received, six were positive.

COVID-19 test results are slow in returning, with some patients reporting waits of a week or more, a hospital spokesperson said. The hospital sends its samples to the state Health Department and a private laboratory for testing. The Health Department processes only samples that meet a pre-defined testing criteria, the spokesman noted.

Evangelical does not have the ability to process its samples on-site. At this time, theres nothing further the hospital can do to speed the process, he said. All test results are being communicated to the ordering physician.

The coronavirus has caused the hospital to cancel all elective surgeries and procedures through the week of April 6.

The state Health Department on Monday reported that 4,087 have tested positive for COVID-19 and there have been 49 deaths throughout Pennsylvania. Its statistics for Union County include four diagnosed cases and no deaths.
Syracuse, N.Y.  Any changes to Syracuses current food truck law will likely wait for at least a couple more weeks.

The Syracuse Common Council this afternoon tabled a vote on amendments that would expand gatherings of food trucks, or food truck rodeos, to new parts of the city and would allow for late night operation, but would impose a cap on the number of food truck rodeos at a particular location.

This would particularly impact Clinton Square, the most prominent food truck rally in the city, which launched in 2019.

Counselor Michael Greene, who spearheaded the original legislation in 2018, did propose the amendment at the councils meeting today, but counselor Joe Driscoll quickly objected. Driscoll, along with fellow counselor Pat Hogan, penned an op-ed published Friday on syracuse.com | The Post-Standard that stated their objections with having food truck rodeos in Clinton Square this summer.

Procedurally, it now becomes Driscolls item to reintroduce at a later meeting. Driscoll said during a study session before the vote that he had concerns that the proposed cap of 12 food truck events per location in a calendar year was still too high and hurt brick-and-mortar restaurants. Thats down from the 14-event cap that was proposed during a March 10 meeting of the Common Councils Public Works Committee, which Greene chairs.

Greene said he was worried that if the cap went below 12, that food truck operators would not find it worth it to spend the $500 for a yearly license required by the city for food trucks to operate in public spaces.

Currently there is no cap on the number of food truck events at any location in the city, including Clinton Square.

Driscoll said during the study session that he would likely reintroduce the amendment within the next couple of meetings.

Part of the amendment would be the introduction of a series of downtown late night food truck rodeos that could be open as late as 3 a.m. Originally proposed to be held in Perseverance Park, the trucks are now slated to line up outside the park along South Salina Street, near West Fayette Street.

Jacob Pucci finds the best in food, dining and culture across Central New York. Contact him by email at jpucci@syracuse.com.

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YEREVAN.  Dozens of servicemen are returning to military service after isolation and self-isolation for the coronavirus. Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan stated about this at Monday's special session of the government of Armenia.

"We have no problems," he added.

Health Minister Arsen Torosyan noted, in turn, that, at present, about 150 people have come out of the quarantine. "At the end of the 14 days, when we test them, positive cases occur in about 10 percent of them, and they remain in isolation for another week," he said. They don't need any medical care. After another week they are checked [again] and if the test is negative, they are discharged and go home."

The health minister added that the 14-day time limit for many of them is about to end, and there will be more cured patients.

Currently, 30 people in Armenia have recovered from the coronavirus.
'The challenge is to put in place a strategy for future courses of action beyond April 14 when the lockdown comes to an end,' notes Brigadier Narender Kumar (retd).

IMAGE: Families wait to board a bus to their villages at Anand Vihar in New Delhi on Saturday, March 28, 2020. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo

It is a bold and timely decision to lock down for three weeks.

There are bound to be gaps but the gaps should be filled by the bureaucracy state leadership.

At this stage the higher political leadership should be strategising future course of actions.

All tactical operations to flatten the curve to prevent exponential spike should be handled by the bureaucracy and administrative machinery under a designated ministry.

The COVID-19 crisis should be handled at tactical or functional level and at strategic level by higher political leadership.

Tactical actions are essential to break the chain and slow down the process of contamination with a view to identify and isolate those who are infected.

Therefore, the lockdown should not be looked at as a solution, but a stage for preparation for putting in place a containment strategy.

The laying down of strategy for actions beyond three weeks and tactical operations should be addressed separately by two different organs of the government.

At the tactical level the bureaucracy must ensure that gaps in the existing lockdown policy are bridged and people are provided with essential services and food so that the objectives of the lockdown can be achieved.

Consolidation and containment strategies will only work if objectives of the lockdown are achieved.

Key areas of concern is monitoring of quarantined people and those who have been exposed to infected people.

The challenge at this stage is to put in place a strategy for future and articulate courses of action beyond April 14, 2020 when the lockdown comes to an end.

This is certainly a critical part to control and contain the threat.

The focus of government future strategies should be to identify, isolate, contain, treat, monitor, consolidate, clean and controlled functioning of the state.

Some key issues that needs to be planned and articulated in advance so that bureaucracy and states can start working implementation plans.

The plans must be formulated for consolidation of containment of Coronavirus as well as un-proportionate spike.

Both options should be on the table either to extend the lockdown or partial opening of certain areas for essential sectors.

There should be a strategy in place to clean areas systematically and then isolate them from grey zones.

Thereafter, the endeavour should be to expand these clean areas and make certain essential sectors functional.

A mechanism to carry out mass surveillance also assume significance so that infected individuals can be quarantined and houses can be de-contaminated in a phased manner.

This is time consuming process but requires resources and a systematic approach.

It is important to start this process from the farm sector since it is also cropping season.

There is a need for a contingency plan so that production of medicines, soaps, disinfectant, masks and medical equipment can re-commence.

In addition, stocks of processed food also needs to be built up.

Capacity building for enhancing testing labs and making available medicine, ventilators and essential medical equipment needs to be done on a war footing.

In fact, DRDO is supposed to be the agency responsible to create systems for decontamination of military infrastructure, personals and equipment.

They are also mandated to provide decontaminated masks, suits for soldiers as well as for medical personals of the armed forces.

There is an urgent need to identify and start the process of relocation of food, medicines and essential goods where stocks are likely to fall short.

At the same time identification and relocation of reserve human resources to run essential services must be planned.

Areas of utilisation of the armed forces in a staged manner should be worked out so that men and resources are not committed in bulk should the pandemic remain a long term challenge.

Utilisation of robots or unmanned systems for hospital management also require identification so that exposure of health workers and doctors is reduced to coronavirus patients.

Brigadier Narender Kumar (retd) is a Distinguished Fellow at the United Services Institute of India and a frequent contributor to Rediff.com.
Alabama will receive $6.5 million from the federal coronavirus relief package specifically for elections, Secretary of State John Merrill said in a press release.

Merrill said his office will provide $1.3 million in matching funds for a total of $7.8 million that can be used for the July 14 runoff and the general election in November.

Counties will be able to apply for reimbursement of election expenses associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, Merrill said.

The reimbursements will include, but not be limited to, the cost of masks, gloves, disinfectant spray, hand-sanitizer, alcohol wipes, and professional cleaning services, Merrill said.

The secretary said $1 million will be used to compensate poll workers an extra $25 on election day. Another $900,000 will be used to reimburse county absentee election managers for the added expense of a lengthened absentee voting period.

Gov. Kay Ivey postponed Alabamas primary runoff from March 31 to July 14 because of the pandemic.
The Ludhiana police has notified setting up of four open jails to punish people who are violating curfew norms.

As per police sources, the temporary jails  set up at New SD School at Bahadurke Road, indoor stadium on Pakhowal Road, Guru Nanak Stadium and Valmiki Bhawan in Moti Nagar  will become functional from Sunday. Violators will be detained for up to 24 hours in these open jails, and if needed, they will be shifted to the central jail.

Police commissioner Rakesh Agrawal said additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP) level officials have been deputed as assistant jail superintendents at these four locations.

Agrawal said the incidents of curfew violations are rampant despite stern action against the violators. People are seen roaming around in the city for no reason which could create problem for others. Some shopkeepers are also running their business causing people to huddle at their shops that could lead to the spread of coronavirus. In such cases, police would roundup the violators and will detain them in open jails for up to 24 hours, he added.

He said various cases against such violators under Sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) have already been registered.

An employee at Indoor Stadium, Pakhowal road, said, Officials had earlier planned to convert the stadium into an isolation ward for patients suffering from coronavirus. They had even cleaned and sanitised the stadium for the purpose. But now, as situation is under control in Ludhiana, they have decided to convert the stadium into an open jail.

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WASHINGTON  The Trump administration is expected on Tuesday to announce its final rule to rollback Obama-era automobile fuel efficiency standards, relaxing efforts to limit climate-warming tailpipe pollution and virtually undoing the governments biggest effort to combat climate change.

The new rule, written by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation, would allow cars on American roads to emit nearly a billion tons more carbon dioxide over the lifetime of the vehicles than they would have under the Obama standards and hundreds of millions of tons more than will be emitted under standards being implemented in Europe and Asia.

Trump administration officials raced to complete the auto rule by this spring, even as the White House was consumed with responding to the coronavirus crisis. President Trump is expected to extol the rule, which will stand as one of the most consequential regulatory rollbacks of his administration, as a needed salve for an economy crippled by the pandemic.

The lower fuel-efficiency standard is the single most important thing that the administration can do to fulfill President Trumps campaign promise of reforming the regulatory state, and to undo the impact that the previous administration has had on the economy, said Thomas J. Pyle, the president of the Institute for Energy Research, an organization that supports the use of fossil fuels.
Lions are again thriving in a nature reserve where one of the most beloved wildlife movies of all time was filmed, thanks to a collaborative effort to stem poaching.

Meru Conservation Area in Kenya was the setting for Born Free during the 1960s - and is now home to many species, including lions, thanks to conservation efforts by the Kenya Wildlife Service and the Born Free Foundation.

The 300-square-mile park was plagued by poachers during the 1980s, who killed much of the reserve's wildlife in the north of Mount Kenya.

But a monitoring programme run since 2014 has seen Meru Conservation Area restocked with a variety of animals, including some 80 lions, along with new litters of cubs.

A proud lioness with a band of healthy-looking lion cubs at her feet, now thriving at the Meru Conservation Area in Kenya

A pair of young lion cubs doing well at Meru Conservation Area in Kenya, both out for a stroll in the midday heat

Meru Conservation Area served as the film setting for Born Free, released in 1966, which starred Virginia McKenna and her husband Bill Travers.

The heart-warming movie told the true tale of a park reserve ranger named George Adamson and his wife Joy, who together raise an orphaned lioness, named Elsa.

After many ups and downs, similar to that of raising a child of their own, a grown-up Elsa is ultimately returned to the wild.

Travers died in 1994 aged 72. His son Will set up the Born Free Foundation 36 years ago.

At the time of filming Born Free, it is estimated that there was around 100,000 lions across Africa.

Regrettably, though, within a couple of decades of the film, poachers were killing much of the wildlife in the park.

Today, there are some 20,000 lions left.

Virginia McKenna and her husband Bill Travers clutching some baby lions on the film set

However, after a sustained campaign, the Kenya Wildlife Service was successful in driving the poacher gangs out.

Since 2014, the Born Free Foundation has kept track of big cat numbers and possible threats to their lives.

Kenya Wildlife Service rangers are summoned if any suspicious activity is reported.

The Born Free Foundation also works to resolve conflict among local farmers and lions, the latter of which is thought to be extinct in more than 20 countries across the continent.

'It is entirely possible that at the turn of the last century, there were 200,000-plus lions across Africa,' said Will, 61.

But expanding human populations and land-grabs for farming took a devastating toll on the lion's habitat.

Farmers also fought back against the big cats that were trying to eat their livestock.

Virginia McKenna seen here in the Kenya sun, with a relatively young lion cub on her lap

'Our work in Meru is a wonderful example of just how resilient our world can be and how nature will bounce back if we all work together,' said Will to the Mirror.

'Once poaching in the park was brought under control, wildlife was able to re-establish itself across the many diverse habitats found in this unique protected area.'

He added that the collaboration project works to educate local communities and schools about the importance of wildlife conservation.

'We have been able to encourage co-existence and promote more sustainable livelihoods that work for local communities living around Meru, and its wildlife,' he said.

He added the conservation efforts by the Kenya Wildlife Service and the Born Free Foundation must be 'redouble', saying: 'A world without them (lions) is, quite simply, unimaginable.'

The Meru Conservation Area is also home to other big cats like leopard and cheetah, as well as elephants and giraffe, hippo and crocodiles, various primates, antelope, and some 400 species of bird.

Virginia McKenna, 88, said the project wants to see 'a world where lions roam free, safe from poachers and human-wildlife conflict'.

'I am asking people who share our vision to join us and help ensure a future for wild lions. I want to ensure that Elsa's legacy, our legacy, has a bright future,' she added.
The National Assembly approved Prime Minister Hun Sens rejig of the council of ministers, the second such change since 2016, which saw four senior Cambodian Peoples Party members sidelined for newer faces.

The prime minister had sent a letter on Friday asking the National Assembly to approve the four changes to his cabinet, which was duly approved by the CPP-controlled lower house.

Speaking to reporters after the National Assembly session, Hun Sen refused to give any explanations for the changes, except to say the changes were needed to improve the working of the ministries.

Of the new ministers, the biggest change was seen at the Ministry of Justice, where Ang Vong Vathana was replaced by the ministrys secretary of state Koeut Rith, who had played a significant role during the 2014 negotiations with the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party, following the contested 2013 elections.

Despite featuring in the Panama Papers for being linked to an offshore entity, Ang Vong Vathana had survived removal from office a few years ago. Vathana had held the position since 2004.

Additionally, secretary of state Prum Sokha replaced Pich Bunthin as Minister of Public Service; Chea Vandeth, a Takeo lawmaker who replaced Sok Ann, replaced Tram Iv Tek as Minister of Posts and Telecommunications; and Chhit Sokhon, former Preah Sihanouk governor and current-secretary of state at Council of Ministers, takes over as Minister of Religion and Cult from Him Chhem.

The four outgoing ministers were promoted to be senior ministers, with long-standing Hun Sen ally Cham Prasidh appointed as Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology, and Innovation, which was recently rejigged to add the last three portfolios.

Hun Sen added that outgoing ministers were capable but had become old and that his government needed active ministers who could do timely work.

They are old and they need to sleep more," he said. "We can't force them to work and to work without thinking about their health," he said.



Ou Chanrith, a former lawmaker with the CNRP, said that the reshuffle is ordinary and good thing but questioned the effectiveness of these changes.

Previously, there were reshuffles, but I didnt see any effective work, he said. We should allow highly capable people who have integrity, are qualified and ethical, he said.

Preap Kol, the outgoing executive director of Transparency International Cambodia, said he welcomed the change in the Ministry of Justice that had long underperformed, to the detriment of the Cambodian people.
By Trend

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 24 times, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry on March 30.

The Armenian armed forces were using large-caliber machine guns.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

---

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YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government has developed respective mechanisms for supporting the private sector operating in tourism field during the current state of emergency declared in the country due to the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), Chairwoman of the Tourism Committee Susanna Safaryan said at a press conference.

Tourism is one of the most affected sectors due to the coronavirus. We can say that at the moment the number of tourism visits in Armenia and all over the world reaches 0, therefore, this sector is considered more vulnerable than the others. The private sector representatives involved in providing tourism services, such as the hotels, the guesthouses, tourism subjects, whose main consumer was the tourism, are currently facing damages. For this situation many discussions were held recently with various tourism subjects, including with incoming, outgoing tour-operators, tour-guides, hotel, guest-house representatives and others who faced damages due to the spread of coronavirus, she said, adding that various mechanisms for assisting tourism sector were discussed recently.

She said the first measure is co-lending or re-lending, meaning that the private sector representatives can apply for lending to receive 50% support from the state. Susanna Safaryan said these sums can be used for paying the salaries of their employees, state or community budget payments, paying for fees or mandatory payments, as well as paying for utilities. Safaryan said this assistance can a little bit mitigate the losses the representatives of this sector are currently facing.

According to the third measure, lending support is envisaged to the small and medium enterprises operating in the tourism sector. This measure supposes lending to those subjects whose turnover is within 24-500 million drams. I dont rule out that there will be subjects that may be excluded from these assistance funds, but we are discussing various measures to meet also their needs, she said.

Armenia has declared a state of emergency on March 16 to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The state of emergency is effective until April 14. According to the latest data, number of people infected with the new coronavirus in Armenia is 482.





Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) suspects that a Pakistani journalist who has been missing for a month in Sweden was abducted "at the behest" of an intelligence agency in Pakistan.

Sajid Hussain, the editor of the Balochistan Times news website, went missing in the Swedish city of Uppsala on March 2, according to the website, which covered human right violations and other aspects of the situation in the southwestern Pakistani region.

"Considering the recent attacks and harassment against other Pakistani journalists in Europe, we cannot ignore the possibility that his disappearance is related to his work," Erik Halkjaer, the president of RSF's Swedish section, said in a statement on March 30.

Daniel Bastard, the head of RSFs Asia-Pacific desk, said that "everything indicates that this is an enforced disappearance," adding, "And if you ask yourself who would have an interest in silencing a dissident journalist, the first response would have to be the Pakistani intelligence services."

The Balochistan Times "often crossed the 'red lines' imposed by the military establishment in Islamabad," according to the Paris-based media-freedom watchdog.

Meanwhile, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also urged Swedish police to step up efforts to find Hussain

"The disappearance of a journalist who focused on one of Pakistan's most sensitive issues -- human rights in Balochistan -- and who escaped Pakistan because of threats he received, is especially concerning," said Steven Butler, CPJ's Asia program coordinator.

Hussain fled Pakistan in 2012 after receiving threats related to his reporting, and lived in exile in several countries before seeking asylum in Sweden in 2017, according to news reports.

No one has heard from Hussain since he boarded a train in Stockholm on March 2 to go to Uppsala, 70 kilometers north of the Swedish capital, to collect the keys to his new apartment and leave some personal effects there, RSF said.

It quoted local police as saying that Hussain, who has political-refugee status in Sweden, did alight from the train in Uppsala 45 minutes after it left Stockholm.

Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan has been plagued by sectarian violence, Islamist militant attacks, and a separatist insurgency that has led to thousands of casualties since 2004.

Successive Pakistani governments and the powerful military have been accused for years of censoring the media.

The country is ranked 142nd out of 180 countries in RSF's 2019 World Press Freedom Index.
Facebook announced on Monday that it would dole out $25 million in grants to local news outlets and spend $75 million in a marketing drive aimed at news organizations internationally in response to the coronavirus-prompted economic downturn, which has caused advertising to plummet and has threatened media industry revenues.

Despite huge interest in news that has led to traffic surges and a rise in digital subscription sign-ups, the media industry has seen cutbacks as advertising has dropped sharply. Some alt-weeklies have laid off as many as three-quarters of their employees. BuzzFeed and American Media have instituted pay cuts. In Louisiana, The Advocate and The Times-Picayune have furloughed some staff and put the rest on four-day workweeks.

The money announced Monday will come on top of $300 million that Facebook, one of the worlds largest tech platforms and a critical digital news gatekeeper, pledged last year to invest in local news by the end of 2021.

Campbell Brown, Facebooks vice president for global news partnerships, said in a post, If people needed more proof that local journalism is a vital public service, theyre getting it now.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Plastic bags are back at the supermarket. Have you noticed?

Its pretty much the only positive thing that you can attribute to coronavirus as we New Yorkers learn just what it means to be at the epicenter of a deadly global pandemic.

That and the fact that goofy Joe Exotic from Tiger King has somehow become the breakout hero of our COVID-19 American moment. Talk about going viral.

New Yorkers had seen what coronavirus had done in other countries around the world, including the devastation and death it wrought in Italy and China.

And while we were warned that things would get ugly in New York, and quickly, the speed at which COVID-19 has slammed us has been truly breathtaking. And frightening.

The number of cases and deaths continues to skyrocket across the state and city, including here on Staten Island. Its a reality we cant escape. And the real peak of the pandemic wont be here for another week or two.

The military hospital ship USNS Comfort steamed past Staten Island on Monday morning, on its way to Manhattan, where its going to aid in the fight against the virus. Another strange sight in an era of strange sights.

When all is said and done, New Yorkers will see that nothing could have truly prepared us for the pandemic.

Even those of us so far untouched by actual illness have had our lives turned upside-down. Weve been cooped up in our homes for weeks. People have been working from home, studying from home. Trying not to get in the hair of their loved ones at home.

At first, an odd sort of party atmosphere prevailed. We ordered out from our favorite eateries as a way to show them support during the pandemic. We reveled in the fact that bars were allowed to deliver booze to our doors, and that liquor stores were considered essential businesses and would remain open when other stores had shuttered.

It was a time for families to hang out. To play board games. Eat dinner around the table again. Or, as in our household and many others, to watch that wacky Netflix show Tiger King. Yeah, the tale of Joe Exotic was as warped as advertised. Car-crash television at its finest.

The last couple of weeks have been like a big sleep-over party. Junk food, alcohol and binge-watching mindless TV. People staying up late at night. Getting up late in the morning. No office to go to. No reason to change out of your pajamas or sweatpants. Day drinking turning into night drinking. I embraced that latter concept a bit too eagerly, it turns out.

Well, the partys over. At least for me. The novelty of the quarantine is wearing off. I miss my friends and family members. A 40-minute chat on Zoom simply isnt enough.

I realized on Sunday that I was depressed. The weather was rainy and gloomy. There were new restrictions on stores, with customers now being prevented from even entering some premises. You have to wait by the door for workers to bring your order to you.

The feeling of isolation really hit home. I started thinking that some relationships may not survive this pandemic. Some of our favorite rituals and pastimes might go by the wayside. This could be a time when people move on from each other and their old habits.

Getting past coronavirus is going to be a slog. I can see that now. Its not going to be something that we can just shake off. Its going to take time for us to re-establish our normal routines. Theres going to be physical fallout. Psychological fallout.

None of us is going to be the same once were on the other side of this thing.
Bengaluru, March 30 : Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the software company, On Monday onated Rs 100 crore to fight Covid-19.

"These are unprecedented times that require every section of the society to rise up to the challenge," said Sudha Murty, Chairperson, Infosys Foundation in a statement.

Half of the donation, Rs 50 crore has been committed to the PM Cares Fund.

The foundation has identified three broad areas to which the balance funds will be directed to: expanding hospitals capacity to treat Covid-19 patients, providing ventilators, test kits and personal protective equipment, and to ensure access to food and nutrition for the underprivileged.

"All our efforts will be targeted towards ensuring that the relief material reaches the people who need it the most, whether it is a patient who cannot afford treatment, our healthcare personnel, or daily-wage workers whose livelihood has been severely impacted," Murty said.
The State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) in West Bengal on Monday decided that banks will function from 10 am to 4 pm, withdrawing its earlier advisory of limiting the transaction hours till 2 pm in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, an official said.

The decision of the SLBC will be implemented with immediate effect, he said.

"There will be no relaxation in banking hours. The previous advisory regarding limited functioning from 10 am to 2 pm hereby stands withdrawn," UBI's General Manager and West Bengal SLBC Convener Mukti Ranjan Ray said in a statement.

All the bank branches, irrespective of locations, will now function in all the working days.

According to SLBC, the decision has been taken in view of the ensuing closing of the financial year and an urgency of monthly salary and pension payments.

It has also been decided that ATMs will remain open and banking correspondents and customer service points should adequately equipped to transact cash to cover their target groups, a SLBC statement said.

SLBC convenor has also advised banks to ensure timely credit of direct benefit transfers to the accounts of the beneficiaries of welfare schemes, and also allow withdrawals.

Prescribed social distancing norms and proper sanitisation should also be taken care of, the committee said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
U.S. oil companies are facing an epic plunge in prices, an economic disaster for which they can point to forces beyond their control.

But this disaster also is of their own making. The oil and gas companies that drilled American shale plays over-produced for years, adding to a global surplus while counting on OPEC and its allies to curb outupt to support prices.

We know how that strategy turned out.

Now, the industry needs help from somewhere else. And it is turning to a long-time nemesis.

The oil industry, always proud of its wildcatting, risk-taking, rugged indivualist heritage, has become the lastest bastion of American capitalism to seek government intervention when capitalism isnt quite working out for them. Like the banks before them, oil companies want the market to rule and government off their backs  until they stop making money.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Railroad Commission eyes production cuts

Oil companies sought their own piece of the massive stimlus bill whizzing through Congress, including billions of dollars to buy for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a way to take surplus crude off the market and support sliding prices. Here in Texas, some companies want the Texas Railroad Commission to impose limits on production to slow the flood of oil as demand collapses, again with the hope it will lift prices.

Imagine that. Government telling companies what to do.

Changing the world

As energy companies slash payrolls and lay off thousands, if not tens of thousands of workers, there are arguments  national security not the least of them for government to help out one the nations most vital industries. Energy literally fuels our economy and modern lifestyle, even now in our reduced circumstances.

The shale revolution, which brought the country near the decadeslong dream of energy independence, literally changed the world. It has made the United States geopolitically stronger, allowing American oil and gas to become a counterweight to the energy blackmail of ours adversaries and free the U.S. government to pursue difficult policies without fear of spiking gasoline prices (see: Venezuela).

For the time being, oil purchases by the federal government may not happen. But you can bet that some companies will avail themselves of billions of dollars in loans the $2 trillion stimulus package is making available and energy workers caught in oils perfect storm will get some relief from the increase in unemployment benefits.

The point is that goverment support  and lets face it, we all get it in some way or another (mortgage deduction, anyone?)  should be a two-way street. If the government, federal or state, is going to take steps to help the oil industry, whether through crude purchases, low interest loans, subsidies or regulation  the industry needs to reciprocate.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Funding for 30 million barrels of oil left out of stimulus

Stop flaring. Reduce emissions. Invest more in protecting communities from exploding chemical plants.Take climate change seriously and spend more money  much more  to acclerate the energy transition needed to prevent, or at least mitigate, the looming environmental catastrophe.

Social good

Oil and gas, undoubtedly, is a social good. It has helped and continues to help us all in ways seen and unseen. But it is also a dangerous business that has polluted the environment, made people sick and threatened the planet.

If industry wants the government to intervene as a way to support the good it does, it must also accept that it needs to do more to address the social ills for which it is responsible.

As our columnist Chris Tomlinson recently wrote, this health-turned-economic crisis is making socialists of us all  maybe even the oil industry. From each, according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

rob.gavin@chron.com
On day four of a coronavirus lockdown, Ntombi Dlamini was ushered past shoppers snaking outside a mall in Johannesburg's Alexandra township, where she had come to withdraw her social grant.

One of over 17 million South Africans who live off social grants from the state, the 60-year-old single grandmother was unable to stock up on groceries before the lockdown began.

Shops were crammed and she was waiting for the grant, which she usually receives on the first day of each month.

With empty cupboards and four grandchildren to feed, Dlamini breathed a sigh of relief when the government brought forward the payment of social grants to the elderly and disabled to pre-empt overcrowding.

More than 17 million South Africans live off social grants. By MARCO LONGARI (AFP)

"I am very very happy because there was no food," Dlamini told AFP, as she walked out of the shopping centre with much-needed cash in her purse.

"But today we are going to eat," she exclaimed. "Now I can afford to buy food until after this coronavirus is over."

Many like Dlamini have grown concerned about their fate, as thousands of workers and businesses will now also rely on government funding to survive the 21-day shutdown.

"We note the anxiety and fear that this pandemic has caused millions of South African families, especially the most vulnerable," said Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu last week.

"There is no need to panic," she said. "Social grants will be paid from (the) 30 and 31 of this month."

'We have children to feed'

In the southern city of Port Elizabeth, a major port in the poor Eastern Cape province, slow-moving queues stretched around blocks as people lined up in front of pay points.

In the outlying Kwazakhele township, hundreds of elderly people pushed and shoved, ignoring welfare officials who tried to restore order and enforce social distancing.

"We have been queueing like this over time, why stop us now," said an elderly woman who did not wish to be named, angrily waving her walking stick.

More than 1,200 cases have now been detected in South Africa, with two deaths. By MARCO LONGARI (AFP)

"We don't care about that virus," she grumbled. "We have children and grandchildren to feed."

Further down the line, 87-year-old Nomonde Maphai craned her neck to check on the queue.

"I used my last bag of mealie meal (corn flour) so I have to buy some more today," she said, determined not to return home empty-handed.

The process was more orderly in Johannesburg, South Africa's financial capital, where people were allowed to access pay points before official opening times.

'I am very scared'

At the Pan African Mall in Alexandra, black tape on the ground marked a mandatory distance between customers -- though the space remained shorter than the recommended minimum of 1.5 metres.

But the queue jumps were set up for those collecting social grants.

A South African policeman patrols as he holds a pump rifle in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. By Michele Spatari (AFP/File)

After pocketing their money, the elderly and disabled still had to battle their way through supermarkets and lug themselves home on erratic minibuses.

"You can see my leg, I can't even talk right now because it's so painful," said Christine Mhlongo, 64, wincing as she hobbled past the checkout counter, clutching a bag of frozen chicken feet she bought with her disability grant.

"It is difficult to get to shops and places," echoed 61-year old Grace, who was born with a limp.

"Last week I didn't even come to the shopping centre because there were too many people."

People on social grants are also the most vulnerable to coronavirus, which disproportionately affects the elderly and unwell.

More than 1,200 cases have now been detected in South Africa, with two deaths.

"I am very scared of coronavirus," said Leti Maluleka, 57, who survives off social grants and shares a shack with ten people in Alexandra town.

"I am washing my hands, but what more can we do," she asked.

"We are plenty at the house. If one gets infected, then it is going to infect us all."

sch-str/sn/ach
It's been nearly a week since Houston began life under a stay-at-home order, and the scenes from the city's first weekend of mandatory sheltering are fittingly haunting.

The images of barren buildings and desolate parks may seem gloomy, but they offer hope that local residents are following social distancing guidelines, a move that medical experts say would drastically reduce the number of fatalities from COVID-19.
Makerspaces in a Time of Pandemic

School Districts Pump Out Medical Gear with 3D Printers

Calling all 3D printers! That's the word all over the country as makerspaces run by school districts have begun churning out essential medical gear for area healthcare workers.

Earlier this week the state of Tennessee announced that public colleges and universities would use their 3D printers to produce face shields for healthcare workers to supplement the protection provided by surgical masks. After three days of around-the-clock effort, 1,500 face shields had been produced. And more are coming.

Healthcareworkers wearing 3D-printed face shields. Source: S. Jean Chai

Contributing to that effort were the 3D printers from Hamilton County Schools. Although the schools have been closed in response to coronavirus, according to local reporting, volunteers gathered almost a hundred 3D printers from the district and took over operations at STEM School Chattanooga, a science-focused high school located on Chattanooga State Community College's campus.

The face shields have three parts: a 3D-printed shield frame, an acetate face shield and an elastic band. Each unit is being distributed with 20 shield frames, to allow medical workers to replace their shields after each patient. The shields take about four hours to print, and then they're assembled. They cost less than a dollar to produce, and local donors have lined up to fund the materials needed.

Now Tennessee is trying to figure out how to produce N95 respirators. That challenge has been more problematic because project leaders haven't found a viable filter material safe enough for medical work. Several prototypes have been created and tested by hospital executives in the area, but none has worked yet.

Similar 3D printing efforts are going on with volunteers at the Rolla Public School System in Missouri, Cohasset Public Schools in Massachusetts and California's Ventura Unified School District, many of which have put a call out to their communities to get their hands on additional printers.

Volunteers at Charlotte Latin School in North Carolina, which has moved to remote learning, is running a GoFund Me campaign to cover the costs of printing face shields for its area nurses and doctors. As of today, the school has raised $69,622 of the $75,000 goal. That much money would be enough to create 10,000 face shields, the campaign reported.

The initiative was organized by local doctors with children attending the school and helped by a volunteer team of maker, engineering and project management experts.

Both the school and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte are already running their 3D printers 24 hours a day, to produce the face shield components. The money is intended to be used for purchase of "PLA and PTEG filaments, elastic and sanitizing supplies," the campaign noted. "Once the components have been printed and checked for quality control, our team of volunteers will assemble the face shields by hand, sanitize the finished product, and prep them for delivery."

Many of the shields have already been donated to area healthcare workers. One doctor who leads an emergency room team expressed her thanks on the campaign webpage. "I am rationing [the face shields] between 4 hospital ERs now," wrote Gloria Tsan an MD with the Mid-Atlantic Emergency Medical Associates. "I am giving [them] to ER doctors first because we are the ones doing intubations with highest risk and we just don't know which respiratory failures have COVID, so we are treating all these patients as such... When I showed up to my shift with those 10 shields, the look of relief on the ER docs' faces were wonderful. They also felt much more comfortable intubating with the shields. Right now, we are bleaching down and sharing the little that we have and keeping it with our Emergency Airway Kits and it is still making a huge difference. My ultimate goal is for every ER doctor, ER [advanced practice provider], ER nurse and ER radiology and EKG tech to have their own shield that they can clean, keep and feel safe and protected, so we focus on the task at hand, and not worry about protection."
A registered sex offender hosting a coronavirus party despite Maryland's ban on gatherings during the outbreak refused to shut down his 60-person drunken bonfire, cops say. The party host did not win the argument with police officers.

Shawn Marshall Myers, 41, could face up to a year in prison and a $5,000 fine for violating the emergency order intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Fox 13 reported.

From Southern Maryland News:

On March 27, 2020, at approximately 10:55 p.m., officers from the Charles County Sheriff's Office responded to the 15000 block of Lukes Lane in Hughesville for the report of a large group of people at a single location in violation of Governor Hogan's emergency order which prohibits planned gatherings of more than 10 people in response to the COVID-19 emergency. When officers arrived, they observed approximately 60 people at a bonfire. This is the second time officers have responded to this house for a large gathering: On March 22, 2020, officers were dispatched to the house for a similar complaint. At that time, the homeowner, Shawn Marshall Myers, 41, was advised of the emergency order and he agreed to disperse the crowd. During the second incident, Myers refused multiple requests to comply with the emergency order. After conferring with the Charles County State's Attorney's Office, Myers was subsequently charged with two counts of failing to comply with an emergency order and is currently incarcerated at the Charles County Detention Center on a no bond status. The CCSO is reminding citizens of the emergency order and urging everyone to comply for the safety, health and well-being of all communities.

More at crimeonline.com:

Registered sex offender popped twice in a week for violating coronavirus orders

PHOTO: Shawn Marshall Myers, 41, of Hughesville, Maryland. IMAGE: Charles County Sheriff's Office
New Jersey declared a state of emergency on March 09, 2020, so the bill requires insurers to indemnify their insureds for any business loss sustained since. However, the bill only applies to policies issued to policyholders with less than 100 full-time employees  particularly those employees who work a normal week of 25 or more hours.

In addition to virtually nullifying virus exclusion clauses, the bill will allow insurers to apply to the Commissioner of Banking and Insurance for reimbursement for indemnity paid to policyholders through the bill. This relief would be funded via a special purpose apportionment on non-life and non-health insurance carriers operating in the state of NJ.

The states planned legislation comes after legislators of the US House of Representatives recently signed a bipartisan letter requesting to insurance trade groups that their members recognize financial losses resulting from the coronavirus pandemic as part of their policyholders business interruption coverage.

Read more: US insurers face political pressure to pay out for pandemic-related claims

A blog post on insurance coverage law firm Saxe Doernberger & Vita, P.C.s (SDV) website noted that the bills wording does not address whether it aims to drop the prerequisite listed in most business interruption policy forms that there be direct physical loss or damage to covered property for coverage to apply. The blog post also outlined that it remains to be seen if the bill, in its current incarnation, is intended to allow business interruption coverage despite the absence of direct physical loss of damage to cover property in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

SDV said that the bill is still in the early stages of the legislative process, but is expected to proceed rapidly. Other states are also predicted to follow suit.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 30, 2020 07:50 654 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e355d3 2 Business protective-gears,health-worker,COVID-19,doctor,coronavirus,nurses,hazmat-suit,face-mask,APD Free

Indonesian textile factories are making changes to their production line by producing protective gear for medical personnel and a local start-up is producing test kits to support the nations battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. However, producing medical-grade supplies comes with major challenges.

Textile companies were racing to mass-produce masks and protective coveralls for medical workers, said PT Pan Brothers deputy CEO Anne Patricia Sutanto. The company agreed to produce 20 million washable masks and 100,000 jumpsuits by April, as ordered by the government and retailers as demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) skyrockets.

The workers were initially flabbergasted by our decision. They asked me, Bu, we are a garment exporting company, so how can we produce masks and coveralls? but I told them this is a humanitarian emergency and we did it, she told The Jakarta Post on Thursday. Pan Brothers ordered nine of its factories to produce the equipment.

There is a global shortage of PPE, test kits and ventilators, all of which are crucial in slowing the spread of COVID-19. The Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) announced on March 23 that five doctors had died of the illness, in addition to a nurse who died of COVID-19 on March 12.

Read also: COVID-19: West Java medical personnel forced to use raincoats in lieu of hazmat suits

As a result of the quick changes in its factories production line, the PPE made by Pan Brothers is not officially medical grade as the company does not have a license to test for biocompatibility.

There is not enough time for us to obtain medical-grade status as we are in an emergency, Anne said, giving assurances that their masks and coveralls had the same specifications as medical-grade products.

Indonesia was identifying companies that had the capacity to produce PPE, test kits and ventilators to help the nations health workers, who had been treating COVID-19 cases since mid-February with inadequate protection, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on March 26.

In Indonesia we are taking steps to support companies that produce healthcare equipment. We will list them and see to their needs in increasing their production capacity, Sri Mulyani told a teleconferenced media briefing after a virtual extraordinary G20 Leaders Summit.

Textile company PT Sri Rejeki Isman (Sritex) had been producing coveralls for medical workers since late January and began to deliver the products in the first week of February, the companys spokesperson Joy Citra Dewi said.

We use a specified waterproof and anti-microbial material that we developed for the PPE, Joy told the Post in a written statement without disclosing the number of coveralls produced by the company.

Read also: Indonesian fashion designers help sew, donate protective gear for medical workers

Both Sritex and Pan Brothers are facing shortages for medical-grade raw materials, as local producers have been overwhelmed by demands. A limited number of companies can produce medical-grade materials as they require strict standards and certification, Joy said.

The challenges that are being faced by other companies are the scarcity of materials to produce safe PPE. There is PPE currently circulating in the market that lacks the proper specifications, which could endanger medical personnel, Joy said.

While basic PPE can be quickly produced by textile companies, local industries are still unable to produce more complex medical equipment such as ventilators and hospital beds.

A lack of technological capability in producing complex medical equipment had become a major hurdle for factories looking to shift their production line, Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (Kadin) deputy chairwoman Shinta Kamdani told the Post in a separate interview.

A mother comforts her daughter, who is undergoing a rapid test for COVID-19 at the Abadijaya community health center in Depok, West Java, on Friday. COVID-19 tests are being held in a number of community health centers in Depok. (JP/Riand Alfiandy)

Shinta said factories across Indonesia faced a decline in production capacity by an average of 30 percent due to disruptions to their supply chains as a result of the coronavirus.

There are not many industries that are ready to produce medical equipment, especially in this kind of situation. Maybe big corporations have better technology that could be used to produce ventilators or hospital beds, but it's unattainable for mid-sized companies, she said.

Carmakers around the world are also shifting gear, producing hospital ventilators and respirators using 3D printing. Ford, General Motors, Ferrari and Nissan, alongside General Electrics and 3M Co., are among the companies that have switched focus.

In Indonesia, PT Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indonesia, a subsidiary of Toyota Indonesia, which manufactures and exports Toyota products, is in talks with the government to produce ventilators.

Meanwhile, Indonesia-based start-up Nusantics is preparing to make 100,000 COVID-19 test kits, in partnership with state pharmaceutical company Biofarma, the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) and the Indonesia International Institute for Life Sciences (i3L).

Read also: Indonesian medical workers threaten to stop COVID-19 treatment if protective gear not provided

A prototype will be complete within three weeks, according to the companys investor East Ventures, which will lead crowdfunding with a target of Rp 10 billion (US$ 620,155) to produce the test kits and finance a genome sequencing project. The public can join by accessing indonesiapastibisa.com to donate money or equipment starting March 30.

Right now, it is difficult to get tested for the coronavirus as it keeps spreading throughout the nation, East Ventures cofounder and managing partner Willson Cuaca told the Post. That is why we want to help the start-up achieve this goal.

Nusantics, a technology company established in 2019, focuses on advancements in genomics and microbiome research. Microbiomes are complex ecosystems of microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses and fungi.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia topped 1,000 on Sunday with 1,285 cases and 114 deaths, and the disease spreading to at least 30 of the country's 34 provinces. Globally, the pneumonia-like illness has infected more than 575,000 people with over 31,000 deaths. (mpr)
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha of Thailand has assumed the authority to impose curfews and censor the news media. Journalists there have been sued and intimidated for criticizing the governments response to the outbreak.

While the virus itself may have cooled protesters will to crowd public squares, Chiles declaration of a state of catastrophe and the militarys presence on city streets has muted raging dissent that rocked the nation for months.

The pandemic has also disrupted planned elections. This month, Bolivia suspended a much anticipated presidential election that had been scheduled for early May. A disputed election last year set off violent protests and forced President Evo Morales to resign.

The interim president, who promised to serve only as a caretaker, has since consolidated power and announced her plan to run for an elected term. The countrys election tribunal said on Thursday that it would hold the elections sometime between June and September.

In the United States, the Justice Department asked Congress for sweeping new powers, including a plan to eliminate legal protections for asylum seekers and detain people indefinitely without trial. After Republicans and Democrats balked, the department scaled back and submitted a more modest proposal.

Rights groups say governments may continue to absorb more power while their citizens are distracted. They worry that people may not recognize the rights they have ceded until it is too late to reclaim them.
Two Thursdays ago, I flew to Los Angeles to meet my daughter and cheer her on at her final international Olympic qualifier in fencing. She never boarded her flight because the event was canceled. Now, the entire Olympics is postponed.

I spent my time in Los Angeles dealing with all the cancellations of my upcoming speaking engagements and public appearances.

My plan was to fly back to New York and then on to Barcelona. That was one of a group of trips I had long planned for my 50th birthday year. Ive had to cancel most of those trips.

I wanted to make this year memorable. The universe is taking care of that.

I came back to New York to spend some time with my daughter, to help deal with her disappointment and to make sure that she and my other children were properly prepared to weather the pandemic.

Over the time Ive been here, New York has become the center of the pandemic and America has become more and more on lockdown. I have learned to live with the restrictions and have even drawn some lessons from it.

First, I normally work from home. I need the isolation for concentration. I find it quite hard to write around others. But now, multitudes, including my children and many of my friends, are also working from home. It occurs to me, and to many of them, that much of what they were doing in the offices was unnecessary, that emails could have easily substituted for many of the meetings, that they could be just as productive from their couches as from any conference room.

Second, news doesnt always need to be followed hour to hour. This may seem an odd statement coming from a newspaper person and a cable news commentator, but I have found over the last couple of weeks that a little bit less is a whole lot more. I now check the news once in the morning and once at night. And I skip President Donald Trumps horrid, propagandistic news conferences and their misinformation. I am convinced that the only people who need to watch those are the reporters who cover them and the fact checkers who correct them. Those events have become as much a threat to public health as the virus itself.

Third, it has been revelatory for me just how unprepared we were, not just in terms of emergency readiness but also psychologically. I will fully admit that I had a hard time letting the true magnitude of this set in. For a long time, I simply couldnt get my head around how dangerous this virus was and how completely it had changed the world as I knew it.

Fourth, people around the world, and particularly here in the United States, have a rebellious spirit that is on full display during this crisis. Even if 80 percent or 90 percent of people who are able comply with instructions to stay home and stay safe, 10 percent to 20 percent wont. Complete compliance is simply impossible. Some people just dont want to feel controlled. They dont want to feel afraid. They have been worn thin by disaster warnings. Yes, some, many even, are just foolish, selfish and reckless, but there is also a cowboy component.

Fifth, a crisis always exposes the corruptibility of capitalism. This expresses itself in everything from price gouging on essential items, to congressional figures shedding stock ahead of the market downturn, to the details trickling out about the $2 trillion stimulus package agreed to between Congress and the White House. The rich and powerful will always find ways to insulate their wealth if not increase it, including on the backs of American taxpayers.

Finally, when people are in crisis, they simply dont have time and energy to pay attention to all the fine details of their elected officials actions. While in this bind, they are as much as ever open to manipulation and deception because their attention is on things far more important to them: the welfare and safety of their families.

All these things portend dire consequences for the countrys future. Trumps approval has been bolstered during this crisis, even though his lying and lack of action are a large part of why the country is in such poor condition to deal with this crisis. The news conferences that have become substitutes for his rallies drown out the efforts of his Democratic rivals.

Large corporations can now essentially borrow money for free. They should be allowed  forced  to do that. But of course, many also will most likely receive cash assistance, funding by American taxpayers, as part of this stimulus package.

And, the service industry is likely to be completely reshaped by this. There are hordes of jobs that have already been lost and may be slow to return.

The pandemic has revealed to us just how fragile our economy and society are. To rebuild them to be more impervious to future trauma is the charge we must take when we emerge.

Our greatest lesson is this: We must build a more sturdy America.

@CharlesMBlow
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 13:27:32|Editor: Xiang Bo

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TOKYO, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Japan's health ministry and local governments said that 1,896 people have been infected with the COVID-19 virus as of 12:00 p.m. local time on Monday, with cases in Tokyo spiking over the weekend despite a "soft" lockdown being requested for the capital.

The death toll in Japan from the pneumonia-causing virus currently stands at 67, according to the health ministry, with the figure including those from the virus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined in Yokohama, close to Tokyo.

Of the 1,896 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Japan, the majority are in the capital city of Tokyo, which has now confirmed 430 cases.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has requested a "soft" lockdown for the capital over the past weekend, asking that people in Tokyo stay at home.

Tokyo's surrounding prefectures have also requested their residents not to visit Tokyo over the weekend.

At least 68 new coronavirus infections were confirmed in Tokyo on Sunday, marking its biggest daily increase, a metropolitan government official said, with Sunday's figure following 63 reported on Saturday and 40 on Friday.

The health ministry said there are currently a total of 65 patients considered severely ill and are on ventilators to receive respiratory assistance or have been admitted to intensive care units for medical treatment.

The ministry added that in total, 975 people have been discharged from hospitals after their symptoms improved.
SEATTLE, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Overview

An unmanned air vehicle or also called drones is an aircraft without a human pilot onboard, however, typically operated human. Drones have been used in numerous applications including air traffic, agriculture, retail, and safety and security. UAVs can be used to both protect and threaten airspace security in numerous ways. Safety and security drones are typically used for military and operational purposes, which saves the cost and time of field-surveillance. Apart from this, drones are used in smart cities to maintain the safety and security of cities, monitor traffic, and provide an in-time response for emergency services namely medical service.

The global safety and security drones market was estimated to account for US$ 354.8 Mn in 2019 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 34.7 % over the forecasted period 2019-27.

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Market Drivers

1. Growing use of drones in military applications is expected to drive growth of the global safety and security drones market during the forecast period

Drones a plethora of applications in military sector where human intervention is not possible or important. These applications include intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), battle damage management, and combat operations. Many countries across the globe, both developed and emerging economies, are incorporating high-tech security drones, in order to enhance surveillance operations and improve combat operation capabilities. For instance, in December 2019, Turkey incorporated a new military armed drone 'Songar' by Asisguard, which is equipped with a firearm. These drones will be used to carry out surveillance and attacks on more significant targets such as vehicles and infrastructure.

2. Rising adoption of drones for advanced patrolling of marine borders is expected to propel the global safety and security drones market growth over the forecast

Marin patrolling has become a major issue for many countries across the globe. These countries are deploying advanced drones to carry out surveillance and patrolling marine borders. For instance, Safety and security drones such Sniffer Drones are being deployed European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). These drones will be used to regulate air pollution caused by ships, where the drone can register the amount of sulfur in the fuel. Hence, these factors are expected to support growth of the global safety and security drones market in the near future.

Market Opportunities

1. Rising defense budget of major economies can present major growth strategies in the near future

Major economies across the globe including the U.S., Germany, France, and the U.K. are focused on adopting high-tech drones, in order to enhance their surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. These countries are also augmenting their defense budget every year, in order to upgrade existing military capabilities. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), total countries across the globe invested US$ 1.686 trillion on defense in 2016, which 0.4% increase in 2015. According to the same source, the U.S. held a dominant position in terms of military expenditure followed by China and Russia. Key companies in the market can capitalize on untapped potential in these markets and gain a competitive edge.

2. Constant research and development activities in the drones sector

As the field of security and surveillance has become challenging, end users across the globe are demanding advanced drone systems with high-tech capabilities and increased payloads. Key companies across the globe are focused on research and development activities, in order to innovate novel products. Moreover, many key players are forming a strategic alliance with other major companies, in order to enhance their market potential.

Market Restraint

Lack of skilled personnel to operate UAVs is expected to hamper the global safety and security drones market growth over the forecast period

Operating UAVs require skilled personnel with adequate training. Although developed countries have employed skilled and trained operators, the scenario is not the same with emerging economies. It is typically due to low investment in defense and a lack of adequate infrastructure. Therefore, these factors are expected to hinder the global safety and security drones market growth in the near future.

Key Takeaways

North America holds the dominant position in the global safety and security drones market and is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period 2019-27. This is owing to increasing adoption of UAVs/drones for commercial and military applications in North America . For instance, US public safety agencies are adopting drones from the China -based drone maker. In July 2019 , US public safety agencies ordered drones from China -based manufacturer DJI Technologies. Which represents a lucrative opportunity for safety and security drones in the region.

holds the dominant position in the global safety and security drones market and is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period 2019-27. This is owing to increasing adoption of UAVs/drones for commercial and military applications in . For instance, US public safety agencies are adopting drones from the -based drone maker. In , US public safety agencies ordered drones from -based manufacturer DJI Technologies. Which represents a lucrative opportunity for safety and security drones in the region. Among application segment, smart cities sub segment is expected to dominate the global safety and security drones market over the forecasted period 2019-27. This is owing to wide application areas of drones in smart cities for managing the traffic, crowd management, security and surveillance among other. Moreover, government of various countries are also focusing on implementing drones for safety and security purpose. For instance, Indian government has partnered with Tata Consulting Services for using the drones for the surveillance, and for identifying the unauthorized settlements and to deter robbers in Kaziranga National Park.

Among drone type segment fixed wing drones sub segment is expected to create a lucrative opportunity for global safety and security drones market as these drones have simple structure so requires less maintenance and repair process. Moreover fixed wings drones are comparatively lower in weight so provides more operational time owing to which drone manufacturers are focusing on developing new fixed wings drones. For Instance, Atlas Dynamics, which is an aerospace company providing autonomous UAV solutions, announced that they have launched a fixed-wing UAV, called the Atlas Blue-J, which is suitable for security & inspection purpose.

Market Trends

1. Introduction of AI-enabled Drones

Key companies in the market are focused on incorporating cutting-edge technology into drones such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and Internet of Things (IoT). Integrating these technologies can enhance the capabilities of drones, making them more efficient and effective. Key manufacturers are investing significantly in research and development activities, in order to enhance the AI capabilities of drones. This trend is expected to continue during the forecast period.

2. Cloud Computing-based Services

Cloud computing-based drone is another major trend in the market. Cloud computing provides numerous advantages including low latency support, efficient integration, location awareness, and scalability. Moreover, it can enable real-time insights, thereby enhancing overall capabilities of drones.

Regulations:

Basic Rules and Regulations related to Drones in U.S.

1. The operator need to register their drone and carry the proof of the registration number with him/her

2. The operator should fly their drones at or below 400 feet above the ground when in uncontrolled (Class G) airspace.

3. It is not allowed to fly the drone at night unless the drone has lighting that allows to know its location and orientation at all times.

4. Unmanned aircraft must weigh less than 55 lbs. (25 kg).

5. Maximum groundspeed of 100 mph (87 knots)

Competitive Section

Key players operating in the global safety and security drones market are General Atomics, 3D Robotics, Atlas Dynamics , Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Aeryon Labs, Textron Inc., Parrot, SZ DJI, Action Drone, Aerialtronics, and Kespry.

Buy this Report Now @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/buy-now/3632

Key Developments

1. Key companies in the market are focused on agreements and contracts, in order to enhance the market presence. For instance, in October 2019, General Atomics entered into an agreement with NASA to perform as part of the agency's project to integrate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS).

2. Major market players are involved in product launches, in order to expand product portfolio. For instance, in February 2019, The Boeing Company introduced a new type of unmanned aircraft that is designed to fly alongside piloted airplanes for military missions.

Market Taxonomy

1. By Component

Airframe

Controller System

Propulsion System

Others (Sensors/Battery/Camera)

2. By Drone Type

Fixed Wings

Rotor Drones

Hybrid Drones

3. By Application

Explosive Detection & Removal

Firefighting

Smart Cities

Inspection & Safety

Patrolling

Surveillance Operations

Weather & Climate Analysis

Others

4. By End User

Agriculture

Airports

Colleges & Universities

Construction

Forestry & Logging

Government

Power & Utilities

Oil & Gas Pipeline

Residential Buildings

Mining

Seaports & Docks

5. By Region

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

Middle East & Africa )

Contact Us:

Mr. Shah

Coherent Market Insights

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#3200

Seattle, WA 98154

Tel: +1-206-701-6702

Email: [email protected]

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There is no concrete plan yet for the reintegration of areas that are now under occupation.

Vice Prime Minister, Minister for the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov has said the team of President Volodymyr Zelensky is considering several options for the development of the situation regarding the return of the occupied territories of Donbas.

"If Ukraine has a chance to get positive results within the framework of the Minsk process, we must try, but this can't last forever," he told RBC-Ukraine.

"When President Zelensky invited me to talk, it was back at the time of Prime Minister [Oleksiy] Honcharuk, with the idea that I take the lead of the ministry for reintegration, I asked about expectations. I was told that no one was focusing on the occupied territories, the adjacent territories, temporarily displaced persons, and the real reintegration of temporarily occupied lands back to the country. Now we are not talking about the Ministry of Defense  this is not their task. The government didn't have such an authority and such a person," Reznikov said.

Read alsoAdvisory Council with Donbas militants could only be created if Germany, France approve idea  Vice PM

The vice prime minister explains: the main thing is to write several scenarios for developments after the liberation of the occupied territories. "For example, in six months... This is an ideal scenario  to hold elections in the fall of 2020. Or, relatively speaking, in a year, or in five, or, in 45 years, as in Germany," he said.

"That is, there can be three or four options for the developments  how we behave in relation to the occupied territories and our people living there. When the president voiced these expectations that I would have to think over and describe these options  this means he is well aware that the quick option is one of the few and not the most likely one," the official said.

Answering a question on whether there is a specific plan for the economic reintegration of the occupied Donbas, Reznikov said: "I'll be honest, there is no concrete plan yet for any type of reintegration  economic, political, or industrial  but we are working on it now. We are writing this out, along with the team."

"We have ideas, we have drafts. Now it would be wrong to voice a specific plan because things would be taken out of context. And we want them to be interconnected. We have already submitted parts of our plans to the prime minister. We hope our drafts will be included in the government's program," he added.
Soil Association Certification has frozen its annual planned fee increase for all organic licencees in response to the Covid-19 outbreak.

The fee will be frozen until the end of September 2020 when it will be further reviewed given the rapidly changing circumstances.

The increase was due to come into effect from 1 April and would have applied to all organic schemes run by the certification body.

Soil Association Certification, which certifies over 70% of all organic products sold in the UK, have also suspended physical inspections and are currently reviewing the option of remote and desk-based inspections.

Clare McDermott, of Soil Association Certification, said: In these unsettling times its vital that we come together to support all our licensees, especially our farmers and food suppliers.

"We hope this price freeze will allow our certified growers, producers and processors to continue the work theyve been doing to secure a resilient and sustainable food system.

"Our licensees are crucial at this time and, despite increasingly challenging circumstances, were so grateful for the hard work they are putting in to produce and distribute our food.

The fee freeze applies to any Soil Association Organic Certification including COSMOS and GOTS. It does not apply to any scheme that delivered on behalf of another partner, for example Red Tractor.
The AAP government on Monday informed the Delhi High Court that officials are making all efforts to help the riot victims in the north-east district in the capital by providing them food and medicine amid the nationwide lockdown.

Delhi government standing counsel Rahul Mehra submitted before the High Court that in case any of the families require accommodation, efforts will be made to immediately place them in the appropriate accommodation or relief camps.

Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioner, said that the circumstances under which riots victims, who were living in a relief camp at Idgah, Mustafabad, and had to leave their respective houses, there is apprehension with regard to shifting them to the existing night shelters in and around their respective localities.

Advocate Rahul Mehra and Standing Counsel for East Delhi Municipal Corporation, Abhinav Aggarwal, submitted that the authorities shall coordinate between themselves and ensure that such families are not accommodated in the existing night shelters. He further said that the nodal officer shall also provide the contact details of an officer who could be contacted by anyone of these family members in case of any emergency and requirement of a curfew pass as per the existing norms.

"The officers shall get in touch with the representatives of each of the 275 families, whose names and telephone numbers have been provided by the petitioner along with the additional affidavit, and ascertain the number of family members. The officers will also ascertain as to whether they require the assistance of food or medicines and accordingly provide food packets to them," Mehra said.He said that medical kits containing over the counter medicines for basic ailments can be provided to each of the families as per their requirement.The court was hearing a petition was filed by Shaikh Mujtaba Farooq who was represented by Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves along with lawyers Sneha Mukarjee and Nabila Hasan.

The petitioner has sought to re-open the relief camp at Idgah, Mustafabad, for victims of violence in the capital and to provide proper food supplies, sanitation, cleaning of toilets, adequate water and security.

A Division Bench of Justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Navin Chawla, who conducted the hearing through video conferencing, listed the matter for further hearing on April 3.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sen. Ted Cruz told CNBC on Monday he and eight other GOP senators recently ripped into the Saudi ambassador in a conference call over the oil price war with Russia that has threatened to put American producers out of business.

In a "Squawk Box" interview, Cruz said the call with Princess Reema bint Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was "as candid a call, and direct a call, as I've ever had with a foreign leader."

"We quite frankly unloaded on her," the Texas Republican said.

Oil prices have plummeted as Saudi Arabia and Russia remain locked in a price war that began after Russia earlier this month rejected an additional 1.5 million barrels per day production cut proposed by OPEC.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude briefly dipped below $20 on Monday. Brent, the international benchmark, fell to its lowest price in nearly 18 years.

Following Russia's rejection, Saudi Arabia slashed its official oil price and announced that it will increase production to 12.3 million barrels per day when the current production cuts expire at the end of March. Tanking prices have made it unprofitable for many U.S. firms to to remain active, analysts have said.

Cruz said the senators warned that they would take action against Saudi Arabia if the "economic warfare" continued, though he did not mention any specific retaliatory measure.

"We said, 'Look, there are a whole series of steps we can take to escalate foreign policy pressure'  and we outlined a number of them  'if you continue engaging in economic warfare against the United States, trying to drive down the price of oil in order to exploit this coronavirus crisis to drive a bunch of American producers out of business.'"

The Saudi embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cruz said the senators on the call were among the 13 Republicans who wrote a letter to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman earlier in March urging him to halt Saudi efforts to boost production and lower prices. He said the lawmakers have "historically been the strongest allies in the Senate of Saudi Arabia," suggesting that support could be on the line.

"If they don't change their course, their relationship with the United States is going to change very fundamentally," Cruz said.

In addition to Cruz, the Senate Republicans who signed the letter were Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska; North Dakota's Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven; Ron Johnson of Wisconsin; John Cornyn of Texas; John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana; John Barrasso of Wyoming; Tom Cotton of Arkansas and James Lankford and James Inhofe of Oklahoma.

Cruz did not say which nine were on the conference call.

Princess Reema sought to pin the blame on Russia. Cruz said he responded that Russia was not expected to be a friend to the United States, while Saudi Arabia was.

"You are not behaving like a friend when you are trying to destroy thousands and thousands of small businesses all across Texas and the country," he said he told her.

"The Saudis are hoping to drive out of business American producers, and in particular shale producers, largely in the Permian Basin in Texas and in North Dakota," Cruz told CNBC. "That behavior is wrong, and I think it is taking advantage of a country that is a friend."

Cruz also said he hoped that President Donald Trump, scheduled to speak with Russian leader Vladimir Putin by phone on Monday morning, would bring up the issue.

Trump said on Fox News earlier on Monday that he would bring up the price war, noting that Saudi Arabia and Russia "both went crazy."

-- CNBC's Pippa Stevens and Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.
Anna Wintour has shared the emotional response she experienced after finding out Ralph Lauren donated $10m to fighting coronavirus.

On Monday, the Vogue editor-in-chief published an op-ed for the outlet, in which she reflected on the pure joy she felt upon learning of all the ways the fashion industry has stepped up to help in the battle against the virus.

Positivity is such a precious commodity right now, but I felt something close to pure joy in recent days, Wintour wrote, before explaining that she broke down when speaking to Lauren on the phone.

My emotions, like yours Im sure, are fairly close to the surface, but Im not afraid to admit that I broke down on the phone with Ralph when he called to give me the incredible news about his gift, she continued.

Wintour also discussed the generosity of other designers such as Giorgio Armani, Donatella Versace, and Marco Bizzarri, the CEO of Gucci, as well as luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, which has been manufacturing hand sanitisers.

American fashion and beauty companies have been mobilising too, making masks, gowns and hand sanitiser, Wintour said. I have never been more proud of our industry.

Last week, it was reported that American fashion designer Christian Siriano was making face masks for healthcare workers, while American fashion retailer Nordstrom announced it would be sewing more than 100,000 masks to be distributed among hospital staff.

The fashion editor touched on the power of this positivity in the face of the ongoing pandemic - and the human connections that have been forged - and how she expects it will be impossible to take these connections for granted once this is behind us.

According to Wintour, the current climate of social distancing and quarantining has also led to a period of creativity for designers, who have been able to share videos in support of A Common Thread, a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund that supports American designers who are struggling because of the coronavirus.

Wintour concluded the article reiterating that this is a moment of reflection, generosity and a shared sense of humanity, before reminding people to continue to stay home and be safe.
A supervisor urged surgeons at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in Manhattan to volunteer for the front lines because half the intensive-care staff had already been sickened by coronavirus.

ICU is EXPLODING, she wrote in an email.

A doctor at Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan described the unnerving experience of walking daily past an intubated, critically ill colleague in her 30s, wondering who would be next.

Another doctor at a major New York City hospital described it as a petri dish, where more than 200 workers had fallen sick.

Two nurses in city hospitals have died.

The coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than 30,000 people in New York City, is beginning to take a toll on those who are most needed to combat it: the doctors, nurses and other workers at hospitals and clinics. In emergency rooms and intensive care units, typically dispassionate medical professionals are feeling panicked as increasing numbers of colleagues get sick.
Gov. Phil Murphy grew increasingly disturbed over the number of people ignoring his orders to stay home and the ban on public gatherings during the coronavirus outbreak and called on New Jersey residents Monday to do their part.

"No more knucklehead gatherings or parties. We have got to stay home, Murphy said with an impassioned plea as he announced New Jersey now has at least 16,636 coronavirus cases including 198 deaths.

We are New Jersey. We can do this, Murphy said. "We have lived our lives punching above our weight. No state has more attitude or character. We are a special place. We can crush the top of that curve if we act as one.

Murphy said for somebody to willfully ignore the rules he put in place is to put somebodys life at stake and will not be tolerated.

I want, if anything, to tighten the screws, he said.

At the same time, State Police Superintendent Col. Patrick Callahan said a barbershop in Woodbridge was cited for being open (salons and barbershops are ordered to be closed until further notice), as well as a gym in Bridgeton that was hosting a meeting and additional charges in Lakewood.

Callahan didnt immediately provide additional details on those cases.

Authorities, however, have announced that a Lakewood couple who hosted a gathering Sunday of 40 to 50 people on the lawn and street in front of their home were charged with five counts of child endangerment and the husband was charged with violating the ban on gatherings due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Eliezer Silber, 37, and his wife Miriam Silber, 34, were informed that large gatherings in New Jersey have been banned for more than a week due to the worsening coronavirus pandemic, the Ocean County Prosecutors Office said in a statement.

The Siblers were charged with child endangerment because their five kids were present at the gathering, police said. Eliezer Silber was also charged with violating a rule or regulation adopted by the governor  specifically Executive Order No. 197. Murphy signed the order on March 21.

Two other Lakewood men, David Gluck, 42, and Abraham Haberfeld, 32, were also charged after hosting a large gathering at a school for Talmudic study. They were both cited with maintaining a nuisance after police broke up a gathering of 35 people inside the Bais Horaah of Lakewood on Madison Avenue on Monday morning.

Murphy administration officials put residents on warning last week not to flout the governors executive orders.

In an effort to slow the spread of the virus, Murphy has closed all schools in the state, ordered people to stay at home except for necessary travel, banned social gatherings, and ordered non-essential retail businesses to close until further notice.

On Sunday, Murphy reported 2,316 new known cases of the coronavirus in New Jersey as the statewide total climbed to at least 13,386 with at least 161 deaths as the potential peak of the outbreak could still be weeks away.

New Jersey, a state with 9 million residents, remains second in the nation for COVID-19 cases after New York. The increase was the second consecutive day with more than 2,000 new cases.

New Jerseys number of cases is expected to keep growing as testing expands. But Murphy stressed thats not all bad news because that will help the state get a better grasp on how to combat the spread of the fast-moving virus.

Right now, only symptomatic New Jersey residents are being tested, and the lag in results is stretching as long as seven days.

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NJ Advance Media Staffer Writer Jeff Goldman contributed to this report.

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A cyclist rides on an empty square in front of the Colisseum in Rome, Italy. AFP Photo

Rome: Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's government prepared Italians for a "very long" lockdown Sunday that would only be lifted gradually despite its economic hardship and traumatic impact on daily lives.

The message from ministers and health officials came as Italy's world-topping toll rose by 756 -- well bellow Friday's record of 969 -- and the rate of coronavirus infections slowed to under six percent for the first time.

Yet the government appeared more focused on the nearing April 3 deadline to lift a national lockdown that had never been tried by a Western democracy -- and has since been replicated across Europe and the United States.

"The measures expiring on April 3 will inevitably be extended," Regional Affairs Minister Francesco Boccia told Italy's Sky TG24 television.

"I think that, at the moment, talking about re-opening is inappropriate and irresponsible.

"We all want to go back to normal. But we will have to do it by turning on one switch at a time."

Italy is effectively sacrificing almost all forms of business activity to fight the pandemic that first emerged in China last year.

Deputy Finance Minister Laura Castelli said that the government's initial 25 billion euro ($28 billion) rescue package for affected families and companies might have to be quadrupled in size.

"In my opinion, at least 100 billion (euros) will be needed," Castelli told the La Stampa daily.

Discontent

Yet the strains on Italian society imposed by measures that might have seemed unimaginable just weeks ago are gradually starting to show.

The starkest example came when armed police began guarding entrances to supermarkets in Sicily after reports of looting by people who could no longer afford food.

Newspaper stories about growing discontent in one of Italy's least-developed regions appeared to be at least partially behind Conte's decision to make another TV appeal to the nation on Saturday.

Conte used it to announce a food voucher programme that will cost the government another 400 million euros ($445 million).

"We know that many suffer but the state is there," Conte said.

But this is only a stop-gap measure designed to help families cover grocery costs of between 25 and 50 euros on a one-time basis.

Projections from several global banks and think-tanks in the past week point to Italy's economic output shrinking by seven percent this year.

Those numbers are based on the assumption that the lockdown will not be extend far beyond April.
A fresh bid to overturn a Singapore law banning gay sex failed Monday as a court dismissed several challenges, a setback for efforts to promote greater LGBT rights in Asia. Inherited from the British colonial era, the law is rarely enforced but campaigners say it nevertheless jars with the affluent city-state's increasingly modern and vibrant culture. Others however argue that Singapore remains at heart conservative and is not ready for change, while officials also believe most would not be in favour of repealing the legislation. The latest attempt to overturn the law was spearheaded by three people -- a retired doctor, a DJ and an LGBT rights advocate -- who lodged court challenges seeking to prove the law is unconstitutional. But the High Court dismissed all three after hearing them together behind closed doors, ruling the law does not violate articles of the constitution regarding equality and freedom of speech. The court also found the fact the legislation was not enforced did not "render it redundant". "Legislation remains important in reflecting public sentiment and beliefs," according to a summary of the judgement. M. Ravi, a lawyer for one of the complainants, told reporters outside court he was "very disappointed". "It's shocking to the conscience and it is so arbitrary. It is so discriminatory this legislation," he said. A first challenge to the law was dismissed in 2014. The repeated failure to overturn it contrasts sharply with progress made elsewhere in the region on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights. In 2018, India's Supreme Court decriminalised gay sex by overturning legislation from its own period under British rule -- a decision that spurred campaigners in Singapore to renew their efforts. And in Taiwan, lawmakers took the unprecedented step last year to legalise same-sex marriage, making the island the first place in Asia to do so. Singapore's ban, introduced in 1938, carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail for homosexual acts.
Another 1,012 cases of coronavirus COVID-19 have been reported in Michigan, with the total number reaching 6,498 on Monday, March 30.

The state also reported 52 more deaths, making for a total of 184 people who have died, according to the states daily update on coronavirus numbers. Thats up from 132 on Sunday.

A week ago today, the state had 1,328 cases and nine deaths.

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Sixty-two of Michigans 83 counties are home to a resident who contracted coronavirus.

About 81% of the COVID-19 cases are in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

The disproportionate number of cases in metro Detroit is a result of several factors, including the areas large population, more aggressive testing in those counties and community spread of coronavirus, experts say.

About 39% of Michigan residents live in Wayne, Oakland or Macomb counties.

There are 1,801 patients who are Detroit residents; 1,394 who live elsewhere in Wayne County; 1,365 who live in Oakland County and 728 in Macomb County.

Of the 184 patients who died, 86% lived in Wayne, Oakland or Macomb counties, although 16 counties have had a resident die of COVID-19.

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Whitmer declared a state of emergency on March 10 after the first cases were identified. She has since closed schools, bars, restaurants and other establishments to prevent COVID-19 from spreading further

On Monday, March 23, Whitmer issued a stay-at-home order, requiring Michigan residents to stay at home except for essential business.

There have been more than 140,000 cases of the coronavirus and more than 2,400 deaths in the United States.

Read all of MLives coverage on the coronavirus at mlive.com/coronavirus.

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops ) and when you go into places like stores.

To read more on MLive:

Michigan has become an epicenter for coronavirus. Why?

Michigan COVID cases soar past 5,000

Western Michigan University student dies of coronavirus

Whitmer downplays tensions with Trump
(Photo : Image by Dominic Wunderlich from Pixabay )

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Klaus W. Larres, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill



A recent work visit to Germany, where I grew up, stretched from one week to three. Those weeks coincided with the spread of the coronavirus in Germany as well as across Europe.



What I saw while there is that Germany's population is in a state of shock and still can't quite grasp how this sudden turnaround of their lives happened.



Only some two weeks ago, life seemed to proceed in a fairly normal way despite the looming crisis which appeared to be unreal and far away.



I'm back now at my home in the U.S. From my perspective as a scholar of history and international affairs, what is happening in Germany right now is notable both as a lesson in how to prepare for and manage a pandemic as well as a reflection of the poor state of relations between Germany and the U.S.



Escalating infections, low mortality rate

So far, there have been almost 65,000 known cases of COVID-19 in Germany, with the populous state of North Rhine Westphalia and the city of Hamburg particularly badly hit. So far just under 600 deaths in total have occurred from the virus in the country.



Compare that to Italy and Spain, for instance, which have much higher rates of infections and a devastating death rate. Recently there were almost 1,000 deaths a day in Italy and 800 in Spain that were caused by the virus (and in total almost 11,000 deaths in Italy and 7,000 in Spain so far).



This is largely due to a different vulnerability: The age structure of the populations in each country is different from the German one, especially in the most badly affected areas, such as the Lombardy and Bergamo regions in Italy. The populations there are much older.



The solid and publicly funded German health system is also credited for Germany's relatively low death rate. There are over 28,000 intensive care beds with sufficient respirators available at German hospitals, more than in most other parts of the world.



Even so, the German government is working to increase these numbers to prepare for what the coronavirus may bring. If infections spread in Germany at the speed at which they spread in China, Italy and now Spain and France, the country's medical system would also be overwhelmed. Face masks and protective clothing for medical staff are already running out.









Concern about democratic rights

German leaders have mounted a powerful drive to convince the public to adopt social-distancing rules, self-isolate at home and leave their homes only for absolutely essential reasons.



Restaurants, bars and most stores have been closed, with the exception of supermarkets and pharmacies.



Some of the particularly affected regions and cities have imposed almost total lockdowns; few local authorities allow more than two people to go out together.



As everywhere, the idea is to "flatten the curve" and stretch out the rate of infections over a longer time span.



And as in the U.S., in the early part of the crisis, young people still gathered in parks and city centers to enjoy the warm spring weather and get together for so-called "corona parties" - having fun while ignoring the danger of infection when doing so.



Serious warnings from the government, accompanied by stiff fines, stopped this kind of behavior. Now, most Germans are staying at home and have started hoarding food and toilet paper.



German politicians and the public, however, remain deeply concerned about the infringement of personal freedoms and democratic rights which the lockdown and effective confinement of German citizens to their homes constitute.



In an earnest and forthright speech to the nation, Chancellor Angela Merkel asked the German people for their understanding and claimed that the current situation was the most serious crisis the German nation had faced since the end of World War II.









'Short time'

Similar to other affected countries, with the closing of most stores and businesses, Germany's economy has almost ground to a standstill.



A formidable effort is being made to prevent it from collapsing. A huge state credit and subsidy program of initially over 750 billion euro (the equivalent of US$834 billion) has been launched for the self-employed, small employers and large corporations. Special programs that help employees pay rent and maintain benefits have been put into place as well.



Even the partial government ownership - or effective nationalization - of many companies, such as airlines, is being considered.



A "short time" system, which proved highly successful during the Great Recession of 2008-2012, is being used to prevent a wave of unemployment.



The system allows companies to pause the employment of workers, who then get up to 67% of their wages paid by the state unemployment agency. Once the crisis is over, these same workers are entitled to return to their old jobs at their former salaries. Companies can ultimately get back to work quickly because they can rely on an experienced workforce and do not need to look for and train new staff.



The German public health system covers everyone, whether or not people are employed or have been laid off. A solid, state-funded social security system, despite severe cuts a few years ago, provides regular monthly subsistence payments to prevent people from going hungry or becoming homeless.



Relations degraded

Democratic liberties and personal freedoms have been the political victims of the coronavirus crisis, and so have German-American relations.



Trump's uncertain leadership in the crisis is viewed with disdain in Europe and no more so than in Germany. Instead of attempting to work out a common trans-Atlantic strategy of how to jointly manage and overcome the global health crisis, Trump pursues a strategy of every nation for itself.



The ban on Europeans traveling to the U.S., imposed in mid-March 2020 at short notice and without prior consultation with the European Union, further deepened the trans-Atlantic rift. Most Europeans saw it as a gesture of contempt and disdain by the Trump administration toward its closest allies.



The high point so far of mutual suspicion and mistrust came on March 15 when it became known that Trump had attempted to buy a majority stake in the German pharmaceutical company CureVac, based in Tubingen. CureVac has been working intensively on a promising vaccine against the virus.



Reliable media sources reported that the U.S. president dangled a price tag of $1 billion of taxpayer money to CureVac's Boston-based CEO Dan Manichelli during a meeting at the White House between Trump and pharmaceutical executives. The Trump administration also tried to lure CureVac scientists to move their research to the U.S.



The German newspaper Die Welt quoted a German government source saying that the Trump administration was busy trying to obtain a vaccine "but only for the United States."



A German Economy Ministry spokesperson even referred to a German law where the government can investigate takeover bids from non-EU countries "if national or European security interests are at stake." Berlin clearly felt that Trump was undermining German and European security with his overtures to CureVac.



The coronavirus is proving to be devastating to the health and democratic rights of many people around the world. It may also prove destructive of U.S.-German relations - though Germany still longs for American solidarity, leadership and constructive cooperation in a pandemic that is threatening everyone.



Klaus W. Larres, Richard M. Krasno Distinguished Professor; Adjunct Professor of the Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill



This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.



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With the government taking appropriate measures to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus, Iran on March 30 reported 117 more deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringing the official death toll to 2,757. Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour reportedly announced the statistics in a news conference and revealed that 3,186 more cases had been confirmed in the past day, raising the number of infections to 41,495. According to the reports, the health ministry spokesperson said that 13,911 cases who were hospitalized because of the virus have recovered, while 3,511 are in a critical condition.

Currently, Iran has not taken any strict quarantine action, although the government has repeatedly urged Ithe citizens to stay confide to their house to curb the spread of the infection. The Islamic republic has now emerged as the epicenter of the disease, which eventually originated in China with the country struggling hard to stop the spread of the disease since it registered its first case on February 19. After weeks of refraining themselves from imposing lockdown or quarantine measures, Tehran decided on March 25 to ban all intercity travel until at least till April 8.

Read:Coronavirus: Hassan Rouhani Warns Of 'new Way Of Life' As Iran Death Toll Reaches 2,640

Read:Iran Temporarily Releases 1,00,000 Prisoners To Curb Coronavirus Spread

Coronavirus in Iran

Despite the soaring cases in the country, Iran refrained from announcing a total lockdown until March 26, when the country banned all intercity travel. Without imposing an official lockdown, the Iranian regime urged people to stay at home "as much as possible." Schools and universities in some provinces were closed in late February and the measure was later extended to the whole country. On a positive note, Rouhani said he had been told by top health experts and doctors that "in some provinces, we have passed the peak (of the epidemic) and are on a downward trajectory".

Coronavirus in Iran hit the highest political ranks in government with several officials and figures being diagnosed with the novel disease. Iran's Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi, who was one of the foremost affected government officials has returned to public life now. In the most recent cases, the brother of former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami was affected.

Read: Hassan Rouhani Defends Iran's Response To Combat Coronavirus Outbreak

Read: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe 'being Considered For Clemency' In Iran

(Image credits: AP)
(Photo : Screenshot From Pxhere Official Website) Facebook Joins the 'NEWS' Industry With $100 million: Why on Earth Would They Do That?

In a recent turn of events, Facebook has suddenly decided to put $100 million in the news industry at this time when the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has been becoming ragingly popular. The reason why Facebook is suddenly becoming involved in the news industry is because of the raging popularity of COVID-19.

Facebook said that the $25 million of the budget would be given to provide a grant funding for the local news through the new Facebook Journalism Project, while the remaining $75 million will be made available for "additional market spend" to the worldwide news organizations.

The global pandemic

Publishers are one of the careers to be hit by the global economic fallout caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. At the same time, their advertising revenue may be squeezed thin since most companies are cutting back on their marketing budget. According to SearchEngineLand's report, a research firm known as eMarketer has even lowered its calculated growth projections for the worldwide media ad spend by a solid 3%.

Reuters reported similar news stating that the virus could even cripple the United States advertising industry by billions of dollars categorized as lost revenue.

The coronavirus has now become a global pandemic, crippling countries around the world, including the United States and the United Kingdom-- these two countries are highly recognized news industries. The news and advertising industries have also been hit economically around the world due to marketing budgets being cut down during this period, according to Match2One.

Facebook's main goal with its involvement

The main goal of Facebook, along with Instagram and other social media platforms, is to be able to get rid of fake news and misinformation posted on their platforms. The pressure from the crisis is pushing these companies to take matters into their own hands.

Read Also: Twitch Streamer Kitboga Trolls Coronavirus Cure Telemarketing Scammers!

The first step, as announced by Facebook, is to concentrate their grants on the certain publishers that need them the very most located in the hardest-hit countries. In the announcement, it was said that the first series of grants would give $5,000 to over 50 local newsrooms spread across the United States and Canada in hopes of covering the "unexpected costs" incurred from the coronavirus.

The entire $100 million comes on top of the $300 million budget, which Facebook has pledged to spend on news programs, partnerships, and other content back at the beginning of 2019. According to Facebook, they plan to spend the whole $300 million over the stretch of three years.

Just recently, Facebook has launched a program aiming to help the local news organizations boost digital subscriptions. The announcement also includes that Facebook plans to spend about 4.5 million to train local journalists located in the UK.

Read Also: Did Apple Intentionally or Accidentally Leak Their Own iPhone Update?

Facebook has said that the usage of its service includes private messaging, as well as video calling usages that have been skyrocketing ever since the pandemic. The global pandemic has been taking a huge effect on many industries around the world, and the news industry is one of them.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The government wants to help the citizens of occupied territories to cope with coronavirus pandemic

The government of Ukraine will ask the international organizations to send the humanitarian convoys with protection means against coronavirus to occupied Donbas, as RBK-Ukraine reported citing Vice Prime Minister, Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksiy Reznikov.

According to him, Ukraine does not leave its citizens and will take care of them.

According to the Constitution, every citizen of Ukraine should be protected. Our task is to provide all citizens of Ukraine with tests, masks, medical aid  everything necessary. Including, of course, our citizens who live in the temporarily occupied territories, Reznikov.

He noted that the government plans to attract the International Red Cross Committee and UN humanitarian mission to it.

Earlier, Reznikov stated that there are no tests for coronavirus in occupied territories of Donbas, while the occupation authorities conceal the real number of people infected with Covid-19.

Besides, 144 patients with suspicion for pneumonia spotted in the occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Following numerous closures of offices and stores this year, Macy's announced Monday it will furlough 130,000 people.

The department store chain recently closed its downtown Cincinnati headquarters.

The closures were part of what Macys called a three-year plan to stabilize profitability.

The Cincinnati corporate headquarters will close, along with the companys San Francisco and Lorain, Ohio, offices. The company will also close its Tempe, Arizona, customer contact center and consolidate customer service work into its Mason, Ohio, and Clearwater, Florida, facilities.

New York City will become the companys sole corporate headquarters, the company said.

The plan also called for Macys to shut 125 stores over the next three years and slash about 2,000 corporate jobs. The department store chain said it will exit weaker shopping malls and shift focus to smaller-format stores in strip centers.



Related video above: Macy's Just Announced Plans to Close 125 Retail Stores

Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley responded to the closures earlier this year by urging those who worked at the Cincinnati headquarters to stay in the city.

Beginning in 2020, Macy's officials say they expect to generate annual gross savings of approximately $1.5 billion, which will be fully realized by year-end 2022. For 2020, the company anticipates gross savings of approximately $600 million, "some of which will flow to the bottom line in order to stabilize operating margin."

The company's stock  which is valued at more than $5 million  has fallen more than 35% over the past year.
Sir Philip Green's retail empire is suspending payments to its pension scheme as it desperately tries to cling on to cash in the face of the coronavirus lockdown.

Arcadia, which owns High Street brands including Topshop, Wallis and Dorothy Perkins, will halt the 2m monthly contributions which were agreed with The Pensions Regulator last summer to reduce a shortfall in the pension scheme.

Under pressure: Sir Philip Green's Arcadia owns High Street brands including Topshop, Wallis and Dorothy Perkins

The deal saw Sir Philip's wife, Tina, who technically owns Arcadia, agree to plug the gap in the scheme by also making her own 25m per year contributions.

She will continue to make those payments, despite the crisis hitting High Street sales.

But pensions expert John Ralfe, who advised MPs investigating the collapse of Sir Philip's High Street chain BHS, estimates that if Arcadia were to go bust the current shortfall in its pension scheme would be around 350m to 400m.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 01:09:42|Editor: zyl

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Photo taken on March 29, 2020 by drone shows empty highways in Athens, Greece. Greece reported a total of 38 fatalities linked to complications due to COVID-19 out of a total of 1,156 confirmed infections, health authorities said at a regular press briefing on Sunday. (Photo by Lefteris Partsalis/Xinhua)

ATHENS, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Greece reported a total of 38 fatalities linked to complications due to the novel coronavirus out of a total of 1,156 confirmed infections, health authorities said at a regular press briefing on Sunday.

Six people lost their lives and 95 new cases were registered since Saturday, Greek Health Ministry's spokesman and infectious diseases professor Sotirios Tsiodras said.

Currently, 69 patients were in serious condition in intensive care units, he added.

"We continue the battle with determination," said Nikos Hardalias, Deputy Minister for Civil Protection and Crisis Management at the Ministry of Citizen Protection.

Greece has been in a two-week nationwide lockdown since Monday in the framework of efforts to contain the virus's spread.

Earlier in March, authorities had also imposed the closure of schools, universities, restaurants, coffee shops, shopping malls, retail shops, sports, and cultural centers, as well as public parks.

Travels by air, sea, train, and road with many countries and domestically have also been banned or restricted.

Stores and places of worship will not open as initially scheduled on April 6, but will remain shut until April 11, Hardalias announced.

People should not be making plans for a traditional Easter exodus to the countryside this year, he added, echoing remarks made by cabinet ministers on local media this weekend implying that an extension of the overall lockdown was also on the table.

The Greek Orthodox Easter falls on April 19.
Alex Wigglesworth, Andrea Castillo | Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES  A man received a $1,000 citation for surfing in Manhatthan Beach on Saturday after he ignored numerous warnings by police and lifeguards cautioning him not to go in the water because of the coronavirus beach closures.

Manhattan Beach Police Sgt. Mike Sistoni said it was the only citation for failing to follow the stay-at-home orders the department had issued.

Everybody else was in compliance, Sistoni said. People have been pretty good about it.

Authorities were out in force over the weekend to make sure people were staying away from beaches, parks and hiking trails as part of unprecedented restrictions on public movements to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Most beaches, trails, recreation facilities as well as nonessential businesses were closed because of the state and local orders, and many people obeyed.

A Ventura County Sheriffs Department cruiser could be seen guarding the entrance to a popular trail in Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks, upon which hundreds of hikers and families descended on Saturday. In Venice, a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter was seen circling a skate park, announcing that people who did not leave the area would be arrested for trespassing.

Still, some crowds continued to flock to some outdoor areas, officials said.

Many state parks already were closed to vehicle traffic, but those that remained open Saturday once again experienced visitation surges that made it impossible for the public to implement appropriate social/physical distancing practices, California State Parks said in a statement.

As a result, the state parks system announced Sunday that it was temporarily cutting off vehicle access to all 280 state parks.


YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. The government approved another anti-crisis measure aimed at eliminating the economic consequences of the COVID19 pandemic, affirming a relief package that will support people who lost their jobs due to the situation.

Citizens who have become unemployed because of the crisis (from March 13 to 25) will receive a lump sum assistance in the size of the minimum wage.

Those benefiting from a previously announced assistance package are not eligible for this program.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
Coronavirus: Spain's outbreak slowing, says minister BBC told that rise in cases is flattening

(ANSAmed) - ROME, MARCH 30 - Spain's foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez on Monday told the BBC that the latest data shows that the curve of new COVID-19 infections was flattening in the country. The Spanish authorities confirmed 6,398 new cases, the lowest increase in a day in the past week. Gonzalez noted, however, that there is still a great deal of pressure on intensive care units and that further restrictions being introduced on Monday would help to prevent the spread of the virus. The minister told the BBC that it was unfair to single out Spain because many other countries - including Italy and the US - were also dealing with unprecedented numbers.(ANSAmed).




When news of Covid-19, also known as the coronavirus, first broke out in December 2019, not much was known about the disease, believed to have started in Wuhan, China. Now, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared it a global pandemic and countries across the world have placed protective and preventive measures to help reduce the spread.

Global heat map of social media mentions on coronavirus from 1 January 2020 to 26 March 2020

Global sentiment analysis, in numbers, on coronavirus since 1 January 2020 to 26 March 2020

7 March 2020  reactions to the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in South Africa



 reactions to the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in South Africa 12 March 2020  Twitter account EWN Reporting tweeting about the first local transmission case of coronavirus in the Free State



 Twitter account EWN Reporting tweeting about the first local transmission case of coronavirus in the Free State 15 March 2020  university institutions announcing that students have 72 hours to vacate their residences



 university institutions announcing that students have 72 hours to vacate their residences 18 March 2020  President Ramaphosa briefing the media on the restrictions that have been put in place to help prevent the spread of coronavirus



 President Ramaphosa briefing the media on the restrictions that have been put in place to help prevent the spread of coronavirus 23 March 2020  number of confirmed cases rose to 274; President Ramaphosa addresses the nation and implements a 21-day national lockdown from midnight 26 March 2020



 number of confirmed cases rose to 274; President Ramaphosa addresses the nation and implements a 21-day national lockdown from midnight 26 March 2020 24 March 2020  number of confirmed cases rose to 554

Media exposure of coronavirus mentions in global news media (blue) vs #CoronavirusInSA mentions in South African social media (green)

Domestic coronavirus infections in China hit zero as the virus wreaks greater damage in other parts of the world, prompting many governments to impose quarantines and travel bans https://t.co/a7wOex5i8Y via @WSJ  Stan Kiernozek  (@skiernozek) March 19, 2020

There is no travel ban presently in South Africa.Government will increase vigilance to countries who have coronavirus outbreak #CoronaVirusUpdate #COVID19  Department of Health (@HealthZA) March 5, 2020

South African media exposure, in numbers on #CoronaVirusInSA since 1 March 2020

Positive spin and Tourism lecturer  which relates to a Newzroom Afrika tweet about a tourism lecturers opinion on the travel ban in the USA potentially boosting tourism in South Africa



Economic emergency plan, new governance structure and school closure referring to a tweet shared by influential social media user, Ferial Haffajee, and her thoughts on #CoronavirusInSA

Trending themes on #CoronavirusInSA and travel ban in South Africa between 1 January 2020 and 21 March 2020

A Facebook friend of mine did this artwork of our president and I think it's a phenomenal tribute to our commander in chief, President Ramaphosa. He has been an exceptional leader and I solute him! #Covid19SA #GautengCOVID19 #SouthAfricaLockdown #StayHomeSA #PrayForSouthAfrica pic.twitter.com/HbhwpjSz3h  Adrian Wynand Tromp (@tale_of_trompie) March 26, 2020

prohibited acts, referring to social activities, which were once considered normal to do, are now not allowed

home, referring to the all South African residents instructed to stay home during the 21 days of lockdown



dogs, referring to the inability for dog owners to walk their pets outside



work, referring to the encouragement to be considerate of those who will still be working and providing essential services in public during this time

From 1 January 2020 to date, there have been over 152 million social media mentions, globally, on the coronavirus, with South Africa contributing to over 600,000 social media mentions. With noticeable online conversations touching on the rate of cross-border spread, travel bans and the social impact; Meltwater, the global leader in media intelligence, tracked and analysed social media mentions to see how South Africans have been reacting to Covid-19 in relation to the rest of the world. According to WHO and as of 25 March 2020, there are over 400,000 confirmed cases globally, with 196 countries affected. While China and Italy are the top two countries, respectively, with the most confirmed cases of Covid-19, the USA is the top country to be talking about coronavirus on social media (27.23%), as US citizens have also been making use of online forums and message boards to have social conversations about Covid-19. Rounding up the top three countries talking about the coronavirus are the UK (3.54%) and Spain (2.92%).Data from a social media sentiment analysis indicates that the general consensus around coronavirus is progressively negative around the world, with 83% of social media mentions on coronavirus being negative in March. These feelings are attributed to the viruss impact on stock markets, working environments, restrictions put in place, the sickness and ill-health of citizens around the world, fatality rates and countries being on lockdown.While coronavirus has made waves in many news media articles around the world, in South Africa, users have been predominantly talking about the virus on social media, with #CoronavirusInSA emerging as a hashtag being used to keep users updated and engaged with news on the virus in the country.So far, there have been a total of 6 times where social media mentions in South Africa using the hashtag #CoronavirusInSA were more than 10,000 per day, exceeding the daily global news media mentions on coronavirus.Here are the dates on which this occurred, and what happened in South Africa on those dates respectively:A number of countries around the world  such as Germany, France, Japan and the Dominican Republic  have implemented travel bans and restrictions in an effort to flatten the curve and prevent the spread of the virus.Since the beginning of March, there have already been over 170,000 global social media conversations that mention travel bans in relation to the coronavirus.While other countries had already implemented travel bans, on 5 March 2020, the South African Department of Health Twitter account tweeted that travel bans had not been put in place in the country and that the government would be monitoring the situation.But, following this tweet, there was an increase in South African social media users engaging with #CoronavirusInSA as this was also the day that the first case of the coronavirus was confirmed in South Africa.Trending themes that emerged on social media mentions that included travel bans and #CoronavirusInSA include:With travel bans and restrictions in place, as well as certain countries, like South Africa, now officially on lockdown, the impact of the coronavirus have been felt in other ways  including businesses across various industries and society overall.As one of the top news media sources reporting on coronavirus globally,reported on how the travel and tourism industry had been impacted by the coronavirus, due to the number of international travel bans and restrictions that many countries have made.For South Africans, the travel ban has not only been implemented for international travel but local movement too as #SouthAfricaLockdown began at midnight on Thursday, 26 March 2020. Over 45,000 social media mentions have included this hashtag, with mentions ranging from messages of hope and encouragement to support behind President Ramaphosa.Some of the top posters, by reach, to be engaging on social media with #SouthAfricaLockdown include eNCAnews and SABC News on Facebook, and @News24, @juliancamarena and @Boity on Twitter.Trending themes on #SouthAfricaLockdown include:As the 21 days of lockdown begins in South Africa, the impact of the coronavirus has been felt not only in the country but across the world. As various nations implement restrictions in an effort to help prevent the spread, South Africans are preparing to play their own role during the next 21 days. The coming days will be crucial in seeing the silver lining of these measures, as South Africans come together to fight Covid-19 by staying at home.
Confirmed! Phuket Airport to close

PHUKET: Phuket International Airport will close April 10-30 as the island enters its final stage of lockdown, with no unauthorised persons allowed into or out of Phuket.

CoronavirusCOVID-19transporthealth

By The Phuket News

Monday 30 March 2020, 03:53PM

The news was confirmed this afternoon (Mar 30). Photo: AoT

The news was confirmed by Airports of Thailand (AoT) management at Phuket Airport this afternoon (Mar 30).

The closure of the airport follows a formal request by Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana earlier today.

The closure will take effect at 00:01am on April 10, and continue to April 30, the notice released today confirmed.

The announcement of the closure of the airport also follows the bridges onto and off the island being locked down as of midnight last night, along with all boats and piers no longer allowed to permit entry except for emergency vehicles and vessels, and vehicles and boats delivering essential consumer goods and medical equipment and supplies.

The notice explained that the purpose of the formal notice was to inform the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) and other tourism-related offices so they could make preparations for the closure.

For relevant officers, please make preparations for the closure to reduce any effect on local people and tourists that may be caused by the urgency of this closure measure, explained in the notice.
Nearly two-thirds of business leaders here believe the fallout from Covid-19 will permanently change the way their firms operate.

Some of them also think that working from home - now the new norm - is more cost-effective.

The survey of 900 business executives, conducted last week by Irish recruitment consultancy Osborne, also found that 55pc of them are very worried for the survival prospects of their companies post-crisis.

Almost half, 45pc, are concerned about the long-term impact the crisis will have on their mental health.

The survey found that 62pc of executives surveyed have seen a reduction in business activity, with 30pc having had to cut working hours at their businesses.

Of the employers who have offered the Pandemic Unemployment Support Payment to staff, 71pc are not in a position to top it up for workers.

"Aside from the results of the survey, we got a huge amount of informal feedback and concern from employers seeking the Covid-19 wage subsidy payment for employees," said Osborne chief executive and owner Shona McManus.

"They were very shocked to discover that their names and addresses will be published on the Revenue website if they receive the payment, which is a counterproductive approach for businesses desperately seeking to hold on to their staff and survive at this time," she added.

She said businesses are seeking liquidity from a range of sources. Personal funds are being used by 15pc of respondents, bank loans by 21pc, overdrafts by 21pc and 10pc are sourcing funds from corporate headquarters.
A drunk man wearing a hospital mask is accused of spitting on police officers and saying, I hope you call catch coronavirus and die, Wharton police said.

Jonathan Cabrejos, 24, of Mount Arlington, was arrested late Sunday night after knocking on doors near the Wharton-Dover border. Police say he was decked out in hospital mask and gloves, and was drunk as he approached homes on Ford Avenue.

Police say they tried to find a friend or family member who could take Cabejos home. As officers were calling his contacts, Cabrejos allegedly started yelling curse words at the police officers, and tried to grab an officers phone out of his hands.

Cabrejos was placed under arrest for disorderly conduct, but police say he began kicking and spitting at officers from both Wharton and Dover.

I hope you all catch coronavirus and die, Cabrejos is accused of saying while kicking and yelling.

Cabrejos was charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and throwing bodily fluids at officers. He was released to a family member.

This is not the first time during the pandemic New Jersey residents have used the virus in their interactions with police. A Wayne woman was previously accused of coughing on police and lying about having the virus, and a Hazlet man lied about having the virus to avoid a traffic ticket.

As of Sunday night, 163 law enforcement officers have tested positive for coronavirus, State Police said. Another 1,272 are in quarantine.

New Jersey has 13,386 diagnosed cases as of Sunday afternoon, with at least 161 deaths.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

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Katie Kausch may be reached at kkausch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KatieKausch. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Surrounded by White House aides and GOP congressional leaders, President Trump signs the $2-trillion bailout bill Friday. (Associated Press)

Even faster than Congress came together to pass its $2-trillion coronavirus bailout bill, President Trump signaled his intention to interfere with one of its most important provisions  public oversight of how the money gets doled out to big business.

In signing the bill late Friday, Trump stated that he considered several oversight provisions of the bill to exceed congressional authority  in fact, to represent "impermissible...congressional aggrandizement."

They include provisions requiring that the chief bailout overseer, the special inspector general for pandemic recovery, or SIGPR, inform Congress "without delay" if executive branch departments "unreasonably" refuse the overseer's request for information.

With $2 trillion in federal spending, oversight is not an elective; its an imperative.

Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine

"My administration," Trump wrote in a signing statement issued after he ceremonially signed the bill, "will not treat ... this provision as permitting the SIGPR to issue reports to the Congress" without presidential approval.

Trump's statement thus signals that he'll feel free to order executive branch departments not to cooperate with the inspector general.

Looking ahead, that could set up a new round of conflicts between Congress and the White House over lawmakers' demands for information, similar to the conflicts that arose over their demands for information relevant to the impeachment inquiry.

This raises the question, even before the first dollar is spent on the $500-billion business bailout in the measure, of what Trump expects to need hiding.

Most important, it undermines a crucial element of the bailout. As we've reported, congressional and public oversight of the spending is necessary to make sure that the bailout serves its purposes. If youre going to distribute the money without conditions attached ... your policy goals are not going to be achieved, Neil M. Barofsky, who oversaw the spending from the 2008 bank bailout, told me.

Story continues

The bill that emerged from Congress and that Trump signed seemed to avoid that pitfall. But with the stroke of a pen, Trump opened the way to finagling, waste and grifting.

Borofsky called Trump's statement "potentially problematic."

The oversight language in the virus bailout bill was the same as in the legislation that established his office, which oversaw spending from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, the 2008 bank bailout.

That language "was an important tool to have when parts of the administration [were] uncooperative, ' Borofsky told me Monday by email. "Just having that tool, and the threat of going to Congress, was very valuable in my experience, and losing it could impede the ability of the IG to the information it needs to full its mandate under the statute."

The oversight provisions to which Trump objects include requirements that he consult with Congress on appointing the SIGPR and staff members of the oversight office, and language giving Congress a role in bailout spending made through the Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department.

Borofsky acknowledged that Trump might just be rattling his saber at Congress, rather than telegraphing an uncooperative stance against providing information. The signing statement "might be an expression of philosophy of the authority of the executive branch to oversee all communications with Congress, with little practical impact," he said. "Time will tell."

Trump said that any requirement that he consult with Congress on staffing violates the Constitution. "My Administration will treat this provision as hortatory but not mandatory," his signing statement says.

Trump's assertion that he can overturn the oversight rules also underscores how untrustworthy he is as a negotiating partner. The bailout bill was crafted by Democratic leaders in Congress and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, a Trump appointee, and designed to ensure Trump's signature.

Congressional oversight was a specific Democratic demand after an earlier Republican version vested Mnuchin with unilateral authority to disburse the business bailout funds, and even to keep the recipients secret for six months. That authority was eliminated in the final bill, replaced with the oversight provisions. The final bill also specifically bars Trump, his family or his businesses from receiving bailout funds, although a provision loosening the tax rules for real estate investors could conceivably benefit his real estate firm.

Within hours after Trump released his signing statement, Democrats voiced their objections.

"With $2 trillion in federal spending, oversight is not an elective; its an imperative," Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) tweeted.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looks up into the sky during a rain storm as he exit his residence to attend a news conference on the COVID-19 situation in Ottawa, Canada, on March 29, 2020. (Dave Chan / AFP via Getty Images)

Canadas Feds Rolling Out Help for Charities Hit Hard by Covid-19

The federal government signalled on March 29 it is shifting the focus of its COVID-19 aid towards Canadas most vulnerable as public health experts expressed cautious optimism the nations physical distancing experiment could be working.

Most Canadians are entering the third week of a COVID-19 slowdown that has them keeping their distance from all but immediate family members, and some provinces are starting to report a slowdown in the rate of new infections.

On Friday, British Columbia said its early modelling was suggesting social distancing had cut the spread of the novel coronavirus in half. On Sunday, Quebec Premier Francois Legault said the daily increase in positive cases seems to be stabilizing.

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canadas chief public health officer, said Sunday its still too early to know what the impact of closing schools and offices and restricting retail services has been on the viruss spread.

But next week will be very, very important, for me anyways, in terms of looking at those trends, she said.

A little more than 6 percent of cases so far have required hospitalization, and 3 percent are in critical condition. About one-tenth of the hospitalizations occurred in people under the age of 40, a statistic Tam said she cites so people understand that younger Canadians can get very ill from COVID-19.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a news conference on COVID-19 situation in Canada from his residence in Ottawa, Canada, on March 29, 2020. (Dave Chan / AFP via Getty Images)

She urged Canadians not to let up their efforts to physically distance themselves from others, with a particular message for those about to celebrate some of the biggest religious observances on the calendar, including Passover, Easter and Ramadan. Tam said all will have to be adapted for the two-metre bubble of social distancing, and she is asking religious leaders for help to make sure that happens.

Trudeau said Sunday the crisis is taking a toll on all Canadians but noted that staying home is particularly hard for Canadians who were already strugglingand its impossible for those who dont have a safe home to go to.

Tough times fall first and hardest on the most vulnerable in our communities, Trudeau said, at his regular Sunday briefing outside his Ottawa home, where he remains in self-isolation.

Ottawa is adding a $7.5 million contribution to Kids Help Phone so the national charity can hire more counsellors and seek out additional volunteers to assist more young people calling and texting for support.

Another $9 million was announced for United Way Canada to deliver services to seniors who need practical help with such everyday chores as grocery shopping, filling their prescriptions or getting meals delivered.

United Way and Kids Help Phone were among a coalition of Canadian charities that asked for help last week, warning they were going to collapse as COVID-19 wreaked economic havoc on their donors and volunteers.

Much like private sector businesses, charities report having to lay off employees as grant programs are cancelled and donations dry up. The group says there are more than 1.4 million Canadians employed in the charitable sector, which accounts for eight per cent of Canadas economic activity.

Trudeau said there will be additional help for charities announced in the coming days, but he also appealed to Canadians who are able to donate money or time.

A sign at the Princess of Wales theatre in Toronto, Ontario urges residents to wash their hands frequently during the COVID-19 outbreak, in Ontario, Canada, on March 24, 2020. (Geoff Robins / AFP via Getty Images)

Not only are organizations in the charitable sector and the non-profit sector doing incredibly important work during difficult times, theyre also in many cases seeing their donations dry up and are very worried about their capacity to continue to do the work theyre doing, he said.

The government already announced $157.5 million for homeless shelters and up to $50 million for womens shelters as part of their massive federal aid package made public March 18, mainly to help the organizations buy protective gear for workers and find ways to keep clients isolated as necessary.

While details of the funding are expected this week, Families Minister Ahmed Hussen said Sunday $15 million in emergency funding has already gone out and is having an impact, allowing shelters to get hotel rooms for clients who need to be quarantined or isolated and to buy emergency supplies to protect frontline staff.

Trudeau said Sunday he intends to stay in isolation at his home for almost two more weeks even though his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, has fully recovered from COVID19.

Gregoire Trudeau was diagnosed March 13 after a trip to England, and was quarantined at the couples home until her doctor and Ottawa Public Health gave her the medical all-clear a couple of days ago. She is now at the prime ministers cottage residence in Quebec with their three children, while Trudeau stays at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa to continue to work.

He said they were careful to stay apart during his wifes quarantine, but because he was sharing a home with someone who had COVID-19 he will stay isolated to follow the best advice of medical staff.

I have to continue in isolation in order to be sure that were following all the protocols and the recommendations by Health Canada, he said.

Neither he nor their children, Xavier, 12, Ella-Grace, 11, and Hadrien, 6, have shown symptoms of the illness.

Trudeau was the first major world leader to go into isolation because of COVID-19, and his role as both the head of a G7 nation and the only parent at home able to care for the couples three children garnered him headlines around the world.
Government Ministers are pleading with employers to reconsider making employees redundant at this time.

An additional 283,000 have applied for the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment scheme, with 16,000 businesses applying for the employer wage subsidy scheme as of Friday, March 27.

It is estimated that the economic fallout from this pandemic will send Ireland back into a recession, with the economy estimated to shrink by 7.1%.

Therefore, employers are asked to only temporarily make their staff unemployed, instead of on a permanent basis.

There are a range of governmental supports in place to help employers keep integral connections with their employees at this time, and temporarily let go their staff.

For employers maintaining their staff, the primary support includes:

A temporary wage subsidy of 70% of take home pay up to a maximum weekly tax free amount of 410 per week to help affected companies keep paying their employees. This is the equivalent of 500 per week before tax.

Within this subsidy scheme, employers will be able to claim back 70% of your employees wage, if you have lost 25% of your trade.

Additional schemes for those who have lost their job due to Covid-19 include:

workers who have lost their jobs due to the crisis will receive an enhanced emergency COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment of 350 per week, an increase from 203.

Self-employed will be eligible for the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment of 350 directly from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.

The combination of the above schemes is estimated to cost 3.7 billion over a 12 week period in Ireland.
Rahul Gandhi argued that the economic fallout of this lockdown will vastly amplify the toll extracted by the coronavirus pandemic. (PTI)

New Delhi: Terming Indias conditions as unique Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said the country required to take different steps than other large countries who are following a total lockdown strategy.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gandhi said the world has been forced to take urgent, immediate measures to contain the rapid spread of the Covid-19 and India is currently in the midst of a three-week lockdown.

I suspect that the government will eventually extend this even further. It is critical for us to understand that India's conditions are unique. We will be required to take different steps than other large countries who are following a total lockdown strategy. The number of poor people in India who are dependent on a daily income is simply too large for us to unilaterally shut down all economic activity, he said.

Asserting that the consequences of a complete economic shutdown will disastrously amplify the toll taken by the Covid-19 virus, the former Congress president asked the government to consider a nuanced approach that takes the complex realities of Indian people into consideration.

Our priority must be to protect and isolate the elderly and vulnerable from the virus and to clearly and strongly communicate to the young the dangers of proximity to older people, he added.

Large population centres will require big dedicated hospitals with thousands of beds and ventilators. It is critical that we start setting up these structures and manufacturing the equipment that would be required, as fast as is humanly possible. At the same time we need to dramatically increase the number of tests that we are carrying out to get an accurate picture of the spread of the virus and to contain it, the letter continued.
Boris Johnson's top aide Dominic Cummings is in self-isolation today after developing coronavirus symptoms over the weekend.

The No10 chief has gone into quarantine just days after the Prime Minister became the most senior UK politician to test positive for the disease.

Mr Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock are both working remotely after they were confirmed as having contracted the virus last week, while Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and Scottish Secretary Alister Jack are also in isolation.

The PM's pregnant fiancee Carrie Symonds has also been forced to self-isolate away from Downing Street as a precaution following his diagnosis.

A Downing Street source said Mr Cummings, 48, remained 'in contact' with colleagues.

It will fuel fears that the disease is spreading like wildfire through the heart of government. All Cabinet ministers are expected to join the weekly meeting tomorrow by video link, in a bid to avoid further risk.

MPs have warned that Westminster is a 'hotbed' of infection. The first politician confirmed as suffering from the virus was health minister Nadine Dorries, who has since recovered and returned to work.

The dramatic news comes after Mr Johnson rallied Britain for a long battle against coronavirus last night - contradicting his predecessor Margaret Thatcher by insisting the country is showing 'there is such a thing as society'.

As the coronavirus carnage continued today:

The Prime Minister contradicted Tory predecessor Margaret Thatcher by saying there 'is such a thing as society' as he hailed 20,000 retired medics returning to the NHS

F1 teams produced a breathing device that could stop coronavirus patients having to go into intensive care, and should be in hospitals within days;

Health minister Helen Whately admitted that while the government now has the 'capacity' to carry out 10,000 coronavirus tests a day it might not have done so yet;

Ministers finally order 17.5 million antibody testing kits so they can check a quarter of the population in bid to get key staff back to work;

Police armed with new powers to enforce the lockdown are continuing to shame suspected wrongdoers  including the MP son of former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock;

Economists have warned the crisis could cause UK GDP to plunge by 15 per cent and unemployment to double as the FTSE 100 fell more than 2 per cent;

EasyJet grounded its entire fleet of 330-plus planes as coronavirus continued to wound Britain's airlines - just ten days after the airline paid a 174million dividend to shareholders including to its founder Stelios;

Dominic Cummings has gone into self-isolation after developing coronavirus symptoms over the weekend, it was revealed today

The Prime Minister's vehicle gets a deep clean outside of No 10 Downing Street this afternoon

Mr Cummings was seen running out of Downing Street on Friday shortly before Mr Johnson's diagnosis was confirmed.

Easyjet grounds entire fleet amid coronavirus crisis EasyJet has today grounded its entire fleet of 330-plus planes as coronavirus continued to wound Britain's airlines - just ten days after the airline paid a 174million dividend to shareholders including to its founder Stelios. The company has worked with union Unite to agree two-month furlough arrangements for cabin crew which means that crew will be paid 80 per cent of their average pay through the Government job retention scheme. EasyJet, whose largest base is London Gatwick and serves 159 airports and 1,051 routes, has 9,000 UK-based staff including 4,000 cabin crew. The grounding of its gigantic fleet came just over a week after the airline pressed ahead with a 174million payout to shareholders - days after calling for a state loan to help them survive - and one third of the cash went to founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou. Virgin Atlantic will ask the British government for a package of commercial loans and guarantees worth hundreds of millions of pounds, the Financial Times reported. Other carriers including airlines such as Loganair and Eastern Airways, and Norwegian Air Shuttle are also considering to ask for state aid, the newspaper added. But British ministers want bigger airlines with wealthy shareholders will weather the storm without the need for billions in taxpayer cash. The Luton-based carrier said the measure 'removes significant cost' as the aviation industry struggles to cope with a collapse in demand caused by the outbreak of the virus. It insisted it 'maintains a strong balance sheet' and revealed it is in 'ongoing discussions with liquidity providers'. Advertisement

However, he was not thought to have gone into isolation at that stage, and later returned to the building.

One senior MP told MailOnline that there would be fears about Mr Johnson having acted as a 'superspreader' in Whitehall.

But they suggested the disease had been running rampant at Westminster for weeks, with face-to-face meetings in relatively small room not helping the situation. 'It all probably goes back to Nadine,' they added.

Meanwhile, were glimmers of optimism today that the government's extraordinary lockdown might be working.

Leading epidemiologist Professor Neil Ferguson said there were 'early signs' that the spread of the life-threatening infection was being curbed by the draconian measure, with the rate of increase in hospital admissions easing.

But Professor Ferguson - one of the authors of a bleak Imperial College London report that convinced Downing Street to ramp up its efforts to stop the crisis after warning that 250,000 Brits could die under a controversial plan to build-up 'herd immunity' - warned deaths are still likely to rise sharply as they lag two or three weeks behind the new infections.

He also suggested that up to three per cent of the UK - around two million people - might already have been infected, and said the figure could be as high as five per cent in London.

A Nobel Prize-winning scientist from Stanford University today also claimed that the coronavirus outbreaks in New York City and Italy were burning out.

Professor Michael Levitt, who accurately predicted the demise of China's crisis after analysing the raw data, added Spain's outbreak also looks to be slowing - but added there 'aren't enough numbers' to say the same for the UK.

In another note of caution, deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries warned that Britons should not expect a return to 'normal life' for six months, and possibly longer.

In the two and a half minute video last night - posted from his bunker in 11 Downing Street - Mr Johnson thanked everyone who was contributing to the struggle.

Sounding slightly croaky but defiant, the premier dropped in a reference to Mrs Thatcher's 1987 comment in which she said there was 'no such thing as society'.

The ex-PM's line was widely taken as an endorsement of full-blown individualism - although she insisted she was merely criticising people who blamed 'society' for their own failings and lack of effort.

Mr Johnson said: 'We are going to do it, we are going to do it together.

'One thing I think the coronavirus crisis has already proved is that there really is such a thing as society.'

The intervention came as the UK coronavirus death toll rose by 209 in 24 hours from 1,019 to 1,228.

Some 20,000 former NHS staff have returned to help in the fight against coronavirus, Boris Johnson announced in a video message

Some 20,000 former NHS staff have returned to help in the fight against coronavirus, Boris Johnson announced. Pictured: Medical staff with a patient at the back of an ambulance outside St Thomas's hospital
Our community and industry are under assault by this virus. Protection of human life should be everyones focus right now, and we should all be doing what we can to assist those on the front lines fighting this virus, said Sean Wilson, President of Neauvia North America.

Neauvia North America is making an immediate effort to protect communities nationwide from COVID-19 with donation medical supplies and insight from its global partners, while helping to mitigate long-term economic impact with business resources for healthcare providers in medical aesthetics.

Our community and industry are under assault by this virus. Protection of human life should be everyones focus right now, and we should all be doing what we can to assist those on the front lines fighting this virus, said Sean Wilson, President of Neauvia North America.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented crisis that is affecting humankind as a whole. As its spread continues to impact the US, Neauvia North America has shifted its focus to addressing this crisis head-on with a new corporate commitment:

Neauvia Crisis Commitment

1. Protect the health of our community

2. Dedicate our time and resources to help curb the current crisis and prepare the aesthetics market to recover as safely and as quickly as possible

3. Protect medical access and financial stability for our employees

As a first step, Neauvia will donate all of its medical protective accessories and equipment such as masks and gloves to healthcare providers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. US healthcare providers in need of these supplies are encouraged to contact Neauvia North Americas Customer Service line by phone at 1-866-836-3113 or email at customercare@neauvia-us.com for information on what resources are available. Donations will be supplied on a first come, first served basis while supplies last.

While Neauvia North America still continues to provide the medical aesthetics market with innovative energy-based devices and skin care solutions, in the coming weeks, it is also working to prepare a series of educational and informative webinars that focus on the critical safety and business issues pressing medical aesthetics providers today. Neauvia realizes that connecting providers with strategies and solutions for financial recovery and growth is essential to the future of the medical aesthetics industry as a whole. Topics covered will include the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, the CARES ACT and Employment Law, to name a few.

Sean Wilson commented, Assisting aesthetic businesses to help them safely navigate this crisis and prepare for a quick recovery is our priority. Without our providers there is no aesthetics market. I invite anyone in the industry to join us and contribute to this effort.

Neauvia North America has had to make tough financial decisions and adjustments to its own business plans to adapt to what has become our new reality. The company is proactively moving forward with efforts to preserve jobs and healthcare for its employees.

Sean noted, As an industry, we also need to help our people in every way possible protect and provide for their families so we can get through this crisis together.

Neauvia offers innovative medical aesthetics products developed with a holistic approach to beauty and aging. Neauvia North Americas portfolio includes two energy-based devices, Zaffiro and Plasma IQ, and the Advanced Care System skin care line. Neauvia Devices enhance and renew the appearance by working synergistically and safely with the bodys natural processes. The Neauvia Advanced Care System skin care line further supports and improves skin health.
She spoke about her desire to start a family with husband Tim Robards, 37, this year.

And Anna Heinrich's dreams may have come true, with reports claiming the 33-year-old is pregnant with her first child.

According to Woman's Day magazine, Anna attended an event recently, and sparked whispers when she noticeably steered clear of the bar.

Is Anna Heinrich pregnant? Reports claim Bachelor stars Anna, 33, and her husband Tim Robards, 37, (pictured) are expecting their first chid

All smiles! Anna showed off her midriff in a crop top and leggings on Instagram Stories on Sunday, as she performed an impressive handstand pushup

An insider told the publication that Anna was seen 'avoiding free-flowing cocktails at an event and opting for soda water instead'.

Anna and Tim refused to comment on the pregnancy rumours when approached for comment by Daily Mail Australia.

It comes after the happy couple told The Daily Telegraph that a child was at the 'forefront of their minds' this year.

Alcohol-free partying: According to Woman's Day magazine, Anna attended an event recently but noticeably steered clear of the bar - opting for 'soda water' instead. Anna is pictured on March 3

Under wraps: Anna covered her mid-section with a belted khaki wrap dress as she visited Melbourne's Crown Casino on March 16th

Speaking to the publication in January, Anna said: 'It has always been on our mind but we are getting older, not that we are old but we want to have hopefully more than one kid.'

The blonde beauty continued: 'It is something we are both very keen on.'

Tim, meanwhile, admitted that he didn't want to be an old dad.

Baby on the brain! It comes after the happy couple told The Daily Telegraph that a child was at the 'forefront of their minds' this year

Just married! Tim and Anna exchanged vows in a beautiful Italian wedding ceremony in June last year, five years after falling in love on reality TV

Anna has previously spoken of the public pressure she faced to have children in a separate interview with The Daily Telegraph in December, 2018.

'If we were swayed by what others do or say then we would have been married six months after the show,' she told the publication at the time.

Anna and Tim have been together for the past seven years, with the couple finding love on The Bachelor in 2013.
Two men were arrested with 9,800



sanitiser bottles worth Rs 10.28 lakh from Charkop area of Kandivali suburb in north Mumbai, police said on Monday.

Jagdish Bhamaniya and Rajesh Chowdhary had hoarded the sanitiser bottles and were profiteering due to the rise in their demand following the novel coronavirus outbreak, an official said.

"They have been arrested under Essential Commodities Act," said Senior Inspector Vitthal Shinde of Charkop police station.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta says the US$100 million fund to fight the COVID-19 pandemic has been received and is available for disbursement.

Contrary to views of some sceptics that the money is not available, I wish to assure you that the money has been secured and is available to be disbursed in accordance with our public financial management procedures and rules.

Indeed, from day one, government has not stopped spending in the fight against Covid-19, he mentioned in Parliament today.

According to him, the Presidents instructions to his Economic Management Team is clear, and it is how to reduce the accumulation of economic scar tissue from this disease.

The President is determined to cushion the economic and social difficulties this coronavirus is visiting on Ghanaian businesses and people.

Our task, therefore, is to minimise the huge threat of job losses and the impact of job losses. The President and his team are thinking outside the box to ensure that that the principles of fiscal discipline are not jettisoned and, yet, still ensuring that people have money to spend.

He added that governments plan is to ensure that essential public investments are not mightily compromised; whiles, at the same time, enabling significant increase in spending on health.

Beyond that, he said government is committed to using this unprecedented challenge to the Ghanaian economy and society as rather an opportunity to fast-track even more agenda to industrialize and become self-reliant.

Mr Speaker, that is why, to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus on businesses and households and ensure that economic activities are sustained, whiles minimizing job losses, the President on Friday, March 27, 2020, announced the establishment of a Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP).

Also, GHS1 billion (US$219m) upon approval by Parliament from the Stabilization Fund will be disbursed to provide maximum results in alleviating the impact of the coronavirus pandemic with a focus on protecting against job losses, protecting livelihoods, supporting small businesses, and ensuring the programme is efficiently and sustainably implemented.

The CAP, according to the Finance Minister, will seek additional funding for the following purposes; promotion of selected industries to shore up production for export and import substitution, to support SMEs and create jobs, to partner with Pension Funds and Insurance Funds to create guarantees and first loss instruments.

The Finance Minister is due to begin, speedily and responsibly, the process of disbursing the funds, immediately the amount is approved by Parliament.

---classfmonline
Kurdish-led forces say they have defused an overnight revolt in a prison in northeast Syria after Islamic State detainees took partial control of the facility apparently to protest their conditions.

In a statement a spokesman for the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) asserted that none of the prisoners had managed to flee Al-Sinaa prison in Hasakah, contrary to initial reports. The building was cordoned off by local security forces, while the coalition provided aerial backup to locate any fugitives.

We confirm that there are no [reported escapes] of detainees and the prison is completely under control," said SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel.

But hours later, there were unconfirmed reports that the uprising had not been fully extinguished and that gunfire could still be heard while coalition aircraft hovered above.

The North Press Agency, a local media outlet with close ties to the Kurdish-led autonomous administration in northeast Syria, said four detainees had escaped but were subsequently apprehended.

The Rojava Information Center (RIC), a local newsgathering outfit that briefs foreign journalists and produces research reports, said it was likely that the fear of the coronavirus pandemic had triggered the mutiny. Inmates, many of them captive foreign fighters, reportedly ripped out doors in their cells and used them to break down a wall connecting them to adjoining ones, eventually seizing control of the ground floor of the prison.

An anti-terror security official present at the scene told journalists that the inmates had called for the global coalition and human rights committees" to visit the prison.

The coalition said in a separate statement that the prison held low level IS operatives and that it did not staff any detention centers or camps in Syria. The lack of support is an abiding source of rancor within the Kurdish-led administration, which says it cannot cope alone with the burden of thousands of IS captives, including foreign fighters, who are being held in overcrowded facilities.

Western governments are unwilling to take them back and the SDF maintains they should be prosecuted by an international tribunal in northeast Syria. They committed crimes against our people and it is our right to prosecute them, SDF commander-in-chief Mazlum Kobane told Al-Monitor in an exclusive interview in January. The presence of these fighters is a source of strength and inspiration for IS, he warned.

Since the defeat of their physical caliphate in March last year, IS cells have been regrouping and staging small-scale attacks against Kurds and their Arab allies in Deir ez-Zor and Hasakah.

The jihadis recently announced the capture and decapitation of two SDF members in Tuwaymin, south Hasakah, the RIC reported.

The threat of the coronavirus, with Syria formally acknowledging its first death from the disease, has added a new layer of insecurity to the northeast, where some 700 US special forces troops are deployed, notionally to control oil fields that are the Kurdish-led administrations principle source of revenue.

The risk of contagion has been compounded by Turkey, which has once again turned off water from the Alok power station near Ras al-Ain that supplies nearly half a million people in Hasakah, including IS prisoners and their families who are being housed in overstretched camps.

Elizabeth Tsurkov, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute who closely monitors the Syrian conflict, noted that nongovernmental organizations aim to provide 3.5 million liters of water to the area per day. The SDF trucks in 200,000 liters. If the target is achieved, it's barely enough for survival when constant hand-washing isn't required to fend off the virus, she tweeted.

The water has been intermittently cut since March 22, which marked the latest major stoppage since Turkey began weaponizing water in exchange for electricity to service the swath of territory it occupies in northern Syria.

Turkey claims it needs at least 70 megawatts of electricity from the Tishreen and Tabqa dams to the Mabrouka power plant, which services the area. The Kurds and humanitarian groups say the figure is vastly exaggerated. Turkish officials have also cited technical issues as a reason for the sporadic cuts.

Yesterday, Turkeys Sunni rebel allies reportedly denied access to engineers who were meant to check Alok, which was badly damaged during the Turkish invasion. The engineers working for the central government in Damascus were accompanied by Russian military police.
The results of VOYAGER PAD found that people with peripheral artery disease (PAD) who took the blood thinner rivaroxaban with aspirin after undergoing lower extremity revascularization--a procedure to treat blocked arteries in the leg--had a significant reduction in the risk of major adverse limb and cardiovascular events when compared with those receiving aspirin alone. Data also showed that patients taking rivaroxaban had higher rates of bleeding, but there was no excess in severe bleeding events such as intracranial or fatal bleeds. Adding clopidogrel at the time of revascularization did not offer any added clinical benefit and, when added to rivaroxaban and aspirin, appeared to increase ISTH major bleeding early in treatment, according to a subgroup analysis from VOYAGER PAD presented at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session Together with World Congress of Cardiology (ACC.20/WCC).

People with symptomatic PAD commonly undergo lower extremity revascularization to open blocked arteries and restore blood flow to the legs and feet. These patients face a high risk of both major adverse limb events and major adverse cardiovascular events. Yet, to date, there are no Class I recommendations for antithrombotic therapy and only very limited evidence supporting the use of clopidogrel following revascularization procedures for PAD. Amid a lack of evidence, many clinicians have defaulted to using dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and a P2Y12 receptor blocker such as clopidogrel, which is the standard of care for similar coronary artery interventions, researchers said. But they stressed that there is no quality evidence to support use of clopidogrel plus aspirin in people with PAD undergoing lower extremity revascularization.

"This was a prespecified subgroup analysis to look at whether the use of clopidogrel modified the benefits seen with rivaroxaban and aspirin or increased the risks [of bleeding]," said William R. Hiatt, MD, professor of medicine/cardiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Chief Science Officer at CPC Clinical Research and the study's lead author. "We found that in this [clinical] setting, where we are treating patients with symptomatic PAD with lower extremity revascularization procedures, the addition of clopidogrel [atop] rivaroxaban and aspirin does not provide any further benefit, but did increase bleeding risks, so there doesn't seem to be a compelling reason to use it."

In this prespecified subgroup analysis, half of the 6,564 randomized patients enrolled in VOYAGER PAD (median age of 67 years) also received clopidogrel at the time of their lower extremity revascularization procedure, which was at the discretion of their treating physician and was allowed for up to six months. Patients receiving clopidogrel were more likely to undergo endovascular procedures (90.7%) than undergo surgery (9.3%); the use of clopidogrel is common in endovascular procedures.

After a median follow-up of 28 months, data revealed a 15% reduction in the risk of major limb or cardiovascular complications among those taking rivaroxaban, which was unaffected by the addition of clopidogrel, Hiatt said. TIMI major bleeding, the main safety endpoint, was reported in 2.7% of those taking clopidogrel along with rivaroxaban and aspirin compared with 2.6% of patients who were taking rivaroxaban and aspirin and did not receive clopidogrel. In addition, ISTH major bleeding, a secondary bleeding scale, occurred in 6.5% of those taking clopidogrel plus rivaroxaban and aspirin, and was less at 5.4% in those taking rivaroxaban and aspirin without clopidogrel. Minor TIMI bleeding events occurred in 1.67% of the clopidogrel group and 1.26% of those who were not taking it. Intracranial bleeds were infrequent and similar among those taking and not taking clopidogrel, respectively.

An estimated 10 million U.S. adults and 200 million people worldwide have PAD, narrowed or blocked arteries, mostly in the legs. PAD is a serious condition often characterized by leg pain, difficulty walking, poor circulation and a high rate of non-healing wounds. It also heightens the risk of serious adverse events, including acute limb ischemia--a "heart attack or stroke of the leg"--that can lead to limb amputation or death if not treated quickly. PAD is also linked to higher rates of heart attack and stroke.

"People with PAD tend to be undertreated, yet they are at very high risk," Hiatt said. "I hope that these data will lead to more education and improve how we care for these patients. From these unique data we see the benefit and risks of rivaroxaban plus aspirin were consistent regardless of concomitant use of clopidogrel. However, with higher rates of bleeding when clopidogrel is added to rivaroxaban and aspirin, these findings do not support the routine use of clopidogrel after lower extremity revascularization in these patients if they are on rivaroxaban and aspirin."

How increased bleeding with clopidogrel, particularly in the first six months of use, may affect other outcomes is being explored. The study is limited in that use of clopidogrel was not controlled and was allowed at the discretion of the treating physician.

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The study was funded by Bayer AG and Janssen Research and Development.

ACC.20/WCC will take place March 28-30, bringing together cardiologists and cardiovascular specialists from around the world to share the newest discoveries in treatment and prevention. Follow @ACCinTouch, @ACCMediaCenter and #ACC20/#WCCardio for the latest news from the meeting.

The American College of Cardiology envisions a world where innovation and knowledge optimize cardiovascular care and outcomes. As the professional home for the entire cardiovascular care team, the mission of the College and its 54,000 members is to transform cardiovascular care and to improve heart health. The ACC bestows credentials upon cardiovascular professionals who meet stringent qualifications and leads in the formation of health policy, standards and guidelines. The College also provides professional medical education, disseminates cardiovascular research through its world-renowned JACC Journals, operates national registries to measure and improve care and offers cardiovascular accreditation to hospitals and institutions. For more, visit acc.org.
The day after the New Hampshire primary last month, Facebooks security team removed a network of fake accounts that originated in Iran, which had posted divisive partisan messages about the US election inside private Facebook groups.

Hours later, the social network learned the campaign of Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York mayor, had sidestepped its political ad process by directly paying Instagram meme accounts to post in support of his presidential bid.

That same day, a pro-Trump group called the Committee to Defend the President, which had previously run misleading Facebook ads, was found to be promoting a photo that falsely claimed to show Bernie Sanders supporters holding signs with divisive slogans such as Illegal Aliens Deserve the Same as Our Veterans.

Facebook, Twitter, Google and other big tech companies have spent the past three years working to avoid a repeat of 2016, when their platforms were overrun by Russian trolls and used to amplify Americas partisan divide. The Internet giants have since collectively spent billions of dollars hiring staff, fortifying their systems and developing new policies to prevent election meddling.

But as the events of just one day  12 February  at Facebook showed, although the companies are better equipped to deal with the types of interference they faced in 2016, they are struggling to handle the new challenges of 2020.

Their difficulties reflect how much online threats have evolved since the 2016 election. Russia and other foreign governments once conducted online influence operations in plain sight, buying Facebook ads in rubles and tweeting in broken English, but they are now using more sophisticated tactics such as bots that are nearly impossible to distinguish from hyperpartisan Americans.

More problematic, partisan groups in the United States have borrowed Russias 2016 playbook to create their own propaganda and disinformation campaigns, forcing the tech companies to make tough calls about restricting the speech of American citizens. Even well-funded presidential campaigns have pushed the limits of what the platforms will allow.

Theyve built defences for past battles, but are they prepared for the next front in the war? Laura Rosenberger, the director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a think tank that works to counter foreign interference campaigns, said of the tech companies. Anytime youre dealing with a sophisticated actor, theyre going to evolve their tactics as you evolve your defences.

By most accounts, the big tech companies have gotten better at stopping certain types of election meddling, such as foreign trolling operations and posts containing inaccurate voting information. But they are reluctant to referee other kinds of social media electioneering for fear of appearing to tip the scales. And their policies, often created hastily while under pressure, have proved confusing and inadequate.

Mark Zuckerberg is no stranger to the mess that politics and election campaigns can cause on social media (Getty)

Adding to the companies troubles is the coronavirus pandemic, which is straining their technical infrastructure, unleashing a new misinformation wave and forcing their employees to coordinate a vast election effort spanning multiple teams and government agencies from their homes.

In interviews with two dozen executives and employees at Facebook, Google and Twitter over the past few months, many described a tense atmosphere of careening from crisis to crisis to handle the newest tactics being used to sow discord and influence votes. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to publicly discuss sensitive internal issues.

Some Facebook and Google employees said they feared being blamed by Democrats for a Trump re-election, while others said they did not want to be seen as acting in Democrats favour. Privately, some said, the best-case scenario for them in November would be a landslide victory by either party, with a margin too large to be pinned on any one tech platform.

Google declined to speak publicly for this article. Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebooks head of cybersecurity policy, said the threats of 2016 were less effective now but weve seen threat actors evolving and getting better. Twitter also said the threats were a game of cat and mouse.

Were constantly trying to stay one step ahead, said Carlos Monje Jr., Twitters director of public policy.

For Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive who once delegated the messy business of politics to his lieutenants, Novembers election has become a personal fixation. In 2017, after the extent of Russias manipulation of the social network became clear, he vowed to prevent it from happening again.

We wont catch everyone immediately, but we can make it harder to try to interfere, he said.

In the 2018 midterm elections, those efforts resulted in a relatively scandal-free election day. But 2020 is presenting different challenges.

Last year, lawmakers blasted Zuckerberg for refusing to fact-check Facebook posts or take down false ads placed by political candidates; he said it would be an affront to free speech. The laissez-faire approach has been embraced by some Republicans, including President Donald Trump, but has made Facebook unpopular among Democrats and civil rights groups.

Just after noon on 30 October last year, Jack Dorsey, Twitters chief executive, posted a string of 11 tweets to announce he was banning all political ads from the service.

Dorsey has tried his best to make Twitter a neutral space in terms of politics but it is near-impossible to police it completely for propaganda (Getty) (David Becker/Getty Images)

His zero-tolerance move was one action that Twitter and companies like Google have taken to stave off another election crisis  or at least to distance themselves from the partisan fray.

Over the past year, Twitter has introduced automated systems to detect bot activity and has taken down Russian, Chinese, Venezuelan and Saudi bots. The company also prohibited users from posting information illegally obtained through a security breach.

And this month, Twitter enforced new guidelines to label or remove deceptively edited videos from its site.

Google, which owns YouTube, also altered its policies to prevent foreign-backed disinformation campaigns and introduced transparency measures for political ads.

Yet gaps remain in the tech platforms armour.

Government officials and former employees said Twitters algorithms were not reliably distinguishing between bots and humans who simply tweet like bots. Its efforts to label manipulated media have been underwhelming, said election campaigns. And some Twitter employees tracking election threats have been pulled away to triage misinformation about the coronavirus, such as false claims about miracle cures.

Trump has long been accused of encouraging the circulation of deep fakes and harsh social media tactics (AFP)

The most divisive content this year may not come from Russian trolls or Macedonian teenagers peddling fake news for clicks, but from American politicians using many of the same tactics to push their own agendas.

One chief perpetrator? The White House.

Last month, Trump and other Republicans shared a video of Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, during the presidents State of the Union address. Pelosi had ripped up a copy of Trumps speech at the end of the address. But the video was edited so it appeared as if she had torn up the speech while he honoured a Tuskegee airman and military families.

A spokesman for Pelosi called for the video to be removed from Facebook and Twitter, saying it was deliberately designed to mislead and lie to the American people. But the companies said the video did not violate their policies on manipulated media.

This month, Dan Scavino, the White House social media director, shared another selectively edited video. It showed the former vice president, Joe Biden, appearing to say: We can only re-elect Donald Trump. In fact, the full video showed Biden saying Trump would only get re-elected if Democrats resorted to negative campaigning.

The current presidential race has already been dogged by questionable moves on social media (Reuters)

Facebook did not remove the video. By the time Twitter labelled it as manipulated, it had been viewed more than five million times. Because of a glitch, some Twitter users did not see the label at all.

Democrats have also pushed the envelope to get messages out on social media. Bloombergs presidential campaign, which he suspended this month, caused headaches for the tech platforms, even as they took in millions of dollars to run his ads.

Among his campaigns innovations was buying sponsored posts from influential Instagram meme accounts and paying digital organisers $2,500 a month to post pro-Bloomberg messages on their social media accounts. The campaign also posted a video of Bloombergs presidential debate performance, which had been edited to create the impression of long, awkward silences by his opponents.

Some of the tactics seemed perilously close to violating the tech companies rules on undisclosed political ads, manipulated media and coordinated inauthentic behaviour, a term for networks of fake or suspicious accounts acting in concert.

Facebook and Twitter scrambled to react, hastily patching together solutions, including requiring more disclosure  or taking no action at all.

By then, the Bloomberg campaign, which declined to comment, had set a new playbook for other campaigns to follow.

We cant blame Russia for all our troubles, said Alex Stamos, Facebooks former chief security officer who now researches disinformation at Stanford University. The future of disinformation is going to be domestic.

The New York Times
If the PA lacks funds to combat the coronavirus, it should stop paying salaries to terrorists By Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser

According to official Palestinian reports, the actual expenditure by the Palestinian Authority on salaries to incarcerated terrorists during 2019 was 517.4 million shekels ($148 million). This is in comparison to 502 million shekels in 2018. The overall actual expenditures of the PA ministry for prisoners and released prisoners amounted to 619 million shekels in 2019 compared with 736.7 million shekels in 2018. In January 2020, the PA paid 77.1 million shekels as compared with 42.4 million shekels in January 2019, and 76 million shekels in December 2019. The budget expenditure information is not clear about the salaries paid to the families of the martyrs, since they are included without specifications in the social welfare transfers, together with real welfare payments. The Palestinians keep paying salaries to all terrorists arrested in Israel and to the families of dead terrorists in spite of the growing international attention to the Pay for Slay phenomenon that is evident from the following: The recently announced American peace plan, Vision for Peace and Prosperity, calls upon the Palestinians to stop paying salaries to terrorists and regards the ending of Pay for Slay as a precondition for establishing a Palestinian state. In the plans language: The PLO and the Palestinian Authority should take all necessary actions to immediately terminate the paying of salaries to terrorists serving sentences in Israeli prisons, as well as to the families of deceased terrorists (collectively, the Prisoner and Martyr Payments) and to develop humanitarian and welfare programs to provide essential services and support to Palestinians in need that are not based upon the commission of terrorist acts. The goal is to change the applicable laws, in a manner that is consistent with the laws of the United States, and completely cease making Prisoner and Martyr Payments by the time of signing of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Agreement. The U.S. budget for FY 2020  for the first time in many years  does not include any allocations for the PA, probably in line with the Taylor Force Act that prohibits the U.S. from extending aid to the PA as long as it keeps paying salaries to arrested terrorists and to the families of dead terrorists.



The new version of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY 2020 (HR 1865) was meant to mitigate the implications of the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act of 2019, to enable the PA security forces to receive U.S. financial assistance without making the PA subject to legal procedures in U.S. courts for its support for terror. However, the legislation states clearly that the PA will have to pay compensation to victims of Palestinian terror as decided by U.S. courts as long as it keeps paying salaries to terrorists. At this point, the PA faces court decisions demanding that it pay more than $1 billion to terror victims.



The Dutch government decided on November 2019 to cut aid to the PA after negotiations failed to convince the Palestinians to stop payment of salaries to terrorists. In 2018, Australia suspended its aid to the PA for similar reasons.



In the British Parliament, the issue of British aid to the PA while it continues to pay salaries to terrorists has been raised, and the new government took upon itself to review the matter. Israel keeps implementing the steps taken against the PA in the context of the Stern-Dichter law that was adopted in 2018. The law ordered Israel to deduct every month from the taxes it collects for the PA and transfers to it, one-twelfth of the amount the PA paid as salaries to arrested terrorists and to families of dead terrorists in the previous year. After the law came into force, Israels Security Cabinet decided in February 2019 to deduct 41.8 million shekels each month in 2019 (one-twelfth of the 502 million shekels paid by the PA as salaries to incarcerated terrorists in 2018), as these were the only figures the Ministry of Defense was able to provide. The cabinet ordered the MOD to provide further information about the payments to the families of dead terrorists, and towards the end of 2019 the MOD reported that these payments amounted to 148 million shekels, and one-twelfth of this sum has to be deducted as well. The Palestinians protested the decision and refused to accept any payment as long as the deduction is implemented, but eventually reached an agreement with the Israeli government and resumed receiving the taxes. The details of the deal remain a secret. Nevertheless, even though more than two months have already elapsed in 2020, the Israeli Cabinet has not yet held a discussion about the implementation of the deduction law in 2020, which may mean that no deduction took place in January and February. Following the outbreak of the coronavirus, the PA asked Israel to deliver the withheld funds (650 million shekels, according to Palestinian sources). This request was refused, but instead, on March 22, Israel transferred to the PA 120 million shekels of arrears, whose status had been disputed. Clearly, if the PA lacks the financial resources to combat the epidemic, they can stop paying salaries to terrorists. The law is implemented by the Ministry of Finance, but the preparation of the data and many additional activities are performed by the relatively new National Bureau of Counter-terror Financing at the Ministry of Defense. The bureau is headed by advocate Paul Landes, formerly the head of the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority at the Ministry of Justice. In addition to following the PA payment of salaries to terrorists, the bureau issues decrees authorizing the confiscation of the money paid as salaries through the banking system to Israeli citizens and Jerusalem residents. So far, about 350,000 shekels have been confiscated from accounts or from funds prisoners received in prison. Some lessons can be learned from the 2019 experience with payments to Palestinian terrorists: The Palestinian Authority still insists on paying the salaries in line with its law and narrative that consider the terrorists as heroes and the fighting sector of Palestinian society.



The many warnings by certain Israelis and Americans, who prefer to ignore the mind-boggling phenomenon whereby the PA solicits Palestinians to kill Israelis by promising them handsome salaries and other benefits in advance, proved baseless. The PA did not collapse and did not stop its security cooperation with Israel. I predicted several times in the past that none of these threats are real, since the existence of the PA is the most important achievement of the Palestinian national movement and since security cooperation with Israel is much more beneficial to the PA due to its confrontation with its political opponent, Hamas, than it is for Israel. The Israeli government has to abide by Israeli law and deduct the Palestinian payments of salaries to terrorists from the money transferred to the PA. The new Security Cabinet should affirm the amount spent by the PA in 2019 on salaries to terrorists and start deducting it immediately from the money transferred to the PA on a monthly basis. More countries should follow the United States by conditioning their aid to the PA on abrogating the PA law according to which these payments are made and stopping the practice of pay for slay. If European donors adopt this policy, the chances increase that something will change. Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser is Director of the Project on Regional Middle East Developments at the Jerusalem Center. He was formerly Director General of the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs and head of the Research Division of IDF Military Intelligence. Home
Coronavirus cases at Buckley HealthCare Center in Greenfield more than doubled in a week, climbing to 17 total COVID-19 patients over the weekend, officials announced Sunday.

Eight people at the 120-bed nursing home, owned by National HealthCare Corp., were reported to have the viral respiratory infection last weekend. The tally doubled over the course of three days from its initial four positive diagnoses identified on March 20.

All 17 patients at Buckley HealthCare were isolated after showing symptoms of the illness, and five were taken to the hospital, according to a statement from the facility. No employees at the nursing home have been infected.

All patients and partners (employees) are being closely monitored for COVID-19 symptoms. If any patient experiences a change in condition, we will follow our standard procedures and notify their family, Buckley HealthCare said in its statement. Any partner (employee) experiencing COVID-19 symptoms contacts his/her healthcare provider and does not report to work.

Nationally, 143,055 cases of the coronavirus and 2,513 deaths due to the disease have been confirmed. In Massachusetts, 4,955 positive diagnoses have been made, and 48 people have died from infection. More than 1,160 people are being quarantined in the commonwealth.

Elderly individuals and persons with pre-existing medical conditions are most at risk of developing severe symptoms from the virus.

The Greenfield center has banned all visitors from coming to the facility. Family members are expected to be notified of any changes in a patients condition.

The nursing home said it is also following recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, including proper hand-washing techniques, social distancing and wearing masks, gowns and gloves when caring for any symptomatic patients.

The facility noted its appreciation for patients family members, the city of Greenfield and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

Thank you to all the families of the residents and partners for all of the wonderful baked goods and food deliveries! We greatly appreciate it, the nursing homes statement said.

Related Content:
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 22:22:19|Editor: huaxia

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MACAO, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center of China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government on Monday reported one more confirmed imported COVID-19 case, taking the tally of total confirmed cases to 38.

The 38th case is a 44-year-old male Macao resident returning from London. He arrived in Macao on March 18 and was put under a 14-day medical observation at a hotel. His sample collected on Sunday was tested positive.

He was soon sent to Macao's hospital of Centro Hospitalar Conde de Sao Januario for quarantine and treatment.

A total of 28 patients currently in Macao have COVID-19 infection and have been kept in quarantine for treatment at local medical facilities. The 10 cases previously reported before March 16 were all discharged from hospital after full recovery.
Qatar Airways will have to seek government support eventually, chief executive Akbar al-Baker says, warning that the Middle East carrier could soon run out of the cash needed to continue flying.

Several states have stepped in to help airlines hammered by the coronavirus pandemic that has virtually halted international travel, with the United States offering $US58 billion ($94 billion) in aid.

Qatar continues to fly throughout the world - including Australia - and expects to operate 1800 flights over the next fortnight. Credit:Karleen Minney

Qatar Airways is one of few airlines continuing to maintain scheduled commercial passenger services, and over the next two weeks expects to operate 1800 flights.

"We have received many requests from governments all over the world, embassies in certain countries, requesting Qatar Airways not to stop flying," Baker told Reuters by phone from Doha.
Time to stabilize people's livelihoods, boost consumption



The Moon Jae-in administration has decided to provide "emergency disaster relief money" to 70 percent of the nation's households to help them ride out the economic difficulties arising from the coronavirus pandemic. This decision is inevitable to help cushion the shock of the virus outbreak.



President Moon announced the disaster relief plan during the third Emergency Economic Council meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. Under the plan, the money will be available for households in the bottome70 percent income group. One million won ($820) will be given to a household with four or more members and 800,000 won to a household with three persons, while 600,000 won and 400,000 won will be offered to a two-member household and a single person household, respectively.



The number of recipients will total about 14 million households, or 35 million people. The remaining 30 percent of households will not get the money because they are well-to-do. This might raise the issue of fairness as relatively high income earners are included among the eligible beneficiaries of the aid. That is why President Moon said the decision was not easy to make.



However, Moon said the people deserve the relief money for their difficulties participating in social distancing and quarantine measures in the face of the rapid spread of COVID-19. He added that the aid is required to "console" and "cheer up" the people. The measure came after Moon announced an economic rescue package worth 100 trillion won last week to keep struggling businesses afloat and prevent the economy from collapsing amid fears of a global recession.



Now the central government and local authorities should work together to finance the relief money program that will require 9.1 trillion won. The government plans to mobilize 7.1 trillion won by drawing up a supplementary budget bill. The remaining 2 trillion won will be paid by provincial and municipal governments.



The Moon administration and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea also must promote bipartisanship with the opposition parties to ensure the speedy passage of the budget bill through the National Assembly. The bill is expected to be presented to the Assembly soon after the April 15 general election.



The conservative main opposition United Future Party and other splinter parties should not try to politicize the aid program. They have so far opposed providing direct cash payments to people, arguing that this is a populism-based policy ahead of the election to woo voters. They have also expressed worries about the soaring budget deficit which undermines fiscal soundness.



The opposition's argument is somewhat understandable. But considering the aggravating coronavirus crisis and its economic damage, more radical measures are required to stem the spread of the virus and overcome its fallout. Various relief measures should be offered for hard-hit businesses and individuals, including small business owners and the self-employed.



So it is the time to end any wasteful political and ideological debate over the cash provision. Rather, the rival parties need to pool their wisdom to make sure that the support program will be effectively executed so as to stabilize people's livelihoods and help boost consumption.










Financial services conglomerate IIFL Group on Monday said it has committed Rs 5 crore to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement, the company said it is making contribution to the PM-CARES Fund (Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund) to support the ongoing relief efforts.

Founder of IIFL Group Nirmal Jain said that besides the contribution, the company is also engaging its more than 18,000 employees also to mobilise more support for this cause.

He also appreciated the concerted efforts by the central and state governments and reiterated that through collective community efforts, we could overcome this situation.

Besides, he expressed his concerns about the health risk the front-line medical staff face and the impact of COVID-19 on the Indian economy and the livelihood of millions of people and promised to continue supporting the efforts of the government in fighting the coronavirus outbreak.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Photo: Facebook Kelowna-Lake Country Conservative MP Tracy Gray speaks to the House of Commons, Jan. 27.

I recognize that these are challenging and unprecedented times. My heart goes out to all those affected.

Our office is here to serve, and my entire team and I are working non-stop every day and night to ensure that we are informed, proactive, and responding to you. We are hearing from seniors, students, families, businesses and not-for-profits with many questions and situations.

I thought that Id go though some of the most frequent questions that I am getting right now.



What are the kinds of things that I should connect with your office about?



As always, for anything federal, but the main categories we are getting the most amount of correspondence on include:

People travelling, especially internationally trying to get home

EI and CRA inquiries and issues

Small business owners trying to help their employees and businesses

When did mandatory self-isolation come into affect and who enforces it?



On March 26, the government of Canada put in place emergency measures that require mandatory 14-day self isolation for all persons entering Canada, even if they do not have COVID-19 symptoms. (there are some exceptions such as essential service workers).

Previous to this, health agencies and authorities were recommending self-isolation. Enforcement is done by local police service agencies.

I am not applicable for EI, what options do I have?

The new Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) is for wage earners, contract workers, and self employed who would not otherwise be eligible for Employment Insurance (EI).

The CERB will cover Canadians who have lost their job, are sick, quarantined, or taking care of someone who is sick with COVID-19, as well as working parents who must stay home without pay to care for children who are sick or at home because of school and daycare closures.

The CERB will be a taxable benefit that will provide up to $2,000 a month for up to four months. This program will be administered through the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), not through EI.

You will need to have a CRA "My Account for Individuals" in order to apply for the CERB, which will open for application by April 6.

What help is there for my business?



The government took recommendations from the Official Opposition and added to their initial proposal.

There is now a 75% wage subsidy, the ability for businesses to apply to BDC for a business loan, expanded loans from Farm Credit Canada, business deferral of GST/HST, and back business loans up to $40,000.

What can I do to help?

Follow health authority recommendations. Social isolation will be hardest at this time, so call someone you know or reach out in a way so you are distanced.

Call local charities to see how you can help as many are changing their service models. Local businesses are the heart of Kelowna-Lake Country and they need our support more than ever.

Many small businesses are still operating with social distancing procedures, delivery service or pick up.

Maybe buy a gift certificate online to use at a later date, or order products online.

Many restaurants are offering delivery and some are even offering cocktails to go! The most important thing is for all of us to have compassion and understanding during this time.

We have lots of information that we can provide depending on the inquiry, so please phone  250-470-5075  or email  [email protected]
The crew from the special Aer Lingus flight EI9019 from Beijing with vital medical supplies (top) on board to help in the fight against Covid-19

A flight from China carrying protective equipment for healthcare workers battling the coronavirus arrived yesterday in Ireland.

The Aer Lingus Airbus A330 touched down at Dublin Airport just before 3pm. It was the first of dozens of flights the Irish carrier will make to bring consignments of personal protective equipment (PPE) from Beijing.

The Irish Government has a struck a deal with Chinese PPE suppliers worth almost 210m (188m).

The first batch of the order, worth 28m, is being transported on 10 Aer Lingus flights, the last of which will fly on Wednesday. It contains 11 million protective masks, 2.3 million eye protectors, 2.4 million gowns and nine million gloves.

The second batch is anticipated to be ready for collection later in the week, with planes expected to fly back and forth to Beijing on a regular basis until mid summer.

The first crew, which was not allowed to disembark in China, volunteered to take part in the PPE collection mission.

Ireland has increased its normal 15m annual outlay on PPE to 225m to cope with the demand due to Covid-19.

Paul Reid, CEO of the HSE, outlined the scale-up involved.

"We would normally procure 500,000 masks a year," he said.

"This year, up to the end of May with our delivery we're planning to procure over 36 million masks.

"On eye protections, we normally procure 200,000 a year; we'll be procuring 24.4 million. On gowns, we will normally procure 100,000 gallons per year; we're procuring over 24 million this year by May.

"And gloves, we normally procure four million and our plan is to procure 56 million.

"Obviously we're as anxious as everybody, including our staff, to see every one of those flights come in with that delivery."

Mr Reid said the first batch had been expected by Irish Government officials and deemed to meet World Health Organisation standards. The Northern Ireland Executive is also securing PPE from China as part of a joint order with the HSE.

The first flight attracted much public attention.

Officials from both China and Ireland provided regular Twitter updates on its progress as it made the journey.

Health Minister Simon Harris said: "We are doing everything that is humanly possible to secure as much personal protective equipment as we can."
The Indian Army on Monday stated that "fake and malicious" messages are being circulated on social media about the likely declaration of Emergency in mid-April and deployment of Army to assist civil administration.

"Fake and malicious messages are circulating on social media about likely declaration of emergency in mid-April and deployment of Indian Army, veterans, Cadet Corps and Service Scheme to assist the civil administration. It's clarified that this is absolutely fake," the Army stated.

This comes as the country is under a 21-day lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, which according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has claimed the lives of 29 people and infected a total of 1,071 people as on Monday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Researchers have developed the first blood test that can accurately detect more than 50 types of cancer and identify in which tissue the cancer originated, often before there are any clinical signs or symptoms of the disease.

In a paper published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology [1] today (Tuesday) the researchers show that the test, which could eventually be used in national cancer screening programmes, has a 0.7% false positive rate for cancer detection, meaning that less than 1% of people would be wrongly identified as having cancer. As a comparison, about 10% of women are wrongly identified as having cancer in national breast cancer screening programmes, although this rate can be higher or lower depending on the number and frequency of screenings and the type of mammogram performed.

The test was able to predict the tissue in which the cancer originated in 96% of samples, and it was accurate in 93%.

Tumours shed DNA into the blood, and this contributes to what is known as cell-free DNA (cfDNA). However, as the cfDNA can come from other types of cells as well, it can be difficult to pinpoint cfDNA that comes from tumours. The blood test reported in this study analyses chemical changes to the DNA called "methylation" that usually control gene expression. Abnormal methylation patterns and the resulting changes in gene expression can contribute to tumour growth, so these signals in cfDNA have the potential to detect and localise cancer.

The blood test targets approximately one million of the 30 million methylation sites in the human genome. A machine learning classifier (an algorithm) was used to predict the presence of cancer and the type of cancer based on the patterns of methylation in the cfDNA shed by tumours. The classifier was trained using a methylation database of cancer and non-cancer signals in cfDNA. The database is believed to be the largest in the world and is owned by the company involved in this research, GRAIL, Inc. (California, USA).

Senior author of the paper, Dr Michael Seiden (MD, PhD), President of US Oncology (Texas, USA), said: "Our earlier research showed that the methylation approach outperformed both whole genome and targeted sequencing in the detection of multiple deadly cancer types across all clinical stages, and in identifying the tissue of origin. It also allowed us to identify the most informative regions of the genome, which are now targeted by the refined methylation test that is reported in this paper."

In the part of the Circulating Cell-free Genome Atlas (CCGA) study reported today, blood samples from 6,689 participants with previously untreated cancer (2482 patients) and without cancer (4207 patients) from North America were divided into a training set and a validation set. Of these, results from 4316 participants were available for analysis: 3052 in the training set (1531 with cancer, 1521 without cancer) and 1264 in the validation set (654 with cancer and 610 without cancer). Over 50 types of cancer were included.

The machine learning classifier analysed blood samples from the participants to identify methylation changes and to classify the samples as cancer or non-cancer, and to identify the tissue of origin.

The researchers found that the classifier's performance was consistent in both the training and validation sets, with a false positive rate of 0.7% in the validation set.

The classifier's ability to correctly identify when cancer was present (the true positive rate) was also consistent between the two sets. In 12 types of cancer that are often the most deadly (anal, bladder, bowel, oesophageal, stomach, head and neck, liver and bile duct, lung, ovarian and pancreatic cancers, lymphoma, and cancers of white blood cells such as multiple myeloma), the true positive rate was 67.3% across clinical stages I, II and III. These 12 cancers account for about 63% of cancer deaths each year in the USA and, at present, there is no way of screening for the majority of them before symptoms show. The true positive rate was 43.9% for all cancer types in the study across the three clinical stages.

Detection improved with each cancer stage. In the 12 pre-specified cancers, the true positive rate was 39% in stage I, 69% in stage II, 83% in stage III and 92% in stage IV. In all of more than 50 cancer types, the corresponding rates were 18%, 43%, 81% and 93%, respectively.

The test was also consistent between the training and validation sets in its ability to identify the tissue where cancer had originated, with an accuracy of 93% in the validation set.

Dr Seiden said: "These data support the ability of this targeted methylation test to meet what we believe are the fundamental requirements for a multi-cancer early detection blood test that could be used for population-level screening: the ability to detect multiple deadly cancer types with a single test that has a very low false positive rate, and the ability to identify where in the body the cancer is located with high accuracy to help healthcare providers to direct next steps for diagnosis and care.

"Considering the burden of cancer in our society, it is important that we continue to explore the possibility that this test might intercept cancers at an earlier stage and, by extension, potentially reduce deaths from cancers for which screening is either not available or has poor adherence. To our knowledge, this is the largest clinical genomics study, in participants with and without cancer, to develop and validate a blood test for early detection of multiple cancers."

The study is funded by GRAIL, the maker of the blood test. Researchers are continuing to validate the test in large, prospective studies in the USA (STRIVE and PATHFINDER studies) and the UK (SUMMIT study), and to examine its feasibility for screening populations [2].

A strength of the CCGA study is that it includes more than 15,000 participants from 142 clinics in North America, ensuring results are generalisable to a diverse population. The ongoing studies are assessing the test's performance in even broader populations. Limitations include: all the participants with cancer had already been diagnosed with cancer (e.g. via screening or patients presenting with symptoms); the study was not designed to establish the test's impact on death from cancer or other causes; at the time of this analysis, not all patients had been followed for a year, which is needed to ensure their non-cancer status was accurate; and some inaccuracy occurred in the detection of the tissue of origin for cancers that are driven by the human papilloma virus (HPV), such as cancers of the cervix, anus, and head and neck - this information is being used to improve the test's performance.

Editor-in-chief of Annals of Oncology, Professor Fabrice Andre, Director of Research at the Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France, said: "This is a landmark study and a first step toward the development of easy-to-perform screening tools. Earlier detection of more than 50% of cancers could save millions of lives every year worldwide and could dramatically reduce morbidity induced by aggressive treatments.

"While numbers are still small, the performance of this new technology is particularly intriguing in pancreatic cancer, for which mortality rates are very high because it is usually diagnosed when it's at an advanced stage."

###

[1] "Sensitive and specific multi-cancer detection and localization using methylation signatures in cell-free DNA", by M.C. Liu et al. Annals of Oncology. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annonc.2020.02.011

[2] ClinicalTrials.gov numbers: NCT03085888, NCT03934866, NCT04241796.
ARCHIVED - Spanish government imposes enforced closure on non-essential businesses



The Spanish workforce has been shut down for two weeks except those involved in essential services or working from home

The construction sector closes down as workers take a forced paid holiday

Click for full information in the BOE

After a week of resisting calls for an even tighter coronavirus lockdown the Spanish government decided this weekend that more drastic measures were required in order to combat the spread of Covid-19, with the number of cases confirmed in this country having risen to 80,000 and the death toll reaching almost 7,000, and passed emergency legislation to halt all production and work activity except that related to essential services.

What this means is that the entire workforce, except those involved in certain services and those working from home, is being forced to take paid holiday for the next two weeks (the second of which is foreshortened due to the Easter holidays). Essentially the absence from the workplace is to be treated as time off in lieu, and the time taken is to be worked back gradually over the rest of the year by working extra days or hours. Businesses however, are obliged to pay the wages of their workers in the interim period.

Naturally, there has been a significant adverse reaction from the unions and those representing business owners who say that business is being forced to pay the cost of the coronavirus crisis.

To put it another way, the idea, according to Maria Jesus Montero, the Minister for Hacienda, is for the productive systems of Spain to go into hibernation for a fortnight, a move which creates great uncertainty over the future of numerous businesses throughout the country. At the same time, the Minister rejected suggestions that this decision has been made as a reaction to the figures regarding the spread of the virus being worse than had been anticipated.

Essential services

The essential services and activities identified by the government as being exempt from the shutdown are the following:

Those which form part of the supply and distribution of food and other essential products (drinks, animal food, hygiene products, medication, health products and any other goods necessary for healthcare). Food prepared for home delivery. The production and distribution of health products and services, health technology, medical equipment and materials, protective equipment, healthcare and hospital equipment and other healthcare products. This includes opticians, orthopaedics, etc. Essential activity for the maintenance of production activity in manufacturing industries: supplies, equipment and materials needed for the adequate functioning of the essential activities listed. Transport services (for both passengers and goods) (including fuel supply) which are being maintained during the state of emergency. Services for prisons, civil protection, maritime rescue, fore prevention and firefighting, mining security, traffic control and road safety. Private security firms working on transport security and in other areas and security services for goods being supplied to the population. The maintenance of materials and equipment for the armed forces. Health centres, services and establishments, carers for the elderly, the young, the disabled and other dependents, those working in R&D centres and other bio-technological centres related to Covid-19. Animal health centres and services. Media sales outlets, the media and news agencies (both publicly and privately owned), as well as those involved in the printing and distribution of the media. And tobacconists. Financial services companies, including banks, insurance and investment firms, for essential services. Telecommunications and audiovisual companies and essential IT services, as well as networks and support facilities and the sectors which are necessary to support them. Services related to the protection and support of gender violence victims. Lawyers and other professionals in the sector, translators, interpreters and psychologists working on procedures which have not been suspended. Services in administrative offices including legal and financial advisers, the prevention of risks in the workplace and others for matters of urgency. Notaries, registry offices and similar services. Cleaning, repairs and maintenance services, security services, waste collection and treatment services, waste water treatment, decontamination activities and others related to the sector. Refugee and immigrant detention centres. Water supply, treatment, distribution and sanitization. Meteorological services including forecasting and observation and the maintenance and security of such activities. Postal services including collection, delivery, transport, classification and distribution. Sectors involved in the import and supply of health material along with companies involved in logistics, transport, storage and customs procedures. The distribution and delivery of products purchased online, by telephone or by mail. Electricity generation and supply. Ports and airports.

Dry cleaners, motor mechanics and others are also exempt, although they may operate only by prior appointment and behind closed doors: a car can be repaired, but the owner is required to deliver it and then leave the mechanics to do their work before collecting it later.

Notable absences from this list include the construction sector, which accounts for around 10 per cent of Spains GDP, but the decision has been made to accept the inevitable negative economic effects of such a shutdown in an effort to make the next two weeks decisive in the battle to halt the spread of Covid-19.

For most businesses the eight working days affected by the shutdown are the whole of this week (30th and 31st March and 1st, 2nd and 3rd April) and the first three days of next week (6th, 7th and 8th April). Good Friday on 10th April is a national holiday and the previous day is a holiday in most regions (although the Holy Week processions have been cancelled throughout Spain), and the hope is that by the time Easter weekend has passed the enormous pressure under which hospitals throughout the country are being place will have begun to ease.

Image: Pedro Sanchez, the President of the government, announcing the legislation on Sunday

Remember: LOCKDOWN MEANS LOCKDOWN. STAY AT HOME. STAY SAFE AND DO YOUR BIT TO REDUCE THE SPREAD OF CORONAVIRUS.

Follow Murcia Today on Facebook to keep up to date with all the latest updates locally for the Region of Murcia and the main information for the rest of Spain: https://www.facebook.com/MurciaToday/.

Our local area groups are as follows. These are designed to filter locally specific information and may be used by clubs, charities, any of the businesses who work with us to ensure information is available to residents in English and for those living in the specific areas. They are not buy and sell groups, do not accept any bickering or argumentative so and so's, are not "open for any old rubbish" pages, and are not trying to compete with your local comunity groups, they are specifically for sharing good, relevant local information and we hope you will use them for that during this difficult time.

Around Mazarron news, events and local info: Click to join

Mazarron, Fuente Alamo, Aguilas, Lorca, Totana, Puerto Lumbreras, Camposol, Alhama de Murcia. Click to join (all within a half hour drive of each other)

Mar Menor news, events and local info. Click to join (this includes all the Mar Menor municipalities and Cartagena)

North-west Murcia: Bullas, Mula, Cehegin, Caravaca, Cieza, Calasparra, Jumilla, Moratalla info. Click to join

What to do if you are in the Region of Murcia and believe you may have contracted the virus

The regional government has set up a special helpline to supply information to members of the public (900 121212) if they suspect that they may have contracted the virus rather than going straight to hospital or to a medical centre.

Sensible precautions

The advice being issued to members of the public by medical authorities all over the world coincides on the following points:

- Wash hands frequently with either soap and water or a sanitiser gel

- Catch coughs and sneezes with disposable tissues  and throw the tissues away immediately after use before immediately washing your hands!

- If you dont have a tissue, use your sleeve  and wash the item of clothing used at the next opportunity

- AVOID touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands

- AVOID close contact with people who are unwell

- Dont panic!
The heavy influx of migrant workers into Bihar from Delhi has caused a ripple effect with people living elsewhere, including adjoining Nepal, thronging the states borders, almost defeating the purpose of the 21- day lockdown, a key aide of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said.

Sanjay Kumar Jha, the state's water resources minister and national general secretary of the JD(U), squarely blamed the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi for the situation and questioned its claims that migrants were being taken care of in the national capital.

"I am the party's in-charge for Delhi and my contacts have been telling me how buses were pressed into service to drop migrants at the UP border. They were misled by the Aam Aadmi Party with claims that the lockdown might be extended to three months. This created panic," Jha said here on Monday.

Migrants in Delhi were "made to feel they had nowhere to go except their homes and when they landed at Bihar's borders in buses arranged by the Yogi Adityanath government in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh they grew restive and refused to be stay at the relief camps "despite adequate arrangements for food and medicines", the JD(U) leader claimed.

"We had to arrange for transportation of nearly 25,000 migrants to their native places. There are people staying put at the scores of relief camps set up along Bihar's borders with UP, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Nepal. But they have to do so willingly. We cannot use excessive force, Jha said.

He also pointed out that the suspension of two government officials in Delhi for violation of lockdown "vindicates what the Bihar chief minister has been saying



that the mass exodus was defeating the very purpose of the nationwide restrictions announced by the prime minister".

"Kejriwal is now making empty pleas, urging people to stay back and claiming that his government is providing food to four lakh migrants. I challenge him to produce a video footage to support the bogus claim," Jha added.

The Bihar minister, who hails from Kosi region, close to Nepal border, also expressed fears that the mass exodus from Delhi could have a "ripple effect" and that migrants in other areas have starteo making a beeline to Bihar's borders in a bid to return home.

"Many Bihari workers, mostly from my Kosi-Mithilanchal region, eke out a living in Nepal. Now we have received information that some of them have gathered at Birganj and are trying to cross over. If things continue in this fashion, I wonder how we would be able to achieve the objective of lockdown preventing the spread of COVID-19," he stated.

The Bihar minister, however, asserted that once the migrants reached their villages, measures were taken to ensure they do not mingle with local population and are placed under quarantine till the medical authorities clear them.

"Block level officials and panchayats have been instructed to segregate migrants from local population so that testing and quarantining, which had taken off well in Bihar, does not go off the rails," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: On Sunday, the total number of positive cases of COVID-19 in the State increased to 21, with two more persons tested positive for the virus. Both the patients are contacts of patient number 7, who returned from Birmingham to Visakhapatnam on March 17.

According to the medical bulletin issued by the government, the duo got into contact with patient number 7 on March 17, who tested positive for COVID-19 on March 21. Both of them were under home isolation since then and on March 28, they were shifted to the isolation ward in Chest Hosptial and on Saturday, they tested positive.

Meanwhile, 49 more people with COVID-19 symptoms were admitted to Government General Hospitals in Guntur, Kakinada, Kadapa, and Eluru on Sunday. As many as 31 people from the Macherla region of Guntur district, including seven women, were admitted to the isolation ward in a private medical college. Samples of them were collected and sent for testing. However, officials were tight-lipped on the entire episode.

FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES HERE

In Kakinada, among the 14 people admitted to Kakinada GGH on Sunday, six tested negative and the results of others are awaited. A 45-year-old man and a 43-year-old woman along with a 50-year-old man from Innaveli returned from Hyderabad and are suspected to be in contact with a confirmed case for COVID-19 in Hyderabad. However, all of them tested negative.

The results of a 45-year-old man from Karapa, who came from Hyderabad, a 44-year-old man from Rajahmundry, who returned from Saudi Arabia, a 29-year-old man from Kakinada, who returned from Diu-Daman, a 45-year-old man from Ramachandrapuram, who returned from Dubai, a 26-year-old woman from Kakinada, who returned from Dubai, are awaited. Another 35-year-old man from Samalakota, a 20-year-old man and a 49-year-old man along with a 40-year-old man have returned from Delhi and a 26-year-old youth from Kakinada, who returned from Hyderabad, were also admitted to the isolation ward and samples were sent for testing.

Three persons from Kondapuram railway quarters in Kondapuram mandal in Kadapa district, who came into contact with a confirmed patient for the virus in Kurnool, were admitted to RIMS-Kadapa on Sunday. All the three are from Rajasthan and have been working at Kondapur. Their samples were collected and sent for testing.

Meanwhile, in Eluru, a 35-year-old woman was admitted to isolation ward at Eluru Government General Hospital in West Godavari district on Sunday with symptoms of coronavirus. She is from Akkaiahpalem in the district.

Another patient recovers, third in the State

A 65-year-old man with travel history of Madina in Saudi Arabiawas admitted to the Chest Hospital in Visakhapatnam on March 17 with symptoms of COVID-19.

He tested positive for the virus. He has a medical history of hypertension and diabetes.

A team of doctors under the supervision of Dr Vijay Kumar, superintendent Dr Ayappa and Nodal Officer Dr Vijaya Babu, staff nurses and paramedical staff have provided medicalcare and the patient responded well to the treatment.

He tested negative twice for COVID-19 on Saturday and Sunday and his health condition is stable. He is expected to be discharged shortly. He is third person in the State to have recovered.
Citing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the rush to move business activities online, OReilly Media president Laura Baldwin announced that the publisher and technology education platform is canceling all future in-person symposiums and closing that portion of its business. Baldwin said the company will focus its efforts on developing online event services and remote digital platforms.

In a letter to staff and customers, Baldwin noted OReilly Media was forced to cancel its Strata Data & AI conferences, which study the use of big data analysis, for California and London originally scheduled for March and April, respectively. Much like every other industry, she wrote, the technology sector has been forced to cancel and postpone all kinds of conferences as a result of the need to control the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It has been a rough few weeks as weve seen the Covid-19 virus take a toll on our livelihoods, our families and the world economy. People are losing their lives, Baldwin wrote, without understanding when this global health emergency may come to an end, we cant plan for or execute on a business that will be forever changed as a result of this crisis. Weve made the very difficult decision to cancel all future OReilly in-person conferences and close down this portion of our business.

Baldwin acknowledged that the decision will mean either the layoff or departure of staff working in those divisions. We are sad that as part of this decision, we have employees leaving us today who ran our in-person events business with precision and grace. We thank them for all of their contributions.

The decision to shutter the conferences came in response to the cancellations and conference shutdowns, she said, which forced OReilly to move one of the Strata conferences online. Going forward O'Reilly will focus on online services and conference events. We are poised to accept that challenge, having already delivered a version of our Strata event on-line to over 4,600 participants last week. With over 5,000 companies and 2.5 million users on our learning platform, we look forward to innovating and bringing together the technology communities and businesses we serve in new and creative ways.

Founded in 1978 by Tim OReilly, OReilly Media has a long history of organizing conferences that focus on spreading information about the use and impact of technology, among them, the Tools of Change (which ran from 2007-2013), an annual conference focused on the impact of technology on the publishing industry. The company is also a digital and print publisher in addition to directing an online learning platform.
Syracuse, N.Y.  A growing number of Central New York patients are refusing to open their doors to home health workers for fear of catching coronavirus from them.

About 50 patients of Nascentia Health, a Syracuse-based home health agency, have refused, canceled or postponed visits by nurses and home health aides in recent weeks over coronavirus concerns.

They are concerned that when we go into other peoples houses and then come into theirs, we will bring something in, said Donna Lennox, of Baldwinsville, a Nascentia home care nurse who makes five to eight home visits a day in the Syracuse area.

Refusing or postponing home visits is safe if patients are not severely ill, have relatives helping them at home, or can be monitored remotely through telemedicine services. But for patients with severe health issues, refusing home care could be dangerous.

Nearly half of 300 state home care agencies surveyed by the Home Care Association of New York State reported seeing patients and family members turn away home health providers because of coronavirus fears.

Doing so can put some patients   at greater risk of their ongoing, underlying medical condition not receiving proper attention, said Roger Noyes, an association spokesman.

He said the home care industry has a certain level of invisibility even though it serves about 900,000 state residents.

While hospitals are on the front lines of the pandemic, home care providers play a vital, often unnoticed role in keeping patients out of hospitals and nursing homes getting stretched to their limits, Noyes said.

Nascentia has eliminated some home visits through the use of telehealth. It equips some patients with electronic tablets that allow providers to remotely monitor their heart rates and other vital signs, and have face-to-face visits. Nascentia has 205 of those units and has ordered 150 more.

But thats not an option for patients who need hands-on care.

Infection control has always been important at Nascentia Health, but is now getting even more attention, said Andrea Lazarek-LaQuay, the agencys chief clinical officer. The agencys staff of 200 provides home health services to about 1,200 people in Central New York.

Visiting nurses are now taking their temperatures twice a day and monitoring themselves for other potential coronavirus symptoms such as cough and shortness of breath. All nurses and aides who go into patient homes are being fitted for N95 masks to protect themselves from airborne transmission of coronavirus. Lazarek-LaQuay said the agency has a limited supply of masks which is adequate for now. Nurses also are screening all patients for coronavirus symptoms and contacting their doctors if they think the patient should be tested for the virus. So far, none of Nascentias patients have tested positive, Lararek-LaQuay said.

Lennox said she spends a lot of time during visits educating patients about coronavirus and allaying some of their fears. I tell them, Dont overwatch the news, she said. A lot of our job now is counseling people due to anxiety.

A few patients recently released from hospitals told Lennox last week not to visit them. In home care, the clients the boss and we understand that, she said.

Patients have the right to refuse care and treatment under state law. When they do, home care providers notify patients doctors.

Lennox worries some patients may endanger their health by refusing home care. That is a big concern for us because we are here to help the community stay safe, she said.

Shes also concerned about getting the virus herself and transmitting it to her family.

But I also realize people need our help and that supersedes my needs, she said.

James T. Mulder covers health news. Have a news tip? Contact him at (315) 470-2245 or jmulder@syracuse.com

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Many premier educational institutions on Monday pledged to contribute to the West Bengal State Emergency Relief Fund and help in the governments fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Shortly after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on March 27 had appealed to different organisations and individuals, here and abroad, for making contributions to the fund, the Calcutta University, Jadavpur University, and St Xavier's University expressed their desire to donate to the fund.

The St. Xaviers College (Autonomous) Kolkata, a separate educational institution run by the same Jesuit organization, also joined the initiative.

Calcutta University vice-chancellor Sonali Chakraborty Banerjee told PTI, she was in talks with the Pro-VC and registrar to facilitate contribution of a "fairly substantial amount" to the relief fund soon.

Chakraborty, who did not specify any amount, said while this contribution was entirely on behalf of the varsity authorities, there is a second fund raising initiative from all the stakeholders of the university - students, faculty and staff - where they are free to contribute whatever amount they want to - and the consolidated amount will be donated to the relief fund.

"So there will be two initiatives from the university as we wish to be on the side of the state and general public to fight the spread of coronavirus in every possible way," the VC said.

Jadavpur University vice-chancellor Suranjan Das said, We have requested teachers, officers and employees to respond to the appeal for contributions to the Chief Ministers Relief Fund to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

In an appeal, the VC said, "I shall remain grateful if my colleagues can send their contributions to the fund y filling an enclosed format to be mailed to the university office within April 14 and the donated amount will be recovered from the salary of April 2020."



Making a similar commitment, St Xavier's University vice-chancellor Father Felix Raj said, fund raising has begun and the authorities are hopeful of handing over the money soon.

The teaching and non-teaching staff of St. Xavier's College (Autonomous) and St Xavier's Collegiate School will also be donating one days salary.

"We aim at handing over a sum of Rs 40 lakh to the West Bengal State Emergency Relief Fund," college Principal Fr. Dr. Dominic Savio S.J said.

The faculty and other employees of Visva-Bharati, a central university located in Santiniketan, will donate one day's salary of the month of March to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
ROCKFORD, MI  A Wolverine World Wide footwear brand says it will use its Rockford factory to manufacturer facemasks for healthcare providers amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In a news release, Wolverines Chaco brand said it moved to retrofit its ReChaco factory to produce the facemasks, and that company officials are also exploring whether they can produce gowns and aprons.

The companys goal is to start producing the masks on Tuesday, March 31. The initial supply will be donated to health care partners such as Spectrum Health, according to the company.

We at Chaco are doers. Its not in our teams DNA to stand by when we have the opportunity and resources to take action, Lisa Kondrat, director of operations for the ReChaco factory, said in a statement. We want our skills and machinery to be useful in this crisis.

Company officials were not immediately sure how many masks Chaco would be producing on a daily or weekly basis.

The footwear company is one of many manufacturers who have transitioned to producing personal protective equipment amid the global health crisis, which has led hospitals around the country in short supply of masks and other personal protective equipment needed to treat patients.

Furniture manufacturer Steelcase is also in the process of retooling operations to make facemasks, and numerous distillers have been using alcohol and other materials to create hand sanitizer.

The moves come after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued a stay-at-home order that effectively closed most non-essential businesses.

Chaco says its factory has the industrial sewing machines and materials needed to create the masks. The footwear brand is working with parent company Wolverine World Wide and other local organizations to source fabric and vet materials needed for production.

In addition to its ReChaco factory in Rockford, the company is also using its mobile repair factory bus, currently in Portland, Oregon, to make protective equipment for hospitals in Portland and Hood River.

For that initiative, Chaco is partnering with Field Scout and sister brand Merrell to source vetted fabric and materials, the company said in a press release.

Our goal here is to inspire quick and creative action from other brands and companies in our space, Josh Weichhand, Chacos marketing director, said in a statement. Chaco and Wolverine Worldwide arent the only companies with people and machinery positioned to help in this crisis  everyone has something they can offer.

PREVENTION TIPS

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Prince Charles was today allowed out of self-isolation one week after being diagnosed with coronavirus and is in 'good health', royal aides have said.

The 71-year-old Prince of Wales had a 'mild' form of the illness which first saw him feel unwell two weekends ago before flying to Birkhall in Aberdeenshire.

The heir-to-the-throne had begun to feel ill on March 21 at his Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire before travelling up to Scotland the following day.

His wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall tested negative for the infection and is without any symptoms, but will stay in self-isolation until the end of the week.

Charles was following government advice to self-isolate for seven days after he first had the symptoms. However, those who live with someone with symptoms must self-isolate for 14 days, because it can take this long for the symptoms to appear.

Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall greet guests during the Commonwealth Reception at Marlborough House in London on Commonwealth Day on March 9

The couple have been staying at Birkhall, their Scottish retreat on the Balmoral estate, and Charles was tested by the NHS on Monday of last week.

His self-isolation lasted seven days based on government and medical guidelines, and he will continue to be able to hold meetings and go for exercise.

A Clarence House spokesman said: 'Clarence House has confirmed today that, having consulted with his doctor, the Prince of Wales is now out of self-isolation.'

Meanwhile it emerged yesterday that one of the Queen's footmen has tested positive for coronavirus, sparking further fears for the monarch's health.

However Buckingham Palace insisted again that the 93-year-old Queen was in good health and that every precaution was being taken.

Prince Charles with his wife Camilla, the Queen, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey on March 9

It is understood the staff member's duties included walking the Queen's dogs, corgi-dachshund crosses Candy and Vulcan, and bringing her food.

What is the government advice for people with virus symptoms? if you live alone and you have symptoms of coronavirus illness (COVID-19), however mild, stay at home for 7 days from when your symptoms started.

if you live with others and you are the first in the household to have symptoms of coronavirus, then you must stay at home for 7 days, but all other household members who remain well must stay at home and not leave the house for 14 days. The 14-day period starts from the day when the first person in the house became ill.

for anyone else in the household who starts displaying symptoms, they need to stay at home for 7 days from when the symptoms appeared, regardless of what day they are on in the original 14 day isolation period.

it is likely that people living within a household will infect each other or be infected already. Staying at home for 14 days will greatly reduce the overall amount of infection the household could pass on to others in the community

if you can, move any vulnerable individuals (such as the elderly and those with underlying health conditions) out of your home, to stay with friends or family for the duration of the home isolation period

if you cannot move vulnerable people out of your home, stay away from them as much as possible Advertisement

Both of these duties would have brought the pair into close proximity. It is not known, however, when they fell sick.

The footman is now self-isolating, according to The Sun on Sunday. The Queen is at Windsor Castle with the Duke of Edinburgh, where they arrived on March 19.

Charles last saw his mother on March 12 for a meeting at Buckingham Palace. Doctors say the earliest he could have become contagious was the next day.

The footman was promoted to a role closer to the Queen six months ago and worked in her private apartments at Buckingham Palace.

A source was quoted as saying: 'Everyone is terrified, not just for themselves but also for the Queen and the duke.'

Last week, a member of the Scottish Parliament expressed surprise that the Prince was tested for Covid-19 on the NHS.

Joan McAlpine, SNP MSP for the South of Scotland, wished him a speedy recovery but added: 'Given that his symptoms are said to be mild, like many I wonder how he was tested when many NHS and social care workers cannot get tested.

'My nephew, who has serious asthma and a chest infection was recently refused a test.'

Royal sources insisted, however, that both Charles and Camilla met 'local criteria for testing'.

The NHS Scotland website says people will only generally be tested for Covid-19 if they 'have a serious illness that requires admission to hospital'.

Dr Catherine Calderwood, Scotland's chief medical officer, defended the decision to test Charles and his wife, saying there were 'very good reasons'.

(From left) The Queen, Charles, Camilla, William and Kate at Westminster Abbey on March 9

She said: 'My understanding is there were very good reasons for that person and his wife to be tested, and obviously I wouldn't be able to disclose anything else that I know because of patient confidentiality.'

Footage of Charles joining the nation in applauding the country's health workers last Friday, while still suffering from the virus, was posted on Clarence House's official Instagram account.

Clarence House, Charles's official London office, is currently closed down as a result of the virus lockdown, with staff working from home.

Charles has had a packed public schedule, including the Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey on March 9, where he was with Boris Johnson and his pregnant partner Carrie Symonds, and other senior royals, including the Queen.

Mr Johnson has also since tested positive for coronavirus, although this was nearly three weeks after their meeting.

On March 10, Charles attended a round table conference with Prince Albert of Monaco, who subsequently revealed he had tested positive for Covid-19.

That week Charles also met celebrities including Ant and Dec and Ronnie Wood at a major Prince's Trust Event, held an investiture at Buckingham Palace, and attended a charity dinner with Lord Archer and his wife, Dame Mary.

On March 13, the prince went to stay at Highgrove, where he was visited by the Duchess of Cornwall, who has a home, Raymill, nearby, and held private meetings with staff, organisations and tenants.
Americas sprawling K-12 public education system is scrambling to move online, almost overnight, with little time to plan and even less clarity about what happens next. Undertaken in response to the spiraling coronavirus crisis, the massive and scattershot transition has shifted much of the burden of schooling onto overwhelmed parents and caregivers, highlighting both the enormous potential and profound limitations of classroom technology.

Like everyone else, educators were caught unprepared for the scope and speed of the disruptions caused by a global pandemic. In little more than two weeks, the coronavirus led to the mass closure of at least 124,000 school buildings, leaving more than 55 million children without access to in-person classroom instruction, counseling, and other services.

Thrust into emergency triage, schools focused first on how to provide food and other basics. In recent days, theyve pivoted to the far more difficult task of teaching children from afar. With minimal training, often while stuck at home and juggling their own family responsibilities, the countrys teachers and principals have sprung into action, distributing Chromebooks to students and sending Wi-Fi enabled school buses into their communities, teaching on Instagram Live and hosting virtual class discussions on Zoomand calling students and parents on the telephone to make sure theyre OK.

Nearly three-fourths of teachers in schools closed due to the coronavirus say they are still providing some instruction to their students, according to a nationally representative survey administered online by the Education Week Research Center on March 24 and 25. Sixty percent say they are assigning and collecting student work online, and more than a third are using digital tools to teach live classes.

Still, at a national level, the effort has been chaotic and uneven, with schools running into enormous barriers as they attempt to use technology to keep the countrys public education system up and running. Messages from state and federal authoritiesabout how long the closures may last, whether schools can require online classwork, and what will become of state requirements around instructional timehave often been contradictory and quick to change, and emergency financial relief has been slow to come.

Huge gaps in the nations broadband infrastructure have also left millions of rural and poor families without reliable internet access. Many schools dont have enough computers or tablets for all their students, or an adequate plan to distribute the devices on hand. English-language learners and students with disabilities are often being left behind. Concerns about student data privacy and screen time are rising as the nations children turn en masse to digital learning tools.

Continuity vs. Flexibility

The first question is how do we survive between now and the end of June, said Michael K. Barbour, an education professor at Touro University California and an expert on virtual learning. But we really need to start talking about what this looks like a year from now.

In the short term, the coronavirus pandemic has left school systems across the country navigating an unprecedented dilemma, said Earl Aguilera, an assistant education professor at California State University, Fresno, who studies the role of technology in schools and society.

See Also: Coronavirus and Schools

Should districts seek to maintain continuity and offer structure, by moving as much of the normal school day as possible online? Or should they embrace uncertainty and prioritize flexibility, by being as responsive as they can to the ever-shifting demands of an escalating emergency?

The 356,000-student Miami-Dade County Public Schools has taken the former approach, leveraging its existing ed-tech infrastructure and invoking its emergency instructional continuity plan, originally developed with an eye toward maintaining operations in the wake of a hurricane or other natural disaster. The district is planning to distribute tens of thousands of Chromebooks. Homebound children are already accessing the districts core curriculum via online learning programs such as iReady and Edgenuity. Teachers are expected to monitor their students performance and communicate with them daily.

M-DCPS is committed to ensuring the highest level of academic excellence, no matter the circumstances, the district announced in a March 20 press release.

In the Boston suburbs, meanwhile, the 7,200-student Lexington, Mass., school district has taken the opposite tack. Last week, superintendent Julie Hackett rolled out a remote learning plan that stressed scaled-back expectations. Until school buildings re-open, Hackett urged Lexington families to anticipate that structured learning time will be reduced by half. Teachers will scale their workdays back significantly. Students will receive feedback, not grades. The districts academic focus will be on reinforcing whats already been taught, then providing students with opportunities for independent work that doesnt require their parents to magically learn how to teach a child to read, or understand algebra, or pass the AP Physics exam.

The traditional school day as we once knew it has completely changed, the superintendent wrote in an open letter to the Lexington community on March 23. We are in the midst of a global health crisis, necessitating a shift in our teaching and learning priorities.

In between those poles, thousands of other school systems have adopted a hodgepodge of strategies.

According to the Education Week Research Center survey, 37 percent of teachers said they had interacted with students at least once per day since their school was closed due to the coronavirus, while 16 percent said they had not interacted with their students at all. In the same survey, the vast majority of district leaders said that at least some of their students are able to access digital content via an online learning e system. But more than half of those same leaders said they were not able to provide online learning opportunities to all students.

On the ground, remote learning in some communities has been limited to photocopied worksheets. In at least seven states, teachers are delivering lessons on public television via school district partnerships with local PBS affiliates. Other districts have focused on curating and distributing links to free online learning sites such as Khan Academy. In some schools, teachers are posting lessons and homework assignments to learning platforms such as Canvas or Google Classroom, where students can also upload their work. Elsewhere, schools are focused on maintaining social connections among staff and students, encouraging them to meet during virtual office hours or share photos on Seesaw.

The variety of approaches is staggering. But a common thread runs throughout.

No matter what districts are doing, many of the nations children are currently attending school in their beds and on their sofas and at their kitchen tables, alongside siblings and pets, with laptops and tablets and textbooks that offer only a partial connection to the rest of the world. That means that parents and caregivers, often juggling work-from-home obligations and money worries of their own, are now also responsible for shaping the day-to-day education of the countrys children.

Its been an incredible shock for families, said Robin Lake, the director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, a research and advocacy organization that has been tracking districts responses to the coronavirus crisis.

Huge, Complex Tech Equity Issues

Federal and state officials havent made things any easier.

A massive coronavirus relief packagelikely to include billions of dollars for public schools, including a substantial chunk that could be used to support remote learningwas expected to be signed by the president. But school technology advocates have voiced disappointment that the plan apparently wont include new funding for the federal E-rate program, which supports connectivity for schools and libraries.

There have also been conflicting messages around when schools should plan to re-open. Many public health experts suggest that coronavirus-related infections have yet to peak, meaning that the social-distancing protocols, shelter-in-place orders, and mass school closures could remain in effect for weeks or months. If that proves to be the case, schools would be wise to devote scarce resources to planning for remote learning over the long haul.

President Donald Trump, however, has been emphatic in his desire to re-open the countrypresumably including schoolsby Easter, potentially putting the White House at odds with many of the nations governors, who will ultimately make the decision.

And the most confusing, highest-stakes question around schools rush to mass online- and remote instruction has revolved around equity. Even before the pandemic, advocates decried schools lack of digital resources for English-language learners and students with disabilities, as well as a nationwide homework gap that leaves an estimated 12 million American children without a reliable high-speed internet connection at home.

Many districts are in the midst of major efforts to address such concerns, and many superintendents and school boards are fearful of any misstep that could result in lawsuits or the loss of federal funding. So when the U.S. Department of Education advised on March 17 that online learning opportunities offered in response to coronavirus closures must be either accessible to all students or paired with equally effective alternate access, some districts immediately froze efforts they were just getting off the ground.

To ensure equity, remote instruction should not be provided to students, including through the internet, technology at home, by phone, or otherwise, William Hite, the superintendent of the 130,000-student School District of Philadelphia, wrote to the citys principals that same night.

Four days later, the federal education department released a fact sheet clarifying its earlier stance. By then, however, Philadelphia had already switched gears, moving to offer supplemental, nonmandatory online learning materials while getting as many digital devices, mobile hot-spots, and paper packets out to students as possible.

Absent clear direction or guidance, thousands of districts across the country have pursued similar equity-related approaches. The 600-student Reardon-Edwall School District in northern Washington started sending its school buses along their regular routes to deliver paper lessons to students. The 82,000-student Austin Independent School District in Texas began adding Wi-Fi connectivity on more than 500 school buses, so that they can be used as roving hot spots to help students get online. In Boulder, Colo., school administrators rushed to translate online materials into multiple languages. In New York City, teachers worked quickly to make online lessons more accessible, through accommodations such as audio-recorded instructions.

Still, every such effort seemed to create a new worry.

The lessons from a decade of poorly planned device deployments seemed to go unheeded in places such as Orange County, Calif., where a hurried effort by the 47,000-student Capistrano Unified School District to distribute Chromebooks led hundreds of families to wait in close proximity in blocks-long lines that snaked around local schools, only to find there werent nearly enough devices to go around.

Just as millions of students across the country were being asked to log on, the researchers behind a massive new study of childrens screen time warned that overall time on computers, tablets, and televisions each day is linked to diminished language developmentregardless of the quality of the content kids are seeing.

Cybersecurity experts cautioned that if students, teachers, and school information-technology professionals are forced to work remotely for an extended period of time, the country could see a significant spike in data breaches and cyberattacks involving public schools.

And those live lessons on Facebook and Instagram, or those class discussions teachers are hosting via the free Zoom accounts they just signed up for?

Theyre almost certainly violating state and federal privacy laws, and they are exposing children to widespread collection of their location data, browsing histories, and other sensitive personal information, said Amelia Vance, the director of Youth & Education Privacy at the Future of Privacy Forum, who urged teachers to avoid commercial applications that arent intended for educational use.

Honestly, at this point, Id be thrilled if teachers would limit themselves to ed-tech products right now, Vance said.

Take a Deep Breath

Still, virtual learning experts said, now is the time to take a deep breath, despite the confusion and false starts and glaring inequities.

The country is in a crisis unlike any other in its modern history. When the emergency bells rang, Americas public schools stepped up, quickly taking the lead on dramatic new efforts to stabilize and take care of their communities. The massive and ad hoc move online is only a week or two old in most places. Those realities shouldnt be overlooked, said Barbour, the Touro University California professor.

And even amid the press of immediate demands, Barbour said, educators desperately need a moment to assess the situation and consider what might be coming over the uncertain horizon. Most districts have not yet announced any hard plans to re-open. Those that have expect the dates and details to change. Alarmingly, if not surprisingly, 44 percent of district leaders say they havent yet figured out how to make up instructional time lost to the coronavirus.

That means the hard part is yet to come. Accomplish what you can during the remainder of this school year, Barbour advised. But find a way to look beyond tomorrow. Even if schools open again in May, or September, millions of students will re-enter buildings academically behind and having endured considerable trauma. How will schools support them?

And what if the remote learning strategies being developed now have to remain in place well into the 2020-21 school year? Two decades of experimentation with online education modelsfrom full-time virtual schools to online coursework and credit recovery classes, and from distance-learning programs to snow-day emergency planshave yielded mostly flaccid results. Can districts use this time to develop something better, creating new routines and processes and pedagogical strategies that could make remote and online education more successful if it becomes necessary for an extended time?

The good news, said Aguilera, the Fresno State professor, is that the technology schools are struggling to deploy at the moment is secondary to what will matter most in the months ahead. The compassion, empathy, kindness, and commitment that the nations educators have already shown is the best reason for optimism that Americas public-education system can weather whats to come.

Teachers have spent years cultivating the most important tools they need to address this crisis, Aguilera said. The biggest challenge now is taking those qualities and translating them at a distance.
Even if corona positive cases crossed 70 in Telangana , the CM of telangana is very much hopeful that the state is going to become corona free by 7th April. He says all the suspects and corona positive persons are going to be recovered and discharged soon. The CM himself admit that there are 25,937 people are in isolation 70 positive cases so far , 11 tested negative and if they are tested negative again , we will send them home.

The CM of telangana KCR said The Govt buys all the crop of farmers, no need to worry. They need not come to cities or market yards- we will give coupons and buy in an orderly manner. If you go in groups, police will beat. The Govt has given the orders to police like that. Its not their mistake and they are acting on the direction of the government only.

The CM said We will bring Bihari Hamaalis (workers) for crops since there are not here now (they went to Bihar for holi festival and struck there). Our Telangana people are not even 5 percentage of them.

So we are negotiating with Bihar and central Govt to get them somehow. They are like our family members  we give ration to u even if u dont have ration cards here. We will take care if ur health too.

He lambasted on the Indonesian religious preachers by saying those idiots brought Corona virus to Telangana State. 10 people belonging to Indonesia were tested positive in Telangana. they had toured many places of religious worship and preached large gatherings too. When asked by reporters about the financial condition of the state he told A total of 12 thousand crores Rupees revenue has to come into the state treasury, but due to coronavirus lockdown, there ha benn no income for the state since March 15th. we may not pay MLAs salaries, and if necessary, we may cut off Govt employees salaries too. We are in crisis now. Everyone should cooperate with the government. This is not the luxury time, we should eat less in the time of crisis.

KCRs appeal came on a day when incidents of migrant workers hitting the roads in the state borders asked them to return to their places in hyderabad. No hostel will be shut down. The state government has released Rs 25,000 crore to Civil Supplies Department for procuring paddy and Rs 3,500 crore to Markfed (Cooperative Marketing Federation) for procuring maize.He criticised the persons who spread rumours in social media on coronavirus. and he warned them that the govt will take stringent action against them.

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The food is ready, but no one picks up the order. Customers get frustrated after waiting an hour for their driver to arrive, then have to settle for a refund.

Rinse, repeat.

Thats what some New Jersey restaurants say has been happening when customers order delivery from Grubhub.

Food delivery has proven to be a lifeline for both customers and restaurants during the coronavirus pandemic, but in recent days and weeks, significant glitches have surfaced with drivers employed by the delivery service, restaurant managers and staff say.

Wurstbar, a purveyor of sausages, hamburgers, beer and poutine in Jersey City, experienced one problem after another with Grubhub on Saturday night. The restaurant would get orders ready, but some drivers never showed up. The drivers, however, would mark the food as delivered.

It happened about 10 times, all within the same period, with the same drivers, owner Aaron Kahn told NJ Advance Media Sunday. Wed call the (drivers) numbers and itd be a disconnected line."

He suggested that the drivers, who seemed to be changing their profile pictures but operating under the same names, might be using burner phones.

Worst of all, he said, this problem was coming to a head around 8:30 p.m., a peak time for orders.

Its been happening all week, but last night it happened a lot, to the point where we had to shut Grubhub down completely," he said.

The restaurant also uses UberEats. Now, Kahn is thinking about signing up for DoorDash.

We are probably 80% delivery  maybe even 85%  15 to 20% people calling or picking up.

Kahn opened the restaurant almost four years ago. Now, he fears he may have to close.

Aaron Kahn, owner of Wurstbar, says the business is already struggling as is, without the added stress of delivery problems.Wurstbar

He started up Grubhub delivery again on Sunday, only to see the same problems recur.

It happened twice now, same driver changed his profile picture," he said. I have to shut down deliveries again. This might just put me out of business.

A driver will get a notification that an order is in their area and theyre accepting the responsibility of getting the order and immediately marking it as delivered," Kahn said. He wonders if those drivers are still receiving their delivery fee, despite never having delivered the food.

People have waited up to an hour, only to learn their food was never coming, he said.

They were reimbursed (by Grubhub) but theyre still hungry," Kahn said. The restaurant also gets to keep the money from the sale of the food, but that does not fix the problem.

NJ Advance Media reached out to Grubhub. A spokeswoman said the company would be looking into the Wurstbar deliveries.

These are serious allegations, she said in a statement. We are treating them with the utmost importance and doing a thorough investigation. We have zero tolerance for this type of alleged misconduct. The vast majority of our orders are completed without incident or complaint, but when things dont go as planned, we appreciate hearing feedback and work hard to make it right. If a restaurant partner ever has an issue with a delivery partner, they can specify that the driver no longer picks up from their restaurant through their Grubhub for Restaurants portal.

Earlier this month, Grubhub announced it would temporarily suspend the collection of $100 million in commission payments from independent restaurants, in light of the pandemic and its effect on business.

Kahn said hes often faced long waits to speak to Grubhub support, but flagging the drivers in question hasnt put a stop to the no-show problem.

Surf Taco's Hoboken location is among the restaurants that have been affected by Grubhub driver issues. SJN

All of sudden, the same person is taking orders again," he said.

Kahn said hes also gotten conflicting answers about the source of the problem  one representative told him it happens all the time, while another seemed unaware of the issue. He said his account adviser has yet to get in touch.

Ive never seen it like this before. Weve used Grubhub for three years now," Kahn said. Were scared to turn it on.

But Kahn and other restaurant owners are hard pressed for other options in a climate where dine-in customers are not a reality, and not everyone feels comfortable venturing outside for takeout. Hes thinking about sticking with the app but bringing in a third-party delivery company. Still, in a rough time for business, its another worry he didnt need to have.

I feel really bad for these customers," he said.

At Artichoke Basilles Pizza in Hoboken, the Grubhub problem is a familiar one.

Last week I had some orders and the driver was accepting it as saying he would pick it up and he never came to the store," cashier Jefferson Brito told NJ Advance Media. Five orders were affected, and five refunds were issued, he said.

Brito said a manager had been in touch with Grubhub about the no-shows, but it happened again Sunday.

They get mad at us," he said of customers. "Its not on our end. Its Grubhubs end.

Some weeks its worse than others, Brito said.

The issue has also played out over the last few weeks at Jersey Mikes Subs in Hoboken.

They (the drivers) just dont show up and the customers will call us and complain and say I ordered it an hour ago, said assistant manager Andre Wilson. Staff will usually tell customers to cancel the order or get a refund, he told NJ Advance Media.

This is every day that its been going on like this," he said.

The scenario is all too familiar at yet another Hoboken restaurant, Surf Taco. A driver will say a customer received the food when the restaurant hasnt even made the food yet.

That happens a lot, manager Meghan Kiernan told NJ Advance Media. "I think people are scamming Grubhub. Itll be a fake (driver) picture and the same accounts keep happening.

On Friday, I had the same thing," she said. I had almost 10 orders sitting here with the same driver."

As for reporting to Grubhub?

We brought it to their attention numerous times," she said. The people get banned but then they just make a new account with a new name and phone number.

Have a tip? Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.

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The Cuyahoga River saw historic flood levels March 29, as heavy rains also affected other areas of Northeast Ohio.

The National Weather Service stated that at 7:30 a.m. the Cuyahoga River levels reached the 7th highest ever recorded at the gauge near Independence.

It is a FEMA 1 percent flood, commonly known as a 100 year flood, the National Weather Service stated.

According to the United States Geological Survey, the term 100-year flood is used in an attempt to simplify the definition of a flood that statistically has a 1-percent chance of occurring in any given year.

The highest observation was 21.62 feet at 9:30 a.m. according to the National Weather Service. Waters above 17 feet is considered flooding. Over 21 feet is considered major flooding. The highest record water level on the Cuyahoga River is 23.3 feet according to the agency.

Lake County also experienced flooding March 29.

The storms caused the closure of Interstate 90 at state Route 615 eastbound for about two hours, starting around 6:24 a.m., according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Flooding also caused the closure of state Route 306 between Kirtland Road and Markell Road, with Markell Road closed at the Waite Hill border, Kirtland Hills police stated in a 7:17 a.m. Facebook post. In a 9:52 a.m. update, the department stated the road would remain closed for an undetermined amount of time as the road was being cleared, after which the bridge was tested for structural integrity. The road ultimately reopened around 4:30 p.m.

At 10:48 a.m., the city of Willoughby stated that Daniels Park was closed due to flooding.

Please avoid creeks and ditches with high water as currents are very strong under what might be a calm surface, the city stated. Also, please avoid roads where flooding is occurring as manholes can become dislodged and dangerous for cars and pedestrians. When floodwaters recede, we will be out checking for damage.

The Lake County Sheriffs Office took advantage of the situation, with the day shift road patrol unit conduct a training mission highlighting water resume equipment and techniques.

The Lake County Sheriffs Office is fortunate to have several Deputy Sheriffs, who are water rescue and rescue dive certified, the department stated in a Facebook post. Deputy Majewski and Deputy Rowland provided us with extremely beneficial instruction on how to properly and safely conduct a water rescue mission in the event an incident of that nature occurred in the future.

The department reminded drivers not to drive on flooded roads.

Turn arounddont drown, the department stated.
Medical Supplies Collected at UW, Donated to Hospitals

John Connett, a master technician in the UW Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, loads donated personal protective equipment into a pickup truck to take to Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie. The Wyoming Technology Coronavirus Coalition will host a medical supply drive Wednesday, April 1, from noon-4 p.m. in the UW Merica Hall parking area. (UW Photo)

Members of the University of Wyoming and Laramie communities can donate unused personal protective equipment (PPE) to help increase supplies for hospitals and medical centers across Wyoming during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Wyoming Technology Coronavirus Coalition (WTCC) is an organization that is working to confront the challenges of the coronavirus in the state. The WTCC will host a medical supply drive Wednesday, April 1, from noon-4 p.m. in the UW Merica Hall parking area. Those interested can donate any unused PPE -- opened or unopened. The WTCC will collect and distribute all donations to hospitals and medical centers throughout the state.

Priority items are:

-- Sterile and non-sterile gloves -- preferably latex-free.

-- Respirator masks -- N95, N99, P100 of all sizes and filters.

-- Surgical masks.

-- Clear face shields.

-- Disposal gowns.

Other items needed are:

-- Hand sanitizer.

-- Bleach bottles or sprays.

-- Bleach wipes.

-- Isopropyl alcohol.

-- Eye protection and goggles.

-- Powered air purifying respirators -- 3M or MaxAir and unused hoods, filters, batteries, chargers and tubes to go with these units.

-- Shoe covers.

-- Biohazard bags.

-- Sharps containers.

If you have been exposed to COVID-19, please do not donate your supplies, says Samantha Alford, who is leading the medical supply drive project for the WTCC. We want to protect all WTCC volunteers who are collecting supplies so we will use precautions. Please maintain 6 feet of distance between people as you approach our donation table.

Alford, a masters student in the UW Department of Zoology and Physiology, originally from Luray, Va., is responsible for organizing volunteers to gather hospital contact information, supply needs and where to ship donations.

For more information about the April 1 medical supply drive, email Alford at salford1@uwyo.edu.

Additionally, John Connett, a master technician in the UW Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, has been collecting donated PPE from various departments and offices in the UW College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Donated items will go to Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie.

Connett says he will accept supplies from other colleges and departments on campus. Those wishing to donate can email Connett at jconnett@uwyo.edu or call or text him at (307) 761-0960.
Recently, an auto lender shared a story from one of their borrowers -- this story has been edited for clarity and we have changed some details for privacy. Stories like these show us that when we simplify the auto finance customer experience, not only does the customer benefit, but the dealer and lender also benefit.

It was just my luck. After over a decade of loyal service, my trusty 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe finally decided its mission on earth was fulfilled. I sat in the car on a bone-chilling morning in December ready to go to work, and it simply refused to start. I was told the cost of fixing it would be essentially equal to its worth on the market. I took a deep breath, and realized the time had come to find a new car. It was a moment I had been pushing off for years, despite the Chevrolet's increasing number of malfunctions recently.

Despite the inevitability of my situation, my Chevrolet's demise came at a less-than-ideal time. Beyond the 'car' issue, here were a few moving parts in my life:

I had just started a new job working at a tile store, and in my area of Connecticut, if you don't have a car you don't have a job. I'm a single mom in the middle of helping my daughter through college. Needless to say, the budget is tight. Winters here are brutal, and a snowstorm was heading our way. This makes getting anything done a bigger hassle than usual.

Yet the show must go on, and time was of the essence. After spending just a couple of hours combing through car listings online, I settled on a used 2015 Nissan Versa. Not the most glamorous of vehicles, but it was definitely an upgrade from what I had. Plus, the price was right.

But I knew the hardest part was ahead of me: the endless paperwork. I still have nightmares from the bureaucratic maze I went through over 10 years ago when I purchased the Chevrolet. A friend picked me up to take me to the dealer (remember, at this point, I was essentially stranded at home without a functional car), and off we went.

I stepped into the used car dealership, found my Nissan Versa, and did a test drive. I also brought along a mechanic to make sure the car was road-worthy, and luckily everything was fine. When it came time to sign the contract, I was delighted that I could fill out my details by clicking on a text message link sent by the dealer to my mobile phone. But then the dealer mentioned that I needed to show an old salary stub and an electricity bill with my address on it. Who brings that with them? I didn't have it on me, and would have to bring it to the lender. Between starting a brand new job and the lack of transportation to even get to my lender, I felt my eyes fill with tears.

The dealer noticed I seemed upset, and delivered the solution that calmed all my fears. "Don't worry, you can do it all when you get home," he said.

"So I need to scan and email these documents from home? I don't have a scanner." I explained, as I wracked my brain about where I could go to scan.

The dealer smiled. "Actually, you can do it all from the text message link I just sent you. And you can sign from your mobile phone, too."

It felt like a huge burden had been lifted. I felt a smile spread across my face.

Back at home, I followed the easy instructions in the text message It looked like they were using a service called Lightico. I was amazed how I could take a picture of my ID, pay stub, and other documents and just shoot it across the internet. I provided my e-Signature at the end, and that's it, all my details were submitted!

The next morning, I found out my loan was approved. Whereas in the past, I'd need to go to the auto lender to fill out forms and submit documents, here the process was smooth and simple. When I went to the dealership the next day, I hugged the dealer and thanked him for saving me from what I assumed would be an inevitable nightmare involving back-and-forths, fax machines, and lots of in-person visits on time I didn't have.

I jumped into my Nissan Versa, and made my way through the snowy roads just in time for work. I couldn't believe I was done. If I had known it would've been this quick and easy to get my loan application approved, maybe I would've upgraded my car a long time ago.

This experience definitely set the bar high for next time I make a major purchase. Who would've thought buying a used car with auto financing would turn out to be an actual pleasure?
San Francisco Mayor London Breed (Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)

Conditions are deteriorating at Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center, a skilled nursing and rehabilitation center facility in San Francisco, amid a coronavirus outbreak there, city officials said Monday.

Mayor London Breed said nine employees of the large facility had tested positive as well as two patients. Infection control nurses from the state and infectious disease physicians and epidemiologists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been sent to San Francisco to help deal with the outbreak, officials said.

I am saddened to report to the San Francisco community the Laguna Honda hospital has a growing outbreak of coronavirus, said Dr. Grant Colfax, director of public health for San Francisco. Because long-term-care facilities around the world have been at greater risk in the COVID-19 pandemic, we expect the situation to unfortunately get worse, Colfax said.

Laguna Honda is operated by the San Francisco Department of Public Health and is a skilled nursing and rehabilitation center with space for about 780 residents.

The situation will escalate in Laguna Honda," Breed said at a news conference Monday, adding, "It escalate here in San Francisco.

The nine Laguna Honda workers and two patients infected with the coronavirus are in good condition, Colfax said Monday. Since March 26, 158 workers and 54 patients were tested for the virus. Of the patients, 51 tested negative and one result is still pending. Among staff, 156 have tested negative and 25 tests are underway.

Colfax said he expected for infections to be reported in both staff and the residents. Managers are working to train staff on proper wearing of personal protective equipment and thorough cleaning of resident rooms and common spaces.

The two units where coronavirus cases have been diagnosed are under an extensive quarantine order; each unit houses about 60 residents. Doors have been secured and sheriff's deputies are monitoring the exits to prevent residents from leaving, and are only allowing appropriate staff to enter. Residents are being monitored for illness during every shift, and staff are screened twice for symptoms at every shift.

Story continues

Laguna Honda is also setting up a field care clinic as a precaution in case there's a need to separate groups of patients, Colfax said.

Breed said that more people in the city seemed to be adhering to a shelter-in-place order over the weekend. There are 374 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in San Francisco, and six people have died.

There are still challenges San Francisco is facing. The city still doesn't have a good estimate what percentage of San Francisco residents likely have the coronavirus, Colfax said. They also are short of testing swabs. "We are struggling to get swabs in order to test," Colfax said. There are multiple items that are in short supply  from items needed to capture a specimen to test to the chemicals needing to process the tests.

The situation at Laguna Honda underscores larger concerns about hospitals in California in general as coronavirus cases spike.

Hospitals risk being overwhelmed by a growing number of sick patients.

The number of COVID-19 patients in Californias intensive-care beds doubled overnight, from 200 on Friday to 410 on Saturday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said. And the number of hospitalized patients testing positive for COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, rose by 38.6%  from 746 on Friday to 1,034 on Saturday, he said.

Were blessed that were just at 410, devastating for the individuals there and their family members and loved ones, Newsom said at a news conference in Sunnyvale on Saturday. But by comparison and contrast to other parts of this country, that number seems relatively modest.

To prepare for a surge in coronavirus patients, medical cots and equipment are being delivered to the San Mateo Event Center in the Bay Area.

Deliveries began Sunday, and the National Guard is expected be at the center through Tuesday to set up the equipment. The federal treatment site can house 250 patients with mild symptoms.

The latest projections estimate that a medical surge could push the hospitals in our county to capacity and well need another location to house patients requiring particular levels of care, County Manager Mike Callagy said. We cant just wait to see if this will happen.
Bats are being pointed out as the source of coronavirus. However, scientists claim the humans are to blame for the spread of the disease.

The rapid destruction of habitats, the increasing population, and the fast mobility of people and animals have caused the zoonotic spillover. These, according to experts, as reported on CNN, have caused diseases to spread. Stopping these human behaviors is an easier fix than developing vaccine every virus outbreak, wildlife experts say.

The Story of Bats

How the coronavirus emerged remains a question for scientists. Unless they can isolate a live virus in a suspected species, proving the novel coronavirus source is a difficult task. However, viruses extremely similar to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have been found in Chinese horseshoe bats, making the bats a likely suspect as the virus' source.

According to Andrew Cunningham, a Professor of Wildlife Epidemiology at the Zoological Society of London, bats are the only mammals that can fly. This ability allows them to scatter over a large area, carrying with them pathogens or diseases. Bats' immune system has become very specialized owing to their ability to fly. Flying increases the bat's body temperature that mimics as fever. This increase in temperature happens twice a day: when flying out to feed and when returning to roost. The pathogens that have evolved in bats can adapt to these peaks of body temperature.

Problems arise when viruses are transmitted from one species to another through zoonotic spillover. Fever for humans, for example, is a mechanism that raises body temperature to kill a virus. Since viruses from a bat can withstand an increase in body temperature, it is not affected by fever.

When a bat is stressed, Cunningham added, from being hunted or having its habitat damaged by deforestation, its immune system is challenged and finds it difficult to manage pathogens. He likened it to having a cold sore virus when stressed, thus leading to a cold sore.

Zoonotic spillovers

The problem, according to Cunningham occurs when diseases transfer to another species through "zoonotic spillover" or zoonotic transfer. Human activities are causing these, Cunningham said.

Animals are being transported for medicine, pets, and food; this transport is happening at an unprecedented scale. Habitats are being destroyed to make way for more human-dominated landscapes, and such destruction causes stress, according to Kate Jones, Chair of Ecology and Biodiversity at University College London said.

For Cunningham and Jones, spillovers from wild animals have occurred historically, but the person infected would have died or recovered before coming in contact with a huge population in a town or city. Nowadays, however, motorized transport and planes in a forest in Central Africa can bring people to London the next day. Hence, spillover is magnified by the fact that there are so many people to transmit the viruses to.

Bats are Not to Blame.

According to Cunningham, it is the way humans interact with bats that have led to a pandemic spread of the pathogen. The immune system of bats, though poorly understood, might provide us solutions. Understanding how bats cope with pathogens can offer us clues, in cases of spillover to people, he added. To stop spillover, the critical points for it need to be identified and stopped, Cunningham suggested. Jones said destroying habitats should also be stopped and such places should be restored.

"It's not OK to transform a forest into agriculture without understanding the impact that has on climate, carbon storage, disease emergence, and flood risk," said Jones.
HRAUN/iStock(NEW YORK) -- As officials scramble to supply hospitals with much needed protective equipment for doctors and nurses fighting the novel coronavirus on the front lines, hospital leaders around the country warn that they are running low on another critical supply: money.



Hospitals have taken a significant loss of revenue as they cut back lucrative elective procedures to free up resources to treat COVID-19 patients. At the same time, they are pouring money into efforts to fight the virus like buying personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies, providing child care for staff and overtime pay, transforming units to COVID-19 wings for treatment and setting up drive-thru testing sites, hospital officials told ABC News.



New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week called the combination a "double whammy." For hospital systems across the country the costs are astronomical and state officials told ABC News they fear some facilities do not have enough cash to keep up.



The $2 trillion stimulus package President Donald Trump signed on Friday afternoon, which awards nearly $100 billion to hospitals to fight the coronavirus, is a boost many hope will alleviate some of the financial burden and prevent hospitals from closing their doors.



"We cant print money, so we have to have the financial support coming in." LeRay Brown, the CEO of One Brooklyn Health System, told ABC News. "Without that funding I dont know how long we can continue."



One Brooklyn Health System, which operates three hospitals in New York City where the virus has hit hardest in the U.S., projects they will need to spend an additional $30 million per month in order to respond to surge needs in their area, Brown said, including the nearly $8 million they will lose per month by cutting out elective surgeries. Purchasing nearly 300 additional beds in order to increase hospitals' capacity by 50% -- which they have been mandated to do under an executive order signed by Cuomo -- will cost $5 million alone.



The hospital system, which is crucial for low-income individuals in the area, is already caring for over 200 patients who either have the virus or are awaiting test results. Meanwhile, it only has two weeks cash on hand, Brown said.



One doctor on the front lines said they feel hospitals are being overlooked in the national dialogue about the extreme toll the pandemic has taken on the U.S. economy.



"I think there's been so much national focus on bailing out the airlines, but I think what people don't realize is that the hospitals are in extreme financial trouble over the COVID-19 crisis," a physician at a top Boston area hospital told ABC News. "I feel like people -- nobody's talking about that. Everybody thinks hospitals are doing fine. If we don't bail out the hospitals, we're going to lose the very lifelines that we have -- the front lines that we have -- to fight this thing."



During the signing of the stimulus bill, Trump did acknowledge the challenge hospitals are facing, saying more than $100 billion is going to "support our heroic doctors, nurses and hospitals" and that hospitals will get "the money they need."



American Hospital Association President and CEO Rick Pollack called the legislation an "important first step forward," but warned that "more will need to be done to deal with the unprecedented challenge of this virus."



Hospital leaders in numerous states echoed the dire concerns about their facilities and the urgent need for an infusion of funding.



Andy Carter, the president and CEO of the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP), said there is a "legitimate credible threat" that some hospitals in his state would close without immediate financial support.



An HAP spokesperson told ABC News the federal package was "encouraging," but warned there was no "clarity" on how much aid would be distributed to hospitals in the state -- or when.



"We caution that some of our members have estimated, and nationwide accounts validate, that hospitals are facing a financial free-fall," the spokesperson wrote, explaining that a "preliminary analysis" shows that losses for hospitals in Pennsylvania alone could rise to more than $1 billion per month.



In Ohio, Ohio Hospital Association President Mike Abrams said he could think of two hospitals that he "worries a lot about," and could "think of many more" that will be in equally precarious situations if aid does not come soon. The TriHealth system, based in Cincinnati, has already cut 20% of senior leaders' pay in order to "be fully prepared for the surge in demand," CEO Mark Clement said in a statement, as reported by Cincinnati.com.



Jeff Tieman, president and CEO of the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, explained the increase in costs are especially significant for rural hospitals that were already "under serious financial stress" even before the pandemic began in the state of Vermont, which has one of the oldest populations in the country,



Minnesota-based health system M Health Fairview, which recently converted one of its hospitals to a COVID-19 specialized-care facility, is anticipating a cut of more than a third of its revenue due to loss of volume in outpatient areas, spokesperson David Henke told ABC News. As a nonprofit group that operates on a extremely tight margins -- with net operating margin for last fiscal year at just 0.2% -- Fairview faces significant financial challenges as a result of the pandemic, Henke said.



"Our focus right now is providing the care our patients and our community need," Henke told ABC News. "However, the reality is M Health Fairview, like many health care systems across the country, is facing unprecedented challenges as a result of this public health crisis."



And the financial crunch is a reality hospitals across the financial spectrum are dealing with.



"Even the hospitals who are well resourced are really worried," Abrams told ABC News.

He estimates the fiscal impact on Ohio hospitals would amount to a loss of $1.2 billion per month.

"It is effecting everyone negatively, whether you are a huge system that is well resourced or a small system that was hanging on nervously," he said.



The Hospital for Special Surgery in New York said the cost of scaling back their capacity by 90% in order to brace for a surge and transforming their facilities, coupled with the loss in revenue, amounted to "hundreds of million of dollars," CEO Lou Shapiro told ABC News.



In Louisiana, where the number of positive cases and deaths is skyrocketing, Baton Rouge General Hospital has also backed away from its outpatient business as it doubles down on its COVID-19 response while continuing to provide essential care for those having heart attacks, strokes, diabetes or cancer.



Completely letting go of the highly lucrative elective surgery has caused a big financial strain on the system, its CEO Stephen Mumford told ABC News. Mumford said on Thursday there were less than five surgeries, all of which were emergent surgeries.



"When you go from a hospital that does 40 to 50 surgeries a day to a hospital that does two to three, it really is going to hurt us," Mumford said.



"But the reality is, we can't worry about that right now," Mumford said. "We're a community hospital and we've got to take care of the community patients that are coming in."



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Germany and Switzerland are treating foreign coronavirus patients who are being flown in from nearby European nations that have been worse hit by the pandemic.

The two countries are treating people from France and Italy in an effort to help countries whose health services are struggling to cope with the coronavirus crisis, Euro News reported.

The German Air Force took to Twitter and said that one of its planes flew two patients from Strasbourg, in eastern France, to Ulm, in the southeastern German region of Baden-Wurttemberg.

Eight French and Italian patients infected with COVID-19 were similarly transferred to hospitals in Germany on Saturday. Six of them were flown from Lombardy, Italy's worst-hit region, to Cologne where they were then dispatched to hospitals in Cologne, Bonn and Bochum.

More French patients infected with COVID-19 have been transferred to hospitals in Germany and Switzerland, authorities have confirmed.

Italy has reported more than 10,000 deaths and 92,400 cases. France has confirmed 292 COVID-19 fatalities over the past 24 hours, and the death toll climbed to 2,606 in the country

France's Defence Minister Florence Parly thanked Germany for its help. "Germany for mobilizing to take care of French people and for embodying even greater solidarity: Europe watching over Europeans".

She also announced that some patients from the eastern city of Mulhouse had been transferred to Switzerland.

Germany has so far recorded 455 deaths, according to a tally by the John Hopkins University. It has registered more than 50,000 confirmed cases.

She also announced that some patients from the eastern city of Mulhouse had been transferred to Switzerland.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kifugo! I heard again and again of the curfew  a Swahili word, because it was the lingua franca there. Imprisonment! Yes, it was enforced confinement, but I also felt privileged to be a witness: I had never seen anything like it. I experienced the stages of the coup, the suspension of the constitution, the panic buying and the effects of the emergency. My clearest memory is of the retailing of rumors  outrageous, frightening, seemingly improbable  but who could dispute them? Our saying then was, Dont believe anything you hear until the government officially denies it.

Speaking for myself, as a traveler, any great crisis  war, famine, natural disaster or outrage  ought to be an occasion to bear witness, even if it means leaving the safety of home. The fact that it was the manipulative monster Chairman Mao who said, All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience, does not make the apothegm less true. It is or should be the subtext for all travelers chronicles.

The curfew  three years into my time in Africa  was my initiation into the misuse of power, of greed, cowardice and selfishness; as well as, also, their opposites  compassion, bravery, mutual aid and generosity. Even at the time, 24-years-old and fairly callow, I felt I was lucky in some way to be witnessing this convulsion. It was not just that it helped me to understand Africa better; it offered me insights into crowds and power and civil unrest generally, allowing me to observe in extreme conditions the nuances of human nature.

I kept a journal. In times of crisis we should all be diarists and documentarians. Were bound to wail and complain, but its also useful to record the particularities of our plight. We know the progress of Englands Great plague of 1665 because Samuel Pepys anatomized it in his diary. On April 30 he wrote: Great fears of the sickness here in the City it being said that two or three houses are already shut up. God preserve us all! Later, on June 25, The plague increases mightily. And by July 26: The Sicknesse is got into our parish this week; and is endeed everywhere.
Justice Minister Naomi Long has said it is not useful the Northern Ireland power-sharing Executive appears split on coronavirus measures during the outbreak.

On Monday there were further reports of increased tensions over the power-sharing government's approach to the outbreak and the measures to take.

The Executive has been split on the matter of school closures and more recently the essential businesses that should remain open.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill has stated any business that is not essential should close. However First Minister Arlene Foster said if firms could put in place social distancing measures they could remain open.

A forum is to be established with government, labour and business representatives to look at what workplaces could remain open.

Sinn Fein has also called for testing for the virus to be further ramped up and more in line with the levels in the Republic of Ireland.

Justice Minister Naomi Long has said it was "unhelpful" the Executive appeared split on its message saying there needed to be one clear voice.

The thing that will create the most distress and fear and the most nervousness and the most panic in the community is when we do not give clear advice. Naomi Long

She told the BBC decisions were being taken on a UK-wide basis and support for business was also on a UK-wide business.

"There needs to be agreement on these issues and we need to speak clearly and with one voice," the Alliance leader said.

"There has been I think a difference in terms of people's interpretation of the advice that has been given.

"I have to say at times advice from Westminster has not been 100% clear. On one hand people are told not to leave home unless essential, and on the other they are told they can leave for work - which creates conflict.

"That's what we are trying to work our way through."

She said the Executive was determined to protect lives, but also livelihoods.

Read More

"People need to know a the end of this crisis they will have a job to go back to because otherwise this will become an even bigger crisis for families.

"We have to work through these questions. It is unhelpful when the Executive are seen to be taking different positions.

"The thing that will create the most distress and fear and the most nervousness and the most panic in the community is when we do not give clear advice."

Speaking on a Sinn Fein ministerial team Facebook live question and answer session, Michelle O'Neill said "testing had to be to the core" of the battle against the outbreak and they would fight for more to be conducted in Northern Ireland.

There has been criticism not enough testing is being done in Northern Ireland. Health authorities in the Republic are aiming to test 15,000 a day. In Northern Ireland that figure is just over 1,000.

"Everyone has a part to play and we all have to play that part," said Michelle O'Neill.

"We all have to act responsibly at this time."

She expressed some of the frustration her party had had with moves takes by the Stormont administration.

Read More

"We are in a five-party executive so without agreement we can't always do the things we want to do. We saw that with school closures where that was too long to come about. We also saw that with advice to businesses.

"Sinn Fein are determined to bring you the best possible leadership throughout this pandemic. We will do everything to save lives and protect healthcare workers. We must do everything we can to protect healthcare workers."

She added: "We are going to get through this, there will be dark times ahead.. but we are in this together."

Junior Minister Declan Kearney said it was vitally important more people in Northern Ireland had to be tested on a basis which "matched" levels in the Republic.

"The World Health Organization is the guiding light, the North Star which has advised and directed Sinn Fein's approach.

"We must test, test and test again.

"Testing is the only way we can ensure we locate clusters.. that the sick are separated from the healthy and we take the necessary measures to keep people safe and those that get ill can get support.

"We need expansive levels of testing right across the north."

He said there needed to be over 2,000 tested carried out a day and there needed to be an "island-wide approach" saying Michelle O'Neill had had discussion on agreeing a memorandum of understanding with the Dublin government on codifying cooperation between the two jurisdictions.

Ms O'Neill said she hoped that would be signed off by the Executive in the coming days.

She said: "The disease does not stop at the border, there needs to be all-island consistency.

"There have been differences, which had not been helpful.

"We need to mind each other, look out for each other. Everyone has been so good, everyone has been so supportive, we need to use that energy."

She said employers had to put in "every possible measures" to protect workforces and they would call out "unscrupulous" employers.

"The vast majority are doing the right thing, there are some that are not," she added.

"We accept it is a confusing picture for some people. But the rule of thumb is if you do not need to be in work, you should not be."

She added: "We will put people's, health, lives and safety first... there isn't any rule book on this. No one has been through this before.. we as political leaders will work our way through this in the interests of the people we represent."

Finance Minister Conor Murphy said there would be a budget statement made on Tuesday which would look to address support across a variety of sectors.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 17:54:38|Editor: Wang Yamei

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HANOI, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's Ministry of Health has recently launched its account on China's video-sharing app Douyin, also known as TikTok, in a bid to raise public awareness about COVID-19 preventive measures, Vietnam News Agency reported Monday.

The move also aims at calling on people to follow health recommendations and regularly updating related information for TikTok users, according to the news agency.

The ministry started a campaign on the platform last Sunday to call on users to share their happy moments when staying at home, as part of the efforts to encourage people to refrain from making crowds and avoid community transmissions, the news agency reported.

The TikTok channel of the health ministry, which has drawn more than 1 million views with over 20 animated films, will help to spread its messages quickly to an active and growing community of TikTok users in Vietnam, the news agency reported.
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Two people have been fined for failing to wear face masks at a coffee shop in the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang, as local authorities are beefing up measures to contain the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic.

Le Anh, chairman of the Peoples Committee in Hai Chau District, Da Nang, confirmed on Monday morning that competent authorities had imposed the fine upon two violators after inspecting a local coffee shop on Sunday.

The owner of the cafe and one of the customers were not wearing a face mask and were fined VND200,000 (US$8.5) each, pursuant to a 2013 government decree stipulating fines for administrative violations in the medical sector.

According to chairman Anh, the penalty is a way to remind all citizens to comply with the prime ministers directions in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic.

Local authorities will continue patrolling the city in the coming time and penalize those who fail to wear face masks in public, the chairman added.

The novel coronavirus, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has infected over 723,700 people and killed more than 34,000 globally as of Monday afternoon, according to Ministry of Health statistics.

Vietnam has announced 194 COVID-19 patients so far, with 55 having been discharged from the hospital by Monday.

No fatality related to the disease has been reported in the country to date.

The Vietnamese government began requiring people to wear face masks at crowded public places like airports, bus stations, and supermarkets on March 16.

As the epidemic has become more complicated lately, it is now required that residents wear face masks whenever they are in public.

Starting from March 28, the prime minister has banned the gathering of more than 10 people outdoors and shut down all non-essential businesses.

All residents are asked to stay home and only leave their house when absolutely necessary.

They must practice social distancing by keeping a distance of at least two meters from others when in public areas.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
New Delhi:

Hit by the exodus of the migrants from neighbouring Delhi during the coronavirus lockdown, the Yogi Adityanath government has come up with a unique solution. In an unprecedented move, the Uttar Pradesh government took over the entire Jaypee Yamuna Expressway township to shelter the migrants. The order was issued by the District Magistrate of Gautam Budhha Nagar. According to the order, the decision was taken by the authorities under the power granted by the clauses of the Epidemic Disease Act, 1897. This means that the authorities can use the buildings and other places in the areas as shelter homes and medical facilities for the migrants. (Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates)

In another order on Monday morning, the Lucknow administration took over four hotels in the state capital for the medical staff. "Hyatt Regency and Fairdeal Hotel have been acquired for the doctors/medical staff of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences. The Piccadily hotel and Lemon Tree Hotel have been acquired for the doctors/staff of Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences," the order said.

The Chief Minister will be visiting Noida, Ghaziabad, and Meerut to take stock of the situation. Yogi Adityanath has also written a letter to other Chief Ministers appealing them to take care of the migrants. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister has also transferred Rs 611 crores in the accounts of 27.15 lakh MNREGA labourers. The amount was transferred electronically to help the labourers in the situation of lockdown due to coronavirus.

The Centre on Sunday asked state governments and Union Territory administrations to effectively seal state and district borders to stop movements of migrant workers during lockdown, officials said. During a video conference with Chief Secretaries and DGPs, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla asked them to ensure that there is no movement of people across cities or on highways as the lockdown continues. "There has been a movement of migrant workers in some parts of the country. Directions were issued that district and state borders should be effectively sealed," a government official said.

(With agency inputs)

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
A leaked production schedule has cast doubt on how real Married At First Sight is.

The document has exposed an unexpected secret about how much 'dinner' is actually served during the show's 'dinner parties'.

Bizarrely, all of the cast are encouraged to bring their own food to the studio for filming, as well as being told to eat 'a substantial meal' before arriving on-set.

Are you surprised? A leaked production schedule has cast doubt on how real Married At First Sight, revealing unexpected details behind every dinner party. Pictured: The schedule

This suggests the food seen on-screen is just a visual prop amid the fighting.

The schedule reads: 'You will be catered for on set. but we ask that you eat a substantial meal prior to filming and as alway, you are welcome to bring snacks.'

Interestingly, despite it always being dark outside of the studio windows as dinner parties are filmed, the schedule reveals talent 'may have an AM call time'.

That's not how 'dinner parties' work! Bizarrely, all of the cast are encouraged to bring their own food to the studio, as well as being told to eat 'a substantial meal' before. Pictured: Liz Sobinoff

Fake? This suggests the food seen on screen is just a visual prop amid the fighting

The leaked schedule was sent out to the cast ahead of the reunion, detailing their travel and accommodation before shooting the final dinner party on January 15.

Another interesting detail is that all of their clothes must be 'signed off' and approved by two members of production before filming.

It also states producers will confiscate their mobile phones as they arrive on set.

Extreme? The schedule also reveals all clothes must be 'signed off' and approved before filming. Pictured: Chris Nicholls with a producer before the reunion on January 15

Behind the scenes! Mishel Karen and Steve Burley filming on November 28 in Sydney

Meanwhile, the lavish location of Married At First Sight's weekly dinner parties and commitment ceremonies isn't as glamorous as it appears on TV.

Although the couples are filmed being chauffeur driven to the destination each week, the cameras fail to capture them then being dumped on an industrial estate.

Daily Mail Australia can reveal that each year the show hires a warehouse in Sydney's Lilyfield, which they transform for TV with several sneaky camera tricks.

No way! Meanwhile, the lavish location of Married At First Sight's weekly dinner parties and commitment ceremonies isn't as glamorous as it appears on TV. Pictured: The MAFS studio

Reality! The cameras fail to capture the stars being dumped on an industrial estate in Lilyfield, Sydney where the show hires an empty warehouse every year which they transform for TV

For example, the sliding door on the rustic brick wall which the couples make their grand arrival through each week is surprisingly fake.

Many other walls are also custom built and erected around hired furniture, in order to create the intimate environment shown on television.

In reality, the set is a bare 1200sqm loft space with no such fixtures or furniture.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Channel Nine for comment.

Could you tell? For example, the sliding door on the rustic brick wall (pictured) which the couples make their grand arrival through is surprisingly fake
[March 30, 2020] Telo and Partners Team Up to Bring Subscribers Caller ID for Official COVID-19 Toll-Free Numbers

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Caller ID Name (CNAM) display for critical Toll-Free numbers has been made available to millions of telephone subscribers throughout the United States through the combined efforts of these companies. When calls originate from specified government-run Toll-Free hotlines, including the initial phone lines for COVID-19 test results ("Results Center"), they will be identified with name information displayed on the telephone, increasing the answer rate of important calls by consumers.



The CNAM for all Toll-Free numbers utilized by HHS, and other government organizations assisting the general public with pandemic related issues, will be displayed to subscribers across hundreds of telephone carriers. Telo, Somos, and First Orion each have a critical role in providing this service to the public. Telo, which serves hundreds of telephone carriers throughout North America via OpenCNAM will be delivering real-time caller information collected by Somos through the TFN Identity platform. First Orion, who also provides CNAM services to carriers including several of the largest mobile operators in the US, is delivering results from Telo's OpenCNAM platform which provides TFN Identity platform's authoritative Toll-Free CNAM results. "As soon as we were notified of the request from HHS by our partners at Somos, we worked quickly to ensure that as many carriers as possible had the CNAM for all numbers being used to help combat the Coronavirus pandemic," said Brent James, COO at Telo. "Once we confirmed our carriers had the information, the first phone call I made was to First Orion. Since we work with them on other initiatives, I knew we could rely on them to react quickly. Within minutes the information for pandemic-related lines was being displayed to the millions of subscribers served by their carrier customers."



Gina M. Perini, President, and CEO at Somos stated, "To aid in bringing critical information to so many in need during this time, Somos is pleased to be working with HHS, other government agencies, Telo and First Orion to provide pandeic-related Toll-Free Numbers with trusted Caller ID information. We've been working collaboratively to put the necessary data safely and securely in TFN Identity, the trusted, centralized registry for Toll-Free Number Caller ID information."



"As much as 84 percent of all calls go unanswered by consumers because they either don't recognize or trust the caller's identity," said Scott Hambuchen, Chief Information Officer at First Orion. "With COVID-19 every minute counts so we are proud to be partnering with other telecom service providers such as Telo and Somos to enable Caller ID for government Toll-Free numbers in an effort to save time and lives." All three companies jointly stated, "The Coronavirus pandemic impacts us all. Our thoughts are with everyone during this difficult time."

About Telo

Telo is a leader in delivering trusted communications solutions to carrier and enterprise customers. Telo supplies the most reliable systems worldwide with information rooted in authoritative and extensive telecommunication data, augmented by learning algorithms and intelligently vetted, trusted data. With a team composed of experts in telecommunications and technology, Telo continues to redefine what it means to be a data partner by continuously delivering innovative value-added services. To learn more, please visit Telo. About Somos, Inc.

Somos is a leading provider of trusted registry management and data solutions. Our mission is to empower more intimate and trusted interconnections between brands, consumers, and communities. A total customer focus is reflected in everything we do  working collaboratively to build market value and creatively resolve industry problems. Somos serves as the North American Numbering Plan Administrator and the Pooling Administrator for over 800 million local and wireless telephone numbers and operates the SMS/800 TFN Registry for over 40 Million Toll-Free Numbers in North America. Other Somos solutions include the TSS Registry, the centralized registry for the use of Toll-Free Numbers in text messaging and multimedia services; and RouteLink, the alternative solution for accessing authoritative Toll-Free routing data. To learn more, please visit Somos. About First Orion

First Orion powers communication transparency solutions for T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, Boost Mobile, Sky, Virgin Mobile, and Sprint Prepaid mobile networks along with PrivacyStar applications for all smartphones. First Orion Call Protection Solutions currently provides call control, blocking, transparency and management solutions to millions of mobile handsets. First Orion's Engage technology tells mobile subscribers who is calling and why, empowering them with the ability to take action, while also providing businesses the ability to verify their identity when calling their customers. With branded and white-labeled applications as well as in-network solutions, First Orion assists phone carriers in protecting mobile and fixed-line subscribers by identifying and stopping millions of scam calls every day. To learn more, please visit First Orion. Telo Media Contact:

Brent James

678.567.6105

[email protected] Somos Media Contact:

Michelle Larsen

844.HEY.LARSEN or 844.439.5277

[email protected] First Orion Media Contact:

Michelle Hua

831.401.3175

[email protected] Related Images cnam-results-center.png

CNAM "Results Center"

HHS official CNAM value of COVID-19 testing facilities Related Links OpenCNAM Telo View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/telo-and-partners-team-up-to-bring-subscribers-caller-id-for-official-covid-19-toll-free-numbers-301031503.html SOURCE Telo, USA

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EU leaders failed to agree last week on how to minimise the recession on the way, but many are hopeful for progress.

The European Union is likely to focus on tools offered by the eurozones ESM bailout fund and the European Investment Bank in its economic response to the coronavirus epidemic, so that they can be used quickly, EU officials said on Monday.

Eurozone finance ministers, the Eurogroup, have two weeks to come up with ideas to support the economy after EU leaders failed last week to agree how to minimise the recession that the pandemic will put Europe into this year.

The ministers will hold a teleconference on April 7 and their chairman, Mario Centeno, said they should accelerate work on solutions already drafted last week.

I propose that we accelerate the work we started on the possible use of the ESM and EIB resources and instruments, Centeno said in a letter to the ministers, seen by Reuters.

The ministers have already suggested the use of the bailout funds standby credit line of up to 2 percent of GDP for all eurozone governments, to be used only by those who want it. A capital increase for the EIB  the investment bank of EU governments  is also on the table to boost lending to the economy.

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But these options did not receive sufficient support from leaders last week because of a dispute about whether the eurozone should jointly issue debt in response to the health crisis.

France, Italy, Spain and six others want joint debt issues, while Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Austria strongly oppose it.

Centeno said he was also ready to discuss new proposals for economic support from the European Commission. These are likely to focus on the use of money from the EUs long-term budget, probably highly leveraged.

The Commission said it favoured measures that could be applied now and that would not create divisions like debt mutualisation, that was not only highly contentious but that would also take a long time.

It is important that those options are quick, effective and based on a consensus among all the actors and in particular Member States, the Commission said.

In another blow to the idea of jointly issued debt, which was never presented in detail, Centeno said he would discuss only concrete, well-justified, effective proposals, which could help us step up our response.

A German government source said there was cross-party unity among Chancellor Angela Merkels CDU, its CSU sister party and their SPD coalition partner on the use of the ESM.

Germany was willing to help countries such as Italy, but for that we have the ESM which can activate hundreds of billions of euros, the source said.
SEATTLEThe intersection of a global pandemic and the for-profit U.S. medical sector came to a head this weekend when a national physicians group called on Washington regulators to investigate the termination of a doctor whod publicly criticized a Bellingham, Wash., hospital for inadequate coronavirus protections.

Dr. Ming Lin worked at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center for 17 years until he was removed on Friday by TeamHealth, a national staffing firm under contract to provide the hospitals emergency department personnel. Lin became a national avatar for frustrated health care professionals during the COVID-19 outbreak by speaking up in the press and on social media with pleas for more medical supplies and stronger standards to protect health care workers combating the virus.

In a statement posted Saturday on Twitter, TeamHealth said Lin technically was not fired and remains employed by the company, but will no longer work at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center. A PeaceHealth St. Joseph spokesman on Friday confirmed Lins termination but declined to comment further because Lin was not directly employed by the hospital.

The American Academy of Emergency Medicine, in a position statement issued Saturday, condemned Lins removal and challenged the legality of TeamHealths business structure. It contends the medical staffing firm, owned by a hedge fund, relies on a business model that violates a state law designed to keep profit motives from influencing doctors treatment and advice to patients.

(TeamHealths) hand in this termination is not only inexcusable but likely impermissible, the statement said. The group called on the Washington state Attorney Generals Office and the Washington Medical Commission to launch inquiries.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Bob Ferguson said the office received the complaint but declined to say if an investigation has been initiated. The Washington Medical Commission did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A TeamHealth spokesman declined to answer questions about what motivated the company to sideline Lin, who at least for now is not working. He said it was categorically false that the companys business structure was illegal.

On March 16, Lin posted a letter on Facebook hed sent to PeaceHealth St. Josephs chief medical officer, outlining how the hospital was mismanaging patient COVID-19 testing and exposing health care personnel and patients to unnecessary risks. He decried the hospitals internal bureaucracy that prevented some doctors from ordering coronavirus tests, including a ludicrous requirement that a flu test be completed before providing patients coronavirus screenings. Lin also criticized the hospitals lack of a triage tent outside the emergency room to screen and test patients, to limit exposure of other patients and staff to potential infection.

PeaceHealth is so far behind when it comes to protecting patients and the community, but even worse when it comes to protecting the staff, Lins letter said.

Previously, Lin also said his superiors asked him to retract or recant his statements, but he refused. Unless I am terminated and not wanted I will continue to show up to work in the Emergency Room to continue to serve, he said in a Facebook post Thursday.

Concern about coronavirus has flared in Whatcom County with an outbreak at Bellinghams Shuksan Health Care Center last week. There are at least 52 confirmed cases and four deaths among the nursing facilitys residents and staff, including six new cases confirmed Sunday.

Other health care professionals have raised concerns similar to Lins, as providers struggle to get masks, face shields and gloves. News of Lins removal became a social-media phenomenon over the weekend, inspiring tweets by CNNs Jake Tapper and former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, among others.

Dr. Robert McNamara, a Philadelphia emergency room physician and past president of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, said the organization has rallied its members in Washington to complain to regulators that TeamHealths system of physician employment violates the states law prohibiting the corporate practice of medicine, a guardrail intended to prevent profiteering from eroding standards of care.

TeamHealth was acquired by the Blackstone Group, a private equity firm, in 2016 for $6 billion (U.S.). Since then, the company came under fire for a pattern of suing uninsured and low-income patients who were unable to pay their medical bills, but discontinued the practice after it gained public attention in the news.

TeamHealths network of physician owners  doctors who sign contracts with the company to take on an executive management role overseeing the employment of groups of doctors  are under contract at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center.

They are essentially paper owners, McNamara said. Doctors are lending their names to aid and abet corporate practice of medicine, and this is what you get. Hospital administration says Dr. Lin is causing a problem by publicly raising these safety concerns and asks the physician owner to handle him. They therefore bring down the hammer on Dr. Lin and terminate him as a message to anyone else who might speak out.
The Lagos State Government on Monday discharged five coronavirus patients treated at the Infectious Disease Centre, Yaba Mainland Hospital.

The discharged patients are five of the 65 patients at the centre.

The recovered patients were treated at the isolation centre for two weeks. This brings the total number of survivors to eight in the state.

As of Sunday, Lagos State has recorded 68 cases of coronavirus infection, out of which eight have recovered and have been discharged.

Giving an update on the recovery of the patients, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Governor of Lagos State and the Covid-19 incident commander, said it is a signal that the state is doing its best in combating the infection.

We are very excited to hear that five of our citizens in the isolation centre have regained full recovery. It is another pointer to us that with a concerted effort, we can defeat the coronavirus in Lagos and Nigeria, he said.

Mr Sanwo-Olu reassured Lagosians that the government is doing all within its powers to curtail the spread of the virus so that life could return to normal.

The five new survivors are four males and one female. The female survivor, Oluwaseun Owosobi, gave an account of her experience while at the isolation Centre, and her recovery process.

As of Monday, Nigeria has recorded 111 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
The Taliban on Saturday rejected an Afghan government negotiation team set up to hold talks with the insurgent group in a bid to end the countrys 18-year-old conflict.

After months of delays, the government on Friday announced a 21-member team including five womento take part in the upcoming talks, a crucial step in bringing the warring parties to the table and getting a floundering, US-led peace process back on track.

But the Taliban in a statement said the government had failed to put forward an inclusive team.

We shall only sit for talks with a negotiation team that conforms with our agreements and is constituted in accordance with the laid out principles, the statement said.

In order to reach true and lasting peace, the aforementioned team must be agreed upon by all effective Afghan sides, it said, adding that the majority of those involved in the intra-Afghan talks had rejected the team, without specifying which parties.

Afghan ministry of peace affairs spokeswoman Najia Anwari said the Talibans stance was unjustified as the negotiating team was made after wide consultations among Afghan society. President Ashraf Ghanis political rival Abdullah Abdullah has not confirmed whether he will support the delegation, potentially important given his camps strong influence in the north and west.

Several dead as clashes continue

On Friday, militants attacked several districts of northeastern Badakhshan province, capturing three districts and killing at least 10 Afghan security forces, an official said.

Several Taliban fighters were also killed when reinforcements were sent to the area.

Clashes also occurred between the police and the Taliban overnight Saturday in the Spin Buldak district of the southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan, leaving six Taliban killed .
YEREVAN.  Much money will be spent to process, study, manage the base, identify, transmit those data from body to body, whereas our country is in a serious socioeconomic crisis today. Edmon Marukyan, chairman of the opposition Bright Armenia party and head of the Bright Armenia faction in parliament, stated this during Mondays National Assembly debates on the draft to intervenedue to the coronavirusin the rights to protection of personal data, the inviolability of the private and family life, and the freedom and secrecy of communication.

Referring to the matter of trust toward the government, Marukyan said: "The whole government, the ruling faction, all have Viber, WhatsApp and other programs and talk with it inside the country. Why? Don't you trust your systems? Why are you talking with those systems? Therefore, the issue of trust also has a problem in it."

Marukyan suggested thinking seriously about resolving the problems of people currently on the verge of poverty. "Bright Armenia is against this draft," the MP stressed. "We are against giving up our freedoms, and in the case when it has zero impact in connection with the spread of the pandemic."
Mobile Money Industry Processed US$2 Billion in Transactions Per Day in 2019

The GSMA today unveiled the annual 'State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money', offering a view of the mobile money landscape and highlighting the impact that greater financial inclusion has on lives, economies and innovation, especially in emerging markets. This year's report looks at what one billion registered accounts means for the mobile money industry, mobile money users and the future of the mobile money ecosystem. It provides a comprehensive picture of adoption and usage around the globe.

Significantly, the report highlights that 2019 marked a major milestone for the mobile money industry, with over one billion registered accounts and close to two billion dollars in daily transactions. For the first time, digital transactions represented the majority, 57 per cent, of mobile money interactions. The industry is witnessing increasing user trust and relevance. With 290 live services in 95 countries and 372 million active accounts, mobile money is entering the mainstream and becoming the path to financial inclusion in most low-income countries. For consumers, this marks a shift away from cash towards digital payments for school fees, e-commerce, international remittances, savings, credit, pay-as-you-go utilities and more.

"Increased mobile connectivity and innovative services such as mobile money are building stronger and more inclusive communities," said John Giusti, Chief Regulatory Officer, GSMA. "Surpassing one billion mobile money accounts represents a major milestone for an industry that did not exist just over a decade ago. The reach of mobile money agents is now 20 times that of bricks-and-mortar banks. Almost 1.7 billion people remain financially excluded, but the collective strength of the industry holds the potential to ensure that everyone can be part of the new digital economy."

Biggest Trends in 2019:

A growing number of providers are becoming commercially sustainable;

Direct revenue from mobile money is supporting investment in innovative products and services, network expansion, and healthy and sustainable agent commissions;

The industry continues to invest in distribution networks, with the number of agent outlets almost tripling over the past five years, and the reach of a mobile money agent is now seven times that of ATMs and 20 times that of bank branches;

The digitisation of payments has reached new heights with digital transactions representing the majority of mobile money flows (57 per cent) for the first time in 2019 (historically, majority of transactions were cash-in and cash-out); and

More value is circulating in the mobile money system than exiting another industry first.

The report explores the empowerment that comes with owning a mobile money account, for example, more women are using financial services, low-income households are accessing essential utility services, and smallholder farmers are getting paid more quickly and conveniently. Meanwhile, millions of migrants and their families are experiencing the life-changing benefits of faster, safer and cheaper international remittances, and humanitarian cash assistance is being delivered more thoughtfully to those in crises.

Giusti added, "Regulation that enables low-cost services for the financially excluded has been crucial to the success of mobile money, and there is a clear correlation between an enabling regulatory environment and a high mobile money adoption rate. However, certain policy decisions, such as sector-specific taxation and data localisation requirements, are putting pressure on the industry and create a real risk of long-term negative impacts on financial inclusion gains, access to innovative services, and delivery of the SDGs. We are moving in the right direction, and with the right tools, we are a step closer to achieving an inclusive digital future for all."

The 2019 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money can be see here: www.gsma.com/sotir. Further information on the GSMA's Mobile Money programme, is available at www.gsma.com/mobilemoney.

-ENDS-

Note to editors:

The State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money draws on the results of the annual GSMA Global Adoption Survey of Mobile Financial Services and data from the GSMA Mobile Money Deployment Tracker. It provides insights on mobile money performance from the GSMA's engagement with the industry.

About the GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting more than 750 operators and nearly 400 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces the industry-leading MWC events held annually in Barcelona, Los Angeles and Shanghai, as well as the Mobile 360 Series of regional conferences.

For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com. Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005029/en/

Contacts:

Media Contacts:

Caitlin Gosai

GSMA Press Office

pressoffice@gsma.com
US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation and discussed the possibilities of cooperation in the fight against coronavirus. The Kremlin press service reports.

"The heads of state expressed serious concern about the scale of the spread of coronavirus in the world and informed each other about measures being taken in Russia and the United States to counter this threat. The possibilities of closer interaction between the two countries in this direction were discussed," the statement reads.

The leaders also exchanged views on the current state of the world oil market, and they agreed to hold bilateral consultations at the level of energy ministers.

As we reported earlier, Rosneft Oil Company announced the cessation of activities in Venezuela and the sale of assets related to activities in this country

"Today, Rosneft has entered into an agreement on the sale of shares and termination of its participation in all projects in Venezuela with a company 100% owned by the Government of the Russian Federation. The sale includes shares in the production enterprises of Petromonagas, Petroperija, Boqueron, Petromiranda and Petrovictoria, and termination of its participation in oilfield service enterprises and trading operations," the report said.
The COVID-19 outbreak has stopped many everyday activities across the countries and the usually hectic political activities in West Bengal is no exception. Senior politicians from West Bengal belonging to both ruling and opposition parties are now mostly confined to their homes. However, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been visiting hospitals and markets with necessary precaution to take stock of the situation.

One of the trusted lieutenants of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and the Mayor of Kolkata Firhad Hakim has been at the forefront of the state governments effort to tackle the outbreak.

or latest updates on coronavirus outbreak, click here

The ongoing lockdown has brought back his childhood memories of the blackouts during the India-Pakistan war in 1971 and the curfew in the wake of the Babri mosque demolition.

 But the present situation is entirely different. Since I have to venture outside to oversee sanitization work I am taking extra precaution to ensure the safety of my family, said Hakim.

Subrata Mukherjee, the Panchayat Minister and one of the senior-most TMC leaders have been taking afternoon naps after a long time. He is staying indoors and spending time with his family. The Minister, however, is leaving no stones unturned to help those over the phone who have reached out to him.

Track state-wise coronavirus positive cases tally here

TMC secretary-general and Education Minister Partha Chatterjee is dearly missing the days when he used to meet scores of people at his residence. Chatterjee is trying to keep himself busy with his personal academic work and coordinating with officials over the phone.

Leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader Abdul Mannan is exasperated with staying at home. The outbreak has put a stop to his usual routine of coming to Kolkata from Hooghly district in local trains while chatting with other passengers.

He is diligently attending to the flurry of calls seeking help from different parts of the state.

 This is not a time for politics. Its the time yo work together, said Mannan.

Senior CPI(M) MLA and Leader of Left Legislative Party Sujan Chakraborys plan of finishing some books have not materialized as he has to attend to several calls seeking help every day.
JACKSON, MI  Jacksons Henry Ford Allegiance Health has started accepting patients from Detroit-area hospitals, as many are seeing a surge due to positive cases of COVID-19.

HFAH has accepted five patients so far, per a news release from the hospital system. As of Monday, March 30, there were 16 people hospitalized at HFAH who have tested positive for COVID-19 and another 19 people in the hospital were suspected of having the virus, with results pending.

The hospital can handle the influx of outside patients while still accommodating local needs, hospital officials said.

This decision was not made lightly, as we considered the potential need for available hospital beds for residents of our Central Market, said Tim Levy, HFAH board chairman. Detroit is now considered a hot zone for COVID-19, and those of us across the state with some bed capacity must do our part to lighten their load.

Jacksons hospital has 325 beds and usually has 270 full on an average day. Today, only 139 beds were being used, hospital officials said.

One of the five patients has tested positive for COVID-19, the other four are suspected of having the virus, but awaiting test results, per hospital officials.

All of the other Henry Ford Health System hospitals are in southeast Michigan. Its central Detroit hospital has the most hospitalized COVID-19 patients with 257.

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Meanwhile, Jackson Countys total number of positive cases increased from 28 to 38 on Monday, per the Jackson County Health Department. Its the first double-digit increase in positive cases yet.

Three patients from the hospital have recovered and were sent home, per HFAH. The county has had one death so far due to coronavirus, a 74-year-old man who had underlying health issues.

An additional 24 inmates at Parnall Correctional Facility in Jackson County have tested positive for COVID-19.

Across the Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System, 1,543 people have tested positive for the virus and 2,923 have tested negative  meaning nearly 35 percent of the tests are coming back positive.

HFAH and the county health department havent released figures on how many total tests have been done in the county and how many have come back negative.

Our goal here is to provide clarity and limit confusion for our public, hospital officials said in response to questions on why such data isnt available. We are working with our analytics team to provide clearer numbers and will let you know if/when that is possible.

The HFAH drive-through screening site has tested 695 people, including eight people on Sunday, March 29. About 25 percent of the people tested at the site are employees.

Call 313-874-7500 if interested in setting up an appointment  which is necessary to get a test.

As of Monday, March 30, Michigan had 6,498 positive cases of the virus and 194 deaths.

Read more Michigan coronavirus coverage here

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A landslide has caused the derailment of a passenger train in China, killing at least one person and injuring 127, according to authorities.

The train was carrying 654 passengers and 37 railway workers today when it hit the landslide debris blocking the tracks, railway officials said.

The driver had seen the mud avalanche and slammed on the brakes but failed to stop the train in time.

Footage released by the rescue authority shows wrecked carriages lying sideways next to the railroad with plumes of black smoke billowing from one of them. The fire has been put out

The accident took place around noon today in Chenzhou, southern China's Hunan Province

Nearly 150 firefighters and 28 fire engines were dispatched to the scene by Chinese officials

Officials said the generator car burst into flames and five carriages behind it derailed and toppled sideways.

The accident took place around noon in the county of Yongxing in Chenzhou, southern China's Hunan Province, China Railway Guangzhou Group announced.

Continuous rainfalls had triggered a landslide in the area, leading to the accident, the authority wrote on its official account on Twitter-like Weibo.

An on-board railway police officer was pronounced dead by paramedics following failed rescue efforts. Five other railway workers sustained minor injuries.

Four passengers were heavily wounded and 118 others were slightly wounded, the post added.

All of the injured people were taken to the hospital.

The express train was travelling from Jinan to Guangzhou when it hit the landslide debris

Footage shows rescuers carrying one person to the ambulance after freeing the individual

Footage released by the rescue authority shows wrecked carriages lying on their side next to the railroad with plumes of black smoke billowing from one of them at the front.

Firefighters were seen trying to put out the fire and freeing trapped passengers.

Other clips circulating on social media show frightened passengers fleeing for their lives by climbing out of the windows.

The fire was put out about two hours later.

Nearly 150 firefighters and 28 fire engines were dispatched to the scene.

The express train was travelling from Jinan in eastern China to Guangzhou in southern China when it crashed.

The journey covers a mammoth 1,998 kilometres (1,241 miles) and takes nearly 24 hours.

The train was in its last leg of the journey when the accident occurred.

All stranded passengers and workers have been rescued as of writing. Those who were not injured have been arranged to take a high-speed train to reach their destination, according to officials.

Authorities are investigating the accident.
The appeal was initially posted on March 23.

A petition released on the presidential website on the reinstatement of Ulana Suprun as head of the Health Ministry has gained the required number of votes, namely 25,000.

As of Monday morning, March 30, a total of 25,974 people supported the proposal.

Now Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is supposed to respond to the petition initially published on March 23.

Read alsoZelensky: All Ukrainians who'll return home will be under two-week observation

The author, Olena Losyk, believes it's the expert of such level that Ukraine needs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Now, amid a threatening challenge, we must demand that the authorities put Ulana Suprun back in the minister's chair," the document says.

As UNIAN reported earlier, during the meeting on September 4, 2019, the Cabinet of Ministers dismissed Acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun.
Sindhu Chandrasekaran By

Online Desk

With billions of people under lockdown and working from home, criminals are going online to make easy money. Cybercriminals are exploiting the fear among people about the pandemic through email scams, phishing, ransomware attacks, etc.

"Cybercriminals have been exploiting fears around the COVID-19 outbreak to conduct email scams, phishing and ransomware attacks. These emails and messages entice users to open malicious attachments by offering more information related to the COVID-19 situation. These files are masked under the guise of links, pdf, mp4 or docx files," Palo Alto Networks' Regional Vice President for India & SAARC Anil Bhasin said.



FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES HERE

It is not just individuals who are being targeted. Companies too are under increasing risk.

"Companies, large and small, will be impacted due to ramifications of work from home, as this will lead to cybersecurity risk concerns. Proprietary corporate data is being accessed from laptops and home PCs that may not have the same level of firewall and security as in-office setups," said Deepak Bhawnani, CEO at Alea Consulting.

Management and IT managers will subsequently need to reassess the risk to their data, and proactively evaluate their data loss prevention processes, as this can impact their reputation going forward, experts said.

On Sunday, the domestic cybersecurity firm K7 Computing said that it will be providing cybersecurity products for free to laptops, desktops and Android smartphones users. The company has also said that it will be extending this offer to every coronavirus affected country worldwide.

"We would contribute for the cyber safety of all consumers as well as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during this critical time," Kesavardhanan J, Founder of K7 Computing, said in a statement.

Low-security standards of home Wi-Fi systems pose a serious threat for the cybersecurity sector at the moment with data of millions of people at stake.

"A few isolated incidents of cybercrimes have already been reported with unsafe links leading to the theft of sensitive data. For example, people are offering fake maps that show the number of infected users in each state, city or area which requires the person to download software to generate fake maps, in turn making it a security concern," said Trishneet Arora, Founder & CEO of TAC Security.

"The role of cybersecurity companies at this moment is more critical than ever. It is essential at this moment to monitor baseline behaviours and any anomalous cyber activity should be looked into in real-time basis," he added.

On Sunday, the Delhi Police had also issued a warning about online frauds, with a list of dos and donts to help protect people's data and system.

According to the Internet Crime Report for 2019, released by USAs Internet Crime Complaint Centre (IC3) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has revealed that India stands third in the world among top 20 countries that are victims of internet crimes.

It was found that, while email is still a common mode of committing internet crime, frauds are also being committed through text messages, a crime called smishing, or even fake websites using a tactic called pharming.

Are other countries safe?

Well, foreign countries are no exception to cybercrime. But it doesn't stop at internet scams alone. From trafficking dodgy surgical masks to peddling counterfeit medicines, criminals are finding ways to swindle money, European police warned.

Police around the world seized 34,000 counterfeit surgical masks in one major operation targeting so-called "corona criminals" earlier this month, Europol said in a report Friday.

"Fraudsters have been very quick to adapt to well-known fraud schemes to capitalise on the anxieties and fears of victims throughout the crisis," the report added.

Drop in break-ins

In many European countries, police have reported a dramatic drop in common criminal behaviour.

Spanish police have said that there has been a 50 per cent drop in criminal offences compared to a year earlier since the country was put on a near-total lockdown on March 14.

Sweden too said it had seen burglaries drop since people were asked to work from home.

Sales of street drugs have also dropped sharply in many countries since the outbreak as authorities shut borders and restrict the movement of people.

However, on the flip side, there is a drastic rise in other forms of crimes.

The World Health Organization, at the forefront of the fight against the pandemic, has warned of a sharp increase in email phishing and scams using its name to try to steal money and sensitive information.

Britain's National Crime Agency said criminals "target people who seek to buy medical supplies on the internet, sending emails offering fake medical support and defrauding people who may be vulnerable or increasingly isolated at home".

In Germany too, "cybercriminals are exploiting people's current concerns about COVID-19 to send phishing emails with malicious content or use this fear with fraudulent intent", police said.

Police have also warned people to be on the lookout for burglars, who come wearing protective masks and claim to be coronavirus testers, to steal from homes, particularly those of the elderly.

Here's what you can do to stay safe:

Change default passwords of your home Wi-Fi router to prevent hackers from accessing your network. Use strong and unique passwords on every account and device and use two-factor authentication (2FA). Do not allow anyone else to share your work computers and other devices which you have brought from your office. Use only software that is used by your company to share files and refrain from using your personal email or 3rd party services. Ensure that your remote sessions automatically time out after a specified period of inactivity and that they require re-authentication to gain access. Don't forget to turn off the 'remember password' option when you are logging into company information systems and applications from their personal devices.

CERT-In, the national cybersecurity agency, has suggested that IT teams of every company "consider Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Mobile Application Management (MAM)." It said that these tools can allow organisations to remotely implement a number of security measures, including data encryption, malware scans, and wiping data on stolen devices.

How to report an online fraud incident?

On Monday, Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had warned all the states about cybercriminals circulating a malware link about a so-called Coronavirus app - Spymax, Coronalive 1.1 - which when opened may cause a security threat.

In case you have become a cyber attack victim, you will have to contact the local police immediately. The national police helpline number is 100 and national women helpline number is 181. Alternatively, you can log into National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal and lodge a complaint.

(With inputs from agencies)
The COVID-19 crisis poses an extraordinary challenge to the health, prosperity and security of the United States and the international community. This global pandemic represents a significant risk to public health, as well as a grave national security threat that may have far reaching consequences for the stability and legitimacy of governments worldwide.

As reports emerge that American intelligence agencies started warning the Trump administration back in January about the novel coronavirus outbreak in China, we are reminded of the invaluable role that intelligence should play in guarding against strategic surprise.

We previously have expressed deep concern about the Trump administrations efforts to diminish the U.S. intelligence community, especially by weakening the position of the director of national intelligence, who by law is supposed to serve as the principal intelligence adviser to the president and Congress. It is urgent that our nations leaders rise above politics to define a long-term, nonpartisan intelligence agenda for this brave new world.

COVID-19 marks the final nail in the coffin of the post-9/11 era, in which the United States harnessed all elements of national power to confront the scourge of violent Islamic extremism. This global counterterrorism agenda has spanned two decades across both Republican and Democratic administrations, and it has mostly succeeded in thwarting large scale terrorist attacks.

Yet these marginal security gains have required an extensive reorientation of American military, intelligence and law enforcement capabilities, and the price is steep: two costly wars and a relative lack of high-level emphasis on other emerging threats.

America needs a proactive intelligence agenda that draws on lessons learned from this ongoing pandemic. We have identified five national security challenges where strong, credible DNI leadership is necessary over the next decade:

Collaboration is essential

Story continues

First, enhanced collaboration among the intelligence, global health and the life sciences communities is essential. Beyond even this pandemic, imagine the prospect of a next-generation coronavirus that is man-made, engineered in a lab to be even more lethal. Scientific and technical experts  including those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Homeland Security, National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases and even the Department of Agriculture  desperately need threat information to inform their biodefense, containment and mitigation plans. The DNI should play a leading role in strengthening intelligence support to the biological science community.

Coronavirus: No, we aren't even close to ready to ease up on social distancing

Take cybersecurity seriously

Second, with nearly half of all Americans now told to stay home under some form of quarantine, the absolute necessity of cybersecurity should be evident to us all. The critical infrastructure that enables our virtual connectivity, remote work and access to essential services has been a literal lifesaver. Consider how a debilitating cyberattack on our electrical grid, banking sector or health care system could magnify the crisis and accelerate a breakdown in public order. We should heed the clarion call of a recent bipartisan commission that we are dangerously insecure in cyber. Malicious state and nonstate actors take advantage of our vulnerability on a daily basis, yet the government cybersecurity landscape looks much like the counterterrorism community pre-9/11: bureaucratic turf battles, muddled legal authorities and the absence of a senior official in charge, even while the system is blinking red. Cybersecurity is a profound, complex challenge that calls out for dedicated DNI leadership in the intelligence community, across the federal government and with the private sector.

Monitoring of misinformation

Third, the uncertainty and fear associated with a pandemic of this magnitude provides ample opportunity to sow dissent through disinformation and to manipulate public attitudes to enhance authoritarian control. We already have seen Russia, China and Iran attempt to propagate debunked conspiracy theories about the coronavirus origins in order to undermine social cohesion in the United States and Europe, as well as deflect blame from their own domestic mismanagement of the outbreak. We should expect these and other disinformation campaigns to only escalate as we approach the U.S. presidential election. The DNI must make election integrity a top priority for the coming decade through enhanced intelligence support to state and local governments, as well as stronger collaboration with Silicon Valley to deploy technologies that can detect so-called deep fakes and other forms of disinformation.

Central Intelligence Agency seal in Langley, Virginia, in 2016.

Deciphering China's intentions

Fourth, as the United States turns inward to contain and mitigate the immediate impact of COVID-19, China is seeking to fill that leadership void in Asia and potentially on the world stage. Chinas rise to great power status is one of the defining events of the early 21st century, but Sino-American relations have entered an especially volatile period. The coronavirus-induced recession highlights the need to secure U.S. supply chains and lessen dependence on China for essential goods and services. Meanwhile, the Trump administrations 2018 National Defense Strategy identifies the reemergence of long-term, strategic competition, and not terrorism, as the primary U.S. national security concern. Deciphering Chinese intentions with regards to the Indo-Pacific region should be an enduring intelligence priority for the DNI. Indeed, the provision of timely, accurate analysis to the executive branch and Congress can help prevent this coming period of intense geopolitical competition with China from inadvertently escalating into conflict.

Things to remember: Yes, the coronavirus pandemic is scary. But let's remember to help our neighbors.

Developing artificial intelligence

Fifth, the uncertain, disruptive future of artificial intelligence poses both potential benefits and significant risks as the United States grapples with the fallout from COVID-19 for the foreseeable future. The development of machines capable of sophisticated information processing, toward the frontier of autonomy, might enhance the ability of scientists, health care workers and governments to diagnose, contain and ultimately develop a vaccine for the virus. In China, for example, technology companies have deployed AI-powered systems to rapidly analyze CT scan data, program robots to deliver meals to travelers in isolation, and mass surveillance of citizens to check temperatures, track movements and identify noncompliance with health warnings. Yet these same technologies, as they continue to improve over time, could be utilized for more nefarious purposes, such as autonomous weaponry and AI-augmented cyberwarfare. The U.S. intelligence community, under strong DNI leadership, must develop a robust capability to analyze how other nations might seek to deploy AI to advance military objectives in the future.

As the novel coronavirus spreads across the United States and the world, we cannot fall hostage to the tyranny of now. State and nonstate adversaries already are seeking to exploit the crisis to their advantage, and the full ramifications of this global event might not be evident for many years.

Since the end of World War II, the U.S. intelligence community has played a vital role in providing nonpartisan, unvarnished assessments to inform national security decision-making. It is imperative that we define a proactive, strategic intelligence agenda for this age of uncertainty.

John D. Negroponte was the first director of national intelligence and deputy secretary of State in the George W. Bush administration. Edward M. Wittenstein is a lecturer in global affairs at Yale University and former executive assistant to the first director of national intelligence.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: We need a new intelligence agenda to navigate a post coronavirus world
The is reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, and few have been harder hit than the image of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chairman Xi Jinping. Such is the battering that China has been receiving, that the party propaganda machine has slammed into top gear to roll back the criticism.

For much of his presidency, it seemed Xi could do no wrong. The party's golden boy benefitted from a carefully concocted domestic and international propaganda campaign. It seemed that China's rise was inexorable, and master tactician Xi was allowed to sweep away past traditions and to grasp the reins of power for a lifetime.

Adam Ni, Director of the China Policy Centre, an independent non-profit research organization based in Canberra, spoke to ANI about how Xi has been impacted by China's mishandling of the health crisis. "Regarding Xi's popularity amid COVID-19, I think there are two sides to this. The earlier misstep by the Chinese authorities and the absence of Xi from the public limelight for days on end towards the early stages of this crisis has hit Xi's popularity."

Ni added, "Xi's political star has certainly been challenged over the past twelve months with challenges across a spectrum of issues, including a slowing economy, Hong Kong, cross-strait relations with Taiwan, US-China relations and China's international reputation. All in all, COVID-19 and these other challenges and blunders have made Xi vulnerable to criticism. He is less politically unassailable than he was at the start of 2019, for example."

Xi's and the CCP's peculiar feeling of vulnerability is underscored dramatically by the remorseless propaganda campaign that China is now waging. In Mao Zedong's time, this was called a "tongue war" but now much of it is being fought on Western online and media platforms.

Efforts by Chinese diplomats, ministers, department spokespersons and other lackeys to push "alternative truths" have reached unprecedented levels. These figureheads have been widely using Facebook and Twitter to spread their nefarious messages, even though such platforms are banned within China. Their singular purpose is to deflect blame for bungling the response to the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.

China Neican, a weekly China information newsletter published weekly by Adam Ni and Yun Jiang, summarized: "The Chinese authorities' first instinct was the suppression of information. After realizing that paper cannot stifle a fire, it then turned its propaganda effort to mobilization - how the government has acted decisively to build hospitals in record times and lockdown entire cities. For two weeks, it allows some non-state-sanctioned information to flow. The authorities then clamped down hard on information control again, with the emphasis being placed on telling positive stories. So the heroic efforts of frontline workers were highlighted while the sufferings of the patients were downplayed."

Ni commented to ANI: "There was deep frustration and resentment at the Chineseauthorities' early response to COVID-19. But I think the current extreme measures have wide public support because they are seen as effective measures against the virus. The CCP is now spinning its own narrative about the virus, focusing in on its achievements while deflecting blame. Chinese officials have even gone as far as to spread conspiracy theories about how the virus originated in the USA."

One example is Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lijian Zhao who tweeted a conspiracy theory that the virus came from a US military bio-lab. WeChat articles alleging the virus had a US origin were also permitted to disseminate.

Summarizing the CCP's propaganda efforts to shape the COVID-19 narrative, Ni shared with ANI: "In my mind, there are four key elements to its narrative efforts, essentially all for the purpose of bolstering the legitimacy of the party at a time of heightened uncertainty for the Chinese people."

The first point mentioned by the Australia-based academic is blame avoidance. "The party has sought to deflect blame by scapegoating other expandable actors, such as local authorities. It has also sought to minimize attention to its early missteps. Some of China's diplomats have even gone as far as supporting conspiracy theories about where the virus came from."

Secondly, Ni mentioned the leveraging of nationalistic sentiment. "Through the narratives about a 'People's War' against disease, and casting the crisis as a national struggle, the CCP is whipping up nationalism to bolster its legitimacy."The CCP thus enacted a new phase blaming "foreign hostile forces", a typical ploy.

Third is highlighting the supposed superiority of China's political and governance system. "The Chinese state-party has focused heavily on shortcomings of the international response to the virus, especially in Europe and the USA. In doing so, it is trying to convince the domestic public and the international community that China's political and governance system has superior features."

Latterly, China has been highlighting its global support for countries like Italy with deliveries of medical supplies and health workers. Beijing is busily posturing as a leader in virus research and effective governance.

Ironically, the depths of its propaganda efforts demonstrate how unconfident the CCP is about its governance. It is very afraid of the people and of international criticism, showing Chinese communist is not a robust system. These are not the actions of a strong party state, but one that fears opprobrium.

Finally, Ni listed censorship. "The party is censoring dissenting views domestically in an effort to sway public opinion and control the narrative environment in China. The success of this has been mixed as censors and netizens play an endless game of cat-and-mouse."

Many Chinese netizens went to great lengths despite censorship to spread the story of the crisis, illustrating that many Chinese do care for the truth rather than merely what supports the party apparatus. One blogger called Fang Fangbravely said, "The government should end its arrogance and humbly express gratitude to its masters - the millions of people in Wuhan." China Neican commented, "Real change in China comes from the accumulation of billions of actions by normal people within the country itself, instead of rhetoric from the West."

Michael George DeSombre, US Ambassador to Thailand, wrote in a State Department op-ed, "Accurate information must move freely - especially during crises. A government's duty is to save lives, not save face."

DeSombre catalogued errors by China, such as orders to deliberately destroy virus samples early on, and arresting people for sharing news of the outbreak online. Furthermore, seven million people left Wuhan in January before travel restrictions were finally imposed.

Ni concluded, "In essence, the party wants to make the best out of a terrible situation and spin the story in favor of the party by deflecting blame, sowing doubts on its culpability, whipping up nationalism and highlighting the superiority of the Chinese party-state."

Throughout December and most of January, Xi wanted only to stifle news of the outbreak. Thus, from 11-17 January, for example, an important pre-scheduled CCP meeting was held in Wuhan and, during that time, the provincial health commission oddly insisted there were no new virus cases.

Initially, Xi distanced himself from the crisis, because a degree of separatism would help disassociate him from any blame. In fact, Xi did not visit Wuhan until 10 March, although he sent Premier Li Keqiang in late January. When he did eventually bother to turn up in the epicenter, it was treated by media as something of a victory tour. Praising his paternal care, comments such as "his heart contains everyone" gushed forth.

However, Xi's delayed visit contrasts with past leaders who were usually relatively swift to arrive on the scene after disaster struck. The Wuhan party secretary general's earlier comments that all should be "grateful" to Xi and the CCP grossly backfired, so instead Xi praised the heroism of Wuhan citizens.

An important subplot was the case of Wuhan doctor and whistleblower Li Wenliang. He warned of the novel widespread attention, on 3 January he was arrested by the police and forced to say he had made "false comments". The 34-year-old doctor died of COVID-19 on 7 February, bringing forth a gush of public anger that posed an immediate threat to the CCP's image.

Chinese media were thus required to walk a fine line between telling Li's story but without casting aspersions on the government. To assuage anger, Wuhan's Public Security Bureau "solemnly apologized" for its mistake in admonishing Li. After allowing an initial period to vent mourning over Li's death, censorship clamped down again.

One thread in the unfolding narrative was that China had declared local victory over the virus, while other countries such as Italy were not coping nearly as well. Another narrative is captured by the following excerpt: "Were it not for the unique institutional advantages of the Chinesesystem, the might be battling a devastating pandemic." Indeed, mankind was told it should be "grateful" to China for "buying the world time".

Unfortunately, because of ineptitude and ill-preparedness among many Western leaders, and the statements of sycophantic people like Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Ethiopian Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), China's narrative has been bolstered.

The immaturity of President Donald Trump's in calling it the "China virus" has exacerbated the issue and played into China's hands. Indeed, Beijing is quick to play the racist card, with the CCP adept at conflating the Chinese people with the party even though they are in fact different entities.

WHO did not declare a pandemic until 11 March, after parroting dubious assurances from China that all was under control. On 15 January, WHO infamously tweeted, "Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus..."

Xi, by centralizing power upon his own shoulders as supreme leader, has increased his degree of risk. With one crisis after another piling up on China's doorstep, his aura has diminished. This explains why the propaganda machine is pulling out all stops right now for face is of utmost importance to Asian culture in general, and for the ultra-sensitive CCP in particular.

Perhaps the most pertinent question to ask is how Xi's image will be affected in the months and years ahead.

Ni predicted: "It's unclear at this point how Xi's popularity will come out from this crisis. It depends on how the virus situation develops in China. Despite that it has now come under control, I think this crisis has some way to go yet with deep implications for Chinese society and the relationship between the people and the party. Most importantly, the party will likely arrive at the conclusion that, to prevent future such crisis, it needs more control over society."

This is a bleak prediction, although likely accurate. Under Xi, China has become increasingly Orwellian with intrusive surveillance and digitization of personal data. Religions - whether Buddhist, Christian, Falun Gong or Muslim - have all been targeted for stricter sanctions. Indeed, more than a million Uighurs are currently locked up in concentration camps. Regarding the latter, no information has trickled out over coronavirus outbreaks, but such overcrowded institutions represent a dangerous potential breeding ground.

China's economy will have been severely impacted by COVID-19. This will have a knock-on effect on Xi's blue-ribbon Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), for example. Nonetheless, Chinese authorities are trying to convince the world that the BRI will quickly get back on track.

The 2019 World Press Freedom Index awarded China 177th place out of 180 countries, eclipsed only by Eritrea, Turkmenistan and North Korea. The country is an inveterate manipulator of the truth. Whilst simultaneously kicking out reporters from several American newspapers, China stated, "We call on foreign media outlets and journalists to play a positive role in advancing the mutual understanding between China and the rest of the world."

Beijing is not interested in the truth, but only in promoting its own ideology where the CCP and Xi reign supreme. It is therefore hypocritical of China to accuse the USA of "unwarranted restrictions" on Chinese state-owned media and "growing discrimination and politically motivated oppression" while it prosecutes a campaign of falsities to burnish its marred image.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Doctors in Kolkata Medical College & Hospital (MCH) and the Beleghata ID (Infectious Disease) Hospital, are disappointed with the allotment of plastic raincoats in the name of hazmat suits. As the number of coronavirus cases increase with each passing day, safety of health workers in the frontlines is becoming a cause of concern for the state as well as the central government.

The state health department is facing a shortage of gloves, masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors and healthcare workers, according to a report by Times of India. To meet the increase in demands, the hospitals have started arming them with raincoats instead of sophisticated PPE kits or hazmat suits.

Also read: Coronavirus in India Live updates: Govt says country in local transmission stage

Also read: Coronavirus impact: Vistara or AirAsia India? Tata Group must pick one as losses mount

According to some virologists, plastic raincoats can provide protection against viruses incase the raincoat covers the neck and upper portion of the shoulder completely.

However, conventional raincoats do not provide such protection and the virologists suggest that if used while treating a COVID-19 patient, the raincoats should be discarded after 4-5 hours of usage.

On the other hand, doctors at the MCH expressed their disappointment with the current situation. Most of them were apprehensive about using the raincoats and stated that if anyone of the health officials get infected in the treatment process, the overall morale of the healthcare fraternity will go down.

A microbiologist at Peerless hospital stated that PPEs were also made of plastic material but were thicker and tough compared to a layman's raincoat. Hence, a basic raincoat can also provide protection but it needs to be made from a thicker plastic.

Several microbiologists have also suggested wearing a surgical gown underneath a raincoat can help the cause. The surgical gowns should be then disinfected with either sodium hydrochloride or bleaching power solution before it goes for laundry.

However, many medics stated that it violates WHO guildeline and raincoats should not be a substitute for PPEs.

Apart from India, Indonesia is the only country that allocated raincoats to doctors and healthcare workers to treat coronavirus patients. However, they were heavily modified to approximate hazmat suits.

Last week, the Union Textiles Ministry and the Health Ministry said the government is augmenting the supplies of personal protective equipments (PPEs), including body coveralls, N-95 masks and 2-ply/3-ply surgical masks.
The European Union has mirrored calls from the UN calling for a full ceasefire across Syria as the world deals with the spread of the coronavirus reports Jesr.

On Sunday, the European Union in a statement issued by the office for the High Representative for Security and Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, called for an immediate ceasefire in Syria because of the coronavirus.

The statement pointed to the fragility of the ceasefire that had been declared in Idleb, saying that the truce needed to be adhered to in the province and made general throughout the country.

The statement said that the ceasefire needed to be generalized across Syria because of the coronavirus.

It said that the European Union supported the call by the UN Special Envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, for a ceasefire across the country.

The Syrian regime statement also called for an evacuation of prisoners from all its prisons.

The number of coronavirus cases around the world exceeds 664,000, with more than 30,000 dead, while more than 142,000 have recovered.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
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Linkedin Marchio Irfan Gorbiano and Budi Sutrisno (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 31 2020

Quiet house: Lawmakers attend a plenary session at the House of Representatives building in Senayan, Central Jakarta on Monday. It was the first plenary session since the COVID-19 outbreak and attended by just 45 lawmakers, with the 297 others joining the session via video conference. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)

While once again dismissing the option of imposing a lockdown on the capital, the government said on Monday that it would instead impose stricter regulations on social distancing coupled with civil emergency measures, a move that critics warn could exacerbate the coronavirus crisis.

After a virtual Cabinet meeting on Monday, President Joko Jokowi Widodo instructed his Cabinet to prepare regulations on mass social distancing based on Law No. 6/2018 on health quarantine that restricts movement in particular regions.

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Prince Albert of Monaco set the record straight and came out clean after several reports came out blaming him for causing Prince Charles to catch the coronavirus.

On Wednesday, the Clarence House confirmed that Prince Charles has tested positive for coronavirus after he displayed mild symptoms.

Since the reigning Prince of Monaco also caught the virus just a few days after his roundtable meeting with Britain's heir to the throne, many people suspected that he passed on the virus to Prince Charles.

As the rumors were getting out of control already, the 62-year-old royal finally spoke up in an interview with RTL French radio on Thursday where he confirmed that he spent time with the Prince of Wales before the diagnosis.

"I was at a roundtable for his foundation, but I didn't shake his hand. I was at the other end of the table, way far away," he narrated in French. "We nodded hello to one another, so I don't think I can really be accused of contaminating him."

Prince Albert and Prince Charles both attended the event for Water Aid in London last March 10.

Prince Albert went on and said that many people at the congress center joined them. In addition, Prince Charles continued to travel for a few more days after their meeting, making him vulnerable from the coronavirus numerous times.

"My symptoms are flu-like, but it feels like a pretty mild case," Prince Albert said, referring to the time when he found out about his health status. "I've a slight fever, not really that bad. A little bit of a cough. I'd a runny nose the first few days that was the first sign."

Currently, both Princes Charles and Prince Albert are experiencing mild symptoms but remain in good health.

For Prince Albert's case, he is taking extra measures to prevent the disease from attacking his body more since he has a medical history of having pneumonia.

Meanwhile, the heir to the throne is now at a royal estate in Scotland where he is self-isolating. His wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall -- who has always been traveling with the prince in every royal engagement -- has tested negative for the coronavirus.

Where Did Prince Charles Possibly Get It?

Since the coronavirus got categorized as a pandemic, the Prince of Wales started to practice social distancing by shifting handshaking to namaste greetings.

Although he managed to keep himself away from skinship, he attended multiple royal meetings and packed events these past few weeks, making it even harder for Clarence House to do contact tracing to pinpointfrom whom exactly he caught the virus.

In a report made by the Court Circular, Prince Charles met with dozens of people between March 10 and March 13 near his Scottish home in Birkhall.

Aside from meeting Prince Albert at the WaterAid Summit, he also met the Commonwealth High Commissioners at St James' Palace and attended a conference as patron of the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture, and Urbanism.

A dinner at Buckingham Palace for the Prince's Trust followed after the engagements.

On the following day, he still appeared in more meetings before traveling again at the London Palladium to attend the Prince's Trust Awards.

Meanwhile, on March 12, the heir to the throne held an investiture. He also encountered the former Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney before going on a dinner in relation to the Australian Bushfire Appeal.

Later that day, he went to see Queen Elizabeth II.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 10:12:47|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the G20 Extraordinary Virtual Leaders' Summit on COVID-19 via video link in Beijing, capital of China, March 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)



People from all over the world, political leaders, in particular, are expected to make an endeavor as one.



BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The novel coronavirus pandemic might be the most severe challenge of public health to the entire human race, the likes of which most people have never experienced before.

The successful extraordinary summit of G20 countries last week has sent a positive signal as the leaders reached consensus on fighting the pandemic in solidarity and committed to cooperation and coordination in grappling with the pandemic.

Local people greet members of the third Chinese medical team with an elbow bump instead of handshake as the medics arrive at Milan Malpensa Airport in Milan, Italy, March 25, 2020. (Xinhua)

It is the task of all mankind to fight the new pandemic. That when and how to put the outbreak under control is ultimately up to the country or region that has done the worst, not the best.

People from all over the world, political leaders, in particular, are expected to make an endeavor as one, and fight against COVID-19 with tit-for-tat tactics below:

--Courage

It requires enormous courage to face the global public health crisis rationally. Excuses, rhetoric and groundless blaming do no good at all and only bring consequences. Actions will make a difference.

--Teamwork

All human beings are in a war, meaning that we will have to fight with teamwork. Any disorganized decision or action would not only be futile but also undermine the periodic victories won earlier. The international community must act with unity.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi (R front) welcomes Chinese medical team at the Islamabad International Airport in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, March 28, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Tian)

--Vigilance

As the novel coronavirus is reaching almost every corner of our planet, we have to be more vigilant by taking precautions. While being alert to the ferocity of the virus, we should safeguard our global community from being torn apart by the virus.

--Inclusiveness

Diversity is one of the hallmarks of modern civilization. Given the current extraordinary situation, this has also been challenged. Cultural differences should not be deployed as a roadblock for people from various backgrounds to unite in order to battle the common enemy.

--Defeat, not defeated

Any cold war mindset is doomed to fail. The novel coronavirus knows no ideology. To defeat this public enemy, we need, now more than ever, political wisdom and should not harbor any fallacies. It is time for all countries and regions to be united as one to defeat the virus rather than be defeated, either physically or mentally. 
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's top aide, Dominic Cummings, has gone into self-isolation after developing mild symptoms of coronavirus over the weekend, according to UK media reports.

Cummings, the UK PM's senior-most adviser, is the latest among the top rung in government to be hit by COVID-19 after Johnson himself was tested and went into self-isolation last week, followed soon after by UK health secretary Matt Hancock.

It remains unconfirmed whether Cummings has been tested for the deadly virus yet but, according to reports, he is working from home and remains in contact with the Downing Street team.

He was last caught on television cameras leaving 10 Downing Street soon after Johnson had announced his COVID-19 diagnosis to the British public.

Cummings, 48, is the man behind the victorious Vote Leave campaign for the UK's exit from the European Union (EU) and has also been credited with aspects of Johnson's landslide election win in the December 2019 General Election.

He is believed to have developed symptoms of COVID-19, including a cough, in line with the mild symptoms experienced by Johnson.

"I am now self-isolating, but I will continue to lead the government's response via video-conference as we fight this virus. Together we will beat this," Johnson, 55, had said in his video message on Twitter last Friday.

Since then, Hancock posted a similar video message to say he would be working from home as he fights his mild symptoms.

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack is another Cabinet minister who went into self-isolation with symptoms, as did England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty -- who had been leading the government's charge against the pandemic alongside Johnson.

The latest addition to the list of the government's top team developing symptoms of the deadly virus will once again raise concerns around social distancing rules imposed UK-wide earlier last week not being followed stringently enough within political quarters.

Senior Indian-origin UK Cabinet members, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Priti Patel, are among those who have been working in close proximity to the UK PM and his top team.

Johnson's pregnant fiance, Carrie Symonds, had moved out of Downing Street and is said to be self-isolating in her flat in south London.

Among other senior UK figures afflicted by the virus include Prince Charles, who continues to work from his home in Balmoral, Scotland.

The 71-year-old heir to the British throne had tested positive for COVID-19 last week but was said to be in "good spirits".

His 93-year-old mother, Queen Elizabeth II, has been based at Windsor Castle for some time with husband Prince Philip, 98. The monarch has conducted her weekly meetings with the UK PM via telephone from there.

The UK remains under a stay-at-home lockdown with strict social distancing rules in force as the death toll from the virus hit 1,228, with the number of confirmed cases pegged at 19,522.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Gardai at the scene of the stabbing in Dublin Photo: Mark Condren

A man has been stabbed in an early morning attack in Dublin city.

The incident happened just before 7am on Cathal Brugha Street in the north inner city.

The victim, a man believed to be in his 20s, was taken to the Mater Hospital by ambulance with what are described as non life threatening injuries.

Gardai in Store Street are investigating the incident.

The road has been closed to the junction of O'Connell Street pending a forensic examination.
The novel coronavirus is infecting thousands of people, straining the health care system and strangling the nation's economy, but the plastic industry sees something else in the growing pandemic: opportunity.

Tony Radoszewski, president and CEO of the Plastic Industry Association, sent a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar earlier this month asking him to use the influence of his federal agency to promote plastic bags during the ongoing health crisis.

He requested that HHS advocate against state and local bans on single-use plastic containers, arguing disposable products would help blunt the spread of the virus.

"Now more than ever, we are seeing the impacts of those local and state laws restricting the use of single-use products," Radoszewski wrote in the letter, which was uncovered by Politico. "For instance, local and state plastic bag bans are tying the hands of shoppers and retailers alike.

"We ask that the department speak out against bans on these products as a public safety risk and help stop the rush to ban these products by environmentalists and elected officials that puts consumers and workers at risk," he added.

Many local governments in the Lowcountry implemented bans on single-use plastic containers in recent years in order to protect the environment from a growing amount of pollution.

Folly Beach was one of the first municipalities in the state to take up the issue in 2016, an accomplishment Mayor Tim Goodwin is still proud of.

Goodwin doesn't understand why there would be a need for disposable plastic bags during the pandemic when biodegradable paper bags work just as well. He said he was disturbed to learn the plastic industry is trying to use the health crisis to gain back some of its market share.

"It's really a shame that people in business want to use something as bad as a pandemic to make money and promote their business," Goodwin said.

The Plastic Industry Association did not respond to questions about Radoszewski letter.

It's not the first time plastic manufacturers have tried to undermine local ordinances that ban single-use containers. The industry has repeatedly attempted to convince state lawmakers in South Carolina to pass a law that would overturn the local ordinances in the state.

The local governments and environmental groups have fought off those efforts thus far.

Still, not every local government is taking such a hard line on the issue right now. Several have temporarily lifted their bans on plastic bags and containers as people stock up at grocery stores and support local restaurants with an increased number of takeout orders.

Charleston County suspended its ban on March 17, and announced the temporary halt in enforcement would last until April.

The city of Charleston followed suit on March 20 and informed stores and restaurants they could use the single-use plastic products for 30 days. Mount Pleasant Town Council agreed to temporarily halt enforcement of its ban Friday.

In his letter, Radoszewski cheered those sort of emergency measures, which are being implemented across the country right now. They are offering a temporary respite for the plastic industry, which has watched an increasing number of cities, counties and states ban their products in recent years.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing many Americans, businesses and government officials to realize that single-use plastics are often the safest choice," Radoszewski said. "Some are starting to take corrective action."

James Island also lifted its ordinance on plastic bags as the number of coronavirus cases began to climb in South Carolina. Mayor Bill Woosely said the town has no intention of stopping enforcement of that ordinance permanently.

"I'm not concerned about what the plastic industry says," Woosely said Friday.

Even with the restrictions currently lifted, not all stores and restaurants are rushing back to disposable bags and plastic containers.

A few downtown Charleston restaurant owners surveyed said they didn't at this point intend to sacrifice their principles in order to save money on packaging, even though they're spending more on paper goods.

Edward Crouse of Babas on Cannon estimated his restaurant's container spending is up 150 percent since Gov. Henry McMaster ordered every restaurant in the state to end dine-in service.

At Burwell's Stone Fire Grill, partner Ken Emery said, "Weve done paper since day one." He said the restaurant hopes to cut down costs and reduce waste in the next couple weeks by using more foil for family-sized meals.

The Coastal Conservation League, which advocated for the local plastic ordinances, said they understood the need to loosen some of the restrictions to help local restaurants. It cheered restaurant owners who continued to avoid plastic products.

"The Conservation League understands the importance of doing whatever it takes to support local businesses during this temporary period, as we recognize that COVID-19 is an extraordinary crisis," said Emily Cedzo, a program director with the environmental group.

"We are also grateful to the businesses that are able to continue minimizing their single-use plastic footprint because weve already made such progress."

Even with the help of coronavirus, it's going to be difficult for the plastic industry to regain a foothold in Charleston County.
A severe weather system tore through the Midwest over the weekend, bringing damaging high winds, tornadoes and flooding.

Authorities say severe weather in Ohio spawned what forecasters are calling a 100-year flood in Cleveland, Ohio.

In Iowa, storms damaged an apartment building in northeast Iowa and knocked down power lines.

A tornado touched down late Saturday in northern Illinois damaging homes and uprooting trees, weather officials confirmed.

Cleveland firefighters say a man was rescued from the basement of an apartment building on the citys East Side. WOIO-TV reports that the man called 911 saying the water was up to his chest. Fire Chief Angelo Calvillo told the station that firefighters broke a window and bent steel bars on the windows to get him out. One firefighter had a minor injury and 10 people were displaced.

Cleveland police say emergency medical personnel took an officer and sergeant to a hospital Saturday night for treatment of exposure after they entered frigid water to aid civilians.

The National Weather Service says the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland is currently at the seventh-highest level recorded. Forecasters say its considered a Federal Emergency Management Agency a 1-percent flood commonly known as a 100-year flood.

A tornado that was spotted in Oelwein, Iowa, tore off part of the wall of a 12-unit apartment building and damaged the siding of a second building in the complex. Oelwein police said no serious injuries were reported.

Lonnie Robbins said he watched the storm moving in before retreating to the bathroom of his ground floor apartment in the complex.

I heard something go whoosh, and I even felt it, Robbins told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. It ripped the hallway wall off, smacked that into my apartment, and when it did that, it knocked a hole in my apartment.

Fayette County Sheriff Marty Fisher said the storm knocked down branches and some power lines elsewhere in Oelwein and in rural parts of the county.

Residents of the apartment complex whose homes were damaged sought shelter in a nearby hotel. Resident Jonathan Reinert said the storm damage leaves him without a place to stay during the coronavirus outbreak. Emergency crews wore surgical masks as they responded to the storm damage because of the virus.

I got no shelter in place now, Reinert said.

A tornado touched down late Saturday in northern Illinois damaging homes and uprooting trees. The tornado touched down in Ogle County just outside Oregon around 9 p.m. on Saturday, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Gino Izzi. It was on the ground for roughly 10 minutes.

No injuries were reported.

One home appeared to have lost its roof and windows, officials said. Survey teams planned to assess the damage Sunday.

Reports of possible tornadoes Saturday also cropped up in Peoria County, where there were power outages, and Henry County.

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FILE PHOTO: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a televised speech on the occasion of the Iranian New Year Nowruz, in Tehran

By Parisa Hafezi

DUBAI (Reuters) - The United States' offer to help Iran in its fight against the new coronavirus pandemic is strange, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a televised speech on Sunday, describing U.S. leaders as "charlatans and liars".

Washington has offered humanitarian assistance to its longtime foe, the Middle Eastern country most affected by the coronavirus, with 1,685 deaths and 21,638 people infected.

Tensions between the two countries have been running high since 2018, when U.S. President Donald Trump exited Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.

"Several times Americans have offered to help us to fight the pandemic. That is strange because you face shortages in America. Also you are accused of creating this virus," said Khamenei, an anti-U.S. hardliner who has the final say in Iran.

"I do not know whether it is true. But when there is such an allegation, can a wise man trust you and accept your help offer? ... You could be giving medicines to Iran that spread the virus or cause it to remain permanently."

Frictions increased when Trump ordered a U.S. drone strike that killed the top commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Qassem Soleimani, on Jan. 3. Iran retaliated by hitting U.S. targets in Iraq on Jan. 8.

"Our number one enemy is America. It is the most wicked, sinister enemy of Iran ... its leaders are terrorists ... Liars and charlatans," said Khamenei.

Iranian authorities have blamed U.S. sanctions for hampering its efforts to curb the outbreak and President Hassan Rouhani has urged Americans to call on their government to lift sanctions as Iran fights the coronavirus.

China, a party to Iran's nuclear deal, has urged the United States to lift sanctions on Iran immediately amid Tehran's response to the coronavirus outbreak.

But the United States sent Iran a blunt message this week: the spread of the virus will not save it from U.S. sanctions that are choking off its oil revenues and isolating its economy.

Story continues

Khamenei, who canceled his annual speech for Persian new year from the holy Shi'ite Muslim city of Mashhad on March 20 because of the outbreak, said Iran would triumph over the virus.

"The Islamic Republic has the capability to overcome any kind of crisis and challenges, including the coronavirus outbreak," said Khamenei, who called on people to stay at home.

While many Iranians avoided traveling during the Persian new year holiday, police said millions have defied warnings issued by officials to avoid unnecessary trips aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.

The office of Tehran's governor said all shopping centers will be closed in the capital from Sunday.

"Only pharmacies and shops that provide essential goods will remain open in Tehran," Iranian state TV reported.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Various reports have stated that Apple has long been working on AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality) patents. Some of these patents would be used in its upcoming AR glasses. Now, it is being reported that the Cupertino-based tech giant also tried to buy the AR display maker, but got beat by another firm.

According to a new report from The Information, Apple tried to buy British AR display maker Plessey. However, Facebook grabbed a technology licensing deal with Plessey. The company reportedly stated that it wants to make AR glasses that let devices melt away so that users can be more present with their family, friends, and surroundings.

Facebook has struck a deal to buy all the AR displays from Plessey. The microLED-based AR display maker is one of the few companies in the world that make such screens. The social networking giant, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, reportedly wants to overlay virtual objects onto the real world. Facebook is already heavily invested in the development of VR products and purchased Oculus a few years ago. Now, the company will have an edge of Apple, Google, and Samsung in the AR space, thanks to its deal with Plessey.

Apple has shown a lot of interest in AR products and technologies. It has already developed the software part for it, including ARKit, RealityKit, Reality Composer, and Reality Converter. The iPhone maker has displayed various AR-based apps and games for iPhones and iPads during its developer conferences over the past couple of years. Earlier this month, it also launched a brand new iPad with a LiDAR system, which makes AR apps immensely powerful.

Our Take

Multiple reports state that Apple plans to launch an MR (Mixed Reality) headset in 2021 or 2022, followed by the launch of sleek AR glasses by 2022 or 2023. If those reports are true, the company could already be in advanced stages of hardware as well as software development for such devices. Apples advantage over its rivals, such as Oculus (and Facebook), HTC, and Samsung, could be the ecosystem of AR apps and services and better ease-of-use in terms of hardware.

With the LiDAR-equipped 2020 iPad Pro and 2020 iPhone with a similar sensor, Apple could create an ecosystem of devices that could run AR or MR apps and games. Industries like manufacturing and healthcare could greatly benefit from such devices.
[March 30, 2020] New-age Programs Launched Under NMIMS Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management & Engineering

MUMBAI, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As multiple dimensions open up in the world of technology, the need for strong and exclusive academic programs is felt more than before which will create the right class of leaders. NMIMS Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management & Engineering (MPSTME) understands this requirement better than anyone else as it's all set to launch 4 unique global programs in association with Virginia Tech (VT), a pedigreed American University. These specialized courses will give the students pure insights into the evolving frontiers of technology. Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) was established in 1981 by Shri Vile Parle Kelavani Mandal (SVKM) to meet the growing demand for management education. In 2003, NMIMS was declared a 'Deemed to be University' under Section 3 of the UGC Act 1956. With a dream of fulfilling the requirement of both Engineering and Management, Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management & Engineering (MPSTME) was established in 2006 as a constituent school of SVKM's NMIMS University. Virginia Tech is a U.S. based public research University and offers 280 undergraduate & graduate degree programs to over 34,000 students and is ranked 4th best management sciences and quantitative methods colleges in the U.S. by College Factual, 2018. It equips students to build skills in communications, critical & design thinking, teamwork and analysis. The collaboration will give an unparalleled opportunity to assimilate the best of both schools in terms of pedagogy, vision and thoughtful infrastructure.



B.Tech Programs

B. Tech Data Science: A 4-year program with an intake of 60 seats to meet the increasingly aggressive demand for qualified data scientists. B. Tech Artificial Intelligence: A 4-year program with an intake of 60 seats designed to solve the pressing needs of tomorrow. B. Tech Cybersecurity: A 4-year program with an intake of 60 seats will be a launching pad for the students aspiring to build a career in the field of Security. Highlights Programs in collaboration with Virginia Tech

7 Subjects to be taught by VT Faculty, with an exclusive certification from VT

Curricula developed by industry experts and practitioners

Trained faculty members (Mostly from industries) on Machine Learning and Deep Learning, Big Data, IoT, Cloud Computing, etc.

on Machine Learning and Deep Learning, Big Data, IoT, Cloud Computing, etc. Curriculum mapped to NIST NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework

Opportunity to pursue International Cybersecurity certifications like CEH, CCNA Security etc. approved by US DoD

Access to cloud-based virtual labs Integrated Program The 5 Year course with an intake of 30 seats will give the students an exceptional mix of curriculum. Program in collaboration with Virginia Tech

3 World-class degrees under one program - B. Tech. (Data Science), BS (Cybersecurity), MS (Business Analytics)

STEM program with OPT On a concluding note, life at MPSTME is about learning, evolving and application which is again evident from these new-age courses which will give students a unique courage to fly. Interested candidates have to give their entrance exam, the NMIMS NPAT 2020, to secure a place in this prestigious institute. To apply visit https://www.npat.in/engineering-and-technology-management.php About NMIMS



With the legacy of 40 years, NMIMS Deemed to be University has grown to being not only one of the top-10 B-schools in India but also emerged as a multi-disciplinary, multi-campus University at Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Indore, Shirpur, Dhule, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chandigarh and seventeen constituent schools that include Management, Family Business, Engineering, Pharmacy, Architecture, Commerce, Economics, Law, Science, Liberal Arts, Design, Performing Arts, Mathematical Science, Agricultural Science, Hospitality Management, Branding & Advertising and Distance Learning. In addition, we have nine Centres of Excellence as well at the University. Asmita Kolte

[email protected]

+91-9892034542

Public Relations Coordinator

NMIMS Deemed to be University

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EDWARDSVILLE  Illinois and Madison County were able to get in the primary elections before other states started delaying their balloting.

But what happens now?

There were few contested races locally in the March 17 primary. But it set up a large number of contests for the Nov. 3 general election. There also is the larger question of what local political parties are going to be doing in the nine months between elections.

The Madison County Clerks staff is now readying for the mail-in ballot deadline. The clerks office is required by the state to to finish its work on the primary is March 31.

Madison County Clerk Debra Ming-Mendoza said she had requested an extension, but the Illinois State Board of Elections said no.

There is also the question of write-in candidates.

There were a total of 36 on the ballot, most of them precinct committee members. However, there was one judicial candidate and a county-wide candidate for coroner.

To be on the Nov. 3 ballot those candidates needed to receive at least the number of votes required for the primary nominating petitions.

On the Democratic side, Glen Carbon attorney Leslie Ann Wood filed to run as a write-in for the circuit judge seat previously held by Andy Matoesian. Ming-Mendoza previously said she needed about 500 votes to qualify. On Tuesday Ming-Mendoza said it appeared Wood had reached that number, but the results were preliminary and would not be official until March 31.

If successful, Wood will face Republican Steve Stobbs in November.

Republican Harry Mason, of Worden, filed as a write-in candidate for the Madison County coroner position currently held by Democrat Steve Nonn who is seeking reelection.

On Tuesday Ming-Mendoza said Mason had not reached enough write-ins and they were waiting for mail-in ballots.

Most of the precinct committee write-ins were unopposed. While some had not reached the required number, those seats are normally appointed after the election.

Full slates of candidates are expected by both the Republican and Democratic parties for most races.

Federal races

President Donald Trump is expected to face former Vice President Joe Biden who easily won the Illinois primary and took most of the votes in Madison County.

In the U.S. Senate race, incumbent Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., will be challenged by former Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran who beat out four other Republicans for the spot.

In the 12th District Congressional race, Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, will apparently be challenged by Democrat Ray Lenzi. According to unofficial results, Lenzi defeated Joel Funk by less than 2,000 votes in the primary.

Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, will be rematched with his 2018 Democratic opponent Betsy Dirksen Londrigan in the 13th Congressional District. In the 15th District, Democrat Erica Weaver of Mattoon will face Republican Mary Miller of Oakland to replace retiring U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville.

State and judicial races

In state House races, three incumbents are so far unopposed in the Nov. 3 election and three incumbents face opposition.

Unopposed are Reps. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville in the 112th District, Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea in the 113th District and Christopher C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Jacksonville, in the 100th district.

In the 95th District, state Rep. Avery Bourne, R-Morrisonville will be challenged by Democrat Chase Wilhelm; 11th District Rep. Monica Bristow, D-Alton, will face Republican Amy Elik of Alton; and in the 108th District Rep. Charles Meier, R-Okawville, and Democratic challenger Kacie Weicherding of Hoyletonwill compete..

In judicial races, Democrat Judy Cates and Republican David K. Overstreet are vying for the open Fifth Appellate District seat on the Illinois Supreme Court. Democrat Sarah Smith and Republican incumbent Mark M. Boie are seeking a spot on the Fifth District Appellate Court.

In the Third Judicial Circuit, Democrat Leslie Ann Wood appears to have enough write-in votes to go on the ballot against Republic Steve Stobbs; and Madison County States Attorney Tom Gibbons, a Democrat, and Amy Maher will vie for a second open seat.

County races

Voters will have a number of choices for countywide offices.

Incumbent Republican Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler is challenged by former Regional Superintendent of Schools Bob Daiber, a Democrat.

In the circuit clerks spot, county board member Tom McRae, R-Bethalto, and Amy Gabriel will vy for the seat being vacated by Mark Von Nida.

In the states attorneys race, Crystal Uhe will face off against Tom Haine. For auditor, East Alton Mayor Joe Silkwood, a Democrat, and county board member David Michaels, R-Highland, will vie for the seat of retiring auditor Rick Faccin.

Incumbent Democratic Coroner Steve Nonn is so far unopposed, with the write-in count for potential challenger Harry Mason still underway.

Ten Madison County Board seats are up for grabs.

So far five are unopposed: Republican William S. Meyer in the 3rd District, incumbent Michael Holliday Sr. in the 8th District, former Edwardsville Mayor Gary Niebur in the 17th District, incumbent Jack Miner in the 18th District and Dina Burch in the 19th District.

In the 2nd District, Republican Stacy Pace and Democrat DeAnn Rizzi are vying to replace Republican Don Moore, R-Troy, who decided not to seek reelection.

In the 4th District, Republican Bobby Ross and Kelly A. Simpson are seeking to replace Republican David Michael, R-Highland, who is running for county auditor.

Kristen Novacich-Koberna, D-Granite City, the 20th District incumbent, is challenged by Denise Wiehardt.

In the 26th District, incumbent Republican Erica Conway Harriss will go up against Democratic challenger Collin VanMeter.

In the 29th District, Republican Ryan Kneedler and Democrat Jim Trucano will vie to replace Trucanos father, Larry Trucano, who is not seeking reelection.
Nigeria has recorded another death from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, has said.

The minister said this at the first joint national briefing of the Presidential Task Force in Abuja on Monday.

Till date, three persons have been discharged after successful treatment but sadly, another fatality was recorded over the weekend in the person of a patient who had severe underlying illnesses, he said.

This brings the number of deaths in Nigeria to two.

Nigeria recorded its first COVID-19 death in a 67-year-old male who returned home following medical treatment in the UK.

Nigeria has recorded 111 cases of Covid-19 as of Monday morning.

The presidential committee was set up by President Muhammadu Buhari to spearhead the coordination of anti-Covid-19 activities in the country.
Kerala Monday reported 32 new positive cases of Covid-19, taking the total number of patients under treatment to 213 in the state with the worst affected Kasaragod district accounting for 17 fresh cases.

The state also scripted history on Monday when the two elderly couple aged 93 and 88, were cured of the deadly virus.

Thomas and Mariyamma, from Ranni in Pathanamthitta district, admitted in Kottayam medical college were cured even as they battled wth various age related complications.

Five other family members of the elderly couple, including their Italy returned son, daughter-in-law and grandson, who had tested positive for the virus, and were under treatment since March 6, were discharged on Monday and left for home after their samples returned negative.

At least 1,57,253 people in the state are under observation out of which 623 people are in isolation wards of various hospitals across the state, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters after the daily evaluation meet.

He said besides Kasaragod, Kannur district accounted for 11 positive cases while Wayanad and Idukki has two new cases of coronavirus infection.

"The state has so far sent 6991 samples for testing whereas 6031 returned negative.

Of the 32 fresh cases, 17 of them came from abroad and 15 persons are close contacts of the affected patients," Vijayan said.

The condition of a positive patient at thiruvananthapuram was serious as he was suffering from various complications.

The chief minister today termed the protest of guest workers from others yesterday as a "conspiracy by one or more elements" and said the police was probing the matter.

"The government has opened 5,178 camps across the state and arranged food, medical assistance and other facilities for them.

It's not possible for us to allow them to travel to their native places in north India.

That's not a decision to be taken by the state government as the Prime Minister himself has declared the national policy to stay wherever we are," Vijayan said.

"Certain elements, annoyed with the state's advancement made in the face of Covid-19 has conspired to provoke the guest workers.

Police is probing the conspiracy part.

The state has appointed a panel comprising district collector and labour officer to look into matters of the guest workers in the state," VIjayan said.

In another development, Two youth congress workers were arrested from Malappuram district for spreading misleading over social media.

The two had shared WhatsApp message saying a train had been arranged for the guest workers to travel home, police said.

At least 1076 people were arrested on Monday for lockdown violations, 1089 cases registered and 792 vehcles seized.

The total cases registered since tuesday has touched 10,429, police said.

Vijayan was also all praise for the Home Guard, who in Hindi appraised the guest workers of the situation related to Covid-19 and the steps bein gtaken by the government and said an ADGP has been appointed to look into the safety and health of the policemen in the field.

The chief minister urged the government employees to contrubute their one day salary to the cm's relief fund to help the financially strained state at the time of the pandemic.

Discusisons had been held with various employees organisations, he said.

Vijayan also said they could become part of the salary challenge by contributing either a month's salary in full or in instalments.

Opposition leader, Ramesh Chennithala, said it would be dificult for the last grade employees to contribute their one month salary in full.

The Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Biotechnology was granted permission to conduct tests.

So from tomorrow onward we can conduct 3,000 tests daily.

We can increase the number of tests here," Vijayan said.

The chief minister also said he was confident that the issue relating to the closure of the border roads by Karnataka would be sorted out soon.

A vegetable laden lorry had been reportedly attacked last night and tomotoes and other vegetables destroyed at a checkpost.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A cyclist waded into the sea with his bike to allegedly try and avoid a 350 fine amid Italy's coronavirus lockdown.

The man went into the sea after being approached by authorities on Otranto beach in Italy's southern Apulia region, according to local news.

In footage of his bizarre attempt, the man is seen wading knee deep in the sea while holding his bike.

A cyclist waded into the sea with his bike to allegedly try and avoid police checks amid Italy's coronavirus lockdown

He is heard shouting, 'I haven't done anything,' as he continues walking in the water.

A police officer behind the camera is heard telling him, 'I know you haven't done anything, but we need to do identification checks.'

He was ordered by the police to come out of the sea but continually refused.

However, he was eventually identified and given a 350 (400) fine, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

Italy has been in lockdown for several weeks in an attempt to tackle the rampant coronavirus outbreak.

It has infected more than 97,500 people in the country, killing nearly 10,800.

The man went into the sea after being approached by authorities on Otranto beach in Italy's southern Apulia region, according to local news

Tougher sanctions for people who ignore lockdown rules were recently brought in by the country's government.

Fines have been raised to as much as 3,000 (2,677).

The Economist Intelligence Unit said Thursday it expected Italy's GDP to contract by a colossal 7 percent for the year.

Italian experts say some 65 percent of Italian small and medium businesses are at risk of bankruptcy.
Dada Groups service platforms supply daily needs

By:Wu Qiong | From:english.eastday.com | 2020-03-25 18:32

During the COVID-19 outbreak, the purchase and delivery of peoples daily necessities has become a problem. To solve this, Dada Group, a company headquartered in Shanghais Yangpu district, have fully utilized its local on-demand retail and delivery platforms (JDDJ and Dada Now) to serve the citizens.

Innovative ways to avoid health risks

Putting its delivery riders health and security in first place, Dada Now has distributed a large number of protective equipment such as masks, thermometers and disinfectants purchased from across the country. Riders are required to wear masks at work, and do disinfection on time. They also have to take a selfie of themselves wearing masks for inspection.

In case of any health issues, emergency plans have been drawn up, so that riders health conditions can be monitored by dada analysis.

(Riders receive body temperature check)

JDDJ and Dada Now have both launched contactless delivery service, to prevent face-to-face contact between the riders and consumers. The packages will be place in designated positions for the consumers to pick up.

So far, the service has been well received across the country, resulting in a daily increase of orders of 130%. It has also been enlisted in the best practices selected by the national ministry of commerce.

Reasonable quality and price

During the pandemic outbreak, the price of daily necessities affects almost every one. Through a big data price monitoring mechanism, JDDJ has been working with the merchants on the platform to ensure the supply of various anti-epidemic materials and stabilize prices. Complaints regarding abnormal prices will be followed up and dealt with immediately.

At the beginning of the pandemic outbreak, big data was also utilized on JDDJ to remove wild meat products from merchants shelves. DD Now has also prohibited any goods related to bush meat.

(Vegetables in supermarkets and grocery stores)

On February 2, JDDJ launched a new campaign to offer fresh vegetables to thousands of supermarkets and grocery stores across 100 Chinese cities to ensure a sufficient supply. As of March 23, the campaign has covered nearly 50 chain supermarkets, over 30 community chain stores and over 1,000 grocery markets.

From January 27 to February 13, the overall sales of JDDJ increased by 450% year-on-year. To break it down, the grain and oil category increased by 540% year-on-year, the meat category was up by 1080%, the snack category 420%, the vegetable category 800%, and the fruit category 350%.

Offering a helping hand

Apart from providing a wide range of consumer-oriented services, Dada Group has also offered a helping hand to its merchants and the families of frontline medics.

On February 12, Dada Group announced it would assist retailers in recruiting 7,000 job positions, and launched a 24-hour service and a preferential measure to encourage merchants to register on its platform, so as to reduce the pandemics impact on employment and business operations in the short run. Dada Now also began to recruit delivery riders nationwide with no limit in the number of candidates.

In Shanghais Yangpu district, Dada Group has also answered the call of the district government to care for the families of medical staff who had been dispatched to fight against the coronavirus in Wuhan. Starting from the end of February, on a weekly basis, charity packages of vegetables (including mushrooms, eggs and bean products) have been delivered free of charge to the families.

(Packages of vegetables are delivered to families of frontline medics)
Firefighters were called to a huge blaze at a farm in Hartlepool on Sunday that left a trail of destruction as it spread across two barns and continued into Monday morning.

The fire left devastation as it burned throughout the night, destroying machinery as it tore through pallets and hay.

Cleveland Fire Brigade were called to the farm in Butts Lane, near Hart Village at 11.15pm and it required eight appliances from across five crews to tackle the blaze.

Dramatic pictures from the scene showed gigantic smoke plumes as a result of the fire that greeted firefighters as they arrived on the scene.

By Monday morning the crews had a control of the incident with a reduced number of three appliances in attendance.

However the scale of the fire means officers expect to still be at the scene over the next few days.

A spokesman from the Brigade stated it was still 'too early to know the cause of the fire.'

Fire crews were called to a huge blaze on a farm in Hartlepool which burned on Sunday night

Huge plumes of smoked gathered over Hart Village as the fire swept across two barns

Crews battle into the early hours of Monday morning to bring the blaze under control

In addition they added: 'an investigation would be carried out in the next few days as standard procedure to find out if the blaze was started deliberately.'

The incident follows another barn fire nearby at Thornley from March 20 which also saw fire crews called to the scene at a similar time of 11.14pm.

Around 500 tonnes of hay burned through the night and into the morning as crews brought the blaze under control.

A statement from local police claimed as yet they were not looking into matters of whether the fires were linked.
D etectives are investigating the shocking murder of a woman found bludgeoned to death in a churchyard in east London.

The body was of Kelly Stewart, 41, was found in the grounds of Memorial Community Church in Barking Road, Plaistow, at about 3pm on Thursday.

She had died of severe head injuries when she was attacked around 14 hours earlier.

Paramedics declared Ms Stewart dead at the Baptist church, which has suspended all services due to coronavirus.

A post-mortem examination the next day gave the cause of death as impact injuries to the head. Officers believe she was attacked between 12.45am and 1.45am on March 26. There have been no arrests.

Ms Stewart was of no fixed address at the time of her death, but was from Newham. Her next of kin have been informed.

Detective Inspector Darren Jones, leading the investigation, said: We are working hard to establish exactly what happened to Kelly, and we must keep an open mind as to any motive.

North East area borough commander Richard Tucker said: This is a shocking incident but I want residents to know that a team of specialist officers are working tirelessly to identify and apprehend whoever is responsible.
In the dark times, will there also be singing? Bertolt Brecht, the great German poet and playwright, once asked the question.

Well, we all know the answer: You bet there will be, Mr Brecht. Therell be singing from our windows, from our balconies and from the rooftops. Therell be writing too, also texting and emailing and Skyping and Zooming and YouTubing, and clapping. And dancing in the streets, when we can, when its all over.

Weve been here before, through times even darker than these. We should remember that. Not in my memory, though, and not in many of yours. Our parents and grandparents knew such times, and worse. And they sang their way through and out of their dark times. In the music-hall days of the First World War, there was a rousing song whose chorus began like this: Are we downhearted? No! Then let your voices ring and altogether sing! Are we downhearted? No!

People in Woodford Green, London, join a national applause for the NHS from their homes

Singing chases away the demons of gloom and despondency, makes us feel we are not alone, that well get through. We will too, but get through to what? To the world as it was before? I think not. I hope not.

So lets reflect on how each of us feels about where we are, how we got here and how and where we could be going afterwards.

The story of this pandemic is worldwide, of course, but it is also personal.

I dont think I really began to understand the seriousness of the coronavirus, of what was happening and its consequences, until I looked out of my cottage window one early morning a few weeks ago.

I saw a dozen or so schoolchildren in wellies, walking down the lane with sacks over their shoulders on their way to feed the sheep, as they had been nearly every morning for the past 45 years.

I knew this was the last morning I would be seeing this. Normally I loved to see them out at work on the farm, it cheered my heart.

Staff outside St James's University Hospital in Leeds wave to people applauding their work

One hundred thousand city children had been there before them, farmers for a week of their young lives. That morning I felt so overwhelmed with sadness that I had to look away.

I also had a very strong sense of deja vu. It took me a while to remember. In 2001, the charity my wife Clare and I had begun at Nethercott, near Iddesleigh in deepest Devon, Farms For City Children, had to shut down. Another epidemic was stalking the land: foot-and-mouth. The countryside was closing down. No visitors were allowed on farms. And that included our children from the cities.

Strange then that this thought gave me hope. Because that epidemic was a dark time for so many rural communities like ours. Memories came back, of the mass slaughter, the black smoke from burning cattle drifting along the valley, of farming friends living through hell. Yet it ended, this terrible epidemic. It seemed as if it never would, but it did. Hope springs eternal, with good reason. Hope and science and dedication ended that epidemic, just as they will end this one.

There have been two spikes of hope in my lifetime: the late 1940s and the 1960s.

Clare and I were children in the late 1940s and the 1950s: the 1944 Education Act, a National Health Service, a new young Queen, the Festival of Britain, Tenzing and Hillary climbing Everest, Roger Bannisters four-minute mile  the fog of postwar gloom lifting slowly, with rationing, maybe, and bomb sites all around us, but with hope of a brave new world ahead.

And by the 1960s we could believe it was really happening, that we were part of a special time, that the times they really were a-changing. We could help make it happen.

People clap for the NHS from their balconies in Bristol at 8pm on March 26

In the flush of this optimism, committed and naive no doubt, and seeing the world feelingly as we did, we, with some good friends and farmers, launched Farms for City Children to enrich the lives of our urban children.

And so for all these years they came to the farm, 35 at a time, soon to two other farms as well, because demand from schools was so great. Theyd be planting and harvesting, looking after cows and sheep and pigs and horses and poultry, working alongside real farmers, living the country life. Theyd stomp through the mud, scuffle leaves, break the ice in the puddles, hear buzzards mewing high in the sky, glimpse a heron lifting off the river, see swallows skimming over the meadows, watch sheep and cows giving birth.

And in the evenings Id read stories to them in front of a log fire, and theyd listen, hot chocolate in hand. This was our life, Clares and mine. This was our dream.

And now at my window I was watching the last city children walk up the lane again, the last we would be seeing for months, for who knows how long.

Then I realised that thousands upon thousands of businesses  which of course are people  and individuals and charities up and down the land are going through the same dark times, the same trauma, the same deep sadness, the same uncertainty about employment and money, anxiety about protecting ourselves and everyone we know and love from the infection, as the epidemic spreads remorselessly. And Im thinking, as many of us are: will there ever be an end to this?

Can our doctors and nurses and hospital workers and carers keep going? Can they, can we, somehow get through it? How can we get through this and come out the other side? And what will the other side look like? Are granny and grandpa all right? When will we see family and friends again? When will we hug them again?

Medical staff pictured rushing an 18-year-old coronavirus patient through a hospital

Befuddled by all these unanswerable questions, I remember two others: will there also be singing? Are we downhearted? Yes, to the first. No, to the second.

I sing often in the shower. Not a pretty sight, not a pretty sound. But in my resonant bathroom I can believe I sound like Pavarotti. And because I was singing, I was thinking positive thoughts in my shower. I will share them, for what they are worth.

Out of this cruel pandemic, despite all its appalling consequences, I have learnt great lessons. Were the skies and streets ever quieter? Do the birds not seem to sing more? Is the air not cleaner to breathe? Do we not feel more kinship with neighbours, with everyone about us, because we really are all in this together, Prince and Prime Minister, employed or unemployed, prisoner or rough sleeper?

Unable to see our friends and relations, do we not think of them more? Do we not take everyone less for granted, those who work to keep us fed, and cared for? Did we not forget just how good and kind and generous we can be, those who put themselves in danger to help those less able to help themselves?

Are we not discovering in ourselves and in others so much that we might have forgotten? And does this not give us hope and a fierce determination that, after this monster has finally been destroyed, and he will be, he will be, we can create a new world in which everyone matters, and a world and a life and a sense of community that are more precious to us, because we no longer take them for granted?

See, Mr Brecht? Your question should have been. In the dark times, will there also be singing in the shower? Yes, Mr Brecht. Oh, yes.
Meghan King Edmonds was spotted out after being accused by her estranged husband Jim Edmonds of taking their children from Missouri to California without his permission.

The reality star, 35, was spotted running errands in Santa Monica on Monday, the same day Jim's allegations came to light.

Meghan was dressed down as she took a break from inside her house to stock up on a few essentials.

Doing her thing: Meghan King Edmonds was spotted running errands in Santa Monica on Monday, the same day Jim's allegations came to light

The RHOC star wore her dirty blonde hair pulled up, a delicate choker necklace, a slouchy lip print top and tie dye bottoms.

Meghan stayed energized with a cup of iced coffee, which she had already drank a good portion of.

She did a bit of stocking up at CVS/Pharmacy, carrying a bag from the retailer, along with a black and white Prada purse.

The star strode ahead wearing a pair of grey trainers.

Sealed with a kiss: Edmonds wore a lip print blouse and slouchy pair of tie dye bottoms

Meghan appeared stone-faced, giving little clue to how she was feeling as she went about her day.

This all comes after Meghan's ex Jim accused her of taking their children from Missouri to California without his knowledge, according to Us Weekly.

The trip occurred in mid-March with Meghan taking their kids daughter Aspen, three, and twin sons Hayes and Hart, 21 months old, which left the former athlete fuming, 49, the outlet's source revealed.

Jim, who is currently awaiting his COVID-19 test results after falling sick, filed for divorce from Meghan in 2019, just one day after their five year wedding anniversary.

Penny for your thoughts? Meghan appeared stone-faced, giving little clue to how she was feeling as she went about her day

'Meghan took the kids to California unbeknownst to Jim. He can't see his kid and he's not going to travel,' the insider said.

Adding: 'She can't do that without talking to him first and Jim is saying that this was not discussed with him before she did it.'

However, a rep told the outlet: 'Meghan and Jim were going to exchange custody on Monday the 16th.'

Adding: 'The Monday prior to the trip, Meghan told Jim she could take the kids on the 13th if he wanted her to.'

Get well soon: Jim Edmonds is currently awaiting his COVID-19 test results after falling sick,

They added that the trip was legally approved and signed off by the guardian ad litem.

The rep continued: 'He said yes and he went to Nashville with his daughter and live-in girlfriend and partied there for several days.'

The former Real Housewives of Orange County star moved her trip from the 16th to the 14th with Jim handing the kids over on the 13th.

Her rep added that he had told her Aspen was sick so 'Meghan took her to the doctor and the child didn't have a fever and had a clean bill of health' to travel.

'Meghan would never put the children in harm's way,' the rep added.

However, Jim's rep claimed otherwise; he told the outlet: 'I'm not sure what world Meghan is living in, but Jim had absolutely no idea she was taking the children, one of which had a fever, on a plane to Los Angeles.'

With the rep adding: 'Jim never, ever would have agreed to that. And if a judge signed off on this, Jim would sure like to see a copy of that order.'
THE ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Secretary General, Dr Bashiru Ally, has directed the partys youth wing to embark on a countrywide awareness campaigns in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Bashiru issued the directive in Dodoma, yesterday at an event to handover CCM membership card to former Prime Minister, Fredrick Sumaye, who returned to the party recently after defecting to the opposition some years ago.

The Secretary General called upon members of the youth wing to strengthen awareness campaign by encouraging the public to abide by pieces of advice, guidelines and directives issued by health experts.

Upon the issuance of various government directives, I would task the partys youth wing to carry out an assessment on the level of compliance in some parts of Dar es Salaam.

Surprisingly, when they visited Mwananyamala Market, there was no sign of hand washing facilities, despite importance of health experts and authorities insisting on that, said Dr Bashiru.

He observed that in some of the areas like Mlimani City Mall, the exercise has been accorded the attention it deserves.

He, however, noted that the government was working tirelessly to ensure the lives of the people are safe, adding that it is thus crucial for the people to give maximum support by complying with the directives.

Based on the countrys history of wining various wars and hard times, we will surely win this one too.

Tracing back from the history of CCM during the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), it was witnessed how the party managed to fight against the three enemies namely diseases, poverty and ignorance from the start. said the Secretary General.

Also, while the fight against the coronavirus is being intensified, he urged the public to work hard by protecting the economy and avoid unnecessary sufferings.

On his part, CCM Central Committee Member, Mr Mizengo Pinda applauded the move being taken by the party to fight the disease, emphasizing that they also focus on markets and recreation areas, including bars, clubs among others, where people gather.

The former Prime Minister was of the view that the places have not been given enough attention they deserve.

However, he urged them to spread the knowledge in the villages, where some people might not have idea about the disease and what is going on.
(Photo : REUTERS/Pavel Mikheyev) A specialist wearing protective gear sanitizes a residential building to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Almaty, Kazakhstan March 30, 2020.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issues an emergency approval for two anti-malarial pills for use in treating people infected with the coronavirus. The capsules, chloroquine phosphate and hydroxychloroquine sulfate, were promoted by President Trump. He said the drugs could become "one of the biggest game-changers in the history of medicine."

ALSO READ: COVID-19 Cure? Coronavirus Patients Come Forward to Reveal Hydroxychloroquine Saved their Lives

Still, they had not been FDA-approved for treating COVID-19, the disease because of the radical coronavirus. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert, said earlier this month that lots of what's known about the drug are primarily based on "anecdotal reports."

Anti-malaria drugs donated by Sandoz, Bayer

In a statement, the Department of Health and Human Services said that it had also obtained 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate donated by Sandoz. Around one million doses of chloroquine phosphate were given by Bayer Pharmaceuticals for the national stockpile of prescription drugs and clinical supplies.

The capsules that have been long authorized for treating malaria, lupus, and different diseases can be used "in treating patients COVID-19 or in medical trials," the HHS statement stated.

There are presently no FDA-approved treatments for the novel coronavirus. Both capsules, however, have shown action in laboratory studies towards coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2.

HHS noted anecdotal reports supporting these capsules in providing some advantage in treating hospitalized COVID-19 patients. "Clinical trials are had to offer scientific proof that these treatments are effective."

In a tweet, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said experts worldwide had identified multiple potential medications for COVID-19, including the two anti-malarial drugs. He noted Trump is "taking every possible step" to protect Americans from the coronavirus and provide them with hope.

Politico said FDA has allowed New York to test the anti-malaria drugs on specific patients.

ALSO READ: 69 Existing Drugs Might Pave The Way For Possible COVID-19 Cure? Researchers Believe So

Researchers urge public to 'remain vigilant' in taking such medications

Many researchers, including Dr. Fauci, have urged the public to stay cautious until large medical trials validate smaller studies.

Daily Mail said the National Institutes of Health and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority are currently working on plotting such trials.

Karine Le Roch, a cell biology professor at the University of California, Riverside, explained both the anti-malarial drugs could change the pH of elements of human cells.

This would interfere with the virus's capability to go into the cells - and may also ditch them from replicating once they might be already in.

"While it worked in vitro, I am [ready] to see published consequences of large blind medical trials demonstrating the efficacy of HCQ in vivo,' she told AFP.

There are now more than 741,000 diagnosed cases of COVID-19, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. At least 156,000 of those patients have recovered from the disease.

With more than 143,000 identified COVID-19 instances, the United States has the highest national tally within the world. At least 2,572 people have died in the United States.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Leftists turn schools into thug sanctuaries By Michael R. Shannon

Virginia leftists have a novel approach to ending the schooltoprison pipeline. They intend to eliminate the transportation component by leaving potential inmates inside the school. As part of the Stop Snitchin initiative, schools wont be required to report many criminal offenses to the police. It will mums the word as far as the outside world is concerned. School officials will work to promote restorative justice while victims can kiss plain old justice goodbye. The bill to keep victims and victimizer in close proximity has already passed the leftistcontrolled House of Delegates and Senate and only awaits the signature of the governor to become law. Law Enforcement Today made a list of crimes that formerly required reporting but are now optional. These include, assault and battery that results in bodily injury, sexual assault, death, shooting, stabbing, cutting, or wounding of any person, stalking, threats, firearm, drug and alcohol violations are also included. The Democrats sanctuary for the violent isnt limited to the school campus either. Offenses on school buses or at schoolsponsored events would also be included in the legislative mandated cover-up. This is just another instance of the left imposing their idea of reform on an area of public life the majority was unaware was in need of reform  or in this instance repeal. Who is the intended reform beneficiary? Certainly not the victims or their families. As far as theyre concerned, authorities could open a pumping station outside the high school if that would help increase pipeline velocity and speed the ejection of predators. Keeping discipline problems in the classroom isnt a teacher preference either. This only benefits an oppositional, budding criminal class and their negligent parents. Democrats have gone from the 90s War on Crime to our current War on Victims, The new procedure places the burden of going to the police on the victim, rather than the authorities. Whats worse it will make the victim look as if they are the one out for blood  since the school didnt think the offense merited police involvement  instead of the thug who drew blood. Vicki Manning, a Virginia Beach school board member who hasnt lost her mind said, victims are going to be further victimized under this bill and the perpetrators are going to be emboldened. Republican House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert has a message for parents in Virginia whose children are robbed, attacked or sexually assaulted, instances of sexual battery, stalking, and threats and against teachers and staff are not discipline problems. They are serious crimes with real problems that need to be investigated and prosecuted. The absolutely infuriating part of this turntheirchildsothercheek policy is we already know how the policy ends. The last stop is Parkland High School. The fools that ran that school system designed their own endtheschooltoprisonpipeline. It was wildly successful. The Boston Globe found in the year just prior to the Parkland school systems emancipation proclamation there were 1,056 schoolbased arrests. By the 201516 school year the number had plunged to 385. The only fly in the ointment was student deaths by gunfire went from zero before implementation of the plan to 17 after the schooltoprisonpipeline was closed, because the Parkland school shooter took full advantage of the sanctuary policy. The shooter assaulted students twice with no arrest. Made repeated threats with no arrest. He threated to kill people with no arrest. No reporting and no arrests meant there was no record in the NCIC system regarding his past runins with the law. Since he was a blank slate the shooter didnt even get swept into the FBIs catch and release antiterrorism program after the Bureau fielded a tip Buying a gun was no problemo. What use are the universal background checks on gun sales the Virginia left is demanding without corresponding universal crime reports? James A. Bacon ran the numbers on the Department of Educations restorative justice school discipline initiative. This requires victims sit across from their victimizers while a woolly brained social worker overlooks the intimidation inherent in the arrangement. Bacon found restorative justice only restores nothing. I compiled one key indicator  the number of assault & battery (no injury) incidents reported  which serves as a rough proxy for disruptive behavior as a whole. The trend line is startling. The number of incidents has nearly tripled in just three years  from 870 to 2,423 [assaults]. The Democrats new SeeSomethingSayNothing policy will only make matters much worse. Most Virginia leftists never reveal plans for open borders bathrooms or decriminalizing crime. I give Del. Mike Mullin (DPardon) credit. On his campaign website, he said hes working to end the schooltoprison pipeline. But Mullin didnt say that meant reversing the flow. Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the globe. He is a dynamic and entertaining keynote speaker. He can be reached at mandate.mmpr (at) gmail.com. He is also the author of Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!). Home
Photo: The Canadian Press

Macy's will furlough a majority of its 130,000 workers with its stores dark.

The company on Monday said it is transitioning to an absolute minimum workforce" needed to maintain basic operations.

Online operations won't be hit as hard.

Employees who are enrolled in health benefits will continue to receive coverage with the company covering 100% of the premium.

We expect to bring colleagues back on a staggered basis as business resumes," the company said.

Macy's closed all of its stores this month, more than 500, as the coronavirus spread.

To survive, it has suspended its dividend, drawn down its line of credit, frozen hiring and spending, and cancelled orders. Macy's is now evaluating all financing options.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath on Monday inspected a control room set up at the UP Bhawan here to help state natives stuck up in the national capital and asked officials to be polite and sympathetic to people calling for help.

He asked officials to take the calls very seriously and offer all possible help to solve their problems.

He also asked officials to impress upon callers that it is dangerous to move out in this situation and they should stay wherever they are presently staying.

A statement from the state government said the state government is making arrangements for food and medical assistance to people stuck up in the national capital.

Adityanath also asked the personnel manning the control room to speak politely with the callers.

The nodal officer of the control room and Chief Executive Officer of Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority, Narendra Bhushan, said that over 3000 telephone calls were received on Monday.

The maximum number of calls have been received from Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

People manning the control room have been put on eight hour shifts to man the centre 24x7.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Jonathan Turley had an excellent item in The Hill about how emergency responsibilities are divided up between the feds and the states. Bottom line: The states have the lead. Yet we keep reading articles where politicians  mayors and governors for the most part  blame President Trump for their own failures to lead.

Wherever disaster strikes during a Republican administration, Democrats go on the attack, wailing that the president doesn't care about people. New Orleans Democrat Mayor Ray Nagin in 2005 blamed President Bush for not providing buses to move people out of the way of Hurricane Katrina. After the disaster, we saw photos of several hundred school buses parked in flooded parking lots right there in New Orleans, not being used for anything. Nagin never even knew they were there.

San Juan, Puerto Rico's Democrat mayor gave a press conference on the pier in San Juan in September 2017 during which she blamed Trump for not sending aid during Hurricane Maria. Right behind her on the pier sat tons of food, water, and medical supplies, in tractor trailerready containers. She had no idea they were there and had done nothing to prepare enough drivers to deliver the goods inland even if she had known.

In this current emergency, New York governor Andrew Cuomo went public that the feds hadn't sent any ventilators. Turned out that Noo Yawk had something like 1,100 of them in storage. When Trump pointed that out, Cuomo said they weren't in storage; they were "being stockpiled for future use." It was obvious that Cuomo hadn't even known they were there until Trump had his people look into the matter. Cuomo couldn't be bothered to look into it until Trump embarrassed him.

There are other examples, but these three spring readily to mind. Effective leadership shouldn't be something that favors one political party or the other, but Democrats have repeatedly shown they have no talent for it and no desire to learn. They want the power and perks of office but not the responsibilities, instead blaming others for their own incompetence. Voters need to have this in mind when they go to the polls in November.

Photo credit: YouTube screen grab.
1. Yes. The downtown area needs a good draw. Some quality taverns would be a plus.

2. Yes. Too many storefronts are vacant. Bars could help to bring in needed revenue.

3. No. Putting a number of bars downtown is just asking for trouble. Dont change things.

4.No. Several churches have located downtown. Putting bars close by would be a bad fit.

5. Unsure. It would depend on how the law is written and what standards are enacted.

Vote

View Results
DUBAI, March 30 (Reuters) - Iran's death toll from the new coronavirus has increased to 2,757 with 117 new deaths in the past 24 hours, a health ministry spokesman told state TV on Monday, adding that the total number of cases has climbed to 41,495.

"In the past 24 hours we had 117 new deaths and 3,186 new confirmed cases of people infected with the coronavirus," Kianush Jahanpur told state TV, calling on Iranians to stay at home.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Catherine Evans)






The Paris Motor Show hasn't yet given up hope that some semblance of an event will still be able to run on the scheduled dates of October 1-11, 2020, according to a press release, via Automotive News Europe. Organizers know, however, that even if it were able to open, it will look nothing like the shows of the past.

Today, March 30, 2020, French organization La Plateforme Automobile (PFA) posted an update about the status of the Paris Motion Festival, which includes the Paris Motor Show. Unfortunately, the main portion of the show has been canceled. The announcement comes following news that the Goodwood Festival of Speed has been postponed and the Detroit Auto Show has been canceled due to the current health and financial crisis caused by spread of the coronavirus and the outbreak of COVID-19. The release, which is written in French, roughly translates to say:

In view of the seriousness of the unprecedented health crisis facing the automotive sector, hit hard by the economic shock wave, today plays its survival, we are forced to announce that we will not be able to maintain in its current form the Paris Motor Show at the Porte de Versailles for its 2020 edition.

The release goes on to say that surrounding events such as Movin'On and Smart City, "are not, for the moment, in question." Those events were supposed to be part of a totally new type of function this year called the Paris Motion Festival, which is scheduled to run September 26, 2020, through October 11, 2020. The festival was meant to focus on future tech and mobility and help reinvigorate a car show that was pretty quiet in 2018.

"We launched this transformation before the pandemic," spokeswoman for PFA said in a phone interview. "We planned to organize a type of festival by hosting mobility-related events. Automakers wishing to present a new model, or a new technology, might still be able to do so at one of these events. It's still a project at this stage because there is a great deal of incertitude surrounding it. We prefer to be transparent and release as much information as possible, because people were already starting to contact us about buying tickets."

Story continues

"When we exit this crisis, we'll have a new vision on mobility," she added." We want to help our partners navigate these changing times. But, ultimately, it's clear the show as you know it is canceled."

This is a fluid situation that will likely change, and we will update the festival's status if we hear more. To read the full press release, visit PFA.
LEVA Hotels & Resorts has pledged its support to the hospitality industry by continuing expansion across the GCC



(TRAVPR.COM) UAE - March 30th, 2020 - LEVA Hotels & Resorts has pledged its support to the hospitality industry by continuing expansion across the GCC, Africa and Europe. The group has recently signed management agreements for two new beautiful hotels in Muscat and a stunning property in Kampala. Building up on its growth momentum, the brand is aggressively exploring further opportunities in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Tanzania as well as Europe. It currently has an asset under negotiation in Portugal.

Mr. JS Anand, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of LEVA Hotels & Resorts, said, Despite the challenges, it is important to focus on long-term strategies to proactively target recovery in the hospitality sector. At LEVA Hotels & Resorts, we are confident that it is only a matter of time before our industry turns around, and therefore, all of us must continue to work together by prioritizing our goals to prepare for a better future. We remain committed to expand our footprint in our target markets offering superior brand standards and exceptional management options to hotel owners with flexible terms tailored for diverse market segments.

LEVA Hotels & Resorts is uniquely positioned in the upscale and midscale segments with four complementary and well differentiated brands designed to provide a solid return on investment for owners and greater value to guest. While LEVA is specialised in the 4-star and above category, EKONO by LEVA is a smart and efficient choice in the mid-scale segment.

In keeping with LEVA Hotels Corporate social responsibility Mr. JS Anand shared plans for contributing to community welfare initiatives in Africa. He stated, We will invest back in the community as well as the development of people who work for us with an aim to improve lives. Our goal is to become the strongest and most preferred employer by supporting critical social causes such as building schools, funding medical requirements, providing humanitarian aid and offering educational scholarships for deserving students.

In addition to its flagship hotel LEVA Mazaya Centre, a deluxe 4-star hotel, located between Al Wasl Road and Sheikh Zayed Road, LEVA recently took over the management of two fabulous hotels enjoy outstanding location within walking distance to each other in the Madinat Al Sultan Qaboos district, as well as the unique Emin Pasha Lake View Hotel Residences situated in Muyenga at Tank Hill in Kampala.

--Ends--

Connect with LEVA Hotels & Resorts on @LEVAHotels #LEVAHotels #LEVAHotelsAndResorts

About LEVA Hotels & Resorts

LEVA Hotels & Resorts is a dynamic lifestyle hotel brand uniquely positioned in the upscale and midscale segments offering a fresh perspective on hospitality. It attracts travellers who want to be immersed in vibrant spaces while enjoying world-class comfort and engaging service at affordable price points. Derived from the Latin word Levatio meaning comfort, LEVA Hotels & Resorts boasts a unique portfolio of 4 complementary and well differentiated hospitality brands aimed at delivering greater value to guests with a balanced lifestyle and solid return on investment for owners. At every level, LEVA is focused on the essentials that turn the mundane into memorable. For more information visit www.stayleva.com

For Media Contact:

Hina Bakht

Managing Director

EVOPS Marketing & PR

M: +971 50 6975146 | T: +971 4 566 7355

Hina.bakht@evops-pr.com

###
In a world awash in oil and gas, you'd think it couldn't get any worse. Well, it can: China just announced that it had extracted a record amount of what has been poetically called fire ice. It is, however, a form of natural gas trapped in frozen water.

At 861,400 cubic meters, this record might not be a whole lot of gas, but it may well be the start of something new, and gas producers may not like this 'something'.

Gas hydrates don't garner a lot of media attention as a rule, simply because they have yet to become an addition to the world's energy mix. But when they doif they dothey may change the international oil and gas market even more than the coronavirus outbreak has changed it now by decimating demand for hydrocarbons.

First, what are gas hydrates?

Gas hydrates are molecules of natural gas, most commonly methane, trapped in a "cage" made from water molecules. They exist in cold climates, such as beneath the Arctic permafrost and Antarctic ice, but also in sedimentary deposits--the same kind of deposits where oil and gas collect along the margins of continents and also under the seabed of specific basins such as the South China Sea.

Because they only exist in cold places, research on gas hydrates has been challenging. As geologist Hobart M. King explains in an article on hydrates for Geology.com, hydrates are only stable in the environment where they formed.

To study them, researchers need to remove the samples from their environment. The change in temperature in pressure, however, melts the water cage, and the methane escapes.

Why bother with hydrates at all, then? Because they may be more abundant than all other hydrocarbons taken together: oil, gas, and coal.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the world's methane gas hydrates could be as vast as 250,000 to 700,000 trillion cu ft. According to the UN Environmental Programme, the world's reserves of gas hydrates could be as large as 3,000 to 30,000 trillion cubic meters. But these are just enormous figures that are difficult to digest.

Related: An Oilmans Plea To President Trump

Here's an estimate that might be more palatable: the world's gas hydrate reserves could be between 100,000 and 1.1 million exajoules. For context, the world's total annual energy consumption as of 2014 when the UNEP paper was written was about 500 exajoules.

This means we might be sitting on enough gas to power the world for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

It's packed tightly, too. According to the Department of Energy, a single cu m of hydrate can release as much as 164 cubic meters of natural gas. Talk about energy density.

China is among just a handful of countries pursuing research into gas hydrates with a focus on extraction. With its dependence on imported oil and gas, this is hardly surprising. The first extraction experiments in the South China Sea, in 2017, resulted in an output of 300,000 cubic meters extracted over a period of two months. Now, the Ministry of Natural Resources has reported an output of 287,000 cubic meters achieved in a single day. This is quite a significant progress in three years.

And that's not all.

According to the ministry, the output achieved during this phase of the gas hydrate trials provided a "solid technical foundation for commercial exploitation."

This is probably the last thing gas producers around the world need to hear right now, but it is what they need to hear. Full-scale commercial production may be years or even decades away, but China is getting there. It seems, however, that it is getting there in strides rather than baby steps. This could spur others into action or, as it were, faster action.

Related: Is This The Beginning Of The End For Texas Oil?



Back in 2012, the United States and Japan reported successful production of methane from gas hydrates in the Alaskan North Slope. Then, a year later, Japan reported successful production again, this time from an offshore deposit at home. Those tests ended sooner than expected because of technical problems. In 2017, Japan again announced the first successful longer-lasting extraction of methane from a gas hydrate deposit offshore.

Last year, the U.S. Geological Survey updated its estimate for gas hydrate reserves in Alaska to 53.8 trillion cu ft. While this is significantly lower than the initial estimate from 2008, which said there were 85 trillion cu ft of recoverable fire ice in the North Slope, it is still is substantial enough to motivate exploration. Only perhaps not right now, given the price environment.

China's announcement comes at a sensitive time for the world gas industry. Prices are severely depressed by a rare if not unprecedented combination of unusually low demand and excessive supply. Energy firms are retrenching and preparing to wait out the crisis. Exploration budgets are being slashed and plans are being revised. And now, China has announced that it is working on its self-sufficiency in gas. It is going to be an ugly year for the energy industry, but maybe a good year for research into what could be the world's most abundant fossil fuel resource.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Polish doctors to help Italy face Covid-19 emergency.

Poland is sending a team of 15 doctors to Italy on the afternoon of 30 March to help in the country's battle against Coronavirus.

Comprising three emergency teams, the doctors are specialists in intensive care and resuscitation, and will be working at hospitals in Brescia, one of the Italian cities worst hit by the Covid-19 crisis.

The medics will arrive at Bergamo airport on a humanitarian military flight sent by the Polish defence ministry, and the mission is financed fully by the Polish Military Medical Institute, according to the Giornale di Brescia.

"Poland remains at the side of Italy also in this battle, as it has always been in history" - said a note from the Polish embassy in Rome, as reported by Adnkronos.

"Many Polish doctors and nurses are already working side by side with their Italian colleagues in healthcare facilities throughout Italy, sharing their risks and sometimes paying the highest price. By sending its doctors, Poland wants to give further concrete support to the Italian health personnel, exhausted by the gigantic amount of work they have to face every day."

"The spirit of enormous sacrifice with which Italian doctors and paramedics are facing the crisis situation deserves the utmost respect and is an example for all of Europe. We must stick together. United we will get through this."
A total of 147 firefighters and 28 fire engines have been sent to help with rescue work after a train derailed in the city of Chenzhou in central China's Hunan Province Monday, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

One person was killed in the accident, which happened in Yongxing County at 11:40 a.m. when the train ran into a landslide, leaving five carriages derailed. The power generation car caught on fire.

The ministry sent a work team to help with rescue work and urged all-out efforts to search and rescue the trapped passengers as soon as possible and put out the fire.

The train, T179, was running from the city of Jinan, east China's Shandong Province, to Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong Province, according to China Railway Guangzhou Group Co., Ltd.
Intellitec Solutions today announced it has attained a Microsoft Gold Enterprise Resource Planning competency, demonstrating a best-in-class ability and commitment to meet Microsoft Corp. customers evolving needs in todays dynamic business environment. A portfolio of competencies showcases that Intellitec Solutions is committed to focusing on in-demand, business solution areas, along with ensuring it can meet the evolving needs of customers because of market changes.

To earn a Microsoft competency, partners must successfully complete exams (resulting in Microsoft Certified Professionals) to prove their level of technology expertise and, for gold competencies, designate these certified professionals uniquely to one Microsoft competency, ensuring a certain level of staffing capacity. Partners must also submit customer references that demonstrate successful projects and pass technology and/or sales assessments. For gold competencies, partners must also implement a yearly customer satisfaction study and meet a revenue commitment.

Intellitec Solutions provides implementation, customization, and support for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics GP and Dynamics SL products. Intellitec works with a variety of industries, and has developed specialization catering to the needs of Long Term Care facilities, Distributors and Facilities Management groups. Intellitec Solutions will now be in a better position to serve their clients moving forward, by receiving the enhanced benefits included as a Gold partner. The certification also represents a continued commitment by Intellitec to the Microsoft family of products. Intellitec Solutions is also a Tier One Cloud Solution Provider, providing their clients with Azure and Office 365 licenses.

These Microsoft competencies showcase our expertise and commitment in todays technology market and demonstrate our deep knowledge of Microsoft and its products, said Rick Sommer, President of Intellitec Solutions. Our plan is to accelerate our customers success by serving as technology advisors for their business demands.

About Intellitec Solutions

Intellitec Solutions is a leading ERP and CRM provider strategically located along the influential business corridor between Washington and Philadelphia. Specializing in Microsoft Dynamics GP, Dynamics SL, Dynamics 365 and Sage Intacct, they have conducted thousands of engagements helping companies in diverse industries choose and implement software solutions to improve financial or customer relationship management. Using a proven system designed to maximize efficiency and business insight, Intellitec Solutions team of seasoned professionals provides value-added expertise to their clients. For more information or to schedule a demo, please visit http://www.intellitecsolutions.com or call 866-504-4357

# # #

All company and product names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.


The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, had recently decided to leave the United Kingdom and move to Canada, in a high-profile decision. However, in a recent development, the erstwhile royals appeared to have shifted their base to the US. Taking note of the development, US President Donald Trump on Sunday has said that the United States administration will not pay for the security of the royal couple adding that the couple will have to bear the expenses for their security.

READ | California Prepares For Coronavirus Surge In Week Ahead

READ | Trump Says US Wont Pay For Meghan And Harrys Security

I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2020

Reacting to Trumps statement, a spokesperson for the couple has reportedly said that they have no plans to ask the US government for security resources and have arranged for private security detail.

The former Duke and Duchess of Sussex seemed to have moved from Vancouver Island to Los Angeles last week ahead of Canada's border closure due to Coronavirus. Meghan Markle was raised in Los Angeles and her mother continues to live there. It is estimated that the cost of the security for the ex-royal couple sums up to whopping one million dollars a year. Had they remained part of the British royal family, they would have been entitled to protection from armed US Secret Service agents during their time in America for having the status of being internationally protected.

READ | COVID-19: New York Gov Calls Trump's Quarantine Suggestion 'federal Declaration Of War'

The couple had baffled the royal family in early January with an announcement of stepping down from their roles as senior royals. After their decision to step down, they are no more entitled to receive public funds from the monarchy's funding mechanism either.

Meghan Markle who married Prince Harry in 2018 had criticized Trump during 2016 election campaign calling his campaign as misogynistic and divisive. Moreover, Prince Harry allegedly falling for a prank call from Russian Hoaxers who posed as activist Greta Thunberg and her father and apparently said on the tape that Donald Trump has blood on his hands.

READ | Europe, US Virus Deaths Surge As Trump Reverses On New York Lockdown
They have been married for 23 years now.

And Lisa Rinna marked her wedding anniversary Sunday with a throwback instagram snap in which she cuddled up to her husband Harry Hamlin.

'LISA & HARRY FOREVER MARRIED MARCH 29, 1997,' wrote Lisa, 56, who could be seen smiling blissfully in the picture as Harry nuzzled up to her.

She later shared a sultry throwback bikini snap as she said that she and Harry were supposed to spend their time in a beach paradise until the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to change plans.

'FOREVER': Lisa Rinna marked her wedding anniversary Sunday with a throwback instagram snap in which she cuddled up to her husband Harry Hamlin

I'm there in my head instead': She later shared a sultry throwback bikini snap as she said that she and Harry were supposed to spend their time in a beach paradise

Lisa wrote: 'Welp, this is where we were suppose to be today for our Anniversary. So Im there in my head instead. #staysafe'

The Real Housewife Of Beverly Hills also swung by her Insta Stories that day to treat more than two million followers to her wedding pictures.

In one she could be seen beaming in her full Vera Wang gown and veil while holding her bouquet in one hand and her husband's arm in the other.

She was still in her soap star days in the 1990s and was acting on Melrose Place around the time of her Beverly Hills wedding to Harry.

Radiant: The Real Housewife Of Beverly Hills also swung by her Insta Stories that day to treat more than two million followers to her wedding pictures

Lisa and her husband share two daughters, Delilah, 21, and Amelia, 18, who have both gone into the modeling profession.

Although he is Lisa's first husband, Harry is now on his third marriage, with previous wives including Desperate Housewives icon Nicollette Sheridan.

As recently as last year Lisa and Harry were feuding with Nicollette on Twitter over the way his marriage to her ended.

Only the best: In one she could be seen beaming in her full Vera Wang gown and veil while holding her bouquet in one hand and her husband's arm in the other

Sweet: Lisa cuddled up to Harry in another sweet snap

Lots of love: She also shared a throwback snap with eldest child Amelia on Harry's shoulders

While Harry and Lisa both maintained that Nicollette cheated on him with Michael Bolton, Nicollette insisted this was 'FAKE NEWS!'

Luckily the latest season of The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills was shot before California lockdowns put a crimp in the business.

The premiere is set for April 15 on Bravo and in an explosive new trailer Lisa can be seen involved in a bit of drama with Denise Richards, whose affair with co-star Brandi Glanville was broken by DailyMail.com.
Medical supplies donated by China and its companies are unloaded from an airplane in Belgrade, Serbia, March 26, 2020.

BELGRADE, Mar. 30 -- China and Serbia stood together and forged an iron-clad friendship during Serbia's most difficult times, said Serbias Defense Minister Aleksanar Vulin on March 27.

On the same day, Vulin went to the former site of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, together with the Chinese Ambassador to Serbia Chen Bo and six members of the Chinese medical support team to Serbia. They laid a wreath at the memorial plaque.

Vulin told reporters that when NATO bombed Yugoslavia in 1999, the Chinese people stood together with Serbia. Now again, the Chinese people are fighting against the COVID-19 along with Serbia. "The Serbian people know that the Chinese people are our good friends and we have forged an iron-clad friendship during difficult times," said Vulin.

Its known to all that on the night of May 7, 1999, the US troops involved in the NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia. On May 7, 2009, the Belgrade municipal government erected a commemorative monument memorial plaque in front of the former Chinese Embassy site to commemorate the three Chinese martyrs who died in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

To help Serbia, a six-member Chinese expert team had arrived in Belgrade on the evening of March 21. According to data released by the Serbian Ministry of Health, the country has a total of 528 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including eight deaths as of 3 p.m. on March 27, local time.
[March 30, 2020] Jinitech Group joins blockchain frontier Gaiatech to launch CSR COVID-19 decentralized DAC platform

MELBOUME, Australia, March 31, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- It is the worst of times, it is the best of times. After the World Health Organization (WHO) upgraded the status of the COVID-19 outbreak from epidemic to pandemic, it is now becoming the worst of times for people in panic, yet it is the best of times for the community to be united and support each other. Misleading and false information, shortage of material supply, insufficient medical and psychological support are the key issues faced by the community during the global crisis. Jinitech Group, together with Gaiatech and its volunteer teams in Australia, is launching a Decentralized Autonomous Corporation (DAC) platform to provide real-time information sharing, global material sourcing support, professional medical and psychological assistance, and instant disaster relief services, etc. The digital charity platform will utilize blockchain infrastructure developed by Deakin University Blockchain Innovation Lab (DBIL) helping individuals or organizations to verify false information, source material supply, report difficulties and obtain medical and psychological support. Blockchain based KYC verification process will be utilized to ensure the authenticity of platform users. The platform is 100% not-for-profit, any interest accumulated from the platform will be used for public accounts and donate to those in need. Peer-to-peer donationwithin the platform is processed through smart contracts to avoid repeat donation to the same individuals or organizations. Advanced blockchain technology makes the charity finance and systems to be more transparent, safe and efficient.



CEO & Co-founder of Jinitech Group Jinnie Yip said, "We believe ideas, innovation and disruption can bring us a better future. Our team is dedicated to research and explore opportunities in practical application of AI, Blockchain, Cloud, and Data technologies and contribute back to the community." "There will be multiple rewards for participating volunteers. Community volunteer points will be released from the platform to reward volunteers, donors and those who contribute their time and resources. Outstanding volunteers will be selected by Deakin University Blockchain Innovation Lab for a placement opportunity or employed as a blockchain engineer within the lab" said CEO & Co-founder of Gaiatech Arina Tang.

Along with the collaboration, digital payment provider AirPay FinTech will contribute payment technology and provide marketing communications support to the platform via its vast network of Alipay merchants and WeChat followers. Jinitech Group Jinitech Group is a technology enterprise aimed to connect AI, Blockchain, Cloud and Data technologies into everyday life. Jinitech Group is currently incubating a decentralised community platform embedded with multiple blockchain elements aimed to serve University students in Australia. Gaia Technology Gaiatech is the world's leading blockchain frontier product R&D company. As a solution provider Gaiatech focused on building blockchain entrepreneurial products, changing existing business model, industrial behavior model, user thinking model, helping social and economic development, and deeply layout the future business with forward-looking concepts, cutting-edge technology and a team of experts and scholars. Deakin University Blockchain Innovation Lab (DBIL) Initiated by Deakin University and Gaia Technology, DBIL is a state-of-the-art research and development facility based in Melbourne, with highly experienced teams of Professors at Deakin University aim to provide the most innovative blockchain market solutions to make our world more secure and transparent. AirPay Financial Technologies AirPay FinTech provides payment and marketing support for merchants to accept and promote WeChat Pay, Alipay & UnionPay QR payments. The company is invested by SwiftPass Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of a China listed company. AirPay is a member of Stone & Chalk and FinTech Australia. SOURCE Jinitech Group

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Two tweets by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro in which he questioned quarantine measures aimed at containing the novel coronavirus were removed Sunday, on the grounds that they violated the social network's rules. The far-right leader had posted several videos in which he flouted his government's social distancing guidelines by mixing with supporters on the streets of Brasilia and urging them to keep the economy going. Two of the posts were removed and replaced with a notice explaining why they had been taken down. Twitter explained in a statement that it had recently expanded its global rules on managing content that contradicted public health information from official sources and could put people at greater risk of transmitting COVID-19. In one of the deleted videos, Bolsonaro tells a street vendor, "What I have been hearing from people is that they want to work." "What I have said from the beginning is that 'we are going to be careful, the over-65s stay at home,'" he said. "We just can't stand still, there is fear because if you don't die of the disease, you starve," the vendor is seen telling Bolsonaro, who responds: "You're not going to die!" In another video, the president calls for a "return to normality," questioning quarantine measures imposed by governors and some mayors across the giant South American country as an effective containment measure against the virus. "If it continues like this, with the amount of unemployment what we will have later is a very serious problem that will take years to be resolved," he said of the isolation measures. "Brazil cannot stop or we'll turn into Venezuela," Bolsonaro later told reporters outside his official residence. On Saturday, Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta highlighted the importance of containment as a means of fighting the coronavirus, which has already infected 3,904 people in Brazil, leaving 114 dead, according to the latest official figures. "Some people want me to shut up, follow the protocols," said Bolsonaro. "How many times does the doctor not follow the protocol?" "Let's face the virus with reality. It is life, we must all die one day." In the four videos posted on his Twitter account, Bolsonaro is seen surrounded by small crowds as he walked about the capital. Bolsonaro has described the coronavirus as "a flu" and advocated the reopening of schools and shops, with self-isolation necessary solely for the over-60s.
A nurse places a protective mask on a patient at a government hospital in Siliguri, India. (Diptendu Dutta / AFP/Getty Images)

After a patient at a hospital in northern India tested positive for COVID-19, it wasnt long before some of the medical staff began showing symptoms, too.

Doctors at Nalanda Medical College in Bihar state, short of protective equipment, treated the patient while wearing only a standard surgical kit  three-ply mask, gloves and plastic-coated apron. They ate in a mess hall shared by 83 doctors, all of whom now worry they were exposed to the coronavirus.

But when the doctors asked the hospital superintendent if they could be quarantined, they were told to keep working. With a pandemic spreading  and in an impoverished state with just one government doctor for every 28,000 people  the hospital couldnt afford to lose them. So they took medication and kept seeing patients.

It is easy to blame the superintendent, said Manu Gautam, president of the United Resident and Doctors Assn. of India, a doctors advocacy group. But he is also under pressure. He is in a state where the population is too high and the doctors are too few. If 83 of them go into quarantine, it is a huge blow.

As the World Health Organization warns of a global shortage of medical equipment in the COVID-19 pandemic, Indias beleaguered hospitals find themselves fighting an accelerating outbreak with too few doctors, health workers, test kits, beds, ventilators, protective gear, masks or other essential supplies.

A week ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a nationwide clanging of plates to show support for health workers. But after Kamna Kakkar, an anesthesiologist in Haryana state, spoke out on social media about the lack of protective equipment  When they arrive, send N95 masks to my grave, she tweeted  Modi supporters hounded her on Twitter and called her fake doc. She deleted her tweets and took her account private.

Health experts are watching the outbreak in India with increasing alarm. The worlds second most populous nation, after China, has seen cases of the coronavirus double over the last week to more than 1,200 by Tuesday, with 32 fatalities.

Story continues

But the true extent of the epidemic here could be far worse because Modis government has carried out few tests, and because much of the population lives in tightly packed slums and tenements where it is practically impossible to observe physical distancing.

Paramedics and police officials in Bangalore, India, plan the evacuation of a suspected COVID-19 patient on March 25. (Manjunath Kiran / AFP/Getty Images)

Doctors and hospital personnel are particularly at risk of contracting COVID-19, and the parlous state of Indias medical system has raised concerns that its health workers will be exposed to the virus in even greater numbers.

Medical staff at a few hospitals have threatened to go on strike over a lack of equipment. Experts worry that others will cease working due to illness, quarantine or fear of being infected.

Because we know we are exposed to the virus, we are always insecure, said Ravi Raman, a doctor at Nalanda Medical College. I used to live with my parents and sister, but Ive moved to another apartment. I need to protect my family.

India, with 1.3 billion people, has just one doctor for every 1,445 people, fewer than the WHO-recommended ratio of one to 1,000, with vast disparities in quality and access to care. Most coronavirus cases are being handled by underfunded public sector hospitals where the doctor-to-patient ratios are far worse, with just one government doctor for every 10,926 people.

Despite Indias successes in eradicating polio and reducing the incidence of other infectious diseases, public spending on healthcare is among the lowest of any major economy. Private hospitals treat a growing share of patients, but most Indians lack health insurance. That increases pressure on the government health system, with some states now moving to take over private facilities to fight COVID-19.

Experts say Indias failure to stockpile essential medical supplies could jeopardize the safety of frontline medical professionals, risking a collapse of the health system in the midst of a pandemic. Some scientists believe that by mid-May, India could have hundreds of thousands of infections, meaning it would run out of hospital beds.

If the medical fraternity starts crumbling in this situation, things will spiral out of control, said Jerryl Banait, a Mumbai doctor who has petitioned Indias Supreme Court to address the shortage of protective equipment.

People leave a Mumbai, India, hospital that is treating coronavirus patients on March 17. (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP/Getty Images)

Although India recorded its first case of the coronavirus on Jan. 30, and the WHO urged countries to build up supplies of protective equipment in late February, the Indian government waited until March 19 to prohibit the export of domestically manufactured surgical masks and other medical gear.

It took several more days for the government to block exports of respiratory devices, even as countries around the world were urgently trying to find ventilators for COVID-19 patients.

Health workers rely on personal protective equipment known as PPE  including gowns, gloves and N95 masks, which guard against the spread of respiratory pathogens. A senior doctor at a leading public hospital in Kolkata said it had only about 100 sets of protective equipment, not enough to last a week if coronavirus patients begin pouring in.

The staff is demoralized, with older surgeons going on leave as they are in the high-risk age group, said the doctor, who requested anonymity to protect his job. The younger doctors are worried about countrywide shortages of PPE kits. Even if 10% of the health workers, technicians and cleaners take leave, it will be difficult to run the hospital.

The situation is more perilous in rural India.

In one remote district of Maharashtra state, doctors were wearing raincoats to treat suspected COVID-19 patients. Over the weekend, doctors in Sevagram, in central India, were told their hospital would become a regional center for COVID-19 patients, despite having hardly any protective gear, one physician said.

I know already that there will be mass desertion in the public health system  if not in quantity, in quality, said Dr. Yogesh Jain, founder of a 200-bed charity hospital in Chhattisgarh, one of Indias poorest states.

Jains hospital in Bilaspur  a district of more than 2.6 million people  received about two dozen sets of protective gear and 150 N95 masks over the weekend. The government has said that new orders could take up to one month to be delivered. Jain said he would not allow his staff to treat a suspected COVID-19 patient without adequate protection.

For now, we are washing our hands, using whatever PPE kits we have, scrambling for more and hoping thatll keep us safe, Jain said.

Health workers fears multiplied last week after Modi imposed a three-week nationwide lockdown with four hours notice, stranding hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in cities far from home.

Crowds of Indian migrant workers wait to board buses to return to their native villages amid a nationwide lockdown on March 28 in Ghaziabad, outside New Delhi. (Yawar Nazir / Getty Images)

Huge crowds gathered at train stations, bus depots, homeless shelters and soup kitchens, potentially exposing many to illnesses that they could carry to distant hometowns with even weaker healthcare.

In one northern district, video published on social media Monday showed sanitation workers spraying a group of returning migrants with bleach.

WATCH: Migrant workers who returned from Delhi showered with water mixed with Sodium Hypochlorite, which is used on large scale for surface purification, bleaching, odor removal and water disinfection. Govt says they're investigating the matter. Report on https://t.co/XYlZoUMMsK pic.twitter.com/k90n7graZC  The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) March 30, 2020

Rural areas are still relatively excluded from the pandemic, Gautam said. But what happened over the past few days could be dangerous.

Doctors are also facing other challenges. Last week, physicians at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, a leading university and hospital, said health workers treating COVID-19 patients were being forced out of their houses by landlords who believed they would spread the virus.

Modi said he was very pained at the reports. But experts said health workers had already lost faith in the governments ability to protect them.

There is always risk in treating patients, but taking a risk and committing suicide are different things, said Vikas Bajpai, an assistant professor at the Center for Social Medicine and Community Health at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

When you force people to treat patients without taking even minimal precautions, then the impression is that the government is playing with the lives of the people.

Special correspondents Parth M.N. reported from Mumbai and Krishnan from Goa, India, and Times staff writer Bengali from Singapore.
Ireland is facing an increase in household waste charges as Asian countries clamp down on processing our recyclable waste.

China - once the world's largest recyclable materials importer - banned the importation of plastics from European countries in 2018.

Last year, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam all introduced legislation to prevent contaminated foreign waste coming into their ports.

This has left many European countries facing a waste management crisis.

From Wednesday, the City Bin Co, one of the country's major waste operators, based in Galway and serving Dublin, will increase its charges for its more than 80,000 residential and business customers.

In an email to customers, managing director Niall Killilea said the industry faced challenges across the international disposal markets.

"The gate fee to dispose of your mixed recyclables (green bin) has risen by 32pc in the past year," he said.

The company will levy customers with an additional monthly service charge of 1.69, which will increase annual bills by 20.28.
A leaked United Nations memo has warned that up to 2 million people could die of the coronavirus disease in Bangladesh if the government does not take appropriate action to stem the virus in the densely populated country, according to a report from an investigative website.

The report published over the weekend by NetraNews, a Sweden-based non-profit news portal covering Bangladesh, came as health officials in the country confirmed only one new infection over the past three days amid criticism that the government had not made adequate preparations to combat the virus.

NetraNews quoted the World Health Organizations country chief, Bardan Jung Rana, as saying that the memo  titled Country Preparedness and Response Plan (CPRP V1)  was written jointly by U.N. agencies, including WHO, the Bangladesh government and development partners.

The memo, which appeared to be a draft, reportedly circulated last week among diplomats in Dhaka.

Given the extraordinary human densities in Bangladesh, globally accepted modeling techniques and parameter assumptions forecast the impact of COVID-19 without interventions between half a million up to 2 million lives lost during the epidemic wave. These figures are not surprising when considered against modeling in other countries but they are astounding and should serve as a call to action, the draft report stated.

The challenges in Bangladesh are compounded by a weak health system and the risks of a complete saturation of the health system early in the epidemic, leaving patients in severe or critical condition from COVID or other conditions without adequate health care facilities throughout much of the epidemic.

Contacted by BenarNews, U.N. and World Health Organization officials neither confirmed nor denied the report.

The United Nations office in Dhaka, without referring to NetraNews report, issued a statement on Saturday explaining the Country Preparedness and Response Plan, saying it is a planning document prepared jointly by the United Nations in Bangladesh and concerned government counterparts with participation of a number of civil society partners and other actors.

It said that [t]he globally accepted modeling techniques guiding this document use an assumption of no interventions to stem to spread of the virus in order to portray the possible magnitude of the outbreak.

The statement went on to praise Bangladeshs government for rapidly instituting interventions including enforced quarantines and social distancing along with the closure of schools and public places.

The United Nations is fully supportive of the measures the government of Bangladesh has been taking to slow the spread of COVID-19, it said.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen said he had seen reporting about the leaked document.

This is a total violation of the U.N. charter. According to its rule, the U.N. should have consulted the host government before finalizing any statement, Momen told BenarNews.

They can only circulate [the document] if the host government approves [it], he said, adding, They have not shared the document with us.

A Bangladesh think tank leader said this was not the first leaked document.

The U.N. memo was basically for internal communication and was not for public consumption, said Munshi Faiz Ahmad, chairman of the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies, a state-owned think tank. I think, someone intentionally leaked the memo.

The U.N. system must not authenticate the leaked memo. I also would not confirm if I was in their position because if they do so, they may face charges of violating rules, he told BenarNews.

49 confirmed cases

Meanwhile, an official with the government-run Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), reported on Monday that only one new COVID-19 case was confirmed over the weekend, increasing the nationwide total to 49. Five deaths have been recorded in Bangladesh, a country of more than 164 million people, since the first case was confirmed on March 8.

Dr. A.S.M. Alamgir, the principal scientific officer in charge of the institutes medical entomology wing, said the findings were accurate. The institute is Bangladeshs focal agency in its fight against COVID-19.

We completely follow the protocol prescribed by the WHO and the Centers for Disease Control to select people to collect samples. We must not take samples haphazardly, he told BenarNews. If we do not get any positive results, should we give wrong and inflated figures?

Speaking to reporters on Monday, IEDCR director Dr. Meerjady Sabrina Flora said hundreds of people were tested over the weekend  53 on Friday, 109 on Saturday and 153 on Sunday.

Globally, nearly 37,000 people have died and at least 770,000 others have been infected, according to the latest data compiled by disease experts at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.

Bangladesh health officials have been conducting press briefings over Facebook Live for about a week. On Sunday, Health Minister Zahid Maleque told reporters that he was in precautionary quarantine after his personal officer tested positive for COVID-19.

Doctors question testing methods

Meanwhile, two hospital officials raised concerns about the lack of reported cases in Bangladesh.

The figure given by the IEDCR is absolutely unacceptable. Will it be correct to conclude that a pond has 10 fish by netting 10 fish in a corner of the pond  the IEDCR is doing such a practice, Dr. M .H. Choudhury Lelin, chairman of the Health and Hope Hospital in Dhaka, told BenarNews.

He said the IEDCR announced it had collected samples from 1,338 people in 22 days, and 49 had tested positive for the coronavirus.

The IEDCR is only collecting the blood samples from suspected patients who returned from abroad or came in contact with returnees. This approach is not correct, he said.

Lelin cited the example of an old Dhaka man infected with COVID-19, who had not returned from abroad or been in contact with any returnees from oversees. The man alerted the IEDCR, but they turned him away, telling him that he had no coronavirus infection, Lelin alleged. He said the man later went to pray at a local mosque.

As his condition deteriorated, he was admitted to a hospital, where he died, Lelin said, adding that the institute only then collected a blood sample and determined that he was infected with the coronavirus.

Every day we see people with coronavirus die in different parts of country. The local administrations have been sealing off the entire villages, Lelin said. But the IEDCR did not collect samples, what does this mean?

He said efforts to hide results would allow COVID-19 to spread.

Dr. Kanak Kanti Barua, the vice chancellor of the Bangladeshs only medical university, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, offered a similar view.

I personally think the number of COVID-19 patients in Bangladesh would be higher if we could test more people. The IEDCR should test more people to get the right picture of the situation, he told BenarNews.

The spread of COVID-19 is big health challenge for us. We should work with the U.N. and other stakeholders to confront the situation.
Netherlands Recalls 600,000 Faulty Masks Imported From China

Hundreds of thousands of masks sent to Dutch hospitals from China amid the CCP virus pandemic have been recalled after tests showed they failed to protect the face or had defective filters, the health ministry announced on Saturday.

The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Partys coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.

According to the ministry, the Netherlands received 1.3 million face masks from China on March 21, some of which they distributed to health care providers battling to slow the spread of the virus, which has infected at least 722,196 globally and claimed the lives of 33,976. Many more could be infected or have died from the virus in China, according to leaked documents from the communist regime.

But the health ministry received a signal that, upon inspection, the quality of this shipment did not meet the required standards, it said in a statement obtained by Euronews. The rest of the shipment was immediately put on hold and has not been distributed. A second test also revealed that the masks did not meet the quality norms. Now it has been decided not to use any of this shipment, it said.

The masks had a KN95 certification indicating that they should filter above 95 percent of particles. The recall concerns 600,000 masks, state broadcaster NOS said. Future shipments will receive extra standard testing, the ministry added.

Following reports of defective masks, Chinas embassy in the Netherlands said it was closely following a Dutch investigation into the matter and called for the issue not to be politicized.

The embassy paid high attention to the March 28 news about the defective masks that Dutch government purchased from China, and contacted the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Health in the first time to verify the information. On the 29th, I spoke with Dutch Minister for Medical care and Sport Martin van Rijn on the telephone, Xu Hong, Chinas ambassador to the Netherlands said on Sunday.

Xu Hong added that the Netherlands will be providing China with further information with regards to the investigation and he hopes it is an isolated incident, that will not affect the friendly cooperation between the two countries in the fight against the epidemic. He added that these problems can be solved in an objective manner, but should not be politicized.

The Netherlands, which has so far reported 10,866 confirmed cases of the CCP virus and 771 deaths, is not the only country to raise concerns over imported defective medical equipment from Chinese businesses, which has been selling and donating millions of masks and medical supplies to countries across the world including Serbia, Liberia, France, the Philippines, the Czech Republic, and Spain.

Spain, which is the second hardest-hit country in Europe after Italy, announced on March 26 that it would return 640,000 rapid testing kits it had purchased from a Chinese company after tests on a batch already imported had found them to have a 30 percent detection rate.

The government stressed that the kits were CE certifiedindicating conformity with European standards of health, safety, and environmental protectionand that they had been purchased through a Spanish intermediary.

Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology, the kits manufacturer, had not been officially licensed by the countrys authorities to sell medical products, the Chinese embassy in Madrid said on Twitter in response to negative press.

In a statement, Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology said that the incorrect results may have resulted from various factors such as the patients disease course, sampling location, and sampling accuracy, but that the specific reasons are still being communicated and verified by both parties. The company added that it had not adequately communicated with clients how to use the kits and said it has instructed internal staff to make relevant operational videos and more detailed operational instruction cards.

Czech authorities ordered 300,000 of the rapid tests for some $2 million. At least 150,000 of the test kits have already arrived. They came from Shenzhen, though the authorities havent released the name of the supplier.

The tests returned a false positive or a false negative result in about 80 percent of the cases, Czech media reported, referring to regional health officials.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca also revealed during a news conference on Friday that rapid testing kits samples it had received from a Chinese company did not meet the countrys effectiveness standards and that another firm, also Chinese, had instead been selected to provide the kits.

Petr Svab contributed to this report.
SEATTLE  An Olympia man was charged Friday with aggravated first-degree murder in connection with the death of Washington State Patrol Trooper Justin Schaffer, who was killed during a high-speed police pursuit on Interstate 5 in Chehalis.

Michael David Thompson is accused of deliberately plowing into Schaffer as the 28-year-old trooper set up spike strips to deflate the tires of Thompsons fleeing pickup truck, The Seattle Times reported.

Under state law, aggravated first-degree murder is the only crime punishable by life in prison without the possibility of release.

In addition to aggravated murder, Thompson faces criminal charges related to a chain of events that started Monday at a convenience store in Lacey and culminated with Thompson crashing his pickup truck after a 20-mile-long police pursuit on southbound I-5 Tuesday.

Charging papers say Thompson went to the Pacific Mini Mart Monday where he argued with the clerk about lighter fluid, used racial slurs against her and left with the lighter fluid without paying.

The clerk and another customer followed Thompson but were forced to retreat when he threatened them with a stun gun and then drove at the clerk who tried to photograph his license plate.

Police searched the area for Thompson's pickup truck, but were unable to locate it.

On Tuesday, a Thurston County Sheriff's deputy spotted the pickup in Olympia, attempted to pull it over, but the driver sped off on I-5.

In an attempt to stop the pickup, deputies asked the State Patrol to use spike strips to deflate the vehicle's tires.

Schaffer waited on the shoulder and deployed his spike strips but court documents say the driver intentionally swerved into the trooper. Schaffer, a seven-year State Patrol veteran, died a short time later.

About a half-mile south, the pickup driver swerved into a second patrol vehicle, crashed the pickup after getting off the freeway and arrested after a standoff with police.

Thompson remains jailed in lieu of $5 million bail. It wasnt immediately known if he has a lawyer to comment for him.

 The Associated Press
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo addressed National Guard troops last week at New York City's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, which is being turned into a 1,000-bed medical facility to ease the pressure on hospitals during the coronavirus crisis. (AFP-Getty Images)

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomos handling of the coronavirus crisis is approved by 87% of the states registered voters, according to a poll released Monday by Siena College. Thats more than double the 41% of New Yorkers who approve of President Trumps management of the global pandemic that has killed more than 2,000 Americans.

Cuomo, who is dealing with the epicenter of the crisis in the United States, has gained widespread recognition for his efforts to protect New Yorkers. During his daily briefings that are aired on national TV, Cuomo bluntly details the growing infection rate and death toll, defends New Yorkers as other states try to crack down on their movements, and at times consoles his states 20 million residents about the uncertainty the virus has created in their lives.

President Trump, citing the approval numbers, said Cuomo's popularity was buoyed by the medical aid that the federal government has provided for New York. He also said that Cuomo would be a better Democratic presidential nominee than Joe Biden.

I wouldnt mind running against Andrew. Ive known Andrew for a long time. I wouldnt mind that, but Ill be honest, I think hed be a better candidate than Sleepy Joe, Trump said, in a reference to former Vice President Joe Biden on Monday on Fox and Friends.

"Every poll that says I'm going to win.... [Cuomo's] gotten good marks, but I've gotten great marks on what we've done with respect to this," Trump said.

Cuomo, asked about the president's comments during his daily briefing, said he took Trump's words as "a compliment," but he is not running for the White House.

I am not engaging the president in politics. My only goal is to engage the president in partnership," Cuomo said, adding that he would thank the president when he helps New York and call him out when he doesn't.

Forget the politics, we have a national crisis," Cuomo said. "There is no red and blue, its red, white and blue. Let's get over it and lead by example."

Story continues

He is one of several governors, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who have filled a vacuum created by the federal government's lack of a coordinated national effort in providing ventilators, testing kits and other crucial supplies. They also acted early in shutting down businesses and other activities, aiming to slow the spread of the infections.

"They're providing real leadership. They're listening to the scientists, doctors, medical experts, and putting the health of their constituents first," said former California Gov. Gray Davis. "At the end of the day, governors are held responsible for what happens within their borders, and their job is to fight for the well-being and health of their own people."

Cuomos overall popularity increased to 71%, a huge jump from the 44% he received in February, according to the poll. The governor last saw such favorability ratings seven years ago, when he proposed gun control legislation in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

The poll of 566 registered voters was conducted by telephone calls between March 22 and 26. The margin of error is 4.5 percentage points in either direction.
Strides Pharma Science Ltd said on Monday it has received the establishment inspection report (EIR) conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration last month at the company's flagship facility.

The inspection was related to specific extended release applications made from the site. Receipt of EIR confirms the successful closure of the inspections, the company said in a statement.The flagship facility in Bengaluru has capabilities to produce finished dosage formulation products across multiple dosage formats including tablets, capsules, ointments, creams and liquids.

It is also capable of manufacturing complex formulations of extended release tablets which is one of the company's focus areas.

Strides has a large extended release portfolio for the United States and other regulated markets with a capability to manufacture these products at multiple sites.

Strides is a global pharmaceutical company and mainly operates in regulated markets. It has an 'In Africa, For Africa' strategy along with an institutional to service donor-funded markets.

The company's global manufacturing sites are located in Bengaluru (two locations), Pondicherry, Chennai, Singapore, Milan, Nairobi and Florida. It focusses on 'difficult to manufacture' products that are sold in over 100 countries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Passengers wear masks and gloves at Miami International Airport on 29 March. (Getty Images)

Information has been released on the first 775 patients in the UK who became critically ill with the coronavirus.

Early research suggests four out of five cases are mild, with a relatively small number of patients becoming seriously unwell with pneumonia.

Nevertheless, with the virus virtually unheard of just three months ago, how it affects different ages, sexes and underlying health issues is somewhat of a mystery.

To learn more, the non-profit organisation Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre (ICNARC) looked at all 775 patients in critical-care units who were reported up to 26 March.

Experts have stressed this limited pool of patients will unlikely be representative of the overall number of coronavirus-positive people.

Nevertheless, one called the report stunningly important in the fight against the pandemic.

A cashier wears a mask and gloves at a supermarket in Bangkok on 30 March. (Getty Images)

The coronavirus is thought to have emerged at a seafood and live animal market in the Chinese city Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, at the end of last year.

Since the outbreak was identified, over 724,200 cases have been confirmed across more than 170 countries on every inhabited continent, according to John Hopkins University.

More than 152,000 patients are reported to have recovered.

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

Live: Follow all the latest updates from the UK and around the world

Fact-checker: The number of COVID-19 cases in your local area

Explained: Symptoms, latest advice and how it compares to the flu

Cases have been plateauing in China since the end of February, with the US and Europe now considered the worst-hit areas.

The UK has had more than 19,700 confirmed cases and 1,228 deaths.

Globally, the death toll has exceeded 34,000.

Coronavirus: what we know of the UK patients so far

Of the 775 patients, 86 had been discharged from critical care at the time of the reports publication and 79 had died.

These patients were compared against those who were critically ill with viral pneumonia, not coronavirus-related, in 2017-to-19.

Story continues

The coronavirus is an infection of the airways. In severe cases, it can lead to pneumonia.

This occurs when the infection spreads to the air sacs in the lungs, causing them to become inflamed and filled with fluid or pus.

The lungs then struggle to draw in air, resulting in reduced oxygen in the bloodstream and a build-up of carbon dioxide.

Based on the ICNARC data, the coronavirus patients had an average age of 60 at admission, compared to 58 for those with non-coronavirus viral pneumonia.

Less than a third (29%) of the coronavirus patients were female, versus 45% of the viral-pneumonia sufferers.

Coronavirus deaths have been reported as disproportionately affecting men, which many experts put down to males being more likely to smoke in hotspot areas like China and Italy.

When it comes to BMI, most of the coronavirus patients (34%) fell into the overweight category, while most non-coronavirus related sufferers were a healthy weight (nearly 34%).

A man wears a mask in Novosibirsk, Russia, on 30 March. (Getty Images)

Nine out of 10 (90%) of the coronavirus patients were able to live without assistance in daily activities, compared to around three quarters (73%) of the other pneumonia sufferers.

Just one of the 775 patients (0.1%) admitted with the coronavirus required total assistance with all daily activities, versus 2.4% of those with non-related viral pneumonia.

When it came to pre-existing health issues, a suppressed immune system affected 3% of the coronavirus patients, compared to nearly 9% of the other pneumonia sufferers.

Immunocompromise was defined as undergoing chemo, radiotherapy or a daily high-dose steroid treatment in the past six months.

Blood cancers were the next most common comorbidity, affecting 1% of those with the coronavirus and 4% of the patients with another form of viral pneumonia.

More than three quarters (78%) of the coronavirus patients had to be mechanically ventilated in the first 24 hours of admission to critical care, compared to less than half (43%) of those with viral pneumonia.

Based on the data available, it appears around half (47%) of the coronavirus patients died.

It is important to remember, however, this only includes information on those who were discharged from critical care or who died in critical care at the time of the reports publication.

To say the mortality rate of ICU patients is 50% is misleading and may induce panic, said Dr Tim Crocker-Buque from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

More accurately, it shows of the 21% of those patients who have left critical care, 48% of them had died.

However, it excludes the 79% patients who do not have an outcome yet.

The coronavirus death rate has been up for debate.

The World Health Organization previously reported a 3.4% fatality rate globally, however, scientists from the University of Hong Kong later put it at 1.4%.

The deceased in the ICNARC study spent on average three days in critical care, compared to the four days before the survivors were sent home.

Of note, these are very early data, so the patients who have already died have had very short stays in critical care, suggesting they may have deteriorated much quicker than other patients and so are unlikely to be representative, and may be reflecting a higher risk of death in this early group that died, said Dr Crocker-Buque.

Sir David Spiegelhalter from the University of Cambridge agreed, adding: Those discharged already, whether dead or alive, presumably comprised the most and least sick, and it remains to be seen what happens to the intermediate group still in intensive care.

Overall, the scientists welcomed the data.

The value of this report is it gives a good indication of the likely needs for critical care as the epidemic progresses, said Professor Paul Hunter from the University of East Anglia.

It also gives a good indication of those who are likely to do well and those who are likely to do poorly on critical care.

Sadly such information may become crucial if social distancing is insufficient to reduce the size of the peak and demand for critical-care beds outstrips availability over the coming months.

What this report does not do is give an indication of the outcomes for people who are not considered for a critical care bed or cannot access one and we need data to be collected and reported on all patients.

Professor Sheila Bird from the University of Cambridge described the report as stunningly important, timely and insightful.

Soon, the authors may be able to report separately on the seven-day and 14-day post-admission status for [coronavirus] admissions who have reached these [clinical] landmarks and to offer the corresponding results at these landmarks for their 2017-to-19 comparator group, she added.

The coronavirus shares some, but not all, symptoms with colds and flu. (Yahoo UK)

What is the coronavirus?

The coronavirus mainly spreads face-to-face via infected droplets coughed or sneezed out by a patient.

There is also evidence it can be transmitted in faeces and urine and survive on surfaces.

Symptoms tend to be flu-like, including fever, cough and slight breathlessness.

The coronavirus has no set treatment, with most patients naturally fighting off the infection.

Those requiring hospitalisation are offered supportive care, like ventilation, while their immune system gets to work.

Officials urge people ward off the infection by washing their hands regularly and maintaining social distancing.
Kourtney Kardashian, the eldest sibling in the Kardashian-Jenner family, is one of the most talked-about reality stars of all time. She has been in the spotlight since 2007 when Keeping Up with the Kardashians first premiered, and as the years have gone on, viewers have become quite familiar with many of her unique quirks and mannerisms. Recently, a TikTok star made waves for her scarily accurate Kourtney Kardashian impression  one that left fans believing that they were actually watching Kardashian herself.

Who is Kourtney Kardashian?

Born in 1979, Kourtney Kardashian was raised in a wealthy family. Her father, Robert Kardashian, was a well-known attorney and businessman, who had made headlines for his work in the infamous O.J. Simpson trial. Kourtney Kardashian enjoyed a happy childhood, although her parents went through a divorce while she was quite young. She attended college at the University of Arizona, studying both Theatre Arts and Spanish.

After graduating from college, Kardashian went to work in a series of family-owned boutiques in California. Working alongside her mother and sisters, Kardashian even made some early appearances on reality television, including the series Filthy Rich: Cattle Drive. In 2007, Keeping Up with the Kardashians was launched, changing the television landscape, as well as the lives of the Kardashian-Jenner family, forever. Kourtney Kardashian became known to viewers as the sassy older sister, with a California-girl accent that is truly unmistakable.

Kourtney Kardashian | Getty Images

Andrea Lopez did a crazy Kourtney Kardashian impression

All of the Kardashians have a pretty strong California accent, including the younger members of the family, like Kylie Jenner. However, Kourtney Kardashians is probably the most intense. Even members of her own family have called her out on the way she speaks, with Khloe Kardashian once mocking her for the monotone way in which she talks and sings. Theres no doubt that many viewers find Kardashians unique manner of speaking irritating. However, a few people have found a way to present a funny take on her speaking voice.

Andrea Lopez, a TikTok star who has achieved internet fame for her hilarious videos and ridiculously accurate impressions (including a popular one of comedian Jennifer Coolidge), recently added a Kourtney Kardashian impression to her arsenal. She has several Kardashian impression videos, including her take on what Kourtney Kardashians meeting with Poosh staffers about the COVID-19 crisis would look like. Lopez not only does a dead-on impression of Kardashians voice but nails her mannerisms as well  and it doesnt hurt that she looks similar to Kardashian, with the same dark hair and olive skin.

What do fans say about Andrea Lopezs Kourtney Kardashian impression?

Recently, some fans on Reddit talked about Lopez and her Kourtney Kardashian impression, raving about how she managed to not only get the voice perfectly right but the tone as well. One poster stated that at first, the impression seemed to be a voiceover, and many others claimed that with their eyes closed, they couldnt tell the difference between Lopezs impression and the real Kourtney Kardashian.

Some posters stated that when they played the clip for other people, they also automatically assumed that it was Kourtney Kardashian. With scores of positive comments, it is clear that Lopez could probably make a career on her Kourtney Kardashian impression alone. With a brand-new season of Keeping Up with the Kardashians premiering at the end of March, and lots of viewers homebound due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, inviting Lopez to be featured on an episode of the show would be a fantastic way to draw in fans and keep peoples attention focused on something funny and uplifting.
Amid the surging death toll and mounting anger at the official handling of the COVID-19 pandemic among workers, bitter divisions are erupting between the European Union (EU) powers over how to finance massive bailouts granted to their banks and major corporations. It is clear that no faction of the European ruling class offers a way forward to fight the pandemic. Instead, COVID-19 is exposing the political rot left by decades of social austerity and bitter inter-imperialist conflicts between the major EU powers.

Yesterday, as the world total of COVID-19 cases climbed to 721,277, and the United States led the world with 141,781 cases, Europe collectively had 382,823 identified cases of coronavirus. The European death toll had mounted to 24,138. These figures largely underestimate the number of the sick and the dead, as several European countries including France and Spain have already acknowledged that they deliberately do not count those who fall sick or die of COVID-19 at home or in retirement homes.

Since nationwide wildcat strikes in Italy and walkouts across Europe forced governments to implement confinement orders demanded by health authorities, Italy, France, Spain, Britain and large parts of Germany are on lockdown. Nevertheless, governments and major corporations continue to press workers in industries like auto, steel, and aerospace not essential to supplying the population with food and medicine to go to work, to boost corporate profits and the wealth of the financial aristocracy.

COVID-19 keeps spreading faster than it would amid a tighter confinement policy, prolonging the pandemic and increasing the number of cases by thousands. This weekend, according to official statistics, saw 15,449 new recorded cases in Spain, 13,757 in Germany, 11,883 in Italy, 8,420 in France, 5,401 in Britain, and 2,331 in the Netherlands. Italy saw a record 1,808 COVID-19 deaths, Spain 1,617, France 618, Britain 441, the Netherlands 205, and Germany 166.

An explosive confrontation is emerging between the European financial aristocracy and the working class. Anger is mounting among factory and service workers against employers attempts to force them to work, and among health workers against EU austerity measures that have slashed tens of billions of euros from state health budgets.

Ruben Herrera, a nurse in Alcala de Henares, told Spains El Pais that with Madrid-area hospitals overwhelmed with severely ill COVID-19 patients, We are working like in a war movie, with soldiers coming out of the trenches, that is the sort of medicine we do: as if it were wartime We only think about the next seven or ten hours we have before us, hoping the emergency room will not collapse and that everyone can be protected

None of this would be happening this way without the cuts and privatizations, if in 2012 they had not cut 120 beds and 90 jobs from this hospital, and 2,100 beds and at least 2,200 health workers less in the entire region.

After a video went viral on Italian social media of a father giving his daughter a piece of bread, and warning that the population could attack supermarkets if they ran out of money to buy food, ruling circles are warning that riots could erupt across major EU cities in the coming weeks. Italian officials are reportedly posting guards outside supermarkets across southern Italy. However, similar problems face broader layers of temporary, self-employed and other precarious workers who have emerged across Europe, especially since the 2008 crisis.

Francesco Rocca, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies (IFRC), told the UN: We have a lot of people who are living very marginalized, in the so-called black hole of society... In the most difficult neighborhoods of the biggest cities, I am afraid that in a few weeks we will have social problems. This is a social bomb that can explode at any moment, because they dont have any way to have an income.

Rocca added that he thought major Western cities could see mass unrest in a few weeks.

The confrontation emerging between the working class and the European police states set up by the financial aristocracy has revolutionary implications. The claim that there is no money to carry out a struggle against the pandemic is absurd. However, the necessary resources to halt the COVID-19 pandemic and maintain the distribution of essential food and medical supplies across international supply chains requires the expropriation of the financial aristocracy.

Figures like Bernard Arnault (France, 2019 net worth: $106.8 billion), Armancio Ortega (Spain, $67.2 billion), Francoise Bettencourt Meyers (France, $49.3 billion), Karl Albrecht (Germany, $36.1 billion), Jim Ratcliffe (UK, $32 billion) or Giovanni Ferrero (Italy, $22.4 billion) and countless lesser financial aristocrats have plundered hundreds of billions from workers since 2008 alone. As an urgent matter of saving lives and maintaining public health, such fortunes must be impounded and used to plan a coordinated global response to the pandemic.

The pursuit of such a policy falls to the European and international working class, in struggle against capitalism and for a socialist reorganization of society. It cannot be waged in alliance with any faction of the ruling class. The EUs COVID-19 summit last Thursday in Brussels failed miserably. The pandemic has deeply split the EU, bringing to the fore the unresolved national conflicts between the EU powers revealed by the 2008 crisis and threatening to blow them apart.

The heads of state summit collapsed after German, Dutch and Austrian officials refused demands from Italian and Spanish officials, echoing a joint statement signed with France, to jointly borrow money on credit markets to fund corporate bailouts. In response, Italian Prime Minister Conte refused to accept Berlins demands that COVID-19 bank bailouts be financed by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Borrowing from this fund, which imposed draconian austerity on Greece after 2008 as a precondition for lending it money to bail out EU banks, would allow the EU to impose similar conditions on Italy.

The summit provoked anger in Italian media, including in pro-EU dailies. The Corriere della Sera wrote, If the EU does not get together, the European project is finished, while La Repubblica concluded that the EU is an ugly Europe.

In France, 94-year-old former head of the EU Commission Jacques Delors returned from retirement to warn that the EU could collapse: The climate that seems to prevail among heads of state and the lack of European solidarity are a mortal danger to the EU. The microbe is back. French President Emmanuel Macron, who declared during the Thursday summit that the EUs survival was at stake, gave a joint interview Saturday to Italys Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica and La Stampa, calling for strong European solidarity on health and budget issues.

Conte granted a lead interview to El Pais, warning that the EU is nearing a point of no return in terms of losing the confidence of its citizens.

Whether or not the EU powers cobble together some deal on funding their bailouts, the policy pursued by the European bourgeoisie will be hostile to the working class. The EU powers plan to hand hundreds of billions of euros to the banks and major corporations, from 756 billion in Germany to 300 billion in France or 200 billion in Spain, leaving crumbs for unemployment and other key social programs. Nor do these bailouts involve retooling industry to mass produce masks, medical equipment and other key supplies to fight COVID-19.

The southern European bourgeoisies conflicts with Berlin involve not an attempt to save the population, but to save their own increasingly unstable wealth. They are desperate to obtain Berlins assistance to ensure they can borrow money on good terms becausewith Italys sovereign debt at 150 percent of GDP and Frances at nearly 100 percentthey are bankrupt in all but name.

The working class cannot let itself be tied to any of the reactionary national camps within the European bourgeoisie. Amid growing anger and a developing radicalization of the workers, the way forward requires putting lives ahead of profits, expropriating the vast wealth of the super-rich that is needed to protect humanity, and adopting an internationally-coordinated plan against COVID-19 that leads towards socialism.
This article originally appeared in Connecticut Magazine. You can subscribe here, or find the current issue on sale here. Sign up for the newsletter to get the latest and greatest content from Connecticut Magazine delivered right to your inbox. On Facebook and Instagram @connecticutmagazine and Twitter @connecticutmag.

Whether in a war zone or refugee camp, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario has spent her career on the front line armed with little more than a lens. While covering the Arab Spring uprising in Libya in 2011, Addario and her colleagues were kidnapped and beaten for days and their driver was killed. Her 2015 memoir, Its What I Do , is a New York Times bestseller, and she put out a coffee table book of her photographs in 2018 titled Of Love & War. A native of Westport, Addario currently lives in London with her husband and two children.

What was your childhood like in Westport?

Really great, actually. Growing up in Westport was incredible. Its such a child-friendly town and we lived close to Coleytown Elementary School; thats where I went to elementary. So wed either take a bus or walk to school. I had three older sisters. We had a lot of fun. It was a great childhood.

Why Wisconsin for college?

I wanted to get off the East Coast. And I was interested in going to a big school.

Why did you want to get off the East Coast?

Because I grew up there. My philosophy has always been the more I travel, the more I explore, the more well-rounded person I can become.

How did the photography thing start for you?

My dad, hes a hairdresser, and he had a client who gave him a Nikon. He gave that to me. From the time I was about 12 or 13 I started experimenting with that camera and got some books on how to photograph. I started photographing at home, inanimate objects. I would go to the cemetery, and go to places where I wasnt intimidated by people.

Lynsey Addario / Lynsey Addario

You said you wanted to leave the East Coast, but traveling the world, was that something you knew you wanted to do?

When I was younger it was just about exploring new things and new cultures and new countries. Then, the more I did this job and the more I started to find my footing as a young photographer, it became about exploring places that were taboo or places that were off limits and trying to understand. Are these places the bad place? Are these places the way that we perceive them from the outside or are these places similar to our own country, but we just dont have a good political relationship with them or we only have one side of a picture?

Lynsey Addario

After 9/11 you went to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq when most Americans wouldnt dream of doing something like that.

Well, yeah. I [also] went before 9/11. I made three trips to Afghanistan before 9/11. I had been reading about the situation for women under the Taliban, and the situation of life under the Taliban. I was curious, frankly. What is it really like? Is this a situation where were imposing our views on what a culture should be like from the outside or is it really that grim? And how do the local people feel, how do Afghans feel? I was able to get a few visas from the Taliban and went.

Thats amazing, the idea of getting visas from the Taliban.

It was a very difficult process, not only because I was American but because I was a single woman and I was traveling there alone. They had to provide me what is locally called a mahram, which means almost like a male escort, to walk around with me because women cant just walk around the streets alone, or they couldnt at that time in Afghanistan.

Lynsey Addario / Lynsey Addatio/VII

That didnt feel like a trap? An American woman alone in Afghanistan, and the Taliban knows where youre going to be at all times. That seems incomprehensible.

At the end of the day its all in the way you approach something. In order to do the work I do I have to inherently trust people. I have to believe in the best in people because otherwise fear would take over my life and I would just be scared all the time. I really have to believe in the places Im going and be very open and transparent and honest about what my goals are and what I plan on doing there. And Ive been very lucky. Yeah, I have been kidnapped. I have been in ambushes. Ive been through a lot, but ultimately Im still alive.

I imagine when you got kidnapped in Libya that was your worst fear come to life.

For any photographer covering an uprising, there is always the fear that we might get shot, or something might happen or we would get kidnapped. When it happened, at that time I felt like it was a stupid judgment call. It was a bad judgment call on our parts because we stayed too long covering the front line. We could have avoided being kidnapped. There were many journalists who left right before us and we waited. That obviously caused us, and our families, an extraordinary amount of pain. But our driver was killed. Thats something that we can never get back. His family, thats an extraordinary loss that we all bear the responsibility for.

How long were you held captive?

A week. It was a week.

Longest week ever.

Yeah. Yeah it was. [Laughs] It was pretty miserable.

Another thing thats incomprehensible.

You just kinda shut down. I have no power, no control, no telephone and no shoes. You just shut down emotionally.
The "Brexit's Impact on Tourism (Vol.II) Thematic Research" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Brexit is one of the most important and controversial political stories of recent times. Adjustments to a different way of life will extend far and beyond December 2020.

This thematic research report takes an in-depth look at how Brexit will impact the travel and tourism industry identifying potential winners and lesser losers' at this uncertain time. A situation analysis acknowledges the possible outcomes post transition period, and then different sectors are analyzed including airlines, hospitality, tourism service providers and destinations based on different Brexit scenarios. Macroeconomic and regulatory concerns are then analyzed across the current state and with a Hard Brexit' situation, followed by upcoming trends that may pan out for travel industry members.

All sectors that reside within the travel and tourism industry wait what lies ahead and need to actively prepare for major changes to take place. In the current state however, the grey' areas stretch far and wide causing a standstill amongst businesses. Arguably, short term impacts will cause dire consequences across all operations whilst in the long term an array of factors will segment those who will fare better post-transition period.

Key Highlights

UK government, destination management organizations (DMOs), national tourism organizations (NTO's), local authorities and general government-funded bodies have been actively encouraging businesses to get Brexit Ready' since the beginning. The underlying issue remains that the potentially dire impacts cannot be predicted. By possibly understanding each Brexit scenario and the effects on different sectors, this will shed more light on the consequences, but also outcomes the next few years could bring.

There remain five key areas that must be overcome to mitigate the impact of Brexit on the travel and tourism industry. These include maintaining the free flow of movement, managing border control and security, monitoring employment opportunities in conjunction with development projects, reassessing areas that receive EU funding and destination imagery that is aligned with the UK and Europe.

Whilst Brexit will without a doubt affect the airline industry in the future, the term brex-cuse' has been commonly associated with a drop in profit, revenue or even the collapse of industry members. WOW air, Flybmi and even the demise of Thomas Cook looked to blame Brexit uncertainty. Reality is, UK departures to European destinations have continued to grow and will continue to do so.

Even though the UK has left the EU in the public eye, the reality is that negotiations need to be finalized and Brexit will continue to be one of the largest and most challenging tasks faced by government institutions in decades. Even if an agreement is created by the end of the transition period, adjustments to a different way of life will extend far and beyond December 2020.

A variety of upcoming trends are likely to develop out of this political nightmare including areas such as the staycation, less economically developed countries(LEDC's) will gain more traction, more employment opportunities, growth of Non-EU migration, gastronomy themed vacations and the increasing popularity of the package holiday industry.

Report Scope

This thematic report provides an overview of the many potential impacts of Brexit for tourists and different sectors within the travel and tourism industry.

The parliamentary road map followed by the Brexit situation analysis, clarifies the array of options that may come into play post transition period.

Each sector is analyzed observing the impacts of each Brexit scenario across a variety of areas where the severity is then ranked in a color coded scheme. The way in which airlines, hospitality providers, tourism services and destinations are attempting to prepare for Brexit is also included, to offer examples for providers to better prepare themselves for what is ahead.

Our unique thematic analysis then dives deep into the macroeconomic and regulatory impacts within the current state and then onto a hard Brexit to understand the array of areas that will be affected.

Reasons to Buy

Understand how a travel and tourism provider can advance to be a winner rather than a lesser loser' during this time filled with uncertainty.

Attempt to understand the impacts of Brexit across a variety of sectors through examples and analysis.

Discover how airlines, hospitality providers, tourism services and destinations are attempting to prepare for Brexit to mitigate the effects of this ongoing political nightmare.

Acknowledge the wide array of impacts a hard Brexit could have on the travel and tourism industry, to better prepare for what is ahead which will fold to be another long winding road.

The publisher's thematic research ecosystem is a single, integrated global research platform that provides an easy-to-use framework for tracking all themes across all companies in all sectors. It has a proven track record of identifying the important themes early, enabling companies to make the right investments ahead of the competition, and secure that all-important competitive advantage.

Key Topics Covered

Winners Losers Tourism Industries with a Global Footprint and Which Offer Security Will Fare Better the Biggest Loser is UK PLC Parliamentary Roadmap Brexit Situation Analysis No Agreement May's Deal Renegotiated Agreement Sector Outcomes for Brexit Scenarios Airlines Hospitality Tourism Services Destinations Brexit Impact Analysis Current State: Macroeconomic Concerns Current State: Regulatory Concerns Hard Brexit Situation: Macroeconomic Concerns Hard Brexit Situation: Regulatory Concerns Upcoming Trends

Companies Mentioned

Air Berlin

British Airways

BrightWater Holidays

easyJet

Ffestiniog Travel

Flybmi

Holiday Extras

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)

Jet2

Marriott

Monarch Airlines

Premier Inn

Ramblers Walking Holidays

Ryanair

Travelodge

Thomas Cook

TUI

Whitbread

WOW air

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/s4o64c

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005473/en/

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Newsfrom Japan

Tokyo, March 30 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government is considering refusing entry by non-Japanese people arriving from the United States, China and South Korea in response to the coronavirus pandemic, informed sources said Monday.

Based on the immigration control law, Japan will deny entry by foreigners who have been to any of the three countries in the past two weeks. The government is also considering adding almost all of Europe and some South American countries, such as Brazil, to the list of nations subject to the entry ban, the sources said.

"Japan will continue to steadily take appropriate border measures as needed in order to prevent the further spread of the virus worldwide and prevent entry by infected people into Japan," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference on Monday.

Japan, which has already introduced the entry ban for travelers from some regions of China and South Korea, will expand the measure to cover all areas of the two neighboring countries.

Since Thursday, Japan has been asking all travelers from the United States, including Japanese nationals, to stay at designated places for two weeks. But Tokyo now sees the need to refuse entry by foreigners from the United States, where infection cases are surging, a senior official of Japan's Foreign Ministry said.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
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With having published myriads of reports for global clients, Future Market Insights exhibits its expertise in the market research field. Our dedicated crew of professionals ride the wave of advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence, and big data analytics, to project the adoption pattern and consumption trends regarding the market. A three-step quality check process  data collection, triangulation, and validation  is paramount while assuring the authenticity of the information captured.

Global Foodservice Equipment Market Report

The latest business intelligence study by FMI suggests that the global market of Foodservice Equipment Market reached US$ XX in 2019 with a CAGR of ~ XX% from 2019 to 2029 (Forecast period). The research study focuses on the drivers, restraints, opportunities and trends impacting the Foodservice Equipment Market.

The data associated with each market player includes:

 Company Profile

 Main Business Information

 SWOT Analysis

 Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin

Request Sample Copy of this Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1578

By Equipment-wise Segmentation Assessment:

 Food Preparation Equipment

 Drink Preparation Equipment

 Cooking Equipment

 Heating & Holding Equipment

 Refrigerators & Chillers

 Baking Equipment

 Merchandisers

 Dishwashers

 Other F&B Service Equipment

By End Use-wise Segmentation Assessment:

Full Service Restaurant & Bars

Quick Service Restaurant

Indoor and Outdoor Caterers

Hotels & Resorts

Club Restaurants

Commercial Canteens

Download Segment-wise Analysis@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/1578

By Region -wise Segmentation Assessment:

North America

Latin America

Europe

South Asia

East Asia

Oceania

MEA

The Foodservice Equipment Market research also takes into account the important countries that hold significant share in the respective regions.

What does the Foodservice Equipment Market research holds for the readers?

 Market segmentation assessment, including qualitative and quantitative research depicting the impact of economic and non-economic factors.

 Breakdown of each Foodservice Equipment Market player as per mergers & acquisitions, R&D projects, and product launches.

 Leading regions holding significant share in the global Foodservice Equipment Market alongwith the key countries.

 One to one company profile of prominent stakeholders.

 Critical study of each Foodservice Equipment Market manufacturer, such as market share, regional footprint, and product innovations.

Ask An Analyst: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ask-the-analyst/rep-gb-1578

The Foodservice Equipment Market research clears away the following queries:

1. Why region holds the largest share in the Foodservice Equipment Market over the forecast period?

2. Why are stakeholders shifting away from conventional methods for manufacturing Foodservice Equipment Market?

3. In which year, the global Foodservice Equipment Market has the lowest Y-o-Y growth rate?

4. At what rate has the global Foodservice Equipment Market been growing throughout the historic period 2014-2018?

5. By end use segment, which segment currently leads the global Foodservice Equipment Market?

And many more
Representative image

The Centre has asked automobile manufacturers to use their facilities to make ventilators in order to increase the availability of such machines in view of rise in COVID-19 cases, officials said on Monday.

It also said the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will start manufacturing 20,000 N-95 masks daily from next week.

According to the health ministry, over 14,000 existing ventilators are earmarked for COVID-19 patients in various hospitals of the country, while there are 11.95 lakh N-95 masks in stock.

An additional 5 lakh masks have been distributed in the past two days. As many as 1.40 lakh masks were distributed on Monday, it said.

The ministry also said 3.34 lakh personal protection equipment (PPE) coveralls are available with hospitals in the country and another 3 lakh, which have been donated, will be received from abroad by April 4.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

"Automobile manufacturers have been asked to manufacture ventilators and they are working towards this end," the health ministry said in a tweet.

Besides, the ministry has asked the Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Defence, to manufacture 30,000 ventilators in the next two months in collaboration with local manufacturers.

Among the private players, Agva Healthcare in Noida has been given an order to manufacture 10,000 ventilators within a month. Their supplies are expected to commence in the second week of April, the ministry said.

In the meantime, orders have been placed with international companies such as Hamilton, Mindray and Draeger to supply ventilators, it said.

The Ministry of External Affairs is also approaching suppliers in China for sourcing 10,000 ventilators from them, it said in a statement.

Ventilators are required for COVID-19 patients, as they tend to develop acute respiratory disease syndrome (ARDS).

Two domestic manufacturers are producing 50,000 N-95 masks per day. This is expected to go up to 1 lakh daily within the next week as they are ramping up their production capacities, the health ministry said.

The DRDO is collaborating with local manufacturers to produce around 20,000 such masks daily. These is also expected to become available in a week's time, it said in a statement.

The health ministry also said that 11 domestic producers of PPE coveralls have qualified so far and orders for 21 lakh coveralls have been placed. These are supplying 6,000-7,000 pieces per day and are expected to go up to 15,000 pieces daily by mid-April.

It further said that 10,000 PPE coveralls donated by Red Cross have been received and distributed on Monday.

"Less than 20 COVID-19 patients are on ventilator support at this moment. As against this, over 14,000 ventilators have been identified in various hospitals across the country for treatment of such patients," the ministry said.

"The first challenge before us is to increase the number of ventilators... we need to be equipped and have manpower which can use these machines," a senior health ministry official said, adding several doctors and healthcare professionals even at district levels are being provided training by AIIMS doctors on ventilator management for COVID-19 patients.

Foreign sources of PPE kits are also faced with a huge increase in the worldwide demand. They are being approached through the Ministry of External Affairs, according to the health ministry statement.

A Singapore-based online platform has been identified which can supply 10 lakh PPE kits and an order has been placed through the MEA to procure them. Ten lakh masks would be part of the PPE kits being sourced from Singapore.

Another supplier based in South Korea, which has tie ups with production companies in Vietnam and Turkey has been identified with daily production capacity of over 1 lakh PPE kits. Orders are being placed with this company for supplying 20 lakh PPE kits, the health ministry said.

"Personal protection equipment (PPE) kits are used by medical personnel working in isolation areas and intensive care units to protect them from getting infected. They were not being manufactured in the country.

"With the prospect of huge requirement of PPEs arising in the near future, the Government of India made proactive efforts to promote their manufacturing in the country," the health ministry said.
The Minister of state for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has appealed to MTN, Airtel, Glo and other telecommunication companies to consider giving out free airtime and data to Nigerians, as the nation continues to battle the novel coronavirus.

He also appealed to Dstv and Star Times to offer Nigerians at least one month free subscription.

Mr Keyamo made the appeal on Monday via a Twitter post.

He said such gesture should be a contribution from the service providers to ease the pains of Nigerian workers at this time of lockdown.

He said free airtime and data would help Nigerians communicate with one another and the authorities during an emergency especially when toll-free numbers are busy.

Mr Keyamo said he was making the appeal as one of the Ministers entrusted with the welfare of Nigerian workers.

Most Nigerians, restricted to their homes, are struggling to cope with the lockdown occasioned by the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Confirmed cases of coronavirus infection in Nigeria stood at 111 as of Sunday night, with over 2,000 people said to have been tested so far.

READ ALSO:

Currently, Lagos has 68 cases; Abuja  21, Ogun  three, Ekiti  one, Oyo  seven, Osun  two, Enugu  two, Edo  two, Bauchi  two, while Benue, Kaduna, and Rivers have one case respectively.

Many Nigerians have in recent days called on telecom companies to provide free packages to Nigerians. On Monday, #freedata trended on Twitter.
The Department of Justice is investigating stock transactions made by at least one lawmaker earlier this year before the market's steep, coronavirus-driven declines, according to a report Monday.

The inquiry is being conducted in coordination with the Securities and Exchange Commission, CNN, citing two people familiar with the matter.

So far, the FBI has reached out to at least one member of Congress, Republican Sen. Richard Bur of North Carolina, the report said.

The Justice Department declined to comment Monday when CNBC asked whether it was investigating the stock transactions. The chairman of the SEC likewise declined to comment, citing agency policy.

Burr, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, came under scrutiny earlier this month about his decision to sell $630,000 to $1.7 million worth of stock. The sales came about a week before global financial markets began a precipitous drop as concerns intensified over the coronavirus' economic consequences.

At the time of the sales, Burr had been receiving information about the spread of COVID-19.

Officials from the executive branch had been briefing senators since at least January, including an all-senators briefing on Jan. 24.

Burr previously said in a statement that his stock moves were based "solely on public news reports," including those from CNBC.

Alice Fisher, an attorney at the firm of Latham & Watkins, who is advising Burr, said in a statement Monday to NBC News that, "The law is clear that any American  including a senator  may participate in the stock market based on public information, as Senator Burr did."
Hit by the impact of coronavirus, Nigeria, like other countries, has been mopping up funds from every means possible to fight the plague and support its shaky economy.

This has been lately due to the free fall in oil prices that has left the countrys 2020 budget in limbo.

With an eye on getting 120 billion, the government, in a public-private coalition, formed a funding committee, which has Aliko Dangote, Herbert Wigwe, Jim Ovia, Tony Elumelu, Segun Agbaje, Abdulsamad Rabiu and Femi Otedola as members.

Each of them is to contribute at least 1 billion.

Also, in what they called a gesture of solidarity and support for the FGs efforts to tackle the disease, the nations 43 ministers have also pledged to have a pay cut this March.

Prior to this, a member of the House of Representatives, Mansur Soro (APC, Bauchi), urged his colleagues to donate their March salaries to procure ventilators, which the country is in shortage of, for public hospitals in the 36 states and FCT.

Some Nigerians on Twitter, many of whom were miffed by a report that the members of the House of Representatives were planning to take delivery of exotic cars, have asked the National Assembly when they will emulate the ministers. The House has denied the report.

What other countries are doing

Late February, Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister, Heng Swee Keat, told the nations parliament that the president and all political officeholders, including the prime minister, will take a one-month pay cut in solidarity with Singaporeans coping with the coronavirus outbreak.

On the other hand, one-month of special bonus was approved for healthcare officers in front-line agencies directly involved in Singapores fight against COVID-19. This is in addition to a one-off COVID-19 grant given to 900 selected general practitioner clinics.

Almost at the same time Singapore did this, Hong Kong followed suit. Chief executive Carrie Lam of the city said in a statement that all politically appointed officials would donate a months salary for charity, in order to show that the governing team are riding out the difficult times with the public.

This came days after the government offered front-line medical staff working in high-risk areas a bonus of 20 per cent of their daily basic salary or HK$500 (approximately $64) per day, depending on which is higher.

Earlier this month, Moroccan parliamentarians and members of the government said they will be donating a months salary to the King Mohammed VIs Special Fund for the Management and Response to COVID-19 to fight against the risks and the fallout from the COVID-19.

This was preceded by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyattas announcement that members of the Executive will be taking voluntary salary cuts. While himself and his deputy were to take an 80 per cent pay cut, cabinet secretaries and chief administrative secretaries were to take a 30 per cent cut and principal secretaries 20 per cent.

Hours later, Babu Owino, a member of the Kenyan parliament from Embakasi East, pledged to donate 50 per cent of his salary to help fight COVID-19 in the East African nation.

This week, Pakistani Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani pledged to donate three months salary in the fight against the pandemic, ARY News reported. Other senators, the report said, will also donate one months salary to the coronavirus emergency fund.

Senates employees in 22, 21, and 20 grade will chip in their five days salary while those in 17 and 16 grade three days salary. The employees between seven to 16 grade will donate a single days remuneration, a statement from the parliament added.

Undue comparison

When asked on Saturday if the House of Representatives was having a similar plan, its spokesperson, Benjamin Kalu, said the comparison was undue and that members are already spending their salaries on their constituencies, through the erection of sensitisation billboards, jingles (and) forming of emergency health corps.

The FEC meeting presided by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo

Although according to the October edition of Legislative Digest, a periodical publication of the National Assembly, yearly, each member of the House gets about N2 million as constituency allowance. For senators, it is N5 million.

Annually, the take home pay of members of the House in basic salaries and allowances is N17 million  N9 million in salary and N8 million in allowances  or N1.4 million per month.

For senators, per annum, it is N24 million  N13 million in salary and N11 million in allowances  or N2 million per month.

But, Mr Kalu noted that half of the House members salaries cannot buy sanitisers, nose masks, and if they dont spend, their constituents would suffer.

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When informed that this is the duty of the Executive, he said legislators are the closest to the people, and the expectation management of the electorates is very high. How many state governments are doing that?

You keep seeing them saying give us food. We have to keep managing so that in the future it wont affect us politically.

His colleague in the upper chamber, Godiya Akwashiki, declined to comment despite calls, text and WhatsApp messages, which were marked read.
Amid this current state of quarantine, or self-isolation or lockdown that most of us are in, the one common issue that a lot of us are facing right now is, a clear shortage of 'me time'.

Given that most of us live with our families, and now that we are all under one roof 24/7 thanks to Coronavirus, it can get a bit trying as this constant closeness can get on one's nerves.

But, for the king of Thailand, that is the least of all problems as he is self-isolating in a luxury hotel in the Alpine resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.



 Reuters

King Maha Vajiralongkorn booked the entire Grand Hotel as soon as the four-star hotel was granted special permission from the district council to serve the king.

Not only this, the 67-year-old kings party of people, who will be joining him during isolation, includes a harem of twenty concubines and servants.

While all the other women will be living with him under the same roof, we are still unsure if his four wives are living in the same hotel as the rest of the group.

 Reuters

However, all the other guesthouses and hotels are shut due to the pandemic but the Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl was an exception as the guests are a single, homogenous group of people with no fluctuation, said a spokesperson of the local district council.

However, around 119 people of his entourage have been sent back to Thailand under suspicion that they have come in contact with the virus.

 Reuters

It's not a surprise but the Thai people are not really happy with their Kings luxurious lifestyle during the self-isolation in Germany and many criticized him on social media for the same reasons.

However, Thailand is still a Monarchy and according to the laws, anyone who criticizes the monarchy or insults it could face around 15 years of imprisonment.

 Reuters

Yes, shocking but true!

In Thailand over 1400 cases of Coronavirus have been reported, so far, and across the globe, the cases are dismally increasing every day and the death toll keeps on soaring.
Fact check: Is competitive bank exam or PSBs to be held in local languages?

Who will be next chief economic advisor of India?

To decide first half borrowing plan, FinMin, RBI to meet on Tuesday

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Mar 30: The Finance Ministry and RBI will hold a meeting on Tuesday to decide on government's borrowing plan for the first half of 2020-21 amid the lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus.

According to sources, the government would resort to front-load its borrowing plan to deal with the challenges posed by COVID-19 on the economy.

The meeting between the Finance Ministry and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will be held through video conferencing for the first time as there is lockdown across the country, the sources said.

Post meeting, the borrowing calendar for issuance of dated government securities and short term papers will be announced in the evening.

RBI announces moratorium on loans: Will I have to pay EMIs? All you should know

As per the Budget, the government plans to borrow Rs 5.36 lakh crore from the market in 2020-21, higher than the Rs 4.99 lakh crore estimated for the current financial year ending March 2020.

The gross borrowing would be Rs 7.8 lakh crore for the next financial year as compared to Rs 7.1 lakh crore estimated for the current financial year.

Gross borrowing includes repayments of past loans.

Repayment of past loans in the next financial year has been pegged at Rs 2.35 lakh crore.

NEWS AT NOON, MARCH 30th, 2020

Presenting Budget for 2020-21, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said, "Net market borrowings for the year 2019-20 would be Rs 4.99 lakh crore and for the year 2020-21, it would be Rs 5.36 lakh crore".

"A good part of the borrowings for the financial year 2020-21 would go towards capital expenditure of the government that has been scaled up by more than 21 per cent.

"As I had previously mentioned another about Rs 22,000 crore have been allocated for equity to fund certain specified infrastructure finance companies, who would leverage it manifold and provide much-needed long-term finance to the infrastructure sector. That should spur growth impulses in the economy," she had said.

The government raises funds from the market to fund its fiscal deficit through dated securities and treasury bills.

Banks safe, no need for panic withdrawal: RBI Governor

The Budget has pegged fiscal deficit at 3.5 per cent for the next fiscal, down from 3.8 per cent of the GDP in the current financial year.

The government had earlier estimated the fiscal deficit to be 3.3 per cent of the GDP for the current fiscal but due to revenue shortage, the Centre had to increase it and utilise the 'escape clause' in the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act.

The 'escape clause' allows the government to breach its fiscal deficit target by 0.5 percentage points at times of severe stress in the economy, including periods of structural change and those when growth falls sharply.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, March 30, 2020, 7:58 [IST]
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In India, many incidents of social shaming related to coronavirus have emerged in recent times.

When it comes to dealing with communicable diseases like the novel coronavirus, issues of stigma and discrimination often come to the forefront. This problem is more serious in the case of COVID-19, as it has had a deep impact on the everyday lives of people across the world.

In India, many incidents of social shaming related to the disease have emerged in recent times. Terms like 'social' distancing instead of 'physical' distancing serve to reinforce regressive caste practices. In such a scenario, how do we facilitate the vulnerable to smoothly access healthcare?

To break this down, Dr. Aiswarya speaks to Magdalene Jeyarathnam, the founder of East West Centre for Counselling and Training as well as Indian Institute of Psychodrama Therapy. Both of them draw on their professional experience with fighting tuberculosis and HIV to reinforce how addressing disease-related stigma is crucial to containing any pandemic. You can listen to the full episode here. Here is the full transcript of the interview:

***

Today is Day 5 of the complete lockdown, which is a measure taken for the suppression and containment of the Coronavirus outbreak in India. The days are filled with anxiety for all of us staying at home without any infection. But can we imagine the mind-set of people who are spending their time in quarantine in their home or state-run facilities either because of their travel history or because they were in contact with someone who was COVID 19 positive. I am Dr. Aiswarya Rao, a Paediatrician and Public Health Consultant and today I am going to talk to my colleague Magdalene Jeyarathnam, who is the founder of East West Centre for Counselling and Training, and for the Indian Institute of Psychodrama, where she uses expressive arts and therapy for dealing with emotional and psychological well-being.

Follow LIVE updates on the coronavirus outbreak here

A: Hi Magdalene! Thank you for agreeing to talk to me for my Podcast

So, I was just telling our viewers that you and I go a long way back in our work together in fighting another virus that is the HIV virus. I was thinking I can pick on your expertise today, see if there are some lessons in that we can use in our present effort to contain this COVID infection.

Today I just wanted to talk to you and discuss with you, one thing about Stigma & Discrimination that people in quarantine are facing.

What do you think about the emotional impact of those who are in quarantine, due to stigma from neighbours?

M: I think coming from the east and coming from this part of the world, one of the things that we immediately relate to when ostracised for whatever reason  I mean it can be with the best of interests. But the moment you say, it cannot be with the rest of us, you have to be separate; I think it sets us off on a journey of shame. Maybe I have done something wrong. Maybe I shouldnt have done that. I think on an emotional level, it gives us shame and guilt. These are the places its ends us to. So while the rest of the world needs to be protected, I think the way we deal with people who, may have it  not that they have it.

A: I know, they are just only in quarantine..

M: Exactly! Its like as if we have given a sentence before even finding out. No trial, but sentence is given, you know. This is the way we are jumping to many things in life, in this part of the world. I think it is very important for us to - because that person could be me. This virus is not going to look for, you know, whether this family I should go to, or that family I should go to. Not that. You are under a risk, somebody known in your circle, or unknown people, for whatever reason, they have got it. And then if you asked to be quarantined, it really doesnt have to be where we are ashamed of ourselves. And the rest of us should not put them in the place of shame as well. You know that is important. Because when a person feels ashamed, they dont want to share any more information. They are closed.

A: They are not going to come forward, and other people on the street are not going to come forward for testing anymore.

M: Because they think this person is punished. We go a long way back. When we say, you get out of a classroom to a child, it is a shame for the child. I am going to be punished. The punishment for something I have done. So now when a person comes like that, one is the person who is coming from a place with a high risk, and they feel they are perhaps carrying it for them to feel shame and they are not going to be forth coming with any information relating to themselves further, different people that they have come into contact with, to different places that they have gone to, who else could have been infected. Now they are going to be very ashamed of it.

Not only that person, this person is feeling a sense of shame and not going to be forth coming or giving information. What about those of us who are looking at it? There is say, a sticker on your wall, that this building we have quarantined, we are quarantining these people. What happens is that, for me if you are looking at it Oh my God! If I say that I know this person, and yesterday I met this person for tea and all, went for lunch with this person, they will do the same to me. They will put a sticker in my house. So, I will not give any information about me.

A: So these stickers are actually a little bit counterproductive. Because you dont want to be in that position anymore.

M: While we understand that, it is very easy for the transmission to take place, and to give to other people in all countries as well in our own country. Its very easy we know this. But at the same time, I think that protecting and safeguarding individual people who may have it, I think will help us in the long way in enabling the people to come forward.

A: That a very important point about not stigmatising, by putting these big labels, and we heard that they are putting individual stamps on individual people, marking them, that I mean. What do you think will be the emotional state of someone who is marked? You are in quarantine.

M: It goes back to the same thing of branding no? Like in a place where many years before, how you know how branding was done on slaves, branding was done on people who you own, and branding is done on animals. You have objectified the person. And I think that is not helpful at all. And think that for those of who are giving information, like the other day I saw a WhatsApp message. A photograph is from one of the Corporation officials book where they have written the name of the person who is quarantine, their phone number, the age of the person, and in which area. It is written on that and pages of this has come to be circulated

A: That is absolutely a breach of patient privilege and confidentiality.

M: We shouldnt do this. I think we should be responsible enough. So when we see a message like this to first of all to tell the person who sent it, You know what, you are sending personal information of somebody. It is without their consent. You are giving information about a child, the age of the child, the phone number of the child, that this childs father or mother has the infection is being circulated on a WhatsApp medium.

A: I think this is not a best practice

But official information that is shared by the Government on their Twitter handle and their press releases has always maintained confidentiality. They have not divulged information. They have only said you know 46 year old male, living in Purasawalkam or something like that. But I think that somewhere this leak has happened, from what you are telling. So that is quite scary.

M: Yes Aish! Government sending the information saying that. You know reporting, you and I have done this sort of reporting. Cuddalore district. In this particular area, this many people came for testing, and this many got infected, and of this.

A: This is the demography of the persons tested positive.

M: And they have given this information is different from saying Mr. So and So is 49 years old and

A: He is living in Purasawalkam and

M: Imagine that. This is the kind of information I am saying. I think it is very important that we be a little more sensitive. Very sensitive. Treat everybody because, we want more and more people to self-quarantine. We treat them well and we respect them for doing so. Rather than stigmatise and discriminate against them. Then people will pride in saying, listen I came from this place, and I just travelled, I have a recent history of travel and I made be at a risk and I going to self-isolate, I am going to self-quarantine. So people will come forward. They feel proud because they are doing something in a responsible manner.

A: I think that will only foster this culture of self-disclosure. And not punish someone for disclosing that they have travelled or if that they have contact history. But to make it a very enabling thing. Thats a very important point and I hope that the Health Officials are listening. And also communication. So far we have Government and public interest persons like film stars and celebrities coming and telling us what we should do. Wash your hands, make this physical distance from anybody, how you would handle object etc. But something on stigma and discrimination is yet not communicated. And that information needs to be out there, because we are in the 3rd day of lock down and I think that now is the time to talk about this stigma. Dont you think?

M: This thing started with the HIV program. TB also.

A: Its a stigmatising disease.

M: I remember as a child watching Doordarshan and the advertisements that they put on the TV those days. This skeleton.

A: Scary images.

M: And we found out over a period of time when you make something fearful, it creates anxiety and fear among the public. The message doesnt reach. You have to give factual information and make it as if it is not some monster, but bring it in a very different manner. This is the situation here. So, instead of frightening most of the public saying, you can get it. Yes, we can get it. But also bring the fact that out of this many people only this many people were infected. Only this many people died. But, also bring into focus that ..

A: Anyone can get infected, it could be youthat sort of a thing. Not to other the person.

M: In South Korea, this one woman, one women who got infected,

A: Patient No:31

M: When they traced back they found out that she was responsible for 60% of infections, 5000 people were infected form her. It was directly connected to her. So I am saying, that person could be you. Therefore, we take the responsibility. Each of us, to make sure that this is our social responsibility. That we dont infect other people and we self-quarantine. Giving pride to people that when you do this for yourself, you are really safeguarding.

A: Make it like a matter of pride that you have volunteered the history, and that you have volunteered to go into self-quarantine. That will work.

M: That will work. This is what I am saying. That so many people have stepped forward to say that they want to go on a self-quarantine. I think that will create a better image than saying 14000 people houses have been..

A: Sealed and stamped and that sort of labelling..

M: So you should be worried about that. So I think its an upbringing, that here we are going to show how patriotic we are.

A: In the interests of the nation, and of our neighbours and our community we have stepped forward to go into self-quarantine, kind of a thing.

M: Imagine news reports said like this Aish, where a report is being read, that in Mylapore area, 50 people have come forward to say that they maybe at a risk and they are going on self-quarantine. And these people need to be congratulated. Can you imagine, how it will change the ..

A: It will give a different spin on the narrative itself.

M: When we do that it make everybody take action, and you know I think the thing about clapping. What I thought was the reason may people sort took it on, that is whether they fully understood it or not, why they took it on is because they, it was a positive thing.

A: A very positive activity for everyone

M: This generated so much of energy. So this is what we need to do.

A: I think we need to look quarantine also, the stigma will, go then only more people will identify themselves and it is all our interests to take the stigma out.

There was another story on FB that was shared and I dont know if you heard about it. About a young nurse from North east. She looks like someone, like a Chinese person. She had been on duty for 14 hours, with a COVID positive person, she just stepped outside, you know she was this full armour and all, and she hadnt eaten at all and so she stepped outside to get something to eat in a local shop after a 14 hour duty. And a kid who was also there at the shop looked at her and looked at her face and said Corona Virus and he pointed his finger at her and he ran away screaming. I mean, she wrote about in FB herself and shared multiple times. But she didnt blame the child, but understand where the child came from, but what is this culture of kids being taught to point fingers at someone and what is thisis this a very Indian thing?? Are we? Whats going wrong here?

M: Its Indian to the extent, that parents or information that the child has got is frightening images. So the child is having a monster in mind. You know. The virus is itself a monster in a way, in a sense. So for him he is projecting that fear and that anxiety on somebody else. This is the reason I am saying campaign. What we do cannot be a campaign that you frighten then with. We have to have campaigns that are factual. (16:41) The child must be given information in a positive way. When we are focusing on if people do this. If you are in a crowded place and come away from a crowded place and you think that you may be carrying the virus, what are somethings that you can do. What can you expect? You may be getting it. Doesnt mean you are going to die. Perhaps you will have fever, and something in a couple of weeks. And in all probability you are going to be fine. But if you are finding difficulty in this leading up to the 2 weeks, in situations like thats when you go and seek help. So, if you are not telling O this virus is coming, this virus is coming. This person is already creating images and is creating some monster in their own head. Each ones monster will be very different.

A: Depending on their imagination.

M: Particularly as children. There are actually lot of materials that are available from Italy, Spain and all on how to explain about the virus to children.

A: Even the Indian MOHFW they have a little booklet on talking to children on Coronavirus.

M: Actually we dont even need to teach coronaany virus for that matter. This is general hygiene that they are talking about. How when you feel like coughing or sneezing what should we do. How do we protect our self. I think some basic information like this. Instead of frightening people like.

A: And like we talked before, factual information given with great transparency and good communication will address all these problems. It will take away the stigma. That what we call it magical thinking, dont we? When there is absence of information, then we imagine the worst for it.

M: Ya. Which is what happens? Human brain, likes to fill in the gaps. So if you are giving some information, but you have not given all the information, automatically your brain will fill in the gaps with something.

A: Moving on, I just want to talk aboutwe have talked about stigma, but we have enough evidence to link stigma with poverty, and in other countries with race, and we also how people from the North East are unfortunately identified with Chinese and therefore stigmatised, and also caste. We saw stories about how migrant workers who are in search of livelihood and moving, so they can be targets. So when migrant workers are returning back home or anything they are seen as people bringing the disease into their areas. SO there is this link of this stigma not to the rich, but to the poor and the most vulnerable among us. So, how do you think we should go about addressing this? What are some kind ways to address this kind of stigma and linking it to the poorest of us.

M: I think this is a very important point that you are bringing up Aish. You know we are coming from a 500-year-old history of caste and putting down vulnerable people in many ways. So I feel it is built in us generation by generation, we carry in our psyche. When we see the poorest of the poor, when we see people who cannot fend for themselves, we target and we project our anger and fear something onto them. This is the mould on which we are already growing up , and so we react like that. It is very important to be aware that I am a person who can do this. It is good to remember that each of us has the potential to do this. To point fingers at who does not have power to be like you. We are coming from the privilege of saying  you are responsible. Because our mind wants to find something or someone else who is responsible.

A: And in this same context, we have seen voices taking pride in their caste privilege being amplified. See, people are going about saying, Oh, we always been doing this social distancing. We told you so. Thereby you know justifying their practices of discrimination. Are you seeing this? Is this upsetting you at all?

M: I know what you are saying. Specific castes and communities are saying you know, you should not touch a certain caste. You should keep the money on the floor and they will come and take the money and you dont touch what they are touching unless you sprinkle some water on it. This is not what we are talking about. The virus is not going to go away and your health. You cannot compare those rituals and those customs, to what we are talking about in terms of infection and some contagion. Its a very different thing. There is no point in saying we have been practicing this for years. While I agree we are people who when we meet each other we are not naturally to hug or to handshake. Physical contact, therefore, we fold our hands. That way, that ritual everyone does irrespective of which caste you are belonging. To some extent protects us. Ok infect to get transmitted. But if you are saying we practice this social distancing when this vegetables seller comes, this person who is selling salt on this street is coming to my street and I want to buy salt and I keep him standing at a particular place and after they go I will sprinkle some water. This is not helping in terms of not carrying an infection you know. This is a different matter altogether. This is putting down a community. It is to say that I am coming from a better caste and a better class. So we are not talking about that. Because that doesnt help you. We really need to look at how infections are stopped.

A: I think there will be a spill over from this lock down experience and this social distancing. I dont want to use the word social distancing, I have been purposefully using the world Physical distancing and WHO also said physical distancing is a better word. It is less discriminating, It is less stigmatising. But in the days to come we will see how we will reduce our anxiety when we look at people who are going into quarantine. Or when we look at people who said they were positive for the COVID infection. So thank you for talking to me Magdalene. So much to learn from you and we will come back again to you and I am going to pick on you again to talk to us in the days to come.

M: Thank you so much for inviting Aiswarya.

A: See ya.

That was Magdalene Jeyarathnam, in conversation with me. In conclusion it is safe for us to say that stigma and discrimination associated with the Coronavirus infection can no doubt be reduced through clear communication. We need to urge our governments to work on more detailed and informed communication strategies, to safeguard the interests of people who are in quarantine and of those who are suspected of being in contact. Only then will people come forward for testing and for accessing services. This is a critical component of supressing the onslaught of the march of the Coronavirus infection in India.

This is Dr. Aiswarya Rao signing off and I will see you in the next podcast with more information. Thanks for listening.
Britons have urged people to delete the popular Houseparty app after claiming hackers used it to access their Spotify and Netflix accounts.

Angry users of the social video platform took to Twitter to complain their accounts had been compromised. The app's makers said it had no evidence of this happening.

One person wrote: 'Everyone delete your Houseparty account as they have hacked my Spotify and Netflix from Poland and the US.'

Houseparty allows users to create open chat rooms where people can drop in on their phone book, Snapchat or Facebook contacts' calls, unless the chatroom is 'locked' by one of the participants

Others shared horror stories about uninvited guests logging into their video chats as privacy campaigners warned users to take precautions to protect against intruders.

Houseparty allows people to create open chat rooms where they can drop in on their phone book, Snapchat or Facebook contacts' calls, unless the group is 'locked' by one of the participants.

Edan Simpson wrote on Twitter: 'Today, whilst having a beer in the bath, I was on Houseparty with a friend and her boss literally entered our chat as I was naked and drunk to say 'HI THERE' then leave and I'm still computing it.'

Other users said they had received notifications from their exes inviting them to connect.

Another complained about an 'uninvited random' in one of his chats 'who's not taking the hints'.

Houseparty users today claimed their accounts had been used to hack into Spotify profiles

Users of hugely-popular video call app Houseparty have flocked to social media to share their horror stories of unwanted callers 'dropping in' to private chats

Houseparty has seen huge success as much of the world remains under strict isolation to slow the spread of coronavirus.

Privacy specialists used by the Queen warns against using Houseparty: Privacy specialists Farrer & Co, the firm used by the Queen, said hackers and criminals can exploit flaws in Houseparty's systems to access highly sensitive data. Associate Thomas Rudkin said people should consider using safer encrypted platforms such as Facetime and WhatsApp - though all have risks. He said: 'With video conferencing apps, there are also always concerns about how hackers and criminals might exploit them. 'While Houseparty has extensive restrictions on who can join chats, risks may arise due to people making contacts on Facebook and then being asked to connect with them on Houseparty. 'Houseparty (like many US tech platforms) has extensive data collection rights in its privacy policy, to include 'information submitted via the services'.' Advertisement

It has blown up in Britain, where people are only allowed to leave their homes for one daily exercise session, vital goods or medical attention.

The app allows anyone to join a chatroom without permission if they are friends with one of the people in the group.

Campaigning charity Internet Matters warned this could threaten youngsters by allowing other users to enter their private chats.

It urged parents to make their children aware of the importance of 'locking' their chats to stay safe.

The charity said despite a 12+ age rating it is easy for younger users to sign up due to the lack of an effective age verification process.

It advised: 'Some of the language and images Houseparty uses may be impressionable to very young children, particularly those that are vulnerable.

'It's important to monitor what your child is using the app for and who they are communicating with.'

Several Houseparty users have complained on Twitter about people coming into their chats uninvited.

Seyi Akiwowo said: 'Yesterday a guy's ex came into our Houseparty chat and locked the room. It was M.A.D.'

Meanwhile, Rosie Collins dropped into her friend Erin's chat with her mother and shared the resulting screenshot.

Rosie Collins dropped into her friend Erin's chat with her mother and shared the resulting screenshot

Privacy specialists at Farrer & Co - the firm used by the Queen - publicly issued guidance hackers and criminals can exploit flaws in Houseparty's systems to access highly-sensitive data.

How to keep your Houseparty chats private When you start a chat, click on the padlock at the bottom of the screen to ensure uninvited guests cannot enter. You can read the app's privacy police here, which gives information about privacy settings. The document also includes an email address if you have any further privacy questions. Advertisement

Farrer associate Thomas Rudkin said people should consider using safer encrypted platforms such as Facetime and WhatsApp - though all have risks.

Mr Rudkin said: 'With video conferencing apps, there are also always concerns about how hackers and criminals might exploit them.

'While Houseparty has extensive restrictions on who can join chats, risks may arise due to people making contacts on Facebook and then being asked to connect with them on Houseparty.

'Houseparty (like many US tech platforms) has extensive data collection rights in its privacy policy, to include 'information submitted via the services'.'

However, other security experts have reassured users the app is safe.

Another Twitter user complained about 'uninvited randoms' dropping into his Houseparty conversations

Cybersecurity and privacy researcher Lukas Stefanko told Forbes: 'I analysed the app's permissions usage and since the app provides video chats with your friends it is logical that requested permissions are necessary.

'I haven't found any shady misusing of them by the app.

'The app doesn't provide a lot of in-app options and settings, which creates less scenarios for exploiting security issues.'

Houseparty said: 'We've found no evidence to suggest a link between Houseparty and the compromises of other unrelated accounts.

'As a general rule, we suggest all users choose strong passwords when creating online accounts on any platform.

'Use a unique password for each account, and use a password generator or password manager to keep track of passwords, rather than using passwords that are short and simple.'
[March 30, 2020] Digital Estate Planning Platform Gentreo Launches "Essential Employee Discount" To Support Workers on Front Lines of Coronavirus Crisis

BOSTON, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Gentreo, a simple, secure and affordable online estate planning platform, announced today the launch of its "Essential Employee Discount," a program waving nearly 80% of fees to support workers combatting the COVID-19 outbreak. These services include the legally-binding establishment of pet powers of attorney, health care proxies, wills, living wills, powers of attorney and saving and sharing these documents in the Gentreo Family Vault. "We appreciate the incredible work and dedication of those on the front lines and this is one way that we can help to support them," said Renee Fry, CEO of Gentreo. "In this current climate, the need for estate planning is greater than ever, and we hope that more individuals take this important step to protect themselves and their families today and tomorrow. Estate planning isn't just for the rich and wealthy or those who are married; it's for everyone, and people need it now." Individals wishing to sign up for the Essential Employee Discount can visit www.Gentreo.com, take a brief survey about their work, and then receive a coupon code. A wide variety of employees are categorized as "essential," ranging from medical professionals to food service workers. With this offering, essential employees can create an estate plan that includes:



Health care proxy and Living Will

Power of attorney

Will

Emergency card

Pet Care Power of attorney

Gentreo Family Vault Created by lawyers, former high-level government officials, and national eldercare experts, Gentreo offers peace of mind to its users who can avoid traditional costly estate planning services. Since the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, Gentreo has seen a sharp rise in visitors, with new users growing by 143% in the past week alone. About Gentreo:

Gentreo is an online platform that makes estate planning affordable and accessible to all. Based in Boston, Gentreo was created with the mission of helping families protect what matters most. Through Gentreo, users create state-specific documents and securely store and share them. Gentreo is not a law firm or a substitute for one or attorney or an attorney's advice or recommendations. For more information, visit www.gentreo.com, or connect with Gentreo on Twitter (@gentreo) or Facebook (Gentreo). View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/digital-estate-planning-platform-gentreo-launches-essential-employee-discount-to-support-workers-on-front-lines-of-coronavirus-crisis-301031321.html SOURCE Gentreo Inc.

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Richard Burr.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Justice Department is investigating the actions of US lawmakers who dumped stocks before the market plunged amid coronavirus fears, CNN reported.

According to the report, the investigation is still in its early stages and the DOJ is working with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the matter.

As part of the probe, the FBI has reportedly reached out to North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, who dumped up to $1.72 million in stocks before the market tanked.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Justice Department is investigating a series of steps US lawmakers took to dump stocks before the stock market plunged amid coronavirus fears, CNN reported on Sunday evening.

The investigation is still in its early stages, and the report said the DOJ is working with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the matter. As part of the probe, the FBI has reached out to North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, who dumped up to $1.72 million in stocks before the market tanked.

In a statement to CNN, Alice Fisher, a lawyer for Burr, said he "welcomes a thorough review of the facts in this matter, which will establish that his actions were appropriate."

ProPublica first published a bombshell report detailing how Burr unloaded stocks on February 13, days after reassuring the public that the Trump administration was well prepared to handle the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

Burr is the chairman of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee, which has access to the federal government's most classified and sensitive information. According to Reuters, Burr's committee was getting daily briefings on the threat of the coronavirus around the time he dumped his stock. But a source familiar with the matter told CNN his committee did not get a briefing the week he sold his stocks.

In a February 7 op-ed for Fox News, Burr  along with Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee  acknowledged that "Americans are rightfully concerned about the coronavirus" at a time when the number of cases in China were still skyrocketing.

Story continues

The senators added, however, that "Thankfully, the United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus, in large part due to the work of the Senate Health Committee, Congress, and the Trump Administration."

According to Burr's financial disclosure form, he started dumping stock on February 13, six days after writing that op-ed.

He made a total of 33 separate transactions, unloading anywhere from $1,001 to $100,000 worth of stocks in different companies.

The North Carolina Republican defended his actions the day after ProPublica's report was published, saying in a statement, "I relied solely on public news reports to guide my decision regarding the sale of stocks on February 13. Specifically, I closely followed CNBC's daily health and science reporting out of its Asia bureaus at the time."

He added: "Understanding the assumption many could make in hindsight, however, I spoke this morning with the chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee and asked him to open a complete review of the matter with full transparency."

ProPublica's report came hours after NPR reported it had obtained a recording that features Burr raising dire concerns about the coronavirus to members of a private Washington club.

"There's one thing I can tell you about this: It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything we have seen in recent history. It's probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic," Burr said in the recording, according to NPR.

"Every company should be cognizant of the fact that you may have to alter your travel," Burr added. "You may have to look at your employees and judge whether the trip they're making to Europe is essential or whether it could be done on video conference. Why risk it?"

After ProPublica published its report, it surfaced that several other US senators had also dumped millions in stocks right before the markets plummeted amid fears of the coronavirus.

Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia sold off shares after a closed-door briefing on the outbreak on January 24. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein also unloaded stocks in the weeks after the briefing. Loeffler, Inhofe, and Feinstein's offices said the lawmakers have not been contacted by the FBI.

Editor's note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson sold stocks before the market plummeted amid concerns about the coronavirus. Johnson's actions did not appear to be related to the virus' outbreak.

Read the original article on Business Insider
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The global respiratory protective equipment market size is expected to reach USD 9.96 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is anticipated to register a CAGR of 7.0% during the forecast period. Rising occupational safety regulations for ensuring worker safety is expected to boost the product demand.

Increasing demand for multi-purpose RPE such as respirators with in-built gas detectors is expected to drive R&D in developing efficient and durable respirators for preventing the spreading of biological hazards. Rising proactive measures taken by several associations such as ANSI, ASTM, and ISO is anticipated to have a positive impact on the market growth.

Rising concerns regarding biological diseases coupled with exposure to toxic and radioactive air pollutants is anticipated to augment the product demand over the forecast period. In addition, an increasing number of illness cases in mining and chemical industries owing to the prolonged exposure to polluted air is likely to drive growth of the RPE market.

Surging demand for multi-utility RPE coupled with technological advancements is expected to offer ample opportunities for market expansion over the forecast period. Major players such as 3M and Honeywell International are focused on developing RPE at economies of scale to strengthen their market share.

To request a sample copy or view summary of this report, click the link below:

https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/respiratory-protective-equipment-market

Further key findings from the report suggest:

Powered air-purifying respirator accounted for 48.0% of the APR revenue share in 2018 on account of its rising demand for employee protection against vapors and toxic gases in oil and gas, petrochemical, and mining industries

Industrial application segment is expected to register a CAGR of 7.3% from 2019 to 2025 in terms of revenue owing to increasing automotive and metal fabrication industries in the emerging economies such as India, China, and Brazil

Demand from oil and gas industry is expected to reach USD 1.75 billion by 2025 on account of the presence of a considerable number of respiratory hazards such as exposure to silica and hydrogen sulfide coupled with rising awareness regarding employee safety

Product consumption in North America is anticipated to reach USD 3.88 billion by 2025 owing to the presence of stringent norms regarding occupational health and safety by regulatory bodies such as OSHA, CSA, and ANSI

Major players in the Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) market focus on integration across the value chain, especially from component manufacturing to product distribution, which is expected to aid the companies obtain a competitive edge

Grand View Research has segmented the global Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) market on the basis of product, application, and region:

Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

Air Purifier Respirator Unpowered Respirators Disposable Filtered Mask Half Mask Full Face Mask Powered Respirators Half Mask Full Face Mask Helmets, Hoods & Visors Escape Respirators

Supplied Air Respirator

Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) End Use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

Oil & Gas

Fire Services

Petrochemical/Chemical

Industrial

Pharmaceutical

Construction

Healthcare

Mining

Others

Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

North America US. Canada Mexico

Europe France Germany UK. Russia Italy Spain

Asia Pacific China Japan India South Korea Indonesia Australia Thailand Malaysia

Central & South America Brazil Argentina Chile

Middle East & Africa Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates South Africa



About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.
At least nine US autoworkers have lost their lives so far to the COVID-19 pandemic, after four deaths were reported in the media over the weekend. According to a Saturday report in the Detroit Free Press, two hourly Ford workers died after being diagnosed with COVID-19. Coworkers identified one of the workers as Gregory Boyd from Dearborn Stamping Plant, part of Fords massive Rouge complex. The second death was a skilled trades worker at the Ford Data Center, also in Dearborn, whose identity is not yet known.

On Sunday, the Free Press reported that two more Fiat Chrysler workers died of COVID-19, one from Warren Truck Assembly Plant and another from the MOPAR parts distribution center in Center Line, Michigan. These bring the death toll to seven at FCAs US plants, including two at a single facility, Warren Truck.

Their tragic and completely preventable deaths confirmed over the weekend follow the March 24 announcement of the deaths of two Fiat Chrysler (FCA) workers from Sterling Heights Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit and Kokomo Transmission Plant in Indiana; Wednesdays announcement of the death of an hourly worker from the Warren Truck Assembly Plant; and Thursdays announced deaths of a worker at FCA Transport in Sterling Heights, Michigan and a salaried worker at FCA headquarters.

The primary and immediate responsibility for these deaths lies with the Detroit automakers and their lackeys in the United Auto Workers, which conspired to keep workers on the line as long as possible during the pandemic, without even minimal sanitation and safety measures, in order to produce highly profitable SUVs and pickup trucks.

Were it not for the fact that autoworkers took matters into their own hands and launched a wildcat strike wave two weeks ago, forcing the automakers to close their North American facilities at least temporarily, the death toll would almost certainly be far higher. This rebellion in the American auto factories was part of a growing international strike wave as major corporations continue to force millions of workers in nonessential industries to remain on the job, with the support of governments throughout the world.

As the death toll began to mount last week and the United States was surging past China and Italy to become the new epicenter of the pandemic, Ford and Fiat Chrysler were forced to extend their shutdowns past their original March 30 deadline to April 14, the day after a statewide lockdown order in Michigan expires. General Motors has extended its shutdown indefinitely, declaring that it would review their decision on a week-to-week basis.

The statewide lockdown ordered by Michigans Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer contained a loophole allowing essential industries including auto and other manufacturing sectors to remain at work, paving the way for the automakers to restart production early. However, the automakers decided against such a course of action, knowing that forcing a return to work during the lockdown would have risked triggering an even bigger social explosion among autoworkers.

Since the first confirmed case in Michigan on March 11, the number of COVID-19 cases in Michigan has exploded, in less than three weeks, to 5,480 on Saturday, with 132 confirmed deaths. The number of cases in the state increased more than fourfold since the beginning of last week and Detroit, where decades of plant closures have led to a collapse in social infrastructure and the highest poverty rate of any large US city, is emerging as a new hotspot, with the citys healthcare on the brink of being overwhelmed.

Among the victims of the pandemic is state legislator for Detroit Isaac Robinson, the Free Press reported late last night.

The World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter spoke to autoworkers in Michigan about their concerns in light of the most recent deaths.

A worker from the Ford Flat Rock Assembly plant said: On the news they said they had a blue-collar team going throughout the plant to protect everybody, and they ran the story that Ford was doing everything they could to protect the workers. That was an outright lie! No one communicated to any of [the workers] what the dangers were, or what they were doing about it. It was a case of company management versus the health and safety of the workers.

[O]n the 10th of March and again on the 16th, [t]he workers were very upset. They did not want to work, but they were forced to. Three workers were told to go down to dock 45, for example, to unload transmissions, [and] the company went and got someone who did not know what was going on, [a]nd got them to unload the transmissions.

Health and Safety did nothing. The union did nothing. We had to pull over a guy on the hi-lo [forklift] and tell him what was going on. Ford does not care if we live or die. All they care about is the money. We knew that day when [a worker] was pulled off a hi-lo at Dearborn Truck Plant, [he] was quarantined because he tested positive for COVID-19.

[One day], 20 or 30 people walked off the line. All the company did to protect us was to say keep your distance. What good is that? You are touching at least 5,000 parts on every shift. We have 13 lines and 1,300 people working right next to each other and touching all those parts. It is a death trap. We knew this.

The company does not care because they are making profit. If we report incidents to health and safety, they do not care. We need a job. What are we going to do?

Workers at Ford Chicago Assembly Plant (CAP) learned of two confirmed COVID-19 cases at the factory, one hourly and one salaried worker, through an announcement from Labor Relations on Friday. While the UAW has made passing comments about the plant being sanitized during the shutdown, one full-time CAP worker said that he and his coworkers remain skeptical that any safety measures will be put into place, and that they are nervous about returning to work when the plant reopens.

Another veteran CAP worker told the Autoworker Newsletter that in addition to the two confirmed cases, there were two salaried workers at the plant who had been clinically diagnosed. Other than the concise note from Labor Relations on Friday that instructed workers not to return to work for the next three weeks unless notified by [a] supervisor, the workers received no further information.

So we want to know: Have we been exposed? Has our area been exposed? What measures should we take? I think were just starting to see the bad part of it, he continued. Were very in the initial stage, and its going to get worse. We have a horror show of a government, both the Democrats and the Republicans. If they try to get us back to work by Easter, I dont know how thats going to go... [people] are going to walk out.

[H]ow can the US have all this money, but cant produce enough face masks for workers? It goes to show you the governments best interest is not in the people, because if it was, it wouldve been acting very differently. Here you have the best example of the working class saving the rest of societygrocery workers, delivery workers, healthcare workers, nurses. Its not the billionaires, its not the corporate executives.
I am appalled by the opinion of Harry Partap in his letter of March 30, (Focusing on the negative isnt helpful) where he scolds the Opposition for their demand that our 35 nationals be brought back from Barbados.
Ministers are being urged to release prisoners during the coronavirus pandemic, after Northern Ireland signalled it would let out more than 10% of those behind bars.

Pressure is being put on Justice Secretary Robert Buckland to allow convicted criminals to head home, in order to prevent more deaths in England and Wales crowded prisons.

It comes as the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) confirmed that, as of 5.40pm on Sunday, 55 prisoners had tested positive for coronavirus in 21 different prisons.

The first death  convicted paedophile Edwin Hillier, who was serving his sentence at HMP Littlehey in Cambridgeshire  was confirmed on March 22.

Staff numbers in prisons are already stretched, with some 3,500 employees, representing about a tenth of the workforce, currently in self-isolation due to Covid-19.

Some 13 prison staff have tested positive in seven prisons, as well as four prison escort and custody services staff, the MoJ said on Monday.

In the face of strengthening calls for action by human rights groups and a prisons watchdog, Downing Street has signalled that some vulnerable prisoners could be set free for a time to protect them.

The pressure comes after Northern Ireland justice minister Naomi Long announced the temporary early release of up to 200 prisoners, and Scotlands justice secretary Humza Yousaf said on Friday that he was actively considering options for the early release of prisoners.

The Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody (IAPDC) said prisons should be only for serious and violent offenders at this time, with judgments made on a case-by-case basis.

Ministers and officials are faced with some of the most difficult decisions they have ever had to make, about balance of risk and the best ways to keep people safe, said Juliet Lyon, IAPDC chair.

The priority now is to reserve prison for serious and violent offenders so that the public is not put at risk and hard-pressed prison staff have the physical space and time to hold those individuals safely and securely.

Story continues

In an unprecedented public health crisis, it is not fair or proportionate to commit prisoners, and staff responsible for them, to try to survive in insanitary, overcrowded institutions devoid currently of independent oversight.

People are sent to prison to lose their liberty not their lives.

Close to 10% of prison staff are currently self-isolating due to Covid-19 (Peter Macdiarmid/PA)

Jails in England and Wales were put on immediate lockdown on Tuesday with all visits cancelled, after it emerged thousands of staff were in self-isolation.

Jo Farrar, chief executive of the Prison and Probation Service, told the Commons justice committee last week that about 4,300 prison and probation staff overall were self-isolating.

Kate Allen, Amnesty Internationals UK director, said: Decreasing the prison population and the number of people in immigration detention centres is a crucial means of slowing the spread of Covid-19 and keeping people safe.

We urge the Government to follow the lead of governments in Northern Ireland and Scotland and provide alternatives to detention for those with underlying medical conditions, and older people, if they do not pose a threat to themselves or society.

UK: Government must ensure release of all vulnerable prisoners following early release of inmates in Northern Irelandhttps://t.co/8RzaQiBmnE  News From Amnesty (@NewsFromAmnesty) March 30, 2020

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said on Monday that prisoner releases were under consideration.

There are some particular issues in relation to vulnerable inmates which we are actively looking at, the Number 10 spokesman said.

In Northern Ireland, where 163 prison officers out of a 1,200-strong workforce are self-isolating due to Covid-19, Ms Long said she anticipated the release of fewer than 200 individuals from the 1,521 prisoner population in the region, about 13% of the population behind bars.

Prisoners serving a life sentence, detained under the mental health act, those serving a sentence for a terrorist offence and those deemed a risk are among those who will not be eligible for early release, the devolved administration said.

A Prison Service spokeswoman said: We have robust and flexible plans in place to protect the lives of our staff, prisoners and visitors, based on the latest advice from Public Health England and the Department of Health and Social Care.
Vedanta Ltd on Monday said its operations, including mining, oil and gas, have been impacted due to the coronavirus outbreak and the company expects return to the full capacity in the coming weeks.

The company and its subsidiaries have been taking various precautionary measures to ensure the safety and well-being of all its employees and stakeholders, Vedanta Ltd said in a BSE filing.

"While most of our operations are essential or continuous in nature, (still) we have had temporary disruptions largely driven by logistical bottlenecks. We expect these issues to be resolved over the short term that will allow the company to return to full capacity in coming weeks," it said.

There are various advisory directives issued by the central /state governments and municipal authorities in India to prevent and contain the spread of coronavirus.

It said that through a circular issued by the Ministry of Mines dated March 26, it has been advised that state governments should facilitate measures that would ensure continuity of operations of steel, aluminum, copper, cement and other such plants that require continuous process.

The related activities such as supply, movement of raw materials and equipment, including imported ones, through rail, air and ports can be similarly facilitated, it said.

The aforesaid mining operations including allied activities as well as the oil and gas business operations which is covered under manufacturing of essential commodities, will be carried out during the lockdown period as per the order of the Ministry of Home Affairs and advisories issued to the state governments by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, including ICMR, NDMA and other related agencies.

"Accordingly, our sites will be operational in compliance with the referred order," it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

I am sure the hilariously named CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act is just as horried as the 2008 bailouts, if not moreso  if only because the people in charge are even more greedy and venal than 2008s crew[1]  but in this post, Ill focus exclusively concrete material benefits for the working class  sadly, not universal  as opposed to whatever meagre benefits will trickle down from however our betters reconfigure the economy. this time. (There will, apparently, be more stimulus to come, when our lawmakers return from their vacation[2]. The unemployment provisions should be beefed up as well.)

The key point of the CARES that means-testing and complex eligibility requirements will only be pried from the cold, dead hands of the political class. As Peggy Noonan wrote (Links, this morning):

Eight days in I entered the living hell of attempting to find my results through websites and patient portals. I downloaded unnavigable apps, was pressed for passwords Id not been given, followed dead-end prompts. The whole system is built to winnow out the weak, to make you stop bothering them. This is what its like, in a robot voice: How to get out of the forest: There will be trees. If you arent rescued in three to seven days, please try screaming into the void.

Ive been considering filing material like this under Failed State, but it also seems to me that our State is doing exactly what it is designed to do. If you think about it, one of the most remarkable features of this whole ongoing debacle is that even after the last Crash, the Federal Government still does not have a simple, universal way to send every eligible resident in the country money. In Canada, by contrast:

11:25 a.m.: Trudeau says new federal benefits for those losing income due to COVID-19 will be in peoples pockets within 10 days of their applications. He says the government has redeployed thousands of civil servants to work on the benefits package so the funds can flow to people as soon as possible. 11:20 a.m.: Help is on the way, Trudeau says in announcing the emergency response benefit that will provide $2,000 a month for four months for people who have lost their income because of COVID-19. The Canada Emergency Response Benefit combines two benefits announced last week to streamline application process.

But then Canada is a First World country.

That said, the concrete material benefits to the working class come in two forms: stimulus checks, and unemployment checks. Lets take each in turn.

Stimulus Checks

So, the $1,200 check. (It isnt always $1,200, but well get to that). Ive always wondered: Why $1200? I cant dig up the legislative history, but one theory is that the minimum wage of $7.25 * 40 hours = $290 a week * 4 = $1160 a month. Rounding up, the government is paying you minimum wage for a month. But there are more entertaining theories:

Waitin for that stimulus check like pic.twitter.com/JghK4GxOdC  Joe Fisher (@Joe__Fisher) March 28, 2020

(Here is the source.) Theres also a whole news you can use genre of What should I do with my stimulus check? where the experts weigh in, but basically the $1200 might as well have been directly deposited in your landlords account: Renter-to-rentier, as it were.

Anyhow. Im going to ask four questions about the stimulus checks:

Who gets a stimulus check?

Here is a handy chart of the eligibility requirements (source; qualifications):

(One eligibility requirement is missing: You cannot owe child support. Otherwise:

Owing back taxes or other debt to the government is not a problem, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Finance Committee and a key author of the bill. The legislation turns off nearly all administrative offsets that ordinarily may reduce tax refunds for individuals who have past tax debts, or who are behind on other payments to federal or state governments, including student loan payments, Grassley wrote in a medium.com post. The only administrative offset that will be enforced applies to those who have past due child support payments that the states have reported to the Treasury Department, he continued.

To be fair, for somebody like Grassely, this is generosity on a lavish, princely scale.

How much will the check be?

Here is a handy chart from the Tax Foundation, in Congress Approves Economic Relief Plan for Individuals and Businesses:

Here is a calculator if you dont like charts.

How long will the check take to arrive?

This is where things get really complicated. The default case:

The IRS is expected to start distributing the rebate checks within the next three weeks. The payments will be sent via direct deposit to Americans who already have provided the IRS with their bank account information. For those who havent, the checks will be mailed.

On mailing:

[T]he IRS can mail a check to your last known address, and it has 15 days to notify you of the method and amount of the payment. Theyll send a phone number and appropriate point of contact so you can tell them if you didnt receive it.

If your last known address isnt your current address, this is what you can do:

If you have recently moved, you should file a Form 8822 with the IRS and a change of address notice with the U.S. Postal Service. This will ensure correspondence and payments from the IRS will be sent to your new address.

The bottom line:

Anyone who doesnt already have direct-deposit information on file with the IRS may not see their emergency funds for up to 4 months.

Some emergency. I would also guess that if landlord-tenant relations deteriorate as there are many, many anecdotal reports they will, a lot of peoples addresses are going to change, screwing up check delivery for millions. 36% of American households rent their homes.

When will the checks stop?

The stimulus checks are a one-time payment. What you do you think we are? Canada?

Unemployment Checks

Now lets turn to unemployment checks. Before we ask the same four questions, lets look at capacity issues. Heres a chart of unemployment benefits filings:

Vox remarks:

Instead of a one-off spurt, last weeks eye-popping initial claims number could be just the leading edge of a larger tsunami that will continue to press forward for several weeks.

Its not clear to me that our unemployment system, which is handled administratively at the State level, has the operational capability to handle this surge. In Ohio:

The [Ohio Jobs and Family Services] spokesperson continued: During previous downturns in the economy, claims trickled in, whereas these claims came in all at once . This amount of claims in this short expanse of time would tax any online system. We have been working around the clock to streamline performance and boost capacity so the online claims system can handle the unprecedented influx of claims, which has affected processing times.

In other words, the spike faced by emergency rooms and hospitals is, as it were, replicating itself across other systems. Im sure each state unemployment office is calculating throughputs, but I dont know if they can scale up the capacity. From the New York Times, Coronavirus Layoff Surge Overwhelms Unemployment Offices:

From New Jersey to Texas to Oregon, the newly jobless have tried to file claims, only to run into glitchy websites and clogged phone lines. Help is on the way. A stimulus bill that President Trump signed into law on Wednesday provides $1 billion in emergency grants to states for unemployment insurance, and fully half could be immediately used to strengthen staffing, technology and other administrative costs. Even when unemployment was stable and low, state employment offices were threadbare, said Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow with the Century Foundation, a public policy research group. State unemployment insurance programs rely on federal grants to pay for the administration of benefits, but those costs have been cut by 30 percent over the past two decades, he said. Part of the reason for low staffing: Unemployment office head counts are pegged to the unemployment rate, which had reached historic lows before the pandemic hit.

Now, a bureaucracy with well-defined procedures and functional IT ought to scale to meet the crisis, much like spinning up more servers on a server farm. However, if the state systems are held together by bubble-gum and baling wire, then theres a good possibility Brooks Law will apply (adding manpower to a late software project makes it later, because it takes time for new people to become productive, and communication overhead increases as headcount increases. A dysfunction department is a lot more like a project than a server farm is). I guess well find out.

Who gets an unemployment check?

To be fair, the CARES Act does expand unemployment coverage significantly[3]. I wish I had a chart, but in prose from the National Law Review, Unemployment Insurance Provisions of the CARES Act:

Under Section 2014 of the Act, individuals who are otherwise eligible for unemployment benefits under state or federal law will receive $600 per week, in addition to their regular unemployment compensation under state law, through July 2020. Under Section 2107, if individuals remain unemployed after their state employment benefits are exhausted, the federal government will fund up to 13 weeks of additional unemployment benefits  thereby increasing to 39 weeks the 26-week maximum common under most states unemployment laws  at a weekly rate of $600 during that 13-week period. Finally, under Sections 2108 and 2109, the Act will provide funding to states that currently have or choose to implement a Short-Time Compensation (STC) program for employers that reduce their employees hours in lieu of a lay-off and whereby the employees thus receive a pro-rated unemployment benefit. The federal government will fund 100% of the costs for states that currently have a STC program and 50% for those states that choose to implement one, in each case through Dec. 31, 2020.

Crucially, the CARES Act expands eligibility to those not currently eligible. Again from the National Law Review:

The Act, in Section 1202, will create a temporary, federally funded Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program providing unemployment benefits to individuals who otherwise would be ineligible for such benefits under state or federal law  such as individuals who are self-employed (for example, consultants or independent contractors), who are seeking part-time employment, or who lack sufficient work history. The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program covers any individual who: (1) is not otherwise eligible for, or has exhausted all rights to, unemployment benefits; and (2) is unemployed, partially unemployed, or unable to work because of any of the following COVID-19-related circumstances.

(Im not going to quote the circumstances, but they seem reasonable and capacious.) Here, at least, is a flow-chart for 1099 workers:

How much will the check be?

Again to be fair, if you accept the existing system, the amount doesnt seem nearly as bad as it might be:

New pandemic UI benefits are calculated as half the state average plus $600 per week. So that's $707 in MS and $875 in MA, averaging to $794 per week across the US. In every state it exceeds the 2018 real median personal income of $648 per week. https://t.co/YgALH4jOe2  Max Ghenis (@MaxGhenis) March 26, 2020

How long will the check take to arrive?

Since unemployment checks are cut by the states, its hard to generalize. California says three weeks, give or take:

[Loree Levy, deputy director of communications at the California Employment Development Department,] said it typically takes three weeks from the time when a person files a claim to when they receive a payment. Whether the department can keep that timeline intact is being closely watched. The independent Legislative Analysts Office wrote in a report last week that the massive workload would mean much longer wait times, but Levy said the department is optimistic that clean claims without complicated issues will still get out the door in three weeks.

Then again, it might be hard to get into the system in the first place, due to capacity issues. Here is a thread from Massachusetts 1099ers:

When you get to the section where you search for your employerwhich might seem like the kiss of death for a self-employed freelancertype "self-employed" into the search field and hit SEARCH three times. *Three times.* This is important and I'll explain why in the next tweet  Miles Howard (@MilesPerHoward) March 29, 2020

Unfortunately, the thread concludes:

Folks: It appears theres a gulf between the apply now advice were getting and how the system is working right now. 1099 people are getting rejected. CALL YOUR REP AND SENATOR. Ask when this will be fixed and how we can claim benefits for the weeks when the system didnt work  Miles Howard (@MilesPerHoward) March 29, 2020

As I said above, I guess well find out.

When will the checks stop?

After four months, in the unemployment system:

The federal governments $600 weekly payout to unemployed workers will last for a period of up to four months through July 31. Additionally, the CARES Act will extend state-level unemployment insurance by an additional 13 weeks. For instance, whereas most state unemployment benefits last 26 weeks, the bill extends benefits in those states to 39 weeks. The extended benefits will last through Dec. 31, 2020.

For Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, December 31:

Workers can receive up to 39 weeks of PUA benefits. This program is only in effect through December 31.

Conclusion

Will the CARES Act provide enough relief to prevent millions of defaults?

This is why you maintain payroll even as workers temporarily step out of the workplace. Minsky, anyone? Its about cash flow commitments/recurring expenses. A cascading wave of defaults is the natural outcome when cash flow disruptions leave millions unable to service debt. https://t.co/0JvcO0xDC6  Stephanie Kelton (@StephanieKelton) March 29, 2020

Hard to say. My guess is millions, no. Tens of millions, maybe yes. Tune in tomorrow when we talk about the rent!

NOTES

[1] Not to imply that Obamas crew werent greedy and venal:

Heres @jasonfurman 3 days ago complaining to @ezraklein about bailout oversight in 2009. We had a special investigator general for TARP  SIGTARP. That office still exists. It was a massive office. And frankly, I think it was chilling. Ladies and gentlemen, the Democrats!  Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) March 28, 2020

[2] The Senate will return April 20, if all goes according to plan. After Easter.

[3] From Oregon Live, In once-in-a-lifetime crisis, Sen. Ron Wyden accomplishes goal of expanding unemployment insurance:

And Wyden had a plan. By happy coincidence, he and his people had been working on a thorough modernization and overhaul of the federal unemployment insurance program for much of the prior year. As the bill approached a vote, Wyden and his allies had managed to include as much as $317 billion worth of expanded unemployment benefits into the legislation. A last-ditch Republican attack led by Sen. Lindsey Graham went nowhere. With a timely assist from Sen. Bernie Sanders, who threatened to delay the bill if Graham succeeded in reducing the unemployment assistance, the 11th-hour opposition got no traction.

Ive been trying to run down how much Sanders contributed to the unemployment clauses in the CARES Act, and so far as I can tell, he didnt craft the legislation or amend it.
B ARCLAYS shares tumbled another 7% today as the bank came under fresh pressure to ditch a 6p-a-share, 1 billion dividend payment due on Friday.

While other large firms have scrapped shareholder payouts to preserve cash, big banks have said they are financially strong enough to justify a divi.

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has already made it plain he expects banks to make protecting customers a priority. Other voices have since said they think dividends are presently irresponsible.

City observers note that investors including pension funds have been expecting the divi and invested partly on expectation of an income flow.

Barclays shares fell 7p to 90p. They were nearer 190p at the start of the year.

The bank is among several meeting the Financial Conduct Authority today for talks, with the dividend issues likely to be raised. Barclays had no comment.

Uncertainty over bank dividends saw the FTSE 100 lose 79.75 points to 5430.58.

Oilers joined the banks among the biggest fallers after oil prices crashed, with Brent Crude around $23 per barrel for the first time since 2002 amid fears coronavirus could grind the global economy to a halt. BP fell 5.8p at 299p and Shell dropped 13.8p at 1216p.

On the FTSE 250 things went from bad to worse for Travelex owner Finablr after Ernst & Young resigned as auditor. Finablrs shares have been suspended for two weeks after it found 81 million in undisclosed cheques from before its initial public offering in 2018.

EY was looking into the missing cheques and had demanded that Finablr make changes to the board of the company if it was to continue in its roleas auditor. But Finablr failed to do so. Finablr said: The board was unable to accommodate EYs requirements in full in the time allowed to them.

The shares remained suspended.

There were also concerns over the future of Mothercare after the baby clothes seller gave up on plans up to raise fresh equity. Mothercare will instead raise debt rather than pursuing an equity solution at this time.

Mothercare had problems before coronavirus and shares in the fragile business were down 5% or 0.2p at 4.5p.

Traders were also nervy after Alpha FX warned that its biggest unnamed client owed the company 30.2 million and is struggling to pay.

The client, a global exporter of food, held a number of contracts with Alpha, selling US dollars to buy Norwegian Krone.

But this month the Norwegian Krone has fallen 15.9% against the US dollar.

Alpha said: The client subsequently became unable to pay the full margin owed on its forward contracts when due. Alpha is in the process of negotiating a settlement agreement with the client to provide it with a payment plan.
In an effort to bolster the flagging revenue of local restaurants and bars forced to close their dining room during the COVID-19 crisis, California's department of Alcoholic Beverage Control recently loosened some laws around the sale of adult beverages, allowing restaurants to sell pre-mixed cocktails for takeout to anyone over the age of 21. The drinks must be sealed (no drinking in the streets, this isn't the French Quarter), and accompany food.

Here's where to get cocktailsplus wine, beer, and ciderto go in San Francisco and Oakland.

Cocktails To-Go From San Francisco Restaurants

Alchemist

SoMa bar Alchemist is delivering drinks throughout San Francisco Wednesday through Sunday. Wine, beer, drinks for two, and large format cocktails in 375ml bottles are on offer. Get ready for Old Fashioneds, Moscow Mules, rose espresso martinis, and more. Food items (one is required per order) include bacon cheddar tots, a Beyond burger, fried chicken sliders, and more. // Call 415-515-0230 or email alchemistbarsf@gmail.com to order; alchemistsf.com; also available via DoorDash.





Aziza

The new normal for Mourad Lahlou's restaurant group includes $15 carry-out Negronis, Vespers, and Rye Double Old Fashioneds. There are also several wines available by the glass and bottle. Check out the takeout menu online, and look for delivery via Caviar and DoorDash. // 5800 Geary Blvd. (Outer Richmond); call 415-682-4196, azizasf.com





Balboa Cafe

This iconic SF restaurant is giving 100 percent of the profits on all cocktails sold Friday through Sunday to cafe employees who are being furloughed due to COVID-19 distancing mandates. Order up a bloody mary, espressotini, or one of a few $13 cocktail recipes from beloved local bars, including Wildhawk's Breakfast Negroni, a 7x7 Big Drink favorite. If you're having a social distancing happy hour, $45 margarita pitchers are also available, as well as beer (Pliny the Elder) and several wines. // 3199 Fillmore St. (Cow Hollow); check out the menu at balboacafesf.com, then call 4159213944 to place a pick-up order; delivery is available through Postmates.





Buena Vista Cafe

Oh yes, you can still get those iconic Irish coffees to go at SF's landmark cafe. Order up pub grub including omelettes, a reuben, and fish and chips, and grab your coffee and get your coffee and mini bottle of Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey to go. // Call 415-474-5044 to order takeout; 2765 Hyde St. (Fisherman's Wharf): thebuenavista.com





Elixir

One of San Francisco's oldest bars is taking up one of its latest trends. Get bottles of spirits, wine, beer, and mixers delivered to your doorstep, or make a go of it with one of Elixir's cocktail kits, each of which makes more 20 drinks. ($44-$173). // See inventory of spirits at drinks on Elixir's Facebook page, then order for delivery by emailing Elixirsfdelivery@gmail.com.





Maven

The Haight Street hot spot is cranking out six bottled cocktails ($20/two) including Thyme in a Bottle (gin, genepy, dry vermouth, cocchi) and the sultry Smokin' Barrels (bonded rye, Benedictine, vermouths, Scotch). Feeling festive-ish? Order up a bottle of Roederer Brut ($28), as well as red and white wine options and bottles of beer. // 598 Haight St. (Lower Haight); Check out the menu at maven-sf.com, then order by calling ahead at 415-829-7982 or via Facebook DM; delivery is also available via Caviar.





Nopalito

At Nopalito's Broderick Street location, plastic to-go tubs have been filled with the tequila cocktails. Margaritas, Sweet Heats, sangria, and bloody marias can be picked up from the to-go window between Fell and Oak street, as can michelada kits and full bottles of Del Maguey Vida mezcal and Pueblo Viejo Blanco tequila. One 16-ounce container serves two for $16. // 306 Broderick St. (Lower Haight); to order for pick-up, email catering@nopalitosf.com or call 415-300-0029; a limited cocktail selection, plus six-packs of Tecate and a few wine options, is also available for delivery via Caviar.





Old Devil Moon

Shortly after closing the doors to Old Devil Moon, owner Chris Cohen pounced on a new opportunity. Cohen bought a crowler machine and hundreds of bottles, then set to work sanitizing glass and packaging custom cocktails, including ODM's exceptional Boulevardier, a Mezcalita, and sufficiently spicy bloodies. Each 12-ounce bottle ($18) contains three cocktails; 22-ounce bottles ($28) are also available, as are growler fills for beer (BYO growler), and a limited selection of bottled spirits, wines, and cider. Get a muffaletta sandwich or Cajun hot link to go with. // Open 2pm to 8pm daily; 3472 Mission St. (Glen Park); check out the menu at olddevilmoonsf.com.





Palm House

Douse your chilly studio apartment in island vibes thanks to bottles of rose, Red Stripes, punch bowls, Palmades, and pina colada kits from Palm House. A single bloody mary is only $5, while cocktail kits for four range from $30 to $65. // 2032 Union St. (Cow Hollow); delivery and pick-up are available through Postmates and UberEats.





Tosca Cafe

The latest reincarnation of North Beach's most iconic restaurant has reopened just in time to serve takeout and delivery only. In addition to chef Nancy Oakes' family-style dinners and Italian pantry staplesthink marinated olives, pastas, vodka-tomato saucethe restaurant is delivering bottles of wine and a cocktail kit ($75/serves 12) to make grapefruit-hibiscus tequila tonics at home. // Order online at Tock.





True Laurel

Happy hour at home doesn't have to be sad with creative bar bites and innovative libations from True Laurel, like the Mai o Mai, a 7x7 Big Drink cocktail made with rum, curacao, lime, pistachio orgeat, and a coffee rum float. Bottled drinks are $14 each, or $79 for a six-pack. $30 bottles of wineincluding cava, pet nat, and syrahas well as Temescal Pils tallboys are also available. // 753 Alabama St. (MIssion); call ahead to order at 415-341-0020, view the to-go menu at truelaurelsf.com.





Seven Stills

In addition to full bottles of spirts, the local distillery is also offering a limited edition "Apocalypse" menu of classic and creative cocktails including the Mission Mule, Armadillo, and Devil's Acre made with 7S Pisco. Drinks range from $11 to $14 for a single serving and $30 to $45 for 750ml bottles. // 100 Hooper St. (SoMa); schedule pickup through Toast; delivery coming soon.





Word. A Cafe

This Bayview neighborhood joint is offering cocktails to-go as a part of their End of the World As We Know It Menu. Team your breakfast biscuit sandwich or crab louie salad with a sazerac, Kat Five Hurricane, beer punch, and more ($8-$9; get $2 off some drinks during happy hour until 6pm). // 5114 Third St. (Bayview); call 415-500-2501 to order for pickup; wordacafe.com.





Starbelly

This neighborhood hot spot is classing up plastic pint-sized containers by filling them with ready-made cocktails. A rotating to-go menu includes 3-4 mixed drinks that range from the smooth and boozy Gentelman Caller to the light and easy Salty Dog (salt rim included). Priced at $20, each pint holds 2 servings and must accompany a food order; we recommend the salted caramel pot de creme. // 3583 16th St. (Castro) Order delivery through Caviar, create an online order for pick up, call ahead at 415-252-7500, or just drop by.
The Marine Corps is halting new shipments of recruits to its fabled East Coast boot camp base after more than 20 people there tested positive for the highly contagious virus that has altered life around the globe.

Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in South Carolina will not accept new trainees until at least mid-April, Capt. Bryan McDonnell, a spokesman there, said.

There are more than 20 positive cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, at the training depot. That includes cases among recruits and drill instructors, McDonnell said. He declined to provide the total number, saying it could change rapidly as more test results become available.

"Just like everywhere, we're seeing an increase in cases because this is a pandemic," McDonnell said. "We're still combating it."

Related: 'We Are Putting Lives in Danger': Recruiters Urge Boot Camp Closures Amid Pandemic

The decision to halt incoming shipments of recruits follows an exclusive story from Military.com in which recruiters warned that continuing to send young men and women to boot camp was risking lives.

"Decision-makers are absolutely in denial if they believe high rates of infection and hospitalization will not happen on the depot under close proximity and enclosed spaces," one Marine said.

Marine Commandant Gen. David Berger said the health of Marines, recruits and their families during the global pandemic remains the service's highest priority.

"With that in mind, we've paused this week's shipping of new recruits to Parris Island and will revise our overall shipping plan to ensure we are able to meet the nation's needs while protecting its next generation of Marines."

The Marine Corps will continue shipping recruits to its West Coast boot camp base in San Diego, which hasn't seen as high a number of COVID-19 cases as Parris Island, an official with knowledge of the situation said.

McDonnell said the last shipment of recruits arrived at Parris Island about two weeks ago. Training for those already at the recruit depot will continue as scheduled, but will be done with several new social-distancing measures in place, per guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That includes spreading recruits out in chow halls where they eat and in squad bays where they sleep. The base is also recording Sunday worship sermons, so trainees aren't gathering in the base chapel.

When Parris Island resumes accepting new recruits, McDonnel said they will have a 14-day staging period in which they'll be monitored by medical personnel and staff before they begin training. Task & Purpose was first to report the change.

Brig. Gen. James Glynn, Parris Island's commander, and Sgt. Maj. William Carter, the top-enlisted leader there, said in a letter to base staff that they will expand facilities on base for screening new recruits or those facing isolation and quarantine.

"This aggressive posture is necessary to protect all of us," they wrote. "... This is a concern to us, just as it is to you, and it is being constantly addressed at every level to minimize the threat and mitigate this impact."

-- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins.

Related: Tell Us: Is Your Command Doing Enough to Stop the Spread of Coronavirus?
National Communications Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi has expressed worry over President Akufo Addo's partial lockdown directives, saying it might lead to huge community spread of the coronavirus.



According to him, ''although the partial lockdown is laudable, the manner in which it was communicated by the President in his recent address to the nation, leaves much to be desired''.



In a statement issued by the NDC National Communications Director and copied to Peacefmonline.com, he stressed that ''the Presidents failure to disallow or restrict inter-regional movements, specifically, movements from regions affected by the announced lockdown (epicentres) to regions not affected by the lockdown, undermines the very purpose of the partial lockdown''.



Read full statement below:



COMRADE SAMMY GYAMFI WRITES ON PRESIDENT AKUFO-ADDOS PARTIAL LOCKDOWN DIRECTIVE:



30/03/20



Folks, I am glad that President Akufo-Addo finally hearkened to the advice of the Ghana Medical Association, the TUC, and other Ghanaians to partially lockdown the country in the wake of the escalation of recorded cases of the Novel Coronavirus pandemic in Ghana.



Sadly, we're already recording community infections of coronavirus disease in the country.



Although the partial lockdown is laudable, the manner in which it was communicated by the President in his recent address to the nation, leaves much to be desired.



I say so for the following reasons:



1. The Presidents failure to disallow or restrict inter-regional movements, specifically, movements from regions affected by the announced lockdown (epicentres) to regions not affected by the lockdown, undermines the very purpose of the partial lockdown. This is likely to lead to more community spread of the coronavirus infection.



In the last 48 hours, there has been mass exodus of people from the epicenters of the virus; to other regions due to the announced lockdown. Some of these regions were yet to record cases of the virus. But the mass movement of people in buses to these areas can lead to the spread of the deadly Coronavirus.



I believe that the President could have been guided by the example of Italy which has been ravaged by COVID-19 to know that, announcing a lockdown that allows inter-regional movement before its effective date is a recipe for further spread of the disease.



2. The scope of some of the exemptions granted by the President are too broad and more likely to be observed in breach.



A classic situation is the Presidents directive to public transport operators (specifically trotros and taxis) to limit the number of passengers they carry in order to encourage social distancing. The President's directive falls short of clarity.



How on earth does government expect commercial transport operators to abide by a non-existent threshold of passengers at a time when many are cashing in on the fear and panic situation in the country?



I think it would have served a better purpose of reducing human contact and promoting social distancing, if government had announced a specific percentage cut down on the number of passengers that public or commercial vehicles should allow at this crucial time.



Also, this should have come with an incentive, in a form of a drastic reduction in fuel prices to cushion the drivers, GPRTU and car owners. After all, the world market price of crude oil has dropped significantly in the last three (3) months.



Aside these issues, it is important to note, that the serious challenges confronting the countrys fight against the COVID-19 pandemic have still not been addressed by government.



For example:



1. There was no information on the status of the 100 million USD which the President claims to have made available to enhance our COVID-19 response plan.



The point has to be made, that the newly established COVID-19 Fund and the announced stimulus package for the private sector though laudable, cannot be a substitute for the promised $100 million USD.



The country urgently needs a clearly dedicated amount of money for the enhancement of our response plan to the pandemic.



2. The urgent need for government to embark on mass testing has still not been addressed.



Also, one can safely argue that from the nature of some of the cases that have been recorded in our country, voluntary testing is critically needed at this time to prevent the unintended transmission of the virus.



Governments inability to provide enough test kits for mass and voluntary testing leaves the greater public in danger.



But for JackMa and Alibaba who donated test kits to Ghana last week, Ghana would have run out of test kits by now.



The big question is, where are the 50, 000 test kits that the Akufo-Addo government imported so late in the day?



3. Government has still not addressed the problem of lack of PPEs for our front-line health workers.



The chorus of lack of PPEs has been loud and unanimous among health workers in the country in the last few weeks.



The recent incident at the Ridge Hospital involving the father of Mr Bice Osei Kufour (Obuor, an NPP Parliamentary aspirant) which left several workers terrified speaks volumes of the need for adequate protection for our frontline health workers who in most cases have no guaranteed safeguards.



The President must urgently address this to avoid our gallant health workers putting their lives in harm's way as has been witnessed in Italy and other countries.



4. The problem of lack of transparency on lateral cases has still not been addressed by government.



Given the fact that Ghana has moved from vertical infections (imported cases from abroad) to the point of community infections, it is imperative that government provides accurate information on especially, community acquired cases so as to help community members and the general public keep safe.



Unfortunately, government is not abiding by their own 6-hour update of information on the COVID-19 website.



5. Additionally, the problem of poor surveillance of our borders has not been addressed.



The announced border closure is not working effectively. People are still coming into the country through unapproved entry points along our land borders.



The recent ten (10) cases recorded in Tamale involving Guinean Nationals is a classic example of this fact. Surveillance of our land borders is very weak and must be strengthened by our security agencies immediately.



Finally, I must stress that the announced stimulus package for the private sector must not end up as one of Akufo-Addos failed promises. Lets hope that it is released and disbursed on time as promised. We must equally pray, that the distribution is not done on partisan and nepotistic basis as has been the trend under this government.



Also it is my prayer, that government immediately addresses the acute water shortage that Ghanaians in several parts of Accra are experiencing so they can have access to potable water in this period of lockdown.



Last but not least let me reiterate the call for government to reduce fuel prices drastically in order to cushion drivers, GPRTU and car owners as government forces them to limit the number of passengers.



I choose to be a citizen and not a spectator.



#StopTheSpread

#StayHomeStayStafe



Signed,

SAMMY GYAMFI

Source: peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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These are the two CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) members that have not yet signed bilateral free trade agreement (FTAs) with Vietnam.

In the first two months of this year, Vietnams exports to Canada rose by 20.39 percent to 578 million USD year on year.

With over 37 million people, a high standard of living and an urbanisation rate at 80 percent, Canada is considered a potential market for many key export items of Vietnam, including textiles, footwear, seafood, tea, pepper, cashew nut, coffee and wooden furniture.

During the first two months, textile and apparel export value reached more than 100 million USD, up 5.86 percent year on year. The export value of mobile phones and accessories surged by 104.22 percent to 122.09 million USD compared to the same period last year.

Other products with strong growth in exports included the group of iron and steel and plastic materials with rates of 153.69 percent and 354.06 percent year on year, respectively.

Vietnams export value to Mexico reached 497.2 million USD in the first two months. Of which, many products gained high export value, including computers, electronic products and components (133.6 million USD), telephones and components (122.6 million USD), shoes and sandals (47.5 million USD), textiles and garments (16.3 million USD), machinery, equipment and other spare parts (34.5 million USD), vehicles and spare parts (35.2 million USD).

Assessing the implementation of FTAs to promote exports, especially the CPTPP, Luong Hoang Thai, director of the MoITs Department of Multilateral Trade Policy, told the Dau tu (Investment) newspaper reported that Vietnams enterprises have efficiently exploited markets with which Vietnam has not yet signed FTAs.

In fact, Vietnams enterprises have done more than expected, taking full advantage of the CPTPP, Thai said. In 2019, Vietnam gained high growth in exports from the CPTPP countries, especially Canada and Mexico, while the agreement came into effect on January 14, 2019.

The country gained a year on year growth of 26-29 percent in export value to Canada and Mexico last year, he said.

The CPTPP has partly contributed to the strong growth in exports of Vietnam so the country had a trade surplus of 1.6 billion USD with the CPTPP market last year.

Before this agreement, Vietnam had a total trade deficit of 900 million USD with this market, said Thai.

Meanwhile, the General Department of Customs said Vietnam still recorded a trade surplus of 1 billion USD in the first half of March 2020, even during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

In the first half of March, Vietnams total trade value reached 21.47 billion USD, including export value of 11.2 billion USD and import value of 10.3 billion USD.

Therefore, the country achieved total trade value of 97.85 billion USD in the period from January 1 to March 15, up 4.4 percent year on year. It had a trade surplus of 2.74 billion USD.

Of which, the total export value recorded $50.29 billion, up 6.8 percent and the total import value was 47.55 billion USD, up 1.9 percent.

During the period from January 1 until March 15, goods with high export growth included phones and components (10.2 billion USD); computers, electronic products and components (7 billion USD); machinery, equipment, tools and other spare parts (3.93 billion USD); seafood (1.26 billion USD); textiles and garments (5.88 billion USD); footwear (3.42 billion USD); timber and wood products (2.1 billion USD); and vehicles and spare parts (1.76 billion USD)./.
Virginia's governor on Monday ordered all higher education institutions to stop any in-person instruction amid the coronavirus pandemic, a move likely aimed at Liberty University that has reopened its campus amid the outbreak.

'We are in a public health crisis, and we need everyone to take this seriously and act responsibly,' said Northam, a Democrat. 'Our message to Virginians is clear: stay home. We know this virus spreads primarily through human-to-human contact, and thats why its so important that people follow this order and practice social distancing. Im deeply grateful to everyone for their cooperation during this unprecedented and difficult time.'

Liberty University in Lynchburg led by President Jerry Falwell Jr has faced intense criticism over its decision to welcome 1,900 students back to campus last week after the end of their spring break.

The vast majority of classes have been moved online, but the university has said publicly that in-person instruction was necessary for a few select courses.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (left) on Monday ordered all higher education institutions in the state to stop any in-person instruction amid the coronavirus pandemic after Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr (right) said all his students could return after Spring Break, and 11 got infected with coronavirus

'We are currently reviewing what the governor said but aren't able to make a comment at this moment,' said Liberty spokesman Scott Lamb.

Lamb said he couldn't immediately say whether any in-person instruction was continuing Monday, but the university's website specifically mentioned that flight training for aeronautics courses would 'remain in the traditional face to face format.'

Falwell tweeted Sunday night that only one off-campus student who never left Lynchburg had tested positive for the virus - a response to a story in the New York Times that said 11 Liberty students were sick with symptoms that suggested COVID-19.

Of the 11 who have symptoms, three have been referred to hospitals in order to get tests while eight have been told to self-quarantine, according to the newspaper.

Northam's order appears to be directed at Liberty University, which reopened its campus a week ago and welcomed back students returning from Spring Break

Falwell, one of President Donald Trump's earliest and most ardent high-profile supporters, has generally characterized concerns about the virus as overblown.

He has accused the news media of stoking fear and suggested coverage has been politically motivated to hurt the president. He also claimed that Liberty was being targeted for being 'Christian' and 'conservative.'

Still, the university has said it would comply with all applicable governmental directives and guidance concerning COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus that has crippled economies and upended daily life around much of the world.

Northam's executive order also directs all Virginians to stay at home until June 20, 'except in extremely limited circumstances.'

Last week, Northam quoted from scripture in urging Falwell to rethink 'his message that invites and encourages students to return to campus.'

Speaking at a news conference in Richmond, the governor accused Liberty of sending 'mixed messages' about COVID-19.

Falwell chose to ignore Northam's pleas, telling the News & Advance last week that Liberty has a responsibility to reopen for students who have already paid tuition so that they could 'be with their friends and continue their studies.'

Earlier this month, at a time when a flood of colleges began announcing plans to extend spring breaks or move instruction online, Liberty initially resisted and planned for classes to resume. That also prompted an outcry and a petition was started, asking Liberty to move instruction online.

Two weeks ago, Liberty announced a switch, telling students that most classes would be able to finish out the spring term in an online format.

Certain programs, such as aviation, osteopathic medicine and nursing, and certain types of performance classes, like labs, could not be offered online, a statement said.

'Students in those programs and classes will only be able to take them in person but no classes will involve gatherings of more than 100 people,' Liberty said.

Eli Best, a sophomore engineering major from Alexandria in northern Virginia, said he went home for spring break and returned because he had class projects that he thought needed to be finished and required the use of the on-campus machine shop.

'I didnt see any other way to complete them,' he said.

Best said Monday that all the shops and equipment he needed have since been shut down, and he's returned home.

City officials and the top local public health official have said they've been fielding complaints from concerned residents and Liberty parents about the school's response.

On Twitter, reaction was also hostile towards the college and its president.

'LibertyU is just utterly ridiculous & unconscionable, & Jerry Falwell Jr. proves repeatedly he's an apostolic hypocrite, charlatan & dangerous religious zealot who'se totally unworthy of any credence. What about CV19 PANDEMIC can't be fully appreciated & understood BY A COLLEGE!?' wrote one user.

'Hey Liberty U, it's called community spread. You see those sick students pas COVID19 to others and they can take it off campus. Exponentially. Ask your biology and math departments. You do have those?' asked another incredulous at the decision.

As of Monday afternoon, there were 151,491 confirmed cases of the coronavirus nationwide, including 1,020 in Virginia

'Let's ask Liberty University students if this is a good idea,' suggested another.

The city currently has four confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to the latest information available from the state Department of Health.

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.

According to the latest numbers from the Virginia Department of Health, there were 1,020 confirmed cases of the virus and 25 deaths on Monday.
As the COVID-19 pandemic grows within the United States, many Texas colleges and schools are using their ingenuity to help the community. Through donations, research and even new inventions, heres how theyre helping:

Rice University faculty and students teamed up with Canadian health design firm Metric Technologies and developed an automatic bag valve mask, which can help patients in treatment for COVID-19, according to a university release.

The ApolloBVM mask ventilator, which enables patients to breathe with the assistance of an automated device rather than a manual one, can be built for less than $300, and the collaboration expects to share the plans for the ventilator for free so that people can build them on their own. The prototype, built of 3D-printed and laser-cut parts, was completed in less than a week.

Learn more about the bag valve mask on the Rice website.

Texas A&M University professors and graduate students from the engineering school are researching methods to create personal protection masks using low-technology items, such as air-conditioning filters, curtains, staples and stretchable cords, according to the university.

John Criscione, a professor in A&Ms department of biomedical engineering, said his team will be testing the DIY masks, which will have features similar to the N95 respirator, in the coming days.

If the gap between supply and demand continues to worsen, and particularly our emergency medical colleagues are forced to use DIY masks, we want them to have technical guidance as they make their choices of materials and construction, Criscione said in a written statement. We see this as our selfless service responsibility to the general public, as Aggies, and we are here to help.

Another group at A&Ms engineering school is working to produce masks using 3D printers.

San Jacinto College donated latex and nitrile gloves, surgical and N95 masks, safety glasses, disposable wipes, gowns, hand sanitizer and alcohol prep pads to Harris County Public Health on March 28, according to a college release.

Last week, the college loaned three respirators from its respiratory therapy program to Methodist Hospital Baytown to assist with the hospitals shortage.

Prairie View A&M University librarians at the Northwest Houston Center campus are sewing 100 surgical masks for Beaumonts Spindletop Center, which provides psychiatric and rehabilitation services to people with mental health, intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Librarian Elizabeth Brumfield hosted Tech Tuesday this past week, in which she demonstrated to students how to create the masks by hand. The John B. Coleman Library at Prairie Views Northwest main campus, will also offer students seven free pre-sewn fabric kits and a step-by-step guide so they can create their own personal masks.

Lone Star College announced Friday that it has loaned eight ventilators, five nebulizers and 75 personal protective equipment kits from its Kingwood Respiratory Care program to local area hospitals.

Mechanical ventilators  machines that help people breathe when they cant do it on their own, particularly those in hospitals intensive care units  have become one of the most in-demand medical supplies as the number of COVID-19 cases in the United States grows and hospitals prepare for a surge in patients.

West Texas A&M University in Canyon has developed antiviral protection for doors across campus. The method uses copper, which has been proven to kill 99.9 percent of harmful pathogens, including staph and E. coli, within two hours, according to a university release.

Emily Hunt, dean of the engineering school, and a group of engineering graduate students developed stickers using copper-alloy foil adhesive backing, which will be used on high-touch surfaces around campus in addition to the schools infection control practices.

The first batch of stickers arrived this week and can be purchased for $24.50. Proceeds will go to funding campus research. Learn more about the invention from this YouTube video.

Houston Community College workers hope to make about 30,000 face shields a day with industrial 3D printers and laser cutters. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Thursday signed a waiver to allow HCC to manufacture the shields, designating the work as essential critical infrastructure.

HCC also has several industrial sewing machines that could help fabricate surgical gowns, face masks and hair netting if the need arises and once employees can track down raw materials.

The University of Houstons David Brammer, executive director of Animal Care Operations, sent 70 full-body coveralls to the Texas Medical Center, which will offer protection against hazards including body fluid, according to a university release. Brammers department also donated two air-purifying respirators  helmet-like devices that are are used to protect people from contaminated air.

UHs Seamus Curran, a physics professor and founder of a nanotech company based at the university donated 27 body suits, 73 N95 masks and 200 gloves to the Houston Health Foundation.

Moriah Chandler, a clinical assistant professor at UHs College of Optometry, is also using her sewing skills to create masks and personal protection equipment for front-line responders and medical personnel, the university said in a release.

As an optometrist, my job is to help people and right now I cant really do that, so this is one way to help people and feel like Im contributing, said Chandler, who is working from home where her two children, ages 5 and 9, are participating in online classes.

University of Houston-Downtowns College of Sciences and Technology donated 4,500 pairs of latex gloves and 390 disposable lab coats to Houston Methodist Hospital, according to a university release. The colleges donation was in response to the Greater Houston Partnerships call for medical gear and disposable lab wear for medical professionals addressing COVID-19.

K-12 schools

Debakey High School has donated about 50 isolation gowns, 200 masks, and 300 pairs of gloves to Memorial Hermann, according to an HISD spokesperson. The high school also donated gowns, masks and gloves to Houston Methodist Hospital.

An engineering and technology curriculum coordinator and two interns at Harmony Public Schools finished their first prototypes for plastic face shields last week and will create about 2,000 shields using 3D-printing within the next six weeks.

If your college or school is helping out amid COVID-19, please tell us about it. Email brittany.britto@chron.com.

Staff writer Shelby Webb contributed to this report.

brittany.britto@chron.com
More than two dozen businesses impacted by the downturn in sales caused by coronavirus will receive the first city-sponsored relief grants this week.

Nearly $200,000 will be distributed among 31 businesses in Southeast Portlands Jade District and Northwest Portlands Old Town Chinatown. All will receive at least $5,000. The grants were prioritized to Asian-owned businesses in those neighborhoods after business owners reported that revenues had dropped by as much as 60% in recent months due to xenophobia, according to city officials.

All but two of the recipient businesses are owned by people who identify as Asian, said Duncan Hwang, associate director of Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon. The nonprofit helped create the grant program and contributed to the funding.

Hwang said 101 businesses applied between March 18 to 23 for the grants, collectively seeking about $1 million to cover lost revenues. From the applicants, 24 businesses in the Jade District and 7 in Old Town Chinatown were selected. Two dozen of the chosen businesses are in the food and restaurant industry, Hwang said.

Hwang said officials considered many factors when they were evaluating applications, including how business owners planned to use the money, how many years theyve been open and how many employees have been impacted by the downturn.

This is meant to be an extra tool to help businesses make it until theres a federal stimulus or something else coming from a state level that can support businesses that are in trouble, Hwang recently told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Since the Jade District-Oldtown COVID-19 small business response fund, the city has announced other grants and loan programs to help locally owned businesses.

The city began taking applications Monday for a small business grant program through its economic development agency Prosper Portland that it aims to help around 150 businesses with $1 million in aid. Applications will close at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday.

[For more information regarding the Portland Small Business Relief Fund click here]

Here are the businesses chosen to receive the District-Oldtown COVID-19 grants:

Businesses receiving $10,000 grants

Golden Horse | Mandarin House | Ocean City | Wongs King

Businesses receiving $7,500 grants

Chens Good Taste Restaurant | Portland Chinese Times | Pure Spice Chinese Restaurant | Sushi Ichiban | Van Hanh | Yan Zi Lou

Businesses receiving $5,000 grants

Beijing Hotpot | Best Taste Togo | Buddys Lounge | Buranko Cafe & Bar | Butterfly | Chinese Art Collection | Hi Yin Hair | Li Min Bakery | Master Kong | Mixteca | Mojo Crepes | New Kings Bakery | Pot & Spicy | Red Robe Tea House & Cafe | Safe Travel Agency | So Good Taste | Studio Buda | Thai Fresh | Theos | VG Center | Wing Seafood

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 |@EvertonBailey

Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.
TDT | Manama

Bahrain has strongly condemned the firing of ballistic missiles by the Iran-backed Houthi militias against Riyadh and Jazan in Saudi Arabia.

In a statement yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs commended the vigilance of the Royal Saudi Air Force in intercepting and destroying the missiles and denounced the terrorist act that reflects the insistence of Houthi militias to undermine the security of Saudi Arabia and the region.

The ministry stressed Bahrains solidarity with Saudi Arabia, affirming its support to all measures taken to preserve the safety and security of all citizens and residents within its territory.

The Royal Saudi Air Defense intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched by the Houthi militia on Saturday. No casualties, up until the issuance of the information by the Saudi Press Agency, were recorded.

The interception of the missiles resulted in debris scattering on some residential areas in Riyadh and Jazan. This attack does not target the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, its nationals and expatriates only, but targets international unity and solidarity, especially under such difficult and bitter conditions in which the world unites in combatting the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, stated the SPA.
Penn Medicine's Pavilion, which is currently under construction, will house 500 private patient rooms and 47 operating rooms in a 1.5 million square foot, 17-story facility across from the Hospital of University of Pennsylvania and adjacent to the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine. Read more

The Philadelphia regions office market may recover more smoothly from the coronavirus than other metros, thanks to the major role played by its health-care industries, according to a report by national real estate services firm Newmark Knight Frank.

While office leasing is likely to take an immediate hit from the plummeting economic activity that has accompanied efforts to contain the pandemic, the regions health-care concentration is a prescription for office-market resiliency, Lisa DeNight, research manager at the NKFs Philadelphia office, wrote in the report published late last week.

Our office market may be more resilient than others around the country," she wrote. The recession-resistant health-care industry is the backbone of the Greater Philadelphia market, while the retail and hospitality industries, "the hardest hit by the crisis, have a smaller-scale local impact on office leasing.

NKFs findings are consistent with those of a separate report released last week by another commercial real estate firm, Colliers International, which also forecast increased activity in health-care and the life sciences in the wake of the virus.

Investment in the life sciences will likely be buoyed, even accelerated, by the impact of this pandemic, Joseph Fetterman, the Philadelphia-based head of Colliers life-sciences practice, wrote in that report. Funding and investment will be directed at emerging drug development companies to accelerate the pace of delivering cures.

The Colliers study broadly addresses the expected growth of the nations life-science industries, without specifically discussing the impact for Philadelphia. But NKFs report identifies metro Philadelphia as a chief beneficiary of that growth, due to the health sectors existing dominance in the region.

Health care accounts for more than 18% of the regions jobs, a greater percentage than in any other major metropolitan area in the country, according to the NKF study. Employment in that sector has grown every year by the thousands during recessions and boom times alike since at least 1990, NKFs DeNight wrote.

Health-care tenants in Philadelphia and its suburbs leased 800,000 square feet of office space last year, the second highest amount after law firms, which got an atypical boost from Morgan Lewiss short-term lease renewal ahead of its move into its planned new Market Street tower in 2023, according to NKF.

The largest current construction project in Philadelphia and its four surrounding Southeastern Pennsylvania counties, meanwhile, is University of Pennsylvania Health Systems 1.25 million-square-foot patient tower, scheduled to open next year along the Schuylkill close to South Street, DeNight noted. Work on the project has been permitted to continue under a waiver granted by the state, sparing it from the ban on non-essential business.

Still, NKF and Colliers both see a life-sciences slowdown in the pandemics immediate aftermath, as companies downsize or delay planned expansions to keep themselves solvent.

The uncertainties of the future [have] caused rapid-growth drug companies to pump the brakes, at least temporarily, on proposed expansions," Colliers Fetterman wrote.

It is unlikely that this will alter the overall demand for ... lab and manufacturing space in the long run, Fetterman continued. But "it will create short-term apprehension among users, owners, lenders and developers.
President Donald Trumps daily press briefing on the coronavirus pandemic has been compared to many things: state propaganda, daily talk show, three-ring circus. It is somehow all of these things, but it is also something else: an infomercial. For the past two weeks, the president has been hawking a miracle cure: the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine. He has hailed it as very encouraging, a phenomenal drug, and the biggest game changer in the history of medicine. Trump has also portrayed it as a Hail Mary: What do we have to lose? I feel very good about it.

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It is no longer news that the scientist placed behind Trump during the briefings, Dr. Anthony Fauci, feels less good about the drug. Nor is it news that other American researchers worry we have much to lose if testing protocols are ignored. Lives, for example, can be lost. An Arizona resident died on March 23 after self-medicating himself with chloroquine phosphatea related compound chemical typically used to clean aquariumswhile doctors who prescribe hydroxychloroquine for patients with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis are finding that the drug is being hoarded.

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Trump may not be aware that the hydroxychloroquine hype is French in origin. The researcher responsible for the molecule miracle is Didier Raoult. The founder and director of Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire, or IHU, in Marseille, the 68-year-old Raoult has compiled a sometimes dazzling, sometimes disturbing career that could have been scripted by Marcel Pagnol or Honore de Balzac. Born in Senegal, Raoult defied his father, who was serving there as a military doctor, and quit high school in his junior year. Signing up with the French merchant marine, the young Raoult spent the next two years at sea.

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Returning to France, he graduated from medical school and nimbly made his way in both the political and professional worlds. Not only did he become an internationally recognized researcher, but he was also a nationally recognized power player. Cultivating politicians as carefully as he did petri dishes, Raoult overcame the opposition of older research institutions and, with the support of then-President Nicolas Sarkozy, created the IHU 10 years ago. Despite the doubts, Raoults work on infectious disease earned him a place on the French governments COVID-19 commission.

Not surprisingly, Raoults rapid rise raised as many eyebrows as huzzahs. While his fans applaud the 3,000 scientific articles Raoult has co-signed, his critics argue that these staggering numbers do not add up. Do the math, they remark, and it turns out the Marseillais researcher publishes more papers in a month than most productive researchers publish in a career. Raoults method, according to one critic, is to task a young researcher at IHU with an experiment, then co-sign the piece before it is submitted to publication. Raoult is thus able to reach this absolutely insane number of publications every year, according to one anonymous source quoted by the site Mediapart. More disturbingly, the critic added, it is simply impossible for Raoult to verify all of these papers.

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Indeed, the question of verification hovers over Raoults clinical trial on the effects of hydroxychloroquine on the novel coronavirus. Combining a regimen of Plaquenilthe commercial name of hydroxychloroquineand an antibiotic, Raoult treated 24 patients at IHU in early March who had tested positive for COVID-19. After six days, the virus had vacated the bodies of three-quarters of those same patients. On March 16, Raoult announced the results not in a scientific journal but in a YouTube video, in which he declared the jig was up for the virus. Predictably, his self-proclaimed victory then ignited the hysteria that has since swept the world and reached as far as the Oval Office.

In France, pharmacies have been overwhelmed by demands for Plaquenil, leading one pharmacist quoted by Le Monde to exclaim: Perhaps Raoult is right, but instead of taking the time to carry out a serious study, he has given us two months of theatrics.

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Critics argue that not only were there too few subjects in the chloroquine study, but that some of them dropped out during the trial, potentially skewing the results. In addition, Raoult has not released the raw data from the trial, which, remarkably, was not double-blinded. According to Dominique Costagliola, chief epidemiologist at the Pasteur Institute, the trial was so slapdash that it is impossible to interpret the described result as being attributable to the hydroxychloroquine treatment.

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If this sounds depressingly familiar, it should. There are several disquieting parallels between the stable genius who claims to understand that whole scientific world and the reputed genius who claims to have defeated COVID-19. Like Trump, Raoult has made himself a brand: the outsider who defies a sclerotic and corrupt establishment. Like Trump, Raoult is not just a climate skepticin 2013, he declared that climate predictions are absurdbut a pandemic skeptic. Three people in China die from a virus, and that sparks a global alert, he observed in an IHU video. This is crazy. The video was posted on Jan. 21, just one day before Trump reassured Americans that he had the virus totally under control.

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Raoult has cast his critics as creatures of a kind of etat profond, one peopled by pedantic Parisian doctors incapable of doing real research. In effect, he has told the world that he alone can fix it. On Sunday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization to add the drug to the Strategic National Stockpile, permitting doctors to use it in cases they deem critical. Yet the clinical trials must still run their proper course. For now, Raoult has given unproven hope to millions, uncharted dangers for those afflicted with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, and unavoidable despair for those who listen to the U.S. presidents daily press briefings.

For more on the impact of the coronavirus, listen to Mondays episode of What Next.
Video footage posted by a journalist at the scene Monday morning showed members of the SDF creeping around the outside of the prison wall, suggesting that they still had not brought the facility under control. The prisoners seized control of a section of the prison after they disabled surveillance cameras, broke down metal doors and then used them to smash down walls between the prison cells. The mutiny is still ongoing, the journalist said.
The European Union deplores that the fighting has increased in Libya despite the international calls for a humanitarian truce to help contain the Coronavirus pandemic in the country, the High Representative Joseph Borrell said.

The challenging circumstances created by the Coronavirus pandemic make the need to halt the fighting in Tripoli and across the country even more urgent. We strongly condemn any attack against civilian population, Borrell said in a statement released Friday on behalf of the EU member countries.

We urge all the relevant Libyan actors to immediately stop the fighting and engage in reaching a political solution to the crisis. The leadership of the two parties should commit to the draft ceasefire agreement developed by the Joint Military Committee (5+5) in the UNSMIL-facilitated Geneva talks, so that all available assets can be deployed in priority to contain the Coronavirus crisis.

The EU also condemned the use of civilian infrastructure for military purposes and called on all parties to respect human rights and international law.

A truce would facilitate taking all the necessary steps to protect the Libyan population and the most vulnerable in the country, including the Libyan IDPs as well as migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the detention centers, for whom the possible spread of the virus could have further catastrophic consequences, Borrell said, expressing the EUs strong support and encouragement of efforts of Libyan health authorities to come together to assist the Libyan population.

We call once again on all UN Member States to respect and uphold the UN arms embargo, to discontinue the influx of foreign fighters into Libya and to refrain from destabilizing actions that could further deteriorate the already fragile situation in the country, he added, urging all the Libyan parties to engage constructively in the UN-facilitated intra-Libyan talks in order to agree on the implementation of urgent economic and financial measures.

The EU also stressed the crucial need to safeguard Libyas oil resources and protect its infrastructure in full compliance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

The European Union and its Member States reiterated their full commitment to support the Berlin Process and the UN-led mediation efforts, underlining the important role of neighboring countries and regional organizations in the follow-up of the Berlin Process. They also reaffirm their full support to the active role of the UNSMIL and underline the need for a new United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya to be appointed.
New Delhi, March 30 : As we head close to the end of the first week of the three-week nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus outbreak, 45.8% of people believe the threat from the coronavirus is not exaggerated.

While 44.3% people who were approached for the IANS C-VOTER Gallup International Association Corona Tracker, feel the significance attached to the COVID-19 threat is exaggerated.

This shows the perception of the threat, in the backdrop of dramatic increase in the number positive coronavirus cases domestically and internationally, has not yet become unanimous.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had imposed an unprecedented 21-days lockdown on March 25 to curb the spread of coronavirus. The decision was aimed at completely halting the movement of people to stem the transmission of the coronavirus in the community.

According to a survey conducted by IANS C-VOTER Gallup International Association Corona Tracker, a question focusing on the belief of the people on the threat from the coronavirus is exaggerated was put before people last week. People expressed their opinion in five categories -- don't know/ can't say, strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree.

Similar question was put out to people in the middle of March, surprisingly then 59.7% agreed that the threat from the coronavirus is exaggerated, which has been reduced to 44.3%. Therefore, in the index of complacency it registered a change in negative, -15.4.

On the contrary, at that same time, 35.5% disagreed that the threat from the coronavirus is exaggerated. This dramatically increased to 45.8% in the last week, registering a positive increase, 10.3. Therefore, the change in the index of complacency is -25.7.

The perception of the threat from coronavirus is extremely important at this stage when government is actively screening people infected and also strengthening health infrastructure to combat its spread.

Since December there has been 33,997 deaths globally with 29 in India, while positive cases are 7,22,435 worldwide.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Minister of Economy of Armenia Tigran Khachatryan today had a meeting with representatives of processing companies, as reported the Ministry of Economy of Armenia.

The minister informed that the first of the governments measures to overcome the economic consequences of the coronavirus is co-financing of loans in a special way and asked economic operators to tell him which issues the measure can help solve and share their proposals and considerations.

Khachatryan also stated that the main goal of the meeting is to obtain specific information about the processing companies biggest problems in this stage and discuss how information should be exchanged so that the information can be taken into consideration in the future.

The representatives of the companies informed the minister about their main problems and shared their proposals. The minister and representatives discussed the need for additional preventive measures in order to organize the work of factories safety and develop specific procedures, taking into consideration the risk of getting infected and the necessary actions deriving from that.
Douglas County Attorney Don Kleines office has advised the County Health Department and elected officials as they have sought to impose orders to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Now, one of Kleines deputies has been diagnosed with COVID-19, and officials are trying to ensure Nebraskas largest county courthouse doesnt become a coronavirus cluster.

In the wake of Mondays news, the Douglas County Health Department has closed the County Attorneys Office for the rest of the week so that a deep cleaning can take place, Kleine said.

The longtime prosecutor who tested positive had been in contact with about 25 employees in the attorneys office, about a dozen in the Public Defenders Office and several more in other parts of the courthouse. Kleine said he has advised all of his employees who had contact with the prosecutor to quarantine for as long as the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requires.

The prosecutor had traveled to Kansas in early March for training unrelated to work. He returned the week of March 16, didnt feel well and went home for a couple of days.
Islamic State militants rioted inside in a prison in northeastern Syria, wrestling control from guards on an entire floor in the facility while a number of prisoners managed to escape, a Syrian Kurdish official said Sunday.

Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said anti-terrorism forces were working to regain control of the prison in the eastern Hassakeh province, adding that more forces were on their way.

The prison is believed to house foreign IS militants. It is not clear what nationalities were held there.

The US-led coalition said it was assisting the SDF with aerial surveillance as they quell the riot. The coalition said in a tweet that the facility holds low level IS members.

The coalition said its forces don't staff any detention facilities in Syria. Bali said the number of those who escaped remains unclear. He said so far there is no connection between the riot and fears of the fast-spreading, new coronavirus.

There are concerns over an outbreak of the virus inside overcrowded prison facilities in Syria and elsewhere in the region. But so far there are no reports of infection in Kurdish-administered northeastern Syria or in any detention facilities.

"Riots often break out in prisons. But this time the scale of the riot is large," Bali said in a text message to the Associated Press.

He said rioters were in full control of the ground floor of the prison and have smashed and removed the prison's internal doors. The anti-terror squat is working to restore calm, he said.

North Press Agency, a media platform operating in the Kurdish-administered areas, said at least four IS militants escaped, quoting a security official inside the prison know as Geweran.

One unnamed and masked member of the anti-terrorism force told reporters in Hassakeh late Sunday that the prisoners smashed walls between their cells while some managed to smash a wall leading to the outside, enabling them to escape.

He said the numbers are still unclear.

Kurdish authorities run more than two dozen detention facilities, scattered around northeastern Syria, holding about 10,000 IS fighters. Among the detainees are some 2,000 foreigners, including about 800 Europeans. The Kurdish-led forces, backed by the US-led coalition, declared a military victory against IS last year after seizing control of the last sliver of land the militants controlled in southeast Syria.

Since, the Kurdish authorities have asked countries to repatriate their nationals, saying keeping thousands of detainees in crammed facilities is putting a strain on their forces.

Families of IS militants and supporters who came out of the last territory controlled by the group are also holed in camps around the Kurdish-controlled areas the largest one housing nearly 70,000 women and children, many of them foreigners.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NDCs National Communications Director, Sammy Gyamfi has expressed disappointment in the government for not restricting citizens from fleeing to other regions exempted from the lock-down.



He said although President Akufo-Addo issued the directive early enough for people to adequately prepare themselves, traveling to other regions should also have been banned.



After issuing the directive on Friday to enable citizens to prepare, you shouldnt have allowed others to travel. Crowds were packed at various bus stations. They left Accra, Kumasi to Takoradi, Eastern region and Central, Northern. Now they are going to spread it, he established



In an interview with NeatFM, Sammy Gyamfi said the lock-down is ideal but might not be successful. It is a good idea. We were all waiting for that to happen but from the look of things enforcement will be a problem, he stated.



He advised that people who troop in from Accra, Kumasi to other exempted regions should engage in self-quarantine.



However, the government has called for strict observation of social distance from people who have fled regions affected by the lock-down.



Residents have also been asked to report persons with suspected symptoms to the appropriate quarters for immediate attention.













Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Delhi government has converted its eleven schools into night shelters in a bid to help migrant workers stay in the city during the lockdown period, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Monday.

The move comes in the wake of mass movement of migrant workers in big cities, including Delhi, to their home states after they were rendered jobless due to the lockdown that was imposed countrywide for checking the spread of coronavirus.

In addition to the existing 238 night shelters in the city, the Delhi government converted 11 schools into night shelters to help migrant workers.

"We have started night shelter facilities at two of our Delhi government schools near Ghazipur and Anand Vihar. We have made arrangements for food and accommodation for all those in need," he said on Twitter.

Sisodia appealed to the poor and migrant workers to utilise food and accommodation facilities provided by the Delhi government.

The classrooms of Government Boys Senior Secondary School, Ghazipur and Sarvodaya Co-ed Senior Secondary School, IP Extension have now been converted into sleeping rooms, said a Delhi government statement.

Rugs and blankets have been laid out on the floors of each room and provisions for food are also available, it said.

In the wake of the lockdown in the country, a large number of migrant workers had started leaving Delhi to head towards their homes in UP and Bihar, the statement said.

In an effort to accommodate more people and provide them with food, the Delhi government has converted 11 schools into night shelters, it said.

Classrooms and halls of these schools have been converted into sleeping rooms and the rooms have been properly disinfected and cleaned. The heads of schools are taking rounds and security guards have also been deployed, it said.

Provisions for meals, two times a day, have been made in each of these schools.

Social distancing is being taken seriously and one hall has not more than five occupants, the statement stated.

The government is also providing free food to four lakh needy people everyday at nearly 800 schools and night shelters, it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As the COVID-19 crisis develops both in Missouri and across the nation, Gov. Mike Parson and his administration held a press conference Saturday, outlining the steps theyve taken to respond and adapt accordingly to events precipitated by the pandemic.

A tremendous amount of work has been accomplished in just a short period of time, and it does not stop here, Parson said in a press release. I want Missourians to know that we are doing and will continue to do everything in our power to respond to this crisis and support them in every way possible.

The Governors Office was initially briefed on the COVID-19 pandemic by Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) Director Dr. Randall Williams on Jan. 28 and began taking steps to prepare, Parsons office said.

In addition to regular briefings with DHSS and the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) throughout February, Parson began weekly conference calls in March with Vice President Mike Pence and other governors as well as Missouri mayors, county commissioners, and local emergency management personnel.

In the last 30 days, according to the release, Gov. Parson and his administration have taken the following actions to respond to COVID-19 in Missouri:

March 2  Governor Parson participated on first weekly conference call with Vice President Pence and governors from other states

March 2  Dr. Williams briefed House committee on COVID-19

March 3  Dr. Williams briefed Missouri Cabinet members, external stakeholders, and SEMA officials

March 6  Announcement of $9.9 million in federal emergency funding to support COVID-19 response efforts in Missouri

March 7  First case in Missouri to test presumptive positive for COVID-19; Governor Parson held a press conference in St. Louis County with County Executive Sam Page and medical professionals

March 8  The Missouri Veterans Commission announced restricted access to all visitors, vendors, and volunteers at its seven veterans homes until further notice

March 11  DHSS set up a 24/7 hotline to take questions regarding COVID-19

March 12  The Missouri Department of Corrections announced suspension of visitors at state correctional facilities for the next 30 days

March 13  Governor Parson signed Executive Order 20-02 declaring a state of emergency in Missouri .Governor Parson held a press conference announcing the Executive Order

March 15  Governor Parson released a statement regarding CDC guidelines on mass gatherings larger than 50 people

March 16  Governor Parson held first daily press briefing to give updates regarding COVID-19 in Missouri

March 17  Governor Parson announced that Missouri casinos will be closed through March 30 in order to help prevent the spread of COVID-19

March 18  Governor Parson signed Executive Order 20-03 ordering all municipal elections previously scheduled for April 7 to be postponed until June 2

March 18  Governor Parson directed the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency and the Missouri Department of Economic Development to seek assistance for Missouri businesses through the U.S. Small Business Administrations (SBA) Economic Injury Disaster Loan program

March 18  First Missouri COVID-19 death reported in Boone County

March 18  Governor Parson signed Executive Order 20-04 invoking emergency powers to authorize executive agencies to waive or suspend certain regulations and statutes that interfere with Missouri's response to the spread of COVID-19

March 19  All 555 of Missouris public school districts and charter schools reported closure

March 21  SBA approved Missouris request for assistance through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program

March 21  Governor Parson directed DHSS Director Dr. Williams to require social distancing statewide

March 23  Governor Parson signed Executive Order 20-05 allowing sale of unprepared foods by restaurants

March 25  Governor Parson requested federal major disaster declaration for Missouri in response to COVID-19

March 26  President Trump approved Governor Parsons request for major disaster declaration to support Missouris COVID-19 response

March 27  Governor Parson signed Executive Order 20-06 to begin mobilizing the Missouri National Guard to assist with COVID-19 response; Directed DHSS Director to Prohibit Operation of Coin-Operated Amusement Devices or Machines and Slot Machines; State Parks closed campgrounds and lodging through April 30 (remain open for day-use)

Since Governor Parsons signing of Executive Order 20-04 to ease regulatory burdens that interfere with the states COVID-19 response efforts, nearly 170 statutes and regulations have been waived or relaxed.

The state has also been rapidly working to procure Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for hospitals, law enforcement, first responders, and other emergency service personnel. Below is a summary of PPE in Missouri as of today.

The Strategic National Stockpile is for hospitals, EMS, and long-term care facilities. The Missouri Strategic National Stockpile warehouse has shipped:

42,624 face shields

5,000 gloves

2,717 cases of N-95, surgical, and sp blue masks (120-300 in a case depending on type)

908 cases of surgical gowns (18-30 in a case depending on size)

PPE for first responders (including law enforcement and fire service agencies) has been purchased. SEMA has ordered:

6,606,550 surgical masks

5,814,800 gloves

4,325,480 N-95 masks

900,112 face shields

508,000 biohazard bags

441,560 bottles of hand sanitizer

214,038 containers of disinfecting wipes

105,300 medical shoe covers

74,396 safety goggles

5,000 surgical gowns

We know this is a challenging, uncertain time for our state and nation, but I want to assure you there is hope, Governor Parson said. Im so proud of how Missourians have pulled together to help one another in the face of this challenge.

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Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) on Monday announced a package, including monetary support, for its dealers amid nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The package will provide necessary assistance to the dealer partners to overcome the lockdown phase, ensuring their safety and wellbeing during these uncertainties, TKM said in a statement.

The primary objective of the package is to ensure liquidity to sustain the business during the lockdown thus protecting dealer partners for around 38 to 75 days based on individual dealer overheads by giving cash flow support that will help them sail through these perilous times, it added.

The company's COVID package ranges from immediate settlement of any dealer claims to inventory interest subsidy for vehicles in dealer stock and spare parts payment deferment among a host of other supports, TKM said.

Besides, TKM is working with its finance partners for a one-time reduction of inventory funding interest at this unprecedented situation, it added.

At Toyota, we believe that our stakeholders, dealer partners and their employees are the most important assets and their safety and wellbeing is of utmost importance to us," TKM Senior Vice President Naveen Soni said.

This pandemic has financially impacted company's dealerships across the country because cash inflow has become zero, he added.

" While the government has announced several relief measures including moratoriums, we have also studied the fixed cost expenses of dealerships and have come up with a relief package called the COVID package to assist in maintaining liquidity to improve cash flow," Soni said.

TKM, which sells popular models like Innova and Fortuner, currently has 374 dealerships across the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw has criticized former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after she took several swipes at the president on Twitter over his dealing of the coronavirus outbreak.

Speaking on Fox & Friends Sunday, Crenshaw said that despite missteps that may have been made by the president in dealing with the pandemic, now was 'not the time' to take him to task.

'One of the things I talk a lot about is outrage culture and this newfound issue where we find the worst of each other, and we question each other's intentions, and that happens all the time in politics... but now is not the time to do that,' Crenshaw said to Fox News.

Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw has criticized former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after she took several swipes at the president on Twitter over his performance

Mrs Clinton mocked the president by firing back one of his key catchphrases after it was revealed the U.S. now has the most coronavirus infections in the world

In return, Crenshaw told Clinton to 'delete your account' - using a memorable tweet that Mrs Clinton used herself against Trump during the 2016 election campaign

'There is a pandemic going on and somebody like Hillary Clinton is so used to taking political jabs at the president or her political opponents any time there's an outcome that is unfortunate, but this isn't the time. This is a tragedy for all Americans and the entire world.'

Clinton took the opportunity to bash the president as it was confirmed the U.S. leads the world in the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus.

'He did promise 'America First,'' Clinton wrote, mocking one of the president's campaign slogans.

Mrs Clinton has continued to highlight perceived missteps Trump has made during his handling of the coronavirus pandemic

Crenshaw was quick to respond: 'Delete your account,' he tweeted using the exact same worlds to a memorable tweet that Mrs Clinton used herself against Trump during the 2016 election campaign

'This isn't the time. This can't be the new normal, where American tragedy is applauded for the sake of political opportunism,' he continued.

Speaking on Fox, Crenshaw appealed for unity among politicians.

'It's going to be easy to take swipes at each other and easy to have very disingenuous criticisms of each other and moralize against each other - but we can't do that. We have to do this together.'

The former Secretary of State continues to take Donald Trump to task over his performance

'Just this once, let's embrace some of the good things happening. Let's embrace the fact that our industries have totally ramped up production of PPE [personal protective equipment], factories are totally changing what they do to make ventilators, people are actually coming together and figuring out what needs to get done. Doctors are coming out of retirement,' Crenshaw explained.

'You know, we ramped up testing to an enormous degree in this country, which is why our cases are so high, Hillary Clinton,' he said to the camera as he addressed the secretary directly.

'Now, let's celebrate this stuff. Let's work together, let's stop looking for cheap political jabs to take at each other and actually get through this.'
Home  Just In  (Updated) Two other deaths of suspected Covid-19 patients in Nepal

Kathmandu, March 30

Bir Hospital director Dr Kedar Senchuri says the hospital recorded two deaths of the patients suspected of coronavirus infection on Monday.

The deceased include a 50-year-old man and a 34-year-old woman, according to him.

He says the hospital had collected swab samples from both the patients and sent them to the National Public Health Laboratory for tests for coronavirus, but they died before the test reports came out.

(Updated at 3:55 pm)



Another death of suspected Covid-19 patient in Nepal

Kathmandu, March 30

A woman, who was admitted to the Bir Hospital in Kathmandu after being suspected of coronavirus infection, has died on Monday afternoon.
The Director of Health Promotion at the Ghana Health Service, Dr Da Costa Aboagye has advised Television and Radio stations to stop advertising COVID-19 EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS AND VIDEOS that have NOT approved by the Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service.

Speaking to reporters after a press conference organised by the Ministry of Information, Dr Aboagye said unapproved materials and videos are sources of misinformation to the public and pose a serious threat to the fight against Covid-19.

According to Dr Aboagye, only COVID -19 public education materials and videos approved by the Ghana Health Service, should be circulated and used on social media platforms, television and radio stations for public consumption. This is to help avoid misinformation, panic and fear among Ghanaians. We are working with the Bureau of National Communications, the National Communication Authority, Ministry of Communication, Food and Drugs Authority and Security Agencies to enforce this.

Training has been offered to most media houses on Risk communication and using approved materials has been stressed repeatedly. Information management and public education are crucial to the fight against COVID  19.

The Ghana Health Service has come up with a lot of educational materials and messages to inform the general public.

All these educational materials have been made available to the ministry of information. Please contact the Ghana Health Service, Health Promotion Division or the Ministry of Information for these educational materials and videos to broadcast on your various outlets.

We are insensitive times and therefore encourage the television and radio stations to follow our advocacy of partnership as we defeat the coronavirus together, he stressed.
Chandigarh, March 30 : Stuck in India amid the nationawide lockdown due to the coronavirus scare, 20 Malaysian tourists on Monday boarded a special flight back home from the Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport in Amritsar in Punjab.

The Amritsar administration arranged the special flight with assistance from the Malaysian government and help of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.

One Chinese tourist is still stuck in Amritsar, some 250 km from state capital Chandigarh.

The 20 tourists, largely Sikhs settled aboard, were left stranded in Amritsar for many days due to to closure of airports across the country as a preventive step to contain coronavirus.

After screening, all the stranded tourists were housed in a hotel and the SGPC-run inn.

"We arrived in India on a month-long tourist visa on March 7. Now we are happy to go back home. We are thankful to the local administration for providing us the accommodation," Malaysian resident Gurbachan Singh told the media before departing.

Chinese tourist Zhong Shaoming is now the only international tourist stranded in the holy city of Amritsar.

After reaching India on January 5, he went on a countrywide tour. He reached Amritsar on March 23 and got stuck due to imposition of curfew.

Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Shiv Dular Singh Dhillon said efforts are on to send Zhong back home.
In Season 3 of Ozark, an unexpected relationship formed that made some viewers uncomfortable. Others believe they understand whats happening, and think both parties are potentially playing the long game.

Cast of Ozark | Emma McIntyre

[SPOILER ALERT: This article contains information revealed in Ozarks Season 3 Episode 5.]

Wyatt and Darlene get into a sexual relationship in Ozark Season 3

In Ozark Season 3, Wyatt (Charlie Tahan) refuses to talk to his cousin, Ruth (Julia Garner), after he finds out that she killed his dad and uncle. He begins breaking and entering to support himself before a homeowner caught him and called the cops.

The smart local refused to take Ruths money, so he stayed in jail. Darlene (Lisa Emery) overheard Ruth yelling to her cousin at the station, and decided to bail him out herself.

The widow, who raised Zeke as her own and sold goods at a local market, asked for Wyatt to help her with the farm as payback. He agreed, and the two eventually began a sexual relationship.

Ozark  S03E05

Darlene and Wyatt scene , most gross thing I have ever seen #OzarkS3 pic.twitter.com/ogX9T2fV3U   (@ouuusssaaamaa) March 29, 2020

Wyatt stood by Darlene and testified at a hearing against the Byrdes so that Zeke could remain in their custody. He then invited his younger brother to stay with them and also help out with the farm. Additionally, Wyatt later revealed he fell in love with her.

By the end of the series, Darlene, who replanted her poppy fields, recruited Ruth, who quit Byrde Enterprises, and the Kansas City Mob, who Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) cut ties with, alongside Wyatt and his brother to distribute her heroin.

Many fans find Wyatt and Darlenes relationship disgusting and uncomfortable

After watching the episode where Wyatt and Darlene had sex, many fans took to social media to share their reaction to the unexpected relationship. One Reddit user called it f*****g disgusting and admitted they felt wildly uncomfortable watching the intimate scene.

Others didnt understand why the writers made their relationship sexual, and feel like its set up to emphasize how the Snells and Langmores are the weird a*s inbred hillbilly type as well as the locals vs. outsiders storyline theyve set up for the next season.

Some believe Wyatt and Darlene should have had a mother/son relationship as opposed to lovers because he has mommy issues, and the widow always wanted children.

Another viewer agreed and shared they thought when she bailed him out, she would turn him into the new Ash. They believe that storyline would have been less creepy and more interesting because viewers would learn more about Ash without having to flashback.

Additionally, many fans dont understand why Wyatt cut Ruth off yet fell in love with Darlene, who admitted she killed her husband.

Other fans understand why Wyatt and Darlene became involved

Other users understand why the unexpected relationship formed and believe they are both playing the long game. One viewer noted that Wyatt is a young Marty as hes the most book smart of the locals and has the same street smarts as Ruth.

The user continued, Right now, hes looking to be cared for and is upset over his dad being killed by a family member. Therefore, they believe Wyatt could wind up in charge of it all when everything is said and done.

Another user noted that no one should be surprised by Darlene seducing the young local because shes done it before. As the fan recalled, Jacob shared how he and Darlene met and explained, another chick was flirting with him at the time.

This Wyatt and Darlene Snell love scene #Ozark pic.twitter.com/CTFqFiH8GZ  Tim to the muthaf (@LosFreaklander) March 29, 2020

But Darlene scooted her out of the way and bulldozed Jacob. The user feels that the now widow was charming back in the day and still carries that attitude. Therefore, it was easy to seduce an angry, confused, frustrated, and lost Wyatt, who was looking for stability and comfort, which he found in Darlene.

One fan believes everyone will understand the general grooming and manipulation by Darlene by the end of the series as the woman we thought was just bats**t insane turns out to have a master plan in play.

Regardless, with the way Darlene singlehandedly assembled a new crew by the end of the series, the Byrdes are in for a rude awakening once they return from Mexico.
Matt Erickson

LocumTenens.com, a leading physician and advanced practitioner staffing agency, today announced that Matt Erickson, partner and vice president of radiology and oncology, was appointed as president of The National Association of Locum Tenens Organizations (NALTO) board of directors for a two-year term. NALTO is the only professional association of temporary physician staffing firms committed to a code of ethics and maintaining the highest industry standards. Its company members and the physicians they represent are held to strict guidelines for professional conduct, according to the associations website.

Being appointed president of NALTOs board of directors is an honor, said Erickson, who previously served as vice president of the board of directors, co-chaired the meeting and conference committee, and was a member of the ethics committee. LocumTenens.com is a long-standing member of NALTO, so I understand the significance of NALTO membership and sincerely appreciate the opportunity to help further its mission. My focus as president will be on driving member engagement through education as it relates to the ever-changing healthcare legislative landscape. I believe education is important because it better prepares members to deal with more sophisticated healthcare organizations and clinicians in our industry.

Erickson began his career in healthcare staffing in 2005, and he has been at LocumTenens.com for the past ten years. In addition to serving as vice president of the radiology and oncology departments, he has held roles at the company that include managing director of the primary care, anesthesia and radiology departments, and divisional vice president of anesthesia, radiology and oncology.

Matt quickly established himself as a leader after he joined our company in 2009, added Chris Franklin, president of LocumTenens.com. The teams hes led here at LocumTenens.com have truly benefited from his positive guidance and industry expertise, and Im confident NALTOs board of directors will benefit from his leadership just as much as we have.

Ericksons presidency became official at NALTOs 2020 Annual Convention in Tampa, Florida, on March 12th. John S. Daniel of Alliance Recruiting Resources preceded Erickson as president. Im looking forward to seeing the impact Matt has on engagement through educational endeavors during his tenure as president, said Daniel.

About LocumTenens.com

LocumTenens.com specializes in the temporary placement of physicians, CRNAs, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and psychologists at healthcare facilities across the U.S. As the industrys most-visited job board, LocumTenens.com helps healthcare organizations connect with the professionals they need to ensure patients have access to quality care. Founded in 1995, LocumTenens.com is a clear leader in the healthcare staffing industry, helping place clinicians who deliver care to more than seven million patients in over 2,400 healthcare facilities in the U.S. LocumTenens.com is a Jackson Healthcare company.

Learn more at http://www.locumtenens.com/about.

For LocumTenens.com media inquiries, please contact Meaghan Johnston at mjohnston@locumtenens.com.

About NALTO (http://www.NALTO.org): The National Association of Locum Tenens Organizations (NALTO) is the only professional association of temporary physician staffing firms committed to a code of ethics and to maintaining the highest industry standards.
Additional medical supplies to be donated to Azerbaijan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam

Total recipient countries in Asia increased to 23



The Jack Ma Foundation and the Alibaba Foundation announced donations of essential medical supplies to seven more countries, namely Azerbaijan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200328005024/en/

An India bound flight loaded with the first batch of medical supplies donated by the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation departed Shanghai, China yesterday. The donations arrived at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport last night and were received by the Indian Red Cross Society which would help distribute the supplies across the country. The supplies are part of the donation pledged to seven more countries announced today by the two foundations, namely Azerbaijan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. (Photo: Business Wire)

Collectively, these seven countries will receive a total of 1.7 million face masks, 165,000 test kits as well as protective clothing and medical equipment such as ventilators and forehead thermometers. With this announcement, the two Foundations have now donated essential medical supplies to 23 Asian countries totalling 7.4 million masks; 485,000 test kits; 100,000 sets of protective clothing along with other medical equipment.

The first batch of medical supplies for India arrived in Delhi last night and were received by the Indian Red Cross Society. Similar to the arrangement with the Italian Red Cross Society, the Indian charity will facilitate the distribution of these supplies in the country. The donations are expected to reach other countries in the coming days.

Mr. Neel Kamal Singh, Deputy Secretary, Indian Red Cross Society took receipt of the donations from Mr. Vivek Sehgal, Manager, Alibaba Cloud India, acting on behalf of the Jack Ma Foundation and the Alibaba Foundation. Ms. Ma Jia, Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of China in India, was also present to show the embassys support towards this humanitarian initiative.

Government of India has taken extensive steps to manage the COVID-19 situation. To supplement the efforts of government, Indian Red Cross has mobilised first tranche of supplies consisting of facemasks, protective body suits and essential medical equipment. This consignment, which was received yesterday, has been donated by Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation. Indian Red Cross appreciates their magnanimity at this difficult juncture, said Mr. R.K Jain, IAS (Rtd), Secretary General, Indian Red Cross.

We are one with the global community in the intense battle to protect all families against Covid-19. We are committed to doing everything we can to make a difference, most importantly by sourcing these supplies and overcoming logistical challenges to get the medical supplies to where they are needed as fast as we can, said the Jack Ma Foundation.

These donations are among a number of aid initiatives from the Alibaba Foundation and Jack Ma Foundation to support the areas of the world affected by the Covid-19 crisis, sourcing and delivering various types of medical supplies to countries across Asia, North America, Latin America, Europe and Africa. The donation by the two foundations to Vietnam is in addition to the recent donation by Lazada Group, Alibaba Groups local e-commerce business unit in Southeast Asia.

More initiatives and donations may be announced in the coming days and weeks.

The Jack Ma Foundation and the Alibaba Foundation also supported the publication of a handbook with key lessons and experience from doctors, healthcare workers, and hospital administrators at the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine (FAHZU), who were on the frontline of COVID-19 treatment in China and crucial to slowing its spread. The handbook is available for global medical health professionals at https://covid-19.alibabacloud.com/.

Follow @JackMa and @foundation_ma on Twitter for the latest efforts of Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation to support the global fight against COVID-19.

About Jack Ma Foundation

Established by Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group, the Jack Ma Foundation was founded on 15 December 2014 and has been focusing on education, entrepreneurship, womens leadership, and the environment. The Foundation aspires to be a reliable, participative, and sustainable philanthropic organization. The Jack Ma Foundation has so far supported projects worldwide including the Jack Ma Rural Education Program, the Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative, the Ma & Morley Scholarship Program, and Jordan's Queen Rania Foundation. Additionally, the Foundation has also funded a number of projects in its priority areas. The Jack Ma Foundation is committed to empowering rural educators, entrepreneurs, rural children, young start-ups, and women to equip them for the future and to help build a happier, healthier, more sustainable and more inclusive society.

About Alibaba Foundation

The Alibaba Foundation, established in December 2011, aims to create a culture that encourages people to get involved in philanthropy, make it sustainable and genuinely contribute to civil society and nature. Its key funding aspects include water protection, environmental awareness promotion and development of green organizations. Alibaba Group is committed to devoting a percentage of its annual income to the Alibaba Foundation to ensure stable long-term funding that will allow for timely response in the event of natural disasters or expansion of philanthropic projects.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200328005024/en/
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Extraordinary times require extraordinary solutions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during a video conference on Monday with 130 Indian missions abroad while referring to the 21-day nationwide lockdown to fight coronavirus.

In a nearly 75-minute interaction, Modi said India had taken "unprecedented" and early steps from mid-January to reduce the risk of importing the coronavirus infection and prevent a large outbreak.

He said it included the world's largest quarantine and lockdown, according to the ministry of external affairs.

"The prime minister noted that extraordinary times require extraordinary solutions, which was why even in this globalised era, most of the world had quarantined itself," it said.

Modi termed said the lockdown as an unavoidable step to fight the pandemic, adding it was hugely consequential as the closure of the globalised system has had an extensive and far-reaching impact upon the international transport system, financial markets and the global economy.

The prime minister complimented the heads of mission for their efforts to evacuate Indians stranded in some of the epicentres of the crisis and exhorted them to take five specific steps including paying close attention to the evolving international political and economic situation and ensuring their own health and safety as well as of their teams and families.

Modi also asked the heads of mission to attend to Indians stranded abroad due to international travel restrictions and address issues arising out of from their unplanned stay abroad with their host governments.

The prime minister also asked the missions to stay alert and identify best practices, innovations, scientific breakthroughs to deal with COVID 10 and help procurement of medical equipment for India's fight against the pandemic.

"He also advised Heads of Mission to suitably publicize the newly-established PM-CARES Fund to mobilize donations from abroad," the MEA said.

As the crisis also impacts the economy, Modi advised heads of mission to focus on ensuring that commerce in essential supplies, logistics chains and remittances are unaffected.

Ten heads of mission including from Beijing, Washington, Tehran, Rome, Berlin, Kathmandu, Abu Dhabi, Kabul and Seoul offered their perspectives to the prime minister on the pandemic and overall situation in those countries.

They shared feedback regarding appreciation in these countries of the resolute measures taken by India to combat this pandemic, the MEA said.
The 14-day lockdown enforced in the commercial hub, Lagos, neighbouring Ogun and the nations capital, Abuja.

Nigeria implemented a sweeping quarantine for three major states that are home to almost 30 million people in a bid to slow the spread of the new coronavirus in Africas most populous country.

The lockdown in Lagos, Abuja and Ogun kicks in at 11pm local time (22:00 GMT) on Monday and will stay in place for at least two weeks, President Muhammadu Buhari announced on Sunday, a little over a month after Nigeria confirmed its first case.

All citizens in these areas are to stay in their homes. Travel to or from other states should be postponed. All businesses and offices within these locations should be fully closed during this period, Buhari said in an address to the nation.

Home to an estimated 20 million people, Lagos is Africas most populous city and Nigerias financial hub. Abuja is the capital of the country and the seat of its government. Oil-rich Rivers state and Kaduna state in the north earlier imposed similar lockdown measures.

The restrictions announced do not apply to hospitals and stores selling essential items such as groceries and medicine.

We will use this containment period to identify, trace and isolate all individuals that have come into contact with confirmed cases, Buhari said.

Fear of price rises

The announcement triggered panic among many in Lagos, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in the country which has so far infected 111 people and caused one death.

On Monday, residents in Lagos flooded markets and stores to buy food and other items.

Bose Odumosu, a mother of five, told Al Jazeera that she will use the next hours to stock up on food for her family.

I was expecting the government to give us a few days to sort out our domestic needs before the announcement. I feel the sudden restriction will cause the price of commodities to increase, Odumosu said.

Shop assistants wearing face masks to prevent against the spread of coronavirus take stock in a supermarket in Lagos [Sunday Alamba/AP]

Buhari said all branches of government have been mobilised to confront what has now become both a health emergency and an economic crisis, but the lockdown means additional financial pain for millions of informal labourers who rely heavily on their daily earnings to survive.

Olatunji Akintan, a bricklayer, and his wife, a petty trader, live in a two-room apartment with their two sons in Ojodu, a suburb of Lagos. Every day, Akintan commutes to different locations in the megacity in search of a job and only gets paid when he is hired by building contractors for the day.

Now, the 56-year-old faces a two-week home quarantine without any income.

Since January, I have not done much work so I have no savings. I have been thinking of what to do with the little money I have for two weeks, Akintan told Al Jazeera.

How do I raise money now that I wont be working for the next few days? Some of us will be forced to buy food on credit if we can find those willing to sell.

In his speech, Buhari announced a series of measures aimed at relieving some of the economic pain including a three-month moratorium on government loan repayments.

For the most vulnerable in our society, I have directed that the conditional cash transfers for the next two months be paid immediately. Our Internally displaced persons will also receive two months of food rations in the coming weeks, Buhari said.

Financial analyst Oluwatosin Olaseinde said: The biggest palliative obviously would be food.

The president announced a few exemptions in terms of movement for agricultural produce, which should help cushion the effect, Olaseinde told Al Jazeera, citing exemptions related to food processing and distribution.

Ideally, I would love to see some financial assistance to groups captured in initiatives like the Trader Money Scheme, she said, referring to a government project involving the distribution of loans to small traders to support their businesses.

Across the world, the outbreak of the new coronavirus has strained healthcare systems and hit economies hard, with few countries expected to emerge unscathed by the pandemics financial effect.

Nigeria is already feeling the pinch with oil prices plunging. The country is the worlds eighth-largest oil exporter, and almost 90 percent of its export earnings are tied to oil.

Shutting down the countrys financial capital, Lagos, is expected to further add to an impending economic crisis.

There will be a slowdown in the countrys GDP for the first quarter of the year, Olaseinde said. You have five key states in the country essentially grounded. That will lead to a loss of revenue for companies and individuals. You could also see supply shocks.

Meanwhile, electricity remains a major challenge in the country. Most people rely on costly diesel-powered generators to power their homes and keep businesses afloat.

How do I sustain my job on generators for 14 days if we continue to experience chronic power shortages? Thats almost impossible, IT system analyst Samuel Edeh told Al Jazeera.

I hope they have factored steady power supply into the lockdown plan so that some of us can keep up with work at home, he told Al Jazeera.

Families are also hoping for regular power supply during the period of quarantine.

With regular electricity, I can store my food and also keep my children entertained during the lockdown, Odumosu said.
She showed off her bikini body when she took part in the viral 'quarantine challenge' last week with her husband amid the growing coronavirus crisis.

To help pass the time while in self-sequester, Devon Windsor took to social media once again and flaunted her statuesque figure in a few other revealing ensembles.

The highlight of those outfits was a skimpy black and white-patterned bikini that left little to the imagination.

Social media butterfly: Devon Windsor, 26, took to social media on Sunday and flaunted her statuesque figure in a few revealing ensembles amid the coronavirus crisis

The Victoria's Secret model, 26, appeared to be basking in the the sun outside a home when she shot the selfie video.

Along with the tiny bikini, Windsor also donned black sunglasses and had her long blonde tresses pulled back in a ponytail, withe the exception of some strands of hair that stylishly laid around the frame of her face.

A few hours later, the Missouri native moved indoors and changed into a pair of Daisy Duke's with a white bikini top and a white sweater that was left mostly unbutton to showcase her toned midriff.

Self quarantine: The top model wore a black and white-patterned bikini while appeared to be basking in the the sun outside a home when she shot the selfie video

Curves on display: Along with the tiny bikini, Windsor also donned black sunglasses and had her long blonde tresses pulled back in a ponytail,

She also gave a glimpse into the wide-ranging emotions many people are feeling in the quick video clip.

'How I am starting to feel....,' she wrote along with two crying emojis.

There's another selfie video where she sounded and looked subdued and confessed: 'I find that the less I do during the day, the more tired I am all day.'

And then, after a brief pauseI, she added, 'I feel like I need to go back to bed.'

Feel like crying? he Missouri native gave a glimpse into her emotions when she moved indoors and changed into a pair of Daisy Duke's with a white bikini top and a white sweater

Cabin fever: There's another selfie video where Windsor sounded and looked subdued and confessed: 'I find that the less I do during the day, the more tired I am all day.'

During her home sequester, Windsor showcased her tanned and toned figure as she performed a pike exercise on top of husband Johnny Barbara while he moved into a sit up.

The moves were part of the Quarantine Challenge, which sees social media users take on different tasks whilst isolating at home,

The model has also been sharing a number of photos and video clips of some of the healthy meals she's been preparing while in sequester; something she has regularly done on social media and YouTube before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Challenge accepted: Windsor showcased her tanned and toned figure as she performed a pike exercise on top of husband Johnny Barbara while he moved into a sit up

Social distancing: The model has also been sharing a number of photos and video clips of some of the healthy meals she's been preparing while in sequester




A Mountrath woman has been convicted and fined for selling cannabis to feed her drug habit.

Before last week's sitting of Portlaoise District Court, Rebecca Walsh (19), 3 Bellview Court, Portlaoise Road, Mountrath, was charged with drug possession, and having drugs for sale or supply, at her home address, on February 4 this year.

Sgt JJ Kirby gave evidence that the accused was detected with 380 of drugs.

She had no previous convictions.

Defence, Mr Barry Fitzgerald said that the accused had a drug habit. On the day, the gardai had been called to deal with a situation a few days away and while there they detected activity at the accuseds house.

Her house was searched and the drugs were found, along with deal bags.

The accused was selling to feed her habit, said Mr Fitzgerald, going on to say that there were no trappings of wealth in her home and she had cooperated fully with the gardai.

Defence went on to say that the accused was now attending Merchants Quay. He said she had previously suffered with anxiety and had bee using cannabis to deal with it.

Judge Catherine Staines noted the accused had no previous convictions, had pleaded guilty and was attending Merchants Quay. The accused was convicted and fined 100 for having drugs for sale or supply, The possession charge was taken into consideration.

A destruction order was made on the drugs.
WESTERLY, RI  The Rhode Island National Guard started going door to door on Saturday in coastal areas to inform any New Yorkers who may have come to the state that they must self-quarantine for 14 days while Gov. Gina Raimondo expanded the mandatory self-quarantine to anyone visiting the state.

Raimondo also ordered residents to stay at home, with exceptions for getting food, medicines or going to the doctor, and ordered nonessential retail businesses to close Monday until April 13 to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. She also directed realtors and hotel operators to include new requirements that any out-of-state residents must quarantine for 14 days in their purchase agreements.

State Police set up a checkpoint on I-95 in Hope Valley on Friday where drivers with New York license plates must stop and provide contact information and were told to self-quarantine for two weeks, WPRI.com reported.

If New Yorkers dont comply, they face fines and jail time, Raimondo said, adding that thats not the goal.

I want to be crystal clear about this: If youre coming to Rhode Island from New York you are ordered into quarantine. The reason for that is because more than half of the cases of coronavirus in America are in New York, Raimondo said, adding that its not meant to be discriminatory.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the order reactionary and unconstitutional, saying hed sue Rhode Island if the policy isnt rescinded but believed they could work it out.

I understand the goal  but theres a point of absurdity, and I think what Rhode Island did is at that point of absurdity, said Cuomo, a Democrat. We have to keep the ideas and the policies we implement positive rather than reactionary and emotional.

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he had spoken with some governors and was considering some type of a quarantine to prevent people in New York and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut from traveling. Trump Late Saturday, though, he tweeted that a travel advisory should be administered and not a quarantine.

Trump told reporters at the White House that it would be for a short period of time, if we do it at all. He said he had spoken with Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., and Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., the countrys epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbot on Thursday joined other states in imposing quarantines on air travelers from the New York area, including New Jersey and Connecticut, and New Orleans, two places where COVID-19 outbreak is more severe. The Republican said travelers who dont comply with the 14-day quarantine risk jail time, adding that state troopers would conduct visits to make sure people were staying put.

In Rhode Island, which reported its first two deaths from COVID-19 on Saturday, a team of a Westerly police officer and a Guard member were visiting stately and modest coastal homes in the Westerly neighborhood of Watch Hill collecting contact information from New Yorkers and telling them to self-quarantine. They expected to go to about 1,000 homes over a few days.

This is more of an education tool to make people aware and comply with what we are asking them to do, said Westerly, Rhode Island, police chief Shawn Lacey. We are certainly hope it doesnt get to enforcement action that has to happen.

Reha Kocatas, a New Yorker who arrived March 22 from the Bahamas to his Rhode Island home, said his wife and two children were visited by a police officer and a national guardsmen. Already under a 14-day quarantine per a state order because he had arrived from outside the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Kocatas said he volunteered information to the authorities including the number of people in the home, when they entered Rhode Island and his and his wifes date of birth.

But he questioned why it was necessary to send a police officer to his door.

It seemed like a pretty large waste of resources for something that could have been volunteered through an online form pretty quickly, he said.

If New Yorkers are such high risk individuals, why are we putting first responders in front of these individuals is a little questionable since there is no action item at the end of the day, he continued. They werent going to remove us. It seemed like bureaucratic grandstanding. The local community that happens to be here believes that its a waste of precious resources when time is the essence in preparing for other things.

Ramaindo said only an estimated 50% of Rhode Islanders are complying with social distancing, with crowds spotted at a beach, groups at parks, crowds at big box stores and house parties. As a result, she banned gatherings of more than five people and urged people to limit interactions to the same five.

For those who are not complying with social distancing: Ive said it last week, Im going to say it again, knock if off. You are risking the lives of everyone in this state, she said.

People able to work from home must do so, she said. Residents who work in Massachusetts and must go to work, must self-quarantine after work at home, she said.

For most people, the virus 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, or death.

____

AP photographer David Goldman contributed to this report from Westerly, R.I.
A flashback of Cha Yu-Ri and Jo Kang-Hwa spending time together in their house appeared in the 13th episode of Hi Bye, Mama. Yu-Ri, while she was pregnant with their child Seo-Woo, realized she took her then husband Kang-Hwa for granted who only showered her with true love.

On her way to the grocery, Yu-Ri saved an old woman from being hit by a motorcycle. Luckily, Yu-Ri was safe but she still contacted Kang-Hwa for help. Yu-Ri can see the soul of the old lady coming out of her body. All were sent to the emergency ward. The motorcycle driver got a few scratches and bruises. The old lady had internal bleeding but no one seemed to check except Yu-Ri. Kang-Hwa arrived at the emergency ward, Yu-Ri insisted him to check the old lady. Kang-Hwa found inconsistent body temperature. He instructed the nurse to send the old lady for a CT scan.

Dong Daek (shaman) had unwelcome visitors, another powerful exorcist (shaman) who picks up a wandering ghosts to stay away from the earth forever. The exorcist is looking for Yu-Ri and her daughter Seo-Woo. According to the exorcist, he will pick up the wandering ghost in due time.

Yu-Ri spent time with her family. She requested her favorite food. Yun-Ji (Yu-Ri's sister) bought a new dress to surprise Yu-Ri. A flashback of their past, both sisters would fight hard for clothes being used without permission. Yun-Ji felt bad thinking of the past arguments with her sister. When she reached home, Yun-Ji placed the gift in Yu-Ri's room. Surprisingly, Yu-Ri bought the same type of dress for Yun-Ji. They wore the same style of dress and laughed with it.

Hyun-Jung contacted Dong-Daek (Shaman) to meet her in a restaurant. She asked Dong-Daek how they can help Yu-Ri live a life forever. But Dong-Daek explained she doesn't have the power to do so.

Meanwhile, three mothers in the nursery school who always bullied Oh Min-Jung sent an insulting message to a parent's chat group. They gossip about Min-Jung's divorce plan and Hyun-Jung's husband mobbed by angry fans. Min-Jung read the message at home. Ko Hyun-Jung and Yu-Ri saw the message as well. They were all mad and decided to take revenge towards the three gossipmonges.

After school, they went to the mall and found the three gossipers playing in the children's area. Hyun-Jung, Min-Jung, and Yu-Ri wrestled with the gossipers. They overpowered them with their strong arms and won in the scuffle. They spent the night drinking and eating celebrating their victory.

Hyun-Jung took the opportunity to ask Min-Jung if she wished to push through with the divorce. Min-Jung confessed that she loves Kang-Hwa and won't continue any plan to file for a divorce. She added that marrying Kang-Hwa is different and never easy from any other couple yet she will continue to work hard to make things well for her family. Hyun-Jung sighed hearing Min-Jung's feelings. Yu-Ri will have a hard time to get back the family she once had.

Kang-Hwa took Seo-Woo home and played with her while waiting for Min-Jung. Out of the blue, Seo-Woo took their family photo and pasted a girl sticker on it. Kang-Hwa asked who it was. Seo-Woo said it's her friend Yu-Ri. Seo-Woo knew all about Yu-Ri as she grew up. Seo-Woo never distinguishes Yu-Ri as a ghost or not. Kang-Hwa was surprised to know that his daughter recognized Yu-Ri as she could remember.
[March 30, 2020] ABB: COVID-19 Update

ABB is constantly monitoring the pandemic situation around COVID-19 (novel coronavirus). The health and safety of its employees, customers and partners remains the company's number one priority and we are working hard to assess and mitigate any risks. Guidance issued on February 5, 2020, did not include impacts due to the coronavirus, the effects of which were mainly limited to China at that time. We have subsequently experienced a decline in trading conditions due to the outbreak, further impacted by a weakening oil price. The situation in China has stabilized following extensive government-led efforts in February and operations at ABB's three main production hubs of Shanghai, Beijing and Xiamen have largely returned to normal. While weakened customer demand in China, our second largest market, will also impact the first quarter results, our China business has been improving recently. At the same time, COVID-19 has spread rapidly to the western hemisphere in March, resulting in governments and customers adopting containment measures that have material economic consequences across the globe. Q1 2020 impact Although it is not yet possible to determine the exact impact of COVID-19 on ABB's first quarter results, ABB expects revenues to decline in all its businesses relative to a year ago, while orders are somewhat less impacted. The Robotics & Discrete Automation business, which was already facing significant end-market headwinds from the automotive sector, remains challenged, with first quarter orders and revenues both expected to decline by more than 20 percent year-on-year. Operational EBITA margins are also expected to decline in all ABB's businesses, burdened by lower volumes, partly offset by self-help efforts. Self-help initiatives are aided by the framework ABB already has in place to implement ABB's Operating System (ABB-OS). At the same time, the company is significantly intensifying mitigation measures and actively reducing all non-essential costs, and all of ABB's businesses are rigorously focused on serving their customers while sustaining cash flow. 2020 outlook Each of our businesses are closely monitoring current and potential effects of the outbreak. Currently, the majority of ABB's production facilities remain fully or partly operational and supply chain impacts have been minimal. However, the outbreak is expected to continue to have an impact globally, potentially creating disruption across production sites and further curtailing product demand, project and service activity. In addition to short-cycle headwinds impacting all our businesses, we expect project business to be dampened by the weaker outlook for oil and gas capital expenditures and a fall-off in cruise ship activity. By contrast, transport projects look more resilient and the outlook for select high growth areas, such as data centers, remains robust. Systems and service activity is curtailed by restrictions to cross-border travel for specialized sales and service engineers. ABB is accelerating and extending its mitigation measures ahead of what looks set to be a difficult second quarter, with a focus on adjusting capacity to meet reduced demand. Given continued uncertainty, including the recent oil price decline, ABB is no longer providing financial guidance for full year 2020. ABB continues to work toward the delivery of transformation milestones, including the divestment of Power Grids which is targeted for completion at the end of the second quarter. Despite short-term disruptions, ABB is confident in the underlying resilience of its businesses and operating model, and that its short-term liquidity needs are well covered by the financial framework it has in place. "I would like to take this opportunity during these extraordinary times to thank the whole ABB team for sticking together and handling this global pandemic with the highest level of professionalism," said ABB CEO Bjorn Rosengren. "The health and safety of all stakeholders, above all our employees, remains our number one priority at this moment in time, while we also try our utmost to secure business continuity. We remain prepared for any scenario and will take strong action to mitigate the impact for our customers, shareholders and employees." "Furthermore, the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of ABB have decided to voluntarily take an immediate 10 percent reduction in board compensation and salary for the duration of the crisis, with the view to extend this strong sign of solidarity to other senior management levels within the company. We must stay strong together for the whole of ABB and for our society. The money saved through the compensation and salary reductions will be donated by ABB towards efforts aimed at fighting the impacts of the Coronavirus crisis," said the CEO. "After many of my first meetings since joining ABB earlier this year, my impressions of the company and its people are very positive. ABB is a strong company, with a tremendous spirit and the right products and technology to drive the positive and sustainable development of the world in the future," Rosengren added. ABB plans for virtual communication In light of the current situation around COVID-19, ABB plans to make more use of virtual media to facilitate continued communication with the financial community. The following webcasts are currently scheduled:







Date Topic Host April 28, 2020 Q1 Results: webcast CEO, CFO June 10, 2020 CEO first perspectives: webcast CEO, CFO Full details and additional events will be updated on www.abb.com/investorrelations when available.

ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a technology leader that is driving the digital transformation of industries. With a history of innovation spanning more than 130 years, ABB has four, customer-focused, globally leading businesses: Electrification, Industrial Automation, Motion, and Robotics & Discrete Automation, supported by the ABB Ability digital platform. ABB's Power Grids business will be divested to Hitachi (News - Alert) in 2020. ABB operates in more than 100 countries with about 144,000 employees. This information is information that ABB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out below, at 6.45 a.m. CEST on March 30, 2020. Important notice about forward-looking information This press release includes forward-looking information and statements concerning the outlook for our business. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about the factors that may affect our future performance, including the future impact of the coronavirus, global economic conditions, and the economic conditions of the regions and industries that are major markets for ABB. These expectations, estimates and projections are generally identifiable by statements containing words such as "anticipates", "expects," "believes," "estimates," "plans", "targets" or similar expressions. However, there are numerous risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, that could cause our actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information and statements made in this press release and which could affect our ability to achieve any or all of our stated targets. Many of the factors that could cause such differences are identified and discussed from time to time in ABB Ltd's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Reports on Form 20-F. Although ABB Ltd believes that its expectations reflected in any such forward-looking statement are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that those expectations will be achieved. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200329005041/en/

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COVID-19 news roundup: US extends restrictions till April 30, PM Lee says wouldnt call Singapore a success story

US extends social distancing measures till April 30, as Trump acknowledges that death toll in the country could cross 100,000. Meanwhile, UK warns it could take up to six months to flatten the curve.

Punam Sharrma brings you the freshest updates on COVID-19 from around the world:
Couple's role in success of Dragons' Den brand Drynks Unlimited

A creative husband-and-wife team have shared their part in building a non-alcoholic drinks brand which secured investment on BBC's Dragons' Den.

Drynks Unlimited signed a deal with Fun Creative Agency, based in Leeds, to create the branding and packaging for its Smashed range of alcohol-free beverages.

Fun was founded two years ago by husband and wife Paul Alexander and Sarah Jarman Alexander, with previous clients including Carlsberg UK and Brothers Cider. The couple advised Drynks Unlimited on its name - a portmanteau of 'dry (non-alcoholic) drinks' - and its tagline, "Rethinking drinking", as well as designing eye-catching packaging for its non-alcoholic beer, lager and cider.

"Taking our experience in the alcohol brand sector and delivering something for the alcohol-free market was a real opportunity," they said.

"With the current trend for no/low alcohol growing, we wanted to create a brand that straddled the adult soft drinks and alcohol-free markets. To do this meant we did not want to replicate standard alcohol cues in either the brand tone of voice or the look and feel.

"We have created the foundations for a brand that really catches the consumer's imagination with a playful tone of voice."

Drynks Unlimited scored a 125,000 investment during its appearance on Dragons' Den earlier this year and has achieved listings with Booths supermarkets and drinks wholesaler Matthew Clarke.

To make its alcohol-free beverages, it first makes alcoholic cider, beer and lager then uses a cool distillation process to remove the alcohol. There are plans to add alcohol-free wine and spirits to its range.

30 March 2020 - Bethany Whymark
Bala Chauhan By

Express News Service

Nobody else other than the one, who has survived the shock and trauma of the highly infectious novel coronavirus, would know what it means to be infected with the unknown virus and how it changes your life and of your familys. I am a COVID-19 survivor from Aurangabad in Maharashtra.

I am sharing this as I want people to have faith in the healthcare system. People need to follow the instructions from health and civil authorities. But please dont socially stigmatize a COVID-19 patient. I have seen some educated people fall into the trap.

I was discharged from the isolation ICU of the Seth Nandlal Dhoot Hospital on March 24 after 10 days. I finished my last medication on March 28 and am supposed to watch my health up to April 3 as per my doctors, who are happy with my recovery.

I am a faculty in a prestigious hotel management institute in Aurangabad. My daughter-in-law and I had gone to Russia to watch the Northern Lights with a group of women. We had a fabulous holiday; in fact, one of the best I have had in a long time. We had observed all necessary precautions because the news on coronavirus and the havoc it had created in China then was known to the world. I returned to Aurangabad on March 3. The next day I was back to work. I had to conduct viva for my students.

I was fine till March 7, when I developed a stuffy nose followed by shivers the next day. I took Sinarest and called up my doctor. He advised me to take a course of antibiotics. I took the medicines and went about my work. On March 11, I felt exhausted. My stamina was at its lowest. This is when my elder son, who is an intensivist in a Mumbai hospital , advised me to get my CBC (complete blood count) test done.On March 12, I felt shortness of breath. The next day I went to the hospital for my chest CTC and swab tests were done for H1N1 and COVID-19.

I tested negative for the former but positive for the latter. I was admitted in the isolation ICU the same day.I was so worried about my college, students, colleagues, my 85-year-old mother and mother-in-law with who I used to have evening tea and dinner. I immediately informed my college. Everyone who was in contact with me was quarantined and tested. Thankfully, all tests were negative.

That was a huge relief for me and I thanked God. The hospital doctors and their frontline nursing and other staff were very caring. What I noticed after I was tested positive was the change in attitude of many people. It was like a stigma that had suddenly come upon me. But help, medical care and prayers came from unknown quarters. My two sons attended to me.

In terms of medication, right now, there are only experimental protocols and there is nothing to prove the efficacy of A over B since a scientific-based medicine data on large randomised controlled trials is still awaited. In my case, in addition to other routine medications, Lopinavir and Ritonavir were used. While my doctors gave me the best medical care, it was my faith that didnt allow fear to get better of it.

The unending fear out of uncertainty is one thing but what the patient and loved ones go through is something that cannot be expressed in words. Loving care and resilience helped me through my illness. The staff not only did their core duties but gave me healing prayers twice a day.

I am back home. There are a lot of logistic arrangements that needed to be put in place in terms of allocation of space and a new work order had to be drawn for household chores. I am in regular touch with my doctors. In fact, they call me to check on my well being.We need to fight this war together. I could not have fought my battle alone either!

In gratitude to everyone!

(As told to Bala Chauhan by a 59-year-old COVID-19 survivor from Aurangabad, Maharashtra. )



Disclaimer: The line of treatment for COVID-19 should be decided and prescribed by authorised doctors and health specialists for each individual case. TNIE and the survivor do not recommend a particular line of treatment.
Good Morning, welcome to Information Nigerias Newspaper headlines for today, 30th March 2020.

Here are the major headlines.

Nigerias COVID-19 Cases Rises To 111

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has reported fourteen new cases of coronavirus in the country, taking the total number of infections to 111.

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Coronavirus: Atiku Suggests Four Ways To Battle Spread

Former vice president Atiku Abubakar has recommended that the coronavirus currently ravaging nations can be defeated by four ways. Speaking via his official Twitter handle on Sunday, he highlighted the ways as follows.

Buharis Full Speech On Nationwide Broadcast On Coronavirus

ADDRESS BY H.E. MUHAMMADU BUHARI, PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA ON THE COVID- 19 PANDEMIC SUNDAY 29TH MARCH, 2020 (more here)

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GRAND RAPIDS, MI  A coalition of business associations and local governments on Monday announced the launch of a website that provides information to West Michigan businesses and workers who have been hurt by the coronavirus pandemic.

The website, covidwm.org, was created by the West Michigan COVID-19 Business Coalition. Members include Experience Grand Rapids, the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce and The Right Place.

This unprecedented situation has created significant operational challenges for many businesses across West Michigan, Rick Baker, president and CEO of the Grand Rapids Chamber, a convening member of the coalition, told MLive Monday, March 30.

During these times it is crucial to concentrate our efforts on fierce advocacy for business, as well as business sustainability, and work to provide resources to foster a thriving and prosperous West Michigan for all.

The website provides information on state and federal legislation, business continuity, employee resources and more. Other members of the coalition include the Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce, the city of Grand Rapids, Downtown Grand Rapids, Inc., Grand Rapids Urban League, Kent County, National Business League, Inc., Hispanic Center of Western Michigan and West Michigan Works!

We back West Michigan business, said Birgit Klohs, president and CEO of The Right Place, Inc. Its the lifeblood of our local economy and what makes West Michigan such a great place to live. We know that a strong, vibrant business community will be key to our recovery when our region begins to emerge from this global crisis.

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Eyeing to help labourers working in other states and facing problems in getting food and shelter during the ongoing lockdown, the West Bengal government has decided to prepare a database on them, a senior official said on Monday.

Directives have been sent to all district administrations to prepare the database of the labourers who are currently stranded in different states during this lockdown imposed to contain the coronavirus outbreak, he said.

"This will enable us to ascertain how many people from West Bengal are stuck in other states where they had gone in search of livelihood. After that, we will try to communicate with the state governments concerned to help these labourers getting food and shelter," the official said.

Thousands of labourers from West Bengal are currently stranded in states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.

"We have been receiving video messages regarding shortage of food and other problems these people are facing there," the official added.

Sources in the government said that block development officers have already started collecting information on the labourers working outside the state.

"We do not want these people to walk back to West Bengal during the lockdwn period," he added.

As soon as the database is completed, the administration will start contacting the labourers and take steps to help them, the official said.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written to her counterparts in 18 states to provide basic shelter and food to labourers from West Bengal, who are stuck in those states because of the lockdown.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sirius International Insurance Group, Ltd. (Sirius Group) announced it has launched a formal process to sell the company after a strategic review.

The company said it has approved the launch of a sales process, after reviewing multiple expressions of interest with representatives of Sirius Groups majority shareholder, CM Bermuda Ltd., a subsidiary of Shanghai-based China Minsheng Investment Group (CMIG).

Early last year, reports revealed that Shanghai-based CMIG, a private investment group, was facing liquidity issues related to a massive debt burden, which was approximately $34 billion in June 2018. Problems with the companys liquidity were highlighted on Feb. 1, 2019 when it missed payments owed to bondholders. S&P Global Ratings issued a report at the time, which said the liquidity issues at parent company CMIG did not affect Sirius Groups creditworthiness.

S&P said its rating for Sirius Group was based on its assessment of the group on a stand-alone basis rather than the assessment of CMIGs financial position.

However, that distance between Sirius International and CMIG appeared to narrow when CM Bermuda issued a resolution on Feb. 25, 2020, which would have prohibited Sirius Internationals board of directors from issuing any shares and taking other share actions without the prior approval of holders of the common shares of Sirius, representing at least 75% of the shareholder voting rights, according to AM Best.

The ratings agency responded to the resolution on March 4, 2020 by downgrading the credit ratings of Sirius International and its subsidiaries  because CM Bermuda has 87% of the shareholder voting rights. The companys Financial Strength Ratings (FSR) were downgraded to A- (Excellent) from A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICR) to a- from a.

The rating downgrades reflect the negative impact on the rating fundamentals of SIIG from its association with CMIG, said AM Best, noting that this development had the potential to affect adversely the companys business profile and is a strain on managements time and resources at a time when the company needs to address deterioration in its operating performance.

The ratings reflect SIIGs consolidated balance sheet strength, which AM Best categorized as very strong, as well as the groups strong operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.

The adviser for the sale is Barclays, which had assisted Sirius in a strategic review to determine whether there should be a capital raise transaction versus other potential strategic alternatives, such as a sale.

CMIG completed the purchase of Sirius International for $2.6 billion in 2016 from White Mountains Insurance Group.

Maintaining the strength of Sirius Groups 75-year deep-rooted franchise and maximizing value for all stakeholders remains our number one priority, commented Meyer S. Frucher, chairman of the board.

Frucher said Sirius Groups employees will continue operations as usual, as we work with CM Bermuda Ltd. towards completing the strategic review process and announcing a transaction expeditiously.

Peter W.H. Tan, chairman of CM Bermuda Limiteds parent, CMIG International Holding Pte. Ltd., said: We appreciate the opportunity to work cooperatively and collaboratively with the management team and the Strategic Review Committee to achieve an optimal outcome for Sirius Group. The involvement of key stakeholders is critical to ensuring an orderly and successful outcome for any transaction.

The company warned there is no assurance that a transaction will be completed.

With $2.5 billion of capital, Sirius Group is a global multi-line re/insurer headquartered in Bermuda and has offices in Stockholm, New York and London.
Thanks to technological support provided by BlinkIN, a Bengaluru-based intelligent visual-assistance company, engineers in Wuhan were able to remotely install air ventilation systems in two hospitals in Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, reports Peerzada Abrar.

IMAGE: Using BlinkIN's support customers or field engineers are able to securely connect and instantly share live video and photos of the issue with remote experts. Photograph: Kind courtesy BlinkIn.io

Soon after the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, the authorities were able to quickly set up new hospital facilities, complete with intensive care units, medical equipment rooms and quarantine wards.

Huber & Ranner, a German designer and manufacturer of air handling systems, was assigned to deliver and install its HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) systems for two hospitals in just a few days.

But given the scale of the outbreak in Wuhan, sending Huber & Ranner's technical staff to supervise the installation of the systems was a risk.

This is where BlinkIN, a Bengaluru-based intelligent visual-assistance company, came in.

Thanks to its technological support, Huber & Ranner's service engineers were able to remotely install air ventilation systems in the two hospitals.

"Huber & Ranner used BlinkIN to power their customer support service (platform) X-Care, which was very elemental for setting up and maintaining the shipped ventilation units for the two hospitals in Wuhan," says Dhiraj Choudhary, co-founder of BlinkIN.

"Whenever they need any troubleshooting or maintenance, they are using BlinkIN to help them out."

Choudhary says he never thought that the technology platform of his company would have such a massive social impact.

"It brings us a lot of satisfaction and pride that we are able to contribute (in the fight against coronavirus) using technology."

An alumnus of Biju Patnaik University of Technology, Odisha, Choudhary co-founded the company in 2017 along with college friend Nitin Kumar, and Harshwardhan Kumar, an alumnus of College of Engineering Bhubaneshwar, and German entrepreneur, Josef S.

Incubated at the Nasscom Centre of Excellence, BlinkIN enables support teams across the globe to deliver a visual customer experience remotely.

This enhances the quality of the service, reduces field visits and hence costs, and decreases downtime.

BlinkIN does not need any app or software.

Customers or field engineers are able to securely connect and instantly share live video and photos of the issue with the remote experts.

The experts can then guide them, using a live pointer and augmented reality (AR) screen annotations.

This makes for a dramatic decrease in explanation time and a near-instant diagnosis of the problem.

"There are challenges with audio and video platforms, as you cannot point to something when you are giving guidance," says Choudhary.

"We are addressing this by providing intuitive communication."

IMAGE: BlinkIN offers 'Scotty', an artificial intelligence (AI) and AR-powered live video calling system. Photograph: Kind courtesy BlinkIn.io

BlinkIN offers 'Scotty', an artificial intelligence (AI) and AR-powered live video calling system.

The live pointers and AR screen annotations help to seamlessly transport human skills and knowledge to the location where and when they are needed.

The company also offers 'Huston', an AI-enabled self-service system powered by a virtual agent.

This helps a user leverage the expertise of senior engineers on their smartphone.

Currently, BlinkIN is active in 43 countries.

Choudhary says the platform has several applications, which can be of help to companies during the pandemic, especially when their employees work from home.

IMAGE: A drone is used to spray disinfectants at a vital place in a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus, during the second day of the 21-day lockdown, in Chennai. Photograph: PTI Photo.

But it is not just BlinkIn.

Many other tech companies are trying to use their expertise to combat and contain the Covid-19 pandemic, which has already claimed nearly 6,000 lives.

DeepMind, an AI company owned by Google's Alphabet, is using its existing work to help researchers fight Covid-19.

The London-based lab said it hopes to contribute to the scientific effort using the latest version of its AlphaFold system to release structural predictions of several under-studied proteins associated with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

Though these structural predictions have not been experimentally verified, Deep Mind said that they might contribute to the scientific community's investigation into how the virus functions.

Tech giant IBM plans to work with medical institutions and practitioners to support the effort to develop drugs to fight the pandemic.

The firm wants to use its IBM Clinical Development (ICD) system in this regard.

ICD is a unified, SaaS-based data capture solution that provides end-to-end visibility and management capabilities for patients, sites and clinical trials.

Microsoft Bing has launched a web portal to track Covid-19 infections and an interactive map to monitor its spread worldwide.

The website, available at bing.com/covid, provides up-to-date infection statistics for each country.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba claimed that its new AI-powered diagnosis system can identify coronavirus infections with 96 per cent accuracy via computerised tomography scans.

The diagnosis algorithm was created by Alibaba's research institute, Damo Academy.

Many tech start-ups are also contributing to the fight against the disease.

In China, DJI drones are delivering health advice while the 'Little Peanut' delivery robot is serving food to quarantined patients.

Agritech firm XAG is providing large-scale disinfectant spray services.
Internet companies are dropping broadband data caps in an attempt to keep people connected through the coronavirus pandemic.

A deal struck between the government and internet companies will see them give users unlimited data allowance on their current services and offer new rates on mobile and landline packages.

The measures come as many people are being forced to work and study from home in an attempt to stop the spread of coronavirus, and vulnerable people rely on their internet connections for shopping and communications through the lockdown.

They are among a range of immediately effective measures which have been signed up to by major internet service and mobile providers including BT/EE, Openreach, Virgin Media, Sky, TalkTalk, O2, Vodafone, Three, Hyperoptic, Gigaclear, and KCOM.

The companies have pledged that anyone who is struggling to pay their bill due to the pandemic will be treated fairly and appropriately supported, the Digital, Culture, Media & Sport Department said.

The firms have also agreed to offer some new, generous mobile and landline packages to ensure people are connected and the most vulnerable continue to be supported.

These could put users in line for packages featuring data boosts at low prices and free calls from their landline or mobile.

Vulnerable customers or those who are self-isolating, who are faced with priority repairs to fixed broadband and landlines which cannot be carried out, should be given alternative methods of communication wherever possible, the companies said.

Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said: "It's fantastic to see mobile and broadband providers pulling together to do their bit for the national effort by helping customers, particularly the most vulnerable, who may be struggling with bills at this difficult time.

Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Show all 12 1 /12 Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Agnetha Septimus, Matthew Septimus, and children Ezra and Nora Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Husband and wife filmmakers, Claire Ince and Ancil McKain pose for a portrait for the series by Shutterstock Staff Photographer, Stephen Lovekin, shot around the Ditmas Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Khadijah Silver and son Eliot Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Anna Beth Rousakis and daughter Mary Rousakis Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Mike Pergola and Denise Pergola with children Henry, Jack, and Will Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Artist Shirley Fuerst Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Jean Davis and Danny Rosenthal, with children Simone, Naomi, and Leah Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Robert E Clark Jr Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Lisa Draho and Josh Zuckerman, with children Ruby and Ava Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Professor and activist Dr Kristin Lawler Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Tom Smith and Laura Ross, with daughters Caroline, Elizabeth, and Abigail Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Callie Lovekin and Lucas Lovekin Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock

"It is essential that people stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives. This package helps people to stay connected whilst they stay home."

Watchdog Ofcom's chief executive Melanie Dawes said: "We recognise providers are dealing with unprecedented challenges at the moment.

"So we welcome them stepping up to protect vulnerable customers, at a time when keeping in touch with our friends and families has never been more important."

Executives from the firms said there has never been a more important period for people to stay connected, adding that during the current uncertainty nobody should have to worry about how to keep in touch with friends and loved ones.

Their companies would work tirelessly to keep the country connected, they said.

Marc Allera, chief executive of BT's Consumer division, said: "During this national and global crisis, our priorities are the safety of our colleagues and ensuring that our customers, particularly those that are vulnerable, stay connected."

Openreach chief executive Clive Selley said: "Thankfully a large amount of the work we do - including fixing faults, adding capacity and building faster, more reliable full fibre networks - can be completed outside, so you'll still see Openreach engineers working to maintain service across the UK."

Additional reporting by agencies
By Ned Thomson

Our country has always been known as a place where people are free. No matter how poor, no matter if you are an immigrant, no matter your upbringing, there is opportunity. Some of those opportunities are enshrined as rights in our Constitution. Any time those rights are being infringed on is a cause for concern.

New Jersey is the only state bold enough to use a pandemic to stand in the way of the Second Amendment. No matter the issue, the fact is that constitutional rights should never be infringed.

On March 21, Gov. Phil Murphy decided which businesses were considered essential and can remain open during the COVID-19 pandemic. This week he added to the list of businesses he considers essential. On both occasions, he ignored that people have a right to bear arms and kept gun stores closed.

All elected officials vow an oath:

I do solemnly swear that I will uphold the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey, and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the Governments established in the United States and in this State, under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully, impartially and justly perform all of the duties  according to the best of my ability. So help me God.

On March 26, the same day Murphy expanded essential businesses, two lawsuits were filed in federal court to prove that Murphy has violated his oath to defend the Constitution and made it impossible to purchase a gun in New Jersey. The last thing our governor and attorney general need to defend are two more lawsuits while we face the current health crisis.

Liquor stores and medical marijuana dispensaries, bicycle shops, cell phone retailers, and office supplies (while offices have been strongly urged to find a way for employees to work from home) do not have a Constitutional defense. If any business can remain open, those pertaining to our rights should be automatically included, not purposely shutdown.

This is about whether you think the government should be able to tell you your rights dont matter.

There is a reason the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution. What sets us apart as Americans is that in our society, no matter what pressures exist in the world  even the pandemic we face today  our rights will be upheld. That is the promise to every American and those who want to be American. If we set aside those rights, no matter how good-hearted the reason, we dishonor every sacrifice made by generations of Americans.

Murphy always says he wants to make New Jersey the California of the East Coast. Despite Californias flaws  such as widespread homelessness, drastic income inequality and, like New Jersey, more people moving out than moving in year after year  most jurisdictions in the state respected the fact that it must not violate rights, including the Second Amendment.

Since the pandemic, gun stores have seen more business than they ever could have expected. That is much needed economic activity, keeping businesses running and workers employed from the store to the warehouse to the factory. It is a wake-up call that first-time gun buyers dont have an opposition to guns because they understand safety is their personal responsibility.

People are worried that in bad times the world may become more dangerous. The unknown can be a scary thought, and the ability to defend yourself is not only a right but a comfort. New Jerseys current laws require permitting and access to a gun shop for acquiring a handgun. New Jerseys gun-control laws are extensive; if they work in good times there should be no cause for alarm that gun businesses remain open.

I believe Gov. Murphy would agree with me that people are good. Most people are willing to help their neighbors and strangers, not harm them. We are all safer when we decide that we will be ready to defend ourselves and anyone else in harms way. Unfortunately, Murphy has decided that he will not defend us as his oath prescribes.

This is all happening during a crisis we have not experienced in our lifetimes. While crime seems to be down during the pandemic, people still have a need, and a prerogative, to exercise their rights.

For New Jersey to stand in the way of that is unconscionable, unethical, and dishonorable. We swore an oath, all elected officials swore an oath, but Murphys actions have betrayed his words.

Assemblyman Edward Thomson, R-Monmouth, is the Republican whip and represents the 30th Legislative District.

The Star-Ledger/NJ.com encourages submissions of opinion. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.
Experts laud WHO move to use physical distancing, saying social distancing or isolation isnt good for mental wellbeing.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has started using the phrase physical distancing instead of social distancing as a way to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus from people to people, a move widely welcomed by experts as a step in the right direction.

At a daily news briefing on March 20, officials of the global health body said while maintaining a physical distance was absolutely essential amid the global pandemic, it does not mean that socially we have to disconnect from our loved ones, from our family.

The rapid spread of the virus, which was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December, has forced countries around the world to impose full lockdowns, shut down airports and impose tight restrictions on the movement of their citizens.

Technology, right now, has advanced so greatly that we can keep connected in many ways without actually physically being in the same room or physically being in the same space with people, WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said on March 20.

Were changing to say physical distance and thats on purpose because we want people to still remain connected, she added.

Since coronavirus is spread mainly through respiratory droplets, especially when people cough or sneeze, maintaining a safe distance is recommended to decrease transmission.

The WHO recommends being more than one metre (three feet) away from the nearest person, while some health experts have suggested maintaining a distance of at least two metres from others.

A number of measures can be taken to increase the physical space between people.

They include staying home more often, working from home if possible, catching up with loved ones online instead of in person, strictly limiting the number of visitors to your home, avoiding large public gatherings or public transport, and staying away from other people when you are in a public space.

Social distancing makes it sound like people should stop communicating with one another, while instead we should be preserving as much community as we can even while we keep our physical distance from one another, Jeremy Freese, professor of sociology at Stanford University in the United States, told Al Jazeera.

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We need to do physical distancing to protect everyones physical wellbeing, but mental wellbeing is obviously also important, and social isolation is not good for mental wellbeing, he added.

Martin W Bauer, professor of social psychology and research methodology at London School of Economics, welcomed WHOs change in terminology, saying it was long overdue.

It occurred to me from the beginning that this was an unfortunate choice of language to talk about social distance, when actually what was meant was physical distance,' Bauer told Al Jazeera.

Physical distance is measured in metric metres or centimetres. It is the geographical distance from person A to person B while social distance is a measure of distance across social boundaries, he explained.

Bauer said it was important to differentiate between the two terms.

It is good that WHO finally tried to correct an early error of mistaking physical distance for social distance, he said.

In these strange times of the virus, we want clear physical distance (minimum two metres), but at the same time, we want people to remain close to each other socially.

Follow Saba Aziz on Twitter: @saba_aziz
What do you do when your business is forcibly shut down from one week to the next, as happened first to every bar and restaurant owner and then every other so-called nonessential business?

I gathered anecdotal data from Bryan Potts, a San Antonio-based CPA and owner of CFO2Go, which provides consulting and accounting services primarily to restaurants.

Its been rough for Potts personally. He said he lost 75 percent of his client base last week.

With doors forcibly shut, many of his clients simply cant pay him. Of his restaurant clients, Potts estimates that 10 percent are hanging on to their employees in the shutdown, while 40 percent have cut back as much as possible to just a few essential employees. About half of his clients have laid off all of their employees.

To begin to get a sense for the scale of the hit to employment numbers this month: The Texas Restaurant Association counts 50,000 restaurants in the state, and counts 1.4 million Texans in the restaurant industry.

In a related story, U.S. weekly jobless claims hit 3.3 million in one week, a record that blows every other weekly jobless claim datapoint to smithereens. We can intuit from Potts anecdotal numbers, and the Texas stats, that this coming weeks U.S. jobless claims will be similarly catastrophic.

Back in the good old days, in December 2019  which feels like a decade and a half ago  I sat down with Ryan Salts of the small-business resource center Launch SA.

Salts passion, and profession, is to support entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs as they launch, survive and then hopefully thrive as business owners.

Last week, however, was not at all like the good old days. Salts invited me to listen in, as he gathered together entrepreneurs online on Zoom in a part advice-giving, part therapy session. Potts was not on this call, although he is part of Salts mentoring network.

A different mentor on the call, who asked not be named, described the process of filing with the Texas Workforce Commission for a full company claim of unemployment. This would streamline the process for her employees, all of whom she assumed would need to apply for unemployment benefits.

A question among the group arose: Is it time to pivot your business model? Not necessarily.

Many restaurant owners, for example, have opened grocery stores or boosted their takeout and delivery businesses. Customers want this and encourage this, and employees may feel grateful for the ongoing work. But this could be  in fact, it probably is  a money loser for restaurant owners. And the result of operating a money-losing pivot over the next few months could be further debt for the owner when normalcy returns.

One of the Zoom participants was Jeni Spring from the Center For Barefoot Massage. She said a suggested pivot runs counter to her business. She runs a San Antonio-based continuing education center to train massage therapists in deep tissue technique. In this lockdown, shes received advice and pressure to move to an online training model for massage therapists. But that, fundamentally, is not something she believes in.

We cant become something we are not, she said. It doesnt work to move to online training, since our entire reason for being is that you have to learn massage in person. You simply cant learn the sense of touch needed to give professional massages online.

So, the pivot is a mixed bag.

What about the other solutions business owners bandied about last week  such as offering gift cards as a kind of down payment on future business that would help finance the present?

Salts offered a cautionary tale.

I have a downtown friend. He wont make it through this. His normal traffic is foot traffic. One of the first things I thought last week was, Why dont you do gift cards? But everything is changing so fast that recommendations from earlier in the week change day to day.

His friend didnt feel gift cards were ethical, Salts explained, given that he was of the mindset that he had a 70 percent chance of not surviving the downturn.

In December, Salts and I had talked about how hard it is, even in the best of times, for food service businesses to survive. I was curious about a spate of high-profile restaurant closures in my neighborhood at the end of last year.

Salts was philosophical and realistic, based on his work with Launch SA.

Are food people good business people? On average? No, he said. Theyre really good at what they do. Theyre creative. They can put together a good menu. But can they run their accounting? Can they cost things out?

That was December.

Now, of course, none of that matters. The best restaurant owner in the world cannot stay open in defiance of the COVID-19 lockdown orders.

About the restaurant businesses now shuttered, Salts has an extremely dire prediction.

Probably 50 percent of the places that close their doors right now are not going to reopen when this thing is over, he said. Every single person I work with is in a dire situation of triage.

And with those shutdowns, we are learning, painfully, how essential these small businesses are. Everything is interconnected. As Potts explained: It shows how (much) small-business employers contribute to the economy. Its everything from people who clean out the grease traps to lawyers and accountants. I dont think theres anybody thats not been affected by restaurants shutting down.

Disclosure: I do occasional consulting projects for the nonprofit small business lender LiftFund, which partners with the city of San Antonio to run Launch SA.

Michael Taylor is a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News and author of The Financial Rules for New College Graduates.

michael@michaelthesmartmoney.com | twitter.com/michael_taylor
Ireland hopes to be in a position in two weeks to tweak or remove some of its new highly restrictive coronavirus-related measures if it can slow down the rate of admissions to intensive care units, Health Minister Simon Harris said.

The Taoiseach ordered citizens on Friday to stay home until April 12 to help slow the spread, telling them they can only leave to shop for groceries, for brief individual physical exercise or to make absolutely essential family visits.

Ireland reported 14 deaths on Saturday, the most on a single day so far as total fatalities rose to 36. A further 294 cases brought the number of infections to 2,415, slightly down on the 302 new cases reported on Friday.

"Will we be in a position on April 12 where life in Ireland can return to normal? Absolutely not. Let's be honest with each other, these are measures that we are going to need continue to work at," Harris told national broadcaster RTE on Saturday.

"Do we hope to be in a position in two weeks' time to say that we've made progress and some of the measures can be tweaked, removed, changed? Absolutely.

"The measures that we put in place last night were so significant that they cannot be kept in place for too long. You cannot ask people to sustain this for a very long time."

Seventy-one patients were in intensive care units (ICU) by Thursday, a near doubling in three days. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar warned on Friday that ICU units would be at capacity within a few days given the rate of the spread.

The government detailed on Saturday who could and could not go to work, giving a grace period until Monday for non-essential operations to wind down and for staff to work from home where they could. All construction bar healthcare-critical projects and critical road and utility infrastructure were shut down.

Police mounted a major nationwide operation, with officers on horseback patrolling parks to ensure people were not gathering outside their household units and traffic police stopping cars to check journeys beyond 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) were essential trips only.

With so much economic activity halted, the head of the body representing Irish banks said lenders were processing more than 28,000 three-month mortgage breaks for customers whose incomes have been cut by the coronavirus outbreak. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
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Berlin: The Hungarian parliament has handed the country's populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban the power to govern unchallenged for as long as he sees fit, a move rights groups said effectively suspends democracy in the European Union member state in the name of fighting the coronavirus.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban replies to an oppositional MP during a question and answer session of the parliament in Budapest, Hungary. Credit:AP

The controversial "coronavirus bill", which allows Orban to rule by decree, passed by 137 to 53 votes on Monday, local time, despite opposition efforts to attach an expiration date on the state of emergency. The law also punishes those who "distort" or publish "false" information on the outbreak with five years in jail.

The government has argued that the emergency powers are necessary to fight the outbreak, but political analysts have questioned whether Orban will relinquish them when the health crisis subsides. Hungary has 447 coronavirus cases and 15 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

"He is using this crisis to further increase his power," said Andras Biro-Nagy, the director of the Budapest-based Policy Solutions think tank.
[March 30, 2020] iFLYTEK and Hancom Group Launch Accufly.AI to Help Combat the Coronavirus Pandemic

Asia's leading artificial intelligence (AI) and speech technology company, iFLYTEK has partnered with the South Korean technology company, Hancom Group, to launch the joint venture Accufly.AI in South Korea. Accufly.AI launched its AI Outbound Calling System to assist the South Korean government at no cost and provide information to individuals who have been in close contact with or have had a confirmed coronavirus case. The AI Outbound Calling System is a smart, integrated system that is based on iFLYTEK solutions and Hancom Group's Korean-based speech recognition. The technology saves manpower and assists in the automatic distribution of important information to potential carriers of the virus and provides a mechanism for follow up with recovered patients. iFLYTEK is looking to make this technology available in markets around the wold, including North American and Europe.



"The battle against the Covid-19 epidemic requires collective wisdom and sharing of best practices from the international community," said iFLYTEK Chief Financial Officer Mr. Dawei Duan. "Given the challenges we all face, iFLYTEK is continuously looking at ways to provide technologies and support to partners around the world, including in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia." In February, the Hancom Group donated 20,000 protective masks and 5 thermal devices to check temperatures to Anhui to help fight the epidemic.

iFLYTEK's AI technology helped stem the spread of the virus in China and will help the South Korean government conduct follow-up, identify patients with symptoms, manage self-isolated residents, and reduce the risk of cross-infection. The system also will help the government distribute important health updates, increase public awareness, and bring communities together. "iFLYTEK is working to create a better world through artificial intelligence and seeks to do so on a global scale. iFLYTEK will maximize its technical advantages in smart services to support the international community in defeating the coronavirus," said Mr. Duan. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005518/en/

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Online education startup Lido Learning said on March 30 it raised a funding round of $3 million from Paytm President Madhur Deora, and Picus Capital, a fund started by Alex Samver, formerly with German internet firm Rocket Internet.

Lido provides interactive tutoring to school students. The online education sector in India has grown big following the success of Byjus, one of Indias most valuable startups. Lidos founder Sahil Sheth was earlier a vice president at Byjus.

Startups such as Byjus, Unacademy, and Vedantu have seen at least 20%, if not more, increased in their usage in the last few days after India went into a three-week lockdown to stem the spread of coronavirus.

Lido Learning is actively disrupting the K-12 market. Considering the current global pandemic, learning online has become the need of the hour. This is pulling the Indian market towards adopting online tutorials much faster than initially expected and is a huge tailwind enabling us to become a dominant category creator within a short span of time, Sheth said in a statement.

The Mumbai-based startup raised $3 million in a seed funding round in November 2019 from angel investors, including Ronnie Screwvala (Founder, Unilazer Ventures), Ananth Narayanan (CEO, Medlife), and Anupam Mittal (CEO, Shaadi.com).
INCA expresses support for government commitment to protect telecom consumers during COVID-19 health crisis

Posted by Publisher Telecommunication

London, UK, 30 March 2020 ? The Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA) has expressed its support for the measures announced by the government in agreement with the telecommunications industry to protect consumers during the COVID-19 international health crisis.

?At a time when all reaches of the country are affected by this hugely unfortunate situation, it is as important now as it has ever been for national cooperation and support,? said INCA CEO Malcolm Corbett. ?INCA and its members fully support the efforts of the government and the industry to ensure everyone can access broadband services, especially as the country adheres to the vital ?Stay at Home? advice to protect the NHS and save lives at this critical time.\

Commitments include providing support and giving fair treatment to vulnerable customers struggling to pay bills, removing caps on data packages, and ensuring access to alternative communication if priority repairs can?t be carried out for vulnerable and self-isolating customers.

For support and advice during the COVID-19 crisis, INCA has announced a helpline for members and non-members. The helpline will be open between the hours of 10am and 4pm on 0330 113 2074 and address issues faced by the industry.

For information about the helpline, as well as alternative support offered by INCA such as its Everything Online  Using Collaborative Working Tools advice and tips package for transitioning to remote working, please contact Gill Williams at gill.williams@inca.coop.

For more information about INCA, please visit: www.inca.coop/.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in New York approaches 100,000, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Monday that New York is just a precursor for the rest of the nation.

Cuomo made the prediction at his daily press briefing showing new hotspots beginning to pop up around the United States in places like New Orleans, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

Anyone who says this is a New York City only situation is in a state of denial, Cuomo said. There is no American who is immune to this virus.

He continued the call for increased preparations across New Yorks hospital system as the state prepares for the apex of the virus outbreak.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

Before his daily press briefing at the Jacob Javits Center, which has been converted into a 2,500-bed field hospital, the governor appeared at the docking of the USNS Comfort -- a 1,000 bed naval hospital -- on the west side of Manhattan.

We are very grateful for what the people of this nation have done for us, and we will return the favor, Cuomo said just before the ship docked.

On Staten Island, the state has planned for two locations to provide additional hospital beds with assistance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Guard.

Portions of the College of Staten Islands Willowbrook campus will be converted into a 1,000-bed field hospital and the state will use more than 200 beds at South Beach Psychiatric Center.

CSIs Dolphin Cove dorms and Recreational Center are being eyed for the care facilities, according to communications from the school, the Advance/SILive.com previously reported.

Following federal approval, Cuomo said it would take about 10 days to build out the field hospital. Multiple requests for comment to the governors office, including an estimated date of completion for the CSI site, were not returned Monday.

To help flatten the curve, Cuomo continued to implore New Yorkers, particularly residents of New York City, to state at home and continue to practice social distancing.

He said the states first mission has to be limiting the rate at which the virus spreads in order to protect the health care system. He repeated the possibility of taking official action against the citys park system if there continues to be a lack of social distancing.

"I know the isolation can be boring and oppressive, but it is better than the alternative, Cuomo said.

The governors ongoing back and forth with President Trump also continued at Mondays press briefing, but Cuomo called for bipartisanship as the nation prepares to deal with the worst of the viruss outbreak.

At a Sunday night press briefing, the president suggested without evidence that protective masks, which the state needs, have been going out the back door.

When asked about the presidents comments, Cuomo said he didnt understand what Trump was getting at, and that accumulating stockpiles are part of efforts to prepare for the outbreaks apex.

If he wants to make an accusation, then let him make an accusation, but I dont know what hes trying to say by inference, Cuomo said.

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Bandipora (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], Mar 30 (ANI): The MARCOS commandos of Indian Navy reached out to the fishermen community at Wular Lake to spread awareness about the novel coronavirus.



They also distributed ration among the needy. The MARCOS have been deployed in the Wular lake area for the past many decades for counter-terrorist operations.

Armed forces have been very active in fight against COVID-19 and have been deployed to look after all the evacuees from foreign countries.

On Sunday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had approved a proposal for the contribution of one-day salary by the employees of Ministry of Defence to the PM-CARES Fund to fight COVID-19. (ANI)


A lot of people are worried about their job prospects. Here's how to keep your professional network up while social distancing. Read more

Business is on pause. Everyone is stuck in the house. Do you still need to network?

Absolutely, say business experts.

You need to be a part of that conversation and dialogue thats happening right now, said NJ Falk, a Los Angeles-based entrepreneur, business adviser, and regular contributor to Forbes Women. You dont want to be left behind," Falk said.

The economy is on shaky ground, so many of us dont know how what our job future looks like. And because social distancing has resulted in an unprecedented work stoppage, many people have, unfortunately, lost gigs already. A record 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday. And 540,000 of those new lost jobs claims came from Pennsylvanians, the Labor Department reported.

This makes it even more important to stay connected as business conversations resume on Slack, Skype and Zoom from our dining room tables.

This time more than ever you should be building and rebuilding your network, said Falk who added that staying in the mix is key to well-being and productivity. And Falk said, you want to be sure that as the weeks go on, you dont become more and more isolated. Then it will become increasingly harder to reach out.

Perhaps your networking skills are rusty and youre not sure how to start putting yourself out there in these unsure times. Here are some tips to keep you relevant, connected, and ready to go once the shutdown lifts.

Know the difference between networking and socializing.

When you are just socializing there is no end result, explained Richelle Payne, a Philadelphia-based brand and crisis strategist, who hosted a networking seminar on Instagram Live on Monday morning. Socializing is all about wearing that great outfit, taking a couple of selfies. It just feels good. With networking there is an intention. As in you are exchanging ideas, making introductions, or just reaching out to let the other party know you are available for work. You are certainly asking for something  or planting the seed  but you are also willing to give something back in return," Payne said.

Drop the sales pitch.

There is a difference between keeping yourself relevant and asking people to spend money. Now is not the time to be salesy, salesy, salesy said Jennifer Lynn Robinson, founder and CEO of Philadelphia-based Purposeful Networking. Think about the positions people are in right now, For example, Robinson said, if you are in fashion, you dont want to post a video pushing your network to buy a $450 dress for spring. You want to ask yourself: Is this what people want to see right now? You have to really read your audience. (Robinson hosted a webinar on Tuesday called How to Build Community Online.)

Its all about the five-minute favor.

If someone asks you for an introduction or to share a bit of knowledge with them during this time, gladly do it, Robinson says, borrowing from Wharton Business School professor Adam Grants best-selling book, Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success. I call it networking karma, Robinson said. Its a small investment of your time that will pay big dividends in the end, she said.

Refine your personal brand.

Update your LinkedIn profile. (Or create one) Freshen up your website. (Or create one). Write a timely blog post. Pitch the media. Upload new video content on your Instagram. Or do a Facebook Live. Now that your online rapport is your key way of connecting with people, make sure its on point, advises Zack James, director of business development at MyNEWPHilly. We spend a lot of time thinking about doing these things, James said. Now we actually have time to do it. Also, James said: Answer all of those messages in your LinkedIn inbox. Its a good way to reach out to the people who you may be top of mind for but never got back to because of the unrelenting day-to-day.

Your Zoom grace period is over.

Its time you start putting your best foot forward. Yes, even during those dreaded 8. a.m. Zoom meetings and especially at that evening happy hour. Remember your brand is on display, youre still being evaluated, Payne said. Utilize the Zoom filters. Fluff your hair. Groom your beard. And just dont focus on your physical appearance, James reminded us, your surroundings are important too. Declutter the desk. Surround yourself by art, photographs, or keepsakes that mean something to you. These can be conversation starters, James said.

Create your own opportunities.

Looking for like-minded people to connect with and feeling at a loss? Start a group of your own. If you are interested in something, someone else is," Falk says. And now is a good time to test the waters, because youve got their interest for a while. Robinson launched three new endeavors since the onset of social distancing. Each day shes highlighted a local business on her Facebook to encourage conversation and support. Each day on her business Facebook page, shes giving a marketing tip. And Robinson started social survival guide on Facebook that shares information about activities to do at home. People are craving community and connection, Robinson said. Its important to be both a resource and interact with people.

Be consistent.

Reach out to someone every day, said James who likes to get his networking done in the morning because it gives people time to get back to you. How you connect depends on the relationship, James said. If you are friendly, text: Its less intrusive. People are really just trying to figure out how they are going to survive, James said. Its also appropriate to send messages via social media. If its a more formal relationship  meaning youre reaching out to someone cold, whos not an artist  email is better. You dont want to assume a familiarity that isnt there.

Be flexible.

If you try to contact someone on Tuesday, dont be terribly offended if they dont get back to you until Friday. If you have to end a networking interaction because your boss is calling you with a pressing issue or your child needs help with his math homework, dont be afraid to end the call. This is a new experience for everyone and people want  need  to see your humanity, Payne said. In other words, to quote the great Maya Angelou, People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah has issued a stern warning to residents in the Region not to complicate the work of the security agencies responsible to ensure strict compliance with President Nana Akufo-Addo's lockdown directives.



The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo addressing the nation on Friday, March 27, 2020 decreed a 2-week lockdown in some selected parts of the country to aid in the fight against covid-19 epidemic.



According to him, only individuals and businesses providing essential services to Ghanaians are permitted to operate during the period of the lockdown.



The President directed that the lockdown comes into effect on Monday, 30th March and therefore has mandated a joint security force comprising the Military and Police to guide and protect Ghanaians across the nation.



Speaking in an interview on Hello FM Monday morning, the Ashanti Regional Minister explained that the security agencies are not to terrorize any person but to ensure no one flouts the orders of the President.



He told the host King Edward that though the security agencies are not to engage in an extreme force against persons, it is advisable that no Ghanaian attempts to challenge them in their line of duty.



He bemoaned persons who have not locked themselves up to stay home but wandering about in sheer disregard of the President's directives to desist from such attitude.



He further added that though vendors in the food value chain and some traders, per the President's instructions, are allowed to provide essential services to their customers; it doesn't give customers permit to loiter about in the market places.



He also advised people not to eat outside but package their food home.



Simon Osei-Mensah emphasized that firm decisions may be taken and the security agencies given an order to take stricter measures against recalcitrant residents in the Ashanti Region.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A plane carrying eight people, including an American and a Canadian, burst into flames Sunday while attempting to take off from Manilas airport on a flight bound for Japan, killing all those on board, officials said.

The plane, which was carrying six Filipino crew members and the American and Canadian passengers, was bound for Tokyo on a medical mission when it caught fire near the end of the main runway, Manila airport general manager Ed Monreal said.

Firetrucks and rescue personnel rushed and doused the aircraft with foam to try to extinguish the flames, he said.

Unfortunately, there were no survivors, Monreal told a late-night news conference.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said the Agusta WW24 aircraft apparently encountered an unspecified technical problem as it rolled to take off.

Video footage shows the aircraft engulfed in bright-orange flames in the darkness as firefighters scramble to put out the fire by spraying chemical foam while sirens blare.

Nearly three hours after the accident, the bodies of the victims were still inside the wreckage. Airport authorities were waiting for police investigators to examine the crash scene before retrieving the remains, Monreal said.

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Traffic jams stretching several miles were seen on the Thai tourist destination island of Phuket after officials announced that it would be locking down. The vehicles were seen waiting in long queues to evacuate the island fifteen minutes before the lockdown was enforced at midnight on Sunday (March 29). After the emergency state has been declared effective last Thursday (March 26), the Phuket lockdown order was issued by governor Pakkapong Taweewat on midnight (March 29). No one is allowed to enter nor leave Phuket island via land or marine transport. Ports and bridges will be closed for one month, from March 30 to April 30, or until otherwise announced. The measures were later followed by a ban on all aircraft entering the island from April 10 onwards. Elsewhere in Thailand, lockdown measure between provinces have not been implemented but most non-essential businesses have been closed and the government has encouraged people to follow social distancing rules, wear masks and stay at home where ever possible. Non-residents have also been banned from entering the country.
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci speaks next to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence during a press briefing on the coronavirus pandemic with members of the Coronavirus Task Force on Thursday, March 26, 2020 at the White House in Washington, D.C. Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS
A second flight that arrived in Brandon earlier this month had a passenger on board that tested positive for COVID-19, according to the provincial government.

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This article was published 30/3/2020 (653 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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A second flight that arrived in Brandon earlier this month had a passenger on board that tested positive for COVID-19, according to the provincial government.

WestJet flight 3256 from Calgary International Airport to Brandon on March 14 had a passenger on board that was infected. Seat 12A was affected, according to the provincial website that lists flights with confirmed cases.

Passengers who sat nearby are being asked to self-isolate for 14 days following the flight and monitor for symptoms. Passengers on the flights, but not in the affected seats should self-monitor for symptoms and self-isolate should they develop.

Flights listed on the government website have confirmed cases of COVID-19 who were symptomatic at the time of travel.

The March 14 flight marks the second to arrive in Brandon with passengers who tested positive for COVID-19. Another flight from Calgary on March 15 had at least one person on board with the virus. The provnicial government can be found here.

 The Brandon Sun
To support India's preparation against COVID-19

Maruti Suzuki India has been entered into an arrangement with AgVa Healthcare, an existing approved manufacturer of ventilators. MSIL would work with AgVa Healthcare to rapidly scale up production of ventilators. The intention is to reach a volume of 10,000 units per month.

AgVa Healthcare would be responsible for the technology, performance and related matters for all the ventilators produced and sold by them. MSIL would use its suppliers to produce the required volume of components and use its experience and knowledge to upgrade systems for the production and quality control of the higher volumes. Any other assistance required would also be provided. MSIL would also help, to the required extent to arrange financing, and obtain all permissions and approvals required to enable the higher production. MSIL would provide these services free of cost to AgVa Healthcare.

Krishna Maruti, a joint venture of MSIL with Mr. Ashok Kapur, would be manufacturing 3-ply masks for supply to the Haryana and Central governments. Production is expected to start as soon as all approvals are received. Mr Ashok Kapur will provide 2 million masks free of cost as his own contribution.

Bharat Seats, a joint venture of MSIL with the Relan family, would be manufacturing protective clothing as soon as all approvals are in place. All manufacturing units would take maximum care to protect the safety and health of the workers in accordance with the government recommended practices.

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AS the global community grapples with the Covid-19 pandemicwhich has spread to at least 177 countries with more than 723,869 cases and 34,000 deaths reported the airline industry has been one of the first industries to have felt the economic impact of the novel coronavirus.

When Africas flag carriers need help to recoverand they will need helpwe must ensure that this crisis is also a chance to turn the page toward greater transparency as we rebuild.

Though infection curves in Africa range from days to weeks behind outbreaks on other continents, airlines are canceling routes, laying off workers and warning that the worst is still to come. Since the first case was recorded, African airlines have lost $4.4 billion in revenue.

Most recently, South African Airlines (SAA) suspended all international flights after closing its domestic network to restructure over financial difficulties last month.

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), a staggering one million jobs are being lost every day due to the economic effects of the pandemic.

In the event, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has asked governments to consider supporting airlines and airports struggling to survive through tax relief and loans, arguing that airlines will be essential to getting the world up and running again once the outbreak is over.

For instance, the three biggest global airline alliances, oneworld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance, urged their governments to evaluate all possible means to assist the industry.

They represent more than 58 of the worlds leading carriers. Some European airlines have already also issued urgent appeals for help.

According to CAPA Centre for Aviation, a consultancy, most airlines in the world will be bankrupt by the end of May unless governments intervene.

Coordinated government and industry action is needed  now  if the catastrophe is to be avoided, the firm said in a report published by CNN Business, recently.

Cash reserves are running down quickly as fleets are grounded, and what flights there are operate much less than half full, it added.

The scale of the deepening crisis was underscored also when Europes biggest low-cost carrier, Ryanair (RYAAY), said that it would ground most of its fleet in the next seven to 10 days.

In those countries where the fleet is not grounded, social distancing restrictions may make flying to all intents and purposes, impractical, if not, impossible, the airline said, adding that it now expected to reduce seat capacity by 80 per cent for April and May, and could not rule out complete grounding of its fleet of 470 planes.

On the same note, Lufthansa (DLAKY), which owns national carriers in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium, said the groups airlines were in discussions with their respective governments about receiving active government support should this become necessary.

One of its subsidiaries, Austrian Airlines, is temporarily suspending all flights starting March 19.

The IATA is likely right about that and in an increasingly connected world, many of the fastest-growing industries depend on air travel, and key sectors like tourism will be critical to once more kick start domestic commercial revenue in African countries.

For perhaps the first time, however, African airlines and associated vendors will need African governments as much as governments need airlines.

The coronavirus pandemic will challenge everyone, and working together to contain both public health implications and far-reaching economic consequences will be essential in weeks and months to come.

After the crisis is over, however, members of the public will have unprecedented leverage over the air travel industry.

Airlines, airports and associated vendors will need public support, and we can demand accountability in exchange.

Long queues due to security procedures at check-in, cramped seating, inconvenient schedules, poor service - the list of airline travelers complaints is a lengthy one- would not make travellers long to fly.

It should also be noted that the perception that air travel is an ordeal makes it very difficult for airlines to charge higher fares that are necessary to return to profitability.
It was humbling and also at first surprising, the number of people  especially young people  who came up to tell me how special it was to have the first woman speaker, she said. The fact that we have a more diverse General Assembly now is important. It represents communities that never had a voice in the past.
M ore than 550,000 has poured into our Food For London Now appeal for The Felix Project in the 72 hours since its launch, amid signs that hunger is starting to take hold among some elderly and homeless Londoners and those vulnerable to Covid-19 who are self-isolating.

On Friday, Evening Standard proprietor Evgeny Lebedev put in a shift delivering produce from The Felix Project to Compassion London, a start-up cooking 1,000 meals a day for NHS staff and the homeless.

Compassion Londons founder Leon Aarts told the Standard: We have been getting messages from people saying, could you supply me with one or two meals, I havent eaten in three days. Weve also had cancer patients with no nearby relatives to rely on who are too afraid to leave their homes and feeling hungry and vulnerable.

While Mr Lebedev was unloading 300kg of salmon, chicken and fresh fruit and vegetables, Dr Harshini Pindolia arrived to collect 40 meals from Compassion London for her medical colleagues. She said: Im working between Guys and St Thomas and Northwick Park hospitals. These meals are delicious and they are for when my colleagues come off their shift.

Id like to say a huge thank you to everyone at The Felix Project for feeding the NHS staff at this difficult time.

On Friday we announced that Londons 33 boroughs have agreed to form community hubs in each local authority to distribute surplus produce to feed the vulnerable as part of a hugely ambitious pan-London plan.

In the meantime, as The Felix Project awaited their formation, expected to begin this week, it continued to do what it does best  supply fresh surplus food to Londoners most in need.

Mr Lebedev said: I arrived for the afternoon shift at the Felix depot in Park Royal and the place was buzzing. The depot had already filled up and emptied out three times in the course of the day. Its a very impressive, slick operation.

But its when you actually get out and deliver the produce that you meet inspirational people like Leon and Dr Pindolia. Its then that it really hits you that what we are raising money for is making a massive difference. And that its potentially life-changing.

Felix Project join Evening Standard's Feed the Londoners appeal

Mr Aarts, 54, a chef and philanthropist, set up his Compassion London food kitchen as an emergency response to Covid-19, just as he set up a food kitchen in the Jungle camp in Calais during the 2015 refugee crisis. Ten days ago I awoke with this clear idea, he said.

I thought, all these chefs with no work, all these people with no food, lets get cooking. So I teamed up with Abigail Simon to use the kitchen that her Yum Yum Food Company normally uses to cook for nursery schools, found six chefs to volunteer and called The Felix Project to supply us.

Today we will cook 1,000 nutritious meals  Asian salmon salad, chicken noodles, chilli con carne, chicken dahl and a vegetarian tagine  and half of it will go to NHS staff at Northwick Park Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital and the other half to the homeless who are being put up at hotels.

Teamwork: from far right, Evening Standard proprietor Evgeny Lebedev, Mark Curtin, CEO of Felix, Dr Harshini Pindolia and Leon Aarts (Hannah Harley Young)

Its quite an operation, but without Felix, who supply 70 per cent of our produce, we couldnt do it.

Over the weekend, Londoners rallied behind our appeal with donations of 200,000, taking the total amount raised to 550,000, including the 350,0000 we announced on Friday from the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund.

New donations include:

75,000 from the Eranda Rothschild Foundation and the Quintessentially Foundation

40,000 from the Ocado Foundation

25,000 from meal-kit company Hello Fresh

and an undisclosed, substantial amount from Temasek, the investment holding company owned by the government of Singapore.

It also includes more than 14,000 generously donated from over 300 members of the public on our Virginmoneygiving page. Celebrities who retweeted our appeal include Emma Watson, Rob Brydon, Jimmy Carr, Rita Ora, Eddie Izzard and David Walliams.

Benoit Valentin, senior managing director of Temasek in Europe, said: This appeal is the right intervention at the right time. Our staff volunteer with The Felix Project and it is inspiring for us to see the Standard, Felix and local communities coming together to rise to the challenge of our lifetime.

Sarah Emerson, from the Ocado Foundation, said: We couldnt be prouder to donate to the Standards appeal. The Felix Project, which Ocado has supplied from day one, have stepped up to the plate, working through the London Alliance to reach every person in desperate need.

Sam Day, of Hello Fresh, who supply Felix with surplus food said: Getting food to those who need it most is now more important than ever. We will be matching the Evening Standards reader donations with up to 25,000 to support this vital cause.

Donate at virginmoneygiving.com/fund/FoodforLondonNOW
India is now looking at procuring medicine and medical equipment from abroad in its fight against the Coronavirus and is also eyeing donations from abroad through the newly-established PM-CARES Fund.

In a video-conference on Monday evening with all 130 Indian envoys posted abroad that lasted from 5 pm till about 6.15 pm, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the Indian envoys whether we can source medicine, and other items from abroad to tackle the Coronavirus situation, sources told this newspaper.

PM Modi also asked the Indian envoys to suitably publicise the newly-established PM-CARES Fund to mobilise donations from abroad. Sources added that all the Missions shared the situation in their countries of accreditations and also highlighted the items which are available in that country which could be imported by India.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued later, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that during the video-conference, 10 Heads of Mission, in (China) Beijing, (US) Washington DC, (Iran) Tehran, (Italy) Rome, (Germany) Berlin, (Nepal) Kathmandu, (UAE) Abu Dhabi, (Afghanistan) Kabul, (the Maldives) Male, and (South Korea) Seoul shared their perspectives with PM Modi and the other envoys.

The MEA also said all envoys were directed by PM Modi to identify in their countries of accreditation best practices, innovations, scientific breakthroughs and sources to procure medical equipment, for Indias fight against COVID-19.

PM Modi told the Indian envoys that extraordinary times require extraordinary solutions, which was why even in this globalised era, most of the world had quarantined itself during the Pandemic.

PM Modi also told them that India had taken unprecedented and early steps in response to this pandemic from mid-January this year, to reduce the risk of importing the infection, and thereafter to prevent a large outbreak and that this included the worlds largest quarantine and lock-down, implemented by India, adding that unity and alertness of all Indians would help safeguard the nations future.

While New Delhi has on some occasions in the past few years been somewhat reluctant to accept donations from foreign countries in the wake of a natural disaster, the sheer scale of the global pandemic seems to have brought in a fresh realisation that every penny from abroad is welcome to supplement the Indian authorities efforts provide relief especially to Indias vast poor.

The Prime Minister also issued other directions to the envoys that included asking them to ensure that commerce in essential supplies, logistics chains, remittances and so on are unaffected.

He also asked them to continue to address other problems Indians might face abroad, including arranging shelter, where necessary and feasiblein view of the global travel restrictions besides asking the envoys to ensure their own health and safety, and that of their teams and families.
BEIJING, Mar. 30 -- After many countries ordered medical supplies for epidemic prevention from China, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Monday that China is willing to maintain close communication with countries to solve the problems that emerged from the process, and hopes that other countries won't politicize the issue.

According to Hua, China has not received any complaints from buyers of foreign countries who purchased medical supplies from China through diplomatic channels.

For countries that have reported issues, Chinese embassies in such countries have conducted immediate investigations and responded to the problems, said Hua.

The problems Slovakia reported from using the ordered diagnostic kits were due to wrong testing methods from the medical personnel, said Hua. The Chinese Embassy in Slovakia has informed medical workers about the issue.

The Philippines Health Ministry has clarified the accuracy issues of the received testing kits reported by some members of the ministry, and said that results from the kits donated by China were the same results that came out of those provided by the World Health Organization (WHO).

As for the problems reported by Dutch officials, members of the country's Health Ministry have told China that the masks the Netherlands purchased through its own agency were not suitable for intensive care unit medical workers, Hua said. The Netherlands has thanked China for helping the country with purchasing and transporting medical supplies for coronavirus response.
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At a time when health-care workers are struggling to cope with the coronavirus pandemic, Canada is preparing to deport an ICU nurse who inadvertently botched her immigration paperwork and forgot to pay a $100 fee.

Christine Joyce Vega, 27, says she would like to do her part in caring for those affected by the outbreak, but instead she is preparing for her imminent return to the Philippines.

It hurts to know that I could have been of help and saving lives right now, she says. I feel unworthy and helpless as I am stuck at home and cannot go to work due to the refusal of the extension of my work permit.

It wasnt supposed to be this way.

Attaining the coveted permanent residence status should have been smooth sailing for Vega, who came to Canada as an international student in 2015, earned her licence to practise as a registered nurse, snagged a full-time hospital job and finally got a nod from the Ontario government.

After investing four years in her immigration plan, Vega scored 1,038 out of a maximum 1,200 points for her immigration application based on her bachelors degree in nursing from the Philippines, English skills, young age, her two diplomas from Conestoga College in Guelph and two years of RN experience at Markham Stouffville and Mackenzie Richmond Hill hospitals.

However, instead of being granted permanent residence, the Toronto woman now faces deportation from Canada on April 28, all due to a missing $100 fee payment and a document in her application to extend her work permit while her immigration application was in process.

I had tried to do the right things for permanent residence in Canada. It was an honest mistake, said a teary Vega, whose parents invested more than $30,000 from their retirement savings for her education  and a brighter future  in Canada. Ive worked very hard to get my (RN) licence and to contribute to Canada. Ive paid taxes for the last three years. Im not a burden on society.

Vega graduated from Conestoga Colleges clinical and critical care program as well as the gerontology and chronic illness program in January 2017 when she got her three-year postgraduate work permit while working as a personal support worker and on her licensing exams. She had worked at the two hospitals in York Region since December 2017. She started her immigration application last April on her own, without help from a consultant or lawyer, as is often recommended by the immigration department for straightforward applications.

She was selected and recommended by the Ontario government in September to apply for permanent residence and invited by the federal government to submit a completed application a month later. With her work permit expiring in January, she submitted an extension online in November  a routine process for work permit holders in transition.

It came as a shock to Vega when her extension was refused because she had only paid the standard $155 work permit fee and didnt know she also needed to pay an additional $100 fee for an open work permit. Also, instead of filing her acceptance of the provinces immigration nomination, she said she mistakenly submitted the wrong document.

Without immigration status in Canada, Vega says she panicked and followed what she now realizes was bad advice from a friend and made a dash to the Canadian visa post at Lansdowne, near Kingston, to get a new work permit. That proved to be a big mistake. Once out of the country, she had no legal status to return. She was admitted back into Canada again but was told she would be deported.

It would have been so simple for the officer to give Christine a chance to provide the missing fees and letter rather than outright refusing her work permit, said Toronto immigration lawyer Luke McRae, who has been retained by Vega to stop the removal and restore her status.

After years of study and work in Canada, deportation is a crude and insulting response to her mistake. Christine has done so much to serve and assist Canadians as a nurse. I dont see how deporting an ICU nurse in the midst of a pandemic is in any Canadians interest.

I don't see how deporting an ICU nurse in the midst of a pandemic is in any Canadian's interest," says Toronto immigration lawyer Luke McRae, who is helping Christine Joyce Vega in her fight to stay in Canada. TORONTO STAR

The truth is a lot of nurses are already overworked, says Vega, pointing out that the Ontario College of Nurses has already called upon retired and non-practising nurses to reregister and help out during the pandemic.

Immigration department spokesperson Nancy Caron told the Star Vegas work permit extension was refused because she failed to attach her provincial nominee certificate and pay the fee for the open work permit.

Proper instructions were provided to Vega to restore her status in the refusal letter that the nurse failed to follow, Caron said adding that on Feb. 20 the department did receive Ms. Vegas application to restore her temporary resident status ... which is presently in progress, Caron said in an email.

In the meantime, the deportation order still stands.

Vega, the middle of three girls in her family, said she is heartbroken at the turn of events.

My dream of permanent residence has been five years in the making. I came to Canada with the knowledge that if I studied hard and worked hard, Canada would grant me permanent residence, said Vega, who has yet to break the news to her parents, who are both retired.

I have invested my life, and my parents have invested their financial future in this dream. Now, to see it slip away after I made a few technical errors feels like I am living in a nightmare. I know I have made some technical errors. I only ask for a second chance.
NHS spelt out on the Black Mountain to show support to NHS workers during the coronavirus pandemic in Belfast on Friday, March 27th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Jeremy Corbyn, as a contender for the job of Prime Minister, was once asked if, in the event of us being nuked by Russia, he would retaliate by destroying Russian cities with Trident. He couldn't demonstrate the mandatory determination to waive all previous civilised norms and commit himself to unprecedented genocide.

That damaged his prospects, because, of course, you don't go anywhere in British politics if you don't believe in the strategy of deterrence, which says, if you are thinking of hitting us, don't bother because we will definitely hit you back.

What Corbyn did in baulking at that confident declaration of intent to commit a war crime and murder millions of people was not only to weaken his campaign. He actually invalidated the entire strategy of deterrence itself.

Because if you were Vladimir Putin and thinking of erasing London and Birmingham, you might be more likely to do that if you thought that Great Britain was governed by somebody who would not see much point in escalating a nuclear war having just lost about 15 million people.

So, I think deterrence as a strategy for a future war, in which the other guy fires first anyway, is total nonsense.

I know that people I regard as normally sane disagree with me on this. People I regard as normally humane cast their votes for politicians who are committed to the incineration of vast numbers of innocent people, not to win a war, but to avenge a first strike.

But I have to consider that they haven't thought it through, that they can endorse murder on that scale only because they don't think the occasion will arise.

Every so often down the years, and especially around the turn of the millennium, when the end of the world was in prospect, at least in prophecy and sci-fi, newspapers would run features on which threat was most likely to do away with us

We won't have to bottle out of destroying Russia, because Russia does believe we would go ahead and fire.

But if all we need is for Russia to believe that we have missiles pointed at them, why don't we spend our money on polyester rockets and good propaganda? It would be cheaper.

Then we would free up billions for meeting a global threat which does not respond to reason, or succumb to compassion: viral contagion.

Every so often down the years, and especially around the turn of the millennium, when the end of the world was in prospect, at least in prophecy and sci-fi, newspapers would run features on which threat was most likely to do away with us.

The shortlist always included nuclear war, asteroids, artificial intelligence and a pandemic.

Our governments put their best bet on nuclear war and, therefore, committed themselves to building the very instruments by which we would all be done in.

Now, imagine a world in which we had put those resources into defending ourselves against viruses.

Imagine one in which a party to government could not conceivably say something like: I will not shy away from cutting back on the training of nurses to save the health service some money.

Who said that? Edwin Poots.

It doesn't matter. For the last decade, the British people have been voting for governments that slashed the health service while mouthing platitudes about how safe it was in their hands.

The coronavirus has, I hope, prompted us to reconsider our priorities. One has to have particular pity for a country like the United States, which does not really believe in public health

So, you could get into government to cut the health service, but not to abolish a pointless obscenity like the Trident missile system.

We have to think of those poor boys and girls out in the oceans in their submarines who will press the button to destroy Russia, even as they get the news along with the order that they have no home country to return to. I hope they have a lot of canned food in their submarines.

The coronavirus has, I hope, prompted us to reconsider our priorities. One has to have particular pity for a country like the United States, which does not really believe in public health.

Political candidates there have ridden high by scoffing at the very idea that one voter's taxes might contribute to another voter's treatment.

This is an idea that is even dafter than deterrence. It assumes, like the famed Adam Smith, that the "invisible hand" of the market will look after all needs without stopping to consider how the market would do that.

It would do it in the same way that the laws of evolution would, by dispensing with those who don't fit. The system's fundamental incongruity becomes clear when there is a pandemic.

If people don't get treatment, because they don't have health insurance, then they keep going to work, or out onto the street to beg, while they are infectious. The pandemic, as the great equaliser, requires us to equalise our societies to survive.

And we have seen amazing changes. A Tory government is paying most of the wages of people who must stay away from work.

The impact appears to be liberalising, because it is forcing governments which privileged the market to see that we are all responsible for each other

This from the party which, when economic factors stripped people of their jobs, held those same people to account as work-shy malingerers and spongers who didn't want to work. Now, we see a deep alteration in consciousness.

Of course, it isn't only the conservative way of thinking that may be changed by this experience of shared danger.

The impact appears to be liberalising, because it is forcing governments which privileged the market to see that we are all responsible for each other. But with that insight comes an onus on the individual too.

Today, we all have our freedoms curtailed in a way that we never imagined in our lifetimes that a British or Irish Government would enforce.

The police are on Twitter, telling us not to go to the beach, but to stay at home and there is no countervailing voice saying this is tyranny, though that is what we would call it in other circumstances.

We understand and most of us comply and we do this not just so that we avoid infection ourselves, but because we don't want to be the one that brings it home to a loved one and causes a death in the family. That's how serious this is and we have grasped that.

How these lessons in shared experience and shared responsibility stay with us and change us is yet to be seen, but I suspect that it will be a generation at least now before any politician is rash enough to think that there are votes to be won by cutting back on public health.

As for defending ourselves against the Russians that's important too. It's just perhaps not quite as important as having enough ventilators, face masks, doctors, nurses, intensive care beds and all the other things whose need a generation of politicians thought it clever to ignore.
Reading, PA (19601)

Today

Clouds and a few breaks of sun; the mildest day of the forecast. .

Tonight

Mostly cloudy and not that cold.
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The Justice Department has launched an investigation into Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), who dumped millions of dollars in stock just before the coronavirus crisis hit.

The Wall Street Journal reported, The Justice Department is examining whether lawmakers traded ahead of the market turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic based on confidential briefings they received, according to a person familiar with the matter. As part of that inquiry, the FBI has reached out to Sen. Richard Burr (R., N.C.), said the person.

Burr, due to his position as Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, received two confidential briefings in January in February. After being briefed, Burr warned a group of his political donors to prepare for the coronavirus and he sold $1.7 million in stock.

Calls for Burr to resign have come from both Republicans and Democrats. Given that Donald Trump called for Burr to resign, it is not surprising that his Justice Department took the Presidents tweet as a green light to investigate the Senator.

If any other ordinary person in America did what Burr did, they would be looking at criminal charges and a prison sentence. Since Sen. Burr isnt running for reelection, he appears to be trying to ride out the scandal in the hope that it blows over.

An FBI investigation is a signal that this story is not going away anytime soon.

The heat is intensifying on Burr and it may only be a matter of time until he resigns and awaits criminal prosecution.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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Linkedin Apriza Pinandita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 30, 2020 16:07 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e5c944 1 World COVID-19,COVID-19-Indonesian-patients,Wuhan-coronavirus,Foreign-Ministry,coronavirus,public-health,citizen-protection Free

As of Monday, at least 122 Indonesian citizens have tested positive for COVID-19 overseas  an increase from 113 on Sunday  and two have died.

According to the Foreign Ministry, the infected Indonesians were spread out across 20 foreign territories.

Singapore bore the highest number of infected Indonesian citizens as of Sunday, with a total of 34 patients  of which three have recovered, 28 are in stable condition, two have received special treatment and one has died, kompas.com reported.

Twenty-four infected citizens are now in a stable condition in Malaysia, as well as 14 in India.

Nine Indonesians, all of whom were crew members of the virus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship, have recovered.

Meanwhile, three Indonesians with COVID-19 in Taiwan and another three in Brunei Darussalam are now in stable condition. Three Indonesian citizens have been recorded as infected with the disease in Spain and another two in the Netherlands. One Indonesian coronavirus patient in the Netherlands has recovered.

Australia, Cambodia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Germany have each identified two COVID-19-positive Indonesian nationals, all of whom are now in stable condition, as are six Indonesians in Saudi Arabia.

Read also: https://www.thejakartapost.com/multimedia/2020/03/30/thai-monks-make-virus-masks-from-recycled-plastic.html" target="_blank">Thai monks make virus masks from recycled plastic

Five Indonesians have tested positive in Vatican City and are now in a stable condition as well, according to kompas.com.

In Italy, four Indonesians  all crew members of the Costa Luminosa cruise ship  have tested positive for COVID-19 and are now in stable condition, as well as one citizen in Macau and one in Ireland.

Meanwhile, the ministry also reported on Monday a second COVID-19 fatality among Indonesian citizens abroad.

A citizen, a woman, has died in the UK, Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told The Jakarta Post.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, at least 723,740 cases have been confirmed as of Monday, resulting in 34,018 deaths. However, more than 152,000 people have recovered around the world.

Meanwhile, as of Sunday, Indonesia had recorded 1,285 infections with 114 fatalities and 64 recoveries.
A Massachusetts State Police trooper and another person were injured in a car crash in Braintree early Monday morning, according to news outlets.

The collision occurred in the southbound lanes of Route 3 near Exit 17 around 3:35 a.m. The crash involved a car and a state police cruiser, NBC Boston reported.

The trooper and the other individual were taken to the hospital, according to NBC Bostons report. Authorities did not disclose the extent of their injuries.

The crash remains under investigation, state police told NBC Boston.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Residents cheer as they join in with a "clap for our carers" event in Bangkok, Thailand, tonight (March 29). Locals and expats in the city were encouraged to take part in five minutes of clapping at 8 p.m. to show support for medical workers around the world helping to battle the COVID-19 coronavirus. Footage from apartment blocks and a supermarket in the Thai capital shows how dozens of people living in the tower went to their balcony to join in with the applause. Many of the residents were also cheering. Thailand has so far recorded at least 1,388 infections and seven deaths leading to travel restrictions and most businesses in the country being closed. People living in the country have also been encouraged to stay inside.
Owners of small businesses queue up to sign up for emergency loans at a government agency for small merchants in central Seoul, March 25. / Yonhap



Firms' earnings falling; unemployment increasing



By Kim Bo-eun



The impact of the continuing spread of the novel coronavirus worldwide is sinking in for Korean firms, which are filing for payroll subsidies after seeing their earnings worsen in recent months.



According to market tracker FnGuide, 98 out of 116 listed firms, or 84.4 percent of businesses, have seen their earnings outlook downgraded for the first quarter of the year.



Data show the Q1 operating profit for 116 companies was estimated at 18.24 trillion won, Friday, a 19.7 percent fall from the 22.45 trillion won forecast at the end of last year.



Year-on-year, the firms are estimated to see a 10.1 percent fall in operating profit in the first quarter.



Brokerages forecast air carriers and oil refiners will be particularly hard hit, based on travel restrictions and crashing oil prices.



They estimated Friday that Jeju Air and Korean Air will see operating losses of 29.1 billion won and 44 billion won, respectively, in the first quarter. Three months earlier, the consensus had been that the two air carriers would post a respective 16.5 billion won and 98 billion won in operating profit.



Leading refinery SK Innovation will see an estimated operating loss of 205.7 billion won in the first quarter, against a 2019 year-end forecast of a 211.5 billion won operating profit. S-Oil is also estimated to post an operating loss of 144.4 billion won, compared to a 383.7 billion won operating profit forecast for the same period last year.



The rapid spread of the pandemic in the U.S. and major economies in Europe will likely bring down forecasts for the second quarter as well.



"The first quarter will see damage stemming from China, while the second quarter will see exports affected by falling demand in the U.S. and Europe," Kim Yumi, an economist at Kiwoom Securities, said.



Based on these circumstances, business sentiment for April plunged to an 11-year low, data from the Korea Economic Research Institute showed. The business survey index (BSI) of the top 600 companies by sales stood at 59.3, the lowest since January 2009 when the index was 51.



As business activities falter, an increasing number of companies are filing for government subsidies.



According to data from the labor and finance ministries, 21,213 businesses have filed for payroll subsidies as of March 26. The figure compares with 1,514 that filed for the subsidies last year. The government is subsidizing six months' worth of labor costs for businesses which retain their employees through temporary leave.



The number of people seeking unemployment benefits has also surged  107,000 people applied last month, a 33.8 percent increase from the same period last year.



"As Korea is heavily reliant on exports and is a manufacturing powerhouse, it will be hit by the coronavirus pandemic which has restricted cross-border movement," Sejong University professor Kim Dae-jong said.



"Many businesses will record a deficit in the first quarter of the year, as they are unable to sell goods. This could lead to Korea's growth for the year shrink to 0.5 percent, or even lower."


Pelosi and the Politics Pandemic

Commentary

To paraphrase The Godfather: Just when you thought common sense had taken over and youre done with obsessive, non-stop, nauseating politics dominating your life, it pulls you back in.

Even during a pandemic, when, you would hope, people would know better.

They dont.

Especially House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), for whom politics has been her sine qua non since birth. Its more than mothers milk to her. Its that, plus her entire bloodstream, plus the limbic system, and who knows what else.

On March 29on CNNs State of the Union with Jake Tappershe  whats the proper verb?  raged?  vilified?  Trump, telling Tapper as the president fiddles, people are dying.

Trump, a fiddler? Like Nero? Whatever else the man is, hes a workaholic. Sometimes it seems as if he never sleeps. He may not be doing things Pelosis way, but odds are if he were, shed reverse herself and declare that wrong anyway.

If anyone can be accused of fiddling, its Pelosi, who held up the relief package for days making sure that her pet projects (Beltway folks have to have their Beethoven, even if they cant sit together) were injected into the trillions on offer. She was also the person who urged people to visit San Franciscos crowded Chinatown for the Lunar New Year, undoubtedly to highlight that Trump had banned travel from China and was, therefore, racist.

In a similar manner, the mayor of New Orleans is blaming Trump for not banning Mardi Gras now that her city has a growing virus breakout. What was her job? Blame everyone but yourself and failing that, blame Trump.

In our world, political hostility seems to overrule everything, obliterating common sense and collegiality in a crisis. In a sense, we have a politics pandemic, as well as a medical one.

The medical one is probably worse, but the political one isnt terrific and seems to be spreading with the rapidity of the original. Also, they work together, reinforcing each other. The political pandemic helps the medical pandemic spread.

It wasnt always that way. It wasnt much more than a week ago that collegiality reined. Govs. Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo were speaking well of Trump, lauding the president for his cooperation in the fight against the virus. Trump was lavish in his praise, demonstrating the feeling was mutual.

Then, the roof fell in, at least on Cuomos part. He started by attacking Trump for not delivering enough equipment (hospital beds, ventilators, and so forth) but then let loose on the president as if he were a dictator for suggesting the possibility of quarantining New York and its neighboring states.

In probability, Trump, president of 50 states, was just trying to prevent the spread of the disease. But the president evidently (and wisely, in my view) didnt want to get into a fight with New Yorks governor. The idea was quickly passed off to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a recommendation not to travel. But Cuomo had treated it as Armageddon, even un-American. Why?

Politics again, I submit. Cuomo was getting whispers from his party that he was too close to the president and, more importantly, his name was being bandied about as a possible president himself, now that the Biden campaign was luffing.

A possible president doesnt consort with the enemy (i.e., the incumbent) in 21st-century politically obsessed America, pandemic or no. He attacks him, no matter what.

As for the media, they are, if anything, worse than the politicians. Forget reporting the news. They see their job as playing gotcha on as many levels as possible. On the most primitive, we have seen it writ large with the White House press that take a rote (and virtually brainless) adversarial stance at every presidential press conference.

But even on the supposedly more sophisticated levels (e.g., Tapper, Chris Wallace), its about setting subtle traps that ultimately reward the journalist with a scalp. So the media fans the politics pandemic, spreading it further.

As we know, these political hatreds in our society have been with us for some time, rupturing workplaces, friends, and family. Its a game that we can play or not. Better yet, we can keep it in its proper place and not let it take over every aspect of our lives. Thats something we can learn during the pandemic that will reward us afterward.

Roger L. Simon is The Epoch Times senior political columnist. His most recent novel is the well-reviewed The GOAT. Set in the world of big-time tennis, and unlike much of his writing, it is almost entirely apolitical.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. As part of a relief package aimed at eliminating the economic consequences of the coronavirus outbreak, the government of Armenia has announced it will provide direct financial assistance to employees of the hardest-hit areas.

Deputy PM Mher Grigoryan said the employees of hotels, restaurants, tourism sector, retail trade and services will receive assistance payments in the size of an average salary. He said this relief package does not cover retail trade of food, liquor, tobacco or medication.

Self-employed people will also receive the assistance payments.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan added: It is very important to say that we are assisting the employees, the employees themselves will receive the money, not their employers. He said the assistance will be formalized as benefits, in order not to charge taxes.

Barbershops and non-food retail trade is the target group of this assistance, with the number of beneficiaries exceeding 100,000. The programs budget will exceed 10 billion drams.

Employees can apply for the assistance at www.online.ssa.am.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
As criticism grows in several countries over the sub-standard quality of shipments received from China related to combating the Covid-19 pandemic, Canadas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was categorical that any equipment provided to health care workers in the country needs to be of acceptable quality.

China has already started a PR exercise highlighting how it is helping other nations in the effort to tackle the crisis. Its embassy in Ottawa tweeted about the Bank of China donating medical supplies to Canada.

Probably chastened by the experience of other nations like the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Spain, Trudeau made it clear any such material will have to pass Canadian quality standards. During his daily media appearance, Trudeau said he wanted to assure Canadians that Health Canada has very strong procedures for evaluating, ensuring what we get is up to the necessary standards and there will be no corners cut on this one.

He added that such supplies that health care workers rely on to keep them safe is of a quality that is going to actually do the job.

That statement came even as the Dutch Government recalled 600,000 defective masks received from China and similar reports relating to testing units have risen in other countries.

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HomeSmart International Seeing this franchise continue to grow is one of my proudest achievements, said HomeSmart International Founder and CEO Matt Widows.

HomeSmart is excited to announce they have once again been included on the 2020 REAL Trends 500 as one of the 500 largest residential real estate brokerages in the nation.

Based on the brokerages overall performance in 2019, HomeSmart ranked number seven on the REAL Trends 500 with 42,268 residential transaction sides closed last year and number eight for $13,447,121,512 in closed sales volume.

Being named to the REAL Trends 500 for another year is a huge honor for our company, stated HomeSmart International President Ashley Bowers. We are so proud to have a brokerage model that serves agents and brokers by equipping them with the tools, resources and service they need to run an efficient business and take care of their customers.

HomeSmart reached new levels of success this year due largely in part to their expanding agent network, which currently includes nearly 10,500 agents brokerage-wide and more than 18,000 agents across their national franchising system. The company is constantly innovating what a 100-percent-commission brokerage model looks like through groundbreaking technology, systems and services for their agents, along with support and training opportunities that help agents achieve their business goals.

Seeing this franchise continue to grow is one of my proudest achievements, said HomeSmart International Founder and CEO Matt Widows. HomeSmart was started 20 years ago right here in Arizona, and it is a testament to the success of our business model when we continue to see this brokerage thrive as well as so many of our franchises. In the years to come, we plan on continuing to support and empower franchise owners to grow the HomeSmart model across the country.

Six additional HomeSmart International franchises ranked for closed transaction sides and closed sales volume:

HomeSmart Evergreen Realty in Irvine, California

HomeSmart Connect in Arlington Heights, Illinois

HomeSmart Realty Group in Salem, Oregon

HomeSmart Professionals Real Estate Network in Warwick, Rhode Island

HomeSmart Realty West in Carlsbad, California

HomeSmart PV & Associates in Modesto, California

The 2020 REAL Trends 500 is an independently verified compilation of the nations leading residential real estate companies. REAL Trends, the trusted source for news and research about the real estate brokerage industry, has been ranking brokerages for more than 32 years and is the most-trusted brokerage ranking report in the industry.

The REAL Trends 500 also ranks the top affiliated firms, largest independents, top movers by count and percent, the Billionaires Club, Up-and-Comers (firms that did not qualify for the 500 yet still closed 500 or more sides for the year), and other categories.

To learn more about HomeSmarts brokerage model and find out how you can join, visit https://homesmart.com/join-us/.

About HomeSmart International:

Founded in 2000, HomeSmart is ranked in the top 10 real estate brokerages in the United States and the number one brokerage firm in the Phoenix market and in Colorado. From its international franchising headquarters based in Scottsdale, HomeSmart International offers franchisees efficiency and innovation coupled with the systems and technologies necessary to succeed in today's evolving real estate industry. Today, the brand has 190 offices in 35 states and more than 18,000 agents nationwide. For more information on HomeSmart International and its franchise opportunities, visit https://www.homesmart.com. Follow HomeSmart International on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/homesmartfranchise and on Twitter and Instagram @HomeSmartIntl.
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Rio Tinto said it continues to work with its customers to fulfil orders and meet their requirements, amid the Covid-19 pandemic. But, the company is complying with government directives. The company's commercial teams in their key locations are focussing on business continuity and customer support. The Shanghai team is returning to the office today as China recovers from the pandemic. Rio Tinto chief executive J-S Jacques said 'Covid-19 is a human tragedy and we all have to play our part as the pandemic spreads......We are not at all complacent. Safety and health comes first as we keep delivering for our customers, our host governments and communities.' The company has pledged a further $25 million to support global grassroots community Covid-19 preparedness and recovery. This takes the company's total estimated voluntary global community contributions to around $60 million. Rio Tinto noted that many functional leadership teams across the company has been split into red and blue teams to maintain resilience and continuity, with a priority to protect critical operations support teams such as employees running the operational centres in Perth, Brisbane and Bagotville and information technology and cyber security teams. The company's employees and contractors cannot visit vulnerable communities - those in which underlying health challenges are prevalent, or those in remote areas where health care infrastructure is not strong - without the express approval of appropriate community and the company's leadership, Rio Tinto said. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
West African lions are a critically endangered subpopulation, with an estimated 400 remaining and strong evidence of ongoing declines.

About 90% of these lions live in West Africa's largest protected area complex, the W-Arly-Pendjari. The WAP Complex includes five national parks and 14 hunting concessions across roughly 10,200 square miles in Burkina Faso, Niger and Benin.

Given that wildlife protection is one of the main purposes of a national park, you might expect West African lions to favor life inside park boundaries, rather than within the privately managed hunting concessions that surround the parks. After all, lions tend to shun people, and human pressures are higher in hunting areas than in the parks.

But a new University of Michigan-led camera survey of West African lions--believed to be the largest wildlife camera survey ever undertaken in West Africa and the first carried out within WAP Complex national parks and hunting concessions--found that West African lions show no statistically significant preference between the parks and trophy-hunting areas.

The findings, scheduled for publication March 30 in the Journal of Applied Ecology, have implications for conservation management of the remaining West African lions.

"Our results suggest habitat quality in national parks is inadequate, leading to a lack of preference in lions despite lower human pressures," said doctoral student Kirby Mills of U-M's Applied Wildlife Ecology (AWE) Lab, lead author of the study.

The researchers suspect that the lure of plentiful water, high-quality habitat and abundant prey on hunting properties outweigh the lions' natural avoidance of humans. Revenues from trophy hunting pay for enhanced infrastructure such as irrigation systems and solar-powered pumps at watering holes, as well as added patrol staff.

At the same time, under-resourced national parks struggle to deal with degraded wildlife habitat, poachers, inadequate staffing and displacement of wildlife by livestock, which are permitted within the parks.

"We recommend prioritizing the reduction of habitat degradation in the parks and increasing water availability to increase suitable habitat for lions and their prey," said Mills, who conducted the study for her master's thesis at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability. "But at the same time, we recognize that management interventions at a large scale require economic resources unavailable to park managers in WAP, an incongruity prolific throughout the range of African lions."

The study's senior author is Nyeema Harris, an assistant professor in the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and director of the AWE Lab. Harris designed the project and led the fieldwork with an international team that included government employees and students from Burkina Faso and Niger.

In the U-M-led study, 238 motion-activated digital cameras were deployed across 5,000 square miles in three WAP Complex national parks and 11 of the hunting concessions. The fieldwork was conducted from February through June in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Some 1.7 million images were captured during that time, but West African lions triggered the shutter just 96 times, reflecting the critically endangered feline's scarcity. The cameras were programmed to rapid-fire three to five frames when triggered, so the total number of lion images is 360.

The camera data were used in two types of mathematical models--occupancy models and structural equation models. The occupancy models allowed the researchers to calculate the probability that an animal used a given space, while the SEM models enabled them to disentangle the relative effects of environmental, ecological and anthropogenic factors influencing space use by West African lions.

The researchers found that lion occupancy was largely driven by prey availability, which in turn was shaped by ecological and environmental variables--such as water availability and habitat diversity--that scored higher in hunting concessions than in national parks.

Contrary to the researchers' expectations, the WAP Complex lions showed no discernable preference between national parks and hunting zones. The U-M-led study provides the first estimate of West African lion occupancy using camera-trap data.

"We hypothesize that ecological cues indicating high-quality habitat, such as plentiful water and available prey, are mitigating the expected avoidance response to the increased human pressures and competitor activity in hunting concessions," Harris said.

"Because the lions rely heavily on prey, managers may be able to manipulate the distribution of prey within WAP to directly influence spatial distributions of lions and indirectly reduce human-lion conflict.

Stretching across three countries in the West African savanna belt, the WAP Complex is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is described by the U.N. agency as "a refuge for wildlife species that have disappeared elsewhere in West Africa or are highly threatened."

Trophy hunting is permitted in all of the WAP Complex concessions but is illegal in the five national parks and in Niger's Tamou game reserve, which is part of the protected area complex. The lions are known to feed on several species of antelope, as well as savanna buffalos and warthogs. Predators that compete with the lions for food include spotted hyenas and leopards.

West African lions are categorized as critically endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. In its 2015 assessment, the IUCN states that the West African lion subpopulation is estimated at just above 400 animals, with fewer than 250 mature individuals.

West African lions are smaller than, and genetically distinct from, other African lions. They form smaller prides, and the males have little to no mane.

"This population continues to decline," the IUCN assessment states. "Further deterioration of the last protected areas harbouring lions in West Africa will likely lead to the local extinction of the species."

###

Authors of the Journal of Applied Ecology study, in addition to U-M's Mills and Harris, are Yahou Harissou and Yaye Abdel-Nasser of Parc W.-Niger in Niger, and Isaac Gnoumou and Benoit Doamba of Burkina Faso's Ministry of Environment.

Financial support for the project was provided by U-M's African Studies Center-STEM Initiative, the U-M Office of Research, the German Society of Mammalian Biology and the Detroit Zoological Society.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4uswYswUik&feature=youtu.be

Images: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11Ik1Jrn9CLxMjzXDvKNqmEVoMYdapswB

Study abstract: Comparable space use by lions between hunting concessions and national parks in West Africa (full study available once the embargo lifts)

Kirby Mills

Nyeema Harris
CHINA AND CUBA:

INTERNATIONALISM AT ITS FINEST

The Republic of Cuba and the Peoples Republic of China are showing the way forward, both in tackling the virus crisis and demonstrating a new standard for international relations based on cooperation and friendship.

Despite dealing with their outbreaks of COVID-19, these countries in particular have shown great generosity in helping the rest of the world tackle the pandemic.

For several years Chinese President Xi Jinping has promoted the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind. Given the ever-increasing interconnectedness of human societies worldwide, large-scale cooperation and planning is needed to address the problems we face. International relations based upon competition and hostility are, ever more clearly, in opposition to the interests of our entire species. Major examples of relevant issues have been those of peace, environment, poverty and economic development. These remain no less urgent matters, but the COVID-19 epidemic has acutely illuminated this principle and brought the demand for change to the fore.

The Chinese government and many organisations within China have sent medical supplies and staff to dozens of countries around the world. So too has the tiny nation of Cuba, supplying Cuban antiviral medicine Interferon Alfa-2B to many countries (including China), as well as other supplies and skilled medical teams.

Cuba also aided hundreds of passengers on the British cruise ship MS Braemar by allowing the ship to dock in Cuba and the passengers to fly home after the ship spent over a week being refused entry to several countries including the United States.

US-aligned media has incessantly attacked China during this crisis, making ludicrous criticisms of Chinas response that become more ironic by the day. The US and other Western governments have all enacted a much slower response, despite having months more warning, and are timidly starting to introduce the same necessary measures they had labelled authoritarian in China.

It is only since the crisis hit the stock markets that Western governments have taken it at all seriously. China, on the other hand, showed no hesitation in shutting down most of its economy in order to control the outbreak. This approach has already proven successful. Now Chinese experts are being sought after by countries around the world, and China is generously providing all forms of assistance.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, in a passionate speech, criticised the European Union for denying Serbia medical imports from the EU, saying European solidarity does not exist and described the Peoples Republic of China as the only ones who can help us. China has sent Serbia medical teams, test kits and other medical equipment.

Meanwhile, information was leaked to the German media suggesting that US President Donald Trump offered German pharmaceutical company CureVac one billion dollars for exclusive rights to a COVID-19 vaccine under development. An unnamed US government official has denied some of the content of this report, claiming that if the US were to procure exclusive rights to a vaccine, they would still share it with the world. But simultaneously, the US government persists in its criminal blockades against many countries such as Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Syria and the DPRK, restricting access to vital medical supplies and willingly causing unnecessary deaths  all the while claiming that these sanctions only target the governments of these countries and not their people.

A political world away, in a phone call with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel last month, President Xi Jinping said China highly appreciates the understanding and support the Cuban side and the Cuban president himself have shown for Chinas anti-epidemic efforts. He also stressed that China and Cuba are good friends, good comrades, and good brothers who can rely on each other in difficult times and are as close as lips and teeth. He further stated that the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government will, as always, support Cubas pursuit of a socialist path.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel responded that Chinas successful measures to combat the epidemic have fully demonstrated Chinas strong mobilisation ability and the great advantages of the socialist system.

He also complimented President Xis leadership, and thanked China for its long-standing support for Cubas just cause and its assistance for Cubas development and construction, declaring that Cuba stands ready to work with China to further consolidate their traditional friendship.
A governor in Somalia's Puntland has been killed in a suicide bombing claimed by the al-Shabaab jihadist group, police and hospital sources said Monday.

Abdisalan Hassan Hersi, governor of Nugaal region, succumbed to his injuries after being rushed to hospital in Garowe, the capital of Puntland where the blast occurred Sunday.

"The doctors tried to save the governor's life but unfortunately he died from his injuries," Mohamed Weli, a police officer in Puntland, told AFP by phone.

"He was in a critical condition when he was admitted to hospital." A source at the hospital, who did not wish to be identified, said the governor died less than an hour after being admitted to the intensive care ward.

"He was badly wounded in the blast and he had little chance of surviving such serious injuries," the source told AFP.

A former police commander and a civilian also wounded in the blast were being treated at hospital, officials said Monday.

Several witnesses described the attacker running at the governor's vehicle before detonating a suicide vest, triggering an explosion.

Al-Shabaab, an Islamist militant group waging a deadly insurgency in Somalia, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement.

The Al-Qaeda affiliate was driven out of Mogadishu in 2011 and lost most of their strongholds, but still control vast swathes of the countryside.

They have vowed to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu and have carried out many attacks in the capital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The army has warned its personnel that non-disclosure of Covid-19-related information, including symptoms, contact history with patients or travel to coronavirus affected areas identified by the government, will be considered as willful concealment and be dealt with as a breach of discipline under the Army Act 1950.

Breach of discipline is covered under several sections of the Army Act --- Section 41 (disobedience), Sector 42 (insubordination/obstruction), Section 45 (unbecoming conduct) and Section 63 (violation of good order and discipline).

Disciplinary action could be taken against such personnel and the punishment would depend on the nature of offence --- whether it is due to negligence or a deliberate act, two senior officials familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.

Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic

An advisory issued on March 25 said it was obligatory for all ranks to disclose symptoms, contact with infected patient/relative/friend (during leave or temporary duty) and travel to Covid-19 hotspots to superiors during roll call or while being screened by medical authorities.

The letter said non-disclosure of such information could result in other soldiers getting infected.

The advisory, issued by the adjutants general branch, said the pandemic had spread to all parts of the country, and soldiers and their families were at risk of getting infected.

Two soldiers, including an army doctor, tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday at a time the force is taking aggressive measures to tackle the spread of the disease in its ranks. While one of them is a colonel-ranked officer posted at the Kolkata-based Eastern Command hospital, the other is a junior commissioned officer in Dehradun.

In an address to soldiers on the Covid-19 outbreak on March 27, army chief, General Manoj Mukund Naravane, said it was important for them to stay fit and remain away from coronavirus if they have to help the countrymen in these serious times.

Naravane asked them to strictly adhere to a string of preventive measures circulated by the army to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The army, which is at the forefront of the countrys fight against the pandemic, has taken a raft of preventive measures, including cancellation of all non-essential training, conferences and travel, a freeze on postings and foreign assignments, avoiding any assembly that involves more than 50 personnel, postponing all courses for officers and encouraging personnel to work from home wherever possible.

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Cynthia Bailey from The Real Housewives of Atlanta is in the middle of the drama this season. The former model has developed a friendship with Kenya Moore and rekindled her friendship with Nene Leakes. Both Moore and Leakes are at odds with each other which makes it awkward for Bailey. The latter usually tend to shy away from getting into the mix of controversy but after an explosive feud, she finally picked a side.

Cynthia Bailey | Tommy Garcia/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

What happened between Nene Leakes and Kenya Moore?

The ladies of RHOA booked a trip to Greece which was supposed to be a relaxing getaway. However, with the close proximity to each other and having to mingle all day, tensions only rose for the Georgia peaches. The vacation happened to come a day after Moore announced she was separating from her husband Marc Daly.

When they arrived at the southeastern European country, Bailey wanted to show Moore support. To do the latter, she enlisted Leakes to help her out as she has experienced divorce in her life. The OG of the A-T-L was surprisingly up to consoling Moore during her difficult time. Keep in mind that they have both been clashing throughout season 12.

After Bailey had a talk with Leakes, the latter tried to be open to mending things with Moore. However, the former Miss USA titleholder was not ready to be friendly with Leakes and continuously snubbed her every time she tried to reach out.

Leakes finally got over the situation and went off on Moore telling her that she was done trying to play nice.

Cynthia Bailey reacts to the drama

Leakes has called out the RHOA ladies for not having her back and for enabling Moore to continue being shady towards her. What the Glee alum wanted was for Bailey to acknowledge at the moment she was trying but Moore was rejecting her.

During an episode of Watch What Happens Live, Bailey was asked about the situation and she gave Leakes props for showing compassion.

I will say in Nenes defense, she really tried to be kind to Kenya in that moment, Bailey said. She really, truly did, and Kandi [Burruss] and I had a whole thing with the ladies about like, Please show compassion to Kenya. You guys might not be in the best place. But this had just happened, and she was really in a lot of pain. So once we had that talk and everybody kind of agreed to be OK, for it to go to the left was like, Come on, Kenya, can you just let Nene be nice to you?'

Kenya Moore shares her side of the drama

Moore was in a cloudy headspace following her own family drama with her husband. Fans and everyone could see that she was not in the happiest of places. On the RHOA: After Show, Moore said she didnt wasnt receiving positive energy from Leakes.

Well, heres the thing that you guys dont see. She was never looking in my direction, and she was constantly trying to take the attention off of whatever I was saying to what she was saying, Moore shared on the After Show. I pick up on everything. One thing about me, I read a room, and I see everything thats going on. I could just tell she is not sincere in being there.

Moore said that she was vulnerable at the time. She also didnt feel it was right to talk to Leakes in that moment as she had unresolved issues with her.

Lets just give me a minute to grieve and have some fun, and when the time is right, lets talk. But the first night and sitting there and seeing how she was behaving at the table, I just was not feeling it, and I have a right to feel that way, Moore added.

The Real Housewives of Atlanta airs Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.
Spain has become the third country to surpass China's coronavirus infection total after the number of cases rose by almost 6,400 overnight.

Health authorities said Monday that they had diagnosed a total of 85,195 cases of the virus, up by 6,398 from 78,797 reported the day before. China has reported more than 82,000 cases.

The US - with more than 140,000 confirmed cases - and Italy - with almost 100,000 - have also surpassed China's figure.

Spain's death toll also increased by 812 overnight from 6,528 to 7,340. Monday's increase was steep, but not as steep as Sunday's total of 838 which marked the country's worst day of the pandemic so far.

Only Italy has recorded larger one-day death totals than Spain, with its worst day coming between Thursday and Friday last week when 969 were killed.

Spain has now registered more coronavirus infections in total than China - at 85,195 - but the rate at which new people are becoming infected has started to fall, as this graph shows

Coronavirus deaths have continued to climb in Spain as hospitals have been overwhelmed. Monday saw 812 people die, a high total but marginally better than the 838 who died Sunday

Spain recorded an additional 6,398 coronavirus cases between Sunday night and Monday, meaning has now surpassed China's reported total alongside Italy and the US

Members of Spain's military emergency unit with marks on their backs from carrying backpacks filled with disinfectant prepare to disinfect a facility for the mentally handicapped

Cars carrying military emergency units from Spain make their way through the streets of Madrid as they disinfect public buildings

Soldiers and workers of NGO Medecins du Monde are seen at Gregorio Maranon Hospital where a field hospital has been set up to deal with infections in Madrid

Some 12,298 health workers have tested positive for coronavirus in Spain, deputy health emergency chief Maria Jose Sierra said at a news conference on Monday.

That is equivalent to around 14 per cent of the country's 85,195 confirmed cases, roughly the same proportion as last week.

In Madrid, where nearly half of the total deaths have been recorded, flags were hoisted at half-mast Monday as authorities declared the start of an official mourning.

The first of daily minutes of silence to honour those killed also took place at noon.

Authorities also stepped up the country's half-a-month lockdown on Monday, beginning with a new two-week period of 'hibernation,' as described by a Spanish Cabinet member in order to alleviate pressure on the country's health system.

Only workers in hospitals, pharmacies, the food supply chain and other essential industries are required to work until the end of Easter, in mid-April, while the rest have been asked to scale back operations to weekend-level.

Doctors, nurses and hospital workers at the Quiron Hospital in Barcelona observed a minute of silence at midday Monday before bursting into applause for a doctor who died at the centre

Health workers keep a minute of silence after the death of a doctor from coronavirus at the Quiron Hospital in Barcelona

Spain's government has declared a daily minute of silence to honour those who have died from coronavirus, with flags flown at half-mast over Madrid's government building

Spanish national flag flies at half mast on top of a banner reading 'Thank You. Stay at Home' an the facade of Madrid's City Hall

Firemen take part in the disinfection of religious residence of the Sant Josep College, in Barcelona, on the 16th day of the country's lockdown

Firemen take part in the disinfection of the Barcelona nursing home in Barcelona

At least six of Spain's 17 regions are at their limit of ICU beds and three more were close to it, authorities said, while frantic construction of field hospitals continues.

Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez announced the new restrictions in an address to the nation at the weekend.

He said: 'I'm announcing to you that the Spanish government will tomorrow (SUN) approve in an emergency Cabinet meeting an exceptional measure.

'All workers performing non-essential activities must remain at home for the next fortnight like they do at the weekend.'

He added: 'If we achieve the level of mobility we're seeing at weekends on working days, we can halt even more the spread of this pandemia.'

King Felipe VI of Spain and his wife Queen Letizia speak to Spanish Red Cross workers about the coronavirus crisis from the Zaruzela Palace in Madrid

Felipe and Letizia were given updates by Red Cross workers on efforts being taken to contain the spread of coronavirus, including expanding the nationwide lockdown

Soldiers from the Emergency Military Unit (UME) set up a field hospital at the Gregorio Maranon hospital in Madrid

Soldiers from the Emergency Military Unit (UME) bring equipment to a field hospital set up at a hospital in Madrid, which has been badly hit by the virus

The period of the ban covers eight working days. Employees who have to stay at home will be paid but will be expected to do extra hours over the next few months to make up the time they are not at work.

The government announcement came as no surprise as ministers had hinted a tightening of the work regulations was being looked at earlier in the week.

Construction workers and workers in factories which are not producing medical equipment or essentials like food will be among those who will join the likes of restaurant and bar staff who have already spent two weeks under lockdown.

The measure will not affect medical workers, police and lorry drivers who are transporting food and other basic commodities. Supermarket staff will also continue to work.

Mortuary employees wearing face masks bury the coffin of a COVID-19 coronavirus victim at Fuencarral cemetery in Madrid on Sunday

A priest gives funeral rites at Salvador cemetery during the coronavirus outbreak, near to Vitoria, northern Spain

Those who have died of coronavirus in Spain include the head of an elite Spanish police unit created to fight ETA terrorism.

Jesus Gayoso Rey, 48, lost his fight for life on Friday at a hospital in the northern Spanish city of Logrono.

He was head of the Civil Guard's Rapid Action Group, which has become heavily involved in recent years in the fight against radical Islamic terrorism.

Members of the special forces unit, which has also undertaken international missions in places like Kosovo and Haiti, arrested British fugitive Daniel Dobbs in January at his hideaway in Malaga.

Entrance of Gregorio Maranon Hospital in Madrid, where screening centres for patients with coronavirus symptoms (left) have been set up outside the main building

Medics in protective gear make their way into Gregorio Maranon hospital in Madrid while those who have removed most of their equipment (left) make their way out

A temporary field hospital at Gregorio Maranon Hospital in Madrid

Firefighters wearing protective suits wait outside a nursing home before disinfecting it in efforts to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus in Barcelona,

A man walks along an street full of closed bars and restaurants in downtown San Sebastian, in northern Spain

The 32-year-old had gone missing from a South Yorkshire prison in November 2018 after being sentenced to 13-and-a-half years in jail in January 2014 for trafficking heroin and amphetamines.

He was held during a dawn raid linked to an operation against an illegal subterranean Costa del Sol cigarette factory he was suspected of running with another Brit.

Spain has now entered the third week of a state of emergency which has meant the closure of theatres, restaurants, nightclubs and clothes shops. On March 14 peoples' free movement was also limited to prevent people doing things like going out for a jog or cycle ride.

Spain's emergency health director Fernando Simon claimed yesterday/on Saturday: 'The disease is stabilising and we can say some areas of the country may have surpassed the peak, although we can't say the same at a national level.'

But during questions from the press at a daily coronavirus briefing he declined to specify which areas he was referring to.

It comes after t he army were handed emergency powers to transfer bodies because undertakers are unable to cope.

The government gave soldiers temporary authorisation to help alleviate the problem by publishing the new order in an official state bulletin today.

The Ministry of Health-issued order states: 'The Armed Forces that form part of the operation against Covid-19 are authorised to drive and transfer corpses at the request of the appropriate authorities.'

Two people dance on the roof of their house in Madrid as they attempt to make the best of the lockdown which has seen people confined to their homes

Health Minister Salvador Illa said: 'Special attention needs to be paid during this health crisis to the issue of the transfer of corpses, to properly manage the removal and conservation of bodies through accumulation and the absence of available funeral services.'

The task of removing coronavirus victims' bodies is expected to fall on Spain's military emergency unit called UME which has been at the forefront of the mass disinfecting of residential elderly care homes and other public areas.

The order is valid until mid-April but are expected to be extended if Spain's state of emergency goes from four weeks to six.

Spain's Defence Minister Margarita Robles told a Spanish TV programme earlier this week soldiers tasked with disinfecting the homes as part of the fight against coronavirus were discovering abandoned bodies.

She said: 'The army, during some visits, has seen elderly people absolutely abandoned, if not dead in their beds.

Her comments have been criticised by senior nursing home workers who say the problem has been that undertakers were saturated by the number of deaths and could not cope.

The sharp increase in the number of deaths caused by coronavirus has laid to bodies being left longer than normal. Pictured: Members of the Emergency Military Unit

Spain is now the fourth worst effected country in the world. Pictured: Medical staff in Madrid transfer a patient in a wheelchair

The latest figures recording the rise in Spain's coronavirus death toll come after:

Spain extended a nationwide lockdown on Thursday by a further 15 days to April 12 and said it was fighting a 'real war' over medical supplies to contain the death toll.

Health authorities are hoping it will soon become clear whether the lockdown is having the desired effect.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose wife is infected with the virus, previously said this is the country's most difficult moment since its 1936-39 civil war.

'Only the oldest, who knew the hardships of the civil war and its aftermath, can remember collective situations that were harsher than the current one.

'The other generations in Spain have never, ever had to face as a collective something so hard.'

First royal death from coronavirus: 86-year-old Princess Maria Teresa of Spain's Bourbon-Parma dynasty dies after testing positive Princess Maria Teresa of Spain has died aged 86 after testing positive for coronavirus. The princess, of the Bourbon-Parma Royal Family in Spain, passed away yesterday her younger brother, Prince Sixtus Henry of Bourbon-Parma, announced. She was born in Paris, France on July 28, 1933 to parents, Prince Xavier and Madeleine de Bourbon, who had a total of six children. Princess Maria Teresa de Bourbon Parme and Prince Jaime de Bourbon Parme arrive for the presentation of her book ion 2014 The royals are members of the House of Bourbon-Parma which is a cadet branch of the Spanish royal family, descended from the French Capetian dynasty. A cadet branch is created when a young member of a Royal Family, who is not the current heir, is granted lands and titles of his own. Members of the family once ruled as King of Etruria and as Duke of Parma and Piacenza, Guastalla, and Lucca until 1859. The news comes after it was revealed Prince Charles, 71, has a 'mild' form of the illness. He is on the Balmoral estate with his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, who has tested negative and is without any symptoms of the virus, which has killed 435 and infected 8,200 more in the UK so far. Maria Teresa Of Bourbon Parma Wearing A Jacques Heim Evening Dress in her younger years Advertisement

Head of elite Spanish police unit created to fight terrorism has died of coronavirus

The head of an elite Spanish police unit created to fight ETA terrorism has died of coronavirus.

Jesus Gayoso Rey, 48, lost his fight for life on Friday at a hospital in the northern Spanish city of Logrono.

He was head of the Civil Guard's Rapid Action Group, which has become heavily involved in recent years in the fight against radical Islamic terrorism.

Jesus Gayoso Rey, 48, (pictured) lost his fight for life on Friday at a hospital in the northern Spanish city of Logrono

Members of the special forces unit, which has also undertaken international missions in places like Kosovo and Haiti, arrested British fugitive Daniel Dobbs in January at his hideaway in Malaga.

The 32-year-old had gone missing from a South Yorkshire prison in November 2018 after being sentenced to 13-and-a-half years in jail in January 2014 for trafficking heroin and amphetamines.

He was held during a dawn raid linked to an operation against an illegal subterranean Costa del Sol cigarette factory he was suspected of running with another Brit.

Civil Guards were joined last night night by National Police officers and emergency services workers in an emotional tribute outside the force's HQ in Logrono

Mr Gayoso, who had no known underlying health issues, had joined the unit he headed nearly 25 years ago.

The married dad-of-two started to feel unwell on March 8 and thought he had common flu. He is said to have been sent home after going to hospital four days later before being admitted to San Pedro Hospital in Logrono on March 17 in a serious condition.

He became the fourth Civil Guard to die of Covid-19. Nearly 800 Spanish police officers have died after testing positive for the virus.

After a round of applause they sang a hymn used to honour Armed Forces members who lose their lives in service. The Christian song translates in English as 'Death Is Not The End'

The Civil Guard said in a tweet: 'We regretfully confirm the death of Jesus, head of the force's Rapid Action Group, victim of Covid-19.

'Our hearts are with his relatives, friends and colleagues. Rest in peace brother. We will never forget your example.'

Civil Guards were joined last night night by National Police officers and emergency services workers in an emotional tribute outside the force's HQ in Logrono.

After a round of applause they sang a hymn used to honour Armed Forces members who lose their lives in service. The Christian song translates in English as 'Death Is Not The End.'

The married dad-of-two (pictured) became the fourth Civil Guard to die of Covid-19. Nearly 800 Spanish police officers have died after testing positive for the virus

Members of Mr Gayoso's unit were involved in making sure coronavirus sufferers in a northern Spanish town which was one of the first to be hit by a mass outbreak earlier this month, obeyed quarantine orders.

More than 30 people tested positive for the virus in Haro, which has a population of just over 12,000, after attending a gypsy funeral in the Basque capital Vitoria.

Police sources said he started to display the tell-tale symptoms of coronavirus before his officers were sent to Haro in hazmat suits. He is believed to have caught it during a work trip to Belgium at the start of the month.
Foureyes Relief Package Theres not a business in America that is not going to have some battle wounds, but we are committed to working together and coming out of this stronger, with better processes and more efficiency.

Foureyes, the sales intelligence software company, announced the launch of the Foureyes Relief Package. The Foureyes Relief Package was developed to give auto dealerships the sales support they need today. The Relief Package is free for car dealers until May 31, 2020.

Known for its patented technology that collects user-level data to improve the sales experience, Foureyes worked closely with automotive partners and dealerships to develop the Foureyes Relief Package in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Weve known that car shoppers have moved online, but this situation pushed dealers past the tipping point towards an urgency to understand what customers were doing on their websites, says David Steinberg, inventor and CEO of Foureyes. The Foureyes Relief Package was developed to support auto dealerships by providing that visibility and is designed to improve efficiency and deliver wins to sales teams.

The goal of the Foureyes Relief Package is to enable dealerships to get visibility into which customers are still interested and actively shopping online, and use this information to dynamically share updates about each leads preferred inventory. Setup is simple, requiring just a single line of script on a dealerships website. The Foureyes Relief Package is available through May 31, 2020 to help auto dealerships navigate the challenges ahead.

With the Foureyes Relief Package, car dealers can:



Make every conversation count. User-level tracking records everything customers do on a dealerships website, so dealers can clearly see who is interested and have more informed sales conversations with leads.

Keep leads up-to-date. Personalized email automation makes sure interested shoppers are kept in the know regarding incentives, price drops, and changes to inventory.

Do more with less. Keep the dealerships virtual showroom running in high gear, regardless of changes to business operations.

Steinberg goes on to say, We will all get through this. Theres not a business in America that is not going to have some battle wounds, but we are committed to working together and coming out of this stronger, with better processes and more efficiency.

Auto dealerships can get the Foureyes Relief Package free through May 31, 2020 by enrolling online. To learn more about Foureyes sales support software, businesses can schedule a demo or contact Foureyes at (971) 352-3494.

About Foureyes

Foureyes sales intelligence software helps businesses track, protect, engage, and sell better. For more information, visit https://www.foureyes.io.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Two COVID-19 patients who were undergoing treatment at the Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram were discharged on Sunday after being successfully treated. As per authorities, the discharged patients are siblings (16-year-old male and 21-year-old female) who had travelled to the UK and are residents of Gururgram.



So far, there have been ten positive cases in Gurugram. Haryanas first COVID-19 patient was a 26-year-old woman from Gurugram with a travel history to Malaysia.

Fortis has set up isolation wards in all of its 28 hospitals across the country and a total of 262 isolation beds have been earmarked to treat COVID-19 patients.



COVID-19 LIVE | 28 dead in India, positive cases cross 1100; Centre suspends four Delhi govt officials



The medical teams at Fortis are already treating 21 COVID-19 positive cases along with 87 suspected cases at various hospitals.



SRL Diagnostics, Fortiss diagnostics company, has been working closely with the Government and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), to augment the nations COVID19 testing capacity.

Fortis hospital, Jaipur had diagnosed one of the first few cases of COVID-19 in the country on March 1 2020 when an Italian national was admitted. Since then its network of 28 hospitals across India has been meticulously enhancing skills and capacities to enable the hospital chain to stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the healthcare delivery system to effectively combat this pandemic, said the authorities in official statement.
Ex Amnesty India chief booked for calling for US like protests

After long, crowded lines, Bengaluru police launch app for issuing e-pass

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Bengaluru, Mar 25: The Bengaluru Police on Sunday launched 'CLEAR Pass' app to regulate the movement of people in the city during the three-week lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus. The system came into effect in the Whitefield division of the city on Sunday and it will be extended to other divisions on Monday.

City Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao said the step was taken keeping in view the directions issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in this regard. "Two types of passes will be issued for the purpose - one for persons and another for vehicles," he said in a memo.

The passes would be issued from the office of jurisdictional DCP L&O (Deputy Commissioner of Police, Law and Order) and will be made available 24X7, with staff to be deputed in three shifts, on the submission of a standardised application form, Rao added.

It should be noted that the city police have already issued nearly 80,000 passes to representatives of essential services and some individuals who cited personal emergencies.

#Stayathome and send us your selfie

The passes can be obtained by the categories exempted from the nation-wide lockdown such as essential services, including delivery agents of food aggregators, media, bank and insurance employees, staff of ration and grocery shops, the memo said.

Making it clear passes would not be issued to government and high court staff and their vehicles, it said they have to compulsorily carry their office-issued identity cards.

NEWS AT NOON, MARCH 30th, 2020

Karnataka State Police (KSP) has partnered with MyGate to facilitate an E PASS system for the organizations, including Government, to enable their employees to move out of their homes and go to work during the COVID-19 lockdown.

How to apply?

TEAR Pass app or on the website kspclearpass.mygate.com and complete the following steps:

Step 1: Enter personal details of the organization representative

Step 2: Enter the OTP sent to your mobile number for verification. Check your spam folder in case you don't receive the OTP

Step 3: Enter additional organization details. You are required to enter your Organization's PAN number here. Please select the Jurisdiction Police Station for your organization carefully as all pass requests would be sent here

Step 4: Please provide more details about your organization. Select the type of service offered from the dropdown. Specify a reason to access the Admin Dashboard or request passes. You may upload supporting documents and then click 'Next' to continue.

Step 5: Your registration request is successfully created and sent to the KSP officers for approval

Due to high volumes, your approval from KSP Officers might be delayed. You will receive an Email on successful approval/denial.

Step 6: Once approved, an SMS will be sent to the representative's mobile number with the link to the Admin Dashboard. Enter your registered email to sign in or whenever you want to create extra passes.

Step 7: Enter the OTP sent to your mobile number/email for verification. Check your spam folder in case you don't receive the OTP

Step 8: To create passes for multiple employees, select 'Bulk Request' in the 'New Pass Request' section in the right side panel. Enter details and upload a .csv file as per the template provided

Step 9: You can track the status of your request in the 'Your Requests' section. You can print passes from here for your approved requests in Landscape mode.

Step 10: Once a bulk request is created, you can preview details of the employees you are generating a bulk request for by clicking on 'View Details' for that request in the 'Your Requests' section. You can print the pass in Landscape mode. Make sure that the entire content of the pass is downloaded before you take the print.

Persons who receive authorisation can go out during the approved time with their smartphone and valid government photo ID Proof and, in case requested by KSP Officers, can show the approved pass.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, March 30, 2020, 11:58 [IST]
Poll strategist Prashant Kishor, once a key aide of Nitish Kumar and now a trenchant critic, demanded the resignation of the Bihar chief minister on Monday, hitting out at the "heart-rending" treatment being meted out to people arriving in the state from outside.

"Another frightening picture of the government's efforts to save people from the corona infection. This arrangement of Nitish Kumar for social distancing and quarantine of the poor people reaching Bihar from many parts of the country after facing heavy difficulties is heart-rending. Nitish must quit," Kishor said in a tweet.

He tagged a short video clip of a group of people locked inside a facility with one of them crying while sharing his troubles.

With migrant workers arriving in Bihar, their home state, to be with their families and escape the hardship caused by the ongoing lockdown, the state government has set up quarantine facilities for them.

There have been reports that the government was forced to allow many of them to head to their respective villages due to their large numbers and the anger against any attempt to prevent their onward journey.

Kishor has been targeting the BJP-led Union government and the Bihar dispensation as well over their measures to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. He had recently alleged that the ongoing 21-day lockdown was botched-up.

Once seen by many as the second-most powerful person in the Nitish Kumar-headed JD(U), Kishor was expelled from the party earlier this year for his frequent criticism of the Bihar chief minister over the latter's support to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Earlier today, Atul Agnihotri took to Instagram and gave us a glimpse from the birthday celebrations of Salman Khans nephew Ahil Sharma. Along with sharing pictures from the intimate birthday bash, Atul wrote, #HappyBirthday #Ahil #4yrs AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Wish you love laughter and happiness always @arpitakhansharma @aaysharma Check out the lovely pictures below.

Meanwhile, Salman recently announced that during the lockdown hell be financially supporting 25,000 workers from the industry who were surviving on daily wages.



ZThe coronavirus lockdown has brought the entire world to a standstill. Countries all over have gone under lockdown to avoid further spread of the deadly virus. This has also affected Bollywood since all production work has been postponed until the situation gets under control. Ever since the lockdown was imposed, Salman Khan took off with his family to his farmhouse in Panvel to self isolate.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 20:57:14|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Three men were sentenced to imprisonment ranging from 10 days to three months on Monday after breaching the compulsory quarantine regulation in Hong Kong amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the first such cases since the COVID-19 outbreak.

A man, 31, will be jailed for three months as he intentionally provided a fake home address to an authorized officer when entering Hong Kong through Shenzhen Bay Port border control point on March 8.

He pleaded guilty at the Fanling Magistrates' Courts on Monday morning.

The judge said the man's act of providing false information was selfish and showed disregard of social safety, and could frustrate the joint efforts of the Hong Kong society to fight the epidemic.

The other two, aged 37 and 41, were sentenced at the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts to imprisonment for 10 days and six weeks respectively as they, after being put under quarantine, illegally left the designated residences and tried to leave Hong Kong.

The sentences sent a clear message that breaching quarantine orders is a criminal offense, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said in a statement, stressing that compliance with quarantine orders is of paramount importance in Hong Kong's fight against COVID-19.

The HKSAR government has imposed compulsory quarantines on inbound visitors at home or quarantine centers. Violators face maximum imprisonment for six months and a fine of 25,000 Hong Kong dollars (more than 3,000 U.S. dollars).
Researchers at the German Red Cross Blood Donor Service in Frankfurt headed by Professor Erhard Seifried, and the Institute for Medical Virology at the University Hospital Frankfurt at Goethe University headed by Professor Sandra Ciesek succeeded in developing a procedure that makes it possible to immediately and dramatically increase worldwide testing capacities for detecting SARS-CoV-2. "This makes it possible for the implementation of expanded testing in larger population groups as demanded by all scientists and also politicians to be carried out sooner than previously thought, even in view of limited test kit resources," says Seifried. The background of this news are laboratory investigations in which swab samples from mucous membranes of the throat or nose are combined using specified procedures in a buffer solution, and subsequently tested using what is known as the PCR procedure (polymerase chain reaction procedure, direct genome detection of SARS CoV-2). In the case of a negative result, all included samples have a reliable negative result. The pool testing has no influence on the detection limit. In the case of a positive mini-pool result, individual testing is carried out in previously reserved samples. The positive sample can then be identified within 4 hours.

Figure 1 shows the new mini-pool method. The swab is first placed in a reserve test tube and subsequently in a pool container. Since this pool method does not increase the volume in the pool container, no dilution and therefore no decrease in sensitivity is observed. Using independent ring trial samples (pre-test of the planned ring trial), that were provided by a ring trial organisation (INSTAND) authorised by the by the German Medical Association, it was able to be shown that the new mini-pool method can obtain laboratory results of equal quality as those obtained with individual testing. The new method was additionally investigated in a small field study on 50 unselected patient samples. The patient samples were pooled in 10 mini-pools of 5 samples each, and also tested individually in parallel. Of the 50 patient samples, 5 samples were SARS CoV-2 positive. These samples were distributed across 4 pools. All four mini-pools resulted in a positive PCR result. Mini-pools containing only samples from patients without SARS CoV-2 always resulted in a negative result.

"On the basis of these laboratory results, in particular large cohorts and testing on asymptomatic individuals can be carried out, allowing a massive savings of test kits in particular," says Ciesek. The research group is currently analysing options for further enlarging the pools. "The results give cause for optimism that when globally established, the procedure will quickly enable better information about the number of people actually infected," explains Professor Schmidt from the Blood Donor Service. This allows the current number of approximately 40,000 tests per day in all of Germany to be immediately increased to 200,000 to 400,000 tests without reducing the high quality of the diagnosis. To continue efficiently implementing the strategy of early detection and isolation, an extension of screening tests is essential, especially for system-relevant professions such as doctors, nurses, police, firefighters, nursing homes, administration and the food industry. The rights to the invention, for which a patent is pending in Europe and the USA, is held jointly by Goethe University and the German Red Cross. The technology can be made available immediately to other interested institutions through Goethe University's knowledge transfer company Innovectis.

Goethe University President Professor Birgitta Wolff describes the new analysis method as a "milestone". "The more people who can be reliably tested for SARS-CoV-2, the faster the pandemic can be curbed."

"With the new method, Germany can take the global fight against SARS-CoV-2 to a new a new level," observes Seifried with optimism. The medical director of the University Hospital Frankfurt, Professor Graf, and the president of Goethe University both stressed the successful and trustful collaboration between the Blood Donor Service, the University Hospital, and Goethe University.

###

Pictures download: http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/87014427 Captions:

a) Graphics: Sars-CoV-2: The mini-pool method allows for increasing test capacities to detect the virus with no decrease in sensitivity. Graphcis: Michael Schmidt, German Red Cross Blood Donor Service, Frankfurt Institute

b) Table: Table of external ring trial samples

Further information:

Professor Dr. med. Dr. h. c. Erhard Seifried (Goethe University)

Medical Managing Director

German Red Cross Blood Donor Service Baden-Wuertemberg - Hessen

Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Immunohaematology

Sandhofstrasse 1

60528 Frankfurt, Germany

Phone: +49 (0)69 / 6782-201

E-Mail: e.seifried@blutspende.de

Homepage: https://www.blutspende.de/startseite/startseite.php

Professor Dr. med. Sandra Ciesek

Institute Director

Institute of Medical Virology

For inquiries please contact:

Public Relations Department, University Clinic Frankfurt am Main, Germany,

Phone. +49 69 6301 6444,

E-Mail: kommunikation@kgu.de

Current news about science, teaching, and society can be found on GOETHE-UNI online (http://www.aktuelles.uni-frankfurt.de)

Goethe University is a research-oriented university in the European financial centre Frankfurt am Main. The university was founded in 1914 through private funding, primarily from Jewish sponsors, and has since produced pioneering achievements in the areas of social sciences, sociology and economics, medicine, quantum physics, brain research, and labour law. It gained a unique level of autonomy on 1 January 2008 by returning to its historic roots as a "foundation university". Today, it is one of the three largest universities in Germany. Together with the Technical University of Darmstadt and the University of Mainz, it is a partner in the inter-state strategic Rhine-Main University Alliance. Internet: http://www.uni-frankfurt.de

Publisher: The President of Goethe University Editor: Dr. Markus Bernards, Science Editor, PR & Communication Department, Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 1, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Tel: -49 (0) 69 798-12498, Fax: +49 (0) 69 798-763 12531, bernards@em.uni-frankfurt.de.
Photo: CTV News

A loud and beloved Vancouver tradition is being altered for the first time in its 164-year history to show the city's appreciation for health-care workers on the front lines of the battle against COVID-19.

The Vancouver Park Board says starting tonight and continuing for the month of April, the Nine O'Clock Gun  a 12-pound cannon in Stanley Park fired every night at 9 p.m.  will be fired two hours earlier, at 7 p.m.

That matches the time each evening when residents across the city stand on porches, balconies and street corners to honk horns, cheer, clap and bang pots in a show of support for health care workers.

The park board says the Nine O'Clock Gun has been silent just a handful of times since it was given to the city in 1856 and the firing schedule has never been altered, but the change reflects widespread public appeals.
Maddy Dunn, a worker at Flights restaurant, fills orders during a drive thru no-touch groceries and to-go food service at the restaurant in Los Gatos, Calif., on March 23, 2020. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Amid Outbreak, Restaurants Switch to Grocery Sales to Help Themselves, Community, Industry

Restaurants across the nation are adapting to the shutdowns caused by the CCP virus pandemic by switching to grocery sales. The strategy is a win-win-win situation, as it helps businesses stay afloat, alleviates supply shortages at regular grocery stores, and diffuses the supply glut in the hospitality industry. Some restaurants are also combining grocery sales with deliveries.

The CCP virus, also known as the novel coronavirus, broke out in the central Chinese city of Wuhan around November 2019 and was allowed to spread across China and the world due to a coverup and mismanagement by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Many U.S. states have banned eat-in restaurants in an effort to mitigate the epidemic. As massive layoffs sweep through the industry, many restaurateurs are looking to adapt. Meanwhile, some states have rolled back regulations to allow restaurants to sell their bulk supply of food directly to customers.

Youre not a restaurant anymore. Youre providing food, Nick Sharp, co-owner at Threefold Cafe in Brickell, Florida, told The Miami Herald.

People dont want $15 avocado toast anymore. They need food thats affordable.

Sharp used to work for a food wholesaler and realized the hospitality shutdown meant that tons of food would now have no way to get to the customers.

Were trying to help our supply chain, he said. Were buying product that at the moment is stuck in the supply chain because all of those distribution companies are selling to hotels, to restaurants, to cruise ships. Their market got immediately shut down about a week ago. So theres an incredible backlog of product, dairy, meat, perishables, everything you can think of that youve ever bought in a restaurant is backed up with all of these suppliers.

Sharp is trying to keep most of his 47 employees on payroll by reassigning them to the new taskbreak up the wholesale packages into smaller ones, listed on his website for regular shoppers to buy.

Locale Italian Kitchen in Mountains Edge, Las Vegas, has adopted a similar strategy. Besides takeout options, it offers meat at wholesale prices.

People obviously arent coming out of their houses and coming to frequent restaurants, so were offering all our wholesale meats at that cost, chef and co-owner Nicole Brisson told Eater Las Vegas. Theyll pay what we pay for it. Weve had a lot of great traction today. Families have come out of the woodwork and are really are excited about this because all the supermarkets are out of meat.

The Eater article offers a list of local establishments that have jumped on the bandwagon: Graffiti Bao, a Chinese restaurant, offers bulk staples. Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar offers curbside pickup of $40 packages that include meat, dairy, grains, vegetables, and even toilet paper. Oyshi Sushi is selling salmon.

The same idea, it seems, occurred to many entrepreneurs independently.

To Boomer Godsill, owner of Original Sunrise Cafe in Boise, Idaho, it came after he saw the empty shelves at his local grocery store.

He realized restaurants use different suppliers and so he called his distributor.

Hey, do you have this and this and this? And if so, bring em in, he later described the conversation to The Idaho Statesman.

He started to put the items on his Facebook page for sale.

It took off where we couldnt handle all the phone calls anymore just within one day, he said.

He set up a website, SunriseGrocer.com, where people can order curbside pickup or deliveries of dozens of grocery items as well as vinyl gloves, paper towels, toilet paper, and more.

On March 29, Godsill put a notice on the stores Facebook page, calling on local businesses to join in.

Sunrise Grocer wants to put your products online and do our part to support local business! he said. Sunrise Grocer will post your product on our webpage and fulfill any orders coming in.

Similar stories are coming from Alabama, California, Georgia, and South Dakota. Among the states that have changed regulations to allow restaurants to sell groceries directly to customers are Michigan, Missouri, and Texas.
CLEVELAND, Ohio A 15-year-old boy was shot and killed Monday in the citys Central neighborhood, according to police.

The shooting happened about 11 a.m. on Woodland Avenue near East 40th Street. No arrests have been made in the case.

Police said they believe the boy was inside a car when he was shot in the stomach. Paramedics took the boy to MetroHealth where he was pronounced dead.

Its the second fatal shooting in two days in Cleveland. A 26-year-old man was shot dead about 5:30 p.m. Sunday in Glenville. No arrests have been made in that case.

Read more from cleveland.com:

Man shot to death in Clevelands Glenville neighborhood

North Olmsted serial purse-snatcher arrested twice in one day after targeting women at grocery stores, police say

Cleveland police officer tests positive for coronavirus, sources says

Akron woman dead in Copley Township crash

Cleveland EMS worker tests positive for COVID-19 coronavirus, memo says
SEATTLE  The Seattle area, home of the first known coronavirus case in the United States and the place where the virus claimed 37 of its first 50 victims, is now seeing evidence that harsh containment strategies, imposed in the earliest days of the outbreak, are beginning to pay off  at least for now.

Deaths are not rising as fast as they are in other states. Dramatic declines in street traffic show that people are staying home. Hospitals have so far not been overwhelmed. And preliminary statistical models provided to public officials in Washington state suggest that the spread of the virus has slowed in the Seattle area in recent days.

While each infected person was spreading the virus to an average of 2.7 other people earlier in March, that number appears to have dropped, with one projection suggesting that it was now down to 1.4.

The researchers who are preparing the latest projections, led by the Institute for Disease Modeling, a private research group in Bellevue, Washington, have been watching a variety of data points since the onset of the outbreak. They include tens of thousands of coronavirus test results, deaths, and mobility information  including traffic patterns and the movements of anonymous Facebook users  to estimate the rate at which coronavirus patients are spreading the disease to others.

The progress is precarious, and the data, which was still being analyzed and has yet to be published, is uncertain. Officials said that expansive social distancing policies will remain a key part of daily life for weeks to come.

But the findings offer a measure of hope that the emergency measures that have disrupted life in much of the nation can be effective in slowing the spread of the disease.

We made a huge impact  we slowed the transmission, Seattles mayor, Jenny Durkan, said in an interview. She cautioned that any lifting of restrictions would bring a quick rise in new cases, and that she expected distancing requirements to continue in some form for months.

There is evidence that doing the aggressive measures can have a benefit, Gov. Jay Inslee said in an interview, discussing the overall numbers he is seeing.

But the governor said that the state was far from turning a corner. While there are indications of improvement, he said, he has also seen numbers in the past few days that have him worried, including a rise in positive test results statewide and the emergence of new cases in rural areas.

He said more restrictions may yet be needed, and that the state is not within 1,000 miles of declaring victory.

It would be grossly irresponsible to stop these measures now, Inslee said.

President Donald Trump said Sunday that the federal governments guidelines for social distancing would remain in place until April 30, backing down from his previous comments that he hoped the country could go back to work by Easter.

Trump had clashed with public health experts around the country when he suggested that the guidelines  which urge people to stay at home and not to gather in groups of more than 10  might be relaxed by April 12.

Washington state, which enacted some of the nations earliest and most stringent containment policies, has continued to see its death toll climb: The state recorded 23 deaths Friday, the most in a single day since the outbreak began; 16 were in King County, which includes Seattle. All told, Washington state has had 4,319 confirmed coronavirus cases through Sunday.

The largest outbreak in the country is now in New York, which reported 237 deaths Sunday, the states deadliest day so far. The number of confirmed cases there jumped by 7,200, reaching 59,513. More than half  33,768  were in New York City, where hospitals and the citys 911 system have been overwhelmed.

I dont think theres any way to look at those numbers, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York said, without seeing thousands of people pass away.

With so many states now deep in crisis, the signs of provisional success in the Seattle area offer a lesson for other cities and regions that are just beginning to see the onset of the coronavirus: Early and aggressive action to contain the spread may help lower the trajectory of a virus that could otherwise overwhelm health systems.

Officials in Washington state first began to plead with people to keep their distance from one another at the end of February, after discovering that the virus had infected people in the Seattle area with no known exposure or history of foreign travel, followed by an outbreak at a suburban nursing home now linked to dozens of deaths.

Within a week, the county was asking organizations to consider postponing large events and for people to work from home if possible. People over 60 were encouraged to remain indoors. Some of the regions major employers, including the headquarters campuses of Amazon and Microsoft, responded by encouraging workers to work from home, quieting workplace hubs that would otherwise be bustling during commutes and lunchtime.

The demographics of those workplaces, with tens of thousands of tech workers who were able to telecommute, may have given the region an early edge in keeping people separated. Perhaps the citys social norms helped, too, as local residents have long had a reputation for keeping to themselves or within circles of longtime friends  a phenomenon often explained to newcomers as the Seattle Freeze.

Durkan said the region also benefited from a robust network of researchers who were able to do early modeling to assess the reach of the virus in the community. Without that, she said, policymakers may not have taken the drastic steps to shut down the city as quickly as they did.

The region has also benefited from more widespread testing than most states, helping feed data to the researchers models and give a sense of how much infection might be missed.

After scientists found evidence that the virus had been circulating weeks before some of the earliest cases were identified, researchers from local groups, led by the Institute for Disease Modeling, began looking at what it would take to slow the progress of the virus. On March 10, they developed projections showing that significant changes in human-to-human contact would be needed to avert hundreds more deaths by April 8.

That projection helped guide a series of actions: The next day, on March 11, Inslee banned events of 250 people in three Seattle-area counties  a measure that was soon adopted across the state and by other governors  and the Seattle Public Schools announced they would close.

Inslee warned at the time how drastically life needed to change, saying it was unacceptable for people to be crammed close together at bars and other settings; the restrictions, he said, were going to be profoundly disturbing to a lot of the ways that we live our lives.

That same day, with case numbers also rising in New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio was not yet endorsing such limits. People should go out and continue to live life, should go out to restaurants, de Blasio said.

Over the following days, both Washington and New York states adopted increasingly stringent restrictions, closing schools, bars and restaurants and ultimately issuing stay-at-home orders.

Washington states coronavirus figures have continued to grow steadily, but not as fast as other states. The death toll has been doubling about every eight days in Washington, compared with every two or three days in New York, Michigan, New Jersey and Louisiana.

Hospitals in Washington have yet to be overrun, although there are continuing concerns about supply shortages and worries that growing caseloads could still become a problem.

While the restrictions have apparently helped slow the virus, they have devastated businesses, in particular restaurants and hotels. The Space Needle is closed. Pike Place Markets breezeways are largely barren. As in other parts of the country, unemployment claims have soared.

Ubah Dahraan, who drives for Uber and Lyft in Seattle, said she began seeing business decline in the first week of March, well before the major mandates imposed by state and local leaders, as city residents started to stay home voluntarily.

A single mother with three teenagers living in her apartment, Dahraan said the family doesnt go outside now, focusing instead on prayer, cooking, reading, and keeping in touch with friends by phone. Originally from Somalia, Dahraan said she hears every day from relatives who are worried about her, including those who Dahraan has supported financially in the past.

One said, I wish I could help send you money to pay bills. This time its your turn,  Dahraan said.

Dr. Jeff Duchin, who is health officer for the regional health agency, Public Health Seattle and King County, said that while the region is seeing positive effects of social distancing measures, there are still significant numbers of new cases developing. He said the area not only needs to continue the current measures, it should also watch to see whether additional containment efforts are needed.

The threat of a rebound that could overwhelm the health care system remains, and will remain for the foreseeable future, if we let up too soon, Duchin said.

Many of the Seattle areas cases surfaced in the suburb of Kirkland, at EvergreenHealth Medical Center, which has handled some 246 confirmed cases and 47 deaths.

Dr. Jeff Tomlin, the medical centers chief executive, said Sunday that the number of cases there has remained steady in recent weeks. At times when the hospitals intensive care unit has neared capacity, he said, it has been able to turn to other nearby hospitals for help.

It would seem for now that it appears manageable, but I would be very hesitant to make any predictions, Tomlin said.

In other parts of the state, concerns are still growing. Dr. Marty Brueggemann, the chief medical officer at Virginia Mason Memorial in Yakima, a city in central Washington, said his hospital is just starting to see cases arrive. While only about 100 cases have been confirmed in the area so far, Brueggemann said he expects that there are thousands more that are undetected, and that those who eventually need hospitalization may not reach that point for days yet.

Brueggemann projects that in the next two weeks his hospital may find itself without enough ventilators. But he said he was encouraged by what he has seen in Seattle.

A lot of us are crossing our fingers and hoping that maybe, maybe, maybe weve done some good here, Brueggemann said. Were not ready to let our guard down.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
A woman appears out of the sunroof of her car as part of a protest to demand that Philadelphia and Pennsylvania officials reduce the population of jails, prisons, and detention centers in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Read more

The sound of honking horns reverberated off the walls as dozens of cars slowly circled City Hall on Monday afternoon, with signs reading Inaction=Murder and Jail the Virus  Free Our People taped to their tightly shut windows.

This demonstration  a call to reduce the population of Philadelphia jails and state prisons, where officials have confirmed that prisoners and staff have tested positive for the coronavirus  was one indication that even under Gov. Tom Wolfs stay-at-home order, Philadelphians will find new ways to take their demands to the streets.

In cities around the world, under similar lockdowns, car caravans have quickly emerged as one means of mobilizing within the strictures of social distancing.

Here in Philadelphia, Refuse Fascism has planned a Drive Trump/Pence Out Now!" caravan to roll through West Philadelphia this weekend. Advocates have also toyed with such a procession to amplify demands for the seizure of Hahnemann University Hospital by eminent domain to house COVID-19 patients. So far theyve opted for a "call-in day and social media storm instead. And in New Jersey, a hundred cars lined up to demand the release of immigrants in the Hudson County ICE Detention Center.

 READ MORE: Mayor Kenney accuses Hahnemann owner of trying to make a buck on the coronavirus

Mondays demonstration  timed to generate a din during Mayor Jim Kenneys afternoon news briefing, and seen on Twitter and Facebook Live  was the culmination of a campaign that has been waged over several weeks on Twitter and Facebook, through email and phone banks, and, as of Monday, in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Pennsylvania seeking action from the state Supreme Court.

At this time when were all trying to keep ourselves safe, for people who are elderly and immunocompromised especially, jail is the least safe place to be right now, said John Bergen, an associate pastor at Germantown Mennonite Church.

 READ MORE: Amid coronavirus threat, Philadelphia will follow New Jersey and New York City in a push to cut the jail population

He said gathering for the car caravan felt more satisfying than all those distant digital pleas cast out over social media. He hoped it would be effective, too.

I think the thing that so many of us have been missing the last few weeks is the ability to gather and hear each others voices not through a Zoom line or a phone call, he said. Theres a real joy Im experiencing right now, in being able to circle City Hall and hear each others horns and see each others faces. Im seeing them through their car windows, but were all able to make noise and shout together. I feel powerful right now.

The fallout from the coronavirus has energized people to step up at an unprecedented level, according to Paul Engler, who co-founded an organization that trains activists and co-authored a book on mass mobilization, This Is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century.

 READ MORE: Why Philly workers are fighting for a local coronavirus relief fund

There are massive amounts of people who are activated outside of traditional organizational structures that want to participate in the solution, he said. At the same time, organizers cant use the same mechanisms theyve always used to engage people in activism and in mutual aid.

Theyre finding new ways, though: There are massive phone banks to simultaneously offer help and sign on supporters. Workers at Amazon and Instacart have walked off the job to demand safety measures. And theres the nationwide #SolidarityAt8 campaign to applaud health-care workers each night at 8 p.m. with a clanging of pots and pans.

 READ MORE: The Instacart coronavirus strike is unlike any strike youve ever seen

At Mondays protest, instead of chanting or passing a bullhorn, someone with a powerful sound system blasted Beyonces Freedom from car speakers. Then, a couple of activists got on the roof of a car to read a list of demands: for the mayor, judges and governor to take action to reduce the jail, state prison, and immigration detention populations before more people are sickened.

Like all protest actions, this one had its risks. Dozens of drivers received $76 tickets for double parking, according to organizers. A Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson denied that anyone was cited in connection with the demonstration.

Reuben Jones, an organizer with the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund, said he received a citation, but planned to fight it. He thought the show of support was worth the risk, to remind elected officials that the call for action is urgent. It made a powerful statement. Traffic was locked up, and people were paying attention.

 READ MORE: SavePhillyEats throws a free financial lifeline to Philadelphia restaurants and bars

Danielle Phillips, a Temple University law student, took a break from whats become a grueling, 24-hour-a-day slog of schoolwork and parenting, to attend. She piled her two children, Eve, 11, and Owen, 6, into the car for the drive from Narberth  call it home-schooling in civics.

I tell them this is your duty as a citizen. Its your duty to care about something," she said. When she saw the line of cars wrapped around City Hall, she said, she was encouraged. It felt like, here is a large group of people asking for something during a time when its pretty inconvenient and even scary to go out.
The headquarters of a religious sect in Delhis Nizamuddin area has emerged as one of the biggest coronavirus disease (Covid-19) hot spots in India with 24 people testing positive and nearly 200 others showing symptoms on Monday when officials began evacuating the six-storey building of some 1,400 people who are believed to have been exposed to the virus.

The building belongs to the Tablighi Jamaat, an evangelical Muslim sect that hosted this month its annual congregation with attendees coming in from several foreign nations such as Indonesia and Malaysia before they spread out to other parts of the country such as Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh, creating a web of close contacts that now threatens to create an explosion of cases in the country.

There are several foreign travellers who visit the complex for gatherings and prayer. We suspect the infection was first brought in by them, said a senior health department official, asking not to be named.

The first indications of the site being a source of the disease came in the middle of last week when officials in four regions  Andaman, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kashmir  began working back the travel histories of patients who tested positive there.

Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic

Eight of these people, including seven who went to Hyderabad and one who went to Srinagar, have succumbed to the disease. The Hyderabad deaths took place on Monday.

All of them had been to the building in Nizamuddin  also referred to as a markaz -- which shares a boundary with the police station and is close to the famous Nizamuddin Auliya shrine.

Shortly after, the district surveillance officer went to the area to screen people for symptoms and collect their samples. Yesterday we got back the reports and six people had tested positive. Now our officers are there screening everyone in the area, anyone with symptoms is being taken to various hospitals. The operation will go on all night long, said Dr Nutan Mundeja, Delhis director general of health services.

As officials began clearing the building slowly, the number of people showing symptoms for Covid-19 had risen to 188 by Monday evening and authorities expected around 300 more with a cough, fever or respiratory distress.

Till now, the most serious instances of the disease spread in India have been in large local clusters -- such as the groups infected in Rajasthans Bhilwara, Maharashtras Sangli and in Punjabs Banga. The patients linked to the Tablighi Jamaat have fanned out across the country, in some instances infecting locals, raising the spectre of having triggered community transmission.

The outbreak prompted the Arvind Kejriwal government to ask the Delhi Police to register an FIR against the head of the markaz. A lockdown was imposed in entire India on March 24 and it was the duty of every owner and administrator of every hotel, guesthouse, hostel and similar establishment to maintain social distancing. It looks like social distancing and quarantine protocols were not practiced here, said a statement by the government.

A hostel-like complex, the building has six floors with accommodations for up to 2,000 people on the upper floors, with the basement and the ground housing a kitchen and a communal dining area. Officials fear that such a nature of the facility may have made the spread of the virus easier.

The 18 patients confirmed on Monday include people from Indonesia, Nepal, and the Indian regions of Kashmir, Assam, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

The Tablighi Jamaat, a sect of preachers that travels across the world to encourage other Muslims to follow the faith, traces its origins in UP and has several chapters outside of the country. The biggest outside India is in Pakistans Raiwind, where the congregation this month was linked to at least 30 infections.

A more serious spread from a sects gathering was reported from Malaysia, where at least 500 from the nearly 16,000 who gathered for the four-day event starting on Feb 27 at the Sri Petaling mosque compound, according to a New York Times report. Three days later, they dispersed to other countries, including India, Pakistan and Indonesia  the three other prominent countries where the sect was next scheduled to hold congregations.

According to a Delhi Police official, the foreign arrivals for the Nizamuddin congregation began on March 10.

On Monday, police cordoned off roads leading to the Nizamuddin area near the police station. The whole city is under lockdown. Now with some cases of people showing symptoms of Covid-19 reported from Nizamuddin area, we have posted more police personnel at the market places and the lanes to ensure that people follow the lockdown. Our officers on the ground are also helping the government officers in Nizamuddin basti area, said deputy commissioner of police (south east) RP Meena.

Several of the confirmed Covid-19 patients linked to the Nizamuddin building covered vast distances, taking trains and flights, after they likely became infected and were potentially passing it on to others. The six who died in Hyderabad were, for instance, in a group including 10 Indonesians who started showing symptoms around March 18. Disease surveillance officials traced their travel history back to Delhi through a train journey and found that they took part in several religious events and stayed at a local madarsa in the Telangana city.
Pro-Khalistan leader Gopal Chawla has said that land in Nankana Sahib beloning to Guru Nanak Dev was being grabbed by the rich by paying money and there was collusion by Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) of Pakistan, which is in charge of educational, charitable or religious trusts left behind by Hindus and Sikhs.

He said in a video that atrocities were being committed and complaints about the misuse of land, registered in the name Guru Nanak Dev in Pakistan's Punjab province, have fallen on deaf ears of authorities.

Chawla, who has been linked to Lashkar-e-Toiba, said in the video that ETPB of Pakistan has been aiding and shielding rich people who have encroached the land of Gurudwara Nakana Sahib.

Chawla said he had given proof of corruption to ETPB chairman Aamer Ahmed who paid no heed to his complaint.

He alleged that Ahmed has been colluding with the land grabbers. Earlier, ETPB was in news for selling Guru Nanak Dev's land.

"I had made a humble request that in Nankana Sahib there is full loot (of land) and I had given proof to Aamer sahib that a lot of atrocities are taking place. Rich people who can give Rs 2 lakh, Rs 3 lakh, Rs 4 lakh, Rs 5 lakh, they are getting their houses made and the poor who have to build on two marla, three marla, there is no law for them," he said.

Chawla alleged that a local patwari behaves like God and he collected proof against him of taking money.

"The small people, who cannot give the money, is there no law for them? Will the land belonging to Guru Nanak will be given to the rich and not poor. The rights of the poor in Nankana Sahib are being crushed by those who can pay Rs 4 lakh, Rs 5 lakh," he said.

Chawla said ETPB chairman paid no heed to their complaints and "no action was taken"."This is atrocity. The land and the langar is for the poor. If poor cannot have it, why are the rich having it?" he asked.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amid 21 days lockdown announced in India, the daily wagers working in factories and construction labour are facing the heat as they are facing challenges to earn and find food for themselves and their families.

Rising up to the situation and with the spirit of gesture in times of crisis, Chandigarh University Gharuan is distributing cooked meals two times a day to poor and needy in the six neighbourhood villages Gharuan, Batta, Mankheri, Mamupur, Roorkee Pukta and Madauli.

The distribution drive started from the first day of the lockdown and will be continued throughout the 21 days period.

The meals are cooked in University mess and then transported to different locations using the institution's transportation.

"We are currently catering to feed about 500 persons daily but we can increase our capacity if the more demand arises in the coming days," said Jai Vardhan one of the volunteers, participating in the drive.

"Although the Government of Punjab is ensuring the distribution of food to the poor and needy community through-out the state, yet as an institution, it is our social responsibility to help the lower sections of the society in whatever form we can," said Satnam Singh Sandhu, Chancellor, Chandigarh University.

"CU is also running an awareness campaign to educate the people and residents of villages about the safety precautions from the dreaded pandemic to be undertaken," he further added.

In addition, the University team is also distributing free hand sanitizers in the villages, old age homes and orphanages which have been prepared by the University Department of Applied Health Sciences.

This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Shiromani Akali Dal's (SAD) Majinder S Sirsa thanked PM Modi for bringing back the mortal remains of Indian Sikhs who were killed in the brutal attack on the Gurudwara in Kabul earlier this month. An Air India flight was sent to Afghanistan to bring back the remains of the martyred men. Their cremation would take place in Lodhi grounds at 3.30 pm.

Read: Kabul Gurudwara Attack: EAM S. Jaishankar Assures Safe Return Of Families To Their Homes

Thanking @narendramodi Ji @DrSJaishankar Ji @HarsimratBadal_ Ji fr bringing back mortal remains of S Tian Singh, S Dewan Singh & S Shankar Singh; Indian residents killd in Kabul Gurdwara attack by Kam Air flight today at 1:15PM

Cremation at Lodhi cremation grounds today at 3.30pm pic.twitter.com/I7avZLI0ui  Manjinder S Sirsa (@mssirsa) March 30, 2020

Read: Medical Opinion Against Moving Injured Now: EAM Jaishankar Condemns Kabul Gurudwara Attack

Terror Attack on Gurudwara

As many as 11 people have been killed, and several injured, in the Gurdwara attack in Kabul, Afghanistan after unknown gunmen and suicide bombers stormed the religious place. Later, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, reported an intelligence group. The gunmen and suicide bombers stormed the gurdwara in Shor Bazar area at around 07:45 (local time) when 150 worshippers were inside the Sikh religious premise.

Read: Here's UN Chief Antonio Guterres' Statement On The Shocking Kabul Gurudwara Attack

Read: Kabul Gurudwara Attack: One Indian Killed, Family Writes To Prime Minister Modi
Syracuse University today awarded a prestigious prize for national political reporting to reporters from The Boston Globe for a series of stories examining the lives of average citizens during Donald Trumps presidency.

Eight journalists for the newspaper will share the 2020 Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, an award administered by SUs S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

The Boston Globe series Back to the Battleground told the stories of residents of four pivotal states in the 2016 presidential election  Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. The newspaper documented how life for people in those states changed or didnt change during Trumps presidency.

The $5,000 Toner Prize honors the life and work of Robin Toner, a 1976 SU graduate who became the first woman to serve as national political correspondent for The New York Times.

Toner died of cancer in 2008. Her friends and classmates from SU established the Robin Toner Program in Political Reporting at the Newhouse School and the annual journalism prize competition, now in its 10th year. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker had been selected as keynote speaker for the annual dinner announcing the winners, but the event was canceled due to the coronavirus.

This was the first year that the program awarded a separate Toner Prize for Excellence in Local Political Reporting. A five-member team from WBEZ Public Media in Chicago won the $5,000 prize for their coverage of the 2019 Chicago municipal elections.

Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Mark Weiner anytime by: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751
"X-Men" star James McAvoy has donated 275,000 pounds to the National Health Service (NHS) to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

The Scottish actor contributed to a crowdfunding campaign set up by a group of doctors under NHS, the publicly funded healthcare system of the UK, reported The Guardian.

The funds will be spent on important Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as masks, visors, gloves, etc for healthcare workers struggling with shortage of supplies during the ongoing health crisis.

McAvoy took to Instagram and highlighted the importance of donating to the NHS.

"Money donated today will save lives. Help us to help the government to help the NHS. The situation is truly urgent and time is of the essence," he says in one of the videos shared on Sunday.

Calling McAvoy's donation "mind-blowing", Dr Salaj Masand, one of the names behind the campaign, said the money enabled them to immediately place an order of 75,000 masks and 75,000 visors.

"We are overwhelmed and speechless at the trust and faith people have put into us to deliver this. The number of very generous donations from everyone doubled our target within three days," Masand said.

The government is doing all it can but the NHS needs all the help it can get, he said.

"We are also competing with the commercial market who are trying to sell the same PPE for extraordinary prices... That is why we raised the capital ourselves and hope to help government distribute these supplies in best possible way," Masand added.

The campaign has already raised 440,000 pounds, crossing the original target of 200,000 pounds. The goal has now been increased to 500,000 pounds.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The zonal command of Kaduna State Vigilante Service (KadVS) in Zaria has arrested four bridegrooms for allegedly flouting the ban on l...





The zonal command of Kaduna State Vigilante Service (KadVS) in Zaria has arrested four bridegrooms for allegedly flouting the ban on large gatherings by the government.





Bala Galadima, Zaria zonal commandant of the KadVS, disclosed this on Saturday while addressing journalists. He said the four persons were arrested within Zaria metropolis.





He also said the alleged offenders were picked up within Lowcost, Mangwaron Babayo, Magajiya, and Bakin Kasuwa settlements following the ban on large social gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic.





According to him, the arrest had come just after the service had earlier apprehended a bride, her groom, and other guests at a marriage ceremony in the city on Wednesday, despite the lockdown.





Four bridegrooms with few of their friends were arrested and are in our custody. They will soon be prosecuted. The arrests were effected at Tudun Wada, Layin Yan Izala and Nagoyi areas, he said.





Governors in the northwest region, including Kaduna state, had earlier shut down schools and campuses as part of measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease.





Kaduna government had also imposed a curfew just after it had banned public gatherings involving more than 50 people.





On Saturday, Nasir el-Rufai, the state governor, had announced that he tested positive for coronavirus.
MOSCOW, March 27 (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday U.S. "narco-terrorism" charges against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro were absurd, adding that sanctions on Caracas could become "a tool of genocide" amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The U.S. government on Thursday indicted Maduro and more than a dozen other top Venezuelan officials on charges of "narco-terrorism," the latest escalation of the Trump administration's pressure campaign aimed at ousting the socialist leader.

Russia, Maduro's longtime political and financial backer, considers those accusations "absurd" and "wild" at a time when countries across the world join efforts to fight coronavirus, the Interfax news agency cited Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, as saying.

"We can not stress enough our call for an immediate lifting of unilateral unlawful sanctions that are turning in the current epidemic into an instrument of genocide," Zakharova was quoted as saying.

Zakharova said Russia had supplied coronavirus test kits to Venezuela, which has reported 107 confirmed cases of the disease and that Moscow would continue helping Caracas to stop coronavirus spreading.

President Donald Trump denied that the charges were an attempt to take advantage of Venezuela at a vulnerable time when it is expected to be hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova Editing by Luc Cohen and Diane Craft)
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/3/2020 (653 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

Why dont we know more about Manitobas first COVID-19 death?

Last week, Manitoba Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin refused to tell us anything about the 60-something woman who passed away after being treated in a hospital intensive care unit. This included a blackout on all details of how, when and where she may have contracted the virus, and whether she could have passed it on to anyone else.

The Free Press confirmed Sunday the woman, Margaret Sader, worked at a Winnipeg dental supply company. However, even with that information, many of the details surrounding her case remain very much in the dark. As do the reasons for keeping additional information out of the public realm.

To date, Roussin has not even offered an explanation for his silence. That is a maddening scenario as we descend ever deeper into this public health crisis. But if Roussin has anything going for him, it is that he is far from alone in keeping a tight lid on the details of individual cases.

Across the globe, as scientists and public health officials debate the nature of the virus and what to do about it, there is a parallel debate about how much information should be released about who has the virus, how they contracted it, where they live and work and who else may have been exposed.

A lack of information in a pandemic can lead to tragic results. Epidemiologists believe one of the main reasons China could not contain the virus when it emerged was because of a concerted effort to conceal its existence that denied the general public the information they needed to protect themselves.

Pro-information advocates will also point to places like South Korea, where an unprecedented collection and publication of information about those who have tested positive has helped dramatically slow the rate of infection.

If South Korea is at one end of the transparency spectrum, then countries like Canada are at the other.

No one is denying the existence of the virus. In fact, the measures taken to stop people from gathering in large numbers  measures that have essentially brought the economy to a halt  prove public-health officials are being frank about the risk. However, on many other matters of disclosure, they have taken a decidedly minimalist approach. We can get real-time numbers on confirmed infections and tests performed but there are almost no other details. There are exceptions.

John Woods / The Canadian Press Lanette Siragusa, Shared Healths chief nursing officer, conducts daily press briefings with Dr. Brent Roussin.

British Columbia public health officials released a lot of information about an outbreak in the Lynn Valley Care home in North Vancouver, the site of the countrys first confirmed COVID-19 death. The identity of the victim, a man in his 80s, was not released. But B.C. did disclose concerns about the conditions in the care centre  including a lack of staff and general lack of cleanliness  that no doubt contributed to the outbreak.

Beyond those isolated examples, we are getting so few details, it makes you wonder if public health officials arent reporting the information because they dont have it.

The who, how, where and when of this virus comes from intensive contact tracing and investigation. This is where public health officials identify the source of an infection and how many other people may have been infected. Its a labourious process that requires nurses with specialized public-health training to perform. So specialized, it turns out, we dont have enough of them.

Last week, Shared Health, Manitobas central organizing agency for health care, outlined plans to add 35 support staff to work with public health nurses on contact tracing. However, Manitoba Health and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority have deflected numerous attempts to identify the total number of public-health nurses who are doing frontline contact investigations. One health-care official admitted last week they dont actually know the exact number of people involved.

No one should be surprised or concerned the public-health system is still ramping up functions like contact investigation. There is no way any province could afford to employ on a regular basis the number of public-health nurses needed to do contact investigations in a pandemic. Unprecedented public-health threats require public-health officials to move urgently to acquire the supplies and people necessary to meet the challenge.

Dan Lett | Not for Attribution A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world that is sent every Tuesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Although we have mobilized enormous levels of material and human resources, the system is clearly overwhelmed. And in many instances, the main casualties have been basic transparency and information.

Roussin and Lanette Siragusa of Shared Health do a daily briefing for journalists and issue bulletins  sometimes twice a day  on new confirmed or presumed infections. Notwithstanding his refusal to provide more details about infections or deaths, Roussin is pretty transparent. But elsewhere, the system has not been as responsive.

Since COVID-19 formally arrived in Manitoba, there have been stories about people having to wait up to a week to get negative results. To address this backlog, last week the province confirmed it had hired a private lab solely to contact people who had tested negative. Thats a pretty good indication the failure to provide information was linked to capacity, and not policy.

Although its not essential to know the identity of the woman who died, we do need much more information about how she got it and whether others were put at risk. And if were not getting that information because the province is still ramping up its information gathering and management functions, then we need to be told that.

So, when Dr. Roussin says he wont tell us more about the woman who died, he may be telling us he doesnt have all the information, yet. If he does, he ought to share with all of us, as soon as possible.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Manila, Philippines  Mon, March 30, 2020 06:39 654 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e33310 2 World Philippines,plane,explosion,flight,plane-crash Free

A medical evacuation plane exploded during takeoff in the Philippine capital on Sunday, killing all eight passengers and crew, including an American and a Canadian, officials said.

The plane, owned by a Philippines-registered charter service Lionair, had been bound for Haneda, Japan, but burst into flames at the end of the runway around 8 p.m. (1200 GMT), Manila's main airport said.

Indonesian carrier Lion Air issued a statement making clear that it is unrelated to Manila-based Lionair.

Video footage showed a huge plume of smoke rising into the night sky as fire crews doused the fuselage with foam.

The twin-jet West Wind 24 plane was carrying three medical personnel, three flight crew, a patient and a companion, Richard Gordon, a senator and head of the Philippine Red Cross, said on Twitter.

"Unfortunately, no passenger survived the accident," the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) said in a statement.

An investigation by the Civil Aeronautics Authority of the Philippines was under way, MIAA said.

The runway has been closed temporarily, affecting an arriving Korean Air flight that was diverted to Clark airport in northern Philippines, said MIAA General Manager Eddie Monreal.

The aim is to reopen the runway about two hours after midnight, he said in a press briefing.

Monreal confirmed that an American national and a Canadian citizen were among those killed, but could not provide further detail. The six others were all Filipinos, he said.
Mauritania, Rwanda, Seychelles and Central African Republic confirmed their first coronavirus cases on Saturday, bringing to 23 the number of African countries that have reported positive tests for the virus.

Moving swiftly to contain its spread, Rwanda, Senegal, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco and Kenya announced tougher control measures, including bans on public gatherings, halting flights and closing schools and universities.

Follow latest updates on the coronavirus crisis here

Three days after the World Health Organization (WHO) described the outbreak as a pandemic, there is concern among health specialists about the ability of some African nations to meet the logistical and financial challenges posed by the fast-spreading virus.

Borders are porous and many nations have extremely poor health infrastructure. Some countries, like Somalia, are fighting insurgencies while others, such as South Sudan, have high levels of malnutrition.

Also Read: Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases

But governments are implementing preventative steps to try to keep the virus at bay.

"To prevent the outbreak entering in Madagascar, all flights connecting Madagascar to Europe are suspended for 30 days," Madagascar President Hery Rajaonarimampianina said in a statement.

Madagascar, one of the world's poorest nations where malnutrition is rife and outbreaks of deadly diseases are common, will also suspend air links to the nearby islands of La Reunion and Mayotte, he said.

The East African nation of Rwanda, which registered its first coronavirus case on Saturday, announced hours later that schools and universities would be closed for two weeks starting from Monday.

Also Read: Coronavirus FAQs: All you need to know about the new pandemic COVID-19

The Health Ministry also called for all places of worship to close their doors and for large gatherings such as weddings and sport events to be postponed.

In West Africa, Senegal announced schools and universities would stop classes and canceled all religious festivals. So far, Senegal has reported 21 cases.

The United Nations said that as of Friday, 39 countries had closed schools worldwide, affecting more than 420 million children and young people.

Other nations suspended flights.

Authorities in Kenya, which confirmed its first case on Friday, banned all major public events and said they would restrict foreign travel. Some private schools said they would close down starting next week.

Kenya is East Africa's richest economy, the regional headquarters for many multinationals and a major regional transit hub.

In North Africa, Morocco suspended flights from 21 countries on Saturday. So far, Morocco has confirmed 13 cases.

Most cases reported on the continent so far are foreigners or locals who traveled abroad. Rapid testing and quarantines have been put in place to limit transmission.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed confirmed Monday that the shelter-in-place orders in effect across the Bay Area will extend until at least May 1.

The orders for people to stay at home for all but the most essential errands took effect March 17. Cutting down on person-to-person interactions as much as possible helps to cut down on the spread of coronavirus, according to public health officials. Its a critical step in flattening the curve  reducing the number of new cases to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed.

The reason weve taken significant steps has everything to do with saving lives and protecting public health, Breed said at an online news conference.

San Franciscos Department of Emergency Management said seven jurisdictions planned to extend their shelter-in-place orders on Tuesday: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Santa Clara, San Francisco and San Mateo counties and the city of Berkeley, which has its own health department. It was not immediately clear whether Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties would also extend their health orders through next month.

Dr. Grant Colfax, director of San Franciscos health department, said there were currently 58 COVID-19 patients in public and private hospitals across the city  though that number could rapidly change, he added.

Colfax declined to say whether the health orders might be changed in other ways.

San Francisco reported 374 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday morning. Six people have died from the disease. Across California, about 7,400 cases have been reported, including about 2,200 in the Bay Area.

The stay-at-home orders were initially planned to last until April 7, but public health officials said from the outset that they could be extended, depending on the regional spread of COVID-19.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases is expected to grow as more people get tested for the disease. Colfax said the health departments lab expected to triple its capacity to analyze tests starting Monday to 150 tests each day.

But he said, like other health care systems across the country, efforts to expand testing have been constrained by severe shortages of equipment needed to perform the tests.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

We are struggling to get swabs in order to test, he said.

Predictive modeling developed by UC Berkeley clinicians, physicians, epidemiologists and research scientists has shown that if San Francisco cannot reduce the spread of new cases, the city could need up to 1,500 more ventilators and 5,000 more hospital beds to meet the surge of new patients.

That surge has not yet materialized, but Colfax said that it was still too soon to say that the risk had passed.

I think its still too early to tell. We are monitoring the numbers, he said. The thing is, when this disease takes off, it takes off very rapidly in communities, just like we saw in New York.

I simply do not know if our aggressive actions early ... have had the intended effect. I certainly am hoping and praying that that is the case. We still need the data to confirm that.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa
Lucknow: Authorities on Monday booked rooms in four luxury hotels in Lucknow for doctors, nurses and other medical staff looking after coronavirus (Covid-19) patients in the city, citing their proximity to the hospitals they are working in.

News agency Press Trust of India quoted Lucknow divisional commissioner Mukesh Meshram saying that the medical staff will not be allowed to go home and will stay in these hotels.

District magistrate Abhishek Prakash said the medical staff of the Ram Manohar Lohia Institute involved in treating the Covid-19 partients would put up in Hyatt Regency and Fairfield by Marriott as they are close to the hospital.

Similarly, the medical staff working in the isolation ward of the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences will stay at The Piccadily and Lemon Tree Hotel for the same reason, he said.

An employee of Fairfield by Marriott, who did not wish to be named, said, The development took place only this [Monday] morning and we are yet to get further instructions from the administration.

Resident Doctors Association of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi last week said some doctors had been forcefully evicted by their landlords over the Covid-19 infection fears, and prompted the government to issue orders saying penal action would be taken against those evicting doctors.

The Lucknow administration has also taken over an exhibition centre, an auditorium and the Haj House to set up quarantine centres and to shelter migrant workers entering the state capital, the district magistrate said.

We have acquired several establishments, including private ones, in order to carry out relief work at ease and to assist those who are engaged in relief operations. Some of the establishments would be transformed into makeshift quarantine centres, he said.
Ukraine's Cabinet revises downward economy outlook for 2020

14:40, 30.03.20 2383

Unemployment rate will make up 9.4% against the projected 8.1%.
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FAMED Congolese-Zambian musician, Andrew Ripper, who currently resides and does his music in Norway, has shown an interest to work closely with Tanzanian artistes.

Ripper who is known for his talent in a diverse genres of song and dance is well known for songs such as Cherie, Dance Together and Twerk It, that have been on the top ten list of the MTV Africa music charts as well as MTV worldwide.

Andrew Ripper was born in Lubumbashi/Elisabeth ville, in the southeastern part of Democratic Republic of the Congo and was raised in Kitwe/Lusaka, Zambia.

In 2017 he focused on his passion for music full time and he acknowledges that he has begun to see the light of his hard work.

He has been following closely the works of Tanzanian musicians such as Ali Kiba, Mimi Mars, Ray Vanny, Harmonize, Barnabas Classic, Vanessa Mdee and many more.

Andrew Ripper recognizes the power and influence that Kiswahili language holds and this has motivated him to use it ever so frequently and has come forward to encourage local musicians to partner and collaborate with him in his work.

He says working with local artists will help promote them internationally, in Norway and other Scandinavian countries where the demand for music concerts and festivals is on the rise.

Concerts that he has worked with before include the Byfest Kristians and Skral Grimstad, Oslo Music Fest, Canal Street, Kilden Concert House which afforded him the opportunity to open for acts such as Wyclef Jean, Salif Keita, Timbuktu, Madcon, Philip Emilio, placing him on a path to bigger and more influential platforms.

He currently has a song with Zambias dancehall artists T Sean and Tbwoy and is looking to broaden his African horizons with more artists but says this will be my first time to come to Tanzania and the main reason for me coming there is of course music; to make good music with good Tanzanian artists.

I have decided to sing more Swahili songs and I will continue to use Kiswahili and I look forward to being in Tanzania as soon as we get through this COVID-19 pandemic says Andrew Ripper.

I will also be going to South Africa, Uganda and Nigeria to make more music but I look forward to working with new music producers from Tanzania and of course good artists as well.

Andrew Ripper looks forward to working with Tanzanian artists because our music has drawn more attention and is listened to in many places both within and outside Africa.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer says lockdown will be lifted gradually  and that it will take at least six months to get back to normal

Life in Britain will not return to normal for six months, the public were warned yesterday, as ministers began preparing the country for an extended period of lockdown. Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said that the strict social distancing rules in place at present would have to remain for between two and three months. She warned that it would be a further three months before all the present restrictions were lifted, and even then there were likely to be bumps as new clusters of cases were identified. We must not suddenly revert to our normal way of living. That would be quite dangerous. If we stop them [the restrictions] all of our efforts will have been wasted and we could see a second peak, she said.  The Times

Death toll rises by 209 to 1,228 and infections jump by 2,483 to 19,522  Daily Mail

NHS to send daily text to self-isolating Brits  The Sun

Scientist who predicted 5,700 deaths now says final toll will be much higher  The Times

Prime Minister under pressure to self-isolate for 14 days  Daily Telegraph

Government to cap university admissions to prevent free-for-all  The Guardian

Latest advice  HM Government

Editorial:

Following the science is the shortest way  The Times

>Today: ToryDiary: Saving the NHS v saving the economy?

Quarter of Britons could be tested for coronavirus to shorten lockdown period

One in four Britons could be tested for coronavirus to try to shorten the lockdown. In a sign that ministers have finally accepted the urgency of mass testing, officials have agreed deals to buy 17.5million kits for use by mid-April. They hope to identify contagion hotspots as well as people who are immune. The tests would help get NHS staff back to work with screening of frontline workers, such as teachers and police officers, to follow. The programme could see movement restrictions lifted earlier than the six months suggested by the Governments scientific advisers yesterday. The top priority is randomised testing to establish how far the disease has spread, a Whitehall source said.  Daily Mail

Britain finally hits 10,000 tests a day  The Sun

This is the fastest way to lift restrictions, says Hunt  Daily Mail

Britains frontline doctors braced for coronavirus surge  FT

as up to a quarter are off due to Covid-19  The Sun

>Today: MPs Etc.: Coronavirus Count

Jeremy Hunt: Only coronavirus testing can save us from anguish and lead us out of this crisis

My sister was allowed back into China only under the strictest conditions because, Im afraid to say, the Chinese regard our measures to contain the virus as inadequate. She and her children were met at the airport by medical staff and their temperatures taken before they were driven home for a mandatory two-week quarantine. My sisters husband, who had stayed in Beijing, was required to leave the family home and check into a hotel. Then they sealed her front door and ordered her and the children not to leave. A police car patrols regularly up and down her street and she must submit her and her childrens temperatures through an app twice daily. To Westerners, this may seem like a grotesquely disproportionate and illiberal response. But Im afraid these sorts of measures, with testing and contact-tracing at their heart, show us the only way out of this crisis.  Daily Mail

Hysteria has crashed the economy and will kill more than coronavirus  Trevor Kavanagh, The Sun

Herd immunity is the only way out of this impasse  Jullien Gaer, Daily Telegraph

In a national crisis, people are desperate to believe in their leaders  Andrew Rawnsley, The Guardian

>Yesterday: Video: WATCH: Gove  We hope we can reduce the rate of infection

Gove rejects ventilator criticism after failure to join EU partnership

Michael Gove has issued a carefully worded defence of the governments failure to join an EU ventilator procurement scheme as ministers faces intense pressure over missed opportunities to secure more of the machines. No 10 has made getting additional ventilators a priority but delays to British industry efforts to make more of them have added to criticism over its failure to join a Brussels-led drive. Claims from companies that Whitehall ignored offers to help to source existing supplies have put ministers further on the back foot. Mr Gove apologised to one company which said that an opportunity to buy 25,000 machines went begging because the government did not reply to its offer of help. He suggested, however, that some of the offers made had turned out to be useless.  The Times

Breathing aid that could reduce intensive care need by 50 per cent tested in UK hospitals  Daily Telegraph

Formula One rivals join forces in race to build enough ventilators  The Times

More:

Intensive care now limited to those reasonably certain to survive  Daily Telegraph

NHS failed pandemic readiness test in 2016  The Sun

>Yesterday: Video: WATCH: Theres nothing we cant do as an independent nation that being part of that scheme would have allowed us to do, says Gove

Jenrick unveils volunteer strategy

The whole of Britain will be placed on an emergency footing to tackle the social, economic and health implications of coronavirus, the communities secretary said yesterday as he pledged that no vulnerable person would be left unsupported. Under plans to be implemented over the coming days each part of the country will set up strategic co-ordination centres linking the emergency services with council leaders and the NHS so that they can respond quickly to problems in their areas, Robert Jenrick said. Each of the centres will be led by a gold commander, a position normally reserved for emergency operations. They will have a military planner embedded with them and the potential to call on armed forces support if needed.  The Times

Government hampers to be delivered to 50,000 people this week  Daily Telegraph

Recruitment frozen as volunteer numbers surge  The Times

Over 750,000 people step up to help  The Sun

Response to crisis proves there is such a thing as society, says Johnson  The Guardian

>Today: Will Tanner in Comment: Service and self-sacrifice. Our new polling suggests that people are more concerned about others than themselves.

as grounded airline staff are asked to bolster NHS resources

Thousands of airline cabin crew grounded by the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK are being asked to support doctors and nurses at new temporary field hospitals being built around the UK. The offer to redeploy airline staff comes as the NHS confirmed the death of its first frontline doctor from the virus in Britain. Consultant Amged El-Hawrani, 55, who had tested positive for coronavirus, died at Leicester Royal Infirmary on Saturday, University Hospitals of Derby and Burton said on Sunday. Nobody can be in any doubt about the scale of the challenge we face with this virus, and Amgeds death is not just an individual human tragedy but a stark reminder to the whole country that we all must take this crisis seriously, said Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director.  FT

EasyJet grounds entire fleet in response to travel lockdown  Daily Telegraph

Regional airports fear for the future as Covid-19 grounds flights  FT

Business 1) Sharma tears up red tape to support the Health Service

The Government has pledged to tear up business red tape to get vital supplies to the NHS frontline. Business Secretary Alok Sharma unveiled measures to boost the supply of personal protective equipment, such as face masks, to protect staff during the coronavirus crisis. Official rules which made it difficult to produce more hand sanitiser will also be ditched. Mr Sharma said: New suppliers and businesses that produce ingredients for safe hand sanitiser will be able to bring their products to market in a matter of days. Companies including BrewDog and Ineos have already stepped forward to offer their services. The Health and Safety Executive and local authorities will be asked to fast-track PPE through the product safety assessment process, and to make this a priority over market surveillance activity.  Daily Express

Pressure to provide equipment grows after two UK doctors die  The Guardian

Internet providers will remove data caps to boost Brits stuck at home  The Sun

>Yesterday: Video: WATCH: We will not stop until we have got you the equipment you need. Jenrick hosts todays Government press conference.

Business 2) Zahawi defends businesses trying to stay open

Criticism of companies who have chosen to stay open during the coronavirus lockdown is being fuelled by people who hate the private sector, claims business minister. Conservative minister Nadhim Zahawi showed his support for firms who continue to trade, calling for damage to the UK economy to be minimised and dismissing unfair criticism of bosses Zahawi emphasised that businesses which do not fall under the categories Boris Johnson has chosen to shut, have every right to stay open. Many takeaway firms have chosen to close their doors due to public pressure despite the government guidelines allowing them to remain open.  Daily Mail

MPs call for Sunday trading laws to be scrapped to ease supermarket queues  The Sun

List vital sectors so others can shut, Labour demands  The Times

Comment:

Stop sniping at the businesses that will get us back on our feet  Nadhim Zahawi, Daily Telegraph

>Yesterday: Video: WATCH: Ashworth  There are many non-essential workers being forced to go to their workplaces

Raab to unveil repatriation plan for stranded Britons overseas on Tuesday

Dominic Raab will on Tuesday set out a repatriation plan to help hundreds of thousands of Britons stranded abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic, The Telegraph understands. The package will focus primarily on additional commercial flights put on by airlines, after the Foreign Secretary spent his weekend calling counterparts around the world to convince them to keep air routes open. A number of new charter flights are also expected to be announced, with three planes already set to take off from Peru for London later this week. However, Mr Raabs priority remains keeping commercial planes in the sky and ensuring that major international transit hubs remain open for Britons returning from long-haul destinations.  Daily Telegraph

Military planes on standby to rescue Brits left stranded abroad  The Sun

New Zealands coronavirus travel ban traps Britons  The Times

Tories call for rethink of relationship with China

The Chinese authorities were not clear about the scale and infectiousness of the early coronavirus outbreak, Michael Gove said yesterday, as senior Tories called on the government to rethink its relationship with Beijing. In comments that will irritate the Chinese authorities, who have been keen to play up their success in tackling Covid-19, Mr Gove implicitly criticised Chinas early response to the outbreak. The first known case of coronavirus was identified in Wuhan at the start of December and the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported on December 9 that a new viral outbreak had been detected in the city. However, it was not until December 31 that the country officially notified the World Health Organisation that it had detected pneumonia of unknown etiology in Wuhan.  The Times

Gove accuses Beijing of hiding true scale of coronavirus crisis  Daily Telegraph

Comment:

EU project in mortal danger if Italy and Spain are abandoned  Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph

as Trump says 200,000 dead would be good result for the US

President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would consider it a win and a very good job if he can manage to keep the death toll from coronavirus to between 100,000 and 200,000 since estimates put it at more than 2 million if he did nothing. Trump, who has largely avoided talk of potential death and infection rates, cited projection models that said potentially 2.2 million people or more could have died had social distancing measures not been put in place. And he said the country would be doing well if it can hold the number of deaths down to 100,000. He said the best case for the country would be for the death rate to peak in about two weeks. Its a horrible number, Trump said, but added, We all together have done a very good job.'  Daily Mail

The US will not pay for your security, President tells Sussexes  The Times

Jobless expected to rely on savings, ministers warn

Staff made redundant because of the coronavirus, along with the self-employed, will be expected to use their savings before they are eligible for emergency government assistance. The Department for Work and Pensions confirmed yesterday that people with savings of more than 16,000 will not be eligible to apply for the governments universal credit scheme. Anyone with savings over 6,000 will have the amount they are able to claim under universal credit docked. For every 250 that someone has in savings over 6,000 the universal credit payment will be reduced by 4.35 each month up to the 16,000 total cut-off point. The move will also affect those who participated in a government-backed scheme designed to help young people get on the property ladder.  The Times

Creative industries left out of self-employed support  FT

UK gives furlough lifeline to workers made redundant since March  Daily Express

Britains economy will shrink by 15 per cent between April and June  Daily Mail

Comment:

Borrow emergency cash by all means, but please pay it back  Torsten Bell, The Guardian

We do not have to return to austerity economics  Nick Timothy, Daily Telegraph

Labour 1) Kinnock targeted by police for visiting father, Neil

The MP son of Neil Kinnock, the former Labour leader, has been publicly shamed by police for non-essential travel during the coronavirus lockdown after going to celebrate his fathers 78th birthday. Stephen Kinnock, the MP for Aberavon in South Wales, posted a picture of himself sitting on a chair outside his parents London home, adhering to guidelines to stay two metres apart, as they marked the occasion with his wife, the former prime minister of Denmark, Helle Thorning-Schmidt. But officers from South Wales police, 150 miles away, rounded on him for the decision to go to see his family. It was the latest example of lockdown enforcement tactics deployed by police across the country, who have broken up parties, deterred motorists and walkers with drones and dyed a lake black to put off swimmers under strict physical distancing rules.  The Guardian

Householders recruited to network of doorbell cameras to help catch thieves  Daily Telegraph

Police will ignore some crimes as officers fall victim to coronavirus  The Times

Authorities continue to shame thousands of people allegedly flouting lockdown rules  Daily Mail

Editorial:

Creeping authoritarianism has no place in Britain  The Sun

>Today: Richard Holden MPs column: Here in a Consett car park, social distancing from my voters as required, I mull why it all feels different in County Durham.

Labour 2) Long-Bailey says leadership contest to end in bizarre way

Labour leadership hopeful Rebecca Long-Bailey has confirmed that all candidates are to pre-record a victory speech ahead of the winner being announced. The shadow business secretary said the move was to deal with these strange times following lockdown measures in the UK during the Covid-19 outbreak. Ms Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy and Sir Keir Starmer are the three remaining candidates, with the successor to Jeremy Corbyn due to be announced on April 4. She told Skys Sophy Ridge on Sunday: I think its trying to deal with these strange times and have an announcement on the leadership contest that our members and the public can view from their homes really.  Daily Express

>Yesterday: Video: WATCH: Labours leadership candidates been asked to film victory videos, reports Long-Bailey

Women who accused Salmond of sex offences devastated by acquittal

Nine women who accused former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond of sexual offences have said they were devastated by his acquittal, but that coming forward to report their experiences was the right thing to do. Mr Salmond was acquitted by a jury at the high court in Edinburgh of 13 charges including attempted rape and sexual and indecent assaults against a total of nine women. A further charge of sexual assault against another woman by the former first minister and Scottish National party leader was dropped by prosecutors. Mr Salmond had denied all allegations of criminality since first charged with sexual offences in January 2019. Giving evidence at his trial, he said some of the charges against him were fabrications for a political purpose and others were exaggerations.  FT

Sturgeon told outbreak proves why SNP must scrap independence plot  Daily Express

News in Brief:
New Delhi, March 30 IANS) Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) has on Monday pledged Rs 26.25 crore to the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund.

The state-owned aerospace and defence company's employees have donated their one-day salary amounting to Rs 6.25 crore. Cumulatively, it works out to Rs 26.25 crore.

"It's a small step from HAL in supporting the government's efforts in fighting the coronavirus pandemic," said R. Madhavan, HAL Chairman and Managing Director.

"Each HAL employee has committed a minimum of single-day's salary as donation," said Alok Verma, HR Director.

HAL has shut all manufacturing units and offices for March 24 to March 31. But people involved in essential services, including those dealing with maintenance, water supply, power and security at HAL townships, will remain on duty.

Earlier this month, the company had planned to set up logistics bases in Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Sri Lanka as part of initiatives to woo them to buy its light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas and military helicopters.

Madhavan had said the HAL was considering logistics bases in the four countries as they used a number of Russian-origin military aircraft and choppers, whose service ability was poor.

He had said HAL was focusing on boosting exports in sync with the government's priority and identified Southeast Asia, West Asia and North Africa to sell key platforms like Tejas, attack helicopter Rudra and advanced light helicopter Dhruv.

--IANS

sk/pcj
Panic buying in capital city supermarkets has caused shortages in some of the nations most remote and vulnerable communities, where thousands of Indigenous Australians have been told to stay put to minimise their risk of catching COVID-19.

The IGA supermarkets in Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australias Kimberley region have not been able to get enough of basic staples such as flour, cooking oil, corned beef, dog food and toilet paper to service the more than dozen nearby remote communities reliant on them.

The Halls Creek IGA , which is struggling to source goods to supply a number of remote Aboriginal communities because of panic buying in the cities.

The lack of supplies is a potential life and death situation in outback communities with high Indigenous populations already afflicted by serious health and socio-economic problems.

Residents of remote communities in WA have been ordered not to go anywhere by the states Premier, Mark McGowan, in a bid to reduce the risk of coronavirus. An outbreak in a community like Noonkanbah near Fitzroy Crossing would be devastating.
Dunnes Stores Workers are set to receive a 10pc pay increase, South Dublin County Council is to launch a dedicated community support helpline and a flight going to China to pick up personal protective equipment returns to Dublin Airport after striking a bird mid-air.

Independent.ie reporters are bringing you the latest coronavirus stories you may have missed today.

Dunnes Stores workers set for 10pc pay bonus

Expand Close Behind this media-shy and secretive veneer is a finely-tuned family-run retail brand that has an estimated turnover in excess of 3.6bn a year. Stock image / Facebook

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Whatsapp Behind this media-shy and secretive veneer is a finely-tuned family-run retail brand that has an estimated turnover in excess of 3.6bn a year. Stock image

Anne-Marie Walsh reports

Dunnes Stores workers are set to get a Covid-19 pay bonus following similar commitments by Tesco and Aldi.

The retail union Mandate said the company has agreed to pay its staff 10pc extra on top of their wages, backdated to March 9.

It has also agreed to increase a staff discount to 20pc for the workforce of 10,000 employees.

Mandate said in a statement that the move followed a petition organised by the union that was signed by over 3,000 workers.

It said the company has also agreed to a coronavirus sick pay scheme.

Mandate general secretary John Douglas said it is the minimum profitable retailers should do considering the sacrifices being made by retail workers during this pandemic.

'Step Up, Stay Put' - Event agency launches fitness challenge with daily workouts for charity

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Micheal O Scannail reports

A Dublin-based event agency have launched a fitness challenge, and will deliver daily workouts, in an effort to raise money for charity, while people stay fit from home.

Event Fuel say that "as everyone adjusts to working from home and the kitchen table becomes a makeshift classroom, its important to also remain active within the confines of your own four walls."

Because of this they have launched Step Up, Stay Put - a charity fitness challenge calling on Irish people of all ages to get their 10,000 daily steps in while adhering to the governments request to practice social distancing and stepping up to stay put in their homes wherever possible.

The challenge arose as a way of supporting the many charities that are suffering due to the cancellation of fundraising events, and Even Fuel are not befitting from any money raised.

They said the choice of charity is left up to the participant, "as so many charities have been greatly affected by the cancellation of events due to the spread of Covid-19".

If there is no particular charity close to the heart of participants, money raised goes to the COVID Response Team (CRT) 'Keep Breathing' campaign, a not-for-profit team of engineers, medical doctors, students and innovators who have come together with the sole purpose of developing a new, open-source, easily manufactured ventilator that will save so many lives throughout this pandemic.

The cost of registering, which all goes to charity and can be done online on Giv2Go.com, is 10 for individuals and 20 for families.

South Dublin County Council to launch dedicated community support helpline

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Micheal O Scannail reports

A dedicated community support helpline will be established in South Dublin County Council to assist at risk members of the public in accessing non-emergency and non-medical supports and advice during the current public health emergency.

The confidential phoneline service has been established by the new COVID-19 South Dublin Community Response Forum, which includes over a dozen agencies and organisations.

Mayor of South Dublin, Cllr Vicki Casserly said: "There are a number of agencies currently doing excellent work in delivering care to older and vulnerable people in our communities.

"These groups are currently operating independently of each other and South Dublin County Councils role is to provide a targeted, integrated and coordinated approach to the delivery of these much-needed services to our more vulnerable citizens across the County during the COVID-19 pandemic."

The helpline, which can be contacted on 01-4149043, is focused primarily on ensuring that vulnerable members of the community or those living alone can access deliveries of groceries, medicine and fuels.

Flight going to China to pick up PPE returns to Dublin Airport after striking a bird mid-air

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Gabija Gataveckaite reports

Aer Lingus flight EI9018 returned to Dublin Airport shortly after take off this morning issued a Pan-pan warning after take off.

The Pan-pan warning means that a situation has arisen which is urgent but does not pose a threat to life or the plane itself.

The plane returned to Dublin Airport and will now be assessed by engineers.

In a statement to Independent.ie, Aer Lingus said: "EI9018 has returned to Dublin following a bird strike."

"Upon landing in Dublin it will be assessed by engineers and upon its clearance for travel a new departure time will be ascertained," it added.

It is not yet known when the plane will take off again.

Timelapse of Dublin city under Lockdown

Video by Steve Humphreys
The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, on Sunday assured that the COVID-19 saga will soon be over. According to him, people have no cause to fear, as only those whose time has come will die as the world and Nigeria battle the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. He said the siege of the current. According to the latest breakdown by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Lagos State leads with 59 cases, followed by 16 in Abuja, Ogun  3, Oyo  7, Edo  2, Bauchi  2, Enugu  2, Osun  2 while Ekiti, Kaduna, Rivers and Benue states have one case of the infection each. While one death has been recorded, at least three patients have so far been discharged after they fully recovered from the disease. Also, between Tuesday and Saturday, the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari; the Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai and the Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Frank Okoye tested positive. Top politicians, including several state governors, are on self-isolation after coming in contact with those infected. On Friday evening, Nigerian musician, Davido, announced that his fiancee, Chioma Rowland, tested positive for Coronavirus. Pastor Adeboye, who addressed his congregation across the globe via a live broadcast on Sunday on DOVE Television with the topic, Peace, be still, said: There is no reason to fear, only those whose time has come will go (die), the former lecturer said. Also, if He is in your boat, your boat can never sink. But if He is not in your boat, who can you call upon when trouble comes? It is only in the family of God that there is security when trouble comes. I am also on a compulsory holiday. I was supposed to be in four nations this April for ministers conferences and Holy Ghost services but now I cannot go. All I do now is wake up in the morning, eat a good meal and enjoy the day. Is that not a good thing, He also took a swipe at those who criticized him for saying God knew about the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak urging the congregation to just pray for them. He went further: God wants to prove he is the one still In-charge. Those who are saying that this thing has nothing to do with God proving himself, keep praying for them. Just keep on praying for them. Because I remember saying to the almighty God, let there be people who will not believe that this has anything to do with you. If I tell them, as usual, they will mock.

I told you before that, the world will be on compulsory holiday because God wants to prove that he is still in charge. Since that is already coming to pass as you can see, then you should believe also that you should relax. I am talking to those of you that are my children that no evil will come near you at all.

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A little girl who has to wear a brace on her face to correct a growth problem was terrified of going to school in case people stared at her.

Coral Scott, 10, from Faversham in Kent, suffers from Crouzon Syndrome, which means the middle part of her face doesn't grow.

She underwent a painful operation at the end of January that means she has to wear corrective headgear for the next few months - but she was terrified of returning to school because she felt so self conscious.

Now, her mum Jade, 47, has urged parents and children to think before staring at or commenting on children with similar disorders.

Coral Scott, 10, from London, suffers from Crouzon Syndrome, which means the middle part of her face doesn't grow. Pictured, aged five

The little girl who has to wear a brace on her face to correct a growth problem was terrified of going to school in case people stared at her. Pictured, after her latest surgery

Coral pictured after her second surgery aged 14 months old at John Radcliffe Hospital

Jade, a former London Underground payroll support manager, didn't know her first born daughter had an issue until she was born.

A 4D scan at 24 weeks revealed nothing wrong and she and husband Mike, 48, looked forward to the birth of their girl.

But after a c-section, nurses took Coral off straight away and tried to keep Jade busy with chat.

'I knew something was wrong,' explained Jade. 'When I got out of recovery, Mike was holding Coral with tears dripping off his nose. She just had this odd-shaped head and they didn't know why or what was wrong.

Doctors initially thought Coral had Craniosynostosis, a birth defect where the skull plates fuse together too early before the brain is formed. Pictured, on her first birthday

Speaking of Coral's condition, Jade said: 'The midface just doesn't grow around your eyes and your nose. It looks like the middle of your face is squashed. Coral is lucky it's quite mild.' Pictured, before she went into her first surgery, aged three months

Coral underwent a painful operation at the end of January that means she has to wear corrective headgear for the next few month. Pictured, following her latest surgery in January 2020, aged 10

Coral's classmates told her she was beautiful as she was and didn't need the surgery, but she was determined. Pictured, following the surgery

'The midwife said it might be OK, I was a first-time mum but I knew something wasn't right.'

WHAT IS CROUZON SYNDROME? Crouzon syndrome is a genetic disorder characterized by the premature fusion of certain skull bones (craniosynostosis). This early fusion prevents the skull from growing normally and affects the shape of the head and face. Many features of Crouzon syndrome result from the premature fusion of the skull bones. Abnormal growth of these bones leads to wide-set, bulging eyes and vision problems caused by shallow eye sockets; eyes that do not point in the same direction (strabismus); a beaked nose; and an underdeveloped upper jaw. In addition, people with Crouzon syndrome may have dental problems and hearing loss, which is sometimes accompanied by narrow ear canals. A few individuals with Crouzon syndrome have an opening in the lip and the roof of the mouth (cleft lip and palate). The severity of these signs and symptoms varies among affected people. Individuals with Crouzon syndrome usually have normal intelligence. Source: Genetics Home Reference Advertisement

Doctors initially thought Coral had Craniosynostosis, a birth defect where the skull plates fuse together too early before the brain is formed.

They planned an op for her to reverse the issue and at three-months-old she went under the knife at King's in London, with a giant cut made from ear to ear so doctors could unfuse her skull.

However, before long the issue began again and at six months Jade and Mike were offered genetic testing.

Although they carried no rogue genes, it was discovered Coral has Crouzon's.

Usually at least one of the parents of those affected would be a carrier, meaning Coral's case was a spontaneous mutation.

Coral was then put under the care of experts at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. They were amazing, but the Scotts couldn't resist Googling the condition.

'Google scared the c**p out of us,' Jade said. 'You can get Crouzon's mildly or really severely. We were faced with all these absolutely terrifying pictures of these faces and it was absolutely terrifying.

'We were told there and then that she would need surgery. The midface just doesn't grow around your eyes and your nose. It looks like the middle of your face is squashed. Coral is lucky it's quite mild.'

Another operation followed at the John Radcliffe at 13 months, where Coral had to have her skull plates un-fused and her head reshaped, which went well.

Jade didn't know her first born daughter had an issue until she was born. Pictured, Coral after her surgery at Lints College aged three months

Speaking of Coral's birth, Jade said: 'She just had this odd-shaped head and they didn't know why or what was wrong.' Pictured, with her granddad, Rory

Coral had another operation at the John Radcliffe at 13 months, where she had to have her skull plates un-fused and her head reshaped. Pictured, aged 14 months in the ICU

Surgeons broke the bones around Coral's midface and fitted a frame with wires to pull her face forward. Pictured, aged eight

The ten-year-old had four further surgeries but last year decided she wanted to try a facial brace that would stretch out the middle of her face.

Her classmates told her she was beautiful as she was and didn't need the surgery, but Coral was determined.

'She wanted it because she wanted to look normal like her friends, she didn't want to look different,' Jade said.

Surgeons broke the bones around Coral's midface and fitted a frame with wires to pull her face forward.

She also had to have a tracheotomy in case her face swelled so much she couldn't breathe.

Usually at least one of the parents of those affected would be a carrier, meaning Coral's case was a spontaneous mutation. Pictured, after her first surgery

Jade is urging parents and children to think before staring at or commenting on children with similar disorders. Pictured, Coral, aged four, dressed as Mrs Claus

Jade says she is 'protective' over her daughter, Coral. Pictured, after her third surgery, aged four

A Rigid External Distraction (RED) frame was fitted and has to be turned with a screwdriver for three weeks to pull her face millimetres forward.

Jade and tile fitter Mike stayed in the Ronald McDonald house at the time, which made their life much easier as they could visit their girl.

'We didn't not want her to have the op, we thought she was perfect just the way she was,' explained Jade. 'She was so nervous to go back to school.

'Girls in her class said, "Coral, we don't understand why you need the surgery, you are beautiful." To them she's just Coral.'

Coral's little sister Amber, eight, has also been a superstar, supporting her sister throughout her recovery.

Jade says Coral's school - Ethelbert Road Primary School - has also been outstanding with so much support and care for her daughter.

Jade and Mike stayed in the Ronald McDonald house following Coral's operation, which made their life much easier as they could visit their girl. Pictured, Coral, with her dad, Mike

Coral's mum told how she wanted surgery because she 'wanted to look normal like her friends, she didn't want to look different.' Pictured, after her latest surgery in January 2020, aged 10

Last year, Coral decided she wanted to try a facial brace that would stretch out the middle of her face. Pictured, following her latest surgery in January 2020, aged 10

She has also praised the community, which she says has been like a second family. But she hopes parents educate their children not to stare at children with disabilities.

'There was one incident a few months ago after swimming when she took her goggles off,' explained Jade. 'We were in the showers, these boys were elbowing each other and pointing.

'Luckily Coral had no idea. I asked their mums to explain to them because kids do not have any tact.

'As a mum I'm so protective. Adults constantly ask her how hospital was and I feel like saying to them, "how do you think it was?'

Coral's prognosis is now good and it is hoped her brace will be able to come off shortly.

'You can conquer anything,' Jade said. 'We've been humbled and overwhelmed by the amount of kindness. All the lovely things people are doing, we are blown away by it all.

'We've never been a family to shout about it. It restores your faith in humankind.'

Ten-year-old Coral Scott who suffers from Crouzon Syndrome with her family mum Jade, Dad Scott and sister Amber
The Vietnamese Army's chemical division disinfected Bach Mai Hospital after many Covid-19 infections were linked to it, March 28, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy.

The Prime Minister has agreed a Health Ministry proposal on declaring the Covid-19 outbreak 'a national epidemic', asking people nationwide to stay home, heavily restricting their outside movements.

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc also said at a Monday afternoon meeting that the government is yet to consider lockdowns for Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City "like what many countries have done in their big cities."

He said now was "a decisive time in Vietnams fight against Covid-19," so all government and local authorities must stay focused on the goal to stamp out the virus and disease.

Phuc called on everyone to "stay at home and work online", except for special cases or visits to hospitals, stores, supermarkets, and manufacturing facilities. He also requested concerned agencies to "basically suspend" public transportation.

"We cannot be neglectful. We have rolled out many strong measures but on the streets, on the beaches, there are still many people and in some places the policy of not gathering more than 20 people is not strictly implemented," he said, adding that social distancing was a must at this time.

"People should stay in their own province, their own district and their home for at least 15 days," he said.

Phuc stressed that all resources should be mobilized to wipe out the virus at hotspots like the Buddha Bar & Grill in HCMC, Hanoi's Bach Mai Hospital and the Truong Sinh Company, which provides food and logistic services to the hospital.

The PM said at the meeting that he agreed that the Bach Mai Hospital can continue receiving patients in need of emergency treatment while ensuring safety for medical workers and patients.

In a statement released by the Party Central Commitee Office Monday afternoon, Party Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong said that "the country has entered a time when the risk of community infection is increasingly bigger."

He called for unity and readiness to deal with worst scenarios.

Vietnam has so far confirmed 203 infections, 55 of whom have recovered and been discharged.

Many of the currently active cases are Vietnamese nationals returning from Europe and the U.S., foreigners coming from the same regions and those whod come into contact with both groups of people.

There have been at least 13 cases linked to the Buddha Bar & Grill in District 2's Thao Dien Ward and 33 cases linked to the Bach Mai Hospital and Truong Sinh Company. The hospital, one of Vietnam's largest, has been locked down since Saturday morning.

The government had decided Sunday to suspend all international passenger flights to Vietnam and limit flights between Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other localities in the coming two weeks.

Starting March 22, Vietnam also suspended entry for all foreign nationals, including those of Vietnamese origin and family members with visa waivers and halted all international flights from March 25.

The Covid-19 pandemic has so far killed more than 34,000 people in 199 countries and territories
(Photo : Screenshot from Twitter of @bestgug)

As the cases for COVID-19 continues to grow in the US, President Donald Trump has now ordered refrigerator vans to be on standby to assist escorting the possible diseased Americans who will succumb to the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

Read More: Possible Cure for COVID-19 Requires 500 Healthy Individuals For Testing

President Trump has admittedly last Sunday that at least 100,000 Americans could die from the virus and will impose more extended suspension guidelines up until April 30.

The Scoop So Far

New York City hospitals have set up makeshift morgues just outside their facilities to handle the mass overflow of coronavirus infected Americans who might succumb to the disease. Refrigerated trucks are parked outside the five boroughs over the weekend. Brown tents with medical staff and officials who cater to rapid evaluations for potential coronavirus patients were also spotted on the scene.

As of Sunday evening, over 33,768 residents in New York City alone tested positive for the coronavirus, which has by far the most in the country.

The largest borough, Queens, has been hit worst of all who has around 10,373 cases alone. Brooklyn has about 8,451, the Bronx with 6,145; Manhattan has 5,438 and Staten Island with over 1,866 cases.

Just within 24 hours from Saturday to Sunday night, there have been 161 deaths in the city, which, if this doesn't alarm you or deter you from going out of your home unnecessarily, then nothing will.

Read More: 300 People in Iran Died Drinking Methanol After Social Media Rumor Claimed it was a Cure for COVID-19

Overall death rate city-wide is about 776 as of late Sunday. There are over 1,000 deaths in New York State residents since the initial outbreak of the pandemic hit the shores in the United States.

What Is The Governments Response?

New York City Mayer Bill de Blasio has been trying to keep his city intact against the pandemic, but despite his efforts, there is a total of 59,513 confirmed cases across his state.

He said, "The numbers are staggering," and added, "This is unprecedented. We've never seen our EMS system get this many calls, ever."

Medical crews on Sunday started assembling triage tents outside New York City hospitals that are already understaffed and overwhelmed by coronavirus patients.

The Mount Sinai system is being imposed, which means that setting up the temporary treatment of facilities outside six of its hospitals, five located in New York City, and one located in Long Island as they prepare for the projected downpour of COVID-19 patients.

Hospital officials said in a statement last week that, "The tents will be critical in helping us limit the spread of the disease between patients and staff,"

The last time this scene happened was on the gloomy day of 9/11 during the terrorist attack that shook the whole world.

The refrigerated trucks that were used back then were to store body parts found in the rubble of the World Trade Center. That terrible incident took the lives of 2,753 people.

It is now more important than ever to keep yourselves and your loved ones safe given that the only time's refrigerated vans were set up outside hospitals meant that you should prepare for the worst-case scenario.

Read More: TB Vaccine Might Vaccinize You From COVID-19 But it Leaves a Mark! Willing to Try?

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Open source

In Brovary, Kyiv region, a 21-year-old patient recovered from Covid-19 coronavirus. The mayor of Brovary Ihor Sapozhko wrote this on Facebook.

According to Sapozhko, today, March 30, a second result of the PCR test came, which showed a negative result for coronavirus infection.

As of March 30, we have 1 case of coronavirus infection. A person who has returned from vacation in Egypt is also recovering, the mayor said.

To date, 548 cases of Covid-19 coronavirus infection have been recorded in Ukraine. Of these, 13 cases are fatal. 8 people recovered.

As we reported, temporary monitoring points for medical screening of coronavirus-infected people have appeared across Ukraine

Screening points are reported to be deployed in the first-wave hospitals throughout Ukraine.

Also, the European Union will provide the assistance package to Ukraine in the sum of 80 million to facilitate the influence of crisis with coronavirus on the healthcare system, lives of people and economy.

First of all, the aid package will aim at the support of the healthcare system, including the financial contribution of the WHO for its work in Ukraine.
The total number of deaths from coronavirus amounted to 13

Open source

In Ukraine, as of 10:00 p.m. on Monday, March 30, 548 laboratory-confirmed PCR studies of cases of infection with the coronavirus Covid-19 were recorded. The press service of the Ministry of Health reports.

In total, 13 fatal cases from Covid-19 were recorded in Ukraine (11 deaths were reported in the morning). Only eight people have already recovered - a repeated laboratory study did not reveal the virus in the body.

As we reported before, temporary monitoring points for medical screening of coronavirus-infected people have appeared across Ukraine.

Screening points are reported to be deployed in the first-wave hospitals throughout Ukraine.

Earlier, the European Union would provide the assistance package to Ukraine in the sum of 80 million to facilitate the influence of crisis with coronavirus on the healthcare system, lives of people and economy.

First of all, the aid package will aim at the support of the healthcare system, including the financial contribution of the WHO for its work in Ukraine.

Also, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation and discussed the possibilities of cooperation in the fight against coronavirus
The Greenwich-based Mother for Others, the largest independent diaper bank in lower Fairfield County, has emptied its shelves of diapers and delivered them to Family Centers and Neighbor to Neighbor for distribution during the coronavirus pandemic.

Usually, clients visit in-person once a month to the MFO distribution room to receive a weeks supply of diapers, wipes and gently used baby equipment. In light of the state mandate to minimize social interaction, MFO has temporarily adapted its distribution process.

On March 17, MFO leadership reached out to the Greenwich Department of Human Services, Family Centers and the Greenwich United Way to discuss options. By the next day, MFO volunteers had completed the transfer of over 18,000 diapers to Family Centers and Neighbor to Neighbor. The diapers sent out will provide one weeks worth of diapers for over 400 children.

In this uncertain time, one thing was clear  it was going to become more and more challenging for our clients to access our services, said Lisa Leavy-Fisher, executive director of Mothers for Others.

Family Centers and Neighbor to Neighbor will serve as points of distribution, reducing the number of places clients need to visit.

Even in difficult times, we can rely on volunteers and nonprofit leadership to readily share their time, talent and treasure, said Leavy-Fisher. By coming together so quickly, we leveraged the strengths of each organization to ensure uninterrupted support for vulnerable families.

With the shelves in the distribution room now empty, MFO is focused on quickly restocking diapers to meet the needs of families during this unprecedented time. To learn more about diaper need in our community and how you can help, visit www.mothersforothers.org.

Deans List honors announced at Tufts University

Tufts University in Medford, Mass., recently announced the Deans List for the Fall 2019 semester.

The honored local students include: Katherine Harkness of Greenwich, Mia Nixon of Greenwich, Alexander Schnur of Cos Cob, Bennett Brain of Greenwich, Caro Fett of Greenwich, Daniel Le Breton of Greenwich, Eli Rosmarain of Greenwich, Alexis Tatore of Greenwich, Nathaniel Ung of Riverside, Allison Brea of Old Greenwich, Lillian Marinelli of Old Greenwich and Jamie Yee of Greenwich.

Deans List honors at Tufts require a semester grade point average of 3.4 or greater.

Bryant students named to Deans List

Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I., is recognizing local students who have been named to the Deans List for the fall 2019 semester.

The honored students are Christopher Flippin, a member of the Class of 2022 from Greenwich, and Christopher Nicolay, a member of the Class of 2022 from Cos Cob.

Greenwich student inducted into Phi Kappa Phi

Jacqueline Beshoory of Greenwich was recently initiated into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation's oldest and most selective all-discipline collegiate honor society. Beshoory was initiated at Pennsylvania State University.

Beshoory is among 30,000 students, faculty, professional staff and alumni to be initiated into Phi Kappa Phi each year. Membership is by invitation only and requires nomination and approval by a chapter. Only the top 10 percent of seniors and 7.5 percent of juniors are eligible for membership.

Phi Kappa Phi was founded in 1897 under the leadership of undergraduate student Marcus L. Urann who had a desire to create a different kind of honor society: one that recognized excellence in all academic disciplines. Today, the Society has chapters on more than 300 campuses in the United States and the Philippines. Its mission is "To recognize and promote academic excellence in all fields of higher education and to engage the community of scholars in service to others."
One of the British Airways flights that landed in Lima at the weekend (British Airways/PA)

British citizens have said they are relieved and glad to be home after two repatriation flights from Peru landed at Heathrow airport on Monday morning.

They described a scramble to the airport in Lima following short notice and poor communication from the UK Foreign Office (FCO).

The planes touched down after the Foreign Office said it had chartered more flights from Peru, expected to arrive at Gatwick Airport on Tuesday.

We were put on standby but we didnt get the email until midnight and we had to be at the airport at 7am so a lot of people were asleep and never got it, said Shona McKenna.

We had 50 people on standby but only 12 turned up to the airport.

The communication wasnt great, we didnt know when we were going to come home and when the emails came out there wasnt a lot of time.

The first flight, a lot of people missed it because they didnt get the email in time.

Delighted Captain Croft and his @British_Airways crew has landed in the UK, bringing home a full plane of 275 passengers from Peru. Two more repatriation flights will leave Lima for London today. pic.twitter.com/Skx2kMTjYr  Kate Harrisson  (@kate_harrisson) March 30, 2020

Ms McKenna, 33, and her friend Stacey Coogan, 30, said that citizens were given an hour to reply and confirm that they would be getting on the flight.

If you went out to the shop and didnt have WiFi you wouldnt have made the plane, said Ms Coogan. We were lucky we got the standby email.

The pair, from Luton, who had been in South America since January 30, said that contacting the embassy in Peru had been confusing and stressful.

We didnt know anything and were just told, were working on it  thats all, said Ms Coogan.

It was confusing and a bit stressful, because the first week no one could get hold of the embassy  because they all had to work from home as well  so the first week was a bit of a nightmare.

Were just glad to be home.

Since the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, the Foreign Office has helped to bring home almost 1,400 people on specially chartered Government flights from China and Peru and 1,900 people on cruise ships from places including California, Brazil and Japan.

But other Britons returning from Lima said that difficulties with passenger lists meant couples had risked being split up due to lack of space.

The communication has been pretty bad with the embassy  people started getting emails for their flights yesterday at 5pm, I wasnt on the manifest [list of passengers] but my partner was, said Danielle from Yorkshire.

I was ringing the embassy until one in the morning, didnt get confirmation until three in the morning and had to be at the airport at six and even then I wasnt on it.

Danielle, who has asthma, said the FCO had also not taken into account her own personal circumstances but that she had eventually managed to secure a seat.

You're sat on the edge of your seat waiting for some news and there was none until the last minute and then there's a scramble to get your bags together and get to the meeting point

Her partner Matthew added that there were hundreds of stranded citizens at the airport and that the situation had been stressful as they waited for information about their flights.

There were lots of queues, but it was stressful and the police were tetchy at times but were home safe and sound now, he said.

Youre sat on the edge of your seat waiting for some news and there was none until the last minute and then theres a scramble to get your bags together and get to the meeting point.

In the city of Cusco people were told that they needed to get buses to the airport, requiring cash, but one woman  an NHS nurse  was arrested on the way to a cashpoint and spent four hours in a police cell.

We walked five metres out of the Airb&b and we told [police] we were just going to the ATM and the supermarket but they just took us away  but its completely random, she said.

More British passengers are returning to the UK from Peru today on another flight back home. The flight departed Lima at 13.52 local time. Well continue to work urgently on another flight today and two more tomorrow & to offer support to British travellers who are still in Peru. pic.twitter.com/bRgV68CaF7  Kate Harrisson  (@kate_harrisson) March 29, 2020

You could leave and have nothing happen. We were just a bit unlucky.

[Being repatriated] was relief for everyone  it was getting to the stage in Peru where you couldnt really do anything, added her friend, Terri Avery, 30, from Guernsey.

Its quite a thing to be repatriated. You file onto the plane and are just told to sit wherever, she said.

In the last week, the Foreign Office has helped more than 4,000 people to get back from Jamaica and more than 8,500 people to get back from Morocco.

Around 5,000 Britons successfully left Bali after the British team in Indonesia worked with their counterparts to unblock a visa permissions issue.

On Monday afternoon, the Government said an announcement on efforts to repatriate Britons stranded abroad by the coronavirus crisis was expected imminently.
Picture taken March 23, 2017 shows German Chancellor Angela Merkel pointing during an election campaign of the Saarland Christian democrats, CDU, in St.Wendel, Germany. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)



In the race against the coronavirus, Germany is betting on widespread testing and quarantining to break the infection chain, a strategy borrowed from South Korea whose success in slowing the outbreak has become the envy of the world.



Germany is already carrying out more coronavirus tests than any other European country at a rate of 300,000 to 500,000 a week, according to officials.



But Chancellor Angela Merkel's government aims to ramp that up to at least 200,000 tests a day, according to an interior ministry document seen by several German media outlets.



The goal would be to test all those who suspect they have caught the virus, as well as the entire circle of people who have come into contact with a confirmed case.



Current testing criteria are focussed on those who are sick with COVID-19 symptoms and have had contact with a confirmed case. The idea, according to the document, is to move from tests "that confirm the situation" to tests that "get ahead of it".



A crucial weapon in the battle would be the use of smartphone location data to trace a patient's recent movements, to more accurately track down and isolate potentially infected people.



Cell-phone tracking



While government officials and epidemiologists have come out in favour of cell-phone tracking, it remains a controversial idea in privacy-minded Germany, a nation haunted by the surveillance of the Nazi era and the communist-era Stasi secret police.



Germany's proposed plans echo the "trace, test and treat" strategy that appears to have helped South Korea bring its outbreak under control. It has included mass screening for potential cases and heavy use of technology to monitor patients.



Although Germany and South Korea are two very different countries, the Asian nation's virus strategy "can be an example", the head of Germany's Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for disease control told the Frankfurter Allgemeine daily.



"A key point is tracing cell phone data," Lothar Wieler said.



Storm brewing



With a total of 389 deaths out of more than 52,000 cases, Germany has a mortality rate of just 0.7 percent  compared with around 10 percent in hardest-hit Italy and eight percent in Spain.



But German Health Minister Jens Spahn has warned that the country could face "a storm" of new cases in the weeks ahead.



The RKI's Wieler warned that the dramatic scenes at Italian hospitals at breaking point could happen in Germany as well.



"We can't rule out that we will have more patients than ventilators here too," he said.



With 25,000 intensive care beds equipped with ventilators, Germany is in a better position than many countries to deal with an influx of patients in respiratory distress. But years of underfunding have left the country's healthcare system woefully understaffed.



"In recent months, some intensive care beds have had to be put out of action because of a lack of staff," said Reinhard Busse, a specialist in health economics at the Technical University of Berlin.



Germany currently has some 17,000 unfilled vacancies in nursing care.



As a result, many hospitals have resorted to drafting in retired health professionals or student medics to help with the expected coronavirus onslaught, including at Berlin's renowned Charite university hospital.



Polish workers



"Even before the coronavirus crisis, operations had to be cancelled because of a lack of staff," Uwe Luebking, head of labour market policies at the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, told AFP.



And when there is personnel on hand, nurses can spend up to four hours a day doing paperwork as Germany continues to lag behind other nations in digitalising administrative tasks, experts say.



To make matters worse, confinement measures and border checks brought in to stem the virus spread have made it harder for foreign workers to travel to their German workplaces, with healthcare institutions on the frontier with Poland particularly affected. Critics have also argued that the German health system, which pays hospitals a fixed price per surgery, has led many hospitals to focus on the more lucrative practice of offering scheduled surgeries like hip or knee replacements, at the expense of strengthening their emergency care facilities.



Although Spahn has urged the directors of some 2,000 hospitals and clinics to cancel all non-urgent surgeries, several are resisting the call, according to Der Spiegel weekly. (AFP)


(Alliance News) - IronRidge Resources Ltd on Monday reported a narrowed interim loss but will be winding down its drilling operations earlier than expected due to the spread of Covid-19.

In the six months to December 31, IronRidge recorded a pretax loss of AUD2.2 million, about USD1.4 million, halved from the AUD5.2 million seen in the same period the year before.

The company's revenue was almost wiped out, dropping to just AUD45 compared to AUD45,766 the year before.

IronRidge's share based payment expenses fell to AUD548,978 from AUD3.5 million, explaining the narrowed interim loss.

Chief Executive Vincent Mascolo said: "Our exploration and drilling activities in Africa over the period have been very successful. We are delighted with the progress the company has made to date across our portfolio, with activities undertaken continuing to add value to each of the projects.

"The company achieved a key milestone with the JORC compliant maiden mineral resource estimate at the Ewoyaa lithium project in Ghana and now looks forward to further derisking and developing this compelling project. In turn, the recent condtional acquisition of Joy Transporters Ltd, and the full ownership of the Saltpond and Cape Coast portfolios, which offer high-priority targets adjacent to the Ewoyaa project, represent a further exciting opportunity."

Looking ahead, IronRidge said it is winding down its drilling and field programmes a few weeks earlier than originally planned before the upcoming wet season, due to the outbreak of Covid-19.

"Whilst the company is winding down activities on the ground, other work continues with the analysis of soils and auger drilling samples submitted to date, review of results from field programmes and planning for further field programmes and drilling campaigns. Furthermore, the company's range of corporate activities, including progressing the recently announced conditional acquisitions along with other new opportunities, will continue unabated," Mascolo added.

Shares in IronRidge Resources were 2.7% lower in London on Monday afternoon at 9.00 pence each.

By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
While the number of Covid-19 cases are increasing in the country, the government has roped in about 15 Indian manufacturers to make Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) or coverall kits required for health professionals attending to infected patients in isolation wards and the Intensive Care Units (ICUs).

Indian manufacturers were not making the PPEs until a week ago, but more than 15 manufacturers have come forward and qualified to produce the PPEs in less than seven days, said sources. These include Arvind Mills, JCT Mills Phagwara, Amare Safety, Mumbai based Sure Safety, Delhi-based Sai Synergy, Manchanda, Shree Healthcare, Chennai etc, said sources.

Orders for over 21 lakh PPE coveralls have been placed and they are supplying 6-7,000 coveralls per day and this is expected to go up to 15,000 per day within the next week.

As of now, 3.34 lakh PPEs are available in various hospitals across the country. About 60,000 PPE kits have already been procured and supplied by the government. Indian Red Cross Society has arranged 10,000 PPEs from China which have also been received and are being distributed. Another 3 lakh donated PPE coveralls are to arrive by April 4. An order for 3 lakh PPEs has been placed with ordinance factories.

Foreign sources of PPE kits are facing huge demand from across the world. The Ministry of External Affairs has also approached them. A Singapore-based online platform has been identified which can supply 10 lakh PPE kits and an order has been placed through Ministry of External Affairs to procure them. Another supplier based in Korea, which has tie-ups with production companies in Vietnam and Turkey, has been identified with daily production capacity of over 1 lakh PPE kits.Orders are being placed through MEA for supplying 20 lakh PPE kits, said a Government statement. Sources said while foreign kits may cost nearly Rs 5,000, the Indian kits may cost less than Rs 3,000.

Sources said with the road logistics becoming a big issue due to the lock-down, supplies are being done by roping in cargo flights. Air India and Alliance Air flights are being operated to carry out the necessary supply operations across the country and is being co-ordinated by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA). In order to cater to eastern and north eastern parts of the country, an Alliance Air flight from Delhi to Kolkata carried shipments for Kolkata, Guwahati, Dibrugarh and Agartala on March 29. In northern region, an IAF flight from Delhi to Chandigarh to Leh carried ICMR VTM kits and other essential cargo. Alliance Air transferred Pune shipment to Mumbai on an Air India flight. Various domestic flights are also carrying out the emergency medical supplies to different cities, sources said.

Also Read: Coronavirus in India Live updates: 2-year-old among 4 new COVID-19 cases in Noida; 80-year-old dies in Mumbai

Also Read: Coronavirus: 65-year-old man in Mohali with no travel history tests positive
Cupertino-based tech giant Apple is reportedly planning to include a touch ID into the crown of its upcoming Watch Series 6 smartwatch.

The already unlocks when the iPhone is unlocked, but unlocking it on a standalone basis requires a numerical code to be entered.

It is not clear how the alleged Touch ID would be implemented, as the Digital Crown is already used for capturing an ECG in the current models, reports MacRumors.

Apple is also reportedly planning to bring blood oxygen detection and an improved ECG to its next Watch Series 6.

The technology for blood oxygen detection has existed in the since the first version, it has never been used, but now the upcomming Apple Watch may have the ability.

Additionally, Apple is working on removing a current shortcoming of the current electrocardiogram function.

Apple Watch Series 4 and 5 currently result in inconclusive ECG readings with heart rates between 100 and 120 beats per minute and new update will remove that limitation with an upgraded version of the ECG app.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
It is not unusual for people to lie to their spouses. Men lying to wives about going on business trips when in fact, they are going to vacations, is a frequently used plot in both Hollywood and Bollywood movies.

Needless to say that men who take such a chance try to make sure that all possibilities of wives finding out about the vacay, especially to a place like Thailand, are sealed shut.

Twitter

Things came crumbling down for two men in India when the truth about their vacation was revealed to their wives, and how!

According to a Twitter user, Abhijit Basak, whose Twitter bio identifies him as the State IT Cell Convenor of BJYM, West Bengal, two men got in for trouble when police paid them a visit.

They told their wives that they were visiting Bangaluru for business and actually visited Bangkok . However, after returning home, Police visited their homes with their travel records and pasted on the gate & explaining to their wives why their husbands need to be quarantined. pic.twitter.com/NVKqishWte  Abhijit Basak (@abhbasak) March 29, 2020

This is what the tweet read, They told their wives that they were visiting Bangaluru for business and actually visited Bangkok. However, after returning home, Police visited their homes with their travel records and pasted on the gate & explaining to their wives why their husbands need to be quarantined.

According to a report, the incident allegedly took place in Ambala. After tracking down the travel history the police pasted posters that advised everyone to stay away from the member as they are under quarantine for 14 days. However, twice the posters were torn by the involved party. When the police pasted them for the third time, they were misbehaved with.

Posters were placed two or three times outside the house. But they tore. When the team reached for the third time, then misbehaved. Police was given a written complaint, now the police will take action, the report quoted Dr. Kuldeep Kumar, CMO, Ambala as saying.

On Twitter however, people are concerned about the well being of the two and not because of coronavirus.

Covid is the least of their troubles. https://t.co/zAmLQ9ilOO  Smita Prakash (@smitaprakash) March 30, 2020

We need video of this !  Gx89 (@Gx895) March 30, 2020

Oh wow! Hahahaha  Ankita (@fitdelhigirl) March 30, 2020





Poor souls. Now they will be quarantined inside their home for their lifetime.  Aakash srivastava  (@Aakashlive) March 30, 2020

Corona inside house and inside marriage too   Apocalypse (@Mizzling_Gaze) March 30, 2020

Yeeee fasssaa  MiiRA (@miiranarayan) March 30, 2020





Well, the men certainly didnt see this one coming.
A woman returns home after collecting some essential items for her family in Old Delhi. A nationwide lockdown is in force because of the coronavirus outbreak in India. (DC Photo: Pritam Bandypadhyay)

Hyderabad: From the travel histories of some of the more recent Covid-19 carriers and patients detected in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, New Delhi appears to have been the hub for transmission of the disease to the two Telugu states.

Between the two states, more than half a dozen Covid-19 patients reported travel history to New Delhi, where they came into contact with people involved with the Tablighi Jamaat, a loosely structured organization that works to educate Muslims on the Quran and prayer methods.

On March 26, the Telangana government announced that two of the four persons who tested Covid-19 positive that day had travelled to Delhi. On Sunday, during his press conference, chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao referred to some of the current patients in Telangana as having visited a mosque in Delhi. Just these two patients are believed to have transmitted the coronavirus to at least eight others in Hyderabad.

Similarly, Andhra Pradesh, over the past two days, also identified that three of its Covid-19 patients had connections to a religious meeting in Delhi. While two of these patients visited Delhi themselves, the third was a contact of one of these two patients. Yet another patient had travelled to Ajmer in Rajashtan and was found Covid-19 positive after returning to Andhra Pradesh.

It may be recalled that 10 Indonesian religious preachers, who were first found in Karimnagar town, subsequently tested positive for Covid-19. This group of 10 was among hundreds of other preachers who had gathered at the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in the old city of Delhi.

The central government too now believes that this gathering was a focal point of the spread of the disease into several parts of India, with preachers from Indonesia, and some from Malaysia, along with Indians who spent time with these groups of visiting preachers, as having formed a large infected group and could have spread the disease in several other parts of the country, where smaller groups of preachers then travelled to.
The Maharashtra government has



released 601 inmates from 37 prisons in the last three days to reduce crowding in view of the coronavirus outbreak, an official said.

The prisoners were released on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Additional Director General of Police (Prisons) Sunil Ramanand said.

"A total of 104 prisoners were released in the western region, 113 in central, 145 in south and 239 in east. These are from Central as well as district prisons," another official said.

In the eastern region, 86 prisoners were released from Nagpur Central Jail, while in the western region, the number was 51 from Yerawada Jail, he added.

"Mumbai Central Jail released 68 prisoners on Friday, the Nagpur Central Jail 83 on Saturday, and Chandrapur Jail 31 on Sunday," the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Yet new confirmed cases in the city numbered roughly 3,500 on Sunday alone. Faced with such a rapid increase, the lightly ill in the city will almost certainly be asked to keep staying at home  which only risks spreading the virus even more.

There is another solution, though: Using the tens of thousands of hotel rooms in the city, many of which currently are empty, to house people who have tested positive for the coronavirus or  given the dearth of available tests  who display mild Covid-19-like symptoms. Lets turn hotels into temporary quarantine quarters.

Patients would be put up for free for 14 days, the standard recommended period of self-isolation. Food could be delivered. Nurses could be stationed at the hotels to check on the people who are quarantined, in particular to ensure that anyone who develops more severe symptoms can be rapidly taken to a hospital. Any member of ones household who subsequently tested positive could move in.

Congress recently authorized hundreds of millions of dollars of stimulus spending to combat the epidemic. Some of those funds could help finance a crash campaign to help hotels  not only in New York, but throughout the country  convert themselves into quarantine centers.

At least four New York City hotels have already volunteered to provide rooms to medical personnel or patients who arent critically ill; Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York State, has praised their gesture. Now, state and city authorities must actively encourage more such efforts by directly compensating hotel owners who agree to turn their premises into quarantine facilities.

Los Angeles County authorities experimented with just that last week, opening a quarantine center at a Sheraton hotel in Pomona, with plans for more emergency arrangements at other hotels. Chicago is also reported to be planning on reserving some 1,000 hotel rooms in the city to ease pressure on hospitals.

New York City authorities should also organize to have public health officials train hotel employees about how to safely interact with self-isolated individuals: how to deliver meals, disinfect rooms or handle people with pneumonia like symptoms. (Taiwan has prepared a detailed guide for such procedures. Why not New York?)
Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, has donated his salaries for ten months to support the fight against the scourge of Covid-19 in Nigeria.

This is coming at a time wealthy individuals and corporate organisations in Nigeria are pulling resources together to combat the spread of the infection.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported the donations from Aliko Dangote, Femi Otedola, Tony Elumelu, Jim Ovia, Segun Agbaje and a former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar.

President Muhammadu Buharis cabinet members earlier donated 50 per cent of their March salaries do the same purpose.

Guarantee Trust Bank, First Bank and United Bank of Africa and others have also contributed to the purse.

Following suit

In a statement released on Sunday evening, Mr AbdulRazaq said he has not received any salary since his inauguration into office in May 2019, ten months ago.

The statement was signed by the governor.

Since I was inaugurated, I have not taken my salary. I am now donating the accumulated sum, from May 29 to date, to help provide palliative measures to the vulnerable among our people who have been asked to stay at home, and boost our capacity to cope against the Covid-19 if it ever comes to Kwara State, he said.

He said the time calls for sacrifice from everyone even as he commended the gestures of information minister, Lai Mohammed and his colleague, Gbemisola Saraki, who are part of the ministers that donated half of their salaries to the national efforts to fight the virus.

Also, on behalf of my people, I express our deepest appreciation to Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu and Mr Tony Elumelu for their generous donations to Kwara State.

It is against this background that I appeal to all well-meaning corporate bodies and individuals to emulate these great Nigerians by joining our efforts in Kwara State. Donations can be made to the Kwara State Technical Commitee. Anyone can also donate food stuff for release to the poor people to further ease our campaign to keep the virus out of Kwara.

The governor said he had directed the technical committee on Covid-19 to begin distribution of palliatives, including foodstuff, to the people this week.

Although Kwara State has not recorded any Covid-19 case, it has put in place measures to combat a possible outbreak.

As at Sunday evening, Nigerias confirmed cases of Covid-19 had hit 111.
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Photo: (Photo : Instagram/chrissyteigen)

Celebrity couple Chrissy Teigen and John Legend live a fabulous life on the outside, but at home, they would rather live simply and wholesomely. The model and musician love spending quality time with their children. Teigen turned her love for cooking into a career. She now has two cookbooks out and is managing her blog. Their family loves going on night outs, and in one of Teigen's latest blog posts, she wrote about their go-to spot.

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend Loves IPIC Movie Theatre

Even though they can watch movies comfortably at home, Teigen and Legend would still want to go to IPIC to watch a movie. Founded in 2010, IPIC now has 15 locations around the U.S. Describing itself as a social destination; the theatre offers "inventive cuisine and hand-crafted cocktails."

Teigen said that she would only go out to see a movie if it is at IPIC. Adding to that, the up-scale theatre has recliners with blankets and a pillow, and their menu comes with food, drinks, even alcoholics. She said that one could order from their full menu anytime throughout the movie, and they will deliver. She refers to the theatre as her "2nd couch".

On her Instagram, she took other guests' photos of some of her favorite food there and shared it on her wall. Her favorites are spicy tuna on crispy rice, a pizza, the chicken tenders, the warm pretzels, and the truffle fries. She warns the people that they may get distracted with the food they serve at the theatre and lose their focus on the movie. But she said that you might come back to watch the film again.

The movie house used to be Teigen and Legend's "date night" spot, but now it has become their family tradition to watch kid movies, including their two young children, Luna and Miles.

Teigen posted on her Twitter account that she had taken over the whole theatre when they watched "The Nutcracker" in November 2018. Teigen shared a snapshot of her children in July 2019, when they watched "Toy Story 4", and it was Miles' first movie. Teigen was happy because he looked thrilled; however, she is afraid that her kids will grow up thinking all movie theatres have the same service as IPIC.

Their first child, Luna, had already been to the NY IPIC theatre. They took her to watch "Frozen 2" where they repeatedly watched due to having fallen asleep on their first attempt. Teigen said that Luna was full of excitement running around the theatre as she tries to entertain everyone. And her finale was dancing as the credits were rolling.

What are Other Places Chrissy Teigen and John Legend Go to Date?

On Teigen's website, she has an installment of "Ask Chrissy" where her fans asked about the place that the Teigen and Legend couple goes to for a kid-free night in L.A.

Teigen said that her husband loves date nights, and she loves staying at home. However, she makes it a point to "throw him [Legend] a bone."

She added by sharing restaurants that she loves going to -- a tiny Italian restaurant called Via Veneto, a Korean BBQ called Quarters, and Vespertine, a place to splurge meal. She followed through by saying she could go on with her list forever, showing her foodie side.
More than 10,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the ATAR and year 11 and 12 exams to be scrapped this year as students struggle with disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

Former Templestowe College principal Peter Hutton has petitioned for the ATAR to be scrapped this year. Credit:Eddie Jim

The petition was started by former Templestowe College principal Peter Hutton, who says it is unfair to rank students against each other during the COVID-19 crisis.

What better time to kill the ATAR off than now, when an already demonstrably inequitable system is made even more so due to disruption, remote schooling and inequality of technology provision in online learning, he writes in the change.org petition, which had almost 10,300 signatures by 9pm on Monday.

Among the signatories to the petition is Zac Jeffries, the director of teaching and learning at Bayview College, an independent school in Portland, south-western Victoria.
If there is one thing that I know, its that retail is resilient. Unlike any other industry, retail has continuously needed to adapt and transform to meet customer demands, remain competitive, or react to economic downturns caused by domestic and global events. Now, more than ever, the retail industry is continuing to show its resiliency by responding to recent events with rapid innovation, expansion, and partnerships the likes of which have not been seen before.

An unfortunate truth, however, is that threat actors are using these uncertain times as a springboard to capitalize on shortcomings, gaps, and risks  some of them new, and some of them left unchecked previously which have now been magnified. Here are some of the ways retail is remaining competitive along with some tips to ensure the security and continuity of their business operations.

The Benefits and Pitfalls of Rapid Digital and eCommerce Expansion

In speaking to many companies who have already adopted digital and ecommerce strategies, many are now seeing an uptick in traffic (clicks, revenue, customers). Some are also seeing different demographics, including those that previously avoided ecommerce but are now forced to participate for obvious reasons. This is particularly prevalent right now with health and grocery related ecommerce buying. At the same time, businesses that were previously slower to act on their digital strategies have now been forced in action.

The question is, how can businesses satisfy current demand, and possibly retain new customers, while keeping themselves and their customers secure?

Scaling Security Effectively

First, they will need to be able to scale to meet the current and growing demands of legitimate customers as well as the growth in non-legitimate attempts to access retail platforms. This not only includes web store fronts and mobile applications, but supporting infrastructure such as firewalls and load balancers as well. But how do these businesses rapidly scale up to meet todays demand, and then cost-effectively scale down, if necessary, once the surge is over?

In any networked environment, the scalability of security is the biggest challenge. Front-end web application firewalls, internal and backend firewalls, and load-balancers are all needed to help stem the tide of illegitimate traffic coming in, and to combat any issues from threats that make it through  all while still allowing your customers to reach their intended destinations and shop with confidence.

The keys here are ensuring high traffic capacity, geo-IP filtering, robust alerting and reporting, and deep integrations with other security tools. A single, integrated security fabric comprised of fully interconnected solutions ensures that visibility and policy enforcement extends consistently across the entire network, from front end servers and high-speed data centers to cloud-based applications, infrastructures, and services. Another key investment is in pre-authorization security (such as Auth0 or Onelogin) to rapidly integrate authentication and authorization across web, mobile, and legacy applications.

Overcoming Limited Resources to Ensure Security Scalability

The challenge is scaling security in kind when resources may be limited. Network and security teams have already been pressed into the front lines to scale up for the influx because, similar to the Holiday shopping season, threat actors are sure to try and capitalize on this move to ecommerce. In fact, we have already seen this beginning.

However, in times where there may be skeleton or rotational staff, cyber teams will need to fast-track automation and orchestration efforts to keep up with the demand on their critical systems and workloads. In addition, such things as centralized management, alerting, and reporting will be just as critical as teams cannot afford to be working in different silos, especially when faced with an already daunting task. It will also require real-time information sharing between different tools in order to identify hard-to-discover threats and coordinate a threat response across the entire distributed network.

Rapid Change is a Double-edged Sword

The changes in buying patterns we are seeing now may remain long after this event has ended. The biggest barrier to change is often cultural, and not because of any limitations of the technology. But once those cultural barriers have been bridged, there is no reason to return to the way things were. In 2004, for example, the SARS outbreak in China forced companies to start selling their products online. Companies like JD.com stepped up to the plate, and they are now the largest online retailer in China.

Similarly, the Covid-19 outbreak is requiring businesses to create and maintain a larger digital and ecommerce footprint than ever before because customers who had been averse to things like shopping for grocery items online are now taking the plunge. Those retailers that are able to be there for their customers now may continue to see benefits down the road.

Maintaining Trust and Integrity with your Customers

The next issue is, what do retailers do with this sudden influx of new customer data that is being ingested, especially in light of recent requirements such as GDPR and CCPA? (Will regulations lighten up during this time? Will consumers allow it?) Companies that are now seeing increased traffic through their digital/ecomm platforms have an even greater responsibility to ensure their customers can shop with confidence. While a security incident at any time can be a major business-impacting event, one that occurs during a time of vulnerability, especially when customers have limited alternatives, can be even more damning.

While the retail industry must put measure in place to protect their employees and their customers, their primary security concern must be the end-user. With upwards of 90% of intrusions originating through email or social channels, security awareness and training may pay more dividends than all the tools and software money can buy.

Right now, the public is anxious to consume any information possible when it comes to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses must take steps to inform their customers of the ways they will communicate throughout this situation, and ways they will not. They must also then provide a few tips on email and social media security so their customers can tell the difference between legitimate communications and online scams. Likewise, internal training and awareness must continue, especially as isolation and the lack of a normal routine may lull your workforce into clicking on a link or forwarding an email they otherwise would not have.

Final Thoughts

Hindsight is 20/20, and what we have learned from past experience is that having a well-laid plan is always the best recipe for success. However, events like we are witnessing today can sometimes turn even the best-laid plans on their head. The best course of action that retail can take now is to avoid rushing into the deployment or expansion of new digital or ecommerce services. Instead, they must remember that careful planning and consideration is required to ensure both a successful solution launch as well as the safety of the consumer. Naturally, this does not mean that efforts cannot be expedited for a quicker turn-around, but they must be carefully understood. Taking short-cuts that include removing or reducing your security posture cannot be part of your playbook.

Learn more about how to maintain business continuity through broad, integrated, and automated Fortinet Teleworker Solutions.

Learn more about Fortinet solutions for retail.
A man has been charged with murder after he allegedly broke in a couple's home and beat a man sleeping inside with a guitar in front of his girlfriend.

Police will allege the man, 35, broke into the unit in Gladesville, on Sydney's lower north shore, at 8.25am last Monday while the pair were sleeping.

The man then allegedly beat the 36-year-old alleged victim over the head with a guitar he found in the room before fleeing the scene.

The injured man was rushed to an intensive care unit at Royal North Shore Hospital with critical head injuries but died six days later at 4.30pm on Sunday.

A man is alleged to have broken into a couple's unit and beaten a 36-year-old man over the head with a guitar

The alleged victim's 31-year-old girlfriend was not injured in the attack.

Police released CCTV footage of the accused murderer inside a nearby service station shortly after the attack wearing a cap and a t-shirt paired with black pants.

On the same day as the man's death, the alleged intruder was arrested and charged with murder 750 kilometres north of the crime scene at Byron Bay.

He was refused bail and will appear at Lismore Local Court on Monday.
Not just for signing films galore, delivering back-to-back hits or making it to worlds richest actors list, Akshay Kumar is also known for his helpful nature. The actor regularly makes headlines for his various donations, be it for the Armed Forces or during natural calamities. The Khiladi, once again, became a talking point after he donated Rs 25 crore to help India fight the worrisome COVID-19 situation.

READ: Akshay Kumar's Movie 'Hera Pheri' Was A Turning Point In His Life; Check Some More Trivia

Critics slammed

While celebrities and netizens went gaga over his generosity, one section in particular had a message to his critics. Akshay had last year broken his silence on his Canadian citizenship after his absence at the voting booths during general elections sparked questions. Since then, the Good Newwz star is always at the receiving end of trolls over his Canadian citizenship.

This is that time when all that matters is the lives of our people. And we need to do anything and everything it takes. I pledge to contribute Rs 25 crores from my savings to @narendramodi jis PM-CARES Fund. Lets save lives, Jaan hai toh jahaan hai.  https://t.co/dKbxiLXFLS  Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) March 28, 2020

However, as soon as the 52-year-old announced that hed be making a Rs 25 crore donation to the PM CARES fund, initiated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, some raised this point and hit out at the critics.

A journalist who had quipped if Akshay had voted in India or Canada after the Maharashtra Assembly elections in October 2019, got a barrage of tweets. One asked the journalist what contribution he had made to the country in this crisis, and another wrote how the Canadian has previously even donated for the Assam and Bihar floods.

READ:Akshay Kumar Drives Twinkle Khanna To Hospital, Latter Says 'don't Be Alarmed'; Watch

He just donated 25 crore.. what about you ? https://t.co/XWHzWfMTCi  shruti (@vyasshruti) March 29, 2020

Tripathi, that Canadian has donated 25 Crores to help India in this crisis. That Canadian donated 3 crores during Assam & Bihar floods. #AkshayKumar donated money on many other occasions. And you hiding your face in New York.? The only favour U did for India is.. when you left it https://t.co/ockqDmENHs  Paresh Rawal fan (@Babu_Bhaiyaa) March 29, 2020

Akshay Kumar gets a lot of flak from woke Twitter. They constantly attack him for being a Canadian citizen. Well, wed rather have Canadian citizens who help out at a time of crisis than fools who defile the Indian flag in the International media for a few hundred dollars. https://t.co/yaui3PeTHV  Ishita Yadav (@IshitaYadav) March 28, 2020

A netizen tweeted that its better to have Canadian citizens who help in the time of crisis over those who bring disrepute to the country on an international platform. A user had mad respect for him, while others asked where the critics of his Canadian citizenship were at the moment.

READ:Twinkle Khanna Says,'the Man Makes Me Proud' As Akshay Donates Rs 25 Cr For 'PM CARES'

#RatanTata's Tata trust has contributed 500 crores.



Akshay Kumar contributed 25 crores in #PMCARES



Many months ago everyone is trolling Akshay for his Canadian citizenship.



Where are they now? pic.twitter.com/27r4rdDtNb  Saurabh Singh (@100rabhsingh781) March 28, 2020

Mad respect for Akshay Kumar! In this hour of need, he has pledged to donate a whopping 25 cr to the PM-CARES fund despite being a Canadian citizen.  PuNsTeR (@Pun_Starr) March 28, 2020

Akshay had announced in December that he has applied for an Indian passport. The actor had said at that time that he was hurt about being asked to prove his love for India all the time.

Meanwhile, on the professional front, Akshays Sooryavanshi, set for release in March, has been delayed due to the COVID-19 situation. The Namastey London star had a great 2019 with three Rs 200-crore hits. He has multiple films in his kitty now like Bachchan Pandey, Prithviraj, Bell Bottom and Atrangi Re.

READ:Akshay Kumar: Have Applied For Indian Passport; Hurts When Im Asked To Prove Im Indian
A popular DJ who battled leukaemia for two years told doctors to 'save someone else's life' before dying of coronavirus just days after his 30th birthday.

Liam Downing received the devastating news he had contracted the virus just days before he turned 30, while in hospital for a suspected infection.

The disk jockey, from Middleton, Leeds, was also told there was 'nothing more' the doctors could do to cure his cancer.

Bravely, Liam decided not to be medicated as he did not not want to be a strain on the NHS.

He told his sister Laura they should 'save someone else's life' instead.

Liam Downing received the devastating news he had contracted the virus just days before he turned 30. He was also told that there was nothing more doctors could do for his leukaemia

Liam lost his battle with leukaemia and Covid-19 on Friday.

The family had previously hoped Liam would still have a few months to live, despite his terminal cancer.

But family members later revealed how he 'deteriorated at a much faster rate' after he contracted Covid-19.

They hoped he would live to celebrate his 30th birthday on March 23.

Liam battled through, and, in a final send-off, he spent his birthday surrounded by family after they were given special permission to visit his hospital room.

They placed balloons and banners around the walls, and, despite suffering through pain and bouts of cough, still had a 'big booming smile'.

His grieving sister Laura has since paid a heartfelt tribute to her 'brave brother' whose memories she will 'cherish forever'.

In a social media post, Laura, also from Leeds, said: 'He has fought leukaemia for nearly two years and last week we were told there was nothing more they could do to help him.

'Expecting Liam to have at least a few months he started making a bucket list of things he wanted to do before he died.

'To then be told he had coronavirus was just devastating.

'We were uncertain whether he was going to see his 30th birthday, which I'm so thankful he did.

The popular DJ, from Middleton, Leeds, has previously battled leukaemia for almost two years, but sadly died on Friday

'I'm so unbelievably proud of you Liam! You fought so long and hard but now's your time to relax.

She added: 'I love you Liam forever and always. Sleep tight, spread those wings and you fly high my bro.'

Over 1,500 has been raised on a fundraiser for Liam since his death.

On the GofundMe page his sister said money raised towards the 8000 target would be spent on a plot, headstone and flowers.

In a touching gesture, she said if any money was left over, it would be donated to the hospital that looked after Liam for the last two years.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

LMU virologist Gerd Sutter talks about the complex task of developing a vaccine against the new coronavirusand the approach he has adopted, which is already being tested against the related coronavirus MERS.

The whole world is waiting for a vaccine against the new coronavirus. How is your research progressing?

Sutter: We have essentially completed the gene technological phase of the work, and we are now setting up the first tests. We will, for example, test the genetic stability of our virus construct, and determine whether the desired antigen is expressed in its natural form when the engineered viruses are grown in cell culture. And we will check how well the growth rates of the recombinant viruses under these conditions.

How have you tackled the problem?

Sutter: We are working on what is called a vector-based vaccine. This approach involves the insertion of an innocuous segment of the genetic material of the new coronavirus into the genome of an established virus that can be grown in well characterized cell cultures. This segment of cDNA encodes the information for the synthesis of a specific protein that is found in the surface coat of the new coronavirus. The idea is that this surface protein should be capable of inducing a protective immune response, and can therefore be used as the basis of a vaccine that induces a protective immune response against the new coronavirus. We were very lucky that colleagues in China provided us with the genome sequence of the new virus very early on. This allowed us to modify the sequence obtained for SARS-CoV-2 to make it suitable for use in our virus vector, and ensure that it coded for, and could reliably produce the desired target antigen. The synthesis of the modified gene sequence was carried out by a commercial company that is specialized for the task. This DNA sequence was then inserted into our host virus to enable it to express the desired protein product. The vector system itself is well established and understood.

That's undoubtedly the result of years of basic research.

Sutter: I have worked with this MVA virus as an immunogen for more than 30 years. MVA stands for "Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara." This is an attenuated viruswhich was developed in Munichand has been approved as a vaccine against smallpox in Europe, the US and Canada. It provides us with a platform technology that allows us to place foreign genetic material under the control of the MVA's gene expression system.

Which components of the new coronavirus are you using?

Sutter: Coronaviruses got their name because, when viewed in the electron microscope, they look as if they have a halo or a coronawhich made up of many copies of a spike-like protein that forms part of the surface of the virus particle. We make use of this spike protein as our antigen. The spike protein is essential for the replication of the virus. They need it to dock onto the surface of their host cell. This in turn causes the virus coat to fuse with the plasma membrane of the target cell, and permits the virus to introduce its genome into the cell. We know from our own studies on a diverse set of coronaviruses that the immune responses provoked by this surface protein are capable of efficiently blocking the infection of host cells.

You already have a great deal of experience with the spike proteins of coronaviruses.

Sutter: That's true. In the course of the last few years, we have made great strides in the development of a vaccine against the MERS coronavirus. This vaccine is based on precisely the same concept, which we are now turning against the new coronavirus. That's why we believe that this strategy is likely to be successful. Like the new virus, MERS virus causes severe infections of the airways and the lungs, and there were several regional outbreaks of this disease in the years 2013-2015. We have shown that, following vaccination with the MERS antigen, antibodies are produced which inhibit the function of the viral spikes. This has been clearly demonstrated and verified in preclinical models. And there are initial tests in humans.

What do the studies tell you?

Sutter: All data we have collected so far strongly argue that it should be possible to develop a comparable vaccine against the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The studies are carried out in close collaboration with the groups led by Marylyn Addo at the University Hospital in Hamburg-Eppendorf and Stephan Becker at Marburg University. All three institutions involved are also linked via the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF). Let me emphasize here that very few groups have had much experience with coronavirus-specific vaccines in humans. Our MERS vaccine is one of the very first to be tested in humans.

But the vaccine against the MERS virus cannot be used against the new coronavirus?

Sutter: That is the case. The spike proteins of the two viruses differ too much from one another.

And if you use the gene that codes for the spike protein of the new coronavirus, it should work?

Sutter: That is our basic assumption. To the best of my knowledge, all the researchers now working on candidate vaccines have chosen to use the spike protein as the target antigen.

So you have designed a virus that has the potential to induce an immune response against SARS-CoV-2. What happens next? How long is it likely to take to produce the vaccine?

Sutter: Preclinical tests can now begin. As a rule, such tests take 12 to 18 months, because they normally require very painstaking tests on animal models. In the current situation, this stage in the procedure is likely to take less time than that. I am confident that clinical tests of the first vaccine candidatesin humanscan be carried out this year. The aim of these Phase I trials is to characterize the tolerability of the vaccine and its ability to induce a specific immune response.

There have been reports in the media that feature photos showing volunteers being injected with candidate vaccines.

Sutter: Yes, these tests are being done in Seattle. In this case, what is called a messenger-RNA-based vaccine is being used, which was developed by the American biotech company Moderna, in cooperation with the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). This vaccine is made up of a single synthetic RNA sequence, whose protein product is expected to trigger a direct immune response to the virus.

Apparently this substance hasn't even been tested in animal models.

Sutter: I assume that preclinical data are available that justify its use in humans. I would be very surprised otherwise, as that would be incompatible with one of the central elements of the procedures required for the approval of new medicines. But I don't how the authorities are treating this particular case. The NIH has, however, admitted that, even after first-in-human trials, it will take time to bring such a vaccine onto the market.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 40 projects are already underway with the aim of producing a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.

Sutter: Yes, a lot of things are now happening. Among them are projects which, like ours, are inspired by the protective effects of the MERS vaccine, but other vector-based approaches are also being tried. Then there is a whole series of projects that involve the use of nucleic acids, such as those being pursued by Moderna or by CureVac in Tubingen. At this point, it's important to make use of all available technologies. If you asked me a year ago, I would have said that we would be very pleased if it took less than 2 to 3 years to get from the discovery of a new virus to a Phase-I trial of a new vaccine. Now, we can probably reckon with a year or thereabouts.

Phase I trials are designed to test whether the vaccine is well tolerated and whether it induces an appropriate immune response. What happens in the next step?

Sutter: An emergency situation, such as the one we are now experiencing, is capable of dramatically accelerating the development process. This was demonstrated, for example, during the 2013-2014 Ebola epidemic. In that case, one candidate vaccine was rapidly approved for a Phase-I study, and the process went from there to a large-scale Phase-III study, which allowed its efficacy to be assessed, within little more than 18 months.  Even so, by that time, the infection rate had begun to fall off. However, when one considers the current situation with SARS-CoV-2, it must be clearly stated that the outbreak will have to be brought under control by other means than a vaccinewhich is not to deny the importance of making an effective and broadly applicable vaccine available as quickly as possible.

In addition, its development should also help us to be better prepared for future cases?

Sutter: That's the avowed aim of alliances like the WHO's Blueprint Activity or the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a worldwide alliance that includes public institutions like the WHO and the EU Commission, research organizations, vaccine manufacturers and private donors. The basic idea is to develop structural frameworks or 'blueprints' for vaccines that can be rapidly repurposed for use against an emerging viral threat. Our MERS vaccine is a good example of this strategy. It's rather unfortunate thatat this stagewe should be confronted with a disease X caused by a previously unknown pathogen which has rapidly spread all around the world.

So far, we have made no mention of money in this context. Developing a vaccine against a new pathogen is a very expensive business. The sum of 2 billion dollars has been mentioned in connection with SARS-CoV-2. Is that a realistic estimate?

Sutter: Yes, the figure is in the right ballpark. Certainly, one must be prepared to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the development of a vaccine.

US President Donald Trump allegedly offered the CureVac company in Tubingen one billion dollars to develop their vaccine candidate exclusively for the American market. Is there anything in it?

Sutter: I don't know the details. But I do remember a similar reaction on the part of the American administration when the threat of bioterrorism first emerged. At that time, the American authorities also contacted firms around the world that had developed interesting technologies which might help to combat such a threat, and asked them if they would be willing to work as contractors for the US government. Andas I remember from the smallpox immunization programthese offers are obviously linked to an "America first" clause.

Aren't such incentives essentially immoral?

Sutter: Let me put it this way, in emergency situations like the present crisis, vaccine developers generally take the view that any effective products should be made available to all. CureVac's investors also made that clear.

Is the CureVac approach so very promising?

Sutter: I can't really answer that question because, as far as I know, their clinical data haven't been published yet. The basic concept of using messenger RNA for the direct production of immunogenic antigens is an elegant one. But as yet, we have no idea how these constructs behave in humans, quite apart from the quality control issues that may come up in the course of their large-scale manufacture. And even if the company already has a finished construct, meaningful tests of its efficacy and reliability will take time. We, on the other hand, can make use of a tried and tested vector system, which has already been shown to be compatible with large-scale manufacturing processes. The basic construct has been characterized, and clinically testedtogether with modified variantsin over 12,000 people. We now know how immunogenic the basic construct is, and what sort of side-effects it has. Of course, the new construct is specific for the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, and the major unknown quantity is how the immune system will react to that. But all the other approaches now being tried also face this problem.

As a non-expert, one is tempted to say that it's already as good as a vaccine.

Sutter: But it isn't. One must remember here that what we now have are laboratory constructs. We still need to go through the various phases of the standard developmental process for vaccines. As far as I am concerned, we will only have a vaccine when our construct has successfully undergone Phase III trials and we have the go-ahead from the appropriate regulatory authoritiesin other words, when the vaccine can be sourced from pharmacies. I realize that, in the current situation, this is a message that is difficult to communicate. But we need to rule out all the possible risks involved. The clinical investigations are very, very important, simply because we need to test the vaccine in large numbers of experimental subjects, in order to ensure that we have not just a tolerable, but a reliable means of protection against infection with the virus.

Public expectations that a vaccine should be available sooner rather than later can only grow. How do you, as a vaccine developer cope with this sort of pressure?

Sutter: Clearly, the pressure will continue to rise. Nevertheless, I believe that we must continue to inform the public and to underline the fact that there are no shortcuts. The process of development and testing takes timefor very good reasons. For 6 years, I headed a department in the Paul Ehrlich Institute, the body responsible for the approval of vaccines in Germany. Of course, there are ways to accelerate the process, but only within certain limits. And I firmly believe that it will take at least 12, and possibly 18 months to produce a vaccine that is ready for use on a large scale. The task just can't be completed quicker than that.

Many politicians have suggested that only the arrival of a vaccine can release us from the present situation of social isolation, which is intended to prevent the deaths of thousands of people. What is your response to such statements.

Sutter: Be assured that all involved are hard at work to ensure that the job is done as fast as humanly possible.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
A ShopRite employee at a store in East Windsor has tested positive for the coronavirus, company officials reported Monday.

This is the fifth ShopRite employee statewide to test positive for the virus, according to information provided by owner Wakefern Food Corp.

An employee at the East Windsor location reported feeling ill on March 12 and was sent home, a spokesman said. The staffer has not worked since that day and has since contacted store management to report the positive diagnosis.

All store employees were notified and the store is undergoing a deep cleaning, officials said. The store will remain open.

This is at least the eighth case of a New Jersey ShopRite employee either diagnosed with the virus or showing symptoms of the illness.

Employees at stores in Garwood, Morristown, Newark and Old Bridge have also tested positive for COVID-19. ShopRite stores in Little Falls, Hillside and Sparta have each reported an employee with COVID-19 symptoms.

Wakefern posted news of the Sparta case on Saturday and has notified co-workers who may have been in close contact with that employee for a prolonged period of time that they must self-quarantine for 14 days.

The employee will not return to work until cleared by a doctor, the company said in its announcement. It did not say if the worker had been tested for the virus.

Along with the other stores, the Sparta location has undergone a deep cleaning consistent with federal guidelines, Wakefern officials said.

As for whether the employees had contact with customers, federal health privacy laws prevent ShopRite from providing details that could lead to an employees identification, a Wakefern spokesman previously said. That includes job title, schedule or department where the staffer worked.

In response to the still-growing pandemic, more than two dozen ShopRite locations in New Jersey are now limiting the number of customers allowed inside at one time to about 30 percent of the stores normal maximum occupancy.

Security guards at store entrances will track the number of customers entering and leaving.

New Jersey has reported more than 13,386 cases of COVID-19 and 161 deaths, while the global death toll now exceeds 35,000. More than 156,000 have recovered from the virus, according to worldwide figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Pastor identifies biblical steps to overcoming betrayal, discovering freedom in Christ

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NASHVILLE, Tenn.  Acts of betrayal have the power to violate our sense of trust, dismantle our faith in God, and uproot life as we know it. Yet victims of even the worst betrayal can experience healing and discover a life of health and wholeness through Christ.

Thats according to Phil Waldrep, author and founder of Phil Waldrep Ministries.

When people go through betrayal, one of the things that happens is their self-worth is shattered, he said. They feel hopeless, that this person did not value their relationship, friendship, or marriage, that the betrayer was able to do whatever they did without thinking about how it would have hurt them. They feel like their life is in a million pieces.

If you let God pick up the pieces and put them back together, His way and with His Word, healing is possible. It may take some time, but the other side is more beautiful than you couldve imagined."

The popular pastor and author speaks from experience. During a sit-down interview with The Christian Post, he shared how two decades ago, law enforcement officers surprised him at his office. Though the ministry was not its target, the investigation brought to light an employees unsavory activities, leaving Waldrep with no choice but confrontation.

This was one of my closest friends, a guy I loved like a brother, he recalled. He was the one guy I would have said would be with me through thick and thin. But I found out he was doing a lot of very serious, immoral, unethical, although technically not illegal, behavior. I was shell shocked because he was riding on the back of the ministry to do a lot of that.

After the initial confrontation, the employee was broken, repentant, and acknowledged he had a problem, Waldrep said. So I decided to extend grace.

Just a few months later, the mans wife called Waldrep and informed him her husband had resumed his undesirable activities. Once again, the pastor confronted his friend. But this time, his reaction was different.

He was defiant and unkind, Waldrep said. I was gracious, I think, to let him resign before I had to do anything. But when I look back, it left me emotionally and spiritually in shambles."

"Oftentimes, in a deep betrayal, the person who got betrayed is the one who is left picking up the pieces. The betrayer, many times, walks away unscathed.

When a person is betrayed, several things happen: First, you're going to be in a state of denial and shock, he explained. Once reality sets in, you're going to get angry. And if you don't get angry, it's not really a betrayal."

"Now, anger in itself is not a bad thing. However, we can let anger turn into bitterness if were not careful and that can turn into a desire for revenge. Once you realize that, you also have to realize it's going to take time to get over this. Betrayal is like an injury. Its going to take time to heal.

For the next several years, Waldrep walked through the feelings of betrayal in search of hope and healing. Through biblical guidance and prayer, he discovered solutions to overcome his pain and resentment.

He shares his experiences  both personal and pastoral  in his new book, Beyond Betrayal, which features a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Ann Voskamp. In it, he offers clear, biblical counsel to those burned by betrayal and uses the example of Jesus to identify strategies that activate freedom and forgiveness.

Youve got to understand your emotions, give yourself time to heal, and then get prepared for what forgiveness means, he said. Forgiveness means I am going to give up my right to punish you for what you did to me in the past and choose to forgive you, over and over again. Lift up the burden and give it to God in prayer. When we leave our conflicts in Gods hands, we become stronger, wiser, and deeper.

Waldrep also offered advice to those who have betrayed someone they love, advising them to first be totally transparent and repentant about their behavior.

Dont justify your actions, he said. David (in the Old Testament) dealt with his adultery by saying, I have sinned, there's no excuse for it. And then the second thing is, if you want to restore the relationship, you're going to have to be an open book for scrutiny and allow people to speak into your life because trust has to be restored.

When there has been unfaithfulness in a marriage, for example, you need to say to your spouse: I am an open book. You are welcome to track my phone and ask me anything. Dont be defensive. People will say, I dont want to live in that kind of punishment. It's not punishment because if you will give that kind of openness to your spouse, with time, trust is restored, and you can actually have a better marriage than before.

Betrayal comes in many forms, from unfaithfulness in a marriage to a parent abandoning their child. And the church, Waldrep said, isnt immune to betrayal. He revealed that many people he counsels have been betrayed by their pastor, ministry leader, or someone in their church.

The problem I find in the Christian world is we tend to think that because someone says, I'm a believer, I'm a Christian, that we feel guilty if we don't give them instant trust," he said. "A big reason we see horrible betrayal in churches, where there's been child abuse, for example, is because we were too trusting. We didn't do background checks. And when we saw things, we didn't speak up.

According to Waldrep, a sign of a trustworthy individual is one who does not mind scrutiny.

An honorable person will say, Im open to a background check. I have nothing to hide, he said. We need to have wisdom and discernment. Now remember, Jesus had 12 apostles and one of them betrayed Him, and the others mentally ran off. Sometimes, it doesnt matter how discerning we are, betrayers can make inroads in our lives.

Churches, the pastor stressed, need to have guidelines in place to prevent betrayals and abuses from happening.

If we want to have credibility with the world, these guidelines are absolutely necessary, he said. We have got to be willing to put in those guidelines and accountability and watchdog groups in place to hold us accountable.

The wisdom is don't be too quick to trust, but at the same time, if you've been betrayed, don't withhold trust. Don't allow one person to destroy your future relationships.

Waldrep told CP he prays his book will show readers how to get through betrayal without becoming bitter and broken, and to rest in the fact that through Christ, even the deepest wounds can be healed.

God specializes in brokenness, he said. Betrayal doesn't have to define you, and betrayal should not destroy you. Through His life and death, Jesus demonstrated that there's a resurrection after the crucifixion.
State-owned SJVN on Monday said it will donate Rs 5 crore to PM-CARES Fund to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

The company has also earmarked a separate fund of Rs 3 crore to contain the spread of the virus.

"Understanding the seriousness of fight against the Covid-19, SJVN has decided to contribute an amount of Rs 5,00,00,000/- (Five Crores) to the PM CARES Fund," SJVN Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) N L Sharma said in a statement.

The fund will be utilised for purchasing ventilators, distributing personal protective equipment like face masks, gloves, setting up of quarantine units in its project hospitals, the statement said.

Besides, it will also be utilised for distribution of food and other essential items to the needy.

The company further said its employees have also contributed an amount of Rs 32 lakh from their salaries to combat the coronavirus.

SJVN is a joint venture between the Government of India and Himachal Pradesh government.

The company is primarily engaged in generation and sale of power.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New York  The growing COVID-19 crisis threatens to disproportionately hit developing countries, not only as a health crisis in the short term but as a devastating social and economic crisis over the months and years to come.

Income losses are expected to exceed $220 billion in developing countries. With an estimated 55 per cent of the global population having no access to social protection, these losses will reverberate across societies, impacting education, human rights and, in the most severe cases, basic food security and nutrition.

Under-resourced hospitals and fragile health systems are likely to be overwhelmed. This may be further exacerbated by a spike in cases, as up to 75 per cent of people in least developed countries lack access to soap and water.

Additional social conditions, such as poor urban planning and overpopulation in some cities, weak waste disposal services, and even traffic congestion impeding access to healthcare facilities, may all add to the caseload.

This pandemic is a health crisis. But not just a health crisis. For vast swathes of the globe, the pandemic will leave deep, deep scars, noted Achim Steiner, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Without support from the international community, we risk a massive reversal of gains made over the last two decades, and an entire generation lost, if not in lives then in rights, opportunities and dignity.

Working in close coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNDP is helping countries to prepare for, respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing particularly on the most vulnerable.

UNDP is already working to support health systems in countries including Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Djibouti, El Salvador, Eritrea, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Nigeria, Paraguay, Panama, Serbia, Ukraine and Vietnam.

A UNDP-led COVID-19 Rapid Response Facility has already been launched, funded by existing resources and capitalized with an initial US$20 million. This facility is disbursing through a fast-track mechanism enabling UNDP teams to offer immediate assistance to countries for their national response. UNDP anticipates a minimum $500 million need to support 100 countries.

Call to action

UNDP has made a call to action to the international community to think beyond the immediate impact of COVID-19. The organization has emphasized the need for three priority actions: resources to help stop the spread of the virus, support to respond during the outbreak itself, and resources to prevent the economic collapse of developing countries.

As an immediate response, UNDP is building on the support it has been providing to China and other Asian countries to help strengthen their health systems. This includes helping them procure much-needed medical supplies, leverage digital technologies and ensuring health workers are paid.

At the same time, UNDP will support countries to slow the spread of the virus and to provide social protection for vulnerable populations, promoting a whole-of-government and whole-of-society response to complement efforts in the health sector.

In the longer term, UNDP will work with countries to assess the social and economic impacts of COVID-19 and take urgent recovery measures to minimize long-term impact, particularly for vulnerable and marginalized groups, and to help societies to recover better.

Tackling COVID-19 and its impacts will require partners who can work across systems and sectors and in contexts that are both complex and uncertain. With years of experience on the frontlines, this is what UNDP is designed to do. UNDP is fully operational in 170 countries and territories and focused on its COVID-19 response, mobilizing all its assets to respond to this unprecedented challenge.
SHANGHAI, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Rendu Biotechnology today announces that China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has granted emergency approval to Rendu's coronavirus 2019-nCoV nucleic acid detection kit (hereinafter referred to as "2019-nCoV detection kit"). This is the only RNA capture probe nucleic acid detection kit that has been approved by the Chinese regulator so far.

Rendu is the first Chinese high-tech company that focuses on RNA molecular diagnostic technology. Rendu is one of the few R&D-driven Chinese biotech companies with global competitiveness.

As stated on the NMPA website, the "2019-nCoV detection kit" uses RNA-specific target capture and transcription-mediated constant temperature amplification real-time detection technology. Nucleic acid extraction and amplification steps are completed automatically in one reaction tube. It takes 90 minutes to produce the results; continuous and parallel detection can be realized, which improved detection efficiency. Data show that the sensitivity and specificity of the detection results can reach the level of traditional PCR methods.

In addition to the detection kit, Rendy also launched AutoSAT, a fully automatic, high-throughput, and full-process integrated platform for coronavirus nucleic acid detection.

Nucleic acid testing serves as definitive etiological evidence and plays a decisive role in the investigation of suspected patients. Usually, the virus nucleic acid tests require samples to be sent to a centralized laboratory for testing. A large number of to-be tested samples, complicated operation steps, lack of medical staff, all of these increase the risk of infection and prevent test results to be produced in a timely manner. The AutoSAT platform can lessen these issues to some extent.

The AutoSAT platform is a product that integrates nucleic acid extraction, amplification reactions, and results reporting. Simply put the to-be-tested sample tube in AutoSAT, the instrument's nucleic acid extraction, purification, amplification detection, and reporting results are all done automatically by the instrument. The samples do not need to wait for the batch to come out. They can be inspected at any time (a single sample is on the machine at any time). It took only 90 minutes to produce the first result and averagely 2 minutes for the subsequent results. Operators can operate multiple instruments simultaneously. One instrument can complete 200 tests in 8 hours and 700 tests in 24 hours. It is especially suitable for on-site and rapid investigation of overseas imported coronavirus cases and large-scale samples of medical institutions.

The kit is equipped with a unique sample preservation solution, which can inactivate the virus and keep the RNA at a normal temperature for a long time without degradation. This will reduce false-negative results due to sample degradation, and dramatically reduce biosafety risks during transportation and testing. After the samples reach the laboratory, the original tube is directly tested on the machine.

As of March 27th, the NMPA has granted 23 emergency approvals to coronavirus detection products and eight antibody detection reagents.

SOURCE Rendu Biotechnology
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A Dublin man has admitted participating in various activities intended to facilitate the murder of Patrick Patsy Hutch in the capital two years ago.

Mark Capper (31) of Cappagh Green, in Finglas, Dublin 11, was transferred from custody to the non-jury Special Criminal Court today to enter his guilty plea.

Capper pleaded guilty to having knowledge of the existence of a criminal organisation and participating in activities intended to facilitate the commission of a serious offence by that criminal organisation, or any of its members, to wit the murder of Patrick Hutch within the State between February 1 and March 10, 2018, both dates inclusive.

The single count to which Capper pleaded guilty includes providing or assisting in the provision of one or more motor vehicles for use by the criminal organisation and/or moving one or more motor vehicles for subsequent use by one or more members of the criminal organisation and/or carrying out repairs to one or more vehicles for subsequent use by one or more members of the criminal organisation and/or carrying out reconnaissance on behalf of the criminal organisation and/or planning or assisting in planning the intended shooting of Patrick Hutch.

When asked how he pleaded to the charge, Capper said: guilty.

On the basis that it was entered on a full facts basis, Cappers guilty plea was sufficient to meet the case, according to Sean Gillane SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt accepted that Cappers guilty plea must be regarded as early.

He remanded Capper to appear before the court again on May 11 next for a sentence hearing.

Five other men, who are charged with conspiring with one or more persons to murder Mr Hutch, had their cases adjourned for seven weeks.

Each of the five men are also charged with participating in activities intending to facilitate the commission of a serious offence by a criminal organisation or any of its members, namely the murder of Mr Hutch within the State between February 1, 2018 and February 28, 2018, both dates inclusive.

They are also charged with conspiring with one or more persons to commit a serious offence, to wit, the murder of a person unknown within the State on the same occasion.

They are: Michael Burns (43), of no fixed abode, Ciaran ODriscoll (24), with an address at Avondale House, Cumberland Street, Dublin 1, Patrick Curtis (38) and his brother Stephen Curtis (32), both of Bellmans Walk, Seville Place, Dublin 1 and Mohammed Smew (27), with an address at Milners Square, Shanowen Road, Santry, Dublin 9.

Patrick Curtis and Mr Burns are also facing charges of directing the activities of a criminal organisation between February 1, 2018 and March 10, 2018.

Mr Burns is further accused of possession of a firearm silencer/suppressor and five rounds of 9mm parabellum calibre ammunition in such circumstances as to give rise to a reasonable inference that he had not got them in his possession for a lawful purpose on March 10, 2018 at Meile An Ri Road, Balgaddy, Clondalkin, Dublin 22.

Barrister John Moher, who was standing in for a number of his colleagues in the Special Criminal Court today, sought a further remand in custody for several of the accused, and he suggested a four-week adjournment.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding at the three-judge court, said he did not think four weeks was enough.

"Six to eight weeks," suggested another barrister.

"We'll call it seven," the judge said, fixing May 18 as the date for their next appearances.

The court made custody production orders for each accused, meaning they will be physically transported to court on May 18 from remand, "in the hope we're back to some normality" by then, the judge said. The five had appeared via video link to hear of the adjournment.

Mr Justice Hunt, presiding alongside Judge Sinead Ni Chulachain and Judge Gerard Griffin, gave liberty for each accused to apply for an earlier court date for whatever reason.
For Paty Inc, a childrens clothing manufacturer, the first sign of trouble arrived at the beginning of March. Gift stores and boutiques  to which the company typically sold monogrammable onesies  began scaling back orders during the usually busy lead-up to Easter.

We knew that we would either have to cut back or switch gears, said Derrick Veillon, Patys chief executive.

For Brothers Produce, a food distributor, it was the week of March 12, when the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo shut down and people began avoiding restaurant crowds. The company sold 70 percent of its fruits and vegetables to restaurants. Since then, that business has fallen to just 5 percent.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Stay informed with accurate reporting you can trust

Brent Erenwert, the distributors chief executive, reached for his phone and began making calls.

Every hour, he said, is survival mode.

As the novel coronavirus has reshaped demand for products from food to clothing, from medical supplies to toilet paper, businesses across Houston are scrambling to adapt.

Companies that can find ways to meet the surging need for medical supplies, deliveries and groceries will be able to keep their employees working while also serving society, said Mark Mullee, director of talent acquisition at Houston-based WC Consulting.

If you have the capability and you have the dynamics within the industry to do that pivot  if you can make hand sanitizer in your distillery  thats incredible, he said.

Many in Houston are doing just that.

After reducing employee hours and leaving stacks of already-cut clothing unfinished, Veillon saw a news story last weekend about New York designers making masks. By that Monday, Paty had a mask prototype of its own. By Tuesday, it had listed masks in its online store. Orders began pouring in before the company had the chance to announce the new product, and Veillon was able not only to restore employee hours but also begin looking for new hires.

The nurses are desperate, he said. Theyre calling us from New York City  to buy masks from an apparel company in Texas? Theres a level of desperation in that.

Veillon said the company was donating masks to medical professionals and selling them to the public, and that Paty had contacted the Food and Drug administration about expedited approval of the product for use as a surgical mask.

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Erenwert meanwhile called H-E-B to discuss storing and transporting the grocers increased supply  grocery stores have seen a surge in demand as people prepare to hunker down in their homes  and launched a website March 22 to sell bulk produce directly to consumers. On Monday, he said Brothers Produce had received 100 orders for $10,000 worth of supply.

My goal is not to lay off one person, he said. And Ive been able to do that so far.

Mary Garnett was one of the people who began discussing an order with Erenwert on Monday; by Tuesday, her post about starting a produce share had received so much interest on a Facebook group for Friendswood moms that she ordered nearly 200 50-pound boxes filled with strawberries, carrots, potatoes and other fruits and vegetables, along with cartons of eggs and milk  all of which she delivered to a line of cars that wrapped around Hope Lutheran Church Wednesday morning.

Garnett plans to repeat the produce share, which she has named Friendswood Produce Boxes, at least once a week.

Its kind of crazy, she said of her impromptu business. Im just a mom who had a huge desire for produce for my kids and decided to run with it.

Learning to adapt

Distilleries, including rum maker Grateful Dane Distilling and Gulf Coast Distillers, have begun turning byproducts of their liquor into hand sanitizer, which has become hard to find since the coronavirus spurred demand for cleaning supplies.

Restaurants such as Italian cafe Palazzos have turned excess inventory into bodegas, selling produce, meats, dairy, eggs and even toilet paper to the public.

Sweet Shop USA, a North Texas confectioner known for its truffles and toffees, has begun making making hundreds of thousands of plastic face shields, using materials from a supplier they usually turned to for chocolate packaging.

And at least one event company has found a way to stay open in the age of social distancing.

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The Events Co., which has orchestrated lavish weddings, symphony balls and events for heads of state, has begun setting up tents and providing food service personnel for temporary clinics and kitchens.

You listen to the news, and you realize its going to be a serious problem, Richard Flowers, the companys event planner, said of the need for places for coronavirus testing and temporary clinics. As the weddings and galas planned for the spring began canceling, he called up the nonprofit clinic Legacy Community Health.

I said, How can we help? I know you need to test people, and you cant let them in your clinics themselves.

The Events Co. has also set up testing sites for Houston, Flowers said, as well the food kitchen for Landrys employees (The Events Co. is a part of the Landrys organization).

The new business doesnt make up for the business lost, and the florists that were once essential to the company have had to be furloughed.

But right now, Flowers said, our main focus has been to try to help the community. The question is, how long is this going to last? Everyone is going to have to adjust.

rebecca.schuetz@chron.com

twitter.com/raschuetz
Acting White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, traveling with US President Donald Trump, returns to the White House in Washington, DC, on March 28, 2020.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., will resign from Congress on Monday to become President Donald Trump's chief of staff.

Meadows' former communications director, Ben Williamson, confirmed to CNBC in an email that he has "moved to the White House to serve as senior advisor to White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows."

Multiple outlets reported that Meadows' first official day as Trump's chief of staff will begin Tuesday. CNN reported that his resignation from Congress will take effect at 5 p.m. ET on Monday, citing an aide to Meadows.

Meadows will succeed Mick Mulvaney, who had served as acting chief of staff since December 2018 along with being the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Earlier Monday morning, Meadows tweaked his Twitter handle to remove his congressional title  from "@RepMarkMeadows" to simply "@MarkMeadows."

TWEET

Trump had announced on March 6 that Meadows would replace Mulvaney, who remained "acting chief of staff" for his entire tenure, even though the position does not require Senate confirmation.

Mulvaney will become United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, Trump said in that announcement on Twitter.

Trump TWEETS

Politico reported in December that Mulvaney was never able to win Trump's full backing and had been largely sidelined as his time in the White House wore on.

A former GOP congressman from South Carolina, Mulvaney came under fire after an October press briefing, as scrutiny was ramping up over Trump's efforts to push Ukraine to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.

Mulvaney acknowledged in that presser Trump had sought a quid pro quo when it came to releasing military aid to Ukraine. Trump and other officials had denied seeking a quid pro quo of any kind regarding Ukraine. Mulvaney walked back his remarks shortly thereafter.

Trump was impeached by the Democrat-led House in mid-December on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, both related to his Ukraine dealings. He was acquitted by the Republican-majority Senate in February.

Meadows, one of the president's most loyal supporters in Congress, is Trump's fourth chief of staff in just over three years. Mulvaney had replaced retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, who left the post after a tumultuous run reportedly marked by infighting and distrust.

The president's first chief of staff, Reince Priebus, served from Trump's inauguration until July 2017.
VANCOUVER, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Alexco Resource Corp. (NYSE AMERICAN: AXU; TSX: AXU) ("Alexco" or the "Company") today provided a corporate update on its recent activities, 2020 Corporate plans and the measures it has taken in light of the uncertainty and unpredictable impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic with respect to operations at the Keno Hill Silver District ("Keno Hill").

COVID-19 Response

Alexco has implemented a COVID-19 response and management plan to protect the health and safety of our employees and contractors as well as the local communities in which we operate. Alexco continues to closely monitor the changing conditions of the COVID-19 crisis and our actions follow the advice and guidelines of the Yukon, provincial and Federal health professionals and government officials as well as industry-wide best practices. The Company's response plan, which is especially focused on our Keno Hill, Yukon operations, includes the following protocols:

Only essential employees and contractors are currently allowed access to Keno Hill operations, and all incoming personnel must be pre-screened and cleared for travel to Keno Hill by Company health and safety medics;

Keno Hill employees and schedules have been modified to reduce where possible, any travel from locations outside the Yukon . The Company is following the 14-day self-isolation requirements issued by the Yukon Government for workers entering the Yukon from outside of the territory;

. The Company is following the 14-day self-isolation requirements issued by the Yukon Government for workers entering the from outside of the territory; At Keno Hill enhanced sanitation procedures have been implemented by the Company's camp and catering contractor and mandatory hygiene techniques have been established for all employees and camp residents. On-site work schedules and other measures have been implemented to reduce employee interaction;

On a Company-wide basis, travel is restricted to essential travel only and, where reasonably possible, employees are working remotely from home; and

The Company is in consultation with a third-party health care provider to provide expert advice and guidance on our plans.

There continues to be no reported cases of COVID-19 within the local area in which we operate at Keno Hill. The Company will continue to closely monitor the quickly changing conditions of this pandemic and will modify our operating protocols as appropriate and based on the advice of the healthcare professionals and government officials' requirements.

Operations Update

Over the past several months the Company has made steady progress on mine development activities at Keno Hill including recruitment of key personnel and senior site management, securing long lead time orders for mine equipment and advancing capital infrastructure projects at the mill and across the project site. Given the ongoing uncertainty with the COVID-19 crisis and with a priority for the health and safety of our employees, contractors and the local community, the Company has suspended underground mine development activities and buttoned-up capital investments made to date while continuing to maintain all areas of the site. Mill improvement projects that can be completed with existing Yukon employees will continue and non-essential Keno Hill based employees will work remotely on a number of engineering and project planning requirements. This approach assures that the Company can quickly reaccelerate mine development activities once certainty has returned from the COVID-19 outbreak, government travel restrictions have been lifted, and within the general context of market conditions.

As previously reported, the Company is awaiting issuance of an amended and renewed Water Use License ("WUL") from the Yukon Water Board. The Yukon Water Board completed the public hearing phase of the licensing process in February 2020, and the Company understands that deliberation and progress on the terms and conditions of the renewed WUL is ongoing. Given the disruption in most routine activities, the Company advises that issuance of the WUL will be deferred into the second quarter, 2020. The Company reiterates that a final production decision at Keno Hill requires amongst other considerations, the issuance of a renewed WUL. Issuance of the WUL in the second quarter continues to be within the broader schedule of mine development activities now contemplated at Keno Hill and the ability to reach concentrate production in 2020.

2020 Exploration Program

The Company's 2020 surface exploration program originally planned to include approximately 11,500 meters of surface drilling beginning in May, has been similarly decelerated as a result of the COVID-19 restrictions. While the original 2020 drill program will likely not change in terms of targets and objectives, the Company is developing contingency plans to execute a reduced surface exploration drilling program that could be deferred until the COVID-19 conditions change and circumstances allow. At a minimum, the Company is hopeful that activities can be scaled back up in mid to late summer, when appropriate, with the reduced drilling program to be undertaken focusing on the Bermingham "deep target", where exploration drilling in 2019 successfully confirmed the presence of wide, high-grade mineralization at depth below the Bermingham high grade silver deposit. The Bermingham deposit, comprising 1.1 million tonnes of 930 grams per tonne silver in estimated Indicated Mineral Resource (including Probable Mineral Reserves), remains the highest grade, with approximately 33 million contained silver ounces, and the largest discovery by Alexco at Keno Hill to date (see independent technical report dated May 8, 2019 with an effective date of March 28, 2019, as amended February 13, 2020, prepared by Mining Plus Canada titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report, Prefeasibility Study of the Keno Hill Silver District Project, Yukon Territory, Canada"). The deposit remains open at depth and the objective of this follow-up deep drilling program will be to evaluate the opportunity for expansion of the Mineral Resource at depth.

It should be noted that prior to reduction of the Keno Hill site activities due to COVID-19, the Company recently completed a planned extension (from 2018) of the district-wide detailed airborne geophysical program. The interpretation of results from these surveys has proved important in targeting mineralized structures in areas of cover, has resulted in new discoveries on Galena Hill in 2019, and will be especially important for target generation and ranking for longer term exploration planning at Keno Hill.

Outlook

The Company is taking every precaution to protect its employees, contractors and communities where it operates from health risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The necessary deceleration of capital construction and interruption of the mine development schedule will result in development schedule delays; however, the Company has implemented an interim plan to ensure that capital improvements are properly maintained and where possible surface capital projects will continue. Underground mines are being maintained in a development ready condition. Underground mining equipment and mill related capital components remain on order and in the supply line, both from domestic as well as international locations. With these changes and modification of schedules, the Company has preserved the opportunity, market and permitting conditions considered, to achieve initial concentrate production in 2020.

With respect to exploration, much of the Company's work is pre-programed and considered routine from year to year. As such, delays in surface drilling activity will simply push the programs and schedules later into the summer, or into 2021. Work at Bermingham and the Company's new discovery at Inca will remain a priority.

As previously disclosed, on March 27, 2020 the Company closed an over-night marketed public offering, issuing 4,662,675 common shares, which included the full subscription of the overallotment option, at a price of $1.85 per share for gross proceeds of $8.6 million. This financing has provided Alexco with financial flexibility to continue with the activities described above while also enabling us to smoothly reaccelerate and ramp up operations in line with the 2019 pre-feasibility study schedule when circumstances allow.

Finally, the Company will continue to monitor conditions and be prepared to respond as appropriate, while also updating stakeholders if and when the situation changes. In the meantime, the Company is taking care of its operations, its community and environment, and its most important asset  its people.

2020 AGM

To protect our employees and shareholders, the Company has adjusted the format of its 2020 annual general meeting ("AGM") to a virtual electronic meeting. The AGM will be held on June 4, 2020 at 1:30 pm PDT and further details on how to join the event will be communicated via news release in the coming weeks.

About Alexco

Alexco is a Canadian primary silver company that owns the majority of the historic high-grade Keno Hill Silver District in Canada's Yukon Territory. Alexco has a long history of expanding Keno Hill's mineral resources through successful exploration and is currently advancing a development plan for the District. In 2019, the Company published a positive pre-feasibility study that estimates production of 1.12 million tonnes of ore at an average rate of 430 tonnes per day at an average grade of 805 grams per tonne silver over an 8-year mine life from the Flame & Moth, Bermingham, Bellekeno and Lucky Queen deposits.

Further information about the project, including the effective date of the estimates and summary of assumptions, parameters and risks relating to mineral resources, mineral reserves and the pre-feasibility study, can be found in Alexco's technical report entitled ""NI 43-101 Technical Report on Preliminary Feasibility Study of the Keno Hill Silver District Project, Yukon Territory, Canada" filed on May 8, 2019 as amended February 14, 2020 that is available on Alexco's profile on Sedar at www.sedar.com.

Some statements ("forward-looking statements") in this news release contain forward-looking information concerning plans related to Alexco's business and other matters that may occur in the future, made as of the date of this news release. Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, risks and uncertainties relating to the outbreak of COVID-19 including but not limited to business closures, quarantines and a general reduction in consumer activity; actual results and timing of exploration and development, mining, environmental services and remediation and reclamation activities; future prices of silver, gold, lead, zinc and other commodities; possible variations in mineral resources, grade or recovery rates; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; First Nation rights and title; continued capitalization and commercial viability; global economic conditions; competition; and delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of development activities. Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions that management believes are reasonable at the time they are made. In making the forward-looking statements included in this news release, Alexco has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, the assumption that Alexco will be able to raise additional capital as necessary, that the proposed exploration and development activities will proceed as planned, and that market fundamentals will result in sustained silver, gold, lead and zinc demand and prices. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Alexco expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation.

SOURCE Alexco Resource Corp.

Related Links

www.alexcoresource.com


California Governor Gavin Newsom has announced that his state was sent 170 broken ventilators from the national stockpile but will get them fixed by today.

Despite saying he did not wish to blame federal government, Newsom was at pains to highlight his initiative in sending the ventilators to be refurbished at Bloom Energy on Saturday, a fuel cell maker in San Jose.

'Rather than lamenting about it, rather than complaining about it, rather than pointing fingers, rather than generating headlines in order to generate more stress and anxiety,' Newsom said, 'We got a car and a truck and we had those 170 brought here to this facility and they are quite literally working on those ventilators right now.'

Newsom added: 'That's the spirit of California. That's the spirit of this moment. Take responsibility. Take ownership and take it upon ourselves to meet this moment head on.'

Newsom's impassioned statement appeared to break a recent truce which he and President Donald Trump had forged despite their frosty history. It comes as the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in California rose to 6,356, with 132 deaths.

Gavin Newsom told a press conference on Saturday: 'Rather than lamenting about it, rather than complaining about it, rather than pointing fingers, rather than generating headlines in order to generate more stress and anxiety we got a car and a truck and we had those 170 brought hereto this facility and they are quite literally working on those ventilators right now'

Last week, Trump had high praise for Newsom, who has also complimented the president on his handling of the outbreak.

'By the way Gavin Newsom has been terrific. I have to tell you the governor of California. We are getting along really well. We are working hard for him. As you know the hospital ship, the other hospital ship and they are incredible. Just arrived in Los Angeles fully stocked. But, Gavin Newsom has been really good and so many of the governors have been good,' Trump said on Friday.

He added: 'I appreciate his nice words. I really do.'

Newsom, a Democrat and usually a fierce Trump critic, is among those who have gone out of their way not to lay the federal government's failings during the coronavirus outbreak at Trump's feet.

Newsom complimented Trump for 'his focus on treatments' for the virus and thanked him for sending masks and gloves to California.

He said the president was 'on top of it' when it came to improving testing and said Trump was aware 'even before I offered my own insight' of the state's need for more testing swabs.

Last week, Trump had high praise for Newsom, who has also complimented the president on his handling of the outbreak

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference at the Bloom Energy Sunnyvale campus in Sunnyvale

Trump has faced increasing pressure from state governors to supply ventilators, in particular he has sparred with Andrew Cuomo over supplies to New York.

Trump approved California's request for a statewide disaster declaration within hours of Newsom asking on March 22.

Newsom's office said Satursday that at the start of the outbreak California had been equipped with 7,500 ventilators and that it had set the goal of adding another 10,000 machines.

As of Saturday, the state said another 4,252 ventilators had been sourced, around 1,000 of which needed to be refurbished.

Trump has faced increasing pressure from state governors to supply ventilators, in particular he has sparred with Andrew Cuomo over supplies to New York.

Cuomo last week said he needed 30,000, while Trump hit back at him, saying that those supplied by federal government had been left in storage by New York.

Trump tweeted: 'Thousand of Federal Government (delivered) ventilators found in New York storage. NY must distribute now.'

Last week Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to compel General Motors to produce ventilators for the country.

He tweeted Friday: 'General Motors MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio, or some other plant, and START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!! FORD, GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!!!!!!'

When the coronavirus is fatal it is because of its debilitating effect on the respiratory system and ventilators are able to keep patients alive by pumping the lungs full of air with a tube put into the nose or mouth.
PKK-planted explosives destroyed in northern Syria

Turkish Defense Ministry announced that security forces seize improvised explosive devices in the area.

Turkish security forces destroyed two improvised explosive devices planted by PKK terrorists in northern Syria, Turkeys National Defense Ministry said on Monday.

TURKEY'S CROSS-BORDER OPERATION

The explosives were seized in an area falling inside of Operation Peace Spring, Turkeys cross-border anti-terror offensive in Syria, the ministry said on Twitter.

The operation launched last October aims to eliminate YPG/PKK terrorists from northern Syria east of the Euphrates River to secure Turkey's borders, aid in the safe return of Syrian refugees and ensure Syrias territorial integrity.

Ankara wants YPG/PKK terrorists to withdraw from the region so a safe zone can be created to pave the way for the safe return of some 2 million refugees.
Supermarket workers have shared their horror stories from the frontline of the coronavirus panic-buying frenzy.

Some have been physically and verbally abused by customers who aren't able to find what they want amid widespread shortages caused by coronavirus panic-buying.

A Coles liquor store employee said an irate shopper spat on a credit card before handing it over, while others reported being the target of racial slurs.

Supermarket workers have shared their horror stories from the frontline of the coronavirus panic-buying frenzy

An employee at an Aldi store in Melbourne's south-east said he was shocked by the lack of awareness from some customers.

'One elderly man sneezed into his hand, then wiped his nose with his hand, then wiped his pants, and proceeded to pay in cash,' he told the The Sydney Morning Herald.

'I sanitised my hands after that.'

An anonymous Coles worker also took to social media to share some of their own experiences in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

'Today was the first day in a while I didn't get yelled at ... there are always a few racist customers making dumb comments,' the worker wrote.

'I'm still shocked that we are not given any sort of safety protection nor it seems like they care for our safety and well being.'

John, an employee at a Coles liquor store in Melbourne, said when he watched a man lick his fingers to fold his notes he told him he couldn't take it.

The man was so enraged by John's health and safety concerns that 'he deliberately spat on his credit card'.

One Coles employee took the time to draft a list of things customers could do in order to make the whole experience easier for all involved.

The list asks people to avoid the store even if they feel 'remotely sick' so staff and the company can be 'risk adverse'.

Workers spoke about customers who were licking their fingers before handing over cash or not sanitising their hands before entering the store

The death toll in Australia soared to 18 on Monday afternoon after a woman died in Tasmania

Another tip on the list is for customers to not touch any stock until they have the intention of buying it and to make sure they sanitise their hands before entering.

'Please don't touch workers, I've had so many customers come and grab my shoulder or arm when they talk to me, or pat me on the back,' the worker wrote.

'That isn't okay in the current climate.'

Panic buyers have also been pictured ignoring social distancing markers, crowding around aisles and pushing in checkout lines.

Bunnings Warehouse has remained open due but has been forced to impose a customer limit in its stores.

Bunnings Managing Director Mike Schneider said the company was committed to the health and safety of its staff and customers.

We want customers to be aware that there may be some delays in our busier stores across the weekend as we do everything we can to ensure social distancing measures,' Mr Schneider said.

'This could be anything from less checkouts in operation, to limiting customer numbers in store.

'It will be different store to store depending on how busy they are and well do the best we can to get everyone in and out as quickly as possible.'
To the editor:

Sarah Schulz's work as a "community organizer" may be commendable, but it's not a training ground for becoming a state legislator. A state legislator works as a team with members of her own party and ideally, as state Rep. Annette Glenn has done, with the opposition party as well to pass legislation that benefits the citizens of Michigan and represents the views of the people of our district.

While Rep. Glenn has a voting record, Sarah has been very quiet about the major issues impacting Michigan. She's a very liberal Democrat and, as such, could be expected to support the very liberal policies of the increasingly socialist Democratic Party.

One major issue impacting Michigan is abortion. The current view of most leading Democratic politicians is that abortion should be legal until birth, and some say even after birth if you don't like the baby that was born. After working as a department head for the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York City, a pro-abortion lobbying group, what are Sarah's views on this important issue?

Another key issue is K-12 education. One of the Democratic Party's positions is that the salaries of all K-12 teachers need to be substantially increased. In 2018-19, the average teacher salary in Michigan was $61,825. The question is, does substantially increasing the salaries of all current teachers improve student outcomes? What is Sarah's view on this issue and how does she see increasing existing teachers' salaries improving student outcomes?

These are key questions where we the citizens in the 98th District need to understand Sarah's views!

DON DEIBERT

Midland
Royals are taking a step back from official duties while on lockdown - and the same is true of the Queen's hard-working horses.

Photos posted by the official Royal Family Instagram account show the Queen's carriage horses running free in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace, where they have been 'turned out', or left to be outdoors, while royal engagements are on hold.

The horses - Cleveland Bays and Windsor Greys, all personally named by her - are normally used for official engagements such as audiences, royal processions and the state opening of Parliament.

All the Queen's horses! Photos posted by the official Royal Family Instagram account show the Queen's carriage horses running free in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace, where they have been 'turned out', or left to be outdoors, while royal engagements are on hold

Royal supporters were quick to praise the move and noted how happy the horses appeared.

One posted: 'Such a lovely photo of them.' Another added: 'Gorgeous.'

The Queen is currently in joint isolation with Prince Philip at Windsor.

Last week Buckingham Palace shared a photo of the Queen conducting her weekly audience with the Prime Minister over the phone. The photo showed Her Majesty, 93, sitting at the desk of her private sitting room.

Running free: Official engagements are on hold which means there is no work for the Queen's carriage horses. Pictured two Windsor Greys galloping at Hampton Court Palace

Official duties: The carriage horses are used for audiences and the Queen's birthday parade

It was seen as a move to reassure the public after it emerged Prince Charles, 71, has tested positive for the coronavirus.

Her Majesty is said to be in good health but in order to minimise contact with anyone who may be carrying the virus, staffing has been kept to a minimum.

Her Majesty is said to be extremely conscious that no member of staff should be working if it can be avoided.

As a result, she has chosen to bypass her daily horse rides as the exercise would mean groomsmen working in the stables.

Lifelong interest: The post revealed the Queen personally names each of the carriage horses

Clarence House has said that the Prince is in good spirits despite testing positive for the virus last week. He is expected to make a full recovery.

The 71-year-old started showing 'mild symptoms' of the virus last weekend and last Sunday returned to Birkhall, his Scottish residence, with the Duchess of Cornwall.

Both were tested for Covid-19 on Monday and on Tuesday Charles was told he had the virus. Although Camilla was found not to have it, she too is staying at Birkhall but is living apart from her husband.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y -- A Staten Island-based apparel company, Wooter Apparel, has partnered with the founders of Project Protect  an initiative aimed at providing nurses with personal protective equipment (PPE)  in an effort to help keep workers in the health care industry safe amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Ben Bokser, who alongside fellow Staten Islanders Shannon Brown and Vin Fiorenza founded Project Protect, said he was contacted by his friend, David Kleyman  the owner of Wooter Inc.  about the prospect of using his companys manufacturing connections to make PPE.

He asked us to help find people who need this stuff, Bokser said. And we figured the best thing that we can do is start a fundraiser and raise some money, and get in touch with nurses who can help us campaign this and get this into their hands.

Soon after, Bokser contacted Dawn Cardello, a registered maternity nurse and the co-president of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) union  which represents nurses at Staten Island Universitys Hospital (SIUH) system.

After learning of Kleymans ability to produce the masks, Cardello said she would be able to handle the distribution of the PPE. I know I will get it to the staff (at SIUH)," she said.

In just three days, Project Protect has raised over $14,000, and Cardello said an order of 4,100 kN95 masks  which are effective at filtering out at least 95% of airborne particles  have been placed and are slated to arrive in the coming days. The masks will be split between SIUH and New York Presbyterian Columbia.

I will definitely make sure they are handed out to the staff, Cardello said. I will hand them out to the nurses myself.

The staff needs to be safe in order to protect the rest of the community, she said.

Brown, a founder of Project Protect, said the support on Staten Island so far has been moving.

Its really been an amazing experience, Brown said of the support during the first days of the fundraiser. Its a moving, beautiful experience.

Now, Bokser said Project Protect is looking to increase its reach by encouraging nurses to share their experiences on social media with #HearAStoryShareAStory, which is an effort to help the community understand what is going on to bring awareness.

Im emotionally invested, Bokser said of the decision to continue working to provide PPE to nurses on the front lines. I have to do whatever I can to contribute and help.

53 Fighting the coronavirus: NYC on pause

SHIFTING TO MEET DEMAND

Kleyman, who has also been working outside of Project Protect to supply PPE such as N95 masks, KN95 masks and surgical masks to hospitals across the city, said the decision for his apparel company to pivot over to health care equipment was a no-brainer.

My wife is a nurse, so I know first hand what the problems were and just how short they were, Kleyman said.

He went to work and contacted his companys manufacturers in China to see how he could import masks to the United States and very quickly went from importing garments to importing masks.

He said the coronavirus created an important problem we needed to solve.

From there, all our sales people went from selling garments to selling masks, and all our operations people went from managing factories that produced garments to managing factories that sell masks.

The race to get masks, however, has been far from easy. Kleyman said supplies like N95 masks are generally in extremely short supply. Still, he said, his company has been able to import about 500,000 masks and has a goal to import 10,000,000 masks.

In addition to the 4,100 kN95 masks arriving for Project Protect, Kleyman said a shipment of 100,000 masks will be arriving next week for Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

I feel like we are solving a very, very important problem, Kleyman said. I hope we can get on this fast. I hope we can import as many masks as possible."

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

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Before the coronavirus became a pandemic, Emma went to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting every week in the Boston area and to another support group at her methadone clinic. She said she felt safe, secure and never judged.

"No one is thinking, 'Oh, my God. She did that?'" said Emma, "'cause they've been there."

Now, with AA and other 12-step groups moving online, and the methadone clinic shifting to phone meetings and appointments, Emma said she is feeling more isolated. (KHN is not using her last name because she still uses illegal drugs sometimes.) Emma said the coronavirus may make it harder to stay in recovery.

"Maybe I'm old fashioned," said Emma, "but the whole point of going to a meeting is to be around people and be social and feel connected, and I'd be totally missing that if I did it online."

While its safer to stay home to avoid getting and spreading COVID-19, addiction specialists acknowledge Emma's concern: Doing so may increase feelings of depression and anxiety among people in recovery  and those are underlying causes of drug and alcohol use and addiction.

"We consider addiction a disease of isolation," said Dr. Marvin Seppala, chief medical officer at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. "Now we're isolating all these people and expecting them to pick up the phone, get online, that sort of thing  and it may not work out as well."

Emma has another frustration: If the methadone clinic isn't allowing gatherings, why is she still required to show up daily and wait in line for her dose of the pink liquid medication?

The answer is in tangled rules for methadone dispensing. The federal government has loosened them during the pandemic  so that patients don't all have to make a daily trip to the methadone clinic, even if they are sick. But patients say clinics have been slow to adopt the new rules.

Mark Parrino, president of the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence, said he issued guidelines to members late last week about how to operate during pandemics. He recommended that clinics stop collecting urine samples to test for drug use. Many patients can now get a 14- to 28-day supply of their addiction treatment medication so they can make fewer trips to methadone or buprenorphine clinics.

"But there has to be caution about giving significant take-home medication to patients who are clinically unstable or actively still using other drugs," Parrino said, "because that could lead to more problems."

The new rules have a downside for clinics: Programs will lose money during the pandemic as fewer patients make daily visits, although Medicare and some other providers are adjusting reimbursements based on the new stay-at-home guidelines.

And for active drug users, being alone when taking high levels of opioids increases the risk of a fatal overdose.

These are just some of the challenges that emerge as the public health crisis of addiction collides with the global pandemic of COVID-19. Doctors worry deaths will escalate unless people struggling with excessive drug and alcohol use and those in recovery  as well as addiction treatment programs  quickly change the way they do business.

But treatment options are becoming even scarcer during the pandemic.

"It's shutting down everything," said John, a homeless man who's wandering the streets of Boston while he waits for a detox bed. (KHN is not including his last name because he still buys illegal drugs.) "Detoxes are closing their doors and halfway houses," he said. "It's really affecting people getting help."

Adding to the scarcity of treatment options: Some inpatient and outpatient programs are not accepting new patients because they aren't yet prepared to operate under the physical distancing rules. In many residential treatment facilities, bedrooms and bathrooms for patients are shared, and most daily activities happen in groups  those are all settings that would increase the risk of transmitting the novel coronavirus.

"If somebody were to become symptomatic or were to spread within a unit, it would have a significant impact," said Lisa Blanchard, vice president of clinical services at Spectrum Health Systems. Spectrum runs two detox and residential treatment programs in Massachusetts. Its facilities and programs are all still accepting patients.

Seppala said inpatient programs at Hazelden Betty Ford are open, but with new precautions. All patients, staff and visitors have their temperature checked daily and are monitored for other COVID-19 symptoms. Intensive outpatient programs will run on virtual platforms online for the immediate future. Some insurers cover online and telehealth addiction treatment, but not all do.

Seppala worried that all the disruptions  canceled meetings, the search for new support networks and fear of the coronavirus  will be dangerous for people in recovery.

"That can really drive people to an elevated level of anxiety," he said, "and anxiety certainly can result in relapse."

Doctors say some people with a history of drug and alcohol use may be more susceptible to COVID-19 because they are more likely to have weak immune systems and have existing infections such as hepatitis C or HIV.

"They also have very high rates of nicotine addiction and smoking, and high rates of chronic lung disease," said Dr. Peter Friedmann, president of the Massachusetts Society of Addiction Medicine. "Those [are] things we've seen in the outbreak in China [that] put folks at higher risk for more severe respiratory complications of this virus."

Counselors and street outreach workers are redoubling their efforts to explain the pandemic and all the related dangers to people living on the streets. Kristin Doneski, who runs One Stop, a needle exchange and outreach program in Gloucester, Massachusetts, worried it won't be clear when some drug users have COVID-19.

"When folks are in withdrawal, a lot of those symptoms can kind of mask some of the COVID-19 stuff," said Doneski. "So people might not be taking some of their [symptoms seriously], because they think it's just withdrawal and they've experienced it before."

Doneski is concerned that doctors and nurses evaluating drug users will also mistake a case of COVID-19 for withdrawal.

During the coronavirus pandemic, needle exchange programs are changing their procedures; some have stopped allowing people to gather inside for services, safety supplies, food and support.

There's also a lot of fear about how quickly the coronavirus could spread through communities of drug users who've lost their homes.

"It's scary to see how this will pan out," said Meredith Cunniff, a nurse from Quincy, Massachusetts, who is in recovery for an opioid use disorder. "How do you wash your hands and practice social distancing if you're living in a tent?"

This story is part of a partnership that includes WBUR, NPR and Kaiser Health News.
Photo: Drive BC Webcam view of the Coquihalla at Britton Creek.

Heavy snow continues to fall on the Coquihalla today, as Environment Canada urges caution.

The falling snow is affecting visibility as well as creating slippery road conditions on the highway between Hope and Merritt.

The government agency is reporting accumulations of up to 25 cm can be expected by the evening today, March 30.

Up to 10 cm is already being reported in some sections.

Drive BC is not reporting any incidents on the infamous stretch of Highway 5 as of 10:20 a.m.
TDT | Manama

The Ministry of Health received a total of 609 complaints against public hospitals and health centres in 2019, the Tribune has learnt.

Health Minister Faeqa bint Saeed Al Saleh recently confirmed this in her reply to a parliamentary query submitted by MP Sawsan Kamal, who asked her about the number of complaints received from patients against the medical staff in hospitals and health centres operating under the Ministrys umbrella and the mechanism for receiving complaints.

The Minister explained that 332 out of the received complaints were submitted through the National Suggestions and Complaints System, Tawasul, while 123 were personally lodged at the Patients Complaints Office in the ministry.

A further 146 were made through the complaints and suggestion boxes installed at health centres. The Patients Complaints Office at Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC) receives the complaint and addresses the concerned authority to resolve it in an optimal way and as quickly as possible, said Minister Al Saleh in her reply.

The Office also implements solutions to deal with patients complaints in a timely manner. It receives the complaint from the patients and their families so that appropriate solutions are found for them at the same time without delay, in line with the directives of the Prime Minister and the ministrys vision to provide the best experiences and patients rights.

She also noted that the ministry constantly strives to ensure patients rights at every stage of their treatment and at every step of the services provided to them, their families and their companions.

The Health Minister added that in the event that the complaint is not resolved or if there is a suspicion of negligence or a medical error, the complaint will be referred so the necessary legal procedures can be taken in accordance with the regulations of the Civil Service Bureau and the National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA).

In order to develop services and to control the behaviour of its staff and the quality of its services, the ministry is concerned with all complaints that it receives from all channels, including complaints related to the quality of services and the behaviour of workers, Minister Al Saleh said.
Ghanas Electoral Commission (EC) has said it will reschedule a date for the new voter registration exercise despite the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country.



To prevent the spread of the pandemic which has so far resulted in 132 confirmed cases, the government has placed a ban on all social gatherings.



Large gatherings of more than 25 people have been discouraged but the EC says plans are far advanced for a new date of the registration process.



Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Serebour Quaicoe told NEAT FMs morning show, Ghana Montie.



According to him, despite the ban on public gathering, it will announce a new date for the registration in due course.



EC Suspends Registration Exercise



The Electoral Commission (EC) has suspended the compilation of the new voters register over the coronavirus outbreak.



The exercise was scheduled to commence on April 18, through to the end of May.



However, after a meeting with political parties Wednesday, Serebour Quiacoe, the Director of Electoral Services at the Commission said, . . . because of the pandemic, we cant do it on April 18.



Addressing journalists after the meeting with the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC), he said the EC is looking to conduct the registration from the end of April but only subject to advise from health authorities.



Listen to the interview below





Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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On campus, the administration says it is adhering to Virginias public health mandates, but students are flouting them. While security guards appear to be enforcing state advisories requiring a 6-foot distance from others and gatherings of no more than 10 people, students are still assembling in closer proximity to eat, play sports, study and use dormitory restrooms. Decals slapped on furniture that say Closed for Social Distancing have wound up on laptops and car bumpers. Study tables are farther apart, but shared computer terminals remain. While some students are trying to adhere to social distancing guidelines, they live in group houses, pile onto city buses and crowd the few businesses that remain open in Lynchburg.
Unfortunately, some dont believe the scientific evidence or dont think it applies to them. Its not a concern, the pastor at Life Tabernacle Church said of the chance of infection. The virus, we believe, is politically motivated. We hold our religious rights dear, and we are going to assemble no matter what someone says. Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr., who has blamed the media for hyping the threat of covid-19 to damage President Trump, framed his decision to reopen the evangelical college as a favor for students. I think we have a responsibility to our students  who paid to be here, who want to be here, who love it here  to give them the ability to be with their friends, to continue their studies, enjoy the room and board theyve already paid for and to not interrupt their college life, he told the (Lynchburg) News & Advance.
Beijing: Corona, which has made the whole world its victim, is still not taking the name of pause. Every day the virus is getting worse. The death toll from this virus has exceeded 30000. As many as lakhs of people are still infected with this disease. More than 6,64,000 people have been infected with this deadly virus worldwide. In Spain alone, a record 838 people died of Coronavirus in the last 24 hours. Things have become worse in Italy. In Italy yesterday, Saturday, 889 people died of Coronavirus in a single day. The death toll in Italy has crossed 10,000. The death toll from infection in America has crossed 2000.

Spain became new center of Corona, 821 people lost their lives in just 24 hours

Seeks help from European Union: According to the information, Spain and Italy, the worst affected by Coronavirus epidemic, have sought help from European Union (EU). Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said late Saturday that Europe will have to tell the rest of the world that it is capable of coping with this bad time. Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has also called for help from 27 countries of the European Union. Six other countries of the EU including Spain, Italy and France have asked the EU to issue Corona bonds. This will also be a kind of debt, which the countries fighting the epidemic will be able to get money by selling in the market. However, countries like German and Netherlands do not agree with this idea of these countries.

World's first corona patient gives this statement about disease

There has been a surge in the number of infected people in Spain: A record 838 people died due to infection in the last 24 hours in Spain on Sunday. The number of people who died from corona in Spain has increased to 6,528. The Spanish Ministry of Health said that 78,797 people have been confirmed infected with the corona so far in the country. Not only this, a huge increase of 9.1% has also been registered in the number of infected people in the country in the last 24 hours. Spain is the second country after Corona to Italy with the highest number of deaths. On the other hand, the shortage of essential goods is also coming in the way of dealing with the epidemic. In places like Milan, Madrid and Michigan, doctors are facing shortage of ventilators.

Number of Corona patients increased in Nepal, lockdown extends for week
Tony Gentile/Reuters

ROMEThe New York mafia is taking a hit from the novel coronavirus pandemic after many of its money-making outlets have been shuttered.

Gambling halls, sporting events, and construction projects have long fed the Empire State gangs, but now that they are taking an historic blow, a law-enforcement source told the New York Post. Theres never been a time when they werent making money through gambling, the source said.

The American mafia families are also losing out on the extortion racket after restaurants and other entities close their doors under New York Citys shelter in place order. A halt to non-essential construction jobs, which includes transportation and port entry, has also put a dent in the U.S. mobs profits.

But that is not the case in Italy, where authorities warn that the mafia will most certainly cash in on the pandemic. There is already concern that various criminal groups are involved in the construction of field hospitals and importation of medical supplies like masks and other equipment. They are also still dealing drugs, making loans, and controlling large swaths of the agricultural industry, which is one of the few sectors still in full operation to feed the 60 million locked-down Italians.

Franco Gabrielli, head of the Public Security for Italys Central Anti-Crime Directorate, or DAC, told reporters this week that the economic vocation of the Italian mafia syndicates means that they will easily find a way to infiltrate all sectors still serving the locked-down public.

But the real money will be made when the lockdown ends, Gabrielli says, noting that the current crisis will be the bearer of a liquidity deficit, of a profound restructuring of the labor market, of the consequent influx of huge national and EU public funding.

Gabrielli said this week that the criminal groups will be able to easily recruit cash-strapped entrepreneurs who need loans to help restart the Italian economy. Those loans will be hard to secure from banks, which will take a huge hit during the economic downfall the pandemic has already caused in Italy.

Story continues

The DAC has already dispatched anti-mafia squads to carry out surveillance on known mobsters as they make plans. After the pandemic red zones open up, he says they will create organized-crime red zones in areas with the highest density of economic and financial mafia contagion.

As in the years after World War II, when various organized-crime syndicates gained footing across the country, the post-pandemic world will be good for crime. The mafia has been able to adapt itself punctually to any social, economic, geopolitical transformation, Gabrielli says. Criminal syndicates have adapted to new technological and communication platforms as well as to the new economy and different financial scenarios.

The New York gangs might soon be forced to go back to their old ways to keep up. They are already reportedly considering a return to the narcotics trade, which has been sidelined in recent years for more lucrative rackets, according to the New York Posts police source.

Theres still deals being made, the source said, referring to the New York City drug trade under lockdown as a whole, though it remained to be seen just how the mob could get back into the racket without risking their lives to the virus.

For decades, anti-mafia fighters from Bobby Kennedy and Rudy Giuliani to Lt. Joseph Petrosino, who was killed by the Cosa Nostra Black Hand racket in 1909, tried to achieve exactly what the coronavirus pandemic has done in just a few short weeks. The Posts police source summed it up, This is doing what they couldnt do.

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Intel notified employees Saturday that someone working in a lab at its Ronler Acres campus in Hillsboro has tested positive for the coronavirus.

Workers at several large Oregon employers have tested positive previously, highlighting a dilemma for businesses and for the state, which has allowed many companies to continue operating during the outbreak. Gov. Kate Brown indicated last week she is trying to balance the health care imperatives of a pandemic with Oregonians economic needs.

Intel is Oregons largest corporate employer, with 20,000 people working at its Washington County campuses. Many of those employees are working from home but some researchers in the companys labs and technicians in its factories have continued to report to work.

Earlier Monday, Intel CEO Bob Swan said its factories in Oregon and elsewhere continue to operate on a relatively normal basis during the outbreak.

The positive coronavirus test in Hillsboro is the first Intel has disclosed among its Oregon employees. Intel has acknowledged positive coronavirus tests among employees in California and Arizona, and last week the company said a construction contractor working on its Hillsboro factory expansion had tested positive.

Intel did not identify the employee diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease cause by the coronavirus. The company said the employee hadnt been to work since March 17 and that the persons workspace had been cleaned since then.

Additionally, Intel said it has already notified people who may have been in close contact with this employee and asked them to self-quarantine for fourteen days. Intel defines close contact as being within six feet of the infected employee for at least 30 minutes.

The governor ordered Oregonians to stay home a week ago to contain spread of the deadly virus. But Brown exempted construction, manufacturing and many other businesses from order  so long as employers keep their workers apart from one another and take other steps to contain the virus spread.

That decision has confused and concerned many Oregon workers: Hundreds have complained to the state that their employers are not following the rules.

Intel said it is taking many steps to ensure its employees remain safe.

In addition to increased cleaning of our facilities, Intel manufacturing sites are taking extra steps to effectively implement social distancing, the chipmaker said in a written statement Monday. Some of these measures include staggering shift changes, adjusting meeting locations and schedules, and limiting activities that require close proximity.

Through Sunday, Oregon has identified 548 coronavirus cases statewide and 13 deaths.

-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway |

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The Coronavirus outbreak is deeply affecting our lives; as all of us are now stuck at home, working or not working, to prevent the spread of this virus. Being confined to our homes has inevitably spurred widespread feeling of loneliness and uncertainty among all people. Thankfully, the Internet and social media is working and is able to connect us with our friends and families.

One of the best ways to get over this social isolation while being stuck at home is to use some popular apps together with our friends and families. Here we have a list of some recommendations.

Netflix Party - Netflix Party is a free application on Google Chrome that synchronizes the consumption of Netflix content on different computers and accounts. It's "Let's watch it together" of the digital age. Netflix Party maintains simultaneous sessions across screens, even when the server of one of those involved fails, and also creates a chat that allows you to continue conversations while the movie or TV series is playing.

The app has already reported a massive surge in use in 2020, and hundreds to thousands of people have installed Netflix Party because watching the same movie or TV series from different locations is an available alternative for hanging out with friends during quarantine.

Zoom - Zoom is a free tool for meetings, usually for work. Before the pandemic crisis, it was mostly used in the world, but it has since become the "darling" for live video chats between friends and family, as it allows up to 1,000 video participants in the single meeting. As most people are still working from home, Zoom has emerged as a great option for face-to-face communications among home office teams nowadays.

The Zoom cloud meetings app has become one of the most downloaded apps in the world in recent months. The remote conferencing platform is now growing far beyond its professional purposes as families, schools, and groups of friends are using it for live group chats, classes and so on. It is fair to say that the app has led to much- needed togetherness for our communities in these times of social distancing.

Kwai - Available for free for Android and iOS users, Kwai is a popular video-sharing app allowing you to watch, create and share fun videos directly from your smartphone. These videos are short duration and range from several seconds to a few minutes. A lot of Kwai's content is based on memes, music and challenges which allow users to engage with other people.

In 2019, Kwai app topped the Google Play and Apple App Store's "most downloaded" lists in eight countries. During the current Coronavirus pandemic, it has gained more new users as people started exploring the humorous and creative aspect of themselves to combat the tiresome quarantine. They are filming hilarious indoor videos, or even making amazing art works on this platform.

Many professionals and celebrities are also promoting programs or live streaming on the network that is encouraging quarantine, hand washing or wearing facial masks properly. These have proved to be highly practical and useful advice for the viewers, besides driving away their boredom.

Houseparty - Available free for Android, iOS and iPadOS users, Houseparty is owned by Epic Games, developer of "Fortnite". The app allows "online meeting" with friends, making it possible to chat through video, play in groups, take tests, among other resources, which gets this social distancing lit.

Since the beginning of the quarantines in different countries, the application has gained high popularity, adding more than two million downloads in just last week. Virtual group hangouts have always been a thing, but now, they are in demand more than ever, now. An app like Houseparty is one of our powerful companions to combat loneliness and stay connected and engaged during this very strange time.

Nike Training Club - During the COVID-19 outbreak, it is necessary to keep ourselves healthy and energetic. Engaging in free workouts via streaming services with your friends can help us get rid of isolation.

Available for both Android and iOS users, the Nike Training Club is a wellness app that brings almost 200 workouts available in different groups, such as "muscle group" or "type of training". The app's promise is to replace a face-to-face personal trainer, including creating personalized workouts for each user.

NTC is one of the best options to keep your exercise routine up to date, even indoors. With its intuitive layout, it is possible to create workouts according to the preference of individual users. In addition, as the app "talks to you," it is easier to do the exercises correctly.

The Coronavirus quarantine and nationwide lockdown has changed people's preferences and consumption of their smartphone apps. The lockdown is even revolutionizing Internet use as it evolves into a mainstream tool of socialization for most of us.

These are our favorite online apps that can temporarily free us from humdrum existence, and we hope they help you to stay productive and entertained. Be safe and have fun with them!

This story is provided by Evoc. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China has ordered a foreign national to leave the country after he launched an assault on hazmat-clad health officers who asked him to wear a face mask to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Shocking video shows the man, a Moroccan citizen, yelling 'motherf******' before throwing his phone at the workers yesterday in north-western China's Xi'an city.

The foreign resident is facing deportation after being arrested by local police for disrupting public services, according to an official statement.

China has ordered a 'foreigner' to leave the country after the foul-mouthed resident attacked health officers because they asked him to wear a face mask

The man allegedly became infuriated after the community workers ordered him to wear a face mask before entering the residential complex he lived in.

'We received a report that a foreigner in our jurisdiction did not wear a mask while entering the residential complex he lived in and disobeyed the property management staff,' the local Yanta Police wrote in a statement yesterday.

'His behaviours disrupted the public order and we ordered him to leave the country within a time limit.'

The statement did not mention the man's nationality, but officers confirmed to MailOnline that he comes from Morocco.

A witness told the local press that the foreign national appeared to be intoxicated.

'I was at the convenience shop nearby when I heard someone smashing things and shouting,' the witness told Pear Video. 'He smelled of alcohol.'

Communities around China have enforced strict measures on their residents amid fears of a new wave of outbreak. An officer checks the temperature of a boarding passenger in Wuhan

A man wearing a protective face mask walks in front of a shopping centre in Guangzhou today

Communities around China have enforced strict measures on their residents amid fears of a second wave of infections.

Citizens are required to wear face masks regularly and show dedicated barcodes on their phone to prove they don't carry the coronavirus before entering public places.

China is seeing a surge of new coronavirus cases from air passengers travelling from abroad.

Over the weekend, China banned entry to all foreigners, including non-nationals with valid visas and residence permits. International flights to China were also restricted in a move to curb the rising number of imported cases.

The novel coronavirus has infected over 81,000 people in China and claimed at least 3,300 lives.

Citizens are required to wear face masks regularly and show dedicated barcodes to prove they are virus-free when entering public places. A worker takes the temperature of train passengers

A security guard is seen looking at a temperature scanner at the entrance of a mall in Beijing

Globally, there are over 721,000 confirmed cases and the death toll is nearing 34,000. Almost 20,000 people are diagnosed with the deadly disease in the UK and 1,228 people have died.

Britons should not expect to get back to 'normal life' for six months or even longer, the government's deputy chief medical officer warned today.

Dr Jenny Harries told a Downing Street press conference that people should not be viewing the coronavirus crisis as something that will blow over soon.

She said it will not be clear whether the 'social distancing' lockdown is working for another two or three weeks - after Easter - with deaths set to rise further.

But even if the draconian restrictions do succeed in 'squashing' the peak of the outbreak, reverting to a 'normal way of life' immediately would probably lead to a disastrous new spike in infections.
The Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, on Monday said the state was not fully prepared for the lockdown ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The lockdown, in the state, Lagos and the FCT is to take effect from Monday midnight as directed by the Federal Government but Mr Abiodun has now shifted it till Friday citing permission from the president.

Mr Abiodun said this on Monday when he unveiled three isolation centres established in Ikenne, Sagamu and Abeokuta. He explained that he had secured a waiver from the Presidency.

He explained that the shift of the date was to create ample time for residents of the state to stock food and other daily needs before the lockdown could take effect.

After consultation with the Presidency, the interstate and international borders will close tonight at 11 p.m. as directed by the President.

However, the total lockdown of the state will be effective from 11 p.m. on Friday, 3rd April, 2020.This is to enable us finalise the mechanisms for the distribution of relief materials and food items ahead of the total lockdown, Mr Abiodun explained.

Our Government is conscious of the implications and discomfort associated with these measures. Nonetheless, we are constrained to do this because the available options are limited. Not taking these measures would have dire consequences.

Coronavirus has upturned peoples lives and destinies and we have to fight with everything that we have, including stepping down our individual preferences and freedoms. These restrictions will be kept under constant review.

We will relax them if the evidence makes it compelling. The restrictions are without prejudice to the need for people to reasonably move within their neighbourhoods to buy essentials such as food, drugs and access healthcare, as contained in Regulation 8 of Ogun State Corona Virus Disease (Emergency Prevention) Regulations 2020.

Strategies

Let me now unveil new strategies to further flatten the curve of the spread, isolate and treat any positive case, and provide relief and succour to our people, in this trying time. Arrangements are at an advanced stage to establish our own biomedical laboratory so that we can test suspected cases in the state without going to Lagos or Abuja, the governor said.

This laboratory which will be in place by this weekend will minimise the test turn-around time which currently is between 3-5 days and fast-track the treatment of positive cases. It will also reduce period of apprehension and anxiety for those suspected of infection and their relations.

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To cushion the effect of the lockdown on our citizens, when finally ordered, food items and other palliatives will be provided in the next few days. The government is working out the modalities and engaging relevant stakeholders to particularly identify the poor and vulnerable groups and to ensure that the palliative and relief items reach the intended beneficiaries at the grassroots level.

During the period of this lockdown, all markets, motor parks, public squares and high human-traffic areas will be fumigated and disinfected. To support the new facilities unveiled today, the state has procured five (5) ambulances, Mr Abiodun said.

He also said public servants in Ogun State should work from home, except those on essential services.

The government hereby appeals to all retired health workers, those in the private sector and volunteers to come forward and make their services available to complement the efforts of our core medical and paramedical personnel. We appeal to our people to abide by these government orders, and the advisories provided by the ministry of health on hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene and social distancing.

Health status

The governor also disclosed his health status as regards coronavirus.

He said after his return from London and a meeting he had with the Governors Forum, he went into self-isolation and followed up with medical examination which turned out negative

President Muhammadu Buhari had on Sunday ordered residents of Lagos, Ogun and Abuja to stay indoors for two weeks effective from Monday, in view of the ravaging coronavirus across the world, with Nigeria now having 131 confirmed cases and two deaths.

Mr Buhari gave the order in his broadcast speech to the nation, adding that the decision was based on the advice of the Federal Ministry of Health and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). Lagos and Abuja were selected because they have the largest number of COVID-19 cases in the country, while Ogun was selected because of its proximity to Lagos.
Egypt condemned in the strongest terms ballistic missile attacks claimed by Yemens Iran-backed Houthi group against Saudi Arabia on Saturday, which injured at least two civilians.

The Egyptian foreign ministry affirmed in a statement late on Sunday Egypt's support for all necessary measures to preserve the security and stability of the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia said its air defenses intercepted the two ballistic missiles launched towards the Saudi capital Riyadh and the southwestern city of Jazan, north of the border with Yemen.

Two civilians suffered minor injuries from the falling debris of an intercepted missile, which exploded in mid-air over residential districts in Riyadh, the Saudi state news agency (SPA) reported.

Hundreds of missiles and drones have been launched by Houthis across the border, mostly targeting nearby military and civilian targets.

The last attempted strike on the capital was in June 2018.

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The impact COVID-19 can have on families was poignantly captured in emotional footage taken on March 26 by an Indonesian health-care worker who had to tell her daughter to keep a safe distance away when returning from a shift at a medical facility.

Like the majority of the planet, Indonesia is in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic with health-care workers, in particular, in danger of contracting the virus. A report in the Guardian from the same date this footage was taken, claimed 42 medical staff had already been infected with the virus in the countrys capital, Jakarta. The same report claimed some health-care workers threatened to go on strike after they were forced to wear raincoats for protection.

Zahroh Zuliana Azizah, who is based in Salatiga, a city in the Central Java province, is one of Indonesias health-care workers and, after working a long shift, her daughter was excited to see her mother arrive at home.

However, given that COVID-19 is highly contagious, Azizah was forced to ask her daughter to stay away. The video was posted to Twitter

Azizah told Storyful, I just wanted to capture what we are fighting for and when my child asks questions later, I will show her what my friends and I have contributed with our energy and soul.

She added, I dont want to get praise from people, but I want them to appreciate our efforts and sacrifice by staying at home. A follow-up video shows that her daughter did get a hug in the end, but not until after Azizah had a chance to clean up properly. Credit: Zahroh Zuliana Azizah via Storyful
Elsa Hosk lit up her Instagram account on Sunday as she shared a treat for her 6M followers.

The 31-year-old blonde bombshell was modeling black Gucci lingerie as she reclined in a chair for two sizzling black-and-white photos.

This comes the day after the Victoria's Secret model was seen walking around New York City with her boyfriend Tom Daley.

Stunning during a pandemic: Elsa Hosk lit up her Instagram account on Sunday as she shared a treat for her 6M followers. The 31-year-old blonde bombshell was modeling black Gucci lingerie as she reclined in a chair for two sizzling black-and-white photos

Model moment: In this new images, Elsa was fully made up with dramatic makeup and her blonde hair blown out

In this new images, Elsa was fully made up with dramatic makeup and her blonde hair blown out.

And the veteran model had on a black blazer that fell off one of her shoulders.

The Swedish cover girl sat on a chair and extended her long supermodel legs out with long drapes behind her.

New York City has been suffering some of the worst of the coronavirus outbreak with with 776 dead and 33,786 cases as of Monday morning.

In her towel: And there was also a shot of her just out of the shower over the weekend

Most residents don't dare leave their home unless it is for essentials.

And on Sunday Elsa kept up with the mandate from health officials when she went for a stroll in and around a park with boyfriend Tom Daly.

The looker kept it casual in grey sweatpants and a pink Kansas State Wildcats sweatshirt.

She also donned white sneakers and wore her blonde tresses long and flowing with a part in the middle.

Coronavirus crisis: Hosk and boyfriend Tom Daly practiced social distancing when they went for a stroll in around a park in New York City on Sunday

Daly, who's the co-founder and creative director of Running Vision, a company that sells sunglasses made for running, looked casual-cool in tan pants with a blue button-down short and brown jacket.

When the Victoria's Secret Angel returned home, she fielded fielded questions with some of her six million Instagram followers.

And as expected some of them pertained to the coronavirus crisis.

One person opened up about their rising anxiety in the wake of COVID-19, and asked how she's been taking care of her mental health.

Staying healthy under pressure: Hosk revealed how she's been tasking care of her mental health during the coronavirus crisis

Her remedy: The Swedish model revealed some of things that have been helpful in taking care of her mental health since being cooped up at home during the quarantine

Hosk responded with a number of things that have been helpful to her since the outbreak that includes: 'meditation, cooking, not sleeping longer than usual, working out, staying creative, taking pictures, drawing, painting , playing games, and checking in on family and friends.'

During the crisis, Hosk has been very open proactive about spreading the word of home sequestering to her six million followers.

Hosk and Daley first got together in 2015 after being friends for a number of years.
The nurses walk in and a greeter hands them a paper bag with two surgical masks in it, and thats what you get for the day. If you dont deal directly with patients, its one mask; if you work in intensive care or emergency, there are more available, often in lock-up or in a box under the nurses station. Its similar all over Toronto; its policy, and has been for at least a week.

Every nurse knows any patient can carry the coronavirus. Every one knows some patients lie. Nurses would usually don a different mask for every room they enter, but not now. The fear and anger among nurses is palpable. Every day, they take the masks.

You want to help your fellow nurse and you want to do your job, said one nurse at a Toronto hospital who does not work in the ICU or the ER, but who will soon, as resources shift. But at the same time, when you walk in and you see your entire worth as a human being is two masks in a brown paper bag  like, thats all youre worth to the hospital, thats all your health is worth, is two masks for a whole shift  youre like, what am I doing here?

What am I (doing)? Im risking my life, my family life, my community, and all you value me is two masks in a brown paper bag? My manager was crying: she gets one mask because shes not doing patient care. So shes only worth one mask.

There are frantic efforts in government and the private sector to procure or manufacture enough personal protective equipment, or PPE, for the waves COVID-19 is expected to bring. Wuhans hospitals sent warnings from the future, as did Italys, Spains, Seattles, New Yorks. One in 12 coronavirus patients in Italy was a health-care worker; it was one in eight in Spain. Doctors and nurses and health-care workers die because they are the front lines of the war, and in the United States health-care workers are already begging for adequate protection. In Canada, before the worst hits, the worry is equally acute.

It makes sense to ration equipment knowing the worst is yet to come, and not knowing exactly when or if adequate resources will arrive. Of course. And there is a global shortage, as so many nations scramble.

Which is why were pulling out all the stops to get access to whatever we have; that is a process that is actively going on right now, said Dr. Theresa Tam, Canadas chief public health officer, in her daily briefing Sunday. At the same time, responding to pandemic is also about handling and prioritizing your most critical and scarce resources, so hospitals on the front line are practising how they can make sure they can reduce what we call the burn rate, and not waste resources as well.

Scarce. That means nurses  along with other hospital workers, including cleaners  are caught in the middle. COVID-19s asymptomatic transmission makes every patient a risk, and nurses are given less protective equipment than doctors. On Thursday, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said there was no PPE rationing in Ontario hospitals, which was plainly untrue, and had been for several days: St. Michaels Hospital was asking nurses to use the same mask all day unless it was contaminated as of at least March 19.

Sunday, the Ontario Hospital Association and the Ontario Ministry of Health issued a joint statement about having to carefully manage supplies, which was a climbdown. A memo obtained by the Stars Jennifer Yang indicated the provincial government expects more equipment in the coming days and weeks; the federal government expects significant PPE shipments soon, per one source familiar with the arrangement.

But until its here and tested, its not here. Michael Hurley, the president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions and a CUPE vice-president, told the Star a poll of 3,000 hospital workers Saturday asked if they had enough PPE: 87 per cent said no. The union argues the virus should be treated as if its airborne, citing studies, and wants anybody who comes into direct contact with symptomatic patients to have the higher-level N95 masks.

And that was the provinces position until three weeks ago, when it wrote down the protocols on this to suit its supply problems, said Hurley.

Shortages are everywhere. One maternity nurse outside Ontario told the Star a couple hid COVID-19-like symptoms for a week so the father could be there for the birth of the child; the nurse hadnt been wearing a mask while treating them because of shortages, but had treated other families. She has been well since, and the mother was tested and came back negative. But it made the nurse think.

So you get a call in from another unit: do you have any face shields? the maternity nurse said. And you have one box left for yourself. Do you give it to them, because they need it? Do you keep it for yourself? Its hard.

Nurses are also scared to talk, due to what they consider a punitive work environment: multiple nurses contacted the Star but backed out, citing job security. They have exchanged stories of a patient deliberately coughing on health-care workers and the nurses having to finish their shifts, or of crying in the driveway when they get home.

It was already a grind: shift work, no raises in a decade, health-care cuts, a system that runs over capacity. Many have told family members they felt burned out before this began, or are ready to quit. One, who has been a nurse for over 20 years, said, I dont care if I never work again. They dont feel like heroes.

I didnt sign up to die on my job, said one nurse who has worked in post-surgical care for 20 years.

I was at the grocery store this morning and talking to a woman in line who said she was afraid to even talk to people, said a St. Michaels Hospital nurse who has put in over a decade in intensive care. And she asked what I did, and I told her. And she said, you are my hero.

And I felt like, the public perceives us to be that way, but were just like everybody else. Were struggling to get through the day, and worried about whats to come. And not sure if were going to have enough PPE.

I dont want to go to work and bring this home to my family.

So they wait. Maybe some will quit. Maybe enough equipment will arrive, and all this goes away, and lets hope. In the meantime, the nurses take their masks. And they dont feel like heroes, even if they are.
ADELPHI, Md. (March 30, 2020) - A team of Army and industry researchers have developed a metric for neural networks--computing systems modeled loosely after the human brain--that could assess the reliability and confidence of the next generation of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms.

Deep neural network, or DNNs, are a form of machine learning that use training data to learn. Once trained, they can make predictions when given new information or inputs; however, they can be easily deceived if the new information is too far outside its training.

Researchers said given the diversity of information in training data and potential new inputs, coming up with a solution is challenging.

"This opens a new research opportunity to create the next generation of algorithms that are robust and resilient," said Dr. Brian Jalaian, a scientist at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory. "Our approach is versatile and can be added as an additional block to many of the Army's modern algorithms using modern machine learning algorithms that are based on deep neural networks used for visual imagery."

This new confidence metric will help the Army create safe and secure machine learning techniques, and will apply in command and control systems, precision fire and decision support systems, Jalaian said.

Since 2018, researchers from the Army and SRI International, through the lab's Internet of Battlefield Things Collaborative Research Alliance, have investigated methods to harden Army's machine learning algorithms to provide greater dependability and safety, and be less susceptible adversarial machine learning techniques.

The researchers published their work, "Attribution-Based Confidence Metric for Deep Neural Networks", at the 2019 Neural Information Processing Systems Conference.

"While we had some success, we did not have an approach to detect the strongest state-of-the-art attacks such as (adversarial) patches that add noise to imagery, such that they lead to incorrect predictions," Jalaian said. "In this work, we proposed a generative model, which adjusts aspects of the original input images in the underlying original deep neural network. The original deep neural network's response to these generated inputs are then assessed to measure the conformance of the model."

This differs from the existing body of research, as it does not require access to the training data, the use of ensembles or the need to train a calibration model on a validation dataset that is not the same as the training set, Jalaian said.

Within the Army, researchers continue to work with the test and evaluation community to develop containerized algorithms that measure the confidence of various algorithms across different applications.

Jalaian said they are exploring variations of generative models that could harden Army AI systems against adversarial manipulations, as well as investigating the resiliency of neural network models, both theoretically and empirically, that could be executed within small smart devices, such as those that would be part of the Internet of Battlefield Things.

The Army continues to move forward with its modernization priorities, which place a high value on next-generation cyber solutions, which will enable the Army to deliver technology capabilities to warfighters.

###

U.S. Army CCDC Army Research Laboratory is an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. As the Army's corporate research laboratory, ARL discovers, innovates and transitions science and technology to ensure dominant strategic land power. Through collaboration across the command's core technical competencies, CCDC leads in the discovery, development and delivery of the technology-based capabilities required to make Soldiers more lethal to win our nation's wars and come home safely. CCDC is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Futures Command.
In her role as school librarian, Cicely creates programming that celebrates the diversity of her more than 2,600 students and their 240 teachers. She is the founder of Read Woke, an initiative encouraging students to read books that challenge a social norm or the status quo, give a voice to the voiceless, have a protagonist from an underrepresented or oppressed group, or provide information about a group that has been disenfranchised. The movement has sparked meaningful conversations schoolwide and has even gone global, reaching as far as Canada and Norway.

Cicely encourages her students to be active members of their library community. They provide one another with reading recommendations and utilize the media center's modern offerings, such as exercise bike desks and glass study rooms with projectors, to learn, collaborate and be creative. Cicely hosts energizing events throughout the year to engage students, including a book fashion show that shines a spotlight on powerful reads, Tech Woke projects where students use technology to learn about social justice issues, and a virtual reality experience during Black History Month where students "travel back in time" to learn about pivotal moments in Black history. Outside of the media center, Cicely visits districts nationwide to advocate for the importance of libraries and certified librarians in every school.

As School Librarian of the Year, Cicely is featured on the cover of the April 2020 issue of SLJ, and will receive a suite of awards from Scholastic, including $2,500 cash and $2,500 worth of digital or print products for her library, and an invitation to the 2020 Scholastic Independent Reading Summit, a professional learning conference designed to provide educators with the latest practices and research for encouraging independent reading in their schools. Meadowcreek High School students will also receive free books as part of a special literacy event with an in-person visit from the Ambassador of School Libraries for Scholastic Book Fairs, John Schumacher (@MrSchuReads), and a Scholastic author.

Quotes:

Cicely Lewis, 2020 School Librarian of the Year

"I started Read Woke to help empower my students. I never in my wildest dreams imagined it would take off like it has. I am so honored to receive this prestigious award and I plan to continue to advocate for students who are looking for answers, looking for a connection, and seeking to find themselves in books. I will use this platform to tell the world that every child deserves a certified school librarian in their school!"

Kathy Ishizuka, Editor in Chief, School Library Journal

"It is our honor to hold up the work of Cicely Lewis, who is an extraordinary educator and has made all the difference in her community by engaging and empowering students. School Library Journal is pleased to celebrate her stellar work through the School Librarian of the Year Award, which highlights the critical role of library professionals in fostering multiple literacies among our nation's youth."

About the School Librarian of the Year Awards:

The 2020 School Librarian of the Year was selected by a panel of judges, including the Ambassador of School Libraries for Scholastic Book Fairs, John Schumacher, and 2018 School Librarian of the Year Ali Schilpp. All entries were judged based on criteria, such as creativity in programming and use of content, exemplary service to fulfill the needs of students and the school community and demonstrated student engagement.

About School Library Journal:

School Library Journal, a MSI publication, is the premier publication for librarians and information specialists who work with children and teens. A source of quality journalism and reviews for more than 60 years, SLJ produces award-winning features and news coverage on: literacy, best practices, technology, education policy and other issues of interest to the school library and greater educator community. SLJ evaluates a broad range of resources, from books and digital content to databases, in 6,000+ reviews published annually.

For more information about Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), visit the Company's media room at http://mediaroom.scholastic.com.

SOURCE Scholastic

Related Links

http://www.scholastic.com


Weve been down this road before, too many times.

In the 14th century, the Black Death provoked mass violence against Jews, Catalans, clerics and beggars; when syphilis spread in the 15th century, it was called variously the Neapolitan, French, Polish and German disease, depending on who was pointing the blame; when the plague struck Honolulu in 1899, officials burned down Chinatown. And so on, down to our times, when epidemics like Ebola, SARS and Zika fueled animus toward specific regions or peoples.

Here we are in 2020, with Asians being assailed across the United States and around the world as purported sources of the Chinese flu, the Wuhan coronavirus or simply the foreign virus. Once again, a mysterious, fast-spreading and sometimes lethal disease is exacerbating racism and hatred  only now with the help of the potent megaphone of social media.

As the coronavirus has spread from its beachhead in Wuhan, China, old anti-Asian prejudices have spread with it, from the Yellow Peril canard that led to the lynching of Chinese in the 1870s to stereotypes of Chinese as dirty and decrepit.

Chinese-Americans and other Asians lumped together with them by racists are being beaten, spat on, yelled at and insulted from coast to coast, driving some members of the maligned minority to purchase firearms in the fear of worse to come as the pandemic deepens.

The United States is not alone in this blight of xenophobia. Japans Kyodo News agency described similar incidents of anti-Asian bigotry wherever the coronavirus has struck: Asian students pelted with eggs in Leicestershire, England, or people in Egypt yelling out corona when passing Asians in the street. Vile posts on social media have made graphic threats in rants against Asians over the coronavirus.

However much mystery still surrounds the coronavirus, these are not the Dark Ages, and there really should be no reason to remind people that this terrible new virus makes no distinction among races or nations. Though it makes good medical sense to keep a distance from people who have been to an area with a high rate of infection  which today is effectively anywhere  it is foolish and malicious to hold the Chinese (or any other) people responsible for the spread of the virus, or to assume that they are somehow more likely to be its carriers.

A time of great fear and danger requires solidarity, humanity, sacrifice and hope, and not hysteria or hatred. That should be the message of the worlds political, social, religious and corporate leaders as they race to find ways to cope with the lethal virus. Many leaders have done just that.

It is more than unfortunate, then, that President Trump, some members of his cabinet and some conservative politicians have opted to fan the bigotry by deliberately using the term Wuhan virus or Chinese virus. Trump, who spent previous months calling it the coronavirus, started defending the use of Chinese virus. Photographs of a text of the speech he was reading seemed to show Corona lined out and Chinese written in the presidents hand. Trump tweeted support of the Asian-American community, but his many supporters online had already embraced his formulation.

The xenophobia and prejudices that result from naming new infectious diseases after places, people or animals are the reasons the World Health Organization has urged against doing so, and instead using generic descriptive terms like coronavirus. Names like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Spanish flu, swine flu or monkey pox, the WHO said, can have serious consequences, whether provoking a backlash against members of a particular community or prompting needless slaughter of food animals.

In the end, though, the anti-Asian hatreds spread by the coronavirus are not solely the product of politics, but of the deep fears that have always accompanied the outbreak of lethal pathogens.

It is for all Americans to try, in whatever ways they can, to remain united and compassionate as the disease invades all facets of our lives.

 New York Times
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 05:12:18|Editor: huaxia

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Kids are seen wearing masks in Damascus, capital of Syria, on March 28, 2020. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

Boredom, anxiety, and even a bit of depression. As home quarantine has become a necessity around the world amid outbreak of #COVID19, the bonds between family members, at least in Syria, are apparently being put to a rare test.

DAMASCUS, March 29 (Xinhua) -- As the home quarantine has become a necessity around the world amid the outbreak of the COVID-19, the bonds between families, at least in Syria, are being put through a rare test.

In our modern history, the moments for family members to spend long time together at home are few and far between. However, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has created an opportunity for everyone to review their family ties.

In the capital Damascus, people used to be busy with their daily jobs, seeing other people and interacting with friends. When they returned home in the evening, there was always something new to talk about with other family members.

But now with the home quarantine, the whole family suffer from their daily routine with almost no new topics, triggering even fights between spouses.

Men are seen wearing masks in Damascus, capital of Syria, on March 28, 2020. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

Ammal Hanna, a Syrian housewife who has been under a self-imposed quarantine for two weeks, said staying at home with her husband has posed a challenge to her relationship with him.

"We got married five years ago after a long love story but normally we don't spend time together. But this quarantine is making me learn how to make compromises," she told Xinhua.

"We cannot stay in a fight all day long. We are learning how to understand each other more and make compromises," Hanna explained.

However, the 35-year-old woman admitted that if the situation drags on, she may move to her parents' house.

For Ammar Ihsan, a 33-year-old man, the news about the novel coronavirus is astonishing, adding more uncertainty to the nine-year-long war in his country.

Empty streets are seen in the capital Damascus, Syria, on March 27, 2020, as a result of the government-imposed curfew to contain the COVID-19. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

"I thought that after this war we would have a good time ... However, we witness war and the disease, and this wasn't expected at all," he told Xinhua.

Like many other young people, Ihsan had to leave his home in a battle zone east of Damascus to spend the best years of his youth in war.

"I still live with my parents and other brothers in the same house now, but we are still trying to cope with the situation and do things that make us forget, even a little, about the situation outdoors," he said.

Even his father Muhammad said he has never experienced anything like this in his life.

"I have never experienced a curfew in my entire life and I never thought I would," the 66-year-old man told Xinhua.

The Syrian government has imposed a forceful curfew for 12 hours per day, which many Syrians think is a prelude to a full day curfew soon.

Empty streets are seen in the capital Damascus, Syria, on March 27, 2020, as a result of the government-imposed curfew to protect against the COVID-19. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

Samar Kassab, a housewife, told Xinhua that she is extremely bored with the situation, saying she spends days cleaning and sterilizing the house while following up on the coronavirus news.

She said she is having quarrels with her teenage son who refuses to stay indoors.

"I know he is a teenager and it's his time to go out to live his life, but we live in a very dangerous time," Kassab noted.

Syria has so far reported four coronavirus cases. 
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said there are 70 coronavirus positive cases reported in the state while 11 have been cured and tested negative and they shall be discharged on Monday

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Sunday said there are 70 coronavirus positive cases reported in the state while 11 have been cured and tested negative and they shall be discharged on Monday.

Speaking at a press conference, Rao said, "All the necessary diagnosis is done and the patients are being discharged after the formalities. 58 people are under treatment. 25,937 people, who came from other countries, are under the government's supervision. The quarantine period of these people will be completed by 7 April."

"After 7 April, there will be no coronavirus patients if no new cases are reported from now. Self-control is very important in this lockdown period," he said.

Talking about farmers' yield, the Chief Minister said, "All the grains will be bought from the villages. Rs 3,200 crore will be guaranteed for the market. The crop should be brought according to the given coupon date. If we maintain this discipline, we can control the spreading of coronavirus."

"Farmers have to get their passbooks when they come to give their crops. The money will be sent online. I am observing that the villagers are putting fences at the borders of their village. It is appreciable that they are taking care of their village without allowing anyone," he added.

The Chief Minister, however, said they should know who they have to allow and whom not to. He added that it is better if they arrange soaps and water so that the person from outside can sanitise himself and enter the village.

Five hundred centres are being arranged all over the state for buying fruits, he said. "For COVID-19, all the concerned like doctors, nurses, medical graduates will form a pool. They are welcome to serve the State at any point of time. Anybody who is spreading false information will be strictly punished. No mercy to them. The government is monitoring it," said Rao.
Asperger syndrome is a developmental disorder that can make it harder for those affected to interact with others in a social environment.

The condition is an autism spectrum disorder, meaning that those with Asperger syndrome may exhibit different characteristics.

This year, World Autism Awareness Week is taking place from Monday 30 March until Sunday 5 April, while World Autism Awareness Week is being held on Thursday 2 April.

The aim of the week is to raise awareness of autism and to break down the stigmas that continue to surround the condition.

Environmental activist Greta Thunberg previously opened up about being diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, stating that being different is a superpower.

While appearing on Im A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! in 2018, The Chase star Anne Hegerty spoke about how the condition affects her life.

Hegerty explained that she responds well to structure, and that being surrounded by a large group of people who talk all the time can be a source of stress.

So what is Asperger syndrome, what are the signs and how many people does it affect? Heres everything you need to know.

What is Asperger syndrome?

Asperger syndrome falls within the autism spectrum, Autism NI explains.

Those who have been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome may not have the same learning disabilities that some people who have autism sometimes experience, such as difficulties or delays with speech.

However, some people with Asperger syndrome may still have some learning difficulties and can find it hard to comprehend or process language at times, the National Autistic Society (NAS) outlines.

Autism-friendly theatre that welcomes Curious Incidents in the Night-Time Show all 3 1 /3 Autism-friendly theatre that welcomes Curious Incidents in the Night-Time Autism-friendly theatre that welcomes Curious Incidents in the Night-Time cidn2.jpg The National Theatre Autism-friendly theatre that welcomes Curious Incidents in the Night-Time ARP160512_Shrek_Print44.jpg Autism-friendly theatre that welcomes Curious Incidents in the Night-Time ARP160512_Shrek_Print84.jpg

The charity also points out that Asperger syndrome shouldnt be perceived as an illness that can be cured, but as a condition that forms an integral component of an individuals identity.

Those who have been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome are thought to have average or above average levels of intelligence.

Where does the term come from?

The term was named after an Austrian paediatrician called Hans Asperger, who wrote about children who exhibited signs of the condition in 1944.

However, some have argued that the name should be changed in light of the doctors recently reported affiliation with the Nazis during the Second World War.

What are the signs?

As Asperger syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder, diagnosing it can be tricky as characteristics can vary between individuals.

According to Autism Initiatives, a company that connects autism networks around the UK and Ireland, signs of Asperger syndrome may include finding it difficult to read body language, lacking signs of empathy, developing motor skills later than usual and being very sensitive.

These signs can often be recognised in childhood when children with the condition enter social situations that they havent experienced before.

Autistic boy receives 20,000 birthday cards after mother posts public plea Show all 5 1 /5 Autistic boy receives 20,000 birthday cards after mother posts public plea Autistic boy receives 20,000 birthday cards after mother posts public plea Ollie Jones told his mother he had written himself two cards to open on his own birthday Karen Jones Autistic boy receives 20,000 birthday cards after mother posts public plea Ollie, 15, receiving his birthday messages Karen Jones Autistic boy receives 20,000 birthday cards after mother posts public plea Ollie received an estimated 20,000 cards for his 15th birthday from strangers all over the world Karen Jones Autistic boy receives 20,000 birthday cards after mother posts public plea Karen Jones Autistic boy receives 20,000 birthday cards after mother posts public plea Karen Jones

Diagnosing Aspergers can take a team of health experts, the NAS states.

These professionals can include a speech and language therapist, a psychiatrist and a paediatrician.

The NHS recommends visiting your GP if you believe that your child is exhibiting signs of autism spectrum disorder.

Youll then be referred to a health professional who can diagnose the condition if needs be.

How many people are affected?

Around one in every 100 people in the world has autism.

Jane Harris, director of external affairs at NAS, explains that many with autism still face stigma with regards to the condition.

There are around 700,000 autistic people in the UK, but too many of their lives are limited by the public not understanding the challenges they face, Harris says.

In 2015, a report funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation stated that approximately 37.2 million people across the globe are affected by Asperger syndrome.

Why are diagnoses of autism more common among boys than girls?

The fact that diagnoses of autism are currently more common among boys than they are among girls is a topic thats been researched on multiple occasions over the years.

In 2015, a study conducted by the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore explored why girls are often diagnosed with autism later than boys by investigating an online registry of 50,000 people.

 World Autism Week: The National Autistic Society release video showing what it's like to sufferers to use public transport

They came to the conclusion that the way girls behave sometimes makes it harder to recognise signs of autism until later on in childhood or adolescence.

You can find more information about autism on the National Autistic Societys website.
1. Long-term use of isradipine does not slow Parkinson's progression

Abstract: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M19-2534

Editorial: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M20-1023

Free Summary for Patients: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/P20-0004

URL goes live when the embargo lifts

Long-term treatment with immediate-release isradipine does not seem to slow the clinical progression of early-stage Parkinson's disease. Findings from a multicenter, randomized, parallel-group, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Despite multiple prior studies, there are no proven strategies for slowing the progression of Parkinson's disease. Isradipine, a dihydropyridine calcium-channel blocker approved for the treatment of hypertension, has been shown to be neuroprotective in animal models Parkinson's disease. Several epidemiologic studies have demonstrated a reduced risk for Parkinson's disease in persons receiving dihydropyridines compared with other antihypertensive agents, leading researchers to hypothesize that isradipine may have the potential to slow the progression of the disease when used in its early stages.

Researchers from the Parkinson Study Group STEADY-PD III Investigators team randomly assigned 336 patients with early-stage Parkinson's disease at 57 Parkinson Study Group sites in North America to either 5 mg of immediate-release isradipine twice daily or placebo for 36 months. None of the participants were taking dopaminergic medications at enrollment. The researchers found no significant difference in the change in Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) scores over 36 months in patients receiving isradipine twice daily versus those receiving placebo. None of the secondary outcome measures demonstrated benefit of isradipine. According to the researchers, these results do not support the hypothesis that isradipine at this dose slows the progression of early-stage Parkinson's disease.

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF please contact Lauren Evans at laevans@acponline.org. To speak with the lead author, Tanya Simuni, MD, please contact Marla Paul at marla-paul@northwestern.edu.

2. Allergy to metal used in pacemaker casing could cause asthma in susceptible patients

Case report describes clinicians' 'golden solution' to the problem

Abstract: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/L19-0647

URL goes live when the embargo lifts

An allergic reaction to the metal used in a pacemaker's casing could cause asthma in susceptible patients. Clinicians from Ozarks Medical Center in West Plains, Missouri cite the case of a 58-year-old woman who had new episodes of wheezing, chest tightness, and worsening shortness of breath on minimal exertion 3 weeks after implantation of a permanent pacemaker. The case report is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Previous reports of complications after insertion of a permanent cardiac pacemaker have described rare local reactions caused by metal allergy that can be severe enough to cause wound dehiscence and require pacemaker removal. While asthma induced by the metal allergy has not previously been described, the patient's reaction prompted clinicians to review her medical records for allergies. Her records revealed that she had been hypersensitive to costume jewelry as an adolescent, which led the team to order skin testing for metal allergies. The patient had positive reactions to titanium, nickel, and mercury, but not gold, so the clinicians replaced her titanium-encased pacemaker with a gold-encased pacemaker, and her asthma symptoms disappeared within 24 hours.

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF please contact Lauren Evans at laevans@acponline.org. The lead author, Biplab K. Saha, MD, can be contacted directly at spanophiliac@yahoo.com.

Also new in this issue:

Love in the Times of Corona

Simone V. Benatti, MD

On Being a Doctor

Free content: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M20-1137

URL goes live when the embargo lifts

Media contact: Dr. Benatti can be reached at simone.benatti@hotmail.it.

###
For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL  March 30, 2020  Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include HP Inc. HPQ, Stratasys, Ltd. SSYS, Ford Motor Company F and Volkswagen AG VWAGY.

Here are highlights from Fridays Analyst Blog:

4 Stocks to Beat Coronavirus Woes

The rapidly growing number of cases of coronavirus-infected patients across the globe has roiled the equity market. With the virus gradually engulfing the world, there arises a heightened need for medical gear for COVID-19 patients and front-line healthcare workers. To this end, the 3D printing industry is now stepping up to combat the pandemic.

Governments Extend Lockdowns to Curb Coronavirus

In view of the coronavirus outbreak, which is classified as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, more governments across the world are extending strict nationwide lockdowns.

Per compiled data of Johns Hopkins University, the virus was first detected in China late last year and the total number of infected people across the world totaled 532,253, as of Mar 27. The virus has already spread across 176 countries, killing 24,072 people, the compiled data suggests. On the brighter side, the data shows recovery of 122,627 infected people.

3D Printing Steps In

Hospitals are now grappling with the shortage of protective gears for its staff. To meet the mounting demand, the 3D printing industry has started utilizing their tools in completely new ways. The additive manufacturing industry is stepping up to make protective equipment that include face shields, hands-free door openers, among others, for medical providers. For patients, the much-needed ventilators are also being made by additive manufacturing companies.

Stocks in the Watchlist

We are presenting one stock with a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and three with a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) that are well positioned to gain amid the current scenario. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Story continues

Headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, HP Inc. is building 3D printed hands-free door openers, mask adjusters and face shields, with more than 1,000 already being supplied to hospitals. The company stated that its research and development centres are prioritizing to rapidly increase production for meeting the most urgent needs. Currently, the stock carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and is likely to see earnings growth of roughly 8% in fiscal 2020.

Stratasys, Ltd., headquartered in Eden Prairie, MN, is also leveraging their expertise to combat health risks. For instance, the company has decided to manufacture clear plastic shield and 3D-printed frame that will allow health workers to cover their face entirely. The stock, with a Zacks Rank of 3, is likely to witness earnings growth of 24% in the next five years compared with the industrys expectation of 15.3%.

Relying on its 3D printing capabilities, Ford Motor Company is going to manufacture plastic face shields. The Dearborn, MI-based automotive giant has projected the production rate of face shields to be more than 100,000 units per week. The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.

Volkswagen AGis in talks with authorities and has established an international task force to explore options. The German carmaker, with a Zacks Rank of 3, is exploring the possibilies of leveraging its industrial 3D printers for building hospital ventilators and medical gear.

The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All

Last year, it generated $24 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $77.6 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early.

See Zacks' 3 Best Stocks to Play This Trend >>

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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.



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T he Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has told London's officers that new powers to enforce coronavirus lockdown rules should only be used as a last resort.

Speaking to LBC during a phone-in on Monday, Cressida Dick said she wanted to "help educate and encourage" the public to comply with the UK's tightest social restrictions since World War Two.

"We are all getting used to the new restrictions and Ive been very clear that in the first instance I want my officers to be engaging with people, talking to people, encouraging them to comply," she said.

"Explaining, of course, if they dont understand  already we have had examples of people who simply hadnt quite heard all the messages  and, only as a very last resort with the current restrictions, using firm direction or even enforcement."

Dep Chief Medical Officer On Coronavirus: Country Could Face Up To Six Months Before Normal Life

Her remarks came after a number of forces were accused of being overzealous in their approach to the new rules, which only permit people to leave their homes for a few specific reasons.

Police have been granted the power to impose fines on people found flouting the restrictions and disperse group gatherings, but rows have erupted online after several high-profile cases of officers shaming individuals over their behaviour have surfaced in recent days.

A number of forces have also rolled out roadblocks in a bid to discourage people from making non-essential journeys.

Commenting on the approach taken by Britain's largest police force, Ms Dick told LBC Met officers had only "gently" cleared gatherings of people when discovered and were not routinely stopping drivers.

"Were not doing what you might call road blocks or anything like that," she said. "Yes, we stop motorists sometimes, we have a conversation with them.

"They might have a light out, we might talk to them, we might ask them about their journey. Our approach is one entirely trying to help educate and encourage people.

"I think were all trying to get used to this. My approach in my service is one entirely of trying to encourage people, to engage with people, to have conversations with people."

Boris Johnson thanks public for staying at home during coronavirus crisis

The Government has committed to reviewing the lockdown measures in three weeks, and relaxing them if possible, but deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries has warned the restrictions may need to be in place for a much longer period of time.

Speaking at the daily Covid-19 press conference at Downing Street on Sunday, Dr Harries said it could be six months before life in the UK returns to "normal".

She added the UK had to be "responsible" in its actions and reduce social distancing measures "gradually".
A German provincial Finance minister, who was reportedly worried about the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic, has been found dead, having allegedly committed suicide, reports said on Sunday. A German provincial Finance minister, who was reportedly worried about the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic, has been found dead, having allegedly committed suicide, reports said on Sunday.

The mutilated body of Thomas Schafer, the Finance Minister of Hesse, where the country's financial centre Frankfurt is, was found on a high-speed train line in the town of Hochheim, police said, local media reported.

Police said that it seemed to be a suicide case and investigations were on.

The body was found by some passers-by, who informed paramedics, but they were unable to identify the remains due to the extensive injuries.

Investigation confirmed the identity of the man as Schafer and that the death was likely a suicide. No further details were available.

Schafer, 54, left a note about the reasons for killing himself, a German daily said, citing sources close to the investigation.

According to local media in Hesse, Schafer regularly appeared in public in recent days, for example, to inform the public about financial assistance during the coronavirus crisis.

From Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he had been active in state politics for more than two decades and was finance minister for almost 10 years.
The number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan reached 1,625 while the death toll stood at 18, health officials said on Monday, underlining that local transmission of the deadly COVID-19 is increasing.

The Ministry of National Health Services said that 54 more cases were reported during the last 12 hours, taking the total from 1,571 to 1,625.

It showed 593 cases in Punjab, 508 in Sindh, 195 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 144 in Balochistan, 128 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), 51 in Islamabad and 6 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

So far 18 people have died, including 4 in the last 24 hours and 28 recovered, while another 11 were in critical conditions.

The epidemic is still spreading despite steps by the government. Advisor on health Dr Zafar Mirza said local transmission was increasing after government stopped all international flights.

He said so far the share of local transmission was about 27 per cent.

A spokesperson for the Sindh health department said that the number of patients in Karachi alone rose to 222 with 33 new cases reported on Sunday and all the cases, the spokesperson confirmed, were of local transmission, Dawn newspaper reported.

Health experts appealed to the people to stay home and strictly adhere to basic hygiene measures to break the chain of coronavirus transmission.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan will address the country on Monday regarding the situation caused by the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus.

According Khan's advisor on information, Firdous Ashiq Awan, the Prime Minister will take people into confidence about delivery of ration and food supplies to deserving poor families across the country at their doorsteps.

Awan said due to the lockdown to prevent spread of coronavirus, national economy is being affected and chain of daily use items has slowed down, which created fear of shortages.

The decision of the prime minister to address the nations came after reports of non-availability of wheat flour in some areas of Punjab.

On Saturday, the Pakistan government decided to keep its western borders with Iran and Afghanistan and eastern border with India closed for two more weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Security Moeed Yusuf said the move was taken in the wake of increasing COVID-19 cases in the country.

He also announced that all flights will remain suspended in the country till April 4. However, there will be exceptions if a country makes a special request to repatriate its citizens.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Open source

During the past 24 hours, 20 cases of coronavirus infection spotted in Kyiv as the Public Health Center of the Healthcare Ministry of Ukraine reported on Facebook.

Thus, as of 10:00 a.m., March 30, there are 102 people in Kyiv with confirmed Covid-19 infection.

As we reported, in Ukraine, the number of patients, infected with Covid-19, has increased to 480. In the past 24 hours, 62 new cases have been registered.

Vinnytsia region - 23 cases; Volyn region - two cases; Dnipropetrovsk region - eight cases; Donetsk region - six cases; Zhytomyr region - five cases; Transcarpathian region - one case; Zaporizhzhia region - 11 cases; Ivano-Frankivsk region - 41 cases; Kirovohrad region - four cases; Kyiv - 102 cases; Kyiv region - 49 cases; Lviv region - six cases; Luhansk region - two cases; Odesa region - eight cases; Poltava region - one case; Rivne region - 11 cases; Sumy region - nine cases; Ternopil region - 60 cases; Kharkiv region - one case; Kherson region - one case; Khmelnytskyi region - two cases; Chernivtsi region - 75 cases; Cherkasy region - 50 cases; Chernihiv region - two cases.

Besides, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has supported the initiative of the Minister of Health Illya Yemets to strengthen the quarantine measures across the country.
University places will have strict limits imposed on them by the government in an effort to combat a free-for-all on admissions following the Coronavirus outbreak that has wrecked havoc with the institutions' finances.

A financial black hole of hundreds of millions of pounds is set to befall the universities with students from countries overseas such as China forced to postpone or even cancel their enrolments due to the pandemic.

The rules are set to come in from the start of the academic year in September and will limit the amount of UK and EU undergraduates universities can admit according to the Guardian.

Universities could be forced into a cap on the number of students from the UK and the EU

The move has been made to prevent major institutions from helping fill their overseas gap by replacing them with domestic students.

Currently countries such as China provide around 120,000 of the full-time students in the UK.

Despite opposition from several members of the Russell Group of research-intensive institutions, the move was backed by Universities UK at a virtual meeting on Friday.

Chief executive of Universities UK (UUK) Alistair Jarvis admitted that student numbers have been discussed.

'The UUK board discussed a range of measures needed to promote financial stability of the sector in these tough times,' he said.

Alistair Jarvis admitted controlling the amount of student enrolments has been discussed

'Foremost was the need for government financial support for universities. Student number controls were discussed and it was agreed that further consideration of the pros and cons were needed, with further input from members.'

Caps on university places were lifted back in 2015, but competition for domestic students was already heightened before the Covid-19 crisis owing to a demographic trough in the number of school leavers this year.

Once UK schools were shut down this led to a rush by universities to change conditional offers to unconditional ones in an effort to beat off competition from prestigious rival institutions.

Nick Hillman, the head of the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), was previously a special adviser to the government and claimed the pandemic was leading towards a reintroduction on student number caps.

'Reintroducing number caps would protect those universities that have grown the most in recent years by locking down the number of home students that they educate and stopping others from growing at their expense,' he said.

University leaders opposed to the cap argue that decisions on admissions could at least be delayed until July due to the uncertainty over how the coronavirus crisis will unfold.
Donald Trump is suggesting the United States should treat Germany more like an enemy because the two countries were adversaries in World War II as the president again lobbied for closer US-Russian relations.

If he turns the off-the-cuff remark into US policy, Mr Trump would try fundamentally overhauling the post-World War II global power dynamic that saw Western countries bring Germany into their sphere while combating Moscow and fighting the spread of communism in the post-war era. But with little opposition to the American-German alliance in Congress, especially the GOP-run Senate, such a plan would face ample pushback  including from within his own party.

Mr Trump, during another wildly cascading "Fox & Friends" call-in, launched into a remarkable diatribe about Germany and Russia  and how the United States should treat each country  after being asked about what he and Russian President Vladimir Putin would discuss during a planned telephone conversation Monday morning.

The American leader repeated his long-espoused view that it would be a "good thing" if Washington and Moscow had a warmer relationship, noting he has been saying so since he was first a presidential candidate. Despite his five-year-old contention, the Cold War adversaries remain rivals on the global stage.

"They also fought World War II. They lost 50 million people," Mr Trump said of Russia, then the Soviet Union.

"Germany was the enemy. ... And Germany's [now], like, this wonderful thing," he added, suggesting the now-democratic European power is not-so wonderful in his eyes.

In true Trumpian form, he attempted to give himself some distance from the suggestion, saying of his Germanic ancestry: "Look, it's fine," Mr Trump said of US-German relations. "It's in my heritage."

The US president has grown frustrated at times with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was close with former President Barack Obama and has not always followed Mr Trump's demands or advice.

Notably, Ms Merkel in 2018 called on NATO to have a tougher stance against Russia. At home, her Christian Democratic Union political party typically proposes the toughest policy prescriptions for how to deal with Mr. Putin's government.

Mattia Nelles, of the nonpartisan Atlantic Council, has written about a "typical German desire to be on good terms with Russia."

After all, Germany imports $22bn in energy products from Russia, according to ComTrade and TradingEconomics.com. It also buys billions more in copper, aluminum, steel and other crucial materials from Russia, making the relationship one of economic necessity for Berlin.

Despite Mr Trump's veiled call for countries to treat Germany as more foe than friend, Ms Nells' has written that the widespread German view of warm relations with Mr Putin's government "generally is in line with the EU's Russia policy and involves criticising Russia for its illegal activities and pushing back through sanctions, while at the same time trying to engage through trade and civil society or cultural cooperation."

Heather Conley, a former senior State Department official now with the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies, recently called Mr Trump's coronavirus foreign policy approach "personality-driven" and "blame-driven" and "devastating," saying it "has great real-world implications for America's leadership in the world and our allies and partners.

"What happens if you don't like Angela Merkel of Germany? And so this personality dynamic is the new normal, unfortunately," she said on a recent call with reporters. "And it completely neuters the institutions and all the relationships that make the types and the mechanics of crises like these work."
The Verkhovna Rada has dismissed Illya Yemets from the post of Minister of Health. 271 MPs voted in favor of the corresponding resolution  3283.

"To release Yemets Illya from the post of the Minister of Health of Ukraine, the text of the resolution reads.

It is worth noting that, on March 4, the Verkhovna Rada dismissed the government of Oleksiy Honcharuk and approved the new composition of Denys Shymals Cabinet of Ministers. Yemets was appointed as Healthcare Minister on that day.

As we reported earlier, Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers has refreshed its macroeconomic forecast.

"New figures on the Cabinet session have been approved. During the preparation of a new forecast, specialists of the Ministry of Economy conducted consultations with experts of the Finance Ministry, National Bank, the IMF, and independent analytical organizations. Perhaps, we're not fine with all figures, but we expect an improvement of the economic situation in the second half-year period," Prime Minister Denys Shmygal wrote.
In a bid to assist the federal government in its fight against COVID-19, Nigerian senators will donate half of their salaries beginning from this month to combat the pandemic.

The Senate spokesperson, Godiya Awashiki, made the announcement in a statement on Monday.

The decision which will commence from March, was reached after due consultations and a keen review of the national efforts to contain the pandemic in Nigeria, he said.

the Senate wishes to announce that from March, 2020, Distinguished Senators will be donating 50 per cent of their salaries to these efforts to stop the spread of the disease, otherwise known as COVID-19, in our country.

This monthly contribution from the Upper Legislative Chamber will be sustained until Nigeria is declared safe from the ravages of this deadly disease, part of the statement reads.

In a recent publication of the National Assembly, senators, per annum take home N24 million. This includes N13 million in salary and N11 million in allowances, which comes to about N2 million per month.

While the Senate commended the Buhari-led administration in the fight against the disease, it pledged its readiness to do whatever is required of the legislature for the effectiveness of all the measures in place now or that may be required in the future to win the fight against Coronavirus.

The Senate also commended all agencies of the federal and state levels for working in collaboration to protect public health across the country.and acknowledged the patriotic response of public-spirited individuals and organisations who have contributed to the fight.

This is even as it urged citizens to comply with the directives on social distancing and observance of basic rules of hygiene as explained by public health officials as the most effective way to protect ourselves, families and country against COVID-19.

The House of Representatives is yet to make a similar announcement at the time of this report.

Three days ago, a member of the House of Representatives, Mansur Soro (APC, Bauchi), urged his colleagues to donate their March salaries to procure ventilators, which the country is in shortage of, for public hospitals in the 36 states and FCT.

But the House spokesperson, Benjamin Kalu, said the comparison was undue and that members are already spending their salaries on their constituencies, through the erection of sensitisation billboards, jingles (and) forming of emergency health corps.

Other donations

The Senates contribution comes two days after ministers announced they would donate half of their March salaries to help fight the pandemic.

Banks, private organisations and individuals have donated billions to fight the epidemic in Nigeria.

The United Bank for Africa on Thursday announced a N5 billion donation.

Femi Otedola, Abdulsamad Rabiu, Herbert Wigwe and Segun Agbaje also donated N1 billion each to support the cause.

In a long-awaited speech, President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday said the presidential task-force will receive and coordinate all donations made to fight against the pandemic in the country.

The number of confirmed cases in the country has been on the increase. As of 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, the NCDC announced a total of 111 cases including one death.

Mr Buhari has ordered a lockdown in Abuja, Lagos and Ogun states for 14 days to curb the spread of the virus.
One of the largest problems of many health workers in different parts of the world is the insufficiency of medical infrastructures. These infrastructures are a crucial part of the world's battle with the novel coronavirus pandemic. It helps save the lives of their patients, especially those who need intensive care.

Nations with a huge number of COVID-19 cases are struggling to provide for the demands of medical supplies and equipment needed by those on the front line to fight against the deadly disease.

Ventilator Issues

Ventilators are a mechanical breathing device that is one of the most important tools used to save COVID-19 patients whose lungs are being badly attacked by the novel coronavirus, says an article.

Based on the data from the World Health Organization, in six COVID-19 patients, one of them gets seriously ill from the illness and experience difficulties in breathing.

Check these out:

COVID-19 Recoveries: Is the World Winning the Fight?

101-Year-Old-Man Survives Two Pandemics: COVID-19 and the Spanish Flu

Tips from Asian Countries on Controlling COVID-19 Cases

Tips from Asian Countries on Controlling COVID-19 Cases In the United States of America, the Society of Critical Care Medicine had estimated that there will be 960,000 COVID-19 patients who will need ventilators. However, there are only 200,000 machines in the United States. Based on the estimated provided by the organization, at least half of those machines are older models and may not be appropriate for those who are seriously ill. Additionally, other non-COVID-19 patients need or may need ventilators.

What is a Ventilator?

In severe cases of the COVID-19, the virus cause damage to healthy lung tissues. This damage makes it difficult for the lungs to deliver oxygen to the blood.

When pneumonia develops alongside an acute respiratory distress syndrome, the other organs of a person gets damaged.

To prevent this from happening, ventilators give oxygen to the lungs of patients with intense respiratory issues. This is done by inserting a tube connected to the ventilator to the throat of the patient.

Those with milder symptoms of the illness can be put on non-invasive ventilators using nasal masks, face masks, or mouthpieces. This way, pressurized air or a combination of gases can be pushed into the lungs of patients.

What Are They Doing to Meet the Demand?

Manufacturers of ventilators are being pressured to increase their production. This is a difficult task due to the challenges of transportation and supply of significant parts such as motors, electronics, valves, and hoses. Many of these parts are shipped from China, the epicenter of the illness. These challenges are primarily brought by the COVID-19 crisis.

As private companies struggle to supply the increasing demand for ventilators, different nations had already sought assistance from other manufacturers and the military. Also, some governments are even eyeing 3D printing to help increase production.

One of the biggest producers of ventilators in the world, Hamilton Medical AG, a Swiss-based company, plans to increase its production numbers to approximately 21,000 ventilators for this year. Last year, the company produced 15,000 ventilators. It is currently deploying relevant measures including putting its marketing staff on the product line to help meet this goal.
By AFP

WASHINGTON: Grocery delivery startup Instacart's delivery workers were set to begin a work stoppage Monday to press safety demands, as a walkout was planned by employees at an Amazon warehouse said to be the site of coronavirus infections.

The labor actions point to growing concerns about health risks for key workers delivering food and supplies to Americans largely sheltering at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A group calling itself the Gig Workers Collective said it was maintaining its strike call made Friday despite new safety measures announced late Sunday. "Workers aren't filling orders until our full demands are met," a spokesperson told AFP.

"This isn't just about us, we want to also protect our customers." It was not immediately clear how many of Instacart "shoppers" who are independent "gig" workers, were participating in the stoppage.

FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES HERE

The San Francisco-based firm said it would provide new health and safety supplies to full-service "shoppers" and would set a "default" tip based on customers' prior orders.

The labor group, whose numbers were not known, called the Instacart moves "a sick joke."

"We had been asking for hand sanitizer for many, many weeks. But apparently the company is capable of sourcing some with two days of work? Where was this before," the group said in a Medium post.

The blog post said the new tipping policy was unlikely to increase compensation for delivery workers and fell short of demands for "hazard" pay.

Separately, an Amazon worker at a warehouse in the New York borough of Staten Island called for a walkout, claiming the e-commerce giant failed to adequately deal with infected employees.

"There are positive cases working in these buildings infecting thousands," Christian Smalls wrote on Twitter, including videos from the warehouse depicting what he said were inadequate safety measures.

ALSO READ: Up to 2,00,000 United States deaths foreseen as more cities hit by coronavirus

The New York Post reported that about 200 workers were planning to demonstrate outside the facility around 1700 GMT. Amazon, responding to an AFP query, said Smalls made "misleading" statements about conditions and was supposed to be on quarantine.

"Like all businesses grappling with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we are working hard to keep employees safe while serving communities and the most vulnerable," Amazon said.

"We have taken extreme measures to keep people safe."

A separate group of workers at the Amazon-owned grocery chain Whole Foods meanwhile called for a one-day stoppage or "sickout" on Tuesday to press demands for improved health measures.

The group calling itself "Whole Worker" said it was seeking guaranteed paid leave for quarantined workers, among other things
The rapid identification of the etiology and the sharing of the genetic sequence of the virus, followed by international collaborative efforts initiated due to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 have led to the rapid availability of real-time PCR diagnostic assays that support the case ascertainment and tracking of the outbreak.Validated serologic assays are crucial for patient contact tracing, identifying the viral reservoir hosts and for epidemiological studies. Epidemiological studies are urgently needed to help uncover the burden of disease, in particular, the rate of asymptomatic infections, and to get better estimates on morbidity and mortality.An international team of scientists working with the Erasmus Medical Center (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) developed serological assays for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing, spike- and nucleocapsid-specific antibodies. They used serum samples from patients with polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-confirmed infections of SARS-CoV-2, other coronaviruses, or other respiratory pathogenic infections, and they validated and tested various antigens in different in-house and commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs).The investigators performed Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgA ELISAs using beta-versions of two commercial kits (EUROIMMUN Medizinische Labordiagnostika AG, Lubeck, Germany). They performed the in-house ELISAs by coating 96-well microtiter ELISA plates with in-house produced spike antigens (S or S1 of SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV or MERS-CoV; or SARS-CoV-2 S1A, or RBD proteins) or SARS-N in PBS overnight at 4C.After processing, the absorbance of each sample was measured at 450 nm.The scientists demonstrated that most PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals seroconverted, as revealed by sensitive and specific in-house ELISAs. They found that commercial S1 IgG or IgA ELISAs were of lower specificity while sensitivity varied between the two, with IgA showing higher sensitivity. They compared the performance of the different ELISAs for the detection of antibodies among PCR-confirmed COVID-19 patients to that of plaque reduction neutralization assay (PRNT), as the gold standard for CoV serology. PRNT50 correlated strongly with the different ELISAs, with the commercial IgA showing the strongest correlation followed by the S and N ELISAs indicating their capacity to detect SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies.The authors concluded that overall, the validated assays described here can be instrumental for the detection of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies for diagnostic, seroepidemiological and vaccine evaluation studies. The study was published on March 20, 2020 in the pre-publications journal medRxiv.
Ghanas Joint Security Task Force says it will be deploying some 2,000 men and women from the army, police and other security personnel to parts of the country where a lockdown directive has been issued by the President.



This comes as parts of measures to curb the spread of the novel Coronavirus outbreak as the countrys confirmed case count as at Sunday, March 29 has reached 152, with a death toll of 5.



Ghana will for the next two weeks go into a partial lockdown as part of measures to curb the novel coronavirus pandemic outbreak.



Meanwhile, DCOP Dr. Sayibu Gariba, Director of National Operations at the Ghana Police Service speaking at a press briefing on Sunday indicated that the service was poised to ensure compliance of the lockdown orders by the state and would need maximum cooperation from the citizenry.



DCOP Gariba adds that the police service does not intend to terrorize the citizenry during the period of the lockdown adding that, the mission is not a combat operation but rather a humanitarian one.









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The gems and jewellery exports are expected to witness a sharp decline in March as well as in the first quarter of the next fiscal due to disruptions caused by the outbreak, according to a report.

An industry that is largely trade-oriented and attracts over over 5,000 exhibitors and 1,00,000 buyers at various trade fairs has witnessed a continuous decline in exports in all of the 11 months of FY20, with February 2020 being a major disappointment, CARE Ratings said in a report.

A 41 per cent annual decline in cut and polished diamond exports led to a cumulative exports fall of 19 per cent year-on-year for the overall gems and jewellery industry in February 2020, it added.

The gems and jewellery industry continued to face hurdles in the form of high custom duty on key commodities, continuous fall in exports and restrictions on the availability of bank credit and to add to this, recent outbreak of Covid-19 in top consuming including USA, Europe, China, Hong Kong and other south-east Asian nations has worsened the situation further for players operating in this industry, the report said.

"This has temporarily disrupted operations of all members in the value chain. Due to this, the exports of gems and jewellery from India are expected to witness sharp decline not only in March 2020, but also in Q1-FY21," it added.

There could be heavy loss for domestic jewellery retailers as well, who were already distressed with lax demand due to escalated gold prices in the last few months and have now temporarily shut their stores due to the lockdown imposed in the country. Domestic retailers will face loss of revenue, stress on profitability and lengthening of operating cycles, which could further dampen their borrowing abilities in future, it added.

The upcoming festivities of Akshaya Tritiya' may not offer much cheerful signs, as jewellery demand is expected to remain muted in the short term, the rating agency said.

Short-term outlook for the gems and jewellery industry is negative, while long term prospects remain positive, owing to growing consciousness of branded jewellery, increasing purchasing power in tier II and III cities, increasing working women population and rising preference towards diamond jewellery, it added.
New Delhi: The worldwide tally of coronavirus COVID-19 deaths on Monday (March 30) night at 11:40 pm reached 36,211 with 7,55,591 positive cases, according to Johns Hopkins University's latest data. Italy and US have been the worst-hit nations with the former witnessing the most deaths (11,591) and the latter having the most number of confirmed cases of 1,48,089.

In UK, Prince Charles appeared recovering and moved out of self-isolation, but Israeli Prime Minister entered quarantine after an aide tested positive for the deadly virus.

The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has risen by 812 in the last 24 hours, the Civil Protection Agency said on Monday, reversing two days of declines.

Italy, the world`s hardest hit country which accounts for more than a third of all global fatalities, saw its total death tally rise to 11,591 since the outbreak emerged in northern regions on February 21. The number of new cases rose by just 4,050, the lowest amount since March 17, reaching a total of 101,739.

Italians have been under nationwide lockdown for three weeks and officials said the restrictions, which were due to end on Friday, look certain for at least two more weeks.

Earlier on Monday, President Donald Trump defended his decision to extend restrictive social distancing guidelines through the end of April, while bracing the nation for a coronavirus death toll that could exceed 100,000 people.

"The worst that could happen is you do it too early and all of a sudden it comes back," Trump said during a nearly hour-long call-in interview with "Fox & Friends" as members of his coronavirus task force fanned out across other media outlets to warn the virus' spread was only just beginning.

The comments came a day after Trump made a dramatic course reversal and announced that he would not be moving to ease the guidelines and get the economy back up and running by Easter, as he said last week he hoped to do.

France on Monday reported its highest daily number of deaths from COVID-19 since the coronavirus epidemic began, saying 418 more people had died in hospital to bring the toll to 3,024. There are now 20,946 people hospitalised in France with COVID-19, with 5,056 of them in intensive care, the government said in its daily update.

The French death toll includes only those who died in hospital and not those who died at home or in old people's homes.

France has been in lockdown since March 17 in a bid to slow the spread of the epidemic and officials have repeatedly warned it will take time for the measures to bear fruit.

Meanwhile, Iran's official coronavirus death toll reached 2,757 on Monday and the number of infections crossed 40,000, as President Hassan Rouhani's political opponents slammed his response to the outbreak. The Islamic republic is one of the countries worst hit by the virus, which originated in China.

Iran has been scrambling to contain COVID-19's spread since it reported its first cases on February 19. After weeks of refraining from imposing lockdown or quarantine measures, Tehran decided Wednesday to ban all intercity travel until at least April 8, but some in the establishment have argued it is too little, too late.

(With Agency Inputs)
By Gina Lee

Investing.com - Oil prices slumped on Monday morning in Asia as the pandemic continued to hurt demand while a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia remained unresolved.

International Brent Oil Futures fell 4.62% to $26.66 by 10:04 PM ET (03:04 AM GMT) and U.S. Crude Oil WTI Futures plunged 5.3% to $20.37.

Demand for oil is expected to shrink 15 million to 20 million barrels per day, Reuters said, as more countries impose and extend lockdowns to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Meanwhile, neither Saudi Arabia nor Russia showed any signs of backing down from increasing supply they wage amid an ongoing price war. A delegate told Bloomberg that OPEC nations, Saudi Arabia amongst them, are opposed convening an emergency panel on tanking prices.

Lachlan Shaw, National Australia Banks head of commodities research, told CNBC, OPEC, Saudi Arabia and Russia could mend their differences, but theres not that much OPEC could do....The demand shock from COVID-19 is just too big. The reality is global storages will fill up in a couple of months if nothing changes, and that will have all sorts of disruptive impacts on pricing.

Vivek Dhar, commodities analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, agreed as he told Bloomberg, Demand concerns are critical but well known, what really took the market down were the signals we got from Saudi Arabia and Russia that they intend to continue their current path. Market hopes of a deal have come undone.

From a physical point of view, its really bleak, Shaw added. You need a strong signal to tell suppliers this is a pretty diabolical situation.

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Feeding the Saluki spirit: Alumnus, high schoolers donate 2,700 meals to food pantry

by Rebecca Renshaw

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- As the nation grapples with effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Saluki spirit continues to shine. The kindness and generosity of one Southern Illinois University Carbondale alumnus is one powerful example.

John Kabat 84, 85 is the president of the SIU Agriculture Alumni Association. After retiring last year from a 34-year teaching career at Mount Vernon Township High School, he continues to teach part-time in the Cooperative Education Program as well as agriculture-related classes. He also serves as the national Future Farmers of America adviser for Mount Vernons FFA Chapter.

Recently, he and his students packaged, delivered and donated more than 2,700 meals to the SIUs Saluki Food Pantry to help students in need due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A desire to help

The 2,700 meals were part of Kabats larger effort to feed more than 10,000 people in his community.

Kabat got the idea when he encountered an organization called Meals of Hope at a national FFA convention in Indianapolis last fall. While there, he met with volunteers from the charitable organization, based in Naples, Florida. Its mission is to empower communities to come together to end hunger.

That mission resonated with what is dear to his heart: feeding people who suffer from food insecurities.

Kabat came back to Mount Vernon and began identifying organizations that could benefit from food donations. He and a small team assembled and donated more than 8,800 lunches to nursing homes, shelters and senior citizen centers throughout southern Illinois.

When I heard that SIU's Saluki Food Pantry had been gathering food to fill emergency bags for students who find themselves in need, I knew where I needed to focus my remaining efforts, Kabat said.

With the help of 22 parents and students, who are involved with the FFA chapter, 2,700 meals were assembled in about three hours. The idea wasnt entirely Kabats; several of his students expressed the desire to help feed those in need.

Instilling a love of giving back

I try to instill a spirit of giving back in each of my students and, in this project, I feel I succeeded, Kabat said. Even though I run a farm that feeds about 4,000 people yearly, my priority remains with the 250 kids I teach each year. I want to show them what it feels like to help others, show kindness and give back.

If I can encourage them to go forth and multiply good deeds of their own, then I will have done my job well. God has blessed me with a sound mind and body. Hes also blessed me with my family and the farm. I never have taken any of this for granted, and I have enjoyed living my life that way, he said.

Kabat graduated from SIU in 1984 with a bachelors degree in agricultural education and double minors in agricultural mechanics and animal science. He received his masters degree from SIU in 1985 in agricultural education.

I loved my time at SIU, he said. SIU showed me the beauty of diversity and learning from people and their cultures from all over the world. It showed me that we are all equal and we are all in life together.

The impact of the donation

Tena Bennett, the director at the Student Center, home to the Saluki Food Pantry, called Kabat a truly great man and said the food donation came at a critical time.

These meals will provide hundreds of our students with food during an unprecedented time in our world. The Saluki Food Pantry was completely stocked before the pandemic and has been nearly wiped out as we supply emergency food bags to our students, many of whom had community jobs that have been suspended during the stay-at home order, she said.

These meals were provided at a key time that allows us to continue to support our students with food from the pantry, Bennett added. The generosity of the students at Mount Vernon High School under Johns direction is a true demonstration of servant leadership, she said.

If you would like to join Kabat in supporting the Saluki Cares Student Emergency Fund, please visit salukifunder.siu.edu/project/20468 and learn how you can give back to SIU and its students.
Nizamuddin West residents on Monday said they were worried after more than 200 people who attended a religious congregation in the locality showed symptoms for the new coronavirus and a major part of the area was cordoned off by authorities to contain any possible spread.

Over 2,000 delegates, including from Indonesia and Malaysia, attended the Tabligh-e-Jamaat from March 1-15. A large number of people continued to stay at the Jamaat's 'Markaj' (Centre) even after this period, locals said.

Delhi Police, CRPF officials and medical teams went to the locality late on Sunday night after reports said a large number of people were showing symptoms for the disease. The south Delhi neighbourhood has been virtually sealed over fears that some people may have contracted the virus.

Congress leader and former area Municipal Councillor Farhad Suri said it was a "lapse" and now all efforts should be made fight the outbreak.

"As far as I know most of the foreign delegates came from Malaysia and Indonesia where cases of coronavirus infection have been found. The establishment should have stopped them when they landed in India. Many other people came back to India even after the lockdown was declared. So it's not the time to point fingers but work together to prevent the spread of the virus," Suri said.

Andul Bari, a local, said people were concerned over the reports.

"The area has been cordoned off. I have not been able to go out. Locals are concerned," he said.

Councillor of Daryaganj ward under which the area falls, Yasmin Kidwai blamed the government.

"This was a ticking bomb waiting to explode. The government is to be blamed for letting people come in from different countries when the threat of coronavirus has been looming on India and it had started spreading."



Kidwai said she is making efforts for repeated sanitisation of the area.

A door-to-door sanitisation is also being planned, she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Fog blankets the U.S. Capitol dome as seen from North Capitol Street on Sunday morning, March 29, 2020. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Both the House and Senate have no plans to return to Washington for at least three weeks after passing an unprecedented $2 trillion bill that aims to limit the economic destruction from the coronavirus pandemic.

The House "is not expected to meet" before April 20, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's office told representatives on Monday. When the Senate passed the stimulus legislation last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that chamber would not take any votes until the same day.

Hoyer's office noted that the House could return to the Capitol earlier than expected, if needed, during the evolving crisis. McConnell previously said the Senate would be "nimble" and could come back to Washington before April 20 as well.

Democratic congressional leaders have already started to outline their priorities for another emergency response bill, which would be the fourth drawn up by Congress, as the pandemic rips through the country. The U.S. now has more than 148,000 cases of COVID-19, and at least 2,599 deaths have been linked to the disease, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The historic relief plan passed last week includes direct payments to Americans, beefed-up unemployment insurance and increased funding for the health-care system. But some in Congress have argued the package will not go far enough, as workers face widespread layoffs from closed businesses and the disease's spread overwhelms some states and hospitals.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has overseen the response in the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, called the relief bill "irresponsible" and "reckless."

Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis recently projected the unemployment rate in the U.S. could hit 32.1%. Last week, a record 3.3 million people filed unemployment claims.

Both Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have said they hope the $2 trillion package will buoy the economy for three months.

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Tata Power's joint venture has commenced a hydropower project in Georgia.

The scrip slipped 3 percent on March 30.

Adjaristsqali Georgia LLC (AGL), a joint venture between Tata Power, Norways Clean Energy Invest (CEI) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced the start of commercial operation of the 178 MW Shuakhevi Hydro Power Project (Shuakhevi HPP) located in southwest Georgia, as per company release.

Tata Power holds 40 percent shares in the joint venture.

The successful completion and start of commercial operations are considered crucial for the integrity, security and energy independence of Georgia.

The power generated by the project will be exclusively sold within Georgia throughout the winter which is a period of energy deficit in that country, it added.

At 09:27 hrs, Tata Power Company was quoting at Rs 33.20, down Rs 0.75, or 2.21 percent on the BSE.
Clothing (Photo : Image by David Schwarzenberg from Pixabay )

Image by David Schwarzenberg from Pixabay



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KEY POINTS

Bangladesh is the second-largest clothing exporter in the world behind only China

Bangladesh has more than 4,600 garment factories, employing at least 4.1 million people

Bangladeshi factories are losing an estimated $100 million each day

Cancellation of orders by western countries due to the coronavirus pandemic could spell doom for the garment industry in Asian countries and wipe out millions of jobs.



"Across the entire industry, shops are closed, brands and retailers actually right now have an oversupply situation with whatever orders they have placed," said Stanley Szeto, executive chairman of Lever Style, a Hong Kong-based garment maker. "They fear that they may not be able to sell [the product], so they are actually canceling orders or delaying shipments of orders,"



Szeto, who also serves as an honorary chairman at the Textile Council of Hong Kong, warned that the garment sectors in Bangladesh, Cambodia and China faced particularly grave risks of collapse.



"A lot of factories in Asia -- they're seeing orders dry up in a few weeks," he added. "A month ago, we were talking about supply chain disruption ... but right now, everybody has forgotten about the supply chain disruption. Supply chain disruption has given way to a collapse in demand. Right now there's too much production."







Bangladesh, the second-largest clothing exporter in the world behind only China, has already seen garment orders valued at $2.6 billion cancelled or withdrawn, with more likely on the way.



"It's been very, very hard dealing with all the emergencies because we've been facing cancellations every day on almost a minute-to-minute basis," said Rubana Huq, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.



Bangladesh has more than 4,600 garment factories, employing at least 4.1 million people, mostly women, who toil to manufacture shirts, T-shirts, jackets, sweaters, and trousers which are shipped to retailers in Europe, the U.S. and Canada.



Huq's association noted that ready-made garments accounted for 84.2% of Bangladesh's total exports (valued at $40.5 billion) for the 2018-2019 fiscal year.



Europe received nearly 60% of Bangladesh's garment exports in 2018-19.



"We submit the export documents and then we get paid. If we don't get paid, we can't actually pay our workers, so it's difficult for us - even getting through with March salaries is difficult," said Huq.



She expects many more cancelled orders from foreign brands and retailers.



"My worry is, what is going to happen to so many people -- 4.1 million -- that are engaged in the garment sector and we are not being able to take care of them properly," she added. "We want the workers to be paid, we want them to be safe, and for that we need the brands to react and respond at this point in time -- with urgency."



Meanwhile, Bangladeshi factories are losing an estimated $100 million each day.



"We are trying not to shut down the factories," Huq said.



Huq complained that some foreign importers have even cancelled payment on orders which have already been delivered.



"Foreign companies talk about human rights and compliance. Then why are they being unfair to us?" Huq said.



Siddiqur Rahman, vice president of the Federation of the Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries, said: "Our orders until June have been canceled. The situation is dire."



Rahman thinks many garment factory owners will go bankrupt. "It is only a matter of time now. I think all the factories will be closed," he warned.



Huq urged European governments to help Bangladesh's garment sector.



"Your [European] stores are closed. Our factories are about to close and we will have no business. Some 4.1 million workers will go hungry if we don't fulfill our commitment to their welfare," Huq said.



Germany's Development Aid Minister Gerd Muller wrote to Huq that he hopes to "find an approach that will safeguard the textile industry's survival in both Bangladesh and Germany, since millions of people work in that sector."



Cambodia is also a major garment exporter, but it too has been faced with cancelled orders.



More than 10,000 garment workers have already lost their jobs as factories closed. Up to 200,000 people could potentially be laid off.



Cambodia's garment industry has about 1 million full-time workers. The EU accounted for about 45% of Cambodia's total garment exports in 2018.



Now, not only are Cambodian factories dealing with vanishing orders from the west, but its Chinese textile suppliers have largely shut down operations.



Ken Loo, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia, said Cambodia procures more than 60% of its textiles from China. Switching to other suppliers, like India, would take time to accomplish.



Lesser known to the outside world, Myanmar (formerly Burma) also serves as an increasingly important garment exporter to the west. But, as with Cambodia and Bangladesh, order cancellations by the EU have led to the closure of many Myanmar garment factories.



U. Myint Soe, chairman of the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association, said the EU accounted for 70% of the country's garment exports.



"All operations of the [Myanmar] factories that have accepted orders from the EU have stopped. I don't know how we will deal with this issue," he said.



Soe noted that China recently began re-sending raw textile materials to Myanmar again.



"We began to receive raw materials from China. We have no more [problems with] raw materials. Now, the EU no longer accepts our garment exports. It happened since last week," he added. "Garment factories in Myanmar face [difficulties] as [EU importers] told us not to make the clothes, which they have bought, and not to ship them. This problem is big. That's why factories have shut down and reduced their number of workers."



Global Apparel Textile Myanmar Co. Ltd. is one of several local companies stuck with huge inventory due to cancelled orders.



Another garment firm, Lat War Co. Ltd. has 500,000 pieces of unsold garments after a European buyer cancelled the order.


Early March there was a surge in enquiries and requests for health insurance policies with special coverage for COVID 19

BENGALURU: Even as India is seeing a spate of Coronavirus cases the health insurance sector has not witnessed even a single claim request but there has been huge demand for the health insurance both online and off line in the last one month.

Speaking to DC, Amit Chhabra, head -health insurance, policy bazaar.com says, "Early March there was a surge in enquiries and requests for health insurance policies with special coverage for COVID 19. Since India is on a lock down mode since March 22 the demand has multiplied for online health policies. Agents, banks and agencies are not offering off line policies. Hence, tell underwriting is picking up big time."

Following the tale underwriting, policies are issued based on a few questionnaire replies from the customer. A doctor would seek certain answers. The policies will be issued with a condition that if the answers received are not true then such policies will the cancelled.

"Meanwhile, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), which regulates insurance companies in India has issued guidelines and has said that all health policies cover COVID 19 treatment expenses. It even covers costs incurred due to quarantine or isolation at hospital. Further, it has directed all insurance companies to expedite the claim process for Corona virus related cases. Fortunately, so far the government has taken care of costs and expenses for treating corona virus infected patients," said Chhabra.

Policy bazaar offers health insurance of various companies under one roof. Majority of customers need not undergo any medical tests. Only five per cent of the customers may have to approach diagnostic centres for some tests and the industry encourages people going for comprehensive medical policy, he adds.

"The policy bazaar is hoping that the 18 per cent GST will be either reduced or the Union finance ministry increases rebate on the health insurance schemes to encourage more people to take up health insurance policies. It is necessary that each individual has medical aim policies at times of pandemic," he added.

The policy bazaar has seen a surge of 30 per cent for health insurance with comprehensive coverage for corona virus related ailments, said Chhabra.
There is this part of me that thinks about when they were babies, Hoye says. Theyd get sick, and that wasnt good, but that little sick baby would cuddle into me and be so vulnerable. They wanted to be held and they were warm and they needed you. Its not like that, but its kind of like that.
Amid migration of labourers, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia urged them to stay back as food and accommodation were being arranged for them by the government.

While Kejriwal appealed to the migrants through a press conference, Sisodia met many of those who were walking home to different states, including Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The Chief Minister appealed to the people belonging to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Bengal to return from the border.

Kejriwal said the Delhi government has arranged for food for 2,00,000 beneficiaries from Friday.

"Those who are leaving Delhi and going back to their home states, I want to appeal to them to come back because we are arranging for their food. Many social and religious organizations, along with the Delhi government, have come forward to help," said the CM.

Sisodia met a few people heading home to Rajasthan.

"I urged them to stay back in Delhi's night shelters. I also told them that food is being arranged there," Sisodia tweeted in Hindi, saying a number of families were being approached by the officials and the police.

India has been under lockdown for 21 days starting Tuesday midnight.

The lockdown has resulted in large-scale migration of daily wagers due to lack of employment.

From Saturday, the Delhi government said it would ensure food for 4 lakh people.
Photo: Ron Cogswell/Flickr

Missed the most recent top news in Raleigh? Read on for everything you need to know.

Man stabbed inside northeast Raleigh apartment

A man was stabbed around 9 a.m. on Sunday inside a Raleigh apartment. The 45-year-old man was taken to WakeMed with serious, but non-life-threatening, injuries.

Read the full story on WRAL TV.

Driver charged with DWI after crashing into police car



Police said the man crashed into a Raleigh police vehicle and attempted to drive off before crashing into a tree Saturday night.

Read the full story on ABC11 WTVD.

Salon offers curbside hair care kits for pickup

Many salons closed their doors after being listed as non-essential businesses, but one salon has adjusted by leaving curbside hair care products outside for pickup.

Read the full story on ABC11 WTVD.

City closes all park amenities through April 30

The City of Raleigh has announced that all city park amenities, other than open park areas and greenways, are closed through April 30, due to COVID-19.

Read the full story on cbs17.com.

This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
Mumbai, March 30 : Reliance Industries (RIL), here on Monday, announced to contribute Rs 500 crore to the PM CARES Fund to help the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition, the company has also contributed Rs 5 crore each to Maharashtra and Gujarat for the cause.

"RIL continues its 24x7, multi-pronged, on-the-ground effort to do its bit to ensure the nation remains prepared, fed, supplied, safe, connected and motivated to fight and win against the unprecedented challenges brought upon by the coronavirus pandemic," a company statement said.

Among the steps to support treatment of the infected people and support vulnerable communities that the company has off late taken included 100-bed exclusive hospital geared up in just two weeks to handle Covid-19 patients and 50 lakh free meals in the next 10 days.

It's also supplying one lakh masks daily for health workers and caregivers and thousands of personal protection equipments for them. RIL has also assured free fuel across the country to notified emergency response vehicles.

Further, Reliance Retail is providing essential supplies daily for millions of Indians through its stores and home deliveries.

Mukesh Ambani, RIL Chairman and Managing Director, said: "We are confident that India will conquer the coronavirus crisis sooner rather than later. The entire Reliance Industries team is with the nation in this hour of crisis and will do everything to win this battle against Covid-19".

Nita Ambani, Founder Chairperson of Reliance Foundation, said, "The need of the hour is also for us to support our marginalised and daily wage communities. Through our meal distribution programme, we aim to feed lakhs of people daily across the country."
A mask wont stop the wearer from catching coronavirus, but it may help avoid transmission if the wearer already has it.

Austria will require shoppers to wear basic face masks in supermarkets in a bid to slow the still-too-rapid spread of the coronavirus, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Monday.

Austria has closed schools, restaurants, bars, theatres and other gathering places, including non-essential shops. People have been told to stay at home and work from there if possible.

The country has reported 108 deaths and more than 9,000 cases, fewer than its neighbours Italy and Switzerland and within its health systems capacity so far, but Kurz told a news conference its intensive care capacity could be exceeded by mid-April.

Many cannot imagine what is heading our way within weeks, but the truth is that this is the calm before the storm. And to tell how horrific that storm can be, you can look at our neighbour Italy, Kurz said, referring to hospitals unable to cope with the number of sick people, and hundreds of dead each day.

The rate of infection remains far too high, Kurz said, adding that less than medical-grade masks would be distributed this week, probably from Wednesday onward.





As of the moment, these masks are handed out in front of supermarkets [and] it will be compulsory to wear them in supermarkets, Kurz said, adding that the aim in the medium-term was for people to wear them in public more generally as well.

While the masks would not protect wearers against infection, they would stop wearers from sneezing or coughing on others and potentially infecting them, he added.

The World Health Organization has, however, been sceptical about such measures.

There is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any particular benefit, Dr Mike Ryan, the WHOs top emergencies expert, told a news conference later on Monday, while adding that he was not aware of Austrias measure specifically.

In fact, there is some evidence to suggest the opposite  in the misuse or [not] wearing a mask properly or fitting it properly or taking it off and all the other risks that are otherwise associated with that, Ryan said.

Austria is also carrying out tests on a representative sample of 2,000 people to get a clearer understanding of how much of the population has been exposed to the virus, Kurz said, adding that Austria was one of the first countries in Europe to do so. The results will be available at the end of the week.
A young male West African lion photographed in a WAP Complex hunting concession during the University of Michigan wildlife camera survey. The study  West Africas largest wildlife camera survey  found that lions showed no clear preference between WAP Complex national parks and hunting concessions. Credit: University of Michigan Applied Wildlife Ecology Lab

West African lions are a critically endangered subpopulation, with an estimated 400 remaining and strong evidence of ongoing declines.

About 90% of these lions live in West Africa's largest protected area complex, the W-Arly-Pendjari. The WAP Complex includes five national parks and 14 hunting concessions across roughly 10,200 square miles in Burkina Faso, Niger and Benin.

Given that wildlife protection is one of the main purposes of a national park, you might expect West African lions to favor life inside park boundaries, rather than within the privately managed hunting concessions that surround the parks. After all, lions tend to shun people, and human pressures are higher in hunting areas than in the parks.

But a new University of Michigan-led camera survey of West African lionsbelieved to be the largest wildlife camera survey ever undertaken in West Africa and the first carried out within WAP Complex national parks and hunting concessionsfound that West African lions show no statistically significant preference between the parks and trophy-hunting areas.

The findings, scheduled for publication March 30 in the Journal of Applied Ecology, have implications for conservation management of the remaining West African lions.

"Our results suggest habitat quality in national parks is inadequate, leading to a lack of preference in lions despite lower human pressures," said doctoral student Kirby Mills of U-M's Applied Wildlife Ecology (AWE) Lab, lead author of the study.

The researchers suspect that the lure of plentiful water, high-quality habitat and abundant prey on hunting properties outweigh the lions' natural avoidance of humans. Revenues from trophy hunting pay for enhanced infrastructure such as irrigation systems and solar-powered pumps at watering holes, as well as added patrol staff.

At the same time, under-resourced national parks struggle to deal with degraded wildlife habitat, poachers, inadequate staffing and displacement of wildlife by livestock, which are permitted within the parks.

"We recommend prioritizing the reduction of habitat degradation in the parks and increasing water availability to increase suitable habitat for lions and their prey," said Mills, who conducted the study for her master's thesis at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability. "But at the same time, we recognize that management interventions at a large scale require economic resources unavailable to park managers in WAP, an incongruity prolific throughout the range of African lions."

The study's senior author is Nyeema Harris, an assistant professor in the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and director of the AWE Lab. Harris designed the project and led the fieldwork with an international team that included government employees and students from Burkina Faso and Niger.

In the U-M-led study, 238 motion-activated digital cameras were deployed across 5,000 square miles in three WAP Complex national parks and 11 of the hunting concessions. The fieldwork was conducted from February through June in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Some 1.7 million images were captured during that time, but West African lions triggered the shutter just 96 times, reflecting the critically endangered feline's scarcity. The cameras were programmed to rapid-fire three to five frames when triggered, so the total number of lion images is 360.

The camera data were used in two types of mathematical modelsoccupancy models and structural equation models. The occupancy models allowed the researchers to calculate the probability that an animal used a given space, while the SEM models enabled them to disentangle the relative effects of environmental, ecological and anthropogenic factors influencing space use by West African lions.

The researchers found that lion occupancy was largely driven by prey availability, which in turn was shaped by ecological and environmental variablessuch as water availability and habitat diversitythat scored higher in hunting concessions than in national parks.

West Africas W-Arly-Pendjari protected area complex, known as the WAP Complex, includes five national parks and 14 hunting concessions across roughly 10,200 square miles in Burkina Faso, Niger and Benin. Credit: University of Michigan Applied Wildlife Ecology Lab

Contrary to the researchers' expectations, the WAP Complex lions showed no discernable preference between national parks and hunting zones. The U-M-led study provides the first estimate of West African lion occupancy using camera-trap data.

"We hypothesize that ecological cues indicating high-quality habitat, such as plentiful water and available prey, are mitigating the expected avoidance response to the increased human pressures and competitor activity in hunting concessions," Harris said.

"Because the lions rely heavily on prey, managers may be able to manipulate the distribution of prey within WAP to directly influence spatial distributions of lions and indirectly reduce human-lion conflict.

Stretching across three countries in the West African savanna belt, the WAP Complex is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is described by the U.N. agency as "a refuge for wildlife species that have disappeared elsewhere in West Africa or are highly threatened."

Trophy hunting is permitted in all of the WAP Complex concessions but is illegal in the five national parks and in Niger's Tamou game reserve, which is part of the protected area complex. The lions are known to feed on several species of antelope, as well as savanna buffalos and warthogs. Predators that compete with the lions for food include spotted hyenas and leopards.

West African lions are categorized as critically endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. In its 2015 assessment, the IUCN states that the West African lion subpopulation is estimated at just above 400 animals, with fewer than 250 mature individuals.

West African lions are smaller than, and genetically distinct from, other African lions. They form smaller prides, and the males have little to no mane.

"This population continues to decline," the IUCN assessment states. "Further deterioration of the last protected areas harbouring lions in West Africa will likely lead to the local extinction of the species."

Explore further More than just Cecil; big troubles for king of the jungle

More information: Comparable space use by lions between hunting concessions and national parks in West Africa, Journal of Applied Ecology (2020). Journal information: Journal of Applied Ecology Comparable space use by lions between hunting concessions and national parks in West Africa,(2020). datadryad.org/stash/dataset/do  5061/dryad.r4xgxd28g
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30)  Actress Iza Calzado will be discharged from the hospital on Tuesday, after testing negative for COVID-19, her manager confirms.

"Its an amazing start of the week as we were just told that Iza can go home tomorrow after completing her IV antibiotics! Moreover, the good news is - Izas retest results came back and she is now negative for CoVid," Noel Ferrer said in an online statement.

"We would like to thank each and everyone of you for your prayers, love and support especially the doctors, nurses and all the health workers who continuously risk their lives to serve us all at this time," Ferrer added.

Calzado had earlier tested positive for COVID-19, and was confined in the hospital due to pneumonia.
As India steps up its battle against the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19), the medical fraternity  which is at the forefront of the battle  is facing an acute shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), which includes clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearers body from injury or infection. Several doctors took to social media to complain about the lack of PPE or their poor quality. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has consistently lauded doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, and all those who are in the frontlines; yet, Indias efforts to ensure that they remain safe fell short in the initial weeks of the pandemic.

That is why the governments decision to ramp up the manufacture of PPEs, efforts to source it from outside the country, and ensure its supply is important and laudable. Securing PPEs is most critical, because without it, those who need to treat patients can get infected. According to an internal government note, accessed by Reuters, India needs at least 38 million masks and 6.2 million pieces of PPE. While the government has now contacted suppliers for PPEs, reports said despite the World Health Organizations guidelines on February 27, advising all countries to stockpile medical equipment, the export of protective gear like masks and gloves continued from India.

To be fair to the government, the shortage of PPE is a global problem. But the Centre must now ramp up its procurement of good quality PPEs and make it available to the medical fraternity because, without them, this battle is lost. They are true warriors, and India owes it to them to ensure that everything is done to keep them safe.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government of politicising the distribution of relief material to the needy during the nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Rajya Sabha MP and BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta, and union minister Babul Supriyo lashed out at chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, on Sunday and Monday for using social media platforms for highlighting herself and her party in an hour of national crisis. The partys national secretary Rahul Sinha started distributing relief material in Kolkata on Monday.

The distribution of relief in all parts of West Bengal has been entrusted to Ministers/ MLAs/corporators of the ruling TMC. It has become a political occasion and the lockdown is being used as a campaign platform for Mamata Didi. This approach will undermine the national fight against the pandemic, Dasgupta wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

On Monday, Mamata Banerjee declared during a meeting with bureaucrats, doctors, nursing staff and health workers at the state secretariat that people involved in work related to Covid-19 will have an insurance coverage of Rs 10 lakh, instead of the Rs 5 lakh that she had announced earlier.

Following her announcement, Dasgupta tweeted, West Bengal govt has increased insurance payout to doctors and health workers from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. In other states they are covered up to Rs 50 lakh by the Centre. For political reasons @MamataOfficial has refused to join Ayushman Bharat scheme. Bengal has lost out. @SuPriyoBabul

Sharing Dasguptas tweet, Supriyo, junior minister for environment, forests and climate change at the Centre, wrote on Twitter, For Didi @MamataOfficial it is all about OneUp(Wo)Manship. Its She vs the Rest of the World. She has done good work in leading from the front and her media has covered it well but God Help the people in Rural Areas, the ones without Ration Cards, Sr citizens- left helpless in most places.

Incidentally, Mamata Banerjee on Monday also asked district administrations to ensure no one missed out on relief for lack of identity documents.

Supriyo also lashed out at her for airing her meeting at the state secretariat live on social media. What kind of mentality is this? Administrative meetings in districts, even the meeting at the state secretariat at this hour, are being held in front of the medias cameras! You are so greedy for publicity! Shame @MamataOfficial shame! You have left no scope for respecting you! #Tmchhi @BJP4Bengal @swapan55 @ANI, he wrote in Bengali in a tweet.

In Kolkata, while distributing food grains to slum dwellers, BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha said, Mamata Banerjee is using the relief work for her own publicity.

BJPs criticism of the Bengal chief minister came in the wake of the chief minister earning praises from many corners for her leading role in dealing with the situation over the coronavirus.

She was seen visiting hospitals, night shelters for the homeless, distributing food among rickshaw-pullers, holding one meeting after another and advising people using the mainstream media and the social media on how to maintain social distancing. Her partys MLAs and municipal corporators have been distributing relief material to the poor and the needy at their doorstep.

Mamata Banerjee has earned a lot of praise over the past few days for her leading role in this time of crisis. It seems this has frustrated these BJP leaders who are trying to find fault. This is unwelcome, said political analyst Udayan Bandyopadhyay, a professor of political science at Bangabasi College in Kolkata.

Trinamool Congress spokesperson Snehasis Chakraborty said, Mamata Banerjee has set an example of giving leadership in the hour of national crisis. BJP is feeling jealous and frustrated and stooping too low.

The statewide municipal elections are due in May-June this year and the Assembly elections are scheduled in 2021. In 2019, BJP emerged as TMCs principal challenger, winning 18 of the states 42 Lok Sabha seats, against 22 won by TMC.

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COLUMBIA COUNTY  Columbia County Public Health Director Jack Mabb said he's concerned that a reshuffling of patients from downstate hospitals to upstate hospitals could impact his county's ability to keep residents safe during the coronavirus pandemic.

He made the remarks Monday morning on local radio station WGXC 90.7, which covers a geographic area from Troy to Poughkeepsie and Middleburgh to Great Barrington.

"Am I concerned about it?" he said. "Im concerned because my job is to be concerned about Columbia County residents and if somebody needs a ventilator and all the ventilators are full at the hospital, Im concerned about it."

A reshuffling has not yet happened, but New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said repeatedly in recent days that health systems across the state, including upstate, need to work together to accommodate an overflow of patients. On Monday, he said he was in talks with hospitals statewide and that they are going to set a "load threshold" that determines at what point they will transfer patients to less-full hospitals.

New York City is currently the epicenter of cases statewide and nationally, and its hospitals are becoming increasingly overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. On Monday, some relief arrived: The USNS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship with 1,000 beds, docked in New York Harbor and the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan officially came online as a temporary medical facility that can hold up to 2,500 beds.

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"We have hospitals in upstate New York that are experiencing none of this  where they have staff capacity, they have bed capacity," Cuomo said Monday when asked about patient reshuffling. "We need you now, here in this fight and engaged, and thats a totally different concept."

Several upstate counties are still expressing concern, however, about a surge of New York City-area residents flocking upstate to their second homes. They worry it could increase community spread and strain their small, regional health systems.

Mabb said about a third of the county's 35 confirmed coronavirus cases are people who came up from New York City to their second homes in the county.

Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson is able to "very rapidly" boost its staffed bed capacity by 65 percent, chief medical officer Clifford Belden said at a news conference last week. With a little more time and "some additional help" from the state, the hospital could "go well beyond" that number, he said.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

The hospital, which serves both Columbia and Greene counties and is part of the Albany Medical Center hospital system, generally has six to seven ICU beds staffed at any given time, he said.

"We will be able to likely more than double that with our surge plan," Belden said last week.

Mabb said Monday that the county's Office of Emergency Management has identified 11 buildings that could be converted into temporary medical facilities should they be needed. One is the old ShopRite on Healy Boulevard in Hudson.

As of Monday, four people were hospitalized with the virus in the county, including two residents of the Pine Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Philmont. An elderly resident of the home who contracted COVID-19 died over the weekend, marking the county's first known coronavirus death, the county reported Saturday.

The nursing home currently has five confirmed cases of COVID-19 among residents, Mabb said Monday. The three who are not hospitalized are being treated at the home and are all isolated to one wing. On Friday, there were four known cases at the home and four others suspected.

Mabb said Monday that "a couple" of tests for other residents in the home have come back negative.

Countywide, 40 people were under mandatory quarantine on Monday and 60 to 70 were under precautionary quarantine, he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 13:36:19|Editor: Liu

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SEOUL, March 30 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's online food sale almost doubled last month as consumers refrained from outside activities on worry about the COVID-19 outbreak, a government report showed Monday.

Revenue by major online retailers jumped 34.3 percent in February from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. It was the fastest increase since relevant data began to be compiled in June 2016.

People refrained from traveling, shopping and other outside activities as the virus rapidly spread in the month. The government encouraged people to stay at home and avoid social and religious gatherings.

The food sale by online retailers surged 92.5 percent in February from a year earlier, and the household items sale soared 44.5 percent on demand for hygiene items such as face masks and hand sanitizers.

Meanwhile, revenue by major offline retailers declined 7.5 percent in the cited month, marking the second-biggest monthly reduction since the data began to be compiled.

Revenue by department stores and discount outlets tumbled 21.4 percent and 10.6 percent each, while convenient stores' sales grew 7.8 percent last month.
With the majority of the population practising social distancing and staying at home, thousands losing their livelihoods, a faltering economy and a rising death toll, the question on every Americans lips is  when will the coronavirus pandemic be over?

The United States has the most reported cases of Covid-19. As of 29 March, John Hopkins confirmed there are nearly 700,000 cases of coronavirus worldwide, with over 125,000 of those in the US. 33,000 people have died, however only 1,000 of those deaths occurred in the US.

The nation has lagged behind on testing, with every other G8 country except Japan performing more tests per capita than the US. Approximately 0.3 per cent of the population has been tested at this point, with tens of thousands of coronavirus tests still pending according to the COVID Tracking Project. That compares to 6.1 per cent in South Korea, 1 per cent in Russia, 0.9 per cent in the UK and 0.6 per cent in Spain, according to researchers at the University of Oxford.

The Independent spoke with Saralyn Mark, former Senior Medical and Policy Advisor for the US Department of Health and Human Services, NASA and the Obama White House, to explain Americas unique standing in this health crisis, and what might be to come for the nation.

How this virus progresses in the US will be different to the rest of the world, Dr Mark says. Its not just the specific disease but the socioeconomic makeup of a nation that impacts how a pandemic is handled; access to healthcare, wealth distribution, age, population, a myriad of factors come into play. Once you combine such factors with a disease where you have no known immunity, you see what the results are, Dr Mark says. And theyre very graphic, theyre very dramatic. Responding to a pandemic of this nature relies on a sturdy infrastructure, reliable data, and capacity to test as well as treat. I think as we see, when there is any weakening of that chain, you see how the whole link falls apart.

Access to both care and testing is not a problem unique to the US, but it is particularly felt here. America is plagued by a strained healthcare system, with many uninsured, as well as many insured but still unable to get adequate access to care. You have a system that is already extraordinarily stressed and then you add that other element on top of it. And you see what were seeing  its cataclysmic. Dr Mark also points to the issue of undocumented people fearing receiving tests or treatment because of their fragile status, potentially posing further issues for the US down the line in both accurately reporting numbers and treating the infected.

Obesity is another reality the US must reckon with. 42 per cent of Americans are overweight. We know obesity impacts your immune system and your inflammatory responses. It provides a restriction to your breathing. How do you ventilate with that?

New York has now been dubbed the epicentre of coronavirus, with approximately a quarter of all US cases in the one state. The high density and population of New York are two of the biggest factors in the spiralling of the disease in the city. As Andrew Cuomo said: Our closeness makes us vulnerable. The Independent has a more detailed report on New York and how it became ground zero here.

But Americas problem doesnt end with this one state. New York is getting hit hard, and theyre getting hit first, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute Ashish Jha told USA Today, predicting the rest of the US will follow suit. The US is expected to reach its peak use of hospital resources in relation to Covid-19 on 14 April 2020, according to current tracking for Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

One end to the pandemic would be the creation and widespread availability of a vaccine. Numerous potential drugs are in development, but getting to the point of human trials, mass production and mass availability will likely take a year or longer.

Stay-at-home is the current official advice across the US. In an op-ed to USA Today, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Dr Tom Inglesby urged leaders not to ease social distancing prematurely. In the short term flattening the curve is the goal, avoiding a surge in capacity and stopping systems from being overwhelmed.

To a lesser extent, many citizens may resist continued social distancing as un-American. Dr Mark suggests that Americans are used to their freedoms, enforcing restrictions is not something they are used to.

As vital as it is right now, social distancing will  at some point  end. Dr Mark postulates May or June, with the chance of this being earlier if the measures have proven to be extremely effective. Record-high numbers of Americans are filing for jobless claims, stocks have had their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis, and countless industries will be unable to cope long-term with the current restrictions. Were moving out of what would be a theoretical best case scenario of how you would handle a disease to what do we need to do to be able to maintain society as we see it, Dr Mark says.

One scenario the US could experience is having people who recover from Covid-19 becoming the backbone for the workforce to help keep the economy driving as much as possible, keeping the rest of society going. In such a situation testing and date are imperative.

We need a database of those infected and recovered, Dr Mark says. She also says testing for Covid-19 antibodies, something being done in the town of Telluride, Colorado, is a way to catch those who did not have a diagnostic test but were infected. In addition to this, recovered patients can be sources of immunoglobulin which could be given to expand passive immunity in the community. If we are able to advance more antibody testing that would help us ensure that people are immune.

There is no exact time scale for how long this process of mass immunisation would take, but Dr Mark suggests a process of reintroducing, then isolating again, then reintroducing and so on could take a year or longer. Just as quickly as the virus spread, our knowledge of it and how to handle it grows. Washington state initially saw a high number of coronavirus cases, yet now Seattle  under strict measures  is seeing an easing in deaths.

Its terrifying for people because I think were so used to having those magic bullets ... But perhaps the best magic bullet we have is our own immune system right now.

Saralyn Mark is the author of Stellar Medicine: The Universe of Womens Health.
Premier League footballer Jack Grealish was today facing serious questions over his conduct after allegedly crashing his 70,000 Range Rover car into two other vehicles following a party at a luxury block of flats.

The Aston Villa captain, who earns 45,000 a week, was photographed coming out of an estate in the suburbs of Birmingham shortly before police arrived yesterday.

Grealish, 24, was seen leaving Dickens Heath, close to a luxury flat owned by former team-mate Ross McCormack, with an unzipped backpack and a sky-blue hoodie.

The crash in the early hours of yesterday morning near Solihull came shortly after the midfielder had warned people to 'stay at home' during the coronavirus crisis.

Jack Grealish is pictured walking away, close to the scene of a Range Rover crash on Sunday morning in a Birmingham suburb

Police are investigating the crash involving the white Range Rover on Sunday morning

A witness told MailOnline: 'They went to collect their possessions before leaving the scene before the police arrived. We were watching and my partner saw them leaving the building and head off down the road quickly.'

The midfielder has previously been seen arriving at the Aston Villa training ground in a similar white Range Rover.

The 4x4 is claimed to have reversed from a designated parking bay, across a road and hit a parked silver van. The van reportedly has a dented bumper and smashed rear lights.

Grealish was then pictured with former Leeds United player Tony Capaldi, a former team-mate of McCormack's at Cardiff City, with locals claiming they had attended a party at McCormack's house on Saturday night.

An image of a man resembling Grealish, wearing odd footwear, circulated on social media, claiming he was near the incident

The white Range Rover is pictured after the crash in the Dickens Heath area of Solihull

A witness told MailOnline: 'We live near the estate he stayed partying overnight, his car was parked in the street all night.

'The commotion outside when he was hitting cars was tremendous, and the estate security guard saw him reverse into a van and hit a Mercedes causing significant damage to all cars.'

A neighbour told The Sun: 'The party had been going on all night. It was unbearable. The noise had only stopped a short while when, just after 8am, there were a series of almighty collisions which reverberated through the flats.

'Outside, Jack Grealish was stood next to his car rowing with a security guard. It was strange to see an England ace looking so unkempt and dishevelled. He looked unsteady and confused.'

The white Range Rover was pictured damaged after reports of a crash with parked cars

Grealish and McCormack were both unavailable for comment.

A West Midlands Police spokesman said: 'We were called to Waterside, Dickens Heath, just before 10am yesterday (March 29) to reports that a Range Rover had crashed into two parked cars in the street.

'The driver left his details with a member of the public at the scene before leaving on foot.

'Arrangements have now been made to obtain more details around the circumstances of the collision from the driver.

'Anyone with information has been asked to get in touch, via Live Chat at west-midlands.police.uk quoting log 643 of March 29.'

Grealish is the club captain of Aston Villa and has been with his boyhood club since 2001

Current government advice during the coronavirus crisis states that citizens should leave their homes only to shop for basic necessities, to exercise once a day, for any medical need, or travelling to work if they cannot work from home.

On Saturday, Grealish appeared to echo that advice as he posted a video for his Twitter followers pleading with them to stay at home.

'To help save lives, you must stay at home,' he said.

'Only leave your house to buy food, buy medicine or for exercise and always remember to stay at least two metres apart. This is urgent. Protect the NHS. Stay home. Save lives.'

Piers Morgan has slammed Grealish after he allegedly flouted coronavirus lockdown rules

As with the rest of the Premier League, Villa's players are currently following fitness programmes at home, with their Bodymoor Heath training ground closed.

Grealish joined his boyhood club at the age of six and has worked his way up the ranks to become a key player for the Midlands outfit. He has been linked with Manchester United this season.

Today, Piers Morgan slammed Premier League star Grealish after the incident.

'He had a lot to say last week,' the Good Morning Britain presenter said, talking about the 24-year-old's social media post.

The 24-year-old has established himself as a key man for Villa and is currently club captain

'It was really good until you go to your mates. What are you thinking to Jack? What happened to being sensible.

'It doesn't help when an England star, a role model, breaks the rules. Shame on you.'

Former Tottenham and Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp, also speaking on the ITV programme, said: 'I have been his biggest fan. Every time I talk about him I say he should be in the England team.

'If I was a manager of the big teams I would buy him up. But this is no excuse. This is absolutely stupid. I can't believe what he has done, he needs to be punished for sure.'
The central government has asked automobile manufacturers to use their facilities to produce ventilators to boost the country's capacity of such machines in view of rising COVID-19 cases.

The Health ministry said that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will begin manufacturing 20,000 N-95 masks per day within the next week.

The ministry informed that over 14,000 existing ventilators are earmarked for COVID-19 patients in various hospitals in the country while there are 11.95 lakh N-95 masks in stock.

Additional 5 lakh masks were distributed during the last two days and 1.40 lakh were distributed on Monday.

"Automobile manufacturers have been asked to manufacture ventilators and they are working towards this end," the health ministry said in a tweet.

Besides, the Ministry of health has already asked the Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Defence, to manufacture 30,000 ventilators in the next two months in collaboration with local manufacturers, the ministry said.

Agva Healthcare, Noida has also been given an order to manufacture 10,000 ventilators within a month. Their supplies are expected to commence in the 2nd week of April, the ministry said in another tweet.

Two domestic manufacturers are producing 50,000 N-95 masks per day. This is expected to go up to 1 lakh per day within next week, the ministry tweeted.

It further said that 10,000 personal protection equipment donated by Red Cross have been received and are being distributed on Monday.

The number of COVID-19 cases climbed to 1071 across the country, while the death toll rose to 29, according to the Union Health Ministry.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Microsoft MSFT and Israel-based startup AnyVision  which offers facial recognition-based offerings  recently issued a joint statement.



The report states that the tech giant will divest its stake in AnyVision as well as stop making minority investments in other companies that offer facial recognition technology.



Microsoft has been extra cautious on use of facial recognition technology, which it asserts to be undertaken in a transparent manner, not impeding any individuals fundamental right to privacy.



The withdrawal of investing in companies that primarily provide sensitive technologies including, the controversial facial recognition technology, is expected to boost the companys brand reputation and instill investors optimism in the stock. Microsoft currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).









Notably, shares of the company have returned 25.8% in the past year outperforming the industrys rise of 8.5%.



You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.



Into the Headlines



Per Crunchbase data, AnyVision raised around $74 million in funding. Notably, M12, the venture capital arm of Microsoft, has had been a comparatively new investor in the startup.



In 2019, Microsoft fell under the scanner for having invested in the startup, which per media reports, was using facial recognition technology to surveil Palestinian residents in the occupied West Bank region.



The recent audit of the investigation states that AnyVisions technology has not been used in the alleged mass surveillance program.



Financial term of the divestment and the timeline is not yet divulged. Moreover, it is unclear whether other M12 stakes will be affected by the change in the investment strategy.



Key Takeaways: Unbiased AI & Ethical Use of Tech



Facial recognition technology is increasingly being leveraged by various public and private companies, government agencies, among others, to fulfill their respective requirements. The use of the tech is almost infinite, for instance, unlocking screens, identifying and uniting family members, receiving suggestions for tagging a person on a picture, to mention a few.



The improvements in sensors and cameras, and strengthened machine learning (ML) capabilities are paving the way for companies and government agencies to increasingly leverage facial recognition technology. Per MarketsandMarkets data, the global facial recognition market is envisioned to grow at a CAGR of 16.6% to $7 billion by 2024 from $3.2 billion in 2019.



Nevertheless, bias in AI has been doing the rounds for quite some time now, which is why the use of facial recognition tech has been controversial. The companies, especially the tech behemoths are aiming to minimize errors relating to biased outcomes.



Notably, Microsoft rejected a few facial recognition-focused deals on violation of human rights. The tech giant aims to develop facial recognition software for commercial and public sector use in an ethical manner.



In July 2018, Microsoft president, Brad Smith had voiced his concern over the ongoing use, misuse, abuse and overuse of facial recognition technology, via a blog post. Smith had necessitated the need to go slow on the use of facial recognition technology in a bid to be socially responsible.



The company has had asserted for regulation of a few aspects of the technology to protect the very basic ideas of freedom and privacy. To start off, approval of the people coming under the scanner are often not considered. Microsoft remains highly concerned with this violation of a fundamental right, which has been going on for quite a while.



The next significant issue is the credibility of the technology. Facial recognition technology accompanies a considerable bias in the way it functions. Notably, various studies have proven that the technology is surprisingly erroneous.



Major tech giants, including International Business Machines Corp. IBM, Alphabet GOOGL, Facebook FB, are focusing on enhancing their respective offerings with focus on unbiased AI, and improving credibility in terms of data use. Facial recognition technology is an important aspect in the broader unbiased AI space.



The focal point is to tame and train the algorithms accordingly. Improving ML capabilities on a dynamic basis will aid the process.



Government regulations, transparency and accountability of the entities leveraging facial recognition technology is anticipated to make the transition from biased to unbiased AI smoother. Reducing bias component is expected to be a key catalyst, going forward.



The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All



Last year, it generated $24 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $77.6 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early.



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The 'dangerous' and 'disgusting' conditions on the Tube entered a second week today as NHS staff continued to blast Sadiq Khan for a lack of rush hour trains as coronavirus engulfs Britain.

Carriages and platforms are packed with key workers again because of an insufficient number of trains to carry people with no choice but to go to work in central London to guide Britain through the crisis.

This means that commuters who usually wait around three minutes for a train into the capital are now facing gaps of up to 20 minutes.

Rachael Baines posted a shocking photo of a packed train today and said: 'I am a frontline NHS worker and this is how I have to travel to work due to @TfL reducing their service and people ignoring the #StayHome message. Absolutely disgusting'.

Edie Sousa, who was forced on to a packed Tube, tweeted: 'Tube stations too full! How are frontline NHS workers getting to work safely. It's a joke'.

Transport for London said there were problems on the Jubilee line this morning due to a broken-down train, which caused a gap in the service.

Commuters pack onto a Jubilee line train towards Central London today as workers are forced to use busy Tube services

An intensive care nurse from East London tweeted this picture of a packed London Underground platform this morning

Commuters at Leytonstone station on the Central line in East London this morning as the coronavirus pandemic continues

Meanwhile BBC journalist George Mann shared a photo of a sea of people at Leytonstone in east London where passengers were nose-to-nose with strangers as cases and deaths in the UK rocket.

A TfL spokesman told MailOnline today: 'We are sorry that a defective train caused a gap in the Jubilee line service for a short time earlier this morning. This was quickly fixed.'

** Are you travelling in London today? Send your stories and pictures to martin.robinson@mailonline.co.uk or tips@dailymail.com ** Advertisement

Trains are now being doused in an 'anti-viral' spray bosses claim will keep coronavirus off seats and handrails for up to 30 days.

On the seventh day of Britain's unprecedented coronavirus lockdown, rush hour carriages were packed with key workers still required to attend their jobs.

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has come under fierce criticism for reducing the number of trains running, which has left NHS staff and other employees in vital sectors at risk as they unintentionally flout social distancing rules during peak periods.

Passengers crowd onto a Jubilee line train on the way to work this morning during the coronavirus pandemic

Passengers wait for a Jubilee line train towards Stanmore in North London coming in six minutes' time this morning

Commuters wait for a Jubilee line train this morning as concerns continue to be raised over crowded Tube services

But as Mr Khan again faced calls to implement a fuller service yesterday, cleaners in hazmat-style suits were filmed spraying an anti-viral substance onto seats and handrails. The spray is said to keep carriages safe for up to 30 days.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan issued the above guidance on Twitter this morning

The footage emerged as Transport Secretary Grant Shapps described Tube overcrowding as 'unacceptable'.

He said Transport for London (TfL) had gone 'too far' in reducing services in a failed attempt to halt the spread of coronavirus and was now 'struggling to recover.'

The comments were made during a closed Commons Transport Committee meeting between MPs via Skype on Wednesday. A note summarising the discussion was released to the media on Friday.

In light of Department for Transport guidance, Mr Shapps said he had raise six different points to improve the Tube overcrowding situation, including redeploying night staff during the day to run more trains.

Social media users criticised London Mayor Sadiq Khan today as Tube services remained crowded this morning

He added: 'The crowding was unacceptable. The situation had not been well handled.'

Passenger numbers on the Tube are already said to be down 91 per cent compared to the same period last year.

However, Mr Shapps said 'more trains are needed' not just to ease train overcrowding, but to eliminate crowds waiting at stations.

The anti-viral fluid being deployed on the trains - currently being used in hospitals - will also be used in stations and on the capital's buses.

Despite the attempts to disinfect public transport, critics argue the measures do little to quell the spread of the virus given overcrowding issues.

Responding to footage of the cleaning regime on social media, commuters accused the Mayor of London of 'throwing social distancing out the door'.

One added: 'Does it stop someone sneezing on someone in a packed carriage at rush hour?'

Transport Commissioner for London Mike Brown said: 'In the same way as national rail services into London have been reduced, we are also running fewer Tube trains.

A passenger wears a mask on a London Underground Piccadilly line train later this morning in the capital

Commuters ride on a London Underground train on the Piccadilly line later this morning

'This is because about 30 per cent of our own drivers, station staff, controllers and maintenance teams are not able to come to work, including those self-isolating or ill with coronavirus.

'We are running as many trains in the early morning as possible. There has been crowding on some sections of the Tube at these times as London has adapted to our new ways of working.'

He added that 13million emails have been sent to Londoners asking them to stop travelling.

** Are you travelling in London today? Send your stories and pictures to martin.robinson@mailonline.co.uk or tips@dailymail.com **
The district jail here on Monday released 38 prisoners on interim bail of eight weeks to decongest the premises amid the coronavirus outbreak, officials said.

The move is part of the Uttar Pradesh government's decision to release 11,000 prisoners lodged in 71 jails in the state to prevent overcrowding in prisons in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

"The 38 undertrial prisoners were accused in criminal cases which qualified for jail terms of seven years or less. In view of the coronavirus threat, these prisoners were granted interim bail of eight weeks," District Jail Superintendent R B Patel said.

The Uttar Pradesh government decided to release 11,000 prisoners after the Supreme Court directed all states and union territories to constitute high-level committees to consider releasing on parole or interim bail prisoners and undertrials for offences entailing up to 7-year jail term to decongest prisons in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.

The top court said overcrowding of prisons is a matter of serious concern, particularly in the present context of coronavirus.

Sixteen new coronavirus positive cases were reported in Uttar Pradesh on Monday, taking the total tally in the state to 88, officials said in Lucknow.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Most insurers have clamped down on capacity and are taking a more cautious approach to underwriting, said Patrick Barco (pictured), manager of ocean marine at Burns & Wilcox Canada. They are reviewing and asking more questions, modelling CAT exposures, addressing adequate deductibles, and possibly looking at rating in different classes of cargo business.

The hard market in this space has not come as a surprise to Barco because its long overdue. A soft market in commercial marine has prevailed for many years and now, a pile up of catastrophe losses from hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes has adversely affected the industry, especially in cargo and yacht.

Insurers are now better equipped to obtain rate increases, even on clean accounts, said Barco. Most companies [are] increasing their rates so much so that brokers are forced to go into the market and look for terms that are compatible and agreeable with customers.

It's not a buyers market anymore, he added, and insurers have the upper hand. Accounts that have had losses are paying nothing less than 20-30% in rate increases and upwards.

Amid these tough conditions, another more recent concern for the global marine markets is the coronavirus.

Many shipping lines [are] not calling at [Chinese] ports because of the coronavirus, said Barco, [and] there have been delays in customers trying to get their goods on time because most of the factories in China have either closed or are working shorter hours.

This has impacted several manufacturing industries, including the big automotive companies since China was one of the main countries from where they would import spare parts. Tied to this epidemic, losses could result if a vessel is calling at a Chinese port to discharge their cargo, but the manpower is missing, meaning that containers could be left for long periods of time. In turn, insurers would be paying big losses to cover the loss of the goods.

I can see some of the losses arising from coronavirus and its only a matter of time before we see these claims trickling in, noted Barco.

Nonetheless, Burns & Wilcoxs parent company H.W. Kaufman Group is equipped to handle the tough marine market, thanks to its strength in this line. Its companies include brokerage Lochain Patrick, which is focused on servicing the worldwide marine and energy markets, as well as Chesterfield Group London, which specializes in maritime among other lines, and RB Jones, which provides specialty risk coverage solutions for commercial marine accounts.

Combined with this expertise and our marine capabilities in Canada and USA, we are in a position to deliver unparalleled service to our clients in this challenging marketplace, said Barco.

marine insurance market has seen its fair share of rocky seas in recent months. Tensions in the Middle East have led some experts to predict that this period of disorder and unrest will lead to insurers and reinsurers either exiting marine insurance lines or adopting pricing models that will have negative effects on the end consumer.

More broadly, marine underwriting has seen pressure on profitability as of late, resulting in commercial marine markets, especially those in London, to react accordingly.

Most insurers have clamped down on capacity and are taking a more cautious approach to underwriting, said Patrick Barco (pictured), manager of ocean marine at Burns & Wilcox Canada. They are reviewing and asking more questions, modelling CAT exposures, addressing adequate deductibles, and possibly looking at rating in different classes of cargo business.

The hard market in this space has not come as a surprise to Barco because its long overdue. A soft market in commercial marine has prevailed for many years and now, a pile up of catastrophe losses from hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes has adversely affected the industry, especially in cargo and yacht.

Insurers are now better equipped to obtain rate increases, even on clean accounts, said Barco. Most companies [are] increasing their rates so much so that brokers are forced to go into the market and look for terms that are compatible and agreeable with customers.

ItCs not a buyers market anymore, he added, and insurers have the upper hand. Accounts that have had losses are paying nothing less than 20-30% in rate increases and upwards.

Amid these tough conditions, another more recent concern for the global marine markets is the coronavirus.

Many shipping lines [are] not calling at [Chinese] ports because of the coronavirus, said Barco, [and] there have been delays in customers trying to get their goods on time because most of the factories in China have either closed or are working shorter hours.

Read more: North P&I Club develops tool to help track coronavirus

This has impacted several manufacturing industries, including the big automotive companies since China was one of the main countries from where they would import spare parts. Tied to this epidemic, losses could result if a vessel is calling at a Chinese port to discharge their cargo, but the manpower is missing, meaning that containers could be left for long periods of time. In turn, insurers would be paying big losses to cover the loss of the goods.

I can see some of the losses arising from coronavirus and its only a matter of time before we see these claims trickling in, noted Barco.

Nonetheless, Burns & Wilcoxs parent company H.W. Kaufman Group is equipped to handle the tough marine market, thanks to its strength in this line. Its companies include brokerage Lochain Patrick, which is focused on servicing the worldwide marine and energy markets, as well as Chesterfield Group London, which specializes in maritime among other lines, and RB Jones, which provides specialty risk coverage solutions for commercial marine accounts.

Combined with this expertise and our marine capabilities in Canada and USA, we are in a position to deliver unparalleled service to our clients in this challenging marketplace, said Barco.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 30, 2020 | 01:59 PM | CALLOWAY COUNTY





On Monday, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet announced the Calloway County Fiscal Court will receive $72,010 in funds to repair two washed-out creek crossings on Crouch Road.





"The Transportation Cabinet is pleased to approve this request for funding to provide assistance to Calloway County to repair and maintain safe connections in the community," said Transportation Secretary Jim Gray.







Back in February heavy rains swept one crossing away and rendered the second nearly impassable. Because of the damage, Crouch Road was closed on February 11.







The repairs will involve removing debris and the replacement and reinforcement of multiple arched culverts. The repairs will make Crouch Road full accessible and safer for school buses.

The Calloway County Fiscal Court has been awarded County Road Aid emergency funds.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Following complaints by parents, the minister of primary and secondary education Suresh Kumar warned schools affiliated to the CBSE, ICSE and state board against collecting fees and donations from students for the 2020-21 academic year, warning of legal consequences including criminal cases.

"Some private education institutions are insisting on payment fees in April and May, and sending reminders to parents through SMS, warning of fines for delayed payments. The department of public instruction has issued a circular that the admission process and collection of fee for the year 2020-21 for students continuing in the same school shall be postponed till the next order in view of the COVID-19 crisis," said the minister.

"Any institution violating the government order will be held accountable under Education Act which includes fines, cancelling the recognition of the institution, a criminal case under the Epidemic Diseases Act 1887 and CRPC. Hence private education institutions must postpone admission and fee collection process for 2020-21 including students continuing in the school till next government order is publish," he added.

As for the schools that have already announced deadlines, he said they must withdraw and suspend the circulars they have sent out till the next government order announcing the date. A new date for fee payment will be announced by the government soon and the schools cannot set it at their discretion, he warned.

In a recent order, the department had already ordered schools to defer their admissions for the year 2020-2021 until further notice.

Leave extended for teachers

The state government has also extended the leave granted to primary and high school teachers until April 11. In an earlier order, teachers were allowed to work from home until March 31. However, they are directed not to leave their base.
land market Open source

Today, Ukraines parliament has opened the land market - 259 MPs voted for that.

A moratorium on the sale of land appeared back in 2001. January 18, the Verkhovna Rada adopted Law No. 2242-III, which established that, temporarily, until the Land Code is adopted, the landowners cannot sell, donate or otherwise alienate it. But they can inherit it and sell them for state and public needs.

Parliament adopted the Land Code No. 2768-III on October 25 of the same year. According to the code, until January 1, 2005, it was impossible to sell or alienate land for farming and shares (exchange, inheritance, and withdrawal for public purposes were allowed).

This temporary ban was extended ten times in Ukraines history (in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018).

In September 2019, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky instructed the Verkhovna Rada to cancel the moratorium on the sale of land until December 2019 and pass a bill to open the land market.

The opening of the land market was scandalous. The idea of Zelenskys team met with resistance among a number of political forces opposing the sale of land, while agrarians held rallies under the Verkhovna Rada and blocked state highways in protest.

One of the most controversial issues was the issue of the possible sale of land to foreigners. In this regard, Zelensky said Ukrainian people would make the decision on the possible sale of land to foreigners via a referendum mechanism.

Who can buy Ukrainian land?

According to the law, ordinary Ukrainians can become land market participants.

Legal entities, directly founded by citizens of Ukraine, the state and territorial communities shall become land sale market participants only since 2024.

If you took a loan secured by land, then credit institutions and banks will be able to obtain it as ownership. Such land plots must be alienated by the aforementioned institutions at bidding within two years from the date of acquisition of ownership.

Can foreigners buy land in Ukraine?

Foreigners and legal entities, the founders or ultimate beneficiaries of which are foreigners, will be able to buy land only subject to approval by referendum. In all other cases, it is not possible to acquire property rights.

But even if a referendum is held, Ukraine will be prohibited from making transactions, to which foreigners or legal entities founded by foreign citizens are parties, with agricultural land in an area 50 km from the state border.

Who cant buy agricultural land in Ukraine?

The right of ownership is prohibited for:

legal entities whose participants or beneficiaries are foreigners  lands of state and communal ownership, as well as lands, allocated to unit owners and located closer than 50 km from the state border of Ukraine (except for the state border that runs by sea);

legal entities whose participants or ultimate beneficiaries are citizens of other countries;

persons who belonged or belong to terrorist organizations;

legal entities whose participants or beneficiaries are foreign states;

legal entities if it is impossible to establish their ultimate beneficiary;

legal entities whose beneficiaries are registered in offshore zones;

individuals and legal entities in respect of which sanctions have been applied;

legal entities registered in the states included in the list of those that do not cooperate in the field of combating the laundering of proceeds from crime.

How much land can one buy?

In the first two years, there will be certain restrictions on the total area of agricultural land owned by a citizen - it cannot exceed 100 hectares. This shall be true for individuals (as legal entities are banned from buying agricultural land). This restriction shall be applied to those citizens, who obtained land before this law entered its force.

Since 2024, a legal entity shall be able to buy land. Also, since 2024 it will be allowed to buy up to 10,000 hectares in one hand.

Also in the first two years, a ban on the sale of state land will enter its force.

If the requirements of the law regarding the concentration of land in one hand are violated, the land may be confiscated by court order.

How to buy and sell land?

The bill provides that until January 1, 2030, the land selling price cannot be lower than its normative estimate.

In the event of the sale of a land plot, the tenant shall have the preemptive right to acquire it if he is ready to pay the corresponding price, and in the case of an auction, if the tenant is ready to pay the highest price offered during the auction.

Citizens who have the right for permanent (lifetime) use, as well as tenants who reissued the right to permanent use with respect to plots of land, have the right to redeem land ownership by installments up to five years at a price equal to the normative monetary value of plots, without land tendering.

Payments are carried out only in non-cash forms.

Also, acquiring the right of ownership under reimbursable agreements in the absence of documents confirming the sources of origin of funds or other assets through which such a right is acquired would be prohibited.

What would be the price of the land?

According to forecasts of the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, one hectare of land in Ukraine will cost over 2,000 USD.

The law will enter into force on July 1, 2021, except Article 2, which enters its force on the day of this law is published.
Israeli PMs office said quarantine decision was precautionary as he had not been in recent proximity with ill aide.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his close aides have been placed under precautionary quarantine after a staff member within his office tested positive for the coronavirus, his office said on Monday.

In a statement, Netanyahus office said the quarantine decision was precautionary as the veteran prime minister had not been in recent proximity with the ill staffer.

The preliminary assessment is that there is no need for the prime minister to be quarantined, as he did not come into close contact with the individual and did not personally meet with that person, the statement said.

Over the past two weeks, the two were never in the same room at the same time, it added.

It further noted that the epidemiological investigation was ongoing and that Netanyahu and his close staff would be in confinement until [tests] were completed.

A separate statement from the Knesset, Israels parliament, identified the staffer as Rivka Paluch, Netanyahus parliamentary aide, noting three dates she had been in the building.

Members of the Knesset and employees have already been instructed to follow the health ministrys orders and self-quarantine if they were in her vicinity, it said.

The Knesset said it was offering footage from its surveillance cameras to the health ministry for them to see where and when Paluch had been in the building, for the health professionals to determine which measures need be taken.

Netanyahus office stressed that he has had limited interpersonal contact in recent weeks, conducting most of his meetings via video conferencing from his residence.

The news comes as Netanyahu, 70, is widely expected to agree on an emergency unity government with his election rival Benny Gantz to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

The two fought three bitter but inconclusive elections over the past year, with neither securing enough support to form a viable coalition government.

Gantz, a centrist, was elected speaker of Israels parliament last week and has committed to backing an emergency unity government with Netanyahu, citing the need to combat COVID-19.

More than 4,300 cases

According to The Jerusalem Post, if Netanyahu tests positive, then he and his entire staff would have to be quarantined  in addition to Gantz, who spent eight hours with him overnight on Saturday, negotiating the terms of the unity government.

Netanyahu had tested negative for coronavirus after he and his immediate circle underwent tests on March 15.

Israeli health authorities have so far confirmed 16 deaths and over 4,300 infections from the virus.

According to the Ministry of Health, 80 of the patients are in critical condition and 139 have recovered.

As part of measures to curb the virus, all schools have been closed in the country. All meetings in public, open or closed areas with more than 10 people have also been banned.

All trading firms except supermarkets, pharmacies, gas stations and banks have also been closed since March 15. Tel Aviv also banned the entry of foreign citizens to the country, except for those who have residency in Israel.
Hytera Communications, a leading Hytera Communications, a leading global provider of private professional communications solutions, has been able to keep its manufacturing systems working normally despite the threat posed to global supply chains caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to its investment in intelligent manufacturing and supply chain solutions.

The key to this capability is Hyteras intelligent manufacturing center in Shenzhen, China, which boasts high levels of smart manufacturing technology and automation.

The intelligent manufacturing solutions provide a flexible and agile manufacturing and supply chain system. Intelligent manufacturing and management systems, automated dispensing, assembly and functional testing are designed to guarantee production precision and high levels of efficiency. This is augmented by an automated packaging system and the ability to remotely monitor products.

At the heart of Hyteras intelligent manufacturing system is the flexible production line, which utilizes a manufacturing execution system to streamline the entire production process through real-time information. The production line is so flexible that it can be reorganized to manufacture many different products, ensuring a fast response to changing markets and customer demands. Hytera began adopting intelligent manufacturing solutions at the Shenzhen center back in 2013, in order to meet the demanding manufacturing criteria, including customization, delivery cycles and product reliability, of high-quality professional mobile communications devices, such as two-way radios.

The company now has more than ten smart production lines. In 2019, Hytera made a major breakthrough in its development of intelligent manufacturing and at the start of this year its intelligent manufacturing processes officially reached the Industry 4.0 stage. In the next five years, one of Hyteras main goals is to upgrade all its manufacturing processes to meet smart manufacturing standards.

The Hytera Smart Factory in Shenzhen also incorporates intelligent warehousing and logistics systems. An important part of the global supply chain is the Hytera manufacturing center in Zaragoza, Spain, which focuses on providing customized solutions designed to meet the specific needs of its European and American customers.

The flexibility of Hyteras intelligent manufacturing processes has also enabled the company to switch some production lines to the manufacture of disposable face masks to help combat the global shortage caused by the COVID-19 epidemic.

Production of face masks began in early February and has been rapidly ramped up to achieve mass production levels. Hyteras disposable face masks are already available in the market around the world.

Hyteras response to the COVID-19 outbreak has gone farther. The company immediately set up a national emergency support team and got in contact with health committees, prevention and control departments, medical institutions, and non-profit organizations throughout China to help coordinate all aspects of support, including equipment donations, communications support, and field services. The company has also donated more than 3,000 communication devices nationwide, helping fulfill its corporate social responsibilities.

The development of the intelligent manufacturing system is one of the main outcomes of Hyteras strategy of continuous investment in research and development. The company invests 15% of its annual revenue in R&D and has 2,342 patents filed globally. Around 40% of its staff headcount are R&D engineers, of whom 80% hold a masters or doctors degree. global provider of private professional communications solutions, has been able to keep its manufacturing systems working normally despite the threat posed to global supply chains caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to its investment in intelligent manufacturing and supply chain solutions.

The key to this capability is Hyteras intelligent manufacturing center in Shenzhen, China, which boasts high levels of smart manufacturing technology and automation.

The intelligent manufacturing solutions provide a flexible and agile manufacturing and supply chain system. Intelligent manufacturing and management systems, automated dispensing, assembly and functional testing are designed to guarantee production precision and high levels of efficiency. This is augmented by an automated packaging system and the ability to remotely monitor products.

At the heart of Hyteras intelligent manufacturing system is the flexible production line, which utilizes a manufacturing execution system to streamline the entire production process through real-time information. The production line is so flexible that it can be reorganized to manufacture many different products, ensuring a fast response to changing markets and customer demands. Hytera began adopting intelligent manufacturing solutions at the Shenzhen center back in 2013, in order to meet the demanding manufacturing criteria, including customization, delivery cycles and product reliability, of high-quality professional mobile communications devices, such as two-way radios.

The company now has more than ten smart production lines. In 2019, Hytera made a major breakthrough in its development of intelligent manufacturing and at the start of this year its intelligent manufacturing processes officially reached the Industry 4.0 stage. In the next five years, one of Hyteras main goals is to upgrade all its manufacturing processes to meet smart manufacturing standards.

The Hytera Smart Factory in Shenzhen also incorporates intelligent warehousing and logistics systems. An important part of the global supply chain is the Hytera manufacturing center in Zaragoza, Spain, which focuses on providing customized solutions designed to meet the specific needs of its European and American customers.

The flexibility of Hyteras intelligent manufacturing processes has also enabled the company to switch some production lines to the manufacture of disposable face masks to help combat the global shortage caused by the COVID-19 epidemic.

Production of face masks began in early February and has been rapidly ramped up to achieve mass production levels. Hyteras disposable face masks are already available in the market around the world.

Hyteras response to the COVID-19 outbreak has gone farther. The company immediately set up a national emergency support team and got in contact with health committees, prevention and control departments, medical institutions, and non-profit organizations throughout China to help coordinate all aspects of support, including equipment donations, communications support, and field services. The company has also donated more than 3,000 communication devices nationwide, helping fulfill its corporate social responsibilities.

The development of the intelligent manufacturing system is one of the main outcomes of Hyteras strategy of continuous investment in research and development. The company invests 15% of its annual revenue in R&D and has 2,342 patents filed globally. Around 40% of its staff headcount are R&D engineers, of whom 80% hold a masters or doctors degree.

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Singapore is a "very open" economy and must prepare for the worst from the coronavirus outbreak that's threatening global public health-care systems, financial markets and economies around the world, said the country's Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat. "The Singapore economy is very open and connected. We're a very major business and financial hub, closely integrated with the global economy so this is a serious crisis," Heng, who's also Singapore's finance minister, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" on Monday. "It is a crisis on three fronts: The public heath-care front, the financial front and the economic front. And these are interacting in unpredictable ways," he added.

Between a complete lockdown and a complete free play as if nothing has happened, we've been calibrating between these two extremes very carefully. Heng Swee Keat Singapore's deputy prime minister

The Southeast Asian country was one of the earliest outside China to report cases of the disease, which has been named COVID-19. Last week, it became one of the first globally to release data on first-quarter economic performance, providing a glimpse of how the virus  which has spread to over 200 countries and territories  could hit the global economy.

GDP contraction, economic downgrade

Singapore's gross domestic product contracted by 2.2% year-over-year and 10.6% quarter-over-quarter in the first three months of 2020, according to official preliminary estimates. The year-over-year contraction was the deepest the country has recorded since the first quarter of 2009 during the global financial crisis. Heng said in a speech last week that Singapore will likely experience its "worst economic contraction since independence" after official GDP forecasts for this year was downgraded from an annual change of between -0.5% and 1.5% to between -4.0% and -1.0%.

On Monday, the country's central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, eased policy by setting its Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate to a 0% annual appreciation path. The country manages its monetary policy through its exchange rate and the policy band measures the Singapore dollar against a basket of currencies of its major trading partners. The action by the central bank "is an absolutely correct one," said Heng. But he added that "the firepower" for managing the economic fallout from the coronavirus "has to be fiscal policy." The Singapore government has set aside around 55 billion Singapore dollars ($38.5 billion)  accounting for around 11% of its GDP  in two stimulus packages to soften the economic blow from the coronavirus outbreak.

No complete lockdown

Singapore has reported 844 cases of COVID-19, including three deaths, according to the health ministry. The country's response to the coronavirus spread involves quickly isolating confirmed and possible cases, as well as tracing people they've come in close contact with  efforts that have won praise from experts around the world, including those from the World Health Organization.

If we are socially responsible, many of these activities can still continue. Heng Swee Keat Singapore's deputy prime minister
The arguments are strong for increasing the levels of compassionate release for local jail inmates awaiting trial for non-violent offenses. The dangers posed by the current coronavirus pandemic are too high, and incarcerated people are particularly at risk because of their inability to distance themselves from others who might be infected. But authorities must draw the line when it comes to inmates accused of violent offenses.

As the Post-Dispatchs Jeremy Kohler and Joel Currier reported Saturday, some potentially dangerous accused felons have been included in recent inmate releases. Those release orders need to be reversed immediately. At a time when St. Louis-area residents already feel under threat and helpless against an invisible foe, the last thing they need is the introduction of more danger onto the streets.
In response to recent health events with the COVID-19 outbreak, Womens Excellence in Obstetrics and Gynecology has modified and enhanced office protocols to help avoid the spread of disease to patients and the community. These protocols include new cleaning and maintenance procedures, limiting guests within the offices, staff and patient education resources, and virtual care visits.

Cleaning procedures

In addition to standard daily and weekly cleaning functions within the offices, Womens Excellence has initiated extensive daily cleaning protocols to help avoid the spread of germs. Womens Excellence has also designated a specialty cleaning and maintenance crew for deep-cleaning tasks. This means more detailed and frequent cleaning of heavy trafficked areas, entrances, customer service areas, bathrooms, waiting rooms, and employee break rooms.

Guest limitation

In conjunction with recommendations from the CDC, Womens Excellence has implemented restrictions on visitors within the offices for the next 30 days. To avoid the spread of COVID-19, visitors will not be allowed into our offices.

We understand the importance of support from loved ones during womens health and obstetrics visits, said Dr. Jonathan Zaidan, MD, FACOG, President of Womens Excellence. This temporary adjustment to our visitor protocol will help keep our patients and staff safe from the spread of infection.

Virtual Care Visits

As part of their dedication to healthcare, Womans Excellence now offers Specialty Virtual Care visits for womens health which will keep patients safe and give them the care they need all at the same time.

In order to schedule a Specialty Virtual Care (telemedicine) appointment, patients will need access to a computer or mobile device with video and microphone capabilities. Although many visits can be done solely through Specialty Virtual Care, some visits will require in office visits for blood draws and imaging with options for patient convenience.

Staff Education

As this situation unfolds, Womens Excellence will continue to update staff and the community on new health and safety protocols and any updates with patient visits.

Our goal is to come together as a team and a community, and support each other, said Zaidan. There are many resources to keep the public informed on new details and we will make it a priority to share this information with our community. As the new coronavirus, COVID-19, continues to evolve, Beaumont Health of Michigan has launched a local Coronavirus Hotline (248-551-7000) on ways to avoid spreading the disease and the current standing of coronavirus in our community.

For more information on services available at Womens Excellence, listen to the Healthy Woman Show podcast. Womens Excellence is a proud partner of Detroits WJR 760AM radio Dr. Jonathan Zaidan of Womens Excellence each month. The podcast is located at https://www.womensexcellence.com/about/podcast/. New podcast episodes are available the 4th week of each month.

To schedule an appointment, visit http://www.WomensExcellence.com. Online Patient Support Specialists are available Monday through Friday from 8am-5pm to assist new, current, and prospective patients. The chat is located at the bottom right corner of your computer or mobile device screen at http://www.WomensExcellence.com. During offline hours, all chats sent will be messaged directly to a Womens Excellence team member. Offline messages will receive a response within 24 hours. Messages received during the weekend will be answered the next business week. Appointments can also be made at (248) 693-0543.

Womens Excellence is the most comprehensive obstetric and gynecologic office in Michigan. Additionally, they specialize in menopause, weight control, bladder control, endometriosis, robotic surgery, oncology, and midwifery services. Womens Excellence is committed to staying at the forefront of innovation with cutting edge technologies utilizing robotic surgery and minimally invasive surgical options when possible. The knowledgeable, compassionate physicians and healthcare providers of Womens Excellence focus on patient-centered processes to deliver the highest quality of care. They are affiliated with most insurances. They offer seamless medical record access via a state-of-the-art patient portal and use the latest technology for record keeping and sharing, making the patient experience easier and more efficient. Womens Excellence is taking new patients and is conveniently located throughout southeastern Michigan in Clarkston, Lake Orion, Lapeer, Rochester, Royal Oak, and West Bloomfield. For more information, visit http://www.WomensExcellence.com.
Outrage as health workers spray migrant workers with disinfectant, amid fears their exodus is spreading the virus.

Indian health workers have caused outrage by spraying a group of migrants with disinfectant, amid fears that a large-scale movement of people from cities to the countryside risked spreading the coronavirus.

Footage showed a group of migrant workers sitting on a street in Bareilly, a district in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, as health officials in protective suits used hosepipes to douse them in disinfectant, prompting anger on social media on Monday.

Nitish Kumar, the top government official in the district, said health workers had been ordered to disinfect buses being used by the local authorities but in their zeal had also turned their hoses on migrant workers.

I have asked for action to be taken against those responsible for this, he said in a tweet.

Who r u trying to kill, Corona or humans? Migrant labourers and their families were forced to take bath in chemical solution upon their entry in Bareilly. @Uppolice@bareillytraffic @Benarasiyaa @shaileshNBT pic.twitter.com/JVGSvGqONm  Kanwardeep singh (@KanwardeepsTOI) March 30, 2020

A number of opposition leaders, including former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers  Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav  attacked the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state for its cruel and inhuman treatment of the poor.

The workers have already suffered a lot. Please dont wash them with chemicals now. This will not protect them and instead endanger their health, tweeted Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

here is more truly worrying stuff on the bareilly story of migrant workers sprayed with disinfectant .Guess which chemical was used .Sodium Hypochlorite , in the words of chief fire officer. In simple language- bleach! Which as we all know can be very harmful ! Unbelieveable ! pic.twitter.com/Y6NZnhNXIK  Alok Pandey (@alok_pandey) March 30, 2020

Others on Twitter asked if the same treatment was given to hundreds of Indians evacuated from China and other coronavirus-hit countries by the government.

Would people who get off an international flight be forced to hold their ears, squat, frog-leap, or crawl as penalty? Would any cop dare to write 'Stay away from me' on their foreheads? Would they be sprayed with chemical disinfectant without polite explanation as to why?  AnnieZaidi (@anniezaidi) March 30, 2020

India imposed a nationwide lockdown  the worlds largest  on March 25, with thousands of labourers subsequently fleeing cities for their home villages after work  and public transport  vanished.

India, home to 1.3 billion people, has registered more than 1,200 cases of the new coronavirus, of whom 29 have died, officials said on Monday.

Many experts doubt the numbers and say that India is testing far too few people. Officials say the country is weeks away from a surge in cases that could overwhelm its weak public health system.

Turned away, locked up

Meanwhile, many workers left jobless by the crippling 21-day lockdown are being turned away by fellow villagers seeking to stem the outbreak, while others have been forced into a lockdown against their will.

Local media on Sunday reported 22 migrant workers deaths, including in road accidents, but this could not be officially confirmed.

The exodus has raised worries that those returning may spread coronavirus into rural areas, particularly with authorities resorting to cramming people onto buses and into relief camps and homeless shelters.

VIDEO- Migrant workers who have walked hundreds of kilometers to reach Bihar quarantined in this manner. Listen in. #SocialDistancing #Coronavirusindia pic.twitter.com/op2nYtheET  Zeba Warsi (@Zebaism) March 30, 2020

Footage posted on social media showed workers locked up in the eastern state of Bihar, weeping and begging to be freed, provoking outrage over the governments handling of the crisis.

In West Bengal states Purulia district, seven migrant workers seeking to return home were refused entry to their villages. Some were forced to take temporary shelter in trees.

Since the workers didnt have personal rooms at homes, the villagers decided that they should be isolated. But owing to fears of attacks by wild elephants they built temporary tree homes by attaching cots to branches, local official Dhrubapada Shandilya said by phone.

They were living in the trees for about five days when we came to know about it. We moved all of them to a health centre on the weekend, he added.

Villagers across India have reportedly erected barricades, dumped trees or dug trenches to stop outsiders from entering as groups of young people guarded entry points to their hamlets.

In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, some returning migrant workers were reported to police by local residents with the aim of having them undergo medical testing.

Four of my co-villagers working in Nepal returned home two days ago. But villagers informed police about them following which they swooped on the village with ambulances and handed them over to the medical team, Abhishek Singh, a resident of a village near Patna told Indias PTI news agency.





Clashes in Gujarat state

Late on Sunday, several hundred labourers clashed with police in Surat, in Prime Minister Narendra Modis home state of Gujarat, after they were prevented from leaving, authorities said.

Around 30 tear gas shells were fired to disperse the crowd that had damaged several police vehicles. Over 90 people have been arrested, said deputy police commissioner Vidhi Chaudhary.

State authorities also laid on buses to take people home, but also asked them to stay put, saying they would be provided with food and shelter.

But on Monday, thousands of men, women and children still thronged Gujarats roads.

The contractors who brought us here for work refused to help us, said Ramprasad Kevat who walked almost 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Ahmedabad and wanted to get back to Jhansi in Madhya Pradesh state.
A 4-year-old girl lost with her dog for more than 48 hours in rural Alabama woods shared the story of her ordeal in a video her family posted on Facebook.

Evelyn Vadie Sides, who vanished while walking her red hound dog, Lucy, was found about 3:20 p.m. Friday after almost two full days of searches.

We took a walk but then I got too fast and got running and got lost and then I started calling for nanny but nanny was too far, Vadie said in a video her family posted Saturday morning.

The child said she and Lucy once were separated but eventually reunited.

I slided, slided down a waterfall  I was brave not to go in, while the dog ran away, Vadie said.

I do not have enough words to express the proper gratitude to all of our community that came out to help us find this little angel. Jay Jones, Jimmy Taylor, and the rest of the Lee County Sheriff's Department, Lee County, Alabama Emergency Management Agency, Auburn PD, Opelika PD, Air Force National Guard, Macon County Sheriff's Department.... the list goes on and on. Thank you all so much. We have been overwhelmed by the unending unbelievable support we've gotten from this community. Also, the people who kept me alive, force fed me water and chicken broth, searched the woods endlessly, and basically lived at Nanny's house until she was found.. Amanda D. Odom Yeager, Doug Yeager, Jennifer K Johnson, Jessie Smith, Melanie Payne, Kyle Payne, Willie Terrell Payne, Nick Reardon, Erin Lance Hunter, Pamela Lee Sides, Kenneth Busby, Carole Corsby, Wes Burt, and Samantha Burt Copelan, I will probably never be able to thank you all enough. To all of the volunteers who came out in the middle of a global pandemic to traipse around in the woods, sometimes into the early morning hours, God Bless you all. Anyone I've forgotten just know that you are loved and we are incredibly grateful. We have been on an emotional roller coaster the last few days, and today I'm finally starting to breathe normally again. Vadie is still recovering in the hospital, but she is doing very well. She asked me to record her telling her story. It is what I would call the short version for sure, but below is the video of Vadie telling me what happened to her. I'm sure she will have more details in the future. Posted by Amanda Sides on Saturday, 28 March 2020

I found her because I was going the right direction, because I could smell, she added.

I slept by a road one, the first night, and  and the second night I slept where they found me.

The childs safe recovery was a balm to a community that has had more than its fair share of emotional blows over the past year or so.

Her story could have ended much differently, the way many others have in Lee County lately like the disappearance and death of Aniah Blanchard, the shootings of three Auburn police officers that left one dead and the others seriously injured, or the March 2019 tornadoes that left 23 residents dead.

This time, there was a happy ending.

We needed this badly, said Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones. This was really good, solid, positive news in a time when I think people need it the most, with all the medical concerns going on.

Several volunteers said this is such good news at a time when we need it Jones said, and I couldnt agree more.

When found by volunteer searchers, the 3-foot tall, 40-pound Loachapoka girl, was more than OK.

She was talkative and wanted to know why so many people were in the woods, the sheriff said with a laugh. One of the statements she gave was, I spent two nights in the woods.

Vadie was last seen in the 5000 block of Lee County Road 66 in Loachapoka, a town about a half mile west of Auburn. Authorities said she was under the supervision of her caretaker, who is in her 70s, and walking her dog when she and the dog essentially just disappeared. The caretaker also watches Vadies infant sister.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers from multiple agencies were on the scene Wednesday night searching for the little girl. The search efforts continued Thursday and Friday with the use of helicopters and drones, people on horseback, tracking dogs and divers for the creeks in the area. The search area was wooded, though not dense, and sparsely populated.

We were using experienced teams who are in the business of that kind of work  finding missing people, Jones said. We had dog teams from all over the state, aerial assets, horseback, K9 and dive teams.

On Friday, the sheriff said, they discovered possible indications of activity in an area north of the home where Vadie disappeared. He said thats when they transitioned from the precision searches, set up checkpoints along the road for about a two-mile stretch and put out the call for volunteers.

Apparently just waiting for that call, 400 volunteers showed up at a church that served as the staging site.

We deployed them along the roadway and set up a search pattern, a grid going straight ahead, Jones said. We deployed them about 2:35 p.m. and at approximately 3:20, in less than hour, one of the teams found her as they were in the designated search area. She was less than a mile from where she disappeared.

With a bark, Lucy heralded their presence to searchers. Vadie then popped up from her resting spot on the ground. She was just sitting, the sheriff said. The dog was with her. The dog barked and bolted.

Obviously frightened by the burst of activity, Lucy ran off but later returned home.

Vadie was in good spirits. She was responsive and answering questions, Jones said. She did not present as scared. She was animated, and talkative and chowing down the last time I saw her in the back of the ambulance.

Volunteers handed Vadie Gatorade, water, a banana and other snacks they had brought along with them. EMS checked her out at the scene. Her vitals were excellent, Jones said. She was a little bit dehydrated but not that much worse for the wear, frankly.

Vadia was taken by ambulance to East Alabama Medical Center where she remained Friday evening. I understand everything looks great considering her circumstances, Jones said. Tough little girl.

Im so happy and grateful to God for watching over my beautiful granddaughter and bringing her safely back to us, said her grandmother, Harriet Sides.

Because medical attention was the first priority, the sheriff said there are still a lot of unanswered questions about what Vadie did for the 49 hours she and Lucy were lost. It appears she was wandering around as the teams were looking for her, so she wasnt staying in anyone place for a long period of time, Jones said.

There sheriff said there is no way to name all involved in the search, but said it included state, federal, city, and first responders from multiple Alabama counties.

The area where she was found had been covered numerous times by search teams, but today we put out the call to citizens and thats when she was found.

I just cannot say enough about the people in this county and the surrounding areas that put their personal safety behind them and put this little girl in front of them, he said. Within an hour she was located and reunited with her mom and dad. Thats the best part.

Jones said they dont know what all Vadie and Lucy encountered in the woods, but animals  especially snakes  and creeks in the area were among the primary concerns. I think the dog had a lot to do with protecting her, he said. She was with her by her side the whole time apparently.

Jones said he and others were well aware of the odds they faced. Having been in this business for a long time, thats always in the back of your mind that things may not end well, he said. Obviously, the longer period of time that goes by, the more that creeps into your thoughts.

But we were bound and determined that we were not leaving the area until we found that little girl, he said. Theres no doubt in my mind that all the prayers these people were putting up were answered here this afternoon. Thats what it is, an answered prayer.
There were more than 6,000 assaults on staff in the Irish health service last year.

They include 46 sexual attacks against HSE workers.

These new figures have been released under the Freedom of Information Act.

They show that, in 2019, there were 6,057 reports of physical, sexual and verbal assaults against HSE staff.

61% of them related to nursing staff.

There were more than 4,600 physical attacks and 46 sexual ones.

The highest number were in the HSE region that includes Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan and Monaghan.

Sinn Fein's health spokesperson, Louise O'Reilly, says the level of assaults last year is a disgrace.

The figures are very shocking, she said.

They are high and they are entirely unacceptable.

Sinn Fein has now for a number of years been calling for dedicated security to be in our accident and emergency departments on a 24 hour, seven day a week basis, to ensure the health and safety of the staff working in our ED departments.

The total number of assaults is down marginally from 6,265 the year before.

The HSE says the safety of staff is a priority, and training in the management of violence and aggression is available in all services.
(Newser)  A popular indie bookstore chain in Portland, Ore., let go most of its staffmore than 300 employeesearlier this month because of the coronavirus outbreak. Now, per the Los Angeles Times, Powell's has hired back more than 100 of those workers, thanks to a surge in buying books online amid the pandemic. "Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for your incredible and unwavering support," company CEO Emily Powell said in a Friday statement, noting that the rehired employees have been reinstated full time with all of their benefits. "Your kind words, messages of encouragement, ideas for perseverance, and orders for books have taken our breath away."

story continues below

Powell, who conceded "we don't know what the future holds," noted that fulfilling customer orders may take a little longer than usual, "as we take all the necessary precautions to keep everyone healthy." The bookstore's five Portland locations will remain closed for the time being, "as we feel we cannot honor the social distancing guidelines presented by the CDC." Publishers Weekly noted that three well-known indie bookstores around the USPowell's, NYC's McNally Jackson, and Busboys and Poets in Washington, DChad all together laid off more than 600 employees as of mid-March. (Read more coronavirus stories.)
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Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) have experienced contrasting starts on the stock market in 2022, with the former heading higher despite the sell-off in tech stocks. AMD, meanwhile, has lost ground, as investors seem to be hitting the sell button on tech stocks trading at rich valuations thanks to a potential increase in interest rates by the Federal Reserve. On the other hand, the signs of a turnaround at Intel and its cheap valuation have probably made it an attractive bet for investors hunting for value plays.
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The global hospital gowns market size is expected to reach USD 3.87 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., progressing at a CAGR of 6.3% during the forecast period. Increasing number of surgeries, several initiatives pertaining to hospital gowns taken by major players, and rising incidence of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are among the key factors projected to drive the market.

Rising number of surgeries globally is also poised to provide an upthrust to the market during the forecast period. For instance, as per Molnlycke Health Care AB, 70 million surgical procedures are performed every year in Europe. The trend is creating a significant increase in the demand for hospital gowns as they are one of the essential requirements for surgical procedures. Furthermore, according to the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), in 2014, around 9,942,000 surgeries were performed in U.S. ambulatory setting. Patient gowns provide protection against hospital-acquired infections to some extent owing to which surgeons recommend these gowns.

Key players are also taking initiatives to modify and redesign hospital gowns with an aim to improve the comfort level of patients. For instance, Medstar made a collaboration with New York health wear company, Care+Wear, where students of New York's Parsons School of Design have designed innovative patient gowns. These gowns have been put to test run in hospitals by the company in order to get quality assurance and based on that the product will be launched officially. Hence, such initiatives are likely to propel the market.

Further key findings from the study suggest:

In terms of revenue, surgical gowns are anticipated to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Rising number of surgeries worldwide and increasing cases of hospital-acquired infections are contributing to the growth of the segment

By 2025, Asia Pacific is estimated to witness the fastest CAGR over the forecast period. Penetration of major players in untapped areas of this region is likely to stimulate the growth of the regional market

Some of the key companies present in the market are Medline Industries, Inc.; Standard Textile Co., Inc.; Angelica Corporation; AmeriPride Services Inc.; and Cardinal Health.

Request a Sample Copy of the Global Hospital Gowns Market Research Report @ www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/hospital-gowns-market/request/rs1

Grand View Research has segmented the global hospital gowns market on the basis of type, risk type, usability, and region.

Hospital Gowns Type Outlook (Revenue USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

Surgical Gowns

Non-Surgical Gowns

Patient Gowns

Hospital Gowns Risk Type Outlook (Revenue USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

Minimal

Low

Moderate

High

Hospital Gowns Usability Outlook (Revenue USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

Disposable Low Average Premium

Reusable Low Average Premium



Hospital Gowns Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

North America U.S. Canada

Europe U.K. Germany

Asia-Pacific Japan China

Latin America Brazil Mexico

MEA Saudi Arabia



Access full research report on global hospital gowns market:

www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/hospital-gowns-market
THE state-owned Tanzania Shipping Agencies Corporation (TASAC) has expressed its satisfaction over the ongoing rehabilitation and expansion of two ports in the South of Lake Tanganyika.

The two ports are Kabwe in Nkasi and Kasanga in Kalambo Districts in Rukwa region, whose mega renovation and expansion is set to cost about 11bn/-.

Upon completion the ports which are manned by Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) will save as social and economic gateways to the regions of Katavi and Rukwa which are South of Lake Tanganyika.

The Registration and Marine Inspection Manager at TASAC Mr Alfred Waryama urged owners of marine vessels to equip their vessels with enough protection gear including life-saving jackets.

Speaking with the Daily News on the shoreline of Lake Tanganyika at Kirando village, Mr Waryama also advised the marine vessels owners to renew their licences each year.

The big challenge here is that motor cargos and passenger boats plying on Lake Tanganyika as well fishing canoes have not yet either registered or renewed their licences.

All the vessels are either lacking protection gears or they are not enough hence risking the lives of passengers, he added.

He further explained that during their two days working tour led by TASAC Director General, Mr Emanuel Ndomba, they visited and inspected Kasanga and Kipili Ports as well as fish stock structure at Kirando Ward along the shoreline of Lake Tanganyika.
KYIV -- Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has approved in its first reading a banking bill that will help open up billions of dollars worth of aid to Kyiv from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).



The bill, approved at an extraordinary session of parliament on March 30, prevents the former owners of banks that were nationalized or liquidated in recent years during a widespread financial-sector clean-up from regaining ownership rights or receiving monetary compensation.



Though the legislation also has other implications for Ukraine's banks, analysts say its main purpose is to prevent one of Ukraine's most-powerful tycoons, Ihor Kolomoyskiy, the former co-owner of PrivatBank, from regaining ownership rights to the bank.



Later in the session, lawmakers also approved legislation lifting a ban on the sale of farmland, which is expected to unlock enormous investment potential in what is already one of the world's top grain exporters.



The land market should be opened by July 1, 2021, based on the bill's provisions.



The IMF is said to have insisted upon approval of the banking law -- and also pushed for the farmland sale ban to be lifted -- amid signs the government was considering returning PrivatBank, which is in the midst of a major legal and political fight involving Kolomoyskiy.



The bank was nationalized in 2016 when international auditors found a $5.5 billion hole in its balance sheet; Kolomoyskiy, who has close ties to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has insisted that the bank was improperly nationalized by Ukrainian regulators.



Kolomoyskiy has denied any wrongdoing and maintains he is the rightful owner of PrivatBank.



Ukraine has been in talks with the IMF for months about a three-year, $5.5 billion loan tied to reforms to help the country meet a spike in debt repayments this year.



In addition to the banking bill, lawmakers at the March 30 session approved Serhiy Marchenko, who was previously a deputy finance minister and deputy head of the presidential office of former leader Petro Poroshenko, as finance minister, replacing Ihor Umanskiy, who had been in office for less than a month before he was fired earlier in the day.



Parliament also voted to approve former Odesa Governor Maksym Stepanov as the new health minister to replace Illya Yemets, who like Umanskiy was only weeks into his job before being fired on March 30.



Umanskiy and Yemets became ministers on March 4 when parliament approved Zelenskiy's cabinet shuffle.



No reason was given for their dismissal.



The Verkhovna Rada also failed to approve the first reading of a revised 2020 state budget that takes into account the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.



The government said in a statement on March 30 that the virus would have a devastating impact on the economy in a revision of gross domestic product for this year to a contraction of 3.9 percent from a previous forecast of 3.7 percent growth.



Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at the session when introducing the revised budget that a special fund to tackle the pandemic had been established.



"The fund will total more than 97 billion hryvnyas ($4 billion) and will be a transparent tool that will be used to support the purchase of equipment for medical personnel, pharmaceuticals, and personal-protection items," Shmyhal said.



The draft budget will now return to a parliamentary committee for revision.



As of 10 p.m. local time on March 30, the number of confirmed infections in Ukraine was officially reported at 548, with 13 deaths.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott enacted an executive order Sunday to prevent the release of certain inmates from jails.

The order, which suspends portions of state law, bars personal bonds for anyone convicted or arrested on charges involving violence or the threat of violence. Abbott also outlawed commuting the sentences of inmates convicted of such crimes for good conduct, or releasing them on electronic monitoring.

Stay up to date on the latest coronavirus news with mySA.com:

Judges can still consider individual releases for health or medical reasons.

"Releasing dangerous criminals from jails into the streets makes the state even less safe and complicates and slows our ability to respond to the disaster caused by COVID-19," Abbott said during a news conference Sunday.

The Bexar County Sheriff's Office reported Sunday that an employee of the video visitation center with the Bexar County Adult Detention Center has tested positive for coronavirus,

Jail officials said on March 20 that more than 200 prisoners were released or transferred out of the facility in an effort to reduce the jail population to help prevent an outbreak of the virus.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio mayor threatens park closures as governor ups coronavirus restrictions on travelers

Harris County announced Sunday the first confirmed COVID-19 case in its jail. About 30 inmates are experiencing symptoms associated with the virus, according to officials.

During the news conference, Abbott also announced an executive order that increases restrictions on people entering Texas.

The Texas Department of Public Safety will stop road travelers from Louisiana at or near entry points and order them to self-quarantine. The order does not include travel for commercial, military, emergency response, health response or critical infrastructure purposes.

Air travelers from the following areas must self-quarantine: Miami, Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, California, Washington state, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and New Orleans.

In San Antonio, Mayor Ron Nirenberg warned Sunday he would close the citys parks if people did not stop gathering in them

"We have observed congregating in our public parks this weekend, Nirenberg said. Thats not good. Its not allowed. You should get out and get fresh air, but congregating in parks or anywhere else is not permitted. If you do not implement social distancing, we will be forced to dictate stricter measures, such as closing our parks."

Nirenberg also confirmed that a pop-up treatment center at Freeman Coliseum is in the works.

Hopefully, we will not need it, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said.

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:
The Metropolitan Correctional Center, which is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, stands in lower Manhattan in New York City on Nov. 19, 2019. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

First Federal Prison Inmate Dies From CCP Virus

A 47-year-old inmate in Louisiana has become the first to die from COVID-19 in a federal prison, officials announced over the weekend.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons reported that 19 inmates and 19 staff have currently tested positive across the federal prison system, with five of those inmates at the low-security Louisiana prison where the inmate died on Saturday.

Inmate Patrick Jones had a preexisting condition listed as a risk factor. He complained of a cough on March 19 to staff at the federal correction institution in Oakdale, Louisiana, where he was three years into a 27-year sentence.

On March 20 he was put on a ventilator after testing positive.

According to an FBO statement (pdf), On Saturday, March 28, 2020, Mr. Jones, who had long-term, preexisting medical conditions which the CDC lists as risk factors for developing more severe COVID-19 disease, was pronounced dead by hospital staff.

Oakdale prison is a low-security facility that houses 990 male offenders.

Some state prisons have already temporarily released prisoners serving time for less serious crimes, as they brace for the growing number of cases of CCP virus, commonly referred to as the novel coronavirus.

The Epoch Times refers to the virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the regimes coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and fan a global pandemic.

Last week, New Jersey authorities announced that hundreds of inmates would be released temporarily, as cases rose in neighboring New York where former movie producer Harvey Weinstein had tested positive after spending time at the notorious Rikers Island jail.

According to Reuters, at least 132 inmates and 104 staff at jails across New York City on Saturday had tested positive for the virus.

Last week, authorities announced they would be releasing 300 nonviolent inmates.

In California, another hotspot for the virus, Los Angeles County has released 1,700 inmates, or about one out of every 10 inmates, in response to the CCP virus.

All of the inmates had fewer than 30 days left on their sentences and were in jail because of nonviolent misdemeanors.

The majority of Americas prison population of over 2 million is housed in state prisons. There are currently just over 175,000 inmates held in federal prisons.

Attorney General William Barr said on Thursday that he had directed the Bureau of Prisons to assess whether it was possible to expand home confinement particularly for those older prisoners who have served substantial parts of their sentence and no longer pose a threat and may have underlying conditions that make them particularly vulnerable.

We have authorities under the First Step Act and under other general authorities  will permit us to release to home confinement for certain designated circumstances, Barr said during an unrelated press conference. And Ive asked and issued a memorandum just today to the Bureau of Prisons to increase the use of home confinement based on a number of factors.
Hollywood veteran actor Rita Wilson shared a celebratory update through her Instagram account earlier on Monday after she returned home from Australia where she had been diagnosed positive for Coronavirus along with her husband actor Tom Hanks. The Sleepless In Seattle actor shared her old memories of the date, March 29, and revealed that she felt blessed this year for having recovered from the COVID-19 infection for which she was quarantined for more than two weeks in Australia.

Read | Tom Hanks & wife Rita Wilson return to LA after more than 2 weeks quarantine in Australia

Wilson shared a series of throwback pictures and captioned her post, "This date, March 29, represents a time of great happiness. I was on Broadway starring with Larry David in his play Fish In The Dark before finding out I had been diagnosed with breast cancer. March 29 also marks five years of being cancer free after having had a bilateral mastectomy. I am so thankful for my health, for the doctors, nurses, friends and family who got me through that time. You, online friends, also need to be thanked because your prayers and optimism were felt deeply. And, so thankful for the blessings God has bestowed on me, then and now."

Read | Coronavirus: Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson taking diagnoses one day at a time

Read | Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson tested positive for coronavirus; actor shares an Insta post

Have a look:

Read | We are home now: Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson share health update after COVID-19 diagnosis

Tom Hanks shares health update as he returns home

According to reports, Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson have returned to their Los Angeles home after spending two weeks in Australia. The couple was diagnosed earlier this month with coronavirus and were hospitalised. After spending some time in the hospital, the couple were moved to a safe house in Australia. Here, they were seen spending some quiet time in self-isolation.
Harsh measures, including stay-at-home orders and restaurant closures, are contributing to rapid drops in the numbers of fevers  a signal symptom of most coronavirus infections  recorded in states across the country, according to intriguing new data produced by a medical technology firm.

At least 248 million Americans in at least 29 states have been told to stay at home. It had seemed nearly impossible for public health officials to know how effective this measure and others have been in slowing the coronavirus.

But the new data offer evidence, in real time, that tight social-distancing restrictions may be working, potentially reducing hospital overcrowding and lowering death rates, experts said.

The company, Kinsa Health, which produces internet-connected thermometers, first created a national map of fever levels on March 22 and was able to spot the trend within a day. Since then, data from the health departments of New York State and Washington State have buttressed the finding, making it clear that social distancing is saving lives.
LONDON, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Online learning platform, Preply, today announces an additional USD $10 million of funding, doubling the total raised in its' previous rounds. The funding will be invested to grow the Preply network of 10,000 verified tutors teaching 50 languages to tens of thousands of students in 190 countries worldwide. The round was led by London-based Hoxton Ventures, with participation from European investors Point Nine Capital, All Iron Ventures, The Family, EduCapital, and Diligent Capital. A number of individual angel investors also participated including Arthur Kosten of Booking.com; Gary Swart, former CEO of Upwork; David Helgason, Founder of Unity technologies; and Daniel Hoffer, Founder of Couchsurfing.

As life goes virtual for people all over the world, teachers and students globally have flocked to online language learning. The company witnessed a record number of daily hours booked on the platform this week. The number of tutors registering on Preply has rocketed in regions such as the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Over the past seven days, some countries have seen the number of tutor registrations triple, compared to the same period in February, and the number of hours students are booking on the platform has doubled in many parts of the globe.

Preply was founded in 2013 by the Ukrainian-based team of Kirill Bigai (CEO), Serge Lukyanov (Head of Design) and Dmytro Voloshyn (CTO). The company now employs 125 staff of 25 nationalities in Kyiv and Barcelona with revenues having grown tenfold in the last three years. Preply's pioneering innovation was to use machine-learning to increase the efficiency of pairing tutors with learners, wherever they are in the world, making smarter connections and cracking the code of effective language learning.

To date, two million classes have been taken with teachers of 160 nationalities. The vast majority of learners are using Preply for professional purposes such as moving abroad or to advance their careers. Others are using it recreationally - helping their child learn a new language, for example, or indulging a passion to master a new skill. Through Preply, the unparalleled global supply of tutors means that if you're in Berlin, for example, and want to learn Japanese, you can easily find a language expert at a time and price point that's convenient for you. This solves the 'rush hour challenge' that occurs with live teaching; most learners prefer taking classes before or after work which means that there are limited number of slots or tutors available.

The average price of a lesson on Preply is $15 to $20 per hour. For tutors, Preply has provided a uniquely flexible and secure way to generate income while no longer being limited by locale. With no need to host students at home, or waste time travelling, tutors can operate at maximum efficiency from anywhere in the world.

As education moves increasingly online, many of our tutors report having honed a new suite of skills, including relying less on body language and adjusting fully to making a human connection online, rather than in-person. From a payment perspective, one definitive advantage of the platform for tutors is that they are always paid straight after the lesson, never having to waste time chasing payment or risk not being paid at all. Students enter their bank account details when they register and tutors can take money out of their Preply account at any time. All earnings are broken down in a comprehensive personal performance dashboard so tutors can analyse their business in a meaningful way.

Using the new funding, the company plans to scale the marketplace, mainly in North America, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK. There are plans to roll out an array of new tools, assessments and homework. Using Preply's wealth of data-learnings, tutors will be able to smart-track progress and help learners achieve their goals most quickly and comprehensively. Preply wants to engage and enable tutors to develop alongside the platform, giving them the opportunity to explore training and lessons plans so they can streamline their income and maximize their classes. The new funding will also give Preply the opportunity to develop its mobile offering, streamlining the Android and iOS app to make it more efficient and user-friendly. In addition, the company aims to deepen roots in the U.S. and open an American office by the end of the year. Preply's European genesis and global tutor supply plays a significant role in its ability to compete in this strategic region.

Kirill Bigai, CEO of Preply, comments on the company's ambitions, "The new funding allows us to bring a more in-depth, immersive and convenient experience to both tutors and learners all over the world. Today, we are laser focused on language learning, but ultimately, I envision a future where anyone can learn anything using Preply."

Rob Kniaz of Hoxton Ventures, comments "Getting to know Kirill and the team at Preply we were most impressed with their tremendous growth already in the US market as well as the size of the global market in online language tutoring. We believe the team has vast opportunity ahead of it, especially in the English-learning segment of the market where Preply already demonstrates market leadership."

All images and logos can be found here.

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1138656/Preply_Founders.jpg

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1138657/preply_Logo.jpg
As Americans are experiencing discouragement and uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Michael Youssef and Leading The Way are encouraging Christians across America to join them for Awake America, a spiritual awakening to gather believers and their prayers for our nation.

Each day Americans are inundated with sorrowful news surrounding the coronavirus, detailing the health and economic consequences that the pandemic is having on our nation and the world. As the pandemic spreads, Americans are confronting the challenge of not being able to gather and worship face-to-face. Dr. Michael Youssef, the founder and president of Leading The Way, is calling on believers not to be defeated.

"Throughout our history, it has often been in the darkest times that God brought unprecedented revival," explains Youssef. "However, the means God uses for bringing about revival are almost always the same: commitment to prayer and uncompromising preaching of the gospel."

Youssef added, "For this reason, I am launching a prayer movement called Awake America, and I want to challenge you to pray for God to bring a spiritual awakening to our nation, starting with your community. Revival starts with you and me, so I hope you will join me."

People can participate in the Awake America prayer movement by doing the following:

Download and print the card and prayer guide by signing up at AwakeAmerica2020.com. Prayer-walk your neighborhood or pray from home. Take a photo with your card in the place you prayed. Post on social media with the hashtag #AwakeAmerica2020 to spread the word and invite other people to join.

Dr. Youssef explains, "I am so thankful for God's timing and direction, which led to the formation of this prayer movement before the COVID-19 crisis even hit. I believe this is a God-given directive that has now become timelier than ever."

ABOUT LEADING THE WAY & DR. MICHAEL YOUSSEF

Celebrating 31 years of ministry, Leading The Way is the media outreach of Dr. Michael Youssef. Leading The Way's television and radio programs are broadcast in 26 languages to audiences across six continents through dual-language programs, Leading The Way's satellite television channel THE KINGDOM SAT, and solar-powered Leading The Way Navigators. Leading The Way also produces DVDs, CDs, books, a monthly devotional magazine, and daily e-devotionals to reach the lost and encourage believers in their faith. The ministry utilizes field ministry teams to evangelize seekers and disciple new believers. Dr. Youssef's unique perspective has given him a platform to speak boldly into today's issues and provide biblical solutions to the challenges Christians are facing today.

Dr. Youssef was born in Egypt, but in 1984, he fulfilled a childhood dream of becoming an American citizen. He is the founding and senior pastor of Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, Georgia. He holds degrees from Moore College in Sydney, Australia and Fuller Theological Seminary in California, with a Ph.D. in social anthropology from Emory University. He is the author of 40 books. His latest book, Saving Christianity?: The Danger in Undermining Our Faith - and What You Can Do about It is available in bookstores everywhere.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leadingtheway.org

Twitter: @leadingtheway

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/leadingtheway

Tags : Awake America Prayer Movement michael youssef Michael Youssef & Leading The Way Leading The Way
Niu Qinghua had a good harvest this year, but the apple farmer in Mengyin county, Shandong province was worried about selling during the outbreak of COVID-19.

"In previous years, apples would be bought away by fruit traders," she said. "Due to the epidemic, traffic is blocked and most people stay at home, which caused more than 5,000 tons of apples overstocked in the warehouse."

After learning about the difficulties of the fruit farmers, local officials adopted a new method to help them sell agricultural productsthrough online livestreaming.

Li Yuguo is one of officials helping farmers sell agriculture products via livestreaming. Starting in March, he and other county officials began getting in front of webcams to introduce apples to people online.

Li Yuguo (R) and Niu Qinghua (L) sell apples of Mengyin county via livestreaming on March 3, 2020. [Photo courtesy of Niu Qinghua]

"Look at the apple, it is full of juice. The taste is crisp, sweet, and you can smell its fragrance," Li said during his livestream to online views. In two hours, the channel received 31,000 likes and 46,000 views, and more than 1,200 orders were placed online.

Li himself is an experienced online salesman, having hosted more than a dozen livestreams in the past few years selling peaches, apples, and chestnuts. In recent years, he has witnessed many changes in Mengyin county led by the development of e-commerce, which has not only changed people's way of income, but also promoted new ideas for local farmers.

"Officials turn into livestream salesmen, which can help local farmers change their ideas," Li said. "On the other hand, we can also promote Mengyin county to the public, not only introducing agricultural products, but also introducing tourism, history and culture of Mengyin county."

Li hosted his channel on Kuaishou, a popular short-video social media platform with more than 300 million daily active users. The platform has pledged to help farmers resume their work and production, and organized 100 county officials to help farmers sell agriculture products via livestreaming.

Yi Xuan, regional cooperation senior director of Kuaishou, said the platform worked actively with agricultural enterprises during the epidemic. With the help of big data, the enterprises can transfer their sales online. Meanwhile, Kuaishou gave livestreaming farmers a greater amount of network traffic than normal to help more users see their channels easily. It also reduced service fees for orders completed through the platform on those channels.

A growing number of county officials in China, many from poverty-stricken regions, have shaken off their initial hesitance with livestreaming and begun helping farmers to up their income. Cao Wenfei, deputy county chief of Leye county in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, is one of officials who also joined in on the trend and turned into a livestreaming salesman.

Cao Wenfei (L) sells oranges of Leye county via livestreaming. [Photo courtesy of Cao Wenfei]

This year, Leye county suffered poor sales of its oranges due to the impact of the epidemic. Cao walked into a livestreaming studio and began selling oranges on March 4. "I prepared a few songs to sing during the livestreaming in order to ease the embarrassment," he said.

Cao first took on the task in January before the outbreak. He said he was able to sell double the amount of oranges on March 4 as the previous time, and he sold almost 1 million pounds in total. He has also tried learning from internet celebrities and how to chat with online viewers.

The county official said he has been rethinking his livestreaming experience since the first time when he nervously took up the job. "Livestreaming is an important channel for prefectural e-commerce development," Cao said. "Officials should understand the channel."

According to Cao, Leye is still a national poverty-stricken county and the thinking of farmers is still relatively backward. Livestreaming can bridge the huge distances and gaps between rural and urban areas.

"Our county will further promote the e-commerce platform and train local livestreaming talents," he said. "With the help of the livestreaming platform, farmers can sell local agricultural products, which could help them increase income and get out of poverty."
This story was originally published by HuffPost and has been republished here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Two weeks ago, as the coronavirus was spreading across the U.S., Shanna Yazzie loaded the bed of her gray Toyota Tacoma pickup truck with as many empty 5-gallon containers as she had in her house and drove 25 miles on unpaved desert roads looking for a place to fill them with water.

This is a routine for Yazzie, 38, one of the 2 million Americans who live without access to running water. She lives in Cameron, Arizona, a town of fewer than 900 on the edge of the Navajo Nation, where one-third of the reservations 350,000 residents lack running water and sanitation.

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Native Americans are 19 times more likely to lack indoor plumbing than white Americans, according to a report published in November by the human rights group DigDeep, where Yazzie works, and the nonprofit U.S. Water Alliance.

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Keeping water stocked in the home she shares with her 10-year-old son, 17-year-old daughter, and 79-year-old mother is a chore on a good day. But as confirmed cases of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, surged from two to 39 on the reservation this week, the Navajo phrase to ei iina (water is life) took on a warped new meaning. Yazzie has struggled to tamp down a nauseating sense of dread.

The anxiety is sickening, she said by phone Tuesday. Your mind keeps racing with what-ifs. You cant eat. You lose your appetite. Youre shaking. Youre sleepless. Your mind, it just constantly races with negative thoughts. Thoughts like, Were gonna die. 

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Its not the safest, but its the only water resource around here for us.  Shanna Yazzie

The water source she usually depends on for bathing and washing handsa habit public health officials cite as a minimum requirement to protect yourself from the virusis a windmill pump three miles from her home. She drives over and fills a large tank secured to a trailer. Lately, she and her family have been using the water faster than usual as they wash their hands compulsively. They conserve by showering on a staggered schedule.

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For us, its every two to three days, she said. My daughter took a shower yesterday. My son will take a shower today. I will take a shower tomorrow. Then we start all over again.

Before the pandemic, her mother would shower daily at the nearby senior center. At home, as an elder, she does as she pleases, Yazzie said, which usually means she showers every two days.

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Testing conducted by the National Institutes of Health has found that the familys water supply, located close to an open uranium pit, is loaded with radioactive particles and toxic metals such as arsenic. A quarter of Navajo women and infants screened as part of the first phase of a University of New Mexico study exhibited uranium concentrations exceeding the levels found in the highest 5 percent of the U.S. population, officials announced last year.

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Its not the safest, but its the only water resource around here for us, Yazzie said. Thats what we wash our hands and bodies and dishes with, and give to our dog and our plants.

But they cant drink that water. Sometimes, Yazzie drives off the reservation to one of the big-box retailers along the highway to stock up on bottled water. But, fearful of the crowds and wary of potential price gouging, two weeks ago Yazzie instead donned a pair of gloves and a mask and headed to Tuba City, the Navajo Nations largest community, where much of her extended family lives.

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Normally Yazzie would fill her bottles at the spigot outside her aunts house, meaning it would only cost her about an eighth of a tank of gas and a thank you. But, knowing the virus posed the highest risk to elders and wanting to adhere to distancing with her aunt, she instead headed to her sisters house.

Her niece directed her to use the sink. But the 5-gallon containers wouldnt fit under the faucet. She topped off as many 1-gallon jugs as she had, loaded them into her truck, and headed a mile down the road to her aunts house anyway.

There, she grabbed the hose and filled all her jugs. She recoiled the hose, shouted a thank you to her relatives, hauled the containers into her pickup, and set off. She drove slowly, careful not to hit a pothole in the unpaved road and knock over the bottles in the trucks bed.

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Yazzie is grateful that shes able-bodied and doesnt mind the taxing hauls. Her 2018 pickup is in good shape, making the job of collecting water exponentially easier. At DigDeep, which advocates for water access, she helps set up water systems in homes in remote parts of the reservation, such as Navajo Mountain, where some live up to 40 miles from the closest windmill pump.

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She suspects that the pandemic may raise awareness of social inequities across the country yet do little to increase water access on reservations, a long-standing problem that stems back to lack of funding and conflicts over state and tribal jurisdictions.

[This] seems like a big task and an annoying task, and it can be, she said. But if youre young and you have kids willing to help you, its not so bad.

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Back home, she carried the bottles out of the truck and lined them up in the hallway of her home. She marked the bottles with a blue note to indicate these were for drinking. By Tuesday, she was already down to 25 gallons. She expected the supply to last her about another week.

Until then, shes staying put. But when the water runs out, she says shell go gathering at night, when the windmill is deserted and her relatives are in for the evening.

The interactions with my family members, thats hard because we come from a society where we naturally greet each other all the time, talk and hug each other, she said. My fear is that my aunt or uncle are going to come out and want to talk to me. Say, Sit down and come eat with us. Thats something we do all the time. Its going to be hard to stay away.
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Here are some stocks that are in the news today:

Sun Pharma: Company's Halol facility classified as official action indicates. Halol plant was inspected from Dec 3-13 and issued 8 observations.

Grasim Industries board meeting on April 1 to consider NCD worth Rs 1000 crore

IDBI Bank withdraw issue of Basel III Compliant Tier 2 Bonds for aggregate total issue size of Rs 1 000 crore

Future Retail - S&P Global Inc revised rating of USD Denominated Notes to B- from BB-

Lupin and Mylan announce positive European Medicines Agency opinion recommending approval of Nepexto, Biosimilar Etanercept

Future Supply Chain - CARE Ratings revised rating of NCDs to A+; credit watch with negative implications

Graphit India - ICRA reaffirmed the long term rating for Rs 1,000 crore Line of Credit for working capital of the company at AA+; outlook revised from stable to negative

Future Enterprises - CARE ratings revised Long-term Bank Facilities - Term Loan rating to CARE A

Godawari Power - All the manufacturing and other operations of the companys subsidiary Ardent Steels, Odisha closed temporarily

SBI - IAG International Pty completed transfer of entire shareholding in SBI General to Napean Opportunities LLP and Honey Wheat Investment

SBI reduces repo linked lending rate to 6.65% from 7.40% w.e.f April 1 - CNBC-TV18

HIL - ICRA reaffirmed AA+- to the Long Term / Short Term facilities of Rs 225 crore and A1+ t othe commercial paper of Rs 75 crore

Manappuram Finance - Fitch placed BB- as Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR), with Rating Watch Negative

IIFL Finance - Fitch Ratings has revised the Long-Term Issuer Default Rating to B+ from BB- assigned to India Infoline Finance

IndusInd Bank - CRISIL reaffirmed the Credit Ratings on the Fixed Deposits / Certificates of Deposits / Debt Instruments of the bank

Motherson Sumi Systems - Moodys Investors Service has assigned Ba1 corporate family rating

Muthoot Finance - Fitch Ratings as revised company's Long-Term Issuer Default Rating from BB+ Rating Outlook Stable to BB Rating Watch Negative

SC allows sale of 10% of BS-IV unsold inventory for 10 days post lockdown- Ex-Delhi/NCR - CNBC-TV18

Syndicate Bank branches to operate as Canara Bank branches from April 1.

Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank branches to operate as Union Bank branches from April 1.

Allahabad Bank branches to operate as Indian Bank branches from April 1.

OBC and United Bank of India branches to operate PNB branches from April 1.

Abbott India: Receives approval for the test that can detect coronavirus in 5 minutes. The company will begin making said tests available to healthcare providers next week.

SpiceJet, InterGlobe Aviation: Aviation Ministry allows the use of passenger aircraft for cargo movement. IndiGo and GoAir have expressed interest in cargo movement.

HeidelbergCement India: India Ratings reaffirmed long-term issuer rating as AA+/stable.

Sobha: All the offices and manufacturing units will remain closed until April 14 due to COVID-19.

Vishal Fabrics: Brickwork India revised rating on long term bank loans to A-/Stable from BBB+/Stable.

Avenue Supermarts: Company redeemed secured NCDs of Rs 100 crore, prior to redemption of September 2021.

Tata Power: JV Shuakhevi Hydro Power Project in Georgia commenced commercial production.

GHCL: Commercial paper of Rs 25 crore redeemed after making payment on the due date.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 12:52:55|Editor: huaxia

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by Xinhua writer Yu Jiaxin

LONDON, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Collective global efforts and a "genuine focus" on international cooperation are essential to winning the battle against COVID-19 as the pandemic continues to escalate in parts of the world, a Cambridge University expert has said.

The resolve of the Group of 20 (G20) to agree to such a collective approach would make the prospect of the fastest possible recovery from a world crisis more likely, Professor Alan Barrell told Xinhua via email.

Leaders of the G20 convened an extraordinary summit to coordinate a multilateral response to the pandemic on Thursday, during which China called for an all-out global war against COVID-19.

Barrell said he was impressed by China's proposal that the G20 nations take a strong lead, initially through the G20 health ministers' meeting, to consider global public health information exchange and planning.

"It would be a good start to a different approach to health issues and a genuine focus on global public health standard agreement and ongoing cooperation," he said.

Barrell opposed the view that globalization is to blame for the rapid spread of the pandemic.

"Blaming globalization is wrong," he said, stressing that globalization has brought great benefits to many people and is a major factor in global economic development, and is especially helpful to emerging nations.

Now COVID-19 has infected more than half a million people worldwide and dealt a severe blow to the world economy, collaboration, open information exchange and collective action are the only way to optimize recovery, Barrell said.

"The world economy is already damaged and (its) repair will require openness and a spirit of global planning and enterprise to make recovery fastest possible," he said.

Barrell applauded China's role in fighting against the pandemic, which reflects the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind.

China, with its continued emphasis through government policy on international collaboration for the common good, has already been demonstrating a leadership position, he said.

"As the proverb writer told us, 'Vision without Action is a daydream, but Action without Vision is a nightmare," he said, noting that a great vision like a community with a shared future for mankind can only be turned into tangible reality with determined implementation and serious global efforts.

"Hopefully the shock of the pandemic will encourage the action to be forthcoming," Barrell said.
After the federal government extended its social distancing guidelines through April, Gov. Charlie Baker is considering extending his executive order that shut down the storefronts of non-essential businesses across Massachusetts.

President Donald Trump, who had previously said he wanted to see the country return to normal operations by Easter, announced on Sunday he was extending the federal COVID-19 guidelines to April 30. The guidelines urge Americans to stay home to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 2,500 people in the U.S.

On Monday, Baker said he is reviewing the federal governments latest guidance.

Im also taking a look at extending the existing essential work only order and will have an announcement on that tomorrow, Baker said.

Baker declared a state of emergency days after the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. On March 15, Baker issued an executive order banning dine-in services, effectively forcing bars and some restaurants to offer delivery or takeout service only.

A week later, Baker issued an executive order closing all non-essential businesses to works and the public, except for essential workers. Businesses that cannot perform work remotely have had to shut down temporarily. Restaurants selling food to-go or for delivery are allowed to remain open as long as their staff and customers follow the states social distancing guidelines.

Bakers decision on non-essential work comes as Massachusetts prepares for a surge in confirmed cases. Baker said a surge could hit Massachusetts between April 7 and April 17.

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The Pune police found 45 people trying to cross over to Karnataka from Pune in a truck on Sunday night and took them to an accommodation in Aundh set up by the city administration.

Among the 45 were 17 males, 14 females and 14 minors who started from Pimpri-Chinchwad and were trying to head to Karnataka through Bopodi chowk where they were caught at a check post.

These 45 people are among the 1,000 who have been provided protection by the city administration. All are labourers who had migrated to Maharashtra for a source of livelihood.

Kalabai, 45, is one such migrant labourer who is residing at Mahatma Phule High School which is one of the 15 shelters set up by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).

I was working in Andhra Pradesh with my husband and uncle. We are from Chhattisgarh. Its been 15 days since we have had any guidance on what needs to be done - the contractor who had brought us, fled. We started walking from the site we were working, last week and got into a truck in which we travelled for three days without food. He dropped us at some bypass road that led to Pune. We walked from morning till night and reached Pune station where we were picked up by the police and brought here. We finally had a meal when we got here, said Kalabai.

The four shelter homes and 15 government school premises are home to over 1,000 people. They are being provided with beds to sleep, steel dishes to eat from, food, bathrooms, water for use and drinking, and security.

However, along with migrant labourers, there are people who are yet to learn the effects and causes of Covid-19 which has caused a pandemic and claimed thousands of lives world over. The lack of information is making the task of the authorities difficult. The Phule school, where Kalabai is residing, is where most of the destitute and beggars from Pune station area are brought. However, 10 of them ran away at night as they thought this was a form of confinement that they often face.

This feels like a jail. I do not know why Im here. I was going to Nanded to avail free treatment for my mouth ulcers. I do not have a place to stay if I do not have work. So, when the buses were cancelled, I started sleeping and waiting for the bus near the railway tracks. When will this end? asked Gopal Kisan, 76, a labourer from Kerala who has been involved in doing odd jobs in Pune for several years and has no family. He was shocked to know that the entire country has been and will remain in lockdown until April 14.

However, a commercial cook from Mangalore who did not wish to be named, spoke in perfect English as he stood in line to board a truck arranged by PMC from Gogate Prashala in Narayan peth to go to Rajiv Gandhi e-learning school in Yerawada. Some basic necessities and information should be provided. I live in Mangalore and have been working in Pune for 16 years now. I was here with lots of other people for work. Now, because of this disease, I cannot go home, he said.

The people from Gogate Prashala were being taken to the school in Yerawada due to overcrowding, according to PMC official Bhimaji Shinde.

There isnt enough space here. It beats the purpose of social distancing. We have been asked to send 50 people in these three trucks, said Shinde.
SAN JOSE, Calif.  When the first case of the coronavirus in Silicon Valley was discovered in late January, health officials were faced with a barrage of questions: What city did the patient live in? Whom had he come in contact with? Which health clinic had he visited before he knew he was infected?

Dr. Sara Cody, the chief health officer for Santa Clara County, which has a population of 2 million across 15 cities, declined to give details.

I cant give the city, she said, adding we are not going to be giving out information about where he sought health care.

As the coronavirus spreads across the United States the limited disclosure of data by officials would seem to be a footnote to the suffering and economic disruptions that the disease is causing.

But medical experts say that how much the public should know has become a critical question that will help determine how the United States confronts this outbreak and future ones.

Residents are clamoring to see whether the virus has been detected in their neighborhoods so they can take more steps to avoid any contact. American researchers are starved for data, unlike their colleagues in other countries who are harnessing rivers of information from their more centralized medical systems. And local politicians complain that they cannot provide basic information on the spread of the virus to their constituents.

In the perennial tug-of-war between privacy and transparency in the United States, privacy appears to be winning in the coronavirus pandemic.

The bare-minimum approach to public disclosures in places like the San Francisco Bay Area are common across the United States. Armed with emergency powers in many areas, public health officers have vast discretion over what information they want, and do not want, to release to the public. Coronavirus cases in California are often listed by county, generally with very little additional information  such as gender, city of residence or age  provided.

Critics of the threadbare public reporting say it is striking that even in Silicon Valley, which is home to leading technology companies that thrive off the collection of data, residents are given very little information about the movement and dynamics of the virus.

California, which has more than 4,600 cases, is a microcosm for how inconsistent the distribution of information has been during the pandemic. Los Angeles County provides a rough age distribution of patients and breaks down the cases into more than 140 cities and communities. On Friday, for example, the county reported 21 cases in Beverly Hills, 28 in the city of Santa Monica and 49 in the neighborhood of Melrose.

Across the United States there is even less consistency. New York is listing cases by age bracket, gender and borough despite calls for more localized reporting. Connecticut lists data by town. Florida provides its residents with a wealth of data on the pandemic. The states Department of Health has a detailed dashboard and reports showing the spread of the virus  rich with data on the cities affected, the number of people tested, the age brackets of patients, whether they are Florida residents, and the number of cases in nursing homes.

Health departments in the Bay Area make the case that releasing more granular data could heighten discrimination against certain communities where there might be clusters. The first cases in the Bay Area were among ethnic Chinese residents returning from trips to China.

Pandemics increase paranoia and stigma, said Dr. Rohan Radhakrishna, the deputy health officer of Contra Costa County, across the bay from San Francisco, which provides only the total number of cases in the county on its website. We must be extra cautious in protecting individuals and the community.

In Santa Clara, health officials said they cannot disclose how many cases are found in each city because of the nations strict medical privacy law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996.

But that law was designed for the protection of personal data at doctors offices and in hospitals and includes provisions for the release of otherwise protected information during emergencies.

Using the law as a justification for limiting the release of aggregate data about the coronavirus is ridiculous, according to Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at the NYU School of Medicine in New York City.

Caplan is among many experts who say the coronavirus is likely to spur a reassessment of medical privacy laws. Already, the Trump administration waived some provisions of the law this month.

HIPAA was written for a time when there were paper charts, Caplan said. The coronavirus, he said, will cause us to rethink a lot of things.

We will also have to plan for better data exchange and testing, he said.

The U.S. approach contrasts sharply with that of Singapore and Taiwan, whose fights against the virus have been praised as among the most effective. Both governments make public the suspected linkages of cases, anonymized by numbers. In Singapore, authorities sometimes list neighborhoods where patients lived, their workplaces and churches or mosques that they attended.

I. Glenn Cohen, an expert in bioethics at Harvard Law School, said the guiding principle during this crisis should be sharing more rather than less.

Public health depends a lot on public trust, he said. If the public feels as though they are being misled or misinformed, their willingness to make sacrifices  in this case social distancing  is reduced.

Thats a strong argument for sharing as much information as you can, he said.

Experts also point out that it was the governments suppression of information about the virus in China that allowed it to spread quickly before measures were taken to stem it.

On Friday, health authorities in Santa Clara, which has more than 590 cases and is home to the headquarters of companies like Google and Apple, added a dashboard that charts the number of daily cases and other metrics.

But the countys public information office says it will not publicly disclose the number of cases in each city because doing so could make individuals more easily identifiable.

In a sign of how contested the question of public disclosure is, disagreement exists even within the Santa Clara County government.

Dr. Jeffrey Smith, the county executive, who is both a medical doctor and a lawyer, argues that more precise geographical information about the spread does not help combat the virus because it is already widespread.

Reporting positive tests with a census tract or a city name provides data that is not helpful, Smith said. In fact, such data has the risk of stigmatizing areas and regions of the country in a way that does not help.

But David Cortese, a member of the countys board of supervisors, said that the public has the right to know more and that a patients identity is unlikely to be revealed by giving a breakdown of cases by city.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

I think when people cant get information they freak out, they think something is being hidden from them, conspiracy theories grow, suspicions grow, he said. I think its always better to be as truthful, calmly, and transparent with the public as you can be.

As an example, Cortese said he is alarmed that health officers have not made more information public on the coronavirus-related death of a homeless man in the county.

Given the medical vulnerabilities of that population, doctors and advocates of homeless people have called his office demanding to know in which encampment the man lived so that they could advise other homeless people in the area to be more vigilant. The county, which refused to disclose that information, said in a statement that health officials screened 60 members of the specific community and tested nine symptomatic individuals for the coronavirus. All nine tests were negative, the county said.

Cortese said it is obvious to him that more information on the spread of the pandemic should be shared.

At the height of the information age in Silicon Valley we have stumbled and fallen flat in terms of our ability to use the tools and resources that we have to get necessary information out to the people we serve, Cortese said.

Frustration over the dearth of data also extends to epidemiologists trying to understand the dynamics of the spread of the virus.

Joseph Lewnard, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, said researchers are hamstrung in the United States by the lack of specific data on testing and on the symptoms patients show.

To make up for the lack of public data, researchers are scraping information on cases from news outlets and other media accounts, he said. They are mainly relying on data from South Korea, China and Italy to try to predict the spread of the virus.

We are right now learning and trying to project what is happening here in the United States almost entirely based on observations from these other countries, Lewnard said.

Moritz Kraemer, a scholar at Oxford University who is leading a team of researchers in mapping the global spread of the coronavirus, said Chinas data provided incredible detail, including a patients age, sex, travel history and history of chronic disease, as well as where the case was reported, and the dates of the onset of symptoms, hospitalization and confirmation of infection.

The United States, he said, has been slow in collecting data in a systematic way.

Dr. C. Jason Wang, a researcher at Stanford University who has studied how Taiwan handled the coronavirus outbreak, said some of the measures taken in Taiwan would most likely not be accepted in the United States given privacy concerns. The government, for example, merged the airport immigration database with the national medical database so that doctors could immediately see if a patient had traveled out of the country.

But Wang said the proactive approach that Taiwan took to the virus, including aggressive tracing of cases, has helped keep the total number of confirmed infections  283 on Saturday  much lower than experts initially expected. By comparison, the borough of Queens in New York City, with one-tenth the population of Taiwan, has 10,000 cases.

Some of the information being released to the public in Taiwan and Singapore would most likely be uncontroversial in the United States, he said. Taiwanese authorities, for example, have pointed out linkages between anonymized cases, including family clusters, in an effort to warn the public how easily the virus is transmitted within households.

Caplan of the NYU School of Medicine said it is paradoxical that the United States is providing less precise information to its citizens on the outbreak than Singapore, which puts limits on the spread of information through internet controls.

Here we expect to get information so we have our choices and we make our decisions, he said. Our notion is information is the oxygen for democracy. Wouldnt we want to receive more information than them?

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Texas oil regulators are likely to hold a hearing in April on whether to take the historic step to curb the states oil production amid a global market collapse fueled by the coronavirus.

Driving the news: Ryan Sitton, one of three commissioners of the Texas Railroad Commission, which oversees state oil production, told Axios that a hearing will likely be held soon in response to a renewed request earlier Monday from two oil companies to limit production as one way to stem the steep slide in global oil prices.

Why it matters: It matters today for oil industry jobs, which have grown much larger in number throughout the U.S. over the past decade as production has soared  largely in Texas. These jobs are now at risk of evaporating due to the price collapse and related recession.

But it also matters later for everyone who drives gas-powered cars.

Global oil prices are at historic lows, resulting in similarly rock-bottom gasoline prices. But experts warn this wont last. If oil is too cheap today, then it will be really expensive in the future, Sitton said Monday.

The big picture: The oil industry is reeling from the one-two punch of the pandemic sapping oil demand for transportation and the price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, which resulted in no agreement on controlling production among OPEC and Russia.

This is a double black swan event. I dont think anybody has ever seen it. Its the worst Ive seen, Scott Sheffield, CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources, one of two companies requesting Texas limit production, told Axios Monday. Im worried about the industry being totally decimated. (Parsley Energy is the other company asking).

Sheffield, who has been in the industry for more than 30 years, also said he thinks a hearing will be likely, given conversations hes had in recent days.

He said his company and others received requests late last week from pipeline companies to shut in production, which changed the perspective of the commission.

Yes, but: Sitton said he supports holding a hearing, but is reserving judgment on whether the state should actually follow through on limiting production.

Commission chair Wayne Christian has expressed several concerns about it, though he also said he is not outright opposed to the idea.

A commission spokesperson declined to comment beyond receiving the request. We have received the motion for hearing from Parsley Energy and Pioneer Natural Resources. We are currently reviewing the motion, said R.J. DeSilva.

The American Petroleum Institute, America's largest trade group representing the industry, has also expressed opposition to any sort of supply control.

The intrigue: The commission hasnt held a hearing on controlling production  known as proration  in at least 50 years. That said, the Railroad Commission did control the price of oil for the previous 50 years, Sitton said.

Oil prices have historically been at least partially controlled by governmental entities, Sitton said, whether it was the Texas regulator or, more recently, OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, based largely out of the Middle East.

One level deeper: President Trump spoke by phone Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the pandemic and energy stability. Trump and his Cabinet have previously spoken with Saudi officials about the matter as well, but no agreement to curb production from those countries is emerging.

Sitton said international collaboration is essential if Texas were to decide to limit production.

I think if us prorating was part of an international deal to balance markets, I think the odds are very good. If its purely a Texas thing and were operating totally on our own and no collaboration with anybody else, I think the odds are not zero but smaller.

How it works: Commission hearings usually draw 100 or so people, and such a historic hearing on production limits could draw upwards of 10,000 people, Sitton said. He thinks the commission can find a way to do it digitally in order to comply with social distancing  which happens to be one of the root causes of the oil industry's problem itself.
While the federal government is exploring efforts to protect tenants during the COVID-19 outbreak, it seems like a no-eviction moratorium without rental support would hurt property owners and managers the most, according to the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA).

Adrian Kelly, president of REIA, said the group has proposed a policy to the government that will help property managers who will be affected during the outbreak.

"The REIA has proposed a package of rental support to be administered through the current arrangement for payment through the Coronavirus Supplement direct to property management agencies," Kelly said in a statement.

This recommendation would allow a proportional payment to be directed to the agencies, enabling them to pay staff, their own rent, and other outgoings.

Also read: Landlords' wish-list amid COVID-19

"With the Coronavirus Stimulus Package, a couple with two children paying 30% of their Centrelink payment plus rent assistance would be able to pay $473 per week and still have $912 per week to live on," Kelly said.

Figures from REIA show that there are 3.3 million properties that are either rented or available for rent in the country.

At the current median rent in Australia, $1.42bn worth of rents would be collected weekly to pay the owners, their banks, and tradespeople to undertake repairs and maintenance.

"The calls to place a moratorium on evictions without offering any way for tenants to meet their rental payments means those maintaining and managing rental properties are at risk of not having any safety net for their incomes," Kelly said.

There are about 70,000 property managers, principals, real estate agents and representatives across Australia. Kelly said these people would be affected if there is no rental support for tenants.

"Whilst some agencies have a business that covers sales and rentals, there are many that are 100% reliant on rentals for their commission-based income," Kelly said.

In the case of property managers, Kelly estimates that around $141m of supposed earnings are at risk.

In a separate interview with ABC News podcast, Kelly said what the government needs to do is to find a way to help these tenants to keep paying their rent.

"This is so that these agencies and businesses around Australia  many of which are 'mum and dad' type of businesses  can continue to thrive and perform the functions of a property manager," he said.
Punjab National Bank (PNB) has unveiled a new logo as it merges the United Bank of India and OBC with it, with effect from 1 April

New Delhi: Punjab National Bank (PNB) has unveiled a new logo as it merges the United Bank of India and OBC with it, with effect from 1 April.

The new logo will bear distinct signages of all the three public sector lenders.

With this, PNB is set to become the second-largest lender in the country.

"#PunjabNationalBank is here with #OrientalBankofCommerce & #UnitedBankofIndia in an all-new avatar. Be a part of the #TogetherForTheBetter journey with us and experience a smoother and smarter way of banking," PNB said in a tweet on Monday.

#PunjabNationalBank is here with #OrientalBankofCommerce and #UnitedBankofIndia in an all new avatar. Be a part of the #TogetherForTheBetter journey with us and experience a smoother and smarter way of banking. pic.twitter.com/QqFux6Ygho  Punjab National Bank (@pnbindia) March 30, 2020

Assuaging concerns regarding the merged entity, PNB also said there is no reason to worry as the three banks are coming together to be better, bigger and stronger.

"Together we are bigger, stronger & faster. People & Banking will now be closer than ever before. You will have products fine-tuned to your needs," it said in another tweet.

PNB also appealed to its customers to stay indoors due to the coronavirus outbreak and access its services through net banking and PNBONE app.

"Now, pay your tax, get interest certificates, track your investments and more with just one app. Have you downloaded #PNBONE app yet? #BankFromHomeAndStaySafe #COVID 18," the lender said.

Ten state-owned banks are to be merged into four bigger and stronger banks with effect from 1 April.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 30, 2020 15:04 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e55f2f 1 Business Bakrie-Group,coronavirus,COVID-19,aid,donation,Kadin,BNPB Free

Conglomerate company Bakrie Group donated Rp 20 billion (US$1.2 million) to the COVID-19 task force led by National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) on Friday.

Bakrie Group CEO and president director Anindya Bakrie said at a handover ceremony that as a private sector business, his company wanted to contribute to helping the government handle the COVID-19 outbreak in the country as the pandemic had led to a multi-dimensional crisis.

As we know, the pandemic has not only had serious clinical effects, but also economic and sociological and even psychological aspects for our society overall, said Anindya in a written statement.

The statement did not elaborate on how the donations are expected to be spent, but the BNPB has been appointed to the frontline in handling the COVID-19 emergency response in Indonesia.

The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) previously announced it had collected more than Rp 300 billion (US$18.3 million) from its members for healthcare equipment and aid for healthcare professionals in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Bakrie Groups follow-up action is concrete proof that the businesses within Kadin and the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry have strengthened synergy in tackling the problems being faced by our nation, Kadin chairman Rosan Roeslani said at the Bakrie Groups ceremonial event as quoted in the statement.

Meanwhile, BNPB head Doni Monaro, who also joined the ceremony said the donation was an important sign of collaboration between the private sector and the government, and that business is not just about profit and losses.

We can never thank all our doctors, nurses and our medical staff enough. They are our nations real heroes, Doni said.

Bakrie Groups donation is the latest contribution to the list of private sector companies helping in alleviating the pandemic in Indonesia. Among other companies, diversified conglomerate Mayapada Group and the Tahir Foundation have also donated Rp 52 billion in the form of cash, shopping vouchers, medical equipment and food and drinks.

Indonesian health authorities had confirmed over 1,046 COVID-19 positive cases as of Friday, with 87 fatalities and 35 patients recovered. Globally, the pneumonia-like illness has infected more than 537,000 people with over 24,000 deaths. (eyc)
ANN ARBOR, MI -- Duo Security Founder Dug Song and his wife contributed $1 million to an emergency relief fund for small businesses in Washtenaw County amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Impacted businesses can receive up to $5,000 through the Washtenaw Small Business Resiliency Fund, which has received contributions from Ann Arbor SPARK, the Greater Washtenaw Region Small Business Development Center (SBDC), Washtenaw County Office of Community and Economic Development, the Entrepreneurship Center at Washtenaw Community College and now The Song Foundation.

Song on Monday announced a $1 million donation to the fund from The Song Foundation, which he and his wife Linh Song founded in 2019 to invest in the innovative people and organizations who are improving the quality of life for all in Southeast Michigan, and helping to build a more just and equitable world, according to a news release.

My wife Linh and I know how critical these local businesses and jobs are in our community," Song said in a statement. We need small business employment to continue to be the backbone of economic opportunity. Small businesses are critical to our region and provide meaningful jobs that support our local community. We value these independent businesses that make Washtenaw County stand out as a unique place to live and work.

The emergency relief fund is meant for small businesses who need to pay for daily operating expenses while impacted by circumstances surrounding the outbreak of the virus that causes COVID-19. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on March 24 ordered residents to stay home and most businesses to close their doors at least through April 13 to help limit the spread of the new coronavirus.

Stepping up to help the small businesses in our community during this extraordinary time is not only the right responsibility to take on, its an important extension of our mission to support these businesses that create jobs and contribute to the vitality of our community, said Paul Krutko, Ann Arbor SPARK president and chief executive officer, in a statement.

Criteria to qualify for aid:

For home-based businesses, the business owners annual household income must be less than $81,000.

The business must have no more than 50 employees.

The business must have a physical presence in Washtenaw County.

Home-based businesses with less than an $81,000 household income can receive up to $1,000, according to details listed on the initiatives webpage. Businesses with up to 10 employees can qualify for up to $2,500 and those with up to 50 employees can qualify for up to $5,000.

Just as Washtenaw County has been working hard to ensure residents have the latest public health information and access to essential services, we are committed to helping the small business community, said Gregory Dill, Washtenaw County Administrator, in a statement. We are proud to have seeded this fund with $100,000 and work with our partners in a truly collaborative way to support small business during this unprecedented time.

Ann Arbor SPARK has created an additional fundraiser page seeking $50,000 for the the small business fund.

More details on the qualifications and application process are available on the website.

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PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops ) and when you go into places like stores.

Complete coverage of coronavirus in Michigan.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 22:22:19|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits an industrial park, which produces high-end auto parts and molds, in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, March 29, 2020. Xi on Sunday inspected the resumption of work and production in Zhejiang. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)

HANGZHOU, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said China will roll out more targeted measures to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) hit by the COVID-19 outbreak restart production and further develop.

Xi made the remarks during an inspection to east China's Zhejiang Province which began on Sunday.

Visiting the service center of an industrial park producing high-grade auto parts and molds in Ningbo on Sunday, Xi talked with the managing staff of the park, and representatives of SMEs management and employees returning to Zhejiang.

Various industries and enterprises have been affected during the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, said Xi.

A series of policies have been introduced and will be improved in tandem with the changes of the situation, said Xi, adding more targeted measures will be rolled out to help SMEs restart production and further develop.

"We need to rise to the challenges. With the support of the Party and the government, we must stick together through thick and thin to overcome the difficulties," Xi stressed.
One of Indias biggest threats when it comes to fighting the Coronavirus pandemic in the subcontinent, is the countrys low COVID-19 testing numbers.

Even as the Director-General of the WHO advised all the affected countries to test, test, test on every other citizen, India has only been testing people with foreign travel history or those who have been exposed to confirmed Coronavirus patients.

The major reason why were facing this situation is that India has limited testing facilities. Or so was the case until very recently.

Because now, a Pune-based virologist named Minal Dakhave Bhosale has successfully developed Indias first, low-cost COVID-19 testing kit which is being hailed as a game-changer for Indias fight against Coronavirus.

Who Is Minal Dakhabe Bhosale

 Twitter

Minal is a virologist who works with a Pune-based molecular diagnostics company named Mylab Discovery Solutions as their Research and Development Chief. Reportedly, Minal was eight months pregnant and had just come home from a pregnancy-related complication when she took up the project to create the first made in India coronavirus testing kit - Patho Detect.



Minal was heading a 10-member team and handled major proceedings remotely from home since February this year.

She, along with her dedicated team, worked non-stop to develop the testing kit in a record six weeks time, given the countrys growing need to test more people for the Coronavirus infection.

 Twitter

Minal submitted the fully-finished kit for evaluation at the National Institute of Virology in Pune on 18th March. And as fate would have it, the very next day she gave birth to her daughter through C-section.



But even an hour before she was to leave for the hospital, Minal submitted her proposal to the Indian FDA and CDSCO seeking commercial approval. She got it all right in the first go, got the necessary clearances and gave India a much-needed weapon to fight Coronavirus.

What Makes This Testing Special

 BCCL - LinkedIN

Not only has this development come as a ray of hope for Indians, the kit developed by Minal and her team also comes with its own salient features that make it invaluable. This COVID-19 testing kit can reportedly test 100 samples per kit and would cost one-fourth the price at Rs 1,200 as opposed to Rs 4,500 imported testing kits cost.



Thats not all. Indias COVID-19 testing kit is capable of giving correct diagnostic results in just two and a half hours as opposed to the six or seven hours imported test kits take. Whats more, the kit can also indicate potentially positive cases among asymptomatic patients

What This Means

 BCCL

The first few batches of kits developed by Minal and her team have already been sent out to diagnostic laboratories in major Indian cities. The director of the manufacturing company of the COVID-19 kits, Mylab Discovery, told BBC that the company can supply up to 100,000 kits in a week and push it up to 200,000 if needed.



This week will see more kits reaching many other labs and take-up Indias much-needed testing numbers higher. Talking about the feat, Minal told BBC, "It was an emergency, so I took this on as a challenge. I have to serve my nation."

Given the dire need to scale up the number of random testing of Coronavirus in India, 'Mylab PathoDetect COVID-19 Qualitative PCR kit' can not only help with early diagnosis but also help bring down the number of fatalities in the process.

Kudos to Minal Bhosale and her team for their terrific work!
The 23 sectors of the force have been asked to establish and publicise a standalone landline connection and a WhatsApp-enabled mobile number to be manned round-the-clock by a sub-officer

New Delhi: With its troops deployed away from their families, the CRPF has directed its field offices to set up 24x7 helplines, backed by quick reaction teams (QRTs), to assist their spouses and old parents in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

The 23 sectors of the force have been asked to establish and publicise a standalone landline connection and a WhatsApp-enabled mobile number to be manned round-the-clock by a sub-officer.

"Keeping in view the prevailing emergency in the country in view of COVID-19, the DG (force chief) has directed that we should proactively look after and take care of the families of our officials who are staying away from their spouses.

"All systems should be put in place to respond to emergent needs of the family members to keep our officers and troops stress-free and assure them of the welfare of their families while they are deployed in difficult locations away from home," a latest communication from the CRPF headquarters said.

The directive, accessed by PTI, said a 24x7 helpline comprising a landline and a WhatsApp-enabled mobile phone should be established at all sector headquarters and group centres of the force in the country.

A senior official said directions were issued to take special care of those families where the spouse is alone with the responsibility of children and those where old parents are living alone.

A sector head office of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) looks after the deployment of troops in two or more states.

The helplines will be armed with all the guidelines issued by the government to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, details of the nodal officers of the government in the area and location of the nearest hospitals, quarantine and test centres.

In case of an emergency, the QRT should respond by visiting the premises of the family concerned, the directive said.

The force has directed that all its 43 group centres that have administrative control over six-seven battalions comprising about 8,000 personnel should also establish such helplines and publicise them amongst the personnel and their families.

Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak

Supervisory officers in the ranks of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) and Inspector General (IG) have been asked to review the call log books of such cases and in special cases, seek directions from the Delhi headquarters to extend relief and help.

The about 3.25 personnel-strong force is the designated national internal security force and the mainstay for anti-Naxal operations, counter-terrorist combat in the Kashmir valley and anti-insurgency tasks in the north-eastern states.
(Natural News) We hate to break it to you, but the Wuhan coronavirus biological weapon system release was just the opening salvo in a global war that might see the US invaded by foreign troops, led by the communist-run United Nations which have long sought to eliminate national sovereignty from the world stage.

On Friday, with little fanfare, President Trump signed a new executive order that activates one million military reservists, bringing them back to active duty. This national security & defense executive order is entitled, EO to Order the Selected Reserve and Certain Members of the Individual Ready Reserve of the Armed Forces to Active Duty.

It begins by citing the coronavirus pandemic and the state of emergency which has already been declared:

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and in furtherance of Proclamation 9994 of March 13, 2020 (Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak), which declared a national emergency by reason of the threat that the novel (new) coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 poses to our Nations healthcare systems, I hereby order as follows:

It goes on to describe how the, Army, Navy, and Air Force, at the direction of the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard are authorized to activate one million reservists, calling them back to active duty.

Ponder for a moment what events are taking place that would require the President of the United States to activate one million military reservists.

For starters, this executive order obliterates any last shred of the narrative that, this is just the flu. No flu has resulted in a million soldiers being called to active duty.

The real reason for this call-up is that Trump and the Pentagon know the coronavirus is just the opening salvo in a new world war that was initiated by China to crush America and achieve world domination. The one million reservists are being activated because the Pentagon expects battlefield casualties on a large scale.

Because thats what happens when your nation gets invaded by a foreign power.

And in case you didnt think things were serious enough already, the Pentagon just ordered high-level staffers into a deep underground military bunker in Colorado, something that never happens from just the flu.

You need to listen to JR Nyquist, because he knows whats about to happen. If communist China carries out the very plans its military leaders have openly bragged about for decades, America may soon be invaded by communist Chinese troops, likely aided by UN troops who are seeking to overthrow Trump and occupy America.

Listen to JR Nyquist explain why:

Stay alive. Read Pandemic.news.
If you hadn't already heard have of Zoom Video Communications, there is a decent chance you've made its acquaintance over the past few weeks.

Millions of people are now working from home as part of the intensifying fight against the coronavirus outbreak. In addition to using the video conference for work, many are also tapping it to hold virtual playdates for their kids and virtual happy hours with friends and family banned from gathering in public places.

Eric Yuan founded Zoom nine years ago founded nine years ago after he defected from Cisco Systems and took about 40 engineers with him. Credit:Bloomberg

The crisis has cast a spotlight on Zoom, a company founded nine years ago by its CEO Eric Yuan after he defected from Cisco Systems and took about 40 engineers with him. He wanted to refine a concept he first dreamed up during the 1990s as a college student in China, when he dreaded the 10-hour train trips to see his then-girlfriend, now his wife.

Now Zoom is booming, just 11 months after it made its debut on the sharemarket. While the Standard & Poor's 500 index has fallen by 25 per cent since its record high on February 19, Zoom's stock has soared 46 per cent as investors bet on its service becoming a mainstream staple in life after the coronavirus.
Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday tightened travel to Texas by ordering some motorists from Louisiana to self-quarantine for two weeks.

The new restrictions, effective noon Monday, came as President Donald Trump extended social distancing guidelines through April 30, preventing all nonessential travel in the country.

Louisianas status as a hot spot for the novel coronavirus grew Sunday to more than 3,500 positive cases statewide. Under the new rules, drivers with commercial, medical, emergency response, military or critical infrastructure purposes for entering Texas would be exempted.

A spokesman for the Department of Public Safety said Sunday the agency was not prepared to comment on the details of the new measures.

CORONAVIRUS UPDATES: Stay informed with accurate reporting you can trust

State troopers will enforce the order at checkpoints at major roadways along the border. Those in quarantine will be asked to provide an address for where they plan to hole up in Texas, either for two weeks or until their return to Louisiana, whichever comes first.

A provision in the order allows DPS special agents to check on those under quarantine to ensure theyre complying. Violators could be subject to either a $1,000 fine or 180 days in jail, according to the four-page document. Another provision states that if a driver is showing symptoms associated with COVID-19, such as fever, coughing or shortness of breath, a trooper will follow them to their destination.

The Texas order mimics Florida, the governor of which on Friday required drivers from Louisiana to also quarantine upon entering their state. Motorists from Louisiana would have to cross both Alabama and Mississippi to make it to Florida.

The Louisiana border is 113 miles from Houston on I-10.

Other states have formulated their own travel restrictions amid the heightening emergency. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear told residents to limit travel to Tennessee unless absolutely necessary. The governors of Alaska and Hawaii required all out-of-state travelers to self-quarantine for two weeks. Like Texas, Rhode Island has asked travelers returning from hot spots such as New York to self-isolate.

Residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are under a travel advisory as the number of deaths in the United States from the novel coronavirus doubled to more than 2,000 over a 48-hour period. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued the travel advisory Saturday and urges residents to refrain from non-essential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately.

Delawares governor has issued an order telling out-of-state visitors to self-quarantine for two weeks.

The order by Gov. John Carney takes effect Monday morning and requires anyone entering the state from elsewhere to self-quarantine for 14 days. It does not apply to people who are only passing through the state.

CORONAVIRUS IN HOUSTON: All of the latest news, numbers and analysis to keep you up-to-date, only on HoustonChronicle.com

Nows not the time to visit Delaware. Were facing a serious situation here that is getting worse, Carney said in a statement.

In Houston, Mayor Sylvester Turner said he urged travelers returning to Texas to do the same more than three weeks ago, regardless of where they had been.

If you leave Texas and come back to Texas, you should self-quarantine, Turner previously said at a news conference. Nobody should be traveling unless you absolutely have to.

Abbotts executive order is an expansion of what he previously issued for air travelers from New Orleans, where 1,350 COVID-19 cases have been diagnosed as of Sunday night.

Also on Sunday, Abbot expanded air travel restrictions for passengers arriving from Washington, California, Miami, Detroit, Atlanta and Chicago. They, too, will be told to quarantine.

On Sunday, a Baton Rouge resident said her ex-husband, who lives in Texas, was worried he would be forced to quarantine if he dropped off their children, as required through a court order, and tried crossing the border soon after.

He took the kids to their mothers Sunday night and did not see any hint of a checkpoint as he entered Louisiana, she said, declining to be identified.

She wondered where the checkpoints would be pitched with I-10 already packed with construction.

Julian Gill and the Associated Press contributed to this report

nicole.hensley@chron.com
The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has pledged Rs 20 crore from its CSR fund to the Prime Ministers Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund

Bengaluru: The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has pledged Rs 20 crore from its CSR fund to the Prime Ministers Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund.

In addition, the Bengaluru-headquartered defence PSUs employees have pledged their one day salary amounting to Rs. 6.25 crore.

"This is a small step from HAL in supporting the Governments ongoing efforts in the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic, HAL CMD R Madhavan, said.

Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak






Drive-thrus are often associated with unhealthy fast food, but a new vision in Hawaii imagines a drive-thru that pedals that freshest food available. Thanks to a new plan called farm-to-car announced by Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell this week, residents on the island of Oahu will be able to order groceries online and pick them up straight from local farms. The pilot program runs through the Hawaii Farm Bureau (HFB) with hopes that it will continue on in the future.

Many of the popular farmers' markets in Hawaii have been shut down due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 sickness caused by the coronavirus, but the HFB is determined to continue serving fresh meat and produce to its customers. So they created a pilot program that cuts out the middleman and allows people to go straight to the source.

Starting on Wednesday, April 1, 2020, customers will be able to place orders on a dedicated HFB website, according to the Honolulu Star Advisor. If the products are in stock, the order will be available for pickup at the parking lot of the Blaisdell Center community event space for two hours on Wednesdays.

The service, which comes at no extra cost to the farmers, allows residents to continue social distancing while under the stay-at-home and work-from-home orders set down by local officials. If the program is successful, the HFB hopes to expand on the service and open more pickup locations. There are no pickup fees or handling fees, but 100% of the proceeds will go into the pockets of the sellers.

"The Hawaii Farm Bureaus Farmers Markets are a key resource for Oahu communities, connecting local growers to consumers," the website says. "With the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation, continuing to supply families with fresh produce while supporting our hardworking farmers, is essential for the community."

Watch Mayor Caldwell discuss the program above.

The City is working with @HFBF1 to launch a #FarmToCar program. To participate, visit https://t.co/d9zVcrdI6I or call 848-2074. Put in your order by Monday, March 30, at 8 p.m., and pick-up will be on Wednesday, April 1, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. pic.twitter.com/eCi5m34Fmo  Kirk Caldwell (@MayorKirkHNL) March 27, 2020

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The Manipur government on Sunday launched a website to reach out to citizens stranded outside the state after the nationwide lockdown to tackle the outbreak of Covid-19.

The website (www.tengbang.in) has been developed by CubeTen, a private firm, in coordination with the Information and Technology (IT) department as part of their corporate social responsibility activity.

The government is also ready to launch a mobile app version of tengbang (assistance). It will be available as soon as Google and Apple clear the application for hosting on their Play Store and App Store, chief minister Nongthombam Biren Singh said while launching the website in Imphal.

Also read: With fewer cases so far, North-east stays on maximum alert

The website is also integrated with a payment gateway so that people who want to donate to the Chief Ministers COVID-19 Relief Fund, which was created last week for making available funds promptly for emergency requirements with a corpus fund of Rs 10 crores, can do so online.

We are also thinking of adding a feature for permanent persons of Manipur origin residing in metros like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore to volunteer/act as a nodal point for the state in distributing/assisting so that the reach of the state government is increased, Biren added.

He said the condition of a Covid-19 patient, who is undergoing medical treatment at the JNIMS hospital, is improving and is stable now and called upon people to pray for their speedy recovery. Manipur reported its first Covid-19 case on March 24.

Dr Radheshyam Yumnam of MANTRON & MANIDCO, L Susindro of Loktak Development Authority, Dr Rajesh Kumar, additional chief secretary (IT) and Nambam Deben director (IT) besides Haobam Joyremba of CubeTen, a website developer, were also present at the launch.

Many citizens from Manipur, mostly students, are stranded in various states of India after the Centre clamped a 21-day nationwide lockdown.

The state government on Saturday appointed PK Singh, the resident commissioner at the Manipur Bhawan in New Delhi, as the nodal officer to help and guide the stranded citizens of the state.

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SAGINAW, MI  People experiencing homelessness in mid-Michigan during the COVID-19 pandemic are having a difficult time practicing social distancing, but the shelters are still helping them to improve their living situations, they say.

Marchelle Holmes, 36, has lived at the Mustard Seed shelter in Saginaw for six weeks with her three children. Holmes said she stopped working and took unpaid time off to be with her children while they are out of school.

I made the conscious decision to take unpaid time because I have three children and the daycare is kind of hard, Holmes said.

Holmes and her family are among the 15 people staying at the shelter. Maintaining social distancing from other families is a challenge.

In shelters, its very difficult to practice social distancing just because it is where people live, so we have just taken more precautions about protections from exposure than anything else, because we realize that we cant possibly have our people do six feet apart, Mustard Seed Director Amy Bartels Roe said.

Some of the new precautions shelters like the Mustard Seed are taking include wiping down surfaces every couple of hours, providing an isolation area for people who are sick, and asking screening questions related to health.

Were dealing with some of our most vulnerable people, Bartels Roe said. They are homeless, without a home.

While residents are at the shelter, they have access to resources that may help them get a job, housing or help with parenting skills.

Life is continuing, just with the new normal, Bartels Roe said.

At the City Rescue Mission in Saginaw, Linda Gray, 64, feels protected at the shelter.

Gray, originally from Mississippi, fled a more than 20-year relationship, she said.

Im thankful to be at the shelter, said Gray. Im thankful to have a place to stay, live and to eat.

She arrived at the shelter in early February.

Weve had all the necessary things to clean with, to disinfect with, to use to prepare us for cleaning our area, Gray said. We have been very well protected on our floor.

Rescue Ministries Mid-Michigan CEO Dan Streeter said the ministries organization has been in constant communication with other shelters and seeking advice from health organizations to adhere to best practices during the coronavirus.

Streeter said a safe occupancy cap has been put in place at the City Rescue Rescue Mission and the Good Samaritan Rescue Mission in Bay City so that there is space for people to keep their distance.

We felt the need with the spread of this virus to make sure there is also reasonable space accommodation within the shelter and so we did a cap number, Streeter said.

Once the Saginaw rescue reaches 175 people and the shelter in Bay City reaches 100 people, the shelters wont accept anyone else until someone is discharged, Streeter said.

Instead, the shelters will reach out to other partners to provide a place for that person.

So far, we havent seen a rush on shelter needs, Streeter said. The shelters are brainstorming right now that if we were to start to see an increase in numbers then what we might do is find a separate site that we can do some mass sheltering.

A few other practices the two shelters are implementing are staggered eating periods, creating an isolation area, eliminating self-serve food options and not allowing visitors.

All city shelters are working together to do the diligence and stay prepared for what might happen, Streeter said.

Nicholas Roberts, 40, turned to the Good Samaritan Rescue Mission in Bay City after he was in a severe car crash that landed him in the hospital. He racked up some big bills for surgeries he needed to have and paid out of pocket for medications.

Sometime after the crash, Roberts was out of money due to paying for his medical expenses, attorney fees related to the car crash and trying to keep up with everyday expenses, he said.

I just lost everything, Roberts said. My job, my apartment, my vehicle I was paying payments on and I had nowhere else to turn to and someone was telling me about the Bay City mission and I came here.

Around that same time, Roberts also lost his mother to Alzheimers after he had been taking care of her.

He said he has lived at the shelter since December.

The shelter offers resources to get people back on their feet, but staff are also available to talk with residents who might have concerns about the coronavirus, Roberts said.

Even I have anxiety because your family is out there and youre in here, Roberts said. You dont know if theyre going to catch it.

He said some of the residents take turns spraying down surfaces with cleaning products every couple of hours to sanitize the facility he shares with about 100 other people.

Roberts said people are still taking care of business over the phone, getting some exercise outdoors and participating in the activities the shelter arranges like movie nights.

Experiencing homelessness is hard, but theyve been here for me, Roberts said.

When things go back to what might be Roberts new normal, hes looking forward to moving forward and living his life.

Lets hope to get this disease thing over with so we can all get back to running our lives, Roberts said.

Related news:

Bay City womans family in Italy faces coronavirus: Life has changed for everybody

Coronavirus cases now at 8 in Saginaw County, health department says
Emirates outstation airport teams from 39 stations including Prague, Newark, Seoul, London Stansted and Zurich devotedly sent off their last passenger flights before the suspension took effect. Over the next weeks, Emirates operational teams will focus on preparing for service resumption.

As per UAE government directives to protect communities against the spread of COVID-19, Emirates has temporarily suspended all passenger flights from 25 March 2020. The airline will resume passenger services as soon as it is possible to do so. In the meantime, Emirates is still busy deploying its fleet of Boeing 777 freighters, bolstering international air cargo links for the transport of vital goods, including medical supplies and food, around the world.
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday ordered extension of the state-wide curfew till April 14 and directed foolproof sealing of the state's borders. Singh also promised special insurance for Punjab Police personnel and sanitation workers engaged in the anti-COVID battle, an official statement said here.

He asked Finance Minister Manpreet Badal to come out with a contingency financial plan, to overcome the COVID-19 crisis, and ensure an uninterrupted supply of medical items and essentials commodities in the current battle against coronavirus.

The chief minister also allowed the Local Bodies Department to extend, by three months, the services of 2000-odd sanitation workers, due to retire on March 31, in order to deal with the prevailing situation.

During a video conference to discuss and review the current situation in the light of the COVID-19 crisis and the curfew restrictions in the state, Singh also asked all concerned departments to intensify their efforts to check the spread of the disease, and ensure that all essential supplies and services are maintained.

He also ordered strict enforcement of the curfew, especially in rural areas, amid reports that gatherings continued to take place in villages.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

All restrictions should be strictly enforced till April 14, after which the state will decide in line with the further decisions of the Government of India, said Amarinder, adding that the lockdown was the only way to prevent the spread of the disease.

Additional Chief Secretary ACS Vini Mahajan informed the meeting that mobile testing vans are being made operational to increase testing in Punjab.

Giving details of the state's preparedness, she disclosed that 65 more ventilators, more than 1.5 lakh PPE kits and over 47,000 N-95 masks, as well as 13 lakh more triple layer masks, have been ordered to augment the inventory of available equipment.

She said that manpower for 20,000 beds have been identified on the Health Department portal from among the public.

Earlier, the chief minister accepted DGP Dinkar Gupta 's proposal to sell the state's borders to check the inflow of people, especially from Haryana.

Amarinder made it clear that while no general relaxation have been provided to industry and brick kilns to resume operations, they have been told they could utilise the services of the migrant labourers if they could provide food and shelter to them.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly chaired on Monday a meeting to follow up repercussions of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak on the tourism and aviation sectors.

The meeting was attended by Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled El Anani and Civil Aviation Minister Mohamed Manar.

Anani reviewed efforts exerted to disinfect hotels and tourism facilities amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Anani added that he received a phone call from the German ambassador in Cairo Monday, in which the latter thanked the Egyptian government for the great treatment of German tourists in Egypt in the past period.

For his part, Manar spoke about his ministry's cargo and freight flight plan as well as losses expected to be incurred by the ministry because of the suspension of air traffic.

He also reviewed efforts exerted by the ministry to sanitize all affiliated facilities.

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The French government is to offer larger financial rescue packages for small companies likely to face bankruptcy from the coronavirus lockdown. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Monday that the solidarity fund will now be maintained for the duration of the public health emergency.

The solidarity fund was set up to support small companies struggling with the economic challenges brought by the Covid-19 outbreak. It is part of a financial rescue package put in place by the government to save its economy and help struggling companies.

This fund is for very small companies and independent entrepreneurs whose activities have either been stopped or considerably reduced by the coronavirus economic crisis, declared Le Maire.

He added that more companies will now be eligible for monthly financial aid from the government.

The 1,500 euro per month package was until now allocated to companies which either had to close due to the coronavirus lockdown, or had lost more than 70 percent of their turnover, compared to profits in March 2019.

Now, the threshold has been lowered to 50 percent losses of turnover.

The finance minister also said he is willing to go beyond the 2,000-euro monthly grant that has been made available to small companies facing bankruptcy.

We are aware that 2,000 euros, even when added to the 1,500 euros, is not enough for some companies which might go bankrupt because they have to cope with salaries and social security charges, said Le Maire.
Medical and nursing students could join the fight against Covid-19 as authorities consider various options to strengthen the health care workforce and provide protective cover to ageing doctors who are themselves at high risk of contracting the infection and, possibly, dying of it, people in the know said on Sunday.

The development came after sector experts suggested an all-hands-on-deck approach with strategic protection to older specialists. The health ministry said in a recent guideline that dentists could be roped in for the anti-Covid-19 effort too.

There are not more than 40,000 anaesthetists, who are specifically trained to handle ventilators, practising across the country. At least half of them are above the age of 50, who we would be putting at risk in a Covid-19 ICU. Of the others, most are in the cities. When we plan for the surge in cases, we should think of an AIIMS or other hospitals in the city which are usually training centres and have resident doctors, said Dr Devi Shetty, chairman and founder of Narayana Health group.

The district hospitals, which would handle the bulk of the patients, have maybe 15 or at best 25 specialists and only about two anaesthetists. If these 200 to 300 bed hospitals are converted to critical care facilities, who will handle the cases? The latest national health profile shows an 85% shortage for the existing work, said Dr Shetty.

To be sure, there were just over a million doctors registered with state medical councils in 2017, of which only 80% were estimated to be in active service, according to the government. This means, India has one doctor for every about 1,500 persons; World Health Organization (WHO) norms suggest that there must be one doctor for every 1,000 persons. In rural India, however, this ratio goes down to as low as one doctor for over 10,000 patients.

Every year, nearly 38,000 postgraduation and 70,000 MBBS students graduate from colleges in India.

Right now, we are in the process of procuring ventilators, but not all the doctors working currently are trained to handle ventilators. So, the first step would be to train a large number of people to use ventilators. We may also look at training postgraduation and BSc nursing students, said Dr Srinath Reddy, president of Public Health Foundation of India and a member of the national task force on Covid-19.

Those MBBS students who are doing their final internship might be allowed to take care of less critical patients. The option of allowing foreign medical graduates awaiting certification can be explored.

There are no hard and fast rules. If need arises, states can explore options of identifying people and training them as per the need. They can involve students or even AYUSH practitioners for screening of patients. When there is an emergency, it is an all-hands-on-deck situation, said a health ministry official.

Some experts have also suggest mobilising human resources from various departments within hospitals while others say various forms of medical training recognised by the Medical Council of India (MCI) could be provided.

Many doctors, nurses and technicians have already been freed up by stopping elective procedures. If there is a surge in the number of cases, doctors from other clinical departments who dont usually manage critical care can be roped in after a short training. Then, there are several private medical colleges that are underutilised but have good ICU facilities and the necessary staff as per MCI requirements; these can be utilised too, said Dr MC Misra, former director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi.

In Delhi, doctors can be diverted from various hospitals to centres managing Covid-19 patients, according to Dr SK Sarin, who headed the committee guiding chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in readying a preparedness model.

We are preparing infrastructure and manpower for a surge of up to 1,000 cases a day. Right now, we are not even getting 100 cases in a day, but in case that happens we have two hospitals ready, he said.

MCI allowing people with various forms of training to join the Covid-19 fight will increase young manpower, said Dr Devi Shetty.

Around 50,000 postgraduate students are training in various specialties, including some who might have failed the certification exams before. They have experience of working in hospitals and can be allowed to treat Covid-19 patients without waiting for examinations. The MCI had derecognised the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Maharashtra that has trained 40,000 specialists; we can ask them to work in district hospitals in return for recognition. There are 2,000 specialists who have been trained by the Society for Emergency Medicine and another 2,000 in cardiology by IGNOU; MCI can recognise all of them and let them work in district hospitals, he said.

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EMMETT  Ammon Bundy hosted on Thursday a meeting in Emmett, where he called on attendees to pledge to defend Idahoans who are pressured to comply with a stay-home order enacted by Gov. Brad Little.

Reached by phone Friday, Bundy said the gathering was about discussing the states self-isolation order.

We discussed with each other whether our rights can be taken by an order from a governor or an agency, and if they can be, what good are our rights? Bundy said.

Little on Wednesday issued a statewide stay-home order for all Idahoans for 21 days. The order requires all residents to self-isolate at home if you can, not just if you are sick, according to the governors office.

Bundy said self-isolation during the spread of the coronavirus is not a bad thing.

Im not sure its warranted completely to even ask that, but thats not the argument here, he said. If it was a guideline, I would applaud it. Its not, its an order.

A 19-minute video of Thursdays two-hour meeting, recorded live and posted on a public Facebook account, shows Bundy pledging to help provide legal, political and physical defense to people who are pressured by the authorities or anybody else to comply with the order.

I will be there, Bundy said. I will bring as many people as we can. We will form a legal defense for you, a political defense for you, and we will also, if necessary, provide a physical defense for you, so that you can continue in your rights.

Bundy asked meeting attendees to sign a piece of paper, provide their contact information and agree that, as someone decides to stand, we form a legal and political and physical defense. Bundy said he knows a lot of good people that have a tremendous amount of legal capabilities, and there are people who are very effective at political defense.

If you are within your rights, acting, and you are receiving pressure or force from anybody  that this is the people that you contact, he said, referring to the pledge paper. What their job is, is to activate everybody in the situation.

Bundy said the situation could be so and so needs (us) to go down to his business, or so and so (needs us) to file suit, grievance. Bundy also said that a bad actor, or someone who infringes on peoples rights, could be targeted for protests at their homes.

We need to find out whos the bad actor here, he said. We need to go to his house and act in that way.

Bundy told the Idaho Press hes not opposed to weapons being used in a situation where physical defense is required.

When someones rights are being violated for whatever reason  then thousands of people come and surround that person and bring a tremendous, a lot of attention and bring accountability to the bad actors, he said. The First Amendment is secured by the Second Amendment.

Earlier on Thursday, Bundy, who lives near Emmett, posted a Facebook video inviting all the people of Idaho to come to a peoples meeting.

The last time it was illegal to meet together as a people on this land was before the Revolutionary War, said Bundy, wearing a cowboy hat and filming himself. Since we won our independence, it has never been illegal to assemble as a people.

In 2016, Bundy helped lead the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. He also participated in an armed standoff with federal law enforcement at his fathers Nevada ranch in 2014.

The Thursday meeting was held in an industrial building in Emmett, which Bundy owns and leases. The video shows more than a dozen people in attendance, both sitting and standing, and they mostly appeared to be keeping some distance from one another. Bundy said he plans to host another meeting next week at the same location.

The meeting likely violates the states stay-home order. At a Friday press conference, Little said he has the authority to outlaw public gatherings, even political gatherings. He said gatherings are discouraged and are frankly in violation of this stay-home order.

Theres no difference between a political gathering and any other gathering, Little said.

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The app will be available in App Store as COVID-19 and will ask users questions about symptoms, location, and risk factors and then provide the appropriate up-to-date guidance from the CDC.

Apple Inc and the White House said on Friday that the iPhone maker worked with the Trump administration and federal agencies to release an app and website that will direct users to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control on the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The app, which will be available in the app store as COVID-19, will ask users questions about symptoms, location and risk factors and then provide the appropriate up-to-date guidance from the CDC, White House officials said.

The app will also answer frequently asked questions about the coronavirus disease with official information from the CDC. The same information will be available at a website that will be accessible to the users of Windows PCs, Android phones and other non-Apple devices.

Apple said that it will not collect the answers users give to the app and website's questions and that the answers will not be sent to either Apple or any government entity.

(Also read: Coronavirus Outbreak: Facebook Messenger chatbot released to educate users about the global pandemic)

Based in northern California, Apple's headquarters have been under lockdown orders for more than a week. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook earlier this week said that the company had donated 10 million protective masks to US health care groups after using Apple's supply chain team to locate and buy the masks.
From an outside perspective, it probably looks like Jennifer Aniston has a perfect life. With an enviable Hollywood career, millions in the bank, so many friends (and Friends), plus looks that never fade, its true that this A-lister has plenty to be thankful for. But like the rest of us, Anistons personal history is more complex than it seems.

It all goes back to Anistons childhood and the difficult relationship she had with her mother. In a 2018 interview with Elle magazine, the Morning Show actress opened up about tension with her mom and how shes learned to forgive her.

Jennifer Aniston | Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Jennifer Aniston has acting in her blood

Aniston was born on Feb. 11, 1969, to actress mother Nancy Dow and Greek actor father John Aniston. Even though her parents were both in the business, they didnt promote it for their daughter and even discouraged her from watching television at home. Her dad John actively tried to keep Jen away from Hollywood. Obviously, it didnt work.

My dads advice has always been: Dont do it. Become a doctor. Become a lawyer. He didnt want me to be heartbroken because he knew it was a tough business. It compelled me to go for it even harder, Aniston said during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Do what keeps you happy, and dont ever let people box you in.

Aniston got into acting at 11 while attending the Waldorf school. She appeared in off-Broadway shows and had a few bit parts before landing her breakout role playing Rachel Green on the NBC sitcom Friends.

She had a complicated relationship with her mother

Relationships between moms and daughters can be difficult, but the one between Aniston and her mother was especially challenging. During the Elle interview, the Emmy award winner revealed the root of the problem. She was from this world of, Honey, take better care of yourself, or Honey, put your face on, or all of those odd sound bites that I can remember from my childhood, she explained.

But despite those issues, Aniston said she harbors no hard feelings. My mom said those things because she really loved me. It wasnt her trying to be a b***h or knowing she would be making some deep wounds that I would then spend a lot of money to undo, Aniston said. She did it because that was what she grew up with.

In her memoir, Aniston revealed that she went through a tough period with her mom and didnt even invite her to her 2000 nuptial ceremony with Brad Pitt. But the mother/daughter duo made their peace before Dow died in 2016.

Jennifer Aniston has always relied on her chosen family of friends

Just like on the hit show that made her famous, Aniston has always felt a deep affection for her chosen family of friends and counted on them to make up for the issues she had with blood relatives. As Nicki Swift reported, the A-lister spoke fondly of her close circle of friends.

She said: We always joke that we raised each other, we mothered each other, we sistered each other, weve been kids to each other.

Families are complicated, but love doesnt have to be. Its good to know Aniston has found her true tribe out there.
Karnataka to undertake Triaging: What does it mean and how do you pronounce it

Congress leader Patil defends Mekedatu padayatra: Omicron variant not as dangerous as last one

Karnataka Waqf Board directs mosques play audio messages through loudspeakers on Covid19 awareness

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Bengaluru, Mar 30: The Karnataka State Wakf Board has directed all mosques in the state to play its audio messages through its loudspeakers four times a day to spread awareness about coronavirus.

In an official notification on Sunday, the chief executive officer of the State Wakf Board said the mosques will have to play the audio message in three languages sent by it. These messages must be played at 10 am, 4 pm, 6 pm and 8 pm.

#Stayathome and send us your selfie

The notification has been marked to all the police commissioners, deputy commissioners at the district and the superintendents of police. Already mass prayers at mosques have been stopped.

NEWS AT NOON, MARCH 30th, 2020

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa thanked the Muslim community for cooperating with the state government and agreeing to perform their daily prayers at home instead of mosques.

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Story first published: Monday, March 30, 2020, 11:25 [IST]
A tornado has reportedly destroyed the home of an Arkansas doctor who went viral after a photo of him greeting his two-year-old son through a glass door as he observes social distancing from his family.

Physician Dr Jared Burks is self-isolating from his family while he continues to work at a hospital amid the coronavirus pandemic to prevent him from spreading the virus to his family.

An emotional photo of the doctor greeting his son through the glass door of his home, the two unable to share physical contact, went viral after his wife shared the touching moment on Facebook.

As soon as he saw his dad he just raced to the door, Alyssa Burks told local broadcaster KATV.

He got up on the glass because I think he wanted him to hold him, so it was sad, it was cute, but it was really heartbreaking because its hard.

However, the young family is now facing even more heartache after a tornado reportedly hit and destroyed the Burks family home, while Dr Burks was still inside the house.

The tornado, which ripped through Jonesboro, Arkansas, injured 22 people and caused massive damage to houses and buildings, according to CNN.

Ms Burks told ABC News that her husband was home taking his first day off in two weeks from his rotation when the tornado hit.

Ms Burks, who was residing at her parents with her son to keep a safe distance from her husband, immediately called to warn him of the tornado when she saw reports on the news.

I called him and said theres a really really big tornado, she told the outlet.

The pair agreed it would be best for him to take shelter in the house but before long she became aware the house had been hit.

Dr Burks survived the ordeal unharmed, managing to take shelter in a bathroom closet.

However, Ms Burks said that the familys home was destroyed during the natural disaster.

Evan Clower, a friend of Ms Burks has started a GoFundMe page for the family to help them rebuild their lives in the aftermath of the disaster.

They are going to need help picking up the pieces so that they can find another place to live, collect their items, rebuild, all while Jared is working and fighting for those who health may be compromised, Ms Clower wrote on the GoFundMe page.

As of Monday over $70,000 had been raised for the family by the fundraiser.

Those who have donated to the family thanked Dr Burk for his medical service labelling him a hero for his continued service amidst the pandemic.
With his own plainspoken style, Cuomo has provided vivid illustration of the massive challenges that states face in trying to contain the pandemic. That Cuomo is a fellow New Yorker, and viewed as a rival for the nations attention, has clearly gotten under Trumps skin.

We are working very, very hard for the people of New York, Trump said after Cuomos blunt remarks about the ventilators. We are working a lot with him. Then I watch him on this show complaining.

Its not only a Democratic phenomenon. Republican governors, such as Charlie Baker in Massachusetts, Mike DeWine in Ohio, and Larry Hogan in Maryland, have also stepped up, according to Stateline.org, a project of the Pew Center on the States.

I do think that the governors moved out more efficiently than the federal government did, particularly the president and the administration, Bob Griffin, dean of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the State University of New York Albany told Stateline. Particularly Illinois and New York, and Newsom did a decent job in California. Look at what you see even from Alabama, Washingtonthe states have taken the lead.

So if Trump does carry through with his ill-considered decision to reopen the nation on Easter, expecting the resurrection of the countrys economic fortunes, dont be surprised to see Wolf, Cuomo and other governors trying to roll the rock back into place as they seek to protect their own residents.

John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek.
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump signed a $2 trillion economic stimulus package just hours after it was rushed through the House Friday, clearing the way for aid to businesses, increased benefits for workers and direct payments to taxpayers.

The bipartisan CARES Act passed the House on a voice vote, over the objections of some members, would also include funding for research and medical equipment to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Included in the bill are hundreds of billions that could be mailed out in the form of $1,200 checks to individual taxpayers in coming weeks.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, called the relief bill oversized and fiscally irresponsible. But other Arizona lawmakers said that while they had some issues with the bill, it is sorely needed at a time when peoples health and jobs are being threatened by the coronavirus.

There is an economic cost to saving lives, and Congress took the necessary steps to help small businesses, workers, and their families during this unprecedented time of hardship, said Rep. Raul M. Grijalva in a prepared statement.

Indianz.Com Video by Kevin Abourezk: Lakota Man Distributes Free Hand Sanitizer Amid #Coronavirus Crisis

The vote and signing came just two days after the Senate passed the bill on a 96-0 vote, and required House members to be called back on short notice to get a quorum in the face of threats from a handful of conservative lawmakers to try to stall the bill.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security  or CARES  Act includes $500 billion in aid for industries hit hard by COVID-19, like airlines and hotels, another $350 billion in loans for small businesses and $250 billion in expanded unemployment benefits.

It comes one week after new unemployment claims hit almost 3.3 million, a record for one week and 3 million more than the previous week. Claims in Arizona jumped from 3,500 in a typical week to more than 29,000 last week

The bill also includes $300 billion in direct cash payments of $1,200 for individual taxpayers, with additional $500 payments per child. Trump said that means a family of four could soon get $3,400 from the government. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday in an interview with CNBC that people can expect to see their checks in three weeks.

"We were asking for a lot more": A #Coronavirus relief bill includes an $8 billion fund for tribal governments but it almost got cut out of the final package. #COVID19 https://t.co/FF0aK5nheq  indianz.com (@indianz) March 27, 2020

Not all of Arizonas lawmakers made it back in time to vote Friday. But all of them, except Biggs, voiced support for the measure. And all pointed to parts that would specifically benefit the state.

Democratic Reps. Greg Stanton of Phoenix and Tom OHalleran of Sedona said in emailed statements that they had worked to secure funds for Arizonas airports, universities, affordable housing and other state operations.

Of the $200 billion for medical equipment like N95 masks and ventilators to treat coronavirus patients, $2.8 billion will be allocated to fighting the virus in Arizona, according to figures provided by Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson.

Lawmakers said tribal lands will also receive much needed funding from the bill to fight COVID-19.

In my district, the Navajo Nation is dealing with a disproportionate amount of COVID 19 cases, OHalleran said on the House floor Friday. This bill allocates over $1 billion to the Indian Health  Service and to tribal health care providers and over $400 million to tribal governments for equipment.

Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Phoenix, said in a statement that the bill will help Indian Country combat the unique challenges this virus is presenting on Tribal lands, and it will help students whose semesters have been cancelled and who have been forced to find alternative housing arrangements on short notice.

But Biggs said the handouts and benefits in the bill will end up incentivizing people to stay unemployed as opposed to get jobs.

Thats really problematic, Biggs said in a video after the vote. Were going to continue to fight the coronavirus. but we also have to make sure that our economy doesnt get emasculated.

Biggs was one of a handful of Republicans who shouted no when the bill came up for a voice vote, and who were overruled when they tried to force a roll call vote on the measure.

Many individuals may be upset with my position on this package, Biggs said in an emailed statement. But I have talked to many who have warned against the future perils of enacting these unprecedented spending packages with little debate or consideration for our debt and deficit.

With number of positive #COVID19 cases rising in tribal communities, Indian Country will finally see billions of dollars in relief from a major #Coronavirus package almost over the finish line on Capitol Hill. https://t.co/tk1glXDSHU  indianz.com (@indianz) March 26, 2020

The threat of a roll call forced leaders on both sides of the aisle to call lawmakers back to town in case their votes were needed. That included Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Prescott, who had been self-isolating for two weeks after possible exposure to a COVID-19 patient, who said he supported the bipartisan bill.

While Biggs said the bill goes too far, others said it does not go far enough to help working Americans. But they said that will be a fight for the next bill.

We also should have included more relief for state, local, and tribal governments, more support to our hospitals and health systems, more funding to address food insecurity, and extended Medicaid eligibility to everyone in order to pay for all COVID-19 treatment costs, Gallego said in a prepared statement. I will continue to work to include these provisions in future legislation.

Note: This story originally appeared on Cronkite News and is published via a Creative Commons license . Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University

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President Donald Trump on Sunday said he expects the US coronavirus outbreak to peak in two weeks, around Easter when he had earlier hoped to withdraw restrictions and put the country back in business, adding that he was extending social distancing guidelines in place by a month till April 30.

As the number of cases in the United States rose to nearly 137,000, up by 35,000, and deaths to 2.409, a jump of 300, one of Trumps top health advisers warned that coronavirus cases could go into millions and fatalities to between 100,000 and 200,000, based on modelling and discounting mitigation efforts.

President Trump announced the extension of the 15-day guidance, issued on March 16 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, by a full month in recognition of the gravity of the outbreak he has been reluctant to acknowledge; America has the most cases in the world now.

We will be extending our guidelines to April 30 to slow the spread, the US president told reporters at an outdoor White House briefing on the outbreak. On Tuesday, we will be finalising these plans and providing a summary of our findings, supporting data and strategy to the American people.

Called the 15 days to slow the spread, the CDC guidelines were a template followed by state, city and municipal governments around the country to combat the coronavirus  a series of stay-at-home recommendations for people who felt ill, or someone in their family, and for the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions, the most vulnerable.

State and local governments built on them to issue stay-at-home orders as cases and fatalities escalated in their respective jurisdictions. More than half of Americas 50 states are under these restrictions now, or variations of it, with exemptions for services and workers deemed essential.

Trump had hoped to reverse them around Easter, the Christian holiday that falls on April 12, arguing that the restrictions had been more damaging for people and the economy than the illness. Queried about it on Sunday, he said his target date was aspirational.

Easter should be the peak number, Trump said about his new assessment of the situations, adding, The modelling estimates that the peak in death rate is likely to (be) hit in two weeks.

Experts on Trumps task force on coronavirus have used the same concept of modelling to project a more dire picture of the impeding crisis than the president is inclined to concede.

Whenever the models come in, they give a worst-case scenario and a best-case scenario, Anthony Fauci, head of epidemiology at the National Institutes Health and a leading member of Trumps coronavirus task force, said to CNN, referring to constructs researchers use to project future outcomes.

He added: Generally, the reality is somewhere in the middle. Ive never seen a model of the diseases that Ive dealt with where the worst case actually came out. They always overshoot,

I mean, looking at what were seeing now, you know, I would say between 100 and 200,000 (deaths). But I dont want to be held to that, Fauci said, adding that the US is going to have millions of case.
Cannabis retailers, deemed essential by the state, have been allowed to stay open during California's COVID-19 lockdown. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

In designating Californias marijuana industry as essential under the state's COVID-19 stay-at-home order, the administration of Gov. Gavin Newsom has argued that the health benefits of keeping pot shops open outweigh the risks  even as opponents of the policy call it reckless.

Critics say it doesn't make sense to allow people to congregate at cannabis stores, increasing the chance of infection, so they can buy products that are smoked at a time when the virus is attacking respiratory systems.

Other states have restricted sales to those for medical needs or to deliveries, seeking to limit cannabis store crowds at a time when residents are being told to stay in their homes and practice social distancing.

But in his March 19 statewide order shuttering most businesses and directing residents to remain at home, Newsom exempted those deemed by the state public health officer to be Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers, who "protect health and well-being of all Californians.

In accordance with Newsoms order, the health officer issued a list of essential employees who can stay on the job including those in grocery stores, welfare offices, power plants, hospitals, pharmacies and cannabis retailers.

Newsom was the leading proponent of Proposition 64, the 2016 ballot measure that legalized the sale of cannabis for recreational use in California. His administration is making the same argument he made four years ago as lieutenant governor in supporting the recommendation of the state health officer to keep marijuana stores open.



"Access to legal, regulated and safe cannabis is essential, especially for California residents who rely on cannabis as their medicine, said Nicole Elliott, the governors senior advisor on cannabis.

Opponents of Proposition 64, including Kevin Sabet, head of the group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said there are health risks in smoking cannabis, while pills and other medicines made from cannabis are available elsewhere for medical patients.

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Given the choice of marijuana-based FDA drugs available at pharmacies, deeming pot shops 'essential' makes no more sense than allowing tobacco stores, Sabet said.

The states decision to allow stores to stay open was a welcome reprieve for Californias cannabis industry, which has been struggling to compete with the black market. Licensed growers and sellers say they have been hurt by high taxes, strict regulation and the refusal of most cities in the state to allow pot shops.

The state has 1,100 licensed retail stores and home delivery firms and many have seen a surge in sales since the COVID-19 outbreak began. During the nine-day period ending March 21, average daily sales were up 40% compared to the first two and a half months of the year, according to BDS Analytics, a firm that tracks cannabis transactions. Home deliveries are also up significantly.

The rush of buyers ranges from people with chronic medical needs including pain, to people who just need to relax in a time of great anxiety, said Roy Bingham, co-founder and CEO of the company.

He said his firm found that uncertainty over the future availability of cannabis also had people buying 25% more than they typically do to stock up.

Anxiety over future access to cannabis has been spurred by reports of tougher rules in other states. Massachusetts has banned sales for recreational use, limiting stores to providing medical marijuana, while Nevada is only allowing deliveries, barring in-person sales. Michigan sales must be done curbside or by delivery.

Californias order leaves room for cities and counties to adopt tougher standards that could require the closure of pot shops, some in the industry worry.



Advocacy groups including the Cannabis Consumer Policy Council are urging other cities and counties to follow the lead of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and others in adopting local rules to keep pot shops open.

This is not the time to put patients or consumers at risk, said Nate Bradley, executive director of the policy council that comprises cannabis advocates, veterans, labor leaders and business owners.

The pandemic increases symptoms of anxiety and PTSD in our veteran population and many patients have suppressed immune systems, Bradley added. Forcing them into the illicit market only further puts them at risk and further burdens public safety resources.

Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Alameda) said while many cannabis businesses have seen sales increase, others are struggling. One retailer in his district decided to temporarily shut its doors to protect workers and customers with immunodeficiency issues, Bonta said.

They dont want to risk exposure, he said.

The state Bureau of Cannabis Control said retailers that continue to stay open must adopt social distancing and anti-congregating measures, and are required to comply with the Center for Disease Control guidelines for cleaning and disinfection of public areas.

In response, many stores, including the Higher Path in Sherman Oaks, are offering curbside service, allowing people to order cannabis online and text the business when they arrive to have the product brought out to their car.

"I'm trying to limit the amount of personal interaction of my employees with any member of the public," said Jerred Kiloh, owner of the store. He had to get special permission from the state bureau to waive the requirement that stores conduct sales transactions in a secure indoor area.

On one recent day, Kiloh said there were 15 cars outside his store whose drivers were provided with cannabis products they had ordered, in addition to customers who went inside the store for their orders.

Still, the potential for transmission of the virus between customers and employees at pot shops is cited by some who say the state is making a mistake in allowing pot shops to remain open when bars and nightclubs have been ordered shut.

Allowing workers to congregate to distribute this damaging and dangerous drug in the presence of this pandemic cannot be justified in the least, said Scott Chipman, a Southern California resident who is vice president of Americans Against Legalizing Marijuana, noting that people face special risk from COVID-19 if their immune systems are impaired or they have lung or respiratory problems.

Dale Gieringer, director of the legalization group CAL NORML, called Chipmans claims unsubstantiated by a group that likes to blame marijuana for everything.

Gieringer, who has written on cannabis health issues, said studies have shown chronic cannabis smoking, like all smoking, can raise the risk of respiratory infections, which are a factor in COVID-19 susceptibility. But he said that is not true of edible cannabis.

On the other hand, it could be argued that cannabis has demonstrated beneficial anti-inflammatory effects in treating auto-immune diseases like [multiple sclerosis], rheumatoid arthritis, endometriosis, etc., in which the body is damaged by its own immune response, Gieringer said.

While more medical research is needed on the health impacts of cannabis, some studies have raised concerns about cannabis use negatively impacting the immune system, said Dr. Donald Tashkin, a UCLA professor and director of the universitys Pulmonary Function Laboratories.

Tashkin co-authored a 2014 study published in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology that found habitual smoking of marijuana has "a number of effects on the respiratory and immune systems." They include an increased prevalence of acute and chronic bronchitis and striking endoscopic findings of airway injury (erythema, edema, and increased secretions).



Those who use cannabis products for non-medicinal reasons should avoid doing so during the COVID-19 outbreak, he said.

If they are not dependent, I would advise them to stop smoking cannabis, Tashkin said. "Smoking anything increases risk.

Chipman said he believes the state's designation of cannabis as an essential industry can be attributed to the industrys political clout in the state Capitol, noting that Newsom has a political stake in seeing the legal market succeed because he led the campaign for Proposition 64.

Gavin Newsom has had blinders on related to marijuana and its impacts on public health and safety for years, Chipman said.

But some GOP lawmakers, including Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron of Escondido, are siding with the governor on the decision to keep cannabis stores operating during the pandemic.

"I agree with the state's efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 thus far, Waldron said, But I think it's also important to keep open as many businesses as possible, as long as that doesn't interfere with virus mitigation and employees and customers are protected."
ORLANDO  Civil rights groups, lawmakers, attorneys general, former Census Bureau directors, former Commerce Department secretaries and actors like Rita Moreno and George Takei said Monday they were forming a coalition to monitor and protect the confidentiality of the 2020 census.

The goals of the coalition of 275 groups and individuals are to monitor and stop any breaches of confidentiality in the data from the 2020 census. Federal law has strong protections against the release of any personal information from the census, but with distrust of the federal government growing over the years, an outside coalition is needed to reassure the public any problems are being monitored, organizers said.

The failed effort by the Trump administration to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census questionnaire also raised suspicions about the confidentiality of the census data among immigrants and minority groups, who may hesitate to participate in the census if they worry their information will be shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other federal agencies, organizers said.

Anyone who feels the confidentiality of their census information has been breached can call four multilingual hotlines. The complaint will be investigated and coalition members will take action, either by publicizing the breach or filing a legal challenge, organizers said.

I dont anticipate a breach, but really the pledge is an effort to reassure the general public who doesnt have an awareness about how strong census privacy laws are, said Thomas Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Theres nothing wrong with having a watchdog on the outside.

Takei, a former star of the original television series, Star Trek, noted that during World War II, Census Bureau information helped identify where Japanese Americans were living. About 120,000 people of Japanese descent on the West Coast, including young Takei and his family, were sent to internment camps.

I was one of them, and Im mindful of that history, Takei said Monday on a conference call.

The formation of the coalition comes as increasing numbers of U.S. residents have grown aware that the once-a-decade head count of the nation is taking place, with blacks more likely than whites and older people more likely than younger ones to have heard something about the 2020 census, according to a new survey released Monday.

Between early January and early March, those who had seen or heard something about the census grew from half to two-thirds of respondents, the Pew Research Center survey found.

The 2020 census will help determine how many congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state gets, as well as the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal spending.

Mike Schneider is an Associated Press writer.
Trump to extend US voluntary shutdown for a month

Donald Trump says he is extending the voluntary national shutdown for a month as illness and deaths from the pandemic rise across the US.

The initial 15-day period of social distancing urged by the federal government expires today and Mr Trump had previously expressed an interest in relaxing the national guidelines at least in parts of the country less affected by the pandemic.

But instead he has decided to extend the measures to April 30.

It comes as the death toll in New York state passed 1,000.

Johnson's rallying call for 'togetherness' after six-month restriction warning

Boris Johnson says the UK will get through the coronavirus crisis together after Britons were warned restrictions on their lives may last for at least six months.

The Prime Minister issued the words of encouragement as he praised the 750,000 volunteers who have offered to assist the NHS during a video message last night.

Deputy chief medical officer for England Dr Jenny Harries said Britain will not be in "complete lockdown" for half a year but said social distancing measures will be lifted gradually to avoid a second wave of deaths.

Mr Johnson also praised the 20,000 former NHS staff who have returned to the service.

Airline crew to help at new emergency hospitals

Cabin crew will join doctors and nurses in staffing the new Nightingale hospitals built to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the NHS has said.

Staff at Virgin Atlantic and EasyJet are being invited by the airlines to volunteer at the new 4,000-bed clinic being built at the Excel centre in east London, and those planned in Birmingham and Manchester.

Their salaries will continue to be paid by the airlines.

Virus continues to hit Asian markets

Asian shares have started the week with fresh losses.

Japan's benchmark dropped almost 4 per cent and other regional markets were mostly lower. Shares in Australia rose after the government promised more recession-fighting stimulus.

US futures fell slightly more than 1 per cent and oil prices were also lower.

Today's drop followed a decline of more than 3 per cent on Wall Street on Friday despite hopes that a $2 trillion (1.6 trillion) relief bill would ease the economic havoc brought by the pandemic.

Harry and Meghan US security 'privately funded'

Donald Trump last night announced the US would not be picking up any bills for the royal couple after they moved from their temporary home in Canada.

Hollywood horror show on Bake Off says Kelly Brook

Kelly Brook says Paul Hollywood was terrifying on the Great Celebrity Bake Off.

Brook is competing against Carol Vorderman, Rob Rinder and comedian Mo Gilligan in this year's Channel 4 show, in support of Stand Up To Cancer.

She told Hello! Magazine baking is a relaxing hobby but she didnt feel so relaxed when her showstopper failed to turn out as planned and she saw Hollywoods expression.

On this day

1814: Britain and its allies entered Paris in triumph against Napoleon Bonaparte.

1842: Ether was used as an anaesthetic for the first time, by American surgeon Dr Crawford Long.

1853: Artist Vincent van Gogh, who painted Sunflowers, was born in the Dutch village of Groot-Zundert.

1867: Alaska was bought by America from Russia for 7.2 million dollars - less than two cents an acre.

1964: The seaside resort of Clacton was the scene of pitched battles by gangs of mods and rockers.

1972: The Northern Ireland (Temporary Provisions) Act came into force decreeing direct rule from London and prompting the resignation of then prime minister of Northern Ireland Brian Faulkner.

1979: The people of Iran voted overwhelmingly in favour of establishing an Islamic Republic in a two-day referendum.

1981: US president Ronald Reagan was wounded in an assassination bid outside Washington's Hilton Hotel.

1987: Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh was sold at auction by Christie's for 24.75 million.
Getty Images

President Donald Trump says the US will not pay for the security of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after the couple decided to move from Canada to California.



"I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the US however, the US will not pay for their security protection. They must pay," Mr Trump wrote in a tweet on Sunday.



According to reports, the royal couple recently left Vancouver Island for Los Angeles, where Meghan grew up.

The US and UK have a longstanding agreement between the two countries to provide security protection to diplomats and members of the Royal Family when visiting the country. But sources said Harry might lose this benefit after he and his wife decided to step down as senior royals, making them no longer international protected persons.

The president did not say if Harry or the British government asked for protection to be extended to the family after they decided to move to Los Angeles. The Independent contacted the Royal Family for a comment.

Later on Sunday, the couple issued a statement saying they had no plans to ask the US for pay for their security and that privately-funded arrangements have already been made.

The couple announced earlier this year they would be moving away from the UK and stepping away from their royal duties, an announcement that sent shockwaves through the Royal Family. Initially Harry and Meghan planned to settle down in Canada with their 10-month-old son, Archie.

I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2020

Canada reportedly paid for the their security starting in November, but officials said they would stop paying for the protection after March once their royal duties ended.

Story continues

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex choosing to relocate to Canada on a part-time basis presented our government with a unique and unprecedented set of circumstances, Canadas public safety minister Bill Blairs office wrote in a statement, according to CBC. The RCMP has been engaged with officials in the UK from the very beginning regarding security considerations.

As the Duke and Duchess are currently recognised as internationally protected persons, Canada has an obligation to provide security assistance on an as-needed basis. At the request of the Metropolitan Police, the RCMP has been providing assistance to the Met since the arrival of the Duke and Duchess to Canada intermittently since November 2019. The assistance will cease in the coming weeks, in keeping with their change in status.

Prime minister Justin Trudeau previously said discussions were ongoing with the UK about how security protection would be paid for while the family was in Canada.



The US and Canada agreed earlier this month to close their borders to non-essential travel amid the coronavirus pandemic around the same time Harry and Meghan charted a private plane from Canada to California, The Sun reported last week.

Harry and Meghan attended their last event under their titles earlier this month at the annual Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey before their royal status ends on 31 March.

Read more

Cuomo extends New Yorks quarantine as coronavirus cases rise

Trump boasts his coronavirus briefings are a ratings hit

UK could stay in partial coronavirus lockdown for six months

UKs first front line doctor dies after contracting coronavirus
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Mar. 30, 2020 | BALLARD COUNTY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 30, 2020 | 11:00 AM | BALLARD COUNTY

A Paducah man was arrested Saturday after police say he broke into several area businesses.



The Ballard County Sheriff's Office says deputies responded Saturday morning to a call from the owner of a local business saying the Bike Boss had been burglarized. Deputies responded and found the window to the office door had been broken out, and someone had entered the building.



While on scene deputies found that the Burger Bar, which is next door to the Bike Boss, had also been burglarized.



Deputies used surveillance video to identify the suspect as 23-year-old Dakota Miller of Paducah. Later in the day a deputy saw Miller in the front seat of a vehicle traveling on Gage Road in Kevil and stopped the vehicle.



Deputies arrested Miller on a Kentucky Probation and Parole Board Warrant. He was also charged with three counts of third degree burglary. He reportedly confessed to the burglaries and told deputies where stolen items from the Bike Boss, Burger Bar, and GEO Consulting were located.



Deputies said GEO Consulting was unaware of the burglary to their business until deputies contacted them.



Miller is a suspect in other burglaries in the area, and investigators say more charges may be filed against him.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

People walking around with masks.

Health care systems pushed to capacity, caring for the infected, as a virus runs its course throughout the world.

And yet, somehow, we didnt learn the first time around, says filmmaker Robert Kenner.

Twenty-two years ago, Kenner was at the helm of the documentary, Influenza 1918, for the American Experience series.

It told of a virus  known as the Spanish flu  which spread rapidly throughout the world.

Kenner says the world is experiencing a similar event with COVID-19.

In 1918, heres this influenza that killed four times the people of World War I, he said. Its cataclysmic. Its so easy to see how shortsighted we can get. Weve done it again.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, American Experience will be airing Influenza 1918 at 7 p.m. Tuesday on New Mexico PBS.

Kenner has since worked on such projects as The Confession Killer, Food, Inc. and Command and Control.

The documentary starts on the morning of March 11, 1918, when a young private reported to the Army hospital at Fort Riley, Kansas, complaining of fever, a sore throat, and headache. Then, another sick soldier appeared, then another and another. By noon, the hospital had more than 100 cases; in a week, there were 500. Forty-eight soldiers died at Fort Riley that spring. No one knew why.

Before it was over, the flu would kill more than 600,000 Americans  more than all the combat deaths of the 20th century combined.

Kenner said during the time, America was at war. There were call-ups, blood drives and troop shipments were in high gear.

American soldiers were returning home with the flu.

In October 1918, more than 195,000 people died in America alone.

Whats so amazing to see is that history is repeating itself, Kenner said. People were in denial and we see how wrong they were. Yet, today we are doing the exact same thing.

Kenner said humans trust science on many levels but dont trust it when it has the potential to disrupt daily life.

A virus is more immediate, he said. Theres something we can do. We can continue to wash our hands more. We can physically distance ourself from each other.

Decades after completing the film, Kenner is surprised how much we never really knew about the 1918 flu.

The thing that we need to realize is that viruses dont have borders, Kenner said. I knew from making this film that the world is so interconnected that its going to spread everywhere. It cant be fought on a state level. It has to be fought from a world wide level.

Years later, Kenner is still curious about one thing.

What strikes me is how invisible this event was, he says of the 1918 flu and working on the film. It was the largest event in peoples lives and they saw the world differently. Yet it didnt reach public consciousness. It disappeared just as fast as it left a huge impact on the world.

On TV

Influenza 1918 will air at 7 p.m. Tuesday,March 31, on New Mexico PBS.
CII also called for allowing companies to pass circular resolutions for restricted matters without the requirement of conducting a board meeting for approving such matters for a period up to June 30, 2020.

New Delhi: Industry bodies have appealed to the government seeking extension of the current financial year, ending 31 March, by at least three months till June-end, citing the present economic situation amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Representatives from industry chambers including CII, FICCI and Assocham met officials of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs here last week and apprised the government of the issues being faced by them, and gave various suggestions.

"In the current scenario, any financial statement prepared for April 2019 to March 2020 will not give true and fair view as it does not represent one complete business cycle of the entity. Hence, it is imperative to increase the given period to disclose the correct picture of business performances of a company," the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) told the ministry in its submission.

It further argued that the current economic situation in India and the world over has resulted in impaired valuations of all assets, including commodities and financial assets.

CII also called for allowing companies to pass circular resolutions for restricted matters without the requirement of conducting a board meeting for approving such matters for a period up to June 30, 2020.

"With the current backdrop of coronavirus, the entire economy is getting stagnated for at least a couple of quarters which are kind of missing quarters for corporates. Further, to view the annualised financial statement of any corporate entity, one has to appropriately factor in the impact of current quarter," it said.

Section 179(3) of Companies Act, 2013 read with Rule 8 of the Companies (Meeting of Board and its Powers) Rules, 2014, provides certain matters to be dealt with by the Board of Directors only by means of resolutions passed at meetings of the Board and these matters cannot be passed by circular resolution.

These matters include making calls on shareholders in respect of money unpaid on their shares; authorising buyback of securities; issuance securities, including debentures, whether in or outside India; approving financial statement and the Board''s report; among others.

As follow-up of the meeting, ASSOCHAM has submitted a representation to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs stating that extension by three or six months for finalisation of annual accounts would be required to reflect the true and fair statement about businesses.

"This once-in-century kind of an event like virus attack would hopefully recede in the next few weeks or months. It would be only after normalcy returns in the economy that the companies would be able to resume their regular operations. Return to normalcy is required for any fair statement of accounts," Assocham Secretary General Deepak Sood said.

The chamber''s letter to Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman and the MCA Secretary Injeti Srinivas recommended that forbearances be given under the Companies Act, 2013.

"AGM for all companies should be allowed to be held within six months of 30 June 2020, or 30 September 2020 i.e., latest by 31 December, 2020 or 31 March 2021 respectively, and on case-to-case basis. Subsequent relaxation is also desirable in terms of extension of time for filing income-tax returns for companies," Assocham said.
New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday (March 30) issued a stringent warning to those ration dealers who are involved in black marketing while addressing a press conference. The Delhi CM said, "We will ensure strict action against those ration dealers who are stealing people's ration."

Kejriwal also stated that those who don't have ration cards will also be given ration by the Delhi government, adding "stay home as an act of patriotism and don't pay attention to rumours."

The Delhi CM said that the strict patrolling on Delhi's borders has been initiated to prevent the movement of migrant workers in the capital during the lockdown period.

He said an alarming situation had arisen after a large number of people gathered in Kaushambi, bordering Anand Vihar, over rumours that buses were stationed there to take migrant workers to their home states. Kejriwal, however, added that the situation has now been brought under control.

Lt Governor Anil Baijal earlier in the day held a meeting today with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, district magistrates and DCPs via video conference and discussed measures to control the spread of coronavirus.

Taking to Twitter, Baijal said all district magistrates and deputy commissioners of police have been asked to ensure that no congregation is allowed in the national capital.

No movement except for availing essential services will be allowed, Baijal said, adding that social distancing should be maintained under all circumstances.

Earlier in the day, the Delhi government also ordered that all doctors serving in Delhi government's Lok Nayak Hospital and GB Pant Hospital on COVID-19 duty will now be housed in Hotel Lalit, giving a big boost to doctors active on the frontlines of the battle against coronavirus COVID-19.

So far, 72 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the capital.
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Homeless people in Las Vegas have been corralled into a disused parking lot and made to sleep less than six feet apart on the concrete after a resident at their shelter caught coronavirus.

Last week a homeless man at the Catholic Charities' homeless shelter tested positive for Covid-19, forcing it to close and leaving 500 people without a place to sleep.

The City of Las Vegas provided the vacant parking lot of Cashman Center on Saturday night. They rolled out a thin layer of carpet for one section of the concrete, but another has been left bare.

Furthermore, in contravention of CDC guidelines on social distancing, the homeless are sleeping within painted boxes which do not keep them six feet apart.

It comes as the number of people infected by the deadly contagion in Nevada reached 920, with 15 deaths, with a total of more than 142,000 cases in the US and 2,509 deaths.

Las Vegas casinos have been shut down because of the outbreak and showbiz acts have cancelled appearances.

Last week a homeless man at the Catholic Charities' homeless shelter tested positive, forcing it to close and leaving 500 people without a place to sleep. Over the weekend they were moved to the vacant parking lot of the Cashman Center in Las Vegas

Some of the homeless people from in Las Vegas lie down on bare concrete in the open-air facility provided for them after their usual shelter was closed over coronavirus fears

In a statement on Saturday, Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones said, 'We're proud to be working in collaboration with the city to meet the needs of our homeless population and appreciate the quick response of the participants in standing up the facility so soon' (pictured: homeless people settle in for the evening on Sunday)

In a statement on Saturday, Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones said, 'We're proud to be working in collaboration with the city to meet the needs of our homeless population and appreciate the quick response of the participants in standing up the facility so soon.'

The fully open-air facility, which is open to the homeless from 6pm to 8am, is anticipated to remain until at least April 3 or however long it takes for the Catholic Charities shelter to re-open.

Touro University medical students and physician assistant students volunteered at the parking lot over the weekend as the city authorities set up the temporary facility.

County Commissioner Justin Jones told Fox: 'We're planning for seven days, but certainly that's really dependent on how quickly Catholic Charities gets reopened and how quickly the other facility is open.'

People start to arrive at a temporary homeless shelter set up in a parking lot at Cashman Center on Saturday, where a thin blue carpet was rolled out for them

People rest at a makeshift camp for the homeless Saturday. Officials opened part of a city parking lot as a makeshift homeless shelter after a local shelter closed when a man staying there tested positive for the coronavirus

Touro University Nevada medical student Miranda Stiewig takes a man's temperature as he arrives at a temporary homeless shelter set up in a parking lot at Cashman Center on Saturday

Touro University Nevada medical student Nikie Tong looks on as fellow student Claire Chen (R) takes a man's temperature as he arrives at a temporary homeless shelter set up in a parking lot at Cashman Center on Saturday

Mayor Carolyn Goodman told the Reno Gazette Journal: 'The city wants to make this site available because we know the obligation we have to help ease the overflow of the Homeless Courtyard.'

Freeman's Carpet Service, GES Exposition Services and the Teamsters were among those helping with provisions for the homeless.

'We've had Republic Services donating trash resources, Touro University med students will be over here doing screening, so we've really seen the community come together,' Jones told Fox.

'All the government agencies and other folks to make sure that we serve our homeless population.'

The entrance of the temporary facility which will be used until at least April 3, or until the Catholic Charities' shelter re-opens

Volunteers hand bottles of water and blankets to people arriving at the parking lot on Sunday evening
Oil tumbled to an 18-year low as coronavirus lockdowns cascaded through the worlds largest economies, leaving the market overwhelmed by cratering demand and a ballooning surplus.

Futures in London plunged by 9% to the lowest level since March 2002, while New York crude dipped below $20 a barrel before settling just above that level. While U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin Monday to discuss the importance of stable energy markets, that did little to stanch the decline.

A huge oversupply is further collapsing the oil markets structure, and there may be more weakness to come as the world quickly runs out of storage capacity. The slump in demand has shut refineries from South Africa to Canada, leading to excess barrels in the market.

At the key storage hub of Cushing, Oklahoma, inventories are said to have ballooned by more than 4 million barrels last week, according to traders with knowledge of Genscape data, raising fears about storage capacity limits being reached.

FUEL FIX: Get our energy news in your inbox each weekday

Were grinding lower here and well continue to get lower as runs get cut globally, said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC, a New York hedge fund focused on energy. As we see specific points like Cushing near its limits, its just going to put greater and greater pressure on the price till we get to a clearing point.

Prices are on track for the worst quarter on record. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates consumption will drop by 26 million barrels a day this week as measures to contain the coronavirus hurt global GDP. Consultant FGE estimated that refinery operating rates have been cut by over 5 million barrels a day worldwide, and could bottom out at between 15 million and 20 million lower.

Meanwhile, Riyadh and Moscow are showing no signs of a detente in their supply battle as Saudi Arabia announced plans to increase its oil exports in the coming months.

In the market for physical barrels of crude, prices are already far below those of futures benchmarks. Oil from Canada touched a record low of $3.82, while many other key grades are trading below $10 a barrel, with some as low as just $3.

Its a similar picture in Europe, where Kazakh crude was offered at a 10-year low. The six-month contango on the global Brent benchmark has grown bigger than in the financial crisis, at more than $13 a barrel. The equivalent six-month contango for WTI is about $12.

The plunge in prices has caused distress in some OPEC nations. Algeria, which holds the cartels rotating presidency, urged the secretariat to convene a panel but the call has failed to gather the majority backing necessary to go ahead. Riyadh is among those opposing the idea.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
While the United Kingdom government is battling to contain the spread of coronavirus pandemic, Britons have taken over the internet to discuss whether Finance Minister Rishi Sunak is hot or not. Rishi recently took to Twitter to share a picture of himself working from home and to wish Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock a speedy recovery. Soon after the post, internet users started calling him Dishy Rishi and started obsessing over his grey hoodie picture.

'I have a confession'

Rishi has left the internet divided. While some users are admiring his work-from-home look, others think that it is ridiculous and just a symptom of lockdown. One user wrote, Fully obsessed with Dishy Rishi Finance Fitty and thats that. While, on the other hand, another user pointed out that he is still a tory and wrote, Not even a Tory but I fancy Rishi Sunak, hes fully sorted everyone out.

Oh no. Rishi Sunak in a hoodie. Wont be long until people call him dishy. Remember, still a Tory pic.twitter.com/Kiz2cOZ0IK  Nooruddean (@BeardedGenius) March 27, 2020

READ: Rishi Sunak Unveils His First Budget; Announces 30 Bn Pound Stimulus Package To Combat Coronavirus

Pretty sure there is a specific strain of this virus that is making people fancy Rishi Sunak.  Anna Mazzola (@Anna_Mazz) March 27, 2020

Im sorry but professing to fancy Rishi Sunak is just sooooo obvious and predictable right now. You dont.



Just wait till things are back to normal because I damn well bet you wont fancy him then   Lauren Archer (@miss_archer) March 28, 2020

READ: UK FM Rishi Sunak Set To Announce Bailout For Self-employed Workers: Report

Taking boyfriend applications from anyone who looks this good in a grey hoody. #dishyrishi https://t.co/dcisQs6x5S  Will Morgan (@wtjm89) March 27, 2020

regret to announce that the hoodie is really doing it for me https://t.co/Ilqfea9JXs  Marie Le Conte (@youngvulgarian) March 27, 2020

U got any more pics? https://t.co/EUjG1byZVw  Jordan Hall (@jordanBhall) March 27, 2020

READ: You Will Not Face This Alone, Rishi Sunak Tells UK Workers; Unveils Wage Boost Package

I have a confession to make. Maybe lockdown has played havoc with my hormones or pheromones or whatever the hell they are but...



I quite fancy Rishi Sunak 



Obviously not for the brains but that tall, geeky figure somehow does it for me ... am I alone?  https://t.co/Go5LxU1JZB  Charlotte D  (@ldnewbie1974) March 27, 2020

Jake's called him 'dishy Rishi' from the beginning and it was definitely a joke but... https://t.co/b0WLKjNHFo  Jess (@jessfeehan) March 27, 2020

Extremely bizarre to see British women of all political persuasions thirsting over Rishi Sunak. Dishy Rishi it seems.  Kavitha Rao (@kavitharao) March 28, 2020

READ: Rishi Sunak Unveils 330-billion Pound Rescue Package In Coronavirus Fight

READ: UK Finance Minister Rishi Sunak Makes Visas More Expensive In Maiden Budget
Dr. Jared Burks went viral for distancing himself from his family. Then his house was destroyed by a tornado.

Alyssa Burks/Facebook,Evan Clower/GoFundMe

A Jonesboro, Arkansas doctor working in a hospital went viral after his wife shared how he was distancing himself from her and their young song, Zeke, to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Then, a tornado that hit Jonesboro on Saturday destroyed the family's home while he was inside, "but he survived by the grace of God," his wife said.

A GoFundMe organized by a family friend has raised more than $40,000 in less than 24 hours.

"At a time when our economy is suffering from all of this, it is incredible to see people who are worried about money giving back to the people who are helping take care of our community," Evan Clower told Insider.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

A doctor and his wife in Jonesboro, Arkansas, who went viral last week as the subject of a viral Facebook post about social distancing, lost their home as a result of tornadoes in Arkansas on Saturday.

Dr. Jared Burks is a resident physician at Saint Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro. Burks and his wife, Alyssa, decided the best way to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus was to separate as he continued to work at the hospital.

Related: The U.S. Gets 4 Times As Many Twisters As Rest of the World

"He is working right now in a rotation that has him all over the hospital, including the ER, and he just felt like it would be responsible for us to quarantine from each other," his wife told KATV.

Alyssa, and their 1-year-old son, Zeke, went to live nearby with her parents, while her husband continued to live in the couple's shared home.

A viral photo shared to Facebook on March 25 showed their young son pressing his hand against the glass of his grandparent's front door so that he could get closer to his father, who was doing the same thing from the other side of the glass. Through the glass, Burks watched his son crawl for the first time, his wife told KATV.

"Look who we finally got to see today! Not going to pretend that I didn't bawl like a baby when he left to go back to work. We miss him, but we are doing what we have to do," Alyssa wrote in the Facebook post that tugged on heartstrings and had been shared more than 56,000 times.

Story continues

"The more we stay home, the less likely we are to spread it and the less likely they are to be affected by it as well," Alyssa told the Little Rock ABC affiliate.

But then  around 5 p.m. Saturday, the family was dealt another blow. While Jared was inside their home, a tornado struck, destroying the property.

According to KY3, the tornados left six people injured and destroyed both commercial and residential areas in the city, which has a population of more than 76,000. Stores in the area were empty due to attempts to prevent the spread of COVID-19, which likely helped reduce the number of injuries, Jonesboro E-911 Director Jeff Presley told KY3.

"We are all safe," Alyssa wrote in a post to Facebook late on Saturday. "Our house is gone. Jared was inside, but he survived by the grace of God."

In times of a crisis, a friend and hundreds of strangers flock to help

Evan Clower told Insider she had been best friends with Burks for more than 10 years since she and Alyssa were in the same sorority together in college. When she heard about what happened to her friend and her family, she decided to create a GoFundMe.

"It's been a whirlwind, and I did not expect this GoFundMe to be as crazy as it has and it's awesome," Clower said.

Originally, she weighed setting the GoFundMe goal at $1,000. Clower, who is self-quarantining with her mother in a town in northwest Arkansas, said, "I think that is significant and can kinda help them." Her mother suggested she go a little higher to $2,500.

Clower said she thought that might be too high, but agreed to her mother's suggestion. Her mom was on the right track, as more than 1,200 donors have raised over $42,000 in less than 24 hours.

People around the world have been eager to show appreciation to medical workers. In New York City, for example, people across the city took to their balconies, windows, and rooftops on Friday to offer applause for the city's essential workers, which largely consist of those in the healthcare field.

"It takes a special person to separate themselves from their family to help save our country. For that sacrifice you and your family are making, God will bless you and rain showers of blessings on you. Keep your head up and keep prayer first," one woman named Nicole, who donated $10, wrote.

"My husband was an ED doc," wrote Brenda, a donor who gave $25 to the fund. "You are so appreciated!"

Clower agreed the outpouring in support likely stems from a desire to support healthcare workers as they remain on the frontlines of the battle against the novel coronavirus.

"At a time when our economy is suffering from all of this, it is incredible to see people who are worried about money giving back to the people who are helping take care of our community because that doesn't happen a lot," she said. "You realize in a hard time there are more good than bad, and it's a blessing."

Insider
Investors can approximate the average market return by buying an index fund. While individual stocks can be big winners, plenty more fail to generate satisfactory returns. Investors in Tang Palace (China) Holdings Limited (HKG:1181) have tasted that bitter downside in the last year, as the share price dropped 38%. That's disappointing when you consider the market returned -17%. Notably, shareholders had a tough run over the longer term, too, with a drop of 30% in the last three years. Furthermore, it's down 33% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders. But this could be related to the weak market, which is down 16% in the same period.

See our latest analysis for Tang Palace (China) Holdings

While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time.

Unhappily, Tang Palace (China) Holdings had to report a 6.6% decline in EPS over the last year. The share price decline of 38% is actually more than the EPS drop. Unsurprisingly, given the lack of EPS growth, the market seems to be more cautious about the stock. The less favorable sentiment is reflected in its current P/E ratio of 6.77.

The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

SEHK:1181 Past and Future Earnings March 30th 2020

It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on Tang Palace (China) Holdings's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What About Dividends?

When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. The TSR incorporates the value of any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. As it happens, Tang Palace (China) Holdings's TSR for the last year was -32%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

Story continues

A Different Perspective

While the broader market lost about 17% in the twelve months, Tang Palace (China) Holdings shareholders did even worse, losing 32% (even including dividends) . Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 12%, each year, over five years. If the fundamental data continues to indicate long term sustainable growth, the current sell-off could be an opportunity worth considering. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 3 warning signs with Tang Palace (China) Holdings , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

Of course Tang Palace (China) Holdings may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of growth stocks.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on HK exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
REDWOOD CITY (BCN)

The Redwood City Police Department on Monday announced the arrest of a man in San Pablo on suspicion of multiple domestic violence offenses.

Redwood City police arrested 25-year-old Jermine Allen Friday after his ex-girlfriend reported that a March 19 argument between the two had become physical. Officers noted that the victim had significant visible injuries she said were a result of the attack.

Officers obtained a warrant in the case and learned Allen had an existing warrant for a domestic violence allegation involving the victim as well as a warrant from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for a parole violation.

While observing a residence in San Pablo Friday, officers saw Allen emerge and made an attempt to contact him before he fled on foot. Officers arrested Allen shortly afterward and booked him into San Mateo County Jail.

People with additional information about the case can contact Redwood City police Detective Matt Cydzik at (650) 780-7607 or the department's tip line at (650) 780-7107.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
A coughing crime wave has struck Britain as police Tasered a man when he allegedly began hacking over them, and a different man was arrested for assault today after coughing at supermarket shoppers.

Metropolitan Police firearms command said a man walked up to officers sitting in a car in Haringey, north London, and shouted that he was infected before deliberately coughing saliva all over them'.

He then began to physically attack the officers before he was Tasered and arrested, it was claimed yesterday. The suspect was later tested for coronavirus but came back negative.

In Suffolk, a man is due to appear in court on a harassment charge after allegedly coughing over people in a supermarket.

Police today Tasered a man who allegedly coughed over them after claiming to have coronavirus. File photo

Police said they received calls from several members of the public at 11.40am on Saturday claiming that someone in a mask was coughing over shoppers at the Co-op store in Eye, Suffolk.

A Suffolk Police statement said: Officers on patrol in the area swiftly located a suspect and arrested him on suspicion of common assault. He was taken to Bury St Edmunds Police Investigation Centre for questioning.

Jonathan Steele, 34, from Eye, has now been charged with causing harassment, alarm or distress by using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour.

There have been numerous incidents of thugs targeting police and NHS workers with the sickening tactic. Paul Leivers (pictured), was recently jailed for a year for coughing on a paramedic

He has also been charged with resisting arrest by a police constable, and has been released on bail to appear at Ipswich Magistrates Court on 10 April.

Last week director of public prosecutions Max Hill warned the public that using Covid-19 as a threat against emergency workers would be treated as a crime that could lead to up to two years behind bars.

Deliberately coughing at other key workers such as supermarket staff could be prosecuted as a common assault, which could mean up to six months in prison.

The crackdown follows numerous incidents of thugs targeting police and NHS workers with the sickening tactic.

In another alleged incident, a 45-year-old man has been charged with assaulting an emergency worker after allegedly coughing on a PC and telling them he had coronavirus.

The incident happened after West Yorkshire Police attended a report of a disturbance in Sowerby Bridge near Halifax.

While officers were there it is alleged the man, Jason Roberts, coughed at a police officer, saying he had Covid-19.

Roberts, who is from Halifax is due to appear at Leeds Magistrates Court today.

Yesterday, a paramedic who was helping an unwell patient was coughed at by another man who was self-isolating inside a house in Stroud, Gloucestershire.

'The man, a 43-year-old, was arrested, charged and remanded for assaulting an emergency worker by way of coughing and threatening GBH by infecting with Covid-19,' an ambulance service spokesman said.

A stock image of officers who have been dealing with a spate of coughing incidents today

The arrest came after the jailing of Paul Leivers, 48, for spitting at officers while claiming to have coronavirus.

Leivers admitted two counts of assault on an emergency worker after being arrested in Mansfield on Thursday.

The court heard Leivers did not have coronavirus or any symptoms of the disease.

Sentencing the defendant, District Judge Pyle said: 'It was in the public interest to deal with the matter sooner rather than later.

'These are two distinct acts and it was appalling behaviour, these offences were deliberate and pre-mediated.

'Emergency workers have a difficult job at the best of time, even more so at the minute and the court will not flinch to protect officers

Assistant Chief Constable Steve Cooper, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: 'This sentence sends out a very powerful and clear message that this behaviour will not be tolerated in any shape or form and especially not now in the current climate.

How new crackdown sees jail time for thugs who cough at emergency workers Anyone caught deliberately coughing at emergency workers while claiming to be infected with coronavirus could be charged with attacking an emergency worker. David Mott, 40, from Blackburn, was sentenced to 26 weeks in prison after threatening to spit at officers when they asked him why he was outdoors with two others on Monday night. The maximum sentence for this crime is two years in prison. Deliberately coughing at anyone in an attempt to infect them could constitute common assault, for which the maximum sentence is six months. Attacking a key worker, such as supermarket staff, would be counted as an aggravating factor. Advertisement

'In Brighton, police were called to a report of criminal damage at a block of flats at about 5.50pm on Saturday, where they arrested Peter Davy, 65, who allegedly spat at officers.

Davy is due to appear at Brighton Magistrates' Court today accused of three counts of assaulting an emergency worker.

He is also charged with using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause fear of violence; and using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

In a separate incident in Salford, a hospital worker suffered a fractured cheekbone after he was punched in the face.

Greater Manchester Police said Daniel Shevlin, 27, had been charged with Section 20 assault and an offence under Section 4a of the Public Order Act after the alleged incident at Salford Royal Infirmary on Sunday.

Officers were called just before 1.50pm to reports a man had assaulted a member of NHS staff at the hospital.

The staff member - a man in his 50s - required treatment for a fractured cheekbone but has since been discharged, police said.

A force spokesman said Shevlin, of no fixed abode, had been remanded in custody and was due to appear at Manchester and Salford Magistrates' Court today.
Susan Nelson died of suspected coronavirus just days after her aunt's funeral. Now 17 more family members appear to have contracted the disease. (SWNS)

A family who fear they became infected with coronavirus after attending the funeral of a COVID-19 victim have urged the public to take social distancing seriously after losing another relative to the disease.

Sheila Brooks, 86, died in February and her extended family attended her funeral a fortnight ago, before stringent movement restrictions were put in place in Britain.

Within days her niece Susan Nelson, 65, who had no underlying health conditions, became ill and died of suspected COVID-19.

Now 16 further family members suspect they have the virus  including Susan's husband and the couples daughter.

Susan Nelson died of suspected coronavirus just weeks after attending her aunt's funeral (SWNS)

The family are now urging people to follow social distancing rules, saying that not do so would be madness.

The speed it acts at is phenomenal and how vicious it is can't be underestimated, Susans son Carl, 42, said. Dont be stupid and dont risk it.

Everyone, please follow the advice. Stay home, stay safe. Anyone who thinks they are fit and healthy, that it's just like the cold or flu, dont risk it.

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

Live: Follow all the latest updates from the UK and around the world

Fact-checker: The number of COVID-19 cases in your local area

6 charts and maps that explain how coronavirus is spreading

Retired sandwich shop owner Susan, from Halesowen, West Midlands, died on the same hospital ward as her aunt.

Her daughter Amanda, 34, an NHS business support manager, is also showing symptoms after attending the memorial service and is currently isolating at home with her father Robert.

Amanda, who also suffers from Addisons disease, said: It was my [great-] aunts funeral so a lot of the wider family were there.

The Nelson family believe up to 16 of them may still have coronavirus. (SWNS)

We have just had so many people contract the virus that I can only think it was from then.

We now have someone else in our family in hospital that's probably not going to survive it.

My 21-year-old cousin has it, right the way up to a great-uncle that is 88 and showing symptoms. None of us seems to have been missed out of it.

Story continues

Our beautiful, caring mum was the centre of the family  we are a very close, large family and this has destroyed us.

The family attended the funeral on 13 March and Susan Nelson grew ill over the following days. Her family called an ambulance on 16 March and she was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. She died with her husband Robert at her side the following day.

Susan Nelson and husband Robert are both believed to have contracted coronavirus at the funeral of her aunt Sheila Brooks. (SWNS)

Her son Carl said: She was coughing a lot, very breathless and showing all the symptoms.

She was admitted to hospital and I spoke to the staff the following day. They said the next 48 hours were critical before they called me back a few hours later to say it was very close to the end and one member of the family could be with her.

Because I had none of the symptoms I couldnt go, and my sister was too unwell battling the illness herself.

Fortunately, my dad Robert was able to go and be with her when she died.

The Nelson family attended their aunt's funeral before the UK givernment imposed restrictions on movement (SWNS)

I had to tell her they wouldn't let me come and I wasnt allowed to see her. I didn't want her to die thinking that I didn't want to come.

We can't have any other families to go through what we are going through at the moment. Its about getting the message out. It's about seeing the faces of loved ones and thinking this is real.

The family are unable to make funeral arrangements for Susan due to the government clampdown on mass gatherings.

In recognition of the NHS workers who tried to save Susan, the family have set up a Just Giving page with proceeds going to Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham Charity.

Carl said: In the conditions, they are working under, it's phenomenal. My dad described it as a living hell.

What they are facing on a day-to-day basis, no one truly understands or appreciates what they put into their job.

If we can all just do something little that goes to them, that they can benefit from and just to say thank you, it would be great. My family are all grateful for the work they did.

They couldn't save Mum but they gave everything to do so and made her comfortable in the end.

Coronavirus: what happened today
Please come help us in New York now, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said as the state's death toll climbed by more than 250 people in a day to a total of over 1,200, most of them in the city. He said an additional 1 million health care workers are needed to tackle the crisis.
Delhi Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday urged migrants not to leave the city because it would defeat the pupose of the 21-day national lockdown, while urging property owners not to force tenants to pay monthly rent, and urging factory owners and contractors to ensure the workers got food to eat despite work being stalled.

Kejriwal also warned those pressuring tenants and threatening them with eviction of strict action.

I request the landlords  do not collect the rent, and postpone it if your tenants are poor and are unable to pay the rent. If your tenant fails to give the rent later, my government will compensate for it. But dont harass them, Kejriwal said at a digital press conference on Sunday.

The statement came hours after the Union home ministry issued an advisory, asking states to ensure that landlords do not seek rent payments during this lockdown period and, industrialists and contractors pay wages.

The chief minister reiterated his appeal to migrant workers to not cross the border to neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, warning that their action would impact the fight against Covid-19. He also appealed to his party volunteers to not indulge in any kind of politics, even if other parties do.

Besides the press conference, Kejriwal posted a note in Hindi on Twitter and also dedicated a special video message to all migrant workers, in which he assured them that they will be provided food and shelter in the Capital. On Saturday, over 100,000 had gathered at the Anand Vihar bus terminal to board buses to return home, from across the border in Uttar Pradeshs Kaushambi.

Some people are desperate to go to their villages. The Prime Minister has appealed to everyone that people should stay put where they are. I also appeal to all of you not to go to your villages and remain where you are. Gathering in such large numbers make you more vulnerable to contracting coronavirus. And then through you, the virus will reach your village and your family. It will reach different parts of the country. After this, it will become extremely difficult for the country to contain this epidemic, Kejriwal wrote in the note.I am assuring you that the Delhi government has arranged for your shelter and food. It is in the interest of the country that you do not go to your villages at the moment, Kejriwal added.

On Saturday, too, Kejriwal had urged the migrants to stay back during the 21-day lockdown that was imposed from March 25, pointing out that his government was serving lunch and dinner to over 400,000 people in the city.
The Crown: Part Ten



By Michael Moriarty

We begin with a guessing game about His Royal Highness inexplicable pain from tensions we are never quite sure of. Why all these tensions? Glimpsing the photo of a pretty female face with whom the Princes physical therapist is acquainted, things for His Royal Highness improve rather swiftly. Meanwhile?! A scandal is brewing!

Christin Keeler The rather well-known but scandalous affair between Christine Keeler and John Profumo is being examined. Then the face of a Mystery Man, also the title of this episode, is shown. Is the Mystery Man, in a photo which includes a call girl and a Russian spy, merely a look-alike of John Profumo? Or is he John Profumo?! We shall see, of course, but at this point, so early in the episode, he is the Mystery Man. An interesting introduction to Prime Minister Harold Macmillans married life and his wifes opinion of her husband, as a trusting, credulous fool?! Profumo, not incidentally, is, or was, Prime Minister Macmillans Minister of War. Despite his wifes opinion of him, PM Macmillan expresses his support for Profumo before the public and the press. By the way, our impressively fertile Queen is pregnant again. Far more than enough drama to make a television series, let alone well-known history. Adding to the dramatic nature of it all, the Queens iron levels are disturbingly low. Not dangerously! Close to it, however. The Queen also learns that, unbeknownst to her, her husband, His Royal Highness, is off for the weekend without telling his wife. Even more surprising is to learn that it is not Friday. It is Wednesday! A rather long weekend. Knowing what we know? There is much now to doubt about the Princes side of the promise and mutual bargain with his Queen. To make matters worse?! The Queens brother-in-law, the photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones, Lord Snowden, seems particularly busy as a photographer and in all corners of the world except England.

Lord Snowden Hows his marriage going with the sister of Queen Elizabeth? Tonys description of what binds he and his wife together is absence! As the scandals and increasingly possible scandals grow, Prime Minister Macmillan offers his resignation to the Queen. He feels, amidst all this, he cant go on! The Queen virtually orders him to remain in office, at least till her pregnancy is completed! He agrees. Oh, under doctors orders, she is taking a leave of absence for two months. She must rest. That is why she cannot accept Macmillans resignation. To make matters worse, Macmillans wife continues to enjoy humiliating him and possibly with the help of another man. If this were all fiction?! You wouldnt believe it! So, after realizing her husband has not been keeping his side of The Bargain for the sake of the marriage?! Shes in a train, off to Scotland! For her two month rest. A headline she cannot avoid reading: WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN THIS COUNTRY?! While Prime Minister Macmillan is attending a political satire that has even himself as the object of ridicule. He cant help but laugh. It is our series small but important tribute to the profound importance of the theater for keeping the public informed of the truth. With that I will leave you. I particularly underline anything that pays tribute, directly or indirectly, to one of my favorite deities: Dionysus, Ancient Greek God of the Theater. Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com. He can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@MGMoriarty. Home
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Catastrophic damage to the UK travel industry, and widespread consumer detriment  that is the warning from Abta about the effect of the coronavirus crisis on holiday firms.

The travel trade associations chief executive, Mark Tanzer, is demanding government action to ease consumer regulations in favour of the industry.

Millions of holidays in March, April and May have been cancelled because of the worldwide shutdown. Under the Package Travel Regulations, travellers are entitled to a full refund within two weeks.

Abta is asking for that time limit to be extended to four months, with government backing to protect holidaymakers if their travel firm goes bust. The association also wants a government-backed emergency consumer hardship fund to help fulfil refunds when hotels or airlines cannot or will not hand back money to tour operators.

Many travel businesses are refusing refunds to customers, often claiming incorrectly that the rules have been eased. They insist they are only obliged to provide travel vouchers.

Since the Covid-19 outbreak began, there have been no changes to consumer protection. But Mr Tanzer said there must be  as normally successful travel businesses employing tens of thousands of people are facing bankruptcy.

The Abta chief executive said: The global pandemic has put enormous financial strain on tour operators and travel agents, with businesses seeing a collapse in sales while facing immediate repatriation costs and refund demands for cancelled holidays on a scale that is unmanageable.

Existing regulations are entirely unsuited to deal with this situation. These businesses are themselves waiting for refunds from hotels and airlines.

Without this money, they simply do not have the cash to provide refunds to customers within 14 days. Customers with cancelled holidays will face lengthy delays in getting money back if travel firms are forced into bankruptcy.

Abta has also called on the government to take strong enforcement action against airlines that withhold refunds due following the cancellation of flights.

But Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, said: Airlines are facing unprecedented challenges keeping vital routes open to repatriate stranded British travellers and transport critical supplies as part of cargo operations.

Airlines are complying with the guidelines published by the CAA but are facing a longer than usual volume of claims to get through, and the current restrictions imposed nationally mean they are not able to bring in additional staff to deal with them. We are thankful to passengers for their continued patience.
March 31 (Reuters) - Major global airlines projected layoffs, furloughs and capacity cuts over the next few months, with Air New Zealand warning that it expected staffing levels to be 30% smaller than it is now, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Airlines have been rushing to shore up liquidity, reduce capital expenditure and cut costs to stay afloat amid one of the worst crisis to hit the global aviation industry.

Air New Zealand said on Tuesday it will lay off about 3,500 employees, nearly a third of its workforce, in the coming months, as the outbreak forced it to cancel nearly all flights.

The virus "has seen us go from having revenue of $5.8 billion to what is shaping up to be less than $500 million annually," Chief Executive Officer Greg Foran told staff in an email. "We expect that even in a year's time we will be at least 30 percent smaller than we are today."

Air Canada will cut second-quarter capacity by 85%-90%, place about 15,200 unionized employees off duty and furlough about 1,300 managers, beginning on or about April 3.

Canada's largest airline said it is drawing down about C$1 billion ($706 million) in credit to bolster liquidity, while senior executives will forgo between 25%-50% of their salary and board members agreed to a 25% cut.

Low-cost U.S. carrier Spirit Airlines Inc is canceling all flights to and from the New York region after U.S. officials warned against travel to the area because of the pandemic.

New Zealand's national carrier, which employs 12,500 people, warned the layoffs estimate was a "conservative" assumption and the numbers could rise if the domestic lockdown and border restrictions were extended.

U.S. airlines have been pushing the Treasury to release up to $58 billion in government grants and loans and had threatened to quickly start laying off tens of thousands of workers within days if they did not get a bailout.

The $2.2 trillion stimulus and assistance legislation signed into law last week by President Donald Trump gives passenger airlines $25 billion in cash assistance to cover payroll costs and $25 billion in loans, while cargo carriers are eligible for $4 billion in grants and $4 billion in loans.

Treasury faces an April 1 deadline to issue procedures to airlines to apply for grants. ($1 = 1.4163 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Rachit Vats in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
CRDB Bank Insurance Broker is considering becoming a full-fledged insurance firm in next two years after acquiring all necessary factors of an insurer--capital, skills and customer base.

The brokerage firm, which started as an agency almost a decade ago, its status currently climbed to among top five insurance brokers based on premium in the country.

The Broker General Manager, Mr Arthur Mosha said the firm saves both banks customers and non customers to a level that the premium climbed from 25bn/- in 2016 to 44.2bn/- last year.

I do not see why we shouldnt be an insurer firm in the next two years. Since we have adequate capital, skills and customers base plus ability to expand further, Mr Moshi said in an interview in Dar es Salaam over the weekend.

The firm, separated from CRDB Microfinance four years ago, has 40-strong staff country wide serving clients using about 300 bank branches from its base in Dar es Salaam.

One can access our service throughout our network countrywide where at each seven zones we have an insurance expert, the General Manager said.

The brokerage started in 2011 as an agency offering both general and life insurance policies after the bank faced various challenges on covering its loan products.

A year later was attached to microfinance division and started to serve both the bank and non-bank customers before turned to a brokerage, which was 100 per cent owned by CRDB in 2016.

Its premium kept on increasing from 800m/- when was an agency to 3.5bn/- in 2012 to 12bn/- in 2014 before reaching 25bn/- a year before it becomes a full-fledged insurance brokerage firm.

The firm offers various insurance covers where its life products lead followed by health and motor insurances.

The primary objective is to serve the bank (CRDB) customers, but later due to our innovating products started to attract non-bank customers, Mr Mosha said.

Currently 70 per cent are bank customers while the remaining 30 per cent are non-bank customers. The leading products are life, health and newly introduced Educare plan, which offers both life cover and acts as a savings platform.

The country insurance market grew by 8.6 per cent in gross premiums written to 691.9bn/- in 2018 compared to 637.1bn/- in 2017.

The industrys contribution to the GDP, based on recently rebased estimates, was 0.53 per cent in 2018.

In 2018, the insurance industry had a total of 31 insurance companies (including 1 reinsurance company), 109 insurance brokers, 635 insurance agents and 55 loss assessors and adjusters.
By PTI

LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's top aide, Dominic Cummings, has gone into self-isolation after developing mild symptoms of coronavirus over the weekend, according to UK media reports.

Cummings, the UK PM's senior-most adviser, is the latest among the top rung in government to be hit by COVID-19 after Johnson himself was tested and went into self-isolation last week, followed soon after by UK health secretary Matt Hancock.

It remains unconfirmed whether Cummings has been tested for the deadly virus yet but, according to reports, he is working from home and remains in contact with the Downing Street team.

He was last caught on television news cameras leaving 10 Downing Street soon after Johnson had announced his COVID-19 diagnosis to the British public.

Cummings, 48, is the man behind the victorious Vote Leave campaign for the UK's exit from the European Union (EU) and has also been credited with aspects of Johnson's landslide election win in the December 2019 General Election.

ALSO READ | Help from everywhere: UK medical fetish company donates equipment to National Health Service staff

He is believed to have developed symptoms of COVID-19, including a cough, in line with the mild symptoms experienced by Johnson.

"I am now self-isolating, but I will continue to lead the government's response via video-conference as we fight this virus. Together we will beat this," Johnson, 55, had said in his video message on Twitter last Friday.

Since then, Hancock posted a similar video message to say he would be working from home as he fights his mild symptoms.

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack is another Cabinet minister who went into self-isolation with symptoms, as did England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty -- who had been leading the government's charge against the pandemic alongside Johnson.

The latest addition to the list of the government's top team developing symptoms of the deadly virus will once again raise concerns around social distancing rules imposed UK-wide earlier last week not being followed stringently enough within political quarters.

Senior Indian-origin UK Cabinet members, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Priti Patel, are among those who have been working in close proximity to the UK PM and his top team.

Johnson's pregnant fiance, Carrie Symonds, had moved out of Downing Street and is said to be self-isolating in her flat in south London.

Among other senior UK figures afflicted by the virus include Prince Charles, who continues to work from his home in Balmoral, Scotland.

The 71-year-old heir to the British throne had tested positive for COVID-19 last week but was said to be in "good spirits".

His 93-year-old mother, Queen Elizabeth II, has been based at Windsor Castle for some time with husband Prince Philip, 98.

The monarch has conducted her weekly meetings with the UK PM via telephone from there.

The UK remains under a stay-at-home lockdown with strict social distancing rules in force as the death toll from the virus hit 1,228, with the number of confirmed cases pegged at 19,522.
Eight years ago, the TaxPayers Alliance reported that in the last year, five times more Labour people were appointed to public bodies than Tories.

It currently reports that almost half of avowedly political appointees last year owed their allegiance to Labour Party, compared to less than a third for the Conservatives.

Despite the selection of some Party members or supporters to fill important posts, over time, the Conservatives have punched beneath their weight when it comes to public appointments. One of the reasons seems to be that Tories simply dont apply in the same number as Labour supporters.

To help remedy this, each week we put up links to some of the main public appointments vacancies, so that qualified Conservatives can be aware of the opportunities presented.

         

NHS Resolution  Chair



The last few years have seen major changes to NHS Resolutions role and standing in the system as a result of both its revised strategy and the new clinical negligence scheme for GPs. It has been a pleasure and privilege to Chair the organisation through this period of significant change. Although the course is set for the next few years some of these changes are still at an early stage and need to be embedded, there is now a need to progress the development of our infrastructure to support the enhanced role and the NHS will continue to evolve. I am sure therefore that the next Chair will also find the role both challenging and rewarding.

Time: 2-3 days per week.

Remuneration: 63,000 per annum.

Closes: 06 April

         

Office of Tax Simplification  Board Member



The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) provides the government with independent advice on simplifying the tax system, to make things easier for taxpayers. The OTS Board is led by an independent Chair (Kathryn Cearns OBE) and Tax Director (Bill Dodwell) and has representatives from HM Treasury and HMRC and up to four independent members, supported by a diverse staff team drawn from the civil service and the private sector, led by the OTS Head of Office David Halsey. The four independent members of the OTS Board are currently Dame Teresa Graham, John Cullinane, Kathleen Russ and  until his recent resignation  Paul Johnson. To support its work and further development, the OTS would like to identify an exceptional individual with relevant experience to join its Board as one of its independent members.

Time: Approx. 10 days per annum.

Remuneration: Reasonable expenses.

Closes: 06 April

         

Health Education England  Non-Executive Director



Science, technology and demography are changing the way health care services are provided and this has implications for the education and training of the future workforce. The World Health Organisation (WHO) are predicting worldwide shortages of doctors and nurses. These developments provide the context for the work of HEE over the next few years. How do we use finite resources most effectively to ensure that we have the right people in the right place with the right skills and knowledge to respond to these developments? This is an exciting and fundamentally important task and our purpose is to improve the quality and safety of healthcare through the development, education and training of the current and future workforce.

Time: 2-3 days per month.

Remuneration: 7,883 per annum.

Closes: 07 April

         

HM Treasury  Financial Regulators Complaints Commissioner



The Office of the Complaints Commissioner is headed by the Financial Regulators Complaints Commissioner (the Commissioner) who is a statutory appointment required under the Financial Services Act 2012. This is a senior position and, whilst the appointment is made by the regulators, it is an independent role, subject to approval by HM Treasury. The current Commissioner carries out his duties through a company limited by guarantee (Office of the Complaints Commissioner) from premises based in the City of London. He is assisted by three staff. The Commissioners role is to review independently complaints about the actions or inactions of the UKs current financial services regulators, the Financial Conduct Authority, the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Bank of England (but only in respect of its oversight of the banking clearing houses and payment schemes).

Time: Est. three days per week.

Remuneration: Remuneration is on a level with judicial salaries, pro-rated as appropriate.

Closes: 13 April

         

HM Treasury  External Member to the Prudential Regulation Committee



The Prudential Regulation Committee (PRC) governs the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) which is responsible for the prudential regulation of banks, building societies, other deposit takers, insurance companies and certain investment firms. Chaired by the Governor, and accountable to Parliament, the PRC takes the most significant and high impact supervisory decisions. It is responsible for overseeing and holding to account the PRAs strategy and policy making functions, and for setting the levy on regulated firms. It also adopts the budget of the PRA.The Government is seeking to appoint up to three external members to fill vacancies which arise from retirements in 2020/21. These are high profile and influential roles. Appointees will be independent and will not represent or lobby for individual groups, interests or sectors.

Time: The PRC meets 15 to 20 times a year. The nature of the role will require flexibility.

Remuneration: 108,300 per annum.

Closes: 15 April

         

Harwich Haven Authority  Non-Executive Chair



Having celebrated our 156 year anniversary last year, we are looking forward to the challenge of strengthening our role in safeguarding the best natural haven on the east coast of England. We cover an area across the River Stour, the lower part of the River Orwell, Harwich Harbour and an area seaward extending 12 nautical miles from the harbour entrance. We provide services for shipping using the commercial ports of Felixstowe, Ipswich, Harwich International, Harwich Navyard and Mistley and also pilot boarding and landing services for the rivers Thames, Medway, Blackwater, Colne and Crouch. Our vision is to be an exemplary Trust Port offering world class services, working with all stakeholders for a flourishing Haven.

Time: 20 days per annum.

Remuneration: 37,000 per annum.

Closes: 17 April

         

Financial Conduct Authority  Chief Executive



This is an opportunity to take on an intellectually demanding role at the heart of international financial services, leading a sizeable and complex organisation. There is a requirement for strong leadership in a challenging environment to undertake a critically important role. Under Andrew Bailey, the FCA has formulated a transformation programme, to equip the organisation for the next phase of its development: a data strategy and enhanced analytical skills to rapidly identify harm across an exceptionally broad range of firms of all sizes exploiting fast-moving changes in technology and distribution to target consumers; enhance employee capabilities and processes to act swiftly on the harms identified; [and] and with a regulatory framework which is appropriate following the completion of EU withdrawal, and which takes advantage of the opportunities for better and more efficient regulation brought by technology and behavioural science.

Time: Full-time.

Remuneration: Competitive.

Closes: 24 April
A 42-year-old coronavirus-positive woman died at a Patiala hospital on Monday, taking the COVID-19 death toll in Punjab to three, an official said.

It is the second coronavirus-related death within 24 hours in the state where 41 people are confirmed so far to have been infected by the virus.

The Ludhiana resident was admitted at the hospital on Sunday night, Patiala Civil Surgeon Harish Malhotra said over the phone.

She was complaining of breathlessness and had acute respiratory distress syndrome, he said.

Malhotra said she died around 1.30 pm on Monday, before the report of her samples confirming her as coronavirus positive arrived.

She was among the three patients who tested positive on Monday, taking the coronavirus count in the state to 41.

The three people who have died of the infection in the state include a 62-year-old who was undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College in Amritsar.

He succumbed to the virus on Sunday evening.

A 70-year-old Nawanshahr resident died of cardiac arrest on March 18. A medical report, which came in after his death, showed he had tested positive for the infection.

Among the three new coronavirus cases is a 65-year-old resident of Nayagaon in Mohali.

He was admitted to the PGIMER hospital six days ago, Mohali Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan said.

"He was taken to the hospital after he complained of chest pain and breathlessness. Now his test report for coronavirus has come positive. He has no travel history," the official said.

He added that the patient's condition is critical and he is on ventilator support.

"We are tracing all his contacts and their tests will be conducted," he said.

Health authorities have sealed all entry points to Nayagaon area and are taking measures to contain the spread of the virus.

A Patiala resident who had travelled to Dubai also contracted the infection and was admitted to government medical college in Patiala, according to a medical bulletin.

Those who came in contact with him are being traced, it said.

Of the 41 cases reported in the state so far, 19 are from Nawanshahr, seven from Mohali, six from Hoshiarpur, five from Jalandhar, two from Ludhiana and one each from Amritsar and Patiala.

According to a medical bulletin, 1,051 samples have been tested in Punjab so far. Of them, reports of 881 samples came negative and the 131 results are still awaited.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Google is donating $800 million worth of funds and other resources into communities around the globe affected by the COVID-19 crisis. CEO Sundar Pichai announced the move late last week, stating Alphabets subsidiary will be supporting both businesses and governments, as well as non-profits.

The donation pool doesnt consist of just cash, though a $200 million investment fund is at the center of the effort. A subset of partners are to disseminate the capital in a more targeted manner across communities worldwide. One of Googles key allies in this area is the Opportunity Finance Network. The Washington-based organization will allocate the funds to entrepreneurs and groups unable to secure support from the conventional finance sector.

Other than that, the endeavor also includes $340 million in evenly distributed Google Ads credits. Small- and medium-sized businesses that advertised with Google in the last year are eligible for that support package. The credits will only be valid until the end of 2020, the California-based Internet behemoth said.

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Moving on, Google secured an extra $250 million in ad grants to support information campaigns related to the pandemic. This (more) targeted relief effort will directly benefit the World Health Organization, with numerous government agencies also being eligible to take advantage of it. Google already announced $25 million in identical grants last month. An extra package worth $20 million is going solely toward public service announcements involving global relief efforts.

Google both donating and incentivizing employee donations

The newly announced initiative comes shortly after Google.org greenlit some $15 million worth of cash grants. Those funds will also be injected into small- and medium-sized businesses, in addition to non-profits. In both cases, the conglomerates goal is twofold; First of all, its looking to alleviate the potentially devastating effects of the ongoing pandemic in the private sector. Secondly, its supporting organizations working to do the same.

Following a similar train of thought, $20 million worth of Google Cloud credits will be going toward COVID-19 research, Pichai announced. Academics wanting to apply for those grants can do so from the Google for Education portal. In the meantime, Google says its doing what it can to bolster medical equipment production worldwide.

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The firms further incentivizing staffers to donate to their communities via a newly strengthened matching funds program. According to the new policy, Google will match all employee donations up to $10,000 annually, which is a $2,500 increase.

On the consumer-facing side of things, many Google apps were updated to reflect the current global instability. The tech giant also took WHOs social distancing guidelines to heart, having canceled I/O 2020 in its entirety while encouraging employees to work from home as much as possible.

Googles likely to continue donating to communities the world over in the coming weeks.
As the UK starts its second week under lockdown, the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect lives all around the world.

Here is your morning briefing of everything you may have missed in the fight against Covid-19.

Around 20,000 ex-NHS staff return to tackle coronavirus, British PM says

In a video from self-isolation, the UK prime minister said around 20,000 former NHS professionals have come back to work as the UK battles coronavirus.

Boris Johnson, who has been working from home after testing positive for the disease, also thanked the 750,000 volunteers who had offered to help the national health service during this time.

Thank you to everybody whos now coming back into the NHS in such huge numbers, the PM said.

Just this evening I can tell you we have 20,000 NHS staff coming back to the colours.

The government had appealed to retired staff to come back to work for the health service during the outbreak.

Two doctor deaths confirmed

Two surgeons have died after contracting coronavirus in the UK, it was confirmed on Sunday.

Dr Amged El-Hawrani, a 55-year-old consultant and Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) trainer, died at the Leicester Royal Infirmary on Saturday evening, which the NHS said was its first confirmed frontline death.

Meanwhile, Dr Adil El Tayar - an organ transplant consultant volunteering at a Midlands A&E department  died earlier in the week after testing positive for the disease.

Police clampdown on lockdown

The UK faced its first weekend under lockdown, with police stopping those trying to carry on life as normal while people are only allowed to go outside for essential reasons, and gatherings larger than two are banned.

Members of the public were discovered having house parties and on cross-country road trips by officers in various parts of the country.

One motorist was stopped on the motorway with his wife in the boot of his car, having made a 224-mile round trip to collect a 15 eBay purchase, despite people only being told to make essential journeys.

In Derbyshire, police posted pictures from the 25-person karaoke party they went to break up.

Officers were said to be in absolute shock about the gathering in Normanton on Saturday night.

Donald Trump accuses hospitals of hoarding equipment

The US president has accused American hospitals of stockpiling ventilators which are in short supply across the country.

Donald Trump said that all hospitals not using the breathing devices they have should release them.

The president, whose critics have accused him of trying to deflect blame over his handling of the crisis, did not cite any evidence or name the places he was referring to.

Syrias first coronavirus death

A woman has died after contracting coronavirus in Syria, marking the war-torn countrys first official death linked to Covid-19.

The number of confirmed cases rose to nine from an earlier five cases, but medics and witnesses have claimed there are many more.

Meanwhile, some pilgrims returning to Iraq from Syria tested positive for the disease, raising concern that such pilgrim travel could be a source for a larger spread of the disease around the country, a senior Iraqi official and health officials said.

Additional reporting by agencies
A section of Northampton County Prison is under a preventative quarantine while an employee is awaiting the results of a coronavirus test.

County Executive Lamont McClure said as of Monday there are no reported positive cases of COVID-19 -- the disease caused by the novel virus -- among prison inmates or employees, according to a news release.

An employee working in a section of the prison reported a symptom, was sent home and is awaiting test results. That prison unit is being kept under quarantine per the regulations of prison healthcare provider PrimeCare.

We are pleased that, to date, our aggressive measures of limiting visitation and volunteer access to the NCP have been successful, McClure said. We remain vigilant and we are extremely proud of the NCP administration and especially proud of our hard-working corrections officers.

On Sunday, the state prison system reported its first inmate diagnosed with COVID-19 at SCI Phoenix, the prison where actor and comedian Bill Cosby is serving a prison sentence for sexual assault. The prison is located on the property of the former SCI Graterford in Skippack Township, Montgomery County, at the epicenter of Pennsylvanias coronavirus outbreak.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email her. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
By Akbar Mammadov

US-based think tank Eurasia Review has published an article calling for the cancellation of the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for March 31, 2020 in Azerbaijans Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The article says that the illegal regime set up in Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabkah breakaway region will hold elections, despite the fact that the region is part of Azerbaijan.

This unknown or little-known regime, strangely, will be hosting its presidential and parliamentary elections on March 31 in the middle of the coronavirus pandemicNo country, including its main patron Armenia, has recognized this republic, the author of the article, Veeramalla Anjaiah, Jakarta Post correspondent said.

It seems Armenia is desperate to legitimize its presence in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and make its occupation permanent by holding elections. Azerbaijan described the March 31 elections as a big political drama orchestrated by Armenia, the article states.

The article also quoted Azerbaijan Ambassador to Indonesia Jalal Mirzayev as saying that the election in Karabakh is a big political drama created by Armenia. Nagorno-Karabakh is our land. Holding elections on March 31 in our land by Armenia is illegal and is not acceptable to us. We ask the international community to condemn Armenias actions that threaten peaceThe illegal occupation and the upcoming illicit elections are blunt violations of international laws.

The article notes that Armenia, which has its troops in Nagorno-Karabakh, will be sending 300 election observers to Karabakh despite the threat from the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of these observers may spread the coronavirus.

The author underlines that Armenians in both Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh must realize that the occupation of Azerbaijans land, including Nagorno-Karabakh, did not bring any major benefits to Armenians.

It brought only economic hardships and made their country heavily debt ridden. Hundreds of thousands of talented and skilled workers are leaving the country every year. Armenia is now one of the most militarized countries in the world, he emphasized in the article.

It should be noted that head of Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh Tural Ganjaliyev's recently said that several members of the Armenian community (names were not disclosed for security reasons) of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan addressed him as an elected representative of the region and informed him about the increased cases of respiratory diseases in the Nagorno-Karabakh as well as the deplorable state of the health infrastructure and the lack of testing and medical personnel.

They expressed concern that Armenia and the illegal regime are concealing cases of the coronavirus infection (COVID-19) from the population, the chairman of the Azerbaijan Community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan Tural Ganjaliyev told the Trend news agency on March 25.

As an elected representative, I urge the Armenian community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan to strictly observe personal hygiene rules, such as self-isolation and social distancing, to protect themselves from coronavirus. I am sure that after the end of the Armenian occupation, the Azerbaijani state will restore the health infrastructure in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of our country and both communities will be able to use the capabilities of a medical system meeting modern standards, Ganjaliyev said.

Ganjaliyev is a member of Azerbaijans Parliament from Khankendi constituency.

-

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
There are various researches on COVID-19 around the world but there is still no conclusion on who is more at risk in terms of gender.

There have been many studies conducted around the world in determining the most vulnerable groups for COVID-19 in terms of gender aside from the immuno-compromised and elderly. It was found that two things make men and women different and vulnerable for this deadly and infectious disease.

So to finally have a conclusion, let us take a look at some of the most highlighted researches that stand as the basis in determining who is more prone and at risk for this virus.

Some Studies Suggest That Women Are More at Risk

In a recently published article, it was reported that women are more prone to the virus because of the role they play amid the COVID-19 crisis. It was found that among the healthcare workers who continue to combat the virus and give medical care to the patients, 70 percent of them are women.

This means that more women than men are highly exposed to individuals who are positive for the virus. The number of women who are in the medical field worldwide is significantly higher and this what made them be more at risk. In other words, it is affected by the nature of their work.

In another study, women also take primary roles in the household most especially if a family member is sick. This means that if someone is showing signs of COVID-19 symptoms like mild fever and cough, women who take care of their family members are then exposed to the virus.

Dr. Celine Gounder said that women around the world are more likely to take the burden of taking care of the home most especially if someone is sick. It was also found in a research from China that the virus is easily spread within the family because of their close and direct contact.

This is more significant today since schools and businesses were shut down temporarily. This means that there is a great chance for women, who traditionally do the household chores and are taking care of the sick, to be infected easily.

This situation was proven already during the time Ebola outbreaks across Africa from 1976 to 2014. According to the study, Infectious Disease of Poverty in 2017, it was found that since women are traditionally the primary caregivers and are the ones who are responsible for preparing the bodies for the burial, this means that they were very vulnerable.

The research group said: "The transmission rate was higher in households than in hospitals. more cases were recorded among women than men," Even though there is no evidence that would support the gender gap of Ebola cases, but the number of infected individuals during the 2014 Ebola outbreak showed how women generally caught the disease because of their role.

But Other Studies Suggest That Men Are More at Risk

Many studies assert that men are more prone to be infected by COVID-19 because of their lifestyle. Smoking, drinking, and poor health were some of the factors seen in the previous research on why men catch the virus easily.

According to the Italian National Institute of Health, 60 percent of people who tested positive for COVID-19 in Italy were men and 70 percent of those who died because of the virus were also men.

In South Korea, the infection rate for women is higher compared to men but the death rate is significantly high for men than women. Again, this was attributed to their lifestyle.

What is the verdict?

Therefore, finding the link between gender and the infection rate of COVID-19 would involve considering two things. First would be the role that we play, especially in healthcare. And second, the lifestyle that we choose to live.

In the end, it is still dependent on our individual activities, and not our gender.

Read related articles:
CALGARY, Alberta, March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Top Strike Resources Corp. d.b.a. "Vencanna Ventures" (the "Corporation" or "Vencanna") (CSE:VENI and OTCQB:TPPRF) is pleased to provide a summary of its financial results as of January 31, 2020. Selected financial information is outlined below and should be read in conjunction with the Corporation's financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for the three and nine months ended January 31, 2020, which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Financial Highlights

The following table summarizes key financial highlights associated with the Corporation's financial performance for the last eight quarters.

($) Jan 31,

2020 Oct 31,

2019 Jul 31,

2019 Apr 30,

2019 Jan 31,

2019 Oct 31,

2018 July 31,

2018 Apr 30,

2018 Gain (Loss) for

the period 59,196 (60,828 ) (205,824 ) (120,048 ) (232,744 ) (286,799 ) (3,285 ) (10,488 ) Gain (Loss) per

share - basic 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Total assets 8,671,208 8,438,837 8,468,446 8,603,826 8,633,369 9,231,900 74,211 73,551 Total liabilities 66,268 37,109 58,138 58,370 14,829 449,524 13,088 9,143

Corporate Activity and Update

On September 10, 2019, the Corporation was approved for and commenced a Normal Course issuer bid (the "NCIB"). Under the NCIB, the Corporation may purchase up to 5% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Corporation (the "Common Shares"). The NCIB will terminate one year from the commencement date or when the maximum number of Common Shares that can be acquired are purchased. During the period the Corporation purchased 136,000 Common Shares under the NCIB program. To date the Corporation has purchased a total of 2,939,000 Common Shares. Also, during the period, the Corporation cancelled 2,803,000 of these Common Shares and holds the remaining 136,000 Common Shares as at January 31, 2020.

On January 14, 2020, the Corporation announced it had increased its additional interest in the cultivation and dispensary license applications held by Galenas New Jersey LLC ("Galenas NJ"). On August 8, 2019 the Corporation's interest was 15% of a cultivation license application and 13.5% of a dispensary license application. In exchange for US$100,000 and the issuance of 2,222,222 Common Shares, the Corporation increased its interest in the cultivation and dispensary license applications. If the licenses are successful, the Corporation would now earn a 60% interest in a cultivation license and a 54% interest in a dispensary license. The additional interest was purchased from Medical Investor Holdings, LLC (d.b.a Vertical Companies) ("Vertical") and Medical Investment Fund A LP.

On February 12, 2020, the Corporation announced its Common Shares had commenced trading on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol TPPRF.

On February 21, 2020, the Corporation announced a subsequent investment in Galenas, LLC ("Galenas Ohio"). The Corporation purchased a convertible promissory note ("GOH Note") with a face value and cost of US$3.3 million. As of this date, total outstanding including accrued interest on the GOH Note is approximately US$3.8 million. The GOH Note was purchased from Vertical. The GOH Note is convertible upon the holder's option and subject to regulatory approvals, into a 35% non-dilutive equity interest in Galenas Ohio. Interest on the GOH Note accrues at a rate of 8% per annum and matures on July 1, 2021. On July 22, 2019, the Corporation loaned Vertical $4 million for inventory and general working capital purposes (the "Vertical Loan"). The purchase price was satisfied through the release and discharge of all amounts owing to the Corporation under the Vertical Loan, resulting in the retirement and settlement of the Vertical Loan.

During the month of March 2020, certain directors and officers of the Corporation acquired in the open market 10,367,000 Common Shares, and the Corporation acquired another 3,358,000 Common Shares under its NCIB.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and jurisdictional policies put into effect to counter the virus (including social distancing and the closure of non-essential services) are unknown at this time. While most US states have deemed access to medical cannabis an "essential" service (as Ohio has stated), it is unknown if this will be continued or how future policies will impact US cannabis businesses.

About Vencanna

On September 24, 2018, the Corporation announced the completion of a recapitalization financing, the appointment of a new management team and board of directors and commencement of trading on the CSE. The transactions have transitioned the Corporation from an oil and gas issuer to a merchant capital firm, rebranded as "Vencanna Ventures Inc.". The recapitalized Corporation aims to be a go-to capital provider for early-stage global cannabis initiatives with an emphasis on strong management operating in state compliant jurisdictions with barriers to entry. The Corporation looks to provide investors with a diversified, high-growth, cannabis investment strategy through strategic investments focused through-out the value chain (cultivation, processing and distribution, and including ancillary businesses).

For further information regarding this news release, please contact:

David McGorman

Chief Executive Officer and Director

david@vencanna.com

Jason Ewasuik

Vice President, Originations

jason@vencanna.com

Top Strike Resources Corp.

Suite 310, 250 6th Ave. S.W.

Calgary, AB T2P 3H7

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may include forward-looking statements including opinions, assumptions, estimates, the Corporation's assessment of future plans and investment strategy, and, more particularly, statements concerning the business plan of the Corporation including future global cannabis investments, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Galenas NJ license applications. When used in this MD&A, the words "will," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intent," "may," "project," "should," and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are founded on the basis of expectations and assumptions made by the Corporation, including the impact of increasing competition; timing and amount of capital expenditures; the legislative and regulatory environments of the jurisdictions where the Corporation will carry on business, has operations or plans to have operations; the ability of the Corporation to enter into contracts with companies to provide financing on acceptable terms; conditions in general economic and financial markets; and the Corporation's ability to obtain additional financing on satisfactory terms or at all. Forward-looking statements are subject to a wide range of risks and uncertainties, and although the Corporation believes that the expectations represented by such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will be realized.

Any number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, changes to global cannabis laws, how the developing U.S. legal regime will impact the cannabis industry, potential negative impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, the ability of the Corporation to implement its corporate strategies, the state of domestic and international capital markets, the ability to obtain financing, changes in general market conditions and other factors more fully described from time to time in the reports and filings made by the Corporation with securities regulatory authorities. Except as required by applicable laws, the Corporation does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements."

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.




WASHINGTON  In late November 2018, just over a year before the first coronavirus case was identified in Wuhan, China, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at Detroit Metro Airport stopped a Chinese biologist with three vials labeled Antibodies in his luggage.

The biologist told the agents that a colleague in China had asked him to deliver the vials to a researcher at a U.S. institute. After examining the vials, however, customs agents came to an alarming conclusion.

Inspection of the writing on the vials and the stated recipient led inspection personnel to believe the materials contained within the vials may be viable Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) materials, says an unclassified FBI tactical intelligence report obtained by Yahoo News.

The report, written by the Chemical and Biological Intelligence Unit of the FBIs Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate (WMDD), does not give the name of the Chinese scientist carrying the suspected SARS and MERS samples, or the intended recipient in the U.S. But the FBI concluded that the incident, and two other cases cited in the report, were part of an alarming pattern.

The Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate assesses foreign scientific researchers who transport undeclared and undocumented biological materials into the United States in their personal carry-on and/or checked luggage almost certainly present a US biosecurity risk, reads the report. The WMDD makes this assessment with high confidence based on liaison reporting with direct access.

The report, which came out more than two months before the World Health Organization learned of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan that turned out to be COVID-19, appears to be part of a larger FBI concern about Chinas involvement with scientific research in the U.S. While the report refers broadly to foreign researchers, all three cases cited involve Chinese nationals.

In the case of the suspected SARS and MERS vials, the intelligence report cites another classified document that is marked FISA, meaning it contains information collected under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Another case cited in the report appeared to involve flu strains, and a third was suspected E. coli.

Story continues

The FBI does not state precisely what sort of biosecurity risk these cases could present, but Raina MacIntyre, a professor of global biosecurity at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, said the FBI appears to be concerned with dual-use research that would be used for bioterrorism. And if the illicit samples cited in the report were being brought into the U.S., she says, the traffic is likely to be both ways.

How do you know what theyre bringing in and out unless you have a comprehensive surveillance point? she asked. If its going one way, its going the other way. Youd be very naive to assume otherwise.

Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert Spalding, who worked on China issues on the National Security Council under the Trump administration, said there is a threat posed by Chinese nationals carrying biological samples but believes its likely the carrier ... would be someone who is unwitting, making it hard to determine the intent. Some likely could be deliberate, to test our ability to identify and intercept. Others could be opportunistic, he said.

The FBI report refers to both biosecurity, which typically refers to the intentional misuse of pathogens, such as for bioterrorism, and biosafety, which covers accidental release. The FBI declined to comment on the report.

Concerns about Chinese biosafety are not new. For example, the SARS outbreak in 2003 was followed by several incidents of infections caused by laboratory accidents, including eight cases that resulted from mishandling at the Chinese Institute of Virology in Beijing.

There have been cases in the past where a variant of some kind of flu pandemic had escaped from a laboratory because of mismanagement, said Elsa Kania, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

But the problem is not limited to Chinese researchers, even if those cases have been prominent, she continued. Certainly it is a biosecurity risk when anyone is transporting materials in a manner that is clandestine because  there have been several incidents when this has occurred with researchers of a variety of nationalities.

University researchers conducting Lab test in finding the genomic sequence of the Sars associated coronavirus in April 2003. (Edward Wong/South China Morning Post via Getty Images)

Concerns about Chinas flouting of biosafety precautions may be long-standing, but the coronavirus pandemic is likely to exacerbate tensions between Beijing and Washington. The outbreak comes amid already rising tensions in U.S.-China relations over issues that range from trade to espionage.

Andrew Weber, who worked during the Obama administration as the assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, said the relationship with China in the biological sciences has gotten worse in recent years.

After SARS, when China needed technical help, it had a strong relationship with the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]. They were transparent, because they realized covering up an outbreak cost them dearly, said Weber, now a senior fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks. In recent years theyve tightened up, making international cooperation more difficult.

In recent weeks, however, these tensions have rapidly boiled over, with President Trump calling COVID-19 the Chinese Virus, while Beijing in turn has promoted conspiracy theories claiming the virus originated in a U.S. weapons lab.

Scientists have been adamant that the virus is not a weapon, either from the United States or China. Theres no basis to suspect its a laboratory construct, says Richard Ebright, a professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University. It has none of the expected signatures that would be present for deliberate construction.

However, Ebright doesnt exclude the possibility that the viruss spread started from poor biosecurity in China. A leading theory is that the virus jumped from wildlife to humans. Some researchers speculate this happened at a live-animal market where exotic species are sold for food. But Ebright also notes that such wildlife viruses are collected in laboratories, including in Wuhan. Therefore, its also a possibility that this virus entered the human population through accidental infection of a lab worker carrying out field collection, or an accident by a lab worker characterizing the sample in a laboratory, he said.

Independent of the coronavirus, the FBIs focus on Chinas biosecurity appears to be part of long-standing suspicion in the U.S. government about Chinas involvement in the biological sciences. Several recent high-profile Justice Department cases involving the export of sensitive technology have involved Chinese scientists, or persons with alleged ties to the Chinese government.

Most prominently, the Justice Department in January announced charges against Charles Lieber, the chair of Harvards department of chemistry and chemical biology, for concealing ties to the Chinese government. Its a clear-cut case of a conflict of interest, and unfortunately, its not an isolated incident, said FBI special agent Joseph R. Bonavolonta, head of the Boston field office, in announcing the charges.

Lieber, who is free on a $1 million bond, has not yet entered a plea on the charges.

Charles Lieber leaves federal court in Boston on Jan. 30, after he was charged with lying to federal authorities in connection with aiding China. (Reuters/Katherine Taylor)

But the FBIs focus on China and Chinese scientists is also raising concerns among some academics, who fear it smacks of profiling. I am concerned that the current trend in national security is toward profiling against people of Chinese descent, said Nicholas Evans, an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell who specializes in medical ethics. Thats not only racist, its bad practice. FBI and other intelligence and law enforcement attempts at profiling have very often been harmful without making us any safer.

Evans also questioned the FBIs focus on scientists hand-carrying biological samples as a unique threat. He pointed to previous examples, like a U.S. lab in Maine that was fined more than a decade ago for importing highly pathogenic avian flu viruses from Saudi Arabia.

The FBI claims that it is impossible to determine the contents of samples accurately, even if declared under current import laws, he wrote in an email. Thats true. But I am skeptical about the degree to which this particular behavior adds significant risks to security given that there are many other ways to get biological organisms into the country.

Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said its true that China has long had loopholes in its biosafety regulations. Thats why [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping] in February talked about beefing up the legislation for biosafety and biosecurity, he said.

That history has already encouraged rumors like the idea that the coronavirus originated as a bioweapon.

Now, with relations between China and the U.S. deteriorating, Huang expects collaboration on biological research to grow even more difficult, reversing decades of cooperation. I often argue that U.S. engagement with China is the most successful in the area of public health, he said. Such cooperation even survived the difficult period after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

Now, however, those relations are being set back as hostilities between the two countries grow.

You could argue, health is borderless, especially when two countries face these common challenges. This would be a time for them to collaborate mostly closely, he said. That turned out to not be the case.

Jenna McLaughlin contributed reporting to this story

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Motorists get their temperatures checked at a police checkpoint during the enhanced community quarantine

MANILA, Philippines  Malacanang has dismissed criticisms that the enhanced community quarantine being enforced in the whole of Luzon is not effective in stopping the spread of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) after the countrys number of confirmed infections have passed the 1,000 mark.

In a statement issued Sunday, March 29, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the big increase in the number of COVID-19 cases is due to the availability of the supply of testing kits and the establishment of additional testing centers.

Some quarters expressed the opinion that such increased number of COVID-19 cases shows that enhanced community quarantine or partial lockdown is ineffective in flattening the curve. We beg to disagree, he said.

As the manufacture and supply of testing kits become available, plus the establishment of additional COVID-19 testing centers, there are more people being tested now than before, necessarily the hitherto unknown cases of COVID-19 have surfaced hence the galloping increase in number, he added.

Panelo said there could have been a staggering number of coronavirus cases if the government did not implement the enhanced community quarantine to restrict the movement of the public.

Had the enhanced community quarantine or partial lockdown not been imposed, the number of the COVID-19 cases could have been staggering, for the simple reason that with unrestricted movement of the population, with each individual being a potential carrier, the coronavirus would have an untrammeled leap-frogging from one person to another, he said.

As of Sunday, the Philippines has recorded a total of 1,418 confirmed coronavirus cases, with 71 deaths and 42 recoveries.

Panelo assured the public that the government is doing everything to contain, if not permanently halt the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

He also said that the problem in the supply of personal protective equipment has been addressed as donations from many sources have poured in, and local production is in full swing from garment manufacturers and local fashion designers.

Story continues

Medical supplies, alcohol, soap and other health items are coming in too from various donors, individuals, and private entities. The Bayanihan spirit has caught fire and everyone is chipping in a united front against this unseen deadly enemy, Panelo said.

He also reiterated the governments appeal for the public to strictly follow protocols on hygiene and physical and social distancing to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Luzon is under enhanced community quarantine until April 12.  RRD (with details from Correspondent Rosalie Coz)

The post Palace disagrees with claims community quarantine is ineffective vs COVID-19 appeared first on UNTV News.
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(Newser)  Florida officials have arrested the pastor of a megachurch after detectives say he held two Sunday services with hundreds of people and violated a safer-at-home order in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus. According to jail records, Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne turned himself in to authorities Monday in Hernando County, where he lives. He was charged with unlawful assembly and violation of a public health emergency order, the AP reports. Bail was set at $500, according to the jail's website. Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a news conference that he negotiated with the attorney of Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne to turn himself in. His church is located in Tampa.

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Chronister said his command staff met with The River at Tampa Bay Church leaders about the danger they are putting themselvesand their congregationin by not maintaining appropriate social distancing, but Howard-Browne held the services anyway. The Sheriff's Office also placed a digital sign near the church driveway that said to practice social distancing. "Shame on this pastor, their legal staff and the leaders of this staff for forcing us to do our job," Chronister said, adding, "We are hopeful that this will be a wakeup call." The church has said it sanitized the building, and the pastor said on Twitter that the church is an essential business. He also attacked the media for "religious bigotry and hate." The county and governors orders require gatherings, including those held by faith-based groups, be fewer than 10 people to limit the spread of the coronavirus. A livestream of Sunday's 3-hour service showed scores of congregants.

(Read more coronavirus stories.)
SPRINGFIELD  Normally at this time of year, state lawmakers would be spending at least three days a week in session in Springfield working their way through the thousands of bills introduced to address issues big and small in the state.

The arrival and spread of COVID-19 has put a halt to that for now. The Capitol is empty and state lawmakers remain in their districts.

That doesn't mean they are taking time off. Legislators are still trying to address issues raised by their constituents. Others are part of discussions, albeit remotely, on issues that must be addressed even if many others will be postponed indefinitely.

Here's how Springfield area lawmakers are dealing with their jobs in the age of the virus.

Rep. Avery Bourne, R-Morrisonville

Bourne has closed her district office and has been giving out her cell phone number so people can contact her directly.

"We're working from wherever we happen to be,' Bourne said.

She said call volume is about the same, but the topics now revolve around the virus outbreak in some way, such as people wondering how to renewing their drivers licenses when secretary of state offices are closed or which businesses are considered essential and can remain open.

Bourne said she's been able to get the information she needs from state agencies to pass on to constituents. She said there's been a lot of communication from the governor's office about the virus situation, but she does think Gov. JB Pritzker "has gone out of his way to criticize the president. I think that's counterproductive."

Bourne, who is a member of the House Republican leadership team, said the caucus is talking about which issues are critical and need to be addressed this spring despite disruptions caused by the virus. However, she said the Republicans, who are in the minority, still do not know how the remainder of the spring session will play out.

A silver lining to the canceled session days, she said, is that she's been able to spend more time with her infant son.

Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield

Butler's district office is located in the Stratton Office Building in the Capitol Complex which is currently closed to the public.

"I've been there a couple of times to grab things, but largely I haven't been in there for a few days now," Butler said. "Our phones continue to be going. They've been transferred to our staff, so we get the messages when they come in. Social media has been a really good tool to stay in touch with people as well."

That includes doing a couple of Facebook Live sessions to answer questions people have about the virus and the state's response to it. There were a couple of calls about ongoing delays in the state issuing FOID cards, Butler said. He's taken the issue to the governor's office.

"There's a million things going on right now, but it just seems to me this has been a problem for so long now, the focus hasn't been on it and it should," Butler said.

Butler said he has "no complaints at all" about the level of communication between the governor's office and lawmakers.

"It's been helpful for the governor' office to have these daily briefings. I've found the legislative teams across the agencies have been very helpful and responsive," he said.

Butler said the top priority for the legislature has to be addressing the coronavirus and also cobbling together a budget given all of the economic upheaval going on. Determining what money is expected to be available is a critical first step, he said.

Outside of a budget, Butler isn't expecting much to happen this spring.

"I think given the current environment, some sort of truncated legislative agenda is the proper thing to do," he said. "I'd prefer to see some sort of an expanded veto session that would allow people to hopefully get (to) legislation they've been sitting on for a while."

Butler lives near Lincoln Park and said he and his wife have been taking walks there during down time, careful, he said, to maintain proper distance from others.

Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Jacksonville

Davidsmeyer said that nearly 80 percent of what his district office deals with are FOID cards, concealed carry licenses, and delays people experience obtaining or renewing them. That hasn't changed with the advent of the coronavirus crisis.

"We still get phone calls daily," he said. "We decided last week we would close our offices and work from home. We're still getting all of the calls, but obviously with technology and email we can still stay in contact with our constituents."

He said Facebook is "both a blessing and a curse" because of all of the false information going around. Some constituent calls have involved people asking what they should be doing about the virus and what the governor's executive orders mean. At times, he said, the information he gives isn't necessarily what the constituent wants to hear.

"Every now and then you'll get somebody who says 'I thought you were a Republican.' I say facts are facts. I'm correcting false information on all sides," he said. "Nobody wants to close business or do these things. It's just safer for everyone as we try to figure this thing out."

Davidsmeyer said he's generally had good responses from state agencies to his questions. Still, the dictate to stay at home as much as possible has affected him. He said that normally he'd attend at least one event a day in his sprawling nine county district. No more.

"It's definitely odd," he said. "I hope my family doesn't get tired of having me around."

Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill

Manar said he splits time between his home and district office in Bunker Hill. His staff, though, are all working from home. Manar has a district office in Decatur and, like all lawmakers, an office in Springfield.

He estimates he and the staff spend eight to 10 hours a day responding to constituent calls that can range from someone needing food to hospital administrators seeking protective equipment to small business owners who are at the breaking point.

"I don't think we have a clear sense or a clear picture of the depth of the challenge that is immediate for small business owners and for workers," Manar said.

The danger is that even though programs are being put in place to help, some businesses may still fall through the cracks, Manar said.

Manar estimates the number of calls fielded by him and his staff "is more than tenfold" from its normal volume.

"Much of what I'm doing responding to constituent concerns is just getting them accurate and timely information," Manar said. Conveying that information can be done by phone, by his Facebook page, Twitter or through his office web page.

In addition to constituent service, Manar is dealing with the state budget. He is one of the Senate Democrats' two budget negotiators. He said he is involved in calls "to begin to get our hands around the enormity of the challenge that is coming at us with the state budget this year and next year."

The Senate Democrats regularly hold conference calls to discuss developments in the crisis, Manar said, and Pritzker has "almost daily" calls with lawmakers to provide updates.

It is unclear when lawmakers will return to Springfield, but when they do, Manar said the agenda will likely be short.

"Let's be realistic. There are so many challenges that face us today, when we do meet, I would anticipate the opportunity to get something done beyond what is absolutely necessary will be very narrow," he said. "We should be focused on workers and small businesses."

Sen. Steve McClure, R-Springfield

Both McClure's district office in Jacksonville and his Springfield office in the Capitol Complex are closed, although staff continue to check for messages from constituents.

As for McClure?

"To be honest with you, lot's of my time is spent all day on conference calls," he said. "I've been getting inundated, particularly a lot of small business owners have been calling me the last couple of days. I'm constantly talking on the phone."

Those calls include conference calls Pritzker has done with lawmakers as well as the Senate Republican caucus. The calls also include local leaders throughout his nine county senate district.

Although most of the calls deal with the virus outbreak, McClure said he gets requests to write letters of support for certain road projects that could be undertaken as part of the new capital plan. Most of the virus calls are economic in nature, he said, such as people wanting to know how to file for unemployment compensation and small businesses asking for guidance on what to do.

McClure has criticized Pritzker for criticizing President Donald Trump, but outside of that McClure said Pritzker "has been very good at communicating to us. He reached out to us over (last) weekend to do a conference call just with Senate Republicans. He didn't have to do that. I don't have any complaints as far as his communication to us."

McClure isn't expecting the legislature to do much in the short term on legislative business outside of a budget.

"It's very clear to me that the forefront here is the virus and everything else has taken a back seat," McClure said. "I'm still unclear as to what we're going to be able to get done, if anything. We're not getting much direction about the bigger picture."

Rep. Mike Murphy, R-Springfield

Although his staffers are working from home, Murphy is still getting messages from people who call his district office or who send him emails.

Last week, Murphy said he was getting calls from people trying to file for unemployment benefits, but unable to do it online. That was an ongoing problem with the Illinois Department of Employment Security system that Pritzker said was overwhelmed by the volume of new filings. State officials have been trying to correct the problem.

"We've been assisting people trying to get them into contact quicker. We've been successful there," Murphy said.

Before that, Murphy said most of his time was spent trying to help restaurants figure out how the limited service rules were going to work. It was a good fit. Murphy is the former owner of Charlie Parker's diner.

Murphy said House Republican Leader Jim Durkin has done regular updates with his members and Pritzker has been holding two conferences a week with lawmakers to update them on the virus.

"The governor's office has been responsive to my requests," Murphy said. "When I send in a request, they tend to get back to me definitely that same day and sometimes within an hour."

He's not always happy with the answer, Murphy said, but at least it is prompt.

Murphy is an avid bicyclist who has participated several times in the annual ride across the state of Iowa. If the weather improves here, Murphy said bike riding will be part of his process to unwind.

For now, Murphy said, "One of my biggest challenges in this is to remember what day it is. They all seem like Monday."
" " The future quantum internet would utilize qubits of quantum information, which can take on an infinite number of values. Yuichiro Chino/Getty Images

Back in February 2020, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago revealed that they had achieved a quantum entanglement  in which the behavior of a pair two tiny particles becomes linked, so that their states are identical  over a 52-mile (83.7 kilometer) quantum-loop network in the Chicago suburbs.

You may be wondering what all the fuss is about, if you're not a scientist familiar with quantum mechanics  that is, the behavior of matter and energy at the smallest scale of reality, which is peculiarly different from the world we can see around us.

But the researchers' feat could be an important step in the development of a new, vastly more powerful version of the internet in the next few decades. Instead of the bits that today's network uses, which can only express a value of either 0 or 1, the future quantum internet would utilize qubits of quantum information, which can take on an infinite number of values. (A quibit is the unit of information for a quantum computer; it's like a bit in an ordinary computer).

That would give the quantum internet way more bandwidth, which would make it possible to connect super-powerful quantum computers and other devices and run massive applications that simply aren't possible with the internet we have now.

"A quantum internet will be the platform of a quantum ecosystem, where computers, networks, and sensors exchange information in a fundamentally new manner where sensing, communication, and computing literally work together as one entity, " explains David Awschalom via email. He's a spintronics and quantum information professor in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and a senior scientist at Argonne, who led the quantum-loop project.

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Explaining the Quantum Internet

So why do we need this and what does it do? For starters, the quantum internet is not a replacement of the regular internet we now have. Rather it would be a complement to it or a branch of it. It would be able to take care of some of the problems that plague the current internet. For instance, a quantum internet would offer much greater protection from hackers and cybercriminals. Right now, if Alice in New York sends a message to Bob in California over the internet, that message travels in more or less a straight line from one coast to the other. Along the way, the signals that transmit the message degrade; repeaters read the signals, amplify and correct the errors. But this process allows hackers to "break in" and intercept the message.

However, a quantum message wouldn't have that problem. Quantum networks use particles of light photons to send messages which are not vulnerable to cyberattacks. Instead of encrypting a message using mathematical complexity, says Ray Newell, a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory, we would rely upon the peculiar rules of quantum physics. With quantum information, "you can't copy it or cut it in half, and you can't even look at it without changing it." In fact, just trying to intercept a message destroys the message, as Wired magazine noted. That would enable encryption that would be vastly more secure than anything available today.

"The easiest way to understand the concept of the quantum internet is through the concept of quantum teleportation," Sumeet Khatri, a researcher at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, says in an email. He and colleagues have written a paper about the feasibility of a space-based quantum internet, in which satellites would continually broadcast entangled photons down to Earth's surface, as this Technology Review article describes.

"Quantum teleportation is unlike what a non-scientist's mind might conjure up in terms of what they see in sci-fi movies, " Khatri says. "In quantum teleportation, two people who want to communicate share a pair of quantum particles that are entangled. Then, through a sequence of operations, the sender can send any quantum information to the receiver (although it can't be done faster than light speed, a common misconception). This collection of shared entanglement between pairs of people all over the world essentially constitutes the quantum internet. The central research question is how best to distribute these entangled pairs to people distributed all over the world. "

Once it's possible to do that on a large scale, the quantum internet would be so astonishingly fast that far-flung clocks could be synchronized about a thousand times more precisely than the best atomic clocks available today, as Cosmos magazine details. That would make GPS navigation vastly more precise than it is today, and map Earth's gravitational field in such detail that scientists could spot the ripple of gravitational waves. It also could make it possible to teleport photons from distant visible-light telescopes all over Earth and link them into a giant virtual observatory.

"You could potentially see planets around other stars, " says Nicholas Peters, group leader of the Quantum Information Science Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

It also would be possible for networks of super-powerful quantum computers across the globe to work together and create incredibly complex simulations. That might enable researchers to better understand the behavior of molecules and proteins, for example, and to develop and test new medications.

It also might help physicists to solve some of the longstanding mysteries of reality. "We don't have a complete picture of how the universe works," says Newell. "We have a very good understanding of how quantum mechanics works, but not a very clear picture of the implications. The picture is blurry where quantum mechanics intersects with our lived experience."

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Challenges of Building the Quantum Internet

But before any of that can happen, researchers have to figure out how to build a quantum internet, and given the weirdness of quantum mechanics, that's not going to be easy. "In the classical world you can encode information and save it and it doesn't decay, " Peters says. "In the quantum world, you encode information and it starts to decay almost immediately. "

Another problem is that because the amount of energy that corresponds to quantum information is really low, it's difficult to keep it from interacting with the outside world. Today, "in many cases, quantum systems only work at very low temperatures," Newell says. "Another alternative is to work in a vacuum and pump all the air out. "

In order to make a quantum internet function, Newell says, we'll need all sorts of hardware that hasn't been developed yet. So it's hard to say at this point exactly when a quantum internet would be up and running, though one Chinese scientist has envisioned that it could happen as soon as 2030.

Now That's Interesting Albert Einstein, who questioned the validity of quantum mechanics, called quantum entanglement "spooky action at a distance," as Technology Review explains.

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Originally Published: Mar 30, 2020
Ghana is about to record huge numbers of COVID-19 infections despite all preventive measures relaid by the president.

The president in his fourth address to the public on measures taken against the spread of the novel coronavirus disease announced partial lockdown where Accra, Kumasi, Obuasi, and Tema were affected.

These are areas in which the pandemic has illuded and recorded most confirming cases apart from mandated quarantine Ghanaian returnees.

The Lockdown according to the directives of the president will be effective on Sunday, 29th March 2020 at exactly 12:00am until the next two weeks.

This has forced most people who habit at the affected areas to evacuate to non-affected regions and towns to shelter themselves with the purpose of escaping the terror of a lockdown.

Since I am situated in the eastern region, I will give you an account base on my observation and why Ghana is about to record huge number of coronavirus disease infections.

About 70% of Ghanaians have their lives in these affected towns. Most of them are not born and raised in these areas but vacates their regions and towns to seek greener pastures and to make a living.

Most of my friends vacates the eastern region to Accra to have a life and are all returning home without being tested nor quarantined.

I live in a compound house made of about six separate families who have their wards living in Accra, Kumasi, and Tema.

Just after the pronouncement of a lockdown by the president, these families called their wards back home without concern of being tested for the coronavirus.

These returnees are welcomed with a hug and handshake gesture by family members at first sight and you can presume how fast they are to spread the virus in case they are careers.

My household has received over six returnees and if each household within my community should record the same number of returnees with at least two careers each, what do you think will happen?

Instead of a partial lockdown, it would have been so right for the government to announce a total and nationwide lockdown or better still embargoed all transport service within the affected areas weeks before the lockdown.

This would have restricted those who reside in these areas from moving to non-affected areas.

Since such measures were not taken by the president, we should all expect a high tally of confirmed cases in the rural areas and other regions apart from the Ashanti and Greater Accra who have already recorded confirm cases.
Australians aged over 70 have been urged to remain at home and all outdoor gatherings will be restricted to just two people, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison imposed a further social crackdown on Sunday night to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

All Australians have now been told to leave their homes only to shop for food or other essential supplies, to seek medical care, to exercise under public gathering rules or for work and education if these cannot be conducted remotely.

Mr Morrison warned that trips to the shops should be only for "what you need", and should be "as infrequently as possible" while public playgrounds, outdoor gyms and skate parks will be closed from Monday.

"The strong advice is don't gather together in groups," he said on Sunday night.
A man who was among five people stabbed during a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi's home north of New York City has died three months after the attack.

Josef Neumann, 72, died on Sunday night, the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council said in a tweet.

The funeral for the father of seven and great-grandfather will be held on Monday.

On December 28, an attacker with a machete rushed into a rabbi's home in an Orthodox Jewish community in Monsey, New York.

Governor Andrew Cuomo described the attack as an act of domestic terrorism fuelled by intolerance and a "cancer" of growing hatred in America.

In the days following the attack, Mr Neumann's family said in a statement that the knife penetrated his skull and went directly into his brain, which could have caused permanent brain damage and could leave him partially paralysed.

He also suffered other cuts to the head and neck, and his arm was shattered.

Rabbi Yisroel Kahan, who is the community liaison for the Ramapo Police Department which serves Monsey and executive director of Oizrim Jewish Council, also shared the news of Mr Neumann's death on his Twitter account.

Nicky Kohen, the daughter of Josef Neumann, speaks to reporters in front of her home in New York on January 2, 2020 / AP

"We were hoping when he started to open his eyes," the rabbi told The Journal News on Sunday night.

"We were hoping and praying he would then pull through. This is so very sad he was killed celebrating Hanukkah with friends just because he was a Jew."

At the time, top state officials, including Governor Cuomo and Attorney General Leticia James, released statements condemning the attack.

Governor Cuomo said: In New York we will always stand up and say with one voice to anyone who wishes to divide and spread fear: you do not represent New York and your actions will not go unpunished.

Grafton Thomas, 37, has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including attempted murder / AP

A man, Grafton Thomas, 37, has been charged over the attack and indicted on federal hate crime charges as well as state charges, including attempted murder.
The founder of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong, invented a term for 'reactionaries' in the West who made threats against his regime. He called them 'paper tigers'  the ancient Chinese word is zhilaohu.

What Mao (whose vast portrait still looms over Beijing's Tiananmen Square) meant was that we, to use an equally colourful English expression, were all mouth and no trousers.

This recollection came to me when I read in the latest edition of The Spectator that British Government ministers had been so appalled by China's behaviour over the coronavirus that one told the magazine: 'We're going to be doing a lot less trade with China over this.'

The author of the piece, James Forsyth, is a conscientious reporter with outstanding contacts in Downing Street circles, so I don't doubt the accuracy of his story.

The founder of the People's Republic of Chin , Mao Zedong referred to 'reactionary' leaders in the West who made threats to his regime as 'paper tigers'. A picture of Mao behind an officer wearing a face mask in the centre of Wuhan is shown above

Neither do I doubt his revelation that 'there has been shock at the use of China's diplomatic network to spread misinformation about the origins of the pandemic. One close ally of the Prime Minister, who had always defended Boris Johnson's decision to allow Huawei to build part of the UK's 5G network, now concedes that there will be a rapid timetable to replace it with a supplier from a more trustworthy state.'

Denounced

But if there really was 'shock' in Government circles  at the way China initially covered up the truth about the coronavirus, which originated in an animal market in Wuhan, and then launched a propaganda campaign to make the ruling Communist party the global hero of the pandemic  it suggests a naivety in our own leaders which is itself shocking.

US Ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson, has criticised Beijing's conduct during its coronavirus outbreak. Donald Trump has referred to the disease as 'the Wuhan virus'

As the London-based Chinese dissident writer Ma Jian observed a month ago, Beijing's overriding and obsessive objective is to demonstrate the superiority of its own political system over that of the Western liberal democracies. And, he added: 'In times of crisis, the Communist party always places its own survival above the welfare of the people.'

This is why the doctor who identified the presence of a new Sars-like virus in the city of Wuhan, Li Wenliang, was originally denounced by the authorities and made to recant what he knew to be true.

When it could no longer be suppressed, Li was himself dying from the virus he had been desperately treating.

And the truth is that we still can't trust the figures put out by the Chinese government about the extent of the deaths from Covid-19 among its own citizens.

Of course, China also fears the wrath of its own people. In the past few days, there have been riots in Hubei province over the lockdown, with films on social media of police cars being overturned taken down by the authorities almost as soon as they were put up.

And it is doubtless as much for internal consumption as to convince the rest of the world that a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, tweeted claims that the virus had actually been unleashed on Wuhan by the U.S. military  and urged his followers to spread this conspiracy theory more widely.

Dr Li Wenliang (pictured) identified the presence of a new Sars-like virus in the city of Wuhan, He was denounced by the authorities and made to recant what he knew to be true

A memorial to Dr Wenliang in Westwood, California, is pictured above last month

That is the stick. But there is also the carrot. China has been proclaiming its own generosity in helping the rest of the world deal with what President Trump, with undeniable accuracy if not tact, now calls 'the Wuhan virus'.

Beijing has made much of the supplies of masks and testing equipment which its manufacturers have been delivering at pace and at a reasonable price to countries such as Spain and the Netherlands.

What Beijing does not say is that, when the virus took hold of Wuhan, Chinese companies were ordered to buy up vast quantities of thermometers, surgical masks, hand sanitisers and antibacterial wipes from countries such as Turkey, Canada and Australia.

It may be that China has got the better of this exchange.

The Spanish newspaper El Pais has revealed that the virus-testing equipment arriving from China had been shown in Spanish laboratories to have an accuracy rate of 30 per cent rather than the 80 per cent advertised. The paper quoted a Spanish doctor as saying that such a failure rate meant the tests were useless.

Folly

Similarly, a newspaper in the Netherlands has revealed that a batch of 600,000 face masks, just delivered to its health service from China, was unusable: 'They have membranes that do not function properly, so do not block particles of the virus.' This, it will readily be appreciated, is not only useless but actively dangerous: a doctor or nurse would think that they were being protected when the pathway to their lungs was actually being exposed to the virus.

You might think that this has no relevance to the British Government's recent, highly contentious decision to award the contract to deliver the next generation of smartphone technology, 5G, to the Chinese company Huawei.

But it has. Leaving aside the argument put forward most forcibly by the U.S. government, that it is folly to allow a company intimately connected with a Communist dictatorship into the heart of our data-based national infrastructure, is Huawei actually capable of delivering equipment of the necessary reliability?

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian has sought to blame the US for the virus

Yes, it is much cheaper than that of rival Western firms such as Eriksson or Nokia  but kit is usually cheap for a reason. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which the British Government uses to audit Huawei's infrastructural activity in the UK, has never backed claims that the Chinese firm will use its 5G involvement to 'spy' on us. But in 2018 its annual report stated: 'Our experience has shown that Huawei's cyber security and engineering quality is low and its processes opaque.' Who would have thought it?

And last year, the NCSC declared that Huawei's kit was 'a serious security risk' because the company had not done enough to improve its 'code-base'. In plain English: its system was insufficiently secure against viruses. No, not the sort of bug which has infected the globe with a potentially lethal disease, but, still, it's amazing that the Government thinks this is a reliable bet for Britain.

Blatant

While not being so insensitive as to raise this point again during a national emergency, the U.S. Ambassador in London, Woody Johnson, recently launched a broadside in The Times against Beijing's conduct over the pandemic: 'First it tried to suppress the news. Then it worked to protect its own population while selectively sharing critical information, such as genetic sequencing data, and continuing to stonewall international health authorities.

'Had China done the right things at the right time, more of its own population, and the rest of the world, might have been spared the most serious impact of this disease . . . Instead, China accused other countries of spreading the virus, and when called out for this blatant and dangerous propaganda, its officials complained indignantly about the 'politicisation' of the virus's origin.'

The Ambassador's not-so-hidden message to British readers is: are these the people with whom your Government should be doing strategically vital business? Bear in mind that two months ago our Government oversaw the sale of what was once British Steel to the Chinese firm Jingye. And China is also intimately bound up in the construction of the next stage of our nuclear power supply. Then there is 5G...

I doubt any of this will be unravelled, although the pressure on Boris Johnson from Conservative MPs adamantly opposed to the Huawei deal will mount  and it is probably to mollify them that Downing Street has been talking about 'doing less trade with China in future'.

It's certainly too late as far as the steel and nuclear deals are concerned. And Mr Johnson remains firmly committed to the speedy rolling-out of superfast broadband  which only Huawei can deliver at the pace the Prime Minister wants.

In other words, the Government's apparently outraged comments to well-placed journalists  that everything about our trading relationship with China is now to be reconsidered  are little more than the snarling of paper tigers.

Besides, as a friend who has dealt with China for decades put it to me yesterday: 'If this is what the Government really intends to do, it's pretty stupid to allow such threats to leak out before it is actually ready to take action.'

The point is: it's not ready to do so.
In cognizance of the coronavirus lockdown, UPSC has postponed the NDA, NA examination 2020. An official notice regarding this decision has been uploaded on its official website.

According to the notice, NDA, NA exam 2020 scheduled to be conducted on April 19, 2020, at various centres stands deferred till further notice.

Meanwhile, the Consortium of National Law Universities has extended the last date to apply for the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2020 till April 25, 2020.
These are the key questions, answers and Independent predictions about the governments plans for a 75m airlift of British nationals stranded abroad due to the global coronavirus shutdown.

What has the foreign secretary said?

Speaking at the daily 10 Downing Street briefing, Dominic Raab said: An unprecedented number of British travellers are trying to get home. Critical transit hubs are shutting down or limiting their flights.

The government will be reminding airlines of their obligation under European air passengers rights rules to find seats on alternative carriers when they cancel a flight.

But many travellers are facing a brick wall as a result of a surge of flight bans, airline groundings and restrictions on transit. Shutdowns at airport such as Dubai and Singapore have wrecked the travel plans of many UK citizens.

Where commercial flights are no longer running, the government will provide special charter flights, Mr Raab said.

How many British travellers are stuck abroad?

The repatriation exercise is aimed at UK citizens on short-term trips abroad  whether holidaymakers, business travellers or people visiting friends and relations.

The Independent has calculated that around 50,000 British travellers are still in this position. But Mr Raab estimated hundreds of thousands of UK citizens are still abroad and wanting to come home.

The difference may be explained by a growing number of long-term British residents abroad who are deciding to move back to the UK to be closer to family at this time.

What flights have taken place so far?

Early on in the coronavirus crisis, two repatriation flights were organised from Wuhan  the Chinese city at the centre of the outbreak  and one from Tokyo, carrying 43 passengers from the stricken cruise ship, Diamond Princess.

Since then the only coordinated rescue effort has been to Peru, where an estimated 1,000 travellers are being brought back in a series of four British Airways flights  together with connecting flights and buses from cities across the South American country.

The Independent understands that another pilot repatriation took place at the weekend from Accra in Ghana.

In addition, the cruise line Fred Olsen chartered three British Airways planes to fly from Havana to Heathrow after Cuba allowed Braemar to dock, following other ports refusals of the ship

Should there have been more flights by now?

Many people  whether UK citizens abroad or their loved ones at home  say the government has acted too slowly. The inaction means that more and more travellers have got stuck on the wrong side of lockdowns and flight bans.

Anger has grown among stranded British travellers, their families and their constituency MPs at what they see as a sluggish response to what is rapidly becoming a humanitarian crisis.

Austria, Germany, Israel and the US have organised a series of repatriation flights from distant locations such as Auckland and Santiago de Chile.

How will the repatriation system work?

Details are sketchy, but the government says passengers will be able to book online with a travel management company. Travellers are being urged to register with the Foreign Office and/or UK missions abroad to hear about the opportunities.

They will pay a nominal amount. For long-haul flights it is likely to be 250, the sum charged to British passengers brought back from Peru. The actual cost per seat is likely to be four to six times as much; the remainder will be met by the taxpayer.

Where and when will it start?

The first wave of charters is being negotiated but there are no definitive answers about dates and destinations for rescue flights. The Independent understands priority will be given to locations with high concentrations of travellers, particularly in India and South Africa.

South Africa imposed a flights ban at the weekend at very short notice.

Indias draconian new rules and a ban on international flights has left an estimated 10,000 British travellers without an obvious escape route.

There will also be special attention paid to places where there are known to be many vulnerable UK citizens  including older travellers, those with underlying medical conditions and people with an especially urgent need to get home.

The quality of the local healthcare system will also be taken into account.

Large concentrations of increasingly anxious British travellers are located across Asia, particularly in Cambodia, the Philippines and the Indonesian island of Bali.

More UK travellers are spread across Pacific islands as well as Latin America.

But British citizens in Australia and New Zealand cannot expect immediate help. Commercial flights from key Australian cities are continuing, with some Qatar Airways flights serving Auckland in New Zealand.

Who will do the flying?

Mr Raab said that five UK airlines have signed a memorandum of understanding: British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, easyJet, Jet2 and Titan Airways. All but the first two are short-haul airlines, with limited capability to help.

With almost no other income, airlines are believed to be keen to get involved with repatriation. But some previous repatriation flights have been operated by the Spanish charter airline, Wamos.

But as individual countries have imposed increasingly harsh lockdown as well as flight bans, key hotspots have become apparent.

Where will the repatriation flights land in the UK?

The vast majority of long-haul flights will be to London Heathrow, but some will serve Gatwick. If a large number of travellers are heading for northern England, north Wales and Scotland, for example from India, then some flights may serve Manchester airport  to reduce the amount of travel in the UK.

Will there be special screening at the arrival airport?

No, it will be nothing like the early repatriation flights from China and Japan, where travellers were taken to isolation hospitals. Arriving passengers will be given information about coronavirus and told what to do if they develop symptoms.
Small businesses in San Antonio are struggling during the coronavirus pandemic, and local and federal officials are trying to help owners keep their doors open and employees paid.

The federal government passed a spending package Friday that includes $350 billion for potentially forgivable small-business assistance loans.

Days before, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff and other local leaders also sought to develop their own safety net program for locally owned small businesses.

That help was badly needed.

Bexar County on Tuesday announced a $5.25 million fund to provide loans and grants for locally owned small businesses hurt by the outbreak. LiftFund, a San Antonio-based loan provider for small businesses, is administering the loans and grants.

Since announcing the fund earlier in the week, LiftFund has received nearly 650 loan or grant applications from businesses totaling $42 million in requested funding.

Usually in the business world, you use working capital to grow your business. Whats happening now is, I need working capital just to stay afloat, LiftFund CEO Janie Barrera said. Locally owned businesses need a lifeline.

As the federal government determines how exactly to dole out the Small Business Administration loans, the city of San Antonio could follow in the countys steps.

Nelson is a small-business owner at heart, so he understands the complexities of running a small business. So he got on it immediately, San Antonio Chamber of Commerce President Richard Perez said. The city is talking about doing the same.

Perez also lauded the federal government for directing hundreds of billions of dollars to small businesses.

He said the chamber hosted a web conference Friday with a representative from the SBA to help San Antonio business owners understand how the loan program will work.

We had 1,473 people sign up to participate in less than 24 hours, Perez said. The idea is to keep pushing that information out.

Its not clear exactly when the federal loans will be available, but business owners can apply on the SBAs website.

The size of the loans will be based on a business monthly revenue. The maximum loan a business can receive is $10 million.

Eligibility requirements for the loans will be relaxed. Borrowers wont have to show their ability to repay, and there will be no collateral requirements.

The loans can be fully or partially forgiven if a business retains or rehires workers.

Barrera said she expects that LiftFund will still be active in the economic recovery efforts because many small businesses in San Antonio, such as cash-only establishments, may not meet the requirements for SBA loans.

Our small businesses, mom-and-pop shops, even with the stimulus package, we still have a sizable community thats not going to be eligible for that money, Barrera said. We at LiftFund will have to continue to do our business in that field.

LiftFund operates by providing low-interest loans to entrepreneurs and small-business owners to get their enterprises off the ground. The interest payments from business owners covers LiftFunds overhead, Barrera said.

But because the county loans and grants have no interest, LiftFund could be the one facing a financial shortfall in the coming months.

These loans and grants were administering have zero return to LiftFund, so we need to rely on donations to cover that, she said. Well be able to do this to a certain point, but three months from now, well have to look at LiftFunds revenues.

Other private-sector efforts to aid small-business owners are underway at companies. Facebook, for example, has committed $100 million to assist businesses. Details on eligibility for the program have not been released, however.

While its not clear when business owners should expect to begin receiving federal help, Perez said the news of the loan program is welcome.

We need to hunker down and be thoughtful and take care of ourselves, Perez said. But this is going to help us weather the storm.

diego.mendoza-moyers@express-news.net
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 20:15:54|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

Many students returned to school on Monday amid strict preventive measures as the coronavirus epidemic waned in China.

But as increasing global cases pose a considerable uncertainty, most provinces have only partly resumed schooling with caution, and some provinces are still reluctant to arrange reopening schedules.

by Xinhua writers Zhu Xiao, He Leijing and Zhong Qun

NANJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- China is taking strict preventive measures to ensure the safety of students and no secondary outbreaks of COVID-19 among them as schools begin to reopen.

As the coronavirus epidemic waned in China, many students in the final year of senior and junior high schools returned to school on Monday.

In northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, more than 370,000 students went back to school.

Wearing his school uniform, Qingel walked through the gate of Hohhot No.6 Middle School in Hohhot, the regional capital, while a door automatically took his temperature. He then walked on a designated lane towards the classroom.

"The super-long winter holiday is finally over," said Qingel, 16. "I miss my classmates and teachers, and I lost some sleep last night."

Students enter the campus of Hohhot No. 6 Middle School in Hohhot, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, March 30, 2020.



Students in their final year of senior and junior high schools in Inner Mongolia returned to school and embraced their new spring semester on Monday. (Xinhua/Wang Chunyan)

Inner Mongolia has made necessary preparations for the reopening of schools to reduce the risk of infection, said Li Zhanfeng, deputy director of the regional education department.

Over 1,000 km away, in eastern China's Jiangsu Province, students of grade 9 and 12 returned to school to prepare for entrance exams for senior high schools and colleges, respectively, after a long winter break, according to the provincial education department.

Bidding farewell to the long winter break, many students at Funing Middle School were queuing up for body temperature checks with a one-meter distance in between before entering the schools in the county of Funing.

Every classroom is well ventilated, and every class is dismissed at a different time to avoid group gatherings, said Qian Liyong, the deputy principal.

In Hohhot No.38 Middle School, shelves were placed outside the door of every classroom to provide disinfection sprayers, thermos bottles, cleaning cloths and other daily necessities.

The school has divided the final grades of high school and middle school into eleven and twelve classes, respectively, with an average number of fewer than 30 students in each class to avoid crowdedness, according to Zhao Dawei, with the school's student affairs office. Normally each class has more than 50 students.

A graduating student gets temperature checked at the entrance of the school building of Hohhot No. 35 Middle School in Hohhot, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, March 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Lian Zhen)

In Funing Middle School, students and teachers are all required to wear masks and keep safe distances in class, according to Qian.

Liu Junwen is a math teacher from Hohhot No.4 Middle School. He returned to school early Monday morning to take medical supplies and carefully check his teaching courseware.

"After such a long break, I have been looking forward to the day of the school reopening," Liu said.

He said there are less than 70 days left for students in the third year of middle school to prepare for final exams, and teachers and students need to "get in sync" after a month of online teaching.

"We will try to make up for some deficiencies of online teaching through offline classes," Liu said, adding that students can continue communicating with teachers through online platforms after school.

DRILLS, SERIAL NUMBERS AND GLASS PARTITIONS

To make sure everything goes smoothly, Chinese teachers and staff carried out many drills, including taking temperatures, disinfection and mask-wearing.

Schools have also changed their student dining practices, as many parents show concern about how their children could eat safely.

The No.6 Middle School in the Jiangsu city of Wuxi conducted several drills, during which teachers played the roles of students and simulated multiple processes such as entering school, attending classes, washing hands and dinning.

Graduating students attend a class at Hohhot No. 6 Middle School in Hohhot, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, March 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Xu Qin)

The school has set up three separate entrances for students of different grades to get their temperatures tested. If a student's temperature is found abnormal, he or she will be immediately taken to the doctors in the isolation area.

"We have further improved our work plan in the drills. For instance, after teachers simulated washing hands before eating, we found it could easily lead to crowd gathering, so we proposed that students should wash hands in batches," said school principal Zhang Gang.

At Xishan Senior Middle School in Jiangsu, canteen tables have been tagged with serial numbers, and each student can find his or her table with the numbers. Wuxi Meili Middle School requires several classes of students to dine in the classrooms while others go to the cafeteria where tables are installed with separating partitions.

Rural schools have also set up strict routines.

"We have men's and women's washing rooms on each floor where there are six classes, so we arrange three classes to use the restrooms at a time during the class break," said Qian Liyong of Funing Middle School.

BEGINNING WITH CAUTION

Although the epidemic is waning in China, increasing global cases pose a considerable uncertainty.

Under this circumstance, most provinces have only partly resumed schooling with caution, and some provinces are still reluctant to arrange reopening schedules.

A student uses hydro-alcoholic gel at the corridor of Hohhot No. 6 Middle School in Hohhot, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, March 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Xu Qin)

In Jiangsu Province, students in other grades will return to school after April 7, while college students will return after April 13. Detailed information about the reopening days will be decided by the coronavirus control departments of each city and college in the province.

In southwestern Yunnan Province, the provincial education department decided to postpone the scheduled reopening days of schools except for the final grades of senior and junior schools to reduce the risk of virus spreading.

Beijing municipal authorities said the city has no plan for reopening schools and kindergartens at present. The city's education commission said it is still too early to consider any plans for reopening of schools. The commission will notify the public of the timetable and arrangement of the new semester in advance.

Graduating students attend a class at Hohhot No. 35 Middle School in Hohhot, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, March 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Lian Zhen)

Wu Zunyou, a researcher with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, last week urged schools in low-risk areas to take necessary measures for epidemic prevention. He warned that detections of abnormal body temperatures and suspicious symptoms should be reported to health authorities immediately.

In addition to monitoring students' body temperatures and symptoms, it is also necessary to pay close attention to their psychological condition since most of them are facing the pressure of entrance examinations in such a difficult time.

Qi Yaling, a teacher from Jiangsu Taizhou High School, said that students should have confidence in the current situation.

"They need to make scientific learning plans to keep up with the overall teaching schedule," Qi said. "They also need to keep an optimistic attitude." 

(Video reporters: Lin Kai, Zhu Xiao, He Leijing, Qin Huajiang, Chen Xiyuan, Yujia, Wang Chunyan, Sun Min, Darihan; video editor: Yang Zhixiang)


By ANI

WASHINGTON: Actor Rita Wilson called herself a 'COVID 19 survivor' after returning home from quarantine in Australia.

Rita who tested positive for the coronavirus alongside husband Tom Hanks in Australia earlier this month in an Instagram post thanked God for both her good health and continued success.

As the couple acclimatized back into normal life in Los Angeles, Rita marked the importance of the date, 29 March, while sharing a series of pictures.

"This date, March 29, represents a time of great happiness. I was on Broadway starring with Larry David in his play Fish In The Dark before finding out I had been diagnosed with breast cancer. March 29 also marks five years of being cancer free after having had a bilateral mastectomy.......One year ago on March 29, I was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a street, that as a child, I'd walk on and read all the names of the stars I admired, never believing one day my name would be on one of those stars. And one year ago today, I released my fourth album, Halfway to Home," Rita wrote.

She further added: "All of this would not be possible without good health. So, today, March 29, I am celebrating the beauty of this life, the blessings God has given, and my continued good health, even now as a Covid-19 survivor. Please take a moment today to acknowledge the amazing creation your bodies are and to thank it for doing so much."

Expressing her gratitude Wilson thanked god, fans, and also the medical professionals who got her through that time.

Celebrating the beauty of life she concluded, "I am celebrating the beauty of this life, the blessings God has given , and my continued good health, even now as a COVID 19 survivor. Please take a moment today to acknowledge the amazing creation your bodies are and to thank it for doing so much."
State-owned New India Assurance has agreed to provide insurance cover of Rs 50 lakh to about 22 lakh health care providers, who are on the frontline of battle against coronavirus.

"As announced by Finance Minister Smt @nsitharaman on March 26, @NewIndAssurance has issued detailed guidelines for providing insurance cover of Rs 50 lakh per person for 22.12 lakh health care providers across the country," a tweet by the Finance Ministry said on Monday.

This was part of the Rs 1.70 lakh Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan package announced by the Finance Minister last Thursday.

Doctors, nurses, paramedics, sanitation workers and a few others will be covered under the insurance.

Sitharaman had said the insurance cover will be there for three months.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian tourism industry has suffered approximately 134,750,000 dollars in losses in Q1 because of the coronavirus pandemic, the countrys tourism committee said.

Tourism Committee chief Susanna Safaryan told a news conference that the tourism flow to the country in the first three months of 2020 was 175,000 tourists less than usual. However, Safaryan said they havent done official calculations yet.

If we calculate how much one tourist is spending in Armenia, then it would be approximately 175 thousand times 770 dollars. This is a very significant loss for the tourism industry given the fact that the first quarter isnt even the most active season, she said, adding that the Q2 may be worse because of the closed borders and suspended flights.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
Kiran Narayanan By

Express News Service

KOCHI: In times of crisis, animals are given the least preference by rescuers. It demands a sense of compassion to lend a helping hand to those beloved souls. Following the clarion call from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, officers from Kalamassery police station kick-started their stray dog reach out programme on Saturday. The initiative is led by Raghu P S, a civil police officer, who saw the plight of a starving stray dog while he and his colleagues were returning the station on Friday.

I felt very sorry and gave it the lone packet of food we had. The dog regained its energy after eating it. Seeing this, we went to a pet shop and bought 25kg of dog food and packets of crushed bread, he said.

On Saturday, the officers distributed the food to more than 20 stray dogs on the Kalamassery-Kaloor stretch.We distributed 250gm of bread, store-bought meal and water to each dog. But most of them are exposed to our meals as they forage for food from the garbage on the street. Instead of processed dog food, we will give rice and vegetables from Sunday, said Raghu.

Raghu is a guardian of five pet dogs, two of which were rescued during the 2018 flood. It is heartbreaking to see the way these dogs are left to fend for themselves on the streets. Most of them are really tired, he said. The officers have been distributing over 300 food packets and drinking water to the stranded persons in the city since last Sunday. Besides, they are also providing bread and bananas to the needy for dinner. Kochi Metro Rail Ltd and YMCA are supporting the initiative. We have started the initiative by cooking the food from our households. Now, it has grown to 300 food packets, he said.

Raghu recently hogged the limelight for helping French journalist Desmazure Fleurine and her three-year-old who were stranded after she lost her wallet. He has also bagged various laurels from the Union Home Ministry during his tenure with tourism police for helping foreigners.
Facebook says it is spending $100 million to support news outlets around the world that have been impacted by the coronavirus, the company said Monday.

Why it matters: Whatever Facebook's motivation, this is a much-needed cash infusion at a critical time for the local news industry.

Yes, but: While $25 million will be given to local news organizations in the U.S. as grants, the other $75 million is being funneled to news organizations in need globally through Facebook marketing, or ad space Facebook is purchasing to market itself from those outlets.

The new grants will be made through Facebook's new COVID-19 Community Network grant program, which Facebook first debuted two weeks ago.

The Post and Courier in South Carolina, the Southeast Missourian, and El Paso Matters in Texas will be among some of the first recipients of the grants.

Between the lines: The investment builds on a previously-announced $300 million commitment from Facebook through its Facebook Journalism Project to invest in news efforts, especially local news.

It also builds on a recently-announced $2 million investment to support newsrooms and fact-checkers that aim to promote quality information about the coronavirus.

Be smart: It's in Facebook's best interest to invest in news, particularly at the local level.

Facebook's business model is contingent on people sharing news and updates about their communities, but the tech giant said last year that there isn't enough digital local news across the U.S. for its users to share.

Some policymakers and news trade groups have grown increasingly frustrated with Silicon Valley over the past few years for leveraging its dominance in ways that make it difficult for news publishers to turn a profit.

The big picture: Tech and media companies are throwing millions of dollars at journalism and small businesses initiatives during this time of crisis.

Google said Friday it's donating $800 million in cash and ads to fight the coronavirus.

said Friday it's donating $800 million in cash and ads to fight the coronavirus. Facebook said last week it's giving out $100 million in grants to help small businesses during the coronavirus.

said last week it's giving out $100 million in grants to help small businesses during the coronavirus. Yelp said last week it will give $25 million to help local businesses survive the coronavirus slowdown, primarily via free ad space.

said last week it will give $25 million to help local businesses survive the coronavirus slowdown, primarily via free ad space. Netflix is creating a $100 million relief fund to help members of the creative community struggling from the crisis.

is creating a $100 million relief fund to help members of the creative community struggling from the crisis. WarnerMedia says it's committing more than $100 million to support film and production crews being shut out by the virus.

says it's committing more than $100 million to support film and production crews being shut out by the virus. Apple has pledged $15 million to medical and economic relief efforts towards the virus.

has pledged $15 million to medical and economic relief efforts towards the virus. Twitter said Tuesday that it's donating $1 million to the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Women's Media Foundation ($500,000 each) to support newsrooms while covering the novel coronavirus.

Our thought bubble: While tech giants like Google, Facebook and others are expected to lose billions of advertising dollars this year thanks to economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the losses aren't expected to cripple these companies.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus and a pending recession has pushed the local news industry into near collapse at a time when people need access to local news and information more than ever before.

The bottom line: "If people needed more proof that local journalism is a vital public service, they're getting it now," says Campbell Brown, Facebook's VP of global news partnerships, in a statement.

Go deeper:
Are Gold and Silver Mirroring 1999 to 2011 Again?

Our research team continues to dig into underlying patterns and set up in the global markets to assist skilled technical traders in understanding the current Covid-19 virus event and other key technical data. Recently, weve authored a number of detailed research articles that we believe helped prepare traders for the events of the past 30 to 90+ days. If you missed them, please take a moment to review some of our critical market research posts:

February 24, 2020: HAS THE EQUITIES WATERFALL EVENT STARTED OR A BUYING OPPORTUNITY?

January 31, 2020: A COMBINATION TOPPING PATTERN IS SETTING UP

December 20, 2019: WHO SAID TRADERS AND INVESTOR ARE EMOTIONAL RIGHT NOW?

Today, we are writing about a pattern our research team is seeing in the Gold/Silver ratio which is correlated to the price movement of Gold. What does this mean and how can we profit from this setup? Lets get started trying to explain this chart pattern/setup.

Gold:Silver Ratio Chart From a New Angle

This first chart highlights the pattern we have identified and how we believe a similar pattern is setting up again in the current market. The setup of the pattern is explained in the text below, but quickly scroll down and look at the first chart and the pink shaded areas A to get an idea of what we are talking about.

Prior to A Pattern Setup

_ After a moderate price decline in Gold (1996 through 2001), a bottom sets up as the price of Gold begins to base near support.

_ The Gold/Silver ratio (BLUE), falls throughout this pattern setup as both Gold and Silver prices decline somewhat in unison.

The Setup A

_ Gold prices begin to rally moderately while pushing the Gold/Silver ratio higher over an extended period of time (from 1999 to 2003: about 4 years).

_ The Gold/Silver ratio peaks and begins to decline in mid-2003 as the price of Gold continues to rally at a bit more accelerated rate.

_ Gold prices begin a parabolic upside price advance in early 2006 after the Gold/Silver ratio collapses about 18% to 20% from the peak level near 82.50.

We believe a similar type of pattern is setting up right now in the metals market and we believe both Gold and Silver will engage in a price advance over the next 10+ months that may be similar to the post-A set up in mid-2003. If you are familiar with what happened in the metals market at that time, Silver began to advance at a faster rate than the price of Gold advanced. This is what caused the Gold/Silver ratio to begin to collapse.

Before you continue, be sure to opt-in to our free market trend signals before closing this page, so you dont miss our next special report!

Silver Monthly chart from 1993 to 2004

This Silver chart from 1993 to 2004 clearly shows how the price of Silver was reacting throughout the setup prior to A and after A in the chart (above). Silver began a moderate price advance in 1993 from a level near $3.50 and advanced to a level near $7.50 in 1998. Then, it began a downside price move to reach new lows in 2002. At that point, the markets changed. Gold and Silver began to advance almost in unison with Gold still advancing slightly more than Silver until early/mid-2003. Once Silver broke dramatically higher, in late 2003-04, the Gold/Silver ratio started breaking downward instead of upward. This is the pattern we are seeing in the metals market right now.

We believe the recent rotation in the metals market and the dramatic price divergence between Gold and Silver are setting up another similar type of pattern that could prompt both Silver and Gold to rally upward from current levels by at least 200%.

Current Silver Monthly chart

The extremely deep price retracement on this Monthly Silver chart (below) highlights what we believe is a deep washout low price rotation that is setting up the disconnect as we have tried to explain in the Gold/Silver ratio chart and historical Silver chart (above). Yes, Gold also moved dramatically lower over the past 2+ weeks illustrating the shock to the markets that took place as the Covid-19 virus event disrupted the US and global markets. But our researchers believe this dramatic washout low in Silver is setting up a much bigger pattern, longer-term than most people understand.

Recently, news that global precious metals suppliers have received a tremendous surge of orders for the physical stock over the past 2+ weeks (source: https://www.msn.com). In fact, many global suppliers and mints are simply out of stock at the moment. This surge in demand changes the dynamics of the market and how we look at the washout low in Silver.

If demand continues to surge, which we have no reason to doubt at this stage of the Covid-19 virus event, and Silver begins to rally as it did in 2002~2005, then the Gold/Silver ratio will begin to collapse just as it did in 2003~2007 (see the first chart  Post A). This means the demand for metals is skyrocketing and Silver has suddenly become a more in demand physical metal than Gold.

You want a reality check on how to trade gold, silver and the stock market in this type of market condition be sure to check this out.

Current Gold Weekly Chart

We believe the next phase of price action in Gold is a move above $1990 as demand for metals continues to surge. This would represent a 100% Fibonacci price expansion of the last price rally from the lows set in September 2018 (near $1168). It would also represent a rally from the current level of at least +22.50% in Gold. Subsequently, if Silver begins to rally at a greater rate than Gold over this same span of time, Silver could rally to levels above $22 representing a +53% price rally according to our Adaptive Fibonacci Price Modeling system (the CYAN target on the chart above).

Pay attention to the Gold/Silver ratio and the price of Silver compared to Gold over the next 30 to 60+ days. If our research is correct, the current low price of Silver will be a distant memory in less than 60 days and a tandem price advance in both Gold and Silver will propel the metals much higher. How much higher? From 2003 to the peak in 2011, Gold rallied 450% (from $350 to over $1900). Over that same span of time, Silver rallied 1024% (from $4.50 to just under $50).

If we are right about this pattern setup and the future opportunities it may present, we could see Silver trading above $160 per ounce within 4 to 7 years. Can you guess where Gold would likely be trading if Silver rallied 1000% from current levels? Dont miss this next big move in the metals.

As a technical analysis and trader since 1997, I have been through a few bull/bear market cycles. I believe I have a good pulse on the market and timing key turning points for short-term swing traders.

Visit my ETF Wealth Building Newsletter and if you like what I offer, and ride my coattails as I navigate these financial markets and build wealth while others lose nearly everything they own during the next financial crisis.

Chris Vermeulen

www.TheTechnicalTraders.com

Chris Vermeulen has been involved in the markets since 1997 and is the founder of Technical Traders Ltd. He is an internationally recognized technical analyst, trader, and is the author of the book: 7 Steps to Win With Logic



Through years of research, trading and helping individual traders around the world. He learned that many traders have great trading ideas, but they lack one thing, they struggle to execute trades in a systematic way for consistent results. Chris helps educate traders with a three-hour video course that can change your trading results for the better.



His mission is to help his clients boost their trading performance while reducing market exposure and portfolio volatility.



He is a regular speaker on HoweStreet.com, and the FinancialSurvivorNetwork radio shows. Chris was also featured on the cover of AmalgaTrader Magazine, and contributes articles to several leading financial hubs like MarketOracle.co.uk

Disclaimer: Nothing in this report should be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any securities mentioned. Technical Traders Ltd., its owners and the author of this report are not registered broker-dealers or financial advisors. Before investing in any securities, you should consult with your financial advisor and a registered broker-dealer. Never make an investment based solely on what you read in an online or printed report, including this report, especially if the investment involves a small, thinly-traded company that isnt well known. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report has been paid by Cardiff Energy Corp. In addition, the author owns shares of Cardiff Energy Corp. and would also benefit from volume and price appreciation of its stock. The information provided here within should not be construed as a financial analysis but rather as an advertisement. The authors views and opinions regarding the companies featured in reports are his own views and are based on information that he has researched independently and has received, which the author assumes to be reliable. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content of this report, nor its fitness for any particular purpose. Lastly, the author does not guarantee that any of the companies mentioned in the reports will perform as expected, and any comparisons made to other companies may not be valid or come into effect.

Chris Vermeulen Archive

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




Engineering and construction giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T) on Monday announced Rs 150 crore donation to the PM-CARES Fund to fight the coronavirus outbreak and said it has set aside over Rs 500 crore per month to support about 1.60 lakh contract workers.

L&T joins a list of other corporates including Tata Group and Reliance Industries who have come forward to offer their support to fight this unprecedented crisis.

The company said it has set aside an outlay of over Rs 500 crore per month to support about 1.60 lakh contract workers by continuing to pay their wages during the ongoing lockdown and providing them with food and basic amenities at labour camps, while maintaining the COVID-19 prevention and containment protocol.

"Responding to the call given by Prime Minister of India, the company will donate Rs 150 crore to the PM-CARES Fund," the company said in a statement.

The diversified conglomerate said it is committed to participate in corporate India's response to COVID-19 through funds, community welfare plans and through leveraging its expertise to offer assistance.

"We are helping India's fight against COVID-19 by way of immediate funding, and through a range of welfare initiatives including converting our training schools into Isolation Centers," Larsen & Toubro Group Chairman AM Naik said.

The group said, it is considering transforming all company-owned training centers and other select establishments into isolation wards.

The company has also committed to offer use of its community Health & Medical Centers 24X7 and use ambulances to transport patients to nearest hospitals, it said.

L&T Smart World & Communication, a business unit of Larsen & Toubro, has installed smart technologies in over 20 major cities, including Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Prayagraj, Ahmedabad, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad and others.

Besides, ensuring 24X7 availability of ambulances, doctors and other medical facilities to workmen and employees across locations, it is sending SMS alerts, in English, Hindi and other vernacular languages, to workmen and employees on COVID-19, its symptoms, testing facilities available locally.

Besides, it is relaying various health advisories and related messaging to 1,20,000 employees, daily, it said adding it has closed all offices and other establishments as per government directives and is encouraging employees to work from home.

The efforts also include formation of COVID-19 Response Teams across businesses to take timely action and Decision Response Team at corporate level to keep vigil on the evolving situation and take necessary actions.

On Saturday, Tata Sons and Tata Trusts had contributed Rs 1,500 crore for the same cause. JSW Group on Sunday donated Rs 100 crore to the PM Fund.

While, bllionaire Gautam Adani on Sunday announced a Rs 100 crore contribution by his group's philanthropy arm to the Prime Minister's Fund to fight coronavirus outbreak.

Previously, Reliance Industries had made an initial contribution of Rs 5 crore besides opening India's first Covid-19 hospital in Mumbai as also giving free meals through NGOs to the needy and fuel to emergency vehicles transporting infected patients.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Some scapegoats who defied the two-week lockdown directive issued by the president learned the hard way when they were arrested by the national security task force enforcing the COVID-19 Safety Operations on Monday dawn at Asafo, a suburb of Kumasi.



The arrested individuals, prior to their capture encountered a long hot chase with the security task force amidst cheers from onlookers who were spying and taking snapshots of the incident through their windows.



Meanwhile, according to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Dr. Sayibu Pabi Gariba, the Operation COVID Safety it is not intended to intimidate Ghanaian citizens.



He has for that matter described the operation as strictly humanitarian.



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Friday during his fourth address to the nation declared a lockdown in some main parts of the country aimed at halting the spread of coronavirus.



These areas are described by the Ghana Health Service as the epicenters, where substantial numbers of the novel coronavirus have been recorded.



Under the emergency measure, movements and mass gatherings have been prohibited.



Non-essential shops have also been ordered to close for the next two weeks.









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Mortuary employees wearing masks carry the coffin of a COVID-19 victim during a burial at the Fuencarral cemetery in Madrid on March 29, 2020. (Baldesca Samper/AFP via Getty Images)

1,650 CCP Virus Patients Die in Spain Over Weekend

Spain reported 1,650 new deaths from the CCP virus over the weekend as one of the hardest-hit countries in the world continued trying to get a handle on the outbreak of the illness there.

The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Partys coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China before it was transmitted worldwide.

Spains death toll from COVID-19 climbed to 7,340 as of Monday, from 5,690 early Saturday.

Spain also saw large increases in total cases, to 85,195, and patients in intensive care units at hospitals for the new illness, to 5,231.

The countrys Ministry of Health said the number of cured or recovered rose to 16,780, a jump of nearly 4,500 from Saturday.

Members of Spanish Military Emergencies Unit (UME) wearing protective suits stand outside a bus used to transport patients from the San Carlos Clinic Hospital to a temporary hospital set-up for CCP virus patients at the Ifema convention and exhibition center in Madrid, on March 29, 2020. (Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP via Getty Images)

Spains mortality rate of 8.6 is one of the highest in the world as hospitals are overwhelmed with patients, particularly in Madrid. Official rates dont include the number of people who show mild symptoms and never get tested, health experts have said.

Maria Jose Sierra, the ministrys deputy emergency chief, spoke at a press conference on Monday, replacing the usual appearance by Health Emergency Chief Fernando Simon.

Simon tested positive for COVID-19, Sierra told reporters.

He showed a peak of fever yesterday, he is very well but he is at home in isolation because he is positive, she said.

Officials have seen a drop in the average increase in cases since March 25, Sierra stressed, adding: From the day that the general social distancing measures began throughout Spain, from March 15 to 25, the increase in average cases was about 20 percent and since that day it is 12 percent.

People wearing masks rearrange their shopping bags for three households during the CCP virus outbreak in Madrid on March 29, 2020. (Susana Vera/Reuters)

The government told people working in non-essential jobs to stay at home starting March 30 and continuing through April 9.

President Pedro Sanchez announced the move on Saturday, saying the measure was aimed at helping reduce the risk of contagion and easing pressure on intensive care units at hospitals. Workers affected by the pandemic are being supported by funds designated by the government while some companies are switching to making crucial equipment like masks.

Schools, restaurants, and other establishments have been closed since March 14, when the country implemented a lockdown.

Spanish tourists in other nations have been regularly flown back to Spain, including from Guatemala, Cameroon, and Ecuador. In some cases, tourists are being housed inside Spanish embassies and consular offices if theyre not immediately able to be transported back to their home country.

Over 200 Spanish tourists who want to leave India were staying at a hotel and the Cervantes Institute in New Delhi, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Arrangements were made for tourists in Ecuador but they were ultimately able to leave without delay.
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Physicians are leaders. As leaders, we are focused on how to ensure safety for our coworkers while also acknowledging a need for stewardship of scarce supply of resources, namely, personal protective equipment (PPE).

I have a particular interest in this topic since I am an emergency physician with a high-risk newborn at home (who spent time in the neonatal ICU just a few weeks ago for respiratory issues). The motivation to protect my family, our staff, and myself has led to my continued research into this topic. There are many news stories of institutions with policies around PPE that are based on a lack of supply and our complete lack of preparedness in this country. The unfortunate truth is that we simply do not have the supplies we need to create policies that allow for optimal protection.

However, resorting to panic and anger is not productive. As physicians, we must advocate in an evidence-based manner for policies that protect our frontline staff. We can use our voices and our experience to impact change.

Recently, the New York Times released a sobering video of the state of the emergency department (ED) in NYC. COVID-19 has become so ubiquitous that any and all patients should be assumed to have it. Car accident victims, abdominal pain, and other non-respiratory complaints later are found to have COVID-19, and the lack of PPE used in their initial evaluation resulted in the rapid depletion of frontline health care workers due to exposure.

Dr. Atul Gawande discussed the evidence for using surgical masks for all patient-facing staff. Many hospitals, such as those affiliated with Harvard, have since instituted a universal masking policy for all staff and patients. However, there is still concern regarding the aerosol transmission of COVID-19. A recent New England Journal of Medicine article concluded, that aerosol and fomite transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is plausible, since the virus can remain viable and infectious in aerosols for hours and on surfaces up to days.

Despite the controversial tidbit about using bandanas for protection, the CDC recommendations state that Health care providers should use N95 respirators when caring for patients under airborne precautions for infectious diseases including COVID-19. Some hospitals ration N95s for frontline health care workers. It should be noted, however, that continuous use of an N95 is better protection than donning/doffing for particular patients. We must protect our workforce of health care workers as much as possible. In Ohio, the statistics show that 16 percent of COVID-19 cases are health care workers.

Evidence shows that we ideally need N95s for protection when caring for COVID-19 patients, but lack of testing prevents us from knowing which ones have it, and lack of adequate supplies requires us to have more judicious use of these scarce resources. We can use evidence to influence our institutional policy discussions.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommendations include allowing alternative use respirators during PPE shortage. Namely, if health care workers have their own respirators that are not supplied by the employer, they should be allowed to wear them. This is supported by the American Academy of Emergency Medicine position statement on self-supplied PPE. Hospitals across the country that are refusing to let employees supply their own PPE are not only losing frontline staff but are also being sued with OSHA lawsuits.

Simple cloth masks, like those being sewn by the public, are not adequate protection for health care workers, and in previous studies have been shown to increase transmission of infection. Cloth masks with a filter may have some utility, and plain cloth masks may be helpful to place over an N95 to preserve its use. Cloth masks could also be given to patients as a barrier measure, but they should not be considered protective for health care workers caring for patients.

If employees would like to provide their own PPE, they should also have access to fit testing to ensure that they are actually protected and not having a false sense of security. They should also be provided education about how to properly don and doff as well as clean reusable PPE to prevent the unwanted consequence of fomite transmission.

We need to continue to explore evidence-based and novel ideas for cleaning and reuse of non-medical respirators. Duke University has released information about novel ways to clean and reuse N95 respirators.

We should continue to explore alternative ways to craft protection for coworkers. For instance, Boston Childrens Surgical Innovation Fellowship created a new respirator that can be produced for about $3 each, and health care workers can produce them quickly using inexpensive, readily available medical supplies that most hospitals already have in stock: an anesthesia mask, ventilator filter, and elastic straps.

These are extremely challenging times. Anxiety and fear are high, COVID-19 cases are rising, and we simply do not have optimal supplies to ensure the level of protection we want for our coworkers. We must remain open-minded and creative to new solutions while also keeping an evidence-based approach to the use and conservation of PPE.

In summary, we as physicians should feel empowered to advocate for:

Surgical masking for all patient-facing employees.

When N95s are supplied, the policy of using N95 protection continuously instead of donning/doffing for each possible COVID-19 case.

Allow self-supplied PPE and provide education and fit-testing for the proper use of reusable PPE.

Continue to research evidence-based information for cleaning and reuse of disposable N95 respirators.

Consider novel and creative solutions to create protective equipment for frontline health care workers with materials available in the hospital.

As physicians, now is the time to step up and lead. We cannot be paralyzed and allow policies to be created for us without having a seat at the table. We must be passionate about finding creative solutions in this challenging time and vocal in our advocacy.

The author is an anonymous physician.

Image credit: anonymous
Spanish Army soldiers mount a tent to be used by hospital patients during the coronavirus outbreak in Madrid, Spain, Monday, March 30, 2020. Bells tolled in Madrid's deserted central square and flags were lowered in a day of mourning Monday as Spain raced to build field hospitals to treat an onslaught of coronavirus patients. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Spain enforced even tighter stay-at-home rules Monday for its 47 million people, as the country overtook China as the nation with the third-highest number of reported infections in the world, after the United States and Italy.

But the new measures, which confused many Spaniards, came under attack from business leaders who say the government is hurting the economy beyond repair, and opposition parties who accuse it of improvising in its response to the outbreak.

Already stretched beyond breaking point in at least one third of the country, hospitals are seeing scores of medical workers falling ill and requiring quarantine, while the arrival of protective gear is suffering delays.

The government's decision to impose a two-week halt effective Monday to all non-essential economic activity. came even as authorities claimed that the previous two weeks of confinement were starting to pay off with a slower pace of the pandemic's expansion,

The president of Spain's main business association, CEOE, warned that the stricter measures would create "a very grave economic problem that can lead to a social problem" through potential job and income losses.

Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards have already applied for unemployment subsidies since the confinement measures began in mid-March, and a 200-billion euro aid package, much of it from public funds, has been rolled out to help workers and companies cushion the drop in production.

Undertakers wearing protection masks to protect from the coronavirus, carry a coffin to a burial at Salvador cemetery during the coronavirus outbreak, near to Vitoria, northern Spain, Monday, March 30, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

"If you stop the country, we'll have a huge social problem within five months," Antonio Garamendi told Spain's public broadcaster, TVE.

Only workers in hospitals, pharmacies, the food supply chain and other essential industries are required to work until the end of Easter, in mid-April. In a call for Spaniards to "hibernate," as described by a Cabinet member of Spain's left-wing coalition government, the rest were asked to scale back operations to weekend-level.

But the new measures surprised and confused many Spaniards, who woke up on Monday not knowing whether their jobs were part of the exceptions to the government's new emergency decree that wasn't fully published until midnight on Sunday.

"Spaniards don't deserve more lies, incompetence and internal fighting," opposition conservative Popular Party leader Pablo Casado said on Monday.

A healthcare worker wears protective gear during the coronavirus outbreak in Madrid, Spain, Monday, March 30, 2020. Bells tolled in Madrid's deserted central square and flags were lowered in a day of mourning Monday as Spain raced to build field hospitals to treat an onslaught of coronavirus patients. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

In hard-hit Madrid, which has seen nearly half of the country's deaths, flags flew at half-staff for an official mourning period that began Monday. During a minute of silence observed for the dead, bells tolled across the Spanish capital's empty Puerta del Sol central square. Speakers blasted U.S. composer Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings.

With a population thirty times smaller than China's 1. 4 billion, Spain's official tally of infections was for the first time higher: more than 85,000, an 8% rise from the previous day but smaller than earlier increases that had rocketed up to 20%. The health ministry also reported 812 new deaths, raising its overall confirmed death toll to 7,340.

Crews of workers and soldiers were frantically building more field hospitals in the capital and surrounding towns. The region is among six of Spain's 17 regions at their limit of ICU beds. Three more, according to officials, are close to it.

In this photo taken on Friday, March 27, 2020, healthcare workers assist a patience at one of the intensive care units (ICU) at German Trias i Pujol hospital in Badalona, in the Barcelona province, Spain. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Anna Surinyach)

In this photo taken on Friday, March 27, 2020, healthcare workers assist a patience at one of the intensive care units (ICU) at German Trias i Pujol hospital in Badalona, in the Barcelona province, Spain. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Anna Surinyach)

In this photo taken on Friday, March 27, 2020, healthcare workers assist a patience at one of the intensive care units (ICU) at German Trias i Pujol hospital in Badalona, in the Barcelona province, Spain. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Anna Surinyach)

In this photo taken on Friday, March 27, 2020, healthcare workers assist a patience at one of the intensive care units (ICU) at German Trias i Pujol hospital in Badalona, in the Barcelona province, Spain. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Anna Surinyach)

In this photo taken on Friday, March 27, 2020, healthcare workers assist a patience at one of the intensive care units (ICU) at German Trias i Pujol hospital in Badalona, in the Barcelona province, Spain. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Anna Surinyach)

Spanish health official Dr. Maria Jose Sierra said there's no end to the stay-at-home restrictions yet in sight.

"Reducing the pressure on the ICUs will be important for considering de-escalation measures," said Sierra, who took over Monday as the health emergency center's spokesperson after its director tested positive.

Nearly 15% of all those infected in Spain, almost 13,000 people, are among the country's 646,000 health care professionals. This hampers hospitals' efforts to help the tsunami of people gasping for breath.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause severe symptoms like pneumonia and can be fatal. More than 155,000 people have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Indian migrant workers have been sprayed with disinfectant after returning to their home state on a crowded bus as people to adapt to the second week of a hastily-announced nationwide lockdown.

Families returning to Uttar Pradesh in the country's north from New Delhi were filmed being sprayed as an official told them: 'Close your eyes and those of your children.'

Meanwhile several workers in the state of West Bengal chose to isolate themselves in a tree after returning home from work in Chennai because their houses are not big enough to maintain proper social distancing.

India has confirmed just 1,024 cases of coronavirus and 27 deaths - but there are fears that millions could die if the disease is allowed to spread unchecked.

Migrant workers arriving home to India's Uttar Pradesh province from the cities where they are employed are hosed down with disinfectant after getting off a crowded bus

Officials can be heard telling people to 'close your eyes and those of your children' before spraying them with a mixture of water and chlorine

Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a draconian nationwide lockdown on India's 1.3billion people last week with just a few hours' notice, causing chaos for millions of day labourers who work in cities but live elsewhere.

Hundreds of thousands have packed on to buses in a desperate attempt to get home, clearly violating social distancing rules.

Meanwhile others have decided to try and walk the distance, meaning a journey of several days for some.

The footage of arriving workers being sprayed was taken at Bareilly bus stand over the weekend, India's NDTV reported.

Local officials said the workers were told to disinfect the incoming buses, but took things a step further by disinfecting the passengers as well.

The mixture they were sprayed with was chlorine and water, officials said, while denying it would cause them harm.

Meanwhile in West Bengal state, migrant workers returning from Chennai self-isolated in a tree because there was no room to isolate themselves in their family homes

At least two beds (front and rear, right) were pictured in a tree in the village of Purulia where workers insisted they will be sleeping for 14 days

However, they said an investigation has been launched.

'This video has been investigated, the affected people are being treated,' Nitish Kumar, Bareilly District Magistrate said.

'The team of Bareilly Municipal Corporation and fire brigade were given instructions to sanitise buses, but they did this because of being overzealous.

'Instructions have been given to take action against the concerned.'

Meanwhile news station AMI published images of several workers in Purulia, West Bengal, isolating in a tree over fears they could have the virus.

Pictures showed what appeared to be at least two beds covered by mosquito netting and one man in the tree wearing a mask.

Police in western India fired tear gas to disperse a stone-pelting crowd of migrant workers defying a three-week lockdown against the coronavirus that has left hundreds of thousands of poor without jobs and hungry, authorities said on Monday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered the country's 1.3 billion people to remain indoors until April 15, declaring such self-isolation was the only hope to stop the viral pandemic.

India's hastily-announced lockdown has proved a struggle for its millions of poor, who have been left with little money or food - and often stranded miles from home

Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers have been forced to pack on to buses in order to get back to their home villages from the cities where they work

Scenes such as this have been common at bus stations around India for the past week, as the country struggles to adapt to the most widespread lockdown order anywhere in the world

Migrant workers escaping the mega city on foot and then boarding some buses in droves on in Ghazibad, India

While some have packed on to the buses, others have attempted to walk home - meaning a journey of several days for some people

R.K. Sharma, 53, who is among hundreds waiting in line to cross a border to the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, in New Delhi, India

But the vast shutdown has triggered a humanitarian crisis with hundreds of thousands of poor migrant labourers employed in big cities such as Delhi and Mumbai seeking to head to their homes in the countryside on foot after losing their jobs.

Many have been walking for days, some with families including small children, on deserted highways with little access to food or water.

On Sunday, about 500 workers clashed with police in the western city of Surat demanding they be allowed to go home to other parts of India because they had no jobs left.

'The police tried to convince them that it is not possible since buses or trains are not available...However, the workers refused to budge, and started pelting stones at police,' Surat deputy commissioner of police Vidhi Chaudhari said.

She said the workers, most of them employed in the shuttered textile industry in Surat, were driven indoors by tear gas volleys and on Monday 93 of them were detained for violating lockdown orders.

India has registered 1,071 cases of the coronavirus, of whom 29 have died, the health ministry said on Monday. The number of known cases is small compared with the United States, Italy and China, but health officials say India is weeks away from a huge surge that could overwhelm its weak public health system.

Homeless people sit in lines outside a shelter to get food during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown

Indians line up to buy grocery during lockdown as a precautionary measure against COVID-19 in Hyderabad, India

Police officers, some armed with rifles, watch over migrant workers as they board buses in the megacity of Ghazibad, India

Migrant workers travelling on buses have been told to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival in their home villages, but many lack the spare rooms required to do so

A health official said the large scale movement of people into the countryside risked spreading the coronavirus widely, compounding the challenge of containing the outbreak in the world's second most populous country.

'It's an evolving situation with daily new challenges coming up, like having migratory populations moving from one place to another. Like non-affected states adjoining affected states,' said Dr S.K. Singh, director of the National Centre for Disease Control, which investigates and recommends control measures for outbreaks of illness.

In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, health workers dressed in protection suits sprayed disinfectant on a group of migrant workers who were also trying to make the journey home to their villages, local television showed. They were made to sit on a street corner in the Bareilly district and doused with hose pipes, prompting anger on social media.

Nitish Kumar, the top government official in the district, later said health workers had been ordered to disinfect buses being used by the local authorities but in their zeal they had also turned their hoses onto migrant workers.

'I have asked for action to be taken against those responsible for this,' he said in a tweet.

The federal government said on Monday that it had no plans to extend the shutdown beyond the three-week period.

But neighbouring Nepal announced it would prolong its shutdown for another week from Tuesday. The landlocked country has reported only five cases of the virus and no deaths, but it is concerned contagion will spread as more people travel.

There are fears that millions of Indians could die if the virus is allowed to go unchecked, which is why the government has put in place the lockdown (pictured, a hospital in Guwahati)
Othram, the leading forensic DNA sequencing laboratory for law enforcement, has announced a program agreement with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and its School of Health Professions to provide training for Molecular Genetic Technology (MGT) graduate students in the field of forensic genomics.

Recent technological advances have revolutionized the ability to solve previously intractable cold cases with forensic genomics and genetic genealogy. The agreement will allow students from the MGT program to train with Othram's experts in the nation's only forensic laboratory purpose-built to harness whole genome shotgun sequencing for the unique challenges of forensic evidence and learn the latest laboratory techniques for the recovery and analysis of human DNA from trace degraded or contaminated materials. The goal is to enable a new generation of forensic genomics scientists to digitize the nations DNA evidence to help solve previously unsolvable cases.

This is an exciting time in the world of cold case investigations where advances in DNA testing are helping investigators break through previously impenetrable barriers, says David Mittelman, Othram CEO. We are proud to help in the mission of training the next generation of real-life CSI scientists, equipping them with the practical skills and technical experience needed to reconstruct genomes from materials that have previously failed all testing.

The MGT program is a three-semester, highly intensive course of study offered by the School of Health Professions. This unique learning experience integrates classroom lectures, laboratory demonstrations and technical experience to prepare each student for national certification as a molecular genetic technologist.

About Othram Inc.

Othram is the worlds first private DNA laboratory built specifically to apply the power of modern parallel sequencing to forensic evidence. Our scientists are experts at recovery, enrichment, and analysis of human DNA from trace amounts of degraded or contaminated materials. Founded in 2018, and located in The Woodlands, Texas, the Othram team works with academic researchers, forensic scientists, medical examiners, and law enforcement agencies to achieve results when other approaches failed. Follow Othram on Twitter @OthramTech or visit Othram (http://request.othram.com) to learn how we can help you with your case. Visit http://www.dnasolves.com to learn how anyone can make a difference in helping solve the next cold case.
Leaders of the world's most powerful economies will convene virtually on Thursday to try and coordinate a response to the fast-spreading coronavirus, which has shuttered businesses and forced well over 1.5 billion people into home isolation.

The meeting for the Group of 20 nations will be chaired by Saudi Arabia's King Salman. The kingdom, which is presiding over the G20 this year, said it organized the extraordinary meeting to advance global efforts to tackle the pandemic and its economic implications as people lose their incomes amid closures, curfews and lockdowns.

The meeting comes amid criticism that the world's wealthiest countries have not taken cohesive action to combat the virus or its economic impact on people around the world.

The global death toll from the new coronavirus, which causes an illness called COVID-19, has climbed past 21,000 and the number of infections has surpassed 472,000, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University. The number of dead in the U.S. rose to 1,041 as of late Wednesday, with nearly 70,000 infections. Spain's death toll has risen past 3,400, eclipsing that of China, where the virus was first detected in December.

There was sparring this week among foreign ministers from the Group of 7 leading industrialized democracies over whether to call out China as the source of the coronavirus. The ministers were unable to agree on a U.S. push to identify the coronavirus as the ``Wuhan virus,`` in reference to the city in China where it first appeared. As a result, the foreign ministers opted against releasing a group statement.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin are among the heads of state who will take part in Thursday's G20 leaders' summit. The virtual summit will also include leaders from the World Health Organization, the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, International Labor Organization and others.

Officials from Spain, Jordan, Singapore and Switzerland will also take part in the call, as well as chairs of regional bodies like the African Union, the Association of South-East Asian Nations and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

The International Labor Organization says nearly 40% of the world's population has no health insurance or access to national health services and that 55% _ or 4 billion people _ do not benefit from any form of social protection whatsoever. It said the current health crisis makes clear that not nearly enough progress has been made by governments in the years since the 2008 financial crisis to expand access to health services, sickness benefits, and unemployment protection.

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank IMF issued a call on G20 countries ahead of the Thursday's meeting, warning of severe economic and social consequences for developing countries, home to a quarter of the world's population and where most of the world's poorest people reside.

The lenders called for a suspension of debt payments from these countries and asked G20 leaders to task the World Bank and IMF with making the needed assessments on which countries have unsustainable debt situations and immediate financing requirements.

``It is imperative at this moment to provide a global sense of relief for developing countries as well as a strong signal to financial markets,'' the lenders said in a joint statement.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has said the lender stands ``ready to deploy all our $1 trillion lending capacity.`` She said earlier this week the IMF expects a recession at least as bad as during the 2008 global financial crisis or worse. Nearly 80 countries are requesting IMF help.

Ethiopia's government told G20 finance ministers and Central Bank chiefs in a call ahead of Thursday's summit that Africa needs a $150 billion emergency financing package due to the impact of the virus.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged G20 leaders to adopt a ``wartime'' plan including a stimulus package ``in the trillions of dollars'' for businesses, workers and households in developing countries trying to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

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CNN's Fareed Zakaria interviews Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong via videoconference, on Sunday, 29 March 2020. SCREENCAP: CNN's Fareed Zakaria

SINGAPORE  Considering that many countries around the world have struggled to contain the coronavirus pandemic, it would not be accurate to put all of the blame for the outbreak on China, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Im sure that there are many aspects of the Chinese response to this outbreak which they will look back upon and believe that they should have done better. But I dont think overall that one can say this would not have happened if it... only the Chinese had done the right thing, said the 68-year-old in a videoconference interview with CNN journalist Fareed Zakaria on Sunday evening (29 March).

Because you look at the way the outbreak has continued, grown, and spread in many countries and they dont have the Chinese government and yet they have not found it easy to keep the outbreak under control in their country.

Lee added that the most constructive approach now would be to move forward and deal with the pandemic.

The Prime Minister was responding to Fareeds query on whether it was fair to blame China for the ongoing pandemic, which has seen more than 720,000 infections and some 34,000 deaths worldwide. Many, including US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, accused China of covering up the initial outbreak and of failing to inform the world about what was happening.

Fareed also alluded to the late Dr Li Wenliang, the Wuhan ophthamologist who was censured by Chinese authorities for attempting to warn his colleagues in December 2019 of the emerging outbreak. The 33-year-old died of the disease last month. The Chinese government formally offered a "solemn apology" to his family in March.

US-China relations

Lee was also asked about the impact of the pandemic on US-China relations, and whether it might deteriorate into a Cold War.

Calling it a most unfortunate situation, the PM noted that the Sino-American relationship had already been complicated even before the pandemic. But if youre going to deal with this virus youve got to get all the countries to be working together, in particular US and China.

Story continues

He added, But if the US and the Chinese are swapping insults and blaming one another for inventing the virus and letting it loose on the world, I dont think that that is going to help us solve the problem sooner.

US leadership is needed

Fareed also noted that while the United States has historically taken the lead in organising the global response to such crises, the Donald Trump administration does not seen interested in doing so. Would this hinder the international communitys response to the pandemic.

Lee responded, The world has greatly benefited from American leadership in situations like this for decades. If America is in a different mood well we will get by and I think other configurations will eventually work out. But it would be a loss.

Stressing that he would like to see American leadership on the issue, Lee pointed to Americas strengths, such as soft power and scientific knowledge, as well as a track record of dealing with these problems convincingly and successfully.

And its a pity not to put those resources to work now to deal with this very grave challenge to mankind.

Lee was making an appearance on the weekly programme Fareed Zakaria GPS.

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore

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PR-Inside.com: 2020-03-30 08:03:05

Zaandam, the Netherlands, March 30, 2020  Ahold Delhaize confirms that it will hold its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM) on April 8, 2020. As the coronavirus pandemic develops, to mitigate health risks and comply with Dutch government health directives, the company today announces further guidance and necessary measures with respect to the meeting.

Unlike past general meetings, due to the COVID-19 health risk, the company urges shareholders not to attend this AGM in-person and to vote in advance of the meeting. If a shareholder nevertheless insists on attending the meeting in-person, he or she is requested to send an email to the Company Secretary at company.secretary@aholddelhaize.com on or before April 3, 2020 with the motivation to attend in-person. To ensure a safe and orderly meeting as much as possible, the company will assess each such request and it cannot admit shareholders who have not submitted a request to attend in-person. Shareholders who do attend the meeting in-person will do so at their own health risk and are responsible for maintaining the mandatory social distance at all times. Those who show symptoms of COVID-19 as referred to on the Dutch RIVM website, such as cough, shortness of breath or fever, or who have been in contact with any person suffering from COVID-19 during the previous 14 days, may not attend the meeting. Those who do not act in accordance with the mandatory social distance will be asked to leave the meeting. Visitors will not be admitted.

On behalf of the company, only a very limited number of Management Board and Supervisory Board members will attend the meeting in-person. Other members will participate through other means.

The company will broadcast the meeting live so that all shareholders can follow the proceedings. In addition, the company will provide the ability for shareholders to submit questions in writing prior to the meeting, by sending them to company.secretary@aholddelhaize.com before April 4, 2020. The company intends to answer all questions during the meeting. As per the original convocation , shareholders are able to exercise voting rights through electronic or written proxy on or before April 1, 2020.

The meeting will take place at Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, Amsterdam, as per the original convocation . If, in the opinion of the company or by governmental/ RIVM directive, a health or safety issue would arise in relation to the meeting, it may make last minute changes to logistics or venue including additional requirements or limitations in relation to the attendance in person. This includes the option of organizing an AGM without a physical component, if and when legally allowed. The company will inform shareholders of any such changes.

As stated in our previous press release, there will be no lunch or post-meeting reception or other social gatherings surrounding the meeting.

Ahold Delhaize trusts that its shareholders will understand the above measures in view of the extraordinary situation. The company continues to closely monitor the situation and advises its shareholders to regularly check the company website for updates.

Cautionary notice

This communication includes forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts may be forward-looking statements. Words such as will, guidance, ensure, cannot, so that, can, intends to, are, would, may or continues to or other similar words or expressions are typically used to identify forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that are difficult to predict and that may cause actual results of Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V. (the Company) to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the Companys public filings and other disclosures. Forward-looking statements reflect the current views of the Companys management and assumptions based on information currently available to the Companys management. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and the Company does not assume any obligation to update such statements, except as required by law.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 30

By Orkhan Juvarli  Trend:

The donations worth more than 93 million manat ($53.7 million) which have been made to Azerbaijans Fund to Support Fight against Coronavirus in a short time show the public support of authorities' policy to combat coronavirus, MP Vugar Bayramov told Trend.

According to the MP, these donations show that citizens, along with entrepreneurs, are actively involved in combating the disease.

The Azerbaijani government is flexible in responsive measures in the fight against coronavirus. Azerbaijan is one of the first countries in the region that created a special fund to combat this infection. The creation of this fund opens up wide opportunities for accumulating both public funds and extrabudgetary sources, Bayramov said.

The state is implementing effective measures to minimize damage to the country's economy caused by the coronavirus pandemic, since the protection of entrepreneurs is one of the priority areas of the state policy. The creation of four working groups in this field and the identification of 12 areas that have been most affected by the coronavirus reflect development of a mechanism for direct state support to entrepreneurs, said MP.

The creation and activities of the fund are aimed at limiting the global impact of coronavirus on the country. The accumulation of the funds will create conditions for a more effective fight against this virus. The funds activities highlight the package of measures taken by the Azerbaijani government against coronavirus spread, Bayramov emphasized.

The mechanism of direct state support to entrepreneurs will be presented to the public. The support of entrepreneurs and citizens in the fund shows that the country has achieved national solidarity in the fight against this infection. As the head of state noted, together we are strong in combating coronavirus," the MP concluded.
Question:

What are the requirements for very small churches (no teleconference or video conference ability) in Bexar County? With social distancing, can we hold services?

Answer:

The stay-at-home orders enacted in both San Antonio and Bexar County prohibit in-person religious services.

"Religious and worship services may only be provided by video, teleconference or other remote measures," the orders state.

While houses of worship had been exempt from previous orders issued by San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, the March 23 order included them.

On ExpressNews.com: Hotze, pastors ask Texas Supreme Court to rule Harris County stay-at-home order unconstitutional

City spokesperson Laura Mayes said places of worship may hold services through a virtual platform or a drive-through format in which people stay in their cars for the service.

"Services can be offered by video, telephone conference or other measures, not necessarily a high-tech setup," she said.

Mayes noted the city has seen churches serve their congregations through email or pre-recorded videos.

In Harris County, a conservative activist and three pastors filed a petition with the Texas Supreme Court Monday arguing that Judge Lina Hidalgos stay-at-home order violates the Constitution by ordering the closure of churches.

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 01:09:52|Editor: huaxia

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HANOI, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Sunday agreed to suspend all inbound flights to the country in the next two weeks in an effort to better control the COVID-19 outbreak, Vietnam News Agency reported.

Vietnam will also reduce domestic flights starting from Monday until April 15, only allowing each Vietnamese carrier to operate flight routes between the capital city of Hanoi and the southern Ho Chi Minh City as well as those between these two cities and Da Nang, Phu Quoc with a frequency of one flight per day for each route, the news agency reported Sunday.

Vietnam has confirmed a total of 188 COVID-19 cases as of Sunday evening, according to the country's Ministry of Health.
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures had a high rate of success and low risk of death or disabling stroke at 30 days in patients with a bicuspid, or two-leaflet, aortic valve, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session Together with World Congress of Cardiology (ACC.20/WCC).

TAVR is a procedure in which operators thread surgical equipment to the aorta through an artery in the chest or groin to replace a patient's malfunctioning valve with an artificial one. The procedure has become increasingly popular in recent years as a less-invasive alternative to open-heart valve replacement surgery. However, few studies have examined its safety in patients with a bicuspid valve, a condition affecting roughly 2-5% of people in which two of the three flaps in the aortic valve are fused together.

A bicuspid valve is more likely to become narrowed or leaky, known as stenosis. Valve replacement, either through TAVR or open-heart surgery, is the main treatment option available for people with severe aortic stenosis, which causes fatigue and other symptoms and raises the risk of other heart problems when left untreated. The new study is the first to prospectively examine TAVR's safety for treating severe aortic stenosis in relatively young, healthy patients--in whom open-heart surgery would pose a low risk--who have a bicuspid valve. It also is one of the first studies involving such patients in which doctors used a newer self-expanding artificial valve.

"TAVR with a self-expanding prosthesis is a very viable and safe procedure in low-risk bicuspid patients and achieved excellent early results," said Basel Ramlawi, MD, cardiothoracic surgeon at Valley Health System in Virginia and the study's co-principal investigator. "Though additional follow-up is necessary to determine long-term outcomes, early results suggest this procedure can be performed successfully in low-risk individuals with a good outcome."

The study prospectively tracked 150 patients who underwent TAVR at 25 medical centers in the U.S. On average, patients were 70 years old and had a Society of Thoracic Surgeons risk score (which reflects the risk of dying during or shortly after open heart surgery) of 1.4%.

Thirty days after their procedure, just 1.3% of patients had died or experienced a disabling stroke, the study's primary safety endpoint. Patients also had an overall device success rate of 95.3%, reflecting a low rate of major complications, ill-fitting valves or the need for additional procedures. The vast majority (99.3%) of patients survived the procedure, 96% showed correct positioning of the valve and 100% had mild or no aortic regurgitation (blood leaking around the valve).

Bicuspid valves can have several different shapes, which are named according to the Sievers classification system. The study found 84.6% of those with a Sievers type 0 valve had trace or no aortic regurgitation and the rest had only mild aortic regurgitation, a high rate of success that Ramlawi said was somewhat unexpected due to the perceived complexity of operating on valves with this shape.

"This is the first study that shows the self-expanding valve works well for patients with both type 1 and type 0 bicuspid valves," Ramlawi said. "The medical community has perceived type 0 bicuspid valves as more challenging to treat, so those data are especially encouraging."

The researchers plan to continue to track outcomes in the patients for 10 years to assess the long-term efficacy of the TAVR-implanted valves. Ramlawi said that the study was limited by the fact that all patients received TAVR, rather than providing a randomized comparison between TAVR and open-heart surgery. In addition, the study was conducted in medical centers that perform a high volume of TAVR procedures, and it is unclear whether a similarly high success rate would be achievable in centers with less TAVR experience.

###

The trial was funded by Medtronic, maker of the self-expanding valves used in the study.

ACC.20/WCC will take place March 28-30, bringing together cardiologists and cardiovascular specialists from around the world to share the newest discoveries in treatment and prevention. Follow @ACCinTouch, @ACCMediaCenter and #ACC20/#WCCardio for the latest news from the meeting.

The American College of Cardiology envisions a world where innovation and knowledge optimize cardiovascular care and outcomes. As the professional home for the entire cardiovascular care team, the mission of the College and its 54,000 members is to transform cardiovascular care and to improve heart health. The ACC bestows credentials upon cardiovascular professionals who meet stringent qualifications and leads in the formation of health policy, standards and guidelines. The College also provides professional medical education, disseminates cardiovascular research through its world-renowned JACC Journals, operates national registries to measure and improve care and offers cardiovascular accreditation to hospitals and institutions. For more, visit acc.org.
The dramatic battle for High Bridge only postponed the inevitable.

A few miles from where present-day U.S. 406 meets County Road 619 at Rice, Va., a bridge once carried the Southside Railroad over the Appomattox River. Built in 1852 and dubbed the High Bridge, it was an impressive structure of wood and iron perched on 21 brick piers, running some 2,400 feet in length and standing 126 feet high.A wooden bridge for wagons stretched below.

Locals understandably took great pride in High Bridge. One contemporary described it with forgivable hyperbole: There have been higher bridges not so long, and longer bridges not so high, but taking the height and length together, this is, perhaps, the largest bridge in the world. It was also the site of one of the last battles of the Civil War, and the scene of a remarkable mounted duel between two opposing generals.

Shortly before the end of hostilities, Lt. Gen. Ulysses Grant initiated the week-and-a-half-long offensive known as the Appomattox Campaign. Fought entirely in Virginia, its main purpose was to cut off Robert E. Lees Army of Northern Virginia andthrough relentless pursuitdrive its exhausted, starving troops to surrender. For his part, Lee was determined to evade Grants forces, move southwest and hook up with General Joseph Johnstons forces in North Carolina. Bridges naturally became a primary objective of both armies, with the Confederates fighting to hold and destroy them before the pursuing Federals could cross, and the Union forces seeking to seize them and prevent the Confederates from escaping.

Constant fighting ensued between March 29 and April 9, 1865, with the Rebels waging a desperate war of defense and evasion. At Sailors (or Saylers) Creek on April 6, after three separate engagements, nearly 8,000 men and eight generalsaround one-fourth of Lees forces laid down their arms. As he observed what was left of his retreating army, a stunned Lee remarked to Maj. Gen. William Mahone,My God, has the army been dissolved? A victorious Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan telegraphed Grant, If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender. Grant passed the message along to President Lincoln, who responded, Let the thing be pressed. Lincolns exhortation to Grant was unnecessary; the determined commander was pursuing Lee with characteristic bulldog tenacity.

That same day, Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, in company with Maj. Gen. W.H.F. Rooney Lee, led what was left of the army toward High Bridge with the intention of retreating to nearby Farmville, where much-needed food and supplies awaited. The bridge was one of only two structures spanning the river in this area, and both armies rushed to control it. A detachment of 900 Union troops was racing toward the bridge, with orders to destroy it; they were part of Maj. Gen. Edward O.C. Ords Army of the James, under the command of Ords young one-armed chief of staff, Brevet Brig. Gen. Theodore Read. Most of Reads troops were infantry, with the exception of three companies of cavalry from the 4th Massachusetts, some 80 horsemen under Colonel Francis Washburn.

Word of Reads advance party reached Longstreet, who sent his Confederate cavalry, 1,200 strong under Generals Rooney Lee and Thomas L. Rosser, to intercept the advancing Yankees. Riding with Lee and Rosser was General James Dearing. Just weeks away from his 25th birthday, the handsome Virginian had ranked first in his class at West Point, but resigned when his state seceded. He had been appointed a brigadier general of volunteers the previous year, making him one of the Souths youngest general officers. Dearing had fought for the Confederacy from the beginning, serving as a lieutenant at First Manassas, and he was here as it was all coming unraveled.

Colonel Washburn and his horse soldiers got to the bridge first, secured its south end and prepared to burn it. The infantry, meanwhile, halted at a farmhouse half a mile away. Rooney Lees Rebel cavalry soon encountered Reads infantry and immediately opened fire. Washburn, hearing the firing, ordered his cavalry back to the infantrys defense. Reads force was effectively cut off from Ords army. In order to break through the Rebel ranks, Read instructed Washburn to charge, unaware that the 4th Massachusetts troopers would be riding into a force of Rebel cavalry some 15 times their number. Washburn led his horsemen in a gallant but ultimately doomed saber chargea hopeless attempt to break through the massed Rebels.

As the two forces clashed, Generals Read and Dearing caught each others eye, and the fight became personal. As their respective forces watched, they engaged in a dramatic close-range pistol duel on horseback. With only one arm, Read was at a fatal disadvantage; he was killed almost instantly, but not before shooting his adversary. Dearing fell from his horse, mortally wounded.

Taken to the City Hotel in Lynchburg, Dearing lived for two weeks after the surrender at Appomattox. His old West Point classmate, Union General Ranald S. MacKenzie, visited the young man as he lay dying and paroled him. Dearing thus achieved the dubious distinction of being the last Confederate general to die in the war (although his commission had not yet been formally approved), as well as the last American officer to be killed in a duel.

After stopping Washburns charge, the Rebels counterattacked. Most of Washburns menincluding Washburn himselffell, and the Federal infantry surrendered. With losses of only around 100 men, the Rebels had killed, wounded or captured most of the 900 men in Reads advance party. For the moment at least, the Confederates path was open; they crossed High Bridge and marched toward Farmville.

Early on April 7, it was the Confederates turn, under General Mahone and a rear guard, to attempt to destroy High Bridge and its wagon bridge to prevent Union pursuit. They left the job unfinished, however; although they succeeded in burning four of the major structures spans and the wagon bridge, both bridges were saved by the timely arrival of Maj. Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys and the Union II Corps. The Federal forces crossed on the less damaged wagon bridge, and the pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia resumed. So pressed were they by Grants forces that Lee and Longstreet had no time to resupply at Farmville; they pushed on, further depriving their already starving men of a desperately needed respite.

Lees next move was to try to reach Appomattox Station, more than 30 miles to the west, where three more trainloads of supplies waited. That night, after having met and repulsed Humphreys corps at Cumberland Church, Lee received a communication from Grant:

The results of the last week must convince you of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia in this struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood by asking of you the surrender of that portion of the Confederate States army known as the Army of Northern Virginia.

Playing for time, Lee refused, but asked Grant for terms. Then on April 8, George Custers cavalry descended on Appomattox Station. After overpowering a small Rebel contingent, Custer captured the supply trainsalong with the wagons and artilleryon which Lee depended. The situation was becoming increasingly grim for the Confederates. The next day, after a failed attempt to break through the Union lines, Lee saw the futility of further resistance and surrendered the tattered remnants of his army.

The small but decisive Rebel victory at High Bridge, while reflective of the armys glory days, availed the South nothing. Although it allowed Lees army another three days to maneuver, it only slowed his retreat and delayed the inevitable. In the end, the battle at High Bridge proved a mere footnote to the Appomattox Campaignand to the war.

Historian Ron Soodalters latest book is The Slave Next Door (University of California Press, 2009).

Originally published in the January 2011 issue of Americas Civil War. To subscribe, click here.
For more coverage, visit our complete coronavirus section here.

As San Francisco's shelter-in-place order continues into its second week, living in the city by the bay has changed inexorably, especially at night.

When the sun sets, commercial streets empty of the few people still out picking up essential items or exercising.

In West Portal, several restaurants are empty inside, their windows adorned with handmade signs reminding customers they can still buy take-out meals. In the Inner Sunset, businesses that have often relied on to-go orders, like Pasquale's Pizzeria, still hum with activity as chefs prepare freshly made pies.

In many neighborhoods, the only activity at night are grocery stores that have kept their late hours to help people buy food and avoid crowds.

Non-essential stores, such as Green Apple Books in the Richmond District, are shuttered. A sign reminds people not to distance themselves from books. Laundromats that would often be busy at night with people cleaning their clothes now stand empty. The brilliant neon marquee at the Castro Theatre is dark, with a sign asking people to stay safe and healthy.

The tourist destination Lombard Street, generally packed with cars driving down its crooked street, feels abandoned with neither vehicles nor people anywhere in sight.

Coronavirus updates: See where cases climbed in the Bay Area this the weekend

Usually bustling North Beach is also deserted with the large neon-marquee lights lining the businesses on Broadway turned off. The few cars on the street on Columbus Avenue rush past the Sentinel Building and the quiet streets of the Financial District.

Even at the corner of 16th Street and Valencia in the Mission District, once-bustling bars, movie houses, and restaurants are closed, many of them boarded up to protect them from possible vandalism.

In Union Square, the entrance of Sir Francis Drake and Saks Fifth Avenue are also boarded up. But across the street, the St. Francis Hotel offers a beacon of hope for better days with its windows lit up in the shape of a heart.

"We wanted to spread love and support for the community and the hospitality industry," explained Camila Frederico, the hotel manager for the St. Francis, on why they started the display.

MORE: Darkened by COVID-19, SF Hotels light up the night with love and hope

Hopefully, that message of love and support will carry through these dark days to when the city will return to the vibrancy of those pre-COVID-19 days.

_______________

Online Photo Editor Douglas Zimmerman oversees SFGATE's Instagram and covers the Bay Area soccer scene on SFGATE's Beautiful Blog. View his latest stories and send him news tips at dzimmerman@sfgate.com. Follow on Twitter @zimpix


Bengaluru, March 30 : All persons in home quarantine across Karnataka should send hourly selfie to the state government on a dedicated mobile app to prove their isolation compliance, state Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar said on Monday.

"All persons ordered to be in home quarantine shall send their selfie to the government every hour from home," he said in a statement.

The state government has designed the app for taking selfie and it can be downloaded from Google Play.

The selfie must be taken in the person's home where he/she is quarantined.

"As the selfie photo has GPS (global positioning system) coordinates, the person's location can be known," said Sudhakar.

The government has exempted the selfie rule from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., for allowing the home quarantined person to sleep.

In the event of the person not complying with the order, home quarantine enforcement teams will shift the defaulter to the state-run mass quarantine centres in their location, the minister warned.

The teams will verify every selfie and persons sending false selfies will be whisked away to the mass quarantine centres.

The teams will also visit homes of the quarantined persons, take their picture and send it to the government.
Eleven students who attend Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, have come down with coronavirus symptoms after returning to campus.

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. decided to reopen the campus to students at the end of spring break despite public health officials warning him not to do so.

The Democratic governor of Virginia Ralph Northam had previously banned gatherings of more than 100 people in the state to which Liberty said it would transition most classes to online.

College President Jerry Falwell Jr has long played down the threat of COVID-19. Falwell said dorm rooms had been deep cleaned and urged students to return to campus

About 1,900 students returned to their dorm rooms at Virginia's Liberty University last Monday but 800 have since left. The campus is pictured

Nonetheless, 1,900 students returned to campus last week, but 800 have since left.

Speaking at a news conference in Richmond, Gov. Ralph Northam criticized Liberty, which is among the nation's largest and most prominent evangelical colleges, as sending 'mixed messages' about COVID-19. The illness has crippled economies, forced restrictions on the movement of millions of people and swamped health care systems.

Of the 11 who have symptoms, three have been referred to hospitals in order to get tests while eight have been told to self-quarantine according to the New York Times.

'Liberty has a responsibility to [reopen to our] students  who paid to be here, who want to be here, who love it here  to give them the ability to be with their friends, to continue their studies, enjoy the room and board they've already paid for, and to not interrupt their college life,' Falwell told the News & Advance last week.

The school has more than 45,300 students enrolled for the year, but it's unclear how many will return to campus. About 1,900 returned to campus but 800 then left during the week

Residential students were told they were 'welcome' to return to campus, according to an email sent to students. The move was at odds with many other institutions of higher education, including the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, which has said only students who have 'no other options' can remain on campus, and William & Mary, which closed its residence halls.

Northam, who is a doctor, pleaded with Falwell not to reopen campus, but he was ignored.

'I would suggest that President Falwell look to the actions of the leaders of Virginias flagship universities for how to set a strong example in this health crisis and to please reconsider his message that invites and encourages students to return to campus,' he said.

The on-campus physician, Dr. Thomas Eppes Jr. has admitted the school has 'lost the ability to corral this thing.'

However, he did not attempt to try and persuade Falwell to close the school back down.

'I just am not going to be so presumptuous as to say, 'This is what you should do and this is what you shouldn't do.''

Falwell has long been a staunch ally of President Trump and had previously said that he felt Liberty University was being targeted for being 'Christian' and 'conservative.'

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam asked Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. to reconsider his decision to welcome students back to the Lynchburg campus, but he was ignored (file pic)

He has generally characterized concerns about the virus as overblown and even offered unsubstantiated speculation that the coronavirus may have been the work of North Korea, accusing the news media of stoking fear.

Liberty University released a statement: 'Our students are part of the Lynchburg community! They work jobs, have apartments, make economic contributions and pay taxes. That they should be banned or discouraged from choosing to utilize the shelter and food sources that they paid for in a time of crisis is unthinkable.'

Those living in the city of Lynchburg are furious.

'We had a firestorm of our own citizens who said, 'What's going on?' said mayor Treney Tweedy, the mayor.

'He doesn't think anyone should be able to tell him what to do, and he's going to do whatever he wants,' an unnamed former Liberty University executive told Politico,

'He's very defiant,' said another associate to Falwel. 'It's very much in his character. That's a family trait. His father was the same way.'

On Twitter, reaction was also hostile towards the college and its president.

'LibertyU is just utterly ridiculous & unconscionable, & Jerry Falwell Jr. proves repeatedly he's an apostolic hypocrite, charlatan & dangerous religious zealot who'se totally unworthy of any credence. What about CV19 PANDEMIC can't be fully appreciated & understood BY A COLLEGE!?' wrote one user.

'Hey Liberty U, it's called community spread. You see those sick students pas COVID19 to others and they can take it off campus. Exponentially. Ask your biology and math departments. You do have those?' asked another incredulous at the decision.

'Wonder how much money the person who will eventually sue you get?' pondered another online poster.

'Let's ask Liberty University students if this is a good idea,' suggested another.

'Falwell had Liberty University bring back students after spring break, KNOWINGLY putting students at risk because he wanted to back up Trump's downplaying of COVID. So no surprise LU students have come down with COVID. I hope their families sue Falwell for every last penny,' wrote another critical of Falwell's decision.

On Twitter, reaction was also hostile towards the college and its controversial president

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.
The automaker has also decided to postpone its upcoming global media drive of the new Defender. Instead, press fleet units are now being sent to the front lines to help defend the world against the coronavirus. The British marque officially announced that the Defender fleet intended for the drive will now be deployed on a new mission to assist the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

Last year, Land Rover introduced what is possibly their most important vehicle yet  the all-new 2020 Defender . Deliveries scheduled this year are either delayed or have been put on hold with the company suspending assembly plant operations as the world continues to battle the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

A total of 143 Defenders will be lent out worldwide, with 105 vehicles being supplied to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

Furthermore, they announced that 57 units of the Defender will be lent out to the British Red Cross to assist their efforts for Queen and country.

Weve quickly redeployed the Defender press fleet to support our partners at the Red Cross to help communities across the UK, said Richard Agnew, Land Rover's communications director.

The Defender SUV's versatility will definitely help emergency services as they rush to help patients, especially those in hard to reach places. Could we possibly see some of these Land Rover Defender units help get our local front liners to and from their destinations, as well?
The positive CHMP opinion is based on a biosimilarity assessment which included preclinical and clinical studies

Lupin Limited and Mylan ave announced that the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has adopted a positive opinion recommending the approval of Nepexto, a biosimilar to Enbrel (etanercept), for all indications of the reference product including rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, axial spondyloarthritis (including ankylosing spondylitis and non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis), plaque psoriasis and paediatric plaque psoriasis.

The positive CHMP opinion is based on a biosimilarity assessment which included preclinical and clinical studies demonstrating bioequivalence to the reference product. In addition, a phase 3 clinical study in patients with moderate-to-severe active rheumatoid arthritis confirmed equivalence of Nepexto to the reference product in terms of efficacy, safety and immunogenicity.

The CHMP positive opinion will now be considered by the European Commission (EC). Once approved, the EC will grant a centralized marketing authorization for member countries of the EU. The decision on the ECs approval is expected in May 2020.

Vinita Gupta, CEO, Lupin Limited said, Biosimilars like Nepexto will play a critical role in expanding access to patients in Europe, providing an effective treatment for multiple therapies including rheumatoid arthritis. We are extremely pleased with the positive CHMP opinion on our application. This milestone brings us one step closer to bringing an affordable biosimilar to etanercept to the European market through our partner Mylan. Once approved by the European Commission, Nepexto will be our first biosimilar to receive regulatory approval in Europe. Building on this progress, we continue to focus on advancing our biosimilar pipeline.



Mylan President, Rajiv Malik commented, We are pleased with the positive CHMP opinion for Nepexto, biosimilar etanercept. This recommendation validates the strong scientific program supporting this important treatment, which is one of 20 biosimilar products in our broad and diverse biosimilars portfolio, and our shared commitment with Lupin to help increase access to more affordable biologics treatments, such as etanercept, in Europe and many other regions around the world. Enbrel had sales of approximately US$ 9.6 billion globally for the 12 months ending December 2019, according to IQVIA. In June 2018, Lupin and Mylan announced a collaboration to commercialize a biosimilar to etanercept in several global markets.
[March 30, 2020] Root Inc. Appoints Annette Reavis as First Chief People Officer

Root Inc., the parent company of Root Insurance, has announced that Annette Reavis, a leader with considerable high-growth tech expertise, joined the company as its first Chief People Officer on March 23. "Annette brings over 20 years of human resource and business experience to the Root Inc. family," said Co-founder and CEO Alex Timm. "Her passion for leading and shaping cultures centered around people will help us meet our commitment to foster a driven and supportive community here at Root. And we are exceptionally fortunate to have her join our team during this pandemic, when all our employees are working remotely." Reavis joined after spending a decade at Facebook (News - Alert), serving as a strategic HR leader for Facebook's product, marketing, growth/integrity, community operations, and partnerships organizations. She will oversee the recruitment that will drive the next phase of Root's geographic and product expansion. In 2019, Root opened a second office in Columbus and expanded its national footprint with offices in Chicago and Phoenix, growing its workforce by 200%. "I am thrilled to lead the next phase of growth and people development at Root Inc.," said incoming CPO Annette Reavis. "Root is at a pivotal stage in its expansion, and its people are critical to our future success." Root recently announced plans to expand its operations with a West Coast claims and customer service center in Chandler, Arizona, that over five years will create 480 new jobs, adding to the more than 850 employees already in Columbus, Arizona, and Chicago. For more about Root in 2020, visit joinroot.com or follow Root on social @rootinsuranceco. You could get the rate you deserve by downloading the app and taking the Root test drive.



About Root Inc. Root Inc. is the parent company of Root Insurance, the nation's first licensed insurance carrier powered entirely by mobile. We were founded on the belief that the services you need for everyday life should serve you better. That's why we base insurance coverages on you, not your demographic. It's the way insurance should be. And it's all conveniently in an app.

Root is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, with renters insurance available to current auto insurance customers in Missouri, Ohio, and Utah, and auto insurance currently available to drivers in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia and will be coming to more states soon. For more information, visit https://www.joinroot.com and get a free quote. Sign up online or download the app. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005114/en/

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The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) has announced that it is extending the registration deadline for the second batch of the UAE Astronaut Programme to May 1.

The second batch of the programme is aimed at finding the next two Emirati astronauts who will join the UAE's astronaut corps and further the country's ambition for crewed space exploration. So far, the second batch of the programme has received a large number of applications, and by extending the deadline, MBRSC is expecting many more Emiratis from different walks of life to apply.

To qualify for the UAE Astronaut Programme, applicants should be UAE nationals above 18 years of age with a bachelor's degree. Professionals from all fields will be considered, including engineers, pilots, military personnel, teachers, those involved in STEM and other careers. After reviewing all applicants, a committee consisting of 10 specialists, including astronauts, Hazzaa AlMansoori and Sultan AlNeyadi, will shortlist the applicants based on initial interviews and evaluations. The shortlisted candidates will undergo a selection process, after which, two will be selected as the next Emirati astronauts.

Yousuf Hamad AlShaibani, director-general, MBRSC, said: "The UAE Astronaut Programme is an extension of the vision of the country's leadership to develop a knowledge-based economy. Our capabilities in the space sector are growing rapidly, and the next two Emirati astronauts will add immense impetus to our ambition for crewed space exploration. The success of the first batch of the UAE Astronaut Programme and astronaut Hazzaa AlMansoori's historic mission to the International Space Station has inspired Emiratis across the UAE to pursue their dreams of space exploration. At MBRSC, our overarching objective is to inspire future generations to ensure sustainable growth of the country's space sector and the UAE Astronaut Programme is a vital part of this strategy."

Salem AlMarri, head of the UAE Astronaut Programme at MBRSC, said: "The UAE Astronaut Programme exemplifies our ambition to contribute to global scientific progress. Through their work in space, astronauts play a key role in advancing human knowledge, technology and perseverance. This type of progression is key to the sustainability of the programme as it enables us to achieve and learn more from every mission. Considering the tremendous response that we have received from Emiratis from different quarters, we are extending the deadline for registrations, and looking forward to zeroing down on the next batch of Emirati space goers."

Those seeking to apply for the second batch of the UAE Astronaut Programme can visit: www.mbrsc.ae/astronauts

The UAE Astronaut Programme is one of the projects managed by the UAE's National Space Programme and funded by the ICT Fund of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA). - TradeArabia News Service
Fight the virus, not carbon By Paul Driessen and David Wojick

The many trillions of dollars proposed to be spent under dubious green new deals should be spent instead (effectively and within reason) on health care, especially virus prevention, protection and cures. This is the gist of an Open Letter to World Leaders from the Climate Intelligence Foundation. The Foundation, or CLINTEL, makes this clear right up front: Your Excellencies, compared to COVID-19, climate change is a non-problem! It is based on immature computer models, and it looks into the distant future. In the current health emergency, however, your attention to the peoples needs is today! Please, dont continue pushing your zero carbon emission ambition in a time that the world is dealing with a deadly global crisis. Yes, there is an emergency, but it is NOT climate. CLINTEL specifically speaks to the leaders of the UN and EU, saying People need an inspiring narrative that promises them a hopeful future. Today, for instance, it is totally inappropriate that the billion-dollar Green New Deal focused on climate is still on the agenda of leaders such as Mr. Antonio Guterres of the UN and Mr. Frans Timmermans of the EU. We do not have a manmade climate and weather crisis. In the EU, green funds could begin flowing to the virus crisis almost immediately, by reprogramming 100 billion ($110 billion) of European Green Deal money. The GED has a Just Transition Mechanism to help mobilise at least 100 billion over the period 2021-2027, by way of financial support and technical assistance to help people, businesses and regions that are most affected by the move toward the green economy. All they have to do is replace the Mechanisms green economy with corona crisis. All the EU has to do is abandon its compulsory transition to a so-called green economy, which would in reality be very poor and uncompetitive, with tens of millions unemployed. The European Green Plan (EGP) proposes spending a trillion euros on a foolish attempt to control the global climate, even as China, India and other emerging economies build hundreds of new coal and gas-fired power plants, hundreds of new airports, thousands of fossil fuel-based factories, and millions of internal combustion vehicles. CLINTEL says it would be far wiser to spend that money on improving health care, with priority to virus protection. Far more necessary, too. Anyone following the coronavirus news out of Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Britain and other EU countries, knows CLINTEL is right. Awake EU leaders know it too. In the United States, President Trump has signed into law Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the $2.2 trillion emergency relief bill, the largest such package in US history. It will help hospitals and state and local governments, assist with critical medical needs, and provide relief for small businesses and furloughed workers. It eliminated most of the liberal wish list items in an earlier bill. (By contrast, any European Green Deal would cost many trillions of dollars, as would the US Green New Deal endorsed by Democrat presidential candidates, to address conjectural future risks. Candidate Bernie Sanders pegs his pet version at just $11 trillion, while other estimates run as high as $93 trillion!) Some of that spending should go to upgrading the health care system, testing people and getting COVID patients respirators and medicines that work, conducting clinical trials to evaluate anecdotal evidence about various treatments, and saving lives! Other spending should assist families whose breadwinners have been laid off by the lockdowns and quarantines, and businesses that have been closed down. Right now, some 15 million workers are unemployed in the restaurant industry alone, plus millions more in restaurant support industries. If the business lockdown continues another month or so, some 75% of independently owned restaurants will never reopen, business insiders say. Moreover, across the USA, it is minorities who are most seriously harmed by the shutdown, since they dominate worst-affected sectors. (A suggestion: Order an occasional takeout-pickup meal from local eateries  and leave a generous tip.) The rest of the money should simply not be spent, especially since its mostly more government debt. Spending it would further damage the economy and future taxpayers, in Europe and the United States. Any thinking legislator should endorse CLINTELs call for action, instead of foolish green new deals. But instead, the manmade-climate-crisis-obsessed United Nations continues to pressure all nations to adopt expensive zero-carbon-dioxide plans, preferably as soon as its Glasgow climate summit in November. That underscores how wrongheaded and intransigent the UN has been for decades. No. The world needs to fix the current virus problem  and prepare for the inevitable next ones. The economic crisis due to the corona pandemic will hit all countries, including those with relatively small virus outbreaks at the moment or in the future. With proper prevention and response systems in place, there is no reason these economic disasters should escalate. But those systems will not be in place in impoverished nations  largely because UN, EU, climate and other eco-imperialist activists for decades have prevented those countries from building fossil fuel, nuclear and even hydroelectric generating plants, forcing them instead to be content with minimal, unreliable, habitat-destroying wind and solar power. CLINTELs strong advice to the worlds leaders is spot-on: To revive the global economy, dont further increase government debts. Instead, apply the money intended for your costly Green New Deal to the present needs of people and society. Call it the COVID-19 RECOVERY PLAN. Be aware that, in todays crisis, the conjectural policy of CO2 reduction is highly counterproductive! The letters eloquent summary statement says it all: The world is moving to an open global economy of ten billion people. Top priority must be given to significant investments in a global health system that makes any pandemic less catastrophic. Considering COVID-19, climate alarmists and climate critics should admit that global warming is a non-problem. Therefore, stop fighting, step over your own shadow and work together against the deadly virus. In this tough battle we need each other! Imagine what would happen if abundant, reliable, affordable electricity from fossil, nuclear and hydroelectric were replaced by expensive, limited, intermittent, weather-dependent wind and solar power. The impacts on our coronavirus response, healthcare, living standards and life spans would be horrific. Without reliable, on-demand energy sufficient to power modern, industrialized society  which neither wind nor solar power can provide at current levels of technology  hospitals could not maintain sterile conditions. Food and vaccines could not be grown, developed, preserved or transported. Protective equipment to safeguard front-line health care workers from COVID-19, and respirators for critically-ill patients, could not be delivered where theyre needed, let alone manufactured in the first place. We would not even have clean water or reliable sanitation systems. We would not have jobs, industries, decent living standards, or anything approaching a vibrant, functioning, job and tax-generating economy. Thats the situation African and other impoverished nations found themselves with Ebola  and will find themselves if (when) COVID-19 reaches them. It is where a GED or GND would take the United States. President Trump is absolutely right. We need to fight the coronavirus and keep it from spreading. But we also need to begin soon to balance the virus threat against threats created by our response to the virus: deaths from COVID-19 itself (which could be overstated) versus deaths due to mass unemployment and recession because of the shutdowns: from stress, depression, despair, strokes, heart attacks, suicides and murder-suicides ... amid bankruptcies, loss of life savings, and destruction of years of work and sacrifice. And yet there are some who applaud the corona-economic recession for driving down fossil fuel use and CO2 emissions  or want more wind and solar mandates and subsidies built into any corona response plans. Our health and economic emergency is real and immediate. The manmade climate emergency is years or decades away  if it even exists outside the realm of computer models that generate worst-case scenarios but cannot even forecast average global temperatures accurately ... and pseudo-scientific studies that blame every observed (and imagined) temperature shift, climate fluctuation and extreme weather event on fossil fuels. Fight the virus, not carbon. Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and author of books and articles on energy, environment, climate and human rights issues. David Wojick is an independent analyst specializing in science, logic and human rights in public policy, and author of numerous articles on these topics. Home
PSU President appointed to cancer center board

Monday, March 30, 2020 3:00 PM

Alumni, News, People and Society

Pittsburg, KS

The president of Pittsburg State University interacts with alumni almost daily. But Steve Scotts recent appointment to The University of Kansas Cancer Center Community Advisory Board brought the unexpected chance to interact with two former Gorillas in a way thats a bit more personal than usual.

In 2007, just as Scott finished serving his first year as provost and vice president of academic affairs, he learned he had prostate cancer. He was 54.

After successful surgery at M.D. Anderson and recovery, he was open to fielding questions from colleagues and acquaintances who, upon learning of their own diagnosis, sought him out for advice.

I visited about what might lie ahead and tried to be encouraging, because people did that for me, Scott said.

Last year, he again agreed to share that story at the invitation of the KU Cancer Center, which held an event for area men at Ascension Via Christi, Pittsburg.

They wanted someone to come and talk about their experience, what it was like post-treatment, to encourage people to do preventative care and testing, to create awareness, Scott said.

His public telling of that story prompted a unique invitation: to serve as a member of the Community Advisory Board.

The position I hold, and my survivorship  I can do a lot of good as a member of this group in terms of creating awareness and serving as an ambassador, Scott said.

The American Cancer Society ranks prostate cancer as the most common type of cancer among men in the U.S., other than skin cancer. The KU Cancer Center became a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center in 2012. It is the only cancer center in the region, and one of only 71 in the nation, to receive this distinction, a symbol of research and clinical excellence. Its mission, through its innovative approach to drug discovery, delivery, and development, is to transform cancer research and clinical care delivered in Kansas and western Missouri.

There has been a lot of attention, and appropriately so, to breast cancer over the years, Scott said. Now, theres a growing interest in doing something more publicly regarding prostate cancer. Thats where I come in.

The primary responsibility of members of the board include sharing community priorities and concerns with the board, assisting with the development of the cancer centers strategic plan, helping to evaluate the centers outreach efforts, meeting with KU Cancer Center leaders and researchers, and sharing information about KU Cancer Center with networks, communities, and organizations.

Scott, who is a vocal proponent of self-advocacy and testing, said he was not only agreeable to serving, he was honored to have been asked.

Thats where I can help, Scott said. I might be able to marshal some forces because of my very public persona.

He noted that in the 13 years since his diagnosis, researchers have made great strides, and there are new methods of treatment.

That research needs to continue, and it needs to continue for all types of cancers, Scott said.

What Scott didnt anticipate was the chance to see two graduates of the PSU Biology Department in action as leaders of the board and the KU Cancer Center: At the orientation meeting, which gathered representatives from several related groups and backgrounds, were Roy Jensen, M.D., and Gary Doolittle, M.D.

Jensen, who earned his bachelors degree from PSU in 1980, is now the director of the KU Cancer Center. He also serves as president of the Association of American Cancer Institutes  an organization of 98 leading academic cancer centers in North America, which includes 70 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers.

Doolittle, who also earned his bachelors degree in 1980, is a professor of medicine at KU, a dedicated researcher, and holds numerous titles related to the study and treatment of cancer, including medical director of the Masonic Cancer Alliance, the outreach network of KU Cancer Center

They both attended PSU together, and its really neat to be able to witness first-hand what theyve gone on to achieve, Scott said. Im really proud to be part of the board, and proud to see how theyre making a difference.
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Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday condemned the U.S. insistence on anti-Iran sanctions amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

The U.S. has gone from waging an economic war on Iranians to "medical terror" amid COVID-19 in Iran, Zarif tweeted.

This even "exceeds what would be permissible on the battlefield," he said.

Zarif urged the international community to disregard U.S. "illegal" sanction pressures.

Iran's Health Ministry on Sunday reported that the total number of confirmed case of COVID-19 in the country has risen to 38,309, of whom 2,640 have died.




Officials from Rensselaer and Columbia counties expressed concern Monday that downstate travelers to the area  and the potential reshuffling of patients from downstate to upstate hospitals  could overwhelm their local health systems as they brace for a surge of coronavirus cases.

Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, who has called for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to ban downstate residents from traveling upstate, said Monday that he worries the local health system will become rapidly overrun if more people arrive to the area from New York City and its suburbs, which have become a national hotspot for coronavirus.

Our health system will be in trouble, he said during an afternoon Facebook Live event.

Columbia County Public Health Director Jack Mabb, meanwhile, told local radio station WGXC 90.7 on Monday that hes concerned a state-led plan to balance patient loads across hospitals statewide during the pandemic could jeopardize his communitys health, though he conceded that it makes sense to some degree.

"Am I concerned about it?" he said. "Im concerned because my job is to be concerned about Columbia County residents and if somebody needs a ventilator and all the ventilators are full at the hospital, Im concerned about it.

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Their remarks came the same day that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said health systems across the state have agreed to implement a balanced approach to fighting the novel coronavirus. Hospitals that are beginning to reach or exceed capacity will transfer patients to other hospitals that are not as full, he said. Theyve also agreed to share supplies, staff and other resources as needed, he said.

Many of his remarks centered around the need to balance a surge of patients across New York Citys public and private hospitals, which received some relief on Monday in the form of a 1,000-bed floating hospital and the official opening of a 2,500-bed temporary medical facility at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. But Cuomo acknowledged that upstate hospitals might soon play a role in providing relief, too.

"We have hospitals in upstate New York that are experiencing none of this  where they have staff capacity, they have bed capacity," Cuomo said Monday. "We need you now, here in this fight and engaged, and thats a totally different concept (for hospitals).

Tuesday afternoon McLaughlin took back a statement he made Monday about "potentially a busload" of COVID-19 patients who allegedly had been set from downstate to Albany Medical Center Hospital by explaining the county received bad information. He said there was no busload of coronavirus patients sent to Albany Medical Center Hospital from downstate. McLaughlin said that the information came from a statewide emergency services call involving each county, which is why it was reported during his Monday Facebook broadcast.

We have no information on this at this time, Albany Med spokeswoman Sue Ford said when she was asked to confirm McLaughlin's claim on Monday afternoon.

McLaughlin, whos known for his frequent barbs at Cuomo, has said its irresponsible of the governor not to take more action to prevent travel upstate. The county issued a public health order Friday requiring all New York City-area travelers arriving into town to contact the local health department and self-quarantine for 14 days. It received its first call from a Brooklyn traveler this past weekend, he said.

"If theyre coming here, it is simple, it is common sense and it's the respectful thing to do," he said.

Senior Cuomo advisor Rich Azzopardi said that order is unenforceable, and that counties have to follow what the state prescribes.

A number of counties have asked that second-home owners and other travelers to their municipalities contact local health departments when they arrive. Some, like Washington County, have asked that they stay away altogether, citing the strain a surge in cases would impose on their small regional health systems.

Mabb said about a third of the Columbia County's 36 confirmed coronavirus cases are people who came up from New York City to their second homes in the county.

Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson is able to "very rapidly" boost its staffed bed capacity by 65 percent, chief medical officer Clifford Belden said at a news conference last week. With a little more time and "some additional help" from the state, the hospital could "go well beyond" that number, he said.

The hospital, which serves both Columbia and Greene counties and is part of the Albany Medical Center hospital system, generally has six to seven ICU beds staffed at any given time, he said.

"We will be able to likely more than double that with our surge plan," Belden said last week.

Mabb said Monday that the county's Office of Emergency Management has also identified 11 buildings that could be converted into temporary medical facilities should they be needed. One is the old ShopRite on Healy Boulevard in Hudson.

Capital Region cases grow

Albany County continues to report the most confirmed cases in the Capital Region, with 199 reported Monday. Fifteen residents were hospitalized with the virus, and seven of them were adults in intensive care units.

Albany Medical Center executives said Monday on the hospitals YouTube channel that the system has treated a total of 36 patients for COVID-19. Fifteen of them have recovered and been discharged. Of the remaining 21, nine were in the intensive care unit as of Monday evening. Five of those patients required ventilator support.

The hospital also said that 45 health care workers across the hospital system have tested positive for COVID-19, and that 30 of them contracted the virus outside of the job.

County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen again reminded the public that the lack of widespread testing for coronavirus is masking the number of actual cases in the county.

"It leaves us a little bit in the dark about how this is evolving in the county," she said.

Whalen said it's hard to predict when the Capital Region will see a peak in cases, but that it's probably safe to assume it will occur in the week or so after New York City hits its peak, which has been predicted for one to two weeks from now.

"This remains a very active situation," she said. "I don't think people understand that we have not yet reached where we could be in the coming weeks, so the important message is to stay home and to avoid contact with others, especially if you are in the vulnerable groups."

To help residents who are under mandatory or precautionary quarantine, county officials reported Monday that the National Guard will deliver food to homes across the region starting Tuesday. The county received more than 19,000 pounds of food  including pasta, peanut butter, soup, canned vegetables, rice, pork, chicken, apples and eggs  from the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York on Monday.

Saratoga County has the second most confirmed cases in the Capital Region with 112 cases reported Monday. Sixteen residents were hospitalized, officials said.

Elsewhere in the region, Schenectady County reported 70 cases on Monday. Rensselaer County reported 54 cases and 12 hospitalizations. Greene County reported 20 cases and three hospitalizations. Warren County reported 19 cases. Washington County had nine. Montgomery County had seven. Schoharie County had six. Fulton County had one.

Across 12 Capital Region-area hospitals, 82 patients have tested positive for COVID-19 and 22 are on ventilators, Albany Med reported Monday.

The region saw its first deaths from COVID-19 over the weekend, with one death each reported in Albany, Saratoga and Columbia counties.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected. Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin said Tuesday he had bad information when he made a statement Monday, which the Times Union reported, that the county had received "confirmation from a reliable source" that "potentially a busload" of COVID-19 patients from downstate had been sent to Albany Medical Center Hospital.

Kenneth Crowe II contributed.
Thousands of prisoners in overcrowded jails across the country are being released on interim bail or parole in an unprecedented step to prevent the spread of coronavirus and also to avoid any clashes, as authorities scramble to stop the pandemic in its tracks.

In Delhi's Tihar prison that is bursting at the seams, 1,500 inmates are likely to be released soon in the second batch, officials said on Monday.

Over 400 inmates from the planned number of 3,000 have already come out in the first phase to decongest the Asia's largest jail complex, they said.

According to data provided by the Director General, Prisons, for an official review meeting, the 16 jails in Delhi with a total capacity for 10,026 prisoners have 17,440 inmates of whom 14,355 are undertrial prisoners.

Tihar accounts for the maximum number of jails while some are located in Mandoli and in Rohini.

The review meeting was also told that no case of COVID-19 has been detected among the inmates and every nook and corner of the prison campuses was being regularly sanitized and cleaned, as jails emerged as potential infection hotspots.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the country climbed to 1,071 while the death toll rose to 29, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The move by prison authorities followed a Supreme Court order on March 23 that all the states and union territories must set up high-level panels which would consider releasing all convicts who have been jailed for up to seven years on parole to decongest jails in an attempt to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

The court suggested that undertrials awaiting trial for offences entailing maximum sentence of seven years also be extended a similar benefit. The undertrial review committee must meet every week, it said.

Looking at the possible threat of transmission, the bench suggested maximum possible distancing among the prisoners including undertrials.

Jail authorities have also disallowed prison visits by family members, as part of the precautionary measures.

In Jodhpur, inmates of the Central Jail went on an indefinite hunger strike last week demanding they be released due to the coronavirus outbreak. The stir was called off on Friday following an assurance from the jail administration that the demand will be considered.

A meeting of a committee headed by Delhi High Court judge Justice Hima Kohli through video conferencing decided to expedite the process of granting eight week parole to around 1,500 undertrial prisoners, under a newly incorporated provision in the prison rules.

However, the prisoners undergoing trial in drug cases where intermediary or large amount of banned substance was recovered, those facing trial for sexual assault of children, rape and acid attacks, foreign nationals, accused in corruption or money laundering cases and those under investigation in terror, anti-national or unlawful activities, would not be considered for any interim bail, the committee said.

A petition was also filed in the Supreme Court on Monday seeking direction to the Centre and all the states to consider granting parole or interim bail to prisoners above 50 years of age as well as those suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure, respiratory problem and other life threatening diseases in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

The plea said that as per World Health Organisation (WHO), older persons and those suffering from pre-existing medical conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart and lung diseases can be seriously affected by COVID-19.

The petition, filed by advocate Amit Sahni, said the apex court has already taken cognisance on its own about overcrowding in jails following the virus outbreak but the issue of vulnerability of certain category of persons including those above 50 years was not brought to its notice earlier.

A demand was also made for THE release of 84-year-old Asaram Bapu, who is lodged in Jodhpur jail, on bail. In 2018, the self-styled godman was sentenced to a life-long jail term after a Jodhpur court convicted him of raping a minor in 2013.

Followers of Guruj(Asaram) feel that he should be released, said Vikas Khemka, spokesperson, Asaram Ashram in Motera in Gujarat.

The process to release nearly 8,000 prisoners has begun in Madhya Pradesh, a senior official said in Bhopal.

Out of these 8,000 prisoners, 5,000 will be released on parole for 60 days while 3,000 prisoners, who were being tried for cases where the maximum sentence is less than five years, will be released on interim bail for 45 days, state Director General of Prisons Sanjay Choudhary told PTI.

There are 125 jails in MP with a capacity to keep 28,601 prisoners, but they are overcrowded with around 42,000 inmates.

In Uttar Pradesh, the state government has decided to free 11,000 prisoners lodged in 71 jails, according to an official statement in Lucknow.

A committee directed that undertrials lodged in 71 jails of the state in crimes, whose maximum punishment is of 7 years, be given 8-week interim bail on a personal bond, and immediately freed from the jail, it said.

"Convicts who have been punished for 7 years or less, should be released on 8-week parole on a personal bond, and immediately freed from the jails," the statement added.

The Maharashtra Prison department has so far released around 600 prisoners from 37 prisons in the state in the last three days, officials said in Mumbai.

In Himachal Pradesh, a high-power committee has decided to give temporary bail only to those undertrials who are first time offenders and facing trial for offences punishable up to seven years.

The Gujarat government has said it will release around 1,200 prisoners for two months on parole and interim bail to reduce jail crowding. They will be physically examined before being released, and only those who are healthy will be sent home," an official said in Ahmedabad.

Medical examination of the inmates was underway and those with fever, cold, cough etc were being isolated.

The Nalbari District Jail Authority in Assam has released 45 undertrials.

Jail officials said the 45 inmates were from Nalbari, Kamrup and Baksa districts of Assam and they were dropped at their respective homes.

Altogether 369 undertrials and convicts were lodged at the Nalbari District Jail as against the capacity to keep 155 prisoners.

The correctional services department in West Bengal has prepared a list of 3,000 inmates who were eligible for parole and bail.

According to officials of the department, of the 3,000 inmates listed for relief, 2,000 are undertrial prisoners and 1,000 convicts.

Authorities in Tamil Nadu are also considering release of around 1,200 inmates, most of them arrested in petty cases.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Armenian government approved on Monday unprecedented cash payments to scores of people who have been hit hard by economic disruptions resulting from the coronavirus epidemic.

The one-off payments announced by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinians cabinet will benefit tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of workers who have been temporarily out of work or laid off as well as owners of small businesses forced to halt their operations in recent weeks. The aid is meant to help them buy food and meet other basic needs during the nationwide lockdown imposed in Armenia last week.

Armenians who have lost their jobs since March 13 will receive 68,000 drams ($137) each, while unemployed pregnant women whose husbands were fired in the same period will be paid 100,000 drams. Single and jobless pregnant women will also be eligible for this aid.

Government officials gave no estimates of the number of such citizens. They spoke instead of more than 100,000 people making up the third and largest category of aid recipients.

Among them are the employees of hotels, travel agencies, restaurants, clothing stores and other businesses that were closed after March 13. Depending on their monthly wages, they will get between 68,000 and 136,000 drams in compensation.

The government will pay similar sums to small-scale individual entrepreneurs also affected by the lockdown.

Speaking during a cabinet meeting in Yerevan, Pashinian made clear that the government has no intention to compensate a large number of other Armenians who worked off the books and did not pay any taxes.

This situation should tell us that all workers, all wages have to be registered [with tax authorities,] said Pashinian. We cant deal with unregistered cases [of employment and self-employment] because its a black hole where nobody knows whats going on.

Opposition politicians have expressed serious concern about the plight of people involved in the informal sector of the Armenian economy. They have urged the government to take care of them as well.

Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian did not rule out the possibility of such assistance when he spoke at a news conference later on Monday. He stressed, though, that the government currently sees no effective mechanisms for extending the coronavirus relief package to the unregistered jobs.

The government approved last week a set of other measures designed to shore up the economy. In particular, it said creditworthy firms and individual entrepreneurs will receive grants worth $500 million (just over $1 million) if they pledge to use that money to pay their workers wages, buy equipment or raw materials or pay taxes. The scheme will not apply to Armenian banks, insurance companies and casinos.

The banks will receive instead government subsidies to provide cheap credit to small firms and farmers. The latter will be able to borrow up to 1 million drams each and avoid paying any interest for two years.

Pashinian also announced on March 27 that the banks have agreed to suspend loan repayments for some 100,000 individual or corporate borrowers.
Crash: Debris of the crashed plane at the airport

A plane carrying eight people, including an American and a Canadian, burst into flames while taking off from Manila's airport on a flight to Japan, killing all on board.

The Westwind 24 plane, which was carrying six Filipino crew members and the foreign passengers, was bound for Tokyo on a medical mission when it caught fire near the end of the main runway, Manila airport general manager Ed Monreal said.

Firetrucks and rescue personnel doused the twin-engine aircraft with foam to try to extinguish the flames.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said the aircraft apparently encountered an unspecified "problem which resulted in a fire" as it rolled to take off.

Video footage shows the aircraft engulfed in bright-orange flames in the darkness as firefighters scramble to put out the fire by spraying chemical foam while sirens blare.

Nearly three hours after the accident, the bodies of the victims were still inside the wreckage. Airport authorities were waiting for police investigators to examine the crash scene before retrieving the remains, Mr Monreal said.

Donaldo Mendoza, from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, said the aircraft was deemed "airworthy" based on records and its pilots were certified to fly.

The plane had flown to central Iloilo province on Saturday to deliver medical supplies without any incident.

Mr Mendoza said airport tower personnel were horrified to see the plane still rolling on the runway at a point when it should have already taken off, but added it remained unclear what trouble the plane encountered.
The Food and Drug Administration gave the green light on the use of anti-malaria drugs to treat hospitalized coronavirus patients, as the Department of Health and Human Services continues to test two other medications to potentially combat the disease.

HHS announced Sunday it had accepted donations of 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate and a million doses of chloroquine phosphate to treat individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in hospitals or in clinical trials.

The doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate - a medication used to treat malaria, lupus and arthritis - was donated by the New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company Sandoz, according to HHS. The doses of chloroquine phosphate, which can also be used to treat malaria and certain liver infections, was donated by Bayer Pharmaceuticals, a German company.

Scientists in America and around the world have identified multiple potential therapeutics for COVID-19, including chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine," HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement from the agency.

Because of the FDAs authorization allowing HHS to accept donations of the drugs to the Strategic National Stockpile, the medications can now be prescribed by doctors and given to hospitalized teenagers and adults with the viral respiratory infection when clinical trials are not feasible, HHS said in its statement.

Other companies can donate more doses as well, and businesses have ramped up production of the medications, according to the statement. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to ship the donated drugs across the country too, as the drugs are not regularly stocked in stores.

Use of the donated medications is expected to help ease supply pressures for the drug, HHSs statement said. The FDA is also working with manufacturers of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to increase production to ensure these drugs also remain available for patients dependent on them for treatment of malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

There are no recommended treatments for the coronavirus currently, but both medications have shown the ability to fight against COVID-19 in laboratory studies. Anecdotal evidence suggests the drugs may be beneficial for use among hospitalized patients, HHS said.

Medical testing is needed to prove the treatments are effective, though, according to the department. Federal agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, are planning clinical trials, according to the agency.

HHS said it is also funding clinical trials for two other drugs, Kevzara and remdesivir. The agency is supporting development of multiple potential treatments, vaccines and diagnostic tests for the viral respiratory infection as well.

Amidst the medical developments, hospitals have warned the public against using inappropriate drugs and household products to combat the virus. A COVID-19 patient in Arizona died after trying to treat himself with a chemical version of chloroquine that is used to clean fish tanks.

The FDAs emergency authorization requires that fact sheets showing important information about hydroxychloroquine sulfate and chloroquine phosphate, including the known risks of the two drugs, be made available to health care providers and patients, according to the HHS.

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I think the problem is that within the Kremlin, in a way, they have gotten so used to the idea that in some ways they can define the narrative and the narrative will shape reality, said Mark Galeotti, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank in London. Of course, this is a different way around. This is actually a reality that has to shape the narrative.
By Kristina Cooke, Gabriella Borter and Joseph Ax LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. nurses and doctors on the front lines of the battle against the new coronavirus that has infected tens of thousands of Americans and killed hundreds are shellshocked by the damage that the virus wreaks - on patients, their families and themselves.

By Kristina Cooke, Gabriella Borter and Joseph Ax

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. nurses and doctors on the front lines of the battle against the new coronavirus that has infected tens of thousands of Americans and killed hundreds are shellshocked by the damage that the virus wreaks - on patients, their families and themselves.

Nurses and doctors describe their frustration at equipment shortages, fears of infecting their families, and their moments of tearful despair.

These are some of their stories:

NEW YORK CONFIRMED CASES: 53,324. DEATHS: 773

Dr. Arabia Mollette, an emergency medicine physician, has started praying during the cab ride to work in the morning. She needs those few minutes of peace - and some lighthearted banter with the cafeteria staff at Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center in Brooklyn at 6:45 a.m. - to ground her before she enters what she describes as a "medical warzone." At the end of her shift, which often runs much longer than the scheduled 12 hours, she sometimes cannot hold back tears.

"We're trying to keep our heads above water without drowning. We are scared. We're trying to fight for everyone else's life, but we also fight for our lives as well," Mollette said.

The hospitals where she works, Brookdale and St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, are short of oxygen tanks, ventilators and physical space. Seeing the patients suffer and knowing she might not have the resources to help them feels personal for Mollette, who grew up in the South Bronx and has family there and in Brooklyn.

"Every patient that comes in, they remind me of my own family," she said.

At least one emergency nurse at a Northwell Health hospital in the New York City area is wondering how much longer she can take the strain.

After days of seeing patients deteriorate and healthcare workers and family members sob, she and her husband, who have a young son, are discussing whether she should leave the job she has done for more than a decade.

The emergency room, always a hotbed of frenetic activity, is now dominated by coronavirus cases. There are beds all over the waiting room. The nurse, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she sees family members dropping off sick relatives and saying goodbye.

"You can't really tell them they might be saying goodbye for the last time," she said.

On Thursday, some nurses and doctors were brought to tears after days of physical and emotional fatigue.

"People were just breaking down," she said. "Everyone is pretty much terrified of being infected ... I feel like a lot of staff are feeling defeated."

At first, she was not too worried about her safety since the coronavirus appeared to be deadliest among the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.

That confidence dissolved after seeing more and more younger patients in serious condition.

"At the beginning, my mentality was, 'Even if I catch it, I'll get a cold or a fever for a couple of days,'" she said. "Now the possibility of dying or being intubated makes it harder to go to work."

There is no official data on the number of healthcare workers who have contracted the virus, but one New York doctor told Reuters that he knew of at least 20.

WASHINGTON STATE CONFIRMED CASES: 4,310. DEATHS: 189

A Seattle nurse has started screening patients for coronavirus at the door of her hospital, a different job from her usual work on various specialty procedures.

She doesn't talk about her new job at home, because she doesn't want to worry her school-aged children, she said. Her husband does not understand her work and tells her to decline tasks that could put her at risk.

"I'm like, 'Well it's already unsafe in my opinion,'" she said.

But she is nervous about having to separate from her family if she contracts the virus.

"I'll live in my car if I have to. I'm not getting my family sick," she said.

The nurse spoke on condition of anonymity because she is not allowed to speak to the media.

During her last shift, she was told to give symptomatic patients napkins to cover their faces instead of masks - and not to wear a mask herself. She ignored that and wore a surgical mask, but she worries less experienced staff heeded the guidance.

"We get right in their faces to take their temperatures because we do not have six-feet-away infrared thermometers," she said. "The recommendations seem to change based on how many masks we have."

Her hospital has put a box outside for the community to donate masks because they are so short of supplies.

She blames the government for not doing more to prepare and coordinate: "People should not have to die because of poor planning."

MICHIGAN CONFIRMED CASES: 4,650. DEATHS: 111

Nurse Angela, 49, says the emergency room at her hospital near Flint, Michigan, is eerily quiet. "We've all been saying this is the calm before storm," said Angela, who asked that only her first name be used.

The patients who trickle in are "very sick" with the COVID-19 respiratory illness, she said, "and they just decline really quickly."

As they go from room to room, the nurses discuss how many things they are contaminating due to their limited protective equipment.

"You'd have to walk around with someone with Clorox wipes all night walking behind you," she said. "The contamination is just so scary for me."

She accepts that she and most of her colleagues may be infected. But she is worried about her daughter and her sister, who are both nurses, and she worries about infecting her 58-year-old husband.

Angela's daughter has sent her three children, including an 18-month-old who suffers from asthma, to stay with their father to avoid possibly infecting them.

"I normally see my grandchildren twice a week and I haven't seen them. It's hard. I just cannot fathom what my daughter's going through," Angela said.

Many of her co-workers have done the same, packing off children to live with relatives because they are terrified, not so much of contracting the disease, but of passing it on.

Some of them are talking about quitting because they feel unprotected.

Angela would not judge them, she said, but she told a friend recently, "You have to remember, what if your kid gets sick or your mom gets sick, who's going to take care of them when you take them to the hospital if all of us just leave?"

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter, Kristina Cooke and Joey Ax; Editing by Ross Colvin and Daniel Wallis)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Undocumented immigrants wait in a holding cell at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), processing center at the U.S. Federal Building in lower Manhattan, N.Y., on April 11, 2018. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Federal Judge Frees Immigration Detainees on CCP Virus Fears

A federal judge has ordered that 10 immigration detainees be released from custody in New Jersey because their underlying health conditions are said to put them at an inordinate risk of contracting the CCP virus in secure facilities that are ill-equipped to combat it.

The legal action came as lawsuits are beginning to pile up around the country that seek the release of other immigration detainees for the same reason. Citing virus concerns, federal Judge Dolly M. Gee in Los Angeles, an Obama appointee, has ordered the government to make continuous efforts to release children in immigration detention centers.

Federal judges in Boston and elsewhere have also released immigration detainees because of infection worries. There are reportedly around 40,000 individuals in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. Pro-illegal alien activists are demanding most of them be released to reduce their exposure to the contagion.

The decision in the New Jersey case, cited as Basank v. Decker, was issued March 26 by U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama.

In a 15-page order, Torres referenced a CNN report from March 20 that warned of a tinderbox scenario as the virus spreads to immigration detention centers and the resulting imminent risk to the health and safety of immigrant detainees and the public.

Acting on a petition from a left-wing group called Brooklyn Defender Services, Torres found that the detainees were entitled to immediate relief because many experts are concerned that county jails are hot spots for potential infection by the virus.

The risk that Petitioners will face a severe, and quite possibly fatal, infection if they remain in immigration detention constitutes irreparable harm warranting a [temporary restraining order], Torres wrote.

The judge also criticized ICE officials for supposedly failing to prepare for the outbreak and for not taking special measures to protect the detainees most vulnerable to infection.

Torres acknowledged ICE is screening detainees for the virus, isolating those who are suspected of infection, and improving the cleanliness of facilities, but wrote that agency officials have exhibited, and continue to exhibit, deliberate indifference to Petitioners medical needs, Torres wrote.

What ICE is doing is patently insufficient to protect the detainees, she wrote, adding that the agency could not provide any information about steps taken to protect high-risk detainees.

Torres ordered Thomas Decker, director of the New York field office of ICE, and the Hudson, Bergen, and Essex County correctional facilities in New Jersey to immediately release Petitioners today on their own recognizance. She also issued a temporary restraining order expiring April 9 at 6:30 p.m. that prevents ICE from arresting those individuals for civil immigration detention purposes during the pendency of their immigration proceedings.

The Epoch Times reached out to Deckers counsel of record in the case, Michael Byars. James Margolin, chief public information officer for the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Southern District of New York, replied by email, We will decline to comment.

Critics reject arguments from open-borders groups such as the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which are urging that many immigration detainees be released on public-health grounds. SPLC lawyer Lorilei Williams told reporters that detainees need to be released because this is just a really dire and critical situation.

Thomas Homan, a former acting director of ICE, wrote in a column for Fox News that the mass release of illegal immigrants from federal custody due to the coronavirus pandemic, would be a serious mistake and do far more harm than good.

We cant afford to let the fear of the coronavirus spreading end the rule of law in our country, he wrote.

The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Partys coverup and mismanagement allowed it to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.
Mr. Trump spoke after Anthony Fauci  the nations top scientist, who is increasingly a target of far-right conspiracy theorists  warned that U.S. deaths from the outbreak could reach 200,000.

New York State, which has more than one-third of the countrys 141,000 known coronavirus infections, reported 237 new deaths, its highest one-day toll so far. And a commercial aircraft loaded with medical supplies from Shanghai landed in New York City, the first of 22 scheduled flights that White House officials say will funnel much-needed goods to the country by early April.

Looking ahead: If the New York metro area maintains its steep growth curve in new cases, it could have a more severe outbreak than the ones experienced in Wuhan, China, or the Lombardy region of Italy, a Times analysis found.

Analysis: The federal governments failure to roll out large-scale testing of people who might have been infected has set the U.S. back a month in its battle with the coronavirus.

All our coverage: A debate over how much the American public should know about who has the virus highlights a perennial tug of war between privacy and transparency in the country.
A photo taken shows a view of Taipei 101, a landmark of Taipei on July 21, 2019. [Xinhua]

By Wang Ping

With the world focused on the battle against the coronavirus pandemic, the US is once again playing the Taiwan card to contain China. Recently the US president signed into law the "Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative (TAIPEI) Act of 2019", or the so-called TAIPEI Act, vowing to support Taiwan in strengthening its official diplomatic relationships and enhancing its participation in international organizations. This Act, like many of its predecessors, seriously violates international laws and the basic norms governing international relations and is fraught with hegemonic thinking, self-contradictory logic, and political deception. Whatever ulterior motive the US is harboring, it is doomed to fail.

The basic idea of the so-called TAIPEI Act is that the US will reward or punish other countries based on their relations with Taiwan. The Act states that the US will increase its economic, security, and diplomatic engagement with nations that have demonstrably strengthened, enhanced, or upgraded relations with Taiwan, and will alter its economic, security and diplomatic engagement with nations that take serious or significant actions to undermine the security or prosperity of Taiwan.

The US has long exercised its long-arm jurisdiction in the international community and judged other countries that offend US interests based on its domestic laws. The TAIPEI Act saw the US upgrade its hegemonic logic by trying to dictate other countries on their relationships with Taiwan. In the bipartisan act, the superpower poses itself as the big brother and Taiwan its little brother, and the big brother would teach everybody a lesson if he dared not befriend his little brother.

The Act is focused on helping Taiwan consolidate its diplomatic relationships. In other words, Washington is set to punish those countries that had severed their ties with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in favor of Beijing. The problem is, the US itself forged official diplomatic relationship with the Peoples Republic of China on the one-China principle 41 years ago. On what ground can it demand other countries not to do the same?

Altogether 180 countries in the world have formed official diplomatic ties with China. The US cannot change the fact that the one-China principle is now an international consensus, a common aspiration, and an irreversible historical trend. Before the TAIPEI Act was cooked up, the US had already attempted to interfere with certain countries either by threatening or coaxing, yet the DPP has lost seven diplomatic allies, like a Domino game, after it took power in 2016, fully proving that Washingtons peremptory impositions are unreasonable and unwelcome.

Knowing very well that its attempt for a two-China or one-China, one-Taiwan policy will not go anywhere, Washingtons TAIPEI Act is full of ambiguous words, pays lip service, and sends out stench of deception. Who does it try to deceive then? It is the DPP authority that still dreams of Taiwan independence leveraged on the Taiwan Strait and persists in fawning on the US and antagonizing the mainland. Washington put forth the TAIPEI Act to spur on the anti-China vanguards in Taiwan while charging it with enormous protection fees. In this political trick, it takes DPP as nothing but a pawn, a chess piece, a bargaining chip and a cannon fodder under the presence of support.

The US has only one reason and one purpose in playing the Taiwan card - American interests. It doesnt care about Taiwans interests at all as it is nothing more than a piece in Americas tool kit. This is as plain as daylight, but the green camp politicians in Taiwan just refuse to admit the obvious fact.

The TAIPEI Act has produced immediate adverse effects as the DPP authority always savors any deliberate misguidance and political deception from the American side. The green camp politicians were so invigorated that they couldnt wait to express their gratitude and loyalty to the US and wasted no time in following American politicians step of smearing the mainland, while the green camp media were busy touting the illusion that the US will help them achieve Taiwan independence. With Washingtons instigation, the DPP has once again accelerated its moves of going against the mainland.

How selfish and narrow-minded the US must be to willfully play the Taiwan card at such a critical juncture of combating the COVID-19 pandemic? But if we take a long perspective, every Taiwan card the US plays is bound to be useless and the DPPs fantasy of resisting the mainland with Americas help and Taiwan independence is just a pipe dream. The Taiwan question concerns Chinas sovereignty, territorial integrity, and core interests. It is the bottom line that should never be challenged. No one should underestimate the Chinese government and peoples determination and will to safeguard our core interests.

China is taking big strides forward on the path of peaceful development and national rejuvenation. Chinas reunification is a historical trend that will not and cannot be stopped by anyone or any force. Those who act against the historical trend will eventually eat their own bitter fruit.

Disclaimer: This article is originally published on haiwainet.cn, which is the website of Overseas Edition of the People's Daily. The article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
We sold a lot of croissants over the weekend, and I think its because everybodys home and croissants just make you feel better, he said. Thats what we need. We need our spirits to be lifted when theres crazy things going on. I have no idea what to expect for Easter, which is usually a big holiday for us, but I know people are still going to want chocolate in their Easter baskets. So were just going to hope and pray that we can get the information out to people via social media that we still have their chocolate bunnies, peanut butter eggs, coconut eggs and everything else.
The dairy industry in Assam has come to a standstill with farmers having to deal with lockdown regulations that have severely impacted their livelihood.

The dairy industry in Assam has come to a standstill with farmers having to deal with lockdown regulations that have severely impacted their livelihood. Dairy farmers in Jorabat area of Kamrup district, waiting for the state government to ease restrictions and help them out of this crisis, are concerned about their cattle falling sick due to feed shortage, rise in fodder prices, and unavailability of forage.

On Sunday, five dairy farmers from Ghanshyam Patti village of Nepali Basti hired a van to travel almost 20 km to Guwahati to sell milk. At least 250 people live in the basti that has 50 dairy farmers.

Though dairy and milk goods, shops selling animal fodder fall under essential services according to home ministry guidelines, the lockdown has affected their daily routine and transportation of milk to the wholesale markets.

All hotels and restaurants are closed, so wholesalers do not buy milk from us. I brought 120 litres of milk, and managed to sell only 20 litres, said 42-year-old Shivlal Sharma, a dairy farmer who cares for 80 jersey cows in his household.

Shivlal and other dairy farmers of Jorabat have requested the government to ensure availability and supply of cattle feed at this time of crisis. Farmers are throwing away thousands of litres of milk each day.

We can still throw the milk, but we need to keep the cattle alive. In some farms, cattle are in a critical condition, not able to get up. How will we feed the cows? The fodder was priced at Rs 1,000 before the lockdown, and now it has gone up to Rs 1,300, said Pradip Ghosh, another dairy farmer from Jorabat.

Usually, we milk cows at six in the morning, feed them, clean the barn  but now, we are turning the milk into cream. Till noon, we separate the cream from raw milk. But where will we store it? I have discarded almost 50 to 60 litres of milk today, and the cream will also go waste, said Ramu Sharma, a 60-year-old dairy farmer who said he'd never seen such times.

The commercial dairy farmers have a proper system, they can preserve the milk in big fridges for at least two days, Sharma added.

On the other hand, the Sitajakhala Dugdha Utpadak Samabai Samiti Ltd (SJDUSS) in Morigaon district has sought government help to set up a joint venture for producing approximately 15,000 to 20,000 litres of milk and milk products daily.

During the first two days of lockdown, the dairy farmers of Sitajakhala threw away almost 10,000 litres of milk in the Killing River. Farmers are facing a loss of Rs 12 to 13 lakh every day.

During the 1962 Indo-China War, Sitajakhala farmers did yeomans work in supplying milk to the Indian Army personnel on the front lines, and believe they can do more.

If we could do it during war time, we can do it today. We have our own processing plant, pasteurization and other units to produce about 20,000 litres of milk and milk products daily, said Ranjiv Sharma, chairman of Sitajakhala Cooperative Society, which was launched in 1958 with only 17 members, and now has around 1,500 members. To cope with the circumstances, people need to boost their immunity and develop strength, for which milk is absolutely essential.

The dairy farmers of Sitajakhala launched their first full-fledged milk processing unit in November 2018 at Jagiroad on the outskirts of Guwahati.

The commercial dairy farmers have been affected to a great extent. They are suffering today because their land holding capacity is very small. Dairy farming is their primary source of income, almost 80 percent are dependent on cattle feed from other states, mostly West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Fortunately, we have been trying to preserve silage fodder for past three years, and we have some of it in stock, added Sharma.

In Assam, there is a gap between the dairy market and farming, transport and storage of milk. According to reports, almost 95 percent of the dairy industry in Assam remains unorganised and milk marketing is controlled by traditional channels.

We are producing 17,000 to 18,000 litres of milk a day, but where do we take it? We have no other option but to throw it away. About 1,100 farmers are directly catering to 25,000 consumers in Guwahati and adjoining places. Because of the lockdown, 8 to 9 districts have been severely impacted. The National Dairy Development Board has been located here since 2008, and yet our farmers find themselves helpless, added Sharma.

The commercial dairy farmers of Assam are looking to the state government to build an effective milk marketing chain that would give farmers a fair return on their investment, and assist farmers by paying at least Rs 5 per litre.

Farmers are also holding meetings in their areas to find solutions to their problems.
MILFORD  Gulf Beach has been an active site for the Public Works Department over the last week.

A retaining wall has been extended on the bridge side of the beach, while the annual regrading of the sand on the beach has taken place.

People who come to the beach like to sit on the wall and have their lunch, Public Works Director Christopher Saley said. Or maybe they sit and watch the boats coming in or out of the harbor. We extended the location of the wall so they can do so. The wall will also block the sand from crossing into the street. In another area we have the natural dunes of grass that holds the sand back.

We are also doing drainage work for the parking lots, he said.

Regrading beaches is underway.

Usually in the first two weeks of April we regrade the beaches, Saley said. But with a milder winter we are doing it a little earlier. It usually takes two or three days. This also helps us protect the (piping) plovers.

Piping plovers are small, sand-colored, shorebirds that nest and feed along coastal sand.

The sand migrates to the groin by the harbor and we just push it back, he said.

Groins are shore structures, used to maintain updrift beaches. By design, they capture sand transported by the longshore current, which depletes the sand supply to the beach down-drift.

In Walnut Beach we will be redoing the parking lot, Saley said. And whenever the unexpected storm or whatever happens at any of our parks and beaches, we will be there to make it right.

william.bloxsom@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @blox354
Passive investing in an index fund is a good way to ensure your own returns roughly match the overall market. While individual stocks can be big winners, plenty more fail to generate satisfactory returns. Investors in Shandong International Trust Co., Ltd. (HKG:1697) have tasted that bitter downside in the last year, as the share price dropped 39%. That's disappointing when you consider the market returned -17%. Shandong International Trust hasn't been listed for long, so although we're wary of recent listings that perform poorly, it may still prove itself with time. Shareholders have had an even rougher run lately, with the share price down 11% in the last 90 days. However, one could argue that the price has been influenced by the general market, which is down 16% in the same timeframe.

View our latest analysis for Shandong International Trust

While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

Unfortunately Shandong International Trust reported an EPS drop of 24% for the last year. This reduction in EPS is not as bad as the 39% share price fall. This suggests the EPS fall has made some shareholders are more nervous about the business. The P/E ratio of 4.75 also points to the negative market sentiment.

The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

SEHK:1697 Past and Future Earnings March 30th 2020

It's probably worth noting that the CEO is paid less than the median at similar sized companies. It's always worth keeping an eye on CEO pay, but a more important question is whether the company will grow earnings throughout the years. Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here..

Story continues

What About Dividends?

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). The TSR incorporates the value of any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. As it happens, Shandong International Trust's TSR for the last year was -33%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

A Different Perspective

Shandong International Trust shareholders are down 33% for the year (even including dividends) , even worse than the market loss of 17%. There's no doubt that's a disappointment, but the stock may well have fared better in a stronger market. The share price decline has continued throughout the most recent three months, down 11%, suggesting an absence of enthusiasm from investors. Given the relatively short history of this stock, we'd remain pretty wary until we see some strong business performance. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Even so, be aware that Shandong International Trust is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is significant...

We will like Shandong International Trust better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on HK exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Most everyone knows the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, the outspoken and brutally honest husband of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. But not all royal fans realize how he got that title.

The queen and her husband have an enduring yet complicated marriage thats lasted more than 70 years. However, not every moment has been pure marital bliss. After one notable rough spot, the queen decided to bestow Philip with his current title to prove the strength of her love.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh | Donald McKague/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Philip Mountbatten was born with royal blood

Prince Philip has always been royalty. Born on the Greek island of Corfu in 1921, Philip was the son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. His family was exiled when Philip was a baby after a war that went bad, but his unchangeable blue blood lineage remained.

He caught the attention of the young Princess Elizabeth while she and her family were touring the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, in 1939. At the time 18-year-old Philip was dashing, handsome, and charming. Thirteen-year-old Elizabeth fell swiftly in love and began exchanging letters with him. The pair became engaged in 1947 when the future queen was 21.

The Duke of Edinburgh always struggled with living in Queen Elizabeths shadow

Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh | Keystone/Getty Images

Royal experts describe Prince Philip as a classic alpha male personality. His wife may have been queen and clearly outranked him, but Philip still fought for some power in their relationship. After she denied his request to change the royal house name from House of Windsor to House of Mountbatten, after him, Philip said, I am nothing but a bloody amoeba. I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his own children.

His temper tantrum inspired a new and unprecedented change in the naming conventions of the family, which is why heirs of Queen Elizabeth have the surname Mountbatten-Windsor. It was the queens small way of appeasing her husband and proving he was important to her. But that wasnt all she did.

Queen Elizabeth promoted Philip to quiet negative rumors about her marriage

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip | Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Philip had to renounce the royal titles he received by birthright in order to marry Elizabeth. When the two wed, he became the Duke of Edinburgh but did not become Prince Philip until a decade later.

This timing was intentional. Early in the year, British newspapers were circulating rumors that the couple was having trouble in their marriage and that Philip was possibly even having an affair. According to Biography, The Baltimore Sun ran a story claiming that Philip was romantically involved with an unnamed woman whom he met on a regular basis in the West End apartment of a society photographer.

The palace broke their never complain, never explain mantra and categorically denied the claims. It is quite untrue that there is any rift between the queen and the Duke, their statement read. But public suspicions encouraged Queen Elizabeth to make a public declaration of her solid relationship. That same year, Elizabeth bestowed Philip with the title of prince to prove their marriage was still rock solid.

Now their marriage has lasted an incredible seven decades. Prince or not, its clear that Philip will always be the king of Queen Elizabeths heart.
The Union health ministry on Monday clarified that the coronavirus pandemic is still in the local transmission stage and has not reached the community transmission stage.

There is no community transmission. There is only local transmission. If the government feels that that the stage of community transmission has set in, it will acknowledge it but it is not there yet, Lav Aggarwal, joint secretary in the Union health ministry said at the daily briefing on coronavirus.

Kindly allow us to use the word community but not in the context you have interpreted. Our country is in the local transmission stage, he said responding to questions about a health ministry document that said the country was currently in local transmission and limited community transmission phase. .

There had been apprehension about community transmission of coronavirus setting in after a health ministry document on Sunday said that limited community transmission has begun in India.

Community transmission is that phase of the outbreak when the source of a patients infection cannot be traced and isolated.

A document detailing the standard operating procedure (SOP), issued by the health ministry late Sunday night, said: This SOP is applicable to current phase of Covid-19 pandemic in India (local transmission and limited community transmission), wherein as per plan of action, all suspect cases are admitted to isolation facilities.

Aggarwal also said that 92 new cases and four deaths were reported in the last 24 hours taking the total number of people infected by coronavirus to 1071 and the number of casualties to 29.

Asked about a viral video of disinfectant being sprayed on migrant workers in Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, Aggarwal said action has been taken against those involved.

Bareilly District Magistrate has clarified that some employees took an overzealous step due to ignorance. Required action has been taken against those employees, he said.

The video showing migrant workers squatting on a road and being sprayed with chlorine-mixed water had sparked outrage on Monday, prompting the Bareilly administration to order a probe.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday tasked Indian missions across the globe to ensure the welfare of citizens stranded because of Covid-19-related restrictions and to forge collaborations to find solutions to the pandemic, people familiar with developments said.

Modi issued these instructions during a video-conference with heads of some 130 embassies and high commissions  the first such event for Indian missions worldwide  to discuss responses to the global pandemic.

The conference, the latest in a string of virtual initiatives undertaken by the government to forge a coordinated response to the pandemic, allowed Modi to outline the vision and general direction to be taken by the envoys, said the people cited above who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, we had taken steps for the evacuation of citizens. Now, the focus is on the well-being and welfare of our stranded citizens. All the embassies were tasked to be in constant touch with the communities and to provide assistance wherever possible, said a person who declined to be named.

There was also discussion on the many things we could get from the countries on the frontline  this includes joint research and collaboration, technologies, development of solutions, both therapeutic and vaccines, and testing and diagnostic kits, the person added.

Modi also briefed on the domestic situation and steps taken by the government to alleviate the economic and social situation, including through an economic package, and international and regional engagements to fight the spread of Covid-19.

The envoys, in turn, briefed the prime minister on the situation in the countries where they were posted, especially crucial nations such as the US, Italy, Iran, China, and South Korea, and conveyed their sense of what the Indian community is going through, the people said.

Ten heads of missions from Beijing, Washington, Tehran, Rome, Berlin, Kathmandu, Abu Dhabi, Kabul, Male and Seoul, offered their perspectives and shared feedback in those countries on the resolute measures taken by India to combat this pandemic, an official statement said.

The people cited above said there was considerable interest in efforts by countries such as Germany and South Korea to tackle the Coronavirus.

Germany has had a large number of cases but the mortality rate is low, and the reasons for their success are of interest to us. Germany is also converting automobile factories to produce equipment such as ventilators and we can look at the same concept as automobile manufacturers are also being engaged in India, said the person cited above.

South Koreas policy of trace, test and treat, which had worked well, and the use of technology, including an app for monitoring and self-quarantine, were also of interest to India, the people said. South Korea had tested some 400,000 people and not resorted to a lockdown, while its testing protocols and the possibility of joint production of test kits are of interest to India, they said.

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Government says the cedi equivalent of US$100 announced by President Akufo-Addo as being set aside to fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic in Ghana is ready for disbursement.

Contrary to views of some sceptics that the money is not available, I wish to assure you that the money has been secured and is available to be disbursed in accordance with our public financial management procedures and rules. Indeed, from day one, Government has not stopped spending in the fight against Covid-19, the Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister told Parliament yesterday.

He was in the House to brief the legislative arm of government on the economic impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the economy of Ghana.

Preparedness & Response Plan

Mr. Speaker, the Ministry of Finance has been working with the Ministry of Health to cost the National Preparedness and Response Plan prepared by the Ministry of Health and the World Bank. The Preparedness plan seeks to, among others, enable early detection and effectively manage and contain a COVID-19 outbreak in Ghana.

The Minister stated that the initial cost of programmes and activities under the COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plan is about GH572 million (US$100 million).

The plan, he explained, seeks to strengthen co-ordination of the overall preparedness activities; strengthen capacity of regions, priority health facilities and points of entry to prevent, rapidly detect, investigate and control any COVID-19 outbreak in Ghana and strengthen national capacity for laboratory surveillance and diagnosis;

It is also expected to build capacity for early diagnosis, case management, contact tracing and infection prevention and control; ensure minimum health logistics are in place in prioritised regions, health facilities and points of entry for preparedness and laboratory capacity sustained for timely and quality testing of COVID-19 samples; and increase public awareness on COVID-19 risk mitigation and response measures.

Coronavirus Alleviation Programme

The Finance Minister stated that the Economic Management Team is working around the clock to reduce the accumulation of economic scar tissue from this disease, adding that the President is determined to cushion the economic and social difficulties this coronavirus is visiting on Ghanaian businesses and people.

Our task, therefore, is to minimize the huge threat of job losses and the impact of job losses. The President and his team are thinking outside the box to ensure that that the principles of fiscal discipline are not jettisoned and, yet, still ensuring that people have money to spend.

Our plan is to ensure that essential public investments are not mightily compromised; whiles, at the same time, enabling significant increase in spending on health. Beyond that, Government is committed to using this unprecedented challenge to our economy and society as rather an opportunity to fast-track even more our agenda to industrialize and become self-reliant.

Mr. Ofori-Atta further explained that the establishment of a Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP) as announced by the president on Friday, March 27, 2020 is to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus on businesses and households and ensure that economic activities are sustained, while minimizing job losses.

He added that his will immediately release an amount of One Billion Ghana Cedis upon approval by Parliament. The Ministry is proposing to use the equivalent of USD 219 Million from the Stabilization Fund.

The CAP will focus on areas that will provide maximum results in alleviating the impact of the coronavirus pandemic with a focus on protecting against job losses, protecting livelihoods, supporting small businesses, and ensuring the programme is efficiently and sustainably implemented.

The Finance Minister also said the CAP would seek additional funding for the following purposes; promotion of selected industries to shore up production for export and import substitution, to support SMEs and create jobs, to partner with Pension Funds and Insurance Funds to create guarantees and first loss instruments.

Targeted businesses and households will include those in the health sector, education sector, hospitality industry, SMEs, and households hard hit by the Coronavirus. The specific details of the CAP and the instruments to allocate the resources will be fashioned out shortly.

Mitigating COVID-19 impact

Mr. Speaker, as the President reminded us last Friday night, we know how to bring the economy back to life  every Ghanaian knows this from our performance over the last three years. But what we do not know is how to bring people back to life. We shall therefore spread every sinew to support our households and revitalize our industries and services.

Touching on the measures to close the fiscal gap, the Minister proposed to House to Lower the cap on the Ghana Stabilization Fund (GSF) from the current US$300 million to US$100 million in accordance with Section 23 (3) of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA).

This measure will enable the excess amount in the GSF account over the US$100 million cap to be transferred into the Contingency Fund, consistent with Section 23 (4) of the PRMA. The amount transferred into the Contingency Fund will be used to fund the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP).
A s the coronavirus pandemic heightens, acts of kindness continue to remind us of our common humanity in times of crisis, proved by one MP who delivered groceries to an isolated elderly resident in his constituency.

Ian Mylam shared a picture of five shopping bags on Facebook, which had been given to his elderly father who lives alone and is under self-isolation to stay safe.

He had struggled to find a delivery slot to purchase groceries, so contacted his local MP Sir Charles Walker, to explain how this could be a problem for other elderly residents in the constituency.

However, he never expected the Conservative politician for Broxbourne to take it upon himself to deliver the food shopping himself.

Since Mr Mylam told the story on Facebook, the post has been shared over a thousand times.

He wrote: "Like many elderly people in the UK he has been instructed to self-isolate for his own safety and order his groceries online.

"Despite multiple attempts to place an online grocery order with three supermarkets  a struggle in itself for my father  no delivery slots were available any time in the next two weeks.

"I suggested he contact his local Member of Parliament for Broxbourne, Sir Charles Walker, to inform him that this is a problem many of his elderly constituents may be facing.

"My father emailed his MP very late yesterday evening. This morning, Sir Charles Walker turned up at my fathers house and left five bags of groceries outside the front door as a gift  the groceries visible in this picture."

One person commented on the Facebook post : "He is one of the few good guys in Westminster." Another added: "Such a selfless act and thoughtful gesture."

Sir Charles Walker MP (Twitter/@CharlesWalkerMP) / https://twitter.com/charleswalkermp?lang=en

Mr Mylam said the cost of the shopping was split between the local community and Sir Charles.

He added: "Having read numerous stories of avarice and profiteering in this time of COVID-19, I wanted to share one of humanity, generosity and kindness.

"There was no political capital to be made here.

"No-one other than my father knew that it had happened. There was no expectation of publicity or media coverage. It was a simple act of human kindness by someone who cared.
Weather Alert

...Winter Storm System to Impact the Region this Weekend... A strong winter storm system will push east through the Quad State Saturday into Sunday. Wintry precipitation will spread eastward into southern Illinois and southeast Missouri late Friday night, and then southeast over the remainder of the region Saturday morning. The evolution of the storm for the remainder of the weekend is quite uncertain at this time. The ultimate path and intensity of the storm system, along with the temperature forecast, will determine how impactful it will be across the Quad State. For now you are encouraged to monitor the latest forecasts and follow your winter weather preparedness plans ahead of this potentially impactful winter storm.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued an order which has stopped landlords from demanding rent from students, workers and migrant labourers for a month.

Those landlords who force people to vacate their houses will face action, the statement says.

Reuters

It has also urged people to provide basic food and shelter to the migrant workers who are without jobs and essentials amid the ongoing lockdown.

As per the Ministry of Home Affairs order issued under the Disaster Management Act, "The states and Union territories shall ensure adequate arrangements of temporary shelters, and provisions of food etc. for the poor and needy people, including migrant labourers, stranded due to lockdown measures in their respective areas."



Reuters

The orders also states, The migrant people who have moved out to reach their home states/hometowns must be kept in the nearest shelter by the respective state/union territory government quarantine facilities after proper screening for a minimum period of 14 days.

The order has a brief about how employers must pay wages to their workers without any deductions and on due dates.

After the government's announcement for a lockdown of 21 days which ends on April 14, a huge number of migrants and workers were seen leaving the big cities to go back to their homes.



They are unable to find any means of transportation, many of them have even started walking hundreds of miles to reach their destinations and villages. Seeing this the state governments are trying to arrange transport, accommodation and food.

In India, COVID-19 has killed over 25 people and we have more than 1000 positive cases.




Washington: Coronavirus cases are spiking rapidly in cities across the United States, with major hot spots emerging in Detroit, Miami, Chicago and New Orleans as well as the epicentre of New York.

More than 500 deaths linked to COVID-19 were reported in the US on Monday (Tuesday AEDT), the biggest single-day death toll since the outbreak began. The virus has claimed almost 3000 lives in the US in total.

Detroit, the most populous city in Michigan, reported 15 new coronavirus deaths, the biggest jump since the virus was first reported there in early March.

The US National Institute of Health's Dr Anthony Fauci says he is worried about emerging hot spots in New Orleans and Detroit. Credit:CBS News

The Detroit area, which has high rates of poverty and chronic disease, now has 2700 confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Can Tho, the most populated city in the Mekong Delta region, has achieved outstanding results in developing a project to build a smart city after nearly two years of implementation.

A view of Can Tho city

Vo Thi Hong Anh, Vice Chairwoman of the Can Tho City Peoples Committee, said the project aims to make the city to become the first smart city in the southwestern region by 2025.

A smart city enhances civic engagement in urban management, with the aim of improving competitiveness and socio-economic development, she said.

To achieve the goal, Can Tho will use modern information technology and improve State management and the quality of life, she said.

Can Thos agencies have many plans to achieve the goal.

The Department of Planning and Investment is building technical platforms to develop an e-government model, while the Department of Transport has started using IT to manage urban transport services.

Two years ago, Can Tho city signed a cooperation agreement with the Vietnam Posts and Communications Group (VNPT) to develop its smart city project by 2025.

Under the project, VNPT has set up a smart city framework system, including an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and smart city solution framework, ensuring that the solutions of all developers can run on this platform.

Can Tho and VNPT have worked to apply a range of information technologies in city administrative activities to better serve people and businesses.

Do Hoang Trung, Director of Can Tho citys Department of Information and Communications, said the city is building an intelligent operating centre connected with information technology systems to monitor socio-economic targets and the governments performance.

The centre will supervise the education and tourism sectors and monitor residents feedback, ensuring urban order and security.

In addition, Can Tho will use My City app, a mobile platform with a built-in camera system and an intelligent security surveillance, to receive and resolve residents feedback on public services.

The city will also apply information technology in management of traffic safety; information security and safety; food safety and hygiene; environmental protection, as well as land use management.

In addition, intelligent parking systems at tourist destinations and integrated traffic management system, including traffic lights, signs and traffic flow analysis, will be set up.

Can Tho will encourage the private sector to take part in the smart city project by applying technologies and innovation in providing services to the public.

Experts said enterprises play a major role in the socio-economic development of smart urban areas, which should be supported with infrastructure and incentive policies based on modern technology.

To ensure the projects schedule, the Department of Information and Communications will seek experts opinions in implementing the smart city plan./.
Miami, March 30 : Dean Trantalis, the Mayor of Fort Lauderdale, said that he would not allow the Zaandam cruise liner, which reported four coronavirus deaths and two positive cases among the people on aboard, to dock in the US city's port.

Trantalis issued a statement on Sunday after the Zaandam, a cruise ship of the Holland America Line, received authorization on Saturday to cross through the Panama Canal and continue its trip towards Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, reports Efe news.

"We cannot add further risk to our community amid our own health crisis here with thousands of people already testing positive for the deadly and contagious COVID-19 virus," in three counties in southeast Florida, Trantalis wrote on a social media post.

The Mayor stated that the Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security should establish a plan to protect the community, and suggested that there are many Navy bases on the US east coast that could take in the vessel.

In that way, the situation could be managed in a "much more controlled environment" than in a "vast urban area", Trantalis said.

According to the Florida Department of Health, 4,246 cases of coronavirus had been recorded on Sunday, compared to the 4,038 cases at the end of Saturday, although the death toll remained at 56.

Holland America Line President Orlando Ashford on Sunday addressed passengers through a video, assuring them that the company will do the impossible to get everyone and their families back home as soon as possible, and apologized for the fact that the vacations they longed for have become something very different due to a "difficult and unprecedented" situation.

The Zaandam, which left Buenos Aires on March 7 for a trip that included the Falkland Islands and southern Chile and was scheduled to end on March 21 at the Chilean port of San Antonio, was at sea when the coronavirus pandemic began to strongly impact the American continent.

For this reason and because more than 130 people aboard show flu-like symptoms, according to the company itself, the Zaandam has not been able to dock in any port on the west coast of South America after Punta Arenas, Chile, on March 14. The company also confirmed the death of four elderly passengers without specifying the causes.

The cruise ship was forbidden to dock in San Antonio, although it was able to anchor off the Chilean port of Valparaiso, and later reached Panamanian waters, where it was quarantined.

Panama's health authorities announced on Saturday that they authorized the cruise to pass through the Panama Canal, after having been denied on Friday by the Panama's Ministry of Health.

According to the Panama Maritime Authority, the deceased aboard the Zaandam are of American, Swedish, English and Dutch nationalities. Their bodies will be disembarked upon arrival at their destination.

In mid-March, the US cruise industry suspended all planned trips because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not recommend this type of tourist transport.

However, the trips that were already underway, such as that of the Zandaam, could end on the date they had planned.
The Servant of the People Party wants to force the Opposition Platform - For Life to pass a bill authorizing the sale of Ukrainian land. The chairman of the political council of the party Opposition Platform - For Life, MP Viktor Medvedchuk stated this on the 112 Ukraine TV channel.

Moreover, according to the clarification of the Constitutional Court, parliament cannot consider a single issue if there are less than 226 MPs in the hall. Today there are 170-180 of them physically in the hall. Despite this, this pressure, this blackmail, this lawlessness continues in the Verkhovna Rada building with one purpose: to push this bill through at night or until morning, - he said.

It remains to vote about 440-450 edits, this is another 10, 12 or 14 hours of work. They want to force us, the Opposition Platform - For Life, which today has become virtually the only party that defends the land, protects the national property of Ukraine and Ukrainians, which is land, in this case agricultural land, so that we no longer participate in this and they were able to put this question to the vote. But they wont succeed. Our position is principled, consistent, we go all the way in the issues of the struggle of our citizens, in order that the land does not become the subject of plundering, what the government wants today and what the cynical IMF, the Soros funds are demanding from the government today ... and many others that have long been they laid eyes on our land, on our national treasure, and they are trying to capture it at all costs. We are doing everything possible and everything necessary in accordance with the law, in accordance with our powers, and we will continue this fight, despite all the tricks, despite all the blackmail and despite the fact that the authorities are trying to make attitude towards this law in the hall of parliament, violating both the law on regulations and the Constitution of the country," Medvedchuk emphasized.

As we reported, the Opposition Platform - For Life has enough reasons to appeal the land law to the Constitutional Court.
We are pleased to recognize Dr. Mark Rosen as a UroLift Center of Excellence for his commitment to providing consistent care to BPH patients using the UroLift System treatment, said Dave Amerson

NeoTract, a wholly owned subsidiary of Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:TFX) focused on addressing unmet needs in the field of urology, today announced that Mark Rosen, M.D., Palo Alto Medical Foundation Urology in Santa Cruz, CA, has been designated as a UroLift Center of Excellence. The designation recognizes that Dr. Rosen has achieved a high level of training and experience with the UroLift System and demonstrated a commitment to exemplary care for men suffering from symptoms associated with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH), also known as enlarged prostate.

Recommended for the treatment of BPH in both the American Urological Association and European Association of Urology clinical guidelines, the FDA-cleared Prostatic Urethral Lift procedure using the UroLift System is a proven, minimally invasive technology for treating lower urinary tract symptoms due to BPH. The UroLift permanent implants, delivered during a transurethral outpatient procedure, relieve prostate obstruction and open the urethra directly without cutting, heating, or removing prostate tissue.

The UroLift Center of Excellence program is designed to highlight urologists who are committed to educating their patients on BPH and the UroLift System as a treatment option and consistently seek to deliver excellent patient outcomes and experiences.

We are pleased to recognize Dr. Mark Rosen as a UroLift Center of Excellence for his commitment to providing consistent care to BPH patients using the UroLift System treatment, said Dave Amerson, president of the Teleflex Interventional Urology business unit. This achievement has helped many patients experience durable, longterm relief from the burdensome symptoms of BPH while preserving sexual function*1,2.

Over 40 million men in the United States are affected by BPH, a condition that occurs when the prostate gland that surrounds the male urethra becomes enlarged with advancing age and begins to obstruct the urinary system. Symptoms of BPH often include interrupted sleep and urinary problems and can cause loss of productivity, depression and decreased quality of life.

Medication is often the first-line therapy for enlarged prostate, but relief can be inadequate and temporary. Side effects of medication treatment can include sexual dysfunction, dizziness and headaches, prompting many patients to quit using the drugs. For these patients, the classic alternative is surgery that cuts, heats or removes prostate tissue to open the blocked urethra. While current surgical options can be very effective in relieving symptoms, they can also leave patients with permanent side effects such as urinary incontinence, erectile dysfunction, and retrograde ejaculation.

About the UroLift System

The FDA-cleared UroLift System is a proven, minimally invasive technology for treating lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The UroLift permanent implants, delivered during a minimally invasive transurethral outpatient procedure, relieve prostate obstruction and open the urethra directly without cutting, heating, or removing prostate tissue. Clinical data from a pivotal 206-patient randomized controlled study showed that patients with enlarged prostate receiving UroLift implants reported rapid and durable symptomatic and urinary flow rate improvement without compromising sexual function*1,2. Patients also experienced a significant improvement in quality of life. Over 100,000 men have been treated with the UroLift System in the U.S. Most common adverse events reported include hematuria, dysuria, micturition urgency, pelvic pain, and urge incontinence. Most symptoms were mild to moderate in severity and resolved within two to four weeks after the procedure. The Prostatic Urethral Lift procedure using the UroLift System is recommended for the treatment of BPH in both the American Urological Association and European Association of Urology clinical guidelines. The UroLift System is available in the

U.S., Europe, Australia, Canada, Mexico and South Korea. Learn more at http://www.UroLift.com.

About NeoTract | Teleflex Interventional Urology

A wholly owned subsidiary of Teleflex Incorporated, the Interventional Urology Business Unit is dedicated to developing innovative, minimally invasive and clinically effective devices that address unmet needs in the field of urology. Our initial focus is on improving the standard of care for patients with BPH using the UroLift System, a minimally invasive permanent implant system that treats symptoms while preserving normal sexual function*1,2. Learn more at http://www.NeoTract.com.

About Teleflex Incorporated

Teleflex is a global provider of medical technologies designed to improve the health and quality of peoples lives. We apply purpose driven innovation  a relentless pursuit of identifying unmet clinical needs  to benefit patients and healthcare providers. Our portfolio is diverse, with solutions in the fields of vascular and interventional access, surgical, anesthesia, cardiac care, urology, emergency medicine and respiratory care. Teleflex employees worldwide are united in the understanding that what we do every day makes a difference. For more information, please visit http://www.teleflex.com.

Teleflex is the home of Arrow, Deknatel, Hudson RCI, LMA, Pilling, Rusch, UroLift and Weck  trusted brands united by a common sense of purpose

# # #

For Teleflex Incorporated:

Jake Elguicze, 610.948.2836

Treasurer and Vice President, Investor Relations

Media:

Nicole Osmer, 650.454.0504 nicole@healthandcommerce.com

*No instances of new, sustained erectile or ejaculatory dysfunction

1. Roehrborn, J Urology 2013 LIFT Study

2.McVary, J Sex Med 2016

MAC00968-01 Rev A
Jean Dreze, a renowned Belgian-born Indian economist, says migrant workers are not feeling safe and that is why they are desperate to go back home. He tells Indivjal Dhasmana the Centres new order that labour should stay where it is will be difficult to implement.

Dreze was part of academicians and activists who recently wrote to the Centre about the situation of the migrant workers. Edited excerpts: Why do you say the decision to lock down the entire country was not taken with proper planning? The term lockdown is misleading. Its more like a curfew, ...
LANZHOU, March 29 (Xinhua) -- A batch of medical supplies donated by Yongchang County in northwest China's Gansu Province is on its way to aid the city of Bra in Italy to fight the novel coronavirus, according to the Foreign Affairs Office of Gansu Province.

The supplies, including 20,000 surgical masks, 2,000 pairs of surgical gloves and 200 protective suits, were the latest in a series of donations that Gansu made in March.

The province has sent 2,000 protective suits and 20,000 face masks to Qom, Iran, and a batch of 20,000 protective suits, 20,000 KN95 respirator masks and 140,000 disposable masks to Navarre in Spain and Alba in Romania.

"When we suffered from the epidemic outbreak, many foreign countries offered support to us. It's our turn to help them," said Zhang Baojun, director of the office in Gansu.
Behold the butterscotch "COVID cream-filled donuts dipped in quarantini sprinkles boasting the face of Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. They sell at JB Bakery in Burlington in tribute to the man who briefs the American public almost daily on the pandemic. Read more

Stephen Simon likes to make doughnuts inspired by current events, but this time, he wasnt sure exactly how he would.

I didnt know if I was going to touch this one because its very, very sensitive, said Simon, owner of JB Bakery in Burlington.

Then he noticed that a bakery in Rochester, N.Y., was making doughnuts depicting Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the immunologist President Donald Trump frequently calls to the podium at White House briefings to deliver updates on the coronavirus pandemic.

I saw how the other doughnut shop did it, Simon explained. I said, I can do it better than that.

If you want the Fauci doughnut at JBs, go early. Since Simon, who goes by Steve the Baker, introduced them Friday, theyve been selling out every day.

Simon admits that he lost some sleep over the recipe. This Fauci special has butterscotch COVID cream," quarantini sprinkles, and the famous doctors face right in the center. The butterscotch is a touch they normally dont add to cream doughnuts. Thats to align with the times, Simon said: Everything now is so unusual.

These special doughnuts, which should be available for a couple more weeks, have been popular with nurses, Simon said. Seeing them excited over the new addition makes him glad.

Theyre the ones who are dealing with this on the front lines, Simon said before returning to making more Fauci dough. I think everyone in the food industry is doing what they can to help the first responders. This is what JBs is doing.
Bangladeshi female workers work at a garment factory in Savar outskirts of Dhaka on January 14, 2020. Mehedi Hasan | NurPhoto | Getty Images

The garment industry is witnessing a collapse in demand due to the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, putting jobs across Asia at risk. "Across the entire industry, shops are closed, brands and retailers actually right now have an oversupply situation with whatever orders they have placed. They fear that they may not be able to sell it, so they are actually canceling orders or delaying shipments of orders," said Stanley Szeto, executive chairman of Lever Style, a Hong Kong-based garment maker. "I guess nobody is lacking a shirt to go out," said Szeto, who is also an honorary chairman at the Textile Council of Hong Kong. Lever Style's customers include Hugo Boss and Everlane.

Asia is key for garment manufacturing and many jobs in the region will be at risk, potentially causing social problems in countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia and China that are dependent on the export economy, Szeto told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Friday. "A lot of factories in Asia they're seeing orders dry up in a few weeks," he said. Bangladesh, for example, has seen $2.6 billion worth of orders in its garment sector withdrawn, with fresh cancellations coming up, the country's commerce minister told CNBC last Friday. The country is the world's second-largest clothing exporter behind China, according to ratings agency Moody's. More than 4,600 garment factories in Bangladesh make shirts, T-shirts, jackets, sweaters, and trousers. The clothes are mostly shipped to Europe, the United States and Canada, to be sold by local retailers in those countries.

"It's been very, very hard dealing with all the emergencies because we've been facing cancellations every day on almost a minute-to-minute basis," said Rubana Huq, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers & Exporters Association. According to the association, ready-made garments comprised 84.21% of Bangladesh's total exports worth $40.5 billion in its 2018-2019 fiscal year. Huq expects many more cancellations to come as the industry faces "total uncertainty," she told CNBC on Monday. "We submit the export documents and then we get paid. If we don't get paid, we can't actually pay our workers, so it's difficult for us  even getting through with March salaries is difficult," said Huq. "My worry is, what is going to happen to so many people  4.1 million  that are engaged in the garment sector and we are not being able to take care of them properly," she added. She made a video appeal to international fashion brands earlier last week, urging them to pay for and receive goods already under production. "We want the workers to be paid, we want them to be safe, and for that we need the brands to react and respond at this point in time  with urgency," Huq told CNBC on Monday.
Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia:

Asia set to be world's second-largest wealth hub by 2024, with the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) in the region forecast to grow by 44% in the next five years, said a study.

According to Knight Frank's 'The Wealth Report', the US dominates with 240,575 UHNWIs, more than Europe and Asia combined. However, Asia's forecast five-year UHNWI growth is double North America's projected rate, with high growth expected in India (+73%), China (+58%) and Indonesia (+57%).

Wealth continues to be created around the world - particularly in Asia's economic hubs. The world's UHNWI population is expected to rise 27% in the next five years, however, the changing geopolitical and regulatory environment, and shifting social attitudes to wealth, means there should be a reassessment of what it means to be wealthy.

The dominant investment trends in this edition are wellness, impact investment and Environmental Social Governance (ESG).

Results of Knight Frank's new global Wealth Sizing Model suggests that geopolitical uncertainty is failing to slow wealth growth. In 2019, the world's UHNWI population was 513,244 and is expected to increase by 27% in the next five years, taking the total to 649,331.

China and the US are under the spotlight once again. Although both countries dominate the market, research has shown that they have created two distinct economic ecosystems. Besides, both the US and China dominate the unicorn ......................

To view our full article Click here
Job opportunities have fallen by as much as 25 per cent in some Australian industries due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Research by networking platform LinkedIn found recruitment in education had slowed the most and was down by 25.6 per cent in the past week.

The hiring rate in consumer goods industries has fallen by 11.7 per cent, while recreation and travel is down by 10.8 per cent.

It comes as the Australian government implements strict social distancing and a travel ban on its citizens to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

However some industries are bucking the downward trend though and taking advantage of greater demand due to the coronavirus outbreak, the report found.

Pictured: School children in a Sydney playground last week. Australia's education sector has been the worst affected by the economic effects of the coronavirus, research has found

The need for healthcare professionals has pushed the growth rate in the industry to 12.6 per cent.

While opportunities in IT have surged by 17.3 per cent as businesses gear their employees up to work from home.

Adam Gregory, Senior Director of APAC Talent Solutions at LinkedIn, said the company's year-on-year hiring growth data showed a sharp drop towards the end of last week.

'The travel bans and shutdown restrictions on social gatherings have had a significant impact on jobs and hiring intentions in certain industry sectors such as aviation, travel and hospitality,' he said.

'The education sector has also slowed down, likely due to travel bans affecting the return of foreign students.'

Mr Gregory said hiring growth generally should be expected 'to deepen in the coming weeks'.

LinkedIn's study highlighted the most common job postings in growing industries, including customer service adviser, clinical research associate and risk manager.

THE FINANCIAL WINNERS AND LOSERS OF THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK Growing hiring rates Finance: 10.3% Software and IT Services: 17.3% Healthcare: 12.6% Falling hiring rates Education: -25.6% Consumer Goods: -11.7% Recreation and Travel: -10.8% Advertisement

The finance industry is among those, including the healthcare industry, bucking the downward trend (stock image)

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

The report also found the hiring rate in China had improved as the country begins to slow the virus' spread, and expressed optimism the Australian job market could improve too once COVID-19 is contained.

It comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison effectively banned gatherings of more than two people across Australia to slow the spread of coronavirus.

He said on Sunday a meeting of state and federal leaders advised no more than two people who didn't live together should be meeting at once.

The two-person limit doesn't apply to workplaces, offices, schools and households.

Playgrounds, skate parks, and outdoor gyms will be closed and boot camps reduced to one-on-one outdoor personal training sessions.

Mr Morrison also strongly advised that anyone over 70 stay home for their own safety, except for going for a daily walk in the fresh air.

The death toll rose to 17 on Monday after an elderly woman in Tasmania died from coronavirus

Flight crew leaving the terminal after arriving at Sydney International Airport on Sunday. Recreation and travel's hiring growth rate is down by 10.8 per cent, the LinkedIn report said

Software and IT services have more jobs that can work remotely, the report said (stock image)

None of the measures were outright bans, just strong advice from the government's medical advisers, but state governments could choose to enforce them with fines.

'States and Territories will term whether they proceed to make this an enforceable limit in the same way that the 10-person limit is already been enforced,' he said.

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has confirmed the state will enact new laws around social distancing.

'Following national cabinet, NSW will move quickly to enforce additional restrictions on gatherings to slow COVID-19,' the premier tweeted on Sunday night.
The Goa government on Monday



commissioned a virology lab at a state-run facility to test samples for coronavirus infection.

Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said they received a certification from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to start the virology laboratory at the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).

Happy to announce that our Virology lab has been certified by the ICMR. The testing facility has started full fledged at GMCH, we are also parallely using the testing kits from MyLab. All facilities are now up to date, he tweeted.

When contacted, the minister said the lab has been set up in record time with the help of the Union government.

Medical professionals from GMCH underwent training at the National Institute of Virology in Pune, Rane said, adding that Goa has enough stock of reagent kits and rapid testing kits which are required for the virus testing.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 22-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of burglarizing an Oregon City home Monday morning while residents slept inside, officials said.

About 1 a.m., officers received a report from a resident that her home on the 1200 block of Johnson St. had been burglarized about a half-hour prior.

The resident, who was not identified, told investigators that her roommate had been asleep and thought he was dreaming when he saw someone in his bedroom. After he woke up, he found the garage door open and realized that he had not dreamt the man in his bedroom. Several items were missing from the home as well as from a vehicle in the garage, police said.

Half an hour after the call, officers on patrol attempted to stop Moniel Dennis, who police said matched the description of the burglar. Dennis ran from the officers, police said, but was caught a short distance later and was in possession of some stolen items.

Investigators said Dennis found an unlocked vehicle outside of the victims home and used the garage-door opener inside to gain access to the residence.

Dennis was taken to the Clackamas County Jail on suspicion of burglary.

-- Kale Williams; kwilliams@oregonian.com; 503-294-4048; @sfkale

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By Andrew Addessi

Companies and organizations around the country are doing their part to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, and Bowling Green State University is no exception. Earlier this month, the University announced that to protect the health and vitality of its learning community, classes would move online through the end of the spring semester.

We are working vigorously to ensure our students finish the semester with no loss of time toward degree completion and that we maintain the high quality of the academic experience at Bowling Green State University, even in these unusual times, said BGSU President Rodney K. Rogers.

Faculty across every BGSU college moved quickly to provide students with the opportunity to continue their education and to access the services needed to support this online academic experience.

During spring break, College of Business faculty moved all courses online, said Raymond Braun, dean of the College of Business. Our college is committed to student success and making sure students make appropriate progression toward their degree during this unprecedented time.
LAUSD volunteer Courtney Johnson delivers food to vehicles at Dorsey High School in Los Angeles this month. Pasadena schools have suspend their grab-and-go program after a kitchen worker fell ill. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

The Pasadena Unified School District has temporarily stopped serving grab-and-go meals for students after a kitchen employee was tested for the coronavirus.

Though a COVID-19 diagnosis hasn't been confirmed, district officials said they would suspend the meal service starting Monday "out of an abundance of caution," with hopes of resuming later in the week.

The to-go meals had been available at seven schools.

"We know that this may cause hardship to our families and are working with neighboring school districts to provide meals to PUSD students," Supt. Brian McDonald wrote in a message to district families Sunday.

Districts statewide have ramped up grab-and-go meal services amid the coronavirus pandemic so students can still receive free food while schools are closed. Campuses in the Pasadena district are shuttered until at least May 5.

McDonald said the district is extensively cleaning and sanitizing its kitchens and other facilities "to minimize any risk of surface transmission."

District officials also have touched base with the Pasadena Public Health Department, he added, "which has advised that the distribution of meals can continue once sanitizing and disinfection is completed."

"We want you to know that we have taken immediate action according to our planning, and will adjust operations as needed," McDonald said. "While the diagnosis of COVID-19 is not confirmed at this time, our hearts are with our PUSD team member and their family during this very difficult time."

There were 10 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection in Pasadena as of Monday morning, according to health officials. No deaths have been reported there.
"The city looks as if it has been built to withstand foul weather"  J. B. Priestley

Looking at Manchester's Royal Exchange, it can be difficult to remember a time when the theatre was not the powerhouse it is today. Transformed by Sarah Frankcom during her time as artistic director, the space is a hub for creativity with younger and more diverse audiences than at any point in its history. Most importantly, the Exchange's reputation for superb theatre remains as strong as it has ever been.

Like other venues around the country that have been forced to shut their doors, the Exchange now faces a period of uncertainty. Last week the theatre closed its stages until autumn, suspending the world premiere of Winsome Pinnock's Alfred Fagon Award-winning play Rockets and Blue Lights and the return of their acclaimed 2019 West Side Story production.

The venue is relying on the generosity of the public in these troubling times but as bleak as things appear, this is a plight that can be endured. Triumph in the face of adversity is not only ingrained in the history of Manchester but in the Royal Exchange's DNA as well.

15 June 1996 is remembered by some as the day that Paul Gascoigne sparked England's Euro 96 campaign with a wonderful goal against Scotland at Wembley but in Manchester it is recalled for different reasons. The Exchange itself had been due to open their revival of Stanley Houghton's play Hindle Wakes but events 50 metres down the road that morning would change the face of the city and its theatre.

A bomb attack carried out at 11:17 by the IRA caused around 700 million worth of damage and decimated Manchester's centre. The 1,500 kilogram device that detonated remains the largest explosion in Britain since WWII and over 200 people were injured. Being in close proximity to the bomb, the damage incurred by the Exchange was appalling  the theatre's famous glass domes were shattered and the building was flooded in the aftermath. Like many businesses within the blast radius, the venue was forced to close immediately and all creative work on site was halted.

Despite this tragedy, the theatre company was determined not to allow events that day to bring an enforced end to their existence and over the next two years, they found a temporary home in Castlefield whilst refurbishment on the building could begin. Thanks to fundraising and public generosity, as well as a 32 million pound donation from the National Lottery, the repaired venue was able to open its doors once again on 20 November 1998. Twenty nine months after it was supposed to have been staged, a performance of Hindle Wakes celebrated the opening of the new space  the Royal Exchange had miraculously survived.

The theatre currently finds itself in a different storm to twenty-odd years ago. In contrast to the very visible damage wreaked by a bomb, the coronavirus has emptied the nation's theatres without dislodging a single brick. Yet the Exchange can take great solace from how their audiences have responded to crises in the past. Resilience and defiance are needed now more than ever.

For donations to the Royal Exchange, please visit their website.
The coronavirus outbreak is first and foremost a human tragedy, affecting hundreds of thousands of people. It is also having a growing impact on the global economy and so naturally affecting us here in the UAE. We want to provide business leaders with a perspective on how to tackle the evolving situation and the economic implications for their companies.



Declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, Covid-19 has left companies unsure of how to communicate most effectively with both internal and external stakeholders. And while corporate leaders may be unsure of how to proceed, its imperative to communicate with customers, investors, suppliers, business partners, and employees to share compassion, show responsiveness, and demonstrate strong leadership. What that means for you as a business leader, is ramp up your communications and provide information that will reassure and help your customers at this time.



The guiding principle for all stakeholder communications is to listen first, followed by empathic and useful responses. It is important to understand the perspective of your customers and employees, and what they need to feel reassured and safe. Taking time to practice compassionate communication during times of stress builds trust and underscores commitment at multiple levels. Here are our top tips for how companies should be communicating with both external audiences and internal audiences:



1. Weekly correspondence: Provide external stakeholders with open, transparent updates on a weekly basis. Dont wait to communicate. Dont assume that stakeholders are feeling confident in your business. This is especially true if your business has high customer interaction. Even if youre not a business with high customer touchpoints, customers may be looking for reassurance. It is important to provide updates on how youre putting customer health, well-being and business performance first.



a. Use email marketing for your weekly communications.

b. Automate correspondence.

c. Add a landing page to your website, dedicated to information about your business activities during the Covid-19 pandemic.



2. Open two-way communication channels:(Virtual) interaction is imperative. Speak to key stakeholders to gain feedback on how you can support. What are they worried about? What do they need help with?



a. Create advice content for your clientele in the form of blogs, emails and to the wider audience with press releases.



3. Stay ahead of the information curve: Set up robust media monitoring systems to stay educated on the outbreak. Offer your customers online learning opportunities. We recently hosted a webinar for how to up your game using our set of digital communication tools and used a guest speaker to offer advice on creating content that will help you convert during this difficult time. We in fact had 20 times more registrations than during our previous webinar. Customers have the time and inclination to be helped, use this.



a. Run webinars

b. Use media monitoring software



4. Enable your team for success: Provide employees with messaging to share with customers and partners. Be truthful about what you dont know and avoid sweeping statements that may prove to be false in the coming weeks.



a. If you have followed our advice thus far and created a landing page, dedicated to your clients during these trying times, add an FAQs page. You can easily take a news plugin for this function.

b. We recommend enabling external comment functionality for improved feedback from customers.

c. Allow your customer service and sales teams to offer reduced prices or increased services during this time to customers



In times of stress and uncertainty communication is necessary. Dont be afraid to communicate because of the changing nature of this epidemic or assume your stakeholders dont need assurances. Show true leadership by providing open conversations and compassionate communications with your customers, investors, suppliers, and employees. If you were sending email newsletters monthly before, dont be afraid to increase that to weekly for the time being. Keep your content fresh and informative, but automate the dissemination because it will allow for much better targeting and audience segmentation.



In collaboration with marketing automation tools, you need to ensure its integrated with channels from which data can be pulled. Once you have the data, it needs to be analysed and segmented to an individual level, and then utilised for personalised customer communication via marketing automation. Every part of this process should be speaking to the other parts for maximum efficiency, information and results.



Depending on your business your data collection channels can be:



 CRM

 Website

 Email marketing platform

 Mobile app

 Event management tool

 Social media

 Online store

 ERP system



Your goal as a business leader during this down time should be to increase customer engagement and position yourself as a reliable, value-add partner who goes above and beyond during difficult times.



About the author



Tomi Saikkonen-Williams is the vice president at Liana Technologies Middle East, a global digital marketing automation software company. Liana Technologies has launched a series of global CSR initiatives to support its clients around the world to maintain business as usual, in this time of social distancing.
These are the two CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) members that have not yet signed bilateral free trade agreement (FTAs) with Vietnam.

In the first two months of this year, Vietnams exports to Canada rose by 20.39% to US$578 million year on year.

With over 37 million people, a high standard of living and an urbanisation rate at 80%, Canada is considered a potential market for many key export items of Vietnam, including textiles, footwear, seafood, tea, pepper, cashew nut, coffee and wooden furniture.

During the first two months, textile and apparel export value reached more than US$100 million, up 5.86% year on year. The export value of mobile phones and accessories surged by 104.22% to US$122.09 million compared to the same period last year.

Other products with strong growth in exports included the group of iron and steel and plastic materials with rates of 153.69% and 354.06% year on year, respectively.

Vietnams export value to Mexico reached US$497.2 million in the first two months. Of which, many products gained high export value, including computers, electronic products and components (US$133.6 million), telephones and components (US$122.6 million), shoes and sandals (US$47.5 million), textiles and garments (US$16.3 million), machinery, equipment and other spare parts (US$34.5 million), vehicles and spare parts (US$35.2 million).

Assessing the implementation of FTAs to promote exports, especially the CPTPP, Luong Hoang Thai, director of the MoITs Department of Multilateral Trade Policy, said that Vietnams enterprises have efficiently exploited markets with which Vietnam has not yet signed FTAs.

In fact, Vietnams enterprises have done more than expected, taking full advantage of the CPTPP, Thai said. In 2019, Vietnam gained high growth in exports from the CPTPP countries, especially Canada and Mexico, while the agreement came into effect on January 14, 2019.

The country gained a year on year growth of 26-29% in export value to Canada and Mexico last year, he said.

The CPTPP has partly contributed to the strong growth in exports of Vietnam so the country had a trade surplus of US$1.6 billion with the CPTPP market last year.

Before this agreement, Vietnam had a total trade deficit of US$900 million with this market, said Thai.
Iran has rejected claims by the family of Bob Levinson, a former FBI officer, that the operative has died in its prisons.

Spokesman of the Iranian mission at the UN, Ali Reza Mir Yousefi, said in a statement Iran does not know the location of the FBI agent.

Iran has always declared that its officials do not know where Mr. Levinson is and that he is not in detention in Tehran; these facts have not changed, Yousefi stressed.

The denial comes a day after Levinsons family alleged that their loved one, held in Iran for 13 years, has died in prison, prior to the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease in the Islamic Republic.

We recently received information from US officials that has led both them and us to conclude that our wonderful husband and father died while in Iranian custody. We dont know when or how he died, only that it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the family also stated on Thursday.

US President Donald Trump blamed Tehran on the news of Levinsons death.

We do not accept the death announcement of former FBI agent Bob Levinson who was detained in Iran, though other parties have mentioned it.

Washington described Levinson as hostage and has rejected charges held against the ex-agent.
Support for Ukraine in this unprecedented crisis will continue.

The European Union is allocating EUR 80 million for the war on the novel coronavirus in Ukraine.

"Ukraine, which continues to suffer from acts of aggression in eastern part of the country as well as the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by the Russian Federation, has also been affected throughout all spheres of life. The EU welcomes the prevention measures taken by the Ukrainian government in response to the growing COVID-19 spread. We recognise the difficulty of some of these decisions," the EU Delegation to Ukraine said in a statement on March 30.

Read alsoU.S. to allocate medical, humanitarian aid for Ukraine to help fight COVID-19

The EU says it will continue to support Ukraine in this unprecedented crisis.

"In order to alleviate its impact on the health system, people's daily lives and the economy, the EU is preparing a set of assistance measures for individual partner countries, as well as for the Eastern Neighbourhood region as a whole. A first package for Ukraine comprises around EUR 80 million," the statement said.

Presenting the support package, Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi commented: "We stand by Ukraine in these extremely difficult times. With this support package, we aim at saving lives and strengthening societal resilience. We support the Ukrainian response to a spike in health and social assistance needs as well as the protection of businesses and jobs. We know we need to act quickly and efficiently in reinforcing government and civic action."

The overall funding mobilized for coronavirus-related measures amounts to a total of EUR 140 million for the Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic Moldova, Ukraine) of which a significant part will be dedicated to Ukraine.

Further measures under the 2020 budget will be added later this year, responding flexibly to emerging needs. "This new CODIV-19 related initiative comes on top of recently announced additional EUR 5.2 million in response to the conflict in Ukraine's eastern regions and the destabilisation of the Sea of Azov region," it said.
TOWARDS INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY

Today the most potent factor for womens progress, is war production, emphasising and demonstrating that the emancipation of women will only be possible when women can take part in production on a large social scale and domestic work no longer claims anything but an insignificant amount of her time. (Engels  Origin of Family). New opportunities for equality have opened up, which are undermining the material foundation of womens inequality, undermining centuries-old restrictions and prejudices.

Thousands of women have been drawn out of the backwaters of social life into the mainstream of historical development, coming in the only way such a fundamental advance can come, by way of industry, transforming them from a relative inertness into an active force in the working class movement. The continued and increasing demands for woman power are hastening this process. Communists must ensure that this advance continues and endures. We must see that this new force in society becomes an active vital force. The most urgent problems of women in industry today are wages, the care of children, housing difficulties, sympathetic adjustment of hours to allow for the necessary duties in maintaining a home and so on. These problems open up many avenues for us to approach, interest and educate.

Indicative of the changing conditions governing the employment of women have been the advancements made by many trade unions, particularly the metal unions in securing for large numbers of their members eighty, ninety and 100 per cent of the male rates of pay. Approximately 60,000 women have been affected by the operation of the Womens Employment Board, which determines the rates for those women who are engaged on work not done by women prior to the war.

It has now become necessary to transfer large numbers of these women into lower paid wage groups, such as clothing, textiles, boots, and rubber. This has resulted in widespread resentment which in the case of clothing and textiles has been met, to some extent, by the introduction of special awards. These awards give a weekly increase of approximately 10/- and brings the rates closer to those fixed by the Arbitration Court for the metal trades. Here reaction shows how it hopes to ensure that after the war women will be again relegated to the lower wage rates, when such improved wages are for the duration of the war and six months thereafter.

In these lower paid industries there is much to be done. It will not be simple, but it can be done. The transference of large numbers of women accustomed to strong union organisation is bound to have some effect. Women members of heavy industrial unions have had considerable experience of discussing the problems of the job or factory on terms of equality on their shop committees and in their unions. They are now going into shops where the union, if known at all, is often an object of derision and contempt, where women have joined the union only because it was an imposed qualification for the job and an item on the expense sheet which brought them very little. The experiences of those women who have been affected by operations of the Womens Employment Board, by the improvements gained by their trade union, must in turn result in interest in working class organisation.

We should remember Comrade Miles words in Work Among Women when he says We seize on the main demands of the moment. [...] basing everything on our attitude to the war, having in mind the aim of unity for victory, having in mind our proletarian viewpoint. Communist trade union organisers have given numerous instances of how they are able to discuss politically with their women members the day-to-day problems facing them. While we struggle for this and that demand, we learn to speak to them about Socialism, here we remember always as Lenin so ably puts it The struggle wins us the confidence of the masses of women who feel themselves exploited, enslaved, sup pressed, by the domination of the man, by the power of the employer, by the whole of bourgeois society [...] The working women will recognise that they must fight together with us.

The increasing numbers of compassionate releases from industry, the high rate of absenteeism among women indicate two main problems. The first, the necessity for relief of the strain of the double burden of home and job. We recall Palme Dutts description of the working woman, Capitalism extracts from her the labour of two persons; and at the same time the whole family and home life, which the capitalists affect to worship with such holy piety, is broken up and destroyed, the care of children neglected [...] and the younger generation has to grow up under conditions destructive of health or of the possibility of development.

One of the results of the influx of many married women into industry is a keen interest in the problem of child care and education. Barriers are crumbling and the mothers fear of entrusting their children to others is being dissipated. Our program includes the practical solution to this problem and we note reactions refusal to progress, in the recent agitation for the removal from industry of women with children under school age.

The second point which demands special methods of agitation adapted to the specific needs is where women earning good money deliberately absent themselves from work. Many women do not feel any responsibility towards the war effort, let alone the solving of problems arising from working conditions and further, do not want to be bothered with them. Here we have an immediate task. If we are to ensure the continuance and endurance of the advances made as a result of the war period, we must endeavour to make women really conscious of their role in the war and in the peace.

International Womens Day this year should be used extensively to show ever larger numbers of women how the real road to emancipation lies through Socialism. Men and women in some factories are already planning to discuss, on this day, progress achieved over the past year and to plan for new achievements.

8th March, focusses our attention on Work among Women, which in the words of Lenin is a half of general Party work. We have seen how the status of women is improving. It is our duty to utilise all International Womens Day celebrations to develop to an even higher degree, the strongest antifascist sentiments, the determination for victory among women, everywhere; we must express our unity with our sisters in the Allied countries, in occupied Europe, in China and particularly the heroic women of the Soviet Union.

This article originally appeared in Communist Review February, 1944.
The Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages has issued a statement on the importance of communicating on COVID19 measures, as well as of online teaching in regional and minority languages for pupils from minority communities.

The statement reads: Most countries in the world, including the Member States of the Council of Europe, are facing an unprecedented pandemic, the so-called coronavirus, or COVID-19. For a few weeks now, governments have been introducing, gradually and at different paces, a wide range of measures, ranging from basic hygiene recommendations to partial or total confinement of their populations

Relevant authorities at national, regional or local level and medical experts are all reiterating that only by a strict compliance with the measures proposed, will the further spread of the COVID-19 be controlled.

While welcoming the steps taken, it has to be noted that countries have not systematically shared the information, instructions, guidelines or recommendations in languages other than the official language of the country. This also concerns the traditional regional or minority languages spoken in the respective countries. The communication of relevant recommendations in these languages is of utmost importance for the well-being of the speakers of regional or minority languages.

It is important, and authorities should not forget, that national minorities are an integral part of their societies and in order for the measures adopted to have full effect, they should be made available and easily accessible to the whole population.

While the above should be considered as a requirement for the Council of Europe Member States that have ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages - ECRML - (notably the provisions concerning health care and public administration), other Council of Europe Member States should strongly consider addressing their nationals in all the languages traditionally spoken in their countries.

In addition, some states have resorted to online teaching or teaching through the medium of TV. In most cases, however, teaching is limited to the official language(s), not considering the needs of the pupils who usually receive education in regional or minority languages. This approach can be considered not only contrary to the Charters undertakings but also discriminatory.

Through this message, the Committee of Experts of the ECRML would like to invite states to take language-related issues into account when developing further policies and instructions to address this exceptional medical crisis."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 23:08:13|Editor: huaxia

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Priests lead an empty Sunday Mass at an Orthodox church in Beit Sahour near the West Bank city of Bethlehem on March 29, 2020. For the first time ever, Raed al-Atrash, a 54-year-old Palestinian man from the West Bank city of Bethlehem, attended the Sunday Mass with his family through a live TV broadcast, as the churches are closed as part of the precautions against the spread of the novel coronavirus.(Photo by Luay Sababa/Xinhua)

by Sanaa Kamal

BETHLEHEM, March 30 (Xinhua) -- For the first time ever, Raed al-Atrash, a 54-year-old Palestinian man from the West Bank city of Bethlehem, attended the Sunday Mass with his family through a live TV broadcast, as the churches are closed as part of the precautions against the spread of the novel coronavirus.

"My heart is broken because the churches are closed now," said al-Atrash, a father of six, told Xinhua, as he finished his prayer with his family at home.

However, he believed that it is imperative to avoid gatherings in the Palestinian territories, including the holy places, to protect people from the coronavirus.

"But it does not mean that we can abandon our prayers. We can pray at our homes, especially if the technology can take us inside the church through a live broadcast via social media platforms and specialized websites," said al-Atrash.

On March 5, Palestine reported the first seven cases of the novel coronavirus in the district of Bethlehem.

Strict protective and precautionary measures have since been taken to prevent the spread of the virus, including shutting down all churches, mosques, public parks and markets.

Currently, the cases of COVID-19 infection have risen to 115 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Wajd al-Alam, a Bethlehem resident in his 30s, also expressed his sadness about the closure of all churches in the district.

"We need to pray for God inside our holy places," said al-Alam, fearing that the pandemic may last long.

Issa Musleh, spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Church, said the church abides by the precautionary and protective measures against the virus.

"Only the priests can pray inside the church," said Musleh with a breaking voice. "We must be wise until the unprecedented crisis go away."

According to Musleh, approximately 35,000 Christians live in Palestine, including 14,000 in Bethlehem.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 30, 2020 17:20 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e68f1b 1 News Borobudur-Temple,prambanan-temple,Central-Java,travel,coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic,national-park Free

The closure of Borobudur, Prambanan and Ratu Boko temples in Central Java will be extended until April 11 in response to the alarming spread of COVID-19 in Yogyakarta and Central Java.

Borobudur was initially scheduled to be closed until March 29.

Edy Setijono, director of PT Taman Wisata Candi (TWC) Borobudur, Prambanan and Ratu Boko, told Tempo.co that the three temples had been closed to visitors beginning on March 20.

He said that the surfaces of the temples and the temple complexes, along with ticket booths and the office of PT TWC, were regularly sprayed with disinfectant.

Read also: COVID-19: Six recreational spots in Indonesia shut doors amid outbreak

During the closure, we are also improving all infrastructure at the temple sites, said Emilia Eny Utari, secretary of PT TWC.

Kompas.com reported that on March 16, the entire surface of Borobudur Temple was sprayed with a special disinfectant that is safe for both humans and the temples masonry. According to BKB conservation section head Yudi Suhartono, the disinfectant contains alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, glycerol and Aqua Dest.

With the closure of Borobudur, its tourism packages, namely Sunrise, Sunset and Manohara Borobudur, are not available for purchase.

On March 19, the Environment and Forestry Ministry temporarily closed 57 conservation areas across the country, including Mount Merapi National Park in Central Java, Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in East Java and Komodo National Park in East Nusa Tenggara. (wng)
A Queensland man faces years in prison after federal police allegedly found child abuse material at his home during a raid earlier this month.

The 38-year-old was due to face the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday after AFP officers searched his home in the Logan suburb of Eagleby on March 12.

The man faces up to 14 years (child exploitation) and 15 years (child pornography) imprisonment for the offences. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Investigators seized two mobile phones, a hard drive and four USBs, which allegedly contained child abuse material.

Police began looking into the mans online activities after the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation was tipped-off by the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
Legendary international chef and restaurateur Floyd Cardoz succumbed to Covid-19, on Wednesday. The Mumbai-born, New York-based chef had tested positive for coronavirus on March 18. The brain behind the famed NYC restaurants Tabla and Bombay Bread Bar, that later shut down, Cardoz was known for re-imagining Indian cuisine, artistically marrying Indian culinary traditions with global sensibilities.

The chef, 59, was in India in the first week of March to launch Bombay Sweet Shop, his latest venture in Mumbai. He already had two restaurants  Bombay Canteen and O Pedro  in the city. Chef Manish Mehrotra, who met him at the launch, says he couldnt have imagined that it was their last meeting.

We met in the afternoon. He seemed perfectly fine. He flew back to the US after the launch. I used to meet him so often at events and I ate frequently at his restaurants. When I was opening Indian Accent in New York, he was very helpful. He introduced me to his suppliers. I will remember him as the pioneer of modern Indian food. He was the first one to boldly experiment with Indian food in the US. He was a true Indian-international chef, loved by the likes of Daniel Boulud and David Chang, says Mehrotra.

Disturbed by Floyds demise, chef Ranveer Brar says, I dont know what to say. Its numbing. I always held him in awe. When I was living in the US, Tabla was the place to be. If you had anything to do with modern Indian food, the first thing you did was to seek an audience with chef Floyd. For me or any other Indian chef who has worked in the US between 2000-2010, hell always be the godfather of modern Indian cuisine.

Chef Sanjeev Kapoor says that we have lost a shining star of Indian cuisine who put our food on the world map. Floyd Cardoz was the torch bearer of fine Indian cuisine across the globe. He will be missed immensely, says Kapoor.

Chef Vikas Khanna remembers him as a chef who uninhibitedly carved the path for culinary innovations. He was a legend, a friend, a visionary, says Khanna.

Chef Ritu Dalmia met him whilst he was setting up Bombay Canteen in 2015. It will remain a cherished meeting. A common friend  author Faith Willinger  introduced us. We had lunch at Gajalee and had a great time. He was supremely talented. He was a brilliant man. Its such a saddening loss, says Dalmia.

Chef Nishant Choubey recalls meeting Floyd last year in Mumbai. His zest for food was so inspiring. Stick with whatever food you love but never miss what locals eat, he would say. He had such positive energy. And he added that dose of avant-garde to Indian cuisine! Hell always be immortal, he says.
The union representing Federal Prison Bureau employees and other federal staff on Monday filed suit against the government, alleging the workers deserve extra hazard pay for being exposed to the coronavirus while having to show up to their jobs.

An Oregon worker is among the five plaintiffs in the case -- he works as a diagnostic radiology technologist with the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System in Portland.

The class action complaint alleges federal employees have been working in close proximity to people and surfaces infected with the novel coronavirus without sufficient protective gear since Jan. 27 and continue to do so.

Oregon has one federal prison, in Sheridan, with 1,823 inmates. It has no reported cases of the new coronavirus so far.

The suit, filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., follows the first death Saturday of a federal inmate stemming from COVID-19. Patrick Jones, 49, was the first inmate in the Federal Bureau of Prisons diagnosed with the the virus and had been in custody at the Federal Correctional Institution in Oakdale, Louisiana.

Three of the plaintiffs who brought the suit work at the same low-security federal prison for male inmates about 110 miles northwest of Baton Rouge.

Last Thursday, one of the plaintiffs, Aubrey Melder, a correctional officer at the prison in Louisiana, was told to take an inmate to the hospital. When he asked his supervisor if he needed a mask, he was told no.

The prison didnt provide him protective gear except gloves, the suit says. He only got some limited gear from outside hospital workers after he traveled in a van with the inmate and sat in a hospital room close to the inmate, who tested positive for COVID-19, according to the suit.

On March 8, the suit also alleges that plaintiff Jason Phillips, the technologist with the Portland veterans system in Portland, performed a procedure on a patient infected with COVID-19, though he wasnt apprised of the patients condition beforehand, the suit says. Phillips also only wore gloves, no other protective gear, the suit says.

Federal employees are risking their lives and the lives of their families every day when they leave their homes. As just one example, federal prisons are already dangerously understaffed, and now they are a petri dish for COVID-19. Yet, tens of thousands of Bureau of Prisons employees are still showing up to do their job every day, said Heidi Burakiewicz, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs.

As of March 27 in the Louisiana prison, nine inmates and seven staff members have tested positive for the new coronavirus, 15 inmates were admitted to outside hospitals, 68 inmates are in quarantine and 23 are in isolation because theyre suspected of having COVID-19, according to the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, which represents the prison staff and other federal employees.

Despite this, the prison didnt lock down the inmates in their cells until March 21.

That means that the almost 1000 inmates at FCI Oakdale have been going to their work assignments and going to the dining hall for their meals, despite COVID19 running rampant in the institution, according to a statement from the unions attorneys.

The suit seeks a 25 percent hazard pay differential for these workers, arguing that theyre being exposed to hazardous working conditions.

Oregons Federal Public Defender Lisa Hay said shes dismayed that federal authorities in Oregon are arguing in court that Sheridan is not yet proven to be unsafe, when she continues to hear about the lack of social distancing or protective measures from the Columbia County Jail to the federal prison in Sheridan. Defendants facing federal charges are among those housed at the county jail.

She has accused federal authorities of willful ignorance. Inmates sleep in dormitories and eat in cafeterias where keeping 6 feet of distance isnt possible, she said.

She said shes heard from inmates and others that inmates are arriving at the federal prison in Sheridan from the Columbia County Jail or from a detention center in Pahrump, Nevada, and then quarantined for 14 days but in cells where the air vents to the general population. Theres not a bubble of containment, she said.

What bothers me is too many people in the criminal justice system are taking an ostrich head-in-the-sand approach, when were just weeks away from a public health crisis. We should be doing something, Hay said. Its just a matter of time before one of the guards or a prisoner brings it in and its going to get out of control.

Earlier this month, Hay filed a separate motion, urging the compassionate release of a 79-year-old inmate convicted of defrauding investors who has diabetes. Other federal inmates have filed separate motions for release, citing their chronic health conditions that make them susceptible to COVID-19.

The American Civil Liberties Union also Monday continued to urge President Donald Trump and governors across the country to release people from prisons and jails, particularly those who are elderly or have chronic health conditions that make them susceptible to COVID-19.

"The tragic death of Patrick Jones over the weekend  a man incarcerated for a drug offense but handed a death sentence due to his incarceration  highlights that every day that passes without action puts thousands more at risk of getting sick or dying,'' said Udi Ofer, director of the ACLUs Justice Division, in a prepared statement.

There are currently 175,000 people in about 100 federal prisons across the country. The U.S. Marshals Service is responsible for another 75,000 people who are in custody awaiting trial in either local jails or private contract detention centers. Roughly 12 percent of prisoners are 55 or older, according to the prisons bureau.

As of Monday, 28 federal inmates tested positive for COVID-19, and 24 staff tested positive, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons.

The Bureau of Prisons website said it has taken steps to combat the spread of coronavirus, including screening all new inmates for COVID-19 risk factors and symptoms, quarantining asymptomatic inmates with higher-risk exposure factors and isolating inmates with symptoms.

The other plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Brenda Braswell, an Food and Drug Administration consumer safety inspector who works in Pine Bluff, Ark.; Jerrod Carrier, a maintenance worker at the federal prison in Oakdale and George Guice, a food service foreman at the federal prison in Oakdale.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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The Sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus) belongs to the sturgeons. Its genome is an important piece of the puzzle in understanding the ancestry of vertebrates. Credit: Andreas Hartl

Sometimes referred to as the "the Methuselah of freshwater fish," sturgeons and their close relatives are very old from an evolutionary point of view. Fossils indicate that sturgeons date back 250 million years and have changed very little during this period, at least as far as their external appearance is concerned. So it is not surprising that Charles Darwin coined the term "living fossils" for them.

Scientists from the University of Wurzburg and the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) with colleagues in Constance, France and Russia have now successfully sequenced the genome of the sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus), a relatively small species of sturgeon. They were able to show that the genetic material, too, has changed very little since the heyday of the dinosaurs. The scientists present the results of their work in the latest issue of the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Ancestors of the vertebrates

"Sturgeon genomes are an important piece of the puzzle that helps us understand the ancestry of vertebrates. And this has been missing until now," Professor Manfred Schartl explains the reasons why scientists are interested in this fish species. Schartl is the lead author of the recently published study and is senior professor at the Chair of Developmental Biochemistry at the University of Wurzburg as of this year. Sturgeons are among the oldest species on earth in terms of evolutionary history. They are the ancestors of more than 30,000 species of bony fish that occur todayand thus of more than 96 percent of all living fish species and about half of all known vertebrate species.

Schartl and his colleagues were able to show that sturgeons branched off onto their own evolutionary path at some point during the Upper Devonian or Carboniferous Period about 345 million years ago. "Their external appearance has changed very little since that time and this is also evident in their genetic material, the DNA," Dr. Du Kang explains; first author of the study and a research assistant at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II at the University of Wurzburg.

To verify this, the geneticists had to take a close look at the proteins encoded by the genes of the sterlet. And indeed, their calculations reveal that this so-called protein evolution has proceeded at a very slow pace. "The rate of protein evolution of the sterlet is similar to that of the coelacanth or of sharkstwo fish species that have been roaming the oceans almost unchanged for more than 300 million years as well," says Dr. Matthias Stock, an evolutionary biologist at the IGB.

Extensive genome change 180 million years ago

The sequence analysis revealed that the sterlet genome comprises 120 chromosomes, about 47,500 protein-coding genes and 1.8 billion base pairs. The researchers also showed that the sterlet duplicated its genome some 180 million years ago, leaving the species instead of the regular two with four sets of chromosomes, which is called tetraploidy in scientific jargon. The genome duplication does not come as a surprise: "Such processes have repeatedly had a major impact on the evolution of the vertebrate genome," says Manfred Schartl. Already their ancestors underwent "whole genome duplication" twice in their evolutionary history. Some species went through this process as many as three or four times.

What did surprise the scientists though was the fact that this duplication of the genome happened so far back in the long history of the sturgeon. "Over this long time span, we would have expected the genome to change more profoundly because in tetraploid organisms gene segments are often lost, silenced or acquire a new function over time," says Professor Axel Meyer, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Constance.

Genome uncertainty eliminated

The exact genomic state of sturgeons was long controversial among scientists. While considered polyploid by some, which means that the genome was duplicated multiple times, others interpreted the sturgeon as a "functional diploid," which refers to a species that first duplicates its genome to become tetraploid but then reduces the gene content again as it evolves. Although the chromosomes are still present in two pairs, they divide their tasks among themselves.

Now it's clear: "We have found out that the sterlet has not returned to a diploid state. Instead, it has retained an unexpectedly high degree of structural and functional polyploidy," says Manfred Schartl. This retention can be ascribed to the slow pace of molecular evolution of most fractions of the sterlet genome.

Genome duplication: A layperson might assume that this makes the job easier for scientists because everything is available in duplicate. But in fact, this presents researchers with a major technical challenge. "This has made it extremely difficult to assemble and assign the small 'snippets of DNA' that modern genome sequencing methods provide us with," says Schartl. However, using special procedures we were able to create "a very good reference genome and the first ever genome of an ancient fish" as part of an international research collaboration.

Genetic research to protect species

Gene sequencing is an important basis for protecting sturgeon species. "In the future, we will be able to determine the sex of the animals using genetic analyses which will greatly facilitate breeding. This will allow us to control reproduction and support the management of breeding populations. This is a milestone in our efforts to preserve these ancient species," says Dr. Jorn Gessner, the IGB's sturgeon expert.

About sturgeons

Sturgeons are native to subtropical, temperate and sub-Arctic rivers, lakes and coastlines of Eurasia and North America. Sturgeons are long-lived and reproduce late, typically not before the age of ten. In many sturgeon species, the adult fish repeatedly migrate from the sea into freshwater to spawn. They are highly sought after for their eggsbetter known as caviar.

Because of habitat destruction, river fragmentation, marine pollution and 2,000 years of caviar production, most sturgeon species are now on the brink of extinction. Due to a ban on wild caviar trade, sturgeon aquaculture has become an important industry which can contribute to protecting wild populations by securing the market supply.

Explore further Identifying species from a single caviar egg

More information: The sterlet sturgeon genome sequence and the mechanisms of segmental rediploidization, Nature Ecology and Evolution (2020). nature.com/articles/s41559-020-1166-x Journal information: Nature Ecology & Evolution The sterlet sturgeon genome sequence and the mechanisms of segmental rediploidization,(2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-020-1166-x
30.03.2020 LISTEN

The fiscal and monetary measures to cushion impact of COVID 19 has so far been guided by sector-based considerations. The justification for this approach is not without cause given that consumer demand, particularly in the services sector, have proven more elastic than others. Take for instance, travel and tourism  it has been hardest hit due to the low traffic volumes caused by onslaught of COVID 19. The impact has been revenue decline and unemployment. Notwithstanding, it is important to also draw attention to other exposed sectors which employ majority of persons considered vulnerable or poor, in this case, those who get by on less than GH4.8 worth of meals per day. According to Ghana Living Standards Survey (Round 7), 23.4 percent of Ghanas population fall within this bracket. The urgent policy discussion now is twofold (1) how do we locate these persons, and (2) what kind of intervention would enable them generate decent levels of income to cover their basic needs  food, water and shelter?

Micro-credit may be the answer - not only as a channel to reach the vulnerable but a mechanism to promote productive inclusion. Figure 1 shows that regional distribution of micro-credit businesses in Ghana.

Productive inclusion, unlike social protection, ensures that capital deployed for purposes of assisting the poor is channeled into productive economic activities that have measurable outcomes. By close of FY 2019, an estimated amount of GH370 million had been disbursed to over 84,800 beneficiaries by some 600+ micro-creditors spread across all districts in Ghana. All districts  thats an important point to note. Note only does micro-credit have reach, but it also possess the risk management capabilities to ensure funds are repaid back into government chest. Another point of interest to note, is that, at the bottom of the pyramid, female borrowers outnumber their male counterparts by a factor of two. This is good news for policy makers, considering the emerging trail of evidence in development literature which suggests that female economic empowerment is one of the key covariates of poverty. To put it simply, when mummy earns income, the family is taken care of. This essentially summarizes the business case for a micro-credit fund to support the millions of traders, chop bar operators, mechanics and shoemakers, who may also feel the adverse impact of COVID 19. The situation is even more urgent considering the slowdown in funds flow from the top tiers of the financial sector to those at the base. Market intelligence shows that banks and other NBFIs in tier 1 that hitherto supported micro-credit operators through on-lending facilities, have now adopted more stringent credit policies which limit their exposure to the sector. As a result, the demand for liquidity at the base of the pyramid cannot be overemphasized.

Obviously, there may be genuine concerns about weak corporate governance systems, poor lending practices and managerial inefficiencies. But it is exactly why I believe the current business environment presents a door of opportunity for the Ministry of Finance and Bank of Ghana to engage the Micro-credit Association in order to fashion out implementation mechanisms that sorts out the strong institutions from the weak ones, and to further create incentives for the weak ones to shape up or ship out. We can kill several birds with one stone. A fund for micro-credit sector is an urgent policy matter.
With the ongoing school closures and Covid-19 restrictions, I thought it might be nice to write a column on decorating children's bedrooms and playrooms.

This could help occupy your children as you could spend some time planning an update for their bedroom or playroom.

Here I will share with you some of the beautiful collections from renowned story book illustrators Frann Preston-Gannon, Christopher Corr and Yuval Zommer who have created a stunning Picture Book Collection with Villa Nova which evokes childhood memories of whimsical story books brought to life by captivating illustrations.

The collection comprises of wallpaper, fabrics, wall murals, scatter cushions, rugs, trimming and even wall stickers so you can do a complete redesign of your childs bedroom / playroom or simply add some scatter cushions or wall stickers.

This stunning collection allows you child to discover the wondrous creatures and faraway places that can be found in books and their imaginations. There is something in this collection to suit all tastes and personalities to enable you child to express their creative side. Here is an overview of some of my favourites from the Picture Book Collection by Villa Nova.



For the Dog Lovers

Yuval Zommer graduated from the London Royal College of Art with an MA in illustration. The Bark Life collection (above) by Yuval Zommer is perfect for canine lovers, this beautiful collection called Bark Life is very playful. Follow our lead and head to the park for playtime with the neighbourhood pups.

All dogs love a walk, from sausage dogs to scruffy pups and best in show. Perfect choice for the little adventurer in your lie. Other designs by Yuval Zommer in the picturebook collections include Busy Buzzy, Apples and Pears and Duck Pond where you get a bugs eye view of Yuvals incredibly intricate illustrations.

Embark on a world crawling with teeny lady bugs, fluttering butterflies and buzzing bees await. Splish splash in the duck ponds, leap with frogs, chuckle with chickens and explore the park with your canine chums.

Polar Bears and seals

Arctic Antics (above) designed by Frann Preston-Gannon, these playful prints bring us on an adventure to the frozen Arctic as polar bears float happily on the ice above. Wonderful white polar bears and fun friendly seals surf along on icebergs, whilst beneath their icy toes and flippers shoals of fish play amongst the majestic narwhals.

Rainforest

Dusky Amazon is designed by Frann Preston- Gannon, who brings us on a visit to the lush and exotic Amazon rainforest with its fanciful birds and chattering monkeys. Deep in the Amazon rainforest the birds come out to play to splish and splash in the river and talk about their day. From the banks, graceful dragonflies hover from flower and hide in the jingle foliage.

Turtle Reef

Turtle Reef is also designed by Frann Preston- Gannon. These playful prints bring us on an adventure to deep dive into the ocean and see the turtles in the sea dive and dance in swirling seaweed, whilst fish and seahorses twist and twirl and tiny turtles little flippers flutter through the oceans tides.

Turtle Reef from Aspire Design above

Budding Explorers

A graduate of The Royal College of Art in London, illustrator Christopher Corrs work is about global travel, joy, colour and love of life.

The Island Hopping collection by Christopher Corr enables you to feel the blazing sun in your face as you take a trip around the world; explore the majestic Pink City in India, visit busy downtown New York and island hop around the Mediterranean. His design Island Hopping showcases a charming Mediterranean village with rambling villas, domed churches, slinky tavern cats and tiny fishing boats bob along on the ocean waves whilst colourful characters laugh and play.

I hope you have found this weeks column interesting and that I have given you some inspiration when decorating your childs bedroom or playroom. If you would like to order any samples of fabric or wallpaper pictured here then please get in touch and we will be happy to order some samples to post to your home. Remember if there is a topic that you would like covered in my weekly interiors column then please drop me a line with your suggestions. #Stay safe and well, stay at home.



Many thanks, Louise  winner of TV3s Showhouse Showdown, 086 399 9926 or info@aspiredesign.ie. Keep an eye out for my column in this week's Leinster Leader newspaper, latest edition on sale every Tuesday.
AgriBusiness Global Trade Summit logo This Show is Open

Now in its 14th year, the AgriBusiness Global Trade Summit  August 18-20 at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida  has grown into a must-attend event for agriculture input manufacturers and distributors from 50+ countries. This year, the event will be more important than ever as buyers and sellers work to overcome backlogged logistics in China and the possible supply disruptions that could follow.

This Show is Open: We will continue to monitor the situation with coronavirus closely to ensure we keep attendee safety as the priority while providing a venue that nurtures international trade, commerce, and economies for the future. We will be forthright in our planning and decision-making, using guidance from Local, State and National authorities. For clarity, we have updated our attendee and exhibitor policies to offer flexibility for your business needs and decision-making process.

Disruption is already a pervasive theme for traditional crop protection products and fertilizers as agriculture systems address incremental production shifts driven by climate change, shifting consumer demands, consolidation, digital farming, ecommerce, and new products that include protective plant coatings, biological products, and novel application methods.

This years theme Finding Opportunity in Disruption will address these influences and others as they arise, including supply disturbances of raw materials and active ingredients that originate in China. Additional logistical disruptions could also impact affected countries.

Conference highlights include:



Mitigation strategies to overcome disruption

Global cropping trends, supply, and demand for crop protection and plant health products

Precision farmings influence on variable-rate application methods

Consolidation, deglobalization, and new sourcing paradigms

Novel formulations for drift reduction and UAV application

Trade and regulatory updates

Plus, attend extensive networking opportunities and get meeting support from our app that will help you connect with attendees and set meetings.

The Trade Summit has always been focused on pragmatic meetings that result in contacts, contracts, and new opportunities to secure your supply chain, and those things have never been more important, says Eric Davis, Group Director of Meister Medias AgriBusiness Group. We expect robust activity among buyers and suppliers as the industry continues to look for new strategic solutions.

Who should attend:



Manufacturing companies, including multinational companies

Trading houses and import/exporters

Distributors of agriculture products, multinational, regional, and national

White-label retailers

Allied industry

This years event is expecting 115+ manufacturer exhibitors and 400+ companies in various parts of the value chain from more than 50 countries.

For exhibitions and sponsorship opportunities, contact Business Director Rebecca Bartels (email: bbartels@meistermedia.com)

Contact Program Chair David Frabotta (email: dfrabotta@meistermedia.com) for program inquiries.

Contact Show Director Katie Smith (email: KSmith@meistermedia.com) regarding attendee and general inquiries.

About the Organizers

AgriBusiness Global SM is a leading business media brand with a mission to link buyers and sellers of crop inputs. It organizes conferences and tradeshows, including the AgriBusiness GlobalSM Trade Summit, a global sourcing event for crop protection and plant health products. Its core audience works in the upstream value chain as manufacturing companies, export and trading companies, importers, and distributors at the national level. The Trade Summit began in 2006 and has held events in Canada, Mexico, U.S., South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Istanbul.

About Meister Media Worldwide

Meister Media Worldwide, parent company to AgriBusiness Global, offers business solutions designed to cultivate a sustainable world through the power of knowledge. It accomplishes this through a host of integrated print, digital and data product offerings, and a variety of in-person events with a singular focus: to further specialized agriculture globally. In addition, its business services division utilizes Meister Medias wealth of knowledge, combined with the latest technology, to develop strategic business services from concept planning through development and delivery. An industry leader, Meister Medias mission is to be your trusted partner, empowering the business of global agriculture to grow a better world. With headquarters in Willoughby, Ohio, Meister Media Worldwide was founded in 1932 and operates out of offices throughout the United States and around the world.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-31 00:42:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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WASHINGTON, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Governor of the U.S. state of Maryland Larry Hogan issued a "stay-at-home" order Monday, directing residents not to leave home except for essential reasons amid the coronavirus outbreak.

"This morning, I have signed an executive order which institutes a stay-at-home directive," Hogan said at a press briefing. "No Maryland residents should be leaving their home unless it is for an essential job or for an essential reason, such as obtaining food or medicine, seeking urgent medical attention, or for other purposes."

Noting that only essential businesses are allowed to remain open, the governor said, "those businesses must also make every effort to scale down their operations." Relevant measures include reducing the number of required staff, limiting in-person interaction with customers, and instituting telework "for as much of the workforce as is practical."

The order will take effect Monday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, and people who violate the directive will be sentenced to one year in jail, fined 5,000 U.S. dollars or both.

The announcement came as the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the greater Washington area reached 2,840 on Monday, with 1,414 cases in Maryland, 1,021 in Virginia and 405 in the District, according to local authorities. Regional deaths caused by the virus rose to 51 -- 26 in Virginia, 16 in Maryland and 9 in Washington D.C.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser highlighted the severity of the situation in the U.S. capital at a news conference Monday, lamenting the fact that hospitalizations and fatalities have yet to reach the peak.

"We haven't seen the peak of the spread of the infection in the District, we have not seen the peak of hospitalizations and sadly, likely, we have not seen the peak of the people who will succumb to the disease," she said.

The mayor said five members of the executive office have self-quarantined. George Valentine, deputy director of the Mayor's Office of Legal Counsel, died of the coronavirus on Friday.
Dowling recovering at home after long hospital stay

State Rep. Matthew Dowling has returned home after suffering a one-vehicle crash in October. Dowling represents parts of Somerset County.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has not backed down from his call to keep the economy ticking amid coronavirus pandemic and now visited a market to make his case. To amplify his highly controversial Brazil cant stop social media campaign, Bolsonaro visited a market in Taguatinga, a suburb of Brasilia, and spoke to a man selling barbecued meat on skewers.

The 65-year-old leader shared the video on his social media accounts where the man can be heard saying, We have to work. There are deaths, but that is up to God, we cannot stop. If we do not die of the illness, we will die of hunger.

Read: Twitter Removes Jair Bolsonaro's Posts Citing Public Health Information Violation

'Media creating hysteria'

Bolsonaro has been continuously downplaying the threat of the pandemic, emphasising on the need to the businesses open. Recently, he came down heavily on media for sparking sense of dread and hysteria over the novel coronavirus pandemic. In his four-and-a-half-minute televised speech, Bolsonaro criticised authorities including governors and mayors for adopting the measures suggested by the World Health Organisation like social distancing and self-quarantine.

The Brazilian President questioned the decision to close schools and imposing restriction on transport services. He said that the threat of virus will shortly pass and the life will go on, so the jobs should be maintained. "What we've seen in the world is that the risk group is people over 60 years old. So why close schools?" he asked.

Read: COVID-19: Brazil's Bolsonaro Says 'some People Will Die', Questions Sao Paulo's Death Toll

Brazil has reported 4,256 confirmed cases of coronavirus with 136 deaths but the Brazilian President is of the opinion that media is creating hysteria around the pandemic. Bolsonaro is one of the rare leaders around the world who is against stringent measures to combat the coronavirus crisis.

On March 29, Twitter removed two social media posts of Bolsonaro in which he was apparently questioning the quarantine measures put in place to contain the spread of novel coronavirus. The micro-blogging platform removed the two videos reportedly calling it a violation of Twitter rules.

Read: Brazilian President Bolsonaro Criticises Media For Creating 'hysteria' Over Coronavirus

Read: Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro Tests Negative For Coronavirus For The Second Time

(Image source: AP)
The coronavirus, though, is a force unto its own, and it is overwhelming even the strongest and most privileged of countries. Australia, along with many other parts of the world, has come to a virtual halt, shuttering its borders and restricting domestic travel. Even though the country still has a relatively low infection count, with around 3,000 confirmed cases, its two largest states, New South Wales and Victoria, are under lockdown orders for all but essential services.
With the epidemic situation in Beijing improving, residents have been heading to bookstores and public parks to make the most of the pleasant spring weather.

This is the first time Ive come to the bookstore to buy a book since the epidemic outbreak, said a woman surnamed Zhang, who was browsing at Page One bookstore in Sanlitun, Beijings Chaoyang district, adding that she has been buying books through online shopping platforms for the past two months.

According to Zhang, she still prefers the feeling of finding "treasures" in bookstores.

In addition to bookstores, public parks have also become a popular destination for Beijing residents. Many visitors have been flocking to Taoranting Park, Chaoyang Park and Honglingjin Park.

Many elderly people come to these parks for leisure activities, while parents like to take their children there for spring outings.

"It's nice to finally get a chance to breathe some fresh air and take a walk after being at home for a while, a man surnamed Wu said in Taoranting Park.
600 like me get no jobs benefits

I am one of nearly 600 highly skilled, professional stage workers in Charlotte. Until last week, I had a career. Now Im unemployed because of COVID-19, along with hundreds of stagehands who had been hired to work for the ballet, symphony, Hornets and Checkers. We now have no source of income and no idea when or if events will be rescheduled. Most of us are not eligible for unemployment insurance benefits because were considered temporary/seasonal workers. Its devastating.

State lawmakers must act quickly to fix our unemployment insurance system. Georgia just extended its benefits to 26 weeks. Im hopeful N.C. lawmakers will follow suit and take care of every worker who needs help during this crisis.

Jenni Propst, Charlotte

Jenni Propst

NC unemployment benefits must change

Victor Feraru

North Carolinas unemployment insurance program only covers 10% of those who apply. However, with the federal government expanding its unemployment program to include contract and gig workers, now is the time for the N.C. General Assembly to make our state system work for those who would otherwise be left out during whats sure to be a taxing financial time. If left unchanged, the states policies will negatively impact those who need help the most.

Victor Feraru, High Point

I see hypocrisy on hospitals part

Regarding Public health versus saving the economy leads to tension, (March 29):

The hypocrisy coming from the hospitals and medical system right now is stark. Novant Health CEO Carl Armato accuses those who support a more balanced approach to coronavirus restrictions of prioritizing the economy above human lives.

But lets be honest. Isnt this exactly what hospitals have a history of doing? They do it the form of immoral salaries for executives, going after low-income patients who cant pay bills, and opposing a less profit-driven health care system. The lockdown is causing a crisis of the human spirit that must be considered, just as surely as the health threat is taken into account.

Story continues

Hope Yancey, Charlotte

Dont withhold virus zip codes in Meck

Regarding Mecklenburg reverses course, ends maps showing coronavirus by zip code, (March 27):

Its public information when it comes to voter affiliation, tax registry, sex offenders and the like. But when it comes to the zip codes for coronavirus infections in Mecklenburg County, the county refuses to provide it. Absurdity persists!

David Ramsey, Mooresville

Reconsider on Meck yard waste pick up

Can someone please explain why Charlotte-Mecklenburg has stopped yard waste removal? Most homeowners are now stay in place because of coronavirus, but at least we can cut grass and trim bushes on our property. Couldnt local government at least have pick up every other week?

Michael Montella, Charlotte

Rethink RNC, risks outweigh any benefit

Regarding The RNC in Charlotte will not be canceled, Trump says (March 28):

If prevention is worth a pound of cure, what sane individual in these circumstances would enjoy having 50,000 people from all over the country risk spreading coronavirus because of President Trumps the show-must-go-on mentality. If one infected person comes to the Republican convention, imagine how many innocent people could get it. The risk outweighs any political benefit.

Lorraine Stark, Matthews

Made in the USA is sounding better

Regarding shortages, I was wondering if we had not outsourced our manufacturing to other countries, would we still have these shortages? Maybe this is a reason to bring back more manufacturing to the United States. Yes, we might have to pay a little more for some products, but it might create more jobs for people in our country. Made in the USA. Doesnt that sound good.

Joe Weil, Waxhaw

This is serious; keep your distance

For those who continue to ignore the safe distance rule, let me tell you how selfish you are. This is for every shopper who goes to buy groceries, hardware, food or gas. If you get too close, I will continue to tell you to move away from me.

Retailers must stop this behavior or they are as guilty as the people doing it. People, this is much more serious than a week ago. Think of your family and loved ones. You do not know if you are a carrier. Assume you are!

Claude Dill, Concord
The Australian Government has launched an app to provide up-to-date information about the coronavirus pandemic.

The app, which launched on Sunday, has a symptom checker, advice on hygiene and social distancing. It also allows Australians to see exactly how many confirmed cases there are in each state.

The app is available from the Apple App Store and on Google Play.

The app launched alongside the government's Whatsapp feature, which provides similar information.

It comes as the number of cases continues to climb, with 4,165 people now infected in Australia. There have been 17 deaths in Australia since the outbreak began.

The Australian Government has launched an app to provide up-to-date information about the coronavirus pandemic

The app, which launched on Sunday, has a symptom checker, advice on hygiene and social distancing

Those who are concerned that they may have contracted the deadly virus can use the app check whether they should get tested or even if they should call triple zero.

A guide to using Coronavirus Australia app: Download the app on Google Play or from the Apple App Store. Check whether you need medical attention or should be tested for the virus on the symptom checker. Register if you are self-isolating. Read the most up-to-date government announcements. See exactly how many people are infected in your state. Advertisement

After entering your gender and age, you're asked a series of questions about your health - are you struggling to breathe, is you skin turning blue?

If you answer yes, you are advised to go to the nearest emergency department. If you are answer no to the series of questions, you're advised to stay home and monitor your symptoms.

The app has all the current announcements from the Prime Minister regarding coronavirus.

The Whatsapp feature works similarly by providing users with easy to access information.

After downloading Whatsapp, type oz.gov.au/whatsapp.

The app is available from the Apple App Store and on Google Play

The app launched alongside the government's Whatsapp feature, which provides similar information

The Whatsapp feature works similarly by providing users with easy to access information

The Whatsapp account acts like a messenger bot and provides people with relevant updates when they type in a number or emoji.

The apps have been developed to help communicate with the public about the ever-changing crisis.

A guide to using Coronavirus Australia Whatsapp service: Download WhatsApp onto your phone. Add the government's WhatsApp number into your WhatsApp contacts. The number is +61 400 253 787 Send the WhatsApp account a message. You will receive a message back. Follow the instructions to get the information you need. Advertisement

The most recent announcement came on Sunday night when Scott Morrison placed a ban on gatherings of more than two people.

The two-person limit doesn't apply to workplaces, offices, schools and households.

It applies to all indoor settings, including private properties and homes.

People who live alone can only invite one friend over, while households of two people or more can't have any visitors.

A family split across two houses can meet in private, allowing people to visit their partner, siblings or parents.

The prime minister urged all Australians to only leave their homes to buy essential supplies, to exercise, to attend personal medical appointments and to go to work or school - if unable to work or obtain an education from home.

'Every single Australian needs to take this seriously or community transmission could get out of control and we could have a situation as terrible as even they are seeing in the US at the moment,' he said.

It comes as the number of cases continues to climb, with 4,167 people now infected in Australia. There have been 18 deaths in Australia since the outbreak began

Mr Morrison also strongly advised that anyone over 70 stay home for their own safety, except for going for a daily walk in the fresh air.

'States and territories will term whether they proceed to make this an enforceable limit in the same way that the 10-person limit is already been enforced,' he said.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

Mr Morrison made it clear the advice about gatherings of more than two people was for all circumstances, not just for social occasions in homes.

'That provides, importantly, for those who may be getting daily exercise, particularly for women, that they wouldn't be required to walk on their own and they be able to be walk with another person,' he said.

Announcing a new $1.1 billion health package to deal with the COVID-19 crisis earlier on Sunday, Mr Morrison said greater cooperation in terms of self-isolation and social distancing was delivering dividends.

'They are still strong rates of increase, there's no doubt about that,' the prime minister said.

'But as we take the measures that we have been taking and put them in place and we have the co-operation from the Australian people, then that obviously in turn that has an impact on how we are managing the spread of the virus.

Mr Morrison also said just a third as many Australians were catching coronavirus as a week ago with the borders, pubs, and restaurants shut.

The Prime Minister said the rate of virus infections was 25 to 30 per cent a day, but slowed to about 13-15 per cent in the past few days.

'They are still strong rates of increase, there's no doubt about that,' he said on Sunday.
By Dahlia Nehme and Alexander Cornwell

DUBAI (Reuters) - Organisers of Expo 2020 Dubai on Monday backed a proposal to postpone the event for one year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The announcement came after a meeting between officials from the United Arab Emirates and foreign countries participating in the nearly six-month-long event that was due to begin in October.

Reuters earlier on Monday reported Expo was due to be postponed by a year at the request of participating countries who want to focus on tackling the virus.

Many countries have been significantly impacted by COVID-19 and they have therefore expressed a need to postpone the opening of Expo 2020 Dubai by one year, to enable them to overcome this challenge," Director General for Expo 2020 Dubai Reem al-Hashimy said in a statement.

"The UAE and Expo 2020 Dubai have listened. And in the spirit of solidarity and unity, we supported the proposal to explore a one year postponement at todays Steering Committee meeting."

An estimated 11 million overseas visitors were expected to attend the showpiece of culture, business and technology featuring pavilions from 192 countries.

A final decision will be made in June by member states of the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions, which awards the event.

Two sources familiar with the matter said it was unlikely member states would vote against postponing.

The delay is set to be a major blow for Dubai as the emirate  which would have spent over $8 billion on Expo-related infrastructure projects by the end of the fair  was relying on the event to boost its economy.

Dubai-based Arqaam Capital last year forecast an economic benefit from Expo of up to $9 billion in incremental tourist spending.

Expo was the last major international event that was still officially scheduled to go ahead this year. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics were last week postponed by a year.

(Reporting by Dahlia Nehme and Alexander Cornwell, additional reporting by Davide Barbuscia; Editing by Angus MacSwan, Pritha Sarkar and Giles Elgood)
The following items were taken from Barrington Police Department reports and releases. An arrest does not constitute a finding of guilt.

Criminal damage to property

Cody L. Dema, of the 25000 block of First Street, Antioch, was charged March 22 with criminal damage to property and obstructing a peace officer at 400 North Northwest Highway, the address of Barringtons police and fire departments. Dema is scheduled to appear in court April 29.

Domestic battery

Domestic battery in the first block of East Dundee Road was reported March 15.
The teams in Florida and New York handing down the indictments, including Brian Allen Benczkowski, the assistant attorney general who indicted Joaquin Guzman Loera, the notorious Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo, are not easily dismissed as Trump pushovers. And this is not a purely legal issue involving charges of drug trafficking to be resolved in an American court. Under Mr. Maduro, the Chavista regime has perpetrated egregious human rights violations and destroyed Venezuelas economy, leading to the largest humanitarian crisis in the region.

The Trump administrations new offensive against him and his associates is essentially of a diplomatic and political nature. The issue is not whether the charges are true. To wit, the United States maintains cordial diplomatic relations with governments in Afghanistan and Honduras, which are known to be complicit in drug trafficking. The new accusations have probably been in the works for years, during which Venezuela sold the United States billions of dollars worth of oil. The question is whether the indictment will hasten Mr. Maduros downfall  which is surely the United States goal  or if it will merely fuel the anti-American nationalism ever-present among certain sectors of Venezuelan society.

If the Trump administration is betting on the devastation the coronavirus will wreak in Venezuela, the brutal impact the collapse in oil prices will have on its economy, and on Mr. Maduros increasing isolation in Latin America  as shown by the Organization of American States recent re-election of Mr. Maduros nemesis, Luis Almagro, as secretary general  it might prove effective despite its cynicism. Especially if those high-ranking Venezuelan military officers not included in the indictment feel tempted by the changing circumstances and the substantial rewards offered for Mr. Maduros head. This is a long shot, but certainly not an absurd hypothesis.

Conversely, the indictment may be nothing more than the usual American bluff and bluster, with no strategic calculation beyond pandering for votes in Novembers presidential election. After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, many resettled in Florida. A poll conducted by Univision early this month found that Puerto Rican voters in that state overwhelmingly back Joe Biden and could be crucial for winning this battleground. Mr. Trump needs his Cuban-American and Venezuelan-American turnout to be strong in order to remain competitive. The charges against Mr. Maduro may provide the push he needs to capture those votes.

Mr. Maduro is already using Mr. Trumps move to bolster his support domestically and internationally. Countries including Mexico and Argentina, which are sympathetic to the Venezuelan regime, may call the charges exaggerated and cite international law to defy Washington. Mr. Maduro will keep denying the accusations, and claim the action against him is typical American interventionist meddling and extraterritorial application of its domestic legislation, which no country in the region backs, much like the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 that unilaterally strengthened the embargo against Cuba. And the actual, practical, effects of the United States decision may be minimal. After all, Mr. Trump has already been seeking to dislodge Mr. Maduro for months, if not years. So far, fruitlessly.
Data shared by a whistleblower suggests Saudi Arabia may be using a weakness in mobile telecom networks to track its citizens in the US, The Guardian reports. The data shows that over a four-month period, Saudi Arabia's three biggest mobile phone companies sent 2.3 million requests for Provider Subscriber Information (PSI). Normally, that data is used to help foreign operators register roaming charges, but the high volume of requests could also give the Saudi telecoms enough info to track users within hundreds of meters of accuracy.

This takes advantage of long-standing vulnerabilities in a global messaging system called SS7, which routes mobile calls when a user from one country is traveling in another. According to the data shared with The Guardian, the Saudi telecoms sent millions of these PSI SS7 requests to US carriers, including AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon (Engadget's parent company) between November 2019 and March 1st -- sometimes requesting data as often as two to 13 times per hour.

It isn't clear if the Saudi telecoms were spying on behalf of the government, but the kingdom doesn't have the best track record. Earlier this year, The Guardian reported that Amazon's Jeff Bezos's phone was hacked via a WhatsApp message from the personal account of Prince Mohammed. Twitter has banned thousands of accounts linked with a state-backed effort to promote the Saudi government's message, and the Department of Justice has charged former Twitter employees with spying for Saudi Arabia.

"I think they are surveilling not only those they know are dissidents, but those they fear may deviate from the Saudi leadership," Andrew Miller, a Middle East expert and former member of Barack Obama's national security council, told The Guardian. "They are particularly worried about what Saudi nationals will do when they are in western countries."

Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator from Oregon, previously warned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that "malicious attackers" were exploiting SS7 vulnerabilities.

In a statement to The Guardian, Wyden wrote, "Because of [Pai's] inaction, if this report is true, an authoritarian government may be reaching into American wireless networks to track people inside our country."
West Bengal recorded its second COVID-19 fatality on Monday and reported one more fresh case while Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ramped up measures to fight the outbreak through setting up nodal hospitals in all the 22 districts of the state to treat such patients.

Banerjee announced that an insurance cover of Rs 10 lakh would be extended to healthcare professionals, sanitation workers and police personnel, who have been aiding the government in the fight against coronavirus.

Earlier, the government had sanctioned an insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh for people working in the healthcare sector.

She said anyone found ostracising healthcare workers who have been attending to COVID-19 patients would be arrested.

A 44-year-old woman from Kalimpong, who was recently infected with coronavirus, died at a state-run hospital in north Bengal early this morning.

She had recently returned from Chennai, where she had gone for the treatment of her daughter.

Her daughter and the doctor, who was treating the woman, have been quarantined at a centre, a health department official said.

Meanwhile, 67 people who came in contact with the family of five COVID-19 patients of Tehatta in Nadia district have been put under home quarantine.

The total number of coronavirus cases has risen to 22 in West Bengal, including the two deaths. An elderly man from Kolkata had died from COVID-19 last week.

During a review meeting on the pandemic at state secretariat Nabanna, the chief minister directed the administration to set up a dedicated nodal hospital in all the districts to deal with cases of COVID-19.

"The nodal hospitals would come up in each and every district of the state. Apart from that, facilities of private hospitals in various districts would also be used for setting up isolation wards," Banerjee said.

Amid reports of ostracism of healthcare workers in various parts of the state, she asked police to arrest the culprits immediately whenever "such a crime is reported".

Banerjee announced that all sweet shops in West Bengal would remain open from noon to 4 pm every day, giving relief to the sweet makers and milk vendors in the state.

She directed top police officers attending the meeting to arrange for blood donation camps across the state.

Banerjee directed her administration to ensure that migrant workers of other states get food items regularly even if they do not possess ration cards.

Meanwhile, the correctional services department in West Bengal has prepared a list of 3,000 inmates who were eligible for parole and bail, in keeping with a Calcutta High Court order that sought to decongest jails amid the growing COVID-19 threat.

Responding to the call of Banerjee for donations, premier institutions of the state, Calcutta University, Jadavpur University, and St Xavier's University, have pledged to contribute to the West Bengal State Emergency Relief Fund and help in the government's fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

West Bengal Bar Council has written to state Law minister Moloy Ghatak, seeking financial assistance for lawyers and junior advocates who are not in good financial health and facing distress due to the lockdown.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
LOON LAKE, SASK.Police in Saskatchewan say 11 people face charges of violating new COVID-19 restrictions on the size of public gatherings after officers chased and arrested occupants of a suspicious SUV.

RCMP say they received a report early Friday about a suspicious person who was knocking on the door of a home in Loon Lake.

They got a description of a vehicle associated with the person  a 2000 GMC Yukon SUV  which police allege was stolen.

It was later spotted on a grid road and wouldnt stop, and police say that while numerous officers chased it, the occupants threw items out the window, including a bag of weapons.

The SUV eventually ended up in a ditch, but police say several people jumped out during the chase, and one-by-one they were taken into custody.

In addition to charges including possession of stolen property, flight from a peace officer and weapons charges, the 10 adults and one youth are also charged with failure to comply the Saskatchewan Public Health Act, which prohibits gatherings of more than 10 people without maintaining a two-metre distance between people.

Individuals choosing to continue gathering in contravention of the Saskatchewan Public Health Act place the Saskatchewan population, including Saskatchewan RCMP police officers, at risk of exposure to COVID-19, RCMP said in a news release.

RCMP in Saskatchewan say its the first people they have arrested during the COVID-19 pandemic who have been charged with violating the restrictions under the new public health order, which took effect on Thursday.

Police say all of the accused have been released and must follow strict conditions in line with provincial COVID-19 isolation protocols. Those include staying inside an approved residence for 24 hours a day for 14 days, and immediately notifying the Saskatchewan Health Line if they develop symptoms of COVID-19.
A pastor who was rushed into intensive care with coronavirus has thanked the medical staff who saved his life.

Pastor Mark McClurg (40), who preaches at the Newtownards Elim church, gave the thumbs up as he left the Ulster Hospital yesterday after fighting off the virus.

He took to social media to share the good news to friends, family and the many well-wishers who have prayed for his recovery

"I have some amazing news," Pastor McClurg tweeted.

"I'm leaving the Ulster Hospital. I want to thank everyone for their prayers.

"I want to thank the staff at the Ulster Hospital for saving my life.

"I am looking forward to enjoying life. Be kind.

"Jesus is my healer. There is hope. We will get through," he said.

Soon after returning home Pastor McClurg recorded a brief video, his voice still weak from the ordeal he had gone through.

"I want God to heal our land," he said.

"There's a physical healing that needs to happen. Coronavirus is spreading. But more importantly there is a spiritual healing. We need a revival."

Quoting the Bible, he added: "If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

The father-of-three's nightmare began earlier this month when he was rushed into hospital after contracting the infection which has brought the UK and Ireland to a standstill.

Glengormley native Mark - a strong, healthy, active man - did not initially display any of the symptoms that are normally associated with coronavirus when he fell ill.

But when the virus took hold, it quickly sapped his strength, until he feared for his life.

Earlier this week, he told the Belfast Telegraph his survival was down to the excellent healthcare workers at the Ulster Hospital.
Last year, Freda Gonot-Schoupinsky of the University of Derby recruited 21 people to take part in a very strange experiment. Each recruit was shown how to record a Laughie, a one-minute recording of their own laughter, and told to laugh along with their Laughie, three times a day.

After just one week, the group reported experiencing a number of significant effects that they attributed to the Laughie. Nearly all of them increased in their wellbeing scores - as measured by the World Health Organisation well-being index. Many said they felt less anxious. Some said they were sleeping better. Others reported feeling less lonely.

One of the participants, 93-year-old Sylvie, said that using the Laughie had encouraged her to laugh while watching TV on her own, something she didn't normally do. Another said that the Laughie had helped her curtail her anger after a heated exchange with a friend.

There were physical effects, too. One lady said that she felt toned after one week of Laughie use; while another was amazed at what it had done to her abs.

In short, one week of laughing along to a recording of their own laughter for three minutes a day had produced some significant mental and physical changes in the participants.

You don't have to be a laughter scientist - or gelotologist, as they like to be known - to know that it's good to laugh. But you might be surprised to learn just how much of an impact laughter can have on health. It alleviates the symptoms of depression and reduces stress and anxiety. It's good for the heart and boosts the immune system. And for some muscles, it provides a workout that would normally require a gym membership.

It can also help the elderly with pain management and sleeplessness. And in those with type 2 diabetes, laughter can reduce blood sugar levels and protect against some of the complications of the condition.

But as good as it is to laugh until you cry at something funny, when it comes to your mental health, simulated laughter - also known as voluntary or self-induced laughter - is even better. A recent scientific review of 86 laughter studies found that for depression and anxiety, the therapeutic effects of simulated laughter are twice that of natural laughter.

And physically, simulated laughter can raise respiration levels in a similar way to aerobic exercise and work the internal oblique muscles to the same degree as crunches.

 THE LAUGHIE

Psychological and physiological effects like these prompted Freda Gonot-Schoupinsky to investigate how simulated laughter could be utilised as a health tool that would be accessible to everyone, which led to the creation of the Laughie.

"The idea of the Laughie came from looking at how we can harness some of these laughter benefits when we're on our own," she explains. "And I was interested in seeing whether our own laughter could be contagious to us."

In social situations, other people's laughter can often be a catalyst for our own laughter. With the Laughie, however, you record one minute of your own laughter on your smart phone, then you laugh along with that recording.

"Anyone can do a Laughie," she says. "I wanted it to be available to everyone - and without cost. The only thing you need is a smart phone, and most of us have one of those now."

Recording a usable Laughie can be easier said than done, and the participants in the original study required an hour of mentoring before recording theirs. However, Freda has devised four principles and techniques that should help most people record and successfully use their own Laughie.

"The first is 'natural is best,'" she explains. "The original recording - and when you're laughing along with it - should really be natural. It should sound like how you would laugh in a natural situation - at something which is funny. If you have laughter which sounds fake, it doesn't work.

"The second is 'enjoy it however you want.' During that one minute, do whatever makes you happy and whatever you find enjoyable. You can either think of nothing or you can think of funny things. You can wave your arms around. Just enjoy it how you want.

"The third is 'train to gain.' The Laughie is a completely new way of laughing - and it's strange. But it just takes a little bit of training to get used to. It's one minute - and you can get so many benefits from this one minute.

"And the fourth is 'laugh for a reason.' It can be any sort of reason that makes sense to you in the moment - or long-term. A long-term reason may be your health. A short-term reason may be that you're feeling angry and you want to dissipate some of the anger."

According to Freda, using your Laughie for one minute, three times a day, should be enough for most people. "I would say do one or two weeks of using it three times a day. And once you start feeling up again and better, you can reduce that to once a day.

"The thing with the Laughie is you can use it as much or as little as you want. It's another tool that you can add to your wellbeing toolbox."

 LAUGHTER YOGA

The Laughie isn't the only way to achieve the benefits of simulated laughter. In 1995, Dr Madan Kataria devised Laughter Yoga, a therapy that combines simulated laughter with yogic breathing, stretching exercises and meditation.

While the Laughie was designed to be used alone, Laughter Yoga is primarily practiced in groups - and can involve quite a lot of eye contact with other members of the group.

"There's a great beauty in getting together with people and connecting on a human level," says Aoife Nelson, who runs Laughter Yoga Dublin. "And Laughter Yoga in a group very quickly breaks down barriers between people," she says. "Everyone just meets on the same level. There's something really special and lovely about Laughter Yoga."

For many, yoga brings to mind lithe, toned bodies contorted into impossible poses. But Laughter Yoga is not like that, says Aoife, who has held classes for people of all ages and abilities. "It's accessible to everyone - and has nothing to do with yoga pants," she says. "If you can breathe and laugh, you can do laughter yoga. It's so adaptable - and that's the beauty of it."

Though Laughter Yoga is usually practiced as a group activity - and Aoife recommends that everyone should try a Laughter Yoga class - there are some exercises that can be done in the privacy of your own home.

"Place your hand on your belly and say 'ho ho ho ho ho,'" she says. "Then place your hand on your heart and say 'ha ha ha ha ha.' And then place your hand on your throat and laugh like a school child, 'hee hee hee hee hee.'

"You can do this laughing exercise by yourself in front of the mirror," says Aoife, "but it really does work well if you look into someone else's eyes.

"You can also do this exercise while you're doing everyday tasks. So, when you're emptying the dishwasher and you're putting away the cups, say 'ha ha ha ha ha.' And when you're putting away the plates, 'ho ho ho ho ho.'

"During the summer, I do my laughing exercises when I'm hanging out the washing. And every single time, it turns into real laughing."

 THE SCIENCE

The much-needed hard science to support the claims being made about simulated laughter is slowly starting to appear, and scientists are starting to understand what may be behind the health benefits of laughter. For example: in 2018, researchers at the University of Auckland set out to test the theory that both simulated and natural laughter are just forms of aerobic exercise "that can stimulate the cardiovascular system."

While they found that both simulated and natural laughter created the same positive changes in cardiovascular activity as physical exercise, and that the size of these changes was directly related to the amount of laughter produced, they also found that simulated laughter - which is really just a more intense, sustained and controllable form of laughter - consistently produced a greater effect on the heart than natural laughter.

Despite the significant physical and mental benefits it can provide, most of us will struggle to make simulated laughter part of our lives. But that's alright; spontaneous laughter - as triggered by jokes, funny moments with friends and YouTube videos of cats - is a pretty good substitute.

"Laughter has definite benefits in terms of reducing stress, in terms of improving sleep, reducing depression, anxiety, reducing pain," explains Freda. "It's also been found to benefit the immune system. We know that it can improve the cardiovascular function. It also improves well-being: we just feel better.

"Laughter is a fantastic thing."

Freda plans to release a free but professionally produced Laughie video, with instructions on how to record and use a Laughie. But for now, you can watch Freda at home, laughing with her Laughie, on YouTube (youtube.com/watch/IpFjroTtSYg)
A host of premier educational institutes of West Bengal on Monday pledged financial assistance to the state government for carrying out its efforts to combat the deadly coronavirus.

The Calcutta University, Jadavpur University and St Xavier's University have come forward to contribute to the West Bengal State Emergency Relief Fund.

The St Xaviers College (Autonomous) Kolkata, a separate educational institution run by the same Jesuit organisation, has also joined the initiative.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on March 27 appealed to different organisations and individuals for making contributions to the fund.

Calcutta University vice-chancellor Sonali Chakraborty Banerjee said the varsity authorities have contributed Rs 10 lakh and that there is also a second fund-raising initiative underway by the students, faculty and staff.

"They are free to contribute whatever amount they want to, and the consolidated sum will be donated to the relief fund soon," she told PTI.

Suranjan Das, vice-chancellor of Jadavpur University it has urged teachers, officials and employees to respond to the appeal for contributions.

"I shall remain grateful if my colleagues can send their contributions to the fund by filling an enclosed format to be mailed to the university office within April 14 and the donated amount will be recovered from the salary of April 2020," Das said in a message.

Making a similar commitment, St Xavier's University vice-chancellor Father Felix Raj said fund-raising has begun and the authorities are hopeful of handing over the amount soon.

The teaching and non-teaching staff of St. Xavier's College (Autonomous) and St Xavier's Collegiate School will also be donating one day's salary.

"We aim at raising a sum of Rs 40 lakh for the West Bengal State Emergency Relief Fund," principal of the college, Father Dominic Savio S J said.

The faculty and other employees of Visva-Bharati, a central university located in Santiniketan, will also donate one day's salary of March to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A little thing like lockdown has not prevented Red Beach ballet teacher Lea Sandford from taking classes in her Lea Sandford School of Dancing.

Lea began teaching dance 52 years ago, when she was just 15 years old, and has been taking classes in Red Beach for the past 16 years.

Her school offers classes in ballet, contemporary and lyrical dance. As well as entering competitions, her students perform at local retirement villages and Hibiscus Hospice. They also present an annual show at Whangaparaoa Colleges auditorium.

Immediately after the lockdown commenced Lea, with the IT assistance of her husband Calvin, began to produce the lessons from home using the Zoom Meeting software/app, and made them available online.

Lea says there were initially a few technical hitches, but around 60 percent of the dance schools students, aged from three years old to adults, are now doing the classes from home.

Calvin is doing well, despite being subjected to sitting through every lesson, Lea says.

The online classes started on March 26 and will run each weekday in the afternoons at the same scheduled time as the regular classes until students are able to return to the studio at Red Beach Methodist Church hall.

Anyone wanting to join the online classes can contact Lea, email balletdanceteacher@gmail.com, visit www.lssod.co.nz or via the Lea Sandford School of Dancing facebook page.
CAC Specialty has named Robert Trinkleback leader of property/casualty loss control, and Jonathan Goodier vice president and property/casualty claims advocate in Denver, Colo.

Trinkleback will help clients improve workplace safety while increasing productivity and reducing costs related to property, workers compensation and auto/general liability exposures. He has more than 38 years of corporate safety and risk management experience, most recently as Marsh/JLTs risk control leader for its property/casualty risk control services.

Goodier will focus on helping clients navigate the claims process while also working directly with insurance carriers to manage claims. His background spans corporate risk management, brokerage, and carrier work. He was most recently vice president at Goldman Sachs, where he was the global head of claims and the leader of international property/casualty placement.

Topics Property Property Casualty Colorado Risk Management
A serial sexual predator who attacked a woman as she walked along the street has been jailed for eight years.

William Gordon, 34, pinned his victim in her 20s against a wall and whispered in her ear 'I am not going to put my penis in you' before sexually assaulting her in Southwark, southeast London.

He had been released from prison four months beforehand and was living in 'approved accommodation' in the area.

During his trial, it was heard that he molested a female prison officer by grabbing her bottom in November 2017 and pushed a 12-year-old girl against a wall and touched her bottom in July 2015.

He had four months added to a sentence for dealing heroine and cocaine for the former attack, and was jailed for a year for the latter.

Gordon was found guilty of sexual assault, four counts of assault by penetration and two counts of common assault by beating and jailed at the Old Bailey.

He was also sentenced to a further five years on extended license and will be placed on the sexual offenders' register for the rest of his life.

William Gordon, 34, was jailed for eight years at the Old Bailey. He has repeatedly been jailed for sexual assaults. In 2017 he grabbed a female police officer's bottom and in 2015 he pinned a 12-year-old girl against a wall and grabbed her bottom. Upon hearing his sentence, Gordon said: 'Are you taking the p***?'

The victim, who did not know her attacker, was listening to music through headphones while walking through an alleyway when Gordon attacked her on August 6 last year.

Prosecutor Edward Lucas said she became aware of someone following her. She stopped, and he stopped too.

'She remembers the defendant putting a hand up her skirt and grabbing her vagina - totally unprovoked, out of the blue - a nightmare for her,' he said.

'Of course, she said: "What are you doing? Leave me alone", but he ignores her.'

As she screamed and struggled for help, Gordon whispered to her: 'Don't worry I am not going to put my penis in you. I am not going to rape you. I just want a hug.'

The woman managed to break free and ran towards her home, but hesitated as she didn't want Gordon to know where she lived.

'He caught up with her and pinned her against the wall,' said Mr Lucas. 'She screams and falls to the floor in the struggle with him. Then he hears neighbours and runs off.'

The attack was so forceful that it ripped the victim's knickers, said Mr Lucas. Police also found video and pictures of the victim on Gordon's phone that were taken as he followed her.

CCTV from the scene shows Gordon appearing to plan the attack, and follow three separate females around the same area.

Gordon was found guilty of sexual assault, four counts of assault by penetration and two counts of common assault by beating and jailed at the Old Bailey (pictured)

The victim's mother said her 'gregarious' daughter had retreated 'into a shell' after the attack and 'withdrawn herself from the family network'.

The victim walks through the street regularly.

Judge Sarah Munro QC, who jailed Gordon, said no woman was safe from Gordon's clutches and added: Your offending began with driving offences and possession of cannabis, however, by 2003 you were dealing class A drugs.

You were released on licence on the 26 April 2019 and by the summer you were living in approved accommodation in Elephant and Castle.

You were out late at night targeting lone women with a view to sexually assault them.

You were on license from a lengthy custodial sentence part of which was imposed for sexual offending and you have been recalled to prison.

In my judgement you meet the criteria for dangerousness. No female is safe from you and nor will they be for the foreseeable future.

She was crying, she was begging you to leave. You tried to cover her mouth to stop her screaming.

Gordon has 19 convictions and 38 offences. These also include his conviction for battery after he invited a 16-year-old girl to a 'photo shoot' and slapped her repeatedly.

He was also convicted after approaching a woman and grabbing her bottom as she looked for her keys in 2014.

He was first convicted at the age of 14, in 1999, for possession of cannabis and sexual offences.

He was jailed for three-and-a-half years in 2005 after being found guilty of dealing heroin and cocaine, jailed for five years in 2007, and seven years in 2015.

Detective Inspector Sharon Steel of the Central South Command Unit said: At every opportunity Gordon has failed to acknowledge any wrongdoing and has instead chosen to put both the victim and witnesses in this case through a full trial.

William Gordon is a manipulative sexual predator who poses a serious danger to women and today the jury have rightfully convicted him. That night he was clearly targeting lone women before he carried out this prolonged attack.

I would especially like to commend the bravery of the victim in this case, she has helped to make sure that this dangerous offender has been rightfully convicted on all seven counts.

Upon hearing his sentence, Gordon said: 'Are you taking the p***?'
Image: Twitter/@PIB_India

The government constituted 11 empowered groups to suggest measures to ramp up healthcare, put the economy back on track and reduce misery of people as quickly as possible post the 21-day lockdown imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

These empowered groups have been constituted to ensure a comprehensive and integrated response to COVID-19 and will work under the overall guidance of P K Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, sources said.

In a late evening notification, the Union Home Ministry said the pandemic of COVID-19 has engulfed the entire world, posing serious challenges for health and economic security of millions of people worldwide.

Observing that the measures taken so far have been effective in containing the pandemic, it said, during this unprecedented situation, to effectively address issues, constraints and scenarios, a well-planned and coordinated emergency response has become essential.

"Considering the gravity and magnitude of the challenges, which are emerging with every passing day, there is a pressing need to augment and synchronise efforts cutting across various ministries.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

"Keeping in view the need for such comprehensive action and integrated response... the undersigned in the capacity as Chairperson, National Executive Committee, hereby constitute eleven Empowered Group of Officers (under the Disaster Management Act, 2005)," it said.

These groups are empowered to identify problem areas and provide effective solutions, delineate policy, formulate plans, strategise operations and take all necessary steps for effective and time-bound implementation of plans, strategies or decisions in their respective areas, a notification issued by Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla stated.

The Department of Expenditure has issued special instructions to enable expeditious decision making in procurement matters, the notification said.

"During the deliberations, if any of the Empowered Groups is of the view that a particular aspect is not within the domain of that Group and falls within the scope of any other Group(s), they may seek the guidance of the Cabinet Secretary," it added.

Out of these 11 empowered groups, nine are headed by secretary-level officers, one by a NITI Aayog member and one by the NITI Aayog CEO.

As per the notification, Empowered Group on medical equipment and management plan will be headed by NITI Aayog member V K Paul, Empowered Group on availability of hospitals by Environment Secretary C K Mishra, Empowered Group on essential drugs, medical equipment by Pharma Secretary P D Vaghela, Empowered Group on augmenting human resources by MSME Secretary Arun Panda and Empowered Group on facilitating supply chain and logistics management by Secretary Drinking Water and Sanitation P Iyer.

Besides, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant will head the Empowered Group on coordinating with private sector NGOs and international organisations, Economic Affairs Secretary Atanu Chakraborty and Amit Khare Secretary HRD will head the Empowered Group on public grievances and suggestions.

Information and Broadcasting Secretary Ravi Mittal has been tasked with heading the group on public awareness, Empowered Group on technology will be headed by Secretary MEITY Ajay Sawhney and that on strategic issues relating to lockdown will be presided over by Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla.

The initiative is being viewed as a pro-active step by the government to deal with multiple challenges posed by the outbreak of the COVID-19 outbreak, the sources said.

These groups will also work on strategy for restoring normalcy in their respective sectors, including healthcare, in the shortest possible time frame, they added.

The group on Economy and Welfare, which will be headed by Economic Affairs Secretary Atanu Chakraborty, has been tasked with addressing the concerns of various sectors, including both formal and informal segments of the economy - hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent lockdown.

It is expected to suggest various relief measures to put the economy back on track as soon as possible, the sources said.

Special emphasis will have to be laid on welfare schemes for the poor, who have suffered a lot on account of the lockdown, they said.

The poor and vulnerable sections of the society are the key focus of the government and dealing with challenges faced by them will be given top priority, they added.

According to the sources, the groups have been empowered to formulate plans and to take all necessary steps for their time-bound implementation.

Each group will have about six members with one officer from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the Cabinet Secretariat, so that there is a seamless coordination and suggestions accepted are implemented without any delay.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on March 24 announced a complete lockdown across the country for 21 days, asserting that social distancing is the only way out for the country in its decisive battle against coronavirus.

The lockdown led to an exodus of migrant labourers from cities to their native places as they were left to fend for themselves.

Modi on Sunday sought the nation's forgiveness for imposing a monumental lockdown in the country, saying it was a question of life and death.

He expressed confidence that "we will definitely win the battle" against coronavirus.

The total number of coronavirus cases in India rose to 1,024 on Sunday, including 27 deaths, according to the Union Health Ministry.
Northern Ireland's arts and culture community is moving online to adapt to the enforced closure of theatres, concert venues, museums and art galleries by the Covid-19 crisis.

Leading cultural space the MAC has had to cancel its 20,000 MAC International Arts Prize for 2020.

However the venue celebrated World Theatre Day on Friday by offering a live stream of David Ireland's controversial play Cyprus Avenue.

It is a story of sectarian trauma in Northern Ireland, told through a man who mistakes his baby granddaughter for Gerry Adams.

The film version streamed by the MAC mixes the Royal Court Theatre's live performance with clips shot on location in Belfast.

It will be available free via the MAC's Facebook page for the next month.

Belfast's Lyric Theatre also took to the internet to keep in touch with patrons, streaming a performance of Alice The Musical for World Theatre Day.

"The theatre may be closed but the Lyric is still here for our audiences.

"We're embracing our mission now more than ever, and while we can't share our space with you we can continue to be a creative hub," the Lyric said on social media.

In Londonderry, the VOID contemporary art space is staging online tours of the current exhibition by Ima-Abasi Okon.

"We will explore the 15-year exhibition history of the VOID programme through images, talks and videos," the arts space said.

"Each week while the gallery is closed, we will look at different artists who use a specific medium in their work."

Another project, VOID Engage, will take place online, bringing activities designed to keep children entertained as families stay at home and practice social distancing.

Also in Londonderry, the Contemporary Arts Centre is hosting "social media takeover" events while their physical space is closed.

Selected artists will be given control of the organisation's social media channels for 24 hours. First on the list is Lithuanian artist and filmmaker Ginte Regina.

The online surge comes as the Department for Communities promised 1m to help embattled arts organisations here.

Arts Council chief Roisin McDonough said the funding move was good news at a difficult time for the arts community in Northern Ireland.

She said: "The arts sector in Northern Ireland is under immense pressure at the moment.

"The council has moved quickly to distribute year-end funding earlier than usual to our core arts organisations but we knew more resources were needed to support the high number of individual artists and freelancers in our sector.

"After much discussion last week with the Department for Communities we submitted a bid to the minister for extra support and we welcome her announcement.

"Minister Deirdre Hargey has stepped in with an initial package to the Arts Council of Northern Ireland worth 1m of much-needed support for creatives and individual artists working here.

"It is a bit of good news in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic which has caused the near decimation of many livelihoods within the arts and culture sectors in a short period of time."
- Kalbe Genexine Biologics (KG Bio) will receive right of first negotiation for an exclusive license to potentially commercialize I-Mabs TJD5, in Southeast Asia and other territories



- Partnership to include right of first negotiation on an additional I-Mab-discovered product candidate to be agreed upon by both parties

-Total potential value of TJD5 agreement up to approximately $340 million

SHANGHAI, China, and ROCKVILLE, MD., March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- I-Mab (the Company)(Nasdaq: IMAB), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company committed to the discovery, development and commercialization of novel or highly differentiated biologics to treat diseases with significant unmet medical needs, particularly cancers and autoimmune disorders, today announced a strategic partnership with Kalbe Genexine Biologics (KG Bio), a joint venture of Kalbe Farma Tbk (Kalbe), and Genexine, Inc. (Genexine). Under the terms of the agreement, KG Bio will receive a right of first negotiation for an exclusive license for the commercialization of two I-Mab discovered product candidates: TJD5, a highly differentiated anti-CD73 antibody in Phase 1 development for advanced solid tumors, and an I-Mab product candidate to be agreed upon by both parties.

With the agreement, KG Bio will have a right of first negotiation for exclusive rights to commercialize these two product candidates in the ASEAN (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) and MENA (Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Palestine, and Yemen) regions, as well as Sri Lanka.

This partnership recognizes the potential of our internally-discovered anti-CD73 antibody TJD5 in immuno-oncology, and its clear clinical differentiation related to a novel epitope of CD73, said Dr. Jingwu Zang, Founder, Honorary Chairman and Director of I-Mab. We are pleased to enter into this strategic partnership with the Kalbe corporate family, which is a leader in commercializing innovative therapies in Southeast Asia and other key strategic markets and deepen our relationship with Genexine. We believe this partnership will expand the commercialization potential of TJD5 and other candidates in our portfolio.

I-Mab has a highly innovative and globally competitive pipeline epitomized by products with best-in-class potential such as TJD5. With this novel partnership KG Bio will further strengthen its immuno-oncology portfolio. We are determined to maximize the potential of these products by leveraging our commercial capabilities and presence in the ASEAN, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions as well as Sri Lanka, where demand for breakthrough therapies is growing significantly, commented Sie Djohan, President Director of KG Bio.

If and when I-Mab and KG Bio enter into the definitive licensing agreement for TJD5, I-Mab would be eligible to receive from KG Bio an aggregate amount of up to approximately $340 million, including an upfront payment and subsequent payments conditional upon achieving certain development and commercial milestones. KG Bio would pay I-Mab tiered royalties in the low to mid-teen percentages on net sales from the ASEAN and MENA regions, as well as Sri Lanka.

About TJD5

TJD5 is a differentiated, humanized monoclonal antibody against CD73. CD73 is expressed in tumors and plays a critical role in suppressing immune cells in tumor micro-environment. By binding to a novel epitope and inhibiting CD73, TJD5 is believed to reshape the immuno-suppressive tumor micro-environment and increase T-cell anti-tumor activity. When combined with a PD-L1 antibody in vivo, TJD5 achieved better anti-tumor efficacy. TJD5 is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1, dose-escalation clinical trial in patients with advanced solid tumors in the United States.

About Kalbe Genexine Biologics (KG Bio)

KG Bio is a joint venture between Kalbe Farma of Indonesia and Genexine of South Korea. KG bio is focused on clinical development and the commercialization of novel biologics and monoclonal antibodies in ASEAN, Asia Pacific and MENA. Through innovative technological platform that ensures affordable and high-quality products, KG Bio aims to provide innovative biologic and immuno-oncology products, and better solutions in treating human diseases.

About Kalbe

PT Kalbe Farma Tbk was established in 1966 and is one of the largest publicly-listed pharmaceutical companies in Southeast Asia. It has four main divisions including prescription pharmaceuticals, consumer health, nutritionals and distribution with over one million outlets. Kalbe Farma currently has more than 35 subsidiaries and 12 production facilities with international standards, supported by around 17,000 employees, spread in 76 branches across Indonesia. Since 1991, its shares have been listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX: KLBF)

About Genexine, Inc.

Genexine, Inc., listed on KOSDAQ (095700) since 2009, is a leading biotherapeutics company focused on immuno-oncology and orphan disease. Genexine has a robust pipeline of products in the clinical stage, e.g. Hyleukin-7, HyTropin (GX-H9), Papitrol (GX-188E), etc. based on long-acting Fc fusion technology and therapeutic DNA vaccine technology. Genexine has completed multinational phase II trials and is preparing to apply IND of US Phase III trial for HyTropin (long-acting human growth hormone, hGH-hyFc). Papitrol, a therapeutic DNA vaccine for HPV-associated diseases is under Phase II trial in combination with Keytruda (MSD) for cervical cancer. Founded in 1999, Genexine has over 180 employees, and half of them are scientists with MSc, or Ph.D. Genexine is located in Pangyo Techno Valley near Seoul, Korea.

About I-Mab

I-Mab (Nasdaq: IMAB) is a dynamic, global biotech company exclusively focused on developing novel or highly differentiated biologics in the therapeutic areas of immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases. I-Mabs mission is to bring transformational medicines to patients through innovation. I-Mabs innovative pipeline of more than 10 clinical and pre-clinical stage drug candidates is driven by the Companys Fast-to-PoC (Proof-of-Concept) and Fast-to-Market development strategies through internal R&D and global partnerships. The Company is on track to become a fully integrated end-to-end global biopharmaceutical company with cutting-edge discovery platforms, proven pre-clinical and clinical development expertise, and world-class GMP manufacturing capabilities. I-Mab has offices in China and the United States. For more information, please visit http://ir.i-mabbiopharma.com

Forward Looking Statements

This press release includes certain disclosures which contain forward-looking statements. You can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as anticipate and expected. Forward-looking statements are based on I-Mabs current expectations and assumptions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements, which are neither statements of historical fact nor guarantees or assurances of future performance. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are set forth in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. I-Mab undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law.

For more information, please contact:

I-Mab

Jielun Zhu, CFO

E-mail: jielun.zhu@i-mabbiopharma.com

Office line: +86 21 6057 8000

Investor Inquiries:

Burns McClellan, Inc. (Americas and Europe)

Steve Klass

E-mail: sklass@burnsmc.com

Office line: +1 212 213 0006

The Piacente Group, Inc. (Asia)

Emilie Wu

E-mail: emilie@thepiacentegroup.com

Office line: + 86 21 6039 8363

Media Inquiries (Americas and Europe):

Burns McClellan, Inc.

Ryo Imai / Robert Flamm, Ph.D.

E-mail: rimai@burnsmc.com / rflamm@burnsmc.com

Office line: +1 212 213 0006
It seems like it's all love between American actor Drew Barrymore and her ex-boyfriend Justin Long.

According to E!News 45-year-old Barrymore and Long dated on-and-off over a decade ago. The stars, who acted together in 'He's Just Not That Into You', rekindled their romance on the sets of 'Going the Distance' in 2010. And in the same year, Long accompanied Barrymore to the Golden Globe Awards but not long after that, they called it quits for good.

However, there is no bad blood between the two even after a decade. In fact, there only seems to be fondness and respect.

On Instagram, Paper Magazine shared an appreciation post in honour of the actor. The outlet wrote alongside a series of throwback photos of the actor. "Might get fired for this but. F**k it. Justin Long appreciation post."

"Your [sic] not wrong! He's great," Barrymore commented on the post.

Long replied to the comment by the '50 First Dates' star, "ah what do YOU know?! I feel like I'm on an episode of This Is Your Life #HipMillenialReference texting you a great photo booth pic I just found during my quarantine clean!"

The 'Jeepers Creepers' actor also thanked Paper Magazine for showing him, love. He wrote,"Whoa! This was such a nice unexpected thing to read (I'm afraid to read the comments though haha). THANK YOU. Really. #PaperMagAppreciationComment!"

Recently, in September 2018, a source to E!News shared that they both are single and spending time together, "That is all for now," the insider shared at the time.

The source further shared that Barrymore has a fondness Long and he has always been in her life even if they weren't a couple.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Nationalist govt says emergency powers necessary in crisis but critics fear open-ended rules are vulnerable to abuse.

Hungarys government has passed a law that grants nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban special powers to take extraordinary measures to tackle the coronavirus crisis, sparking concerns that it could lead to an abuse of power.

The law passed on Monday indefinitely extends the state of emergency introduced on March 11, suspends Parliament and introduces jail terms of up to five years for intentionally spreading misinformation that hinders the government response to the pandemic.

Orbans Fidesz party, which has a two-thirds majority in Parliament, pushed through the legislation despite opposition from other political parties, who had demanded a time limit or sunset clause on the law.

Hungary has recorded 15 virus-related deaths and 447 infections, much lower than neighbouring Austria and other Western European countries.

But actual figures may be higher due to the countrys relatively low testing rate.

Hungary has conducted fewer than a quarter of the number of tests that neighbouring Austria has, despite having a larger population. About 13,301 people have been tested in a population of roughly 9.8 million.

Critics say that the open-ended rules are vulnerable to abuse and Members of the European Parliament have called on the European Commission to launch an inquiry into the law.

Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, a French MEP who represents the European parliament on Hungary and the rule of law said: A state of national emergency always comes with a clear deadline. The fact that there is no deadline and Orban can rule by decree, unlimitedly if he wants to, is very worrying. The core democratic thing has been broken.

Mate Szabo, a director at the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, a Budapest based human rights NGO, added: The government will have an uncontrolled possibility to rule the country, which means the abuse of power may be much easier.

Orbans spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs, meanwhile, said the law was quite reasonable and lives are at stake in a Twitter post.

Free speech concerns

Politicians, activists and journalists fear the law could exacerbate the increasingly restrictive space for media freedom, in which pro-government outlets dominate.

The right-wing populist Fidesz party has all but consolidated its control over the media, and has built a parallel reality where government messages and disinformation reinforce each other, Freedom House, a US-based NGO, wrote in its 2019 report.

Ervin Guth, an editor at Szabad Pecs (Free Pecs), one of Hungarys few independent outlets, feared that journalists could be punished for writing something true about the epidemic but which the government sees as causing panic and or setting back their efforts.

Over the past week, the Orban government, aided by pro-government media, has accused independent media outlets of spreading fake news for questioning its preparation and handling of the crisis, such as whether doctors and nurses have proper protective gear, according to the International Press Institute.

Guth said that government communication is not trustworthy. We rarely get answers from official sources, so its very hard to verify information. The independent press tries to identify and localise confirmed cases of coronavirus while officials deny to comment on this. We had several, well-sourced articles on this topic, but due to the new law, its quite possible that we wont have more. This is the climate where we have to work, and we fear that this is getting worse.

Fears that the government may misuse the new law is legitimate and can be grounded said Szabo, claiming that the governing party has used its power in the past for its own political interests.

Critics have said that the Fidesz party, which took power in 2010, has eroded judicial independence, appointed staunch loyalists to key positions and helped oligarchs to buy up most independent media.

Szabo said, This makes the new powers even more alarming.

Constitutional reforms over the past ten years have made parliament weaker and weaker and more and more powerless for the majority, says Delbos-Corfield. The law was not completely unforeseen.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Facebook (FB) Monday announced plans to invest $100 million in the news industry to help the news companies during the time of coronavirus pandemic. The tech giant said it will offer $25 million in emergency grant funding for local news outlets through its Facebook Journalism Project. The remaining $75 million will go to publishers globally through Facebook ad spending. The move comes as advertisers cut back on spending during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. Advertising is a critical revenue stream for news media in the U.S. 'The news industry is working under extraordinary conditions to keep people informed during the COVID-19 pandemic,' Facebook said in a statement. 'At a time when journalism is needed more than ever, ad revenues are declining due to the economic impact of the virus.' Accurate reporting about the disease is also critical during this period as many myths and misinformation about the virus are being spread online. 'If people needed more proof that local journalism is a vital public service, they're getting it now,' Facebook said in a statement. Facebook will focus its grants on the publishers that need them the most in the hardest hit countries in the world. The company would be giving $5,000 to 50 local newsrooms across the US and Canada to cover 'unexpected costs' associated with covering the viral outbreak. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Public gatherings in Australia will be limited to two people in a bid to tackle the countrys rising coronavirus death toll.

Australian officials will use fines and the threat of jail to enforce the new social distancing rule.

New South Wales and Victoria, the countrys two most populous states, will introduce the penalties from midnight on Monday to enforce national rules set by the federal government on Sunday.

Officials said the rate of new infections had halved in the past week under existing restrictions on movement to about 4,200 people nationally, while the death toll rose to 17.

It is only in exceptional circumstances that you should leave home, New South Waless premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said in Sydney. We will get through this. We are in a position now which allows us to control the spread as much as possible.

New South Wales and Victoria will impose fines of between A$1,000 (497) and A$1,600 (795) for breaching their rules.

People could also face six months in jail in NSW.

Australias state and federal leaders have formed an emergency cabinet to coordinate their coronavirus response, as many of the social distancing measures require state-level enforcement, which has led to often contradictory public messaging on issues such as whether schools should remain open.

As well as imposing the two-person limit on public meetings, the small island state of Tasmania became the countrys first state to ban people from alternating between their main home and any second home.

There will not be movement between your shack and your primary place of residence, allowing you to alternate and sleep nights in both, Tasmanias premier, Peter Gutwein, said, using local slang for holiday homes.

The island state reported its first coronavirus death overnight.

On Sunday, Australias prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced a six-month ban on evictions for those who cannot pay their rent.

The announcement came after he unveiled a A$1bn (497m) welfare package boosting mental health care, domestic violence support, public health care services for those self-isolating at home, and emergency food relief.

Meanwhile, Australians returning home by plane were immediately taken into monitored quarantine in hotels or other facilities under police supervision for 14 days.

The countrys borders are closed to all but returning citizens and permanent residents.

In Western Australia state, hundreds of people were due to be taken from the Vasco da Gama cruise ship to Rottnest Island, a tourist destination near Perth, or hotels near the state capital of Perth for quarantine, ship owner Cruise & Maritime Voyages said.

The danger posed by cruise ships has loomed large in Australia after passengers who were allowed to disembark the Ruby Princess liner in Sydney without any medical checks were later diagnosed with Covid-19.

Additional reporting by agencies
Photo credit: Samir Hussein - Getty Images

From Harper's BAZAAR

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have confirmed that why will pay for their own security costs following their recent move to Los Angeles.

Harry and Meghan relocated to California from Vancouver, where they had been living since announcing their intention to step back from their roles as senior royals.

Following their recent move to LA, the couple explained that they havent asked the US government for security resources after President Trump said the country wouldnt support them.

The president tweeted that despite him being a friend of the Queen and the UK, the Sussexes must pay for their security.

I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2020

I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada, Trump wrote.

Now they have left Canada for the U.S. However, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!

Harry and Meghan have reportedly been isolating near Hollywood with their son Archie.

A spokesperson for the couple confirmed: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have no plans to ask the US government for security resources, reports the Evening Standard.

Privately funded security arrangements have been made.

Both Prince Harry and Meghan will officially step down from the royal family and become financially independent tomorrow on 31 March.

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Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday said his government is taking all steps to deal with coronavirus in the state, specially in Indore where 27 COVID-19 cases have been reported so far.

In an interview to PTI, Chouhan assured that the situation in Indore, the industrial hub which has been ranking no. 1 in cleanliness since three consecutive terms, would be brought under control soon.

So far, 47 coronavirus cases have been reported from the state. Of these, the maximum 27 cases have been reported from Indore. Besides, eight cases have been reported in Jabalpur, five in Ujjain, three in Bhopal and two each in Shivpuri and Gwalior.

The state has also reported four deaths- two each from Indore and Ujjain.

"We are ensuring that people follow isolation, social distancing and remain in their houses only, and for that a 21 -day lockdown was announced. We will soon control the situation in Indore, where a three-day complete lockdown is being enforced," Chouhan said.

He urged people to follow the lockdown for their own safety.

He was speaking to PTI after interacting with a Bhopal-based girls' hostel inmates who were stranded here after the lockdown. He went there to know their well-being and assured them that he will take care of all their needs.

"The awareness level of people of Indore is very high and they have proved it by getting the cleanliness award in the country for three times in a row...I assure them that they will not face much difficulty but the three-day lockdown is necessary and therefore it is a total lockdown for three days, he said.

"I have full faith that we will fully control the situation in Indore soon. I appeal to people to follow the lockdown for themselves, their children, friends, for Indore and for the entire state. The state government and the local administration is totally with them," Chouhan said.

Chouhan said his government is ensuring that people follow isolation and social distancing strictly by staying inside their homes.

"I also urge people to follow the 'Lakshman Rekha', as advised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to win the fight against coronavirus," he said.

Chouhan also said he visited the state's control and command centre where arrangements have been made for providing telemedicine facility to people.

Doctors are deployed there and they are answering people's calls, prescribing medicines and making arrangements for providing it also, he said.

"After that also if people have symptoms, then we have made arrangements for their treatment in Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior and Jabalpur and also in Rewa, Shahdol and Sagar, the chief minister said.

Chouhan said his government has also made arrangements for providing food to poor people and labourers, and farmers are also being told not to worry about their crops.

"I will take care of it soon, he said.

Asked about speculations that the 21-day nationwide lockdown may be extended beyond April 14, he said, "As of now it is till April 14. No need to be imaginative. Look forward, people lives are more important. It is essential for us to be healthy. Jaan hai to Jahaan hai."



On the expansion of his cabinet, "Let us deal with the coronavirus first."



Chouhan took oath as chief minister for a record fourth term on March 23 after the collapse of the Kamal Nath- led government in the state.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown in the entire country, Chouhan has been to constitute his council of ministers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India has everything needed to be hub for medical tourism: PM Modi

Forge collaborations for Covid-19 solutions: PM Modi to Indian missions

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Mar 30: Extraordinary times require extraordinary solutions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during a video conference on Monday with 130 Indian missions abroad while referring to the 21-day nationwide lockdown to fight coronavirus.

In a nearly 75-minute interaction, Modi said India had taken "unprecedented" and early steps from mid-January to reduce the risk of importing the coronavirus infection and prevent a large outbreak.

He said it included the worlds largest quarantine and lockdown, according to the ministry of external affairs.

"The prime minister noted that extraordinary times require extraordinary solutions, which was why even in this globalised era, most of the world had quarantined itself," it said.

Modi termed said the lockdown as an unavoidable step to fight the pandemic, adding it was hugely consequential as the closure of the globalised system has had an extensive and far-reaching impact upon the international transport system, financial markets and the global economy.

The prime minister complimented the heads of mission for their efforts to evacuate Indians stranded in some of the epicentres of the crisis and exhorted them to take five specific steps including paying close attention to the evolving international political and economic situation and ensuring their own health and safety as well as of their teams and families.

Modi also asked the heads of mission to attend to Indians stranded abroad due to international travel restrictions and address issues arising out of from their unplanned stay abroad with their host governments.

The prime minister also asked the missions to stay alert and identify best practices, innovations, scientific breakthroughs to deal with COVID 10 and help procurement of medical equipment for Indias fight against the pandemic.

"He also advised Heads of Mission to suitably publicize the newly-established PM-CARES Fund to mobilize donations from abroad," the MEA said.

As the crisis also impacts the economy, Modi advised heads of mission to focus on ensuring that commerce in essential supplies, logistics chains and remittances are unaffected.

Ten heads of mission including from Beijing, Washington, Tehran, Rome, Berlin, Kathmandu, Abu Dhabi, Kabul and Seoul offered their perspectives to the prime minister on the pandemic and overall situation in those countries.

They shared feedback regarding appreciation in these countries of the resolute measures taken by India to combat this pandemic, the MEA said.
The Delhi government Monday informed the Delhi High Court that its officers were going to get in touch with the 275 families of the victims, who were displaced after the northeast Delhi riots, to ascertain whether they require food or medicines.

A bench of justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Navin Chawla was also informed by the AAP government's counsel that mohalla clinics of the northeast district are functional and representatives of each of the families will be provided with the details of nodal officers who can be contacted in case of requirement of medical assistance.

The court, which conducted the proceeding through video conferencing in view of restrictions due to coronavirus, was hearing a plea by Shaikh Mujtaba Farooq seeking direction to the authorities to re-open the relief camp at Idgah in Mustafabad and provide proper food supplies, adequate water, sanitation and security to the victims.

Delhi government standing counsel Rahul Mehra submitted that keeping in view the present situation and also the directions with regard to lockdown issued by the central government, the officers shall get in touch with the representatives of each of the 275 families.

He said their names and telephone numbers have been provided by the petitioner along with the additional affidavit, and ascertain the number of family members and whether they require assistance of food or medicines or curfew pass.

He said that as per their needs, the families will be provided with food packets and medical kits containing over the counter medicines for basic ailments can also be provided to them as per their requirement.

Mehra added that in case any of the families require accommodation, efforts shall be made to immediately place them in appropriate accommodation or relief camps.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioner apprised the court about the issues faced by the riot victims. He submitted that they were initially staying at a camp set up at Idgah but the Delhi government has cleared the camp and the victims have been forced to relocate themselves.

He added that while some of them had to go back to their houses, others have had to accommodate themselves with their relatives and due to the lockdown they are facing severe problems with regard to food and medical help.

To this, Mehra stated that the families which were staying at the camp at Idgah had voluntarily left the camp and were not removed by the police or the government and that now the camp has been removed.

The court said, Without getting into the controversy as to whether the families of the riot victims which were living at the camp at Idgah vacated the camp voluntarily or they were forced to vacate, the fact of the matter is that they are no longer there at the camp at Idgah.

The court listed the matter for April 3 for directions or reporting compliance of its order.

The court, on March 27, had directed the AAP government to ensure that the riot victims, who may be homeless at the moment, were provided with food and accommodation either at the community centres or night shelters.

It had also asked the government to ensure the provision of food, water and medical aid to such individuals.

In February, clashes broke out in northeast Delhi between the groups supporting and opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The heartbroken husband of a Ruby Princess passenger who died from coronavirus has lashed out at the cruise ship company - as he recalled his wife's final moments alive.

Karla Lake contracted the deadly virus while celebrating her 75th birthday with her husband Graeme on the cruise ship before it docked in Sydney 10 days ago.

The couple were among 2,647 passengers who were free to disembark without being screened for the virus and spent several hours in Sydney before they flew to Brisbane.

Ms Lake became the second fatality from the ship when she died in Caboolture Hospital early on Sunday with her devastated husband at her bedside.

Karla Lake (pictured with husband Graeme) died in a Queensland hospital on Sunday after contracting coronavirus on the virus-stricken Ruby Princess cruise ship

'Just to watch your partner pass away, the noise, the breathing and that, for 12 hours,' Mr Lake told Seven News.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

The debacle deepened early Monday morning when three Ruby Princess crew members were stretched off the ship and rushed to hospital for 'severe respiratory problems.'

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases who were on board Ruby Princess has climbed to 215.

Mr Lake also contracted the virus on the cruise that killed his wife and remains in hospital.

'We got it from the cruise ship. I'm very disappointed with the cruise,' he told the network.

'None of us believed there was any sickness on that ship whatsoever. All they wanted to do is get us off that ship.'

The cruise ship holiday was a 75th birthday present from Ms Lake's brother-in-law.

Karla Lake is one of four Ruby Princess cruise ship passengers to die since disembarking

Her shattered family slammed the cruise ship company over what they claimed were a lack of infection control procedures.

'These people had come from a lot of other ports, and there were no (customs) officers looking at quarantined goods or contraband, nor any health officers checking temperatures of people  nothing,' Ms Lake's sister Yvonne Cunningham told the Cairns Post.

'When I spoke to Graeme (this morning), Karlas body was still in the room with him  they were in the one room  and they hadnt removed the body.' she said. 'He was becoming very distressed.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Carnival Australia for comment.

Most of the 2,647 passengers on board the Ruby Princess were free to disembark without being tested for the virus when the vessel arrived in Sydney on March 19

The Ruby Princess is currently off the coast of Sydney with more than 1,100 crew quarantined on board.

The ill crew members rushed to hospital on Monday were taken ashore by a police launch boat in an hour-long operation after the Ruby Princess anchored near Botany Bay.

A spokesman for the Carnival cruise company said the three crew members were suffering acute respiratory symptoms, and thanked authorities for transferring the passengers 'on humanitarian grounds'.

New South Wales has banned all cruise ship passengers from disembarking until new protocols are in place in the wake of the Ruby Princess debacle.
[March 30, 2020] City of Philadelphia Secures Emergency COVID-19 Intervention to Provide Virtual Breastfeeding Support at No Cost to Thousands of Mothers

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Starting today, all new parents in Philadelphia have access to free and unlimited breastfeeding support via telehealth app, Pacify. The Philadelphia Department of Public Health has announced a partnership with leading telehealth company, Pacify Health, as an emergency measure in the face of COVID-19. Access to telehealth services for city residents will begin immediately and will stay in place at least until July 1, 2020. The nation faces a breastfeeding crisis as measures to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 eliminate many in-person healthcare appointments, including lactation consultations. For the more than 5,000 estimated Philadelphia mothers this partnership will impact,1 Pacify will provide video visits with a nationwide network of board-certified lactation consultants, ensuring access to critical support from the safety of home. Pacify users will receive unlimited access to expert help on a wide range of topics, including successful latching techniques, breast pain, maintaining adequate milk supply, pumping, transitioning to solid foods, and more. The program aims to help new moms successfully breastfeed, relieve parental anxieties, and ultimately keep parents and newborns healthy during this global health pandemic. "We know that breastfeeding protects against a variety of diseases and conditions in infants, as well as improves the health of the mother," said Melanie Silverman, MS, RD, IBCLC, Chief Clinical Officer at Pacify Health. "From fewer infant ear infections to decreased maternal postpartum bleeding  breastfeeding keeps moms and babies out of the hospital and ER. Given what's going on right now, that couldn't be more important." The Pacify app connects users to video visits in an average of 30 seconds or less n a 24/7 basis with no appointments or scheduling. More than 90 percent of new mothers who accessed Pacify for lactation support in a recent study by the RAND Corporation were satisfied with the help they received, and the app maintains a 4.9 / 5.0 star rating in the Apple App Store. Consultations typically last ten minutes and the same study demonstrated increased breastfeeding success for mothers who use Pacify.



Free use of the Pacify app will be facilitated through educational efforts from Philadelphia's birthing hospitals, primary care pediatricians, and social services agencies. Users can download the Pacify app from the Apple App Store or Google Play and use code PHILLY to access services free of charge. "Many new families need lactation support once they get home from the hospital," said Stacey Kallem, MD, MSHP, Director of the Division of Maternal, Child, and Family Health at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. "However, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has made it even more challenging for families to access in-person lactation support  that is why we are proud to partner with Pacify to offer free 24/7 tele-lactation services to all Philadelphians who need it. Through this service, residents can connect with lactation counselors who can answer questions and provide support to reach their breastfeeding goals."

About Pacify Health

Pacify Health was founded on the idea that more can be done to use mobile technology to help families access excellent prenatal and pediatric care. Pacify's industry-leading mobile platform provides instantaneous, 24/7 support to new mothers. Mothers who download the app can connect via video-visit with clinicians including nurses and lactation consultants. There are no appointments or scheduling, and calls are answered in an average of less than 30 seconds. Pacify serves a diverse range of mothers via contracts with leading hospitals, employers, Medicaid managed care companies, state Departments of Health, the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, and breast pump manufacturers. In 2019, Pacify was acquired by Advantia Health as part of its commitment to continued investment in technologies that improve the lives and health of women and their families. Advantia is transforming healthcare for all women  setting a higher standard of care and convenience while reducing unnecessary costs. With more than 200 providers and 60 locations across the country, Advantia provides direct healthcare services to over 430,000 patients at our Women's Health Hubs and coordinated specialist offices. Our Health Hubs integrate OB-GYN services, mental health, and primary care, ensuring every woman's health needs are met through quality providers she knows and trusts in one convenient location. 1 An estimated 1,790 babies are born per month in Philadelphia, according to the 2016 city census. This total number of estimated mothers impacted does not include those who are currently in the critical first three months (fourth trimester) immediately after birth. Media Contact

Vanessa Ulrich

(410) 534.1161

[email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/city-of-philadelphia-secures-emergency-covid-19-intervention-to-provide-virtual-breastfeeding-support-at-no-cost-to-thousands-of-mothers-301031326.html SOURCE Pacify Health

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N ato trucks were today delivering protective medical suits and other vital equipment to Italy as part of a new international effort to help Europes most stricken countries fight coronavirus.

The emergency supplies were due to arrive in Milan, the capital of Italys severely hit Lombardy region, after being transported by road from the Czech Republic.

The delivery follows the despatch by the Czechs of a similar cargo of 10,000 protective suits and 90 respirators to Spain last night.

Both deliveries were organised via Natos Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Co-ordination Centre, which has been asked for assistance by Spain and Italy and responded after what it described as a generous act of solidarity in action by the Czech authorities.

The emergency supplies came as Spain, Europes second worst affected country after Italy, today strengthened its lockdown by ordering all non-essential workers to stay at home.

The restrictions will apply until at least April 9 and were announced by the Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

Employees forced to stay at home will be paid but expected to do extra hours in future months to make up the lost time at work. The measures came into force as Spains number of infections surpassed those reported in China, with cases rising today to 85,195. The death toll in Spain rose by 812 to 7,340.

Voice actor Salvador Vives, 78, was named today as one of the victims. He dubbed Jeremy Irons in the 2004 film Merchant Of Venice and Pierce Brosnan in Mars Attacks! from 1996.

The face of Spains fight against coronavirus has tested positive. Fernando Simon, 57, the emergency health director, had been delivering daily updates during televised press briefings.

The head of Spains emergency services has warned that intensive care units are at full capacity in six out of 17 regions in a further sign of the struggle.

Elsewhere in Europe, France was launching an app to measure the number of lives claimed by the virus in care homes.

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In Germany, reported infections were up by eight per cent. The countrys public health agency said today there were 57,298 cases, up 4,751 from yesterday.

The death toll was 455, an increase of 66.
Saudi Arabias Ministry of Health has announced 96 new cases of novel coronavirus (Covid-19), bringing the overall number of people who tested positive to 1,299,a media report said.



A group of 28 infected people have been kept in isolation since their arrival at the entry points in Saudi Arabia. Sixty-eight other persons who contracted the virus through contacts with previous cases are under medical observation, reported Bahrain News Agency (BNA).



"The confirmed cases covered many cities in the Kingdom, including 27 in Riyadh, 23 in Dammam, 14 in Madinah, 12 in Jeddah, seven in Makkah, five in Khobar, two in Dhahran, one in each of Qatif, Ras Tanoura, Saihat, Hafouf, Taif, Khamis Mushait and Tabuk," Saudi Health Ministrys spokesman Dr Mohammed Al-Abd Al-Aali was quoted as saying in the BNA report.



He added that 29 infected patients have recovered after undergoing medical treatment - 25 in Makkah, two in Jeddah and one in each of Dammam and Asir.


United States President Donald Trump said on Monday that he planned to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin and said Saudi Arabia and Russia both went crazy in their oil-price war  a battle begun just as the spread of the coronavirus around the world squashed oil demand.

I never thought Id be saying that maybe we have to have an oil [price] increase, because we do, Trump said in a morning interview with Fox News Channel. The price is so low now theyre fighting like crazy over, over distribution and over how many barrels to let go.

Trump said he would talk with Putin right after the interview and that they would also discuss Russias big problem with the coronavirus pandemic.

After Saudi Arabia-led OPEC failed to convince Russia to agree to deep output cuts earlier this month, Riyadh announced it would start pumping crude with abandon, flooding an already-saturated market that has been further roiled by a contraction in demand from coronavirus business and travel disruptions.

The Saudi announcement caused crude prices to collapse. That poses a serious threat to the US shale oil industry, which has increased its market share in recent years by taking on debt.

We dont want to have a dead industry thats wiped out, Trump said in the interview. Its bad for them, bad for everybody. This is a fight between Saudi Arabia and Russia having to do with how many barrels to let out. And they both went crazy, they both went crazy.

Goldman Sachs analysts said on Monday that oil demands from commuters and airlines, which account for about 16 million barrels per day of global consumption, may never return to their previous levels.

Oil prices fell on Monday, with prices of US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude briefly dropping below $20 a barrel and prices for international benchmark Brent crude falling to an 18-year low.

The crude price collapse has also made it almost impossible for OPEC producers such as Nigeria, Angola, Algeria and Venezuela to compete. The pain from the lost revenue is especially severe for countries struggling to confront the coronavirus pandemic.

The Trump administration is also seeking to persuade the worlds top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, to help stabilize oil markets, and will soon send a special energy envoy, Victoria Coates, to the kingdom.

In addition to oil and the pandemic, Trump said he and Putin would talk about trade and sanctions the US has imposed on Russia.

After Washington imposed sanctions on two units of Russias largest oil producer, Rosneft, in Venezuela, the company said on Saturday it had sold the assets to an unnamed company owned by the Russian government.

The change of ownership means any future US sanctions on Russian-controlled oil operations in Venezuela would target the Russian government directly.

Late last year, Washington slapped sanctions on Russias Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, halting work on the project weeks before it was expected to be finished. Russia says the pipeline will be completed eventually, but the delay could allow increased competition for natural gas markets in Europe. The US is eager to export more liquefied natural gas to Europe.
WOOD RIVER  A dozen cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Madison County, according to the latest figures released Sunday by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH).

The Madison County Health Department reported 11 cases as of Sunday, but the IDPH informed county officials about a positive test result of an individual at an unnamed long-term care facility. It is the first case of novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19, to be connected to a Madison County long-term care facility. IDPH could have more updates in the next 24 hours. The 12 COVID-19 cases reported Sunday for Madison County is up from 10 reported Saturday.

The IDPH also reported Sunday a total of 4,596 cases and 65 deaths statewide, including the first COVID-19 death in the Metro East, which was reported in St. Clair County. That county saw an increase to 31 cases of disease Sunday from 18 on Saturday. The death reported by the St. Clair County Health Department late Friday is included in Sundays statistics.

Clinton County has six reported cases, Monroe County three and Washington County one.

At this point, we should assume that coronavirus COVID-19 is in every community and we know that it spreads easily, said Madison County Health Departments Toni Corona, administrator.

It is imperative that people stay at home, she said. When you do have to leave home to use an essential business, it is vital that you continue to practice social distancing and healthy hygiene to reduce the spread of the virus.

Corona also said a Madison County woman in her 70s, residing at a long-term care facility, tested positive for COVID-19 and was hospitalized late Saturday.

We are conducting contact tracing and working with the long-term care facility to ensure the health and safety of the residents and employees, she said.

Neither the patient nor the facility is being identified by the Madison County department due to patient privacy restrictions.

As of Sunday, the county also had ordered more than 177 tests, and is awaiting results for 45 pending tests.

In Gov. J.B. Pritzker daily press briefing, he talked about the expansion of testing.

He said the state currently has the capacity to perform about 4,000 tests per day, for a total of 27,762. Within one week that figure is expected to reach 10,000 tests daily, Pritzker said.

He noted that the number is significant.

Its the number of tests per day, that the scientists tell us we need, to get a clear picture of the spread of the virus, he said, adding at this time the administration has a rough picture of the spread.

All of the experts point to 10,000 tests as the number we need, he said.

Pritzker said over the next week he would talk about increasing hospital bed capacity and the need for, and efforts to find, personal protective equipment, known as PPE.

He also noted that there have been stories in the news about nurses either being thrown out of their apartments or not being allowed to rent because of fears of the COVID-19 virus.

That will not be tolerated in our state, Pritzker said. Evictions are prohibited during this disaster, but I want to make sure that landlords are not terminating leases.

He also promised legal action against any landlords participating in such activities.

Corona noted it is important to obtain coronavirus information from credible sources only.

Public health is working diligently to provide information, guidance, tips, reminders and updates on a regular basis, she said. Public health is the lead on this global pandemic response with our sole focus being to protect the publics health.

For information visit www.madisonchd.org, www.coronavirus.illinois.gov, www.cdc.gov/coronavirus, and the Madison County Health Department, Madison County Government, and Madison County Emergency Management Association social media sites.

For more about COVID-19 and resources available, visit the Madison County Health Departments coronavirus page at www.co.madison.il.us/departments/health/corona_virus.php or call the Illinois Department of Public Healths coronavirus hotline at 800-889-3931 or dph.sick@illinois.gov for general questions.
Phebean Ajibola Ogundipe, author of famous English textbooks, Practical English and Brighter Grammar has died at the age of 92, Tribune reports.

Mrs Ogundipe, popularly known as P.A Ogundipe, died in Charlotte, North Carolina in the United States on Friday and she was laid to rest on the same day.

Read Also: Country Music Genius, Joe Diffie Dies Of Coronavirus

Ogundipe, Nee Itayemi, was born in Esa-Oke, Osun on 6 May 1927 and she was quite known for writing English Language books such as Brighter Grammar series which she co-authored with M. Macaulay and C.E. Eckersley amongst others.

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She was educated at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and the Institute of Education, University of London.

Upon her return to Nigeria, she became Senior Education Officer and later the Inspector of Education in the defunct Western State of Nigeria, She later became the Principal of the Adeyemi College of Education in Ondo State.

She was recognised by the Federal Government with the national honour of the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) in 1979.
Source: Reuters

Umer Beigh

After scrapping the special status of Jammu & Kashmir in August, the Centre has finally released key leaders of the National Conference, Farooq Abdullah (on March 13) and his son Omar Abdullah (on March 24), both of whom have been the former chief ministers of the erstwhile state. While they remained under detention, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promoted a third front in the form of the Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) headed by Altaf Bukhari.

Rumour is that New Delhi has struck a deal with Abdullahs to reassure their renewed roles for participating in the embedded structure of mainstream politics in the region, which possibly could be an assurance given on land and jobs reservation for the locals. By monopolising the arguments on Article 370, New Delhi single-handedly has won its zero-sum game by completely changing the status quo making mainstreamers redundant once again. It must be remember that the abrogation of J&Ks special status caused more damage to pro-Indian polity than to the pro-Hurriyat section.

During these eight months of uncertainty, the emerging faces might claim to have the capacity to replace the older lot, but New Delhi realises the existence of Omar Abdullah and Peoples Democratic Partys (PDPs) Mehbooba Mufti in the electoral forum will always keep mainstream politics relevant. Seeing the release of Omar Abdullah along with his MP father through these events, commoners don't seem to be thrilled with the release of selected politicians.

For an average Kashmiri, these developments amid the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak are less likely to change their overwhelmingly difficult circumstances  though may are speculating of whether history will repeat itself in Kashmir. Could Omar Abdullah's release be compared along the lines of his grandfather, Sheikh Abdullah, who was forced to make a compromise to safeguard his political career during the 1970s? Then senior Abdullah was pitted against the arch rival Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad. Today Bukhari has volunteered for a similar job after seemingly being pushed by the central government.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

How far the National Conference can manoeuvre itself in a new setup in order to be acceptable to New Delhi's standards will depend on the decisions of its senior leaders. Meanwhile, members of the PDP are still ascertaining whether their leader Mufti poses a major challenge to the evolving power dispensation in Kashmir. However, the reality remains even if Mufti and the Abdullahs assumingly come together to form an alliance, they still have to abide by the new rules set by the Centre.

Going against the latest Union Territory norms will invoke trouble, and the central government knows ways how to choke any kind of dissent in the region.

Amidst this, Bukhari, along with a handful of opportunists politicians, might try to exploit the situation to form a government in the upcoming elections, but junior Abdullah still seems to be first favourite contender for chief ministership as hinted by former intelligence chief AS Dulat. Pertinently, there won't be any win-win situation in this setup for coming into power.

Many Kashmir observers claim that Omar Abdullahs detention was partly imposed and partly assumed to collaborate and evade the burden of collaboration, and can thus be termed as passive collaboration. Considering his position has never been in favour of scrapping J&Ks special status, does this indicate that he will be posing a fight for its restoration? Perhaps his release may only prove helpful in reigniting the political activities that have largely remained suspended since August 5.

However, it remains to be seen how far Omar Abdullah will take the Gupkar Declaration (where mainstream political parties in the Valley decided to join hands to continue the demand for a special status) further, and how much his decisions will avoid the kind of upheaval being witnessed within the PDP. Importantly, the acceptance of key political actors, including Mufti and J&K Peoples Movement chief Shah Faesal to move beyond the calls of restoration of statehood will determine how long their detention under the draconian Public Safety Act will be held.

Finally, the magnitude of the ongoing fight against COVID-19 across India nor the peace process in Afghanistan will distract the Centres focus on having a command over the developments in Jammy & Kashmir. Before the people of Kashmir could assume what was next for them, they have found themselves in another long self-quarantine.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 23:07:02|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- China will encourage companies to expand the production of medical supplies to help the global fight against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while ensuring the quality of these exports, the Ministry of Commerce said Monday.

The ministry said investigations will be carried out into any cases with potential quality issues, and vowed zero tolerance on such issues.

The ministry, together with the General Administration of Customs and the National Medical Products Administration, will issue an announcement requiring that exported medical supplies must obtain relevant qualifications and meet the quality standards of the importing country or region, it said.
First comprehensive estimates from mainland China of the proportion of people with COVID-19 who required hospitalisation, and latest death rate estimates, both show sharp increases with age. Authors warn that without intervention the number of people needing hospital treatment is likely to overwhelm even the most advanced healthcare systems worldwide, though caution that as the pandemic unfolds, it is possible that outcomes could improve and it will be important to revise estimates in this study.

Key findings:

The death rate from confirmed COVID-19 cases is estimated at 1.38%, while the overall death rate, which includes unconfirmed cases, is estimated at 0.66%; these rates are slightly lower than some estimates for COVID-19 to date, which had not adjusted for undiagnosed cases or for the number of people in each age group of a population

Death rates vary substantially, ranging from 0.0016% in 0 to 9-year-olds to 7.8% for people aged 80 and above

Differences in hospitalisation rates by age were reported, increasing with age - with 11.8% of people in their 60s, 16.6% of people in their 70s, and 18.4% of those in their 80s and above estimated to develop symptoms severe enough for hospitalisation

These hospitalisation rates compare with 0.04% of 10 to 19-year-olds, 1.0% of people in their 20s, and 3.4% of people aged 30 to 39. Hospitalisation rates nearly double from 4.3% in 40-49-year-olds to 8.2% in 50-59-year olds Nearly one in five over-80s infected with COVID-19 are likely to require hospitalisation, compared with around 1% of people under 30, according to an analysis of 3,665 cases in mainland China, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

The new analysis also finds that the estimated proportion of deaths from both diagnosed cases and from milder, unconfirmed cases is strongly influenced by age. The estimates are slightly lower than others that have been made for the virus, but are still much higher than for previous pandemics such as 2009 pandemic influenza H1N1, which was estimated to be fatal in around 0.02% of cases [1]. The new estimates are based on an analysis of 70,117 laboratory-confirmed and clinically-diagnosed cases in mainland China [2], combined with 689 positive cases among people evacuated from Wuhan on repatriation flights.

"This study provides critical estimates on the proportion of people requiring hospitalisation which, when applied to the UK population, enabled us to get a handle on how many people might need to access NHS services," says Professor Neil Ferguson from Imperial College London, UK. "As the UK epidemic unfolds, more data are becoming available, and at the moment the proportion of people in each age group most likely to require hospitalisation, and most likely to die from infection, are consistent with the estimates in this study." [3]

The authors warn that as 50% to 80% of the global population could be infected with COVID-19 [4] the number of people needing hospital treatment is likely to overwhelm even the most advanced healthcare systems worldwide. However, they caution that it is possible that outcomes could improve, in which case it will be important to revise the estimates in this study.

"Our estimates can be applied to any country to inform decisions around the best containment policies for COVID-19," says Professor Azra Ghani from Imperial College London, UK. "There might be outlying cases that get a lot of media attention, but our analysis very clearly shows that at aged 50 and over, hospitalisation is much more likely than in those under 50, and a greater proportion of cases are likely to be fatal." [3]

Previous estimates of deaths from confirmed cases of COVID-19 have ranged from 2% to 8% [5], while deaths from overall infections have been estimated at 0.2% to 1.6%. Also, estimates for the proportion of deaths in the oldest age group, the over-80s, have been estimated to be between 8% to 36%. However, these past estimates had not adjusted for the fact that only people with more severe symptoms are likely to be tested, or people in quarantine following repatriation to other countries, so they did not reflect the true number of cases across populations. No previous studies have estimated the proportion of infections that will require hospitalisation.

For the current analysis, a team of international researchers used 3,665 cases from mainland China to estimate the proportion of cases likely to be severe enough to require hospitalisation. To estimate the average time between a person displaying symptoms and dying, they analysed 24 deaths in Hubei Province. The average recovery time was estimated using data from 2,010 international cases, of whom 169 people recovered. Death rates from confirmed cases were estimated using data on 44,672 cases in mainland China [2]. To estimate death rates relevant to the wider population, data from 689 people repatriated from Wuhan to other countries and 3,711 people quarantined on board the cruise liner Diamond Princess were used.

For all the estimates, the researchers assumed that people of all ages are equally likely to become infected, which is consistent with previous studies on respiratory infections.

The analysis found the greatest number of severe cases, requiring hospitalisation, in people in their 50s (222 out of 790 cases), but once the researchers had adjusted for the fact that many milder cases will have gone undiagnosed, the hospitalisation rate is 8.2%, compared with an estimated 18.4% in the most at risk group, the over 80s (51 out of 76 cases before adjustment). 154 out of 743 people in their 40s had severe symptoms, whereas 133 out of 263 people in their 70s had severe symptoms, but the adjusted hospitalisation rates were again even wider apart than the bare numbers suggest: 4.3% for 40 to 49-year-olds compared with 16.6% for 70 to 79-year-olds. Of those in their 60s, 201 out of 560 cases were severe, whereas the adjusted hospitalisation rate was 11.8%.

The hospitalisation rates were lower for younger age groups: 3.4% of people in their 30s are likely to be hospitalised (while the unadjusted number of severe cases was 124 out of 733 cases), whereas for people in their 20s the rate is likely to be 1.0% (49 out of 437 cases before adjustment). There was only one severe case out of 50 for those aged 10 to 19 and the hospitalisation rate is estimated at 0.04%, whereas none of the 13 cases analysed in the under-10s were severe.

The average time between the first recorded symptoms and death from COVID-19 was estimated to be 17.8 days. The authors note that as the data are from early in the epidemic, more people might die following a longer time lag. Recovering from the disease is estimated to take slightly longer, with patients being discharged from hospital after an average of 22.6 days.

Most people will recover, even from severe symptoms. Death rates from confirmed cases were estimated at 1.38% across all age groups (1,023 out of 44,672 cases in mainland China, with unreported severe cases likely to add to the total, requiring the ratio to be adjusted), but the estimates rise rapidly with age. For example, there were no deaths out of 416 confirmed cases in the under 10-year olds, whereas 13.4% of people aged 80 or above were estimated to die (208 out of 1,408 cases before adjustment). [5]

The proportion of all people infected who die from the disease--most of whom will display only mild to moderate symptoms--is estimated to be slightly lower, at 0.66%. Again, the risk of death is much higher in older age groups. For example, 0.031% of people in their 20s are estimated to die, compared with 7.8% of the over-80s.

The authors note that they are unable to adjust for the effect on prognosis of underlying health conditions until individual-level data become available. However, underlying conditions are likely to be correlated with age. Their existence will also vary geographically, particularly between low-income and high-income regions and countries.

Writing in a linked Comment, Dr Shigui Ruan (who was not involved in the study) from the University of Miami, USA, says: "Estimates of case fatality ratios might vary slightly from country to country because of differences in prevention, control, and mitigation policies implemented, and because the case fatality ratio is substantially affected by the preparedness and availability of health care. Early studies have shown that delaying the detection of infected cases not only increases the probability of spreading the virus to others (most likely family members, colleagues, and friends) but also makes the infection worse in some cases, thereby increasing the case fatality ratio."

###

NOTES TO EDITORS

This study was funded by the UK Medical Research Council. It was conducted by researchers from Imperial College London, Queen Mary University London and the University of Oxford.

The labels have been added to this press release as part of a project run by the Academy of Medical Sciences seeking to improve the communication of evidence. For more information, please see: http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AMS-press-release-labelling-system-GUIDANCE.pdf if you have any questions or feedback, please contact The Lancet press office pressoffice@lancet.com

[1] https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001558

[2] Estimated proportions of confirmed cases that will die were based on 70,117 laboratory-confirmed and clinically-diagnosed cases in mainland China from 1 January to 11 February 2020, with values adjusted for demography and undetected symptomatic cases, while crude death rates were based on the 44,672 laboratory confirmed cases.

[3] Quote direct from author and cannot be found in the text of the Article

[4] https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-Global-Impact-26-03-2020v2.pdf

[5] https://institutefordiseasemodeling.github.io/nCoV-public/analyses/first_adjusted_mortality_estimates_and_risk_assessment/2019-nCoV-preliminary_age_and_time_adjusted_mortality_rates_and_pandemic_risk_assessment.html and https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm9020523

Peer-reviewed / Observational study / People
A tornado ripped through Jonesboro, Arkansas, injuring 22 people and leaving a trail of flattened homes and buildings.

Mayor Harold Perrin and other local officials said there were no deaths after the tornado touched down on Saturday in the city, about 130 miles northeast of Little Rock.

Of the 22 injured people, two stayed in the hospital overnight but did not have life-threatening injuries, officials said.

Images posted on social media, including from the Jonesboro Police Department, showed broken walls, flattened commercial buildings and debris scattered across parking lots.

One picture showed a mangled vehicle in the mall parking lot. At the local airport, at least one airplane was overturned, and hangars were damaged.

The search and rescue efforts were completed by Sunday morning, and responders are moving into the cleanup and recovery phases, Craighead County Judge Marvin Day said.

The storm moved across Jonesboro around 5 p.m. local time, according to a video posted by the National Weather Service in Little Rock.

Day said there is a curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., and Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott urged residents to stay home while debris is cleared out of roadways and other common areas.

Weve already asked you to stay at home for this virus but were really stressing to stay at home, Elliott said.

Other Tornadoes in Iowa

Other tornadoes struck Saturday, according to the weather service. A map on its website showed tornado strikes in Arkansas and Iowa, though none appeared to have been as damaging as the one in Jonesboro.

Tornado sightings were reported in Iowa in Black Hawk, Buchanan, Marshall Adams and Adair counties. The weather service map said power lines were knocked down and roofs blown off in Jackson County, Arkansas.

The weather service issued a rare Particularly Dangerous Situation tornado watch for parts of the Midwest through Saturday night.

The states most at risk were Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois.

The-CNN-Wire

 &  2020 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.
BOSTON - Law school students will have to wait to take the Massachusetts bar exam amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Supreme Judicial Court announced that the upcoming exam scheduled for July 28-29 will be postponed until the fall. No new date has yet been chosen.

The Board of Bar Examiners, in consultation with the Supreme Judicial Court, will continue to closely monitor public health and safety guidelines, including prohibitions against large gatherings, related to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a statement from the states highest court.

The exam is a requirement to be admitted to the bar in Massachusetts and practice as an attorney. If the pandemic lingers, the Board of Bar Examiners will explore other means of testing.

In the event that limitations on large gatherings continue to interfere with a fall administration of the Massachusetts bar examination, alternative means for testing of applicants for Massachusetts bar admission will be devised and announced, the statement read.

The application period for the July exam was still open, so it is unclear how many law students must wait for their chances to be admitted to the bar.
: wmrencai (), : JobHunting

 : PONS-Early Career Award|

: BBS  (Mon Mar 30 02:40:58 2020, )











 



   30000









PONS-Early Career Award| Fudan-KCL Early Career Awards in Population

Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS-ECA) in Statistical Genomics and/

or Computational Neuroscience, Fudan and KCL



Location Shanghai, China and London, UK

Salary 300k ~400k/year (34k~44k / year)

Employment period 4 years (2 years in Shanghai and 2 years in London)

Hours: Full Time

No. of Appointment: Up to two appointments



Department and Faculty: Centre for Population Neuroscience and Stratified

Medi-cine (PONS) at the Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-

inspired Intelli-gence (ISTBI) at Fudan University, Shanghai, P.R. China and

the Institute of Psychi-atry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King

s College London, UK.



Information about the PONS Early Career Award (ECA): The PONS-ECA is a

personal award for talented post-doctoral researchers to lead their own

research plans and establish their own research interest and team to make

the transition from post-doctoral researcher to independent investigator.

This fellowship scheme provides competitive salaries, allowing fellows

protected time to fully concentrate on their re-search, training and

development. Applicants are expected to take advantage of the full four

years funding available.



We are seeking talented, energetic and highly motivated individuals with a

track rec-ord of the highest standard in their respective fields and a very

good command of the English language. He/she is expected to have a strong

knowledge of statistical ge-nomics and/or computational neurosciences,

expertise in at least one major program-ming language (e.g. R, Matlab and

Python), a deep familiarity with the application of statistical techniques

to biological data and be experienced in several, but not all of the methods

required in this programme.



The award aims at applying and developing novel (multimodal) genomic and

compu-tational neuroscience methodology to identify and characterise brain

structural and functional networks for mechanistic characterisation and

stratification of behaviour and mental disorders. The successful candidate

will develop a research programme developing comprehensive computational

models to describe and explain human be-haviours and mental disorders based

on multimodal -omics information, such as ge-nomics, epigenomics,

transcriptomics and/or computational neuroscience and neu-roimaging. The

research project will be based upon large scale neuroimaging genomic

datasets and innovative environmental characterisations, including mobile

Health and remote sensing satellite data. The research will involve

comparative analyses of big cross- sectional and longitudinal datasets in

Europe, US and China, as well as data from cohorts currently recruited in

Shanghai. The investigation of genomic and envi-ronmental determinants of

brain structure and functions related to psychopathology are of particular

interest. This research will be based on a series of recent discoveries and

methodological advances published by our group in top journals, including

Nature and Science.



PONS-ECA offers a unique opportunity to work with a worldwide network of

collab-orators and develop cutting-edge approaches in the rapidly growing

field of popula-tion neuroscience in one of the leading research

environments in Europe and the world.



Key Objectives:

>>>> Take a leading role in the analysis of multimodal Comics data (e.g.

genetics and MRI radiomics) and their relation to behavioural measures.

>>>> Apply statistical techniques to dimensionality reduction and prediction

using Comics, neuroimaging and environmental data

>>>> Supervising and carrying out genetic and/or neuroimaging analyses,

including gene expression, methylation, fMRI functional connectivity, data

pre-processing etc.

>>>> The publication and dissemination of data arising from this project

>>>> Attend and present at academic meetings and contribute to the

visibility of the project and its aims.

>>>> Work as a conscientious and committed member of the team in order to

achieve the aims of the project

>>>> Liaise with the administrative team for the support of the project

>>>> Undertake any other reasonable duties that may be relevant to the role

outline

>>>> Assist with the supervision of PhD and MSc candidates



Qualifications:

1) Researchers who will receive PhD soon or graduated within last five years;

2) Under 35 years old. Excellent candidates aged 35 to 38 may be considered;

3) Experience in analysing multimodal Comics (e.g. genetic, gene expression

, epigenetics) and/or Neuroimaging (fMRI, structure MRI and DTI) data;

4) Experience and/or interest in behavioural imaging genetics and

epigenetics.

5) Evidence of the ability to publish in high-impact scientific journals

6) Very good English language skills.



Benefits

1) The initial employment period is 4 years with 2 years at the Institute of

Science and Technology for Brain-inspired Intelligence (STBI), Fudan

University, Shanghai and 2 years at Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and

Neuroscience (IoPPN), Kings College London.

2) Salary is 300k ~400k/year (34k~44k/year).

3) Additional research funding up to 23k provided to support researchers

with excellent ideas and independent capability.

4) Opportunities to top-up salaries up to 10k / year with grant from

Shanghai Government.

5) Opportunities to transfer to faculty position with start-up of 55k~

110k.

6) In accordance with the policies of Fudan University, assist children of

the candidates to apply for admission to kindergartens or primary school

affiliated to Fudan University.



Application Procedure

Please send your application consisting of a personal statement and a CV in

English language, as well as contact information of referees and PDF of key

publications to [email protected] For an informal discussion to find out

more about the role please contact Prof Gunter Schumann: [email protected]

kcl.ac.uk or Dr Jia Tianye: [email protected]



The closing date for this application is 30 April 2020. Interviews are

scheduled to be held in middle May in Shanghai.



Additional Information

Fudan University is one of the top five universities in China, and ranked at

#109 in Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2020. ISTBI is a

leading institute in brain-inspired artificial intelligence, neuroimaging,

biomedical big data and neural engineering in China. More information can be

found from https://www.fudan.edu.cn/en/ and https://istbi.fudan.edu.cn/lnen

/.



Kings College London is one of the top univerisites in the UK and

worldwide (#36 in Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2020) and

part of the Gold-en-Triangle of elite universites in London, Cambridge

and Oxford. IoPPN is a world-class top institute in the field of psychiatry

(ranked #2 in psychiatry/psychology in US News Ranking 2020). More

information can be found from https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/ and https://www.

kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/research/centres/pons/about.











 





--



 :mitbbs.com  Mar 30 02:45:19 2020 [FROM: wmrencai]

 :WWW  mitbbs.com [FROM:172.]


Several students at Jerry Falwell Jr's university have been told to quarantine themselves after the influential right-wing evangelical leader reopened the campus last week despite the growing coronavirus pandemic.

Virginia's Liberty University began housing hundreds of returning students last week as the state's governor announced closures of all K-12 schools through at least the academic year, as well as the closures of all non-essential businesses.

As the university prepared to open last week, Mr Fallwell said he believed he is "protecting" students by keeping them on campus together and that the students are "glad to be back" after spring break. He told the campus news service: "I was joking about how they pretty much had the whole place to themselves, and told all of them to enjoy it."

Officials in Lynchburg, Virginia, where the university is located, did not approve the campus reopening.

The decision to reopen the campus follows his frequent praise of the Trump administration's response to the virus and comments that undermined the threat.

He said: "Thank God [Donald Trump] is managing this Corona Flu like you would expect from a successful CEO v a career politician!"

Earlier this month, Mr Falwell appeared on Fox News to falsely compare the coronavirus pandemic to the flu-like H1N1 outbreak in 2009, saying that "it's just strange to me how so many are overreacting" to the virus. "There was not the same level of hype. You just didn't see it on the news 24/7 and it makes you wonder if there's a political reason for that."

Of the nearly 2,000 students who returned to campus last week, 800 have already left, according to a university statement.

The university  founded by Mr Falwell's father  enrols roughly 100,000 students, nearly half of which are undergraduates. Nearly 60 per cent of Liberty's students live on campus. The private university has amassed more than $2bn in investments and endowments over the last several years.

In a statement, the university said it is "not aware of any students in its residence halls testing positive for Covid-19 or, in fact, being tested at all, much less any residence hall students having sufficient symptoms of Covid-19 prompting the need to get tested" following a report in The New York Times. The statement said The Times published a "false and misleading story" though it confirmed that at least 10 students were asked to quarantine after exhibiting symptoms or being nearby possibly infected people.

Recommended Jerry Falwell Jr tells hundreds of students to return to campus

The statement said that four students who had been in the New York area were told to "self-quarantine" in a "housing annexe" in a hotel a few miles from campus, which the university had obtained for treating sick students. Two agreed to the quarantine and two others "opted to return to their permanent residence," according to the university.

Three other students who were in "close contact" with those students also are quarantined in the hotel.

They were not tested. The university said that the quarantines are "precautionary and not based on any symptoms" of the virus.

Another "off-campus student" with a fever and a cough was tested and "advised to self-isolate" pending the results but "he elected to return to his permanent residence after testing instead," the university reported.

Testing results from another student came back negative.

A recently graduated student also was "advised to self-isolate" based on his reported symptoms while awaiting his test results.

Mr Falwell told The New York Times that the university "will be notifying the community as deemed appropriate and required by law" in response to the possible infections.
New Delhi, March 30 : The government is placing orders with companies for supply of ventilators and Agva Healthcare and Bharat Electronics will supply 40,000 ventilators used for coronavirus patients.

A statement by the Health Ministry said domestic manufacturer AgVa Healthcare in Noida has been able to develop suitable ventilators and an order of 10,000 ventilators has been placed.

Supplies are expected to commence by the second week of April. In addition, an order for 30,000 ventilators has been placed to Bharat Electronics Limited which is going to collaborate with domestic manufacturers in this endeavour. Indian auto manufacturers are also preparing to manufacture ventilators, the statement said.

Orders have also been placed with international companies like Hamilton, Mindray and Draeger to supply ventilators. Ministry of External Affairs is also approaching suppliers in China for sourcing 10,000 ventilators from them.

Ventilators are required for Covid-19 patients, as they tend to develop acute respiratory disease syndrome (ARDS). Less than 20 Covid-19 patients are on ventilator support at this moment. As against this, over 14,000 ventilators have been identified in various hospitals across the country for treatment of Covid-19 patients.

In order to meet the requirement of PPEs, masks and ventilators, factories producing essential items are working round the clock and ordinance factories are trying to produce personal protection equipment for medical personnel. While Bharat Electronics Limited is going to manufacture ventilators, all drug companies have assured the government that there will not be any shortage of drugs during this crisis and even auto manufacturers are working to develop and produce ventilators.

Two domestic manufacturers are supplying N95 masks to the tune of 50,000 masks per day at the moment, but are ramping up capacities to make 1 lakh masks per day within the next week. DRDO is also collaborating with local manufacturers to produce about 20,000 N99 masks per day. This supply is also expected to become available in a week's time.

Hospitals in the country have 11.95 lakh N95 masks in stock as of now. Additional 5 lakh masks were distributed in the past two days and 1.40 lakh masks are being distributed today. 10 lakh masks would be part of the PPE kits being sourced from Singapore.

Personal protection equipment (PPE) kits are used by medical personnel working in isolation areas and intensive care units to protect them from acquiring infections. They were not being manufactured in the country. With the prospect of huge requirement of PPEs arising in the near future, the government is making efforts to promote their manufacturing in the country.

Ministry of Textiles and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have been working together in this endeavour. 11 domestic manufacturers cleared quality tests. Orders for 21 lakh PPE coveralls have been given to them.

Currently they are supplying 6,000-7,000 coveralls per day and this is expected to go up to 15,000 per day within the next week. One more manufacturer has qualified today and an order of 5 lakh coveralls has been placed with him.

As of now, 3.34 lakh PPEs are available in various hospitals across the country. About 60,000 PPE kits have already been procured and supplied by the government. Indian Red Cross Society has arranged 10,000 PPEs from China which have also been received and are being distributed. Another 3 lakh donated PPE coveralls are to arrive shortly. An order for 3 lakh PPEs has been placed with ordinance factories.

Foreign sources of PPE kits are also faced with a huge increase in the worldwide demand. They are being approached through the Ministry of External Affairs. A Singapore-based online platform has been identified which can supply 10 lakh PPE kits and an order has been placed through Ministry of External Affairs to procure them. Another supplier based in Korea, who has tie-ups with production companies in Vietnam and Turkey has been identified.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
A 41-year-old man tested positive for coronavirus in Rajasthan on Monday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 60, an official said.

The man is a resident of Ladakh and had been evacuated from Iran. He had landed at the Jodhpur airport on March 25.

The man was in a quarantine facility and developed symptoms. He tested positive (for coronavirus) on Monday, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Rohit Kumar Singh said. He added that the total number of coronavirus positive cases in the state has risen to 60.

Rajasthan is under lockdown since March 22 and massive survey and screening is underway, officials said.

A batch of 277 people, evacuated from Iran, had landed at the Jodhpur airport in Rajasthan last Wednesday.

Upon preliminary screening of the evacuees, mostly pilgrims, conducted at the airport, they were taken to the Army Wellness Facility set up at the Jodhpur Military Station.
Burma Bridegroom Arrested for Throwing Wedding Party Amid Ban on Public Gatherings in Myanmar

Nan Phar Lone Market in Sagaings Tamu Township. / The Irrawaddy

YANGONA bridegroom in Sagaing Region has ended up in a police cell after he held his wedding reception in defiance of the regional governments ban on public gatherings amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bridegroom, Htein Lin Shein, organized his wedding reception at his village Khun Mun Newn in Sagaings Tamu Township on Saturday. Myanmar had already confirmed 10 COVID-19 cases as of Sunday evening, including one in Chin State, which borders with Sagaing Region.

Local authorities made both verbal and written requests to the bridegroom to postpone the reception, but after he proceeded with the wedding anyway, they sought the approval of Social Affairs Minister Dr. Zaw Win to file a lawsuit against the bridegroom. Dr. Zaw Win told The Irrawaddy that he gave approval for the suit.

Deputy Administrator of the Tamu Township General Administration Department U Kyaw Kyaw Lin filed the lawsuit with the township police station against Htein Lin Shein under the 2013 Natural Disaster Management Law.

The bridegroom has US citizenship and arrived back in Tamu on March 20, according to Sagaing Region lawmaker U Myint Naing Oo.

The health department and authorities have banned public gatherings. But he violated this and a lawsuit was therefore filed against him. I heard he is being detained in a police cell, U Myint Naing Oo told The Irrawaddy on Sunday.

The bridegroom faces a lawsuit under Section 30 (a) of the Natural Disaster Management Law for failing to comply with the directives of the relevant department, organization or person assigned by the law to perform any of the natural disaster management [sic]. The statute carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison, a fine or both.

Local authorities in Tamu also imposed a bylaw on Thursday banning travel into and out of the town between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m..

A total of 10 COVID-19 cases have been reported in Myanmar in Yangon, Mandalay, Naypyitaw and Chin State.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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Press Release

March 30, 2020 Dispatch from Crame No. 757:

Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Statement on the need for more Testing Facilities Last Friday, RITM discovered that Rep. Erick Go Yap of ACT-CIS Partylist is actually negative for COVID-19, and later adopted the political version of "proper handwashing technique" by attributing the mistake to an individual who was "enlisted as augmentation staff outside regular workforce of the laboratory." In another news report, RITM admitted that it is taking them a week before it could release results of COVID-19 tests, compared to their normal processing time of 24 to 48 hours. Even if DOH has tapped its five (5) subnational laboratories in Davao, Cebu, Baguio, Manila and Quezon City to do their share in testing, these additional laboratories will still face the same problems that RITM is facing - backlogs and delay, high risk of error, lack of manpower and incapacity to process mass testing. Last week, Marikina City was twice turned down by DOH for their COVID-19 testing efforts. First, Marikina City's whole 6th Floor Health Office was rejected by DOH since it failed to meet safety and biosafety standards, and subsequently, government run-Amang Rodriguez Medical Center in Marikina, was also rejected because it didn't have adequate space to house the testing machines. Malaki bang kabawasan sa gobyerno kung payagan nito ang mga LGUs tulad ng Marikina na tumulong sa pagtest para sa COVID-19? Imbes na pigilan ay dapat tulungan ng gobyerno na mahulma ang mga creative at resourceful na responses ng mga LGUs lalo na ukol sa mass testing sa kani-kanilang lugar. Gaya ng nasabi ko na: lubhang mahalaga ang agarang mass testing. A lot of things depend on early detection and identification of as many COVID-19 carriers as possible. In the case of South Korea, around 9,332 people were infected but with only 139 deaths. What is South Korea's secret? The trace, test and treat strategy. South Korea has been aggressive in testing that it rolled out 118 facilities, not to mention the innovative drive-thru COVID 19- testing facilities. Our government must imbibe this attitude from the South Koreans in their fight against COVID -19. Let us listen to their Vice Health Minister, who said: "First, public participation must be secured through openness and transparency. Second is to respect creative thinking and use cutting-edge technology to develop the most effective means of response."
Coal India arm NCL has set up a quarantine facility with 200 isolation beds to help in containing the spread of Covid-19, an official said on Monday.

Besides, the company said it will contribute one-day salary of its employees to PM CARES fund.

"The company (Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL) has...established 200 quarantine/isolation beds to fight with COVID-19 and... (will) contribute one-day salary of its about 15,000 employees in PM CARES FUND to help fight this pandemic," the official said.

NCL has achieved its assigned coal production and offtake targets of 106.25 million tonnes (MT) for FY'20 on last Friday, four days ahead of fiscal completion.

NCL is the first subsidiary of CIL achieving its annual targets.

The company till Sunday produced 107.23 MT of coal, surpassing its annual target of 106.25 MT production on Friday with a 6.15 per cent y-o-y growth rate, the official said.

Similarly, the company's coal offtake remained at 106.90 MT till last Sunday and it surpassed its annual target of 106.25 MT on Friday with a 5.90 pet cent y-o-y growth rate.

"The company has achieved the huge targets because of consistent efforts of each and every member of Team NCL. Even after the corona outbreak the team is working round the clock to fulfil energy aspirations of the nation. I congratulate all members and stakeholders of the company on this success," NCL chairman and managing director P K Sinha said.

In order to meet the country's energy requirements, the company has supplied 86.30 million tonnes of coal to powerhouses in the financial year 2019-20 which is more than 80 per cent of its total coal output.

NCL contributes 15 per cent of country's coal production. The company operates only opencast mines engaging heavy earth moving machines.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PKK's top woman terrorist neutralized by Turkish forces

Nazife Bilen was among the founders of the PKKs women branch after receiving political and military training from the jailed leader of the PKK terror group, Abdullah Ocalan.

Turkey on Monday neutralized a terrorist said to be a top-ranking woman member in the PKK/KCK in northern Iraq, according to security sources.

SHE WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE TRAINING OF WOMEN TERRORISTS

The intelligence and army-led operation successfully targeted Nazife Bilen -- codenamed as Hacer Guyi or Hacer Hilal -- in the Qandil region, the sources said, making it the most sensitive operation ever targeting a woman operative of the terror group.

Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) started gathering instant information about the target through the local network elements it established in the region months ago, the sources said.

MIT also carried out detailed works to prevent civilians from being affected by the operation, and to destroy the target with a single shot.

Bilen was one of the six members of the so-called KCK executive council. She was among the founders of the PKKs women branch after receiving political and military training from Abdullah Ocalan, now the jailed leader of the PKK terror group, in Syria and Lebanon.

Experts believe the absence of Bilen will affect the morale and motivation of the PKK/KCKs women group at the first stage, adding that such a high level of loss for the first time in Iraq will have short and mid-term effects on the terror group.
America's oldest restaurant Delmonico's is among eateries and bars across the country raising money on GoFundMe for their employees who have been laid off during the coronavirus lockdown.

New York City's 182-year-old restaurant, Delmonico's, shared news of their efforts to raise $200,000 for their employees over the weekend.

As of Monday morning, they have raised a little over $2,800 toward their goal.

'It is with much sadness that Delmonico's was forced to temporarily close our doors. As America's oldest restaurant, this is an extraordinary moment for us,' the Delmonico's team wrote on their GoFundMe page.

New York City's 182-year-old restaurant, Delmonico's (pictured in April 2016), shared news of their efforts to raise $200,000 for their employees over the weekend

Delmonico's temporarily shut their doors and 'suspended all operations' as part of the lockdown on March 18. This image shows cooks preparing food at Delmonico's in 1902

'During this time of uncertainty many of our guests, friends, and neighbors have asked what they can do to financially assist the Delmonico's staff impacted by this profound event.

'We have set up a Delmonico's Employee Relief Fund to support our coworkers. Any contributions during this difficult time means more to us than you will ever know,' the team added.

Delmonico's temporarily shut their doors and 'suspended all operations' as part of the lockdown on March 18.

Other restaurants have made similar moves to support their employees.

New York is currently the hardest hit state with more than over 59,000 cases and at least 965 deaths.

In New York City alone, there are more than 33,000 cases of the coronavirus with more than 670 deaths.

New York restaurateurs like Matter House and Grovehouse have also set up GoFundMe accounts after they suspended all operations at their restaurants across the city.

Other restaurants have made similar moves to support their employees. Matter House, which owns multiple restaurants, including Estela (pictured) has raised more than $74,000 toward its $300,000 goal

Flora Bar (pictured before the pandemic) which is owned by Matter House, has also been fully shutdown

Matter House has raised more than $74,000 toward its $300,000 goal and Grovehouse has raised more than $124,000 toward its $250,000 goal.

Grovehouse shutdown its Brooklyn restaurants Misi and Lilia.

Matter House shuttered its Estela, Flora Bar, and Cafe Altro Paradiso establishments.

Also in New York, the Olmsted & Maison Yaki teams set up a GoFundMe that has raised more than $72,000 toward their $200,000 goal.

The owners of Contra and Wildair are seeking $200,000 for their employees after being forced to shut their doors. They've raised more than $44,000 toward their goal.

Death & Co's owners are trying to raise $50,000 for their employees and have more than $32,000 toward that goal on GoFundMe.

Across the United States, restaurateurs are transforming operations to try to stay afloat.

The National Restaurant Association warns the outbreak could cost 5 million to 7 million jobs and hundreds of billions in losses and is pushing for a special federal relief package for restaurants.

New York is currently the hardest hit state with more than over 59,000 cases and at least 965 deaths

In New York City alone, there are more than 33,000 cases of the coronavirus with more than 670 deaths

Frisch's Big Boy restaurants, a Cincinnati-based chain that laid off more than a third of its 5,000 employees in the first days of bans on in-restaurant dining, has pivoted into the grocery business.

Besides its signature Big Boy double-decker burgers and onion rings, customers at its 100 restaurants in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky can buy bread, milk and and produce at its drive-thrus and carryout counters and via home delivery.

Westmont Diner in Westmont, New Jersey, has added toilet tissue to its carry-out options at 60 cents a roll, along with paper towels, soap, bleach and other household needs.

Lindey's in Columbus, Ohio, throws in a free roll of tissue with all takeout orders. Frontier in Chicago gave out decks of cards to homebound customers with their carryout dinners.

Also in Chicago, celebrity chef Rick Bayless has launched an effort to help restaurant workers who have been laid off during the coronavirus pandemic.

One of the award-winning Chicago chef's restaurants that's currently closed, Frontera Grill, will host an operation paying laid-off workers to make 30-pound boxes of food, including produce, bread and meat.

The boxes will be available for pickup at restaurants throughout the city.

'This project can touch the lives of many thousand displaced workers,' Bayless said.

The plan is to process 800 boxes each week. The effort is being funded by a $250,000 anonymous gift in partnership with US Foods, a Rosemont-based food distributor.

With the number of states with stay-at-home orders growing, some restaurateurs decided to shut down altogether.

Cameron Mitchell, based in Columbus, said carryout offerings weren't bringing in enough business to keep his namesake chain of 36 restaurants in 12 states going. More than 4,000 employees have been laid off.

Some fine-dining restaurants unused to carryout are trying scaled-down menus at bargain prices.

In Chicago, patrons can now carry out food for a fraction of the typical dine-in tab at Alinea, where nabbing a seat typically requires reservations weeks in advance and dinners can cost as much as $395 per head.

Alinea now offers takeout meals of beef wellington, mashed potatoes and creme brulee for $39.95, and reports strong sales so far.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti said Monday that with Californians under a stay-home edict, restaurants are allowed to deliver alcoholic beverages along with meals to boost their revenues.




Lonnie David Franklin Jr., an infamous serial killer known as 'The Grim Sleeper', has reportedly died in prison at 67-years-old on Saturday.

Corrections authorities found Franklin unresponsive in his cell on death row at the San Quentin State Prison. Officials said there were no signs of trauma but are still waiting for the results of the autopsy for confirmation.

Prison officials said the serial killer was found dead on March 28 at around 7:20 in the evening. Medical assistance was summoned and pronounced his death at 7:43 PM.

Franklin had been waiting on death row since August 2016 after he was charged for the murder of nine women and a teenage girl. Authorities linked him to 14 deaths but believe he may have had more than 25 victims.

His youngest victim was a 15-year-old runaway who was found strangled in an alley in 2002.

Murder Spree

The Grim Sleeper was a moniker coined by LA weekly in 2018. He flew under the radar for decades, largely due to his victims which mostly involved prostitutes and drug addicts.

Authorities did not disclose the cases to the public. The media also remained indifferent. Both factors allowed Franklin to continue his operation without much challenge. Some of the murders were connected through ballistic and genetic evidence, but authorities lacked the DNA needed to definitively prove a connection.

Franklin was arrested after a victim and the only known survivor, Enietra Washington, escaped and reported the crime to authorities. Her testimony helped prove the case against the Grim Sleeper, Lonnie.

Franklin was known to keep photos of his victims which were found after authorities combed through his home following his arrest. The police department found more than 1000 photos and videos that involved women, some of whom were found to be his victims.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) released the photos to the public in hopes someone would be able to identify the women in the photographs. The photos showed several women in sexual poses, some of whom appeared to be unconscious or dead.

To this day, 35 women are still unidentified.

Catching the Grim Sleeper

Franklin was connected to the murders after authorities re-examined the old cases. They discovered their database had a similar DNA profile to that of genetic evidence collected on one of the victims.

After police determined the DNA belonged to his son, investigators followed Franklin to a pizza place where a detective posing as a busboy successfully collected the killer's DNA from a pizza slice.

Police made the arrest in 2010 as Franklin was walking out of his home he shared with his wife and two children.

He was sentenced to death 31 years after the death of his first known victim. The victim, who was killed in 1985, was shot three times in the chest with a .25 caliber gun---the same weapon Franklin would go on to use in nine other crimes.

His arrest has brought to light questions on why it took the Los Angeles Police Department 25 years to hold him accountable for the deaths of at least 10 victims. Many communities suggest it may have something to do with the victims being women of color.

A news report suggested the delays are a result of politicking as new cases were discovered during an election year.

Investigations are still ongoing as detectives try to uncover whether Franklin, who once worked for sanitation, had disposed of more victims, undetected.

Watch the LAPD's interrogation with 'the Grim Sleeper' Lonnie Franklin below:





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OkCarz details a diversity of used Ford models. Pictured is the 2020 Ford F-150.

Car shoppers in the Central Florida area are encouraged to consider a used Ford at OkCarz. As one of the worlds most famous brands, Ford offers a large array of models for shoppers to select from. Since the list of vehicles is huge, OkCarz is helping shoppers research by reviewing three unique and popular Ford models. The three Ford models being focused on are the Ford Fusion, Ford F-150, and Ford Escape.

Designed for individuals and families alike, the used Ford Fusion is a midsize sedan with a big personality. Spacious and powerful, the Fusion is a top pick among drivers searching for a reliable first car or an affordable replacement. To research the used Ford Fusion, check out the model research page.

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OkCarz is located at 1200 W. Memorial Blvd. in Lakeland, Florida. Shoppers who wish to learn more about the dealership or would like to browse the online inventory can do so at http://www.okcarz.com. Customers interested in speaking with a sales representative are encouraged to contact the dealership directly at 863-904-2125.
An iconic Sydney running track could be shut down after thousands of runners and cyclists blatantly ignored social distancing rules over the weekend.

The Bay Run, a seven-kilometre path encircling Iron Cove in the city's inner west, was flooded with fitness addicts on Sunday despite government advice to stay indoors to slow the spread of coronavirus.

Burwood Police Area Command said they had received multiple reports of people ignoring social distancing rules around the bay.

Thousands of runners and cyclists flooded the popular track known as Bay Run, located in Sydney's inner west, on Sunday despite restrictions in places to stop the spread of coronavirus

The City of Canada Bay Council said it would be forced to shut down the popular path if residents couldn't follow the rules and stay at least 1.5 metres apart.

'It is vital at this time that our community follow the direction of health authorities to slow the spread of COVID-19,' the council said.

'Similar to other popular recreation sites in Sydney, if the public cannot follow the correct protocols access to the Bay Run may need to be restricted.'

Many people took to social media as they bragged about their workouts while ironically using the 'Stay Home' tag created by Instagram to encourage self-isolation.

Runners and cyclists were filmed in close proximity and travelling in groups of up to four people as they travelled along the path.

The City of Canada Bay council warned if residents could not follow social distancing rules the popular path would be shut down

WHAT IS SOCIAL DISTANCING? Social distancing is a term used by health authorities to help slow the spread of coronavirus by keeping an appropriate distance between people. Australian health authorities recommend at least 1.5 metres between each person at all times. This is because coronavirus can be transmitted by: Coughing

Sneezing

Being in the same space for a long period

Touching the same surface Social distancing also refers to limiting physical contact with each other as much as possible which has led to authorities encouraging people to work from home, avoid crowded spaces and public transport as much as possible. Source: Australian Department of Health Advertisement

While outdoor exercise is still allowed, Australians have been told to maintain a 1.5 metre distance from each other at all times to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Residents in the local area said the amount of activity in the area has recently spiked and needed to be clamped down on.

'I live on the bay run and the pedestrian traffic has increased during our supposed lockdown,' they said.

'Some clear direction and enforcement needs to be done at all similar locations.'

Others said they had been exercising in the area and found it difficult to maintain social distancing rules.

'I went very early for a walk on Tuesday and was so mindful of social distancing however there where mums with strollers walking abreast sipping coffee acting like nothing had changed. This has to stop or close it down,' one woman said.

It comes as the government introduced its next wave of strict social distancing rules as cases of coronavirus continued to rise to 4,167 as of Monday morning

It comes as the government introduced its next wave of strict social distancing rules as cases of coronavirus continued to rise to 4,167 as of Monday morning.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday people would be banned from gathering in groups of two or more people.

Victorians who are caught outside with more than one other person will be slapped with a $1,652 on the spot fine from Tuesday.

New South Wales is expected to follow suit and has warned punishments for flouting the new measures would most likely be in line with previous restrictions, which have been enforced under the Public Health Act.

Breaches of the Act currently carry $11,000 fines, six months in jail or a $1,000 on-the-spot police fine.
Conakry, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 31st Mar, 2020 ) :The United States on Monday cast doubt on the credibility of Guinea's recent constitutional referendum, which critics fear was a ploy to extend President Alpha Conde's grip on power.

Guinea voted on March 22 on whether to adopt a new constitution, which the government has argued is needed to enshrine gender equality in the West African state, among other things.

But the proposal proved hugely controversial, provoking mass demonstrations in which at least 32 people have been killed, according to an AFP tally.

The political opposition has said that scores of people also died in unrest on polling day -- when parliamentary elections were also held -- although the government has said that only a few deaths occurred.

Guinea's Independent National Electoral Commission said last week that 91.59 percent of ballots were in favour of adopting the new constitution, with only 8.41 percent against.

The turnout rate was about 61 percent, it added.

On Monday, the US embassy in Guinea's capital Conakry released a statement saying it was "deeply concerned about the political divisions" in the country.

"Our own observations, and government reports of closed or ransacked polling stations, bring into question the credibility of the announced turnout figures and results," the statement said.

The United States is the latest country to cast doubt on the credibility of the poll. France, the former colonial power, as well as the European Union have released similar statements.

The new Guinean constitution would limit presidential terms to two but extend the length of each term to six years.

The opposition fears the changes would also reset presidential terms to zero, potentially enabling Conde, 82, to govern for another 12 years.

Conde has not denied that he might use the proposed changes to seek another term when his second and final runs out this year under the current constitution.
The recommendations include having the confirmed case isolate at home for at least seven days from either showing symptoms or the positive test, whichever happened first. In addition, anyone else who was directly exposed should be sent home to self-isolate for 14 days from the time they were last exposed. And, if possible, the areas used by the person should be closed so they can be thoroughly disinfected.
NFU Cymru has warned that the food supply chain is 'vulnerable to disruption' as consumer demand changes due to the coronavirus.

The union has written to MPs and Welsh AMs to underline some of the challenges facing the industry at this unprecedented time.

It comes as food retailers continue to see stock fly off their shelves during the Covid-19 pandemic.

John Davies, president of NFU Cymru, reiterated to politicians in Westminster and Cardiff Bay that farmers will rise to the challenges that lie ahead.

In his letter, he warned, however, that the UK's supply chains are 'highly complex' and 'vulnerable to disruption'.

Supply chains are currently adjusting to changing consumer demand as they orientate away from the foodservice sector and towards the differing needs of retail outlets.

Mr Davies said: "This is likely to continue to cause some considerable difficulties in the short to medium term but should not unfairly impact on the farm gate price.

As primary producers we rely not only on having an outlet for what we produce, but also on the ability to bring essential inputs onto farm, such as fuel, fertiliser, veterinary supplies and animal feed.

"If our ability to bring any of these key inputs onto farm is disrupted, then it goes without saying that this will have an impact on our ability to produce outputs such as milk, livestock and crops.

In his letter to AMs and MPs, Mr Davies provided examples of issues in the dairy and livestock sectors that are causing concern for farmers.

Earlier this week, prices received by farmers for their lambs fell significantly as buyers become increasingly concerned about consumer demand and the ability to get product into export markets.

For milk, the first two weeks of March saw retail demand increase by 15-20% whilst the food service sector saw a 70% drop in demand as consumers stayed away from cafes and restaurants.

Mr Davies said: The UK liquid milk market is equally split between the proportion of milk which goes into the retail sector and the proportion which goes into food service.

"The increased demand in the retail sector was not, unfortunately, sufficient to offset the decreased demand from the food service sector.

Speaking about the livestock sector, he said: "Our livestock markets have introduced stringent new protocols to ensure social distancing, it is vital that we keep our livestock marketing options open.

Production cycles in agriculture are of course long and complex and cannot be adjusted easily or quickly in response to rapidly changing demand, something which makes our sector especially exposed to such a volatile marketplace.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 17:46:20|Editor: huaxia

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HANGZHOU, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation said Monday they will donate additional urgent equipment to hospitals in Europe to assist their fight against the novel coronavirus.

A total of 800 ventilators, 300,000 sets of protective gowns and 300,000 face shields will be delivered to hard-hit countries in Europe, Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group, posted on his Twitter account.

The Electronic World Trade Platform smart logistics hub, which was jointly built by the Belgian government and Alibaba at Belgium's Liege Airport, has played an important role in processing relief goods from China to Europe.

Cainiao, Alibaba's logistics subsidiary, will increase its charter cargo flights between east China's Hangzhou city and Liege to five a week to send relief goods to Europe.
DETROIT, MI -- Detroit continues to ramp up coronavirus COVID-19 testing as it prepares a 900-patient, FEMA-led field hospital in the downtown TCF Center, formerly known as Cobo Center.

We have to make theses tests available to every single Detroiter ... even if you dont have insurance, even if you dont have a car, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said during a press conference at the Detroit police headquarters Monday, March 30. Now that weve worked out the testing protocols and we have the labs, were now going to make sure that we reach everybody.

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Friday dubbed Metro Detroit a hot spot for the coronavirus along with Chicago, New Orleans and New York.

Detroit Chief Public Health Officer Denise Fair on Monday said with expanded testing, the number of confirmed cases are expected to increase dramatically."

There were 5,288 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 158 deaths reported in Metro Detroit, including Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties, on Monday, an increase of 794 cases and 48 deaths since Sunday.

Detroit accounted for 1,801 of those confirmed cases and 52 deaths, based on information released by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on Monday.

What is happening in this country is most places have very limited testing, Duggan said. "The more testing you have, the more infections you find.

I guarantee you the Detroit positives will continue to grow because we are doing far more tests than anybody else.

Detroit on Friday launched a drive-through test site at the former Michigan State Fairgrounds near Eight Mile Road and Woodward. Nearly 660 tests were conducted Monday alone, Duggan said. It is taking three to four days on average to receive results and any resident of Macomb, Oakland or Wayne counties with a doctors prescription may get tested.

Duggan said they are working on reducing the threshold to receive a prescription in order to test more people.

The Detroit Police Department continues to struggle with staffing as officers are quarantined due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was announced that Detroit Police Chief James Craig tested positive for the coronavirus Friday.

I just got off the phone with Chief Craig, whos very strong and hes very much in charge, Duggan said. Hes calling in barking orders at his command staff on an hourly basis and he wants everyone to know that his body is fighting off this infection.

Three Detroit-based law enforcement employees, Detroit Police Capt. Jonathan Parnell, a 38-year-old Detroit police 911 dispatcher and Commander Donafay Collins of the neighboring Wayne County Sheriffs Office, all died recently after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Duggan said, as of Monday, there were 493 sworn police off duty and under quarantine. Thats more than 22% of the 2,200-officer force. Another 69 police have tested positive for COVID-19 and 105 civilians employed by the department are under quarantine, Duggan said.

Duggan said 173 quarantined officers are in the process of being brought back" and the 37 new quarantines over the weekend were by far the smallest number of new quarantines" in 10 days.

This process of taking the officers temperature as they come in for each shift, giving them two sets of masks for each shift, enforcing social distance in these stations -- nobody wants to declare success after two days but it was extremely reassuring to see that go that direction," Duggan said. If the trends continues for the next few days, the manpower issues at the Detroit Police Department will be in good shape.

The stay-at-home order has helped the depleted department to keep pace with the call volume. Duggan said there were 40% fewer crimes reported last week compared to the week prior.

The mayor said Detroit has entered into a contract with Lake Bluff, Illinois-based Abbott Laboratories to receive 5,000 instant testing kits that the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency approval for on Friday.

Not only will it tell you in 15 minutes (if you are positive or negative for the coronavirus), it has sensitivity that it can spot the virus very early on, well before theres symptoms," Duggan said. " ... In the next week, the city of Detroit -- if not the first -- will be one of the first cities in America that will deploy the instant testing kit."

The tests are being reserved for emergency and medical personnel.

Duggan is attempting to create a network of transportation providers and physicians to help residents get prescriptions and rides, if needed, to the fairgrounds testing site. Anyone willing to assist is asked to call 313-361-0093.

The number of confirmed cases statewide continues to rise. There were 6,498 confirmed cases and 184 deaths reported Monday.

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PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops ) and when you go into places like stores.

Read more on MLive:

Detroit hospitals see tsunami of coronavirus cases

In Michigans coronavirus crisis, testing may not matter for sick individuals. But for public health, its key.

Doctors on front lines of Michigans coronavirus crisis: It seems like the sky is falling

Michigan state Rep. Issac Robinson dies

Monday, March 30: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Coronavirus cases in Michigans prisons double over weekend
A Longford county councillor has said he holds no regrets over confronting a group of youths following a house party in Drumlish at the weekend and just hours after the country went into full lockdown mode.

The Fine Gael representative has been at the centre of a social media storm after an incident in which a gang of teenagers were found drinking close to the Mill in the north Longford village on Saturday morning.

Cllr Brady said he first came across a group of four teenagers at around 11am and asked them to ensure any disused cans or bottles were taken away with them.

A short time later, Cllr Brady said he returned the spot and found several items discarded in the river, causing him to challenge the same group of teenagers for a second time.

"A man I know rang me after that to tell me they hadn't bothered to do what I had asked twice, so he said 'What should I do?'" said Cllr Brady.

"I said to him: 'Ring the guards' and the next thing I saw was the same fellas walking up the road. I just said: 'Lads, I asked you nicely to tidy up the mess'."

The local farmer, who also sits on the County's Joint Policing Committee (JPC) said his annoyance at what had gone before exacerbated when he noticed one of the group recording the incident on his mobile phone.

"I spotted your man on the phone and I just said: 'Do you think this is a funny joke?'"

It's believed the incident followed a house party which had taken place in Drumlish the night beforehand, raising fears over social distancing concerns in the face of a growing coronavirus pandemic.

It also came just hours after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar addressed the nation and effectively enforced a nationwide shutdown in an attempt to stop the spread of a virus which has already claimed the lives of almost 50 people.

Most recent figures released last night showed the county has ten confirmed cases of the illness.

Also: BREAKING: Ten more deaths and 200 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland

Meanwhile, the Leader understands those involved in the weekend incident in Drumlish were later taken home by gardai to their parents.

It's also understood at least one of the group had been involved in an incident at Halloween in 2018 in which a house was damaged by fireworks which had caught fire with a tree.

Also: Gardai probe cause of raging Drumlish blaze

The Leader also understands two youths were spoken to by gardai although it's not clear at this stage though if any prosecutions or further action will be taken as a result of the incident.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-29 23:21:29|Editor: huaxia

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A worker of a company, which used to deal with industrial waste, disinfects disposal buckets filled with medical waste in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, March 5, 2020. (Xinhua)

Hubei's daily medical waste disposal capability has been improved to 667.4 tonnes from 180 tonnes before the COVID-19 outbreak, while that of Wuhan to the current 265.6 tonnes from the previous 50 tonnes.

WUHAN, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Central China's Hubei Province has realized complete disposal of its previous medical waste and wastewater, and achieved total treatment of newly-added waste within 24 hours, the provincial ecology and environment department said.

Lyu Wenyan, head of the department, said Hubei's daily medical waste disposal capability has been improved to 667.4 tonnes from 180 tonnes before the COVID-19 outbreak, while that of Wuhan, the provincial capital, to the current 265.6 tonnes from the previous 50 tonnes.

Medical wastewater produced in designated hospitals and concentrated isolation sites across the province has been disinfected, and all the 132 urban sewage treatment plants are operating normally, Lyu said.

Li Ruiqin, deputy head of the department, said the amount of daily medical waste in Hubei jumped to 458 tonnes from the previous 136 tonnes, while in Wuhan from about 45 tonnes to 291 tonnes.

The department has mobilized idle facilities and transformed abandoned kilns across the province to assist disposing of medical waste from Wuhan, Li added.

Surveys of drinking water sources showed that "the water quality is not affected," according to Lyu. 
Hungary's parliament on Monday approved a bill giving Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government extraordinary powers during the coronavirus pandemic, and setting no end date for them.

The bill was approved by Orban's Fidesz party and other government supporters by 137 votes in favour to 53 against. It needed 133 votes to pass.

President Janos Ader signed the bill into law shortly after its approval in parliament and it will take effect from Tuesday.

The legislation has been criticised by opposition parties, international institutions and civic groups for failing include an expiration date for the government's ability to rule by decree.

It also includes measures against false information which have raised concerns they they could be used by the government to muzzle independent media.

"The extraordinary measures are related to the pandemic, to its prevention, its elimination and the prevention of the damaging economic consequences," said Csaba Domotor, a deputy minister in Orban's Cabinet Office.

"A time limit cannot be declared in this situation because there is no one ... who can say how many months of struggle we have to prepare for."



Opposition lawmakers said they were willing to give the government the requested powers, but only if they were set for a certain period, with the possibility of extensions.

"The opposition is united on the issue of giving the government powers which are significantly more extensive than the authority in the Constitution," said Tamas Harangozo, a lawmaker with the opposition Socialist Party."



The opposition's request is that "the government accept that it can only do this within time limits."The human rights chief at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe also expressed concerns about the new legislation.

"It is clear that states need to act swiftly in order to protect their populations from the COVID-19 pandemic, and I understand that extraordinary measures may be required to do so," said Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir, director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

"However, a state of emergency wherever it is declared and for whatever reason must be proportionate to its aim, and only remain in place for as long as absolutely necessary."



The opposition criticised as insufficient the government's economic measures meant to alleviate the effects of the pandemic.

While Orban has announced numerous tax breaks and the postponement until 2021 of debt payments by households and companies, critics have cited the lack of direct payments to employers to save jobs.

Opposition parties have also called on salaries to be doubled for workers in the health sector.

Orban said the government would announce a package of economic measures on April 6 or 7 to boost growth. He said it would be the largest action of its kind in Hungarian history.

A rights group known in part for its advocacy for refugees and asylum-seekers said that checks on the government's rule by decree would now have to come from external institutions to a greater extent.

Parliament, as the legislative body representing the people, practically will be in recess from now on. Law will be essentially made by the government, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee said.

"In the absence of the proper function of parliament, civic control of the government and its institutions especially by the press, civic groups, and human rights watchdogs becomes more valuable."



The opposition parties were also critical of the government's refusal to consider allowing lawmakers to vote from home.

Hungary's Constitution does not allow parliamentary sessions or votes to be held via teleconferencing or other remote methods and the government said it has no plans for a Constitutional amendment needed to create the option.

"If we're asking the whole country to stay home, then the Hungarian parliament should be able to do the same if the virus situation justifies it," said independent lawmaker Bernadett Szel.

A decree setting restrictions on leaving home, with exceptions for going to work or for essential needs like food shopping, took effect on Saturday.

Hungary declared a state of emergency on March 11 due to the spread of coronavirus. So far 447 cases have been confirmed in the country, with 15 deaths.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of top news as of 30.03.2020:

 The total number of coronavirus cases in Armenia has reached 482. And 2,216 tests have been carried out with negative results. Thirty people recovered, and three patients died, health ministry's spokesperson Alina Nikoghosyan wrote on Facebook

According to the health minister Arsen Torosyan, there are currently 14 patients in critical and one patient in a very critical state.

PM Nikol Pashinyan, in turn, touched on two recent deaths from COVID-19. "Both patients had very serious chronic diseases," he said.

In the meantime, another Armenian serviceman was diagnosed with coronavirus, defense ministrys spokesperson Shushan Stepanyan wrote on her Facebook. According to her, the six total confirmed cases in Armenias army are correlated with the first case.

 The Armenian government approved Monday the sixth measure to neutralize the economic impact of the coronavirus in the country. Accordingly, the government will provide financial assistance to citizens who have been fired from their jobs between March 13 and 30.

Meanwhile, unemployed pregnant women whose spouses were fired from March 13 to 30, 2020 in Armenia will receive AMD 100 thousand. However, Pashinyan said the pregnant women whose spouses have died for some reason should take advantage of the support as well.

 President of the General Council of Hauts-de-Seine Department of France, ex-minister Patrick Devedjian has died from the consequences of the coronavirus, AFP reported.

The 75-year-old politician of Armenian descent tested positive for coronavirus, he was hospitalized last week.

 Another death of Armenian has been reported in Italy. Armenian doctor Ghevond Mouradian died in Italy after testing positive for the coronavirus, as reported on the Facebook page of Yerakouyn news website

 Over 3,000 vulnerable households in Armenia, with elderly people and people with disabilities and large families in Shirak, Tavush and Lori provinces will receive humanitarian aid packages thanks to the support of the EU, the European Commission said.

As part of the global response to the coronavirus outbreak, the European Commission stands by Eastern partner countries and has reallocated 140 million for the most immediate needs in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine.

 The election campaign period set by law is over, and Monday is election silence day in Artsakh. Fourteen candidates will run for president in Tuesdays national elections, and 10 political parties and two alliances will run in the parliaments elections.

The Central Electoral Commission of Artsakh has accredited over 200 representatives of nearly 40 media outlets to cover the nationwide elections.

 The American dollars exchange rate against the Armenian dram comprised AMD 500.80/$1 in Armenia on Monday; this is up by AMD 2.37 from the previous business day in the country, CBA reported.
NORWALK  After a 60 percent increase in coronavirus cases and another fatality, Mayor Harry Rilling on Sunday issued three critical emergency orders to restrict traffic at parks and beaches and reduce occupancy rates at all city businesses.

The orders take effect at 8 p.m. Monday and will remain in place indefinitely.

"Ive asked nicely and implored the public to practice physical distancing and to treat this public health crisis seriously. Unfortunately, many in our community are taking this too lightly, Rilling said Sunday.

"These are drastic measures, but it is the only way we can slow this pandemic. Our health care system is going to be overloaded and that means more people getting sick and more people dying  not just from coronavirus, but from heart attacks, strokes, and other serious medical issues that require attention."

There were 87 new positive cases in Norwalk, bringing the total reported cases in the city to 226. Five Norwalk residents have died from the coronavirus.

Rilling said the first measure to help slow the spread of the virus will be to ban all vehicles at Norwalk parks and beaches, including Calf Pasture Beach, Taylor Farm and Veterans Park. He said the order does not affect Norwalk employees who require access.

Rilling said the maximum occupancy inside all Norwalk businesses will be reduced to 50 percent of the fire marshal's established recommendation. As an example, he said if the maximum occupancy for a business is 250 people, then the new maximum occupancy would be 125 people.

This will limit the number of people inside any store at any given moment in time, Rilling said. City officials also asked stores to immediately develop policies that limit members of the public from lining up at checkout or outside stores in tightly formed groups. City officials want to make sure stores take necessary actions to ensure visitors are exercising physical distances of at least 6 feet from each other.

Lastly, Rilling said only one family member can visit a Norwalk store at one time. He said exemptions would be made for single parents, caregivers and other situations where it is not feasible to leave a person home.

"I understand that families, especially those with young children, are experiencing cabin fever staying at home, he said. However, taking the entire family out to a store to get out of the house during the COVID-19 outbreak is unnecessarily dangerous to both your family and everyone else in the store.

To the extent that it is at all possible, I request that you not allow more than one family member to go at the same time to a store," Rilling said. "Norwalk - I am pleading with you - take this crisis seriously. Protect yourselves and your families. Stay home and save lives."
[March 30, 2020] PoliteMail Extends No-Cost Volume Increases and Additional Sender Licenses to Enterprise Customers to Support COVID-19 Communications

In response to the vital need for accurate, effective internal employee communications in the midst of this global public health crisis, PoliteMail Software, a provider of Outlook email intelligence analytics for corporate communications, has removed volume limitations and fees for internal email volume increases for existing enterprise customers. The company has also offered additional user licenses for existing customers as companies increase senders of internal communications for leadership and management to better reach and measure remote employees. Because PoliteMail's Outlook-based email management and measurement tools are utilized for crisis communications to employees, the company is offering select enterprises who are not existing customers a rapid deployment, no-cost option for the next 90 days. PoliteMail reached this decision after system monitoring indicated a widespread volume spike corresponding to the increase in COVID-19 cases. The company noted a 100% increase in employee email broadcasts and a 1,000% increase in employee emails sent on the weekends during the month of March. PoliteMail's customers in the healthcare sector show a 300 percent increase in the daily volume of email broadcasts to their staff. In response, PoliteMail has expanded resources to stay ahead of thevolume demand curve and launched an online communications resource center for internal communicators.



"To support our corporate communications community, the last thing we want them to worry about is incremental cost. Our goal is to help communicators focus on delivering timely information to their employee groups. During this time, we will absorb these costs as our large enterprise customers deal with supply chain disruptions and sudden remote workforce management," said Michael DesRochers, founder and managing director at PoliteMail. "Our utility, healthcare, and aerospace customers are essential infrastructure and operations, and we are prepared and responding to their needs." PoliteMail has automatically removed the limitations on email volume for existing customers. For customers who would like to add more communications users to their existing accounts, please email [email protected]. For companies who are not current customers but are interested in more information on the no-cost version of PoliteMail, please click here for details.

About PoliteMail PoliteMail is an enterprise email intelligence platform for Outlook and Office 365. PoliteMail helps corporate communications and HR teams measure and improve employee email engagement. Twenty-seven percent of America's largest business organizations trust PoliteMail to deliver the tools and metrics they need to accurately measure, effectively manage and definitively improve employee email communications. PoliteMail adds measurement, responsive design, employee feedback, and list management tools into Microsoft (News - Alert) Outlook to align communications efforts with better business outcomes. For more information, visit www.politemail.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005471/en/

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Published on 2020/03/30 | Source

Forty one out of 105 new coronavirus infections confirmed Sunday were people arriving from overseas, health authorities here said. Out of a total 9,583 confirmed cases, 4.3 percent or 412 were people arriving from overseas.

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Inside the country, the number of infections has dropped from 658 a week before the government enforced stronger social distancing rules on March 22 to 397 a week later. The government ordered all religious and public facilities to close down and urged the public not to hold any group meetings at all until April 5.

But in Seoul, 53 of the 88 new cases from March 22 to 28 were travelers from overseas, mostly Koreans who study abroad, according to city officials. Korean students from overseas made up the bulk of newly confirmed infections, which rose from 701 to 916 in Seoul and surrounding Incheon and Gyeonggi Province over the same period.

Yoo Jin-hong, the head of the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases said, "Infections in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province have started to ease, but cases are continuing to rise in Gyeonggi Province and Seoul and are surging in Incheon".

Most of the cases counted in Incheon are in fact travelers from overseas who tested positive at Incheon International Airport.

In a bid to discourage foreigners from traveling here, the government has announced that all arrivals from abroad will have to quarantine themselves at home or in government-run facilities from Wednesday. The measure seeks to avoid an outright ban, reducing the number of foreign travelers to zero while keeping the doors open for Koreans who are desperate to come home.

But critics say that is still not enough as the drawn-out epidemic has exhausted medical workers and restricted everyday life for too long. The government's plan to reopen schools on April 6 is unlikely to work out as infections keep rising despite social distancing.

Some visitors from overseas have been caught violating self-quarantine rules. One Briton in Suwon and a German student in Busan were spotted out in public facilities in violation of their 14-day self-quarantine order.

Kim Woo-joo at Korea University said, "Coronavirus infections will not ease as long as we keep our borders wide open. We need to ban all foreigners and focus our medical resources on treating our own people".
A tornado ripped through Jonesboro, Arkansas, injuring 22 people and leaving a trail of flattened homes and buildings.

Mayor Harold Perrin and other local officials said there were no deaths after the tornado touched down on Saturday in the city, about 130 miles northeast of Little Rock.

Of the 22 injured people, two stayed in the hospital overnight but did not have life-threatening injuries, officials said.

Images posted on social media, including from the Jonesboro Police Department, showed broken walls, flattened commercial buildings and debris scattered across parking lots.

One picture showed a mangled vehicle in the mall parking lot. At the local airport, at least one airplane was overturned, and hangars were damaged.

The search and rescue efforts were completed by Sunday morning, and responders are moving into the cleanup and recovery phases, Craighead County Judge Marvin Day said.

The storm moved across Jonesboro around 5 p.m. local time, according to a video posted by the National Weather Service in Little Rock.

Day said there is a curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., and Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott urged residents to stay home while debris is cleared out of roadways and other common areas.

"We've already asked you to stay at home for this virus but we're really stressing to stay at home," Elliott said.

Other tornadoes in Iowa

Other tornadoes struck Saturday, according to the weather service. A map on its website showed tornado strikes in Arkansas and Iowa, though none appeared to have been as damaging as the one in Jonesboro.

Tornado sightings were reported in Iowa in Black Hawk, Buchanan, Marshall Adams and Adair counties. The weather service map said power lines were knocked down and roofs blown off in Jackson County, Arkansas.

The weather service issued a rare "Particularly Dangerous Situation" tornado watch for parts of the Midwest through Saturday night.

The states most at risk were Iowa, Missouri and Illinois.
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World Health Organization officials are holding a press conference to update the public on the coronavirus outbreak, which has infected more than 737,000 people across the globe, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

On Friday, WHO officials said the first patients have been enrolled for a "historic" drug trial to test treatments for the coronavirus. World health officials are testing four of the most promising drugs to fight COVID-19, including malaria medications chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, an antiviral compound called Remdesivir, a combination of HIV drugs Lopinavir and Ritonavir and a combination of those drugs plus interferon-beta.

However, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at press conference Friday that a vaccine is likely 12 to 18 months away. Biotech company Moderna began the first human trial testing for a potential vaccine to prevent COVID-19 last week.

There are no proven therapies for the coronavirus, which has killed at least 35,000 people across the globe. In the U.S., the coronavirus has infected at least 143,000 people and has killed at least 2,500.

 CNBC's Berkeley Lovelace Jr. and William Feuer contributed to this report.

Read CNBC's live updates to see the latest news on the COVID-19 outbreak.
The USNS Comfort medical ship moves up the Hudson River past the Statue of Liberty as it arrives in New York on March 30, 2020. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images)

1,000-Bed Hospital Ship USNS Comfort Arrives in New York City

The 1,000-bed hospital ship USNS Comfort sailed up the Hudson River on March 30 and moored at Pier 90 in New York City, where non-COVID-19 patients will be treated to ease pressure on city hospitals that are overwhelmed by the CCP virus pandemic.

The U.S. Navy ship had sailed several days ahead of schedule from Norfolk, Virginia, where it was undergoing maintenance when the pandemic reached U.S. shores.

President Donald Trump personally went to Virginia two days ago to bid the Comfort farewell, fulfilling his earlier promise to kiss it goodbye.

The Comfort is one of two Navy hospital ships drafted to help with the battle with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

The death toll from the virus in New York City is 790 as of March 30; there have been more than 1,000 deaths across the state of New York.

The USNS Comfort medical ship moves up the Hudson River as it arrives in New York on March 30, 2020. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

Just a few blocks from the Comfort, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), with the Armys assistance, is setting up a 3,000-bed field hospital at the Javits Convention Center as a temporary medical facility, to ease the bed shortage.

With the Department of Defense having just 2 percent of the nations hospitalsthe majority of which arent set up for infectious diseasesthe military had warned they could provide only limited direct medical support.

However, the Army and National Guard have been called on to support in other ways.

The Army Corps of Engineers has so far engaged 15,000 troops to help with seven FEMA mission assignments to help build emergency hospitals.

Officials say that the Javits Center could help provide the blueprint for similar facilities as the CCP virus potentially sweeps into other states. So far, according to KKTV, 181 such sites have been identified.

The other Navy hospital ship, the Mercy, arrived in Los Angeles on March 27.

The ship will serve as a referral hospital for non-COVID-19 patients currently admitted to shore-based hospitals, and will provide a full spectrum of medical care to include critical and urgent care for adults, the Navy said in a statement on March 23.

This will allow local health professionals to focus on treating COVID-19 patients and for shore-based hospitals to use their Intensive Care Units and ventilators for those patients.

A U.S. National Guard soldier informs patients at a CCP virus testing center at Lehman College in the Bronx on March 28, 2020. (John Moore/Getty Images)

States have mobilized a total of more than 13,880 National Guard troops, according to a March 28 statement.

The president announced last week that federal funding was being made available to the National Guard in Washington, California, and New Yorkunder Title 32 statusleaving the governors free to activate units without worrying about the cost.

Officials emphasized that the March 22 announcement doesnt mean the National Guard had been federalized, and arent under the command of the president.

That Title 32 status is no different than when the National Guard responds to natural disasters, Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel, chief of the National Guard Bureau, wrote on Twitter.

Governors and adjutants general, who know best what is needed on the ground, will continue to command Guardsmen and women and use them where they are needed most.

The reservist National Guard, organized under the Department of Defense, is predominantly a state resourcethe modern-day heir to organized state militias. The default legal position is that Guardsmen are commanded by the state governor, not the federal government.

Federalizing the Guard would strip the troops of the ability to engage in domestic law enforcement, under the Posse Comitatus Act.
Kourtney Kardashian and the Kardashian-Jenner sisters are always being compared to each other. Fans have their picks for the sister with the best style or best sense of humor, for instance, and the women are often asked in interviews to spill the beans on their favorites. Kourtney recently was asked to pick which of her famous sisters is the funniest and who is the best (and worst) at keeping secrets.

Kris Jenner, Khloe Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, Kourtney Kardashian, Kim Kardashian West, North West, Caitlyn Jenner, and Kylie Jenner | Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Yeezy Season 3

Kourtney dishes on her sisters

In a March 2019 interview with Jason Kennedy for his E! show In the Room, he asked Kardashian to dish on her sisters and her answers were quite revealing.

When asked who she relates to the most, she shared that its Kendall Jenner and named sister Kylie Jenner as the funniest Kardashian-Jenner. Kylie can be really funny, she could be really fun and she just has a really good outlook, Kourtney shared.

As for who keeps secrets the best, she got a dig in on sister Kim, after naming Khloe Kardashian as her pick, noting, Definitely not Kim. Shell tell, no matter what it is, she cant help herself. She has to tell somebody.

Kourtney and Kim got into a huge fight

Kourtneys shade about Kim not being able to keep a secret isnt that surprising given the huge fight the two got into on Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

There was a lot of tension between the two during season 17 of the show and the first episode of season 18 ended in an explosive fight between them. The fight erupted when Kylie was too sick to walk in a fashion show and Kim claimed that she and Khloe are more reliable than their sisters.

If I were on my death bed, I would still show up, Kim shared, though Kendall didnt agree, saying shed come at you right now for insinuating that shes not as committed as Kim.

I was just expressing that Kylie not going to Paris and how my moms freaking out and crying and begging us, shes so used to me and Khloe showing up, especially Khloe, Kim continued. Like, we wouldve gone no matter how sick we are, thats just who we are and who weve always been.

Kendall pointed out that shes actually been sick as f*ck, and had major panic attacks but still worked.

Things got very heated between the sisters

When Kim noted that Kourtney doesnt care about stuff, things came to a head. You act like I dont do s*it!, Kourtney said. You have this narrative in your mind I will literally f*ck you up if you mention it again But, honestly, change the narrative in your mind. I work my f*cking a*s off.

In the confessional, Kourtney shared how she didnt want to hear this narrative anymore about this work ethic and shes the only one with work ethic and shes doing this, this, and this She continued, as if shes better because she works more its such bullsh*t. We dont all have to do things the same way.

But also, if I didnt want to work my a*s off and I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, thats f*cking fine!, she told Kim before punches and slaps were thrown.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday called on health-care workers across the United States to travel to New York to help the state battle the worst coronavirus outbreak in the nation.

"Help New York. We are the ones who are hit now," Cuomo said at a press conference from New York City's Jacob K. Javits Center, which was converted into a temporary hospital by the Army Corps of Engineers last week. The Javits Center will be used for non-COVID-19 patients to free up beds and medical supplies in other hospitals, he said.

Cuomo said the outbreak in New York isn't an anomaly and will hit every part of the U.S.

"We're the ones who are hit now. That's today, but tomorrow it's going to somewhere else, whether it's Detroit, whether it's New Orleans. It will work it's way across the country," the governor said.

"Anyone who says this situation is a 'New York City only situation' is in a state of denial. You see this virus move across the state, you see this virus move across the nation, there is no American who is immune to this virus. I don't care if you live in Kansas. I don't care if you live in Texas," Cuomo said.

As of Sunday night, local health officials confirmed more than 33,400 confirmed COVID-19 cases in New York City alone  half the state's 66,487 cases and almost a quarter of all cases in the U.S.

He said the state was dealing with the pandemic at a "level, intensity and density" that hasn't been seen elsewhere and that lessons learned in New York can be applied elsewhere in the nation.

"In many ways New York is just a canary in the coal mine. What you see us going through here, you will see happening all across the country."

New York is still scrambling to obtain necessary medical supplies. Earlier Monday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency confirmed it is sending refrigerator trucks to New York City to serve as temporary mortuaries for coronavirus victims. At least 1,218 people have died from the COVID-19 across the state, Cuomo said Monday.

Thomas Von Essen, the agency's regional administrator, said the military has provided 42 people to the Manhattan Medical Examiner's Office where there is a "desperate need" for help in the Queens borough.

Earlier in the day, Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio welcomed the arrival of a Navy hospital ship that will relieve New York hospitals dealing with a rapidly expanding load of coronavirus patients.

The USNS Comfort will provide roughly 1,000 hospital beds, and 1,200 personnel to New York, Cuomo said on Twitter. It will be used to treat patients who don't have COVID-19 to free up other hospital rooms for coronavirus patients, the governor has previously said.
Telangana: Gay couple enter into wedlock, say it has sent out a message

6 Telangana men who attended Nizamuddin congregation die of coronavirus

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Mar 30: In a sudden spurt of fatalities due to COVID-19, six people who attended a congregation at a mosque in Delhi's Nizamuddin have died in Telangana after testing positive for coronavirus.

An official press release from the chief minister's office late Monday night said six persons who attended a religious prayer meeting from March 13 to 15 at Markaz in Nizamuddin area in Delhi succumbed on Monday.

"Of them, two persons died in Gandhi Hospital, one each in Apollo, Global Hospital, Nizamabad and in Gadwal," the CMO release said.

After Adityanath's visit, Noida DM transferred for failing to control coronavirus spread

"All those, who went for the Markaz prayers in Delhi should inform authorities. The government would conduct tests and offer treatment to them free of cost. Any one who has information about them should alert the government and authorities," it added.

The Delhi government has quarantined 200 people in the Nizamuddin area and has launched a massive contact tracing after the mosque gathering.

Over 2,000 delegates, including from Indonesia and Malaysia, attended the Tabligh-e-Jamaat from March 1-15. A large number of people continued to stay at the Jamaat's 'Markaj' (Centre) even after this period.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta says the US$100 million fund to fight the COVID-19 pandemic has been received and is available for disbursement in accordance with the public financial management procedures and rules.



Contrary to views of some sceptics that the money is not available, I wish to assure you that the money has been secured and is available to be disbursed in accordance with our public financial management procedures and rules.



Indeed, from day one, government has not stopped spending in the fight against Covid-19, he mentioned in Parliament today.



According to him, the Presidents instructions to his Economic Management Team is clear, and it is how to reduce the accumulation of economic scar tissue from this disease.



The President is determined to cushion the economic and social difficulties this coronavirus is visiting on Ghanaian businesses and people.



Our task, therefore, is to minimise the huge threat of job losses and the impact of job losses. The President and his team are thinking outside the box to ensure that that the principles of fiscal discipline are not jettisoned and, yet, still ensuring that people have money to spend.



He added that governments plan is to ensure that essential public investments are not mightily compromised; whiles, at the same time, enabling significant increase in spending on health.



Beyond that, he said government is committed to using this unprecedented challenge to the Ghanaian economy and society as rather an opportunity to fast-track even more agenda to industrialize and become self-reliant.



Mr Speaker, that is why, to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus on businesses and households and ensure that economic activities are sustained, whiles minimizing job losses, the President on Friday, March 27, 2020, announced the establishment of a Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP).



Also, GHS1 billion (US$219m) upon approval by Parliament from the Stabilization Fund will be disbursed to provide maximum results in alleviating the impact of the coronavirus pandemic with a focus on protecting against job losses, protecting livelihoods, supporting small businesses, and ensuring the programme is efficiently and sustainably implemented.



The CAP, according to the Finance Minister, will seek additional funding for the following purposes; promotion of selected industries to shore up production for export and import substitution, to support SMEs and create jobs, to partner with Pension Funds and Insurance Funds to create guarantees and first loss instruments.



The Finance Minister is due to begin, speedily and responsibly, the process of disbursing the funds, immediately the amount is approved by Parliament.

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By Express News Service

MUMBAI: Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday approved a fund of Rs 45 crore for the food, shelter and other facilities for the migrant labourers stranded in Maharashtra due to lockdown amid coronavirus outbreak.

The CM also announced that those infected by the virus will be treated under the Mahatma Phule Public Health scheme. We appeal to the migrant labourers from other states not to move from their locations. They can contact the control rooms managed by various officials concerned. The officials will help to set up the community kitchen and provide other facilities as well, Thackeray said.

Maharastra detected 220 COVID-19 patients out of which eight died. The highest coronavirus positive are reported in Mumbai (92) followed by Pune (43), Sangli (25), Thane (23) and Nagpur (16).

Food and civil supply minister Chagan Bhujbal has said ration Card-holder farmers in 14 districts of Vidarbha and Marathwada who were not covered under the National Food Security Act earlier will now be given the benefit under the scheme.

Under the scheme, beneficiaries will be provided with ration at concessional rate in April, May and June 2020. They will be given five kg food grains per head. These districts are Aurangabad, Jalna, Beed, Parbhani, Usmanabad, Latur, Hingoli in Aurangabad division; Amravati, Washim, Akola, Buldana, and Yavatmal in Amravati division and Wardha in Nagpur division. The APL card holder farmers in these districts will be given ration at concessional rate, minister said.

Maharashtra government has also reduced the Shiv Bhojan charges from Rs 10 to Rs 5 in wake of coronavirus outbreak. Thackeray said that they have also increased one lakh more Shiv Thali so that no one will go hungry in Maharashtra.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena criticized the BJP lawmakers for not donating their one month salary to either chief minister or Prime minister relief fund.

Shiv Senas mouth piece Samana said that the BJP should not play politics in time of crisis. Everyone is contributing either CM or PM relief fund, but BJP is not, why? What is there agenda? They did not want to be part of this mission tackling the corona virus,Samana said.
California DMV Call Center Employee Tests Positive for COVID-19

Weve learned a lot about COVID-19. This highly contagious virus is spreading like wildfire around the globe, with call centers serving as fertile ground. Unfortunately, those businesses still maintaining typical operations  especially, crowded contact center environments  are putting employees in serious risk.

State officials announced a Department of Motor Vehicles call center agent from the Riverside, California contact center tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, March 23, according to an agency spokesman. The building was closed on the 24th for cleaning, and reopened upon Riverside County health official inspection, and as of the 25th, 18 employees were under self-quarantine.

The workers name and condition are being withheld at this time to protect the agents privacy. The infected employee is one of more than 200 at the Sycamore Canyon Blvd. facility. , who were given permission to go back to business as usual on Wednesday, the 25th.

The agency spokesperson noted, There is no face-to-face contact with the public at that office, which is good, but the risk remains for those not-quite-social-distancing in certain work environments  the contact center for example.

It is scary how prolific of an incubator for coronavirus the call center is serving to be. Were seeing the threat play out in real time. The DMV has illustrated measures like offering eligible staff work from home privileges or limiting the number of people congregating at its facilities, but is that enough? In an era of transformation, government agencies should possess the best available technologies to power optimal municipal and legislative operations, and protect team members in doing.

Is your contact center in the cloud, yet?

Edited by Maurice Nagle
A high-grade, near surface gold opportunity in a mining-friendly jurisdiction

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 30, 2020) - Seabridge Gold (TSX: SEA) (NYSE: SA) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire a 100% interest in the 3 Aces gold project in the Yukon, Canada from Golden Predator Mining Corp. for 300,000 Seabridge common shares, potential future cash payments totalling $2.25 million, continuing royalty participation in the project by Golden Predator and the immediate cash payment of $263,000 as reimbursement for project-related payments made by Golden Predator. In the event that this transaction does not close, $218,000 of the cash payment becomes a loan payable to Seabridge. Closing of the transaction is subject to the usual terms and conditions, including final due diligence by Seabridge and the approval of the applicable stock exchanges.

Seabridge Gold Chairman and CEO Rudi Fronk said the 3 Aces Project is a first rate exploration play with the potential to host a high grade commercially-viable ore body. "We think 3 Aces is a worthy addition to the three outstanding exploration opportunities we already own in British Columbia, Nevada and the Northwest Territories. Golden Predator has done an excellent job of demonstrating the exploration potential at 3 Aces, confirming the project's positive metallurgy and establishing excellent relationships with local First Nations and communities. Their focus has shifted to the much more advanced and permitted Brewery Creek Mine. Our exploration team is keen to get going on 3 Aces, beginning with a review of the extensive data generated by Golden Predator."

The acquisition agreement provides for additional payments to Golden Predator of $1 million upon confirmation of a 3 Aces NI-43-101 compliant mineral resource of 2.5 million ounces of gold and a further $1.25 million upon confirmation of an aggregate mineral resource of 5 million ounces of gold. The agreement also grants Golden Predator a 0.5% net smelter royalty on the project.

Story continues

3 Aces is a district scale, orogenic-gold project consisting of 1,734 claims covering 357 km (35,700 ha) located in a readily accessible part of southeastern Yukon (see map). The target concept for this project is consistent with some of the biggest and richest gold deposits in the world, including the California Mother Lode Belt, Juneau Gold Belt, Murentau in Uzbekistan and Obuasi in Ghana. Historical work has identified a broad area of gold-in-soil extending more than 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) along strike and recent drilling in the Central Core Area has progressed to a point where, with additional exploration drilling, the property could potentially advance to an initial resource with exceptional grade.

The Property is on the eastern margin of the Selwyn Basin, a thick package of sedimentary rocks extending across the Yukon and host to several enormous base metal deposits (Howard's Pass District). Hyland Group host rocks, the basal unit of the Selwyn Basin, are interbedded clastic and carbonate sedimentary rocks exposed near a regional tectonic boundary. Polyphase fold and fault systems overprint the stratigraphy, creating ideal traps for gold-bearing fluids expressed as quartz veins. At 3 Aces, discrete quartz veins containing arsenopyrite-pyrrhotite-pyrite and free gold are found within a broad zone of gold-bearing iron carbonate-clay alteration envelopes which will be targeted in our exploration.

Past drilling has encounted a significant number of gold rich zones on the stratigraphic/structural contacts at 3 Aces. By early 2019 the project had completed about 300 holes; 37% of these encountered +5.0 g/t gold intersections and 27% have returned +8.0g/t gold. Many of these holes were close-space off-sets on high-grade veins that crop out, but all veins identified in the Central Core Area have encountered high grade intersections. Significant effort was expended by Golden Predator to ensure that sampling of these high grade, nuggety intervals produced reliable and repeatable assay results. A sampling protocol in now in place to achieve reliable results.

The following table summarizes selected intervals from previous drilling.

Hole ID DH Type From

(meters) To

(meters) Intercept

(meters) Gold Grade

(g/T) Spades High Grade Zone 3A16-032 RC 16.76 27.43 10.67 32.86 3A16-042 RC 17.53 24.38 6.85 25.61 3A16-044 RC 17.53 35.05 17.52 3.65 3A17-100 RC 19.05 25.91 6.86 20.15 3A17-124 RC 6.10 10.67 4.57 58.75 3A17-132 DD 20.00 33.30 13.30 6.69 3A17-127 RC 12.95 19.05 6.10 22.30 3A17-133 DD 23.80 40.00 16.80 20.50 and 57.50 65.00 7.50 13.92 3A17-138 DD 7.50 15.50 8.00 50.40 3A17-157 DD 19.00 23.20 4.20 20.04 3A17-208 RC 0.76 5.33 4.57 81.35 3A17-209 RC 2.29 23.62 21.33 18.33 3A17-211 RC 1.52 9.91 8.39 14.05 3A17-218 RC 5.33 18.29 12.96 14.19 3A17-220 RC 1.52 15.24 13.72 43.02 3A17-224 RC 1.52 11.43 9.91 21.81 3A17-238 RC 0.76 9.91 9.15 41.03 Hearts Zone 3A16-048 RC 96.01 104.39 8.38 6.39 3A16-054 RC 38.86 58.67 19.81 4.76 3A16-055 RC 51.05 60.20 9.15 9.37 3A16-082 DD 42.67 60.96 18.29 16.75 3A16-084 DD 103.98 115.82 11.84 1.72 3A16-085 RC 86.87 96.01 9.14 8.65 3A17-203 RC 10.67 30.48 19.81 3.32 Other Occurrences 3A17-143 DD 12.70 32.00 19.30 16.15 3A17-144 RC 5.33 52.58 47.25 1.11 3A17-147 DD 13.00 15.50 2.50 15.51 and 18.50 22.00 3.50 21.44 3A17-275 RC 40.39 48.77 8.38 5.24 3A18-335 DD 16.20 33.06 16.86 1.35 3A17-175 RC 32.00 33.53 1.53 36.33

Seabridge Gold holds a 100% interest in several North American gold resource projects. The Company's principal assets are the KSM and Iskut properties located near Stewart, British Columbia, Canada and the Courageous Lake gold project located in Canada's Northwest Territories. For a breakdown of Seabridge's current mineral reserves and resources by project and category please visit the Company's website at http://www.seabridgegold.net/resources.php.

Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange, nor their Regulation Services Providers accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

All reserve and resource estimates reported by the Corporation were calculated in accordance with the Canadian National Instrument 43-101 and the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Classification system. These standards differ significantly from the requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements or information. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding: (i) the potential of the Property to host a high grade commercially-viable ore body; and (ii) the Company, with additional exploration drilling, potentially being able to advance the property to an initial resource with exceptional grade, are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's plans or expectations include regulatory issues, discontinuity or otherwise unexpected geology at the Project, timeliness of government or regulatory approvals and other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Rudi Fronk"

Chairman and CEO

For further information please contact:

Rudi Fronk, Chairman and CEO

Tel: (416) 367-9292  Fax: (416) 367-2711

Email: info@seabridgegold.net

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/53917
MANILA, Philippines  The Social Security System (SSS) on Monday announced that members pension for the month of April will be released early.

SSS president and CEO Aurora Ignacio said the pension for next month has been released to the account of pensioners since March 23 and is expected to become fully available by the first week of April.

Depende po sa bangko na nagki-credit sa kanila kung nag-accomodate lahat po ng mga bangko na ma-credit, malamang po hanggang first week of April na-credit na lahat ng pension ng April, she said.

Aurora advised pensioners to coordinate with their credit banks on the availability of their pension.



The SSS chief also said that members may soon avail of its calamity loan assistance program through online transactions.

Aurora said this is expected to take effect in April.

She said the calamity loan assistance will be open to any active SSS members who are in need of assistance amid the enhanced community quarantine being enforced in Luzon, and the declaration of the state of calamity due to the COVID-19.

President Rodrigo Duterte placed the Philippines under a state of calamity last March 17.



Buong bansa po ang naka-calamity, so this is the first time na magkakaroon tayo ng ganitong klaseng availment na buong bansa ang pwedeng mag-avail, Aurora said.

The loan has a 10% interest per annum and is payable in two years.

For questions, the SSS may be reached through these channels.  RRD (with details from Correspondent Dante Amento)

The post SSS announces early release of pension for April, online application for loans appeared first on UNTV News.
By Express News Service

BALLARI: Three persons of the family have been tested positive for COVID-19 in Hosapete, Karnataka on Monday.

Two other members of the family have also been kept under observation.

All the members including three whose reports have come positive are under treatment at district hospital in Ballari.

The infected family members have no foreign travel history but had visited Bengaluru last week to meet their relatives. After coming from Bengaluru three of the family members fell ill and they were admitted to District Hospital two days ago.

ALSO READ: Two more patients die due to blockade at Karnataka border, death toll rises to four in Kerala

Their reports came positive on Monday.

Soon after the reports came, the police barricaded the entry and exit points of S R Nagar in Hosapete. Ballari DC S S Nakul said that Hosapete town will be locked and people will be allowed to buy essentials in their respective areas between 9 am and 10 am.

FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES HERE

The administration also informed that efforts are on to check the primary and secondary contacts of three infected persons and the same has been conveyed to authorities in Bengaluru.

"We are trying to reach out to the people who came in contact with the patients in the last few days. We will also check the relatives' house in Bengaluru from where the patients have suspected to have got the virus," said an official.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday visited the women's hostel at the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bhopal to review preparedness for coronavirus.

Wearing a mask and hand gloves, the Chief Minister also interacted with some students at the hostel. "You should tell every relative and friend of yours on the phone to follow the lockdown and practice social distancing. I think we will win this battle against coronavirus in some days," the Chief Minister told the students.

"With our effort, compared to other nations there is not that much spread of the disease. If we fight for some more days then we will win," he said.

Meanwhile, eight more people have tested positive for coronavirus in Madhya Pradesh, informed the Dean of Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, Indore on Monday.

The total number of COVID-19 positive cases in the state now stands at 32.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A hospital in Houston has carried out a blood transfusion therapy in a bid to treat coronavirus patients.

A hospital in Houston has carried out a blood transfusion therapy in a bid to treat coronavirus patients. For the first time in the United States, blood from a person who recovered from COVID-19 was used to treat other patients.

The donor of the blood plasma was being monitored at the Houston Methodist Hospital and was reported to be in good health for two weeks. The process, called the convalescent serum therapy, has been used for epidemics such as the Spanish flu, polio, measles and mumps.

How it works

The therapy is based on the principle of passive immunity. Anyone who recovers from an infection does so with the help of antibodies built by their immunity system to fight the microbe.

Now, if the plasma or the clear liquid component of blood of a recovered patient is infused into the body of an infected one, it is hoped that their immune system will also get strengthened with these antibodies.

What doctors are saying

Dr Eric Salazar, a physician scientist at the Houston Methodist Hospital, said in a statement that convalescent serum therapy could be a vital treatment route as there is relatively little to offer except for supportive care.

How useful it will be

As there is no vaccine or prescribed cure for coronavirus, the success of plasma infusion will speed up the treatment. Health providers across the world are endangering themselves to treat scores of patients. Once the healthcare infrastructure crumbles, it will be difficult to battle the pandemic.

A vaccine for coronavirus will at least take a year to make and plasma infusion is the most viable option to contain the number of positive cases. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave permission to carry out blood transfusion therapy last week.

Earlier examples

Following the Spanish flu, convalescent serum therapy was used in 2005 for SARS patients in Hong Kong. H1N1 patients in 2009 were also treated with the plasma of recovered patients, along with those infected by Ebola in 2014 and MERS patients in 2015.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 21:12:38|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The chairman and vice chairpersons of China's top political advisory body, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), on Monday held a meeting on the COVID-19 prevention and control work.

Wang Yang, chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, presided over the meeting.

Important achievements in controlling the epidemic have been made and the resumption of work and production is accelerating, Wang said.

Stressing that the COVID-19 response and economic and social development face new major challenges, Wang urged CPPCC members and organizations to carry out thorough research and study in terms of controlling the COVID-19 epidemic and promoting the resumption of work and production, and keep offering suggestions and building consensus.
Hundreds at Louisiana Church Flout CCP Virus Gatherings Ban

Hundreds of worshippers attended services at a Louisiana church on March 29, flouting a ban on large gatherings, angering neighbors and seemingly turning a deaf ear to their governor, who once again warned that hospitals could soon be overwhelmed with new cases of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Partys coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.

An estimated 500 people of all ages filed inside the mustard-yellow and beige Life Tabernacle church in Central, a city of nearly 29,000 outside Baton Rouge.

Congregants leave the Life Tabernacle Church in Central, La., after services, on March 29, 2020. (Gerald Herbert/AP Photo)

Assistant ministers and worshippers who stood outside the front doors and in the parking lot of Life Tabernacle told news reporters to leave, saying cameras would not be allowed on the property and they had been told not to talk to the news media. They went inside without further comment.

Across the street, Paul Quinn and other neighbors took pains to stay 6 feet (2 meters) apart from each other as they stood in a driveway and commented on their opposition to the services being held.

Other congregations are using the internet, Skype, and other safe ways to congregate. Why cant they? What makes them so special? Quinn asked. I wish state police would come out and do something.  If they get out of church and go to the grocery store, its a serious health hazard. They dont know how many people theyre affecting, and they dont seem to care. Thats a problem.

Timothy Spell, father of Pastor Tony Spell, talks to reporters after services at the Life Tabernacle Church in Central, La., on March 29, 2020. (Gerald Herbert/AP Photo)

Briefly commenting Sunday in the churchs parking lot, Timothy Spell, father of Pastor Tony Spell, said Life Tabernacle has a right to assembly, is not forcing anyone to attend services, is not breaking any laws, and will continue to hold services at the church.

More than 3,500 Louisiana residents have been diagnosed with the CCP virus, and more than 150 of them have died, according to state figures released Sunday. Deaths included that of the first federal prison inmate, a man with serious preexisting conditions who was being held in Oakdale, Lousiana, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said Saturday.

The CCP virus has killed seven of more than 160 people diagnosed with the disease in East Baton Rouge Parish, where the church is located, according to state figures.

People who violate the ban are being selfish and grossly irresponsible, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Sunday afternoon in New Orleans. They take the time and attention of first responders and make it much more likely that this disease will continue to spread, he said.

Lance Knippers protests outside as congregants arrive for services at the Life Tabernacle Church in Central, La., on March 29, 2020. (Gerald Herbert/AP Photo)

In New Orleans, police broke up a funeral repast of about 100 people Saturday afternoon, issuing a warrant for a 28-year-old man who refused to shut it down and giving the bandleader a summons, a news release said. Several complaints about that event were among more than 300 received in the past week about violations of a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people, Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said in a separate statement.

More than 1,300 of the COVID-19 diagnoses and 73 of the deaths have been in New Orleans, and Edwards repeated on Sundays national news talk shows what hes been saying for days: The citys hospitals are likely to run out of ventilators by April 4 and beds by April 10.

New Orleans tourist economy has also been hit hard, with hotels, restaurants, bars, convention centers and other businesses closed.

Dwindling food banks for local residents got a boost when the U.S. Department of Agriculture agreed on Friday to let them use about 4 million pounds (1.8 million kilograms) of stockpiled federal emergency supplies, The Times-Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate reported. New Orleans leaders had been asking for about a week before the USDA granted the waivers.

We told them tens of thousands of people have been laid off in the hospitality industry, and they need food now, City Councilwoman Helena Moreno said. Then they kind of got it.

By Stacey Plaisance

The Epoch Times staff contributed to this report.
The Japan share market tumbled on Monday, 30 March 2020, following the sharp losses on Wall Street Friday as fears mounted about the rising number of coronavirus infections around the world and its impact on the global economy dampened investors sentiment. Around late afternoon, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average stumbled 639.58 points, or 3.3%, to 18,749.85. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange declined 52.57 points, or 3.6%, at 1,406.92.

Total 31 out of 33 industry category of Topix index dived into negative territory, with Air Transportation, Insurance, Banks, Warehousing & Harbor Transportation Services, Oil & Coal Products, Machinery, and Nonferrous Metals issues being notable losers.

Profit taking triggered, as some traders looked to cash in on the strong gains seen in recent days, amidst deepening concerns about the economic impact of the coronavirus after latest data compiled by John Hopkins University stated the coronavirus outbreak has already infected more than 720,000 worldwide and taken at least 33,925 lives.

Authorities across the globe have announced vast amounts of stimulus to stem the economic impact of the virus.

The top American infectious disease expert said deaths from the coronavirus in the world's largest economy may reach 200,000.

The latest news on the coronavirus underlined how, while policy makers the world over have dramatically stepped up their efforts to prevent the health crisis from becoming a financial one, the health situation itself does continue to deteriorate.

Stocks were also influenced by sagging oil prices. The crude oil prices declined on Monday, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 5.94% to $23.45 per barrel while US crude futures dropped 4.7% to $20.50 per barrel.

Saudi Arabia has kept increasing production in an effort take market share from Russia by driving lower prices, which it believes it can more comfortably absorb. The Saudi government has said it can accept prices as low as $30 per barrel.

CURRENCY: The Japanese yen, often seen as a safe-haven currency, traded at 107.45 per dollar after strengthening from levels above 110 last week.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actor Rishi Kapoors relationship with his son, Ranbir Kapoor, might have evolved after his recent battle with cancer, but there was a time when the veteran emotionally admitted to have screwed up his equation with his son. In a 2015 Mumbai Mirror interview, Rishi spoke about how poorly him and his wife Neetu took Ranbirs decision to move out of the family home, and live with his then girlfriend, Katrina Kaif.

Rishi said, My father gave me space when I moved out after marriage and I give Ranbir his space too when he decided to move out and share a home with his girlfriend. In this house, he had one room: how could that be enough for a 33-year-old boy? Hes a great son, he listens to me but I dont interfere in his career because my career is mine and his is his. I know Ive screwed up my relationship with Ranbir even though my wife kept telling me about what I was doing. Its now too late to change it; both of us will not be able to adjust to the change. Its like theres this glass wall, we can see each other, we can talk, but thats it. He doesnt live with us anymore, which is also a very big setback to Neetu and me. Were building a new home where there will be a lot of place for him and his family. Till then, life goes on.

He said that hes proud of his son for fostering a respectable image among his peers. Im told, and Im very proud of it, that Ranbir is very well behaved, polite, down to earth, decent, cultured, well spoken, warm, and respects his elders. The credit for all this goes entirely to Neetu. I was diametrically opposite when I was his age, being arrogant and brattish, but what the hell? It was 1974, I was being paid a salary of Rs 5 lakh a month and half the world was crazy about me, he said. But now Ive mellowed.

He continued, Out of respect I was always very scared of my father. I dont know about Ranbir; of course he respects me, but Ive never been friends with him and that is my biggest drawback. Its also a deep regret but again, I dont know. Only time will tell if it is something thats good or not. I used to drink with my dad, though out of respect, I never smoked in front of him. Similarly I can share a drink with Ranbir, but he doesnt smoke in front of me though I know he smokes. I never made friends with Ranbir and though I regret it, I am also not one of those guys who would want to be on back-slapping terms with my son.

Also read: Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan were asked why they lived with parents. Here are their fierce replies

Ranbir was by his fathers side for most of 2019, when Rishi was undergoing treatment for cancer in New York. In fact, it was at Ranbirs insistence that the family decided to move him to NYC in the first place. Ranbir would often visit his parents in New York, along with his current girlfriend, actor Alia Bhatt.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
We all know coronavirus as the deadly microorganism that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, but did you know that somewhere in Mexico, coronavirus can get you drunk?

There isn't much to celebrate with the present global crisis but when it does end, what could be a better way to celebrate it but to gather and hug, kiss and, of course, drink a toast to good health - with a glass of Coronavirus beer.

Earlier this this year, hundreds of Americans thought that the origin of the virus was Corona beer of Mexican origin, which ultimately led to the decrease in sales of the said brand, Latin Post reports.

Coronavirus Beer

According to a recent article, a cheeky brewer in the state of Hidalgo decided to appropriate the name and use it for a product known to bring people together, rather than keep them apart.

On March 9, Isaac Palafox registered the name with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property.

Palafox, who is the president of the Regulatory Council of Real del Monte-Cornwall, also owns The Coffee Legacy, a cafe chain with locations in Real del Monte and Huasca de Ocampo, in Hidalgo, and in Guadalajara.

READ: Corona Beer Sales Drop Due to Name Association with the Coronavirus

In a recent article, Palafox said he had already crafted the beer recipe but had yet to name it.

The coffee shop owner described it as an English-style brew with hints of chocolate, molasses and coffee extract.

"This drink is already being produced and sold in my cafes, but it didn't have a name, until now," he said, adding that the coffee used to make the beer is toasted by artisanal roasters whose methods date back to the year 1900.

He also said they incorporate practices brought to Hidalgo by German immigrants to the region.

In order to register the trademark, Palafox first had to make sure no other products in the market may already have the name. Obviously, the name "coronavirus beer" doesn't exactly cry "go out and buy me," and he had no trouble nabbing the moniker for his beer recipe.

ALSO READ: Some People Think You Can Get Coronavirus from Drinking Beer

Palafox is uncertain as to whether his Coronavirus beer will take off, but his main goal is simply to maintain the quality of his recipe and continue producing it for his cafes.

Other COVID-19 Inspired Goods?

Meanwhile, also in Mexico, a bakery in the borough of Iztapalapa also joined the craze as it recently launched a new product it calls conchavirus - the Mexican sweet bread known as concha, or shell, decorated to look like the coronavirus - which has become a hit among neighborhood sweet-tooths and the local media.

READ MORE: [VIDEO] Viral Wuhan Shake: Optimism and Humor Amidst COVID-19 Scare

According to bakery manager Martha Rivas, they wanted to think of a new but familiar product that takes a humorous stab at the pandemic, thus the birth of conchavirus. She added that the neighborhood is seeking the product out and buying it, and that the fun-named bread gives them something to get excited about in these anxious times.

This is not the first time that people have drawn inspiration from the global pandemic to create a trendy product. Aside from Mexican businesspeople, six brands in Spain have made trademark requests for names related to Covid-19, including T-shirts that read, "I survived the coronavirus."
Local First-Responders Facing Shortages of Protective Gear



First-responders are in dire need of appropriate masks and gloves. NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  Local first-responders are in dire need of personal protective gear as the number of COVID-19 cases has risen by more than 500 percent in the past week.

"The [Emergency Operations Center] has gotten nothing from the state," Amalio Jusino, communications coordinator for the North Berkshire center, said on Friday. "We've gotten local donations and we're helping each other agency to agency."

Pittsfield Fire Chief Thomas Sammons told Spectrum News last week that supplies were "critically low" putting first-responders at risk.

Jusino, co-chairman of the North Berkshire Regional Emergency Planning Committee, said the group has submitted orders to the state to supply its operations center with masks, gloves and coverings.

"We did get some hand sanitizers and some latex gloves that we can't do anything with," he said, noting latex can't be used in medical situations because of possible reactions.

A letter sent to the state "generated some conversation," but not much else Jusino said.

The letter provided to iBerkshires was blunt in the region's need for supplies.

"I find it appalling that we have not heard anything or seen a delivery of our PPE request to date," Jusino wrote on behalf of the EOC. "This is a Regional request for [eight] communities within Berkshire County, an area that borders several counties with some of the highest rates of COVID-19 in the country. Some of our agencies have ZERO inventory remaining for some items and very little for others.

"To leave those at the highest risk of exposure with no protection is disgraceful."

State officials have acknowledged difficulty in getting protective gear and medical equipment such as ventilators. Massachusetts has gotten about only 17 percent of what it needs from the Strategic National Stockpile and, without federal coordination, states have been jockeying to find limited suppliers on the open market.

Gov. Charlie Baker has made his frustrations with the process known to federal COVID-19 task force and asked that the Federal Emergency Management Agency coordinate supply efforts.

"I think it's fair to say that most governors, at this point, have expressed concerns with the entire issue associated with the acquisition and distribution of personal protective equipment," Baker said on Saturday. "We are not alone in that space."

Jusino said the lack of PPE is becoming more critical because emergency medical technicians are using masks and gloves on every call. It is less of need so for police and firefighters, but there can still be instances when they, too, require protection.

"The recommendation is to use PPE on every call because the person-to-person spread is so prevalent, we need masks for everything," Jusino said.

The novel coronavirus is highly contagious and can spread through touch or through the air, is which why health officials are strongly urging 6-foot social distancing. The Berkshires has a high number of cases per capita and saw positive tests for the coronavirus jump from 26 to 150 in a week. Five people in the county have died.

The operations center is accepting donations of surgical or N95 masks, non-latex gloves, face shields and disposable gowns.

"We want to make sure we're doing things that are correct for our employees," Jusino said. "The end result is we will have first-responders exposed and not available."

Some supplies and donations have come into the county and Jusino said North County has asked Pittsfield to share some Tyvek suits it received.

"It's robbing Peter to pay Paul," he said. "We're surviving in typical Western Mass fashion."

Contact the Northern Berkshire Emergency Operations Center at 413-662-3614 or nbcovid@gmail.com
A physician says a combination of drugs could prevent coronavirus patients from needing ventilators.

Dr Steven Quay is hoping to get a clinical trial started to see the effect of two medications, previously approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for other conditions, to treat COVID-19 - the disease caused by the virus.

The first drug, nebulized heparin, is a blood-thinner that is inhaled like a fine mist, while N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is used to prevent asthma attacks from occurring and can treat overdoses from acetaminophen, or Tylenol.

He hopes that the drugs, when taken together, could either prevent patients from needed ventilation or help wean people off of the machines.

A doctor is seeking FDA approval to treat coronavirus patients with two drugs, nebulized heparin and N-acetylcysteine (NAC), in a clinical trial. Pictured: Nurse refilling medication solution nebulizer container, along with medical treatment with Dexamethasone and heparin

The first drug, nebulized heparin, an inhaled blood thinner, coats the protein found on the surface of the virus. Pictured: Nurse preparing medical treatment with Dexamethasone and heparin in the hospital

Meanwhile, the second drug, NAC, breaks the protein down to prevent it from entering the lungs. Pictured: A patient with a face mask is being carried to an ambulance at the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, March 25

Clinical trials have shown that heparin alone, or used in combination with NAC, have improved lung function in patients with pulmonary damage. Pictured: A woman is placed into an ambulance after arriving at a COVID-19 mobile testing site in The Villages, Florida, March 23

The new trial has been nicknamed the nebulized Heparin-N-acetylcysteine in COVID-19 Patients by Evaluation of pulmonary function, or the HOPE trial.

'Heparin and NAC are designed to coat outside of the virus and prevent it from getting into the lungs ,' Dr Quay, founder and CEO of biopharmaceutical company Atossa Therapuetics, based in Seattle, told DailyMail.com.

'It's like putting the key into the car to start it, but the key is covered in peanut butter. It can't get in and it won't start the car.'

Dr Quay, who has invented seven FDA-approved drugs, says there are a few reasons for his recommendation of this new potential treatment.

Firstly, both drugs are currently approved by the FDA to be injected, are widely available and reasonably priced.

When developed to treat blood clots, heparin costs anywhere between $10 and $40 per month while NAC costs around $30.

Secondly, there have been at least 12 clinical trials in more than 780 patients with pulmonary damage with either nebulized heparin alone or in combination with NAC.

Dr Quay said these trial showed improved lung function and reduced the need for mechanical ventilation.

'It gets [patients] out of the hospital faster and out of the ICU faster,' he said.

He adds that the combination of drugs attacks a spike protein found on the virus's surface which interacts with molecules on the surface of lung cells.

'Heparin coats the protein that covers the virus and NAC breaks it from the bottom so it's wobbly, [and] it prevents the spike from attaching to the lungs,' Dr Quay said.

The Society of Critical Care Medicine has projected that up to 960,000 coronavirus patients in the US may to be put on ventilators at some point.

But America only has about 200,000 machines, and not all of them are beneficial for the most critically ill patients.

'The typical course of the virus is devastating, from the time you get to the hospital to being putt on the ventilator, it takes 24 to 72 hours,' Dr Quay said.

He pointed to early research out of Wuhan, China - where the virus is believed to have originated.

'Three percent of patients in Wuhan who started on respirator survived. If you get everyone coming to the hospital to nebulize within 24 hours, you'll see improvement,' he said.

Dr Quay says his team is speaking to three medical centers to find a place to start the trial and then plans to seek approval to start from the FDA within the next couple of months.

Worldwide, there are more than 741,000 confirmed cases in more than 150 countries and more than 35,000 deaths.

In the US, more than 142,000 people have been infected and more than 2,500 people have died.
For 55-year-old Coptic housewife Magda Mounir, knowing she can no longer pray at her local church is worse than all the precautions she has had to endure to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus in Egypt.

The church is our haven; it is where we go to find moral support, Mounir told Al-Monitor a few days after Egypt closed all places of worship, including mosques and churches.

The Ministry of Religious Endowments, more often referred to as the Awqaf Ministry, and Egypt's Orthodox Christian Church both released statements March 21 announcing they would temporarily halt communal prayers.

Egypts Coptic Orthodox Church, to which the majority of Egypt's Christians belong, said it would lock down churches and suspend masses for at least two weeks.

In multicultural and multifaith Egypt, Christians make up roughly 10% of the country's 100 million-plus population, with the vast majority of Christians in Egypt belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church.

"The holy week is coming, and we used to spend these days in the church. It seems this year we will not be able to do so for the first time in our lives," Mounir said tearfully, referring to the Easter holiday on April 19.

Sandy Emad, a 27-year-old engineer, supports the ministry's decision. I support the decision [to close places of worship], and I can't understand the anger of some people, she told Al-Monitor. We can't kill ourselves and our families and say God will rescue us. God gave us brains to use and protect ourselves from any harm. This is what he ordered us to do," Emad said.

"This decision is considered the most difficult decision the church has made in decades, admitted Bishop Boules Boutros of St. Michael Church in the district of Heliopolis in Cairo. However, it is necessary for slowing down the rapid spread of the coronavirus. God does not only exist in churches; we all have him in our hearts and can pray to him to heal the whole world, Boutros said.

Boutros said he was not sure just how long the churches would remain closed, but it was unlikely they would be opened in time for Easter mass.

Egypts Awqaf Ministry decided to suspend congressional Friday prayers in all mosques nationwide until further notice. The suspension came after controversy erupted over Muslim worshippers insisting on flocking to mosques for Friday's noon prayers despite a religious edict allowing people to pray at home due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"If it was necessary to shut mosques because of the crowd, why not close down the underground, which carries thousands every day?" Mohamed Abdel Monem, a 45-year-old Arabic teacher, said to Al-Monitor. Now is the time most people need to resort to God and pray. Praying to God is our only way out of this ordeal, he added.

But not everyone shares his views. Hassan Khaled, a 28-year-old graphic designer, agreed with the decision to shutter holy places. Given that people insisted on going to the mosques despite the call to stay home, it is a wise decision to close down mosques, he said. If only one person is carrying the virus, thousands will be infected, and then they go home to infect their families, Khaled added.

Khaled said while it is difficult to be deprived of places of worship during times like these, he also understands it is necessary for public health. I imagine people will resort to praying in open areas if [prayers in mosques] continue to be banned," he said.

Religion plays a major role in Egyptian society, so statements by religious authorities carry major weight on keeping people at home. Dar al-Ifta, Egypts body responsible for issuing religious edicts, issued March 24 a brief statement warning that any call for people to gather in the streets in any pretext or under a slogan" would be sinful as it would jeopardize public health.

The statement stressed it is a duty under Sharia law to comply with official decisions to protect people from epidemics and diseases.

The Awqaf Ministry also modified the adhan  the Muslim call to prayer  to include warnings to stay at home and take precautions on preventing the spread of the coronavirus. The new adhan, broadcast on radio and television a day after religious sites were closed, urges believers to take the utmost caution in adhering to preventive and precautionary" measures.

Islamic scholars say the special adhan was previously used during natural disasters and pandemics as well as in earlier times in Islam's history when people were instructed to perform prayers at home.

Meanwhile, Minister of Endowments Muhammad Mukhtar Juma suspended on March 22 an imam and a preacher in Beni Suef governorate, south of Cairo, for violating the ministrys order to close mosques. The two men were banned from giving sermons from the pulpit for a period of three months.

"Preserving life is a main aspect of Islam, and the faithful should comply with preventive measures taken by the government," Sheikh Mohammed Mehana of Al-Azhar University told Al-Monitor.

"The images of empty mosques would break any Muslim's heart, but the priority now is to save people's lives. This is what Allah asked us to do, and the rest is his will, said Mehana, adding he hoped the crisis would end before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which starts on April 24 and goes until May 23, and that everybody would reunite for Taraweeh, the additional prayers carried out at night during Ramadan.

The Ministry of Health has reported some 609 cases of coronavirus and 40 deaths in Egypt so far.

A 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew has been imposed countrywide as part of strict measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly said March 23.

All masses as well as public and private transport are suspended during the curfew.
(Newser)  The New York Post is calling him a "living marvel," while Forbes deems his case "miraculous." At the very least, a 101-year-old Italian man is making headlines after being released from the hospital after recovering from the coronavirus. CNN reports that "Mr. P" was admitted into the hospital in Rimini last week after testing positive for COVID-19, but he has apparently beaten ita fact notable not only because of his age, but because Mr. P was born in 1919, at the height of the Spanish flu pandemic that took the lives of tens of millions around the world. "Mr. P made it," a Rimini government official says, calling his recovery "truly extraordinary." "The family brought him home yesterday evening. To teach us that even at 101 years the future is not written."

story continues below

As of Monday morning, Italy is closing in on 98,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, making it the country with the second-most number of cases, behind the US; it has documented more than 10,700 deaths so far. In Rimini itself, there were nearly 1,200 documented cases as of Thursday, per the nation's Civil Protection Department. Forbes calls Mr. P's survival "remarkable," considering the high death rate for older Italians stricken with COVID-19. The magazine also notes other centenarians around the world who've survived the virus, including a 103-year-old woman in Wuhan, China, where the virus is believed to have started. (Read more uplifting news stories.)
A woman has been arrested for stealing medical supplies from an Upstate New York hospital.

WKTV reports Josie D. Wright, 33, has been charged with petit larceny, a misdemeanor after allegedly stealing a box of face masks and alcohol prep pads from the Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, N.Y., on Monday.

According to WNBG, the Otsego County Sheriffs Office says Wright is a contracted employee at the hospital. She allegedly took the personal protective equipment (PPE) to ship to another person; its unclear if she sold or attempted to sell the stolen items.

The sheriffs office says other employees at the hospital may have also been involved. An investigation is ongoing.

WKTV reports Wright was issued an appearance ticket and is scheduled to appear in Town of Otsego Court on May 20.

Demand for face masks and other PPE has risen sharply amid the coronavirus pandemic. Sales for medical face masks in the U.S. jumped 319 percent in the month of February, ABC reports. Some have tried to re-sell the items for a profit, sparking price gouging complaints nationwide; The New York Times reports one Florida seller tried offering 15 N95 face masks on Amazon for $3,799.

St. Josephs Health hospital in Syracuse said Monday that it is critically low on masks, gowns, eye wear, hand sanitizer, thermometers and face shields for nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday that New York state is racing to stockpile equipment as COVID-19 cases are expected to peak in 2-3 weeks. For example, the state has about 15,000 protective gowns and coveralls and expects another 145,000 from the federal government, but may need as many as 20 million.

Face masks can be safely reused in pandemic if re-sterilized, study shows

Volunteers across US sew masks for health workers facing shortages

Coronavirus: CNY movie studio needs help to make face shields
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Linkedin Emma Batha (Reuters) London, United Kingdom  Mon, March 30, 2020 17:08 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e67843 2 People Michael-Sheen,Britain,actor,COVID-19,coronavirus,film,health,pandemic,Hollywood,domestic-abuse,violence,lockdown Free

Hollywood actor and activist Michael Sheen urged the British government to turn empty hotels into refuges for people fleeing violence at home during the coronavirus lockdown as he warned there would be a dramatic increase in domestic abuse.

The Welsh actor, famous for his roles in the Twilight Saga and Oscar nominated film Frost/Nixon, said shelters were already at "absolute bursting point" in Britain, now in its sixth full day of lockdown.

"In these difficult times there is the certainty that abuse calls and cases are going to rise dramatically," Sheen said in a video on Twitter as he urged the government to provide "crucial funding" to enable services to respond to increased pressures.

"The evidence from other countries in lockdown are that reported domestic abuse calls have risen by 30, 40, even up to 50 percent in some cases."

Britain joined Italy, Spain, France and other countries last week in ordering citizens to stay home to curb the spread of COVID-19, which has killed more than 30,000 worldwide.

Sheen appealed to anyone "perpetrating abuses" to seek help to stop, saying the main thing children would remember about coronavirus was "what home felt like" during the lockdown.

Charities have said they are bracing for "a perfect storm" as lockdowns fuel a surge in domestic abuse, while severely limiting the ability of services to help those isolated at home with a violent partner.

With hotels and bed and breakfasts empty of guests, Sheen said the government should draw up a plan to put them on standby to take in those fleeing abuse during the pandemic.

Britain's interior ministry was not immediately available for comment.

Read also: Hotels in Paris to house the homeless

But interior minister Priti Patel, writing in the Mail on Sunday newspaper, made clear anyone at risk could leave their home despite the restrictions.

Nearly 2 million people a year, mostly women, suffer some form of domestic abuse in Britain, according to official data.

Patel acknowledged measures like social distancing and self-isolation may leave victims of crimes like domestic abuse and child sexual abuse feeling "isolated, vulnerable and exposed".

But she promised that the government had not forgotten those for whom "home is not the safe haven it should be".

The government has given 1.6 billion pounds ($2 billion) to local councils to help those in need and is working with charities, she said.

"My message to every potential victim is simple: we have not forgotten you and we will not let you down. And my message to every perpetrator is equally as simple: you will not get away with your crimes," she said.

In his video message, Sheen also urged everybody to watch out for anyone they believed could be a victim of domestic abuse, suggesting that an offer to do their shopping could be a way to reach out.

"If you suspect that someone you know may be suffering, and there is a safe way to get a message to them ... now maybe the time that they will want to be asked 'Is everything OK?'," he said. "Don't be a bystander. Please ask."
COLUMBUS, Ohio  In a quick about-face, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, responding to criticism from Gov. Mike DeWine, has granted expanded approval for a new device developed by an Ohio research firm that sterilizes the protective masks used by health-care workers.

The FDA on Sunday night issued an amended approval order, revoking a Saturday order that only permitted Battelle to use the device at its headquarters in Columbus, and only to clean 10,000 masks per day. The limited order angered DeWine, leading him to rebuke the agency publicly Sunday morning and seek intervention from President Donald Trump. Before the limited order, Battelle had planned to immediately deploy to New York City its new technology, which it said could clean up to 160,000 masks a day in Ohio alone.

The new, expanded order still requires Battelle to operate the devices and report results to the FDA, but instead says the firm can sanitize 10,000 masks per chamber load at its headquarters and at satellite facilities," as long as Battelle provides confirmation that all chambers, critical parameters, logistics, processes, containment systems, and labeling are identical and in place."

Like the earlier order, each mask is approved to be sanitized and re-used up to 20 times. DeWine administration and Battelle officials said the technology will help increase the availability of the respirator masks, also used by first responders, amid a national shortage.

(Scroll down to read the order, or click here for a PDF.)

The updated order follows assurances from Trump and FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, who each contacted DeWine after the Ohio governor publicly blasted the agencys decision and announced a news conference where he planned to discuss the issue further.

I want to thank the FDA team for their professionalism and help in authorizing the use of our technology at this critical moment for our nation, Lou Von Thaer, president and CEO of Battelle, said in a statement. Everybody who has worked on this project shares the same goal of protecting first responders and healthcare workers who are at the front lines of the pandemic.

I want to thank President Trump for his leadership and Dr. Hahn of the FDA for approving the use of this life-saving technology that Battelle has developed, DeWine said in a statement. This will not only help Ohios healthcare workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis, but Battelle will also be helping health-care workers in hot spots throughout the country, including New York and Washington state.

Trump tweeted about the FDA approval Monday morning.

Thank you Dr. Hahn & the FDA for your fast approval of this respected Ohio company recommended by Governor @MikeDeWine. Great potential! https://t.co/jAiIUAXwaL  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 30, 2020

DeWine had touted the new technology, developed by Battelle, at a Saturday news conference, saying his administration was pushing the FDA to approve its use in Ohio and three areas hit hard by COVID-19  Seattle, New York and Washington, D.C.

Battelle leaders said their technology could sterilize up to 160,000 respirator masks for re-use per day in Ohio alone, and said Saturday theyd already shipped a device to New York anticipating approval.

But the FDAs initial order, which appeared to catch Ohio officials off-guard, would have only allowed the device to be used on a limited basis in Columbus. DeWine issued an uncharacteristically scathing statement Sunday morning and announced the news conference, while also reaching out to the White House for intervention.

At the news conference, before the expanded order was issued, Von Treer said his staff had been in contact with FDA regulators, explaining to them how the technology works and sharing their internal testing data.

He said their concerns were more about how the technology would be used and scaled up, rather than with the underlying technology itself.

Weve been back and forth in dialogue. I think theyre very comfortable with the technology, and its just the logistics and making sure they understand exactly how were going to use these systems and parsing through those final details," he said.

Battelle for decades has developed technology used by the military to protect against biological and chemical hazards. It said the new mask-cleaning technology builds off research conducted for the FDA in 2015 that assessed the feasibility of cleaning N95 respirator masks in the event of a PPE shortage resulting from a pandemic.

The technology uses hydrogen peroxide in a cleaning process that takes several hours, according to Battelle officials.

While he said he was angered with the FDA decision, DeWine, speaking earlier Sunday, chalked up the delays to bureaucracy" thats typical to all levels of government.

I dont know everything thats going on. Bureaucracy is true in Washington. Bureaucracy is a problem in Columbus, too, DeWine said. I have received calls from people and Ive had to go into our bureaucracy and try to get it done. So I sort of felt, the president felt the way I feel sometimes, and thats I gotta go do it. This is not supposed to happen this way. That just happens as much as you try for it not to happen. The impression I got from the presidents reaction, was Lets go fix it. And thats the right answer.

Read recent Ohio coronavirus coverage:

Deftly, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine blasts federal response to coronavirus while also praising President Donald Trump

Ohio coronavirus cases climb to 1,653, 29 deaths : Gov. Mike DeWines Sunday, March 29 briefing

Mapping Ohios 1,653 coronavirus cases, plus county details

Machines could sanitize 160,000 masks for reuse each day in Ohio, if approved by FDA

So what is the potential peak of coronavirus cases in Ohio? Sorting out the various projections
Singapore reports 3rd COVID-19 death, 42 new cases

Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed that at third patient has passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection at 12.12pm on March 29.

He was a 70 year-old male Singapore Citizen with no recent travel history to affected countries and regions.

Photo courtesy: Twitter/sporeMOH

Admitted to Singapore General Hospital (SGH) on February 29, the patient was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on March 2. He had been cared for in the intensive care unit (ICU) since then.

The man developed serious complications and eventually succumbed to the infection after 27 days in the ICU. He had a history of hypertension and hyperlipidaemia.

Meanwhile, MOH also reported 42 new cases of COVID-19 infection as of 12pm on March 29  of which 24 are imported and 18 are local cases who have no recent travel history abroad.

The 24 imported cases had travel history to Europe, North America, Middle East, ASEAN and other parts of Asia. Eight cases are linked to previous cases, and the remaining ten are currently unlinked.

With another 14 cases discharged from the hospital, a total of 212 cases have fully recovered from the infection. Of the 423 confirmed cases who are still in hospital, most are stable or improving. 19 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
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Linkedin Rob Verdonck and James Thornhill (Bloomberg)  Mon, March 30, 2020 09:56 654 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e3f93d 2 Business crude-oil-price,Brent,West-Texas-Intermediate,OPEC,Russia,Saudi-Arabia,COVID-19,coronavirus Free

Oil slumped to a 17-year low as coronavirus lockdowns cascaded through the worlds largest economies, leaving the market overwhelmed by cratering demand and a ballooning surplus of crude.

Futures in London fell as much as 7.6 percent to the lowest since November 2002, while New York crude briefly dipped below US$20 a barrel. Physical oil markets are struggling to store fuel, hit by a double whammy of virus restrictions eroding demand and a damaging war for market share between Saudi Arabia and Russia that has prices on track for the worst quarter on record.

The kingdom said on Friday that it hadnt had any contact with Moscow about output cuts or enlarging the OPEC+ alliance of producers. Russia also doubled down, with Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin saying oil at $25 a barrel is unpleasant, but not a catastrophe for the nations producers.

Read also: Medco cuts capex and production over oil price crash

Demand concerns are critical but well known, what really took the market down were the signals we got from Saudi Arabia and Russia that they intend to continue their current path, said Vivek Dhar, a commodities analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Market hopes of a deal have come undone.

OPEC nations arent giving support to a request from the groups president for emergency consultations over tanking prices, according to a delegate. Algeria, which holds the cartels rotating presidency, has urged the secretariat to convene a panel but the call has failed to gather the majority backing necessary to go ahead. Riyadh is among those opposing the idea.

The world normally uses 100 million barrels of oil day, but forecasters predict as much as a quarter of that has disappeared in just a few weeks. The plunge in consumption is without precedent since a steady flow of oil became essential to the global economy more than a century ago. The great crash of 1929, the twin oil shocks of the 1970s and the global financial crisis dont come close.

Brent crude for May declined $1.27, or 5.1 percent, to $23.66 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange as of 9 a.m. Singapore time after falling to $23.03 earlier. The contract is also set for the worst month on record, down 53 percent in April, and 64 percent lower this quarter.

Read also: Jokowi orders ministries to crunch numbers on plunging oil prices

West Texas Intermediate slid 80 cents, or 3.7 percent, to $20.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after falling to $19.92 in early trading. The contract is down 54 percent this month and 66 percent this quarter.

Global oil demand is in freefall and consumption may decline by as much as 20 million barrels a day, according to the International Energy Administration. That is forcing producers worldwide to slash output, while independent trader Trafigura Group expects as much as 1 billion barrels to be sent into storage tanks in the coming months.
LONDON, March 30 (Reuters) - Britain's Loganair, a small regional airline, is planning to ask the government for financial aid in the coming days, its chief executive told BBC radio on Monday.

Loganair will go to the government despite being told by Finance Minister Rishi Sunak last week that airlines should exhaust all other options for funding, before asking for help.

"I do think, that like the vast majority of UK airlines, we will be going back to take up that invite for further conversation with the Treasury in the coming days because we have to," Loganair CEO Jonathan Hinkles told BBC radio. (Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by James Davey)
CLEVELAND, Ohio  The city of Cleveland was notified by state health officials Sunday of its first fatal case of the coronavirus, Mayor Frank Jacksons administration announced.

The fatal case involved a woman who was between 70 and 80 years old, the city said. Cleveland did not provide any further details about the persons background.

Additionally, the city learned nine more people were confirmed as having tested positive for coronavirus.

Jackson, in a news release, expressed sympathies to the family of the patient who died. He also reaffirmed the need for people to observe safe behavior.

Today, the City of Cleveland was informed of our first resident who passed away from complications related to coronavirus. I extend my sincere condolences to their family and friends, Jackson said.

We will see more cases, and more fatalities in the days and weeks ahead because this virus doesnt care about your age, your income or your race  no one is immune, Jackson said. Every day, I am leading this administration to work for you to provide the essential services you need and protect residents and employees. We need you to do your part, stay at home, practice social distancing and help slow the spread.

The nine new cases involve both men and women, ranging in age from their 20s to their 90s.

The city did not release any further information about the patients, citing a need to protect the individuals privacy.

The Cleveland Department of Public Health will work to identify any people who were in close contact with these residents and who now would require testing or monitoring for symptoms of COVID-19.

The Cleveland cases are among 440 reported in Cuyahoga County. Three people have died.

The Cuyahoga County Department of Public Health released a map Friday showing the confirmed cases by zip code.

By Sunday afternoon, 1,653 Ohioans spread across 66 of the states 88 counties had tested positive. There have been 29 deaths, the Ohio Department of Health reported Sunday.

The case total was up 18% from 1,406 cases reported on Saturday, while the number of deaths increased from 25. The number of counties with confirmed cases did not change.

The number of known cases grew 31% from 867 the day before. This increase was up from 23%, 25% and 28% the previous three days.

Nationally, more than 130,000 cases had been confirmed and there had been about 2,300 deaths related to COVID-19 as of Sunday.

More coronavirus coverage

Ohio coronavirus cases climb to 1,653, 29 deaths: Gov. Mike DeWines Sunday, March 29 briefing

Gov. Mike DeWine: FDA reckless in limiting use of new mask-cleaning technology

Coronavirus in Cuyahoga County: Growth, age, gender, death stats as of March 28

Coronavirus prompted Cleveland, Cuyahoga and Summit counties, communities to restrict services, but adjustments are being made

So what is the potential peak of coronavirus cases in Ohio? Sorting out the various projections
On April 1, 1945, approximately 60,000 U.S. Marines and soldiers of the U.S. Tenth Army wade ashore from landing craft onto the beaches of Okinawa. The battle that follows is the largest Allied amphibious landing in the Pacific theater and the final island battle of the Pacific.

Army and Marine divisions seek to wrest the island from Japanese control to sever the last southwest supply line to mainland Japan, while establishing the island as a base for American medium bombers.

American progress during the nearly three-month battle, dubbed the Typhoon of Steel due to its ferocity, is hindered by heavy rains and rugged terrain.

Like the bloodletting on Iwo Jima, the vicious air, land, and sea battle gives American military planners pause when contemplating future amphibious assaults.

The grisly battle concludes in an American victory, as the tenacious and desperate Japanese defenders  155,000 strong  are overpowered by American manpower and material strength.

But it comes at a cost.

By battles end on June 22, there are more than 49,000 American casualties, including nearly 12,000 fatalities. An estimated 90,000 Japanese combatants die in the fighting. A staggering 150,000 Okinawan civilians also perish.
A traffic warden has been slammed online for forcing a car to loop around the airport even though the pickup area has been left deserted due to the coronavirus crisis.

An employee in an orange hi-vis vest was filmed speaking to a driver stopped in an empty parking bank at Adelaide Airport.

The footage - which was shared online on Monday - showed a total of two cars at the abandoned arrivals section.

'The traffic warden is still out there today making cars do a loop,' the caption read.

'Instead of allowing them to wait five minutes to pick up the 10 passengers that will arrive through the airport today.'

The 'ludicrous' video has been viewed more than 40,000 and has attracted a range of opinions.

'Absolute knob,' one viewer said.

'What a complete tool,' another wrote.

But other viewer's suggested the traffic warden was simply doing the community a favour and it's better to keep people in their jobs.

'It's really not that hard to park on the main road and wait to be messaged on the way to the pickup point. This man is helping you avoid getting an automated fine from the camera,' one person said.

'It's because the security camera are set up to catch these people. The guy has to move them along so they don't get the automatic fine,' added another.

Pictured: An employee in a orange hi-vis vest speaks to a driver stopped in an empty parking bank at Adelaide Airport

Pictured: The empty pickup zone at the arrival section of Adelaide Airport

'Absolutely good on him! Still has a job to do... Who's to criticise!? Not me anyway,' wrote a third.

A fourth said: 'I work there and the ones I've met are all really lovely people who don't enjoy being pushy and telling people to move on when it seems pointless! But they are under strict rules, with good reason.'

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

Other viewers suggested moving cars along was to stop the 'safety risk' of parked cars being a potential 'bomb threat'.

Australians have been advised against 'non-essential' domestic travel and all international arrivals will be quarantined for two weeks at hotels across the country.

The travellers who return from overseas are put on a bus and are taken directly to their accommodation by officers from the police and army.

South Australia has also enforced their own 'lockdown', where anyone who enters the state from other parts of the country is required to self-isolate for two weeks.

An Adelaide Airport spokesman said: 'While the airport is significantly quieter due to coronavirus and related travel restrictions, we still need to protect the safety and security of our remaining customers, so our rules for vehicles stopping in our pick-up and drop-off zone have not changed.'
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Coronavirus update: Death toll rises to 29 in India, Total cases in climb to 1071



The number of coronavirus cases rises to 1,071 in India. 29 deaths have been reported so far. 100 patients have recovered. Worldwide, the number of cases has reached more than 723,000. Some 151,000 people have recovered, while more than 33,960 have died. Italy reported 756 new coronavirus deaths on Sunday, taking the total number of fatalities to 10,779, as it continues to pay the heaviest price in the world from the contagion. US has so far reported 142,004 Covid-19 cases, Italy 97,689, China 81,439, Spain 80,110 and Germany 62,435.



The ongoing 21-day nationwide lockdown to check the coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc on thousands of migrant workers in the country's metro cities, especially New Delhi. You fear the disease. But I fear hunger more, not corona, said one of the migrant workers fleeing from the national capital to his hometown in Uttar Pradesh. Kerala is the worst affected by the COVID-19 crisis with 194 cases and one death. After Kerala, Maharashtra is the hardesh-hit state which has 193 COVID-19 patients. With the two fresh deaths reported on Sunday, the death toll in state has risen to eight. Fresh deaths were reported from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday.



Gujarat has recorded 58 cases and five deaths. A 47-year-old man in Gujarat succumbed to the disease on Sunday. In Uttar Pradesh, the COVID-19 cases are rising fast too. A total of 19 people were diagnosed with coronavirus infection on Sunday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 75. Telangana has so far confirmed 69 cases while coronavirus count in Karnataka stands at 80. The number of coronavirus cases in the Tamil Nadu has reached to 50. Rajasthan has so far reported 57 cases while Madhya Pradesh has 33 coronavirus positive patients. Haryana also confirmed 33 COVID-19 cases in the state. Read More...


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Welcome to the weekly newsletter from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, a research and teaching center based at Columbia Journalism School. In the coming weeks and months, we will be redirecting our research to track how the spread of the coronavirus affects journalism and news, rounding up the best of our work and that of others in this newsletter.

You can also follow our published journalism and research through our collaboration with Columbia Journalism Review here. We will be focusing on the effects of the pandemic on newsroom practices, on technology platforms practices, on business models, and on the health of the information ecosystem.

From the director

Local news is the N95 mask for democracy: a basic piece of equipment, relatively cheap to produce, and yet in desperate shortage at the time of greatest need. We are already hearing from our researchers who track local news in the US that the advertising situation is dire, and that while traffic is three or four times its normal level, advertising revenues are often below 50 percent of the normal take.

This trend holds internationally. As the pandemic sweeps through country after country, small-scale, advertising-supported news media is being hit hardest. In New Zealand this weekend, local community newspapers have been ruled non-essential by the government and thus forced to stop publishing for the duration of the lockdown, and, given the economic problems endemic to the shutdown, perhaps beyond. In the Atlantic provinces of Canada, the Saltwire Network, one of the regions largest news publishers, temporarily laid off 40 percent of its staff. In the UK, JPI Media cut its free newspapers, leaving a number of towns without a local news outlet. In the US, the closure of print editions, the shuttering of alt-weeklies, and layoffs among reporters is a daily occurrence from New Orleans to Michigan. This is an advertising problem as much as a local problem: those already struggling with the shift of advertising revenues to the platforms are heading for a deeper crisis. BuzzFeed, one of the newsrooms that most consistently reported on problems of misinformation since the 2016 election, has announced salary cuts across the board.

The daily cost is painful and irreparable, and the question for journalism is what the radically reshaped business will look like on the other side of the crisis.

It is clear that third-party control of the news media will only accelerate. As part of our ongoing research into the relationship between platforms and publishers, we have already been tracking the reshaping of journalism through relationships with third-party platforms. Platforms are increasing their financial aid to newsrooms, with both Google and Facebook announcing new initiatives to distribute more cash to local news this week. We also anticipate a rapid scaling up of curation and news teams within platforms.

Facebook has around 50 people worldwide currently servicing its new News Tab, which is currently only available to a small number of US users as the platform actively considers how to ramp up the roll-out and staffing of the service. Internal arguments about being seen as too active in editing have melted away, according to those within the company, and we are seeing tighter content curation, fewer promoted sources, and more direct aid to the news industry.

As more printed products disappear, we will see a rise in the use of remote reporting technologies and AI in the newsroom to create coverage,accompanied by a renewed focus on producing better subscription options. The division of the haves and the have nots in journalism will widen. A hope, however, has to be that the collapse of the current news system will yield a more urgent intervention in the industry, which will help create deeper roots for community-level reporting, and a shared understanding that our next cycle of innovation in news needs to look beyond the market at long term civic sustainability.

Emily Bell, director, The Tow Center for Digital Journalism

How are platforms and publishers reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic?

BuzzFeeds Craig Silverman has called the pandemic a media extinction event. With the first rounds of layoffs and salary cuts already well underway, many local newspapers and alt weeklies have already suspended their print editions altogether. Doyle Murphy, the editor-in-chief for the Riverfront Times in St. Louis, described in blunt terms the difficult decision many local news publishers are being forced to make: We laid off nearly our entire staff this morning with the hope that if we act now, we can rebuild and bring them back later. Its horrible and unfair, and its bad for St. Louis.

At Neiman Lab, Ken Doctor summarizes the irony of the current moment: The amount of time Americans spend with journalists work and their willingness to pay for it have both spiked, higher than at any point since Election 2016, maybe before. But the business that has supported these journalistsshakily, on wobbly wheelsnow finds the near future almost impossible to navigate.

Tows own Nushin Rashidian recently spoke to Evan Smith, the CEO of the Texas Tribune, about how his newsroom has been handling the last few weeks. Here is an excerpt from their conversation, edited and condensed for clarity.

How is this affecting your newsroom right now?

You know, one of the things Ive said out loud over the last couple of days is thank God for Slack. You can fill in another distance-working platform; people have pointed out to me that Microsoft Teams is also really great. Weve managed to work, I would argue, as well as or even better as a team than weve ever worked before. Were effectively all down the worlds longest existential hallway; we dont need to be in the same physical space.

I would have expected more dislocation or disruption to the way that weve done business. But its actually worked out fineorganizing your Slack channels and understanding the places where the majority of the work gets done, questions you need to have answered quickly, ways to set those locations. There really is an art as well as a science to the use of these platforms. I think everybody feels [telework] is a democratizing thing. Everybody feels like they have access to information at the same time in real time. Everybody is empowered to act.

Do you think there are things going on in the newsroom that were basically a reaction to the current situation, that will end up lasting and shape the newsroom for good, or at least for the near future?

The degree to which we have pulled together as a teamthere may not be a substantive journalistic change, but I would say culturally, weve figured out new and different ways to work together. And I also would say this: we all see at moments like this the strength in people that we did not have an opportunity to recognize at other times. The people who step up in moments like this and who lead, who lead when theyre asked to and who lead when they are not asked to, that has to affect an organization like ours, because you dont forget that.

You see in people capabilities that you didnt know existed before. And I think that we come out of this crisis with a better sense of our strengths as an organization, and who we have on our team to put in the field.

As publishers struggle to adapt to this new reality, social media platforms have been quick to announce products, grants, initiatives, and partnerships to curb misinformation related to COVID-19 and support newsrooms covering the pandemic.

Last week Facebook announced a series of $5,000 grants to 50 local newsrooms in North America to help with the increased costs of covering the pandemic and fulfill needs such as increasing frequency of publishing, combating misinformation and serving vulnerable and at-risk groups. Facebook also partnered with Poynters International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) to launch a $1 million grant program supporting fact-checkers working on combating misinformation related to the pandemic. Just this morning, the company announced it was investing an additional $100 million in journalism$25 million in emergency grant funding for local news through the Facebook Journalism Project, and $75 million in additional marketing spend to move money over to news organizations around the world. A full list of Facebooks COVID-19 response efforts can be found here.

Google announced an updated Search experience for COVID-19, providing easy access to authoritative information from health authorities alongside new data and visualizations. While Google, like Facebook, is offering support to small businesses, health organizations, and governments affected by the pandemic, it has not announced any new journalism-specific efforts at this time.

Twitter donated $1 million equally between the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Womens Media Foundation to help with their work relating to COVID-19 coverage around the world.

Despite increased efforts from platforms to combat misinformation and harmful content relating to the pandemic, false stories and statistics about COVID-19 continue to proliferate. BuzzFeeds Jane Lytvynenko is maintaining a list of COVID-related hoaxes and rumors that have been circulating on social media since the beginning of the outbreak here.

Stories you may have missed:

The Chinese propaganda machine is perhaps the most effective system in the world for obscuring the truth of the average Chinese citizens daily experience of a cataclysm like the coronavirus pandemic. For ProPublica, former Tow fellow Mia Shuang Li tracked fake and hijacked Twitter accounts spreading disinformation about Hong Kong, which reoriented to praise the Chinese Communist Partys response to the massive coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan. Li tracked the accounts to a marketing firm called OneSight: OneSight, records show, held a contract to boost the Twitter following of China News Service, the countrys second-largest state-owned news agency. The news service operates under the United Front Work Department, an arm of the Chinese Communist Party long responsible for influence operations in foreign countries.

Platforms have been skittish about removing material posted by right-wing digital media outlet The Federalist, but the publication finally found its limit last week when it published an article by a retired internist recommending controlled infection parties. Twitter locked The Federalists account; after the publisher removed the tweet, the account was restored and the story remained on the website, but it was not reposted to Twitter and the original Tweet link goes to a page saying it violated the Twitter rules.

Cybercriminals are hijacking routers to redirect their owners to sites with information-stealing malware disguised as coronavirus information apps, according to information security news site Threatpost. The malware, called Oski, caught the eye of cybercrime researchers in December; it began in North America but spread to China, Threatpost reported in an earlier story, and it focuses its attention on passwords, primarily Google account credentials.

With the sudden necessity of work-from-home journalism for almost every facet of the profession, a new platform vital to the work of reporters has emerged: Zoom. And, almost immediately, security problems have been discovered by enterprising journalists. On March 26, Motherboards Joseph Cox wrote that the newly in-demand product sends detailed data to Facebookwhether or not the user has an account. The Zoom app notifies Facebook when the user opens the app, details on the users device such as the model, the time zone and city they are connecting from, which phone carrier they are using, and a unique advertiser identifier created by the users device which companies can use to target a user with advertisements, Cox wrote. The next day, Zoom updated its software to remove the lines of code that sent information to the social network.

Columbia Journalism Schools Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma is hosting a series of webinars with authoritative experts, news innovators and journalistic colleagues navigating the crisis at the local, regional and global level. You can find them here.

Upcoming events:

Reporting and Covid-19: A Webinar Series for Journalists Join Columbia Journalism Schools Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma for a series of online conversations about the challenges of reporting amid the coronavirus pandemic. Led by Bruce Shapiro, well take quick, deep dives with authoritative experts, news innovators and journalistic colleagues navigating the crisis at the local, regional and global level  sharing lessons learned, common struggles and innovative approaches. Co-sponsored by Columbia Journalism Review.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

George Civeris, Emily Bell, Nushin Rashidian, and Sam Thielman work at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, a research and teaching center based at Columbia Journalism School.
Hong Kong, March 30 : A Hong Kong police station came under attack on Monday after three black-clad men hurled petrol bombs into the compound, sparking a search for the perpetrators amid the coronavirus pandemic, it was reported.

Firefighters were called to Happy Valley Police Station at about 2.20 a.m., the South China Morning Post said in the report.

A police source said he believed three petrol bombs were hurled into the station car park. The fire burned out before firefighters arrived.

Officers scouted the area, but no arrests were made.

According to the police, no one was injured and no evacuation was needed.

Monday's incident came a week after a similar firebombing attack at the police quarters compound in Sheung Shui.

In the Sheung Shui case, three petrol bombs were hurled into the car park of the staff quarters.

Officers arrested a 62-year-old man outside the building in connection with the attack.

It was the fourth of its kind at the site in six weeks. No one was injured in the four cases.

On January 29 and 30, there were petrol bomb attacks on four police stations and a patrol car within 24 hours, in a wave of action apparently intended to force the government to completely close the city's borders with mainland China and supply more protective gear to residents in response to the coronavirus outbreak, said the South China morning Post report.

The city has experienced months of protests sparked by the now-withdrawn extradition bill, which would have allowed the transfer of fugitives to jurisdictions with which it does not have existing agreements, including the mainland.

Since the protests began last June, radicals have destroyed traffic lights and set street fires, attacked police stations, vandalised MTR facilities, shops and banks, and occupied universities.

They have also attacked police officers on the front lines, hurling petrol bombs and bricks.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30)  The country's ambassador to China says Filipinos working in the mainland are asking the government for help as they have not been able to work due to work stoppages because of COVID-19.

Ambassador Chito Sta. Romana said while Filipinos remain safe, they are becoming concerned about their income.

"Ang problema dito ay trabaho dahil ang karamihan ng mga kababayan natin ay teacher or musician or hotel worker at marami rin ang household worker."

[Translation: The problem here is the lack of work because most Filipinos are teachers or musicians or hotel workers or household workers.

Because they are not working, Sta. Romana said, this means Filipinos are not being paid.

"Nagtatanong nga sila kung makaasa sila sa DOLE, yung financial assistance or kung anumang tulong," said Sta. Romana.

[Translation: They are asking if they can count on the DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment) to give them help or assistance.]

He pointed out teachers and hotel workers were being paid a "living wage" and not their whole salary.

Undocumented Filipino household workers have also said they wanted to go home, said the ambassador, but that comes with a different set of difficulties.

"You have to turn yourself in to the Chinese police, pero ang Chinese police ngayon, public security unit, they don't accept new surrenderees or those who are undocumented. You need an exit visa to be able to leave," he said.

Based on data from the Department of Foreign Affairs  Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs, there are 433,603 overseas Filipino workers in China.
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Linkedin Deng Xijun (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 30, 2020 13:17 654 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e4ca41 3 Opinion opinions,ASEAN-China,#coronavirus,coronavirus,COVID-19,international-cooperation,bilateral-cooperation,partnership,international-relations,diplomatic-missions Free

March 19 was a special day. For the first time since the outbreak began, no new domestic transmissions of COVID-19 were reported in mainland China. This is truly a milestone in Chinas months-long battle against COVID-19.



No new domestic cases in a country of 1.4 billion people  that brings a strong sense of hope and confidence to the world, as it demonstrates that the disease is preventable, controllable and curable.



Facing the spread of COVID-19 worldwide, China rises to fulfill its duties as a major and responsible country. Chinas concrete actions speak volumes of its resolve to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. President Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the international cooperation in COVID-19 prevention and control and has kept close contact with other world leaders.



Chinas efficient and effective head-of-state diplomacy plays a unique and significant role at the unusual moment in promoting cooperation between China and other countries and deepening friendship between the Chinese people and peoples in the rest of the world.



China has donated US$20 million to the World Health Organization in support of disease prevention and control, in particular the public health systems of other developing countries. China has undertaken an enormous national mobilization to speed up production in response to the huge demand of global medical supplies.



The production capacity of masks has grown by five times in a short period of time, and the output of masks now exceeds 100 million per day. The production of protective gear and forehead thermometers, among other urgently needed supplies, has grown rapidly. Test kits are quickly being developed and put into mass production.



While making every effort to combat the disease at home, China has endeavored to overcome difficulties and provide substantial assistance to other countries and regions where COVID-19 is taking a toll.



China and ASEAN member states have maintained close cooperation since the outbreak began, which demonstrates our traditional friendship of standing together in times of difficulties.



In recent days, China has been increasing assistance to ASEAN member states where COVID-19 has spread widely. On March 21, 100,000 test kits, 100,000 surgical masks, 10,000 N-95 masks and 10,000 sets of personal protective equipment donated by the Chinese government to the Philippines arrived in Manila. Foreign Secretary Teodoro Lopez Locsin, who attended the handover ceremony, called it tremendous help and invaluable support from China.



On March 23, seven medical experts, the first medical team sent by the Chinese government to an ASEAN member state, together with medical supplies, arrived in Phnom Penh.



On the same day, the first batch of medical supplies from China arrived in Indonesia. More assistance to Indonesia and the ASEAN Secretariat has also reached Jakarta.



Apart from the official assistance provided by the Chinese government, some local Chinese administrations, private entities and individuals have also extended a helping hand to ASEAN member states by donating a large amount of medical supplies and equipment. The quick assistance delivered through a streamlined process fully reflects the close bonds and deep friendship between our peoples.



At this critical moment when the world unites as one and fights the pandemic, there are also a few people with ulterior motives out there who deliberately link the novel coronavirus to China and stigmatize China nonstop, which the Chinese people are indignant at and strongly opposed to. The origin of the novel coronavirus is a matter of science that requires a scientific and professional assessment.



There is a clear consensus within the WHO and the international community that a virus shouldnt be linked to any specific country or region and that such stigmatization should be rejected. What those people have done will not help with international cooperation but only waste precious time that should be used to curb the pandemic, and it inflicts real harm on their own people and international cooperation.



The pandemic is still spreading worldwide. In the face of this severe, common test of mankind, China acts upon its profound convictions that mutual and timely assistance is of paramount importance and that kindness and gifts must be repaid.



In this spirit, China will continue to work with ASEAN and others in the international community to meet the challenge head-on, protect the health and safety of our people and strive for a community with a shared future for mankind.

***

Ambassador of the Peoples Republic of China to ASEAN

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
A family business which usually makes and supplies paper bags to the likes of McDonald's and KFC will make 145 million surgical masks and respirators to help in the fight against coronavirus.

Detmold Group in Adelaide have committed to producing 100 million surgical masks for the National Medical Stockpile and a further 45 million to South Australia.

The Australian-owned company already employs 3,000 people, but will hire another 160 workers to meet additional demand.

Federal Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, Karen Andrews, on Tuesday said the work is crucial to maintaining stock levels.

Masks are in high demand in a range of industries, including for cleaners who are still working in public places. Pictured: A cleaner wearing a face mask and gloves while working on an escalator in Circular Quay

The family-owned business will also produce respirators - as seen on this passenger departing from Brisbane International Airport - for the national medical supply

'We have a sufficient supply of masks at the moment, but this work will ensure we sustain that supply over the months ahead,' she said..

Detmold will also invest more than $1 million in buying local supplies that will support other businesses.

'This new production line won't be up and running overnight, that's why we're attacking this challenge from all angles, including continuing work to secure further masks out there in the market,' Ms Andrews said.

Detmold Group CEO Alf Ianniello said production will start by May from the company's manufacturing facility in Brompton.

'We expect to have the capacity to manufacture over 20 million masks per month by June, and the facility will produce both surgical masks and respirator masks,' he said.

The extra masks will assist hospital staff who are frequently dealing with potential coronavirus victims. Pictured: Two hospital staff assisting people who are waiting in line to be screened for COVID-19 outside Royal Melbourne Hospital

A Victorian police officer wore a mask and gloves while on duty outside of the Crown Metropol Hotel in Melbourne on Monday, March 30

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

SA Premier Steven Marshall said the deal with Detmold will help secure jobs in the state.

The new deal comes amid the revelation that doctors are increasingly turning to hardware stores like Bunnings to buy painting masks.

Doctors say they are worried about supplies, and blame the government for creating the 'mad' situation by not assuring health workers enough equipment had been sourced to protect them as the pandemic continues to take hold.

'No one... is getting information about what's going on [with medical supplies] and although the case numbers are still low, people are starting to worry. What we can't tolerate... is not knowing what's going on,' one surgeon at a Sydney hospital told The Australian.

Medical experts are worried a potential shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) will leave frontline medical staff exposed to infection and unable to care for patients.

ANU College of Health and Medicine Professor Shane Thomas told Daily Mail Australia the country did not have enough masks, gowns and eye shields.

Nurses who take samples from drivers at drive-through COVID-19 testing facilities must wear protective equipment for their own safety, but supplies are dwindling

Australia's total confirmed coronavirus cases soared to 4,220 on Monday night, including 18 people who have died

'It's something personally I have a lot of concern about,' he said.

'The fact we don't have enough on hand is a problem. We have two big shortages: PPE and (coronavirus) testing kits.'

The shortage is so dire the Australian Army has pitched in to make more face masks at the Med-Con factory near Shepparton.

Australia's total confirmed coronavirus cases soared to 4,364 on Tuesday morning, including 18 people who have died.

Globally, there have been more than 775,000 infections since the outbreak began in December 2019.

A man walking in a near-deserted Sydney CBD wore a face mask on Monday, March 30. A family-owned paper bag making business are turning their attention to making more masks to help Australia keep up with supplies
A Londoner stranded in Bali today said he felt abandoned after spending thousands of pounds trying to get home.

Nile Zahran, 40, said it had been a nightmare trying to get flights out of Indonesia, with routes being shut daily and without warning.

Mr Zahran, an IT product manager from Harrow, left the UK on March 7 in a two-week package deal with girlfriend Odeta Dargyte, 49.

After their journey home was cancelled they spent 1,000 for a Thai Airways flight to London leaving on March 22, but the Bali-Bangkok leg of that was also cancelled.

Mr Zahran said: We are starting to feel a bit abandoned.

The Foreign Office said some 5,000 Brits had so far left Bali.
Jawad Majeedy, an Afghan national studying in Lucknow University has been languishing in Balrampur hostel for the past fortnight under the corona lock-down.

Worried about his family, he spends most of his day placing phone calls to them.

My family members live in Afghanistan and Germany. I have to divide my time table accordingly to speak to them. They are well but you need your family in such conditions, Majeedy, 27, said.

Like him, many other students from foreign countries enrolled in various courses of Lucknow University live in Balrampur hostel. They are also anxious about their families.

We never expected the situation to go downhill so quickly. My parents were planning to visit me this month but they had to change their plan at the last moment because of the Sars-Cov-2 outbreak, said a student from Morocco.

Confined to their hostel, the students now keep a watch on the rising number of Covid-19 cases in their respective countries and religiously practice social distancing and sanitation.

We stay in our rooms for most part of the day and move out only if very necessary, said a Sri Lankan student. The lockdown has also changed the daily ritual of having dinner together. Earlier we had dinner together. It was a kind of ritual which we stopped once the lockdown was announced, he added.

Almost all the students cook their food in their rooms. We are not able to purchase regular food items like bread. So we are managing by cooking rice and beans, said Majeedy, an MBA student.

According to Lucknow University officials, there are around 50 foreign students, 30 of men and the rest women. Most of them are from Asian and African countries.

Lucknow University spokesperson Durgesh Srivastav said, Most of these students are enrolled as part of student exchange programme. The university administration is in constant touch with them. We are here to help them.

The students too are in contact with their teachers and share study material.
TVS Motor Company on Monday said it will donate Rs 25 crore to the PM's Relief Fund (PM-CARES) for battle against COVID-19 pandemic.

The company is contributing on behalf of various group firms like TVS Credit Services Ltd, Sundaram-Clayton Ltd and others, it said.

This is in line with the company's continuous endeavour to ensure prosperous and sustainable communities, TVS Motor Company said in a statement.

The contribution is in addition to the ongoing activities being already undertaken through Srinivasan Services Trust (SST), the CSR arm of the group, it added.

"The COVID-19 pandemic marks an unprecedented time in modern history and it will require the best of humanity to overcome the battle.We applaud the Govt's strong resolve and numerous actions to fight this. Now, more than ever, it requires all of us to co-operate and support each other as a nation,'' TVS Motor Company Chairman Venu Srinivasan said.

SST is implementing various measures ranging from manufacturing and supplying supportive equipment, such as masks, to provide cooked meals to healthcare workers and police officers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A return to the Play Store isnt out of the question for Huawei; not even after everything the U.S. government put it through in recent times. Thats the message Huaweis consumer electronics chief, Richard Yu, remains committed toward.

In a Wired interview published Sunday, the executive asserted Huawei is still open to restoring its partnership with Google. If for nothing else, then because theyre both leaving a lot of money on the table by not collaborating.

In the past weve brought huge revenue and profit to US companies like Google, Yu explained; concluding Huawei wants to remain part of the Android ecosystem.

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It doesnt take an industry expert to know Google most certainly shares that sentiment. After all, it was Washington that made it revoke Huaweis licenses to use a variety of its technologies, not some abstract sense of patriotic duty. Corporations tend to be lacking on the emotional front, you see.

Thats also why Huaweis willingness to restart its partnership with Google is completely par for the course. In fact, Yus quite straightforward about a company-wide desire to return to GMS as the core of its Android products. Thats why the Shenzen-based conglomerate sees Huawei Mobile Services as merely a supplement to Googles platform, not an outright replacement.

By far the biggest hit to Huaweis mobile business was the loss of core Android solutions from Alphabets subsidiary. Manufacturer implementations aside, the only version of Android truly ubiquitous in the West comes packed with Google Mobile Services. The lack of Play Store alone undermines everything that remains of the user experience offered by Huawei-made handsets and tablets.

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Can Huawei return to the Play Store before Trump returns to civilian life?

However, Huawei is proving to be a rather tough cookie to crack, thanks to a fiercely loyal home market and unprecedentedly aggressive investments. The company actually turned the extremely unfavorable situation to its advantage, using it to grow its own Android ecosystem independent of Google and accompanying licensing fees. For the time being, Chinas tech giant certainly appears unbankruptable, as crazy as that sounds.

Make no mistake about how friendly past U.S. administrations were toward Huawei (hint: they werent). Regardless, President Trumps cabinet turned the heat on the Chinese conglomerate by a significant margin.

Even before effectively banning American companies from supplying Huawei, Washington went hard after its leadership. Thats why Huawei founders daughter  whos also the companys CFO  remains under house arrest in Canada. Facing an incredibly long list of charges including racketeering, fraud, conspiracy, and embargo violations, Meng Wanzhous been fighting to avoid extradition to the U.S. since early 2019.

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Being tough on China was one of President Trumps core foreign policy principles since he took office. Huawei can hence hardly hope for improved relations with the incumbent administration. At the end of the day, various stateside agencies still consider it a national security threat, as does Capitol Hill.
When it comes to love, Erin Jones has always had the motto: If it happens, it happens.

The 35-year-old Houstonian (with a big heart for her native New Orleans) married her college sweetheart at a young age, but they divorced a few years later.

Since then, she has tried to find meaningful connections through Match, Bumble and most recently, Facebook Dating. Shes never been in a rush to find love, but she said shell try anything once.

In January, Jones met someone  a great guy. On their few dates, she thought they had a good in-person connection and their texting rapport was light-hearted and fun.

It felt like the beginning of something that could really be something. Then, the world flung headfirst into a pandemic.

As coronavirus started, everything spiraled and fizzled out, Jones said. We still text each other with memes and joke about it, but we dont have a firm relationship status. We were just dating, and now havent seen each other for long period. Its hard to maintain.

COVID-19 put the brakes on Jones fledgling relationship, and she doesnt see it going anywhere from here. Its not sad  its what modern dating has become for many young people, she said.

On HoustonChronicle.com: The top 5 new Netflix comedy specials to binge

Its hard when you cant see each other in person, said Jones. Especially without an established relationship of months or years.

In the last 30 years, online dating has changed the way we meet people. In the beginning, singles could remain virtually anonymous until they were comfortable to show their face in a fuzzy webcam photo. Then came the proliferation of the dating websites  eHarmony, Match, FarmersOnly.com  in which users pay a service fee, answer a questionnaire and wait for an algorithm to select potential suitors based on history, geography, likes and dislikes.

Online dating changed forever in 2012 with Tinder, a dating service made specifically for smart phones. With the swipe of a finger, lovers could open a window of communication and physical intimacy.

Almost half of the countrys online users have met or know someone who has met a romantic partner through a dating website or app, according to a 2019 study by Statista, a statistics-gathering site. By the end of last year, 75 percent of adults who use the internet said they had gone on a date with someone they met online.

Technologys tagline is that it makes everything easier. But Jones thinks maybe it has done the opposite for her love life.

Dating has all changed. You can do it however you want - bar or online - you make your own rules for how you want to date, Jones said. Its hard to tell people whats the right or best way, because its different for everyone.

About half of dating app users say they use the services to look for an exclusive romantic relationship, while 23 percent of survey participants listed sexual encounters as their main incentive.

But COVID-19 could be responsible for a giant cultural shift: Rachel DeAlto, chief dating expert at Match, says this moment could be the end of Americas hookup culture.

DeAlto, who has 12 years of experience in the industry, said the pandemic will give single people a chance to find intention in dating.

This is not the time to swipe and chat out of boredom. If you do happen to swipe on someone viable during these uncertain times, DeAlto suggests segueing from text-only conversations to phone calls or use virtual conferencing services, like Zoom or another video chat software.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Want something to stream? Try these Houston indie films

At the end of the day, this is not going to last forever. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, so use this time as an extra vetting period, DeAlto said. See if this is a person that you will want to continue talking to until you can actually meet them in person.

This is also an opportunity to slow down.

In 2018, the Pew Research Center reported that 60 percent of adults said they sometimes felt too busy to enjoy life, while 12 percent felt this way all or most of the time.

This applies to dating, as well. Many people struggle to differentiate between the fast pace of their lives and a typical pace of courtship, squeezing in as many dates as possible in a regular work week or weekend, DeAlto said. This strategy often means sacrificing compatibility for availability.

What we have right now is unintentional dating with poor results. Were not creating a funnel, were creating a fire hose of options, DeAlto said. Create a funnel by thinking of what you need in a relationship and who you are looking for. Know your baseline non-negotiables.

This challenging time may be the perfect opportunity for such a reset.

Even before the pandemic, Jones said her new relationship was suffering from work-love life balance issues.

Were both still trying to work and adjust to new norm. He has a roommate, and they were moving because their house was damaged during the (Gessner) explosion, Jones said.

Mark Owen, founder of the social networking company Events & Adventures, has some advice for people who prefer to meet the old-fashioned way. You know, face-to-face.

Its important as a single person to make sure youre not jumping into something because of this situation, Owen said. Make sure the feelings are real, and write their name on your forehead with pen, dont tattoo it, he added.

Owen launched his company, which hosts 30 to 50 local events each months at which adults can meet people with common interests, in 1987. Back then, he had no intention of it becoming a vehicle for people to meet their partners. It was a natural progression, he said.

My goal was to go out and have a good time with a bunch of people. I didnt start it to have people fall in love and get married, Owen said. That was just a weird byproduct of getting people together to have a good time.

Though his company was founded on getting people out of their houses to meet new people, Owen said the call for Americans to stay home has increased its membership renewals.

On HoustonChronicle.com: The best places to walk during social distancing

During this time, the company is offering video happy hours, webinars on dating and divorce and other virtual gatherings rather than rafting trips, movie screenings and cooking classes.

You have physical distancing, but that doesnt mean it has to be emotional distancing, he said. You can spend time together even if you cant hug each other. You can still create emotional bonds with people thanks to technology we have access to.

Last week, 80 members logged into a virtual comedy night.

It doesnt replace being in person, but right now it is what it is, Owen said. Humans are great at adjusting.

As for Jones, who is adjusting to her new coworkers (her dogs Shelby and Jackson), she said she WILL talk to people through apps, like Facebook dating, but she cant exactly date anyone until the world rights itself again. Its nice to take a breather from that scene every now and then, she admitted.

If I dont like the guys Im finding, I step away and not actively search. I always come back - Im not going to give up, Jones said. It took me a long time to realize that I need to be happy with myself before worrying about someone else in my life.

julie.garcia@chron.com

Twitter.com/reporterjulie

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A patient infected with coronavirus is carried on a stretcher by a French rescue team before being transferred by a helicopter of the civil security (Securite Civile) from Strasbourg university hospital to Pforzheim in Germany as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in France. (Image: Reuters)
Lt Governor Anil Baijal on Monday held a meeting with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, district magistrates and DCPs via video conference and discussed measures to control the spread of coronavirus.

Taking to Twitter, Baijal said all district magistrates and deputy commissioners of police have been asked to ensure that no congregation is allowed in the national capital.

No movement except for availing essential services will be allowed, Baijal said, adding that social distancing should be maintained under all circumstances.

So far, 72 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the city.

According to the Union Health ministry, the number of COVID-19 cases climbed to 1,071 in India on Monday, while the death toll rose to 29.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With the death of one more



coronavirus positive patient on Monday, the toll in Gujarat rose to six even as the number of infections increased to 70 with the addition of seven new positive cases, a senior health department official said.

A 45-year-old woman died at a hospital in Bhavnagar in Gujarat late Sunday night, taking the total number of fatalities in the state to six, Principal Secretary (Health), Jayanti Ravi said.

As many as four COVID-19 patients have been discharged in the state so far, two each in Ahmedabad and Surat, she said.

The woman who died on Monday faced mental issues and had suffered stroke around two weeks ago, Ravi said.

Ahmedabad has so far reported three deaths, followed by two in Bhavnagar and one in Surat, she said.

At the same time, the state reported seven new coronavirus positive cases, five in Bhavnagar and one each in Ahmedabad and Surat, including the woman who died in Bhavnagar, Ravi said.

Of these, six are cases of local transmission, and one, reported in Ahmedabad, is of a 38-year-old man who recently returned from the USA, she said.

With this, the total number of cases in Ahmedabad rose to 23, followed by Rajkot, Vadodara, Surat and Gandhinagar at 9 each, Bhavnagar at 6, Gir Somnath two, and Kutch, Mehsana and Porbandar at one each.

Ravi said two patients are on ventilator, while the condition of 58 others is stable.

Of 70 COVID-19 cases, 34 related to local transmission, while 32 have foreign travel history. Four cases are of inter-state travel history, she said.

The state government also launched a helpline number -- 1100 -- for counselling of people who are under quarantine, Ravi said.

The state government has so far tested 1,321 samples in laboratories, out of which 1,244 tested negative, 70 came positive and reports of 7 others are pending, she said.

Sharing details of persons who have been quarantined in the state, the senior health department officer said the number stands at 19,617.

Of these, 18,701 are in home quarantine, 744 in government facilities, and 172 in private centres, she said.

The government has also conducted house-to-house survey of 5.90 crore people, of which around 87,274 were found to have travel history in recent times, she said.

Of these, 1,382 had travelled abroad, she said.

She informed that 4,300 isolation bends are available in government hospitals and 635 in private ones. More beds are being added for coronavirus positive patients in these hospitals.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Seoul, March 30 : The South Korean government will grant "emergency disaster relief money" to a majority of the country's households in a one-off stimulus program to help with the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, President Moon Jae-in said Monday.

He also unveiled a plan to seek another supplementary budget during a third session of the emergency economic council at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, reports Yonhap News Agency.

"The government has decided to pay emergency disaster relief money," directly to South Koreans struggling to make ends meet due to the pandemic, he said.

Under the scheme, 1 million won ($820) would be given to a four-person household, of which gross income stays at or below 70 per cent of the total.

It represents an earnings limit for the aid program, meaning individuals with relatively low income would get paid in accordance with the standard.

The Finance Ministry is expected to make relevant details public later in the day.

Around 14 million households comprising 35 million people would be eligible for the aid.

Monday's announcement comes after Moon earlier this month launched the council to make quick policy decisions and take action to minimize the economic fallout of COVID-19, reports Yonhap News agency.

In the two previous sessions, he approved a set of emergency measures, including 100 trillion won of financial support for the business sector, amid concerns about credit and liquidity crunches.

Meanwhile, South Korea saw a slight decline in new coronavirus cases Monday, but cluster infections in Seoul and the surrounding area continued to emerge, coupled with an increase in imported cases.

The 78 new COVID-19 cases, detected on Sunday and down from 105 new cases a day earlier, marked the 18th consecutive day that new infections have hovered around 100 or fewer additional cases, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

The total number of cases as of Monday stood at 9,661, while the death toll rose by six to 158.

Health authorities once again stressed a "no-tolerance" policy in dealing with violators of the two-week self-isolation, adding that South Korean nationals will face lawsuits and foreigners will be expelled.

Starting Wednesday, the country will enforce a two-week mandatory quarantine on all entrants from overseas in a drastic move to curb a steady rise in imported cases.
Winter unexpectedly returned to Germany on March 30, with snowfall hitting the country and scenes of white powder in multiple cities including Hamburg, Berlin, and Frankfurt.

This footage shows snowfall in the town of Havelberg, located in Saxony-Anhalt.

The snowfall and a drop in temperature were caused by a cold front sweeping across southeast and eastern Europe, hitting Hungary, Romania, and Poland as well as Germany, according to reports. Credit: Artur Arensburger via Storyful
Saudi oil exports are expected to rise in April after Aramco cut its official selling prices to stimulate demand, but a sharp increase now appears less likely as demand plummets.

Dubai: Saudi Arabia plans to boost its oil exports to 10.6 million barrels per day from May because the country is burning less oil for power generation and there is also lower domestic consumption, a Saudi energy ministry official said on Monday.

The worlds top oil exporter has already made plans to boost its crude supply and exports sharply after the collapse earlier this month of a three-year deal between the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other producers, led by Russia.

The rise in crude oil exports will be starting from May by about 600,000 barrels per day, the official said.

This increase came as a result of displacing crude with natural gas from the Al-Fadhili gas plant as a fuel for generating electricity, the official said.

He also said it followed a decrease in local demand for petroleum products due to the reduction in transportation as a result of precautionary measures in place to limit the coronavirus outbreak.

Saudi Arabia had said this month it had directed national oil company Aramco to keep supplying crude at a record rate of 12.3 million bpd in coming months and export more 10 million bpd from May.

The country is willing to maintain its survival-of-the-fittest oil strategy by using its vast supplies and financial muscle to drive out higher-cost rivals for the long term, sources have told Reuters. Saudi Arabia produces more than a tenth of global crude.

But with demand tumbling because of global measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak, oil companies have been reducing refinery processing rates and global oil demand is expected to plunge 15 million to 20 million bpd, a 20 percent drop from last year.

Oil prices fell sharply on Monday, with US crude briefly dropping below $20 and Brent hitting its lowest level in 18 years, on heightened fears that the global coronavirus shutdown could last months and demand for fuel could decline further.

Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, was down $2.08, or 8.3 percent, at $22.85, after earlier dropping to $22.58, the lowest since November 2002.

Saudi oil exports are expected to rise in April after Aramco cut its official selling prices (OSPs) to stimulate demand, but a sharp increase now appears less likely as demand plummets due to the coronavirus and a freight rates surge.

On Friday, two Indian refiners declared force majeure on crude purchases from the Middle East after fuel demand plummeted due to a nationwide lockdown to stem the spread of coronavirus and because the companies tanks are full, sources told Reuters.

Saudi Arabia is evidently struggling significantly to increase production and exports as planned after the failed OPEC+ meeting, likely leading to continued deep discounts for Europe and the US, JBC Energy, an oil and gas research firm, wrote in a note on Monday.

However, in these two markets, final OSPs risk to fall into negative territory, exposing some difficulties of prospective pricing in the current environment.

Aramco is expected to issue its May OSPs between 1-5 April.
The government could consider suggestions for direct transfer of cash to unemployed workers, including migrant workers, to compensate them for loss of livelihood in the wake of the 21-day lockdown to curb spreading of coronavirus infections, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said on Monday.

Following the nationwide lockdown, which will be in place till April 14, thousands of migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other states have started returning back to their home states from various cities, including Delhi and Mumbai.

Kumar said the Centre and state governments have made big arrangements for migrant workers in different parts of the country where their sustenance is taken care of.

The central government has also received suggestions for direct cash transfer to unemployed workers, he said.

"As far as the loss of cash income (of migrant workers due to the countrywide lockdown) is concerned, I think the government may consider at some stage giving them cash through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme to compensate them for loss of employment on account of the 21-day lockdown," Kumar told PTI in an interview.

The option of direct cash transfer might be considered for unemployed workers, including migrant workers, he noted.

Even though most migrant workers have mobile phones and bank accounts, Kumar said it would still be difficult to transfer cash to them because they are in an unorganised segment.

"Nonetheless, some ways can be found through industry organisations, through employer organisations to identify them and compensate them to some extent for loss of their cash incomes," Kumar said.

According to him, there are two negative impacts due to the lockdown on migrant workers.

"One is sustenance, which means food and shelter, and second is the loss of cash income. The first is already being taken care of and the second, I think, as and when need arises will be taken care of by the Centre and state governments working together," he said.

Last week, the government announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore stimulus package that includes free foodgrains and cooking gas to poor people for three months as well as cash doles to women and poor senior citizens to alleviate the financial impact due to the lockdown.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
DEMOCRACY UP IN SMOKE

Australia used to be a nation that pursued and upheld democratic values and ideals. Now its nothing better than a neo-colonial power, especially in its sordid and immoral treatment of Timor-Leste over its oil deposits. The trial comes later this year where the establishment accuses Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery for leaking information to the Timor-Leste government about the disgraceful conduct of ASIS in bugging that government (i.e. spying) during negotiations over their oil field. Collaery maintains the trial was delayed while negotiations were in train, and it certainly looks that way.

The unethical behaviour of our present thugs and criminals in Canberra would not have been countenanced by earlier governments, such as Curtin or Chifley. Nowadays, we see a revolving door in place for ex-government ministers going onto fossil fuel boards, such as Alexander Downer, Foreign Minister during the bugging, who went on to act as an advisor to Woodside Petroleum which operates Greater Sunrise (the Timor oil field)! Such acts used to be described as taking brown envelopes or back-handers.

Court processes of this country have been attacked; The independence of the judiciary has been purposefully weakened under National Security Legislation  an excuse for obfuscation of what the government is doing because of terrorism. This should never have been allowed, and earlier  more honourable  governments would never have allowed it to happen. This government is dismantling our democracy along with the values Australians have always held to be sacrosanct, such as justice, fairness, and decency. This governing in secret must not be allowed to continue. But, alas, the present generation seems asleep at the wheel and unable to recognise criminal behaviour as such.

Australia has always welcomed migrants, but currently, the treatment of asylum seekers is abhorrent: not just keeping them indefinitely offshore but in more evil and subtle ways not seen nor understood by the public. We have thousands of asylum seekers in the country caught up in a humanitarian crisis. Theyre living in the community while their applications are assessed  which takes forever because the number of public servants dealing with them has been cut to the bone. Meanwhile, the Status Resolution Support Services (SRSS) which provides a living allowance leads to homelessness, destitution and despair. Now, this government has reduced the eligibility criteria for even this and those receiving it in 2018  some 13,000  have been reduced to fewer than 5,000. Its obvious that this government is relying on charities to take up the slack.

Through the same vein of fund-cutting falls the disaster of the 2019/20 fires where more than 18 million hectares of land  the equivalent of seventy per cent of New Zealand  was destroyed. In April and September 2019 the former Fire and Rescue NSW Commissioner, Greg Mullins, wrote to the PM to arrange a meeting about the impending bushfire crisis, which CSIRO scientists had prophesied. Interestingly, Scott Morrison took his family to Hawaii as the flames took hold.

The 2008 Garnaut Climate Change Review had also predicted that fire seasons would start earlier, end later and be more intense. They went on to say that such an effect would increase over time but would be directly observable by 2020. Fire management experts in May 2016 had told a Senate enquiry that they needed more aerial fire-fighting resources and that a national large fixed-wing air-tanker capability was a logical and necessary strategy. It might be a good time to note that the lack of resources which, in turn, increased the stress and fatigue suffered by the inadequately resourced fire-fighting personnel could have been responsible for the loss of three Americans flying an air-tanker over NSW.

With the intensity of these fires guaranteed for the future, we need more equipment and personnel, not less. The Australian government seems to be incapable of listening to the scientists, or perhaps more accurately, ignoring any facts that might interfere with their relentless pursuit of an economy in the black. Theres a wilful neglect of spending money where the safety of its population is concerned. Trillions can be spent on the military but cant be found to buy more fire-fighting equipment and training future firefighters.

And now we see how our government handles the coronavirus pandemic, closing the stable door once the horse has bolted! How much longer can our country  and even the planet  continue to support such cretinously incompetent and down-right crooked governments?
Kolkata, March 27 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday lost her cool when asked about the shortage of bread in the market due to the coronavirus induced lockdown, and said that people should instead make handmade rotis as the Image Source: PK

Kolkata, March 30 : The West Bengal government on Monday increased the medical insurance for those engaged in emergency services related to the coronavirus outbreak to Rs 10 lakh from the sum of Rs 5 lakh announced earlier and brought under its ambit 10 lakh people including couriers of test samples, cooks, conservancy staff and attendants.

Briefing media persons after a high-level meeting at the state secretariat Nabanna, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that ICDS workers, police personnel, doctors, nurses, health workers and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) personnel will also be included in the insurance scheme.

"The sum assured for doctors, nurses and health workers engaged in combating the disease is being raised to Rs 10 lakh from Rs 5 lakh. Their family members will also come under the insurance net "Couriers of the test samples of suspected or confirmed coronavirus patients, cooks, conservancy staff, police personnel, ASHA and ICDS workers can also avail of the scheme. Those doing these jobs in private organisations are also included," she said.

During the meeting, the Chief Minister held video conference with district administrations and health officials and enquired of the situation in their respective areas.

She also urged them to work in coordination and instructed that arrangements be made to house nurses, doctors, health workers and ASHA workers close to the hospital they are attached to.

Banerjee made enquiries about transportation problems of doctors and nurses and announced that her government was procuring 300 ventilators including mobile ventilators.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine shall develop and implement an electronic service for monitoring compliance with self-isolation and observation rules.

The Cabinet of Ministers, Ukraine's government, has supported the initiative of Health Minister Illia Yemets to strengthen quarantine measures amid the coronavirus spread.

The relevant decision was made at an extraordinary government meeting on March 29, the press service of the Ministry of Health reports.

The adopted resolution provides that those who have had contact with infected persons and those who are infected with COVID-19 and do not need hospitalization are obliged to observe self-isolation to prevent further spread of the disease.

Read alsoUkraine struggles to debunk fake virus news  media

Persons who returned from virusaffected countries/regions shall be subject to observation (isolation) within 14 days.

Regional and Kyiv city state administrations shall set up observation locations, transportation of infected persons, as well as medical monitoring.

In addition, the decree provides that by April 5, 2020, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine shall develop and implement an electronic service for monitoring compliance with self-isolation and observation rules.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Ukraine rose to 475 by Sunday evening.
The Union governments order to the states to seal borders in order to restrict the movement of labourers who have been rendered jobless and homeless, amounts to mass discrimination. Many left unable to pay their house rents even as the Delhi government issued a statement recently saying that it would pay the rents in case the tenants were unable to do so.

On the other hand, there are a number of senior citizens who rent their houses to the migrant workers and their sole earning is the rent paid by them. The Prime Minister has also appealed to the industry to pay the wages ...
The National Guard was unable to stop the returned Ukrainians who acted like this allegedly because they were not warned about a two-week observation upon arrival

Boryspil airport Open source

A plane carrying evacuees from Vietnam arrived in Boryspil Airport on March 29. Passengers' temperature was measured and they were given the document of consent for 14-days of self-isolation to sign. But after passport control, some people tried to break through the workers of the National Guard. Hromadke reported this.

At 15:30 on March 29, the plane arrived in Kyiv. Passengers' temperature was measured and they were given consent to sign up for 14-days of self-isolation, without which they were not released from the plan. After passing the passport control, passengers were told to get on the buses.

According to Hromadske, not having received information where they would be taken, people started to break through. Some succeeded, others remained.

The people refused to go to the hotels, stressing that they did not see the documents about the necessity of observation at the hotel and did not want to pay their own living expenses.

The passengers of the Vietnamese flight themselves claim that there was allegedly no talk of observation before the flight, writes Kyiv Operative on Facebook.

As the people say - they waited 2 hours for at least some kind of a decision and then the first 10 people just lost it. Others calmly went out. Also, passengers note that before the flight (which was organized by a Vietnamese businessman to return his fellow citizens from the territory of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry arranged it so Ukrainians are taken home on the way) there was no talk of an observation. Although, the carrier himself says that this was one of the main conditions for the flight, the newspaper writes.

The forces of the National Guard arrived, but they did not help much to restrain the crowd. In the last shots, those evacuees with suitcases and backpacks leave the airport building.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani defended his governments action to combat the unprecedented outbreak of deadly coronavirus while also dealing with a crippled economy on March 29. According to reports, as 2,640 have died in Iran due to COVID-19 infection, Rouhani said that it was not a time for political war. While the heavy sanctions imposed by the United States have taken a toll on Irans economy, Rouhani called health as the countrys principle along with the security of the society.

The global death toll of coronavirus outbreak has reached 33,983 and it has increased the challenges that leaders across the world face of striking a balance between imposing harsh measures to stem the spread of COVID-19 but also maintain the economy. From stimulus packages to major cities under lockdown, the pandemic has forced countries to take necessary steps but Hassan Rouhani has said that it is not the time to gather followers. Iran has emerged as one of the worlds hardest-hit countries from the coronavirus and has reported at least 38,309 infections.

Health is a principle for us, but the production and security of society is also a principle for us, Rouhani said at a Cabinet meeting. We must put these principles together to reach a final decision.

This is not the time to gather followers, he added. This is not a time for political war.

Read - Iran Temporarily Releases 1,00,000 Prisoners To Curb Coronavirus Spread

Read - Iran To Continue 'electronic Life' As COVID-19 Claims 2,640 Lives

Iran under US sanctions

When US President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal of 2015 in May 2018, it also imposed heavy sanctions on Iran in a bid to prevent Tehran from selling oil on international markets. However, Iran has urged the international community to ease the sanctions and is reportedly seeking a loan worth $5 billion from the International Monetary fund.

Last week, according to reports, even the United Nations chief had called for urgent re-evaluation of sanctions imposed on countries like Iran in the wake of the pandemic and prevent medical systems from collapsing. UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet reportedly said that during these challenging times as the highly contagious virus continues to tighten its grip around the world, sectoral sanctions should be eased for both humanitarian and global public health reasons.

Read - Rouhani Says Iran Ready For Possible Escalation In Coronavirus Situation

Read - Iran Confirms Death Toll Rises By 139 To Over 2,500

(With AP inputs)
MBABANE - As the coronavirus pandemic ravages the world, the lives of warders and inmates in the Kingdom of Eswatini are at high risk and one way to curb this could be the release of some inmates.

Some countries have already ordered the release of certain inmates depending on the nature of their crimes and age, among other factors. While government has banned visits to inmates and those awaiting trial, arrests are still being enforced, which causes overcrowding in the facilities. This means that new arrivals at the facilities might be infected with the virus and infect not only other inmates but the warders as well. While the banning of visitors is one of the measures to prevent the spread of the virus, it should be noted that several countries across the world have considered the release of inmates.

According to the Eswatini Government website, His Majestys Correctional Services (HMCS) comprises 14 Correctional centres, including the head office and the training college. The website stated that the departments core business is security, rehabilitation, and reintegration and community corrections. The number of offenders under the supervision of the department on average stands at 4 007. The figure was confirmed by the security entity to this publication yesterday and when broken down, there are 991 offenders under remand while 3 016 are convicts.

Measures

While the department has taken various measures to strengthen a multi-sectoral approach in the execution of its responsibilities and duties, it continues to compete for resources with other sectors and by virtue of it being on the lower rung of the criminal justice system, it tends to suffer from lack of necessary resources to deliver on the mandate, goals and objectives. It should be noted that last week, this publication reported how seemingly some incarcerated inmates were now using the coronavirus as a key to their freedom. This was after a number of accused persons who had been arrested in the past few weeks were now using it as a factor to motivate their bail applications before the courts.
The Artichoke Festivals mission has always centered around connecting people through a unique, family-oriented celebration, while giving back to the communities it serves.



(TRAVPR.COM) CA - March 30th, 2020 - Monterey, CA, March 29, 2020 - The Artichoke Festivals mission has always centered around connecting people through a unique, family-oriented celebration, while giving back to the communities it serves.

In these uncertain days, however, the idea of connecting people takes on new meaning. In light of the current crisis surrounding COVID-19, and in the interest of public health and safety, the Artichoke Festival has moved our annual summer celebration from May 30-31 to Aug. 8-9, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds & Event Center in Monterey.

The Artichoke Festival will honor any tickets purchased by patrons for the May event, and prices and ticket packages will remain the same for new guests.

Held continuously since 1959, the festival celebrates the harvest of Californias state vegetable and the region that has become known as the Artichoke Center of the World. Over the years, the festival became a primary source of funding for local nonprofits that depend upon a successful event for their viability.

The festival has added Donate Now buttons to its website at www.artichokefestival.org, with 100 percent of all donations given to the following charity partners: Monterey County Food Bank; Manzanita Youth Playground; Monterey County PAL; Meals on Wheels Salinas; and Monterey County Agricultural Education, Inc.

Moving forward, the Artichoke Festival will continue to follow recommendations by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with local health agencies, in planning the Aug. 8-9 event.

Contact:

Marci Bracco Cain

Chatterbox PR

Salinas, CA 93901

(831) 747-7455

http://www.artichokefestival.org

###
Nassim Taleb, the former options trader who predicted the 2008 financial crisis in his bestseller The Black Swan, said its too late for investors stung by the coronavirus crisis to hedge against the risk of more market turmoil.

Taleb also criticized the $2 trillion (U.S.) economic relief package signed into law last week as a bailout for investors and for companies that drained cash or levered up to buy back stock.

The worst thing you can do with insurance is try to time it, Taleb, a distinguished professor of risk engineering at New York University, said in an interview Monday on Bloomberg Television. If you dont have tail insurance, you dont have a portfolio. Your portfolio is going to blow up.

Thats a sobering reality check from someone who has long argued that instead of turning to the government for help in times of crisis, big investors and corporations should manage their own risks. His pleas for prudence were largely ignored, though, and most parts of the economy was ill-prepared for a sudden downturn when the coronavirus hit.

The time to hedge was months ago, before the pandemic, when prices were high, market volatility was still subdued and the cost of protection was low, Taleb said in the interview. Similarly, the U.S. government should have recognized the risks building in China in January and taken a hit by closing the skies to air travel and absorbing the cost to airlines. That way, the outbreak would have been slowed and the economy might not be so dramatically shut down.

We didnt want to spend pennies in January, now were going to spend trillions, said Taleb, who also advises tail-hedging fund Universa Investments. If you delay more, youre going to spend even more.

The U.S. government on Jan. 31 halted most passenger flights from China, barred entry to foreign nationals who recently had visited China and put some American travellers under quarantine. It has since become clear those measures were nowhere restrictive enough and the U.S. now has the highest number of COVID-19 cases at more than 140,000.

Taleb said the idea, advanced by some doctors and embraced by President Donald Trump, that social distancing is costing the economy too much is a fake trade-off. In Talebs view, the only way to truly help the economy is by snuffing out the pandemic.

Separating the economy from the virus is extremely foolish, he said. Its not like you have two different parallel universes.

Sending people back to work too early would be irresponsible.

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Taleb criticized the Troubled Asset Relief Program as a Wall Street bailout that was meaningless for most Americans. Hes just as dismissive of the coronavirus relief act, calling it corporate socialism for industries such as airlines, their shareholders and investors who didnt effectively manage risk.

The system favours the companies that spent their cash to buy their stock and furthermore borrow over those who had a cautious attitude, he said in the interview. We should bail out employees, we should bail out citizens, not the corporations who made these mistakes.

What irks Taleb most of all is the suggestion that the virus pandemic is a black swan event, a statistical outlier so rare no one could have predicted or prevented it. His 2007 book of the same name flagged globalization as reason enough to anticipate a very strange acute virus spreading throughout the planet.

Weve had black swans  Sept. 11 [2001] was definitely a black swan, he said. This was a white swan.
DETROIT - Twelve days ago, General Motors put hundreds of workers on an urgent project to build breathing machines as hospitals and governors pleaded for more in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/3/2020 (654 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FILE - In this March 26, 2020 file photo, President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Briefing Room, in Washington. Trump on Friday, March 27, invoked the Defense Production Act after claiming that General Motors wasn't moving fast enough to make much-needed ventilators in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Yet experts on managing factory production say GM is already making an extraordinary effort for a company that normally isn't in the business of building ventilators. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

DETROIT - Twelve days ago, General Motors put hundreds of workers on an urgent project to build breathing machines as hospitals and governors pleaded for more in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

But President Donald Trump, claiming the company wasn't moving fast enough, on Friday invoked the Defence Production Act, which gives the government broad authority to direct companies to meet national defence needs.

Experts on managing factory production say GM is already making an extraordinary effort for a company that normally isn't in the business of producing ventilators.

That is lightning-fast speed to secure suppliers, learn how the products work, and make space in their manufacturing plant. You cant get much faster than that, said Kaitlin Wowak, a professor at the University of Notre Dame who focuses on industrial supply chains.

GM expects to start making ventilators in mid-April, ramping up to a rate of 10,000 per month at as quickly as it can. The company is working with Ventec Life Systems, a small Seattle-area ventilator maker, and both say the Defence Production Act of 1950 doesnt change what theyre doing because theyre already moving as fast as they can, fronting millions in capital with an uncertain return.

I dont think anybody could have done it faster, said Gerald Johnson, GM's global manufacturing chief.

Peter Navarro, Trumps assistant for manufacturing policy, said Saturday that invoking the act was needed because GM dragged its heels for days" in committing to the investments to start making ventilators at an automotive electronics plant in Kokomo, Indiana.

It was only a few days earlier that Trump had been holding up GM and Ford as examples of companies voluntarily responding to the outbreak without the need for him to invoke the act. Then on Friday, he slammed GM on Twitter and during his daily briefing for foot-dragging. On Sunday, he was back to praising the company during another briefing: General Motors is doing a fantastic job. I don't think we have to worry about them anymore.

But GM says it had been proceeding on the same course all along.

The company got into the ventilator business on March 18 after being approached by stopthespread.org, a coalition of CEOs trying to organize companies to respond to the COVID-19 disease that has already claimed more than 30,000 lives globally. The organization introduced GM to Ventec, which makes small portable ventilators in Bothell, Washington.

The automaker pulled together manufacturing experts, engineers and purchasing specialists, and the next day had people at Ventecs facility, a short distance from a nursing home where the virus killed at least 35 people.

They worked on speeding up Ventecs manufacturing. A few days later, GM assigned more engineers and purchasing experts to figure out how it could make Ventecs machines. Some Ventec parts makers couldnt produce enough widgets fast enough, so GM went to its own parts bin to find suppliers to do the job, Johnson said. At the same time, GM was shutting down its car and truck factories temporarily due to worker fears about the virus.

Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan law and business professor, said he thought Trump would commend GM and use it as an example for other manufacturers in the coronavirus fight.

What came out was a smack on the head, he said.

Gordon, who teaches a class in commercialization of biomedical goods, said Trump likely will claim credit when GM starts making the machines. This is an election year, and on all sides youre going to see political theatre, he said.

Critics have urged Trump to invoke the Defence Production Act broadly to control the production, supply and distribution of ventilators and protective gear for hospital workers who are running short. Thats what the act was meant to do, and it was not for use against a single company, Gordon said.

Even with increased production from all ventilator makers, however, the U.S. might not have enough of the life-saving machines. U.S. hospitals have about 65,000 of the ventilators that are sophisticated enough to treat critical coronavirus patients. It could probably cobble together a total of 170,000, including simpler devices, to help with the crisis, one expert says.

A doctor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center estimates that 960,000 people in the U.S. will need to be on ventilators, which feed oxygen into the lungs of patients with severe respiratory problems through a tube inserted down the throat. Doctors hope social distancing will stop a huge number of people from getting sick simultaneously, flattening the curve of the illness so they can use one ventilator to treat multiple patients.

Trump, in several appearances Friday, accused GM of promising 40,000 ventilators, then reducing the number to 6,000. He also said the company wanted higher prices than previously discussed.

Ventec, which is negotiating with the government to provide more ventilators, said it only changed numbers and prices at the request of government agencies, which asked for a range of quantities and prices. The company said its selling the ventilators, which can treat severe virus patients, at distributor cost, and it has offered scaled down versions for a lower price.

Up until late Sunday, Ventec and GM hadn't known how many ventilators the government would buy but those details are now being worked out.

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Ventec isnt sure if it will make any money on the devices, which generally sell for $18,000  far less than ventilators used in hospital intensive care units that can cost $50,000. Johnson says GM has no intention of making a profit.

Ventec will need government money to help pay parts suppliers and ramp up its own production from 200 per month to 1,000 or more, said CEO Chris Kiple.

Invoking the Defence Production Act shined a light on the need for ventilators, he said, but Ventec cant move any quicker.

Were still moving full speed ahead, Kiple said. We know theres a shortage of ventilators.

____

This story has been corrected to show that that GM intends to start production in mid-April but will not reach a rate of 10,000 per month until later.
PANIC buying as a result of the coronavirus outbreak is easing off at shops and supermarkets in the Henley area.

Many stores have tackled the problem, which is thought to have reached its peak last week, by restricting the number of essential items which customers can buy.

Some are also setting aside times when only the elderly or other vulnerable shoppers may enter.

At the Tesco superstore in Reading Road, Henley, this now applies between 9am and 10am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The branch is open from 8am to 9pm between Monday and Saturday and from 10am to 4pm on Sundays.

The so-called silver hour doesnt apply to the retail giants Express convenience stores, including the branches in Gatehampton Road, Goring, and Church Street, Caversham.

The firm has also applied limits on bulk buying and announced that stores will open an hour early for NHS staff on Sundays.

Despite earlier concerns about shortages, the Henley outlet appeared to be coping with the additional demand on Saturday.

A small queue built up outside before it opened its doors at 8am and shoppers filed inside in an orderly fashion.

Many filled their trolleys with large quantities of fresh meat, fruit and vegetables as well as toilet paper, alcohol and cold and flu medication.

Some were wearing surgical masks, or improvised equivalents such as scarves, to reduce the risk of spreading or catching the disease.

Hazard tape was laid on the floor by the customer service desk so that customers stood 2m apart from staff. Contactless payments were being encouraged, although cash was still being accepted.

Because there were more customers than usual, staff set up a single large queue at the back of the store and directed people to checkouts as they became available.

At its peak, the line stretched halfway around the stores perimeter and along the entire back wall, past the pharmacy, bakery and deli counters.

Toilet paper was among the restricted items and people could only buy one packet. The shop was stocking more than usual and removed shelving to pile it high on pallets. A large number of staff was on duty and a constant stream were heading in and out of the stock rooms pushing cages filled with new produce.

By midday, most essentials were still available and few shelves were bare, although levels appeared lower than usual on some.

Most customers praised how the store was handling the crisis. Some said they usually shopped at the Waitrose supermarket in Bell Street, Henley, but had given up because its shelves kept being cleared shortly after opening.

Kim McLaren said she was shopping for herself and her husband and another older person who was self-isolating.

She said: People are showing up early because theyre worried that others will take everything by bulk buying. There were still a few empty shelves today, which was a shame, but the staff are doing an excellent job and deserve to be thanked.

At the moment some people have to go out several times a week to get everything they need where previously theyd just have done a weekly shop. Ive done all right but I havent found all the things I wanted like white bread, which some older people prefer.

Anthony Fitzgerald, of St Andrews Road, Henley, said: I havent been shopping any more than usual but recently Ive noticed that shelves in Henley are often empty by the middle of the day.

This is the first time Ive managed to find everything I need, which is encouraging. They seem to be fully restocking overnight but youve still got to get in early to make sure youll get some items. Ive previously struggled to find some things but its hardly the end of the world  you just have to adapt your recipes based on whats available.

Patricia Buckett, of Simmons Road, Henley, said she was only there for her usual Saturday shop and was shocked at the turnout.

She said: A lot of people are panic buying but Im just here to pick up what Id buy normally. If everyone stuck to that, there would be plenty for everyone but some people are scared of losing out if they dont get there first.

Weve had to swap a few items. For example, I always keep macaroni in the house but weve had to make do with whatever pasta theyve got. I couldnt get hand soap either so Ill have to get by with washing-up liquid.

I dont think Ive ever seen anything like this in my life. We lived through the war so I suppose weve got to keep our chins up and get through it.

Mrs Bucketts sister Sandra, from Shiplake, said: I cant tell you what I really think of these panic buyers  lets just say Im surprised by their behaviour. I havent been in the best of health recently and this trip has been very stressful.

The supermarkets are doing a good job, although they should have limited purchases sooner because some people were going way over the top. There were instances of people reselling goods on the internet at higher prices, which is very wrong.

Former GB rower Ric Egington, who lives in Bix with his fiancee Vicky Thornley, who sculls for the national squad, said he had found everything he needed.

He said Thornley, who is expected to represent her country at the Tokyo Olympics, now postponed until 2021, was training at home as the GB training facility at Caversham Lakes has shut following the outbreak.

The couple plan to install additional home gym equipment.

Mr Egington said: Im working to a list Vicky gave me. It didnt have toilet roll, funnily enough, but Ive added a pack as a pre-emptive strike because were down to our last few rolls.

Im also pleased that I managed to get a pack of chopped tomatoes because those are among the items that people were stockpiling.

Its mostly idiocy that has brought the crowds out  the world has gone totally crazy over this virus but hopefully that will soon die down. Its probably the hysteria thats been generated by some sections of the national press as well as what people are putting on social media.

However, it seems pretty civilised in here and thatll hopefully continue as the day goes on.

A Tesco spokesman said all stores had shut their fresh counters so staff could focus on filling shelves. Customers were being encouraged to leave online delivery slots for the elderly and vulnerable.

The Waitrose supermarket in Bell Street, Henley, is setting aside the first hour of each days trading for elderly and vulnerable shoppers.

Last Friday there were complaints that this was being abused by younger, healthier people and images of the stores empty shelves were circulating on social media.

But on Saturday morning, a security guard was posted to enforce the rule and people were respecting it. About 20 customers were waiting to be let in as the older shoppers made their way out.

After the first hour, most shelves still had some stock and the premises appeared less crowded than on previous days.

Waitrose now applies a limit of three purchases on any one grocery item and a maximum of two packets of toilet roll per customer. This does not apply to fresh fruit and vegetables, Easter confectionery and alcohol.

On Tuesday, it announced that only 36 people may enter the premises at one time and security guards will be posted to keep order.

There were also shortages at Waitroses branch in Church Street, Caversham, last week, with the fresh produce, bread, tinned goods and toilet paper aisles stripped bare. The situation improved this week, with most items readily available.

The neighbouring branch of Boots the chemist was limiting the number of customers in store at a time, creating queues on the pavement outside.

A loud argument broke out between a shopper at Tesco Express in Church Street and a security guard who accused her of

shoplifting.

The woman ran outside and verbally abused another shopper who tried to intervene. The shop was selling out of fresh produce on most days and had no paracetamol left.

Iceland, which has a branch at St Martins precinct, off Church Street, Caversham, has restricted its opening hours to between 9am and 6pm from Monday to Saturday and from 10am to 2pm on Sundays. On weekdays and Saturdays, the shop is open only to the elderly and vulnerable during the first hour of trading and to NHS workers during the final hour. It was experiencing shortages but this has improved.

The Caversham Butcher stopped taking online orders because of unprecedented demand but is expected to reinstate this soon.

It has also introduced a 10 per cent discount for NHS staff.

Staff constantly disinfect all surfaces, including the display chillers in front of the premises.

The Sainsburys Local convenience store in Bell Street, Henley, which is open daily from 7am to 11pm, has put up a sign saying: Were seeing huge demand for certain products, including pain relief, sanitising and long-life lines.

Weve set limits on a small number of these products to ensure we can offer them to everyone who needs them. Rest assured we are receiving new deliveries regularly. Please help us to support as many people as we can.

The chain has introduced an hour for the elderly and NHS workers but this only applies to its larger supermarkets.

The Co-op, which has stores in Sonning Common, Woodcote, Caversham, Watlington and Benson, has introduced dedicated hours for vulnerable shoppers at the last two of these.

They run from 9.30am to 10.30am on weekdays only at Watlington and from 8am to 9am between Monday and Saturday and 10am to 11am on Sundays at Benson. The Co-op has introduced a limit of two items per person on some essentials and urges shoppers to only buy what they need.

Meanwhile, village shops are delivering goods to the homes of customers who are self-isolating.

Binfield Heath Stores, which operates a paper round for more than 50 houses, is offering the service at no extra cost and customers can defer settling up until they can leave their homes again.

Gavin Caple, who manages the shop with his wife, Sharon, said people bought 40 bags of bread in less than two days last week. He went more than two days with no eggs and was short of pasta and rice from his wholesaler.

He has introduced restrictions to prevent further shortages and will carry out deliveries himself.

Mr Caple said: We cant get hold of very basic stuff, which is crazy but its because of panic.

We got decimated last Tuesday  they were taking bread off the trays before I could get it on the shelves. It was unbelievable, so now people can only have one bag until I say otherwise.

Its nice that people want to shop with us but I cant get hold of the products to restock the shelves. Theres a two- or three-week wait for them where usually its next day delivery.

Im happy to deliver extra goods. Because I do such a wide area with the papers, Im going to be passing everyone at some point.

Mr Caple, who regularly disinfects the shop and washes his hands, said he hadnt experienced shortages since the area was brought to a halt by heavy snow in early 2013.

The village store in Shiplake is also offering deliveries on top of the normal paper rounds and is co-ordinating orders with the village butcher.

Owner Carol Harvey received a positive response after appealing for volunteers through the Shiplake Villages website.

She said: We have a list of about 35 helpers and were taking the details of everybody who rings us up in need. A lot of people want to help and we have a high percentage of older residents who probably need it as theyre more likely to be self-isolating. People are keen that no one is left at home without food.

Were running low on toilet roll, tinned goods and pasta but we have plenty of things like milk, eggs, fruit and vegetables. People were coming to us because Tesco in Henley was selling out.

Staff at Ewelme Stores have circulated a leaflet asking residents to help with deliveries. About 20 people have come forward to help the 30 or more who are self-isolating.

The shop has closed its tea room, only allows two people inside at one time and regularly cleans all surfaces. It is running low on toilet roll, eggs and flour.

Villager Sue Evans, who works at the shop, said: Weve always delivered but obviously the need is greater now. Our older volunteers wanted to help but its not safe. Its great that people are willing to offer this much support. Were being really stringent with hygiene and well try to stay open as long as we can. Were a real hub of the community and we really are needed.

People are really grateful that were offering this service. They know they can just pick up the phone and well put an order together.

Andrea Bronimann, of Beggarbush Hill, who has volunteered to help, said: My neighbours are older and vulnerable and I thought how are they going to get their groceries? I can drive and deliver stuff so I wanted to help.

Sarah Harper, who runs Hambleden village stores, witnessed ugly scenes when she visited her wholesaler in High Wycombe to restock last week.

She said members of the public were trying to get in when it was only open to retailers. They became so disorderly that the Culden Faw estate, which owns her shop, hired a security guard to escort Ms Harper on her next visit.

Ms Harper said: The wholesalers had their own security on the doors but the public were trying to get in. One guy started spitting at the guards when he was turned away. It was quite frightening and were very lucky to have the support of the estate.

She is delivering goods within a three-mile radius of the shop and will leave orders on peoples doorsteps. Most who visit in person are buying eggs, flour and toilet paper. Ms Harper said: If people need help, were going to give it. This is predominantly quite an aged community  everybody knows everybody and its a very special place to live.

Weve always been the hub and heart for the village and everybody helps each other.

The stores eight staff check their temperatures before coming to work every day.

Ms Harper added: Weve been washing our hands a lot. Mine have become raw and Im literally falling apart.

Stoke Row Stores is running out of pasta, milk, eggs, flour and yeast daily but constantly receives new deliveries. Last week it sold all 40 of its paracetamol packets in one day.

Nikki Steiger, who runs it with her daughter Kryssie and mother Jeanette Creewel, said many customers were self-isolating and more than 10 families had ordered deliveries.

She said: People are staying at home because theyre elderly and at risk. We wanted to help because everyone loves the store. Everyone usually meets here and theyre going to use us if it means they can get their shopping done without having to go to Waitrose.

We are applying sanitiser to our hands between customers and clean all the surfaces that people have been touching. Were also trying to get people to only make payments with their cards. Mrs Creewel, who is self-isolating as a precaution, criticised panic buyers. She said: Its immoral because its robbing people in the public sector, like NHS nurses who cant go shopping whenever they like because of their jobs.

Our population hasnt increased but for some reason our demands have and its causing hardship. Its very worrying and a bit surreal because theres so much hype on the news but then you go outside and everything seems normal.

Chanas Cafe and Store in Whitehouse Road, Woodcote, now only opens from 9am to 1pm and has shut its seating area but still sells takeaways.

Owner Paul Chana is offering deliveries and only lets three customers in at once to ensure they can remain 2m apart.

He said: If anyone cannot get to the store, please ring or message and I will try to get anything you need  bread, milk, eggs, groceries or a takeaway. We will beat this virus  this is a war we will win if we all pull together.

The One-Stop shop in Wood Lane, Sonning Common, has restricted toilet rolls to one packet per customer and is recruiting more staff.
A n NHS worker who was stabbed to death has been named locally as a lovely and caring mother-of-three.

Victoria Woodhall, 31, was attacked in Windsor Crescent, Middlecliffe, just before 5pm on Sunday.

A 40-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is in police custody.

Tributes have poured in to the 31-year-old after her friends set up an online fundraiser to cover funeral costs and support her children.

Mrs Woodhall, an operating department practitioner at Rotherham General Hospital, lived for her children and was always helping others, Donna Wetherall and Kelly Sims wrote on the Gofundme page.

She will be deeply missed by friends, family and her children, they said. She was lovely and caring, always helping others, lived for her children, and sadly she was taken away at a young age of 31.

Other friends left tributes on the page, which had raised more than 500 just a few hours after it was set up.

Chelsie Jordan wrote: Gonna miss you Vick. Thank you so much for being you.

Flowers and cards were left at the scene of the devastating incident / PA

Investigations into Mrs Woodhalls death continued on Monday, as white-suited forensic officers were seen at the scene of the incident.

A card left outside the property read: Taken from us. Always in our hearts and thoughts. A loving mummy, daughter and sister. xxxxx.

A floral tribute was left to Mrs Woodhall at the scene / PA

South Yorkshire Police earlier appealed for anyone with information to contact them.

A spokesman said: A 40-year-old man is currently in custody after a 31-year-old woman was stabbed during an incident in Barnsley on Sunday evening.

Emergency services were called to Windsor Crescent, Middlecliffe, just before 5pm, following concerns that a woman had been stabbed.

Sadly, the woman was pronounced dead when officers arrived at the scene.
Theres a new cyberattack or data breach almost daily. A few weeks ago, federal prosecutors announced charges against Chinese military hackers, alleging that the Chinese intelligence officers were behind the Equifax data breach. And just last month, stories of hackers infiltrating dozens of United Nations servers last year and malware being discovered on Defense Department servers surfaced.

Not only is the public sector a significant target, as evidenced Verizons 2019 Data Breach Investigation Report, but infiltrations into government systems are historically slow to be discovered.

While there have been more attacks and the number of breaches and their associated costs continue to rise, this isn't a new problem. Information security has been designated a high-risk area by the Government Accountability Office since 1997, and federal agencies must continually adjust how they think about security; specifically, how they identify, manage, prioritize and mitigate risks.

Point product proliferation

Over the last few decades, government has grappled with how to best secure growing networks while supporting mission needs and adopting new, modern technology. Bring-your-own-device initiatives and advancements in internet-of-things technology have resulted in a massive increase in endpoints connecting to agency networks that substantially increases risk.

Those responsible for securing enterprise networks struggle to guarantee security because they often simply dont know whats actually on their networks. Theyve lost all visibility into their endpoints, ironically, because they stitched together security solutions and created too many for legacy tools and methods to manage. The collection of point solutions running across federal networks has only further compounded the problem. Most of those point tools require an agent to be installed, and studies have shown that the more agents there are on an endpoint, the higher the probability that it will be breached.

To be clear, there has been a monumental amount of effort put into solving this risk management problem. For example, many agencies have leveraged the guidance found in the National Institute of Standards and Technologys Special Publication 800-53, which provides a multi-tiered risk management model, and just last year the Department of Homeland Security launched the Agency-Wide Adaptive Risk Enumeration (AWARE) scoring algorithm as part of the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program to inform decision-making in the management of cyber risk.

Despite efforts to date, the actual urgency of the matter has been blunted by the fear, uncertainty and doubt that sometimes compels agencies to buy blind, as is evidenced by the volume of point products on the CDM Approved Product List ballooning beyond 430,000 individual SKUs. Decision-makers are burdened by tools that often fail to integrate and communicate with others, are expensive to maintain and deliver irregular, unreliable and dated data.

To sustain agency missions, its critical to stay ahead of cyber adversaries. A single decision made on yesterdays data could elevate an agencys security risk. Risk management must be rooted in real-time, accurate data.

Whats the solution?

Remember the basics: Security basics are just as important as the more complex security solutions. Just as theres no real benefit to locking the skylights if the front door is left wide open, securing against a rare strain of malware holds no benefit without first implementing basic security controls, such as those offered by the Center for Internet Security.

Recognize distractions: To stay on task, IT teams must be aware of what might draw attention away from their intended focus. Its easy to get distracted by vulnerabilities on non-critical assets or low-priority risks -- either because the fix or remediation seems quick and easy or because the volume of similar issues is just too hard to ignore. Focus on and prioritize high-value assets to effectively reduce risk and improve security posture.

Rectify the relationship: Theres often a substantial priorities gap between IT operations and security teams, making it more difficult to manage an organizations risk, much less quickly make informed mission-critical decisions. By unifying the two teams, agencies can reduce complexity and close visibility gaps created by siloed tools, reduce infrastructure costs and adapt to new computing models, such as the cloud. Unified efforts can improve network visibility and drastically reduce the time for critical patch management, asset inventory and incident response. Lastly, agencies can eliminate security guesswork by aligning both teams with consistent and accurate data.

Reduce risk by rank: At a basic level, federal agencies can leverage a risk-scoring solution such as AWARE, a risk assessment method or a risk management framework to determine their vulnerability (e.g., exposure value x likelihood); however, the output of such a calculation is only as good as the input data, so agencies must have accurate, real-time data for making risk prioritization decisions.

The security problems agencies face today arent new, but government enterprise networks have become significantly more complex. Rather than being considered a budget black hole, security teams should be seen as board room advisors. By taking a holistic, platform approach to technology risk management, security teams reduce the number of point products, reallocate budget and scarce resources and justify future budget requests for critical security activities -- all while providing a comprehensive view of the security landscape that enables strategic business decisions.
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It still boggles my mind that this is the same guy who goes, and sits down in front of that TV, and in front of you all in Albany, lays it all out, smartly and ably, Mr. Rivera said, praising the governors coronavirus performance. And then he breathes in, and the next thing that comes out of his mouth, And you got to let me cut the Medicaid system.

As part of the budget negotiations, the executive branch provided the State Senate with data showing how hospitals could be affected by the proposed cuts; each senator then received an email detailing the impact on hospitals in their districts, Mr. Rivera said.

Many of the hospitals that would be hurt by the cuts are so-called safety-net hospitals, which largely serve uninsured or undocumented residents, some of whom are considered susceptible to infection because of cramped living or work conditions.

Indeed, the brunt of the proposed cuts at St. Barnabas, where almost 90 percent of patients are partly covered by Medicaid, could come from reducing $7.7 million in Indigent Care Pool funds, grant money meant to reimburse hospitals for treating poor and uninsured patients for free.

Dr. Perlstein, who complimented Mr. Cuomos response to the coronavirus, said it was unconscionable to grapple with the prospect of a funding cut when were 14 days from Armageddon.

Especially at a time Im asking my staff to give it all, said Dr. Perlstein, who has worked at the hospital for over 20 years. If these cuts remain, I have no way to survive as a hospital. Im already walking a very fine line when it comes to revenue.

Robert Mujica, the state budget director, said that it was disingenuous to scrutinize any individual hospital cuts without taking into account the full picture of other savings and efficiencies from the proposals, which he stressed are still being negotiated with the Legislature.
Chris Pratt and Katherine Schwarzenegger are sticking close to their family in this difficult time.

The married couple was seen matching while walking their dog Maverick around their Los Angeles neighborhood on Sunday. Pratt, 40, and Katherine, 30, wore all-black on their outing, which included a stop to see Maria Shriver, Katherines mom.

The couple arrived at Shrivers shortly before Arnold Schwarzenegger, Katherines dad, arrived to spend time with the family as well. The group maintained their distance as they played with their dogs and caught up.

Katherine and Pratt, who married in July 2019, brought along Maverick, Katherines rescue dog who inspired her childrens book.

After Arnold, 72, said goodbye, the couple went on a walk with Maria, 64, and two of her other children, Patrick, 26, and Christina, 28, before heading back home.

Maria and Arnold share Katherine, Christina, Patrick and their younger brother Chris, 22, from their 25-year marriage. They split in 2011.

WATCH: Chris Pratt Gets Naked to Show Off His Post-Honeymoon Sunburn  and Gwyneth Paltrow Offers Help!

Chris Pratt Gets Naked to Show Off His Post-Honeymoon Sunburn  and Gwyneth Paltrow Offers Help!

Two weeks after tying the knot, the newlyweds honeymooned in Hawaii  and Pratt has the sunburn to prove it

Their outing comes as Katherine recently opened up to PEOPLE about their marriage and how theyre adjusting to life together.

I do still feel like a newlywed. I dont know how long thats supposed to last, but I do definitely feel like a newlywed in the sense that I feel beyond lucky and blessed every single day to be married to the man that Im married to, she told PEOPLE exclusively. Im still really excited and crazy in love.

While working on her latest project, the animal advocate said her husband was one of a handful of loved ones who read her book The Gift of Forgiveness before it was finished.

I didnt want to give the book really to anybody because I like it to be a final product and make sure its perfect, Katherine said. I think the only people who read it were my husband and mom [before it was done].

Story continues

RELATED: Chris Pratt and Katherine Schwarzenegger Snuggle Up As She Admits Still Feeling Crazy in Love

As expected, both Pratt and Shriver were impressed and just really excited for her, she added. They both know how passionate I am about this book and also this topic.

Pratt has been heaping on the praises for his wife and her upcoming fourth book on Twitter, even predicting all the great it will do for people.

So proud of you honey Im telling you, this book is going to change the world, he wrote.
Tom Arnold

LONDON (Reuters) - Sovereign wealth funds from oil-producing countries mainly in the Middle East and Africa are on course to dump up to $225 billion in equities, a senior banker estimates, as plummeting oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic hit state finances.

The rapid spread of the virus has ravaged the global economy, sending markets into a tailspin and costing both oil and non-oil based sovereign wealth funds around $1 trillion in equity losses, according to JPMorgan strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou.

His estimates are based on data from sovereign wealth funds and figures from the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, a research group.

Sticking with equity investments and risking more losses is not an option for some funds from oil producing nations. Their governments are facing a financial double-whammy  falling revenues due to the spiraling oil price and rocketing spending as administrations rush out emergency budgets.

Around $100-$150 billion in stocks have likely been offloaded by oil-producer sovereign wealth funds, excluding Norways fund, in recent weeks, Panigirtzoglou said, and a further $50-$75 billion will likely be sold in the coming months.

It makes sense for sovereign funds to frontload their selling, as you dont want to be selling your assets at a later stage when it is more likely to have distressed valuations, he said.

Most oil-based funds are required to keep substantial cash-buffers in place in case a collapse in oil prices triggers a request from the government for funding.

A source at an oil-based sovereign fund said it had been gradually raising its liquidity position since oil prices began drifting lower from their most recent peak above $70 a barrel in October 2018.

In addition to the cash reserves, additional liquidity was typically drawn firstly from short-term money market instruments like treasury bills and then from passively invested equity as a last resort, the source said.

Its generally a similar trend for other funds.

Our investor flows broadly show more resilience than market pricing would suggest, said Elliot Hentov, head of policy research at State Street Global Advisors. There has been a shift toward cash since the crisis started, but its not a panic move but rather gradual.

The sovereign fund source said the fund had made adjustments to its actively-managed equity investments due to the market rout, both to stem losses and position for the recovery, when it comes.

Exactly how much sovereign wealth funds invest and with whom remain undisclosed. Many dont even report the value of the assets they manage.

On Thursday, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund said it had lost $124 billion so far this year as equity markets sunk but its outgoing CEO Yngve Slyngstad said it would, at some point, start buying stocks to get its portfolio back to its target equity allocation of 70% from 65% currently.

Slyngstad also said that any fiscal spending by the government this year would be financed by selling bonds in its portfolio.

DEFENDING THE CURRENCY

State-backed, energy-rich funds account for a significant chunk of the roughly $8.40 trillion in total sovereign wealth assets, funds theyve built up as a bulwark for when oil revenues dry up.

Sovereign funds have become major players on global stock markets, accounting for roughly 5-10% of total holdings, and an important source of income for Wall Street asset managers.

While they have been hit hard by the approximate 20% slide in global equity prices, the oil-based funds governments in Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Angola have also seen their finances strained by a nearly two thirds drop in oil prices this year.

Gulf sovereign wealth funds could see their assets decline by $296 billion by the end of this year, according to Garbis Iradian, chief Middle East and North Africa economist at the Institute of International Finance (IIF).

Around $216 billion of that fall would be from stock market losses and a further $80 billion from drawdowns taken by cash-squeezed governments.

The central banks of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have offered a total $60 billion in stimulus, although expectations of tighter liquidity have already pressured Gulf currencies, pegged for decades to the U.S. dollar.

Theres a question of whether some of these funds are going to be used to support currencies, as some legal frameworks allow this, said Danae Kyriakopoulou, chief economist of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), a think tank.

In the previous 10 years some countries moved reserves from their central banks to sovereign funds, allowing them to invest in more risky assets as they have greater flexibility.

Now, that may be a problem, because you have more reserves in the sovereign fund than the central bank when you may need the reserves to defend the currency.

Saudi Arabia is among countries that have in recent years moved reserves from its central bank to beef up its sovereign investment vehicle, Public Investment Fund, which holds stakes in Uber and electric car firm Lucid Motors, and had around $300 billion in assets under management in 2019.

In 2015, the last time crude prices collapsed, Saudi Arabias central bank, which then oversaw a larger chunk of the kingdoms investments, mainly in securities such as U.S. Treasury bonds, ran down its foreign assets by over $100 billion to cover a huge state budget deficit.

This month, Saudi Arabias Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said the country would look to borrow to finance its deficit after announcing an economic support package worth more than $32 billion.

Editing by Carmel Crimmins
Grounded planes American Airlines

Nick Oxford/Reuters

The spread of COVID-19 has led demand for air travel to plummet around the world.

As airlines have canceled flights and grounded planes due to the novel coronavirus, they've increasingly turned to the world's airports in their search for new places to store those planes.

New images from satellite technology company Maxar show runways and taxiways, which would normally be busy with active traffic, reduced to parking lots for the world's jets.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As COVID-19 spreads around the world, air travel has come to a virtual halt.

Between shelter-in-place orders, border closures, travel bans, and social distancing advisories, demand for air travel has also plummeted, leading airlines to suspend routes, cancel flights, ground huge portions of their fleets, and give early retirements to older planes.

Flights that are still operating are often nearly empty.

As airlines continue to cut both long-haul and short-haul flying, in some cases reducing their capacity 70-80% for April, they're running out of places to store their grounded planes. Retired planes can go to typical storage facilities, or "bone yards," where they can be stored, scrapped, or stripped for parts.

But for planes that are just temporarily grounded, boneyards aren't always an option. These aircraft require regular maintenance and inspections, even when grounded, in order to stay in flightworthy shape.

To that end, some airlines are storing more planes at airports. With fewer flights taking off, airports aren't necessarily using as many runways or taxiways as they normally would be, meaning airlines can store their active, but grounded, fleets there.

Maxar Technologies, a satellite communications and imaging company, released new satellite images of three airports in Europe and the US where planes are being stored. The photos reveal collections of planes large and small that sit idle as the travel industry waits to return to normal.

Story continues

Take a look at the satellite pictures below.

At Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, planes are parked along many taxiways.

Maxar Satellite Imagery Airport charles de gaulle airport parked planes_france_27march2020_ge1_resize

Satellite image 2020 Maxar Technologies

To maximize the space, planes have been towed and parked closely together, where technicians can work and get them back into service quickly once demand for air travel picks up.

Maxar Satellite Imagery Airport charles de gaulle airport closeup of planes_france_27march2020_ge1_resize

Satellite image 2020 Maxar Technologies

Over in Germany, there are similar scenes at Frankfurt International Airport.

Maxar Satellite Imagery Airport frankfurt intl airport_overview_germany_26march2020_wv3_resize

Satellite image 2020 Maxar Technologies

Grounded planes are parked over on runway 07L/25R, the airport's shortest runway. The aircraft are sitting idle until air traffic picks back up.

Maxar Satellite Imagery Airport frankfurt intl airport_lineup of parked planes_germany_26march2020_wv3_resize

Satellite image 2020 Maxar Technologies

The Lufthansa planes are both long- and short-haul  this closeup shows longer-range jets.

Maxar Satellite Imagery Airport frankfurt intl airport_closeup of lufthansa and star alliance parked planes_germany_26march2020_wv3_resize

Satellite image 2020 Maxar Technologies

This is Copenhagen Airport in Denmark. The airport has three runways  right now, it's storing grounded planes on the taxiway next to runway 04L/22R, toward the left of the image.

Maxar Satellite Imagery Airport copenhagen airport overview_denmark_26march2020_wv3_resize

Satellite image 2020 Maxar Technologies

Here's a closer look.

Maxar Satellite Imagery Airport copenhagen airport_lineup of parked planes_denmark_26march2020_wv3_resize

Satellite image 2020 Maxar Technologies

The planes  both long-haul wide-bodies, and short-haul narrow-bodies, belong to SAS, or Scandinavian Airlines. SAS has temporarily laid off 90% of its staff  or 10,000 workers  and halted most of its flights.

Maxar Satellite Imagery Airport copenhagen airport close up of sas airliners_denmark_26march2020_wv3_resize

Satellite image 2020 Maxar Technologies

Mobile Regional Airport in Alabama has also turned into a storage facility. In addition to planes parked at terminal buildings and hangers, a row of what appear to be widebody jets are parked along runway 18/36.

Maxar Satellite Imagery Airport mobile regional airport_overview_alabama_26march2020_wv2_resize

Satellite image 2020 Maxar Technologies

The planes appear to be Boeing 777-200 jets usually used on some of the airline's longest flights from its hubs  not a usual guest in Mobile. The jets will likely remain grounded until demand for travel picks back up. American Airlines has said it is also storing Airbus A321 narrow-bodies at the airport.

Maxar Satellite Imagery Airport mobile regional airport_parked airplanes_alabama_26march2020_wv2_resize

Satellite image 2020 Maxar Technologies

Read the original article on Business Insider
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RAYLEIGH, ESSEX, UK / ACCESSWIRE / March 30, 2020 / Tube Tech International Ltd. has received three ISO accreditations following an ISO audit at its European headquarters in Rayleigh, Essex, U.K.The accreditations have been awarded for the provision of specialised industrial cleaning services and apply to the company's research and development into robotic cleaning technology solutions. The certificates primarily relate to general industrial, petrochemical, chemical and renewable energy industries with an emphasis on the minimisation of environmental and occupational health and safety risks.The company has been awarded with the ISO 9001:2015 accreditation for Quality Management Systems which is awarded to organisations to demonstrate the ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory requirements.Tube Tech International Ltd. has also received the ISO 14001:2015 accreditation for Environmental Management Systems which specifies the requirements for an environmental management system that an organisation can use to enhance its environmental performance. It is intended for use by an organisation seeking to manage its environmental responsibilities in a systematic manner that contributes to the environmental pillar of sustainability.The final accreditation awarded to the company is ISO 45001:2018 for Occupational Health & Safety Management Systems. This accreditation specifies requirements for an occupational health and safety (OH&S) management system, and gives guidance for its use, to enable organisations to provide safe and healthy workplaces by preventing work-related injury and ill health, as well as by proactively improving its OH&S performance.Commenting at the close of the ISO audit, managing director at Tube Tech International Jon Camp, said:"Receiving these accreditations is a fantastic achievement for everyone at Tube Tech. It represents our commitments to quality, environmental and occupational health and safety management, all of which have been part of the DNA at Tube Tech since the conception of the company."I would like to thank all of the staff at Tube Tech who consistently implement the values and processes which have now been officially recognised by attaining these ISO accreditations. They will help us to better serve our clients by providing them with confidence that they are working with a company that adheres to globally recognised standards." To find out more about ISO, visit: www.iso.org To find out more about Tube Tech International, visit: www.tubetech.com About ISOISO is an independent, non-governmental international organization with a membership of 164 national standards bodies.Through its members, it brings together experts to share knowledge and develop voluntary, consensus-based, market relevant International Standards that support innovation and provide solutions to global challenges.About UsAbout Tube Tech InternationalFounded in the UK in 1988, Tube Tech International is the global leader in research-led, high-tech fouling removal and inspection services, constantly investing in and developing tried and tested, step change methods to solve heavy industries' most difficult cleaning challenges.Tube Tech International's patented methods, including remotely operated robotic technology, achieve significant savings, reduce downtime and CO2 emissions, increase throughput and improve safety standards.In 2019 Tube Tech International's robotic technology has been granted government funding as part of Horizon 2020; the biggest European Union research and innovation programme to date. Its patented Shell Side Jet solution will deliver the very first technology to effectively remove fouling from the outside heat transfer surface of shell and tube exchangers.In 2018, Tube Tech Inc. U.S. base of operations was launched in Houston, Texas, and in 2019 a further base opened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.CONTACT:Ella Boyden01473 326 907ella@ thewriteimpression.co.uk SOURCE: Tube Tech International Ltd.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

ARTESIA  Artesia General Hospital has issued an open letter to the cities of Artesia and Carlsbad, urging residents to continue to shelter in place, particularly in light of recent developments in Eddy County.

On behalf of Artesia and Carlsbad Health Care communities, we would like to thank the public for their work on social distancing. We have observed social distancing throughout Eddy County but the work is NOT DONE!

We need to double down in our efforts to contain the coronavirus. We are NOWHERE NEAR the anticipated spike in virus activity IN OUR STATE.

A recent study by the University of Washington has projections for evolution of coronavirus cases in New Mexico. The following are figures projected for New Mexico:

 Peak (SEVERE ILLNESS) hospital resource use  April 25.

 By April 15, they anticipate we will see more than 10 deaths per day in New Mexico.

 By peak activity, we will see more than 15 deaths per day throughout the state.

 Anticipated overall New Mexico deaths GREATER THAN 500!

At a time when we have just recently recorded the first death within Eddy County, we would like nothing more than to prove the projected figures wrong by contributing to the safety of ALL community members, YOUNG AND OLD. We again ask that everyone PLEASE self-isolate when possible.

Continue social distancing when absolutely necessary to be out of your home, and WASH YOUR HANDS, PLEASE!!

On behalf of Artesia General Hospital Staff.

Your Friends,

Marshall Baca Jr., DO

COVID-19 Incident Commander and

Emergency Medicine Director, AGH

Joe Salgado, MD

Chief of Staff

Memorial Family Practice

Marshall G. Baca, MD

Vice Chief of Staff

Orthopedics

In addition, the AGH Board of Directors announced Saturday that a transitional team would be leading the hospitals administrative activities as the facility navigates the COVID-19 crisis and that the board would begin its search for a new hospital administrator/Chief Executive Officer once the health crisis has passed.

Effective March 20, the hospital has named the team of Dr. Joe Salgado, Chief of Staff, and Mrs. Cory Yates, Chief Financial Officer, to ensure the continuation of AGHs administrative functions.

The directors feel very confident about the leadership of Dr. Joe Salgado and Cory Yates, who will be operating as the transition team with the support of the Board, said Anna Whitmire, chairman of the governing board. These two have a great working relationship, and we have the utmost confidence in them.

We believe this team will be able to continue the smooth operations of the hospital moving forward.

Whitmire stressed that the primary focus of the hospital at this time is staying up to date with the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic. The team in place has been preparing for the virus for weeks and is focused on treating patients and protecting staff.

Artesia General Hospital has worked very hard to create a facility where quality healthcare and the safety and wellbeing of our patients are a priority, the board said in a statement. The transition team will continue this endeavor.

AGH reminds everyone to stay in their homes if possible, wash hands often, use social distancing, and cover coughs and sneezes
A Birmingham mother is grieving the loss of her young son after authorities say he ingested a controlled substance at a relatives home.

Carter Thomas, 3, was found unresponsive at 3:32 p.m. March 6 at a family members home on 15th Place S.W. He as taken to Childrens of Alabama by Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service where he was pronounced dead at 4:02 p.m.

Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said authorities have not yet determined the cause and manner of death.

Birmingham police obtained a felony reckless manslaughter warrant against 52-year-old Leon Wallace Richey.

Charging documents state Richey did recklessly cause Carters death by allowing the victim to access a controlled substance. He was booked into the Jefferson County Jail on March 18 and released the following day on $15,000 bond.

Nearly a month later, Carters mother, Chunteria Glaster, say she still has little information about her sons death. Carter, she said, was at his paternal grandmothers home when the incident happened and said Richey is the grandmothers boyfriend.

She said she received a call from the grandmother that Friday saying Carter was unresponsive and was being transported to the hospital. When she arrived, the news was dire.

They asked me if he was healthy and then they were saying they did all they could, she said.

She went in to see Carter, but the pain was too great. I barely stayed in there, she said. I couldnt stand it.

A lot of people are asking me what happened, but I cant tell them what happened because I dont know myself, Glaster said.

Efforts to reach Richey for comment werent immediately successful. Court records do not yet list an attorney for him, but indicate he pleaded guilty in 2010 to felony heroin possession.

Carter, Glaster said, was her comforting child. No matter what you went through or go through, he would say, Mommy you okay? Mommy its going to be okay and I love you mommy, she said. I miss my baby so much it kills me. I wish Heaven had visiting hours.

Her other two children, 6-year-old son Jaiden Glaster and 2-year-old Charity Thomas, miss their brother. My oldest asks about him a lot but he knows whats going on, she said. My 2-year-old calls his name a lot.

Glaster said she is hanging in there as best she can. Im taking it day by day. It hits me at night. Certain things make me think of it. Its hard.
By Ofeliya Afandiyeva

Italy was the top country to export Azerbaijani products in January-February 2020, followed by Turkey and Israel, local media reported citing Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee.

The value of exported products to Italy was estimated at $1.4bn, to Turkey - $310.6m , to Israel - $216.9m.

It should be noted that Italy, Turkey and Russia are in the top three in the list of major countries in trade turnover with Azerbaijan, with the volume of trade amounting to $1.576bn, $547.4m, and $347.1m respectively.

Italy has been one of Azerbaijans top partners in the European Union since the beginning of the South Caucasus countrys post-Soviet independence.

Trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $6 billion in 2019, which made Italy Azerbaijans top trade partner in Europe.

This bilateral trade accounts for 92 percent of Italys overall trade with the South Caucasus region. Additionally, 17 percent of Italys annual oil consumption is supplied by Azerbaijan.

Additionally, in 2019, the volume of Azerbaijan's oil exports to Italy increased by 7 percent year-on-year to reach 11,470,595.61 tons. Italy was delivered $ 5,536,752.34 (an increase of 5.1 percent) worth of oil by Azerbaijan.

During the fifth meeting of the Azerbaijan-Italy Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation on January 15, it was noted that the main area of economic partnership with Italy is the energy sector. Over the past two years, Azerbaijani State Oil Company (SOCAR) delivered 15.9 million tons of crude oil, 189,000 tons of oil products and 43,700 tons of petrochemical products to Italy.

In recent years, energy sector cooperation between the two states has been further reinforced by the construction of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), which, starting in late 2020, will annually deliver 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Azerbaijani natural gas to the European market for the first time in history.

Azerbaijan and Italy signed 28 agreements in various fields, including military cooperation and energy exports during President Aliyevs visit on February 19-22. These agreements, particularly a decision on cooperation in the military industry and the Joint Declaration on Strengthening Strategic Partnership, are seen in Baku as greatly important for Azerbaijani foreign policy.

The diplomatic relations between the two countries were established on May 8, 1992.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money.

Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  A 26-year-old man was shot to death Sunday in the citys Glenville neighborhood.

Martize Battle of Cleveland died in the shooting, according to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner. No arrests have been made, and police have not said if there are any suspects in the case.

Investigators are searching for a man who ran from the scene of the shooting.

The shooting happened about 5:30 p.m. on Sellers Avenue near East 117th Street. Battle and another man were talking on the side of the road outside the Central Fox Market store when the other man pulled out a gun and pointed it at Battle, according to police.

Battle ran and dropped a gun on the sidewalk, according to police. The other man fired at Battle several times and ran away, according to police.

Witnesses heard several gunshots, and police officers found Battle dead on the ground in the street between two parked cars outside the Central Fox Market store, according to police.

He suffered gunshots to the head and stomach.

Read more from cleveland.com:

Cleveland police officer tests positive for coronavirus, sources says

Akron woman dead in Copley Township crash

Cleveland EMS worker tests positive for COVID-19 coronavirus, memo says

Cleveland police officers taken to hospital after helping person escape flooding

One dead, two injured in Saturday crash on Clevelands East Side
In a time where physical wellbeing is at the forefront of everyone's minds, we need to remember that mental health is just as serious as the entire country endures the beginnings of a 21-day lockdown.

According to Craig Comrie, CEO of Profmed Medical Scheme and passionate advocate for mental health issues, the stress that this lockdown is going to put on us is going to be greater than we imagine, but we can do something about it.

At Profmed our stats show that mental health issues are becoming more prevalent in the younger population, says Comrie. The greatest increases in treatment for short and long term mental illness is amongst our members aged 18 to 35 years. This is due to long term stress attributed to environmental factors such as pressure on finances brought about by unemployment or under-employment.

In this time of lockdown, Comrie advises that we all need to be more aware of others who show signs of depression, anxiety and mental disorders like bipolar and schizophrenia.

For these groups, people are going to feel even more isolated. If you know someone that needs support, please talk to them regularly, where necessary encourage them to engage with their psychologists and counselors and during isolation, use safe channels like a digital platform. Profmed, like many other medical schemes, allow members to utilise digital consultation services which can be claimed from your available day to day benefits.

Comrie is more concerned about people who have an underlying mental illness. He believes that this period of isolation may be the trigger to bring anxieties to the surface. The Covid-19 will touch everybody in some way, those who are infected and those who fear all the uncertainties of this pandemic. We need to be more sensitive and empathetic to others who often need more than just a like or a how are you. Anxiety and mental illness is not just their burden anymore. We also need to be aware of maintaining our social circles and getting closer than we already are.

In a digital age, one might ask the question: Are we not too close to each other already? Comrie argues that our social circles may have increased in numbers, but they have certainly decreased in the depth of relationships that we have. We have built these digital avatars that aren't quite who we are. How many of your 300 Facebook friends are close enough to provide support on a personal level?

During this time of isolation, Comrie urges us to find new ways to deepen and maintain closer relationships through digital platforms. When isolation anxiety strikes, social support will become so important. Arrange daily check-ins with family and friends. Be more transparent about how they feel and others will respond within a more genuine manner. Share how you are feeling about your changing routines, what has helped you cope and ask questions such as, how are you sleeping? Are you feeling anxious at all?

Then there are the thousands of South African professionals out there who have been rudely torn from their daily routines at work where they were accomplishing tasks and creating value for their respective organisations and business ventures. Many professionals are going to feel lost as their normally busy lives are turned upside down. But there other ways to keep busy and add value. I loved the recent comment from the New York Mayor who said that for the first time he is spending hours in deep conversations with his daughter and so cherishing this special time between the turmoil.

Comrie suggests that Professionals can redirect their energy and skills into their communities. Whether it's an online forum of their neighbourhood WhatsApp group or raising the awareness of small businesses struggling during Lockdown, there are so many opportunities to help others in this time of need.

Professionals are primed to start accomplishing more within their communities, says Comrie. Plan your day, be self-sufficient and then see how you can help others. You will be amazed by how your personal network of influence can grow and effectively become lasting relationships for the future.

Whether you have a pre-existing condition or not, if anxiety arises and you start to feel your mental fortitude unravelling, Comrie advises seeking the advice from a friend, family member of a professional counsellor or psychologist. If you have medical aid, most schemes are covering digital consultations, so don't let your mental health spiral out of control. Seek the help you need. Your medical aid will support you all the way.
Gov. Tom Wolf has now issued stay-at-home orders for Dauphin, Cumberland, Schuylkill and Carbon counties.

Wolf announced the order at a news conference Monday afternoon. The orders are slated to take effect tonight at 8 p.m. and the order is in effect until April 30.

The governor has previously placed 22 counties under stay-at-home orders, including the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh regions. On Friday, Lancaster, York and Berks counties joined the list.

All counties under the order must follow it until April 30. The order issued for other counties was set to expire April 6 but Wolf extended it to mirror guidelines set forth by the White House Sunday.

About 10 million Pennsylvania residents - nearly 80 percent of the states population - now live in a county with a stay-at-home order.

More than 4,000 patients have tested positive for the coronavirus and at least 48 have died, the state Department of Health said today. Dauphin County has 36 confirmed cases and Cumberland County has 24 cases.

Under the states stay-at-home order, individuals may leave their residence for essential activities, such as going to the grocery store, pharmacy or gas station. Outdoor activities such as walking and running are permitted if people maintain social distancing.

Life-sustaining business activities are exempt from the order, including health care and medical service providers, law enforcement, federal government offices and critical services for low-income residents, such as food banks. Child care services also can remain open in some circumstances.

The governor has ordered businesses across Pennsylvania to shut down temporarily to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Thousands of companies have applied for waivers to stay open. Some businesses and trade groups have complained the Wolf administrations order is preventing companies that offer life-sustaining services to operate.

Schools are closed until at least April 6 and Wolf has said they could be closed longer if necessary. Colleges and universities throughout the state have also shifted to remote learning and wont resume in-person classes during the spring semester.

More from PennLive

Coronavirus has infected the economy, hitting hourly workers and small business owners the hardest

Updated list of central Pa. restaurants open for takeout/delivery, arranged by county
Japan has been criticised for failing to increase its ambition to tackle climate change, as it becomes the first major economy to submit updated plans on cutting emissions.

All countries are expected to submit new or updated plans this year for cutting emissions, known as nationally determined contributions, under the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Existing efforts set out by countries to curb greenhouse gases are not enough to limit global temperature rises to well below 2C or the tighter restriction of 1.5C, which nations signed up to under the Paris deal.

Japan has become the first country in the G7 group of leading economies to produce updated plans, ahead of a key United Nations climate meeting Cop26, which is supposed to take place in Glasgow in November.

The UK is hoping to drive moves towards ambitious international action in the build-up to the talks, though British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has warned the meeting may have to be delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

But Japan has stuck with its existing target of cutting emissions by 26% on 2013 levels by 2030, which analysts tracking contributions at independent organisation Climate Action Tracker has deemed highly insufficient.

Japan says it will pursue further efforts in the medium and long term, and is aiming for a decarbonised society as early as possible in the second half of the century.

A UK Government spokeswoman said: We are clear on the need for increased ambition from all countries, particularly from G7 partners.

We hope to see a further submission that includes an increase in Japans headline target ahead of Cop26.

Laurance Tubiana, chief executive of the European Climate Foundation and one of the key architects of the Paris Agreement, said it was disappointing the Japanese government has not increased its ambition in response to the climate crisis.

The EU, UK, China and South Korea are moving towards a new  low carbon  economy. If Japan doesnt move, it will lose out in the high-tech race of this century.

At one of the most challenging times of recent memory, we need bolder, mutually reinforcing plans that protect our societies from the global risks we all face.

But there is still time: Japan should reconsider its position and come to Cop26 with a more ambitious plan. This will also allow a resilient recovery from the negative economic impact of Covid-19, she urged.

Christian Aids global climate lead, Dr Kat Kramer, said: Japans feeble and unchanged national climate commitment is an international disgrace.

The fact they are smuggling it out during a global pandemic when it will avoid the scrutiny it deserves is shameful.

Japan is a rich country with resources and the historic responsibility to make big strides to decarbonise its economy, she said.

Yet it has utterly failed to enhance its highly insufficient pledge, that will only compound the misery of people on the front line of the climate crisis who need countries like Japan to act with urgency to do its fair share in addressing the climate crisis.

She also criticised the countrys failure to plan to reach net zero emissions by 2050, and relying on unproven technologies to get there.
Boryspil airport Open source

People who returned to Ukraine from Qatar must undergo a mandatory observation. Of the 358 people, only 318 agreed to isolate themselves, the rest refused and have been on the plane for more than 14 hours. Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Gerashchenko stated this on Hromadske TV channel.

"Our task is to implement the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers and the laws of Ukraine. Yesterday, the government adopted decree No. 241 on the restriction of air flights and their adoption as an exception. This was done for two flights from Qatar, which flew 358 people. According to our data, they were warned that they need to undergo observation within 14 days, of which 318 citizens are already on observation, and 40 people stayed on the plane and refuse to go there. We hope that they understand that they have no right to risk the health of others. We dont know which of them fell ill, and they need to be observed for 14 days," - the deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs said.

Gerashchenko also added that all persons who returned from countries or regions with local transmission of coronavirus should be observed for 14 days in order to prevent the introduction of new cases of the disease into Ukraine.

"During isolation, you cannot go beyond the limits of observation, it is advisable not to communicate with anyone, only by telephone or using other electronic means of communication. The task of observation is to identify an infected person, because he may not know about it and infect others," - he explained.

Gerashchenko stressed that law enforcement agencies will not allow hooliganism during the procedure for sending such persons to an observation.

Force is used only in cases defined by law. In the framework of these negotiations, force was not used, but in the case of hooliganism, as in Boryspil, this is not permissible. Hooliganism and violence will not be allowed. If necessary, not only the National Police will be involved, but also the National Guard as a formation for the protection of public order," - Gerashchenko summed up.

As we reported, the Verkhovna Rada has dismissed Illya Yemets from the post of Minister of Health.
HARRISBURG, Pa., March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Governor Tom Wolf approved moving the Pennsylvania Primary Election date to June 2, 2020. This election cycle is the first since Act 77 was made into law last year, granting Pennsylvanians the more inclusive and accessible voting options. Voters may vote by mail beginning 50 days before the election day.

"Defending and preserving our democracy cannot be forgotten in the middle of this historic crisis. Pennsylvania's primary election date is now June 2. At all levels of government, the leadership and decisions of the elected officials who represent us have real consequences on the daily lives and livelihoods of working people. Now more than ever, we need to hold our elected officials accountable for their actions. We must exercise our vote and make our voice heard in the Democratic process," stated Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Rick Bloomingdale.

"Thanks to Act 77 passed last year, Pennsylvania has vote by mail. We need to look at the actions and leadership of our elected officials at the federal, state and local levels. Did your representatives in Washington and Harrisburg fight for you and your family, or did they cater to corporate greed? Did they come together with working people and stand in solidarity with us in this moment, or did they take advantage and profit from this crisis. Every Pennsylvanian can request a mail-in ballot and cast their vote starting fifty days ahead of the election; that's now Monday, April 13. Mark your calendar, Pennsylvania," remarked Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder.

SOURCE Pennsylvania AFL-CIO
New Delhi, March 30 Ians) : The national capital of India -- Delhi reported 97 positive cases of deadly Coronavirus on Monday, the directorate general of health service of Delhi Government said.

It also stated that out of 97 total positive cases, 5 have been discharged and 2 people succumbed to the deadly virus affect. It further pointed that currently 89 people are admitted in various hospitals across the capital city. The report of the health department stated that one of the COVID-19 patients was a foreign national and he has gone back to his country.

The report further highlighted that a total 2168 sample has been sent for testing. The hospitals have also received reports of 1846 samples. So far a total 322 reports of the samples are pending.

It stated that a total 21628 people who came in contact with COVID-19 patients have been put under home quarantine till date. Currently, 19,989 people are under home quarantine. It also stated that 1639 people have completed their 14 days period of home quarantine. In Delhi, a total 1137 people are under institutional quarantine till date.

Earlier in the day, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain held a review meeting with medical superintendents of all government hospitals about the preparedness in wake of COVID-19 situation in the city.

"Crisis support and counselling centre at IHBAS is operational from 8 am to 8 pm on all seven days for COVID-19 epidemic," the report stated.

It also stated that house to house surveillance for contact tracing of positive cases is being done by health workers in all districts.

The report also highlighted that a total 209567 passengers from COVID-19 affected countries have been screened at Delhi airport and placed under surveillance.

It also pointed that Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS) received a total 144 calls.

The government has activated 10 lines in Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) state headquarter control room and so far a total 998 calls were responded.A IANS

SK

EOM

--

Regards

Sumit Kumar Singh

9015957238

Covid-19 cases in national capital rise to 97

New Delhi, March 30 IANS) Delhi has reported 97 positive coronavirus cases till Monday, the Directorate General of Health Services of the Delhi government said.

It also stated that out of the 97 cases, five have been discharged while two people have succumbed to the deadly virus.

It further pointed out that currently 89 people are admitted to various hospitals across the city. The report of the health department stated that one of the COVID-19 patients was a foreign national who has gone back to his country.

The report highlighted that a total of 2,168 samples have been sent for testing. The hospitals have received reports of 1,846 samples, while 322 reports are awaited.

It stated that a total of 21,628 people who came in contact with COVID-19 patients have been put under home quarantine till date.

It also said that 1,639 people have completed their 14-day period of home quarantine. In Delhi, a total 1,137 people have been put under institutional quarantine till date.

Earlier in the day, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain held a review meeting with the medical superintendents of all the government hospitals about the preparedness in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak in the city.

"Crisis support and counselling centre at the IHBAS is operational from 8 am to 8 pm on all seven days for the COVID-19 epidemic," the report stated.

It also said that house to house surveillance for contact tracing of positive cases is being done by the health workers in all the districts.

The report highlighted that a total 209,567 passengers from COVID-19 affected countries have been screened at Delhi airport till date.

The government has activated 10 lines in the control room of the Directorate General of Health Services headquarters which have received 998 calls so far.

IANS sk/arm

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Headingley resident Shiela Cornejo Redublo is shown here with donated produce in the town of Lemery in The Philippines in February. She was part of a relief team that worked with farmers to provide fresh produce along with supplies such as purified water, rice, citronella lotion, diapers and hygiene products to people in evacuation shelters in the Province of Batangas. The people were displaced from their homes by ashfall from the Taal volcano eruption. Cornejo Redublo also brought protective masks and other supplies donated by the Headingley Fire Department and local residents.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/3/2020 (653 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Headingley resident Shiela Cornejo Redublo is shown here with donated produce in the town of Lemery in The Philippines in February. She was part of a relief team that worked with farmers to provide fresh produce along with supplies such as purified water, rice, citronella lotion, diapers and hygiene products to people in evacuation shelters in the Province of Batangas. The people were displaced from their homes by ashfall from the Taal volcano eruption. Cornejo Redublo also brought protective masks and other supplies donated by the Headingley Fire Department and local residents.
Married At First Sight's Stacey Hampton has denied she is dating F45 gym owner Scott Charman after pictures emerged of the pair getting cosy in February.

The mother-of-two, 26, claims she is single following her split from 'husband' Michael Goonan, and insists Scott is in a relationship with another woman.

'We were friends, we never dated and I'm single,' Stacey told Daily Mail Australia on Monday.

Just friends: Married At First Sight's Stacey Hampton has denied she is dating gym owner Scott Charman after pictures emerged of the pair getting cosy at Adelaide Airport on February 26

Stacey's statement comes after Daily Mail Australia published pictures last week of the pair embracing at Adelaide Airport on February 26.

Scott is a property developer and social media influencer who lists himself as a 'public figure' on Instagram and owns an F45 franchise in South Australia.

The tattooed fitness buff boasts more than 6,000 followers on Instagram, where he often shares shirtless photos of himself.

'We were friends, we never dated and I'm single': The mother-of-two, 26, is single following her split from 'husband' Michael Goonan, and Scott is now in a relationship with another woman

On Sunday, viewers watched Stacey and Michael leave the social experiment together at their final vows ceremony, which was filmed in December.

But just moments after the episode aired, Stacey revealed on Instagram they had split up around mid-January, after the cast reunion.

'This was filmed ages ago and we're not together,' she said.

Short-lived romance: On Sunday, viewers watched Stacey and Michael leave the social experiment together at their final vows ceremony, which was filmed in December

It's over! But just moments after the episode aired, Stacey revealed on Instagram they had split up around mid-January, after the cast reunion

She added: 'You'll see at the reunion why we're not. I was accused of cheating [on him]. Michael believed it and I'm not going to be with someone who doubts me.'

Last week, Stacey said she would rather 'swallow acid' than reunite with Michael.

Married At First Sight continues Monday at 7:30pm on Channel Nine
The number of COVID-19 cases climbed to 1,251 in India on Monday, registering the highest single-day increase of 227 cases, while the death toll rose to 32, the Union Health Ministry said.

It said the number of active cases was 1,117, and 101 people were either cured or discharged and one had migrated, the ministry stated. The 1,251 cases include 49 foreigners.

In an updated data at 9.30 PM, it said three fresh deaths were reported on Monday.

While one death each was reported from Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, the details of the third was not available on the chart.

So far, Maharashtra has reported the most deaths (8), followed by Gujarat (6), Karnataka (3) Madhya Pradesh (3), Delhi (2) and Jammu and Kashmir (2).

Kerala, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, West Bengal, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh have reported a death each.

The highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases was reported from Kerala with 202 infections, followed by Maharashtra at 198. The number of cases in Delhi has gone up to 87.

The cases in Karnataka have gone up to 83 till now, it has increased to 82 in Uttar Pradesh.

The number of cases has risen to 71 in Telangana,, 69 in Gujarat, 67 in Tamil Nadu while the number of cases in Rajasthan has climbed to 59. It has risen to 48 in Jammu and Kashmir. Madhya Pradesh has 47 positive patients.

Punjab has reported 38 cases, while 36 COVID-19 cases have been detected in Haryana.

There are 23 cases of COVID-19 in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal (22), Bihar (15) and Ladakh (13).

Nine cases have been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Chandigarh has eight cases, while Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand have reported seven cases.

Goa has reported five coronavirus cases, while Himachal Pradesh and Odisha have reported three cases each. Puducherry, Mizoram and Manipur have reported a case each.

"Remaining 46 cases are being assigned to states to initiate contact tracing," the ministry stated.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Institution for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent global health research center at the University of Washington that focuses on providing rigorous and comparable measurement of the worlds most important health problems. In the midst of the current COVID-19 pandemic, IHME has created several research resources related to the illness.

COVID-19 US State-by-State Projections

One of the resources that can be found takes the United States as a whole, and each state individually, to predict hospital resource use, deaths per day, and total deaths projected.

At the time of the writing of this article (subject to change as the input into the calculator inevitably changes), the researchers at IHME believes that the United States will reach its peak resource use on April 14, 2020. On that date, there will be a need for 232,298 beds and will have a bed shortage of 49,292 beds. On that date, there will be a need for 34,754 ICU beds and will have an ICU bed shortage of 14,601 beds. That same day, there will be a need for 18,767 invasive ventilators.

IHME also predicts that the peak count of daily deaths will take place on April 14, 2020, with 2,341 COVID-19 deaths that day throughout the United States. According to the projection, deaths will taper off at that point and continue to taper down throughout the summer months.

IHME concludes the data projections for the United States by projecting a total of 81,114 COVID-19 deaths through August 4, 2020. The analysis, using data from governments, hospitals, and other sources, predicts that the number of U.S. deaths could vary widely, ranging from as low as around 38,000 to as high as around 162,000. The wide variance is due, at least in part, to disparate rates of the spread of the virus in different regions, which experts are still struggling to explain, said Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, who led the study.

While the number of hospitalized patients is expected to peak nationally around April 14, 2020, the peak may come later in some states. Murray also noted that the expected lengthy duration of the virus may require social distancing for longer than initially expected but the country may be able to relax the restrictions if it can more effectively test and quarantine those who are sick.

Select States

According to the projections and studies, the virus is slowly spreading throughout California, which means that the peak cases in that state may come later in April, and that therefore, the social distancing measures will be extended in the state for a longer period of time.

Louisiana and Georgia, meanwhile, are expected to continue to see high rates of contagion and may see a high burden placed on their local healthcare systems.
SAN FRANCISCO, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ValGenesis, Inc., a market leader in Enterprise Validation Lifecycle Management solutions today announced that a global biotechnology/chemical and pharmaceutical giant based in Europe has chosen ValGenesis's cloud-based Validation Lifecycle Management System (VLMS), to digitalize plant qualification and validation processes across multiple sites.

With a history of more than 300 years in biotechnology, chemicals and pharmaceuticals development, this leading technology company is present in major sectors such as healthcare, life science and performance materials. The company develops, manufactures and commercializes high-quality medicines, innovative products, and specialty chemicals for high-tech applications.

The company has chosen ValGenesis to digitize plant qualification and validation processes first in Switzerland before implementing across global sites. ValGenesis VLMS is also being used to validate and qualify its newly built biotechnology development site. Planning a stepwise approach for integration with various third-party systems, the company hopes to establish a single source of truth for computer system validation (CSV), and equipment validation/qualification. The global life science player sees ValGenesis VLMS as the most powerful end-to-end paperless validation solution that can support remote management of validation activities and enable standardization of validation processes across global sites, with adherence to data integrity governance and global regulatory standards.

"ValGenesis is excited to be selected by this global life science giant to digitize and standardize validation processes across its many sites. The ValGenesis VLMS is a best-in-class, data-driven, 100% digital validation solution that can significantly reduce validation cycle time and provides multilingual support in languages such as Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish both at site and user levels, with English as the default language. The configurable nature of ValGenesis VLMS helps global companies implement at a single site or process, and its scalability allows them to easily expand globally. We look forward to our role as a strategic partner and to provide a robust framework to meet this global life science company's validation lifecycle management needs," says Narayan Raj, Sr. Vice President, Global Sales & Operations, ValGenesis Inc.

About ValGenesis

ValGenesis, Inc. is the creator of an innovative software platform that serves as the foundation for managing compliance-based validation activities in Life Science companies. ValGenesis, Inc. is the provider of the first enterprise application that manages the corporate validation lifecycle process. As the first fully paperless solution for managing validation execution and approval 100% electronically, ValGenesis was selected by an industry peer review committee to receive the Parenteral Drug Association (PDA) New Innovative Technology Award in 2005. The solution is also fully compliant with U.S. FDA 21 CFR Part 11 and Annex 11 requirements.

For more information, visit www.valgenesis.com

Further information:

Althea D'Sylva, ValGenesis Communications, +1 510-445-0505 Ex. 1026, [email protected]

SOURCE ValGenesis Inc.
South Sudan Scales Up Nation-Wide Coronavirus Awareness

While South Sudan has not confirmed a case of COVID-19, we remain at risk because all our neighbouring countries have reported cases, said Minister of Health Hon. Elizabeth Achuei Yol.

JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN, 30 March 2020  A campaign raising awareness on the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and how best to protect yourself and your family, is being rolled out across South Sudan. Even though no case of COVID-19 is confirmed in South Sudan, preparations to protect South Sudan against the spread of the virus are underway- given the scale and scope of the worldwide outbreak.



The Ministry of Health with support from UNICEF, the World Health Organization and other partners have launched a nationwide risk communication campaign. The aim is to create awareness and mobilize communities on COVID-19 as part of the national risk communication, community engagement and social mobilization efforts, led by the Ministry of Health and UNICEF.



While South Sudan has not confirmed a case of COVID-19, we remain at risk because all our neighbouring countries have reported cases, said Minister of Health Hon. Elizabeth Achuei Yol. While the Government has taken measures to restrict entry of personnel from COVID-19 affected countries as a way of preventing the virus from entering South Sudan, raising awareness on the disease and how to prevent it are key in our preparedness.



The Ministry of Health and UNICEF have partnered with over 25 radio stations across the country to broadcast and disseminate messages in ten languages. The campaign also includes distribution of communication materials and social mobilization efforts through the use of loudspeakers and megaphones. 144,000 posters, 60,000 banners and 550,000 leaflets in seven languages with information about sign and symptoms, preventive measures and how to get more information are currently going up all over the country. Digital channels such as social media will be fully utilized, and essential information will be disseminated through bulk SMS.



In addition, 3,000 megaphones and 150,000 pairs of batteries are being distributed to support dissemination of messages at the community level. Orientation and training of community mobilisers to disseminate messages are ongoing in all high-risk locations. Community meetings and gatherings will not be part of the communication efforts as a measure to avoid the spread of COVID-19.



There is no vaccine for COVID-19. Therefore, people need to wash their hands with soap and water frequently, not to shake hands and cough in their bent elbow instead of in their hands. By doing so, people will contribute to reducing potential spread of the disease.

In addition, it is advised to avoid close contact with people in general, specifically people with flu-like symptoms (fever, dry cough, difficulty breathing, tiredness).

Furthermore, people experiencing flu-like symptoms need to stay at home and only call the Ministry of Health toll free number 6666 if their symptoms get worse.



Countries across the region are reporting COVID-19 cases and the closing of borders is daunting for many people. The Ministry of Health and UNICEF are encouraging people to adhere to the protective measures the Government of South Sudan has put in place, such as suspending social gatherings and taking the responsibility to create awareness and educate our families and communities on how to prevent coronavirus disease.



Now is the time for individual responsibility, strong faith and clear actions to protect each other, said UNICEF South Sudan Representative, Mohamed Ag Ayoya. We need to have faith in each other, trust that all of us are doing what we can to prevent the spread of the virus. Now that we have the information on how to prevent transmission, we all have a responsibility to act upon that. Actions will speak louder than words, concluded Ayoya.


Tory election chief Isaac Levido has been called into Downing Street to help co-ordinate the coronavirus fightback, as key staff including Dominic Cummings continue to go off sick.

Downing Street said the 36-year-old political strategist had been brought in last week to work on 'all aspects' of the Government's response. He played a key role in the Conservatives' win in the December election.

The revelation came as it emerged that Mr Cummings has become the latest senior Government figure to test positive. Boris Johnson's chief aide developed symptoms of the virus over the weekend and is now self-isolating at home.

Dominic Cummings is seen sprinting from N10 today amid speculation he may have Covid-19

Downing Street declined to say whether he is well enough to work but a source said he remained 'in contact'. Mr Cummings, the mastermind behind Vote Leave's messaging at the EU referendum, was last seen running out of No10 shortly after Mr Johnson posted a video message on Friday announcing he had tested positive.

Asked whether Mr Cummings had been tested for the virus, a No10 spokesman said: 'I wouldn't expect that to be the case.' Mr Cummings is said to have been an early champion of the concept of 'herd immunity', in which a large proportion of the population would be allowed to get the virus to prevent future waves of infection.

The idea never became policy and Mr Cummings is said to have later become a supporter of the lockdown. His disappearance is another blow to a government that has already seen the Prime Minister, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty contract the virus in recent days.

Boris Johnson's leadership campaign director Isaac Levido who may step in for Cummings

Mr Levido had previously been identified as a possible stand-in for Mr Cummings, but No 10 denied the two things were linked. The Australian born political strategist has helped win elections in both Australia and the UK but he is not thought to have any experience of crisis management in government.

No10 was unable to say how much he is being paid or whether he is being bankrolled by the Conservative Party or the taxpayer. The PM's official spokesman said he was one of a number of 'contractors' brought in to 'bolster the response' at the centre of government.

Mr Johnson has been in self-isolation since Friday after testing positive for the virus. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab yesterday said the PM had chaired the daily 'war cabinet' meeting on the crisis by video link, adding: 'He is full of vigour and giving us the leadership we need.'

As the virus has been spreading rapidly in Westminster and infecting several key figures, the PM's spokesman said: 'As of last week, ministers were advised to work from home wherever possible.'
Yeah, Im not sold on that, the mayor said. Again, I have a lot of respect for the workers in grocery stores. I want to make sure we do everything to keep them safe, she said. But, you know, as somebody who cares a lot about trees, every time Im on a walk or driving on the highway and I see plastic bags stuck in trees, it just makes my heart sad. So I think theres a lot of things we need to be doing to keep people safe, and what Ive seen when Ive gone to the grocery store is a great emphasis on having hand sanitizing products at the front and the back end of the line. But I think we dont want to take a retreat on something that is a serious environmental problem, which is the proliferation of one-use plastic bags.
[March 30, 2020] Teledyne is Awarded a $34.9 Million Sole Source Contract from U.S. Navy for Repair and Maintenance of TWTs

Teledyne Defense Electronics, doing business as Teledyne Microwave (News - Alert) Solutions, has been awarded a $34,963,200 firm-fixed-price requirements contract by the U.S. Navy. The contract is for the repair of traveling wave tubes (TWTs) in support of the Advanced Electronic Guidance and Instrumentation System/Combat System. Work on the model 10 kW TWTs will be performed at the Teledyne MEC 160,000 square foot production facility in Rancho Cordova, California, and is expected to be complete by March 2025. This contract includes a five-year base period with no options. Annual working capital funds (Navy) will be obligated as individual task orders as issued, and funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. ne company was solicited for this sole-source requirement pursuant to the authority set forth in 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), with one offer received. Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (N00104-20-D-V001).



Teledyne manufactures a broad range of traveling wave tube technologies and applications for use in diverse markets. Teledyne TWTs are found on many major Electronic Warfare, Radar, and Communication platforms of the U.S. and its allies throughout the world. Our various product lines also include TWTs used for instrumentation, satellite communications, missile, and other mission critical applications. ABOUT TELEDYNE DEFENSE ELECTRONICS

Serving Defense, Space and Commercial sectors worldwide, Teledyne Defense Electronics offers a comprehensive portfolio of highly engineered solutions that meet your most demanding requirements in the harshest environments. Manufacturing both custom and off-the-shelf product offerings, our diverse product lines meet emerging needs for key applications for avionics, energetics, electronic warfare, missiles, radar, satcom, space, and test and measurement. www.teledynedefelec.com. TDE is a business unit of Teledyne Technologies, Inc. ABOUT TELEDYNE TECHNOLOGIES, INC. Teledyne Technologies is a leading provider of sophisticated instrumentation, digital imaging products and software, aerospace and defense electronics, and engineered systems. Teledyne Technologies' operations are primarily located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Western and Northern Europe. For more information, visit Teledyne Technologies' website at www.teledyne.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005023/en/

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 10:51:29|Editor: huaxia

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NANJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The chamber of commerce in eastern China's silk town of Shengze, Jiangsu Province, assembled 40,000 face masks and sent them in air parcels to the city of Milan in Italy to assist the city's fight against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

The batch of FFP2 masks, including 20,000 surgical masks and 20,000 regular masks, all meet the standard of European Conformity, said Wang Zhenghua, secretary-general of the Shengze chamber of commerce in the city of Suzhou.

Shengze is one of the world's major silk textile production centers and China's historical silk weaving base. It has kept close ties with Italy in fashion and design.

Wang Yibing, the Communist Party chief of Shengze township, said he always keeps in mind that Mario Boselli, president of the Italian Fashion Chamber, endorsed the town's plan to build itself into a silk fashion town when he and other officials in Shengze visited Como in Italy in December last year.

About 50 kilometers away from Milan, Como is a famous silk industry center in Italy.

"Italy has given us support in the development of the fashion industry. As Italy is facing a difficult time in the pandemic outbreak, we want to give our support," said Wang.

Italy has been the hardest-hit country in Europe by the outbreak of coronavirus. Wang said that previous to the donations to Milan, Shengze shipped 10,000 FFP2 masks and 20 forehead thermometers to Como on March 13.
With the postponement of April 7 municipal elections until June 2 due to concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Francois County Clerk Kevin Engler is urging voters to cast absentee ballots ahead of election day to avoid having to stand in line.

Since weve moved the April election back to June, youve got 10 weeks to request absentee ballots or come over and vote at our Weber Road location, Engler said. I would hope that especially our seniors would take advantage of that because they can go to our website and with a couple of easy clicks, you can request a ballot. You have to get the request back to me by May 20. We have to have it in so we can get the ballot to you, so you can get it back to us.

To request an absentee ballot online, go to the St. Francois County homepage at https://sfcgov.org. In the search box, type request for Missouri absentee ballot and hit return. Click on the link and download the document. Print the document, fill it out and then return it by mail or in person to the County Clerks Office by the May 20 deadline.

Engler added that the entire absentee voting process can also be completed at the county clerks Weber Road location.

Were open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, he said. You can vote in there. What were trying to do is avoid lines come June 2. If youre disabled and you call us, we will come out and take your vote at your car. You just pull into the portico there and well come to you.

Im encouraging as many people as possible to use the absentee ballot. You have 10 weeks to get this done. We ask that you get your request in so you can either do it through the mail or come to our Weber Road office. We sanitize the office before and after every person who comes into the office. You wont have to stand in line. We dont have that many people that come in. Were in an old doctors office, so you dont come in contact with anyone else. You can vote safely.

Engler stressed that he strongly encourages all senior adult voters to take advantage of the absentee voting option.

Were trying to get as many people in and then avoid any type of lines at the polling places, he said. If theres still some [COVID-19] problems when we have the election, we will spread out all the ballots at the polling places. We will sanitize like we did during the March 20 election. We will make it as safe as possible, but it would sure help if half the people voting have already done it absentee and will not be there the day of the elections.

According to Engler, the completed absentee ballots are kept secure until they are counted June 2.

We make sure nobody knows what their vote is, he said. At our office the votes are private, just like at your polling place. If its done through the mail, they come back to our office in the postage-paid envelopes we give you and those envelopes arent opened until election day.

"This past election we had one military ballot that was stuck inside one of the envelopes that had come from overseas, so we ended up doing the count two or three times before we went back and opened every envelope we had and shook and shook and shook until the missing ballot fell out.

We have to come to the exact count just like every precinct does and none of them are open until the absentee committee of Democrats and Republicans get sworn in and open them on that day. They are opened in the presence of everybody and counted in the presence of everybody.

Engler mention that the June election will be important as it will include several important items on the ballot.

Theres issues regarding the Central and North County school districts and two tax issues for the city of Farmington, he said. All of these entities may be concerned because theyre afraid there wont be a good voter turnout in June. Why not go ahead and vote absentee in safety?

Regarding the August election, Engler pointed out that the filing deadline for candidates is 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Kevin R. Jenkins is the managing editor of the Farmington Press and can be reached at 573-756-8927 or kjenkins@farmingtonpressonline.com

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BERKELEY (BCN)

The University of California at Berkeley said Monday that its Innovative Genomics Institute is creating a pop-up novel coronavirus diagnostic lab with the capacity to process more than 1,000 patient samples per day.

More than 50 volunteer scientists from UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco and UC's local corporate partners are launching the lab to bolster the Bay Area's coronavirus testing capacity outside of local public health departments.

The scientists hope the lab's robotic and analytical equipment can analyze patient nasopharyngeal swabs in less than 24 hours.

The lab will begin testing viral samples this week with the goal of being accredited by the federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments program by next week. The lab will begin testing samples from UC Berkeley students, staff and faculty, with plans to eventually assist other testing centers in the East Bay.

"We mobilized a team of talented academic scientists, partnered with experts from companies and pulled together, in a matter of a few days, a group that is operating like a biotech company," said Jennifer Doudna, a UC Berkeley professor of chemistry and molecular and cell biology and executive director of the IGI.

The lab will use testing methods approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration but with a higher efficiency than some commercial labs. The IGI lab will be able to test more than 300 samples at once. If needed, the lab can accommodate up to 3,000 tests per day, according to UC Berkeley.

Test turnaround in the Bay Area has, in some cases, taken a week or more for commercial labs due to a dearth of test kits and changing guidelines on who can be tested and when. Public health officials have stressed the need for large-scale testing to prevent the virus' spread and to know who is and isn't infected.

"There are other aspects of broader testing that would be so clinically powerful," said UC Berkeley University Health Services Assistant Vice Chancellor Guy Nicolette. "We could make better decisions about health, about work, about possibly how long we need to continue to socially distance, based on what we find."

The IGI has also pledged to make its coronavirus testing technology royalty-free, in hopes of increasing testing exponentially.

More information about the IGI can be found at innovativegenomics.org.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
An Iranian flag flutters in front of the IAEA headquarters in Vienna

By Humeyra Pamuk and Arshad Mohammed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has allowed Russian, Chinese and European companies to continue their work at Iranian nuclear sites to make it harder for Tehran to develop nuclear weapons, the U.S. State Department said on Monday.

Reuters earlier reported that the decision to renew waivers to sanctions that bar non-U.S. firms from dealing with Iran's Atomic Energy Organization was expected on Monday, citing four sources familiar with the matter including a U.S. official.

Jewish News Syndicate, a news outlet predominantly focused on Israel and the Jewish world, first reported that the United States was expected to renew the waivers, citing two sources familiar with the decision.

The move by the Trump administration, which in 2018 withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions on Iran, will allow nonproliferation work to continue at the Arak heavy-water research reactor, the Bushehr nuclear power plant, the Tehran Research Reactor and other nuclear initiatives.

As part of its "maximum pressure" campaign, the United States has not only restored sanctions it had removed under the Iran nuclear deal, but has tightened them to try to force Iran to curb its nuclear, missile and regional activities.

However, the Trump administration has repeatedly waived the sanctions related to nonproliferation work with Iran on the argument that such projects are designed to make the Iranian nuclear program less capable of producing weapons.

"As President Trump said earlier this year, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon," Morgan Ortagus, U.S. State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement. "We will continue to closely monitor all developments in Irans nuclear program and can adjust these restrictions at any time."

The waivers are renewed for 60 days, according to the statement.

Washington's overall policy toward Tehran has faced increasing criticism from opponents and Iranian authorities who say the U.S. sanctions are hampering the country's efforts to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed 2,460 Iranians and infected nearly 40,000 others.

Story continues

Iranian authorities have urged other countries and the United Nations to call for the measures to be lifted. Washington has rejected the assertion.

"Stop lying. ... It's not the sanctions. It's the regime," Ortagus said on Monday in a Twitter post that copied a tweet by Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif, accusing Washington of waging an economic war on Iranians and engaging in "medical terror" amid the outbreak.

Washington has so far refused to lift any sanctions and has even ramped up its pressure campaign. Last week, it blacklisted five Iran- and Iraq-based companies and 15 individuals for supporting terrorist groups, its third round of sanctions on Iranian targets in two weeks.

Under the 2015 deal between Iran and six world powers - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - Tehran agreed to limit its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions that had crippled its economy.

Tehran has long rejected Western assertions that it has sought to develop nuclear weapons.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Arshad Mohammed; editing by Grant McCool, Leslie Adler and Sonya Hepinstall)
Risking health, several NGOs take to the streets to feed the poor, jobless. Image Source: IANS News

Risking health, several NGOs take to the streets to feed the poor, jobless. Image Source: IANS News

Risking health, several NGOs take to the streets to feed the poor, jobless. Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, March 30 : At a time when thousands of labourers and daily wage workers are either migrating to their hometowns or have been left jobless due to the prolonged nationwide lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have come forward to provide food, shelter and other resources to the down and out.

A website -- covid-relief.in -- has also been set up by the Delhi government where all such NGOs are listed, and can be contacted by relief agencies as well as the needy for free distribution of food and clothes.

Well sanitised kitchens have been set up at various places in the national capital and fresh food along with packets of essential grocery items are being supplied under the guidance of the local administration and the police.

In Connaught Place, a huge kitchen has been set up in E block by the traders' association which includes owners of some of the prominent food chains. The kitchen provides free lunch and dinner to private security guards, drivers and jobless workers of the nearby areas.

Amid the 21-day lockdown, well-known NGO Prabhaav Foundation has come up with a novel idea. The NGO is providing entire ration packets to the low income groups enough for a family of four, to survive through a fortnight.

"The free ration pack includes 5 kg rice, 3 kg atta, 1 litre of edible oil, 2 kg of pulses, 1 kg of sugar and plenty of other things including spices," said Bharti Puri Sharma of Prabhaav Foundation.

For free distribution of ration, the NGO has selected pockets mainly consisting of slum areas or where workers of low income groups reside. Co-founded by Parul Kumar and associated with the NITI Aayog, Prabhaav Foundation is working in close coordination with the Delhi Police.

During the lockdown, another Delhi based NGO, Rasoi on Wheels Foundation, is burning the midnight oil to prepare several thousands of food packets to be distributed throughout the day at various points in the city.

"We have to reach out to the needy, provide them fresh food pockets... but at the same time we also ensure all measures to safeguard our volunteers from being infected by the dreaded virus," said Manika Badhwar of the Rasoi Foundation.

The NGO, as the name suggests, is a mobile kitchen and serves free meal boxes to the underprivileged.

Risking health in the possible spread of the highly infectious virus, another NGO, MCKS Food for Hungry Foundation, has come out to serve the people.

"We are distributing food to over 12000 people daily since the lockdown. The food consists of bread, rusk, khichdi etc., which are being prepared at our main kitchen in Vasant Kunj. Seeing the volume of the distribution, a satellite kitchen has also been established at Punjabi Bagh," MCKS team member Sejal told IANS.
NYPD officers arrested a man on Saturday for operating a bar during coronavirus lockdown: REUTERS

The owner of a bar in New York City has been arrested for operating in contravention of the citys coronavirus lockdown measures.

New York police confirmed on Monday that 56-year-old Vasil Pando had been arrested on Saturday night at an address in Brooklyn.

Around a dozen people were found drinking, gambling, and flouting guidelines on social distancing when NYPD officers arrived.

New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, has ordered all bars and restaurants in the state of New York to close until April 15 to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The Brooklyn bar owner is the first to be arrested for ignoring the lockdown order on nonessential businesses in New York. He was charged with illegal sale of alcohol, promoting gambling and violating the mayors order.

Read more

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Listen to the latest episode of The Independent Coronavirus Podcast

(edited)

According to the NYPD, the arrest on Saturday came after officers visited 7,667 bars and restaurants in the city and found 5,867 closed.

Theyre going to give people every chance to listen and anyone doesnt listen they deserve a fine at this point, said the citys mayor, Bill de Blasio, on Sunday.

Mr de Blasio added that New Yorkers could face fines up to $500 fine for not social distancing.

It comes as the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus increased by 7,200 on Sunday.
Parliament rejects appointment of former deputy head of presidential administration Marchenko as finance minister

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has rejected the appointment of Serhiy Marchenko as head of the Ministry of Finance.

Marchenko's appointment was supported by 223 deputies with the required 226 votes.

Earlier on Monday, at an extraordinary meeting, the Rada dismissed Finance Minister Ihor Umansky, who has been in this position since March 4, 2020.

Serhiy Marchenko is a former deputy minister of finance (from 2016 to 2018) and ex-deputy head of the presidential administration under President Poroshenko (2018-2019). He ran for the early parliamentary elections in 2019 according to the list of the Ukrainian Strategy party of the then Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman.

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Godfrey Phillips share price fell in early trade today after the tobacco firm said it has suspended operations at all its plants and factories considering the nationwide lockdown.

Share price of Godfrey Phillips India declined 8.48% to Rs 841.80 compared to the previous close of Rs 922.15 on BSE.

Share price of Godfrey Phillips India has fallen after three days of gain. It opened with a loss of 4.54% to Rs 880.25.

The stock has lost 23.63% during the last one year and fallen 30.48% since the beginning of this year.

It has lost 23% in last one month.

The cigarette and FMCG major said it was monitoring the situation and will take necessary measures as directed by the Centre, state governments and local authorities.

However, the impact of the lockdown on operations cannot be measured right now, the firm added.

"In light of Ministry of Home Affairs Order No. 40-3/2020-DM-I(A) dated March 24, 2020, as amended, the company has suspended operations at all its factories and plant locations," it said.

Godfrey Phillips said the company has already adopted ''work from home'' for its employees to minimise the risk and contain the spread of novel coronavirus infection.

"In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company is taking various measures to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all employees and is ensuring compliance with the directives issued by the central government, State Governments and local administration in this regard."

By Aseem Thapliyal

Bajaj Finance share price falls 10% on downgrade by Bernstein

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Rupee vs Dollar: Rupee slips 32 paise to 75.21 amid coronavirus scare

Share Market LIVE: Sensex drops 500 points, Nifty at 8,550; Bajaj Finance, M&M top losers
On St. Patricks Day, San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin got a frantic phone call from Jeanne Boes, the general manager of the San Francisco Flower Mart.

With the wholesale flower market about to be shuttered due to the coronavirus shutdown, said Boes, she and her colleagues had just 48 hours to destroy hundreds of thousands of flowers. She was scrambling to donate as many as possible  to senior centers, police stations, firehouses, friends and neighbors. Could Peskin come get some for City Hall?

He and staffer Sunny Angulo jumped into Peskins Toyota Prius and drove over to Sixth and Brannan streets, where they found a 12-foot-high pile of flowers being mulched in the alleyway.

I put the seat down, backed the car up, and filled it with as many flowers as could fit, said Peskin. We went back to City Hall and walked up and down the hallways giving roses to everyone. It was incredibly moving and sad.

While the coronavirus-fueled layoffs and economic misery have permeated every corner of the Bay Areas business community, the flower industry has been among the hardest hit. Flower shops and street kiosks  deemed nonessential  are closed. The lucrative spring season  typically a celebratory whirlwind of weddings, gala fundraisers, graduations  has been canceled. Imports from Holland, Ecuador and Colombia, responsible for 80% of the U.S. market, have slowed to a trickle. Farmers are watching their livelihood wither on the vine.

The 118,000-square-foot San Francisco Flower Mart, home to 47 businesses and 350 workers, is dark until further notice. Vendors composted $750,000 to $1 million worth of flowers, Boes said. Its hard to say how many of the tenants will survive the shutdown, especially if the crisis drags into the late spring. She said the mood was gloomy.

I watched many of my friends and colleagues leave in tears, wondering when we will come back, and when we do, what will our market look like? she said.

Frank Biddle, president of the board of CalFlowers, an industry group, said most of our members have seen business go down between 80% and 100%. Biddle, who farms flowers and avocados on 60 acres near San Diego, said he has laid off half of his staff of 45. He estimates that he will have to dump 500,000 stems, about 40% of this years crop, mostly waxflowers and hot pink boronia.

We have flowers ready to picked that wont be picked, he said. We are losing a couple of hundred of thousand (dollars) a week.

California growers are finding that the floral transportation industry has all but shut down, as demand for flowers declines and trucking companies can make more money carting other goods, Biddle said.

These trucking companies cant justify taking a load of flowers, he said. We have lost our ability to get flowers out of the state, with the exception of FedEx and air shipments.

Jennifer Carruthers makes wreaths and preserved rose arrangements, most of which she sells at farmers markets. Under the state shelter-in-place order, farmers can continue to sell fruits and vegetables  but not flowers  at farmers markets. She has a website customers can order through, but that only represents a small portion of her business

People like me who are artisans and crafters are not able to sell, she said. I have no way at this point in time of generating any income. Im stuck.

Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

Al Filippi, owner of Pacific Coast Evergreen, said that even if the Flower Mart had stayed open he would not have much business. His business supplies the industry with garlands, wreaths and fresh-cut greens. Typically this time of year he would have 20 to 30 orders a week. A third-generation Flower Mart entrepreneur who has worked there 40 years, he said this is the first time he remembers it closing for any reason. Even after the Loma Prieta earthquake, we were open the next day, he said.

Michael LoBue, who until recently was the executive director of the California Association of Growers and Shippers, said the $6 billion U.S. flower industry was already faltering before the pandemic, as South American growers  who can grow roses and carnations year round  increased market share and California farmers replaced flowers with more lucrative crops, like cannabis.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

California growers are facing an existential situation right now, said LoBue. They are sitting on a product they cant sell, but they still need to tend to. They are asking really hard questions, like if I am not getting any money, how can I afford to keep my greenhouse staff? How long can I keep paying my field staff?

LoBue said he knows several Bay Area wholesalers who have decided to call it quits.

For the Flower Mart, the pandemic shutdown comes at a perilous time. The market is planning to move because its landlord, Kilroy Realty, is planning to build a 2 million-square-foot office complex on the site. The flower market  assuming its still a viable business when the pandemic has lessened its grip  is due to move to Potrero Hill.

We have worked so hard fighting for this market to survive, Boes said. Now to have some pandemic come along and shut us down is just unbelievable.

Residents looking to save the industry should prepare to spend some money when the crisis subsides, she said.

Buy flowers, send flowers, go out to dinner, plan your wedding, reschedule that corporate event, she said. Bring the color and beauty of flowers back into our world and our lives.

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen
Kenmare Resources plc (Kenmare or the Company)

30 March 2020

Publication of 2019 Annual Report

Kenmare Resources plc (LSE:KMR, ISE:KMR) today announces the publication and filing of its Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2019 and advises that the Annual Report is available on the Company's website at www.kenmareresources.com.

The Annual Report is also available to view directly via the Regulatory News Service and by clicking on the link at the bottom of this announcement.

A copy of the Annual Report has been submitted to Euronext Dublin and the UK National Storage Mechanism, and will shortly be available for inspection at the following locations:

https://direct.euronext.com/Announcements/View-Announcements/OAM-Filing/

and

http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM

For further information, please contact:

Kenmare Resources plc

Jeremy Dibb / Katharine Sutton

Investor Relations

Tel: +353 1 671 0411

Mob: + 353 87 943 0367 / + 353 87 663 0875

Murray (PR advisor)

Joe Heron

Tel: +353 1 498 0300

Mob: +353 87 690 9735

About Kenmare Resources

Kenmare Resources plc is one of the worlds largest producers of mineral sands products. Listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Euronext Dublin, Kenmare operates the Moma Titanium Minerals Mine in Mozambique. Momas production accounts for approximately 7% of global titanium feedstocks and the Company supplies to customers operating in more than 15 countries. Kenmare produces raw materials that are ultimately consumed in everyday quality-of life items such as paints, plastics and ceramic tiles.

Attachment
Staff at a major mental health trust have been warned not to resuscitate patients during the coronavirus crisis because of a lack of protective equipment as it was revealed nurses across the UK are working without any masks, gowns and gloves.

The Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, in County Durham, issued the diktat to staff last week saying CPR should not be used in an emergency because of the pandemic.

The email said Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) including, gloves, long sleeved gowns, eye protection and face masks were currently 'not available' within the trust.

A nurse at West Park Mental Health Hospital in Darlington said patients were at risk of 'irreversible damage' or even death under the new guidance. She said: 'We cannot resuscitate patients as we do not have the correct PPE. It goes against everything I believe in, we have patients who might arrest for a number of reasons - we are trained in basic life support and are not going to be able to do it'.

And the parlous situation in the wider NHS has been laid bare by Libby Nolan, a senior nurse in south Wales, who told the Guardian that colleagues are writing letters about inadequate PPE 'for insurance and litigation purposes' so their families get compensation if they die.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) today revealed there are medical staff working to save lives and turn the tide in Britain's war with coronavirus that have no access to basic protective clothing at all.

Today a picture of brave nurse wearing just a basic apron and gloves to protect herself from coronavirus amid a global shortage of protective equipment - when what staff should be wearing is all the kit on the right

Dame Donna Kinnair, chief executive and general secretary of the RCN, has blasted the 'unacceptable' levels of masks, gloves and aprons in some hospitals and care homes.

Yob spits in NHS worker's face as she walks home after ten-hour shift as doctors and nurses are warned to stop wearing uniforms outside work and hide ID badges Sama Shali, 33, was spat at twice as she walked home from a 10-hour shift at The Christie Hospital in Withington, in Manchester. Fortunately two women were on hand to picture the yob An NHS worker was spat at twice as she walked home from a 10-hour shift, as doctors and nurses are warned not to wear uniforms and to hide ID badges on their way to work. Sama Shali, 33, fears she was targeted by the unidentified yob as she was still wearing her ID badge for the The Christie Hospital in Withington, south Manchester. It comes as doctors and nurses around the country have been robbed of ID badges, cash and even a car in recent weeks. Sama stopped after she heard a man on a bicycle say something to her as she walked to a tram station in Didsbury. She said: 'He said something to me and I took my earphones out to hear what he said. I asked him if he could give me some space as he was quite close to me and then he spat in my face. 'I was so shocked and I told him I was going to ring the police. He just started circling me on his bike and then he did it again - he spat at my face again.' Thankfully for Sama, who lives in Stretford, there were two women running nearby who saw the incident and were able to take a photo of the man and make him leave her alone. Sama said: 'I am so grateful to the women that helped me. 'But I am so shocked and upset about it - I just don't understand why it happened to me. 'I am scared he might have had coronavirus and wanted to spread it. 'Now I am scared that I could pass it on to my colleagues or patients. 'We are short-staffed and I am scared of the impact it will have on my team if I become ill.' Advertisement

Whistleblowers in the NHS say they have been 'hiding' safety equipment for their next shifts and others have gone off sick fearing they will fall ill if they don't get away from work.

Dame Donna's warning based on worried emails and phone calls from nurses came as horrifying pictures of unprotected staff on the frontline emerged today despite new Government guidance making it clear that anyone within 3ft of coronavirus victims must wear full PPE.

She said: 'I am hearing from nurses who are treating patients in Covid-19 wards without any protection at all. This cannot continue. They are putting themselves, their families and their patients at risk.

'Every minute we wait is a minute too long. All nursing staff, no matter where they work, must feel safe. We need action, we need equipment, we need it now'.

She added: 'The Government is finally prioritising Covid-19 testing for NHS staff, including social care, but it is completely unacceptable that weeks into this crisis there are colleagues in all settings - hospitals, community or care homes - who have not been provided with personal protective equipment.

'As the professional trade union representing potentially the largest group of affected workers, the RCN has said repeatedly that we will not accept anything less than aprons, gloves and masks for all staff, in all settings. But this is a minimum - and that is why we are so disappointed even that level of protection has yet to be provided'.

NHS medics must wear full protective equipment if they come within three feet of a coronavirus patient, the government warned today, as shortages of the gear saw a brave nurse forced to dress in just an apron and gloves.

But numerous medical staff including doctors and nurses have expressed serious concerns about a lack of PPE in NHS hospitals.

One described how staff are 'hiding' equipment out of sheer desperation.

Some workers are saying they are sick as they fear the provisions are inadequate, another said.

Another doctor compared the situation to sending a soldier to war without the necessary equipment while a junior doctor said it feels like it is 'inevitable' that they will contract the virus due to a lack of PPE

Public Health England has issued stricter guidance on personal protective equipment (PPE), making it a requirement to wear a face mask, gloves, an apron and eye-protection as a shield against infectious airborne droplets.

A global shortage of the equipment medics and carers need to protect themselves against Covid-19 have led to shortfalls in the UK, with warnings the lives of thousands of NHS staff are being put at risk.

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick told a Downing Street briefing yesterday that 170 million masks, some 42.8 million gloves, 13.7 million aprons, 182,000 gowns, almost 10 million items of cleaning equipment and 2.3 million pairs of eye protectors were being delivered to frontline staff.

He said: 'Every single GP practice, dental practice and community pharmacy has had a PPE delivery.

'All care homes, hospices, and home care providers have, or will shortly, receive a delivery.'

And as the UK's death toll rose by another 209 to reach 1,288 yesterday, it also emerged:

Consultant Amged El-Hawrani became the first front-line NHS worker to die from the virus;

Deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries said it was likely to be three to six months before the lockdown was lifted;

Boris Johnson continued to chair meetings from isolation in Downing Street;

Rail journeys were down by 85 per cent and bus trips fell by three quarters;

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab prepared to unveil a deal with commercial airlines to repatriate tens of thousands of stranded British citizens;

Rules were relaxed for two years to allow women to self-administer abortion pills at home rather than visiting a clinic;

Michael Gove took a swipe at China, saying its failure to be open about the virus had hindered the world's response;

The number volunteering to help the NHS rose beyond the target 750,000.

Medics today spoke of their concerns at not being adequately protected, as companies including the chemicals giant Ineos and beer producer Brewdog unveiled plans to mass manufacture hand gels for the NHS.

One obstetrician working in a hospital in London said protective gear is being kept under lock and key by senior staff.

'One in four' NHS doctors are now sick or in self-isolation as Britain approaches coronavirus peak Around one in four NHS doctors are off work sick or in isolation, the head of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has said, as a leading expert revealed there were signs of a slowdown in Covid-19 hospital admissions. Professor Andrew Goddard, president of the RCP, told the PA news agency that about 25% of the doctor workforce is off, either with coronavirus or because a family member or housemate is ill. 'At the moment, we think it's more doctors self-isolating with family members, though there are some off sick themselves,' he said. 'This is really impacting a lot in emergency departments and London is in a much worse position than elsewhere at the moment, but it will come to other places. 'Birmingham is also struggling.' Prof Goddard said hospital wards across England 'are going from normal wards to Covid wards very quickly'. Advertisement

Another doctor compared the situation to sending a soldier to war without the necessary equipment while a junior doctor said it feels like it is 'inevitable' that they will contract the virus due to a lack of PPE.

'There is some, but now we're in a situation where people are having to hide them and store them for their own staff,' the obstetrician, who chose to speak anonymously, said. 'Our bosses are having to store a certain number.

'We are working in a hospital where there are key workers - including orderlies, porters, healthcare assistant - they have a right to be protected too.

'Our orderly was walking around the ward yesterday with a sleep mask over her face - an eye mask over her nose and mouth as a make-shift mask. They've said she doesn't need a mask because she's not in contact with Covid patients but so many patients are asymptomatic. We should be managing patients as though everybody has it.'

She added: 'There is not enough kit. PPE is locked away in our hospital and only one person has got the key because people are panicking. So, some people are going in and grabbing some of the stuff because they want to walk around with a mask.

'What people are doing is they are hiding them because they don't want just anyone grabbing the kit, so the bottom line is there is not enough kit.

'[It is] out of sheer desperation, there is just not enough.'

Public Health England today issued stricter guidance on personal protective equipment (PPE) when within three feet of a coronavirus patient

How the two pictures compare Nurse 1 - She is seen only wearing an apron and gloves, putting her at risk of coming into contact with infectious airborne droplets from when a patient sneezes; Nurse 2 - She has a face mask, a plastic visor to protect the eyes, as well as gloves and an apron. Advertisement

Another frontline NHS doctor, who also worked for the Government in west Africa during the Ebola crisis, said some fellow workers are saying they are sick as they fear the PPE provisions are inadequate.

'All my colleagues are quite nervous - some people are going off sick because they don't feel safe,' the doctor, who asked to remain anonymous, said.

'Others are seeking placement elsewhere so they are not frontline, again because of the lack of PPE.

'The closed WhatsApp groups are awash with fear, anger and confusion around the issues regarding PPE.'

A junior doctor at the Royal Bolton Hospital in Greater Manchester said PPE was the main concern for health workers.

He said: 'I just think at the moment the main thing from a healthcare worker is our concerns about PPE.

'You wouldn't send a soldier out without the necessary equipment so why are healthcare professionals not being provided the adequate PPE?'

Another junior doctor in Norfolk also told the news agency: 'There's not enough, there's nowhere near enough.

'There is such a shortage, so we feel like it's inevitable we're going to get sick. Infection control tells you one thing, the government are advising another thing, there's so much conflicting advice.'

The World Health Organisation has warned that the 'chronic' shortage of PPE is threatening 'our collective ability to save lives'.

On Friday, WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: 'When health workers are at risk, we're all at risk.'

The Department of Health and Social Care said it has issued millions of pieces of equipment and set up a national helpline so those in need can ask for more.

It came as the actor James McAvoy has called on the public to help save lives by donating money to buy protective gear for NHS workers  as he pledged 250,000 to the cause himself.

He helped the Masks for NHS Heroes campaign smash through its 200,000 target just three days after going live.

Last night it stood at more than 700,000 after around 10,000 people pledged their support.

The donations will buy masks, visors, gowns and gloves from global supply chains to be rushed to the UK by air freight.
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MOHALI: A 65-year-old man from Nayagaon town in Mohali district tested positive for coronavirus disease on Monday, taking the count of Covid-19 cases in the district to seven.

Dr Manjit Singh, the civil surgeon of Mohali, said, The patient is a resident of Dashmesh Nagar of Nayagaon and is admitted at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh. We have sealed the entire Dashmesh Nagar and are trying to ascertain his contacts for screening. The patient has no travel history.

TWO MORE REPORTS AWAITED

The health authorities have taken the second sample of a 27-year-old woman, who tested positive for Covid-19, recently. Her first review report had tested negative on Sunday evening.

She is the friend of the first coronavirus patient of the tricity, a 23-year-old woman resident of Sector 21, Chandigarh, who returned from London on March 15 via Amritsar.

The Mohali woman had tested positive on March 21, after she went to pick up her friend from the Amritsar airport.

Epidemiologist Harmandeep Kaur Brar, who is the coordinator for Covid-19 patients in Mohali, said: The sample of the patient has been taken and if the report is negative again, we will discharge her from hospital.

She will be the first patient of Covid-19 to be discharged from the civil hospital in Mohali.
The Bareilly administration ordered an inquiry after a group of migrant workers, who arrived in the Uttar Pradesh city in the wake of a 21-day nationwide lockdown prompted by the fast-spreading coronavirus disease (Covid-19), were made to squat on a road and then sprayed with chlorine-mixed water on Monday.

A section of opposition leaders and social media users outraged over the treatment of the group after a video of the incident, which took place near a bus station, surfaced on Twitter, purportedly showing people, including children, herded in one corner of the road being sprayed with the disinfectant. Some Twitter users even alleged that the workers were given a chemical bath.

Ashok Gautam, the nodal officer incharge of the Covid-19 mitigation group, confirmed that the migrants were sprayed with chlorine-mixed water, but maintained the step was necessary to contain a possible spread of the Sars-Cov-2 virus, which is causing the deadly infection.

We tried to keep them safe and asked them to shut their eyes, Gautam said. Its natural they will get wet.

District magistrate Nitish Kumar said some officials may have crossed the line in the sanitisation drive involving the workers who arrived in special buses run by the government.

We have looked into the video. Teams of Bareilly Nagar Nigam (civic body) and fire brigade were asked to sanitise buses. But they went overboard. We have ordered action against the concerned people. Those affected are being treated under the guidance of CMO (chief medical officer), he tweeted.

Action against officials involved in the incident will be taken on the basis of the inquiry report, according to people in the know.

Earlier in the day, Kumar said there were orders to carry out medical check-ups on all those entering the city, while hoping that officials must have acted in accordance with the guidelines on sanitisation.

Girish Makker, a doctor in Bareilly, said: Depending on the level of chlorine (mixed with water), it can cause burning and itching if applied on skin.

Mohd Afzal, who was among the workers, said, About 50 of us were sitting and waiting for food at the bus adda when some men in protective suits came and began spraying water on us. They said that they were from the sanitisation team and were sanitising us. The children began crying...

Afzal, who worked in a courier company in Noida and is a resident of Shahjahanpur, said the children complained of itching in their eyes, while some developed rashes. ...most of us left Bareilly and decided to continue our journey on foot, he said.

According to estimates, over 25,000 migrant workers from other cities have arrived in Bareilly so far, according to a district administration official who did not want to be named.

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the lockdown beginning March 25, highways across the national capital and other metropolises have seen scores of people walking hundreds of kilometres with their belongings. Some have reached their hometown with help from officials.

While stranded migrants cited the shortage of money and food as reasons for leaving big cities, health experts warned that an exodus could run contrary to the purpose of the lockdown  breaking the chain of infections.

Reacting to the Bareilly incident, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra tweeted: Request the UP government to refrain from such inhuman act when we all are fighting this pandemic. Workers have already suffered a lot. Please dont bathe them in chemicals. It will not help them but will create more problems to their health.

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati criticised what she termed a cruel and inhuman act, asking the government to immediately look into the matter.
The number of Covid-19 cases climbed to 1,251 in India on Monday, registering the highest single-day increase of 227 cases, while the death toll rose to 32, the Union Health Ministry said. It said the number of active cases was 1,117, and 101 people were either cured or discharged and one had migrated, the ministry stated. The 1,251 cases include 49 foreigners.

In an updated data at 9.30 pm, it said three fresh deaths were reported on Monday. While one death each was reported from Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, the details of the third was not available on the chart. So far, ...
The number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 in Turkey is now 9,217 and the death toll stands at 131, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced in a tweet late Sunday.

Experts say the next two to three weeks may see virus cases peak and that it is, therefore, vital to stay home to prevent the virus from spreading further.

READ: Coronavirus cases in Turkey surpass 9,000, with 131 dead

The Interior Ministry restricted the operation of taxis in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir to restrict the spread of the virus, stressing the most effective way to stem the spread of the virus is to reduce social mobility and human contact, and to observe social isolation

READ: Taxi operations limited in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir to stem virus spread in Turkey

Questions and Answers on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

We have answered the questions that have been asked of us so far and the answers are coming back in from the various official sources. Here is the update as of 30 March 2020.

READ: Questions and Answers on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

COVID-19 pandemic may ease in two months if measures implemented

Its natural that everyone wants to know how long the COVID-19 crisis is going to last and Professor Fusun Eyuboglu from the Turkish governments health ministry science committee has at least made an estimate based on what we know so far.

You can read his full Q&A with the Hurriyet Daily News by clicking on the link  but even Prof Eyuboglu concedes the answer really depends on how we all behave.

READ: COVID-19 pandemic may ease in two months if measures implemented

Aydem vow no power outages until April 30

Power cuts have been a part of life of late as Aydem has been carrying out repair and maintenance work across the region.

However, in light of the current crisis, Fethiye Gercek reports the company has vowed there will be no more planned outages until April 30.

Source: https://gercekfethiye.com/egede-30-nisana-kadar-elektrik-kesilmeyecek/26237/

Turkey denies claims of inaccurate COVID-19 data

Turkeys health minister criticized social media early Monday over allegations that official data on the novel coronavirus is inaccurate.

Claims on social media that there is an incoherency in the data we announced are completely unfounded, Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

READ: Turkey denies claims of inaccurate COVID-19 data

Coronavirus: Fake news crackdown by UK government

What now seems like weeks ago, Fethiye Times put out a message to our readers explaining our position on misleading or false information posted on our website or social media. If you missed our message you can read it below.

The UK government now have a rapid response unit within the Cabinet Office working with social media firms to remove fake news and harmful content.

READ: Coronavirus: Fake news crackdown by UK government

A Message For Our Readers

These are difficult and trying times for us all but they can be made even worse by misleading or false information so, with that in mind, Fethiye Times is to redouble its efforts to ensure all information regarding coronavirus on our website and social media feeds is accurate and verified by official sources.

As a result, we will not be allowing comment on any threads to include speculation. Repetition of unverified reports or the sharing of spurious data will also be deleted if it cannot be backed up with a link to reliable source.

With the situation in Turkey escalating quickly, we need to focus our limited resources on making sure what we share is both timely and accurate. Although we very much hope our readers will continue to use us as a valuable information resource, we hope you can help us by limiting personal opinions and debates on the measures being taken to your own social media profiles or to forums which have been established for that purpose.

If you think there is an aspect to the crisis we have missed or if you have any questions which have so far remained unanswered, we will do our best to respond as quickly as possible. However, it would be appreciated if you could send questions via email to fethiyetimes2017@gmail.com or via Facebook Messenger to reduce the risk of comment sparking fresh debate and confusion.

Many thanks for your consideration and cooperation



Global Death Toll

The global death toll has surpassed 35,300, with 742,531 cases confirmed, according to Worldometer. 157,046 people have recovered.

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Todays featured image is of a deserted kordon in Gocek by Lyn Ward (19 March 2020)




Maharashtra is going to be the



worst-hit among states in economic term due to the coronavirus -induced lockdown given its status as an industrial power and a manufacturing hub in the country, water resources minister Jayant Patil said on Monday.

Most of the manufacturing units have completely stopped their activities due to the lockdown, he said.

Speaking a Marathi channel, Patil said, Maharashtra, being the most industrialised state, is going to be the worst hit in this crisis. There are thousands of manufacturing units across the state, including large, medium and small ones. They employ millions of skilled and non- skilled workers."



The 21-day lockdown, implemented to facilitate social distancing and stem the spread of the coronavirus, is going to create an economic crisis in the state, said Patil, a former finance minister.

"Coronavirus is an international crisis; thus we are part of it as well. Maharashtra is a highly industrialised state hence the closure of several industrial units is going to create a huge economic crisis for the state as well, Patil said.

Asked how the state would come out of the crisis, Patil said, It will take months for industrial units to resume production and achieve maximum capacity as small, medium and large industrial units are inter-dependent."



We need to rethink about the current socio-economic framework as well in which we are living and how we should proceed further, said the minister.

According to the Economic Survey 2019-20, Maharashtra has 14.90 lakh registered micro, small and medium scale industries generating employment for 78.92 lakh people.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A baby boom is looking more likely in 9 months or so. And not just because people are staying home in a worldwide effort to stanch the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Karex Bhd. makes more than 20 percent of the worlds condoms, heralding itself as the Worlds Largest Condom Maker. The Malaysia-based companys factories were closed for a week in response to the pandemic.

Thats already a shortfall of 100 million condoms, Reuters reports.

The company is now up and running again, with Malaysia deeming condom-production a critical industry. But Karex is operating at only 50% capacity.

It will take time to jumpstart factories, and we will struggle to keep up with demand at half capacity, Karex chief executive Goh Miah Kiat said.

The company produces more than 5 billion condoms a year for 140 countries, Bloomberg reports.

We are going to see a global shortage of condoms everywhere, which is going to be scary, Goh said. My concern is that for a lot of humanitarian programs deep down in Africa, the shortage will not just be two weeks or a month. That shortage can run into months.

China, India and Thailand also produce a significant number of condoms, and those countries are facing similar lockdowns on movement and businesses that were instituted in Malaysia.

Not only are condoms expected to become more difficult to find on store shelves in the weeks ahead, but theyll be more expensive.

We are still paying all our workers full salaries, Goh told Reuters, but workers only come in half the time, so generally there will be a cost increase.

-- Douglas Perry

@douglasmperry

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
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As the death toll from America's devastating coronavirus pandemic continues to climb, victims' family members are paying tribute to their lost loved ones.

More than 151,000 people in the US have tested positive for COVID-19 and 2,787 have died since the nationwide outbreak began in late January.

Among the latest victims are a Michigan state congressman, a member of the Louisiana governor's disability office, a college senior weeks away from graduating, an FDNY ambulance mechanic and a 24-year-old from Utah who contracted the disease from her father.

Their stories shed light on how quickly COVID-19 can strike people of all ages, including those who don't have underlying health problems.

More than 151,000 people in the US have tested positive for COVID-19 and 2,787 have died since the nationwide outbreak began in late January. Among the latest victims was Michigan state Rep Isaac Robinson (pictured), who died aged 44 at a Detroit hospital on Sunday

Michigan state Rep Isaac Robinson dies age 44, days after he first began experiencing coronavirus symptoms

Isaac Robinson, a Democrat representing Michigan's 4th district in Detroit, passed away on Sunday morning at Detroit Medical Center Hospital.

He was not officially diagnosed with COVID-19 before he died, but many who knew him have said they suspect the disease was the culprit.

House Minority Leader Chris Greig (D-Farmington Hills) told the Detroit Free Press she spoke with Robinson on Thursday night and he said he hadn't been feeling well.

Greig said Robinson didn't go to the hospital until Sunday because 'he was pretty stubborn'.

'I spoke with Rose Mary [Robinson's mother] tonight and she's in shock,' she said. 'She told me she believes it was COVID-19.'

Robinson was elected to the state House of Representatives in 2018, taking over the seat from his mother, former state Rep Mary Robinson. He served on the Commerce and Tourism, Regulatory Reform and Tax Policy committees

Robinson was elected to the state House of Representatives in 2018, taking over the seat from his mother, former state Rep Mary Robinson. He served on the Commerce and Tourism, Regulatory Reform and Tax Policy committees.

Greig described Robinson as a relentless advocate for his constituents who frequently participated in protests on issues such as water shutoffs, air quality and working conditions.

'Anytime Isaac spoke, anytime he was working on something, it was with a huge passion and focus on making lives better for Detroiters,' she said. 'It's just heartbreaking for our caucus, the city and the state.'

About two weeks before his death, Robinson called on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to institute a statewide ban on utility shutoffs and evictions during the coronavirus outbreak.

Whitmer issued a statement about the lawyer and prominent community activist, remembering his 'huge heart, quick wit, and genuine passion for the people'.

'He was a fierce advocate for Detroiters and people across Southeast Michigan,' Whitmer said.

'He dedicated his career to ensuring justice and security for those he served, and the impact he had on his community will continue to be felt for years to come.'

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan also paid tribute to Robinson and expressed his condolences to the politician's family.

'Representative Isaac Robinson fought passionately for the issues he believed in and for those in our community who needed a strong advocate like him,' Duggan said.

'His passing is a devastating loss to our community and another reminder of how we all need to do our part to protect ourselves and each other in these difficult times.'

Attorney General Dana Nessel tweeted a photo of herself with Robinson, writing: 'There has never been a greater prince of a man than Isaac. No one who worked harder or loved his community more. No better person who has walked this earth. My heart is broken.'

Robinson is one of several prominent officials in Detroit who are believed to have died from coronavirus, including community leader Marlowe Stoudamire, police homicide Capt Jonathan Parnell and Wayne County Sheriff's Cmdr Donafay Collins.

Michigan has recorded more than 5,400 coronavirus cases and 132 deaths as of Monday, with the majority concentrated in Detroit.

As of Monday more than 151,000 people in the US have tested positive for coronavirus and 2,787 have died

Silvia Deyanira Melendez, 24, dies from coronavirus after five members of her family contracted the disease

Silvia Deyanira Melendez passed away on Saturday at University Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, according to her family.

The 24-year-old suffered from diabetes and underwent heart surgery two years ago, putting her at high risk for coronavirus complications.

Silvia Deyanira Melendez, 24, died on Saturday at University Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, after she and four of her family members contracted coronavirus

Her father Marcos, 54, said five of the seven people living in their home in West Jordan have tested positive for COVID-19 since he first began experiencing symptoms about two weeks ago.

'When I talked to the doctor she said if I had [symptoms] or anyone in my family had it, we're supposed to [assume] we're positive,' Marcos told The Salt Lake Tribune on Sunday, describing how he and two of his sons suffered from fever, chills, body aches, coughs and diarrhea.

Silvia and her mother, 49-year-old Silvia B Melendez, were hospitalized with severe breathing problems on March 20.

Angelica Macias, who is the girlfriend of one of the Melendez sons and lives with the family, said the younger Silvia had to be sedated and intubated with a breathing tube as her blood pressure continued to drop.

Macias said Silvia began showing signs of recovery until Saturday, when her 'heart started beating too fast' and she died.

Her mother was discharged from the hospital the same day and is recovering.

Silvia's 22-year-old brother Xander said his sister worked as a receptionist at a medical imaging company and hoped to one day have a career that would allow her to travel.

'She was a fighter, that's for sure,' Xander said. 'She fought a lot of things in her life.'

Silvia's 22-year-old brother Xander (pictured together) said his sister worked as a receptionist at a medical imaging company and hoped to one day have a career that would allow her to travel. 'She was a fighter, that's for sure,' Xander said

Ambulance mechanic James Villecco, 55, becomes the first member of the FDNY to die of coronavirus

James Villecco, a 55-year-old Army veteran and ambulance mechanic for the Fire Department of New York, died on Sunday after contracting coronavirus.

FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro praised Villecco as an 'unsung hero' in a statement announcing his death.

'Behind the thousands of calls our members respond to every day is a team of dedicated and skilled mechanics who ensure our ambulances are running 24/7,' Nigro said.

'James Villecco was one of those truly unsung heroes in our Department whose outstanding work provided medical care for the people of our city. The entire Department mourns his loss.'

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also paid tribute to Villecco at a press conference, telling reporters: 'This is the kind of unsung hero who doesn't get the credit he deserves.

'This is the kind of man who keeps us safe because he kept the ambulances in good repair so they could get there to help all of us.'

Villecco joined the FDNY Bureau of Fleet Services in 2014 and was assigned to the Coney Island repair facility. He later joined the Review Avenue Facility in Long Island City, where he worked in the ambulance repair shop.

He is survived by his wife Joy and daughter Jessica.

New York City has recorded more coronavirus cases than any other metropolitan area by a significant margin, with more than 36,000 infections and 790 deaths as of Monday.

James Villecco, a 55-year-old Army veteran and ambulance mechanic for the Fire Department of New York, died on Sunday after contracting coronavirus. He is survived by his wife Joy (pictured together) and daughter Jessica

Villecco joined the FDNY Bureau of Fleet Services in 2014 and was assigned to the Coney Island repair facility. He later joined the Review Avenue Facility in Long Island City, where he worked in the ambulance repair shop

April Dunn, a member of the Louisiana governor's staff, dies aged 33 from coronavirus complications

Louisiana Gov John Bel Edwards announced the death of his staff member April Dunn on Saturday.

The 33-year-old served as chair of the Louisiana Developmental Disabilities Council and was a part of the State As A Model Employer Taskforce.

'It is with heavy hearts that we mourn the loss of our dear April,' Edwards said in a statement.

'She brightened everyone's day with her smile, was a tremendous asset to our team and an inspiration to everyone who met her.

'I was proud to have an advocate like April on the task force and on my staff. She set a great example for how other businesses could make their workforce more inclusive.'

Edwards did not disclose any details about Dunn's death, other than that it was due to complications from coronavirus.

Louisiana has recorded the fastest growth of new cases in the entire world, with 3,540 infections and 151 deaths as of Monday.

State officials used Dunn's death as a tragic example of why it's important for people to practice social distancing.

April Dunn (center), a member of the Louisiana governor's staff, died aged 33 from coronavirus complications on Saturday. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards (left) called Dunn 'an inspiration to everyone who met her'

Dunn served as chair of the Louisiana Developmental Disabilities Council and was a part of the State As A Model Employer Taskforce. She is seen with Gov Edwards in an undated photo

West Michigan University student Bassey Offiong, 25, days after week-long battle with coronavirus

Bassey Offiong, a 25-year-old from Detroit, died on Saturday after spending a week fighting for his life in the hospital. His family said he had no prior health issues.

Offiong was only weeks away from graduating with a degree in chemical engineering from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.

His sister, Asari Offiong, said her brother told her he had tried to get a coronavirus test several times but was repeatedly turned down by health officials, even though he was suffering from a fever, fatigue and shortness of breath.

'I told him to ask them to test him,' Asari said. 'He said they refused to test him.'

Offiong was hospitalized at Beaumont in Royal Oak last week and was placed on a ventilator in the intensive care unit until his death.

Asari described her 'baby brother' as sweet, humble and a 'gentle giant'.

'I know God has him in his presence,' she said. 'He loved God.'

Offiong dreamt of starting his own organic makeup line with L'Oreal that would enhance women's beauty, his sister said.

'He's just someone who thinks so big,' she said.

Bassey Offiong, a 25-year-old from Detroit, died on Saturday after spending a week fighting for his life in the hospital. His sister, Asari Offiong, described her brother as a 'gentle giant' who was weeks away from graduating college

WMU President Edward Montgomery issued a statement about Offiong's death on Saturday, saying he was 'deeply saddened' by the news.

'Bassey was a young man of enormous potential,' Montgomery said.

'On behalf of the entire Bronco community, I want to extend my deepest condolences to his entire family, including his sister Asari, who has been generous in communicating with us regularly. They are in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.'

The Kalamazoo County Health & Community Services Department also issued a statement, saying: 'Our thoughts are with the student's family and WMU as they grieve the loss of a loved one.

'We know this student was not a Kalamazoo County resident; however, this virus has no borders when it comes to who it affects and how it is spread... Stay home and, if you must go out for essential items, stay safe by taking preventative measures.'

The department did not address Asari's allegations that her brother had been refused a test on more than one occasion.

Former Utah House Speaker Bob Garff dies aged 77 after he and his wife tested positive for coronavirus

Bob Garff, who served as speaker in Utah's House of Representatives from 1985 to 1987, died from coronavirus on Sunday.

The 77-year-old Republican politician and his wife Katherine tested positive for COVID-19 after traveling to Palm Springs, according to their daughter, Utah Rep Melissa Garff Ballard.

Garff's symptoms worsened to the point that he was hospitalized last week and passed away days later.

'It was really unexpected,' Ballard told The Salt Lake Tribune. 'And my mother is still battling this at home.'

She shared the sad news on Facebook on Sunday, writing: 'My loving dad passed away peacefully today from COVID-19. He has lived a long and happy life, full of vigor and love for our state and our families.'

Ballard credited her father with inspiring her to get into politics.

'My dad lived an amazing life,' she told the Tribune. 'He is a giant in our city. And he didn't care who got the credit for anything that he did.'

Bob Garff, who served as speaker in Utah's House of Representatives from 1985 to 1987, died from coronavirus on Sunday. The 77-year-old Republican politician and his wife Katherine tested positive for COVID-19 after traveling to Palm Springs, according to their daughter, Utah Rep Melissa Garff Ballard (pictured with her father)

Garff served in the Utah House for nine years from 1978 to 1987 and was a key organizer of the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City

Garff, a prolific philanthropist, served in the Utah House for nine years from 1978 to 1987 and was a key organizer of the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.

He was the longtime chairman of the Ken Garff Automotive Group, which his father founded in 1932.

The company remains one of the biggest car sellers in the state, with dealerships across the US.

Garff also served in multiple roles within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including as bishop and stake president, and was known for his philanthropic endeavors.

Utah Senator Mitt Romney said he was 'heartbroken' to hear of Garff's passing.

'It breaks my heart,' Romney said. 'Bob's contributions to our state, to our economy, and to our church will be heralded by many. But for me, it was his sound and principled leadership as the Chairman of the Olympic Winter Games of 2002 that is most compelling.'

The CDC has warned that the US is still 'in the acceleration phase' of the pandemic and all corners of the country are at risk

Health experts warn US death toll will continue to climb as officials scramble to stem the spread of the virus

The US currently leads the world in coronavirus infections with more than 151,000 cases and 2,787 deaths as of Monday, according to public data reviewed by DailyMail.com, though the true number of cases is thought to be considerably higher because of testing shortages and mild illnesses that have gone unreported.

Seventeen hard-hit states are now in various forms of lockdown as experts say the peak is yet to come and that the current state of crisis will last for another several months, at least.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious-disease expert, warned Sunday that the coronavirus outbreak could kill 100,000 to 200,000 Americans and infect millions more.

Hours later President Donald Trump said that he would consider it a 'win' and a 'very good job' if he can manage to keep the coronavirus death toll between 100,000 and 200,000, since estimates put it at more than two million if he did nothing.

Trump, who has largely avoided talk of potential death and infection rates, cited projection models that said potentially 2.2 million people or more could have died had social distancing measures not been put in place.

And he said the country would be doing well if it 'can hold' the number of deaths 'down to 100,000.'

He said the best case for the country would be for the death rate to peak in about two weeks.

'It's a horrible number,' Trump said, but added, 'We all together have done a very good job.'

Trump also claimed during his daily press briefing at the White House Sunday evening that the peak of coronavirus is expected to hit in two weeks, even though the death toll in the US doubled from 1,000 to 2,000 in just one day.

'The modeling estimates that the peak is likely to hit in two weeks. So, I'll say it again: The peak  the highest point of death rates, remember this  is likely to hit in two week,' Trump said during his remarks in the Rose Garden. 'Nothing would be worse than declaring before the victory is won. That would be the greatest loss of all.

The president made the comments as he announced that the administration's coronavirus task force would extend it's plan to reduce the spread of the disease, adding 30 days on top of the original 15-day schedule.

President Donald Trump on Sunday said that he would consider it a 'win' and a 'very good job' if he can manage to keep the coronavirus death toll between 100,000 and 200,000, since estimates put it at more than two million if he did nothing

New York City remains the epicenter of the nation's outbreak, with 33,786 cases and 776 deaths as of Monday.

But several other cities including Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans, Miami and Boston are now being monitored as potential hotspots, threatening to push the overall case count in the US higher and higher.

'Every metro area should assume that they will have an outbreak equivalent to New York,' Dr Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus response coordinator, told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday morning.

Birx has previously said that the White House task force anticipates challenges in areas that have not yet seen widespread outbreaks.

On Sunday she said the Trump administration is working hard to push supplies such as ventilators out to affected areas to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed - as many across the country are already complaining of dangerous shortages.

'Hospitals are so busy taking care of the people who are ill, they can't be spending time doing inventory,' Birx said. 'We need to help and support that.'

'The sooner we react and the sooner the states and the metro areas react and ensure that they have put in full mitigation ... then we'll be able to move forward,' she added.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has expressed similar concern for new hotspots.

Dr John Brooks, head of the CDC's Epidemiology Research Team, said that the US is still 'in the acceleration phase' of the pandemic and that all corners of the country are at risk.

'There is no geographic part of the United States that is spared from this,' he said.

Some experts have said that outbreaks in other parts of the country could be even more devastating than the ones seen in New York City because they are less prepared.

'I'm worried that New York might not be the worst-case scenario when you think about other states that have even older and less-healthy populations, and fewer hospital beds available,' Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has developed modeling tools designed to help public officials prepare for the spread of COVID-19, told The Washington Post.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

Communities far and wide continue to come together during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Enter Millie Bobby Brown.

The teenage star of Netflixs Stranger Things included Santa Fe in her move to donate to the communities where the Netflix series has filmed.

Production for the fourth season hasnt begun yet in New Mexico.

On her Instagram account Monday, Brown wrote that while we stay home and do our part to flatten the curve, we must not forget those in need.

My thoughts are with the great people and crew from Santa Fe, NM whom we didnt yet get to meet in our company move on Stranger Things, Brown wrote. In appreciation of this community, my family and I have donated 20,000 meals to The Food Depot, which will provide meals for those hungry in the Northern New Mexico service area.

Brown and her family also donated 20,000 meals to the Atlanta Community Food Bank.

The leadership and commitment to others demonstrated by Millie Bobby Brown is exceptional, said Jill Dixon, The Food Depot director of development. Her financial support will help to provide groceries to families who are struggling during this uncertain time, but her gift is also a challenge to us all: What can we spare in an effort to help others? The Food Depot is so grateful for the example this young woman is setting and the impact she is making in our community.

The hit Netflix series will film in New Mexico for its fourth season. Netflix announced a halt on filming for all of its productions in early March.
Stimulus handout could see 20m apply

THAILAND: More than 17.2 million people have applied for the 5,000-baht financial aid granted by the government to ease the impact of the COVID-19, according to Fiscal Policy Office director Lavaron Saengsanit.

CoronavirusCOVID-19economics

By Bangkok Post

Monday 30 March 2020, 09:15AM

The government has rolled out a series of stimulus packages to ease the impact of COVID-19 on workers. Photo: Bangkok Post

That was the figure which stood at 6pm yesterday (Mar 29) as people registered on www..com, the only official channel, which began accepting applications at 6pm on Saturday (Mar 28), Mr Lavaron said.

The Thai web address means: You will never be left behind.

He added that registrations had peaked at two million per hour at 10pm on Saturday, an unexpected volume considering the total number of informal workers affected by the COVID-19 is believed to be about 10 million.

It is likely that many people who are not eligible for the aid took a chance and registered anyway, Mr Lavaron said.

Including those ineligible registrations, his team may have to process up to 20 million applications, he said.

The government has rolled out a series of stimulus packages to ease the impact of COVID-19 on workers.

Among them is a B50-billion government fund that provides B5,000 per month for three months to three million virus-affected temporary employees and self-employed workers.

Previously, a broad range of financial and fiscal relief measures was issued to help companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, alleviate negative impacts from the COVID-19 crisis.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Thailand yesterday announced that banks will resume their services today after closing some branches at weekends to help prevent the spread of coronavirus ahead of the mass registrations for aid.
Dana T. Magee, executive director of Community Resources for the past 23 years, has retired.

Community Resources (originally known as SI Aid for Retarded Children, Inc.) was established in 1953 by parents seeking an alternative to institutionalization for their children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. During Magees nearly 40 years with the organization has grown into one of the metropolitan areas largest and most experienced service providers.

Beginning his service as a member of the board of directors, then as the organizations first director of Development & Public Relations, the organization has introduced many new programs and realized tremendous growth. In 1998, Community Resources opened its main campus in Travis. At the same time, a separate preschool was constructed in Richmond, which provides general and special education, Universal Pre-K, and most recently Pre-K 3.

Upon the close of Willowbrook, Community Resources opened one of the first community residences on Staten Island and is now the largest residential provider in the borough with 15 residences and five supportive apartments. As the field expanded, so did CR with the introduction of new programs, the opening of new residences, and construction of a greenhouse, garage to house the automotive program, renovation of the cafeteria, creation of an independent living suite, and most recently the renovation of the lower level to offer the 150 men and women who participate in the Day Habilitation program.

Also under his tenure as executive director/CEO, Magee arranged the merger with Special Tees, a vocational training program/affirmative business established to employ people with a mental health diagnosis who were traditionally considered unemployable and has overseen its move to its own headquarters at 250 Buel Avenue in Dongan Hills.

A native Staten Islander, a graduate of Curtis High School and the College of Staten Island, Magee earned his B.A. (cum laude) in economics, and was decorated for his services in Vietnam, serving in the United States Navy on the Intrepid from 1967-1973.

He has served as the chairperson of the Borough Presidents Committee for People with Disabilities for over 20 years, and in various positions on Community Board 2 for 29 years, 17 as its chairperson. During his career, he has served on the Boards of Bayley Seton Hospital, the Seamens Society for Children and Families, the SI Chamber Music Players, and is a past commander of American Legion Post 1191.

A Louis R. Miller Non-Profit Business Leader, Magees accomplishments and service to the community has been recognized by Edward Markham Child Care Center, the Catholic Historical Society, the AAOG/AFNY, the SI Amputee Club, the Christian Pentecostal Church, the NYS Assembly, the SI Recreation Association, United Activities Unlimited, the former Interagency Council on Aging, the Eger Foundation and Meals on Wheels of SI, to name a few. He is the 2003 recipient of CRs Joan P. Hodum Life Achievement Award and is a member of the CSI Alumni Hall of Fame.

Magee and his wife, Pat, who has also served Community Resources as a volunteer, most notably as chairperson of its annual commemorative journal effort for the 17 consecutive years, raised their children in New Dorp and have resided there for 48 years. They plan on spending their retirement there and in the Poconos and Florida.

While a search is being conducted to identify CRs new executive director, Thomas Niesi has resigned from his position as vice president of Community Resources board of directors to serve as interim acting executive director/CEO.
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (AP)  A man in western New York who police say had nine explosive devices in his home is facing additional charges.

Jose M. Gandia, 47, of Niagara Falls, has been charged with unlawful possession of a destructive device and unlawful possession of a shortened shotgun, according to U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy Jr. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Gandia is already facing other charges, including assaulting a police officer and menacing.

State police troopers responded to reports of a man pointing a shotgun with a red laser out of a pickup truck on the New York State Thruway Wednesday morning, police said. A trooper located the vehicle and attempted to handcuff Gandia. Gandia got out of his car and tried to fight the trooper, authorities said.

Gandia was arrested, and police reportedly found several weapons and a pipe bomb in his car. Authorities also recovered nine possible destructive devices from inside Gandias home, law enforcement officials said.

Five of the devices were attached to two separate propane tanks. Two of the devices were near the residence's front entrance and two were near the rear  all four of which were rigged to detonate.

Court records listing a lawyer for Gandia werent available.
A 68-bed emergency field hospital has been set up in New York's Central Park in the US to admit coronavirus patients, as per media reports. The East Meadow lawn was transformed by the volunteers into wards to cater to the overflow from the Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Queens hospital, New York, as the situation worsened in the state with over 60,000 cases, and 1000 deaths due to the COVID-19 disease.

Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio said during a press conference, that the makeshift medical centers were being transformed into respiratory care units as hospitals were out of their capacity to take more patients. He said that it was the collaboration between Samaritans Purse and Mount Sinai Health System, to share the burden. The team trucked in four trailers of gear, which includes tents, beds, personal protective equipment, and at least 10 ventilators to attend to critically ill, he added. Franklin Graham, the organizations leadership reportedly said that a team of over 70 health care professionals from across the US will be headed by Dr. Elliott Tenpenny, who has previously treated patients of Ebola in West Africa, Syrian refugees in Iraq and earthquake victims in Ecuador.

Read: Trump Extends Stay-at-home Plan Until April End As Coronavirus Cases In US Cross 142,000

Read: Coronavirus Response Highlights Deepening Partisan Divide

Most calls for respiratory distress

According to reports, New York accounts for 42 per cent of the impact from the coronavirus. Further scale in the impact is predicted in the weeks ahead, as more residents are being tested for the virus. Emergency helplines in the state have been overwhelmed with over 7,000 phone calls per day, setting up volume record, as the crisis inundates the medical facilities, and the first responders swarm the state around the clock. A Brooklyn paramedic told the US media that most coronavirus calls across the state were from patients reporting the respiratory distress or high temperature. She was further said that having been sent home to quarantine, the patients experienced organ failure and cardiac arrest. She stressed that the dearth of medical supervision was getting patients to the point where they had started to decompensate.

Read: Staples Hours And Senior Hours Amidst The Coronavirus Crisis

Read: Coronavirus Outbreak: Military Disinfects One Of Spain's Busiest Hospitals
Furthermore, the theater of battle is out of sight, due to patient privacy concerns and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations. This war is being waged in hospitals, and the closest most of us will truly get to understanding the gravity and human cost of the situation is from personal testimonials from health care providers.

Here again, the battle differs. In a traditional war, or even a terrorist attack, the front line combatants are public servants, extensions of the government: soldiers, police officers, firefighters.

In the case of a health care emergency, many of those on the front lines are private citizens in a for-profit industry. They may rise, and they have in this case, to true honor, nobility and service, but it is hard for a politician to take credit for their effort and sacrifice.

That is a thing that leaders like to do: Find a moment when they can declare a victory, even if the war still rages  George W. Bush on an aircraft carrier standing in front of a Mission Accomplished banner, or Barack Obama announcing the killing of Osama bin Laden. There is not likely to be such a dramatic moment with this virus unless a vaccine or treatment is quickly developed.

Still, Trump forecasts a victory moment, saying earlier this month, Americans from every walk of life are coming together and thanks to the spirit of our people, we will win this war and we are, were winning and were going to win this war.

Furthermore, it is nearly impossible to grasp the scope of the lethality of the crisis. We see numbers climb, but we rarely see the human representation of those numbers.

There is no battlefield to visit. There is no pile of rubble to climb. There is no communal gathering place. Even if there was a place to gather, gatherings are strictly discouraged during this crisis. There is no collective action, and therefore collective conscience, because we are isolated from one another.
UPDATE (3/31): New coronavirus cases in Pennsylvania spike by 756; 15 new deaths reported

Four more COVID-19 deaths have been reported in the Poconos, one in the Lehigh Valley and two more to the immediate south in Bucks County, seven among 10 new coronavirus-related deaths reported across Pennsylvania on Monday, bringing the states death toll to 48.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health also reports 693 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the last day. In all, 4,087 total COVID-19 cases have now been recorded since March 6, when the first ones appeared in Pennsylvania. The virus is in 59 of the states 67 counties.

With the new deaths reported Monday, Monroe County now has seven total, tied with Philadelphia for most in a single county. One day earlier, after Monroes third death was reported, St. Lukes University Health Network deemed the county a coronavirus hot zone and expects a rapid surge in cases there. The county reported 182 cases of COVID-19 as of Monday.

Meanwhile, the Lehigh Valley now has eight deaths from the novel coronavirus: Northampton County reported its fifth death on Monday. Lehigh County has three.

The Lehigh Valleys combined COVID-19 cases rose to 415, up 138 in 24 hours.

To the south, Bucks County reported two more deaths on Monday, one day after recording its first.

To date, 386 Pennsylvanians have been hospitalized, almost half of them aged 65 and older. The age group also makes up the majority of COVID-19 deaths in the state. However, 41% of overall cases are in adults aged 25-49.

State Health Secretary Rachel Levine has warned of an expected surge in cases that could overwhelm hospitals if residents dont take proper precautions.

Schools and non-life-sustaining businesses statewide have been told to close, and a stay-at-home order from Gov. Tom Wolf was extended Monday to include 26 counties.

The Wolf administration has requested a major disaster declaration from the federal government, which would provide additional resources for state, county and local government.

Meanwhile, in neighboring New Jersey, at least 13,386 coronavirus cases and 161 deaths have been reported, with at least 62 cases in Warren County, immediately east of the Lehigh Valley.

If you may have been exposed or exhibit the symptoms of COVID-19  fever, cough and shortness of breath  contact your health care provider.

For more information on the coronavirus, consult your state health department at health.pa.gov and the CDC website.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Sign up for text message alerts from lehighvalleylive.com on coronavirus in the Lehigh Valley:





Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Follow him on Twitter @SteveNovakLVL and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
- Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger state has criticised the current testing method adopted by the NCDC

- The Niger state governor said the focus on a particular group of people to be those who are affected by coronavirus is wrong

- Bello said it is wrong to overlook the most vulnerable set of people to contact Covid-19 while placing focus on certain statuses and classes

The governor of Niger state, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, has picked holes in the current method the NCDC is using to determine those to be tested for coronavirus.

The Nation reports that Governor Bello said on Sunday, March 29, that the focus on a particular group of people to be those who are affected by coronavirus is wrong.

He said Nigeria's efforts to contain the spread of the virus may not be fruitful if it continues to overlook the most vulnerable set of people to contact Covid-19 while placing focus on certain statuses and classes.

We are overlooking the most vulnerable ones and are setting our radar and concentrating on certain status or class be it political, business or religious," the Niger state governor said.

Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger state criticised the current testing method adopted by the Nigerian government

Source: Twitter

The NCDC had highlighted two categories of people who are qualified for the Covid-19 test. The categories are those with a history of travel outside of Nigeria who present with fever, cough or difficulty breathing within 14 days of arrival and those who come in contact with a confirmed case who presents with these symptoms within 14 days of contact

However, there have been concerns that certain people with influence and privileges are being prioritised for testing, as also alleged by the Niger state governor.

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Earlier, Legit.ng reported that twenty-hours after Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna tested positive to coronavirus, the result of the test carried out on his colleague in Niger state, Governor Bello, had also come out.

Governor Bello's result came out on Sunday, March 29, negative to the virus that has hit the state and affected some top government officials.

A statement by Governor Bello's spokesperson, Mary Noel Berje, confirmed that he was free of the virus.

Berje said the governor asked all his aides to carry out similar tests to ascertain their statuses in relation to the virus.

The governor said this was necessary because he may have come in contact with some people who were later confirmed to have the virus better during one of the meetings of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) and other official engagements.

Berje added that despite the result coming out negative, the governor has said he would continue to work from home since he is still on self-imposed isolation.

Governor Bello pleaded with the people of the state to focus on personal hygiene and other procedures that would help them against the virus and its spread.

Governor Bello had recently gone on self-isolation after possible exposure to some of Nigeria's confirmed coronavirus cases.

The governor took the decision to self-isolate following his presence at the Nigeria Governors Forum meeting which was held on Wednesday, March 18.

In another related report, Abba Kyari, the chief of staff to the president on Sunday, March 29, confirmed that he had tested positive for coronavirus.

Kyari in a statement published through the twitter handle of the presidency, @NGRPresident, said he was proceeding to Lagos on Sunday for further tests based on medical advice.

The chief of staff noted that he was feeling well and pointed out that he was yet to experience any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19.

Kyari said he had made personal arrangements to treat himself to avoid further burdening the public health system which faces so many pressures.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) - Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better.

Hantavirus vs Coronavirus: 5 quick facts you should know | Legit TV

Source: Legit.ng
Twenty-eight prisoners were released on Sunday from Aligarh Jail on interim bail for 8 weeks as a preventive measure against the spread of novel coronavirus.

Alok Singh, Jail Superintendent said, "28 undertrial prisoners have been released for 8 weeks on interim bail to decrease the number of people in jails at a given time."

The Uttar Pradesh Government had ordered on Saturday to release 11,000 prisoners across 71 jails in the state, serving a prison sentence of fewer than 7 years, on parole for 8 weeks as a preventive measure against the spread of coronavirus.

The Supreme Court had on March 23 asked all state governments to release undertrial prisoners, who are facing charges attracting less than seven years imprisonment, to reduce overcrowding of jails amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
This is the latest measure among several made as the city fights to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.

"Hanoi requests that the prime minister lets some administrative entities in both Hanoi and other localities be off work," Hanoi Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung said in an online meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on fighting the Covid-19 pandemic in the country on Sunday.

This measure, along with several others, hold out the possibility of stopping the spread of the virus in the next 7-10 days, he said. When there is no chance for infection in crowded places, the outbreak could be contained locally and would be easier to extinguish, he said.

The capital also requested the Health Ministry to facilitate purchase of medical equipment for the Covid-19 fight, including ventilators and test kits. The city currently has around 260 ventilators, but they are being used for many kinds of patients, including those afflicted with diseases other than Covid-19. Due to limited supply, the city could only purchase around 100 more, Chung said.

Hanoi has already suspended operation of non-essential businesses and services until April 15 per a directive by PM Phuc to stem the spread of Covid-19. Workers in the capital city, however, started to return to their hometowns elsewhere. Therefore Chung also requested Phuc to order people who work in restaurants, hotels and some other businesses in Hanoi to stay where they are to prevent the possibility of further spread of the virus and the disease it causes.

Hanoi, with 77 Covid-19 infections, is the locality with the highest number of cases among Vietnam's 194.

Of the 194, 55 have been discharged from hospitals so far, including the largest single-batch release of 27 from a Hanoi hospital Monday morning.

Many of the currently active cases are Vietnamese nationals returning from Europe and the U.S. and foreigners coming from the same regions.

The Covid-19 pandemic has killed more than 33,900 people as it spread to 199 countries and territories.
If you needed another reminder of the profound difference in messaging between state governors and the Trump White House, then look no further than the online news conference that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf held Wednesday.

Twenty-four hours after Trump brazenly disregarded the advice of actual scientists and public health experts with his announcement that hed like to scrap social distancing requirements and reopen the country by Easter, Wolf went the other way by announcing he was putting two more counties under a stay-at-home order as infections soared past 1,000 confirmed cases.

Nor was Wolf in any hurry Wednesday to follow Trumps lead. He deferred politely when he asked whether hed defy the White House if it sent Americans back to work, saying hes always had a nice working relationship with the federal government.

But Wolfs intent was made clear when he said he was concentrating on giving the state the time it needed to contain the pandemic.

So, thanks, but no thanks, Mr. President.

With cases increasing in New York, California, Pennsylvania and other states, Trump walked back his stance some later in the week, acknowledging that some places might not be ready. He also pledged to consult with experts.

But Trumps serial fabrications, soberly fact-checked on the fly by Americas new family physician, infectious disease specialist Dr. Anthony Fauci, have come to pose such a threat to public health that some media critics have cautioned networks against airing his remarks in real time.

That danger was reinforced by the death of an Arizona man after Trump wrongly touted the medical form of chloroquine as a possible treatment for the virus. The Arizona man reportedly took chloroquine phosphate, a chemical typically used to clean fish tanks.

In the absence of that leadership up top, and the White Houses insistence on subcontracting the heavy lifting of fighting the pandemic to the states by refusing to fully invoke the Defense Production Act, its been up to governors such as Wolf, New Yorks Andrew Cuomo and Washingtons Jay Inslee to step into the breach.

Some television pundits have taken to calling Cuomo, whose briefings are too Noo Yahwk for words, Americas Governor. Its a tad hyperbolic, but not far from wrong. For his part, Cuomo has said hes acting as he always does  just on a grander stage.

You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators? Cuomo recently grumbled about a federal government shipment to New York, the New York Times reported. What am I going to do with 400 ventilators when I need 30,000? he said later. You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die because you only sent 400 ventilators.

With his own plainspoken style, Cuomo has provided vivid illustration of the massive challenges that states face in trying to contain the pandemic. That Cuomo is a fellow New Yorker, and viewed as a rival for the nations attention, has clearly gotten under Trumps skin.

We are working very, very hard for the people of New York, Trump said after Cuomos blunt remarks about the ventilators. We are working a lot with him. Then I watch him on this show complaining.

Its not only a Democratic phenomenon. Republican governors, such as Charlie Baker in Massachusetts, Mike DeWine in Ohio and Larry Hogan in Maryland have also stepped up, according to Stateline.org, a project of the Pew Center on the States.

I do think that the governors moved out more efficiently than the federal government did, particularly the president and the administration, Bob Griffin, dean of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the State University of New York at Albany told Stateline. Particularly Illinois and New York, and [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom did a decent job in California. Look at what you see even from Alabama, Washington  the states have taken the lead.

So if Trump does carry through with his ill-considered decision to reopen the nation on Easter, expecting the resurrection of the countrys economic fortunes, dont be surprised to see Wolf, Cuomo and other governors trying to roll the rock back into place as they seek to protect their own residents.

John Micek is the opinion editor and political columnist for PennLive/The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa.

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Prince Charles has come out of self-isolation after seven days. The Prince of Wales tested positive for novel coronavirus last week and showed mild symptoms. His wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, had tested negative for COVID-19, but will remain in self-isolation till the end of this week. The reports were confirmed by Clarence House on Monday.

According to British government guidelines, anyone showing symptoms related to coronavirus should self-isolate for seven days and everyone living under the same roof with the patient should self-isolate for two weeks. Reports suggest that Prince Charles started to feel ill on March 21, a day before travelling to Scotland.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus in India Live updates: Prince Charles recovers from COVID-10 infection; comes out of isolation

ALSO READ: Coronavirus: Virat Kohli, Anushka Sharma donate to PM-CARES, Maharashtra CM Relief Fund

Prince Charles and his wife went into self-isolation at their Scottish retreat on the Balmoral estate. He was tested by the NHS on Monday last week. After his self-isolation ends, the Prince of Wales will now be able to attend meetings and go to exercise according to medical and government guidelines.

Meanwhile, Buckingham Palace has assured that Queen Elizabeth remains in good health and every precaution is being taken. The Queen and Prince Philip had moved out of Budkingham Palace to Windsor Castle after a Palace employee was tested positive for coronavirus.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus update: Hydroxychloroquine being given to COVID-19 patients in New York, says Trump

ALSO READ: Coronavirus crisis: Pakistan has over 12,000 suspected cases; positive infections rise to 1,495
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday asked people to read the 18 chapters of the Bhagavad Gita for the remaining days of the lockdown ending on April 14, saying that he is doing the same with his family.

"Read 18 chapters of Bhagavad Gita during the remaining 18 days of lockdown. We are doing that in our family," he said.

He further said, " We need focus like Arjun in our fight against coronavirus."

If the lockdown is not followed, the country will fail to contain the coronavirus outbreak, Kejriwal said, as he assured migrant workers that his government has made food and boarding arrangements for them.

Addressing a digital press conference in Delhi, the chief minister said the mantra to make the 21-day nationwide lockdown successful was to "stay where you are" just as Prime Minister Narendra Modi had requested.

"A large number of people are returning from cities they work in to their villages due to the coronavirus lockdown. I appeal to them, please stay wherever you are," he said.

"We have seen what has happened in some of the developed countries like the US and Italy. Thankfully, India is not in that stage yet. But going into a crowd will invite risks of infection," Kejriwal said.

The Delhi government has made arrangements in schools for lodging purposes, the chief minister said.

"We have emptied the stadiums and made arrangements for people to stay there too if the need arises. We are giving free food to 4 lakh people daily. Let's fight this together," he added.
Covid-19 tally: nine new cases, eight linked to Hanoi hospital

Security guides and doctors stand at the main gate of Hanoi's Bach Mai Hospital which has been locked down since Saturday, March 28, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy.

Nine people were confirmed Covid-19 positive Monday night, eight of them related to Hanoi's Bach Mai hospital, raising the national count to 203.

Of the eight linked to the hospital, one is a patient and seven are employees of the Truong Sinh Company, which provides food and logistic services to the hospital, one of the country's largest.

The seven employees of Truong Sinh, patients 195, 196, 198, 199, 200, 201 and 202, are all female, aged 41, 34, 53, 57, 61, 23 and 57 respectively.

"Patient 197," a 41-year-old man, resides in Thanh Oai District, Hanoi. He had come to the Bach Mai Hospital for a health check on March 12. Swab samples taken on March 29 showed he was Covid-19 positive.

All the eight patients are being treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases and are in stable condition.

"Patient 203," is a 35-year-old Vietnamese woman landed March 17 at Saigons Tan Son Nhat Airport on Turkish Airlines flight TK162 on seat 21A, flying in from Greece and transiting in Turkey.

She was asymptomatic and sent to a quarantine facility in Nha Be District in HCMC upon arrival. Her swab samples were confirmed Covid-19 positive on March 27 after tests done at the city's Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

With the latest additions, 33 of Vietnams total of 203 confirmed coronavirus infections are associated with the Bach Mai Hospital in Hanois Dong Da District. The hospital, a Covid-19 hotspot now, was locked down Saturday.

On Saturday night, the Vietnamese Army's chemical division disinfected the hospital. Earlier the same day, the hospital suspended admitting new patients.

Nguyen Quang Tuan, director of the isolated hospital, said Monday there was not enough food and necessities reaching around 3,500 people trapped inside.

With Monday mornings discharges, the total number of Covid-19 patients released from hospitals has gone up to 55.

Many of the currently active cases are Vietnamese nationals returning from Europe and the U.S., foreigners coming from the same regions and those whod come into contact with both groups of people.

The government decided Sunday to suspend all international passenger flights to Vietnam and limit flights between Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other localities in the coming two weeks.

Starting March 22, Vietnam has suspended entry for all foreign nationals, including those of Vietnamese origin and family members with visa waivers and halted all international flights from March 25.

The Covid-19 pandemic has killed more than 34,000 people in 199 countries and territories.
In the wake of increasing cases of coronavirus in the city, Panjab University has offered its services to the administration for testing Covid-19 samples.

PU registrar Karamjeet Singh, in a letter to director health services wrote, The teachers fraternity of PU can help the administration in many different areas, including testing of Covid-19 samples,

PU said the departments of microbiology and biotechnology have requisite facilities to test samples using RT-PCR instrument and the BSL-2 (biological safety level-2) laboratory with negative pressure (requirement for testing such samples).

The varsity has offered help from trained research scholars, if the administration provides them standard kits and personal protection equipment (PPE).

We have the infrastructure at our department to help the Chandigarh administration in testing Covid-19 samples, said a professor of the microbiology department.

PU vice-chancellor Raj Kumar said, During this pandemic, we feel it is our duty to assist the Chandigarh administration. Since we have the infrastructure and scientists available, we must utilise them in the public interest.

PUs BioNEST gets funds for research

Panjab Universitys BioNEST has received 6 lakh from Techinvention Lifecare Private Limited, a Mumbai-based private Biotechnology firm, for research on Covid-19.

Rohit Sharma, the project leader of BioNEST-PU said, Such collaborations help in utilising the bio-incubator as a place for dedicated research to provide services in the national interest.
THE Irish wake, a cultural tradition that has survived thousands of years, has had to be foresaken due to the spread of the coronavirus.

Restrictions on gatherings and advice from the government have meant that the traditional Irish goodbye of large crowds and community support has been put on hold.

This has left families in the position where they can not say goodbye in a way they may have once imagined. This is a situation that is likely to worsen over the coming weeks and months, with Italy banning funerals full stop due to the virus, robbing families of the chance to say a final goodbye.

John-Mark Griffin, of Griffin's Funerals in John's Gate, has seen the effect the coronavirus has had on funerals firsthand.

The Covid-19 virus has seriously impacted on the way the traditional funeral is carried out. It has also been a very difficult time for our own family as we've had our own family bereavement this week, so we have felt like we've been at both sides of the situation, as the funeral director and as a mourning family member, said Mr Griffin.

As a funeral director, we have seen first hand that it has been very difficult for everyone. Families in Limerick have, traditionally, had a massive and important culture of a certain style of funeral and that's being seriously curtailed by the restrictions, obviously, which are all very understandable.

A funeral is always a time of loss, but these restrictions are adding to the stress a family may feel.

So although the restrictions are very understandable, it can be difficult for families who often lean on the community for support and during the mourning time. This can make it more difficult than normal. We would have found the same thing as a bereaved family. Because we have had to hold a different type of private service. But we made the best of the situation, it was very personal and lovely in its own way.

We found that the ways we suggested to the general public of how to sympathize with the family, through email, phone-in condolences and on-line with rip.ie that, although they weren't the same thing, that they were still quite comforting.

The Irish Association of Funeral Directors, last Friday, released a statement advising that funerals be held behind closed doors and that no public advertisement of the funeral be released.

Guidance form Health Service Executive (HSE) advises that funerals can be held privately behind closed doors with family and close friends can be present. There should be no public advertisement of funeral arrangements  in print or online  but death notices can be placed without arrangements. Families can advise friends and relations privately of funeral arrangements, they said in a statement.

There should be no provision for condolence book and pen at the funeral and public reposing must be discouraged as should funeral home gatherings. Family gatherings should be by invite only and attendance restricted to below 100. Social distancing must be maintained with no handshaking or hugging. Mourners can express their condolence online at www.rip.ie and send condolence or Mass cards by post, they added.

Mr Griffin says although he agrees with the measures, it doesn't make it easier on the families.

We've been strongly advised by the Irish Association of Funeral Directors and the HSE in relation to gatherings and crowds. These are ongoing and changing guidelines, and as we saw with our Taoiseach's excellent delivery just this (Tuesday) evening, things will get worse before they recover.

I think everyone is in agreement that the restrictions are genuinely needed, but it doesn't make it any easier for be bereaved families at their already sad time. The concept of the large memorial service that has been put on hold and I probably would feel that, based on our own bereavement, that the Memorial service at a future date is something that we will look forward to as a family. Where family and friends can gather and remember their loved one.
(Newser)  Residents of three more states go under "stay-at-home" ordersnot suggestionsMonday. The governors of Virginia and Maryland announced that residents must remain home except for activities such as food shopping, work deemed essential, exercise (while abiding by the standard social-distancing rules), and medical care, report the Richmond Dispatch and the Baltimore Sun. Virginia's restrictions take effect immediately, while Maryland's start Monday night. North Carolina's previously announced stay-at-home order also takes effect Monday night, reports WBTV.

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"We are no longer asking or suggesting that Marylanders stay home," said that state's governor, Larry Hogan. "We are directing them to do so." Maryland did not set an end date, but the restrictions (which include a ban on traveling outside the state) could last for months, says deputy health secretary Fran Phillips. Virginia set an end date of June 10, and North Carolina's rules are in effect for at least 30 days. (Read more coronavirus stories.)
EDWARDSVILLE  Madison County is accepting donations of personal protective equipment (PPE) to help in the coronarivus response.

Businesses, medical and nursing schools and residents can donate unused PPE Tuesday, March 31 through Friday, April 2 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Madison County Wood River Warehouse at 101 E. Edwardsville Road, Wood River.
Australians are continuing to ignore social distancing rules and crowd Sydney beaches despite being urged to stay indoors.

Swimmers, sunbakers and joggers flooded Mackenzies Bay near Bondi Beach in Sydney's eastern suburbs on Sunday.

Hundreds of people ignored the 1.5metre social distancing guidelines, which are designed to keep Australians safe from the highly contagious disease.

Australians are continuing to ignore social distancing rules and crowd Sydney beaches despite specific calls from the Prime Minister not to

Swimmers, sunbakers and joggers flooded Mackenzies Bay in Sydney's east on Sunday

One family had to pick up their belongings after facing off with council rangers at Mackenzies Bay

Hundreds of people ignored the 1.5metre social distancing guidelines, which are designed to keep Australians safe from the highly contagious disease

People soaking up the sun after climbing over fences blocking off the area were told to leave immediately by frustrated council rangers.

They were photographed grabbing their belongings and fleeing the scene.

Police confirmed no fines were issued.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday morning advised council rangers to be flexible with fining rule breakers as many were struggling with the economic impact of COVID-19.

The strong presence in the bay came just a week after thousands of people took to Bondi Beach despite strict advice to practice social distancing.

One woman had to climb the fence after being told by council rangers to leave the bay

Frustrated council Rangers pictured ordering swimmers, surfers and sun bakers out of McKenzies Bay which is a hive of activity despite beach closures and fences to prevent entry

Surfers also had to climb the fence to leave Mackenzies Bay on Sunday after rangers forced them to leave

Surfers had to cut their time in the ocean short after frustrated rangers patrolled the area and told them to leave

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

Sydney's east has since become a coronavirus hotspot after several backpackers based in Bondi tested positive to the virus over the past week.

People in Rushcutters Bay and Cronulla in the Sutherland Shire, with scores of people getting together at the park, going on walks and playing group sports.

Such activities were either banned or limited to a maximum of ten people this week under new measures to help curb the spread of infection.

It promoted the NSW government on Saturday night to close a number of popular beaches 'until further notice' - including Bondi, Bronte and Palm Beach in the city's north.

Surf Life Saving, in response to the social distancing order, has also closed Maroubra, Clovelly and Gordons Bay.

A council ranger is seen telling body boarders to leave Mackenzies Bay on Sunday

Mackenzies Bay was flooded with swimmers and sunbakers looking to enjoy the sun

A council ranger can be seen telling people to abide by the 1.5metre social distancing rules

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Sunday night confirmed the state would enforce the new rules around social distancing.

'Following national cabinet, NSW will move quickly to enforce additional restrictions on gatherings to slow COVID-19,' she said.

In New South Wales breaching the social distancing guidelines falls under the Public Health Act.

A breach of the Public Health Act carries a maximum fine of $11,000, six months in jail or a $1,000 on-the-spot fine.

Eight people in New South Wales have died from COVID-19 - half the number of deaths from the virus Australia-wide.

There were 1,918 cases across the state a of midday on Monday.

Those enjoying the sun quickly grabbed their belongings and fled the beach and luckily were not issued with any fines

The strong presence in the bay came just a week after thousands of people took to Bondi Beach despite strict advice to practice social distancing
Retired emergency medicine consultant, Chris Luke, who is back on the frontline to battle Covid-19, says the surge in admissions because of the virus is just days away.

Dr Luke is currently based in the Mercy University Hospital Cork where preparations have been ongoing for several weeks.

I do expect to see significant numbers beginning to come in now in the next two to four days, he said during an interview on Newstalk radio.

Dr Luke described preparations being made for the surge over several weeks as very intense, particularly around the area of safe resuscitation of patients suspected of having Covid-19.

There are subtle but tricky differences between cardiopulmonary or cardiac support and Covid-19 resuscitation.

As well as being strict about the number of health staff in the room there is a lot of pre-planning involved.

Dr Luke said there are no longer curtains around beds in wards and there are also triage tents outside the hospital.

There are ventilators now outside many rooms within the emergency department as well as up the house in the respiratory wards and the intensive care unit, he said.

Dr Luke said that while they currently have sufficient personal protective equipment they are still worried about whether it will last.

He is very glad that more PPE has arrived from China and looks forward to receiving regular supplies.

Asked if he thought the health service will be irrevocably changed post-coronavirus, Dr Luke said there has already been a sharp decrease in alcohol and work-related presentations in the last week or two.

Because people are not going out to work, there has been a collapse in farm and work-related injuries as well as many other emergencies.

However, he is also concerned that many people are not going to hospital because they are too afraid.

Those people could be suffering from conditions like chest pain heart, stroke or other lung problems, he warned.

Dr Luke expects that, at some stage, people with other conditions will start to come back and there will be a double surge in the number of all such cases presenting.

Things will change because of Covid-19 and he thinks it will probably be for the better.

There is no doubt that teleconsultation will become a normal thing for GPs, he said.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation's Trolley Watch on Monday showed that just eight admitted patients were in EDs in acute hospitals throughout the country waiting for a bed.

The INMOs trolley count was the same as the HSEs TrollyGAR  a 98% decrease in trolley waiters compared to last year.

The HSEs trolley count points out that there were 387 admitted patients awaiting beds on the same day last year with 231 waiting over nine hours.
You are here: China

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Sunday inspected the resumption of work and production in east China's Zhejiang Province.



Xi visited the Chuanshan port area of the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, one of the world's top container ports, which handled about 1.12 billion tonnes of cargo in 2019.

Xi also went to an industrial park in Ningbo, which produces high-end auto parts and molds.

Zhejiang is one of China's major foreign trade provinces. Businesses are fast resuming operations.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti  From Mexico City to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and Santiago, Chile, the coronavirus is taking root in the worlds most unequal region, where many of Latin Americas first cases arrived with members of the elite returning from vacations or work trips to Europe and the United States.

Many of the wealthy are already recovering, but experts warn that the virus could kill scores of the poorest people, who must work every day to feed their families, live in unsanitary conditions and lack proper medical care. Some countries are making payments to informal workers  maids, street sellers and others who have been told to stay home to reduce the spread of the virus, but the effort is patchwork and doesnt apply to everyone who needs help.

I stay home, I will lose all my goods. I have no way to save them, said Marie-Ange Bouzi, who sells tomatoes and onions on the street of Haitis capital. I am not going to spend money fighting corona. God is going to protect me.

Haiti, the Western Hemispheres poorest country, reported its first two cases of the virus on March 20. One was imported by one of its most successful artists, an R&B singer who had just returned from France, according to the director of health in Port-au-Prince.

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Singer Roody Roodboy, whos real name is Roody Petuel Dauphin, quarantined himself when he got back to avoid infecting others and sent his entourage to be tested, manager Narcisse Fievre said. He said the singer had received death threats from people who accuse him of bringing the disease to Haiti, although there is no evidence Dauphin had infected anyone else.

For hundreds of thousands of Haitians who earn a few dollars a day selling goods on the street, quarantine like Dauphins would mean near-starvation.

People are not going stay home. How are they going to eat? Bouzi said. Haiti isnt structured for that.

The Haitian government has cut banking and government office hours, closed schools and broadcast radio messages asking people to stay home. But thousands in Port-au-Prince still crowded this week into street markets, buses and repurposed pickup trucks known as tap-taps.

Story continues

In Chile, which has seen cases grow to more than 2500 since March 3, many coronavirus diagnoses have been in upper-middle-class neighborhoods, in people just back from Europe, particularly Italy.

Health Minister Jaime Manalich has complained that wealthy residents of the Las Condes and Vitacura sections of Santiago, the capital, are routinely violating required quarantines after they tested positive or encountered someone who did.

Las Condes Mayor Joaquin Lavin says more than half the cases in the city are in Las Condes and Vitacura.

The health minister says he has personally called wealthy residents supposedly in quarantine and discovers they are defying the order.

You hear honking and street noises, which tells me theyre fooling us and disrespecting the quarantine, Manalich said.

Mexican authorities say at least 17 of the countrys wealthiest people returned after being infected during a ski trip to Vail, Colorado.

Image: Make-up artist Nadia Mu?oz applies lipstick while listening to the television news about the first person in Peru who died of coronavirus (Martin Mejia / AP)

The first person to die in Rio state was Cleonice Goncalves, a 63-year-old who worked as a maid for a woman in Leblon, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Brazil. The woman of the household was infected during a trip to Italy but Goncalves family members said she wasnt informed her boss was in isolation awaiting test results, according to Camila Ramos de Miranda, health secretary for the town of Miguel Pereira. Goncalves, who had hypertension and diabetes, fell ill and died on March 17 in Miguel Pereira two hours north of the capital.

I know we need to work, need our daily bread, but nothing is more important than the value of a life, Miguel Pereira Mayor Andre Portugues said in a video posted on Facebook.

In Lima, Peru, the fallout from the pandemic is starkly different depending on class.

Nadia Munoz watched her 8-year-old son, Luka, follow online lessons from his private Catholic school on a recent afternoon. The makeup artist and her family live in an upper-middle-class neighborhood, where Limas 15-day quarantine hasnt been too disruptive.

We have a supermarket nearby, light, water, internet, a phone and cable TV, Munoz said as she recorded a makeup lesson to post on Instagram.

In a shack on a nearby hill, Alejandro de la Cruz, 86, his wife Maria Zoila, and his son Ramiro, who sold clothes on the street until the quarantine started this month, were cooking with charcoal. They have no running water, electricity, internet or phone service.

They live among security guards, cooks, drivers, tailors, shoemakers, car mechanics and construction workers who are unemployed during the lockdown.

While there are more poor people in other regions of the world, Latin America remains the region in which the greatest proportion of wealth is held by a small number of citizens.

Latin America is the most unequal region in the entire world. Were talking about class disparities that are unlike anywhere else on the planet, said Geoff Ramsey, a researcher at the Washington Office on Latin America.

Some Latin American governments were striving to help workers whose informal jobs provide them no access to the social safety net, including unemployment payments or severance packages.

Peru has announced a payment of $108 for the 2.7 million homes classified as poverty stricken. But the hillside shanty where de la Cruz and his unemployed neighbors are waiting out the quarantine arent poor enough to qualify.

My son hasnt worked for a week, theres barely enough to buy a bit of food, Zoila said.

In Argentina, the center-left government approved a $151 payment in April for informal workers, who make up 35% of the nations economy. Argentina plans to make more payments soon.

Brazils right-wing government has no such plans. On Twitter last week, left-leaning politicians called for maids to receive their salaries while self-isolating, adding the hashtag #PaidQuarantineNow.

The lack of help worries Patricia Martins, who lives in Brazils largest favela, or slum, Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro, which houses about 70,000 people in brick homes packed tightly together on steep slopes overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Clean water is sporadic, sewage often runs in the streets and winding alleys and soaring staircases make it difficult for medical professionals to retrieve a sick person in an emergency.

My concern is that if someone gets that sickness, this is going to be a focal point, like its a focal point for tuberculosis and for HIV, said Martins, a 45-year-old cleaning woman.

The person whos a cleaner, the person who counts on that money to survive, to sustain their family  theyre going to bring in money from where? she said of anti-virus measures. If everything stops, it will end peoples lives! There will be nothing people can do to survive!

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Arunachal Pradesh is fully



prepared to deal with the coronavirus outbreak, Health and Family Welfare Minister Alo Libang said on Monday.

Libang, who inspected a state-run hospital with a team of officials, told PTI that medical equipment including personal protective equipment (PPE), sanitisers, masks, gloves and infrared thermometers will be airlifted to various parts of the state.

He inspected the 500-bed Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Science (TRIHMS), which has been designated as an exclusive facility to treat COVID-19 patients, along with Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar and other officials.

TRIHMS director Dr Moji Jini told Libang that 50 patients of the hospital are being shifted to the Ramakrishna Mission Hospital and two nearby hotels have been converted into isolation wards.

State epidemiologist-cum-surveillance officer Dr L Jampa said that samples of 23 persons suspected to be infected with COVID-19 have been sent for tests and 19 have returned negative while the remaining reports are awaited.

The chief secretary said that 100 tonne of potatoes have been ordered so that there is no scarcity of the item during the lockdown.

Capital Complex Superintendent of Police Tumme Amo said that many people are coming out on the streets despite imposition of the lockdown and urged them not to do so.

"Policemen are risking their lives to ensure the safety of people. They should understand this and remain indoors instead of moving around in cars and on motorbikes," he said.

Meanwhile, residents of remote Monigong and Pidi circles in Shi-Yomi district bordering China are facing scarcity of food items due to the lockdown, officials said.

People in the two circles have foodgrains that can last only a couple of days and air sorties have been requested, Assistant Sub-inspector of Food and Civil Supplies Department, Jawlai Singpho said.

He said foodgrains were delivered in one air sortie but subsequent sorties had to be halted due to inclement weather.

Air sorties will resume once the weather becomes favourable, Singhpo said.

Around 7,000 people live in the two administrative circles.

Assembly Speaker Pasang Dorjee Sona expressed deep concern over the shortage of foodgrains while taking stock of the situation in the district.

He is the MLA of Mechuka Assembly constituency in the district.

Sona said it has become difficult to contact officials concerned due to errant mobile and internet connectivity in the district.

The speaker had earlier directed the district administration to take all measures to stop the spread of novel coronavirus.

On the other hand, Lohit district administration distributed foodgrains to daily wage earners and migrant labourers hit by the lockdown.

Food packets containing 10 kg of rice, two kg of pulses, one litre of mustard oil and one kg of mineral salt were distributed to 131 families that are not covered under the National Food Security Act, Lohit district Deputy Commissioner Prince Dhawan said.

The administration is identifying more such families and they would be provided relief, Dhawan added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
McDonald's, Audi, and Volkswagen are the among the brands to have created 'social distancing' versions of their iconic logos.

The term has become popularised because of the rampant spread of coronavirus around the world.

People are being advised by national governments to stand around 6 feet apart from each other to minimise the risk of catching the potentially deadly virus.

McDonald's, Audi, and Volkswagen are the among the brands to have created 'social distancing' versions of their iconic logos. Pictured: McDonald's in Brazil released a picture of the brand's famous golden arches separated

The normal logo of the fast food chain is well-known across the world

Last week, McDonald's in Brazil pulled apart their iconic golden arches logo in a picture which was posted on their Facebook page.

The tweaked logo led to criticism from Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.

He responded by saying: '@McDonalds give your workers paid sick leave'.

Car brand Audi released a video showing its logo with the four rings separated as they called on customers to keep their distance

It's usual logo shows the four rings interlinked, along with the strapline, 'Stay Together'

Car brand Audi released a video showing its logo with the four rings separated as they called on customers to keep their distance.

Similarly, Volkswagen, whose parent company owns Audi, promoted a similar video where they separated the V and W in their logo.

And Coca-Cola is currently running an advert in the now-deserted Times Square in New York showing space between each of the letters of its logo.

Similarly, Volkswagen, whose parent company owns Audi, promoted a similar video where they separated the V and W in their logo

Volkswagen's ordinary logo depicts the V inside a larger W. Both letters sit inside a blue and white circle

It is accompanied by the slogan, 'Staying apart is the best way to stay connected.'

And while sportswear brand Nike has not tweaked its logo it launched a social media campaign with a strapline which read, 'If you ever dreamed of playing for millions around the world, now is your chance. Play inside, play for the world.'

McDonald's has been forced to close all its stores in the UK and the US in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

And Coca-Cola is currently running an advert in the now-deserted Times Square in New York showing space between each of the letters of its logo

In the US, it is hoped that social distancing measures are starting to pay off.

The number of coronavirus deaths on Sunday dropped by 181 on the previous day, a decrease of more than a third, as the overall number of fatalities reached 2,509.

Another 304 people died yesterday, a vast improvement on Saturday's 485 deaths and also less than Friday's tally of 398 fatalities.

This brief reprieve, however, should be viewed with caution and Donald Trump yesterday conceded that the country would have 'done a good job' if it could keep its death toll 'down to 100,000.'

The slowing of the disease yesterday extended to the infection rate which also flattened with 18,852 new cases, taking the US total to more than 142,000 cases, while on Saturday there had been 19,771 new positive diagnoses.

Italian sportswear brand Kappa's re-created logo shows the iconic man and woman sitting further apart

Kappa's logo usually shows the pair man and woman sitting with their backs touching

America is the global epicentre for the deadly contagion which has infected more than 700,000 worldwide and Trump told reporters at the White House that he was bracing for the peak of the crisis in next couple of weeks.

'The modelling estimates that the peak is likely to hit in two weeks,' the president said.

'So, I'll say it again: The peak  the highest point of death rates, remember this  is likely to hit in two week.'

'Nothing would be worse than declaring before the victory is won. That would be the greatest loss of all.'
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 21:18:55|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks with villagers and learns about the huge changes brought about by advancing green development, in Yucun Village of Tianhuangping Township in Anji County, east China's Zhejiang Province, March 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)

HANGZHOU, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Monday inspected the county of Anji in east China's Zhejiang Province.

While visiting Yucun Village, Xi talked with villagers and learned about the huge changes brought about by advancing green development.

In 2005, it was in this mountainous village Xi, then Party chief of Zhejiang, put forward the concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets."

The village has adhered to that concept for the past 15 years. Today, the village has 280 households and its residents earned a per capita income of 49,598 yuan (7,040 U.S. dollars) in 2019.

Leaving the village, Xi went to Anji's mediation center to learn about how primary-level social disputes are resolved.

Xi started his inspection tour in Zhejiang Sunday.
'There is no UPA now': Mamata Banerjee takes swipe at Cong, calls for unity of regional parties against BJP

Be prepared for the coronavirus impact on economy says Pawar

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Mumbai, Mar 30: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Monday said everyone needs to be ready for the impact of coronavirus on the country's economy as business activities are suspended.

Taking to Facebook for a live interaction with people of the state, the former Union minister asked people to stop unnecessary expenditures and stay at home to contain the spread of the deadly viral infection.

"We should be ready to brace the impact of looming economic crisis over the country as all types of business activities are suspended. People need to do away with their unnecessary spending habit for the next coming weeks as the country's economic situation looks grim, he said.

#Stayathome and send us your selfie

NEWS AT NOON, MARCH 30th, 2020

"I also appeal to people to stay at home and prevent the spread of coronavirus infection. Otherwise, police will have to use force to keep them indoors," he said.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister



Bhupesh Baghel has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allocate a special relief package for labourers under MGNREGS, in organized and unorganized sectors and Jan Dhan account holders to help them tide over the financial crunch due to the lockdown in force for the coronavirus outbreak.

In a letter to the PM on Sunday, Baghel hailed the relief package announced by the Centre on March 26.

However, a major part of the population, like landless labourers engaged in Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and workers from unorganized sectors all over the country are severely affected.

Baghel requested the PM to approve a special package for such people, and suggested in the letter that Rs 1000 be transferred per month in the accounts of MGNREGS labourers and workers from unorganized sector for the next three months.

Similarly, an amount of Rs 750 should be transferred into Jan Dhan Yojna accounts per month for the next three months, his letter said.

He also advised that the Centre bear the amount of provident fund contributions of the workers in the organized sector for next three months, said an official.

The lockdown, in force in the country since Wednesday, and the resultant shut down of public transport has left several lakh migrant workers in the lurch, many of them making the journey from major cities to their native villages by foot.

Chhattisgarh currently has seven COVID-19 patients.

Fortunately, as of now, no deaths have been reported from the infection in the state, the CM said in the letter.

Doctors and medical personnel from AIIMS Raipur and Health department are working tirelessly and monitoring the situation, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Army personnel concealing symptoms for COVID-19 and failing to disclose contact with infected persons and travel details to areas having cases of the infection will face punitive action under the Army Act.

The Army headquarters sent an advisory to all the Army bases, formations and wings prescribing specific measures to insulate the 1.3 million force from the coronavirus and warning about punitive action if the norms are breached.

The advisory said it has been made "obligatory" for all ranks to immediately disclose any symptoms of COVID-19 like cough, throat pain, fever, breathing difficulty to concerned authorities.

All Army personnel will also be required to immediately inform the designated medical teams if they come in contact with any coronavirus infected person while on leave or during travel, officials said.

The advisory also made it mandatory to disclose visit to any area identified by the the government as having coronavirus infection.

It mentioned that any Army personnel flouting the directives will be tried under the Army Act, 1950, on charges of violation of service discipline.

The Army headquarters also issued instructions saying transit facilities comprising provisions for testing of personnel suspected to be suffering from COVID-19 should be identified by command headquarters, officials said.

On Sunday, a doctor and a junior commissioned officer in the Indian Army tested positive for coronavirus. The Colonel-rank doctor is serving at the Command Hospital in Kolkata while the JCO is posted to an Army base in Dehradun.

A couple of weeks back, an Army jawan tested positive for COVID-19. The soldier was on leave at his home in Leh.

India has recorded a total of 1,071 positive cases of coronavirus and at least 29 deaths so far. Globally, the virus has infected more than 700,000 people and claimed more than 32,000 lives.

On Friday, Army Chief Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane launched an initiative christened 'Operation Namaste' to insulate the 1.3 million strong Army from the pandemic and extend all possible assitance to the government in containing it.

Gen Naravane asked all Army personnel to take prescribed precautions against the virus.

"I would request everyone to take care of themselves and their families. Your safety is my first responsibility," the Army Chief said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Linkedin Adrian Wail Akhlas (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 30, 2020 18:02 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e6bf8f 1 Business state-budget,2020-state-budget,COVID-19,coronavirus,macro-economic-assumptions,economic-growth,rupiah Free

The House of Representatives stands ready to support the government to make the necessary changes to the 2020 state budget, including raising the budget deficit cap, as the number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia continues to rise.

House Speaker Puan Maharani said COVID-19 had had a severe impact on the global economy, adding that the crisis would lead to significant changes in macroeconomic assumptions set in the 2020 state budget.

The House is ready to support mitigation measures needed by the government through the state budget and [we will support] a government regulation in lieu of law [Perppu] to improve fiscal resiliency, said Puan during the Houses plenary meeting in Jakarta on Monday.

Macroeconomic assumptions in the state budget would be changed, including the economic growth target, which will be changed from 5.3 percent to between 4 and 5.1 percent, she said. The rupiah is expected to hover around Rp 16,000 per US dollar this year from its initial projection of Rp 14,400 per US dollar, Puan added.

Read also: Expand deficit to 5%, cut taxes on rich in exchange for required COVID-19 donations: House

We need fiscal intervention to strengthen spending in the state budget and government programs to anticipate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on people's lives and the national economy, Puan added.

The House Speaker urged the government, together with Bank Indonesia (BI) and the Financial Services Authority (OJK), to step up coordination efforts to integrate policies to support the national economy.

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has revealed that government officials and legislators are in talks to raise Indonesias budget deficit cap from the current 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), which would allow the state to borrow more money to fund its emergency response measures to the coronavirus pandemic.

The chairman of the House budget committee (Banggar), Said Abdullah, said on March 23 that the government should raise the ceiling from the current 3 percent to 5 percent.

Read also: Indonesias budget to fight COVID-19: What we know so far

According to multinational investment bank Morgan Stanleys analysis, Indonesias budget deficit may reach between 2.7 and 3.5 percent this year, which would be the highest level in history.

Meanwhile, Bahana Sekuritas economist Satria Sambijantoro said the budget deficit would eventually hover at around 3.5 to 4 percent of GDP.

Indonesias deficit cap of 3 percent of GDP, introduced in the aftermath of the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, has brought fiscal prudence and lowered the countrys credit risks, Satria said in a research note.

Thus, we expect the waiver to be only temporary, with the deficit cap back in place after risks from the COVID-19 outbreak subside.

The governments baseline scenario had been for Indonesias GDP to grow more than 4 percent this year, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said recently. Under the assumptions the pandemic will last for six months, that global trade will slump by 30 percent and the country goes into lockdown, economic growth could fall to between zero and 2.5 percent, she added.

Under a baseline scenario, Morgan Stanley expects Indonesias economy to grow 3.7 percent this year. However, under a bear case scenario, Indonesias economic growth is tipped to drop to just 2.8 percent this year.
Three Indians were among the 35 new coronavirus cases reported in Singapore on Monday, taking the total number of infections in the country to 879, according to the health ministry.

Two of the Indians -- aged 31 and 22 -- are on long-term passes and were exposed to local sources of infection. They are residents of S11 Dormitory for foreign workers.

The third Indian is a 43-year old man holding a Singapore work pass.

The 35 new cases brings the total number of COVID-19 patients in Singapore to 879.

Of the new cases, nine are imported and had travel history to Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, said the ministry in a press release.

Of the 420 patients in hospitals, most are in stable condition, the health ministry said. Nineteen cases are critical in intensive care units.

A total of 228 patients who are clinically well but tested positive for COVID-19 have been isolated at Concord International Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Gleneagles Hospital and the community isolation facility at D'Resort NTUC.

Another 16 patients have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In total, 228 people in Singapore have now fully recovered from COVID-19.

More than 34,000 people have died of coronavirus and 727,080 have been infected globally.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dana Balter leads Francis Conole by a wide margin among Democratic voters in the 24th Congressional District, according to a poll released by her campaign.

The poll conducted by GBAO, a Washington-based firm, found Balter, D-Syracuse, leading Conole, D-Syracuse by 43 points, 64 to 21%. The survey of 400 likely Democratic voters was conducted March 23-25 and has a margin of error of 4.9%.

According to a polling memo provided by Balter's campaign, she is winning with more than 60% of the vote among men and women Democratic voters. She also has large leads in Onondaga County and in the district's three other counties  Cayuga, Oswego and Wayne.

Balter, who ran for Congress in 2018 and lost by five percentage points to Republican U.S. Rep. John Katko, has more name recognition than Conole. The poll found that 76% of likely primary voters know Balter. A little more than one-quarter of Democrats surveyed  28%  can identify Conole.

After more information was provided about both candidates, Balter continues to lead by 26 points, 60 to 34%.

"What this tells me is that people not only know who I am but know that I am somebody who will fight for them and that they can trust me to work hard on their behalf," Balter said in an interview Monday.

The release of the poll comes less than three months before the primary election in the 24th district. The primary on June 23 will decide who will be the Democratic nominee against Katko, a three-term Republican who is running for reelection.

Balter has the support of several local and national organizations, including Indivisible groups, EMILY's List and Democracy for America. She was endorsed by the Oswego County Democratic Committee in February.

Two weeks ago, the National Organization for Women's political action committee endorsed Balter for Congress.

Conole has secured the backing of local and national groups, too. He has been endorsed by the Democratic committees in Cayuga and Onondaga counties. Last week, VoteVets  a group representing veterans advocating for progressive policies  announced its support of Conole's campaign.

Will Van Nuys, Conole's campaign manager, highlighted those endorsements in a statement responding to the poll.

"Dana Balter's name recognition is high because voters in NY-24 remember her as the only Democrat in 2018 to lose by more than 5 points in a district Hillary Clinton won," Van Nuys said.

He continued, "We know once people learn more about Francis' background growing up in central New York, and service to our country as an Iraq War veteran, the voters of NY-24 will join the Cayuga and Onondaga Democratic parties, as well as 23 additional local, state and national endorsements, in support Francis Conole as the Democratic nominee to beat John Katko in November."

Balter has experience running in a Democratic primary. In 2018, she was designated by local Democratic committees to run against Katko. But Juanita Perez Williams entered the race late and forced a primary.

While Perez Williams had some support in her bid for the nomination, Balter won the primary election by 25 percentage points.

With the release of the internal poll, Balter believes it shows that she has support from a larger group of Democratic voters.

"It's important that we remember that elections are about the people," she said. "What we have been seeing all across the country over the last three years since (President Donald Trump's) election is a reclaiming of our politics by the people on the ground. I have said it probably 10,000 times that, to me, this is about bringing politics and government back to the hands of the people where they belong."

Politics reporter Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding.

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Just a day after a 21-day all-India lockdown was announced on March 24 to control the Covid-19 outbreak, Subhash Kumar (name changed to protect identity) collapsed and died at home after complaining of chest pain to his wife.

His children, a son and daughter, were in Maharashtra and could not attend Kumars last rites due to the curfew and lockdown.

Even though a few neighbours and relatives helped, Kumars wife said she had never felt so alone in her life.

In just a few months the Covid-19 outbreak has changed life as we knew it, including how people grieve for their loved ones.

FINAL GLIMPSE

The Sector 25 cremation ground, usually crowded with mourners, is now virtually empty. People say they have come for a final glimpse of their friends and loved ones as they have not visited their homes because of social distancing.

Gaurav Sharma, present at the last rites of a relative, says, He had a heart attack. We rushed him to the hospital but the police stopped the car for a few minutes for verification. Perhaps if those crucial moments were not lost, maybe he would have been alive today.

Collection of ashes for immersion in rivers, a very important part of Hindu rituals, is difficult With the entire country under lockdown many people are unable to go to to Haridwar or Rishikesh for phool prawah or immersion of ashes in the Ganges, says Ashwani Kumar, a 45-year-old priest at the cremation ground.

Many Sikh families too are unable to go to Kiratpur Sahib for the final rituals of loved ones.

Advisories have been issued for the cremation ground too.

We dont allow more than 20 people here. Mourners have to sanitise themselves and cover their faces with masks, says 59-year-old Vijay Kumar, also a priest.

More people are opting for the eco friendly CNG crematorium. Before the lockdown just one or two bodies were received in a day, but now thats increased to four or five bodies, he adds.

Mahendra Kumar, 60, a pastor, says he has never seen such times in 31 years of service.

Keeping in mind the gravity of the situation we have kept three to four coffins in the Sector 18 Church. Burials will still take place even if the situation becomes worse and multiple deaths happen. Perhaps we may bury multiple bodies in one grave.

Referring to how bodies of coronavirus patients are not handed over to loved ones as a precautionary measure, Mujahid Ul Islam, 33, says, Men who stay indoors will be blessed too. Our faith permits us to grieve without last rites in such unprecedented circumstances.
An online campaign is funding flights home to Ireland for healthcare professionals living abroad who wish to return and assist with the frontline battle against Covid-19.

A group of Irish and Irish-American donors from the tech and business world have made available a six-figure sum to fund flights for doctors and nurses overseas and are also working to link healthcare staff with accommodation on their return.

The campaign, Answer Irelands Call, has already helped to bring dozens of medical professionals home from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, South America, and Malawi, according to businessman Neil Sands, who is among a handful of private sector donors involved.

Mr Sands said the campaign grew out of an offer last week to pay for flights for two doctors wishing to come back to Ireland and now has international support.

Calling all medical professionals abroad who want to return to the #IrelandVsCovid fight: WE WILL FLY YOU and WE WILL HOUSE YOU but we will never be able to THANK YOU enough. Please share RT this form and help us #AnswerIrelandsCall. Thank you, all.  https://t.co/7slphyjVWP pic.twitter.com/6HW90SwYbM  Neil O. Sands (@neilosands) March 27, 2020

We have helped to bring dozens home and there are still many people out there looking for assistance to get home, from places like Australia, New Zealand, the UK, South America, and from Malawi, Mr Sands, who works in technology and design consulting, told the Irish Examiner.

Flights are costing anywhere from 750 from London to 5,800 from Auckland so the spend varies but we have a group of very generous private sector donors and have sufficient funds to bring more healthcare professionals home, he added.

The campaign is being run on twitter with the hashtag #AnswerIrelandsCall and through a dedicated website  www.AnswerIrelandsCall.com  which has received more than 1,000 queries for assistance to date.

The group of volunteers and donors are liaising with officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Irish travel firm Hannon Travel as well as Emerald Travel in Australia to get healthcare workers on flights home.

Thank you both, Dr. Aoife. Amazing to see more of our doctors on their way home to help Ireland fight #COVID19. We are very grateful to have you guys back to #AnswerIrelandsCall. Onward.  https://t.co/hB5rgtNiB5  Neil O. Sands (@neilosands) March 30, 2020

It is also trying to help returning health professionals with accommodation and is approaching Airbnb owners with a large number of properties.

Mr Sands said: There are some very big Airbnb landlords with hundreds of properties and if we can convince them to offer their properties to these doctors that would be a huge dig out for the country. Wed be hoping that this could work on the basis that healthcare staff would stay for free but pay for utilities like heating, electricity, and wifi.

The 38-year-old said people from all walks of life, from students to pensioners to small business owners, like My Sister's Closet and Stampify, are making donations or offering accommodation for frontline staff.

Mr Sands said:

A student got in touch to offer a month of their part-time salary and we also had a 72-year-old lady offer to move out of her home and stay with her sister to accommodate returning staff.

"So were seeing everyone making a contribution, he said, adding thanks to volunteers, Kevin Sands, Conor Hughes, and James Lawlor.

This is not Mr Sands' first time to launch an appeal in times of need. In 2015 when living in the US he was involved in raising funds to repatriate the six students, who lost their lives when their apartment balcony collapsed in Berkeley, California.

If there were time to stop and admire the endless, selfless acts of the extraordinary people we have on this island answering #IrelandsCall - we would take all day. We dont have time, now but we will. Thank you. Onward. pic.twitter.com/gCnlBcGYWt  Neil O. Sands (@neilosands) March 28, 2020

The entrepreneur, who advises Fortune 500 companies like Disney on how they should design technology for their business, said the group can also help source personal protective equipment if needed.

There is help out there in the private sector and if the public sector puts up its hand and asks for it we would give it in droves. Many businesses have contacts in Asia and can place orders for scrubs and masks or whatever is needed, he said.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 21:02:18|Editor: yhy

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A volunteer carries bags of relief goods as he participates in the distribution of aid from the local government at a slum area in Quezon City, the Philippines on March 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali)
The son of a resident in a care home at the centre of a Covid-19 outbreak has described his terror that his mum will contract the virus.

A senior member of staff at Owen Mor Care Centre in Londonderry told the man on Friday there were six positive cases of coronavirus in the home and it is understood a number of staff are now self-isolating.

Now the son of a dementia patient living at the home has hit out at the lack of information he has received about his mother, claiming he has been unable to speak to anyone at the home since Friday.

People over 70 and elderly people with pre-existing health conditions are considered more at risk if they contract coronavirus.

As a result, care homes across Northern Ireland have banned visitors to their premises in a bid to protect residents - meaning families are relying on staff to keep them updated on their loved ones.

However, the son of a resident at Owen Mor Care Centre, which is registered to provide care to 81 people with a range of needs, including dementia and learning disabilities, has hit out after being left in the dark over his mum's condition.

"Someone got in touch with me last Wednesday and said they didn't want to scare me, but they'd heard there were people at Owen Mor who had coronavirus," he said.

"Then she phoned on Thursday and said she's heard there were six cases.

"At this stage I still hadn't heard anything from the home and I spent all day Friday ringing to try and find out what was going on but I couldn't get any answer.

"Eventually I went down and waited outside and a senior nurse came out and told me there were six cases.

"She said my mum was okay and the six people with the virus are in a different unit, but she wasn't able to tell me what the home is doing to stop it spreading.

"I'm worried because even though it's in another unit, you just have to walk through a door and the staff move from unit to unit.

"I finally got a phone call from the home at 8pm that night to tell me about the outbreak but I haven't heard anything since and I haven't been able to get through to them either.

"I understand that they are flat to the mat at the moment, but we aren't allowed in to see our loved ones and the only way we can find out what is happening is if someone tells us what's happening.

"All it would take is a one minute phone call every day just to say she is all right, but we've heard nothing from the trust or the social worker and only had one call from the home.

"It's very distressing."

The home did not comment, while a spokeswoman from the Western Health and Social Care Trust said: "The Western Trust continues to work closely with Owen Mor Private Nursing Home. At present we are providing enhanced support and guidance to the management and staff of Owen Mor in relation to Covid-19."

The Trust did not give any further information on the support that has been put in place or the information it has been providing to the families.
Chinese medical team arrives in Islamabad, Pakistan, March 28, 2020. [Photo via Chinese embassy in Pakistan]

ISLAMABAD, March 28 (Xinhua) -- An 8-member medical expert team organized by the Chinese government arrived here on Saturday to help Pakistan fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi welcomed the Chinese medical team at the Islamabad International Airport and thanked them for coming to Pakistan to help the country overcome the disease.

"I would like to thank the Chinese people, and the Chinese government...for going out of the way to support Pakistan and our effort to fight the COVID-19," he said.

"We have learned from you. We have stood by you, and you're standing with us. So this (COVID-19) challenge has brought the peoples of China and Pakistan even closer. In this challenging time, the (Pakistani) people expected China to come forth and China has lived up to their expectations," the foreign minister told Xinhua.

The team, organized by China's National Health Commission, consists of experts selected by the health commission of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and aims to provide consultations of pandemic control, patients treatment and laboratory works and guide and train Pakistani medical staff.

Head of the medical team Ma Minghui told Xinhua that the team will also share the Chinese experiences on coronavirus control with their Pakistani counterparts.

The medical team also brought medical assistance including over 110,000 face masks, 5,000 protection suits, 12 ventilators and other medicines to Pakistan.

The team will stay in Pakistan for around two weeks and will also visit Punjab and Sindh provinces.
British citizens have said they are relieved and glad to be home after two repatriation flights from Peru landed at Heathrow airport on Monday morning.

They described a scramble to the airport in Lima following short notice and poor communication from the UK Foreign Office (FCO).

The planes touched down after the Foreign Office said it had chartered more flights from Peru, expected to arrive at Gatwick Airport on Tuesday.

We were put on standby but we didnt get the email until midnight and we had to be at the airport at 7am so a lot of people were asleep and never got it, said Shona McKenna.

We had 50 people on standby but only 12 turned up to the airport.

The communication wasnt great, we didnt know when we were going to come home and when the emails came out there wasnt a lot of time.

The first flight, a lot of people missed it because they didnt get the email in time.

Delighted Captain Croft and his @British_Airways crew has landed in the UK, bringing home a full plane of 275 passengers from Peru. Two more repatriation flights will leave Lima for London today. pic.twitter.com/Skx2kMTjYr  Kate Harrisson  (@kate_harrisson) March 30, 2020

Ms McKenna, 33, and her friend Stacey Coogan, 30, said that citizens were given an hour to reply and confirm that they would be getting on the flight.

If you went out to the shop and didnt have WiFi you wouldnt have made the plane, said Ms Coogan. We were lucky we got the standby email.

The pair, from Luton, who had been in South America since January 30, said that contacting the embassy in Peru had been confusing and stressful.

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We didnt know anything and were just told, were working on it  thats all, said Ms Coogan.

It was confusing and a bit stressful, because the first week no one could get hold of the embassy  because they all had to work from home as well  so the first week was a bit of a nightmare.

Were just glad to be home.

Since the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, the Foreign Office has helped to bring home almost 1,400 people on specially chartered Government flights from China and Peru and 1,900 people on cruise ships from places including California, Brazil and Japan.

But other Britons returning from Lima said that difficulties with passenger lists meant couples had risked being split up due to lack of space.

The communication has been pretty bad with the embassy  people started getting emails for their flights yesterday at 5pm, I wasnt on the manifest [list of passengers] but my partner was, said Danielle from Yorkshire.

I was ringing the embassy until one in the morning, didnt get confirmation until three in the morning and had to be at the airport at six and even then I wasnt on it.

Danielle, who has asthma, said the FCO had also not taken into account her own personal circumstances but that she had eventually managed to secure a seat.

Her partner Matthew added that there were hundreds of stranded citizens at the airport and that the situation had been stressful as they waited for information about their flights.

There were lots of queues, but it was stressful and the police were tetchy at times but were home safe and sound now, he said.

Youre sat on the edge of your seat waiting for some news and there was none until the last minute and then theres a scramble to get your bags together and get to the meeting point.

In the city of Cusco people were told that they needed to get buses to the airport, requiring cash, but one woman  an NHS nurse  was arrested on the way to a cashpoint and spent four hours in a police cell.

We walked five metres out of the Airb&b and we told [police] we were just going to the ATM and the supermarket but they just took us away  but its completely random, she said.

More British passengers are returning to the UK from Peru today on another flight back home. The flight departed Lima at 13.52 local time. Well continue to work urgently on another flight today and two more tomorrow & to offer support to British travellers who are still in Peru. pic.twitter.com/bRgV68CaF7  Kate Harrisson  (@kate_harrisson) March 29, 2020

You could leave and have nothing happen. We were just a bit unlucky.

[Being repatriated] was relief for everyone  it was getting to the stage in Peru where you couldnt really do anything, added her friend, Terri Avery, 30, from Guernsey.

Its quite a thing to be repatriated. You file onto the plane and are just told to sit wherever, she said.

In the last week, the Foreign Office has helped more than 4,000 people to get back from Jamaica and more than 8,500 people to get back from Morocco.

Around 5,000 Britons successfully left Bali after the British team in Indonesia worked with their counterparts to unblock a visa permissions issue.

On Monday afternoon, the Government said an announcement on efforts to repatriate Britons stranded abroad by the coronavirus crisis was expected imminently.
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The number of people visiting Los Angeles' notorious Skid Row for free meals has tripled since the city went on lockdown two weeks ago, DailyMail.com can disclose.

Skid Row is home to 5,000 homeless people  3,000 of whom sleep in shabby tents or wrapped in blankets on the sidewalk itself.

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti said the city would add thousands of temporary shelter beds to get the population off the streets to protect them from coronavirus on March 19.

But photos taken exclusively by DailyMail.com reveal there has been no decline in the number of rough sleepers in the area, while local charities say they are being overwhelmed by the extra demand  which comes as donations decline.

The number of people visiting Los Angeles' notorious Skid Row for free meals has tripled since the city went on lockdown two weeks ago, DailyMail.com can disclose

Skid Row is home to 5,000 homeless people  3,000 of whom sleep in shabby tents or wrapped in blankets on the sidewalk itself

But photos taken exclusively by DailyMail.com reveal there has been no decline in the number of rough sleepers in the area, while local charities say they are being overwhelmed by the extra demand  which comes as donations decline

Large crowds could also be seen outside other Skid Row non-profits at mealtimes when DailyMail.com visited last Wednesday and Thursday

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti said the city would add thousands of temporary shelter beds to get the population off the streets to protect them from coronavirus on March 19

Georgia Berkovich, of Skid Row's Midnight Mission which provides three meals a day to the area's homeless, says the crisis has seen the numbers coming to them for food shoot up.

She said: 'Around this time of the month, we would normally see 400 to 600 a meal, sometimes as it gets closer to the end of the month, we might go as high as 1.000 a meal.

'This week, we've been seeing 1,700 a meal. We're still serving three meals a day but we're seeing three times the number of people.'

Large crowds could also be seen outside other Skid Row non-profits, including The Weingart Center and Fred Jordan Missions, at mealtimes when DailyMail.com visited last Wednesday and Thursday.

The spike in demand for free meals came as it was announced that 3.3 million people had signed up for unemployment benefits nationwide last week.

Governor Gavin Newsom said last week that 1 million of those claims were made in California alone  parts of which have been shut down for weeks.

But for California's 151,000 homeless community, life has continued as normal despite the lockdown - and in spite of official attempts to help.

But for California's 151,000 homeless community, life has continued as normal despite the lockdown and in spite of official attempts to help. Pictured: Skid Row streets overflowing with large groups of people lining up for a chance to pick up a meal

The spike in demand for free meals came as it was announced that 3.3 million people have signed up for unemployment benefits nationwide this week

In Los Angeles, which is home to 60,000 homeless people, Mayor Eric Garcetti has announced plans to spend $20 million on 1,600 extra shelter beds, with a further 6,000 to be delivered by the American Red Cross

When DailyMail.com visited Skid Row, hundreds of homeless people could be seen out on the street  virtually all with little or no protective equipment

The homeless are among the most vulnerable people in Los Angeles with many suffering from underlying health conditions as well as drink and drug addiction

In Los Angeles, which is home to 60,000 homeless people, Mayor Eric Garcetti has announced plans to spend $20 million on 1,600 extra shelter beds, with a further 6,000 to be delivered by the American Red Cross.

Garcetti has also said he plans to put santizer stations around the city and increase the number of Porta Potty units available for the homeless to use.

In a statement released on March 18, he said: 'We are taking immediate, urgent action to slow the spread of COVID-19 by helping people who are experiencing homelessness come indoors.'

But when DailyMail.com visited Skid Row, hundreds of homeless people could be seen out on the street  virtually all with little or no protective equipment.

Some were clustered chatting together in groups, while others were slumped over in doorways or passed out under quilts on the sidewalk.

Most shocking of all were the crowds that gathered at mealtimes outside the missions, crammed in on the sidewalk and far less than the recommended six feet apart.

Approached by DailyMail.com about what the city is doing to control the crowds of people on Skid Row, a member of Garcetti's public affairs team said she had no explanation but would ask a member of the operations team to reach out with further information.

At the time of publication, DailyMail.com was still waiting for a response.

Georgia Berkovich, of Skid Row's Midnight Mission which provides three meals a day to the area's homeless, says the crisis has seen the numbers coming to them for food shoot up

According to a report released last year by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, heart disease is the third biggest cause of death among the homeless

It is also one of the serious underlying conditions that can produce a worse outcome in those who are infected with COVID-19

Overdoses are a regular occurrence on Skid Row, with EMTs seen arriving three times in one hour on Wednesday

The one tent on Skid Row that had a red cross on it was being used for religious rather than medical purposes, with lists of Bible reading times written on the side

The homeless are among the most vulnerable people in Los Angeles with many suffering from underlying health conditions, as well as drink and drug addiction.

According to a report released last year by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, heart disease is the third biggest cause of death among the homeless.

It is also one of the serious underlying conditions that can produce a worse outcome in those who are infected with COVID-19.

Overdoses are a regular occurrence on Skid Row, with EMTs seen arriving three times in one hour on Wednesday.

Other hazards of life on Skid Row include low-level crime, traffic danger and violence  the same LA County report noted that murder accounts for six percent of deaths among residents every year.

As a result, coronavirus could prove especially deadly if it is allowed to run rampant among California's homeless community.

Berkovich thinks it may already be too late to stop it, telling DailyMail.com: 'There have not been any cases in the homeless community [officially] but I don't know

'There hasn't been enough testing done to have a number and I suspect that there may be some who do test positive but we won't know because there are not enough tests right now.'

Other hazards of life on Skid Row include low-level crime, traffic danger and violence  the same LA County report noted that murder accounts for six per cent of deaths among residents every year

Governor Gavin Newsom has also pledged help and said last week that he plans to spend $150 m on housing the homeless in hotels and trailers for the duration of the crisis. On March 18, he said the state has already purchased 1,309 trailers and leased two hotels

As a result, coronavirus could prove especially deadly if it is allowed to run rampant among California's homeless community

Most shocking of all were the crowds that gathered at mealtimes outside the missions, crammed in on the sidewalk and far less than the recommended six feet apart

Berkovich added: 'It's impossible to keep six feet apart in Skid Row. If you look at the homeless encampments, the tents are side by side.

'If it hits the community, there's going to be no way from stopping it from spreading.'

But unlike the rest of Los Angeles, the residents of Skid Row cannot ride out the storm at home because  despite Garcetti's pledge of more beds  they have nowhere to go.

Charities working in the area are attempting to stem the tide by insisting that all volunteers and staff have their temperatures checked before arriving for work each day.

Cleaning has been stepped up, both in the missions and on the street itself where gaggles of street cleaners have been seen attempting to disinfect the area.

And the hand sanitizer stations and extra Porta Potty units promised by Garcetti have materialized in small numbers.

But there was little sign of any efforts to inform the homeless of the situation, with Berkovich saying they are more isolated than ever after being stripped of their usual opportunities to see the news in restaurants or cafes.

The one tent on Skid Row that had a red cross on it was being used for religious rather than medical purposes, with lists of Bible reading times written on the side.

Cleaning has been stepped up, both in the missions and on the street itself where gaggles of street cleaners have been seen attempting to disinfect the area

Georgia added: 'Around this time of the month, we would normally see 400 to 600 a meal, sometimes as it gets closer to the end of the month, we might go as high as 1000 a meal'

She added: 'This week, we've been seeing 1700 a meal. We're still serving three meals a day but we're seeing three times the number of people'

Charities working in the area are attempting to stem the tide by insisting that all volunteers and staff have their temperatures checked before arriving for work each day

Like Garcetti, Newsom has also pledged help and said last week that he plans to spend $150 million on housing the homeless in hotels and trailers for the duration of the crisis.

On March 18, he said the state has already purchased 1,309 trailers and leased two hotels.

He said: 'California is deploying massive resources to get these vulnerable residents safely into shelter, removing regulatory barriers and securing trailers and hotels to provide immediate housing options for those most at risk.

'Helping these residents is critical to protecting public health, flattening the curve and slowing the spread of COVID-19.'

But with 151,000 homeless people living in California, the extra beds already in place are far from being enough.

Berkovich said: 'There is no Safer At Home for the people who have no home. This Safer At Home initiative just seems especially cruel for them.'
The theatres may be closed and silence has descended on Andrew Lloyd Webbers hit musicals  but the show must go on.

In that great theatrical tradition, the impresario has launched a Composer In Isolation request show on You Tube  and thousands of fans have been tuning in to hear him play their favourite songs.

He may be 72 and a bit arthritic, as he himself confides, but the composer of 13 musicals can still remember all the tunes and most of the notes which he bashes out on his grand piano in his living room.

Hi everybody, I didnt think I would ever get such a response to this little try-out, he announces from the keyboard during his first show. Here I am in my enforced self-isolation.

Andrew Lloyd Webber may be 72 and a bit arthritic, as he himself confides, but the composer of 13 musicals can still remember all the tunes and most of the notes which he bashes out on his grand piano in his living room, writes SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE

The broadcasts are only a few minutes, during which he invites fans to sing along and submit requests and questions via Twitter.

For his first performance, All I Ask Of You, from Phantom Of The Opera, he was even joined by his dog, whom he jokingly reassured: Its all right, it doesnt come from Cats! Lord Lloyd-Webber admits hes been overwhelmed by requests for songs from Phantom and that his favourite from the show is Twisted Every Way.

He is currently working on a new musical, Cinderella, which he hopes will open in October, and has promised listeners a preview of one of the songs.

For his first performance, All I Ask Of You, from Phantom Of The Opera (pictured), he was even joined by his dog, whom he jokingly reassured: Its all right, it doesnt come from Cats!

His left hand is shaky and so is his voice  and he apologises to the composer of Hamilton after his rendition of Youll Be Back. But he is clearly enjoying himself and so is his audience.

His humility has struck a chord, too. After his performance of All I Ask Of You, he declares he played it in the wrong key. The more observant of you will see that I was playing it in C major, because my arthritic fingers couldnt do it in D flat.

The highlights of Jaggers isolation

Hair salons may have shut during the lockdown, but model Georgia May Jagger has not been toying idly with her locks.

The 28-year-old daughter of Sir Mick and Jerry Hall, who co-owns the hair company Bleach London, hosted a virtual party at the weekend and demonstrated how to give oneself an at-home makeover.

In doing so, she transformed her naturally blonde hair into turquoise and lilac  one hue on each side and described the online gathering which she hosted with the companys co-owner, Harry Styless hair guru Alex Brownsell, as an interactive salon for their devotees.

Sharing her new look online, Georgia, who is self isolating in New York where she has relocated to be with her French restaurateur boyfriend, Louis Levy, declared of her make-over: I absolutely loved it!

Georgia May Jagger transformed her naturally blonde hair into turquoise and lilac  one hue on each side

Hats off to Barry Cryer, who has just celebrated his 85th birthday. The writer and comedian tells me his friend, Alan Bennett, rang to congratulate him. The History Boys playwright remarked, a propos the coronavirus pandemic: My lifes hardly changed at all. I spend most days at home.

Malone at home puts on another breathing tape The Duchess of Cambridges favourite perfumer Jo Malone  whose Orange Blossom scent Kate loves so much she had candles scented of it burning at her wedding to William in Westminster Abbey  refuses to slow down while working from home. During this time of isolation, Ive thought up two new businesses. Whether I do anything with them, I dont know, Jo says. Either way, it keeps my mind active and evolving. Im also a big list-maker. I have my daily disciplines, such as my breathing tape twice a day and pilates sessions. Lists are great in that when you look back at what youve done over 24 hours, its not a blank canvas  youve done something with your day. Advertisement

Victoria: Malibu wont take to Meghan

Lady Victoria Hervey, who splits her time between London and Malibu  where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are reportedly moving  admits shes not a fan of Suits actress Meghan and thinks the couples relocation will irk famous neighbours.

If they move to LA, it might make other famous residents move out, Lady Victoria, 43, tells me. They wouldnt want the extra scrutiny. Youve got much bigger stars than Harry and Meghan living there, like Cher. Do they want neighbours that will be attracting that?

The eldest child of the 6th Marquess of Bristol adds: It seems very much like Meghan didnt ever want to be royalty, she wanted to be a celebrity.

Lady Victoria Hervey, who splits her time between London and Malibu  where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are reportedly moving  admits shes not a fan of Suits actress Meghan and thinks the couples relocation will irk famous neighbours, writes SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE
The students work was so well received that Mr. Houseman and Ms. Harley, the drama divisions administrative director, formed the Acting Company, a professional troupe, in 1972, with the new graduates at its core. By 1973 the company was on Broadway with five plays in repertory, Mr. Schramm appearing in all of them.

He was often, as Mel Gussow put it in The New York Times in 1978, the companys resident old character man. That year, at age 30, he was playing King Lear. Previously for the company, he had played an aging wanderer in Maxim Gorkys The Lower Depths, the philosophical old doctor Chebutykin in Chekhovs Three Sisters, and the father of one of the young lovers in Molieres Scapin. After five years with the Acting Company, Mr. Schramm became a regular on regional stages as well as in New York theaters. A turning point in his career came in 1988, when he played the male lead in the Garson Kanin comedy Born Yesterday opposite Rebecca de Mornay at the Pasadena Playhouse in California. The production drew rave reviews.

His portrayal is a true heir to Jackie Gleason: loud, blustery, swift, an ungrammatical ball of suet, as unaware of his arrogance as of his limitations, Sylvie Drake wrote in a review in The Los Angeles Times. In spite of it all, Schramm succeeds in making Brock remarkably appealing  a sort of disconnected large pussycat, with the roar and the timing of the lion that hes not.

The television industry took note.

Because of those reviews, I landed in every casting office in town, Mr. Schramm told that newspaper in 1989. I was the flavor of the month.

He had done little television before that  his main credit had been playing Robert S. McNamara in the 1983 mini-series Kennedy  but suddenly he was turning up in episodes of Miami Vice, Wiseguy and other shows.
The signing ceremony of the agreement on the transfer of funds for Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Special Fund (2020) projects was held in Myanmar's capital Nay Pyi Taw. According to the agreement, China will provide over US$6.7 million to Myanmar, which will be spent on 22 projects areas of agriculture, education, and ICT, among others.

Chen Hai, Chinese ambassador to Myanmar, said at the ceremony that since the launch of Lancang-Mekong Cooperation four years ago, they have put in place an LMC framework guided by leaders and underpinned by all-round cooperation and broad participation. In addition, Cooperation has always been enriched through a 3 + 5+ X cooperation framework. LMC Special Fund has supported more than 410 projects proposed by five countries for the benefit of people's livelihood and the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation has transitioned from the nurture phase into a phase of growth. China and Myanmar will act as co-chairs of the LMC in 2020 and China will continue to work hand in hand with Lancang-Mekong countries, including Myanmar, to solidly promote the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation. This cooperation is characterized by pragmatism and efficiency so as to make substantial progress and achieve the goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind.

U Soe Han, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Myanmar, said that Myanmar is the country with the largest number of projects supported by LMC Special Fund this year. He believes under the 3 + 5 + X cooperation framework, Myanmar will achieve sustainable development and people's standards of living will continue to improve.

Lancang-Mekong Cooperation is a new sub-regional cooperation platform jointly initiated and established by China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. In March 2016, the First Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Leaders' Meeting was held in Sanya, Hainan Province of China. At the meeting, China initiated the LMC Special Fund with the aim of supporting small and medium-sized cooperation projects put forward by the six Lancang-Mekong countries by providing US$300 million in five years. (Compiled by Zhang Xinfeng
First Bank of Nigeria Limited has announced the donation of N1 billion toward the joint effort by the Nigerian Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID).

Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Adesola Adeduntan, made this known in a statement in Lagos on Monday.

Mr Adeduntan said the donation was to rapidly expand health facilities; especially for testing, isolation and treatment, in the fight against COVID-19.

He said it was also for the provision of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) facilities pivotal to controlling the spread, and importantly, treating individuals diagnosed with COVID- 19.

The bank chief said that the donation was in addition to the banks drive to move one million children to e-learning, together with an early partner - Roducate  as recommended by the Ministry of Education, Lagos State

He said the bank had also reiterated its preparedness to provide essential banking services through its alternative channels to customers in line with the 14-day stay home directive for Lagos, Ogun and Abuja.

We promise to continue to look at all areas of intervention where our business infrastructure, reach, digital platforms and other natural strengths lie and can be deployed to further support all efforts for Nigerians; young and old alike.

To that end, we will continue to communicate ways in which we can do more together.

We thank our community of friends, customers and other stakeholders who have continued to send us ideas and initiatives and are gladdened at the solidarity we see as Nigerians come together to tackle this under one umbrella.

Please stay safe and lets work together to flatten the curve, Mr Adeduntan stated.

FirstBank is the premier bank in West Africa and Nigerias leading financial inclusion bank for over 125 years.

With over 750 business locations and 44,000 Banking Agents spread across 99 per cent of the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria, FirstBank provides a comprehensive range of retail and corporate financial services to serve its over 15 million customers.

It has an international presence through its subsidiaries, FBN Bank (UK) Limited in London and Paris, FBNBank in the Republic of Congo, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea, Sierra-Leone and Senegal, as well as a Representative Office in Beijing.

(NAN)
TVS Motor Company and its Group Companies TVS Credit Services Ltd., Sundaram-Clayton Ltd., and others on Monday announced their commitment to donate Rs 25 crore to the PM's Relief Fund (PM-CARES) to aid the battle against COVID-19

Bengaluru: TVS Motor Company and its Group Companies TVS Credit Services Ltd., Sundaram-Clayton Ltd., and others on Monday announced their commitment to donate Rs 25 crore to the PM's Relief Fund (PM-CARES) to aid the battle against COVID-19.

"This is in line with the company's continuous endeavour to ensure prosperous and sustainable communities. It is in addition to the ongoing activities being already undertaken through Srinivasan Services Trust, the CSR arm of the group," it said in a statement.

"The COVID-19 pandemic marks an unprecedented time in modern history and it will require the best of humanity to overcome the battle. We applaud the Government''s strong resolve and numerous actions to fight this. Now, more than ever, it requires all of us to cooperate and support each other as a nation," said Venu Srinivasan, Chairman, TVS Motor Company.

Srinivasan Services Trust (SST), the social arm of the group, is implementing various measures ranging from manufacturing and supplying supportive equipment such as masks, to providing cooked meals to those in the frontline -- from healthcare workers to police officers, it said.

Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak

Some of the key initiatives that have already begun include: Making and supplying one million protective face masks for essential service providers; deploying vehicles and disinfectants to municipalities and helping produce medical equipment; employing factory kitchens at the manufacturing units in Hosur, Padi and Mysuru to make pre-packed cooked meals, which will be supplied to all essential care workers in the vicinity, from police personnel, municipal staff to healthcare workers.

In Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, dry rations will be supplied to daily wage workers who have been displaced and to villagers without food supplies, the statement said, adding, the company is evaluating collaboration with 3D printing companies to make ventilators to support the hospitals.
Of the negative results, 53 have been tested between two and four times, and the remaining 12 have done so once.

Among the patients who tested negative for the first time is a 51-year-old businesswoman in the south central province of Binh Thuan, who was confirmed positive on March 11.

Shed flown back from Washington D.C. on February 29, transiting at the Doha International Airport in Qatar. She landed March 2 at the Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCMC and took a car home to the resort town of Phan Thiet in Binh Thuan.

On March 5, she developed high fever and a cough. So far, 10 patients, including eight of her relatives in Binh Thuan and two others she came into contact with in HCMC have contracted the virus from her.

Seven of the nine patients being treated at Binh Thuans General Hospital tested negative for the first time after over half a month of treatment, while a 25-year-old man in Saigon, who was infected with the virus after having a dinner with the businesswoman, has recovered and is waiting to be discharged from Cu Chi field hospital on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry said Sunday night that three critically ill Covid-19 patients who are being treated at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi - a 64-year-old Vietnamese woman, a 69-year-old British man and a 50-year-old Vietnamese man  are getting better after days of treatment.

Doctors have had to perform blood filtration on the three patients and put them on a life support machine called Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to allow their lungs and hearts to improve and function properly

The Vietnamese man had his breathing tube removed Saturday while the British patient, who had a history of type 2 diabetes and hypertension, is getting better and doctors are considering reducing the ventilator regime for him.

The woman who is undergoing ECMO for the tenth day has also shown positive signs. She had an underlying condition, vestibular disorder, when she was found Covid-19 positive. She experienced breathing difficulties that escalated into respiratory failure on March 15.

Amidst the recovery, six new patients linked to Hanoi's Bach Mai Hospital were confirmed Monday morning, raising Vietnam's Covid-19 count to 194. Many of the currently active cases are Vietnamese nationals returning from Europe and the U.S. and foreigners coming from the same regions.

So far, 25 patients in Vietnam have been discharged from the hospital.

The Covid-19 pandemic has killed more than 33,900 people as it spread to 199 countries and territories.
The U.S. Marine Corps may not have enough pilots to sustain future F-35 Joint Strike Fighter units amid expected future budget shortfalls, its top general warned in a new report.

In a 10-year force outlook plan, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger said the service will require a new study into how many F-35 squadrons it can support as it prepares to make other cuts across the force.

"I am not convinced that we have a clear understanding yet of F-35 capacity requirements for the future force," Berger said in the recently released report, titled "Force Design 2030." The news was first reported by Breaking Defense.

"As a result, the service will seek at least one external assessment of our Aviation Plan relative to [National Defense Strategy] objectives and evolving naval and joint warfighting concepts," he added.

Related: Marines to Shut Down All Tank Units, Cut Infantry Battalions in Major Overhaul

The F-35 has proven costly to maintain, and the Marine Corps, like other services, has contended with shortages in the fighter community.

"Our continued pilot shortfalls are a factor we must consider and either scale programs of record accordingly or implement a sustainable, affordable solution," Berger said. "Other services face similar shortfalls. This issue has recruiting, training, and retention factors -- as well as fiscal and industrial base factors -- that we must consider in reconciling the growing disparity between numbers of platforms and numbers of aircrew."

Berger noted that it has been particularly difficult to develop an experienced F-35 pilot cadre.

"Our continued inability to build and sustain an adequate inventory of F-35 pilots leads me to conclude that we must be pragmatic regarding our ability to support the existing program of record," he said.

A spokesman for the Marine Corps said that as of March, the service was 800 pilots short of its goal of 4,000 for all aircraft types. The service was unable to provide how many F-35 pilots it was specifically short, given the "consistent fluctuation" of pilots moving within the pipeline, the spokesman said.

The Marine Corps has been on an ambitious journey over the last five years to integrate the F-35 into its operations.

The service has plans to procure 420 total F-35s -- 353 F-35Bs and 67 F-35Cs -- in an effort to replace the AV-8B Harrier, the F/A-18 Hornet and EA-6B Prowler over the next decade. The Navy and the Marine Corps have been moving to centralize their Joint Strike Fighter operations out west along the Pacific coast.

The Marine Corps recently accepted its first F-35C Joint Strike Fighter jet, which can fly off aircraft carriers and make longer-range flights.

While the service has since 2015 operated the F-35 "B" variant -- which can take off and land vertically on amphibious assault ships -- the "C" variant was only introduced into its inventory for carrier operations at Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314 in California in January.

The Marine Corps has had significant stealth fighter milestones, often ahead of its Air Force and Navy counterparts: It was the first service to reach initial operating capability or IOC, declaring its F-35B short take-off and vertical landing variant ready for combat in 2015. In 2018, the F-35B made its combat debut, conducting its first strike in Afghanistan. Additionally, the F-35B first deployed aboard the Wasp with the Pacific-based 31st MEU in March 2018, marking the first maritime operational deployment for the aircraft.

Earlier this year, Berger told audiences at the annual Surface Navy Association conference that as part of preparations to face China in a potential near-peer conflict, the Navy and Marine Corps can't send warships out that look the same every time, and should adopt more methods of unpredictability.

That could mean loading an amphibious assault ship with F-35s on one deployment -- what officials have called the "lightning carrier" concept -- and sending the next ship out full of MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, followed by a mix of the two.

"We need to constantly pose this adversary with different looks," Berger said.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated with additional data from the Marine Corps.

-- Gina Harkins contributed to this report.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.

Read More: Army Suspends Transition to New Combat Fitness Test Amid Gym Closures
Sticking together by staying apart: Kay ODriscoll, Vera Jackson, Nora Riegel and Mary Thorp, cocooning in sheltered accommodation in Co Cork. Photo: Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision

Pensioners carefully cocooned from Covid-19 have urged young people to "step up to the mark" in complying with virus controls - urging them to follow the lead of an Irish generation that endured a world war, rationing, numerous recessions and enforced emigration.

The residents of the Heaphy Grove sheltered housing complex in Kilworth, Co Cork, urged people to strictly adhere to the Government guidelines as they vowed to see normal life return to Ireland.

"We lived through tough times before and young people should realise the country will get through this," Nora Riegel (87) said.

"But we need to get through it together. Everyone needs to do their bit to protect themselves, their family and their neighbours."

Ms Riegel, a widow who is bravely battling a serious health condition, said youngsters need to realise that Ireland's older generations have seen tough times before.

"I grew up in Mallow during World War II and I remember the excitement when children saw a banana in a shop window. We had never seen one before and no one could afford one so we just stared in amazement at it," she said.

Later, she had to emigrate to the United States for employment before returning to Ireland in 1974.

"Youngsters need to realise they have a lot more today than we ever did and these virus controls will only last as long as necessary," she added.

Ms Riegel said she 'cocooned' herself more than two weeks ago for her own health and safety, and chats daily to her family by phone.

Her neighbours Kay O'Driscoll, Vera Jackson and Mary Thorp, all pensioners, also 'cocooned' to safeguard their health.

Ms Thorp said Active Retirement Ireland and Alone have done tremendous work to help and support pensioners now living in self-isolation.

"The support that people are providing within Irish communities is absolutely wonderful," she said.

Ms Riegel added that she has evolved her own special 'cocoon' routine.

"I go for a walk on my own two or three times a day for exercise, I go to St Martin's Church to pray for everyone and especially the healthcare workers at the frontline of fighting the virus, I love reading and I watch my favourite programmes on TV."

She also helps take care of her neighbour Ms Jackson's elderly rescue dog, Barnie.

"We reckon Barnie is 105 years old so he needs even greater minding that we do," she joked.

"I have fantastic friends and neighbours here in Heaphy Grove and in Kilworth. We chat with each other every day but we make sure we do so over the wall and keeping well away from each other.

"The kindness shown by people has been incredible - I've had offers of help in dropping my shopping right to the door and even from people worried that I might run out of books for reading."

The four pensioners echoed the message that everyone needs to play their own part in supporting Irish healthcare workers.

"You can also never lose hope that tomorrow will be a brighter day," Ms Riegel said.
The coronavirus has created havoc across the globe by killing over 28,000 people and the world is joining hands to fight against the virus. It seems like Pakistan does not take its countrymen seriously and following a practice of religious discrimination in the country. One such shocking case has come to light from Pakistan where a large number of people belonging to the Hindus community were denied to get the daily essential services.

According to the media reports, thousands of people had gathered at Rehrri Goth in Karachi in a bid to get the food supplies and daily essentials, but, unfortunately, they were asked to go back as the ration is only for Muslims not for them.

The Sindh government issued an order to local NGOs and administration to distribute food supplies to daily wage workers and labourers.

As per the reports in ANI, an activist said that the Hindus who reached Rehrri Ghoth to collect the ration were told that food supplies were only for Muslims and Hindus were not eligible for it.

Hindus in Liyari, Sachal Ghoth and other parts of Karachi as well as all over Sindh are being denied a share in government food and rations.

On the other hand, Amjad Ayud Mirza, a political activist appealed to the Indian government to send supplies to Hindus in need in Pakistan via Rajasthan to Sindh while saying that the minorities are facing problems.

He also demanded Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis intervention in a bid to avert a humanitarian crisis in Sindh.

Reportedly, over half a million Hindus are living in the Sindh province of Pakistan.

In Pakistan, 12 deaths have been reported due to the coronavirus and over 1,500 positive cases for COVID 19 reported so far. In view of the further outbreak, the Pakistani government has ordered to close all schools while no restrictions have been imposed on the functioning of hospitals, shops selling food items, food, and medicine manufacturing industries in the country.

Also Read: Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai experiments with her hairstyle in self-quarantine; pic inside
P olice Scotland issued 25 fixed penalty notices over the weekend to people flouting the regulations designed to stop the spread of coronavirus in public places.

The new powers in the Coronavirus Act make it a criminal offence to ignore the public health guidance on social distancing to prevent Covid-19.

On-the-spot fines of 30 can be issued to people who breach social distancing measures, rising to 60 if they are not paid within 28 days and capped at 960 for repeat offenders.

Deputy Chief Constable Malcolm Graham told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme that, fines were issued to people who attended house parties and continued to go outside.

Despite the small number of cases where fines were issued, the vast majority of the public were complying with the new regulations, he said.

The World on Coronavirus lockdown 1 /60 The World on Coronavirus lockdown Getty Images A UK government public health campaign is displayed in Piccadilly Circus Reuters Chinese paramilitary police and security officers wear face masks to protect against the spread of the new coronavirus as they stand guard outside an entrance to the Forbidden City in Beijing AP A usually busy 42nd Street is seen nearly empty in New York AFP via Getty Images Bondi Beach, Australia Getty Images Military vehicles cross Westminster Bridge after members of the 101 Logistic Brigade delivered a consignment of medical masks to St Thomas' hospital Getty Images View of the illuminated statue of Christ the Redeemer that reads "Thank you" as Archbishop of the city of Rio de Janeiro Dom Orani Tempesta performs a mass in honor of Act of Consecration of Brazil and tribute to medical workers amidst the Coronavirus (COVID - 19) pandemic Getty Images Rome AFP via Getty Images An Indian man paddles his bicycle in front of a mural depicting the globe covered in a mask, as India remains under an unprecedented lockdown over the highly contagious coronavirus Getty Images Aerial view of the empty 9 de Julio avenue in Buenos Aires in Argentina AFP via Getty Images A view of an empty Grand Canal Reuters Las Ramblas, Barcelona, Spain Getty Images Aerial view of the empty Central cemetery in Bogota, Columbia AFP via Getty Images The facade of the Palacio de Lopez (seat of the government palace) AFP via Getty Images Miami, Florida AFP via Getty Images Aerial view of the empty Simon Bolivar park in Bogota AFP via Getty Images An LAPD patrol car drives through Venice Beach Boardwalk AP Venice Beach, California Getty Images Los Angeles, California Getty Images Surfers Paradise is seen empty in Australia Getty Images Many shops stand shuttered on the Venice Beach boardwalk Getty Images Empty escalators are seen at a deserted train station during morning rush hour after New South Wales began shutting down non-essential businesses Reuters A nearly empty Times Square in New York AFP via Getty Images Caracas AFP via Getty Images Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador AFP via Getty Images A general view of an unusually quiet Midland Park in Wellington, New Zealand Getty Images A general view of an unusually quiet Civic Square at lunchtimein Wellington, New Zealand Getty Images A policeman rides his motorcycle wearing a face mask in front of a closed shopping mall in Buenos Aires, Argentina AFP via Getty Images Florida Keys AP The historic Channel 2 Bridge closed to fishermen, bikers and pedestrians in Florida Keys AP The Beach on Scenic Gulf Drive near Seascape Resort in south Walton County, Florida sits empty of tourists AP Surfers Paradise is seen empty in Australia Getty Images A deserted Rajpath leading to India Gate in New Delhi AFP via Getty Images A general view is seen of a closed Luna Park in Sydney, Australia Getty Images A general view is seen of a closed Luna Park in Sydney, Australia Getty Images Empty roads are pictured following the lockdown by the government amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Kathmandu, Nepal Reuters An empty New York Subway car i AFP via Getty Images The empty pedestrian zone is seen in the city of Cologne, western Germany, AFP via Getty Images Place de la Comedie in the city of Montpellier , southern France AFP via Getty Images An empty street in Kuwait city AFP via Getty Images A building is covered by the Portuguese message: "Coronavirus: take precaution" over empty streets in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil, AP A general view shows an empty street after a curfew was imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters Parliament of Canada is pictured with empty street during morning rush hour AFP via Getty Images A near empty beach on Southend seafront in England PA Near empty Keswick town centre in Cumbria, England PA

"We've had high-visibility patrols right across the country since we were given these enforcement powers and it's clear that the vast majority of people are complying with the measures that are in place," he said.

"We issued 25 fixed penalty notices across Scotland over the course of Saturday and Sunday and I think that is strong evidence of how these extraordinary powers have had an impact in such a short space of time with communities across Scotland."

Mr Graham said the force received a "significant number" of calls from people asking how to comply with the new regulations and from members of the public reporting people who they felt were breaching them.

Boris Johnson thanks public for staying at home during coronavirus crisis

He explained: "We responded to those calls to make sure we could again explain why it was important, encourage people to comply with them, and in those very small number of occasions use the enforcement powers that we've got where that very small minority of people just refuse to comply with what is required.

"There was broadly three situations that happened in. We had a number of house parties still going on; we were called to attend, and people refused to break those up, then notices could be issued.

"We had groups of people outside and again, if people have refused to comply, that was some of the circumstances, and in a very small number of cases we issued fixed penalty notices to businesses that were still operating where it was not appropriate that they should continue to given the regulations that are in place."

Mr Graham's comments come after images on social media showed dozens of cars at Strathclyde Country Park in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, on Sunday.

Although the guidelines allow people to take a walk as a form of exercise each day, Mr Graham said the public were still getting used to what the measures mean for daily life.

He said: "People have been encouraged to go out and exercise, it's very clear it's taking a little bit of time for people to work out how this is going to operate.

"It's such a significant change in everybody's lives."

Mr Graham added: "Of course everybody's getting to grips with these changes that have come in so quickly.

"If there are repeated instances then the penalties rise very quickly and we'll see if that has an impact.
Meghalaya MPs Vincent H Pala and Agatha K Sangma on Monday allotted Rs 1 crore each from their MPLADS fund for procuring COVID-19 testing kits, masks protective suits and other necesssary equipment.

Over 7,700 people, who moved to the state recently, have been placed under quarantine and over 40 samples examined so far, all of which tested negative for the disease.

"I have recommended the release of Rs 1 crore from the MPLAD scheme for the purchase of ventilators, masks, preventive suits, testing kits and other medical devices," Congress MP Vincent H Pala told PTI.

In a letter to the East Khasi Hills district deputy commissioner, the MP asked him to take steps and get all necessary work done for the purpose within 45 days.

In a similar move, Tura MP Agatha K Sangma has also recommended the release of Rs 1 crore from her MPLAD scheme fund to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund.

"I'm pledging Rs 1 crore from my MPLAD to the Prime minister's relief fund. Let's work together to combat this pandemic. Let's maintain social distancing and personal hygiene which includes washing our hands with soap regularly.... We all need to help each other and be kinder so we can all get through this together. Stay safe and stay blessed everyone," the NPP MP wrote on her Facebook page.

Work is underway to set up 500 isolation beds for suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients in the state 200 in Shillong and 300 in Tura, an official stated.

Chief Secretary M S Rao said the Conrad Sangma government has also constituted a state-level medical expert committee (SLMEC) which would provide advice and guidance to the administration in tackling the crisis.

Meanwhile, the state government on Monday extended school and college closure across Meghalaya by two weeks to April 15, amid the lockdown.

D P Wahlang, the principal secretary of the education department, said, "We extended the shutdown of all educational institutions in the state from April 1 to April 15.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) on Monday announced a donation of Rs 500 crore to PM CARES Fund to support the nation's fight against the COVID-19.

In a statement, the RIL said that it has also provided contributions of Rs 5 crore each to Maharashtra and Gujarat governments to support their fight against the deadly virus.

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited, said, "We are confident that India will conquer the coronavirus crisis sooner rather than later. The entire Reliance Industries Limited team is with the nation in this hour of crisis and will do everything to win this battle against COVID-19."

Nita Ambani, Founder Chairperson of Reliance Foundation, said, "All of us at Reliance Foundation stand in solidarity with our countrymen and women. Our doctors and staff have helped set up India's first COVID-19 hospital and are committed to supporting the government in exhaustive screening, testing, prevention and treatment of COVID-19."

She stressed that the need of the hour is to support the marginalised and daily wage communities and the RIL aims to "feed 50 lakh people across the country on daily basis" through its meal distribution programme.

Acting against COVID-19, the firm along with its team has stepped up in cities and villages, on roads and lanes, clinics and hospitals, grocery and retail stores, and it has pressed additional capabilities into the service of the nation.

India's first 100-bed exclusive COVID-19 hospital for the coronavirus patients was launched by the RIL.

The company has been providing 1 lakh masks daily for health-workers and caregivers, thousands of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) daily for health-workers and caregivers, and free fuel across the country to notified emergency response vehicles.

Moreover, Reliance's Jio is seamlessly connecting nearly 40 crore individuals and thousands of organisations daily on its telecom backbone via 'work from home', 'study from home' and 'health from home' initiatives and Reliance Retail is providing essential supplies daily for millions of Indians via stores and home deliveries, the statement read.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Crime Scene Unit officers mark shell casings near a SWAT armored car after a suspected gunman who held police at bay in Holmesburg for two hours was found critically wounded following a shootout with police. Read more

Philadelphia police traded gunfire with a man before a two-hour standoff in Holmesburg ended about 1 a.m. Monday with SWAT officers finding him critically wounded inside an apartment.

Staff Inspector Sekou Kinebrew said investigators were trying to determine if the man was struck by police gunfire or had been wounded before the standoff began.

Officers were called to the apartment on the 4400block of Kendrick Street about 10:55 p.m. Sunday for a report of gunfire and a man shot, Kinebrew said.

When the man did not respond to officers requests to come out, police declared a barricade situation and called in a SWAT team.

The man fired 40 to 50 shots at police, striking a patrol car multiple times, and threw a shotgun out the window, Kinebrew said.

At least three SWAT officers fired back, Kinebrew said. SWAT officers who entered the apartment found the man shot in each arm and in the chest.

The man was taken to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital in critical condition, police said.

SWAT Sgt. James OConnor IV was fatally shot March 13 while trying to arrest a murder suspect on a warrant. That man has been charged with the officers murder.
Over the weekend there were 22 reported tornadoes in three states; six in Illinois, 10 in Iowa and six in Arkansas with significant to major damage reported in all three states.

Some of the worst damage this weekend was on Saturday in Jonesboro, Arkansas, where an EF-3 tornado was on the ground for 12.6 miles. It was 600 yards wide and it was on the ground for 16 minutes.

This is the strongest such tornado in Arkansas since 2014. Strong tornadoes like EF-3s are not that common in Arkansas and since 2000 only 24 such tornadoes have occurred in the state.

The storm that brought all the tornadoes this past weekend is moving through the Northeast and the Great Lakes with rain and some snow, but no severe weather is expected there.

Our attention now turns to the southern Plains and the Gulf Coast where a new storm system will bring more severe weather next two days.

This morning, the storm system is just moving out of the Rockies and joining a warm front along the Gulf Coast.

PHOTO: This morning, the storm system is just moving out of the Rockies and joining a warm front along the Gulf Coast. (ABC News)

Later today, severe weather is expected from the Plains into the Gulf Coast states from Kansas to Mississippi where damaging winds and large hail will be the biggest threat.

PHOTO: Later today, severe weather is expected from the Plains into the Gulf Coast states from Kansas to Mississippi where damaging winds and large hail will be the biggest threat. (ABC News)

On Tuesday, the storm system moves into the eastern Gulf Coast states from Alabama to Georgia and into northern Florida. The biggest treat there will be damaging winds and also a slightly higher tornado threat.

PHOTO: On Tuesday, the storm system moves into the eastern Gulf Coast states from Alabama to Georgia and into northern Florida. The biggest treat there will be damaging winds and also a slightly higher tornado threat. (ABC News)

New storm to bring severe weather across the South originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
The RBI has revealed that the scheme of merging 10 PSU banks into four bigger lenders is on schedule despite the country-wide coronavirus lockdown and will come into force from 1 April, 2020

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has revealed that the scheme of merging 10 Public Sector Unit (PSU) banks into four bigger lenders is on schedule despite the country-wide coronavirus lockdown and will come into force from 1 April, 2020.

The central bank said that the Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India will function as the branches of the Punjab National Bank starting from the next month.

Similarly, all Allahabad Bank branches will be treated as branches of the Indian Bank and all branches of Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank will function as Union Bank of India branches with effect from 1 April, 2020. Also, Syndicate Bank will function as the branch of Canara Bank.

The notice for the above amalgamations was released at the start of March this year. However, unions of bank officers had written to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week asking for a delay in the deadline in view of the coronavirus lockdown.

On 26 March, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made it clear that there would be no change in plans and the merger scheme will come into effect from 1 April. This statement was reiterated by the RBI later.

Customers and depositors of merging banks will be treated as customers of the bigger banks into which they have merged, the statement added.
A man has brought a High Court challenge after he was arrested following a row about social distancing with a woman in a bank queue.

Marko Topol told the woman he had the Corona Virus and would cough on her, it is alleged.

Mr Topol, a chef from Croatia, is challenging the decision to refuse him bail over what he felt was doing nothing more than becoming involved in an argument.

He was in the queue last Friday when a heated argument over social distancing allegedly developed between him and the woman who accused him of being too close to her.

She claimed he told her he had the virus and would cough on her, at which point she left the bank.

He told his solicitor he did not tell her he had the Coronavirus or any other illness and he had not threatened to cough on her anything similar.

A short time later, a garda arrived and arrested him in the bank for alleged threatening behaviour with intent to provoke a breach of the peace.

He was brought before the District Court that evening when Judge Miriam Walsh refused bail after the prosecuting garda objected because of the seriousness of the charge.

Mr Topol, who says he has never been in trouble before and works in a well known restaurant, has been in Cloverhill remand prison since Friday

On Monday, a High Court judicial review application seeking to quash the refusal of bail was adjourned until Tuesday to allow the DPP contact the garda involved.

Mr Justice Denis McDonald said, while mindful that Mr Topol was innocent until proven guilty, having regard to the significance of the offence and that public order must be maintained at this time, the State must be given time to address the claims made on Mr Topol's behalf

Mr Topol's solicitor Michael Kelleher, said in an affidavit his client, who he described as upset and afraid following his arrest and charge, says the allegation against him is false and he was "unwavering in this".

Breach of the peace is not a serious charge but it appeared the District Court was taking a very hard line with cases connected to the virus, he said. However, "the presumption of innocence cannot be discarded because of the current emergency," he said.

This was particularly so in circumstances where Mr Kelleher said he believes the State prisons are having difficulty implementing Government safety guidelines like social distancing.

Mr Justice McDonald, after hearing submissions on behalf of Mr Topol and the DPP, said he appreciated the State had very little time to investigate what transpired and must be given an opportunity to do so. He would resume the hearing on Tuesday.
White House Coronavirus Task Force response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx on Monday said U.S. deaths from the illness will eventually reach between 100,000 and 200,000, even if Americans continue to comply with stringent social distancing guidelines.

If we do things together well, almost perfectly, we could get in the range of 100,000 to 200,000 fatalities, Birx said on NBCs The Today Show. The best case scenario would be 100 percent of Americans doing precisely what is required. But were not sure, based on seeing these pictures, that all of America is responding in a uniform way to protect one another.

Birx echoed Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the Task Force and the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, who on Sunday warned of a similar number of deaths.

Looking at what were seeing nowI would say between 100 and 200,000 [deaths], Fauci said on CNNs State of the Union. But I dont want to be held to that, he added, saying projections of the spread of the coronavirus could change with new developments.

Both Birx and Fauci warned against complacency for residents of areas that have not seen a large uptick in cases.

If you just look at those and say, there are very little infections in that area or that area or that area, we dont have to worry about it, youre making a big mistake, Fauci said on CNN on Monday. Because those are timbers that could turn into big fires.

Due to the continued spread of coronavirus, President Trump announced on Sunday that his administration would continue to advocate social-distancing guidelines through April 30.

Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won, Trump said at a press conference. That would be the greatest loss of all.

As of Monday morning, there were 141,995 confirmed cases of coronavirus throughout the U.S., with 59,568 cases in New York alone, according to the New York Times. Over 2,300 Americans have died after contracting the illness.

More from National Review
Photo credit: Miquel Benitez - Getty Images

From Town & Country

Princess Maria Teresa de Borbon-Parma is the first royal to pass away after testing positive for coronavirus.

The princess' brother announced the sad news in a Facebook post.

Maria Teresa died in Paris age 86.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect people all over the world. In sad news this week, the first royal has died after testing positive for the virus.

Princess Maria Teresa de Borbon-Parma, a cousin of Spains King Felipe IV, has died at 86. According to People, Maria Teresa "was dubbed the 'Red Princess' because of her outspoken views." A professor at the Sorbonne University in Paris and Complutense University in Madrid, the princess never married and was an advocate of women's rights throughout her life.

Per People, Maria Teresa's brother, Prince Sixto Enrique de Borbon, the Duke of Aranjuez, shared a tribute to his sister on Facebook. Along with a photo of the princess, the prince wrote on March 26, "On this afternoon our sister Maria Teresa de Borbon Parma and Borbon Busset, victim of the coronavirus COVID-19, died in Paris at the age of eighty-six." The family held a memorial service in Madrid on March 27.

People around the globe have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and several royals have tested positive for the condition. It was recently confirmed that Prince Albert II of Monaco has tested positive for COVID-19, as has Prince Charles.

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A new approach brings the hope of new therapeutic options for suppressing seasonal influenza and avian flu: On the basis of an empty - and therefore non-infectious - shell of a phage virus, researchers from Berlin have developed a chemically modified phage capsid that "stifles" influenza viruses. Perfectly fitting binding sites cause influenza viruses to be enveloped by the phage capsids in such a way that it is practically impossible for them to infect lung cells any longer. This phenomenon has been proven in pre-clinical trials, also involving human lung tissue. Researchers from the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut fur Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP), Freie Universitat Berlin, Technische Universitat Berlin (TU), Humboldt-Universitat (HU), the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and Charite-Universitatsmedizin Berlin were involved in this groundbreaking work. The results are also being used for the immediate investigation of the coronavirus. The findings have now been published in Nature Nanotechnology.

Influenza viruses are still highly dangerous: The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that flu is responsible for up to 650,000 deaths per year worldwide. Current antiviral drugs are only partially effective because they attack the influenza virus after lung cells have been infected. It would be desirable - and much more effective - to prevent infection in the first place.

This is exactly what the new approach from Berlin promises. The phage capsid, developed by a multidisciplinary team of researchers, envelops flu viruses so perfectly that they can no longer infect cells. "Pre-clinical trials show that we are able to render harmless both seasonal influenza viruses and avian flu viruses with our chemically modified phage shell," explained Professor Dr. Christian Hackenberger, Head of the Department Chemical Biology at the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut fur Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) and Leibniz Humboldt Professor for Chemical Biology at HU Berlin. "It is a major success that offers entirely new perspectives for the development of innovative antiviral drugs."

Multiple bonds fit like hook-and-loop tape

The new inhibitor makes use of a feature that all influenza viruses have: There are trivalent receptors on the surface of the virus, referred to as hemagglutinin protein, that attach to sugar molecules (sialic acids) on the cell surface of lung tissue. In the case of infection, viruses hook into their victim - in this case, lung cells - like a hook-and-loop fastener. The core principle is that these interactions occur due to multiple bonds, rather than single bonds.

It was the surface structure of flu viruses that inspired the researchers to ask the following initial question more than six years ago: Would it not be possible to develop an inhibitor that binds to trivalent receptors with a perfect fit, simulating the surface of lung tissue cells?

We now know that this is indeed possible - with the help of a harmless intestinal inhabitant: The Q-beta phage has the ideal surface properties and is excellently suited to equip it with ligands - in this case sugar molecules - as "bait". An empty phage shell does the job perfectly. "Our multivalent scaffold molecule is not infectious, and comprises 180 identical proteins that are spaced out exactly as the trivalent receptors of the hemagglutinin on the surface of the virus," explained Dr. Daniel Lauster, a former PhD student in the Group of Molecular Biophysics (HU) and now a postdoc at Freie Universitat Berlin. "It therefore has the ideal starting conditions to deceive the influenza virus - or, to be more precise, to attach to it with a perfect spatial fit. In other words, we use a phage virus to disable the influenza virus!"

To enable the Q-beta scaffold to fulfill the desired function, it must first be chemically modified. Produced from E. coli bacteria at TU Berlin, Professor Hackenberger's research group at FMP and HU Berlin use synthetic chemistry to attach sugar molecules to the defined positions of the virus shell.

Virus is deceived and enveloped

Several studies using animal models and cell cultures have proven that the suitably modified spherical structure possesses considerable bond strength and inhibiting potential. The study also enabled the Robert Koch Institute to examine the antiviral potential of phage capsids against many current influenza virus strains, and even against avian flu viruses. Its therapeutic potential has even been proven on human lung tissue, as fellow researchers from the Medical Department, Division of Infectiology and Pneumology, of Charite were able to show: When tissue infected with flu viruses was treated with the phage capsid, the influenza viruses were practically no longer able to reproduce.

The results are supported by structural proof furnished by FU scientists from the Research Center of Electron Microscopy (FZEM): High-resolution cryo-electron microscopy and cryo-electron microscopy show directly and, above all, spatially, that the inhibitor completely encapsulates the virus. In addition, mathematical-physical models were used to simulate the interaction between influenza viruses and the phage capsid on the computer. "Our computer-assisted calculations show that the rationally designed inhibitor does indeed attach to the hemagglutinin, and completely envelops the influenza virus," confirmed Dr. Susanne Liese from the AG Netz of Freie Universitat Berlin. "It was therefore also possible to describe and explain the high bond strength mathematically."

Therapeutic potential requires further research

These findings must now be followed up by more preclinical studies. It is not yet known, for example, whether the phage capsid provokes an immune response in mammals. Ideally, this response could even enhance the effect of the inhibitor. However, it could also be the case that an immune response reduces the efficacy of phage capsids in the case of repeated-dose exposure, or that flu viruses develop resistances. And, of course, it has yet to be proven that the inhibitor is also effective in humans.

Nonetheless, the alliance of Berlin researchers is certain that the approach has great potential. "Our rationally developed, three-dimensional, multivalent inhibitor points to a new direction in the development of structurally adaptable influenza virus binders. This is the first achievement of its kind in multivalency research," emphasized Professor Hackenberger. The chemist believes that this approach, which is biodegradable, non-toxic and non-immunogenic in cell culture studies, can in principle also be applied to other viruses, and possibly also to bacteria. It is evident that the authors regard the application of their approach to the current coronavirus as one of their new challenges. The idea is to develop a drug that prevents coronaviruses from binding to host cells located in the throat and subsequent airways, thus preventing infection.

Berlin university alliance at its best

Cooperation between scientists from different disciplines played a major role in the discovery of the new influenza inhibitor. Biologists, chemists, physicists, virologists, medical scientists and imaging specialists from three Berlin universities HU, Freie Universitat Berlin and TU, the Robert Koch Institute, Charite and, last but not least, FMP were all involved in the project. "In my opinion, such a complex project could only have been undertaken in Berlin, where there truly are experts for every issue," stated Professor Dr. Andreas Herrmann, Head of Molecular Biophysics at HU Berlin. "It was the Berlin university alliance at its best," he added, "and I hope that the follow-up studies will be equally successful."

###

The project was funded within Collaborative Research Center 765 (Speaker Professor Dr. Rainer Haag, Freie Universitat Berlin) of the German Research Foundation (DFG).
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Members of President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force are expected to hold a press briefing Monday to address the growing pandemic in the United States.

Last week, Trump signed into law a $2 trillion economic stimulus bill to help prop up the economy. The 880-page legislation offers relief to individuals, businesses and health facilities. It includes direct payments to individuals, stronger unemployment insurance, loans and grants to businesses and more health-care resources for hospitals, states and municipalities.

At the outbreak's start in the United States, Trump initially downplayed its impact but has since changed his tune.

Earlier this month, he declared a national emergency, a move that freed up financial resources to assist Americans affected by the health crisis.

Health officials for weeks have been urging Americans to take strong precautions as coronavirus cases multiply. Earlier this month, the WHO declared the outbreak a pandemic, saying it expects "to see the number of cases, the number of deaths and the number of affected countries to climb even higher."

Task force members include Vice President Mike Pence; Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services; Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, among others.

The coronavirus, which is believed to have originated in Wuhan, China, has spread to dozens of countries, with more than 766,300 confirmed cases worldwide and at least 36,873 deaths so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. There are at least 153,200 cases in the United States and at least 2,828 deaths, according to the latest tallies.

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Washington: Early on, the dozen federal officials charged with defending America against the coronavirus gathered day after day in the White House Situation Room, consumed by crises. They grappled with how to evacuate the U.S. consulate in Wuhan, China, ban Chinese travelers and extract Americans from the Diamond Princess and other cruise ships.

The members of the coronavirus task force typically devoted only five or 10 minutes, often at the end of contentious meetings, to talk about testing, several participants recalled. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, its leaders assured the others, had developed a diagnostic model that would be rolled out quickly as a first step.

But as the deadly virus from China spread with ferocity across the U.S. between late January and early March, large-scale testing of people who might have been infected did not happen  because of technical flaws, regulatory hurdles, business-as-usual bureaucracies and lack of leadership at multiple levels, according to interviews with more than 50 current and former public health officials, administration officials, senior scientists and company executives.

The result was a lost month, when the worlds richest country  armed with some of the most highly trained scientists and infectious disease specialists  squandered its best chance of containing the virus spread. Instead, Americans were left largely blind to the scale of a looming public health catastrophe.

The absence of robust screening until it was far too late revealed failures across government, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, a former CDC director. Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins, said the Trump administration had incredibly limited views of the pathogens potential impact. Dr. Margaret Hamburg, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said the lapse enabled exponential growth of cases.

And Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top government scientist involved in the fight against the virus, told members of Congress that the early inability to test was a failing of the administrations response to a deadly, global pandemic. Why, he asked later in a magazine interview, were we not able to mobilize on a broader scale?

Across government, they said, three agencies responsible for detecting and combating threats like the coronavirus failed to prepare quickly enough. Even as scientists looked at China and sounded alarms, none of the agencies directors conveyed the urgency required to spur a no-holds-barred defense.

Dr. Robert Redfield, 68, a former military doctor and prominent AIDS researcher who directs the CDC, trusted his veteran scientists to create the worlds most precise test for the coronavirus and share it with state laboratories. When flaws in the test became apparent in February, he promised a quick fix, though it took weeks to settle on a solution.

The CDC also tightly restricted who could get tested and was slow to conduct community-based surveillance, a standard screening practice to detect the virus reach. Had the U.S. been able to track its earliest movements and identify hidden hot spots, local quarantines might have confined the disease.

Dr. Stephen Hahn, 60, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, enforced regulations that paradoxically made it tougher for hospitals, private clinics and companies to deploy diagnostic tests in an emergency. Other countries that had mobilized businesses were performing tens of thousands of tests daily, compared with fewer than 100 on average in the U.S., frustrating local health officials, lawmakers and desperate Americans.

Alex Azar, who led the Department of Health and Human Services, oversaw the two other agencies and coordinated the governments public health response to the pandemic. While he grew frustrated as public criticism over the testing issues intensified, he was unable to push either agency to speed up or change course.

Azar, 52, who chaired the coronavirus task force until late February, when Vice President Mike Pence took charge, had been at odds for months with the White House over other issues. The task forces chief liaison to the president was Mick Mulvaney, acting White House chief of staff, who was being forced out by President Donald Trump. Without high-level interest  or demands for action  the testing issue festered.

At the start of that crucial lost month, when his government could have rallied, the president was distracted by impeachment and dismissive of the threat to the publics health or the nations economy. By the end of the month, Trump claimed the virus was about to dissipate in the U.S., saying: Its going to disappear. One day  its like a miracle  it will disappear.

By early March, after federal officials finally announced changes to expand testing, it was too late. With the early lapses, containment was no longer an option. The tool kit of epidemiology would shift  lockdowns, social disruption, intensive medical treatment  in hopes of mitigating the harm.

Now, the U.S. has more than 100,000 coronavirus cases, the most of any country in the world. Deaths are rising, cities are shuttered, the economy is sputtering and everyday life is upended. And still, many Americans sickened by the virus cannot get tested.

In a statement, Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, said that any suggestion that President Trump did not take the threat of COVID-19 seriously or that the United States was not prepared is false. He added that at Trumps direction, the administration had expanded testing capacities.

Dr. Bruce Aylward, a senior adviser at the World Health Organization, led an expert team to China last month to research the mysterious new virus. Testing, he said, was absolutely vital for understanding how to defeat a disease  what distinguishes it from others, the spectrum of illness and, most important, its path through populations.

You want to know whether or not you have it, Aylward said. You want to know whether the people around you have it. Because you know what? Then you could stop it.

You cant stop it, he warned, if you cant see it.

A Startling Setback

The first time Redfield heard about the severity of the virus from his Chinese counterparts was around New Years Day, when he was on vacation with his family. He spent so much time on the phone that they barely saw him. And what he heard rattled him; in one grim conversation about the virus days later, George Gao, the director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, burst into tears.

Redfield, a longtime AIDS researcher, had never run a government agency before his appointment to lead the CDC in 2018. Until then, his biggest priorities had been fighting the opioid epidemic and the spread of HIV. Suddenly, a man who preferred treating patients in Haiti or Africa to being in the public glare was facing a new pandemic threat.

At first, Redfields agency moved quickly.

On Jan. 7, the CDC created an incident management system for the coronavirus and advised travelers to Wuhan to take precautions. By Jan. 20, just two weeks after Chinese scientists shared the genetic sequence of the virus, the CDC had developed its own test, as usual, and deployed it to detect the countrys first coronavirus case.

Thats our prime mission, Redfield said later in an interview, to get eyes on this thing.

Assessing the virus would prove challenging. It was so new that scientists had little information to work with. China provided limited data and rebuffed an early attempt by Azar and Redfield to send CDC experts there to learn more. That the virus could cause no symptoms and still spread  something not initially known  made it all the more difficult to understand.

To identify the virus, the CDC test used three small genetic sequences to match up with portions of a virus genome extracted from a swab. A German-developed test that the WHO was distributing to other countries used just two, potentially making it less precise.

But soon after the FDA cleared the CDC to share its test kits with state health department labs, some discovered a problem. The third sequence, or probe, gave inconclusive results. While the CDC explored the cause  contamination or a design issue  it told those state labs to stop testing.

The startling setback stalled the CDCs efforts to track the virus when it mattered most. By mid-February, the nation was testing only about 100 samples per day, according to the CDCs website.

Redfield played down the problem in task force meetings and conversations with Azar, assuring him it would be fixed quickly, several administration officials said.

With capacity so limited, the CDCs criteria for who was tested remained extremely narrow for weeks to come: Only people who had recently traveled to China or had been in contact with someone who had the virus.

The lack of tests in the states also meant local public health officials could not use another essential epidemiological tool: surveillance testing. To see where the virus might be hiding, nasal swab samples from people screened for the common flu would also be checked for the coronavirus.

The CDC announced a plan on Feb. 14 to perform the screening in five high-risk cities: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. An agency official said it could provide an early warning signal to trigger a change in our response strategy. But most of the cities could not carry it out.

Had we had done more testing from the very beginning and caught cases earlier, said Nuzzo, of Johns Hopkins, we would be in a far different place.

The consequences became clear by the end of February. For the first time, someone with no known exposure to the virus or history of travel tested positive, in the Seattle area, where the U.S.s first case had been detected more than a month earlier.

The virus had probably been spreading there and elsewhere for weeks, researchers later concluded. Without a more complete picture of who had been infected, public health workers could not do contact tracing  finding all those with whom any contagious people had interacted and then quarantining them to stop further transmission.

The CDC gave little thought to adopting the test being used by the WHO. The CDCs test was working in its own lab  still processing samples from states  which gave agency officials confidence. Dr. Anne Schuchat, the agencys principal deputy director, would later say that the CDC did not think we needed somebody elses test.

And the German-designed WHO test had not been through the American regulatory approval process, which would take time.

Throughout February, Redfield shuttled between Atlanta, where the CDC is based, and Washington, holding multiple calls every day with Azar and participating in the coronavirus task force.

Azars take-charge style contrasted with the more deliberative manner of Redfield, who lacked the kind of commanding television presence that impressed Trump. He was a consensus person, as one colleague described him, who sought to avoid conflict. He relied heavily on some of the CDCs career scientists, like Schuchat and Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the agencys National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Under scrutiny from Congress, Redfield offered reassurances. Responding on Feb. 24 to a letter from 49 members of Congress about the need for testing in the states, he wrote, CDCs aggressive response enables us to identify potential cases early and make sure that they are properly handled.

Days later, his agency provided a workaround, telling state and local health department labs that they could finally begin testing. Rather than awaiting replacements, they should use their CDC test kits and leave out the problematic third probe.

Barriers to Testing

Hahns first day as FDA commissioner came just six weeks before Azar declared a public health emergency on Jan. 31. A radiation oncologist and researcher who helped turn around MD Anderson in Houston, one of the nations leading cancer centers, Hahn had come to Washington to oversee a sprawling federal agency that regulates everything from lifesaving therapies to dog food.

But overnight, his mission  to manage 15,000 employees in a culture defined by precision and caution  was upended. A pathogen that Trump would later call the invisible enemy was hurtling toward the U.S. It would fall to the newly arrived Hahn to help build a huge national capacity for testing by academic and private labs.

Instead, under his leadership, the FDA became a significant roadblock, according to current and former officials as well as researchers and doctors at laboratories around the country.

Private-sector tests were supposed to be the next tier after the CDC fulfilled its obligation to jump-start screening at public labs. In other countries hit hard by the coronavirus, governments acted quickly to speed tests to their populations. In South Korea, for example, regulators in early February summoned executives from 20 medical manufacturers, easing rules as they demanded tests.

But Hahn took a cautious approach. He was not proactive in reaching out to manufacturers and instead deferred to his scientists, following the FDAs often cumbersome methods for approving medical screening.

Even the nations public health labs were looking for the FDAs help. We are now many weeks into the response with still no diagnostic or surveillance test available outside of CDC for the vast majority of our member laboratories, Scott Becker, chief executive of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, wrote to Hahn in late February. We believe a more expeditious route is needed at this time.

Ironically, it was Azars emergency declaration that established the rules Hahn insisted on following. Designed to make it easier for drugmakers to pursue vaccines and other therapies during a crisis, such a declaration lets the FDA speed approvals that could otherwise take a year or more.

But the emergency announcement created a new barrier for hospitals and laboratories that wanted to create their own tests to diagnose the coronavirus. Usually, they faced minimal federal regulation. But once Azar took action, they were subject to an FDA process called an emergency use authorization.

Even though researchers around the country quickly began creating tests that could diagnose COVID-19, many said they were hindered by the FDAs approval process. The new tests sat unused at labs around the country.

A Lack of Trust

Azar had sounded confident at the end of January. At a news conference in the hulking HHS headquarters in Washington, he said he had the governments response to the new coronavirus under control, pointing out high-ranking jobs he had held in the department during the 2003 SARS outbreak and other infectious threats.

I know this playbook well, he told reporters.

A Yale-trained lawyer who once served as the top attorney at the health department, Azar had spent a decade as a top executive at Eli Lilly, one of the worlds largest drug companies. But he caught Trumps attention in part because of other credentials: After law school, Azar was a clerk for some of the nations most conservative judges, including Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court. And for two years, he worked as Ken Starrs deputy on the Clinton Whitewater investigation.

As Trumps second health secretary, confirmed at the beginning of 2018, Azar has been quick to compliment the president and focus on the issues he cares about: lowering drug prices and fighting opioid addiction. On Feb. 6  even as the WHO announced that there were more than 28,000 coronavirus cases around the globe  Azar was in the second row in the White Houses East Room, demonstrating his loyalty to the president as Trump claimed vindication from his impeachment acquittal the day before and lashed out at evil lawmakers and the FBIs top scum.

As public attention on the virus threat intensified in January and February, Azar grew increasingly frustrated about the harsh spotlight on his department and the leaders of agencies who reported to him, according to people familiar with the response to the virus inside the agencies.

By Feb. 26, Fauci was concerned that the stalled testing had become an urgent issue that needed to be addressed. He called Brian Harrison, Azars chief of staff, and asked him to gather the group of officials overseeing screening efforts.

Around noon on Feb. 27, Hahn, Redfield and top aides from the FDA and HHS dialed in to a conference call. Harrison began with an ultimatum: No one leaves until we resolve the lag in testing. We dont have answers and we need them, one senior administration official recalled him saying. Get it done.

By the end of the day, the group agreed that the FDA should loosen regulations so that hospitals and independent labs could move forward quickly with their own tests.

But the evening before, Azar had been effectively removed as the leader of the task force when Trump abruptly put Pence in charge, a decision so last-minute that even the top health officials in the White House learned of it while watching the announcement.

A Tacit Acknowledgment

Previous presidents have moved quickly to confront disease threats from inside the White House by installing a czar to manage the effort.

During an outbreak of the Ebola virus in 2014, President Barack Obama tapped Ron Klain, his vice presidents former chief of staff, to direct the response from the West Wing. Obama later created an office of global health security inside the National Security Council to coordinate future crises.

If you look historically in the United States when it is challenged with something like this  whether its HIV crises, whether its pandemic, whether its whatever  man, they pull out all the stops across the system and they make it work, said Aylward, the WHO epidemiologist.

But faced with the coronavirus, Trump chose not to have the White House lead the planning until nearly two months after it began. Obamas global health office had been disbanded a year earlier. And until Pence took charge, the task force lacked a single White House official with the power to compel action.

Since then, testing has ramped up quickly, with nearly 100 labs at hospitals and elsewhere performing it. On Friday, health care giant Abbott said it had received emergency approval for a portable test that could detect the virus in five minutes.

The president boasted Tuesday that the U.S. had created a new system that now we are doing unbelievably big numbers of tests for the virus. The U.S., he said, had done more testing for the coronavirus in the last eight days than South Korea had done in eight weeks.

Yet hospitals and clinics across the country still must deny tests to those with milder symptoms, trying to save them for the most serious cases, and they often wait a week for results. In tacit acknowledgment of the shortage, Trump asked South Koreas president Monday to send as many test kits as possible from the 100,000 produced there daily, more than the country needs.

Public health experts reacted positively to the increased capacity. But having the ability to diagnose the disease three months after it was first disclosed by China does little to address why the U.S. was unable to do so sooner, when it might have helped reduce the toll of the pandemic.

Testing is the crack that split apart the rest of the response, when it should have tied everything together, said Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, medical director of the Special Pathogens Unit at Boston University School of Medicine.

It seeps into every other aspect of our response, touches all of us, she said. The delay of the testing has impacted the response across the board.

Michael D. Shear, Abby Goodnough, Sheila Kaplan, Sheri Fink, Katie Thomas and Noah Weiland c.2020 The New York Times Company
MEDFORD, Ore. -- Right now a lot of local businesses in southern Oregon are having to make adjustments to their normal operations due to Governor Brown's "Stay Home, Save Lives" order. The order mandates that bars and restaurants can only serve take-out or deliver food. Other "non-essential" businesses are having to close their doors completely.

These changes got local entrepreneurs thinking about a way that they could help their fellow small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. That's how the website Southern Oregon for Southern Oregon, soforso.com, was born.

Abigail Schilling is the founder of the Medford Cowork Collective, and says she wanted to create a site that puts all the information in one place, so consumers can know if a business is open, its hours, and whether or not delivery is an option. "If someone wants to support a local business, it is a way to make it easy to figure out" Schilling says.

Schilling teamed up with Emmett Armstrong who has an eye for web design. Armstrong says they heard about a similar website running out of Oklahoma City. After reaching out to OkForOk, Armstrong says they were actually able to use the same template and make SoForSo come to life.

Armstrong says he wanted a way to help the community during this hard time, and this seemed like a good way to not only help local businesses, but help the people behind those businesses.

RELATED STORY: MANY LOCAL RESTAURANTS STILL OFFERING TAKE-OUT OR DELIVERY AFTER GOVERNOR FORBIDS DINE-IN.

If you are a local business and you would like to get your information on SoForSo, all you have to do is fill out this form.
Rationing in-demand goods, like paper products, hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, masks and gloves, is now standard to prevent hoarding. Some grocery stores also placed limits on food staples. The Wheaton Target store allotted each shopper three meat items; two each of eggs, milk and butter; four loaves of bread and, for dry goods like rice, beans and pasta, no more than eight of a single item. Even that was no guarantee. Only a couple of lonely boxes of chickpea-based noodles remained on the pasta shelves.
Among those suffering from the ongoing lockdown because of the novel coronavirus outbreak is a motley group engaged with the illegal syndicates in Assam that include smugglers, police officers, politicians and members of some eminent organisations.

For the first time in many years, these illicit outfits in the state that engage in import and export of certain commodities to and from neighbouring countries and states have come to a grinding halt.

Certainly, the officers and smugglers involved in the racket have understood that it makes sense to put a stop to these syndicates for the time being. Trucks carrying cattle or betel nut at night and headed towards the border could attract wide media attention and further expose their roles in the activities.

What are these syndicates? They are illicit business networks involving transportation of items either from neighbouring countries or states by dodging the law which includes producing false invoices. While some commodities are sent to destinations outside Assam, a few are exported to Bangladesh.

Two national highways have become synonymous with these syndicates  the highway that originates in Mizoram and passes through Silchar, Shillong and Guwahati and the highway from Moreh in Manipur along the India-Myanmar border that connects Imphal, Kohima and Dimapur with Assam at Numaligarh. Both these arteries are linked to West Bengal through Sagolia and Sreerampur in the twin districts of Dhubri and Kokrajhar in Assam.

A government official in Assams border district of Dhubri claimed that 5-6 trucks carrying cattle from West Bengal were spotted heading for the border with Bangladesh at night two days ahead of the lockdown in Assam on March 25 which was drastically less than the quantity ferried earlier. Other items were conspicuous by their absence in the district due to the restriction on the movement of people and vehicles due to COVID-19.

Dhubri  Epicentre of Syndicates

The origin of illegal business syndicates in Assam is unclear although some officials are of the view that they sprung up sometime in the late 1970s at the historic coal hub of Margherita near the states border with Arunachal Pradesh.

These syndicates received a boost in 1992 after the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) suffered the first split. A section of the surrendered ULFA (SULFA) functionaries were allowed to establish these operations by imposing taxes on fish, egg and coal that are imported into the state.

The syndicates reached their peak in the late 1990s coinciding with the phase of secret killings when another group of the surrendered ULFA (SULFA) was co-opted in a planned manner by security forces to wage a war against ULFA. They have continued in the subsequent years at a lesser scale until about seven years ago when they resurfaced with a renewed momentum.

The epicentre of this thriving illicit trade is Assams Dhubri, located 265 kilometres west of Guwahati, owing to its location as a district bordering Bangladesh and West Bengal. On January 21-22, this correspondent along with journalist colleague Jayanta Kalita visited the hotspots for a field study of the phenomenon and to verify the claims made by stories in the local media.

The investigation revealed the existence of five syndicates on cattle, betel nut, coal, fertiliser and boulders. Most prolific is cattle which fetches an income surpassing the other items.

Occasionally, teak wood also passes through the districts to other destinations in the country. Sources revealed that the quantity of betel nut and teak wood passing through Sreerampur Gate in Kokrajhar is several times more than the amount ferried through Dhubri.

While cattle, fertilisers and boulders are loaded onto trucks at locations in north Bengal, betel nut is sourced from Myanmar and transported in a crafty manner by fudging documents. The export of boulders to Bangladesh is not illegal but what is unlawful is the excess quantity that is being traded beyond the permissible limit.

Deep-rooted Nexus

Supply of these commodities is likely to outstrip demand once the gates get opened. So there is a high possibility that these illicit activities would increase after the lockdown is over and also because of the need for funds for the assembly polls in Assam early next year.

The general perception in the state is that many people are involved in the syndicates who get a share of the amount generated in the trade which include some leaders of a few outfits that masquerade as patriotic organisations.

The local media in Assam had broadcast stories on the illegal syndicates regularly for almost the past two years. The last was on March 14 when news channel DY365 even named the kingpin in Dhubri which matches with the version of the locals as gathered from the field study. He had recently purchased a plot in Dhubri for construction of a house. The story goes on to name two senior police officials as being involved including a deputy inspector general who was tasked to check the racket.

A few weeks ago, another story named a top politician from eastern Assam as being deeply engaged with the illegal extraction of coal from the collieries of Ledo-Margherita bordering Arunachal Pradesh. On December 6 last year, former chief minister Tarun Gogoi had alleged that the chief ministers office also gets a share from the syndicates.

There was no reply to an email sent to Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal ten days ago for a reaction on these stories. So far no legal suit has been slapped by the government against any of the news channels on these allegations.

A former Member of Parliament from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Ramen Deka, had also raised his voice against the betel nut syndicate last year. He had also made a case before a few party leaders to intervene and issue directions to the state government.

A BJP legislator who did not wish to be named said that the syndicates exist for the constant needs of funds. He cited the example of the peace marches that were organised by the party in Assam last December during the agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act. One rally incurred an expenditure of about Rs 1 crore. Where will the money come from? The state unit cannot ask the high command for funds all the time, he claimed.

There are also rumours in Assam that a top politician known to be involved in the syndicates would soon launch a TV news channel in the coming months.

(Rajeev Bhattacharyya is a senior journalist in Assam. Views expressed are personal)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 17:51:45|Editor: Wang Yamei

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MOGADISHU, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The governor of Nugal region in northern Somalia was killed and three others injured in a suicide bomb attack on Sunday evening, an official confirmed on Monday.

A suicide bomber targetted a convoy carrying local officials, said Abdi Samad Mohamed Galan, security minister of the semi-autonomous regional state of Puntland.

"We can confirm Abdi Salam Hassan Hirsi, the governor of Nugal region, was killed in the blast, and three other soldiers including a senior police officer got injured," Galan said.

Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the bombing, which took place at around 7 p.m. on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Somali National Army (SNA) said it killed four suspected al-Shabab fighters in the Lower Shabelle region after a tip-off.

The army said the four were killed as they were planning to launch an attack on the SNA military base in Bariire town on Saturday night.

Bariire, the agriculturally rich area, was recently recovered from the terrorist group in a joint operation by the SNA with the support of African Union forces.

The allied forces have intensified operations in the Horn of African nation to flush out the militants intent on toppling the internationally-backed government of Somalia.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: TMC MP Derek O'Brien on Monday said the need of the hour is to focus on the needs of people instead of trolling and spreading fake news.

In a statement, the Rajya Sabha leader and national spokesperson of the party said this was time when every institution of the country and its citizens must come together.



COVID-19 LIVE | 6th person succumbs to coronavirus in Gujarat; India death toll 31

"We are in a national crisis. Citizens and government, Centre and states, all parties and institutions: we are in this together. In such a critical hour, disappointing to see the usual trolls resort to #FakeNews, the lowest level of political propaganda. Please desist, at least till COVID-19 is defeated. Let us focus on taking care of those who need it the most," he said.



VIEW GALLERY | 'No work, no money': Thousands of stranded migrant workers walk back home as India under 21-day coronavirus lockdown

TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had recently written to 18 chief ministers to take care of the migrants from the state.

TMC leader Derek O'Brien also reached out to DMK's MK Stalin, Shiv Sena's Aditya Thackeray and other parties on the migrant's issue.

The number of COVID-19 cases climbed to 1,024 and the death toll touched 27 after two fresh deaths were reported on Sunday evening in the country, according to the Union Health Ministry.
The death toll from the coronavirus pandemic in Italy rose by 812 to 11,591, while the total number of infections surged past 100,000 with 4,050 new cases reported.

More than 800 people died in Spain over the last 24 hours  reaching 7,340  while Irans deaths went up by 117 to 2,757.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump extended federal guidelines on social distancing until April 30 after a top health official warned between 100,000 to 200,000 people could die from coronavirus in the United States.

The US has over 159,000 confirmed infections, more than any other country in the world.

Worldwide, the total number of infections recorded since the beginning of the outbreak reached more than 775,000. Some 160,000 people have recovered globally while nearly 37,000 have died.

Monday, March 30

21:35 GMT  Trump: more than 1 million Americans tested for coronavirus

Trump said more than 1 million Americans had been tested for coronavirus and urged people to continue to follow social-distancing measures through April to prevent the virus from spreading.

Every one of us has a role to play in winning this war. Every citizen, family and business can make the difference in stopping the virus, the president said.

This is our shared patriotic duty. Challenging times are ahead for the next 30 days and this is a very vital 30 days, Trump told reporters at the White House.

Trump has previously relieved of duty those with whom he disagreed in his administration [Al Drago/Reuters]

21:30 GMT  Qatar reports 59 new coronavirus cases, total at 693

The Qatari Health Ministry confirmed 59 new cases, bringing the total to 693, including 51 recoveries and one additional death.

20:50 GMT  Show solidarity with Asian Americans:  Democrats

House Democrats are urging Americans to join in solidarity with Asian Americans to push back against xenophobic attacks, which attempt to blame Asians for the new coronavirus.

Since coronavirus infections started appearing in the United States, Asian Americans have shared stories of minor aggression to blatant attacks from people blaming them for the pandemic.

Trump initally called COVID-19 the Chinese virus, but then said he would stop using that term and defended Asian Americans publicly saying they should not be targeted for the virus spread.

But the Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, Representative Judy Chu, says his response was too late.

His words wouldnt have been necessary if he had refrained from stoking xenophobia in the first place, said Chu.

20:20 GMT  France to put domestic-abuse victims in hotels after jump in numbers

France announced it would pay for hotel rooms for victims of domestic violence and open pop-up counselling centres after figures showed the number of abuse cases had soared during the first week of a lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Gender Equality Minister Marlene Schiappa said about 20 centres would open in stores around the country so women could drop in for help while getting groceries.

The government also announced an extra one million euro ($1.1 million) for anti-domestic abuse organisations to help them respond to increased demand for services.





19:54 GMT  New York welcomes hospital ship as coronavirus accelerates

A military hospital ship arrived in New York on Monday as Americas coronavirus epicentre gears up for the peak of the pandemic, with emergency restrictions extended amid grim warnings the death toll would soar.

The navys 1,000-bed USNS Comfort docked at a Manhattan pier as more US states enforced stay-at-home orders after Trump abandoned his Easter target for life returning to normal in the United States.

The 894 foot-long (272-metre) vessel  which also has space for a dozen operating rooms  was greeted by cheering crowds after departing Norfolk, Virginia on Saturday.

19:36 GMT  California COVID-19 hospitalisations double in four days  governor

California Governor Gavin Newsom said that the number of COVID-19 hospitalisations in the state had nearly doubled over the past four days and the number of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients tripled during that time.

So far 1,421 California patients had been hospitalised with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, up from 746 four days ago, Newsom said.

The number of patients requiring intensive care beds rose to 597 from 200, he said. Altogether, 5,763 people have tested positive for the disease in the state, he said.





19:11 GMT  Israel to spend $22bn to help economy over coronavirus crisis

Israel will spend 80 billion shekels ($22bn) to help the economy weather the coronavirus crisis and the finance minister said he expected a gradual return of business activity after the Passover holiday next month.

Israels economy has been hard hit by a government lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus. Increasingly stringent restrictions have largely confined Israelis to their homes, forcing businesses to close and causing unemployment to rocket.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a further tightening of restrictions late on Monday, barring gatherings of more than two people who are not in the same family, with few exceptions, such as for funerals.

18:58 GMT  Italy lockdown will extend till Easter  health minister

Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza announced the national lockdown to contain the novel coronavirus epidemic will be extended at least until Easter.

Easter falls on April 12, and the current lockdown expires on April 3.

The governments scientific advisors have recommended the extension of all containement measures at least until Easter, Speranza said in a statement.

18:35 GMT  Why physical distancing is better than social distancing

The World Health Organization (WHO) has started using the phrase physical distancing instead of social distancing as a way to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus from people to people, a move widely welcomed by experts as a step in the right direction.

At a daily news briefing on March 20, officials of the global health body said while maintaining a physical distance was absolutely essential amid the global pandemic, it does not mean that socially we have to disconnect from our loved ones, from our family.

Read more here.

18:20 GMT  Turkey death toll from coronavirus rises to 168

As many as 37 more people died of the novel coronavirus in Turkey in the past 24 hours, according to figures released by the countrys Health Ministry bringing the death toll to 168.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases surged to 10,827 as 1,610 more people tested positive for the virus, according to the ministry.





18:14 GMT  Volatility rules Wall Street as Trump extends distancing guidelines

US stock markets opened higher as investors braced for another volatile week after Trump abandoned the idea of getting the economy back up and running by Easter and extended social-distancing guidelines through the end of April.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up more than 200 points or 1 percent higher within minutes of the start of trading on Wall Street but quickly turned tail into negative territory in what promised to be a choppy session.

Read more here.

17:50 GMT  Coronavirus economy: Recession or depression?

More economists are warning of a recession in the US, Europe and globally as coronavirus containment measures bring entire sectors of the worlds economy to a halt. Many have also compared the swiftness and severity of the coronavirus slowdown with the Great Depression that began in 1929.

Are we looking at a recession? Or a depression? And what exactly is the difference?

Read more here.

17:42 GMT  France reports record 418 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours

France reported its highest daily number of deaths since the coronavirus epidemic began, saying 418 more people had died in hospital, bringing the toll to 3,024.

There are now 20,946 people hospitalised in France with COVID-19, with 5,056 of them in intensive care, the government said in its daily update.

The French death toll includes only those who died in hospital and not those who died at home or in old peoples homes.[Stephane Mahe/Reuters]

17:40 GMT  Blasting oil price war as crazy, Trump says hell talk to Putin

Trump said on Monday that he planned to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin and said Saudi Arabia and Russia both went crazy in their oil-price war  a battle begun just as the spread of the coronavirus around the world squashed oil demand.

I never thought Id be saying that maybe we have to have an oil [price] increase, because we do, Trump said in a morning interview with Fox News Channel. The price is so low now theyre fighting like crazy over, over distribution and over how many barrels to let go.

Trump said he would talk with Putin right after the interview.

Read more here.

17:29 GMT  UK says need for global lessons learned inquiry into pandemic

Britain said there should be a lessons learned inquiry led by the World Health Organization into the coronavirus pandemic, responding to reports that the government was angry with China over the origins of the outbreak.

Foreign Minister Dominic Raab was asked about media reports that some in government feel China should face a reckoning for the virus, which was first recorded in the country.

Obviously, after the crisis has abated I think the time will be right to conduct a kind of lessons learned and Im sure the World Health Organization will be at the forefront of that, Raab said at a news conference.

17:15 GMT  J&J plans human testing of coronavirus vaccine by September

Johnson & Johnson said it made a $1bn deal with the US government to create enough manufacturing capacity for more than 1 billion doses of a vaccine it is testing to fight the new coronavirus that has killed more than 34,000 people around the world.

Johnson and Johnson said it had selected its own lead vaccine candidate and would start human testing of its experimental coronavirus vaccine by September, with an eye on having it ready for emergency use in early 2021, the drugmaker said.

Read more here.

16:50 GMT  Migrants in India sprayed with disinfectant to fight coronavirus

Indian health workers have caused outrage by spraying a group of migrants with disinfectant, amid fears that a large-scale movement of people from cities to the countryside risked spreading the coronavirus.

Footage showed a group of migrant workers sitting on a street in Bareilly, a district in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, as health officials in protective suits used hoses to douse them in disinfectant, prompting anger on social media.

Read more here.





16:16 GMT  Italy coronavirus deaths rise by 812; number of new cases falls sharply

The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy climbed by 812 to 11,591, the Civil Protection Agency said.

However, the number of new cases rose by just 4,050, the lowest amount since March 17, hitting a total of 101,739 from a previous 97,689.

Some 5,217 cases were recorded on Sunday and 5,974 on Saturday.

16:10 GMT  UK coronavirus death toll rises to 1,408

The United Kingdom coronavirus death toll rose to 1,408, according to figures released, an increase of 180, a smaller rise than the previous set of numbers.

The previous increase saw the death toll rise by 209.

16:00 GMT  Italys epidemic should stabilise soon, but vigilance needed  WHO

Lockdowns and stringent measures in place in Italy for the past two weeks should lead soon to a stabilisation in its coronavirus epidemic, but vigilant follow-up will be required, a senior official of the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

We do hope that Italy and Spain are nearly there, but the virus wont go down by itself, it needs to be pushed down through public health efforts, Dr Mike Ryan, WHOs top emergencies expert, told a news conference.

On Italy, Ryan said: We should start to see stabilisation. The cases we see today really reflect exposures two weeks ago.





15:54 GMT  Netanyahu under quarantine as aide tests positive for COVID-19

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his close aides have been placed under precautionary quarantine after a staff member within his office tested positive for the coronavirus, his office said.

In a statement, Netanyahus office said the quarantine decision was precautionary as the veteran prime minister had not been in recent proximity with the ill staffer.

Read more here.

15:30 GMT  Indigenous leaders issue plea for COVID pandemic protection

Indigenous leaders from across South America issued a desperate plea for protection against the COVID-19 pandemic, warning that the virus poses an existential threat to their communities.

With billions confined to their homes as the world tries to slow its unprecedented spread, tribes in the Amazon and Chaco regions are urging governments to ensure their territories are protected against outsiders possibly carrying the coronavirus.

Indigenous people living in voluntary isolation are especially vulnerable to infectious disease as they dont have any immunity at all against most diseases, said Claudette Labonte, from the Congress of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA).

15:20 GMT  Colombias ELN guerrillas declare unilateral ceasefire amid pandemic

The National Liberation Army (ELN), the largest active guerrilla group in Colombia, will observe a unilateral ceasefire for one month from April 1 in an effort to help stem the spread of coronavirus, it said.

Health authorities in the Andean country have reported 702 cases and 10 deaths from COVID-19.

The National Liberation Army considers it prudent to declare an active unilateral ceasefire for one month, until April 30, in a humanitarian gesture from the ELN to the Colombian people, who are suffering from the devastation of the coronavirus, the leftist rebel group said on its website.





15:00 GMT  New Zealand police site crashes as Kiwis turn into shutdown snitches

New Zealanders have become so keen on reporting their neighbours for breaking coronavirus lockdown rules that police said a website dedicated to addressing the issue crashed soon after going live.

Residents are under orders to stay at home or remain at least two metres (6.5 feet) apart if they must go outside.

Weve had 4,200 reports of people believing others werent complying, police commissioner Mike Bush told reporters. It shows how determined Kiwis are that everyone complies with us.

Bush said breaches included a party of about 60 people at a backpacker hostel in Queenstown and tourists continuing to travel the country in campervans.

14:40 GMT  Expo 2020 Dubai committee recommends one-year delay for world fair

Expo 2020 Dubais steering committee has agreed to study postponing the world fair by a year following requests by member states hit by the coronavirus, the organisers said.

A final decision on the postponement of the event due to start in October would be made by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) executive committee and the governing bodys general assembly, said a statement issued by the organisers.

Many countries have been significantly impacted by COVID-19 and they have therefore expressed a need to postpone the opening of Expo 2020 Dubai by one year, to enable them to overcome this challenge, Expo 2020 Dubai Director-General Reem Al Hashimy said, adding that UAE supported the proposal.

The UAE has placed several restrictions to curb the coronavirus outbreak that include the suspension of international flights [File: Christopher Pike/Reuters]

14:21 GMT  Poland expects sharp rise in coronavirus infections

Poland is expecting rapid growth in coronavirus cases, Health Minister Lukasz Szumowski said, as the country braces for new restrictions aimed at curbing the pandemic.

So far, 1,984 people had tested positive for coronavirus in the country of 38 million, while 26 people had died, according to the health ministry.

We are entering a new phase of the epidemic  We are expecting a very rapid growth in the number of infections in the coming weeks. This number will be rising at an exponential pace, Szumowski told news conference.

14:05 GMT  Hungary approves extra government powers, with no end date

Hungarys parliament approved a bill giving Prime Minister Viktor Orbans government extraordinary powers during the coronavirus pandemic, without setting an end date for their expiration.

The bill was approved by Orbans Fidesz party and other government supporters by 137 votes in favour to 53 against. It needed 133 votes to pass.

It has been criticised by opposition parties, international institutions and civic groups for failing include an expiration date for the governments ability to rule by decree.

It also includes measures against false information which have raised concerns they they could be used by the government to muzzle independent media.

Read more here.

Watch our full report on Coronavirus: Tracking The Outbreak, or Spying on People? https://t.co/a6Of1E8g8e  The Listening Post (@AJListeningPost) March 30, 2020

13:45 GMT  EU lists critical workers needing to cross borders

The European Union released a list of the critical workers it says must be allowed continued freedom of movement across its internal borders, despite emergency coronavirus measures.

Many of them have jobs that are important for us all to get through the crisis, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a video message.

The guidelines were put out as the EUs executive tries to maintain unity and rules across the bloc, after some member state governments took unilateral steps to restrict the inflow of EU citizens.

Hello, this is Usaid Siddiqui in Doha taking over from my colleague Umut Uras

12:50 GMT  Tokyo Olympic Games to take place from July next year

The Tokyo Olympic Games will take place from July 23 to August 8, 2021, after they were postponed last week by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Japanese organisers because of the coronavirus pandemic.

This years Games were originally scheduled to run from July 24 until August 9..

Read more here.

The Olympic Games were originally scheduled to start in July this year [Issei Kato/Reuters]

12:40 GMT  Dutch coronavirus cases rise by 884: health authorities

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands rose to 11,750 from a day earlier, with 884 new cases and 93 new deaths, health authorities said.

The Netherlands National Institute for Health (RIVM) confirmed the numbers, an 8.1 percent increase in cases, on its official Twitter account.

The total number of deaths increased to 864.

12:27 GMT  Coronavirus economy: Recesssion or depression?

An increasing number of economists are warning of a recession in the United States, Europe and globally as coronavirus containment measures bring entire sectors of the worlds economy to a halt.

Many have also compared the swiftness and severity of the coronavirus slowdown with the Great Depression that began in 1929.

Read more here.

12:13 GMT  PM Johnson leads coronavirus action despite positive test: spokesman

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been able to do everything required to coordinate the governments response to coronavirus after he tested positive for the virus last week, his spokesman said.

Hes been able to do everything that he needs to do to lead the coronavirus response, the spokesman said.

Number 10 and across government, (we have) put in place contingency plans to ensure that we can carry on working throughout this outbreak, and that we have all the capacity we need to lead the nationwide response.

Boris Johnson has been in isolation since he tested positive for the coronavirus last week [AP]

12:06 GMT  Developing countries face economic collapse in COVID-19 fight: UN

The coronavirus outbreak threatens to disproportionately devastate the economies of already impoverished countries as they gear up to tackle a health crisis with extremely limited resources, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has warned.

The socioeconomic hit on poor and developing countries will take years to recover from, UNDP said in a report released on Monday, stressing that income losses in those countries are forecast to exceed $220bn. Nearly half of all jobs in Africa could be lost, it also warned.

Read more here.

12:00 GMT  Belgiums coronavirus death toll passes 500

Belgiums death toll from the novel coronavirus passed the 500 mark, with almost 12,000 cases detected since the start of the epidemic.

Health authorities in the country of 11.4 million said 513 COVID-19 deaths had been recorded and 11,899 cases confirmed by laboratory tests.

However, officials said the rise in admissions to hospital and intensive care units had slowed slightly over the previous 24 hours.

Were not at the peak, but at what we call the inflection point  that means the force of the epidemic is beginning to diminish thanks to the efforts we have all made over the last two weeks, said Emmanuel Andre, spokesman for governments epidemic team.

On Friday, Belgium extended lockdown measures by two weeks to April 18 to slow the spread of the virus.

11:35 GMT  Goldman Sachs: Coronavirus crisis game-changer for oil sector

The coronavirus pandemic and resulting plunge in crude prices will result in a leaner, stronger oil industry but raise the risk of shortages further down the line, Goldman Sachs analysts said.

If pipelines get clogged up as reneries shut down, inventories cannot build, reducing the cushion and creating a very quick risk reversal towards oil shortages, Goldman said in a note.

This would, in turn, cause an oil shortage, pushing prices above the Wall Street banks $55 a barrel target for 2021, it said.

This will likely be a game-changer for the industry, the bank said.

Big Oils will consolidate the best assets in the industry and will shed the worst  when the industry emerges from this downturn, there will be fewer companies of higher asset quality, but the capital constraints will remain.

Oil has been hit disproportionately by the coronacrisis, sending landlocked crude prices into negative territory, Goldman said.

Paradoxically, this will ultimately create an inflationary oil supply shock of historic proportions because so much oil production will be forced to be shut in, it added. The oil price war is made irrelevant by the large decline in demand and has made a coordinated supply response impossible to achieve in time.

10:56 GMT  Libya frees more than 450 prisoners

Libyan authorities have announced the release of more than 450 prisoners as part of measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus that has infected at least eight people in the country.

A statement released by the internationally recognised governments justice ministry on Sunday said officials decided to free 466 detainees from correctional facilities in Tripoli.

Read more here.

Police officers stand in the middle of the road amid a coronavirus curfew in Misrata, Libya [Ayman Al-Sahili/Reuters]

10:46 GMT  UK PM Johnsons adviser isolating with coronavirus symptoms

Prime Minister Boris Johnsons senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, has begun self-isolating with symptoms just days after the British leader tested positive.

A Downing Street spokesman said Cummings, widely seen as one of the most powerful men in the government, had developed symptoms of COVID-19 over the weekend.

Johnson on Friday became the first leader of a major world power to announce he had tested positive for the virus. His health minister, Matt Hancock, also tested positive and the governments chief medical adviser, Chris Whitty, is self-isolating.

Cummings is widely seen as one of the most powerful men in the British government [Hannah McKay/Reuters]

10:37 GMT  Russia weighs nationwide coronavirus lockdown

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin asked regional governors to consider introducing a partial lockdown to halt the spread of coronavirus after Russia recorded its biggest rise in cases for the sixth day in a row.

Russias official nationwide tally of coronavirus cases rose by 302, taking the total to 1,836. Nine people across Russia have died, the authorities say.

Authorities in Moscow ordered residents to stay at home from Monday, their toughest move yet after the number of official cases in the Russian capital passed the 1,000 mark.

Mishustin said he thought the measures now needed to be rolled out nationwide.

10:30 GMT  Austria to make basic face masks compulsory in supermarkets

Austria will require the public to wear basic face masks in supermarkets, where they will be handed out probably from Wednesday in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said.

These masks are handed out in front of supermarkets it will be compulsory to wear them, Kurz said, adding that the aim in the medium term was for people to wear them in public more often as well. The so-called MNS masks are below medical-grade, he said.

10:21 GMT  Lockdown in Zimbabwe likely to hit vulnerable people hard

Zimbabweans rushed to supermarkets on the eve of a three-week lockdown imposed by the government on Monday to contain the spread of COVID-19.

The threat of the new disease could not have come at a worse time for millions of Zimbabweans already struggling with a deepening economic crisis bringing soaring food prices, stagnant salaries, water shortages and daily power blackouts.

Many fear steps to curb coronavirus will hit vulnerable people hard.

Read Chris Muronzis story from Harare here.

Zimbabweans rushed to stock food on the eve of the lockdown [Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP]

09:45 GMT  Irans coronavirus death toll reaches 2,757

Irans death toll from the new coronavirus has increased to 2,757 with 117 new deaths in the past 24 hours, a health ministry spokesman told state TV, adding that the total number of cases has climbed to 41,495.

In the past 24 hours, we had 117 new deaths and 3,186 new confirmed cases of people infected with the coronavirus, Kianush Jahanpur told state TV, calling on Iranians to stay at home.

People in Iran moving the body of a COVID-19 victim for burial [Ebrahim Noroozi/AP]

09:40 GMT  Spain passes China on number of cases

Spains total number of coronavirus cases rose to 85,195 from 78,797 on Sunday, the countrys health ministry said, as the infections surpassed China, which reported 81,470, according to the latest data.

The death toll from the virus in Spain rose to 7,340 on Monday from 6,528 on Sunday, the ministry said.

We recently reported on why the number of deaths in Spain is rising so quickly. You can read that article here.

09:05 GMT  India: No plan to extend coronavirus lockdown

India has no plans to extend a 21-day lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the government said, as it struggled to keep essential supplies flowing and prevent tens of thousands of out-of-work people fleeing to the countryside.

Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba told ANI, a Reuters news agency partner, that there was no plan to extend the shutdown beyond the three weeks, rejecting reports that a prolonged closure was likely.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered the countrys 1.3 billion people to remain indoors until April 15, saying that was the only hope to stop the spread.

Defying the lockdown, hundreds of thousands of workers who live on daily wages left big cities like Delhi and Mumbai on foot for their homes in the countryside, many with families.

The lockdown in India has left millions of impoverished Indians jobless [Altaf Qadri/AP]

08:50 GMT  Israeli PM Netanyahus aide has coronavirus

An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tested positive for coronavirus but initial findings indicate she had not posed an infection risk to the 70-year-old leader, according to officials.

As a routine precaution, they said Netanyahu was scheduled to undergo a coronavirus test by Tuesday. A previous test, on March 15, found the prime minister to be negative.

Israels health ministry regulations generally require 14-day self-isolation for anyone deemed to have been in proximity with a carrier.

08:34 GMT  Philippines reports seven new coronavirus deaths

The Philippines health ministry reported seven new coronavirus deaths and 128 more infections.

Total deaths have risen to 78 and infections to 1,546, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told a regular news conference.

With the arrival of thousands of testing kits and the start of operations of more laboratories, authorities are able to detect more infections, she added.

07:34 GMT  Serbia to invest 5 billion euros to cope with coronavirus impact

Serbia plans to offer about five billion euros ($5.54bn) in loans and subsidies to businesses to help them cope with the economic impact of the coronavirus.

President Aleksandra Vucic said the state will also make a one-off payment of 100 euros to every Serbian citizen older than 18, or around five million of the total population of seven million.

So far, 13 people in Serbia have died from the coronavirus, and more than 700 have been infected.

To counter the outbreak, Serbia introduced stringent measures, including a state of emergency and an overnight lockdown for all.

So far, 13 people in Serbia have died from the coronavirus and more than 700 have been infected [Darko Vojinovic/AP]

07:14 GMT  People around the world pay tribute to healthcare workers

People around the world are paying tribute to front-line healthcare staff battling the coronavirus pandemic.

As lockdowns become increasingly common around the globe, citizens have expressed their gratitude in various ways to nurses, doctors and other health workers, who are on the frontline of the struggle.

Tributes to the healthcare workers at the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic are pouring in worldwide  pic.twitter.com/K1VJsptbQp  Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 30, 2020

06:50 GMT  Lockdown in India hits HIV patients hard

Indias ongoing strict COVID-19 lockdown has widely affected HIV-positive and chronic patients with critical conditions who are facing problems accessing health services.

With 21.4 million Indians living with HIV, according to the National Aids Control Organisation data in 2017, India is believed to be home to the third-largest population of HIV-positive people in the world.

Read more here.

The strict lockdown means HIV-positive patients are having difficulty accessing treatment [Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters]

06:40 GMT  Thailand reports two new coronavirus deaths

Thailands public health ministry said two more people have died from the new coronavirus on Sunday, bringing the total number of deaths in the country to nine.

The two deaths were a 54-year-old Thai man in the southern province of Yala who had recently returned from Malaysia, and a 56-year-old Thai woman in Bangkok, said Anupong Sujariyakul, a senior official at the public health ministrys Department of Disease Control.

Earlier on Monday, Thailand reported 136 new cases, raising the total number of infections to 1,524.

06:30 GMT  EasyJet grounds fleet, furloughs cabin crew for two months

British low-cost airline EasyJet said it had grounded its entire fleet of over 300 aircraft and reached a deal with its cabin crew for employees to be furloughed for two months under a government job-retention scheme.

The airline said there was no way to tell when commercial flights could restart.

Under a deal with Unite, the union which represents its cabin crew, EasyJet crew would not work for two months from April 1 and will receive 80 percent of their average pay under the government scheme.

The airline said there was no way to tell when commercial flights could restart [File: Regis Duvignau/Reuters]

06:00 GMT  Guatemalan deported from US tests positive

A Guatemalan man who was deported from the US last week has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to a spokeswoman for the Guatemalan health ministry.

The 29-year-old was deported last Thursday on a flight chartered by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. The flight had at least 40 others on board.

Read more on this story here.

A curfew to combat the spread of the virus in Guatemala has been extended until April 12.

05:50 GMT  Nepal extends lockdown until April 7

The government of Nepal extended a nationwide lockdown put in place on March 23 by another week. International flights will also be banned until April 15.

The Himalayan country has recorded a total of five infections.

05:35 GMT  Japan to ban all travellers from US, China, Europe

All visitors from the US, China, South Korea and most of Europe will be denied entry to Japan under new rules to curb coronavirus infections, according to the Asahi newspaper.

Citing government sources, Asahi said Japans foreign ministry is expected to also advise Japanese nationals to refrain from travelling to those countries.





04:51 GMT  Australia tightens curbs on public gatherings

New rules mandating that no more than two people can gather in public will come into effect in Australia at midnight on Monday, with the states of New South Wales and Victoria introducing hefty fines for people violating those restrictions.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said members of the public should leave their house only to buy food, attend medical appointments and for exercise.

Skate parks, outdoor gyms and public playgrounds will be closed across the country, he said.

04:20 GMT  Fears of a second wave of infections in China

Concern about a second wave of infections is growing in China amid official pressure to resume normal life, according to Al Jazeeras Katrina Yu.

In Wuhan, some shops are open, and malls are starting to open their doors. People who work in essential industries, such as the cement, steel and car industries, are starting to go back to work, Yu said from Beijing.

Yu said officials are under tremendous pressure to resume normal life as President Xi Jinping travelled on Sunday to a port and an industrial park in eastern Zhejiang Province to inspect the resumption of work.

He wants to get the economy going after two months at a standstill. And because of this urgency, there are fears it may be too soon and could result in a second wave of infections, she said. Officials are also under pressure to keep numbers down, and thats causing fears they may not be transparent when it comes to reporting new cases.

Staff check QR codes on the mobile phones of people entering a shopping mall in Wuhan, Hubei province [Aly Song/ Reuters]

03:15 GMT  Lockdown leaves migrant workers stranded in Thailand

When Thailands government started shutting down the capital, Bangkok last week, tens of thousands of migrant labourers who were suddenly out of work, scrambled to return home to Myanmar.

But for Ma Moe Moe returning home is not an option. The 44-year-old was fired from her job at a garment factory recently, but is hunkering down with her husband in Bangkok, saying she feared she might not be able to return to Thailand if she left.

I am worried about bills because there is only one income source from my husband, she told Al Jazeera. Now that I have no job, I feel depressed.

Read more about the plight of Thailands migrant workers here.

02:45 GMT  Twitter removes Bolsonaro tweets on virus quarantine

Twitter took down two tweets from Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro after he cast doubt on quarantine measures aimed at containing the new coronavirus.

The far-right leader had posted several videos on Twitter on Sunday in which he mingled with supporters in the streets of Brazilian capital, Brasilia, defending their right to work and calling for a return to normality.

In one of the deleted videos, Bolsonaro also criticised isolation measures put in place by health authorities, saying: The country is immune when 60 to 70 percent are infected. He also said a treatment for the coronavirus had been found, without offering proof for the claim, according to Globo news website.

Twitter said the posts violated its rules.

02:00 GMT  Argentina extends quarantine

Argentinas President Alberto Fernandez extended a nationwide quarantine until mid-April to stem the spread of the new coronavirus.

We are going to extend the quarantine until the end of Easter. What do we aim to achieve? To keep the transmission of the virus under control, he said in a televised message.

The mandatory measures were due to expire at the end of March. The lockdown will be lifted on April 12.

Argentina has had 820 confirmed cases and 20 deaths from COVID-19.





01:40 GMT  South Korea reports 78 new cases; total at 9,661

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 78 new cases in South Korea on Monday, down from 105 confirmed infections a day earlier.

The figure brings South Koreas total infections from the beginning of the outbreak to 9,661.

The KCDC said this marked the 18th consecutive day that new infections hovered at 100 or fewer.

01:30 GMT  Japanese comedian dies

Ken Shimura, one of Japans best-known comedians, died of COVID-19 at a hospital in Tokyo, according to the public broadcaster NHK.

He was 70 years old. Many fans took to social media to pay tribute.

Japan comedian Ken Shimura dies after coronavirus infectionhttps://t.co/epcnM9gnkk  The Mainichi (Japan Daily News) (@themainichi) March 30, 2020

Famous comedian Ken Shimura died after contracting the coronavirus. This is as high a profile case to Japanese as Tom Hanks was to Americans  only Hanks recovered  https://t.co/UU57nB3LV1  James RineyCoral Capital (@james_riney) March 30, 2020

Its hard to overstate the significance of Ken Shimura for anyone who grew up watching Japanese TV in the 80s and 90s. The only silver lining is that maybe more Japanese will begin to take the coronavirus more seriously now.  Spoon & Tamago (@Johnny_suputama) March 30, 2020

00:50 GMT  Death toll in New York state surpasses 1,000

More than 1,000 people have died from the coronavirus outbreak in New York state, according to a tally by The Associated Press news agency.

On Sunday evening, New York City said its toll had risen to 776. The total number of statewide deaths is not expected to be released until Monday, but with at least 250 additional deaths recorded outside the city as of Sunday morning, the total was at least 1,026, AP said.

00:30 GMT  China reports 31 new cases in mainland

The number of COVID-19 infections in China continues to slow with health authorities in Beijing reporting 31 new cases at the end of Sunday.

The figure includes one locally transmitted infection and marks a drop from the 45 cases reported a day earlier. There were no new cases for a sixth consecutive day in central Hubei province, where the coronavirus outbreak was first detected in December last year.

In mainland China, the total number of cases to date rose to 81,470 in the mainland, while the cumulative death toll increased to 3,304.





Hello, Im Zaheena Rasheed in Male, Maldives, with Al Jazeeras continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

Read all the updates from yesterday, March 29 here.
Mahindra & Mahindra on 22 March 2020 announced suspension of the manufacturing operations at its Nagpur Plant with immediate effect and Chakan (Pune) and Kandivali (Mumbai) from 23 March, 2020 onwards.

In light of heightened concern on spread of Corona virus and pursuant to the directive of the Indian Government, the Company announced on 29 March 2020 that it has suspended all its manufacturing operations across India.

The duration of this shutdown will depend upon directives issued by the respective Government authorities in this regard.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ralph Lauren has announced that it will donate $10 million to relief efforts for the Covid-19 global crisis.

The funds will be split across different causes, including the World Health Organisations (WHO) Covid-19 Solitary Response Fund and Ralph Laurens Pink Pony Fund, a charitable arm established in 2000 which supports cancer institutions and patients around the world.

Financial grants will also be made available for Ralph Lauren colleagues struggling with medical costs, childcare or care for older people.

The foundation arm of the US designer brand will also donate a gift to the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)/Vogue Fashion Fund to support members of the American fashion community impacted by the pandemic.

Now more than ever, in this time of need, supporting each other has become our mission, Ralph Lauren wrote in a press release published on the brands site.

The announcement follows the temporary closure of select Ralph Lauren stores due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Writing on Instagram, the brand confirmed that employees would continue to be paid during this period.

At the heart of our company, there has always been a spirit of togetherness that inspires our creativity, our confidence and most importantly our support for one another," Lauren, executive chairman and chief creative officer, said in a statement.

"In the past weeks and months, that spirit has never wavered.

We believe that no matter who you are or where you are from, we are all connected. That is why we are taking significant action to help our teams and communities through this crisis.

In addition to its significant cash donation, Ralph Lauren has confirmed that it is working with its manufacturing partners to produce 250,000 masks and 25,000 isolation gowns for frontline staff.

The company joins other fashion brands in their efforts to assist those working to fight the disease.

Last week, luxury coat brand Canada Goose said it would begin making gowns to donate to healthcare workers, while Gap said it would use its factories to make protective masks and gowns for frontline workers.

Earlier this month, Louis Vuitton owner LVMH confirmed that it would start making hand sanitiser to protect people against the spread of the virus.
A cable repair vessel is on its way to the break in the WACS undersea cable. It is estimated that the repair will be completed by 4 April 2020.

This is according to the latest report from the RENAlerts service by SANReN and TENET.

RENAlerts recently confirmed that a break on the West Africa Cable System (WACS) took place on a cable belonging to TATA between Highbridge in the UK, and Seixal in Portugal.

RENAlerts reported that the repair ship tasked with fixing the break in WACS has the necessary spares aboard and is underway to the break. It is expected to arrive at the location of the break on 31 March. The completed repair of the cable is then set for 4 April.

WACS Outage Update: Cable vessel, the Ile DAix, underway to the SV8 (Highbridge UK) side cable break. ETA at cable ground  Tue 31/03/2020 09h00 UTC. Estimated repair date: Sat 04/04/2020. The approximate position of Ile DAix on its journey is as attached. pic.twitter.com/rY5YdOcq9s  SA NREN Operational Updates & Alerts (@RENAlerts) March 30, 2020

Slow speeds

The cable break has caused a degradation in international connectivity speeds for many Internet service providers in South Africa.

Making matters worse is the fact that the SAT-3 cable, which also runs along the west coast of Africa, is still down following a break on 9 March.

The Orange Marine repair ship Leon Thevenin has arrived at the break in the SAT-3 cable off the coast of Congo. RENAlerts confirmed that the ship departed from Cape Town harbour on 15 March.

The estimated repair completion date for the SAT-3 outage is 2 April 2020, RENAlerts reported.

Five major breaks in one year

The simultaneous breaks on WACS and SAT-3 are reminiscent of a similar situation earlier this year when both cables went down on the same day in January.

Both cables had breaks in the middle of the ocean, also off the coast of Congo, and WACS was affected by a second break near a European landing station.

Bad weather in Cape Town delayed the Leon Thevenins departure at the time, and South Africans were plagued with slow Internet for weeks until WACS was repaired.

The two cables were only fully restored on 19 February.

Now read: Seacom affected by WACS cable break
(Alliance News) - Shares in biotechnology company ValiRx PLC fell on Monday as it warned that it is "critically short" of working capital.

The stock closed 28% lower at 0.031 pence each on Monday afternoon in London.

It said that it remains dependent on relief from creditors to keep going, adding that it is also in discussions with potential funders who have agreed to invest should shareholder approval be granted.

In February, shareholders rejected a motion proposed by ValiRx to allow it to issue new shares to raise some funding. ValiRx had warned in January a lack of shareholder backing would "impair" its ability to keep funding clinical trials.

A general meeting was due to be held last Wednesday but was postponed due to government-imposed restrictions.

"The company is reviewing options available to it in order to reconvene the meeting, bearing in mind the current restrictions on public gatherings. There is no guarantee that resolutions will be passed by shareholders at the general meeting or that funding will ultimately be available to the company or that creditors will be willing to extend their support to enable potential funding to occur," ValiRx said.

On March 10, the company announced a shareholder meeting, seeking shareholder approval to consolidate 125 existing shares into one share, then sub-divide that share into one new ordinary share and one new deferred share.

The consolidation plan came after speaking with shareholders following the rejection of the attempt to issue new shares.

On March 4, ValiRx said a group of investors owning more than 5% of the firm asked for a meeting to remove Chief Executive Satu Vainikka and Chief Operations Officer George Morris.

By Ife Taiwo; ifetaiwo@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
TDT | Manama

The Ministry of Education launched yesterday an additional online service that allows teachers to reach out online to thousands of students at the same time, through the Microsoft Teams and Office 365 programmes.

The subject teacher presents the lessons and specialised supporting teachers answer questions by the students. This additional service enriches and enhances the ones that have been activated during the past weeks through the ministrys portal, video lessons via the TV channel, and 14 channels on YouTube, Education Minister Majid bin Ali Al Nuaimi said as he attended the launch.

The ministry is committed to providing the best online opportunities for students and diversifying the means of learning so that they can continue studying at home and interact with their teachers.

The minister praised the efforts of the teachers, specialists, school administrators and all those involved in easing and maximising remote learning for all Bahrain students.
The sudden, disorganized nationwide three-week shutdown announced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, starting at midnight March 24, is causing immense hardship, especially for hundreds of millions of workers and rural toilers, manifestly undermining efforts to halt the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

For weeks, Indian authorities, including Modi himself, had boasted that India had the coronavirus pandemic firmly under control. They based this claim on the relatively small number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, blithely ignoring medical experts who warned that the small infection rate was in all likelihood a function of the tiny number of tests administered.

Then last Tuesday evening, Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government abruptly shifted gears. Having wasted two precious months, during which they had focused Indias anti-coronavirus efforts almost entirely on bans on entrants from foreign countries, Modi announced an unprecedented shutdown.

Migrant workers with their families

Claiming that if radical steps were not taken to break the chain of infection many would die, the prime minister ordered virtually all of Indias 1.37 billion people to remain in their homes for the next 21 days. In an act of criminal negligence, he did so without explaining how people, in rural areas and many urban slums, would get access to food and waterlet alone how they would pay for them, if they could not work.

The result has been chaos, including large disorganized movements of people, opening up conditions conducive to the rapid spread of COVID-19 cases, both in number and geographically, from urban to rural India.

With the government giving people only a few hours to procure food, medicines and other essential items before the lockdown took full force, millions of people rushed to retail shops and markets.

Although the government claimed at the outset that the supply of goods would not be interrupted, shops in many cities had either run out of essential items or they were being quickly depleted. In many cities and towns, promised online deliveries were not functioning. There were numerous reports of police preventing trucks carrying food and other key supplies from crossing state borders. Even manufacturers of medical equipment needed to fight the virus said that they were struggling to get raw materials, and that some of their staff were being prevented from reporting for work.

Particularly poignant is the plight of millions of migrant labourers, who having lost their jobs and bereft of any savings, have undertaken to walk hundreds of kilometers to their native villages, clutching their children and meagre belongings. They are walking because the government has shut down all public transport, including train service.

Many of the migrants are in miserable circumstances, some having been forced to depart without receiving back wages. According to press reports at least 22 migrant workers have died on their way home. These include 38-year-old Ranveer Singh, who died from a heart attack on the Delhi-Agra highway on Saturday morning. He had already walked 200 km from the national capital toward his village in Madhya Pradeshs Morena district. Four other migrant workers, who were walking home after they had lost their jobs, were crushed to death and three others injured Saturday, when a speeding truck ran over them at Bharol village in Vinar on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway.

Amid mounting popular anger over the governments inaction and callous indifference, the BJP state government in Uttar Pradesh announced Saturday that it would arrange thousands of buses to ferry migrant workers who had been held up at the borders of the countrys most populous state. Again due to a total lack of forethought, the governments social distancing policy collapsed as more than 100,000 migrant workers jostled against each other as they sought to secure a bus space.

Media headlines gave an inkling of the social disaster now playing out across the nation. In Covid-19 shutdown, many of Delhis poor and homeless are being forced to starve (The Print, March 27); Not China, not Italy: Indias coronavirus lockdown is the harshest in the worldThe biggest human migration on foot after [the 1947] Partition (Scroll.In, March 29); Mumbai Cops Opened 2 containers trucks, found over 300 migrant workers (NDTV, March 26);  Hunger can kill us before the virus: Migrant workers on the march during lockdown (The Wire, March 27).

This disaster is all the more bitter because the disorganized, ill-conceived lockdown is undoubtedly helping to spread the virus because Indias dilapidated and nonexistent public health infrastructure, desperate poverty, and high population density threaten to cause a catastrophic loss of life numbering in the millions.

Two days after Modi ordered the lockdown, Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharamanan announced a 1.7 lakh crore rupee (US $22.5 billion) package of relief measures, equivalent to just 0.8 percent of Indias GDP. In per capita terms, this is about $16 per person.

But even this meagre sum is largely smoke and mirrors. A March 27 NDTV opinion piece cites an analysis by research firm CLSA that shows that the central government money is only providing about 400-500 billion rupees of new money (less than a third of the total package). The rest will come from state governments or through the rescheduling of already existing entitlements.

Meanwhile at the governments urging, the Reserve Bank of India has taken steps to inject 3.7 trillion rupees ($49.4 billion) into the countrys financial markets to boost the fortunes of Indian and foreign capital.

Seetharamanan claimed the paltry relief measures will mean No one will go hungrythis in a country where the government recently conceded that more than 90 percent of children under the age of five are undernourished.

The BJP finance minister claimed that as the result of the governments measures, 800 million people will get 5 kg of rice or wheat free for the next three months, over and above the 5 kg they already get, as well as 1kg of preferred pulses. She added that ration card holders can take the food grains and pulses from the Public Distribution System (PDS) in two installments.

But Seetharamanans statement raised a very large question mark over whether even this meagre support will in fact reach most of the 800 million poor, since, according to reports, there are only 230 million ration-card holders. Many migrant workers cannot access the PDS system, which is linked to where their families reside.

As part of the governments relief package, she announced that hundreds of millions of rural farmers will immediately be given 2,000 rupees ($26.65) through direct cash transfer under the existing PM Kissan Yojana program in the first week of April. However, many commentators pointed out that this is in fact the first installment in a scheme announced just before the 2019 elections. Underscoring the Modi governments contemptuous attitude towards the rural poor, the package also provided a pitiful 20 rupee increase in the daily wage paid to those employed under the states MGNREG scheme, which promises to provide 100 days of menial minimum-wage work to one member of every rural family that requests it.

Seetharamanan also said that the government will provide medical insurance coverage of up to five million rupees ($66,796) for all healthcare workers. This is an attempt to cover up and financially compensate for the Modi governments criminal failure to provide basic protective gear for healthcare workers on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19. Reuters has reported that a four-page internal document dated March 27 from the Invest India agency noted that India needs at least 38 million masks and 6.2 million pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) as it confronts the spread of the coronavirus. However, the quantity of masks available from the companies canvassed was just 9.1 million, while the number of PPE body coveralls stood at less than 800,000.

Chillingly, the Invest India document related to the needs of just seven of the countrys 36 states and federal territories, meaning the total demand for such equipment required could be much higher.

On Sunday, the total number of COVID-19 cases in India surpassed 1,000, and the death toll rose to 27.
A n Italian doctor boosted morale in a coronavirus-hit hospital by ending his shift with an impromptu piano performance.

Christian Mongiard went to buy a sandwich in northern Italys Circolo di Varese hospital on Saturday when he spotted the instrument in one of the waiting rooms.

The medic, who has been volunteering in the clinics high-intensity medicine unit, sat down at the stool while still wearing his protective mask and scrubs.

He then performed an energetic rendition of Queens Dont Stop Me Now to the delight of his scant audience.

A recording of the recital has now been shared thousands of times on social media after one onlooker captured it on camera.

Christian Mongiard ended his long shift treating Covid-19 patients on a musical note / PA

This excellent doctor could not have chosen a better song, said Dr Gianni Bonelli, the general manager of the hospital.

It may seem like nothing, but it is everything. It is the spirit you need, the tension that is released, the encouragement you need.

It is a gesture that expresses all the passion that animates it and that is shared by our operators: they are doing extraordinary things for the sole purpose of saving lives and returning patients to their families, often far away.

Not an emotion, mind you: that passes, it is ephemeral. The passion of ours is a constant vibration that is expressed every day, and in these difficult days more than ever.

Italy has overtaken China as the country worst hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, accounting for a third of the worlds confirmed deaths.


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Leading opponents of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro have urged the far-right leader to resign in a joint letter that said he committed a crime with his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Bolsonaro has compared COVID-19 to a "little flu" and run into a firestorm of criticism, including from some in his own camp, for speaking out against social distancing measures.

He has also broken them himself, flying in the face of guidelines from the World Health Organization and his own government.

"Enough is enough. Bolsonaro is more than just a political problem, he has become a public-health problem.... He should resign," said the statement on Monday, which was signed by a dozen leading left-wing figures.

"The emergency in our country is being made worse by an irresponsible president.... He is committing crimes, spreading false information, lying and inciting chaos."



Signatories included former presidential candidates Fernando Haddad and Ciro Gomes, who finished second and third, respectively, to Bolsonaro in the 2018 election, and the leaders of five opposition parties.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly lashed out at measures such as closing businesses and schools to contain the spread of the virus, saying it will unnecessarily put the brakes on Latin America's largest economy.

On Sunday, he even ran afoul of Twitter, which removed two of his tweets for violating its rules on content that contradicts public health information from official sources.

Bolsonaro had posted videos in which he ignored social distancing guidelines by hitting the streets of Brasilia to chat with supporters, urging them to keep the economy going.

But Bolsonaro only renewed his attacks on containment measures taken in places such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, telling journalists outside the presidential residence that Brazil faced "chaos, hunger and suffering" if local authorities continued "destroying jobs."



Brazil has reported the most coronavirus cases in Latin America so far: 4,256, with 136 deaths.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In 1924, the Grant Park Municipal Stadium opened and one year later was renamed Soldier Field at the request of the Chicago Gold Star Mothers. The stadium has hosted rodeos, music festivals, prep football games, the first Special Olympics and more before becoming the home of the Chicago Bears in 1971. It went through a major redesign in 2003.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is using the COVID-19 epidemic to establish dictatorial rule. Following the declaration of a state of emergency on March 11, the countrys parliament is to be effectively abolished with the introduction of an Emergency Ordinance Act. The act will allow Orban to take sole control of all spheres of power.

The act allows the government to suspend parliament indefinitely. Decrees from the prime minister must then merely be communicated to the president of parliament. The government can suspend the application of individual laws, deviate from legal provisions and take other extraordinary measures. It is given the right to suspend the application of certain laws by decree and introduce other exceptional measures to guarantee the stability of life, health, the personal and material security of citizens and the economy, the act reads.

On March 23 parliament refused to discuss the draft law when it was first introduced as an urgent motion. The rejection was possible because passing the act required a four-fifths majority. The government, however, will submit the bill a second time on March 31. This time the act requires a two-thirds majority of deputies, i.e., the majority which Orbans party, Fidesz, already possesses in parliament.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (Photo Credit: Annika Haas (EU2017EE))

The government plans to introduce criminal offences which would directly eliminate democratic rights. Anyone who publishes reports or messages that could hinder the successful protection of the public against the coronavirus can be punished with up to five years in prison. This means in plain language: Any criticism of official government propaganda is a punishable offense. Persons who violate quarantine regulations can also be imprisoned for between five and eight years.

Orban is using the coronavirus epidemic as a pretext. From the start his government has ignored and downplayed the crisis. Despite the onset of the virus only around 6,000 people have been tested and the Hungarian health care system has already been stretched to its limits by a still relatively small number of cases.

In addition, Orbans Fidesz party is using the coronavirus pandemic to conduct a vile racist and anti-Semitic campaign. The government has already expelled 13 Iranian students from the country for allegedly violating quarantine rules. The Iranians later said that the hygienic conditions they were subjected to were catastrophic and they had received no information with whom they had to share rooms.

Orban has publicly stated that immigration is to blame for the spread of the infectious disease. At the same time, numerous journalists and scientists complain that the government has failed to release and/or falsified key data.

The government has said it will only deploy the new emergency laws until the end of the year, but its announcement should be given no credibility.

Since taking power in 2010, Orban has persistently built up authoritarian structures. He has effectively abolished freedom of the press, filled important offices in the judiciary and administration with party loyalists, and waged a brutal campaign against refugees and those supporting them. Fidesz maintains close ties to far-right circles and glorifies leading figures in the fascist dictatorship which ruled Hungary in the 1930s and 1940s.

Orban regards the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity to establish a dictatorial regime that will abolish any parliamentary limits and maximize his personal power. The government has already placed 140 key companies under military supervision. In addition, the army is being extensively deployed for domestic control purposes. with military units patrolling the streets of the capital. At an event organized by the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MKIK), Orban said that preparations had to be made for brutal changes.

According to defence minister Tibor Benko, the aim of the military operation is to monitor and secure operations during the coronavirus epidemic. The sequestered companies include both state and private companies, including the Paks nuclear power plant, the MOL oil and gas group, electricity, water and gas suppliers, the stock exchange, several banks, transport companies, the post office, the MTVA media company and pharmaceutical companies. Defence ministry control teams consist of representatives of both the military and police.

The new measures are aimed directly at workers who refuse to work in dangerous conditions during the pandemic. In mid-March Orban declared he saw no reason to close schools, and if he did, teachers would not be paid. He only changed his stance following a massive public outcry.

Audi, Opel, Mercedes and Suzuki have all stopped auto production in Hungary. Finance minister Mihaly Varga has already spoken of a massive slump in economic performance due to the ongoing restrictions linked to the COVID-19 virus. For this eventuality the government has announced extensive corporate tax breaks.

At the same time opposition to the government dictatorship is growing across the country. Hungarian-born journalist Paul Lendvai has warned of a transition to dictatorship and a group of lawyers, including former constitutional judges, have launched an online petition against the new act. It received over 40,000 signatures within a few hours.

For its part there has been hardly any criticism of the new measures from the leadership of the European Union or individual European countries. Orban is the European leader who is most advanced with his policy of using the current crisis to brutally attack the working class, but ruling elites across Europe are moving in the same direction.

In Poland, the right-wing governing party PiS has refused to postpone the presidential election in view of the dramatic development because it expects benefits for incumbent Andrezj Duda. In Germany, Handelsblatt published an interview with the financial investor Alexander Dibelius, who bluntly said that the deaths of millions of people should be preferred to an economic crash that endangers his assets and the wealth of his customers. For this reason, no further measures should be taken to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

In the United States, Donald Trump said at a press conference that he wanted American operations to reopen in a few weeks, not months. The ruling class is well aware that forcing workers back to their jobs under conditions of a deadly pandemic requires the use of dictatorial means and is incompatible with democracy.
SASKATOONSome organizations say theyre concerned about whats happening to some of Saskatchewans most vulnerable residents during the COVID-19 outbreak, and they want answers from the province.

Jason Mercredi, executive director of AIDS Saskatoon, is part of a network of community groups trying to support the citys homeless through the pandemic.

He says hes also facing bureaucratic roadblocks trying to get people onto income assistance.

People who typically rely on couch-surfing have been pushed out of these go-to places over concerns about the novel coronavirus, he says.

They need to find somewhere safe to go, but shelters are limiting capacity to adhere to physical distancing requirements, and non-profits that can usually help have closed their doors.

There are hurdles in trying to get people onto income assistance or renew their benefits, he adds, like being told it will be 10 working days before someone can get on the program. And that means it might be early May before they land stable housing.

Its completely inadequate, says Mercredi.

Im from the north and I remember when the (forest) fires happened. Basically mountains got moved and people got housed.

As of Sunday, Saskatchewan had reported a total of 156 cases of COVID-19 in the province.

A lack of housing is one reason the Saskatchewan Youth In Care and Custody Network recently penned a letter to the Ministry of Social Services, asking it to stop transitioning youth out of care during the pandemic. It also asked the province to check in with all those who had left over the past year to make sure they are OK.

Provincial outreach worker Richard Rothenburger says when a young person typically leaves care, they lose the home theyve been staying at, along with access to their worker and other services.

Its a stressful time as is, he says. During the outbreak, young people should be able to stay where they are without worrying about having to find a new place to live or a job.

Its causing a lot fear and anxiety and stress for the young people that are experiencing this.

Ontario has announced it wont allow youth to age out of care during the pandemic. Calgary also plans to send some of the citys homeless to hotels.

Premier Scott Moes government has announced support for workers impacted by the economic shutdown, as well as a suspension of evictions by landlords.

In a statement, the executive director of Saskatchewans Income Assistance Service Delivery says its working on ways to connect people to housing options during the crisis and will provide money for emergency hotel stays and additional services when appropriate.

The governments website also says that it has temporarily relaxed some reporting requirements for those on income assistance.

Mercredi says Saskatchewan needs a long-term plan for dealing with people on income assistance and how to have homeless residents self-isolate and get screened for COVID-19.

Public health officials are telling people to take an online self-assessment tool and call 811 for a referral. But these are people without guaranteed access to phones and computers, especially with the closure of public libraries, Mercredi says.

Were quite worried about COVID entering the homeless population. And when it does, its going to spread like wildfire because we dont have systems in place or screening in place to deal with that as it comes up. And we keep getting told, Things are in the works.

If speeds the key, then why arent we doing this with the most marginalized?
President Donald Trump View Photo

President Trump delivered remarks at the Naval Station in Norfolk, Virginia for the send-off of the USNS Comfort.

Trump was Mondays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are his words:

Thank you very much, Mark. And youre doing a fantastic job, and our country appreciates it very much.

And thank you, everybody, for being here. Today, Im deeply honored to be at Naval Station Norfolk  the largest naval base anywhere in the world, and the home to the most powerful fleet that has ever sailed the seas. I just passed some of the most beautiful and, frankly, the most highly lethal ships that I have ever seen in my life, and there are a lot of them. And theyre in better shape now than they have been for many, many decades, with what were doing.

Were grateful to be joined by Commander of the U.S. Fleet Forces, Admiral Christopher Grady, and Commander of the U.S. Second Fleet, Vice Admiral Woody Lewis. Thank you both for being here. We appreciate it very much.

As we gather today, our country is at war with an invisible enemy. We are marshalling the full power of the American nation  economic, scientific, medical, and military  to vanquish the virus. And we will do that.

Today, Im here to express my profound gratitude to the dedicated service members who will soon be on the frontlines of this fight. In a few moments, the crew of the Navy Hospital Ship USNS Comfort  which is really something  will embark for New York City, where they will join the ranks of tens of thousands of amazing doctors, nurses, and medical professionals who are battling to save American lives.

This great ship behind me is a 70,000-ton message of hope and solidarity to the incredible people of New York  a place I know very well, a place I love. Were here for you, were fighting for you, and we are with you all the way, and we always will be. You have the unwavering support of the entire nation, the entire government, and the entire American people.

After being rushed out of maintenance with historic speed  it was supposed to be here for four weeks, and they did it in four days  the Comfort will arrive at Pier 90 in Manhattan on Monday, three weeks ahead of schedule. Its crew will begin treating patients on Tuesday. It will be met in New York Harbor by Governor Cuomo, who I just spoke with; hes very excited  and they need the help.

The skilled sailors and civilian mariners aboard this ship will provide a critical surge capacity for the New York metropolitan area. Their mission will be to care for New Yorkers who do not have the virus but who require urgent care. In other words, theyll be using this  people will be coming out of hospitals who dont have the virus, and theyll be on the ship where they have great operating rooms and great facilities. And the places inbound, on land, will be where people that have the virus will be. So the people with the virus will not be on ship. The ship will be used for people having operations and other things other than that.

By serving these emergency patients away from the hospitals, beds will be opened up all over the city for those who are infected. This ship can handle a lot of people, so it will open capacity all over the city. And it will be ready to address any life-threatening medical emergency. It is stocked. Its stocked to the brim with equipment and medicines and everything you can think of. Importantly, by treating non-infected patients remotely on the ship, it will help to halt, very strongly, the transmission of the virus.

The Comforts sister ship on the West Coast, the USNS Mercy, arrived ahead of schedule, substantially, in port yesterday. Governor Gavin Newsom was very thankful for it. Theyre working very hard in California. Its performing a similar mission for the people of Los Angeles and the people of California.

As the USNS Comfort gets underway, it is fully loaded with 12 operating rooms  and they are fully equipped  1,000 hospital beds, a medical laboratory, a pharmacy, an optometry lab, digital radiology, a CAT scan, two oxygen-producing plants, and a helicopter deck, which will be used very actively.

It also bears our militarys greatest weapon of all: a crew of nearly 1,200 outstanding members of the United States Navy. And I thank them very much. Among the sailors departing today are some of the finest doctors, nurses, technicians, orderlies, and medical staff anywhere in the world. These are true professionals. And no one performs better under pressure when lives are on the line. These are incredible people.

We will stop at nothing to protect the health of New Yorkers and the health of the people of our country in their hour of need. I also want to remind everyone about the CDCs latest guidance: If you are from the New York metropolitan area and you travel elsewhere, we need you to

self-quarantine for 14 days to help us contain the spread of the virus.

And I am now considering  well make a decision very quickly, very shortly  a quarantine, because its such a hot area, of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Well be announcing that, one way or the other, fairly soon. This does not apply to people such as truckers from outside the New York area who are making deliveries or simply transiting through. It wont affect trade in any way.

The Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA are racing to build temporary hospitals  which are now completed, by the way, in record time  four hospitals, four medical centers. And in speaking with the governor this morning, were giving them an additional four large tents, which they need very badly. And the emergency medical stations in New York are top of the line. You have them in not only New York, but in California and Illinois. Well be adding some to other states also.

Ive empowered our nations governors with the resources to call up the National Guard and authorized the activation of Ready Reserves. Two big words: Ready Reserves. FEMA has shipped or delivered 11.6 million N95 respirators, 26 million surgical masks, 5.2 million face shields  and a lot are being made of all of the things I just named right now; we have millions and millions of new medical items being made as we speak, and purchased  4.3 million surgical gowns, 22 million gloves, and 8,100 ventilators.

We have moved rapidly to mobilize every instrument of American power. This week, I invoked the Defense Production Act to compel General Motors to carry out federal contracts for ventilators. And I think theyre going to do a great job; I have to say that.

Were also working with the major ventilator companies in the United States  all big name companies, all companies that do ventilators, so they wont need extra time, and theyre gearing up and theyll be working 24 hours around the clock, and they have been; theyve been doing a fantastic job  to accomplish a historic ramp-up, and a ramp-up in the kind of numbers that were talking about.

And if we make too many, thats going to be okay, because I spoke with the Prime Minister of the UK yesterday, Boris Johnson. He tested, as you know, positive. And before I even was able to get a word out of him, he said  I said, How are you doing? He said, We need ventilators. The UK needs ventilators. A lot of countries need ventilators badly. Its a tough thing to make. Its a very complicated and expensive piece of equipment. I would say more so than a car. Youre talking about expensive, complicated equipment. So I hope we, soon, will have enough that we can help other countries with ventilators. A lot of countries need them.

In the next 100 days, America will make or acquire three times more ventilators than we do in an entire year. We are so geared up. At Boeing, Ford, Honeywell, 3M, Hanes, and other great American companies, factory floors and manufacturing lines are being converted to produce the respirators, protective masks, face shields, and other vital equipment. And those companies have been amazing. And Boeing is giving us their cargo-moving planes. Theyre the biggest cargo movers anywhere in the world, and were going to be using them to ship certain types of equipment to various states.

Hundreds of millions of Americans are also making tremendous sacrifices on the home front. In a historic drive to support our great workers and businesses, I signed into law the single-largest economic relief package in American history. You saw that yesterday.

The $2.2 trillion  and think of that: $2.2 trillion, but it goes to $6.2 trillion, depending on what we decide. This legislation delivers job retention loans for small businesses to help them keep workers on payroll, expanded unemployment benefits, and direct cash payments to American citizens. And these are very substantial payments. A family of four will be getting approximately $3,400.

This legislation also provides massive increases in funding for hospitals who need it, for Disaster Relief Fund, and critical life-saving medical supplies. Were spending a tremendous amount of money on medical supplies. Were trying to get it to the point needed directly, as opposed to our supply lines, so it can go directly to where they need it without having to go through a long process. I dont want to say bureaucratic, but we have not  this group of people has worked so incredibly hard, and the energy and the speed with which theyre delivering everything has been really admired by everybody. Everybody is talking about it  the job theyre doing.

My administration has also taken action to dispend [sic]  and suspend federal student loan payments. So were suspending  and that means suspending, in every sense of the word  student loan payments so that the students that are not able to take advantage of whats going on, obviously  for obvious reasons  they will be  the payment suspended.

Weve temporarily stopped federal evictions and foreclosures. Weve postponed Tax Day until July, which is a big thing; first time thats happened. And waived regulations to speed new treatments to the market. And we have new treatments coming on rapidly. Were doing very well, we think, with the vaccines, and were doing very, very well with, hopefully, or potentially, cures. Were looking at a lot of different alternatives, a lot of different medicines. That would be game changer.

The battle in which were now engaged has inflicted many hardships on our nation and our families  tremendous hardship on some families  and much death. Much death. But through it all, the world has witnessed the unyielding resolve of our incredible American people. We are not only a country of vast resources; were a nation of colossal strength, towering spirit, soaring patriotism, and exceptional character. And youre showing it to the entire world.

At this moment, there are 151 countries throughout the world that are under attack by this horrible, invisible enemy. One hundred and fifty-one countries. And were in touch with a lot of them. Our professionals are the best in the world. But who would ever think 151 countries are under attack?

We are one family, bound together by love and loyalty  the eternal traits so perfectly embodied by the extraordinary men and women aboard this ship, and the men and women at this beautiful, scenic, but really tough base. This base is something. Thank you very much. This base is something very, very special.

With the courage of our doctors and nurses, with the skill of our scientists and innovators, with the determination of the American people, and with the grace of God, we will win this war and we will win this war quickly with as little death as possible.

And when we achieve our victory  this victory, your victory  we will emerge stronger and more united than ever before. We are going to be at a level of preparedness in case something like this should ever happen again  and, God willing, it wont. But we are prepared. What weve done in building systems, were now the number one tester anywhere in the world, by far. Were testing more in one day than other countries are testing in weeks, in months.

Weve learned a lot. And I cannot be more thankful to the American people. And I can say this, and I can say this from the bottom of my heart: I am very proud to be your President.

Thank you very much, and God bless you all. Thank you. Thank you very much.

The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.
Unfazed by the nationwide lockdown, a 22-year-police constable walked for nearly 20 hours during the 450-km journey from his hometown in Uttar Pradesh to Rajgarh in Madhya Pradesh to join duty.

IMAGE: Police officials urge people to stay at their homes during a nationwide lockdown in the wake of coronavirus pandemics, in Mathura, on Monday. Photograph: PTI Photo

The Rajgarh police lauded constable Digvijay Sharma's commitment towards work and advised him rest for a few days as his legs got sore muscles after travelling long hours on foot.

Talking to PTI on Monday, Sharma said he was on leave from March 16 to 23 to appear for his BA (Bachelor of Arts) exams at Etawah in Uttar Pradesh. But, the exams got postponed due to the shut down.

"I contacted my boss -- Pachor police station inspector -- and told him that I want to join duty during these testing times. He advised me against it as there was no transport facility available," he said.

Sharma's family also advised him to stay at home, but he could not hold himself back.

"I started my journey on foot from Etawah on March 25 morning. I walked for nearly 20 hours during my journey in which I took lifts from people on motorbikes and reached Rajgarh on Saturday night. I subsequently informed my boss about my arrival," he said.

Sharma said during the journey he did not get anything to eat for a day, but later some social organisations provided him food.

"My boss asked me to rest as I have sore legs. I will join duty soon," said the constable, who joined the Madhya Pradesh Police force on June 1, 2018.

Rajgarh Superintendent of Police (SP) Pradeep Sharma said he gave the constable a letter lauding his commitment and dedication towards work during such challenging times.

"I am going to write to the state Director General of Police, requesting him to give the constable a letter of appreciation," the SP added.
Syracuse, N.Y.  St. Josephs Health hospital in Syracuse announced today that they are critically low in personal protection equipment for doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

We are taking it day by day, said Joe Bick, a registered nurse and the hospitals manager of emergency management and disaster preparedness, in a news release. Its a constant challenge to get what we need to keep our patients and colleagues safe during this pandemic. We cant get PPE in stock fast enough using our traditional channels.

The hospital has received gloves, gowns and masks from several area schools, and is putting out a call to Central New York schools to donate more.

The hospital needs masks, gowns, eye wear, hand sanitizer, thermometers and face shields, the news release said. St. Josephs Health has received personal protective equipment donations from a few local schools, but much more is needed.

Equipment must be commercially made and in its original packaging. The hospital asks anyone with donations is asked to call (315) 214-6855.

St. Josephs said it has received 10,000 pairs of examination gloves from Le Moyne Colleges chemistry department; isolation gowns and hospital-grade sanitizing wipes from Holy Cross School, in DeWitt; and masks from Blessed Sacrament School, in Syracuse.

Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said the county will come to St. Josephs aid.

Well make sure St. Josephs isnt going to run out, he said.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

Onondaga Countys coronavirus outbreak: Heres where we stand after 14 days

Updated list: Which CNY restaurants are open for takeout or delivery

CNY patients shunning home care workers over coronavirus fears

Coronavirus: Upstate NY will see rolling apex of cases, Gov. Cuomo says
Fear of the coronavirus has altered the shape of Americans indoor life, prompting many to stock up on black beans and toilet paper, write their wills and work at home alongside spouses and children. The virus is also transforming the look and feel of the outdoors, silencing the countrys busiest thoroughfares as government officials in many locales have forced the closure of all but what are regarded as essential businesses.
Morgan Jackson, owner of Sign Gypsies Mid Michigan, installed a sign Monday morning honoring hospital workers at the Saginaw Road entrance for MidMichigan Medical Center - Midland. Jackson donated the sign, which reads "Heroes work here," to thank hospital staff for their hard work and long hours during the coronavirus pandemic.
When Richard Hayward made the decision to defer his mortgage payments for two months as the result of a COVID-19 job layoff, the bank assured him it wouldnt affect his credit score, but Hayward is skeptical.

Im pretty sure deferred mortgage payments affects your credit rating, said Hayward, a commercial diver from Pontypool, Ont. My credit rating is really good. I know people with worse credit scores. Personally, Im not worried, but I can sympathize with people in much more precarious situations.

Richard Moxley, author of The Credit Game: Rules Every Canadians Must Know to Win, says that the onus is on lenders to ensure that borrowers credit scores dont take a hit during these challenging times.

What Canadians dont know is that a deferred payment can show up as a late payment on the Equifax and TransUnion report, Moxley reminded consumers. The credit reporting agencies, Equifax and TransUnion, dont qualify the information they receive. The only thing that matters is how lenders systems report deferred payments to them  as late or not.

Unfortunately, Moxley says, much of this data is generated automatically, and many of the lenders computer systems havent been adjusted to reflect the general availability of deferred-payment arrangements during COVID-19, despite being prompted by Equifax.

In the event that a (lender) makes a credit relief or payment deferral program available to its consumers to opt out of making monthly payments during the pandemic, Equifaxs expectation is that the (lender) would take actions on its system to ensure that it does not report any derogatory/missed payment information to the credit bureaus that is misaligned with the program it has implemented, reads the official Equifax statement.

Moxley also warns against being reassured about your credit rating by talking with a lenders customer-service representative by phone. Given the heavy volume of calls currently, many of those answering the busy bank phone lines are not lending experts, but other employees pitching in.

Customer service reps can tell you all kinds of things about your credit score, but theyre irrelevant, he said. The only thing that matters is how the lenders system reports deferred payments to Equifax.

Douglas Hoyes, co-founder of the debt relief experts Hoyes, Michalos and Associates, agrees that its a challenging time if you want information about extending your mortgage or assurances about your credit rating.

Its tough to get a human on the phone, first of all, Hoyes said, and lenders arent prepared for this. Employees are reading off scripts and you cant talk to someone who can actually make a decision.

However, Hoyes says its important to connect somehow.

Be proactive, especially if youre not getting a paycheque this week, he said. Dont just let the payment bounce. Ask for a deferral. You dont want an insufficient-funds fee added to a cheque that cant be processed.

Since banks may be offering deferrals a month or two at a time, Hoyes says its up to the borrower to ask about additional extensions.

Lenders are in uncharted territory and theres no system in place to remind them to follow up with you in 25 days, so do so yourself.

Moxley advises people to consider all of their expenses and to also investigate deferrals on other payments, such as credit cards and lines of credit.

These may not be as common, but each deferral program is up to the individual lender, he said.

To protect your credit rating, no matter how slow lenders are to adjust their reporting systems, Moxley suggests a written confirmation is best.

If you can get something in writing to say that the payment is deferred, not missed, thats best, he said. A lot of mortgage companies are asking for a deferral request by email, so thats documentation. If you cant get something in writing, get the employee number and name of the customer service agent who is promising you that your credit wont be affected and note the date and time of the conversation. Keep a record so that you can dispute any errors they make in reporting to Equifax and TransUnion.

When it comes to protecting yourself financially, Hoyes also recommends asking your bank to stop any automatic bill payments youve arranged, to allow you more control over your money during the pandemic.

For many people, its a case of prioritizing, Hoyes said. These arent normal times, and your hydro wont get shut off right away. Talk to your landlord, too. If your cheque wont clear, they cant evict you or garnish your wages if the courts are closed.

Dont be afraid to stand up for yourself and work out some kind of plan. And if you negotiate deferred payments, youre not late, so there should be no hit to your credit score.

Back in Pontypool, Hayward, the commercial diver, says hes looking into what economies his family can make, in addition to the mortgage deferral: dropping insurance on a vehicle he planned to sell, cancelling a plan for a cellphone that wasnt used often.

I just want to stem the bleeding to give me time to find more work, he said.
STOCKHOLM, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hoist Finance, a trusted debt resolution partner to individuals, companies and banks, today announces its new sustainability strategy, which outlines the company's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals and indicators. The sustainability strategy and extensive reporting puts Hoist Finance as a front runner in the debt management industry.

Through a bottom-up process, integrating feedback and insight from employees throughout the whole organisation, Hoist Finance developed a sustainability strategy focused on four core pillars: contributing to an inclusive financial ecosystem, creating a great place to work, combatting climate change, and upholding the highest ethical standards. The new framework also presents Hoist Finance's relationships with employees, banks and financial institutions, customers, communities and the society as a whole.

The new strategy sets out Hoist Finance's ambition to support new innovations to improve financial access and services. Financial inclusion is a growing challenge in Europe with 636 billions of non-performing loans putting pressure on the European economy[1] and a household debt amounting to 93.49% of gross income[2].To protect the most financially vulnerable people in society, Hoist Finance only buys non-performing loans from reputable banks with a sound credit policy and actively turns down portfolios from some parts of the consumer finance markets including pay-day loans and SMS loans.

Klaus-Anders Nysteen, CEO of Hoist Finance said: "Hoist Finance has solid experience in helping people keep their commitments through financial difficulties. In times like the ones we are living through now, it is particularly important to stay close to our customers and help them find a way forward. By deploying our core competency, Hoist Finance helps people back into financial inclusion."

Ingrid Bonde, Chair of the Board added: "At Hoist Finance, we believe that the business world has a vital role in supporting governments and communities in tackling financial exclusion and ensure that everyone has access to affordable financial services. Our new approach to sustainability offers a coordinated and comprehensive programme to help us positively impact our communities and the society."

Aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations Global Compact, the strategy includes measurable goals and indicators aimed at creating sustainable and healthy credit markets that are accessible to all.

The strategy is available in Hoist Finance's Annual Report 2019 published today on: annualreport.hoistfinance.com.

More information

In 2019, Hoist Finance set up 200,000 sustainable repayment plans with customers in debt across ten markets ( Belgium , the Netherlands , France , Germany , Austria , Greece , Italy , Poland , Spain and the UK).

, , , , , , , , and the UK). On average, the company has 170,000 customer dialogues per month.

The average monthly customer payment is 54.

Hoist Finance has recently launched new digital services available to customers through WhatsApp, Rich Communication Services and the chatbot Kai .

. In 2019, 15% of all collections were from digital channels.

[1] Source: European Banking Authority, 2019 - https://eba.europa.eu/eba-shows-efforts-improve-eu-banks%E2%80%99-asset-quality-have-proven-successful-pockets-risks-remain

[2] Source: Eurostat, 2018 - https://tradingeconomics.com/euro-area/households-debt-to-income

CONTACT:

For more information, please contact:

Julia Agha, Hoist Finance Communication Manager

Tel: +46 (0) 7 255 363 05

julia.agha@hoistfinance.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/hoist-finance/r/hoist-finance-launches-new-sustainability-strategy,c3076013

The following files are available for download:
Elderly farmers, health workers and other professionals must stay at home and work remotely if possible, Government officials are advising, as part of efforts to reduce the spread of Covid-19.

The formal advice for over 70s and other at-risk groups is to cocoon and avoid human contact and possible infected surfaces  and over 70s who are also essential workers have been told to stay home.

Department of Taoiseach assistant secretary general, Elizabeth Canavan, reiterated that these age groups are among the most at risk and should also heed the advice, even for work purposes.

"Generally speaking, we want everyone over 70 to stay at home and not leave. However, some common sense applies here. If you are over 70 working in an essential area and you can do that remotely, without coming in face-to-face contact with other people, or without touching surfaces that other people may have sneezed on, then you can continue to work  for example a healthcare professional doing teleconsultation from their home. This would also include the older farming community but again, they must be very careful about not coming into close contact with others."

Farmers and others advised to remain indoors should instead contact friends, family or emergency services for any help needed.

Ms Canavan added: Older farmers should ring family members if they need help. If thats not possible and the job is essential, please ring your local community support helpline (one in each local authority area) or the local garda station.

Meanwhile, a number of parks and public spaces will be reopened. Following weekend closures, the OPW has reopened Doneraile Park in Cork, Castletown in Kildare, Kilkenny Castle Park, the War Memorial and St Endas Park in Dublin, Derrynane in Kerry and Oldbridge in Meath.

It was also announced that local authority forums and special support groups will now meet to ramp up work to help ensure vulnerable members of communities are supported with food, medicines, including transport for medical appointments.

The council groups will target those who have been asked to cocoon and stay at home, including people aged over 70, those in residential settings or long term care and people who have serious medical conditions.

Ms Canavan added: If a vulnerable person needs to make contact immediately they can contact the ALONE helpline at 0818 222024.

Nonetheless, those who are still in need of emergency care for reasons besides Covid-19, have also been told they can still access emergency services.

Its important to say that we are keeping the rest of the health service going as well  cancer care, emergency departments, mental health services and all the rest of the acute care we provide will continue. If you need urgent or emergency care, if you have for example heart attack or stroke symptoms, go to the Emergency Department or call an ambulance, added Ms Canavan.
In his daily news briefings about the coronavirus, President Trump's off-the-cuff musings are in sharp contrast to the knowledgeable statements by experts such as the CDC's Anthony Fauci, right. (AFP via Getty Images)

On Sunday, President Trump, absent any hard evidence, suggested that large numbers of masks were being stolen from New York hospitals, citing an unnamed facility he said had seen a huge surge in mask usage. How do you go from 10 to 20 [thousand masks being used], to 300,000? he said.

And he didn't stop there. Where are the masks going  are they going out the back door? Trump posited. Somebody should probably look into that, because I just dont see from a practical standpoint how thats possible.

Perhaps  just perhaps  the increased volume of masks being used is correlated with the emergence of a runaway, highly contagious pandemic? I wonder if Joseph Stalin ever said during the Battle of Stalingrad: This doesnt make sense. Normally they only want 20,000 boxes of ammunition. All of sudden they want 300,000? Someone must be stealing the bullets.

Is it possible there is some mask pilfering by staff? Sure. But why is the president hypothesizing about this off the top of his head? Why not use his position as the most powerful man in America to have somebody look into the situation before he blurts out an accusation without facts to back it up?

This is just a small example of why I hate these daily news briefings. I hate them with a kind of loathing I have not experienced before. Sure, I resent having to watch them, but thats not a new sensation. I see it as a professional obligation, like watching the State of the Union address (which I also despise). So, its not the due diligence part that vexes me. Its the experience of feeling like were all supposed to pretend the president is up to this challenge.

And when I say we, I do mean we. In crises, its normal to rally around the president and give him the benefit of the doubt. After the Sept. 11 attacks, George W. Bushs approval rating hit 90% for a moment. Its not that everyone suddenly agreed with, or even liked, Bush, but they were willing to put all of that aside and give the president the benefit of the doubt during a moment of peril.

Story continues

For the last three years, as a conservative who just cant board the Trump Train, Ive been urged by people, including friends, to put my personal feelings aside and support the president. Such demands to become a cheerleader were easy to dismiss during a time of peace and prosperity as mere exhortations for partisan loyalty.

But this is a different time and its a real dilemma. Do you go along, even at the margins, with the fiction that Trump is up to this challenge? Or do you shine a light on his inadequacy?

I think the answer depends largely on what lane youre in. Governors and public health officials, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Anthony Fauci, need the support of the president to do their jobs. If that means swallowing hard and praising the president when its not warranted, thats a small price to pay, at least during a crisis.

Still, it is beyond outrageous that Americans have to witness the spectacle of public health officials tailoring their responses to questions so as to not offend the president. Its the pandemic version of Kremlinology, parsing the statements of responsible officials for hints of the truth beneath the boilerplate praise and line-toeing.

Its even worse that we all have to put up with a president who answers questions off the cuff without regard for facts or concern for how what he is saying might be misinterpreted. Add in his incessant dedication to petty grievances, partisan puffery and chest-beating braggadocio along with all of the obligatory obsequiousness he requires of officials who know far more than he does. Together, these things create an affirmative need to call out the nonsense, because the nonsense isnt just annoying, its dangerous.

Holding Trump accountable creates its own problems, of course. Some of the coverage mirrors the presidents shortcomings, making the crisis about Trumps meanness to the media. Moreover, the president craves a foil, which is why such sizable portions of these daily sessions are dedicated to assaults on the news media.

Trump is enjoying a small bump in his approval ratings, though nothing like what George W. Bush or other presidents got during other rally-around-the-president moments. This meager improvement is partly explainable by partisanship. But it has more to do, I think, with the fact that the president is incapable of doing what other presidents do in such moments: earn the benefit of the doubt by rising to the occasion.

@JonahNRO




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San Francisco, 30 March 2020: The Report Third Party Logistics (3PL) Market Analysis Report By Service, By End Use (Retail, Manufacturing, Automotive), By Transport (Roadways, Railways, Waterways), And Segment Forecasts, 2019 - 2025

The global third party logistics market size is expected to reach USD 1.2 trillion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., exhibiting a CAGR of 7.5% over the forecast period. Logistics plays a vital role in most of businesses; a reliable and robust logistics service is a primary requirement for the development of any business. A strong logistical infrastructure handled by 3PL providers helps the outsourcer focus on its core business. Globalization has enabled companies to set up a global business network that necessitates complex transportation services. This, in turn, is expected to drive demand for outsourced logistics services over the coming years.

Technology has been transforming 3PL services and demand within the supply chain for digitalization, automation, and data collection capabilities has been increasing. Thus, 3PL providers are laying greater emphasis on technologically-driven services by investing in IT solutions, blockchain solutions, cloud-based solutions, mobile technologies, and proprietary innovations to adopt a leading-edge approach.

E-commerce has transformed the traditional retail sector where logistics plays an important role. In some instances when a product is returned, the company needs to manage the reverse logistics process; 3PL providers are leveraging this opportunity by providing flexible and specialized services. These advanced services can allow end users or the shipper to track the movement of goods or products.

There is intense competition among 3PL providers. New competitors are entering the 3PL market with customized and industry-specific services. To remain competitive in the market, leading companies are strategically involved in collaborations with and acquisitions of small- and mid-sized companies.

Access Research Report of Third Party Logistics Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/third-party-logistics-market

Further key findings from the report suggest:

The value-added services segment is expected to exhibit the highest CAGR over the forecast period, owing to demand for agile supply chain networks across multiple industries

Need for complex logistics and warehouse operations is boosting demand for 3PL solutions in the retail sector

Globalization and sustainable economic growth in several countries are driving international trade, thereby driving the airways segment to witness high growth over the forecast period

Asia Pacific is anticipated to register a CAGR of over 8.5% over the forecast period, which can be attributed to the fact that the region leads the global 3PL market in terms of B2C e-commerce sales

FedEx; DHL International GmbH; C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc.; KUEHNE + NAGEL; and UPS, Inc. are some of the prominent 3PL providers in the market.

Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/communication-services

Grand View Research has segmented the global third party logistics market on the basis of service, transport, end use, and region:

3PL Service Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2014 - 2025)

Dedicated Contract Carriage (DCC)/Freight forwarding

Domestic Transportation Management (DTM)

International Transportation Management (ITM)

Warehousing & Distribution

Value Added Logistics Services

3PL Transport Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2014 - 2025)

Roadways

Railways

Waterways

Airways

3PL End-use Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2014 - 2025)

Manufacturing

Retail

Healthcare

Automotive

Others

3PL Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2014 - 2025)

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

MEA

Access Press Release of Third Party Logistics Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-third-party-logistics-market

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

For More Information:www.grandviewresearch.com
A 38-year-old man who urinated in an ambulance in Northern Ireland, taking it out of service at the weekend, has avoided prison.

Imposing a ten-month suspended sentence on Remigijus Jagela, a judge warned that any such behaviour will not be tolerated during the Covid-19 crisis.

Jagela, a Lithuanian national of no fixed abode, admitted a charge of criminal damage.

Belfast Magistrates' Court heard the ambulance was called out to provide assistance to him at an address in Newtownabbey on Saturday.

According to the prosecution Jagela had been too intoxicated to walk at the time.

But after being placed in the vehicle he spat on it and urinated over a seat, the court heard.

A Crown lawyer confirmed the ambulance then had to be removed from service for a period to undergo a deep clean.

"This is serious at this time when ambulances are required," she stressed.

Jagela's solicitor said he had urinated because he was unable to hold it in any longer.

"He accepts he was drunk, he's ashamed of his behaviour and extremely sorry," she added.

The court heard Jagela worked as a chef until being laid off due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Suspending the ten-month jail term for a year, District Judge George Conner emphasised the seriousness of the offence.

He said: "This sort of behaviour cannot and will not be tolerated, particularly in the current situation."
Legal Pot, More Regulation

Agile Aerospace

Environmental Stress

Stemming the Tide

Better Outcomes on Earth

Saving and Avoiding Costs

Humboldt County, Calif., part of an "Emerald Triangle" that is the nation's largest cannabis-producing region, has gone above and beyond  literally  to deal with the challenges of a Green Rush brought on by the legalization of recreational marijuana use. Satellite imagery has enabled the county to identify hundreds of unpermitted and illegal cannabis-cultivation operations and drive abatement efforts to reduce renegade growers' impact on some of the nation's most unique and beautiful natural resources.The county has partnered with Planet , a San Francisco-based satellite imaging and analytics startup, in an effort to stay ahead of both changing regulatory requirements and expanding markets. "Humboldt is huge and it's remote and it's rugged and it's hard to access," said Paris Good, who works with Planet's customers. "They had a small team of people trying to drive around to find illegal marijuana grow sites. It wasn't scalable and it wasn't sustainable in the long term."Even so, things might have continued as they were had not the need for government oversight shifted, for both public health and environmental reasons, when recreational pot use moved out of the shadows and into the mainstream.Legalization meant more freedom for recreational users, but it brought new restrictions for growers. In 2016, California voters approved Proposition 64 , the Adult Use of Marijuana Act. While the law made it legal for those 21 and older to use marijuana, it also required "robust standards" for cultivation of cannabis.As a result, growers are required to obtain permits and licenses from multiple state agencies, including the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Water Resources Control Board and the state's cannabis division, CalCannabis. In addition, local jurisdictions in areas where cultivation is common have passed their own land-use regulations. Humboldt County's 2016 ordinance requires permitting officials to actively identify and to take action in regard to unpermitted cultivation sites."It was a daunting task," recalled Bob Russell, deputy director of the county's Planning and Building Department. "We needed to foster a climate of compliance and we didn't have an army of folks to do it.""That's when they started to explore what satellite imagery could do for them," said Good. "It has the scale. It has the resolution they needed, it's efficient and it was able to give them coverage over their entire county."In April 2018, county permit officials began to use imagery from Planet to guide enforcement. By the end of the year they had issued almost 700 citations, up from the previous yearly average of less than 100. The dramatic increase reflected both the precision that satellite images afforded and the county's shift away from complaint-driven enforcement.Public-sector use of satellite imagery is not new, of course, but Planet has worked to improve both the resources available to clients and their affordability. The company, founded in 2010 by three former NASA scientists, has focused on designing ultra-compact satellites  as small as 10 x 10 x 30 centimeters (about 4 x 4 x 12 inches)  that are cost-effective to manufacture and launch.This approach also enables Planet to "refresh" its satellites, de-orbiting existing ones and replacing them with improved models in an approach the company calls "agile aerospace," reflecting the iterative nature of software development.Planet's satellites are small enough to piggyback on other rocket-launch missions. To date it has deployed more than 360 satellites, with about 150 of them currently in orbit, the largest-ever constellation of Earth-imaging satellites. Using high-powered telescopes and cameras, they are able to capture images of the entire surface of the earth on a daily basis, almost six terabytes of data.The company also has paid attention to making the images easy to use. "We have a platform called Planet Explorer where users can download the imagery that they're interested in," said Good. "Every image has location information in it."Marijuana legalization raises multiple issues for governments, and those concerns are magnified by the rapid expansion of the business. The worldwide market for legal cannabis, which was $9.5 billion in 2017, is projected to grow to $31.3 billion by 2022 , a compound annual growth rate of 26.7 percent over that period. California is the biggest legal-marijuana market in the world Public officials and medical professionals have raised concerns about the public health impact of increased availability and use of cannabis, from unintentional ingestion of products by children to impaired driving and health problems resulting from more frequent use. In 2014, then-California Gov. Jerry Brown expressed more philosophical reservations about legalizing recreational use. "The world's pretty dangerous, very competitive," he said on NBC News' "I think we need to stay alert, if not 24 hours a day, more than some of the potheads might be able to put together."Although such issues are likely to be top of mind in other states have that are considering legalization or have already done so, the environmental impacts of marijuana cultivation also deserve attention. These are the focus of Humboldt County's efforts, and they have the potential to arise in any part of the country where outdoor cultivation increases. (Indoor cultivation in urban warehouses has its own set of concerns, including intense energy demands .)There is, for instance, the impact on places where water resources are scarce. Marijuana is a relatively thirsty crop, requiring nearly twice as much water per square kilometer than wine grapes, for example. In some cases, growers' needs have been met with illegal diversion of water.Trespassing growers on private and national forest land employ large quantities of rodenticides to keep animals from chewing through irrigation lines, leading to the deaths of fish, birds and mammals . Grading undertaken for the siting of "hoop houses," tent-like greenhouses, can cause problematic sediment accumulation in streams and rivers.Cannabis plants emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) called terpenes. VOCs are associated with a variety of adverse health effects . In addition, terpenes can mix with sunlight and nitrogen oxide to form an ozone-destroying aerosol.While local permitting alone can't resolve all of these issues, it is an important tool. In addition to keeping legal growers in compliance, Humboldt's active and visible permitting program can help discourage illegal cultivation, which continues despite the changes in California law."Local zoning, permitting, and enforcement is probably more important than state-level initiatives, although collaboration across units of government is also key," said Van Butsic, co-director of the Cannabis Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley.In fact, every available strategy is needed as California works to implement the "robust standards" that it envisions for cannabis cultivation. For one thing, growers who are willing to play by the rules still face competition from illicit operations. In 2019, sales of illegal cannabis products in California were expected to hit $8.7 billion, more than twice the total for legal sales."Larger producers have been able to navigate the system," said Butsic. "Many smaller growers are going out of business, or staying illegal." Costs are also part of the equation. "The illegal market is competitive because legal marijuana is so expensive to produce under Prop. 64," Dale Gieringer, director of Cal NORML, toldLegal growers also chafe at having to deal with regulation by multiple levels of government. "Every place is a bit different in terms of their vision for cannabis," noted Butsic. "These different visions get played out in local governments. It is frustrating for producers who want constant rules across the state, but it also gives local communities more control. There are trade-offs between statewide regulations and local control, and cannabis is a great example of this."Operating at this intersection of policy and unintended consequences, Humboldt County's permit department is finding that Planet's satellites help them keep moving upstream. When Russell gets a new set of images from Planet, his team goes to work. "We take the imagery and we digitize it," he said. "Then we combine it with other datasets from our permitting software and other databases that we have, and we create overlays."If something unexpected shows up, he adds, "we'll evaluate that parcel to see what was permitted on the parcel. If there was no building permit or agricultural exemption for the greenhouse that we can see in the image, that'll be a violation. If they did grading for new structures without the grading permit that's required, that's another violation."Paris Good of Planet has found satisfaction in seeing the satellite data improve real-world outcomes. "One of the statistics they shared was that in the two years since they started doing this program with us, they identified a thousand unpermitted cannabis locations and then sent notices of violation to these sites," she says.The county's enforcement actions are not necessarily heavy-handed or draconian. "We have settled 70 percent of all cases through abatements or compliance agreements with property owners completing ongoing abatement actions," said Russell. "This has significantly reduced the environmental impact from these existing unpermitted cannabis operations, and also served as a viable and substantial deterrent for many others."As with other technologies, the cost of satellite imaging has continued to decrease. "At a certain price point, satellite imagery is a very affordable option for a jurisdiction, depending on the application," said Russell. "In this case it was the right tool for the job and we found a partner in Planet that could do what we needed."Also, he said, "there's a return on investment just in the operations and maintenance of the department. The number of people we have assigned to code enforcement can be much smaller. You're saving manpower costs, you're saving vehicle and fuel and repair costs. It's a significant tool for cost avoidance."Other jurisdictions have used satellite imagery for purposes including tax assessment, law enforcement and emergency response, drought management, and monitoring construction. "There are a lot of use cases yet to be explored," said Good. "Satellite imagery can help farmers understand crop health and make better decisions about their fields. I worked with a researcher who was monitoring polar glacial melt in Greenland to see how fast that's happening compared to prior years. The number of possible applications with this kind of data are just incredible."Russell is clear about Humboldt's need for tools like the ones supplied by Planet. "We're a pretty rural and rough country area," he said. "There are a lot of hills, mountains, streams, rivers, and forests here that were being significantly impacted. Wildlife was significantly impacted by pesticides, rodenticides and sediment delivery."The county's success in reducing those environmental impacts, Russell added, "is the biggest payoff, and the results have been substantial."
A woman infected with coronavirus died at a state-run hospital in north Bengal on Monday. COVID-19 death toll in West Bengal currently stands at 2.

Recent victim of the novel coronavirus is a 44 year-old woman belonging to Kalimpong, near Darjeeling. She died in the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri at around 2 am. The woman had returned from Chennai after her daughter's treatment, according to PTI.

According to a state health department official, the woman's daughter and the doctor who was treating her have both been quarantined.

This, however, is not the first COVID-19 death reported from Bengal. Last week, an elderly man from Kolkata had died due to this deadly disease. At present, the total count of coronavirus positive cases in West Bengal stands at 21 after 3 more people were tested positive for the virus.

These 3 people include a 52 year-old doctor at the city-based Army hospital in Kolkata who had returned from Delhi recently, a 66 year-old man who complained of severe respiratory distress and a 59 year-old man from Sheoraphuli in Hoogly who had travelled to Durgapur recently.

Talking of the country at large, the number of coronavirus positive cases in India has crossed 1100 and the death toll had reached 30.

(Edited with inputs from PTI)

Also read: Coronavirus in India: Man booked for spreading rumours on social media in Mumbai
The Indian Army on Monday dismissed as 'fake' certain messages circulating on social media about likely imposition of Emergency in the country next month to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

IMAGE: CRPF personnel pump hand sanitiser on the hands of people during a nationwide lockdown, imposed in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, in New Delhi, on Monday. Photograph: Arun Sharma/PTI Photo

Army officials also said no effort is being initiated to rope in services of retired personnel, the National Cadet Corps and the volunteers enrolled under the National Service Scheme in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

'Fake and malicious messages are circulating on social media about likely declaration of emergency in mid April and employment of #IndianArmy, #Veterans, NCC and NSS to assist the civil administration,' the Army's Additional Director general of Public Information (ADGPI) tweeted.

'It is clarified that this is absolutely Fake,' the ADGPI said.

India was brought under a 21-day lockdown on midnight of last Tuesday with an aim to check the spread of the coronavirus infection.

The positive coronavirus cases touched 1,071 on Monday with 29 deaths.

Globally, the virus has infected more than 700,000 people and claimed more than 32,000 lives.
However much safer electric cars might be than their gas counterparts, they can still catch fire -- and BYD wants to reduce the chances of that happening. It will soon roll out a Blade Battery that's meant to be safer without compromising performance. Its high temperature for exothermic reactions, low (and slow) heat release and lack of oxygen release combine to form an energy pack that shouldn't "easily" catch fire. A nail puncture test didn't even significantly raise the temperature of the battery (it didn't venture above 140F), let alone set it ablaze. It also avoided fires due to bending, crushing, overcharging and overheating.

The battery should be efficient, too. An optimized battery structure is reportedly 50 percent better at using space than a conventional lithium ion phosphate battery. BYD's upcoming Han EV (above) will reportedly have a healthy cruising range of about 376 miles using the Blade Battery, although there's a good chance it won't reach that figure in real-world driving.

We wouldn't count on driving the Han EV given BYD's focus on China, especially in light of the COVID-19 outbreak potentially affecting exports. However, this does suggest that truly safe EV batteries may soon be a practical reality. That could improve your chances of escaping a collision unscathed, not to mention reduce the potential for igniting anything nearby.
A spate of mysterious second-time infections is calling into question the accuracy of COVID-19 diagnostic tools even as China prepares to lift quarantine measures to allow residents to leave the epicenter of its outbreak next month. It's also raising concerns of a possible second wave of cases.

From March 18-22, the Chinese city of Wuhan reported no new cases of the virus through domestic transmission  that is, infection passed on from one person to another. The achievement was seen as a turning point in efforts to contain the virus, which has infected more than 80,000 people in China. Wuhan was particularly hard-hit, with more than half of all confirmed cases in the country.

But some Wuhan residents who had tested positive earlier and then recovered from the disease are testing positive for the virus a second time. Based on data from several quarantine facilities in the city, which house patients for further observation after their discharge from hospitals, about 5%-10% of patients pronounced "recovered" have tested positive again.

Some of those who retested positive appear to be asymptomatic carriers  those who carry the virus and are possibly infectious but do not exhibit any of the illness's associated symptoms  suggesting that the outbreak in Wuhan is not close to being over.

NPR has spoken by phone or exchanged text messages with four individuals in Wuhan who are part of this group of individuals testing positive a second time in March. All four said they had been sickened with the virus and tested positive, then were released from medical care in recent weeks after their condition improved and they tested negative.

Two of them are front-line doctors who were sickened after treating patients in their Wuhan hospitals. The other two are Wuhan residents. They all requested anonymity when speaking with NPR because those who have challenged the government's handling of the outbreak have been detained.

One of the Wuhan residents who spoke to NPR exhibited severe symptoms during their first round of illness and was eventually hospitalized. The second resident displayed only mild symptoms at first and was quarantined in one of more than a dozen makeshift treatment centers erected in Wuhan during the peak of the outbreak.

But when both were tested a second time for the coronavirus on Sunday, March 22, as a precondition for seeking medical care for unrelated health issues, they tested positive for the coronavirus even though they exhibited none of the typical symptoms, such as a fever or dry cough. The time from their recovery and release to the retest ranged from a few days to a few weeks.

Could that second positive test mean a second round of infection? Virologists think it is unlikely that a COVID-19 patient could be re-infected so quickly after recovery but caution that it is too soon to know.

Under its newest COVID-19 prevention guidelines, China does not include in its overall daily count for total and for new cases those who retest positive after being released from medical care. China also does not include asymptomatic cases in case counts.

"I have no idea why the authorities choose not to count [asymptomatic] cases in the official case count. I am baffled," said one of the Wuhan doctors who had a second positive test after recovering.

These four people are now being isolated under medical observation. It is unclear whether they are infectious and why they tested positive after their earlier negative test.

It is possible they were first given a false negative test result, which can happen if the swab used to collect samples of the virus misses bits of the virus. Dr. Li Wenliang, a whistleblowing doctor who later died of the virus himself in February, tested negative for the coronavirus several times before being accurately diagnosed.

In February, Wang Chen, a director at the state-run Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, estimated that the nucleic acid tests used in China were accurate at identifying positive cases of the coronavirus only 30%-50% of the time.

Another theory is that, because the test amplifies tiny bits of DNA, residual virus from the initial infection could have falsely resulted in that second positive reading.

"There are false positives with these types of tests," Dr. Jeffrey Shaman, a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University, told NPR by email. Shaman recently co-authored a modeling study showing that transmission by individuals who did not exhibit any symptoms was a driver of the Wuhan outbreak.

How real is China's recovery?

On Tuesday, Hubei province, where Wuhan is the capital, said it would relax lockdown measures that have now been in place for more than two months and begin letting residents leave cities the following day. Wuhan said it would begin lifting its quarantine measures and letting residents leave two weeks later, on April 8.

To leave Wuhan, residents must first test negative for the coronavirus, according to municipal authorities. Such screenings will identify some remaining asymptomatic virus carriers. But the high rate of false negatives that Chinese doctors have cited means many with the virus could pass undetected.

Last Thursday, Wuhan reported for the first time since the outbreak began that it had no new cases of the virus from the day before  a milestone in China's virus containment efforts. The city reported a zero rise in new cases for the following four days.

Assessing asymptomatic carriers

But Caixin, an independent Chinese news outlet, reported earlier this week that Wuhan hospitals were continuing to see new cases of asymptomatic virus carriers, citing a health official who said he had seen up to a dozen such cases a day.

Responding to inquiries about how the city was counting asymptomatic cases, Wuhan's health commission said Monday that it is quarantining new asymptomatic patients in specialized wards for 14 days. Such patients would be included in new daily case counts if they develop symptoms during that time, authorities said.

"Based on available World Health Organization data, new infections are mainly transmitted by patients who have developed symptoms. Hence [asymptomatic cases] may not be the main source of transmission," the commission said.

A researcher at China's health commission told reporters Tuesday that asymptomatic carriers "would not cause the spread" of the virus. Zunyou Wu, the researcher, explained this was because the authorities were isolating people who had close contact with confirmed patients. Wu did not explain how they would identify asymptomatic carriers who had no close contact with confirmed patients.

Addressing growing public concern of asymptomatic patients, China's Premier Li Keqiang urged during Thursday's senior-level government meeting that "relevant departments must ... truthfully, timely, and openly" answer questions, such as whether these patients are infectious and how the course of the outbreak may change.

Research suggests that the spread can be caused by asymptomatic carriers. Studies of patients from Wuhan and other Chinese cities who were diagnosed early in the outbreak suggest that asymptomatic carriers of the virus can infect those they have close contact with, such as family members.

"In terms of those who retested positive, the official party line is that they have not been proven to be infectious. That is not the same as saying they are not infectious," one of the Wuhan doctors who tested positive twice told NPR. He is now isolated and under medical observation. "If they really are not infectious," the doctor said, "then there would be no need to take them back to the hospitals again."

Geoff Brumfiel contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.

Source: https://www.npr.org/

BY Emily Fend & Amy Cheng
The medal of one of only two men captured during the doomed Charge of the Light Brigade has been sold by a descendant for over 17,000.

Lieutenant John Chadwick was one of the 600 men who rode into the 'Valley of Death' in the near-suicidal action immortalised in Alfred Tennyson's famous poem.

Lt Chadwick managed to reach the Russian guns but his horse, having been weakened by a loss of blood, could not move any further.

The medal of one of only two men captured during the Charge of the Light Brigade has been sold by a descendant for over 17,000

Lieutenant John Chadwick was one of 600 men who rode into the infamous 'Valley of Death'

'INTO THE MOUTH OF HELL': HISTORY OF THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE The Charge of the Light Brigade took place in October 1854 during the Crimean War. An appalling series of misunderstandings led to the Brigade advancing down a different valley from the one commander-in-chief, Lord Raglan, had intended when he dictated ambiguous orders for Lord Lucan, the cavalry commander. Despite the fact that the order seemed to demand the cavalry to attack the Russian artillery without infantry support - in contravention of all accepted laws of military practice - an incredulous Lucan passed the instructions on to the Earl of Cardigan, who commanded the Light Brigade, and the troops advanced. Although it only lasted around 20 minutes, the attack saw almost a fifth of the Light Brigade killed, and hundreds more wounded. It is thought to have come about after Lord Lucan and the Earl of Cardigan, who were in charge of the cavalry in the battle, were given a confusing order by Lord Raglan, the British commander. The Light Brigade had been meant to ride to the rescue of British guns which had been captured and were being dragged away by Russian forces. But due to a misunderstanding they instead though they had been given the suicidal task of capturing well-defended Russian guns much further away. As they rode towards the distant emplacement, their men were torn apart by Russian marksmen and shell fire. To the surprise of their foes, they did manage to reach the massed guns and inflict some damage, but were so depleted that they had to turn back and retreat. Lord Tennyson's poem, written based on breathless newspaper dispatches from the front, memorably expressed the bravery of ordinary soldiers as they rode to their doom. It captured the public mood, and was distributed to soldiers in Crimea while they were still fighting. Advertisement

He bravely defended himself before a lance was forced into his neck, knocking him off his horse and at the enemy's mercy.

The severely wounded officer was taken prisoner by the Russians but released 12 months later at the end of the Crimean War.

The Battle of Balaclava on October 25, 1854, is regarded as one of the infamous days in British military history.

Lord Raglan, overall commander of the British forces at Balaclava, had intended to send the Light Brigade to pursue a separate, retreating Russian battery.

But due to a breakdown in communications, the unit headed off on the near-suicidal mission - attacked from all sides by artillery, infantry and cavalry.

The charge resulted in the deaths of 110 British men with a further 161 wounded.

Lt Chadwick's Crimea Medal, with clasps for Alma, Balaclava and Sebastopol, fetched a hammer price of 14,000 when it was sold with London auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb.

Extra fees took the overall figure paid by a British based private collector to 17,360.

A Dix Noonan Webb spokesperson said: 'During the charge, Chadwick was left to defend himself before a lance point to his neck knocked him from his horse and rendered him helpless.

'He was one of only two officers taken prisoner by the Russians.

'It passed by descent to the vendor who was gifted the medal by his aunt in 1940.

'It was bought over the telephone by a private collector based in the UK.'

Lt Chadwick was born in 1817 and enlisted with the 13th Lancers in Manchester in 1835.

He transferred to the 15th Hussars after Crimea and became an Honorary Captain in 1858, before being appointed Adjutant and Quartermaster of the Royal Hospital in Dublin.

He retired in 1867 and died in Liverpool aged 52 in 1869.

The other officer taken prisoner during the charge was Cornet Clowes, of the 8th Hussars.

The ill-fated charge resulted in the deaths of 110 British men with a further 161 wounded too
WASHINGTON  Dana Balter has opened an early lead of more than 40 points over Francis Conole in the Democratic primary campaign for the 24th Congressional District seat, according to a poll made public Monday.

Balter (64 percent) leads Conole (21 percent) among likely Democratic primary voters, with 15 percent undecided ahead of the June 23 election, according to the poll by GBAO Strategies of Washington, D.C.

The Balter campaign commissioned the poll, the first to be made public in the Democratic primary campaign.

Balter, 43, an educator from Syracuse, is making her second bid for the Democratic nomination and a chance to take on Rep. John Katko, R-Camillus, in the November election.

Balter won the 2018 Democratic primary election by more than 25 percentage points over Juanita Perez Williams but lost the general election to Katko by about 5 percentage points.

The poll shows Balter has benefited from the name recognition she gained during her 2018 campaign.

About 76 percent of likely Democratic primary voters said they know about Balter, while only 28 percent could identify Conole.

Conole, 41, of Syracuse, a Navy veteran of the Iraq War, is making his first bid for public office.

The poll showed Balter is the early favorite over Conole across all demographic groups, including gender, age, race and geographic location. The 24th District covers all of Onondaga, Cayuga and Wayne counties, and the western half of Oswego County.

The poll of 400 likely Democratic primary voters was conducted by live operators who called landlines and cell phones from March 23 through March 25. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

Conole is likely to become better known among Democratic primary voters once he begins a broad advertising campaign to introduce himself to voters ahead of the June 23 election. He began the year with about $250,000 in his campaign bank account. Balter had about $220,000 cash on hand.

Conole also will benefit from the backing of top Democratic Party officials in the district. He won the Democratic designation from party committees in Onondaga and Cayuga counties, representing more than 80 percent of the active Democratic voters in the district.

Balter won the designation from the Oswego County Democratic Committee.

Before the coronavirus pandemic struck New York state, Conole said he planned to spend his time campaigning to try to unite Democrats behind his candidacy, but both candidates have suspended in-person campaign events and shut down their public campaign offices during the pandemic.

Read more

New York delays presidential primary, tax deadline during coronavirus pandemic

How Rep. John Katko survived a Conservative Party uprising

VP Mike Pence cancels fundraiser for John Katko over coronavirus concerns

John Katko starts 2020 campaign with $1 million edge over Democrats

Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Mark Weiner anytime by: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751
PARIS, March 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ARK.io announces details of their newest developer incentive program, ARK Grants.

Replacing the current 'Tier 0' Program, ARK Grants will allow their growing community of developers to apply for funding towards ARK based Proofs of Concept, Desktop Wallet plugins and full production-ready applications. To start things off, 1 million ARK has been seeded into the program from the company's ARK Shield development fund.

ARK

Applicable Project Types

The ARK Grants program is now in full effect and will spur development in the following areas:

Proofs-of-Concept: POCs serve a valuable purpose in educating developers through concrete examples. An example of a POC funded by ARK Grants is the recently released ARK Messenger, a fully autonomous and secure chat service.



POCs serve a valuable purpose in educating developers through concrete examples. An example of a POC funded by ARK Grants is the recently released ARK Messenger, a fully autonomous and secure chat service. ARK Desktop Wallet Plugins. The recently upgraded Plugin Manager added a more intuitive interface that allows users to install, use, and update plugins. Interestingly enough, the Plugin Manager itself is an example of a project funded by ARK Grants.



The recently upgraded Plugin Manager added a more intuitive interface that allows users to install, use, and update plugins. Interestingly enough, the Plugin Manager itself is an example of a project funded by ARK Grants. Production Ready Solutions. The ARK Grants program can also be used to fund or help fund full-fledged blockchain solutions that utilize ARK technology. These projects would be complete and deployed for use with either the ARK Public Network or an ARK bridgechain. One example of a production-ready solution is ARKTippr Tip Bot.



The ARK Grants program can also be used to fund or help fund full-fledged blockchain solutions that utilize ARK technology. These projects would be complete and deployed for use with either the ARK Public Network or an ARK bridgechain. One example of a production-ready solution is ARKTippr Tip Bot. Custom Project Ideas. The scope of projects that could be considered by the ARK Grants program doesn't end with these three types. If interested parties have an idea that doesn't necessarily fit here, ARK will still welcome a proposal submission.

It should be noted that the ARK Grants program is designed specifically for technology development. This means that only proposals involving technical deployments and usage of ARK technology stack will be considered.

Technologies & Frameworks

Developers who have an approved project in the ARK Grants program should follow best practices as established by the ARK.io development team. Here's a list of preferences from the ARK team:

Typescript is the preferred language if applicable



Utilize ARK Smart Transactions , which is the process of using the Generic Transaction Interface and Core plugins to create application logic as needed



, which is the process of using the Generic Transaction Interface and Core plugins to create application logic as needed The vendorField, AKA SmartBridge field, should be avoided for use in development for most cases. Instead, focus on using new Smart Transactions and custom bridgechains.



Mobile Development should be done with Ionic or Angular



Some of ARK's favorite technologies include NodeJS, VueJS, TailwindCSS, Laravel, and Electron

For other technology considerations, please get approval before development starts.

Proposal Submission Process

Submitting a proposal to the ARK Grants program is simple:

1. Applicant Information. The ARK Grants program is managed by ARK.io, which is a registered business entity in France under the name ARK ECOSYSTEM, SCIC. As such, proper identity information and invoicing is a part of the process of utilizing the program. Applicants will submit an application template with information such as full name and email address, along with contact methods.

2. Project Description and Architecture. Applicants should describe the project in a few paragraphs and include information on the architecture of the project such as frameworks, languages, and custom transaction types using ARK Logic.

3. Milestones. Applicants should provide a list of milestones and attach level of effort to each. Aside from applicant-provided milestones, there are two fixed milestones at the end of the list which refer to documentation and final review.

4. Proposal Review & Approval. The ARK Team will assess the application and make a decision on whether to move forward in issuing a grant for the project. 70% of the approved funding for the project will be divided amongst the project milestones, and the remaining 30% will be released upon completion of the final review milestone.

Other Ways to Earn

The ARK Grants program is not the only way to earn ARK. There are other ways developers can get their hands on ARK tokens. Here's a brief summary of just some of the ways developers can earn ARK.

ARK Bounty and Security Program: The bounty program utilizes GitHub to track and manage activity, and bounties are paid out to community developers every month. ARK is also rewarded for reporting security vulnerabilities. Learn more at Bounty.ARK.io.



The bounty program utilizes GitHub to track and manage activity, and bounties are paid out to community developers every month. ARK is also rewarded for reporting security vulnerabilities. Learn more at Bounty.ARK.io. Contests and Competitions. ARK.io holds contests and competitions for both developers and non-developers. Stay tuned on Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, and the ARK blog for updates. An upcoming contest is in the works, so be prepared!



ARK.io holds contests and competitions for both developers and non-developers. Stay tuned on Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, and the ARK blog for updates. An upcoming contest is in the works, so be prepared! Forging Delegate Node. The ARK Public Network runs as a Delegated Proof-of-Stake blockchain, Launch a node, draft a proposal for the community, and campaign for votes. Participants could forge ARK that contribute to their development ideas and efforts. Learn more on the website's delegate page and join the community to ask about becoming a delegate in the Slack.ARK.io #delegate channel. Many delegates are already there who can help with questions.



The ARK Public Network runs as a Delegated Proof-of-Stake blockchain, Launch a node, draft a proposal for the community, and campaign for votes. Participants could forge ARK that contribute to their development ideas and efforts. Learn more on the website's delegate page and join the community to ask about becoming a delegate in the Slack.ARK.io #delegate channel. Many delegates are already there who can help with questions. ARK Community Fund. This is a community-operated fund of ARK that is managed by five community-elected board members who cycle out every six months. Something of note is that the ACF considers not only development-based proposals, but also other types which may include outreach initiatives, sponsorships, content creation, and more. ARK.io is not affiliated with the ACF. Learn more at ARKCommunity.Fund.

A 1 Million ARK Grant Pool Awaits!

With the ARK Grants program now launched, ARK are ready for participants to take advantage of this opportunity to dive into Blockchain while earning cryptocurrency for doing so. ARK want to unlock the awesome potential of blockchain-powered ideas together with their community  The next step for submitting an application lies here: https://ark.io/grants

Learn more about ARK at  http://ark.io

Catch up on Twitter  https://twitter.com/ArkEcosystem

Read the Blog  https://blog.ark.io

Media Contact Details

Contact Email: [email protected]

ARK is the source of this content. Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to consumer protections. This press release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest.

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Illinois residents are in line for payments of $1,200 per person plus $500 per child from federal tax dollars under terms of a bill President Donald Trump signed Friday.

The legislation will provide payments of $1,200 to each adult and $500 to each child younger than 17, depending on 2019 household income. A married couple with children could get up to $3,400. The payments start to phase out for people with income of $75,000 or more, or income of $150,000 for couples filing jointly. People making more than $99,000 or couples earning more than $198,000 would not be eligible.

The U.S. House passed the Senates Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, on Friday.

In addition to direct payments to residents, it also expands unemployment insurance, provides $350 billion to help small businesses, and a refundable payroll tax credit, among other things.

Inside the $2 trillion bill, the largest relief measure ever passed, Illinois state and local governments are set to get $4.9 billion. Thats part of $150 billion all states and local governments will share in.

While Chicago will get a sizable chunk of that directly, the Illinois Municipal League has urged the governor to distribute the rest proportionately.

Congress has turned a blind eye to the economic crisis facing all municipalities and has effectively ignored 1,297 of Illinois cities, villages and towns, IML Executive Director Brad Cole said in a letter to Gov. J.B. Pritzker. [The IML] formally requests any aid received by the state designated for municipal governments be dispersed by your office to all 1,298 cities, villages and towns on a per capita basis so that every community receives the financial help they need to weather this crisis.

Fitch Ratings Agency analysts said any money state and local governments get from the stimulus will likely only cover additional costs in dealing with the crisis and wont offset the loss of tax revenue from the government shutdown of nonessential businesses in Illinois, a move the governor said is meant to curb the spread of the virus.

The Illinois Farm Bureau praised the measure from Congress. Farm Bureau President Richard Guebert said it will help prop up the economic well-being of farmers and support the supply chain.

The CARES Act includes funding that will support farmers in two major ways: Funds to replenish the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), and additional funds to give [USDA flexibility] to support livestock producers, dairies, and farmers who grow food for local markets, Guebert said.

The bill also featured another element U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Peoria, said he got in, and that would be policies giving individuals the ability to use Health Savings Accounts and Flexible Spending Accounts to purchase over-the-counter medications and menstrual care products.

People are looking for relief during this time of uncertainty and we must provide them with every tool we can, LaHood said. I am pleased that legislation I authored will help Illinoisans and Americans, as we work together to combat COVID-19.

U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, said the bill wasnt perfect and wont be the last action needed in the fight against COVID-19, but its a strong step toward helping those who are hurting right now and cannot afford to wait.

This emergency funding will help make sure hospitals and healthcare workers on the front lines of the pandemic have the necessary equipment they need to protect themselves and treat patients, Foster said after the vote. It will deliver crucial financial help for small businesses that have been devastated and allow them to keep employees on payroll and remain in business.

After the vote, LaHood said the compromise was not perfect.

While I have real concerns about some provisions in the bill, as well as the massive amount of deficit spending, I am also worried about delaying support for millions of hurting Americans and the prospect of a costly recession for our country, LaHood said after the vote. No compromise is perfect, and this pandemic requires each of us to put aside our differences and provide relief for Illinoisans and Americans.
ADDvise Group AB (publ) (STO:ADDV A), which is in the medical equipment business, and is based in Sweden, saw significant share price movement during recent months on the OM, rising to highs of kr1.18 and falling to the lows of kr0.92. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether ADDvise Group's current trading price of kr0.98 reflective of the actual value of the small-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Lets take a look at ADDvise Groups outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change.

Check out our latest analysis for ADDvise Group

What is ADDvise Group worth?

Great news for investors  ADDvise Group is still trading at a fairly cheap price. According to my valuation, the intrinsic value for the stock is SEK1.90, but it is currently trading at kr0.98 on the share market, meaning that there is still an opportunity to buy now. Whats more interesting is that, ADDvise Groups share price is quite volatile, which gives us more chances to buy since the share price could sink lower (or rise higher) in the future. This is based on its high beta, which is a good indicator for how much the stock moves relative to the rest of the market.

What does the future of ADDvise Group look like?

OM:ADDV A Past and Future Earnings March 30th 2020

Future outlook is an important aspect when youre looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so lets also take a look at the company's future expectations. ADDvise Groups earnings over the next few years are expected to double, indicating a very optimistic future ahead. This should lead to stronger cash flows, feeding into a higher share value.

What this means for you:

Are you a shareholder? Since ADDV A is currently undervalued, it may be a great time to accumulate more of your holdings in the stock. With a positive outlook on the horizon, it seems like this growth has not yet been fully factored into the share price. However, there are also other factors such as capital structure to consider, which could explain the current undervaluation.

Story continues

Are you a potential investor? If youve been keeping an eye on ADDV A for a while, now might be the time to enter the stock. Its prosperous future outlook isnt fully reflected in the current share price yet, which means its not too late to buy ADDV A. But before you make any investment decisions, consider other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to make a well-informed buy.

Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters  the fundamentals  before you make a decision on ADDvise Group. You can find everything you need to know about ADDvise Group in the latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in ADDvise Group, you can use our free platform to see my list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
In these times of crisis when the police is overstressed to meet with the challenges posed by the coronavirus outbreak, four policemen in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow saved the life of an elderly man by donating blood.

Nilesh Kumar, a veterinary doctor, appealed on social media for blood donation on Sunday after his father's condition deteriorated and the doctors at the Vivekananda Hospital asked him to arrange two units of blood.

"With the lockdown in force, there was nobody to whom I could ask to arrange blood for my father. Acting on the advice of a friend, I took to the social media for making an appeal for blood donation," Kumar told PTI.

"Soon after, I started getting phone calls and four policemen came over to the hospital and donated blood," he said.

The policemen who donated blood are head constable Dilip Patel and constables Avinash Upadhyay, Pradeep Gangwar and Somnath Mishra, a government spokesman said.

"We needed only two units of blood, but these policemen donated four units," Kumar said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amazon employees in New York City began their walkout over pandemic working conditions Monday as Instacart and Whole Foods workers also threatened to strike.

Footage shows Amazon employees gathering outside a Staten Island facility where as many as seven workers have tested positive for the coronavirus. Around 5,000 people are employed at the site.

All three retail giants have announced hiring sprees as they cope with an increased demand by those turning to the retail giants' food and supplies during the crisis.

Instacart workers say the company 'has still not provided essential protections to shoppers on the front lines that could prevent them from becoming carriers, falling ill themselves, or worse'.

DailyMail.com has contacted Gig Workers Collective, running the strike, for details on the number of workers expected to join Monday.

Workers at Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon, are planning a 'sick out' Tuesday, Vice reports.

Scroll down for video

Amazon workers at Amazon's Staten Island warehouse strike in demand that the facility be shut down and cleaned after one staffer tested positive for the coronavirus

Amazon workers at Amazon's Staten Island warehouse strike in demand that the facility be shut down and cleaned after one staffer tested positive for the coronavirus

Amazon employees at the company's facility in Staten Island, New York walkout Monday

Both Amazon and Instacart workers are calling for more access to paid sick leave.

COMPANIES HIRING AMID CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC U.S. unemployment claims have surged to 3.28million - four times the previous record - as a result of the coronavirus pandemic which is crippling the world's economy and shattering Trump's record-breaking unemployment lows. But for some companies the crisis has seen a surge in business as consumers stay home and make online orders; Amazon: 100,000 new positions Whole Foods Market: 5,000 seasonal and full-time positions Walmart: 150,000 new hourly workers CVS: 50,000 full-time, part-time and temporary positions Dollar General: 50,000 new positions Instacart: 300,000 more workers Papa John's: 20,000 new positions Domino's Pizza: 10,000 new positions Stop & Shop: 5,000 new positions Source: AP/ABC News Advertisement

Amazon workers wanted their warehouses closed for longer periods of time to be cleaned.

Instacart 'shoppers', who are independent contractors, want disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizer and better pay.

Grocery delivery service Instacart on March 23 announced plans to double the ranks of 'shoppers' who fill orders in North America as people hunker down to reduce coronavirus risk.

The San Francisco-based delivery app is trying to hire 300,000 more workers  more than doubling its workforce to fulfill orders it says have surged by 150 per cent year-over year in the past weeks.

'The last few weeks have been the busiest in Instacart's history and our teams are working around the clock to reliably and safely serve all members of our community,' chief executive Apoorva Mehta said in a release.

'Instacart shoppers have stepped up as household heroes for families, grandparents, and people in need coast-to-coast.'

Instacart worker Sarah Polito told NPR: 'Actions speak louder than words.

'You can tell us that we're these household heroes and that you appreciate us. But you're not actually, they're not showing it. They're not taking these steps to give us the precautions. They're not giving us hazard pay.'

The company said Sunday it would be providing more hand sanitizer to more workers.

Edward Kakembo makes a delivery for Instacart, a company he's been an employee of for two years, on March 17 in Boston

A worker pulls carts loaded with goods for shipment to Amazon.com Inc. customers at an outlet in New York of U.S. supermarket chain Whole Foods Market Inc. on March 8

Dow jumps nearly 700 points as US stocks rebound US stocks climbed higher on Monday after healthcare companies announced developments that could aid in the coronavirus outbreak and President Donald Trump extended his stay-at-home guidelines. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 690.7 points, or 3.19%, to 22,327.48 on Monday while the S&P 500 gained 85.18 points, or 3.35%, to 2,626.65 and the Nasdaq Composite added 271.77 points, or 3.62%, to 7,774.15. The major indexes rose in part due to healthcare stocks as investors looked for shares that have become cheap and can withstand the impact to the economy from efforts to stem the spread of the coronavirus. The S&P healthcare sector jumped 4.67%, in part due to gains in Johnson & Johnson and Abbot Laboratories. Johnson & Johnson surged 8.00% on the U.S. government's plans to help fund the creation of enough manufacturing capacity for its coronavirus vaccine, which is currently under development. Abbott Laboratories climbed 6.41% after winning U.S. approval for a diagnostic test for COVID-19. Along with healthcare, the technology sector also rose more than 4% on the day, as Microsoft shares jumped more than 7%, the biggest boost to the broad S&P 500. Advertisement

Instacart currently has a workforce of more than 200,000 contracted workers who make multiple trips a day to various grocery stores to fulfill and deliver orders that customers make through the app.

It also directly employs about 20,000 part-time workers who are assigned to a single store, collecting groceries that are subsequently delivered to clients by a contracted Instacart worker.

The move follows announcements by Amazon and Walmart on hiring massive numbers of temporary workers to handle increased demand by those turning to the retail giants' food and supplies during the crisis.

During the week of March 2, Instacart, Amazon, and Walmart grocery delivery services each saw at least a 65 percent sales increase compared to the same time last year, according to estimates from Earnest Research.

As many as seven workers have tested positive for the coronavirus at the Amazon Staten Island, New York, facility.

'The plan is to cease all operations until the building is closed and sanitized,' Christian Smalls, an assistant manager leading the strike, told CNN.

'We're not asking for much. We're asking the building to be closed and sanitized, and for us to be paid.'

Amazon says it has 'taken extreme measures to keep people safe'.

'We're not returning to work until they close the building down,' says said to USA Today.

Between 50 and 200 employees could be involved in the walk out although around 5,000 workers work at the warehouse over the course of a week.

A worker leaves Whole Foods with Amazon Prime packages on March 18 in Jericho, New York

The workers allege the online retail giant has mishandled its response to the pandemic and want the entire facility to be disinfected and sanitized

NYPD Community Affairs officer watches as Amazon workers at Amazon's Staten Island warehouse strike in demand that the facility be shut down and cleaned

America's oldest restaurant Delmonico's raises money for their laid-off employees America's oldest restaurant Delmonico's is among eateries and bars across the country raising money on GoFundMe for their employees who have been laid off during the coronavirus lockdown. New York City's 182-year-old restaurant, Delmonico's, shared news of their efforts to raise $200,000 for their employees over the weekend. As of Monday morning, they have raised a little over $2,800 toward their goal. New York City's 182-year-old restaurant, Delmonico's (pictured in April 2016), shared news of their efforts to raise $200,000 for their employees over the weekend Delmonico's temporarily shut their doors and 'suspended all operations' as part of the lockdown on March 18. This image shows cooks preparing food at Delmonico's in 1902 'It is with much sadness that Delmonico's was forced to temporarily close our doors. As America's oldest restaurant, this is an extraordinary moment for us,' the Delmonico's team wrote on their GoFundMe page. 'During this time of uncertainty many of our guests, friends, and neighbors have asked what they can do to financially assist the Delmonico's staff impacted by this profound event. 'We have set up a Delmonico's Employee Relief Fund to support our coworkers. Any contributions during this difficult time means more to us than you will ever know,' the team added. Delmonico's temporarily shut its doors and 'suspended all operations' as part of the lockdown on March 18. New York restaurateurs like Matter House and Grovehouse have also set up GoFundMe accounts after they suspended all operations at their restaurants across the city. Across the United States, restaurateurs are transforming operations to try to stay afloat. The National Restaurant Association warns the outbreak could cost 5 million to 7 million jobs and hundreds of billions in losses and is pushing for a special federal relief package for restaurants. Advertisement

Small businesses fight for survival as they wait for help to arrive Small businesses awaiting help from the $2 trillion rescue package signed into law Friday. But with bills fast coming due, no end to business closings and an economy that's all but shut down, owners are worried about survival. Millions of owners face April 1 due dates for rent, mortgage, credit card and other payments. Some have been granted leniency from landlords and lenders. But even then, there are other business and personal bills that are owed. And employees - at least those who haven't been laid off - must be paid. 'How quick can we get these funds?' says Adam Rammel, co-owner of Brewfontaine, a bar and restaurant in Bellefontaine, Ohio, that's now limited to takeout and delivery service. His revenue is down 60%. Yet he has eight staffers, down from his usual 25, whom he must pay. 'Relief cant come soon enough - were a cash business with small margins,' says Rammel, who is looking to Small Business Administration loans. He needs the money despite receiving some concessions from his banker. Freelancers and people whose gig work has vanished are also anxious about having to wait. 'I need to pay my electric bill and the mortgage,' says Krista Kowalcyzk, whose Southwest Florida photography business has come to a halt as weddings have been canceled and customers have decided against having portraits shot. Advertisement

'They know at lunch time, when they clock out, do not return.'

Amazon has acknowledged that a worker at the Staten Island warehouse has diagnosed with the virus and is 'supporting the individual who is recovering.'

The company has said that those who were close to the worker have been asked to self-quarantine for two weeks and will still be paid.

The Amazon employees are not the first to threaten a strike as the coronavirus spreads.

There are more than 142,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S.

And while some big name brands look to hire amid a rise in demand others face forced closures.

Macy's has said will furlough a majority of its 130,000 workers with its stores dark.

The company on Monday said it is transitioning to an 'absolute minimum workforce' needed to maintain basic operations.

Online operations won't be hit as hard.

Employees who are enrolled in health benefits will continue to receive coverage with the company covering 100 per cent of the premium.

'We expect to bring colleagues back on a staggered basis as business resumes,'the company said.

Macy's closed all of its stores this month, more than 500, as the coronavirus spread.

To survive, it has suspended its dividend, drawn down its line of credit, frozen hiring and spending, and cancelled orders. Macy's is now evaluating all financing options.

Global brands including McDonald's, Audi and Volkswagen create 'social distancing' versions of their logos to encourage coronavirus safety

McDonald's, Audi, and Volkswagen are the among the brands to have created 'social distancing' versions of their iconic logos.

The term has become popularised because of the rampant spread of coronavirus around the world.

People are being advised by national governments to stand around 6 feet apart from each other to minimize the risk of catching the potentially deadly virus.

McDonald's, Audi, and Volkswagen are the among the brands to have created 'social distancing' versions of their iconic logos. Pictured: McDonald's in Brazil released a picture of the brand's famous golden arches separated

The normal logo of the fast food chain is well-known across the world

Last week, McDonald's in Brazil pulled apart their iconic golden arches logo in a picture which was posted on their Facebook page.

The tweaked logo led to criticism from Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.

He responded by saying: '@McDonalds give your workers paid sick leave'.

Car brand Audi released a video showing its logo with the four rings separated as they called on customers to keep their distance

It's usual logo shows the four rings interlinked, along with the strapline, 'Stay Together'

Car brand Audi released a video showing its logo with the four rings separated as they called on customers to keep their distance.

Similarly, Volkswagen, whose parent company owns Audi, promoted a similar video where they separated the V and W in their logo.

And Coca-Cola is currently running an advert in the now-deserted Times Square in New York showing space between each of the letters of its logo.

Similarly, Volkswagen, whose parent company owns Audi, promoted a similar video where they separated the V and W in their logo

Volkswagen's ordinary logo depicts the V inside a larger W. Both letters sit inside a blue and white circle

It is accompanied by the slogan, 'Staying apart is the best way to stay connected.'

And while sportswear brand Nike has not tweaked its logo it launched a social media campaign with a strapline which read, 'If you ever dreamed of playing for millions around the world, now is your chance. Play inside, play for the world.'

McDonald's has been forced to close all its stores in the UK and the US in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

And Coca-Cola is currently running an advert in the now-deserted Times Square in New York showing space between each of the letters of its logo

In the US, it is hoped that social distancing measures are starting to pay off.

The number of coronavirus deaths on Sunday dropped by 181 on the previous day, a decrease of more than a third, as the overall number of fatalities reached 2,509.

Another 304 people died yesterday, a vast improvement on Saturday's 485 deaths and also less than Friday's tally of 398 fatalities.

This brief reprieve, however, should be viewed with caution and Donald Trump yesterday conceded that the country would have 'done a good job' if it could keep its death toll 'down to 100,000.'

The slowing of the disease yesterday extended to the infection rate which also flattened with 18,852 new cases, taking the US total to more than 142,000 cases, while on Saturday there had been 19,771 new positive diagnoses.

Italian sportswear brand Kappa's re-created logo shows the iconic man and woman sitting further apart

Kappa's logo usually shows the pair man and woman sitting with their backs touching

America is the global epicentre for the deadly contagion which has infected more than 700,000 worldwide and Trump told reporters at the White House that he was bracing for the peak of the crisis in next couple of weeks.

'The modelling estimates that the peak is likely to hit in two weeks,' the president said.

'So, I'll say it again: The peak  the highest point of death rates, remember this  is likely to hit in two week.'

'Nothing would be worse than declaring before the victory is won. That would be the greatest loss of all.'
After allowing around 90,000



people to enter the state from COVID-19 affected countries and states by the first week of March, the Odisha government on Monday sealed its border with neighbouring states to restrict the influx of more people including migrant workers.

Odisha, where three persons have tested positive for coronavirus, shares its borders with Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and West Bengal.

Though all modes of passenger transport services have been suspended for over a week in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, a large number of people were seen entering Odisha by road using hired private vehicles like cars, auto-rickshaw, mini-buses and trucks.

Many people were also found walking down miles from other states to return home in Odisha, a senior official said.

The influx of people from the COVID-19 hit states, particularly from Telangana, West Bengal, Chhattishgarh and even Maharastra and Kerala, had been a major headache for the state administration as they might be carriers of the highly infectious virus.

This apart, some of the people who return to COVID-19 hit states were not obeying quarantine norms and mixing with people in their villages, the official said.

"We have scaled up monitoring at the border and do not allow entry of anyone into Odisha. However, there is no restriction on the movement of goods carriers engaged in transporting essential commodities," ADG, Law and Order, Soumendra Priyadarshi told PTI.

The state administration takes care of the food and medicine requirement of migrant workers detained in the border areas, he said.

Official sources said around 82,00 people, mostly migrant workers, came to Odisha from other states and 500 reached the state from abroad by the first week of March.

The state government sealed a day after the Orissa High Court asked the administration to direct the bordering district authorities to arrange for shelter, food, sanitation and medical checkups of migrant workers coming into Odisha from other states.

The people who came from West Bengal and detained by Odisha police at Jamsola check gate were kept at a temporary camp and provided food and medicines.

"I was in Kolkata and now want to return to my village. However, police are not allowing us to move further. They provided a camp for us to stay for 14 days," said Kamala Pati, a housewife who came along with her children.

Similarly, 58 people were sent to quarantine by the local administration in Rourkela after they returned from a pilgrimage in Uttar Pradesh. They were kept in a quarantine centre developed by the Rourkela Municipal Corporation at Chhend for 14 days.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 spokesperson Subroto Bagchi said over 1.2 lakh migrant workers from Odisha were stranded mostly in five-states - Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal and Telangana,



Bagchi said a 20-line call centre has been made operational round the clock to help Odia workers standard in other states.

Odisha's Labour Secretary Anu Garg, said the state administration has set up 250 camps in the state for over 20,000 migrant workers from other states, who are residing in Odisha.

Bagchi said as many as 1,25 lakh poor people in 2,261 gram panchyats and 19,886 people in 80 urban local bodies have been provided cooked food by the state.

On the state COVID-19 scenario, he said up to 12 noon of Monday, 370 samples have been tested and the number of positive cases still 3. He said 76 persons are isolation in different hospitals.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pitstop has launched the #AtYourService campaign in 9 cities - Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Noida, Gurugram and Faridabad as a service to the ones who are serving the nation, without any service or labor charges.

Delivery personnel, grocery, fire, police, ambulance, medics, workers anyone using a vehicle and facing an issue can reach Pitstop at 6262621234 or log on www.getpitstop.com

Pitstops team will work with selected partner garages and doorstep van teams to get these vehicles up and running again.

We salute the heroes out there who are fighting for us on the streets and ensuring we get our essentials on time during this pandemic and are happy to launch #AtYourService campaign to help them out with any service support they need, at any hour of the day. Just get in touch with us at 6262621234 or log on to www.getpitstop.com. We are working with the police, local authorities and select partner garages to be able to have your vehicle up to keep the service on!" said Mihir Mohan, CEO & Founder, Pitstop.

In accordance with the state-issued guidelines for battling the current outbreak of COVID-19, Pitstop has suspended all doorstep and garage services (except for essential service providers) until the 14th of April 2020.
When one Ohio man wanted to visit his mother in an assisted living home amid a coronavirus facility lockdown, he got creative.

On March 22, Charley Adams, 45, decided to take his company bucket truck to visit his 80-year-old mother, Julia Adams, who lives on the third floor of a nursing home in New Middletown, Ohio.

PHOTO: Charley Adams, 45, uses his company's bucket truck to visit his 80-year-old mother quarantined on the 3rd floor of a nursing home in New Middletown, Ohio, March 22, 2020. (Courtesy Charley Adams)

MORE: Arkansas doctor in viral photo greeting toddler son though glass door narrowly escapes tornado

Amid the pandemic, the assisted living facility is currently in lockdown and no visitors are allowed, said Adams.

[My mother] kept calling me and saying she wanted to go out to dinner, said Adams, who typically takes his mother to lunch or dinner twice a week. I kept explaining to her, Mom, thats not possible ... you cant do that right now. She was getting a little bit frustrated and disappointed.

As the virus continues to spread, assisted living facilities and long-term elderly homes have been hit especially hard. Adams, who said he commends the nursing home staff for their hard work during the crisis, wanted to respect all safety guidelines.

When Adams' mother saw him at her third floor window, she was definitely surprised, he said.

She [said], Oh, my awesome kid, what are you doing? according to Adams, who said his mother calls him awesome kid.

PHOTO: Charley Adams is pictured with mother, Julia, in Bessemer, Pa., in an undated handout photo. (Courtesy Charley Adams)

MORE:Seniors receive special bouquets from couple who put wedding flowers to good use

[My mother] loves trucks. When I was a little boy, she used to take me to look at trucks, tractors and other equipment, he added.

Adams said hes glad his story is getting so much local attention on Facebook.

[Friends and family] are calling her. Its been really great because all of the phone calls really cheer her up, said Adams.

Ultimately, Adams said he hopes that this story can spread that same cheer.

If this little story can make somebody, even if its just for two seconds, smile. It means were doing something right, Adams said.

MORE: Woman surprises quarantined grandpa with engagement news through nursing home window

Man uses his company's bucket truck to visit mom quarantined on 3rd floor of nursing home originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com
Migrants driven home due to lack of food, money

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Lucknow, Mar 30: Labourers reaching Lucknow from Delhi and other states had a similar tale to narrate that they had no money and food, forcing them to return to their homes.

The state government has decided not to charge any ticket amount to any labourers, workers and families who are travelling in state-run buses, said Raj Shekhar, the managing director of the Uttar Pradesh State Roadways Transport Corporation.

He added that the conductor need to maintain the way bill details for further necessary action, and the expenditure will be reimbursed by the government.

"This will be implemented with immediate effect," he said.

Coronavirus lockdown: Will die of hunger before any disease, say home-bound migrant workers

After covering several kilometres on foot along with their families, the labourers, who reached Charbagh bus station in Lucknow on Saturday and Sunday, said there was no point staying in Delhi as they have exhausted their funds and it would be better for them to return to their homes.

NEWS AT NOON, MARCH 30th, 2020

Pankaj Chauhan, who returned to Lucknow from Hazrat Nizamuddin, had his face covered with a handkerchief as a precautionary measure.

"I have to go to Kanpur and I am waiting for my bus," Chauhan said.

Asked whether any arrangement had been made in Delhi for them or not, Chauhan said "our ration stock has exhausted, and funds too have been exhausted".

A state government officer had on Saturday said transport officers, drivers and conductors were called in the night from their homes and around 1,000 buses were arranged.

#Stayathome and send us your selfie

"UP chief minister himself monitored the situation and more than 1,000 buses were pressed into action to bring stranded people in Noida, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Aligarh and Hapur to their respective destinations," the officer said.

Those arriving at Charbagh bus station in Lucknow were then sent to Kanpur, Ballia, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Ayodhya, Basti, Pratapgarh, Sultanpur, Amethi, Rae Bareli, Gonda, Etawah, Bahraich and Shravasti.

State police chief H C Awasthi and Lucknow police commissioner Sujit Pandey arranged food and water for the stranded people.

In a statement, Lucknow District Magistrate Abhishek Prakash said: "Around 70,000 food packets have been prepared to cater to huge number of people coming from the National Capital Region."

A large number of people from other states reached the expressway toll plaza in Lucknow. The district administration is providing them lunch and drinking water.

At the toll plaza, Prakash instructed the people to sit at a distance of two metres and strictly follow social-distancing norms.

In Aligarh, hundreds of stranded migrant workers from the NCR are desperately searching for means of transport to reach their native towns and villages. These migrants, including and children, are concentrated on the outskirts of the city.

Most of these stranded people are heading to Agra, Etah and Kasganj. Some of the stranded are also from distant locations in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

UP government arranges buses to ferry migrant labour

"The police is sparing no efforts in arranging transport for these stranded passengers. More than 65 buses of the UPSRTC were yesterday pressed into service for this task," Senior Superintendent of Police Muniraj G said.

On the other hand, police have intensified stringent measures against residents in the city who are wilfully violating the lockdown.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, March 30, 2020, 8:14 [IST]
China's manufacturing sector has steadily advanced production resumption, with 98.6 per cent of major industrial firms resuming work amid the pandemic, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Monday.

Around 89.9 per cent of employees in industrial companies with an annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($2 million) have returned to their workplaces, Xinhua news agency quoted Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of the MIIT, as saying at a briefing here.

In Hubei, where the pandemic originated in its capital Wuhan last December, the average work resumption rate of industrial firms have surpassed 95 per cent so far.

The production and operation of large pharmaceutical companies producing vitamin, antibiotic, antipyretic and analgesic ingredients have returned to normal, according to the vice minister.

Meanwhile, 76 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises nationwide have also resumed operations.

Some 92 leading enterprises in key industries have helped boost the work resumption of more than 400,000 their upstream and downstream enterprises, Xin said.

As of Monday, reported 82,149 confirmed cases with 3,308 fatalities.

Although the virus originated in China, the US now has the highest number of cases (142,502) globally, while Italy has recorded the largest death toll (10,779), according to the latest updates by the Washington-based Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

unexpectedly cuts reverse repo rate by most in five years to support virus-hit economy



China's central bank unexpectedly cut the rate on reverse repurchase agreements by 20 basis points on Monday, the largest in nearly five years, as authorities ramped up steps to relieve pressure on an economy ravaged by the pandemic.

The People's Bank of (PBOC) announced on its website that it was lowering the 7-day reverse repo rate to 2.20% from 2.40%, but it did not give a reason for the move.



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Ma Jun, a central bank adviser told state media that China still has ample room for monetary policy adjustment and the rate decision took into consideration the return of Chinese companies to work, the global virus situation and a deterioration in the external economic environment.

It was the third cut in the 7-day rate since November, and comes as the coronavirus infections in China - where the outbreak originated late last year - has slowed from a peak in February. The country has so far reported 3,304 deaths from 81,470 infections.

In a note to clients, Capital Economics said "a lot more easing will be needed, especially on the fiscal front, to help the economy return to its pre-virus trend."

Global policymakers have rolled out unprecedented stimulus measures in the past few weeks, cutting rates sharply and injecting trillions of dollars to backstop their economies as many countries have been put under tight lockdowns to contain the pandemic.

Yan Se, chief economist at Founder Securities in Beijing, said the rate cut was China's commitment to a pledge it made during the Group of 20 major economies meeting last week to combat the coronavirus and stabilise financial markets.
Farshad Guirakhoo, chief scientific Officer at GeoVax, checks on one of the vaccine candidates for COVID-19 that his lab is working on in Smyrna, Georgia, US. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

European stocks closed higher on Monday despite a slump in oil prices, as Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) touted a potential vaccine for the novel coronavirus.

The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) closed up 0.9% in London, Germanys DAX (^GDAXI) ended up 1.6% and the CAC 40 (^FCHI) closed up 0.5%.

All had been lower in early trade, with the FTSE 100 starting the morning off more than 1%.

The rebound came as US drugs giant Johnson & Johnson announced it had identified a lead vaccine candidate for COVID-19. Human trials are expected to begin in September.

Alex Gorsky, chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson tells NBC News TODAY the drug had a high degree of probability of being successful against the covid-19 virus.

Literally within the next few days and weeks, we're going to start ramping up production of these vaccines as well and we should be able to have several hundred million doses available by the middle of next year, Gorsky said. Our goal is to have a billion prepared by the end of 2021.

Dr Adam Barker and Dr Tara Raveendran, research analysts at Shore Capital, wrote in a note: A vaccine remains the exit route for most strategies of virus control.

The announcement helped US stock markets open higher. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was up 2.2% by the time Europe closed, while the Nasdaq (^IXIC) was 2.7% higher and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) had gained 2%.

Prior to Johnson & Johnsons announcement, futures had suggested a lower open as investors focused on slumping oil prices.

Crude oil (CL=F) was down 5.1% lower at $20.41 per barrel on Monday. Brent (BZ=F) fell by 11.5% to $22.04, a 17-year-low.

The slide came amid the continued price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, which began at the start of the month. The market has been flooded with supply just as demand is plunging due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Jack Allardyce, an oil and gas analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald Europe, said: With major producers pumping barrels freely and the IEA suggesting that short-term demand could fall by a fifth due to travel restrictions, global storage is likely to hit capacity over the next two-to-three months.

Story continues

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said: Pictures of grounded aircraft fleets sitting parked on runways across the US point to a global economy that has ground to a virtual standstill, with US crude at one point dropping below $20.

In some cases, producers in the US are paying to have oil taken off their hands, they cant give it away.

Monday was a quiet day for data but later this week attention will turn to Chinese manufacturing data, PMI surveys, and US jobs figures. The data will give an indication of the scale of economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic and efforts to contain it.

We are going to be left with having to deal with a decline in activity that will be as sharp as anything seen since the Great Depression and likely greater in some countries, Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid and team wrote in a morning note to clients on Monday.

Indeed going forward now, the bad news will come from the real time data and earnings reports that could in some cases create existential risks. The good news will come from a run of slower new virus case growth numbers and mortality rates around the world.
The Daily Beast

Scott Olson/GettyDonald Trump abruptly ended an interview with NPR on Tuesday after he was repeatedly called out on his baseless claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election.A video of the interview, published Wednesday morning, shows Trump becoming increasingly irritated as NPRs Steve Inskeep asks him why hes still pushing debunked conspiracy theories about his 2020 defeat.After Inskeep told the ex-president that his fraud claims have repeatedly been proven false, the reporter a
Mumbai, March 30 : Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt is the latest celebrity who has come out in support of the nationwide lockdown, urging his fans not to venture out during this period.

"Our country is going through a very difficult situation. That's why we all have to be united to deal with this. We have to eradicate coronavirus forever. I am requesting you all with folded hands that please follow the instructions of the government and don't step out of your homes. Please step out only if it is very urgent. Please stay at home and spend quality time with your family. Once again I am telling you, please listen to the government. Stay safe. We have to fight coronavirus," Dutt says in the video.

The actor captioned the video, saying: "Let's do our bit by staying indoors as that's the only way to prevent #COVID19 from spreading. #StayAtHomeSaveLives #CoronavirusLockdown #Quarantined #WeAreInThisTogether #Coronavirus?" Commenting on the actor's post, his daughter Trishala wrote: "Love you dad. Stay safe. Wash your hands." Several Bollywood celebrities including Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan and Gulzar have shared videos on social media urging citizens to stay at home during the lockdown period. Amitabh Bachchan even wrote a poem requesting citizens to cooperate with the government during the lockdown.
Experts warn the coronavirus will decimate refugee camps if the world does not act now.

It is just a matter of time before the novel coronavirus reaches densely crowded camps where there is already little-to-no water or healthcare.

What are refugee communities doing to protect themselves from the highly contagious virus?

Al Jazeeras senior correspondent Mohammed Jamjoom reports on the possible outcomes and solutions being proposed to provide aid to global refugee communities.

For more:

Growing calls to evacuate Greek refugee camps amid virus threat

War-torn Syria braces for lockdown after first virus case

Timeline: How the new coronavirus spread

The team:

Ney Alvarez produced this episode with Priyanka Tilve, Dina Kesbeh, Amy Walters, and Malika Bilal. Alex Roldan was the sound designer. Natalia Aldana, the engagement producer. Stacey Samuel, the executive producer and Graelyn Brashear, Al Jazeeras Head of Audio.

Special thanks to Yassin Abdumonab, Aliena Haig and Antonis Repanas.

Subscribe:

New episodes of the show come out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to The Take on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you listen.

Connect with us:

Follow The Take on Twitter, @AJTheTake, Facebook and Instagram @ajthetake.
Yet another major 2020 auto show has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, although now it's less about timing and more about supporting the current fight. Organizers have canceled the Detroit Auto Show (officially the North American International Auto Show) as its venue, the TCF Center, is being turned into a field hospital for coronavirus patients. The next show now won't take place until June 2021, or over two and a half years after the last event.

Producers had moved the show from January to June to avoid clashing with other events. This was also supposed to enable outdoor events and even test drives that weren't practical during a Michigan winter.

The Detroit gathering has long been an important show for American automakers, not to mention foreign brands hoping to make a splash in the region. More recently, though, it has served as a showcase for brands of all kinds as they venture into electric cars and connected tech. Companies will still introduce new vehicles, including at later auto shows if all goes well -- it's just going to be much harder to see these introductions in person, and there might not be as much fanfare.
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Linkedin Victor Mambor (The Jakarta Post) Jayapura  Mon, March 30, 2020 20:38 653 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206e73f5a 1 National Freeport-Indonesia,shooting-incident,Papua,armed-criminal-group Free

A foreign employee of gold and copper mining company PT Freeport Indonesia was shot dead on Monday by gunmen in Timika, the capital city of Mimika regency in Papua.

The employee, identified as Graeme Thomas Wall, was engaged in construction work with colleagues on the company site in Kuala Kencana district when the shooting took place on Monday afternoon, Freeport Indonesia spokesperson Riza Pratama said.

The shooting happened on Monday, March 30, at around 2 p.m. local time. We express our deep condolences for one of our workers who was killed in the shooting at the office complex of Freeport Indonesia, Riza told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Two of Wall's colleagues, identified as Jibril Wahar and Yosephine, were admitted to Tembagapura Hospital with serious injuries, Riza said. Four other people sustained minor injuries and were treated in the office.

Local authorities and Freeport security officers have secured the location and evacuated all workers and residents near the vicinity following the attack.

Freeport management has issued an incident notification alert asking workers to postpone all activities and find shelter following the shooting.

We will provide further information when there are reports of new developments from this incident, Riza said.

Papua Police chief Paulus Waterpauw alleged that the perpetrators who launched the attack were under the command of Joni Botak, the leader of an armed gang operating in the Timika area, and who is also on the police's most-wanted list.

The group is now being hunted by our joint team, Waterpauw said.

Separatist group West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), however, claimed responsibility for the shooting.

Our battlefield is at the Freeport and Grassberg mining sites. Kuala Kencana is also a war zone. We will not stop until Freeport closes down, so they better close at once, TPNPB Timika operational commander Hengky Wamang told the Post.

Papua has been the hotbed of separatism for years and armed groups, which authorities say operate in several regencies in the province, are reported to have been behind numerous violent incidents in the region.

Earlier this month, the police said some 790 people fled their homes in mountainous areas around the Freeport mining site on March 7 to take refuge at the Tembagapura Police headquarters in Timika over fears of an armed criminal group, which had reportedly terrorized the villagers.

Security authorities previously reported that armed groups had been shooting at Indonesian Military (TNI) and police guard posts. The residents access to basic needs, such as food and health care, had reportedly been restricted by armed men who blocked roads.

Authorities also claimed that the local residents were still traumatized from their previous encounter with the armed group in November 2017, when its members blocked access into and out of several villages. (mfp)
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NICOSIA, CYPRUS / ACCESSWIRE / March 30, 2020 / Atalaya Mining Plc. (AIM:ATYM)(TSX:AYM) provides an update in relation to the new measures taken by the Spanish Government against the COVID-19 pandemic.Following the announcement made by the Spanish Government on 14 March 2020 in which a nationwide lockdown was declared, a new royal decree was released on 29 March 2020 (the "Royal Decree") implementing enhanced measures to protect the people from the virus. The Royal Decree stipulates that only employees from a short list of essential industries are allowed to continue working from 30 March 2020 to 9 April 2020, inclusive.As part of the Royal Decree, mining has been excluded as an essential industry and consequently the Company's Proyecto Riotinto site is required to halt its operations until 10 April 2020. The Company will maintain a minimum workforce for care and maintenance during the stoppage.The Company will update the market in due course as necessary.Contacts:Newgate CommunicationsElisabeth Cowell / Adam Lloyd / Tom Carnegie+ 44 20 3757 68804C CommunicationsCarina Corbett+44 20 3170 7973Canaccord Genuity(NOMAD and Joint Broker)Henry Fitzgerald-O'Connor / James Asensio+44 20 7523 8000BMO Capital Markets(Joint Broker)Tom Rider / Michael Rechsteiner / Neil Elliot+44 20 7236 1010Peel Hunt LLP(Joint Broker)Ross Allister / David McKeown+44 20 7418 8900About Atalaya Mining PlcAtalaya is an AIM and TSX-listed mining and development group which produces copper concentrates and silver by-product at its wholly owned Proyecto Riotinto site in southwest Spain. In addition, the Group has a phased, earn-in agreement for up to 80% ownership of Proyecto Touro, a brownfield copper project in the northwest of Spain which is currently in the permitting stage. For further information, visit www.atalayamining.com This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@ lseg.com or visit www.rns.com SOURCE: Atalaya Mining PLC
Health Minister Simon Harris said restrictions put on people to tackle the Covid-19 outbreak cannot stay in place for very long and he is concerned about the nations mental health.

The restrictions will remain in place for the next two weeks until Easter Sunday when they will be reviewed.

Under the restrictions, people are only allowed to leave their home for essential work, to buy food, attend medical appointments, vital family reasons or to take exercise within 2km of their home.

Health Minster Simon Harris told radio station FM104 he is unsure when the restrictions will remain in place until but hopes some progress is made by Easter Sunday.

Will the measure be extended beyond Easter Sunday? Ive got to be truthful, I dont know. I think these measures are so restrictive and significant that you cannot leave them in place for a very long time.

The judgment call our doctors had to make was, what is the right time to bring these measures in? So what were planning to do is going intensively at this now for a couple of weeks so that when we get to Easter Sunday we can see some progress.

Everything cant go back to normal  it would be a complete fantasy to think that would happen.

"This virus will be with us for many months but is there some things we can lift on Easter Sunday? That is what we are all hoping.

It is bloody tough. Youre asking parents I mean, the novelty of having a couple of days off school have long worn off. It was like the first day of the snow when everyone was happy to be home. On the second day they were getting a bit bored and on the third day they wanted out of their houses.

It is tough for families at home  kids are off school and climbing the walls.

These measures are tough but we are doing them to save lives because we dont want to go the way of Italy where almost 1,000 people died in one day. We wouldnt be doing this if it wasnt absolutely serious.

People in Ireland are really pulled together at the moment but there is something I am worried about beyond the coronavirus and that is peoples mental health. It is not normal what we are asking people to do.

All of us miss friends, family and we like meeting up and the odd hug, going to the pub and having a pint and meeting your friends.

I dont want to sound naff when I say this but we all need to be kinder to each other. The next two weeks are going to be tough but the prize is huge. If we get this right, were going to look back at this time where we lived through this weird time and couldnt go more than 2km from our house to walk the dog and so on.

Without worrying people, there is always more steps we can take but at the moment there isnt a sheet in the department with a load of more measures we can take. What we have done is pretty serious and significant. It has effectively suspended normal life for people right across the country.

Mr Harris praised people for their efforts during the crisis.

People are making a big effort and it has really shown the best of Ireland. We have seen so many people step forward and say I want to help.

I dont want to over-eggW it but we have seen some annoying behaviour where gardai have been spat at on the street and this stupid thing called the corona challenge where people go and cough in peoples faces.

You will get idiots in every situation but the overwhelming majority of Irish people have been amazing.

The minister will meet nursing home officials on Monday afternoon to discuss new measures to tackle Covid-19 in nursing homes.

In a message on Twitter on Sunday night, Mr Harris said he was worried about the prevalence of the virus among older people.

New week, renewed effort. Cmon Ireland, we can do it. Its tough but it is life saving! Those at the frontline are going to work -they need us to stay at home. Lets make sure when we look back, we know we did all we could to keep people safe & save lives #coronavirus #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/x4BtXLccAa  Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) March 29, 2020

According to Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) data, Covid-19 clusters were reported in three residential settings and 17 nursing homes,

The nursing home clusters account for 22% of the total number of clusters outbreaks in the Republic.

CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland Tadgh Daly told RTE radio representatives from the nursing home sector he will meet Mr Harris on Monday afternoon.

Mr Daly said: Were somewhat concerned the HSE is still recruiting people from our sector and one of our asks of the Minister today will be to desist recruiting people who are already working on the frontline.

This is a national effort and we need a national response. People who applied to the On Call initiative should be made available to the nursing home sector if and when required.

On Sunday 10 more people died in of Covid-19 in the Republic and there were 200 further cases.

The median age of the deaths is 77.

Operators of most public transport services are operating a new schedule of services on a phased basis from Monday morning.

The National Transport Authority (NTA) said revised timetables are now in place for Irish Rail while those for Dublin Bus, Go-Ahead Ireland and Bus Eireann will come into effect from Wednesday April 1 with services running at around 80% of their current levels.

The Chinese ambassador in Ireland He Xiangdong said he and his staff at the Embassy are helping to organise the millions of euro worth of protective equipment for healthcare workers in Ireland.

The first of dozens of flights from China carrying consignments of personal protective equipment (PPE) landed in Dublin on Sunday.

Speaking to RTE Morning Ireland, He Xiangdong said: The airports in Beijing and Shanghai are terribly busy with all the cargo flights from abroad.

I think the supply chain in China is under huge pressure, we will do our best for all the world.

I think the HSE procurement department is working closely with the supplier in China. We will try and do our best together to make sure all the PPE will abide by the standards.

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Standing five feet and five inches tall with her signature ruby red lips, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, AOC, now the youngest woman in Congress and leader of The Squad, was once known as Sandy, the dorky kid with big front teeth living in the working class Parkchester neighborhood of the Bronx.

'I was born in a place where my zip code determined my destiny,' she says in biography AOC: The Fearless Rise and Powerful Resonance of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by Lynda Lopez, out June 2. 'My parents did everything in their power to move me out of that zip code'.

From scrubbing toilets with her mother, to leading 'The Squad' in Congress, the author describes how AOC rose to politics and reveals the congresswoman's future aspirations.

Responding to a suggestion she might be a dream candidate in 2028 when shed be 35, she says NeverI want to be Bernie Sanders but never run for president.

'I want to be the kooky old lady who brings her cats to the floor of Congress and says, ''Here's the right thing to do.'' Alexandria says in the book.

'I just want to be chilling with Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, wearing gold hoop earrings with a big old FU and a pretty necklace,' she adds.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she never thought of becoming a politician but she 'loves serving people'. Pictured at her swearing-in in January 2019

Alexandria was a nerd and a driven student who wanted a microscope for her birthday and dreamed of becoming an obstetrician or a gynecologist.

Her family moved 40 minutes north to Yorktown Heights in Westchester County to get their two children a better education. When they moves, Alexandria didn't look like her Yorktown Heights neighbors who were 90 percent white.

Biography AOC: The Fearless Rise and Powerful Resonance of Alexandria OCasio-Cortez is out June 2

In Westchester County, her Puerto Rican family fell into the underclass of people serving those neighbors with a higher median household income.

Her mother, Blanca, cleaned houses of the people she went to school with while her father struggled starting his own architecture business.

Thanks to student loans and scholarships, Alex, as she was now called, enrolled at Boston University and majored in biochemistry.

Her motivating drive in life was her father, Sergio Ocasio-Roman, whose last words to her before he succumbed to cancer in 2008 were, 'Make me proud'.

'I took it literally and my GPA skyrocketed', AOC states. 'My father knew my soul better than anyone else on this planet. He really made me feel I had true power in this world'.

Dealing with the agony of his death by channeling her sadness into her studies, she changed her focus from science to economics and international relations  and made the dean's list, according to the author.

Before she even got to college, Alex won second place at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair and had a small asteroid named after her  23238 Ocasio-Cortez  in recognition by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Years later she learned of her Jewish ancestry through her family tree.

Her distant ancestors were Sephardic Jews who emigrated to Puerto Rico fleeing Spain and Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition in the late 15th century.

Now she was welcomed as a member of the 'Tribe'.

Changing majors at BU was her first step in understanding politics, which would eventually lead to the biggest upset of the 2018 midterms when she unseated the favored incumbent Democrat Joe Crowley and became Representative in New York's 14th District.

New biography AOC: The Fearless Rise and Powerful Resonance of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by Lynda Lopez, gives an inside look of AOC's rise to Congress

Her motivating drive in life was her father, whose last words to her before he succumbed to cancer in 2008 were, 'Make me proud'

AOC dealt with the agony of his death by channeling her sadness into her studies and changing her focus from science to economics and international relations

The young Latina has turned the heads of one of the youngest pundits at Fox News, Jesse Waters, who called her 'a star  attractive, tall, good looking and she's beautiful'.

Her longtime boyfriend, Riley Roberts, thought so, too. He has been by her side since they met in college  except for a brief breakup when he returned to Phoenix and worked as a startup web designer.

He double majored in sociology and finance and developed that into becoming a social media marketing expert.

They kindled their love affair and he has stayed close to her, but out of the limelight  until a UK political reporter called him a 'bin raccoon'.

Roberts was roasted in a tweet that went viral to trim that bushy red hair, beard and mustache so he didn't resemble a raccoon emerging from a dumpster.

He did and Ocasio-Cortz tweeted: 'It was nice to see him again after we took a weed whacker to his castaway beard post election'.

The couple first met 'in true nerdy fashion' at a weekly Friday afternoon student discussion group that was hosted by BU's dean.

Topics ranged from debating public policy to the meaning of love, which the couple quickly discovered.

Ocasio-Cortez launched the student group, Alianza Latina, Boston University's Latin American Student Union, spent a semester of her junior year abroad in Niger and graduated cum laude in 2011.

Before becoming the famed Congresswoman she is today, AOC worked as a bartender waitress at Flats Fix, a restaurant in Union Square, New York City

Her longtime boyfriend, Riley Roberts, has been by her side since they met in college at Boston University

The couple live together now in Washington, DC and have a pet dog together

Her mother, Blanca (pictured together)cleaned houses of the people AOC went to school with while her father struggled starting his own architecture business growing up

She also interned in the foreign affairs and immigration office of Senator Ted Kennedy from early 2008 until his death in 2009.

After graduating from BU, she went back to New York to help her mother financially recover after her father's death. He had no health insurance and died without a will.

They still owned the Bronx apartment as well as the Yorktown Heights home.

Blanca worked as a bus driver, a hospital receptionist and cleaned houses.

Ocasio-Cortez not only helped her mother scrub toilets, but she also launched the now-defunct Brook Avenue Press, a children's literary publisher whose directive was to portray the Bronx in a positive light along with working as an educator at the National Hispanic Institute.

Saddled with $25,000 in student loan debt and a monthly health insurance payment of $200, she wasn't earning enough money.

So by night she worked as a bartender and waitress at Flats Fix, a restaurant in Union Square and sucked up being sexually harassed by patrons who made her feel inferior for being a Latina.

She could have worked on Wall Street with her degrees in international relations and economics but 'I just physically couldn't do it,' she said.

'I knew it would kill me on the inside. It's not like I felt enlightened waiting tables, but I knew I couldn't do the other thing,' she said.

AOC started volunteering for Bernie Sanders in 2016 and attended rallies for Black Lives Matter and the pipeline protest of the Standing Rock Sioux who were trying to stop a 1,172-mile oil gas pipeline that would destroy sacred sites.

AOC has learned from her parents 'leaning in' to people to care.

On her trip out to Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, she stopped in Flint, Michigan, to learn more about the lead poisoned water.

'When I saw that, I knew I had to do something more'.

That opportunity came when Bernie Sanders campaign alums created Brand New Congress and recruited progressive candidates that were not your prototypical white, wealthy and politically connected.

AOC has emerged as one of the four members of The Squad - which includes representatives Ilhan Omar, Rashida Talib and Ayanna Pressley

Asked about running for president, the Democratic socialist said, 'Never. I want to be Bernie Sanders but never run for president'

AOC started volunteering for Bernie Sanders in 2016 and has continued campaigning by his side for the 2020 presidential election

I want to be the kooky old lady who brings her cats to the floor of Congress and says, ''Here's the right thing to do.'' AOC says of her future in politics

'I never thought of becoming a politician. I never liked the culture of what it means to run for office but I love serving people,' AOC stated.

She was off and running in the New York primary and defeated Representative Joe Crowley, a top Democrat in the House of Representatives, his first challenger in 14 years.

He was president of the Queens County Democrat party and House speaker Nancy Pelosi's presumptive heir, endorsed by every big name Democrat in the state.

AOC knocked on doors, made 170,000 calls and sent as many text messages.

'Women like me aren't supposed to run for office, she said. 'I wasn't born into a wealthy or powerful family'.

When Crowley failed to show up for a community debate in Queens, AOC debated an empty chair and it led to his loss of his throne by 4,000 votes.

Initially dissed by Democrats and viewed as a local phenomenon by Nancy Pelosi, Ocasio-Cortez was fearless.

'I think we're scared of things we're not familiar with, that show power', AOC said.

'If a spaceship landed in your backyard, it's like, ''What the f*ck is that? Is it going to hurt me?'''

Asked about running for President in 2028 when she would be 35, the Democratic socialist said, 'Never. I want to be Bernie Sanders but never run for president. I want to be the kooky old lady who brings her cats to the floor of Congress and says, 'Here's the right thing to do.'

'I just want to be chilling with Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, wearing gold hoop earrings with a big old FU and a pretty necklace'.

'I just want to be chilling with Sonia Sotomayor, wearing gold hoop earrings with a big old FU and a pretty necklace,' she says

These days, AOC and Riley Roberts live together in a luxury apartment complex in Washington that has good security  as well as having an apartment back in the Bronx.

She has had security scares, one from a man with an arsenal of weapons who was gunning to kill her.

Riley often walks her to her DC office and serves as her security guard.

He spends time with her in her office and is with her when she has to work late.

They are raising a French bulldog they've named Deco, after the art period.

Known as the woman with the red lipstick from the Bronx, the youngest member of Congress, the Latina girl who wears Stilla Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in shade Beso, and big gold hoop earrings, she has been described as a political power.

She's moving so fast, she orders clothes on the go from Rent the Runway, a subscription service supplying unlimited designer wardrobe.

AOC has been described as the first strong cry of the millennials and Trump, the last gasp of the baby boomers.
In an interview with European Pravda, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmitry Kuleba said either he or his father, Ivan, who is an ambassador, may be dismissed from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs due to conflict of interest.

In December, Ivan Kuleba was appointed Ambassador of Ukraine to Armenia, and prior to that, he was the Ambassador of Ukraine to Kazakhstan.

Dmitry Kuleba stated that he has informed the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption about conflict of interest and is currently waiting for the Agencys conclusion. Dmitry Kuleba assured that he will specifically follow Ukrainian legislation, regardless of the conclusion. The Agency will say that the next step will be my fathers dismissal or my resignation. Ill talk to my father. If he insists, Ill resign. If not, Ill recall my father, Dmitry Kuleba said.
ISTANBUL  Turkey has imposed quarantines on residential areas in 18 provinces across the country as it grapples with the spread of the novel coronavirus. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Turks to stay at home to bring a quick end to the outbreak that has claimed 168 lives, but also said the nation could not afford to fully halt economic activity.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter today that 37 people died of COVID-19 and 1,610 people were diagnosed with the illness over the past 24 hours. The country now has 10,827 confirmed cases of the illness.

Data from Johns Hopkins University shows Turkey has one of the worlds highest infection rates, with cases doubling every two days. More than 770,000 people around the world have been diagnosed with the coronavirus since it was first reported in humans in China in December, and deaths worldwide now exceed 37,000.

Erdogan said after a Cabinet meeting he conducted by video conference that citizens not obligated to work can keep themselves at home under voluntary quarantine, which would make a return to life as usual that much quicker.

Turkey is a nation that must continue to produce in every circumstance and condition and ensure that the wheels keep turning, Erdogan said in comments broadcast live by TV channels.

Turkey has quarantined 41 towns, villages and neighborhoods in 18 provinces, he said. Residents are required to shelter in place and, in some areas, entries and exits are barred after residents tested positive.

To encourage residents of Istanbul to stay at home, parks and shorelines are closed to pedestrians, and special permission is required to leave the countrys biggest city. Intercity bus and ferryboat service has stopped. The countrys second-biggest airport is closed, international flights are canceled and planes are only flying to 14 cities within Turkey. Erdogan has also granted unelected governors of the 30 biggest cities with special powers to introduce new restrictions as they see fit.

But he has so far rebuffed calls to enact a stay-at-home order for Istanbul, which accounts for more than a quarter of Turkeys gross domestic product. Policymakers are divided over whether Turkey needs a full lockdown, with public health officials advising the president to take the step but his economic team worried that the nation cannot afford to slow output further, Al-Monitor has reported.

Erdogan said he would donate seven months of his salary to a new campaign to help low-income Turks impacted by the economic slowdown, which one news site calculated was 568,750 liras ($86,500). Earlier this month, he announced $15 billion in aid, mostly in the form of tax breaks and loan guarantees; however, at just 2% of GDP, the rescue package is dwarfed by those that many Western governments have pledged to weather the pandemic. Turkey only recently emerged from a brief recession sparked by a 2018 currency shock.

The state is not managing the crisis so much as it is trying to suppress it. The states capacity, despite the economic crisis, is enough for it to find the resources, if it wants to move to a full quarantine. Its preference not to raises questions about whose interests its protecting, whether the commercial interests of companies are whats prioritized, said Sinem Adar, an associate at the Center for Applied Turkey Studies at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

The powers given to the governor reveal a paradox: The decision to stay off the streets resides not with the state but the citizen, but in order to retain its power over society, the state is empowering governors and bypassing municipalities, she told Al-Monitor.

Erdogan replaced his transport minister Friday. No reason was given for the rare change to Erdogans Cabinet, but the outgoing minister faced criticism last week for holding a $1.2 billion tender for part of Canal Istanbul, Erdogans controversial pet project to build an artificial waterway between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, during a time of national emergency.

Erdogan also addressed the nation's health system. Our health infrastructure, be it personnel, medicine, equipment or the number of intensive care beds, is in good stead," he said. He added, Compared with Europe and America, we are one of the countries closest to overcoming the spread of this disease. Turkey is sending domestically produced health and cleaning products to Italy and Spain, among the worlds hardest hit by coronavirus.

The government conducted more than 11,000 diagnostic tests today, moving closer to a target of 15,000 tests per day. This is still far short of Germany, which has the same size population but is leading Europe in testing  averaging 71,000 per day  and aims to nearly triple this to 200,000.

Koca has explained that the governments decision to withhold geographical information about the outbreak is to discourage Turks from fleeing hot spots and spreading the infection. Opposition parties have accused the government of a lack of transparency about where testing is conducted and cases are confirmed.

Parliaments third-largest party will set up an alternative coronavirus task force to better inform the public about the emergency. Mithat Sancar, head of the Peoples Democratic Party, said many in the mainly Kurdish southeast were not staying at home because of distrust in the government, which had imposed curfews in the region in 2015 and 2016 to battle Kurdish militants.

Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul extended restrictions on visits to the countrys 300,000 inmates to prevent the spread of disease, and promised to soon allow families to make video calls. Lawyers will only be allowed closed visits with their clients with prosecutors permission, he said. Parliament may vote this week on a bill to release as many as a third of prisoners on probation to protect crowded penitentiaries.

Prosecutors have opened investigations into 459 people to protect societys law, peace and interests, including 385 people for their critical social media posts, Gul also said. Police briefly detained a truck driver whose video criticizing the governments response to the outbreak went viral. Without government support, he could not follow the recommendation to stay at home but had to continue working, he said. This virus wont kill me. What will kill me is your system, he said.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has called for further reduction in the pump price, describing the N125 per litre as ordinary cosmetics measures.

In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party insisted that given the fall of the price of crude in the international market to below $30 per barrel, the appropriate domestic price for fuel should be between N80 to N90 per liter.

The party, however, charged President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately reduce the pump price of fuel from a cosmetic price to an appropriate price that should not exceed N90 per liter.

PDP said the immediate reduction must be done immediately to ease the economic burden on Nigerians and further serve as a palliative for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The opposition party maintained that any further delay in the reduction of fuel price amounts to fleecing of Nigerians at a time government should rather concentrate on efforts that will immediately ease burdens and enable the citizens to battle health and economic concerns worsened by the coronavirus disease.
North Korean released from Chinese prison thanks God for guiding her 'in the valley of death'

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A North Korean defector, who was arrested while leading Bible studies in China, thanked God for guiding her in the valley of death after she was miraculously released from prison.

Lady Eunji, the leader of a Bible study for North Korean women refugees, was held in a Chinese detention center for nearly ten months, after she was arrested in August 2019 around the North Korean/China border, according to persecution watchdog Open Doors USA.

She was waiting for repatriation back to North Korea as a Christian. Because of her faith, Eunji would likely be transferred to a Kwan-li-so, a maximum-security political labor camp in North Korea, where Christians are often tortured and killed.

While the details of Eunjis release and escape are few, Eunji said that because her deportation to North Korea was delayed, she was able to remain in China and be released before she was repatriated. The delay gave her Chinese husband an opportunity to rescue her.

Eunji thanked God for His protection over her and for guiding her in the valley of death and expressed gratitude for the prayers of Christians around the world: Thanks for your prayer support and love in Christ.

North Korea has for the last 19 years ranked as the worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution on Open Doors USAs World Watch List. Open Doors estimates that approximately 50,000 Christians are held in inhumane prison camps in the isolated country, where Christianity is seen as hostile to the state.

The group reports an increased number of arrests and abduction of South Korean and Chinese Korean Christians and missionaries in China, strengthened border control with harsher punishment for North Korean citizens who are repatriated from China, and increased efforts by the North Korean government to eliminate all channels for spreading the Christian faith.

In a previous interview with Open Doors, a woman identified only as "Prisoner 42" revealed the horrific conditions captives endure in North Korean prisons. After fleeing from North Korea to China, she was captured and sent to a North Korean prison camp, where she spent one year in solitary confinement.

At the prison camp, guards shaved her head and stripped her down to nothing. Each morning when they would call for her, she would crawl out of a door flap  typically used for dogs or cats  and keep her head bowed low because she was not allowed to make eye contact with the guards.

She recalled how for an hour, guards would ask her the same questions: "Why were you in China? Who did you meet? Did you go to church? Did you have a Bible? Did you meet any South Koreans? Are you a Christian?"

To stay alive, she was forced to lie: "Am I a Christian? Yes. I love Jesus. But I deny it. If I admit that I was helped by Chinese Christians, I will be killed, either quickly or slowly," she said. "They will murder me in this North Korean prison. Every day, Im beaten and kicked  it hurts the most when they hit my ears. My ears ring for hours, sometimes days."

During her year in solitary confinement, she was trapped in a cold cell and never saw sunlight or another prisoner. "I spent one year in prison, and for one year my skin didnt touch a single ray of sunlight," she said.

She was later sentenced to four years at a reeducation camp where she and other Christians formed a secret church. She was released after two years in detention.

Last year, Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American pastor who was held hostage in North Korea from 2012 to 2014, claimed the North Korean government is more afraid of Christians than nuclear weapons.

"They said, 'we are not afraid of nuclear weapons ... we are afraid of someone like you bringing religion into our country and use it against us and then everybody will turn to God and this will become God's country and we will fall," Bae said.

Because of his evangelistic efforts, Bae was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, and was then sent to a North Korean labor camp. He was ultimately released in 2014. He revealed that when he would talk about Jesus with North Koreans, they would ask him if Jesus lives in Korea or China.

"North Korea is not a country where Christians are being persecuted; it is a country [where] Christianity has been eliminated, the total elimination taking place," he stressed. "And if you're Christians, they'll kill you, they'll kill your parents."
President Donald Trump on Monday said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo  whos received praise for his handling of the COVID-19 crisis  would make a better opponent than the likely Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

According to a Sienna College poll, 87% of residents approve of Cuomos efforts to address the pandemic, which has infected almost 60,000 and killed nearly 1,000 across the Empire State. Cuomos daily briefings, highlighting challenges the state faces and pressuring the federal government for greater resources, especially ventilators and other medical equipment, have prompted some pundits to suggest that Cuomo could steal some of Bidens thunder or make a better candidate.

When Fox News Fox and Friends host Steve Doocy asked the president to respond to talk of positive reviews for Cuomo, Trump on Monday morning said the federal government giving Cuomo thousands of ventilators and millions of masks is the core reason behind Cuomos success.

I wouldnt mind running against him. I think hed be a better candidate than Sleepy Joe," Trump said, invoking his nickname for the former vice president. I think Andrew probably would be better. I hope Im going to win. Polls say Im going to win. Ive gotten great marks (on coronavirus), even from almost every Democratic governor."

Trump, who noted that hes known Cuomo for a long time, has frequently claimed that hes worked well with Cuomo and other governors amid the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. Cuomo and others have consistently pushed the federal government for more assistance with medical equipment over concerns that hospitals could be overrun by coronavirus patients.

Biden, who shot to a delegate lead after strong performances in South Carolina and on Super Tuesday, is the likely Democratic presidential nominee after besting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the last several voting contests.

Cuomo, who campaigned for a third term in 2018, said he only wanted to return to Albany and repeated promises not to make a White House bid in 2020. He noted that he only wouldnt finish his four-year term as governor if God strikes me dead.

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For quite a few centuries, cities have been unhealthy places in times of contagion. Long before people understood the causes of diseases, experience showed that people were better off to wait out a plague in the countryside, if they could. (Just ask Boccaccio.) That is still true today, and the New York Times is offended: Rich Europeans Flee Virus for Second Homes, Spreading Fear and Fury.

On their peaceful island off Frances Atlantic Coast, some of the locals watched, with growing dread and rage, the images from Paris. As rumors began circulating about an imminent nationwide lockdown to stem the coronavirus outbreak, hordes of Parisians jammed into trains, an odd surfboard sometimes sticking out of the crowd. There was no doubt about their destination. Irresponsible and selfish, thought Dr. Cyrille Vartanian, one of the six physicians on Noirmoutier. With some time to spare  Paris was roughly five hours away  a local mayor, Noel Faucher, moved to block the only bridge to the mainland. But the national authorities said it would be illegal.

Sounds like Rhode Island and New York.

Perhaps more than anything else, the influx into second homes has ignited anger over what the global pandemic is laying bare every day: the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor.

Because every single thing, if you are the New York Times, must be about the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor. Whether that gap is ever widening in any meaningful sense is a subject for another day. For now, a reader writes:

Its TERRIBLE, but I do have questionsquestioning the questioners, so to speak. Where is Pinch Sulzberger hanging out? Is he at his estate in Southampton? Or with the peons in New York City? Same for Maureen Dowdand ALL the pontificating essential Timesmen: where are they? Full disclosure for the MSM!

Yes, is Paul Krugman riding the subway? Inquiring minds want to know! Certainly essential publishers, editors, reporters and media personalities taking to the countryside is not a sign of the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor, right? Right?
President Muhammadu Buhari made a televised broadcast yesterday, Sunday , March 29, on measures being taken by his administration to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease in Nigeria. Since then some concerns have been raised about the legality and constitutionality of certain aspects of his pronouncements and actions, especially as they relate to restriction of movement and imposition of curfew in Lagos and Ogun States, and in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, for 14 days.

Paragraphs 34-45, and 49-54, and 57 of the Presidential Broadcast contain clear and far-reaching orders and directives that do not only suspend constitutionally guaranteed rights to liberty and freedom of movement, but also shut down businesses and economic activities for a fortnight, all in a bid to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

The concerns that have been raised are whether the President could give these orders and directives outside the invocation of, and compliance with the provisions of Section 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, governing the declaration of a state of emergency. Under the provisions, the President, subject to the provisions of the Constitution, may by instrument published in the Official Gazette of the Government of the Federation issue a Proclamation of a state of emergency in the Federation or any part thereof. Section 318 of the Constitution ( the interpretation section ) defines the  Federation as  the Federal Republic of Nigeria .

It has been contended that the President can only lawfully exercise emergency powers regarding the enumerated situations, under Section 305 (3) of the Constitution, if there is a proclamation to that effect and if there is a concurring passage of a resolution by the two Houses of the National Assembly approving the proclamation and details of the emergency. Under Section 305(4) of the Constitution, the Governor of a State may, with the sanction of a resolution supported by two-thirds majority of the House of Assembly, request the President to issue a Proclamation of a State of Emergency in the State when there is in existence within the State any of the situations specified in subsection 3 (c; d & e) of Section 305 , and such situation does not extend beyond the boundaries of the State.

Be it noted that coronavirus infections in Nigeria do not only extend beyond Lagos State or Ogun State; and the Federal Capital Territory, but also beyond Nigeria. It is a global pandemic. This implies that since coronavirus spread is national, if a proclamation of a state of emergency envisaged and stipulated by the Constitution is required to tame it, such proclamation, albeit could be in consultation with the affected states in the Federation, may not originate from or requested by the States, as a sine qua non (condition precedent) before the President and the National Assembly can act and exercise the powers that are conferred on them by Section 305.

It has also been argued that brand new legislation on the subject is needed for the Federation and for the affected states. And in this connection, Lagos State has passed one. This may well be so. However, quite apart from the untidiness of each of the States in the Federation which may be affected passing their respective laws, thereby risking lack of uniformity, it is submitted that non-amendment of an existing law, no matter how old or the absence of a new law to replace and reenact the old law, is not a valid argument for no recourse to the old law, when occasion do clearly demands and the situation so manifestly warrants.

The Quarantine Act, Cap Q2, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 is, no doubt an archaic colonial legislation. But it is an existing law deemed to have been made by the National Assembly (See Section 315 of the Constitution).

Under Section 3 of the Act,  the President may, by notice, declare any place whether within or without Nigeria to be an infected local area, and thereupon such place shall be an infected local area within the meaning of the Act .

By Section 4,

the President may make regulations for all or any of the following purposes

(a) prescribing the steps to be taken within Nigeria upon any place, whether within or without Nigeria, being declared to be an infected local area;

(b) prescribing the introduction of any dangerous infectious disease into Nigeria or any part thereof from any place without Nigeria, whether such place is an infected local area or not;

(c) preventing the spread of any dangerous infectious disease from any place within Nigeria, whether an infected local area or not, to any other place within Nigeria;

(d) preventing the transmission of any dangerous infectious disease from Nigeria or from any place within Nigeria, whether an infected local area or not, to any place without Nigeria;

(e) prescribing the powers and duties of such officers as may be charged with carrying out such regulations;

(f) fixing the fees and charges to be paid

Although, the Quarantine Act is an old colonial legislation (1926, Act No. 26; 1929, Act No. 7; and 1054, Act No. 131), it is our considered view that the provisions of the Act are not only applicable to the measures the Federal Government of Nigeria ( or the President) have taken or about to take, as communicated in the said Presidential Broadcast, but are more applicable to the current public health situation than invoking the constitutional provisions of declaration of a state of emergency. While the subject of  endangerment of public health  is not excluded as one of the situations warranting the declaration of a state of emergency under Section 305 of the Constitution, it is submitted that the focus of declaration of a state of emergency under the Constitution is, strictly speaking, not for the preservation of public health. Preservation of public health is not mentioned under Section 305.

The provisions governing the declaration of a state of emergency in the Constitution are enumerated powers. And although the provisions of the Constitution must be interpreted as a whole, liberally and without stultifying narrowness, care must always be taken to construe enumerated statutory or constitutional provisions containing penal clauses which abridge or suspend constitutionally guaranteed liberties or legal rights, strictly and narrowly, lest they unwittingly become a cover or license for executive arbitrariness or despotism.

Declaration of a state of emergency under the Constitution is made when :

The Federation is at war;

The Federation is in imminent danger of invasion or involvement in a state of war;

There is actual breakdown of public order and public safety in the Federation or any part thereof to such extent as to require extraordinary measures to restore peace and security ;

There is a clear and present danger of an actual breakdown of public order and public safety in the Federation or any part thereof requiring extraordinary measures to avert such danger ;

There is an occurrence of imminent danger, or the occurrence of any disaster or natural calamity affecting the community or a section of the community in the Federation;

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There is any other public danger which clearly constitutes a threat to the existence of the Federation; or

The President receives a request to do so in accordance with the provisions of subsection 4 of Section 305 of the Constitution 

It is plain from the above enumerated situations that the focus of the declaration of a state of emergency provisions in the Constitution is war, imminent war or invasion of Nigeria or involvement of Nigeria in a war; preservation of public order and safety and restoration of peace and security; actual breakdown of public order and public safety and averting such danger; occurrence of any disaster or natural calamity, affecting the community or a section of the community in the Federation; or any other public danger which clearly constitutes a threat to the existence of Nigeria.

It is submitted that the Quarantine Act is a special legislation, containing special provisions which empower the President to make regulations to contain and manage infectious diseases. It is a specific public health and safety legislation. Section 305 governing declaration of a state of emergency, on the other hand, is a general provision dealing with a state of emergency of many kinds.

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It is admitted that the Quarantine Act is in need of urgent amendments to capture in specific terms infectious diseases that have developed since 1929 (Ebola, Lassa Fever, Coronavirus, et cetera ). It is also desirable to make the powers exercisable therein to be shared amongst the three tiers of government in Nigeria or by the units of the Federation, in accordance with federalist principles. This is because the Quarantine Act was made by a colonial Nigeria that was then practicing a unitary system of government. Nigeria was yet to adopt Federalism when the law was made ( it did so gradually vide McPherson Constitution of 1951; Lytletton Constitution of 1954 and Independence Constitution of 1960). With the adoption of Federalism (regardless of its counterfeiting by military tinkering in latter years and the retention of that perversion in the prevailing constitutional arrangement), the powers conferred by the Quarantine Act ought to be shared executive powers. Thus, there could be (and should be) a Quarantine and Public Health Act coexisting with a Quarantine and Public Health Law, made by the States in the Federation.

However, in spite of the inadequacies of the Act for the current time, the powers conferred by the Act rightly can be exercised by the President of Nigeria. The Public Officers Protection Act ( Law), for example, is a law of general application in Nigeria. Our courts rigidly enforce the law, a statute of limitation which abrogates a right of action in a court of law against a public officer or public office for any civil wrong done in the course of discharge of his or its public duties, if and when a civil action is not brought or filed by a wronged person, within three months of the occurrence of that civil wrong.

Not many lawyers know that the Public Officer Protection Act (Law) was an old colonial law made in 1916, vide an order in Council, not even through a robust legislative process.

It is, therefore, in our considered view, a lame assertion that because the Quarantine Act is dated , it can no longer be resorted to in dealing with current challenges of infectious diseases.

No doubt , the Presidential Broadcast made yesterday is not a regulation that is contemplated by the Quarantine Act. A mere broadcast of a head of state without more, not being a coup de tat broadcast, the pronouncements of which are to be enforced by martial law, cannot and does not qualify as a regulation envisaged and required by the Quarantine Act. In the circumstances, it is our assumption that before the broadcast, or after (and in any case before the commencement of the implementation of the orders and directives contained in the Broadcast), a piece of regulation embodying the orders and directives would have been or would be made and published in the Federal Gazette (Public Notice). Certainly, the State Governments, the Military, Security and Law Enforcement Agencies, Ports Authorities, NCDC and Health and Safety authorities cannot be referring to the texts of the broadcast as their enabling authorization or authority to act.

There must be a published government instrument or executive order or regulation which will be published by gazette and made available to Nigerians. Government business is a serious business. We hope that the AGF and the SGF are reading.

Once these rough edges are straightened, no lawyer can rightly argue that the steps taken by the President, as stated in his broadcast, are illegal and unconstitutional.

Jiti Ogunye

Lagos

30th March, 2020
COUNCIL OF THE EU: COVID-19 - Council adopts measures for immediate release of funds

The EU is taking swift action to make available money to help tackle the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Council today adopted two legislative acts to quickly release funding from the EU budget for tackling the COVID-19 crisis. One of the acts amends the rules of the structural and investment funds, while the other extends the scope of the EU Solidarity Fund.

The Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative will give member states access to 37 billion of cohesion money to strengthen healthcare systems, as well as support small and medium-sized enterprises, short-term working schemes, and community-based services.

Of the total, about 8 billion will come from unspent pre-financing in 2019 under the structural funds. The new measure allows member states to spend unused money to mitigate the impact of the pandemic instead of returning it to the EU budget. Another 29 billion will be disbursed early from allocations which would have been due later this year.

Expenditure will be made available as of 1 February 2020 to cover costs already incurred in efforts to save lives and protect citizens.

Member states will also have greater flexibility to make transfers between cohesion policy programmes in order to redirect resources to where they are most needed.

The Council also amended the scope of the EU Solidarity Fund to include public health emergencies in addition to natural disasters. This will help member states and accession countries meet peoples immediate needs during the coronavirus pandemic.

Next steps

Given the urgency of the situation, both legislative acts will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 31 March and will enter into force on 1 April 2020.

Regulation concerning the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative

Regulation extending the scope of the EU Solidarity Fund

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The Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA) on Monday gave 1000 lunches to the representatives of Delhi government, who will distribute these food packets among migrant labourers.

A huge number of migrant workers have left the capital after the 21-day lockdown was announced in the nation due to COVID-19.

Earlier in the day, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Lav Aggarwal said that 92 new coronavirus cases and four deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

"92 new cases of COVID-19 and four deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, thus taking the total number of confirmed cases to 1,071," Aggarwal told media here.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
U.S. President Donald Trump said hes concerned oil prices have fallen too far and called Vladimir Putin on Monday to discuss Russias oil-price war with Saudi Arabia.

The leaders, who also talked about the spread of the coronavirus, agreed to discussions on oil between energy officials in the two countries, according to the Kremlin. The White House had no immediate comment and didnt release a summary of the call.

The U.S. president had earlier said he does not want to see the energy sector wiped out after Russia and Saudi Arabia both went crazy and launched into a conflict that depressed oil prices.

I never thought Id be saying that maybe we have to have an oil increase, because we do. The price is so low, Trump said in an interview on Fox & Friends.

Crude oil futures tumbled as much as 7.7 per cent in New York, touching an 18-year low.

The Trump-Putin call came at the request of the U.S. and was prolonged, according to the Kremlin, which didnt specify how long it lasted.

Trumps view on the dispute marks a shift from earlier this month, when he likened the plunge in oil prices to a tax cut for Americans. The U.S. president spoke to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on March 9 about the dispute.

Trump has long argued that improving relations between Washington and Moscow could help solve international disputes. The president said he wanted to discuss trade with Putin, though he said he expected the Russian president to raise objections to U.S. sanctions. State-run Tass quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that Putin didnt ask Trump for sanctions relief on the call.

Oil tumbled earlier to its lowest point in nearly two decades, heading for the worst quarter on record as coronavirus lockdowns cascaded through the worlds largest economies, leaving the market overwhelmed by cratering demand and a ballooning surplus. The slump in demand has shut refineries from South Africa to Canada.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates consumption will drop by 26 million barrels a day this week. Meanwhile, Riyadh and Moscow are showing no signs of a detente in their supply battle as Saudi Arabia announced plans to increase its oil exports in the coming months, despite U.S. warnings against flooding the market.

Some analysts argue Russias motivations extend well beyond oil and are complicated by the federations anger over U.S. sanctions and opposition to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline linking Russia to Germany. And the price for getting Russia to back down could be too high.

Russias concerns with the U.S. go beyond market share. Putin is frustrated with sanctions and may be more interested in punishing the U.S. than Saudi Arabia, said Dan Eberhart, a Trump donor and chief executive of drilling services company Canary LLC. If Trump wants an agreement with Putin, he may have to promise to ease up on sanctions. I am not sure he can deliver without the backing of congress.

Rosneft PJSC over the weekend sold its assets in Venezuela to the Russian government, a move that shields the Russian oil giant from further U.S. sanctions while keeping Moscow behind the regime of Nicolas Maduro. Fears of broader sanctions have grown after the U.S. in recent months slapped restrictions on Rosneft trading companies for handling business with Venezuela.

Talks between members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies broke down in early March as Russia refused to sign on to larger production cuts proposed by Saudi Arabia. The failure to reach an agreement prompted the Saudis to unleash a price war, which, combined with the devastating effect of the virus pandemic, caused the market to crash.

Global demand is slumping by as much as 20 million barrels a day, about 20 per cent, as billions of people go into lockdown to slow the spread of the virus. The outlook remains dire, with traders, banks and analysts forecasting a huge oversupply as governments effectively shut their economies.

Oil industry leaders, trade groups and some Republican senators have pressed the Trump administration to seek a diplomatic solution with Saudi Arabia. Six senators from oil-producing states last week urged Secretary of State Michael Pompeo to take a tougher stance against Saudi Arabia, while highlighting several powerful tools at our disposal, including sanctions, tariffs and other trade restrictions.

Trump would have better success pressing Saudi Arabia than Russia since they are dependent on the U.S. for protection, intelligence and arms sales, Eberhart said.

On the coronavirus, the two sides expressed concern about the scale of its spread, according to the Kremlin. The leaders discussed steps they were taking to fight the virus and potential areas of co-operation.

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Politicians are elected because they campaign in poetry, but voters dont always account for the fact that elected representatives must govern in prose. That chasm between the promise and the delivery becomes more dangerous at times like these. Just like wartime generals have to be different from peacetime generals, crisis-time politicians have to step up from being normal-time politicians.

In times of the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19), we need our leaders to assume new responsibilities. They must first educate themselves about the crisis by listening to, and learning from, experts. Then, they must communicate what they know to us, without creating undue alarm. They must be honest enough to admit their fallibility. They need to be inspirational enough to command our cooperation. They need to lobby for their own constituencies to get a share of central and shared resources. They need to transparently prioritise these resources for those who may need them most. They have to be frontline responders.

Simultaneously, they also have to safeguard the future. History has shown us that in crises, a centralised, and unaccountable leadership can emerge. Unless carefully managed, this can lead to a breakdown of trust between the government and the public. Other politicians must then evolve into system leaders. They must safeguard democracy itself; to protect against a creeping authoritarianism that is hard to push back when normalcy returns. To do so, they must demonstrate the relevance of empowered local government.

Is it even possible for our politicians to step up to the plate? Will we allow them to, even if they wanted to try? Can voters respect the difficult situation their representatives find themselves in? Can we give them space to think ahead, even as they try to contain the immediate calamity?

Benjamin Disraeli once said, The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.

One reason for such a deterioration is that voters expect too much from representatives. Strangely, we barely hold them accountable for their primary duty as lawmakers. We dont always appreciate that good laws make for good societies, and that our representatives have the constitutional duty to help craft those good laws. Instead, most people expect their elected representatives to be at their beck and call, to provide patronage and brokerage, to help their communities through small but urgent hardships. It is a 24/7, largely thankless job for most politicians.

I saw this personally in my husband, Nandan Nilekanis, unsuccessful Lok Sabha campaign. He would imagine big possibilities for the country, which would also make peoples lives much better. Most voters, though, asked about things that affected them in the here and now  whether a community hall could be built, or the speed bumps could be removed outside their gates or if the stray dogs would be taken care of.

Inevitably, voters feel frustrated when all these requests cannot be met. Sometimes, politicians give up on this impossible quest and ride roughshod over their constituencies. It is not too surprising that we have politicians across all parties with criminal records, who keep getting re-elected, even from prison. Many have their troops of men to fulfil some of the basic wishes of the voters, keep things in check, and appear to be locally effective.

Of course, we still have several wonderful politicians. They work as hard as they possibly can to serve their people, help pass good laws, represent the interests of their constituents at every opportunity and also reach out and communicate with their voters.

We must help their tribe increase, especially now. American theologian and author James Freeman Clarke observed: The difference between a politician and a statesman is that a politician thinks about the next election while the statesman thinks about the next generation.

There are wonderful instances from Indias democratic history where Indias statesmen have done just that. Former Prime Minister (PM) Jawaharlal Nehrus government built the nations core infrastructure. PV Narasimha Raos government opened up the economy for next-generation entrepreneurs. Atal Bihari Vajpayees government filled critical gaps in the education system, and developed the nations roads and telecommunication networks for todays digital or migrant citizen. Their eyes were pinned to the horizon.

The pandemic and the economic downturn that accompanies it offer a creative opportunity for politicians to become statesmen. As poet Muhammad Iqbal wrote, Nations are born in the hearts of poets  they prosper and die in the hands of politicians. If our politicians focus on the word prosper, and if voters allow politicians to do what statesmen must, perhaps this unprecedented crisis would serve to strengthen our democracy for future generations, and not to undermine it.

All over the world, people are looking to their leaders to guide them through the double whammy they are facing: The Covid-19 pandemic and the unfolding economic crisis. This has been probably the most challenging time for politicians since the World War II. They need our empathy and our forbearance.

Rohini Nilekani is chairperson, Arghyam

The views expressed are personal
If youre planning on leaving the state during the coronavirus crisis, be careful. Your New Jersey license plate could paint a target on your back.

Thats what apparently happened to a couple of out-of-town workers in Vinalhaven, Maine, where an armed group of vigilantes allegedly told them to quarantine on Friday and even cut down a tree to block the driveway to their property, according to the Knox County Sheriffs Office.

LATEST CORONAVIRUS UPDATES FROM NJ.COM

Law enforcement officers made contact with the complainant and discovered that a tree had in fact been cut down and dragged into the driveway to block the way," according to a release from the sheriffs office, but the armed vigilantes had dispersed prior to law enforcements arrival.

The incident led Maine state Rep. Genevieve McDonald, who represents the island town of about 1,200 residents, to issue a plea that people not waste the time of first responders during the crisis.

There are two guys from [New Jersey], on Vinalhaven who have been renting a house since September while working on a construction job, she wrote Saturday. They went to the mainland and were targeted because of their license plate when they arrived back on Vinalhaven.

There were some words between them and some locals and the conversation apparently didnt go very well, she continued. I did hear the guys from [New Jersey] were fairly arrogant in their response. A group of local vigilantes decided to take matters into their own hands and barricaded these guys into their rental property.

Hey, can you blame them for being fairly arrogant? They werent the ones with the guns!

If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
By Trend





Azerbaijan has confirmed 64 new coronavirus cases, while 11 patients have recovered from this infection, Trend reports citing the Operational Headquarters under the Cabinet of Ministers.

According to the information, the condition of three people out of those 64 pesons is serious, of 11 people is assessed as moderate, and the condition of the rest is stable.

Despite intensive preventive measures in the world against the spread of coronavirus infection (COVID-19), which has become a global problem, it has not yet been possible to prevent the spread of coronavirus and minimize its consequences.

As of March 30, the number of people killed by the disease has surpassed 34,800. Over 735,500 people have been confirmed as infected. Meanwhile, over 156,300 people have reportedly recovered.

In total, 273 cases of coronavirus infection have been registered in Azerbaijan. Twenty-six people have recovered, four have died. The rest 243 people continue treatment in special hospitals. In relation with medical examination of 4,085 people placed in the countrys various quarantine zones, appropriate measures are being taken.

Over the past period, due to the identification of new cases of the infection, about 30,000 tests were carried out. The dynamics of the growth of the disease in Azerbaijan in recent days is associated with the detection of the virus in numerous citizens who have returned from abroad, as well as with the increase of cases of infection within the country.

In order to prevent widespread of the coronavirus infection, citizens are required to act in accordance with self-isolation measures and to strictly observe a special quarantine regime.
Madison Sowell / CKP

A free COVID-19 testing site is scheduled to open at Smart Financial Center in Sugar Land on Tuesday, March 31, State Rep. Ron Reynolds announced Monday.

Ive been working with Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee and were going to open a free testing site offering free testing to anyone who believes they have symptoms of COVID-19 or have been in contact with someone infected with the coronavirus, Rep. Reynolds said in an update posted to social media Monday. It is very important that you know your status so that if you need to quarantine, you can do that or if you need medical treatment, that you can receive that. We want everybody to be safe, Reynolds said. So, my message is clear. Were doing everything that we can for our citizens to fight this pandemic. Were going to continue to press forward.
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Graphic photos show two enormous hippos engaged in a bloody battle for territory.

The brawl took place in the Okavango Delta in Botswana earlier this year, as the hippos fought for territory, with space in waterways - decimated by a huge drought last year - at a premium.

The startling shots show the two bloody and bruised beasts embroiled in a savage fight, using their front-facing tusks to tear at each other's open mouths.

Graphic photos show two enormous hippos engaged in a bloody battle for territory. The brawl took place in the Okavango Delta in Botswana earlier this year, as the hippos fought for territory, with space in waterways - decimated by a huge drought last year - at a premium

The startling shots show the two bloody and bruised beasts embroiled in a savage fight, using their front-facing tusks to tear at each other's open mouths

The beasts - which can weigh up to 8,000 pounds each - were locked in conflict for an hour before the smaller hippo admitted defeat and hastily retreated.

The stunning shots were captured by British-South African photographer, Laura Dyer, 33 - who spends her time between Cape Town and Henley, Oxfordshire - on a wildlife trip in January.

'I've never seen a fight like that before,' admitted Dyer, who uses the Instagram handle @lauradyerphotography.

'It's rare to see the hippos out of the water, we watched the hippos eye each other up for quite some time before the larger one came out of the water to feed on grass - keeping a wary eye on his potential rival.

'The second hippo was actually so pumped with testosterone, he rushed to our car before turning his attention on his foe.

The beasts - who can weigh up to 8,000 pounds each were locked in conflict for an hour before the smaller hippo admitted defeat and hastily retreated

The stunning shots were captured by British-South African photographer, Laura Dyer, 33, who spends her time between Cape Town and Henley, Oxfordshire, on a wildlife trip in January

'Then all hell broke loose; they fought for over an hour, snarling, bellowing and attacking each other with gaping mouths - blood was flying everywhere.

'Bizarrely they'd stop every now and again so the other could have a poo - it was quite funny to see.

'Eventually the smaller hippo realised he had no chance and kept trying to turn away, trying to escape but knowing that if he turned his back, he'd present an easy target to bite.

'In the end he made a run for it but the other hippo chased after him. That's unusual but I think he wanted the fight to go to the death by that point.

'I've never seen a fight like that before,' admitted Dyer, who uses the Instagram handle @lauradyerphotography

Ms Dyer said the hippos fought for more than an hour, sending blood from their gaping mouths flying everywhere

The hippos could move amazingly qiuckly, Ms Dyer added. 'Eventually the smaller hippo realised he had no chance and kept trying to turn away, trying to escape but knowing that if he turned his back, he'd present an easy target to bite,' she said

'They were absolutely pacing it - it's amazing how fast they can move. The smaller hippo got away but I wouldn't be surprised if it lost its life, it had taken a lot of damage.

'I've been doing this job for a number of years and thought I'd seen pretty much everything, this was an incredible moment for me, though,' she added.

Hippopotamuses are responsible for over 500 human deaths a year - far more than lions, tigers or bears.

Despite their impressive size - measuring up to 14 foot - they are capable of running and swimming at speeds similar to humans.

'I've been doing this job for a number of years and thought I'd seen pretty much everything, this was an incredible moment for me, though,' she added

Hippopotamuses are responsible for over 500 human deaths a year - far more than lions, tigers or bears

Despite their impressive size - measuring up to 14 foot - they are capable of running and swimming at speeds similar to humans

They are predominantly based in sub-Saharan Africa, but their numbers are dwindling.

'I love wildlife, I could spend all my time surrounded by it,' addded Ms Dyer.

'But I'm lucky enough to travel the world and see these animals in real life, something that not everyone can do. I believe that by taking photos of animals like the hippo we can help make people care about wildlife and encourage their conservation.

'I must admit that this one gave me an adrenaline rush though, my hands never shake but they did on this occasion!'
New Delhi: Chhath Puja, the festival dedicated to the Sun God, is celebrated in several states, especially in Bihar. The four-day-long festival falls twice a year  in Chaitra maas (March-April) and in the month of Kartika (October-November). The one celebrated earlier in the year is called Chaithi Chhath. This time, Chhath began on March 28 and will end on March 31. During this auspicious festival, women observe fast and offer prayers to Chhati Maiyya or Goddess Usha (Goddess of Dawn). The devotees observing Chhath are required to keep fast and not even take a sip of water for around 36 hours.

The festival begins with 'Nahay-Khay, wherein the devotees performing the puja take a dip in the river and cook louki daal and rice. Kharna is observed on the second day. On this day, the devotees observe fast throughout the day and break it in the evening after preparing kheer and roti as Prasad.

On the third day, thekua is prepared as Prasad. The prasad and fruits are placed in a bamboo basket and in the evening, the devotees offer prayers to the setting sun by taking a dip in the holy river Ganga or any other large water body. It is also called the Sandhya Arghya.

The auspicious timing of evening arghya is between 5.58 pm to 6.07 pm on Monday.

The festival concludes with the Usha Arghya after offering prayers to the rising sun. Devotees break their fast after paying obeisance to the Sun God. Devotees can perform the puja between 5:52 am to 6:15 am.

The sunrise and sunset symbolise the cycle of birth and death.
Bhutan, which is considered to be the land of the thunder dragon, has decided to extend its quarantine period for 21 days, with effect from March 31 in the wake of the deadly Coronavirus cases which has witnessed an upsurge in the country in the last few days. The official Twitter handle of the Bhutan Prime Minister informed about the news on March 30.

The tweet of the Prime Minister read that the government decided to increase the quarantine period to 21 days starting from March 31. This extension of the lockdown is to ensure the highest preventive measure.

Another tweet read that the government has decided to extend the quarantine period from an initial 14 to 21 days. The decision was arrived at purely to align with the COVID-19 response modes that the government is adopting day by day.

The government decides to increase quarantine period to 21 days starting tomorrow.

This is to ensure highest preventive measure. pic.twitter.com/klyRhou1rg  PM Bhutan (@PMBhutan) March 30, 2020

My dear friends in quarantine,



Today, the government decided to extend the quarantine period from initial 14 to 21 days. The decision was arrived at purely to align with the COVID-19 response modes we are adopting by the day. https://t.co/ybSfhXju2J pic.twitter.com/75kmrQxTwz  PM Bhutan (@PMBhutan) March 30, 2020

Read:Lockdown: 140 Bhutanese Flown Back Home In Special Flight From Chandigarh

Read:Coronavirus Outbreak: Moscow Announces Lockdown As Cases Spike

The country so far has reported four positive cases of the Coronavirus as per the reports of Johns Hopkins University. The first case of the virus in the Himalayan country came into limelight on March 5 where the patient was a 76-year old tourist from the United States and had visited Assam before arriving in Bhutan.

140 Bhutanese evacuated

As many as 140 Bhutanese nationals comprising mostly students were flown back to their country on Saturday in a special flight of the Royal Bhutan Airlines from here amid the national lockdown, airport officials said. The official said that the Bhutanese students were enrolled in various universities and colleges in and around Chandigarh.

After the nationwide lockdown was enforced to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Bhutanese nationals were waiting to be flown out. The special flight took off from Chandigarh Airport in the afternoon. CISF, Indian Air Force, immigration authorities and Punjab police provided required support for the smooth operation of the flight, he added.

Read:Natural Shampoo & Conditioner For Dry Hair To Help You During COVID-19 Lockdown Quarantine

Read:Coronavirus Lockdown: Assam Police Reaches Out To Homeless, Daily Wage Earners
The death toll from alcohol poisoning in Iran has risen to 300 after people started to consume methanol because of a rumour that high proof alcohol could cure the coronavirus.

Iranian media reports that more than 1,000 have been sickened so far by ingesting methanol across the Islamic Republic, where drinking alcohol is banned and where those who do rely on bootleggers.

It comes as Tehran announced 144 new deaths from coronavirus on Friday, bringing its death toll to 2,378, and another 2,926 new confirmed cases, with a total of more than 32,300 infected.

There have been a spate of fake remedies spreading across social media in Iran, where people remain deeply suspicious of the government after it downplayed the crisis for days before it overwhelmed the country.



Dr. Knut Erik Hovda, a clinical toxicologist in Oslo who studies methanol poisoning and fears Irans outbreak could be even worse than reported, said: The virus is spreading and people are just dying off, and I think they are even less aware of the fact that there are other dangers around.

When they keep drinking this, theres going to be more people poisoned.

Iran as been particularly badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic, which is home to 80 million people.

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Battling fatigue, chills and a severe cough, Chris Dunlap spent an entire day either on hold or calling state hotlines that rang and rang, searching for a way to be tested for the coronavirus.

Melissa Lambert said she and her daughter both were denied COVID-19 tests at a hospital, despite having textbook symptoms like fever, shortness of breath and chest pain.

And Susan Smith and her fiance were sick for weeks and had their doctors request tests, only to receive calls from a pair of labs saying they wouldnt test them because they didnt meet federal criteria.

Despite the opening of testing sites across the state, New Jersey residents say there has been a confounding lack of coronavirus testing in hospitals, doctors offices, urgent care centers and Federal Emergency Management Agency sites. Even when people exhibited clear symptoms of COVID-19, they still were denied tests, more than a half-dozen people told NJ Advance Media.

Their stories offer a snapshot of how the state failed to make testing accessible for many in the month since the novel virus invaded New Jersey.

And with hundreds of symptomatic people being turned away, many fear the lack of testing has hindered  and possibly undermined  the states ability to comprehend the full scope of the epidemic.

How is the government planning on getting the proper numbers if theyre not testing people with symptoms? said Lambert, who lives in Sparta. How do they know who has it?

The official figures reported each day are likely just a fraction of the total cases, given the limited testing in the state and across the country, experts say. They blame strict criteria and a shortage of test kits.

The tests that we need are just not here, said Judith Lightfoot, chief of infectious disease at Rowan University. Were just not testing the numbers. Youve seen the number of tests Italy has done, what Spain has done, what other countries have done.

"Were not doing that amount of testing. We just arent.

Positive coronavirus cases in New Jersey surged to 13,386 Sunday, the second-highest total of any state in the country, with 161 deaths. Restricted by kit availability and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria, the number of tests being administered each day is climbing, but failing to keep up with demand, residents and health experts say.

It has prevented officials from viewing the full picture of the outbreak.

We were not prepared for this, Lightfoot said. We are way behind, and were playing catch up.

Impossible to get tested

Laboratories have administered at least 29,822 coronavirus tests since the outbreak started, with a positive rate of 35%, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said Saturday.

Persichilli and Gov. Phil Murphy have acknowledged the need for expanded testing. But they also said the state must continue to prioritize tests for the sickest or highest-risk individuals.

New Jersey ranks 19th in the country in per capita testing, but Murphy dismissed the metric, saying the state has been one of the most diligent in the U.S. for COVID-19 testing.

Ill put our aggressive testing of symptomatic individuals up against any other place in the country, if not this world, Murphy said Friday during a media briefing in Trenton.

In an interview March 17, Persichilli said theres a difference between really needing the test and wanting the test. I dont believe anyone who needs the test is not getting it, she said.

But residents who have tried to get tested are telling another story.

Dunlap, 36, said a day after his symptoms began, he had a virtual appointment with his doctor, who told him the office didnt have any coronavirus tests and directed him to the state hotline. Dunlap, who lives in Cranford, called New Jersey 211, the states 800 number for coronavirus information and the Union County Health Department.

I tried all of them, he said. It just rang.

After a day on the phone, he gave up.

From a public health standpoint, the officials cant make decisions if a 10th of the cases are actually on the books, said Dunlap, who believes he had COVID-19. Its definitely anxiety producing.

Meanwhile, last weekend, Suzanne Pirozzi-Toro, who lives in Cliffwood Beach, said her 22-year-old daughter woke up with a dry cough, chills, body aches and a fever over 100 degrees. They tried to get her tested by her primary care physician and at Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel, but Pirozzi-Toro said both places would not give them a test.

Its impossible to get tested, Pirozzi-Toro said. Its just like they dont want you there.

Smith, of Cherry Hill, was eventually able to get tested at Cooper University Hospital on March 16, and her results were negative. But her fiance was never able to get tested, even though his doctor ordered the test for him.

The lab called back and asked if hed been out of the country or in contact with a confirmed or suspected case, she said.

Since the answer was no, he wasnt tested.

She said, Call the Department of Health. Its their criteria,'" Smith said.

Overwhelming demand

The Department of Health relies on CDC guidelines, which recommend doctors prioritize testing for people who are hospitalized, have health problems or other risk factors, or have traveled or had contact with a person with COVID-19.

Private labs arent bound by the criteria, but residents who contacted NJ Advance Media say doctors still tell them they are limited by CDC guidelines.

Jeff Marsh, 35, has been trying to get tested at medical facilities in Morris County since March 9 after experiencing a fever, aches and chest tightness. He was isolating in a room, trying not to get his pregnant wife sick, while getting the runaround," he said.

The physician says to call the ER, and they are the only place testing. The ER says they dont have it and wont test me if I come in, and only will test (someone in) extreme distress, Marsh said March 17, nine days after his fever first started. The ER says to call the hotline. The hotline number is always busy and never works. The health department doesnt answer.

Peter Root, 58, of Pennsville, took his 62-year-old husband to the ER on March 14 because he had a fever, cough, shortness of breath and diarrhea. Flu tests came back negative, and the doctor diagnosed him with an upper respiratory tract infection and sent him home without a test.

Root said he was told, We dont have that.

You dont get diarrhea from an upper respiratory tract infection, he said. In the beginning youre hearing testing is key  and then you cant get a test.

More hospitals are testing now, and drive-thru testing sites have been set up, but the demand remains overwhelming.

The FEMA testing sites at Bergen Community College and PNC Bank Arts Center in Monmouth County have reached capacity before they even opened their doors, turning away lines of cars stretching for miles.

Essex and Burlington counties have set up testing sites, but limited appointments to 100 or 180 a day. And officials in Camden County on Thursday said an otherwise-ready drive-thru testing site at Camden County College is still at least three weeks from opening because they cant get testing kits.

Testing supplies even at commercial labs remain in short supply.

Were literally turning away hundreds of people, said William Schuler of Immediate Care, which has seven urgent care sites in New Jersey.

Lightfoot said the lines at the FEMA testing sites alone are evidence that not enough testing is available. And until widespread testing occurs, the true scope of the pandemic in New Jersey will remain unknown.

For all the citizens we have, there are more people trying to get tested than we can handle, Lightfoot said. Its a big problem.

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Matthew Stanmyre may be reached at mstanmyre@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattStanmyre. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @RebeccaJEverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
A world-famous private school is offering UK teenagers free self-study courses during the coronavirus lockdown.

Eton Colleges headmaster Simon Henderson, has written to the heads of state secondary schools offering access to its online learning platform, EtonX.

The education provider, which counts Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex among its former pupils, is also offering free accommodation to key workers who need somewhere to live if their own families are self-isolating.

The EtonX courses will initially be for Year 11 and Year 13 students who are dealing with cancelled exams due to school closures in an attempt to slow the spread of Covid-19.

The Prince and Princess of Wales and their sons on Prince William's first day at Eton / PA

These year groups were due to take their GCSEs and A-levels or equivalent qualifications in the summer and Eton said the courses may help as students consider their next steps.

At a time when schools across the UK are closed and adapting to digital learning, it is more important than ever that all in education work in partnership for the benefit of young people, an Eton spokesman said.

EtonX self-study courses are specifically designed to be delivered 100 per cent online and include a full range of engaging learning materials, with a personal action plan and end of course assessment for each learner.

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The courses are being made available to all UK state secondary schools, free of charge, for use where individual schools feel that EtonX can complement the great work that their staff are already doing, in challenging circumstances.

The school, where fees are more than 42,000 a year, also said it is offering accommodation in its empty boarding houses for adult key workers, where they need alternative accommodation because their own families are self-isolating.

The first workers are due to arrive from Monday.

It was revealed at the weekend that Eton is among a number of top private schools that are cutting their fees, reducing them by a third for the summer term.

Meanwhile, another fee-paying school, The Perse School, Cambridge, has developed a new, free, online maths programme for 11 to 16-year-olds in partnership with former maths teacher and coding entrepreneur Rob Percival.

Students watch short films of a virtual maths teacher explaining a topic and working examples and then can choose problems to solve.

As they solve the problem, the tutor offers assistance and guidance.
SHANGHAI, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- JinkoSolar announced that it will increase its philanthropic efforts during the global coronavirus pandemic by donating one million face masks to 20 more countries across North America, Europe and Asia.

"Delivering fast is not easy, but we'll get it done!" said Kangping Chen, CEO of JinkoSolar. Coming after the announcement of a promised donation of one million face masks on Monday, 50,000 masks for the US was on the way. "The first shipment of masks to the US is taking off from Shanghai," Mr. Chen said.

Earlier last month, two founders of JinkoSolar, David Lee and Kangping Chen, donated 5 million RMB to medical staff on the front lines. This was the first personal donation from a renewable energy entrepreneur. JinkoSolar has stepped up its support to donate millions of face masks for countries at a time when the number of cases has been rising.

JinkoSolar invited Dr. Tianlin Gao, who had been working nonstop for 55 days at Wuhan No.3 Hospital, the center of Coronavirus outbreak, to share lessons, experiences as well as protective advice with its global employees, partners, customers and investors. The company plans to publish the audio record in its Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

SOURCE JinkoSolar
KBRA Europe Places Seven SBOLT Classes of Notes On Watch Owing To COVID-19 Performance Concerns

Kroll Bond Rating Agency Europe Limited (KBRA) places three classes of Small Business Origination Loan Trust 2018-1 DAC ("SBOLT 2018-1") on Watch Developing and four classes of Small Business Origination Loan Trust 2019-1 DAC ("SBOLT 2019-1") on Watch Downgrade. The Watch Placements are owing to the economic effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Small businesses in the United Kingdom (UK) are directly impacted by COVID-19 containment measures and their actions are contributing to a broader economic slowdown. Businesses have responded to the slower economic activity and reduced revenue by cutting costs, laying off staff, or closing their doors temporarily (in many cases being forced to do so). Because of these recent and ongoing events, KBRA expects the two referenced transactions to be negatively impacted.

Click here to view the report. To access ratings and relevant documents, click here.

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A description of all substantially material sources that were used to prepare the credit rating and information on the methodology(ies) (inclusive of any material models and sensitivity analyses of the relevant key rating assumptions, as applicable) used in determining the credit rating is available in the EU Information Disclosure Form located here and here.

Information on the meaning of each rating category can be located here.

Further disclosures relating to this rating action are available in the EU Information Disclosure Form referenced above. Additional information regarding KBRA policies, methodologies, rating scales and disclosures are available at www.kbra.com.

About KBRA Europe

KBRA Europe is a full-service credit rating agency (CRA) registered with the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). Kroll Bond Rating Agency, Inc. (KBRA) is a CRA registered as an NRSRO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and is a certified CRA with ESMA. KBRA is also recognized by the U.S. National Association of Insurance Commissioners as a Credit Rating Provider and is designated as a designated rating organization by the Ontario Securities Commission for issuers of asset-backed securities to file a short form prospectus or shelf prospectus. Kroll Bond Rating Agency Europe Limited is located at 6-8 College Green, Dublin 2, Ireland.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200330005557/en/
EXPERT OBSERVER

Australia is teeming with people who have questions about the impact of the virus crisis on real estate and are seeking urgent answers.

My webinar with buyers agent Rich Harvey of propertybuyer on 24 March attracted a big audience  our largest ever - and we received more questions than we could handle during the live event.

Many of those questions including some of the fundamental ones that everyone is asking: will property values decline, how long will it last, is this a good time to buy, what happens if my tenant cant pay the rent and if I ask my lender for a mortgage holiday, will it affect my credit rating?

Here are some of the key questions or comments, and my responses.

Is now the time to be buying an Investment Property? Will there be tenants in the market?

I think this is a good time to be looking for an Investment Property. There will be opportunities to buy well in the current climate. Buyers will be able to negotiate from a position of strength. Just be careful to select a location with the credentials for long-term growth. There will be tenants  vacancies are low around the nation and the various government stimulus packages will assist people who might otherwise struggle to pay their rent.

Auction clearance rates will change now that the first wave of lock-down controls come into effect. Do you predict that the market will continue to be healthy amidst rising unemployment?

Yes, I think the market will continue to be healthy. The rise in unemployment will be temporary  if it was long-term, extending right throughout the year, it would have a material impact on markets and property prices, but I expect it to be relatively short-term. Auctions will be curtailed by the government restrictions on gatherings, but most sales do not occur via auction so that in itself will not be detrimental to property prices. Only 10-11% of sales across Australian happen through auctions. It will cause some vendors who particularly want auctions to withdraw their properties from sale, which will exacerbate the shortage of listings and put a floor under property values.

Do you think vacancy rates will rise in the short term with unemployment increasing?

I think there will be some increase in vacancy rates in the short-term, but mainly because owners who had been using AirBNB rather than permanent rental situations will now be seeking permanent tenants (because of the travel restrictions, which are killing the AirBNB market at the moment). Most markets should be able to absorb this, because vacancy rates are very low in most locations across Australia.

Can you help unpack how a potential 10% unemployment rate cannot have any impact on property prices going forward?

If we had a 10% jobless rate long-term in Australia, it would impact on property prices  but we wont have that. We will have a short, sharp spike in unemployment but it wont last long enough to cause a significant fall in house prices.

Will this situation promote longer-term demographic shifts to more people working remotely and strengthen property growth in regional areas?

I think that is a trend anyway and has helped to drive the boom in the past 2-3 years in Regional Victoria, particularly in towns within 1-2 hours of Melbourne, and also the Central Coast just outside Sydney. The current situation will probably enhance that trend towards people working remotely and therefore making lifestyle changes. Increasingly, there are fewer and fewer reasons to be close to the CBDs of major cities.

Do you have any perspectives on negotiating with developers during this time, especially as first home buyers.

Everything is negotiable at any time but in these turbulent times I suspect buyers will be able to negotiate favourable deals when buying new product from developers. It would be a good time to present yourself as a buyer at a time when many people will be standing back or sitting on the fence.

Over the next few months if you find yourself unable to keep up with your loans, get on the front foot and call the credit provider early. This will not only relieve some pressure as you wont be living in fear of what they might do, but it will most likely help to protect your credit file in the process. If the emotion is too close to home for you to liaise with the credit provider yourself, then engage a professional to do it for you. But check in early with your lenders.

I think that is sound advice. The major lenders have made it clear that they want to help their mortgage customers, as well as businesses, because they have a strong vested interest in keeping their customers healthy. Anyone who is struggling with loan repayments should contact their lenders and work out a solution with them. The major banks are indicating that they will allow people to pause their repayments for a period of time.

What should landlords do if a tenant advises they cant pay their rent?

I dont think its possible to give a generalised answer to that. It needs to be handled on a case-by-case basis. But a lot of the emphasis in the various stimulus packages is on assisting people in those situations. The benefits for people out of work have been significantly increased to try to avoid situations where people cant pay their rent. But, for any landlords who fact that situation, work with your tenants, or your property manager, to come up with a solution  perhaps by reducing the rent for a short period.

Should I reduce the rent before the tenants ask?

It may be a good strategy, to pre-empt any problems  perhaps offer a reduction in the rent for a short period to help get through the difficult period. Its preferable to do that, rather than losing your tenant. I note that some landlords are doing that, according to media reports. But it needs to assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Should we hold on to our savings and see how low the market will go?

That kind of strategy seldom works. Its indicates a short-term viewpoint when real estate should be approached with long-term horizons. The other problem with that kind of approach is that its impossible to pinpoint the bottom of the market  the data that shows the bottom of the trough doesnt appear until a long time after the event. A better approach is to look for good buying opportunities in areas with the credentials for long-term growth.

What is your take on people losing their jobs who have a mortgage, will they lose their homes, if so how will they get a rental in such a tight rental market?

One of the key factors in the response from the Federal Government and the major banks is to support people who lose their jobs and have difficulty paying the mortgage. Lenders have said they will offer mortgage holidays  e.g. suspending payments for six months. The tight rental markets are being eased, to a certain extent, by investors who previously used AirBNB now putting their properties into the permanent rental pool (because the travel restrictions are killing the AirBNB market).

My husband is very nervous and wants me to sell our family home. Whats your advice on selling now.

No, please dont do that. There is no need to panic to that degree. We are not going to see property values collapse and anyone who struggles to pay the mortgage during this crisis period should be able to arrange a suspension of their regular payments with their lender.

If I were to make an opportunistic buy, whats to say I can rent it out in a timely manner in the current environment?

A sensible investor would, firstly, buy in a location where the vacancy rate is low (and most locations around the nation currently have low vacancies) and, secondly, speak to property managers in the local area about the prospects for renting the property youre thinking of buying  before signing a contract.

Terry Ryder is the founder of hotspotting.com.au

[email protected]

twitter.com/hotspotting
CHINESE Ambassador Huang Xilian on Monday, March 30, said his government has heeded the Philippines request and will dispatch a medical team that will help combat the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak.

In a series of posts on its official Twitter account, the Chinese Embassy in Manila said Huang relayed the information to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III in a telephone conversation Monday.

On 30 March, Ambassador Huang Xilian had a phone call with Secretary Francisco Duque III of Department of Health. Ambassador Huang informed that the Chinese government will dispatch the Chinese medical expert team to the Philippines upon the request of Philippine government. pic.twitter.com/YiUoULEqib

 ChineseEmbassyManila (@Chinaembmanila) March 30, 2020

The main task of the medical expert team is to help the Philippines fight against COVID-19, by providing technical advice on epidemic prevention and control as well as sharing medical treatment experience, the embassy said.

Huang also expressed appreciation for the preparations made by Duque and the Department of Health (DOH).

He vowed to continue to work closely with DOH in making arrangements for the medical expert team.

The embassy said Duque expressed gratitude for Chinas support for the Philippines in battling the epidemic and looked forward to the arrival of the Chinese medical expert team.

Covid-19 is a respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, or Sars-CoV-2. The first case was reported in Wuhan City in central China.

Diplomatic relations between the Philippines and China have been improving steadily under the Duterte administration, given President Rodrigo Dutertes foreign policy that leans towards China. (MVI/SunStar Philippines)
With the Prime Minister confined to the Number 10 sick bay, Dominic Raab was entrusted with Monday's daily Downing Street press briefing.

It was not so long ago Mr Raab was staking his claim to be the occupant of this Georgian property.

There was an irked, irritable air as he took to the lectern. Ah, what might have been

Dominic Raab was entrusted with Monday's daily Downing Street press briefing in the absence of Boris Johnson

Unsettling chap, the Foreign Secretary. There is something mildly menacing about him, is there not?

While clearly a driven and competent enough fellow, the milk of human kindness does not exactly seep from his pores.

As bedside manners go, his demeanour is possibly more suited to the morgue than the sanatorium.

Interestingly, I think he realises this. He speaks an octave higher than is his natural tone. His hand gestures are rather affected, as if to convey a sort of faux friendliness.

On the rare occasion that he smiles, it is a forced, almost painful gesture, as though two Lilliputian creatures have embedded themselves in his cheeks and are yanking him by the jowls.

It was not so long ago Mr Raab was staking his claim to be the occupant of this Georgian property

The main issue Raab wished to address amid the current crisis was his plans to bring home all the British nationals stranded abroad.

Incidentally, Raab's colleague Caroline Nokes (Romsey and Southampton N) raised what she regarded as the Foreign Office's deficiencies on this issue with him in the Commons last week. Dear me, she gave him a right old roasting.

The Foreign Secretary acknowledged it was 'a worrying time for all affected', but was quick to point out yesterday that we weren't talking a handful here.

These were literally hundreds of thousands, from young backpackers to the elderly on cruises.

He reeled off all sorts of statistics detailing the size of the repatriation which has already taken place.

Some 8,500 travellers had recently returned from Morocco, 5,000 from Cyprus, nearly 1,500 from China.

It was a bit more complicated than rescuing a few stragglers on a booze cruise to Calais.

Raab described the operation as 'unprecedented.' We hear that word rather a lot now don't we?

To illustrate his point, he revealed the Foreign Office typically receives about 1,000 calls a day. Last Tuesday, it received as many as a 15,000.

So now he was pledging 75million to help bring the stranded home.

Reassuring as this doubtless sounded on paper, his delivery was all off, his voice accentuating all the wrong syllables.

There were some odd, uncomfortable pauses between sentences, the result of media training, perhaps, which had not entirely justified its fee.

Joining Raab was Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government's chief scientific adviser who had thoughtfully prepared a little slide show to demonstrate how dramatically numbers on public transport had fallen since last Monday's lockdown.

Joining Raab was Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government's chief scientific adviser

'The measures are making a difference,' he insisted. Those watching on television just had to take Sir Patrick's word for it, for despite his repeated call for the 'next slide please' whichever broadcaster was in charge of the pool camera refused to put them in shot.

Questions, as is now the practice, followed via videolink, almost always the most entertaining part of these briefings since none of my colleagues in the lobby seems to have quite mastered the technology.

Last week, ITV's Robert Peston turned the airwaves blue before the watershed when he couldn't get his microphone to work.

Yesterday, however, was free of mishaps, and someone enquired about how many people will be tested for coronavirus.

Here we heard from the Medical Director for Public Health England, Professor Yvonne Doyle, whom I'm not sure has cropped up on our radar before. I notice she used to advise Boris when he was Mayor of London.

The doctor said a new antibody test was currently 'under investigation' though reiterated advice that 'there is one thing worse than no test and that is a bad test.'

With both the PM and Health Secretary Matt Hancock struck down with the virus, someone else asked Raab how he was faring.

'I'm feeling terrific thank you very much,' he replied, displaying all the enthusiasm of a man who'd just accidentally tossed away a winning pools coupon.

And with that, he decided that was enough. 'Thank you all very much,' he announced abruptly before turning on his heels. Like I said, an unsettling chap
Former President John Dramani Mahama on Sunday donated one hundred sets of personal protective equipment (PPE) to health workers at the Greater Accra Regional (Ridge) Hospital in Accra.

The presentation, according to Mr. Mahama, follows reports of shortage of PPE and other materials required by the frontline medical personnel at the hospital in their fight against the coronavirus.

The Ridge Hospital has become, virtually, the main facility that is helping with the management of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr. Mahama who is also the Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) expressed the hope that the items presented will help in protecting the staff of the hospital as they go about their work.

We all, Ghana, appreciate the work you are doing. You are the frontline defence of the population against the disease and we must all support you to be able to protect us.

The items presented include 100 full sets of PPE, 100 gum boots, 120 doctors scrubs, 50 patients gowns, 30 theatre gowns and 400 packs of bottled drinking water.

Medical Director in charge of the Ridge Hospital, Dr. Emmanuel Srofenyoh, in thanking the former President and the NDC, noted that the items presented are really the things that we have been lacking, particularly the PPE, surgical face masks, coveralls, and the items that are really needed.

The other day I was describing a situation that when the staff want to gown and attend to a patient, it takes up to about 20 to 30 minutes to complete the gowning. And the items that are used after one usage, you have to discard all of them, and come in for a fresh one. It is for this reason that the demand is so high.

President Mahama was accompanied by the National Chairman of the NDC, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, the Chair of the NDC COVID-19 Technical Team, Prosper Bani and the MP for Klottey Korle Dr. Zanetor Agemang-Rawlings.

---citinewsroom
COVID-19 stalls demand for design services

Two-thirds of architecture firms report slowing or stoppage of projects.



The American Institute of Architects said Friday that architecture firms in the U.S. are seeing a big drop in demand for design services due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A March 23 AIA survey found that 50 percent of architecture firms reported fewer new design projects for March compared to their expectations entering the month, the AIA said in a press release.

In terms of work on active projects, 83 percent of the firms are anticipating a decline in revenue for March relative to their expectations heading into the month, with over one-third estimating their revenue will be at least 10 percent below expectations.

AIA said this situation is anticipated to worsen in April, with 94 percent of firms expecting revenue declines, and 57 percent anticipating that the revenue falloff will exceed 10 percent.

Additionally, two thirds of responding firms reported that they have seen prospective project inquiries or negotiations for new projects moving more slowly or completely stopping due to issues related to the COVID-19 outbreak, with 17% saying many prospective projects have slowed or stopped, and 50% saying some projects have slowed or stopped. However, 33% reported that all prospective projects were still moving ahead as expected.

Like most other businesses, U.S. architecture firms are heading into uncharted waters regarding what the economy holds in store for them as the COVID-19 pandemic plays out globally, said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker. Different businesses are feeling the impact of the slowdown differently.

Beyond billing activity, 48 percent of the firms indicated that all, or almost all, of their staff are now working remotely, while 31 percent said some of their staff are. Few firms reported a major impact to their staff due to family/personal reasons, but 15 percent said at least some of their staff are currently unable to work at all.

The findings are in a special report by AIA, which focuses on the immediate impact of the pandemic on U.S. architecture firms. It is at https://tinyurl.com/wlsd67j/.




State Rep. Isaac Robinson, D-Detroit, died Sunday.

House Democratic Leader Christine Greig announced Robinsons death in a statement Sunday night, calling him "a passionate advocate for his community and constituents.

Robinson, 44, died at Detroit Medical Center Hospital after reportedly having breathing problems in the days prior, his mother, former state Rep. Rose Mary Robinson, D-Detroit told Crains in a story posted Sunday night.

Crains reported that Robinson died of suspected coronavirus infection, but the cause of his death was not immediately confirmed late Sunday.

In a statement, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Robinson had a huge heart, a quick wit, and a genuine passion for the people.

"Rep. Robinson will be missed by many, including me. It was an honor to serve the people of Michigan alongside him. My deepest condolences go out his family and loved ones, and to the people of Detroit and Hamtramck who elected him as their voice in the House, Whitmer said.

Robinson served Detroit and Hamtramck in Michigans 4th House District, according to a release from the governors office.

Rep. Isaac Robinsons passing is a devastating loss to our community and another reminder of how we all need to do our part to protect ourselves and each other in these difficult times, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said in a statement.

Added Greig, D-Farmington Hills: Our entire Democratic Caucus is devastated by the loss of our colleague and send our deepest condolences to his family and friends."

Ron Bieber, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, called Robinson "an incredible spirit, a fighter for working people, and a lifelong champion of the city of Detroit.

He was also a good friend with a big heart, Bieber said in a statement Sunday night. "I am shocked and saddened to hear that hes passed. Last time we talked, he was working to make sure we took care of workers who were affected by this awful coronavirus pandemic. His impact will resonate in his community and around our state years from now.

Robinson was first elected to the House in 2018. He served on the Commerce and Tourism, Regulatory Reform and Tax Policy committees.

The news of Robinsons death comes just three days after House leaders confirmed state Rep. Tyrone Carter, D-Detroit, tested positive for coronavirus.

As of 3 p.m. Sunday, 132 people in Michigan have died from COVID-19, 56 of them in Wayne County, including the city of Detroit.

Also on MLive:

First Michigan lawmaker tests positive for coronavirus

Western Michigan University student dies of coronavirus
WABC(NEW YORK) -- The operator of a bar in Brooklyn is the first person to be arrested under New York City's executive order banning nonessential gatherings and business as authorities take steps to enforce the mandate amid the coronavirus pandemic.



Police arrested Vasil Pando, the operator of the Miami II Sport Cafe in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn, over the weekend.



New York City has become the new epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., with more than 33,700 confirmed cases and over 770 deaths from the virus.



Authorities said they received several 311 complaints on Saturday about people gathering to drink and gamble inside the club that appeared closed from the outside. The first complaint came in around 5:15 p.m. on Saturday night, and another one came in at 10:30 p.m. that same night.



Police say they found at least a dozen people drinking and gambling inside. Moreover, the establishment had no New York State liquor license to serve alcohol, authorities said.



It is not immediately clear if Pando had obtained an attorney. He was charged with unlicensed bottle club, illegal sale of alcohol, reckless endangerment, promoting gambling and criminal nuisance.



On March 20, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered that 100% of the state's workforce stay home except for essential services.



"Only essential businesses can have workers commuting to the job or on the job," Cuomo said at the time, stressing that this rule "will be enforced."



New York City's Mayor Bill de Blasio doubled down with a separate executive order for New York City on March 25, mandating that everyone who can work from home do so and banning nonessential gatherings of any size.



De Blasio also directed the city's police department, fire department and other agencies "as needed to immediately enforce" the directives in the order.



At least 21 U.S. states have implemented or announced statewide closures of non-essential businesses as the outbreak wages on.



Over the weekend, President Donald Trump officially reversed his call to reopen businesses by Easter and said he will extend the nation's coronavirus social distancing guidelines to April 30.



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Portland officials formally announced Monday a $2 million grant and loan program for coronavirus-impacted small businesses and plans to give around 2,000 low-income households up to $500 in cash assistance.

Applications for up to $10,000 in emergency grant funding to businesses opened Monday morning, will close 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, and businesses could get the money as early as Friday, according to Prosper Portland, the citys economic development agency.

Around 200 businesses are expected to receive a share of at least $1 million, said Tory Campbell, the agencys economic development director, during a news conference. He described the money as a critical stop gap to give financial aid to impacted businesses to help them stay open and retain employees until state and federal funds are made available.

Another $1 million from the city-funded program will go toward providing up to $50,000 in no-interest loans, Campbell said. Its unclear when business owners can start applying for city loans.

CORONAVIRUS IN OREGON: THE LATEST NEWS

Its also unclear when families can apply for the cash assistance, who would qualify and when they would receive the money. Portland Housing Bureau Director Shannon Callahan said the money could be used for food, medication, rent and other urgent household needs.

The city is still working out the details with Multnomah County and Home Forward, which acts as the countys housing authority. Families that need immediate support should contact the city housing bureaus social service hotline by calling 211, Callahan said.

The business grant and loan program, as well as the cash assistance program, were first announced last week.

The latest business grants and loans will be prioritized to women- and people of color-owned businesses that have seen at least 25% decline in revenue and have continued to pay their employees or provide employees health care and other insurance, Campbell said.

Half of the loan and grant program funds come from a pot of $3 million the Portland City Council reallocated last Wednesday from the citys reserves and the other half from the citys enterprise zone tax abatement program.

Umqpua Bank plans to donate another $75,000 for the business grants and $675,000 for the loans, company president Cort OHaver said during the news conference.

Bank of America, Columbia Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Key Bank, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo are also contributing $310,000, according to city officials.

This comes after 31 city small businesses were recently announced to receive $190,000 from City of Portland and Asian Pacific Islander Network of Oregon funds in grants. The majority of the grants went to Asian-owned businesses in Southeast Portlands Jade District and Northwest Portlands Old Town Chinatown, areas that have seen revenue from Asian-run establishments heavily hit amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The Portland City Council last Wednesday approved more than $1 million to fund the direct payments to Portlanders.

The money was initially meant to carry over into next years housing bureau budget, city officials said. It would have helped pay for an inclusionary housing study, the development of a grant program in East Portland, costs associated with the citys residential rental registration program and a mediation services pilot program meant to help resolve tenant and landlord disputes as an alternative to eviction. The city may apply to get some of those costs reimbursed through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The reallocation of city funds is allowable under the citys state of emergency declaration, which ends April 9.

The city has also issued a joint suspension of residential evictions with Multnomah County for people who arent able to immediately pay rent due to coronavirus-relate impacts, offered three month rent and loan payment deferrals for commercial tenants of city-owned properties, stopped cutting off water, sewer and stormwater service for ratepayers unable to make payments and other provisions.

Mayor Ted Wheeler said during the news conference that other city relief plans in the works, including offering expanded support of ongoing initiatives.

We expect to receive sizable support from the federal stimulus package, he said.

Its a little too early right now to tell exactly how those resources will come to us and how they will be used, but I fully expect that well have to do more.

-- Everton Bailey Jr; ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 | @EvertonBailey

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.


Salman Khan, lovingly known as the Bhaijaan of Bollywood, knows how to captivate the audience with his on-screen persona. But the megastar is also loved for his off-screen earthiness and generosity. The star has yet again proved that his heart is in the right place. Salman will be taking care of the financial needs of 25000 daily way workers from the film industry given the lockdown resulting from the outbreak of the coronavirus. Reportedly, he will be transferring money to their accounts, through his NGO, the Being Human Foundation. Due to the ongoing lockdown, several daily wage workers were in jeopardy. Salman decided to lend support to them through this magnanimous gesture.







According to the President of the Federation of Western Indian Cine Employees, B N Tiwari, Salman Khan reached out to them to offer support. He said, Salmans Being Human Foundation has come forward to help daily wage workers. They called us three days ago. We have about 5 lakh workers out of which 25,000 are in dire need of financial help. Being Human Foundation said they will take care of these workers on their own. They have asked for the account details of these 25,000 workers as they want to ensure that money reaches them directly. Hats off, Salman!
For more than 175 years, the city of San Antonio has been a central site for our countrys military activity. Much of our citys history is deeply influenced by the many military bases that now make up Joint Base San Antonio. As the city that prides itself on being Military City, USA, we know the critical role our military bases and our servicemen and servicewomen play in our regional economy. In times of crisis or uncertainty, it is these brave men and women who are trained and equipped to protect us and keep our communities safe.

This February was no different with the arrival of 387 American evacuees from Chinas Hubei province and the Grand Princess and Diamond Princess cruise ships to JBSA-Lackland for a federally mandated 14-day quarantine. The first evacuees marked the beginning of our response to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic.

As the City Council member representing District 4 in Southwest San Antonio where JBSA-Lackland is located, I was at first concerned about how this would impact residents, our military personnel, our first responders and our medical community. The site was chosen because not only did it have the dedicated airspace needed, but it also had the required lodging capacity of single bedrooms with private bathrooms and kitchenettes that made it suitable for quarantined evacuees.

Those initial days were a trying period that put our citys emergency and preparedness plans to the test. Working with regional, state and federal entities required great levels of coordination and communication to enact and implement a plan for an unprecedented event.

Instead of harsh criticism and insensitive comments, San Antonians demonstrated remarkable compassion and concern for the evacuees. Many of my constituents expressed the need to protect our military personnel and asked what they could do to offer their support.

San Antonio was at the front lines of combating this pandemic long before it reached such a critical point across our country. This should not go unnoticed, and the many people who ensured the evacuees were kept safe and protected deserve recognition for taking care of our fellow Americans in a time of so much uncertainty and helplessness.

Local entities such as our regional hospital system, the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council, and our citys Metropolitan Health District and Fire Department assisted in these coordinated efforts, becoming an appendage to our military installation and working as a team.

No one asked us whether these entities were prepared and equipped to host these evacuees, yet our city went beyond the call of duty to assist JBSA. Many lives were saved while residents were kept protected, and we should be proud of all those who answered the call.

As the last evacuees return home, I want to thank all who aided this critical mission and the compassionate residents of Military City, USA. I am proud to represent the district where JBSA-Lackland is located and the courageous folks who always accept the call of duty to protect us against all enemies, including the unseen ones.

As our citys response efforts continue, I encourage residents to keep all of our first responders in your thoughts and prayers as we combat the spread of COVID-19.

Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia represents District 4 in Southwest San Antonio.
Criminal activities in the



metropolis, including dacoity and eve-teasing, have almost halved over the past 10 days in comparison to the corresponding period in the first two months of the year, a senior police officer said.

Cases of snatching and pick-pocketing have also reduced in the city amid the nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of the deadly COVID-19, he said.

"If the number of criminal activities recorded between March 18 and 28 is compared with that of the corresponding period in January and February of this year, we can say for certain that the rate has fallen by 50 per cent," Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Murli Dhar Sharma told PTI.

"Mostly, what we have registered since March 18 are white-collar crimes," he said.

According to the officer, the Kolkata Police has been busy dealing with matters related to the COVID-19 crisis, and keeping any eye on social media to prevent circulation of fake

"The number of cases lodged in different police stations in the past 11 days is not more than 300. But, the cases registered in the corresponding period in January and February stood at around 600," he said.

Sharma cautioned people to refrain from posting or sharing misinformation.

"We have been dealing with cases like circulation of fake videos, images, and rumour-mongering on social media. We are dealing with such cases very strictly," he added.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said earlier this week that those found sharing misleading information on COVID-19 would be penalised.

One woman was arrested here on Friday for allegedly posting fake on social media. She had written that a doctor got infected with coronavirus while treating patients in a state-run hospital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The next day, Phil Kienle, G.M.s head of manufacturing for North America, and a few other executives flew to Ventecs headquarters in Bothell, Wash. Early on Friday, March 20, the G.M. team sat down with Ventec executives to learn how the ventilators are made, and what parts are required. Ventec had already started a push to ramp up production to 1,000 a month. The group concluded that with G.M.s resources, 20,000 a month would be possible, four people familiar with the talks said.

The next day, G.M. emailed its suppliers specifications of Ventec parts, asking if any could produce them in high volumes. Mr. Kienles team quickly zeroed in on Kokomo as a location to assemble the machines, a person familiar with the matter said. The plant, unlike much grittier car assembly factories, has the type of clean room needed for making medical devices.

On the evening of Sunday, March 22, G.M.s purchasing chief, Shilpan Amin, emailed Ms. Barra and other top executives to let them know that the company and Ventec had secured commitments from suppliers to produce 95 percent of the needed parts, according to three people familiar with the email.

By last Tuesday, G.M. and Ventec had the details of their collaboration hammered out, which they discussed publicly early in the week. G.M. would operate as a contract manufacturer for Ventec, which would sell and distribute the machines. Ventec also plans to increase production at its plant in Washington State.

As talks progressed, coronavirus cases were soaring in New York City, and climbing as well in Boston, Detroit, New Orleans and elsewhere. In a news conference, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York complained that the federal government had provided only 400 ventilators to the state. You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die because you only sent 400 ventilators, Mr. Cuomo said last Tuesday.

Two days later, Mr. Trump disputed the governors numbers while calling in to Sean Hannitys show on Fox News. I dont believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators, Mr. Trump said. You go into major hospitals sometimes, and theyll have two ventilators.

The federal government hasnt indicated how many machines the ventilator makers, including G.M. and Ventec, ought to produce, two people familiar with the talks said. Ventec never received a confirmation from the government about which machine it was interested in acquiring, how many it wanted and how much it was willing to spend.
She recently found herself in hot water for boasting about her 'magical' camping trip amid the coronavirus pandemic.

But model Elyse Knowles, 27, put the backlash behind her on Sunday as she enjoyed time outdoors with boyfriend Josh Barker, 31, in Byron Bay.

The couple were spotted enjoying a leisurely visit to the park with their beloved pooches Isla and Harlow.

Carefree couple! Elyse Knowles, 27, enjoyed time outdoors with boyfriend Josh Barker, 31, and their two dogs in Byron Bay on Sunday amid the coronavirus pandemic

Appearing relaxed and content, Elyse was spotted strolling around the field before taking a seat on the grass.

Elyse looked trendy in a white T-shirt, high-waisted baggy jeans and white sneakers.

The Myer ambassador covered her face with retro sunglasses and allowed her blonde mane to fall loosely by her shoulders.

Stress-free! Appearing relaxed and content, Elyse was spotted strolling around the field before taking a seat on the grass

She's got good jeans! She looked trendy in a white T-shirt, high-waisted baggy jeans and white sneakers.

Casual: Meanwhile, Josh wore a light grey T-shirt, ripped grey jeans and a bright yellow cap

Meanwhile, Josh wore a light grey T-shirt, ripped grey jeans and a bright yellow cap.

The couple kept their pooches entertained by throwing around a ball, while Elyse adhered to her civic duties by picking up the dogs' poo.

The sighting comes after Elyse was slammed for boating about her recent camping trip to Moreton Island on Instagram last Wednesday.

Responsible: The couple kept their pooches entertained by throwing around a ball, while Elyse adhered to her civic duties by picking up the dogs' poo

Coronavirus controversy: The sighting comes after Elyse was slammed for boating about her recent camping trip to Moreton Island on Instagram last Wednesday

Elyse left fans fuming after she shared a happy photo of herself and Josh during their camping holiday on Instagram, calling it a 'magical week'.

Responding to the criticism via Instagram Stories on Thursday, Elyse maintained she wasn't aware of how serious the coronavirus pandemic was when she and Josh set out on their holiday.

'A lot has changed in a week, let alone daily. We were away last week, and it was more so we weren't near anyone,' she began, calling the trip 'really lovely'.

'A lot has changed in a week': Responding to the criticism via Instagram Stories on Thursday, Elyse maintained she wasn't aware of how serious the coronavirus pandemic was when she and Josh set out on their holiday

''As things started to change, we started to know that we needed to be home': As soon as they became aware of the severity of the situation, they made every effort to return home to Byron Bay

As soon as they became aware of the severity of the situation, they made every effort to return home to Byron Bay.

'As things started to change, we started to know that we needed to be home, and tried to get on earlier ferries, but because we were on an island, we couldn't,' she continued.

'So, we isolated as much as we could, we didn't see anyone, and came back on the ferry when we could.'

Standing her ground: Feeling defensive, Elyse said she had actually come into contact with more people in Byron Bay than she did the entire time she was on Moreton Island

Chill out! She then urged her followers to stay at home 'enjoying each other's company, and just taking a moment to really breathe and relax as much as possible'

Feeling defensive, Elyse said she had actually come into contact with more people in Byron Bay than she did the entire time she was on Moreton Island.

'Yesterday I had no food in the house, so I went down the street and I probably saw five times as many people as I saw on the whole entire island in Moreton Island,' she added.

She then urged her followers to stay at home 'enjoying each other's company, and just taking a moment to really breathe and relax as much as possible'.

As of Monday afternoon, there are 4,165 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia, resulting in 18 deaths.
PORTLAND, Ore.  Oregon public health officials have identified 58 new cases of the new coronavirus in the state as of 8:30 a.m. on Monday, March 30, as well as three more fatalities.

The latest deaths brings the state total up to 16.

We want to keep you informed about #COVID19 in #Oregon. Data are provisional and change frequently. For more information, visit https://t.co/HOiXqGkygF pic.twitter.com/YVWcZFGJv7  OR Health Authority (@OHAOregon) March 30, 2020

The Oregon Health Authority said that there are now a total of 606 people in the state who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 through a positive test.

OHA is reporting 50 total new cases in the following counties: one case in Benton, one in Clackamas, two in Deschutes, four in Douglas, one in Jackson, four in Josephine, two in Lane, 14 in Marion, nine in Multnomah, two in Polk, one in Tillamook, two in Wasco, 14 in Washington, and one in Yamhill.

Samples for 12,277 people have tested negative for COVID-19 in the state so far.

SPECIAL SECTION: Coronavirus Watch

A 91-year-old man in Yamhill County, who tested positive on March 20, died March 29 at Providence Newberg Medical Center. OHA says that he had "underlying medical conditions."

On the same day, a 80-year-old man in Clackamas County, who tested positive on March 22, died at Legacy Meridian Park Medical Center. He also had underlying medical conditions.

Also on March 29, a 91-year-old man in Linn County, who tested positive on March 15, died at the Oregon Veterans Home in Lebanon. Like the others, OHA reports that he had underlying medical conditions.

Ongoing recommendations for COVID-19

People vulnerable to complications should follow federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations to stay home as much as possible and avoid gatherings. Every resident should take these basic steps to protect themselves and those most at risk:

Never visit a hospital or long-term-care facility if you have a fever or cough.

Cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze.

Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

Regularly clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces like bathrooms, desks, countertops, doorknobs, computer keyboards, faucet handles, toys and cell phones.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands.

Stay home and away from others if you are ill.

After someone contracts COVID-19, illness usually develops within 14 days, OHA said. Symptoms mirror those of the flu, including fever, cough, runny nose, headache, sore throat and general feelings of illness.
HICKORY - Despite the current need for social distancing and Stay at Home orders, Girl Scouts are staying connected to each other and to their community.

Our girls are staying engaged and staying connected with one another through virtual meetings and online programming, but they miss doing their community projects and volunteer work. They also miss being able to meet the public and sell their cookies in person, said Lane Cook, chief executive officer for Girl Scouts Carolinas Peaks to Piedmont.

Not to be deterred by the challenges of a more isolated population, Girl Scouts have come up with a way to complete their 2020 cookie program and serve the community at the same time.

Were asking everyone to make a donation to Girl Scouts Carolinas Peaks to Piedmont, and, in turn, we will connect with our Girl Scout troops to send cookies to the local 'Hometown Heroes' of their choosing, such as health care workers, first responders, grocery store clerks, and others who are giving of themselves during this difficult period, said Cook.
Cote dIvoire on Sunday recorded its first death from Covid-19.

The death was announced by the Ivorian health minister, Eugene Aoule, during a daily briefing. No further details were given on the victims age or gender.

Mr Aoule also announced the addition of 25 Covid-19 cases, bringing the countrys total to 165 confirmed cases.

The Ivorian President, Alasanne Ouattara, on March 23, declared a state of emergency and imposed a 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. curfew. He shut down all borders in the country, banning unauthorised travel between cities.

Mr Ouattara also ordered the closure of all restaurants.

In the fight that we are waging against the propagation of Covid-19, our principal enemy will be indiscipline and non-respect of preventive orders, he said.

Cote dIvoire recorded its first cases on March 10 and according to Worldometer has a total of 165 confirmed cases, 1 death, and 4 recoveries.

West Africa

In West Africa, Sierra Leone is the only virus-free country, so far. The rest have at least one confirmed case of the virus.

Despite recording zero cases, Sierra Leone has declared a public health emergency and closed its land borders to its two neighbors Guinea and Liberia who have confirmed cases of the virus.

Just like Cote dIvoire, diverse prevention and containment measures have been put in place in some of these countries.

Points of entries are under heavy screening, schools have been closed until further notice, citizens have been advised to remain indoors and practice sanitary measures, emergency contact information has been shared.

In Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, on Sunday in an address to the nation, announced a 14-day lockdown on Abuja, Lagos, and Ogun states.

Lagos and Abuja have recorded the highest number of confirmed cases in the country.

Nigeria has a total of 111 confirmed cases, 1 death, and 3 recoveries.

West African countries currently have a total of 900 confirmed cases. The world has recorded over 700,000 cases.
Hugh Peskett, who has died aged 87, was known as the Sherlock Holmes of the family tree with an expertise in Scottish heraldry and a special line in investigating claims to ancient titles.

He hit the headlines, however, in the early 1980s when he traced President Ronald Reagans Irish and Scottish ancestry, after American researchers had tried and failed to find any leads.

Hugh Peskett, master of family history research. Credit:Telegraph UK

Peskett established that Reagans paternal great-grandfather Michael Reagan had emigrated during the Irish potato famine of the 1840s from Ballyporeen, Co Tipperary, settling in Illinois in the mid-1850s.

Reagans maternal great-great-grandparents, meanwhile, had been married in Paisley, Scotland, in 1807 and had left in 1832 for Illinois, where Reagans parents, Nelle and Jack Reagan, married in 1904.
Former Dublin hurler Michael Carton has expressed his gratitude to healthcare workers having left hospital after recovering from Covid-19.

The OTooles clubman, who won Leinster and National League titles with the Dubs, was admitted to the Mater Hospital after testing positive for the coronavirus.

But he was discharged last Tuesday having made a full recovery and, writing on his Twitter account, Carton paid tribute to frontline staff.

"Haven't tweeted in a while; so I got out of hospital on Tuesday after a very long 11 days.

"I just put my phone away and loved spending time with my family at home!

"I tested positive again in hospital but once I reached 14 days after my first symptoms and I was completely symptom free I was discharged (the doctors were happy with my blood results).

"I'm very grateful to the staff in the mater hospital, most of the nurses looking after me weren't from that ward, so they were working with a new team in really hazardous conditions doing their very best #frontlinestaff.

"I'd just like to thank everyone again, I've never been too emotional but I was overwhelmed by all the messages from everybody to me and all my family from all walks of life.

"My energy levels still aren't great but improving every day so thanks again #staysafe #supporteachother."

Carton, who works as a fireman, had previously revealed on Twitter how he had been diagnosed with the virus.

So I had been self-isolating for a few days with flu-like symptoms, got tested and came back positive for COVID-19 Saturday!!

A few things Ive learned 1: Its very tough self isolating when youre feeling really sick, texts and phone calls from friends and family really do help!!

2: The symptoms I had were a headache, chills and fever, no respiratory problems so dont just be looking for a cough.

3: Im in hospital since Saturday, the care was very poor at the start, felt I was just left to my own devices really+not getting better. The care has improved over the last day or so feel a little better today so hopefully keep improving now!!

Anthony Daly, Carton's former inter-county manager, wrote in his Irish Examiner column: "Mikey was one of the strongest and fittest fellas on the squad but posting personal images and details of the experience was his way of showing how Covid-19 isnt selective in who it chooses to infect. And it was a powerful message.

"This week, his wife Ciara posted a completely different picture on Facebook, of a beaming Mikey with their two sons in his arms. Great to see the big smiley head back again, I posted."
THE Philippine National Police has arrested a total of 17,039 persons for violating the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from March 17 to 29.

Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar, PNP deputy chief for operations and head of Task Force CVShield, said 7,627 were arrested in Luzon while 2,521 were arrested in Metro Manila. The rest were from various provinces across the country.

He said 48,273 people were let go after a warning while 3,777 individuals were fined.

Overall, the report showed that 69,089 people violated the guidelines of the enhanced community quarantine, particularly the curfew, which is essentially 24 hours to keep the people in their homes.

Earlier, Eleazar said the PNP will be a little lenient in enforcing the curfew after local government executives made an appeal because of the lack of detention facilities.

He said the arrest of curfew violators will continue but they will no longer be detained as the charges against them will be pursued when the ECQ is lifted.

President Rodrigo Duterte placed the entire Luzon under an enhanced community quarantine as a measure to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Other provinces have also imposed localized quarantine measures and borders controls.

Under an enhanced community quarantine, public transport systems are suspended, food and health services are regulated, and more uniformed men are deployed to encourage the people to stay in their homes.

Only the health workers, those working in businesses involved in food, medicines and other essential products and services, and other essential personnel are allowed to venture out of their homes.

Only one person per household is allowed to go out for supplies.

As of 4 p.m. March 30, the total number of Covid-19 cases in the country has climbed to 1,546, with 78 deaths. A total of 42 patients have recovered. (SunStar Philippines)
The spread of coronavirus is prompting calls for the re-introduction of single-use plastic bags in supermarkets.

Over the past few years, several countries and cities - and most states in Australia - have banned single-use bags to reduce plastic production and protect the environment.

But some states in the US have brought them back this month amid fears re-usable bags are less hygienic.

The spread of coronavirus is prompting calls for the re-introduction of single-use plastic bags in supermarkets

A study by the New England Journal of Medicine in the US found that coronavirus could survive on plastic surfaces for three days.

After the study was published, the US state of Maine repealed its ban on single-use bags, New York delayed its ban and New Hampshire even banned re-usable bags.

Governor Chris Sununu said: 'It is important that shoppers keep their reusable bags at home given the potential risk to baggers, grocers and customers.'

Similarly, the UK has removed a small surcharge on plastic bags for online shoppers in a bid to limit contamination.

Now there are calls for Australia to follow suit. Single-use bags are banned in every state except New South Wales.

Gideon Rozner, Director of Policy at the Institute of Public Affairs, described the ban on single-use plastic bags as 'foolish'.

'If the coronavirus has taught us anything, it is the importance of disposable goods that prevent the spread of disease,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

A study by the New England Journal of Medicine in the US found that coronavirus could survive on plastic surfaces for three days

'How would we have fought the coronavirus if, for example, we didn't have single-use gloves, or single-use tissues? Single-use plastic bags are no different.'

University of Sydney science professor Timothy Newsome confirmed that coronavirus could spread via re-useable bags - but he said the risk was low.

'Anything that leaves the house and then is brought back into the house could pose a low risk,' he said.

'But the vast majority of transmission happens from person to person so we're much more worried about people than plastic.'

He said a better way to reduce the spread than ditching re-usable bags would be to limit shopping trips.

'If you can go shopping once instead of twice, or even offer to shop for a neighbour at the same time, that would be helpful,' he said.
Showbiz personalities from Nigeria, Ghana and other African countries who participated in the 2020 edition of the African Magic Viewers Awards (AMVCA) are feared to have contracted the deadly COVID-19.



One person who attended the award ceremony at the Eko Hotel in Lagos on March 14 tested positive for the virus.



This, NEWS-ONE has gathered, is causing a lot of panic among actors and filmmakers who took part in the ceremony.



A statement from Nigerias Lagos State Government on Tuesday indicated that patrons of the award may have come in contact with the affected person.



Prof. Akin Abayomi, Nigerias Commissioner for Health, who made the revelation, however, did not mention the participant who tested positive.



COVID-19 Lagos alert! I hereby notify you that all participants at the African Magic viewers Choice Award (AMVCA) held on 14th March at Eko Hotels may have come in contact with one of the confirmed cases in Lagos and are most likely to have been exposed to COVID-19 infection, he tweeted.



He advised other participants from Nigeria to observe a strict self- isolation and report to the state should they start exhibiting symptoms.



In the case of Ghana, the country had one nomination for this years AMVCAs in best supporting actress category for actress Gloria Sarfos performance in Shirley Frimpong Mansos Perfect Picture 10 Years Later. She won the category but she was not in Nigeria to pick her award.



But there are rumours that Nana Akua Addo, a Ghanaian red carpet personality, was at the award ceremony. She is one of the people who are expected to strictly self-isolate.

Source: Daily Guide









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T he number of people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the UK has hit 22,141.

The latest figures, released by the Department of Health just before 5pm on Monday, mark a surge in cases by 2,619 overnight.

Meanwhile, the UK death toll has hit 1,408  up by 180 from 1,228 the day before.

A total of 134,946 people have now been tested for the disease, of which 112,805 results came back as negative.

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It comes as new data reveals that the number of people being treated for Covid-19 in Englands hospitals has risen by almost 50 per cent over the past three days.

Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said on Friday that more than 6,200 patients were in hospital with the disease.

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But on Monday, he said this figure had jumped to more than 9,000.

Coronavirus hits the UK - In pictures 1 /81 Coronavirus hits the UK - In pictures A deserted Westminster Bridge PA A man wearing a face mask or covering due to the COVID-19 pandemic, walks past customers sat outside a restaurant AFP via Getty Images Boris Johnson addresses the nation on the Coronavirus lockdown Andrew Parsons Runners pass cardboard cutouts of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William during the London Marathon in London AP An empty escalator at Charing Coss London Underground tube station Jeremy Selwyn Electronic bilboards displays a message warning people to stay home in Sheffield PA A sign is displayed in the window of a student accommodation building following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Mancheste Reuters People take part in a 'We Do Not Consent' rally at Trafalgar Square, organised by Stop New Normal, to protest against coronavirus restrictions, in Londo AP People sing and dance in Leicester Square on the eve on the 10PM curfew Reuters Hearts painted by a team of artists from Upfest are seen in the grass at Queen Square, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Bristol Reuters Graffiti reads 'good luck and stay safe', as the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases grow around the world, under a bridge in London Reuters A sign is pictured in Soho, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London Reuters Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures, during a coronavirus briefing in Downing Street, London AP A person runs past posters with a message of hope, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Manchester REUTERS Riot police face protesters who took part in a 'We Do Not Consent' rally at Trafalgar Square, organised by Stop New Normal, to protest against coronavirus restrictions in London AP An image of The Queen eith quotes from her broadcast to the UK and the Commonwealth in relation to the Coronavirus epidemic are displayed on lights in London's Piccadilly Circus PA Military vehicles cross Westminster Bridge after members of the 101 Logistic Brigade delivered a consignment of medical masks to St Thomas' hospital Getty Images Durdle Door in Dorset Reuters Captain Tom Moore via Reuters Mia, aged 8, and Jack, aged 5, take part in "PE with Joe" a daily live workout with Joe Wicks on Youtube to help kids stay fit who have to stay indoors due to the Coronavirus outbreak PA An NHS worker reacts at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital during the Clap for our Carers campaign in support of the NHS Reuters Goats which have taken over the deserted streets of Llandudno @AndrewStuart via PA Tobias Weller PA Novikov restaurant in London with its shutters pulled down while the restaurant is closed London Landscapes: Hyde Park and the Serpentine, central London. Matt Writtle A newspaper vendor in Manchester city centre giving away free toilet rolls with every paper bought as shops run low on supplies due to fears over the spread of the coronavirus PA Theo Clay looks out of his window next to his hand-drawn picture of a rainbow in Liverpool, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue Reuters A young man cuts another man's hair on top of a closed hairdresser in Oxford Reuters General view of the new NHS Nightingale Hospital, built to fight against the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London via Reuters Jason Baird is seen dressed as Spiderman during his daily exercise to cheer up local children in Stockport, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters A woman wearing a face mask walks past Buckingham Palace Getty Images A man holds mobile phone displaying a text message alert sent by the government warning that new rules are in force across the UK and people must stay at home PA Medical staff on the Covid-19 ward at the Neath Port Talbot Hospital, in Wales, as the health services continue their response to the coronavirus outbreak. PA Prime Minister Boris Johnson taking part in a virtual Cabinet meeting with his top team of ministers PA A shopper walks past empty shelves in a Lidl store on in Wallington. After spates of "panic buying" cleared supermarket shelves of items like toilet paper and cleaning products, stores across the UK have introduced limits on purchases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some have also created special time slots for the elderly and other shoppers vulnerable to the new coronavirus. Getty Images People on a busy tube train in London at rush hour PA Mia, aged 8 and her brother Jack, aged 5 from Essex, continue their school work at home, after being sent home due to the coronavirus PA Children are painting 'Chase the rainbows' artwork and springing up in windows across the country Reuters Social distancing in Primrose Hill Jeremy Selwyn A general view of a locked gate at Anfield, Liverpool as The Premier League has been suspended PA Homeless people in London AFP via Getty Images A piece of art by the artist, known as the Rebel Bear has appeared on a wall on Bank Street in Glasgow. The new addition to Glasgow's street art is capturing the global Coronavirus crisis. The piece features a woman and a man pulling back to give each other a kiss PA The Queen leaves Buckingham Palace, London, for Windsor Castle to socially distance herself amid the coronavirus pandemic PA A general view on Grey street, Newcastle as coronavirus cases grow around the world Reuters Matt Raw, a British national who returned from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, leaves quaratine at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA Britain's Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty (L) and Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance look on as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures as he speaks during a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) news conference inside 10 Downing Street Reuters The ticket-validation terminals at the tram stop on Edinburgh's Princes Street are cleaned following the coronavirus outbreak. PA Locked school gates at Rockcliffe First School in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear PA A sign at a Sainsbury's supermarket informs customers that limits have been set on a small number of products as the number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases grow around the world Reuters Jawad Javed delivers coronavirus protection kits that he and his wife have put together to the vulnerable people of their community of Stenhousemuir, between Glasgow and Edinburgh AFP via Getty Images A sign advertising a book titled "How Will We Survive On Earth?" Getty Images A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask today in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A pedestrian walks past graffiti that reads "Diseases are in the City" in Edinburgh AFP via Getty Images Staff from The Lyric Theatre, London inform patrons, as it shuts its doors PA A quiet looking George IV Bridge in Edinburgh PA A quieter than usual British Museum Getty Images A racegoer attends Cheltenham in a fashionable face mask SplashNews.com A commuter wears a face mask at London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn A empty restaurant in the Bull Ring Shopping Centre Getty Images A deserted Trafalgar Square in London PA Passengers determined to avoid the coronavirus before leaving the UK arrive at Gatwick Airport Getty Images

Elsewhere, Public Health England (PHE) announced that almost 11,000 coronavirus tests a day can now be carried out.

The Government had set a target of carrying out 10,000 tests a day by Sunday, but PHE figures show 9,114 had been carried out as of 9am on Saturday and 8,278 had been carried out by the same time on Sunday.

PHE said fluctuation in the number of tests reported each day is to be expected but testing numbers are increasing overall.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) will this week release figures on deaths linked to the virus in the wider community, such as care homes.

The ONS will look at deaths where the disease was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, including in combination with other health conditions.
Prince Harry and Meghan are reportedly set to reveal their new brand and charity this week, with Instagram being their launch platform of choice.

The move is to mark a clean break for the couple, who on Wednesday will officially step down from their role as senior royals.

Between them Harry and Meghan boast 11.3million followers on their current SussexRoyal Instagram account, and are expected to launch a series of projects following the announcement of the image revamp, according to the Sun.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are to unveil their new brand and charity plans this week

Harry and Meghan have been laying down plans for the transition, including the coup of one of Bill and Melinda Gates' top staffers to lead the new and, as yet undefined, charity.

Catherine St-Laurent has been hired as chief of staff and executive director of their nonprofit enterprise and is expected to drive the movement as the couple embark on their new era.

Catherine St-Laurent, director of Pivotal Ventures, is leaving to begin as Chief of Staff of the new non-profit enterprise

The move strengthens suggestions that Harry and Meghan would like to model themselves on Bill and Melinda, whose charitable foundation has donated tens of billions of dollars

'Theyve said they dont want a foundation but have held talks with experts in the US and Canada on how they can achieve their aims outside the Royal Family,' a source told the Sun.

'A post will explain everything. Its very Harry and Meghan to announce their plans on Instagram.'

The move is set to spark an upsurge in activity for both Prince Harry and Meghan, who have been laying the foundations for life after royal duty.

Meghan, 38, is understood to have 'heaps of projects in the works' after stepping back from her duties, spanning across various areas.

The former actress' first gig after quitting the royal family was revealed on Thursday - with Meghan voicing a Disney documentary on elephants.

Meghan is also said to be interested in writing another recipe book following her successful 2018 Grenfell charity work with Together: Our Community Cookbook.

It was launched in September 2018 as the Duchess's first major solo endeavour as a member of the royal family.

It has been suggested that Harry and Meghan would like to model themselves on Bill and Melinda Gates, pictured, whose charitable foundation has donated tens of billions of dollars

The recipes proved popular and 38,811 copies of the 9.99 book were sold in the first two months.

The latest announcements and rebrand come during a busy time for the couple, who in the last week insisted they never intended to ask Donald Trump for help with security costs.

Harry and Meghan fled their temporary Vancouver base with young son Archie amid the ongoing coronavirus threat which is sweeping the globe.

A Sussex spokesman was prompted to respond after the President of the United States took to Twitter to state the US would not pay for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's security protection, following their recent move from Canada.

The rapid fire reply came hours after Mr Trump said the couple should foot the bill for their bodyguards, now they have moved across the border to LA from Vancouver where Canadian police helped with security.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and ten-month-old baby Archie made a last minute dash across the border from Canada to the US this week to start their new life in LA. President Donald Trump has said the US will not help with security costs once they settle to live in Los Angeles

President Trump said: 'I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada.

'Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!,' he added.

The bill for their security, which includes a roster of nine highly skilled British officers shuttling between the UK and US, is estimated to be as much as 8 million a year and is covered by British taxpayers through the Metropolitan Police budget. They also received support from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Royal sources had said that if Harry and Meghan wanted help with security from the Secret Service in the US, which protects international diplomats, a request would have to be made to the State Department.

After upping sticks, the couple have now closed their London office and will rely on staff and agents in Hollywood.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday hit out at the UP government, accusing it of spraying chemicals on migrant labourers, and said it should not treat them inhumanely.

She shared a video of government functionaries spraying water allegedly filled with chemicals at the labourers huddled together on a roadside.

"UP government is requested to not do such an inhuman work as we all are together in the fight against this disaster. The workers have already suffered a lot. Do not bathe them like this with chemicals. This will not save them but will create more problems to their health," she said in a tweet in Hindi.

The incident was reported from Bareilly and TV channels showed a video of it. Reports said several migrants, including women and children, complained of a sensation in their eyes after the incident.

After criticism, Bareilly District Magistrate Nitish Kumar said action has been initiated against the personnel.

"The affected persons are being treated under the supervision of Chief Medical Officer. Teams of Bareilly municipal corporation and fire brigade were asked to sanitise the bus but due to over-activeness they did that. Orders have been issued to take action against the concerned," the DM tweeted.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has asked the DM to submit a report within three days.

A large number of migrant labourers have been leaving their work places in parts of the country and walking down to their native places, hundreds of kilometres away, due to the lockdown imposed to curb the COVID-19 outbreak.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As Detective Allen continued to punch Plaintiff in the head and face, several bystanders called the police and began filming the incident. Numerous police officers arrived on the scene, one of whom ordered the bystanders to delete their videos because the videos could reveal the identities of undercover FBI agents. Some of the bystanders deleted their videos, and footage of the actual altercation was never discovered. The surviving footage from immediately after the incident includes one bystander who can be heard saying, I was worried. . . . They were out of control pounding him.
According to the Post/ABC survey, 55 percent of registered voters who back Mr. Trump say they are very enthusiastic about supporting him, and 32 percent say they are somewhat enthusiastic. Among Mr. Bidens supporters, just 28 percent say they are very enthusiastic, while 46 percent are somewhat enthusiastic.

Overall, theres a 12-point enthusiasm gap between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden. Among the most excited voters, its an even bigger 27-point gap.

Pollsters, strategists and political types pay a lot of attention to the intensity of enthusiasm because it offers hints about who is likely to show up at the polls and who is likely to stay home. (Were assuming showing up at the polls will still be a thing in November.) Campaigning in this polarized era is often less about persuading undecided voters and more about driving out your forces.

Heres The Post on the history:

In May 2012, Mitt Romney, now a U.S. senator, had a strong enthusiasm deficit of 25 points against President Barack Obama in Post-ABC polling. In June 2008, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was down 33 points on enthusiasm against Obama. In June 2004, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) faced a 16-point gap on enthusiasm in his campaign to unseat President George W. Bush. Romney, McCain and Kerry all managed to narrow that gap by November but ultimately lost their elections.

For much of this election cycle, both parties have been fairly energized. While Republicans have appeared slightly more enthusiastic in polling, Democratic turnout surged on Super Tuesday at the beginning of March, with record numbers of voters coming out to vote in the primaries.

So whats happened over the past month? Oh, just this tiny, life-changing national crisis called the coronavirus.
In the 6th episode of "Memorist," a flashback of Han Su Mi (Lee Se Young) appeared of when she was at a young age and witnessed the death of her father. She hid in her sleeping cabinet to keep herself safe and live in the memory of her mother. When she returned from school, she stayed inside the cabinet and fell asleep. The time she woke up, she heard a strange sound. She looked at the keyhole and saw a shadow of a man holding a knife, while her father was tied around the chair, covered in blood.

Growing up, Han Su Mi focused on research to find the murderer of her father but to no avail. They just wouldn't believe her. The killer is still on the loose and even if she holds a high position, she will never stop.

At the crime scene, Dong Baek (Yoo Seung Ho) came in early and felt a relief to see Han Su Mi not in danger. He realized that the little girl in his vision was Han Su Mi. They both discovered that the killer knows both of them. Han Su Mi thinks that the killer is the same person who murdered his father 20 years ago. With all their efforts, Dong Baek and Han Su Mi weren't able to catch the person who tortured the artist and cemented the bodies.

Desperate to find the answers, Han Su Mi invited Dong Baek to her house. She offered if they can work together with the recent case. Dong Baek accepted her offer. As they reached her house, Dong Baek saw all the articles and updates Han Su Mi collected for the past years.

Further to their data gathered, they asked Kyung Tan to check the police who handled the case of Han Su Mi's father. It was 20 years ago, and back then the case was transferred from one detective to another. The last officer who closed the case was Lee Shin Woong. He is the current Deputy Chief of the command center.

At the onset of their discussion, Dong Baek realized that among all the dead bodies and evidence they missed one witness. Dong Baek told Han Su Mi to allow him to scan her memory again. By any chance, they missed something from the past. Hesitant with Dong Baek's recommendation she's afraid to recall the past. She insisted that all her statements are already in the reports. Dong Baek persuaded her to allow him to read her memories. He continued that Han Su Mi always used her logic and detailed profiling. He wanted to use his telepathic abilities with her. Han Su Mi, in thorough consideration, agreed with Dong Baek.

Dong Baek touched Han Su Mi's shoulders and saw the time when her father was murdered. He approached the killer and saw a fake prosthetic mask. He also discovered that the reporter who Han Su Mi suspected was not alone. The night his father died, the reporter arrived with his cameraman earlier than the police respondents.

Han Su Mi reached out with her team and requested for profiling the cameraman. They discovered that the cameraman knows about prosthetic making. He stopped working and went overseas. As they checked, the former cameraman has returned to South Korea. They got the address and headed to the man's house. Before they could open the gate, a man on the street was walking toward the house and they met face to face.
Billionaire businessman and one of Africas richest entrepreneurs, Mike Adenuga, on Monday, announced a donation of N1.5 billion to the initiatives to combat coronavirus in Nigeria.

He announced the donation in a letter sent to the Lagos State Governor, Jide Sanwo-Olu, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, through the Mike Adenuga Foundation.

The donation is broken into two: N1 billion to the federal government and N500 million to the Lagos State Government.

Announcing the N500 million donation, he said, We shall in addition to this contribution actively continue our ongoing efforts to assist various bodies and institutions in the country with the supply of such essential items as sanitisers, masks, test kits, ventillators, PPEs and other necessary requirements.

Members of the Nigerian Private Sector Coalition Against Covid-19, made of people like Aliko Dangote, Femi Otedola, Abdulsamad Rabiu, Tony Elumelu, Herbert Wigwe, Segun Agbaje and Jim Ovia had earlier announced their contributions to the fight.

They are working with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bankers Committee.

In his letter to Mr Emefiele, Mr Adenuga said: Given its broad scope and focused thrust, we are convinced that effective execution of the well-articulated objectives of the coalition is certain to yield the type of very positive results that will stand the country in good stead in the ongoing battle to checkmate the malignant COVID-19 virus.

We are towards this end pleased to attach a bank cheque in the sum of One Billion Naira (N1, 000, 000, 000) as our modest initial contribution to the success of this welcome initiative.

Folorunsho Alakija, a billionaire businesswoman and her husband, Modupe, had also announced a donation of N1 billion.

Call for accountability

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) had urged President Muhammadu Muhammadu to instruct the anti-graft agencies, EFCC and ICPC, to track and monitor spending by federal agencies and state governments on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how SERAP, in an open letter to President Buhari, said the monitoring will check mismanagement in the healthcare system that is already weakened by systemic corruption.

It said the EFCC and ICPC should ensure the prosecution of anyone found to have stolen public funds meant for addressing the coronavirus pandemic.
Thousands of prisoners in overcrowded jails across the country are being released on interim bail or parole in an unprecedented step to prevent the spread of coronavirus and also to avoid any clashes, as authorities scramble to stop the pandemic in its tracks. In Delhi's Tihar prison that is bursting at the seams, 1,500 inmates are likely to be released soon in the second batch, officials said on Monday.

Over 400 inmates from the planned number of 3,000 have already come out in the first phase to decongest the Asia's largest jail complex, they said. According to data ...
In the days after the stay-at-home order was issued, the studio sent out an email to its patrons saying it was still open. The governor did say that health and wellness places could stay open, and we see ourselves as such with yoga as medicine.
Shark Tank investors Barbara Corcoran, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, and Kevin OLeary have been active on their social media accounts offering advice to business owners on how to navigate the choppy waters of the current economic downturn due to the coronavirus crisis. With words of wisdom and posts of encouragement, the Sharks are sharing a wealth of information.

As the Founder and CEO of The Herjavec Group, the millionaire investor often holds meetings with his staff and shareholders. Herjavec recently shared a meeting on Instagram that he conducted with some junior members of his team.

Robert Herjavec of Shark Tank | Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage

Proud papa

Herjavec welcomed twins Hudson and Haven with wife Kym Johnson in April 2018. The couple often posts pics of their toddlers on Instagram, with the Shark Tank star showcasing an image he is sure to add to his photography portfolio.

This may be the best picture I have ever taken  the perfect moment for the perfect picture ! Herjavec captioned the beautiful close-up of his daughter in December, crediting his new phone for the quality. Thank you new IPhone ! And yes Haven is perfectly still ( for a very brief moment ) !

Herjavec also frequently shares pics of their Bichon Frise, Lola. The pampered pooch recently had the opportunity to sit in the millionaire investors coveted seat in the Tank. When you realize that working from home means every day is bring your puppy to work day !! #nationalpuppyday, he posted on Instagram, alongside an image of Lola in his Shark Tank chair.

Sharks in training

Apparently, Herjavec turned his study into a boardroom while conducting business at home during the current nationwide quarantine. Sitting at a desk with his twins facing him in plush gray chairs, Herjavec called their meeting to order.

Hello babies! Im calling this meeting to talk about playtime today, Herjavec announced to Hudson and Haven in an Instagram video, who were trying their best to sit still in their seats.

Who wants to play what? he asked the meetings attendees. If you have a question, raise your hand.

Both kids seemed to have inquiries, though Haven got her hand up first. Hudson, Haven was first, Herjavec said, addressing his daughter. When she didnt come forth with a question, Hudson added his thoughts by simply raising his arms with a cheer.

had a very important business meeting today  getting these kidpreneurs ready for shark tank season 22 ! Herjavec captioned the post.

Naturally, fans ate it up. Haha so cute!!! one follower wrote. Awesome meeting decision, another posted. Future board members a follower commented.

Traded her dancing shoes for a cape

While Herjavec is clearly a business icon, his wife is no shrinking violet. One great feat Johnson accomplished on her own was traveling to her native Australia with their twins last year. Herjavec was in awe of Johnsons tenacity and wasnt shy about sharing it. Shes incredible. Wonder Woman has nothing on my wife, he told Us Weekly of the former Dancing With The Stars pro. Twins flying commercial to Australia for 15 hours by herself.

The Shark Tank star revealed the out-of-the-box solution Johnson thought of in navigating the airport with their two toddlers. She put one on each suitcase. They get strapped in, he gushed. Theyre going through the airport and theyre bouncing around perfectly.

Herjavec proudly posted a pic of Johnson in action, comparing her to a caped crusader. There are all sorts of heroes, he wrote. Shout out to my amazing wife who is a superhero  flying by herself to Australia for 15 hours with (not even) 1 year old twins! Love you babe  you have far more courage and patience than me!

Both parents clearly excel in managing their toddler twins!
Hollywood star John Krasinski wants to spread some good by bringing positive stories as the world battles coronavirus pandemic.

The actor-director launched 'Some Good New' on YouTube, featuring his former "The Office" co-star Steve Carell.

Krasinki, whose sequel to "A Quiet Place" has been postponed due to the virus spread, said he wanted to talk about stories that made people feel good or smile and turns out there were plenty that fans had to share with the actor.

The actor had put up a colorful logo of "SGN", which he said his two daughters had made.

"For years now, I've been wondering, why is there not a show dedicated entirely to good Well, desperately seeking my fix somewhere else, I reached out to all of you this week, asking nay, begging for some good news. And boy, did you deliver.

"After reading those replies and the incredibly heartwarming stories that came with them, I thought, 'All right. Enough is enough, world. Why not us? Why not now?' So, ladies and gentleman, this is your fault, and this is SGN. I'm John Krasinski, and if it isn't clear yet, I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing," the actor said at the start of the video.

Krasinski said "we all are going through an incredibly trying time" but the human spirit had "found a way to break through and blow us all away".

He then went on to highlight the stories that people had shared with him, of public cheering for the health care workers, neighbours helping out each other and a grandfather meeting his grandson for the first time through a window in the age of social distancing.

Krasinski also interviewed a 15-year-old girl named Coco whose neighbours cheered for her from the streets as she finished her final chemo treatment.

The actor, who shot to fame as Jim Halpert in "The Office", interviewed Steve Carell, who played his boss Michael Scott on the show.

Krasinski reminded Carell that this would be the 15th anniversary of the show as they shared anecdotes from their time on the drama.

The "Jack Ryan" star said fans have been clamoring for a cast reunion, but at this time he just wants the pandemic to end so that the team can have an off camera reunion "as people, just to say hi."



Carell also joked to Krasinski: "I guarantee you that the bottom half of what you have on does not match the top," referring his suit and tie, as Krasinski laughed and joked he was wearing Jam pants.

As the actor stood up after signing off from the show, he, indeed was wearing pants that did not match with the top half of his suit.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A top contender for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary primary in the Subin Constituency, J. B. Danquah aka Osono Papa, has vehemently debunked claims that he holds a dual citizenship which disqualifies him from contesting.



Osono Papa, who had previously contested NPP Subin parliamentary seat but lost, also described as palpable falsehood reports that he is not a known member of the ruling party in the Subin Constituency.



He said there was a smear campaign by his opponents to discredit him in the contest but added Im unperturbed.



Speaking with DAILY GUIDE on Wednesday, he said there was what he called a clear attempt to sabotage him but said he would scale through and win the upcoming party primary to represent the NPP in the general election.



Petition Against Osono Papa



It is turning out that some executives of the NPP in the Subin Constituency in Kumasi have lodged a complaint against Osono Papa, whom they accused of holding a dual citizenship and also not a member of the NPP in the Subin Constituency but the aspirant has disputed the claims in no uncertain terms.



The constituency chairman and his vice, according to reports, have petitioned the NPP Vetting Appeals Committee, chaired by Peter Mac Manu, to prevent Osono Papa from contesting in the upcoming NPP Subin Constituency polls.



The same executives, according to reports, have also petitioned the NPP Vetting Appeals Committee in Accra to disqualify Frank Duodu, another aspirant in the three-man race. When upheld, it would pave the way for Eugene Boakye-Antwi, the incumbent MP, to go unopposed.



Both Messrs J. B. Danquah and Frank Duodu were cleared by the Ashanti Regional NPP Vetting Committee, headed by the party General Secretary, John Boadu, only for the Subin NPP executives to petition the party to get rid of the two staunch NPP members from the Subin race.



Osono Papa



When asked about the outcome of his meeting with the NPP Vetting Appeals Committee in Accra, Osono Papa stated that everything went on successfully but he was quick to state that he could not disclose what exactly happened during the meeting since it was an internal party issue.



He said, As things stand, some of the executives fear I will unseat the incumbent and that is why the other contender and I are being frustrated.



He gave an assurance that he would never give up.









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Officials on the White House coronavirus task force warned on Sunday that "every metro area should assume they could have an outbreak equivalent to New York" and doubted the country could reopen businesses and ease social-distancing restrictions by Easter, as the president has suggested.

There are more than 2,200 coronavirus-related deaths and 130,000 confirmed cases in the United States.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sharply criticized President Donald Trump's handling of the pandemic, arguing that his actions have resulted in the loss of American lives.

Vice President Mike Pence said the White House task force would soon bring its recommendations to Trump on whether to ease social distancing and reopen the economy.

The White House's coronavirus response coordinator, Deborah Birx, offered a grim assessment Sunday: "No state, no metro area, will be spared."

With covid-19 cases surging in New York - and new hot spots rapidly developing in Detroit, New Orleans and other parts of the country - Birx said on NBC News' "Meet the Press" that state and local officials should act now to inventory supplies and prepare for the eventuality that the outbreak could wreak similar havoc on their communities.

"Every metro area should assume they could have an outbreak equivalent to New York," Birx said. By the time these regions see an influx of patients in their intensive care units, she added, it is likely the virus would have "been spreading from days to weeks."

To that end, Birx repeatedly dodged questions about the White House's response - including the extent to which the federal government might take over procurement for much-needed medical supplies at a moment when state officials say they are competing against one another for masks and ventilators. Asked about her recommendation for reopening the country, given Trump's proposed Easter target date, Birx said she wanted to "share it with the president and vice president first."

In the meantime, state officials continue to sound a fearful, dour note about the outbreak.

"Our numbers are climbing exponentially," said Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, appearing later on the show. "We see this astronomical rise. We've got hospitals that are already at capacity, we're already running out of (supplies) as well."

Obtaining medical supplies through a contracting process has placed states in bidding battles as they compete for medical resources, she said. Although her state received 112,000 N95 masks from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Saturday, she said hospitals still will run low on protective equipment.

Whitmer added: "We're going to be in dire straits again in a matter of days."

As Trump agitates for businesses to reopen and social-distancing measures to be eased by Easter, the most prominent health expert on his White House coronavirus task force, Anthony Fauci, expressed doubt that such a timeline was realistic.

"My own opinion, looking at the way things are, I doubt if that would be the case," Fauci said Sunday Morning on CNN's "State of the Union," though he stressed that the conversation was ongoing and any decision would be made by the task force. "If we need to push the date forward, we'll push the date forward."

Ultimately, reopening parts of life that have shut down amid strict distancing measures in many places will depend on the availability of rapid testing, Fauci said.

"When we get those tests out that you can do right away - rapid point of care - then I think we're going to be closer," he said. "To put a timeline on it, it's going to be a matter of weeks; it's not going to be tomorrow, and it's not going to be next week. It's going to be a little bit more than that."

Modifying the intensity of the closures can happen only when the daily number of new cases flattens and then declines, Fauci said. He pointed to "serious problems" in hot spots such as New York City and, increasingly, New Orleans and Detroit.

"To be honest, we don't have any firm idea" of the peak infection rate, he said.

In an interview on CNN, Pelosi sharply criticized Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, arguing that his actions have resulted in the loss of American lives and warning against the relaxing of social-distancing guidelines.

"His denial at the beginning was deadly.  His delay in getting equipment to where it's needed is deadly. And now, I think the best thing (to do would be) to prevent more loss of life rather than open things up, because we just don't know," Pelosi said on "State of the Union."

She noted the death toll has doubled in recent days and suggested there should, at some point, be an examination of the Trump administration's handling of the crisis.

"When did this president know about this, and what did he know?  That's for an after-action review. But as the president fiddles, people are dying. And we just have to take every precaution," the speaker said.

Pelosi also suggested the bill passed by Congress last week was only a first step toward addressing the pandemic.

"Well, we have to do more," she said when asked about Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's criticism of the measure. "I think this bill was just a down payment.  We have to pass another bill that goes toward meeting the need more substantially than we have."

Pelosi did not directly answer when asked about reports that she has not spoken with Trump in months.

"I'm the speaker of the House. Legislation is my responsibility.  That has not required any conversations with the president," she said.

She also suggested Democrats will push back against Trump's signing statement on last week's coronavirus response bill, in which the president refused to comply with some oversight measures.

"We won't accept that," Pelosi said.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards warned Sunday that his state's health system is at risk of being overwhelmed with patients in a matter of days.

By April 4 or 5, he said on ABC News' "This Week," New Orleans will be at capacity on ventilators. Next, he warned, area hospitals will be out of beds.

"We remain on a trajectory, really, to overwhelm our capacity to deliver health care," he said.

Edwards, a Democrat, said the state has ordered 12,000 ventilators from both the national stockpile and private options but has received only 192. He warned state officials might have to toughen enforcement if necessary.

The governor said he believes Mardi Gras contributed to the spread of the virus but that officials never considered canceling celebrations.

"If you'll go back, you will see that the federal government was saying things were well under control," he said.

Coronavirus infections and deaths will continue to rise in Britain over the next few weeks and only then can the government determine how long the country's lockdown must last, Jenny Harries, the country's deputy chief medical officer, said a news conference Sunday.

It could be six months or longer, she added, until Britain "can get back to normal."

Calling the virus a "moving feast," Harries stressed that rolling back coronavirus restrictions too soon would be "foolish" and could undo any progress made under the current prevention measures.

"We actually anticipate our numbers will get worse over the next week, possibly two, and then we are looking to see whether we have managed to push that curve down and we start to see a decline," Harries said, according to the Telegraph.

She continued, "This is not to say we would be in complete lockdown for six months, but as a nation we have to be really, really responsible and keep doing what we're all doing until we're sure we can gradually start lifting various interventions which are likely to be spaced - based on the science and our data - until we gradually come back to a normal way of living."

Robert Jenrick, secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, also announced at the news conference what he called "emergency footing," in which the government will set up strategic control centers nationwide led by commanders in Britain's armed forces.

Jenrick described it as "an unprecedented step in peacetime" that hadn't been implemented since World War II. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was confirmed to have the coronavirus on Friday, did not appear at the news conference. Critics have said that his administration was too slow to respond to the outbreak. Britain lagged behind other European countries in implementing social distancing and lockdown measures.

Confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide passed 700,000 on Sunday.

A top Italian health official said that he believes the country is at the "peak" of the outbreak and that within a week to 10 days the number of cases will start dropping.

Italy reported a slight decline in deaths related to the novel coronavirus on Sunday, with 756 dead within the last 24 hours, down from Friday's record high of 919 dead from covid-19.

Italy's Civil Protection Agency also announced 5,217 new confirmed infections, raising the country's total to 97,689.

In recent weeks, 10,799 people have died in Italy from the virus, the highest official death toll from the pandemic yet. Authorities reported 889 deaths on Saturday.

The country has been under a strict lockdown as the government struggles to contain the outbreak, centered in the north. Doctors in Italy, overwhelmed by the number of dead and overrun hospitals, have issued dire warnings to other countries, including the United States, to prepare for the worst-case scenarios.

Moscow will enact a citywide quarantine starting Monday, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced. The stay-at-home order for all residents comes as the Russian capital's confirmed novel coronavirus cases surpassed 1,000 over the weekend - roughly two-thirds of the country's total. Eight people have died.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the $2 trillion stimulus package is "not bailing out any companies or any industries."

But he offered few specifics on how American taxpayers will be compensated for any loans to the airline industry or others critical to national security.

"As the president said, we'll look at each one of these situations," Mnuchin said on CBS News' "Face the Nation."

"Some of them are very good companies that just need liquidity and will get loans. Some of these companies may need more significant help, and we may be taking warrants or equity as well as that. The president wants to make sure that the American taxpayers are compensated. This is not a bailout."

Mnuchin committed to "full transparency on anything we do" to help large corporations with the financial rescue package.

"We will be reporting to the public," he said.

Mnuchin said the entire package provides "economic relief overall for about 10 weeks."

"Hopefully we'll kill this virus quicker. In the end, we won't need it, but we - we have liquidity to put into the American economy to support American workers and American business," Mnuchin said.

He added that if it takes longer than that to reopen the economy, he will go back to Congress to "get more support for the American economy."

"But I hope that's not needed," he added.

Mnuchin said his focus right now is on executing the package, particularly on ensuring that many Americans receive $1,200 checks within three weeks by direct deposit.

"We have everybody within Treasury and the administration working around-the-clock to get this money out quickly, since this doesn't do people any good if it takes a long time," he said.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro took the Trump administration's efforts to blame China for the coronavirus one step further, suggesting, without evidence, that Chinese officials brought the virus to the White House during trade talks in January.

"They shook our hands," Navarro said in the interview. "We broke bread.  They smiled and left with nary a warning about the severity of the crisis."

Despite Navarro's claim, there is no evidence that any of the Chinese officials who attended January's signing ceremony for the partial U.S.-China trade deal have contracted the coronavirus.

- - -

The Washington Post's Cat Zakrzewski and Tony Romm contributed to this report.
Lucknow, March 30 : The Lucknow administration, on Monday, acquired four luxury hotels, which would serve as the quarantine centres for medical and para-medical staff involved in treating corona patients.

The hotels that have been acquired are Hyatt, Mariott, Piccadilly and Lemon Tree.

Hotel Hyatt and Mariott will be reserved for the staff of Ram Manohar Lohia Medical Institute while Piccadilly and Lemon Tree will be for the staff of Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences. The hotels are in proximity to the two institutes.

Both the medical institutes had asked the state government to provide a quarantine facility for its staff that is working in shifts and batches.

Meanwhile, the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan and Avadh Shilp Gram have also been acquired for migrant workers who are in the state capital.
CALGARY - Oilsands producers are likely losing money or barely breaking even as prices for Western Canadian Select bitumen-blend crude dipped as low as US$3.82 per barrel on Monday, analysts said.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 30/3/2020 (653 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An oil worker holds raw sand bitumen near Fort McMurray, on July 9, 2008. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

CALGARY - Oilsands producers are likely losing money or barely breaking even as prices for Western Canadian Select bitumen-blend crude dipped as low as US$3.82 per barrel on Monday, analysts said.

Realized prices for bitumen likely crossed into negative territory as they tested new record low levels late last week after deducting the cost of the lighter oil blend required to allow the sticky bitumen to flow in a pipeline, said Michael Dunn with Stifel FirstEnergy in Calgary.

"Given the current futures market for differentials and FX (exchange rates), we estimate the majority of non-upgraded bitumen production in Alberta (1.5 million barrels per day in 2019) requires high-US$20s per barrel WTI to cover variable costs, and an additional approximately US$2 to US$5 higher if we include sustaining capital requirements," said Dunn in a report.

"With WTI prices below this threshold, we expect industry to be curtailing output significantly in the coming weeks."

U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil traded as low as US$19.85 per barrel on Monday morning.

Meanwhile, analyst Matt Murphy with Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. said his numbers show bitumen realizations were still slightly positive on Monday  albeit barely, at a little less than a dollar per barrel  because the price of condensate that many producers use as diluent has also tumbled.

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Neither set of calculations include the cost of transporting the crude  Murphy said just the cost of sending the oil by pipeline from its source in northern Alberta to the Hardisty marketing hub in central Alberta would put almost every barrel in the red.

As much as 20 per cent or 340,000 barrels per day of thermal oilsands production could be shut down, Murphy said.

Dunn estimated the curtailments will total a "few hundred thousand barrels per day," but the technical hazards of shutting down and restarting steamed oilsands wells means operators will have to continue to produce bitumen at a slower rate.

The reduction of demand for oil in North America means Western Canadian crude storage is rapidly filling, he said.

The situation is made worse by deferrals of planned spring maintenance shutdowns at some oilsands mine upgraders to avoid adding maintenance staff to the workforce due to COVID-19 transmission worries, he added.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 30, 2020.
KYODO NEWS - Mar 30, 2020 - 14:34 | All, Japan, World, Coronavirus

A group of Japanese nationals left Peru on a chartered flight Sunday after they were stranded in the South American country following its decision to close borders and ground international flights earlier this month in a bid to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

A total of 121 people, mostly Japanese nationals, boarded the flight arranged by a local Peruvian travel agency with the support of the Japanese Embassy in Lima. Some 260 were initially stuck in the country, it said.

Another 29 Japanese nationals left the country on Saturday aboard a flight chartered by the Taiwanese delegation in Peru.

The Sunday flight left Cusco, southern Peru, and stopped in Lima to pick up stranded nationals before heading to Mexico City, according to the embassy.

The travelers have to individually arrange and pay for their flights back to Japan.

Of the 121 people, 17 are long-term residents and one is a Peruvian of Japanese descent who will start a graduate program at Tokyo's Waseda University in April.

The embassy is working on repatriating the approximately 60 Japanese citizens left in the country who are located in regions other than Cusco and Lima.

Some travelers, however, have expressed their intention to stay until the borders are reopened.

Borders were closed and international flights to Peru were grounded on March 17, and will continue through April 12, according to the Peruvian government.
It's shaping up to be a tough period for Luye Pharma Group Ltd. (HKG:2186), which a week ago released some disappointing full-year results that could have a notable impact on how the market views the stock. Luye Pharma Group missed analyst forecasts, with revenues of CN6.4b and statutory earnings per share (EPS) of CN0.46, falling short by 2.1% and 9.0% respectively. Earnings are an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance, look at what the analysts are forecasting for next year, and see if there's been a change in sentiment towards the company. Readers will be glad to know we've aggregated the latest statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their mind on Luye Pharma Group after the latest results.

View our latest analysis for Luye Pharma Group

SEHK:2186 Past and Future Earnings March 30th 2020

Taking into account the latest results, the most recent consensus for Luye Pharma Group from nine analysts is for revenues of CN7.12b in 2020 which, if met, would be a decent 12% increase on its sales over the past 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to ascend 13% to CN0.52. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of CN7.39b and earnings per share (EPS) of CN0.58 in 2020. The analysts seem less optimistic after the recent results, reducing their sales forecasts and making a substantial drop in earnings per share numbers.

Despite the cuts to forecast earnings, there was no real change to the CN6.70 price target, showing that the analysts don't think the changes have a meaningful impact on its intrinsic value. That's not the only conclusion we can draw from this data however, as some investors also like to consider the spread in estimates when evaluating analyst price targets. There are some variant perceptions on Luye Pharma Group, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at CN8.94 and the most bearish at CN4.29 per share. This is a fairly broad spread of estimates, suggesting that analysts are forecasting a wide range of possible outcomes for the business.

Story continues

Of course, another way to look at these forecasts is to place them into context against the industry itself. We would highlight that Luye Pharma Group's revenue growth is expected to slow, with forecast 12% increase next year well below the historical 22%p.a. growth over the last five years. By way of comparison, the other companies in this industry with analyst coverage are forecast to grow their revenue at 17% per year. Factoring in the forecast slowdown in growth, it seems obvious that Luye Pharma Group is also expected to grow slower than other industry participants.

The Bottom Line

The biggest concern is that the analysts reduced their earnings per share estimates, suggesting business headwinds could lay ahead for Luye Pharma Group. Unfortunately, they also downgraded their revenue estimates, and our data indicates revenues are expected to perform worse than the wider industry. Even so, earnings per share are more important to the intrinsic value of the business. There was no real change to the consensus price target, suggesting that the intrinsic value of the business has not undergone any major changes with the latest estimates.

With that said, the long-term trajectory of the company's earnings is a lot more important than next year. We have forecasts for Luye Pharma Group going out to 2022, and you can see them free on our platform here.

Even so, be aware that Luye Pharma Group is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those can't be ignored...

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Over 20 million Nigerians on Monday scrambled to prepare for lockdown in sub-Saharan Africa's biggest city Lagos and the capital Abuja, as the continent struggled to curb the spread of coronavirus.

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered a two-week "cessation of all movements" in the key cities from 2200 GMT in a bid to ward off an explosion of cases in Africa's most populous country.

Businesses are to be shuttered, non-food shops closed and people made to stay at home as the authorities look to track down possible carriers of the disease after reporting 111 confirmed cases and one death so far.

Enforcing the restrictions in sprawling megacity Lagos will be a mammoth challenge as millions live crammed into overcrowded slums and rely on their daily earnings to survive.

In the ramshackle outdoor markets of Lagos Island anxious locals complained they did not have the money to stock up, while at higher-end supermarkets better-off residents queued to buy supplies.

"Two weeks is too long. I don't know how we will cope," said student Abdul Rahim, 25, as he helped his sister sell foodstuffs from a stall in Jankarra market.

"People are hungry and they won't be able to stock food."



City authorities have pledged to provide basic provisions to some 200,000 households but the central government in Africa's biggest oil producer is already facing financial strain as the price of crude has collapsed.

The streets of Ghana's capital Accra were also empty as most people in two key regions appeared to be following a presidential order to stay indoors after it went into force overnight.

Dozens of nations around Africa have imposed restrictions on movements, ranging from night-time curfews to total shutdowns.

Authorities in Zimbabwe -- which is already suffering a grim economic recession -- began enforcing a three-week lockdown after the disease left one person dead and infected six others.

Police mounted checkpoints on routes leading to the capital Harare's central business district, stopping cars and turning away pedestrians who had no authorisation to be in the area.

"We don't want to see people here on the streets. We don't want to see people who have no business in town just loitering," a policewoman said through a loud hailer. "Everyone to their homes." Some people in Harare were trying to head for rural villages.

"We would rather spend the 21 days at our rural home, where we don't have to buy everything. I can't afford to feed my family here when I am not working," said Most Jawure.

"We have been waiting here for more than two hours but there are no buses," Jawure told AFP while standing with his wife and daughter beside a bulging suitcase.

For many of Zimbabwe's 16 million people, who are already suffering a grim economic recession, the lockdown means even tougher hardship.

With unemployment rate estimated at around 90 percent, most Zimbabweans have informal jobs to eke out a living and few have substantial savings.

Experts warn that Africa is highly vulnerable to the spread of the virus given the weak state of health systems across the continent.

The number of infections still lags far behind Europe but testing has been limited and the figures are growing rapidly.

Angola and Ivory Coast on Sunday became the latest countries to record their first deaths from the disease, bringing the number of fatalities on the continent to around 150 out of nearly 4,800 recorded cases.

In Democratic Republic of Congo, two new cases were reported in the volatile South Kivu region in the east of the country and an adviser to the nation's president announced he had tested positive.

In a strident call for action, former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf -- who shepherded her country through West Africa's Ebola epidemic -- urged global solidarity to defeat the virus.

"While African nations have so far been spared the worst, it is only a matter of time until it batters the continent which is the least prepared to fight it," she wrote in an open letter published by the BBC.

"We must act to slow down, break the chain of transmission, and flatten the curve," said Sirleaf, the 2011 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

"(...) (W)hat most encourages today, is the opening up of expertise and the fact that knowledge, scientific discovery, equipment, medicines and personnel are being shared.

"It is happening within nations, and increasingly across international borders; an indispensable, albeit delayed reaction, that every person, in every nation, needs to do their part.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Europe is botched up, with deaths and new coronavirus cases continuing to rise. Spain on Sunday recorded 838 fatalities, bringing its toll to 6,528  second only to Italy, which had on Friday confirmed a one-day record of 969. The US, too, seems far from recovery.

The number of cases in that country climbed to 8,238 overnight. President Donald Trump has said he is considering putting the New York region under quarantine, along with New Jersey and Connecticut. Meanwhile, South Africa, the epicentre of the virus spread in the continent, is now under a lockdown. Most of the 59 ...
The Hohoe Municipality is recording high numbers of people escaping a partial lockdown of Accra, Kumasi, Tema and Obuasi as directed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in response to the Coronavirus disease.



Some of the travellers who said they were from Ashaiman and Madina in Accra, said they were going to Dambai, Krachi and Nkwanta in the Oti Region.



Mr Justice Thomas Woembo, Hohoe Chairman, Ghana Private Road and Transport Union (GPRTU) told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that, a lot of people had returned from Accra with some of them continuing their journey to other towns.



He said they had communicated with Union leaders in Accra, Ashaiman, Madina and other cities to take contact details of all passengers that would be coming to Hohoe and those that would continue their journey to enable easy contact tracing.



Mr Woembo said the GPRTU had placed a Veronica bucket and a soap to enable passengers who arrived to wash their hands before joining any available vehicle.



The GNA observed that most passengers who alighted from a Madina to Hohoe bound vehicle were in nose masks.



The driver of the vehicle who refused to disclose his identity to the GNA, said contact details of passengers who boarded his vehicle were not taken due to the number of passengers who were in queue waiting for their turn to board the vehicle.



Some passengers said they preferred to be home with their relatives than to be lockdown in the cities.



The Hohoe Municipal Environmental Health and Sanitation Unit has made a clarion call on all families to find a separate room for relations returning from other regions for a maximum period of 14 days while maintaining a strict social distance rule.











Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The national hotel sector believes the use of properties as quarantine facilities could help save the sector, as occupancy rates slump below 10 per cent amid the coronavirus pandemic.

But operators said the industry, which is still reeling from the impact of the summer bushfires, will not recover "for many years" because of the impact of the coronavirus and that fears among travellers are likely to linger over the long term.

Police guard the Swissotel on Market Street in Sydney, which is being used to quarantine Australians returning to the country by plane. Credit:Nick Moir

Tourism Accommodation Australia CEO Michael Johnson and its national board, led by chair Martin Ferguson, AM, said many hotels in CBDs and regional locations had been left with no option as tourist numbers collapsed and occupancies tumbled.

"This is a devastating time for our sector  and sadly things are set to get even tougher before the eventual recovery," Mr Johnson said.
Due to the narrow therapeutic index, immunosuppressant requires therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) to assess the difference of inter-individual variability in blood concentrations and to optimize personalized pharmacotherapy.

There are many factors responsible for such variations in blood and this can occur due to drug-disease interactions, drug-nutrient interactions, renal-insufficiency, infection and inflammation, polymorphism and many more. Immunosuppressant TDM assay kits are widely practiced especially for drug interactions such as cyclosporine, tacrolimus, sirolimus and mycophenolic acid.

Immunosuppressant TDM assay kits help physicians to analyze and determine the optimal drug dosage for patients by monitoring their serum or plasma drug concentrations and ensuring effectiveness in patient compliance.

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Immunosuppressant TDM assay kits have gained wide acceptance are many. One of the major market growth of immunosuppressant TDM assay kits has been its correlation between the efficacy of a given drug and its concentration in the blood before the administration of the drug.

Moreover, a thorough understanding of pharmacokinetics and implementing the same in drug interaction using immunosuppressant is the key.

The importance of interethnic differences in the pharmacokinetics of immunosuppressants has been recognized using immunosuppressant TDM assay kits, which have impacted significantly on the outcome of transplantation TDM assay kits also leads to its greater usage. Immunosuppressant TDM assay kits are also reliable and relatively easy to use drug-monitoring assays.

Also, immunosuppressant TDM assay kits are being used in adverse conditions where clarity of the right drug being taken is unknown. The market of immunosuppressant TDM assay kits is also being driven by worldwide usage in dosage adjustment when required either from drug-drug or drug-food interactions and where intoxication is suspected.

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On the basis of Assay Type, the Immunosuppressant TDM Assay Kits market is segmented into

High Performance Liquid Chromatography

Fluorescence Polarization Immunoassay Monocolonal Specific Antibody Assay Monocolonal Non-Specific Antibody Assay

Radioimmunoassay Monocolonal Specific Antibody Assay Monocolonal Non-Specific Antibody Assay

Homogenous Enzyme Immunoassay

Dry Spot Analysis

On the basis of Indication, the Immunosuppressant TDM Assay Kits market is segmented into:

Drug Interaction

Drug Efficacy

Drug Toxicity

Drug Compliance

On the basis of End Users, the Immunosuppressant TDM Assay Kits market is segmented into:

Hospitals

Academic and Research Institutes

Contract Research Organizations

Biopharmaceutical Companies

Globally, leading and key immunosuppressant TDM assay kits manufacturers are interested in developing and commercializing their products for drug monitoring and evaluating drug interactions. Immunosuppressant TDM assay kits are the most preferred choice where other methods seem to fail.

Although other manuals based biochemical assay methods are available, still immunosuppressant TDM assay kits method for diagnosis seems the most preferred choice amongst laboratory clinicians. Immunosuppressant TDM assay kits are more accurate, highly reliable, and cost-effective and display significant inter-individual variability in plasma drug concentrations.

Regionally, it is anticipated that North Americas immunosuppressant TDM assay kits market will be the largest revenue-generating region followed by Europe.

Launch of novel and new immunosuppressant TDM assay kits will contribute significantly to the growth of the Immunosuppressant TDM Assay Kits market. Besides growing, drug-based clinical trials in these regions, in turn, will lead to increasing demand for immunosuppressant TDM assay kits for evaluating the efficacy of new drugs.

The Asian region of the immunosuppressant TDM assay market is anticipated to show the highest growth amongst all the regions globally. With the presence of the developed and emerging economies such as Japan, China and India, drugs pipeline will continue to grow, thus requiring increased usage of immunosuppressant TDM assay kits.

Some of the key manufacturers operating in the global Immunosuppressant TDM Assay Kits market include Waters, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, Recipe Chemicals, Zivak Technologies USA, Abbott, Aurora Borealis Control BV and many more These key manufacturers are implementing advanced research and development tools to develop new immunosuppressant TDM assay kits for drug assessment. This will execute in product expansion globally, also strengthening the product line, and having a strong presence in market share.

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The report covers exhaustive analysis on:

Global Immunosuppressant TDM Assay Kits segments

Global Immunosuppressant TDM Assay Kits dynamics

Historical actual market size, 2014  2018

Global Immunosuppressant TDM Assay Kits size & forecast 2019 to 2029

Global Immunosuppressant TDM Assay Kits current trends/issues/challenges

Competition & companies involved

Global Immunosuppressant TDM Assay Kits drivers and restraints

Regional analysis includes

North America

Latin America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Middle East & Africa

Report Highlights:

Shifting Industry dynamics

In-depth market segmentation

Historical, current and projected industry size recent industry trends

Key Competition landscape

Strategies of key players and product offerings

Potential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growth

A neutral perspective towards market performance

More About the Report 
American Airlines Capt. Pati Marsh walks out to awaiting family and friends at the arrivals area of the international terminal at the Philadelphia International Airport. Marsh, who is retiring, made her last flight into Philadelphia from Madrid on Tuesday after 39 years of being a pilot. Read more

Capt. Pati Marsh pulled the American Airlines Airbus 330 into the gate at Philadelphia International Airport 10 minutes early, having just arrived from Madrid. On any other day, the smooth landing would not have been memorable to Marsh. But this one was special.

After 39 years of flights to 18 countries and 44 states, of furloughs and airline mergers, 30,000-plus hours in the air, one dramatic emergency landing, and a really big comfort pig as a passenger, Marsh was retiring.

Not out of choice, but because shes out of time. She has reached the FAA-mandated retirement age of 65 for pilots.

I just had my retirement flight, Marsh thought in wonder, as she brought the plane to a stop while air-traffic controllers offered congratulations on her final ride. Bill Sherrod, the airlines director of flight/chief pilot in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., boarded the aircraft and announced Marshs milestone to passengers, who applauded then thanked her as they disembarked.

She was a very caring and meticulous captain," said Sherrod.

Fifty years ago, being an airline pilot was not on Marshs radar.

She was born the fourth of five girls to a family that toggled between Coco Beach, Fla., and Crofton, Md. Her father, Donald, worked for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and the family frequently moved between the two locations for his job. By the time Marsh reached high school, the family had settled permanently in Maryland. (Marsh still lives there, in Annapolis, but her employment with American was based in Philadelphia.)

Her father flew small planes as a hobby, and Marsh was the only daughter in the family who took him up on his offer of a ride. He threw a map in her lap and, as they flew, pointed out all the landmarks  like roads and train tracks  she could identify from the air.

It was love at first flight, Marsh said of flying. I just took to it and never turned back."

No opportunities in military aviation

At age 17, inspired by the women pilots of World War II, Marsh planned to join the military so that she could fly. But when she approached Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University about enrolling in its ROTC program  a path to becoming a military pilot  her admission to the program was declined because she was female. Crushed, Marsh scored a meeting with Marjorie S. Holt  the first Republican woman from Maryland to be elected to Congress and who sat on the Armed Services Committee  to see what could be done.

The armed forces landscape was rapidly changing in terms of gender integration, Holt told her, but there were still no opportunities for women in military aviation.

So Marsh took the civilian route.

There are going to be all kinds of reasons you cant do something youd like to do, Marsh said. The message is to persist, just keep trying, and do not take no for an answer. Go over those mountains  do whatever it takes.

Marsh did everything to gain flying time, including washing small planes to earn money to pay for flight costs. In high school, she would fly her friends to Ocean City, Md., or Atlantic City for the day. At the University of Maryland, where she majored in geography, she joined a flying club and organized group trips to the Bahamas for winter break. She even became a flight instructor.

After college, Marsh took on myriad flying gigs  transporting mail for the U.S. Post Office, canceled checks for banks, car parts for auto businesses  until she landed a job with Gannett, the media company, as a corporate pilot. From there she was hired by USAir in 1981.

Things can change quickly

She was only the 10th female pilot hired by USAir. Today, only about 400 women are among the 15,000 pilots who fly for American. (The two companies merged in 2015.)

About three weeks later, I was furloughed when [then-President Ronald] Reagan fired the air traffic controllers, said Marsh. This was a good lesson for me: Things can change very quickly.

The furlough didnt last long, and Marsh was soon back in the air.

Marshs go-for-it ethos served not just her career, but, over time, many of her nieces and nephews, who were wowed by her intrepid spirit, generous nature, and unwillingness to let gender impede her dreams.

Personally and professionally, she taught me a lot of life lessons. It was invaluable to have such a strong female role model in my life," said nephew Peter Ide, 52, of Arlington, Va. She really lifted me up."

Marsh, an accomplished sailor, often took Ide out on her boat. Those adventures inspired a love of the sea that led to a career in charter fishing. She even loaned him money for his first boat.

Marshs niece Sarah Pilli, 32, recalled how Marsh helped pay her tuition at St. Josephs University in Philadelphia, which helped sow the seeds of her professional success: She is currently vice president of the American Association of Airport Executives.

I dont think I would have had the education that she set me up for, the career path I now have, and the passion I have for the aviation industry, said Pilli, and for travel. She took me along on her really exciting adventures, including ski trips to Colorado and scuba diving in the British Virgin Islands.

It was during an airline-sponsored ski race in Aspen that Marsh met a fellow pilot, Jack Stephan, now 67.

Weve been happily unmarried for 25 years, laughed Marsh, hinting at a possible change in that status.

While most of Marshs thousands of flights were as uneventful as her final one from Madrid, one in particular sticks in her mind.

 READ MORE: Female CEOs are competitively paid, but greatly outnumbered

Calm under pressure

It happened in 1996, shortly after a ValuJet had crashed into the Florida Everglades after a fire had broken out on board. The tragedy rattled the airline industry. So anxiety was high when, shortly after Marshs flight took off, her crew alerted her to noticeable smoke in the galley.

Marsh knew that her highly trained crew was prepared to manage any emergency, whether it be a problem passenger, mechanical issue or, yes, fire in the cabin.

We are trained to handle them, she said.

Her crew went into full work mode  each playing a predetermined role  while Marsh alerted air traffic control, who quickly got them back on the ground, where they were surrounded by fire rescue the moment the aircraft came to a halt.

But the fire had already subsided. Its cause?

Butter.

Back in 1996, airplane meals typically came with little pats of butter, encased in paper wrappers. On Marshs flight that day, the meals were being warmed up when some of the papers ignited, producing smoke.

It ended up being the funniest thing," said Marsh, who nonetheless could not have been prouder of the actions of her capable team and ground crew.

It was just perfection, a ballet, she said.

After 39 years, Marsh is sad to be leaving the dream career that has provided such marvelous memories. She wishes the retirement rules were different so she could add a few more memories to the mix.

After clearing customs for the final time as a commercial airline captain, Marsh headed to the terminal, where current and former pilots, family and friends awaited her arrival.

Thank you! she said to her cheering supporters as she walked through the passage and into their arms.

Im going to miss this a lot, she sighed before finally heading off to enjoy a celebratory dinner at a nice restaurant. Its the best job in the world.

Tales from the cockpit

Retired American Airlines Capt. Pati Marsh looked back at some of the highlights during her 39-year career and the favorite parts of her job:
Joe Holleman Joe Holleman is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Joe Holleman Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

St. Louis couple Nate Marschalk and Elizabeth Valerio are still stuck in Cusco, Peru, under a government quarantine.

But at least the stranded couple, first reported on by this bureau March 21, has some hopes for getting out soon.

"The good news is that there now are flights leaving Peru, and the embassy seems to be a bit more organized," Valerio said Monday.

"We're still not sure when we're getting out, but at least we know we're getting out," she said.

Valerio is principal at KIPP Triumph Academy, and Marschalk is a training specialist for Edward Jones. They arrived in Peru on March 13 to start a "wish-list" weeklong vacation to see Machu Picchu and other Incan sites.

They are just two of more than 1,300 U.S. citizens, and several thousand tourists from other countries, who are being quarantined by the Peruvian government to combat the COVID-19 outbreak.

Marschalk said the main problem is there are only two flights a day out of Peru, and only one leaves from Cusco.

And there are other stumbling blocks, Valerio said.
Deloitte Buys Local Data Specialist Bistech

In Australia, management consultancy Deloitte has acquired local data analytics specialist Bistech, whose co-owners Shane Morgan, Justin Hoareau and Brad Culbert will be joining Deloitte's Analytics & Cognitive consulting practice in leadership positions. Terms have not been disclosed.



Founded in 2000 and focused on the Queensland market, Bistech helps clients understand and harness their business data using cloud technologies and analytics solutions. The firm's team of seventeen consultants will work from Deloitte's Eagle Street offices in Brisbane from the beginning of April.



According to Deloitte, Bistech's reputation, particularly with clients in the public sector, complements much of Delotte's existing work, and there is 'significant growth opportunity' to use Bistech's expertise with the retail and health sectors. Deloitte CEO, Richard Deutsch (pictured), comments: 'As clients increasingly explore shifting their data capabilities to the cloud, businesses are at a tipping point as they adopt more holistic data strategies. Australia's data analytics market is expected to deliver the fourth fastest growth rate in Asia-Pacific behind China, Indonesia and India, so the timing is right for Deloitte to welcome Bistech's significant capability and experience to our Data Modernisation practice'.



Web sites: www.deloitte.com.au and www.bistech.com.au .




The coronavirus pandemic has devastated and thrown the global economy into disarray. The Chief Executive Officer, Global Analytics Consulting Limited, Tope Fasua, spoke with Business & Economy Editor, BASSEY UDO, on why Nigeria is facing a potential economic depression.

PT: The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, is reported to have said if the current global crisis as a result of the coronavirus pandemic lingers beyond the next six months, the countrys economy will go into recession. Whats your thought on this?

Fasua: The minister is trying to be nice, maybe because she does not want to cause panic. She is relying on the theory of recession being the result of two consecutive quarters of negative growth in the economy. That is why she is talking about the economy going into recession in the next six months. Otherwise, we are already in recession.

By all means, the next Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) must say we have dropped in our national productive capacity. People have not been productive, because they have not been working. Businesses have shut in for some time. Therefore, there is likely going to be a drop in GDP.

Even if people return to work in two or three weeks, there would still be that lag effect lingering.

We planned to grow the economy by about 2 per cent this year. Now, everything has come to a halt. Nobody is producing. Everybody has locked down because of coronavirus pandemic.

The countrys GDP is about $450 billion. Imagine what the country is losing  about $1.5 billion every day. Conservatively, if half of that figure is shut in because people are sitting at home doing nothing, that means we are losing about $400 million every day. Multiply that with 30 days of the month, that means a loss of about $12 billion deducted from the countrys GDP every month. So, it is clear, we cannot escape recession.

PT: You sound so definitive and conclusive we are already in a recession?

Fasua: Absolutely! We cannot escape it. It is not a Nigerian issue. Its a global phenomenon because everybody is sitting down now doing nothing.

The global GDP was predicted to fall by 12 per cent. Sadly, Nigeria is not one of those strong global economies. The country is not also experienced in what to do to lift up an economy that is heading into this kind of crisis. We do not even have the intellectual depth and sincerity to step back and think about how to deal with the crisis.

Most of our leaders are still playing their political games. The House of Representatives are still buying and sharing exotic official cars. They do not know how to convene multi-sectoral meetings to share ideas on how to tackle the situation.

They do not seem to see any trouble coming. Everybody has gone underground. Everybody is doing their individual thing. The leadership is not there. My view is that we should prepare for the worst economically. This is not being a prophet of doom. This is real.

The only luck we have, however, is that so far the devastation of the coronavirus is not as bad as most people had expected.

Perhaps, because Nigerians got information about the devastation in other countries and had gone ahead to self-medicate, even with local remedies against some of these things taken for granted abroad. But, in terms of the economic setback, I think it is going to be very devastating for the country.

PT: So, there is no chance at all for the country to avert the looming doom?

Fasua: I am not mincing words. We are already in a recession. This is a GDP phenomenon. It is for countries that take the concept of GDP seriously, as a measurement of a countrys wealth. But, it is a flawed index for measuring growth. If one looks at the scenarios I have just painted, then one will agree with what I have just said.

The economy has been going down for the past one and half months, even before the government started taking steps. Now, the shops are closed. The larger part of the economy is the informal sector. The crude oil, which is the mainstay of the economy, is totally down. The government has been forced to review its budget fundamentals and benchmarks because the prices have crashed below the approved estimates.

Even at that, the crude oil price has again fallen below the new price benchmark and is still going down. The government depends on crude oil for its revenue. The economy has not been diversified. Except one wants to be deceitful, one can say any other thing. But, I say what it is.

In fact, we should not be talking about recession. We should be talking about economic depression. If the global economy goes down by 12 per cent as is being predicted, then that is depression.

PT: Whats the difference between recession and depression?

Fasua: Some economists define economic depression as a situation where the GDP of a country falls by more than 10 per cent. So, if the global economy goes down by 12 per cent, it means we are in depression.

Nigeria has been living with the symptoms of depression for a very long time, although the world has not taken our economy too seriously, because even we do not take ourselves seriously.

The inconvenient truth is that this is not time to be playing down on the seriousness of what is coming and expect that it will soon blow over.

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PT: So, even with what the CBN and the private sector officials have been doing in the past few days, you do not even give the country any chance of surviving the crisis?

Fasua: Well, there is nothing wrong if we try to do those emergency things. But, in terms of getting out of an economic depression, its more than that.

If one looks at the paradox I have tried to present, one will understand we have always been in depression as an economy. However, this time we may not be lucky to escape the real manifestations of depression, because it is a global issue.

Contrary to what one is seeing in the U.S., UK, Canada and all those advanced economies, where governments have really taken steps to talk about what they are going to do for the people  the unemployed, self-employed, students, in terms of how much money they are going to give people as palliatives for losing their businesses, till things improve.

In Nigeria, what have we seen? Nothing. Some would say N20 was reduced from fuel price at filling stations.

The best so far is the CBN initiative of N3.5 trillion stimulus package, most of which are going into lending from banks to small business owners. We are yet to see where the government is saying what it has for the children, the poor and the unemployed.

The U.S. has announced a $2 trillion stimulus package. In it, every U.S. child gets $500 as a grant for not being in school. There are others that are getting between $1,000 and $1,500, depending on your grade.

The private sector cannot pull the country from economic depression. Everything cannot be tied around a few private individuals  Dangote, Elumelu, Ovia, Imokhuede, and the likes.

But, this crisis could be seen as an opportunity to get out of that vicious cycle of economic depression. If we think and be sincere and come together, we can pull out of this together.

But, I have always said that the countrys budgets are too low. This is the time to look into the need to increase our budget. Everything has been looking southward for a while. So it is not a bad point for the country to begin to think together on how to get out of this.

PT: If you were in a position to propose a way out of this, what would that be?

Fasua: When one looks at some of the models that some of the other countries are using, for instance, the UK is spending about 330 billion. Thats a lot money. They are budgeting about 25 per cent of their GDP of about 4 trillion against Nigerias GDP of about $450 billion. With that, we need to be talking about $45 billion or more to bail out the economy. We need that money more than those countries. But, where is that going to come from?

The UK government is saying if they issue bonds, their rates would be crash to 0.25 to 10 per cent, to encourage lending to the private sector. That is basically zero per cent.

Nobody is going to buy at that rate and keep for the next 20 to 30 years. But the Bank of England has decided to buy and warehouse those bonds, which can then be sold at the secondary market as time goes on.

Where is the plan from the Nigerian government? We are not thinking at all. Perhaps, we do not have the intellectual capacity to do that. Everybody is hiding now from coronavirus.

Unfortunately, with this they now have a perfect reason not to convene a meeting to talk about some rational solutions on the way forward. The crisis is an opportunity to think deep and take this country out of this morass.

The sad thing is that the team we may be hoping to saddle this big task on does not have the capacity to handle it. Or maybe there is still a lot of corruption.

We will still be stuck with the same people in the National Assembly who are more interested in sharing cars when the country is in crisis. Regardless, I think it is still an opportunity we still need to take.

My view on the way out is that we should consider issuing a domestic sovereign bond of anything like N10-50 trillion since the foreign investors are no longer investing in the international markets right now.

Its a good time to float the idea that it is a good time for Nigerians to invest in Nigeria for the long term. The money realised from the bond issue should then be deployed to work on the base of the countrys economy, in terms investments in education, healthcare, environment, food security, water supply, etc.

Now that our children are roaming the streets without jobs, it is now that our heads should be correct, to know that we are actually wasting our most important resource. Now is the time to invest in that resource.

There must be a Marshall Plan. This is important because this is how the other countries grew. They did not focus on foreign debt, but domestic debt. Most of them became great by issuing war bonds to everybody in their countries. This crisis is the time to invest in Nigeria and get out of this problem once and for all.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-30 07:24:12|Editor: mingmei

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Chinese medical experts visit a quarantine in Sihanoukville city in Preah Sihanouk province, Cambodia, March 28, 2020. The Chinese medical team landed in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, on March 23 to help combat the epidemic, as the Southeast Asian country has seen a spike in new confirmed cases in recent weeks. They have been working in Preah Sihanouk province from March 27 to 28, to help local health departments, China-invested enterprises and overseas Chinese prevent and control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Chen Duncai/Xinhua)




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DETROIT  Twelve days ago, General Motors put hundreds of workers on an urgent project to build breathing machines as hospitals and governors pleaded for more in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

But President Donald Trump, claiming the company wasn't moving fast enough, on Friday invoked the Defense Production Act, which gives the government broad authority to direct companies to meet national defense needs.

Experts on managing factory production say GM is already making an extraordinary effort for a company that normally isn't in the business of producing ventilators.

That is lightning-fast speed to secure suppliers, learn how the products work, and make space in their manufacturing plant. You cant get much faster than that, said Kaitlin Wowak, a professor at the University of Notre Dame who focuses on industrial supply chains.

GM expects to start making ventilators in mid-April, ramping up to a rate of 10,000 per month as quickly as it can. The company is working with Ventec Life Systems, a small Seattle-area ventilator maker, and both say the Defense Production Act of 1950 doesnt change what theyre doing because theyre already moving as fast as they can, fronting millions in capital with an uncertain return.

I dont think anybody could have done it faster, said Gerald Johnson, GM's global manufacturing chief.

Peter Navarro, Trumps assistant for manufacturing policy, said Saturday that invoking the act was needed because GM dragged its heels for days" in committing to the investments to start making ventilators at an automotive electronics plant in Kokomo, Indiana.

It was only a few days earlier that Trump had been holding up GM and Ford as examples of companies voluntarily responding to the outbreak without the need for him to invoke the act. Then on Friday, he slammed GM on Twitter and during his daily briefing for foot-dragging. On Sunday, he was back to praising the company during another briefing: General Motors is doing a fantastic job. I don't think we have to worry about them anymore.

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But GM says it had been proceeding on the same course all along.

The company got into the ventilator business on March 18 after being approached by stopthespread.org, a coalition of CEOs trying to organize companies to respond to the COVID-19 disease that has already claimed more than 30,000 lives globally. The organization introduced GM to Ventec, which makes small portable ventilators in Bothell, Washington.

Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan law and business professor, said he thought Trump would commend GM and use it as an example for other manufacturers in the coronavirus fight. What came out was a smack on the head."

The automaker pulled together manufacturing experts, engineers and purchasing specialists, and the next day had people at Ventecs facility, a short distance from a nursing home where the virus killed at least 35 people.

They worked on speeding up Ventecs manufacturing. A few days later, GM assigned more engineers and purchasing experts to figure out how it could make Ventecs machines. Some Ventec parts makers couldnt produce enough widgets fast enough, so GM went to its own parts bin to find suppliers to do the job, Johnson said. At the same time, GM was shutting down its car and truck factories temporarily due to worker fears about the virus.

This unique partnership combines Ventecs respiratory care expertise with GMs manufacturing might to produce sophisticated and high-quality critical care ventilators, said Chris Kiple, CEO of Ventec Life Systems. This pandemic is unprecedented and so is this response, with incredible support from GM and their suppliers. Healthcare professionals on the front lines deserve the best tools to treat patients and precision critical care ventilators like VOCSN are what is necessary to save lives.

Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan law and business professor, said he thought Trump would commend GM and use it as an example for other manufacturers in the coronavirus fight.

What came out was a smack on the head, he said.

Gordon, who teaches a class in commercialization of biomedical goods, said Trump likely will claim credit when GM starts making the machines. This is an election year, and on all sides youre going to see political theater, he said.

Critics have urged Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act broadly to control the production, supply and distribution of ventilators and protective gear for hospital workers who are running short. Thats what the act was meant to do, and it was not for use against a single company, Gordon said.

Even with increased production from all ventilator makers, however, the U.S. might not have enough of the life-saving machines. U.S. hospitals have about 65,000 of the ventilators that are sophisticated enough to treat critical coronavirus patients. It could probably cobble together a total of 170,000, including simpler devices, to help with the crisis, one expert says.

Projections have estimated that 960,000 people in the U.S. could need to be on ventilators, which feed oxygen into the lungs of patients with severe respiratory problems through a tube inserted down the throat. Doctors hope social distancing will stop a huge number of people from getting sick simultaneously, flattening the curve of the illness so they can use one ventilator to treat a series of patients.

Trump, in several appearances Friday, accused GM of promising 40,000 ventilators, then reducing the number to 6,000. He also said the company wanted higher prices than previously discussed.

Ventec, which is negotiating with the government to provide more ventilators, said it only changed numbers and prices at the request of government agencies, which asked for a range of quantities and prices. The company said its selling the ventilators, which can treat severe virus patients, at distributor cost, and it has offered scaled down versions for a lower price.

Up until late Sunday, Ventec and GM hadn't known how many ventilators the government would buy, but those details are now being worked out.

Ventec isnt sure if it will make any money on the devices, which generally sell for $18,000  far less than ventilators used in hospital intensive care units that can cost $50,000. Johnson says GM has no intention of making a profit.

Ventec will need government money to help pay parts suppliers and ramp up its own production from 200 per month to 1,000 or more, said CEO Chris Kiple.

Invoking the Defense Production Act shined a light on the need for ventilators, he said, but Ventec cant move any quicker.

Were still moving full speed ahead, Kiple said. We know theres a shortage of ventilators.

In a separate effort, GM is temporarily converting its Warren, Michigan plant to build Level 1 surgical masks. The automaker says production will begin next week and within two weeks ramp up to 50,000 masks per day. GM said in a statement that there is potential to increase to 100,000 per day, but added that daily mask production will be influenced by the availability of materials to build the masks.

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Mumbai, March 30 (IANS) It seems actress Taapsee Pannu does not like extreme cold weather. Image Source: PK

Mumbai, March 30 : It seems actress Taapsee Pannu does not like extreme cold weather.

On Monday, she shared her experience of her first visit to New York city, and why it didn't turn out so well for her due to the weather.

"My first visit to the New York City and the worst time to visit probably! The winters !!! It just rained and I experienced my first ever minus degrees temperature! " Our walk from Times Square to a restaurant for dinner had me shivering real bad and the jaw just froze in middle of a conversation ! That day I realised I am a 'tropical human being' and these extreme winters are definitely not meant for me," Taapsee wrote.

She also posted a picture in which she is standing next to her friend and wearing a thick coat.

"Here's @divya46 in the picture with me who I got to reconnect after years thanks to this trip ! What amazing food in that city though," Taapsee added.

On the film front, Taapsee has plenty of projects in her kitty. After giving a stellar performance in "Thappad", she will be seen in "Haseen Dillruba", "Rashmi Rocket" and "Shabaash Mithu".
Many premier educational institutions on Monday pledged to contribute to the West Bengal State Emergency Relief Fund and help in the governments fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Shortly after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on March 27 had appealed to different organisations and individuals, here and abroad, for making contributions to the fund, the Calcutta University, Jadavpur University, and St Xaviers University expressed their desire to donate to the fund.

The St. Xaviers College (Autonomous) Kolkata, a separate educational institution run by the same Jesuit organization, also joined the initiative.

Calcutta University vice-chancellor Sonali Chakraborty Banerjee told PTI, she was in talks with the Pro-VC and registrar to facilitate contribution of a fairly substantial amount to the relief fund soon.

Chakraborty, who did not specify any amount, said while this contribution was entirely on behalf of the varsity authorities, there is a second fund raising initiative from all the stakeholders of the university - students, faculty and staff - where they are free to contribute whatever amount they want to - and the consolidated amount will be donated to the relief fund.

So there will be two initiatives from the university as we wish to be on the side of the state and general public to fight the spread of coronavirus in every possible way, the VC said.

Jadavpur University vice-chancellor Suranjan Das said, We have requested teachers, officers and employees to respond to the appeal for contributions to the Chief Ministers Relief Fund to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

In an appeal, the VC said, I shall remain grateful if my colleagues can send their contributions to the fund y filling an enclosed format to be mailed to the university office within April 14 and the donated amount will be recovered from the salary of April 2020. Making a similar commitment, St Xaviers University vice-chancellor Father Felix Raj said, fund raising has begun and the authorities are hopeful of handing over the money soon.

The teaching and non-teaching staff of St. Xaviers College (Autonomous) and St Xaviers Collegiate School will also be donating one days salary.

We aim at handing over a sum of Rs 40 lakh to the West Bengal State Emergency Relief Fund, college Principal Fr. Dr. Dominic Savio S.J said.

The faculty and other employees of Visva-Bharati, a central university located in Santiniketan, will donate one days salary of the month of March to the Prime Ministers National Relief Fund.
Taco Bell is giving free Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Tacos to everyone in America on Tuesday, March 31.

Anyone who visits the restaurant via the drive-thru on Tuesday will receive the free taco - no purchase necessary. The company plans to give away at least 1 million tacos, according to CEO Mark King.

Now more than ever, we could all use a free Doritos Locos Tacos. Get yours this Tuesday 3/31 when you visit our drive-thru.  Taco Bell (@tacobell) March 29, 2020

King issued a letter on Friday that spelled out other changes made because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that is limiting the restaurants to drive-thru service only.

King said Taco Bell will be turning their taco trucks into mobile commissaries so they can deliver food to healthcare workers, teachers and grocery store employees. King said Taco Bell also is looking for ways to feed truck and ambulance drivers who may be unable to do so quickly through the drive-thru.

The company is offering free delivery through GrubHub for orders $12 and up.

The restaurant also said it will donate $1 million to the No Kid Hungry, a national campaign to end hunger.

For the past few weeks, weve been focused on making Taco Bell the safest place to work and eat, and now were giving America free tacos as a small way of saying thank you for how everyone is showing up for their communities, said King. Im also very proud to say the Taco Bell Foundation will be donating $1 million to No Kid Hungry, and were turning on Round Up in the drive thru at participating locations as an easy and affordable way for you to give back, too.

An update from our CEO Mark King on how we're deploying our Taco Trucks to serve our heroes, supporting our communities and staying safe...  pic.twitter.com/hj36UgH7e0  Taco Bell (@tacobell) March 28, 2020

MORE CORONAVIRUS NEWS

Stimulus checks are expected to begin arriving in three weeks.

President Trump adds 30 days to the social distancing guidelines.

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